Legendsofanus

I wanted to start this by saying that not only do I not watch a lot of supernatural horror movies but they also don't do a lot for me. It's a really big sub-genre of horror that has been heavily saturated with jump scares, tired tropes and just the over-familiarity of the audience with the material: a haunted house, an evil presence, objects flying around at random, a worried mother.

Yet, The Exorcist feels authentic and real and makes me believe in the terrible circumstances of it's story. Part of the reason for this is the careful it takes in to build up that story over the course of hour and a half before the exorcism even begins. Another part is the direction itself. This is a gorgeous movie even when we are not staring down the face of a demonic child playing with adults. Numerous scenes where people are just walking around in broad daylight as the camera follows them: rarely static and mostly in a panoramic shot as it moves with them, turns around, looks at people and things. All of this makes the film feel lush and heavy and serious, giving it an air of realism that I have seldom experienced in a movie of this genre. The beautiful landscape shots of Iraq and it's streets in the opening of the film still looks really good

The build-up is really well done as well: we have all seen the mother who is worried about her possessed child but to connect her character with the growing modern age and have her be an actress in the film industry is what really sets her apart. Her character (played by Ellen Burstyn) is a modern well-to-do western woman who takes her kids to doctors, psychiatrists and who more importantly believes in the modern medicine. We see her progressively getting more and more desperate as nothing she does or the doctors do helps her daughters and the answers they give her irritate us because they sound like vague bullshit. Interestingly the scenes most uncomfortable to watch are the tests being done on Regan by these machines in a lab.

The other important part of the plot is the priest played by Jason Miller. A priest who has begun to get tired of his spiritual beliefs. Life has been hard for him and he struggles to take care of his mental health and his mother's degrading health.

These two plotlines (and two characters) run almost separately for the first hour until, connected by a murder, they start to merge together almost organically as we build up to the exorcism itself. Throughout this, we see Regan's (the possessed kid) condition getting worse and worse as the demon does more and more shocking scenes on-screen which works as a very well realized pressure cooker for the movie's plot urging the characters to hurry up and try to save her.

It's a shame the exorcism itself fell a little flat for me; it's brilliantly lit and directed, the shot with Regan floating in the air as the priests repeat "The power of Christ compels you" looks like it could be painting, but it also looked a little dated to me.

The reason why I call it The Godfather of horror movies is that it does a lot of things right that even newer horror movies don't seem to have learned to do. Much like how The Godfather is still a better crime film than most criminal gangster type movies today.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/50316606

I can't talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book.

That's one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot.

Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes.

I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost.

Of course, Alex Ross's drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there's nothing grand going on action-wise.

What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead,

spoiler

the only time he comes too close them, he ends up losing his right eye.

spoiler

It's not a criticism per say but I find it very strange and interesting how this book forms it's own version of superhero fatigue within the story. Phil Sheldon towards the end gets so sick and tired of people admiring these heroes whenever they get saved and accuse them of villainy when things are peaceful that he doesn't want to be a part of it and retires, leaving the story at an inconclusive end for him and the reader.

I can't talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book.

That's one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot.

Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes.

I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost.

Of course, Alex Ross's drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there's nothing grand going on action-wise.

What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49791809

The only other comic book I have read and finished is Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and that was years ago so I don't really know how to go about this but I'll try my best.

I freaking loved Kingdom Come. This is an Elseworlds DC comic set in a distant futuristic scenario where superheroes have been so absorbed by the general masses that people have forgotten the value of their own achievements. The things our main character, Norman MaClay, reminisces about include Nobel Prizes, sports competitions. We see modern world absorb superheroes into their culture and as a result we have justice league themed restaurants (a prominent one in the story is called Planet Krypto).

Superheroes too have changed, apparently people got bored of "truth, justice and the American way", of Superman being a symbol of hope and peace that doesn't kill and after a tragedy, he is rejected by people who used to brother in him- in favor of more brutal and savage superheroes.

