Moments when a piece of entertainment completely lost you.

Taishan · Post by **Taishan** » Wed May 23, 2012 4:05 pm

While I appreciate the nerding out about having Black Widow and Hawkeye being in the Avengers movie, lets not forget that the movie was about an ensemble of diverse supers getting together to fight a big bad. If you brought in Scarlet Witch or Hank Pym or anyone else with actual powers, you'd have to explain who they are, why you should care and what their super powers are, using up screentime. Iron Man 2 and Thor have already done that to a large degree with Black Widow and Hawkeye. While I appreciate the addition of Maria Hill to the movie universe, no one who doesn't read comics knows what the fuck she is about or doing there. Hell, does anyone who just watches the movies know about Nick Fury's Infinity Formula? Its already an almost 2.5 hour movie; is it really going to be bigger seller if you take an extra 10 minutes to explain Ms. Marvel's origin and why she's just showing up now?

If you had Ms. Marvel and Scarlet Witch in the fray, would you really care or would you be wondering why you can't get more tape of Iron Man shooting guys behind him by bouncing repulsor beams off of Cap's shield? Ms. Marvel will punch things, but in a less awesome fashion than Thor or Hulk. Scarlet Witch will use magic or break reality which is going to be akin to Iron Man lighting things up. They don't really bring any new flash to the table. Additionally, I believe there comes a point of ZOMGPEWPEW saturation, and a movie with Iron Man, Thor and Hulk is pretty close to that. Everyone else has to play a less flashy roll, and Black Widow and Hawkeye are pretty perfect for that. Notice Loki didn't really do shit during the whole last hour expect get his face pounded into Tony Stark's expensive flooring by Hulk, yet he's an Asgardian with Magic.

Did I chuckle at the spinning montage of all the Avengers getting ready for the final fight and seeing Hawkeye basically check to see if he still had his car keys and Black Widow reload her pistol (SHIELD couldn't get her a bigger fucking gun? Really?) Sure. But I also get the limitations of an ensemble movie.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed May 23, 2012 7:08 pm

There was a good article in Wired last month that talks mostly about Whedon's role in directing The Avengers, but also some background about the movie itself. Some highlights:

[*]The Avengers wasn't part of the original plan when Iron Man came out.

[*]These Marvel superhero movies are Disney's answer to their princess movies - but for boys.

[*]Whedon was brought in because the studio thought that even if he did a crappy job, the movie was pretty much "bombproof."

[*]Marvel wanted to scrap Black Widow but Whedon them that without a token female her, "the Helicarrier was going to feel like a gay cruise."

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Wed May 23, 2012 8:17 pm

Maj wrote: [*]These Marvel superhero movies are Disney's answer to their princess movies - but for boys.

Which is something of an odd thing for them to say, because the last time I checked (and admittedly I haven't paid attention to movies at all for three years now), that category (for boys) literally included everything Disney produces... except for the Princess movies.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:46 am

I just read Nemesis- a comic written by Mark Millar that was insultingly stupid.

The basic idea is that the antagonist is the mirror image of Batman- like Batman in that he's a billionaire with tons of gadgets, supremely skilled in martial arts, orphan, etc. Except that his parents were criminals and he spends his time killing as many police officers as possible, especially higher ranks while wearing a fully white costume.

Except that's not true. What it actually is, is an almost omniscient group that rich people pay to take the role of Nemesis and have fun killing police. As in they know decades in advance exactly who will be in positions of authority, and exactly how they and everyone else well react. To the point of knowing to the minute that someone will be shot and then treated just enough that they are medically dead at midnight ten years in advance.

As well as that, random rich people who buy the chance to pretend to be this Nemesis are capable of beating a couple of hundred prison guards to death with their bare hands in a single fight.

