Movie/TV recommendations

[Nachimir]

This is kind of a sign that Marvel are running out of IP to turn into mostly-competent action films, while DC are struggling with Wonder Woman. (On the plus side, this does mean we might see a Deadpool movie. Having Deadpool assemble a team to steal Avengers 2 would be the most delightful thing.)

 

The entire line of Marvel movies have been planned for quite a long time, it's not like they finished the Avengers then grabbed a comic from a shelf:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe#Films

 

Even disregarding Hollywood's ability to milk things, and taking just the number of Avengers characters who don't have a bunch of their own films, they're nowhere near running out of IP. I'm really glad they're doing more offbeat stuff like Ant Man.

[Merus]

Lego Movie - very disappointed. No story or characters (which fits with later developments but still doesn't make for a good movie), and the humour feels more like a bunch of Youtube videos stitched together than a feature comedy. It has a lot of muddled themes and descends into mawkishness at the end. It reminded me of the equally-mawkish Toy Story 2: that film tells us that a rare toy should not be displayed in a museum; this one (after a lot of confusion) tells us that if you want to enjoy Lego in a less imaginative way, you are doing it wrong.

 

It generally looked nice, though the 3D was barely existent, and the action was messily directed. It did look gorgeous when they were doing big water or explosion effects.

 

I disagree; some of the Master Builders are one-note, but they're serving the themes there. The 'confusion' you gloss over is the point of the movie: imagination, unbridled, limits you to only what you can imagine. Batman has a one track mind and so of course everything he makes is black. The 80s spaceman makes extremely creative 80s spaceships and nothing else. When they try and pull together, they can't conceive of things outside of their sphere of experience. They can make whatever they want, and so they don't have to understand why anyone would like Where Are My Pants?. That makes them, in their way, just as flawed as Emmet. They get his chief conflict out of the way because the perils of conformity is a well trodden path, and they need that time to explore the problem with creativity.

 

The resolution of the conflict is that the two Men Upstairs, and the Lego characters, learn to allow each other room to express themselves, and to build on the work of others instead of there being a conflict between more or less imaginative approaches. Lord Business is not defeated, in the end.

[BigJKO]

Spoiler tags, Merus!

[dibs]

I really enjoyed the Lego movie. The humour was great, the Lego looked amazing - especially the water and explosions, and the story was just silly enough to keep me entertained. I was assuming it was a kids movie going in, so my expectations were tempered which probably helped. 

 

Also, Dumbledore

has a cameo

[Ben X]

Merus:

 

What I glossed over was my impression that it starts out with the perils of conformity, then seems to say that if you want to follow the instructions that's cool, but then (and I may be misremembering this) don't all the characters start building off-script stuff as the happy ending? Finally the real-world resolution of conflict is the father not being allowed to glue his Lego any more, along with the standard "father cares too much about job, not enough about son" trope

 

If what you describe is indeed the point of the movie, I found it pretty unclear.

[Hermie]

 (On the plus side, this does mean we might see a Deadpool movie. Having Deadpool assemble a team to steal Avengers 2 would be the most delightful thing.)

 

Sadly, this wont happen anytime soon. Deadpool's rights are tied to X-Men franchise, so he's with Fox as long as they keep making X-Men movies. Ryan Renolds has been trying to get a solo Deadpool movie off the ground, but it keeps getting stuck in development hell. =(

[TheLastBaron]

I honestly don't think it would be a good idea to have a solo movie. He's a good side character, but in the comics whenever he gets a solo book he just ends up becoming annoying. He's a character that is best in small doses. At least imo

[SecretAsianMan]

Yeah, Deadpool is most amusing when he's contrasted against other characters.  By himself he's just a crazy weirdo but pair him with someone like Wolverine or Cable and he's far more entertaining.

[Roderick]

I never quite understood the appeal of Deadpool. I get the joke, but it's trying way too hard to be funny. What also bugs me is that he's dressed like any other random superhero, just with a 'comedy' schtick.

[Hermie]

I feel the opposite way, actually. Whenever he's next to someone he just ends up being the goofball, but some of his solo books go deep on his existential crisis, which, when written well, makes for a way more interesting characters than a lot of straight-laced superheroes. For example, he's very aware that he's a failed experiment attempting to replicate Wolverine, so he's often depicted trying going from mercenary to hero. But as nobody takes him seriously, he then gets frustrated, which results in a (self)destructive rampage. There's also been some story arcs exploring his mental health in interesting ways.

 

So it is possible to make a compelling movie, but will they do that, or will it be "look, he shoots a lot and talks at the camera! Explosions!"?

[Nachimir]

But he's such a good dancer Rodi.

[Reyturner]

Guardians of the Galaxy looks more like Farscape than it doesn't, so I'm fucking in!

[Stuart]

After watching that GotG trailer, I wish James Gunn did all of the Marvel films. He has a greater visual and writing style than most other Marvel comics based films that I've seen. Whedon can't film anything for shit and his screenwriting is middling at best, I felt that without the actors, the movie would've sucked hard. Kenneth Branagh should just stick to acting like a badass and return to making sweeping epics, not boring Thor movies.

[SecretAsianMan]

I liked the Avengers (and in general I like Joss Whedon's stuff but I won't get into that now).  I thought it was a fun, entertaining movie, which is exactly what I want out of a superhero movie.  Guardians looks like it'll be fun and entertaining as well (the Farscape comparison is very apt).

[Merus]

Merus:

 

What I glossed over was my impression that it starts out with the perils of conformity, then seems to say that if you want to follow the instructions that's cool, but then (and I may be misremembering this) don't all the characters start building off-script stuff as the happy ending? Finally the real-world resolution of conflict is the father not being allowed to glue his Lego any more, along with the standard "father cares too much about job, not enough about son" trope

 

If what you describe is indeed the point of the movie, I found it pretty unclear.

