Mini Movie Reviews 2 - The Reviewening

[Killmaimburn]

Anyone else eagerly awaiting Tron: Legacy Friday?

See 4 posts up, I'm desperately trying to complete the game so I can get the whole story arc on the isomorphs sentience and clu2.0s issues with his creator.Which are then cross referenced in the film
Watch this to see why, the stories are *meshed* together

(In itself the game isn't great its a kind of prince of persia sands of time in blue on black with more blue)

[Hellebore]

Tron Legacy

Seemed pretty good. Didn't feel that Bruce Boxleitner/Tron got enough airtime - that is to say virtually none. Tron is the name of the film and Tron himself is barely in it. Also I found the story a little Matrix Revolutions Jesus Mesianic complex -y, with Flynn the creator and his prodigal son.
It was entertaining but it seemed a little too 'kill off the old guard and replace with the new blood' for me. You could see the end coming a mile away.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole

Well it surprised me that this was not only an Australian made film but it was based on Australian children's books. The animation was quite realistic and detailed, all in all very impressive especially for the budget. The voice acting was strange but then Australian voices always sound funny coming from cartoon characters, to me anyway. The story was nothing really special, coming of age quest etc. But there were some AMAZING fight scenes between armoured owls with giant claw blades that got quite brutal. Zack Snyder was a little too happy with the slo-mo though.

Hellebore

[biggreengribbly]

I must admit, I have No earthly idea how they made Owls scrapping look so damn awesome

[Killmaimburn]

Tron Legacy

Tron is the name of the film and Tron himself is barely in it.

The same could be said of the first one, he is 3rd or 4th down in terms of screen time.
Its more that the characters name/role/function personifies whats going on in the film, I reckon.

On Tron Evolution (which may be spoilers or enhancers for the film don't know)

The deleted scene from Tron 1.0 of Yori being naughty and having artistic merit and going beyond her programming by having wallpaper and liking things has developed into fully functional independent beings called isomorphs.
Flynn comes in to welcome an isomorph as joint system overlord as a good will gesture to this new species, along with Clu (his firewall who (fitting fluff of alan1 looking like tron)looks like flynn).A virus appears and attacks everyone.Clu feels shamed that it got passed him, but it didn't it grew from inside the system, a corrupted isomorph.Flynn points out this gap in Clu's knowledge and Clu's apparent derogatory attitude to isomorphs, Clu is slighted even though Flynn says its is his own fault for not making an all encompassing virus scanner thing. Clu organises a hit squad against Flynn (and tron, now his body guard/ninja program..no mention of alan1 so far, although he was in all of tron 2.0 with his son) Clu rules over all.Clu overcompensates for his failure with the virus attack by becoming despot over all..Blowing up Zeus' bar and trying to wipe out the isos.

Thats as far as I've got.

[Easy E]

Oh, and Ernest Borgnine. I had to restrain myself from cheering when I saw his name in the credits. This guy... is un-doodelidoo-believable. He must be close to 100 years now and still gets on screen. And it wasn't even just a short cameo; he was in even two scenes.

He is turning 94 a week or two before the SAG awards.

[Nocculum]

Due to the sudden and inexplicable snowstorm that struck North Wales overnight, (8" in yow face!) we're postponing our cinema trip...the wait for Tron can continue another few days...it's not as if 13 years was long enough!

[TheBigBadWolf]

Just got back from Tron Legacy at the Imax 3D.

It was awesome, see it now!

[HK-47]

Tron: Legacy

Before I actually review the movie I just want to go on the record as saying I'm not a fan of 3-d. The biggest two being the cost of the movie tickets, I spent $80 to see this movie $60 for the tickets and $20 for three drinks, and the second being that I don't think the people who make movies in 3-d really have the vision impaired in mind. It is so uncomfortable to wear those glasses over my prescriptions that I have to wear in order to see, I also get very bad headaches watching 3-d films. I think this has to do with the lens of my glasses interacting with the lens of the 3-d glass in some weird way because only my friends and family who are nearsighted have this problem.

Anyway let’s move on to the movie.

I actually think the movie is really good, and story is well developed, the action is great, and the soundtrack is amazing.

However there are some tiny little things that I felt should have been added. The movie should have been longer, Tron and Castor/Zuse should have had more scenes, Gem should have done more than stand around and look pretty, and Quorra was just a little too naive.

Jeff Bridges was a better Clu then Kevin, Kevin keep switching back and forth between a video game geek who never grew up, and a Zen master. Also some of the lines where a little cheesy, but that's Disney.

