Comments by "T Rex" (@trex2957) on "WatchMojo.com"
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@SimonO1919 Remakes and 'reboots' have been part of Hollywood since the beginning. When 'Hollywood' and, lets just be accurate here, filmmakers recycle they very often make better films than those that predated it.
I'd rather sit through Payback than Point Blank, Ben Hur with Charlton Heston, the 80s Little Shop of Horrors, John Carpenters the Thing... Of course there are rotten and unnecessary remakes, just as there are rotten and unnecessary films that aren't remakes.
None of these remakes are perfect - I just think they are superior in watch-ability and relevance.
Just because you are now old enough to count films that YOU grew up with and experienced as 'new' that are now being rehashed doesn't make this some new problem. And The Matrix wasn't perfect, I literally cringe at their 90's BDSM suits and the ridiculous ass shots on Carrie Anne Moss. The first was great, but the Washowskis ran out of steam, and they have NEVER recovered it after that first great film.
It's like they are the really cool kids at the party, the ones that think they are really edgy, but if you start listening to their edgy speak as they mingle they're like hairdressers - they just keep saying the same crap in every conversation (/film).
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Nolans films are bloated messes that speak to average viewers in a language they understand, but in a way that makes them think they are 'clever' for getting it.
Sure, the music is good, and there's plenty of craft, but break it down he gets a message from the future... he goes to where it tells him to go... and long story short he winds up being the guy that sent himself the message, but inexplicably acts like he doesn't recognise his BEING the guy that sent the message to go where he said... while sending the message... "I know I'll send him this..."
And you know not one of Nolan's bictehs realised how retarded that was when he was doing it... Why didn't he immediately go "Holy #$#@ I am the one that sent that message!" Anyway, broke my immersion in what had been a fairly pedestrian snoozefest to that point.
That was just retarded. If you are going to be making a 'smart' film, don't be dumb. I did like the decaying civilization with drones still flying about though. That was a nice touch.
And yes, Ledger's Joker was awesome, but the Batman films are bloated overlong films, and Dark Knight was a messy mash of two films, and Maggie Gylenhaal is just NOT HOT ENOUGH.
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@SimonO1919 It's interesting that you identify a threat to the Matrix franchise from contemporary gender politics - given the only reason we were given a hero like neo / trinity in the original matrix was the door opening to them as filmgoers turned off to uber-masculine testosterone-loaded heroes like we were given in the 80's. So The Matrix, and a someone like Keannu Reeves moving from comedy into action movies as the hero illustrates the direct effect of contemporary ideas of gender affecting film broadly.
Why not have a transexual hispanic-korean lead..? What's the threat? That they are unbelievable because they are a minority? So why have ANY minorities?? It's a far cry from the engineered bullshit they pulled with Ghostbusters!
Of course The Matrix was intended to be a trilogy, but Alien wasn't. It was standalone film. It only became a franchise much later, and then people started generating 'rules' for the franchise. Personally I can't stand franchises and what it forces films to become/live up to/exceed. Alien was a great film in it's own right, and so was Aliens, the rest... personally I think they are at best average, and at worst overblown rubbish (Prometheus and Covenant).
Most franchises have good films and much worse films. I love the original Superman film, and it slides downhill with each sequel, increasingly rapidly. Sometimes a film in the middle (for whatever reason(s)) appeals more than the original. I would just suggest to try and judge each film on its merits.
The Godfather is a great example of a trilogy that never should have been, and should ONLY be watched as a duology. The third didn't have Robert Evans producing ( if we give Evans any credit is pretty much WHY the first two were great) and Ford Coppola couldn't secure Winona Ryder for a lead role (GAG) case his own daughter (producing a film-destroyingly terrible performance). What's left is some crap about Andy Garcia, gang violence, and a whole HEAP of nostalgia... Terrible.
Do I lament them 'ruining' the franchise just because Ford Copolla can't direct with without a producer telling him what to do, and cast his own untalented and just-not-attractive-enough daughter in the lead? No. I simply pretend it doesn't exist. Much as I will nearly all of the Marvel films, except Ironman and Guardians, and maybe the first and third Thor movies, and the first Spiderman and a few others...
