OT: Consolidated Entertainment Thread (TV, Movies, Books, Games) V- Use Spoiler Tags!

[MadDevil]

So Gunn is trying to reboot DC by going to a younger cast of heroes? That could work if done well. I wonder what part Sean gets?

 

[The Grinder]

Caught a showing of The Phantom Menace lastnight for the rerelease.

I think I am past the point of “ironically” liking it and I just plain like the movie. Had a great time. I kinda couldn’t believe how well it still plays. I was trepidatious going in but damn.

Nothing in the sequels and Disney Star Wars even gets close to rivaling Duel of the Fates or the Pod Race.

 

[My3Sons]

Caught a showing of The Phantom Menace lastnight for the rerelease.

I think I am past the point of “ironically” liking it and I just plain like the movie. Had a great time. I kinda couldn’t believe how well it still plays. I was trepidatious going in but damn.

Nothing in the sequels and Disney Star Wars even gets close to rivaling Duel of the Fates or the Pod Race.

I think my issues with the prequels centered around knowing where it was headed. I liked the idea of backstory and the gap in the movies from 6 to 1 allowed for me to grow up and become nostalgic. I was there the first day and stood online after work with a buddy. I was excited when the Fox studios music ended and the screen went black. The theater applauded and cheered when the theme music started and the crawl began. I found the movie a bit of a letdown but I'm glad it exists.

 

[Hisch13r]

Caught a showing of The Phantom Menace lastnight for the rerelease.

I think I am past the point of “ironically” liking it and I just plain like the movie. Had a great time. I kinda couldn’t believe how well it still plays. I was trepidatious going in but damn.

Nothing in the sequels and Disney Star Wars even gets close to rivaling Duel of the Fates or the Pod Race.

The TLJ throne room smashes that. Andor’s prison escape and Marva’s funeral as well

 

[Oneiro]

The Clone Wars completely saved the second trilogy for me. I've never seen a series give more depth to trashed IP than that animated show.

I finished Shogun last night. I had read and enjoyed the book as a kid and understandably the show is a bit more concise, but another win for FX. I have no complaints at all, what a great series. So well cast and performed, beautiful cinematography and design. I really hope it catches on and becomes a cult classic. Just let writers, good show runners and great actors do their thing, please. It's not that f***in' hard.

 

[Satans Hockey]

The Clone Wars completely saved the second trilogy for me. I've never seen a series give more depth to trashed IP than that animated show.

I finished Shogun last night. I had read and enjoyed the book as a kid and understandably the show is a bit more concise, but another win for FX. I have no complaints at all, what a great series. So well cast and performed, beautiful cinematography and design. I really hope it catches on and becomes a cult classic. Just let writers, good show runners and great actors do their thing, please. It's not that f***in' hard.

I've been meaning to start Shogun cause the commericals looked awesome but just haven't found the time yet and I'm trying to finish some shows first before jumping into new ones.

 

[Rhodes 81]

Caught a showing of The Phantom Menace lastnight for the rerelease.

I think I am past the point of “ironically” liking it and I just plain like the movie. Had a great time. I kinda couldn’t believe how well it still plays. I was trepidatious going in but damn.

Nothing in the sequels and Disney Star Wars even gets close to rivaling Duel of the Fates or the Pod Race.

I forget who it was, but I saw a video recently of someone talking about how doomed the prequel trilogy was no matter what. The argument was essentially that you can't tell that story as some grand swashbuckling hero's journey adventure like you did with the original trilogy, but that is exactly what the fans were expecting. Hype for that movie was out of control from the second it began production. You couldn't possibly have had the whole fanbase jazzed up to come relive their childhood or whatever and then deliver something with the tone of Andor or something like the Mandalorian season 1.

The options were to

• tell a completely different story set in the same universe, which would have likely been disappointing,
• tell the prequel story with an adventurous tone, which was disappointing
• tell the same story with a tone that matched which would have been downright depressing for the majority of fans in 1999 given their expectations.

Fans were expecting familiar characters and settings and themes. The mess that the prequels were was inevitable given Lucas' competency as a writer trying to meet those expectations with the story he wanted to tell.

Shows, books, spinoff movies, and games can all get away with taking a different tone than a mainline Star Wars film because they can be catered to a more restricted audience. The storyline of the prequels absolutely needed something with the tone of Andor and then it could have been great, but that would have bombed hard with regard to the expectations. Lucas' solution to this was to tell his political mystery story but keep it interesting for kids with random slapstick and lots of flashing lights.

