What’s the last movie you watched?

[Backroads]

5 hours ago, anatess2 said:

Ugh!  Yea.  I’m fairly certain this is how it came down in Production:

Russos:  Seriously?  You want that scene in there?

Iger:  Yes.  

Russos:  Do we really have to?

Iger:  Non-negotiable.

Russos:  Fine.  But we’re adding a scene where Thanos flicks Captain Marvel like a gnat.

A fair-ish bargain, I suppose.

Still doesn't change the fact I get madder the more I think about it.

There is awesome violent chaos going on and y'all ladies have time to gather like it's Relief Society.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Backroads

[Guest Godless]

Saw Endgame today. Don't see what all the fuss is about with the "girl power" scene. Unnecessary, sure, but I didn't find it distracting or distuptive, to the point that I didn't even realize what people were referencing at first.

Overall, really enjoyed it. Lived up to the hype and then some, though there's a very significant plot point towards the end that I found troublesome. 

[Vort]

3 hours ago, Godless said:

Saw Endgame today. Don't see what all the fuss is about with the "girl power" scene. Unnecessary, sure, but I didn't find it distracting or distuptive, to the point that I didn't even realize what people were referencing at first.

I think people were just referring to how eye-rolling it was. If I were a woman, I would have been embarrassed. I was sort of embarrassed anyway.

3 hours ago, Godless said:

Overall, really enjoyed it.

That makes one of us.

I do have to admit to being genuinely impressed at how Marvel, through an arc twenty-two films over a span of eleven years, has managed to create an enormous and truly staggering pile of money. That is the enduring legacy of these movies. If you think the legacy is more than this, then you have mistaken the movie franchise for something with substance. There is no more substance in these movies than you find in a series of comic books. (How about that?)

3 hours ago, Godless said:

Lived up to the hype and then some

I suppose that depends on what hype you heard.

***SPOILERS***

I didn't hate it, except for the filthy language. That I hated. Ignoring filthy language for the moment, the movie was reasonably entertaining and competently written, directed, and acted. It was just...empty. Void of substance. I can think of exactly two times when I felt any tinge of honest emotion, and it didn't have to do with a cute little five-year-old girl bereft of her daddy: Thor with his mother and Captain America at the end. Thor, perhaps the least emotionally complex or engaging character in the movie but having been reduced to a pitiful punchline, actually generated emotion as the truly broken man and almost tragic figure gaining strength again from talking with his soon-to-be-dead mother. (But don't get me started on his stupid "I just need to be me and not try to live up to expectations any more" soliloquy—what an embarrassment). And Steve Rogers getting his life back after years of self-sacrifice and ceaseless service was practically a Christian parable; he, perhaps alone among the characters, lived something resembling what I would think of as a desirable, beautiful, heavenly life, in large part exactly because of his virtuous actions.

Other than that, mostly just CGI fantasy, an excuse to eat popcorn covered with fake butter and salt.

[Guest Godless]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

I think people were just referring to how eye-rolling it was. If I were a woman, I would have been embarrassed. I was sort of embarrassed anyway.

That's fair.

Quote

That makes one of us.

I do have to admit to being genuinely impressed at how Marvel, through an arc twenty-two films over a span of eleven years, has managed to create an enormous and truly staggering pile of money. That is the enduring legacy of these movies. If you think the legacy is more than this, then you have mistaken the movie franchise for something with substance. There is no more substance in these movies than you find in a series of comic books. (How about that?)

I haven't read a single comic book in my life. I was too busy reading Tom Clancy, Tolkein, and Hugo in my younger years and never picked it up as an adult. For me, the story is all in the cinematic representation, and they got me hooked over the course of the last 10 years, just as my parents' generation got hooked on Star Wars. The best part, though, has been having my son along for the ride. Some days he can't make up his mind whether he wants to be Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Batman (not MCU, but c'mon, what kid doesn't want to be Batman at some point?). Last Halloween he was the cutest baby Groot ever. Stuff like that is what makes the MCU special for me. I understand and respect that your experience may differ.

Quote

I suppose that depends on what hype you heard.

That it put a nice big bow on a body of work spanning 11 years and 20 movies. I think that's accurate.

