PiSigma
"the engineer"
It would be too stressful for sleep.
I rather be a sith lord!
Movies in General
- Thread starter bladerunner
- Start date
I rather be a sith lord!
With technology like that then it better be "choose your own adventure". In a lot of, not just horror, movies I would choose a different course of action than the characters.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
solarz
Brigadier
So I just saw Wolf Warrior 2 with my wife today.
She doesn't watch any action movies, so everything was new to her. She got anxious at all the suspenseful scenes, while I was laughing at how clichéd it was.
I didn't mind though. Despite all the use of genre tropes, or perhaps because of it, I really liked the movie. There were some cringe-worthy moments of acting, and the story didn't make much sense, but who the hell cares!
This is an action movie. It's not about the drama or the relationships. It's about blowing things up and kicking ass, kung fu style. What I loved the most about this movie is how it is finally showing Western audiences how Asian male characters should be portrayed. Two in particular stood out for me. First there's the greedy shopkeeper who renounced his chinese citizenship, yet did not hesitate to turn to the Chinese embassy for help. I knew of the character from various reviews, and I was expecting him to be a throw-away caricature. However, the character turned out to be a decent person, helping the other refugees as best he could. This character felt *real* to me. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't a caricature. He was just a guy trying to make something of himself. He's greedy when the opportunity presents itself, but he could also be compassionate when the need calls.
The second one was the PLA veteran from the factory. He reminded me of those soldiers from old war movies. In fact, he had two signature scenes from such movies: wildly strafing a machine gun (or assult rifle in this case) and mowing down rows of enemies, and, after running out of ammo and being completely surrounded, picking up a brick to keep fighting. He was wise, dependable without being subservient, and far tougher than his appearance would suggest.
The main character and the female lead also worked well together. Yes, I know I said this movie wasn't about relationships, but I feel this particular one felt natural. Our hero was never shown falling for the female lead, instead she slowly began to fall for him after seeing his courage and dedication, and we could see this progress.
Finally, there is one thing that makes or breaks action movies for me: humour. I can't stand action movies that doesn't have a sense of humour. This one had some truly hilarious dialogues. There were some subtle (and not so subtle) jabs at Hollywood America, and some really funny juxtaposition of English and *real* Chinese (i.e. 你妈没教你别欺负熊孩子吗？)
She doesn't watch any action movies, so everything was new to her. She got anxious at all the suspenseful scenes, while I was laughing at how clichéd it was.
I didn't mind though. Despite all the use of genre tropes, or perhaps because of it, I really liked the movie. There were some cringe-worthy moments of acting, and the story didn't make much sense, but who the hell cares!
This is an action movie. It's not about the drama or the relationships. It's about blowing things up and kicking ass, kung fu style. What I loved the most about this movie is how it is finally showing Western audiences how Asian male characters should be portrayed. Two in particular stood out for me. First there's the greedy shopkeeper who renounced his chinese citizenship, yet did not hesitate to turn to the Chinese embassy for help. I knew of the character from various reviews, and I was expecting him to be a throw-away caricature. However, the character turned out to be a decent person, helping the other refugees as best he could. This character felt *real* to me. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't a caricature. He was just a guy trying to make something of himself. He's greedy when the opportunity presents itself, but he could also be compassionate when the need calls.
The second one was the PLA veteran from the factory. He reminded me of those soldiers from old war movies. In fact, he had two signature scenes from such movies: wildly strafing a machine gun (or assult rifle in this case) and mowing down rows of enemies, and, after running out of ammo and being completely surrounded, picking up a brick to keep fighting. He was wise, dependable without being subservient, and far tougher than his appearance would suggest.
The main character and the female lead also worked well together. Yes, I know I said this movie wasn't about relationships, but I feel this particular one felt natural. Our hero was never shown falling for the female lead, instead she slowly began to fall for him after seeing his courage and dedication, and we could see this progress.
Finally, there is one thing that makes or breaks action movies for me: humour. I can't stand action movies that doesn't have a sense of humour. This one had some truly hilarious dialogues. There were some subtle (and not so subtle) jabs at Hollywood America, and some really funny juxtaposition of English and *real* Chinese (i.e. 你妈没教你别欺负熊孩子吗？)
haven't seen it yet but i was pleased to know that there is NO LOVE TRIANGLE in WW2
thank god. for that Wu Jing needs to be decorated!!!
