Best movie you've seen

I am SO FUCKING GLAD my eye is better.

New Marvel movie, new slobbering BJ of a post about a new Marvel movie.

The first thing I'm going to say is that the stinger at the end of this one - I want to spoil it so bad. There's a reason it didn't get shown to critics. I roared when I saw it. Jumped out of my seat.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a flat-out comedy. After the Marvel logo, there isn't a two-minute span in the whole movie that something funny doesn't happen. It's also the movie with the most deep cuts to Marvel Comics backstory: Not only do the cosmic progenitors, the Celestials, make an on-screen appearance, but a good quarter of the action takes place on Knowhere, the hollowed out skull of a dead one. We have the Kree and the Xandarian Nova Corps, we have Thanos. The words "Infinity Gem" are finally said aloud. Cosmo the Soviet Space Dog even shows up for a minute or so.

None of the main characters have been established in any other Marvel movie. Instead, GotG is tied to the other movies by Thor 2's stinger, which introduced the audience to The Collector. And it's fair to say that the characters are more obscure: most of them were created in the 1970s or 1980s (yes, even the talking tree and homicidal raccoon are more than 30 year old characters) and have only been in mainstream Marvel comics since the mid-2000s.

I loved this movie. Lots and lots of aliens get killed, but in the sort of cartoonish way as Star Wars movies (also: this movie may be the best use of 3D since Tron Legacy). There's also a healthy dollop of Indiana Jones; "Swashbuckling" is a term that's entirely applicable. But above all, it's funny. Still believably a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, but also so completely different that we can see the shared world that allows a suspenseful spy thriller set in the same world that has Thor taking a tube back to fight the big bad AND John C. Reilly as a workaday moron (who happens to be a space cop).


This movie has a ton of energy. There's not really a slow spot or a good time for a bathroom break. It's two hours long and I'd say that it's pretty close to perfect in terms of its pacing. I do wish we had more time to see the villains on-screen, but I also suspect that would've made the movie drag had those extra moments been added. I saw the movie with someone who had never even seen The Avengers. She laughed through the whole thing and says she's going to go back and try to catch up on the other Marvel films.

I'd like to say that one character stole the movie, but I can't even decide which one: Chris "Star Lord" Pratt pretty much plays Andy Dwyer as a super hero, with every bit of the charm he has on Parks and Rec. Vin Diesel doesn't have THAT much to do in his vocal performance, but Groot the CGI tree occupies the same sort of physical space as a good night at Blue Man Group. He just sort of... does things. And they're all fantastic. Rocket Raccoon gets an awful lot of the best lines. I'm sure he'll be the personal favorite of every 10 year old boy in the English Speaking world in another couple weeks. And then there's Drax, played by a wrestler named Dave Bautista. I have no idea who this guy is, but he's the ultimate straight man to everything else that happens in the movie (there's a sequence during the credits that actually crosses over in to downright charming).

Huge, great fun all the way around.
 
Merc that movie sounds like great fun. What do you think warrants the PG-13 rating?

I'd like to take my 6 (going on 7) year old but not sure about it.
 
Clocker said:
Merc that movie sounds like great fun. What do you think warrants the PG-13 rating?

I'd like to take my 6 (going on 7) year old but not sure about it.
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You're probably asking the wrong person. I'm the guy with all the porn and the stripper collection and absolutely zero contact with children.

But, OK, violent things happen in this movie. It's comic book violence, but people get disintegrated. Space ships blow up. Some of them are visibly crushed (shown from inside the cockpit, cutting out so actual death is off-screen). Some of the fight sequences are pretty brutal. Groot tends to impale things and Yondu's arrow flies through a couple dozen bad guys at one point.

As a comparable level of violence, the thing that comes immediately to mind is the mini-series and first few episodes of the modern Battlestar Galactica. This movie is a comedy and the mood is far, far lighter, but in thinking about what actually happens, yeah, it's violent. Ronan the Accuser wants to kill a planet and the climax does reflect that.

Seven-year-old-me would've loved it.
 
I'm going to see GotG tonight after work, I'm excited for this movie. I'm happy to read a good review of it from you.
 
I'm not familiar with the GOGt, but I'm soooo glad that Merc is regaining his visions. :cheers:
Just reduce the porn a bit. Back in the 60s they told us that certain activities would make us go blind. Perhaps it was true. :lol:
 
Days of Future Past was way, way better than I had anticipated. I'd be perfectly happy to ditch Wolverine-centric movies in favor of the McAvoy/Fassbender/Lawrence cast and in fact I love the period piece setting.

Yes this is the movie thread. I'm going to talk about TV now. Cope.

