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The Nal
The Nal

Spoiler alert!  

The Nal
The Nal

"Lincoln - Now in theaters" You'd think he would've learned his lesson............. And so on.

viberunner
viberunner

Kermode isn't happy unless he's being reduced to tears by a foreign language film about a terminally-ill gender-confused hairdresser in a coming-of-age debut by an auteur who might-just-might be this

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Amy Lawn Community Regular

Amy Lawn

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I caught Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Double this week.

I'm a lifelong fan of Spider-Man comics, cartoons and games so I made certain to watch this at the earliest opportunity. I never warmed to Tobey Maguire in the role of Spider-Man, or most of the other cast of the Sam Raimi trilogy, but I loved the previous Amazing Spider-Man because of how great Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Feild and Martin Sheen were in their roles. The first Amazing Spider-Man film did a brilliant job of playing up the teenager angle, it was big fun and charismatic with a lot of heart while also being just angsty enough, the web-swinging was also done excellently, it's the single film that I would ever say has been improved by 3D, these elements made the silly-as-balls, makes-no-sense Lizard story easier to swallow. I was geared up to love The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but I just couldn't. It totally lacked the heart that the first one had, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone still played their characters well, but I don't want to see them dealing with wall-to-wall angst, there wasn't enough fun or charm. The general tone of the film was very dark, far too dark for my liking, there were lots of huge CGI set-pieces, but they're not what I go to the cinema to see. Marvel Studios' 2012 big-budget beat-em-up Avengers Assemble got me cheering for the action scenes because they'd got the dose of fun and optimism right, and I loved those characters and their dynamic, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's action scenes were just carnage (no Spider-Man related pun intended), they did look good, but they also looked bloody apocalyptic. This film didn't awake the child within me like a Spider-Man film should, while it wasn't as devoid of happiness as last year's soulless Superman reboot The Man Of Steel, it was still far too dark. In the opening scene we see the brutal murder of Peter Parker's parents, in the opening chase we can see numerous police cars and innocent bystanders cars being maimed, presumably killing the occupants, Electro wreaks deadly havok on Times Square in the middle of the film, the Rhino brutally picks off police officers with machine guns and rocket launchers in the final scene (and there's one other particularly grim sequence in the final act, which people who have seen the film will know what I'm talking about), the film's body count is just too massive. All the film's darkness is not even held together by an interesting plot, there's lots of setup and exposition, but I was bored throughout most of the film, as a protagonist, Spider-Man doesn't really have anything to do apart from be Spider-Man, he gets to grapple with dilemmas, but he never gets to go out and be an active player in the plot until far too late on, this leaves the film with a frustrating lack of direction and momentum. The soundtrack is nothing short of obnoxious, as well, the orchestral Spider-Man leitmotif that crops up a couple of times is an embarrassing copy of John Williams' score for the Christopher Reeve Superman films, the angsty mental during Electro's Times Square rampage was laughable, and the indiew*nk that Peter Parker listens to on his headphones is... well, indiew*nk. After the last film I was excited to see where the series goes, after this one, I think I'm out 2/5.

The Double is basically a short film that got too long, Jessie Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska are both good in their roles, but there's not enough plot points or variety to keep this film going on for as long as it did. The bleak dystopia was a disappointment as it's all been seen before, but director Moss Off The IT Crowd wanted to continue showing us how bleak it all was again and again and again, long after we'd got the message. I did enjoy the acting and got a good few laughs in, the film wasn't meaty enough to warrant the cameos (there's looooads of 'em), they just provided a distraction from the actual film for the most part, but I did think the conclusion was satisfying 2/5.

Hoping to see Calvary some time this week, and I'm wondering whether or not The Muppets film will be for me.

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Purple Monkey Newbie

Purple Monkey

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Amazing Spider-Man 2 was OK. Should have been a lot better.

The will-they-won't-they aspect to Peter and Gwen fucked up where the movie ends up emotionally. Peter and Gwen don't go through this angsty shit in the comics - that's why what happens in the end so damn tragic. They were meant to be together, Gwen was without any doubt the future Mrs Parker. The movie casts too much doubt over that so the 'event' is robbed of gravity.

