LJG765

Ok, here are the prizes for the challenge this month! Once again, thanks so much to GoldenWheels and HamiltonBooks for their generosity! GoldenWheels donated all the MST3K prizes in addition to the normal selection.

Just a reminder, you do have to live in the US to be eligible for prizes.

Prizes: Prize pack one:
1. Wrath of the Sword
2. The Lost World: Double Feature
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 1

Two:
1. Sci-Fi Movie Freak
2. Science Fiction: The Fantastic Chronicle of Movie Posters
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume II

Three:
1. Species II BLU
2. Species III/Species The Awakening BLU

Four:
1. Gamera Trilogy
2. Gamera: Legacy Collection
3. Gamera: War of the Monsters Collection
4. MST3K Vs Gamera: Mystery Science Theater, Vol. XXI

Five:
1. Brain That Wouldn't Die BLU
2. 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo

shadokitty

Great looking prizes. Goldenwheels really outdid himself.

I misplaced my Rodan DVD, but luckily, both Con TV, and Hulu had it, so I was able to continue my Toho collection.

TheBigDave

Last night was a Family/Adventure double feature with The Rock.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

I wasn't crazy about Witch Mountain. It just seemed like generic Disney fluff, slightly better than a made-for-TV movie.

Mysterious Island was enjoyable, mindless fun. The island setting was always amazing to look at. Although the highlight was Vanessa Hudgens running around in a tiny tanktop and short shorts.

Trevor

Total dreck. An abomination of a film. Unless you go into it thinking that it's not a Superman film, but a sort of evil alternate universe take on him. Then it's fine. But it's not Superman.

MysterioMan007

It is average. Having seen almost every Superman adaption, I'm not sure how to rank this. I think Cavill was fine in the role, but the movie itself had some issues and Superman just didn't seem like Superman, especially at the end.

I'm no comic fanboy, but even I have no trouble believing that Zack Snyder is all style, no substance. He's got a good grasp on how to make a movie look pretty, but that's about it, IMO.

ntnon

The best thing I can say about Man of Steel is that it makes Superman Returns' appalling stalker/son/crazy-absence/rehash-sequel plot actually look halfway tolerable by comparison...

ntnon

I may decide to mostly eschew Sci-Fi/Fantasy this month in favour of trying to watch thirty-odd Olivia de Havilland films on TCM. Hopefully time will allow interspersed sf/f..

BobO'Link

I agree with all these assessments, but, IMHO, Trevor is most correct. I *am* somewhat a "comic fanboy" and have loved the Superman character my whole life. The newer films are *not* about the "real" Superman much like the stories in DC's "New 52" are also *not* the "real" Superman. They are both re-imaginings of the character to "modernize" him for today's fickle audience who only want a action film, not something that tells a "good" story.

For the record, I feel pretty much the same way about the Nolan Batman trilogy.

Gobear

You're all correct. Zach Snyder badly misread the character and most important, Superman. Does. Not. Kill. He is the defender of truth, justice, and the American way. He apprehends miscreants, he does not snap their necks.

pacaway

Oh man! I know what you mean! Saw it at the theater when it came out and you absolutely have to go into this movie blind! It made it so much better.

pacaway

I just bought and watched the Italian (although with English dialog) film Tale of Tales on iTunes. I thought it was a great dark fantasy for adults. Really stunning looking and with characters easy to fall in love with. I don't understand why it has only a 6.4 rating on IMDB and a 59% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But it at least has a 82% rating from critics.

Cardsfan111

10 Cloverfield Lane is on my "to watch" list. I missed it in the theater and aside from knowing it's received positive reviews, I don't know much about it. In fact, I had no idea if it was important to see Cloverfield first (they are somewhat connected, right?), and since I hadn't seen that one in a long time, I watched it last night to prepare for it.

pacaway

No, it is completely UNNECESSARY to see Cloverfield at all before seeing 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Cardsfan111

Thanks!

mrcellophane

Thursday, when I arrived at my friends' house, one was interested in watching a movie, and we decided on Tomorrowland which I hadn't seen. I explained some of my misgivings about the film (culled from reviews), and she assured me that I would like it. She was right. It's such a delightful film! There were several thrilling set pieces, and the aesthetic of Tomorrowland was fantastic. I had heard that the film evoked Ayn Rand, but beyond the "chosen one" narrative beats, it really is a film about mutual cooperation and that human "can-do" spirit. Also, George Clooney just keeps getting more and more handsome.

Yesterday, another friend watched Ant-Man which me, and it was also delightful. I don't know why I didn't see it in the theater, but I missed it and wanted to watch before hitting up the one theater in my area still playing Captain America: Civil War next week. I really liked the costume designs of the Yellowjacket's suit. It was awesome!

Ash Ketchum

I bought 2 DVD box sets with 4 sci-fi classics apiece a couple of weeks ago and I broke out both of them, the sublime and the ridiculous, to start off this challenge.

The sublime was FORBIDDEN PLANET, which I've seen multiple times but not in many years, and the ridiculous was THE ANGRY RED PLANET, which I may not have ever seen in color, but the Martian scenes of which looked absolutely awful on the DVD and that seems to have been the way the film was shot (in "Cinemagic"), although I don't remember the film looking this bad on b&w TV when I saw it decades ago.

Scenes on Mars:




Scene on spaceship:


Scene on Mars as I remember it looking on b&w TV, which would have been an improvement:

mrcellophane

I watched The Angry Red Planet a couple years ago, and the intense color gave me a headache. I don't remember much about the film except the red burrowing into my brain.

