Last movie watched...

[Jim_Campbell]

To be fair, Dark Knight did kinda flirt with that thought:

"Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands; and your plan, is to blackmail this person?

"Good luck."

Cheers

Jim

[Mardroid]

Superman 2

I think this might be my favourite Superman film [spoiler]even if he does suddenly exhude new powers when it's covenient. To be fair I think a couple of those where granted by the Krypton technology in the Fortress of Solitude (I.e. the holograms and the Superman emblem net thing.)[/spoiler]

Another interesting thing, - Man of Steel get's criticised [spoiler]for the way Superman despatches General Zod. And yet, in that film, he breaks Zod's neck as a last resort to save Lois Lane, and cries his heart out in remorse after that. [/spoiler]

In this film, he [spoiler]crushes Zod's hand after the enemy Kryptoninas have been depowered, and throws him to his death and it's considered a 'Booyah! Take that!' moment. (I'm assuming the enemy Kryptonians died in that chasm. I guess there could be more tech down there which caught them and imprisoned them but the implication seems to be that they died.)

It could be argued that the comic book Superman would have done neither (I haven't read enough to know if Superman ever kills his foes, but I understand he generally avoids it unless they are giant robots.) and would have found a way, but arguably the Man of Steel version of Zod's death is closer to how Superman would act.
It's a stalemate situation. He is holding Zod down, but Zod is blasting his heat vision towards Lane. I suppose Supes could try to throw Zod or hit him in the head, butI think  he wasactively struggling, and it takes one glance with that heat vision to turn Lois into lady roast. Superman took the quickest route to saving Lane that he could. [/spoiler]

[Jim_Campbell]

I don't buy the whole Superman kills the Kryptonians thing. Leaving aside the unused scene where they're led away in chains, as a kid I just honestly assumed they'd be frozen solid in the icy chasms they were chucked into. It never occurred to me for a second that they'd been killed. It's just not that dark a movie.

Cheers

Jim

[Professor Bear]

Plus it's Superman, so you know he didn't kill them.

In Man Of Steel, why didn't Superman just cover Zod's eyes with his hand or that indestructible cape he has?  Or he could have said "look over there - it's a naked lady!" and when Zod turned to look, the people could have run away.  Either of these solutions make as a much sense as what happened in that film, because the laser beam kill-o-vision just crawls slowly towards the people inch by inch - if Zod knew those people were there, didn't that mean he was already looking at them?  The logical explanation is, of course, the simplest one, and the simplest explanation is that Man Of Steel is a load of shit.

[JamesC]

For 'Superheroes mercilessly killing people' fun you should check out the old black and white Captain Marvel serial. Gasp as he machine guns foes in the back and throws people to their deaths from the roof of tall buildings.

[Theblazeuk]

In Superman 2 I read it as they were back in something like the Phantom Zone, just in a depiction as non-sensical as the net-emblem thing was.

As far as Man of Steel goes, (Proper) Superman killed Zod et al. With white kryptonite. After they slaughtered an entire planet. I'm not against Superman killing people at all. He also killed Doomsday.

[Professor Bear]

Superman killing Zod in the comics was unambiguously A Bad Thing that had repercussions that lasted for decades for the character and included exile from Earth and a mental breakdown - though my personal favorite aftermath moment was when he went home to ma and pa and found he couldn't look them in the eye and admit what he'd done.  When Man Of Steel killed Zod in the movies it was unambiguously presented as a character getting their just desserts, and Superman is rewarded for doing it with the normalcy he's always wanted.

The director later said that Superman had to try killing at least once so that he would know he didn't like it and wouldn't want to do it again.

[JOE SOAP]

Another interesting thing, - Man of Steel get's criticised [spoiler]for the way Superman despatches General Zod. And yet, in that film, he breaks Zod's neck as a last resort to save Lois Lane, and cries his heart out in remorse after that. [/spoiler]

To end the film after Zod's killing with Superman downing drones, throwing his weight around, then getting a nice job at the Daily Planet beside his new girlfriend doesn't lend much creedence to the idea that Supes is affected much by his actions or that the film-makers had even thought it was ever an issue. It's a weird note to end on but maybe not for the grim-dark Superman who doesn't seem much different from Batman.

[Mardroid]

I don't buy the whole Superman kills the Kryptonians thing. Leaving aside the unused scene where they're led away in chains,

Interesting. I didn't know about that scene. I should get the Blu-ray box-set with ll those extra goodies.

as a kid I just honestly assumed they'd be frozen solid in the icy chasms they were chucked into. It never occurred to me for a second that they'd been killed. It's just not that dark a movie.

Wouldn't being frozen solid kill them, since theyre no more powerful than humans, now? Unless some of that afore mentioned kryptonian tech was involved, anyway.

Fair enough though. It's interesting to see how different people interpret things, and a bit worrying that my interpretations seems to veer towards the darker side...

