Movies in General

Player 0 said:

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I gladly celebrate this news because it increases the likelihood of films like the next NuTrek movie to bomb badly and ruin the careers of everyone involved.

I really, really want to see the current crop of generic, creatively bankrupt, third act splosionfest, Orci controlled drivel finally come to an end, i want to see the collective idiots of Bad Robot and Platinum Dunes exposed as the talentless hacks they are and i want hollywood to just stop with the current state of nonsense idiot films they've been churning since at least 2008-2009.

No more mystery box, no more third act problems, let's just get back to good cinema.

Or let the whole collapse under the weight of this bubble and let's see a new film industry take all existing IPs and do something good with them.

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Jeff Head said:

The wife and one of my sons took me to a double feature today.

Edge of Tomorrow and Maleficent.

.......

Maleficent was okay. A complete rewrite of the classic story. Acting was good. Special effects and scenery were also good...I just did not care too much for the changed storyline.

[SPOILER ALERT!]

Basically the Maleficent is a good fairy who was mistreated and betrayed by mankind who are portrayed as almost universally evil, greedy and bad. Basically, Maleficent just defended herself and then cursed the child of them man who betrayed her and became King and this baby became sleeping beauty. Sleeping beauty became good and beautiful because some fairies blessed her at birth. And then the child grows up thinking of the evil witch from the classic story as her Godmother because her parents sent her off to live with the fairies in the woods and Maleficent watches her grow up. In the end, Prince Charming comes along and falls in love with her...but it is not his kiss that awakens sleeping beauty, it is the witch that cursed her...who then fights and kills her "evil" insane father, but in the end Maleficent crowns Sleeping Beauty queen and they live happily ever after.

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AssassinsMace said:

I think the io9 article is spinning some. There have been long complaints of this very nature in general about Hollywood movies way before China was in the picture. I wouldn't be surprised if the author was using China for her own personal gripes on Hollywood. There was one Hollywood producer of hit comedies of the past essentially blaming China and foreign countries for why she couldn't make the movies today she was acclaimed for before. The so-called dumbing down of movies started domestically. Some say it's because corporations now own the studios and like a store product anything new is riskier and has a harder time selling to the public and cost more money to promote.

In regards to China, it just shows that there's a diversifying growing audience with different tastes. Hollywood hasn't made less money in China. It just doesn't dominate China like the year before. And some in Hollywood literally see that as a crime. Recently I saw a news story on TV charging China plays unfair to American companies when it comes to selling to Chinese consumers. One angle noted how American credit card companies are not allowed to set up in China looking to profit from the massive on-line retail business there. Spinning it that way it's true but take a step back and do we see a Chinese credit car company at all operating in the US? You in fact don't see Chinese companies having a presence in the US. Or yeah the lie of Made in China is what they're using in context. All are outsourced products for American and other non-Chinese foreign corporations. The majority of Americans believe just because it says Made in China it's a Chinese company and Chinese make all the money.

There's a culture in Hollywood where they're reluctant to include Chinese or non-Western actors. Including a familiar Chinese actor to Chinese in a Hollywood movie has proven to add more money to the Chinese box office and not negatively affect the domestic. Yet Hollywood is in the most part is still reluctant. Why? The simple fact is their primary audience is Western. No problem. Just don't expect non-Westerners to go watch those movies. What they're not telling you about China is the Chinese movie industry is more profitable than Hollywood right now. Most mainstream domestic movies in China which are attuned to Chinese tastes cost only $5 million to make and many gross $50 to $100 million at the Chinese box office. Most Hollywood movies are lucky to break even. Hollywood lusts for those kind of profits. The total US and Canada box office is about three times larger than China yet when Chinese movies make ten to twenty times more than their costs, the Chinese movie industry makes more money than Hollywood. Hollywood's dilemma is they want to get in that segment of the Chinese movie industry yet their culture holds them back. China doesn't need Hollywood money to make a $5 million dollar movie. Hollywood can't make those movies because they're trained to appeal to Western audiences. That's why you see a lot of co-production studios focused on Asia only audiences springing up.

I read that producer Tony To is now President of Development at Lucasfilm. I've heard of him for some noted projects he's done but to place him as President of Development at Lucasfilm? Not knocking his skills. I just think the reason why they put him in that position is because of China. Before this he held a significant role in collaboration between Disney and China. Not much of politics you hear about from George Lucas through the years but one thing that is known is he stood for a certain religious figure against China. It also doesn't help that Harrison Ford once mocked China when he was asked if he thought his support for this same religious figure would affect his celebrity in China. Ford said something like two cents a ticket didn't bother him. The Star Wars Phantom Menace rerelease was shown in China in the past few years and it didn't do that well and I think it was in 3D which is a big plus in China. It's free money on top so that wasn't a problem. I think Disney is afraid for the new Star Wars movies coming up and it's prospects in China. Another concern maybe during the whole Darfur scene, JJ Abrams thought he could call up the Chinese government and have them send someone to his house and explain to him and his friends why China was doing business with Sudan. The Chinese government did not send anyone to explain anything.

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AssassinsMace said:

I just read a horrible rumor that Robert Pattinson is on top of a short list to be the next Indiana Jones. Don't they know Robert Pattinson's career ended with Twilight? None of his other movies have been successful. Why don't they learn like when it was leaked N'Sync was going to be in one of the Star Wars prequels and the immediate backlash that ensued afterwards.

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AssassinsMace said:

I believe this is an attempt to get the Twi-harders that made a horrible story in general successful at the box office to go add to the fanboy reverence of Indiana Jones. That's a bad mix. It will backfire. I was at Comic Con throughout the years Twilight had its run and it's a franchise loathed by fanboys. I believe I mentioned this before that people who attend Comic Con all get these huge durable bags for everyone to stuff their exclusive freebies that get passed out at Comic Con that could become collectibles. The studios advertise their movies and TV shows on these bags. It's random what people get. They've become collector's items themselves and are traded and sold. Every year there was always a Twilight themed bag. You would see those bags stuffed in garbage cans all over the convention center. You also see on the first day grown men pleading for a trade. It was a sad scene.

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ABC78 said:

Here's an interesting panel that isn't buying the Pattinson casting because they believe the studio doesn't want the taint of Twilight on the Indie franchise.

But I can be OK with a Bradley Cooper as Indie.

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t2contra said:

Some movie mistakes to lighten up.

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