Donomark

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Everything posted by Donomark

  1. Finished Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which was furiously recommended to me by a co-worker. I liked it. It's a solid 2000s era series that doesn't really watch like any Shonen I've seen. It's a kind of byzantine plot with the world and warring factions, much more like an average Gundam series. It also subverted my expectations a number of times. The two leads are likable, whereas I went in thinking Edward would be far less tolerable and typical of a yelling anime protag than he ended up being. The cast overall are far more intelligent than the average anime cast. Several times they'll have outwitted the bad guys in ways which made total sense and wasn't a simple game of one-upping each other. The show is also a lot darker than I was expecting, right away with the creepy father and daughter tragic episode. I liked it but I didn't love it, and I'm still mulling over why. The only thing that I noticed throughout the show, definitely in the second half is that the focus on the other characters often puts Ed and Al in the backseat. Their storyline of trying to regain their bodies is far more concrete than Col. Mustang's aspirations of overthrowing King Bradley and everything else with Briggs army and Scar and the various Homunculi and Father and Van Hoenheim and all that. I got to thinking that if I watched this on Adult Swim over and over again, the plot would've become more familiar and less abstract to me, and I might've liked it more than I did. For some reason I kept comparing it in my head to Yu Yu Hakusho, which is a very different series and one of my all time favorites. I wondered that if started that series now, would I still have the same feelings for it that I do since I watched it in junior high... FMA: Brotherhood is a very solid show, and one that I respect, but it's not something that deeply affected me. Recent series' I've seen like My Hero Academia, and even further back like Kill la Kill and definitely Evangelion I found far more affecting. But at the same time, I definitely enjoyed the show. I really liked the Elric brothers and can see why this captured a young millennial American audience when it did.
  2. Nixon: I've got a lot of thoughts on this one, and hope to get them e-mailed over to Hey! An Actor to be heard/read out soon. Long story short, I really enjoyed it. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: I saw this one twice, and overall I really enjoyed it. Like No Way Home, it's a fun movie with a lot of very evident flaws. Unfortunately one of those flaws isn't shared by No Way Home in that there's not really a story here. It's a very two-dimensional film with zero thematic heft and hardly any scenes beyond moving from point A to point B. There's a repetition of Strange's sense of happiness and the idea that his hubris and arrogance leads him to ruin and that he's got to change his ways somehow, and that's more said than shown. In a larger context, I do like the fact that the film directly addresses Strange's needlessly dickish persona and works to soften him. Like Chris said in the Flickchart episode we did with Ian, there's no real reason for Strange's story to be about karma or anything. At the shame time it's a shame that this is the first sequel to a movie six years old, and the filmmakers don't seem to be positive on what makes Strange tick, or the WHY of him. To quote my QnoA regarding Batman and Robin, they didn't really have a character arc, they just said that they did. I liked where they ended up with Strange, but they cheated. On a far larger concern, my main issue is how Wanda is depicted. Is it a spoiler to say since the trailers don't hint at it? Sam Raimi really carries this movie though, ESPECIALLY in the third act. The thing with Doctor Strange is that his best comics were gothic and supernatural and creepy. The final act felt like the best of the Ditko/Gene Colan era, and I loved how it got nuttier and nuttier and nuttier with nary an insipid wise-assed comment to distract from the mood. YMMV on how effective Raimi's wacky directing played for you, but I loved it, especially they line "They don't have to be living..." In terms of being a Dr. Strange movie, this kicks the first film's ass ten times over. This movie is flawed, severely so. Des is right that America Chavez, ultimately, is a plot device and her character could've been anybody. This is one of the most surface-written, in-need-of-more-drafts MCU movies in a while...but the Raimi directing as the film goes on is so much fun. It just gets darker, and wilder, and more violent and weird, that that's worth the price of admission. The spectacle really puts it over and salvages what I honestly understand to be a lesser-written film to be firmly solid by sheer style alone.
