The Shrine

I'm not alone when I say I am tired of the blockbuster formula fit into so many movies in recent times - especially superhero movies. I might have enjoyed Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy if they didn't play out similarly to 150 other movies I saw before them. Deadpool aside, the last superhero film I enjoyed was perhaps X-Men First Class almost seven years ago.

Beginning of the year: Logan


It's a technically a superhero movie, but also something else. The focus isn't on superpowers, defeating a giant villain threatening to destroy/conquer the planet; rather, it's on the characters. Also, it's something meaningful too because important things happen - not back to status quo. Logan is the second try at the end of the X-Men story, and unlike 2006, they did it right this time! Also, not being restrained by a PG-13 rating helped this one out.


Later on, and Overall - Blade Runner 2049


I wasn't a fan of the first Blade Runner, although now I enjoy it more than I did before (kind of like Star Wars 77 after I watched Rogue One); I am also neither a fan of Villeneuve nor Ridley Scott - and downright hated some of their earlier work.

Like the original Blade Runner, 2049 is an art film. Multiple plot and sub-plot threads are leading the viewer through a post-apocalyptic world. Newer model Replicants are wiping out the remnants of the older Tyrell Corporation models. Wallace Corp is also preparing to colonize the galaxy, but they need Replicants, and it's impossible to even begin to come close to meeting the manufacturing demand within a reasonable budget; as you can guess, consumerism/capitalism is a central theme in this film - it's brushed through every scene.

My favourite thread of the film dealt with the theme of consumerism, and how it tied into the main character K's love life with his hologram girlfriend. Essentially, Wallace Corp had developed a product with holographic girlfriends; the AI technology was incredibly convincing. In consequence, K was so convinced that he and his holographic girlfriend were in love it blinded him to the purpose of her as a product. Plot threads, like this one, all converge later in the film. The holo-whore (or whatever) one hits K on a more personal level as he's struggling with whether he has a soul, and the two parallel each other - she wasn't real, but is he real (Unlike Dekard, K is established as a Replicant in his first scene)? While the film gives a few reminders, this one requires memory work; it's not a straightforward, in-your-face blockbuster.

2049 is visually impressive. In fact, the most impressive film I've seen outside of Avatar. It's a theater film. Full 3D. Forced to resist the multitasking urge (I always multi-task when I view from home). It's unique as well; while a good sequel to the original, it's different - I'd say much larger in scope with a much grander view of the Blade Runner Universe. It's one of the few high budget films I've seen in over a decade that doesn't feel it has had the soul combed out of it by producers. Lastly, it's not a wide-appeal film, in fact, it was a box office bomb, costing 185M and grossing only 260M - I think some here will like it, though.



I missed a lot last year due to not making it out to the theater nearly as often as I'd like. So I haven't seen everything, and I'm still hoping to catch more; if anyone has suggestions.

I need to watch Blade Runner 2049, though I never saw the original >.>

My favorites were probably Spider-man: Homecoming(I enjoyed Keaton's Vulture), Thor: Ragnarok(The Plaent Hulk stuff was great fun), Coco(Oh god the ending), Get Out(Surreal comedy/horror), Lego Batman(One of my favorite Batman movies no joke), Baby Driver(RIP Kevin Spacey career), John Wick 2(Boom Headshot(s), Hitman's Bodyguard(Super dumb fun comedy), The House(I'm domesticated comedy)

Thor was cool

Dunkirk was riveting and I couldn't tear my eyes away but coming out of it I realized I didn't enjoy basically any of it

Manchester by the Sea was really good

I quite liked Wind River

Get Out and Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) were my favorites for sure.

I’ll have to give the new Thor a go.
I have heard it’s another “off-genre” superhero flick, and I tend to enjoy those.

Shrinweck wrote:Thor was cool

Dunkirk was riveting and I couldn't tear my eyes away but coming out of it I realized I didn't enjoy basically any of it

Manchester by the Sea was really good

I quite liked Wind River

Get Out and Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) were my favorites for sure.

I forgot about Your Name, Your Name was really good.

I missed Get Out. It’s definitely on my list.
I spent last year watching a lot of older horror films instead.

For a film like Get Out, you must lose something if you don't imbue it with some sort of BLM/pioneer narrative -- because without it, Get Out is a pretty mediocre flick, not really doing anything new (but certainly not bad). I'm actually kinda worried I am going to have this same experience with Black Panther -- I'm going to be totally distracted by the political/ideological BS, I won't be able to accurately appreciate the film.

For 2017, I thought it was pretty awful overall for movies, but Guardians Vol 2, Jumanji and Dunkirk were good. I need to rewatch them, but Wonder Woman and Lego Batman struck me as pretty decent.