In Superman 2 I read it as they were back in something like the Phantom Zone, just in a depiction as non-sensical as the net-emblem thing was.

That occurred to me. But as nothing was mentioned about it I just took it they likely died falling into a chasm and all. But that deleted scene Jim mentioned suggest the director had other ideas, albeit on the cutting room floor.

That whole scene was rather odd though. What was with the Kryptonians (including Superman) keep vanishing and appearing? I put that down to them each moving at superhuman speed faster than the human eye cans see, but it was very odd. (I mean before the Superman holograms. I just put that down to technology. Like Mrs. El steppingn out of the crystal screen thing.)

I reitterate that despite all I've said, I really like this film.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Also, hands-down the best film version of Batman

Yeah I was struck by how natural it felt that he was an arsehole. I mean yeah... the dude is a millionaire that dresses up as a bat and duffs up the poor and desperate criminals motivated by little more than angst and boredom.

...& poverty!!!!

[Jim_Campbell]

Wouldn't being frozen solid kill them, since theyre no more powerful than humans, now? Unless some of that afore mentioned kryptonian tech was involved, anyway.

Flying alien with his pants on the outside. We're quite a long way into suspending disbelief before we get to this bit...

Cheers

Jim

[Tiplodocus]

Also, hands-down the best film version of Batman

Yeah I was struck by how natural it felt that he was an arsehole. I mean yeah... the dude is a millionaire that dresses up as a bat and duffs up the poor and desperate criminals motivated by little more than angst and boredom.

...& poverty!!!!

It's Batman's motivation being talked about. But you are right. Poverty, Poverty, Poverty.

[JamesC]

(Half of) Lawrence of Arabia.

One of the all time classics that I've never gotten around to watching.
It's certainly epic and some of the shots are really great. There are lots of long shots which illustrate the scale of the tiny people against the vastness of the desert.
Having said that, I found events strangely un-affecting. The crossing of the apparently 'uncrossable' stretch of desert seemed pretty straightforward and it never seemed like Lawrence was in any great peril - even when he went back for the bloke who fell off his camel.
There were some bis that felt a little hokey too. The opening sequence, showing Lawrence's motorcycle crash was handled in a fairly typical way for the time - a camera wobble, fade and sound effect. The shot of his motorcycle goggles hanging in a tree tough? That's just silly.
Alec Guinness's portrayal of an arab prince felt silly by modern standards too.     
After two hours I'd had enough. I think there's around 90 minutes left to go so I'll try to get around to watching that later in the week.

[Keef Monkey]

In Man of Steel my only problem with [spoiler]him killing Zod[/spoiler] is that it made no sense that it was necessary. [spoiler]PUT YOUR HANDS OVER HIS EYES MAN, YOU'VE GOT SUPER HANDS!!![/spoiler]

Because we're going to Universal Studios as part of our honeymoon, Bea is determined that I need to watch all the Harry Potter movies beforehand or I just won't enjoy it or something. The only one I ever saw was Chamber of Secrets in the cinema and I can barely remember it (and the one memory I have was that it was a bit guff) so we've started from the top!

So, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone was quite fun actually. Weasley is definitely the best character, and also the best child actor (the rest of them are pretty ropey, Hermoine is ear scrapingly annoying). Rickman goes Full Rickman which is really a thing to behold, and Coltrane has some great lines too. It loses it towards the end and the last half hour seemed a bit random and nonsensical. One of the things I remembered disliking about CoS was that in the end everything was resolved by him [spoiler]pulling a special snake killing sword out of a hat[/spoiler] which I saw at the time as some pretty poor cosmic screwdriver style writing, and I had a similar reaction in this to [spoiler]the stone just magically appearing in Harry's pocket for reasons they hadn't explained yet[/spoiler].

I enjoyed it and look forward to working through the rest, but I'm hoping Rowling had a few more ideas for resolving situations than just 'ta da! All good because MAGIC'. It also seemed very silly that everyone got upset about [spoiler]Ron falling off a pretend horse (he'll be fine guys), I'm not actually sure why he had to get on the horse anyway. Or why they were playing chess. That whole last chunk was a bit lost on me to be honest so there's a chance my attention had drifted.[/spoiler]

Much better (and very unexpectedly so) was Magic Mike which we watched afterwards and really enjoyed. A lot of top drawer performances (Channing Tatum continues to impress me in everything I see him in, and hot damn can he dance), stylishly directed and very naturalistically written and performed...it really was a bit of a treat. Had been expecting a dumb dance movie (and we really only put it on for a laugh) but thought it was great.

[Satanist]

Hmm a flattering post about Channing Tatum, must be Tips....WHAT??? 

Goldmember - Never seen this before due to hating the second one but as I was about to pass out drunk I thought I'd leave the telly on. Made me laugh a few times but when a film rips the piss out  itself for re-using previous jokes its time to give it a rap. which they did.