Animation Revelation Forum

We had one for last year, so why not one for this year? There's gotta be something great coming up that we're all looking for.

Anyone got any favorites coming up?

I know I'm probably the only one, but I'm looking forward to the 2nd part of The Hobbit which should be releasing either by November or December later this year. I don't give a shit about all the people who complained about An Unexpected Journey. Taken on its own merits, it was a good movie.

I'm also looking forward to Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, both coming later this year, but to be honest I'm pretty uninformed on what other movies are coming out this year, so those obvious blockbuster titles are the only ones that I can say for now.

I think Die Hard 5 is next month. I'm hoping it manages to be good after 4 managed to remember what old school action films were like, but I don't know much about it. I heard Willis say once that 6 would be the last one so I hope it's at least good enough for that to get made. I don't want the series to go out on a whimper.

Also, Monster's U is out this summer.

Those and the Hobbit sequel are what I'm most interested in.

The World's End is definitely going to be amazing.

Still haven't seen The Hobbit, but I'm sure I'll want to watch the sequel as well.

And I'm always down for whatever Miike comes out with.

My one hope is that Die Hard 5 is rated R on impact, with no PG-13 cut.

Well, that isn't my only hope for the year. I'm also really pulling for the next Muppet movie to come out this year.

Anyone know what Dreamworks has planned for this year?

Quote from: Avaitor on January 14, 2013, 09:00:34 PM
My one hope is that Die Hard 5 is rated R on impact, with no PG-13 cut.

On January 11, 2013, reports revealed that the movie is rated R. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Hard_5)

Gotta dig that old school poster, too:

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Fthumb%2F1%2F19%2FA_Good_Day_to_Die_Hard.jpg%2F220px-A_Good_Day_to_Die_Hard.jpg&hash=be2bbac4436ccf91301b65d28b63616ff415bea6)

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on January 14, 2013, 09:05:05 PM
Anyone know what Dreamworks has planned for this year?

IIRC, three originals. Well, if you consider Peabody & Sherman an original.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 14, 2013, 09:00:34 PM
I'm also really pulling for the next Muppet movie to come out this year.

March 21, 2014. Alrighty then.

I'm looking forward to the second part of The Hobbit, although I was kind of meh about the first part.

Iron Man 3, Thor the Dark World, the next Hobbit, and Disney's Frozen.

I'm also interested to see how the 300 prequel turns out.

Also, Ender's Game!

I completely forgot that was coming out this year.

Yeah I'm quite looking forward to part 2 of The Hobbit, even if the first one was just average.

Definitely looking forward to:
42
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Man of Steel
Star Trek Into Darkness

Still deciding:
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Oblivion
After Earth
Gangster Squad
Thor: The Dark World

Wasn't a fan of the first Thor?

Quote from: Avaitor on January 18, 2013, 07:50:44 PMWasn't a fan of the first Thor?

I LOVED the first Thor. It's actually one of my favorites in the Avengers movies.

I'm just worried that the sequel might not follow up as well.

Quote from: Daikun on January 19, 2013, 12:16:30 AM

Quote from: Avaitor on January 18, 2013, 07:50:44 PMWasn't a fan of the first Thor?

I LOVED the first Thor. It's actually one of my favorites in the Avengers movies.

I'm just worried that the sequel might not follow up as well.

Ah, gotcha. Well, I'm a little more hopeful for Thor 2, since I don't think they rushed this as much as they had to for Iron Man 2.

So, apparently JJ Abrams (2009's Star Trek) is going to be directing the next Star Wars movie. And it's going to be written by Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3).

Sounds like it could be the best one yet, easy.

Cool. I'm already interested in watching this movie.

Though this does remind me... what happened to Abrams doing other Star Trek movies?

Quote from: Foggle on January 24, 2013, 06:57:40 PM
So, apparently JJ Abrams (2009's Star Trek) is going to be directing the next Star Wars movie. And it's going to be written by Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3).

Sounds like it could be the best one yet, easy.

Remember when George Lucas said that there would be NO more Star Wars movies EVER after the prequels, even if someone else wanted to make them? Yeah, he stayed good on that statement for a long time, didn't he? :sly:

As for JJ Abrams, I've only ever seen 3 movies of his: Cloverfield, Super 8, and Star Trek (2009). Cloverfield was "Eh?" but Super 8 was terrific, IMO. I did actually enjoy his take on Star Trek, as well. That said, I have to be upfront and say that I'm a complete newbie to anything Star Trek to begin with, as the only 2 things that I've EVER seen of Star Trek before the 2009 movie were The Wrath of Khan (which I remember liking, but I saw it more than 5 years ago so I barely remember it now) and Insurrection (which I saw in theaters as a kid and hated it). From what I can understand, a lot of actual Star Trek fans hated the movie, so I can't really say whether a J.J. Abrams directed Star Wars movie is something for me to be excited for. From my experience, he can either make a bland movie (Cloverfield), a great movie (Super 8; and BTW we really need to get rid of that stupid sunglasses smiley ;) ), or a reboot movie that you could either like or hate depending on how much of a fan of the franchise you are. So in other words he's pretty hit or miss from what I can tell.

Quote from: Daxdiv on January 24, 2013, 07:13:00 PM
Though this does remind me... what happened to Abrams doing other Star Trek movies?

There was a teaser for the next Star Trek movie (a direct sequel to the 2009 one) that came out a few months ago, and its supposed to be released later this year.

Matt Reeves directed Cloverfield.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on January 24, 2013, 07:42:36 PM
Matt Reeves directed Cloverfield.

Oh, right, J.J. Abrams produced that movie. Well, he still had a lot of input on that movie if I'm not mistaken, so I still count that within the scope of his work that I have seen.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on January 24, 2013, 07:25:38 PM
From what I can understand, a lot of actual Star Trek fans hated the movie, so I can't really say whether a J.J. Abrams directed Star Wars movie is something for me to be excited for.

Well, Abrams himself is not much of a Star Trek fan, and went out of his way to make a ST movie for non-Trekkies.

He IS a Star Wars fan though, so this may very well turn out to be an entirely different experience.

I liked the Star Trek movie.

I look forward to having a good Star Wars movie as well.

So Michael Bay's TMNT is back on board.

Guess who's going to play April?

Quote from: Avaitor on February 22, 2013, 04:48:17 PM
So Michael Bay's TMNT is back on board.

After that leak?  :srs:

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 22, 2013, 04:53:36 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on February 22, 2013, 04:48:17 PM
So Michael Bay's TMNT is back on board.

After that leak?  :srs:

Yep. No word if there's going to be a rewrite or not.

And yeah, Megan Fox is on board. Seriously.

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogcdn.com%2Fwww.comicsalliance.com%2Fmedia%2F2013%2F02%2Fdetail.jpg&hash=7368fd7a79c535c0e2045747fcaf4c9d5fbf2600)

Who's ready for a Mandarin Named Slickback?

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on February 23, 2013, 03:19:18 PMWho's ready for a Mandarin Named Slickback?

Here's the uncropped image, (http://www.empireonline.com/gallery/image.asp?id=68370&caption=&gallery=4259) which has Iron Man's helmet in it.

UPDATE: Trailer #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiU_8qZLFOs)

I know a lot of people are hating on how "serious" and "dark" this movie looks, but honestly, I've really enjoyed all 3 trailers that have come out so far, and I'm actually fairly excited for this movie (which is the opposite of how I felt after The Dark Knight Rises's trailers, despite enjoying the actual movie itself). I actually felt that the 2nd movie was a bit too goofy for my liking, and I'm honestly very welcoming a darker take on Iron Man, as long as its done well. That said, from everything that I've heard about the movie, it does apparently still have plenty of Tony's witty, smart-ass humor in it, so I don't think that this movie will completely do away with all of the fun-spirited elements from the previous film.

Either way, though, I'm really looking forward to this film, which is saying a lot given how disappointed I was with the 2nd movie.

I thought TDKR's trailers were awful as well, and I loved that movie.

2 overdosed on the quirk so a shake-up is probably well needed.

Quote from: Foggle on March 06, 2013, 11:55:37 PM
I thought TDKR's trailers were awful as well, and I loved that movie.

Begins and Dark Knight had terrible trailers, too.

Quote from: Foggle on March 06, 2013, 11:55:37 PM
I thought TDKR's trailers were awful as well, and I loved that movie.

For that matter I thought that the trailers for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were underwhelming, as well. Neither of them managed to get me pumped or excited for those movies, and I still ended up enjoying both of them upon seeing the actual film.

Hmmmm....Maybe Nolan's films just don't lend themselves very well to cinematic trailers, I suppose.

I didn't really think any of Nolan's Bat trailers looked that bad. I'll admit that I was a part of the crowd that wasn't excited for TDKR, but my fears resided more in the law of averages than anything.

Now Man of Steel has some shitty trailers, though.

Quote from: Avaitor on March 09, 2013, 12:41:37 PM

Now Man of Steel has some shitty trailers, though.

Clark: Should I have just let them die?

Clark's Dad: I don't know. Maybe.

Seriously, come on, movie makers. You guys try way too hard now.

Have you seen the new posters for Machete Kills?

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F25.media.tumblr.com%2F2435ab446f7535d31a494f10307c3e1a%2Ftumblr_mo7x1vgAVz1qa64bjo2_500.jpg&hash=8793644f982249a8bb7f717b3673db73042bcaab)

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F25.media.tumblr.com%2Fdd1473153f599123fc64b4f06e9e73da%2Ftumblr_mo7x1vgAVz1qa64bjo3_500.jpg&hash=2d9365b71ba2e1a473180608fd7f888ff7344ffc)

I don't think I've anticipated a movie this much in my life, aside from maybe Avengers.

Now that so many negative reviews are coming out, I really want to see Man of Steel so I can form an opinion already.

I actually really liked the 2nd trailer for Man of Steel. It made it seem like it'd be a pretty big deal, at the very least. That said, I always had a sneaking suspicion that this movie would fail because of the director behind it.

It just sucks that we STILL can't ever seem to get a good Superman movie. I really do think that DC needs to start taking notes from Marvel on how to make a good superhero flick. I mean, I won't say that all of Marvel's movies are instant classics (in fact, only a few of them truly are, and there are quite a few bad ones in the mix), but most of them are at least fun movies to watch, which is what a superhero film should be at the very least. The Amazing Spider-Man certainly wasn't amazing by any stretch, but it was solid entertainment and never left me bored, even as predictable and by the numbers as the plot was. I'd be all for DC movies if they could at least even do that much, but sadly most of them don't even make for competent films let alone actual decent ones.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on June 14, 2013, 09:45:51 PM

It just sucks that we STILL can't ever seem to get a good Superman movie.

You weren't a fan of Superman 1 and 2?

I think the 3rd trailer is the best, personally. And I'm going to ignore what the critics say until I actually see the movie.

But it does suck that it's hard to get a good Superman movie, or even a good DC movie in general. I do think DC should start making them, just not by copying everything Marvel does.

I saw Man of Steel yesterday; I thought it was pretty good. It had a solid story and it never got boring. Most of the people I was in the theater with seemed to enjoy it. I only really had 2 complaints about MoS:

1. there could have been some more humor and light-hearted moments. The action and story were good, but there were little 'human' moments. It was kind of joyless.

2. I wish there could have been a teaser connecting it to another DC character or franchise after the credits. I guess the producers didn't want to look like they were copying Marvel, but a shout-out to Batman or something would have been nice, since the plan is for this to lead up to the Justice League movie.

Quote from: Silverstar on June 15, 2013, 08:47:13 AM
I saw Man of Steel yesterday; I thought it was pretty good. It had a solid story and it never got boring. Most of the people I was in the theater with seemed to enjoy it. I only really had 2 complaints about MoS:

1. there could have been some more humor and light-hearted moments. The action and story were good, but there were little 'human' moments. It was kind of joyless.

2. I wish there could have been a teaser connecting it to another DC character or franchise after the credits. I guess the producers didn't want to look like they were copying Marvel, but a shout-out to Batman or something would have been nice, since the plan is for this to lead up to the Justice League movie.

1. Superman isn't supposed to be human.

2. I doubt they'll reboot Batman that fast and honestly, movie audience's don't give a shit about any other DC character that isn't the big 2. It wouldn't be worth the effort.

There you go. ;)

Perhaps I should clarify: by "human moments" I meant those little lines and exchanges which lighten things up a little and show you a little bit more about the characters, making them more relatable, like what we got in Avengers, i.e., Tony's line about wanting to go get schwarma (sp?), Natasha and Clint's exchange about Budapest, Steve and Nick Fury's $10 dollar bet exchange, etc. There was very little of that in this film. But then, Marvel's heroes have always been a little more 'human' and relatable than DC's.

But yeah, that's right, I forgot that Batman will have to be rebooted again since Nolan's Bruce hung up his cape in The Dark Knight Rises. We'll have to get yet another Batman reboot before they can refer to Bats again.

I was actually just being snarky about the Superman ain't human comment. I agree that movies should have that element.

And yeah, it will be awhile before the next Bats. I wish they would do like Avengers did and have a GOOD Green Lantern movie, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc. and of course more of Batman and Superman and have them be in a Justice League movie. I find it ironic that Marvel did that first because what they did is basically a movie version of how DCUA Bats and Supe went on to be in the Justice League cartoon

Much Ado About Nothing.

It looks like Jim Carrey was right about Kick-Ass 2.

Ah well. I'm just hoping that Machete Kills lives up to the hype.

Hmmmm....Judging by the kind of ratings that this movie is receiving so far, it may be safe to assume that its TOO faithful of an adaptation to the original source material, given how much everyone hates that for the piece of shit that it is (or so I've heard).

Quote from: Avaitor on August 17, 2013, 02:37:07 PM
It looks like Jim Carrey was right about Kick-Ass 2.

It went from being a movie I was really excited for to "guess I'll check it out on DVD... maybe...".

Quote from: Foggle on August 17, 2013, 02:48:50 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on August 17, 2013, 02:37:07 PM
It looks like Jim Carrey was right about Kick-Ass 2.

It went from being a movie I was really excited for to "guess I'll check it out on DVD... maybe...".

I just remember him saying it was too violent....my kind of flick. :sly:

Quote from: gunswordfist on August 17, 2013, 02:58:32 PM

Quote from: Foggle on August 17, 2013, 02:48:50 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on August 17, 2013, 02:37:07 PM
It looks like Jim Carrey was right about Kick-Ass 2.

It went from being a movie I was really excited for to "guess I'll check it out on DVD... maybe...".

I just remember him saying it was too violent....my kind of flick. :sly:

Oh yeah, Jim Carrey's comments actually made me want to see it more. But it currently has <30% on RT, so... :(

Quote from: Foggle on August 17, 2013, 02:59:23 PM

Quote from: gunswordfist on August 17, 2013, 02:58:32 PM

Quote from: Foggle on August 17, 2013, 02:48:50 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on August 17, 2013, 02:37:07 PM
It looks like Jim Carrey was right about Kick-Ass 2.

It went from being a movie I was really excited for to "guess I'll check it out on DVD... maybe...".

I just remember him saying it was too violent....my kind of flick. :sly:

Oh yeah, Jim Carrey's comments actually made me want to see it more. But it currently has <30% on RT, so... :(

Yeah, celebrity tears sells me movies

I know that they cut the rape scene out. Christopher Mintz-Plasse confirmed that. I'm not sure what else they kept in though.

I would pull out the fact that critics aren't always right, but then again, this is a movie that would be very easy to fuck up. Look at the source material.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 17, 2013, 02:47:41 PM
Hmmmm....Judging by the kind of ratings that this movie is receiving so far, it may be safe to assume that its TOO faithful of an adaptation to the original source material, given how much everyone hates that for the piece of shit that it is (or so I've heard).

