The Incredible Hulk (spoiler alert)

[Outbound]

What a God-awful, boring, cartoony mess...

It was worst than the first one. I seriously considered walking out of the movie theater after about an hour.

That whole scene in the beginning set in the Brazilian favela was ridiculous. I'll believe a man can turn into a green monster before I believe a bunch of Americans dressed as police commandos can go prancing around the most dangerous favela in Rio de Janeiro, where actual Brazilian police will not go into unless they have armored vehicles and helicopters covering them, without getting shot by gangsters.

I'm pretty sure that bald guy wasn't Brazilian either. His accent was terrible.

And that whole deal with Tony Stark at the end... I guess they really are going to unite these franchises.

I think the stupidest thing of all was the whole plot, how they basically forgot the last movie and microwave cooked that moronic storyline that plays out in the opening credits and gets explained rather idiotically throughout the movie.

[Brian]

I never see those movies because I just can't imagine them being any good. I didn't even see the Transformers or Spider Man.
I seem to have some revulsion to seeing CGI and real life mixed in a cartoony kind of way.

Speaking of CGI did you like the Final Fantasy movie that came out around 2001 or so? Apparently it was nearly universally panned, which astounds me because I thought it was beautiful and well-made.

[Outbound]

The Spirit Within?

I actually loved that movie.

[Brian]

Yes, that's the one and I loved it too. I would like to see more movies like that come out, but seems either the money or the drive is missing. Nowadays, fully cgi movies seem to be strictly about green ogres and cutesy/raunchy animals.

[D.Houry]

Brian, I agree the new Hulk and most superhero movies end up being pretty crappy, but Spider-Man 1 & 2 are phenomenal and definitely worth watching!

Oh and I liked that first Final Fantasy movie too. FFVII Advent Children has some truly amazing sequences. Check that out as well if you haven't.

[Outbound]

The spider man movies were all pretty dull IMHO. Again, I thought they were trying to cram in everything into the movie to justify and retell every aspect of every character in a rushed way, so as to make sure everyone knows the story, something which is unnecessary for a character as well known as SM.

[D.Houry]

Whoa whoa, we can't possibly have seen the same Spider-Man movies. In the one I'm talking about there's a thrilling fight on the wall of a clock-tower that leads to Spider-Man lassoing a high-speed el-train and getting dragged through oncoming traffic. The whole thing escalates until Spider-Man's entire body is strained and nearly ripped to pieces. It's very much the opposite of "dull" my friend.

[Outbound]

All a very predictable cartoony mess. All the Michael Bayesque action scenes in the world don't make up for the dull story-line, dull acting and "Who framed Roger Rabbit" feel of using real footage one second and completely CGI manufactured HDRI the next.

[D.Houry]

Michael Bayesque would be an impossible-to-follow chaotic fog of shrapnel and fire. Heheh, you gotta admit, at least the Spider-Man action sequences make an ounce of narrative sense!

So give me the flip side. If these movies are all dull and cliche to you, what would you recommend I see?

[Outbound]

Well, OK, I'll give you that one. But still, those things run for way too long, and the acting is pretty dull in all of them.

A movie I did enjoy, oddly enough, was GI Joe. The reason was simple, it didn't take itself seriously. It was basically a live version of the cartoon I saw as a kid, all the way from the dialogue up the the absurd weapons, and they didn't try and patronize you by trying to instill some sort of dramatic moral point to the whole thing. Plus, Sienna Miller as the Baroness. Woohooo!!!!

[D.Houry]

No way! The way it was marketed seemed like it took itself way too seriously, which was why I wasn't interested.

[Outbound]

Well, I saw the movie, and it was basically a Saturday morning cartoon with real people. The plot was absurd, the characters were absurd, the physics were absurd (sinking ice anyone?!). GO JOE!

The only thing missing was every Cobra trooper jumping out of their vehicle before it exploded and no one dying ever.