Watch, Watched Watching : 2023 is going to be unstable!

[A True Kaniggit]

Today I’ve watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Logan and it ain’t even noon yet. 
 

Super looking forward to The Last of Us. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

23 hours ago, Zorral said:

What did you like best about The Musketeers?  (Loved the series myself; also loved large parts of Black Sails, but some, not.)

Not sure: the rapport probably. The BBC didnt ‘Merlin’ it, though I’d maybe have oreferred it being a bit more GoT.

Ryan Gage as Louis XIII is excellent.

22 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

You're in for a treat. Just keep in mind the first few episodes are a but up and down, but then shit gets crazy in the best way possible.

Seen it before

Aware the first series is slower than the rest.

[Zorral]

22 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

The BBC didnt ‘Merlin’ it, though I’d maybe have oreferred it being a bit more GoT.

Ryan Gage as Louis XIII is excellent.

Not sure what you intend by "merlin it'. ?

It isn't Got and USA, it's a Brit take on Dumas and French history.  It keeps the intent and spirit of Dumas very very well, who was deeply concerned about writing historical fiction, not 'historical' fantasy.

Ya, the Louis XIII was really good, as were many others.

 

[Mindwalker]

I might try The Musketeers, I like Cabreras and I'm looking for something lighthearted.

That said, I'm apparently over Abbott Elementary.

[Derfel Cadarn]

5 hours ago, Zorral said:

Not sure what you intend by "merlin it'. ?

It isn't Got and USA, it's a Brit take on Dumas and French history.  It keeps the intent and spirit of Dumas very very well, who was deeply concerned about writing historical fiction, not 'historical' fantasy.

Ya, the Louis XIII was really good, as were many others.

 

The BBC made the Merlin tv series, which was pretty kid-ified, and had a number of similar shows. Musketeers was more adult thankfully. 
 

By GOT, I’d have liked more intrigue and debaicherry (it’s set in Paris!), more dirt and vice. Drinking and whatnot.

[Zorral]

4 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Musketeers was more adult thankfully. 

Thank the lord, amen!

4 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

By GOT, I’d have liked more intrigue and debaicherry (it’s set in Paris!), more dirt and vice. Drinking and whatnot.

And here I thought there was an adequate amount of that.  Wasn't devil worship and sacrifice enough?  

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Am finally bingeing thru the 11th and final season of Walking Dead on Netflix.

Lots of fun stuff coming soon like The Last Among us, new seasons of Mayor of Kingston, and next chapter of 1923

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

That show lasting for 11 seasons and getting a spinoff is stunning and offensive.

[Cas Stark]

34 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

That show lasting for 11 seasons and getting a spinoff is stunning and offensive.

Yeah probably.  I never watched it.  But, Law & Order and it's 17 spinoffs have been on for 300 years.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

Yeah probably.  I never watched it.  But, Law & Order and it's 17 spinoffs have been on for 300 years.

That entire genre has become bloated. OG Law & Order was great though because you could just check in on a random episode, you knew you were getting like one of a half dozen different story types, be satisfied and not watch it again for a while. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Northman

I liked it. Bonkers in a good way. So dramatic. These vikings don't play when it comes to vengeance.

Molly's Game.

I revisit this one every once in a while. I don't know why its so rewatchable for me but it is. Chastain is great in this. 

[RhaenysBee]

Angel certainly picked up. I’m not saying it’s steadily as ingenious as Buffy has been at its peak. But it’s solid and strong and they finally managed to open Angel up to be on the way to become a character rather than a trope. Certainly he’s only on the way, but it’s a start. Humor is certainly helping, as well as weird quirks which still feel a bit like feeling around in the dark, but they are certainly trying. The turning point was certainly

Spoiler

When he fought Buffy over Faith. That was character. Overall for me it was Faith who brought that soul to the surface Angel is supposed to have. 

Same for Wesley. I enjoy Cordelia and her character development, but she was certainly the easiest because she already had a character for Buffy to work with in Angel. The other aspect of improvement is that some proper antagonists finally entered the ring, which did a huge favor to the story. 
 

Spoiler

the Kate Lockely thread feels like a dead end to me, but the Gunn storyline is very much working out and bringing some much needed spice to the crew. Same with the Wolfram and Hart storyline. I do 100% love that they tie the story to Buffy as much as possible (calling Giles for intel or having a 3 hour call with Willow to hack into a file) so it doesn’t feel like there are obviously plot holes at the intersections of the two stories. Also the spin-off doesn’t have that weird resentment for its big sister that lot of spin-offs do. This is professional and results in a much better story for Angel. Yes I did read the “controversy” about the “toxic environment” during the Buffy and Angel productions, but I will still say this: Joss Whedon is a bloody brilliant and ingenious writer and exceptional at what he does. 