What also robs it of gravity is the other relationship at play. When this event occurs in the comics it's after years of a bitter personal feud between Spidey and Goblin. Here Goblin turns up for one fight and it's already at this kind of climax. You're talking years of bitter history condensed literally into seconds. The timing felt way off. The actual scene itself was right, but the build up didn't quite have it. This was all down to having the other villain, Electro, taking up a lot of time. For what it's worth I enjoyed Electro but it was the classic comic book movie dilemma of two villains cannibalising each other's worth by simply existing in the same movie together. There's not enough time to do either justice.

The music was all over the place. Varied from inspired to complete garbage.

Andrew Garfield is a great Spidey. He's actually a better Spidey than Peter Parker. When he's acting with the mask on, that's exactly how Spider-Man is in the comics. Can't get any closer.

Rhino was a joke, but he's meant to be. He was always a B-Grade villain since time began.

Wasn't comfortable with the changes to Green Goblin. He was CG half the time anyway - just have him turn into Ultimate Goblin and be done with it. Three Green Goblins now, and it's embarrassing that the closest one to the comic was Dafoe's power ranger costume.

Winter Soldier kicked it's arse, was far more entertained by that.

Edited by Purple Monkey
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CHRLY Newbie

CHRLY

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Watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' for the first time (unbelievably as I have been meaning to watch it for years). Thought it was brilliant. Quote at the start made me laugh he said: 'I am Al Gore, I used to be next president of the United States'.

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Amy Lawn Community Regular

Amy Lawn

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Amazing Spider-Man 2 was OK. Should have been a lot better.

The will-they-won't-they aspect to Peter and Gwen fucked up where the movie ends up emotionally. Peter and Gwen don't go through this angsty shit in the comics - that's why what happens in the end so damn tragic. They were meant to be together, Gwen was without any doubt the future Mrs Parker. The movie casts too much doubt over that so the 'event' is robbed of gravity.

There's tonnes of angsty shit in the comics, it's pretty much the series' bread and butter, it was the USP of Spider-Man when he first started and what made him so successful.

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jump Mentor

jump

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There's tonnes of angsty shit in the comics, it's pretty much the series' bread and butter, it was the USP of Spider-Man when he first started and what made him so successful.

Yep, in the comics Gwen was being pissy about Peter not propasing to her so she rans off to Europe and had an affair with the Green Goblin, get's up the duff and has his kids in secret and that was after her dating his friends to get him jealous in the first place.

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Amy Lawn Community Regular

Amy Lawn

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Yep, in the comics Gwen was being pissy about Peter not propasing to her so she rans off to Europe and had an affair with the Green Goblin, get's up the duff and has his kids in secret and that was after her dating his friends to get him jealous in the first place.

*Sticks fingers in ears*

Sins Past didn't happen! LALALALALA NOT LISTENING!

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t8yman Newbie

t8yman

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Just watched Killing Them Softly. Thought it was excellent, the political speeches in the background are interwoven really nicely, and there's a lot of subtlety to the film.

I thought it was shite tbh. A lot of wasted promise imho.

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Purple Monkey Newbie

Purple Monkey

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I watched Blue Ruin yesterday, absolutely loved it.

Pretty much spoiler free trailer ahead.

Its in "the usual places" but also available on demand if you wanna buy it.

On that! That looks awesome.

Watched the Korean film 'Snowpiercer' last night, seen that?

It's like an absurdist rant about global class warfare and our petty, meaningless, self-destructive differences. It is utterly ridiculous, it's all about a train carrying the last humans on a frozen Earth that cannot stop moving or it'll freeze. But then, I think it's meant to be ridiculous to kind of drive the message. Like a ridiculous cross between Bioshock, Truman Show, V For Vendetta, directed by Terry Gilliam and written by The Joker.

Take it with a pinch of salt, as I think people who hated it were expecting some sort of masterpiece commentary about life and just didn't like or understand the silly, Gilliam-esque parts, which is fair enough.

Some are gonna hate it, some will enjoy it, some will love it, but I reckon everyone will remember it.

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Purple Monkey Newbie

Purple Monkey

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Anyone watch the Half In The Bag reviews? It's the guys behind those awesome Plinkett Star Wars reviews.

Think they nailed it with Spidey 2, don't think I've ever disagreed with any of their reviews.

http://blip.tv/redlettermedia/half-in-the-bag-episode-70-transcendence-and-the-amazing-spider-man-2-6874268

Edited by Purple Monkey
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