Clash of the Titans

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:00 am

Thumbs down. Piss poor acting.

Sam Worthington can only play one role. The role of Sam Worthington.

The original was so much better, even with the stop motion effects.

Alice in Wonderland in 3D Thumbs up.

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Thumbs up.

IronHide · Post by **IronHide** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:38 am

Alice was meh. Really dragged out there towards the end.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:33 am

Worst 3D I've ever seen. Wouldn't spend money on this one (we got preview tickets, I like free movies), wait till it's on DVD.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:52 am

Wasn't filmed to be in 3D. Only got converted in post because of the success of some other film that Worthington was in that was released in 3D... can't think what it's called right now.

So yeah. Didn't bother forking out the extra to see it with a gimmick forced upon it and stuck with the 2D release. Decent Sunday afternoon fare. Nothing brilliant. Watchable tosh.

The Smoke Monster off of Lost is Hades, though. So it's cleared that mystery up.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:07 pm

Didn't see it in 3-D, as I was forewarned about how bad it was.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:14 pm

Yeah I found out the "why" about the 3D an hour after I had watched the movie as that's when the first reviews began to show up online.

On the "good" side of things, The 12 year old in me liked the flying horsies.

Aside- I quite enjoyed Alice. Hadn't followed it online too closely and it was actually better than I had been expecting... many, many costume changes, though. I won't be able to go as anything "Classic" Alice in Wonderland for Halloween the next two-three years, which saddens me and my giant green top hat greatly.

Watched it in 2D though, as paying extra for rediculous 3D is annoying, I don't have contacts currently and I can barely keep one pair of glasses up on my stupid small nose, let alone two.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:20 am

What was up with Transfans? I couldn't load the page for a month or so, and now it's back without as much as an explanation anywhere... or was it just me?

Anyhow - How to Train your Dragon is amazing, the first Dreamworks cartoon other then Kung Fu Panda that I liked. Well, LOVED actually. It's like "Enemy Mine" for kids. And Toothless is simply an amazing design... too bad the toys I have seen so far are not very poseable crap, because I want that dragon on my desk.

Alice was a big disappointment for me. You have to know, both Alice novels are very-very big favorites of mine since my childhood, and the first english books I bought after I started learning the language, so I had huge expectations. Visually, Burton really delivered, there was no problem there, for every small detail the movie was perfect in that regard. And the actors were OK too, though I just couldn't imagine Depp as the Hatter (for me the 1999 Hallmark version's Hatter is the perfect one). The problem was with the story - it was bland and boring, really. The magic of Alice should be the total, unpredicteble nonsensity of Wonderland, that anything can happen anytime. Here, they replaced it with a typical fantasy story of "hero returns to old kingdom she visited as a child but doesn't remember, slays the dragon and defeats evil queen". Booooring. And the ending was so unchatarctic, I almost hoped it'd be just a dream... it made no sense for her to leave Wonderland especially after it was explained it is not a dreamland but a real one. Burton should have re-made the original story instead...
Oh and it annoys me that just like in the American McGee version, they again confused the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts. And what was up with turning the Dormouse into Richecheep from Narnia?

Clash of Titans - Abysmal 3D, but nice story and good remake of the original otherwise. I loved the original, but clearly today people want more then the simple "hero saves world, marries princess" story. The best achievement of the new movie is that unlike in the original, here I could actually care for the soldier accompanying Perzeus, even knowing they'd all die. And a nice touch that he doesn't marry Andromeda but stays true to Io. The monsters were all well done, especially the djinns and Medusa. Showing Bubo was a great nod to the original. What I liked the most though, was the "morally grey" portrayal of everyone - even the villains had motives you could understand, Hades feeling betrayed and used by Zeus, Calibos wanting to get revenge on Zeus for humiliating him in such a cruel way by killing his "foster son" made much more sense then his role in the original. Mads Mikkelsen was also pretty good as Dracon.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:20 pm

BB Shockwave wrote: without as much as an explanation anywhere...

http://transfans.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7879

About as explainy as it gets.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:18 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:Anyhow - How to Train your Dragon is amazing, the first Dreamworks cartoon other then Kung Fu Panda that I liked.

Did you see it in 3-D? I thought it was some of the best use of the tech I've seen. Animated films always display the best use of 3-D tech.

