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  • "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens

    Leigh, Justice, and I saw Thor 2 2day.

    I hope they'll give their opinions here, but I thought it was a lot of nothing until 50 minutes in. No character development, little plot, a confusing setting (so the Nine Realms are planets in other star systems, or...?), bah. Then:

    SPOILERS

     

     

     

    50 minutes in, Malekith the dark elf lord, who wants the MacGuffin that got into Jane Foster's body (don't ask), stabs Frigga to death for hiding her. This, reasonably enough, causes character development. Loki smashes up his prisn cell in mourning and Odin reverts from the God the Father allegory he was in the first movie to a Viking king willing to spend every last life in Asgard to stop the MacGuffin from being used to destroy the universe (or just the Nine Realms? I told you the cosmology was confusing.) Odin, alas, gets sidestepped but the plot's second act doubles as Loki's character arc. See, Thor breaks him out of prison and they go on an illegal special ops mission to get vengeance for Frigga and quickly end Odin's war.

    So there's half a good film here. Just one complaint about the second half: I am so tired of tentpole movies establishing early in the script that, if special effect X happens, the world will be destroyed/other terrible thing, then that special effect happens, yet the hero still stops it without permanent damage to the world. Just because special effects are unreal doesn't mean they can also be illogical. Especially if you base your plot around one.

  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I really liked it. 

    Since it was a sequel, I wasn't looking for much in the character development department. Especially since that's what like half of Thor 1 was.

    If you want to see a crazy, awesome combination of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and watch Thor smash stuff and fly through dimensions as part of aforementioned quest to smash things, then you should stop reading this and go out to see the movie right now! 
  • "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens


    If you want to see a crazy, awesome combination of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and watch Thor smash stuff and fly through dimensions as part of aforementioned quest to smash things, then you should stop reading this and go out to see the movie right now! 
    Fair enough, except you clearly meant "Lord of the Rings and Stargate".
  • For once, or maybe twice, I was in my prime.
    All the humans and Earth stuff was boring in the first movie. How much screen time do they take up this time?
  • edited 2013-11-09 22:25:41
    "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens

    ^ Less than 30 minutes of a 114-minute running time, IIRC. There's like two scenes of Earth stuff before Jane gets whisked to Asgard with the MacGuffin in her body, a very silly subplot with Eric Selvig in police custody, and then the climax is fought in Greenwich as Malekith tries to spew liquid MacGuffin into the mythic realms visible in the sky. But that's not etirely on Earth, because people and objects keep disappearing into other worlds because of "the convergence."

  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    MetaFour said:

    All the humans and Earth stuff was boring in the first movie. How much screen time do they take up this time?

    This was one of the reasons I enjoyed this one a bit more. It takes place mostly in Asgard with the humans taking a backseat.
  • Watched the movie.

    What can I say - one mystery of the universe is solved, now I know where the second sock goes (in reference to the lost shoes/keys scene)

    The movie is fun enough, although Russian translation really does not do it justice, in that it killed all snark. All of it.

    The plot does not make much sense, though this is typical. Also, how comes that Darcy does not outrank Jane - she is obviously smarter. "Your instruments show that you are on the edge of breakthrough! - Oh come on, can it wait?"

    The convergence is a bit disappointing - I have expected more crazy stuff going on, more weird creatures appearing, familiar landscapes being replaced by those from worlds beyond etc, but instead it was rather tame teleport spam.

    Loki is cool as always
  • "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
    Beholder said:

    The plot does not make much sense, though this is typical. Also, how comes that Darcy does not outrank Jane - she is obviously smarter. "Your instruments show that you are on the edge of breakthrough! - Oh come on, can it wait?"

    Darcy says that Thor disappeared for two years. She also says she's an unpaid intern.

    Just how the heck are such long unpaid internships legal, and what do Darcy's parents do that she's not homeless?

  • Seriously!
    And how the hay does an unpaid intern gets an unpaid intern?
    Also, she really should have switched her major from political science by now :)

    Speaking of science, I did like the highly sophisticated equipment being fixed together with duct tape and hammered into ground with hammers
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I got that feeling that dude was helping because he recognized the scientists and just wanted to be a part of everything.
  • "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
    It would have been funny if while they were in London, Richard Dawkins recognized the scientists and yelled at them for using physics to contact the Norse gods.
  • edited 2013-11-11 21:27:55
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    Warm Bodies is great because it's the only example I can recall of a modern fable.

    Also one of my favorite parts of the original Thor movie was the contrast between the ultra-dramatic mythic world of Asgard and the down-to-earth Small Town America. Over there they were mighty heroes and gods and everything was a play, but in Broxton they're just a bunch of ridiculous cosplayers. The juxtaposition was grand.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Indeed it was...

    I do think it was a bit meh for most of the first hour...I wasn't sure what they really wanted to do, what with Thor's development occurring mostly in the first one and Loki mostly being in the backseat.

    The scene with the characters and things jumping between planets/realms made me think of the climactic scene of Monsters, Inc.; it must have been fun to plan that out...
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I saw Rigor Mortis. It was really good. Ya'll should watch it.
  • http://www.avclub.com/review/47-ronin-is-a-singularly-strange-blockbuster-200734

    I would pay good money to see this treatment given to, say, the Boston Tea Party.