 

[Veltigar]

I watched Glass Onion yesterday. All in all, it is a really stupid film, but I mostly had fun with it. It helps that I like the genre, as well as most of the actors. I also thought the film did a good job in keeping the pace sufficiently high for the stupidity not to overly bother me, as they never really dwelt on it for too long until the very end of the film were it lost me. The identity of the antagonist was easy to spot and they did some fun stuff with 

Spoiler

the idea that Norton's character is actually so stupid that he is shown to steal his few good 'villain' ideas from Blanc (using a blackout to commit murder) and Lionel (burning the napkin instead of keeping it around).

What I could not condone however, is that the only way to stop the villain was for the lead to 

Spoiler

destroy the Mona Lisa? Like fuck you Rian Johnson, what has Leonardo ever done to you? It was such a dumb, needless little detour that I just couldn't understand why he went with that plot device. Probably just a way to get some last minute action in there, but it did end up tainting the heroine in my opinion. I know Miles' crime of murder is infinitely worse, but it is really hard to root for someone who destroys a priceless piece of heritage to settle a personal score.

So in summary, I would say it was a pretty mediocre. The first film was definitely better.

On 12/30/2022 at 11:04 PM, Corvinus85 said:

Stick with it. And really I thought the first arc was solid but it does get even better.

A blast from the past, but I followed up on your advice and finished Andor yesterday. It really kicks into high gear from like episode 6 onwards and I just could not stop watching until the entire season was done. It's a really excellent series and by far the best Star Wars related property I have seen in years (caveat here is that I still have to watch Rogue One).

I have friends who were really into the Star Wars EU, who told me that they checked out on the Disney era of SW because it is just more of the same, but I do intent to push them into giving Andor a chance. This really is the first series that makes full use of the potential such a vast universe provides.

A lot of ink has already been spilled on praising Andor, so I will not make this overlong, but I do think Andor has the potential to really make the Empire scary again. Seeing the scale of the Imperial apparatus for repression up close was really needed after first Lucas and then Disney did their best to "kiddy" up the franchise by neutering the villains. 

I also love the aesthetic of the series. Much better than all the other Disney shows who use that Mandalorian green screen tech. They used a lot of sets here and it's clearly superior I would say.

On 1/13/2023 at 9:19 PM, Corvinus85 said:

Yes, he said in an interview that Avatar 3, which has already been filmed, will feature yet another Na'Vi tribe referred to as the 'ash people' and they are not so good, but it's unclear how evil they are. And the movie will include good humans, too.

Let's hope he delivers there. It wouldn't surprise me if the ash people are "evil" in the sense of "grossly misunderstood but actually really good" vein. 

[Darryk]

Just finished the first season of Cobra Kai and it's brilliant. I'm completely hooked.

[RhaenysBee]

33 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

What I could not condone however, is that the only way to stop the villain was for the lead to 

  Reveal hidden contents

destroy the Mona Lisa? Like fuck you Rian Johnson, what has Leonardo ever done to you? It was such a dumb, needless little detour that I just couldn't understand why he went with that plot device. Probably just a way to get some last minute action in there, but it did end up tainting the heroine in my opinion. I know Miles' crime of murder is infinitely worse, but it is really hard to root for someone who destroys a priceless piece of heritage to settle a personal score.

So in summary, I would say it was a pretty mediocre. The first film was definitely better.

This bothered me very much too. 

Spoiler

Partly because of what you mentioned and partly because I really don’t like the message in there. An artwork (of such merit as the Mona Lisa, not necessarily the otherwise very pretty aquarelles of my high school art teacher ) should not be presented as disposable. It’s not and should not be an object or tool of punishment or justice or whatnot. Art should be above petty human ideology and whatever you think about the world you should value it. I cannot fathom what kind of thinking it takes to regard heritage (be it art, architecture, natural heritage, culture or anything) as worthless and disposable. I’m not trying to be ungenerous to Rian Johnson, he’s probably had a well meaning or at least neutral motive to burn the Mona Lisa in his film, perhaps he just didn’t think it through thoroughly enough. 

 

[Cas Stark]

29 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

This bothered me very much too. 

