What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

They just added the first three Rambo movies to Netflix here, but First Blood has always been far and away the best one. One of Stallone's best with Rocky, Copland, and Rocky Balboa.

I haven't seen Balboa (or anything past Rocky II, for that matter), but I love both Rocky and Copland. Though, this also reminds me to bring up the point that Ashita no Joe was Rocky (with a bit of Raging Bull thrown in for good measure) before Rocky even existed (and by that I mean even before the guy who inspired Stallone to write Rocky had a shot at the world champion). Rocky is basically the American Joe Yabuki, 'cept Joe is way more bad-ass.

[talonmalon333]

Raiders > Last Crusade > Temple of Doom > Crystal Skull

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

What do you guys think is the best Indiana Jones movie?

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Last Crusade
3. Temple of Doom
4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This ranking is pretty much indisputable fact.

[Spark Of Spirit]

They just added the first three Rambo movies to Netflix here, but First Blood has always been far and away the best one. One of Stallone's best with Rocky, Copland, and Rocky Balboa.

I haven't seen Balboa (or anything past Rocky II, for that matter), but I love both Rocky and Copland. Though, this also reminds me to bring up the point that Ashita no Joe was Rocky (with a bit of Raging Bull thrown in for good measure) before Rocky even existed (and by that I mean even before the guy who inspired Stallone to write Rocky had a shot at the world champion). Rocky is basically the American Joe Yabuki, 'cept Joe is way more bad-ass.

I thought Rocky Balboa was a good end to the series. I haven't seen any of the other sequels, but as a follow up to the original it bookends the original really good. I see the series as the same as Rambo in that way, except Rambo never got a proper final film to follow the themes from the original to the end.

What's Ashita no Joe? Is that Japanimation?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Some Chinese cartoon or something I think.

[gunswordfist]

Some Chinese cartoon or something I think.

[Avaitor]

I actually skipped all of the other sequels and went straight to Balboa.

I don't regret that decision.

[No-Personality]

That's the only Rambo movie that I care about. It's a shame that people remember the series more for its generic action sequel. The first film is still a classic, though.

Well, First Blood is a generic title. Though, admittedly, Rambo sounds like a generic premise / character. But it is what made him iconic.

What do you guys think is the best Indiana Jones movie?

Not much of a contest. That's like asking what the best Back to the Future movie is.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Last Crusade is actually my favorite Indiana Jones movie, but really both it and Raiders are pretty close in quality to me.

[gunswordfist]

I remember liking The Last Crusade.

Netflix has Hobo With A Shotgun. I'm not too sure what it's about but I like it that way. I'll check it out soon.

[talonmalon333]

Not much of a contest. That's like asking what the best Back to the Future movie is.

So... Raiders, or Last Crusade? Either will do.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just re-watched The Avengers for the 4th time. As an action movie, the film is just as fun as ever. As a stand-alone film, it's shallow, yes, but here's the thing about the film that people should realize: it's not meant to be viewed as a stand-alone film. The whole point of the MCU, and what made The Avengers such a cool concept in the first place, was that you get to watch all of these movies to grow attachment to these characters individually, which makes it that much more awesome when a film teams all of them up. The Avengers is really essentially the culmination of what all of the phase 1 films had lead up to. It should be viewed as a big event taking place in a much grander story, in the same vein as you would view the climax to a story arc in something like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. After all, that's what Joss Whedon excels at.

Whenever someone tells me that The Avengers is overrated, yet admit that they only saw one or two (or none) of the phase 1 movies, I have to shake my head a little because that's like seeing Serenity without having watched Firefly (which I did, and still thought was awesome as fuck to the point of going back to watch Firefly just because of it, but my friends' reaction to the movie proved that everyone else just weren't as awesome as me ). Sure, the movie works fine as a stand-alone film, but you aren't really going to care about the characters unless you've already seen them grow and develop on the show. You need that attachment to them.

And on that end, while shallow as a stand-alone, as a piece of a larger Universe, The Avengers has a lot more going on in it than what some people give it credit for. Every character has a character arc going on. This includes Stark, Cap, Banner, Thor, and even Loki. It's just that all of these arcs are continuations of their character development from their previous films, so if you haven't seen this em you wouldn't get what's going on with them. For instance, at the end of Captain America, you see him finally re-awaken in the modern world. In The Avengers, his character arc deals with him struggling to adapt to this very different and bizarre time which he feels so alien to, and if you've seen Captain America and got a hold of the values that his character had become accustomed to from his own timeline, you'd appreciate his conflict in The Avengers. This is especially displayed in his disputes with Iron Man, who is very much his polar opposite in every way, in that he represents technology and the future and is far more arrogant and flashy than what Cap would define as a hero. Their initial controversy with one another is a high point of the film for me as it is a catalyst for both of their character arcs. In the scenes where they are finally working together, it represents how Cap has finally come to accept this new time that he has emerged in as well as his role in it. It's great stuff that, once again, means absolutely zilch if you didn't watch his movie.

With the exception of maybe The Hulk, this holds true for every other major character in the film. On that end, The Avengers works as a great film within the context of the MCU in the grand scheme of things. On it's own, it's still fun as hell, but I can see why people would think it's overrated, though I also would never have recommended them to watch it without having seen all of the ore phase 1 movies in the first place.

[Foggle]

To be fair, I loved Serenity the first time I watched it, and I'd never even heard of Firefly before seeing it.

That said, I don't actually think The Avengers is overrated; it just wasn't really my kind of film. Though I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd ever gotten around to checking out the other Marvel movies. Iron Man 1 aside, it seems like I've only seen the underwhelming and/or non-canon films.

On a related note, I'll be seeing the Captain America sequel tomorrow! I was going to try to watch the first one beforehand, but unfortunately I just don't have the time to. I'll be sure to give The First Avenger a watch sometime later this week, though!

[Avaitor]

The first is still on Netflix I believe, so it shouldn't be hard to watch.

I do think you should see it first though. There are a couple of characters whose relation to Steve will make more sense if you've seen TFA, since they aren't present in Avengers at all (mainly Peggy and especially Bucky).

[Foggle]

I don't have time to watch it today or tomorrow, nor can I cancel my plans to see the sequel tomorrow, so it'll have to wait.