  3. Moon Knight was a very mixed show for me, in part because the demands of the source material's tone got swept up by the needs of it being a Disney Plus Marvel show, and the fact that this thing's totally swallowed up by the now tried and true MCU formula. From the beginning I disliked what they were doing with Steven Grant. It makes more sense by the end, but for a while the episodes he was carrying made the show mostly broad comedy, and the viewing experience really tedious. Once we saw more of Marc Spector though, especially as Moon Knight, things tightened up. The best part of this whole thing is Oscar Isaac, who never needed to prove himself as a great actor, but he so seamlessly switches back and forth between Marc and Steven that you instantly forget they're the same man. Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow was a very good performance for a middling, sometimes better than average villain. I know Hawke's like 50 but he did a great job playing even older, and even though the character archetype (villain who sees himself as a hero and wants to save the world through mass genocide) is way past played out, I did believe the character insofar as his convictions went. He was even better in episode 5 as the Ned-Flanders-Meets-Stan-Lee psychologist. That 5th episode is one of the best single eps Marvel has had since the Netflix days. It represented the potential for drama that Moon Knight as a character promised, and really dug its heels into the tragedy of Marc Spector, even if they fudged his backstory from the comics a bit. I even liked the invoking of Egyptian Gods like Tawret, as it kept the mythical elements of the character uncompromised. Sure, the CGI was dodgy but I rarely care about stuff like that. And, like Loki, the ending credit music of the 5th episode was blazingly exciting and moody. The season finale exemplified my mixed feelings. Too many things happened way too easily, like Harrow easily dispatching of the other Gods, off-screen even. But the Moon Knight final battle was kickass, and terrifically choreographed and storyboarded. Layla being a surprise super hero feels like...a need for female heroism that the show hadn't been screamingly requiring, yet I'm not gonna say it bothered me either. It did kind of come out of nowhere, but so what. I liked Marc resolving not to kill Harrow in the end, as that was built up over the series. Overall, I keep thinking that if Moon Knight and been the last Defender show and Iron Fist was Disney Plus, the tones would've been better applied for the betterment of the shows. Credit to Marvel for finally introducing a brand new hero after seeding this Disney+ experiment for a year with the Avengers also rans. I can't say it's the best of the shows, and they're all flawed, but I felt the first three series definitely had more going for them than this or Hawkeye did.
  4. I think the comic book community did an admirable job of making sure the man knew he was universally adored in the final moments of his life. That makes this tragedy just a bit easier to live with. RIP.
  5. I'll never watch this movie cuz spiderz, but the conversation on the tonality of the film given the racial politics of post Civil War vs. the late 90s was very interesting. I doubt Will Smith spoke in ANY kind of period accent, but would've been neat if he did.
  6. Figuring this was recorded before that news about Peter Dinklage speaking out against the live action remake of Snow White bringing back the seven dwarves? He gets namechecked here, but I'd totally forgotten about it until then. I've seen Snow White only once, in high school. I remember being very impressed with it then, and completely forgot about the Queen's death and the Huntsman. My favorite part of PART OF YOUR WORLD so far is the comparing the animated movie with the original text, seeing what works better and what was a downgrade. Fun first episode, Siblings!
  7. Enemy of the State: caught some of the first act on TV and torrented the rest cuz it's an old-ass movie by now. I was honestly expecting to rag on this once I was finished because the film hinges on the scariness and paranoia of government surveillance, and it's clear that the filmmakers though they were being cutting edge with all the zoom-out sped up overhead shots and satellites in Earth's atmosphere zooming across the screen. But the acting quality still makes this at worst a mixed bag and at best a very watchable thriller. Will Smith is the main character and he's a slightly more serious 90s Will. Jon Voight is the government bad guy and Gene Hackman is the reclusive government good guy. It's those two actors that keep this a good movie. Gene Hackman is really excellent. I was sort of taken out of the movie from the start with the whole murdering a congressman because he won't vote the way you want him to thing, as that seems totally fantastical in today's day and age. The movie is essentially a 2 hour chase scene with technology and science, pioneered by a bunch of nerd actors like Seth Green, Jaime Kennedy and Jack Black. It's really interesting at the end of the day.
  8. The flaws of the movie have been pointed out to me since I made this post last week. I still don't think Morbius is Z-grade, and that people are a little too eager to bash it, but it's not great. The weaknesses in the script, which I went it kind of expecting therefore it didn't faze me as much, are still genuine weaknesses. Those shouldn't have no effect on the quality of the movie, so it's definitely below average. Still don't think it's awful, but my positivity might've been a little premature.