The only reason the first film was any good was because they diverted from the source material. I can't understand why they wouldn't keep doing it.

It's worse than Old Man Logan. (NOBODY POST ANYTHING FROM THAT PLEASE)

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on August 18, 2013, 11:20:56 PM

It's worse than Old Man Logan. (NOBODY POST ANYTHING FROM THAT PLEASE)

I have no idea what the fuck that is before entering this thread.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on August 18, 2013, 11:20:56 PM

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 17, 2013, 02:47:41 PM
Hmmmm....Judging by the kind of ratings that this movie is receiving so far, it may be safe to assume that its TOO faithful of an adaptation to the original source material, given how much everyone hates that for the piece of shit that it is (or so I've heard).

The only reason the first film was any good was because they diverted from the source material. I can't understand why they wouldn't keep doing it.

It's worse than Old Man Logan. (NOBODY POST ANYTHING FROM THAT PLEASE)

I hope you mran that OML got a terrible animated movie because the comic is great.

I still haven't seen the first Kick-Ass. Based on what I've seen of these films in ads and trailers, I never had any desire to see them. Kick-Ass just looks...stupid to me. Like somebody decided to make a movie about those vigilante dorks who run around the streets in homemade costumes and are dubbed "real-life superheroes" by perky local news anchors. No, they aren't real-life superheroes. Superheroes by their very definition have super powers. No powers = not a superhero. Those guys are just cosplayers who take it too far. If I want to see guys in tights and flashy costumes beat the snot out of each other, I can watch UFC or pro-wrestling.

Quote from: Silverstar on August 19, 2013, 07:55:29 AM
I still haven't seen the first Kick-Ass. Based on what I've seen of these films in ads and trailers, I never had any desire to see them. Kick-Ass just looks...stupid to me. Like somebody decided to make a movie about those vigilante dorks who run around the streets in homemade costumes and are dubbed "real-life superheroes" by perky local news anchors. No, they aren't real-life superheroes. Superheroes by their very definition have super powers. No powers = not a superhero. Those guys are just cosplayers who take it too far. If I want to see guys in tights and flashy costumes beat the snot out of each other, I can watch UFC or pro-wrestling.

The trailers are godawful. The movie is witty and loaded with fun action scenes.

I'm not too surprised that Kick-Ass 2 isn't breaking any box office records. R-rated super hero flicks generally don't do well commercially. This is primarily due to the fact that a movie with an R rating can't be targeted to kids, which means that the producers can't launch a line of mass produced, over-priced toys and other merchandise based on the movie.

Quote from: Silverstar on August 19, 2013, 07:55:29 AM
I still haven't seen the first Kick-Ass. Based on what I've seen of these films in ads and trailers, I never had any desire to see them. Kick-Ass just looks...stupid to me. Like somebody decided to make a movie about those vigilante dorks who run around the streets in homemade costumes and are dubbed "real-life superheroes" by perky local news anchors. No, they aren't real-life superheroes. Superheroes by their very definition have super powers. No powers = not a superhero. Those guys are just cosplayers who take it too far. If I want to see guys in tights and flashy costumes beat the snot out of each other, I can watch UFC or pro-wrestling.

I think the reason that Kick-Ass works (at least as a movie, as I haven't read the original comic) is BECAUSE it is self-aware of the fact that its premise is stupid. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and is more of a satire of superhero flicks than an actual superhero flick itself. It's also not really trying to be realistic at all. The movie is loaded with tons of over-the-top action sequences that quite honestly make The Dark Knight look plausible in comparison.

The film's definitely not for everyone, but for what it is, it was really entertaining.

It also doesn't have some of the really dumb plot twists that the comic has.

But The Dark Knight is plausible :thinkin:

And much less rape.

Machete Kills tomorrow.

Fuck to the yeah.

So who else here is going to be seeing the next Hobbit, which premiers next Friday?

I'll admit that I wasn't impressed by the first film from last year, but I do look forward to seeing the continuation of the story. It's really nice to be taken back to Middle Earth.

The next one will probably be covering the majority of the book (instead of just 6 chapters like the first), and covering the best parts so I'll be interested.

Also, I liked the first one, but fully admit it was way too long.

I too liked the first one. I just wasn't blown away by it, like how I was with the Lord of the Rings films.

I won't be surprised if this movie covers most of the rest of the story, and the third film will be largely original to segue into the original trilogy.

The thing is, The Hobbit is a much-lighter and more straightforward book than the LOTR trilogy. It has many themes and meanings underneath the surface, but it's nowhere near as dense as the trilogy is. That's why I always thought stretching it into three films was odd when it would have easily fit two 2 hour movies without fuss.

But I'll still see them all. The Hobbit is one of my favorite books, after all.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on December 08, 2013, 09:35:46 PM
The thing is, The Hobbit is a much-lighter and more straightforward book than the LOTR trilogy. It has many themes and meanings underneath the surface, but it's nowhere near as dense as the trilogy is. That's why I always thought stretching it into three films was odd when it would have easily fit two 2 hour movies without fuss.

But I'll still see them all. The Hobbit is one of my favorite books, after all.

That's why I can't see them actually doing it, and why I imagine the majority of part 3 being mostly new material.

Quote from: talonmalon333 on December 08, 2013, 09:45:48 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on December 08, 2013, 09:35:46 PM
The thing is, The Hobbit is a much-lighter and more straightforward book than the LOTR trilogy. It has many themes and meanings underneath the surface, but it's nowhere near as dense as the trilogy is. That's why I always thought stretching it into three films was odd when it would have easily fit two 2 hour movies without fuss.

But I'll still see them all. The Hobbit is one of my favorite books, after all.

That's why I can't see them actually doing it, and why I imagine the majority of part 3 being mostly new material.

The second movie ending with Smaug implies that either the last movie is the battle of the 5 armies alone (which would be incredibly tiring at 3 hours) or a lot of other material like maybe more to do with the Necromancer and the fallout from that leading to LOTR. Otherwise, well, it'll have more padding than the first movie did without question.

I changed the title to remove the year because I figure we should have a general thread.

That said, I as reading the Wikipedia entry for "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury and came across this:

QuoteDirector Zack Snyder is attached to direct, at least in part, a film adaptation of three stories from The Illustrated Man: "The Illustrated Man," "Veldt," and "Concrete Mixer." Screenwriter Alex Tse is writing the screenplay.

Oh wait, this doesn't belong in this thread. Never mind.  :sweat:

Is anyone here anticipating Star Wars Episode VII? If so, what are your thoughts on it so far?

I'm not. I don't have much faith in the director given his previous work, and while I would love for a new Star Wars film to be great, I've been let down so much by the prequel trilogy that the trailer will literally need to make this look like the best movie ever in order to get me interested in seeing it.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 16, 2014, 10:34:11 PM
I'm not. I don't have much faith in the director given his previous work, and while I would love for a new Star Wars film to be great, I've been let down so much by the prequel trilogy that the trailer will literally need to make this look like the best movie ever in order to get me interested in seeing it.

J.J. Abrams? You were a fan of one of the Star Trek movies though, right?

Also, at the very least, it does seem like they are trying to rekindle the spirit of the original trilogy rather than the prequels (bringing back Luke, Leia and Han, favoring real locations and practical effects over excessive CGI usage on everything, etc.). And Lucas is being kept far enough away, in contrast to the total control he had over the prequels.

I liked the first Star Trek. Heard the second one was a huge disappointment, so I haven't bothered with it.

I'm so burned out on Star Wars that the trailer will have to be absolutely incredible (like the first LOTR trailer) in order for me to even give it a look.

I will say that, overall, I'm not exactly excited about it, either. I'm just going to see how it plays out.

I thought that both Star Treks were just OK. I didn't hate the second one as much as everyone else, but keep in mind that I still haven't seen Wrath of Khan yet, and the people who hated it were big fans of that film. That said, neither film is anywhere close to being great, and certainly not on Star Wars levels of excellence. As for everything else that he's done that I've seen, I'm just not a fan with the exception of Super 8, which is pretty good, IMO, but all that proves is that he can do a good E.T. movie. It says nothing about his ability to direct a good Star Wars film.

I don't want to give the Star Wars franchise my money anymore, tbh (although I very likely will if and when that unaltered trilogy set comes out). Even if it ends up being good, I really doubt that I'll see it in theaters.

I don't want anything newer than the Force Unleashed II.

It seems a bit mean to use the prequel trilogy as a reason for why a movie written and directed by an entirely different crew will suck though. I mean, it's by the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3. And the "here's why the prequels suck" explanations have been shared so many times that Abrams probably has most of that in mind when making the movies anyway.

And even with the prequels in mind, it's not like we still didn't get some great things from the PT.

Quote from: Rynnec on October 17, 2014, 01:11:32 AM
And even with the prequels in mind, it's not like we still didn't get some great things from the PT.

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg4.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20130426153129%2Fmoviemorgue%2Fimages%2Fthumb%2Fd%2Fd2%2FPalpatine03.jpg%2F290px-Palpatine03.webp&hash=f3b84f0a29cf5f192a703a89c59e5a2ac2ce99f4)

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FNOZmeys.jpg&hash=f8396887f32dd757697fb8b069f1ce9e39811396)

Huh. So Revan is the main villain. Didn't expect that.

The only real question is, who's Revan is it?

The new film by my favorite director looks fucking great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZW6jGDCemo

So they recently released teasers for the next Star Wars and Jurassic Park films. Did anyone see them?

The teaser for Star Wars has in fact NOT been released yet, or at least not officially. If there are any leaks, I'm unaware of them. The trailer will officially be released on Friday exclusively to select theaters, so it won't appear online for at least a few more days.

As for Jurassic World, the trailer has been released for 2 days now, and....it looks AWFUL! I'm not joking, and I don't say this kind of stuff lightly, but nothing about that trailer felt right to me. I mean, OK, they have a fully functional park, so I'm assuming that this is a reboot because it wouldn't make any fucking sense in the original continuity after all of the shit that went wrong with that idea in the old movies. That set-up in and of itself is fine, and I don't want just another rehash of the first movie, anyways. Having said that, the plot looks terrible. So we are getting a generic monster movie story of scientists creating some unnatural smart hybrid Dinosaur that will ultimately try to kill them all and prove not to fuck with nature? First off, that's the plot to Deep Blue Sea, among plenty of other bad monster movies, so just take that in for a second. And second of all, the science vs. nature thing already went without saying given the set-up of bringing Dinosaurs back to life, so why cheapen the plot further with the most generic story idea possible? Oh, and as for the classic Dinosaurs like the Raptors that were so threatening in the first movie? Yeah, they're basically just the Dino equivalent of police dogs in this movie according to the trailer and an interview with Chris Pratt confirming it.

That's just....pretty fucking stupid.

Does that mean that I'm saying for sure that the movie will be bad. No. As usual, I won't judge a final product based on a short trailer like this. That said, I will definitely say that this trailer, in and of itself, is just flat-out bad. If it represents the actual direction of the film, then I'm probably going to hate this movie. If it doesn't and the actual movie is better, then it has utterly failed at doing its job as a trailer.

So, yeah, I'm definitely not impressed, to say the least, and I'm usually pretty damn easy to get hyped up when it comes to movie trailers, so something is seriously wrong here.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 26, 2014, 02:47:12 PM
The teaser for Star Wars has in fact NOT been released yet, or at least not officially. If there are any leaks, I'm unaware of them. The trailer will officially be released on Friday exclusively to select theaters, so it won't appear online for at least a few more days.

Maybe it was leaked. My brother showed it to me. Either way, it's available to be viewed.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 26, 2014, 02:47:12 PM
As for Jurassic World, the trailer has been released for 2 days now, and....it looks AWFUL! I'm not joking, and I don't say this kind of stuff lightly, but nothing about that trailer felt right to me. I mean, OK, they have a fully functional park, so I'm assuming that this is a reboot because it wouldn't make any fucking sense in the original continuity after all of the shit that went wrong with that idea in the old movies. That set-up in and of itself is fine, and I don't want just another rehash of the first movie, anyways. Having said that, the plot looks terrible. So we are getting a generic monster movie story of scientists creating some unnatural smart hybrid Dinosaur that will ultimately try to kill them all and prove not to fuck with nature? First off, that's the plot to Deep Blue Sea, among plenty of other bad monster movies, so just take that in for a second. And second of all, the science vs. nature thing already went without saying given the set-up of bringing Dinosaurs back to life, so why cheapen the plot further with the most generic story idea possible? Oh, and as for the classic Dinosaurs like the Raptors that were so threatening in the first movie? Yeah, they're basically just the Dino equivalent of police dogs in this movie according to the trailer and an interview with Chris Pratt confirming it.

That's just....pretty fucking stupid.

Does that mean that I'm saying for sure that the movie will be bad. No. As usual, I won't judge a final product based on a short trailer like this. That said, I will definitely say that this trailer, in and of itself, is just flat-out bad. If it represents the actual direction of the film, then I'm probably going to hate this movie. If it doesn't and the actual movie is better, then it has utterly failed at doing its job as a trailer.

So, yeah, I'm definitely not impressed, to say the least, and I'm usually pretty damn easy to get hyped up when it comes to movie trailers, so something is seriously wrong here.

Well, if you have any doubts, just remember that the Jurassic Park franchise hasn't had any duds in the past... oh wait. :sly:

According to Wikipedia, the movie takes place twenty years after the events of the original film.

Also, in the moment of the trailer when the liopleurodon eats the shark, I couldn't help but think that was a little Speilberg joke, as if to say "If you thought Jaws was big...". :P

lol

I don't really get the interest behind Jurassic World.

Then again, most people seem to have forgotten the sequels, so...

So it looks like an official trailer for the new Star Wars has been released (which is different from the teaser I saw last week). I don't particularly have any thoughts on it. I didn't see enough in it to get excited or worried. So I feel the same way about the movie that I always have: unsure and in need of more info.

I will say, though, that J.J. Abrams does care about Star Wars and is clearly a fan. If you watch Lost you can see references to it, such as little things like the usage of "I have a bad feeling about this". There's many parts where one of the characters (a clear Star Wars fan) directly references characters and elements from the movies and compares them to situations in the show, and during one of these scenes, he even throws in an unnecessary yet incredibly comedic and blatant shot at the Ewoks. Some people are worried that Episode VII apparently features a descendant of Jar-Jar, but if Abrams is aware of the lameness of the Ewoks, I'm sure he's aware of Jar-Jar, too. Point is, I'm not saying this movie will be good (like I said above, I still don't know what to think), but I do hope that his love of Star Wars is evident in the finished project. I do have a feeling he knows why the prequels went wrong, and will do his best to recall the spirit of the classic trilogy rather than those movies.

Though I hear his Star Trek was mediocre, and if he is a self proclaimed fan of that series, too, then my post may be pointless.

Of all the reboots they've done, I'm not sure why Jurassic Park hasn't been one of them. At least it would be different from the original in that it would closer to the book.

Nobody likes any of the sequels at all. I'm not sure why anyone thinks this new one will be any better.

It might just be as Avaitor said. People seem to have forgotten the sequels.

I'm more interested in Star Wars, myself.

Speaking of Michael Chrichton books, I feel that Congo and Timeline each deserve another shot at actually having proper adaptations that follow the source material. It would be great to see a new Jurassic Park movie that was also more faithful to the book, but at least that one got a good movie to begin with, even if the story was totally different.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 01, 2014, 03:27:41 PM
Speaking of Michael Chrichton books, I feel that Congo and Timeline each deserve another shot at actually having proper adaptations that follow the source material. It would be great to see a new Jurassic Park movie that was also more faithful to the book, but at least that one got a good movie to begin with, even if the story was totally different.

