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gkgyver

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Posts posted by gkgyver

    Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    9 hours ago, The Big Man said:

     

    Ehh superficially yeah. After Cranston is killed, ATJ's character has a renewed motivation to succeed at protecting his family because his own father largely failed at that. Oh I know, it's flimsy and weak, but it's there.

     

    BTW, Madison and the black dude in GvK largely follow in Cranston's footsteps as they're overtly portrayed as tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists in the broadest sense. They did it better and more believably with Cranston.


    Putting it more simply: When thinking back to, for example, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974, what’s the things that made it memorable and you remember? Godzilla killing Anguirus, Mechagodzilla, King Caesar - or the story of Keisuke and Masahiko Shimizu?

    Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

     

    They're kitschy pulp art. And of course they have a story. Formulaic, but story nonetheless.

     

    2014 was about a father and son reconciling. You hated it, but it is what it is.

     

    KOTM was a redemption story, loaded with Dougherty's usual theological symbolism and overt iconography.

     

    GvK is about the consequences of automation.

     

    Yeah yeah, you've gone on the record before claiming these movies are about nothing, and should always and only be about nothing. But that simply isn't true. Some effort actually went into giving these films individual stories, as feeble as they might be.


    No, that’s not what I said. I didn’t say they were about nothing, and I didn’t say there’s never a story. What I said was in the context of KoM reviews criticizing the story of the film for being flat and illogical, to which I said that’s ludicrous because the appeal of Godzilla films never were and never will be complex stories, putting it mildly. And of course I stand by that.

     

    They‘re not about nothing either. Someone not into Godzilla wouldn’t understand why Godzilla fans think that some movies are way worse than others, because from an outside objective standpoint, all of them look bad.


    I disagree about the story of 2014, too. Only 1/3 of the movie was about a father and his son reconciling. The rest was about soldier in peril and Godzilla not doing Godzilla things.

    Rewatching Superman Returns - Hollywood turned it into a masterpiece

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, The Big Man said:

     

    I'm as baffled by the "realistic/relatable/dark/disturbing" era now as I was back then. I mean, it doesn't fit the preceding pattern in cultural zeitgeists and Hollywood's response to it. For example, following WW2, instead of getting a slew of depressing Holocaust films, the gradiose Hollywood musical emerged as the dominant genre on the production line. Following America's post-Vietnam trauma, people responded well to buoyant and optimistic blockbusters like Star Wars and Superman, and the demand for more fantasy-based cinema followed, and thus the modern geek-culture was born. Bleak New Wave 70s cinema died.

     

    But in the 2000s? What the hell happened? What was it about that time when when people were like "yeh nah, I want me movies to be as miserable as I am"? This was obviously a GenX/millennial thing, so there's something off about that mob that's mismatched with how previous generations think.

     


    Because people see heroism in their misery and self inflicted trauma, which they think is worthwhile teaching others.

    They are miserable, but it’s not gravely affecting their lives. They can lament their misery from a position of basic comfort.

    They don’t need a counterprogram because 1) it’s not so bad for them, and 2) many can‘t take happy people.

    This current generation grew up on instant satisfaction, so when it gets a bit more complicated and requires more persistance, they easily give up and therefore easily become miserable. So for this generation, the hero fantasy is either someone who succeeds instantly at everything (s)he does (Mary Sue), or someone who shares their misery and can’t ever be not plagued by sorrow.


    Thats also why there is so much fake drama in these movies, this generation in the age of digital communication has never properly learned to interact with and understand people.

     

    If you’re a war generation, you’re practically pushed towards escapism. But these people don’t look for escapism, but for identification, because they feel nobody understands them, because people become socially incompatible.

    Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Stop using words like „art“, „story“ or „logic“ when talking Godzilla movies.

     

    Your head would explode watching the Millennium series.

     

    Listening to the soundtrack now. French horn patch ridden garbage. Desplat didn‘t get the Godzilla feel at all, too, but at least that was good music.

    Like all RCP music makers, zero sense for dynamics.

    He managed to minimalize the already short Ifukube motif down to five notes.

    The wrong notes.

    Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, TSMefford said:

     

    I'm not even sure what he does to it exactly. It's not distorted or so heavily effected to where it's super obvious what he's done, but the nuance and life of an orchestra is just not there in these scores. I imagine some of it is the heavy compression, but it just sounds sampled, like everything is too perfectly on time, that quantized feel. It's really dry and close sounding as well.

     

    Because it knows no dynamic range except brooding and fff

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    Rewatching Superman Returns - Hollywood turned it into a masterpiece

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    After browsing through YouTube clips connected with RedLetterMedia, because of all the Justice League talk, I came across a clip from Superman Returns, so I decided to watch the film again. 
    This film was released in 2006, and around that time, it wasn’t received very well, I thought of it as an uninspired and partly miscast movie that offered too many cliches, was misplaced in the time it came, and suffered from being compared to the superior original.

     

    Fast forward to now.

