Movie/film thread: resurrected

I have discovered fanedits. In particular of Ridley Scott's Prometheus. For no reason that I remember I decided I should look at Prometheus again. (Possibly for the visuals since as I recall the last version I watched was a cam.) Anyway, being aware that Prometheus is bland jumble of angry people making puerile mistakes against awe-inspiring backdrops they could care less about, I wondered if there hadn't by now been released a Director's Cut that could tell the story better. But it seems The Ridley has refused the concept of director's cuts completely, saying that theatrical releases are by definition director's cuts anyway so bog off! Then lo, google searches for "Prometheus expanded extended directors" revealed a whole new world of fan-made revisions of the movie. People have incorporated deleted scenes, altered existing takes, attempted to cut out some of the dumber continuity crap that came with the original, and have, in a sense, created whole new movies from the source material. I had no idea people did this with movies.

So I watched Prometheus: Giftbearer, a respectable fanedit by Severian, and it's actually pretty cool. The edit does excellent things like: they start the story with Peter Weyland's TED talk rather than the Engineers supposed visit to Earth, which is a fantastic choice since it makes his third act reappearance so much less out of place. The story telling ability of the editor is a bit hit and miss, though. There are missed beats and sequences that include artless non sequitur jumps, some of which are very distracting, particularly during some action sequences. But overall I think it works. Was worth the download.

The other Prometheus fanedit that's supposed to be good is Agent 9's "Special Edition". Might watch that next.

Star Trek Beyond finally opened in China.  Big Screen and 3 D are definitely worth the price of a discounted ticket purchased online.

Could it have been better?  Sure.  Trekier?  Sure.  On the other hand, not every Star Trek film can live up to Wrath of Khan (actually, no Star Trek film has every matched it, but Undiscovered Country did at least come close).  Overall, I'd put this one in the middle of the range of Star Trek films.

And, if anyone wants a spoiler.

Spoiler Alert!

Spoiler Alert!

Sulu is married.  He has a cute daughter and a nice looking husband.

George Takai has come ou, er weighed in on the issue.  He said that although Star Trek needed some gay characters, he objects to Sulu being changed so much from how the character's background was laid out by Gene Roddenberry.  George made it very plain that he feels it would be better to introduce a new character instead of reorienting an existing one just because the first actor is to play the role is gay.

And we're still not quite sure of the exact nature of the relationship between Mr. Scott and his odd little companion.


Spoiler over.

You may now return to your game of Whack-A-Tribble.  Remember to set phasers on kill.

I loved the original Star trek TV series as a kid - couldn't wait for Friday night when it and Wild Wild West were on back-to-back.

I downloaded and watched Star trek VI Undiscovered Country because you mentioned it and I'd never seen it... hokey.

I don't want to watch a 'gay' Star trek movie.

I guess my Star trek days are over.

If you consider a 3 second long reveal of someone's orientation to make a movie gay, you'll be missing out on a lot of movies.   It wasn't a major (or even minor) plot point.

I still say Undiscovered Country is one of the best movies, but if you skip straight to it without seeing some of what happened in the prior movies, it won't make nearly as much sense.  Skip #1 (unless the thought of Nomad on steroids appeals to you), enjoy Wrath of Khan, then sit through 3-6 while keeping in mind that the even numbered ones make up for the lack in the odd numbered ones.

Ghostbusters (2016)

The only thing I remember of the original Ghostbusters is thinking that it was all quite beneath Ripley and she should have had a better movie to be in. So now I've watched the remake. I found it hectic and not funny. More importantly, I didn't believe any of the various characters interests in anything.

I mostly watched this movie to find out why there's such a backlash. Why are a certain vocal segment of the internet so enamored of their perished childhood icons that they hold them up as a current standard? I found that it's better in general to consider the internet an immature medium and its products by default puerile.

I wonder if the non-English speaking internet is as under-developed.


 

Ghenghis Khan, To the ends of the Earth and Sea

Allegedly took 27 years to plan this movie.  More like 27 days to write a draft and the rest of the time spent wrecking it.

