Brian Fowler Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 The "good" Fast and Furious movies seem to fit that idea pretty well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 throw in The Force Awakens *runs* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 It definitely occurred to me, "Oh, this must be what watching a F&F movie is like." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unholy Dragon Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 I feel like the Fast and the Furious films are more like spotfests though...you can't judge them on limbwork or selling or even expect a ton of psychology because those aren't the goals at the outset, so grading on those metrics isn't fair. Thus the big go tos become character and pacing and that's what the franchise is great at. Good ebbs and flows between action sequences to let you recover just long enough before diving in again and generally escalates the action so that each sequence is bigger than the last, closing on a huge spotfest. Civil War is a spotfest trying to be a psychologically deep flick. And the touches of greatness it has in that regard make it super frustrating when it misses that. Sometimes even literally within the fights (no one sold a thing in the airport fight or went beyond fatigue selling in the final throwdown) It has a lot of the elements of a great one but not the finesse to put them together right. Basically it's a upper end Seth Rollins or Davey Richards match. Or more generously one of the better (but not best) indy Cena matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 GOTG2 is enjoyable, but it's not really structured in any way other than to pop the audience every few minutes. Gunn's instinct that the characters would be the heart of the franchise was wise, but he essentially made a hangout movie with some action beats. There's no Macguffin driving the movie like in most Marvel films. They get to where they need to by the third act, but there's not really any focus. Every character's given some business, but it is really disconcerting to get to the end and realize it was Yondu's movie. The lack of any real engine driving the film is even more apparent once you realize there's no forward momentum on the Infinity Gauntlet storyline at all. I liked it, but it's hard to imagine it having any of the repeat value of the first one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 41 minutes ago, (BP) said: GOTG2 is enjoyable, but it's not really structured in any way other than to pop the audience every few minutes. Gunn's instinct that the characters would be the heart of the franchise was wise, but he essentially made a hangout movie with some action beats. There's no Macguffin driving the movie like in most Marvel films. They get to where they need to by the third act, but there's not really any focus. Every character's given some business, but it is really disconcerting to get to the end and realize it was Yondu's movie. The lack of any real engine driving the film is even more apparent once you realize there's no forward momentum on the Infinity Gauntlet storyline at all. I liked it, but it's hard to imagine it having any of the repeat value of the first one. It's kind of like a mid-late Claremont X-Men issue, something that works less as a movie, necessarily, but more like issue 167 of an ongoing series, where the characters are constantly developing with no end in sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 8 minutes ago, (BP) said: GOTG2 is enjoyable, but it's not really structured in any way other than to pop the audience every few minutes. Gunn's instinct that the characters would be the heart of the franchise was wise, but he essentially made a hangout movie with some action beats. There's no Macguffin driving the movie like in most Marvel films. They get to where they need to by the third act, but there's not really any focus. Every character's given some business, but it is really disconcerting to get to the end and realize it was Yondu's movie. The lack of any real engine driving the film is even more apparent once you realize there's no forward momentum on the Infinity Gauntlet storyline at all. I liked it, but it's hard to imagine it having any of the repeat value of the first one. These are very similar to my feelings. I every much enjoyed it, but I can't imagine myself ever wanting to watch it again. As much as I was enjoying it, I had this feeling the whole time that something was off, then it hit me: They turned the Guardians into passive protagonists. For the most part, they (Quill especially) are just along for the ride in their own movie, merely reacting to whatever the villains are up to rather than having their own purpose in the movie. Quill's business in the movie basically boils down to this: Rocket steals the batteries, so he has to run away, which lands them in trouble. Reaction. Ego shows up and resolves that situation for them, says I'm your dad, come with me, and he does. Reaction. At which point he's on ice for the middle part of the movie, just receiving info dumps and being manipulated or outright controlled. Then Ego reveals he killed his mother and then its RAWRGH I KILL YOU NOW. Reaction. That's it. That's his story. Honestly, Rocket stealing the batteries is the most proactive thing any of the Guardians do in the movie, and that's just a plot point to kick off the main action, and shortly thereafter he's on ice with the downed ship, left to defend and then escape from the Ravagers. The first third of the movie is HEAVY on Drax, and certainly no one can be blamed for thinking more Big Dave could be a bad thing, but they clearly had no idea what to do with him without a Thanos plot, so it ultimately leads nowhere and once they hit Ego's planet, he's parked off to the side with Mantis. And even that subplot goes nowhere, because his attitude toward her is the exact same at the end of the movie as when he first meets her. Of course, Gamora gets the worst of it, being reduced to little more than a foil for Quill to react against. Their big argument is by far the worst thing in any of these movies. It didn't feel right for the characters at all and was pretty much just there because there's some Hollywood bylaw that says if you're making a team movie there has to be a point where the team fractures before it comes back together in the climax. Poor Gamora doesn't even get to discover the secret of Ego's planet by using her own wits - she stumbles across it on accident after Nebula attacks her. (Nebula being one of the few people in this movie who aren't Ego that could be semi-accurately described as a protagonist.) All of that is a pretty stark contrast to the first movie, where they all have their own clear goals and its how those goals intersect that lead them to become a team and into conflict with Ronin for the fate of said galaxy. The only one of the good guys in GOTG2 who really wants anything is Yondu, and that's a whole other bag of worms and bizarre screenwriting choices. