Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

Thing, Fly and Ben-Hur are great examples. There's also some movies I love but would still like to see a remake of, because the limitations of the time really hurt them. Stuff like Conan for example.

Also sometimes even if a remake is inferior it can still bring something to the table. I quite liked the Robocop remake's drone message and more emotional core, bouncing off a new era of political issues, despite it not being overall as well made as the 80's masterpiece.

Here, this will blow your mind. And I encourage any fan of Airplane to watch this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-v2BHNBVCs

That was awesome. Thanks for posting.

We already tried that, remember? Didn't work so good. Even the visuals were worse this time.

I could have written that. I was kinda anxious to see the Avengers movies and such that they are now airing here on TV )probably so that people would go to cinemas to watch Avengers Infinity War or whatever), but I am totally bored to death when watching them.

Robocop (1987)... now THAT is what a superhero movie should be like! Genuine drama, thought-provoking, dark humor, good action etc. Having slo-mo action scenes where the whole Avengers group jumps towards an alien army from outer space is not my idea of good action.

For Star Wars, I kinda like the first three (oldest) movies (nice space operas with some good space shooting action), but anything beyond that just feels boring. The newest one I've seen so far is The Force Awakens, and I guess I will see Rogue One and Last Jedi at some point, but really not looking forward to it.

The main problem with SW Episodes 1-3 was that their only reason for existence was to fill gaps, kinda like the "happened so far" in the beginning of some TV-series' episodes. They were just explaining what happened before the original SW movies (episodes 4-6), with no real sense of discovery or being amazed what happens next because you pretty much know already beforehand who will survive anyway (because they will be in "later" movies), who will become a baddie, who is a baddie just pretending to be something else, etc.

Especially the episode 2, most of that movie was awkward teen romance between Anakin and Padme. Yeah yeah we get it, that's how Luke got inseminated so that in Ep2 Darth can finally utter "Luke, I am your Vader!", "Nooooooooo....".

And how could they make Yoda appear so STUPID in those movies, saying stupid things like "Careful, we always must be" or "Eat, we remember must". Yoda must have had Alzheimer's already in those movies.

Sure, I actually own that piece of crap because I collect fantasy (got it for like $5, no worries). I think a great Conan movie COULD be made today though, which is my point. Well maybe not today because we're very much in a family fun fad right now, but at some point.

I can kind of see where you're coming from. I had seen Reservoir Dogs and really liked it. When Pulp Fiction came out I was a little disappointed. For all the people raving about it I found the movie to be just okay-ish. In fact it seems like the more movies Tarantino makes the less I like his work. I quit watching his movies after Inglorious Bastards, which ironically is the one Tarantino film that my wife genuinely liked.

I love Pulp Fiction but I do agree it's far from his best work and overrated. Jackie Brown is my favorite Tarantino movie, easily.

I enjoyed the Dol Guldur bit personally, but I agree with all the rest. Perhaps except for it becoming an epic at some point. After all, the story culminates in the clashing of 5 armies just after the total destruction of laketown and the slaying of Smaug. Still, I don't think the idea should've been to try and rival Lord of the Rings at any point, which may have been what they were going for.

To add to the problems you listed : I think the Mirkwood could've been done better as well. Only because in the book I believe they were stuck in there for weeks, and slowly lost their sanity. But in the film it comes across as just a short romp through the forest.

I couldn't care less how well it matches the book. The goal of the Hobbit films was obviously just to be Lord of the Rings prequels, and I judge them on that basis. However I still find them lacking due to too much CGI and tone issues. I still enjoy them though.

Keep in mind, I'm a huge fan of Tolkien. I've read all the Middle-Earth books multiple times, and I've read all his other stuff - Fall of Arthur, Story of Kullervo, Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, his translation of Beowulf etc. And I've read many of the things that served as inspiration or basis for his work, both the various mythologies that were the basis for his larger legendarium and LotR and Silmarillion and the kids books that served as inspiration for The Hobbit. I really dug into the "why" and "what" of it all, so for me major changes like the radical departure in style in the final film is a major issue. Even more so as it's coupled with a lot of over the top CG that fits neither style. I mean, there's freaking sandworms of Dune there! Dain is CG for some reason and rides a battle pig! Legolas is... you know, I don't even wanna talk about Legolas and his boots of anti-gravity.

The Mirkwood issue though is actually somewhat improved in the extended edition. It's still not exactly like the book, but they do spend more time there, get properly lost, even make the crossing through the enchanted stream.

Yeah that was a major wtf moment :P And I'm glad to hear that the extended edition improves the Mirkwood part of the journey. I kind of want to see the extended edition now just on account of that.

By the way, I take it that you are a fan of the original Peter Jackson trilogy? Not sure if you're a rts fan, but have you ever tried LotR : The Battle for Middle Earth? I've always thought it did a tremendous job of capturing the spirit of the film.

Oh yes, despite some issues, mostly with The Two Towers, I'm a big fan of the LotR movies. And I liked The Battle for Middle Earth a lot. It was a bit on the easy side (though not being very good at RTS games that's not a bad thing for me), but it was a great breath of fresh air for the genre which seemed pretty much frozen with the usual Blizzard template. And compared to most movie-licensed games it was almost a materpiece.