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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Aug 26, 2022 0:23:16 GMT
Would have actually benefitted from being more wonderfully weird. Following Idris Elba’s Djinn through the millenniums, and when the film runs us through an anthology of stories with his former masters, is when the film is at its most inspired. Even in its attempts at epic scale, it can’t top Fury Road, but Miller’s touch with the grand, the fantastical, and the absurd are at its best showcase. Elba acquits himself well to the Djinn, of a being blessed with incredible power, and yet so often a victim to his own self-inflicted punishment, whether by his desperation or by his foolish romantic heart. The problem is that his co-star, Swinton, is the less compelling part of the film, given she has to serve as audience surrogate and an expositional outlet for most of the film. Though she does seize control in the last act, that too feels like something of a whimper, particularly as it drags to its conclusion, even pulling a number of times where it makes you think it’s ending, but keeps going (it happens five or six times). So credit to Miller for the ambition, but it’s no Fury Road. stephen, I’m eagerly awaiting you telling me why I’m wrong.
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Film Socialism
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Post by Film Socialism on Aug 26, 2022 15:10:01 GMT
this looked bad from previews and then i saw it got bad reviews and now i actually kinda want to see it
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Post by DeepArcher on Aug 28, 2022 6:09:03 GMT
This is such a breath of fresh air oddity, and a complete delight that Dr. George got to make this during a break between two huge Mad Max movies. No one gets movies like this made anymore, and it's a shame, so I cherish anytime someone with the right cultural cache can take a swing like this; and maybe I cherish it too much to the point that it inflates my opinion unfairly. But you know what? This is a perfectly lovely time at the movies. It's an intimate and weird departure from Fury Road, but still ripe with that brand of bonkers camerawork and some truly stunning and inventive digital effects. A ravishing movie all around that definitely hits its stride with the fairy tale anthology at the center of the film.
It left me with the feeling that it's a sub 2 hour movie with the ambitions of something much longer. Not that I necessarily expect there's a secretly masterful director's cut locked away somewhere, but this is a movie that takes you through 3000 years and then jumps ahead 3 more, and it feels like it breezes through it. Specifically the emotional conclusions reached by Tilda's character, while they make sense broadly within the narrative, feel really sudden. This is the kind of issue that might resolve itself over time for me, but is what most obviously holds it back on first impression. It's the kind of thing I'd expect to leave me misty-eyed and deeply moved and instead it just left me pleasantly satisfied. Which is also good!
It's a massive box office bomb in the making that will only be loved by the 12 people who saw it in a theater and will slowly be reclaimed as a cult classic over the next 10 or 15 years. It's a movie made for people who wish there were more movies like Tarsem Singh's The Fall. It's a special thing that deserves to be celebrated even if it isn't the exact movie you were dreaming it would be for so long; and honestly for me it got pretty damn close.
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Post by Pavan on Aug 28, 2022 18:40:21 GMT
More like three thousand years of talking. Its not like talking is a problem but when the 'power of storytelling' is the theme i except a more engrossing and fascinating stories. Appreciate the mad lad George Miller for taking on this after Fury Road and i liked his bold visual style and for brief moments i was intrigued by what he was trying to say but the film ultimately felt shallow. If only the script was upto the task and in sync with him. A dull and forgettable fare.
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Post by stephen on Aug 31, 2022 2:07:59 GMT
The imaginative, fabular stuff set in antiquity is among the most thrilling and immersive fantasy work I have seen in a long, long while (and genuinely, it makes me wish that Dr. George would make a Crusades epic). The production design, costumes and visuals are just sensational and indisputably deserve to be in awards consideration.
My issues with the film is that I feel like the love story between Elba and Swinton felt kinda rushed and unearned. I would've much preferred this to be a platonic story of storytellers bonding rather than her inexplicably falling for him midway through.
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Post by stephen on Aug 31, 2022 15:46:41 GMT
Also, I want to add that there are some fantastic horror flourishes throughout (special notice to that guy whose head discombobulates into a huge spider that then dissolves into a horde of smaller arachnids) that prove that if he wanted to, George Miller could do some fucked-up stuff in the horror genre.
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Post by Viced on Sept 3, 2022 2:10:57 GMT
One of the most excruciating clunkers I've suffered through in years tbh. The Swinton character is such a boring non-entity. The Djinn is goofy. The stories, which I assume were supposed to evoke some sort of feeling and/or magic, were completely uninvolving. The turn it takes in the final third or so was legitimately laughable. Swinton and Elba somehow had negative chemistry. Struggled to contain myself when she discovered him halfway turned to dust in the basement. Such a silly ass, terrible movie.
