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Offline beardo

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #460 on: June 07, 2014, 10:35:06 PM »
I think every single japanese character in The Wolverine were some kind of martial artist, well maybe except the ladies who cleaned him up, but who knows?.
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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #461 on: June 07, 2014, 10:38:18 PM »
Samurai are something that Japan is known for. It makes sense to incorporate these elements into a movie that's set in Japan. Would you rather they portray Japan as America instead?
wow

Quote
If what you're saying is correct then it is a two way street. Americans are usually portrayed as dumbass, arrogant, gun-slinging assholes. Chinese are usually portrayed as martial arts experts. Indian people are usually portrayed as Vishnu worshiping convenient store workers. Europeans are usually portrayed as pompous dandies.
Exactly and they are stereotypes.

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #462 on: June 08, 2014, 02:39:12 AM »
At the heart of every FES argument is rooster.

Without her it'd be one giant circle jerk.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #463 on: June 08, 2014, 04:07:44 AM »
Aww you guys. :3

Ghost of V

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #464 on: June 08, 2014, 04:22:56 AM »
You aren't too bad.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #465 on: June 08, 2014, 05:22:34 AM »
Anyway, Wolverine doesn't spend the entire movie fighting stereotypical ninja warriors.  There is a gang of them in the movie, and it is pretty silly, but they aren't really in it for all that long.  They show up a couple of times during the third act and then mysteriously just kind of go away to leave Wolverine and his ladies to fight the main couple of villains.  Most of the people that Wolverine fights during the buildup are pretty generic thugs that are a part of some Yakuza subplot.

Also, I maintain that The Last Samurai is, well, maybe "racist" is a bit too strong a word, but it's racially problematic, at the very least.  It's like Hollywood thinks that no one will be interested in seeing any kind of strange or foreign culture unless we have a white male lead to see us through it.  I understand that the fish-out-of-water setup is a tried-and-true formula, and that audiences usually want a relatable protagonist, but even if we let that slide, there's still the unpleasant theme of dominance pervading the whole thing.  It can't just be a simple character study of our hero, a learning experience for him to return to his own life a little wiser from; no, he always masters the culture.  He always becomes better than everyone else in the tribe at every aspect of their lifestyles, and emerges as their savior and/or leader.  They couldn't do a thing for themselves.  No, only this benevolent white messiah could set them free.

Still, I must admit that as far as patronizing white savior movies go, The Last Samurai isn't too bad.  The worst of those films tend to be the ones that don't involve the hero going native, but instead rescuing the helpless people of color from bad situations or lifestyles, like The Blind Side or The HelpThe Blind Side in particular...ugh.  That piece of shit is more racist than The Birth of a Nation.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2014, 02:39:17 AM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #466 on: June 08, 2014, 06:04:18 AM »
Also, I maintain that The Last Samurai is, well, maybe "racist" is a bit too strong a word, but it's racially problematic, at the very least.  It's like Hollywood thinks that no one will be interested in seeing any kind of strange or foreign culture, unless we have a white male lead to see us through it.  I understand that the fish-out-of-water setup is a tried-and-true formula, and that audiences usually want a relatable protagonist, but even if we let that slide, there's still the unpleasant theme of dominance pervading the whole thing.  It can't just be a simple character study of our hero, a learning experience for him to return to his own life a little wiser from; no, he always masters the culture.  He always becomes better than everyone else in the tribe at every aspect of their lifestyles, and emerges as their savior and/or leader.  They couldn't do a thing for themselves.  No, only this benevolent white messiah could set them free.

Still, I must admit that as far as patronizing white savior movies go, The Last Samurai isn't too bad.  The worst of those films tend to be the ones that don't involve the hero going native, but instead rescuing the helpless people of color from bad situations or lifestyles, like The Blind Side or The HelpThe Blind Side in particular...ugh.  That piece of shit is more racist than The Birth of a Nation.
Yes, and I will agree with that. Whites saving people from others or from themselves is a huge theme. When I had my ridiculous "Native Americans in Sci-Fi" class (taught by an archaeologist of course) that was one of the big themes. Whitey would come in and instantly be accepted into the tribe and he would save the day. The Last Samurai isn't as terrible as that since he doesn't actually save anyone, but nonetheless it does follow the formula. I remember the best show we watched that kicked that theme to the curb was an episode of Star Trek TNG, Jounrey's End. It was a dispute between some human American Indians and Cardassians and in the end the Traveler said "have faith in their abilities to solve their problems on their own." There were still a lot of stupid stereotypical elements though, but I did like that line. Unfortunately, the dumb theme continues.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #467 on: June 10, 2014, 03:39:00 AM »
I've watched the first few episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Honestly, it's not as terrible as you might have heard, it's just, well, not great.  It's hokey, it's clichéd, and at times it comes across a little fanficcy, like when they make pointless references to elements from the movies.  It's as if they're saying to the audience, "Remember, this is being made by - sort of - the same people who made the movies, so it must great by association!"  Like I said, though, it's not bad, and I've heard it actually becomes quite good later on in the season.  So, if you're a big fan of the movies and want to see more of the universe or whatever, you might want to check it out.  Just don't be expecting something that delivers on the level of the movies.

