Movie Thread 2: The Sequel

[Soul]

I thought Wiig was marvelous as usual doing the “awkward” thing, but once things got serious she was just OK.

[TomtheBombadil]

They didn’t do any of that well either. If it went for camp and nostalgia, it missed by 3 miles. If you want to see the 80s done right watch the first season of Stranger Things.

If anything, I thought this movie was going after the sensibilities of the 80's. If you're looking to pay homage to and feel nostalgic about the 80's, 1984 would not be the first choice for a title

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, the real concerns are about someone flying in a superhero movie, and not things like the insane plot points hinged on racism/xenophobia and WILDLY terrible takes on sexual assault.

i tuned out pretty hard on this one, what parts are you talking about?

For the former, I was kinda dumbfounded at how this thing was trafficking in ridiculous Arab stereotypes left and right. Like, what the horsefeathers was up with the out and out propaganda cartoon apparently running Egypt? It just really paints the whole of the Arab Middle East as a collection of horsefeathers ups who either want to destroy the world, build walls around countries, or need to be saved. Given Gadot's questionable at best rhetoric about that part of the world, it just seemed really horsefeathering obnoxious. Like, it was straight up, "hey, it's the 80's! Remember when the Transformers cartoon went to a country called Carbombya*? That horsefeathers was cool, right?" It's not even horsefeathering subtle:

(*That horsefeathers really happened.)

With the latter, we had the really weird choice to have Cheetah's big, "whoa, she's EVILLLLLL!" moment as her almost beating to death....the dude who tried to rape her earlier in the movie? OK...

And then the big one is that in a movie where things are literally being wished into existence out of nothing, for no reason whatsoever Chris Pine's character is only brought back by inhabiting some rando dude's body. Like, not even that he turns into Chris Pine; it's made clear that only WW see's him as Chris Pine, and everyone else would still see the original dude. The OG dude's mind?/spirit?/soul? is just...shunted aside, I guess, while Pine and WW have adventures and horsefeathers their brains out. Then, at the end, it's played for laughs/as cute when OG dude is back, and WW gives him a look, like, "oh yeah, I hit that," and he looks baffled as horsefeathers. I mean, if this movie was Wonder Dude boning a complete stranger possessed by the spirit of his dead girlfriend Stephanie Trevor, people would be (rightly) losing their goddamned minds.

It's just a baffling decision more than anything else. Like, why set up this hugely terrible (but at least workable if you don't just do the dumb horsefeathers the movie does) scenario for no reason whatsoever except for a throwaway visual gag at the end?

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I probably wasn't going to watch the movie in the first place, but now I'm not going to watch the horsefeathers out of it after reading this thread.

[CubinNY]

They didn’t do any of that well either. If it went for camp and nostalgia, it missed by 3 miles. If you want to see the 80s done right watch the first season of Stranger Things.

If anything, I thought this movie was going after the sensibilities of the 80's. If you're looking to pay homage to and feel nostalgic about the 80's, 1984 would not be the first choice for a title

Well they did a horsefeathers job of that too. Pascal’s character should have been a Miami drug kingpin or a Carl Icahn corporate raider shuttering manufacturing and moving it off shore. There is so much they missed. They could have had a great rock and roll soundtrack. Gadot didn’t even have 1980s hair like Lynda Carter. It failed at every level.

[TomtheBombadil]

Well they did a horsefeathers job of that too. Pascal’s character should have been a Miami drug kingpin or a Carl Icahn corporate raider shuttering manufacturing and moving it off shore. There is so much they missed. They could have had a great rock and roll soundtrack. Gadot didn’t even have 1980s hair like Lynda Carter. It failed at every level.

Pascal's character seemed more like a take on the insane workloads many of that era took on to Be Successful/not be a Loser, acquire more stuff and power and respect that isn't really coming, and how it destroyed his relationships and identity. A much more common experience than say Miami drug kingpin

Also I really think you're working from the assumption that this movie *likes* the 80's

Wiig's big turning moment wasn't beating up the rape guy but dismissing her homeless friend right after

[NOLA]

I probably wasn't going to watch the movie in the first place, but now I'm not going to watch the horsefeathers out of it after reading this thread.

On the contrary, I was never going to watch this movie, but now I want to if only to see how awful it is.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I probably wasn't going to watch the movie in the first place, but now I'm not going to watch the horsefeathers out of it after reading this thread.

On the contrary, I was never going to watch this movie, but now I want to if only to see how awful it is.

I'll wait for the RiffTrax version.

