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Whelp! I only just saw it.

Um...

First reaction is, it looks a LOT better than I expected it to. I really hope this film is a killer... but there are already some thinsg I'm having a strong negative reaction to.

Not a huge fan of Karl Urban's Dredd voice, for one thing. Without hearing it in the context of the movie proper, it feels a little too much like Christian Bale's raspy Bat-voice from the 'try-too-hard' school of acting. Time will tell if I can get used to it or not.

REALLY not liking the bike.

That's my whining done, though. On to the positives! Lena Heady looks like she's gonna be an excellent baddie. Olivia Thirlby as Anderson looks every bit as kick-ass and droolsome as I had hoped for. And while I'm not convinced on the SOUND of Urban's Dredd, he sure looks the part.

The uniforms look great. Cinematography looks ACES! 3D will be awesome!

Importantly, I think the biggest thing a movie in a mooted franchise has to get right is its opening story gambit. If you have an epic misfire on this front like the Green Lantern movie, you're sunk. Dredd, however looks as if it sports a story that could be ripped straight from the pages of the prog. Whatever grumbles and initial misgivings I may have on the strength of the trailer, this certainly does feel like Judge Dredd!

My bum will be in that cinema seat come Spetember. Oh yes!

[Hans Zimmer To Score MAN OF STEEL]

Hans Zimmer To Score MAN OF STEEL


Muh.

With regard to potential sequels, and the potential of a potential sequel potentially NOT happening... potentially:

If that's frustrating for viewers, that all those plot threads get left unresolved - then that's an argument for making a film that stands as a satisfying work in its own right.

The Marvel movies were clearly building towards something, but pretty much all of them worked as standalone films.

Too flamin' right!

I did come away from the movie thinking it's asking a LOT for an audience to invest in this movie on the hope of a sequel that wasn't even confirmed.

I do wonder - supposing this movie HAD been a super-talky, super-deep meditiation on all the grandiose stuff we were spoon-fed ahead of release, with just a few dribbles of Alien thrown in on top, would this message board be alight with enthusiastic chatter about it now? Would the movie be doing better business? Would it be doing WORSE?

(And please, no autopilot responses from anybiody of 'Nah! It'd STILL be crap!')

I think, if I recall correctly, the last I heard was that the movie was still on track to make a profit - though not a huge one. Home video sales ought to figure into any future plans Fox might have for Prometheus as a franchise unto itself. I just hope that certain lessons are learned. Namely:

The fans of this franchise expect better.

Showing too much of the movie immediately prior to release wasn't smart.

For Engineer's sake, don't let anybody big things up with ludicrous claims that 'big questions' are being posed.

And, finally - and I do NOT say such things lightly:

GET A BETTER WRITER.


...


Keep Noomi, though, plz. 

Driven to insomnia posting again. Something occurs to me: Do any of you guys actually WANT to see a sequel to this?

I kinda get the impression it's going to happen by hook or by crook, and I have mixed feelings about the possibilities.

I mean, if we get a sequel, and it goes nowhere, I'll be steamed. But if we didn't get a sequel at all... I'd feel properly cheated.

Is the story of Shaw and David going out to meet the Engineers something people want to see? Or are you folks already dead set against it?

Cowboys And Aliens - which I really liked.

Well, I say 'really liked', but if I'm honest, the pacing went a little bit wonky about halfway through, and things seemed to jump ahead of themselves. Hollywood needs to knock that crap on the head. Now.

Other than that, good fun. Even Damon Lindelhof's name in the credits couldn't hurt it too badly.

This thread suddenly reminds me that I'd buy the CRAP out of some nice new Durham Red trade collections.

Surely this is a prime candidate for case-files type collection? Or am I assuming there's more material than there actually is?

Colour me curious as well (no, not like THAT! Dirty minds, the lot of you! Tut tut!)

I hope we can get some update on the boards in due course so that teh kucky winner and runners up don;t have to buy the meg just to find out!

Other than she's a babe AND a redhead to boot?








... I'll get me coat ...

No, no, I'm down with that...

