What-cha-what-cha-what-cha Watched?

[Abcdenfp]

Avatar and Ferngully one after the other,

its a rip off.

Did Avatar rip off FernGully? - Feature | Sci-Fi Movie Page

 

[Totenkindly]

Avatar and Ferngully one after the other,

its a rip off. ]

Did Avatar rip off FernGully? - Feature | Sci-Fi Movie Page

Oh yeah, Avatar is kind of a rip-off of Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, and Disney's Pocahontas. But it still made a bejillion dollars. Go figure. (In its favor, most of the actors were great aside from Worthington, the world building was sweet + the animation at the time, and the longest cut improves some of the story weaknesses.)

I have no idea how Avatar 2 is going to do or if it's going to rip off some other film.

 

[Totenkindly]

Stumbled across "Invincible" on Amazon Prime right as it dropped its first three episodes. It's Kirkland's (TWD) superhero narrative that I never bothered to read since I had stopped buying comics in that time period anyway, and knew almost little to nothing about (which actually is a benefit here, considering some major revelations in the story).

With the animation and voicing seemingly modeled after '90's cartoons, I wasn't that impressed by it at first, especially the first fifteen minutes. It just seemed sorta dumb, despite the massive number of familiar names in the cast list. There's little attempt to evoke emotion in the voice acting or animation style, it all felt a bit stilted or cheap. The middle was a bit more interesting, even if too familiar.

Then, well, there was the last 10-15 minutes which was like, "OH, so THAT's the direction we're going now!" That was a bit crazy.

So I'll probably watch the other two that released. The last five episodes of the season will then drop on a weekly basis.

There's also a huge bit of irony considering the lead is Steven Yeun and there's a number of TWD cast here, in terms of how the Episode 1 plot goes. It's almost like an inside joke to the fanbase of TWD.

If someone cares enough to create a specific thread for this, then go for it.... especially if you read the comic and can compare/contrast.

I finished the third episode, the others are not released yet.

- The animation is nice about 25% of the time, for example I really liked the flying scenes with Mark and Eve in Episode 3. Much of the time, it's an unwelcome throwback to problematic animation of the 90's. Nothing really pops in an emotional way, it often feels stilted, there's little nuance or zing.

- Much of the voice acting is average at best. Yes, the entire cast list is pretty famous, but they didn't DO anything with the voices. It feels like they pretty much all recorded separately at home and mailed in their recordings, and without any directorial intervention to make scenes pop. It's all very flat. Even the obvious voices feel like flat caricatures of themselves (e.g., Clancy Brown). JK Simmons is a great character actor, but he only seems to have two emotions in this show and one is "FLAT". I blame the directors/showrunners for this. Either they failed to provide emotional direction to the scenes OR they just were trying to create a flat boring show as some kind of 90's homage and, well, they succeeded.

Most of the voice acting doesn't benefit from the casting. (Sandra Oh is another example. If you're going to cast her, you want her to play things up and chew up the scenary, but nope... she plays one of the most boring roles possible here. ANYONE could have done her voice.) You have Zachary Quinto (MR. SPOCK!) playing Robot as a faint shadow of his vulcan self at best. Sometimes the voice tracks are made even worse by the casting; for example, the guy playing Rex Splode is the comedian who played Derek on "The Good Place" and he is annoying AF in his line delivery, trivializing / ruining any scene he is in.

The one standout example is Gillian Jacobs, who plays Atomic Eve. (You might be most familiar with her as Britta from "Community".) She's actually really good and did a wonderful job with her deliveries. Steve Yeun is okay but unremarkable, but at least the two current show leads are the best voices in play, so... that's something?

- The most interesting part of this show is simply the plot (where might it go next?) and what Omni-Man is doing, and how Greg will respond to his father at some point in this series when he finds out a lot of the things he does not know. But the bad-ass superhero show gig was already taken by "The Boys" which has actual character drama and arcs, for example. This show feels like it's about 15 years too late in its style and approach. It seems also to rely on shock visuals too often.

