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2025/09/15 08:32:21
Subject: Mini-Movie Reviews- What You Are Watching.... in Miniature
Flinty wrote: And who knew that US military mothballing procedures are sufficiently robust to allow complex aircraft to be unboxed ready to fly hundreds/thousands of years after the apocalypse. BE is sooooooo bad.
Reminds me of the Battleship film where a decommissioned warship is brought back online by something like 10-20 people (half of which are old and retired) and is not only fully operational but capable of firing because for some reason they carried all live ammunition on the decommissioned warship.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Yeah, but those scenes in Battleship Effing ROCK, so it gets a pass.
Also the ship in the real world is still taken out for excursions once in a while, so taking it out on the seas isn’t inherently daft.
Plus the old boys clearly having a great time are real Navy Vets, clearly having a great time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The film is daft. It has many flaws. But it has some serious high points.
Just look!
It’s basically the closest thing to the Thunderchild scene from War of the Worlds committed to celluloid that I can think of. Also, it’s mentioned, albeit fleetingly, that they scraped together what ammo they could. Not a great answer sure, but an answer.
I particularly enjoy how the young ‘uns take their cues from the old boys.
And they actually, For Reals, took the USS Missouri out for these scenes.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2025/09/15 10:49:42
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Lathe Biosas wrote: It was also the film that gave us James Cameron... and Roger Corman almost fired him.
So... just so I can understand... Rebel Moon [IS/IS NOT] better than Last Jedi/Rise of Skywalker.
Given that your view of Rise of Skywalker markedly differs from MDG's, and congratulations for being on the right side of history, by the way, I'll reply to this even though my answer is in the last post already. But I'll expand on it.
I've been reasonably positive about Rebel Moon from the beginning, though a good few things didn't work for me in the original release. People were certainly justified to rag on the movies as there was plenty wrong with them. Plus, Snyder's way of doing things isn't for everyone.
Me, I thought it was good for a laugh, being both bad and Snyderfically stylized. Definitely not good movies, but entertaining if you go into them with the right mindset. I wouldn't say the same thing about the Star Wars sequels, mostly because VIII and IX had serious writing and continuity deficiencies.
I found the director's cuts of Rebel Moon to be an improvement primarily in storytelling, which was the exact thing they were lacking in the first place. If coherent writing is something you took exception to in Star Wars and you don't mind Snyder's overdone, epically epic style with extra doses of epically epic slow motion, I suspect you may find Rebel Moon to be solid entertainment.
I dug up my initial impression of the first movie's director's cut, if you're interested in a few extra points. It has one or two very mild spoilers. Nothing significant.
Spoiler:
Geifer wrote: I watched the first movie now. It's an hour or so longer but aside from maybe two longer sequences doesn't feel like it added extra stuff. Rather it's expansion on existing story elements and a few small detail changes.
The standout addition is the opening sequence. The original opening narration that tells us that the bad guys are Space Nazis is dropped in favor of a lengthy sequence that shows the bad guys do Space Nazi things. I much prefer this version as it gives you time to take things in instead of just dumping the information on you to get on with the action.
This is a theme throughout the director's cut, really. Even though it's markedly longer, the time is used to expand scenes, add character interaction and world building, and generally improve the flow of the story that is pretty much unchanged from the butchered kiddie version but comes across far more coherently because of the changes and additions.
As an example of small changes that I like just because they give context, the priest dudes that pretty much just existed as WTF set dressing in the butchered cut don't have that much extra screen time, but we actually get to see them go around doing priesty stuff. They're now telling us something about the world. There are a few little things like that in the director's cut which flesh out the characters and setting.
Storytelling is similarly improved. For instance Kora's ship that was previously only introduced in the second movie is now set up in the first one, with the side benefit of showing that the villagers have their own parts to play and don't just get to do anything when the sevenish samurai are around. It makes the world richer and sets things up for later, which isn't something the butchered version did very well.
Basically the directors cut has coherent storytelling while the other version just strings scenes together with no regard for how they fit together as a whole. Granted, there's a little bit of exaggeration for effect in that observation, but while I had trouble with the original cut, I actually quite enjoyed the extended version. There's no question that it's the better cut, but I think it genuinely elevates the movie to another level.
So here we are. I now like Rebel Moon. Sue me.
Oh, and also, since the extra hour only adds random slow motion sequences very sparingly, which isn't very Snyderific of Snyder by the way, there is a relative decrease in random slow motion sequences in the movie, which is also an improvement.
Overread wrote: Jupiter Ascending is in that list of films for me which gets listed under being visually great to see; full of awesome visuals, good cinematography and a plot that isn't well put together. If anything it suffers a greater crime than just being a bad plot in being a fairly non-memorable plot.
It also feels like its aimed at a younger audience which can sometimes explain why plots end up watery thin; but could also just be that more than half the film is laying on the cuttingroom floor.
