1
There is SOOOO much wrong with that lightsaber.
Well, there's only one thing wrong with it but it's a doozy.
I mean, I thought the ships in the SW universe were dumb for all the gratuitous moving parts but this is actively suicidal, never mind the Sith-looking hood.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Aug 26 18:46:01 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
Just to be clear. The above is a parody.
The real trailer (complete with 60% footage from previous films) is here...
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Aug 26 21:02:02 2019 (YUAc9)
3
I hope that disclaimer came with a drool cup for anyone who needed it.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Aug 26 21:20:00 2019 (Iwkd4)
4
She should be able to make some pretty impressive sammiches with that tool!
Posted by: jabrwok at Thu Aug 29 04:35:30 2019 (wKZS0)
Alita: Battle Angel was something of an underdog in comarison to the Marvel franchise and so had quite an uphill battle in its quest for box-office success. Because it's 2019 and the world is stupid, one of the complaints that gained traction (after the film had a brief and very atypical surge in interest towards the end of its run), was the idea that ABA was a movie for...wait for it....NAZIS (no really).
Now that I have finally seen this film, I am going quite confidently and happily postulate that Leni Riefenstahl would not approve of it. AT ALL.
Alita: Battle Angel is a surprisingly good movie. The story is solid, the main characters are much better realized than is typical for summer blockbusters and the effects are top of the line.
What is most remarkable is how well this cinematic adaptation of a manga transferred Yukito Kirishito's visuals to live action. Several of the costumes for instance, really ought to just look goofy but they actually work quite well to the point of being utterly badass. Some of these decisions were braver than others, particularly the decision to give Rosa Salazar extra large anime eyes, but the film pulls it all off with panache. Far beyond showing considerable respect for the source material, this results in a very distinctive, occasionally whimsical art direction that leaves the portrayed world feeling surprisingly real.
Alita is a likeable and idealistic heroine. Because this is based on a shonen/ seinen manga with some superhero tropes, she soon surpasses her peers in ability. However, remarkably for girl power movies in current year, her male peers, mentor and love interest are never flaming incompetents, occasionally saving the day in their own right. Alita is not surrounded by idiots, she's the best OF THE BEST, which makes her a much more compelling heroine.
Despite cramming about 5 tankubon/graphic novels into two hours, the film is reasonably well paced and it captures the escalating threat vibe of the genre quite well. The story is eminently accessible to those who have not read the comic (I've only read an issue or two of the American release). Despite its dystopian setting and often grim story, this film manages to be both idealistic and just a rolicking good time that actually passed the butt test (at no point did I become terribly aware of how long I'd been sitting).
The only complaint I have is both minor and unavoidable: It was pretty much impossible to conclude a 9 volume manga series in a single film, so the ending, while satisfying, definitely anticipates a sequel. Whether that comes to pass is unclear, but I, for one, am am rooting for it.
Finally, while not in any way a complaint, it should be noted that the film's themes of individual responsibility, a fight for universal dignity, redemption, tolerance and understanding of the designated "other" make this film a very poor vehicle for the transmission of national socialist propaganda.
1
Well, you know how New York anime con (Anime NYC) banned ACCA cosplay, right? For some people Nazis are under every bed, but Muslims throwing gays off the roofs is a Republican conspiracy.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Aug 25 21:38:57 2019 (LZ7Bg)
Info Bleg
So, getting back into sine qua non* of what is at least occasionally an anime blog, I note that 'Danmachi'2 seems to be having a bad case of tournament arc and the other shows that look interesting are hard to find.
Does anyone know where Katana no Astra and Cop Craft can be viewed? They aren't on Crunchyroll and don't seem to be on Funimation (I don't have a membership there so access is limited).
Universal Appeal
In addition to the constantly changing Daily Rankings list, Pixiv has links in the sidebar for the most popular images among male and female users respectively. I looked through both of them this morning, and, as expected, there was almost no overlap. There was some however. In the first 300 images, the following pictures were in both lists. (Below the fold because, some are NSFW.) more...
As for the show itself, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be quite good overall. Despite its grimdark opening and recurring cynicism, the show manages (somehow) to be enjoyable.
It is both amusing and annoying that despite the rage directed at this series for its being "problematic toxic male wish fulfillment ", it is, if looked at rationally, almost the opposite of what it is being criticized for.
