Movies to dread

Walter said:

I'm not a fan of this either, but I bet Galadriel will just do narration, like in the intro for Jackson's LotR. As for Legolas ... I don't remember there being any elephants for him to dance on in The Hobbit.

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Well as I said (and being a fan of the series) I'm much more opposed to Galadriel being in The Hobbit rather than Legolas. I mean, I always had a feeling that had Legolas' character been created at the time The Hobbit was written,he would have been included in there. But since he wasn't, Tolkien connected him to the Lord of the Rings by having him be the son of the King of the Wood Elves. Legolas is indeed old enough to easily have been there when Bilbo and the rest of the group arrived in Mirkwood. I can totally imagine scenes where Legolas would be invloved. For example, when Bilbo and the group sneak by a group of wood elves to make their escape, Legolas could be one of those elves (who I believe were drinking and playing games, which would be a great contrast to the scene in the Return of The King where he was drinking with Gimli). Or prehaps he could be one the elves leading the wood elves into battle during the Battle of Five Armies ( it would make sense given that he is the prince). It really wouldn't be altering the story that much at all. My only fear is if they take his character further than that and maybe replace another character (like Bard, whose one of my favorite) and make Legolas the one who defeats Smog. THat would be utterly deavasting to the story. And yea Walter, it would also be annoying if he got some major action scenes that ruin the battle. Other than that, I don't have a problem him being inlcuded, a small part is pretty interesting I think.

Why alter it at all though?

Walter said:

Why alter it at all though?

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Well, I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but they are so different from the books it's not even worth making a list of changes. It's like a whole different universe. Same goes for just about every movie based on a book. I just think that this changed could prove to be one of the better ones considering they don't overdue it. Plus you have to consider this, you have one hobbit as the main character along with a dozen dwarfs and Gandalf who shows up once in a while. Those are your main characters. There is no love story, virtually no "attractive" characters like LOTR had (Aragorn, all the elves, females and other soldiers). I mean obviously I would say keep it as close to the original as possible, but even i must admit, I don't think it would an exciting film. Even the action isn't really "action" like it was in LOTR (save the final battle and the dragon). Most of the action is them either being captured, running away, sneaking around, hiding, being saved by the eagles, or solving riddles. I'm expecting them take such liberties with this that I doubt it will resemble the book as I remember it in any way. The legolas thing is so small compared to the news that will we be hearing as production gets further.

I still wish they just made it one movie too. The Hobbit isn't exactly a long book, and compared to the main trilogy it's like a kid book. Anyone remember that old cartoon of the hobbit as a child? They did a decent job of covering the whole book in one sitting. It seems like they are just going to milk this thing, I can't imagine a halfway point that would make a good ending either.

Or, to put another way, there's no legitimate reason for changing it.

Oburi said:

I still wish they just made it one movie too. The Hobbit isn't exactly a long book, and compared to the main trilogy it's like a kid book. Anyone remember that old cartoon of the hobbit as a child? They did a decent job of covering the whole book in one sitting.

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Exactly, no need to make a rather straightforward 300 page book into a two movie epic, it's just the latest cash grab technique. The evolution from pre-determined trilogies, to pre-determined series, and now the finales to all these bloated series have to be two films each. Forget that though, soon it'll come full circle and they'll be making single movies in trilogy form. =)

Oburi said:

It seems like they are just going to milk this thing, I can't imagine a halfway point that would make a good ending either.

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Yeah, but that's never stopped Peter Hackson before.

I don't really think the Hobbit should be discussed in this thread. It won't be perfect for the fans of the novels but it'll still be a fun movie, with some good action and characters.

This on the other hand.. rivals the Battleship movie news.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=73155

Ramen4ever said:

I don't really think the Hobbit should be discussed in this thread. It won't be perfect for the fans of the novels but it'll still be a fun movie, with some good action and characters.

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You some kind of Nostradumbass?

Walter said:

You some kind of Nostradumbass?

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Here is a very NSFW clip from Drive Angry for all the naysayers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DvRsAcMWk

I can't wait to see Drive Mad starring Nikolas Cage in 3Dee.

MrWeatherby said:

Here is a very NSFW clip from Drive Angry for all the naysayers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DvRsAcMWk

I can't wait to see Drive Mad starring Nikolas Cage in 3Dee.

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Just amazing, that broken mirror gave me flashbacks to Escape from LA's CGI, and they clearly weren't even trying with the gun behind the back. This is exceeding my expectations, and I already thought it could be Cage's best worst yet, which is clearly their aim (the only demerit; they couldn't get Cage slumming peer Christopher Walken for the William Fichtner part?). What a career, it could only be better if he changed his name to Johnny Cage and made it clear through his publicist that it's indeed, "after the movie star character from the 1992 arcade game Mortal Kombat, of which Cage is a huge fan!" He already has a son named Kal-El.

Griffith said:

He already has a son named Kal-El.

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Griffith said:

Just amazing, that broken mirror gave me flashbacks to Escape from LA's CGI, and they clearly weren't even trying with the gun behind the back. This is exceeding my expectations, and I already thought it could be Cage's best worst yet, which is clearly their aim (the only demerit; they couldn't get Cage slumming peer Christopher Walken for the William Fichtner part?).

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While I like The Bank Manager from The Dark Knight, watching Walken would own bones.

And yes, I love that instead of doing a practical effect they chose to spend a bunch of money to CGI a mirror break. Drive Angry is going to be something else.

MrWeatherby said:

And yes, I love that instead of doing a practical effect they chose to spend a bunch of money to CGI a mirror break.

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Judging from the quality of the effect it looks like they might have saved money compared to the cost of breaking a real mirror.