Quote

***SPOILERS***

I didn't hate it, except for the filthy language. That I hated. Ignoring filthy language for the moment, the movie was reasonably entertaining and competently written, directed, and acted. It was just...empty. Void of substance. I can think of exactly two times when I felt any tinge of honest emotion, and it didn't have to do with a cute little five-year-old girl bereft of her daddy: Thor with his mother and Captain America at the end. Thor, perhaps the least emotionally complex or engaging character in the movie but having been reduced to a pitiful punchline, actually generated emotion as the truly broken man and almost tragic figure gaining strength again from talking with his soon-to-be-dead mother. (But don't get me started on his stupid "I just need to be me and not try to live up to expectations any more" soliloquy—what an embarrassment). And Steve Rogers getting his life back after years of self-sacrifice and ceaseless service was practically a Christian parable; he, perhaps alone among the characters, lived something resembling what I would think of as a desirable, beautiful, heavenly life, in large part exactly because of his virtuous actions.

Other than that, mostly just CGI fantasy, an excuse to eat popcorn covered with fake butter and salt.

*** more spoilers, but I'll try to keep it vague ***

Those were both great moments. I think the scene with Nat and Clint would have been a lot more powerful if the previous films had done a better job of exploring their dynamic. I always felt there was a special connection between those two, but that the movies didn't set it up very well.

Tony Stark's daddy issues, on the other hand, have been very well-established over the years, and I felt that the movie did a good job of working that into the story.

I don't cry during movies (not even Coco, I'm a monster), but the sequence leading up to "Avengers, assemble" nearly got me. I think that was the most collective vocalization I've ever heard in a sold out theater (at a 10:30 AM Monday showing, speaking of making money), and I'm glad I got to share that moment with my fellow moviegoers. Again, 11 years and 20 movies all led up to that single "do or die" moment. It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen on screen, and it was enough to almost make me forgive the aforementioned plot problem later in that scene (which I won't address yet because it's a MAJOR spoiler). 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Godless

[Backroads]

3 hours ago, Godless said:

the sequence leading up to "Avengers, assemble" nearly got me. I think that was the most collective vocalization I've ever heard in a sold out theater (at a 10:30 AM Monday showing, speaking of making money), and I'm glad I got to share that moment with my fellow moviegoers. Again, 11 years and 20 movies all led up to that single "do or die" moment. It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen on screen

I concur, it was pretty darn cool. I found it special.

I'm with Vort in agreement these movies aren't substantial art, though I find them quite a lot of fun and a popcorn movie is honorable in it's own right. Husband, on the other hand, who has a greater love for comics, was crying like it was a movie about a dog (he's that guy). I find comics fun, they mean something to him.

As for the hen party scene... it's eye-rolling, but I could let that go. My issue is one of logistics--what baddies aren't being fought because you all walked over to gather and whose idea was it? How did y'all communicate?

And yes, I may hand-select the logistical problems. But I also want to know how they were fueling the Benetar ship.

[Midwest LDS]

SPOILERS INCLUDED

Saw Endgame on opening night with my wife. I thought it was a great movie and there were some pretty intense emotional scenes for me. FYI I've never got into reading comics, so this is just my impression from seeing the movies.

"Spoilers ahead"

 

While far from perfect (the girl power scene was a little silly and Vort has a point about language) the moments that really stick out to me are as follows:

Black Widow's sacrifice for the soul stone. I think I appreciated it because she and Hawkeye both acted like I would expect people who loved and cared about each other to act if told that one of them must sacrfice themselves. That fight over who would do it really got to me.

I loved when Captain America picked up Mjollnir and began beating up Thanos with it. Cap is my favorite Marvel hero, and seeing he was worthy to use the hammer was pretty cool. 

Iron Man's crowning achievement, where he looks at Thanos, and says "I'm Iron Man" before sacrificing himself to destroy the invaders, was epic in my opinion. Definitely an epic way to go out.

Finally, Captain getting to go back, marry the love of his life, and live as he always should have been able to, was a truly heartwarming moment. It made me really happy.

So live up to all the hype? Not necessarily, but a great film and one that was satisfying for me to watch.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Midwest LDS

[Vort]

6 hours ago, Godless said:

Tony Stark's daddy issues, on the other hand, have been very well-established over the years, and I felt that the movie did a good job of working that into the story.

I must admit those were very good scenes. Tony Snark is fun to watch but doesn't generate much visceral sympathy (with me, anyway), but that sort of did. Maybe those scenes qualify as a possible third instance of something close to genuine emotion.

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Midwest LDS said:

Iron Man's crowning achievement, where he looks at Thanos, and says "I'm Iron Man" before sacrificing himself to destroy the invaders, was epic in my opinion.

