Recently Viewed Movies Episode 2: The Vampire Bites Back

[CluelessWonder]

The East - Wanted to watch it since it has Ellen Page whom I have liked since Hard Candy.  Though there were moments I thought the lead actress behaved stupidly, I quite liked the movie. 

[GrimReality]

Thor: The Dark World -

A decently entertaining movie that falls apart as soon as you start actually thinking about what you are seeing.
I'm not sure what the goal of this movie was, but it feels like they wanted to be all things, to all people. A little Lord of the Rings here, a dash of Star wars there, throw in some comic booky shenanigans, and a sprinkling of humor all over.
It was a bizarre experience. And I can't say a very compelling one. Benjamin seemed to enjoy it well enough, but he isn't as "thinky" as I am in these matters. I'm sure 12 year old me would have loved this.
Thor is a fun hero, and easy to like, but there really isn't much else there. He's basically invulnerable, so you never feel any sense of urgency or fear when he's taking on the "bad guys".
Speaking of bad guys, the big baddie here, Malikiah or something like that, is totally generic. he's just evil for the sake of being evil. We're told he wants to turn all light into darkness. Why? What's the point? Even bad guys gotta see! We are never given any good info on him, and it really takes away from all scenes he is in.
The movie certainly looks great, and sounds good, as is expected now with all these Marvel universe fliks. Quality all the way in that department.
It's just too bad they didn't spend more time with the characters and story. A movie that I've forgotten about two hours after leaving the theater is an unfortunate thing, but that's what we get here. I'm sure it will please some people who just want to watch things go boom, but I'm not one of them.

[GrimReality]

Europa Report -

Now here we have a movie that made me think. A movie that had me mulling the possibilities of something very similar to this happening someday.
Is this speculative fiction? I wouldn't really call it science fiction, although some would, simply because it takes place in space. It doesn't really matter, really. What we DO have is a slow burn of a movie that ratchets up the tension at a perfect pace, and truly leaves you wondering how it's all going to end.
This is not a light-hearted action movie. You get the feeling pretty quickly that things might not turn out all happy in the end.
It's a simple story. Astronauts are on a journey to europa, a moon of Jupiter, to core through the ice and look for signs of life. It is a LONG journey to get there. And there's no way everything will go as planned.
Portions of the movie are done in documentary style, to fill in the gaps about the journey, and the astronauts.
All the actors are fantastic, and act exactly how I would think real people in this probably very tense situation would.
I won't go into any details, as I would hate to spoil anything about this movie. Just know that I loved it, and long for more cerebral movies like this.
As far as "trouble in space" movies go, I even liked it more than Gravity.
See this movie.

[CluelessWonder]

Ender's Game - Never read the book but saw the movie and I really liked it.  The boy playing Ender did a good job.  I didn't realize till I got home and looked on the Internet that people are rooting for the film to fail.  Didn't realize Orson Scott Card was such a bigot since that isn't portrayed in the movie at all. 

The Heat - had some funny moments.   Melissa McCarthy stole the show.

[Dice]

Ender's Game - Never read the book but saw the movie and I really liked it.  The boy playing Ender did a good job.  I didn't realize till I got home and looked on the Internet that people are rooting for the film to fail.  Didn't realize Orson Scott Card was such a bigot since that isn't portrayed in the movie at all. 

The Heat - had some funny moments.   Melissa McCarthy stole the show.

I love Melissa McCarthy, and weight-y or not, I think she's a purdy lady.  I loved her in The Nines too (I know that movie is love-it-hate-it though).

I still gotta see Ender's Game.  And given some of the messages you can from the book I'm surprised with his views on homosexuals.... but I won't let that change that I like his book; I just think he says dumb things.  A lot of authors are weirdos.

Anyways.

From Up on Poppy Hill:  I kind of miss old Ghibli that wasn't afraid of some action in their films.  Or maybe I'd like the latest ones more if conclusions left a bit more 'bang' or gave a better lasting impression.  Not that anything is wrong with dramatic pieces, it just feels like they've been playing it safe the last three films (I have yet to see The Wind Rises, but given the premise, I'm not sure how interested I am in it...fictionalized biographies aren't really something I enjoy; but I've also heard it's somewhat... 'politically charged').

This movie is sweet, it's nice, and it's quite safe.  I loved that it takes place in the 60s, and I love how beautiful the scenery and the music reflect that.  And the start had a lot of promise... but it kinda.... aaauuugh...  Just nothing too big happens!  There's a cute-then-awkward-then-cute-again romance in the A-Plot, then it's settled, then some history lesson happens, then that's about it.  The B-Plot was amusing, albeit predictable, of fixing up a student centre so it doesn't get torn down.  I liked this more than the romance plot and it's when you see the characters at their best, but then the school plot takes a back seat to what's going on in the A-Plot.  It tied up nicely....but a little too nicely.

