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Messages - honk

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1182
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 09, 2018, 07:38:58 PM »
4/5 of the commission that shot the proposal down were appointed by Trump himself.

This probably reads like gibberish to most Trump supporters. They just see it as their guy, Trump, and the dirty gubmint that won't do what he says.

1183
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: January 08, 2018, 05:05:52 AM »
Just look at Fox still stubbornly clinging onto the Fantastic Four rights.

so much for that comparison lol

If they wanted to do a prequel that showed Batman’s triumph over the Joker and Penguin that has been alluded to, I would be fine with that. If it didn’t suck.

An adaptation of "A Death in the Family" would be interesting. Suitably grimdark, and yet not based on those same two Batman stories from Frank Miller that Hollywood loves to mine for influence. What I really meant, though, was that I like that we have a Batman who lives in a world that's now firmly immersed in fantasy and science fiction, where people can yell out nonsense about soul-capturing swords and nobody blinks an eye, and it would be neat to see later movies exploring the possibilities further. But I feel like WB is thinking that now they have to backtrack with Batman and return to grounded, "realistic" stories where nothing supernatural happens, and that idea was beaten to death by the Nolan movies.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/5/16853524/justice-league-zack-snyder-alternate-cut-youtube-cosplayer

On the notion of people who don't understand how movies are made. I can sympathize, though. If this "Snyder cut" really does exist, it would be a lot more interesting than the chopped-up mess WB gave us, along with looking much better. On that subject:



One of these pictures is of Batman. The other is of a guy waiting for his order in a drive-through.

1184
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: January 06, 2018, 02:36:53 PM »

1185
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« on: January 03, 2018, 06:44:16 PM »
Pillars of Eternity

I love this game, and I don't know where to even begin talking about it. The character creation is awesome, and it's so cool the way your later dialogue will then form part of your backstory. And it's not even just your own backstory, but your past life. You get to decide what your relationship with Iovara was, and your relationship with Thaos. One moment that really stood out for me was when Thaos asks you if you know Iovara, there's an option to say you don't, and an option to say you don't with the knowledge that it's a lie. Aside from that, it nicely averts the generic fantasy setting with its own original twists, the characters are distinctive and memorable, and on the whole it's just a great, original story with wonderful lore lore lore.

My two main issues with the game are the combat and the level progression. It's a very limited selection of skills you can choose to level up in, and the lack of any auto-leveling system for the companions is ridiculous. I'm not fucking keeping track of which of my five companions could stand to see some improvement in this area, which of them might benefit from having this ability or that, and so on. Same goes for the combat - I'll be damned if I'm going to be pausing each fight a hundred times so I can issue unique instructions to each companion on which ability I want them to use and on whom. This shit should be automated, with an option to turn it manual for the few people who actually want to do it all themselves.

Tyranny

Obsidian learned from their mistakes and fixed all of the above. Having three companions at a time instead of five also helps the combat feel like less of a clusterfuck. Moving on, this is another original fantasy game, with good writing, good characters, and a truly unique setting. Unlike with Pillars, it seems as though none of my Steam friends here on FES have tried this one yet, and I strongly encourage you to reconsider.

1186
That's just, like, his opinion, man, and it really only makes sense if you're thinking of the Jedi as being limited to humans. It's hard to imagine a more clumsy and random combat strategy than Yoda turning himself into a hairy pinball.

1187
Finally got to see VIII. It is objectively the best main story Star Wars movie ever. Okay maybe a tie with Empire.

>implying that Rogue One is better than all of these movies, including the original trilogy

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Also, Saddam is mostly wrong as usual.

About what, pacifically? I mean, beyond Rogue One, which is a debate I refuse to have. Every defense I've read of the jumbled b-plot and its failure to properly pay off in the end insists that it's a parallel to Luke and Rey's story and ties into the general theme of failure, but that's not something that the movie itself really illustrates. Luke and Rey have complete arcs in this movie. They have a simple goal of turning Kylo to the light, fail at it, and are forced to confront their failures. That's very clearly what their part of the movie is "about." Anyone can see that. But the story for Finn, Poe, and Rose isn't "about" that at all. It's about the developing relationship between Finn and Rose and the social commentary during their visit to Canto Bight. (At least it is for Finn and Rose. Poe gives no indication that he's learned anything or changed as a person by the end of the movie.) The fact that the next thing they do is an enormous, catastrophic failure doesn't suddenly transform their arc into part of a grand thesis about the nature of failure. There's a world of difference between a character coming to terms with their failure and learning to accept its inevitability in an elaborate arc and a character simply failing at something spectacularly.

