|
EmmyOk posted:Atreides sounds cool and spacey to begin with though, Paul doesn't. Like I said it's an irrational irritation, I'm not blind to literary devices or religious symbolism. If it makes you feel better, Paul really doesn't end up being all that significant to the universe, at least once you zoom out to the geological timeframes the series ends up covering. [dune series spoilers] His son Leto is the one who fucks poo poo up and alters the course of human history. Leto does what Paul is afraid to do - become a humongous worm overlord and kill all the other worms so he can restart the spice cycle on his own terms - with a hardier, more adaptable worm that can exist in less favorable environs. He scatters humanity to the stars in terror, and breeds within them the ability to hide from the eyes of prescience. He rules for over 3500 years and also his name is cooler. Ignite Memories has a new favorite as of 01:38 on Feb 25, 2015 |
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 01:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 03:37 |
|
|
EmmyOk posted:Atreides sounds cool and spacey to begin with though Ancient Greek isn't spacey.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 01:50
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:Ancient Greek isn't spacey. Almost every constellation would beg to differ.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 04:13
|
|
|
Following the Marvel wiki, apparently the biggest force in the universe is the One-Above-All, who doesn't actually do much, and their main agent is the Living Tribunal who guards over the entire multiverse, unlike dudes like Galactus who are bound to only a single universe. Apparently even the Living Tribunal has been beaten up twice, although in unusual circumstances. Paying attention to superhero comic continuity beyond the story at hand is silly.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 05:14
|
|
|
Whatever the ultimate marvel being is, Captain America should punch it square on the jaw.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 05:48
|
|
|
1redflag posted:There is an entire comics sub forum. What bugged me was the warehouse shoot out. Why would they turn off the lights? He's a god drat cyborg, it's safe to assume he has infrared or night vision.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 07:58
|
|
|
Non Serviam posted:I'm watching The Raid 2, and while I enjoy it, the two deaf ultimate badass invincible killing machines were just lovely. I didn't need that. Likewise. I got into a bit of a spat with a pal of mine over this too. Within the movie universe I can accept and understand a dude being super badass and kicking all kinds of rear end. Then you have these two who have almost super-powered abilities beyond anything you've seen before. A guy who can kill people with a pin-point precision baseball. His argument was, "Did you SEE the car chase/Mad Dog2/Prison/Whatever scene? That's just as unbelievable!" And yes, it is. The whole film is unbelievable. All action films are on some level. But having these mini-bosses with gimmick super-poweres would seem more at home in something like Hobo With A Shotgun. Still love the film and I'm over it now. Just when I first saw it I was confused as to the more comic book direction it went in.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 11:23
|
|
|
LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Well, yeah, there is that, but I think they could have created a version of the character with the rings that wasn't incredibly racist. Yeah, I was really disappointed in the Mandarin. I really wanted fun power ring vs armor battles. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 13:02
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:If it makes you feel better, Paul really doesn't end up being all that significant to the universe, at least once you zoom out to the geological timeframes the series ends up covering. [dune series spoilers] His son Leto is the one who fucks poo poo up and alters the course of human history. Leto does what Paul is afraid to do - become a humongous worm overlord and kill all the other worms so he can restart the spice cycle on his own terms - with a hardier, more adaptable worm that can exist in less favorable environs. He scatters humanity to the stars in terror, and breeds within them the ability to hide from the eyes of prescience. He rules for over 3500 years and also his name is cooler. The extended Dune story past Dune is pretty loving weird though. The moral of the story is that you have to literally become worse-than-Hitler in order to inspire humanity to forever not be assholes to each other to avoid an even greater Hitler coming up in the future that would wipe out all of humanity. Yeah there's a bit more to it than that, some criticism of religion and martyrs and symbols, but everything boils down to Hitler. They even mention him by name a few times 
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 17:24
|
|
|
Glad I didn't read past the first book. Speaking of which, the Dune movie is irritating because I can't imagine understanding what's going on if I hadn't read the book.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
Professor Wayne posted:Glad I didn't read past the first book. Speaking of which, the Dune movie is irritating because I can't imagine understanding what's going on if I hadn't read the book. You can safely read the next 2-4 books before it gets truly idiotic. Also, some of the Butlerian Jihad stuff was pretty decent in my opinion. But yeah, Dune is the book version of a TV series that went on way too long.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 17:35
|
|
|
Out of the first 5, I only truly enjoyed Dune and Children of Dune. God Emperor is interesting but a really really weird book. It's sort of a character study of a cosmic-level rear end in a top hat. I wanted to like Dune Messiah but the truth is not all that much really happens in it. Zaphod42 posted:The extended Dune story past Dune is pretty loving weird though. It really is. It's a pity Jodorowski's Dune didn't happen - I daresay it may have been weird enough to truly honor the source material. Ignite Memories has a new favorite as of 17:49 on Feb 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 17:38