Yeah, his parallel response to Thanos' "I am inevitable" was perfect, almost certainly planned from the start. (I bet they had Thanos say "I am destiny" exactly so that Stark could eventually say, "I am Iron Man.") I suppose "epic" depends on the person watching, but I did find it entertaining. Writing was not a real weakness in this movie.

 

[anatess2]

Coming from my disappointment in Infinity War that caused me to write off the MCU...

2 hours ago, Midwest LDS said:

Black Widow's sacrifice for the soul stone. I think I appreciated it because she and Hawkeye both acted like I would expect people who loved and cared about each other to act if told that one of them must sacrfice themselves. That fight over who would do it really got to me.

Yes.  This was good.  Except it got ruined by the shoehorn of Captain Marvel that spit on the female awesomeness of Black Widow.

This is a good watch (covers up to before End Game) https://youtu.be/4dFFq-DBKtg

 

2 hours ago, Midwest LDS said:

I loved when Captain America picked up Mjollnir and began beating up Thanos with it. Cap is my favorite Marvel hero, and seeing he was worthy to use the hammer was pretty cool. 

This was good except for the complete ruination of Thor (culminating in that sorry excuse of a "I wanna do me" line) which made Cap's carrying of the hammer and even stormbreaker just making Thor even smaller.

 

2 hours ago, Midwest LDS said:

Iron Man's crowning achievement, where he looks at Thanos, and says "I'm Iron Man" before sacrificing himself to destroy the invaders, was epic in my opinion. Definitely an epic way to go out.

Yes.  This was good.  No except...

 

2 hours ago, Midwest LDS said:

Finally, Captain getting to go back, marry the love of his life, and live as he always should have been able to, was a truly heartwarming moment. It made me really happy.

Yes.  Except for the confusing question of how he ended up back in the original timeline after splitting off into an alternate one.  Same confusion with Loki and the tesseract disappearing from the original timeline.

 

 

 

[Guest Godless]

*** Spoilers Ahead ***

 

 

Okay, since others have touched on some major events, I'll go ahead and do my plot rant. 

 

They have three of the strongest weapons in the universe (aside from the infinity stones) in that final battle: the hammer, the axe, and Captain Marvel. Between the three of them, you would think one of them would have been able to kill Thanos before he could get to the gauntlet. Heck, we're led to believe that Thor with Stormbreaker could have defeated Thanos with the gauntlet if only he had gone for the head. Meanwhile, Marvel can decimate ships the size of small countries, but I don't think she even tried going after Thanos. I imagine she could have easily defeated him, and leveled his army for good measure. Iron Man's sacrifice was emotional and brilliantly-executed. I just don't think it was necessary given the supporting cast.

[anatess2]

10 minutes ago, Godless said:

They have three of the strongest weapons in the universe (aside from the infinity stones) in that final battle: the hammer, the axe, and Captain Marvel. 

And isn't that the tragedy that Captain Marvel is on that line and not Thor.  Thor now has the power of Odin and it has been established in the MCU - which is actually a super awesome hero's journey - that he doesn't need either mjulnir nor stormbreaker to BE powerful.  He just needs to be WORTHY of such power.  So, Captain Marvel is in it because... she's a god?  Well, guess what, Starlord is one too.

[Backroads]

On 3/18/2019 at 7:44 AM, anatess2 said:

 

We watched this movie because it was the only decent one showing at the right time while waiting for a flight arrival.  It was okay.  The movie is about kids with Cystic Fibrosis getting treatment at the hospital so it has that tinge of sadness in it throughout the entire thing.  But, it does have several fun moments although it's all predictable.  I say, it's worth the movie ticket and the popcorn just to get a peek of the life of people with CF.  What I didn't like about it is the teen-age quips on sex stuff.  I had my 15-year-old with me and I can hear him groan everytime they make those stupid jokes/references.

I actually read the novelization last fall. My CF mom groups were all abuzz and I had access to an advance copy.

Didn't see the movie. Husband was actually bothered by the trailer. The story seemed to be more teen love fluff than anything concerning, but I've aged out of that genre.

But the CF mom groups aren't necessarily happy with teen rebellion.

[anatess2]

18 hours ago, Backroads said:

But the CF mom groups aren't necessarily happy with teen rebellion.

Oh yeah.  That was DUMB what they did there in the end.  I gave them a pass, though, because... CF.  Anyway, I donated to a CF foundation a few weeks back.  So, I guess the movie did its job.  

