Read more here: http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/08/05/film-review-the-mummy-tomb-of-the-dragon-emperor-2008
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Hollywood Gothique |
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I am not a fan of the recent Mummy movies, so my expectations were low for TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR. It was nice to see Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, but they
were not well served. They yeti looked like really good Gameboy graphics but they did not belong in a movie with live actors. I've seen worse, but my
overall reaction was ho hum. I did like it a bit more than JOURNEY, however.
Read more here: http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/08/05/film-review-the-mummy-tomb-of-the-dragon-emperor-2008 |
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Professor Von X |
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Couldn't agree more, Tom. Especially with genre movies. They're just almost always atrocious. I won't even pay a rental for things like Spiderman
3, Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, Planet Terror, Indiana Jones/Skull, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 3D, etc. If someone I know buys them, I'll borrow
them and START watching them, but I seldom am able to finish. There ARE exceptions like Ironman, but they are very few and far between. I won't even go to
most of the free premieres I'm invited to anymore, and I don't miss a damn thing in most cases.
Professor Von X |
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TomWeaver999 |
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<< Couldn't agree more, Tom. Especially with genre movies. They're just almost always atrocious. .... If someone I know buys them, I'll
borrow them and START watching them, but I seldom am able to finish. <<
That's exactly what I used to do: When a big genre flick came out, I'd happily forget it existed 'til it hit home video, and then I'd wait for a friend to tell me he bought it. And I'd ask to borrow it, and it'd sit here ... and sit here ... and sit here ... and eventually I'd have to force myself to watch it, in order to return it in a semi-timely manner. And I'd always find myself daydreaming and constantly looking at the clock, and doing a lot of figuring-out what fraction of the movie I'd seen so far ("Oh, good, five more minutes and I'll be up to the three-fifths mark"), and just plain looking forward to it being over. Eventually the "Why the **** am I *doing* this to myself??" moment arrived, and my attitude became, "If it's a new movie I'm getting paid to watch and review, okay, but otherwise, pfffft." |
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TomWeaver999 |
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<< The editing was fine, my mom had no trouble following it, though she thought it was a little fast at times. <<
I think, from now on, when reviewers claim that the rapid-fire edits in new movies are TOO fast, they ought to give an idea of their age bracket. If a movie's made for younger viewers, and younger viewers CAN process it, then a Methusalah saying the action can't be followed is ... well, in a word, wrong. (Except to other Methusalahs -- so s/he ought to specify that.) Even though I'm "only" 50, *I* sure can't follow the action in fast-edit scenes, because the average age of the movies I almost exclusively watch is probably about 60 years. And I stopped watching TV series in the '70s. Thanks for the report, gfan! |
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SteveZodiak |
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It is not fast editing itself I don't like, its using quick cuts as a device to hide obvious physical impossiblities I object to. Moving the action so fast
in the hopes the audience won't go, " hey, wait a minute.. How'd he get..?"
Today is only Yesterday's Tomorrow.
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TomWeaver999 |
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<< its using quick cuts as a device to hide obvious physical impossiblities I object to. <<
I'm no expert on why modern moviemakers do what they do -- on that subject, few people in the world know less than I do -- but from what little I've seen, I don't think most audiences object to physical impossibilities in action movies any more. Just about every genre movie I've seen with big fight scenes, every contact would break every bone in the victim's body -- the guy gets hit with the force of a wrecking ball, and he flies 40 feet and hits a wall and falls 20 feet to the floor and get up and strikes a fighting pose again. That kind of stuff was okay in a Tom & Jerry cartoon when I was eight, but I can't sit and watch it in a live-action, supposedly "serious" movie now. I feel like I'm watching a movie for little kids with teensy attention spans and the mindset of "The further he flies, the better" and I think to myself, "Why the heck am I HERE??" And now that so much of it is CGI and you're not even watching real stunts any more ... I need this **** like Custer needed more Indians.
Last Edited By: TomWeaver999
08/17/08 12:17 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Carl Eyesnheart |
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I blame Terminator 2 and Jackie Chan for the BIG punches and hits that throw people 40'.
My fanzine all about Rock N Roll: www.sonicruin.com
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Paul Scrabo |
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How incredibly surprised I was to find that I enjoyed this one more than "Mummy 2" (!!)
I think the editing complaints here were not about the fast cutting....it was the fact that the fights were photographed in too close range. Good score. Good MIchelle Yeoh. Didn;t hate it at all. Paul |
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killer meteor |
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Carl Eyesnheart wrote: At least when Jackie does it, it's real! |
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Carl Eyesnheart |
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killer meteor wrote: Well, kind of. I don't really believe that his punches and kicks (or the ones he receives) are REALLY the cause for the bodies to fly as far as they
do. There are wires helping, but yes, I do agree for the most part. But I mostly blame T2. The fight in the hall of the mall was the first time I had ever seen
such intensity in body blows, but it was quickly after that I started seeing it everywhere.
My fanzine all about Rock N Roll: www.sonicruin.com
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Joexx000.thetruthaboutth... |
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definitely a film i will not be watching...can't stand him
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Carl Eyesnheart |
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Who? The Mummy? He's make believe ya know?