Unlike Scully's faith in THE X-FILES (which also happened to have giant pale aliens with a thing for black oil), PROMETHEARSE doesn't bother exploring how and why a scientist can still believe in something as nebulous and unprovable as 'God'. The crucifix is lazy shorthand to show that she believes.

See why that part of it disappointed me? See???

[H]

That exchange confirmed for me I was watching a turd. Shaw's supposed to believe in God, yes? Or not, as the case may or may not be; I mean, despite wearing a crucifix, her faith's so fucking ill-defined I've since wondered if she wore the bastard thing only because it belonged to her father. But. Assuming I'm not misremembering . . . doesn't Liz come out with some bollocks towards the end of the film about still believing in God?

"Who made them?"

THE EXACT SAME ARGUMENT APPLIES TO HIM ALSO, YOU FUCKWIT.

Thing is, it's for those sorts of reasons I found it interesting.

I actually think the depiction of characters with religious faith in entertainment is an interesting topic. So often, they're presented as these GIANT cliches, spouting scriptures and behaving as either impossibly virtuous or the sort of right bastardly bad 'uns wot gets religion a bad name. That to me is over-simplification of a very complex subject.

The whole pre-sales pitch about Shaw being a believer (or whatever term you want to use) was one of the things about the movie that grabbed my interest early on... so I was especially disappointed to see it handled with such simplicity and brevity.

Shaw's faith is ill defined? Well, to be blunt, there are a LOT of people who profess to religious beliefs that they haven't properly thought about. And a lot of people, it's true, fall into the beliefs they hold for no better reason than that their parents followed them.

I actually found the prospect of a character who is - to all intents and purposes - a scientist, who claims belief in God, very interesting. There are people in real life who fit that mould, but we don't often see them represented in fiction. Like I say, it was one area of the movie that I really thought might give the movie a glimmer of intelligence and make it notable. I actually thought, during that scene, 'yeah! This is it! We're gonna get something cool to think about here!' But, it wasn't to be. Like I say... brief, undercooked...

It's for these reasons that I came away from the movie thinking again about how story values in Hollywood have declined. You can't really put those sorts of ideas out for Joe Public to consume in a summer movie, it seems. Every single major element of the movie's story seems to need an extra layer or two on top of it to flesh it out and make it more satisfying.

Remember that post I made earlier about Prometheus' script being like the cool kid at the student party? Well, I think I just worked out the logical extension of that. Prometheus is the cool kid that sits on the bean bag and asks the question that's meant to make him look cleverer than he is. When somebody asks him 'can you explain that?', he gets all fidgety and changes the subject.

The heavy 'ker-thwump' of something heavy hitting the doormat. It's the sound I've come to associate with new comics!

Funny!

They also rather ruined any chance of 'Who made us? God? Random chance? An Alien?' suspense by showing you the answer in the opening fucking scene.

I kinda thought it was interesting with that exchange between Shaw and Holloway where he tells her 'well, you can stop looking for answers now, because we know who made us,' and her reply is 'well, who made THEM?'

Brief and, like so much of the movie, undercooked. But at least it was there.

Well, last week, I found The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for less than a fiver in Tesco and decided I'd give it a whirl. A week later, I'm still thinking about the movie.

I absolutely loved it! Gritty, well staged, superbly acted... I was thoroughly absorbed. So much so that I just ordered the complete trilogy in their extended TV format (basically six 90-minute TV movies that were re-cut into the theatrical movies we all know and are sick of hearing about).

Come to think of it, I wonder if you can still get the original 'Insomnia' on DVD..?

Hm. Last time I saw the original Predator, my thoughts were torn between how well the creature effects hold up to this day, and how BADLY everything else about to seems to have dated. There's some truly woeful acting in that movie! That said, Arnie's showdown with Ol' Tusky is still exciting stuff.

I'm in the Predator 2 camp. Better film by a mile, I think. Better use of the Predator, logical progression from the first movie, Predator gets some WAY cool toys to play with (and they've never been bested in subsequent movie, in my opinion)... oh, and GARY BUSEY!

Predators, however, I hate with a fiery passion.