Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

Though my life story wasn't like my uncle killed my dad and he told me to runaway and never come back.

Fortunately, right?!   haha

  I love Disney as well. It certainly marked my childhood. The Lion King is my favorite Disney movie: the story is epic and intelligent, the characters are great, it has exciting moments, sad ones, funny ones... and let's not forget the music! It's beautiful. 

  Still talking about animated movies, my favorite PIXAR movie is Finding Nemo: I love Nemo and Dory, the whole adventure is exciting and the relationship between Nemo and his dad is beautiful. I also like to learn about animal life, so this movie is really fun. DreamWorks' How To Train Your Dragon is simply fantastic in my opinion, when I was a kid I related myself to Hiccup and I loved the worldbuilding and the action scenes. I had the opportunity to watch The Prince of Egypt a few years ago and it became one of my favorite movies ever. It was a brilliant adaptation of the Bible/Torah, with great music as well. I miss DreamWorks' 2D movies.

  Regarding live-action movies, my favorite ones are Jurassic Park (I loved dinosaurs as a kid, so it was perfect for me) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien was a genius, it's so good to know the friendship he had with Lewis. But there are many other films I enjoy (from classic old movies to superhero ones).

@calormenwarrior Those are good ones, too. I've watched The Prince of Egypt as a child. While not Biblical accurate, it has stunning visuals and music. I think "Playing With The Big Boys" is too impossible to get out of your head. While I don't think Val Kilmer quite holds a candle to Charleston Heston, I think he portrayed Moses really well.

I am also a fan of Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy. I actually have a lot of respect for both Lewis and Tolkien, the founding fathers of Modern Fantasy.

I forgot to mention that another favorite movie of mine is Independence Day. Now I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi, but I do have a spot for them, notably with movies like E.T and Jurassic Park (both movies make me have a lot of respect of Steven Spielberg).

I don't what it is I love about Independence Day... is it because I am a patriotic person or is it that I love Jeff Goldblum so much? He's got a dry sense of human. But I am passionate about the United States, so there is that too. It's an interesting take to have the United States to be invaded by space aliens.

Now that the trailer for Jurassic World Dominion is out now, if you saw it on Super Bowl Sunday, it would be good time to share our thoughts. It's really hard to wrap my head around that the conclusion to the saga is happening.

I'll admit that from what I've seen in the trailers, it's exciting to see some of the old characters back. However, there could be a concern that it will end up like Jurassic Park III. When it first came out, it didn't work out the way it was supposed to, and the whole franchise died afterwards. I'm sure fans were going like, "Well, that's that. Not going to see anymore Jurassic Park movies until they reboot it." I guess it didn't helped much that it came out in 2001, so it was pretty much in competition with Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Well, Jurassic World kind of was a reboot. They didn't necessarily want you to think of it as Jurassic Park 4, they wanted you to think of it as the first Jurassic World movie.

Maybe if I ever have my own YouTube channel, maybe I'll do a trailer analysis.

How are you feeling that the Jurassic World series is coming to an end? Will it be the end that fans are hoping for or will it end up like Jurassic Park III?  

I remember when I was on vacation back east in Massachusetts, I've watched The Patriot, which it's a take on the southern campaign during the American Revolution. I don't know how historically accurate it is, though given that Hollywood isn't always accurate. I actually do remember that the British commander was portrayed as cruel and murderous, though I don't think any of the British soldiers actually were. My thought was it was really deep.

I saw Strange World last night. It wasn't good. The dialogue in particular was atrocious. It was full of things like:

Person A: "I feel this way."

Person B: "Oh, yeah? Well, I feel this way."

or

Person: "I think that *insert the theme of the movie*"

The characters didn't talk like real people and there was no trace of subtlety in the dialogue. I had this problem from the very first scene.

I also got bored with the story quickly. It's a bit like VDT in that there isn't a villain, it's more about exploration etc. The problem is that, for that to work, it needed to be more about the atmosphere than the plot (e.g. like a Studio Ghibli movie), but Strange World maintained a typical Disney movie feel - just without a strong plot.

But anyway, the reason I wanted to bring this up is because of what I did like about this movie and what drew me to the theatre in the first place. The world design in this was really impressive. The animators were committed to making the world feel truly alien e.g. none of the creatures had faces, although there were things analogous to trees, grass etc., they were completely different organisms.

