CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Atria35 (post: 1487119) wrote:You mean Miyazaki? Someone hasn't seen Grave of the Fireflies, then. Some of his movies are overrated, I think, but not all of them.

Miyazaki-san didn't direct Grave of the Fireflies, y'know. Isao Takahata did. It's Studio Ghibli, but not Miyazaki.

Definitely Titanic. I've heard so many people go on and on about how wonderful it is, how much they cried at the end, blah blah blah. You wanna know the only part where I teared up? When that priest is clutching onto the ship as it's tilting upwards, and everyone's crowding around him while he's reading out of Revelations: "And every tear shall be wiped from their eyes...." Do you realize how utterly terrifying it would have been to be one of those people? But psssh, who cares about those two idiot lovebirds? They got their heads in the clouds and weren't living in the real world. I couldn't relate, and I didn't even have the satisfaction of thinking that Leonardo DiCaprio looked cute like every other girl on the planet seemed to think

And I certainly agree with Akira. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the Japanese audio track had worked on the DVD I saw, but I kind of doubt it. There's a difference between appreciating what a work has done for its successors, and being willing to watch it ever again.

Donny Darko - WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

Also, much as I love most Miyazaki movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I don't care how many times you tell me it's a classic or that it's not awfully similar to Princess Mononoke. I'll never like it.

And to my own astonishment, I'll disagree with Twilight, because you can laugh at things like Kristen Stewart's acting or Edward's body-glitter. And the movie is actually better than the book, if you ask me

I still haven't seen 2001. I'd like to, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

The Twilight movie is hilarious when you're sleep deprived and commenting on it MST3K style. That's...about the only part I like about it.

Yamamaya (post: 1487177) wrote:You need to add some qualifiers to this. By understanding V for Vendetta, are you talking about the graphic novel or the movie? I'm assuming you mean the graphic novel.

I'm more of the opinion that the film and the graphic novel have to be viewed as separate works.

I caught V for Vendetta back when it was fresh out of theaters and didn't really care for it. I mean, it was okay, I guess]even more[/I] disappointing.

I am convinced that nobody who hailed V for Vendetta as an intelligent film with anything meaningful to say actually realized what they were watching.

I guess those tricks with knives were cool though, sure.

Fish and Chips (post: 1487188) wrote:Few short years later, I watched it again for a literary criticism class, and found it to be both ridiculously short-sighted and sublimely hypocritical in its message. I have since read bits and pieces of Alan Moore's original graphic novel and found the film even more disappointing.

The film actually reminded me quite a lot of Code Geass, because it essentially presented the same exact story. The government is evil, genocidal, and racist. A monster is created out of that system who rises up against it to destroy it using questionable means. The story goes out of its way to make sure we know that the monster is the "hero." And [SPOILER] both of the heroes die at the end to atone for their own sins and to make way for a new world.[/SPOILER] With that being said, I still enjoyed the movie. I was okay with the movie taking an obvious anti George Bush slant since the original graphic novel was a thinly veiled criticism of Margaret Thatcher(well maybe not so thinly. Alan Moore admitted to his dislike of Thatcher and how it had influenced him in writing the graphic novel). My only problem was that the movie didn't handle the villians or the commentary nearly as good as the graphic novel. The villian in the graphic novel was tragic, a man trapped by his own ideals, while the villian in the movie was just lolevil.

Fish and Chips (post: 1487188) wrote:I am convinced that nobody who hailed V for Vendetta as an intelligent film with anything meaningful to say actually realized what they were watching.
.

The messages of V for Vendetta the movie.
"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
"A violent revolution is a good thing."
"Torture is all right if it's for a greater good."
etc.
These could have been avoided if they hadn't painted V as the good guy throughout the entire film rather than an anti hero like in the graphic novel.
The movie in the end was certainly idealistic, far too much when you consider all of V's questionable actions.

Lets see. I am with all the Miyazaki comments. They are way overrated. I find most of the dull, repetitive, and just overall boring. There have only been about two of the ones I have seen that I really liked and those were The Cat Returns and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. All the rest that I saw I either didn't like at all or found them to be just "meh".

The other one that I don't understand why it gets so much credit is The Descent. People seem to love this movie I cannot for the life of me understand why. I found it really stupid, poorly done and really boring. One of the worst "original" horror movies I have ever seen.

