Unpopular Movie Opinions: Part III

[dvining]

Live your life without fear.

[Rodney-2187]

If everything was back to normal tomorrow, I'm still not sure I'd be that interested in the movies they're releasing right now. Dune is probably the only one.

If people would just get vaccinated, we'd be past all this, just like other diseases controlled by vaccines. Acting like nothing's wrong is how you get variants, and eventually one may be really bad. Want to help the movie industry? Get vaccinated. I guess that's an unpopular movie opinion right now.

I've found more new TV series to be high quality than new movies lately. Everything is peaks and valleys. Right now TV is peaking in quality and movies are in a valley.

[Rodney-2187]

Just a few fairly new shows I've found to be superior to most of the movies I've seen lately:

Ted Lasso
The Mandalorian
Loki
Mare of Easttown
Hacks
Bridgerton
The Queen's Gambit

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been out for a while, but I think it's one of the best things I've seen in a long time.

The only movies standing out in my head right now that I'd consider highly recommending for everyone would be The Sound of Metal (2020) and Luca.

I find something to enjoy in most things, but I've given out far more one and two star ratings in 2020 and 2021 than I usually do.

As someone who loves movies and theaters, I'd say we all need to get vaccinated, but they need to make better movies.

Don't be afraid of streaming. It wont kill theaters, just like the VCR didn't.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Rodney-2187

Don't be afraid of streaming. It wont kill theaters, just like the VCR didn't.

I've heard rumours that TV didn't kill theaters, either.

Mind you, they're just rumors - I wasn't there to see it.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

I've heard rumours that TV didn't kill theaters, either.

Mind you, they're just rumors - I wasn't there to see it.

Yeah but Video Killed the Radio Star.

[BluBonnet]

[Rodney-2187]

Video games killed arcades because home consoles got to be better quality. Home theaters are really great right now, 4K UHD and Atmos are awesome, but there's no replacing the awesomeness of a movie theater. I'm sure both can coexist.

I had AMC A-List before the pandemic. I'm sure I will again one day. Until then, this streaming thing is saving my sanity.

[EvaDK]

Originally Posted by Rodney-2187

Just a few fairly new shows I've found to be superior to most of the movies I've seen lately:

Ted Lasso
The Mandalorian
Loki
Mare of Easttown
Hacks
Bridgerton
The Queen's Gambit

To add:

Fargo
Black Sails
The Leftovers
True Detective S1
Watchmen
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Bly Manor
Fleabag
The Handmaids Tale
Twin Peaks The Return
Dark
Babylon Berlin
Hannibal
Westworld S1
Les Miserables BBC

I consider all of these superior to ~80-90% of the films that got a theatrical release since 2010.

[dvining]

I'm not a fan of long form television storytelling.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by EvaDK

I consider all of these superior to ~80-90% of the films that got a theatrical release since 2010.

Two words: communal experience

[EvaDK]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Two words: communal experience

True, but I'm not grading the theatrical experience in itself; I'm grading the content.

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by dvining

I'm not a fan of long form television storytelling.

Some of them are excruciating. Sometimes it's obvious the story could have been told in four or six episodes, but they stretch it out to ten or more. Wouldn't be bad if the had something to actually say, but they usually just drag everything out. I think you could get away with just watching the first and last episodes.

A series is good if you want to take a real deep dive into the characters, or of there is an interesting and intricate plot, but if that substance isn't there, they might as well have made it into a movie.

[Star Lord]

Originally Posted by EvaDK

To add:

Fargo
Black Sails
The Leftovers
True Detective S1
Watchmen
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Bly Manor
Fleabag
The Handmaids Tale
Twin Peaks The Return
Dark
Babylon Berlin
Hannibal
Westworld S1
Les Miserables BBC

I consider all of these superior to ~80-90% of the films that got a theatrical release since 2010.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Penny Dreadful. I loved the first season of Westworld, but don't know why I never bothered to finish S2.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Rodney-2187

Some of them are excruciating. Sometimes it's obvious the story could have been told in four or six episodes, but they stretch it out to ten or more. Wouldn't be bad if the had something to actually say, but they usually just drag everything out. I think you could get away with just watching the first and last episodes.

A series is good if you want to take a real deep dive into the characters, or of there is an interesting and intricate plot, but if that substance isn't there, they might as well have made it into a movie.

At about the same time I watched Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace and I tried (and failed) to watch the Netflix show Daredevil.

War and Peace is 3 hours shorter than the first season of Daredevil. Was the story of the first season of Daredevil that much more narratively robust than War and Peace? I certainly didn't think so.

I had a conversation with a friend at work a couple of years ago where he suggested Black Sails, but he prefaced it with, "You have to get through the first season before it gets good."

"I have to watch 10 hours of bad television in order to get to the good stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I haven't exactly sworn off television, but I'd much rather risk a 90 minute stinker than trying to drudge through 10 hours of something that may or may not end up panning out. Hell, my mother gave me the first season of Fargo randomly like three years ago, and I still haven't put in the first disc.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by dvining

At about the same time I watched Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peacec.

Did you get to see it in a theater?

[dvining]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Did you get to see it in a theater?

No, I just bought the Criterion Blu-ray blind and watched it over three days.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by dvining

No, I just bought the Criterion Blu-ray blind and watched it over three days.

I got to watch it in a packed theater in a single day. It was fun.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by dvining

At about the same time I watched Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace and I tried (and failed) to watch the Netflix show Daredevil.

War and Peace is 3 hours shorter than the first season of Daredevil. Was the story of the first season of Daredevil that much more narratively robust than War and Peace? I certainly didn't think so.

I had a conversation with a friend at work a couple of years ago where he suggested Black Sails, but he prefaced it with, "You have to get through the first season before it gets good."

"I have to watch 10 hours of bad television in order to get to the good stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I haven't exactly sworn off television, but I'd much rather risk a 90 minute stinker than trying to drudge through 10 hours of something that may or may not end up panning out. Hell, my mother gave me the first season of Fargo randomly like three years ago, and I still haven't put in the first disc.

I’m a fan of a good amount of long form television. But I hate hearing the, get through x amount of hours before it gets good. No! If I don’t find it engaging, then I’m out!

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I’m a fan of a good amount of long form television. But I hate hearing the, get through x amount of hours before it gets good. No! If I don’t find it engaging, then I’m out!

"It's really good once you get past the first 40 hours!"

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I’m a fan of a good amount of long form television. But I hate hearing the, get through x amount of hours before it gets good. No! If I don’t find it engaging, then I’m out!

Another problem I have with it is that there's just so much of it. It's one thing to look at 10,000 movies with an average runtime of 100 minutes and saying, "I'm going to dig into that."

It's another thing entirely to look at 10,000 TV shows with an average runtime of 600 minutes per season and think similarly.