Good or New Movies Review

Derp

Wrong thread my dude.

Arkandel

@derp Dammit. So much anger, misplaced.

Arkandel

Spider-Man: No Way Home was excellent.

I'd put it second only to Endgame, and even that just because the latter was the cultivation of and payoff to multiple movies and character arcs. Otherwise Spider-man was on the same tier as Winter Soldier, Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok for me.

That movie had a heart, and showed it.

Roz

@arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:

Spider-Man: No Way Home was excellent.

I'd put it second only to Endgame, and even that just because the latter was the cultivation of and payoff to multiple movies and character arcs.

man, endgame made me so mad, i hope it's way better than that

Solstice

I just want to feel safe enough to enter a movie theater to see it.

Whiiiiich I don't. Dang it.

Lotherio

I enjoyed the movie immensely. Just one thing.

***=NSFW content***

click to show

bear_necessities

@lotherio Except they aren't the same. Haircuts are totally different.

Arkandel

@bear_necessities Exactly. I expect a lot of things will be very similar - the POTUS, major celebrities, historic figures, etc will be mostly the same for the purposes of these films.

But they are also not the same. Even if JJJ looked identical it's quite possible he'd have had slightly (or not-so-slightly) different life experiences, goals, family life, etc.

BetterNow

I agree on Spider-Man NWH. Wonderful flick. So much nostalgia. They made me cry twice though.

GreenFlashlight

I think I like the Matrix: Resurrections. It feels like an extremely meta movie and I kinda lost the thread of the metaphor in the middle, but if I'm reading it right, it's basically a story about accepting that the struggle never ends and the same fights will always be on loop so the best you can do is fight for what you have to fight for and accept the happiness you can make of it.

Arkandel

@greenflashlight I think although both movies leaned heavily into the nostalgia factor, Spider-man was (in my opinion) much more successful at it.

It really had a lot of heart, which given the number of moving pieces and guest stars is an achievement on its own.

Arkandel

The Batman was a near well perfect film. I am not sure I'd change a minute of it.

Ominous, set in a decadent Gotham - that had character, always rainy, always miserable - with a foreboding music score throughout.

Team Edward did pretty fucking great, too. He was the goddamn Batman.

kk

@arkandel

I went to see and I recognized that it was very well done, but I couldn't really tolerate it not because of any flaws in the movie but maybe because it was almost too good at what it was doing.

The violence was too much for me, the dark eerie lighting, the music while good kept me super anxious especially when I was already super anxious over war. The mental torment of some of the characters was too easy to emphasize too much and made me super anxious. I ended up covering my face during part of it and trying to take breaths to calm down it was that kind of bad for me.

So while probably a good movie, it too dark for everyone!

Probably not a movie for people who are sensitive, not in the right mood and etc.

ZombieGenesis

@kk On the flip side, this is the exact Batman movie I've been waiting for. There are a lot of ways to tell a Batman story and a good number of them have been explored. Personally, I've been waiting for a really dark take.

I'm actually a little shocked they took that root because, as you said, it will turn some people off. They certainly could have toned things down a bit and made a movie that a larger pool of people thought was "really good".

In the end, I'm glad they didn't though. Instead of getting a more generic retelling of a Batman story that a lot of people enjoyed they created a story that some of us are going to consider our iteration of the character. I think that took some guts.

kk

@zombiegenesis

They did a good job at making a dark Batman. I couldn't really handle something that dark and should have looked more into before going. But even looking fully into it wouldn't have been warning enough.

The total effect of the music, lighting, acting, set designs had an effect that was very convincing and emotional that goes beyond just hearing what was in the movie alone if that makes sense.

Like the music alone was anxiety provoking. I love the song Ava Maria, but the changes they did it to and the scenes they paired it with while well done was super intense.

And the lighting with was down right eerie almost sickeningly eerrie.

This doesn't mean they did a bad job, they probably did a really wonderful job. If they failed at a Dark Batman I probably wouldn't be at 4 am right now!

But I would say if someone is super sensitive to dark shows like me, might want to think twice before seeing it.

kk

It also is sensory over stimulating in bad way (too me - probably not to most) - the lighting is intensely done with the dark and the bright lights and the music is really really jarring at times in a way that provokes intense feelings. I cannot unhear what they did to Ava Maria.

That being said - this again probably means they did something really really right in making a dark mood and probably was genius rather than a mistake..

The people I went with loved it and didn't have the same issues as me.

Arkandel

Aside from that, it really shows just why Batman is a character who keeps getting all this creative effort through multiple generations poured into him.

His is a very flexible concept; it can be done in a campy way (Batman and Robin), it can lean on being quirky (Burton's vision), focus on his early days (Batman Returns) or his veteran days (Batfleck), have him be an action hero (Batman Returns) or more of a detective (Battinson).

In the comics they can put him in the JLA and have him fight cosmic menaces or keep him as a street level crusader and tell more intimate stories. They can even lean on his 'family', romantic stories...

Contrasting that with say, Superman, Wonder Woman or Flash shows the limitation. The range is different, shorter.

That said, Marvel is much more willing to take risks with their roster. Thor Ragnarok was much different than Thor: Dark World, for example. Spider-Man: No Way Home was a very solid movie that didn't just follow the beaten path set by its predecessors but actively built on top of that.

Coin

What I liked best is what I found lacking in Joker.

While Joker was a movie based on a comic book that was trying with wild desperation to divorce itself from its comic book roots and be seen as "respectable", The Batman leans into certain aspects of the comic books, the most impactful of which is Batman's narration during the film which can with I suspect zero editing be put word for word in tiny little narration boxes on a comic book and they would fit in perfectly, their language the flowery, sometimes cliched prose of comic book narration we've all grown accustomed to.

That, and the fucking score.

Holy fuck the score.

Arkandel

@coin It also managed very well (in my opinion) to avoid the 'comic book prose' of a direct conversion from the source material coming off as a bit forced. For example I found Watchmen to suffer from that a bit.

But The Batman somehow avoided doing that. It sounded seemed so cool.

I don't think I need spoilers for this as the scene is in the trailer, but the part at the end of the car chase with the Penguin was just fucking incredible. On its own it's easily on par with the 'oh shit' moments like Cap picking up Mjolnir, Thor's arrival in Wakanda, etc. Yet it was just a normal human dude walking out of a car.

Ganymede

@arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:

It also managed very well (in my opinion) to avoid the 'comic book prose' of a direct conversion from the source material coming off as a bit forced. For example I found Watchmen to suffer from that a bit.

No part of Watchmen suffered from the added narration, in my opinion.

If anything, it made the film so much more enjoyable.