Film Review & Discussion

[polerberr]

I saw Wonder Woman, twice.

I was never much of a comic book fan, much less a DC fan. Not that I dislike comic books, they're just something I've never found the time to try. I like watching movies based on comic books though, particularily the Marvel movies. So because of that, I never really knew what Wonder Woman's deal was. From my outside perspective, she just seemed like an over sexualised female comic book character, a la Catwoman. I also didn't think the trailer was very impressive, but maybe that's because of a heavy bias against the current wave of DC movies after the last three disasters. I was surprised to find out that it has a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so I figured I'd go see it. I'm so happy I did.

Wonder Woman is an awesome character. She's kind and thoughtful, she really cares about other people, and she's so empathetic. I love that about her. So many super heros are hardened and cynical, Wonder Woman is the exact opposite. At least, she starts out this way. Who knows what the next movies are going to do with her.

This is definitely the best of the new DC movies so far, without question or doubt. The color grading has been fixed to be both gritty and colorful, whereas before it was only gritty and very unaesthetic. I have a hard time watching a movie if it's dull to the eyes. A surprising amount of the film was not CGI. Many of the action sequences were done with sets and props and stunts and amazing action cameras, very well choreographed, too. A typical modern movie would have used a lot more CGI, but I'm really happy this isn't the case for Wonder Woman, because it looks amazing.

The movie did have a few problems. There were a few scenes that were unrealistic (scenes from the world war where a thousand more men should have been gunned down than the movie showed), which I don't really think fits into the gritty super hero movie theme DC has been going for, but I can overlook those details. Some parts were maybe a bit cliche. The biggest problem was the villain. He was two dimensional and very poorly cast, IMO. Not that the actor himself did a poor job, but that he didn't fit the profile. It was very difficult to believe he was who he was portraying and took me out of the film a little bit.

I'd recommend it.

I'm also super excited for The Incredibles 2! I have an excuse to make my SO watch the first movie so that he can watch the sequel with me.

[holmes221B]

I just got back from watching Dead Men Tell No Tales, or the European title: Salazar's Revenge. (I prefer the US title.)

Oh man, never have I been more entertained and disappointed at the same time. I absolutely love the first three movies so I am quite biased against a fifth Pirates movie even existing, but that aside, I was also a tad excited to see the characters in a new story.

I won't reveal anything about the plot, so don't worry about those kind of spoilers, but I will be talking a bit about the film in general so obviously if you want everything to be a complete surprise then I suggest you stop reading now.

The original music was frequently used, which made me very happy. That score is just fantastic and it has such a strong association with the film. Everybody knows the tune, you couldn't really call it a Pirates movie if that music wasn't there.

I felt like the pacing was way too fast. The movie really didn't bother to take its time, so I never really managed to care about the new characters as much as I cared about Will, Elizabeth, and Captain Jack in the first movie. The first movie opens fantastically, with that slow scene where young Elizabeth is singing softly at the front of a ship surrounded by fog. It takes its time to build an eerieness, and it gives you time to understand Will and Elizabeth's history. This movie just jumps straight into the thick of it.

I'm afraid to say that Jack Sparrow may have been flanderised. Depp's performance just felt really off. It's been so long since he's played that character, and so much has happened to him since, it feels like he's lost his touch? Maybe that's just me though, so I'll be curious to see what everyone else thinks of his performance.

I did think that the script pushed too hard to be funny and quirky. I mean there were some dialogue exchanges and moments that genuinely were funny, but otherwise the dialogue felt more like it came from a fanfic, if that makes any sense.

A few of the old characters come back, you'll know which ones if you've looked at IMDb, and I'm very happy at their inclusion. My favorite pirate even gets a main role in the film, so I was pretty happy with that.

Another issue I had was with the CGI. I don't quite know why, but for some reason, my eyes can never seem to "focus" on something that isn't there in real life, so for example, a shark made completely out of CGI. I put the word focus between quotes because in reality I'm looking at a flat screen, so of course technically speaking my eyes are focused, but it doesn't feel that way. I absolutely hate average quality CGI trying to make something out of thin air. In my opinion it should be used extremely sparingly, mostly only for touch ups and color grading. I'd much rather see puppets, props, and clever makeup like in Jaws and The Lord of the Rings, to be honest. The only exception I make is for the top of the line CGI that was used in Gravity and The Jungle Book, which is stunning quality.

