2017 TV/Movie/Book Thread with Spoilers

[bucksgreen]

I just finished Bright, really enjoyed it.

[MissKhriddleton]

Dunkirk was pretty disappointing. They had 300,000 people they needed to get off the island and they did it with 25 little pontoon boats?

ETA: Across the channel not of the island.

[ReasonablySober]

Dunkirk was pretty disappointing. They had 300,000 people they needed to get off the island and they did it with 25 little pontoon boats?

Haven't seen it yet, but this seems like a movie they'd want to get accurately correct, right? So maybe? I dunno.

[bigkurty]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

[ReasonablySober]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

Yea, I was initially excited to see it but the reception was lukewarm from what I remember. Now it's all over the place in year end lists as one of the very best. Huh.

[Licensed to Il]

I can’t tell others what to like or not like. But for those hating on Dunkirk... it is, you know, a true story. The true story of civillians entering in to an active battlefield to preserve the British army/navy from slaughter. Im not sure there has been a more important/significant civillian act. If the British troops are wiped out, which German fighters and bombers certainly would have done, it would have been almost impossible for the allied forces to win the war.

Like what you like, hate what you hate. But I go nuts glancing at all the scrutiny Batman movies get here. Dunkirk was ACTUALLY a small band of heroes saving the world. It happened. It is true. Sorry if the villians and explosions “didn’t do it for you.” That is not really the point of a historical movie of course.

Again, if you don’t like historical movies or of you think the odd chronology for example was poor directing, those are fair comments. But I don’t think it is reasonable to rate or judge history with the same whims you rate Avenger movies.

[Bucksfan28]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

Yea, I was initially excited to see it but the reception was lukewarm from what I remember. Now it's all over the place in year end lists as one of the very best. Huh.

I thought it was well received right away?

[Turk Nowitzki]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

Yea, I was initially excited to see it but the reception was lukewarm from what I remember. Now it's all over the place in year end lists as one of the very best. Huh.

Critics adored it overall, but it was a departure from his previous work . I'm sure the reception was lukewarm from people who were used to Nolan directing Batman movies or sci-fi epics like Interstellar. Definitely a movie that needed to be seen in theaters for maximum effect though.

[jute2003]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

Yea, I was initially excited to see it but the reception was lukewarm from what I remember. Now it's all over the place in year end lists as one of the very best. Huh.

I thought it was well received right away?

I remember significant hype and projected accolades.

[MissKhriddleton]

I can’t tell others what to like or not like. But for those hating on Dunkirk... it is, you know, a true story. The true story of civillians entering in to an active battlefield to preserve the British army/navy from slaughter. Im not sure there has been a more important/significant civillian act. If the British troops are wiped out, which German fighters and bombers certainly would have done, it would have been almost impossible for the allied forces to win the war.

Like what you like, hate what you hate. But I go nuts glancing at all the scrutiny Batman movies get here. Dunkirk was ACTUALLY a small band of heroes saving the world. It happened. It is true. Sorry if the villians and explosions “didn’t do it for you.” That is not really the point of a historical movie of course.

Again, if you don’t like historical movies or of you think the odd chronology for example was poor directing, those are fair comments. But I don’t think it is reasonable to rate or judge history with the same whims you rate Avenger movies.

I get that it really happened but the movie didn't show the magnitude of the situation. Guy said there were 400,000 people that needed evacuation. We see a couple shots of a couple thousand guys standing on the beach. There's no suspense built up because nothing in the movie shows why the situation is so dire. We see a few larger ships (destroyers?) load up and take maybe a few 1000. We see about 4 planes involved in the entire conflict. Then about 25 civilian boats show up that can maybe hold 100 people each and 300,000 people are saved. Did the civilian boats make multiple trips? Were there actually more civilian boats than what was shown? Did a bunch of destroyers eventually come?

The chronology didn't add anything except to muddle things up and you had no reason to care about any of the characters.

[FrieAaron]

I also thought Dunkirk was pretty terrible. Has zero rewatchability too IMO.

Yea, I was initially excited to see it but the reception was lukewarm from what I remember. Now it's all over the place in year end lists as one of the very best. Huh.

I think it's Nolan's best movie, but it's very different from anything he's ever done. In favor of extraneous exposition he's almost stripped the film of plot completely. It does have individual characters it follows, and like a lot of his movies it's told in a non-sequential manner, but It's almost entirely a sensory experience, like the Omaha scene of "Saving Private Ryan" stretched over 1 hour and 46 minutes. On those terms it's incredibly good, but I'm sure there are a decent number of fans who wanted it to be like the average war movie.

I do agree that it's biggest flaw is because of the way it focuses on basically three individual stories, you lose a sense of the overall scope of the operation.

[Licensed to Il]

I can’t tell others what to like or not like. But for those hating on Dunkirk... it is, you know, a true story. The true story of civillians entering in to an active battlefield to preserve the British army/navy from slaughter. Im not sure there has been a more important/significant civillian act. If the British troops are wiped out, which German fighters and bombers certainly would have done, it would have been almost impossible for the allied forces to win the war.

