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13 hours ago, zslane said:

 

Exactly. They could have made the exact same movie without any DC references in it and it would not have done 1% of the box office business that it has, because at the end of the day it isn't the story that is drawing people to the theaters. It is only by putting a thin vernier of the Batman mythos on it that this Taxi Driver meets Cuckoos Nest meets King of Comedy mashup gets any attention (or box office) at all. 

You are not wrong ....

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Godzilla: King of Monsters

It was a fun popcorn movie. I liked the 2014 movie better, but the addition of more monsters was great. I feel this movie was too long though. It really needed a quicker pace. Too much of the plot was stretched out longer than it needed to be. It could easily have been streamlined by at least 20 minutes and still hit all the same story beats. And I don't what this says about the lack of character development in these movies, but I was never emotionally moved by any of the character deaths. However, I was saddened by the destruction of that underwater city; that was a find of immeasurable archaeological value and now it's gone forever.

 

I'm looking forward to Godzilla vs. Kong next year, but I have to confess that I'm just not into the idea of these two fighting to determine a "winner" (especially since I just don't think you can make Kong a credible contender against this Godzilla). Moreover, I can't shake the feeling of cultural warfare in the subtext, even though that is most certainly not the intent of the film.

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I've seen a lot of people characterizing Godzilla vs Kong as East vs West, Japan vs America. I don't think that's fair, nor the intention of the film makers. It also ignores the fact that every incarnation of Kong's island has been in either the South Pacific or the Indian Ocean, usually off the coast of Indonesia. It was never Kong's choice to be an American immigrant. ;)

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2 hours ago, zslane said:

Godzilla: King of Monsters

It was a fun popcorn movie. I liked the 2014 movie better, but the addition of more monsters was great. I feel this movie was too long though. It really needed a quicker pace. Too much of the plot was stretched out longer than it needed to be. It could easily have been streamlined by at least 20 minutes and still hit all the same story beats. And I don't what this says about the lack of character development in these movies, but I was never emotionally moved by any of the character deaths. However, I was saddened by the destruction of that underwater city; that was a find of immeasurable archaeological value and now it's gone forever.

 

This movie was fan service to existing lovers of the Toho monsters and the kaiju movie genre in general. It's loaded with themes, images, and callbacks to those past films, which IMHO greatly enhances a fan's experience of watching KOTM. You can feel the respect and love director Michael Dougherty has for these monsters in every shot.

 

Unfortunately, while IMO the visuals, score, and many of the action sequences in the movie are spectacular, it's not a great film by most of the other standards movies are held to: plot, characterization, dialogue. Perhaps ironically, that's also true of most of the past kaiju films. Cheese runs through the genre, so in that sense KOTM could be viewed as true to its heritage. ;) To their credit the cast sold their lines with great sincerity. However, I felt that the director spent too much time cutting back to these admittedly less than compelling human characters. Nobody goes to a giant monster movie for the humans. 😝

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2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I've seen a lot of people characterizing Godzilla vs Kong as East vs West, Japan vs America. I don't think that's fair, nor the intention of the film makers. It also ignores the fact that every incarnation of Kong's island has been in either the South Pacific or the Indian Ocean, usually off the coast of Indonesia. It was never Kong's choice to be an American immigrant. ;)

 

The cultural collision isn't in the diagesis, it is meta-contextual.

 

Godzilla is a Japanese creation, an icon of Japanese movie culture. King Kong is an American creation, an icon of American movie culture. A movie that pits them against each other is essentially asking the Monsterverse equivalent of "Who would win in a fight between Aquaman and Namor?" Two fandom "camps" colliding with each other and grasping for cultural supremacy. DC vs. Marvel. Windows vs. Mac. Godzilla vs. Kong. There's no way to avoid the underlying tribalism inherent in the cultural lineages of these two monsters.

 

Now, the movie itself will undoubtedly try to celebrate each monster without "playing favorites". It pretty much has to since it wants to appeal to as broad a (global) audience as possible, which means the fight will be inconclusive. They will most likely stop fighting to team up against a larger threat, leaving the question of which monster is superior unanswered (as it surely must in order to remain politically correct and commercially successful). And I kinda cringe when I think of all the ways the fight between them is going to be contrived so that neither comes out on top as the "winner".

 

It just feels awkward to me on numerous levels.

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Coincidentally, we just finished Killjoys last weekend.  :)

 

Throughout its five season run, I found it to always be fun, a quality I appreciate very much in a TV show. (Although it did get bogged down a bit for a short while there).

