@dani78: The 3D wasn't really noteworthy. He doesn't do a whole lot of anything exceptional with it this go around that we haven't seen since the original. The look of the film isn't going to change much between regular viewing and 3D.
@ganondorf77: Some people are willing to accept the most basic, shallow development in favor of the things they love about the film. I'm the same with a number of films.
The problem here is 1. This is being hailed as the biggest movie of the century and it isn't and 2. It spends 3 hours developing a non-story and dull characters for a handful of action scenes and a whole lot of Discover channel level world building that ultimately either doesn't matter all that much or simply not that interesting.
I disagree about the effects of the film, which are probably some of the best I've ever seen (yes, it's true, this film looks as good as everyone says), but everything else is pretty middling. The last 45 min to an hour are engaging and exciting, but the entire second act drags, as Cameron tries to woo us with shot after shot of aquatic life and Navi wonderment. Character development and story are severely lacking, there's little emotional weight, the story feels recycled, the family drama and emotion is completely wasted. Everything but the effects and action is underwhelming. That said, people already love it and audiences likely will once they see it Friday, especially those who loved the first one, because this film is very, very, very much the same.
Not good enough for a purchase, but I'll give it a rental. At the very least, I am glad this is not bad. Whether or not I will actually enjoy it remains to be seen. I haven't really been excited about a new Sonic game in a long, long time it feels like, but this at least seems to bring back a level of enjoyment that appears to have been missing. Between this and Star Ocean returning, while they aren't up to the best quality their franchises have had to offer, it's nice to see them back in a form at least worth playing.
@horrorgal: And Carpenter also intended for Halloween as a whole to be an anthology series in which Michael wasn't a lead character. They tried with Season of the Witch and look how that turned out. If the filmmaker wants something, they're certainly fine to do whatever if the studio supports them. Rob Zombie got the support for his travesty of a sequel. But none of it will matter if fans don't go see/don't like the final product. So, it really doesn't matter what their intentions are. If people don't like it, they don't like it. If they want Michael, then that is what they will ask for. It's why the anthology idea was scrapped and why he was brought back for IV. Because that's what fans wanted.
It was pretty bad. I liked the ideas in it, but why do it now when this is supposedly the end? What a terrible way to end this trilogy. The romance subplot was possibly the worst part. At no point did I buy into it and all I kept thinking was how dumb it was. I also found Laurie's overdramatic 180 from the beginning of the film to the end to be poorly written. I think I'm one of the few who actually liked Kills and I appreciate they tried to make the franchise mean more between that film and this one, but you just can't sideline Michael like that. We've seen other franchises sideline their characters in favor of being experimental with the story or trying to do more and it rarely ever works.
@horrorgal: Or people just don't like the direction this trilogy went and really don't care about whatever "original vision" there was for this franchise.
Turok should have been here. I remember that being a standout shooter right behind Goldeneye. The sequels weren't quite as good as that original game, but that was a great console shooter in the day.
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