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Dunkirk - Review thread

M

More_Badass

Member
WhiteRabbitEXE said:
I have no idea who that person is, but anyone who gives that movie an "awesometacular" legitimately sounds like a shitty critic to me. That movie is aggressively mediocre and I couldn't even comprehend the idea of a solid argument to the contrary.
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Like literally or hyperbolically? You can't see why the people might think Man of Steel was a god movie?

It has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with expectations, enjoyment, etc. That's why classics today like The Shining, The Thing, and others received mixed/negative reviews when they first came out.

Cheebo said:
The Jahns guy isn't a real movie critic he is a youtuber who geeks out over comic book media, he isn't relevant here.
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What defines if someone is a "real movie critic"? I thought that kind of attitude was less prevalent on Off Topic/MovieGAF.
 
R

rashbeep

Banned
Vampirolol said:
Apparently it's hard to feel anything for the characters. I hope it will click with me, the first time I saw Fury Road I had the same reaction... I just don't care about action if I don't feel anything. The second time I knew the characters and that made the movie shine for me.
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Pretty much. I haven't seen fury road a second time, so my opinion on that film hasn't changed
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
Vampirolol said:
Apparently it's hard to feel anything for the characters. I hope it will click with me, the first time I saw Fury Road I had the same reaction... I just don't care about action if I don't feel anything. The second time I knew the characters and that made the movie shine for me.
Click to expand...

But Fury Road has fantastic characters that all go through compelling arcs. It just does that with minimal dialogue and exposition.
 
D

Daft_Cat

Member
rashbeep said:
Pretty much. I haven't seen fury road a second time, so my opinion on that film hasn't changed
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Frankly, the idea that you need to explicitly personalize a young soldier in order to empathize with their desperate struggle for survival is absurd to the nth degree.

This is an unsentimental, exposition-light suspense thriller told in the present tense. No heavy-handed monologues about love, no dead wives. Every criticism people typically toss at Nolan is out the window here, so it's worth giving the approach a legitimate chance. It's not like it's unprecedented (classics like A Man Escaped, The Battle For Algiers and The Wages of Fear jump to mind).
 
K

kopitarrulez_11

Member
Jb said:
If they are logic holes I didn't notice them. It's probably the most meticulously constructed narrative Nolan's made since Memento (in fact it's the movie of his it reminded me of the most). It's not like the story multiplies the plot threads like TDK or TDKR. It's really simple but told in a very unique way.

It's basically a series of time bombs that he sets up and uses to keep the audience on edge. I actually think a lot of his fans from the Dark Knight and Inception aren't going to be too into it because there's so little character development and melodrama. Like others have said, it's pretty much "3rd act: the movie".
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This might be why it felt weird to me hahaha I liked it but I was hoping for more action story narrative like saving private Ryan. Don't get me wrong those plane scenes are intense as fuck I was sitting upright everytime.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Daft_Cat said:
Frankly, the idea that you need to explicitly personalize a young soldier in order to empathize with their desperate struggle for survival is absurd to the nth degree.

This is an unsentimental, exposition-light suspense thriller told in the present tense. No heavy-handed monologues about love, no dead wives. Every criticism people typically toss at Nolan is out the window here, so it's worth giving the approach a legitimate chance. It's not like it's unprecedented (classics like A Man Escaped, The Battle For Algiers and The Wages of Fear jump to mind).
Click to expand...
I've seen reviews say this has more in common with the "as-it-happens" feel of a United 93 than a typical war movie
 
A

Albino_Yeti

Member
Stay away from my boy Jahns. Dude is awesome. Kudos to him for giving his honest opinion when he probably knew he would get shit for it.
 
P

PeskyToaster

Member
More_Badass said:
Like literally or hyperbolically? You can't see why the people might think Man of Steel was a god movie?

It has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with expectations, enjoyment, etc. That's why classics today like The Shining, The Thing, and others received mixed/negative reviews when they first came out.


What defines if someone is a "real movie critic"? I thought that kind of attitude was less prevalent on Off Topic/MovieGAF.
Click to expand...

I like my critics to have some of credentials and education. A degree, some education in film theory and techniques, some artistic expertise. A little more on the scholarly side I guess. They have to be smarter than me so that discounts about the entire enthusiast press. Gaming doesn't have a scholarly side to it which is a major aspect holding it back as an art form.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
PeskyToaster said:
I like my critics to have some of credentials and education. A degree, some education in film theory and techniques, some artistic expertise. A little more on the scholarly side I guess. They have to be smarter than me so that discounts about the entire enthusiast press. Gaming doesn't have a scholarly side to it which is a major aspect holding it back as an art form.
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Agreed. For the most part. There are certainly "enthusiasts" that I like, but I have really struggled to find any film youtube channel that offered insightful and interesting commentary and perspective in their reviews. A lot of them don't offer anything I couldn't get from a random forum post on this site.

I'm not saying Jahns and co are "not a real critic" because I do think that is kinda BS. I just think they're all shitty critics.

Cinefix is probably the closest I've found, but I don't think they do regular reviews. Their top 10 lists are good, high quality stuff though.
 
D

DMczaf

Member
Pre-sales have taken off since the reviews came out

NOLANNNNNNNN!

butler.png
 
C

Cheebo

Banned
More_Badass said:
What defines if someone is a "real movie critic"? I thought that kind of attitude was less prevalent on Off Topic/MovieGAF.
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There is nothing wrong with him or what he does. But he is a geek culture YouTuber, not a critic. He pretty much never does videos on smaller non-major studio wide releases and focuses almost entirely on geek culture media. There is nothing wrong with that, but that isn't a film critic.

