Random Movie Talk Twelve (no, not that horrid Schumacher movie)

[GirlsAloudFan]

the ROONS!

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll0Bcw4axvs

 

[powerhour24]

I haven't read the books, and I really don't know shit about the story but...

- Jennifer Lawrence
- Taylor's music
- Strong early reviews

...have me thinking about hitting up The Hunger Games when it comes out in theaters.

It's a page-turning series (just ignore the terrible writing style, the plots are exciting) with some fun characters, and pretty fucked up for a young adult series. Battle Royale-esque it may be, but that novel/film was not aimed at younger demographics. Hunger Games' protagonist is a hell of a better role model than Twilight's so at least there's that.

Also, there's all kinds of other disturbing science fiction in the series involving genetic engineering. And the focus switches to focusing on a civil war later on.

As far as young adult entertainment goes, there's a lot more to be excited about here than with most series. Also, while I'm usually in the camp that gets so annoyed that people haven't heard of/haven't had the chance to hear of source material for remakes and ripoffs in this country, in this case I'm not. I don't want the same audience that made these popular reveling in Battle Royale.


Also, re: Jennifer Lawrence, I question your eyesight if you don't find her beautiful (though some people here are practically twice her age making this conversation rather disturbing), I find it refreshing that a young actress Hollywood is pushing isn't rail thin, and I think she's the most talented of the recent class of ingenue's the indie circuit has promoted up to the studio game (Liz Olsen's in the running, but we haven't seen enough performances from her to fairly judge). I would have given her the Oscar in 2010, & she gave a touching supporting performance in The Beaver.

 

[lazarus]

I wouldn't mind touching or supporting her bea--



Sorry. Yes, she's a talented young actress.

 

[Hewson]

I wouldn't mind touching or supporting her bea--



.

Powerhour just layed that one right over the plate, couldn't help but swing at it.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Great reviews for The Hunger Games? Dont you just mean Miley Cyrus and maybe a fanboy or twelve? There's currently zero reviews of this film on either Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. Wait for the professionals to have their say before you believe the words of the dweebs. Otherwise, we'd have all gone into every Harry Potter movie thinking they'd actually be exciting or include something known as drama.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Great reviews for The Hunger Games? Dont you just mean Miley Cyrus and maybe a fanboy or twelve? There's currently zero reviews of this film on either Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. Wait for the professionals to have their say before you believe the words of the dweebs. Otherwise, we'd have all gone into every Harry Potter movie thinking they'd actually be exciting or include something known as drama.

Wow, dude. Way to fucking put words into people's mouths. Who the fuck said anything about reviews coming from Miley Cyrus and fanboys? I said "strong early reviews", which was based on an article I read that compiled a bunch of tweets from known and respected print/online film critics saying that they'd just walked out of the premiere and absolutely loved the movie but couldn't post a full, official review until later...because of sanctions or whatever. Perhaps I should have elaborated? Perhaps I should have used the word "reactions" instead of "reviews"? Or perhaps you shouldn't fucking jump to conclusions so quickly?

 

[lazarus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UEv03g51kU

 

[powerhour24]

There's also this IMAX teaser out:

http://youtu.be/AXLzJhZa8PY



Oh & if you really want to go by Rotten Tomatoes, Hunger Games is at 100% with 15 reviews at the moment, 8.3/10 average. The studio had their stupid "embargo" in place for critics to post reviews until yesterday. I've never understood that practice when you actually have a good product on your hands.

 

[mobvok]

There are bad trailers, and there are good trailers, and there are Prometheus's trailers. God damn.

Looked at Variety's review of The Hunger Games, and I wonder if this will be the pole that reviews are either slightly more positive than, or slightly worse than:

The first novel in Suzanne Collins' bestselling trilogy is a futuristic fight-to-the-death thriller driven by pure survival instinct, but the creative equivalent of that go-for-broke impulse is absent from director Gary Ross' "The Hunger Games." Proficient, involving, ever faithful to its source and centered around Jennifer Lawrence's impressive star turn, this much-anticipated, nearly 2 1/2-hour event picture should satiate fans, entertain the uninitiated and take an early lead among the year's top-grossing films. Yet in the face of near-certain commercial success, no one seems to have taken the artistic gambles that might have made this respectable adaptation a remarkable one.

 

[lazarus]

So it's just like the first Harry Potter?

 

[powerhour24]

Basically. I'm not sure what people are really expecting, you've got a $100m budget on the line & a rare opportunity to bring an insanely hot property to the market, they're not going to go out & do something audacious. If they can create a thrilling popcorn experience, that's good because too often attempts at franchises are tepid & embarrassing in their only ambition being more ways to pimp out the franchise.

I think Alfonso Cuaron coming in and making Harry Potter more lively & unique kind of spoiled us, that audience was entrenched at that point, note that Rowling wanted Terry Gilliam to do the first movie, but the studio certainly balked at that and went the safe route of rewarding the fans with something inoffensive. To be fair, Hunger Games looks to have a lot more life & style to it than Sorcerer's Stone which was tepid even in it's production/costume design & simple as can be from a cinematography point of view. This at least has a more lo-fi approach, & the ridiculous credit of having Steven Soderbergh as their second unit lenser.

 

[powerhour24]

Believe me though, I wish more studios would let something like Prisoner of Azkaban happen, taking the spirit of a novel and making an adaptation, focusing more on the heart & the wider audience than being slavish & forgetting that film is supposed to be an expressive art form, not merely a platform to sell more books.

