Last Movie You Watched

Thoughts?

 

As someone who doesn't read comics and only comic knowledge are from the movies, I thought it was enjoyable. Taskmaster was interesting but to the die hard comic book fans, they may be little disappointed with the character. I found Florence Pugh character the show stealer and I think she makes a great addition to the MCU. I would put this movie in the middle bottom tier Marvel film. It's not a bad movie but it is kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things. I felt like this movie would of done better if they showed it before Infinity War or at the very least, before End Game. I feel like this movie should of happened before we got the Captain Marvel film.

The post credit scene is quite interesting and is a treat to the people who watched a specific marvel show (It isn't related to the Loki show. Purposely being vague due to not to spoiling it).

 

Saw it tonight! Black Widow is very much the titular character's Winter Soldier movie. By this I mean they strip down the character to their core values and force them to face the past in ways that don't always make them happy. Natasha isn't Steve though - although Steve has undoubtedly influenced her = so the outcomes and overall feelings are very different. (There are other parallels too, but those would be spoilers.)

The movie was far funnier than I thought it was going to be, and a little different than the trailers made it out to be. I thought I knew the dynamics going into the movie, and that they were at odds with everything Natasha had previously said. I was wrong, and very glad to be so. In terms of humor, some of it will land with people, other things are funny in the moment but also cringe-y for the characters because you know them. Without spoiling anything, an example I can give is where Natasha has a "your approval fills me with shame" moment with another character that is funny to watch.

The action was solid, but not the best. The characters were good, and given how insular the story is, that's a great thing. The villains were meh, but Marvel rarely shines with the villains. They have gotten at lot better though, so this felt like a step backwards.

The music was solid, but it was also very superhero-y. I think in time it will be somewhat memorable, and it meshed pretty well with the movie. The bad part about it is that there are certain scenes which feel a tad jarring, and the music only exacerbates that issue.

Of the woman-led superhero movies that have come out in the past five years (WW, CM, Harley Quinn, WW84, and now this), I'd say it ranks second, beating out Captain Marvel for third but standing below Wonder Woman. Of the MCU movies, I'd put this solidly in the second tier. It's a fun addition that's easy to re-watch, but it probably won't be anyone's favorite and is in no way competing for the best. I do wish there were more movies with these characters though.


And yeah, I agree with pretty much everything else @deadmanwalkin009 said. I don't care about Taskmaster in the comics, but I did hear some of the backlash around what they did with the character before seeing the movie. After seeing it, I don't dislike what was done. I think there could and should have been more done with the character, but it fit the story. But I totally get the anger.

Florence Pugh kills her role, and I can't wait to see her show up in whatever future form she does.

Agreed and agreed. In future MCU marathons or watches with people who haven't seen it, I plan on showing this right after Civil War...even if Black Panther is chronologically next. I think this movie serves as a nice epilogue to Natasha and Steve's shared stories (while Spider-Man: Homecoming serves as a nice epilogue to Tony's side of the Civil War story).

Spoiler: MINOR BLACK WIDOW VAGUE SPOILERS

Although the post-credit scene easily goes post-Endgame. I think I might end up showing it right after Endgame.

Other Notes:
My dad will have two gripes with certain characterizations, but at least one of those isn't really problematic to me.

 

A personal favorite of mine...



I can understand why it bombed at the time, the idea of turning Halloween into an anthology series of unrelated films would have been a hard sell but since it wasn't very well promoted it was hardly communicated at all and people were mad and felt cheated. It adds another level of entertainment imagining yourself as some kid in '82 going to see Michael Myers and getting robots, witchcraft, Stonehenge and Halloween masks that turn your head into a writhing mass of bugs and snakes. It's started getting a lot more love over the last 10-15 years though, people know what they're getting into with it and can judge it on its own merits and the notoriety/black sheep thing probably makes it more interesting in some ways.

 

This.


It ain't half bad! (And I've probably been underrating it a little bit. The problem parts are quite small compared to the brilliance of the writing and the grandure of the thing).

 

Not nearly as bad as the so-called "critics" make it out to be. Neill Blomkamp is really talented and Sharlto Copley is extremely underrated.

Oh and Diego Luna showed up again, funny 'cause I've seen him in nothing other than Rogue One until the last week or so!

 

Not a particularly good film, but it has charm and several good performances

 

Pretty good IMO

 

I agree, it's not that bad and I liked the idea of having a spin-off series as well. The weird thing though- this movie felt rather old, it felt more like a 70s movie than Halloween 1 and 2 did.

@RockyRoadHux and I are currently watching the on going trilogy 'Fear Street' on Netflix. It's not good IMO.

 

You're right, District 9 is pretty much perfect so anything that followed had a lot to live up to.

I think Chappie is Blomkamp's weakest film but still not as bad it's reputation suggests. It's a shame his Alien 5 won't get made.

 

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 11, 2021, Original Post Date: Jul 11, 2021 ---

Haven't seen it yet and it does look good but I just care about Red Guardian and Taskmaster. Is Taskmaster..

Spoiler

Tony Masters and an ex SHIELD agent or is there some crazy random twist about his indentity like being Mason? Did he get killed off or just locked up at the raft or something?

