Movie News, Reviews, & Reactions 2011

[Krensky]

Saw Captain America too over the weekend.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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At this point, I'm not quite sure where the film stands in regards to my all-time favorite comic book films. As far as Marvel goes, I want to say it's better than Iron Man, but I'm not sure. I've seen X-Men First Class twice and I'm almost convinced that it's a better film than Iron Man.

Totally geeked out on seeing the Synthetic Man (Jim Hammond) on display. I would have preferred to see Steve team up with Namor and Hammond, but you really can't go too wrong with the Hollowing Commandos.

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But did the Falsworth family make an appearance?

[ThunderMonkey]

Saw Captain America too over the weekend.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

(click to show/hide)

At this point, I'm not quite sure where the film stands in regards to my all-time favorite comic book films. As far as Marvel goes, I want to say it's better than Iron Man, but I'm not sure. I've seen X-Men First Class twice and I'm almost convinced that it's a better film than Iron Man.

Totally geeked out on seeing the Synthetic Man (Jim Hammond) on display. I would have preferred to see Steve team up with Namor and Hammond, but you really can't go too wrong with the Howling Commandos.

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But did the Falsworth family make an appearance?

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by jove, yes! There's a James Montgomery Falsworth who joins up with Steve and the rest of the Howling Commandos.

[Crafty_Pat]

Saw Captain America. I have to say, best Marvel Movie since Iron Man. If I weren't such an Iron Fan I might be inclined to say it was better.

I caught the 3D sneak peek at Comic-Con (on Thursday night), and it was truly stellar IMHO. It's coping out but I'm calling it a three-way tie between this, Iron Man, and X-Men: First Class.

Also cool? The Travis Stout poster they handed out at the Thursday night screening...

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That sucker's gettin' FRAMED!

[Krensky]

Saw Captain America too over the weekend.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

(click to show/hide)

At this point, I'm not quite sure where the film stands in regards to my all-time favorite comic book films. As far as Marvel goes, I want to say it's better than Iron Man, but I'm not sure. I've seen X-Men First Class twice and I'm almost convinced that it's a better film than Iron Man.

Totally geeked out on seeing the Synthetic Man (Jim Hammond) on display. I would have preferred to see Steve team up with Namor and Hammond, but you really can't go too wrong with the Howling Commandos.

(click to show/hide)

But did the Falsworth family make an appearance?

(click to show/hide)

by jove, yes! There's a James Montgomery Falsworth who joins up with Steve and the rest of the Howling Commandos.

(click to show/hide)

Now for a cameo by Reed Richards...

[Crafty_Pat]

Andy Serkis intros an extended clip of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I'm liking the actors in this movie...

I so can't wait to see this movie. I may even try to squeeze it in at Gen Con, though I'm not sure how... yet.

[Crafty_Pat]

Didn't take in much of the movie stuff at Comic-Con this year, but here's what I ran across over lunch today. Not all of it is from the show, but a lot of studios take the opportunity to release stuff alongside it.

NOTE: Panel reviews (and some videos) are rife with spoilers. You are warned.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Comic-Con Tease: Love that leaf sequence!

The Hobbit
Production Diary 3: Focusing on the dwarves this time, and featuring a wonderful nod to the studio home of James Bond, plus a surprise guest at the end.

Prometheus
Panel Review: Any comment I offer would be filled with spoilers. Did I mention you shouldn't read the panel reviews unless you don't mind those?
 

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In Time
Panel Footage: I've been looking forward to this movie since I first heard the concept. This trailer does nothing to diminish my expectations.

Knights of Badassdom
Comic-Con Trailer: Look ma! LARPers save the world!

Bunraku
Trailer: This flick features some of the wackiest aesthetic choices I've ever seen.

Twixt
Comic-Con Panel Review: This is definitely one of the most intriguing productions out there right now. I'm really curious how it'll shake out in the final tour.

Amazing Spider-Man

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Trailer 1: This played in front of our Captain America screening, and it was hella disorienting in 3D (not just because of the web-swinging sequences, either - the whole trailer was a confused blur). It looks somewhat better here in 2D, but it's still only mildly interesting. It doesn't fill me with the awe and wonder I had with Raimi's first two flicks. Hopefully the finished product is better but...

Comic-Con Panel Report: I'm not against hulky lizard per se, but none of the reports I'm hearing from the panel are positive. It is important to note that we're still a year out, so the CG could improve.