My fanzine all about Rock N Roll: www.sonicruin.com
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Hollywood Gothique |
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There's nothing wrong with fast editing when done well. For exmaple, I recently saw REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. Didn't particularly like it, but the
rapid-fire montages (match flame, hypodermic plunger, dilating iris) captured a sense of drug euphoria - and also made the high seem like a quick, exhilerating
peak, followed by the tedium (and slower editing) of the rest of the film. A good example of using film technique to make a point without hashing out in the
dialogue.
The problem is when quick cuts are used to jack-up scenes that were not well conceived or directed. No real suspense in that chase scene? Well, splice it into 18-frame cuts and no one will notice! Bad fight choreography? Well, splice it into 18-frame cuts and no one will notice! Etc. |
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sirharryflashman |
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Caught up with this last night and was surprised that I didn't hate it after all the comments I'd read. Like some others, I found it more enjoyable
than the second Mummy film. Brendan Fraser is just one of those likeable actors that I have a hard time not enjoying his presence, even if it is in a
particularly weak film like this one. Pure mindless popcorn flick and enjoyable enough as such for me, however the complaints about too-fast editing, poor
fight choreography, mediocre creature CGI and dire dialogue were all spot-on complaints from my perspective. A fight sequence between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh
should be compelling viewing, but in this case it was utterly lacking in excitement. Wasted use of Li and Yeoh. The crappy cgi for the Yeti was disappointing,
but I still enjoyed their inclusion in the storyline. As I said, a weak film on almost every technical level, but still a bit of fun despite the many
shortcomings.
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BijouBob8mm |
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I think, from now on, when reviewers claim that the rapid-fire edits in new movies are TOO fast, they ought to give an idea of their age bracket. If a movie's made for younger viewers, and younger viewers CAN process it, then a Methusalah saying the action can't be followed is ... well, in a word, wrong.To a degree I agree; but it's not always an age issue, though. I think too many filmmakers simply tend to rely on flash over substance, because they really haven't mastered their craft. Best example: the 2006 vampire flick ULTRAVIOLET, with Milla Jovovich. During that final fight, I felt like I was lost, and wrote it off as my having hit middle age. But, in the lobby afterwards, there were a lot of kids (junior high and high school age ranges) grumbling they couldn't tell what the hell was going on during the showdown. |
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Wich2 |
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"and younger viewers CAN process it" The $64,000 question: process it TO WHAT DEGREE? Is the growing (perceived) speed of intake being accompanied by a concurrent shallowness both in what is being given and what is gotten? |
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gfanikf |
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Wich2 wrote:I can say they I can always tell whats going on and follow the story. Keep in mind to some extend some movies are just crap (think Uwe Boll) so it could be really either really slow or fast and you have no idea whats happening. Uwe Boll's known to make slo-mo harder to follow than speed up action.
HK AND CULT FILM NEWS Your source for all the latest Hong Kong and Cult Films DVD News and Reviews! I actually said he was *da bomb* but my main man Dennis didn't peep me right.- Tom "Big Daddy" Weaver. |
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Wich2 |
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Ian, what I was getting at was more: "What quality/complexity of info can a human send & receive at breakneck speed?" |
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gfanikf |
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Wich2 wrote:Depends as humanity evolves and the capability of humans to process that information. I don't mean to imply the star child, but just thing of the increase of complexity and quality (whether on the net, tv, books) that the average person can today process versus someone in the Victorian Age (and then the Victorian person to someone in the Renaissance). Also I think what we judge to be breakneck is relative to the time period. Compare the editing in Dracula 1931 to This Island Earth to Star Wars and so forth. It's an increase in the speed of the cuts and maybe why for many Tod Browning is slow as molasses compared to the Spanish cut. Samuel Johnson was able to edit his entire manuscripts due to the publisher in such periods (and according to Jess, like 2 days or less) with expert accuracy. How many other people could that then? Today their are mathematics experts (more so than in previous time) who can do complex and high quality calculations in extremely short periods of times. I think the possibility is potentially unlimited as humans evolution continues and to an extent technology. Still, the human mind is still more complex and powerful than any supercomputer in the world. Good question Craig, its an interesting point to thing about.
HK AND CULT FILM NEWS Your source for all the latest Hong Kong and Cult Films DVD News and Reviews! I actually said he was *da bomb* but my main man Dennis didn't peep me right.- Tom "Big Daddy" Weaver.
Last Edited By: gfanikf
08/26/08 3:41 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Carl Eyesnheart |
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How many non-video gaming people can actually follow some of the modern video games and their break neck speeds? Those of us who grew up on the old Atari
systems or Intellivision find the new games way too fast (unless you play them now). The people that play the modern games will comment on how slow the old
ones are. But I remember sitting and playing Intellivision with my parents and them talking about how fast the game play was. Many kids now can keep up with
film action as many kids today are used to it partially due to video games.
My fanzine all about Rock N Roll: www.sonicruin.com
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