Disqus - Latest Comments for Jozziah

Re: James Bond 007: revisiting Quantum Of Solace

Jozz — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 10:52:11 -0000

I remember basically nothing about this film, which by and large means it can't have been very good.

That said, the fight between Bond and Greene has really stuck with me - seeing a desperate, pathetic little man going mad with an axe felt more real and frightening and genuine than any choreographed fight scenes between two equally matched fighters. It's maybe the only Bond fight where I've genuinely felt on edge about Bond's safety, because it doesn't feel stylised or posed or artificial, it just feels like one man with huge amounts of fight training and reserve is suddenly facing off against a crazed, sad man trying to smash an axe into his face. I found it genuinely frightening.

Like I say, I remember nothing else. I wish that a similar kind of fight scene - a really physical one where the villain is physically weak but has nothing to lose so just goes gangbusters on the agrression - could have been part of a stronger and more memorable film, because I thought it was a great idea.

Re: Doctor Who series 9: The Girl Who Died review

Jozz — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 19:47:58 -0000

Totally agree with this. That bit where Maisie Williams rattled off the line "Everyone knows I'm strange, but here I'm loved" is the most obnoxious avoidance of show-don't-tell writing I've ever seen. Having characters describe themselves and their history and their social situation rather than actually trying to write a story that expresses it properly is beyond lazy.

Re: Star Wars: The Force Awakens - lots of new images

Jozz — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 18:46:44 -0000

Also, totally in agreement with you that having a black character put in the central focus would also be a great step forward, but we can hopefully assume that Ridley is slightly more prominent than Boyega in the promotional materials because her role in the story is more pivotal, not due to any box-ticking reason of wanting to have a white woman given more prominence than a black man. Personally, I think the sheer fact that the two most prominent figures here are a female character and a black character is great in itself, regardless of who's made more central, and a huge step forward from the white male-dominated landscape of Star Wars up until now.

Re: Star Wars: The Force Awakens - lots of new images

Jozz — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 18:42:46 -0000

The posters for Episodes 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 ALL put a man front and centre. 2 is the only one where the central focus is partly on a woman (to me looks equally split between Anakin and Padme). This is the only film in the franchise in which the marketing puts a female character in central focus, so not sure there's much validity in claiming Star Wars isn't a non-inclusive franchise.

It may not often be actively disrespectful to women (in the way that, say, early Star Trek was), but it's certainly a franchise that has massively marginalised women by having only two notable female characters across 6 films which featured dozens of prominent male roles (and one of those characters was atrociously written).

Personally, I'm all for Ridley being put at the centre of the film and the marketing, and I don't see how redressing the balance of a franchise that, with the exception of Leia (who we should remember was first encountered needing to be rescued, and was later enslaved and made to dance in a bikini, so is hardly the paragon of feminism she's sometimes held up to be) has basically either ignored women in its storylines or represented them badly, can be construed a bad thing.

Re: Sinister Six: how the film would have shaped up

Jozz — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 18:09:39 -0000

Did they ever confirm what the lineup of the Sinister Six was going to be? It was teased at the end of ASM2, but never confirmed as far as I remember. I suppose they've nothing to gain by going into who it was going to be, but I'm curious as to which characters they were going to be introducing. Oh well.

Re: Ranking the Muppets movies

Jozz — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 12:37:57 -0000

My order:

8. Muppets From Space
7. The Muppets Take Manhattan
6. Muppets Most Wanted
5. The Muppet Movie
4. Muppet Treasure Island
3. The Great Muppet Caper
2. The Muppets
1. The Muppets' Christmas Carol

Re: Doctor Who series 9 review: The Magician's Apprentice

Jozz — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 20:20:47 -0000

O Children. Deathly Hallows. Thanks for my ten points.

Re: Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar spoiler-free review

Jozz — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 20:01:55 -0000

SPOILER FOR THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE IN THIS COMMENT:

I always really enjoy DoG's spoiler-free reviews, but is it just me that feels there needs to be extra care taken over them with regard to two-parters? This one confirms Michelle Gomez's involvement in part 2, and I know most viewers will pretty much be expecting both Missy and Clara to survive the cliffhanger of part 1, but should "Spoiler-free" not particularly apply to any dangling plot thread that's crucial to a cliffhanger, regardless of how much of a foregone conclusion it might be that it'll be reversed?

Re: Toy Story 4 plot revealed

Jozz — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 20:07:05 -0000

Poor Monsters University! Monsters University-bashing makes me very sad. It's not as inventive as the original, but it's easily one of their funniest films and the message of NOT just trying to be anything you want to be, but trying to work out who you really are first, and aspire to that, is a really important one for kids these days, I think. The line "Keep surprising people" still really moves me. I love that film.

Re: Looking back at Basil The Great Mouse Detective

Jozz — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 06:33:01 -0000

Honestly one of the greatest films ever. Weirdly I started reminiscing about it earlier this week and planning a rewatch one of these days, so this retrospective is very timely! I wanted to be Basil when I grew up. Didn't manage it, but hey ho.

Re: Ant-Man: lots of character posters land

Jozz — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 06:15:57 -0000

God these are awful. Surely character posters only make sense if they're characters we vaguely recognise and are excited to see? The one with the pointing finger is incredible. It's like they want it to look like he's going "This guy!" but that doesn't really work because we're all going "Yeah, who is that guy? Who are you? What is this? This looks terrible. Who the hell are you?"

Re: Our comedy night could be your life

Jozz — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 19:11:22 -0000

Hi Jack, I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused back then. I was really young and stupid. I hope we can be friends again one day. I really miss you.

