I finally watched Underworld

[Dimwhit]

I finally saw Underworld this last weekend. I'd never heard of it before (it was a comic book or something, right?). Anyway, I thought it was a great movie. Very entertaining. I'm actually hoping for a sequel.

And come on, if nothing else, Kate Beckinsale is hot and totally worth watching.

 

[Atridis]

Don't you think you're being a LITTLE picky when you're complaining about the name "Kraven" when one of Spidey's most deadly foes has been thought of as cool for decades with the same name?

Actually, I thought he was a dork. I mean, really, his name means "cowardly."

"You know, any movie with a character with the name of "Cyclops" is just stupid.

I agree. Well, unless the character has, or appears to have, a single eye.

And what kind of name is "Logan" anyway?

English, I think, but I'm not an expert.

They don't refer to me as Pizza Eater, just because I eat pizza, do they?

They might, if eating pizza caused them to burst into flames.

Any hero named after a kid's toy makes the whole movie ruined for me.

lol. I swear that never even occured to me until you mentioned it.

Guys - it's fantasy movies here, not high art.

So a movie that doesn't insult my intelligence is "high art"? Okay, so from now on, movies such as "Return of the King", "Ladyhawke" and "The Princess Bride" are no longer fantasy movies. They are "high art."

Act like a fan for a second and stop making yourselves look petty by bringing up Very Small Criticisms.

It is, as you say, a Very Small Criticism, but it's also a Very Dumb Thing to Screw Up. If characters whose names don't make me laugh is an unrealistic expectation, I should stop going to the movies.

 

[reapersaurus]

So a movie that doesn't insult my intelligence is "high art"? Okay, so from now on, movies such as "Return of the King", "Ladyhawke" and "The Princess Bride" are no longer fantasy movies. They are "high art."

[sarcastic] Dude - in LotR they included lame modern-day comic relief like "dwarf-tossing" and "axe embedded in his nervous system". That totally ruined it for me.
Throw in the fact that Lego-Man SURFS on his friggin' board and can do impossible horse-mounting gymnastics with his freakish-elven super-arm and the movie TOTALLY threw me out of the experience, man.

Oh, and the CGI sucked, too. That squid-thing in the water at Moria in FotR was terrible and i never believed there were big elephants stomping people...
Plus I could even SEE in RotK when they showed the stand-ins for the actors that made them look smaller. How lame - stupid movie.

And Ladyhawke?!
Man, that brain-rattling 80's synth soundtrack destroys that movie completely. Renders it unwatchable. I'm surprised you don't need Nurse Ratched to perform a brain operation to remove your memories of it, man.

And Princess BRIDE?!?
Dude, ANY movie that has a main character called Princess BUTTERCUP should be forgotten ASAP. It made me have a jeering laugh every single time I heard it.
And come on - ROUS's? How STUPID. I could totally tell they were just guys in suits walking on all 4's.
And that dumb effect where they set the Giant on fire - that wasn't nearly impressive or frightening enough to make 60 trained guards leave their posts!
And why didn't Wesley use his "dizzying intellect" all thru the film? Like not go into pirate-patrolled waters in the first place?
Oh, and the Giant's 'rhymes' sucked, too.
[/sarcasm]

-----------------
I could go on, but I hope I've made my point.
All fantasy fans have had to overlook certain aspects of movies (and books, etc) to enjoy them - it's part and parcel of the whole "larger than life" genre that we like to see.
I really am disheartened when people grow up and forget to give fantasy material the slightest break, or worse - use every possible non-perfect thing as a sledgehammer by which to ignore the many things that are done right in a work, just to sound 'hip', disapproving and bitingly sarcastically edgy funny.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Don't even start on an anti-ROUS rant!

My party has battled many an evil ROUS in the last year, not to mention the epic figts against some IOUS, FOUS, and other COUS!

 

[Atridis]

All fantasy fans have had to overlook certain aspects of movies (and books, etc) to enjoy them

Sure. Of course. I can't think of a perfect movie (Bladerunner, maybe).

I interpret your [sarcasm] tags to mean that you didn't actually think those things ruined those movies, whereas I think all of the things that went wrong with Underworld do make it a Bad Movie. If a character named Kraven was it's only flaw, or even one of a few, it'd be one of the best movies ever made. But that was only one of the many complaints leveled at the movie.

Also, I didn't think that Kraven was intended to be humorous, and I remember the Underworld audience laughing at moments that were clearly meant to be dramatic. On the other hand, I always thought that "Princess Buttercup" was intentionally tongue-in-cheek, because that movie has a sharp wit about it, generally. The chief werewolf - Lucian? - seemed intentionally over-the-top, for instance, and he was one of the few things that I liked about UW.

I didn't set a high bar for the movie; it did that itself, then dove head-long under it and expected its audience to be impressed.

I really am disheartened when people grow up and forget to give fantasy material the slightest break, or worse - use every possible non-perfect thing as a sledgehammer by which to ignore the many things that are done right in a work, just to sound 'hip', disapproving and bitingly sarcastically edgy funny.

There's no question that some people only voice an opinion when it's a negative one. However, most of us naturally tend to present only the evidence that supports our opinion. In my original comments about UW, I don't know that I bothered to mention that Kate Beckinsale did an excellent job bringing some subtlety to her character (it's amazing what a skilled actor can do and, to me, even more amazing to realize that they're doing it on purpose).

I don't think that someone who trashes UW simply "didn't give it a break." On the contrary, I thought the movie was sloppy, and in the back of my mind I have a resentful suspicion that people who make movies like this think it's "just an action movie" and that its audience has no standards. Anyone on this board can, off the top of their head, name a dozen intelligent, imaginative, well-crafted action movies. And I don't expect Underworld would be on too many of those lists.

 

[barsoomcore]

I could go on, but I hope I've made my point.

Please, I beg you to stop. If your point was to demonstrate your ability to misrepresent people's opinions, then you've done very well. Have a lollipop.