I Just Watched (Films)

[Animalmother]

The music in Oblivion is great

[Raid]

I like the clean, white trappings of the tech that was showcased in the movie. I'd live in that mountaintop house in a heartbeat, haha.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'd live in the house in a heartbeat assuming there was some sort of weather-control measure in place (it's certainly not shown to be windy up there in the film), but on a purely aesthetic level the film just left me a bit cold. They use spheres for the two most interesting pieces of tech in the film - the aircraft and the drones, and spheres just aren't very interesting visually. They're distinctive I suppose, it makes it easy to make the technology look coherent, but it feels a little lazy from a design perspective.

[Solitaire]

Ah, gotcha - yes, that's a valid argument. Not to mention the tropes! They were deadeye shots when they needed to be, and stormtrooper levels of incompetence during the trench-flying section. They made cute/menacing noises though! I'm glad at least that they highlighted the things had engines keeping them aloft and not some magical gravity assist technology. Thanks for the reply.

And agreed, AM, I liked the choices of old rock n roll - the scene with "Ramble On" is my favorite, I think - and the soundtrack for everything else wasn't overly intrusive or bombastic, at least I don't recall it being so.

[Raid]

I don't remember thinking the drones were inconsistent to be honest. I think you could argue that hitting a slow moving person is pretty different to hitting a fast moving aircraft while also having to fly at speed while manoeuvring. Their weapons were on a gimbal, but the drone itself still needs to be pointed within maybe 30 degrees of the target, and it didn't look like they were capable of flying off-axis while at speed. Then you've got stuff like whether the aircraft had ECM to consider.

To me they always felt like a real threat, and the great sound design backed that up. And I agree on the music, but as the Cinema Wins video points out, there's a connection to the score from Tron: Legacy, which is one of my all time favourite film scores, so I think that was always likely.

[arqueturus]

The soundtrack is by M83 iirc and is excellent.

Tech wise, it's clearly extrapolating the Apple design aesthetic to extremes. I do like Oblivion, it's one of the more interesting Sci Fi films to come about in recent years.

[Raid]

To be honest, I think watching the Cinema Wins video has raised the film in my opinions; there's a lot in there that I think I missed on a first viewing.

I'd also never heard of M83 before; I recognise some of their work as it's been used by advertisers for years, but I've never looked the artist up. They're absolutely my jam though, so I'll be giving them a proper listen.

[Animalmother]

Glorious

[arqueturus]

M83 wise - totally recommend Saturdays = Youth and Digital Shades Vol. 1 as great starting points. Midnight City is almost as good. Junk is excellent but really quite odd.

[Solitaire]

I don't remember thinking the drones were inconsistent to be honest. I think you could argue that hitting a slow moving person is pretty different to hitting a fast moving aircraft while also having to fly at speed while manoeuvring. Their weapons were on a gimbal, but the drone itself still needs to be pointed within maybe 30 degrees of the target, and it didn't look like they were capable of flying off-axis while at speed. Then you've got stuff like whether the aircraft had ECM to consider.

To me they always felt like a real threat, and the great sound design backed that up. And I agree on the music, but as the Cinema Wins video points out, there's a connection to the score from Tron: Legacy, which is one of my all time favourite film scores, so I think that was always likely.

I'll have to watch that vid link. I've seen Oblivion over half a dozen times, I'm sure, because whenever it's on I just stop channel-surfing - back when I had a tv, that is. Good points re: the drones, I'll give them some slack after all, haha. And maybe the Bubbleship had some sort of shielding or whatnot, as you said. I know it's a Cruise movie so there has to be at least one scene of him being a completely unstoppable machine

Yes, for sure that soundtrack is part of the charm for me, now that I'm listening to just the music. Like I mentioned before, there's lots of open space in this movie, it gives time for introspection about what might have just happened, and what might be about to occur. There are plot points that I really enjoy as well, like the Tet not understanding the relationships of the various characters (or "making due" with what it had on hand, like the commentary in the link mentions - good catch) and creating a fake marriage - but couldn't quite completely erase everything. It's been a while now, I might need to watch this again soon

[edit] So I'm watching this again, on my daughter's big-screen tv and her streaming account. Okay, it was an American football game he's on about, not baseball :p but he's wearing a NYC baseball cap so I think that confused my memory of the scene. Also, just noticing that Vika's office is on top of the house, so that explains where she's going whenever she's up or down that spiral staircase.

