TV and film thread

[ratammer]

So, who's going to be watching Strictly Come Dancing when it's back?

[commodorejohn]

Saw the new Dune last night. It was...interesting. Definitely the kind of film that is gambling on Part 2 getting made, and as such it seems premature to judge one half of the whole. Still, for what it's worth...I liked it, but it didn't make as much of an impression as the Lynch film did. It was definitely not as 2010s Hollywoodized as I feared it'd be, but neither did it deliver as strongly on the book's notable sense of other-time and other-place. (Funny that we frequently see characters thumbing through what are obviously copies of the OC Bible, but never actually get a quote from it.)

And while it was an understandable choice to divvy up a two-film adaptation at around the point where they did, the story structure unfortunately means that they had to cram a fuckton of setup into the first 100 minutes, with the result that some elements get astonishingly short shrift (we barely even meet Yueh, and the Mentats are hardly developed at all - though their casting for Thufir was excellent.) This really is a film that needs an LOTR-style extended cut much more than any of the LOTR films did.

(Performances were generally good all-around, but nothing quite as perfect as casting Kyle MacLachlan as the disaffected oddball who isn't entirely human in the normal sense, or Patrick Stewart as the hamtastic warrior-poet. Oscar Isaac and Jason Momoa acquitted themselves the best; fortunately, Timoutheyeyeyeee Chalamalamet pulled off what he needed to. Dave Bautista was fucking perfect for Rabban, tho.)

That said: ornithopters? Fucking rad. Sandworm encounter? Holy SHIT. Scale in general? Excellent. It's not a perfect film or a best-case adaptation of the first half of the book, but count me in the "want a sequel yesterday" group.

[moody7277]

Doctor Who Halloween episode

Spoiler (Show/Hide)

So they've set up the other five episodes with the flashes sideways (Sontarans, Swarm, 1820 Liverpool, Claire, and the Flux itself). As soon as I saw the Weeping Angel, I figured Claire was dead (or transported into the past). Had something to do and accidentally stopped my DVR with it front and center, at which point I went "Hell no. Not leaving that on there." and let it run another few seconds. The Flux reads to me as a false vacuum phase change kind of thing.

And the TARDIS is dripping with goo, that ain't right.

[ratammer]

Just saw The Eternals today! Great film!

Spoiler (Show/Hide)

The film totally tricked me with Ikaris being the main antagonist - I thought we had already had the main twist when we found out Arishem's mission for the Eternals, so I wasn't expecting another!

[moody7277]

Doctor Who Village of Angels

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Dafuq are Time Lords doing hiring Weeping Angels to do shit for them?! Of course this is probably just to show how outrageous the Division is.
And you thought regular Time Lords were decadent beyond imagination.

The end with the WA!Doctor, chilling.

[ratammer]

So, who's going to be watching Strictly Come Dancing when it's back?

Everyone who got through to the final deserves to be there, and I don't know who I want to win!

[moody7277]

Apparently the post-credits scene from the finale of Hawkeye is the only Broadway musical you're going to see for the next while.

[jimbobmacdoodle]

Spiderman: No Way Home:

Spoiler (Show/Hide)

I must say, I'm really impressed with how the trailer subverted my expectations with this film. Also shows that I haven't watched the other Sony Spiderman films recently enough that it took me a significant amount of time to realise the other Spidermen actors were from those.

[ratammer]

I'm watching the first episode of all different cartoons, and posting about it on a new blog!