Let's use this thread to share comments about movies that are currently showing in theaters. As new movies come out, we can just keep adding to this thread. The main point here is to help each other figure out which ones are worth seeing now and which should just be rented later (if at all). :)


To kick it off, has anyone seen either "Beowulf" or "The Golden Compass"? I haven't seen them yet myself, but they both look potentially interesting. Though I've noticed that Beowulf seems to be failing to attract any buzz which is not a good sign. Golden Compass was just released so I haven't seen any word on it yet, but the trailer looks good.

Anyone seen these and wish to comment?

But apparently, Beowulf seems to be racking up high earnings in the cinemas and the movie was praised for its very realistic 3D renderings.

When I firt saw the trailer, I didn't know it was 3D rendered and I thought it was purely live-action! :faint: Angelina Jolie's appearance in the film is just too real to be 3D! :P

As for the Golden Compass, not sure what to comment about the film but it did create it's own controversy. :poof:

damn religious fanatisists. I read His Dark Materials and it was brilliant.

Went to see "The Golden Compass" tonight. I'd say it was good, but not great. Worth seeing if you like fantasy adventures (as I would imagine most people on this forum would). The CG work on all the creatures was truly outstanding. I'm at a loss to know if they used any real animals or not. The ice bears were particularly impressive looking. They very effectively modeled that layer of fat they have so that their skin and fur moved just the way you'd expect it to. Overall, this is one of the few movies with talking animals that doesn't come off looking even the slightest bit corny at any point anywhere in the movie. Definitely impressive.

You can definitely pick up the references to religion in the movie, though from what I've read about the books, they sanitized it all to a very high degree for the movie version which is not surprising. I kind of want to read the books now to see what the author really had to say. :)

And the ending was a little unexpected for me since I didn't know this was intended to be the first part of a multi-part saga. But that's OK as I'm looking forward to seeing more.

The main thing I noticed that I thought could have been better was the musical score. It was all very somber and low key. I guess they were trying to set an other-worldly mood of mystery or something, but it came off as making the movie feel depressing. I would have preferred something a bit more energetic with a feeling of grandeur, especially since the movie really lagged in a few places.

Oh, and I went and took the test on the official web site to see what my dæmon would be. I got Eurasta the snow leopard. There are apparently no mythical creatures, so a dragon would have been out of the question. :) I would have preferred a wolf, but a snow leopard's cool too. ;)

I'm going to go see Beowulf next. :)

(Look! I'M ALIVE! lol)

I'm really hoping to see the Golden Compass as I read the Northern Lights when I was in yr 6...that makes it six years ago! and loved it to bits. Iorek was my favorite characters.

What I want to see is the critics reaction to the Subtle Knife if it comes out! If they're angry now I would love to see them realise that the two male angels in the story are lovers! (Is a bit of a sadist ;) )

I'm still in the air about seeing Beowulf as I don't want to spoil the poem for myself, as I've heard that it doesn't stick to the tale at all. My friend made it sound like a cross between King Arthur and He-man. Angelina Jolie also puts me off, as I enjoy her work but feel she wouldn't make all that great a monster.

My favorite film that has come out recently is still Transformers (Yes, I haven't been to the cinema for that long) And that's more because of the internet fandom than the film it's self.

So I probably shouldn't tell you that Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel's mum, and the dragon all die. No, I won't tell you that because that would ruin it for you.

The Golden Compass seems a good film to see when I have nothing else to do. It's so far the only interesting film out so far. Beowulf doesn't look very interesting to me, especially since the titular character sounds like one of the big jerks I see on the bus now and again.

The above post contains spoilers. It is now safe to turn off your computer.

That happened in the poem, so I don't care. It's more the Hollywood-isation of the story that puts me off.

Yeah, same here. I saw pictures of it, and I've always thought of Grendel's mother as a huge green scaley monster-not a 24-carat Angelina Jolie.

Anyone seen Sea Monsters 3D? The CGI effects are amazing.

I wanna see Alvin and the Chipmunks.

The Bee Movie is actually quite good. *blushes about seeing it*

I prefer to watch Hitman

That movie got terrible reviews. I saw I Am Legend and it's totally BADASS!!! I still want to see AVP-R and National Treasure.

