Rate The Last Movie You Saw - 2

[Monty]

20 minutes ago, Hugor Hill said:

How did you like The last Jedi?

 

I would give it 5/10. It's a weird movie for me. I liked some parts but hated others.

 

Also, all the sudden the google image only link is missing from google. I have to actually upload pics directly onto the forum.

Oof. I know I reviewed it on here. I’ll find it and repost it.

[Monty]

On 2017-12-15 at 4:41 PM, Monty said:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 4/10

 

I’m avoiding spoilers below as much as I can. I can’t access “spoilers” on my phone to hide anything, so I’m being as spoiler free as possible. However, I do reference a few character specifics and scenes, which can alter your viewing of a character before you see it. So don’t read the below if you don’t want that to happen. You’ve been properly warned.

 

Don’t want to say too much, obviously. I will say that this doesn’t feel like a rehash, much like The Force Awakens. It is a lot more serious of a film than TFA, and therefore, not as “fun”. That’s not to say it’s bad, as there are definitely parts that elevated it to “watchable”. 

 

As has already been said, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is the best part of the film. He’s given the most interesting part, the most conflicted character, and the best lines. I would have said that this is no surprise, as he’s the best actor in the film to begin with. However, Oscar Isaac had proven to be an incredibly strong actor outside Star Wars, so this has more to do with the fact that Kylo Ren is really the only interesting character. I also found Andy Serkis’ portrayal as Snoke to be rather enjoyable as well.

 

As for other actors/performances, it’s actually shocking to see how bland, uninteresting, and downright bad both Rey and Finn were in this film. They are both relative newcomers to film, so that shouldn’t be too surprising. But whatever charisma they had in the last film did not translate here. And after rewatching TFA a few days ago, they actually came across with a fair amount of charm. Not so, here.

 

At 2 and a half hours, this was also long. Painfully long. There is one entire section that, if you’ve seen the film, could have been nixed altogether. I can’t access spoilers on my phone, but it screams “Lets take a page from The Phantom Menace for this planet section.” Again, I don’t want to say too much more here. But it’s the whole, “Let’s explain how things work in this universe, even though nobody is asking for it and it doesn’t affect the plot whatsoever.” To those who know, it’s a very long section involving Finn and Trann. It takes whatever momentum the film has, brings it to an ass grinding halt, and changes the tone entirely. Really bad.

 

Speaking of Trann, her character feels shoehorned in. I didn’t think she was a bad actress; more, her character was terrible and written badly. And what happened between her and Finn near the end in the battle, again don’t want to spoil anything, but she actually made Finn’s story worse at the end when she stepped in. Her character just didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

 

As for Luke/Mark Hamill. He wasn’t bad, but the whole interaction/story with Rey dragged on far too long. 

 

Captain Phasma was just as useless this film as she was last film.

 

All in all, it’s a “must see” if you’ve seen all the other Star Wars films. Otherwise, it’s not a great film and definitely doesn’t add a whole lot. At this point, I’d say that the whole “Anakin-Luke” story should have ended with Return of the Jedi. Not saying that they should stop telling stories in the Star Wars universe. But that this arc just doesn’t seem all too important. Episode 7, 8, and soon to be 9, don’t feel necessary for the Skywalker/Solo story. At all. 

@Hugor Hill

 

This is what I said at the time. I’m sure I can add more in now with spoilers, if need be.

[Hugor Hill]

41 minutes ago, Monty said:

@Hugor Hill

 

This is what I said at the time. I’m sure I can add more in now with spoilers, if need be.

No need. When you said a whole section could have been nixed, it's pretty much universally understood which section you are talking about.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. 

 

And we would be labelled as sexist and racist in some circles.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Not sure if we include documentaries here, but I highly recommend "Trophy".

 

CNN does a surprisingly objective job on the world of trophy hunting, which is not easy to do. 

[Monty]

20 hours ago, Hugor Hill said:

No need. When you said a whole section could have been nixed, it's pretty much universally understood which section you are talking about.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. 

 

And we would be labelled as sexist and racist in some circles.

 I doubt that. I have zero problem with Star Wars, or any movie for that matter, representing a diverse cast of characters. Hell, I’m a pretty big Star Trek fan, relatively speaking, and that’s been Star Trek’s M.O. since it’s inception.

 

But The Last Jedi was a sloppy film. And because I appreciate/love Rian Johnson as a filmmaker, I’m not fully placing the blame on him, despite him being the primary writer. I mentioned earlier that he responded to a twitter question about how much of the story/ending was laid out for him, so he knew where the story was going. His response was essentially, “It wasn’t.” What this means is that Disney began episode 7, wrote a bunch of characters for the new trilogy, but didn’t have a story beyond that of where it was going or how it would end. You know what you get when you write a first movie and then create a trilogy after the fact? The Matrix sequels.

