Tallguy

Well, RTD is the one that brought Christmas Doctor Who back, isn't he? Disney is posting it as the Holiday Special and Chibnal took DW off of Christmas.

Tony Shaloub makes everything better. AI will never replace Tony Shaloub.

Tony Shaloub makes everything better. AI will never replace Tony Shaloub.

Reading that back I want to be clear: I'm being sarcastic. Hanukkah is the only other holiday on December 25th this year and the special will have nothing to do with it. So calling it a Holiday Special is (as it always is) ridiculous.
 
Not that there is some shadowy conspiracy controlling the BBC. Yikes.

It was not my intention to offend you Jason, and if I did, I'm truly sorry.
 
I just mean, the film appears to be marketed to 13-year-old girls (I understand there are lots of cats). OK, maybe 15, depending on the maturity level. And to me, not being in that target audience, it looks unappealing. YMMV.
 
I prefer much more mature Marvel fare, what with the talking racoon and such.

I'm so excited for this I can't see straight.

Ah, the "is this girly" discussion again.

wtf?

More...what?
 
Pretentious?

If AI is that powerful then AI will eliminate the need for Hollywood studios.

BERMAN!

Last week I was watching the credits and literally said "WHO composed this?"

Sure but those are from Disney Animation Studios, not Pixar Studios (which is owned by Disney now but wasn't always)
 
Powell scored Bolt for Disney Animation Studios back in 2008 after he had already done Antz, El Dorado, Chicken Run, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda for Dreamworks Animation (and Robots, Ice Age 2, and Horton for Blue Sky Studios)

The Marvels
 
A lot has been said about this film, before it was even released, especially by people who haven't even seen the film. Now with the release of the film, the reception has been mixed. There are people who hate it and those who love it. Let's just say I'm mostly on the side of the latter. I really enjoyed the film and although I feel some things could've been better, it's nowhere near as bad as some people claim.
 
The cast is great, especially the main trio. Vellani to me was the standout. Her giddiness and clear joy of being there is very infectious and I couldn't help but be inspired by it. The way she lights up every scene she's in, ensures that Larson is able to lighten up a bit as well. Up till this point she has been very stoick and a bit hard to reach. But here she showed more emotion and playfullness that was a nice change of pace.
Teyonah Parris is the science geek of the trio, which I thought was a great development. It was a treat to see her discover her powers and she gets quite the power up in the film.
 
All three women are very powerful, which is really cool to see. And each of them is able to hold their own in a fight. It was especially cool to see Kamala fight. My favorite battle/fight was the very first in the film. The music, the fight choreagraphy, the switching places, the camerawork. It must have taken a lot of planning to pull off, but I thought it was terrific.
 
The film is 1 hour and 45 minutes and it moves very fast, which I enjoyed. But I do feel that maybe 10 to 15 minutes could've been added to flesh out some characters and emotional moments a bit more (the training halfway through could've been longer, I loved that).
Another example, the villain is only really here so the trio come together, but doesn't do a lot after. And there are interesting things going on with Carol being afraid of her own power, but it's not explored enough.
 
So yeah, kudos to Nia DiCosta for some very strong visuals and action. It might not be perfect, but I had a really good time, and sometimes that's all you need!
 
Oh, and those post credits scenes. Been a long time since I screamed that loudly in a cinema!!!! 
 

Got mine, and the slipcase is good. The presentation is great, IMHO. Cover looks better in person than the graphic would suggest.
 
Rip and tag session tonight.

Last week I was watching the credits and literally said "WHO composed this?"

Nobody is claiming Karpman is as great a composer as John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, or Shirley Walker for that matter. But tokenism? NO. She's a solid composer and a longtime veteran of the industry who's certainly got more experience and awards under her belt than say Joel P. West did when he got the gig for Shang-Chi (and did a good job with it).
 
I find her music for Ms. Marvel much more interesting and memorable than her music for The Marvels (which itself isn't bad by any means), and I suspect that's because she had more creative freedom on the former than the latter. There's always more scrutiny and producer control on big budget feature films. It's the smaller projects like TV miniseries where composers tend to be allowed to spread their wings and experiment more these days, in Hollywood.
 
Karpman's Ms. Marvel isn't as great as Williams's Superman or Elfman's Batman (or Walker's Superman OR Batman) but it absolutely DOES have better and more interesting music than the majority of MCU theatrical films have had... and I include Elfman's Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness in that. Patrick Doyle is a GREAT composer with a distinctive style... and most of his Thor score for the MCU was generic RPC temp-tracked mediocrity IMO. With a few notable exceptions such as Giacchino's original Dr. Strange or Beck's Ant-Man, the MCU doesn't tend to encourage uniqueness or memorability from its composers, which have been almost entirely white guys. So yeah, when one or two female film composers get an MCU gig, suddenly "tokenism" is blamed? Utter nonsense.
 
You know, Natalie Holt's work on LOKI has been utterly fantastic, unique, and memorable, specific to that show and not confusable with any other MCU scoring. But if you only knew her work from Obi-Wan I think it would be a big surprise. Composers do the best they can within the parameters and directions they are given.
 
Yavar

IMHO good themes in no particular order:
 
Captain America
Thor
Thor 2
Doctor Strange
Spider-Man (MCU)
Ant-Man
Avengers
Iron Man 3
Captain Marvel
 
Guardians of the Galaxy is OK I guess.

It's a matter of opinion

Well, I've just seen ALIEN, and I'm safely (?) tucked up, in bed.
Superlatives fail me. @JTW is right, but, like all truly great films, it's much more than that.
It drew me in. It affected me. It gripped my attention, my emotions, my thoughts, and my imagination, and it didn't let go until the end credits had rolled. I was with the hapless crew of the Nostromo, every step of the way, as they tried, bravely, to blow the alien the fuck out into space.
It also did something that surprised me: it revolted and disgusted me, but, you understand, in a very good, and very effective way.
44 1/2 years on, and if a film can do all of that, then it deserves to stand among the titans of the cinematic medium.
 

Not the talented ones.

You want Alien to scare you again? Go play Alien: Isolation.

... especially since they are in November, and early December 
 
 
 
Not sure whether to  at that, or not, but I'm going to... 
 
 
Yes, it's a holiday special for the whole city, so give the constitution a rest, ok? It's Christmas.

Theatrical Cut.

I doubt it'll be referred to as a 'Holiday Special' on this side of the pond, somehow.