quote:That part of the movie, and it's message of "interstates bad, rural highways good" left me cold. When I'm traveling, I want interstates where I can zoom by without having to deal with every small town along the way. I want to get to my destination, ASAP, and the journey there is mostly a hassle. Don't make it worse.
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I wouldn't call Up tedious, in terms of a lot things happen in the movie, but I kind of agree with Tom.
It was a charming movie though. Also, when my brother and I went to see it, we passed a bunch of preteen girl kissing a twilight poster where Edward's lips were. Good times.
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quote:Originally posted by Jake: I loved the opening montage for Up, and remember it pretty well, but the rest of the movie has largely faded from memory for me.
I thought Up was a pretty good short made into a mediocre movie. And I'm with Tom; Cars is better. In fact, I think you can see a fairly steady decline from The Incredibles to Cars to Ratatouille to WALL-E to Up to TS3. In that sense, I'm not surprised Cars 2 is a clunker, and I won't be surprised if Brave falls well short of general expectations as well.
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quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep: In fact, I think you can see a fairly steady decline from The Incredibles to Cars to Ratatouille to WALL-E to Up to TS3.
I actually think it's been a bit of a plateau with (IMO) Ratatouille as the low dip and WALL-E as a fairly big bump. On first view, I liked Up a bunch and WALL-E was a little "meh", but on re-watching both WALL-E has gotten better whereas Up isn't as good as I remembered.
I haven't seen Cars 2. Visually, at least, Brave seems to represent a significant advancement.
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Obviously subjective valuations weight different aspects of movies differently. Which I was reminded of by Jim-Me's assertion that Brave represents a significant visual advancement, something that doesn't significantly impact my opinion of a movie (although I suppose I do notice when visuals go badly wrong).
I think the storylines, pacing, plot and script of the TS2-Monsters, Inc.-Nemo-Incredibles period were superior to those since. I do have a soft-spot for WALL-E (autonomous robots that evoke powerful pathos with single-word vocabularies; awesome!), but I think judged disinterestedly, but consistent with my criteria for other movies, it falls significantly short.
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Whereas, yeah, visual beauty means a lot to me in a picture. "Hero" is a movie that goes from "decent" to "terrific" in my book largely because of the striking visual qualities.
And, for clarification, my "plateau" was post-Incredibles. The Incredibles vies with Kung Fu Panda as my favorite animated movie ever. Sorry if that lowers your opinion of my taste, Tom Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Heck, I liked Kung Fu Panda more than the Incredibles and not quite as much as Toy Story 3, so it just slots right in there.
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You guys are all weird, Ratatouille was my favorite Pixar and, along with Wall-E (probably my second favorite though I wont swear to it) the only ones I currently own. I liked Toy Story a lot when it came out and as the first it was probably the most innovative but as a pure movie I thought several ones following were better, though I guess people here are with me on that.
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Will someone explain to me the love and adoration that people have for Kung Fu Panda?! Cause I seriously don't get it. Its a good movie but I never found the visuals or the storyline particularly interesting. I'd rank it below HTTYDragon and the first Shrek. Its a good movie but hardly great.
As for Pixar, the Incredibles is one of my favorites. I've had a soft spot for Brad Bird ever since Iron Giant and I thought the Incredibles is one of those movies that works so well for adults and kids. I prefer Toy Story 2 to Toy Story 1. I always forget how good Monsters Inc is until I'm watching it. Wall-E and Up have their moments but succeed more for what they were trying to accomplish rather than as a whole picture. Wall-E proved it was possible to do a great modern, popular film with very little dialogue and Up chose a senior citizen as the protagonist in a "family film." Finding Nemo has some pacing problems but has some of Pixar's best jokes. Ratatouille is just lovely to look at and had a great original story.
I have never seen Cars and have no plans to.
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The first Shrek I'd put below Up. (Even below the original Toy Story, which is also below Up.) How to Train Your Dragon, though, is fantastic, and I'd put it above Kung Fu Panda but still below Toy Story 3.
Kung Fu Panda is a movie that is all about being really, really enthusiastic about things. If you are enthusiastic about enthusiasm, it fires on all cylinders.
Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo are up there with Wall-E at the top of my personal list. A Bug's Life is down below Shrek. And I'd put Toy Story 2 between HTTYD and Kung Fu Panda.
Really, though, all of these movies are watchable.
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I have yet to see How to Train Your Dragon, so I can't compare. I have heard it's excellent.
Regarding Panda, there's a couple of things that sell it for me, in particular, that might not apply to most people.
One is that they did a very remarkable job of making a kung fu movie. It's not just making fun of kung fu movies; it's a wonderful modern homage as well. So much, especially the Sifu/Student relationships and the fight choreography, was really well done... and that's the secret. Much like The Incredibles before it, Kung Fu Panda works so well because it is also a loving tribute to the genre it mocks.
This is a big deal to me... I have real trouble with the snide mockery of those who simply sneer at things and much prefer the more in-depth and truer mockery that comes with a thing loved.
The other bit that works for me, personally, is that the movie summed up the lessons of a tremendous amount of time and money spent on therapy. The argument between Oogway and Sifu over the "illusion of control" and figuring out what "there is no secret ingredient" really means could have saved me a couple of thousand dollars if the movie had come out 4-5 years earlier.
Yes, the timeline of the movie doesn't work, but it's a fable, a myth-- the ideas are the important bit, not the realism.
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