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Post by hondobrode on Jul 23, 2017 19:43:01 GMT -5
They're nasty
As for John Carter, I started watching it overnight at a hotel and fell asleep, but what I saw looked decent.
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Post by The Captain on Jul 23, 2017 20:26:24 GMT -5
I tried to watch John Carter but found it to be interminably boring.
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Post by Spike-X on Jul 23, 2017 20:51:20 GMT -5
If all winter offered was cold, I'd be fine with it. It's the wet and the windy I can't handle. Agreed on the wet and windy, but those are conditions I associate with summer! Winter should be cold and crisp. Minus ten Celcius is just perfect. For some reason, I found -10C in Ohio to be more bearable than 8C in Geelong.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 23, 2017 20:58:01 GMT -5
I tried to watch John Carter but found it to be interminably boring. For real? What, may I ask, do you think was wrong with it? I'm curious because its faults (which are real, I admit) are the same that I find in 75% of all super-hero/fantasy films. John Carter was not a brilliant film, but I really don't get why so many folks seem to dislike it while apparently enjoying things that are pretty similar.
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Post by berkley on Jul 23, 2017 23:10:04 GMT -5
I tried to watch John Carter but found it to be interminably boring. For real? What, may I ask, do you think was wrong with it? I'm curious because its faults (which are real, I admit) are the same that I find in 75% of all super-hero/fantasy films. John Carter was not a brilliant film, but I really don't get why so many folks seem to dislike it while apparently enjoying things that are pretty similar. I can only speak for myself, but I found it over-emphasised a lot of the things I didn't like about the book - John Carter's super-strength was exaggerated into superhero-levels with him swinging those huge granite blocks around and taking out great white apes with ease. That changed the tone of the movie for me into something more cartoonish than I find the novels and also took away most of the tension, with John Carter being far too physically superior to all and sundry. Like the Great White Apes, the Green Martians weren't as formidable either in appearance or fighting ability as I found them in the books; instead, the film seemed to be going for an almost Jar-Jar-like dopiness except for a brief moment when showed one of the other tribes later into the film. I didn't like some of the changes in the dynamic between John Carter and Dejah Thoris - in the movie, the latter spent too much time chasing after the former instead of vica versa, and Carter's whole attitude towards here was so far from the near-veneration in which he holds her in the book that it almost swung over to its opposite at times. And finally, the character of John Carter himself seemed so self-centred and generally disinterested in Mars and its people, including even Dejah Thoris for most of the film, that it made it hard for me to feel involved in his story. I haven't read any reviews, so I have no idea what the negative ones disliked, but that was my take on it.
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 24, 2017 1:05:58 GMT -5
Blobby alien gangster bosses they brought Charles Laughton back from the dead??? I'm IN!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 24, 2017 6:15:15 GMT -5
For real? What, may I ask, do you think was wrong with it? I'm curious because its faults (which are real, I admit) are the same that I find in 75% of all super-hero/fantasy films. John Carter was not a brilliant film, but I really don't get why so many folks seem to dislike it while apparently enjoying things that are pretty similar. I can only speak for myself, but I found it over-emphasised a lot of the things I didn't like about the book - John Carter's super-strength was exaggerated into superhero-levels with him swinging those huge granite blocks around and taking out great white apes with ease. That changed the tone of the movie for me into something more cartoonish than I find the novels and also took away most of the tension, with John Carter being far too physically superior to all and sundry. Like the Great White Apes, the Green Martians weren't as formidable either in appearance or fighting ability as I found them in the books; instead, the film seemed to be going for an almost Jar-Jar-like dopiness except for a brief moment when showed one of the other tribes later into the film. I didn't like some of the changes in the dynamic between John Carter and Dejah Thoris - in the movie, the latter spent too much time chasing after the former instead of vica versa, and Carter's whole attitude towards here was so far from the near-veneration in which he holds her in the book that it almost swung over to its opposite at times. And finally, the character of John Carter himself seemed so self-centred and generally disinterested in Mars and its people, including even Dejah Thoris for most of the film, that it made it hard for me to feel involved in his