RugbyRebels

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:01 am As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

I thought Anatomy of a fall was fantastic. It's kind of amazing to me that you can still make a murder mystery/court room drama format interesting and original.

"Vicious in its self awareness" is certainly one way to describe the new Matrix film. There were some good moments, but most of the entertainment came from "see - I told you this film would be absolutely awful if you made us make another sequel" style jokes. I don't know that I'd say that's a good thing. I'd say good on them for the middle finger, but it still turned out being the paint-by-numbers movie the studios were pushing for, for the most part.

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:11 pm An Everyman. I’m not sure if you mean a specific cinema or streaming? I don’t think it’s on streaming yet in any legitimate way, but I imagine it’s in a decent number of cinemas at the moment.

Might end up streaming on something more like Mubi than Netflix, as it’s still an artsy French film, but I’d recommend it in a cinema if you can find it and don’t mind 2:40 runtime.

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:01 am As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 4:13 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:01 am As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

That's what I thought might be the impression for a fresh viewer. I don't know if it even did do a good job for me as a fan - it was a loving homage to the book and showcased some absolutely stunning visuals, but if I want to revisit the story again in the future, there's absolutely no question in the slightest of whether I'll be heading to the bookshelf or the television, which suggests it's an abject failure as an adaptation.

Compare that to Nimona from earlier this year, which changed quite a lot from the source material in terms of looks, setting, and plot, but still kept the same feel and important character beats as the original, becoming a different way of telling the story that I like just as much as the book, possibly more. Mind, there's too big and old and entitled a fanbase to endure anything other than a loyal retelling of the book of Dune, but it feels like they could've taken some more chances than trying to do a page-by-page recreation that missed out a lot of the emotion that's told through internal monologue in the book.

Puja

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:57 am I finally got around to watching the fourth Matrix film and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was solidly okay. Everything I'd heard had led me to believe that it was appalling, but it was a solidly fun movie - not as good as the first one, but probably better than the other two and vicious in its self-awareness. It did suffer a bit from not being able to get Hugo Weaving back though - would've been a lot stronger with the original Smith rather than a recast.

Puja

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 4:13 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:01 am As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

That's what I thought might be the impression for a fresh viewer. I don't know if it even did do a good job for me as a fan - it was a loving homage to the book and showcased some absolutely stunning visuals, but if I want to revisit the story again in the future, there's absolutely no question in the slightest of whether I'll be heading to the bookshelf or the television, which suggests it's an abject failure as an adaptation.

Compare that to Nimona from earlier this year, which changed quite a lot from the source material in terms of looks, setting, and plot, but still kept the same feel and important character beats as the original, becoming a different way of telling the story that I like just as much as the book, possibly more. Mind, there's too big and old and entitled a fanbase to endure anything other than a loyal retelling of the book of Dune, but it feels like they could've taken some more chances than trying to do a page-by-page recreation that missed out a lot of the emotion that's told through internal monologue in the book.

Puja

Which Tyler wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:24 am To me, the first film just felt like part 1
A load of set-up and no pay-off.
A lot like the book at that point.

I suspect it'll look a lot better when the 2 are watched in conjunction.

► Show Spoiler

slowly rise to predestined victory over the sneering villains. (Not the biggest spoiler, to be honest )

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 9:48 pm I’m intrigued which of those categories Infinity Pool fell in to for you. There were definitely moments of both, but really did not know how I felt afterwards overall.

Anatomy of a fall was easily the best thing I saw in the cinema but I don’t think I actually went much this year. Not for new releases anyway.

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 1:22 pm Anybody watched Poor Things or The Boy and The Heron yet? Can't quite choose which. Will definitely check out Zone of Interest when that comes out too. Saw the Godzilla film and that was pretty fun.

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 4:16 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 1:22 pm Anybody watched Poor Things or The Boy and The Heron yet? Can't quite choose which. Will definitely check out Zone of Interest when that comes out too. Saw the Godzilla film and that was pretty fun.

The algorithm is determined that I should watch Poor Things, so I've seen about a dozen different mini-trailers. Looks like good fun, tbh.

Puja