4 Movies: The Divide, Star Wars: TFA, Hateful Eight, and Pacific Rim (no spoilers)
In the last week, I've seen four movies. My responses range from 'meh' to 'OMG WOW!' There may be mild spoilers for The Divide and Pacific Rim, but they've been out long enough that I figure it's fair.
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Star Wars: TFA....What? You...liked it? (warning: hardcore fan who read the books, here). I liked the new characters but...No spoilers, no spoilers.
I enjoy Tarantino as well and I agree with you about the violence, not just the blood factor, but the sheer, extreme violence in every one of his films. Sometimes he can make a very twisted, sick-but-true joke out of it that almost works but you hate yourself for laughing. The rest of the time it's just too much and I hate that violence is a punchline, funny, or a "style." It makes me sit back and say, "...Why?" I mean...why does that need to be the drama factor so you can get that R-rating and your actors can shill for an award?
Pacific Rim: I thought this was going to be awesome but it was too...Transformers for me (and I thought the first movie was decent, mostly entertaining and that's the only one I've seen). Very repetitive action sequences, difficult lighting, and made for 10-year-old boys as far as dialogue, characters and their story arcs. For the most part, though, I was entertained. I thought it was an awesome idea, Transformers/Iron Man against Godzilla/dinosaurs.
And the Divide put me off Milo for...months. I was so creeped out. I bought it because Milo and I thought the extreme character development in a crisis/apocolypse situation was accurate (and frightening).
I just watched Maze Runner, I remember you writing about that ages ago. It was good, entertaining, but not...what I thought it was going to be based on the trailers. And it was long! After watching the Divergent movies (which I love), I felt it was quite similar to those. I'll still probably watch the second film.
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I would have easily rated Hateful Eight as NC-17 for the gore. There was no sex anywhere in it, which was good, because sex wouldn't have made sense anywhere.
Was there more than the one movie? Idle curiosity there - not that I'm motivated enough to watch it. I agree the action sequences were rather predictable. I picked out pecans and cracked nuts through most of it, because I found myself literally unable to sit in front of the computer and watch. I don't know what that was all about with myself and I might elaborate on it later. But yeah, when the fighting started, I only kept half an eye on what was going on on-screen.
I understand about The Divide. Blech. Not the Milo we both know and love. But instead, it was 'experimental Milo, testing the boundaries of acting and being as diametrically opposed to Jess and Peter Petrelli as possible'. I could have done without it. I suspect he's the same rough character in Pathology. I haven't gotten around to watching that one either, for the same reason. I went into Divide without being aware he was going to turn bad. Pathology - I've heard he's bad right out of the gate, so it's not high on my list.
Maze Runner - eh, it was fine as a movie. Better as a movie than the book, which is full of plot holes. In the movie, I told myself the plot holes were due to things that were in the book being left out. So I read the book. Nope! The holes in the movie were just as present in the book. I'll only see Scorch Trials if it's super convenient. I certainly won't take a separate movie trip just to see it.
I think I'll watch The Fifth Estate tonight or Sunday. It's been something I've wanted to see for a while now. I like Benedict Cumberbatch's performances.
And I'm glad for your opinions and chatting about these things! Never think that anything I post isn't up for conversation, because it all is, unless I explicitly post otherwise.
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Hmm. I went into SW expecting letdowns (J.J. Abrams and Disney and "reboot" all combined) but hoping I would be surprised but...I was very disappointed. If it had been a whole new story and plot, I would have loved it as something completely new and original.
Yeah, Milo. The guy who says he's a pacifist but thinks random violence is a punchline. He admits his personality is "dark and moody" but it's a little juvenile after a while. His character in Pathology makes zero sense right out of the gate. Characters doing extreme things with no backstory or character development to connect it.
Maze Runner: Yes, plot holes aplenty. To the point where, at the end, I was saying, "I don't get it."
Fifth Estate is worth watching. Since it's a true story and a real event, it's one of those twisted 'he's right, but he's also wrong, and they're right and also wrong, so what's the right answer?' things. I really got into the Imitation Game and I highly recommend it to you. Simply amazing acting and great MBU/Sylar parallels.
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Inglorious Bastards was on my list of 'things I want to see', but after Hateful Eight, it's way down there. Largely, my complaint about Milo's dark movies is the same as what I disliked in Tarantino's - the unnecessary violence (and in Tarantino's case, gore). You're right that it just seems immature at times, like the character couldn't think of any better course of action than to lash out and hurt someone.
I think I saw Imitation Game and was impressed with it. That was the one where he played the WWII cryptographer, right? It was great and made me want to see more of Cumberbatch's stuff. He's not physically attractive to me, but I love the subtlety of his acting.
I'm sorry the new Star Wars didn't do it for you. If you see the future ones, I'll hope they restore it for you. I know there were a lot of elements in this one that were very similar to the previous ones. I'm okay with that because I think they are headed to a different place with it in the future movies.
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