Last Film You Watched

[Dark_Stranger]

Well, I recently got around to seeing a few films that I really should have experienced years ago...Die Hard--A classic; exciting, intelligent, well acted and directed, and YIPPEE-KI-YAY, ##########. Megamind--Didn't really catch my attention back when it first came out, but I'm very glad I decided to try it. The whole thing was clever (If sometimes rather predictable), entertaining, and very, very funny.Oh, and I also started watching The Spectacular Spider-Man. Admittedly not a movie, but it's awesome, so I thought I'd throw it in there."But as long as I'm here, I get to bust heads!"

[Republic Commando Fixer]

In Theatres: Hunger GamesAt home: The Adventures of TinTin.RCF

[Peach 00]

Der Untergang: The supreme memetic foreign language on the internet. I must confess, this one interests me the most. I like foreign language films, especially ones in German. I know that it's won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and from the clips I've seen, the acting looks excellent, which will make for listening to the German dialogue even more pleasing. The subject matter is also a very intriguing one. Overall, I expect to be very involved in this film and it's very likely that I will watch it several more times in the future, especially if I ever pursue learning German.I'll let you know my final thoughts and cast my reserved judgments after watching them. See you!Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

Have not seen The Birth of a Nation or Docter Zhivago, although I've been meaning to watch the latter. It's a classic, and because I love classics, it should be great. And Downfall is amazing, it's been awhile since I've seen it, but it is wonderful. If you like the movie, you'll have to look for some of the behind the scenes footage of that, it's pretty good. Probably one of the best, most moving movies I've ever seen.Last movie I watched recently in theaters was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which was pretty good, although I preferred the first part. I barely ever see movies in theaters nowadays, the ticket prices and popcorn are all too expensive. Better to wait for it to come out on Netflix, lol. The last movie I saw at home was The Seven Year Itch, which was pretty good. I plan on watching The Debt soon enough, either that or The Queen.

[Cambion]

Ghostbusters.Who ya gonna call?

[shadow pridak money gang]

Se7en - Great horror movie, great performances by Pitt, Freeman, and Spacey.The Men Who Stare at Goats - Hilarious movie, highly recommended.-Teezy

[Velox]

Se7en - Great horror movie, great performances by Pitt, Freeman, and Spacey.-Teezy

Ooh, yeah, I loved that movie. Really dark, but the ending was very satisfying, and the acting was supurb. Last movie I watched was The Count of Monte Cristo. Somehow it's even better than I remembered -- I love this movie! Jim Caviezel is awesome. I also really loved how the movie made you just hate Guy Pierce's character...great characterization, there. I think books and movies are always very well done when they have characters you both love and hate. Makes you feel like you're there, in the movie/book, feeling the same way the protagonist does toward the antagonist.

[The Captain]

Just watched Paprika today

[Jean Valjean]

Here we go:Birth of a Nation: Not much to say. Unfortunately, over half of the time the film suffered from BSOD (that's "Blue Screen of Death" to those unfamiliar with the acronym), so ultimately it was hard to truly judge it. From what I could see, it was surprisingly good, since there actually was noise to some extent, though it was a background noise instead of synchronized dialogue. If I can find a tape that works, I'll be sure to watch it again.Another thing: It may be from a Southern perspective the majority of the time, but it definitely favors the North.Downfall: I didn't get to finish it since I was interrupted. However, I got through over half and decided that I really liked it. In some ways, it reminded me of Titanic in its straight narrative, especially since it's a German film in its own language, giving me the impression of an only slightly romanticized facsimile of a famous event in history. The main difference between this and Titanic, asides from the scope of the sets, is that the main famous figure, Hitler, is too recognizeable and, onlike the famous ship, cannot be replicated. The Titanic is probably the only lead character ever to be portrayed by the perfect actor. Naturally, all of the side characters in both of these films can be disregarded, since most people don't know their faces anyway, so Downfall gets a free pass on Hitler's staff. Ultimately, I get the feeling of actually being there.And I compared it to Titanic. I mean, come on, what more of an endorsement do you need?Titanic: Any reviews on this go without speaking, so I'm not going to even bother trying to explain its majesty. All I have to say is that I watched it on Easter in the theatres, which was a nice present to myself. This time around, I couldn't help but notice how young and boyish Leonardo DiCaprio is in this film now that I've grown used to him at his current age in roles like Dom Cobb. I also suddenly realized for the first time how beautiful Kate Winslet's character was in this film.By the way, I love how the lover's names are Jack and Rose. They sound so prototypical and make good alternatives for the archetype of star-crossed lovers to the names Romeo and Juliet.-I have a not-so-positive review coming up in this topic soon, don't you worry.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