 

[Abcdenfp]

Oh yeah, Avatar is kind of a rip-off of Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, and Disney's Pocahontas. But it still made a bejillion dollars. Go figure. (In its favor, most of the actors were great aside from Worthington, the world building was sweet + the animation at the time, and the longest cut improves some of the story weaknesses.)

I have no idea how Avatar 2 is going to do or if it's going to rip off some other film.

i did think this after , I guess it's a riff on a theme. I am excited to see what the second one is like.

 

[Abcdenfp]

Raya and the last dragon , adorbs

 

[Totenkindly]

Episode 5 of Invincible was better and I appreciate the moral grey. Daddy Invincible is pretty shady but he's not always wrong, even if some of his reasoning is selfish/suspect. Meanwhile, they're doing a decent job showing the difficulty in maintaining a secret identity w/ a social life.

I'm still not super-keen on the animation styles, and I'm not sure why some people like the voice acting. It has improved a bit but it's still like they just tossed people into private booths without much sense of overall dramatic arc -- if there is anything that is successful, it's due to the actors knowing how to deliver lines and bringing their own readings from past dialogue, not about someone providing direction.


Went back to watching Six Feet Under again, partway through Season 2. this is my second watch through, and my first was probably about ten years ago. So it's neat to watch it all again, knowing how each story arc ends, and seeing how things develop beforehand. I think what the series does well -- along with create nuanced grey characters -- is showing how opaque the future is to all of us. We see characters making the best decisions that they can at the time; some of them stick, some don't; some are the right decision, some are the wrong ones; some of them self-correct over time because the characters become more aware.

I like seeing Claire move from a confused and rather belligerent / pushback style teenager into a young woman with a clearer sense of who she is and what her gift to the world is. The show is investigating her various attempts to clarify her own vision, and I know what she eventually settles on -- it all makes sense.

Also, I know people like to harsh on Brenda... but in some ways she is more honest about herself than other characters who are better loved. Knowing where she ends up makes me see all this as preparation for that future and justifies a kinder reading of her past confusion. Yes, she makes some world-class mistakes and/or choices out of selfishness at times, but she's also trying to find her way in a world where everyone tried to suck her dry.

Getting back to character nuance, I like how smart/good characters still sometimes make a gaff or do something selfish, because we're all human; and vice versa, as well. Watching the whole David and Keith thing, too... awwww. THe show knew it a long time before we did, it's just taking a long time to play everything out.

Raya and the last dragon , adorbs

I want to see it, i just can't bring myself to pay $30 for early release on Disney+. Sigh.

 

[Abcdenfp]

Episode 5 of Invincible was better and I appreciate the moral grey. Daddy Invincible is pretty shady but he's not always wrong, even if some of his reasoning is selfish/suspect. Meanwhile, they're doing a decent job showing the difficulty in maintaining a secret identity w/ a social life. I'm still not super-keen on the animation styles, and I'm not sure why some people like the voice acting. It has improved a bit but it's still like they just tossed people into private booths without much sense of overall dramatic arc -- if there is anything that is successful, it's due to the actors knowing how to deliver lines and bringing their own readings from past dialogue, not about someone providing direction. Went back to watching Six Feet Under again, partway through Season 2. this is my second watch through, and my first was probably about ten years ago. So it's neat to watch it all again, knowing how each story arc ends, and seeing how things develop beforehand. I think what the series does well -- along with create nuanced grey characters -- is showing how opaque the future is to all of us. We see characters making the best decisions that they can at the time; some of them stick, some don't; some are the right decision, some are the wrong ones; some of them self-correct over time because the characters become more aware. I like seeing Claire move from a confused and rather belligerent / pushback style teenager into a young woman with a clearer sense of who she is and what her gift to the world is. The show is investigating her various attempts to clarify her own vision, and I know what she eventually settles on -- it all makes sense. Also, I know people like to harsh on Brenda... but in some ways she is more honest about herself than other characters who are better loved. Knowing where she ends up makes me see all this as preparation for that future and justifies a kinder reading of her past confusion. Yes, she makes some world-class mistakes and/or choices out of selfishness at times, but she's also trying to find her way in a world where everyone tried to suck her dry. Getting back to character nuance, I like how smart/good characters still sometimes make a gaff or do something selfish, because we're all human; and vice versa, as well. Watching the whole David and Keith thing, too... awwww. THe show knew it a long time before we did, it's just taking a long time to play everything out. I want to see it, i just can't bring myself to pay $30 for early release on Disney+. Sigh.