That is, the show is a pointed disquisition on the difference between being a bad-ass glory hound and being a gentleman. Nayofumi , despite his PTSD is the adult in the room. He consistently uses his wits to solve his problems and weighs the consequences of his actions. This is in stark contrast tho those whose messes he cleans up and whose fires he puts out. This is a nuanced but firm critique of the sort of thing that might be legitimately termed "toxic masculinity". However, as its being contrasted with virtuous masculinity it apparently doesn't count.
Raphtalia is a genuine heroine and in a sane world would be considered pretty damned empowering. For instance: She's not the shield bearer. He is. Nah, Redoubtable Raccoon Girl eventually becomes the sword wielder, monster ventilator and dispenser of ass-kicking. She has a genuine (and all too rare) 'journey of the heroine' arc where she comes from less than nothing to achieve true and completely earned greatness.
But she doesn't count because she suffered, overcame, learned and grew as opposed to being a Godlike Mary Sue with nothing to learn.
I'll admit that I was put off by her hysterical rejection of manumission early in the series, but it does make sense from a character perspective at that time, not only because of her (completely reasonable)PTSD but because that an unaffiliated beast-woman in a violently human supremacist city is potentially in far greater peril than one who has the legal cover of being valuable property.
My biggest complaint is that the show doesn't so much end as come to a reasonably acceptable pause point (The story is based on a series of light moves and is not close to being finished). However, it still has a satisfying finale and over the course of 25 episodes the two main characters grow, change and develop in realistic and interesting ways.
The series is not particularly well animated and the plot does suffer from occasional verbal tsunamis of exposition, which, in fairness, is consistent with the fact that our two main protagonists know nothing about the world they're in. Those criticisms, however, pale in comparison to the far above average character development and genuinely interesting story.
I recommend this one highly and sincerely hope we see more of this show.
UPDATE:Yes. Trying to bang out a post in 5 minutes at the library does not lend itself to quality. I think all the typozes have been fixed now.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jul 14 23:23:27 2019 (PiXy!)
2
I'll add to your spoiler there that the other problems are that it is being forced on her, and is part of a plot to take her away from him. She is dedicated to him by then and doesn't want to leave him. As his slave, she can't be compelled to go away from him. It may also unbind her from his advancement and reduce her to a child again (IIRC, it did).
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Jul 15 20:52:16 2019 (Ix1l6)
What?Umamusume appears to be a sports anime revolving around track and field.
And horse girls(?).
It looks cute. The first episode is exceptionally well animated and...
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Jun 11 22:16:58 2019 (EXhwA)
2
Their Producer was a detriment for me. Well, fans did say that Im@s had a Cute P in the original and Cool P in Cinderella Girls, so we needed a Passion P.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Jun 12 11:21:17 2019 (LZ7Bg)
3
Good grief I'm out of the loop. Pete, Im sorry, but I don't understand the second sentence.
(P=Pulchra /Pulchur/Pulchrae?)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jun 12 14:25:02 2019 (xOgT9)
4
Following from the context of the first sentence, P = Producer?
Posted by: David at Wed Jun 12 15:11:06 2019 (A/T0R)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jun 12 19:25:54 2019 (xOgT9)
7
Well, that's a different kind of Ponygirl than I'm used to....
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Jun 12 22:48:28 2019 (Ix1l6)
8
And with that, the room got very quiet. The awkward silence persisted for what seemed like an eternity after which it was only broken by the the light clanks of glasses being set down and muffled whispers as the party-goers shuffled out the door.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Jun 13 00:12:53 2019 (xOgT9)
9
This was pretty interesting - looks like Cygames planned it as a game tie-in, actually produced the anime, and then realized "you know, the overlap between fans of horse racing and idol anime is fairly small..." The game went back in the oven and, over a year later, has not emerged.
So what happened? Was the game just, y'know, bad? Did Cygames just decide to let it slide into oblivion because they thought their efforts would be better spent running Granblue conventions? Did Dragalia take priority or what? You've got to respect anyone in the game industry that can take a look at a lousy game and say "yeah, let's just kill it here" rather than pushing it out to an unsuspecting public.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Jun 13 02:23:05 2019 (v29Tn)
10
iM@S made that 'P' suffix popular, see The Legand of MomozakiP. Now I see it in other franchizes with a similar setup, where a manager plays a role.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Jun 13 10:47:43 2019 (LZ7Bg)
Yesterday's Future TODAY!
Way back in 1994 KSS released an OAV* series called MIGHTY SPACE MINERS. Because the world is suffering, it was cancelled after 2 episodes. I picked up a VHS** copy when it came out, largely because the character designs were, even in 1994 kind of retro looking.