[Alan]

The Batman
Erm... it was alright. Better than the Nolan films certainly but I was still struggling to care much about what was going on and I wasn't a fan of his Bruce. It didn't need to be 3 hours and yet some of it was rushed. When the best Batman movie in three decades doesn't actually feature Batman maybe Batman just sucks. Best part was at the end with them driving their bikes around Glasgow where I often walk my dog, which knowing the area they actually drive around in circles twice to get to where they split up. Then he heads to the hospital and she heads down to the Barras, the dodgy market I used to buy pirate Atari ST games from.

Death On The Nile
Its exactly what you expect and it does its thing competently. Much like last one if you ask me in a few weeks what it was about I'll have no idea.

The Fly
The better half let slip she hadnt seen it so we had to stick it on. She loved it, I knew the latex and gore would be right up her street.

Les Girls
Gene Kelly flick I hadn't seen and it wasn't great. It was fine but it really lacked any spectacle.

[Raid]

The Courier

A decent Cold War espionage film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a reluctant British intelligence asset during the build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. It feels a little lacking though - Cumberbatch is great, but it doesn't really feel like he earns the respect the film is shooting for. I've no reason to doubt the importance of the real events, but although the film does a good job with the available material as I understand it, it's not exactly a James Bond-esque espionage adventure.

[Raid]

Goldeneye

I really had forgotten just how good this is. I remember the set pieces, sure - the tank chase is one of my favourite scenes in cinema because of how bonkers and well made it is, but the stunt work in general is fantastic. Brosnan immediately feels more at home in the role than Dalton ever did, and it doesn't feel a bit cheap like the preceding couple did.

It's *painfully* 90s though, an era when action films were trying to mature out of 80s silliness, but they hadn't really gotten the subtlety down yet. Every woman in this is capable of standing up to Bond, to show that they're not just there as eye candy. Maybe this was considered progressive at the time, I suppose they had to start somewhere, but boy is it cringeworthy today. M tells Bond in no uncertain terms that she doesn't have any qualms about getting him killed - not even one of history's greatest actresses can pull those lines off without forcing you to roll your eyes - hoo boy I'm glad she stuck around, because suffice to say her role got a little better in later entries.

[Animalmother]

Pirates of the Caribbean
With Johnny Depp in the news and all lately I decided to revisit this as I remember liking it. Still a great watch, very enjoyable. For a film that's nearly 20 years old the effects have held up remarkably well, the transition from flesh to bone in the moon light is especially good. A bit on the overlong side but rarely gets dull. After the 2nd film I think that formula rapidly began to sink as they became a bloated mess. Will move onto part 2 and might dip my toe in 3, maybe.

[Rusty]

Also recently rewatchred all of the Pirates movies. The first is the only real watchable one.

Uncharted
Never played the game so can't comment on how it matches but on the whole it's a CGI ridden mess.

I like both the main characters. They bounce off each other well and are likeable.

The story is pish (maybe it follows the games but interactive versus just watching migt be grating)

Definitely ends with a slight cliffhanger so they want to do another ... fingers crossed they don't.

Blacklight
Sort of a Taken type Liam Neeson film. Everything is totally obvious and I guessed several lines of dialogue before they were spoken.
But it's passable entertainment for the run time. Liam is definitely older and so his character is also older and slower which is good. Nothing worse than a Steven Segal type bloated mess that they pretend is a ultra sleek killing machine

[Achtung Englander]

Sony have already confirmed the Uncharted movie with turned into a new movie franchise. Sorry - more are coming, just....er....don't watch them !