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 insaniak wrote:
Snyder's does a better job of making everybody relevant, but is overly long and takes itself way too seriously.

Would you say it insists upon itself?

Speaking of mindless action fests...

The Princess (2022)

It's a fantasy action movie with a bit of humor sprinkled in. A princess doesn't fancy the arranged marriage with a nobleman to provide an heir to the throne. The nobleman doesn't fancy losing the legitimacy this marriage provides to his claim to the throne. How is one to solve such a conflict? With swords, of course!

It's good fun throughout, at least if you can get behind a clear emphasis on the action and an unstahppable murder machine of a protagonist.

I need to see that film - glad it sounds like a fun action flick!

 insaniak wrote:

 Quixote wrote:

Just picked up Zack Snyder's R-Rated Justice League. About an hour in, and it's amazing how much better it is that the dumpster fire that was released by Joss Wedon. Wonder why Joss chopped out Green Lantern, Zeus, Aries, and Darksied?

Keep in mind a lot of what wound up in the final Snyder cut wasn't actually in the original cut, as the movie wasn't finished when Whedon took over. Snyder had to add a whole bunch of stuff in to get his version finished.

I would honestly struggle to pick which version of the JL movie I like more... Whedon's is an inconsistent frankenstein of a movie, and leans heavily into my least favourite aspect of the Justice League as a group - Superman is the only one who actually needs to be there. Snyder's does a better job of making everybody relevant, but is overly long and takes itself way too seriously. Neither wind up on the list of movies I feel a need to rewatch any time soon.

Whedon didn't cut that stuff. The Snyder Cut got millions in additional funding (and time) to add massive VFX segments and shoot additional footage. It's definitely not the movie we would have gotten at the time.

Whedon's version is just a result of executive demands. My favorite thing in it is honestly just that in the opening credits Whedon's name hangs ominously above a homeless man's sign that reads "I Tried". WB had traditionally been a very "hands off" studio until they failed to successfully launch an MCU success story when they tried to force something that wasn't working to follow a formula it wasn't equipped for. Like their solution for their oval shaped car tires was to put it on railroad tracks.

I'd actually love to see an actual theatrical cut from Snyder at some point. The one we got is a huge improvement, but it also has some scenes that are notably weaker because he included EVERYTHING. The one that always gets me is when Wonder Woman blocks the bullets, there's an extra shot before seeing the guy change his targets to the hostages that lets you see she's like 3 inches away from him. Falling back to do the deflection scene feels ridiciously when you establish something like that.

Ultimately its a LOT better, but it also doesn't exactly work either. At the very least I don't think it would have won over audiences put off by BvS, particularly as it seems plans were to go even bleaker in the films that would have followed.

Dunki (2023)

Bollywood film starring Shah Rukh Khan and company as Indians trying to get a visa to England. "Dunki" being a corruption of Donkey, slang for smugglers basically coyotes. Clever scam for the ending and almost heartwarming. Not the best Bollywood I've seen, that's Happy New Year, but kind of up my alley as I work with students here.

Like a lot of Bollywood films the tone is all over the place. So a zany song about emigrating with 100 villagers in UK, US and Canadian flag shirts, and then a graphic suicide on screen when one guy doesn't get his visa.

Funny scenes where they try to lie through their interviews or cheat on their English tests, and then a dude gets shot in the head trying to sneak across a border, a woman is almost raped, and SRK kills a dude with his bare hands.

All. Over. The. Place.

Yeah, but Shah Rukh Khan is awesome......

 Easy E wrote:
Yeah, but Shah Rukh Khan is awesome......

Indeed he is. We should all watch more Bollywood, it's AT LEAST as crazy as anime. Sometimes moreso.