Posted on 12/05/2014 6:45:07 AM PST by C19fan
The trailer for Terminator: Genisys was probably doomed to mockery before it even hit the Internet, based on that title alone. The American consumer can tolerate some intentional misspelling—Inglourious Basterds, Pet Sematary, Bratz dolls—but Genisys makes not even a little bit of sense. It doesn’t help that public appetite for the Terminator series feels low after two terrible, forgettable films (2003’s Rise of the Machines and 2009’s Salvation) and a non-canonical TV series that never rose above cult status (The Sarah Connor Chronicles).
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
“”Ghost In The Shell” and “Akira” are two of the best stories ever put on film. Add the depth of the visuals, and you have timeless peices of cinema. “
I embrace you as my brother ;)
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I couldn't agree more.
Hollywood has never really been into originality. It has the problem that of all the various entertainment/ art forms it is by far the most expensive to produce and distribute. So it’s always been risk averse. Going back to the earliest days of Hollywood you see them making movies out of plays, and shortly remaking movies out of those plays. They don’t rehash because it’s cheaper, writers are the least expensive part of the process, they rehash because there’s a “proven” audience. If you’re going to drop 10 million dollars to make a 2 hour movie, nearly that much to advertise it, and close to that to distribute it you need all the assurances you can get that it’ll make money. And that’s a low budget movie (with still enough budget to make at least 10 hours of TV, which has much cheaper advertising and comparatively free distribution), the demand for assurances just goes up when it becomes a 150 million dollar movie. Just look at how many times UA has gone under because of 1 or 2 flops, risk is bad.
Speaking of her, Ever see Ultraviolet?
Oh as a sidenote to allo n GITS, look up the plotlines for “Laughing man” and “Individual 11” from the later TV series.
Then IRRC the episode titled “The boy who folds Cranes”. I challenge anyone to find a more non animated production that goes deeper or is more thought provoking. That thing is EASILY among the best things ever written.
The original GitS movie was OK, but I don’t think it was up there with some of Miyazaki’s movies.
“If you include the 2 series, very little can stand against it. Together it’s a Tour de Force. Those series are incredible.”
And that’s where GitS shines, those series episodes are better than the GitS movies, which aren’t too shabby either. It’s hard to think of a better franchise for quality.
I’ve heard different stuff about the new Gits series, if it is half as good as the original runs I don’t think anyone could complain.
FReegards
I don’t deny anything you wrote. It’s true. But I gotta think they hit the point of diminishing returns years ago as an art form deserving serious respect for the most part. It’s one thing to do “Oklahoma” as a movie. It’s another to put out Rocky 15 with a straight face.
I’ve seen Ultraviolet twice. It was good. I think that Milla is a very convincing action heroine. I’ve never seen GITS. I just can’t warm up to Anime. I have a nephew who adores it.
I’ll get it without a doubt. I think it will be ‘good’ because the Japanese rarely take chances with things like GITS. But I think this will be a case of expectations being astronomical.
I actually like Innocence better than the first movie to be honest. Complete Noir. And Basset Hounds! The directors commentary on that is hilarious. If you have the DVD, you know why ;)
In my view, this is an age of great filmmaking. But the gems won’t be found among the mass market garbage. Let me add to Borges’ list:
Lost in Translation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Synecdoche, NY
Hotel Rwanda
Million Dollar Baby
Grizzly Man
Jonestown
Still Life
Adaptation
Her
No Country for Old Men
Encounters at the End of the World
My Winnipeg
Slumdog Millionaire
Of Gods and Men
Inside Llewyn Davis
Boyhood
Get the original movie and forget it’s anime. It’s nothing like Naruto or any of that. It’s simply animated SciFi. From there, if you like it at all, the 2 series just expand the universe massively.
We have very similar taste in cinema. And judging by your screen name, in literature...
I literally recognize 5 of those, but I will look them all up for sure.
I just watched it again recently, and listened to the commentary. The whole story about the dreamworks or industrial light and magic guys praising the basset’s certain physical attribute was pretty funny. And yes, the later GitS movies were better than the first one.
The only problem with the GitS franchise is that the manga is in no way up to par with the TV shows or movies. That’s very odd, the manga for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Akira and Appleseed completely own their respective movies as far as scope and story telling.
FReegards
Except that’s always been the model. And often resulted in some of the greatest movies made. The Bogie version of Maltese Falcon was the 3rd time in 10 years they’d turned that book into a movie. The Heston Ben Hur was the third time they adapted that play (which itself was based on the novel). One thing that has changed is Hollywood learned about the franchise, they learned from the novel industry (via the low budget horror industry) that you don’t have to just remake the same story pretending previous version didn’t happen, that you can just keep adding “chapters”, keep the title, keep some actors, retell the same story with different cars, slap a number at the end. Lather, rinse repeat. And of course now they’re learning (again from novels via horror) the art of the reboot, which is the best of both worlds, you can acknowledge and ignore the previous versions in the same movie, you can replace all the actors, except bring in one for 5 minutes, you can do even less rewriting to tell the same story because it’s the first chapter again. But of course, being Hollywood, even their ideas on how to recycle ideas are recycled.
I was wondering if/when Appleseed would get brought up. You don’t know how happy it makes me to know that another Freeper knows it. There is hope for us as a people ;)
Masamune Shirow has a couple other winners as well, though more ‘traditional Anime’ than hard sci fi. Dominion Tank Police being a fun watch.
“But of course, being Hollywood, even their ideas on how to recycle ideas are recycled.”
The core of the issue.
I agree with this review of Akira...
“This superviolent epic borrows liberally (if unimaginatively) from Blade Runner, The Road Warrior, Japanese disaster movies, Brian De Palma’s telekinesis movies, and SF writer Alfred Bester to create the equivalent of the dullest of all possible computer games. The backgrounds tend to overpower and be more interesting than the foregrounds, which are usually cluttered by interchangeable teenage bikers with what appear to be white gums instead of teeth. Grade-school violence freaks may find a few kicks here, but even they may have trouble coping with this ugly movie’s ending about eight separate times.”
If you want to talk ultraviolence, watch Fist of the North Star or MD Geist. Akira is Teletubbies by comparison. But that review just as easily applies to most modern movies.
Now granted, Akira is not for everyone. You gotta be a sci fi guy from the get go. But violence is integral to that story. Take that out and it would be like Silence of the Lanbs without cannibalism.
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