Recent movies

Tanaar

I've seen the Hobbit and Skyfall recently and both exceeded my high expectations.

The Hobbit was a visual feast, though when I went back to see it a second time, this time in 3D, I found that the issues with hi-def 3D distracted significantly from the movie itself. Where it worked, however, the depth was incredible. I loved all of the added elements from the legendarium, though Galadriel being at Rivendell in person made me twitch. Radagast is my hero. Loved the nod towards fans thinking that the Great Goblin was a lesser Maiar. @Sarapis, you're a big Tolkien fan if I recall correctly, what'd you think?

Skyfall was brilliant. I'm a big Bond fan, and this easily ranks with the best of them. The nostalgia elements were superb, and I actually cheered in the theater when the twangy old theme came on. Still hate how they made hackers capable of impossible feats, and the sexual stereotypes that were reinforced by the villain. The final showdown redeemed those negatives, though, and it was amazing that they found a trope that's never been done in Bond history (defend the house against overwhelming odds.) Bond's relationship with M was touching, and M's departure from the role was perfect.

Zhisana

Django Unchained was very good. Would have been better if it were less violent but I guess that's how Tarantino does his thang.

Cirque de Soliel movie was also good. Just like the show. It rarely got weird.

Argys

I want to see The Hobbit. I'm one of those freaks that has done a marathon of the trilogy. Extended editions. Oh yes.

Vayne

Django Unchained was pretty good, I felt it dragged a bit toward the end but overall was quite enjoyable and got pretty good reviews. I love Quentin's stuff though.

Rispok

I saw the "we kill towel heads" movie at an early screening last week. It was alright.

Lyr

Les Misérables. Cloud Atlas. I can't write words that would explain how awesome those two movies are.

Katzchen

@Lyr want to see those two. Probably won't be out here at the cinema for a while. 

Orklanishkal

Les Miserables was a bit overly long and moved too slowly for my tastes, and that's as someone who enjoyed the book and the musical. 

Tanaar

Movies I haven't gotten to see yet and want to: Life of Pi, Cloud Atlas, Les Miserables, Wreck It Ralph

Vayne

Les Miserables and The Hobbit seem to be getting some pretty mediocre reviews.

Tania

I keep hearing about the Hobbit's bad reviews, but I haven't read any reviews at all and I enjoyed the movie immensely. The only part I didn't like was that it ended.

Tarkanian

The Hobbit was great. Too bad that it came after LOTR trilogies. I think people will appreciate it more if the movies followed the book sequence.

I haven't seen Skyfall, but Danny Craig has got to be the best Bond ever. Sorry, just had to say it.

Looking forward to Django Unchained and Lincoln being shown here...

Lyr

@Orklanishkal -- I'm pretty sure it was exactly the same length as the musical (considering the song lengths and such). I could be wrong, but I thought it was fairly well timed.

Tanaar

All of the bad reviews of the Hobbit seem to be coming from people the movie was not intended for. People like critics, people with no attention span, non-fans of the fantasy genre, and other boring people in general.

Granted, there were some legitimate critiques to be made, such as the storm giant sequence - yes, it's in the book, yes it's cool, but it lasted about two paragraphs in the source and ended up being almost ten minutes of excuse for visual effects. Excising it would have left the story entirely unaffected and improved pacing. That's not the kind of critiques I'm seeing, I'm seeing 'too long, not enough action, primary plot unfinished.' All of which are nonsense.

Jiraishin

My dad went to see the Hobbit and thought it was, in his words, "decidedly eh". My dad has hobbit-house bookends, a big ceramic Shelob figurine, two different copies of The Hobbit, and was sitting downstairs listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack earlier tonight.

Davio

My only complaint about the Hobbit was that there is apparently no fall damage in Middle Earth.

Panpardus

I thought the hobbit was okay, I can see why they changed part of the books, but it annoyed me that they did. I read the book to my son who is 6 and he was a little confused at who the big Orc was and other things that was different in the movie. He loved the stone giants part though. I was a little surprised at the detail he did remember while watching, the misses was a bit annoyed though because he kept saying things as they were happening

Vadimuses

Saw Dorian Gray the other day, good film.

Jurixe

I haven't watched the Hobbit, though people keep telling me I should.

I loved Wreck-It Ralph. If you used to play old-school video games at the arcade, go watch it, you'll love it. I typically like movies like these anyway but Wreck-It Ralph is just one of those that I would happily watch again and again, and it's incredibly rare for me to want to rewatch most movies.

Tanaar

My only complaint about the Hobbit was that there is apparently no fall damage in Middle Earth.

