THE OVERRATED MOVIE THREAD

Shogun_Master said:

I didn't think Legend of the Guardians was all too bad for a kids movie- I've definitely seen worse, as well as better.

The main problem I see with it is- and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know when the books came out, but I want to say the 90s- that the Guardians of Ga'hoole series seems to be practically a blatant ripoff of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Only real differences I noticed are:

Tree instead of Abbey.
Owls specifically instead of large variety of anthropomorphic animals.

Everything else- even down to a lot of the witty humor- is VERY derivative of Redwall.

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Well the reasons why I think it is underated is because of the acting, effects, and story.
The reason why I think it is overated is that they didn't pay attention to the sourse materials, They only got the some of the characters and setting right but the rest they ignore.

As for your statement of the books being derivative of the Redwall series; well I did a little research; the first Redwall book came out in 1986, the first Guardian of Ga'Hoole book came out in 2003. So it would be logical Redwall may have inspired the elements in the Guardian's of Ga'Hoole books but if you read the books you may have noticed alot of difference. To name a few:
1. There are more birds and animals in it.
2. Owls can make things like tools to mechanisms in their rooms, but they can't build buildings.
3. The setting show signs that there was once humans (Called the Others) in the world but they all died out leaving stone structures and bones centuries before the first book.

Dark Knight.

While I'm not a huge fan of Nolan's take on Batman I had more or less enjoyed Begins. I greatly appreciated having a Batman movie where Batman was the star and something that was focused on how he gets from the kid who saw his parents killed in front of him to being Batman.

DK though was in a way everything I went in dreading that Begins was going to be. A swing to the other extreme to over-compensate for the Schumacher films. Granted the Schumacher movies are crap and I support getting away from that, but I don't buy the dogma that darker is always better, not even when it comes to Batman.

I didn't like the movies take on the Joker or Two-Face (he's supposed to be scarred not skinless.) Also the whole "Hero Gotham needs not the one it deserves." thing just didn't make any sense to me. Christian Bale's Batman voice was out of control. It's like he was completely stuck in "SWEAR TO ME!" mode for the entire thing.

I also really hate the suit. He looks more like Darth Vader and Snake Eyes had a baby than he does Batman.

Haven't seen Rises, don't really plan to.

MattComix said:

Dark Knight.

While I'm not a huge fan of Nolan's take on Batman I had more or less enjoyed Begins. I greatly appreciated having a Batman movie where Batman was the star and something that was focused on how he gets from the kid who saw his parents killed in front of him to being Batman.

DK though was in a way everything I went in dreading that Begins was going to be. A swing to the other extreme to over-compensate for the Schumacher films. Granted the Schumacher movies are crap and I support getting away from that, but I don't buy the dogma that darker is always better, not even when it comes to Batman.

I didn't like the movies take on the Joker or Two-Face (he's supposed to be scarred not skinless.) Also the whole "Hero Gotham needs not the one it deserves." thing just didn't make any sense to me. Christian Bale's Batman voice was out of control. It's like he was completely stuck in "SWEAR TO ME!" mode for the entire thing.

I also really hate the suit. He looks more like Darth Vader and Snake Eyes had a baby than he does Batman.

Haven't seen Rises, don't really plan to.

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Actually I agree with you on the take of Two-Face, I really don't know how he got scarred. His take on Joker is actually sort of a mixture of all the other Jokers in every adaption of batman. You hate the batsuit? You HATE Nolan's Batsuit? It match the dark and serious tone of The animated series. If you haven't seen Rises and have seen every adaption of Baine, then don't see it. That is the only problem I had with Rises. The plot the twist about the child of Ghul is cool, they finally got a Catwoman suit that doesn't make the character look like a stripper Keeps you interested but the first time you see and hear Baine talk and you saw every adaptation of Baine as I have.........I saw DKR in theaters, the fact that the rest of the plot is interesting is the only reason I stayed after I saw and heared Baine for the first time.

@ViewerRiderDWJ1521
Ok, overall the books probably have enough differences. A lot of series', especially ones that were inspired by others, start similarly & veer off in other directions. As far as the movie goes, though, it just reminded me heavily of Redwall on many different levels. I even caught, not just the same type of humor, but literally one or two jokes that WERE from Redwall word for word.

As for the Dark Knight, I've never read the comics, but I think they did a really good job on the Nolan films. Assuming their portrayals in the Arkham games are accurate, I'd say they were a little off, but worked within the context of the movies. Personailty-wise, they seem to have gotten Ra's Al-Ghul & Catwoman perfectly. Joker was obviously not perfect, but was kind of more believable in the film as he actually acted like a real psycho & Two-Face only really felt slightly played down.

The only two I'll really call bullshit on are Scarecrow, who is likeable, but I'm not entirely sure on, & Talia Al-Ghul (Not ruining anything the guy above me didn't) who really just felt wrong. Bane's voice is a little strange & catches you off guard, but it kinda fits in the long run.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. People hate on the Tim Burton version, but it's SOOO much better than that dire 70s adaptation.

Toku Prime said:

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. People hate on the Tim Burton version, but it's SOOO much better than that dire 70s adaptation.

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True that the Tim Burton version is closer to the book than the 70's adaptation but the other is memorable in fact here is a link to a video of someone comparing the two.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maHg2GGmNY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maHg2GGmNY[/ame]

ViewerRiderDWJ1521 said:

True that the Tim Burton version is closer to the book than the 70's adaptation but the other is memorable in fact here is a link to a video of someone comparing the two.[hide]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maHg2GGmNY[/hide]

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Aah good old NC. I was such a fan of all the Roald Dahl books as a kid. I remember randomly coming across the 70s film on TV one Saturday afternoon. Wonka shouting at Charlie? Utter BS. Ruined the film for me. Any book adaptation where the original writer disowns the film is deeply f***ed. They did want to make a sequel to the Wilder version, but Dahl told them where to go.

Toku Prime said:

Wonka shouting at Charlie? Utter BS.

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It made sense within the film's context, though. Wonka was mad at them for drinking the fizzy lifting drink therefore technically breaking the contest's rules and it was also a test for Charlie to see if he was really as selfish as the other kids.

While I haven't read the books, I do like the 70s film version more than the latter one. Gene Wilder's a lot of fun to watch in the movie and, it feels more down-to-earth(?) than Burton's whole "I'm Willy Wonka and I'm slightly loony 'cause my dad was a dentist and braces and yadayada!". (On a related note, my sister feels the opposite and likes Burton's more though, just because of that one apparently-creepy boat scene. :shrug

Disney's 1999 version of Annie. Supposedly, it's faithful to the original Broadway musical, but it doesn't have the heart and soul of the 1982 movie.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HewVSKrq22A"]Annie 1999 Full movie - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yop62wQH498"]"Annie" (1982) - Tomorrow - YouTube[/ame]

Personally I feel, and I know I will be attacked, that E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a way overrated movie. I just never got what was so great about it.