Saw Alice in 3-D too. Interestingly, I thought the 3-D in this movie was in some sequences superior to Avatar even. I can see how you might hate the movie, considering Burton just pissed all over the classic narration, and decided to make the movie however the hell he wanted. Because I was never fond of the original Alice, I really dug this movie. Depp was again, very good. Just when I think he can't add any new twists to his eccentric performances, he goes ahead and does it.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:59 pm

Yaya wrote:I can see how you might hate the movie, considering Burton just pissed all over the classic narration, and decided to make the movie however the hell he wanted. Because I was never fond of the original Alice, I really dug this movie.

As I see it, he didn't so much piss all over it as add some life to it. Movie after movie had tried to play it as close to the books as possible, but they all ended up looking the same after awhile. Making the same mistakes, too- I hate it when the books are mixed together. I didn't mind so much this go 'round-it worked for me. Mind, this is the first "Alice grows up" type of film I've seen (that I can remember- there was probably one of two I saw as a kid that I'm forgetting), I know there's a few out there so this one could just be par for the course.

At any rate, I still think Tim Burton's a bitch.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:22 pm

Try the 2009 Alice series... Hallmark productions I believe. An interesting modern take on the story, where Wonderland is a paralell universe with improved technology, and the Queen of Hearts abducts humans from our world via the White Rabbit agency, keeping them drugged and extracting their emotions. Alice arrives by accident after her fiancee, Jack (who is actually the Jack of Hearts) is abducted. The story is good, and there are nice effects considering it's a TV-movie. The Hatter is played by one of the main actors on Primeval, that young computer wiz kid... can't remember the name.

My problem with the Burton's Alice is not with the whole "return to Wonderland" scenario, but the quality of it. IMHO, the plot is thin and it could have been much-much more. Visually, Burton delivered again, oh and let's not forget Elfman's amazing soundtrack, I listen to it every day.

Yaya - yep, I saw it in 3D, especially the flight scenes were amazing. I watched it later at home and the 3D makes a good difference. I wouldn't say it was better then Avatar's, though... I didn't feel like I was there in that world, only for those few scenes.

Btw, after 6 months, Shane Acker's/Burton's 9 is finally shown in cinemas in Hungary. I'm going to watch it today. A real shame it's shown only in a few theaters, I guess do to the poor performance of the movie overseas. I plan to buy the DVD, and there is an amazing poster with the 9 stichpunks on it too... There were even action figures made of 1 and 9. Too bad they didn't make a video game from this movie, because it'd have rocked.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 5:43 pm

Watched Clash of The Titans yesterday with tfsperú .

We all liked it.

The only thing I didnt like is Perseus attitude as portayed by Draco.

"We are all dying, just if you could use that sword, or the pegasus or anything they give to you"

"NOOO Im humannnnnnnnnn, nooooooooo" *maybe too much T4 for him

*All soldiers killed

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOPSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:05 pm

Alice was a big disappointment for me. You have to know, both Alice novels are very-very big favorites of mine since my childhood, and the first english books I bought after I started learning the language, so I had huge expectations. Visually, Burton really delivered, there was no problem there, for every small detail the movie was perfect in that regard. And the actors were OK too, though I just couldn't imagine Depp as the Hatter (for me the 1999 Hallmark version's Hatter is the perfect one). The problem was with the story - it was bland and boring, really. The magic of Alice should be the total, unpredicteble nonsensity of Wonderland, that anything can happen anytime. Here, they replaced it with a typical fantasy story of "hero returns to old kingdom she visited as a child but doesn't remember, slays the dragon and defeats evil queen". Booooring.

Two things I want to say:

1) Tim Burton is a great visionary but a lousy director. I haven't seen Alice yet, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't follow the pattern of his last few films: all the ingredients to be magnificent, yet ultimately overblown and bland. He achieves the look but never the substance. 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' was weighed down with extraneous nonsense about Wonka's daddy issues, while 'Sweeney Todd' made the opposite of mistake of refusing to divert from the melodramatic Sondheim musical with its twee (and utterly unconvincing) romance subplot. And it had terrible CGI blood.