Basically it would have taken an expert script to be able to tell the prequel story in a way that is still compelling to the broader audience a Star Wars movie has to satisfy.

The Clone Wars completely saved the second trilogy for me. I've never seen a series give more depth to trashed IP than that animated show.

For me it was the republic commando novels that I read in high school (and EU novels in general).

I never actually watched the clone wars (again, I was in high school when those came out so anything animated that wasn't anime or south park was big dumb baby shows for babies). I haven't been able to get into any of the other animated shows since because as far as I can tell they all reference each other. Is it worth trying to watch at this point or should I just read a summary?

 

[Oneiro]

I never actually watched the clone wars (again, I was in high school when those came out so anything animated that wasn't anime or south park was big dumb baby shows for babies). I haven't been able to get into any of the other animated shows since because as far as I can tell they all reference each other. Is it worth trying to watch at this point or should I just read a summary?

It's a commitment, depends on how busy you are. Took me a long time to get through it - and I was enjoying it a lot. But I think of it like the animated Avatar series in that it's definitely for kids but with a surprising depth and complexity to it. Most adult war movies don't have the same level of nuance - and that's not exaggeration, I really mean it. You just get a sense of how things that were viewed as good and stable - Jedi council, Old Republic, etc. - slowly deteriorated under the pressure of a lot of different factors. It absolutely made me enjoy the prequels more.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Fallout is fun as F*$#

I only played one of the games so I'm not a franchise fan but this show delivers.

 

[Darkauron]

Prequels are at least better than the sequels.

 

[My3Sons]

I forget who it was, but I saw a video recently of someone talking about how doomed the prequel trilogy was no matter what. The argument was essentially that you can't tell that story as some grand swashbuckling hero's journey adventure like you did with the original trilogy, but that is exactly what the fans were expecting. Hype for that movie was out of control from the second it began production. You couldn't possibly have had the whole fanbase jazzed up to come relive their childhood or whatever and then deliver something with the tone of Andor or something like the Mandalorian season 1.

The options were to

• tell a completely different story set in the same universe, which would have likely been disappointing,
• tell the prequel story with an adventurous tone, which was disappointing
• tell the same story with a tone that matched which would have been downright depressing for the majority of fans in 1999 given their expectations.

Fans were expecting familiar characters and settings and themes. The mess that the prequels were was inevitable given Lucas' competency as a writer trying to meet those expectations with the story he wanted to tell.

Shows, books, spinoff movies, and games can all get away with taking a different tone than a mainline Star Wars film because they can be catered to a more restricted audience. The storyline of the prequels absolutely needed something with the tone of Andor and then it could have been great, but that would have bombed hard with regard to the expectations. Lucas' solution to this was to tell his political mystery story but keep it interesting for kids with random slapstick and lots of flashing lights.

Basically it would have taken an expert script to be able to tell the prequel story in a way that is still compelling to the broader audience a Star Wars movie has to satisfy.

For me it was the republic commando novels that I read in high school (and EU novels in general).

I never actually watched the clone wars (again, I was in high school when those came out so anything animated that wasn't anime or south park was big dumb baby shows for babies). I haven't been able to get into any of the other animated shows since because as far as I can tell they all reference each other. Is it worth trying to watch at this point or should I just read a summary?

For me, the big downside to Episode One was the convoluted backstory that could have been handled much more deftly. I also didn't connect with Darth Vader as a wunderkid but I guess in context that makes some sense. I was about the most targeted audience for the prequels as I was a first generation fan and was now a relatively young adult and would be able to take my oldest to see Episode 2 and then my two oldest to see Episode 3. That's a lot of toys and and videos and games and movie tickets on the line. We had a fair amount of cool Star Wars toys for the boys back then. The big Millennium Falcon and the big walker and the semi-autonomous R2-D2 that responded to voice commands. Lucas did ok. My kids liked Episodes 2 and 3 but I really only liked Episode 3. Episode 2 was ok and 1 was a bit dull to me. I still recall the wild cheering in the theatre when that crawl started for Episode 1. It was roughly 16 years between films? The fanbase just wanted some new material to go on. Lucas was lucky his world creation was so detailed and relatable. His story telling was meh. He also hit a home run with his core characters.