Agents of SHIELD started again. I'm digging that Patton Oswalt seems to have moved up to recurring guest and that some new agents have shown up, even if it just means that there can finally be some cannon fodder. I'd be perfectly happy to see "Agents" as Coulson's disposable tools of badassdom rather than concentrating on Sky and Ward. We got to see the Absorbing Man, which does definitively make the first Hulk movie non-canon for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a half-CG character, he's a pretty good choice for a super-villain to keep around. I was expecting more fallout from Winter Soldier in the opener but clearly that wasn't in the cards. Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos, though? Hydra Soldiers from the first Captain America movie? More of that please.

Gotham also started. DC Comics aren't my thing anyway but my overall impression is that the casting seems stronger than Arrow (probably because there are fewer 25 year old models in lead roles) but the production design still reminds me more of a soap opera than an actual drama, which is something I've felt about Smallville and Arrow as well. I'll give it a Meh+ and probably watch another couple episodes.

Finally: True Detective. Damn. I watched the whole first season last night in one sitting. I don't remember when I obtained it but I started it and could not stop.
 
I'm catching up on episodes of Legends. Ali Larter. :) On TNT. Liking it. Z Nation is kinda fun too.
 
So... new Avengers 2 Trailer. Spader's voiceover at the end is a pretty big payoff.

Also, this is Air New Zealand's new safety video. Featuring Eliza Wood, Sylvester (Radagast) McCoy, Peter Jackson and a surprising number of Orcs.
 
Great stuff.

For some reason Ultron=Bad Robot to me. Just doesn't get me going as a villian. In this day and age he would be really terrifying, since his gift was power over anything electronic. James Spader might bring something to the part.

Since he's made of adamantium, he can give the Avengers, most noteably Hulk and Thor a battle.

Always been a problem with that crew. Who has enough power to give the big 3 a battle?
 
In the MCU, it's vibranium rather than adamantium (the word is X-Men IP, so it's for Fox to use).

In the movies, Ultron is a drone controller invented by Hank Pym in the 60s. Stark tinkers with it and a new villain is born. A lot of the footage we saw is of Johannesburg and Andy Serkis is in the movie as Klaw, so I can only guess we're going to see a Black Panther (though maybe T'chaka rather than T'challa).

(We're also getting the voice of JARVIS as Vision, whose appearance is still under wraps)

From what's in the trailer, I'm guessing someone causes a Hulk rampage - Hydra has Loki's staff, after all - in Africa earlier in the movie (cut to basket case Banner with everyone on the Quinjet studiously not looking at him)... Ultron shows up at the Shwarma-fueled after party and Ultron giving the "reason you suck" speech that's made through the trailer... I suspect that's the first third of the movie.

Anyway, Spader's voice sells Ultron or it doesn't. I suspect that it will.
 
Big Hero 6 is a Marvel movie, so of course I went to the first showing. It's charming and enjoyable and if you have kids they will love it, though it's not as evocative as the canon of Pixar favorites.
However, the short that plays before the movie, Feast, is a very special five minutes of film and well worth the every possible award that it will be winning when Oscars and BATFAs and such roll around.

As far as Big Hero 6, I'm surprised at how restrained it was. There's no huge humor moments or big scares, but I really like how the titular heroes are clearly portrayed as nerdy and eccentric in a way that only engineering weirdos can be. It's also gorgeously animated. I know that goes without saying, but the city in which the action takes place feels very grounded and real. The level of detail also lends itself to crap tons of Easter Eggs, mostly in the form of random background toys being either obscure Marvel characters (Orka and Black Talon, for example) or various forms of familiar Anime Robots.

As a Marvel movie, there is a Stan Lee appearance and there is a stinger. Also, the credits listed OS X and Linux Administrators separately and specifically for some reason, which I thought was awesome.
 
Watching Sin City: Eva Green IS to Die for. Nudity, not for kids.Mickey Rourke does The Terminator. Jessica Alba as hot as the last film, and Eva Mendes was great, as usual.

I was in this movie, and didn't go out for popcorn. Kept me involved, and waiting to see what they twisted it to next.

Means I might have to get the Dreamers. Eva Green nude and younger, not for kids.

Hope Hercules looks better then the first time I saw it.
 
Newer version of Hercules OK for a comic book based Hercules. Rock was pretty good as Son of Zeus.
A little too humble. Hercules problem was arrogance, hence his labors, and that did not come across, at all.

DVD quality at least is a must.
 
My son really like Hero6. I watched Rush last night (story about Nikki Lauda & James Hunt). I really liked it.
 
The aggravating thing about the teaser is how much of it is blank or static images. That worked for Phantom Menace, but at this point fan-made Star Wars productions can be amazing and other than the ships, there wasn't a lot going on to show me this is the real deal. I'd like to see some more fantastic elements. I'm not complaining exactly, but I suppose it's fair to say I'm a wary in spite of my excitement.
 
