The "Critique The Critics!" Thread (MAJOR SPOILERS, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK)

[Tony Stark]

What's sad is that people can't self moderate themselves. If people would, it wouldn't matter who the mods are, and they wouln't have to ban anyone.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

http://one.revver.com/watch/302730#

Video review.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

That is the worst thing I have ever seen.

And?

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

You recommended her!?! and not me!??! What's wrong with you man!? I thought we was cool! CMB! We all we got! You USE to be my idol........now your just a.....................mod.

Though it all, I still :heart: you man. Even if I've taken a fall from grace in yer eyes.

 

[gambitfire]

The shot of the tree's where they captured the surfer was exactly the same as the first wide shot of alkali lake from a distance. The interior of the interrogation area was similar, I'm pretty sure theyy used the same actual location.

I wouldn't say they're exactly the same, but
Yea they were both shot in Canada. wheren't they?

So i can say yes they have similarities, but not exactly the similar enough to immediatley think of the other.

Which leads me back to my initial response on wheather it was like watching the same movie: ... Not really.

 

[Cyrusbales]

well no, it wasn't like watching the same movie, you know what i meant!

When it's on youtube, I'll put a screen cap of each side by side though, it was the SAME PLACE i swear! And same sets, just altered slightly

 

[Storm22]

Didn't they use the some of the same music from X2 in FF1 too? I remember the opening score in FF1 being very similar/the same to the theme that plays in X2 when Wolverine first visits Alkali Lake.

 

[gambitfire]

Didn't they use the some of the same music from X2 in FF1 too? I remember the opening score in FF1 being very similar/the same to the theme that plays in X2 when Wolverine first visits Alkali Lake.

Well they both had John Ottman doing the score.

 

[Storm22]

I know but I'm sure it was the exact same bit of music.

 

[gambitfire]

http://one.revver.com/watch/302730#

Video review.

I think I lost a couple of brain cells watching that....

 

[Stripesy Strip]

HI GUYS, I JUST GOT BACK FROM SEEING THE MOVIE, IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME, I LOVED IT!!! IT HAD ALL THE ELEMENTS OF THE COMICS, THE FAMILY ASPECT, THE RELATIONSHIPS, THE ACTION, IT WAS JUST A FUN RIDE!!! WHEN THE SURFER IS GOING UP AGAINST GALACTUS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE, ALL BE IT, FOR A BRIEF SECOND, THE TWO HORN THINGS ON HIS HELMET AND WHEN THE SURFER SAYS HIS LINE TO HIM, YOU CAN CLEARLY BUT FAINTLY HEAR A GRUMBLING EVIL LAUGH, I HAD A GEEKGASM, IT WAS JUST COOL!!! EVERY BODY DID A FANTASTIC JOB, DOOM WAS DEFINATELY DOOM, REED WAS THE MAN, AND IT WAS JUST GREAT!!! I'M GOING BACK TO SEE IT AGAIN TOMORROW, FOR NOW I'M GONNA PLAY THE NEW GAME TO TIDE ME OVER, GO SEE IT, IT'S AWESOME!!! 9.5/10up:

You must be easy to please. I went with my young cousins and they all hated it.

The only thing they liked was the Surfer. And we're talking about kids that jumped in excitement at everything from Hulk to Daredevil, even X3.

 

[gambitfire]

^I find ppl can't understand that everyone is different and will therefore recieve things differentley.

Maybe he's not easy to please but your young cousins just have a different taste.

 

[Agent 194]

I still say that, though not the approach I'd take to the movie, Story is trying to put out a certain type of movie. It's not the, "quick throw it all in with little intelligent thought", approach that Bret whathisname did on X-3. He seems to be trying to craft a certain feeling in his movies. I thought Doom flying on the board at the end was a little Whitchiepoo from HR Puffinstuff but I really like what Evans and Chiklis have brought to their respective roles.