 

Rian Johnson did the absolute best out of a no-win situation. I’m glad that he’s been given the opportunity to create his own trilogy of Star Wars films based on his own original ideas. That’s very encouraging. But I have no interest in how this current trilogy ends. I don’t feel like I know the characters, and in turn, don’t care about them either. If JJ Abrams just decided to give the middle finger to everyone and have the Empire win in the 3rd movie, I wouldn’t care. This new trilogy just feels hallow. Empty.

 

But it’s hard to create something with so much expectation weighing on your shoulders. Look at the new Star Trek series and how much they alienated their core fan base with what they’ve done. That something I could talk ad nauseum about. But I won’t.

 

Long story short. The Last Jedi is a popcorn movie. And not a particularly good one.

[Shift-4]

5 minutes ago, Monty said:

Long story short. The Last Jedi is a popcorn movie. And not a particularly good one.

I wanted to watch it again before I graded it.

I haven't bothered to watch it again yet. Maybe that is all you need to know from a huge Star Wars fan  lol

[Monty]

2 minutes ago, Shift-4 said:

I wanted to watch it again before I graded it.

I haven't bothered to watch it again yet. Maybe that is all you need to know from a huge Star Wars fan  lol

My wife hasn’t watched it yet, so I’ll watch it again in a month or so.

 

I didn’t mind the overall “story” he was telling. But there was too many questionable decisions that move beyond nitpicking and into disrupting the storytelling and mess with character development. The Casino planet section was nonsense. Nothing worked there.

 

The humour was really, really bad. Having jokes fall flat is fine when the scene calls for it. But the “hold please” phone call thing was confusing for what was happening (phone/hold please in Star Wars doesn’t really make sense). Luke throwing the lightsaber doesn’t fall in line with him not being a humourous character to begin with and a character that rejected the force, probably wouldn’t touch a lightsaber to begin with. Finn waking up and walking around confused in an inner tube thing was more eyebrow raising than it was funny.

 

Then there was the obvious plot decision to keep Poe (and everyone else on the ship) out of the loop in the plan from General Pink Hair about what they were actually doing. That decision from a story crafting side just doesn’t really make sense, except to trick the audience. But it doesn’t make sense as to why they would keep their own people out of the loop, especially when you are going to have your own people vocally question the decision and then given no explanation when the plan seems awful.

 

And that’s where I do blame Rian Johnson. He could have nixed all those parts and the film would have been infinitely better.

[Shift-4]

The more I think about it the only thing it has going for it is it is still the Star Wars universe.  lol

 

 

Edit:  I thought the phone call thing was funny in itself but yes it doesn't fit in Star Wars

The $&!# sure wouldn't fly with Vader, Palpatine, Veers, Tarkin.........

Edited February 20, 2018 by Shift-4

[Monty]

3 minutes ago, Shift-4 said:

The more I think about it the only thing it has going for it is it is still the Star Wars universe.  lol

 

That’s the movie equivalent of a participation ribbon.

[nuckin_futz]

Locke : 8/10

 

This was on tv last night so I gave it another spin as I really liked it the first time. Tom Hardy is so good in this it's unreal.

 

You'll either love this or completely hate it. The whole thing is Tom Hardy driving in his car from Birmingham to London. He's the only actor you see on screen the whole movie.

 

Over the course of his drive he holds a series of phone calls with different people and his life completely falls apart.

[Shift-4]

5 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

Locke : 8/10

 

This was on tv last night so I gave it another spin as I really liked it the first time. Tom Hardy is so good in this it's unreal.

 

You'll either love this or completely hate it. The whole thing is Tom Hardy driving in his car from Birmingham to London. He's the only actor you see on screen the whole movie.

 

Over the course of his drive he holds a series of phone calls with different people and his life completely falls apart.

Sounds like a car version of Buried  lol

[Hugor Hill]

5 hours ago, Monty said:

My wife hasn’t watched it yet, so I’ll watch it again in a month or so.

 

I didn’t mind the overall “story” he was telling. But there was too many questionable decisions that move beyond nitpicking and into disrupting the storytelling and mess with character development. The Casino planet section was nonsense. Nothing worked there.

