What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[kamikazekeeg]

Was recently reminded of Snowpiercer after Bong Joon Ho got all the attention from his movie Parasite (Haven't seen it yet) and finally got around to watching it again and its still such a good and interesting movie.  Not sure what it is with South Koreans and trains (Train to Busan being the other), but they make good movies on them lol

[Cartagia]

Time to throw down the list of movies I’ve watched in isolation.

The Commuter - Dumb and not very fun.
Fighting with my Family - Florence Pugh is gonna be huge soon.  She also had a small part in Commuter.
Alita: Battle Angel - Dumb and fun.  FX were really bad in a couple of places though.
The Skeleton Twins - Bill Hader never fails to impress.
Bumblebee - The Transformers Movie we deserve.  Not perfect, but better than all the Bay films.  And I even kind of like the first one.

[kamikazekeeg]

While I got plenty of series stuff to watch, I felt like getting a movie marathon going for something and since I never got around to it before Endgame, I thought I'd start my Marvel marathon now, going from the beginning and in order of release all the way back up to Endgame.  A lot of the movies I haven't rewatched since they came out on video, so it'll be fun going back through them all, even the ones I remember not liking a ton (Looking at you the first two Thor movies).  This of course means starting with Iron Man.

The movie that kicked off the MCU, Iron Man is still quality.  For what is now a 12 year old movie, everything holds up great, it's kinda amazing how well they nailed everything right away.  I had forgotten that they replaced Rhodes with Don Cheadle after this and I think Terrance Howard, Edward Norton as Hulk, and Hugo Weaving as Red Skull might've been the only notable characters that got replaced within the MCU that I can think of, though Red Skull had been relegated to a much more minor character by Infinity War.

The movie is great and I think so much of that is Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.  Much like Hugh Jackson as Wolverine, he just nails the character and is one of the very few actors who I think are irreplaceable for the role and one day will be a hard one to replace in whatever inevitable reboot happens.

[kamikazekeeg]

This is my second watch of Rise of Skywalker since I last saw it in theater and I wasn't sure what I was gonna think of it having had more time to settle my thoughts on the film. 

Generally I still like it a lot more than The Last Jedi, just because it's far more exciting and fun.  As pure scifi action, it's an enjoyable time.  Story wise, it's a mess, because they are trying to do two movies worth in one to make up for The Last Jedi, and it's really obvious.  Like the message from Palpatine they talk about in the beginning showed up in Fortnite of all places.  Not that the story is bad, I'm fine with the general beats of what happens, it's just all rushed to hell and back.  Had they not done Last Jedi and split this movie into two, the trilogy would've been much better off if it was properly setup.

Other problems would be that the Knights of Ren are useless, they are the Boba Fett and Captain Phasma of this movie, totally wasted outside of a tiny fight with Ben at the end of the movie where they are quickly dispatched.  Not too mention so much unexplored story points, such as Finn being force sensitive and his relationship with Rey, Rey's training, Kylo dealing with First Order business, heck even the bit at the end with Lando and Jannah as it turned out that she's his daughter, but it isn't an actual part of the movie at all, there's so much more that could've been done with this that wasn't fully realized.

I don't want it all to seem negative, as I did say I liked it, but I enjoy these characters, there's good battles, I chuckled at parts and even when Chewbacca gets the news about Leia, I still choked up a little, seeing that he's finally lost all his old friends as it hits hard having essentially grown up with these characters.  I liked that they didn't give us a CG doll of Leia and a voice impersonator just to have her finish off the role, using her actual voice and visuals, even if it does come off abit wonky in terms of her interactions with Rey.  I love the red designs of the Final Order (A minor thing, but when we've had 3 generations of white troopers, red is a pretty bold change lol).  And as I said, I like the story beats, even if everything is rushed as I didn't care what the story was that they told, just that they told me one I could like, so stuff like the Emperor being back is fine, it just would've been nice had it all be handled better.

