What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Watched a couple movies yesterday on my snow day.

Godzilla-. I'd heard some mixed opinions on it, but wanted to give it a shot anyway. I'm pretty patient and have a solid attention span, so after hearing what people had complained about, I thought I'd come out liking it. Well, I do, sort of. While most people would say it's disappointing, to me it's frustrating. Coming from a filmmaking/screenwriting background, it's insanely obvious to me how this movie could have been better, though it would have clashed with the status quo for a Hollywood blockbuster. First of, ditch stuff with the lead's wife and kid. Their used for literally nothing more than an emotional anchor for the lead. Brian Cranston played that role in the first 20 minutes _AND_ served a purpose outside of that. Should have stuck with that through the whole thing. Second, don't be so high and fucking mighty to deny the audience what they came for: Monsters fighting each other. Several times they set up a fight and then do some dumb shit like cut to a report on the news or the character witnessing the action goes inside and shuts the doors. Throws the pacing all off and coupled with the flaws in the character dynamics, it really hurts the movie. A shame, since as a fan of watching giant monsters best the shit out of each other, it's never looked better. When it's cool, it's really fucking cool, I'm not sure the ride is worth it though.

Ant-Man on the other hand was a BLAST. It's not perfect, but it's got heart enough for you to not hold it against it. Third best Marvel flick, behind Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Josh Look wrote:

Godzilla-. I'd heard some mixed opinions on it, but wanted to give it a shot anyway. I'm pretty patient and have a solid attention span, so after hearing what people had complained about, I thought I'd come out liking it. Well, I do, sort of. While most people would say it's disappointing, to me it's frustrating. Coming from a filmmaking/screenwriting background, it's insanely obvious to me how this movie could have been better, though it would have clashed with the status quo for a Hollywood blockbuster. First of, ditch stuff with the lead's wife and kid. Their used for literally nothing more than an emotional anchor for the lead. Brian Cranston played that role in the first 20 minutes _AND_ served a purpose outside of that. Should have stuck with that through the whole thing. Second, don't be so high and fucking mighty to deny the audience what they came for: Monsters fighting each other. Several times they set up a fight and then do some dumb shit like cut to a report on the news or the character witnessing the action goes inside and shuts the doors. Throws the pacing all off and coupled with the flaws in the character dynamics, it really hurts the movie. A shame, since as a fan of watching giant monsters best the shit out of each other, it's never looked better. When it's cool, it's really fucking cool, I'm not sure the ride is worth it though.

100% correct. There's a scene where the lead character is getting away on a train, and you get a glimpse out the window of one of the insect monsters (or whatever) starting to seriously wreck the town. Then we get good long looks at the inside of the train car. "Hey, can we look out that window again? Because that looks kind of interesting."

It's almost as if those scenes are a conscious decision to not be Transformers. I admire the sentiment, but it's the big action where I can't decipher what's going on that pisses me off, not the big action itself.

I agree about Godzilla, pretty much with everything you guys wrote. The pacing and monster-to-monster fighting were especially disappointing. One thing that watching Gozilla did was make me appreciate Pacific Rim that much more.

Godzilla was fucking terrible. Don't make apologies for that shit show. The scene where there's about to be a battle between G and the Mutos or whatever and the bunker doors close on it pretty much says it all- these people have no idea what makes Godzilla great. The screenwriters and filmmakers strained to tell a "human" story about relationships, etc. so that their big monster movie would appear "adult". The actors would get to go on talk shows and rhapsodize about how it's not just a big monster movie, how it was really about the people living in the face of adversity and so forth. Critics would talk about its "maturity". It would all seem VERY SERIOUS and EARNEST.

Fuck all of the above, I'd rather see 60 minutes of really shitty, nonsensical Japanese melodrama (dubbed at that) and then 20 minutes of full-on man-in-suit Kaiju action than 110 minutes of adult, human drama and then 10 minutes of CGI Kaiju action.

It's like the filmmakers were embarrassed to be making a Godzilla film...either that or they somehow missed that part of the appeal of Godzilla is that it is immature, childish and obnoxious. I seriously think Godzilla's Revenge (the one with Minya) is better than Godzilla 2014.

Even the original '54 Godzilla had that grand guignol/disaster voyeurism/pulpy edge to it, even though ti was a more serious film.

