Summer Movies

[geonuc]

Saw White House Down yesterday. Pretty good action-packed shoot em' up. Recommended.

The following is not really a spoiler, so don't freak:

The only beef I had was the part where the bad guys send launch codes to a ballistic missile submarine, causing it start its launch sequence. TOTALLY bogus! Submarines launch independently - it requires action by the crew.

Other than that, absolutely everything in the movie is entirely plausible. Yeah ...

[geonuc]

And I'm going to see Z today. The movie, not the crazy Croat.

[gethen]

Let us know how World War Z is. I've read that book two or three times and I'm wondering how they can make it into a movie. It's a series of interviews with survivors of the Zombie War, so it's hard to see it as a movie. Still, I want to see it as well.

[geonuc]

I'll give it a thumbs up. The movie doesn't follow the format of the book with the interviews. If you like Brad Pitt, you'll probably enjoy this one.

[Thumper]

We all liked Monsters University.

[geonuc]

We all liked Monsters University.

But ... does it have zombies or lots of things blowing up?

[Thumper]

They blew up the Door Lab.
Didn't see any zombies though.

[geonuc]

Pacific Rim is on the calendar for this weekend.

[Thumper]

Pacific Rim is on the calendar for this weekend.

Three people told me it totally sucked.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Pacific Rim is on the calendar for this weekend.

Three people told me it totally sucked.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'll say that I really didn't care for it. I won't give spoilers since geonuc's going to go see it, but I defy anyone to identify even one character arc in the whole film.

[geonuc]

Pacific Rim is on the calendar for this weekend.

Three people told me it totally sucked.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'll say that I really didn't care for it. I won't give spoilers since geonuc's going to go see it, but I defy anyone to identify even one character arc in the whole film.

I'll consider it a challenge.

[geonuc]

Pacific Rim is on the calendar for this weekend.

Three people told me it totally sucked.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'll say that I really didn't care for it. I won't give spoilers since geonuc's going to go see it, but I defy anyone to identify even one character arc in the whole film.

I'll consider it a challenge.

You know, I don't think the focus of this movie is character development. It's more along the lines of delivering continuous scenes of mass destruction with some sort of semi-coherent plot. It very much succeeded in that.

[gethen]

It got a 72% on the tomatometer. Interesting.

[geonuc]

It got a 72% on the tomatometer. Interesting.

The movie have it's good points, such as the CGI, and I actually enjoyed it. I read somewhere else that it's a cross between Godzilla and anime.

[geonuc]

Elysium - OK, I guess. Some might rate it higher because of its commentary on modern society, but I don't go to movies to get commentary on the real world. Jodie Foster needs to be more selective with her scripts. Her role in this film was not very challenging, which is probably why she sucked. Matt Damon was the highlight, of course.

The World's End - also OK. My wife was laughing through much of the flick, so perhaps I'm not Simon Pegg fan? I liked Shaun of Dead though. I just thought the premise of the movie was seriously derailed by the weird turn of events. Didn't work for me.

We're the Millers - this one I liked, although it's hardly Academy Award material. Light, yet adult.

[Rommie]

I rather liked Elysium, but I think that was because I didn't go in expecting it to be the be all end all- excellent if you just think of it as an action flick though. (Well except the ending as the last minute was a pretty darn stupid ending.) Frankly most stuff is so scripted these days that I was just refreshed to see an original storyline with out the "mentor dies about 30min in," "not sure if the evil guy is evil, turns out he is evil and just pretending to help" etc "plot points."

What I think I liked most about it was how the director was awesome with District 9, but for Elysium he clearly had a blank check to do what he wanted. And frankly I loved seeing someone create a world like that.

Speaking of summer movies, anyone see the Steve Jobs one yet? Frankly if it's an honest story of his life it might be good (ie mentions how he really was a jerk and shows how it led to his undoing all those details- I'm not against a main character with exposed flaws), but if it's just the Cult of Jobs I'm not that interested.

[Swift]

I spent my Newark-Paris flights watching movies (both planes had the nice entertainment systems that you could pick what you wanted). Caught up on several summer movies:

42 - Excellent. I'm not sure people who don't love baseball will love it as much.

Monster's University - Good. Not as good as the first one.

Star Trek Into Darkness - C+. Much better than I expected and much better than the first one, but not an original thought in the entire movie. Glad I didn't spend money to see it.

Oz The Great and Powerful - Again, better than I expected and some nice prequel explanations for some things, but glad I didn't spend real money on it.

[SciFiFisher]

I realized that ST Into Darkness was essentially a re-imagining of a previous plot. So, I can agree that there was a dearth of original plot. I thought it was a pretty good re-write nevertheless.

AS for Oz The Great & Powerful I thought it was well played with the villain of the piece coming as almost a surprise.

[gethen]

Finally saw World War Z this week. Disappointed. It bore very little resemblance to the book. Fast zombies, zombies using sound to find victims, amputation as a preventative, a cure specifically denied in the book, I could go on. The book was a series of interviews with survivors of a zombie war. The narrator was not a character and certainly didn't have anything to do with finding a cure--there was no cure. Other than the title and the idea of a world wide zombie outbreak, about the only thing it had in common with the book was the title.

I guess it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a movie based on the book I so enjoyed and I couldn't really get past that.

Also saw the new Star Trek. It was good enough to keep me entertained while I was knitting without requiring too much attention.

[Rommie]

gethen, I'm amazed you nailed it per here- http://theoatmeal.com/comics/wwz

[gethen]

gethen, I'm amazed you nailed it per here- http://theoatmeal.com/comics/wwz

Glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. I thought the book did a great job of showing how a pandemic might affect the world and how different countries might respond. I thought it was science fiction at its best, using zombies to show us ourselves. All lost in the movie.

[SciFiFisher]

gethen, I'm amazed you nailed it per here- http://theoatmeal.com/comics/wwz

Glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. I thought the book did a great job of showing how a pandemic might affect the world and how different countries might respond. I thought it was science fiction at its best, using zombies to show us ourselves. All lost in the movie.

Word War Z is about the human condition and what we all might be willing (or not) to survive as individuals and as a group. That sort of thing doesn't sell nearly as well in the theatres as action scenes and heroic characters saving the day.