It's hard for me to place the movie in the entire franchise, it's probably lower than most of them other than the first two prequels, so I'll just say it's in the latter end of things, above Last Jedi, even if that movie is technically a more cohesive film, just because I find Rise to be a more exciting watch and to note, I didn't hate Last Jedi as much as others did, but even I consider it pretty lackluster outside of a few scenes and ideas, especially after re-watching it a few times.

[kamikazekeeg]

I hadn't seen The Incredible Hulk since probably 2008 when it first came out and had mostly forgotten about it other than it had Edward Norton as Banner.  This one was always kinda considered one of the weakest of the MCU to me, as even at the time, I remember it just being okay.  Where Iron Man felt like an incredible new beginning and a bright future, Downey just killing it as Stark, Hulk was just..."alright", kinda business as usual for superhero movies, Norton is fine, though I liked it more than the 2003 movie with its weird mutant poodles and Nick Nolte elemental monster (I guess he was Absorbing Man?).

It is nice that it's not an origin story, doing much of what they did with Spider-Man and just going "Hey, people know Hulk enough at this point, just toss it in there in the intro".  Having watched it again, I do think its still on the very lowered end of the MCU movies, mostly because it doesn't really do too much for me.  Like Norton isn't bad, but Ruffalo is a lot better to me and fits a lot better with the cast they eventually have for The Avengers.

I'm curious if Abomination will come back and if we'll get "The Leader" proper.  While they decided on not doing anymore Hulk movies, that's two villains right there that would be good to show back up in the She-Hulk show I think.

[Cartagia]

Abomination has gotten named dropped a couple of times at least, as a resident of The Raft, but that’s been about it.

[kamikazekeeg]

Abomination has gotten named dropped a couple of times at least, as a resident of The Raft, but that’s been about it.

Okay, that's good, I probably overlooked that when it happened, but I like that they acknowledge it so that it feels like it is a part of the MCU. I know there's the ending bit with Ross and Stark, but that feels more of a little bonus, rather than proper implementation like with Iron Man.

I know Iron Man 2 is kinda considered bottom tier in the MCU more often than not and I can understand why folks look at it that way.  There's really not much good action in it outside of the ending and Ivan Vonko as Whiplash comes across as a pretty weak villain paired with Sam Rockwell, who I think is good in the part as Hammer, but the character is more a joke than anything.  Of course Downey is good as Stark, he's never not, and I like the idea of him dealing with some leftover elements of the first movie. 

The general story though of Tony kinda in "self-destruction" with his mortality on the line, feels kinda weak overall, abit boring, because the first movie ends with him establishing Iron Man, but then with Iron Man 2, there's no real Iron Man.  We don't get him saving the world, it's the aftermath, there isn't anything for him to be Iron Man for and I think a bigger story of him actually trying to be this "weapon for peace", maybe the toll of that, sorta like what we got with Iron Man 3, would've been a lot better.  Keep the idea that his arc battery is killing him and its pushing him to take bigger and bigger risks as Iron Man, nearly killing himself in every battle he gets into.

In the end, I'm alright with it, it's not a bad movie at all, its just not as standout as the first one.

[grevegarf]

Last anime I watched was the film Madoka Magica: Rebellion. Madoka is my favorite anime of all time, there was a show and 3 films. I finished the show and I watched Rebellion too.

[kamikazekeeg]

While some people have their own lower end MCU films, I generally had the Thor movies pretty low on the list for me.  Not like they were bad, but I just found them to be lacking personally.  They give us this great new fantasy setting, which was awesome for the time when we were still just dealing with Hulk and Iron Man, but the movie ends up spending a lot of time on Earth.  It is interesting looking back at "old" Thor, when he's this arrogant war hungry warrior, rather that what he becomes later.  I feel like he has the most drastic character shift as the movies went on.

Much like Iron Man 2 and Hulk, it's fine.  Even when I first watched it, I was never really that blown by it and I didn't really love Thor and Loki till probably the first Avengers movie.  Natalie Portman as Jane is alright.  The story is okay.  I like the fantasy/scifi setting they establish, but that is probably it for me as they end up spending much of the movie on Earth, which is a little boring I thought outside of a few bits of humor.  I will say that Thor could be at the bottom for me, because I don't think it even has a particularly great finale.  Like Iron Man 2 isn't great, but at least it has a big battle with both War Machine and Iron Man duking it out against killer drone bots.