[Sumiki]

A Midsummer Night's Dream - the 1935 Academy Award-winning film. I didn't think it deserved any accolades - there was too much singing and not enough of the hilarious stuff that made the play enjoyable to read. Plus, Puck was so freakin' annoying that I eventually took it upon myself to mute all of his lines, as the majority of the things that he did was accompanied by a horrific screeching sound that he emanated. (I likened it to Jabba the Hut's little monkey-sidekick in Return of the Jedi.) It was more like an annoying semi-musical version of the play rather than a proper film adaptation of the play.However, for 1935, the visual effects were rather decent.

[Franz Joseph Haydn]

Oh, Man. I don't remember. Probably Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Even though I KNOW I've seen over things since)It was an OK movie and better then the second one. It still seemed too actiony, whereas the first focused mainly on character development. So there was that. But beyond that I loved it.Oh and Limitless.And Inception. Reviews of all to come.

[Queen of Liars]

Watched The Green Hornet last night. It was actually a pretty fun movie.

[Cobui]

The Avengers. I was making the Awesome Face for pretty much the whole movie.

[Jean Valjean]

Alright, I said I had a negative review coming...Well, after this I go back to the movies I liked.The Green Lantern: It was a fun movie overall and I enjoyed it while watching it. Unfortunately, this is the type of film that doesn't get better over time and only works once. I think that if I were to watch it again I would think of all the things that I would have done differently. Among the film's problems were the lack of characters. I think that with the scale of the film it should have taken longer and there should have been more characters. While there was nothing wrong with the characters themselves and they had complex development, it didn't have that wholesome feel that you get in films like Batman Begins, which set the new standard for superhero films, or Spider-Man, which offers a young man that little boys all over the map like to role play. Hal, unfortunately, while being likable and having strong traits, somehow didn't offer any lasting impression, and the theme of being courageous could have been delivered with more power.Another note is that the film went far too fast. While it was awesome that the director held nothing back as far as letting the audience see the cool things that they came to the theater to see, I think that there needed to be a few more slow scenes in there. I'm not saying slow boring scenes, just slower scenes that offered some variety to the film's pacing. The character development needed to be a little slower.While the villains were cool, I don't think that the director did them justice. For one, Hal's friend with the big head needed more time on screen to amp up his level of cool to the point where I could actually remember his name rather than thinking of him as the guy with the big head. I think his motivations were nice, but once again needed to be fleshed out with a few scenes that would have built up the internal tension and contribute to the rising action so that the degradation of the character would have been more potent, like in films such as Requiem for a Dream, albeit to a lesser extent.Paralax, on the other hand, didn't need any development, although I couldn't quite take his portrayal seriously. It's not that he was one giant mess of conspicuous CGI; that was actually pretty cool. It had more to do with his giant face appearing out of that CGI mess and pulling yellow skeletons from people. Somehow that doesn't doesn't make him more frightening. Rather, the association with yellow, which is perhaps the brightest color in the rainbow, really went the opposite direction. Perhaps they wanted to be counter-intuitive, but I think that they should have stuck purely with dark themes. He did, after all, look like a concept design from the mind of H.R. Giger (just with less sexual themes). I think that with the way he was presented, he became a blob rather than a character, a force of pure special effects, and the best way to have countered that would have been, rather than developing the character, developing the concept of what he was and why he inspired fear. I would have liked him to be more than just a big bad bear, which likewise can inspire fear simply by the virtue that it's big, bad, and it can kill you. Those are essentially what made Paralax scary in this film, and I think that they should have thought outside of the box here and explored the horror genre. I think that if there were some truly frightening scenes, it might have made Hal's personal journey to heroism much more personal and established a level of connection between the audience and the main character that made him a lasting figure in culture. Maybe I'm thinking too much about Ellen Ripley, but it still would have been a legitimate strategy for the film's narrative.There are also a couple of problems with the idea for the film. Like why is it that Hal can't imagine a bunch of rings but can create complex fighter jets in a split second? Also, I'll agree with Hal's friend that he could have done way better for his first public appearance as the Green Lantern, even more so, since I'm seeing this from the detatched perspective of an audience member who's hoping for an iconic superhero moment that seems to come with most Superhero films when the hero first reveals himself.So here are the three phases I went through. The first was the process of actually watching the film: "Hey, this is fun!" The second was the morning after watching the film: "Well, there are several problems and I can see why some people didn't like it." The third stage fortunately hit me a full day later to it didn't interrupt my entertainment: "Yeah, it was dumb."Overall, I still recommend watching this film if you haven't already, since it's fun while you're watching it. The action scenes are mostly great, but not iconic, and ultimately the film doesn't hold back when it comes to jumping to a cool scene.Battlestar Galactica: This three-hour-long opening episode to the revival series kicked but. I was expecting it to be awesome, of course, and it didn't disappoint. By far, this was better than the first episode to the original series. Olmos did an amazing job depicting Commander Adama. His son, Lee "Apollo" Adama has much more character, and so does Starbuck, who on top of that is now depicted as a female, which I like because in addition to the character's new personality, in the old show Starbuck and Apollo were hard to tell apart. This also told me right away that this was a reimagining and not a sequel series.My favorite development, however, was that the woman in the red dress was a Cylon this time. She's so much cooler now. Before she was