I hope you weren't claiming I was wrong about Yoda and the prequels. Yoda should not be bouncing around with a lightsaber. Nor should this guy:



Why don't the Jedi use any other weapons? Why does it always have to be a lightsaber? I want to see a Jedi who fights while dual-wielding blasters.

1188
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« on: December 28, 2017, 05:00:33 AM »
I am not sure I agree with this.  Tolkien presents other characters who dwarf Sauron in power but are not corrupt, like Tom Bombadil.

Hardly. Bombadil's power is strictly limited to his own tiny domain, and the general consensus at the Council of Elrond is that if it came down to just the two of them, Sauron would triumph.

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What Tolkien presents is a classic myth about the overthrow of the old order and replacing it with new knowledge.  In this way, there is little morality to find; not only does  the dominion of Sauron end in the LotR, but the more importantly, the dominion of elves also ends.  Elves are portrayed as greater paragons of good, wisdom and virtue in Middle Earth but with the coming of age of men (and hobbits), they must cede their dominion.  I find it to be this lack of an ultimate good triumphing over ulitmate evil that makes the LotR so timeless.

What? The moral themes of LotR are enormously prominent. There's certainly room to dispute my brief interpretation of them, but to deny that they're even there is insane. And to say that it's really about the dominion of the elves coming to an end? That's just background lore, not the story itself. It's like saying that TES is really about CHIM and zero-summing.

***

The Sexy Brutale

In this colorful adventure game, you find yourself trapped in a luxurious casino/mansion where a series of murders take place over a twelve-hour time loop. It's up to you to stop them, but the catch is that you can't directly interact with anybody else in the casino, or even be in the same room as them for more than a few seconds. You have to carefully observe the people around you to discover how the murders happen, and then secretly manipulate the environment to thwart them. Sounds great, right? And this is all complemented by a bouncy jazz soundtrack, a charming art style, and a healthy amount of black comedy livening up the dire situation.

My main problem lies with the final third, maybe quarter, of the game. Once the murders have all been foiled, the game inexplicably adopts a dull, pretentious, and self-serious tone and transforms into a boring walking simulator. It clumsily tries to provide a BioShock-esque (that comparison is not intended to be flattering) "twist" that explains everything that just happened, and not only is that explanation lazy and unsatisfying, it's impossible to take seriously with these goofy characters and their silly animations. They waddle when they walk, for fuck's sake! Why did there need to be an explanation, anyway? Why couldn't this just be a game where you're setting everyone free from the time loop by stopping their murders? No hidden story, no shocking twist, no "well actually..." Would Groundhog Day have been a better movie if it ended with a shot of Bill Murray hallucinating in a mental hospital?

1189
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 27, 2017, 02:04:20 AM »


Why did Whedon even reshoot this scene? Seriously, Affleck randomly turns fat, delivers a dumb joke about Atlantis, and then slims down again. Also, I meant to talk about the fact that there's an action scene where the Flash trips and faceplants into Diana's chest. Because that joke was so fucking funny the first time in AoU, Whedon apparently felt he had to do it again!

Mugthulhu: Steppenwolf is a video game CGI cutscene from 10 years ago
moobs: Did you watch it
Mugthulhu: I currently am
moobs: good
Mugthulhu: someone should make an edit that cuts out all Barrys lines
moobs: Yes, he is terrible
Mugthulhu: done
moobs: on the notion of it being bad
Mugthulhu: better than expected
moobs: terrible quips from Batman
Mugthulhu: cyborg was good
moobs: He looked like a Transformer
moobs: write a review plz
Mugthulhu: It would probably be moved to CN for being low content

1190
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
« on: December 23, 2017, 05:06:04 AM »
My Star Wars list:
1) Revenge of the Sith
2) Empire Strikes Back
3) Return of the Jedi
4) The Last Jedi
5) Clone Wars
6) The Phantom Menace
7) Star Wars
8) The Force Awakens

