941
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 17, 2019, 04:31:51 AM »
The altruism of Trump, so nobly working without pay on behalf of the American people.
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942
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 16, 2019, 04:59:42 PM »
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-shutdown-we-ll-be-out-long-time-n959251
Nice. I'm going to need a new job soon if this keeps up.
Nice. I'm going to need a new job soon if this keeps up.
943
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 13, 2019, 04:54:42 PM »
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html
On the notion of acting very, very guilty. This really is a crazy meme at this point.
On the notion of acting very, very guilty. This really is a crazy meme at this point.
944
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Build Wall
« on: January 12, 2019, 02:22:43 PM »
https://www.businessinsider.com/gofundme-refunding-donations-build-the-wall-fundraiser-2019-1
Take the money and run, Brian. Don't let your dreams be memes.
Take the money and run, Brian. Don't let your dreams be memes.
945
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 09, 2019, 10:23:41 PM »You're acting like those people don't count and shouldn't be taken into consideration. ICE still searches for them, Trump still relies on their numbers to inflate his fearmongering, etc. They're part of the discussionThey may be part of the broader discussion of immigration in America, but, as you very astutely substantiated and documented, they cannot be part of the wall discussion.
Trump seems to disagree, judging by him making no distinction between the two populations in the statistics he frequently cites (the most recent example being the 266,000 arrests he mentioned last night). You and Rushy may feel as though they were always two separate issues, but the article was of course written in response to what Trump said, and pointing out that the numbers are far smaller than he claims is a perfectly valid rebuttal.
946
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 09, 2019, 05:21:13 AM »Overstaying a visa isn't a criminal offense, so lumping illegal aliens in with people overstaying visas is dumb. There's a huge difference between someone who was legally allowed entry into the country versus someone who gained entry without prior authorization.
Yes, and one of the main differences is that the people who overstay their visas - a good chunk of the population Trump stokes fear about - would be unaffected by the wall. You're acting like those people don't count and shouldn't be taken into consideration. ICE still searches for them, Trump still relies on their numbers to inflate his fearmongering, etc. They're part of the discussion, and it's disingenuous to just dismiss them as if we only ever cared about the people who illegally crossed the border to begin with.
The rest of the article is of a similar caliber
I agree. There are many reasons why the wall is a stupid idea, not just one.
948
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: January 06, 2019, 06:35:14 AM »
In keeping with my tradition of discussing DC shit here so as not to clog up "Just Watched" with endless capeshit discussion, I watched a camrip of Aquaman. I'm a little mixed on it. The writing is extremely lazy, being packed full of clunky "As you know..." dialogue and a story that can't decide whether it should be a jaunty, lighthearted adventure or a darker faux-Shakespearean struggle for power. I honestly suspect that it was a first draft. There are times when the designs of Atlantis and the undersea world look amazing, and there are times when Wan goes full Lucas and crams way, way too much shit into the frame, making everything look ugly, tacky, and incomprehensible, although I was relieved to discover that no other scene comes even close to matching the hideousness of Arthur and Orm's gladiator match. Momoa is likable and enthusiastic, but he's barely even acting in this movie. He's just coasting as himself. And the movie, instead of perhaps building Arthur's arc around his demonstrated character flaws, instead makes up some nonsense about how he would be the ideal king if only he'd learn to accept himself for being of two different races and the worthy heir to the throne. None of that is ever reflected in any of Arthur's lines or Momoa's performance.
As terrible as I may have just made it all sound, I did still enjoy Aquaman. The movie is charming almost in spite of itself. Everyone involved seems to be having a lot of fun, the visuals are imaginative and embrace the source material's silliness, the action scenes are mostly done well, and in general there's a childlike sense of exuberance and joy propelling everything along. But a movie having that sort of feel to it is not something that's easy to manufacture, which leads me to my final point here that WB needs to start working harder on the scripts for these movies. I'm beginning to think it's going to take yet another major failure for them to realize that writing actually matters. David Goyer is writing another script for the DCEU, despite being just as responsible for its early stumbles as Snyder. Even WW, easily the DCEU's best movie, wasn't exactly what you'd call written well. I'm not saying they need to get auteurs coming up with the next TDK or anything, but their current system of putting together a slapdash sequence of action beats, quips, and worn-out tropes just isn't sustainable.
