Ryan Reynolds Wins 'People's Choice Award' For 'Green Lantern'

Stockslivevan wrote:Well, basically they call it an admirable failure. Admirable because they note that Zach Snyder has a real gift for visual storytelling which is something a lot of his Hollywood peers lack. Why it fails is because most of the sequences take place in their heads, as they dance their mind goes into this crazy fantasy world where there's no real consequence (Baby Doll slams into the ground at a hundred miles per hour, she's not hurt) and the sequences play out like a video game where they need to get an item before moving onto the next level. Characters are one dimensional. For comparison, they site THE MATRIX as a better example of how you can throw characters into a fantasy world but there are rules which allows the story to have some kind of tension. When I was in the theater watching this flick I found myself at times losing focus on the flick, my mind would wander onto other things because I knew what was happening on the screen didn't really matter because while they're fighting samurai/dragon/whatthefuck they're really just dancing seductively dancing for some horny Senator trying to get him distracted enough to grab an object from him. Overall, it's just boring to watch and from all the reviews I've heard, apparently I'm not alone on this.

Here's the problem that I think you, them, and a lot of others had:

I don't think you got what WHY everything was happening in their heads.

I'll elaborate if you'd like.

All I can recall is that at the end it turns out it was all in her head right before Don Draper 'tarded her out, meaning it was a fantasies within fantasies within fantasies, or whatever.

I kinda wanna revisit every Snyder flick before MAN OF STEEL, so I'll talk more of SUCKER PUNCH by then. I hadn't seen 300 since theaters but I thought it was FANTASTIC cheese. Never saw his DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, or that Owl movie. I own WATCHMEN (blu-ray director's cut), which is probably one of the most mesmerizing flicks I've seen in recent years. That's what I kinda hope for in MAN OF STEEL, not necessarily that dark grimy tone but I wanna be enthralled.

Stockslivevan wrote:All I can recall is that at the end it turns out it was all in her head right before Don Draper 'tarded her out, meaning it was a fantasies within fantasies within fantasies, or whatever.

There's actually more to it than that.

Much more.

I kinda wanna revisit every Snyder flick before MAN OF STEEL, so I'll talk more of SUCKER PUNCH by then. I hadn't seen 300 since theaters but I thought it was FANTASTIC cheese. Never saw his DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, or that Owl movie. I own WATCHMEN (blu-ray director's cut), which is probably one of the most mesmerizing flicks I've seen in recent years. That's what I kinda hope for in MAN OF STEEL, not necessarily that dark grimy tone but I wanna be enthralled.

'300' was great for what it was, and was a hit like VERY few directors can lay claim to. 'Dawn of the Dead' is a very good remake of the original. 'Owls of Ga'Hoole' is not your typical "kiddie animated flick", which is why it didn't do very well. But it definitely has some beautiful imagery. 'Watchmen' would have been a much bigger hit if not for three things:

BBD.

And if you believe the rumors I posted the other day, the tone is more 'THOR' than it is 'The Dark knight'.

Sounds good. I just watched THOR tonight. It reminds me a lot of Donner's SUPERMAN. Thor's world is so fantastical and dramatic, then you go to Earth and it's sarcasm. If that's really what MAN OF STEEL will be like but in a modern context then I'm excited.

Stockslivevan wrote:I kinda wanna revisit every Snyder flick before MAN OF STEEL, so I'll talk more of SUCKER PUNCH by then. I hadn't seen 300 since theaters but I thought it was FANTASTIC cheese. Never saw his DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, or that Owl movie. I own WATCHMEN (blu-ray director's cut), which is probably one of the most mesmerizing flicks I've seen in recent years. That's what I kinda hope for in MAN OF STEEL, not necessarily that dark grimy tone but I wanna be enthralled.

I long ago accepted that I love the movie version of Watchmen in a way that may not be completely normal or healthy. It used to be my preferred cut was the theatrical edition but I've been coming around to the director's cut. I guess I'd never appreciated just how much really changed for the director's cut. Different timings, alternate takes, different camera angles. It's not just another thing where they slapped a few extra scenes in there. It truly is an alternate cut of the movie in several cases.

I never totally bought into the idea that Watchmen was unfilmable. True, the comic could never be literally adapted but Snyder capably adapted the look, style, feel, tone, characters and plot of the sucker... which is probably more than your average Hollywood hack is likely capable of ever doing. The different ending in the movie works pretty well for me. I dug the idea that Veidt engineered Dr. Manhattan's exile specifically to frame him for "nukes" worldwide. Veidt and Manhattan were each the closest either of them had to a genuine peer so the scheme cost both of them something.

I think Watchmen's box office problems went beyond BBD. For starters, this was never a moron's comic book. It's a story that requires you to have a relatively intimate knowledge of 20th century history in order to appreciate the intentional departures from that history. Given that a lot of people under the age of 25 all seem to believe that "Watergate" refers to that time Nixon put on a ninja outfit and broke into Democrat Headquarters, Inc. in order to steal the election (I'm dead fucking serious, a lot of them think that), Watchmen was always facing an uphill battle with your average semi-conscious American teenager/twenty-something. I hate to play the "they didn't get it" card but facts is facts.

But no, the BBD didn't help.

To be honest that kind of knowledge definitely helped me since I have a fascination for 20th century history, so I definitely caught on when they threw in even minor stuff that might pass by someone. Then there's stuff like the Comedian watching The McLaughlin Group that reminded me more of the old SNL skits than the actual show it's trying to replicate.

It is a hard movie to sell to the masses, but that's their loss. I wish I saw it in theaters when it was out. I wasn't sure if I'd like it that much but that one night I popped in the rental really blew me away.