What Movie Did You Just Watch

[LumRanmaYasha]

Guardians 2 was a lot of fun, and that's all I was hoping it would be. Yondu had a good arc and his dynamics with both Rocket and Starlord was great, and I was legit moved by his sendoff. Movie never lost sight about what's fun about these characters and Ego was handled pretty well for a Marvel villain even if the plot beats was pretty predictable. Baby Groot was also not nearly as annoying as I feared he would be, though his cutesyness was a bit overplayed at times. Overall it wasn't a movie that left a strong impression on me like the first one did, but I think it's a worthy sequel. Glad GOTG wasn't a one-hit wonder.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just picked up Alien and Aliens on Blu-Ray in preparation of Alien: Covenant. I re-watched Alien last night and it's still a classic in my eyes. That said, I'm personally of the opinion that the middle third suffers a bit from becoming a bit too much of a typical horror movie what with all of the tropes and characters acting dumb in certain situations. It's still expertly designed and directed, but it does drag the overall quality of the picture down for me a bit. That said, the first and final acts of this movie are some of the most masterful pieces of film-making that I have ever seen to this day.

I'll try to give Aliens a re-watch later this week.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just saw Alien: Covenant. Really mixed feelings about this one. There were some fascinating concepts explored throughout the film and some really brilliant moments of directing. However, the overall structure of the film was a mess and for every good moment there was something equally as stupid when it came to the plot or how the characters acted. It seems like outside of the first two movies, nobody has ever been able to find a way to write an Alien story in which the plot can progress without some characters acting like idiots.

For the record, I don't agree at all with the general hate that Prometheus gets. It's certainly a flawed film, but it does some fascinating stuff with the Alien lore, and the general mystery element of it is quite compelling. It has its dumb moments, but there's a lot of genuinely good stuff that makes it worth watching, at least for me. Covenant, on the other hand, seems to break a lot of rules and ignore the previously established lore of the older films, and in general it doesn't come off that interesting in regards to its overall story. There is one really interesting character that is quite a memorable antagonist, and is easily my favorite part of this movie, but I'll refrain from going into detail about it here for spoiler reasons.

Overall, though, while the movie was admittedly entertaining to watch once, I have no desire to ever really go back to it like I did for Prometheus. Say what you want about that movie, but at least it had a clear vision of what it was and didn't compromise on it. Covenant, meanwhile, felt like it had a story that Scott wanted to tell, but it got lost in so many elements that tried too hard to pander to what fans wanted and didn't get in Prometheus, leading to a final product that's all over the place.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm still not sure what Scott wants to do with the Alien franchise. He states he has several movies' worth of stories to tell, but it mostly amounts to a couple fascinating ideas combined with character idiocy and recreating scenes from past Alien movies and watering them down instead of re-interpreting them the way the Fargo series twists and innovates on various Coen Brothers movies. The Alien franchise is going through this same crisis the Terminator series is, where they obviously can't die because Hollywood wants to keep churning installments out of them, but they often have to choose between letting new blood direct the movie while under heavy executive control (leading to talents like David Fincher to make tripe), or let the original directors come back to make anything they want despite having a questionable record of recent films. Which makes news that David Cameron will step in to produce Terminator 6: Schwarzenegger's Alimony questionable to me.

[Avaitor]

I saw Alien: Covenant last night, and it was thoroughly okay. Some of the action sequences were cool, but god damn are the characters unmemorable or unrelatable. Only Fassbender makes some kind of impact, give or take Danny McBride. I feel that if the cast had some fine-tuning and this wasn't tied to Alien, it would be a better experience.

Also, the white Xenomorphs were disappointing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Nerd mode: I'll have you know that only Protomorphs and Neomorphs appeared in this film, my good sir. There were no Xenomorphs whatsoever.[/nitpick]

Overall, though, the more I think about this movie the more I dislike it. I have problems with Prometheus, but overall still liked a lot of things about it and what it tried to do. This movie seemed like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a sequel to that or a prequel to Alien, thus it had this strange identity crisis. Prometheus at least tried to be thoroughly different from Alien and knew what kind of movie it was. It felt rather self-indulgent at times, but at least some of that indulgence was earned. Alien: Covenant feels like it's trying to be an Alien movie at times, but that makes it all the more frustrating when all of those elements are interceded with Ridley Scott's pretentious "look how smart I am" bull-shit. Doing a smart Alien movie can and has been done. Just look at the original film. It has smart themes and subtext, but do you know why it worked so much better? At no point did it forget that it was supposed to be a good monster movie first and foremost. Even back when I didn't understand some of its hidden meaning, I still basically saw Jaws in space, and it was excellent. The nuance to its story and narrative only helped enhance the experience on repeat viewings. It never once overtook the rest of the film. With Covenant, we start out with a scene so out of place that I momentarily wondered if this was originally supposed to be part of Blade Runners 2049, but even the original Blade Runner worked better because it knew to be a good futuristic detective noir story first with the philosophical elements complementing the main story.