As terrible as I may have just made it all sound, I did still enjoy Aquaman. The movie is charming almost in spite of itself. Everyone involved seems to be having a lot of fun, the visuals are imaginative and embrace the source material's silliness, the action scenes are mostly done well, and in general there's a childlike sense of exuberance and joy propelling everything along. But a movie having that sort of feel to it is not something that's easy to manufacture, which leads me to my final point here that WB needs to start working harder on the scripts for these movies. I'm beginning to think it's going to take yet another major failure for them to realize that writing actually matters. David Goyer is writing another script for the DCEU, despite being just as responsible for its early stumbles as Snyder. Even WW, easily the DCEU's best movie, wasn't exactly what you'd call written well. I'm not saying they need to get auteurs coming up with the next TDK or anything, but their current system of putting together a slapdash sequence of action beats, quips, and worn-out tropes just isn't sustainable.
949
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: December 31, 2018, 04:12:01 AM »“Playing themselves” is one of the most overused criticisms. It implies you have a clue of what they are like irl and is just a pseudo-criticism. Perhaps he just plays the roles similarly or has been directed to do so?
Khal Drogo is not really anything like Aquaman.
It's not necessarily a criticism at all, just an observation, and we can often get an idea of a high-profile actor's general personality and demeanor from interviews and promotional material. And I agree that Khal Drogo is nothing like Aquaman. I was pointing that out as the exception, not the rule.
I've been watching The Man in the High Castle, it's ok.
It's boring as hell. I don't know how you make "Nazis won WWII and took over America" boring, but they managed it somehow.
950
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: December 29, 2018, 04:41:32 PM »
He gave a good performance in his breakout role of Khal Drogo, which didn't involve much more than him looking intimidating. But really, though, a lot of the capeshitters in the DCEU are basically playing themselves in terms of personality. It worked out well for Gal Gadot, but not so much for Momoa, and definitely not for Ezra Miller.
951
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: December 25, 2018, 03:51:49 AM »
capeshit deluge
Venom (Ruben Fleischer, 2018)
Much like recent DCEU outings Suicide Squad and Justice League, this is a movie torn between identities, and remnants of every would-be approach can be seen in the final product. One faction at Sony wanted this to be a more generic capeshit movie, another wanted it be dark and edgy (possibly even rated R), and still another was looking to make this an offbeat buddy comedy. The first act suffers the worst from this indecision, as its straight-laced tone clashes wildly with both the rest of the movie and Tom Hardy's wacky performance. My first thought when I saw Eddie Brock as this slovenly, unshaven, unprofessional guy yelling into a camera about cover-ups was that maybe he was more of an alt-media, Alex Jones-esque type. But I guess that would have been too interesting for Sony, so they had to have him be this totally respected, mainstream journalist who works for a legitimate network and has a classy girlfriend who's clearly way out of his league and blah blah blah. Never mind that this guy looks, sounds, and acts like a bum.
Once the painfully-long first act is over and Venom itself is introduced, the movie picks up and Hardy's antics begin to pay off. This is not the movie that was advertised, and for once I actually preferred the real movie to the one the marketing was hyping up. Almost everything the trailers portrayed as dark and edgy, like Eddie's pleas for Venom to only hurt "bad" people, and the infamous "turd in the wind" line, is played for laughs. Venom is supposed to be ridiculous, and its weird manner of speaking, constant bitchiness, and cartoonishly deep voice make it and Eddie a delightful pair. There are exchanges between them that had me laughing hard.
Does that dynamic save the movie? Well, no. Venom simply can't escape its generic, formless me-too capeshit structure, what with its dull story, boring and unimpressive villain (Riz Ahmed is a fine actor, but he can't be intimidating to save his life), and ugly, incoherent climax with the obligatory "evil counterpart" boss fight. If the movie had been devoted to Eddie and Venom's relationship and given it plenty of focus, maybe the movie could have worked in spite of itself, rather than simply being an uninspired mess with one bright spot. That being said, I understand how mass audiences evidently appreciated this movie as being unique enough to turn it into a huge commercial success, and assuming that it continues to back away from the edgelord shit and focus more on the odd-couple dynamic, I might even be interested in checking out its eventual sequel.
Venom (Ruben Fleischer, 2018)
Much like recent DCEU outings Suicide Squad and Justice League, this is a movie torn between identities, and remnants of every would-be approach can be seen in the final product. One faction at Sony wanted this to be a more generic capeshit movie, another wanted it be dark and edgy (possibly even rated R), and still another was looking to make this an offbeat buddy comedy. The first act suffers the worst from this indecision, as its straight-laced tone clashes wildly with both the rest of the movie and Tom Hardy's wacky performance. My first thought when I saw Eddie Brock as this slovenly, unshaven, unprofessional guy yelling into a camera about cover-ups was that maybe he was more of an alt-media, Alex Jones-esque type. But I guess that would have been too interesting for Sony, so they had to have him be this totally respected, mainstream journalist who works for a legitimate network and has a classy girlfriend who's clearly way out of his league and blah blah blah. Never mind that this guy looks, sounds, and acts like a bum.
