Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmxLybfGNC4

I give it a 3/10 and I'm being generous.

Admittedly, I only watched it for Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz).  She was the best part of the film.

How the rest of the film?  Standard alien invader plot.  Good for about 30 minutes, then it went to shit bigtime.  Imagine a better version of Signs for the first 30 minutes, then the second 30 minutes is some really bad Outer Limits episode (there's a twist, but you'll see it coming a mile away), and finally a really bad version of The Scorch Trials written by a 10-year-old who had just binged Twilight.  And there's no ending.  So yeah, pretty bad all around.

[spoiler]I don't get why there's even a fifth wave.  The first 4 disasters pretty much annihilated civilization.  The aliens EMP the world, knocking out transport, communications, running water, etc.  Then they hit us with earthquakes and the ensuing tidal waves wipe out every coastal city and small island, killing a surprisingly large chunk of the population.  Then, there's avian flu.  With no hospitals.  It's overkill.

And the final dastardly alien attack is just to have a good ol' fashioned 2nd amendment blowout.  But they don't march tripods down Main Street.  Nope, nothing that cool or effective.  They just pick people off with hunting rifles and recon drones.  Because reasons.  And the plot twist 2/3 through makes precious little sense.[/spoiler]

[SGOS]

How the rest of the film?  Standard alien invader plot.  Good for about 30 minutes, then it went to shit bigtime.

My limit of interest in the film was thinking about the current wave of 3 and 4 part films usually based a sets of books for young adults, all utilizing dystopian fantasy or science fiction.  It's a good concept for making epic blockbusters, that can end up carrying parts 3 and 4 on name recognition alone.  Hollywood gets this gimmick, and understands the profit potential.  But it acts like that's all it takes to make movies.  In fact, most of these movies for kids seem to forget that a well written story is still a bottom line required for a good movie.  You can't replace story telling with special effects and a 3 or 4 part format.

[SGOS]

Now You See Me 2  3/10

What a disappointment after loving the first movie so much.  I didn't expect the sequel to be as good as the first, and I knew that the mysteries of the first had already unfolded, and could not be used again, but whatever creative sense captured the movie team's imaginations the first time around were used up or lost by the second attempt.

One thing I enjoyed in the first movie was a bumbling law enforcement team always being two steps behind the magicians.  The sense of chaos created by the wild chase the first time could not be duplicated again using nothing but a shaky cam and unintelligible plot.  When the scenes would be cut to half second glimpses and the camera man was shaking the camera as hard as he could, I would be thinking, "Yeah OK.  This jingly part is supposed to represent chaos," although instead of experiencing chaos, I would just be mildly annoyed at the use of a shaky cam attempting to create a visceral sensation that something was actually happening on the screen.

I found the plot hard to follow.  I understood it in general terms, but much of the time, I would wonder why something or other was introduced to the plot when it didn't seem important enough to include.  Maybe watching it a second time would shed some light on things I just didn't get, but from reviews I'm reading, I'm getting the impression that a lot of other people aren't getting it either.

Edit:  In the last 24 hours the critic approval has dropped from 49% to 37%

[Hydra009]

Hollywood gets this gimmick, and understands the profit potential.  But it acts like that's all it takes to make movies.  In fact, most of these movies for kids seem to forget that a well written story is still a bottom line required for a good movie.  You can't replace story telling with special effects and a 3 or 4 part format.

Yeah, that was pretty much the problem right there.  Good pitch, terrible implementation.  It looks like they ran out of ideas 1/3 of the way though.  It's an adaption, so maybe the movie didn't do the book justice.  (After a brief skim of the book plot, it seems significantly better).  Hollywood alchemy - turning silver to lead every chance they get.

[SGOS]

Just showed up at Redbox:  A Royal Night Out  9/10

Princess's Elizabeth and Margaret talk the King and Queen (against their better judgment) into letting them out of the Royal Estate to celebrate the evening of VE Day.  Of course, they are chaperoned by two officers selected to make sure they don't get into trouble (yeah, like that's going to help).  The movie doesn't plumb the depths of the human psyche, reflect much of reality, or make any great observations about the plight of mankind.  I just rated it high because I thought it was great fun.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Conjuring 2.

Just say "no".

[PickelledEggs]

Warcraft.

Very... very bad. Don't waste your money. And if you can download it for free... don't waste your bandwidth.

[Munch]

Warcraft.

Very... very bad. Don't waste your money. And if you can download it for free... don't waste your bandwidth.

I actually enjoyed it. True it wasn't the greatest movie of all time, or the greatest action movie of all time, but it developed the central warcraft characters well, captured the setting well, and despite the over reliance on cgi, the orcs looked good. The only major problem I had with the movie was it's pacing. 7/10

[PickelledEggs]

I actually enjoyed it. True it wasn't the greatest movie of all time, or the greatest action movie of all time, but it developed the central warcraft characters well, captured the setting well, and despite the over reliance on cgi, the orcs looked good. The only major problem I had with the movie was it's pacing. 7/10

I'd say 4.2/10...

[Hydra009]

Move over Ghostbusters, I think I found my new reboot nemesis.

Roland Emmerich plans on rebooting Stargate.  As a trilogy.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the movie is about the discovery of an ancient alien portal in Egypt and the US military powering it up and using it to send expeditions to alien worlds.  The alien they encounter is pure evil and conflict ensues.  Great premise.  The special effects weren't bad for the time, either.

The movie spawned an extremely long-lived and popular TV show which itself had spinoffs.  It had a superb cast that really fleshed out the universe and had this great blend of deadpan comedy with military adventure and even brought up some weighty philosophical and moral issues on occasion.  And for us atheists, the show has a little extra appeal because this military conflict is also an ideological battle between humanism and faith.