[anatess2]

Molly's Game

This was a very fascinating movie.  Okay, so Idris Elba is one of my fave actors so that has a lot to do with it.  But Molly's story (at least the movie portrayal) is very fascinating.  My dad is like Molly's dad in the way he pushes his kids to excel.  I come home with a 99% mid-terms test grade, he looks at me and says, why is this not 100%?  So Molly says in the movie - "how many Olympic athletes have demanding parents?  All of them."  Molly ranked 3rd in the North American Skiing Competition and got injured while qualifying for the Olympics on a statistical anomaly of a frozen twig hitting the release button on her ski boot.  She's a high-achieving student who took calculus in sophomore year.  Yet she's the low achiever among her siblings with one sibling taking calculus at age 12 and becoming a surgeon while the other have 11 Gold Medals in the Ski World Cup and is playing with the Eagles in the NFL. 

In the movie, she equates herself to Mack Robinson, who spent his life as a janitor, and who, in the 1936 Olympics broke the Olympic track record by a wide margin only to place 2nd to Jesse Owens by 0.4 of a second.  His younger brother, Jackie Robinson, broke the racial glass ceiling and got inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  So Molly decided she's going to win.  The what and where are just details.  She ended up making millions running underground poker.

Anyway, it's a PG13 movie with bad language.  The movie is all talk talk talk and they talk super duper fast using big words so I had to turn on the closed caption. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by anatess2

[The Folk Prophet]

I saw Endgame today. Haven't read any of the other posts on it yet so I'll get to that when I have time and maybe comment on them.

My response.

Very disappointing.

If you take out the SJW nonsense things I'd give it an 80%. Enjoyable, but a few weaknesses that could be generally overlooked. Why was Thanos so powerful without any infinity stones? How was old Steve in the same timeline? Etc.

With the addition of the SJW things it passes into a realm of true disappointment. I will not buy this one. I'm incredibly disappointed in the clear injection of useless SJW garbage into the big finale that everyone's going to see anyhow. There was absolutely no need to have the guy (Russo) talk about "he" when discussing his date. And there was no reason in the world to have all the female characters randomly happen to be in the exact same spot on the battle field amongst millions. So....freaking....STUPID!

Removing those two things and its weaknesses are forgivable. With those injections it's going in my thumbs-down trash-heap pile.

Edited May 7, 2019 by The Folk Prophet

[anatess2]

Takers

This was a good cops and robbers movie.  Good acting, good pacing, good characters... until the last 5 minutes or so when everything went downhill.

[Guest Mores]

Saw Avengers.

I think the slow portion of the movie was too long.  It could easily have been more of a panic than droning on about how bad everything was.

Girl Power Scene:  Yeah.  Eye-rolling.  Gratuitous.  But no biggie.  I found it a bit amusing, actually.

Four temporal logic problems.  But I'm going to assume that Tony's snap fixed two of them (Thanos and Nebula).  The third one (Gumorrah) there's no getting around that.  Then who knows about Loki?  That could have theoretically been fixed by Cap.  But we just don't know.  But then again, they aren't really temporal logic problems.  They went a different route with temporal effects because of the two "classroom discussions" on that topic.

Of course, everyone liked the end battle scene.  If you didn't, you really shouldn't be watching action movies.

[The Folk Prophet]

2 hours ago, Mores said:

I think the slow portion of the movie was too long.

I think they should have done 2 movies that were 2 hours or just under instead of 1 3 hours movie. They could have expanded the "slow" part with some action sequences and expanded the battle at the end and etc. And I would have had a better shot at making it through the movie without leaving  half way in to hit the restroom. And they would have made more overall money.

2 hours ago, Mores said:

But no biggie.

In today's climate I disagree. These things are a "biggie".

We're in a major culture war that is a continuation of the war in heaven and the wrong side is taking too many souls.

[Guest Mores]

33 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I think they should have done 2 movies that were 2 hours or just under instead of 1 3 hours movie. They could have expanded the "slow" part with some action sequences and expanded the battle at the end and etc. And I would have had a better shot at making it through the movie without leaving  half way in to hit the restroom. And they would have made more overall money.

There was actually a website that my wife found that said where you could take bathroom breaks because there wasn't anything interesting going on.

Quote

In today's climate I disagree. These things are a "biggie".

We're in a major culture war that is a continuation of the war in heaven and the wrong side is taking too many souls.

I understand where you're coming from, but we can't let the reaction be disproportionate.  So, no.  It was not a "biggie". It was just an eye-roller.

