Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[srboone]

You actually read that whole thing? Wow!

The thing that maybe gets misunderstood about my ratings for films is that people think a film I rank lower than 3 is not worth watching. All films are worth watching; it's just a matter of how successful they are--that's where, hopefully, I come in. For this one, I don't read the comic books, so I'm coming at it all from purely a movie-making stand point; I imagine a fan of the comics will be very happy with this outing. I don't know about the changes made in the transition from one format to the other (unless people tell me or I bother to research the subject).

One thing I'm concerned about though is that I count 4 infinity stones so far in this series of movies. That leaves two left to uncover. But when Thanos slips on his yellow Glove of Ultimate Superiority (or whatever it is) and announces that it's time for him to get involved during the mid credit-tag--don't say you didn't see that coming and cry SPOILER!--I thought I spied one of the stones in the glove. So that's five. One more to go. There's going to be at least 14 movies in this saga before Infintiyt War pt. 1, since two were teased during the pre-show trailers; and there might be more. I may not care about Thanos' machinations by that time (2017). But we'll see.

[bugen]

Ha - you bet! I'm kinda like Marv from Sin City; when I want to learn something, I find someone who knows more than me and ask them. Or in this case, read their post(s).

A DC guy at heart, I'll still be checking out Ultron this weekend. Whedon is a tough writer to top, and Firefly remains one of my favorite TV shows ever produced, so if there's even a faint echo of it in this film that'd be a very good thing.

[Dan Hocker]

I actually read the whole thing as well. It's a great post, but we definitely differ on a lot of aspects. Overall I would rate Age of Ultron higher than Avengers. I could probably write an essay on why I think Age of Ultron is a better movie, but suffice it to say that I think it just had way more character development, which is what the first one was sorely lacking. I think the Hawkeye story arc in this is actually probably the most important to the entire movie.

Honestly what I think this movie suffers the most from is editing. Granted this is mostly just rumor, but apparently the original version of it is 3 and a half hours long. Now I want to see that movie, there's just so much more development between the team, the new team members, and especially Ultron that I think they left on the cutting room floor. Hopefully it means we will get an extended version some day.

[Dan Hocker]

You actually read that whole thing? Wow!

The thing that maybe gets misunderstood about my ratings for films is that people think a film I rank lower than 3 is not worth watching. All films are worth watching; it's just a matter of how successful they are--that's where, hopefully, I come in. For this one, I don't read the comic books, so I'm coming at it all from purely a movie-making stand point; I imagine a fan of the comics will be very happy with this outing. I don't know about the changes made in the transition from one format to the other (unless people tell me or I bother to research the subject).

One thing I'm concerned about though is that I count 4 infinity stones so far in this series of movies. That leaves two left to uncover. But when Thanos slips on his yellow Glove of Ultimate Superiority (or whatever it is) and announces that it's time for him to get involved during the mid credit-tag--don't say you didn't see that coming and cry SPOILER!--I thought I spied one of the stones in the glove. So that's five. One more to go. There's going to be at least 14 movies in this saga before Infintiyt War pt. 1, since two were teased during the pre-show trailers; and there might be more. I may not care about Thanos' machinations by that time (2017). But we'll see.

Infinity stones so far:

Tesseract
Vision
Aether
The one from Guardians

Supposedly The Collector also has one. The post credits scene from Thor: The Dark World the collector says 2 down 3 to go, or something along those lines.

I don't actually remember seeing a stone in the Infinity Gauntlet in that post credit scene of Age of Ultron. I'll have to look at it again.

I think the thing is that you aren't really supposed to care about Thanos now. Except really in the term of the Guardians movies. We have 6 more movies until Infinity War Part 1, of those six I'm willing to bet only Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians 2 deal with Thanos / The Infinity Stones in any way. I think Infinity War part 1 will be Thanos Showing up and kicking everyone's buts and taking the Infinity stones, where part 2 will bring what ever the current Avengers roster is (possibly even 2 separate rosters if the Civil War tease means anything) together with the Guardians and possibly the Nova Corps. to defeat Thanos.

Infinity War is going to be ridiculous. The cast of characters alone is just insane. Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Ant Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The 5 Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman, and probably The Winter Soldier. Granted Civil War may change all of that but this is a huge cast of characters for these two movies. It's just insane and it's no wonder Joss Wheadon wanted out. I wouldn't want the job the Russo brothers have ahead of them.

Edit: Forgot Spiderman.

[Dan Hocker]

Also here's a interesting link for anyone who cares. It's the current Marvel movie release schedule through Inhumans.

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/marve...lease-calendar

[Theli]

A DC guy at heart, I'll still be checking out Ultron this weekend. Whedon is a tough writer to top, and Firefly remains one of my favorite TV shows ever produced, so if there's even a faint echo of it in this film that'd be a very good thing.

