Movies: What did You Watch Last Night?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Again with "critics," as if they're all on the same team.

Three thoughts:

1) I never said you should care what critics say. For myself, I don't read much film criticism until, if ever, after I've seen a movie. It's interesting to think about how another person experienced the same film I saw. But I never said you should read more of them, or less, or you should care more or less about what they write. They are no more trying to convert you then Stephen King is trying to convert you into reading Stephen King novels. They put it out there; you read it if you want. No interest? Fine.

2) I was only responding to Yodaking's narrow point that he thought the institution of film critics was hostile to Bright because it is somehow threatened by Netflix success. That's nonsense. Obviously, from the critic's perspective, if there are *more* movies to review, that's good for business.

3) I don't know whether you care for Tom Vasel, or Heavy Cardboard, or DriveThruReview, or whatever. Maybe you think TV is simplistic but does a good job expressing what a game feels like, and maybe your tastes line up with the HC crew, or whatever. I don't know. But they're different from each other, and you know as well as I do that if a game comes out and its Metacritic score is "8.5," that tells you very little about the *actual* critical reception of the game. It tells you a bit more if you know the number from each critic, but what really matters is what each critic actually *says*. Film criticism is the same. Boiling the collected works of all competent film critics down to Rotten Tomatoes scores is unfair to the individuals putting in the work.

You don't have to read them if you don't want, but let's not pretend that all they offer is a combined Rotten Tomatoes score. Let's extend them the same courtesy we extend to the board game reviewing community.

Edit:

FWIW, I often disagree with what the majority of film critics say about a movie. That's ok, I'm entitled to my own opinion, as they are entitled to theirs. This year, I thought Jackie Chan's The Foreigner was brilliant, but for whatever reason its merits appear to have been lost on many of those writing reviews. That's ok with me.

I didn't mean that all critics are on the same team so to speak, but more that each one individually needs to be consistent with their personal critique guidelines. So Joe Reviewer shouldn't criticize one movie for not being original, but then ignore that criteria about another movie that isn't original. Stuff like that.

While I don't know if there is any "real" bias against the Bright movie because it was Netflix, it just seemed like it was blasted to pieces by the critics (this time as a team ), yet I've only heard good things from people that saw it. Again, when I see it, I'll have a better sense of whether it was a complete and utter mess that the professionals say it is, if it's great, or somewhere in between.

As far as board game reviewers, sure they each have their personal likes and dislikes in games and their reviews will reflect that. But then again, it's not their full time jobs and they don't review every game. It seems a different situation in several regards than with movies and generally people have to seek out a game review by those guys. It's not like with movies where there's a new game coming out and in big print somewhere it says, Tom Vasel gives it a 3 out of 10, while Joel Eddy gives it 6 out of 10 and Jon Gets Games gives it a 9 out of 10 etc.

At the end of the day though, a critic of any type is only one person's opinion and it doesn't make them right just because they do it for a living. So while their opinion is just that, just like anyone else's, collectively they can help people be more informed. That said, that only really works before something actually comes out to the public accessibility IMO, because once the public gets to see a certain movie or play a certain game, there are that many more experts giving opinions that are also worth listing to.

[Hahma]

On another note, we finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy tonight. 1 movie per day for the last 3 days. Wow, it's actually like watching 6 movies since each one of the LotR ones are almost like 2 movies each.

Great stuff!

[Hahma]

Just took my daughters to see The Greatest Showman.

Wow! What a great movie musical. Gotta love Hugh Jackman. Very talented and versatile actor.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I saw Jumanji: Into the Jungle with my nephews. Cute movie with some great nods to 90s video gaming and the older movie. Considering Robin Williams was the original character in the original movie, it tugged at my heartstrings a little there. Not the best plot and a little hokey, just like those old Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games. I loved the message/ lessons learned by the 4 main characters. I really want to see the Greatest Showman too!

