It's very meh. The build up was great, but then it's like it realised it only had 20 minutes left and just smooshed everything in.

 

Could you explain the 'black' Johnny Storm?

Adopted, step-brother, recessive gene, really tan, random blackness?

Perhaps Sue is the odd one out. She's really black, but she's just really really really really light skinned, or randomly like that NAACP chick Rachel (whatever her name is) that said she was black, but wasn't? Does Sue identify as being black? Or does Johnny just identify as being white?

Or perhaps it was Sue that was a black man and Johnny is the white chick? Is this a gender fluid cast? What is gender fluid? Can I buy it at the local pharmacy? Does it come in a cool mint gel or is it really watery and taste like cinnamon?

I'm very confused.

 

I totally gave in to the hype for Rogue Nation. Going to see it tomorrow.

 

I liked it, but I also liked all other MI movies.

 

Franklin Storm is black, Sue was adopted. She's from Kosovo.

 

Oh wow, they're really scraping at the bottom of the barrel here.

Let me venture a guess: she was orphaned by the local military and thus hates them?

 

From what I heard, she dislikes all military. But that change, while unnecessary, is nothing compared to what they did to Thing's catchphrase, 'It's clobberin' time!'.

Spoiler

Apparently it was something that his abusive brother said before beating him. That could be a textbook definition of 'grim and gritty' change.

 

Saw Rogue Nation. Tom Cruise did it again.

Spoiler

The opening stunt was awesome as promised. I mean, they fucking strapped Tom Cruise to a giant Airbus. What could have gone wrong?

Then the proper beginning, Ethan gets captured. A nice table turn with the "because we are the Syndicate". I liked that. One could argue that setting up a whole separate room to be a cell into which gas was released was stretching it, but MI has always done that. Realism is not what this series is for. Forgiven.

I was skeptical about the setup with Ilsa, but okay. The escape from the dungeon was nothing panty-dropping, but then they rolled out the first big scene.

The whole opera house sequence was cool, I thought. The film was rather well-shot in general, imo. Shaky cam was there, of course, but not at the Michael Bay-levels of retarded. I liked that Benjy was Ethan's partner, though the scene where he goes all "power of friendship" may have been a tiny bit overacted.

The bad guys weren't quite as sharp as I would have liked. They kept believing Ilsa over and over after every failure and Lane was made out to be a heartless hardass, so I had to suspend disbelief. This movie was like Guardians of the Galaxy in that way. Everything was awesome, but it could have used a stronger villain.

Middle of the film fucking delivers. Free-dive into some well-placed but not tryhard comedy, into a car chase, into what is probably the coolest Tom Cruise bike-riding scene ever filmed. Price of the ticket right there in those 15 minutes. As usual, agent Hunt is indestructible, but it's expected after 4 previous movies. Again, that's not what I want from MI. The movie embraces its ridiculousness and it's better for it.

And then the ending... when I heard that it was rewritten in the middle of shooting, I was ambivalent, but Chris McQuarrie came through. It would have been nigh impossible to top the mid-movie action, so they didn't even try. Instead of squeezing in more eyeball-popping stunts, which would have been tiresome at that point, they went for subterfuge, masks, impostors, verbal sparring and a contest of wits and wills. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I really liked the change of pace.

Tom won't be winning Oscars or Golden Globes for this. And I don't think Rogue Nation will outperform all other summer flicks. Some people are still salty over the Scientology movie from earlier this year. But all that doesn't matter, because Tom Cruise is one of the coolest motherfuckers around and Rogue Nation is the best film of the summer. Sorry Ant-Man, but you got slammed.

 

I mean, it's a better action movie. I'd argue that antman isn't an action movie though.

 

Mine is a subjective opinion, of course. Ant-Man just didn't wow me.

 

What's this about the ending rewrite? ScottPress

 

What's more fantastic, a man being turned into a giant rock golem or a black family adopting a white kid? I'm not sure which is the bigger joke, the pointless race switch for Johnny or their fucking up of Doom (again).

I liked Chronicle and I really wanted to see a good Fantastic Four reboot, but I wrote off Fant4stic quite a while ago.

 

They changed it during filming. That's all I know.

 

Sicario was really fucking excellent.

 

Bit of an atypical recommendation, but the PBS American Experience: Walt Disney special was really excellent. Covered tons of stuff I never knew, and I did at least 10 reports on Disney throughout elementary and middle school. Less of the usual love letter nonsense and more a critical commentary on the mark he left on both his company and American culture. I highly recommend it.

 

So far, the best movies that I've seen this year (that were released this year) have been Welcome to Me, starring Kristen Wiig (hilarious and sad with a cool concept), and Inside Out, which is possibly my favorite Pixar movie to date (it has the perfect combination of comedians I looove, a story very relevant to me, and an awesome concept).

Definitely recommend both of those movies. I went to my OP in this post, and it's pitiful how many of the movies I listed that I never got around to watching. Of course, some are not out yet, but still, I need to get to it!

 

New The Revenant trailer. I'm not usually one for oscarbaity films but man this looks fantastic.

 

Sicario I'm looking forward to this.

Action movie about the drug war in Mexico, headed up by the people that are making the Blade Runner sequel. It's making the rounds in film festivals and receiving positive reviews thus far. It gives me hope that the new Blade Runner can be something besides a massive cash in on the name recognition.

Edit: Oh yeah. The director also made Enemy and Prisoners. So that's a massive plus in my books.

 

I've no interest in Blade Runner, but as I said earlier, Sicario was excellent. Loved BdT especially.

 

My favorite film of the year so far is MI5. I haven't seen a few that people have mentioned, so I don't know if something else would knock MI5 down a peg. It's just a really good action movie and it's not dumb.

Compare it to something like Fast 7, which, while the insane stunts were amazing, is really dumb whenever people are talking. I think they should've retired the franchise at Fast 5, which was considerably less cringeworthy.

I predict that after I see Spectre, MI5 will slide down to #2. Can't wait for Bond. I'll probably see The Force Awakens too, but I'm not really excited for it, to be completely honest.