As for Red Guardian, are there any flashbacks to his young days during his peak or just all current has been? How did he do in fight scenes?

What happens in the end to everyone and is there hint of Yelena taking over the Black Widow mantle? (She does in the comics)

 

Spectre 2015 decent Bond film. It gets better with age. I was inspired to watch a few Bond flicks simply because Natasha Romanova did in her recent film.

 

Last night my mom and I started In the Heights again before it's taken off HBO Max. It was my second time seeing it, and her third. We had to take a break while I had a different social outing, and when I got back, she was fast asleep. So we finished it tonight after a nice family outing. Overall, my opinions on it haven't really changed, even if my overall experience was far different and not nearly as exciting. But my mom and I are pretty frank people, so we had some blunt commentary that was fun to have. (For me. I don't know how fun it was for her.)

That outing that I mentioned earlier was to see F9 with my parents, so I saw two repeat viewings in less than 24 hours! My experience with F9 was the inverse of mine with In the Heights - I enjoyed it even more the second time than I did the first. This may be because I was in the mood to watch F9 again, whereas I'm still not really in the mood to watch musicals at this point. While I still think that movies 5-7 are the best F&F movies, F9 will probably end up in my top three overall, with Fast 5 and Furious 7. I just really enjoy how meta, hammy, and weirdly intimate the story is. Also, the "family" memes on Twitter and Reddit were hilarious.

EDIT: I forgot to add, Post Malone's new song "Motley Crew" fits the F&F vibe and aesthetic that I'm actually surprised that it's NOT on the F9 soundtrack. It's my unofficial anthem for the movie though.

 

Well it was meant to be a throwback to even older films especially the original black and white Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. They even borrowed the name of the fictional Santa Mira for this one and the ending with Dr. Challis screaming into the camera as he's yelling into the phone is a definite homage to the scene in Body Snatchers where the guy is yelling "They're here already, you're next" in the streets and into the camera. But besides being inspired by some older films to me it always feels just 80s as it can get. The John Carpenter computer inspired synth soundtrack and computer generated opening titles and visuals that go with the jingle throughout the film make it feel very 80s.

 

Spoiler: Spoiler of the movie

Tony Masters and an ex SHIELD agent or is there some crazy random twist about his indentity like being Mason? Did he get killed off or just locked up at the raft or something? No. It turns out to be the daughter of Dreykov (the main bad guy of the movie and creator of the Red Room and the Black Widow Program) and is part of the taskmaster protocol/program. You may be very disappointed with the MCU version of Taskmaster as its nothing like its comic book counter part other than copy a persons fighting style (I did recall him copying Black Panther, Captain America and Black Widows fighting styles) This particular Taskmaster didn't get killed off.

As for Red Guardian, are there any flashbacks to his young days during his peak or just all current has been? How did he do in fight scenes?
There is no flashbacks of him (other than as a being a regular person). However he does mention that he's the Russian's Version of Captain America and he apparently fought Captain America in the past. He does tell stories of his past as like he's retelling his stories of his glory days. He fights, similar to Captain America. His character is more of a comedic relief than anything else. David Harbor does a good job in the film and is very likeable.

What happens in the end to everyone and is there hint of Yelena taking over the Black Widow mantle? (She does in the comics)

With the post credit scene, there is a hint that she could take over the Black Widow mantle and there is a character that shows up that is in The Falcon and Winter Solder show and the post credit scene also ties into the future Hawkeye show. I don't want to be too detailed about the post credit scene because it does set up several possibilities of future MCU events.

The movie is fun and enjoyable but if you're a die hard comic book fan, you may feel disappointed with their version of Taskmaster. I personally wasn't bothered by it but I can see why people would be.

 

Extremely good movie.

 

I've always been keenly interested in any movies that in any way influenced the Original Trilogy, so I finally made a point of watching "The Dam Busters" from 1955. I was struck by three things:

The most glaring thing that struck me was the offensive and hateful language. I always wondered why this film didn't see a wider distribution in the U.S. given its influence on Star Wars, and I finally realized why. It's really quite bizzare, because the film uses the most obscene word in American English casually and repeatedly, without contributing in any way to the story, character development or style of the film. From what I understand, the use of the word in the film was historically accurate, but it is really very jarring to hear in this context, and could have been easily replaced without detracting from the film.

The second thing that struck me was the calm detachment with which all the characters are portrayed. I really didn't get any sense that these characters believed they were at WAR! They were all very relaxed, laid back, detached, and patient enough to wait months for meaningful developments. The whole thing would have been more believable if the characters acted with some sense of urgency.

The third thing that struck me, of course, was the parallels with the final act of "A New Hope." The influence is unmistakable, but while "The Dam Busters" features many shots, sequences and lines of dialog as "A New Hope," it has very little of the raw excitement of a Star Wars Film. For those not interested in watching the entire film, you may want to check out this brief video comparing it to "A New Hope":

I would recommend this film to anyone interested in exploring the roots of "Star Wars," but caution that it is surprisingly slow, and includes repeated use of horribly offensive language. If anything, I'm now more interested in the actual historical missions the film was based on.

I'd love to learn others' perspectives if you've ever seen this film.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm pissed about Taskmaster because he's my one of my favorite villains but rest sounds good