merely the woman in the red dress, who was there for the sake of being pretty and distracting Starbuck (or was it Apollo?) from his girlfriend. Exploring the idea of human-computer hybrids was amazing, and I'm loving all the extra characterization the Cylons received this time around, and that alone brings this show to the level of a science fiction classic. The greatest of all science fiction uses the tools of the genre to explore certain inherent themes, such as what it means to be human and what is the soul. In this case, it seems that the producers also wished to explore religion and its place in society. This is terrific.Enhancing the finer aspects of the science fiction genre is the space opera setting. It's been a long time since I've seen a films with a war waged in space, let alone one that pitted its battles in such interesting locations as space clouds. Actually, the only films that I can think of that did those things was the aptly named Star Wars. The battles in this revived franchise, while not happening on a galactic scale, are still amazing and leave a timeless mark on the genre. This is one of my favorite brands of sci-fi, and it's unfortunate that it doesn't show up so often, but on the other hand, it makes the fights in these films far more priceless.The only real complaint that I have about the show so far is the ties. I don't like them. I suppose that later on they're going to leave implants in the collective memory of humanity that will someday make them popular in Croatia, transferring the trend to Napoleon and then to a large portion of the rest of the planet Earth, but it still breaks my willing suspension of disbelief. Plus, I was hoping for something like Star Wars and Star Trek where the designers invented entirely new fashions for alien civilizations.Requiem for a Dream: Holy profanity. That's what I said about halfway through the film, and then continued to say it every few minutes afterward. This film hits so hard that it hurts. It's not painful to watch; in fact it's mesmerizing. However, by the end its dark themes are so stark that they take my breath away and cause me to choke.This is an artistic masterpiece depicting four different individuals, referred to on the back cover as "human beings", each struggling with a form of addiction in their ill-placed pursuit of happiness, only for them to spiral into a nightmare. The pitch sounded interesting enough to me, and I was already interested in the film because of the score, which featured the original use of Lux Aeterna. Before watching, I was uncertain of how the music would fit in, seeing as I was conditioned to associate it with Lord of the Rings and the idea of an oncoming, ominous force of evil, and I was uncertain of how it would have fit into the context of a story purely about character development.Now that I've watched the film, I can hardly associate the music with anything but character development and playing it while thinking of villains seems silly. The music heard in the right context perfectly embodies the film's themes of personal downfall and the state of futility.Also of note are the extensive use of hip-hop cuts and the short scenes. The scenes only grow shorter throughout the film, to the point where the last quarter is almost giant collage. There are multiple scenes that are purely delusions, haluscinations, and daydreams, and just as many that are extended cuts of scenes played a hundred times faster than normal. I suppose that it all fits the idea of the movie, which is suppose to show progression over time as well live up to its name.Now that I have those initial comments out of the way, the real meet of the matter is this: Requiem for a Dream is the ultimate film for making a powerful impression for the development of a person over time, and does everything in its power to capture the sensation of its transformation in a very relatable way. Its style is so vivid that the transformation feels as real as life itself. In fact, the four lives that it chronicles are completely realistic and follow the patterns of many unfortunate souls in real life.The main characters, Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion Silver, and their mutual friend Tyron C. Love are all essentially doomed from the start. Of the four characters, I relate the most to the two male characters. Perhaps that is because we share the same gender, but their personal stories are also similar enough to my own. I love my mother and would hate to disappoint her. Like Tyron, I want to impress my mother, and I also don't want to live on the streets. Something about the way Harry thinks also seems familiar to me. When they meet their fates, I feel like I could be them, hence the hurt. Their state of despair brings me down into a personal abyss where I contemplate my potential as a human being to make similar decisions.Yet the pain factor goes dramatically up when confronted with the fates of Marion and Sara. Perhaps this is me being male and therefore defensive of the opposite sex (especially when she's played by Jennifer Connelly) and my beloved mother, but another major factor is how I cannot fully relate to their brand of despair. They are distinctly separate from me, unlike Harry and Tyron, who live in a reality altogether their own. They are the "other" factor, people who are not me who I feel obliged to care and take responsibility for. The selfless side of me is appalled. I could be like Harry and have my life wasted, but to see someone else come down with me would be worse than death.Starting with the mother, I think that her fall is the worst of them all, for she gets caught up in an addiction with no concept of the concequences. Her ambitions are innocent enough, only to turn into an unhealthy obsession. It was horrifying to see a sweet old lady, the seemingly incorruptible, hit rock bottom and turn into a mangled, hideous mess. She no longer had a sense of who she was, what she valued, or what had become of the people she cared for, and she lived her life in a hideous delusion unbecoming of her. It was a terrible, awful thing to watch, yet it was important to remain a witness in order to understand the severity of this downgrade with respect to how it relates to reality. Reading through the thoughts of other people on this character, there were two that stood out to me. One was a spacial note that the most depressing thing was not what happened on screen, but how it highlights the tragedies of women in real life to suffer from the same addictions. The other thought that stood out to me was a person who wrote that he'd "KILL before letting this happen to [his] mother."Which gets me wondering: was Sara Goldfarb's fate worse than death? As the comment suggest, it is certainly worth getting defensive over one's mother. I would too, and the thought of this happening to my own would almost