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Post by JangoB on Sept 17, 2022 20:44:39 GMT
Didn't expect to be saying this but I'd be perfectly fine with the film being a totally dialogue-driven two-hander with just Elba and Swinton sitting in their hotel room and shooting the shit about stories, wishes and djinns. Yes, the visualisations of Elba's tales are quite exciting and entertaining but I found myself even more engrossed in the conversation the two characters were having. Clinging to their every word is not something I thought I would be doing while watching this. Not that I didn't enjoy those fairy tale flashbacks, of course. The movie surprised me by how peculiarly atmospheric it ended up feeling - for obvious reasons the marketing suggested a crazy fantasy ride but the actual piece is far moodier and quietly weirder than I thought it was gonna be. And to me that was a fairly pleasant surprise. Whenever the image faded to black in the last portion of the film (which happened like a hundred times) I was always going 'Huh?' yet not in a negative but in an inquisitive, intrigued way which meant that there was something in there that did manage to genuinely grab me. Not a great picture but a worthy one for sure.
Gotta say, I just loved Elba's performance. He nailed the titular longing to a T.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Sept 17, 2022 20:51:49 GMT
Oh honey, I'm looking forward to seeing this. Swinton is always worth watching.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Sept 19, 2022 10:14:29 GMT
Oh honeys, I'm sorry to say that I found this disappointing. Too many episodes, too many characters, far too much CGI and not enough developed story, and far too long... and then the strange shift into Leo Grande territory - another movie about a middle aged woman desperate to be laid. What is it with that?! I spent a lot of my time waiting for the final scene, which is never a good sign. 5/10
I did love Tilda's performance, especially her accent. Where is it from? She's such a great, underrated actress.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 12, 2022 19:33:47 GMT
Wasn't sure what to expect with this one based on the marketing & feedback. Was worried it'd be too boring or too weird but it worked for me. Elba and Swinton turn in dedicated longing performances (esp. Elba) and have really relaxing chemistry together. I just enjoyed hanging out with them in this offbeat romantic fantasia. Vibrant visuals that feel ripped from a Tarsem Singh joint, with bright colors in immaculately-detailed Middle East and Ottoman-inspired sets crammed with props. Gorgeous outfits designed by Kym Barrett highlighting ornate designs and flowing silks. Idris Elba's red robe in the second flashback (and in all the posters) is opulent and cozy and I really want it.
To me this hits kinda like Cloud Atlas. Not as powerful but in a similar way. It's deeply sentimental and rooted in a loving humanism for its characters and audience. It drives its story with earnest emotional beats and trusts the viewer to be along for that ride. Also, there's nothing else like it on the big screen and I'm amazed Miller got it funded. Structurally you'd expect it to feel confining and suffocating (the plot could be described as just a series of flashbacks) but the uniqueness in how it delivers its narrative and gradually builds the relationship between these characters entirely through the stories they tell is paradoxically freeing and surprising. Add into that mix Miller's idiosyncrasies and eye for visually dynamic storytelling and you have a film that's easy to get lost in.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 18, 2022 18:20:14 GMT
beautiful music too. Love all the different instrumental variations of the Djinn's theme spread throughout the film and it's also the base for the original song "Cautionary Tale" (also fantastic). The highlight is the sweeping "Raucous Skies and Song of Transference" which perfectly captures the movie's tones of loneliness, romance and longing by taking the same theme and evolving it instrumentally from a mournful Middle Eastern cello into something huge, wide open and exuberant with a host of traditional strings, and it just washes over you.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2023 5:27:34 GMT
I did love Tilda's performance, especially her accent. Where is it from? She's such a great, underrated actress. Yorkshire!
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Post by Martin Stett on May 19, 2023 23:33:09 GMT
Everybody here is calling it "weird," whereas it was obvious from the get-go that the actual term is "old-fashioned." This is an innocuous romance movie for old people that think An Affair to Remember was the peak of cinema.
Which isn't really a bad thing. It's sweet and safe and... okay, yes, it's dull, but not in a bad way really? More like a cozy way, like an old grandfather rattling on about his youth when he met the love of his life. It may be nothing different from anyone else's story and we've heard it three thousand times, but Gramps is sincere and he does so love telling the story that we just give him a pass and fall asleep to it.
And that is okay. I think that is my final opinion. I had to write this out to figure out just what I thought, and yeah, that seems right. It's fine. I'm okay with Grandpa George making his "Gramps reminisces" movie. Yeah. I'll go with that.
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