  9. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Adaptation of the original four chapter manga series that led into the JJK series proper. It's a little confusing if you're not understanding when this takes place, which I wasn't until I got home. But it has a very Shinji-esque protag (voiced by Megumi Ogata) and heavily feature the babe Maki. Morbius: It's a fact that since...2016ish, people have stood their ground against the Sony Marvel films. Is that entirely undeserved? I guess not, since their plans to include every Spider-Man character in a solo film is a really lame attempt at the cinematic universe clout. But it's also kinda weak to just write off the films on sight at the drop of an announcement. But also, Jared Leto has been burning through his Oscar goodwill for years as well, so Morbius had a lot going against it. I liked it fine. The character is well adapted, and has a far better reason to exist separate from Spider-Man than Venom does. He probably has existed separate from Spidey in more of his appearances than not, he's not a rotating member of his rogues gallery. Jared Leto is good casting, and looks just like him from start to finish. The vampiric effect on his face I think look good, and the CGI I didn't find any more noticeable than any other special effects film. The character isn't the deepest, owing a lot in cinema familiarity with Bruce Banner's Hulk right down to Edward Norton's stopwatch. But in the final battle, he's got his black and purple look from the 90s, which was neat. The real highlight is Matt Smith as the villain Lucien. As a self-respecting Doctor Who fan, I caught more than a few twisted takes on the 11th Doctor in his performance (it recalled Tennant's Killgrave essentially being an evil 10th Doctor), but it still makes for a terrific performance. His motivations blur as the film goes on, but his sense of enjoyment and threat presence are really entertaining. I found him sympathetic in the beginning, and entertaining by the end. IDK if Lucien will go down as a great villain or anything, but the performance is far better than the dregs of Yellowjacket. The movie's choked with tropes and cliché's we've seen before. Tyrese and Al Madrigal play investigating agents that don't really add to much. Adria Arjona is the love interest. Jared Harris is the mentor father figure. Lots of things we've seen before, told initially at a breakneck speed. Morbius and Lucien's childhood friendship is told thru a flashback that's boiled down to a single scene, that's probably the biggest technical blip in the viewing experience. This film's a brisk hour and 44 minutes, but it would've benefitted from another 15 for breathing room. There's a really strong film here, with less clichés and more violence, although it's violence level is passable. Here's the thing tho, the two mid-credits scenes are A.W.F.U.L. Like, SHOCKINGLY terrible. I know they've leaked online, and you might as well see them there. They're of a basement quality that's far below the metric that the film set itself at, and really justifies everyone's disdain for the Sony movies. Morbius is fine, nobody's gonna get mad at it, but holy crap those last two scenes honestly actually almost killed the whole thing.
  10. Logan's a very solid film, arguably the most technically proficient X-Men film ever. It's just way too bleak to watch as enjoyment for me personally. Between the apocalyptic setting, the state of Professor X (not the film's fault but that hit a little close to home) and the overall oppressive nature of the film, it just wasn't my cup of tea. But I'll never deny it's high quality.
  11. I need to rewatch Blade II since for a long time that held the reputation as the best of the trilogy. I'd sooner watch it though than Logan, which is the best movie I never wanna see again.
  12. *pushes up glasses* I believe you're are referring to NO WAY Home.
  13. Batman and Robin (1997): This is the third time I've watched this movie in the last three years, since Ian held the Flickchart Forum for Batman's 80th anniversary back in 2019, this time done for the purposes of a commentary and discussion on Questions: We Don't Have Answers. The only thing worth mentioning here that I don't get too much into in that recording is that a lot of Arnie's wacky dialogue has stayed with me in the following week. Just his rampant glee and enjoyment at being evil despite his "tragic" backstory, it's really incongruous but that's what makes it really funny. "Let's kick some ice" doesn't really make any sense, you're about to destroy the city, whose "ice" are you kicking exactly? But that's exactly what makes it awesome. End of Days (1999): Arnold's follow-up after Batman and Robin (a two year hiatus allegedly due to health issues), and guess what: B&R is a better watch. This movie's a laborious, portentous slog that goes for atmosphere over everything else, and has more cuts per action sequence than Taken 3. Kevin Pollack is Arnold's bff cop buddy (recalling somewhat Jim Belushi in Red Heat), and I like Kevil Pollack a lot, but it's a thankless role. C.C.H. Pounder is wasted, the guy playing the Devil (Gabriel Byrne a.k.a.- "not-James-Woods") is wasted despite an earnest performance. Part of the last lingering thread of my Catholic upbringing is a bit offended at all the sacrilege, but that's more to do with how bad the Devil's plan was. He just ran around kind of hoping that Arnold would do his bidding, while showing a more vast amount of power, thus leaving so much to chance for no reason. That really kept me from getting invested, the incredulity of it all. And like Raw Deal, you can't play Arnold as just a guy. He's bigger than life, you gotta have him be bigger than life. By this point, Arnold's a decent actor. He's not that bad a performer. He can pull off dramatic scenes, but it doesn't work if he's written to be too normal. The whole thing's just a cock-up from start to finish. Boring and annoying to watch. Turning Red (2022): So I was barely aware of this until Twitter started popping off about angry wypipo kvetching about not relating to goofy school age kids. I really didn't know what the movie was about until I sated watching. I've been pretty consistently enjoying Disney's output in the last year or so, since Soul, but this is by far my favorite movie they've done in a while. Right away we're introduced to Meilin and her friends, who are a set of silly, energetic, lovable tweens. They balance the line between OTT and completely believable with a verve that reminded me of Steven in the early days of Steven Universe. It's a film about puberty and family and friendship and culture and learning who you are and want to be and handles all of those themes so amazingly, it almost makes your head spin. Legitimately funny without any of the 2010s era irreverence or overreliance on pop culture (the movie takes place in 2002, with Meilin being the same age I would've been, there are some cultural incongruences but they don't totally distract), unabashedly sweet and wholesome, this is easily my favorite movie of the year not starring my two favorite comic book super heroes. I want tot watch it again.