This movie just had too much CGI going on, so most of the time I felt like I was looking at nothing. CGI just feels soulless to me. I really have no other way to explain it right now.

I will say that despite its flaws, I did have a good time. I wouldn't tell anyone to not see it if they were planning to. I'm not sure I would rewatch it, but I'm glad I did give it a shot in the first place.

Sorry for not posting in a while.

To be honest, I actually liked the fifth Pirates movie, and I thought it was better than the fourth. Of course, the first one is my all-time favourite of the Pirates movies. I can agree with the fact that the shark looked weird, but I thought that scene was a bit entertaining. I also agree with the fact that the movie seemed a little too rushed; however, I still enjoyed it despite that fact. (Yeah, the US title sounds better.)

I have not watched Wonder Woman, but I know who she is. I like the old movies and the old TV series, and I saw a bit from the old Wonder Woman TV series. However, if you recommended it, then I might give it a try, though it may be a while.

I have also never watched The Incredibles, but I have seen a few snippets here and there.

However, I feel as though there are more sequels and prequels than original movies. Some movies today are remakes of old movies. Other movies are also made from comics or books, though that is obvious since some people would like to see text made into film. I would like to see some more originally thought movies, and also some more comedy.

[Salsaverde]

I used to watch the Wonder Woman TV show a bit when I was younger and therefore, found myself going to the movie in theaters about a week ago just because I wanted something to do. I didn't go in with high expectations (never been much of a superhero movie fan) and didn't come out with a huge impression left on me. But I did enjoy the movie even though I didn't really feel like I would. Like polerberr, I figured the movie would over-sexualize her character and was quite pleased to find out that they didn't. Although I did feel like her relationship with Trevor was sort of cringy at times and unnecessary.

I did feel, however, that the plot fell kind of flat (don't know why, I just feel like it did) and left me sort of lost for a portion of the movie. It just didn't leave a huge impression on me. I can attribute some of these feelings to the fact that I've never been into comic books or superheroes. If I had to rate it, I'd probably give it a 6 out of 10. Good, but not great.

I think the reason that it was so highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes is because it's such a drastic change from the usual superhero flick that people are going crazy over it. And I do congratulate the producers/cast for steering away from the norm to create a refreshing change. It just wasn't enough for me personally.

(SPOILER) And I also agree that David Thewlis just wasn't a good fit for the villain. He will always be Lupin to me. On a side note, I feel like pretty much the whole cast, except a few, of Harry Potter has pretty much been immortalized as those characters. I can't see them as anyone else.

[polerberr]

[Wonder Woman Spoilers]

I'm generally against forced relationships between male and female leads, though I sort of understood in this case that there was some meaning to it what with him being the first man she ever met. Still, it would be a lot more with-the-times if they didn't make them fall for each other. I think I would have preferred them to just be friends.

I'd agree that the plot wasn't fantastic. It was a cookie-cutter basic super hero movie plot. It had the fish out of water aspect like in Thor, the "real villain is actually a lot closer than you think" villain like in Iron Man, the main leads having a romantic relationship like in every movie ever, the love interest dies but our main character continues to live on agelessly without them like in Captain America. Well maybe that last one is a stretch haha, but the point stands. There's nothing new in the plot.

I think the main reason why I liked it so much is because I really liked Wonder Woman as a character, there wasn't much CGI, and there were some pretty good comedic moments.

I'd be interested to maybe watch the old Wonder Woman series and then rewatch the movie to see how it holds up, though I doubt I'll find the time. Right now I'm in the middle of The Witcher 3 and I have a lot of books and movies on my to watch and to read list. There's too much media on this planet haha.

[MunchiiMoon]

Im going to be honest, im not sure if i liked this movie or not. Okja has given me such mixed emotions. The movie itself was pretty good, but it was hard to watch towards the end due to the extreme animal abuse. Even though its fictional, it is true about how many people feel about animals especially animals that arent looked at as anything but food. One reason i have extreme dislike towards my step dad is because he is like this. They think its stupid when people form bonds with "food"

Also, as much as i love the movie white chicks,
PG-13 doesnt seem proper for it due to sexual themes and such throughout the movie.