Being part of the geek media enthusiast press is not a bad thing, but that is a pretty different thing than being a film critic.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
PeskyToaster said:
I like my critics to have some of credentials and education. A degree, some education in film theory and techniques, some artistic expertise. A little more on the scholarly side I guess. They have to be smarter than me so that discounts about the entire enthusiast press. Gaming doesn't have a scholarly side to it which is a major aspect holding it back as an art form.
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I see. For movies, games, etc., I tend to judge criticism on the strength of the argument, how well-written or well-spoken it is, rather than credentials. Of course, having a degree and a scholarly approach certainly helps in that regard and gives those impressions more validity, but I don't think you need that to provide a nuanced critique.

Gamasutra kind of offers that aspect for gaming, especially when it's developers writing about games, as well as some blogs like Frictional or Tom Francis
 
B

Blader

Member
Daft_Cat said:
Frankly, the idea that you need to explicitly personalize a young soldier in order to empathize with their desperate struggle for survival is absurd to the nth degree.
Click to expand...

If I haven't spent 30 minutes watching his childhood unfold, then how can I possibly care if he lives or dies?
 
R

rashbeep

Banned
Blader said:
If I haven't spent 30 minutes watching his childhood unfold, then how can I possibly care if he lives or dies?
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Funny thing is Rogue One tried to at least do that with the main character, and I still didn't give a shit
when they all died
. Guess there's a bit more to it than that to writing good characters.
 
W

wazoo

Member
Blader said:
If I haven't spent 30 minutes watching his childhood unfold, then how can I possibly care if he lives or dies?
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Are you serious, not sure ?

Dunkirk is about unknown people dying to let other survive to go on with the fight the barbary. War is an "nobody" affair more than a super hero story.
 
V

Vampirolol

Member
Inferno313 said:
But Fury Road has fantastic characters that all go through compelling arcs. It just does that with minimal dialogue and exposition.
Click to expand...
The arcs are well made and the fact that they are done without exposition is why I needed a second view. But it's still anti-exposition to an extreme that doesn't fit perfectly with my tastes. If Dunkirk is like Fury Road on that side, it will be fine for me, but if the arcs are non-existent... we'll see.
 
G

Gray-Fox

Member
Inferno313 said:
I'm driving 4 hours this weekend to see it in Fort Lauderdale. Unfortunately it's IMAX with Laser, not 70mm. There aren't any real IMAX 70mm screenings in Florida. :/
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then i think ill make the trip. After watching interstellar in 70mm IMAX, i can't watching it in just 70mm.
 
W

W Hudson

Member
Gonna be back in St Louis next weekend, thinking about going to see this at the Omnimax dome. Haven't been to it in probably 20 years, but the site says its a true 70mm imax so hopefully it'll be awesome. Anybody here ever watched one of the Nolan movies at a dome imax before?
 
P

pringles

Member
ArchAngel said:
What? I like Nolan, but the trailer was sooo boring. Didn't expect this to be reviewed this well o_O
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Wow, different strokes. 2nd trailer convinced me this was a masterpiece in the making after having almost zero interest before that. One of the best trailers ever in my book.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
Gray-Fox said:
then i think ill make the trip. After watching interstellar in 70mm IMAX, i can't watching it in just 70mm.
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Yeah. I saw AMC saying that they're showing it in IMAX 70mm here in Tampa. But I don't wanna see it in LieMAX. The Fort Lauderdale IMAX is supposed to be pretty legit.
 
G

Gray-Fox

Member
W Hudson said:
Gonna be back in St Louis next weekend, thinking about going to see this at the Omnimax dome. Haven't been to it in probably 20 years, but the site says its a true 70mm imax so hopefully it'll be awesome. Anybody here ever watched one of the Nolan movies at a dome imax before?
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yes, that extra vertical picture from the IMAX shots are glorious but those films had select scenes. Dunkirk is 80% 70mm IMAX
 
S

Skiptastic

Member
wazoo said:
I think, some part of the picture is cropped in regular rooms.

EDIT : ok, sorry misread. Regular Imax should be ok.
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I mean, 70mm IMAX is the definitive way to see it, but we're talking about "fear of missing out".

If he's saying 70mm IMAX vs. regular theater, I'm saying, yeah you'll be missing out. But best IMAX vs. IMAX? Probably not missing out.

The other thing to mention was that, until a couple years ago, I didn't have a good grasp on the difference between "real IMAX" and "LieMAX" theaters. It's palpable when you have access to both types, but it's not the same step up as going from a regular theater to an IMAX theater of any kind. That's a big leap. Like going from Xbox 360 to Xbox One wasn't as big of a deal as going from N64 to Dreamcast (this is an analogy from my experience lol).

Hell, I recommended earlier in this thread or the other one to just go to a nice regular theater instead of driving out an hour to a regular IMAX. Maybe that was bad advice...but it all depends on what matters to you. Some IMAX theaters are super nice ones, some (like the 70mm I'm going to) are super old and the seats suck. If you want to be comfortable, you might be better off at a nice new theater instead of going to an old IMAX. I don't know. I'm spoiled, I have many IMAX options within 30 minutes from my house, one full IMAX, three LieMAX.
 
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