Wolf-man (post: 1487235) wrote:The Cat Returns

People, people. Studio Ghibli is not the same as Hayao Miyazaki. For future reference, I guess I'll post a list of non-Miyazaki Ghibli films.

Chuuzomou (Yamashita Akihiko)
Gauche the Cellist (Isao Takahata)
Tales From Earthsea (Goro Miyazaki)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
The Borrowers Arrietty (Yonebayashi Hiromasa)
Ocean Waves (Mochizuki Tomomi)
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)
Pom Poko (Isao Takahata)
The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata)
Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

I get that Miyazaki is an important dude and made some good films, but guys, he is not the only director in the anime industry.

Mr. Hat'n'Clogs (post: 1487244) wrote:People, people. Studio Ghibli is not the same as Hayao Miyazaki. For future reference, I guess I'll post a list of non-Miyazaki Ghibli films.

Chuuzomou (Yamashita Akihiko)
Gauche the Cellist (Isao Takahata)
Tales From Earthsea (Goro Miyazaki)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
The Borrowers Arrietty (Yonebayashi Hiromasa)
Ocean Waves (Mochizuki Tomomi)
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)
Pom Poko (Isao Takahata)
The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata)
Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

I get that Miyazaki is an important dude and made some good films, but guys, he is not the only director in the anime industry.

I dig this post. XD I'm pretty sure I already commented on disliking (or at least not being blown away by) many of Miyazaki's works in this thread already, but I'm glad someone clarified the difference between Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. XD

Mr. Hat'n'Clogs (post: 1487244) wrote:People, people. Studio Ghibli is not the same as Hayao Miyazaki. For future reference, I guess I'll post a list of non-Miyazaki Ghibli films.

Chuuzomou (Yamashita Akihiko)
Gauche the Cellist (Isao Takahata)
Tales From Earthsea (Goro Miyazaki)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
The Borrowers Arrietty (Yonebayashi Hiromasa)
Ocean Waves (Mochizuki Tomomi)
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)
Pom Poko (Isao Takahata)
The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata)
Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

I get that Miyazaki is an important dude and made some good films, but guys, he is not the only director in the anime industry.

Sorry thought that he did it. I think it was advertised as him doing it. He executive produced it, though. So then that just means I only really like one movie by Miyazaki. lol Also I never said that he was the only director in the industry nor did I give any hint towards that thinking. I was just mistaken is all. Blame those that released the film on DVD. I don't even think he made any good films except one so...yeah.

Fish and Chips (post: 1487188) wrote:I caught V for Vendetta back when it was fresh out of theaters and didn't really care for it. I mean, it was okay, I guess]even more[/I] disappointing.

I am convinced that nobody who hailed V for Vendetta as an intelligent film with anything meaningful to say actually realized what they were watching.

I guess those tricks with knives were cool though, sure.

I think the only movie based on an Alan Moore comic that was any good was Watchmen.

Watchmen was good, although a well-placed criticism is that it tried to be too close to the comic, and too detailed, and, well, yes.

However, actually having read both the comic and seen the movie, I agree with you that the adaptation was overall good. Not perfect, but good. Rorschach's portrayal was what pushed it into + territory.

shooraijin (post: 1487291) wrote:Watchmen was good, although a well-placed criticism is that it tried to be too close to the comic, and too detailed, and, well, yes.

However, actually having read both the comic and seen the movie, I agree with you that the adaptation was overall good. Not perfect, but good. Rorschach's portrayal was what pushed it into + territory.

This is true. I have a good number of overall criticisms of it as a movie, but as a direct adaption, it was well done.

For a movie experience, though, I probably would have preferred that it be changed more than it was.

I wonder if a lot of the Miyazaki criticism is based on viewing his last few films. Howl's Moving Castle was underwhelming and very similar, in lots of ways, to the superior Spirited Away. Ponyo was beautiful, but terrible. Spirited Away was amazing, but perhaps over saturated - and we all know what happens when one piece of media becomes hailed as the end-all be-all; we get tired of it and a backlash develops.

I look as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Lupin III, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Porco Rosso and I see obviously familiar themes and character designs. But I also see films with amazing creativity which are in many ways SO different from one another. Just compare Totoro and Princess Mononoke: female heroines and ecological messages, but vastly different in most other ways.

In other words, Miyazaki is soooo not overrated.

