[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

I saw most of the remake last week for the first time and it manages to be worse than the third one, and the third one wasn't very good to begin with even with Frank Miller on the script/story. It was just terrible. Michael Keaton is the bad guy but he doesn't come across as a villain rather just as another douchebag Silicon Valley executive. Also the cinematography is dull and flat and makes the whole movie look like it was originally shot as a made for TV movie. Even the action sequences are lifeless and boring.

Third one is only worth it if you're really invested in seeing how the main story arc resolves itself across the three movies. It doesn't have the humor of the first two though it tries. The effects aren't very good either compared with the great stop-motion animation from the first two. 1993 was the beginning of the end for decent practical effects in movies as CGI was starting to take over.

The original tv series is probably still watchable but it was just a regular tv drama with Robocop in it.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Gonna go see the new Ninja Turtles tomorrow. Hope it doesn't suck.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Mostly looking forward to seeing Megan Fox in that yellow jacket.

And some cool fight scenes. If they can deliver that I will be satisfied.

I have no illusions about it. You either like Michael Bay's movies or you don't. I've liked at least one of his movies (Bad Boyz) and I feel like I just need to see some stuff explode before the summer is over.

We already had at least two good Ninja Turtle movies (the first two) so there's always that. The animated 2008 movie was alright, if ultimately too forgettable. Michael Bay can't do worse than that.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

All I knew was that his name was attached to it. I guess in my mind it's like Michael Bay is attached and it has lots of action so it must be Michael Bay movie.

The Hollywood marketing machine has worked.

But then I learn the guy who directed Battle: Los Angeles directed it and I'm kind of wishing it really was a Michael Bay movie now. Yikes. This should be an interesting movie-going experience.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

New Turtles was pretty bad-good actually. I liked the effects. Megan Fox and Will Arnet were pretty good as well.

It was a nice movie for a new generation of TMNT fans, plot holes aside. Lots of references to the old movies/cartoon as well. Product placement was through the roof.

No Turtles in Trenchcoats though. Must have cut that scene out.

I liked Robo-Shredder and the new Turtle designs. Action sequences were better than the new Batman movies in that you can actually tell what's going on 100% of the time.

Just a big dumb summer action movie. I'm glad I kept my expectations really low. I was not disappointed.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Also realizing the Foot weren't ninjas but just a sort of private para-military group gave me a weird sense of déjà vu from when the first Turtles movie came out in 1991 and hearing the kids on the playground talking about how the Foot in that movie weren't robots, like in the cartoon, but just regular humans.

Like I can imagine similar conversations happening on playgrounds today with kids all like dude they aren't even ninjas they're just some rich dudes private army.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Well, yeah. That bit near the end was dumb but by that point I was ready for them to tie it off somehow and just end the damn thing one way or another.

I appreciated the story and how it was told but I don't know if I really liked the structure of it itself much in general. It was all kind of door-stopped by a teleological mysticism. It's kind of really well-trod ground in sci-fi but I guess it's all a result of trying to make what we think we know of quantum physics make sense to us.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Saw the new Avengers today. It was good. Had no idea it was James Spader doing the voice of Ultron.

The summer movie season is off to a good start.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

I don't know, assuming they can get the same people who made the first Guardians of the Galaxy to make the sequel then it'll probably be okay.

Guardians of the Galaxy is legit. Very well written with good characters, in addition to all the good action/adventuring. I think the only way they could screw it up would be to ditch the writers of the original.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

I didn't care much for the first Captain America but I liked The Winter Soldier a lot. The first one is a decent enough origin story and the WWII element was okay but I just wasn't feeling it for some reason.

And I like that the Marvel movies all exist in the same continuity. That's part of the appeal of having all the stories take place in the same universe, is that you get to see bits and pieces of that strewn about in all these different movies.

Which is why I hate that the Spider-Man movies seemingly exist in their own Spider-Man-centric universe while ostensibly still being part of the greater Marvel universe, but you never see any non-Spider-Man Marvel characters showing up in a Spider-Man movie or any Spider-Man characters showing up in the other Marvel movies. It's just annoying as hell that they're making all these movies and they can't stick one of their biggest characters in there with all their other characters.

I blame Sony for all of this of course.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Does it have to be Wesley Snipes? Is it too soon for a complete Blade reboot?
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Yeah it's weird. I was never really religious about the Marvel Comics when I was a kid. I liked Spider-Man and Venom and Carnage and read a few books containing those arcs and such but beyond that I was more of a Dark Horse/Image Comics fan.

But when it comes to the movies Marvel just knocks it out of the park. They're pretty much everything I want a big dumb superhero movie to be and they've just gotten exponentially better since they started. After five okay-to-shitty Spider-Man movies done by other people I'm kind of excited to see who Marvel eventually gets to do their version.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Finally saw John Wick on HBO. I've watched it twice since this morning. Really satisfying action movie/revenge tale. I hear they're turning it into a franchise now or something so that should be a thing maybe. Don't know how well the character of John Wick will do in a movie that isn't a revenge fantasy because I can't see them doing that angle again for the sequel (at least not the first sequel).

Watching Keanu Reeves stylishly kill lots of people should still be entertaining in itself though.
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