What film did you watch last night?

Since my slightly scathing Blade Runner 2049 review I researched a bit more about Denis Villenueve and also to see if Ridley Scott liked it.

"Ridley Scott attributed the film's underperformance to the runtime, saying: "It's slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour."

So Ridley Scott didn't even damn it with faint praise, pretty much is openly critical of it, which I feel justifies my opinion of it. It must rankle with him a bit because now both Alien and Blade Runner have been given to lesser directors with results clearly not up to the original director's vision.

To be fair an older Scott himself ruined Prometheus, so would he have done any better with Blade Runner 2049? I think he would have because The Martian to me was a much better example of good direction with good dialogue and well paced science fiction story telling in a movie than 2049 is.

Seems Denis Villeneuve is also Quebecois, which I think explains the odd casting of Gosling and the lesser quality of dialogue compared to the original, almost every single line in Bladerunner the original is sharp and realistic, I didn't get that at all in 2049.

So I agree with Ridley Scott, 2049 is overlong, poorly paced and quite boring compared to the original in any of its cuts.

My prediction for Villeneuve's Dune is that it will be very long, very dusty and very boring.


Now for what I watched last night, a truly terrifying vision of the future of cinema, The Meg.

Many films prior to this have included some Chinese actors in Hollywood movies to good effect, with the main goal being a cynical one of making money in China, The Martian did it fairly well for example.

Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are two of my favourite actors, both ethnically Chinese, so I like watching Chinese actors. What I don't like is getting a Chinese movie and an English language movie all mashed up in the same package - that's basically what the Meg is, the most cynically dual marketed movie I've ever seen.

It's fun enough for what is, but it genuinely is two movies in one, the Chinese actors are good and engaging but I think they were the same ones from The Martian and another movie I saw with The Rock about a tower.

This is a trend that will lead to more censorship in the West and watered down movies for both audiences, the product placement of Coke was so blatant as well. You don't expect a Oscar from a movie like this, but compare Deep Blue Sea some 20 years earlier to The Meg and you'll see just how much has changed. Now potentially by far the biggest audience for Hollywood movies don't even speak English - expect to see many more English + Chinese combo movies in the future, plus all made to be suitable for CCP censorship.
 
PC777 said:
To be fair an older Scott himself ruined Prometheus, so would he have done any better with Blade Runner 2049? I think he would have because The Martian to me was a much better example of good direction with good dialogue and well paced science fiction story telling in a movie than 2049 is.
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TBF, everything you've listed is taken verbatim from the book, so Andy Weir is the source of that genius. Much like the art design in Bladerunner to create that world actually belongs to Syd Mead, but somehow Scott has allowed everyone to think it was him. "The Martian" novel is still better, but at least Scott managed not to screw it up because he could copy and paste, which is vastly better than what he managed with Prometheus or Covenant, where his own writing talents were on display.
 
Steampunk said:
TBF, everything you've listed is taken verbatim from the book, so Andy Weir is the source of that genius. Much like the art design in Bladerunner to create that world actually belongs to Syd Mead, but somehow Scott has allowed everyone to think it was him. "The Martian" novel is still better, but at least Scott managed not to screw it up because he could copy and paste, which is vastly better than what he managed with Prometheus or Covenant, where his own writing talents were on display.
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Yep, the movie is good because it's copied well from the book. It's a fairly short book. But that still makes it well directed, to condesnse that and still portray the book to the screen, made a good movie. Much like Trainspotting.
 