I'd like to see I Am Legend because I think I saw zombies or some other supernatural humanoid man-eating creature and what looked like a zombie dog in a few of the trailers. Plus, I just like the idea. Alvin and the Chipmunks looks good, as does the National Treasure movie. AVP-R looks so cool! I can't wait to see it! I don't plan on seeing Beowulf because I already know the story. Plus, Beowulf doesn't seem to be able to decide on what he is in the trailers for it. I'm serious! He names like five names in one of the trailers! I'm not saying that there's anything wrong if you want to see it or have seen it and liked it. If you are or have then I hope you enjoy/enjoyed it. :P

I am going to watch the movie tomorrow. I dunno Hitman Fans Enjoys Hitman But Those who never played Hitman very Rarely Enjoys It

Yeah, also a fan of Hitman and an eager to watch the movie, despite the mixed reviews. :unsure:

Btw, has anyone heard of Cloverfield? Seen the trailer and it looks like a cross between a monster movie and Blair Witch Project. :plot:

Saw "Beowulf" last night. I liked it a lot.

I didn't really know what to expect from this movie when I went in, but I came out thinking they did quite a good job with it. To give you my perspective, I was never much of a fan of the original and also I don't think there's anything wrong in principle with movie adaptions of classic literature, even if they make changes. When they make a movie like this, as far as I'm concerned, it either stands or falls on its own and I view it as a separate work from the original. As such, I really liked this version.

The movie has an extraordinary look. It combines live actors with motion capture and CG. I'm not exactly sure of the process they used (they call it ImageMotion in the end credits), but it's clear they motion captured all the live actors and created sort of CG character doubles for them. However, the twist here is that they blended the actors real face onto the CG characters they portray so that the actors are still easily recognizable in the film and you get all the tiny, subtle nuisances in their facial expressions. It's definitely different looking, but I liked it. The actors are then placed in all CG environments that start to border on photorealistic. The look of the characters and the backgrounds creates a look that's difficult to describe concisely. To me, it sort of creates a heightened sense of reality, sort of a hyper-reality, that in some respects looks incredibly real due to the motion capture but at the same time still has a little bit of CG look to it which makes it feel like a fantasy. Maybe "dream-like" is a better term. I thought the combination was wonderful myself, and having seen this now, I can't imagine seeing Beowulf as a strictly live action movie since I don't think it would have worked anywhere near as well. Beowulf is a legendary hero story, and legends go beyond reality, so I find it really worked to have the look of the film go beyond reality as well.

The CG environments are great looking. The landscape is very stark and bleak, which is what I had imagined from the original. And since the movie is done with motion capture, that means the "camera" is free to move in any direction which similarly works to make the movie seem beyond reality, kind of like flying in a dream if you will.

Top all this off with the fact that the film is in 3D, and the look is pretty stunning. They do a few cliched 3D effects, but for the most part it just blends seamlessly into the whole experience. In the end, it's just another tool to heighten (or perhaps I should say alter) the reality.

One thing that really struck me is that some of the battles are incredibly gruesome. I mean really gruesome. I've seen all sorts of violence and gore in other movies, but this one made me squirm in my seat at times. Also, Grendel is the most hideous looking creature I've ever seen in a movie. The motion capture, CG and 3D all heightens this feeling and I really didn't want to look at him. This never would have worked with strictly live action.

They did manage to get a tiny little bit of humor into the movie. Beowulf is naked at one point, and they had the most creative placement of objects in front of the camera so that you couldn't see more than you're supposed to in a PG-13 film. :) It was sort of like in the Austin Powers movies, though no where near that silly. It gave me a nice little chuckle without ruining the movie.

And of course, I thought the dragon was uber-cool looking. I just wished the battle with the dragon went on longer since it was so stunning.

From the reviews I've read, it's clear that those who think Hollywood shouldn't tamper with classics will only be disappointed by this movie. I've also talked to people who hated the motion capture/CG look. However, if you're more like me and look at these movies as independent works, and you like the altered, dream-like sense of reality that CG can provide, then I think you'll like this version of Beowulf. If you think you might be in this category, then I urge you see it in a theater that offers it in 3D. The 3D will be lost when the movie comes to home video and you really don't want to miss that part of the experience. So don't wait for home video and see it in a theater.

Saw the trailer but I'm not sure what to make of it yet. Looks like it has some Steven King influences. Not sure if it's a monster movie, alien invasion or supernatural sort of thing, and I don't think we're supposed to know until the end. Might be good, especially if it has an M. Night Shyamalan style plot twist.