[ede]

@polerberr
I agree with your review of the 5th Pirate Movie.
I was disappointed with 'Dead Men Tell No Lies'.
The CGI was quite awful, especially the scene with the young Jack Sparrow - I don't think that's a spoiler? It was hard to watch because it was so unbelievable. The Davy Jones crew were really well CGI'd and this movie let the quality down.

It was quite a disappointed to see Johnny Depp. He had completely lost the magic of Jack Sparrow, the jokes were really forced like they had lost the magic and wit of the other Pirate movies. There was some moments that were great though, but I didn't think there was enough to make up for it.

I was super excited to see Kaya (the main female lead) in the movie as I've seen her in Skins and loved her. I thought the two main characters were great, and would have liked to see more development between them?
The plot was rather confusing, after watching all the other Pirate movies more then two times each, I've stopped trying to follow the plot. I agree, it was super rushed.

Overall, I thought the start of the movie (usually my favourite parts of the POTC movies when they re-introduce Jack) had lost it's magic but towards the middle the movie and plot did redeem itself a bit once it got going. I felt like it was worth it to hear the music, the main theme is one of my favourite soundtracks ever.
This movie probably is my least favourite of the five.

Oh, and if you are going to watch, stay until the end of the credits to see the next preview of the sixth one. Acutally, you should watch the end of the credits for all five movies as they all contain spoilers/previews for the movie to follow it.

[Captain Peregrin]

I was pleasantly surprised by Cars 3. It's easily the best of the Cars movies (critically speaking), taking the elements of the first movie that actually worked and expanding on them. It's a solid character driven story that's pretty dramatically effective. It's kind of about passing the torch, which is quite fitting considering that Lasseter finally handed over Cars to a new director with a vision of his own. I'm really excited to see what the next generation of Pixar directors can bring to the table!

[WHEN'DHEGO?!?!]

I was pleasantly surprised by Cars 3. It's easily the best of the Cars movies (critically speaking), taking the elements of the first movie that actually worked and expanding on them. It's a solid character driven story that's pretty dramatically effective. It's kind of about passing the torch, which is quite fitting considering that Lasseter finally handed over Cars to a new director with a vision of his own. I'm really excited to see what the next generation of Pixar directors can bring to the table!

I haven't seen it, but from what I know, I can't imagine this to be true. From the focus being entirely on McQueen (who's honestly not that interesting), to the really cliché (for Pixar at least) plot to (especially) the ending, it really doesn't look very good to me.

[Captain Peregrin]

I was pleasantly surprised by Cars 3. It's easily the best of the Cars movies (critically speaking), taking the elements of the first movie that actually worked and expanding on them. It's a solid character driven story that's pretty dramatically effective. It's kind of about passing the torch, which is quite fitting considering that Lasseter finally handed over Cars to a new director with a vision of his own. I'm really excited to see what the next generation of Pixar directors can bring to the table!

I haven't seen it, but from what I know, I can't imagine this to be true. From the focus being entirely on McQueen (who's honestly not that interesting), to the really cliché (for Pixar at least) plot to (especially) the ending, it really doesn't look very good to me.

I don't know what you're going off of (have you just had the whole plot spoiled for you?), but it is executed quite well. Yeah, the plot has been done before, but it's still a fun ride. It's not as big on jokes as the first two were, but I liked the slightly more serious tone. Lightning gets at least as much character development as he did in the first movie, and I ended up liking him a lot by the end.

[Hot Dad]

Wonder woman 9/10
Honestly, i really liked this movie. It wasn't anything major, no great plot. But i loved it. I read a lot of comics and love watching all the superhero crap that comes out. DC has had a really bad run with Suicide Squad, Batman V Superman, even Batman: The Killing Joke was kinda boring.
It was also really nice to see a strong, passionate, lovable female character as the lead. Also liked the attempt at diversity in the amazons (Phillipus, Acantha, Artemis..), Sameer, Chief, and Sikh soldiers.
I think Gadot succeeded in creating a likeable figure, and that kinda just sold it most for me.

Someone else said on here but yep, David playing Patrick Morgan was just weird. One of the few downsides for me lol

Also, Okja. 8/10
Really interesting and hitting message. I enjoyed it! Was more gruesome and cruel than i thought it would be though.
Not much to say on this one actually lol, makes you think about going vegetarian.. Plus i cried..