[CubinNY]

Well they did a horsefeathers job of that too. Pascal’s character should have been a Miami drug kingpin or a Carl Icahn corporate raider shuttering manufacturing and moving it off shore. There is so much they missed. They could have had a great rock and roll soundtrack. Gadot didn’t even have 1980s hair like Lynda Carter. It failed at every level.

Pascal's character seemed more like a take on the insane workloads many of that era took on to Be Successful/not be a Loser, acquire more stuff and power and respect that isn't really coming, and how it destroyed his relationships and identity. A much more common experience than say Miami drug kingpin

Also I really think you're working from the assumption that this movie *likes* the 80's

Wiig's big turning moment wasn't beating up the rape guy but dismissing her homeless friend right after

You weren’t around much in the 1980s were you?

[Proven Veteran]

I thought it was a steaming turd. Very concerned for the Patty Jenkins Star Wars now.

[Soul]

LOL.

Mojo - I actually didn't suss out all of that nuance, but it makes it even more hilarious. I was just thinking, wait what is she seeing? I know what I'm seeing, I know what everyone else in the movie is seeing, but is she just imagining him or he's transformed in her mind because she can't deal with it??

Now I'm even more confused. She bagged....who? I guess that's why Pine had the mirror scene where he said "hey...not bad!"

[Sammy Sofa]

LOL.

Mojo - I actually didn't suss out all of that nuance, but it makes it even more hilarious. I was just thinking, wait what is she seeing? I know what I'm seeing, I know what everyone else in the movie is seeing, but is she just imagining him or he's transformed in her mind because she can't deal with it??

Now I'm even more confused. She bagged....who? I guess that's why Pine had the mirror scene where he said "hey...not bad!"

For whatever reason the wish just manifested that way. For her it's "real" in that he looks and sounds and is Steve...but the movie makes it clear that to everyone else it's not Steve (physically). So the OG dude's mind/personality/soul/whatever is just gone, and it IS Steve "in" there, but anyone besides Diana is going to see/hear the OG dude doing everything Steve is doing/saying.

It's a horsefeathering baffling choice. Like, the crux of all of this is that she has to lose him again...so what is the point of him basically possessing this rando dude? Why can't this wishing stone thing, that we clearly see just bringing things into existence out of nothing/nowhere, just recreate Steve Trevor instead of putting him in someone else's body? Then you still get the main thing, which is that she and Steve have to lose each other all over again for the greater good.

Like, I really don't give a horsefeathers as to how these sort of things work in universe in terms of superpower-y, magic-y horsefeathers; it's just, IMO, glaringly terrible/nonsensical screenwriting. I cannot figure out why anyone involved decided this should be a thing because, again, it serves no specific purpose as far as I can tell outside of some throwaway humor.

[big ball chunky time]

LOL.

Mojo - I actually didn't suss out all of that nuance, but it makes it even more hilarious. I was just thinking, wait what is she seeing? I know what I'm seeing, I know what everyone else in the movie is seeing, but is she just imagining him or he's transformed in her mind because she can't deal with it??

Now I'm even more confused. She bagged....who? I guess that's why Pine had the mirror scene where he said "hey...not bad!"

For whatever reason the wish just manifested that way. For her it's "real" in that he looks and sounds and is Steve...but the movie makes it clear that to everyone else it's not Steve (physically). So the OG dude's mind/personality/soul/whatever is just gone, and it IS Steve "in" there, but anyone besides Diana is going to see/hear the OG dude doing everything Steve is doing/saying.

It's a horsefeathering baffling choice. Like, the crux of all of this is that she has to lose him again...so what is the point of him basically possessing this rando dude? Why can't this wishing stone thing, that we clearly see just bringing things into existence out of nothing/nowhere, just recreate Steve Trevor instead of putting him in someone else's body? Then you still get the main thing, which is that she and Steve have to lose each other all over again for the greater good.

Like, I really don't give a horsefeathers as to how these sort of things work in universe in terms of superpower-y, magic-y horsefeathers; it's just, IMO, glaringly terrible/nonsensical screenwriting. I cannot figure out why anyone involved decided this should be a thing because, again, it serves no specific purpose as far as I can tell outside of some throwaway humor.

I kept thinking "well it's going to give weight to her decision to let steve go because she'll be grappling with the fact that her wish un-existed this guy." But (unless I missed it because I did fall asleep during part of it) they never touched on that

[Sammy Sofa]

LOL.

Mojo - I actually didn't suss out all of that nuance, but it makes it even more hilarious. I was just thinking, wait what is she seeing? I know what I'm seeing, I know what everyone else in the movie is seeing, but is she just imagining him or he's transformed in her mind because she can't deal with it??

Now I'm even more confused. She bagged....who? I guess that's why Pine had the mirror scene where he said "hey...not bad!"