Like what you like, hate what you hate. But I go nuts glancing at all the scrutiny Batman movies get here. Dunkirk was ACTUALLY a small band of heroes saving the world. It happened. It is true. Sorry if the villians and explosions “didn’t do it for you.” That is not really the point of a historical movie of course.

Again, if you don’t like historical movies or of you think the odd chronology for example was poor directing, those are fair comments. But I don’t think it is reasonable to rate or judge history with the same whims you rate Avenger movies.

I get that it really happened but the movie didn't show the magnitude of the situation. Guy said there were 400,000 people that needed evacuation. We see a couple shots of a couple thousand guys standing on the beach. There's no suspense built up because nothing in the movie shows why the situation is so dire. We see a few larger ships (destroyers?) load up and take maybe a few 1000. We see about 4 planes involved in the entire conflict. Then about 25 civilian boats show up that can maybe hold 100 people each and 300,000 people are saved. Did the civilian boats make multiple trips? Were there actually more civilian boats than what was shown? Did a bunch of destroyers eventually come?

The chronology didn't add anything except to muddle things up and you had no reason to care about any of the characters.

I am not coming in to this with a spirit of arguing or an attempt at persuasion. Just my take. My thoughts were that Nolan percieved that most would be familiar enough with the overall scope of the evacuation and events... that he would focus on a micro account of what a handful of soldiers experienced. It was a curious decision, as that undermined the magnitude and amazing accomplishment that occurred there. Like, Nolan intentionally minimilized an epic event.

I can actually understand criticism of the film. My appreciation of it was how Nolan gave us a glimpse of the chaos of war... even at its most heroic and redemptive moments. I also like how the small yacht Captain was just so damn British. Even the conclusion (civilians listening to Churchill’s account) was very understated.

I guess I just bump up the film’s impact because of the gravity of the subject matter, just as I downgrade the relevence of a movie that invilves time travel, aliens, or super powers. But that doesn’t mean historical movies are always great or more frivolous settings are always silly. I guess I give Dunkirk a “B+” largely on its historical merit.

I did enjoy a celebrated director attempting to work with current themes while staying true to historical source material.

Not going to argue that it is a masterpiece. And I do feel if it did not have Nolan’s name on it reviews would have been much lesser.

[FrieAaron]

My thoughts were that Nolan percieved that most would be familiar enough with the overall scope of the evacuation and events... that he would focus on a micro account of what a handful of soldiers experienced. It was a curious decision, as that undermined the magnitude and amazing accomplishment that occurred there. Like, Nolan intentionally minimilized an epic event.

The movie itself does also explicitly tell us the numbers involved. It would have been cool to have one panning shot that shows a bigger chunk of the action for a sense of scale, but it's not really necessary for an understanding of what's going on. Plus the stretch of beach ran for a handful of miles, so in that sense it may have been pretty accurate as far as how many boats/troops we see at one time.

[Aaron It Out]

Watched the first 3 episodes of Black Mirror last night and this morning. Pretty entertaining, thought the first episode was hilarious. Definitely looking forward to watching the rest. Bright is also on my list of things to watch.

[Triple 7]

First episode of Black Mirror was probably the best. Tough out the first five minutes or so, it's just an appetizer for what's to come.

Another quality season.

[bigkurty]

I can’t tell others what to like or not like. But for those hating on Dunkirk... it is, you know, a true story. The true story of civillians entering in to an active battlefield to preserve the British army/navy from slaughter. Im not sure there has been a more important/significant civillian act. If the British troops are wiped out, which German fighters and bombers certainly would have done, it would have been almost impossible for the allied forces to win the war.

Like what you like, hate what you hate. But I go nuts glancing at all the scrutiny Batman movies get here. Dunkirk was ACTUALLY a small band of heroes saving the world. It happened. It is true. Sorry if the villians and explosions “didn’t do it for you.” That is not really the point of a historical movie of course.

Again, if you don’t like historical movies or of you think the odd chronology for example was poor directing, those are fair comments. But I don’t think it is reasonable to rate or judge history with the same whims you rate Avenger movies.

Some true stories are better to tell than others. I also think it could have been told a lot better. It was all over the place and the character development I found pretty weak so it was hard to root for or against most of the characters. The visuals and audio were great but that doesn't make a great movie to me.

[bigkurty]

Yeah that first episode of black mirror was amazing. Totally loved it. Probably my second favorite episode now but I have only seen the first 2 from season 4.

[jakecronus8]

RE: Dunkirk

I too was not a fan. Just because something is historically accurate doesn't make it a great film. There are plenty of WWII docs out there. Love Nolan but that was a swing and a miss. Not a terrible film but very forgettable.

[blazza18]

I watched the first episode of Black Mirror recently. Can honestly say I was not expecting any pig ****.

[jakecronus8]

I watched the first episode of Black Mirror recently. Can honestly say I was not expecting any pig ****.

That episode is kind of like the series' mission statement. If you don't care for it you won't like the rest of the series.