 

It does start out with the perils of conformity, and when they get to the cloud city there's a very clear air of 'anything (within a narrowly defined and inconsistent range) goes!' and when that gets attacks they make an abomination of a submarine that doesn't work because everyone tried to build their own thing without co-ordinating. So Emmet gets them to follow his instructions, they get close to putting the lid on the tube of glue, but don't make it. While that's going on, Wyldstyle/Lucy starts dealing with her own problems, needing to be the most special, most important person ever and being contemptuous of people who aren't as individualistic. She accepts that Emmet's approach is not lesser, it's just different, and her speech at the end to Brickberg says as much.

 

Because it's a Hollywood movie, the ending is a clear statement of the theme. The real-world resolution of the conflict is instigated by the father; he asks his son what he's built, and then asks his son what 'the construction guy' would say to 'President Business'. Emmet's response is that President Business doesn't have to be the bad guy, that he has permission to add to the story if he'll accept that his son is trying to do the same. There is no conflict between building something 'properly' and building something that looks like a mess. What they want out of the Lego, whether it's a toy or a sophisticated interlocking brick system, can be something that they share.

[Ucantalas]

This has to be one of the deepest discussions I've ever seen relating to a video about interlocking bricks.

[Roderick]

Life is the deepest discussion between interlocking atoms.

 

Also, YES, it does have a Farscape vibe, and that means I'm in.

[DaveC]

I'm really trying to caution myself against getting so damn excited about Guardians of the Galaxy. The trailer is a piece of marketing, nothing more. We shouldn't get our hopes up.

 

But, oh god. 

 

 

It's... a good movie poster?

[Merus]

I started to get a suspicion here, and IMDB confirms: Zoe Saldana is a massive nerd. So is Vin Diesel, famously, but I don't know how we went for so long without noticing that the star of Avatar, Star Trek and now this is quite possibly the queen of Hollywood geekdo-- oh wait I worked out why no-one's given her credit, nevermind.

[DaveC]

I started to get a suspicion here, and IMDB confirms: Zoe Saldana is a massive nerd. So is Vin Diesel, famously, but I don't know how we went for so long without noticing that the star of Avatar, Star Trek and now this is quite possibly the queen of Hollywood geekdo-- oh wait I worked out why no-one's given her credit, nevermind.

 

Hah, this occurred to me yesterday when I watched this;

 

 

The way she says ''stealth assassin''. Total nerd. 

[Ben X]

Merus: okay, that is pretty convincing

 

(My other general criticisms still stand, though.)

[Sno]

Apparently Guardians of the Galaxy isn't a big IP; if you wanted to make a movie about a big villain, though, you'd go to Thanos, and they're the ones who make the most sense as the heroes. This is kind of a sign that Marvel are running out of IP to turn into mostly-competent action films, while DC are struggling with Wonder Woman. (On the plus side, this does mean we might see a Deadpool movie. Having Deadpool assemble a team to steal Avengers 2 would be the most delightful thing.)

 

The team itself is relatively obscure, and this version of the team is based on a pretty recent reboot, but the goal of the film seems to be to set up the cosmic side of the Marvel universe and establish Thanos as their primary antagonist. (He won't be the villain in Avengers 2, expect him to be the villain in 3. Marvel has a long-term plan for all this stuff.)

As for why the Guardians, Kevin Feige, the producer holding the reins of all the MCU stuff, is apparently a huge fan.

I mean, and you can also make the argument that all of the MCU stuff has been built off of pretty b-tier Marvel, things that have only become presently popular because of the movies. Iron Man was never as popular as the X-men or Spider-Man, but old movie licensing deals have cordoned those characters off into different film franchises with different companies. (Deadpool is tied up with the X-men license, so don't count on seeing him in the MCU.)

[Roderick]

Because we've discussed this brilliant movie here before, I thought I'd put this here now that it's online - the Filmadeus 'review' (not actually a review) of Synecdoche, New York:

 

http://www.filmadeus.com/2014/02/synecdoche-new-york-charlie-kaufman-2008.html

 

 

(If you like what you read, please click the 'like' button on the site to get automatic Facebook updates, or follow me on Twitter - @HeerRood )

[Stuart]

Because we've discussed this brilliant movie here before, I thought I'd put this here now that it's online - the Filmadeus 'review' (not actually a review) of Synecdoche, New York:

 

http://www.filmadeus.com/2014/02/synecdoche-new-york-charlie-kaufman-2008.html

 

 

(If you like what you read, please click the 'like' button on the site to get automatic Facebook updates, or follow me on Twitter - @HeerRood )

 

I'm glad this film terrified you as it did. A truly magnificent film.

[Roderick]

Oh, and I also saw The Lego Movie this weekend and here are my thoughts in brief:

 

- Agree that the film moves way too fast. I felt really exhausted halfway through, just tired, visually tired.

 

- I loved the live action bits. Yes, mawkish and saccharine, but it just hit home for me. The themes of the AFOL who has this precious basement his son may not touch. The bit where Will Farrell lists the reasons why Lego is not just for children, I've had to come up with those reasons too at some point. It did elevate the film for me, because for the rest it indeed was this run-of-the-mill animated hero's journey, not unlike any other 'animal with a problem' film churned out (there was a cringe-inducing Rio 2 trailer before the film). The live action sequence totally made the film for me.

 

- The film tried a little too hard to be meme-worthy, but overall I liked it. Some of the MOC's made on screen were great, especially the spaceship Benny finally gets to make; it's such a delicious throwback to old school Lego sensibilites, with the blue on grey with transparent yellow windows!