Movie News, Reviews, & Reactions 2012

[Desertpuma]

That is high concept and looks excellent...

[Sletchman]

Turning to something not so experiment, but still quite beautiful (in my opinion): Epic

Also the first time I'd heard Snow Patrol's The Lightning Strike (Part I), which is very nice.  As a fan of the studio's previous work, I'm quite looking forward to this one (plus I like animated films).

[Crafty_Pat]

Turning to something not so experiment, but still quite beautiful (in my opinion): Epic

Also the first time I'd heard Snow Patrol's The Lightning Strike (Part I), which is very nice.  As a fan of the studio's previous work, I'm quite looking forward to this one (plus I like animated films).

Awesome. I hadn't seen this before, and it looks stellar.

[Crafty_Pat]

Also, if you missed the Olympics opening ceremony or it wasn't shown in your area, there's a new Bond spot.

It's short, but very, very sweet.

[Mister Andersen]

The shot 13 seconds in remains one of my favourite visual compositions of the year.

[Crafty_Pat]

The shot 13 seconds in remains one of my favourite visual compositions of the year.

They did a featurette about locations a while back - which I'm pretty sure I posted here but don't have time to look up - that mentioned their love of that Singapore set. It's apparently a visual lynchpin for the whole flick.

In semi-related news, I had a thought about James Bond last night (during a screening of Amazing Spider-Man I attended to escape traffic and heat). The idea was wondrous and spawned nearly a page of concentrated notes about Spycraft Third. I can't wait to show them to you, but I can't... Not yet.

(Man alive that changed things - seriously, whole sections of the book just transformed before my very eyes. I love it when that happens.)

[Crafty_Pat]

Also, because I missed Amazing Spider-Man opening weekend due to extensive Fourth of July plans (and everyone I know going to see it without me - bastards!), I wound up seeing it within 24 hours of The Dark Knight Rises. The comparisons were not kind...

Where ASM is upbeat, uplifting, and despite retelling the origin a more-than-worthy contribution to the Marvel movie catalog, TDKR is ponderous (bordering on tedious), overindulgent, and squanders its few potentially momentous scenes by stripping out all the elements that elevate cinema as art (like, you know, music and sound effects). Those same elements are used everywhere else - to pretty much zero effect, I might add - so I'm sure Nolan thought he was calling out the movie's highlights by comparison. He wasn't. All he was doing was cutting off their nuts and tossing them into the editing pyre.

Shame, really, as The Dark Knight was transcendent and glorious. It makes me deeply sad that it's the exception to a rule with this trilogy rather than a stepping stone to something greater.

TDKR also lends a wee bit of credence to the reports I'm hearing that there may be trouble in the movie house of El. Time will tell, but my gut is telling me we shouldn't count on anything even resembling competition for Marvel anytime soon.

[Mister Andersen]

Yeah, haven't seen TDKR yet, but everything I've heard about it to date makes it sound like apart from Catwoman the pooch has been royally screwed on a number of levels

[Crafty_Pat]

Yeah, haven't seen TDKR yet, but everything I've heard about it to date makes it sound like apart from Catwoman the pooch has been royally screwed on a number of levels

It's... okay. Just okay. Nothing more. Go in expecting only a little and you'll get your money's worth.

I will add, however, that it could have been mighty. All they needed to do was keep the central structure, shave off about half an hour, and focus exclusively on the first 10 minutes and the last 45. Plus spice up the dialog, rejigger the sound mix, and leave one or three characters on the editing room floor.

[Desertpuma]

I had heard that from my roommate that they basically restart the entire film halfway through and that an enormous plot hole involving a period of 5 months of healing or being contained was involved. I'll see what I think probably next week.

[Desertpuma]

In semi-related news, I had a thought about James Bond last night (during a screening of Amazing Spider-Man I attended to escape traffic and heat). The idea was wondrous and spawned nearly a page of concentrated notes about Spycraft Third. I can't wait to show them to you, but I can't... Not yet.

(Man alive that changed things - seriously, whole sections of the book just transformed before my very eyes. I love it when that happens.)

We love that you got such inspiration as well! Just means the book is going to be that much better!

[Viperion]

It's... okay. Just okay. Nothing more. Go in expecting only a little and you'll get your money's worth.

I will add, however, that it could have been mighty. All they needed to do was keep the central structure, shave off about half an hour, and focus exclusively on the first 10 minutes and the last 45. Plus spice up the dialog, rejigger the sound mix, and leave one or three characters on the editing room floor.

I totally agree with all of that. Unfortunately I went in expecting it to be as good as Batman Begins, and hoping it was as good as Dark Knight. It's not.

(A friend of mine went so far as to say it's not a Batman movie. Replace Bane with "Strong, smart terrorist" and Batman with "Tough Guy Hero" and it could be any movie. I'm inclined to agree with him.)

[Wolverine]

I also found it really hard to hear some of the dialogue because the music (and some of the background noise) was WAY too loud. As much as I love the repetitive "matalo matalo, bane bane" chant, but there were times where it could have been dialed back just a bit.

On a completely different tack, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally promote a movie with the aid of bongs.

[Crafty_Pat]

I had heard that from my roommate that they basically restart the entire film halfway through and that an enormous plot hole involving a period of 5 months of healing or being contained was involved. I'll see what I think probably next week.

I don't know that that's an entirely accurate portrayal but it's entirely fair IMO.

(A friend of mine went so far as to say it's not a Batman movie. Replace Bane with "Strong, smart terrorist" and Batman with "Tough Guy Hero" and it could be any movie. I'm inclined to agree with him.)

Also fair.

[Crafty_Pat]

I also found it really hard to hear some of the dialogue because the music (and some of the background noise) was WAY too loud. As much as I love the repetitive "matalo matalo, bane bane" chant, but there were times where it could have been dialed back just a bit.

Bane's sound mix was markedly improved over the IMAX preview run in front of MI:4 but it was far from acceptable IMO. This was definitely a case of creator control run amok. Someone needed to step in and make the changes Nolan wasn't willing to accept.

On a completely different tack, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally promote a movie with the aid of bongs.

    O_O