Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[Underseer]

I haven't seen the prior, but put simply, we know the characters in the Marvel universe so well. I mean Ant Man should be one of the dumbest super heroes ever, but somehow, thanks to great writing, he comes off as unreplaceable! The Onion had a movie review complaining that some of the extras in Civil War didn't have their own film to build their characters, and that took away from the film as a whole.

Also Superman sucks as a Super hero for movies. You can only go there so many times.

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Training Day 8/10 Don't know how I missed this one the first time around. Very Good cop movie.

That was a great film. They could have finished it two ways. Haven't watched it in a while, though with a toddler... probably may be why.

Goodie two-shoes superheroes are not easy to portray as compelling (even the cartoon versions of Superman are often boring). The Christopher Reeve version was probably lightning in a bottle.

Speaking of which, Marvel and Chris Evans deserve credit for making Captain America compelling, but they have an advantage because the character is meant to appeal to jingoists while simultaneously criticizing them.

 

[blastula]

Wild Tales
7/10

Argentinian anthology of 6 stories sharing the common theme of revenge - someone's been wronged and what they do about it. Has plenty of of humor and twists.

 

[TSwizzle]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

 

[tantric]

warcraft, from a person who has never played the game

3/10

confusing, boring, crap, 3 for the excellent cgi

 

[Underseer]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

This high point of the movie is that it takes an explicitly pro-science viewpoint.

Too often in Hollywood movies, science and scientists are portrayed as villainous and the source of the problems. In this movie it was the source of the solutions and is shown to be a positive thing.

Given the ever-growing number of anti-science movements (creationism, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, climate change denialism, alternative medicine, platygaeanism, etc) the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.

 

[Underseer]

warcraft, from a person who has never played the game

3/10

confusing, boring, crap, 3 for the excellent cgi

I was worried that it would look that way to non-fans. Personally, I liked it.

The Warcraft universe is highly derivative of other franchises (especially Tolkien). One of the few original things about it is that humans and their traditional allies (elves, dwarves, etc) are not automatic good guys, while orcs and trolls are not automatic bad guys. There are good and bad people in every race, and bad people on all sides drive the revenge cycle that fuels the central tragedy of the story, which is that the endless wars between orcs and humans are completely unnecessary.

Unnecessary war as tragedy is a theme all too rare in popular culture, probably because so much of popular culture is driven by summer blockbuster action films and things inspired by same. This theme is even more rare in big budget fantasy and science fiction, where you generally have a clearly-good protagonist fighting a war that is presented as a just cause.

 

[Underseer]

On a side note: it looks like unnecessary war as tragedy will be the main plot of the Wonder Woman movie, and World War 1 will be presented as the unnecessary war in question.

 

[Shadowy Man]

This high point of the movie is that it takes an explicitly pro-science viewpoint.

Too often in Hollywood movies, science and scientists are portrayed as villainous and the source of the problems. In this movie it was the source of the solutions and is shown to be a positive thing.

Given the ever-growing number of anti-science movements (creationism, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, climate change denialism, alternative medicine, platygaeanism, etc) the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.

I get so tired of hearing actors say the line "Say that in English" after some science-type tries to explain something. Just once, I'd like to see the science person say "You know, you can keep learning English past the second grade, dumbass!"

 

[credoconsolans]

This high point of the movie is that it takes an explicitly pro-science viewpoint.

Too often in Hollywood movies, science and scientists are portrayed as villainous and the source of the problems. In this movie it was the source of the solutions and is shown to be a positive thing.

Given the ever-growing number of anti-science movements (creationism, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, climate change denialism, alternative medicine, platygaeanism, etc) the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.

I get so tired of hearing actors say the line "Say that in English" after some science-type tries to explain something. Just once, I'd like to see the science person say "You know, you can keep learning English past the second grade, dumbass!"

I know right? The scientist types are always on the defensive in these movies. I guess it's to reassure the audience they're just as dumb as the main characters, so they can identify more with him or her.

In an episode of Stargate, the female scientist is explaining the time dilation effects of the gravity field of a black hole and the colonel is nodding. A visiting major who knows the colonel turns to him, sees him nodding and says, "Don't even pretend you understood that."