    I had to live through Christopher Nolan turning Batman into a depressing fuck full of antiheroes, I had to live through Marvel releasing whole series for each of their characters, one more irrelevant than the next, one more indistinguishable than the next, one more vapid and empty than the next; I lived through these films turning into tech-laden self-serving showcases with the occasional dialogue; I had to live through Zack Snyder turning Batman into a gun wielding maniac; I had to live through Superman, most uplifting character ever, being turned into a depressed moping mass murderer. I had to witness superhero movies, and generally movies, being drained from colors, drained from fun, taking themselves as serious as fucking war epics, injected with and warped into shape by overbearing Hollywood mandates, agendas, and „visions“ by „auteur“ con directors who apparently hate the characters they are supposed to portray. 
    Batman v Superman, Man Of Steel, Justice League, Dark Knight Rises, what steaming piles of utterly depressing fuckery. I had to witness orchestral, colorful, memorable music being replaced by brass farts and synth pads in the contrabasso register for 120 minutes straight. 
    Point is, you soak these things in, even if you don’t directly pay attention, through osmosis, and you just adapt it as normality.

     

    When I watched Superman Returns again, and I truly, truly mean it, it warmed my heart. This barely more than ten year old film felt like a ray of sunshine in this movie environment. Everything in the film has a beating heart. HEART. It’s not a bogus ADHS plot, the film takes its time for moments. It has colors! I couldn’t believe it, a movie with bright colors! When Superman returns and saves the plane, the film takes a whole minute just for showing people CHEER for Superman all over the country! With heroic music! It just feels soooo good, being allowed by a film to feel good about it!
    The flying sequence with Superman and Lois WITH THE NON MORONIC SCORE feels so gentle and heartfelt. The ending too. It’s from the heart. I feel it. And it ends GOOD.
     

    Do you even realize that literally all the last big superhero films end with someone dying and just depressing as all fuck? Dark Knight, Rachel dies. Dark Knight Rises, Bruce dies. Man Of Steel, Metropolis in ruins. Batman vs Superman, Superman dies. Iron Man dies. Everyone fucking dies.

     

    Brandon Routh feels so right after the last 10 years. It just feels like such an uplifting character. You know, SUPERMAN? He doesn’t even have to do much, he radiates just warmth, smiles, and determination. You know, when actors were actually acting and not just bulking up? When Superman could be just nice, open, helpful, and Clark a bit dorky? You know, RELATABLE?
    And my god does it feel great to watch a superhero film that doesn’t take itself so serious. It’s never overly serious, nor is it too comedic, yet the key scenes are very touching. And the few humor bits are actually funny, like Lois fainting after the plane rescue. I smiled. A genuine smile. Last time I smiled during a superhero film was a sarcastic smile.

    The idiot in Batman vs Superman playing Lex Luthor can go fuck himself. 
    And cinematography...I forgot how satisfying it is when there’s actual real stuff and real people in the camera, and no hamfisted bloke is zooming digital cameras about from impossible angles, letting CGI people fill in shit that wasn’t there, hoping it would not look too much like a video game.

     

    Even the score ... Back then, John Ottman‘s soundtrack was thought to be serviceable, but little more than that. Huge discrepancy between John Williams‘ original theme interludes and Ottman‘s fairly anonymous and in parts cliched underscore. Even THAT sounds like prime Williams through 2021 ears. 
    When action sequences were containing written motifs instead of farts and looped strings, when composers had enough pride to be noticed in the film, and when the composers were still composers, and not musically illiterate button mashers fresh from a Hans Zimmer internship.

     

    I enjoyed that film so much, and it genuinely made me feel better. Then my heart ached when I realized nobody is interested in making films like these anymore. And it’s not even a terribly original film. On the contrary, next up is Robert Pattinson as deranged edgelord Batman.

    Fuck, when will it stop? 
    The excuse that „time changes“ is bullshit, it doesn’t change on its own, it changes because Hollywood makes it change. 
    No wonder young people are depressed as hell when this shit is the new normal.

    Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, The Big Man said:

    Just saw it. Some initial notes:

     

      Hide contents

    It seems Godzilla has become a luddite, because when Madison observes aloud "they're trying to replace him", I couldn't help laughing that even Godzilla isn't immune to automation and Big Tech, and he's out on a campaign of sabotage! And Kong is just a pawn in this insidious plot concocted by the broadest stereotypical villains I've seen since a Fast and Furious flick.

     

    Probably one of the most vacuous films I've ever seen, and almost fittingly, I bet general audiences will embrace this one more than the previous three films. This in no way resembles the brooding 2014 film, if that was more ya thing. The outlandish tech alone makes it feel almost like a separate universe to the 2014 film. That said, you get your bang for your buck and all the money spent is on the screen.

     

    My audience groaned aloud that there was no post-credit scene. Haha.

     

     

    More outlandish tech than Godzilla Final Wars? 

    Junkie XL's JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The problem with these Remote Control goon scores is that from beginning to end, they treat each cue as an isolated and separate entity, without ANY sense for what comes before or after, or indeed an arc. 

    It's an endless string of individual cues, using the same language over and over. 

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