Seems to go back to the book more regarding power armor and medical/technical stuff. I'm keeping a faint hope that it's at least sustainable and watchable plot-wise, it would be nice to finally have one CGI sci-fi to sink your teeth in without it being meandering, weak-sauce crap.
So how about that CGI sci-fi?
I liked the "Dead Space" CGI movie, but plot and suspense was nonexistent, as it was just meant to bridge the gap between the two games. The "Final Fantasy" movie (with James Woods and Steve Buscemi) felt very weak and slow. Characters "sort of" die by getting touched by blue energy, the most anticlimactic enemy ever. And "Appleseed", don't get me started. I've met few trailers that gave as much hope and delivered on so little of it. Motion capture was the big hook for the movie but then the faces looked like this. All the personality of a stapler. Each character had one "sadface", one "happy^^face" and one "angryface", no inbetweens. The girl in the image (Hitomi) went through all three faces at least twice in every conversation, too.
Anyway, good bug dead bug? Also, does anyone think the narrator sounds like Seth Green?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
It's just a teaser so there's no way to tell how good, bad or mediocre it's going to be, but there's definitely promise in that it appears to be taking material that's straight out of the book. Of course it all depends on the plot and characters, everything else is just eye candy.
As for similar films...I must admit, despite it's many flaws I still have a soft spot for 'The Spirits Within'. Wasn't terribly impressed with either of the Appleseed films, but then I didn't dislike them either. Just a bit ho-hum and a lot forgettable. I think there was another one a few years back which had people in dune buggies getting chased by an giant metal sandworm, but I forget the title...you can probably tell that didn't leave much of an impression either. Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I borrowed the second movie from my library thinking it could not possibly suc as hard as I'd heard and I was right. It sucked way way harder than I was told.
So, as I'm a glutton for punishment I went looking into the CG series Roughnecks, which was also pretty bad, but since it was made for morning cartoons, I judge it less harshly.
This looks great visually from the trailer, but that's true of a lot of crap.
When is this supposed to be on DVD?
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I think Starship Troopers got shafted when it comes to sequels, which is shame considering the first one was so fun. I don't have my hopes up for this cartoon, but we'll see.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
While I admit my disappointment in the very UN-Heinlein first movie it at least had some cool FX. The sequal with Jolene Blalock was just an absolute abomination.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Even though it had Jolene Blalock? That's usually enough of a reason to watch for me...
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
The third one was pretty awful...but at least I was able to sit though the whole thing. I didn't even manage to last ten minutes with the second one.
The first one remains a classic IMO and has stood up surprisingly well. I always appreciated how it managed to be a borderline parody that very nearly took itself seriously. That's a hell of a juggling act and probably the real reason the sequels never came close.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Yes, the first movie made audiences come as close as they ever would to realizing that Verhoeven jokes about fascism in his movies. The closest I've ever heard a person come to seeing it was "Wow, those hats and uniforms looked, like, reaally nazi, wtf was up with that". Yes, wtf indeed.
I've shown RoboCop on at least two movie nights, to different people, and I have yet to hear anyone laughing or even snickering when the OCP CEO follows the absolute cannon-murder of a board member with "YOU CALL THIS A GLITCH?! This setback could cost us millions in interest costs alone."
Regarding Starship Troopers, I heard one theory that the entire War Against the Bugs is fabricated, because they couldn't possibly manipulate an asteroid's trajectory to hit Earth, and that it was EarthGov that did it to get an excuse to go to war. While I agree it's plausible, I've never felt like the movie takes that side, since the asteroid-thing is conjecture, and no other clues seem to be there for the viewer.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I think the (possibly) fabricated war aspect was nicely played in the movie- the TV anchor brings it up in passing, just so it can be shot down by Rico.
A fabricated war made for an unquestioning populace is the only in-universe explanation for asteroids hitting earth- supposedly from the far side of the galaxy (from the map) and hurled here by bugs with no real intelligence much less FTL spacetravel.
At first I thought it was just shoddy "Hollywood science" but after seeing the movie several times, fabrication seems as plausible.
It would be right up Verhoeven's alley. A man that said he cast Neil Patrick Harris "just to see Doogie Houser in an SS uniform"!
SO MANY people I know that love sci-fi miss Verhoeven's humor- looking st Starship Troopers' and Robocop as straight stories instead of well made satire.
If nothing else, you can see the same unquestioning mentality to strike back after 9/11- Verhoeven had human nature sadly pegged.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
^I think Orwell spotted it long before Verhoeven.
As I said though, I think he was very clever in making the 'Starship Troopers' and yes, 'Robocop' equally split between straight drama and satire. Not an easy balance to strike. There's nothing humorous about Murphy's struggle to regain his humanity, or Rico's change from slightly dense teenager to hardened combat veteran. Actually that's probably the key to it. The humour is in the setting, not the characters. The characters are treated with a degree of respect you don't usually even find in straight up action films.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Cheers. That's weird, the older I get, the more affected I get by Robocop walking through his former house, as well as the death scene (from Lewis' reaction shot to the overworked ER-staff calling it a day). Come to think of it, I wonder why Verhoeven didn't dig deeper into Rico's parents getting splattered, with him walking to the crater lip of his home town and slumping down or something. They glossed over that quite speedily. I know Verhoeven talked of how his daily walks to school during WWII (seeing body parts and corpses in bomb craters) shaped his moviemaking more than anything. Thought he would've liked to stick that in with Rico.