What follows is a story of moral responsibility written in a way that doesn't answer "must there be a Superman" as much as it feels like a more realistic evolution of Spider-Man's motto "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

In a way it reminds me of the modern trend of superhero media's shift towards more adult deconstructions of the genre with shows like Invincible and The Boys and the superhero fatigue. In following them we somehow forgot what it really meant to be a superhero until Superman (2025) came and reminded us that kindness and helping others is what superheroes should be teaching

I also think this is one of the best visual feasts I have ever experienced in comic books. The art style, I don't know what it's called but it feels so realistic yet very aesthetic at the same time. This is one of those comics where if you had to adapt it you would have to just make it in live-action because I don't think this art style can be done justice in animation. It already looks and feels so real

It's very cinematic too, I loved the Wonder Woman in this comic and every scene with her especially her scenes with Superman look so damn good.

My minor complaint and this maybe because I'm not used to this stuff, is the amount of other side heroes that fight in these huge scale full panels that I did not recognize and feel connected to. That's a part of the story, the newer generation of superheroes are cool but I don't feel anything towards them and that makes the action sequences just beautiful eye-candy.

Also I thought the ending especially the epilogue could have been more impactful.

The only other comic book I have read and finished is Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and that was years ago so I don't really know how to go about this but I'll try my best.

I freaking loved Kingdom Come. This is an Elseworlds DC comic set in a distant futuristic scenario where superheroes have been so absorbed by the general masses that people have forgotten the value of their own achievements. The things our main character, Norman MaClay, reminisces about include Nobel Prizes, sports competitions. We see modern world absorb superheroes into their culture and as a result we have justice league themed restaurants (a prominent one in the story is called Planet Krypto).

Superheroes too have changed, apparently people got bored of "truth, justice and the American way", of Superman being a symbol of hope and peace that doesn't kill and after a tragedy, he is rejected by people who used to believe in him- in favor of more brutal and savage superheroes.

What follows is a story of moral responsibility written in a way that doesn't answer "must there be a Superman" as much as it feels like a more realistic evolution of Spider-Man's motto "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

In a way it reminds me of the modern trend of superhero media's shift towards more adult deconstructions of the genre with shows like Invincible and The Boys and the superhero fatigue. In following them we somehow forgot what it really meant to be a superhero until Superman (2025) came and reminded us that kindness and helping others is what superheroes should be teaching

I also think this is one of the best visual feasts I have ever experienced in comic books. The art style, I don't know what it's called but it feels so realistic yet very aesthetic at the same time. This is one of those comics where if you had to adapt it you would have to just make it in live-action because I don't think this art style can be done justice in animation. It already looks and feels so real

It's very cinematic too, I loved the Wonder Woman in this comic and every scene with her especially her scenes with Superman look so damn good.

My minor complaint and this maybe because I'm not used to this stuff, is the amount of other side heroes that fight in these huge scale full panels that I did not recognize and feel connected to. That's a part of the story, the newer generation of superheroes are cool but I don't feel anything towards them and that makes the action sequences just beautiful eye-candy.

Also I thought the ending especially the epilogue could have been more impactful.

I loved Mathew Vaughn's work on X-Men: First Class, don't remember Kickass much but I do remember seeing Stardust as a kid on TV and being intrigued by it.

Thought of it a few days ago and decided to give it a try. The first thirty minutes are the worst part, frankly if you can move past them then you are going to enjoy this movie a lot. It's a fun adventure and Mathew Vaughn's direction makes sure that even fairy predictable action scenes turn out to be exciting to play out and watch, they're fairly simple scenes too but he manages to add an edge of thrill into them even though you know the characters will eventually make out safe.

The fact that this movie is an attempt to tell a story in an old fairytale fashion is a bit annoying at the start because everything is so predictable but they're are a few twists here and there that stop the film from being completely stale and boring.

Performances add a lot too, particularly Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare and Michelle Pfeiffer as the main antagonist who is a witch. She's beautiful in this film

Also it's a pretty looking movie. Vast open landscapes and visuals that still look good. My dreams of seeing a proper live-action flying ship from Final Fantasy or Legend of Dragoon (or Skies of Arcadia? I forget the name for it but it's a Dreamcast turn-based RPG and you have a flying ship and it's glorious) got fulfilled and I'm happy about that lol

Overall I wasn't blown away as my nostalgia made me think I would be but I had a good time and this movie is a callback to when films were just a good time and had a proper happy ending.

Here's a question: do you like mindless action that doesn't make sense often and sorely exists to be a treat to your eyes?

Another question: do you like characters who are shown off for every heroic deed they do, who are morally the best and not only do they fight very well but also time stops whenever they're showing off?