2) The best adaptations of Alice are Jonathan Miller's 'Alice in Wonderland' and Jan Svankmajer's 'Alice'. This is because both of them offer a 'reading' of the work, or interpretation, if you will, that goes outside the stunted, soul-crushing realms of 'girl jaunts around a colourful fantasy land!' Honestly, it really is disappointing that this is all people apparently want it to be about - Wizard of Oz with a sheen of Victorian quirkiness.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:23 pm

So Sweeney Todd originally had no romantic subplot? Yeah, I could have done without that. It was hard to imagine that such a deranged crazy killer would have such feelings, anyway.

I always look at Burton's movies, if they are re-works of an original, as a kind of "What if..." or "Elseworlds" story. His Batman movies are great, but they are very-very far from the Batman of the comics and cartoons, rather placing the whole thing into a very gothic and weird Gotham with a quite grittier then usual Batman who's keen to kill criminals rather then capture them. Burton is good when he's working on his own stories, like Edward Scissorhands, or Nightmare Before Christmas. That said, I think Coraline is pretty good too, though I understand Burton was not that much involved in that one either.

I have Miller's Alice, but haven't watched it yet. I did see Svankmajer's version, it was... well, odd. But not bad. Though for me, Alice was always more then a children's tale... If you read it watching the small details, reading between the lines, there are a lot of pretty deep thoughts in there, even if they are disguised as funny nonsense. Stuff like the Red Queen's race, for example. Or how we are all parts of someone's dream...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:11 pm

Jack Cade wrote: 1) Tim Burton is a great visionary but a lousy director. I haven't seen Alice yet, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't follow the pattern of his last few films: all the ingredients to be magnificent, yet ultimately overblown and bland. He achieves the look but never the substance.

This is my summation of Burton as well. Always visually stunning, but very weak in the story telling department.

In the end, I'm glad he's out there though. You just have to go into his movies for the visuals, and expect a weak story...and Johnny Depp.

I met Mr. Burton last year at Comicon. Nice guy. Weird as heck, but friendly.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:55 pm

Jack Cade wrote: 2)it really is disappointing that this is all people apparently want it to be about - Wizard of Oz with a sheen of Victorian quirkiness.

Yes, this is all all people want. You've got me pegged to a tee there, sir, thank you for your quick summation. I'll be sure to refer to you to see what I'm thinking and feeling when it comes to films from now on!

I accept what it is people are able to do when it comes to my favourite genres/stories rather than bitch too much about it when it comes to films*. When someone exceeds my expectations, I am mildly surprised, and usually pleased.

*Unless for some reason I get really pissed at something done, or take a special pleasure in the bitching on that particular film. I can usually find something I like about every film... unless it's Ghost Rider.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:22 pm

saysadie wrote:Yes, this is all all people want. You've got me pegged to a tee there, sir, thank you for your quick summation. I'll be sure to refer to you to see what I'm thinking and feeling when it comes to films from now on!

Notice how you had to add a second 'all' in order to transform what I actually said into what you think I said!

*Some* people evidently want a conventionalised Alice. Otherwise it would be an incredible coincidence that they keep making them.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:44 pm

The extra "all" was actually a typo made when I decided to emphasise. The point's still the same- I do think it could have been phrased differently, But generalisations tend to annoy. Sorry about that. *retracts fangs*

I honestly expect people to chop up and make a mess of everything I hold dear when it comes to storytelling in movies. It's kind of sad when you think about it.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:05 pm

I'm all for directors, writers and producers changing things beyond all recognition for the movie version. It's a different medium - loyalty to a text will often weigh down the movie.

The problem arises when the reason for a change seems to be so transparently a case of: "Let's take out this unusual/interesting thing and replace it with something that was in the last umpteen movies of this genre."

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:11 pm

I'm having a **** day and am pretty tired of arguing with anyone right now, so I'm just going to nod, smile, agree and pretend that's what I meant.

wideload · Post by **wideload** » Fri May 07, 2010 10:42 pm

Saw the new Clash of the Titans a few weeks ago. Absolutely horrendous. None of what made the original great.

The caracters were awful. They dumbed down the plot. The CGI was not impressive at all. It felt like I was watching a rip-off of that equally bad Godzilla movie from a decade ago.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri May 07, 2010 11:50 pm

sadie wrote:unless it's Ghost Rider.

Oh come on, how could you not love a movie where they hung a guy with no neck?