Mercutio said:
The aggravating thing about the teaser is how much of it is blank or static images. That worked for Phantom Menace, but at this point fan-made Star Wars productions can be amazing and other than the ships, there wasn't a lot going on to show me this is the real deal. I'd like to see some more fantastic elements. I'm not complaining exactly, but I suppose it's fair to say I'm a wary in spite of my excitement.
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I'd rather read a review of a film before watching it than see a trailer. Many times the film is worse than indicated by the trailer, though sometimes not. That one is particularly awful and shows nearly nothing.
 
Star Wars is and will remain episode IV to VI. The rest is garbage only made to make Lucas & friends richer. I don't expect the newer episode to be any different. Star Wars had a time and that time was the late seventies to the early eighties. The punch line of the entire series is the revelation that Darth Vader was Luke's father. Nothing they'll add will ever match that, so the point of making other movies on the same theme is moot, except for their banking accounts.

I won't pay to watch it in a move theater.
 
So I watched the Lego movie last night. I was really into Lego when I was young. Having said that, I didn't find the movie to be very good. Yes, some parts of it were clever, but it was nothing like the well done Pixar movies. Maybe I had heard too much hype about it before seeing it which raised my expectations too far, but I don't think that's it.
 
I enjoyed the Lego movie, but I took it with the expectation that it was a kids movie. I did rather like some of the subtle hints at the adult audience as well...

The new Star Wars movies will certainly be a visual treat, but the story... that's yet to be seen. Also there has been no confirmation either way if the story of based on elements of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU) as already told in books and other media, or if it totally disregards all in the EU post-RotJ.. As for the light saber depicted in the teaser. DO NOT LIKE AT ALL (in my best comic store guy voice from the Simpsons). It looks like a flaming sword rather than a clean controlled light saber.

And for Star Warts merchandise this Christmas season, it's good to see Disney is milking that cash cow with extraordinary profits to be had for Disney... eg Star Wars Lego kits seem to have a higher premium price than normal, the Disney Princess Lego range is approx AU$20 above expected price if it wasn't branded with Disney, and some of the plastic Star Wars toys that I would estimate at approx AU$3 production cost is being sold for AU$90+. (A good example is the 4ft tall Darth Vader, is is literially a plastic statue that does nothing, but cost AU$60+ depending on the retailer, and for f&*k sake, Darth Vader, Luke and Han Solo are NOT the same height, grrr). And when the new movies come out, I expect more of the same profiteering...
 
Just saw the half-season cliffhanger on Agents of SHIELD, and something I thought might be true for a while was confirmed for the comic book nerds.

Sky's dad is given a name: Cal. Which is probably short for Calvin Zabo. Further confirmation came when he hummed a song called "Daisy" for his daughter.

The alien artifacts are creations of the Kree, and the "special" people like Daisy/Sky are Inhumans, a race of humans subjected to Kree genetic experiments who have been exposed to the Terrigen Mists, which give them powers. Captain (Ms.) Marvel has an origin tied to the Kree and Marvel has already announced an Inhumans movie. I suspect this is all going to be back story.

In short, Agents of SHIELD has been building up to deep, deep place in Marvel Comics mythology.
 
OK, last Hobbit movie.

Two words, which should say all that need be said: Bear Paratroopers.

Either that's awesome and totally sells the film, or it's a disgrace to the world that Tolkien created.
In the book, if I remember right, the battle of the Five Armies was dispensed with in something less than 10 pages. The movie makes it last for 90 glorious minutes, but it's 90 minutes that are precisely the way that every 12 year old would picture with their eye closed. The whole thing runs on Rule of Cool, like the greatest D&D adventure that could ever be put to film. It's less Tolkien and more Star Wars, but that might be to its credit considering the portion of the book that remained for this movie.

As much as some might complain about it, there's a non-canonical moment early in the movie to resolve the sub-plot involving the Necromancer. Galadriel, Elrond, Radagast and Saruman square off against Ring Wraiths. Christopher Lee is 92 years old. I don't care if his fight scene was more CG than all of Revenge of the Sith, I got a big, stupid grin seeing him kick some ass.

The end of LotR always felt a bit like the story just ran out of steam. The Oathbreakers show up and slaughter the armies at Minas Tirith. The ring falls into some lava and all the armies of Mordor just stop being armies. It's very much "Rocks fall, everyone dies." Here, we get a much more satisfying conclusion. The battle is won, but at great cost. There are codas after, but somewhat melancholy rather than elegiac. The score actually concludes in minor-key chords, perhaps to suggest the next troubles Frodo will have some day.

At any rate, I enjoy the Hobbit quite a lot.
 
^^^ sounds great. Can't wait for the extended edition Blu-Ray of the trilogy, like I did with the first three movies.
 
IMHO, there should be a condensed edition that does the opposite and rolls the three Hobbit movies into a single nice right sized ~3.5 hour "tome".
 
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