kill me. Like Harry, I suppose I don't have the closest relationship with my own mother, but there's still that element of caring, and also the element of not caring what happens to me so long as the people I love are safe.Which leads on to the equally depressing matter of Marion Silver. She's lovely, and I found myself really liking her throughout the movie. It's odd that I would find myself loving a heroin addict, but the film straight away convinced me of her humanity so that I could see past the faults. I wanted to see her dreams come true. I wanted her to create the clothes shop she always wanted to design. It was sad when I watched all that slip away from her. When she's forced into prostitution, I was horrified for her. I took absolutely no guilty pleasures in watching her sell herself. She was violated, humiliated, and ultimately made to feel her own self-worth compromised. I would too if I was in her situation. I said earlier that I couldn't relate to her predicament, being male, but I can imagine being female and going through her reality and how that would make me feel. I'd hate to have my identity taken and twisted to make someone else's perverted fantasies a reality. My heart bled for her. When she tried screaming underwater, I screamed on the inside. The sheer horror she experienced, along with her self-loathing, were completely real. It wasn't some dramatization, and it wasn't making a bigger deal of her predicament than necessary. A real person, a human being, ought to feel the way she felt. A real person would be eaten up by despair. All I wanted to do was to comfort her, to help her feal healthy and pure again, to take away the pain and the regret.Regret. There's a major theme that could be applied to this film. Regret: what all of the characters, save for the insane mother, must have invariably felt. The pain and the remorse of knowing the lives they could have lived must have haunted them. They could have been better, but they wasted themselves. Thus I relate to Harry and Tyron, and the final moments of Marion were more profound to me than almost any horror film I have ever watched, especially at the very end where she succumbs to becoming the very person she hates, who smiles and finds comfort not in people, not in trust, but in money earned by selling herself. She loved Harry because he made her feel like a person, but in the end she lost her grasp of what it meant to be a person and put on the blindfold of her automated animal desires to mask the suffering.And it was all for drugs.A friend told me that this was not a film that should ever be watched while depressed, because it would only make you feel worse. To some extend, he's right, because ultimately all the characters' desires broke them. They lost their innocence and their humanity in the process. Yet I also contest that this is a very thought provoking film. This is one of the purest works of art I have seen in a while, since art is mean to convey something, to provoke the mind and soul, and this certainly does the job like few others. Of all the other films I watched around the same time, this one got me moving mentally and emotionally, causing me to contemplate my own humanity and self-worth, as well as a great deal of other things. This is art that has perfected its technique to cause the mind to truly wrap around a profound idea to new levels of appreciation. Also contributing to my interpretation of this as "pure" art (which I put in quotation marks due to how subjective that is) was how the movie reminded me of a fairy tale with a sad ending. Not all fairy tales have happy endings, and this one managed to capture that simplistic sense of story that resonated deep within my psyche, the part of me that really wanted to see a quintessential story that reflects my feelings the many times I have felt depressed over the course of my life. The movie really achieved this by the ending, where the directer built everything up just to get to the point where everyone crawled up into the fetal position, at which point the characters and the audience members become one and the full realization of the movie is achieved, for everyone has crawled up into the fetal position at some point in their lifetimes.What my friend should have told me was "Don't watch this in a library". I did. Big mistake. I had to cover the screen quite a few times.As much praise as I give this film, and in spite of my high opinions of it as being art in a perfected form...I cannot recommend it. To anyone. Ever. This has to be a film where you know what you're getting into and make the conscious decision to go ahead. It cannot be watched simply because one feels like watching a movie, or because one knows that it's good. It is a powerful masterpiece, but it cannot be taken lightly. That, plus pretty much every scene is rated R, if only because of the thematic elements alone.Hotel Rwanda: Of all the films I've recently watched, I would recommend this one more than all the others. It's probably the most traditional in terms of its narrative and delivery, and the most "normal" in its subject matter. It's nice, mature, straightforward. It has a solid story, a solid character, and a solid conflict based off of real life events. Even though it is graphic, it doesn't excessively portray violence, and there are important lessons to be learned. Its genre has the broadest appeal, and I think I could watch it with just about anyone, save for perhaps a little kid, since it is after all rated PG-13.To put the type of film this is into perspective, it's been called the African version of Schindler's List. Though it's hardly an equal, I suppose that it's far easier to watch. The films progresses through its story with a noble screenplay. To again put this film into perspective with respect to movies in general, it was nominated for an academy award for best actor, best supporting actress, and best original screenplay. I agree with every single one of those nominations. The film also has a 90% with Rotten Tomatoes, which doesn't surprise me at all. It deserves all these acknowledgments because the film hit all the right notes.This is not an action film. It would have taken away from the sincerity of the story. Likewise, even though this film is about survival, it is not a survival film. It's a drama, and it focuses on men who stood up to answer their moral obligations in a very believable, human way. Their concerns when faced with fear are completely real, and I'm sure that they did justice to the real Paul Rusesabagina.Even though I wouldn't call this film profound, it is entirely self-sufficient and not in need of anything. This is a solid work of cinema that leaves nothing to be desired and hardly anything to criticize. If it's unquestionably good, how can I not recommend it?Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Terminus]