It's a good film, but I just didn't feel like it was "all there".  The movie falls between charming and quaint, but the studio has definitely done better.

The Incredibles - A rewatch, obviously. ;) 
It's weird saying that Pixar, who is indeed one of the best CGI animating companies in the world...actually shows age.  I remember how amazed I was by the film when I first saw it; but this time I noticed a few flaws.  For one, virtually ALL of the non-main characters look the same...  they were probably based on the same "NPC" (for lack of better words) skeleton and reworked.  Second, the city looks kind of....bad.  It's really bland, repetitive, and empty.  And third, obviously animating hair is one of the hardest things for animators to do, but Violet's hair kind of looks awkward nowadays.  It's cool, but unrealistic.  I think part of the reason Disney's Tangled amazed me so much was because it definitely demonstrated how far computer animator's have come in creating and animating realistic hair (and I remember thinking about how hard it must be for them when Disney studios announced that they were adapting the Rapunzel story).
The content of the film is still amazing, and I realized this flick is the PERFECT blend of "superhero" and "cheesy family tropes" that make it a damn fine picture (nothing demonstrates this better than when Bob and Hellen are arguing about what streets to take on the highway; not because they're going somewhere exactly, but because a giant robot is destroying the city!).  I would like to see a sequel to this one too (Monsters Inc is cool and all, but I don't think it needed a prequel, and same with Cars 2, but little boys love seem to that movie and I think that's cute).

[GrimReality]

Star Trek Into Darkness -

I pretty much felt the same way about this as I did about the first one. It was decently entertaining, but there's just something there that doesn't work for me.
I still wish they had just gone with original characters instead of rebooting with all the iconic ones  It's just weird. Spock is Leonard Nimoy, not Zachary Quinto. I don't care how hard you try to persuade me otherwise. Ditto for all the others. Simon Pegg, as much as I love his work, just comes off as a spoof. I can't take him seriously. When I watch these movies, I almost feel like I'm watching a Saturday Night Live skit. Not good.
The story is all over, just like it was in the first one, with very little making sense. Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I love in Sherlock, was decent here, but ended up kind of wasted. I don't get why he's such a "super soldier". Was the original Kahn like that? I don't even remember.
I'm not sure why I was expecting more out of this, when I was so ambivalent about the first one. I guess all the good reviews got my hoped up.

Looper -

The much better movie from my weekend viewings.
I'll admit it took me a little bit to get the feel of it, and even longer to latch onto the time travel trickery. I'm kind of dumb like that sometimes. But once everything was in sync, I was really enjoying this. Great performances all around, including Bruce Willis, whom I'm not a huge fan of nowadays. JGL is almost always awesome, and I'm glad to see him kicking ass in mainstream moves that he fought so long to get into. Emily Blunt is too damn skinny, but darn good as a Southern American.
Very inventive story about time travel being invented in the future, and people being sent back into the past. Explaining much more would spoil a lot of the fun.
I wasn't expected this to be as violent as it was, but considering the material, it fits.
This is what I want in my science fiction. Well written story and characters that I actually care about. It's too bad movies like this are so rare.

[Dice]

Looper -

I love the movie too, but I always felt the psychic stuff was really shoehorned in.  It made for a cool shot or two (both from that one kid), but I felt like they used it almost as a convenient detail.

[Aeolus]

Star Trek Into Darkness -

I pretty much felt the same way about this as I did about the first one. It was decently entertaining, but there's just something there that doesn't work for me.
I still wish they had just gone with original characters instead of rebooting with all the iconic ones  It's just weird. Spock is Leonard Nimoy, not Zachary Quinto. I don't care how hard you try to persuade me otherwise. Ditto for all the others. Simon Pegg, as much as I love his work, just comes off as a spoof. I can't take him seriously. When I watch these movies, I almost feel like I'm watching a Saturday Night Live skit. Not good.
The story is all over, just like it was in the first one, with very little making sense. Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I love in Sherlock, was decent here, but ended up kind of wasted. I don't get why he's such a "super soldier". Was the original Kahn like that? I don't even remember.
I'm not sure why I was expecting more out of this, when I was so ambivalent about the first one. I guess all the good reviews got my hoped up.

