For monster-on-monster action, this is miles better than 'USNavy:2013', or whatever the previous one was called.

I have some complaints about the human side of the film, but it's not terrible. Not sure whether I'd be able to enjoy it on the smallscreen though.

 

It didn't, which is what was a shame.

Also I'm not sure I'd say Shin Godzilla looked high budget; it looked low budget but with love. The night scene was one of the most beautiful I've seen in film but it was fairly basic, everything just came together.

 

Trailers!

Ford v. Ferrari aka how Ford built a legend that beat a legend



Trailer looks hella fun, it has a great starring cast, and it's directed by James Mangold, who did 2017 Logan. I'm optimistic for a fun ride.

Now, this one is interesting



When you think about it, fantasy movies aren't exactly abundant, and fantasy that doesn't have one leg in the real world is rarer still. I'm not passing judgment on whether TDC is good or bad or mediocre, but it's certainly iconic, at least to people who like fantasy cinema. This trailer looks... well all right, it looks bloody fantastic. (THOSE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OH BOI) However, three big "well fucks" that raise my doubts.

First, it's a prequel. I'm meh on that. I already know how the story ends. With a prequel, the main thing I'll be looking out for is worldbuilding. But maybe Netflix will surprise me.

Second, I'm not wild about seeing a trailer for this before a whiff of the Witcher (as much as I fear Netflix will fuck it up--where's the Netflix that brought us House of Cards S1 & 2?).

Third... it's directed by Louis Leterrier. These are his directing credits:

Transporter (2002)
Unleashed (2005)
Transporter 2 (2005)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Now You See Me (2013)
Grimsby (2016)
And now this show for Netflix

So you can see that the choice of director doesn't exactly inspire. Transporters are decent enough "turn brain off" flicks, Unleashed wasn't the worst film I've ever seen, but I've never been drawn to rewatch it either if ya'll catch my meaning, NYSM was... a thing. I mean, not trash, but yeah... And the less said about Clash and TIH, the better.

 

Oi! Grimsby is one of my favourite guilty pleasure movies. It’s gross, it’s crass, but it’s also very funny in parts if you like the most low-brow of amusements.

As for Ford v Ferrari, I would urge everyone who has Amazon Prime to give James May’s piece on this legendary rivalry a watch. It’s in S01E06 of The Grand Tour. It’s one of the best pieces of genuine automotive journalism to come out of all the Clarkson, Hammond and May collaborations we have seen over the years.

Clarkson’s and Hammond’s historical pieces on Lancia vs Audi (S02E07) and Jim Clark (S03E05) respectively are also worth a watch, btw. Say what you want about their usual brand of entertainment, but once they put their serious glasses on, they are still fantastic journalists and storytellers at heart.

And even if you don’t have Prime, you may or may not be able to find these segments somewhere on YouTube.


Slightly edited for wording.

 

Dark Phoenix sitting pretty at 22% on rotten tomatoes.

Logan was the last X-men movie. Let's see what Marvel does with the franchise

 

$14 mill opening. No superhero movie has opened this bad since the Fantastic Four reboot.

 

That's just Thursday/Friday numbers. The opening weekend will probably be around $30m compared to $25m from FF reboot.

The biggest mistake the producers made was allowing the budget to reach, rumoured, $200m with the reshoots. It wasn't going to make much money no matter what. The viewers' anticipation just wasn't there after Apocalypse and the marketing for this film didn't change that. It would be better to just release it as it was instead of letting a sunk cost fallacy dictate their decisions.

 

From what I've read it's comparable days to days, not wk/e to wk/e. Five million is still the worst opening since FF/r. They really should have left well enough alone and had Logan as the final movie in the Sony franchise. Then again they probably didn't know they'd be selling out to Disney this early. Simply bad timing all around for Sony.

 

The Fox franchise. Generally I agree that it was a bad timing, but the reshoots happened after Disney got them. Before they happened there were even rumours that this film won't open in the cinemas at all, but on Hulu. Maybe it would be better to do just that without getting even a bigger budget plus marketing costs, but I suspect that there could be some contractual obligations to release it in the cinemas.

 

Went to see Dark Phoenix more out of boredom than anything else, but it's actually not as bad as the reviews have suggested. I mean, it's not great by any stretch. Some fun set pieces, but everything else is OK at best. Maybe worth checking out when it comes to Netflix or similar, but not much more.

 

Disney announced who is going to play Ariel in their live-action adaptation and it's not a redhead. What does Hollywood have against gingers these days? MJ in MCU Spider-man, Jimmy Olsen in Supergirl, Wally in Flash, Triss in The Witcher all replaced. Makes you appreciate Mera in Aquaman even if she was a fake ginger.

 

Firstly, love the actress, but I also wish Ariel was a redhead.

 

Triss was a brunette in the books.

 

Chestnut hair, yeah.

et cetera, et cetera

 

Right. I even once discussed this on this forum when commenting TV show actors. I suppose the game models became a standard version of these characters for me. Or at least the game Triss.

 

If we're doing the whole 'fuck white people, fuck Rangas' thing, how long until the Harry Potter remake? I'm just saying, if 'progressiveness' and 'diversity' for people means deleting gingers from classic fiction, can we at least delete the right gingers?

Naomi Scott for Ginny Weasley plz.

 

So I’m wondering if Disney is avoiding redhead Ariel because of Aquaman’s marashino cherry redhead.

That said, ‘racially progressive’ movies are the “It” thing ever since an otherwise average superhero movie hit $1.3 billion in gross revenue, became the second highest grossing superhero movie ever, and won three oscars. Not to mention, if you aren’t doing the ‘progressive’ boogaloo, you’re opposed to it and therefore shit.

 

I swore off all disney remakes after Beauty and the Beast and Maleficent, which were both shit, so I’m not bothered, rather, I expect to hear more that will make me shake my head.

 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

There probably will be more to it in the film, but Maleficent change from good to evil in the trailer is rather poorly done. As questionable as it would be since they're aiming at more mother and daughter relationship between them, having her simply be jealous of Aurora would work a lot better.

I'm quite surprised that Disney approved that revealing new costume for Maleficent.

Not a big fan of the final twist in the trailer even if it works with this version of the character.

 

Personally I thought Maleficent was a much better film than Sleeping Beauty, but that trailer really isn't impressing me, and if anything is just undermining what I liked about the previous film.