It gave me Malacandra vibes and I wondered if anyone on the design team had read Out of the Silent Planet.

I know we've talked a lot about our concerns for Narnia being made into movies. But here's another thought: do we want any of our favorite books to be made into movies? Well, yes and no.

I'm sure we've seen good movie adaptions as well as bad ones from books. With Christmas coming up, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens have been adapted to screen so many times. It's one of his well known stories.

Last night, streamed Sonic 2! I really wanted to see it when it was in the theaters but didn't get the chance. Either way, the film was a lot of fun. Crazy and silly but loved the theme about friendship and family, and not trying to do things in your own strength. Also, adored Tails and his insane inventions which were very handy (Tails is my favorite character in the Sonic universe). I really hope they make a third one because the clip after the main credits definitely suggests so!

@jasmine_tarkheena In case you're interested, I'm doing a scene-by-scene analysis of one particular adaptation of A Christmas Carol on my blog.  In fact, I've got a new post published today. Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite.

we get one of the movie’s most interesting improvisations. The floor beneath them becomes transparentand the upper story seems to rise off the building and fly across town, giving Scrooge a look at Christmas Day. (In a great little bit of continuity original to this adaptation, Scrooge briefly sees the boy (Ryan Ochoa) whom he will send to get a turkey for the Cratchits when he experiences this day again in real time.)

I’m not sure if this visual actually serves the story. Having the ghost be above the Christmas revelers rather than on the same level with them means we lose the idea that the presence of Christmas is what allows these people to be so joyful despite their bleak surroundings and circumstances. On the other hand, this scene is fun to watch, it gets points for creativity and unlike some other…creative aspects of this adaptation, it’s not totally stupid. At least there’s some clear symbolism as Scrooge is seeing things from a larger perspective than usual. It’s not just weird looking for weirdness’s sake.        

Here's a link. A Christmas Carol (2009) Stave III: Visual Creativity and Missed Opportunities | The Adaptation Station.com

I watched the 1956 movie of Forbidden Planet recently and enjoyed it very much.  I have to say that I often prefer old science fiction films over the more modern ones because the story behind the film is more appealing to me. There is a kind of charm in the dated special effects and the old space ships. Forbidden Planet is loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and is set on a distant planet like the island in that play. I think the movie is about as interesting as the play, in which there is a magician named Prospero instead of a scientist. The film is more charming and magical than most of today’s science fiction. 🙂

Forbidden Planet is a movie I enjoy watching too, @Narnian78. Walter Pidgeon was good as the scientist character. Trivia notes: Earl Holliman, who plays the cook character, is the main character in the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone ("Where is Everyone?"), and the spaceship from the movie makes a number of appearances in Twilight Zone (often shown upside down), as does Robby the Robot.

I know it can be hard to pick an all time favorite movie. If I had to choose, it would be The Karate Kid (the 1984 version, that is. I haven't see the fairly recent 2010 version). Daniel does start out as kind of a jerk, but he has so much development. Training in karate is like a part of discipline, and he learns how to overcome any obstacles.

I would have to do a lot of thinking to figure out a *favorite* film, so I'm saving that for later. But my most *recent* film seen was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I liked how it explored different ways of dealing with grief, and found Namor's people wonderfully eerie on first contact, and believably intimidating throughout.

I've watched two good movies recently, one right after Christmas at the cinema, and one I'd missed at the cinema and streamed from a cinema company) instead.

The first is The Lost King, and follows the search for the bones of an English king from way back. The search is led by a woman who is convinced they can find the body, in the centre of the city of Leicester. She's not exactly supported in this, but anyone keen on English history and Richard III in particular, will like it.

The second is set in 1944, where children are evacuated from a round of bombings the North of England, and have something of an adventure. It's conceived as a sequel to a children's classic, and is called The Railway Children Return. The actress who plays an older woman they stay with, also played her as a child 50 years ago in the original The Railway Children  (also played her mother in a remake in 2000!). Beautifully made, well presented and accents are well done (Americans may judge whether the American characters sound right).

@coracle Oh! I might be curious to watch The Lost King if I can get to it, I have a friend in Leicester...