Tremors 3: Back to PerfectionWhile not the strongest movie in the Tremors franchise, it's classic formula makes it a fun watch, next I'll definitely have to watch the TV series.

[Queen of Liars]

Captain America: The First AvengerIt was alright, but probably not something I'll watch again.

[Hexann]

BIONICLE 3: Web Of Shadows

[Zakann the Delirious]

The Avengers. So much freaking win.The most common worries seemed to be that the movie would suffer from hero fatigue or that Black Widow and Hawkeye would feel tacked-on, but surprisely every character had several moments to shine. We already saw Loki become pretty unhinged in Thor, but now he makes the full transition to complete revenge-fueled sociopath with almost Joker-level dialogue and still manages to be a sympathetic character. Tom Hiddleston did a really amazing job with that.Then there's the Hulk. I'll admit I wasn't crazy about the film of the same name, mainly because Ed Norton just didn't really fit for me and the action sequences seemed to get repetitive and stale after a while. Both those problems are completely turned around in the Avengers. As much as I love Norton in just about anything else, Mark Ruffalo made the PERFECT Bruce Banner, and the CGI on the "other guy," as Banner calls his alter ego, is miles ahead of what it was in his lackluster origin story.What really made this movie work, at least for me, was that is was easily the funniest installment in the Marvel series yet. Humor was already an important factor from the first Iron Man, thanks to Robert Downey Jr. in all his self-promoting, perpetually buzzed glory, but it's a factor that seems to have decreased somewhat in the other films, namely Hulk and Captain America. While I still thoroughly enjoyed the latter, the tone of this film shifts much closer to that of Iron Man than any of the others, and it pays. Almost every tense scene is eventually lightened by a remark or gesture from one of the heroes, but not at all in a way that cheapens the heavier moments. In fact, one scene in particular has some extremely vivid, disturbing dialogue but seconds later you will want to high-five Black Widow for the way she turns it around. This is mostly made possible through the fact that every major character/actor in the movie has fantastic chemistry with just about everyone else on-screen. RDJ can conjure that up with just about anyone, but seeing Ruffalo, Hemsworth, Evans, etc. all getting acquainted with each other, often in violent ways, put their acting skills to the test and they all passed with flying colors.I could go on for pages, but I'll leave you with this. The Avengers makes you feel as though you're watching an entire season of a TV series in 140 minutes, and not once does it feel rushed. It has succesfully dethroned the original Iron Man as my favorite superhero film, barring Nolan's Batman films of course.

