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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Apr 11, 2016 21:29:55 GMT
Yesterday evening I watched a film on Netflix called Looper. I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it and thought I might well give up part way through (as with eg the unwatchable Thor: The Dark World), but to my surprise I thought it was pretty good. In the list of what I think of as 'concept' films, I would put it above Limitless and Inception but below Memento.
Have any of you seen it? If not, I recommend it if you like time travel films or action thrillers generally. If you know what I mean by a 'concept' film and you like those then I recommend it particularly strongly. There is one memorably gruesome scene, but it's not at all gory and there is remarkably little gore in the film overall.
One of the surprising things about my liking this film is that I don't generally like time travel as a plot device. If it's just the framing device for a story set in a different time then that is okay, but if the time travel is important to the events of the plot then I am usually reminded of how annoyed I was with the time travel in Harry Potter and become exasperated all over again.
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Matt
Stormwind Member
The Come And Go Man
Monsieur Mercredi
Posts: 1,812
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Post by Matt on Apr 12, 2016 14:36:18 GMT
Time travel is almost always done incredibly poorly. There is no way to fully explore it without creating some inconsistencies, but I don't think I've ever seen it done where there weren't obvious, glaring issues. Inevitably, there is a point in the story where time travel would fix all the character's problems, but the writers don't want it used so there is some excuse about the fabric of reality and paradoxes given, but then those warnings are completely ignored later on when not convenient. Lost did it relatively decent, but it was still inconsistent. I haven't seen Looper, but I'm interested now. All Marvel movies are becoming unwatchable. The only ones I actually enjoyed were Cap 2 and Avengers 1. I'll stick to their netflix stuff.
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Apr 12, 2016 21:04:18 GMT
There are (of course) plot issues in Looper, but fortunately it avoids the problem of having the characters fail to use time travel when it is available and obviously useful. I'm inclined to think the major time travel issues are capable of adequate explanation if you choose to think about it.
I watched the first Avengers film but I've forgotten everything about it. I did like the first Iron Man film. But I don't care about any of them enough to go to see them in the cinema.
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Post by Basse on Apr 13, 2016 10:51:31 GMT
I remember watching Looper a few years ago and liking it quite a lot. I don't really remember much of what it did right or wrong about time travel, though. I've enjoyed pretty much all of the new Marvel movies, except maybe Avengers 2 which was a mess. But then again I go into the cinema with the expectation to get some pretty mindless fantasy entertainment, and not much more, and I'm generally not disappointed. Occasionally the movies even exceed my expectations, as with Guardians of the Galaxy and the first Avengers movie! Lately I've been watching the TV show Fringe, which features some elements of time travel. I think they use it in a pretty nice way, even though it undoubtedly creates more than a few loop holes. I've come to really like the show, even though it is far, far from flawless in many ways. Has anyone else here seen it?
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Apr 16, 2016 14:32:28 GMT
Since you mentioned it, I've watched a couple of episodes. I've not been grabbed by it, and it seems to be essentially an updated version of The X Files.
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Post by Basse on Apr 16, 2016 18:05:33 GMT
Thematically, it kind of is, albeit with fewer UFOs. The main story and the main themes do evolve quite a lot after a while, though, and you only really glimpse them in the first episodes. It does take quite a while for it to take off, though, and that's definitely a major weakness of the show. Once you do get into it, though, I'd say it's quite rewarding! (I'm currently halfway through the final season.)
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