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

I saw Jumanji: Into the Jungle with my nephews. Cute movie with some great nods to 90s video gaming and the older movie. Considering Robin Williams was the original character in the original movie, it tugged at my heartstrings a little there. Not the best plot and a little hokey, just like those old Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games. I loved the message/ lessons learned by the 4 main characters. I really want to see the Greatest Showman too!

I might take my daughters to see Jumanji on Friday. It looks cute and light fun.

[Agent Minivann]

A couple thoughts on critics.

One, there are, I'm sure, some aging critics that just don't get the whole Netflix thing, and do indeed needlessly feel threatened by it. The basic aging journalist that still types on a typewriter types. Or there are the ones who define a movie as something you see in a theater, and anything else defies that definition. Either or both might be biased against anything on a streaming service. No numbers or data, just a hunch.

The other is that I think there is a tendency to equate a high score on rotten tomatoes with "the critics loved it". I'm sure there are movies that have a higher average rating on a scale to ten than some movies that have a higher tomatometer rating. I don't know how The Last Jedi (the most recently mentioned "critics loved it but I didn't") fares here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has a relatively low average rating compared to its tomatometer score. It would be interesting to compare it to The Foreigner (the recently mentioned flipside of Jedi).

[NecroBlade]

Speaking of Netflix, after binging some of our favorite shows, the wife and I are trying to knock a few movies off our list that will be leaving Netflix soon. Last night we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). I liked it and was really impressed with some aspects given it was made over 65 years ago. There were a few things that could've been done better, but likewise pretty much attributed to decades of improved movie-making.

[chas]

Necroblade,

Back in its day it was considered one of the best SF films ever made. And it came from an SF short story by a major author (I forget who), which was also rare at that time. As for its age; well, I'm that old too, as of last Dec. 24!

[Agent Minivann]

My son finally got us to watch Your Name. That's a pretty good show. It's an anime about a couple of high school kids who end up in a freaky Friday kind of body swap for a day at a time.

[caps]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Also, FWIW, I thought your comments about fantasy vs. science fiction were interesting. It is curious to me that The Lord of the Rings stands up as great fantasy fiction, but it doesn't really tell us anything deep. It's a wonderful story, and maybe an allegory about World War 2 in some ways, but for some reason it always seems to be science fiction that's packing messaging into the material. Going back to Philip K. Dick, for sure, and through Star Trek and beyond. I don't know why it is, except that I agree it's real. Very interesting point.

This is an interesting opinion to me. I find a lot of depth in Tolkien's work. It is perhaps not the same kind of depth in what you find in Philip K. Dick's musings on humanity.

Also, The Lord of the Rings was not an allegory of World War 2 (Tolkien explicitly said as much in the foreword to one of the later editions). Tolkien had Opinions about World War 2, to be sure, but I don't think LotR was an allegory for anything in particular.

--

The Last Jedi

Spoiler Alert!

I saw it the week before Christmas. I don't think I've finished sifting through my thoughts and feelings about this movie.

Good

• Rey was awesome. Daisy Ridley is phenomenal and I just love the character. She is easily the most engaging, inspiring, and captivating thing the new Star Wars has going for it.
• Kylo Ren was actually interesting. I disliked him in The Force Awakens, but I thought he was worth his screen time in this movie. Unlike some others I think there is still some potential for him to be redeemed, but at this point I don't expect it. I think the series is trying to do away with the Skywalkers, and he's the last one of the line. He's also the last serious villain the series has to give us.
• Mark Hamill was phenomenal. Aside from his ennui (see below), we got a really great Old Jedi Master Luke Skywalker in this movie. It's true the self-referential humor might have gone a little too far, but I thought the scene where he brushes his shoulder was fantastic and not comedic (it made me smile, but it wasn't funny).