story. I haven't read any reviews, so I have no idea what the negative ones disliked, but that was my take on it. Several of your points I agree with, and they explain why the film is not a proper John Carter film (for those who read the book). My own qualms in that regard are that the Barsoom in the film is way more desolate than Burroughs', that there seem to be far fewer cities and people than in the novels, and that Carter is far more psychologically scarred. The cinematic Barsoom is simpler and emptier than in the book, more cartoonish as you say, definitely not as big nor as rich with oddities. That being said, those are points touching the validity of the adaptation, not the film itself. Carter's enhanced strength is indeed pushed to the point he's superhuman, but in that he's not different from Superman, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-man, or even Rambo! I didn't find the Tharks Jarjaresque... In fact, I thought Tars Tarkas and Sola had a great character arc, with the former moving beyond his traditional short-sightedness. He sees that with Carter, something new has arrived on Barsoom. He doesn't know what it is, but dares hope that it will be something good, even if it takes courage to gamble on it. Sola, the odd duck among the bloodthirsty Tharks, is what we'd want our youths to be: stubborn but kind, respectful but hungry for new experiences, and the one to usher in a new way of thinking. I cheered inside when she got her people to dare challenge their own saying "Tharks don't fly". Both these CGI characters had heart, just like the adorable calot Woola.. I didn't mind seeing Dejah Thoris getting a more active role here; in the novels, she rarely went beyond the function of damsel in distress. I also liked how the movie's Carter accepted her as a self-reliant individual. The two main actors didn't have much chemistry, but enough to make me care about them. Where I think the movie failed the most is in its editing. I think it was a big mistake to open with a martian scene; the movie should have started with Carter in the west, without a word about our eventually going to Mars. The way it was done, we had some incomprehensible opening about Mars being inhabited, with weird bald guys doing we don't know what. For ordinary movie-goers unfamiliar with the work of Burroughs, I fear that was too much, too fast. All in all, it wasn't the John Carter movie I wanted... but as a fantasy film, I thought it was fine.
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 24, 2017 10:03:53 GMT -5
I think I'm going to see it again next weekend with another bro of mine.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2017 10:12:37 GMT -5
Getting ready to leave to go to work for the first time in 3 months. Just a short shift on my first day back. Excited and nervous at the same time. We'll see how I hold up.
-M
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 24, 2017 10:51:00 GMT -5
Getting ready to leave to go to work for the first time in 3 months. Just a short shift on my first day back. Excited and nervous at the same time. We'll see how I hold up. -M Good luck, m! Be ready to take a nap when you get back home. And don't feel guilty!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 24, 2017 12:16:25 GMT -5
Our relation to death is evolving over time, but it remains a difficult one. These parents are very brave people. To let go of a baby must be absolutely heart-breaking. Their dignity is inspiring.
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Post by berkley on Jul 24, 2017 13:04:10 GMT -5
I can only speak for myself, but I found it over-emphasised a lot of the things I didn't like about the book - John Carter's super-strength was exaggerated into superhero-levels with him swinging those huge granite blocks around and taking out great white apes with ease. That changed the tone of the movie for me into something more cartoonish than I find the novels and also took away most of the tension, with John Carter being far too physically superior to all and sundry. Like the Great White Apes, the Green Martians weren't as formidable either in appearance or fighting ability as I found them in the books; instead, the film seemed to be going for an almost Jar-Jar-like dopiness except for a brief moment when showed one of the other tribes later into the film. I didn't like some of the changes in the dynamic between John Carter and Dejah Thoris - in the movie, the latter spent too much time chasing after the former instead of vica versa, and Carter's whole attitude towards here was so far from the near-veneration in which he holds her in the book that it almost swung over to its opposite at times. And finally, the character of John Carter himself seemed so self-centred and generally disinterested in Mars and its people, including even Dejah Thoris for most of the film, that it made it hard for me to feel involved in his story. I haven't read any reviews, so I have no idea what the negative ones disliked, but that was my take on it. Several of your points I agree with, and they explain why the film is not a proper John Carter film (for those who read the book). My own qualms