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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 3, 2019 5:35:57 GMT -5
What an odd film. Perplexing in its blandness. I should be mad at it, and I know a bunch of people will be, but I really want to find out what actually happened here and why they made the creative choices they did.
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Post by scoobylover on Sept 3, 2019 7:41:09 GMT -5
Absolutely awful, unnecessary movie. Who even thought this would be a good idea. If they want to reach younger audiences with the franchise, please do without ruining the past products. Like, did they really think this movie would appeal to older fans? Seriously? That is not what older fans want, we want some more mature stuff. I can't believe they turned Daphne's job into a school project. This was absolutely unnecessary. I hate WB with all of my being
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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 3, 2019 8:17:31 GMT -5
Absolutely awful, unnecessary movie. Who even thought this would be a good idea. If they want to reach younger audiences with the franchise, please do without ruining the past products. Zombie Island isn't ruined. The original film still exists and you can watch it whenever you want. The thing about these DTV films is that they're easily ignorable.
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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 3, 2019 9:25:58 GMT -5
Return to Zombie Island is so much worse than Curse of the 13th Ghost just on a basic narrative level. I hope that doesn't get lost in the discourse over what this movie means for "continuity" (ugh). It's the rare sequel that actually LOWERS the stakes from the original and doesn't even pretend to do otherwise. I have no idea what anyone involved with this was going for.
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Post by 24994j on Sept 3, 2019 17:37:21 GMT -5
I'm still not sure what I think about this movie. I certainly didn't hate it, but I guess it's just largely forgettable, to me. It doesn't really defecate on the legacy source, retconning the original material (like 'Curse of the 13th Ghost' did), which was my worst fear. In that regard, I'm glad. Honestly, the zombies and the filming story arc went exactly how I optimistically thought it would, and the movie ends with the original events of 'Zombie Island' intact, even if not all characters believe so, which is okay. The overall story may be rather bland, simple, and meandering, but it isn't hardly as muddy at '13th Ghost.' Yes, there are a few plot devices here that made me roll my eyes, as a way to skirt around the original, but none of it was too distracting, even for this knowledgeable, die hard fan. Aside from a few animation errors, I loved the flashback scenes, the old movie referenced in the current film style, and my least favorite element had to be the happy, sunshiny musical interludes. Forget the original movie, they didn't fit THIS movie.
Overall, a very middle of the road Scooby movie. Many will despise it with every fiber of their being, feeling the original movie is forever ruined, but frankly, it just isn't. Whether or not it gets repeated viewing, meh, maybe. I give it a 5.5/10. Still better than the laziest 'What's New'-era features.
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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 3, 2019 17:46:12 GMT -5
The overall story may be rather bland, simple, and meandering, but it isn't hardly as muddy at '13th Ghost.' The movie ends with the characters realizing they need to solve mysteries to function and then deliberately ignoring probably the biggest mystery of their career. That's just incompetent writing that goes beyond anything in Curse (which was a mostly well-written movie hamstrung by its association with a beloved show).
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Post by snesgamer83 on Sept 3, 2019 21:57:50 GMT -5
Ugh, this one wasn't AS bad as Curse, but still pretty bland. These latest throwback movies really seem as if they're using the loose "sequel" label to sucker in older fans but then using the rest of their effort just to lazily appeal to the kiddos yet again. And those "kiddos" can have all the other yearly releases, but Curse of the 13th Ghost and Return to Zombie Island really should have been written BY older fans FOR older fans who wanted something with a lot more meat after all these years.
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Post by 24994j on Sept 3, 2019 22:56:08 GMT -5
The overall story may be rather bland, simple, and meandering, but it isn't hardly as muddy at '13th Ghost.' The movie ends with the characters realizing they need to solve mysteries to function and then deliberately ignoring probably the biggest mystery of their career. That's just incompetent writing that goes beyond anything in Curse (which was a mostly well-written movie hamstrung by its association with a beloved show). I'm not going to dig too deep here, because you're clearly more...passionate than me on this, but there were 2 character stances at the end regarding the Moonscar case (if you're reading this far into the thread, there's already been spoilers): Fred and Daphne (and Shaggy and Scooby, I'd assume), that it was supernatural, and essentially closed. Velma clearly felt differently, but she's the outlier. Regarding the unexplained black cat creature, the characters never had enough interaction to come to any real conclusions about it, especially through the chaos of everything else going on. Plenty of Scooby films, including many of the best, are not all tied up with a bow at the conclusion, with some plot points left ambiguous or unexplored by the gang. Are those just as lazy, no matter the running time constraints. I'm definitely not saying this is some award-winning written masterpiece, it's very far from it, but it's not any more egregious than some other past storylines and holes. Agree to disagree, I guess. I might be reading too much into it, as well, but the seemingly split opinions within the gang on the original mystery is a rather adequate ('realistic' doesn't feel like the right word in a movie about cat gods and zombies ) way to close this chapter. Four members of the gang were not skeptical and obsessed enough to investigate further. It's also not like they came into this film spending every waking moment trying to find other evidence and motives, only to throw it aside at the end. THAT would be different. Also, it's a kids movie.
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Post by wileyk209 on Sept 3, 2019 22:57:39 GMT -5
Ooooh, cool werewolf at the start, even if it was a guy in a suit (naturally), keeping it similar to how the original "Zombie Island" film started. And I also enjoyed seeing the return of the Creeper, the Snow Ghost and the Spooky Space Kook during the opening. It also amused me how they went and captured/unmasked the werewolf twice. But the way they didn't get around to explaining their motive confused me, until it turned out it was all just a dream. But I did like the callback to Fred selling it and Mystery Inc. ceasing operations in the previous movie!