For whatever reason, Scott these days seems more obsessed with exploring interesting ideas rather than actually telling a cohesive and engrossing story that can more subtly convey those same themes. I mean, if that's the case....why not just write some books instead?

[Avaitor]

It's weird how Wagner's work is meant to be a bookend and set piece to a film where a murder takes place during a shower sex scene. It's not a great balance.

[Avaitor]

The more I think about it, I don't believe that It Comes at Night is really horror. It's a very different film than is what being advertised, for one thing. And as much as I enjoyed the pacing stand point and that it doesn't force its backstory down your throat, I'm feeling kind of cold on it in hindsight. There's just more that could have beeb done.

I'm glad that I got to see it and indie film is getting to do cooler things, but it's not something I plan to go back to anytime soon. If you haven't seen Raw yet, I highly recommend you get to that instead.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

John Wick 2 just came out on Blu-Ray and I bought the Steel Books for both it and the first film from Best Buy (which they had on sale at my location as part of a special promotion).

I gave John Wick 2 a re-watch for the first time since I saw it in theaters, and man I think the Museum shoot-out scene may have just barely edged out the club shoot-out scene as my favorite action set-piece from either film, so far. But, overall, I'd go so far as to say that John Wick may be on its way to being the best modern action movie franchise. Either that or The Raid, but regardless, it's hard for me to accept anyone who says that the action movie genre is dead outside of comic book movies when stuff like this exists.

[Avaitor]

Thanks for reminding me- I still need to see the other Raid movies, as well as the John Wicks.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm happy to know that both series are confirmed to be getting third installments each to cap off their respective trilogies. I'm also really interested in the prospect of that Continental TV series spin-off that the John Wick producers are apparently planning to develop. There are lot of possibilities there given how rich the world-building in this series is.

[Foggle]

Saw Baby Driver at an early screening. Decent flick but Ansel Elgort is so fucking bad. I don't know how he gets roles. Writing is a huge step down from Wright's previous films, probably due to the lack of Simon Pegg. The action and music were enjoyable but while it was well-made it didn't really impress me too much. Not sure why everyone's falling in love with it or where the hype comes from.

John Wick 1 & 2, though, now those are fucking movies! Best action films I've ever seen and some of the greatest usage of music in film history. Gotta get the second one on Blu-ray and watch both back-to-back one of these days.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The John Wick movies are great action flicks. Never get bored rewatching them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's disheartening to hear, as Baby Driver is one of my most anticipated films of the year. I'm still to see it, of course, but I'm going to temper my expectations when I do.

And fuck yes! John Wick has singlehandedly revitalized the American action movie genre in my eyes. I know that this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'd argue that the first John Wick in particular manages to top The Matrix as Keeanu Reeve's best action film. And mind you, I don't dislike The Matrix at all. It has aged poorly in some areas, but I still have a lot of respect for what it has done right in terms of both action and writing. Also, if it weren't for The Matrix, John Wick probably wouldn't even exist as it does now (the directors were both stuntmen for Keeanu in The Matrix films). That said, on an action level, I feel that John Wick surpasses it in terms of both technical choreography as well as stellar camerawork. But I'd also argue (and I know that this is a bold claim) that it's a better written film as well. Now that may raise some eyebrows because clearly The Matrix explores more philosophical themes and has more heavy dialogue than anything in John Wick. And yes, it's more ambitious in that way, however simply having those qualities to its story and themes is not the same as doing them all well. Those movies tend to have an issue of occasionally over-expositing to the point of being rather awkward and up their own ass, and while the original Matrix is far less bad about this than the sequels, it still does have some of that weighing it down in a few key scenes throughout the film.

On the other hand, good writing does not just mean good dialogue. Writing in fiction places just as much emphasis on the flow of story-telling and in any story in existence, what's not said is equally as important as what is, something that I really wish more people would remember. The key characters in John Wick are all relatively simple, but well defined. You aren't bogged down with any more backstory than you need to understand the context of the situation, and the most important character traits are displayed through actions rather than words. But what's more is how this movie and it's sequel tackle world-building. You learn so much about the world of hitmen and assassins in this Universe through observation over any spoken dialogue. The fact that they have their own unique currency, that there are common code-words used by those in the know, that there are certain rules which all of them must follow despite their line of work, and the general relationships that certain characters have with each other are explained with visuals and non-verbal communication or cleverly subtextualized dialogue rather than any direct exposition. What you get is a superb action film with terrific pacing and a story that is as simple as it is engaging.

I honestly find it hard to have to wait for John Wick Chapter 3; it's one of my most anticipated films of ever.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Personally, I like the John Wick films, Speed, and the Bill & Ted movies more than the Matrix, but I do think it's definitely one of his best flicks.

John Wick, however, did more than just be well written and choreographed. It brought back the grit of '80s action movies, got rid of shaky cam, and nailed everything I like about filmmakers like John Woo and John McTiernan. I keep hoping its success is going to bring a renaissance in action movies, and not clones, but I'm still waiting for it.

John Wick 3 is also my most hyped sequel. I don't know how they managed to match the original with 2, but they did it.