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FilmFincher

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  1. Watched this last night with the UK release. It was a delight to finally see a Ghibli film on the big screen.

     

    The film was beautiful and an extraordinary artistic achievement. Every frame feels so honest and true to itself. There's no cynical or complacent choice to be found. It's incredible how Miyazaki can still craft a film that is so free of expectations this late in his career. 

     

    We are offered a different kind of protagonist in Mahito. He's quiet, sullen and resistant to the world around him. There is a volcano bubbling under the surface of both him and the film. The ideas that Miyazaki wants to contend with and the world he presents us with grow more complicated and difficult.

     

    It probably lands somewhere in the middle of my Ghibli ranking but similar to The Wind Rises there's so much more to unpack here that I could easily see it rising with a rewatch. 

     

    Dare I say this film has more in common with Evangelion than previous Miyazaki films.

    • Heart 2
  2. Minus One struck such a wonderful balance of character and genre film. The post war setting, the themes, Koichi's journey throughout the film. The specificity of the story being told and how the Godzilla side supports character is something that more blockbusters should take note of. 

     

    I'm not entirely sure if that magic melding can be recreated if they go the sequel route but I would love to be proven wrong.

  3. 7 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

    ....does converting it to 70mm improve anything when it was shot in digital?

    Not as far as I can tell. There wouldn't be an increase in resolution because the film would have been mastered in 4K so it's kind of like blowing up the image which would happen in pre-digital projection to maximise resolution for certain theatres (A film would be shot on 35MM and then get some 65/70MM prints, but with digital projection you generally don't have to worry about potential resolution loss).

     

    Villeneuve and Fraser did use film emulation on the first Dune which was also shot digitally. Even going so far as having different grain fields and lenses to distinguish the widescreen and IMAX sections and recreate the same feeling you get with shooting real 70MM IMAX. Fraser would take emulating film on digital further with The Batman by actually printing the digital master out onto physical film and scanning it back in to tinker even more. So you could look at it as an extension of that work.

     

    Another possible reason could be taking advantage of the full 1.43:1 aspect ratio. A lot of 70MM IMAX venues don't have digital projectors capable of projecting in the full 1.43:1 and only the 1.90:1 Digital IMAX ratio, sometimes still with 2K projectors.

    (Although it's still unconfirmed if Dune Part II will take advantage of the full ratio or stick to the Digital IMAX ratio that all the trailers have been presented in).

     

    As a pure aesthetic and vibes choice, sometimes seeing something projected on film just hits different but that's more subjective. 

  4. My Miyazaki ranking

    1. My Neighbour Totoro
    2. Princess Mononoke
    3. Spirited Away
    4. Kiki's Delivery Service
    5. Ponyo
    6. Porco Rosso
    7. The Wind Rises
    8. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 
    9. Howl's Moving Castle
    10. Castle in the Sky 

    Only haven't seen Castle of Cagliostro and currently working my way through the rest of the Studio Ghibli filmography. Just did Whisper of the Heart yesterday and it was delightful!

    • Like 2
  5. I had quite a bad screening experience with this, theatre had horrible sound and I probably missed a 1/5 of the spoken dialogue (even after asking them to turn it up) plus some people in the back would not stop chatting and taking pictures throughout the film. 

     

    All that being said I thought it was the best horror film I’ve seen so far this year which speaks to it’s strengths. 

     

    I grew up with the director’s videos on YouTube and just seeing them put out something this fully formed and professionally made is kind of mind blowing. 

    For first time filmmakers they made a lot of the horror trailers we got before the film look amateur. 

     

    On a surface level, the plot and concept are familiar but the approach and execution feels fresh enough to offer something new. 

     

    The scares (especially the possessions) were genuinely thrilling and didn’t rely on jumps. It was surprising, shocking and fun in all the right places which elicited some of the most vocal audience reactions I’ve heard. 

  6. 3 hours ago, The Dark Alfred said:

    Also this is the first film ever to be filmed 100% IMAX

    Just a minor correction, this is not true. The film switches between 70MM IMAX and regular 70mm. It is very difficult to shoot any dialogue heavy scenes in 70MM IMAX due to the size and noise of the cameras. (Some filmmakers are currently working with IMAX to create a quieter, more efficient version of this camera).