I feel you , I went to the movies here to watch it for the same reason!

 

[Tellenbach]

Watched the 1st two episodes of Jason Momoa's "See" on AppleTV. I love the scenery; they picked a very beautiful place to film this. The plot is interesting enough - religious fanatics try to kill heretics who can see. This takes place in the distant future, where humanity has long lost the sense of vision and people who can see are hunted down and killed. Momoa plays a tribal leader who's trying to protect his clan from being cleansed/wiped out by the witch-hunters.

 

[Totenkindly]

Wow Jack.

Instagram: Jack Black Does the Avengers

 

[Tellenbach]

Ramen Girl. It's kind of a cringey "All Americans are ENFP free spirits and Japanese are stoic and serious hard-asses" type of film.

The ending sucked. Like, WTF! She gets to open up her own ramen shop while her teacher/sensei loses his.

 

[typologyenthusiast]

I watched "I dream of Jeannie" in my childhood (90s) on a local state owned television. I just learnt that it was already an old movie even in that time.

 

[Lexicon]

Invincible (on Amazon, based on the comic).
Watch it.

 

[Tellenbach]

Everything Beautiful is Far Away. It's watchable and interesting enough but not great. It's about a guy wandering the desert searching for parts for his robot companion. They encounter a woman and end up going on a quest.

 

[Stigmata]

Watched Us yesterday: Being that Jordan Peele directed it, I knew it would be pretty good. Definitely different than what I expected it to be, though -- I expected the film to be centered around the single conflict between Adelaide's family and their immediate tethered counterparts, but didn't expect it to develop into the much bigger worldwide event it became.

I kinda expected some sort of little twist ending, but it still wasn't super obvious when it happened.

As it pertains to the interpretation of the film serving as some sort of social commetary, I just don't really see it in a way that doesn't feel like a forced interpretation where I'm twisting events in the film to fit the proposed narrative. I read up on some of the theory themes and kinda see what they're trying to convey, but it just seems a bit like a stretch.

 

[Kanra Jest]

Snyyyyder cut

 

[ceecee]

I started watching Ted Lasso. Now I see what all the fuss was about, such a sweet show.

 

[Tellenbach]

Mosquito Coast. It stars the nephew of the guy who wrote the book and Melissa George (she got chubby - not that it matters). Episode 1 was good enough for me to give it a second look. It's about a brilliant dude who's on the lam with his family. We're not sure why the government is after him, but I'm guessing he invented something great that they want.

 

[Totenkindly]

Amusing bike helmet ad.

 

[Abcdenfp]

When an ENFP meets and INTJ

 

[prplchknz]

Review of The Wind Rises, major spoilers proceed at your own risk

The Wind Rises is a 2013 Studio Ghibli film about a talented aeronautical engineer named Jiro in Japan starting in the 1920s,it follows his life from childhood where he has dreams about flying and building airplanes. He is unable to be a pilot because of his eyesight. One scene that sticks out is him on the roof with his sister staring at the stars without his glasses, and telling her that if he stares at the stars without his glasses it may improve his eyesight. He also is willing to help anyone in trouble. This is my second Studio Ghibli film and just like Howl's Moving Castle it does not disappoint.Like most Studio Ghibli films there is aspects of war. Jiro isn't part of the war effort beyond designing airplanes and trying to get Japan into the future. (they're about 20 years behind)Though there are not any supernatural aspects in it unlike Howl's it doesn't need it. The story is romantic and keeps your attention, even though most films like this I find boring and quickly lose interest, this one I didn't.