You know, I think I'd have an easier time listing the truly awful movies I saw this year (Transformers, Cell Block 99, 47 Meters Down, Ritual, etc etc)

Get Out has meaning if you've ever spent an extensive amount of time as a minority, not specifically the United States/Canada as a black person. My father has spent months/years in India and Samoa and still saw what it had to say despite being white. I understand having difficulty detaching it from BLM given that that sentiment is so pervasive, but there's more to it. I've spent my life as a minority in the American South and I definitely got blindsided how much of it could arguably be applied to how I've felt.

Shrinweck wrote:Get Out has meaning if you've ever spent an extensive amount of time as a minority, not specifically the United States/Canada as a black person. My father has spent months/years in India and Samoa and still saw what it had to say despite being white. I understand having difficulty detaching it from BLM given that that sentiment is so pervasive, but there's more to it. I've spent my life as a minority in the American South and I definitely got blindsided how much of it could arguably be applied to how I've felt.

But what does any of what you just said actually communicate? What do I need to appreciate in order to understand your perspective, agree with it and, hopefully, better connect with Get Out? That being a "minority" in a majority can be scary? Ok, still not sure that's an accurate portrayal of America and that's kinda my point. I mean, you want to feel different, stared at and often treated badly, travel to rural China as a black/white person. I have and I still don't get Get Out's appeal.

But assuming I did agree that's the reality in America, I still don't see how that impacts films like Get Out, other than basically making it inherently racist as a deeper meaning, and somewhat of a snuff fantasy (which is obviously offensive).

I mean, on my broader problem with this all (political BS), Peele was wildly successful long before Get Out and I was a fan... And I don't remember watching, for example, Blade and going, "God damn, I'm enjoying this comic film despite the negro!". Was your experience the opposite? Did you see blade and say "Thank God, finally a black man like Snipes is in a comic movie!"? I doubt it... And now it's like I am expected to pretend Black Panther is novel and new and a giant leap forward for black people of all races (heh, Undercover Brother reference)?!

There is a disconnect in reality here that I can't understand -- a sudden desperate desire to view things through the prism of race, sex, etc. I mean...most of us are of the age of growing up with In Living Color, Fresh Prince, the shitshow that was UPN, and countless other examples. Why are we pretending things are suddenly brand new -- it's fucking jarring. Black people and women have been rocking it in American culture since I was born. Do I need to actually become racist, start seeing people based on the colour/gender, to enjoy culture now? What a sad cultural movement and reality, if that's the case.

Like I said there's more going on with the movie then political BS and racism. A lot of the movie has to do with cultural identity and how absurd worrying about "blackness" and "whiteness" is in the wake of much more important shit going on. The main premise of the movie is about the constant struggle of whether or not what is happening is either overtly racist with all the negative connotations that go along for the ride or just ones own paranoia. The situation provided in the horror part of the story feeds into the comedic absurdity of it all. Another big part of the movie is how absurd the idea that so many people pretend like society is post-racial (this is something both the right and left can be guilty of and the movie is targeted at the lefts way of looking at this).

I'm not sure how the movie is supposed to be an accurate portrayal given it's horror/comedy. It's satire. The absurdity is on purpose.

Interesting take, portions of which I've heard before -- even though I'm still unclear how it makes the movie better.

Is that what post racialism is supposed to be though? I thought it was we just don't intentionally treat our fellow humans poorly or unfairly based on differences -- like race. I didn't really feel as if it was a "Left" critique in Get Out, unless my previous thought has now morphed into "we should not treat people with differences differently" -- which is pretty retarded when you break it down.

The girlfriend's father goes on a bit about voting for Obama and whatnot - I think it's supposed to imply that he's a liberal and how he thinks he isn't racist despite the entire horror aspect of the movie.

I've considered post-racial to be about thinking racism is over, especially in the context of there having been a black president. When I was skimming Peele interviews for my last post I got the impression that that's how he was thinking of it, too, but at the end of the day it's a sociology term and with that kind of thing the definition tends to be subjective.

Shrinweck wrote:The girlfriend's father goes on a bit about voting for Obama and whatnot - I think it's supposed to imply that he's a liberal and how he thinks he isn't racist despite the entire horror aspect of the movie.

That's not an example of "racism" though (or at least it shouldn't be in any rational universe). That person is trying to connect with another person by (perhaps awkwardly) trying to bridge their differences through a shared commonality and good intentions.

If that action is racism, then when you play it through to the logical end, every interaction between people with differences is racist/bigoted when viewed through the appropriate subjective lens.

I meant for it to be an example of the liberal side of being post-racial not liberal racism

So...that action shows them as a liberal, but the actual spoiler-free horror stuff was the racism? I guess I'm confused by what you mean.

It's hard because I've heard so much (a lot of mental masturbation imo) about Get Out, that I might be jumping the gun on stuff you said and confusing myself. I've heard a lot of people try to draw parallels to slavery, even.

I was clarifying about the post racialism and how Peele was intending to use it that's all.

The horror angle has the implications of slavery