 

[Guadana]

Mr & Mrs Smith is a great show
Not as great as Atlanta, but Glover and Co made another very good product.

 

[Guadana]

Last game I played that I loved was Dave the Diver. Super fun - you dive, fish and then run a sushi restaurant. Really polished and balanced game and it's pretty funny too.

Sort of Pokemon-ish except you turn them into sushi.

No rest for the wicked.
Great dark atmospheric adventure, full of explore and mystery. Still early access. Im waiting for finish product.
Its from developers of Ori. One of the best art in industry. Great dark and cute history in the same time, very good platforming.

 

[JK3]

Ok, I finished Fallout and the more I think about it the worse it gets, it's actually terrible lmao, I can't believe how much praise it's getting. This show has some of the dumbest, cringe inducing dialog ever written. The constant inserting of worse than Marvel level humor makes me insane, I get that it's satire but holy hell. The big reveal in the last episode about what Valt-Tec did, and the reasoning behind it, was so monumentally stupid. Actually, everyone in this world is just really, really dumb. There are so many mind numbing inconsistencies and scenarios throughout that make no sense just to push the plot foreword, it's embarrassing actually.

I can see why people got roped in because it is a cool and interesting world, just don't think about anything at all. They did pretty good with the look and feel of the world, the outfits, the music, weapons and creatures, but there are massive retcons. Goggins is the only thing that makes it somewhat bearable, Ella Purnell is good considering the slop writing she was given. Maximus is by far the worst part of the show. Every scene with him is a painful, stupidity filled slog, I couldn't take it. His character is a total reprehensible piece of shit as well.

It's a shame cause I always like post apocalyptic type stuff and I'm Fallout fan. I've played some of the games and I'm familiar with their style, satire etc within them, but this crap, woof.

I'm fine with roasting corporations and the military industrial complex but the pretty much one sided commie/capitalist deal was annoying, pretty rich considering Fallout is a Bethesda/Microsoft product and the show is on Amazon. They even gave commie lady a hero's death when she's another horrible piece of shit. I can't believe (actually I can) that they never mentioned that the war Cooper fought in was against China lmao.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

well jeez - just poop in my punch bowl why don't you. I'm on ep 5

 

[Darkauron]

Ok, I finished Fallout and the more I think about it the worse it gets, it's actually terrible lmao, I can't believe how much praise it's getting. This show has some of the dumbest, cringe inducing dialog ever written. The constant inserting of worse than Marvel level humor makes me insane, I get that it's satire but holy hell. The big reveal in the last episode about what Valt-Tec did, and the reasoning behind it, was so monumentally stupid. Actually, everyone in this world is just really, really dumb. There are so many mind numbing inconsistencies and scenarios throughout that make no sense just to push the plot foreword, it's embarrassing actually.

I can see why people got roped in because it is a cool and interesting world, just don't think about anything at all. They did pretty good with the look and feel of the world, the outfits, the music, weapons and creatures, but there are massive retcons. Goggins is the only thing that makes it somewhat bearable, Ella Purnell is good considering the slop writing she was given. Maximus is by far the worst part of the show. Every scene with him is a painful, stupidity filled slog, I couldn't take it. His character is a total reprehensible piece of shit as well.

It's a shame cause I always like post apocalyptic type stuff and I'm Fallout fan. I've played some of the games and I'm familiar with their style, satire etc within them, but this crap, woof.

I'm fine with roasting corporations and the military industrial complex but the pretty much one sided commie/capitalist deal was annoying, pretty rich considering Fallout is a Bethesda/Microsoft product and the show is on Amazon. They even gave commie lady a hero's death when she's another horrible piece of shit. I can't believe (actually I can) that they never mentioned that the war Cooper fought in was against China lmao.

I disagree. I think it was actually great. Fallout is dumb, campy, corny, over the top and dark and I think it did everything very well.

It is the best video game adaption by long shot.

 

[JK3]

well jeez - just poop in my punch bowl why don't you. I'm on ep 5

Sorry, I tried not to spoil anything. If you or anyone else likes it thats great, it just wasn't for me which is a shame cause the premise and the games are awesome, maybe I'll like season 2 better.

 

[JK3]

I disagree. I think it was actually great. Fallout is dumb, campy, corny, over the top and dark and I think it did everything very well.