I like both the movie and the book even though they're pretty different, but outside of that movie, none of his other books have made good movies at all. Which is a shame, because if done right, they would make really fun thrillers.

Unfortunately, since he died nobody really seems interested in his properties at all.

I think that you need someone more visionary and grandiose like Spielberg to properly adapt his books into films, because most of them are very grand and imaginative stories. With JP,  even though the story was different and the characters were portrayed differently than in the book, it still felt like it captured the spirit of the novel. Neither Congo nor Timeline, on the other hand, felt the least bit like the source material, in terms of either the tone or the scope.

i've kind of been wanting to read the book.

Quote from: gunswordfist on December 01, 2014, 07:59:19 PM
i've kind of been wanting to read the book.

It's a fun adventure book with a lot of cool ideas. If you're only familiar with the movie I think you'll be a fan of the differences between the two of them.

that's what i am hoping for.

My Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2015:

Cautiously Optimistic:

10. The Hateful Eight- Not a Tarantino fan, but I really enjoyed his last 2 films

9. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- The prequels burned me out, but at the end of the day it's still Star Wars, and I'm going to see it no matter what.

8. A Silent Voice- Based on the best manga from last year

7. Chappie- District 9 was excellent, but Elysium clearly suffered from a lot of studio meddling; either way, I have faith in the director

6. Mission Impossible 5- Ghost Protocol rejuvenated the franchise, but since the director of that film will have his hands tied with another project, I have to keep my expectations in check; speaking of which....

5. Tomorrowland- Done by the director of MI 4; admittedly I know very little about the film, but the concept intrigues me

4. Ant-Man- On the one hand, it's Marvel, but on the other hand, no Edgar Wright leaves me a bit troubled....

Already Sold:

3. Spectre- Skyfall did for 007 what Ghost Protocol did for MI, except that this movie will actually retain the same director

2. Avengers: Age of Ultron- The first movie isn't nearly my favorite Marvel movie, but what so many naysayers failed to appreciate was what an excellent turning point and set-up it was for all future MCU films; now take Joss Whedon,  a director who knows how to up the stakes in story progression and characters (see: Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity); this second film is perfect in tone, being as epic as the first movie, but far more in-depth and nuanced with its ensemble cast

1. The Boy and the Beast- Mamoru Hosoda is 3 for 3, and his 3 animated feature films are each among my favorite animated movies of all time; this is quite simply a no-brainer for me

Brad Bird doing a movie is a day one for me. I still have to see his MI even if I'm not a fan of the series. Marvel and Mamoru Hasoda are no-brainers for me, too.

Otherwise I'm cautious about everything else.

jupiter rising and the kingsmen look good.

*ascending.

New Tomorrowland trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sH0__SpV88)

I hope it's as good as it looks!

Didn't know that Brienne of Tarth would play a Stormtrooper in Episode VII. Interesting.

Real talk though- who cares about the new Star Wars, when we got the Hateful Eight teaser today?

Quote from: Avaitor on April 16, 2015, 04:10:22 PM
Real talk though- who cares about the new Star Wars, when we got the Hateful Eight teaser today?

There's a Hateful Eight teaser!? Must watch!

I'll check it out eventually.

I'm interested in TH8 since I liked Tarantino's last two films, but I consider his filmography as a whole to still be far from up my alley.

I've been a Star Wars fan since childhood, so despite my scepticism, I am still going to watch the new movie.

Man, I watch this this trailer, and I see that it isn't a trainwreck, but it's just, I don't care. I feel absolutely nothing when I sit through this.

I have no motivation to check out anything Star Wars ever again, even the original trilogy. And that feeling kind of sucks, but it's not the first time that I'm standing out of the crowd. I still don't like the Lego Movie, either.

The Star Wars trailer was beautiful IMO. <3 you Harrison Ford!

Honestly, I have always been completely indifferent to the Star Wars franchise, even as a kid. So, the new trailer didn't particularly impress or inspire much enthusiasm from me as it seemed to with so many people in my twitter feed. But even so, I have to say the trailer makes it look quite promising, and I hope it'll turn out to be a good flick. 

And yes, the reveal of Harrison Ford reprising his role as Han Solo was my favorite part of the trailer.

I've also always been indifferent to Star Wars. Well used to be, now I am a bit interested in it. I didn't care for the movies as a kid and just thought they were "dirty looking scifi" and was actually surprised when Anakin force jumped in the prequel trilogy because I had no clue they could do that because I paid so little attention to the franchise. lol I do want to check out that trailer though.

I'm with Foggle. I liked the new trailer (though I still consider it more of a teaser). You know what I liked best about it? It showed off cool stuff WITHOUT SHOWING TOO MUCH! That really pisses me off about modern movie trailers. Like, as excited as I am for Age of Ultron, I feel like the promotional matetial basically spoiled the whole plot for us. The Vision should have been a surprise. Now we not only know that he's in the movie and that he'll be the one to take down Ultron, but we even know what his design looks like. There's literally no surprise where there should have been one.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens just gives us the basic gist of the msin characters, and doesn't give away anything else, especially the plot and villains.

Quote from: Avaitor on April 17, 2015, 08:47:55 PMAnd that feeling kind of sucks, but it's not the first time that I'm standing out of the crowd. I still don't like the Lego Movie, either.

I'll still take it over Frozen. :>

I'm amused at how every Episode VII promo really likes to emphasize the "we're not all CG like the prequels, see we have machines and muppets! Please don't hate us!" angle.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on April 17, 2015, 09:35:28 PM
I'm amused at how every Episode VII promo really likes to emphasize the "we're not all CG like the prequels, see we have machines and muppets! Please don't hate us!" angle.

lol. Now that you mention it, it's really true. The promos try so hard to invoke A New Hope to such an insane degree that I doubt they really show much of the proper movie at all.

That said, can you really blame them? I'd do the same in their shoes.

Hey, it works for me. I'm loving how great the practical effects look, and once again, appreciate that they haven't really spoiled anything (yet), like most modern trailers tend to do.

So, that new Tomorrowland trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNzukD8pS_s) is pretty awesome.

Go Brad Bird!

I'm pretty excited for it, myself.

And here's more awesomeness from the movie! (http://blogs.indiewire.com/animationscoop/dazzling-animation-cut-scenes-from-tomorrowland-20150423) Maurice!

Tomorrowland currently has 59% on RT, but the reviews don't seem that negative.

At worst, this might turn out to be another of Disney's underperforming yet somewhat promising sci-fi films. Wow, do they have a lot of those, though. I might still go see it, anyway, but not before Mad Max.

I'm honestly not sure if anyone really knows what this movie is. Look how long it took to even get a trailer that tries to explain the story. Even still, it barely revealed anything.

I'll be seeing it soon anyway.

American Ultra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jOcp3JJmk)

Here's a spoiler-free review for The Boy and the Beast: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/07/the-boy-and-the-beast-is-the-anime-version-of-the-jungle-book/

It really sounds like my kind of movie.

I can't believe that I just found out about this, but The Sword in the Stone is getting a live-action remake: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/sword-stone-live-action-remake-809845

It's also coincidental timing for this announcement, since I recently read the original book.

Still, I'm rather skeptical given Disney's other attempts at remaking classic animated movies into live-action. Alice in Wonderland was awful, and I've heard just as bad about Maleficent, but to be fair, their most recent attempt, Cinderella, actually got pretty decent reviews, so maybe they're improving?

At any rate, this COULD work in live-action if done right, but that's a very big if.

I think this has potential to be a solid Once and Future King adaptation, given the director's history with a medieval setting, and Disney's (hell, the industry in general) increasing franchise-building boom. It also helps that at the end of the day, Disney's animated effort isn't that iconic, so they don't have to follow that as source material too much. Maybe this can work.

But holy shit, Disney REALLY needs to cut back on their announcements for live-action adaptations of their animated films. We're getting one every couple of weeks now. Even Marvel waited for like, 10 hits before they started going announcement heavy.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure I understand Disney's current obsession for remaking EVERY SINGLE ONE of their animated classics. I mean, Cinderella and the Sword in the Stone; OK, maybe I can get that. But Dumbo has no business being adapted into anything else when it was already perfect and really only suited to film of the animated variety to begin with. And while we're on the subject of strange announcements by Disney, what's all this about in Aladdin prequel called Genies? I mean, not only is it unnecessary, but seeing as how Robin Williams was the one and only Genie and tragically lost his life to severe depression less than a year ago, it would seem to be in really poor taste to go through with a movie idea like that one.

On the top of my head, we're getting

• Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson
• The Jungle Book with Bill Murray and Ben Kingsley
• Alice in Wonderland: Thru the Looking Glass
• Pete's Dragon (technically a live-action remake, but I'll count it anyway)
• Tim Burton's Dumbo
• Winnie the Pooh
• Pinocchio
• Cruella de Vil
• Mulan
• Night at Bald Mountain
• Prince Charming
• Maleficent 2 (if they can get Angelina back)
• Genie, possibly leading into an actual Aladdin movie
• The Sword in the Stone

And maybe the Rescuer Rangers movie, if that's still happening. I'm surprised that there hasn't been talk of adapting The Lion King's stage show to film, or something for Stitch. But knowing Disney right now, these will probably happen soon.

Outside of a few very specific exceptions (The Thing, Scarface, probably some others), I hate remakes. This also comes across to me like animated films have potentially been devalued in Disney's eyes, which I hate even more.

Creators should be looking to the past for inspiration, not so that they can literally tell the same stories all over again. This already sounds more out of control than America's hard-on for recreating Asian horror flicks a decade ago.

EDIT:

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 25, 2015, 08:15:14 PM
And while we're on the subject of strange announcements by Disney, what's all this about in Aladdin prequel called Genies? I mean, not only is it unnecessary, but seeing as how Robin Williams was the one and only Genie and tragically lost his life to severe depression less than a year ago, it would seem to be in really poor taste to go through with a movie idea like that one.

Also, this. What the fuck?

Uh yeah, I glanced over his post and thought it was a joke. The hell, Disney?

And The Thing is the best remake ever. :thinkin:

Quote from: gunswordfist on July 25, 2015, 10:05:22 PM
And The Thing is the best remake ever. :thinkin:

It is!

Heh, I thought you'd say that but I still had to say it. :>

The Thing
3:10 To Yuma
Scarface
The Fly
The Ten Commandments
The Magnificent Seven
The Departed
Ocean's Eleven
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Cape Fear
Nosferatu the Vampyre
True Lies
Insomnia
Scent of a Woman

Those are all good remakes. And if we're also counting well-received ones that I didn't personally care for, you could add King Kong, True Grit, Dawn of the Dead, and The Ring to that list.

So let's not just go around knocking remakes in general. They have a place in terms of modernizing and updating stories for a new audience, and can be great when done well. It's just that some movies shouldn't be remaid, either because they hold up perfectly fine, or because they just aren't well suited to a modern audience for one reason or the other.

But that doesn't mean that any remake is just a copy/paste job of the original. All of the ones that I listed brought their own unique visions to the screen, and thus stand on their own as great movies.

My point being that I don't like the "all remakes suck and shouldn't exist" argument. Instead, I feel that certain films are suited to remakes while others aren't. Thus, I can be intrigued by the notion of a SITS remake, but appalled by the notion of trying to redo Dumbo or Maleficent. The former makes sense because it's classic literature and much like a Shakespeare play, is open to multiple interpretations. The latter two, though, are specifically trying to emulate the Disney classic animated films into live-action, which just doesn't work.

Obviously good remakes have existed, but I'm not a fan of the concept in general, unless the original work didn't live up to its potential. And hell, sometimes remakes of great films can even surpass the original versions. I don't think all remakes suck, and will admit if one is good, but more often than not, they don't end up so well. For every The Ring, there are 10 Pulses.

Also, I actually agree that The Sword In The Stone could make a cool live action film, but aside from maybe Mulan (which will be hard to top, since it's one of my all-time favorite Disney films), the rest all sound like bad ideas to me.

Quote from: Foggle on July 26, 2015, 12:16:46 AM
Obviously good remakes have existed, but I'm not a fan of the concept in general, unless the original work didn't live up to its potential.

All that needs to be said.

I agree with you about the Disney remakes (and Mulan is one of my favorites as well), but was pointing out that the concept isn't inherently a bad one. It makes sense when it's done for a movie that can and arguably even should be updated.

And you can't really blame the concept of remakes based on all of the bad ones. That's the fault of bad directing, writing, or a combination of both along with other factors. I mean, if we're going to go by that logic, you could also say that about horror films. For every Exorcist or Evil Dead, I could just as well list you ten times as many crappy Ouijas or Halloween sequels. That doesn't mean that horror movies are a bad concept, obviously. I'm really glad that we got a movie like The Babadook last year, for example. There were a boat-load of shitty horror flicks in recent years as well, but it doesn't make the good ones any less great.

I pretty much view remakes in the same light. And of course I want more original content, but in modern Hollywood, it's a trend to recycle old ideas. In my case, I'd rather just celebrate the well done stuff rather than focus on what they got wrong.

Yeah, I don't usually rage against remakes. I do prefer original material, but I think the sheer volume Disney has already announced just made me really annoyed last night for some reason. :lol:

It's annoying me, too. I'm used to Hollywood being obsessed with remakes, since we so rarely get original ideas from the major studios anymore, but Disney is literally giving every idea they're offered a release date.

At the very least, we should be thankful Disney hasn't announced a Hunchback of Notre Dame High with Frollo as the bitter principal.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on July 26, 2015, 05:06:54 PMAt the very least, we should be thankful Disney hasn't announced a Hunchback of Notre Dame High with Frollo as the bitter principal.

Stop giving them ideas, man. :whuh:

y'no, that Descendants movie that just aired on Disney Channel was based off of a book, and in it, Frollo has a kid as well.

I think that might have been a step too far for the channel...

Cinderella was supposedly the one remake that actually tried, and was both a critical and commercial hit. If these remakes are going to be more in that vein, I'd be fine with it.

But giving Dumbo to Tim Burton? The man's recent output has not exactly been what you'd call impressive.

Live action Dumbo? I never want to see that...

They should do a realistic, live action take on Dumbo. That means no talking and no flying.

I'd be up for Dumbo if Burton treats it as a tribute to Ray Harryhausen.

I think he'd be down for that, but Disney probably wouldn't let him, though.

The early reviews for MI: Rogue Nation are really strong, so far. I'm super excited for the movie, myself. Ghost Protocol was excellent and really revitalized the franchise. This movie looks like it could be just as good, if not even better.

Seeing as how nobody else posted about it, this trailer has been up for about a week, now:

https://youtu.be/gnRbXn4-Yis

You know, it's kind of funny. Everyone seems to feel that pre-Death Proof Quentin Tarantino was much better, but I've personally found his post-Death Proof movies (though there's only two of them, so far) to be much more appealing, myself (and everybody hates Death Proof, itself).

For the first time ever, I'm actually interested to see a new QT movie and expect to actually enjoy it.

It looks fantastic.

I personally think QT is excellent all throughout his career. His highs to me are Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, and Django Unchained (plus True Romance, if it counts). I guess the folks who think he went downhill just don't like westerns.

RD is decent but it didn't do much for me. I've seen bits of Jackie Brown but I'm uninterested in it. Kill Bills are my favorites. I pretty much love Inglorious Basterds. I have not seen Django yet. I'm uninterested in watching Death Proof, after what I have heard and lastly, I am really interested in seeing all of True Romance. I love that movie's dialogue.

