This is Getting Kind of Scary
"Yes Comrades, your IP addresses have been logged and your incorrect opinions have been noted."
Of course I suppose it's possible that the BBC might have run a private screening for the critics and due, perhaps, to a software glitch, accidentally broadcast a blooper reel instead of the episode the critics saw.
I can't help but think though that a blooper reel would have gotten a higher core.
I haven't seen the episode but that dichotomy is, frankly, disturbing.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
07:30 AM
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1
It wasn't really awful, but it was *lame*, and it was a lame cap to a lame season that did have some true awfulness, and I suspect people are getting fed up with being told the only reason they don't like it is they're sexist/racist/whatever--possibly more so than with the crap we're being fed and told we should like.
Posted by: Rick C at Sun Jan 6 18:21:54 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
I've quite enjoyed this series. I've never really enjoyed Dr. Who before; not enough to watch a full series. Then again, although the ratings have been decent, I'm apparently out of step in liking the current series.
Posted by: Ben at Sun Jan 6 22:01:18 2019 (4TRZx)
3
Um, so, what did you like about it?
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Mon Jan 7 03:46:54 2019 (tgyIO)
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Hm. Not sure the best way to answer that, since I don't really want to do a full series review. Also, it's probably not fair to compare it to the little I've seen of Dr. Who, but it's hard to get away from that.
In fact, one of the things I liked most is that *I didn't need to know anything going into the series*. No one had to sit next to me while I hit pause and explain what this was or that was or what series or Dr. I needed to watch understand something. That was *immensely* satisfying, as it has been a problem for me trying to enjoy Dr. Who in the past. Maybe that makes this a "noob" series, which detracts from long-time fans' enjoyment...I can see that happening.
I like Jodie Whittaker as an actress, and I liked the character she played. What it has to do with previous portrayals of The Doctor Who character, I can't say. The supporting cast was fine; nothing really jumped out at me.
The look and design has been fun. There is a somewhat consistent vibrant look to everything that I think fits a light sci-fi/fantasy series. Speaking of which, the episodes in space and on other planets were by far my favorites, compared to the Earth time travel episodes. I read more than one person describe these episodes as "Quantum Dr. Who" or "Dr. Who Leap", which is a fair criticism. They were *mostly* enjoyable enough, but those episodes re-tread some oft-visited stories and plots...it's hard to do something new or interesting that way. Maybe Britons found it fresh; I know Gen-Xers in the U.S. didn't.
I haven't watched the last couple of episodes; maybe those will affect my enjoyment, but I though it was good, fun, light sci-fi. For the most part. And I like Jodie Whittaker. That's about it.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Jan 7 09:44:03 2019 (osxtX)
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It's interesting to me that you didn't find older episodes as accessible. I'm curious: did you mostly previously watch older NuWho episodes, or first-run (the 60s-80s) ones? I always thought the OG run was pretty easy to pick up on (my first episode was from the middle of Image of the Fendahl when I was a teen). I suppose if your introduction was the newer show, with its season-long arcs, it could be harder to get into mid-season.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Jan 7 10:36:50 2019 (Q/JG2)
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Peter Davison, of whom I am a fan. I don't remember much from when I tried to watch. Screenshots online don't ring a bell. The "movie", which I liked a lot but I gather isn't regarded highly, and then I tried some Eccleston and Tennant. I liked both *characters*, but found the episodes I tried to watch almost inpenetrable. I caught some clips of the last guy and he seemed very angry and political, so I didn't try again.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Jan 7 11:57:53 2019 (pMvSF)
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I thought the first episode was flawed but promising, and I liked Whittaker. It went downhill pretty fast for me, though, because of poor writing, dull visuals, and
Very Special Episodes.
And, yes, Capaldi's episodes were mostly angry and college-student political.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Mon Jan 7 13:25:51 2019 (tgyIO)
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I liked the angry, mostly, but not the politics. I thought, frankly, that Capaldi was much closer to Classic Doctors in outlook/attitude/actions. But the writing, it so often does, let us down.
Peter Davison was fun, but he had one drawback: following the immensely popular Tom Baker. Sometimes when they make major cast changes in a show, they make the remaining/new characters sort of go through hell to indicate to the audience that the show's changing, and I think the BBC did that with him.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Jan 7 20:00:31 2019 (Iwkd4)
9
Nothing compares to Colin Baker's Doctor trying to
murder his companion. In fairness, though, Peri
was pretty awful...