Drive
Red Band Trailer: Albert Brooks is in it, so it's got my attention - and the rest of the cast ain't too shabby either. Couple nice scenes in the mix, though few worthy of the trailer being branded with an R rating IMO.

Avengers
Marvel released seven character concept art posters that fit together to form a mighty nice banner...

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[ThunderMonkey]

Wow... Hawkeye is good. He can utilize the bow with either his right or left hand.

[glimmerrat]

The new Star Wars Saga blue ray release has a bunch of never-before-seen deleted scenes on it. From the original trilogy.

Fuck you, Lucas. First, Jar Jar, and now you give the finger to everyone without a blue ray player? Fuck you.

[Desertpuma]

The music in the second half of the In Time trailer is actually from the opening to the TV show Conviction which was a spinoff of Law & Order about prosecutors. I'm looking forward to this one.

[RusVal]

Pop quiz: How do you make a movie based on the game of Battleship?

Answer: By adding aliens, apparently.

To be fair, they do at least have the pegs...

[Sletchman]

Went and saw Hanna tonight, and I really enjoyed it.  Quite intense (something contributed to by the Chemical Brothers score) and very well executed in my opinion, with a neat concept too.  I think Saoirse Ronan is certainly a young actress to keep an eye on (which I have said since her performance in City of Ember, the first I saw of her).

[Crafty_Pat]

The new Star Wars Saga blue ray release has a bunch of never-before-seen deleted scenes on it. From the original trilogy.

Fuck you, Lucas. First, Jar Jar, and now you give the finger to everyone without a blue ray player? Fuck you.

Don't sweat it too much. Based on what I saw of that footage at Comic-Con, it's not worth the investment.

[Crafty_Pat]

Went and saw Hanna tonight, and I really enjoyed it.  Quite intense (something contributed to by the Chemical Brothers score) and very well executed in my opinion, with a neat concept too.  I think Saoirse Ronan is certainly a young actress to keep an eye on (which I have said since her performance in City of Ember, the first I saw of her).

Yeah, I liked it as well, though it felt oddly incomplete to me. Maybe it'll improve with future viewings.

[Sletchman]

Went and saw Hanna tonight, and I really enjoyed it.  Quite intense (something contributed to by the Chemical Brothers score) and very well executed in my opinion, with a neat concept too.  I think Saoirse Ronan is certainly a young actress to keep an eye on (which I have said since her performance in City of Ember, the first I saw of her).

Yeah, I liked it as well, though it felt oddly incomplete to me. Maybe it'll improve with future viewings.

Interesting, care to expand on that?  In which way it felt incomplete?  I find myself agreeing with a lot of your posts in regards to film and television, so I am quite curious.

[Crafty_Pat]

Interesting, care to expand on that?  In which way it felt incomplete?  I find myself agreeing with a lot of your posts in regards to film and television, so I am quite curious.

It uses that great bookending mechanism, which offers a powerful start and equally strong finish, but when I pulled back and tried to view the movie as a complete story, it felt more like one chapter of something larger. I'm positive that's intentional, but something about the execution left me wanting.

It's interesting because I didn't feel the same way with, say, the original La Femme Nikita - I think because the focus was off our hero by the time the credits rolled. By then the movie was about the human wreckage she'd left in her wake, and their story - or at least their part of her story - felt like it had reached a natural conclusion (subsequent brand expansion notwithstanding).

Here we have our little heroine as the very first and very last images we see, and she's doing exactly what she's trained to do, which is great. At the start you're sent a clear message that the movie isn't interested in filling you in what's come before, and that you should race a bit to catch up (which is an excellent structure for a story like this), but then you hit the end of the movie and it just... ends, you're left feeling like you might have missed something important (or at least that's how I felt on the first viewing).

Again, I'm positive it's intentional. I wouldn't be surprised if Lochhead, Far, and/or Wright made the choice with the intention of dragging the audience's attention down through the credits like a Plinko chip in shocked freefall. They may have wanted the audience off-balance at the close, or hoped that viewers would fill in their own blanks. I'm happy to do that, but it didn't feel like that was the movie I was being shown until that moment, so it was a bit disorienting.

It also ended a bit small, which in retrospect I'm grateful for - it's nice to see intimate movie-making every so often - but if you'd asked me ten minutes in how the last villain would fall, that sure as hell wouldn't have been my guess.

Still loved it, and want to see it again.