[garygreen]

wait how is there a dune character named duncan idaho? are the dune people earth humans? i thought they were aliens or some such shit.

[Fortuna]

wait how is there a dune character named duncan idaho? are the dune people earth humans? i thought they were aliens or some such shit.

Johnny Utah was already taken.

[Iceman]

wait how is there a dune character named duncan idaho? are the dune people earth humans? i thought they were aliens or some such shit.

Johnny Utah was already taken.

Whatever point you’re trying to make is broken

[Fortuna]

wait how is there a dune character named duncan idaho? are the dune people earth humans? i thought they were aliens or some such shit.

Johnny Utah was already taken.

Whatever point you’re trying to make is broken

If you don't know what the point is, how do you know it's broken? I hoped that my response would carry the same silliness as naming a character Duncan Idaho in a book where everyone else has cool sci-fi names.

[Iceman]

Yeah but at least the guy playing Duncan has a great Bodhi…

[honk]

Oh, come on, can you honestly say I'm wrong? There are some stories in which Conan is an absolute cock. "The God in the Bowl," for instance. Conan maims multiple innocent guardsmen in that one. You know that's just not cool. And I haven't even seen the Conan movie with Momoa in it. Maybe I should watch it and report back.

I meant more in that it seems like you don't quite get Conan or if you do get it then you don't like it but I do kinda think you miss the point a bit.

His prose is overly ponderous and self-serious, he had an annoying tendency to repeat basic plots over and over, his racism certainly hasn't aged well, and Conan himself often comes across as just plain unlikable. Still, there's plenty of great fantasy out there that owes a lot to his influence. I like to think that Conan walked so that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser could run.

Conan is great because he reads a bit like a demigod/hero from old mythologies. Complete with self-serious and repeating basic plots. Conan is definitely highly unlikeable at times but that's what makes him fantastic. He's such an arrogant, violent, hypermasculine caricature and that's what makes him fun.

But I'm sure you'll hate Momoa as Conan as well even though he's actually perfect for the role. The rest of the movie has its downsides but I would have been thrilled to get a Conan series with Momoa.

This is a valid interpretation of Conan, but saying that it's "the point" of the character as if that was Howard's intent is highly questionable. I don't believe that Howard intended Conan to be a "caricature" or a character viewed ironically at all, and judging by the contents of the many letters Howard wrote, Conan seemed to embody many of his own sincere beliefs about the importance of physical strength, the inherent corruption of society, and the merits of adhering to personal morals rather than official laws. And the stories themselves explicitly state that Conan is a charismatic, compelling figure whom people are naturally drawn to follow, which is how he ends up as the leader of so many mercenary bands and eventually a king. It's a little hard to square that description with the Conan we directly see when so much of his dialogue is just boorish threats and insults.

[rooster]

Nothing you just said contradicted anything I said. By caricature I meant only exaggeration of masculinity, not irony or comedic relief.

[honk]

This one's for you, roosroos!

Conan the Barbarian (Marcus Nispel, 2011)

They don't make movies like this anymore. This is some ludicrously goofy, violent camp, and to a degree I have to respect it for that. Does that mean the movie is especially good - well, no, not really, but I don't think it's really trying to be a good movie so much as it's trying to be a fun one, if that makes sense. The important question is of course how well Jason Momoa acquits himself in the lead role, and the answer is that he does just fine. He looks the part, he does well in the action scenes, and he even improves on the source material by imbuing Conan with a charisma that Howard was never able to convince me he had in the original stories. The other cast members throw themselves into the silliness with aplomb as well, although I have to say that Stephen Lang is badly miscast as the villain. For a character who's supposed to be a physical threat to Conan and someone who can hold his own against him in a fight, Lang is simply too old, and it becomes obvious whenever he and Momoa are clashing. There's only so much you can hide with stunt doubles, and so the direction becomes weird and cuts frequently, Lang swings his weapons as slowly as you'd expect a man pushing sixty to, and Momoa has to pull weird, unnecessary stunts like spinning around or swinging his sword above his head like a lasso to give Lang time to block his blows.