While we're on the subject of REEing about subjective opinions and critical dissonance, I'm going to take this time to argue that RotS was a bad movie that owed its relative success among critics and audiences largely due to people convincing themselves it was good just because it made some improvements over the last two movies. It still was a badly-written, badly-directed, badly-acted slog of excessive CGI and unlikable characters. And I hate its treatment of Jedi as flashy lightsaber ninjas with impossibly flawless fight choreography. (All the prequels did this, but RotS was arguably worst of all.) I know that if you've seen the Plinkett reviews of the prequels, you'll recognize where this is from, but it happens to be the most correct thing RLM have ever said. Yoda should not be bouncing around with a tiny fucking lightsaber so that he can fight someone. If Yoda wanted to take someone out, he could just wave his hand and put them into a coma. To keep saying, "No, everyone must take their lightsabers out and fly all over the place," is wrong wrong wrong, and I'm glad that TLJ, much like TFA, kept to the slower, more methodical lightsaber combat of the original trilogy, as well as limiting the lightsaber use in general.

1191
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 22, 2017, 04:42:09 AM »
They already made the prequel showing Batman defeating the Penguin:



The Burton movies are in continuity with the DCEU! Burtman and Batfleck are one! This explains so much, like their shared willingness to murder their enemies! (I actually feel that there are some defenses to be made of Burtman on that subject, but I don't want to get into that without exploring the movies in greater detail, and I'm trying to convince Crudblud to join me on a side-by-side retrospective of all the live-action Batman movies. That's not including the serials, because they are horrendous.)

1192
Laia being frozen in space, her blood boiling from the cavitation before her cells solidify, and then magically opening her frozen solid eyelids, moving her moist eyes to focus on the ship and floating in like Peter Pan. That was a very stupid scene.

The Force is all around us, bro. Leia could use it to sustain her life functions and propel herself through space as surely as Yoda could raise an X-wing from a swamp. My own issue with that scene was simply that its execution was silly and overwrought. Things like her goofy outstretched pose. It could have worked nicely if it had been a bit more subtle and elegant.

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The whole Rey/Finn romance and being reunited at the end. I know they really really want a multi-racial love story, but its just stupid. She'd have been better off having a Padme/Anakin style relationship with Kylo. Could have been way more complex and full of intrigue and torn emotion than being into the dumb Storm Trooper. as mentioned he didn't even do anything in this episode. He's just there to allow the liberal left to rub black men with white women into the faces of conservatives. They even kill rose off (a better character), to clear the way for the Finn/Rey thing that is just implausible.

Rose was injured, not killed, and the only Rey/Finn romance going on is the one in your head. I do agree with you that Finn is pretty bland as a character and didn't really feel like he belonged in a prominent role here. Circumstance didn't push him to the forefront like in TFA, and he doesn't have a strong personality like Han or Poe that would let him take charge.

The hot-headed rogue doesn't save the day by flying by seat-of-his-pants, in fact his recklessness is the driving force behind the fuck-up cascade.

Which is never addressed or acknowledged within the movie - in fact, it's casually brushed off with a smiling "Oh, you," leading me to question just how intentional it really was. I feel like they just made it up as they went along. Part of the blame also lies with Holdo and her lack of communication. It's one thing to not share every detail of a plan with subordinates, it's another to repeatedly refuse to indicate that there even is a plan, or even challenge the assumption that there's nothing to be done but wait to die. Like, even in the middle of the mutiny, she can't bring herself to explain that there's a very good reason behind what she's doing? It's an idiot plot.

1193
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
« on: December 20, 2017, 12:25:29 AM »
I'm not going to use spoiler tags in a dedicated thread. For "Just Watched," it's fair enough, but everyone clicking on this one ought to know what they're getting into. I hereby issue an official

spoiler warbling
I loved the part of this movie that focused on Rey, Luke, and Kylo. It's familiar because of the original trilogy, but twists things around enough to feel fresh by the end. I'm glad they killed off Snoke, and I find the outrage on reddit over him being "wasted" both baffling and amusing. Snoke was only ever a plot device to begin with, a necessary villain who had to exist simply because the First Order existed. Having Kylo now be in charge makes the most sense narratively, and it'll no doubt make for a great dynamic with Rey in the next movie.