[kamikazekeeg]

Captain America was the turn around for me with these movies.  Where Iron Man was so strong, the following movies were only ever just alright.  I liked the setting that Thor established, it was that fantasy/scifi element that Marvel needed to put out there, much like Dr. Strange and Guardians establish, but Thor was kind of a boring film to me.  Captain America though, a lot of fun.  There's certainly some downtime, but Chris Evans is great as Rogers, I really dig Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, there's some enjoyable side characters such as Stark, Tommy Lee Jones as the General, Bucky, Agent Carter, it's a fun cast.  The setting is also really great, a period piece set in the 1940's, with WW2, but wild scifi tech involved (I love the short bit where there's just like a 3 story tank rolling through a town that Rogers takes out lol).

It's got some good action strew throughout, I love the spy stuff that becomes more notable in later movies, the establishment of Hydra, it's just a fun movie to me.  I still think I like Iron Man a tad more because of just how tight it is and how good Downey is, even if Captain America does a whole lot more and has a larger scope to its story.

*EDIT*

And done with Phase 1 with The Avengers.  It was a pretty reasonable build, something DC never wanted to handle right, and The Avengers still holds up pretty well even with what follows I think.  Everyone is great in it too and I like that they make everything work for even the smaller members of the cast with Black Widow and Hawkeye as it's very easy to get overshadowed with the other cooler characters.  Loki instantly becomes much better in this movie as we really get him on full display and is why we are getting a Loki tv show, because he's that damn good.  We start to see a little bit more of Thor's personality in this too that I like, though we still got till after Thor 2 till I like him more.  The action is fun and love the scenes like the reveal of the heli-carrier.

I think with the end of Phase 1, that I'd place them like...

-Iron Man
-The Avengers
-Captain America
-Iron Man 2
-Thor
-Hulk

I can kinda switch Iron Man 2 and Thor either way, as I like Iron Man for Downey and such and stuff like the finale, but Thor can have good settings with the frost giants world and Asgard, but there's not enough with that.  Hulk is still fine, but for me the most I liked with it was the finale.

Off to Phase 2!

[ancestralspirit]

Mostly anime, i got done watching:

Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Gaiden (what a mouthful)


Personally thought it was a very lacklustre follow up to what was arguably one of the greatest anime made in recent years.
This sequal was all style and no substance.
Pretty character design, and nice backgrounds with a great ost.
No character development, characters seem to make decisions that make no sense for the story, and seriously terrible pacing.

A Centaurs Life


Initially thought that was going to be a cute anime, about anthro girls going to highschool together since that was how it was advertised.
It kinda was.....
Y'know apart from the fact that it's a society that puts people into detention centres because of 'discrimination laws'.
And then there was the episode where we get to see nazi centaur people commit atrocites during the second world war.
And right after that we get to see naked mermaid school......
It was a helluva ride but i was quite surprised just how well they handled it all.

And am currently through the 1st 10 episodes of My Hero Academia.


Gotta say, i'm surprised at how good it is so far! Great character development, memorable events and characters, fun scenes mixed in with well thought out character arcs. If you're like me and usually stay away from stuff that people rant and rave about, don't sleep on this one!

[bikingjahuty]

Literally just found out about this movie existing tonight and had to watch it. I read the memoir this movie is based off and it's one of the most insane, disgusting, and entertaining books I've ever read. For those of you who don't know The Dirt is a memoir of Motley Crew written by all four band members about their experience of being famous rock stars during the 80s and early 90s. They lived the lifestyle and then some, and then some more, and then even more. The movie is pretty much that book toned down so it wouldn't get an XXX rating, and condensed to tell a story that would be appropriate for a movie.


