GrimFandango

New video--5 minutes of footage, plus about 10 minutes of outtakes: video @That One Guy @Telemachos I get the feeling watching it that Luc is trying to recreate the magic of The Fifth Element -- there are a lot of similar elements and has a similar feel to me from what I see.

I think I did ok for my first prediction, albeit without trying to predict numbers.

I think it less sequel fatigue, and more crappy story fatigue. I've only got so many dollars and so much time to see a movie in the theater, so I'm pickier about what I spend those dollars and time on. I don't want to waste them on characters I've already seen who are in a story that's either boring or non-nonsensical. Besides being sequels, the other common factor in all these failed films are bad scripts/stories. With Rotten Tomatoes being so influential now and people getting the word-of-mouth instantly via social media, audiences are more informed and now have two major factors to reference before going to the movie: If RT scores are bad, it means most reviewers didn't like the movie. That alone will drive away quite a few people, but if it doesn't--it makes people wait to see what the general audience responses are. If RT scores are bad, and word-of-mouth is bad, then forget it. Opening day might be the only day the studio gets a "freebie" on any more. We're already seeing that with Despicable and other recent movies where the first night opens OK, but the next night is already down and then the movie tanks within the first week. I think (or certainly hope) this summer serves as a time of reckoning for studios: great writers and writing should be as revered as directors. In my opinion, Alien Covenant's shitty script killed its legs despite Ridley's directing genius. Transformers made NO SENSE AT ALL despite Bay's penchant for bombastic, amazing visuals; and it seemed Bay gave zero shits about having a good story for his franchise. Pirates turned Captain Sparrow slowly into a slap-sticky, bumbling less-likable caricature of his Black Pearl character. Cars felt like a cash-grab without the sincerity and charm of Pixar's better films. Sequel-itis to me isn't the problem as much as just wanting to see a good movie. Alien has HUGE potential--I'll gladly see another Alien film if it has the smartness of the first two films. Transformers has so many better ways the story could be explored rather than cutting-and-pasting from every previous one--there's tons of material to source from there. As for the comedies? Again, killed by bad writing. Hell, Wonder Woman was funnier than most comedies recently put out there, and SM:H looks like it will likely be funnier than them too.

Seemed like a niche film that was all hard-core fans for a great OW, then with bad WOM sinking it. Casual fans didn't want to see it if the WOM was bad, and it doesn't appear that people wanted to rewatch it. If early reviews would have been permitted, the OW would have been much worse, IMO.

Looks like you're right, DM3 now down to 5.6/10 at 71%. Reviewers saying it's pretty "meh". 71% is kind of high considering people barely seem to like it. At this point, I'm expecting Baby Driver to really break out, DM3 to have a decent but soft opening, WW to continue holding better than average, C3 to fall off quite a bit with TF5 falling off fairly steeply but retaining a top 3 spot, if not top 2.

I think if the BvS extended cut would have been the released version (with a few other minor cuts here and there for time), it would have had a much better multiplier.

I like the 'tiering' idea.

I think I've seen the fewest films ever this year--don't know why but little has really excited me to get into the theater this year: Star Wars: Rogue One A- Alien: Covenant C- Guardians of the Galaxy 2: A- Wonder Woman: A Of the movies I've missed so far, really want to see Logan, La La Land, John Wick Chap 2, Kong Skull Island, and maybe Pirates.

Holy cow, that must have been amazing!! Jealous! How was it projected?

That's so cool you've been able to get co-workers to go see it with you! I think some of my co-workers are getting sick of me raving about this movie (I did the same with Fury Road too when it came out!), but there's some co-workers who I think would really like these movies if they gave them a chance. A surprising number rarely go see movies, and I feel certain movies would definitely appeal to their tastes if they can get beyond thinking "Oh, Fury Road looks like a dumb action movie for guys" or "A comic book film? Isn't that for kids?" Every person that I was able to convince who has seen either of those really liked them though, so that's a neat feeling. I think a part of it too is I know for a lot of people movies have gotten too expensive and they stopped going, so when there is something I think is worth spending your money on at the cinema to see it on the big screen instead of on DVD, I like to encourage my friends to take the chance. Heck, I'll even refund the cost of the ticket if I steer them wrong because I just get so enthused sometimes.

