Movie Review Thread

[Fragony]

Mouza: You're far kinder to 300 then I am. For myself, it was one of the crappiest movies I've ever seen -- it easily makes it onto my "Worst 10" list. Aside from the (admittedly superb) cinematography, I can't see anything good about that film.

It intentionally awful it's awful in the first degree. I was actually dissapointed that it wasn't worse, I was expecting pure testosteron after the THIS IS SPARTA!!! jokes on youtube and it didn't deliver but still a hilariously homosensual RAAAAAAAAAAAWR

[Spino]

It intentionally awful it's awful in the first degree. I was actually dissapointed that it wasn't worse, I was expecting pure testosteron after the THIS IS SPARTA!!! jokes on youtube and it didn't deliver but still a hilariously homosensual RAAAAAAAAAAAWR

I'm glad I'm not alone on this. I found 300 to be highly entertaining but not in the 'quality cinematic' sense. 300 was a pre-teen/teen action flick to the nth degree, so much so that it became a showcase of cheesy absurdity wrapped in a unintentional comedy. Not that the movie was a total writeoff; the direction was quite good, the visuals were stunning and the writing was ok at times. The director's insistence on having Gerard Butler scream out many of his lines only pushed the movie deeper into the realm of silliness.

Iron Man - I loved the 1st half/two thirds of this film only to be seriously let down by the underwhelming & terribly cliched final act. I don't know if I'm completely sold on Downey as Tony Stark but he did a fine job and proved especially adept with the humor. Overall I did enjoy it, much more than the Spider Man flicks.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I was expecting a climactic battle of titans in the third act; Iron Man's brains & speed versus Iron Monger's brute force and toughness. Instead I was treated to a terribly predictable console boss battle where the protagonist relies on a tired plot device to win the day. And Tony Stark revealing Iron Man's true identity during the press conference was too much to bear. I'm not a purist but could we please try and follow the comic a little more closely?

There Will Be Blood - Great film and superior to "No Country For Old Men" but it sports one hell of a strange ending that feels completely out of place.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have yet to have someone offer an adequate explanation as to why Daniel Plainview would even bother to murder Eli once the former revealed he, once again, had the upper hand over the latter. Eli proved once again he had no prayer of competing with Daniel on his Machiavellan home turf. Even for the brief moment when Eli did have the upper hand it was due entirely to Daniel's murderous 'indiscretion' which led to his public confession, the outcome of which ultimately led to a pivotal moment that brought about a positive turn in Daniel's life (the return of his adopted son). I guess what I was expecting a more appropriate ending, perhaps one that dealt in greater detail with Daniel's tragic disownment of his adopted son, as as opposed to a scene that felt tacked on and smacked of a writer's desperate bid to end the film with a bang.

[Puzz3D]

There Will Be Blood - Great film and superior to "No Country For Old Men" but it sports one hell of a strange ending that feels completely out of place.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have yet to have someone offer an adequate explanation as to why Daniel Plainview would even bother to murder Eli once the former revealed he, once again, had the upper hand over the latter. Eli proved once again he had no prayer of competing with Daniel on his Machiavellan home turf. Even for the brief moment when Eli did have the upper hand it was due entirely to Daniel's murderous 'indiscretion' which led to his public confession, the outcome of which ultimately led to a pivotal moment that brought about a positive turn in Daniel's life (the return of his adopted son). I guess what I was expecting a more appropriate ending, perhaps one that dealt in greater detail with Daniel's tragic disownment of his adopted son, as as opposed to a scene that felt tacked on and smacked of a writer's desperate bid to end the film with a bang.

I thought the ending was great because

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

it reveals how completely ruthless an entrepreneur Daniel Plainview was. When he was talking to Henry he could think of no reason why he despised people, and didn't see that it was a subconscious repression of empathy for other people so that he wouldn't feel guilt about exploiting them. In Daniel, this repression was so complete that that he had no regard for human life, and he didn't even care about the kid. He only raised the kid because the presence of a young "son" would give him leverage in negotiations with people by making it appear that he was a "caring" person. This is why he got so mad at the Union Oil man who suggested that Daniel take the $1 million offer and get out of the business to spend time doing things with his "son". It's also why he could so easily disown his "son" once the kid wanted to establish his independence and become an insignificant competitor in the oil business. Daniel would now have no family to leave his money to, but he didn't care about that since he was a completely self centered individual.

I don't think that Daniel wanted the kid back after he sent him away to boarding school, but Eli's congregation forced him to take him back. He had to take him back to get the rights to the land for the pipeline, and you could see by the end of the film that the son's return wasn't the positive turn in Daniel's life that it appeared to be. You could see that the kid despised being used by Daniel and that he wasn't going to buy back into the charade in that scene the day he returned, and he continued to fake not being able to talk most likely from shortly after the time of the accident. Remember, Daniel left the kid and went back to work on the burning well even though the kid was seriously injured. There was nothing Daniel could do about the burning well at that moment, but to Daniel the well was more important than making sure that his "son" was going to be ok. I think at that moment the kid realized that Daniel didn't really care about him, and he became spiteful of Daniel's acceptance of Henry. Lack of empathy is also why Daniel could kill Eli for almost no reason with no remorse whatsoever. Ironically, he killed Eli because he got mad that Eli tried to hustle him the same way that he had hustled countless other people, and he will get away with it because his butler will help him cover it up. This film is full of people who are out for personal gain. I believe that, in general, selfishness goes a lot deeper in people than they are willing to reveal, and that's the theme of this film.