Like you I can't not watch the Matrix sequels once I start... No matter how silly and self-absorbed they (and their creators) are.
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Oh, and the big thing about Star Wars was the technology. It was a break through, and while it added a lot it was at it's heart a very basic, simple, and cliched story. So it did two things really well, it surprised us, and it spoke to us in a language we already understood. It was exciting and accessible.
The writing wasn't amazing, the characters were two dimensional, the acting wooden beyond belief and hammy as all hell. But man, check out those giant walking things, and those space ships, and man! You can buy the toys!
Star wars is famous for its franchising, as much as anything else. And being franchised from its conception.
Frankly, imo the first two are great (Empire is better) and the third is pretty terrible. Ewoks?? Just about unwatchable.
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Well, the majority of filmmakers are educated liberals. That isn't a conspiracy it's just the arts aren't as attractive to political conservatives I'd wager. Think back to high school - who was in the drama club, who was acting from an early age. There have been many very successful right wing movie makers and actors - thinking John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, but a more complete list is here:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fun:Hollywood_conservatives
Remember the monologue at the end of Rambo... No liberal produced that.
I'd question whether a film made by a liberal filmmaker 'pushes' a liberal agenda as much as it simply is the product of a liberal filmmaker the vision of that filmmaker. And I enjoy seeing a film BY someone, by an auteur, not some faceless unrecognisable "entertainment product"...
I find Disney very interesting for a reading of such things, most Disney films traditionally aligned very tidily with the views of the Nazi party... Until around the 90's at least. So yes, even Disney got corrupted by the liberal influence - but don't worry hetero-sexual couple bonding, and homosexual villains still abound.
Even documentaries are slanted by the process of producing them. I don't like preachy films, and in most films subtext is awful.
At the very least if you are reasonable, if your finding offense is reasonable, then that just means the pendulum has swung too far in the left and will correct in time. This is why you have situations like O.J. Simpson being acquitted (only the ignorant maintain his innocence), and Donald Trump being elected and people do this day thinking he is a great man worthy of his position. Simply, the pendulum swung too far and people rejected the LA Police by rioting and acquitting a patently obvious spousal abuser/murderer, and electing a buffoon to "MAGA"... and once the pendulum has swung back from that it'll be even worse liberal horseshit the likes of which you cannot conceive.
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@SimonO1919 Actually Stallone and Dolph and Schwarzenegger etc can very reasonably be interpreted as America's path to psychic recovery after Vietnam. Again, just listen to the monologue of Rambo First Blood... That was under Reagan... you remember - when AIDS was "sent by god" to wipe out homosexuals..., but it was subsequently revealed that it was inconveniently NOT sent by God at all and infected half of Africa and tens of thousands of American heterosexuals... Helped in no small way by the direct actions (or inactions..) of those two gigantic dildos, The Pope, and Ronald Reagan.
Then the pendulum swung to the democrats... and liberal values and a rejection of the uber-male was the flavor of the day, and we had Neo... I think it naive to look at a mass produced, mass marketed product like the action movie and think it not a politically influenced product, and that influence being in flux BETWEEN the conservative AND liberal, not just one political persuasion... Film doesn't suddenly GET political when you notice liberal messaging. Watch some lesser John Wayne or Steven Segal films. They are basically an excuse to watch the white hero murder or torture Mexicans/Indians/Japanese/Cajuns/whoever. Hell, how many minorities does Arnold kill in Commando.? He goes to an island and basically murders EVERYONE...
Again, I LOVE commando. In fact I love nearly all of Arnold's films. But I don't kid myself about the latent politics of those movies - nor Steven Segal rolling about the Bronx break the legs of stereotyped hispanic gangbangers... It's all right wing fascistic horseshit that tells us societies woes can be fixed with the gun... Which is the political message of the NRA, which conservatives STILL believe despite America leading the Western world in murder rates and gun fatalities. '
So yeah, I very much dispute an argument that cinema is ostensible a liberal left wing product, what has happened is the bastion of right wing values The Action movie, has finally been brought to task and dragged into the 21st century.
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