The Movies

[DirtyRed]

The best movies in the past few years have been the Marvel Studios work, especially Joss Whedon's Avengers franchise. And Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the best of the lot.

Coming in REAL late to piss and moan about the scene in Winter Soldier where a bad guy takes special care to only shoot Captain America in his shield (covering only his torso) with a belt fed machine gun instead of, you know, trying to shoot him in the leg or something else not covered by the tiny little shield. And the scene where Fury somehow cuts through his car and the goddamn street to tunnel out of an ambush without either leaving behind a pile of misplaced earth and car parts, or making the hole too blisteringly hot to navigate. And for that matter, Fury's ambushers, clearly attempting to kill him, not just bringing in their best weapons to start with, instead waiting for him to foil less effective measures.

And just ONCE I'd like an amnesiac or brainwashing victim NOT come around because of the Power of Friendship.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Coming in REAL late to piss and moan about the scene in Winter Soldier where a bad guy takes special care to only shoot Captain America in his shield (covering only his torso) with a belt fed machine gun instead of, you know, trying to shoot him in the leg or something else not covered by the tiny little shield.

Are you okay with the guy in the invulnerable flying suit in the other movies?

[DirtyRed]

Are you okay with the guy in the invulnerable flying suit in the other movies?

My biggest problem is that's it's never explained how Tony Stark is not turned into a fine red paste inside the suit when it goes from Really Fast to a dead stop, either from being hurled/shot/exploded into something, or just the way he pilots it. Especially given that he is a middle aged borderline alcoholic, not a fighter pilot or someone else trained to withstand higher G forces.

I can accept that Tony Stark is a genius who managed to invent some perpetual energy source that powers a nigh impervious metal suit made of weapons and cool things that he also made, and wrote the software necessary for the thing to operate and interface with the user for the same reason I can accept all that nonsense about Rings of Power and Hobbits and Elves in Lord of the Rings. The author/director/creator set the setting and the rules by which it operates, and if the setting says that some chubby half man with hairy feet has to throw a ring into a volcano, I can accept it. What I can't accept is why they didn't just fly those giant eagles to Mordor, because I don't recall receiving any explanation for why that wouldn't work.

Which is the same sort of reason why I can accept that some scrawny kid took Steroids and became all beefy, and that his shield can stop pretty much any projectile that hits it, provided there isn't enough transfer of momentum to send Cap flying even if he gets his shield up (in which case, the shield still prevents Cap from getting directly hit by whatever attack, but transfer of momentum sends Cap flying). And why I can't suspend disbelief enough to believe that a guy, armed with a machine gun and a lot of ammo, who ostensibly wants to kill Cap, appears to be aiming specifically at the impenetrable shield that only covers about half of Cap at any given time.

This sort of thing isn't specific to The Winter Soldier, however. It happens all the damn time throughout fiction, often because the creators tried to create suspense by creating a feeling that the protagonist is in real danger of failing to achieve his goals, or danger of being killed, or whatever, but do such a good job, that the only ways for the protagonist to overcome these obstacles and provide us with the requisite Happy Ending is for the antagonist to do something mind bogglingly idiotic for no discernible reason other than to let the protagonist win because he knows he's in a movie. At least Star Wars tried to explain away the Storm Troopers' horrible aim by having Obi-wan claim that blasters where "clumsy, random" things. Maybe they just don't shoot straight.

It helps if one sets up the antagonist with a flaw ahead of time that can be invoked to have him fuck everything up, like in The Patriot when Cornwallace orders an ill advised charge over a blind hill, unwittingly into the waiting muskets of the Colonists' regulars, in order to chase a retreating militia, because he has a very low opinion of militia because he has an unduly high opinion of himself. Himself being a general in a regular army. And then Tavington beginning his cavalry charge before given any order to do so because he is also full of himself, AND an established bloodthirsty dumbass.

There's also those studies that show critical/insulting people come off as smarter than people who aren't dicks,* and I need all the help I can get in that regard.

*This is the basis of Donald Trump's entire campaign.

[Giri Kotte]

Are you okay with the guy in the invulnerable flying suit in the other movies?