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Anybody who reads movie and TV fanboy sites knows Ain't It Cool was the granddaddy of them all. Now comes word that the founder Harry Knowles has been accused of sexual assault. Staff writers are bailing and the infamous "no-holds-barred" comments sections to their articles have been closed.
It use to be the go-to site for fans and the movie industry staff every morning had to read the site before going into meetings. Probably the site will be sold but it's most likely dead since there are so many other fanboy sites out there now.
It use to be the go-to site for fans and the movie industry staff every morning had to read the site before going into meetings. Probably the site will be sold but it's most likely dead since there are so many other fanboy sites out there now.
Lethe
Captain
So I saw Sky Hunter at the cinema in Adelaide and was mildly disappointed.
The aircraft footage is a mix of real and CGI, with the aerial footage mostly the latter. While the quality of the CGI is fair, things are often sped up or otherwise move unrealistically, devoid of any real physics. Coupled with the cinematography consisting of many quick cuts, and it is difficult to maintain any sense of space.
If I were going into the film blind, I would probably have been thrilled by the variety of aircraft shown and their prominent role in the film. But my expectations were built up to anticipate this film as a Chinese Top Gun and as an aerial spectacle, it unfortunately does not measure up, nor to the more recent French film Le Chevaliers du Ciel (Sky Knights) which is the only non-animated film I've seen that comes close to matching the aerial spectacle of Top Gun.
Here is a list of all the Chinese and other aircraft I saw appear in the film, mostly in order of appearance: J-10, J-11, P-3, F-15, Z-9, Y-8, Mi-8, J-20, Y-20, DC-3?, Z-8, KJ-500, CH-5, H-6U, Mirage 2000.
....
Other notes: the 'Republic of Muhba' is deliberately inscrutable and inoffensive, as are the terrorists. Clearly this is a deliberately choice on the part of the filmmakers and perhaps it is a laudable one -- certainly there have been no shortage of US and other films about "evil foreigners" that caricature other nations, cultures, etc. and we can be glad that Sky Hunter is not part of this tradition. At the same time, by making the nation and its terrorists so generic, it combines with the dodgy physics and shaky sense of time and place to contributes to a sense of unreality about the film. But this is probably beside the point: Sky Hunter is about showing the capability, courage and professionalism of China's armed forces, the stage they dance on is immaterial.
Bingbing Fan is beautiful and enchanting as Yali. An early scene that involves her piloting a Z-9 amid a landslide is probably my favourite scene of the film. The film does have a sense of humour, at least until the third act, including one joke that I missed because it involved a small drone displaying Chinese characters that were not translated in the subtitles -- I know it was a joke because the five other people in the cinema laughed.
The aircraft footage is a mix of real and CGI, with the aerial footage mostly the latter. While the quality of the CGI is fair, things are often sped up or otherwise move unrealistically, devoid of any real physics. Coupled with the cinematography consisting of many quick cuts, and it is difficult to maintain any sense of space.
If I were going into the film blind, I would probably have been thrilled by the variety of aircraft shown and their prominent role in the film. But my expectations were built up to anticipate this film as a Chinese Top Gun and as an aerial spectacle, it unfortunately does not measure up, nor to the more recent French film Le Chevaliers du Ciel (Sky Knights) which is the only non-animated film I've seen that comes close to matching the aerial spectacle of Top Gun.
Here is a list of all the Chinese and other aircraft I saw appear in the film, mostly in order of appearance: J-10, J-11, P-3, F-15, Z-9, Y-8, Mi-8, J-20, Y-20, DC-3?, Z-8, KJ-500, CH-5, H-6U, Mirage 2000.
....
Other notes: the 'Republic of Muhba' is deliberately inscrutable and inoffensive, as are the terrorists. Clearly this is a deliberately choice on the part of the filmmakers and perhaps it is a laudable one -- certainly there have been no shortage of US and other films about "evil foreigners" that caricature other nations, cultures, etc. and we can be glad that Sky Hunter is not part of this tradition. At the same time, by making the nation and its terrorists so generic, it combines with the dodgy physics and shaky sense of time and place to contributes to a sense of unreality about the film. But this is probably beside the point: Sky Hunter is about showing the capability, courage and professionalism of China's armed forces, the stage they dance on is immaterial.
Bingbing Fan is beautiful and enchanting as Yali. An early scene that involves her piloting a Z-9 amid a landslide is probably my favourite scene of the film. The film does have a sense of humour, at least until the third act, including one joke that I missed because it involved a small drone displaying Chinese characters that were not translated in the subtitles -- I know it was a joke because the five other people in the cinema laughed.