What Films Have You Watched This Week - The Sequel.

[CMcK]

Looper is all about choices being made and how they affect peoples lifes. That's why you see two potential versions of events when young and old Joe first meet.
And at the end [HIDE]young Joe realises choices were made outwith his control which shaped his life. And he sees that following the selfish path old Joe chose will have serious repercussions. Young Joe kills himself hoping that it will give Cid(?) a proper upbringing, something Joe was denied, which will prevent The Rainmaker from coming into existence and causing so much devestation. [/HIDE]

[rmoxon]

Looper is all about choices being made and how they affect peoples lifes. That's why you see two potential versions of events when young and old Joe first meet.
And at the end [HIDE]young Joe realises choices were made outwith his control which shaped his life. And he sees that following the selfish path old Joe chose will have serious repercussions. Young Joe kills himself hoping that it will give Cid(?) a proper upbringing, something Joe was denied, which will prevent The Rainmaker from coming into existence and causing so much devestation. [/HIDE]

I understood all that (its not exactly a complicated film despite its pretentions) but the fact that there's no definitive conclusion to events just leaves everything up in the air and a bad taste in the mouth. I can only image that the filmmakers wanted you to have empathy for Joe when he

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made his sacrifice

but young Joe was such an ignorant idiot and old Joe was so blindly angry its impossible to care about either version of him. You cant make an unlikeable character and then expect the audience to suddenly become sympathetic to his plight just because he

->Open Spoiler<-

does something nice

in the very last scene of the film. Its just yet more bad writing.

[originalbadboy]

I understood all that (its not exactly a complicated film despite its pretentions) but the fact that there's no definitive conclusion to events just leaves everything up in the air and a bad taste in the mouth.

Ah the old 'closure' issue, I think we had that discussion before, not every film has to end with a definitive outcome so you know what happens to everybody. Sometimes leaving things to the imagination is better, that isn't lazy, I suppose you think something like 'inception' is lazy as well then, or any other film that leaves questions at the end, which frankly is ridiculous.

And whilst some films do leave too many questions unanswered (The Matrix for example), that isn't the case here, it certainly isn't a case of bad writing.

In the end its your need for 'closure' that's leaving a bad taste in your month, that does not mean the film is badly written.

[rmoxon]

Ah the old 'closure' issue, I think we had that discussion before, not every film has to end with a definitive outcome so you know what happens to everybody. Sometimes leaving things to the imagination is better, that isn't lazy, I suppose you think something like 'inception' is lazy as well then, or any other film that leaves questions at the end, which frankly is ridiculous.

And whilst some films do leave too many questions unanswered (The Matrix for example), that isn't the case here, it certainly isn't a case of bad writing.

In the end its your need for 'closure' that's leaving a bad taste in your month, that does not mean the film is badly written.

Inception is an amazing film that didn't need closure to the dream aspect of the film because the story was actually based around the main characters inner closure... Looper wasn't... it put its pretentious plot to the front and centre of the film and featured an unsympathetic main character, so the fact that the plot went nowhere means that the film ended up crap. And I agree it wasn't badly written... it was terribly written, the script was an embarrassment.

[Neon Ignition]

I think the main Looper thread discussed this but

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by young Joe sacrificing himself it means that old Joe never causes the films events to happen, which ultimately would lead to young Joe having to kill himself. Either an endless loop is caused or events reset and everything begins again with both versions of Joe running around trying to accomplish their own outcomes

. In terms of ending the film is fairly bleak and not well written.

[originalbadboy]

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

This is a bit of a strange one, I don't really know the source material all that well , so I can't judge it on that. It feels very much like a cross between Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean, you can see a lot of influences from Indiana Jones, even to the point where some of the (virtual) set pieces are very similar, which is no bad thing. If it wasn't for Snowy the Dog you could probably have renamed this Young Indiana Jones as nobody would have noticed. Its certainly enjoyable enough experience though and has that Spielberg feel to it which is no bad thing, and is quite funny in places too.

Regarding the CGI, its very impressive, at certain bits seriously impressive, definably one of those things where you just can't see how they did certain things. Its a little off putting as you know its CGI, but its seriously believable so your head just can't around it so its a bit of a distraction at first.

All in all though well worth watching, and looks absolutely mint on Bluray.