Once the painfully-long first act is over and Venom itself is introduced, the movie picks up and Hardy's antics begin to pay off. This is not the movie that was advertised, and for once I actually preferred the real movie to the one the marketing was hyping up. Almost everything the trailers portrayed as dark and edgy, like Eddie's pleas for Venom to only hurt "bad" people, and the infamous "turd in the wind" line, is played for laughs. Venom is supposed to be ridiculous, and its weird manner of speaking, constant bitchiness, and cartoonishly deep voice make it and Eddie a delightful pair. There are exchanges between them that had me laughing hard.
Does that dynamic save the movie? Well, no. Venom simply can't escape its generic, formless me-too capeshit structure, what with its dull story, boring and unimpressive villain (Riz Ahmed is a fine actor, but he can't be intimidating to save his life), and ugly, incoherent climax with the obligatory "evil counterpart" boss fight. If the movie had been devoted to Eddie and Venom's relationship and given it plenty of focus, maybe the movie could have worked in spite of itself, rather than simply being an uninspired mess with one bright spot. That being said, I understand how mass audiences evidently appreciated this movie as being unique enough to turn it into a huge commercial success, and assuming that it continues to back away from the edgelord shit and focus more on the odd-couple dynamic, I might even be interested in checking out its eventual sequel.
952
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 21, 2018, 05:06:10 AM »
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics/donald-trump-james-mattis-out/index.html
People keep quitting! It's almost as if the Trump Administration is a bad place to work.
People keep quitting! It's almost as if the Trump Administration is a bad place to work.
953
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 19, 2018, 07:47:18 PM »It started when you began heavily criticizing movies and games that you haven’t seen based on internet articles.
Irrelevant to the subject of RT.
954
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 19, 2018, 06:11:51 AM »You shouldn't take their word as gospel or be Saddam and take it as your own opinion even if you haven't seen it
This is such a weird meme. I don't even remember how it got started, as it's certainly not based on reality. All I'm saying as far as the Metacritic thing goes is that if there's a movie that an overwhelmingly majority of critics liked, as in a percentage in the eighties or nineties, and then I check a website that's meant to aggregate critical reviews and discover that the overall score is something mediocre in the forties or fifties, something is most likely very wrong with that website and its apparent goal of measuring the critical response of a movie. Metacritic's scoring system is weird, it's arbitrary, and all that combined with its relatively small pool of critics leads to it frequently presenting critically-acclaimed movies as having only a tepid reception. RT isn't perfect, and I feel no obligation to ever necessarily agree with the consensus it shows for any given movie (and am on record disagreeing with it many times), but it is a far superior aggregate.
Also:
955
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 17, 2018, 07:41:24 PM »
This is a story about a report that was presented to the Senate. It has nothing to do with the WaPo insisting they were correct. It doesn't have anything to do with them at all.
956
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 17, 2018, 02:05:36 PM »ur retartet but u donut even no it and i walnut tell u y
Thanks for that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/16/new-report-russian-disinformation-prepared-senate-shows-operations-scale-sweep/
haha what a meme
957
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 17, 2018, 03:03:55 AM »
No, I don't, and you still haven't substantiated that claim.
958
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 16, 2018, 02:17:37 PM »Trump's whole world is falling apart.Trump is so terrible that he can't even have his world fall apart properly. You've been saying this for how long now? 2 years? It keeps being his worst nightmare and it'll all come together any moment now. Aaaany moment now. Probably tomorrow. Maybe the day after.
I haven't been saying that at all.
Some of the articles I've linked to may have made that claim, but I think my skepticism of this or that scandal finally being the one to bring Trump down has been consistent. I'm more hopeful for this one doing some lasting damage, although impeachment still seems unlikely.
959
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 15, 2018, 08:56:18 PM »
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/15/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigations-russia/index.html
Trump's whole world is falling apart. This pleases me.
Trump's whole world is falling apart. This pleases me.
960
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 13, 2018, 09:50:09 PM »
Stop going by Metacritic! It's flawed! Flawed! 