Acting was lame, mostly dur to poor scripting and direction.  Every now and then the actors were doing a good job - most likely on ad libbed scenes.  I don't seem to recall a Mulan clone being one of Ghenghis Khan's greatest soldiers.  I'm also sure you can't be the greatest conqueror in history if you are worried about being politically correct with civilians.

It's so sad.  They had a big enough budget.  They had adequate actors.  The writer, director, and producer should all issue apologies for this.

"SNOWDEN": This is the untold personal story of Edward Snowden who exposed shocking illegal surveillance activities by NSA. I think that Calach would find this quite interesting. Google his name for a bit more info.

"SNOWDEN": This is the untold personal story of Edward Snowden who exposed shocking illegal surveillance activities by NSA. I think that Calach would find this quite interesting. Google his name for a bit more info.

Yup, I'll be watching it when it becomes available. I'm wary of it though. Like the man himself said, he's not the story. Also, it's a little early for dramatized accounts, especially given how everyone and their dog from the very first leak has been inventing narratives for this man and what he did. Man, the way US politicos grabbed the narrative by the neck and started shouting soundbites was... illuminating. Traitor, irreparable damage to security, millions of documents, even misinformation about Snowden's actual job. The propaganda efforts have been so successful people still say he fled to Russia. But yeah, I'll take a skeptical look at it as a movie.

Blue Jay (2016)

Two people in a house. Which movie is not truly explained by the blurb - two high school sweethearts reconnect when both return to their hometown - but that blurb is what happens. A realistic fantasy of connection and meaning. Hardcore.

 

From the press release:

BLUE JAY, a tender, wise and affecting chamber romantic drama, stars Duplass and Paulson as two former high school sweethearts. They return to their tiny California hometown and meet by chance, reflecting on their shared past through the lens of their differently dissatisfied presents.

The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffft. That is one slow moving movie. I had to watch it in stages lest I fall asleep. I was taken aback too by the age of the actors. I guess the movies came after the tv show. What I did end this movie with was a moral certainty I had seen Dr David "Kirkson" Marcus before. It ate away at me every time he was on screen: where had I seen him before?!?!?! Google told me all. He was Johnny Slash from Square Pegs, a teenaged Sarah Jessica Parker early 80s high school sitcom (which shows theme tune was by The Waitresses!)

"DEEPWATER HORIZON": A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.  I like movies based on true stories. I am constantly amazed at the incredible Cinematography that goes into the making of these films. 

Snowden (2016)

As most reviews note, Snowden is not as lean a movie as it could be, and while Lindsey Mills was and remains a real person in the real Ed's life, her role in the movie version of his life is shallow enough to be distracting. Other distractions include Corbin O'Brian and Hank Forrester. These two were apparently necessary to simplify the storytelling but they stand out as false - as composites or caricatures - next to all the "real" characters. So when watching this movie in search of fact, they, curiously enough, undermine some of the impact of the story. But I will tell you, the movie has an impact. We - almost - see clearly the existential horror. Snowden's actions are more contextualised. We find him differing substantially from the standard reportage of his position in the intelligence community. We learn about Epic Shelter and Heartbeat (which may or may not be real). We meet Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, and Ewen MacAskill, and the entire way through Snowden the man is present through the voice and body of Joseph Gordon Levitt. And after a while we start to get bored and slowed down and begin wondering how Oliver Stone managed to suck the life out of even this story, but the actual scope of what's happening and an emerging sense of why Snowden could have cared in the first place does appear by the end. The character of Snowden the whole way through is so clearly the one who's going to have moral qualms that it's a wonder no other character tried to push him out a window when he started looking like someone with issues, why so many of his superiors tried to assert that caricatured moral position over the top of him, that the movie does run the risk of being boring, like Stone really wanted that underling vs ossified military bosses conflict when in fact the real story was of emerging horror. But we get there in the end.

 

Mad Max: Fury Road - Black & Chrome Edition



Worth it in every way

"The Queen of Katwe" I think that you would like thia one Calach. It is based on a true story about a young girl from Uganda who trained to become a world class chess champion.

Suicide Squad (2016)

Stupid.

I watched about 20 min. and deleted it.