'War Stories'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Oh man, I just took an online marketing survey that was very clearly geared toward gauging enthusiasm for Alita Battle Angel, although it gave lip service to asking questions about a few other movies.
The Marketing department will NOT be thrilled by my answers.
I'm just way too weirded out by her giant eyes.
I know I watched the anime at some point as a teenager (my friends and I went through the entirety of our local Blockbuster's meager selection) but it never really been stuck with me so I don't even have the nostalgia factor to make me want to watch it.
In the trailer she's interacting with real actors, which zooms the Uncanny Valley vibe up to Polar Express level. The cyborg attackers have real actors' faces on CGI bodies, so your brain kind of accepts them after so many years of superhero movies, but then this thing that looks like a teenage Precious Moments figurine steps into frame and it just screams FAKE! and breaks immersion.
If the other characters were entirely CGI but just proportioned more realistically I bet it wouldn't be as jarring.
MoviePass is circling the drain.
I'm going to use my movie pass every day I can now.
I cancelled mine just today and signed up for AMC Stubs A-List instead: [link]
It's double the MoviePass fee but since my main go-to theater is a 22 screen AMC multiplex where I average 3-4 films a month, it's still totally worthwhile. You can watch up to 3 films a week (so 12/mo max, which is plenty) including IMAX, 3D, and repeat viewings. Best of all, you can reserve tickets in advance.
My MoviePass subscription is paid for another week, so I may try to squeeze in viewings for a couple of films that are only playing in a non-AMC small neighborhood indie theater (I've been meaning to watch Leave No Trace before it disappears off the screen).
I did not lie, am at movies now FINALLY seeing ant man and wasp.
Hmm, I'd thought the MoviePass app stopped working as of this morning. Is it just e-ticketing that's still going?
I only got my card within the last two months, so I fell a bit short of getting my yearly subscription cost in movie tickets. Though it did motivate me to see different movies rather than just repeats of the ones I really liked, which I consider a bonus.
Run, don't walk, to see Leave No Trace if it's playing in your city. I just came back from it and gosh, it just bowled me over. It's about a father and an adolescent daughter living off grid in an Oregon national park, anchored by a pair of quiet but extraordinary, naturalistic performances by Ben Foster as the dad and this young New Zealand actress named Thomasin McKenzie as the daughter. It's tender and heartbreaking, and is about how sometimes, we can't heal our loved one's wounds for all the love we bear them, about finding one's voice, about empathy, and about collective kindness of a community. Even if I hadn't known this was made by Debra Granik, I would have recognized the stamp of the director who made Winter's Bone.
Matt - my card says it is working everywhere, but I went to an e-ticket theater just to be sure. I plan to go see something else tomorrow.