One note which seems to be bothering everyone leading up to this...Does Jessica Alba really have to wear those stupid blue contact lenses? Who cares if she has brown eyes. I don't really remember that being a crucial part of her character in the books. Ben was called old blue eyes and not much seems to be played up about that. Schwarzenegger had brown eyes as Conan and he is always refered to as the blue eyed Barbarian in the RE Howard books. True we didn't have internet back then but I don't remember anyone making much to do about it. To this day I've never read a thing about that from anyone but me. I remember just noting it and then going on with the movie. Besides, with James Earl Jones' super cool performance as the villain, and Sandhal Bergman's great legs, who really noticed.

 

[Kelly]

I still say that, though not the approach I'd take to the movie, Story is trying to put out a certain type of movie. It's not the, "quick throw it all in with little intelligent thought", approach that Bret whathisname did on X-3. He seems to be trying to craft a certain feeling in his movies. I thought Doom flying on the board at the end was a little Whitchiepoo from HR Puffinstuff but I really like what Evans and Chiklis have brought to their respective roles.

One note which seems to be bothering everyone leading up to this...Does Jessica Alba really have to wear those stupid blue contact lenses? Who cares if she has brown eyes. I don't really remember that being a crucial part of her character in the books. Ben was called old blue eyes and not much seems to be played up about that. Swarzenegger had brown eyes as Conan and he is always refered to as the blue eyed Barbarian in the RE Howard books. True we didn't have internet back then but I don't remember anyone making much to do about it. To this day I've never read a thing about that from anyone but me. I remember just noting in and then going on with the movie. Besides, with James Earl Jones' super cool performance as the villain, and Sandhal Bergman's great legs, who really noticed.

Her look is what people slammed first and foremost to the utmost degree back in 2004, so I can see why they made those changes to her apearance.....you have no idea how strange it is to read posts like yours on this board after July -- October 2004.......very, very strange. lol

What I thought was kind of funny was, in the novelization of the sequel her eyes are brown, and are talked about a couple of times as "brown"....lol

 

[Agent 194]

I remember people slamming her look but even back then I thought, "who cares?!" It never was that big a selling point to me. She's great looking. She can be blond with less trouble and distraction than contact lenses, and she can be a supportive wife. That's enough for me. I never saw the big deal.

 

[Kelly]

I remember people slamming her look but even back then I thought, "who cares?!" It never was that big a selling point to me. She's great looking. She can be blond with less trouble and distraction than contact lenses, and she can be a supportive wife. That's enough for me. I never saw the big deal.

You would have been a minority of "one" on this board.....there were actual "hope she dies...." threads....lmao

 

[Spade]

Well, I finally got around to it. Mind you, I'm not just writing this for SHH- I'm posting this on MySpace and MyFavoriteGames Forums as well. Hope it doesn't sound too informal.

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer review

I just came back from Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and to sum up my sentiment brings mixed feelings...thankfully, not all negative. Far from it, in fact. I should warn from the get-go: this review is spoiler-intensive. Read at your own risk.

I'll tell anyone to the face that my thoughts on the first film amounted to poor execution, an overly extrapolated origin, and bad acting. But I do admit that in the case of Marvel's Ghost Rider I was far too kind to such a flawed film, and that the reviews on this film sounded somewhat hopeful. So it was with some lingering expectation of disappointment that I went to see this film. And I must say, after intensive thought...I was impressed. The story is the first thing that comes to mind- it's not too shabby, even if there are chinks in the armor. The movie opens with a foreboding look of a planet dying and the Surfer zooming away as a blip on the screen, a nice opening that strays away from the extended feel the beginnings of most feature films give. The plot itself has something I must praise it for- structure. Granted, I felt a bit of the material was bad, but it had structure. This is something Spider-Man 3 lacked. It doesn't really leave threads lingering and makes the story fall together cohesively.