Yeah, I honestly love Miyazaki's work and appreciate them because that was the gateway for me becoming interested in anime in the first place. If I never saw one of his films, I might never have joined this forum.

Everyone has their opinion and I'll stick to mine from what I personally see. If you don't like Miyazaki then great, but don't keep saying Miyazaki is bad just because of your opinion. It really goes back to subjectivity, what some like won't appeal to others.

ADXC (post: 1487605) wrote:Everyone has their opinion and I'll stick to mine from what I personally see. If you don't like Miyazaki then great, but don't keep saying Miyazaki is bad just because of your opinion. It really goes back to subjectivity, what some like won't appeal to others.

Um... this thread is all about movies that some people hate while most people love. If you can't say your opinion about Miyazaki just because it's different, then you can't say anything bad about any film.

I just think Miyazaki isn't as great as people make him out to be, that's all. He's done some good films, but he's not the best director ever.

Yeah, that's pretty much my position on him.

shooraijin (post: 1487291) wrote:Watchmen was good, although a well-placed criticism is that it tried to be too close to the comic, and too detailed, and, well, yes.

However, actually having read both the comic and seen the movie, I agree with you that the adaptation was overall good. Not perfect, but good. Rorschach's portrayal was what pushed it into + territory.

Yea the only reason I didn't see it was the "Big Blue Smurf" with the "very visible blue package" walking around

Dude... is that entirely necessary?

In fairness, Doctor Manhattan is indeed nude in the movie, but little is made of it and he is rarely shown in full.

shooraijin (post: 1487702) wrote:In fairness, Doctor Manhattan is indeed nude in the movie, but little is made of it and he is rarely shown in full.

Still...who wants to see....THAT??

It's just a penis. It's not even on screen that much. Criminy.

That's what she said!

Psycho Molos is contractually obligated to mention Jonathan Osterman's manhood at every relevant opportunity.

I thought I knew what ridiculous was, until this day.

I'm glad I'm confident enough in my own sexuality that I'm not scared to look at another dude's parts.

I think the point's been made and then some.

Wolf-man (post: 1487235) wrote:

The other one that I don't understand why it gets so much credit is The Descent. People seem to love this movie I cannot for the life of me understand why. I found it really stupid, poorly done and really boring. One of the worst "original" horror movies I have ever seen.

Fail, and fail. Descent was fantastic.....oh wait this is a thread based around the idea of people loving a movie and you hating ehem, moving on, but seriously that was an awesome horror flick.

Oay, this sprang to my head the other day, I HATE Boondock Saints II. I genuinly liked the first one. But two was awful, horrendous

Apologies for the gravedig, but I like the idea of this thread alot and had my own contributions to throw in.

I suppose my top three films that I just don't understand are "Transformers," "Twilight", and "Avatar".

Transformers couldn't have been less faithful to the franchise.
The fact that humans were the primary aspect of the plot, Shia Labeouf starred in a role other than Lewis Stevens, and Megan Fox actually had a role with a significant amount of lines not only upset me but devastated me.

Twilight is just one of those things most straight American males can't understand. But to make matters worse, when you really analyze it, it consists of one of the most poorly written stories of all time.

Lastly, "Avatar" was just one of the movies people thought they loved simply because of the special effects. Personally I already knew what was going to happen because I've already seen Pocahontas and Fern Gully.

Tommy (post: 1584553) wrote:Transformers couldn't have been less faithful to the franchise. The fact that humans were the primary aspect of the plot, Shia Labeouf starred in a role other than Lewis Stevens, and Megan Fox actually had a role with a significant amount of lines not only upset me but devastated me.

Ah, puns.

I think you pretty much nailed it, espicially with the latter two movies. I thought the first was pretty good, however little the 'bots and 'cons were on camera.

Tommy (post: 1584553) wrote:Lastly, "Avatar" was just one of the movies people thought they loved simply because of the special effects. Personally I already knew what was going to happen because I've already seen Pocahontas and Fern Gully.

This times a thousand. I almost fell asleep watching it in the theater... it was much too boring.

ShiroiHikari (post: 1485958) wrote:
The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

THIS!! so glad someone else agrees lol I am soo tired of this movie!!


Also I kinda hate the James Bond movies they have never done it for me (at least the ones i've seen and i dont plan on watching anymore)

And also I agree with others on avatar, I as well almost fell asleep I wanted to walk out like five times IT NEVER ENDED!!