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[Movies] Watch Edge of Tomorrow. Bitch about it. Repeat.
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I liked parts and did not care for other parts. It achieved its aims quite nicely and did a bunch of neat stuff. The cinematography is pretty cool when it's doing its own thing but when it's trying to do its job it's pretty boring and standard. The hallucinating scene in the dark forest conveyed terror and confusion much better than the dead Mirkwood scene in The Hobbit 2. But generally, if there are humans in the shot then the camera work is standard and boring. But when the film is showcasing the very nice (if a little overused) special effects it does all sorts of stuff. It helps that the CGI looks good, unlike Maleficent's poop.
I liked the fairy tale parts, some of it could have been straight out of a classic fairy tale. Really cool imaginative fairy stuff, some old, some new. My one complaint is that the White Hart just... stood on the spot. The White Hart's number 1 thing is being elusive and quick footed. They didn't capture that. I enjoyed the Christian/Christian-fairyland stuff immensely. Often these films are set in an imaginary fantasy world but Snow White saying the Lord's Prayer in her introduction as an adult was a nice surprise. And I really liked the bible quotations that set her up as a messiah figure.
The 'romance' wasn't good but it is very good at setting up ships. I suppose that was the goal and the film did very well with it I think. A better romance would have killed the 'will they won't they'. It's not my kind of thing but I understand why they did it.
The weakest part of the film is Kristen Stewart/Snow White, I'm not sure how much of this is her acting and how much of this is the writing. But her character is just there. She's 'special' without having to do anything at all to show it except look straight ahead. I did like Snow White in armour and her active role at the end, but Kristen Stewart didn't seem comfortable doing those things. I also liked the scene where she confronts the troll by roaring back at it, but it quickly turned into the standard 'look straight ahead and be special' problem, a little back and forth with the roars would have been swell. Charlize Theron isn't too good either, when she's good she's great but I think the script holds her back. Liam was good, the creepy brother and the nice guy were average at best. I would have liked them to have cast dwarf actors instead of cgi-ing actors heads onto dwarf doubles. The effects weren't bad and it was fun seeing Nick Frost & co do their thing but I think it would have been cool to have dwarfs play dwarfs.
Why didn't Snow White have black hair? It's one of her 3 (4 if you count her beauty) defining features.
There's a lot of laugh out loud moments, where I was laughing at the ridiculous thing on the screen. I'm not counting that as a negative, sure, the director might have tried to make the Queen sucking the life out of someone scary and failed but I still got enjoyment out of it (unlike Maleficents failures). And troll butts are always funny.
It's a movie that I am very close to really liking. However, its biggest problem (for me) is that it isn't an arty film. It has some really neat ideas and visuals but they're being added to something that is at it's core, a by the numbers film. It's a remake, featuring popular actors, hoping to ride on the success of the Twilight films.
I'm going to have to think long and hard before I show any of the Disney Princess movies to my kid.
They're all kinds of messed up in terms of reinforcing harmful ideas.
Agreed. And as someone who teaches at a uniform school and then has to do double-takes on the first free-dress day of the year before she recognizes some of her students, I can absolutely get a guy not immediately recognizing the Cinderella he met in a sparkly gown and awesome hair when he sees her in cinders and rags. It's not completely unbelievable.
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I suspect Cap 3 is going to do exactly that with Bucky if they are going to have him take over the Capt mantle later on
pleasepaypreacher.net
Snow White is the only one that is absolutely awful in that regard. The others reflect some kind of trying to take control of their lives (if only by definition of their romantic future), but are hampered by social mores of the time. Snow White is just bad.
On an individual basis that may be, but as a trend it's still harming to see ideals presented as entitlement and heteronormative romantic dynamics.
Or in Belle's case, Stockholm Syndrome.
Anna acts like a Disney princess and gets fucked over for it
through no fault of her own, really
and she still winds up with the good guy at the end
Sorry, what were we talking about?
You aren't wrong, its basically knock off hunger games. The movies seem to be exactly the same way.
pleasepaypreacher.net
The Disney films released in the last 10 years are problematic, too. They just don't have as many racist jokes in them.
I don't know anything about the series, but isn't the main character yet another "chosen one" archetype with little agency of her own?
At least Katniss isn't some hoary trope dragged out again.
The villain is also horribly named, I'm sorry Janine doesn't know sound intimidating even if you have sleep walking Kate Winslet playing her. Its like a bad guy named Steve, I can't take that mother fucker seriously. At least Gerald Terant went by Terant because it sounded more intimidating than Gerald!
pleasepaypreacher.net
I've only watched the first movie, but there's multiple "chosen ones". And they're special BECAUSE they have agency of their own.
I could go into more detail with spoilers if you'd like.
I, for one, cannot wait to hear Tim Burton's take on this classic tune.
All the crows to be played by Johnny Depp in blackface
Danny Elfman's, please.
edit: I can say this, I expect the 'Dumbo gets drunk' scene to be fully off-the-chain. By 'expect', I mean "won't accept anything less than A-grade nightmare fuel".
Well, Into the Woods had that at least, which surprised me.
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The most impressive thing about that movie was how bland and uninteresting the lead actress was. Literally zero personality, though I don't know if that was her or the script. It doesn't help that the main conflict is 'Group A wants to do X because REASONS!'.
I don't get the Shailene Woodley hype train.
She's, at best, thoroughly okay.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I mean, I bought it, but most people at that age are, so it didn't exactly seem a stretch.
But shit, that movie was awful.
She's nice with drama roles, not with action. In the movie she felt like a poor man's Jennifer Lawrence Katniss.
It's Oscar award winning material to The Secret Life of an American Teenager.
I can imagine a show like that being handled with greater self awareness and poking fun at itself for how silly it is on MTV without becoming 7th Heaven 2.0.
Except Princess and the Frog, which I maintain offers up the best and healthiest "princess" role model of any Disney film.
My mom loved it. Watched it twice. Tried to get me to watch it, I told her I got bored during the time it took me to pass through the living room to the kitchen.
She is just about the exact median age of the academy voters.
So many of your "why this movie?" questions can be answered with "generational differences between you and academy voters".
Nothing wrong with that. Depp's actually 1/87th African American on his great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother's cousin side.
As much as I like Clooney as a person and as a sex symbol, he hasn't made a film I liked in a long time.
Gravity?
And before that Up in the Air
Yeah, I mean, they are long held cultural stories, which tend to reinforce the dominant cultural narrative.
They are a little problematic, but there's a sense in which they are not dooming a child to a life of horrible ideas and bad self image. They are fun for kids, and they have some delightful songs, and when the kid is old enough to actually talk about how they should or shouldn't see women in real life, they'll just remember the joy, and hopefully not some of the bad messages.
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
I forgot about gravity, so yeah you're right. Never saw Up in the Air. I was thinking about Monuments Men, Syrianna, and all those lame Oceans films when I made that comment.
Yeap, watched that and thought it was boring, and I didn't like Burn After Reading either.