|
|
|
Professor Wayne posted:Glad I didn't read past the first book. Speaking of which, the Dune movie is irritating because I can't imagine understanding what's going on if I hadn't read the book. Lynch's Dune is pretty great but yeah, it can be hard to follow. Also its pretty old now, so the special effects of flying cheese wedge spaceships may not impress anymore. Also Lynch takes some weird artistic licence and comes up with all kinds of things that weren't in the book, which seems unnecessary with such a classic. If you haven't you should check out the Scifi channel miniseries Dune, its easier to follow and pretty well produced. They also did a Children of Dune series which follows the second and third books and its even better, in my opinion. That's actually pretty entertaining stuff that's not hard to follow without reading the books. And it was pretty much Game of Thrones before we got Game of Thrones. For another take on it, check out Jodorowsky's Dune, for a behind the scenes on a super cool Giger and Mobius inspired take on Dune that never happened. Captain Monkey posted:You can safely read the next 2-4 books before it gets truly idiotic. Also, some of the Butlerian Jihad stuff was pretty decent in my opinion. But yeah, Dune is the book version of a TV series that went on way too long. Yeah Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were both pretty good. Its God Emperor and Chapterhouse where poo poo gets really weird. And then the later books by his son just go off completely.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 17:39
|
|
|
ChogsEnhour posted:Likewise. I got into a bit of a spat with a pal of mine over this too. Within the movie universe I can accept and understand a dude being super badass and kicking all kinds of rear end. Then you have these two who have almost super-powered abilities beyond anything you've seen before. A guy who can kill people with a pin-point precision baseball. Calling it mini bosses is really spot on. It also didn't help that they had no back story or any other info about them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 23:28
|
|
|
Non Serviam posted:Calling it mini bosses is really spot on. It also didn't help that they had no back story or any other info about them. Some writer got high and thought that the Twins from Breaking Bad were cool but not badass enough. Tada. The gently caress is backstory?
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 23:31
|
|
|
Arrath posted:Some writer got high and thought that the Twins from Breaking Bad were cool but not badass enough. Tada. The gently caress is backstory? They really did seem like an afterthought, and that almost no time was devoted to them on the script. Like another poster said, it's obvious that a movie like this requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, so it's not so much about them being "not realistic". It's about them just coming out of nowhere, having no connection to the main plot, and adding nothing to further the story.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 23:35
|
|
|
Non Serviam posted:Calling it mini bosses is really spot on. It also didn't help that they had no back story or any other info about them. I was really hoping the movie would've ended on a screen where dude's in the bouncing boxing pose and a "CONTINUE?" graphic superimposed, counting down like all those old classic side-scrolling brawler games.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 00:18
|
|
|
On a different note, I just watched Citizen Four and, Jesus, Laura Poitras should have hired an editor. The movie got a well deserved Oscar because of what Snowden did, but the documentary was so terrible. Several parts could have been cut down, and many topics should have been presented in a manner that allowed people to understand exactly what Snowden revealed. Basically, she needs to watch more Errol Morris' documentaries.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 00:41
|
|
|
Non Serviam posted:They really did seem like an afterthought, and that almost no time was devoted to them on the script. Yeah, there are limits to suspension of disbelief. One of my biggest movie pet peeves is when I accept the story and concept of something like Harry Potter or Star Wars, but then there's elements that stick out and don't make sense, they contradict. So you say "Hey, that doesn't make any sense!" But a ton of people seem to respond with "Who cares?! Its not real, wizards aren't real, jedi aren't real, who cares its a movie". But the movie, while involving fantastic elements and suspension of disbelief, needs to be loving internally consistent at least! I guess that explains why Hollywood is what it is; its just a few angry  nerds like us that care. Everybody else is happy to go see Transformers 5 or whatever 
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 17:06
|
|
|
Caught a trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service the other day and am a mixture of livid and disappointed that it wasn't, in fact, a trailer for a movie version of The Invisibles. Quite the opposite, even.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 18:21
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:Yeah, there are limits to suspension of disbelief. One of my biggest movie pet peeves is when I accept the story and concept of something like Harry Potter You know what bothered me in a recent rewatch of Sorceror's Stone? When Slytherin guys are filmed as total villains for doing regular stuff. There's a Quidditch scene where a Slytherin Bludger whacks another kid with a ball and it's filmed like he maliciously cheated. Except that's why there are bludgers on the field. They whack balls at each other and at other players. The implication is basically "this kid is evil because he has weird teeth and is in evil house, but our boys at Gryffindor would never stoop to playing this game by the rules of this game!"