For whatever reason the wish just manifested that way. For her it's "real" in that he looks and sounds and is Steve...but the movie makes it clear that to everyone else it's not Steve (physically). So the OG dude's mind/personality/soul/whatever is just gone, and it IS Steve "in" there, but anyone besides Diana is going to see/hear the OG dude doing everything Steve is doing/saying.

It's a horsefeathering baffling choice. Like, the crux of all of this is that she has to lose him again...so what is the point of him basically possessing this rando dude? Why can't this wishing stone thing, that we clearly see just bringing things into existence out of nothing/nowhere, just recreate Steve Trevor instead of putting him in someone else's body? Then you still get the main thing, which is that she and Steve have to lose each other all over again for the greater good.

Like, I really don't give a horsefeathers as to how these sort of things work in universe in terms of superpower-y, magic-y horsefeathers; it's just, IMO, glaringly terrible/nonsensical screenwriting. I cannot figure out why anyone involved decided this should be a thing because, again, it serves no specific purpose as far as I can tell outside of some throwaway humor.

I kept thinking "well it's going to give weight to her decision to let steve go because she'll be grappling with the fact that her wish un-existed this guy." But (unless I missed it because I did fall asleep during part of it) they never touched on that

Exactly. It most definitely does not touch on it beyond horsefeathers like the look she gives the guy at the end. I totally thought the same thing, "well, this is an interesting monkey's paw sort of deal; she's going to have to grapple with the issue of how someone basically unknowingly sacrificed his existence for th-....oh, wait, nope; guess not." Or that it would mean that all of the wishes would have these Faustian/Wishmaster-esque catches to them...but instead it's just, "yeah, some do, kinda, but most don't, and mostly it's people wanting stuff like mass deportations and giant walls and nukes and they just get them, I guess."

[Banedon]

[CubinNY]

I didn’t think any of these movies could top Batman v Superman, the I saw Suicide Squad. Then I didn’t think anything would ever top Suicide Squad. Then I saw Birds of Prey. Then I thought, there is no way they can make anything worse. Then they made WW84.

[Sammy Sofa]

BoP is a bop.

[big ball chunky time]

yeah i enjoyed birds of prey a lot.

also justice league is the worst of the bunch by like 10,000 horsefeathering miles.

[Sammy Sofa]

yeah i enjoyed birds of prey a lot.

also justice league is the worst of the bunch by like 10,000 horsefeathering miles.

Yeah, JL barely even counts as a movie.

[OleMissCub]

Anybody remember The Beastmaster? Those ferrets were awesome

[NOLA]

Anybody remember The Beastmaster? Those ferrets were awesome

I have watched that awful movie so many times. Bonus points for introducing crafty attack ferrets, though.

[Sammy Sofa]

I am, probably stupidly, finally rewatching the Marvel movies in the supposed chronological order. Watched Iron Man last night for the first time in I don't know how long, and I had completely blocked out how horsefeathering TERRIBLE the butt rock guitar score is. I thought it was, like, embarrassingly bad.

[big ball chunky time]

I am, probably stupidly, finally rewatching the Marvel movies in the supposed chronological order. Watched Iron Man last night for the first time in I don't know how long, and I had completely blocked out how horsefeathering TERRIBLE the butt rock guitar score is. I thought it was, like, embarrassingly bad.

Hahah we rewatched it not too long ago too. I thought it held up much better than the sequels, but yeah, 2008 was a long time ago in movie time.

[Sammy Sofa]

I am, probably stupidly, finally rewatching the Marvel movies in the supposed chronological order. Watched Iron Man last night for the first time in I don't know how long, and I had completely blocked out how horsefeathering TERRIBLE the butt rock guitar score is. I thought it was, like, embarrassingly bad.

Hahah we rewatched it not too long ago too. I thought it held up much better than the sequels, but yeah, 2008 was a long time ago in movie time.

Outside of the music, I still thought it was really fun, though they lean REALLY hard into Stark being the most obnoxious dickbag possible, and then only crank it down by about 8% once he has his come to Jesus moment. Jeff Bridges is a great sleazy bad guy, and he's kinda straight up horsefeathering hot in it. Terrence Howard now just comes across as some weird lunatic creeper who somehow tricked people into letting him be in movies.

I'm also the weirdo who really likes 2, and actually thinks 3 was the best of them, so what do I know.

[Sammy Sofa]

Also: I think we've pretty much only been watching horsefeathers like comic book movies and SW stuff and Tolkien and Doctor Who whatnot for the last few weeks, and [expletive] if all of that doesn't turn your brain to mush. It's like living off of ice cream and pizza. I love it all, but it kinda sucks that this is basically 90% of TV and movies now, right?