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Penguin

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  1. Penguin
    I enjoyed it quite a bit too. I watched Raimi's first movie last Saturday, to have it fresh in my mind. "Amazing" is certainly superior from a technical perspective (quite a few of the special effects in Raimi's are showing some age). Character-wise, I thought "Amazing" had a 100% better supporting cast, and Gwen was a more interesting female lead than MJ was. I also found Maguire's Peter to be more than a little stiff, and the humour hokey and forced. You could criticize Garfield's Peter as too much in the emo vein, especially if you don't relate well to that, but he gets points for a more emotionally vested portrayal, and certainly the humour was much truer to Spidey's style in the comics, which I definitely enjoyed. I thought Doc Conners slid too quickly into the evil scientist role, losing the opportunity to get more into his character and make him a more rounded villain. I'd say Willem Dafoe as Osborn was a better villain, but Conners/The Lizard was superior to the Raimi Green Goblin. Once the Goblin armour shows up, I just disconnect.
  2. Penguin
    Yes, but only if your budget is under $50 million. Anything higher, and creativity is replaced with marketing.
  3. Penguin
    First off, "objective opinion" is an oxymoron. To be objective means to present a fact without bias or opinion. I think that quote's got some pretty weak reasoning. Any piece of art will be evaluated within the context of the person and the moment at which it's experienced. That quote is basically as silly saying something is "objectively bad"... it's arguing there's some sort of "perfectly respectable" standard for movies that transcends opinion. Y'know, I actually preferred the movie ending. I thought the giant cloned mutant psychic octopus a little over the top (is that redundant?), while the idea of faking Manhattan gone mad was much more effective, and carried some interesting symbolism (weapon turning on its owners and all that). Really, Moore's opinion is meaningless. "The author is dead", and all that. Watch it, decide for yourself, move on. Actually, it's just as off base as some previous posts I've seen in this thread. There is no unbiased standard for judging a movie. Even the technical aspects of filmmaking, which are about the only aspects that could come close to being evaluated factually (e.g. the sound mix was so bad I couldn't hear the dialogue), count for damn little in most people's opinion. I saw Prometheus with someone who was indifferent to Alien and to Ridley Scott, and even to science fiction... someone who pretty much sums up the mythical "reasonable unbiased" person mentioned earlier (mythical, because there is no such thing as an unbiased person). That person enjoyed the film as much I did, and I am a huge fan of Alien and of Scott. I've read a lot of reviews punishing Prometheus for not being the movie they wanted it to be (in most cases, the perfect Alien prequel). I don't think that's particularly fair, but whatever. I've also read a lot of reviews that throw the term "plot hole" around as if the author understands the term. A plot hole is a logical inconsistency within the film. I'd argue that what Prometheus has are plot omissions. It simply doesn't tell you a damn thing. A bunch of scientists bungle around a place they don't understand, touching buttons and whatnot, and bad things happen, and no magical narrator comes out to spoon-feed you the meaning of it all. Now, if that isn't a style a person enjoys, then they're going to be disappointed in the film. But unless you're a giant cloned mutant psychic octopus (See what I did there? ... Man, am I clever) who can read Scott and Lindelhoff's minds (before, y'know, killing them all horribly in the psychic backwash caused by your fatal teleportation... but I digress), then saying they forgot to fill in those details, or were being lazy, as opposed to meaning to leave the audience in the dark is groundless supposition. Personally, my friends and I thought it was a kinda refreshing approach. Not that we'd want every film to leave us dangling, but this once it was fun. Prometheus isn't a "bad" movie. It's a movie you didn't like, and that's fine. <Edited to move a line that looked like it was directed at Oihan, but wasn't.>
  4. Penguin
    I dunno. Looks like it could be fun. I'm not gonna expect much, but it could be worth a matinee ticket.
  5. Penguin
    Me too. Got 'em the Tuesday after they announced they were up. Evening shows on the Friday were already > 50% full... nevermind midnight shows.
  6. Penguin
    "Objectively"? That's amusing. I'll have to look up the universally accepted, fact-based criteria for "good movie" one of these days.