[Hexann]

BIONICLE: MOL

[Voxumo]

well i'm currently watching the movie called Thirteen Ghosts. a paranormal movie from 2001

[Dorek]

Avengers.It's as amazing as everybody says it is.

[Voltex]

The Avengers - a full review will be coming within the week, but holy cow it was amazing. It blew my best dreams for it to pieces, and has become my favourite super hero film; there's too much to just state here, but I have nothing but good things to say about this film.-ibrow

[Terminus]

Just got out of the theater from watching- You guessed it- Avengers. It was absolutely amazing, and you really didn't need to see the previous movies to get it (I've only seen the Iron Man movies). It did feel a bit much like Tony Stark was really the main character, but maybe that's because Black Widow and Nick Fury were also both somewhat important in IM2, plus there was a good bit of focus on Stark Tower and Pepper had some good screentime, although not nearly as much as in the Iron Man movies. The major battle in New York reminded me a lot of the major battle in Transformers 3, except a good bit better. Anyways, it felt a bit like Iron Man 2.5, and now I'm very excited for Iron Man 3 and Avengers 2. I'll most likely see it again, well worth it. It's my second favorite action movie, right behind Mission Inpossible: Ghost Protocol.

[Jean Valjean]

The Avengers: There are three reasons why I watched this film. The first was because I make it a habit to see every superhero film I can on the big screen, barring things like The Green Lantern/Hornet. The second was because someone compared it to the recent Star Trek on his blog, which is about as major of an endorsement as you can get. Reason 2.5 was basically all the other snippets of praise that I read, although reason 2.0 was the main dig that caught my eye. The third reason was because it was directed by Josh Whedon, and it's accepted as a fact that he can't make anything less than awesome.Well, as it happens, I personally feel that it's less of a bang than Star Trek, but that's not an insult considering just how hard of a comparison that is. However, compared to all other superhero films, I definitely liked how this one turned out, where Josh Whedon figured out how to perfectly nail the concept of The Avengers on the head. The Avengers had to justify pulling together this mismatched bunch of heroes and make it worth it, bringing it to the point where the whole was more than the sum of its parts. That is to say, it had to be better than all of the preceding films setting it up combined. Now that I've seen it, I daresay that it definitely felt like the main story that united them all and the torch that speaks for the rest of the universe.It also felt like a true climax within a traditional comic series, where the heroes come together to defeat a much broader plot arch than the others. This one did feel like the storyteller had decided to strap his boots on and get to business. There was no room for small storytelling. I like that they decided to mess with n-dimensional geometries and include alien armies to increase the scale. It was definitely more than an origin story. And even the origin story within the main story, that of the formation of the defenders, was far more exciting than the origins of the individual heroes. Also like any good comic book story, they overthought the powers and their implications, such as what would happen if Loki tried to control Tony Stark's mind. It culminates in a film that feels like the ideal comic book drama that makes use of all extensions of its canon to tie together something that's more than a mere episode.Another thing that concerned me was that the band of misfits would look odd together. After all, what do a man in a tech suite, a strongman with a shield, a Norse god, an angry green ogre, a Russian spy, and an archer have in common, other than kicking butt? In spite of having no theme at all, I was surprised at how well the chemistry played out, and I enjoyed seeing the characters have their moments. It was also a pleasure to see that the cast was truly ensemble. They were originally going to write the story around Iron Man, but Robert Downey Jr. turned down the script when he realized that it wasn't as good as the ensemble, and the ensemble turned out wonderfully, even without a lead to carry the show, which does wonderfully for the concept of them being a team. I was especially surprised at how I ended up liking Hawkeye, although having him start out as a mind-controlled minion of Loki while retaining full reasoning