For me it's Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained (IB is actually my favorite of his, though).

Now that I'm older, I have respect and appreciation for his earlier stuff, but also feel a disconnect with the characters and styles of those films. Like, Kill Bill didn't really get me to care about whether The Bride got her revenge or not, whereas I was actually invested in Django's character.

Though, it's also possible that ass-hole film snobs who overhyped QT as the end-all, be-all of cinema had a lot to do with my initial backlash at the guy's filmography. Like I said, however, I don't hate it anymore like I used to, but his early stuff still hasn't really grown on me.

I still haven't seen Reservoir Dogs yet, though.

Anyways, as for this movie itself, it's another Western, and since I liked his last Western, I'm actually looking forward to this one.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 18, 2015, 10:06:58 PM
Though, it's also possible that ass-hole film snobs who overhyped QT as the end-all, be-all of cinema had a lot to do with my initial backlash at the guy's filmography.

Same here, definitely.

Meh

Kill Bill is his weakest in my eyes. The action is out of this world, but the story itself does nothing for me, and the Bride is the flat-ist protagonist this side of Katniss Everdeen.

I've actually grown to like Death Proof a little more each year, after being ambivalent to it at first. It's a pretty clever experiment, and it shows some of Tarantino's charms in writing character. It's still low-tier to me, but that doesn't necessarily make it a dud.

Kill Bill's probably my favorite mostly because I'm a sucker for seeing Japanese revenge flicks fused with Spaghetti Western. It was also my first Tarantino movie, so I might be a little biased there. Still remains a sore spot that Tarantino never went through with Volume 3.

I think of Grindhouse like this:

Planet Terror is the kind of movie people wanted to see when they went to a grindhouse film; Death Proof is the kind of movie they actually saw when they went to a grindhouse film.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on August 19, 2015, 12:07:24 PM
Kill Bill's probably my favorite mostly because I'm a sucker for seeing Japanese revenge flicks fused with Spaghetti Western. It was also my first Tarantino movie, so I might be a little biased there. Still remains a sore spot that Tarantino never went through with Volume 3.

You chose right. I'm a sucker for Lone Wolf And Cub and Lady Snowblood, myself. Also, didn't he say he wanted to wait until the actress of a certain character grows up...dear God, it's been 10 or so years, hasn't it? I'm getting old...

Quote from: Foggle on August 19, 2015, 02:36:20 PM
I think of Grindhouse like this:

Planet Terror is the kind of movie people wanted to see when they went to a grindhouse film; Death Proof is the kind of movie they actually saw when they went to a grindhouse film.

:D Lovely.

Has anyone seen The Jungle Book live-action trailer?

https://youtu.be/HcgJRQWxKnw

It honestly looks pretty good. And Jon Favreu has already done two good children/family films in his career, so he definitely has the experience and ability to pull this off.

Mind you, I'm also not a fan of the idea of Disney remaking most of their animated classics into live-action feature films, but keeping an open mind, I have to admit when a movie looks interesting, and this trailer at least makes it seem that way.

And, it's finally here: https://youtu.be/sGbxmsDFVnE

You know what I like the most about this trailer? It shows you lots of cool stuff WITHOUT spoiling ANY of the plot. It's bizarre that so many other trailers for big-budget blockbusters don't follow suit with this.

Yeah, the fact that this trailer doesn't spell out the plot is very refreshing. As someone who doesn't have strong feelings one way or another for Star Wars, the trailer does well to intrigue me about the content of the film and make me want to know more about it, incentivizing me to actually go see it, which I'd call pretty effective marketing, personally.

Spectre has already been released in the UK, even though we're still not getting it for another week. The reviews are looking to be good, but not excellent. It's around Age of Ultron's score on RT the last time I checked, and the reviews I've seen from letterboxd are a little mixed.

The reception seems to be that it's a solid addition to the 007 canon, even if it isn't as groundbreaking as Skyfall. But it still has to be better than Quantum of Solace.

I'll still be seeing it, anyways, but Skyfall is hard to top, and as far as this year goes, I think that Rogue Nation pretty much takes the title for best spy action movie.

Still, I've grown a tad weary of RT scores lately, so I'd rather judge the movie for myself.

I've seen movies in the 50's and 60's which I personally think are at least good, if not great (The Rocketeer, Ghostbusters II, The Last Samurai, Sinister, Desperado, etc.), as well as movies with 90+ ratings which I personally found to be massively overrated (Source Code, It Follows, etc.); which isn't to say that RT's ratings don't get it right (they do more often than not), but that they aren't the end-all, be-all of what your personal opinion has to be. I mean, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is "Certified Fresh" for one thing. It has an even higher rating than AOU....just think about that for a moment.

Heh, of course critics still hate on The Last Samurai...And they are straight up wrong about Desperado. :burn:

The Nice Guys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uteGvHOs16A)

Shane Black makes awesome movies, and this looks great as well. :drool:

Just a shame that he was kicked off Lethal Weapon after 2.

Quote from: Daikun on December 06, 2015, 06:01:32 AM
The Nice Guys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uteGvHOs16A)

Shane Black makes awesome movies, and this looks great as well. :drool:

Hahahaha, *adds to list*

If this (http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/622707-die-hard-6-planned-as-both-a-prequel-and-a-sequel) ends up being the plot for the final Die Hard movie, I actually think I'm really looking forward to it.

For one, bookending the series with John McClane looking back on his past and moving to the future is a good idea for the last movie in the series. Another is Len Wiseman as director is the best possible idea. He is the only one other than McTiernan that understood the Die Hard appeal, directing the fourth film, and would parallel the original trilogy which McTiernan directed the first and third but not the second film.

Also, it is a chance to have a '70s cop movie style Die Hard which hasn't been done yet. We've had 80s style with the original, 90s style with the third, and modern style with the fourth, so instead of repeating itself like 2 and 5 did, this is the best place to mine for new material. Not to mention it would be a good way to close off the family arc he's been in since movie 4. He has his son and daughter back, now he needs to reunite with his family together again and looking back to where it started might help.

To quash any doubts, back when 4 came out it was always the plan to end the series with 6 films. This will be the last Die Hard movie short of Hollywood ruining it with a reboot in three years or something. I hope the series gets the send off it deserves.

I can definitely see this be the last Die Hard with Bruce Willis. A reboot is sadly likely at some point, but at least Willis' interest in keeping his portrayal as John McClane alive has prevented any previous attempt from happening.

I still haven't seen the fifth, but I probably should before this one. I want to get the recent Nakamoto Tower set, but since it's going to be incomplete now, maybe I should hold off on that.

My top 10 most anticipated films of 2016.

10. The Disaster Artist- I'm really afraid of James Franco trying to be too ironic and that he'll make it hard to appreciate the disturbing brilliance of The Room, but it was between putting this, Finding Dory, or one of the DC movies on this list. And I am far more likely to see this in theaters. I just hope that he does a good Wiseau, and that his brother is believable as Greg Sestero.
9. Kubo and the Two Strings- Laika are one of the best animation studios around, and this looks like a strong addition to their canon. I'm pretty excited.
8. X-Men: Age of Apocalypse- This is a little lower, since I'm not a big Apocalypse fan, and the design that has been released for him was... yeah. But ever since Bryan Singer came back, the X-Men franchise has been on a roll. First Class was the kick in the pants that they needed, while The Wolverine was the solo Wolvie movie that he deserved, and Days of Future Past was a perfect blend between the old and new in the franchise. I can't wait to see what this adds.
7. Moana- To make up for skipping a WDAS feature i 2015 to have double the Pixar, we're getting two animated classics from the studio this year. this is coming from Musker & Clements, and if Hercules and Treasure Planet are the worst that they can do (don't you dare put Great Mouse Detective into that equation), I think that we're bound to have something good here from them. Their last princess movie was one of my favorites, and from what I've been gathering, this is shaping up to be nearly as special as Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Princess and the Frog.
6. Zootopia- I'm a little more excited for this, since the ad campaign for it has been pretty clever, and we haven't had a good animal-lead DAC since Lion King. Bolt was cute, but this is looking to be much better. I hope so, anyway.
5. Dr. Strange- I'm not crazy about having Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange, since it seems too obvious, and not necessarily in a good way. But considering that it's still a great character and that the MCU's only true misses thus far have been Iron Man 2 and AOS, I'm still pretty optimistic,
4. Untitled Wes Anderson Stop-Motion Movie- So I don't know if we're getting it this year or not, but he's a great filmmaker and his previous stop-motion film was out of this world. I sure hope that we get it soon.
3. Kung-Fu Panda 3- This is coming out pretty soon, and it's looking to be a great continuation of Dreamworks' first or second best franchise (it depends on where I feel like placing HTTYD that day). The marketing could use some help, though, since it seems to be falling under the radar heavily.
2. Deadpool- Even if it gets a little too kitschy for its own good, this is still going to be a lot of fun, and Ryan Reynolds seems to has Deadpool down. I just hope that the serious elements that makes the character whole isn't forgotten.
1. Captain America: Civil War- Duh.

Let's see:

Anticipating:

X-Men: Apocalypse- Great cast, and Bryan Singer has done right by this franchise every time he's involved with it

Deadpool- It just looks like a ton of fun

Captain America: Civil War- The third installment to the best superhero film series ever

Doctor Strange- Admittedly I know nothing about the character, but I think that Cumberbatch could make for an interesting lead, and I really like Scott Derickson's background as a horror director

Kung-Fu Panda 3- It looks pretty solid

Zootopia- This one has managed to pique my interest

The BFG- It has a very classic Spielberg vibe to it based on what I've heard and read about it so far

Rogue One- It might be interesting

The Jungle Book- This has a stellar cast, and Jon Favreau has proven that he can make great children's fantasy movies twice before

The Nice Guys- It looks like prime Shane Black material

Worried about:

Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad- DC's current track record doesn't exactly instill me with much confidence

Oh, and I forgot about this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8)

What a great combination of animation! Definitely interested.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on December 30, 2015, 12:07:08 PM
If this (http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/622707-die-hard-6-planned-as-both-a-prequel-and-a-sequel) ends up being the plot for the final Die Hard movie, I actually think I'm really looking forward to it.

For one, bookending the series with John McClane looking back on his past and moving to the future is a good idea for the last movie in the series. Another is Len Wiseman as director is the best possible idea. He is the only one other than McTiernan that understood the Die Hard appeal, directing the fourth film, and would parallel the original trilogy which McTiernan directed the first and third but not the second film.

Also, it is a chance to have a '70s cop movie style Die Hard which hasn't been done yet. We've had 80s style with the original, 90s style with the third, and modern style with the fourth, so instead of repeating itself like 2 and 5 did, this is the best place to mine for new material. Not to mention it would be a good way to close off the family arc he's been in since movie 4. He has his son and daughter back, now he needs to reunite with his family together again and looking back to where it started might help.

To quash any doubts, back when 4 came out it was always the plan to end the series with 6 films. This will be the last Die Hard movie short of Hollywood ruining it with a reboot in three years or something. I hope the series gets the send off it deserves.

I still need to read the comic. Whoa, I didn't think it would get acknowledged for a film plot. Now I need to pick it up. I do hope they tie in the family arc I've been hearing you talk about (still haven't watched past 3 myself.)

Was Live Free Or Die Hard really that good? I liked the 2nd Underworld movie but Wiseman seems like such a step down from McTiernan. Hopefully I can legally get my hands on the unrated version.

If they make Die Hard 6 good then I wouldn't mind a sequel or 2 starring the prequel actor.

Live Free or Die Hard was pretty good. I'd be lying if I said that it's up there with the first or third, but it's worth a viewing if you get the chance.

Live Free or Die Hard was a really good Die Hard movie. The sequence with the jet was a bit out there for this series, but everything else was classic John McClane in over his head action. Also the choice of making it a sort of techno thriller makes it way different than any of the others and the bad guys (like Olyphant) were pretty good threats.

Len Wiseman's work hasn't been to my style but with Live Free he went above his usual stuff and delivered a really good action movie. It's certainly much better than 2 was. And yes, get the unrated edition. I saw it in the cinema when it came out and the obvious cuts were the worst aspect of the movie.

Yippee Kiyay Mother--

:D Thanks. I'll definitely hunt that down whenever I can. I might marathon the series.

Oh dear. (http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=XAHprLW48no&start1=0&video2=w3ugHP-yZXw&start2=0&authorName=Ayarkhaan+Enemy)

Well, this explains a lot.

THE POWER OF PAIN COMPELS YOU! *Slap*

I can't wait to see if this will be yet another Fant4stic in the making.

Swing and a miss.

I've heard that Paul Feig is a talented director of comedy films. Perhaps he is, but even talented people can fuck up, and this looks like what probably happened here.

I do want to address the atrocious use of the "sexism" argument that some people use to defend any criticisms of this trailer. People are criticizing it because it's awful, and completely misses the point of what made the original Ghostbusters such a classic. It has nothing to do with the all-female cast (which I'm honestly indifferent to).

It looks genuinely awful, but then again, most trailers for comedy films suck. Not sure I'm willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, though; even if it ends up being a good movie, it's still fairly unnecessary, just like Ghostbusters 2 was. And if it's successful, I can already smell the stench of "Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe" looming on the horizon...

I might have been willing to give it the benefit of the doubt if the trailer didn't market it as a sequel to the old films (which it's totally not; it's part of a rebooted continuity). The fact that it straight up misleads you into thinking that reeks of desperation from the studio, and hints that the people behind the scenes have little to no faith in the project.

Quote from: Foggle on March 08, 2016, 09:18:13 PM
It looks genuinely awful, but then again, most trailers for comedy films suck. Not sure I'm willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, though; even if it ends up being a good movie, it's still fairly unnecessary, just like Ghostbusters 2 was. And if it's successful, I can already smell the stench of "Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe" looming on the horizon...

I still found Ghostbusters 2 highly enjoyable for what it was. I don't care what anyone else says. Just like Batman Returns, it may be flawed as a sequel, but it's still a fun movie.

Ghostbusters 2 was solid for what it was. This looks like, well, Pixels-style comedy. And that's not something I enjoy.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/419679-exclusive-paul-feig-confirms-ghostbusters-cinematic-universe-plans

I WAS FUCKING JOKING WHY IS THIS REAL

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on March 08, 2016, 09:24:16 PM
I might have been willing to give it the benefit of the doubt if the trailer didn't market it as a sequel to the old films (which it's totally not; it's part of a rebooted continuity). The fact that it straight up misleads you into thinking that reeks of desperation from the studio, and hints that the people behind the scenes have little to no faith in the project.

Absolutely. The trailer suffers from an identity crisis, as it seems to posture itself as both a reboot and a sequel simultaneously.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on March 08, 2016, 09:26:33 PM
I still found Ghostbusters 2 highly enjoyable for what it was. I don't care what anyone else says. Just like Batman Returns, it may be flawed as a sequel, but it's still a fun movie.

Hey, I like Ghostbusters 2! All I'm trying to say is that, even if this new one ends up being amazing, it still won't feel like it has much reason to exist.

And Batman Returns is a masterpiece. :P

Freaks & Geeks is cool, and I thought the half of Bridesmaids I watched was all right. Not really excited overall though.

I'm still humored over how they filmed part of the movie over here in Chinatown, but added more Chinese symbols all over the buildings because they thought Chinatown didn't look Chinese enough.

Quote from: Foggle on March 08, 2016, 09:31:23 PM
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/419679-exclusive-paul-feig-confirms-ghostbusters-cinematic-universe-plans

I WAS FUCKING JOKING WHY IS THIS REAL

You really didn't know?  :D

Amazing that Harold Ramis was trying to make Ghostbusters 3 for decades, then right after he dies they go all in with this dog's breakfast.

