I loved Blade Runner 2049 -- the film was a miracle in how it managed to do what I personally thought was impossible -- to do the Blade Runner title justice. Was it too long? Yes. I still think it was one of the best films of the year, and certainly the best genre film of the year. But yeah, it wasn't perfect.
I haven't seen all of those films but I'd definitely include Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri before Get Out -- I thought Get Out was different and interesting, but not really a great film. My choices for best picture (so far, since I intend to see both "The Darkest Hour" and "The Post" ASAP) are "Dunkirk" and "Blade Runner 2049". Dunkirk was incredibly immersive -- it made me feel a part of the battle in just about every scene. And "Blade Runner 2049" did the impossible -- no one thought it was possible for it to do justice to the Blade Runner title, but it managed to not only do that, but to do it in an incredibly intelligent way.
@genericbrotagonist: I think this IS the real storyline and that's the sad thing about it. It's going no where interesting and it's taking its time getting there. And that's a HUGE problem. The Netflix shows at least use those episodes to build character and background, and they always have drama and action scenes. I agree that they could be leaner. But I don't think there's any comparison with how efficiently and concise the writing is compared with this snail-paced crap.
I thought the series started out pretty mediocre, and has been going downhill. I don't mind, in principle, making some changes from the source material to serve the medium that you are working with. Some things just don't work on TV. Unfortunately, too many of the changes seem to be there simply to stretch out the story, thus making it less fun and interesting. They are trying to do CG action on a shoestring budget, and it looks just as bad as that sounds. Actually, I wasn't bothered by the look of the dinosaur, but there are scenes with Karolina displaying her abilities which just look goddamned awful. Had they gone fully old-school Doctor Who low budget, I think it would have looked better. At least it would be campy then and consequently, fun and easily forgivable.
I suspect that they did not trust their younger stars to be able to hold an audience (a bad sign right there) so instead they moved too much of the focus to the parents, who are barely believable as human beings, let alone super villains. Molly is completely miscast, and the writing seems to be purposefully convoluted so they can stretch out a weak story into far too many episodes. Had this been on network TV, I don't think the show would have survived past 2 episodes,
I enjoyed Thor Ragnarok, but I did have one problem with it -- too many jokes that sunk like a lead pipe. There's nothing more annoying in a comedy than a lame, bad joke. And there simply were too many of them. Thor Ragnarok was a fun movie, but the bad jokes bogged it down too much for me to consider it among the top MCU or Marvel films. It probably does fall in the top 10 (for me), though.
@NeverMore0: I recently discovered the comic book, and the look of the kids matches that of the comic (although I'm not positive, they may have dropped the youngest Runaway (who's 11 years old) from the team (at least I couldn't spot her). I agree that the look is NOT of typical teens. But they aren't supposed to be typical. These are a mixed bunch of kids of wealthy, powerful parents who are outsiders, and definitely not trying to fit in with the mainstream (and they do look it).
Anyway, the comic book itself hooked me immediately. This is NOT like Spiderman, with kids just trying to survive high school, trying to escape being labeled a geek, etc.. These are the ultimate rebellious kids who don't care what others think of them. They have little in common (and their parents have little in common, other than something that would be spoiler material).
I don't know how the series will be, but I can strongly recommend the comic book series. I'm an older adult, and I thought that a comic book that is primarily from the point of view of kids and teens would not appeal to me. But I'm surprised to say that I've really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading the second run of the comic books.
@Fantomass: So your argument is "The world sucks. And I just want to make it worse." That just reinforces my theory. Ever wonder what might happen if people, you know, tried to make at least their part of the world a little less hostile? Civilized people have been trying to do that for some time now. Join the party. You might find it a little less awful.
GrahamZ's comments