However, it impressed me at the time as a remarkably hard sci-fi kids show. Despite a few minor inaccuracies
like INhaling rather than EXhaling when anticipating depressurization and a kid so annoying and self absorbed he'd realistically have been thrown out an airlock the shows "hardness" rating is arguably higher than even The Expanse. I particularly like that the hardscrabble asteroid miners don't live in some nightmare man-camp like Outland, but in a very pleasant Stanford Torus built into their asteroid, and the fact that the kids space helmets are the equivalent to a modern day smartphone/personal assistant and pet...because in their culture, a child's earliest lesson is that one must never be without one's helmet.
Because space will KILL YOU!
Dead.
They don't shy away from that. This show is like a Heinlein juvie.
A DVD was eventually released but it's long out of print. Used copies can be purchased on Amazon for $103 US. I've been looking for this thing for years and was surprised to find it complete and dubbed on You Tube. The fact that it...ends... is really annoying, but, pig-headed kids show protagonist notwithstanding, it's a damned good 55 minutes until it leaves you hanging.
We need to start a write-in campaign to get Jeff Bezos to buy this one and finish it, because this is a really good story.
* Original Video Animation. Shows of odd length or of lower quality than films but higher quality than TV were once released on tape or disc and rented or sold from "video stores".
**Video Home System an audiovisual storage medium reminiscent of
an audio cassette...wait...you've never heard of that either... OK, it's
similar in principle to a DVD or Blue Ray or a gaming cartridge(?)...
Um... Anyway it uses ferromagnetic material coating plastic tape as a
data storage medium that is magnetically programmed and/or read as it is
mechanically indexed via two spools in a manner similar to Egyptian
scrolls....uh..you had to play the tape end to end to access the AV
data and you'd get charged a fine if you didn't rewind them when you
returned them to the video store...
Forget it. It was a different world.
A Fish Out of Water Has Not so Much Escaped His Problems as Found New and More Challenging Ones Rising of the Shield Hero is approaching its 21st episode and frankly deserves more than the laconic mentions this blog has given it thus far. It is a show that has generated quite a bit of "talk" because its story tends to go down the less traveled paths of its genre.
As opposed to the above path, which they all go down.
This is a isekai show, a genre that generally involves a social
outcast getting yanked/summoned/reincarnated/teleported/excreted into
another world which just happens to have remarkable similarities to a
video game, role playing game, or light novel series that the introverted,
maladroit audience insert had obsessed with to the detriment of their
standing in polite society. With a few exceptions, these shows generally have the protagonist come to an insight along the lines of , "All those years of
playing D&D have prepared me for this very moment!". This epiphany is usually followed by 13 to
26 episodes of geek wish fulfillment as all the important people (and
especially the attractive members of the opposite sex) in the new world
learn to respect, adore or fear (but NEVERignore) this now most
consequential of human beings who has been groomed by years of geekery
and avoidance of obligations to be the hero the world needs and wants to
have children with.
Aaaand then there is Iwatani Naofumi, a reasonably well adjusted graduate student who has some geeky habits among his
hobbies. However, he's not a hard core gamer, and most significantly for his well being hasn't
played a particular multiplayer game about 4 legendary heroes.
When he notices an anomalous leather-bound parchment-paged antique-looking book among the light novels in the library, he opens it and gets
bamfed into a summoning circle with 3 other Japanese men of about his age Each of them has attached to them a weapon, Spear, Sword, Bow....and OK Naofumi has not a weapon but a shield.
"Cool! we're a sentai team!"
They are surrounded by a bunch of wizards and priest types who provide exposition.
I'll bet there is.
They are told that they are the 4 legendary heroes who have been summoned from other worlds to deal with "The Wave", a demonic incursion into this high fantasy D&D type world.
Some years prior, (I think about a decade, its not entirely clear) the four legendary heroes of that age were summoned and successfully kept this monster spewing phenomenon at bay, though over half the population of the world is believed to have died. Once these things start, they come about once a month and each one is exponentially stronger than the last. The first wave, was barely defeated (with heavy losses) by the kingdom's regular forces and some adventurers a few days prior to this summoning.
Now the other three fellows are all expert players in an online video-game that is essentially identical to this world. Nayofumi has no idea what he's doing, furthermore in a brief cram session with the other three, he learns that while shield characters are marginally harder to kill in the game, they are basically useless as they can't use weapons and can't easily level up. The shield is almost never played except by children.