We complain that Hollywood is making everything too political.  To avoid hypocrisy, we need to admit that ...  sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

In action films, I don't mind seeing a woman do some fantastic combat moves.  There are some action poses and choreography that look like poetry in motion with a female performing them that just don't work for males (think about the corridor scene by Black Widow in Iron Man II or the walk down the rainbow bridge by Valkyrie (BTW, the sexiest actress in the MCU IMO).  And to put together a bunch of females all doing their well-choreographed moves all together...(priceless).

My only problem is that it was poorly executed, making it gratuitous.  I'd have preferred a group montage scene like we've seen in Avengers & Avengers II, but with just the females in the montage.  That would have been awesome.  

So, I guess, I'm saying that it didn't feel "political" as I watched it.  It seemed amusing.  But it could have been awesome. And because of that, I was more disappointed than upset.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Mores

[Vort]

43 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I think they should have done 2 movies that were 2 hours or just under instead of 1 3 hours movie.

It was already two movies.

[The Folk Prophet]

33 minutes ago, Mores said:

but we can't let the reaction be disproportionate

What is an appropriate reaction?

34 minutes ago, Mores said:

To avoid hypocrisy, we need to admit that ...  sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

And sometimes a cigar is a blatant attempt to recruit people to smoke cigars.

And sometimes a cigar is a subtle implication hidden as "a cigar is just a cigar" but the underlying idea is to recruit people to smoke more cigars and change the culture.

36 minutes ago, Mores said:

And to put together a bunch of females all doing their well-choreographed moves all together...(priceless).

If it made sense to do so, sure. I would have had no problem if there was some plot point that made it reasonable in any regard. I don't have a problem with women action heroes (hint: no one does). 

39 minutes ago, Mores said:

My only problem is that it was poorly executed, making it gratuitous.

Hmm. Then we have the same problem. I just think it's a bigger deal that you do.

39 minutes ago, Mores said:

I'd have preferred a group montage scene like we've seen in Avengers & Avengers II, but with just the females in the montage. 

How would that make any more sense?

If you're going to do a female only thing it needs to make sense. There needs to be a reason -- as in all the men have been captured or destroyed or are needed in some other capacity, or actually don't have the ability to do whatever task it is, etc., etc. Otherwise it's gratuitous feminist propaganda. Depending on the reason it still might be propaganda -- but at least it wouldn't be gratuitous.

35 minutes ago, Vort said:

It was already two movies.

Nuh uh.

It was already 4 movies.

[Guest Mores]

20 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

What is an appropriate reaction?

Roll your eyes and let it go.

[The Folk Prophet]

1 hour ago, Mores said:

Roll your eyes and let it go.

That's what we've all be doing at movies since day one, and look where the world's headed.

There comes a point where just rolling our eyes isn't enough. That point, for me, has been reached. It should have been reached much sooner, I'll admit, but I have a weakness for entertainment.

I will no longer consume Marvel movies. I will not give my money to uphold Satan's kingdom any longer.

To be fair -- I'm being a bit mellow-dramatic (a bit) over the girl power moment. I say only a bit because I see a pattern, and these little moderately innocuous things by themselves are one thing, but the overall picture they're painting is something else entirely.

Honestly it was the "gay" scene that crossed the line for me, but it's all a part of the painting being painted.

Everyone likes to stick their heads in the sand over these things. A little shift here. An introduction of an idea there. An announcement here. A change there. Subtle. No big deal. Just another eye roll thing. Just Hollywood being Hollywood.

And all of a sudden 30 years on and the culture is lost. Well there's nothing I can do to change that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to allow it into my life without personally taking a stand. If all conservative minded folk would take a stand with me then something actually could be done about it. But no. The proper response in their minds is eye-rolls and letting it go. Again, and again. And again. And again.

[Guest Mores]

7 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

That's what we've all be doing at movies since day one, and look where the world's headed.

There comes a point where just rolling our eyes isn't enough. That point, for me, has been reached. It should have been reached much sooner, I'll admit, but I have a weakness for entertainment.

I have difficulty believing that things as simple as the girl power scene as being responsible for bringing us here.  Long before the feminist movement was considered mainstream, we saw scenes just like that one and it didn't change anything.

As you mentioned, I'd consider the gay scene as being more of a problem than the girl power scene.

[unixknight]

So yeah I realize that Endgame is the film du jour in this thread but I haven't seen it yet so instead I'll talk about the movie I DID see recently...

Justice League.

Yes, I know it's been out a while.  I'd been delaying watching it because, despite how much I love Superman, I couldn't make myself prioritize it.  I was afraid.

I was right to be afraid, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.  I started writing a lot more but yanno, maybe I'll just start a new thread.