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Movies of 2015
Topic Started: 15 Jan 2015, 15:43 (200 Views)
Rocky
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Violent Nomad

We have quite a line-up this year, among them entries from the biggest franchises in film. At this point, I'm only posting for movies that have trailers ready for viewing, so don't come crying to me that Spectre or The Hateful Eight or Crimson Peak aren't here. Anyway, discuss and speculate.


  • Chappie - 6 March
    As much as I like Blomkamp's work - aside from Elysium - I just don't think we'll be seeing a repeat smash hit like we had with District 9. Still, this one looks solid, eclectic, and ambitious.

  • Furious 7 - 3 April
    This will do solid money at the very least; I have zero interest in the franchise and I can see that happening, no problem.

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron - 1 May
    A few years ago, I wasn't a fan of Marvel movies; these days, not a fan of comic book movies. Still, I'd have to be an idiot to expect this to do anything but atmospheric numbers. But I'm not going to see it in theaters unless someone else is paying.

  • Mad Max: Fury Road - 15 May
    I think this looks absolutely gorgeous, from the standpoint of cinematography, and the actors involved have me sold; however, the Mad Max predecessors strike me as cult classics, so I don't expect this to turn a huge profit, unfortunately.

  • Tommorowland - 22 May
    An intriguing teaser; I'm not sure what to think of it, but Brad Bird has been both solid and surprising in his features.

  • Jurassic World - 12 June
    This, like Ultron, will do big numbers. Even if it's a terrible, terrible movie, I don't expect a dead-on-arrival performance. Especially not with Chris Pratt front and center. Not sure how I feel about it, though. Doesn't seem to have that vibe the first one had.

  • Inside Out - 19 June
    Pixar has only recently developed spots on its track record, and I'm relieved to see this isn't a sequel to any of their former properties. Looks like it might be rather good, but it doesn't make me want to rush to the theater when it opens.

  • Terminator: Genisys - 1 July
    Ugh. Arnold is someone I find quite likable, but he isn't elevating this material enough for me to care. It looks terrible. Jai Courtney is altogether uninteresting, Emilia Clarke doesn't generate that authoritative aura Linda Hamilton wielded, and it all just looks like a big retcon of the best entry in the series.

  • Ant-Man - 17 July
    Another Marvel flick. While I like Michael Douglas, I don't have much interest in Paul Rudd, so there's no urge for me to see this. The concept of the titular character is interesting, but with all the production woes, I have serious doubts. It'll do big money, though. It has Marvel's name on it.

  • Pan - 24 July
    Far be it from me to step on toes, but this just looks bad. Something about it rubs me the wrong way, not least of which because it's an "untold" origin story. And I just can't get behind the art direction. Still, who knows?

  • Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 31 July
    It's funny how many sequels these franchises accrue these days. We're up to our fifth Mission Impossible entry, which essentially seems built around the concept of one-upping the Burj Khalifa stunt from Ghost Protocol by hanging Tom Cruise off the side of a plane during takeoff. Oh, and stuff about an entire bad-guy-version of IMF and home soil political skulduggery instigated by Alec Baldwin.

  • Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens - 18 December
    This is my most anticipated and my number one pick for 2015's box office champ; the jury is still out in terms of quality, likability, and pop culture longevity, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


COMING SOON
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Rocky
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Violent Nomad

Funny to see how predictions have and haven't come true. Chappie wasn't a hit, Jurassic World did stupid money, Terminator flat out sucked, Pan was panned, and Marvel did gangbusters all around. It was a bit surprising to see Tomorrowland tank... until I saw Damon Lindelof's name attached to it. And, possibly the biggest surprise for me, Mission Impossible was fantastic, easily better than every other action movie, Fury Road aside. Not sure anyone saw The Martian being as good as it is, especially since Exodus: Gods and Kings is barely a year old.

Now to wait for Star Wars....
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Zahano
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Agent of Entropy

Of those listed that I saw, the best were, in alphabetical order:

Avengers
Inside Out
Mad Max
Mission Impossible
Star Wars

Mad Max was at least as exciting as Star Wars, if not better. Probably the best released all year (if we exclude arthouse/indie/weirdo movies). I still liked Star Wars a lot. I wish Lupita Nyong'o's character could have had more lines. She was my favourite.
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Rocky
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Violent Nomad

I can't believe I have to post this.