Still our hero understands the basics of video game RPGs, is reasonably genre savvy, and, after all, has been summoned to a magical realm to do hero stuff, so he's handling this reasonably well.
The four are granted an audience before the king, who asks something along the lines of "Why did you waste spell points on summoning a shield guy?"
Well, that bodes ill.
It's then explained to our heroes that they must go on adventures to level up and hone their skills. They are all basically level 0 and the next wave is arriving in a month. Also, it is noted they need to train separately from one another because...
...reasons.
They are expected to have retinues and all the local adventurers are allowed to join up with the 'Legendary Herotm' of their choice. This is especially important for the shield hero as he can't wield weapons, and the shield has no offensive capabilities until the wielder is at a much higher level.
The heartbreak of cooties.
No one picks Naofumi, because shield heroes are like the nerds of Middle Earth and well no one wants to be associated with him.
However, one comely redhead named Malty has a change of heart at the last minute and the two of them set off to have a glorious and fun adventure!
As clever readers will have guessed from the presence of the spoiler tag, things go sideways quickly, but not in any way I expected. After helping him amass a respectable amount of loot and equipment, Malty, falsely accuses him of rape, steals all of his kit that is not magically bound to him, (save his pants and tunic) and...in a completely bizarre twist, when he's brought to the castle she turns out to be the princess*.
The other heroes have no reason to believe him, and due process is hard to come by in totalitarian societies, absolute monarchies, or when you're accused by a redhead associated with an anime.
The only reason he isn't executed on the spot is because its absolutely forbidden for the state to kill a legendary hero... he is, however rendered a pariah, and if he dies of starvation or at the hands of brigands no sin will have been committed.
There are a few things that Nayofumi's shield will do that allow him to slowly level up, mostly involving crafting healing potions. However, he is physically unable to even touch a weapon. In order to level up he must quest and gather ingredients, and if attacked, he can only bash things with the shield. Furthermore, crafting and deflecting blows give very little in the way of "experience points". Even slaying a relatively harmless beast like a carnivorous pumpkin (don't ask) grants a vast improvement in the speed he can level up. So he's in the pumpkin bashing business.
No one will help openly help him, few will even do business with him. The only exceptions to this are people who pose as being interested in joining his party, only to attempt to murder and rob him.
After a series of reversals that would try the sanity of anyone, Nayofumi, on his last legs and desperate, bumps into a very sketchy and incongruously dressed merchant.
And that is the point at which things get problematic.
1
"And that is the point at which things get problematic." -- Did you mean to write "awesome"? For me, the ability to commit the thoughtcrime is anime's greatest strength.
In the Spear Hero,
Motoyasu is rebooted, but retains somewhat partial memories of the original Shield Hero setup. At some point Naofumi asks if he had someone close to him (e.g. a lover). Motoyasu thinks a little and recalls an image of Raphtalia, but says that although she was Naofumi's trusted companion, they weren't known to be an item.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue May 28 20:33:26 2019 (LZ7Bg)
2
No. I meant to write problematic, because this is the correct usage of the term as opposed to an SJW dropping it as a way to just intimidate people and make them shut up.
I agree that the show is awesome and this completely out of the box plot element would never happened in an American work. Heck, some of the reviews of the show are apparently based on as thumbnail reading of the cliffs notes and Crunchyroll is getting grief for publishing it.
Amusingly, if these people actually watched the show they could point to all sorts of PC tropes and affirmations. The three weapon heroes can be said to represent "toxic masculinity" as they treat the entire world as a chessboard for their amusement, the only leaders we've seen thus far that might be sane and noble are the 2 queens (of the Llamabirds and the local Kingdom respectively) and the loli Princess. The King trying to usurp the Queen in this MATRIARCHAL Kingdom is the source of much of the political intrigue. Raphtalia is incredible and has an amazing heroes journey. It's girls rule boys drool all the way except for Nayofumi rising to the occasion, and being a protective, brave and generally thoughtful sort of man rather than the chest thumping machismo of the weapon guys.
And yet because of the fact that there is a false accusation of rape, the princess is a psychopath, and the show explores the dark nightmare that is slavery, it must be struggled against. Hell, the female protagonist, suffers, overcomes and EARNS her position, in the way a true hero does and is not simply some entitled Mary Sue, and yet that very perk contributes to the whole thing becoming double-plus-ungood. This despite the show having a lot of the tropes that they enjoy/demand/threaten for.