  Hide contents

Partly because of what you mentioned and partly because I really don’t like the message in there. An artwork (of such merit as the Mona Lisa, not necessarily the otherwise very pretty aquarelles of my high school art teacher ) should not be presented as disposable. It’s not and should not be an object or tool of punishment or justice or whatnot. Art should be above petty human ideology and whatever you think about the world you should value it. I cannot fathom what kind of thinking it takes to regard heritage (be it art, architecture, natural heritage, culture or anything) as worthless and disposable. I’m not trying to be ungenerous to Rian Johnson, he’s probably had a well meaning or at least neutral motive to burn the Mona Lisa in his film, perhaps he just didn’t think it through thoroughly enough. 

 

Rian Johnson is an asshole and it shows in his movies.  Glass Onion is dumb and mean spirited, with a high gloss of excellent actors to make the bad medicine go down better.  I have no idea other than 'haha rich people are stupider than me' why anyone liked this film.

I did like Brick.

[RhaenysBee]

1 minute ago, Cas Stark said:

Rian Johnson is an asshole and it shows in his movies.  Glass Onion is dumb and mean spirited, with a high gloss of excellent actors to make the bad medicine go down better.  I have no idea other than 'haha rich people are stupider than me' why anyone liked this film.

Glass Onion is not the kind of film that could or should ever be taken seriously. And Rian Johnson films have this tendency to want to appear smarter than they are. It always shows. The 5 second essence of Glass Onion, which I’m sure was left in to show that Rian has self awareness and self deprecating humor was this: 

Spoiler

It’s so dumb.

Clearly they are talking about their own movie. 

[polishgenius]

Okay, gonna break something to you guys re: Glass Onion.

 

Spoiler

Rhiann Johnson didn't burn the real Mona Lisa for his film. It was a replica. 

 

[Veltigar]

25 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

Glass Onion is not the kind of film that could or should ever be taken seriously. And Rian Johnson films have this tendency to want to appear smarter than they are. It always shows. The 5 second essence of Glass Onion, which I’m sure was left in to show that Rian has self awareness and self deprecating humor was this: 

  Hide contents

It’s so dumb.

Clearly they are talking about their own movie. 

In Rian Johnson's defence, I do think these films are more of a parody of the whodunnit than actually trying to give us the real thing. With Glass Onion, it is more overt, but Daniel Craig's distressingly fake good old-boy accent was there from the beginning.

Just now, polishgenius said:

Okay, gonna break something to you guys re: Glass Onion.

 

  Hide contents

Rhiann Johnson didn't burn the real Mona Lisa for his film. It was a replica. 

 

Wait what? Are you for real polishgenius? Gosh, I hope I can still get a refund on that hitman I sent out to LA to deal with Johnson 

Btw, I also have a revelation for you

Spoiler

Edward Norton did not in fact kill Janelle Monáe and Dave Bautista. He probably killed other people, but not them. That was fictional.

56 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

This bothered me very much too. 

  Hide contents

Partly because of what you mentioned and partly because I really don’t like the message in there. An artwork (of such merit as the Mona Lisa, not necessarily the otherwise very pretty aquarelles of my high school art teacher ) should not be presented as disposable. It’s not and should not be an object or tool of punishment or justice or whatnot. Art should be above petty human ideology and whatever you think about the world you should value it. I cannot fathom what kind of thinking it takes to regard heritage (be it art, architecture, natural heritage, culture or anything) as worthless and disposable. I’m not trying to be ungenerous to Rian Johnson, he’s probably had a well meaning or at least neutral motive to burn the Mona Lisa in his film, perhaps he just didn’t think it through thoroughly enough. 

 

Spoiler

Art is never really free from ideology. The thing which bothered me is that there was no ideological point behind the burning of the Mona Lisa in the film. It was just done for shock value and was kind of nonsensical. That made it just worse in my opinion.

  

[RhaenysBee]

19 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Okay, gonna break something to you guys re: Glass Onion.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Rhiann Johnson didn't burn the real Mona Lisa for his film. It was a replica. 

 

Noooooo bloody waaaay. Woooooooow. Reallllly??? Phew. Well damn, thank you for sharing, all my sleepless nights are finally over. 

14 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

In Rian Johnson's defence, I do think these films are more of a parody of the whodunnit than actually trying to give us the real thing. With Glass Onion, it is more overt, but Daniel Craig's distressingly fake good old-boy accent was there from the beginning.

 Yup sure, that’s why they have that dumb entertainment value and work more or less right for what they are. Wouldn’t watch either films again, but I didn’t turn them off either. 

14 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

contents

Spoiler

Well, its creation certainly isn’t, but valuing it, and really anything that have been around for hundreds of years should be. In my opinion, etc.