I'm with you on that, bigger DC fan than Marvel by quite a bit. But also absolutely love Firefly, so I got some hopes for Ultron.

[srboone]

I had to miss an episode of Arrow the night the marathon started, but I read up on it, so I should be ready for tonight....

[bugen]

Just want to make sure the big movie fans see this. Steven Spielberg vs Alfred Hitchcock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wYt...u54kzh0u4e0OWA

Edit: Making the post more thread compliant, I agree with Boone on Ultron at the 2.5 star rating. It was better than fair, but I felt it too frenetic, even if the plot might be boiled down to a couple of sentences. It was an interesting statement on modern, blockbuster filmmaking that in a matter of seconds after film start you're in full-blown action mode. No settling in here, just hang on. It felt shorter than its 2 1/2 hour length.

[srboone]

Mad Max: Fury Road: There's a lot of words I could use to describe this movie, but I'll settle for just one.

FUCKINGINSANEBLOODYVEHICULARMAYHEMAWESOMENESS!!!!! !

With heart. 18bg.jpg

That pretty much sums it up. The patron saint of Australian cinema returns to the franchise that made him the world class director he is with this 4th chapter in his post-apocalyptic saga, recast with Tom Hardy (who once again dons a face mask for the first 20 minutes of the movie, but still proves himself to be the best actor of his generation) in the title role. Haunted by the memories of the wife and child he could not save, Max has been reduced to a "blood bag"--a reservoir of untainted blood that keeps the inbred "Warboys" psychotically hyped for the challenges that gasoline-hunting in the vast wastelands brings. His chance escape from the clutches of Immortan Joe, the dying leader of the Warboys, brings him in league with Imperator Furiosa (one of Joe's generals--a ferociously magnificent Charlize Theron) who is staging an escape of her own, searching for "The Green World."

MM:FR is a 2-hour chase movie that has a surprising amount of character development and an enormous amount of dramatic and emotional heft. Ninety percent of the stunts in the movie were practical and very little CGI was used. And the result is breathtaking. I was in the minority who thought Beyond Thunderdome was the best of the series http://forum.cemeterydance.com/showt...You-Saw/page16 (post #302). But Fury Road surpasses it. George Miller has taken the best of the action sequences he pioneered in The Road Warrior and the best of the detail-oriented storytelling and world-building ability he demonstrated in Thunderdome and topped them both to create the violent, kinetic, unbelievably exhilarating experience that is MM:FR. In the process, he's made, dare I say? (and from the peanut gallery, Cleavon Little smoking one of Gov. William J. Le Petomaine's cigars: "Dare! Dare!") one of the best action films of all time.

5/5 (I gave the film Russian Ark a 6/5 rating, which I find appropriate for this film also.)

Miller says he has two more Mad Max stories to tell and Hardy has signed on for four more MM films. That makes me happy. I hope the young bucks in Hollywood who think they know how to make a great action film are paying attention. They've been given a master's seminar in action/adventure film making by one of the best ever to work in the genre.

[subie09lega]

So looking forward to this one. Grew up with Max and was so excited to see a new film being produced.

[srboone]

There's been a lot of online chatter about the MM timeline. The new movie looks like it takes place shortly after Beyond Thunderdome. It's a nice fit.

[bugen]

Sweet review - I'm hyped!

And I need to check out Russian Ark. It's difficult to imagine capturing a film in one take.

[Sock Monkey]

I fully agree with srboone. Just saw Mad Max: Fury Road and it was flat out amazing. By far the best action flick I've seen in a long time. And some of the cinematography was flat out beautiful, also making it one of the best looking movies as well.

[srboone]

And I need to check out Russian Ark. It's difficult to imagine capturing a film in one take.

It took 3 attempts to get it right. 6 months of rehearsal, then on the first take, there wasn't enough film in the camera (D'OH!); the second take, there was an electrical problem (CRAPOLA!); the third take was the charm--which was good, because there was no money for a fourth take! The Alfred Hitchcock movie Rope looks like it was done in one take, but it wasn't. There are film breaks when the screen goes dark. Cameras of the time could only hold 8 1/2 minutes of film, so it was impossible to make a feature in in one take then.

[Tommy]

It took 3 attempts to get it right. 6 months of rehearsal, then on the first take, there wasn't enough film in the camera (D'OH!); the second take, there was an electrical problem (CRAPOLA!); the third take was the charm--which was good, because there was no money for a fourth take! The Alfred Hitchcock movie Rope looks like it was done in one take, but it wasn't. There are film breaks when the screen goes dark. Cameras of the time could only hold 8 1/2 minutes of film, so it was impossible to make a feature in in one take then.

To add to that, the Hermitage had to be shut down to film so they only had one day,
It's truly amazing to watch, I need to see it again