The biggest problem, personally, was that the story skinned topics that it could have explored in more detail. I may be sounded harsh but that's because I love this movie, and thought it could have been a true classic if it had some small tweaks.

Watch

[loveless]

The fact that the reviews and comments for Tron: Legacy here are all in spoiler tags both intrigues and alarms me.

Mainly...what the hell is going on in that movie that it needs spoiler tags to review it? I was kind of hoping to check some reviews before trying to see it, but since "professional" reviews have been anything but spoiler free for the past several I've checked out, I feel I should just avoid them like the plague this time...

However, it looks like Tron: Legacy is getting "Watch" results here, so I'll take that as endorsement

[Killmaimburn]

Ultramarines

40k film about a tactical squad on one of its first missions (they have no "glory" yet).Someone described it best in WS 40k general "mines of moria" that does seem to sum up 70-80% of the film.
The animation style is similar to the (rather terrible) trailers they put out, but some of the swirling winds and set piece dioramas are ok (if a bit dated, the knees moving seemed really weird)
The dialogue is better.Despite the pacing of some scenes the film is quick (helps that its only 75min long).
Characters aren't exactly lovable, but there is some inbuilt intrigue within the squad,they aren't all dry automata, and those tensions play out nicely.

There are a fair amount of complaints on the web about bits and bobs, but most of it is ok(doesn't show the black legion as having 2 brain cells to rub together)..I still don't get how the crozius fired a temporal bubble blast, but nothing that made me eat my fist in nerd rage after thinking a bit about it (and I was sat beside a fluff nutter who likewise found it passable). Thunderhammers are always awesome.

40k peeps -Watch (but I'd suggest not buy,if I were to put it in the same sphere as normal film purchases I'd say wait for the non collectors edition and then 1 person in a group buys it for the rest to pass round, I'm not going to watch it over and over again.)

Everyone else, skip it its for the fans by the fans and is very far away from being citizen kane.

Whole 100 page thread on it can be found in other section of warseer for discussion.

[Patriarch]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt1
I've become familiar with these films since borrowing a box set on behalf of my daughters; having now seen up to episode 6 (Half Blood Price) on the small screen we went to see Episode 7 today.

I thought it was pretty good, it felt like the Empire Strikes Back of the series with everything going wrong for the good guys. The audience is clearly expected to have grown up with the story so it is best suited for teenagers -

apart from a couple of character deaths, there is also a fairly naughty bit (magically simulated "intimate" scene designed by the baddies to upset Ron), horrible torture scene with HBC, and lots of Nazi overtones at the Ministry with half-blood wizards being dragged off for questioning about their ancestry, anti muggle propaganda etc).

Anyway, seems to be aimed at a completely different audience than Philosopher's Stone, or rather the exact same audience a few years on. You wouldn't take a 7 year old to see this one. I'm guessing the books work the same way, and it's not just a change in tone by the filmmakers. The actors have grown up a lot and so have their acting talents, so they are able to support a more heavy-going story than house points and quiddich matches.

It doesn't do to look too hard at the logic of a set of children's films - seriously, has Azkaban actually ever kept any of its prisoners? Why has Imelda Staunton still got her job/liberty after torturing children? Has Hermione's Convenient Plot Device aka Time Turner just stopped working?

The only thing that bugged me was the Horcrux thing being a straight steal from LotR. Indestructible object containing essence of the baddy? Brings out your nasty side if you wear it for too long? Fortunately no volcano was involved this time.

Anyway, certainly a Watch It if you have seen the others, but you wouldn't start here. Even to pass the time, the film assumes you are familiar with what has gone before.

[Patriarch]

A couple more:

The Tourist
Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie light hearted spy thriller. Really an excuse for JD to be funny and AJ to look smexy, in gorgeous surroundings (Paris and Venice). Perfectly good reasons for seeing a film. Probably more of a couples thing though.

Verdict: at least worth a Rent should you want to see something with the other half.

The Descent 2
More painting fodder from Sky. Worth a watch if you've seen the original (helps explain some of it which wasn't particularly clear), lots of climbing-axe-in-monster action.

Surveillance
Another movie on Sky, this is a detective thriller where two FBI agents quiz a series of witnesses to some kind of violent event - the nature of which unfolds as the testimony is provided. Quite intriguing, I really hope those cops are exaggerations. Once again, worth a watch, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to see more than once.

[Nocculum]

The Tourist
Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie light hearted spy thriller. Really an excuse for JD to be funny and AJ to look smexy, in gorgeous surroundings (Paris and Venice). Perfectly good reasons for seeing a film. Probably more of a couples thing though.