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #468 on: June 10, 2014, 09:28:56 PM »
Jack Reacher.

I only watched it out of spite because they (The Conspiracy) kept taking it down off Usenet. Pretty mediocre film. I have no idea why Werner Herzog was in it. Google complete agrees with me.

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Offline Roundy

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #469 on: June 11, 2014, 01:41:45 AM »
I've watched the first few episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Honestly, it's not as terrible as you might have heard, it's just, well, not great.  It's hokey, it's clichéd, and at times it comes across a little fanficcy, like when they make pointless references to elements from the movies.  It's as if they're saying to the audience, "Remember, this is being made by - sort of - the same people who made the movies, so it must great by association!"  Like I said, though, it's not bad, and I've heard it actually becomes quite good later on in the season.  So, if you're a big fan of the movies and want to see more of the universe or whatever, you might want to check it out.  Just don't be expecting something that delivers on the level of the movies.

A TV show budget can't deliver an experience on the same level as an action movie budget?  How surprising.
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Saddam Hussein

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #470 on: June 13, 2014, 03:13:30 AM »
Holy shit, Sif is in this show.



That joke was just for Blanko.  But seriously, she does guest star in one episode.  I guess if you're going to go fanficcy, you might as well get someone from the movies to show up and give things an air of authenticity.  It certainly beats having a bunch of mundane agents just sitting around and talking wistfully about how awesome the Asgardians are and how hot Thor is.  And Jaimie Alexander is at least believable as a super-powered alien/pseudo-goddess, which is more than I can say for Peter MacNicol.  Yes, I did say Peter MacNicol, and yes, it is as bad as it sounds.

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #471 on: June 13, 2014, 03:19:09 AM »
Only Balkno has played dark souls

Saddam Hussein

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #472 on: June 13, 2014, 03:23:03 AM »
Only Balkno and sadaam have, actually.

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #473 on: June 13, 2014, 07:47:40 AM »
I'm literally an expert on Dark Souls because I've been to /r/darksouls like twice.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #474 on: June 15, 2014, 04:24:19 AM »
Anyway, as the end of the season draws near and the HYDRA element from Captain America: The Winter Soldier becomes the main focus, the quality of the show has increased considerably.  But just like with Winter Soldier, I don't like the fact that they feel the need to emphasize that this is HYDRA, not SHIELD, which has totally been infiltrated and destroyed by now, and yes, this HYDRA is indeed the same puppy-kicking, mustache-twirling group that Red Skull led back in WW2, and that's how we know they're the bad guys.  It almost entirely undercuts any political message they're trying to send about authoritarianism, or freedom being sacrificed in the name of security, or whatever.  There's just no real parallel between HYDRA and the shenanigans that our governments have been up to in recent years.  With SHIELD, there certainly is, and they might have had something good if they had just kept it at that.  But no, instead we're supposed to look at these idiots yelling "Hail Hydra!" and totally see the NSA there.  Right.

Okay, I'll talk about something that other people actually saw, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I thought it was good, but not quite the masterpiece that all the critics seem to think it is.  For one thing, even with this whole timeline-merging thing, there are still some pretty glaring plot holes and continuity errors.  Why is Xavier alive?  When did the world turn into an apocalyptic wasteland, given that it was just fine when we last saw it in The Wolverine?  Did it take the government forty years to create the Sentinels after Trask was killed?  And didn't Trask say that the Sentinels were made out of some kind of plastic, or some other non-metal substance?  But when they're revealed, they're metal.

Also, Magneto sucked.  I don't mind that he's an antagonist - that kind of comes with the territory for him - but everything he did was so illogical, so myopic, and so objectively stupid that he was incredibly annoying to watch.  Magneto is a radical with a very different moral code to the heroes, yes.  But he's not an idiot who has no understanding of consequences.  And speaking of consequences, why does Magneto keep managing to avoid them at the end of every movie?  He hasn't faced any negative repercussions for his actions since the first film, and all jokes aside, this is something that's really beginning to frustrate me, maybe on a psychological level or something.  Would it really ruin the franchise if we could just get to see this asshole get his comeuppance every once in a while, rather than just having him exit stage left yelling "I'll get you next time!" after every movie?

Oh, and one more thing, the movie repeats the urban legend about how JFK was apparently killed with a curving bullet, and therefore, hint hint, he must have been killed by a different shot.  The way they talk about it is a very amusing take on the theory, but in reality, there was nothing unusual about the shot that killed JFK.  Not really a critique of the film itself, but it's such a common misconception that I felt I had to correct it.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2015, 03:35:26 AM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline Rushy

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #475 on: June 15, 2014, 05:14:46 AM »
Because of this thread I am now watching Battlestar Galactica. For some reason any time I saw commercials on SciFi channel for it, I thought it would be cheesy and never watched it.