The Force Awakens was a near-total disappointment. I actually just finished watching the blu-ray and it's even more paper-thin now than it was when I first saw it opening night. Practically no imagination, weak score, some offensively desperate humor, and an absolutely shameless rehashing of so many established plot points, designs, details, and locations. The sociopolitical setup was beyond vague because they were scared of anything with even a mild semblance to exposition. Apparently lightspeed is now five times faster than before, since everyone travels through hyperspace five times as quickly. The entire movie is set in the same star system, all the planets were so close to one another. One coincidence is lined up after another (I especially loved how Finn, who could have crashed anywhere on Jakku, just so happened to crash an afternoon's hike from Niima Outpost, where Rey just so happened to be). Nothing noteworthy in any of the alien designs. Watching a rebranded Rebel Alliance do battle against a rebranded Empire with their rebranded X-Wings and rebranded TIE Fighters, with all of that presented as "new", was nothing short of insulting. Worst of all, Rey's portrayal in this movie is absolutely in line with accusations of her being a Mary Sue: she can fly anything, fix anything, speak and understand any language (including binary and Shyriiwook), and she was trained as a Jedi only until the age of five or so (as shown by her apparent age when she was left on Jakku) by no one other than Luke Skywalker, who himself was barely trained as a Jedi at all. And that's IF she was ever trained at all, since Kylo Ren himself identified her as "untrained". SO WHY WAS SHE, A COMPLETELY UNTRAINED FORCE SENSITIVE CHARACTER, ABLE TO SPONTANEOUSLY MASTER MIND TRICK AND LIGHTSABER COMBAT?
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Zahano
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Agent of Entropy

Yes, it was deeply flawed. But I didn't expect Episode VII to be the Second Coming. I was underwhelmed by the prequels, but I didn't see them as sacrilege. Last year I saw Episode IV again just because it was on TV or something and it struck me as kind of silly and tied up very neatly at the end, showing how George Lucas didn't expect to make an Episode V. These movies have become more than the sum of their parts, a cultural phenomenon that is born from the exegesis, not from the primary texts themselves.

I also didn't think Rey was much of a lightsaber duelist. It seemed like she got away by the skin of her teeth/luck. She is indeed absurdly lucky, as you've noted above, for many reasons. I hope there were escapees/exiles from the Republic to further assist the Rebels in other movies. Maybe Luke got trained more between Episodes VI and VII. Once again, I haven't read any of the Extended Universe books or TV shows or played any of the video games, so I go on have seen all of the previous movies only once or twice.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was a much more vivid, memorable movie. I saw the latest *Mission Impossible* as really exciting, but not nearly as thought-provoking as MAD MAX. INSIDE OUT also left a strong impression, even though some of the anthropomorphism made me squirm.

I'm curious what you thought about CREED.
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Rocky
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Violent Nomad

Zahano
 
Yes, it was deeply flawed. But I didn't expect Episode VII to be the Second Coming. I was underwhelmed by the prequels, but I didn't see them as sacrilege. Last year I saw Episode IV again just because it was on TV or something and it struck me as kind of silly and tied up very neatly at the end, showing how George Lucas didn't expect to make an Episode V. These movies have become more than the sum of their parts, a cultural phenomenon that is born from the exegesis, not from the primary texts themselves.


TFA had some pretty poor writing and plotting, but what drove me off the edge was the inexcusably nonexistent worldbuilding. It's been present in every single Star Wars movie, from Empire all the way down to Clones (my least favorite of the pre-trilogy). There's a reason someone can point to a spaceship and say, "That looks like something from Star Wars." Well, you can't say that about TFA, because it did nothing new. But rewatching it made it worse, because I can see just how repetitive and uninspired that movie is on a more detailed level. I distinctly remember the point I just stopped caring about the movie as a whole was when we got to the redone cantina. I can't fully articulate just how much I hate that scene. I saw no less than four alien designs from the original scene that had been "updated" for no reason whatsoever - and I don't mean recreated via new materials and techniques, I'm talking about talking the classic design and slapping new garbage all over it. They even mimicked the vignette-style shots of the patrons, showing them playing games, talking, laughing just like they were in A New Hope. As soon as I heard that stupid music and saw that scene layout, I knew they weren't going to do anything original in the last half of the movie. And I pretty much wasn't wrong.

But Star Wars, as a Hollywood production, has a history just as storied as any of its in-universe history. Maybe my knowledge of it allows me to excuse much of that. For instance, there was a tremendous amount of opposition - studio heads, production team, the cast - against the movie. Not many people liked it, and even fewer understood it. Lucas also had to divide his original script into three parts because it was too big for one movie (the scene where Yoda dies in Return of the Jedi was originally when Obi-Wan died). That's why we got the climactic Death Star battle and award ceremony at the end of A New Hope, in case there were no sequels. But that's also why we got a second Death Star; that was originally when that battle was going to take place.