capabilities certainly helped that.The humor between the characters was great. Even though the characters were somewhat funnier than normal people, it didn't detract from willing suspension of disbelief. The humor was just perfect, slid in at the right intervals and embracing the right forms, never distracting from the action and at times contributing to it. Actually, there were times where I was reminded of reading comic strips, where the speach bubbles would often include interesting quips by the characters, especially when combating the villains. If I were to guess, I think that it's a common trait throughout the superhero genre. This film utilizes it nicely, whether intentionally for the comic-book aspect of it or not.In an age full of new expectations of graphics and a departure from older formats for action filming, The Avengers manages to use computer graphics to find its identity in a way that doesn't shame classic action standards. The aliens were conspicuously CG, although it was very, very good CG. They were unfortunately so complicated that I often had trouble with what I was looking at. However, since they were not onscreen much and they were presented more as a force with no concrete identity, one does not have to think much about what makes them unique villains so much as what makes the Avengers a great team. Throughout the fight scenes where computer graphics were necessary, they don't intrude upon the film. There's less emphasis on the effects so much as there is an emphasis on the action itself and the characters who drive it. The action of the narrative drove the movie forward at all times, making it more damanding than a regular action film, packing it with grand ideas, and weaving it together wonderfully with a good plot. The part of the film leading up to the climax was just as entertaining as the climax itself, and the climax was clearly distinguished and a worthy cap for the rest of the film. I like that all the suspense leading up to it really was leading up to it, and that after the fight the heroes had truly earned their pat on their collective backs. In and of itself, the climax was everything a hero film could hope to achieve. The stakes were high and relevant, with the fate of the world on the line and Manhattan suffering from an attack that genuinely would be too big for anyone but superheroes to handle. I like that the superheroes also have their defining superhero moments by saving innocent people...Well, that's mainly Captain America, but still, it's really cool to see in a classic superhero film and perhaps one of the most important things a director can do to capture what superhero films are all about. It even had large scale destruction resulting from brawling heroes, which is something I've really wanted to see for a while, especially since Thor showed all of Asgard and neglected to destroy half of it in its final fight scene (which would have been the only rational thing to do for an action film about fighting gods). Films such as the Dark Knight Trilogy and Spiderman 2 and even X-Men 3 did this wonderfully, though not on the scale of this film, and even though it's easy to overshoot with these fight scenes, The Avengers managed to go over the top and still pull it off.My analysis? It will be remembered and loved for quite some time. Some people will even grow nostalgic of the film and think of it as a high point in their moviegoing experience. However, I don't predict it going down in the Library of Congress's list of culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant movies. It will still have cultural significance for its popularity and sense of fun, not for being a classy. That being said, it has a sense of fun, so you should really watch it. Now.Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Hexann]

BIOICLE: LOMN-TPH 3.0

[Queen of Liars]

X-Men: First ClassIt was actually a lot better than I expected. Very enjoyable film.

[Jean Valjean]

As a review I read for it said, "First Class hits all the right notes".So I guess my expectations were pretty high. But don't worry, it didn't fall short of them. By the way, that reminds me, I actually watched that one over Christmas Break and I believe it was one of the movies I forgot to write a review of, so I'll have to get around to that sometime, even though by now it's certainly not the "last film I've watched".Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Hexann]

Despicable Me

[Queen of Liars]

The Avengers.'Awesome' is the word that describes it best.

[Jean Valjean]

