Starlight East said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Yeah... so strange... I forgot you also watched Ironclad and didn't like it but I did... does that mean I'm going to enjoy "The Descendants"?
If I recall correctly from some IP Man posts... you don't really like martial arts movies... so maybe that's where we differ on genres... I like lots of action and you prefer more cerebral-type movies.
The action has to serve some purpose, solve a mystery. In Ironclad they fight all the time to capture a castle, but there is nothing interesting in the castle. What's the point? At the beginning of the movie, they should have shown some strange incidents and at the end they find something like a portal to another world in the castle.
Hehe... you are a fan of the plot-twist/Paranormal genre. Why does it have to serve a purpose or solve a mystery? At the heart of most stories... it's about conflict. In this case, it's the conflict between a king whose power has gone to his head and the few who still believe in country and the individual.
Ironclad was trying to be more historical than fictional (otherwise we would have seen dragons and wizards).
Not sure if you remember, but the whole purpose of holding Rochester Castle was it was a strategic position for the south east area of England. Paul Giamatti's character, King John, even explained it to Tiberius (the Dane leader) as to why they can't just go around it, especially if France does send reinforcments. It's in the genre of "last stand" type movies where a small group holds off the larger group (did you like
500300?). It's like "Magnificent 7" and "13 Samurai".
Not everything has to have large plot twists ("OMG... the Templar are really devil worshippers and need the castle to bring Satan to England!") or some supernatural aspect.
The Descendants could easily be improved by adding some plot twists. How about when Clooney goes to the other island and finds his wife living there? The one in the hospital is just a clone and it's all a conspiracy so he doesn't sell the land.
Or better yet, the island is the same island from Lost and he becomes the new "Desmond" and has to enter 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 into an old computer every 108 minutes or Hawaii will sink into the ocean?
I do agree... that many movies need more (did you watch Contagion? Now that needed some plot twists), but not all movies can be structured in that manner. Most fighting movies aren't full of of a ton of plot twists... they are mostly revenge tales ("You killed my master... I will avenge him!!").
EDIT: I just re-read my soliloquy and realized that the movie is 300... not 500... (although they probably wished they had 200 more men).