It's just the George Lucas, for better or worse, wasn't satisfied regurgitating wholesale elements throughout all six movies - even though he found creative ways to have them "rhyme". His prequels may not be better "movies" than TFA, but they certainly exist as better "Star Wars movies".

Zahano
 
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was a much more vivid, memorable movie. I saw the latest *Mission Impossible* as really exciting, but not nearly as thought-provoking as MAD MAX. INSIDE OUT also left a strong impression, even though some of the anthropomorphism made me squirm.


Fury Road was probably the best blockbuster of 2015, with MI5 being almost as enjoyable. I still haven't seen Inside Out, so I can't comment on that, but Mad Max stuck with me for a while. And not just on account of its testosterone-fueled action thrills. That movie has some seriously stunning cinematography.

Zahano
 
I'm curious what you thought about CREED.

Ugh, I still need to see that. I just haven't been in the mood to sit back for what I think that movie might be.
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Zahano
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Agent of Entropy

Hey, I know we're at 2016 now, but Rocky when I saw the latest Star Wars, ROGUE ONE, it made me think of you. I hope you weren't disappointed. The music was pretty good. I wish there'd been more James Earl Jones. The CGI Peter Cushing looked freaky. Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed and Diego Luna were all excellent. There was also a really beautiful black woman at the Rebel Alliance meeting but I don't know her character's name or the name of the actress. Apparently there were a bunch of Easter eggs for people who read the Star Wars extended universe books, but I've never read any. Still a lot of fun. It also felt very clean and self-contained, even though it serves as a nice bridge between episodes III and IV (if I understand it right).
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Rocky
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Violent Nomad

I've seen Rogue One and enjoyed it well enough. Much more so than the nothingness that was The Force Awakens. It at least showed a bit of ambition and didn't rely solely on drawing parallels with the OT stories. That being said, you and I had some different specific reactions. I didn't find the lead characters terribly interesting, especially Felicity Jones and Diego Luna - those two mostly because the filmmakers drew such heavy, heavy inspiration from the Expanded Universe lore, to the point Luna's character just looked like Kyle Katarn and Jones' character like Jan Ors (also, yeah, I still really hate the name "Jyn Erso"). My main sticking point is just the fact I'm as familiar with the now non-canon material, I was seeing a lot of parallels that weren't as interesting as their source material. One example of that is the moon Jedha, which was essentially a stripped down and did-nothing-with version of the Valley of the Jedi on the planet Ruusan (both held great significance and power for the Jedi and both had the same global landscape); another example concerns the death trooper bodyguards the villain had, which were clearly inspired by the Dark Troopers in the fact they were taller, clad in black armor, and attached to the villainous officer; in fact, since we never seen any of them without helmets and they seem to speak in an electronic fashion, I wonder if they weren't droids (which is what the Dark Troopers were).

I've settled to the fact I can't change what Disney/Lucasfilm is doing with the franchise, nor the fact the majority of people are eating it up. But I pretty much reject what they refer to as "canon". They're simply not taking advantage of the universe they bought back in 2012, and as far as I'm concerned that's inexcusable. They've crammed so many nostalgic elements in there (99% of it for the sake of nostalgia and "restoring faith in the brand"), but they're paradoxically distancing themselves from staples of the series (two movies in an we're just now seeing Mon Calamari characters; yet to be seen are any kind of Rodians, Weequay, Gammorean, Twilek, Gran, or Hutt). Rogue One is, for some reason, filled with new ideas, places, and ships in an already heavily-trodden section of the saga, but the movie set thirty years later recycled almost everything. They're also way too heavily invested in diversifying their cast. Now, that's all well and good when you can be creative with it. But I'm not interested in watching a movie about exotic planets, exotic cultures, and exotic alien species, but the main characters consist of a group of five humans and a droid. Disney is flat-out terrified of moving beyond what the OT was constrained to with 1980s technology. That's why TFA's only non-human characters consisted of Chewie, a cute astromech droid, an orange female Yoda, a giant holographic Emperor (still waiting for their version of Jabba the Hutt to show up). That's why Rogue One's non-human characters consist of the Imperial version of C-3PO (seriously, even the names are parallel) and a Mon Calamari admiral.

I've been saying for a while now: the further we get from the theatrical release of The Force Awakens, the more everyone is going to realize how little it adds to both its respective trilogy and Star Wars in general. It's not going to age well at all. Beyond that movie, one of two things will happen: either Episodes 8 and 9 will take advantage of the universe and create some wholly new elements, which will further highlight TFA's uselessness, or it'll simply continue the unambitious trend TFA started and carry that uselessness across the entire trilogy.

Either way, #NotMyCanon.

PS. Feel free to call me salty. Almost everyone else has.
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