Last movie watched...

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Bah! I don't care for sequels, they're usually (not always, but the majority are) disappointing.

[Frank]

Bah! I don't care for sequels, they're usually (not always, but the majority are) disappointing.

Stay out the Dredd movie thread, Pops.

[Steve Green]

Yep, Jurassic Park is very similar but with less emphasis on having sex with the attractions!

How about this then?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309748/

They could have gone with Jurassic Pork.


Anyway, I finally got around to watching the Hobbit after it turned up on Netflix. Well all but the last 20 minutes.

Pretty much agree with the opinions I've heard - the party stuff went on too long, but I really hated the escape from the city - I can appreciate the technical effort that goes into it, but as with the lightsaber duel in ROTS it just feels like you're watching someone else play a platformer.

On the whole I just found my attention wandering off far too much.

[radiator]

but as with the lightsaber duel in ROTS it just feels like you're watching someone else play a platformer.

This is how I felt. It all just looked so digital, and so far removed from any sense of reality that it just lacked any tension or grit. Compare with the many skirmishes in the LotR films, which felt really gritty and grounded, and often felt like Fantasy by way of Saving Private Ryan.

I finally got round to watching The Muppets (2011) on Saturday night with the family. I admire The Muppets rather than love them - I do remember them from my childhood but think I'm a bit too young to have really caught them in their prime, but I bloody adored this movie. It's laugh out loud funny, smart but never smug, the cameos are ace, the musical numbers are downright fantastic and beautifully staged (and richly deserving of the Oscar win), and - something I wasn't really expecting - it felt really heartfelt and I found parts of it genuinely moving. I loved the whole conceit of the character of Walter working as a metaphor for the filmmakers own fears and trepidation of continuing the legacy of something they clearly love so much. My already high opinion of Jason Segel just went up several notches.

Definitely one I'll be watching again!

[Jim_Campbell]

it just lacked any tension or grit. Compare with the many skirmishes in the LotR films, which felt really gritty and grounded, and often felt like Fantasy by way of Saving Private Ryan.

Is it worth pointing out that The Hobbit is a very different book from Lord of the Rings? I'm not disputing any of the specifics about lack of drama, just observing that my worst fear for the film verison of The Hobbit was that it would retain the tone of the LotR movies.

Cheers

Jim

[Theblazeuk]

Watched Argo over the weekend. Gripping stuff, beautifully shot and makes terrifying use of real life footage. Worthy of its hype! And very well acted.

I finally got round to watching The Muppets (2011) on Saturday night with the family. I admire The Muppets rather than love them - I do remember them from my childhood but think I'm a bit too young to have really caught them in their prime, but I bloody adored this movie.

Smiled all the way through and still have "Man or muppet" in my head every few days.

[radiator]

Is it worth pointing out that The Hobbit is a very different book from Lord of the Rings? I'm not disputing any of the specifics about lack of drama, just observing that my worst fear for the film verison of The Hobbit was that it would retain the tone of the LotR movies.

Tone schmone - excessive weightless, unconvincing, bogus-looking cgi is never welcome in any film, regardless of tone. For instance the decision to make the goblins all-cg. Utterly baffling, and surely a choice made either out of laziness or to keep Weta digital busy.

I personally would have liked to see a Hobbit film with a markedly different tone to LotR, but the end result felt very compromised in trying to do both a lighter, more kid friendly film, but paradoxically one filled with arse-numbing retroactive LotR setup and fan service, and ominous foreshadowing. Ostensibly kid-friendly, but far too long to hold their attention. Whimsical musical numbers, but several gruesome decapitations. Tonally it felt all over the place.

[sheldipez]

I thought the beginning of The Hobbit fit the tone of the book perfectly well with the musical numbers and the jolly Dwarves and their digs at Bilbo but then it's like Peter Jackson remembers he's making a movie that's tied into his LOTR trilogy and it goes all serious and dark (well, apart from the rabbit sleigh). It's all over the place.

I don't understand exactly what went wrong, it could have been to do with the hand over from Del Toro back to Jackson. Jackson did a wonderfull job of adapting the meaty trilogy of books then he screws up what is a short & simple adventure. They've been working on it long enough. Possibly too long to the point where they have over-thought the whole thing. Either way I'll check the other parts when they show up on TV and I can take advantage of the fast forward button, and them being free.

[radiator]

I think The Hobbit movie(s) they decided to make have been fundamentally flawed from the get go - the decision to make them as explicit LotR prequels rather than standalone films has pretty much capsized the whole enterprise before it even got out of the gate. As a result, the plot has become swollen and massively convoluted when it should have been linear and simple, and Bilbo Baggins feels like a side character in his own story, which is unforgivable imo. They're making these movies very much for existing fans at the expense of everyone else - an incredibly shaky foundation.

There's also the whole issue that they're really crippled by being massively self-indulgent too. Too long, too much spectacle and misguided attempts to top what has gone before, too much overambitious technical wizardry, too many pointless and distracting cameos, too much fan service in general.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Bloated would be the word I would use. I've heard that compared with Fellowship of the Ring, Unexpected Journey cost twice as much to make, pulled in roughly the same amount from the box office, which means about half the profit. I don't get why they spent so much on it when they already knew the size of the target market from LotR.

[Theblazeuk]

Two movies I would have said "Oh ok I guess...", three movies I just think zzzzzzzzzz

And I actually much much preferred The Hobbit to the trilogy in book form.

[radiator]

I always got the impression that the LotR movies were made - considering their ambition - on a shoestring. Watching the behind the scenes docs you really get that sense of frantic invention and creativity, the hunger from the production crew, of doing anything and everything, from age-old camera tricks to cutting edge motion capture, to get the best results possible. Much like the Star Wars prequels, The Hobbit felt far more lethargic and complacent. Jackson and co don't really have anything left to prove and it shows in the final product. Perhaps Jackson was ultimately forced into directing against his wishes and so his heart wasn't 100% in this one? That's certainly what it felt like to me.

I've heard that compared with Fellowship of the Ring, Unexpected Journey cost twice as much to make, pulled in roughly the same amount from the box office, which means about half the profit.

I think that the next two will see massive drop off in box office from AUJ. Not that they'll tank or anything, I'm sure they'll still do well enough, but I think we're going to see Matrix sequel levels of drop off in general interest and takings.

[JamesC]

I'm not a massive fan of the LOTR films - they had their moments but they all dragged to varying degrees.

I wasn't planning on watching The Hobbit but ended up seeing it with a few friends one Friday night and was pleasantly surprised. The thing which carried the film for me was Martin Freeman's performance. He does the 'reluctant hero' thing very well. Where the actors in the previous films played the Hobbits as whiny, Freeman played Bilbo as exasperated. I really came to hate Frodo by the end of the final film but I found Bilbo to be likeably plucky.

[radiator]

I liked Freeman in the role, but thought he was extremely poorly served by the script (and as I said above massively underused - we should experience the story from his pov). I think they perhaps made him too likable early on - I remember Bilbo as being a lot fustier, and the transformation from uptight coward to sword-swinging badass seems to happen way too quickly. The fight scene at the end where he squares up to all the goblins seemed completely over the top and out of the blue where a far more subtle act of bravery would have served the same role in the story.

[Jim_Campbell]

a far more subtle act of bravery would have served the same role in the story.

I have a lot of time for Peter Jackson, but subtlety is one thing of which I'd never accuse him...!

Cheers

Jim