What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, after seeing Annihilation and taking some time to consider it, I think it's safe for me to say that Alex Garland is a competent but incredibly overhyped filmmaker. Just like Ex Machina, the concepts and ideas tackled by this film are incredibly interesting (the kind of stuff that high-concept Sci-Fi thrives on) but the execution is utterly boring aside from a few standout scenes.

Whereas films like Snowpiercer or Blade Runner 2049 can tackle similarly interesting themes while also being engaging movies to just watch unfold on a surface level, Garland's films feel so up their own ass in trying to appear smart and intelligent and insightful at every scene that the characters and story feel secondary to whatever message the movie itself is trying to preach, which is never a good thing.

The bear scene was pretty brutal in an awesome way, though. Probably the only part in the entire film that actually got any kind of genuine response out of me throughout my entire viewing experience with it.

[Foggle]

I love Alex Garland, I think his movies are incredibly engaging personally, both the ones he directs and the ones he simply writes. I watched Sunshine for the first time a few days ago and it was awesome, I also felt like Ex Machina was one of the best films of 2015 and got snubbed at the Oscars. I haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 yet (or Annihilation, for that matter), but I would actually say exactly what you said about him but about Denis Villeneuve. His movies are incredibly impressive in a lot of ways but I find them uninteresting and hard to get through.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll agree on Villeneuve's earlier films (especially Prisoner), but I honestly feel that he has improved his craft over time. My problem with Ex Machina is that it's incredibly boring on a re-watch and from a story-telling perspective I just don't feel like it handled it's subject matter in a way that other filmmakers couldn't do better.

I'll say that while movies like Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 aren't going to be for everyone (especially Arrival), they managed to work for me both on a surface level and on a subtextual one a lot more than Ex Machina did for me, personally.

Obviously, no disrespect intended to you on your stance, though. Keep in mind that I'm in the minority on my opinion, here (though, Annihilation's reception is a tad more mixed in general as opposed to Ex Machina which was unanimously praised). Most people would agree with you about Alex Garland. I'm just the oddball in this case.

[Foggle]

I definitely need to check out Arrival and Blade Runner, as well as Denis' French movies. His earlier English films don't really do it for me (though they certainly aren't bad, particularly Sicario which I respect despite not liking so much) but he's a very talented filmmaker. I can't say much about Garland's directing style since everything he worked on before Ex Machina was only written by him, but I did really like how that film was done. I have only seen it once, though.

[Avaitor]

I've only seen Ex Machina once, but I'm with EK in that it didn't do much for me. I'm not very familiar with Garland beyond that, however, but I'm willing to give Annihilation a shot.

[Foggle]

Oh hey, according to Karl Urban, Alex Garland was the actual director of 2012's Dredd (and, of course, he wrote the script for it). So this proves that he definitely has range outside of the slow-paced sci-fi horror niche, even when directing!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Granted Garland did co-write it with two other writers (though he gets the main screenplay credit), which is probably why the dialogue feels different than from his other films, but yeah, he did write for Dredd. Him being an uncredited director is news to me, though. I wonder how and why he would not be credited for that if it is indeed true. Seems like that should be illegal or something unless he specifically asked to not be credited or unofficially ghost directed most of the film.

At any rate, I do love Dredd, but seeing as how it's more in the action department, maybe I just may prefer Garland's take on that genre over the more slow-paced Sci-Fi stuff that he's done.

On that note, the gunfights in Dredd were brutal and intense. The best scene in Annihilation was a brutal and intense horror movie-seque scene in which a mutated bear attacked the characters in a dimly lit house in the middle of the night. So if Garland can handle action, brutal violence/gore, and horror, where am I going with this? Well, maybe let him try his hand at an Alien movie? I mean, at this point the series has more bad movies than good ones, so who gives a fuck anymore if the next one turns out shit since it's expected. But if he does make a good one maybe it'll win me over. At any rate, I doubt it could turn out any worse than Covenant. Seriously Scott, what was going through your head when you were making that?

[Dr. Insomniac]

what was going through your head when you were making that?

I still don't know why the Xenomorphs were planting wheat.

Anyway, I haven't seen Annihilation yet, but all the "this movie would be a success if it weren't for all the dimwitted audiences binging on mainstream schlock" talk I hear from Twitter and RLM are turning me off. It's like an inverse recommendation, a buzzkill, and goes back to what EK said about uppity asshats who act like popular genre films are killing cinema.

[Dr. Insomniac]

You guys remember when the first Pacific Rim came out, and fans invented a "Mako Mori Test" for female characters in film? Because whoever made that test is gonna be pissed off at the sequel.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As someone who unabashedly loves the first movie, Pacific Rim: Uprising somehow managed to live up to literally ALL of my worst fears. Regardless of whether you cared for the original or not, it's clearly a self-aware and passionate love-letter to Mecha and Kaiju, while still also managing to keep its own unique identity throughout. Uprising is about as cynical of a Hollywood cash-grab sequel as you can get. None of the care and attention that the first movie received is present here. It's like they took that movie, looked at how much more money Transformers was making, and decided to just try and make that instead at the cost of everything the original movie did to build its own identity and distinguish itself from anything else.

[Avaitor]

John Wick 2 is even better than the first, holy shit. While the bathhouse scene in the first wasn't really topped, there's just one great set piece after another, and I couldn't draw my eyes away from it. Cannot wait for the third!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, I still flip-flop back and forth between which one I prefer, but overall both of these movies are bar none the best American-made action films of the decade so far. I'd be inclined to argue that it can indeed hold its own against top notch modern Asian action franchises like The Raid series (which I'm also a big fan of).

[gunswordfist]

I like 1 more. Both are great though. The only two movies in the same series I like almost equally is Drunken Master 1 and 2, afaik.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I just saw Hereditary and it may just be the most emotionally disturbing film that I've seen in quite a while (and I mean that in a good way). Just a heads up that this isn't anything like the type of horror film that the trailers make it out to be. It's a slow-burn family drama first with horror elements that don't really kick into gear until the final act. That said the entire experience was effectively uncomfortable and unsettling for me.

It's definitely not going to be for everybody, but I'd recommend it if stuff like this is more up your alley. If I had to compare it to anything I'd say that it's similar in tone and pacing to a movie like The Witch from a few years ago.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Mission Impossible: Fallout was pretty good. I still prefer Ghost Protocol, but this was about on par with Rogue Nation for me. The plot doesn't make a lick of sense if you actually stop to think about any of it, but these were always action movies that you watch for elaborate and intense set pieces first and foremost, and it delivers on that front.