Just consider the game Ghostbusters 3 and move on. I already do.

The insistance of Hollywood on wanting to turn every major franchise into a cinematic universe is simultaneously hilarious and sad. It makes sense for Marvel and DC because the source material that they're adapting takes place in a shared continuity itself, and that connectivity between their heroes is actually important to certain story-lines that they want to tell.

It doesn't make sense, nor is it even interesting, to see other movies or series that were clearly meant to be stand-alone or linear affairs turn into expanded universes. I mean, I can kind of see Star Wars working this way since it takes place in such a large galaxy, and stuff like KOTOR, Jedi Knight, and the Thrawn Trilogy prove that an expanded lore can work if handled by good writers. But on the other side of the spectrum, why is Disney trying to force an expanded Universe of classic fairy-tale Disney characters down our throats? Who the hell asked for something like that in the first place? And the only classic Universal monster crossovers that I ever wanted to see happened more than half a century ago with the Abbott and Costello movies. I don't need to see anything beyond that.

Right, Marvel and DC - even Star Wars and X-Men - those all make sense. But you can't expect to replicate that success, either commercially or creatively, with just any series... if it feels forced, it's all over. Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe is a truly horrible idea, and Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe is even worse.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 08, 2016, 09:36:06 PM
You really didn't know?  :D

I probably just forgot, to be honest. I don't have the best memory. :(

I'm just waiting for the producers to say screw it and mine Real Ghostbusters or Extreme Ghostbusters scripts for some on-the-fly spinoff film.

Quote from: Foggle on March 08, 2016, 09:31:23 PM
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/419679-exclusive-paul-feig-confirms-ghostbusters-cinematic-universe-plans

I WAS FUCKING JOKING WHY IS THIS REAL

:light: ! I thought you knew!

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on March 08, 2016, 09:33:45 PM
Freaks & Geeks is cool, and I thought the half of Bridesmaids I watched was all right. Not really excited overall though.

I'm still humored over how they filmed part of the movie over here in Chinatown, but added more Chinese symbols all over the buildings because they thought Chinatown didn't look Chinese enough.

:whuh:

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on March 08, 2016, 09:51:46 PM
I'm just waiting for the producers to say screw it and mine Real Ghostbusters or Extreme Ghostbusters scripts for some on-the-fly spinoff film.

:o I'd love that!!

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on March 08, 2016, 09:13:25 PM
I've heard that Paul Feig is a talented director of comedy films. Perhaps he is, but even talented people can fuck up, and this looks like what probably happened here.

I do want to address the atrocious use of the "sexism" argument that some people use to defend any criticisms of this trailer. People are criticizing it because it's awful, and completely misses the point of what made the original Ghostbusters such a classic. It has nothing to do with the all-female cast (which I'm honestly indifferent to).

I also liked how people complained about the racism because of the way the black girl acted. Well, my memories of Ghostbusters are spotty at best, but I don't remember Winston being that much of a racial stereotype like what her's face was in this trailer. Token, I'll concede that point, but tokens and stereotypes are 2 different things. Also that and I saw people complain that she wasn't scientist, (Which does fall in line with the fact that Winston wasn't a scientist himself, he was just some average Joe looking for a job "If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.") Even the actress went out of her way to say people would have complained about it if she was the wrong kind of scientist.

Really, it's kinda like Annie and Fantastic 4 2.0, where people hide behind the claims of racism/sexism thinking that will deflect any/most of the common criticism that wasn't based on race/gender/etc. of the people involved.

Quote from: Daxdiv on March 09, 2016, 05:53:30 PM
I also liked how people complained about the racism because of the way the black girl acted. Well, my memories of Ghostbusters are spotty at best, but I don't remember Winston being that much of a racial stereotype like what her's face was in this trailer. Token, I'll concede that point, but tokens and stereotypes are 2 different things. Also that and I saw people complain that she wasn't scientist, (Which does fall in line with the fact that Winston wasn't a scientist himself, he was just some average Joe looking for a job "If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.") Even the actress went out of her way to say people would have complained about it if she was the wrong kind of scientist.

The new movie isn't exactly racist, but in terms of stereotypes, Patty's portrayal certainly feels like a huge step back from Winston's in the first two films... which were made in the 80's. Not only was Winston not a racial caricature, it's important to remember that in the original Ghostbusters script, before the studio diminished his role in the film, Winston was not only a scientist but also the smartest character, and the recent video game confirmed that he did indeed have a PhD of his own. While Patty would fit right in in an Adam Sandler movie, Aykroyd & Ramis' intended version of Winston would actually have been an exceptionally progressive character for 1984. And I mean, even if one didn't find stereotypes in the trailer eyebrow-raising, could they really argue that "AWW HELL NAW" wasn't one of the absolute worst parts of it? This character somehow looks like the worst part of a 1980's comedy reboot that also features Kristen Wiig. That's no small feat.

I just saw the international trailer for the new Ghostbusters and Jesus Christ, it's almost as bad as the first one. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8Lt02D6xno) I loved how they changed "Four Scientist" to "Four Friends" and that crowd surfing scene with Patty. Wew Lad.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 08, 2016, 09:36:06 PM

Quote from: Foggle on March 08, 2016, 09:31:23 PM
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/419679-exclusive-paul-feig-confirms-ghostbusters-cinematic-universe-plans

I WAS FUCKING JOKING WHY IS THIS REAL

You really didn't know?  :D

Amazing that Harold Ramis was trying to make Ghostbusters 3 for decades, then right after he dies they go all in with this dog's breakfast.

Just consider the game Ghostbusters 3 and move on. I already do.

Yeah, the video game WAS Ghostbusters 3. Murry and Ramis are in it with the others, its all you need. This was likely pushed forward because of Amy Paschal, because she thinks it will be a smash simply because they cast women in it. Well, problem is if this fails it just might well cause a lot of actually good female led movies to fall by the wayside. Hollywood always plays the blame game.

I sense a Capcom-style response if this movie fails. The studio will blame it on the female cast, rather than acknowledge that people just don't want to pay to watch a shitty movie.

I wonder how much the game costs now..

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on March 13, 2016, 09:54:44 PM
I sense a Capcom-style response if this movie fails. The studio will blame it on the female cast, rather than acknowledge that people just don't want to pay to watch a shitty movie.

Exactly, the other sad thing is a number of idiot clickbait journalists will suck up by writing out pretentious pieces about how sexist society is when its because they don't like crappy movies.



The biggest thing that ticks me off is they had a golden opportunity for a truly "inclusive" film by adapting Extreme Ghostbusters. That cartoon was great and despite only one season it was a worthy successor to The Real Ghostbusters. An already diverse cast of characters; none of whom were stereotypes whatsoever. There were plenty of episodes that could have been stretched out into a plot for the big screen.




Oh well, just have to hope that the movie will be good despite the trailers. If not, hopefully the right people get fired over it. Sony's movie department were not doing so well last I heard.

I loved Extreme Ghostbusters. I need to watch Real and finish Extreme and pretend that the new Ghostbusters does not exist.

So, the early reviews for The Jungle Book are extremely positive. While I'm sure that the Tomato score will go down at least a little if not a lot by the time that the movie comes out, it's usually a pretty good sign if a film's first 15 reviews are all positive, and the positive reviews do genuinely praise the film, rather than basically indicating that it's merely passable.

I'm glad to see that people like the movie, because I was one of the few people genuinely interested in and excited for this movie when I heard that Jon Favreu was directing it, and after seeing the initial trailers. Jon Favreu has had a fantastic track record with children and family movies (Elf, Zathura, and Chef; Iron Man could also count as a family movie to some extent), so seeing him go back to arguably his best style of film made me confident that we could at least get an entertaining product. I'm not a fan of the other live-action Disney movie adaptations of their animated classics (Cinderella was OK for what it was, but not really my cup of tea), but this one looks like it's up my alley.

I low key swore off Disney's reinterpretations of their classics after Alice in Wonderland, but this is looking to be better than most. Not bad at all!

I love the Jungle Book, both the book and animated movie, so I've been looking forward to seeing this ever since the first trailers came out and showed a lot of promise. I'm glad it's getting positive reviews. If the RT score holds strong then I might even see it go see it opening weekend.

So Dark Troopers, Grand Admiral, Donnie Yen, Mon Mothma, etc. Rogue One already looks hype.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on April 07, 2016, 04:05:41 PM
So Dark Troopers, Grand Admiral, Donnie Yen, Mon Mothma, etc. Rogue One already looks hype.

:SHOCK:

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing Christopher Walken singing I Wan'na Be Like You on the big screen. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15rUJuKCM90)

While the concept of a Hasbro Cinematic Universe sounds really stupid, hiring Michael Chabon and Brian K Vaughan is raising my curiosity. (http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/hasbro-movie-universe/40130/hasbro-movie-universe-writers-room-revealed)

The latter gained my attention.

I'd still feel more comfortable with 5 animated series of G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K., and ROM, that wrap into each other as a bigger universe. I just think animation would work better, but if it turns out good, then cool.

Is it just me, or is there no hype for the new Star Trek at all?

Maybe it's just me, since I thought that Into Darkness was such a dumb, lifeless retread of Wrath of Khan that it killed my interest in the AU. But aside from the Sulu controversy, I haven't heard much of anything about Beyond.

Into Darkness utterly killed all hype. It feels like everyone turned on the reboot series when that one came out.

I suppose Anton Yelchin's death so soon before the premiere killed off some of the excitement from the cast, thought a lot of the AU hype in general seems to have died thanks to Into Darkness and because of Fuller's new series.

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi0.wp.com%2Fbitcast-a-sm.bitgravity.com%2Fslashfilm%2Fwp%2Fwp-content%2Fimages%2Fjohn-wick-2-poster.jpg&hash=1d0c53bd7f0faa09900cc408ce012296672c788c)

Yeah....I'm thinking he's back. :shakeshakeshake:

Hype: http://youtu.be/nMqETeQrgqU

Everything I'm seeing about the Power Rangers movie makes me want to see it more and more. I felt that way even before the trailer. Now thanks to it I want to see it opening day!

Not sure if its been mentioned in this thread, but I am interested in seeing Silence. Its the new Scorcese film (which he apparently has wanted to do since the 90's) and is based on a novel by the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. I haven't read the book (yet), but the premise, revolving around the prosecution of Christians in 17th Century Japan and focusing on the attempt of two Portugese priests to find out what happened to their mentor, has me intrigued.

I've read the book, and it's really deep and meditative. I'm not quite sure how he'll make it work as a film, but it's worth trying.

As for me, there isn't much I'm looking forward to. Doctor Strange and John Wick Chapter 2 are at the top of my list.

As for films coming out next year, I'd say that John Wick Chapter 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are pretty high-profile for me.

La La Land looks really different from Whiplash, but I'm willing to give anything he's doing a shot after how good that was. And from what I've been hearing, it looks like this does a good job of hitting the classic musical aesthetic, so I'm excited. Arrival looks pretty good, too.

But besides those, I'll be there for the new Marvel stuff and Moana.

My top 10 most anticipated movies of 2017 so far:

10. Murder on the Orient Express
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Kong: Skull Island
7. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
6. Thor: Ragnarok
5. Dunkirk
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
3. Logan
2. War for the Planet of the Apes
1. John Wick: Chapter 2

For next year, I'm definitely excited for the Marvel stuff, including Logan, and Coco. But I'm not even sure about that, since Pixar doing a musical seems weird, and the last time they tried something better suited by Disney (a princess story), it didn't go that well.

I almost put Isle of Dogs on my list, but apparently that's a 2018 film. Still, it's cool to see Wes Anderson do stop-motion again.

Just for fun, let's see how my most anticipated movies of 2016 came out.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2016, 05:01:30 PM
10. The Disaster Artist

Didn't come out, and I'm still unsure about it. I didm't end up seeing the DC movies, but I did get to Finding Dory. It was meh IMO.

Quote9. Kubo and the Two Strings

This might be my favorite Laika movie, and it's not easy competition to begin with. I do wish the voice cast wasn't so white-washed, but it's such a great story, and I love how the antagonist was resolved.

Quote8. X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

I was right to be suspicious. This is Singer's worst X-Men movie to date, and while it's not the worst thing the franchise has done, in hindsight, there's more that I dislike about it than appreciate. I'm still getting the yearbook edition for Christmas, though.[/quote]

Quote7. Moana

A really good second hit from a one-two punch from Disney this year. I really hope that Moana stands among the great princesses in the years to come.

Quote6. Zootopia

As much as I liked the other two animated movies from this list, this might be my favorite film of the year, period. I wasn't expecting it to have such a strong social platform, and to refuse to let its characters be generalized in any way. I really admire that. And it's quite funny, too.

Quote5. Dr. Strange

This turned out pretty okay. Probably the first time that I regret not seeing a movie in 3D, but there wasn't too much special about it plotwise. But I mean, if this is middle-of-the-road Marvel, I think they're doing fine.

Quote4. Untitled Wes Anderson Stop-Motion Movie

Two more years to go.

Quote3. Kung-Fu Panda 3

This one came and went pretty quickly, which is a shame, since it was a good one. I like how both of Po's dads get plenty of time in this entry, and the way it could nicely wrap up the franchise. These movies need more love.

Quote2. Deadpool

This turned out to be everything a fan of the character could ask for and more. I'm grateful that it found a market, and will hopefully shake up not just the X franchise, but comic book movies as a whole

Quote1. Captain America: Civil War

This wasn't my favorite Marvel movie like I was expecting it to be, but it's a damn fine way to start off Phase 3, and it arguably did more damage to the characters than any of their previous movies. You gotta give it props for that.

Mainly, I appreciate that the first films that are following it focus on characters who weren't involved with Civil War much at all, since they need time to breath. I do wish that Spider-Man didn't get fast-tracked so heavily, but hey, if it's good...

Overall, this was a good year for movies. I thought 2015 was actually kind of disappointing, but there was good everywhere. It's getting harder to decide what movies can stay for my list, as opposed to last year, when I was struggling to come up with enough good ones.

With the exception of Moana, which I haven't seen yet, I pretty much agree with your opinions on all of your other picks.

As for Marvel movies, I'm looking forward to all of them this year, which is surprising since two of them are capping off trilogies to solo series that I didn't really care for to begin with. Well, actually I enjoyed the first Thor well enough, but The Dark World didn't really do anything for me in retrospect. That said, all of the talent and early promotional material behind Ragnarok has been so good so far that I'm already getting excited for this movie. It seems like it'll be a huge step up from the last movie. Likewise, I didn't care for either solo Wolverine movies, but what I've seen and heard about Logan so far has done a phenomenal amount to win me over. Add to that the fact that James Mangold, who did the excellent 3:10 to Yuma remake, is behind this movie, and you have the recipe for something truly excellent, IMO.

I really want Logan to be good, since I need to see proof of Michael Green being a competent and talented screenwriter, given his ties to American Gods and Y: The Last Man. And what I've seen in his filmography thus far doesn't give me a lot of hope.

He's also on board for Murder on the Orient Express, so I should also get to that one, although I wasn't a big fan of the 70's film.

I'm a fan of the original novel, and Kenneth Branagh being attached to the film is what interests me about it.

I guess my most anticipated movies of next year would be:

10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - GOTG is one of my favorite MCU films so I'm expecting this to be a good time. I'm not "excited" for it because nothing in the trailers has shown me anything that I'm actively looking forward to, but either way this film being good should be a safe bet.

9. Wonder Woman - I know I shouldn't have my hopes up for any of the DC films at this point, but the trailers for this look good and I know I'll want to see it. WW was due for a solo film and I'm hoping this'll be the one she deserves.