BvS looks certain, but GotG2 is so far ahead I doubt WW is going to catch it but I think it will come within spitting distance.

For me personally, it seemed a mistake to spread Mockingjay across two films. I lost interest in seeing the second half because the first half seemed almost like a repeat of the previous film, and it ended on such a down note. (I never read the books either, so the fault could be mine). I think it's harder to have two sequels in a row where the "villain wins", and have people come back to the third film for resolution, as it were. That's the way it felt to me, anyways.

Ok, here is my two cents as a very new member on this forum, keeping in mind that I don't have a history here and I respect that I don't know much about this community: It became apparent to me right away that Han was not criticizing WW on the merits of the film itself, but from a point of misogyny, and his comments over the last 24 hours bears that out. I suspect that for Han, WW became a lightning rod for his personal issues with females, and it getting the high praise and adulation that it did just aggravated him. It's fine to not like a film because it doesn't match your tastes; that's the subjective matter of film critique. But to continuously put down a movie, and basically hound its fans and act like a troll, especially without being able to objectively defend your position, makes the forum experience for those fans less enjoyable for no good reason. Admittedly I am a huge WW fan, and I have pointed out exactly why I like it and why I think it is a landmark film in pretty decent detail, and am willing to defend my opinion on those merits. It seems to me Han has some maturing to do, and I hope this minor ban will allow him to reflect on his attitudes. If you hate a film for whatever reason, it makes no sense to jump into threads specifically supporting that film and start complaining non-stop about it. If you must, say your piece and move on unless somebody invites you to discuss it further, at which point lay out an actual argument and defend it, and accept at some point that some issues are simply a matter of taste and you can't really change somebody's taste in something.

He should let somebody else write his own action. The TF films are the first ones where I sat watching an amazing VFX sequence, and thinking "this is both amazing and incredibly boring at the same time." There's some very cools parts buried in the mess, but for me it's not enough. I have literally checked my watch while the main action sequences are going, and I'm just thinking "Please end soon. I don't care at all what happens to these characters."

Where did you get the idea I wanted another retread? I didn't say anything like that. A competent script writer could have both explored new territory without trashing what had been built before. It's not balls, it's hubris. I went in open to an experience worthy of the RS name--he did not deliver. A:C won't be remembered well nearly as well as the first two, and not even as well as Prometheus.

The other movies were not done by Ridley, for one, and they weren't completely bad...but they left you like "uhhh, ok...that was an interesting direction to go..." Prometheus had Ridley back, AND he had a really cool concept. But like I said, the script turned into garbage and messed up the potential of that film. Covenant could have answered those criticisms and continued expanding on the concept of Prometheus, but it just completely dogs it. There is a reason those films didn't have any legs, and that's because Prometheus was frustrating, and Covenant was uninteresting.