It is the best video game adaption by long shot.

Arcane is by far the best video game adaptation, actually just as a stand alone story and show it's amazing.

Sure it looks like Fallout on the surface, yeah it's campy and corny but the show is attempting to be a serious drama at times, theres a massive disconnect there. As a story it's extremely meh, it's just your standard MacGuffin chase with a bunch of gags and member berries. I would have liked it more if it wasn't so insanely inconsistent from scene to scene, it completely took me out of it. If you're into the games or lore it's an abomination.

 

[Oneiro]

I think your criticisms are fair. My bar was pretty low for Fallout and the world is interesting enough. I wish it was less campy though. I always felt like the absurdity in the games was supposed to be bittersweet and they sort of flipped it, where the serious bits line the satire.

Arcane, I agree, f***ing rules. It's a shame the second season has taken so long but if they get it right, no problem.

 

[Rhodes 81]

I thought the way Fallout epitomized going through the main story of one of the games was one of its best strengths. They're all very simple stories that are largely centered around a Macguffin or a girl in the freezer. I didn't get the vibes that it was taking itself seriously at any point, really.

 

[My3Sons]

We interrupt this ongoing Fallout discussion to let everyone know that one of the very best concert films of all time is now streaming in its restored glory on HBO/MAX. Same as it ever was….same as it ever was….

 

[Brodeur]

Caught a showing of The Phantom Menace lastnight for the rerelease.

I think I am past the point of “ironically” liking it and I just plain like the movie. Had a great time. I kinda couldn’t believe how well it still plays. I was trepidatious going in but damn.

Nothing in the sequels and Disney Star Wars even gets close to rivaling Duel of the Fates or the Pod Race.

I wish I could explain it, but I still get excited seeing the second end ignite. Vaguely recall a decent sized cheer the first time we saw it as a trailer.

TPM had a high bar to clear and it didn't help that 1999 was a rough patch academically/personally (chalk it up to being a dumb teenager not being ready for college adversity). So unfortunately I've always associated it some bad times including the Devils early playoff exit that year.

Was out of town for the May 4th showings, but seeing it on the big screen again would have been fun.

I just realized that the prequels really didn't line up well with hockey.

1999: Devils eliminated May 4, Phantom Menace released May 19
2002: Devils eliminated April 27, Attack of the Clones released May 16
2005: season cancelled February 16, Revenge of the Sith released May 19

Maybe I would have liked the first two better if they had come out in 2000 and 2003 instead? Heck, I admittedly like Mission Impossible 2 more because it reminds me of how happy I was at the time (Devils + academically back on track). I even give Superman Returns a pass since I learned Elias re-signed after leaving the theater.

 

[MadDevil]

TPM will always have a special place for me. I was 15 when it came out and had actually just recently gotten into Star Wars when the Special Editions came out. I remember the lead up to it, waiting for every issue of Star Wars Insider to come out and reading every little snippet I could find in all the other entertainment magazines. I actually went to the very first Celebration in Denver, waiting outside in wet weather for hours waiting to get into what was basically a clusterf*** of organization. It was still fun to be around so many other Star Wars fans, and back then it was pretty much all positive. None of the constant infighting and culture war bullshit that's in the fandom (and online in general) today. Sometimes I miss the days before we were all so connected and you got to hear everybody's dumb opinions.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

Just finished Blue Mountain State on Netflix. I know a couple of posters had referred to it but I didn’t know it existed. Fun show, enjoyed the tomfoolery of it and had no idea that’s where Alan “Reaper” Ritchson cut his teeth. He’s a pretty good comedic actor.

 

[Devils731]

Just finished Blue Mountain State on Netflix. I know a couple of posters had referred to it but I didn’t know it existed. Fun show, enjoyed the tomfoolery of it and had no idea that’s where Alan “Reaper” Ritchson cut his teeth. He’s a pretty good comedic actor.

I saw that long ago and always had Ritchson as a “why isn’t this guy doing more?” actor. Guy commits to his roles, can make some pretty unfunny stuff funny (and I like Blue Mountain State), and he’s got a good look.

I believe I read that he came into that show and his role was originally pretty small but not long after shooting they realized they wanted him in a lot more of the show.

He was good in a Syfy show named Blood Drive as well. That’s another show that has a script that can be awkward at times but he made it work, even though it was him having to play more serious.