You know what didn't make sense narratively? Wasting a huge amount of screen time in the second act on a wild goose chase that not only proved to be a resounding failure, but ended up delivering the intel to the First Order that led to the Resistance being all but wiped out. What the fuck? Why would you write this into a movie? All Finn, Poe, and Rose had to do was nothing, fucking nothing, and the Resistance would have escaped with their new base intact and a few hundred members left, rather than literally just a few. And why didn't Leia, or Holdo later, tell them that, rather than just keeping silent and letting them believe that there was literally no hope? I've seen some people argue that it was entirely intentional and tied into the movie's themes of failure and desperation, but the thing is, it's never even acknowledged that everything bad that happens in the final act is literally all the heroes' fault. Why couldn't the First Order have found out what the Resistance was up to by other means? It's such a tiny thing, but it would have made the rest of the movie so much easier to accept.

Or maybe the First Order shouldn't have found out about the Resistance's plans at all. The throne room scene, coupled with Finn and Rose's escape from the Star Destroyer, really ought to have been the climax of the movie. I didn't like that it felt the need to follow that up with a retread of the Battle of Hoth.

1194
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Sexual Scandals
« on: December 17, 2017, 03:25:38 AM »
Neither of those scenarios are comparable to what happened to Moore. He has nine accusers, not one, and they've offered plenty of corroborating evidence both physically and via witnesses. To believe Moore is innocent means accepting that there must have been some gigantic, unfeasible conspiracy pitted against him, which I don't believe most reasonable people would do. Far from actually researching the case, I'm sure that most of his voters simply turned a blind eye.

1195
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump
« on: December 17, 2017, 03:00:06 AM »
What does that have to do with fucking Hitler? It's certainly bad, but Hitler is not a synonym for general badness. Quit making our side look bad with frivolous Hitler comparisons. This is also bad:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/donald-trump-pursues-vladimir-putin-russian-election-hacking/

Trump is a fucking toddler. With every day that passes, he further cements his legacy as the worst president in American history.

1196
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Video Game Crossovers.
« on: December 15, 2017, 02:04:08 PM »
Twenty Good Men would be an awesome video game. Twenty of the greatest badasses in video games brought together so they can complete missions and whatever.

1197
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 14, 2017, 05:57:26 AM »
If they recast batman, they will have to reboot the whole thing and that will suck.

I honestly think that all they'd have to do is downplay the idea that this Bruce is at the end of his rope and entirely burned-out, and they could keep going with a slightly younger and hopefully far more enthusiastic actor. I agree with you that a reboot would suck, as would a prequel, because WB would no doubt decide that the problem with their last two movies was that they were out of their comfort zone with Batman, and therefore the new movie should be a return to the pseudo-realism of Nolan's movies where Batman fights street thugs in a boring, generic city.

1200
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 08, 2017, 04:44:01 AM »
Yeah, it's like they wanted to do the awesome gargoyle-swinging bits from the Arkham games but the room  with the high roofs and criss-crossing girders wasn't available so they had to settle for this.

Dull settings are more realistic, after all.

moar drama:

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/dc-films-justice-league-1202632214/

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Warner Bros.’ corporate leaders at Time Warner support the moves and are said to be unhappy with the financial performance of [JL]...With a budget reported to be as high as $300 million, it represents an expensive bet. After three weeks of release, it has managed to gross $570.3 million worldwide. In contrast, the first “Avengers” film racked up $1.5 billion.

Yeah, I'd be unhappy with that too.

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Time Warner is said to be frustrated that Warner Bros. leaders continue to bring the director back, especially after “Batman v Superman” was excoriated by critics even though it made money.

WB's faith in Snyder continues to perplex. Somehow they must have got it in their heads that he was the next best thing to Nolan and deserved just as much artistic freedom with a franchise potentially worth billions as him. I won't begrudge him getting the job for MoS (although I personally wasn't in favor of it), but they absolutely should have replaced him in the face of that movie's relative underperformance and mixed critical reception.

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While Ben Affleck is expected to appear as Batman in a standalone Flash movie, it is highly unlikely he will don the cape and cowl in Matt Reeves’ planned standalone Batman movie. The director is said to want to cast the role with fresh talent, according to sources.

Fresh talent, and also a face that won't remind viewers of the two shitty movies leading into this one. Or maybe Reeves just wants to tell one of the countless Batman stories that could only have taken place earlier in his career. It's almost as if introducing Batman with a story that was always meant to indicate the end of his career was a really stupid idea!

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