Red Mosquito

It's getting good ratings, but I'm going to try to avoid seeing it. I'm sure it's just more of the same blockbuster action...

It feels surprisingly and refreshingly small. The aliens are little more than a gimmick to give the movie is time warping hook, but that's fine. There is the usual "world at stake" crap, but it's not a drag on the movie. Tommy Cruiser and whatshername work well. Pretty funny at times too.

found this surprisingly good for a summer blockbuster.

Everybody seems to love it. Even my snobbiest of film snob friends. I'm gonna try to watch it this weekend.

Tommy Cruiser is back baby!

Yeah, this was a fun movie.

Maybe not at first, I guess. The opening has moments of that same TV-level cheap feel that X-Men had, and the first time you see the attack it's literally just people walking unsteadily around a beach in silly costumes. There aren't actually any aliens in the shot for like 5 minutes.

But it gets to where it needs to go, and from there the entire middle section is just really, really fun. It uses repetition without actually becoming repetitive, it lets the character drive the action rather than the urge for excess flash and bang, making it feel smaller and more human than its peers (not unlike Jack Ryan), and it even keeps us guessing a bit as to where we are in the guy's story.

The last third was a bit of a let down.

Spoiler: show

First of all, they did such a great job of creating aliens that were a real threat even with his supreme insight, that once he loses the ability to jump back and he's in their goddamn hive you go "well he's dead." Then the helicopter thing on the ground takes 15 minutes to go 200 yards, and the aliens suddenly can't catch anybody, and who the fuck cares about the fate of this (yawn) band of misfits we've barely even seen.

What I really liked, and was hoping would become the primary source of tension in the final act, was his "I can keep on living over and over, but I can't seem to find a way to save you" dilemma. That felt fresh and interesting...a main character who is in the midst of this chaos, but whose own life is not really at stake anymore. That, or a good third act twist (especially one that addressed the "they sent us these false visions of where the central mind is to knock us off course, but before they did that we didn't know there was a central mind at all" issue) would have been great.

By contrast, the "oh no I lost my magic powers" bit is so tired, and frankly I was glad that they didn't stretch out the ending too long because I didn't really care and we all knew how it was going to end once that happened, anyway.

Definitely a fun movie, though. Bill Paxton has now officially mastered the determined military stride, the most lucrative resume builder of any aging character actor.

E.H. Ruddock wrote:I think part of the problem with these types of movies is that people keep on watching them

FTFY

i dont want to believe this is a good movie

Paxton makes up for any shortcomings in the beginning.

Its a lot of fun, cruise is great, blunt is great...
Yeah the end is weird but kudos to Liman.

If anything is going to deserve scorn, it'll be Into the Storm. Or Hercules. Or just both.

It also surprises me that people who used the "if a giant robot hitting a monster with a boat isn't awesome to you, then you're just no fun" logic to defend b-movie wannabe Pacific Rim aren't in love with the Transformers movies, since the new one's entire promotional campaign is about a giant robot riding a dinosaur while swinging a sword and neither movie has any evidence of acting or craft.

McParadigm wrote:If anything is going to deserve scorn, it'll be Into the Storm. Or Hercules. Or just both.

It also surprises me that people who used the "if a giant robot hitting a monster with a boat isn't awesome to you, then you're just no fun" logic to defend b-movie wannabe Pacific Rim aren't in love with the Transformers movies, since the new one's entire promotional campaign is about a giant robot riding a dinosaur while swinging a sword and neither movie has any evidence of acting or craft.

Hercules looks terrible. Into The Storm looked like a second rate Gravity, so I'm sure you'll love that one. I laughed at the airplane scene.

A giant robot riding a dinosaur while swinging a sword is definitely a step forward for the franchise, but it won't make up for the mountain of shit that will come with it. Its probably a red herring anyway. The first movie promised giant robots fighting and delivered wacky Shia LaBoof hijinks, shaky cam, and "robots" ballerina leaping over each other for no reason at all. I put "robots" in quotes because they are so poorly designed they might as well be random scraps of metal thrown together by a tornado hitting a junk yard. I can't tell their heads from their asses. I could forgive Michael Bay for a lot if he could adequately film an action scene, but for the one field he is supposedly an expert, he is fucking terrible at it.

McParadigm wrote:If anything is going to deserve scorn, it'll be Into the Storm. Or Hercules. Or just both.

It also surprises me that people who used the "if a giant robot hitting a monster with a boat isn't awesome to you, then you're just no fun" logic to defend b-movie wannabe Pacific Rim aren't in love with the Transformers movies, since the new one's entire promotional campaign is about a giant robot riding a dinosaur while swinging a sword and neither movie has any evidence of acting or craft.

If this is a dig at me because I liked Pacific Rim, your words can't hurt me, McP. I like mostly all action movies. I'm sure I'll like this one too. Although, I hated the transformers but that was because of Shia.

I am an admitted rube when it comes to criticizing action movies that clearly are meant for mindless entertainment though, so whatever.

This looks like a Huge Jacket Man sized blockbuster.

Whitey McTeeth wrote:This looks like a Huge Jacket Man sized blockbuster.

I thought Jacketman was one word. Is it?

Who is Huge Jacketman's arch enemy?

Russ Hellcrow?

It is now.

BurtReynolds wrote:Russ Hellcrow?

Toni Coatllette?

I smell a hot new IP. Think of the merchandising opportunities!