Best movie you've seen

Mercutio

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Based on reactions among my friends, it is very hard for women to watch it once the implications of what the villain can do become clear. It's a kind of evil that hasn't really been seen in comic book adaptations before. To put it another way, the whole series can use a trigger warning. It doesn't have Daredevil's brutal fight choreography, flashes of nudity or occasional F-bombs. There's also no "male gaze" in the camera work. No lingering shots of the star's body. Given the subject matter, that's not a complaint.
I think David Tennant was actually more restrained than he could've been. He definitely played in the same middle ground that Tom Hiddleston found with Loki in the movies.
I was kind of hoping Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) would show up since she's an important character in the comics, but they moved all of that on to the Trish/Patsy Walker character. I'm not sure that will ever be anything more than a quick gag, but comic book Patsy Walker had serial adventures in the 1940s as a model (sort of like an Archie comics or a Disney Channel character) and in the 1970s and 2000s as Hellcat, a non-powered costumed adventurer.

Agents of SHIELD has also been killing it this season. Ward is way better as a villain and Fitz and Simmons finally have an interesting storyline.

I'm really crossing my fingers with hope that AoS and the Netflix series show up in some fashion in Captain America next spring.
 

LunarMist

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Do you see that Hungry Games? Apparently it's only $101M, so a semi-failure.
 

Mercutio

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It's not a very good movie, but the books were progressively worse as well. The latest movie is paced terribly because they did the "Let's break it into extra pieces so we can double our box office!"-maneuver.

The new "Man in the High Castle" series from Amazon looks pretty good, so that's my next watch.
 

Howell

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Same. My wife and I have been enjoying Jessica Jones. Very interesting perspective of humans in a time of supers.
 

Mercutio

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New Star Wars is spectacular. You probably already know that. I am telling you anyway. I got to see it twice tonight. I don't think 3D is necessary (I appreciated the color reproduction of a non-3D screen) but I did also pay for an IMAX ticket and I do think the larger screen is worthwhile even if 3D isn't. I don't want to spoil anything but I will say that Lawrence Kasdan is the person responsible for Empire Strikes Back and it is COMPLETELY obvious that there was a long conversation about what worked from the original movies. I also think it's a good idea to specifically watch Episode IV again before you go, if you can.

There's also a lot of in-situ stuff that isn't discussed past the opening crawl but is set up in the comic books and most recent set of novels (the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons are also considered to be just as much a part of Star Wars as the Lucas movies, by the way). So the whole Republic/First Order thing that might've been front and center if Lucas was still in charge is just background info in the new movie. I only know that because I've been irregularly reading the Marvel Star Wars comics.

My big non-plot complaint is that I didn't feel like anything was added in terms of the score. Even the Prequels gave us Duel of the Fates and the Anakin/Amidala love theme. If there was a big new Leitmotif in the score, I didn't hear it. What I heard could have been procedurally generated for one of the video games. Which in a way goes to show how amazingly well the video games capture the sound of the movies.

There's some plot elements I'd like to bring up but I'm going to need to wait until more people have actually seen the movie. None of the acting or dialog felt wooden and there wasn't any sign at all of the short-hand racism that plagued the Prequels.

BB8 is adorable. Those of you with human progeny might as well go spend the $150 on the life-size toy now.
 

Mercutio

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No Jar-Jar. Does not suck. DOES manage to be funny in moments without being over the top or breaking tone.
Magic was captured. You know that "Chewie, we're home."-moment from the trailers? Yeah. The whole movie has that.
 

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I saw the The Force Awakens early this morning and have to say I was pleasantly impressed with the movie. I didn't have any expectations going into this one and was excited to see the direction they might take the series. The style and spirit of the movie made me feel back at home with some of the original three movies. I agree with Mercutio that BB-8 is adorable and I don't find it taking anything away from the movie. The sounds this character makes feel very refined compared to R2D2 making it such that they're less ear-piercing and more of a smoothing and relaxing mature tones. I find it strange to remark on the sounds that a robot makes but it seemed clear to me that someone paid special attention to this perhaps not to turn this character into any kind of annoyance.

It's worth seeing and maybe worth seeing additional times. Waiting for the next movie is going to feel like it takes forever.
 

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Saw Star Wars yesterday. Mixed feelings. I saw the original trilogy in movie theaters on release, but haven't seen any of the prequels (Sith, Pith, etc.). While in the trilogy the enormous effort the Resistance puts to achieve their objectives is well portrayed, in this movie I felt everything comes easy. BB-8 escapes on Jakku easily, Poe & Finn escape easily, the dame, Finn and BB-8 escape easily, and so on. Also I felt there was some deliberately weird stuff that didn't make sense - Hans Solo asking for the droid to stay on deck when the two gangs come on board his craft, them taking the droid into the watering-hole bar, both when they knew the BB-8 was white-hot wanted. On a scale on 1 to 5, I'd give it a 3.

The female lead has acted very well. I'd guess she's Luke's daughter. Who's the old, decayed Supreme Leader? The same bloke from the original trilogy?
 

Stereodude

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I didn't read much of your post, so it's okay. It comes out where I currently am tomorrow. Though it was out in the US before I flew here.
 

mubs

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That's odd. In India now we have simultaneous release with the US, or a day later. Previously (a decade or so ago) it used to be almost a year. I saw the movie late because my daughter was away visiting cousins and I waited for her to get back home and then have time off at college so we could see it.
 

Handruin

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Last night a group of friends and I went to a theater that did a showing of Starship Troopers RiffTrax and it was one of the better and more-comical movie-going experiences I've been to in a long time. This was a rebroadcast from a live event that was done back in 2013 as part of a kickstarter campaign. If there is ever a showing in your area, it's worth grabbing a friend or two and going to the show. I really haven't laughed that hard during a movie in a very long time.
 

Handruin

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Handy, I do believe Riffed-up movies are in my Plex libraries someplace if you want to see more of 'em.

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know you had any of them. Do you know offhand if you have this Starship Troopers one?
 

Mercutio

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I've been to the Fathom Events Riff shows a few times and I don't think I've remembered to keep even a single one of my download codes for the audio tracks they release. IIRC, they're included in the price of the ticket somehow.

The trailer for the rest of this season's episodes of Star Wars Rebels seems to have a lot of Force Awakens references in it. It also has Ezra standing on a space whale, which may make people more or less excited to see it.
 

Handruin

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I've been to the Fathom Events Riff shows a few times and I don't think I've remembered to keep even a single one of my download codes for the audio tracks they release. IIRC, they're included in the price of the ticket somehow.

The trailer for the rest of this season's episodes of Star Wars Rebels seems to have a lot of Force Awakens references in it. It also has Ezra standing on a space whale, which may make people more or less excited to see it.

Maybe I don't have access to the library you've added them to but I don't see any RiffTrax editions and nothing shows up a recently added.
 

mubs

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I never made the connection that Hans was him. The mustache / beard combo threw me off. Of course when I saw the movie way back, I didn't know about him at all. And when Potter came out, I still didn't make the connection. It's only when I saw a photo of Hans in his obit that it clicked. He was good! Voice loaded with menace. For me, after Darth, Snape had the most menacing voice.
 
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