PC777 said:
Since my slightly scathing Blade Runner 2049 review I researched a bit more about Denis Villenueve and also to see if Ridley Scott liked it.
"Ridley Scott attributed the film's underperformance to the runtime, saying: "It's slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour."
So Ridley Scott didn't even damn it with faint praise, pretty much is openly critical of it, which I feel justifies my opinion of it. It must rankle with him a bit because now both Alien and Blade Runner have been given to lesser directors with results clearly not up to the original director's vision.
To be fair an older Scott himself ruined Prometheus, so would he have done any better with Blade Runner 2049? I think he would have because The Martian to me was a much better example of good direction with good dialogue and well paced science fiction story telling in a movie than 2049 is.
Seems Denis Villeneuve is also Quebecois, which I think explains the odd casting of Gosling and the lesser quality of dialogue compared to the original, almost every single line in Bladerunner the original is sharp and realistic, I didn't get that at all in 2049.
So I agree with Ridley Scott, 2049 is overlong, poorly paced and quite boring compared to the original in any of its cuts.
My prediction for Villeneuve's Dune is that it will be very long, very dusty and very boring.
Click to expand...


I disagree, I loved BR2049, I thought it followed the world and universe of the original so well, the draw out aspect of it I could cope with just fine, as it looked absolutely beautiful.

Scott in the past 15 years directing,
Alien: Covenant (directed by)
2017Alien: Covenant - Prologue: The Crossing (Short)
2015The Martian (directed by)
2014Exodus: Gods and Kings
2013The Vatican (TV Movie)
2013The Counsellor
2012/IPrometheus
2010Thunder Perfect Mind (Short)
2010Robin Hood
2008Body of Lies
2007American Gangster
2006A Good Year
2005All the Invisible Children (segment "Jonathan")
2005Kingdom of Heaven

So many utterly awful films there, some absolutely steaming piles of nonsense, where he took his own original universes and completely ****** them up the ass.
Also the counsellor, one of the worst films ever made, ever, ever.
The Martian is by far the exception to the rule, and comes from good source material, not Scott.
 
PC777 said:
Since my slightly scathing Blade Runner 2049 review I researched a bit more about Denis Villenueve and also to see if Ridley Scott liked it.
"Ridley Scott attributed the film's underperformance to the runtime, saying: "It's slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour."
So Ridley Scott didn't even damn it with faint praise, pretty much is openly critical of it, which I feel justifies my opinion of it. It must rankle with him a bit because now both Alien and Blade Runner have been given to lesser directors with results clearly not up to the original director's vision.
To be fair an older Scott himself ruined Prometheus, so would he have done any better with Blade Runner 2049? I think he would have because The Martian to me was a much better example of good direction with good dialogue and well paced science fiction story telling in a movie than 2049 is.
Seems Denis Villeneuve is also Quebecois, which I think explains the odd casting of Gosling and the lesser quality of dialogue compared to the original, almost every single line in Bladerunner the original is sharp and realistic, I didn't get that at all in 2049.
So I agree with Ridley Scott, 2049 is overlong, poorly paced and quite boring compared to the original in any of its cuts.
My prediction for Villeneuve's Dune is that it will be very long, very dusty and very boring.
Click to expand...


I disagree, I loved BR2049, I thought it followed the world and universe of the original so well, the draw out aspect of it I could cope with just fine, as it looked absolutely beautiful.

Scott in the past 15 years directing,
Alien: Covenant (directed by)
2017Alien: Covenant - Prologue: The Crossing (Short)
2015The Martian (directed by)
2014Exodus: Gods and Kings
2013The Vatican (TV Movie)
2013The Counsellor
2012/IPrometheus
2010Thunder Perfect Mind (Short)
2010Robin Hood
2008Body of Lies
2007American Gangster
2006A Good Year
2005All the Invisible Children (segment "Jonathan")
2005Kingdom of Heaven

So many utterly awful films there, some absolutely steaming piles of nonsense, where he took his own original universes and completely ****** them up the ass.
Also the counsellor, one of the worst films ever made, ever, ever.
The Martian is by far the exception to the rule, and comes from good source material.
 
