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They should have added cars to the film.

The eighth film out of the Fast and the Furious franchise has just broken the record for the biggest weekend opening ever.

Kochie loves FATF (he was calling critics who hated it "stupid" this morning), so that more than anything else tells me to avoid it forever.
 
The introduction of the rock was probably a turning point in that franchise.

That's always the case. Introduce The Rock, things gets better. WWE, GI Joe (still bad, but slightly better), DC movies, Fast and the Furious, Baywatch, Michael Bay movies, Kevin Hart movies. Everything except Jumanji.
 
Assassins Creed

I have played some of the games and so are familiar enough with the mythology of the world. I must say, this is a frustrating movie and it is that way from deliberate choices made by the film makers. The film is serious, with out any humour fun or likable characters at all. The music is loud and used to dull out the sound effects of the action and so the scenes sometimes look cool and impressive but there's no sense of fun or adventure. A better score and use of sound could have made those scenes pop. Most of the action takes place in 15th century Spain but for some reason there is CGI dust to be atmospheric obscuring the images. This even happens in some of the modern stuff, where CGI glare obscures the images, it's just an odd choice, like trying to be arty but instead destroying the visuals. This is not lens flares like in Star Trek, this is literally lights behind the character being so bright you can just see the shape of them.

It's almost like the film makers wanted to make a serious some what arty film instead of a big fun block buster. There's also odd things like long shots of cgi eagles flying around which serves no purpose.

As I said, some of the action looks cool but it's not well shot or edited.

I honestly think the film re-edited with a better score that injected energy and excitement would elevate the film a lot. Although fundamentally the core issue is the film is devoid of any fun or humour. Assassin's Creed 2 is the game that made me like the series. 1 was fun but I never finished it. 2 was fantastic, a great setting in Renaissance Rome with a good story and likable characters. The sequels to that game were just fun. The only other game in the franchise I played to any extent was Black Flag and that game was incredibly fun being a Pirate and an Assassin. The key is FUN. People play games because they enjoy them. In the games the characters are fun and enjoyable.

Why on earth would you adapt something like this to be serious and sombre? I can accept the majority modern setting, despite that being the worst part of the games. The cast were all good and fine but a different film maker and an attempt to make the film fun would have turned this around. It's like they thought, "games should be taken serious" however that's nonsense. Look at all the big films, Star Wars, Fast & Furious, the Marvel films, Jurassic World etc. They are fun, with humour and can go serious and dark at times.

They will adapt Assassin's Creed again, hopefully they learn from their mistakes. It's another video game adaption where they failed to capture what made the game a success. Similar to Max Payne, yeah that had a noir story that was good in the game. Really however the game was just bullet time gun fights. Yet the core game mechanic, what made the game was not in the film. There was one mediocre gun fight. Similar to that, the Assassin's aren't even Assassin's in the film.

It's just a wasted opportunity where enough money, actors and effort was spent that some different choices by the film makers.
 
Guardians Of The Galaxy 2.

Great movie. Funny and dramatic at the same time. Just what a big blockbuster movie should be like. Its a perfect popcorn movie.

4/5
 
Fast 8. Probably not as good as the last few, but just as entertaining and I left it completely satisfied and happy. Good film, how they keep doing that is amazing! Bring on Fast 9 and 10!

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Really entertaining take on this story. Really enjoyed the take, the acting, the casting, design and everything. It's a shame there is a view out there that this film is bad. It actually is quite good. It also has a bit of that Guy Ritchie style from Snatch and Lock Stock which was actually quite good. The film hasn't fared to well, because I would not hesitate seeing a sequel.

Alien Covenant. Not as good as prometheus, a bit drawn out at times. Wants to be a few different things and they still need to make at least one more film to finish the story started in Prometheus. By which I am not talking about how the Alien eggs ended up on the planet the Nostromo came across in the first film. I enjoyed it, but didn't love it and didn't have a strong reaction of really liking it like Prometheus. They better make a sequel to this.
 
Never seen a F&F movie.

*beams with pride*

They are basically Bond movies now. As in "Roger Moore era" Bond, not "Daniel Craig era" Bond. Which means that they really don't take themselves seriously. Logic or the law of physics do not apply to these sort of movies.
 
They are basically Bond movies now. As in "Roger Moore era" Bond, not "Daniel Craig era" Bond. Which means that they really don't take themselves seriously. Logic or the law of physics do not apply to these sort of movies.

Those 'non-serious' late Moore/Brosnan movies were killing the franchise.
 
Those 'non-serious' late Moore/Brosnan movies were killing the franchise.

Commercially or critically? Though i guess that is irrelevant. My point is that these are the type of movies where you have to leave your brain at the door. If you have trouble doing that then the ff franchise is not for you.
 
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

I don't get the bad reviews for this. The film was legitimately really entertaining, really inventive, didn't re-tread anything, had amazing visuals and effects work. Genuinely entertaining, funny and fun. To me it seems that a lot of reviews read as if they were written with out seeing the film based on bad expectations because it legitimately is good for the fifth film in the franchise and quite possibly the best sequel. After Four I was a bit.. eh.. on the franchise but now I look forward to any potential sequel as they clearly have found out what worked.
 
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