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02.20.2012 1:43am

Thread Creator

Dr Squirrel
medicine woman

[size=150]Spoiler level: High[/size]

I'm a HUGE sucker for troubled people with powers. You tell me to make a story, anything at all that I want and this is what I'll make. So this was a mixed blessing for me. It did the concept beautifully but the execution was weak.

The dialogue was poor. Andrew was a great character, but Matt and Steve were more outlines than anything. Matt's philosophical lines were so forced and unnatural that they were just laughable, and it felt like they were only there to make the "hey what about hubris" line feel less forced. And it failed at it.

The big speeches of the movie; when Steve's up in the air with Andrew, Andrew's cemetery confession to Steve, Andrew's dad's hospital bed confession, all felt so out of place when they didn't have to be. Maybe it's just the writer in me, but this is a perfect example where quality writing can turn something mediocre to good or something good to great.

I love when a film recognizes that something's not worth exploring and leaves something ambiguous. We don't need to know the exact method in which they got their powers, and the film treats is perfectly. Something mysterious underground, something mysterious looking, suddenly glowing, suddenly powers. That's all we need. The characters wouldn't really care how it happened and so it would be out of place to focus on it.

But whatever happened (seriously, what happened?) to Steve should not have been as ambigious as it was. Did he get hit by lightening? I seriously don't know. If that's what happened, it was a crappy execution. Same for the gas station explosion. The gun went off? I really don't know. It would have been better if it happened through Andrew's camera in stead of the jarring silent cutaway to the gas station's security cam.

In fact, all the silent, black and white security cam shots were awful. When Andrew and Matt crash through the bank was actually humorous given how unnatural the shift to the security cam was.

And the general flying CGI sucked. The clouds sucked. It would have been weird for them to be flying around one arm pointed ahead like Superman, and their football game was FANTASTIC, but when the film wants you to focus on the clouds it really takes you out of it.

This is a film that has great MOMENTS, but doesn't really work as well as it should have as a complete product. The scene where Andrew kills the spider is great, as is the first time he really fights back against his father. I loved Matt's confession to the blogger girl while still typing on his cell phone. The talent show was great.

This is a story that should have had more time to be told. It would have worked better as a television show, honestly. THIS is what Heroes should have been.

trust me, i'm a doctor

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02.20.2012 2:50am

Id82
Fuck Shit Stack.

I enjoyed the movie, and enjoyed the whole aspect of what a kid from a broken home and abusive school life would do if he came across some super powers. But yeah you could tell they didn't have that big of a budget for this experimental movie, and it seemed like they spent most of their money for the last scenes, but I had a lot of fun watching it.

Oh yeah expect them to delve deeper into what gave them the powers in a sequel/prequel or whatever they'll come out with to ruin it.

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02.20.2012 2:55am

judge_raz
Ceci n'est pas une lobster

I was absolutely shocked with how much I enjoyed this movie. I haven't watched an edge-of-your-seat action movie in ages, and this certainly had me there throughout most of its runtime. Simply fantastic movie with great characters, dialogue and superb direction.

If this is how they're starting out the year, then 2012 is going to be pretty great in terms of movies.

"Of Christ's twelve Apostles Judas alone proved to be traitor. But if he had acquired power, he would have represented the other eleven Apostles as traitors, and also all the lesser Apostles whom Luke numbers as seventy." - Leon Trotsky

I have a blog. This is its URL. You should read it. It's about education and skepticism and books and it has a lot of pictures of Batman and Robin in it: https://baldermoon.wordpress.com/

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02.20.2012 4:10am

scnix
scnix.com

I went in knowing that this movie was "just another superhero movie." I was wrong and it turned out to be really good. I wasn't expecting the Blair Witch-like cameras, but after watching it, I felt that the movie would suck without it.

I would highly recommend everyone to watch this.

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02.20.2012 5:23am

Nelfichu
I've been there, hombre.

That last 30 minutes was insane. Yeah, this movie had its flaws (Squirrel makes good points, plus I thought it was awfully convenient that there was a video blogging chick on top of the main character's filming), but I honestly think this is the best superhero movie I've seen in a few years if only because it wasn't the generic by-the-numbers superhero film like the majority of the others from the last 10 years.

Go see it if you haven't yet.

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02.20.2012 6:06am

Thread Creator

Dr Squirrel
medicine woman

Oh man, I forgot to mention just forced her character felt. As much as I loved the "yeah I've always loved-hold on I'm getting a text" scene with Matt, it was basically ruined by how PERFECTLY CONVIENT it was that she had just happened to place the camera so you could get a full body shot of her in the mirror.

I don't think anyone ever actually films themselves for a blog 24/7 like she did. And if that's such a normal thing, how come everyone freaks out with Andrew doing the same thing and no one bats an eye when she does it? Why is it essentially a plot point that Andrew's making everyone uncomfortable with the camera but she gets a free pass?

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02.20.2012 2:58pm

Crusader
Not Even My Dad Hit Me

I need to watch this if only for the reason that it was written by a University of Miami alum.

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02.23.2012 5:22pm

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

Loved this movie. Would see it again. It's paint by numbers, but MAN do they know how to use that paint.

Woe unto he who tries to be helpful, for upon him shall be lain the burdens of all.

- Squall 15:11

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03.12.2012 11:07pm

Dh
Not in the face!
The Alpha and the Omega

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The special effects were shitty in some areas, great in others, but the story and characters were great.

I made this for you!

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