8. Captain Underpants - The book series was my obsession as a kid so I know I have to see this when it comes out. Hopefully it's actually good, but either way it's just kind of satisfying to see this series, something I had a lot of fun and fondness for in my childhood, get a film adaptation after all this time.

7. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable - Takashi Miike directing, quite a few good actors involved; some might be skeptical that JoJo's could work in live-action, but with the talent behind this project and the effort they're taking to capture the feel of the series as much as possible going so far to shoot in a town in Italy that looks like Morioh, I think this will turn out really well.

6. Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel - I think this is finally coming out next year. I've been waiting for this for a long time and have heard universally good things about the route these films are adapting, so I'm expecting much from it. At the very least I'm sure it'll be much better than UBW was.

5. Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You! - The second "Mezase Pokemon Master" started playing I knew I had to watch this. A film remaking the Kanto stuff is going to be pure nostalgia pandering and I know it, but goddamn if watching that beautiful-looking trailer and hearing "Mezase" didn't get me excited for it.

4. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions - Technically this is a 2016 film but it's coming out in the U.S. next month. Like the Pokemon film, this is going to be a big load of nostalgia-pandering, but darn if it won't be a good looking and exciting one. I've been actively looking forward to seeing it for a while now, which reminds me I should preorder my tickets for it pretty soon.

3. Despicable Me 3 - The Despicable Me films are all solid fun and this one should be no exception, especially with Trey Parker playing the villain.

2. Fist Fight - Saw the trailer for this recently and it looks like it'll be a really funny, fun film. I wouldn't be interested in a movie like this if Charlie Day wasn't the lead, but because he is I'm sure I'll get some great laughs out of this flick.

1. The Lego Batman Movie - The Lego Movie was great, and Lego Batman was great in it, and this looks like it'll be just as fun as that movie was. I enjoyed everything I've seen from the trailers and am most actively looking forward to watching it more than any other movie on my radar for next year so far.

I'm excited for Episode VIII because I want to see what Rian Johnson brings to the table. I loved Brick, Looper, and his Breaking Bad episodes, and given how Disney encouraged Gareth Edwards to go darker for Rogue One instead of telling him what not to do, I'm interested at how Johnson will approach the series.

Hopefully we won't get 3 disappointing Thor movies in a row.

Also, for those wondering, Alien: Covenant is on my radar, and I like the trailer, but I'm still a bit skeptical until I see the finished product. I'm still excited for it, though, and really hope that it's good.

I knocked that one off of my list when I learned that it's a direct sequel to Prometheus, which added the Alien title as a cash grab.

I don't even hate Prometheus- I still need to see it, so I won't get to this until then.

For all of its flaws, I actually quite liked Prometheus. I don't believe that it deserves near as much hate as it gets. But I'm still skeptical about this movie because of the hit or miss nature of the Alien franchise. I genuinely hope that it's great. But this is also a franchise that allowed movies like Alien 3 and Resurrection to happen.

I'm not interested in anything Alien unless they take the hint and retcon everything after Aliens already. I'm guessing that's the reason everything they've made are prequels recently. It could be worse. Honestly though, I'm just not interested in the prequels at all.

As for next year, there re only a few films I'm interested in. John Wick Chapter 2, GOTG Vol. 2, and Coco, are my top 3. Other ones I'm keeping an eye on are Spider-Man and Kong.

I guess somebody wanted another Big Fat Liar movie? (https://youtu.be/29_Yq9MVPF0) A movie I've heard nobody talk about in the past 15 years?

So in light of Ridley Scott's confusing plan to make six more Alien movies, I'm thinking "Why doesn't he just make an Alien show if he supposedly has enough ideas to fill 12 hours?" The average SF television budget means they can afford a bunch of Xenomorph costumes. Why doesn't he go that route?

I'm kind of interested in getting to Covenant soon. I do want to see Prometheus first, but the next chance I get to go home, where we have $6.50 movie tickets, I might just take that chance anyway. I'm not really dying to see it, though, but the reviews make me curious.

But there's a lot coming up that really excites me. Baby Driver most of all. Edgar Wright's track record is enough to stoke me, but everything else I've seen about the film, including the soundtrack (Danger Mouse AND Run the Jewels on a track together?????) has me extremely excited.

I'm also interested in checking out Free Fire, even if it looks pretty superficial. But I've heard it described as Tarantino writing an episode of Archer, which is too much of a me thing to pass on. And there's nothing wrong with being a little superficial.

Then It Comes at Night also looks pretty cool. The concept just seems great, and I'm always up for a good horror film. Not that we've been lacking for good horror, since I feel that this decade has been pretty on-point. At least with independent studios. The big ones don't seem to know what to do- torture porn's hey day went almost as quickly as it came, audiences aren't interested in slasher remakes, and while some of the new tentpoles they've been trying have been bringing in crowds, diehard horror fans aren't keeping stuff like The Purge or Paranormal Activity anywhere near icon status, at least compared to Freddy, Jason, or even Jigsaw. There seems to be a disconnect between the big studios and horror fans, while the indies have been coming up with great ideas, a lot of them using social commentary to its best possible usage to create memorable works.

And I also want to check out The Big Sick. I can't recall the last time I've been interested in an Apatow production, but the early reviews have my interest, and I feel like a good rom com is something we can all use every now and then. My one worry is that this seems to continue Apatow's biggest problem- his movies always run a bit too long. They usually hit the 2 hour mark, and this is no exception, but that's just a bit too long to be in his character's world. Usually a good amount of fat comes from the last third, which spends a little too much time trying to wrap everything up, but no matter how funny some of the actors' improv can be, there's always just a little more than needs to exist.

That's about it, but I will say that I'm surprised by how decent Wonder Woman and Cars 3 have looked from what I've seen. I might end up going to either of those as well.

In terms of horror from big studios, I'd say that directors like James Wan and Scott Derrickson have a pretty good handle on the genre, but yeah, most others are pretty standard and uninspired. The Babadook is still probably my favorite horror movie of the decade so far, and that was made for a fraction of the budget of any big studio film in the genre.

That said, I am cautiously interested in seeing the It remake. On the one hand if I hadn't read the book a couple of years ago I probably wouldn't care, but I'd be interested to see a more faithful adaptation of the source material, which is admittedly pretty difficult to translate from the page to the screen, so obviously some liberties HAVE to be taken. Obviously I'm not happy about Cary Fukunaga walking out of the project, and turning down the Duffer brothers as directors may have been a bad decision in hindsight (though to be fair, that was before they had made Stranger Things). That said, I've heard that they are still retaining most of Fukunaga's original script, and while I'm not a fan of Mama, I found that the director's visual style and editing was pretty on point, with the writing and acting in that film being what weakened it for me. The previews that we've gotten for this movie so far have actually been surprisingly good, which is why I'm cautiously optimistic but still somewhat skeptical that the film might actually be good.

Also, yeah, Baby Driver. Definitely seeing that on day one.

So, this weekend will be pretty interesting for me since I have a bit of a tough decision to make. Two movies that I really want to watch will both be coming out on the same day at my theater, The Disaster Artist and The Shape of Water. The thing is I can only really make time for one movie this weekend, and then I won't really have a chance to see the other for quite some time due to scheduling issues with both work and life obligations. I will be on vacation visiting my family back in New Jersey later and already have plans to see Star Wars with my older brother, but aside from that I won't get another chance to go to the movies until January when my daily routine returns to normal.

Of course I will end up seeing both movies, but the question is which one do I watch now and witch can wait until next month? Right now I'm kind of leaning towards The Shape of Water for two primary reasons: one being that hearing so many people claim that it's Del Toro's best film since Pan's Labyrinth has me incredibly excited given how much I admire that film, and the other being that it is clearly geared at a more niche audience and may have a limited theatrical run at my local theater,  whereas TDA is sure to last for much longer being driven by much bigger names with more star power.

But I'm still not completely sure yet.

Dude, see Disaster Artist. It shouldn't be a debate even in your own mind to see it first.

It kind of is for the reason mentioned above, being that I'm not sure how long my theater will keep The Shape of Water running (and in general it's being played at far less theaters in my area). I do want to see The Disaster Artist as well, but hearing all of the positive buzz for Del Toro's newest picture has me incredibly tempted as well since I fucking love Pan's Labyrinth and this may possibly be that return to his former style that I (and many others) have been waiting for a long time to see again.

I'm sure the movie will be good, but I'm disappointed Franco didn't go for Sestero's dream cast for a Disaster Artist movie. (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1nbna6/oh_hai_mark_greg_sestero_mark_from_the_room_here/cch4uib/) All the footage I've seen so far of himself as Tommy don't feel on the mark.

I noticed that Franco doesn't even attempt for the accent, which isn't that bad of a thing. It's easy to copy, but not as easy to successfully nail, so it might be for the best.

Now's as good of a time as ever to do a top 10 most anticipated for 2018.

10- A Wrinkle in Time- I remember reading and enjoying the book way back when, but I'm mainly excited because I think Ava DuVernay is an insanely talented director, and I like seeing Disney make a live-action movie that isn't a remake of their animated classics or a standard sports picture. It's worth supporting for that alone, but it also earns a slot since the trailer's pretty good.
9- Incredibles 2- I'm a little worried about this one. Pixar has yet to impress with a non-toy related sequel, and the teaser was only so-so imo. But I have faith in Brad Bird finding the right story, and I like the idea of Helen being in the lead this time. Unlike Finding Dory and the Cars sequels, I'll be there opening day.
8- Wreck-It Ralph 2- I ranked this one a little higher since it's a little less removed from time than Incredibles, and honestly, it has just as much if not more feel for a sequel than that one. But I am a little worried too. I want more of Ralph and Vanellope, not just princess in-jokes, y'no?
7- Ant-Man & the Wasp- The first Ant-Man frankly worked better than it should have, despite the higher-ups altering what could have been a fun romp through the MCU, Wright style. It definitely felt a little corporate, and there was no reason that Hope shouldn't have had the suit. But it made up for that with a game Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, a heist story that helped to make the MCU formula not feel as tired, and Michael Pena. I'm hoping that this fixes what was wrong with the last one, and doesn't run what did work into the ground. We'll see, but there's a reason that this is the lowest ranking of the three MCU flicks.
6- Deadpool 2- We also have 3 Xverse movies this year, which is a first. After the blahness of Apocalypse, I don't have much faith in Phoenix, especially since the writer of The Last Stand is back on board. The first Deadpool was a sign that for the X-Men franchise to stay alive and be relevant, it needs to venture away from the PG-13 comic book movie cliches it's been adhering to for almost 2 decades. But it also wasn't the perfect Deadpool venture imo- it felt too much like a routine origin story, even as much as the film was mocking said routine. Hopefully this will continue into the sharp madness that the character at his best is capable of. Or it'll become another problematic bore that a depressing amount of comedic sequels have been falling into lately.
5- New Mutants- That said, this is the Xverse movie I'm most excited for. A horror movie for this particular set of characters could work wonders, and prove that Deadpool and Logan were no flukes. My only reservation is that I'm tired of the 80's Spielberg/Stranger Things aesthetic, which, while this isn't miming 100%, isn't too far off from.
4- Avengers: Infinity War- This one is a no-brainer. I'm not the hugest Russo brothers fan, but they have the writers behind the Cap movies behind them, who I fully support. Bring it on.
3- Black Panther- The MCU film I'm most excited for, possibly ever? Ryan Cooglar wowed me twice over with Fruitvale Station and Creed, and I'd be down for whatever he did next. There is not one frame I have not loved of this from what I've seen. Frankly, I'm surprised that this is only third for me, but I'll get to the other two.
2- Isle of Dogs- What can I say, I love Wes Anderson, and I especially loved his last attempt at animation. It's surprising that he went back to stop-motion after gaining the nominations he's deserved for years with his last film, but I'm not complaining. This looks to be equally as enjoyable, if not moreso, than Fantastic Mr. Fox, so bring it on.
1- Mary Poppins Returns- This is my most cautious release of next year. Mary Poppins isn't just any regular old movie to me. It's the spirit of Walt Disney encompassed in one feature. Only the two American Magic Kingdoms are able to compare in how much of his passion and ability to bring magic out of everyone he meets are in this film. Making a sequel is a daunting task, especially with a new cast, primarily a new Mary Poppins. And what if Emily Blunt is the new face of her, taking Julie Andrews away from the minds of younger audiences? But I can't not see it. And not be heavily critical of it. Possibly over and over again. Maybe I'll eventually get to love it nearly as much as the original, if it's possible.

I dread it, but no other film will match it for me in terms of importance for next year.

So, I wasn't quite sure where to post this, and it may be somewhat old news by this point, but apparently Quentin Tarantino is currently in talks to direct a new Star Trek film (http://deadline.com/2017/12/quentin-tarantino-star-trek-r-rating-mark-l-smith-the-revenant-drew-pearce-lindsay-beer-jj-abrams-1202222161/amp/).

I don't know if I really like this idea or not, but I'm also not 100% expecting it to make it past development hell.

Oh yeah, I remember there was an interview where he said he really wanted to adapt Yesterday's Enterprise into a film.

Transformers looks so weird without Michael Bay. (https://youtu.be/fAIX12F6958)

StarScream is the main villain?


SOLD!!!!!  :shakeshakeshake: :shakeshakeshake: :shakeshakeshake:

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on June 05, 2018, 01:12:21 PM
Transformers looks so weird without Michael Bay. (https://youtu.be/fAIX12F6958)

I'll give it a try.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgNjrF1X0AA1Ogq.jpg)

Here's to hoping Terminator 6 won't be as bad as Genisys.

So with this movie bringing Linda Hamilton back, does that confirm that Terminator 3 and Salvation have now been completely retconned out of canon? I haven't bothered to watch Genisys (nor do I plan to) so I can't speak for that movie's continuity.

All the recent Terminator installments have been attempts to make a new Terminator 3 instead of following up on each other. Salvation pretended that it didn't happen, and the only vague connection was that John's wife vaguely resembled Claire Danes from the third movie. Sarah Connor Chronicles (whose creator is working on this new film) retconned T3 but then said "Oh yeah, Sarah would have died of cancer like she would have in the third movie if she stayed in her timeline". And Genisys, for all its lunacy, actually did something clever in making Skynet mutated by all these retcons and alternate timelines that it goes insane and throws paradoxes into Sarah's timeline just to maintain its hold. But that leads to Genisys getting into a situation where none of the prior movies are in its continuity because of how broken the time stream is.

So uh, Idris Elba as Bond. On the one hand, it sounds like a good fit. On the other, isn't he a little too, well, famous and busy to play him?

And Danny Boyle left due to creative differences. Lame.

And it turns out the reason he left was because he refused to kill off James Bond. (https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/26/danny-boyle-quit-james-bond-movie-over-plans-to-kill-him-off-7883996/) What?

Not really an anticipated movie on my part but I couldn't figure out where else to post this: Detective Pikachu trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM).

Honestly, it's so surreal hearing Deadpool's voice coming out of Pikachu. Like, it's literally just the Deadpool voice, with no alteration whatsoever. I know I should probably comment on the trailer itself, but all I can think about is how Deadpool 3 is just going to replace all of the Green Lantern jokes with Pokemon jokes.

A live-action Pokemon movie, especially a gritty one about detectives, has been something I've simultaneously always and never wanted to see for years. I await this film with both anticipation and dread.

Now seems like a good time to check out my top 10 most anticipated films from last year. How did they live up to my hype?

