Men In Black 2: Nature's Quitter
 

Let me start off by saying that this post is strictly opinion based and I do not plan on arguing my points. I encourage everyone to go see MIB 2 and post their own comments. Now, on to my whining.

I saw Men in Black 2 this weekend and I am so very disappointed. I thought the movie was very much a carbon copy of the original, only lacking in cool aliens, nifty gadgets, funny comments or a thick plot. The only portion I did enjoy was the lovely Lara Flynn Boyle as the loosely-dressed enemy. But even that enjoyment was the equivalent of reading a Maxim magazine, which would have been overall more enjoyable.

The points I did enjoy were small ones. For starters, it was refreshing to see a sequel without the unnecessary sub-title (i.e. "Attack of the Clones", "Rise of the Machines", etc.). And I always enjoy well "drawn" CGI/Computer effects, which this has. But overall, this was a watered-down, boring movie. I will not purchase the DVD.

The plot to MiB is like a D&D game -- there's always some "object" they have to get. If they don't get it, the world ends. What the object is doesn't even matter or make sense.

It's fun in a D&D game, but in a movie it's just not interesting.

Agreed. And the only reason it's fun in a game is because you're playing it, not just watching.

Seen any good movies lately.

Although they aren't new, I also watched "Shadow of the Vampire", "Snatch" and "Swimming with Sharks". All of these movies were very good and very interesting. I recommend them all, plus any of the Lampoon's Vacation movies. I like those too.

snatch rules. thats one of the most quotable movies ive ever seen. i finally saw lock stock and two smoking barrels the other day. guy ritchie is a genius. he can just continue recycling this basic concept of london crime caper, and i promise ill keep buying the dvds. it seems to me he doesnt so much care what the story is, he cares more about how the story is told, and thats admirable.

i picked up memento the other day, but havent gotten around to watching it. actually, i watched dogma again last night. i kind of think the new jersey trilogy should have ended there. j&sb strike back was funny, but it just wasnt as clever as the first 4. (well, it might be as clever as mallrats)

~james

I saw MIB2 (or MIIB, to acronym it properly) this week.

Pluses: A few throwaway gags (the water globe, the society in the locker, the eBay cameo, the apartment arsenal). Decent interplay between Smith and Jones, though it helps dramatically to have seen the first film. (In point of fact, half the movie will zoom over the head of anyone who missed the first film.) The Worms were funny in small doses.

Minuses: Too much of the f'ing dog. Lara Flynn Boyle "as herself" chewing up scenery. It took me a solid ten seconds to recognize Michael Jackson. A very uneven plot with holes that the giant worm could navigate through. Patrick Warburton (the TICK!) has far too brief a role.

I've seen far worse, but $8.25 plus popcorn is a bit much. Go for a matinee, if at all, and if you're in the theater in afternoon hours go see the Powerpuff Girls movie first.

It had been a little while since I saw a flick, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a <I>The Two Towers</I> preview attached to MIB2.. and not just the first crappy "teaser trailer" they usually put out, but a full-length one!

Except I have to give a big <B>WTF</B> to the HUGE spoiler in it... anyone else notice that?

yes. my wife has been pestering me for months about it. shes still on book one, but she had her theory. she saw the trailer and suddenly her eyes light up and she gets this cat-that-ate-the-canary grin and just looks at me. too bad, i was having a lot of fun tormenting her.

~james

Hmmm... we didn't get that one. My showing got Blue Crush (eccch), XXX (no no no), Star Trek: Nemesis (let it DIE), I Spy (somewhere, Cosby is SCREAMING), and Signs (a maybe).

ill definitely go see signs. shyamalans (did i spell that right?) previous films have both made me think deeply about whether or not i liked them. as far as im concerned, thats a sign of a good movie. if i come out of it thinking 'wow, the story was fantastic... i think' and spend the next two days thinking about it, i almost invariably come to the conclusion that even if it wasnt a really good movie, at least i got my moneys worth. and sixth sense creeped me out. unbreakable was just a neat concept. the twist at the end had me thinking how obvious it all was and how i should have known all along.

~james

I dunno.. I think it's cool Patrick Stewart is still playing that role. I've never been much of a Trekkie, but it's definitely gone downhill since TNG.

Sure, most everyone already knows, and they couldn't have really kept it a secret, but at least pretend to act like it's supposed to be a surprise!

You actually didn't miss much, vsp.. the rest of it was pretty generic.. people fighting orcs, Gollum crawling about, etc. It was just cool to think "oh yeah, it's only a few months away".

Since I skipped the first movie, I didn't lose sleep over missing the trailer for the second.

I have these things called "books," and I'm happy with them, because I know what generally happens when books make the transition to the silver screen...

"Generally", yes, but not in the case of <I>Fellowship</I> and I'm betting not for the others in the series. You're really missing out.

I am always puzzled by how upset people get that books get changed when they're made into a movie. If you took any good book, and directly translated it into a movie, it would suck.

Books are able to convey things such as first-person thoughts and emotions that are simply impossible in movies. So of course they can't just copy a book verbatim and have it make sense as a movie. The two vehicles, by their very nature, must use very different means of building a story and characters.

So it's a shame when people read a good book, then it gets made into a movie and they go the movie expecting it to be just like the book. One should go to a good movie to see a good movie, not have a book read to them.

So yes, there are differneces between the <I>Fellowship</I> book and movie, but it's still a great movie. The same themes that make the book a good read are there. It would be one thing if you disliked movies in general, but since that's obviously not the case, I can't figure out why you would avoid a particular movie simply because it is based off a book.

It sucks that ritchie is moving on to other mainstream work and will not be exploring the genre that he started with "lock, stock", and "snatch"....I hear hes making some madonna project....
the singer, not the holy mother.

The only thing that I didn't like that was changed was the whole romance thing between the elf and Aragorn. it seems superfluous and doesn't make any sense in relation to later events.