[rooster]

I can't imagine anyone doing a better job and I'm sad they only did the one movie. Truly his sexiest role.

[Snupes]

Aw man I missed the "Jason Momoa is terrible" train. 🙁

I absolutely adored Dune. ❤️ I got so lost in Villeneuve's harsh vision of Arrakis, and there really wasn't much of the movie I didn't enjoy, though I do feel like they leaned a little too hard on some of those repeating visions for a long time. I was also a little bit high, though, so they might have just felt extremely long to me lol 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was gonna comment on how I sigh a little internally when I see Momoa's gonna be in a film these days, but given that he is apparently a fantastic actor and actually every actor is exactly the same in every film and I just don't understand intellectually, I'll withhold my judgment until I watch it again. 😋

Will say, though, there were a few line deliveries from him where my nephew and I turned to each other unprompted and had to stifle giggles and chuckles. There's one scene I really have to see again where he gives what I imagine is a series of lines to daddy Atreus that's supposed to have some kind of badass flippancy to it, but it feels like he's doing a first-time line reading of a script he hasn't seen yet. There were a few moments like that but idk, maybe I'm biased against him for some reason even though I like him as a person.

[rooster]

I go easy on Momoa because I feel like he hits a specific himbo badass niche that many can't pull off. Is he the best dramatic actor? No, but I do have a difficult time imagining anyone else doing what he can do well.

[Rama Set]

I go easy on Momoa because I feel like he hits a specific himbo badass niche that many can't pull off. Is he the best dramatic actor? No, but I do have a difficult time imagining anyone else doing what he can do well.

Exactly. Lots of respected actors do their thing and no one gets upset. Momoa shows up with his stupid sexy face and people get their shit in a knot.

[Snupes]

Out of curiosity, what type of "respected actors" are we talking about? 'Cause I feel like we're making a huge assumption that those criticizing Momoa specifically opt out of criticizing actors of a similar caliber lol. I legit can't think of any actors I particularly enjoy that I feel are at all as invariant and...I'm hesitating to criticize his acting, since it's been a bit since I've seen his other films, but I get a very real sense of him just not being very good at acting from the way he delivers all of his lines and expressions and emotions (the acting stuff :p). Aquaman was just not amazing overall, yet even still I very clearly remember not being too much more impressed with him than I was with Amber Heard (but she was literally cardboard, so).

Like y'all can shrug it off as "you just hate that he himbo/sexy", but I'm fine with himbo and sexy lmao. It's possible to not think an actor is good without it being for some dumb, shallow reason.

EDIT: This is literally exactly what Rama thinks. 🤣

[juner]

spoderman 3 (2021). Twice, actually. Easily the best of the trilogy and generally just a fun watch (with enough serious moments) as spoderman claws back his own agency from father stark and uncle strange. Enough fan service for everyone.

[juner]

matrix 4 (2021)

it is not a good movie and you should not ever watch it. i am not movie connoisseur like crudblud, or even a connoisseur-impersonator, like sadaam. i generally don't dunk on movies, or even bother to write anything about them if i didn't think they were worth watching. this is the exception. the movie literally did not ever need to be made unless the goal was to make 2 & 3 look not so bad, which in that case it did a great job.

movie is literal garbage jfc

[garygreen]

i agree with everything junker has to say about the new matrix movie. it is pointless garbage.

[Fortuna]

Is that Morpheus wearing a watermelon suit?

[Dr Van Nostrand]

Is that Morpheus wearing a watermelon suit?

It's Joker's old suit. Morpheus bought it at Adam West's garage sale.

[rooster]

Just finished Matrix 4 - it was pretty pointless with most of the movie focusing on nostalgia. It really felt like a fanfic epilogue. But I thought it was fine. Even though the plot was unnecessary and definitely didn't need to be made, I've certainly watched worse movies. And as someone who follows Brass Against on Twitter, I was excited to hear their RAtM cover make it into the movie.

[juner]

I thought it was fine

imagine being this wrong