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
10- A Wrinkle in Time

I ended up sitting this one out due to its poor reception. It sounds like the kind of movie that I would've really liked at 8, even if it didn't make a lick of sense, but not as much as someone pushing 28. But I'll probably get to it at some point, and I am rooting for Ava DuVernay- I actually just rewatched Selma since it first came out, and it stands leaps and bounds above most biopics I can think of. Let's hope New Gods works better for her.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
9- Incredibles 2

I really liked this one, although I am definitely growing weary of Disney and Pixar's constant need for a twist villain. It does get points for not being a buddy comedy and adding a tired sob factor in though, which only Brad Bird seems to get away with.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
8- Wreck-It Ralph 2

I was getting a little worried about this one, but I ended up still quite liking it. You could've easily cut out the princess scenes and lose nothing of value imo, but it had a surprisingly graceful take on toxic internet culture, and a mature take on friendships going separate ways? It worked a lot better than anticipated. Also, while it's still a buddy comedy, there's no twist villain this time, so points for that!

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
7- Ant-Man & the Wasp

I enjoyed this as much as the first, which is fine but not something I intend to come back to or really need more of. They didn't fix what was broken, or much of what was for that matter. Still, I do admire how small scale the stakes were here. It feels like every one of these movies go bigger and bigger, so I like that nothing escapes San Francisco here. Not everything needs to be the end of the world.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
6- Deadpool 2

More or less the best possible sequel I could have hoped for. The jokes were funnier, the action stronger, the dramatic elements landed better, and the new characters mostly worked. I can't wait to see more of Cable and Domino, especially if they replace whatever TJ Miller was going to do in it. Let's just hope this defies the law of averages and they go 3 for 3.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
5- New Mutants

So yeah, this one took the year off along with Phoenix. I don't think it's going to make my list for this year though, since it sounds like they're toning it down a bit.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
4- Avengers: Infinity War

I found this one slightly overhyped, too much of a part one for the end game we're getting this spring. But to call it a misfire would be a mistake. No matter how formulaic and commercial it gets, I'm still MCU trash, and I'd still eat up a dozen more of these.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
3- Black Panther

Did we overpraise this one when it came out? Maybe. But I'm still on the film's side. Killmonger is the best comic book movie villain since Heath's Joker (speak of another overpraised comic book movie), and is part of a terrific ensemble both on and offscreen. I was slowly moving away from the hype, but I'm actually getting goosebumps thinking about the film again.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
2- Isle of Dogs

This one I was disappointed in. It felt a little more empty than some of Anderson's other films, almost all ambition and not nearly as much charm. But it is technically flawless, some of the best stop-motion animation this side of Laika.

Quote from: Avaitor on December 06, 2017, 11:01:24 PM
1- Mary Poppins Returns

I liked it. I didn't love it. I'll delve into more later, probably.

I agree with you on most of those movies, though I'd say that Infinity War met the hype (personally my favorite superhero movie of the year), Isle of Dogs didn't feel empty to me in the slightest (I actually find it refreshing to have another animated movie that's meant more for adults than kids) and personally it's my favorite movie of the year, and I thought that The Incredibles 2 was just alright (though, in fairness, I never outright loved the original, either).

And now, my top 10 of 2019:

10- Frozen 2- Yes, the hype was annoying. Yes, the first one wasn't that good, and the shorts are meh cashgrabs. Yes, we don't really need a sequel. But I do still like the film, and I'm at least more curious about this than the remakes Disney has planned for this year.
9- Toy Story 4- Speaking of a sequel I don't 100% see the need for, but will be there opening day regardless. And it's funny, while the third was my favorite for a while, nowadays I prefer the loving simplicity and charm of the first. I doubt we're going back to this, but it'll be nice to see Bo Peep again I guess.
8- How to Train Your Dragon 3- A sequel I'm definitely more interested in, although I just know Toothless is going to leave Hiccup, and idk if I'm ready to see that. Still, the first two were as good as Dreamworks gets, and if this is nearly as good as those, I'm stoked.
7- Missing Link- But this is where my money is currently going animation wise. Laika does it better than anyone else currently in the game, and while this is looking like another Boxtrolls as opposed to a Kubo, there's nothing wrong with a lighter film here and there. Especially if it means this gets to be the one that goes big for them.
6- Us- I'm a little worried about us putting all of our eggs in the basket for Jordan Peele just for Get Out to be a fluke, but this definitely sounds interesting enough for me to come with open arms. Let's do it!
5- Spider-Man: Far From Home- This is more or less ranked third because of a coin toss, and also because second parts haven't proven to be the MCU's strong suit (Cap's is the closest to an improvement that I can think of, parts of Dark World and Ultron aside). I really liked Homecoming though, and I like the idea of not only Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, but Keaton's Vulture returning. Plus, being the first post-Endgame film is going to make this an essential to see where things go from there.
4- Captain Marvel- I really like the idea of an MCU prequel, the return of Coulson in the movies, and more Fury. Plus Brie Larson looks like a good call as Carol.
3- Avengers: Endgame- Not sure what else to say here. Let's see Cap, Tony, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, etc die!
2- John Wick Chapter 3- As much as I like the Marvel movies, these movies are where the best action scenes are going nowadays, and will probably be more worth my time in theaters. I regret seeing the first two only on my TV, but I'm not making that mistake here.
1- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood- What can I say, Tarantino still owns my soul. Although I'll grant that Hateful Eight hasn't resonated with me in any conceivable way since it came out, but that doesn't change my hype factor.

Good list Avaitor! I'm looking forward to most of those as well and agree with you pretty much on why. My most anticipated movies of 2019 are probably:

10. IT: Chapter Two - The first IT knocked it out of the park as a Stephen King adaptation and a great horror film in its own right, so I'm expecting the second part will be just as scary good.
9. One Piece: Stampede - The last couple of One Piece films have all been excellent, and this newest one is being hyped up as the biggest and most ambitious yet to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, so I'm definitely riding the hype wave for it.
8. How to Train Your Dragon 3 - I'm a little burned out by seeing the trailer so much, but Dragons is Dreamworks' best franchise and the previous two movies were excellent, so I feel confident this will be another good one.
7. Dumbo - This is the only live-action Disney remake I'm remotely interested in. It looks to be a completely different take on the story a la Pete's Dragon, which was their best one to date, and I'm definitely down for an inspired reinterpretation of Dumbo than a pointless retread of the same story like Aladdin and The Lion King look like they'll be.
6. Alita: Battle Angel - This has been pushed back a lot, but the trailers and early buzz seems good and I'm crossing my fingers it'll be the rare Hollywood-made live-action anime adaptation that knocks it out of the park.
5. Missing Link - I love Laika's films and while I agree with Avaitor this seems more like a Box Trolls than a Kubo, I found the trailer really charming and think I'll really enjoy it.
4. Avengers: Endgame - I really have to applaud Marvel for making a really spoiler-free trailer for this film to preserve the mystery and mystique of what'll happen in it. I don't think anyone except for maybe Tony will actually be killed off for good, but after Infinity War I'm expecting Marvel to have pulled out all the stops to top it and make Endgame their best film yet. It has a lot to live up but I'm confident it will.
3. Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel II. Lost Butterfly - The first F/sn: HF film was excellent, and part II is where I hear the meat of this story will really start to shine. Early buzz has been absolutely fantastic so I'm really hyped to see this, even as just a casual Fate fan.
2. Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution - I think a CG-remake of Mewtwo Strikes Back has a lot of potential to improve upon the original film, and considering they are making this to appeal to an international audience, I'm expecting them to really put a lot of love and polish into this. The Pokemon anime is in a fantastic creative place right now, with the last two films being two of the best they've ever made (and Power of Us legit being one of my favorite films of last year), so I'm really excited to see how much it will continue to evolve with this film.
1. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu - I never would've expected that two Pokemon films would be my most anticipated movies of this year, let alone that I'd be excited for a live-action adapation of a Pokemon spinoff game, but the trailer was everything I dreamed a live-action Pokemon would look like and better, and I can't wait to see it. If this movie is good and does well it could open the doors to a Pokemon cinematic universe which I would absolutely be there for. I want a live-action Team Rocket film dammit!

Of the three remakes we're getting next year, Dumbo probably interests me the most, but I'm also pretty worried about it. Most of the remakes thus far have been for movies that I like, but haven't loved as much as others (at least if we're just talking about the animated films- I care very much for the original Mary Poppins and Parent Trap), but all three of these are based off of what are among my absolute favorite Disney films. Lion King and Aladdin are going in that Beauty and the Beast route, where they're trying to be as reverent as possible while shaking up what doesn't need to be shaken (seriously, the magic carpet can't even be purple?), while Dumbo looks to be a bit different. Adding a subplot or two makes sense, since the original's only about an hour long, although if you ask me, that's a near-perfect hour or so of content, so I hope that the kids aren't too annoying and the big circus buyout plot doesn't become as needlessly convoluted as it might be.

Both Avaitor and Lum pretty much listed most of what I'm anticipating, so I won't dwell on that too much since they already explained the hype. John Wick Chapter 3, if it's as good as the first two, could easily be one of my favorites of the year, while Avengers: Endgame is my most anticipated movie of the year, easily. I may be a Marvel shill, but I also feel like Marvel has earned this one. I'm just a bit worried that Captain Marvel might kill the momentum going into this movie since that one looks pretty dull to me and it's implied that she has a big role to play in Endgame. Also, It: Chapter Two is a no-brainer for me too, but I'm somewhat cautiously curious about the new Pet Sematary adaptation as well.

The one movie that I'll mention that nobody else brought up is Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I can understand the skepticism going into this one since the two movies leading up to it haven't been all that great. While I liked the Godzilla reboot by Gareth Edwards on my initial viewing, it doesn't hold up well to a re-watch. I'm cool with not wanting to show the monsters and instead create effective suspense by focusing on the reaction of the human characters. Spielberg has done this brilliantly with Jaws and Jurassic Park. But this movie has very hollow, paper-thin characters that weren't really interesting to follow. As for Kong: Skull Island, I also kind of enjoyed it the first time as a cheesy B movie, but even that fell flat on a re-watch. With King of the Monsters, though, I have some faith in Michael Dougherty to be the right pick for this movie. While I'm not a hardcore Godzilla fan by any means, my favorite movies of his besides the original have been the ones that have leaned into the campy B movie nature of Kaiju films and just had fun with it. Based on his past horror films, I feel that Dougherty has a better grasp on how to balance this sort of tone than Kong's director did. And yes, I know the trailers make this look like a much more serious and darker film, which I'm sure there will be elements of in here, but given Dougherty's past work I wouldn't be surprised if this is yet another case of trailers mis-marketing the movie as something that it's not. Additionally, while others have shown skepticism at introducing Godzilla's three biggest rivals at once as some Sony Spider-Man-esque disaster waiting to happen, I actually find it to be the right way to go, here. The Toho monsters aren't the same as character-driven villains that need more development to properly work in a story. They work mostly as opposition for Godzilla to overcome and for the human characters to run in terror from. Only giving Godzilla one monster to fight could get boring quickly (which is why Edwards couldn't rely on monster fights too much in the first place). However, if this movie takes a page out of the Destroy All Monsters or Final Wars books (obviously not being quite as over-the-top as those movies), it could be really fun to see all of the creative designs and power-sets clash with one another. I'm not expecting perfection, but I am still reasonably excited about this one.

Now, I WAS excited about the new Hellboy film....but the trailer has done a pretty great job of almost completely killing that excitement for me. I'm all for trying to make a product that's more faithful to Mignola's vision of Hellboy, but for all of the talk we got about how this would be darker and more of a horror-esque movie, this looks even further from that than Del Toro's films did. Say what you want about whether you cared for his style or not, but at least Del Toro had a good grasp on how to make these character palatable in live-action. What I'm seeing right now looks like a poor knock-off of a Marvel film with bad CG-gore to go along with it.

I'm kind of curious about King of the Monsters, but neither the new Godzilla or Kong did much to interest me. If this turns out to be the charm though, I may give it a go. It could definitely be fun.

And....this may have just jumped up to being my most anticipated movie of the year after all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7XM597XO94

Shame Spark isn't on these days. I know he'd really dig this.

It's gonna be soooooo gooooood! :im_nabeshin:

Someone else already mentioned this before, but I really like how this movie (based on the trailers) seems to be combining core aspects of the first and second movies. The first movie had moody-tinted lighting which gave it a unique identity and made it feel more gritty and down-to-earth, and the action reflected this. The second movie aimed to be more crazy and over-the-top, with a more colorful palette like a graphic novel come to life to complement it's more absurd action. The trailer and stills for Parabellum showcases that moodier aesthetic from the first movie combined with the comic-book style action of the second, which IMO are some of the strongest aspects of both respective movies.

That's just my two-cents on it, though.

There's a high probability Keanu Reeves is gonna fight dudes on motorcycles with katanas while riding a horse down the highway in this movie, and that could very well make it the greatest film of all time.

Btw, if you need a good over the top action movie to tide you over until Parabellum comes out, I highly recommend The Night Comes For Us on Netflix. Plot is... not good, certainly nowhere near John Wick level, but the violence is fucking brutal. It's intense and hardcore in a way I've never seen before. Another neat one is The Villainess, which sadly gets bogged down by an overbearing need to tell a borderline-incomprehensible story, but the opening scene is one of the best things ever put to film.

I saw The Night Comes for Us back in October when it dropped. The action is top-notch (though the gore feels a bit over-done to the point of feeling tasteless, IMO), but as you said, the weak story holds it back. I enjoyed watching it, but it doesn't really have any re-watch value for me.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on January 20, 2019, 08:32:20 AM
though the gore feels a bit over-done to the point of feeling tasteless

That's why I liked it. ;)

I think I worded that a bit poorly. I don't mean to say that I'm disturbed by the gore, but rather that I felt it so overused that I got completely desensitized to it by the end. All of a sudden a guy getting cut and gushing out blood and guts felt just as tame to me as any ordinary punch. After a while it lacked any sense of impact. Of course that's just personal taste, though.

My movie days pretty much consist of Marvel (mostly Avengers) these days but I'm very heavy into martial arts action and it's usually my go to type of movies. That being said Triple Threat and Avengers: Endgame are my most anticipated movies for this year. I enjoyed all of the Avenger movies (although Infinity War irritated me because of a certain character).

Triple Threat on the other hand is chucked full of martial artists. Iwo Ukais, Tony Jaa, and Tiger Chen. Then you have folks like Michael Jae White, Scott Adkins (who should've been in some bigger budget movies), Michael Bisbing (probably should've been George St. Pierre, but it's cool) and I'm pretty sure I'm missing a couple more. I do wish they could've got Lateef Crowder for this as well but maybe he is there and I don't know it. Much like Devil May Cry 5, I feel like there haven't been any movies out there for me other than the superhero movies but it feels good to finally get back to the type of movies I grew up on (hopefully we'll get more because the genre is pretty much dead)

Princess Elise doesn't look so bad now. (https://youtu.be/FvvZaBf9QQI)

Well....it certainly does what Nintendon't....in that Nintendo seems to be releasing an actual competent Pokemon movie while Sega seems to be setting video game movies back another ten years.

Figured I should look over my most anticipated movies from this year, as we're wrapping it up now.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
10- Frozen 2- Yes, the hype was annoying. Yes, the first one wasn't that good, and the shorts are meh cashgrabs. Yes, we don't really need a sequel. But I do still like the film, and I'm at least more curious about this than the remakes Disney has planned for this year.

I liked it, didn't love it, same as the first. Just like that one, there are some elements that I really like, but it ultimately feels kind of hollow in comparison to some of Disney's best, even from this period.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
9- Toy Story 4- Speaking of a sequel I don't 100% see the need for, but will be there opening day regardless. And it's funny, while the third was my favorite for a while, nowadays I prefer the loving simplicity and charm of the first. I doubt we're going back to this, but it'll be nice to see Bo Peep again I guess.