I had a similar reaction, but upon re-reading that part of the book, Tolkien actually explains to the reader that hobbits are proportionally denser/more compact than humans and are quite resistant to a fall. Also notice that instead of one big drop, it was a bunch of smaller ones. Still kind of a lame way to explain it, Bilbo definitely should have had some obvious bruises, scrapes, soreness. His knuckles were pretty messed up, but that's all I remember.

Argys

Sip levitation, noobs. C'mon, those dwarves have enough experience to teach Bilbo -that- much.

Kazu

Panpardus said:

I thought the hobbit was okay, I can see why they changed part of the books, but it annoyed me that they did. I read the book to my son who is 6 and he was a little confused at who the big Orc was and other things that was different in the movie. He loved the stone giants part though. I was a little surprised at the detail he did remember while watching, the misses was a bit annoyed though because he kept saying things as they were happening

I agree with this honestly. The Lord of the Rings was extremely close the actual book series.  The Hobbit feels like...Harry Potter.  There was so much stuff not from the actual book in there, and the pacing seems horrible for the movie.  There's too much time spent on things that really aren't important.  It just feels like they are trying their hardest to squeeze out three movies to me, but the series would be better split as two.

Tanaar

The Hobbit was always more of a children's story. It was never the hardcore adventure that LotR was meant to be. The big things from outside the book (Radagast's involvement/the investigation of Dol Guldur/the White Council meets, Azog's expanded role) actually added to the story. They weren't created out of whole cloth, these are actual stories that were going on behind the scenes in the book, though I think the characters of Azog and Bolg were fused for simplicity. There are occasional running references to the Necromancer throughout the book, and towards the end it is mentioned that the White Council has chased the Necromancer out of it. Bolg's army does indeed show up at the Battle of Five Armies. The wargs-chasing-them-into-trees scene is in the book, they just didn't have Azog/Bolg with them in the book. If you take away that constant antagonist, the movie would have dragged even more.

Kazu

That's why I think it would have been better to keep it to two movies. The first one could have carried on through Murkwood and ended with them being captured by the Elves. The second would have been Smaug through the Battle of Five Armies.  I would have found it much more pleasurable that way.  It's an ok movie by itself, but I think that it quickly becomes meh when you compare it to the other LoTR movies or the book.

Tvistor

Tom Bombadil in the books was weird. So weird.

Tanaar

I agree, @Kazu. I think it would have been better as two movies. As a lover of Tolkien, however, I geeked out when I saw the Radagast parts, and loved the role of Azog. I also caught the subtle "Great Goblin is not like the others, nod to fans suspecting he is a lesser Maiar" hints. It's about who your audience is.

Shunsui

Still dying to see Wreck it Ralph, most recent thing I've seen was Rise of the Guardians. Really good, cute, funny, etc. Everything you'd expect from Dreamworks movies.

Skye

Wreck it Ralph was amazing. Would definitely watch again.

Having said that, I recently watched this movie. It's not new, but the protagonist is amazing IMO. I was totally rooting for him the whole way.

Katzchen

Went to see the hobbit today, it was pretty good really. I haven't read the book since I was about 11 or 12, so it's hard to compare it.

Panpardus

Tanaar said:

The Hobbit was always more of a children's story. It was never the hardcore adventure that LotR was meant to be. The big things from outside the book (Radagast's involvement/the investigation of Dol Guldur/the White Council meets, Azog's expanded role) actually added to the story. They weren't created out of whole cloth, these are actual stories that were going on behind the scenes in the book, though I think the characters of Azog and Bolg were fused for simplicity. There are occasional running references to the Necromancer throughout the book, and towards the end it is mentioned that the White Council has chased the Necromancer out of it. Bolg's army does indeed show up at the Battle of Five Armies. The wargs-chasing-them-into-trees scene is in the book, they just didn't have Azog/Bolg with them in the book. If you take away that constant antagonist, the movie would have dragged even more.

t Some of the additions are in the lotr appendices, which is fine, Azog from memory is long dead as its his son later on. I can see why they changed parts but the bit where bilbo saved Thorin really annoyed me. I honestly feel Bilbo was made to much of the hero in the movie where he was no where near that in the book. The trolls is another small thing.

Tanaar

Yeah, there were some small changes to support the Thorin/Bilbo arc, but I think they're so small that they work. In the book it's Gandalf that confuses the trolls, and the fight between Azog and Thorin towards the end is of course new, as Bolg doesn't show up on-screen until the Battle of Five Armies in the book. The conflation of Azog and Bolg is fine