[rmoxon]

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

This is a bit of a strange one, I don't really know the source material all that well , so I can't judge it on that. It feels very much like a cross between Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean, you can see a lot of influences from Indiana Jones, even to the point where some of the (virtual) set pieces are very similar, which is no bad thing. If it wasn't for Snowy the Dog you could probably have renamed this Young Indiana Jones as nobody would have noticed. Its certainly enjoyable enough experience though and has that Spielberg feel to it which is no bad thing, and is quite funny in places too.

Regarding the CGI, its very impressive, at certain bits seriously impressive, definably one of those things where you just can't see how they did certain things. Its a little off putting as you know its CGI, but its seriously believable so your head just can't around it so its a bit of a distraction at first.

All in all though well worth watching, and looks absolutely mint on Bluray.

Tintin was weird because you actually had to know the source material well to fully appreciate it, which I thought was a weird choice by Spielberg considering its the first film that's been made. It actually felt like a great sequel to another film. As it was, it was just a pretty good film that seemed like it had something missing from it. Great 3D though.

[yvrmikiw]

dark knight rises. bit of a damp squib i thought. firstly the cgi was really terrible, i mean the worst ive seen in years. all shots of cars/planes/tanks looked totally fake, what gives in this day and age? and there was too much time spent with people whining, alfred in particular. his performance at the end was laughable

oh and that helicopter thing was rubbish, i couldnt even tell you what it looked like. prefer the batwing.

[rmoxon]

The Dark Knight Rises special effects looks so fake becuase like the rest of the film they had not had any effort put into them, it was always gonna make money and be hailed as the greatest thing ever by fans no matter what, so Nolan couldn't be bothered making somthing that was very good. He simply didn't need too.

I have a mate who loves Batman (he even likes Batman and Robin) and he agrees with all my criticisms of TDKR, but then says he loves it anyway becuase it's Batman. Which is weird when you think about it,because Batman is actually only in the film for about a total of 20 minutes.

The rest of the film centres on Bruce Wayne stuck down a hole being all Emo about losing a fight and then he

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trains for 3 minutes, recovers from a broken back and climbs a 6 thousand foot wall to save the day

. Yes Christopher Nolan, after being so restrained and boring with the action sequences throughout the rest of the film you really went for a grounded and realistic Superhero tale there didn't you?

[EvilBoris]

Tintin was weird because you actually had to know the source material well to fully appreciate it, which I thought was a weird choice by Spielberg considering its the first film that's been made. It actually felt like a great sequel to another film. As it was, it was just a pretty good film that seemed like it had something missing from it. Great 3D though.

What did you need to know from the source material?

[rmoxon]

What did you need to know from the source material?

Mainly just the characters, a lot of the characters were never given a proper introduction, the script was clearly written with the mindset that the viewer had seen these characters before and knew what they were about. You didn't need to know anything in regards to the plot as far as I can remember but the fact that in some instances the film seemed to be dealing with established characters rather than introducing new ones was quite alienating.

[EvilBoris]

In the film wasn't that the first time that the characters had been introduced to each other though. Anyhow, you've reminded me I would quite like to watch this again and I havea 3D TV and PS3 now so I can watch it the way it was intended again. yay

[rmoxon]

In the film wasn't that the first time that the characters had been introduced to each other though. Anyhow, you've reminded me I would quite like to watch this again and I havea 3D TV and PS3 now so I can watch it the way it was intended again. yay

No it wasn't, Tintin already knew some of the characters however the audience didn't, so the fact that the film never really introduced them properly was a bit weird. The film feels like a sequel rather than the first movie made about the character.

[CMcK]

I watched the Luc Beeson classic Nikita last night. Haven't seen it since I watched it on laserdisc and I'm pleased to say on Blu-ray it's even better than I remember it being. It looks sensational with mood matching scenes and a great soundtrack which while quite eighties in feel suits the turn of the decade period portrayed in the film.
The tight focus on the lead works well and the other main actors are all excellent. And of course seeing Jean Reno's first turn as a cleaner is interesting in its own right.

[buster_broon]

watched Life of Pi and quite enjoyable albeit a little more fantasy than i was expecting

wish i had saw it in IMAX now because i reckon some of it on the big screen would be absolutely gorgeous

Animation on the bengal tiger was incredible