    Spoiler

    But the point does stand that Nolan is synonymous with IMAX. Of the 17? films that feature real 70MM IMAX footage, 6 are Nolans and he was the first director to employ it's usage in a Hollywood feature film with The Dark Knight. The only other director to have multiple films using the format is JJ Abrams with 2. Nolan literally is IMAX. 

     

    But don't even get me started on all these avenues. Now there's LIEMAX, digital IMAX cameras, formatted for IMAX, certified for IMAX etc. IMAX have diluted the brand somewhat since it's innovative usage in The Dark Knight. Is anyone buying that Blue Beetle is 'Filmed for IMAX'!?

     

  7. Oppenheimer also stellar, another shift in gears for Nolan, maybe his strongest script and dialogue. Basically doing his JFK/The Social Network.

     

    All the personal relationships throughout the film feel natural and textured in a way that pleasantly surprised me considering the limited screen time for some. He really lets all the actors just shine, everybody is aces but Downey especially. 

     

    It has all the clever tricks and storytelling devices that make a Nolan film so satisfying to watch; dialogue that comes full circle, non-linear storytelling, sleight of hand, intercutting of sequences galore and a propulsive score by Ludwig to top it all off. 

     

    This is a great weekend for the movies, the films are wonderful, the box-office is exciting and I’m hopeful that both Barbie and Oppenheimer will continue to perform strongly through the rest of summer.

     

    Great Success Win GIF

    • Like 5
  8. Greta Gerwig pulled it off.

     

    Barbie is everything you could want it to be. Heart warming, self referential, laugh out loud funny, thematically powerful and above all else, wildly entertaining. 

     

    The ease with which the film goes from goofy slapstick to tender sincerity is masterful. 

     

    I had a beaming smile on my face the whole time, I think my cheeks are hurting a little from it. 

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    • Thanks 1
    • ...wtf 1
  9. It's going to be an amazing weekend at the box office.

     

    But it wouldn't be nearly as exciting without the incredible work all the trackers here are doing. It been unbelievably fun and is a nice reminder of why we all love following box office after lots of recent doom and gloom. 

     

    So thank you for all the work you put in! Barbenheimer is one for the books. 

     

    Celebrate In Love GIF by Max

    • Like 15
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  10. Literally just rewatched Godzilla (2014) this last week to get my Gareth Edwards fix, his visual storytelling and ability to build tension is at a totally different level than his peers. So happy to be getting another blockbuster from him.

     

    Also Greig Fraser (who I assume set the tone before Oren Soffer took over) has really outdone himself with his quest to make digital look more like film. I saw the IMAX exclusive trailer before MI7 and on the big screen it's indistinguishable, the grain, the colour, the lenses. Beautiful work, stunning. 

  11. Caught this again with another set of people.

    Man the runtime of this film just flies by even on a second watch. 

    There's such an honesty to Haley's performance, so many little tics and idiosyncrasies that just make her feel so alive. Balfe gives her a really beautiful musical cue as well.

    The one thing I felt it was missing action-wise was a really good hand-to-hand fight scene. It's a bit lacklustre in that area. 

    • Like 3
  12. This was a bloody good time in the cinema. Non-stop from start to finish, runtime flew by. McQuarrie goes back to his more kinetic camerawork and throws in some De Palma dutch angles for good measure. Sound design was top notch as always.

     

    This entry has a playful cat and mouse energy to it as opposed to the more serious and straightforward Fallout, closer in tone to 4/5, very funny throughout. I loved the AI plot and Macguffin. Haley Atwell’s Grace gets a fantastic arc through the film. 

     

    The action is stronger overall in Fallout (it still has better action than 99% of films getting released today so just a minor nitpick) but the final train set piece in Dead Reckoning is nothing short of breathtaking and worth the price admission alone. Proper edge-of-your-seat stuff. 

     

    I do think the film stumbles at points. There’s one aspect that really falls flat and some of the exposition is repetitive but the film keeps things moving quick enough to distract you.

     

    Also Pom Klementieff is incredible in this, she just lights up the screen, absolute chaos energy.

     

    Action-heads are eating good between John Wick 4, Extraction 2 and this.

    • Like 1
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