General movie discussion

[Eliwood8]

Black Panther was great, though it's been a long time since I was disappointed in a Marvel movie. It was an excellent cast, especially Michael B. Jordan—a good villain with interesting motivations is key for a movie like this. And I really liked how the first half of the movie was pretty much a James Bond film.

[mikecamper]

So I know it's a 30+ year-old movie, but I just want to mention that HBO had ET on last night and I was revisiting it.     

 

And a lot of people these days are jaded and wanna hate on it because it's so heavy on the sentimental melodrama.    I don't care.    That movie's good and there are still plenty of very effective moments.  Have a heart!

 

But it also got me to thinking about modern movies in general and how saturated everything is with CGI effects these days.    I'm sorta  of an old curmudgeon about it.   While I appreciate that CGI can create certain things that they couldn't do before,  I  can't help but feel like there's too much reliance upon it for everything anymore.       And watching ET just feeds my thoughts that they're not very necessary.  Because when I look at the creature, I'm convinced it's an alien.  It looks real.  And it's just an animatronic puppet.   If they could do that back then with puppets, they can do it today, too.    The Lack of technology in those days forced filmmakers to have more creativity.

One thing I forgot to look for, though, was on a scene right towards the end, when the kid's bikes all start flying.   When the movie was theatrically re-released in 2003,  they used computer trickery to change the guns that the federal agents were carrying in the original to walkie-talkies instead.   Seems like I remember the post-911 climate having something to do with it, but I can't honestly remember for sure.   

After watching that,  I turned over to AMC and watched Airplane again.   That movie's dated, but very nostalgic.

Edited February 20, 2018 by mikecamper

[EH_STEVE]

I saw "Memento" for the first time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[mikecamper]

52 minutes ago, EH_STEVE said:

I saw "Memento" for the first time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

nice. That's a good one.  Saw it during it's theatrical run.  Early Christopher Nolan.

[Young P]

15 hours ago, mikecamper said:

So I know it's a 30+ year-old movie, but I just want to mention that HBO had ET on last night and I was revisiting it.     

 

And a lot of people these days are jaded and wanna hate on it because it's so heavy on the sentimental melodrama.    I don't care.    That movie's good and there are still plenty of very effective moments.  Have a heart!

 

But it also got me to thinking about modern movies in general and how saturated everything is with CGI effects these days.    I'm sorta  of an old curmudgeon about it.   While I appreciate that CGI can create certain things that they couldn't do before,  I  can't help but feel like there's too much reliance upon it for everything anymore.       And watching ET just feeds my thoughts that they're not very necessary.  Because when I look at the creature, I'm convinced it's an alien.  It looks real.  And it's just an animatronic puppet.   If they could do that back then with puppets, they can do it today, too.    The Lack of technology in those days forced filmmakers to have more creativity.

One thing I forgot to look for, though, was on a scene right towards the end, when the kid's bikes all start flying.   When the movie was theatrically re-released in 2003,  they used computer trickery to change the guns that the federal agents were carrying in the original to walkie-talkies instead.   Seems like I remember the post-911 climate having something to do with it, but I can't honestly remember for sure.   

After watching that,  I turned over to AMC and watched Airplane again.   That movie's dated, but very nostalgic.

I'm a big fan of practical effects too, though I have no problem with a movie committing to a certain style. Sometimes the slick, slightly uncanny presence of CGI is a purposeful part of the overall presentation and lends to a movie's individual identity. What tends to bother me more is when a movie splits the difference, like the recent Star Wars movies, where there's both practical and CGI creations sharing the same space. It makes the CGI stand out in a sometimes distracting way, and the fact that the practical stuff looks so good makes me wish they had fully committed to that style. (Or at least augment the CG stuff with practical components such that the whole thing reads as a real physical entity. This is ostensibly what motion capture performances accomplish, but it doesn't always work for me - again, Star Wars with Maz Kanata, who doesn't emanate age, wisdom or anything because she doesn't feel like she's really part of the world)

 

[Eliwood8]

23 hours ago, EH_STEVE said:

I saw "Memento" for the first time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Memento is awesome. I love introducing people to it.

[EH_STEVE]

Just now, Eliwood8 said:

 

Memento is awesome. I love introducing people to it.

It's one of those movies everyone always suggests or recommends to me. So when I saw it on Netflix I popped it on right away.