 

[u2popmofo]

That Prometheus trailer is awesome. I can't think of many movies I'm more fanboy excited for at this point.

 

[powerhour24]

Agreed, & howdy stranger.

 

[I Move in Mysterious Ways]

That Prometheus trailer is awesome. I can't think of many movies I'm more fanboy excited for at this point.

This one keeps looking better and better. Amidst all the sequels and remakes (Spiderman, Avengers, Batman, Bond, Total Recall, etc, etc, etc), this one looks the most exciting.

 

[lazarus]

Considering Ridley Scott's track record, I'd still put my money on the Chris Nolan film being the best.

 

[Lancemc]

Considering Ridley Scott isn't an auteur in any sense, I'd say his track record is meaningless in any such discussion. Prometheus looks like it's going to wipe the floor with every other studio film this year.

 

[I Move in Mysterious Ways]

Even if the trailer was less impressive than it is, I'd still be thrilled that the director of two of the greatest sci fi films of my lifetime is re-visiting the genre. And thank god Russell Crowe is nowhere to be found.

 

[powerhour24]

We'll see, from the looks of it Prometheus is swinging for the fences thematically, well beyond the ambition of Nolan's Batman series, whether Scott will actually balance everything out well remains to be seen. Despite his apparent hard to talk to demeanor, he does have a track record of getting great performances out of his stars, even in many of his not as great efforts.

Still though, it's silly to compare, we get to enjoy both, I just think this is more exciting to anticipate, a filmmaker who helped shape modern science fiction returning to the genre after 30 years, & hopefully rescuing the franchise he helped create. After all, the pacing & atmosphere of Alien elevate it over any subsequent entry (not saying much as only Aliens is worth discussing) or imitator. Granted Nolan's Batman series has certainly earned its share of anticipation as we await the conclusion, but a 33 year wait for a follow-up, is in a much higher league than a 4 year one. Plus, Alien >>>>The Dark Knight.

Both films also have absolutely killer ensembles.

 

[lazarus]

The most promising thing about Prometheus is Lindelof's involvement; as far as I'm concerned.

People seem to be expecting something like 2001; for all we know the last 30 min might wind up being like Sunshine.

Cautiously optimistic.

 

[powerhour24]

Well as someone who dug the hell out of Sunshine all the way through, I wouldn't care.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I'm a little bit out of the loop on Prometheus.

Is this 100%, officially a prequel to Alien, or is that still up in the air? Will this be Alien franchise canon?

 

[mobvok]

They're trying not to say it explicitly (the International trailer only says Ridley's the director of Gladiator and Blade Runner!), but from the trailer images it's basically noodling around with the Space Jockey ship before Ridley's crew finds it. And FWIW, Scott and Lindelof seemed emphatic about taking the premise in a slightly different direction, which has me guessing the central plot's not as Alien-the-species-centric as an "Alien prequel" would lead people to assume.

 

[powerhour24]

Yeah, when Fox pitched it to Ridley it was a two part prequel, he signed on as producer, but he & Lindelof ended up developing it into something more standalone. It's clearly the same universe and set earlier but it doesn't try to telegraph the set up for the events in the original Alien. It saddens me that in today's day & age there's almost no chance we will get an R rated film (though from the way they're shooting that might be restored on video) but with a $200m budget of course that wasn't in the cards. I am impressed that Fox allowed them to distance it from the original intentions & are releasing it without calling it Alien: Prometheus.

 

[Lancemc]

I think it's definitely a mistake for anyone to expect something particularly esoteric along the lines of 2001. I mean, you just have to look at Alien and Scott's other work to know he's not that kind of filmmaker. It definitely does seem to be swinging for the fences though as powerhour says, and I think we can expect something more exciting than anything that's come from the genre for a while. A friend of mine who worked on the film at WETA said, while he hasn't gotten to see the whole thing, the majority of the film is rather "action" packed, which likely includes just all the cool sci-fi and horror stuff we're getting glimpses at in the trailer, as well as a lot of legitimate action. Also a lot of really fucked up sexual stuff apparently, which certainly falls in line with the original and Giger's general inspiration.

 

[lazarus]

How can this possibly be "more exciting than anything that's come from the genre in a while" in light of Avatar? I know the film has its detractors but sci-fi doesn't get much more ambitious or exciting than that.

If you're referring to the sub-genre that mostly takes place on dimly-lit vessels in space, well then okay, sure.

 

[powerhour24]

Depends on whether you admired the ambition of Avatar enough to overlook its flaws & deem it exciting or not. Or whether 2.25 years is enough to be deemed awhile .

Honestly though, as a theatrical event, Avatar was very exciting, as a film? Not so much. Had you taken the world Cameron built & given it a plot that wasn't stretched thin & supporting characters made of cardboard, then you'd have something more memorable. Now whenever I see it on TV I'm left with the same impression I had seeing the first trailer on my computer, the effects look video game fake on the small screen/not 3D. They were immersive and near-photo real in IMAX, but as they're the most important aspect if they take me out of the film on video it doesn't hold up as well.

 

[lazarus]

Right, but we're talking about the scope and size and ambition, no? Regardless of Prometheus' quality, and the script issues of Avatar, as you said it's kind of hard to deny that the latter was a powerful cinematic experience that will be hard to top, especially in 3D.

So I take issue with the notion that the genre has been long without a major work. Cameron arguably made the most "important" sci-fi film in quite a while.

 

[powerhour24]

Though it will certainly be interesting to see what a physically dark film will be like in 3D.

Also, the production design on display here makes Avatar's look like it was done by art school drop outs.