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 19:24
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:Caught a trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service the other day and am a mixture of livid and disappointed that it wasn't, in fact, a trailer for a movie version of The Invisibles. Quite the opposite, even. It was a really fun, kinda campy spy movie about a plucky street kid turned superspy. It reminded me of, like if you took a young version of Daniel Craig's Bond and put it into a 60's Bond film with all the crazy gadgetry and slightly overdone fight scenes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 19:34
|
|
|
theironjef posted:You know what bothered me in a recent rewatch of Sorceror's Stone? When Slytherin guys are filmed as total villains for doing regular stuff. The whole idea of Quidditch is ridiculous. Lets spend forever playing soccer while meanwhile two people chase a ball that really determines the winner. Also sometimes games can last for days without end. Its the worst elements of Cricket and Soccer and Football and Baseball and Rugby all mashed into the most un-fun sport imaginable. (if not for, you know, flying brooms) Its also extremely dangerous and painful to play and not likely something school administrators would sanction officially. Its painfully obvious from reading that Rowling doesn't like or appreciate or even understand what people like about sports. I say this as somebody who isn't really gung-ho about sports myself, at least I see the appeal in spectating a close game of football or something. I've heard some people say that she was kinda Satirizing the way people get into sports, and I guess maybe that makes sense. Or maybe its a cop-out. All that said, I'm disappointed the movies didn't show more quidditch. It actually looks pretty drat cool on the silver screen. But even the quidditch word cup got edited down to like ten loving seconds.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 19:37
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:All that said, I'm disappointed the movies didn't show more quidditch. It actually looks pretty drat cool on the silver screen. But even the quidditch word cup got edited down to like ten loving seconds. The Rifftrax guys disagree with you so much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3YTIwmW_ZY
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 19:52
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:Words Your explanation is the only one that makes sense. Why isn't everyone chasing that one stupid ball? It's too bad, because I'm sure a true sports fan could count up with a pretty awesome wizard game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 19:59
|
|
|
ElGroucho posted:Your explanation is the only one that makes sense. Why isn't everyone chasing that one stupid ball? Because the ball doesn't win, it just scores 150 points and ends the game. If the other team has more than 150 points on you and you catch it, you still lose. So if your whole team is just chasing the stupid wingball, the other team is just passing a regular ball through the goal a bunch of times (16 oughta do) and you lose. The problem was that the Seeker role in the movies is too magical and special snowflakey. They just hang around and then win the game unimpeded except by the other seeker. The bludgers should spend that first few minutes pre-wingy ball basically trying to hospitalize the other team's seeker.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 20:04
|
|
|
So every single other person on the team works to try and get a 16-goal-lead on the opponents while two people actually play the game. If they do not perform 16 goals better than the enemy team [which has not come up in the books once, iirc], they have made literally no impact on the outcome. It's just a stupid game with bad design. Sorry. Ignite Memories has a new favorite as of 20:58 on Feb 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 20:32
|
|
|
It's all whimsical and fun the first time you read about it/watch it. But yeah, by the time the world cup rolls around, it doesn't make any sense at all. It's just a plot device to introduce new characters. House points are equally useless. The gently caress do they even do? This childrens book series is irritating me irrationally.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 20:44
|
|
|
Welcome to Hogwarts, where the rules are made up and the points don't matter
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 20:46
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:[which has not come up in the books once, iirc] It happens at the world cup, where one side gets blown out like 180-10 before the snitch is caught. Which is funny because it implies that one team managed to coast to the world cup purely on the strength of their seeker even though the rest of their team was garbage because only the seeker really matters.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 20:52
|
|
|