Yet another question: Do you like grand fantastical settings but without a lick of something interesting or compelling?

This movie basically is a pump and dump action movie, the only things of note here are it's many wild action scenes and it's questioning plot decisions. Take away your ability to enjoy those visually cool action sequences and your ability to laugh at the stupid decisions characters make and then there's really nothing left for this movie to give imo.

Yes it looks great and the performances felt as overplayed and sentimental as anything Indian ever has been but there's little to no depth here. Which is perfectly okay if you enjoy these types of films, I know I enjoyed it only because I was watching with a friend

Here's the round up of scores:

Cinematography: 5/5

Storytelling: 4/5

Acting: 5/5

Entertainment: 3/5

Production Design: 4.5/5

Short review: Boasting some of the most beautiful layered landscapes caught on this side of 21st century filmmaking, The Banshees of Inshiren is seductively complex film beneath it's almost charming tale of two friends when one of them suddenly ends their friendship.

I have always enjoyed Martin McDonaugh's works, In Bruges and Three Billboards are some of my fav comedy drama-thrillers out there and while Banshees does lack a bit of dramatic flair of its predecessors (think of that one-shit sequence in Three Billboards or the final scene of In Bruges), what's here is more refined and tightly woven together, every scene says something about the characters and there's a sense of something ominous going on that's outside of the control of our main characters which adds another dimension of tension into the story that's already building sort of this gritty tense standoff that refuses to resolve itself.

I had a chance to watch the deleted scenes of the film as they were included on Disney+, more films need to do that btw, and I was surprised by how conscious some of those decisions must have been. Every deleted scene adds a new dimension to the character and you can tell that Martin maybe didn't want to show off that side of the character whether it be Padraic's (Farrel) insensitive to his sister's crying or Colm's inability to play out a tone and his frustration following that.

Anyway, I think it's a brilliant grand film. One that looks beautiful and vast while telling a very small but relatable story, all the while taking out the time to show the lives of other characters.

Lots of emotion with this one.

Right off the bat, I love Stephen King and IT is my fav book of all time. I prefer his stories to go as batshit crazy as they can and this has been delivered with books like IT and Misery and Pet Sematary but then there are his other works, like 11/22/63 and Hearts in Atlantis which seem to be much more grounded and calm because their main focus is just normal people.

So can Stephen King tell a good story when there's no undead pets or clown monsters? Absolutely. Hearts in Atlantis is a solution of five stories taking place from the 60s to '99 that are interconnected to some degree.

It would be worth it to talk about those different stories in detail but I don't wanna give away the discovery aspect of this book though I will say that I probably liked the first story most since it had that little children dealing with magic sort of charm which was very reminiscent of IT. Even had an old man wanting to give a suckjob to a kid so it was very similiar (Poor Eddie)

Other stories are more focused on Vietnam and the American war there. I'll admit, I don't know much about that part of history, I'm not from any western country and you just don't read about stuff like that in schools. I think I picked it up casually through years of just reading books

Anyways, that whole Vietnam experience is here. We get to be there, running away from the heat of fire, camping and being drunk, and then back home trying to adjust to a normal life and trying somehow to forget and be forgiven for all the bad things we did there while trying to live a normal life. It's presented very well though I will say some of the stories do get a little too smart-ass sometimes. It's not something I would take out of the book but it is a little immersion breaking when you feel a character making a pointed speech about something that reads like a statement by the author.

Overral, I gave this book a solid 4 out of 5 and I think it has honestly helped me come to terms with King's more "normal people" books. I had tried to read 11/22/63 but gave up because I was sort of expecting something more edgy but I think I'm ready to make peace with it after Hearts in Atlantis

Best Stephen King adaptation, I thought I wouldn't cry as deeply as I had on movies of terrible but loving optimism and then, that beautiful score playing and watching Red and Andy meet up again at the end....I finish the movie and went to shit and cried hard in the bathroom

I love how it explores life in a prison, showing their routines but also how prison affects you psychologically. All the scenes where men are shown to be free in spirit are accompanied by music or strife or travelling and it's kind of crazy to then realize after the movie is over that our static urban lives are not much different than prisons themselves. Just part of the experience I suppose but it's great that the movie affects you that because ultimately that's what makes it so universal.

This is a movie about hope and freedom in a man's soul and above all it's about Red and Andy's friendship.

