Last Movie Watched.... The Xenforo Edition

Jitty was responding to a post about Another Life there, not The Boys.

 

Based on social media responses, that demographic hates the show and sees it as more lefty/SJW Christian bashing.

Apart from one Butcher diatribe and that one (not so subtle) character, I thought it was pretty mild in that regard.

 

I've been one of those wack job Christians for several decades, and virtually all of my counterparts, folks I know from church, are only rabid about a couple of issues. The main one, of course, is on-demand abortion, which seems like killing a person to us.

I read the Wikipedia synopses of The Boys episodes and I was confused by the curiosity about how Christian Right people would react to the show. On the surface, The Boys sounds like an adolescent fantasy about future corruption, adolescent in that it's got superheroes. Most actual grownups aren't into The Avengers. If that kind of escapism appeals, that's OK, of course, harmless pap, but c'mon. Is that what we really need? Superheroes??? Sounds a little desperate.

 

I think the point is more than in a world in which those beings would be real, they would be a big deal to everyone, adult and adolescent alike.

Don't really see the huge anti-Christan message other than that festival they attend and the one character. One of the Boys even admits to being a practicing Christian himself.

I guess it's anti-Christian if you cannot stand to see even a single Christian depicted negatively.

 

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Dir. Robert Rodriguez



In a dystopian future, a doctor who specializes in repairing cyborgs finds the remains of an advanced cybernetic being whilst salvaging parts from a scrap yard. He takes her back to his lab and repairs her, after which she becomes something of a surrogate daughter. Alita is curious about her new surroundings and even finds a love interest. At the same time, she comes onto the radar of Nova, the all-powerful leader of the floating city above their slums. As a result of this interest, she will have to fight for her survival and that of her loved ones.

I mostly was aware of this film because the online incel/anti-SJW crowd was championing it instead of Captain Marvel, which they loathed for misogynistic reasons I cannot be bothered to read more about. So I didn't exactly go in with great expectations. It's mostly strange how such a collection of talent (produced by Jim Cameron, with the likes of Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Jeff Fahey, Ed Skrein and Eiza Gonzalez on the cast) would produce such a clunky feature. It's even more weird that this strange and confusing edit (plot holes are only the minor of its problems) is the result of what must have been a fairly structured shoot, just courtesy of all of the CGI, animation and other post-processing work. I'm not sure how you mess up the simplest of hero's journey retellings, but apparently they did here.

Alita's animation style also wavers in and out of the uncanny valley, which is mostly just distracting. There are a few scenes in there that work, but for the most part I was left thinking that this was a huge waste of talent. Specifically Christoph Waltz deserves a Hollywood role outside of his collaborations with QT worthy of his talent. So far he is still working with subpar material.

 

Brightburn (2019)
Dir. David Yarovesky



Tori and Kyle Breyer are a couple living in rural Kansas. In spite of their desire to have kids, they cannot conceive. One night, they observe what appears to be a meteor landing on their property. When they examine the impact site, they find a small space ship containing an infant. They decide to keep the child and raise it as their own, selling the story to the rest of the town of Brightburn that the kid, Brandon, is adopted.

For the first twelve years of his life, Brandon is a near perfect child, well-behaved and among the top in his class in terms of grades. Shortly after his twelfth birthday, his behavior starts changing, becoming more aloof and occasionally more violent, as well as displaying abilities which point to his non-human origins.

If the set-up of this story is familiar, it's obviously because they were going for the whole "what if Clark Kent had turned evil" premise. It's actually not badly done and following this shortly on the heels of having watched "The Boys", it's not a bad companion piece to that Amazon Prime series. It mostly works because the kid playing Brandon is very good and at ninety minutes, it doesn't overdo its runtime. Elizabeth Banks and David Denman are quite good as the parents who find themselves in over their heads. This also features a few moments of gore which I didn't expect. I usually don't mind those, but here they kind of jarred a bit with the tone of the rest of the film.

 

I share your views on super heroes ALTHOUGH everyone should give DeadPool 1 and 2 a try ... nothing like any superhero movie you’ve ever seen ...


Absolutely fabulous movies !!

 

Oh dear, you've seen every single Potter movie, haven't you?

 

One of the funniest things I've ever seen at the Multiplex was a couple of dads escorting their teenaged daughters and their friends to a Live-in-the-Cinemas broadcast of a Justin Beiber concert. It was very clear that this wasn't their favorite part of being a father to daughters.

I almost walked up to one of them and said "Beiber-Fever, bro," but I realized I'd likely be punched in the face. With justification.

 

We took my neices to Lilo and Stitch when it was in the theaters. I liked it way more than I thought I would, esp. Lilo's line, "Elvis Presley was a model citizen," which was a big hit with the adults. And there were a few things that only the kids laughed at, but I can't remember the lines.

I think that was the last Disney mvie animated the old-fshioned way.

 

I watched "Wiseguy" with my dad when I was 10-11 and then "Twin Peaks" when I was like 12-13 and I turned out alright.

 

Holmes & Watson (2018)
Dir. Ethan Cohen



Sherlock Holmes has reached the pinnacle of his career following the departure of his nemesis Moriarty to America. Another Moriarty shows up, but Holmes "proves" this new man is an imposter, in spite of Inspector Lestrade's protests to the contrary. The game takes a dramatic turn when the Queen's life is threatened and Holmes has four days to save it. Throughout this, there is his relationship to Dr. Watson, who feels underappreciated by the man he has devoted his life to.

Another Will Ferrell John C. Reilly collaboration. I found the laughs in this one to be few and far between. This is a fairly forgettable film that tries to spoof some of the recent Guy Ritchie Holmes films, only those features are already so irreverent with the source materials that it kind of falls flat. Features an impressive array of supporting talent that are really slumming it a bit here in regards to the quality of the writing: Kelly Macdonald, Rebecca Hall, Ralph Fiennes (who actually impresses as Moriarty to the point that I'd love to see him tackle the character in a better film), Hugh Laurie, Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan, ...