Intermissions are such a pain! Honestly, I hope we can all pay attention for a few hours, otherwise that is quite telling about our abilities to keep our mind focused…
There was an intermission during NTTD at the theatre, and it was ridiculously useless. It just breaks the mood and kills the pace. There also was one during MI7. Man, was that annoying!
Just go to the bathroom before the movie starts, and just enjoy the ride. Really; who needs intermissions?! As Eliott Carver would say: “pathetic!”
I’m a gentleman of a certain age… though my mind can still cope (some would debate this point, but still) with a 3 hour + film, my bladder, sadly cannot. On a long film, an intermission is most welcome… the state of the cinema toilets notwithstanding.
Saw it Sunday night. It was ok, but not what I was hoping for.
The action scenes and stunts were good, but somehow it all affected me much less than I had expected, I also found the story surrounding those scenes quite long-winded and the whole time I had the feeling that I had seen it all before, but better, fresher and with more urgency brought.
Again Cruise on a motorcycle, another fight on the roof of a train and a train that is in danger of falling into an abyss, or Cruise who drives a car through busy traffic in some metropolis.
It was all so unsurprising, I found the previous films much more exciting and delivered with much more speed.
Of course it could also have been due to my state of mind right now, there is of course also a reason that I watched such a film in the middle of the night.
The first thing I would ask Mr. Scorsese about no intermission for a nearly 4 hour film is - if we assume most people can’t go that long without a bathroom break - how is an audience member missing 5mins of your movie at a time not of your choosing the superior option here?
Incidentally, I’ve just watched that old RKO adaptation of Eric Ambler’s ‘Journey Into Fear’. A mostly faithful adaptation of the novel, quite atmospheric too, in a lean 68 minutes. It’s of course a very straightforward plot, nothing overly complicated or mysterious. But still, it delivers the tale in just over an hour without crucial omissions or making the narrative feel rushed.
One surely cannot generalise this kind of observation. But I think a proficient director ought to be able to tell their story within a reasonable time not that much more than two hours.
Admittedly, sometimes a more exhaustive scale may feel welcome. But when we congregate in a (film-)theatre the understanding between performance (in the shape of the actors in a play or on screen) and audience is that we get to see what’s necessary for the tale - not every last heartbeat and thought of all its protagonists.
Received my 4K copy yesterday, so of course I had to watch it. Good film, and they need to finish part two. I wish EON had the same access to Rome that Tom Cruise had for the car chase, the one in MI was outstanding! And whoever scripted the dialog on board the submarine knew what they were doing, the standard commands between the submarine’s conning officer/Captain and helmsman was perfect. And if you wonder what the lead female character looks like in my books, just look at Vanessa Kirby. She, along with my wife, was the person I had in mind as I was writing.
Looks great on the 4k disc, though I’m irked the deleted scenes montage was not included as a special feature, nor the Sevastopol featurette. Clearly Paramount is also pushing for an end to physical media and driving consumers toward digital purchases.
I checked the special features blu ray and all I saw were the location featurettes. I haven’t checked just the regular blu ray but I assumed that was the same as the 4k disc (namely the directors commentary and the isolated sound track).
EDIT
Found it! It’s a digital exclusive so if you bought the disc, you’ll need to download the digital copy that came with the disc. It’s on there.
They don’t need to push. Mass audiences prefer digital. Only us collectors still buy physical. That’s why the market is so small and the studios don’t really care anymore.
Indeed. Sign of the times…
But when my connection broke down, I sure was happy to be able to play my movies on the BR reader… So I for one will never transition to digital-only.
I’m baffled by this strategy.
Example: there isn’t a NTTD dvd/Blu-ray hardcopy for sale in my country and of I order one online it isn’t subtitled in Portuguese/Brazilian.
With M:I7 it’s the same. No hardcopy, and online or in digital it doesn’t yet have PT/BR subtitles. Not on Prime or on YouTube Movies.
I’m no marketing or sales expert, but it seems to me that limiting your target consumers by region or language is not good for business.
Meanwhile, Barbie is already available on-demand on my local cable TV service, subtitled and with a full screen publicity!
Different strategies. Same years-long marketing and limited regional/language access on one side, agressive marketing and viewers reach out on the other.
