Yeah, even Brazil are getting releases first. WE GOT CIVIL WAR FIRST! One and a half week or so. Can you smell it? Revenge has never smelled so good, just like fresh popcorn.

 

Saw The Nice Guys, fucking brilliant. Proper funny.

I'm kind of in love with Ryan Gossling? I love everything he's in. Except Notebook.

 

I saw the new Tom Hanks film on Monday night, Hologram for the King. Hanks is a salesman going to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to try and sell a new communication technology for use in a city that's being built from the ground up. It's directed by the guy who did Cloud Atlas, which could be a positive or negative to you.

It's quite good, although it feels very much like a slice-of-life story. Whilst their is an overall story, the story we're shown is quite whimsical, and meandering. It feels almost like a filmed set of diary entries about interesting things that happen to the character, whether or not they actually have much relevance to the 'plot'.
Initially, I was annoyed at the lack of subtitles for the Arabic, especially as there's quite a lot of it, and in probably relevant conversations between other characters that Hanks sees. As the film went on, it dawned on me that this was a deliberate choice, because Hanks' character wouldn't have understood either.
There's a few good chuckles through the film, and a few slightly tense moments, and I did overall enjoy the film. But don't expect it to be the next Big thing.

---

Saw the Jungle Book too, and quite enjoyed it. Well cast, and a decent film. It's been a long time since I read the books, or watched the original, but it feels like quite a few scenes were cut out. Kaa was near completely superfluous, and the elephants didn't talk. Walken was perfect as Louie, nailed the mob boss tone, although I do have a slight issue with his scene (see below). The rest of the cast I don't have complaints over, but they weren't as good.

There were (that I remember) two songs in the film. Baloo singing the Bear Necessities, which fits - he's a lackadaisical scrounger, enjoying the easy life, and humming to himself whilst floating about.
Then the king of the monkeys starts singing in, essentially, a business meeting. It very nearly ruined the scene for me, because it came from nowhere. That would have been if the film was a musical, or had more than just these two songs in it... But as is, it felt like a clunky cameo.
Kaa's song might have been in, I can't recall, but there was only a small bit of it if any.

Consider going to see it, but don't be too worried if you miss it.

 

Warcraft is already getting panned. :/

 

While the movie is not fault free and IMO the extended version would be better, it is not totally shit either.

After browsing for several hours reading reviews from both critics and the average Joe there does seem to be many people rating it after some kind of personal grudge against Blizzard.

Some critic at Thewrap gave it 2/5 while the same critic also gave DBZ 4/5. There seems to be a great wedge between critics and non-critics.

 

Just saw Warcraft and I immensely enjoyed it. Saw it with a few people and everyone had fun with it. My friend, who until then had never played a Warcraft game herself and me, who has been playing Warcraft for over a decade both walked out of the movie with good impressions and after a good time.

Sure, it was a bit cheesy at times and it had the obligatory forced/contrived quick romance but they never spend that much time on it and the movie succeeds in conveying that Warcraft feeling.

It's cool to see stuff like the Orcish Watchtowers, murlocs, sheeping, Stormwind and so on. Is it a great movie, probably not but it most certainly doesn't deserve this negative backlash. Personally am hoping for more, can't wait for them to get to the good stuff in WCIII and TFT. I need Sylvanas and Jaina on the big screen =P

 

You had me at sheeping and murlocs

 

To be fair, both are one instance things. Cool stuff to include.

 

The Warcraft Movie was a lorebreaking mess when it comes to the first war, but it was a good movie and stands well as an AU to canon.

 

The Warcraft lore needs some breaking. They have made such a mess of it in the past 5 years of WoW expansions that giving it the MCU treatment is the only way this movie could have worked.

 

My biggest fear for this movie has always been Blizzard having too much say, and the lore not being broken enough...

 

B-b-but The lore of the First War has been untouched by WoW.

 

Didn't Warlords sort of cancel the first war? What with Garrosh traveling back in time to before it even began.

 

Enope, That Draenor was an alternate one, it did not affect the canon timeline.

 

Well it did open the way for Blizzard to pull off RoC 2.

But I wonder how much of the future sorry for WoW will be shaped by the movie.

 

Nothing at all, the backstory of WoW is already established.

 

Just got back from the cinema (again). I've seen a few things since I last posted here. My dad has a unlimited pass, and I get in free as a carer... So we're seeing everything that catches his eye.

Warcraft
I'm not familiar with the franchise, other than what's spilled onto the rest of the net. A few of my friends played it, but they actually put me off the games, with the "just let me finish the raid!" and stuff.
It's a pretty typical sword and sorcery film. It's not exactly stand-out, plotwise, although it isn't terrible either. It is REALLY obvious they're planning on making at least one sequel, and I'll almost certainly go and see any they do make.
I liked that the female orcs weren't just green women, and that stupidly large pauldrons are still a thing. Some of the characters' plans seem stupid - the king's plan, for instance - but I've seen much worse. Backstory of the major characters is hinted at, and probably explained either in the lore or in sequels, but you get the gist of it.
Overall, it was okay. I wouldn't go to see it a second time, but if you like fantasy films, I'd suggest going to see it. I'm not sure whether it'll hold up on the small screen though.

TMNT2
Again, an overall okay film. I've not seen the first one, and you really don't have to. Bebop and Rocksteady are brilliant, and they're fun to have on screen. Shredder makes some stupid decisions, but at least makes a pretence at why. Their feels like some transition scenes and knowledge dumps have been cut, but nothing of value is really lost, as long as you just accept things.
I enjoyed this, and it was a good film. But I don't think it gains anything from being on the big screen - it'd be a good film to watch drunk with friends. Consider going to see it, but don't worry about missing it.

The Nice Guys
Really good film. Decent casting, and I didn't hate the child actor, which is always a massive plus. A decent buddy cop film, and a decent detective film too. It feels like quite a long film, but it's just short of two hours. Whilst I wasn't on the edge of my seat, it wasn't because the film was in any way boring.
It was odd to see Matt Bomer in such a short part though.
The film comes together nicely in the end, and mostly wraps itself up. There's nothing really to bring into the ending on top of what happened, and whilst it was left open for a sequel, there isn't likely to be a direct one. Definitely would recommend going to see it.



Also, my dvd of The Lobster arrived today. Finally, I can inflict that film on someone else!

 

I just got back from Warcraft and I have to say I liked it.

It must be said however, that one should approach this movie as an origin story and a setup for further installations in the franchise. The setting, characters and plots are introduced and ready to be expanded upon in the inevitable sequels.

 

So I'm hearing good things about Warcraft. I'm going to see it tomorrow. If it's good, I'll gladly eat my words from earlier in the thread. I chose to see this over The Nice Guys, because one of those films sounds like it'll benefit from being seen on a big-ass screen and it's not the buddy comedy.