So I didn't end up seeing this one in theaters, but I did get around to it later. Like Frozen 2, I liked it, but didn't love it, but this time I'd consider it easily the weakest film in the franchise. I just don't buy most of the emotional payoffs here the same way I did for previous Toy Storys, and I'm really hoping that we don't make it to a fifth film. That said, I thought Bo was cool here, and I liked her chemistry with Woody throughout.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
8- How to Train Your Dragon 3- A sequel I'm definitely more interested in, although I just know Toothless is going to leave Hiccup, and idk if I'm ready to see that. Still, the first two were as good as Dreamworks gets, and if this is nearly as good as those, I'm stoked.

My favorite animated movie of the year, and a terrific send off to a terrific franchise. I'm already sad to see it lose to Toy Story or Frozen at the Oscars.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
7- Missing Link- But this is where my money is currently going animation wise. Laika does it better than anyone else currently in the game, and while this is looking like another Boxtrolls as opposed to a Kubo, there's nothing wrong with a lighter film here and there. Especially if it means this gets to be the one that goes big for them.

So this one didn't go big for them at all, and I kind of get it. The emotional stakes and storytelling aren't as strong as Laika at their best, and it doesn't commit to a broad enough kind of humor to click with a mass audience. This might be my least favorite of theirs, but I do still like it. Susan is a very likable character, and they just continue to top themselves in the animation game with each entry. Let's just hope audiences come to the next one.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
6- Us- I'm a little worried about us putting all of our eggs in the basket for Jordan Peele just for Get Out to be a fluke, but this definitely sounds interesting enough for me to come with open arms. Let's do it!

I'm really glad to see Peele didn't prove to be a Chazelle-esq fluke (although his Twilight Zone revival was only so-so, IMO), because this was excellent! And I thought its house at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights was perfect, bringing it to life almost exactly as I imagined it. I'll definitely be around for what he does next.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
5- Spider-Man: Far From Home- This is more or less ranked third because of a coin toss, and also because second parts haven't proven to be the MCU's strong suit (Cap's is the closest to an improvement that I can think of, parts of Dark World and Ultron aside). I really liked Homecoming though, and I like the idea of not only Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, but Keaton's Vulture returning. Plus, being the first post-Endgame film is going to make this an essential to see where things go from there.

I was right when I expected this to be a downgrade of a sequel, like most of the MCU's (although besides Winter Soldier, Guardians Vol 2 only seems to get better as time goes by). I did mostly enjoy it, primarily Gyllenhaal's Mysterio and that cameo at the end, but I do wish these Spidey movies were less like Iron Man spin-offs. I'm hoping the next one will fix that, but we'll see.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
4- Captain Marvel- I really like the idea of an MCU prequel, the return of Coulson in the movies, and more Fury. Plus Brie Larson looks like a good call as Carol.

I can't say this one was much more than fine. I don't think Larson was the problem, as I generally like her take on Carol, but besides her chemistry with Fury, there wasn't much to this one. Somehow, they made Ronan the Accuser even less interesting than he was in Guardians.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
3- Avengers: Endgame- Not sure what else to say here. Let's see Cap, Tony, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, etc die!

A pretty satisfactory ending to one of the most ambitious and exciting experiments in film history. I wouldn't call it the best of these movies, but it went out on a high enough note for nothing else to matter.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
2- John Wick Chapter 3- As much as I like the Marvel movies, these movies are where the best action scenes are going nowadays, and will probably be more worth my time in theaters. I regret seeing the first two only on my TV, but I'm not making that mistake here.

In hindsight, I'd call the second film the best balance between action and world building, as this one went a little too far in the latter direction and almost sloshed the pacing. But it did have some A-tier fight scenes, and still keeps me hungry for more of this world. I'm glad that last-minute cliffhanger was tagged on!

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2019, 04:45:08 PM
1- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood- What can I say, Tarantino still owns my soul. Although I'll grant that Hateful Eight hasn't resonated with me in any conceivable way since it came out, but that doesn't change my hype factor.

Probably my favorite film of the year thus far, but I still have a few more to catch, with Parasite being my biggest blindspot based on my tastes. But it's a damn good (possibly) penultimate film for Tarantino, and you could make a case for basically everyone there making one of their best performances.

I'm not making a most hyped list this year, for a combination of a lack of excitement for 2020's offerings, and for much of anything in general. Even with my usuals, neither of the MCU offerings this year sound all that exciting, which I'm not that surprised, since Endgame was a successful enough finale. I'm also not all that excited for either of Pixar's movies, whose trailers look so-so and the premises aren't all that hot. That said, I've learned to not take Pixar's trailers by face value before, and Soul especially has a high chance of being good, being a Pete Docter project and all. And I am interested in Raya and the Last Dragon, but there's just not enough information to grasp at yet. Which is usual for Disney, so we'll see how things go.

Yeah, even as someone who really enjoyed (and still do) Homecoming, Far From Home has only diminished in quality with me over time. I still think it's alright, but as both a Spider-MSN movie and epilogue to Endgame, it's rather safe and boring in it's lack of general creativity. It feels like any other superhero movie, which again, is enjoyable, but after something like Spider-Verse, it kind of comes off as sub-standard.

I won't do a ranking list, but here's all of the movies that I saw released from this year in categories ranging from bad to great:

Vomit-Inducing:
Hellboy
The Curse of La Llorona

Bad:
Aladdin
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Annabelle Comes Home
Brightburn
Child's Play

Meh:
Captain Marvel
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Rocketman
Jumanji: The Next Level
Blinded By The Light
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Ad Astra
Joker (I feel like I can't say this anywhere else without being attacked for it or treated like I have some extreme political view....I just think it's a mediocre Scorcese-wannabe flick: not terrible, but kind of overrated)

Guilty Pleasure:
Glass
It: Chapter Two
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Crawl
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

Solid:
Fighting With My Family
Ready or Not
Knives Out
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
Ford V. Ferrari
Toy Story 4

Very Good:
Avengers: Endgame
Marriage Story
El Camino
The Irishman
John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Us
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Great:
Weathering With You
Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood
Shazam!
Jojo Rabbit
1917
The Lighthouse
Uncut Gems

Favorite of the Year:
Parasite

Still planning on seeing:
Richard Jewell
The King
The Two Popes
Midsommar
The Nightingale
Dark Waters
The Report
Waves
Missing Link

We're more or less on the same page with what I've seen. I'd probably put Captain Marvel and Far From Home at solid, maybe also Rocketman depending on my mood, and tbh probably Shazam! as well. I do agree about Joker not being all that, and finding Glass enjoyable, if not necessarily very good.

I haven't seen as many movies as I'd have liked to. I miss MoviePass, and while I considered signing up for the Regal equivalent, but we don't have Regals down here. Luckily, we have CinemaWorld, which has cheap matinees, and I've been able to knock a couple of movies off my list with them, including getting to see The Irishman on the big screen. However, we don't get that many smaller films down here, so I'll need to be back in Orlando for a bunch of them. Or wait for Oscar season. I do plan to watch all of the Best Picture nominees again this year, and after that, I'll end up making my best of list.

Why is Robert Pattinson playing Christopher Nolan? (https://twitter.com/collin_doucet/status/1263898927365001221)

In lighter but still sad film news, Sylvester Stallone plans to edit out the robot in Rocky IV. (https://twitter.com/murderwizard/status/1300160957436563457)

The hype must flow: https://youtu.be/n9xhJrPXop4

I'm biased, of course, but I'm stoked for Villeneuve's take on Frank Herbert's vision.

According to David Chase in this interview for Many Saints of Newark, Tony fucking hates Led Zeppelin. (https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/many-saints-newark-behind-scenes-cast-crew-interview-1215918/)

I like how discerning David Chase is about Tony's music taste. Apparently Mountain is one of the few bands both would listen to, for instance.

Chase is an interesting guy, even if it's clear his personality can be very difficult for others. Like that Talking Sopranos interview where they confirmed James Gandolfini wanted nothing to with him late in his life, another said Gandolfini referred to him as "Satan" or "a vampire", or why the only thing Chase's made between Sopranos and Many Saints is a fairly obscure rock band movie called Not Fade Away despite some other old interviews I read indicating he was interested in making more films.

You know, I'm not expecting The Matrix 4 to be a good movie, I appreciated the sequels more as dumb pulpy fun than as a philosophical experience, but I am expecting it to be an interesting one. One of my favorite authors is co-writing the script, and some critics who watched an early screening say it's more akin to the Wachowskis' previous film Cloud Atlas than their other film where Channing Tatum played a dog-man. That said, I loved the trailer. All these cool shots set to Jefferson Airplane, you can tell it's a whole different world from the movies 18 years ago, but still familiar enough through blink and you'll miss it shots.

I do have some nitpicks from the trailer, and the biggest is they don't bother to differentiate Neo's look from John Wick's. Sure, the John Wick directors likely didn't want Keanu to shave for another movie since they'd have to give him an obvious fake beard and wig for their own film, and Lana Wachowski didn't want to CGI the hair off and create another Cavill situation, but they could've found some workaround. Another thing is I hope there's a real good reason for why they recast Morpheus, and it better not be because the video game's canon. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWPey1fU9Ok)

I don't know how I feel about Matrix 4. It got me intrigued for sure though. Guy at my job thinks it looks stupid. I won't go that far, but like I said, it's got me interested. Might be because I'm just a fan of Keanu to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In the world of making prequels, there's two paths that lead to two doors. Behind one door is "Better Call Saul"; open the other and you get the Star Wars prequels.

I have hope that David Chase, with Many Saints of Newark, is on the correct path to the right door.

Speaking of Sopranos, and since I mentioned Talking Sopranos, I wish Michael Imperioli partnered up with Steven Van Zandt or somebody more willing to engage with the show than Steve Schirripa. The guy always interrupts Michael whenever he attempts to say something astute with another one of his "When I was a bouncer in Vegas..." stories. He's annoying. Almost makes me glad Eric Andre mocked his sauce.

While waiting for No Time To Die to come out, I found a video essay on Quantum of Solace that reveals a lot of subtlety in the film. (https://youtu.be/OuHUdyCydaE) Too much subtlety, resulting in the viewer required to freeze-frame the film to find out there are actually running gags in the background.

I haven't made a most anticipated movie list in years, partly since a lot of what becomes my favorite films of the years tend to be more of a surprise, but here's a couple of titles coming out this year that I'm interested in:

-Infinity Pool- This one's already out, but I probably won't get to it for another couple of weeks if not until it hits streaming (I have a few more Best Picture noms to see first, alongside a busy schedule at work). And while I'd normally be a little wary of a director's child trying to fill daddy's shoes, I'm a little more willing to give this a shot for a couple of reasons. A cool trailer, good will towards Croenberg senior for his last film (Crimes of the Future is probably my #1 from last year), and my admittance towards the Mia Goth hype train. The reception seems kind of mixed so far, which is probably a good sign!

-Evil Dead Rise- I didn't like the 2013 film and dipped on Ash vs. Evil Dead partway through the last season, but I was impressed with the trailer and hearing that this was a streaming title promoted to the big screen gives me a little hype. Let's hope it works!

-Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3- I'm slowly falling off the MCU  train after the largely middling Phase 4, which even Kevin Feige seems to agree has not featured a lot of their best work. Additionally, I'm not that excited for the new Ant-Man, which is looking to swap out the low stakes charm of the first two movies for another Big Event that I'm not seeing a whole lot of hype for. But James Gunn hasn't done me wrong with either Marvel or DC yet, and I loved the Guardians holiday special. Will definitely be here opening weekend.

-John Wick: Chapter 4- On the one hand, the continuity-heavy parts of the third film made for most of my least favorite part of the franchise so far, and I don't have a whole lot of hype for The Continental or Ballerina spin-offs (I also just really don't want an excuse to pay for Peacock Premium. I really do not need another streaming service). But almost no one is doing better action movies right now and I definitely need to see at least this on the big screen. Depending on how much I enjoy it, I may also give those a shot, too.

-Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1- The only franchise that may be featuring better action! I think Christopher McQuarrie gets it better than almost anyone in the game (hell, he helped make the sequel to a piece of crap like Top Gun into a damn fine movie), and I can't wait to see how he and Tom Cruise try to top Fallout.

-Asteroid City- I mean, it's Wes Anderson and has a crazy cast. Even when I think his work is below par, like Isle of Dogs or Darjeeling Limited, it's still mostly a good time. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

-Wish- If I had to add one animated project, this would probably be it. I know that Across the Spider-Verse or Super Mario Bros would be it for some, but I'm not sold on either yet (will probably see them though), and there's also Pixar's Elemental, which looks like the most generic thing they've ever made (will probably also see it), and it doesn't look like Laika's next film has a release date yet. But this is supposed to be a big deal from WDAS, celebrating the studio's 100th anniversary, and what I saw at D23 and since does look lovely. I think that both of Disney's studios have been in a bit of a rut in the past few years, and Jennifer Lee being announced as the writer doesn't give me a whole lot of hope (the Frozen movies have... problems), but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Edit: Oops, and Magic Mike: Last Dance. 'nuff said!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbenheimer

So, are you guys on the Barbenheimer train, or are we picking sides between Gerwig and Nolan? Or are you like "Why is this a meme? Why are people talking about these two movies like they're the same thing?"

I'm still not very hot on Nolan or biopics in general, and I feel like I've got everything out of the Barbie movie that there is to get from everything we've seen, so I'm team "ready to move on".

I don't know. I liked Gerwig's previous movies, thought Little Women was all right, and even though Tenet was a disappointment, I'm still "Ride or Die" with Nolan.

Let's see how my most anticipated of 2023 turned out.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 29, 2023, 03:33:01 PM-Infinity Pool

I dunno, I had fun with this one, but it hasn't really stood with me, either. And trying some more of Brandon Croenberg's filmography, I see a talented artist who isn't really trying, and probably isn't capable of surpassing his father's wheelhouse. Mia Goth was terrific as always, at least.

QuoteEvil Dead Rise

Definitely better than ED 2013 to me, although I think the movie kind of peaks with its opening and only comes close to Raimi's madcap energy near the end. I'd like to get another flick with Ash, but it's clear that audiences prefer whatever direction the last two movies are going in instead.

QuoteGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

I was right to be skeptical of Quantumania, and The Marvels wasn't much better, but this was excellent. This may be the last time the GP was 100% on board with the MCU, but it'll be deserved.

QuoteJohn Wick: Chapter 4

Did not disappoint in the slightest, a terrific (possibly) final entry. I'm still not sold on The Continental however. Hell, I got a free preview of Peacock and still passed.

QuoteMission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1

I feel like if this came out just a couple of weeks later, it would have been a lot bigger. Deserved it, nearly as good as Fallout. Shame that part 2 got pushed back, but it's for the best that it's getting a separate title.

QuoteAsteroid City

Anderson's best since Grand Budapest. Unless you absolutely despise his work, I recommend it.

QuoteWish

The biggest wash of the bunch, a half-assed attempt at combining nostalgia for the studio with an unimpressive mix of characters, songwriting, and storytelling, all set to jarring animation. Further proves my belief that Jennifer Lee is a hack.

And while Mario and Spiderverse didn't personally blow me away (I know others loved both and they're valid), I was surprised by Elemental, which is less of a tired Pixar buddy comedy and more of a welcomingly sweet romcom. It's a good time, worth spending some free time checking out.

And that's it. I forgot to see Magic Mike, and while I did leave out Dune here for some reason, that ended up to age well as it was pushed back. Don't think I'll do a list this year.