 

I'm going to miss it. There were so many great, memorable characters!  But I'll especially miss the friendship between Johnny and Dutch.

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Bambi: Disney classic about a young deer and his friends growing up in the forest. The film is a visual masterpiece, and holds up well over 75 years after its initial release. (Blu-ray)

 

Daybreak: Ferris Bueller after the apocalypse, complete with fourth-wall breaks, roving bands of mutants, and Mad Max-style teenager gangs. I made it through the 10 episodes, but the story definitely drags in several places, and the payoff for sticking with it wasn't great. (Netflix)

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On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 3:35 PM, Lord Liaden said:

 

This movie was fan service to existing lovers of the Toho monsters and the kaiju movie genre in general. It's loaded with themes, images, and callbacks to those past films, which IMHO greatly enhances a fan's experience of watching KOTM. You can feel the respect and love director Michael Dougherty has for these monsters in every shot.

 

Unfortunately, while IMO the visuals, score, and many of the action sequences in the movie are spectacular, it's not a great film by most of the other standards movies are held to: plot, characterization, dialogue. Perhaps ironically, that's also true of most of the past kaiju films. Cheese runs through the genre, so in that sense KOTM could be viewed as true to its heritage. ;) To their credit the cast sold their lines with great sincerity. However, I felt that the director spent too much time cutting back to these admittedly less than compelling human characters. Nobody goes to a giant monster movie for the humans. 😝

 

There have been plenty of kaiju movies with good plots....and casts..and ones with little to no "cheese". There's been a lot of material over the years. I don't like kaiju films JUST for the monsters...though that is a draw. My favorites are ones that have a nice balance of numerous elements or which appeal to me in some other way. And being a HUGE fan of the classic Toho movies...yes...I DO watch them for the humans as well.

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On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 1:03 PM, zslane said:

Netflix's Lost in Space - I really enjoyed this series, except for one thing: Dr. Smith. I hated that character. And not in a fun "love to hate" kind of way. The character was just so awful that she nearly ruined the show for me. It is a testament to how good the rest of the cast is and how good the writing is that I enjoyed the show despite her.

 

I finally got to watch this show, and had the same reaction.  I also enjoyed the series (and got a kick out of Bill Mumy's cameo in the first episode), but did not like the character of Dr. Smith.  Really liked the character development on all the rest, though.  I'm interested to see what they do in season 2.

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Terminator: Dark Fate - enjoyed it. basically a reboot of original. Seems to only recognize 1st 2 Cameron Terminator movies in its history. Basic premise is, in the 2nd movie they succeeded in stopping Skynet. FF 25+ years later and of course, stupid govt/scientists create Legion - a tactical war AI that does exactly what Skynet did. So now an augmented human and a new type of terminator (basically, as has been shown in ads, a merging of the previous 2 types) have been sent to protect/kill a new young woman. Linda Hamilton is great and her story is interesting as to how she got to where she is. For fans of the original 2 movies, I would recommend it.

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Logan's Run: The TV Series: A short-lived series that followed Logan and Jessica as they ran about having adventures while looking for Sanctuary. Francis is sent after them by a secret cabal of over-30s who actually run the City of Domes. They are joined by the android Rem in the first episode, who helps them escape from a bunch of robots who want to take care of them forever (they have to disable one robot named Siri in the process). The show was highly episodic, and the quality of the stories varies from good (for 1970s TV Sci-Fi) to horrible (an episode about a haunted house). (DVD) 

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The Last Boy Scout: Action/thriller with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans, and a convoluted plot involving drugs and sports betting. Made me realize that it's been a while since I've watched Hudson Hawk. (Amazon Prime)

 

Snow White: The first feature-length animated movie from Disney, still a classic. (Blu-ray)

 

National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1: Spoof of action movies like the first one on this list. Somewhat uneven, but fun for all of the cameos. (Netflix)

 

Eric Idle's What About Dick?: Filmed stage presentation of a radio show about the rise and fall of the British empire as told by a piano (Eric Idle). He's joined by a bunch of British comedians, including Russell Brand, Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Tracy Ullman, and Tim Curry. A lot of fun. Rated TV-MA, so you probably shouldn't watch it at work (Netflix)

 

Wargames: Shall we play a game? (DVD)*

 

Amazing Spider-Man 2: A movie in serious need of a good writer and a good editor. Watch Spider-Man: Homecoming instead. (Netflix Blu-ray)

 

 

*Apparently, there's a Google Easter-egg if you type that phrase into a search bar.

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