Heh, that flashback to Fred driving the Mystery Machine by himself during a beautiful sunset felt a lot like a car commercial. I'm glad Scooby and Shaggy eventually decided they should solve mysteries again, and nothing like a bunch of approaching zombies helps! Then we have that stupid fire sprinkler cliche...
I loved the Reluctant Werewolf callback! I was disappointed at first by the fake rubber zombies and how it was all for a movie, but then I began to enjoy how they were making a movie based off the original zombie mystery. Then I was disappointed again that three of the Cat Creatures were fake. I loved seeing the gang dressed up as zombie versions of themselves, though! Especially with Scooby, it reminded me of the time he passed himself off as a "Were-Scoob" in the "Pup Named Scooby-Doo" episode "The Were-Doo of Doo Manor!" And Scooby struggling to get his rubber self-mask off was a fun gag, too. So it wasn't a total loss to me. ut then I enjoyed how there was an actual Cat Creature after all! I was not disappointed in the end!
A pretty fun sequel, if I say so, even if the original was better (but I like "Witch's Ghost" better anyways!) And combining fake monsters with real ones did remind me somewhat of the "Witch's Ghost" and "Alien Invaders" movies.
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Post by Grumpydrawer on Sept 4, 2019 3:16:24 GMT -5
It's certainly not something amazing, and if not for the title/setting being on Moonscar Island again I doubt it'd be notable either, but I admittedly enjoyed it. Quite liked the intro credits bit. I liked too how the flashbacks were redrawn/reanimated versions of the scenes from Zombie Island, though that's mainly since it'd have clashed too much with the new animation if they'd just copy pasted the original scenes. Though it was underwhleming, I did enjoy the fact the zombies were fake for a movie as it in a way gave an explaination for why they weren't looking like the zombies in Zombie Island did. Quite enjoyed the characters of Alan and the Fred stunt double too. And I definietly liked the Reluctant Werewolf reference, did not expect to see that ever be brought up in the franchise again so it was a nice suprise. The cat creatures being fake was rather disappointing though, as was the whole ending and reveal of Moonscar's treasure. That was very underwhelming.
Worth saying that I haven't thought much at all about this movie since it was first revealed. I was only was aware it'd just come out because a friend told me. So my view of the film is probably a bit different since I went into it not really expecting anything, bar of course nods to the original movie. Compared to Zombie Island it certainly isn't that great. But given I never expected it to be I did enjoy it. Albeit it's not something I'll watch again anytime soon, as I said before it's not notable. It is however nice to see, outside of the rare Hex Girls appearance, the 1998-2001 movies being acknowledged in some form again.
Only other thing to note is that I didn't expect Elvria. That was a crossover appearance I was suprised to see.
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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 4, 2019 5:35:58 GMT -5
Ugh, this one wasn't AS bad as Curse, but still pretty bland. These latest throwback movies really seem as if they're using the loose "sequel" label to sucker in older fans but then using the rest of their effort just to lazily appeal to the kiddos yet again. And those "kiddos" can have all the other yearly releases, but Curse of the 13th Ghost and Return to Zombie Island really should have been written BY older fans FOR older fans who wanted something with a lot more meat after all these years. I usually don't call out specific writers but I think it should be noted that Jeremy Adams graduated college in 1999. Meaning he was already too old for Zombie Island when it came out. That doesn't make him a bad writer but it does indicate that he had a perspective that was wrong for this project.
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Post by scoobylover on Sept 4, 2019 7:39:10 GMT -5
Ugh, this one wasn't AS bad as Curse, but still pretty bland. These latest throwback movies really seem as if they're using the loose "sequel" label to sucker in older fans but then using the rest of their effort just to lazily appeal to the kiddos yet again. And those "kiddos" can have all the other yearly releases, but Curse of the 13th Ghost and Return to Zombie Island really should have been written BY older fans FOR older fans who wanted something with a lot more meat after all these years. I usually don't call out specific writers but I think it should be noted that Jeremy Adams graduated college in 1999. Meaning he was already too old for Zombie Island when it came out. That doesn't make him a bad writer but it does indicate that he had a perspective that was wrong for this project. The two things are simply unrelated, it doesn’t make sense.
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Post by somebody-doo on Sept 4, 2019 9:54:23 GMT -5
I thought it was kind of a fun movie, but should have been longer to really develop and explore the ideas they set up. Also, the ending was another disappointment. It's pretty decent as a standalone film, but terrible as a sequel to Zombie Island.
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Post by jonathanmuddlemore on Sept 4, 2019 12:39:08 GMT -5
I usually don't call out specific writers but I think it should be noted that Jeremy Adams graduated college in 1999. Meaning he was already too old for Zombie Island when it came out. That doesn't make him a bad writer but it does indicate that he had a perspective that was wrong for this project. The two things are simply unrelated, it doesn’t make sense. I think there's a huge difference between Zombie Island being after your time and being scared by the movie as a kid. You wouldn't hire someone who grew up with The Beatles to write a Nirvana biopic
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Post by russm on Sept 4, 2019 15:32:52 GMT -5
You wouldn't hire someone who grew up with The Beatles to write a Nirvana biopic You would if they are good at their craft.
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