Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[srboone]

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. This is one of those films where you have to just give yourself over to the silliness of its conceit. If you can do that, you'll find a film of exciting and bloody action sequences, 3D effects that range from awful (when something in the foreground--usually a person--is out of focus) to great ( horse jumping during a stampede and a train crossing a burning bridge), and a pretty terrific performance by Benjamin Walker as out 16th president. Otherwise, you'll wish you had those 2 hours back. The villian and his brood are woefully underwritten, as are most of the supporting characters, the tone is uneven (when balancing out the time period and 2012 special effects), and the film is rather awkward in its treatment of historical events, but this isn't supposed to be a history lesson. Even if you can't let yourself be taken in by all this, you must admit, the title is great--best movie title in years.

I liked it.

3.5/5

[Dan Hocker]

I've been meaning to go see that. Anyone have any interest in Moonrise Kingdom? The Royal Tenenbaums and A Life Aquatic are some of my favorite movies, and this one looks promising.

[srboone]

It opens 29 june here in KC. Love Wes Anderson's movies. I thought The Royal Tenenbaumswas great (probably because it reminded me so much of my own family).

[Joe315]

Moonrise looks funny. I liked the Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited. Not sure if I'll see it in theatres but I will at see it some point.

[Teriw]

never heard of this moonrise movie. I'll have to try to remember to check it out later. as for ol' Abe, that's one i'll be skipping unless Mason wants to see it. Going by the trailer and Squire review I know I willl be one of those people looking for their two hours back.

[Xiabei]

"The Divide" - 1 out of 5. Within the first ten minutes I said "What a boring bunch of people".

Synopsis: a major city gets attacked by nukes. These people in an apartment building manage to get to the basement to where the superintendent lives (incidentally, since 9/11 he's been preparing his own "fallout shelter" in the basement). They lock themselves in, and then proceed to pretty much sit around and do nothing.

At one point, the door gets opened by some dudes in hazmat suits; they come in brandishing weapons and kidnap a woman's little girl. A few of them get killed; their bodies are stripped of the suits for later use. One guy goes out to look around; he finds a bunch of long, plastic tunnels. He walks around until he sees someone, and then goes to snoop. Apparently those in the suits have taken several children, and they were set up in some kind of lab in stasis. He sees the little girl who has been kidnapped, but then his ruse is discovered so he runs back to the basement.

What I really didn't like about this movie was that it took no time at all for everyone to go completely bonkers - all except the "main" female character, who actually had very little to say throughout the movie.

The woman who lost her kid wastes no time in forgetting about her and deciding that the best course of action is to have lots of sex.

The men strut and preen, playing out "The Lord of the Flies" fantasies.

Everyone ends up dead except for the main female, who escapes only to find a wasteland.

Yuck.

[srboone]

I saw this one the video store the other day. I think I'll pass. Thanks for checking it out.

[Teriw]

the video store? whats a video store? lol. Seriously though we only have one left here cuz they're not making any money...even the people who pay for movies are using netflix and other such services.

[srboone]

That's what I'll always call them. It was Best Buy.

[Teriw]

ok. best buy is allowed. lol. We don't have a best buy cuz we suck like that

[srboone]

Iit's just digital video these days.

[Lou Sytsma]

Prometheus 7/10 - Mostly for the visuals

The inevitable director's cut will make a difference with this movie. As it stands the theatrical version of Prometheus feels like a 3.5 hour movie cut down to 2.

This movie falls apart because the actions of the characters... Make.... No.... Sense.

And that is because none of the character motivations are laid out for us to understand and more importantly, empathize with.

Fully expect much of the material cut has to do with character moments. Did we ever understand on any consistent basis what was driving the characters in Prometheus? Take the actions of the Captain and the remaining crew at the end. Those scenes carried no emotional weight at all, it felt like they were heading to the nearest carwash.

David is a prime example. Given the history of the Alien franchise and the pivotal role the androids have played in the other films, establishing David's motivations should not be optional but mandatory. Contrast that with how Bishop was handled in Aliens. In a SF movie, and especially in an Alien universe movie, the parameters under which any AI is operating have to be established. Are they restricted by Asimov's 3 Rules of Robotics? Or not? If not, where are their motivations or programming derived from? In Aliens, Bishop's operating parameters were established clearly and economically.

With David we never know. It is one thing to be coy. It is another to generate confusion when one should be striving for clarity.

Visually the movie looks pretty spectacular. But Prometheus is an indicator that Ridley Scott is on a continuing downward slide. He no longer has the werewithwal to go to the wall for his films. Here it is obvious he let the story suffer so he could play with the tech. Mayhap the director's cut will alleviate many of the faults of theatrical release but Scott should never have let this version of the film be released in this condition.

Spoiler!

I found the movie went one scene too long. Up until then, Prometheus could have existed as a parallel story or extension of the Alien universe. Showing the birth of the Alien has collapsed this franchise upon itself in the artificial, limiting way that Star Wars did when we were shown that Vader built C3PO.

Even worse, the Aliens are now a combination of Space Jockey and Human DNA. YUCK!

[srboone]

Scott said in an interview that a director's cut would be about 20 minutes longer.

Spoiler!

I found the movie went one scene too long. Up until then, Prometheus could have existed as a parallel story or extension of the Alien universe. Showing the birth of the Alien has collapsed this franchise upon itself in the artificial, limiting way that Star Wars did when we were shown that Vader built C3PO.

Even worse, the Aliens are now a combination of Space Jockey and Human DNA. YUCK!

Spoiler!

The Alien is a combination of Space Jockey and Human DNA plus whatever was in the bio-weapon.

[Lou Sytsma]

Yeah I know there was a third element but its the other two components I don't care for, especially the human one.

20 mins? Seems like a lot more is needed. Have to wonder if those 20 minutes are straight additions, alternate versions, complete replacments, or some combination of old and new. 'Cause as Ricky Ricardo use to say, 'Luciiieeee! You gots some splaining to do!'

[srboone]

Well, Prometheus was made under different rules than Alien. In 1979, a space horror flick was a one-shot movie. A sequel didn't come along for another 7 years and it was from a different director. Prometheus was made under the idea of a trilogy and questions raised and left unanswered are probably the landscape of sequels. So the questions of David's motivations and why was the bio-weapon so far removed fromthe Engineers' home planet that go unanswered don't bother me much.

Yet.

So, other than the unnconvincing evidence revealed in the beginning, the movie really works for me.