 

The humour was really, really bad. Having jokes fall flat is fine when the scene calls for it. But the “hold please” phone call thing was confusing for what was happening (phone/hold please in Star Wars doesn’t really make sense). Luke throwing the lightsaber doesn’t fall in line with him not being a humourous character to begin with and a character that rejected the force, probably wouldn’t touch a lightsaber to begin with. Finn waking up and walking around confused in an inner tube thing was more eyebrow raising than it was funny.

 

Then there was the obvious plot decision to keep Poe (and everyone else on the ship) out of the loop in the plan from General Pink Hair about what they were actually doing. That decision from a story crafting side just doesn’t really make sense, except to trick the audience. But it doesn’t make sense as to why they would keep their own people out of the loop, especially when you are going to have your own people vocally question the decision and then given no explanation when the plan seems awful.

 

And that’s where I do blame Rian Johnson. He could have nixed all those parts and the film would have been infinitely better.

Writers get notes from execs. It's safe to assume that Rain Johnson had to appease a plethora of execs with their individual agenda.

 

Spoiler

 

Exec 1: Luke has to train Rey because Luke is the s*&t

Exec 2: Luke cannot train Rey because that would be too much like episode 4 and sexist

Exec 3: Rey has to fight Kylo because of course she does, but...

Exec 4: Luke has to defeat Kylo because Luke is the s&%t

Exec 5: Somebody gave Laura Dern a role, but she is only in one movie so give her a good role but kill her in the end

Exec 6: Appease the vegetarians

Exec 7: Need side characters who serve no function because we need to cast Chinese actors to sell to China but we don't really want to give them key roles so write some useless subplots for them.
Rian: Do I at least get Donnie Yen?

Exec 7: No. 

 

 

See, no one told him what to do with Kylo and that's why he turned out great. 

Leave the writers alone.

[luckyjack]

Recently watched 'A Monster Calls'. Really good. Beautiful to look at. I liked the ambiguity of it, and the way it dealt with conflicting feelings.

[GLASSJAW]

good time: 6.5/10

 

had high hopes, but just felt myself getting super bored for a big chunk in the middle. one of the most intrusive, grating scores/soundtracks i've ever heard. by the end i feel like i enjoyed it, but the act of watching it felt like a chore

 

thought robert pattinson gave a fantastic performance

[Guest]

Baby Driver: 8/10

 

I liked the story, characters, and I really liked the cinematography. The way they used music was really great too.

[Hugor Hill]

On 2018-02-19 at 9:18 AM, Monty said:

The Ritual - 7.5/10

 

Swedish/English horror film, starring Rafe Spall and no one else I know. The film isn’t universally acclaimed, but I really, really enjoyed it. 

 

Without giving too much away, 4 friends go hiking in Sweden and take a shortcut through a forest. What transpires is pretty disturbing.

 

For a horror film, it did it’s job. Fairly original.

 

Thanks for the reco. I liked it too. Slightly disappointed with the last bit, but then again I wouldn't know how to come up with a better one.

 

Most films' climax are limited to either a physical or a verbal struggle. Very few films have figured out a way to transcend that limitation.

 

[GLASSJAW]

uhmmm.

 

 

[g_bassi13]

Black Panther - 0.5/10

 

I'm not sure where the .5 even comes from, to be honest. The movie was hot garbage. I can't remember the last time I was so bored at a theatre.

 

It's like watching a Transformers movie, without the "it's so bad it's funny" element, in part because no one is watching it with the same mindset as me.

 

It was the superhero-iest superhero movie yet, in that it takes the worst elements of all these movies and distills them into one bloated 2 and a half hour experience.

[Monty]

1 hour ago, g_bassi13 said:

Black Panther - 0.5/10

 

I'm not sure where the .5 even comes from, to be honest. The movie was hot garbage. I can't remember the last time I was so bored at a theatre.

 

It's like watching a Transformers movie, without the "it's so bad it's funny" element, in part because no one is watching it with the same mindset as me.

 

It was the superhero-iest superhero movie yet, in that it takes the worst elements of all these movies and distills them into one bloated 2 and a half hour experience.

But I heard it’s the most important, groundbreaking film to ever come out. A f***ing superhero film. 

 

[Monty]

Mute

 

Another new Netflix film, written and directed by Duncan Jones, who’s best known for Moon (phenomenal) and Source Code (really good). He also did Warcraft.

 

I’m really not sure how bad of a grade to give this movie. It’s definitely terrible. Yeah, that’s it. Terrible/10. I really don’t know who I was supposed to root for or sympathize with, because all the characters were bad. Paul Rudd had the most to work with, but he wasn’t the protagonist. Alexander Skarsgård was the main character, and he was brutal. Absolutely terrible. I’m sure a big part had to do with how his character was written.