in that regard are that the Barsoom in the film is way more desolate than Burroughs', that there seem to be far fewer cities and people than in the novels, and that Carter is far more psychologically scarred. The cinematic Barsoom is simpler and emptier than in the book, more cartoonish as you say, definitely not as big nor as rich with oddities. That being said, those are points touching the validity of the adaptation, not the film itself. Carter's enhanced strength is indeed pushed to the point he's superhuman, but in that he's not different from Superman, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-man, or even Rambo! I didn't find the Tharks Jarjaresque... In fact, I thought Tars Tarkas and Sola had a great character arc, with the former moving beyond his traditional short-sightedness. He sees that with Carter, something new has arrived on Barsoom. He doesn't know what it is, but dares hope that it will be something good, even if it takes courage to gamble on it. Sola, the odd duck among the bloodthirsty Tharks, is what we'd want our youths to be: stubborn but kind, respectful but hungry for new experiences, and the one to usher in a new way of thinking. I cheered inside when she got her people to dare challenge their own saying "Tharks don't fly". Both these CGI characters had heart, just like the adorable calot Woola.. I didn't mind seeing Dejah Thoris getting a more active role here; in the novels, she rarely went beyond the function of damsel in distress. I also liked how the movie's Carter accepted her as a self-reliant individual. The two main actors didn't have much chemistry, but enough to make me care about them. Where I think the movie failed the most is in its editing. I think it was a big mistake to open with a martian scene; the movie should have started with Carter in the west, without a word about our eventually going to Mars. The way it was done, we had some incomprehensible opening about Mars being inhabited, with weird bald guys doing we don't know what. For ordinary movie-goers unfamiliar with the work of Burroughs, I fear that was too much, too fast. All in all, it wasn't the John Carter movie I wanted... but as a fantasy film, I thought it was fine. I should have mentioned that all those criticisms were things I dislike in general, not just because they were different from the book. It can be a problem with superheroes too, but it's usually avoided or at least mitigated by having them mostly in conflict with supervillains with powers as over-the-top as their own. When Spider-Man is fighting Doc Ock that's one thing, but if he was just beating up Flash Thompson and the odd street-thug all the time, I'd get tired of it pretty quick. I did enjoy and approve of (not always the same thing!) seeing Dejah Thoris take a more active role, written as the leading scientist, etc. All that was an improvement on the books, which certainly aren't perfect. But they undermined the whole thing by making her so needy in relation to John Carter, no matter what her in-story motivation was. Too bad, because I thought the actress did a really good job considering what she had to work with. And Carter's disdain for and disinterest in her - which apparently the viewer was meant to sympathise with - just made him all the more unlikeable, to me. The damsel in distress role, I'd have to say, was expanded to and taken over by the Red Barsoomian people as a whole, who seemed totally helpless without John Carter. I must admit that I don't recall much about the Sola/Tars storyline, which is probably a sign of how little I found myself involved with the movie as a whole. Apart from all that, I had bad chemistry with the lead actor, at least in this movie. Something about him just rubbed me the wrong way, though that could have been down to my dislike for the character itself as written in the script. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I didn't have good chemistry with him - it would have taken someone I found especially engaging to overcome the dislike I had for the character and the movie in general.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2017 15:13:05 GMT -5
Our relation to death is evolving over time, but it remains a difficult one. These parents are very brave people. To let go of a baby must be absolutely heart-breaking. Their dignity is inspiring. This is so heartbreaking for any parents to go through and yet it is a very painful to go through this and not be given a chance to live. I was so sad to read this. Very Brave and Dignified Parents.
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 24, 2017 19:54:05 GMT -5
Getting ready to leave to go to work for the first time in 3 months. Just a short shift on my first day back. Excited and nervous at the same time. We'll see how I hold up. -M Take it easy on the mend, Mike ! Glad it hear you're doing ok.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2017 9:11:13 GMT -5
Thanks for all the well wishes on my return to work. It went well, though I was beat when it was over despite it being a short shift. Relaxed for a bit when I got home and I was fine though.
-M
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