Dimension X

I liked it alright. Not a great movie, but nowhere near as bad as people like to make out it is. It especially holds up if you watch it immediately after watching Superman II (Lester version, not the far superior Donner version), III, IV, and Returns. Well, maybe not III, which surprisingly holds up better than the other three.

Plus, it's the first time that Krypton was shown to be anything like the Silver Age Krypton I read about as a kid (you know, a scientifically advanced world populated by lots of people and weird animals, and not an icy, barren world, with super-science based on crystals, or something). I've always hated that stupid, ice-world Krypton, even when I first saw the movie in a theater in 1978. I also don't care for having Jor-El wear a superman insignia (which, unfortunately, persists to today). When I was a kid, the name Kal-El was supposed to mean "star child," thus the star (sunburst) on Jor-El's suit made perfect sense (to me, at least) as the El family "coat-of-arms." But no, let's give Superman a stupid reason for wearing an "S" on his chest. Now, it means "hope"? Please. EDIT: Shows how much I know. The "S" symbol meaning "hope" appears in Superman: Birthright (2003). So it's at least decade old comic canon. I'm pretty sure I've read Birthright, but I definitely didn't remember that.

Even some of the crappier stuff in Man of Steel, like the tornado, holds up against the earlier films. Recall the crappy way Pa Kent died in Superman -

It surprised me, after watching that one again, that he only spends a couple of minutes "stalking" Lois, and although I agree with you about the stupid "leaving earth to visit Krypton" crap, it's not unprecedented, because in Superman,

Don't get me started on how, at the beginning of Superman II (crappy Lester version),

None of the film versions of Superman (or Batman) have been exactly like the comics (As Trevor said, they're all alternate universe versions of the characters, and are best if viewed as such). The comics from one time period aren't exactly like the comics from another. Pick the ones you like and stick with them.

I gave up on the "New 52" because those aren't a version of the characters I like (most post-Crisis characters were just barely the characters I liked). When I want a Superman fix, I have lots of old stuff I can re-read, and I've still only scratched the surface of the Superman radio show.

You must've really hated the ending of

In Superman Returns,


Meh, whatever, I guess I'm not a real Superman fan since I didn't hate Man of Steel, so what the fuck do I know?

shadokitty

In continuing working through my Toho movies, I just finished the Japanese version of Battle In Outer Space. I hadn't seen it in years, and had forgotten how good the movie was. I got to thinking towards the end of the movie that it seemed like Independence Day took a lot of inspiration from this movie.

BobO'Link

When I saw the first trailers for 10 Cloverfield Land I thought "Well, there's one I can avoid." as I didn't care for Cloverfield. Then I find out they're not related at all. That totally changed my desire to give it a chance.

BobO'Link

Nah... I'd just say you like a different version than us "old guys." It's very likely you'd not like my choice as the best Superman on film. And it's *not* Christopher Reeve.

I grew up with the Silver Age Superman in comics, which was actually a bit goofy at times and was the era which introduced most of the different colors of Kryptonite. That Superman is the one I always think of when I hear someone describe him as "The Big Blue Boy Scout." It's a totally different Superman than in today's comics and films and *that's* why I don't much care for the newer interpretations.

lisadoris

Can I get a ruling? Was there a discussion some years back about animated films with talking animals counting as fantasy? I'm thinking of Zootopia or Finding Dory which won't have fantasy listed as a genre but talking rabbits and fish feel like they could be fantasy.

Dimension X

I am one of the "old guys" (I'm pretty sure I fall somewhere between you and Trevor, agewise). Maybe you missed where I said I saw Superman in a theater back in '78.

You're right, George Reeves isn't my choice for best Superman. He's my favorite Clark Kent, but his Superman is at best pretty bland. In most episodes, Superman only shows up for a few minutes (including the credits), kind of like he's an afterthought. Clark has done all the actual work, but we have to have Superman in there somewhere.

No one would ever suspect his Clark Kent of being Superman because Clark is too fucking cool to put on a union suit and fly around, that's for nerds. It's a different interpretation of Clark Kent. It works for me, but I'm sure there are those that don't care for the show.

Those are the ones I grew up reading also (well, I probably only read stories from way back in your time reprinted in 100 Page Super Spectaculars). That's the reason I said I always disliked the interpretation of Krypton in the Reeve movies. How could that desolate world have a Scarlet Jungle, or monkeys, or dogs, or thought-beasts?

Actually, maybe reading 100 Page Super Spectaculars is part of the "problem." I was exposed to different versions of Superman (and Batman and other DC characters) at an early age thanks to all those reprints, so I'm used to different versions of comic book characters and can find something to like about most of those versions.

LJG765

I'd say Zootopia would count as it's obviously a different universe, they have clothes, cars, a whole society. Definitely a fantasy world. Finding Dory I'm on the fence about. It is fantasy in that animals don't talk, but the world about them is a natural one-no clothes or the animals using items that they wouldn't in nature.

I don't remember that ruling, but I've only been hosting for a couple years now. If someone can link to the original one, I'll definitely honor it. Or if anyone has a good argument for or against including Finding Dory, please say it!

Don't forget you do get 3 wildcards to use for whatever you want to if you think they should count.

Gobear

Totally agree with Tomorrowland, it's an excellent movie. I disagree with critics that are trying to shove Ayn Rand into it--they simply forgot what it is was like to be a bright 12-year-old who's impatient with societal pressure to conform to a system that rewards the dull.

I see your George Clooney and raise you with Hugh Jackman barely contained within khaki shorts and a Polo shirt that looks sprayed on. His physique was the only good part of Chappie, which i watched for the first time and hated. It's Short Circuit with violence and prison tats.