    It would be sort of like the flashback scenes in Sleepy Hollow, but with a hundred times the budget, a thousand times the overblown spectacle and a Japanese guy inexplicably leading the Patriot forces against the demonic, shape-shifting warlock Cornwallis.

    i need this so badly
  • edited 2014-01-02 00:31:29
    READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I watched The Desolation of Smaug.

    It was, on the whole, a net positive experience.

    Elves are painfully over the top in this, made worse by the fact that there are very few places where they even really belong.
  • "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens


    Elves are painfully over the top in this, made whores by the fact that there are very few places where they even really belong.

    Yes, elves are whores. They're stupid hos.

    Then again, everything was stupidly padded from the book, except Beorn's role.

  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    I didn't realize that was a typo at first

    I was all, elven prostitutes?
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    Yeah, fixed. I'm not that upset about the elves.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    This is your friendly neighborhood showbiz nerd, with a January Movie Alert: Approach movies released in this month with caution!
  • Just finished The Hidden Fortress. Not bad, but definitely not my favorite Kurosawa movie. Aside from the spear fight scene, which was fun, but just a bit too long, I was that drawn in my the movie. Most of the characters failed to draw me in, and the two peasants and the princess just annoyed me. The ending was pretty good though.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Just got back from Mr. Peabody & Sherman

    They did a good job adapting it, it was surprisingly faithful

    It did kind of bug me initially that Ty Burrell's Mr. Peabody voice wasn't quite like the original, but that stopped bothering me...

    It did get into some clichéd-feeling territory, and on the whole it felt like little more than a "walk in the park", but walks in the park aren't bad
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    As for how this relates to DWA's outright purchase of Classic Media: If this movie is any indication - and if DWA deems it successful enough to expand upon, it had a lukewarm opening weekend domestically - there will be no more Mire soon.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Oh, I forgot to mention:

    The Rocky & Bullwinkle short supposedly preceding the movie? Wasn't there in this showing. In its place was "Almost Home", a teaser for DWA's third offering this year, Home. It appealed to me visually, for I am a sucker for bright colors.
  • edited 2014-05-16 01:51:49
    We can do anything if we do it together.
    This week, I decided to follow in the footsteps of AU's liveblog from a while back and watch the Star Wars Original Trilogy for myself. 

    Here are my opinions on those films, summed up in one sentence each:

    The fourth film was a bit spoiled for me by pop culture, but I still found it pretty gripping in places. I liked the fifth film more than I expected, and enjoyed its non-stop action. The sixth film frustrated me with its wasted potential and the endless, weightless fight scene in the forest.
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    Huh, kind of surprised no one has talked about the Lego movie yet. 

    I'm eagerly awaiting it's release on blu-ray. It is one of the greatest films of all time.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I enjoyed it a lot, but I am a bit bitter that it ate into Peabody's demand and touched off a wave of Hollywood studios rushing to get the rights to other toy properties and produce them...
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Saw How to Train Your Dragon 2

    I enjoyed it, but it raises a lot of questions that it doesn't bother to answer. Hiccup seems to take the long absence of his mother, a kindred spirit, unusually well, for one thing.
  • We can do anything if we do it together.
    I can now officially confirm that Alice in Wonderland and The Emperor's New Groove are, in entirely different ways, the best Disney movies.

    (Fantasia is pretty impressive too, but not quite in the league of those two.)
  • My dreams exceed my real life

    I can now officially confirm that Alice in Wonderland and The Emperor's New Groove are, in entirely different ways, the best Disney movies.


    (Fantasia is pretty impressive too, but not quite in the league of those two.)
    I will agree with this.
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Those are very good films indeed.
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    Those are probably the Disney films I find most tolerable, yes.
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I feel that The Muppets is the better movie, but Muppets Most Wanted is the one that I like more, because it feels like a return to "normality." Lots of rapid-fire jokes, cameos that make me laugh, all those things.
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    I just saw Clifford starring Martin Short and Charles Grodin.

    A new ending and re-edited cut desperately need to exist to turn it into the masterwork of nihilism it's clearlymeant to be.
  • The Mysterious Ballerina and her Tree Stump Ghosts
    Actually saw Emperor's New Groove for the first time a couple of months ago. I had no idea what I'd been missing out on all this time! Seems to have slipped by, although that probably has more to do with me not really paying much attention to Disney more than anything else.

    Alice in Wonderland is great too, need to rewatch it at some point.
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Odradek said:

    I just saw Clifford starring Martin Short and Charles Grodin.


    A new ending and re-edited cut desperately need to exist to turn it into the masterwork of nihilism it's clearlymeant to be.
    It looks baffling and pointless enough that you might be right.
  • edited 2015-04-25 00:37:45

    I just watched the trailer for Black Mass



    it's so good to see Johnny Depp show off his acting chops with something other than "wacky hijinx man"

    like, i didnt even recognize him at first, and the aura of menace that he casts in this short clip alone is almost palpable
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