Movies in General

Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
My son (26 years old) and I went and saw the Martian today.

Great flick. A few F bombs and a few technical issues...but all in all a VERY good film.

Sort of a modern Apollo 13, but with more at stake, both in terms of people and in terms of the program.

Really enjoyed it. Damon plays a great role. I also really liked the wy they brought China into the movie as a very large contributor to the rescue mission. In fact, after the US NASA relief vessel with the necessary additional supplies blew up after launch, without the Chinese they rescue could not have been realized at all.

I think as a result, China sales will be bound to go up...and the marketing people in this film realize that. So not only is a good thing in terms of good will...but it will also be a good thing for the movie's bottom line.

Over the last year I have seen three good sci-fis, Gravity, Interstellar, and now the Martian in that order seeing them.

I would rate them in this order:

1. Interstellar
2. The Martian
3. Gravity.

I really enjoyed all three. I feel Interstellar is epic. The Martian is really good, but I would not call it an epic, it, and then Gravity.

I would recommend if you like Sci-Fi and thrillers...see all of them/
 
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TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Interstellar was a true space opera Odyssey in the vain of 2001, great music, wonderful SF and XFs.
The Martian was very much more in the vain of Jules Verne. It was a nearly real idea of a lone survivor on Mars. With only a few hand waves and plot devices.

Gravity was.... I really don't think in the same class.

I love Sandra Bullock but I think they used her more because she looked good in the floating around in running bra and bike shorts then acting. And there were times I fell even she was not into it.
The film had so many had waves I thought she was going to be rescued by the Millennium Falcon. I mean she starts at the shuttle.... The two years (at that point) retired shuttle. With Hubble. What is this 1996? Fixing the Hubble again.
Ok the comes the Asat test. And a major major plot device hand wave. The chain reaction jumps orbits. The Hubble is outside the normal orbit of a ASAT target its meant to be used pointing at the stars where ASAT is normally for satellites pointed at earth. The Hubble and Shuttle would have been way out in a high earth orbit well the satellite ASAT kill would have been in LEO. Also one ASAT debris field would only course along a set orbit yet this jumps orbits all the time. Then there is the rescue and the jumping to ISS. Problem is again the orbits ISS is a in a medium orbit if the debris trashed the shuttle/Hubble than ISS is untouched. She then boards ISS and changes from a American space suit to a Russian. The Soyuz having been untouched by the debris.
Problems only a small number of Nasa Astronauts are rated for the Russian suits almost all of them for Mur, since she was on a shuttle mission it seems unlikely she would have been trained for such.
Ok then she jumps for the Chinese station... Major hand wave/ plot device. The CNSA doesn't have a station like that yet. Its stations today are Skylab 1 single capsules docked together well the one in the movie was a ISS class. I mean might as well have had her jump to Mur well she was at it. As she jumped from past to present to future. And again the debris death star. The whole thing was a universal studios Florida thrill ride not a movie. The only parts with the follow and thought process behind them in gravity were the XF.
 
siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Jeff Head said:
My son (26 years old) and I went and saw the Martian today.

Great flick. A few F bombs and a few technical issues...but all in all a VERY good film.

Sort of a modern Apollo 13, but with more at stake, both in terms of people and in terms of the program.

Really enjoyed it. Damon plays a great role. I also really liked the wy they brought China into the movie as a very large contributor to the rescue mission. In fact, after the US NASA relief vessel with the necessary additional supplies blew up after launch, without the Chinese they rescue could not have been realized at all.

I think as a result, China sales will be bound to go up...and the marketing people in this film realize that. So not only is a good thing in terms of good will...but it will also be a good thing for the movie's bottom line.

Over the last year I have seen three good sci-fis, Gravity, Interstellar, and now the Martian in that order seeing them.

I would rate them in this order:

1. Interstellar
2. The Martian
3. Gravity.

I really enjoyed all three. I feel Interstellar is epic. The Martian is really good, but I would not call it an epic, it, and then Gravity.

I would recommend if you like Sci-Fi and thrillers...see all of them/
Click to expand...

I watched it again in theater with three of my friends after completing two exams. It held up really well on second viewing. I also managed to catch a lot of quips and technical details that I missed on first viewing.

The China scenes were great in the sense that it didn't feel like typical Hollywood China-pandering (Ironman 3). There were brief conflicts between Sean Bean's character and a manager (?) at CNSA and more importantly, China's involvement played a key role in the plot. From what I've read, the side plot of the Taiyangshen mission was lifted from the novel, so it was not like Fox added it just to pull in the Chinese audience.

I felt that all three of the films you listed owed a great deal to 2001: A Space Odyssey in their depiction of space as well as many of the stylistic shots. Just goes to show how great of an impact Stanley Kubrick has on modern cinema.
 
siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Saw "Crimson Peak" this evening to take advantage of an advance screening ticket I got from Alamo. I had decidedly mixed feelings about the film. On one hand the costumes (late 19th century and early 20th), setting (gorgeous scenery in the mansion), and casting felt spot on, but the plot was cliched and lacking for a director as talented as Del Toro. Without spoiling too much (since it won't be officially out until tomorrow), I felt that the ghosts, although done superbly effects wise, served little purpose plot wise (they do provide a couple of cheap jump scares) and most of the horrors and tensions derive not from the ghosts but, as derivative as it sounds, the human characters and their motivations and struggles. As a matter of fact, I felt that the film would've been several times more creepy if they cut out the supernatural altogether and exclusively focused on human drama.

To my surprise, there was a great deal of violence in this film and it certainly deserved a R rating. Normally I don't have a problem with violence, but here it felt arbitrary and at times gratuitous, especially towards the end. Maybe Del Toro was homaging the violence from the old Hammer films?

p.s. I can't be the only one getting a heavy House of Usher impression from the film. It seems that Del Toro, like King and Lovecraft before him, is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe's writing.
 
TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
vesicles said:
Godzilla vs Kong in 2020! I guess dreams do come true!

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2020 gives Kong some time to get back on the wagon and bulk up cause he's pitted against the Worlds Truest Heavyweight champion!!
Already the Trash talk has begun. As Kong grunts "I am the King"
And Godzilla roars.
"What is a King.... To a GOD!!"
Fight fans this is the biggest of them all. The Grandfather of Kaiju vs The living Atomic bomb. The 8th wonder of the world vs The king of the Monsters. In the biggest Rematch of all time! No Beauties All Beasts. A Titan vs Titan battle as the tyrant of Skull Island faces down again The Terror Dragon of Tokyo...
 
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