To be fair, the original actors are either really old or dead at this point and the alternate version kinda works given all the time fuckery the franchise has indulged in at this point. And yes, Kahn and his crew were indeed genetically engineered super soldiers in the original series as well, just not as over-the-top as he was in here (it was almost Peter Griffin vs. Giant Chicken levels of over-the-top; but then again the fact that Spock was on par with him is about right with the original series given the amount of bullshit Spock pulled out of his half-Vulcan ass throughout the series; a far cry better than Kirk beating him in hand-to-hand combat). That said, I would also put Simon Pegg at only okay as Scotty. Not a good fit, but serviceable.

[Dice]

Star Trek Into Darkness -

I pretty much felt the same way about this as I did about the first one. It was decently entertaining, but there's just something there that doesn't work for me.
I still wish they had just gone with original characters instead of rebooting with all the iconic ones  It's just weird. Spock is Leonard Nimoy, not Zachary Quinto. I don't care how hard you try to persuade me otherwise. Ditto for all the others. Simon Pegg, as much as I love his work, just comes off as a spoof. I can't take him seriously. When I watch these movies, I almost feel like I'm watching a Saturday Night Live skit. Not good.
The story is all over, just like it was in the first one, with very little making sense. Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I love in Sherlock, was decent here, but ended up kind of wasted. I don't get why he's such a "super soldier". Was the original Kahn like that? I don't even remember.
I'm not sure why I was expecting more out of this, when I was so ambivalent about the first one. I guess all the good reviews got my hoped up.

To be fair, the original actors are either really old or dead at this point and the alternate version kinda works given all the time fuckery the franchise has indulged in at this point. And yes, Kahn and his crew were indeed genetically engineered super soldiers in the original series as well, just not as over-the-top as he was in here (it was almost Peter Griffin vs. Giant Chicken levels of over-the-top; but then again the fact that Spock was on par with him is about right with the original series given the amount of bullshit Spock pulled out of his half-Vulcan ass throughout the series; a far cry better than Kirk beating him in hand-to-hand combat). That said, I would also put Simon Pegg at only okay as Scotty. Not a good fit, but serviceable.

Aeolus, your way with words really hits home with me.  I love the way you type things.

[Yoda]

I haven't seen the newest Trek but I felt that Karl Urban (of all fucking people) NAILED McCoy. Just the way he carried himself just fit the bill.

I grew up loving the Next Generation. The original series was more of a passing interest to me and I took it for a lark. I'm ok with them rebooting them and attempting to recast and reuse ...butttt if they try and reboot Worf, Picard, Riker.... man I'll cast fire down from high

[Tooker]

Agreed - Karl Urban is the best-cast of the new crew. And I say that as a fellow lover of Simon Pegg in other things.

[GrimReality]

Looper -

I love the movie too, but I always felt the psychic stuff was really shoehorned in.  It made for a cool shot or two (both from that one kid), but I felt like they used it almost as a convenient detail.

Agreed 100%. I was waiting for more to be done with it, and not much ever happened. Good thing the rest of the movie worked well to make up for it.

Trek: I agree with you guys on Karl Urban. He works well in the role.
Yodes, I didn't watch the original series much, but I did latch on to the characters from the movies. I watched a lot of TNG as well.
Aeolus: Thanks for the explanation. I certainly don't want the original actors back. Just a story where I'm not distracted by actors trying to mimic past actors playing a role. But maybe that's just me.

[Yoda]

I agree with you though, there's rumors of them going to recast characters from the original trilogy in the new Star Wars....

just use some fresh fucking ideas! That expanded universe is so amazing and yet they keep going back to the same crap.

[Aeolus]

I agree with you though, there's rumors of them going to recast characters from the original trilogy in the new Star Wars....

just use some fresh fucking ideas! That expanded universe is so amazing and yet they keep going back to the same crap.

To be fair to ST again, the original timeline is bookended by Enterprise and Voyager. There's not really a lot they can do with that without having to address those turds.

And to be fair to SW, if I recall the main saga correctly, the remaining plot is basically Luke starting up a new Jedi order, nearly slipping over to the Dark Side to deal with the Emperor's New Clones, and getting bailed out by Leia and her kids. Besides, everyone knows that SW Expanded Universe is a colossal clusterfuck of like a million different things happening just off screen of the main trilogy all at once. To a certain degree, I'd be happy if they just steered clear of that shitstorm.

[Ranadiel]

I agree with you though, there's rumors of them going to recast characters from the original trilogy in the new Star Wars....

just use some fresh fucking ideas! That expanded universe is so amazing and yet they keep going back to the same crap.

To be fair to ST again, the original timeline is bookended by Enterprise and Voyager. There's not really a lot they can do with that without having to address those turds.

And as I love pointing out, the new timeline still has Enterprise as canon.