Another thing, those helper bugs that carried the brainbug, they're dissecting them earlier. After all this talk, I'm starting to view them as non-offensive combatants. Having their guts pulled out by preppy high school students seems just as callous now as when that black soldier shoots the incapacitated, scared arachnid in the eye in rage and disgust. This is not good, now the scene where Neil Patrick Harris mindreads Brainbug and says "It's AFRAAAID!" feels just as wrong as when mirror-Archer destroys Soval. That stuck in my craw for the whole rest of the night.
I hope the makers have a shred of sense and make that narrator out to be an unfeeling (at least at first) death machine in the style of a Kerberos/Jin-Roh Panzer Cop, instead of some White Knight.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Next we can talk about "Highlander: The Source"....I can hear you all groaning now.....
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim: Cheers. That's weird, the older I get, the more affected I get by Robocop walking through his former house, as well as the death scene (from Lewis' reaction shot to the overworked ER-staff calling it a day).
What I found interesting is that those were *real* ER people hence the calm, almost bored tone of voice from that guy.
Totally off topic, but this touches on something that's often bothered me about dramatisations. People like doctors and paramedics are so often shown as being emotional and excitable when the reality is entierly the opposite. This applies to the way a number of professions are portrayed, but the one that always jumps out is the pilots, especially combat or test pilots. In reality, you cannot be excitable and survive in these professions. An excitable pilot is a dead pilot, just as an excitable doctor or paramedic will end up with a dead patient.
Anyone who's spent time around people like this can attest that when they go to work, they sound just like that guy that couldn't save Alex Murphy. So thank you Verhoeven for getting that bit right.
quote:Come to think of it, I wonder why Verhoeven didn't dig deeper into Rico's parents getting splattered, with him walking to the crater lip of his home town and slumping down or something. They glossed over that quite speedily. I know Verhoeven talked of how his daily walks to school during WWII (seeing body parts and corpses in bomb craters) shaped his moviemaking more than anything. Thought he would've liked to stick that in with Rico.
I don't know, I think that would have changed the whole tone of the movie. Besides, Rico's reaction wasn't introspection or grief (he's just not that deep) it was anger and the non-all consuming type of vengeance.
quote:Another thing, those helper bugs that carried the brainbug, they're dissecting them earlier. After all this talk, I'm starting to view them as non-offensive combatants. Having their guts pulled out by preppy high school students seems just as callous now as when that black soldier shoots the incapacitated, scared arachnid in the eye in rage and disgust. This is not good, now the scene where Neil Patrick Harris mindreads Brainbug and says "It's AFRAAAID!" feels just as wrong as when mirror-Archer destroys Soval. That stuck in my craw for the whole rest of the night.
Given how brutally they treat their own (deliberately broken arms, knives in hands, whipping) I think it's perfectly consistent for them to treat their enemies with ZERO mercy.
Even so, we don't really know to what degree the non-brain bugs are sentient. It could well be that all the other species were enslaved by the brains and have no will of their own, making the workers less like non-combatant civilians and more like equipment. Same for the arachnids really. Do they fight because they understand the situation and want to, or are they just weapons on legs like the plasma bugs or tankers?
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Yes, and they've obviously got the "strength in numbers" mentality and put no stock in individuality. However, if I combine the dissection-scene with the footage of the bug being shot in a cage, it gives me a Mengele/Japan's "Unit 731" vibe. Clean, efficient execution of business, unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality.
I just made the mistake of Google Image-searching Unit 731. Had only read about it before. Live dissection, it's the ultimate form of disrespect in all regards: socially, philosophically, mentally and physically, removing parts of what constitutes you while you live, your cries and moans just boring them, just white noise.
In Robocop 2, when they catch Murphy with an industrial magnet, it gets to me when the guy power-drills Murphy's abdomen open, and the little kid gleefully pulls out an oil/nourishment tube and sprays it in Murphy's own face to debase him, making him scream in grief and agony. One of the worst scenes in the entire franchise, to me.
About pilot depictions, of all the movies and media I've seen showing combat pilots, all but one got it wrong (even "Behind Enemy Lines", prized for authenticity, sounded pretty Hollywoody in the jet-scenes). No, the best, most detached and realistic pilot chatter I heard in media came from here. Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
You know what got to me more? The scene with children happily stomping cockroaches while a parent looks on, clapping and laughing maniacally. Not that I have a deep empathy with roaches or anything, it's just the insane public display of hatred combined with the corruption of the young that never ceases to creep me out.
Of course, given all the other Nazi-esq connotations Verhoeven spread throughout the film, I'm sure you're supposed to feel disquiet at these things. He's basically saying "sure, Earth is at piece with itself, justice is swift, the streets are spotlessly clean...but it comes at a horrendous price."
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Yes, silent, passive and understatedly implied approval is the most powerful tool of any dictatorship. In the beginning, Nazi-Germany didn't force towns and city states to mercy-kill their invalids, intellectually-retarded and disfigured persons, they merely stayed comfortably silent as the first cases passed by and more followed. Same with lynching of homosexuals in Africa.
I love Verhoeven's random, overacting characters, though. The cackling lady is both scary and hilarious to me, and I would easily vote for this man to join the Supreme Court, if possible. No, Whip in the House of Lords.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I always did like the ending when Robocop shoots the executive after he's been fired, and the head of Omnicorp says, "Nice shooting son, what's your name?"
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