Thor is shaping up to be some legendary gutter trash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHBnrJowBZE

The CGI is rivaling Drive Angry's.

Eluvei said:

Thor is shaping up to be some legendary gutter trash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHBnrJowBZE

The CGI is rivaling Drive Angry's.

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For a very brief few moments I was interested in Thor. Then they showed more of it and I lost interest completely. There's only so much overly dramatic scenes I can take with a straight face. That much was proven to me by Clash of the Titans which was just brutal. I'm getting the same vibe from this. And interestingly enough, a similar vibe from Xmen First Class.
I don't think it'll be as bad as the Green Lantern will be but who knows.

Maybe Captain America will be the most decent of the lot.

Ramen4ever said:

For a very brief few moments I was interested in Thor. Then they showed more of it and I lost interest completely (...) Maybe Captain America will be the most decent of the lot.

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That's because you've only seen 30 seconds of it!

I thought X-Men would be the best judging by the cool trailer, but recently the cast and crew said the development was hurried by the studio and the director had no time to do anything properly... and when these excuses start to come out before the movie is released, you know what's coming. All these superhero movies are looking more and more like some straight-to-dvd shit if you ask me.

I've grown to accept that most of these franchise movie adaptations aren't for us anymore. They're not for fans. They're for children, or just people with a casual understanding of the comics, enough to recognize the name or title. If they turn out competent or mediocre, it's considered a major achievement (Iron Man). These movies are made because they are known quantities for movie investors and producers.

So basically, if it looks like shit, just ignore it. It wasn't made for you, and it's still going to make an embarrassingly large of money. After the huge success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I heard Bruckheimer started wiping his ass exclusively with towelettes moistened by the tears of franchise fans.

That's true, but there's even more to it. It's not just who they're aiming at but who's doing aiming. At first they have real directors making these movies, guys that have already made their bones and done interesting work in their own right like Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi, Ang Lee, Christopher Nolan, or even Jon Favreau. They establish the genre as something worthwhile, but here's only so many of them to go around. So, as the studios increase the number of these profitable movies being pumped out assembly line style, the talent pool keeps thinning until those good filmmakers aren't defining the genre anymore, but the directors making the numerous bad sequels, spin-offs, and direct-to-DVD quality fare are. Then, hopefully, the genre as we know it dies so it can be reborn and the cycle continues.

It's not like it was any different in the 80's, there was no shortage of superhero movies then but only a few were any good, and not coincidentally it was the ones with names like Richard Donner and Tim Burton attached to them (and look what happened to even those franchises after a while, not unlike the state of X-Men today). We're in 80's B-movie phase of the modern superhero genre.

Eluvei said:

That's because you've only seen 30 seconds of it!

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Yeah, that's true. lol
I guess the 30 seconds of Captain America was less brain damaging than the 30 seconds of X-men or the minute of Thor and The green lantern.

Walter said:

I've grown to accept that most of these franchise movie adaptations aren't for us anymore. They're not for fans. They're for children,

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I think that sums it up quite well. I'm not even a casual fan of the Xmen or any superhero for that matter and even I think these movies are going to be trash. There's only so much cg action I can take as a focus for a movie before it just makes me wish that I never sat down to watch it in the first place.

I'm remaining optimistic about X-Men: First Class simply because I enjoyed Kick Ass and am hopeful that with Vaughn directing and Bryan Singer producing that it won't turn out like crap. That being said, we've only seen 30 seconds of it, so with the next trailer my opinion could change drastically.

Thor on the other hand...wow, what a bad trailer. It looks like garbage. However, the fact that Branagh is directing has piqued my curiosity. I'll probably wait to see what the critics say before paying $10.00 to see it, but I'm a bit hesitant at the moment.

Not gonna be seeing Green Lantern. I love the comic and its mythology and I think given the right material, Ryan Reynolds can be a good actor, but the movie looks like shit so far, which is a shame.

As for the new Spider-Man, the more I read the more I'm underwhelmed.

So in sum...I guess I'm looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises.

Ramen4ever said:

There's only so much cg action I can take as a focus for a movie before it just makes me wish that I never sat down to watch it in the first place.

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That's not even the real problem. Shit, I wouldn't mind CG action if it were any fucking good. Or if the rest of the story was. But it's not.

Thor trailer makes my heart sad.

Eluvei said:

Thor is shaping up to be some legendary gutter trash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHBnrJowBZE

The CGI is rivaling Drive Angry's.

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... and DA's trailer is the worst I've seen so far for a movie due this year.

Anthony Hopkins - in his costume he kinda looks like a bobble-head.

IncantatioN said:

Anthony Hopkins - in his costume he kinda looks like a bobble-head.

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Just like Liam Neeson in Clash of the Titans.

In other news ..

They brought in the guy who wrote the script for 7 Harry Potter movies to write one for Akira.

MGM is going to re-make Mr. Mom, The Idolmaker, Robocop and Poltergeist.

Then there's the trailer for Apollo 18 which gives away too much ... and ... looks predictable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhtpblUD300

Uh oh.

IncantatioN said:

In other news ..

They brought in the guy who wrote the script for 7 Harry Potter movies to write one for Akira.

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Let's hope they continue to fail in their mission to fail at Akira.

IncantatioN said:

MGM is going to re-make Mr. Mom, The Idolmaker, Robocop and Poltergeist.

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In other news, MGM can go to Hell.

IncantatioN said:

Then there's the trailer for Apollo 18 which gives away too much ... and ... looks predictable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhtpblUD300

Uh oh.

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BLAIRWITCH... INN... SPAAAAAAAAACE!

And yeah, you pretty much just saw the movie in two and half minutes.