The show is amazing.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #476 on: June 15, 2014, 06:25:32 AM »
I could never get over the cinematography/shaky cam.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #477 on: June 15, 2014, 08:25:47 AM »
Okay, I'll talk about something that other people actually saw, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I thought it was good, but not quite the masterpiece that all the critics seem to think it is.  For one thing, even with this whole timeline-merging thing, there are still some pretty glaring plot holes and continuity errors.  Why is Xavier alive?  When did the world turn into an apocalyptic wasteland, given that it was just fine when we last saw it in The Wolverine?  Did it take the government forty years to create the Sentinels after Trask was killed?  And didn't Trask say that the Sentinels were made out of some kind of plastic, or some other non-metal substance?  But when they're revealed, they're metal.

Xavier was alive at the end of The Last Stand. There was an amazingly comic-book/soap opera explanation, but he was alive. The simpler answer is that a lot of that movie was retconned in this one, because Bryan Singer didn't do that one and didn't want a lot of it to happen. The sentinels didn't come about for a while for one reason or another, or maybe they did but were locked up, who knows. And how do you know the sentinels are metal? Just because they look metal-ish?
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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #478 on: June 15, 2014, 12:27:34 PM »
Anyway, as the end of the season draws near and the HYDRA element from Captain America: The Winter Soldier becomes the main focus, the quality of the show has increased considerably.  But just like with Winter Soldier, I don't like the fact that they feel the need to emphasize that this is HYDRA, not SHIELD, which has totally been infiltrated and destroyed by now, and yes, this HYDRA is indeed the same puppy-kicking, mustache-twirling group that Red Skull led back in WW2, and that's how we know they're the bad guys.  It almost entirely undercuts any political message they're trying to send about authoritarianism, or freedom being sacrificed in the name of security, or whatever.  There's just no real parallel between HYDRA and the shenanigans that our governments have been up to in recent years.  With SHIELD, there certainly is, and they might have had something good if they had just kept it at that.  But no, instead we're supposed to look at these idiots yelling "Hail Hydra!" and totally see the NSA there.  Right.
I watch SHIELD.

You're right that they want to separate them but shield as it existed was hydra.  Coleson has to rebuild it from the ground up because it was so full of hydra.  Go back to the roots in essence.
And they did mention the "hail hydra" as being silly.


Okay, I'll talk about something that other people actually saw, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I thought it was good, but not quite the masterpiece that all the critics seem to think it is.  For one thing, even with this whole timeline-merging thing, there are still some pretty glaring plot holes and continuity errors.  Why is Xavier alive?  When did the world turn into an apocalyptic wasteland, given that it was just fine when we last saw it in The Wolverine?  Did it take the government forty years to create the Sentinels after Trask was killed?  And didn't Trask say that the Sentinels were made out of some kind of plastic, or some other non-metal substance?  But when they're revealed, they're metal.

Also, Magneto sucked.  I don't mind that he's an antagonist - that kind of comes with the territory for him - but everything he did was so illogical, so myopic, and so objectively stupid that he was incredibly annoying to watch.  Magneto is a radical with a very different moral code to the heroes, yes.  But he's not an idiot who has no understanding of consequences.  And speaking of consequences, why does Magneto keep managing to avoid them at the end of every movie?  He hasn't faced any negative repercussions for his actions since the first film, and all jokes aside, this is something that's really beginning to frustrate me, maybe on a psychological level or something.  Would it really ruin the franchise if we could just get to see this asshole get his comeuppance every once in a while, rather than just having him exit stage left yelling "I'll get you next time!" after every movie?

Oh, and one more thing, the movie repeats the urban legend about how JFK was apparently killed with a curving bullet, and therefore, hint hint, he must have been killed by a different shot.  The way they talk about it is a very amusing take on the theory, but in reality, there was nothing unusual about the shot that killed JFK.  Not really a critique of the film itself, but it's such a common misconception that I felt I had to correct it.
Saw that too.

Xavier has done a lot of "ha ha I'm not dead" in the comics. I think his count is 3 or 4.
Each time he just shows up and says "oh I didn't die I just made you think I did so I could go on a secret mission which I'll never talk about." Or "nope, it was a shape shifter that looked like me and I didn't bother telling you I was alive because you needed to fight without me."
And of course they introduced his brain dead twin brother who was kept on life support his entire existence.  This was done so Xavier could beam his mind into the body during one of his apparent deaths.
Yes its all comic cannon. 

As for the sentinels.  (Assuming you mean originals) why would you think they're made of metal?
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Ghost of V

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #479 on: June 15, 2014, 05:42:01 PM »
Because of this thread I am now watching Battlestar Galactica. For some reason any time I saw commercials on SciFi channel for it, I thought it would be cheesy and never watched it.


The show is amazing.

Join the club.