I'm not sure I remember those awesome visuals. What i do remember distinctly is two action scenes in which the CGI was so cluttered that I couldn't see what was going on and eagerly awaited for them to end. I can't say for sure if those where the only two such scenes. But they definitely left such an overwhelming, bad impression that they ruined the movie for me all by themselves.
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2025/09/15 11:33:25
Subject: Mini-Movie Reviews- What You Are Watching.... in Miniature
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
It’s definitely up there on my favourite bad movie list.
I think it’s because they just go with it. I mean, it’s a movie version of the Battleship boardgames. Which I happen to be worryingly good at. But as a source for a movie? That’s pretty thin.
Yet what we get us, ultimately, far better than it has any right to be.
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Honestly part of it works because its not based on an actual story or lore or book or such. There isn't anything for them to get "wrong". They don't skip parts out or miss things or change a characters background/motivations/ethnicity/gender etc....
It's the kind of action flick I wish they'd do more of because they can just go with the flow of what they create. There's no pre-existing baggage for the audience; no disappointments
Battleship is 100% a movie I expected to hate, but found myself on my feet screaming while they were power sliding the ship in the end.
I also find it absolutely fascinating that at no point are the aliens actually hostile and basically only act in a defensive capacity. I feel like that's a major plot point the movie never really tackles.
That or someone REALLY wanted to create a movie with turn based combat.
2025/09/15 14:24:00
Subject: Mini-Movie Reviews- What You Are Watching.... in Miniature
There's loads of little bits in it which suggests a large narrative - like the female alien that doesn't report them when one of them gets caught in the research/radar room or something on land.
Little bits that hint that there's some greater story behind things, but which the story doesn't dive into and which it doesn't "need" to to carry the story forward.
It's the kind of thing you see a lot in anime or manga, but which is often quite absent in a lot of western (esp USA) media - where every element must be investigated and resolved to full conclusion (which is often one reason that sequel films that weren't part of a planned series, can often feel very forced because there were no loose threads at the end of the last film to explore)
An ex-cop turned Bounty Hunter is tasked with bringing in his ex-wife who skipped bail because she is too busy chasing a story as a reporter. Bad things happen and love springs eternal!
What the hell were Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler doing in this? One of my favorite parts of the movie is that they try to exploit and sex up Jennifer Aniston and she clearly is not really having it. I have seen a few movies try this, but it is obvious that the actress is just not that into it. Hilarious.
Not a fun or great film. My wife and I talked through most of it.
Ran You know, that samurai film by Kurosawa. I first ran across this film late one weekend evening on PBS and instantly fell in love with it. The use of color, the framing, the lovingly crafted shots, and a Shakespearean tragedy with Samurai. Great stuff.
If you have not seen it, you can find it on Tubi at the moment. Probably one of my favorite Kurosawa films, and I have seen a couple.
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2025/09/15 15:28:04
Subject: Mini-Movie Reviews- What You Are Watching.... in Miniature
It's the kind of thing you see a lot in anime or manga, but which is often quite absent in a lot of western (esp USA) media - where every element must be investigated and resolved to full conclusion (which is often one reason that sequel films that weren't part of a planned series, can often feel very forced because there were no loose threads at the end of the last film to explore)
On the subject of anime and manga, I got to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle over the weekend and its a lot. I don't think it works as well as a movie as Mugen Train did. Since this is the first part of the end of the series it really just throws you in with the full cast of characters having literally just been dropped into the trap that served as the last seasons cliffhanger.
This part of the story just doesn't have the same focused narrative and as such detours into a lot of flashbacks and tangents that make more sense in the context of a weekly manga or tv series. It also suffers a bit from Demon Slayer's love of withholding backstory until the last possible moment and then dumping it all out after the fact. It's one of my main gripes with the manga but REALLY stands out in film form where there isn't a natural break to structure the side stories around.
So while I feel like the story might have fit a TV series better, the action definitely enjoys the theatrical budget and absolutely captures the desperate test of endurance that carries this story to its end. They managed to pull off the same trick as Mugen Train with the film feeling like its done, if a little narratively unsatisfying, before the main attraction arrives to make the already impressive action seem like a warm up. The second half is definitely where the film feels like a single cohesive story and ends part one at a remarkably satisfying conclusion for a story that doesn't really let up until the very end.
Definitely not a starting point for the franchise, but definitely satisfying if you're a fan.
2025/09/15 16:09:45
Subject: Mini-Movie Reviews- What You Are Watching.... in Miniature
Flinty wrote: And who knew that US military mothballing procedures are sufficiently robust to allow complex aircraft to be unboxed ready to fly hundreds/thousands of years after the apocalypse. BE is sooooooo bad.
Thankfully the Harrier is ridiculously to fly... at least that's what I took away from the movie.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