TL;DR: 'Gate was great.

Now the director wants to wipe the slate clean and start it back from scratch, which is a real shame because the TV show brought a lot to the table.  And judging from the director's past works (he has racked up quite a lot of stinkers since his directing heyday), I'm not at all sure he could do the franchise justice anymore.  In fact, I'm not sure if Stargate's initial success was intentional or not.  I'm fearful that his intent in going back to Independence Day and Stargate is just to capitalize on name recognition to make serious cash with a minimal effort.

I know I'm doomsaying a bit early on this, but if this goes like I think it will, close the iris and lower the blast doors, because Earth is in for one hell of an unscheduled activation.

[SGOS]

a superb cast that really fleshed out the universe and had this great blend of deadpan comedy with military adventure and even brought up some weighty philosophical and moral issues on occasion.  And for us atheists, the show has a little extra appeal because this military conflict is also an ideological battle between humanism and faith.

This is good news for sci fi fans.  Stargate may have been one of the best science fiction TV series that nobody ever heard of.  I missed all of it, and never watched a single episode until long after the 10 year series ended.  And was I surprised! I was vaguely aware that the program existed, and I would occasionally see it listed in a TV guide section, but I never bothered to tune in.  Frankly, I was not impressed with the original Kurt Russell/James Spader feature film.  I had friends that liked it, but it did nothing for me.  I'm not sure why.  After watching the series, I got a copy of the original film and watched it again.  Still unimpressed.

For one thing, the premise of space travel through a circular gate that looks like a magic pool of water a 4 man team can step through and suddenly find itself 750 million light years away on a distant planet, was initially too much stretch of my imagination.  It seems like a space travel concept that a 7th grader would dream up.  But the concept grows on you as the series moves along.  Granted, the first two years of episodes are weak in my opinion, and during that first two or three years, the series could have been justifiably canceled.  I've seen better shows canceled faster.  But the episodes pick up a bit in quality in he third year, but just a bit.  By the fifth year it seems the production staff has reached their stride, but the show continues to get more polished and more interesting each of the following years, and it ends with a brilliant 2 part episode that I never wanted to end.

The upcoming movie will depend a lot on execution.  The concept of a space gate can't stand by itself, I don't think.  Must be handled with care, and if they make the reboot all about special effects without an intelligent and thoughtful plot, or a cast without the necessary chemistry, all bets are off.  I wish them luck, and hope they new movie doesn't screw up all the great possibilities that were opened up by the original series.  Perhaps the TV series is sacred enough that it should even be left alone.  Still I'll be looking forward to the new movie, even being a bit fearful of it being botched.

Much of the appeal of the original was its hint of atheism and it's expose' of religions.  In this day and age, with religious zealots looking at every turn to feel victimized and subsequently offended, will Hollywood have the courage to tap that well of no nonsense pragmatism, or will they attempt to fix what isn't broken with the addition of woo and supernatural?  Gee, there are a lot of ways to kill this stargate thing for good.

[stromboli]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmxLybfGNC4

I give it a 3/10 and I'm being generous.

Admittedly, I only watched it for Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz).  She was the best part of the film.

How the rest of the film?  Standard alien invader plot.  Good for about 30 minutes, then it went to shit bigtime.  Imagine a better version of Signs for the first 30 minutes, then the second 30 minutes is some really bad Outer Limits episode (there's a twist, but you'll see it coming a mile away), and finally a really bad version of The Scorch Trials written by a 10-year-old who had just binged Twilight.  And there's no ending.  So yeah, pretty bad all around.

[spoiler]I don't get why there's even a fifth wave.  The first 4 disasters pretty much annihilated civilization.  The aliens EMP the world, knocking out transport, communications, running water, etc.  Then they hit us with earthquakes and the ensuing tidal waves wipe out every coastal city and small island, killing a surprisingly large chunk of the population.  Then, there's avian flu.  With no hospitals.  It's overkill.

And the final dastardly alien attack is just to have a good ol' fashioned 2nd amendment blowout.  But they don't march tripods down Main Street.  Nope, nothing that cool or effective.  They just pick people off with hunting rifles and recon drones.  Because reasons.  And the plot twist 2/3 through makes precious little sense.[/spoiler]

Lol. Chloe Moretz ftw. Her Hit Girl probably one of the bigger perv secret lusts after Hermione in Harry Potter.  Any alien invasion movie is  stupid if you think about it. An advanced civilization could wipe us out without ever making contact, with biological weapons or just waiting around for global warming to do us in. I gave up on invasion movies after Independence Day. Won't be seeing the sequel.

[Hydra009]

Any alien invasion movie is stupid if you think about it. An advanced civilization could wipe us out without ever making contact, with biological weapons or just waiting around for global warming to do us in.

That's essentially what happens.  They hit us where it hurts and most of the world's population dies.  Then, instead of waiting for nature to take its course, they go on foot to deal the survivors on an unexpectedly level playing field.  It doesn't make much sense.

[JBCuzISaidSo]

Warcraft.

Very... very bad. Don't waste your money. And if you can download it for free... don't waste your bandwidth.

"Download"? Why the fuck for? Do people still do that?

Just watch until you need to own:

http://www.putlocker.is

[SGOS]

Move over Ghostbusters, I think I found my new reboot nemesis.

Roland Emmerich plans on rebooting Stargate.  As a trilogy.

Hold everything.  Now they're going to do a Blade Runner sequel.

http://collider.com/blade-runner-2-poster/