On the other end of the scale, I saw the trailer for "Horton Hears A Who". It's CG animation from Blue Sky Studios which did the Ice Age movies. The look that their render engine provides is perfect for Dr. Seuss, so this might be good. Have to keep an eye on this one, too.

I'd really like to see I Am Legend as I love post-Apocolyptic films and or stories. The halfseen 'evilness' in the trailers feels a little overdone to me, but if they're zombies I'll be very happy.

Just saw I am Legend To tell you the truth you didn't even realize the time passing


THE MOVIE WAS COOL

To Furox: Cloverfield is supposed to be a monster movie filmed through video cameras. Think something along the lines of The Blair Witch Project Meets Godzilla.

I just watched National Treasure today. It rocked. It was about as good as the first. I'd love to go see it again.

Has anyone else seen a preveiw for Wall E? The new movie from Pixar? It's so funny, and the robot is really cute. ^_^

I was thinking about going to see National Treasure. Glad to hear you liked it.

For anyone who's interested, trailers for Wall E are here on Apple's Quicktime site. The movie opens in theaters at the end of June (at least in North America).

So did anyone besides me go see Beowulf?

WARNING! FANGIRLING AHEAD!


...I saw the Golden Compass...

OMG. Lee Scoresby. Was. Brilliant. Just the way I always imagined him. The idea of him being a cowboy rather than some kind of sky-pirate was a wonderful choice of character. (I don't really like sky-pirates, excluding Cid and the guys from Stardust.) He was the right age too, which made me applaude the casting. In many Hollywood films the ages are turned up or down in order to really get to an audience, so I'm happy that Lee was the older man of the story. His daemon sharing his accent made me smile, as did her smart comments. The way she sat on the wheel of his ship and helped him navigate was great.

I was a little sceptical at first with Ian McKellen as Iorek, but he did a very good job. I always heared Iorek as a little more fierce and animalistic in my mind. But his animation made up for that. I feel they managed to show Lee and Iorek's friendship well while not going into their backstory too much to take away from Lyra's story.

Pan and the other Daemons were wonderful. I don't think I saw anyone without a daemon close to them and that really made my day. Ms Coulter's daemon was my favorite, as he managed to really show the audience that despite her beauty she was really an evil woman.

And Ms Coulter herself...beautiful. When I heard Nicole was going to play her I fangirled at the perfectness. Who else could play the corrupt golden girl of the church? The scene with her slapping her daemon was wonderfully captured and set up for the other films in the trilogy.

However...I do have a bone to pick. SPOILERS!

________________________________________________________________

What happened to the ending.

Someone tell me what happened to the entirity of the ending.

I don't understand. I heard that some of the film was edited due to complaints, but in the trailers I was promised the ending with Lord Asriel opening the tear between worlds. Was this cut out due to the complaints? Or did they feel like completely letting down the die hard fans?

As far as I'm concerned the film makers have just made it harder for themselves if they make the next film. How are they going to bring in Will when the worlds aren't even connected yet? Will they cut out Roger's death to make Asriel the 'good guy'?

Overall, a great film for a diehard fan EXEPT THE ENDING!

I like the Golden Compass, The Enchanted, and National Treasure. I did not fully expect the new ending of the Golden Compass. I mean, I was expecting it to be different. I learned of the new ending. In Enchanted, I did not fully listen to an actor's voice. My attention was on the princess, so I did not listen to Scott Summer's voice. I like how the evil queen's right hand man turn over a new leaf. To Harry Potter fans, this is Wormtail.
National Treasure 2 was another movie I enjoyed. It gave me further information about USA history. It showed me what you can see inside the palace Queen Elizabeth is living.

The Golden Compass was a good film. I think the ending was to make it less of a cliffhanger and more of a 'sail off into the sunset' type ending.

I didn't know Ian McKellan was Iorek. I couldn't identify the voice. But I did see that the guy who played the 'old' Master in the new Doctor Who series was head of the magisterium (sp?).

Just seen 'Meet the Spartans' yesterday. Definately not for kids (should be given an R-rating than just a PG-13 one :eep: ).

To keep it brief, all I can say is that it's slightly better than the lame "Epic Movie" but still not that great compared to the"Scary Movie" movies. Funniest bit of the movie: Leonidas doing a 'Grand Theft Auto' on the Persians (literally) :D .


