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[Contrary]

Why? Aside from the fact that the shaky cam makes me nauseous I thought it was great. The aliens were pretty cool, the technology was neat, and the political message, while a little unsubtle, was relevant. I really liked the protagonist, too. Not really "liked" like would hang out with, but his pitiful story was pretty damn endearing to me.

[ink.inc]

I noticed how Wikus' humanity had an inverse relationship with how human he looked. The less human he looked, the more decent he became. It was interesting.

People getting splattered was interesting too.

[Lon]

The Speed Racer film of 2008 is awesome heaps of fun.

[Zest]

I thought District 9 was great, but the shakycam didn't make as much sense once they stopped pretending to be using actual video cameras... and the powersuit and exploding humans was a bit distracting.

I think Avatar will be great once they start actually using the fantastic world and concepts they've created in interesting ways. Get some good sci fi authors to muck around in the universe, create more interesting side stories, skip the boring Native American parallel junk, get to something more relevant to today's culture.

Tron Legacy had a great soundtrack and a awesome visual design and that's it. Sure the original was cheesy as all get out, but its concepts were unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. The directors could have gone in a billion different interesting directions by bringing the core of Tron into the 21st century and beyond, and even made an interesting story about the web, but the directors claimed that they wanted to avoid this in order to not spoil the original's sanctity. Bollocks to that.

[Inanimate]

Tron Legacy had a great soundtrack and a awesome visual design and that's it. Sure the original was cheesy as all get out, but its concepts were unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. The directors could have gone in a billion different interesting directions by bringing the core of Tron into the 21st century and beyond, and even made an interesting story about the web, but the directors claimed that they wanted to avoid this in order to not spoil the original's sanctity. Bollocks to that.

Very true. The ISOs were an amazing idea, however; what a brilliant concept. Too bad it didn't live to its potential...

[ink.inc]

In response to the above: I felt that Tron tried to infuse too much... spiritual mumbo jumbo into its inherently mechanical world.

[Seth]

I actually liked District 9 until the guy started turning into an alien, which I saw coming and was hoping wouldn't happen.  It just doesn't make any sense--even past the convenience that whatever that super energetic matter was can also turn random lifeforms in the universe (or is it just two legged two armed lifeforms of roughly the same size and intelligence?  would a dog turn into an alien too?) into the prawn race.   I just think the concept of turning into an alien lifeform is inane and absurd--imagine if one of the prawns were to drink some crude oil and turn into a human (which would be better movie premise).  What would he look like--would he be black or white or Asian or what?  

Stuff like the inconsistent camera style, like you guys mentioned, bothered me as well.  To be honest I did like that the main character was very unlikable, too, but after the first 15 minutes or the movie goes from being an interesting social/political commentary to a pretty standard action flick--actually, if the first 15 minutes weren't as interesting as they were, I probably wouldn't have cared and I would have enjoyed it for what it turned out to be, but the movie raised expectations in the intro and didn't meet them.

And the junkyard flower at the end was corny.

[Zest]

I think that's my biggest disappointment with District 9- that from the original short and the beginning of the film it seemed like it was gonna be a huge commentary on apartheid and whatnot, but it all seemed to melt away as the film progressed. I really liked how much of an ass Vikkus was, and the fact that he was a main character without a typical American accent.

[Riley Adams]

Actually, speaking of the Matrix, did anyone else like Equilibirum? The one with Christian Bale. I thought that one was even sillier than the Matrix in terms of combat, but I thought it had pretty decent writing and the message was nice..

I saw it again recently and thought it was pretty decent. Combat was definitely cheesy, and seemed to borrow quite a bit from Fahrenheit 451, but I definitely enjoyed it.

[moi]

Actually, speaking of the Matrix, did anyone else like Equilibirum? The one with Christian Bale. I thought that one was even sillier than the Matrix in terms of combat, but I thought it had pretty decent writing and the message was nice.

I liked it. It's as stupid as the matrix but it doesn't take itself seriously. And the fights are fun.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

the serious thing is why i didn't like the matrix movies -- if you're going to have a movie that has philosophical discussions make sure those discussions don't make people who actually read philosophy cringe. i liked matrix 2 and 3 better than matrix 1 because they were less serious and more fighting.

[Movius]

Red is the best King Crimson album.

[Netsu]

the serious thing is why i didn't like the matrix movies -- if you're going to have a movie that has philosophical discussions make sure those discussions don't make people who actually read philosophy cringe. i liked matrix 2 and 3 better than matrix 1 because they were less serious and more fighting.

Wait what. I liked Matrix 1 better than 2 and 3 because it had none of this pseudo-philosophical crap.

[Dragonmaw]

Red is the best King Crimson album.

This is controversial?

[C.A. Silbereisen]

Red is the best King Crimson album.

This is controversial?

Not really "controversial" per se, but most people only know the "In The Court..." album and assume Crimson is some kind of outmoded 60s hippie band, which is semi-true for the first couple of albums but becomes completely baseless once you've taken a listen to "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" or any of the albums that came after it.

Also, King Crimson is one of the few "prog" rock bands that actually are, and continue to be "progressive". It's kind of a shame that prog has become such a rigidly defined genre associated with multi-part song "suites" and long guitar solos, when those were originally just side effects of expanding the vocabulary of rock music and taking in elements and structures from other genres.
 

[Netsu]

Never heard the entire discography, but Discipline beats the crap out of Red.

[Jad]

The Speed Racer film of 2008 is awesome heaps of fun.

Perhaps controversial

DEFINITELY HIGH FIVE BRO

It made me sick in places with awful colors and design, but counterbalanced it with VERY appealing colors and design in other places.

And it was awesome heaps of fun.

[C.A. Silbereisen]

Never heard the entire discography, but Discipline beats the crap out of Red.

I dunno, I don't really compare the 80s era stuff to 60s and 70s Crimson. I see Discipline as the nerdy cousin of the Talking Heads' "Remain In Light" album (I mean that in the best way possible), which isn't suprising seeing as Adrian Belew played on both and there seemed to be a lot of exchange going on between the two bands at the time in general (perhaps via Brian Eno?).

[Sorano]

Shinji Hikari is the worst animated fictionnal character ever.

100% worthless.

[Brother Android]

I haven't actually heard Red, I've heard Discipline and Beat because those are the ones my dad really likes (I think the early 80s were formative years for him). Of those I like Beat a lot. I'm a 1962 Studebaker Coupe...

On this note, a lot of people get down on prog, but adventurous, complex song structures will never, ever be a bad thing.