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spurtle467's Replies
Exactly. Bigger characters like that won't be killed on a whim without a deal being made about it. They even gave one of Jon's red shirts beyond the wall a bit of a goodbye like he was of minor importance.
I agree with you. The miniatures are effective at looking realistic in those scenes. Goes to show how good practical effects can be even in CGI heavy movies. And yeah the scene in the tunnel with Vivica Fox and the cars flying up to a backdrop of flames looks poor now. Not much better than what you'd see from one of these low budget TV movies.
Sooner rather than much later was definitely the time to make this sequel to reap the financial rewards. The audience that saw the original back in the cinemas are 20 years older. I was a teen when I saw it and now I'm in my 30's. I loved seeing it in the cinema as a teen. It felt like a powerhouse of CGI on display and the hype from this made it a real event to go and see it.
History has not been so kind to the film, and on many repeated viewings I noticed all the flaws; the cheese, the cliches, the stereotyping, and the special effects have lost much of their value. Had a sequel been made a few years afterwards when I held the first movie in relative high regard, and big budget effects still had that level of amazement attached, I and I imagine many others who saw the original at the time, would have flocked to see it in their droves.
I like your point about the special effects not feeling so special anymore, although I would disagree about the ones in the original movie holding up. I actually think they've dated quite poorly in parts.
Maybe it's different for the younger generation who weren't around for 90's cinema, but back then CGI in big blockbusters felt fresh. I guess T2 really got the ball rolling with that in 1991, and then Jurassic Park took it a step further 2 years later. It was still special seeing CGI utilised on such a large scale when Independence Day came out and other such movies around that time. Now we've had over 20 years of CGI being the "go to" form of special effects and it's been used in everything, and it's frankly not that special anymore.
It was a good film but overhyped, as are the majority of his movies. Christopher Nolan's next film could just be him taking a dump on the floor and it will find itself in the IMDB top 250.
There was one scene when Mark Rylance's character turned round on the boat and shouted something, and I can't remember if there was loud music or not, but I couldn't understand a single word of his sentence. It was kind of funny cause it came off sounding like gibberish, as if some baby language.
Yeah it was perhaps the weakest part of the film. I gather Nolan wanted to make a point about someone so young and innocent and not directly involved in the war, dying while helping, but I think they could have found half a dozen better ways for him to die than in that silly manner.
The thing is, the decision to kill the burglars may have been impacted by keeping the woman locked up downstairs. If he apprehends the burglars and calls the police then the police will come to his house and may find the kidnapped woman. I gather this is also a reason he keeps his house so secure, not just for the money he has stored away.
So without the woman in the basement he may not even have felt compelled to kill Money, instead alerting the cops. Although who knows what could have gone down at the point he took Money's gun off him, had he not killed him. Would Money have tried to escape or attack him, perhaps with the help of Rocky?
With or without the woman locked up though, shooting Money the way it played in the film, it'd still morally be the wrong thing to do, and would therefore not make him a hero, no matter whether he was being robbed. It wasn't self defence, as Money wasn't going to kill him, and the indication was there with him telling the man to get back.
The GOT board on IMDB was a thriving sea of regular activity. This place just cannot compete. You can make a comment and not get a reply for hours or even days, compared with IMDB which could take seconds.
This place wasn't helped by the fact that it announced itself quite late on after the news IMDB was closing its boards and too many other suggested replacements were named. A shame because the lay out and look of this site make it an attractive replacement. It just does not have the numbers of people which is to me the single most important aspect.
Basically, fuck IMDB!
The sand snake that was so far not shown to be dead, that was the one that had a thing for Bronn, wasn't it? They may keep her alive long enough for those 2 to reunite. After all she did save his life and so probably served slightly more purpose to the plot than the others, whose deaths were already foreshadowed in the conversation all 3 had moments before the attack on their ships.
It seems to me like the Euron segments are the parts of the show that take the biggest leaps in logic at this point. At the end of last season he rallied his men to build him 1000 ships; 1000 ships from a tree-barren looking island and nevertheless they appear to have built a load in a very short space of time. Now he's surprise attacking his sister's fleet out of nowhere. To boot he's been given an end-of-level-baddie status, being pretty difficult to kill, and the've ramped up his evilness/craziness. He might even win in a battle with Brienne.
I liked this film but it bothered me that the enemy underestimated the power of mutants and simply threw men with guns at them despite each wave getting wiped out. Especially at the end when they chose to have the ordinary men chase after not just one or 2 mutants like earlier on, but a whole group of them. For some reason they decided to keep the evil Wolverine back when he could have done this job for them; you know a fellow mutant who won't be killed by their powers. Which brings me nicely onto the next point that bothered me: the evil Wolverine could be taken out easily by a headshot or 2. Why did the enemy struggle to apply doing the same to the real Logan?
A few other action stars not mentioned to consider for the 90's are Kurt Russell and Harrison Ford. Russell had Tombstone, Stargate, Executive Decision, Escape From L.A., Breakdown and Soldier. Ford had Patriot Games, The Fugitive, Clear and Present Danger, Air Force One, and The Devil's Own.
I would rate the action stars based on the quality of action film, and how many of these good ones they've done, personally, so someone like Seagal may have done more action movies than another star but most of his are mediocre.
Even though the quality of his action films petered out in the last half of the decade I would therefore pick Arnie, as I think Total Recall, T2, True Lies and Last Action Hero are 4 better action films than anyone else has in the decade.
If I was to pick the two best action stars from each it would be something like:
80's - Ford, Arnie
90's - Arnie, Willis
00's - Bale, Cruise
10's - Cruise, Evans
It's entertaining and I have a nostalgic fondness for it, but it has a very consistently silly tone to it running throughout. It is, as you say, bizarre how it so often descends into campy fun with the addition of Willie and Short Round, when it's juxtaposed with perhaps the darkest elements in the franchise, with the child slavery and human sacrificing going on.
Willie and her antics are straight up cringe. They practically undid the good work they did in Raiders presenting a strong and feisty heroine, and going the total opposite here with a sexist female stereotype who screams when she comes in close contact with most animals, cares more about her fingernails, and expects Indy to fall at her feet.
Nevermind the characters though, the film is filled with over the top silliness, whether it be the ridiculous action set pieces of the inflatable boat ride and the mine cart chase, or the depiction of Indians and their cuisine. That dinner scene makes me laugh now, whereas it used to horrify me as a kid. Just makes me imagine Spielberg and Lucas brainstorming, thinking "what's the most absurdly disgusting menu we can come up with?".
I take the film with a pinch of salt and enjoy it for the most part, but it certainly doesn't hold up well in the way that Raiders does.
It's not the fact there might be huge waves naturally occurring in longer cycles that's the implausible bit, it's the behaviour of the characters to it and that these scientific people don't even consider this being a possibility, that is the main issue with that scene. I love the idea and the visuals but the characters act like idiots and take me out of the scene. It's ridiculous how neither of the two out in the open notice the huge wave behind them until the last minute, and then Doyle spends an age getting into the spaceship for some reason.
I too felt the part with Damon turning into a villain felt out of place and OTT. And Murph not bothering to stay in touch with her dad for the first 20 or so years he was away just because she threw a strop at him leaving, was also beyond stupid.
All of these things were my biggest bug bears with the film.