 

[credoconsolans]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

I found the book more pedantic than the movie. I minored in chemistry so while I understood what he was writing, the author didn't have to go through the entire process of the chemical reactions, especially when they didn't impact the story.

 

[James Brown]

This non-chemist found the chemistry explanations in the book quite helpful.

 

[blastula]

Did they cover the chemistry of human feces?

 

[Underseer]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

I found the book more pedantic than the movie. I minored in chemistry so while I understood what he was writing, the author didn't have to go through the entire process of the chemical reactions, especially when they didn't impact the story.

Oh, you would hate the Ghost in the Shell comics. Comic books should not have that many footnotes. Ever. Shirow gets credit for a lot of original ideas and forward thinking, but it's kind of a narrative mess because he was more interested in technology and the consequences of technology than telling a good story.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

This high point of the movie is that it takes an explicitly pro-science viewpoint.

Too often in Hollywood movies, science and scientists are portrayed as villainous and the source of the problems. In this movie it was the source of the solutions and is shown to be a positive thing.

Given the ever-growing number of anti-science movements (creationism, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, climate change denialism, alternative medicine, platygaeanism, etc) the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.

Has anyone done a JJ Abrams interpretation of The Martian?

 

[credoconsolans]

This high point of the movie is that it takes an explicitly pro-science viewpoint.

Too often in Hollywood movies, science and scientists are portrayed as villainous and the source of the problems. In this movie it was the source of the solutions and is shown to be a positive thing.

Given the ever-growing number of anti-science movements (creationism, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, climate change denialism, alternative medicine, platygaeanism, etc) the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.

Has anyone done a JJ Abrams interpretation of The Martian?

Yeah, it was called the Red Planet.

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I found the book more pedantic than the movie. I minored in chemistry so while I understood what he was writing, the author didn't have to go through the entire process of the chemical reactions, especially when they didn't impact the story.

Oh, you would hate the Ghost in the Shell comics. Comic books should not have that many footnotes. Ever. Shirow gets credit for a lot of original ideas and forward thinking, but it's kind of a narrative mess because he was more interested in technology and the consequences of technology than telling a good story.

Thanks for the warning.

 

[bleubird]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918940/
8/10
Very entertaining.Good time spent.

 

[James Brown]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918940/
8/10
Very entertaining.Good time spent.

This woman had a good time watching that movie too.

I saw Tarzan and this is my review after some wines


Ok so I don’t know what the plot is or who is in it other than Alexander Skarsgard and Alexander Skarsgard’s magnificent holy abs. I don’t know what the dialogue or acting is like or whatever.

But like 1/3 of the way in Alexander Skarsgard is going to fight a gorilla for some reason and he takes off his shirt and OMG LIKE I ACTUALLY GROANED LOUDLY.

He does not put his shirt back on for the whole movie.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel: 8/10

An entertaining British spoof of time travel movies. It's possible it could have benefited from being a little more campy, but overall it was pretty fun and funny. Recommended to anyone who enjoys time travel movies.

 

[Archimedes]

The Martian, 7/10: Stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is stranded alone on Mars after he is separated from the rest of the team. Presuming Watney is dead, the team take off from Mars headed back to earth. NASA realize Watney is still alive and start work on trying to get a plan together to rescue him. The rescue mission will take years so Watney has to figure out how to survive on Mars by reclaiming water, creating oxygen, growing food etc. He also has to cobble together a space craft (MacGuyver like) that will get his ass off Mars and rendezvous with the rescue ship. It was an OK movie. A bit pedestrian at times but watchable.

I thought it was meh.

It could and should have been so much better. It's a great premise, astronaut stranded on Mars and has to survive for months or years using his wits, scientific knowledge, etc. before a rescue mission will take him home.