Okay, enough of that. I heard that "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" has already hit cinemas in America on Christmas Day and Australia last month (will reach the UK next week). I read from Wikipedia stating that the movie received favourable reviews from critics.

So, has anyone seen this film? Do you agree with the critics?

PS: The movie is mainly about the Loch Ness Monster.

Had anyone seen the new Disney film Snow Buddies?

I bought it on DVD and it is really good. I highly recommend it! I think it was quite a good one from Disney. :dance:

Yeah, I heard that movie was not so hot. Lampooning movies can be fun, but apparently their writers relied too much on tired gags.

I was sort of planning on seeing it, but I haven't found the time. Unfortunately, it's no longer playing in the good theaters, so I'll just wait until it comes out on DVD. I remember reading that it got reasonably good reviews as a "family movie" and the special effects in the trailer looked good. Might be a fun movie. If you go see it, let's us know what you think.

OMFG

The Water Horse. Was. Brilliant. YOU MUST SEE IT NOW.

I want the soundtrack.

Sounds pretty good! I'll definitely have to rent it. Who did the soundtrack by chance?

I saw "Charlie Wilson's War" recently and enjoyed it. It's definitely not a movie for the young one's, but it lends historical perspective to the Cold War conflicts between Russia and Afghanistan and the U.S. involvement in them. It's dark at time (laying out the seedier side of the American government and those involved) while recounting the idealistic crusade to help the Afghans (with, of course, other intentions as well). I liked the fact that it helped put a face to the Afghans and their struggles of the time.

I watched Rambo recently. Last week, I was not brave enough to watch Cloverfield. Rambo is not for the faint hearted and the younger viewers. Teens need their parents.

Recently, I saw Kung Fu Dunk (starring Jay Chou), and CJ7 (Steven Chow). I enjoyed watching Kung Fu Dunk. These two movies were released for Chinese New Year. It is playing basketball in an all-new leve!

Best movie I have seen in the last 2 years has to be one that is showing right now. The Bucket List. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. You might think its just an old folks show but it is GREAT! I must have been one of only 3 people in there that was under 45 years old.

I actually did see The Golden Compass, with a friend. It was a facinating movie really, I am young so I can't find out any religious about it! My favorite character is Iorek, and the little girl's weasel, I forgot his name, but I do know it, I just can't remember it right now! But for the movie, Cloverfield, I DEFINATLY, want to see it, the creature in it looks like the Corpser in the game Gears of War!

I also h ave seen The Spiderwick Chronicles, that was awesome and halarious! Especially the griffen, but the other movie I tend to want to be seen is Riding on the Meat Train, it has creatures in it and it looks soooo awesome to see. I really don't get out much, but I do want to see them really bad! Especially Cloverfield!

Bah...How can Transformers not win any Oscars for 3 nominations this year? They lost out to The Bourne Ultimatum (twice) and even The Golden Compass! Yaaargghh! :mellow:

Anyway, that's not my main focus. My main focus is; has anyone seen 10,000 BC? I heard that the movie got lots of negative reviews despite the cool visual effects.

For me, I haven't seen it yet, but there is certainly a time conflict in the movie which doesn't add up. For example, the movie is supposed to take place, like, 10,000 BC ago and all of a sudden Egyptian/Nubian pyramids started popping up in the movie which is way ahead of its time. :unsure:

It looks cool to watch, but I've heard that in 10,000 BC they focused too much on the graphics and not enough on the plot. I still want to see it, however. :D

OK who here wants to see Iron Man?.......anyone?

I DO!!!!!!! Aww man that movie looks cooooool!!!

Totally! In fact, the movie seems to receive very good reviews from fans and critics alike according to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_%28film%29

So wanna watch it. :plot:

On the opposite note, has anyone seen Speed Racer? Sadly, the movie doesn't seem to receive well among critics, mainly for its storyline. But other than that, it's not as bad as it seemed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Racer_%28film%29

Also, if you just watch the trailer alone, the setting of the movie so reminds me a lot like the races in Dragon City. Don't you think so? ;)

It does actually

Who has seen Prince Caspian? I have seen it, and I had enjoyed it. I find it is better than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
I have seen Iron Man. I find it okay. Later, I am going to watch Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

Anyone want to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

I do.

I saw Iron man on a double date! That is such an awesome movie! It's like Transformers in its own way!

But Transformers is better... :P :P

I have seen it. Jones afraid of snakes! :)