Last night I watched Spaced Invaders. It was funny, but it wasn't exactly award-worthy. 😎

Confession: I actually really enjoy movies that don't have this "clean" aesthetic
Agreed. Those fake armies in the Hobbit movies had cool moves and all, but it was kinda cheap-looking, IMHO.

Much better disciplined than Thanos's troops in "End Game".

Quote from: Cassia on February 09, 2024, 11:45:53 AMConfession: I actually really enjoy movies that don't have this "clean" aesthetic
Agreed. Those fake armies in the Hobbit movies had cool moves and all, but it was kinda cheap-looking, IMHO.

Clean/dirty is somewhat a separate thing from CGI.  CGI is much maligned but it can be actually really amazing.  LOTR used CGI quite a lot - Treebeard and crew were especially conspicuous - but the show did it well.  I don't know exactly why, but something just feels off about The Hobbit cgi armies that didn't feel off with Treebeard.


Everything looks fine in isolation, probably even more polygons and megapixels or whatever than the LOTR movies.  If only there were something I could point to in order to show how "off" it was...



Well, there it is.  Behold, the Battle of the Clone Tool

And throughout much of the film, there's so little visual distinction between characters - not just the big melee with scores of nearly identical troops, but so little visual distinction within the main cast.



I dare you to tell me any of their names (except Bilbo and Gandalf) or literally any fact about any of them other than the obvious (I already know they're dwarves).  I watched the movies and I could maybe only get one or two of them right, even under duress.  They might as well be turkeys.

Bombar Biffer Bofur, Dwalin, Balin, Killi, Filli, just off the top of my head. Spelling may be off. I took the Lord of the Rings to Vietnam with me.

And thorin.

Ps 'bombur' and 'biffur'


Also oin and gloin

Blanking on the final three.

Quote from: Mr.Obvious on February 10, 2024, 07:49:30 AMAnd thorin.

Ps 'bombur' and 'biffur'


Also oin and gloin

Blanking on the final three.

Thorin was too easy, so I punted that one.

Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and Thorin

So, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1  (23231)

Just watched a Sean Connery movie called The Anderson Tapes. No CGI, just an old fashioned good movie.
Also had Christopher Walken in his early 20s.
It's about a burglar who gets out of prison after doing 10 years and goes right back to his profession.

Those don't even sound real.  Dwalin...the dwarf?  In that case, meet my coworker hu...*thinking*...matt.  Humatt the human.  A perfectly normal, believable name.

It's fantasy. They usually have stupid names.

At least there's no apostrophes.

Quote from: the_antithesis on February 10, 2024, 11:18:13 PMIt's fantasy. They usually have stupid names.

At least there's no apostrophes.

Quote from: Hydra009 on February 11, 2024, 01:06:58 AM

I don't know what to tell you, man. It's been decades since I read the Hobbit, but I recall most of the Dwarves had no real character in the book, either. Maybe a couple of them had moments, but mostly they were just this nameless, shapeless blob called "the Dwarves."

So if anything, the movies tried too hard to try to make them into distinct characters. They should have all looked the same and then the two or three main ones could have all the lines and moments or whatever.

I mean, look at these chodes:



What are any of those character's names? Don't matter.

Well, they had three whole movies to characterize the dwarves and make us care about them, but they made up a bunch of new characters instead.

I saw a limited showing of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete. It's a new edition of a movie that originally came out in 2005, where they apparently responded to some criticisms by adding in some new scenes.

It's funny. I remember this movie looking so cool back then. When the movie released, it boosted sales of PS3s, because people were under the assumption that the inevitable FFVII remake would release on it. Little did they know they'd have quite a bit more waiting to do.

Now there's a video game series (the "Remakes") that looks so much better. Still looks fine. Just a bit dated now. The newly added scenes are of noticeably higher quality, although they stuck to the original style very well.

More importantly, though, the new scenes help with the pacing and storytelling. In the original movie, I remember this kid named Denzel just sort of being there. Didn't know where he came from. Didn't know anything about him, other than that Cloud and Tifa were helping care for him because he was sick. The Complete version of the movie gives us some much needed context, so we can actually give a damn about him.

The movie is also full of that classic anime cheese. Without knowing the original game's lore, I imagine it's very confusing. It's basically three grown men running around asking "where's mother?" for two hours. As someone who is pretty familiar with the lore, I still find it goofy, but enjoyable.

It's a pretty interesting concept. After being killed in the game, Sephiroth's soul poisons the Lifestream, causing this sickness called Geo Stigma to spread. In the game, Sephiroth was dead before the beginning of the story, but his will was so strong, he was able to retain his consciousness and manipulate people until he found a way back. So Sephiroth sticking around post-mortem is something that was previously established to be a thing he could do. Kinda makes you wonder if he could ever be extinguished forever, or if he'll just be this eternal threat like their universe's Ganon.

It also makes sense that Cloud would still have some issues to work out. After the events of the game. He still feels responsible for the *SPOILERS* death of his friend, so it doesn't feel out of character when he retreats in self-pity and guilt. I like when Cloud has a vision of Aerith and he says, "I think I'd like forgiveness." And she replies, "From who?" This both shows that she never blamed him in the first place, and that the only person who needs to forgive Cloud is Cloud. By the end of the movie, he's finally opened up to his friends and moved on from his grief.

Quote from: Blackleaf on February 22, 2024, 02:31:22 AMWithout knowing the original game's lore, I imagine it's very confusing. It's basically three grown men running around asking "where's mother?" for two hours. As someone who is pretty familiar with the lore, I still find it goofy, but enjoyable.

That was my intro to Final Fantasy.  It was incredibly confusing, to say the least.  I basically pieced together that Cloud had killed Jehova or whatever in an earlier show or game and those guys were her henchmen, trying to bring her back.  That and the rain is sickening people somehow, though they seem to just wallow in it instead of doing something about it.

Cloud is sad and angsty, but eventually he gets his head in the game and fights, with the most ridiculous air combo I've ever seen in my life.  It'd be tough to pull off that stunt on the moon.

I could get more out of it if I had played the original game, but iirc in those games, summon spells are essentially magical nukes rather than you know, summoned beings that stick around for a while and follow basic commands or follow their own will.  Summons are summons, not evocations!

That and I have literally no idea how the technology works in that setting.  People get around in Akira-like bikes or some big deviant-art-looking canine or just walk, I guess.  And then they fight people/beasts/dragons/gods by hitting them with some big-ass 50-pound sword and/or shoot them with guns and/or just kick them, which I guess works equally well.

And the outfits are strange to put it mildly.  It's like someone combined Bayonetta with Devil May Cry and then had a blind fashion designer make it while under duress.

The only thing I think is actually cool is the Punnett square tesseract that is chocobo breeding.  10/10, no notes.