A few movies seen.

[melchar]

I've seen a coupla movies lately.

Saw 'War of the Worlds' and was pleased that they kept & read the 1st & last paragraph from the book - and kept the ending of Wells' story. I'm not impressed by Cruise as an actor, but there were a few scenes in which he did a very good job [especially the 'brushing dust off' scene]. However IMHO the character he portrayed in the flick was a moron who was unable to explain fact one to anyone - and came across as borderline autistic. Movie worth seeing once at matinee prices.

Saw 'Fantastic 4' and wasn't expecting much. Was pleasantly surprised because they got the main 4 principles right. Good special effects and a decent job with the costuming. However I was SO disappointed with the Doom portrayal [as just another evil corporate dolt] that it rather spoiled that portion of the film for me. [like whenever he was on screen.] The over-marketed product tie-ins for the movie also annoy heck outa me. Another movie worth seeing once at matinee price.

And I saw 'Madagascar' - a movie I had NO interest in seeing and had NO hopes or expectations for. I went because Trey wanted to see it and I wanted to watch movies with him. So I munched popcorn and wasn't very impressed by the beginning of the story, the 4 main characters were endurable - but then the penguins showed up and the movie took off. I was amused by the zoo breakout. The penguin piracy was great. And then the 4 main characters end up on Madagascar and the lemures showed up and I just dissolved into giggles. I LOVED the movie. There were a LOT of sf film references [once you got to the lemures] - and ... I just had the BEST time watching that film. Worth seeing at full price at least once - and I plan to buy the DVD [and possibly inflict the video on my mom as an Xmas prezzie].

All in all, pretty good. No movie I felt was a waste of my life viewing and one that was WONDERFUL. ^_^

Comments

Well...

[seawasp]

... I didn't mind Doom QUITE so much; he can be "rehabilitated" into a Cool Villain in a sequel. I can even see a way to combine this version with the original and let him step into the role. (and the nice thing is that if they want a different actor there won't be a problem). It is POSSIBLE that the reason they went so distant from the original is that it just so happens that, this summer, there is ANOTHER major villain who happens to get injured and ends up wearing a cool suit of armor with a cape and a permanently closed mask, and they were (probably rightly) figuring they didn't want to bang heads with Mr. Lucas, despite the fact that Doctor Doom predates Star Wars by about 10-15 years.

Nit: Lemurs, not lemures; the latter is some sort of lower-class devil, the former large-eyed very primitive primates which have some arcane connection to UNIX gurus.

Re: Well...

[melchar.livejournal.com]

[smacks self on head] You're right! Lemurs! I spelled it right in the BASFA notes, but must have picked up demon-contagion after having done one too many postings in my AD&D 'Hell' game.
Oopsie!
...they wouldn't have NEARLY as cute if they were lemures.

As for Doom, making him more of a pablum villain was possibly the only way the film makers kept it from being the movie of 'DOOM with a bit of FF on the side'. I hadn't thought about the Doom/Vader link. That's a good one! But the dumbing-down still disappointed me.

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

You like penguins? Have you seen "March of the Penguins" yet? :-)

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Nope, haven't seen it yet. It looks like something to watch on a hot day, tho. ^_^

But I -did- love the penguins reaction to the Antarctic in 'Madagascar'. [heh heh]

[jobethfun67.livejournal.com]

I rather liked Madagascar myself. Those lemurs were SO adorable... and I even liked the song!!!! And those penguins were funny.

[trolan.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree on 'Fantastic Four' Not a bad film, but definitely matinee fodder. Main things that annoyed me were some painful continuity problems: "Do this, and see what's over there, as we can't!" *cut* "Wow, glad you did that, and now we're all over here" Uhm.. how? Normal movie silliness. The other entertaining bit was the fact I ended up seeing it with Jim M. and Shaun T. from bigger.net days after crossing paths with them in the mall, and also saw a boojum scurrying up the upper tiers looking for someone. Weird confluence of people.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

[nods] Yeah, there were some definate problems - and some annoying semi-teleporting characters. [as in - 'hi there, you can see I have to be waaaaay over here right now AND in a glowy machine - but here I am like 90 seconds later in real time, punching you ina face'].

I did like that they did the character interactions pretty well.

The convocation of fellow friends at the matinee sounds like it was fun!

How can you go wrong....1111111

[pbsjones.livejournal.com]

11111111111111111111111111110*damn/cat get off the keyboard!!

Penguins AND lemurs? OMG.

Re: How can you go wrong....1111111

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Cat must be interested in the subject, too. ^_^

But I will restate that 'Madagascar' was far beyond what I expected and is well worth watching. Just ... 'smile and wave boys; smile and wave'.

[(Anonymous)]

No doubt will be purchasing Madagascar for child's collection, and after reading your comments will likely watch the sily thing. Thank you.

As for your comments on FF....Considering what Hollywood writers Usually do to pre-existing stories I thought it was Pretty close to perfect. Making Doom a high power Business jerk was lame yes but at least 'they' made it mostly science related business. + Seeing Julian McMahon playing a 'bad guy' again was wonderful fun!
What I dis-liked was Doom's semi-robotic transformation

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No doubt will be purchasing Madagascar for child's collection, and after reading your comments will likely watch the sily thing. Thank you.

As for your comments on FF....Considering what Hollywood writers Usually do to pre-existing stories I thought it was Pretty close to perfect. Making Doom a high power Business jerk was lame yes but at least 'they' made it mostly science related business. + Seeing Julian McMahon playing a 'bad guy' again was wonderful fun!
What I dis-liked was Doom's semi-robotic transformation <bleh!>