PC777 said:
Since my slightly scathing Blade Runner 2049 review I researched a bit more about Denis Villenueve and also to see if Ridley Scott liked it.
"Ridley Scott attributed the film's underperformance to the runtime, saying: "It's slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour."
So Ridley Scott didn't even damn it with faint praise, pretty much is openly critical of it, which I feel justifies my opinion of it. It must rankle with him a bit because now both Alien and Blade Runner have been given to lesser directors with results clearly not up to the original director's vision.
To be fair an older Scott himself ruined Prometheus, so would he have done any better with Blade Runner 2049? I think he would have because The Martian to me was a much better example of good direction with good dialogue and well paced science fiction story telling in a movie than 2049 is.
Seems Denis Villeneuve is also Quebecois, which I think explains the odd casting of Gosling and the lesser quality of dialogue compared to the original, almost every single line in Bladerunner the original is sharp and realistic, I didn't get that at all in 2049.
So I agree with Ridley Scott, 2049 is overlong, poorly paced and quite boring compared to the original in any of its cuts.
My prediction for Villeneuve's Dune is that it will be very long, very dusty and very boring.
Click to expand...


I disagree, I loved BR2049, I thought it followed the world and universe of the original so well, the draw out aspect of it I could cope with just fine, as it looked absolutely beautiful.

Scott in the past 15 years directing,
Alien: Covenant (directed by)
2017Alien: Covenant - Prologue: The Crossing (Short)
2015The Martian (directed by)
2014Exodus: Gods and Kings
2013The Vatican (TV Movie)
2013The Counsellor
2012/IPrometheus
2010Thunder Perfect Mind (Short)
2010Robin Hood
2008Body of Lies
2007American Gangster
2006A Good Year
2005All the Invisible Children (segment "Jonathan")
2005Kingdom of Heaven

So many utterly awful films there, some absolutely steaming piles of nonsense, where he took his own original universes and completely ****** them up the ass.
Also the counsellor, one of the worst films ever made, ever, ever.
The Martian is by far the exception to the rule, and comes from good source material.
 
Destination said:
I disagree, I loved BR2049, I thought it followed the world and universe of the original so well, the draw out aspect of it I could cope with just fine, as it looked absolutely beautiful.
Click to expand...
Yep, I went back and watched BR (Final Cut - the fact this exists at all says something) and there's a lot of rose tinted glasses going on I think - particularly as regards the pacing and story. If you removed Rutger Hauer's monologue (that he ad-libbed as well!), would it be remembered so fondly?
 
steve5424 said:
He did release a vlog about 18 months back when he was on set. He's friends with the director/writers.
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Oh yes he did, he mentioned Jamie Foxx!

AndyCr15 said:
Yeah, I was a little surprised when I saw him in the trailer. Might watch the movie tonight, if it's any good?
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Eh, not really, i got bored after about half way and i didn't care how it turned out os it lost me. I felt they could have done more with the premise.
 
Silent Hill - Thought it was decent with some quite creepy parts. Remember crappy myself playing the game all those years ago lol
 
Destination said:
I disagree, I loved BR2049, I thought it followed the world and universe of the original so well, the draw out aspect of it I could cope with just fine, as it looked absolutely beautiful.

Scott in the past 15 years directing,
Alien: Covenant (directed by)
2017Alien: Covenant - Prologue: The Crossing (Short)
2015The Martian (directed by)
2014Exodus: Gods and Kings
2013The Vatican (TV Movie)
2013The Counsellor
2012/IPrometheus
2010Thunder Perfect Mind (Short)
2010Robin Hood
2008Body of Lies
2007American Gangster
2006A Good Year
2005All the Invisible Children (segment "Jonathan")
2005Kingdom of Heaven

So many utterly awful films there, some absolutely steaming piles of nonsense, where he took his own original universes and completely ****** them up the ass.
Also the counsellor, one of the worst films ever made, ever, ever.
The Martian is by far the exception to the rule, and comes from good source material.
Click to expand...
I thought American Gangster was a great film too, but most of that list was dross.
 
Indeed, there was the odd sparkle of goodness, but nothing to allow him to actually criticize a film as being too long when he made the ******* counsellor, the worse film ever made, that made no sense, and collect a bunch of great actors and directed them to ***** on film for hours on end.
 
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