I finally watched Shin Ultraman today, and while I enjoyed it a lot more, I also felt like I was missing a lot; especially because of the weird Catholic stuff, I do plan on sitting down and watching the original someday. I look forward to seeing Ultraman crucified [presumably for humanity's sins?] etc. It's just such an undertaking tracking down UltraQ and Ultraman, and that's something like 60 episodes of television on their own
I had only a slightly more legible experience watching Shin Ultraman thab you (probably because I'd absorbed a little more of the gist through cultural osmosis), my guess is that it's an attempt to compress like the entire TV series, or maybe just a large chunk of it, into a single movie, which means a lot of Exposition gets left on the cutting room floor. Still, liked it, mostly for everyone's very deadpan reactions to what ate obviously bizarre and impossible events (something it does even better than Eva, I think).
As for Trap, when the first trailer for that movie dropped, I thought it was going to be about a mass alien abduction. Like, the first trailer explained almost nothing but I somehow became convinced it was about an Under-The-Skin style pitcher plant alien only instead of a hot woman luring individual men to their doom it was a popstar harvesting an entire concert full of people all at once. I'm not convinced that movie would have made more sense, but I was so into the premise I had imagined, I was utterly uninterested when I found out what it was actually about. Lest you think I'm alone, a friend of mine had a very similar experience only he thought it was going to be about a demonic ritual, some kind of mass sacrifice to summon cthulu. Such is the power of teaser trailers.
I have never forgiven Kenneth Branagh for the time in high school I had to sit through his Hamlet with my parents, all my siblings, and my sister's boyfriend and his family, because none of the four , count 'em, FOUR! adults involved had remembered that it was not a movie for children
I read Trap as being M Night trying to give his daughter a leg up in the business :) I was definitely impressed by her acting, but yes the succession of twists at the end was too much. It would've been much better as a locked room thriller rather than as an m night shyamalan twist-fest. However...it was still pretty entertaining!
Maybe you already notice/realize this but I am going to propose that a lot of that might just be watching an Austrian speaking French and subtitled in English -- he is not perfect (but pretty good) at French and to me (I live in a French speaking city but I'm not perfectly fluent either) it's a very familiar situation -- he's trying to explain himself with a limited vocabulary, so he has to express things in ways that leave out the subtleties, which is frustrating (for both him and the viewer) since the topic is something that requires a little more depth than just talking about groceries. (Also the English subtitles aren't perfect themselves and remove even more subtleties in his French word choice.) He mostly comes across to me as a completely standard upper middle class European man his age. (for better or worse..)
trap at times feels like watching a let's play of a hitman level designed by a not particularly bright child. however at other times—the shot of cooper blocked by the cupboard so it looks like he's two-face? the ghost-story shot of hayley mills in the doorway? it is at such moments that i can find brief sympathy with shyamalan shooters.
also the moment where lady raven is doing her ig live in mortal danger and people are posting "come to brazil" and "i live near a different statue :)" in the comments is something i will probably think about for the rest of my life
the instagram live was hilarious. there were definitely moments i felt like i was glimpsing a better movie… possibly trap's ultimate flaw is that it's not very easy to make a movie to showcase how awesome your daughter is that is (also) a good movie throughout
I finally watched Shin Ultraman today, and while I enjoyed it a lot more, I also felt like I was missing a lot; especially because of the weird Catholic stuff, I do plan on sitting down and watching the original someday. I look forward to seeing Ultraman crucified [presumably for humanity's sins?] etc. It's just such an undertaking tracking down UltraQ and Ultraman, and that's something like 60 episodes of television on their own
I had only a slightly more legible experience watching Shin Ultraman thab you (probably because I'd absorbed a little more of the gist through cultural osmosis), my guess is that it's an attempt to compress like the entire TV series, or maybe just a large chunk of it, into a single movie, which means a lot of Exposition gets left on the cutting room floor. Still, liked it, mostly for everyone's very deadpan reactions to what ate obviously bizarre and impossible events (something it does even better than Eva, I think).
As for Trap, when the first trailer for that movie dropped, I thought it was going to be about a mass alien abduction. Like, the first trailer explained almost nothing but I somehow became convinced it was about an Under-The-Skin style pitcher plant alien only instead of a hot woman luring individual men to their doom it was a popstar harvesting an entire concert full of people all at once. I'm not convinced that movie would have made more sense, but I was so into the premise I had imagined, I was utterly uninterested when I found out what it was actually about. Lest you think I'm alone, a friend of mine had a very similar experience only he thought it was going to be about a demonic ritual, some kind of mass sacrifice to summon cthulu. Such is the power of teaser trailers.
I have never forgiven Kenneth Branagh for the time in high school I had to sit through his Hamlet with my parents, all my siblings, and my sister's boyfriend and his family, because none of the four , count 'em, FOUR! adults involved had remembered that it was not a movie for children
oh no and his Hamlet is so long too
And the racy bits are all too brief to fast-forward effectively. But not brief enough 🙈
I read Trap as being M Night trying to give his daughter a leg up in the business :) I was definitely impressed by her acting, but yes the succession of twists at the end was too much. It would've been much better as a locked room thriller rather than as an m night shyamalan twist-fest. However...it was still pretty entertaining!
She’s great! But I think she could have been great in the locked room version too…
>deeply, unreachably smug about himself
Maybe you already notice/realize this but I am going to propose that a lot of that might just be watching an Austrian speaking French and subtitled in English -- he is not perfect (but pretty good) at French and to me (I live in a French speaking city but I'm not perfectly fluent either) it's a very familiar situation -- he's trying to explain himself with a limited vocabulary, so he has to express things in ways that leave out the subtleties, which is frustrating (for both him and the viewer) since the topic is something that requires a little more depth than just talking about groceries. (Also the English subtitles aren't perfect themselves and remove even more subtleties in his French word choice.) He mostly comes across to me as a completely standard upper middle class European man his age. (for better or worse..)
This is quite possible! I hadn’t thought of this. Sorry Haneke.
trap at times feels like watching a let's play of a hitman level designed by a not particularly bright child. however at other times—the shot of cooper blocked by the cupboard so it looks like he's two-face? the ghost-story shot of hayley mills in the doorway? it is at such moments that i can find brief sympathy with shyamalan shooters.
also the moment where lady raven is doing her ig live in mortal danger and people are posting "come to brazil" and "i live near a different statue :)" in the comments is something i will probably think about for the rest of my life
the instagram live was hilarious. there were definitely moments i felt like i was glimpsing a better movie… possibly trap's ultimate flaw is that it's not very easy to make a movie to showcase how awesome your daughter is that is (also) a good movie throughout
Have you seen Shin Kamen Rider?
no! though I will eventually
That one requires less genre knowledge to enjoy I think. Ultraman tends to be more for the ultraman fans from what I heard