Re: The Simpsons: Homer and Marge to 'legally separate'

Jozz — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 07:21:19 -0000

This is either a shameless gimmick that will be retconned within an episode or so (like that time they tried to pull in audience by promising to kill a major character and it turned out to be Krusty's dad who, while a great character, had only appeared a couple of times and it certainly felt like a bit of a rug-pull). If this ISN'T a gimmick and something they're going to commit to going forward then that's even worse. While it's got diluted over the years, the thing that makes the Simpsons better than Family Guy is the heart of it, and the fact that it's about a family who will do whatever to stay together. If they choose to break up that family long-term then it undoes so much of what made the show important at its centre. But I imagine this is just attention-seeking misdirection. And the idea that this will all be going on while somebody else reads the lines of Flanders and Mr Burns and so on. Ugh.

Re: David Beckham cast in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur movie

Jozz — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 07:15:15 -0000

This is true. A friend of mine is an extra in it and met him.

Re: Pixar's The Good Dinosaur: the first trailer

Jozz — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 19:17:27 -0000

Part of the problem with all the information about a film being common knowledge online from Day 1 is that teasers like this have no impact at all. If I wasn't already aware of this film's premise, then this trailer would probably be kind of exciting, as it's a good premise, but the teaser doesn't really sell you anything other than that general conceit. I guess it's my own fault for choosing to read the information that's available about films I'm interested in, but I wish studios these days would either hold back plot information until a teaser can "announce" it, or just not bother with teasers that basically reiterate things they've already said. I'm hoping this will be good though.

Re: The 18 most awesome things Bungle has ever done

Jozz — Sun, 24 May 2015 11:36:00 -0000

I like the bit at 1:30 of number 7 where he can't even write the letter B properly.

Re: Why Mad Max: Fury Road is the most important summer film in years

Jozz — Mon, 18 May 2015 06:56:22 -0000

To be fair, I much prefer, and am more likely to respond to, hype that comes from critics than from a movie studio itself. While I'm well aware that the good opinion of some critics can be bought, the majority of them don't have a vested interest in hyping a particular film, so if a film gets big hype from the press then it means considerably more than loads of hype coming from a huge marketing machine. It might still end up being overhyped, but at least it stems from a place of genuine praise rather than just a movie studio trying to guarantee a return on its investment.

Re: What films should be expanded into shared cinematic universes next?

Jozz — Sat, 16 May 2015 14:04:49 -0000

Yeah, I was just thinking we need a few more of these.

Re: Star Wars: 2018's film will be Boba Fett origin story

Jozz — Tue, 05 May 2015 14:42:33 -0000

It's gonna have to be pretty bloody good not to spoil the incredibly powerful and moving depiction of Boba Fett's origins in Attack of the Clones.

Re: Stephen King's IT: Will Poulter is the new Pennywise

Jozz — Tue, 05 May 2015 14:27:13 -0000

THEY PASSED ON MARK RYLANCE???

Re: Doctor Who series 9: news, guest stars, rumours

Jozz — Sun, 03 May 2015 06:19:23 -0000

To be fair, last year only had 12 episodes and a Christmas special as well, but the series opener was half an hour longer than usual and the series finale had an extra 15 minutes, so overall, the amount of footage filmed was equal to 13 45-minute episodes. Personally, I'd probably have preferred another episode, but the idea that we were somehow short-changed of an episode isn't really true. They might well be doing exactly the same this year. I feel we can't really complain about "losing" an episode until we know for sure whether any of Series 9 will be feature-length as with Series 8.

Re: Doctor Who series 9: is it time for a second Companion?

Jozz — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 17:46:12 -0000

Is it definitely confirmed that Coleman's doing the entirety of the next series? As Karen Gillan did two and a half series as well, there's a point midway through the next one where Coleman would overtake her, but is there a chance she might leave early, or is it fully confirmed that she's going to be the longest-running new companion?

Re: Sherlock Special: news, casting, rumours

Jozz — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:15:28 -0000

I feel like the problem with this is that it's not just set in a different time, it's now necessarily set in an entirely different fictional universe - for Sherlock and John's Victorian counterparts to have existed, there's no way the main series could exist. I feel like Sherlock has pretty much established itself as being set in a universe where Conan Doyle's stories never happened, otherwise the idea of somebody living out that character's life exactly would be ludicrous. Obviously it's just not an issue the main series ever needs to acknowledge, but by accepting that there are Victorian versions of the characters now either means the special is set in an entirely fictional universe with no relevance to the series (begging the question, why make it?) or it suggests that the modern-day Sherlock is weirdly imitating the Conan Doyle characters, and nobody's mentioned it yet.

Re: 10 sci-fi movies that are remakes or reworks of other genres

Jozz — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:07:54 -0000

Avatar also reheashes the plot of Fern Gully, as well as some of its imagery in the massive tree they all hide inside, and the big yellow logging machine.

The ships in Avatar also pretty much directly imitate the ships from The Incredibles, and the design of the world copies the floating rocks motif of Roger Dean's artwork for several Yes albums.

All these similarities have annoyed me for years, so I thought I'd vent. I imagine none of them are deliberate, but it irks me how many elements of that film are identical to ideas originating elsewhere, even if it wasn't deliberate imitation. I feel the originators of good ideas deserve some credit, so there, I've said it.

Re: Hugh Jackman wants to play Wolverine "until I die"

Jozz — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 10:57:13 -0000

The moral of Birdman is that Hugh Jackman should play Wolverine until he dies? I really didn't get that from it. I kind of thought it was about the compromises and sacrifices made in pursuit of creativity. Maybe it's about Hugh Jackman though. Ahh damn, now I need to watch it again and pay more attention.