Last movie you watched......

Whiplash was so intense; an amazing job by all. Simmons was so commanding in almost every scene

 

Nightcrawler on Amazon Prime. Pretty intense. Jake Gyllenhaal plays sociopath pretty well.

 

Day After Tomorrow for about the fifth time.

 

Kingsman -- Very good, very intense, lots of humor, much more graphic violence than I was expecting, which they joked about in the movie itself.

 

I saw Kingsman yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The fight scene in the church was a lot of fun. Never would have thought of Colin Firth as an action hero, but he handled it nicely.

 

That movie sucked so bad. You must be a masochist.

 

Just got around to seeing this last night in 4k (which was pretty cool, particularly the scenes above the city) and it exceeded my expectations quite a bit. Having read a lot of criticism here, and elsewhere, I expected to hate it. I'm curious what you thought the best part of the rebooted series was that got destroyed?

I thought Electro was incredibly well done and his battle with Spider-Man in Times Square was awesome. One of my favorite aspects of the reboot is how well Spider-Man uses his webslingers beyond just for swinging. They really do a much better job of that than they did in the original trilogy.

As well as Electro was done, Rhino and Goblin were equally bad. I liked the actor who played Harry and thought he fit the role well, but his ultimate incarnation as Goblin just looked weird (seriously, why can't anyone get this character look right on film?).

Giamatti wasn't only wasted, his voice in the opening scene was really weirdly done and sounded like he recorded a post-production voiceover in a cardboard box or something. His take on the character was atrocious.

I was worried before it was released that it would be bogged down with too many villains (a la Spider-Man 3), but thought they handled it well. Electro was a worthy villain and Harry's descent into madness was well done. Rhino's appearance was a good way to get in a third villain without overstuffing the film (and set up the Sinister Six for the next film or a spinoff well).


SPOILER ALERT

It's unfortunate that the studio easily Gwen's death. I mean, they showed her falling to her death in the trailers for cripes sakes. That definitely lessened the viewers emotional investment in Peter and Gwen as a couple, knowing she was going to die. I got bored during their scenes together because I knew they were kind of pointless. That's unfortunate because Garfield and Stone had good chemistry and their scenes together in the first one were very good.

It was too long, but not egregiously so. I get some of the criticisms of the movie, but didn't think it was as bad as everyone says. Of the 2014 summer blockbusters I've seen, Guardians, Captain America and X-Men were all better. Spider-Man is probably fourth on the list (much like Guardians, Spider-Man was probably more "fun" than X-Men or Captain America, but those two were definitely better films and better stories than Spider-Man). Dawn of the Planet of Apes was pretty awful, Godzilla was probably the worst. I'm assuming Robocop, Hercules and Sin City were all worse. I want to see the Ninja Turtles, but at 2:45, I'm not sure when I'll bother.

 

More spoilers, but the thing has been out on DVD for a while now. I think everybody knows the big moment. As pern mentioned, it was spoiled before the movie even came out.

Pern, I thought it was more disappointing than horrible. The tone is just all over the place. You go from something very silly like Electro's attacks playing out Itsy-Bitsy Spider to the death of Gwen Stacy, this incredibly powerful, devastating moment from the comic books. Knowing Gwen was going to die certainly diminished the impact of her loss. It was spoiled in so many ways with the trailer and interviews with the actors. That said, what impact does it really have on Peter? Does it change him? Do we see him struggling to deal with the world without her? Nope. He takes some time off to mope and he's right back to the same old Spider-Man. If you are going to go there, to kill her off, do something with it.

And that was the bit I thought was the the best part of the series was the relationship between Peter and Gwen. It was the best part of the first one. Garfield and Stone had the chemistry that was sorely lacking with Dunst and Maguire. Again, I don't have a problem with following the comics and killing her off, but the emotional impact of it was wasted.

I'm looking forward to a new actor and seeing the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hopefully, they will get it right. And skip the damn origin this time.

Regarding the comparison to other 2014 summer blockbusters, I liked it less than you did. I don't think it was more fun than X-MenOFP or Captain America: Winter Soldier. Of the others, I've only seen Sin City, which was crap.

 

Agree with you completely about how they wasted the emotional impact. I used the term "fun" to mean that Spider-Man doesn't take itself quite as seriously as X-Men and Captain America did. It's a little more lighthearted, similar in tone to Guardians. I look at it like Big Bang Theory is more fun than The Walking Dead, though TWD clearly a superior show.

 

I know what you mean. I guess all the fanboy moments in Days of Future Past and Winter Soldier helped make them a little more fun for the comic book nerd in me. Things like seeing Blink in action. I own the comics that introduced both versions of Bink. (It's an alternate reality thing.), so just seeing a character like that brought to life is enjoyable.

 

Blink was awesome.

 

"Psycho."

I may or may not have seen it in high school or college. The murder scenes are excruciatingly dated, which takes you out of it somewhat. It also sucks that unless you've been living in a cave for five decades, you know the plot twist.

All that said: I often struggle with the ham-it-up acting that goes on in this era. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, however, absolutely stands the test of time. It's a classic performance, and it holds up as well today as I imagine that it did the day it was released.