Battlestar Galactica: I watched the premier episode to the contemporary series again, and there were several things I caught on to this time that I didn't the last, which was rather pleasing. I also must say this time around that the casting was perfect.Gattaca: Now this is an interesting film. There are two types of science fiction: that which has fun with grand ideas, which usually requires a lot of special effects, and that which incorporates extreme ideas into society in order to make you think, which usually does not require as much special effects. Gattaca takes on the form of the latter. Other than the occasional rocket in the background, I don't think there was a single special effect in the entire movie, and even the rocket could have easily been stock footage, since the technology to send ships into space has been around for half a century now.The extreme it proposes is rather interesting, as well as believable. In fact, I believe that when I first heard the pitch for this movie when I was a preteen, I thought that it was real, and even now I can see this happening to some extent.I found it interesting that they didn't specify the date in the film, rather labeling it the near future. It looks like it could be close enough to our time, since the technological level isn't conspicuously higher than ours, if at all, other than the genetic advancements, which are implemented into the film in such inconspicuous ways that it still feels like it could be the present. I like it when science fiction can do that, when it's so subtle that no effort whatsoever is needed to suspend disbelief, because there's nothing to disbelieve. The only other thing that marks this society as futuristic is the fashion, which is a little more formal and similar to the 50's. Even the man in the wheelchair who doesn't get out much makes sure to wear a tie and vest at home.As a work of science fiction, I give this film an A+. As a piece of storytelling, I also rate it high, although there are a few flaws that stand out to me. Part of it is that it seems like a third of the movie is a flashback when it needn't have been, because it could havegone just as smoothly if not more so had it started right at the beginning rather than in the middle. The narrating could have been left out, since it wasn't necessary and it spelled out the science fiction elements all too clearly.The other major problem was Uma Thurmon. She had virtually no purpose in the film as a character. Rather, she was a plot device meant to both hurt and help Vincent in his journey. Her personal story wasn't engaging and was irrelevant. What was more, she was stingy and cold. I do not see how Vincent fell in love with her character.Jerome, on the other hand, was rather interesting. Not everything about him was explained, but I don't think it was necessary. Why was he depressed? I really don't know. However, because it's an open-ended question, he's placed in a position where most people can relate with him, because we've all given up hope at one point in time. I'm normally not into letting the audience imagine things for themselves, but for once I took pleasure in imagining Jerome's past. It's interesting, because he greatly reminds me of one of my favorite poems, "Richard Cory". Ultimately, I end up relating to him, and the reason I didn't question why he was depressed was because he didn't need a reason. It's just something that happens.However, there was the ending, and I was sad to see his ultimate fate. I don't fully know why he did what he did, though it wasn't very uplifting. I might warn the reader that the film ends on a bittersweet note that, for me, is more sad than it is happy.Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh Edited May 27, 2012 by Emperor Kraggh

[Queen of Liars]

Just finished Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time after all that time of trying to avoid it in fear of it butchering the games.On its own, it was actually a pretty good film. Not memorable, but fun and enjoyable. However, I hold the video game trilogy its based on as my favourite game series of all time, and much due to the story of the games, so I can't help but compare the movie to the games. While this movie did not change as much from the games as I expected it to, and some of the changes are understandable for a transition to movie form, I still feel that it changed too much and missed a lot of what made the story of the game so great.Nevertheless, this was nowhere near as bad as it could have been or as I expected it to be. I will also now have to go and re-play all three games after my exams are over.

[Jean Valjean]

Speaking from the perspective of someone who hasn't played the games, I thought it was really, really good. I appreciate your perspective, though, as I have had yet to read a gamer's view on it.Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Voxumo]

well i actually just finished watching a movie called a taste of romance. it was a okay movie a bit of a chick flick but not bad at all

[Mushy the Mushroom]

(Removed.)

Edited September 21, 2020 by Mushy the Mushroom

[Terminus]

MIB3It was good, but not as good as the previous ones...

[Queen of Liars]

The Usual Suspects:Yeah, haven't watched it until yesterday, which I realise is very late considering how much of a classic it is considered to be.Thought it was very good, but not quite living up to the hype. Then again, I've seen it in 2012, not in 1995 when it revolutionised the genre.Wristcutters: A Love Story:Not what it sounds like... well not exactly. An interesting film taking place in a purgatory of sorts: a realm reserved for people who committed suicide. Everything in this realm is exactly the same as in the real world, except slightly worse. And no one is physically able to smile there.Interesting concept and executed quite well, but did leave something to be desired.

Edited May 27, 2012 by -Tragic Idol-

[Dwanny]

Insidious.It was rather dumb, sort of cliche story.I got the impression that it was made by students.One or two surprising moments, but never unexpected.

[Dorek]

The Best Exotic Marigold HotelNo doubt I lowered the median age of that theater by about twenty years.

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

LotR. For the tenth million time.

[Mr. Fluffy]

MIB 3 (why in Karzahni is this movie's name censored?)

Edited May 30, 2012 by Mr. Fluffy

[Queen of Liars]

Suck. It's a black comedy, rock 'n' roll vampire movie including appearances by Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and Moby.Really fun movie if you don't take it seriously. Also has lots of cool small references to music which classic rock fans will notice.Also recently re-watched MIB and MIB II as I'll be going to see the third one soon. They still hold up well after over 10 years.