This is why we can't have nice things.
One bit in the series that did bother me
is the bit where Raphtalia is freed of the curse and in a panic immediately runs to the slaver to have the curse re-applied AND HE GOES ALONG WITH THIS!? He does protest, and asks her not to do it, but he ponies up the money. WTF?
They both have self confidence issues but that was hard to get my head around.
I didn't mind the second slave so much as it was an accident (they thought they were being gifted a beast of burden, they only found out days later that she was were-ostrich.)
I dislike isekai as a genre, but this show is one of a handful that has taken the concept and made something really good and thought provoking.
The others are: Log Horizon, Re:Zero and the comedies Kono-Suba and Tanya the Evil (Its a black comedy to be sure, but it's a comedy...right? Or am I just a bad person?)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue May 28 22:01:57 2019 (xOgT9)
3
I'm not sure if Raphtalia's back story makes any sense still. The Queen of the Llamabirds is hundreds of years old, going back several incarnations of the heroes. It looks like everything that happened to Raphtalia really did take place between two waves of sky goblins.
And Filo, after all, just hatched from an egg five minutes ago and is already level 40 and the size of a Greyhound bus. Chronology in this world does whatever is needed to serve the plot.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue May 28 22:22:45 2019 (PiXy!)
4
Hmmm...I'd missed the hundreds of years part, but the point is that its quite possible that she was captured in a previous cycle.
Filo is, despite her size, still a child.
The other th...Wait: They have Greyhound buses in Australia?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue May 28 22:54:05 2019 (xOgT9)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue May 28 23:54:40 2019 (PiXy!)
6
Awesome and thoughtful write-up. You just might shame me into putting in more effort on mine like I used to.
Yeah, it's a great show. Before I started on it I heard the SJW whining about false rape accusations being insulting to their believe all women sensibilities. But that being based on merely the first episode or less. Some of the strongest critics have never seen what they criticize.
BTW, did you miss that it turned out that all four heroes are from Alternate Japans from each other?
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Jun 1 01:25:14 2019 (Ix1l6)
1
Manga was really good, although I burned out after the first major arc ended with almost a deux ex machina intruding and setting things right in a hopeless situation. It very much became a power inflation story, not dissimilar to DBZ after the Cell arc, IMHO. Not going to spoil it for you, but temper your expectations.
I am much enjoying the Raising of Spear Hero now. It's a spin-off, where the main characters are the Shield and Spear heroes, only somewhat patched up. You might have already noticed that Naofumi is a bit of a douchebag, and Motoyasu is worse. The result of their improvement is much better than the Shield Hero, I think. Unfortunately, it's more comedic too, and I am afraid that if Spear Hero ever gets animated, it's going to end in a gag series of 3-minute episodes with chibis.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue May 21 22:46:44 2019 (LZ7Bg)
2
I picked up the first book quite a while back, read it, and bounced hard off the series. Naofumi's a jerk, everyone else is a jerk (except for Raph, who is Best Raccoon), and it felt like there weren't enough non-jerks to care about.
A friend got into it and was having a good time, so I tried some more, and it pulls its head out before too long. Non-jerks start turning up and it becomes much more fun as a whole. At the end of the first book I didn't think I would want to visit again, but by the end of the second it felt like I could have some fun with it, and it improved from there.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed May 22 02:49:20 2019 (v29Tn)
3
Naofumi being a Jerk, well, kind of justified considering he got shanghaied into being the goat of the heroes, and then fucked over left and right, from being accused to Rape and basically excommunicated. But he's actually very principled too, and in his way he's a better hero than all of those who have gotten royalty's favor. But he can be a bit too uncompromising.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed May 22 22:06:56 2019 (Ix1l6)
1
From the creator blurb on The Org:
OK this is the infamous Dirty Pair: Girls with guns video that I made a LONG time ago. I transferred the footage form old VHS to 1" video. I edited it on 1" video, Transferred to Betacam, later I transferred to DVCPRO, Digitized to Quicktime MOV, Compressed to MP4 and now uploading.
The remake doesn't seem to be available on The Org, so... oh well!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Mar 19 00:36:31 2019 (PzbzM)
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.
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: J Greely at Mon Jan 7 03:46:54 2019 (tgyIO)
4
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.
5
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)
6
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.
7
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)
8
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)
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.
Spider-Man (Into the Spider-Verse) entered general theatrical release on December 14th, shortly before the market entered its volatile phase.
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.
1
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)
2
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.
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