what I've heard about the casting

Like Ged being...white? Yeah.

Hmm, I didn't think it mattered that the events that happened at Troy were pre-literate since the story survived via the oral tradition for centuries before anyone bothered to write it down.

Like Ged being...white?

I think the entire cast is white or Asian. Not... well, I would have gone for Filipino, myself, not east Asian. Or Native American or latino.

It's just -- I fear they're turning it into something less meaningful and more epic. Less personal, less true. Because fantasy-on-film is always, always about huge epic battles, the fate of the universe stuff.

Not one arrogant kid making a mistake, and risking everything--with the help of some friends--to set it right.

And I'm not sure they'll let Ged make the mistake. Makes him too fallible.

I'm scared.

And, um, I can't think of any other dragon movies, period, let alone good ones.

Dragonslayer!

I think. I haven't seen it in 20 years. But it's finally out on DVD and so it's next in my Netflix queue.

I didn't hate The Score. Granted, it was Generic Heist Movie, Style 7 Plus Twist C, but still. Heist. Plust great cast.

I'm with Jesse--I rather liked The Score, but that might be partially due to the Montreal setting (we don't get to see that city featured too often onscreen, unfortunately), and partially because of my everlasting affection for Heist Films (due to my extremely early exposure to The Sting, I think). Also, I liked the chemistry between DeNiro and Norton, and even though Angela Bassett was basically wasted in her two minutes onscreen, she always adds something to the overall strength of the film.

Strega! I finally saw Alien. Though I think Aliens is the one you're always quoting.

Alien takes an almost unnecessarily slow time getting started, but once we get some hardcore alien action, it's pretty good. What was the state of alien movies before, that this was so remarkable, though? I mean, really, all it is is a movie about an alien picking off the members of a crew one by one. And the protagonist happens to be female, though she doesn't really have any character besides "tough" and "loves her fucking cat." There might be some deeper meaning there, but I often wonder why some classics are, well, classics. What did Ridley Scott do to get himself a place in the canon?

Alien takes an almost unnecessarily slow time getting started

Like other early horror and thriller films, it's a bit of a byproduct of its time. The pacing made it unnerving and intense at the time. The pacing was part of what made it so good. It's definitely slow by today's standards, though.

Well, it was one of the first (if not the first) sci-fi film to treat the future as a complex, messy place, rather than a sterile jump-suited pristine environment. The ship looks like people actually live there and work there. And the monster does not look like a guy in a suit or a series of light effects-thanks to HR Giger, it not only looks genuinely alien--it has many lifestages which all look unique yet work together.

Alien was all "atmospheric" and "claustrophobic." It's most famous for the scene of the alien bursting from the guy's chest--back then it freaked people out. Now of course it happens all the time.

Let's see... there also were class issues--the giant corportation sending poor working stiffs to their certain deaths. The alien effects were groundbreaking, in that (for the most part) the alien did not move like the typical '50s horror movie "guy in a rubber suit."

Also, the designs of the alien and the alien ship were done by H R Geiger, who has a very... distinctive style.

edit: semi-x-posty....

Well, it was one of the first (if not the first) sci-fi film to treat the future as a complex, messy place,

I loved the size of the Nostromo, and that there were rooms large enough to have "weather".