Brilliant Dynamite Neon

I agree. They look... actually kinda awesome to me. Not, like, high quality film making, but "What if the 80's Flash Gordon was set in Ancient Egypt?" is a question I never knew I wanted to know the answer to.

I think there's a difference between that and what TekkenGuy's talking about. Mad Max: Fury Road stars women and features strong female characters... but it's not a film aimed at the female demographic. As this weekend shows (damn it. )

They put out a few movies a year that target, specifically, the female demo and they make money, sure, but compare that to how many movies they put out that target the male demo/primarily male demo. Part of what makes the female demo seem so overwhelming is that they just plain don't have that large a selection. Dudes saw Furious 7, Age of Ultron, and then Mad Max- all making tons of money. In the same time span, women had... Pitch Perfect 2. Of course it's going to rake it in from that demo. I really doubt the female demo is any more powerful than the male one, but there's really no way to tell until we get a year where an equal number of films that appeal equally to each demo come out- and that ain't ever gonna happen.

A. The strongest of possible As. As close to technical perfection on every level as I can reasonably hope to see. Not my favorite movie, perhaps, but high on my list of greatest films ever made. It may fall on that list with time, but I can't imagine it will fall off of that list.

Just add a good script and 2 billion is the floor. Hell, step up to mediocre and catch 1.5.

This will be awesome, if they do it right. If they make a generic action movie, it will fail. The book's strength is that it really is just Pride and Prejudice with zombies and kung fu as dressing,. The contrast is just wonderful and hilarious to see. If the film keeps that Austin core, this has potential to be fantastic, but if they play up the action, remove that dichotomy, then this will be junk.

Great visuals. I mean, awesome. Nearly as good a Flash Gordon sequel as one could hope to see. A pretty darn good Warhammer 40K film, for that matter. But the story is all over the place thematically. The biggest issue, really, is that they create an escapist fantasy featuring a world I don't want to escape to. I mean, I don't want to be Space Princess, and I don't see why anybody else would, either. The world they create is one in which Jupiter has been handed a soul crushing responsibility. Either she does nothing, and is a monster- living the good life with her hawkdog while trillions are obliterated in the name of plastic surgery in a jar, or she tries to change it, and likely lives a short and unhappy life (the system they create is simply too big for one person, even one royal, to change). Worst of all, the film implies that she chooses the first option. How are we supposed to root for a character like that? I mean, the film shows us a character like that, and we're supposed to hate Titus and his fairy tail orgies. But I don't see a ton of difference between the way he lives his life and the way the film ends with Jupiter living hers- isolated from any responsibility and enjoying the privileges her assets afford her. Heck, the only person in the film that seems to really have a grasp of how monstrous the setting is? Titus. The most spoiled, most self-centered, most debauched character in the film is the film's moral center. All in all: This is the first film from the Wachoswkis that I would call "Bad". They've made others that weren't my cup of tea, but this one is just a poorly done film when it comes to everything but the visuals. C, for the visuals alone.

I loved it, for the simply goofyness of it, but also I thought Pace played it fantastically. It was by far his best acting of the film. You could see that he came this close to actually laughing, but in the end the dick side of the Force was just too strong in him. That momentary battle between the simple human impulse to laugh at sillyness vs. the broiling hatred of his fanaticism was perfect. I'd actually be really interested to know if that was a genuine character choice or if Pace himself was really struggling to keep from laughing on the set.

Nevermind.

Great for Dawn. I hope I'm wrong about the film's legs. (I suspect they won't be fantastic simply because the film's tone doesn't lend itself to repeat viewing.)

"A" Brilliant on all levels. That said, a very pessimistic film, both toward humanity and (to my surprise) toward the apes. Not one to really leave you feeling pumped, imo. I thought it was an incredible film, and I can't wait to see the sequel, but I doubt I'll go see this one in theaters again, because it's just too heavy a slog. Add me to the "Andy Serkis deserves a nomination" camp, though. He did incredible work.

Those films could have been a whole lot better and still just been "bad" bang, smash, boom, movies.

I'll give the haters the undersea battle- that one got a bit murky, especially in 3-D. But the first fight was just fine, and the Hong Kong battle was, as you say, gorgeous.

Awful film. Just awful. Worse by far are the missed opportunities. So many characters and hints subplots that could have been really, really good blown right past for no reason whatever. Not even good action. More shots miss than hit, and the new tranformation effects look like something from a tv movie. When a Marky-Mark gag with a bottle of beer is the best thing about your film, you've got problems. Especially when you can't even get that gag right. (The tops don't pop off of screw top aluminum bottles!) Rank: Transformers ... ... Way the fuck on down ... ... ... TF: RotF ... TF: AoE ... ... ... Go down some more, past the bottom of your screen, dig a hole in the ground a ways and then you'll find Dark of the Moon.

Apocalypse canceled! Next stop: Tron Legacy 2: Crow Banquet of the Haters.