In a summary- a cosmic being coated silver and of unknown origin (stop me if you know his name) brings abnormalities to the world at large leaving suspicious craters in Earth's mantle, at the rather unfortunate junction of Reed Richards and Susan Storm's wedding plans. It's not made any better by the arrival of one General Hager, who informs Reed of the threat as the men of the team are dancing at a bachelor's party (much to Reed's chargin). Things are looking haphazard to have a wedding in such media attention with Johnny and Ben ever bickering along the way, but the two finally manage to go through with a day to remember...in more ways than one. Reed's secretly-built tracking device picks up the being's radiation signature too little too late, as the visitor passes by and causes some serious trouble involving a helicopter that the team rallies together to solve. After Johnny's contact with this "Silver Surfer" and the power switches that ensue from the after effects, Marvel's beloved family comes to the realization that it has only days to spare before a force of inexplicable power devours our planet, and that it'll take new company and an old foe to solve this crisis.

Alright...that aside, the movie is pretty solidly built. Many people said that this movie deserves an A. I would say that some of the old disappointments of the first haunt this film, but that it doesn't bog this movie down so much that you can't enjoy the rich material Story brings to the fore. Is it the comic book feel I hoped for? The secular music in place of a better Ottman score and plain-clothes Doom make me give a resounding 'no'. Is it a movie that tries and succeeds towards the end of making an epic scenario that harkens to the scale of the books? Most certainly. In particular, praise goes to the Surfer's adaption. Doug Jones in particular- while Fishburne's voice acting added an enigmatic feel to the Surfer that I enjoyed, it was the moments where we saw the de-powered Surfer at the mercy of humanity's cruelty and capacity for understanding that we saw what Lee and Kirby intended for this stalwart Spock of the cosmos so many years ago. His emotional range jumps from detached to conflicted in a way only the Surfer does, and he deserves a pat on the back for showing that. It's a little disappointing that Story's action comes a bit short in the scale department- while visually the Surfer is amazing, his cosmic bolts and their effects could have done with a smidgen more breadth. But most everything else is what I wished the first to be- the positive family story set in a world where the fantastic occurs.

The negative? This movie, as I said, has it's chinks. For one, Julian McMahon is something I just have trouble seeing as a good Doom. Even my mother, a woman whose only understanding of Doom is in the figurines I own and who Twentieth Century was probably aiming for, asked me if he was supposed to be Doom. Sadly, I feel Story cast the wrong man. McMahon doesn't seem capable of the regal menace of Vincent Von Doom nor the presence such a character brings without the armor, and even with it on that voice makes the brimming power he's given in this film feel belittled in comparison. Another is the special effects. "Reed's clothes having unstable molecules in order to explain how they stretch" arguments aside, the movie doesn't seem to ground the CGI in the same way as a film like Hellboy did. It felt cartoony in parts like the dance sequence and London Eye rescue, overused as the Surfer sinks into his board (?), and ill-conceived in the "giant cloud about to swallow Earth" bit (as well as the insides of that cloud...a matter I'll speak about in a moment) as well as Johnny's flame-on moments (still shoddy). It has great moments, but I just wasn't as impressed with some parts as I was with others. Frankie Raye also felt a bit throwaway. I hope they do more with her in a sequel like what Alicia got in this movie.

What deserves recognition? The acting, for one- almost everyone brought the aces in their decks. Evans portrays Johnny in a way that is obnoxious without being incapable of redemption, Reed is treated by Ioan as both a shy geek and a man with the capacity to command like in the books, and even Alba surprised me with her ability to add the womanly tones of Sue to her portrayal without the bad acting that marred the even-worse adaption of the first film. The only member who could have done better was Chiklis. I just didn't feel the emotion the Thing could have had in this film. But it's not too bad- he still makes you overlook the ever-horrid suit that still plagues this franchise when the going's good (and the camera's far back). Another thing that is worth mentioning is the action beats- the Fantasticar chase with Doom's aerial harassment with his newly-endowed cosmic powers is a thing to behold about midway through, when the sky seems to start falling in the form of bedrock and as the Great Wall gets a rearrangement China's cultural preservation committees wouldn't take sitting down. It feels...darker. That's hard to say in a movie that's PG, but Story doesn't cut out things that an older audience would be surprised made it to the final cut. As dark as it could be? No, but considering that the stories were dark without delving too much into scares Story isn't raping the books at all. Reading the old stories again helps in an analysis to soften some of the hit-and-miss humor that interrupts it (I wasn't quite as tickled pink by the rock slide joke as others were). It's still capable of a shadier undertone even with the comedy. The next time, though, I wouldn't mind showing us things like what Doom's face looks like without the obscurity. The build-up for that in particular felt ejaculatory.