I'll tell you why: simply put, AC shits on the legacy of the Alien franchise. Alien: a perfect suspense horror thriller. Perfectly paced with masterful world building. One of the biggest strengths and a large part of the appeal was how it treated the characters: they are smart, and they react in a way we completely understand. We understand how they feel, and we believe the way that they react is in accordance with each person's character. Ripley is smart, strong and the way she deals with the alien makes sense. The screenplay is tight and consistent with the world that it builds. Aliens: an exceptional action-horror thriller. A different flavor, but just as enjoyable. Again, the characters act in a way that is believable to the way we understand them. Ripley is again smart, brave and we see her motherly side in the way she interacts with Newt. The film builds upon the world-foundation that was built in the first film, and expands on it in an an understandable way. The internal logic of the film is pretty solid, and as an audience we buy into it without reservation. After that, the Alien franchise starts to take off in odd directions. Plot-wise, they are essentially a re-hash of Aliens but start playing with the rules built in the previous two films, and audiences don't react as well. There are a lot of plot holes and some non-nonsensical actions by the characters. Prometheus picks up the Alien franchise by building off the appearance of the "space jockey" from the original Alien film. It's a tantalizing concept, because there is so much potential that can be mined from this piece. The frustrating part about Prometheus is that is does EVERYTHING amazingly well, except the script seems to purposely destroy the integrity of itself, plus starts throwing away the "rules" built in the first two films. The characters are interestingly created and given three dimensions, but then they act in ways in complete opposition to their character! The guys with the 3D mapping technology get lost. EVERYBODY is careless and foolhardy. The plot turns on plot-inventions that make no sense--like a medical/surgical system that only understands male anatomy?! One dumb move after another sinks this film into the mud. It's one of the most frustrating films I've ever seen, because it has so much potential and it just throws it away with a horrible script. What it does do though, is expand on the Alien universe in an interesting way, with the engineers being the keystone. It leaves with Rapace and Fassbender headed off to the Engineer's home world, and we are teased with finally getting an answer to the origin of man. At least the movie leaves us with that much. Now comes Alien: Covenant.....and it just takes the worst criticisms from Prometheus and the Alien 3+ films, and instead of addressing those criticisms, it doubles down on them. It feels like Ridley Scott is saying "FUCK YOU, MOVIEGOERS! I'm the creator and director of this franchise, and I'll do what I damn well please!" This crew is the most incompetent crew of ALL the Alien films. Within minutes of landing on a completely alien planet for the first time, somebody is infected (in a way that NEVER existed in the Alien universe before) because NOBODY follows any sort of sensible bio-hazard protocol. Not one person does anything that makes sense for the 1-dimensional characters we've been given. There are virtually no characters we give a damn about. This film set ups its victims in the exact way a teen slasher film does. The only mildly redeemable part of this film are the android stories, but even that is just meh. The other big F-U of this film is the way it handles the way we were left with Prometheus: are we going learn more about the engineers? NOPE!! We are going to kill them. All that cool technology that we wanted to learn more about? NOPE! What about Shaw? NOPE! How about the origins of mankind? NOPE! What about a chance to talk to the engineers? NOPE! Not only do we get NONE of that, it now completely retcons the Alien mythology built in the first two Alien movies! WTF?! So A:C basically becomes a teen-slasher flick set in space, while taking a big dump on Alien, Aliens and Prometheus. It really is just a big budget B horror movie. Fuck you Ridley Scott...I only hope Blade Runner 2049 isn't going to screw up Blade Runner the same way.

Missed opportunity with the tagline "Life...uh, finds a way."

He can't seem to direct an action sequence that makes any sense though.

I think domestically it will have toxic WOM. If this movie follows the trends of the TF movies, it is likely be very front-loaded and peter-out fast similar to TF:AoE. I can understand some people going because they are curious if it is as bad as people say, but they aren't going to see it again if they thought it was bad. The audience scores will definitely be a lot higher than the critic scores, especially on this one. And as typical, I expect fresh reviews to start coming in from critics who simply like to be contrarian (e.g. rate a bad movie good just because everybody else hated it, or a good movie bad just because everyone else liked it). I predict RT critics to put it at 23%, and audiences at 58%. I think it will do relatively well this week, then fall off hard next weekend and really hard in the 3rd. My novice predictions for domestic rankings: 1st Wknd: 1-TF5, 2-WW, 3-Cars3 (very close to WW) 2nd Wknd: 1-DM3, 2-Baby Driver, 3-TF5, 4-WW 3rd Wknd: 1-SP:HC, 2-DM3, 3-Baby Driver, 4-WW, 5-TF5 Course, I'm new at this and will probably be proven completely wrong

So far it seems the TF films have been pretty immune to bad reviews. I'm starting to think the robots in those films are powered by negative reviews.

I think GotG and Iron Man are likely (domestic at least) going to get passed unless WW goes real flat. GotG2 is an outside shot.

Look out, she's coming! I don't see her passing TDKR, but BvS is toast.

Do studios hold off releasing numbers if they are lower than they'd like in the hopes they can get all the receipt totals in and boost the number?