  7. Penguin
    Looks sleek, and it'll be nice and big for sure, but I've always found whenever RAH figures have some sort of soft vinyl coverings, they never hold their pose as tightly as the pictures show. Happened with the RAH Alien, and all the plug-suited Eva pilots. That would be my concern.
  8. Penguin
    Actually, Anime52k8's interpretation is correct. As quoted: A vehicle with a propulsion system can continue to gain energy and travel away from the planet, in any direction, at a speed lower than escape velocity so long as it is under propulsion. As soon as you can accelerate by more than 1 g, you have overcome gravity's pull. If you have an engine that can constantly exert that much force, you will continue to gain altitude. There's no minimum speed you need to reach. In fact, as long as you have a little burst above 1 g to start and gain a little upwards velocity, then continue with just 1 g to counter gravity slowing you down, you'd continue to travel at a very slow pace until you completely escaped gravity. Now, in truth Ghost Train, you're partly right too, because you mentioned overcoming energy. That part is correct. It's all about how to accumulate that energy, though. For the concept of escape velocity, you're talking about expending all that energy at once to impart velocity to a mass such that the downward pull of gravity won't slow it down before it reaches a stable orbit. In my example, you'd expend the same energy in total, assuming the same mass, but slowly over the course of the total journey rather than in one burst of speed. Hope that all made sense.
  9. Penguin
    Not sure why I'm spoilering this: That's not necessarily true. We tend to think of leaving atmosphere as requiring huge speeds due to the limits of our technology having to find a balance between fuel mass and flinging ourselves into space as quick as possible to compensate... and people are always confusing the terrific speed of escape velocity as something necessary to achieve orbit (not that I'm saying you're making that mistake). Whatever mystery sci-fi propulsion moves the engineer's ship might not have those fuel requirements (imaginary as such propulsion may be), so it can drift as leisurely out of the atmosphere as it wants to. That being said, it is fairly coincidental that it manages to crash back down almost right where it took off. Implausible, but still possible depending on how the crash, explosion, possibly failing engines, or whatever determined its descent path after the crash. I don't remeber if it was flying prow-forward at the time of collision, or still hovering upwards. If the latter, than dropping right back down would make more sense.
  10. Penguin
    Was a time I'd say no to new VF-1s, but I'm over that now. Bring it on. My legion must grow!
  11. Penguin
    Heck, Incredible Hulk isn't even connected to Ang Lee's Hulk at all, so they could completely restart (the latter being on my list of films I thought treated rougher than they deserved). Actually, there's a good comparison there. For me, Hulk's weakest points were the super villains (Hulk vs. Army was fun to watch, just one-sided). Giant gamma dogs and crazy dad slash Absorbing Man underwhelmed. Same for me for Green Lantern. Hector too cliche, Parallax kinda boring to goofy, and Sinestro under used and under motivated (why would he grab the yellow ring, anyway?) I could handle Reynolds as Hal again if they wanted to keep some threads, but just make some better villains. Give Mark Strong some real scenes to dive into and come up with a decent reason as to why he grabbed the ring even though Parallax was defeated without it. For that matter, a new Green Lantern film would be a great gateway into the cosmic threats you might need a Justice League for, as Thor was for Avengers. That being said, even though most incarnations of the Justice League I can remember were brought together by cosmic-ish threats (Silver Age was Starro, post-crisis JLI era Darkseid, Morrison's JLA was white martians, New 52 is back to Darkseid, etc.), such a story might be slammed as too derivative of Avengers (have to stay away from using Wonder Woman's Greek pantheon ties for the same reason). Actually, I think the first "New World Order" arc from JLA would be a great basis for a movie. Then again, that would be awfully close to the first animated JL story arc too, but whatever.
  12. Penguin
    Weirdly enough, it's a lot of the so-called dangling plot threads that made the story work for me. As seen through the eyes of the crew, WTF just happened?
  13. Penguin
    Wouldn't call his portrayal in JCVH "authorized" either...
  14. Penguin
    As long as you don't include Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, you're good.
