Summer Movie Review-O-RAMA (SPOILERS)

[michaelpaciocco]

So....GI Joe.....yeah, thank god I went to see this on Cheap Day here, because I don't think it's full price, but it might be worth a look as a rental or when it plays for free.

The Good:
-the Snake Eyes fight scenes
-Unlike other summer action flicks, a serious lack of lens flare
-the powersuits are not nearly as present as the trailers would lead one to believe


The Unapolagetically Bad:
-Look, I have a very low bar when it comes to science in my action movies - but that said? ICE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
-I would really like it if every once in a while the bad guy vehicles had the same level of security as a 20 year old minivan.
-I would also like it if every once in a while the guy shot the bad girl - yes, shooting women is wrong - except when maybe the fate of thousands if not millions of people depend on it - then it might be ok.
-It is very hard to see what influence, if any, Larry Hama had on this thing - but given this puppy lists about a dozen writers, that may not be a surprise
-The Baroness- Uhm....NO. You have completely botched what the appeal of the character is.
-Too Much story - yes, I know this is odd coming from a movie that has a toilet-paper-thin plot, but the attempt to cram in the backstory just ends up dragging the movie at points, and quite frankly, it would be better if some things were left a mystery.

The Relativistic:

How much you enjoy this movie ENTIRELY depends on if you want to view this as a believable action movie, because it fails at that spectactularly, or if you want to view it as an attempt to make a live action adaptation of the 1980s cartoon complete with simplistic plots, baffling plans, and over-the-top EVERYTHING, because at that, it mostly delivers.
-The 'acting', such as it is, is perfectly scenery chewing melodrama, with only a few actors who clearly dosed up on painkillers in order to try and deliver their lines (Dennis Quaid, I'm looking at you). You may think casting a Wayans brother was a bad idea, but given how completely batshit everything is in the movie, he fits in perfectly. That said - Goddammit, HISSSSSSSS WHEN YOU SSSSSPEAK.


That's about it really,

Michael

[paulpogue]

I honestly think it is simply impossible to get Cobra Commander correct on screen so long as Chris Latta remains deceased.

Scott McNeil does a hell of an impersonation -- when he voiced Starscream in "Beast Wars" I had to double-check the credits to make sure it wasn't recorded by Latta sometime before his death -- but there's still no substitute for the real thing.

[jarddavis]

2012 - Oy, so apparently, the guys who made "the Day After Tomorrow" didn't actually learn anything from "the Day After Tomorrow", did they? Or maybe they're trying to do an equal time thing - this time, instead of "fringe left planetary environmental collapse disasster movie", they're doing "fringe right conspiracy semi-religous planetary disasster movie"? I dunno, I just saw a bunch of recycled disaster shots that looked sort of neat, and a bunch of that online "2012 is the END OF THE WORLD", and that the US government built a fleet of ships that suspiciously resemble the Galactica...or...you know, if anyone actually sees this movie, let me know, ok? I'm curious, but mostly in a "so that's what happens when a human body hits a wall at 300 mph" way.

Hell, I'll go see it just for the same reason I saw Titanic finally. Who cares about the story. (Although, the premise is interesting) movies like this are there just to watch the world explode around you.

That said, I got to wondering awhile back.

IN these disater movies where they build some sort of survial ship or shelter, (2012, Deep Impact) how many of the people you think they saved are carpenters, tailors, masonry specialists, or just plain general laborers?

Cause I could see someone doing that. Build a survival ark, populate it with scientists, politicians, military men, great thinkers, etc, and all die off because no one knows how to effectively build a decent house for shelter.

[K-Box]

Aug 13, 2009 9:55:18 GMT -8 jarddavis said:

IN these disater movies where they build some sort of survial ship or shelter, (2012, Deep Impact) how many of the people you think they saved are carpenters, tailors, masonry specialists, or just plain general laborers?

Cause I could see someone doing that. Build a survival ark, populate it with scientists, politicians, military men, great thinkers, etc, and all die off because no one knows how to effectively build a decent house for shelter.

[jarddavis]

Yup/ Pretty much what I expected.

[michaelpaciocco]

District 9

Well, if you wanted some social commentary sci-fi (last seen in Wall-E), you got it here.

Now, some people have made some off-the-cuff remarks about this movie having some strong similarities to the old Alien Nation franchise, and it's not an unfair comparison. While on the surface, the main "message" is one about immigration, the contrasts between the two are pretty stark.

By making the aliens of "Alien Nation" the traditional "humans with weird prosthetics on their heads", the makers of the show made it a point to highlight the inherent stupidity and backwardsness of the racism and discrimination. Whereas "District 9" the aliens are decidedly non-humanoid, and that makes them much easier to fear and dislike, which is the point - it shows how easy it is to hate The Other, and how casually that can be done. The protagonist of the movie is a - I hesitate to say Everyman, but close enough - he's decent enough, but is shown to be not that bright, and early in the film he is put up as the posterboy for the banality of evil the casual racism and horror that is undertaken daily which helps makes the aliens that much more sympathetic, and makes the protagonist's journey that much more poignant.

It's a bit of classic Science Fiction for those of us who haven't seen too much of that lately - I recommend.