[purple_beard]

On 2/20/2018 at 12:10 PM, EH_STEVE said:

I saw "Memento" for the first time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 I've owned the dvd forever and I love the movie.  However, I'd argue if it played out chronologically it wouldn't be as good.  Trying to work through the special features that are set up like his short term memory disability is a chore....

[Samus2008]

Just saw Early Man today, really good claymation animation from Aardman, the guys that did Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run

[Samus2008]

On 2/20/2018 at 12:10 PM, EH_STEVE said:

I saw "Memento" for the first time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I've never seen Memento, or Inception for that matter. Need to catch up on my Christopher Nolan movies. I've seen The Prestige, Batman Trilogy, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, all terrific movies  

[purple_beard]

1 hour ago, Samus2008 said:

I've never seen Memento, or Inception for that matter. Need to catch up on my Christopher Nolan movies. I've seen The Prestige, Batman Trilogy, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, all terrific movies  

 

If you like movies that make you think about what you are watching then Inception and Memento are right up your alley.  In general, I'd say Inception is a little easier to follow what is going on than Memento.

 

The short, short version of each:

 

Inception:  Basically, a way to dive into people's dreams/subconscious either solo or as a team but the deeper the dive the more you need to do it.  The movie will basically work its way into solving its issue by a dream within a dream within a dream.

 

Memento:  Ehh.... as spoiler free as I can make it is, lets say a guy who was in an accident develops short term memory loss.  He can't remember stuff from like 5 minutes ago and has to tattoo reminders on his body so he doesn't get confused.  Lets just say that the story plays out with him interacting with characters he arguably knows but the approach to the story telling is two timelines of events crossing at a certain point, one working forward in time and one working backward in time.  The setup really works well considering the main characters short term memory loss.  IMO, it takes a few viewings to really get your brain to wrap around what exactly is happening.

[Link, the Hero of Dreams]

Saw Game Night.

[EH_STEVE]

Saw "Black Panther" and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, their level of technology bothers me quite a bit. So they have the hardest metal and that meant they could pull this shit off? How? A little explanation would've been nice.

["Casual Trash" Kirbys]

1 hour ago, EH_STEVE said:

Saw "Black Panther" and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, their level of technology bothers me quite a bit. So they have the hardest metal and that meant they could pull this shit off? How? A little explanation would've been nice.

 

What shit off?

[EH_STEVE]

Just now, Kirbymeister2 said:

 

What shit off?

Technological advancements

["Casual Trash" Kirbys]

1 hour ago, EH_STEVE said:

Technological advancements

 

 The comics if I remember don't do that either. They just manage to do it through time after it came to Earth.

[EH_STEVE]

26 minutes ago, Kirbymeister2 said:

 

 The comics if I remember don't do that either. They just manage to do it through time after it came to Earth.

My guess was that the vibranium affected the flora (obviously because of the plant the Black Panther gets) and that the crops they ingest probably have some way of heightening intelligence allowing them to advance much quicker than the rest of the world. So it's not the vibranium, per se, but the effect of it

["Casual Trash" Kirbys]

39 minutes ago, EH_STEVE said:

My guess was that the vibranium affected the flora (obviously because of the plant the Black Panther gets) and that the crops they ingest probably have some way of heightening intelligence allowing them to advance much quicker than the rest of the world. So it's not the vibranium, per se, but the effect of it

 

 That would be true I suppose or it was an evolutionary thing in that through the years they learned how to use it in order to survive.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Kirbymeister2

[Young P]

12 hours ago, EH_STEVE said:

Saw "Black Panther" and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, their level of technology bothers me quite a bit. So they have the hardest metal and that meant they could pull this shit off? How? A little explanation would've been nice.

Historically, advancements in metalworking correspond with advancements in both technology and other areas of culture as well. I don't know for sure if it works on a literal level since I don't know anything about metals or the history of their use, but as a shorthand it just means that this bountiful region was able to speed through many centuries worth of tech advancements and outpace the rest of the world, setting the stage for where the story takes place. The details of it don't really matter.

[purple_beard]

18 hours ago, EH_STEVE said:

Saw "Black Panther" and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, their level of technology bothers me quite a bit. So they have the hardest metal and that meant they could pull this shit off? How? A little explanation would've been nice.

 

I wouldn't say its the hardest, just its energy absorption and output characteristics make it very unique.  I could say that with the meteor being the equivalent to "alien tech" that since they had been working with it since forever and with the powers that ore put into the plants they could have advanced themselves faster than a lot of other countries.

 

FWIW, over analyzing comic book lore is never good, it raises more questions than answers LOL.