  15. Penguin
    I saw it and really enjoyed it. It's a good film, not a great film. In many ways, I think it exemplifies Ridley's strengths and weaknesses as a film maker. Impressive visual style and attention to detail, always his greatest strength. Some interesting ideas that could be viewed as either not fully covered or deliberately open ended (depends on the viewer's point of view, I think). Finally, an unfortunate lack of character development, which has always been a pitfall Ridley falls into, saved occasionally by strong character actors or deft writing. Even though I'm a huge Alien fan, I went in without expectations on what it would be or not be. I wasn't disappointed by the tie-in moments. In my opinion, there aren't any "continuity problems".
  16. Penguin
    Dragged to the first Twilight, and let's just say I was unimpressed. I'd take Transformers or Dark of the Moon over it any day. Revenge of the Fallen... it's a toss-up. ... no, never mind that. I'd rather watch RotF than Twilight. Then again, I am really, really sick of vampire romance in any medium. Give me Blade or even Lost Boys any day.
  17. Penguin
    I'd say Resurrection as well. I thought Whedon wrote some good characters, and Jeunet shows them off well in the first half, but I found the overall story lacked suspense or menace, and the "newborn", while I lauded the attempt at something new, underwhelmed me. The alien design had gone too far from Giger's orignal for my tastes too. While Alien 3 "alienated" me with Hicks' and Newt's abrupt deaths as well, especially when I first saw it, I enjoyed the overall mood and especially the paranoia of the final tunnel chase.
  18. Penguin
    I've stopped caring. Bandai's got the Macross fan community scrambling around like starving dogs over scraps of meat. I'm not willing to jump through any hoops for a toy.
  19. Penguin
    The Factory reissue was a nice surprise, so I wonder if anything else new will be in the reissue, or just the same ones they toss out every anniversary opportunity. I'd love the larger scale SDF models to see a reissue. That tiny little storm attacker we always seem to get just doesn't cut it.
  20. Penguin
    I assume Tony creates replicas, if not complete rebuilds, of previous armours for his gallery.
  21. Penguin
    Just finished revisting Alien (original 1979 cut) as my "homework" for Friday's premiere . I love how fresh this film stays despite being 33 years old. Only the lack of CG effects mark its age, especially with the beautiful blu-ray restoration. As one of my favourite films, I always find or rediscover bits with every viewing. This time around: With the clairty of HD, you can really see how much of the space jockey's ship was actually there on the film in the long shots. Ash' true nature is one of the best late reveals ever. No one sees it coming, yet it doesn't feel artificial or extraneous. The ramping tension towards Ripley's escape is expertly done. The bit with Jones, and the sorta safety we feel when Ripley is in the self destruct room, put on the brakes just enough to let it ramp back up even more. The worst idea in the 2003 cut was re-inserting the "Dallas egg" scene. Ridley's original impression was correct; it drains all that tension away and blunts the following action. Just 'cause I was having a drama theory flashback, seems to me Alien falls into a kind of 5-structure rather than the traditional 3-act. First act ends with Kane and the egg, and the second with Kane's demise. Action rises in the third act up to Ash' reveal. Fourth act provides a climax at Ripley's escape, and then there's the denouement in the shuttle. Anyway, satisfying as always. Eagerly awaiting Friday, with just enough caution that I'm not going to have unreachable expectations going in.
  22. Penguin
    Finally got around to watching the Laputa / Castle in the Sky blu-ray as I'm typing. The restored picture is just gorgeous.
  23. Penguin
    Just got back from seeing it myself. Entertaining, if not anything too special. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Bonus points for not being in 3D.
  24. Penguin
    If I tried to do a "Bad Movie Night" with my friends, I think my experience would be the same as A7's. My friends have such varied tastes I don't know that I could reliably inflict bad movie pain on them. If I think of 3 movies I will never, ever, watch again, Cabin Fever, Mortal Kombat 2, and Cutthroat Island come to mind, but I'm sure someone here thinks tolerably(if not fondly) of one or more of those.
  25. Penguin
    Hallelujah
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