Regardless of being toned down it was a pretty good movie and a faithful adaptation of the book, as well as a good biopic flick of Motley Crew as a band. At first I wasn't totally sold on the actors chosen to portray the band members, but less than 30-minutes in I had accepted them all in their respective roles. And this movie was way more than just an raunchy adaptation of one of the most hard partying bands in history, but actually a story that really made you empathize with their struggles as individuals in coping with addiction, death, and the pressures of fame. If you have any interest in Motley Crew, the 80s hair metal scene, or have read the book and want to see a decent adaptation of it then I'd definitely recommend this film.

[kamikazekeeg]

I didn't realize how quickly all 3 Iron Man movies came out, within 5 years of each other.  Not that the movies stopped being about Iron Man after that, he's a big focus of course in movies like Ultron, Civil War, Spider-Man, and the last of the Avenger films, but man they showed up quick.

I do think that Iron Man 3 is a step up from Iron Man 2, though when looking at it, it's sorta the same movie.  Tony has a personal health issue that is causing him to behave poorly, all while there's a threat behind the scenes that involves someone from his past in one way or another.  What's better about this movie is that instead of him acting like a douche because he was looking death in the face with no way out, he's actively hunting down the main plot, almost abit like a spy flick.

I do sorta feel like the movie lacks "Iron Man", like in Iron Man 2.  Tony is at least proactive and interesting in this compared to the first movie, but outside of the cool house destruction scene, and the two part ending, we don't get much "Iron Man".  Though god damn I love "House Party" protocol lol I'm a sucker for armored suits and getting a whole bunch of badass armor designs is great and the fight is awesome.  It's sorta like the drone battle in a way, but with way more going on.  I know some people were annoyed by The Mandarin not being real, but a part of me actually likes it, though we could still maybe get him properly in the future.  While he is an Iron Man villain generally, they could easily have him be a villain for future Avengers stuff or Fantastic Four, coming out of the shadows to take back a name stolen from him or something.

It's a fun movie though and it was good way to start off Phase 2.  Up next is Thor 2, a movie I'm both interested in watching because I don't remember it a whole lot, but also dread it as what I do remember is kinda not liking it, so I'm hoping a new watch will turn me around on it lol

*EDIT*

I don't know what I had in my head for Thor: The Dark World, but I remember kinda not liking this movie.  It is better than the first Thor and I got more of the fantasy scifi world I wanted out of the first one, and I like that Thor and Loki have to team up, which is a great thing that shows up again in Thor Ragnarok.  Not that I love the movie, something about it doesn't draw me in as much as other Marvel movies do and I can't focus on exactly why. 

I'm not sure why I had such a negative view on it, I had honestly kinda was dreading a rewatch because I thought it was a complete bore, but there's some good action scenes throughout and the overall plot is interesting, but I feel like I sorta just don't enjoy a lot of the characters.  The regular humans are all sorta goofballs and Jane doesn't do a whole lot for most of the movie, Thor didn't get super likable for me till later in the movies, Hopkins as Odin is fine, the villain is kinda basic, so that mostly just leaves us with the short bits of Loki, who is always great, and I always liked Thor's gang who I think don't show up after this again? Maybe I'm wrong?

Anyways, I'm okay with the movie.  It's still maybe in the bottom half of the Marvel movies for me, but I think it's a good enough watch.  Onto Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a movie I know I love.

[Cartagia]

and I always liked Thor's gang who I think don't show up after this again? Maybe I'm wrong?

They are definitely in the movie, in the beginning action sequence and at least Fandral helps Thor and Loki escape towards the end.  Jane and Sif even have a few moments together.

Onto Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a movie I know I love.

Easily the best movie in the MCU as far as I am concerned.


Finally watched Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.  A really interesting and ambitious concept where the amount of ambition kind of made them forget to come up with an engaging plot.

[kamikazekeeg]

They are definitely in the movie, in the beginning action sequence and at least Fandral helps Thor and Loki escape towards the end.  Jane and Sif even have a few moments together.

Oh I meant AFTER Dark World, I just felt like I don't remember them showing up again after that movie, but maybe I'm wrong.