I found a lot of little things that annoyed me that I probably shouldn't because it's just a movie. Instant communication between Mars and Earth instead of it taking at least several minutes for a radio message to get from Earth to Mars and vice-versa. It was a minor annoyance, but they could have built some drama around having a more realistic communication method with both sides having to wait minutes before they heard from the other. The fact that he just happened to be within driving distance of the Pathfinder rover on a planet with 145 million square kilometres of surface area. The fact that the same rover used a power connector that he was able to hook up to his own hardware to get it powered up and when he hooked it up it was delivered the right voltage and current instead of frying it by overloading it or not being able to deliver enough power, nope, it was just the right amount for some 20+ year old piece of hardware. Matt Damon's character being live on air to the whole world when he told NASA to go fuck themselves (or whatever he said). That was just a bit silly.

I also really didn't like the continual ramping up of the drama. He had to cross X amount of space at speed Y which is just about enough for him to safely make it and be caught by a fellow astronaut in the rescue ship. But then when it gets closer to rescue time it turns out the gap is bigger and he'll be travelling even faster! Oh noes! And then later it turns out that he doesn't get to enough height and speed so he'll have to breach a humungously bigger distance and will be going several times faster than the initially calculated speed which they were initially doubtful would work. But it all still works anyway. It's completely unnecessary.

And of course the rescue mission blows up after launch and the crew on their way back from Mars has to stage a mutiny in order to return to Mars to rescue their colleague. It was all just so contrived to me and could have been done so much better.

Afterward I watched the Martian, I decided to watch one of my favourite films of all time, Apollo 13, which deals with a very similar theme, astronaut mission goes tits up, and the astronauts and mission control have to use their wits, skills and engineering and science knowledge to rescue the crew stranded in space. A true story which was very faithful to the actual events of the Apollo 13 mission, and it absolutely kicked the shit out of the Martian in every way, without resorting to silly histrionics to try and build drama and tension.

 

[James Brown]

Instant communication between Mars and Earth instead of it taking at least several minutes for a radio message to get from Earth to Mars and vice-versa. It was a minor annoyance, but they could have built some drama around having a more realistic communication method with both sides having to wait minutes before they heard from the other.

I've seen it three times. I don't recall any instant communication. Essentially Watney and NASA were e-mailing each other. Is there drama to be had in watching someone wait for an e-mail?

The fact that he just happened to be within driving distance of the Pathfinder rover on a planet with 145 million square kilometres of surface area.

It was a three-week drive to Pathfinder, and a test-run of his plan to drive 3200 kilometers to the Aries IV lander.

The fact that the same rover used a power connector that he was able to hook up to his own hardware to get it powered up and when he hooked it up it was delivered the right voltage and current instead of frying it by overloading it or not being able to deliver enough power, nope, it was just the right amount for some 20+ year old piece of hardware.

Agreed about that one. But isn't hacking hardware part of what you liked about Apollo 13?

Matt Damon's character being live on air to the whole world when he told NASA to go fuck themselves (or whatever he said). That was just a bit silly.

He wasn't live on air, but his radio signal was accessible to anyone who was listening. NASA couldn't sanitize his messages before releasing them to the public, because they got the message at the same time as everyone else.

I also really didn't like the continual ramping up of the drama. He had to cross X amount of space at speed Y which is just about enough for him to safely make it and be caught by a fellow astronaut in the rescue ship. But then when it gets closer to rescue time it turns out the gap is bigger and he'll be travelling even faster! Oh noes! And then later it turns out that he doesn't get to enough height and speed so he'll have to breach a humungously bigger distance and will be going several times faster than the initially calculated speed which they were initially doubtful would work. But it all still works anyway. It's completely unnecessary.

And of course the rescue mission blows up after launch and the crew on their way back from Mars has to stage a mutiny in order to return to Mars to rescue their colleague. It was all just so contrived to me and could have been done so much better.

Sorry you didn't like it. Ramping up tension is fairly standard for fiction.

Afterward I watched the Martian, I decided to watch one of my favourite films of all time, Apollo 13, which deals with a very similar theme, astronaut mission goes tits up, and the astronauts and mission control have to use their wits, skills and engineering and science knowledge to rescue the crew stranded in space. A true story which was very faithful to the actual events of the Apollo 13 mission, and it absolutely kicked the shit out of the Martian in every way, without resorting to silly histrionics to try and build drama and tension.

Another great movie. Although I recall lots of drama and tension in that one.