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 I'm going to strongly disagree with one sentence there. Drax's feelings towards/opinion of Mantis at the end of the movie is, in no shape or form, the same as it was earlier. I think the biggest difference between GOTG and the rest of the Marvel films is that they are the only ones that are actual comedies work the action being significantly more incidental. They are built on jokes, character and more jokes. And I can totally admit that Baby Groot is a cheap trick to pop the audience, but, for me at least, it worked every single time. He's just so damn cute. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bustronaut Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Peter is the Macguffin in the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 26 minutes ago, Mike Zeidler said: Peter is the Macguffin in the movie. Ha. That is so right. Because Ego is the protagonist! Its just so weird to see this franchise go from the tight, almost impeccably plotted first film (minus some of the stuff that was shoehorned in to serve the greater MCU) to this film, which is just a mess that fails on fundamental levels that you'd think someone would've caught along the way. Maybe that poor woman who Gunn fought to have her name taken off the first film's writing credits had a little more to do with it's success than he'd like everyone to think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Yeah, I think if nothing else the sequel vindicates Nicole Perlman to a degree. Gunn definitely should have had a co-writer break the story with him and then he could've done his thing to it and expand from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 To keep this within the MCU, I agree with @The Unholy Dragon about Civil War being two different movies. Most people I talked to loved the airport scene and when I saw it I thought it was cool but it was so out of place for the story they were telling. It needed to hit harder and have consequences. Instead it was a lighthearted sparring match crammed into what was otherwise a pretty emotional picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unholy Dragon Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 1 hour ago, Niners Fan in CT said: To keep this within the MCU, I agree with @The Unholy Dragon about Civil War being two different movies. Most people I talked to loved the airport scene and when I saw it I thought it was cool but it was so out of place for the story they were telling. It needed to hit harder and have consequences. Instead it was a lighthearted sparring match crammed into what was otherwise a pretty emotional picture. I love the airport scene for coolness and visual candy and character stuff but holy god it did not maintain damage. Tony was especially bad. One minute Ant Man has blown a bunch of systems and his suit is redlining and jettisoning parts, the next he's fine but oh! Wanda dropped cars on him and his systems are critical...until they just aren't again. Just no real sense of damage when breaking Tony's armour down a little at a time is a big part of the other heroes' approach. SUPER frustrating. And yeah. Doesn't add much storywise. All of this is pretty endemic to the MCU though. I remember on third or fourth viewing I ruined Avengers for myself by realizing the invasion was a 40+ minute action sequence with no sense of stakes because some Chitauri goon isn't going to kill an Avenger their first time out. It's likewise a lot of fun but a little like action scene masturbation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 btw I marked the fuck out at this reunion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 Another reunion. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 Someone make that picture into a t-shirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 Disney's Instagram has the version they took at the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikoBaltimore Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 That picture is one of those times I wish I can like something more than once. And I'm with Vileone, that should go on a shirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RRR Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 On 5/15/2017 at 9:50 AM, The Unholy Dragon said: I feel like the Fast and the Furious films are more like spotfests though...you can't judge them on limbwork or selling or even expect a ton of psychology because those aren't the goals at the outset, so grading on those metrics isn't fair. Thus the big go tos become character and pacing and that's what the franchise is great at. Good ebbs and flows between action sequences to let you recover just long enough before diving in again and generally escalates the action so that each sequence is bigger than the last, closing on a huge spotfest. Civil War is a spotfest trying to be a psychologically deep flick. And the touches of greatness it has in that regard make it super frustrating when it misses that. Sometimes even literally within the fights (no one sold a thing in the airport fight or went beyond fatigue selling in the final throwdown) It has a lot of the elements of a great one but not the finesse to put them together right. Basically it's a upper end Seth Rollins or Davey Richards match. Or more generously one of the better (but not best) indy Cena matches. War Machine sold. Not disagreeing with any points made just had to not let this man being nearly crippled get forgotten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 New Spider-Man: Homecoming photos... Love Spider-Man's proper and homemade costume/suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spritenaut 32 Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Saw GotG2 last night. Well, no false advertising there. It was... definitely a movie. I dunno. It was kinda entertaining, but also paper thin. It was reasonably entertaining in a "summer blockbustery" kind of way, but it's also one of those things you know you'll change your opinion on if you think about it for 30 seconds. Best to forget about it entirely and move on. Except for baby Groot. Baby Groot will always be adorable. Even if he is voiced by Vin Diesel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 New Spider-Man: Homecoming trailers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 New Spider-Man: Homecoming posters... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 I think those last two trailers are my favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 They changed the Homecoming logo? It looks a lot cooler now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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