Bad

• As Mark Hamill himself commented, running away for years and years and years after a defeat is not very much like Luke Skywalker. I'm disappointed in that (even though I've read some takes that make me "get" what they were doing; I wish they'd done something different).
• There was too much going on! It was kind of overwhelming. The movie could have used more focus.
• Pretty much every scene and subplot that wasn't related to Rey, Kylo Ren, and/or Luke was a waste of time. The movie was 2hrs 45 mins long, and I think it would have been better if they'd cut it down to less than 2hrs. Rose is a fine character, but I would have preferred to see her introduced and integrated with a more interesting plotline. The casino place was a complete red herring, as was the 18+ hour "chase." There were elements of some good stuff; sneaking on to the ship could have had a lot of interesting/exciting elements, a la sneaking on to the Death Star, but it wasn't given enough room to breathe and they didn't make anything of it.
• The movie did not have quite enough Luke-training-Rey. Luke got some serious 1-on-1 time with Yoda. I would have liked to see Luke cave a little sooner so that Rey could get at least something approaching that.
• Poe Dameron learning his lesson about not being a hero, while it fit the theme of the movie, felt trivial in comparison to the other stuff happening in the movie. They spent too much time on it.
• There was not enough spaceship stuff.
• The bomber attack at the beginning was kind of stupid (see "Poe Dameron learning his lesson").

[japes]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

The Last Jedi

Spoiler Alert!

I saw it the week before Christmas. I don't think I've finished sifting through my thoughts and feelings about this movie.

Good

• Rey was awesome. Daisy Ridley is phenomenal and I just love the character. She is easily the most engaging, inspiring, and captivating thing the new Star Wars has going for it.
• Kylo Ren was actually interesting. I disliked him in The Force Awakens, but I thought he was worth his screen time in this movie. Unlike some others I think there is still some potential for him to be redeemed, but at this point I don't expect it. I think the series is trying to do away with the Skywalkers, and he's the last one of the line. He's also the last serious villain the series has to give us.
• Mark Hamill was phenomenal. Aside from his ennui (see below), we got a really great Old Jedi Master Luke Skywalker in this movie. It's true the self-referential humor might have gone a little too far, but I thought the scene where he brushes his shoulder was fantastic and not comedic (it made me smile, but it wasn't funny).

Bad

• As Mark Hamill himself commented, running away for years and years and years after a defeat is not very much like Luke Skywalker. I'm disappointed in that (even though I've read some takes that make me "get" what they were doing; I wish they'd done something different).
• There was too much going on! It was kind of overwhelming. The movie could have used more focus.
• Pretty much every scene and subplot that wasn't related to Rey, Kylo Ren, and/or Luke was a waste of time. The movie was 2hrs 45 mins long, and I think it would have been better if they'd cut it down to less than 2hrs. Rose is a fine character, but I would have preferred to see her introduced and integrated with a more interesting plotline. The casino place was a complete red herring, as was the 18+ hour "chase." There were elements of some good stuff; sneaking on to the ship could have had a lot of interesting/exciting elements, a la sneaking on to the Death Star, but it wasn't given enough room to breathe and they didn't make anything of it.
• The movie did not have quite enough Luke-training-Rey. Luke got some serious 1-on-1 time with Yoda. I would have liked to see Luke cave a little sooner so that Rey could get at least something approaching that.
• Poe Dameron learning his lesson about not being a hero, while it fit the theme of the movie, felt trivial in comparison to the other stuff happening in the movie. They spent too much time on it.
• There was not enough spaceship stuff.
• The bomber attack at the beginning was kind of stupid (see "Poe Dameron learning his lesson").

Since watching it Saturday I've really been trying to put words to my experience and I've struggled. I liked it but I didn't like all of it...I think you have done a great job of articulating how I felt. I think you and I saw the same movie. Other opinions I've seen seem like a different version of the same movie...a fact that's been very interesting to me.

Overall it seemed like a long movie and I'm not sure how much was accomplished in the progression of the story compared to the investment that we made.

[Agent Minivann]

My daughter brought Logan Lucky over last night. It was pretty funny. It's kind of like a redneck version of Ocean's Eleven.