Capaldi also got some really terrible scripts, to the point that his last season consisted mostly of suicide attempts. Maybe someday he can hire Fred Savage and do a "good parts" compilation. :-)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Mon Jan 7 20:32:37 2019 (tgyIO)
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On the Effects of Theatrical Film Releases Upon Market Volatility
December, 2018 saw the stock markets enter a stage of extreme volatility,
with multi day crashes followed by all time record gains. Several factors have been proposed as sources of these swings, including the President's tariffs and actions taken by the Federal Reserve. However the introduction of these factors does not strongly correlate with the timing of the market fluctuations.
I propose that this fiduciary phenomenon is in fact caused by the synergetic effects set in motion by an event that has been heretofore ignored by financial analysts.
This film kicked ass. It kicked so much ass that I propose that the resulting national ass shortage led to chaos in ass futures causing a general breakdown of commodities trading which in turn led to ripple effects throughout the larger stock market.
"..." "..." "..." "..." "..." "..."
What?
Economics aside, this is a bizarre but immensely enjoyable film that pulls together a bunch of odd, little explored threads from the Marvel Universe(s) to tell a tale of "passing the baton"; one that manages to very respectful of the Marvel canon and did not spit on the fans.
With that alone they exceeded expectations, but the the creators of this film did not stop there. This film is...good. It's really good and is one of the better comic book films ever made.
Once the story gets going, the film keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and the villains...the comic book villains...manage to come off as genuinely terrifying.
The film is very true to the original medium, due in part, to a quirky, experimental art and animation style that shifts throughout the film as needed by the story. This eclectic artistic choice is, on occasion, distracting, but it generally works astoundingly well.
The direction, pacing and characterizations are all solid , however, one thing that really stood out in this animated film was the quality of the acting.
Now one expects good voice acting in a feature length film**. However, there is a difference between stage acting, screen acting and VOICE acting, and animated films in the U.S. generally get big name actors who give perfectly solid performances but don't fully utilize the medium.
The voice work in this movie really stands out as exceptional. The delivery at times is like a '40s screwball comedy or a Howard Hawks film and they pull this off without sounding stilted or dated. Kathryn Hahn, Hailee Stienfield and Liev Schreiber give particularly good performances but the whole cast was exceptional in that regard. I was particularly shocked to learn that Chris Pine can act.
The whole film is littered with little easter eggs that don't distract from the story, but are delightful treats to the audience members who grew up reading these books. In that vein, this last Stan Lee cameo appeared to be one of his best, though I was beset by allergies at that point.
All in all, this was a remarkably good film. It's still in general release so I strongly urge you to go see it before it leaves theaters.
Do sit through the credits.
**************
*All. Of. The. Canon.
** In its original language.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
01:44 PM
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My only exposure to Spiderman was the cartoons growing up, I'd never read the comics and certainly had never even heard about the various alternate Spidermen across the multiverse. So when I initially heard that there was going to be a black child Spiderman, my reaction was not positive. The main preview, with the particularly cartoonish face-planted road rash from being towed by a train, among other things, was a turn-off.
Than I started hearing it was actually very good, and not from artsy published commentariat who wouldn't know a good movie if their lives depended on it, but real people. So I bit the bullet and saw it a couple of nights ago. Miles, far from being the SJW-fest I expected, truly earned the mantle of super hero. He paid the prices and had actual growth, very different from Star War's Rey. He also had a couple of unique quirks in his power set, which gave him some differentiation from the original.
I think they also made the right choice of making Porker, Noir, and Penny minor/background characters instead of trying to shoehorn more screen time for them. That helped keep it interesting instead of the possible mess it could have been.
I also liked how they covered each character's origin story while at the same time lamp-shading the concept.
The artwork took some getting used to at first, but ultimately worked well for it.
All in all, I strongly second Brickmuppett's recommendation.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Tue Jan 1 16:35:10 2019 (TWAZc)
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Yeah, this was a great movie. My son, who doesn't like superhero movies, liked it, too--his only complaint was he didn't like the art style.
Definitely stay after the credits.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Jan 2 00:52:28 2019 (Iwkd4)
3
I don't like Spider-Man. I've never liked Spider-Man. I don't like Marvel, much.
I loved this movie. LOVED it. I want more like this.
Posted by: Ben at Wed Jan 2 00:55:01 2019 (4TRZx)
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