The score is such a beautiful piece of accompaniment that perfectly showcases the emotional truth and horror of every scene, it's shot by Roger Dealings so of course it looks great as hell especially when coming to prison for the first time, seeing all those men standing down there in the ground and the camera sweeps from far over them, it still looks really good despite the age.

The thing that stands out in the movie alongside it's hopeful themes even when it refuses to sugarcoat the harsh reality of evil in men, of hypocrite characters that just want to ruin it for everybody; lies the identity of it being an adaptation of a short story written by Stephen King. It's narrated throughout and the narration fits perfectly, like a story we are being told. Morgan Freeman's sad voice of a man who has gone through so much tone and it really completes the film perfectly. His voice really makes the movie go over much more smoothly and is a very important part of it, I don't think it would remotely be the same without it.

I have always thought that King captures America's normalness and character really well and this work atleast is perfectly suited to being adapted. It's a story about a men wrongly convicted and sentenced for life and then learning to make a new life and starting over, a man who refuses to let go of the goodness of society, goodness in men and the importance of hope and friendship even in a dreary soulless place like a prison. Along the way he manages to convince even others of their own humanness and the caged canary spirit of freedom in them, and it's beautiful to see that. In a way I suppose it is the prison version of Dead Poet's Society but since I haven't seen that film yet, I can't comment on it too much.

Love how the movie makes a very compelling case study on institutionalized men who are released from prison and don't know where else to go, the story of Brooks feels believable and tragic and universal. Love when movies teach you something important while making you sob lmao

P.S: the excessive"bull queer" scenes did take me out a bit watching this movie now for the first time but I suppose it's just something that happens in prisons. I'm even glad that it's there to break the monotony of its feel-goodness

It's too sweet a game to write anything bad about.

If I had to nitpick, I would say the material is there for a great story but the plot meanders a bit. It's basically a quest to find a Macguffin, it's funny and chaotic and a lot of the charm is due to the characters interacting with one another but as for the plot itself... it's kind of boring. One thing leads to one thing then we're doing something else, it doesn't feel as tightly knit as the character dialogue in the game

Aside from a few QTE annoyances, I did enjoy a lot of the action scenes. They're very well choreographed and provide a fun and engaging experience

I don't hate any of the main characters, they're like a family and even the worst people of them have a GOTG-type vibe to them that makes it fun to keep following their stories.

Obviously it's a Telltale game so most of your choices don't impact the plot much but it was still nice to experience this game as a narrative where you can choose what to say, the added customization options were really fun too as was the last action sequence that gives you a lot of choice on how things play out

Overall, it's some of the best comedic games I have played and a great Telltale game. Definitely my fav for now as the only other one I have played is that disappointing Expanse one.

8/10 ⭐

More sensual than narrative, A Ghost Story tells or shows the visual experience of being left behind. The plot is about a couple living happily in their home when suddenly the husband dies and comes back as a ghost. Despite the film's initial setup, the movie isn't about the wife struggling to live with the death of her husband but it's about the Ghost Husband trying to connect to her in some way. And that's where things get really cool

It's a fairly slow, calm, contemplative movie with the camera steady and lingering in scenes. I really liked the way it was shot, especially with the film's sound design being acute enough to capture everything in the background: most of the shots conveyed entire story beats.

A character will come inside, bringing sounds of real life in the empty house as a ghost watches them walk past him as if he's not even there, as they leave, the sounds all die out.

Which is really cool because there's hardly any dialogue in the film. Years go by in a single cut, moments and feelings left visualized between strangers but you never get to a part of them.

I think - it amuses me to think this way - that this is how all audiences must feel at some point, we are with the ghost watching the world exist around him and we feel empty but not entirely alone, our feeble human minds wanting to make a connection: it becomes necessary to find something to love or be angry about when the capacity to love or be angry exists and you can't exercise it the way you want to.

In a way, this film must necessary feel hollow and pessimistic, atleast that's the path it's most loud moment seems to point to but it doesn't, the soundtrack's upbeat electronic music played on top of warm classic compositions and the warmer tones of colors always has that hint of nostalgia that makes the whole film a little more heartfelt.

This is a short one, at 1 hour and 32 minutes, A Ghost Story finishes off with a very well paced story and a somewhat sudden ending that I wasn't expecting.