I don't remember that happening. But that just makes it more pointless/stupid. If the losing team caught the snitch, why? Why would he do that? If the winning team caught the snitch, then it STILL didn't really matter how good their chases and beaters and keeper were, because they would have won anyway. At best, it's an ill-thought-out 'win-more' mechanic which doubles as a way to intentionally throw the match/surrender. At worst, it completely trivializes the efforts of six-sevenths of every team. edit: I just came up with a new lineup for my quidditch team code:Ignite Memories has a new favorite as of 21:11 on Feb 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:01
|
|
|
mng posted:It's all whimsical and fun the first time you read about it/watch it. But yeah, by the time the world cup rolls around, it doesn't make any sense at all. It's just a plot device to introduce new characters. This is Harry Potter in a nutshell. It's very charming and whimsical, but if you scratch a milimeter below the surface everything falls apart. Why would they give a time travel device to a 12 year old girl? How many students need to get petrified/bludgeoned/jinxed hexed before Hogwarts gets shut down? Why are you teaching teenage boys how to make "love potions" and then how to magically erase memories? Just don't think about the silly games and stupid spells and just enjoy the series because it can't really hold up to any scrutiny.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:09
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:I don't remember that happening. But that just makes it more pointless/stupid. If the losing team caught the snitch, why? Why would he do that? If the winning team caught the snitch, then it STILL didn't really matter how good their chases and beaters and keeper were, because they would have won anyway. They mention that in Goblet of Fire. They said that he realized that Ireland was a such a better team, and they caught it so that it was not a complete embarrassment.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:13
|
|
|
My dislike of Harry Potter stems from me reading So You Want to Be a Wizard when I was younger, and Harry Potter not being as awesome I mean, I think they defeat the book's version of the devil while trying to reignite the sun in that book, if memory serves 
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:16
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:If the losing team caught the snitch, why? Why would he do that? Because the seeker knew his team was too garbage at the game to recover, and wanted to show off.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:17
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:So every single other person on the team works to try and get a 16-goal-lead on the opponents while two people actually play the game. If they do not perform 16 goals better than the enemy team [which has not come up in the books once, iirc], they have made literally no impact on the outcome. League scoring is cumulative instead of just win-loss. So if you win every game by just beating on the other seeker and preventing all scoring except for your seeker score, you pick up a whopping 150 league points. That's not gonna help in the final season scoring very much. Wins only matter for tie breaks. Ignite Memories posted:I don't remember that happening. But that just makes it more pointless/stupid. If the losing team caught the snitch, why? Why would he do that? If you're getting blown out it's in your best interest to end the game and stop your opponent from just racking up yet more league points. the above is probably all bullshit
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:46
|
|
|
mng posted:House points are equally useless. The gently caress do they even do? This childrens book series is irritating me irrationally. Having pupils divided into Houses and House points being awarded for best exam results, position in school sports days etc. is something that actually happens in British High Schools though. Or at least used to - we did it at my Scottish one (which was an ordinary State funded school not a private/so-called"public" one) anyway.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:55
|
|
|
ElGroucho posted:My dislike of Harry Potter stems from me reading So You Want to Be a Wizard when I was younger, and Harry Potter not being as awesome My dislike of Harry Potter stems from having read
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 21:56
|
|
|
I thought I read somewhere Quidditch being completely nonsensical was intentional, and it's intended as a parody of cricket or some other English sport with bizarre complex rules that goes on forever. Same with the wizards' dumbass money system with its Knuts and Sickles and poo poo, that was meant to parody the British monetary system before they divided the pound neatly into 100 pence. I don't know, I'm not familiar enough with English culture to say for sure, that's just what I've heard.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 22:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 03:37 |
|
|
I stand firmly that Levi Grossman's The Magicians was the best version of Harry Potter, at least for the first book.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2015 22:00
|
|