And before I drew this to a close, you know I'm obliged to mention my subject of ire in this film: Galactus. This adaption was not kind to him. Whether it be the tendrils to an otherwise well-conceived opening, the literal naming of the cloud/ spaceship hybrid as the big G, or the complete lack of a single uttered word (a "my herald..." would have sufficed just fine at the end when the Surfer approaches the 'center', people- give me a break!) this adaption was far from what I would call "satisfactory". Galactus acts like the oncoming terror, but without the God-like presence he had in Kirby's well-drawn art. Essentially, he has no part in the movie. He just acts as a deus ex machina to set up a grand sacrifice on the pure Surfer's part. The worst part, though? You do see the chinuous plates of a drill as he begins to "dig in" and what I guess is a face (thanks to Fox, it just looked like red-lit clouds to me). But it's all too obscured due to corporate fear or bad mystery ploys or whatnot, and it just ends up like sex without a climax. Too much tease and enigma, not enough food for the visual appetite. I'm just glad that there's a Surfer side story in the works. It's not the worst thing to have happened to the horned devastator of planets ever (I'm looking at you Millar), but it's far from what I wanted.

This whole movie has it's quirks: Doom is way too trusted by the mean Army men from stereotypical Hollywood's nightmares, yet at the same time you feel emotion as he does away with the glue of the group (if only because Gruffudd's reaction is great to tug the heartstrings). It also leaves some threads here and there unresolved- Doom's fate and Galactus' fate, for instance. But overall, this is a big step up from a film I give an unabashful F to in my grading. Gladly, it's not a Last Stand or Daredevil, nor a Daredevil-to-Ghost Rider transition for these films. Don't fool yourself- you're not going to see the perfect FF film, and Story still needs big strides to make and wrinkles to iron out before this franchise fully redeems itself. But, if I could sum up this film in a sentence: with the rocky start this franchise got off to, it's a true pleasure to see that things have turned around.

My final grade? A low B/ 80%, with a tepid thumbs-up. It's not something I'd have meaningful conversation with my friends about, but it's also what I hoped for when I said I was willing to give Story a chance to amaze me.

-The Chibi Kiriyama

 

[Rabb]

The negative? This movie, as I said, has it's chinks. For one, Julian McMahon is something I just have trouble seeing as a good Doom. Even my mother, a woman whose only understanding of Doom is in the figurines I own and who Twentieth Century was probably aiming for, asked me if he was supposed to be Doom. Sadly, I feel Story cast the wrong man. McMahon doesn't seem capable of the regal menace of Vincent Von Doom nor the presence such a character brings without the armor, and even with it on that voice makes the brimming power he's given in this film feel belittled in comparison.
-The Chibi Kiriyama

I loved the movie and love Julian as Doom as well. You can say what you want about Julian in your review but at least Julian knows the name of the character he played.

 

[gambitfire]

^lol that's wrong.

 

[Kelly]

^lamo actually its very correct.....................oh man.....how funny.

 

[Agent 194]

Wow, activity around here has slowed to a crawl. Does that speak to the movie or is everyone just busy these past few days?

 

[Agent 194]

Think I've answered my own question.

 

[Spade]

I just saw the earnings for this movie...it could easily be that the interest level has taken a nosedive.

 

[gambitfire]

^lamo actually its very correct.....................oh man.....how funny.

I know, it's just an expression I frequently use.

 

[The Joker]

Wow, the critics are hating this aren't they: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fantastic_four_2_rise_of_the_silver_surfer/