Hulver's site || Comments || Let's catch up.

You know. . . by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:19:12 PM EST

way too many people go into this movie with weird expectations I think. Lots of complaining about the colors and effects when you know that's what you're going to get from the first trailer.

There's this weird idealism in modern cinema that equates desaturation with awesome. Sadly, it means Speed Racer is going to fail-it as a franchise even though it's a really good movie.

"MAKE MORE OF THE SAME YOU BASTARDS!"

"Hey, this movie is different. That means it really, really sucks."

"WHY DOES HOLLYWOOD ALWAYS MAKE THE SAME MOVIE!?"

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The complaint I've heard by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #5 Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:50:09 PM EST

Is that it is somewhat lacking in plot, characterization, and everything else needed in a movie. Except for the visual effects.

Apparently even the monkeys aren't funny. If you can't get a laugh out of monkeys..

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
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: I thought Chim-Chim was funny. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #6 Mon May 12, 2008 at 01:13:54 PM EST

I also heard the complaint that the plot is "confusing." Mrs. NFB and myself think if you can pay attention for thirty seconds, you can figure out the plot. And it's a pretty good plot too. It's basically a kid finding his way to manhood with his dad being a butthole while his mom pulls the family together. Sure, there's side-story stuff about corporate sponsored racing and all that, but it's basically just a movie about finding your way to adulthood.

I think people got distracted by the colors and decided it can't have a plot.

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that is one of my complaints about modern cinema by gzt (2.00 / 0) #7 Mon May 12, 2008 at 02:00:19 PM EST

Visually, LOTR was just so cliche to me because of that and a few other abysmally stupid aesthetic choices.

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LOTR. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #8 Mon May 12, 2008 at 03:01:29 PM EST

Some of the boring could have been sucked out of the LOTR trilogy if they would have considered allowing the color palate to open up a little. Shouldn't the elvish palace look different from Mordor? As it was, everything became so washed in grey-green that it was hard to see the differences.

Not that this alone would have saved the films from occassionally slipping into coma-like phrases of mediocrity, but at least there would have been moments of awe as the screen suddenly shifted to a different tone.

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oh shoot, this is in the diary area! by gzt (2.00 / 0) #9 Mon May 12, 2008 at 03:24:24 PM EST

we may be burned for heresy for asserting in a google-able environment that LOTR isn't the greatest set of movies ever. To their credit, they were a lot better than most of what comes out, but that's more an indictment of the others than a compliment.

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Yeah. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #10 Mon May 12, 2008 at 03:55:57 PM EST

LOTR - I'm glad I saw them, but kept wondering why I liked those books so damn much. Because the movies sure make the story seem boring, boring, BORING.

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to me, they were a little boring by gzt (2.00 / 0) #11 Mon May 12, 2008 at 04:20:59 PM EST

but I have/had a long attention span (I couldn't stand them anymore, however, since I just can't sit for that long these days), so that wasn't such a problem. the aesthetic choices just got to me, though. for some people, they masked and made up for the boringness, the overwrought/poor acting, etc, but to me they were cliched and overdone in a way that highlighted the other crap. the entire Moria thing (including the scene after the disappearance of Gandalf) is emblematic, to me, of what is wrong with the movie. lots of cliches!

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I have a hard time remembering much of them. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #12 Mon May 12, 2008 at 04:48:52 PM EST

I liked little bits and pieces, but there was a lot of nothing in between the bits I enjoyed from what I do remember. I remember being excited for each new movie, then sitting through most of it wondering exactly WHY I had been so excited.

The aesthetic choices to me were just part of the problem. Grating in their blandness and boringness. Same as everything else. Here's the grey forest. Here's the grey castle. Here's the really REALLY different BLACK castle. Then that other grey castle. Then the dark grey cave. And the tan-grey plains. Bleh.

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and overexaggeration of the greyness. by gzt (2.00 / 0) #13 Mon May 12, 2008 at 04:58:24 PM EST

Here's the biggest, darkest, muddiest castle ever. Here's the biggest, darkest, muddiest cave city ever. Here's the biggest, darkest, muddiest army ever fighting the biggest, darkest, muddiest battle ever (until the next army and the next battle, those are bigger)...

I mean, come on. I realize they're fighting for the future of all existence and what-have-you, but do they always have to muster 50,000 orcs (the biggest, darkest, muddiest creatures ever)?

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: That last sentence. . . by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #14 Mon May 12, 2008 at 05:02:59 PM EST

I didn't so much mind them always mustering 50,000 orcs and having them all dark and muddy. What bothered me is the books always made me think there'd be this huge mass of dark forboding fighting against this rising sea of clashing colors from all the armies coming together to fight against them. Instead, we got the orcs, and then huge masses of very, very muted colors that made them look like they were all the same, just with slightly different patterns of grey.

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Cutting out the climax of each of the story arcs by jxg (2.00 / 0) #17 Tue May 13, 2008 at 12:53:36 AM EST

will do that to a series.

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At last, a REAL argument. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #18 Tue May 13, 2008 at 01:05:45 AM EST

You said "climax." Heheheh.

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Care for a stump grinding? by jxg (2.00 / 0) #19 Tue May 13, 2008 at 02:48:11 AM EST

I offer 24-hour emergency servicing.

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: Not just "stump grinding" by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #20 Tue May 13, 2008 at 07:47:15 AM EST

but "track stump grinding," which somehow sounds dirtier, even though it isn't.

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You're forgetting something by anonimouse (4.00 / 1) #15 Mon May 12, 2008 at 05:48:33 PM EST

Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith were built by the same humans (Numenoreans) who had kinship with....wait for it...elves. Even the Orcs were meant to be a mockery of elves, so its hardly surprising that there was less difference than you thought.

I will concede that Return of the King was about an hour too long though

Girls come and go but a mortgage is for 25 years -- JtL
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: Orcs are meant to be a mockery of elves. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #16 Mon May 12, 2008 at 11:25:34 PM EST

Hence, they should be almost exactly the opposite. Hence. . . bleh. Why try to defend my position? The only argument that needs to be made is take a look at some of the un-processed reels in the making of features and then look at the finished product. There was color to differentiate not just races, but individual groups within races in the un-processed film. Post? Grey.

I'm sure somewhere, someone is drafting the complaint to the high order of nerdom to have my membership revoked.

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