Godzilla 2014 was basically a Hollywood disaster flick. Instead of earthquakes or global warming its giant monsters, but it felt like exactly the same formula. I like disaster flicks as much as the next guy, but that's not what Godzilla should be.

No one wants a "human element" in their monsters/robots/aliens fighting each other movies. Why do studios insist that one needs to be present?

It absolutely needs to be present, it needs to be present in any movie, really. It's easy to say that, particularly in when it comes to the Transformers since you want to kill every human actor on screen because they're so irritating, but you can't do 2-2 1/2 hours of that stuff. Half hour, like the cartoons, sure, but we as humans desire a relatable 3-part narrative on an instinctual level.

Where that decision to have a human element becomes misguided is when the giant monster/mech/whatever stuff takes a backseat to it. Transformers commits the crime of focusing on the humans while the robot stuff happens behind them (indecipherably, at that), Godzilla 2014 straight up denies you from seeing it. Out of recent stuff, Pacific Rim does it best. It's got a lot of human stuff, but they're controlling the cool robot shit. Pacific Rim has had the "Fifth Element effect" on me. I didn't care for it at all when I first watched it, but I've seen it a few more times and I've come to love it.

Anyone seen Garreth Edward's Monsters? It's the same deal as his Godzilla. I don't think he's embarrassed to be doing it, It's more that he's trying to build anticipation and trying (and failing) to get you connect to his human characters. His decisions are well intentioned, but they're entirely misguided.

BTW, Monsters is a fucking coma compared to the quick nap that Godzilla was. If it's kaiju you crave, the 90s Gamera movies (starting with Guardian of the Universe) is pretty much the king shit.

Monsters is terrible (based on my expectations?). It's a just a love story with some monsters in the background.

AvP2 added teenager drama. If any movie can get away with dropping all humans outside of collateral damage, it would be a Predator fighting a xenomorph. Yes, I want 2 hours of just creature fighting.

Josh Look wrote: BTW, Monsters is a fucking coma compared to the quick nap that Godzilla was. If it's kaiju you crave, the 90s Gamera movies (starting with Guardian of the Universe) is pretty much the king ***.

Has anyone seen "Big Man Japan" ?





Not mentioning this movie here on F:AT is unforgivable.

Saw a couple of critically acclaimed movies that I found over-rated:

Drugstore Cowboy had some interesting stylistic choices, but ultimately was a pretty small movie that was carried almost entirely by Matt Dillon's handsome face. I was surprised to see Max Perlich in this movie, as I somehow had the impression that his career started with Homicide. I also found the young and slightly attractive blonde looked a bit familiar, and was surprised to see in the credits that it was a young Heather Graham. Maybe this movie was influential for its time, but I found it not particularly interesting.

Down by Law was a typical Jim Jarmusch movie, I suppose. A few wry insights about the human condition interspersed with long stretches of minimal plot, desultory dialogue, and awkward pauses. Actually, some of the dialogue is more like monologue, with one person rambling on without interruption or interaction. I was hoping for more, given the presence of both Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni. But Waits seems to be one of those actors who just plays his own quirky self, and Benigni can easily drift into annoyance if a director doesn't reign him in. I keep giving Jarmusch a chance because I liked Dead Man and I loved Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai.

Watched Raiders of the Lost Ark two nights ago, as threatened. It was fun, still a great movie. I forgot how much of an almost silent movie quality it has. There are tons of scenes with very little dialogue that play more like an older era film. There's even some physical slapstick elements in some of the fight scenes. Also, Marion Ravenwood is very sexy, a big cut above most of the female love interests in the average action movie. Even by today's standards.

Watching Last Crusade right now. Great movie.

craniac wrote:

Josh Look wrote: BTW, Monsters is a fucking coma compared to the quick nap that Godzilla was. If it's kaiju you crave, the 90s Gamera movies (starting with Guardian of the Universe) is pretty much the king ***.

Has anyone seen "Big Man Japan" ?

Not mentioning this movie here on F:AT is unforgivable.

And here I thought I'd seen some crazy Japanese movies. Actually... yeah, I have. But somehow I've missed Big Man Japan. Now to find out how to get my hands on it.

Finally caught Interstellar. Amazing experience. I think I may like this more than Ex Machina...it was definitely heart-wrenching.

However, there was one thing I didn't really get.