  14. Mask of Zorro is one of my favorite movies. Ooh! Maybe Fracture? I had forgotten I'd seen that...
  15. Yeah, those are definitely mood specific...gosh, I'm not sure.
  16. The Batman: Okay, now that I've seen it twice I can adjust my thoughts better. I kinda just want to list all the things I liked. To get any cons out of the way, the length is definitely the most objective one. It helps achieve the Long Halloween blueprint it's clearly following (apparently Jeph Loeb was a writing instructor for Matt Reeves back in the day, so I imagine that'll be his general inspo for this franchise moving forward), but it's not exactly an epic. It's a very modern comic book, Post 1986 Batman that does not go for the five-pages-a-fight-scene tradition, and keeps things focused on the story. And I do like a more traditionally superheroic Batman on film, because it's a different medium. I would've liked to see a batarang thrown, or him be more dominant in fighting hoards and hoards of bad guys, but at the same time none of this was invention in lieu of translating the character on-screen. And that's really where the film is most successful. This is the most definitively accurate Batman portrayal in live action. The way Pattinson moves, talks, reacts and just is throughout the whole film is a revelation. Even his "sense of humor" speaks true to a darker look on life, but not one un-tempered by optimism in saving Gotham City. His voice is great, his fighting style is solid, and the fact that he's in the costume for 85% of the film and the scenes rarely move away from him help maximize our investment in this Batman. Smart people knew Pattinson is a good actor, but he really found a vibe for the character that no other actor has. The rest of the actors are solid, especially Paul Dano. I've seen people laugh at his mania in the third act but that rings entirely true. The Riddler is not some chad-alpha embodiment of stoicism, he's punk and should be depicted as one. Other stuff I just really liked: -Great cowl, I love how it's the Adam West Bat-Hood complete with the outlined nose, just painted black. -Great Bat-Signal and consistent use of it -Lots of fun action with the Grappling Hooks, used offensively as well as a mode of travel. Second in frequency only to Batman and Robin. -Other sly references to the 60s show in flourishes here or there like in Wayne Manor -We actually don't get a lot of Alfred in this film, which is refreshing as they've really hammered that relationship home in the past decade or so. Andy Serkis is still solid, and is playing a mostly Batman Earth One version of the character. Their last scene together in the film is a favorite of mine. -I'm personally more a fan of the stylish Batmobiles. I'm glad we've gotten back to it being a car rather than a tank or streetsweeper, but my only niggle is that you can see inside from the outside windows. I came up with those being tinted, but nevertheless I loved seeing Batman drive almost causally in it. Very reminiscent of the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams era. I put up a ranking, but if I'm being honest this is tied with Begins because I left that movie thinking it was the greatest cinematic experiences of my life. Begins has more of the signature Batman mythology I enjoy, and this film is very much a mythology in progress. But it's all preferential. There are very, very few missteps and no betrayals to speak of. I am not crying about the cancelled Affleck film, seeing as how great this one turned out to be.
  17. I have a slight bias against the 80s. Even though I was born into it's final year, it's such an OTT decade. We got a lot of terrific culture from it, undeniably. But other stuff just does not appeal to me in the slightest. Like the dancing sequence at the end of The Breakfast Club and stuff. So when in Streets of Fire, McCoy's talking about "Yeah I hear they were a real item back in the day. Real steamy, it was major.", I'm like this simply isn't my thing.
  18. Streets of Fire: I got halfway thru and was called away for something, and didn't go back to it. I understand this was very influential on Japanese media like Streets of Rage and stuff, but this was so obnoxiously 80s that I couldn't get into it. Bad acting, bad dialogue, broad and vague plotting. Yeah, I don't regret not finishing it. The Batman: Hoping to see this a second time to finalize my thoughts.
  19. Damn Happy Belated Birthday!!