What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I look forward to seeing the new Spider-verse movie in the theater, which is a rare honor that I only bestow upon one or two movies per year. The original Spider-verse movie scored a rare 100% at Rotten Tomatoes, and is the only movie that my elderly cat pays attention to while I am watching it at home. I have a female friend who is completely uninterested in the MCU movies, and even she enjoyed it. It has been a long wait for this sequel, but it sounds like they took the time to get it right.

You can tell your lady friend that there is only ONE SINGLE LINE that references any of the MCU in spiderverse. Thats it. There are TONS of spiderman specific callbacks, some reference the spidey films, but only 1 that requires any MCU knowledge.

Sony has access to everything spidey though, so it wouldn't surprise me to see because spiderverse 3 is gonna be BANANAS. There is actually a quick bit in spiderverse 2 that has already hinted at it.

I just got back from seeing Spiderverse II: Full Marvel Enema on Imax ffor $6 Tuesday with a couple of my kids. My wife watched the first hour of Spiderverse I: We Went to Art School and decided not to see the sequel with us, so I called up a work buddy. Actually he is my only friend--I don't have any other friends I can call up to see a movie.

I'm subtitling it Full Marvel Enema because it's obvious that a) Sony desperately wants superhero money, b) they only have one license and c) they are going to squeeze that license to a ridiculous degree



Although it was a fun, postmodern graphic funhouse with the theme of "Poor communication skills will destroy the fabric of the multiverse" I was so pissed off at the end of the movie that I literally booooed out loud and shouted "What a rip off"

That said, the show had some amazingly entertaining moments.

I also predict that Spiderverse 3: How Deep is Your Wallet will be made entirely with AI art.

I heard the third one is coming march 2024 so full resolution should be soon.

And yeah, my understanding is that Sony A. MUST exercise the spidey license every....7 years? or lose it, B. they get access to anyone ever associated with spidey (so a deep villain bench at least), and C. only get film $$$, not comic or merch. So unless they have renegotiated with marvel/Disney, they really only have a vested interest in film box office (and I get vidja games on the PS5) rather than a merch churn. Though Sony and Marvel seem to be working together fairly well these days (certainly better than Fox and Marvel seemed to be before the aquisition) so maybe this isn't entirely true now.

I went to the 9:30 AM showing of Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, because I knew there would be a low turn-out that would decrease the possibility of some idiot in the audience ruining the movie. I hate that the local theatre now requires you to choose a specific seat, because now getting up and moving away from an idiot can potentially lead to trouble with someone else. Sure enough, a group of mostly women sat down close to me and talked loudly through the previews, causing me to expect trouble. But I was wrong.

As soon as the movie started, that group quieted right down. The movie leads with Gwen, and it turned out that this group was all serious Gwen fans. I won't say they stayed silent for the whole movie, as they laughed at the funny parts and audibly sighed in sympathy with the emotional beats.

How was the movie? Really great. Every bit as good as the first Spider-verse movie and well worth the wait. Sometimes it seems like most modern movies are composed largely of tired tropes (like every movie in the previews today), but Across the Spider-verse contained numerous pleasant surprises and plenty of fun. The writing is great, the animation is fantastic, and the voice actors are all on point. It ends on a cliffhanger, but we won't even be waiting a year for the finale.

Do you have to be a Spider-man fan to enjoy this movie? I don't think it's at all necessary, but any prior experience with Spider-man (comics, movies, whatever) will allow you to appreciate certain easter eggs, of which there are a multitude on offer here. Ideally, you should watch the first Spider-verse movie before this one, but I think the unconventional opening of this movie will get you up to speed quickly.

I enjoyed Across the Spider-Verse as well. I didn't find it as emotionally powerful as the first film, but it was still great.

It’s hard to talk about Across the Spider-Verse because it’s just half a movie. Everything up to the arrival in Earth 2099 was great. Wonderful character moments for everyone, humor, action, pathos, the works. The movie even follows through on distinct multiverses that feel very much their own rather than settle quickly in just one other world (looking at you Doctor Strange and (presumably) The Flash). I wouldn’t mind the action sequences toned down ten percent to follow them better, but it fits the characters and setting.

The back half struggles with pacing as everything is either a speech or set piece but is still generally engaging and more good than bad.

But it’s still just half a movie. A one-hundred-forty-minute half. The team has given me no reason to doubt they’ll stick the landing, but how much can I say until I see the ending?

The Flash is a LOT of fun. It's sad that the lead actors personal shenanigans derailed the film so much because the delay let Spiderverse come in and totally scoop it's plot. Still, it is a well put together love letter to DC films that takes the Snyder grimdark dudebro sensibility and tempers it with levity and enough whimsy to make for a nice family film. It is bombing hard at the box office, like most of the DC films, which is just sad given the cultural penetration the DC big five have.

My kids were clamoring to go see Elemental, and I was hesitant due to a casual impression that reviewers didn't like it and the box office numbers were weak. Maybe it's thanks to very low expectations but I quite liked it. Aesthetically I found it fun to look at with many creative concepts on how human-like elements would live together in a city. The jokes were abundant and there was a decent amount of positive messaging for kids. The kicker for me is that it seemed to be a romantic comedy. While I don't have much interest in those, I quite liked this one.

BillyBobThwarton wrote: The kicker for me is that it seemed to be a romantic comedy. While I don't have much interest in those, I quite liked this one.

Let me guess, it ends with the fire girl and water boy moving in to kiss, then the camera pans up to a moonlit night sky and a big cloud of steam shoots up?

I'm on the fence about Indy 5. Crystal Skull still stings and I don't want to reward bad behavior. But it's Indy, a siren call I just can't ignore!

My wife and I sat in our driveway, excitedly humming the Indy theme song, before we went to see Crystal Skull. I don’t know if we’ve ever been more disappointed in a movie release.

I am now expecting this one to be junk.

n815e wrote: My wife and I sat in our driveway, excitedly humming the Indy theme song, before we went to see Crystal Skull. I don’t know if we’ve ever been more disappointed in a movie release.

I am now expecting this one to be junk.

I'm debating on whether or not to don the classic outfit and REALLY show my Indy love. And the steamy 100+ degree heat here will quickly show that a leather jacket is NOT appropriate jungle attire

At this point I'm closer to Crystal Skull Indy than Last Crusade Indy in age, I think. Maybe I can try to dress my kid as Dogbone or whatever the fuck his name was, the wife makes for a passable Marion already.

I had read about Lamb, sounds pretty wild.

My wife read women talking and liked it pretty well, we chatted about the conceit, sounds pretty harrowing.

ubarose wrote: Women Talking and Lamb. They are both haunting and disturbing. But I won't recommend them here, as I suspect that most of you all wouldn't much care for them. I, however, will probably watch them again, because, whoa... just whoa.

I loved Women Talking: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2023/01/dialogue-of-power.html

Haven't gotten around to Lamb yet.