That reminds me, there was this very successful period fantasy movie in my mother tongue, Telugu. A film critic opined that the movie wasn't very realistic and the director shot back, "If you want realism, then go watch a documentary!"

[BrooklynJerry]

Four times. All of it.

Funniest scene on Deadwwod was whe the hooker is told "a little less teeth".

[Mark Rippetoe]

My biggest problem is that's it's never explained how Tony Stark is not turned into a fine red paste inside the suit when it goes from Really Fast to a dead stop, either from being hurled/shot/exploded into something, or just the way he pilots it. Especially given that he is a middle aged borderline alcoholic, not a fighter pilot or someone else trained to withstand higher G forces.

I can accept that Tony Stark is a genius who managed to invent some perpetual energy source that powers a nigh impervious metal suit made of weapons and cool things that he also made, and wrote the software necessary for the thing to operate and interface with the user for the same reason I can accept all that nonsense about Rings of Power and Hobbits and Elves in Lord of the Rings. The author/director/creator set the setting and the rules by which it operates, and if the setting says that some chubby half man with hairy feet has to throw a ring into a volcano, I can accept it. What I can't accept is why they didn't just fly those giant eagles to Mordor, because I don't recall receiving any explanation for why that wouldn't work.

Which is the same sort of reason why I can accept that some scrawny kid took Steroids and became all beefy, and that his shield can stop pretty much any projectile that hits it, provided there isn't enough transfer of momentum to send Cap flying even if he gets his shield up (in which case, the shield still prevents Cap from getting directly hit by whatever attack, but transfer of momentum sends Cap flying). And why I can't suspend disbelief enough to believe that a guy, armed with a machine gun and a lot of ammo, who ostensibly wants to kill Cap, appears to be aiming specifically at the impenetrable shield that only covers about half of Cap at any given time.

This sort of thing isn't specific to The Winter Soldier, however. It happens all the damn time throughout fiction, often because the creators tried to create suspense by creating a feeling that the protagonist is in real danger of failing to achieve his goals, or danger of being killed, or whatever, but do such a good job, that the only ways for the protagonist to overcome these obstacles and provide us with the requisite Happy Ending is for the antagonist to do something mind bogglingly idiotic for no discernible reason other than to let the protagonist win because he knows he's in a movie. At least Star Wars tried to explain away the Storm Troopers' horrible aim by having Obi-wan claim that blasters where "clumsy, random" things. Maybe they just don't shoot straight.

It helps if one sets up the antagonist with a flaw ahead of time that can be invoked to have him fuck everything up, like in The Patriot when Cornwallace orders an ill advised charge over a blind hill, unwittingly into the waiting muskets of the Colonists' regulars, in order to chase a retreating militia, because he has a very low opinion of militia because he has an unduly high opinion of himself. Himself being a general in a regular army. And then Tavington beginning his cavalry charge before given any order to do so because he is also full of himself, AND an established bloodthirsty dumbass.

There's also those studies that show critical/insulting people come off as smarter than people who aren't dicks,* and I need all the help I can get in that regard.

*This is the basis of Donald Trump's entire campaign.

You're a lot of fun, Red.

[Tim K]

You're a lot of fun, Red.

LOL, yeah. You need to consider the genre... in a superhero movie, the Rule of Cool trumps everything. Did it look totally badass? Then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Similarly you don't hold Inglorious Basterds to the same standards of realism as Saving Private Ryan (even though the subject matter is ostensibly the same).

[Joe Murphy]

...And why I can't suspend disbelief enough to believe ...

The suspension must be willful, but the premise must be compelling enough to make it so. I feel ya, Red--but I can't parse it like you do--I'm an all or nothin' kinda guy. Re-read your Coleridge. (I really hope that doesn't sound too much like, well, you know.)

[Farback]

I just watched MadMax -Fury Road. Pretty good movie. Could have used a car chase though.

[Gorlox22]

My favorite comedy: Borat, with no close second. Sacha Baron Cohen is a genius, particularly in Da Ali G Show. Action, The Matrix Trilogy. Recently, I thought The Revenant was stunning.