Verdict: at least worth a Rent should you want to see something with the other half.

There are a few more reasons, but when you put it like that, he was funny and she was smexxy, so you can't really lose .

[nagash66]

Predators

Ok first off lets gets 1-2 things straight, i love the theme and back story of predatos, the whole hunter/spartan/alien thing is great.

I hated the AVP films, i liked both predator film however i believe the second one to be suffer from protagonist miscast.

Now on to the film, i like the premise, this is a predator idea of holiday/training, we get a nice group of people together all with their own set of deadly skills, add some funky aliens and start the hunt.

I think the film failed to bring this premise to life as it should have been, a few things:

1) wasted chance to showcase some of the other species the Predators hunt.
2) Not enought Predator equipment show.
3) Why are almost are Predators stupid in these films?
4) Why do all the Predators have to die?
5) If you are going to have warring Predator factions show off some Predator on Predator action ( not a fething Predator fistfight).

All in all it was not half bad, however take into acount that i watched this with my expectation set to very low.

RENT

[Easy E]

Spartan

A Special Ops soldier (Val Kilmer) is sent into to save a girl who was kidnapped by slave traffickers.

This is the serious Taken, written and directed by David Mamet (I have a feeling I just spelled that wrong), the writer/director of Red Belt.

The movie was set up as a political thriller, and it was. It was a slow-burn, low key feel to it.

There is no real reason to like Val Kilmer, but as the movie progresses, his dedication to his profession starts to win you over.

It is pretty clear who the bad guy is suppose to be though.

Watch

[sigur]

...
There is no real reason to like Val Kilmer, ...

Well, he used to be a pretty good singer. I watched Top Secret recently (probably his first major film role) which I found very funny.

Watch

[Killmaimburn]

Some folks have already done one but I figured I'd add mine

Tron Legacy 2010
What was that? (ok so I had high expectations but..)
Geek wife fell asleep during solar sailor scene and complained that bridges was just sleepwalking his character into the dude.
It showed promise and then fell down in the 4th quarter.
You lot who didn't play the game must have sat their struggling for any emotional impact, you don't see clu as anything more than 2 dimensional and you don't see Quorra as anything special.

NOT IN THE FILM-only spoilers for the game-
Clu is desperate for his creators approval and hates to think of himself as in anyway inperfect or not omnipresent.he then thinks he's being supplanted in affection in a whole fallen angel way..he hates the social divide (in his mind) between basics (angels) and isos (humans) so he corrupts a lead iso (adam?)..to become a horrible virus (abraxas) he uses this virus threat to fear monger into him gaining greater powers from/over the system. Things come to a head when an pioneering Iso is welcomed as joint leader of the system. He stages Abraxas (virus puppet) attacking Flynn so as to declare martial law and let tanks out on the streets. He then sends a hit squad after tron and flynn who are fleeing the system (presumably for a sys restore point). He then declares the virus used to be an radical Iso and starts genocide (starting with zuus's bar in the iso sector where everyone is about hippy innovation and joy etc..he just annihilates the whole building with a cannon..hence what zuus does in the film.) inc the mandatory hate speech Nuremberg rally styly with tanks and soliders marching in their millions. Quorra going from iso hideout to hide out only to have her friends killed and seeing the iso system mod killed by clu or the revelation(thats one throw away sentance in the film), and that only she knowsthat the abraxas virus was the 1st leader of the isos who went missing corrupted by clu.

I hope somewhere there is a bit more about Dillinger- film needed more david warner

Watchable- but dagnabbit don't go with super high expectations, it can't stand by itself very well.I really hope all the stuff not included is in a directors cut or something.
This disney idea of having to have multiple sources to make a whole film doesn't work for me.

p.s. those saying where did the religion come from.. remember tron1 opens on sark declaring all those who won't renounce their belief in higher powers/users will be put to death etc etc.

[The Dude]

complained that bridges was just sleepwalking his character into the dude.

And this is a problem, how?

[Nocculum]

I'm expecting to tingle when I see Light Bikes, ooze nerd when I see the Arena and frankly, generally fall in love with the aesthetic and the world once again, just like I did when I was younger.

If I wanted intellectual plot and a thrilling ride, I would not expect to get it from 80's sci-fi .

[Killmaimburn]

And this is a problem, how?

The dude is awesome, however he is not 100% the same as a fly by the seat of his pants arcade manager/IT guy/CEO in prison for 25 years.

If I wanted intellectual plot and a thrilling ride, I would not expect to get it from 80's sci-fi .

Its not the intellectual, its just plain sat there going "why did he do that then?" throughout something.