The whole plot requires omniscience on the part of the antagonists, as well as random people being superhuman at fighting. It pisses me off how retarded the plot is.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:17 am

Hey Akula, I found some reasonably well-indexed Cthulhutech reviews for you.
http://tradwiki.foxxtrot.net/index.php/ ... y_Ettin.29

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:45 am

Avoraciopoctules wrote:Hey Akula, I found some reasonably well-indexed Cthulhutech reviews for you.
http://tradwiki.foxxtrot.net/index.php/ ... y_Ettin.29

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. I love to hate this shitfest of a game.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:43 pm

I know that we've had scattered bits and pieces about Cthulhutech on these boards over the years, but, I think a Frank and Akula MegaHate review would be warranted and fun.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:53 am

How not to set up a gaming kickstarter

Whatever the flaws of David Hill, at least his kickstarter has interesting rewards. Gaming Paper is unfortunately resorting to thanks ("Included in the book as a -th level supporter"), PDFs, and physical books. If you give them enough money, they'll sign it. Some of the higher ranks (around $60 and up) add in some other stuff, like other pdfs, map packs and rolls of gaming paper, but it's not enough. The majority of the low level rewards are differentiated solely by whether you get just a pdf or pdf and hard copy, and where your name appears on the thanks page (I think). The higher level rewards are pretty samey, except one (which no one's taken yet) is to have an extra encounter written for you, another a one hour video chat with the owner of Gaming Paper, and the big ticket is to have dinner with him at gen con (restaurant is set, you and three friends, up to $500. ...and the pledge is $600).

If my initial impression is correct, and that "included as a -th level supporter" means being written in as an npc, then that's a bit cooler. But they probably could have found some other things to include, I mean, look at Amanda Palmer's or Rich Burlew's Kickstarters.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:18 am

Well if I look at this :

http://kotaku.com/5902280/what-the-hell ... rter-money

Incentives can costs you serious amount of dough, meaning you need to raise a lot more too.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:40 pm

Well, yes, which is why most people I've seen make their incentives "buy one," which GP did, it's just practically all they did, or they plan their incentives out, which GP didn't seem to do overall. Mostly they looked at each other and said "Well, what do we have lying around that didn't sell?" At least they had the sense to make the "Have dinner with me" one $100 above the tab maximum, which is actually pretty good, because even assuming that everyone has their own appetizer, a soup or salad, entree and three drinks, it still doesn't break $330 on average, so GP would still get ~$270. I doubt that reward will be picked up, but it might. Though honestly it's really "$100 to take me out to dinner!"

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:23 am

Different to the normal entertainment on this thread:
So yesterday was the Transit of Venus. My kids were home for the day, as was I. I setup the telescope and white cardboard for viewing, knowing I had 6 hours to view an interesting piece of astronomy.

100% cloud cover. All day.
Not happy.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:38 am

I heard about the partial lunar eclipse the night after it happened. Didn't realize my misreading of the article until I was standing outside at 3am and not seeing any eclipsing. Then I went and double checked, resolved to remember the transit over venus- ...and completely fucking forgot about it.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:21 am

Only another 49 years 'till Halley's Comet comes back around guys, not to worry. One or two other big long period comets between now and then too. C/2006 P1 "McNaught" was awesome, went out and watched it in the middle of winter, got so much bigger night by night.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:24 am

Oh, I've just resolved that I need to live another 105 years so I can catch the next Venus Transit thingie.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:21 am

I was in Europe. The transit of Venus started at 3 minutes after midnight here. I literally had the entire Earth between me and the event. Fucking core of the planet obstructing my view.

-Username17

angelfromanotherpin · Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:58 pm

Well, here's a video of it. From the SDO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9rM8ChTjY

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 10:52 pm

Well, I saw Prometheus.

It sucked. It wasn't even scary. It was just brutal in places. And the outcome was predictable.

I will now summarize the plot for you:

"We found the aliens that created us. And they're not nice."

Though about half the damn movie is a reference to Alien. Even has a giant mural of a xenomorph on a wall.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 1:44 am

I'm watching Prometheus tomorrow since some friends are rabidly wanting to see it and I barely get to socialize with peers anymore. From a couple reviews I've read, it doesn't sound like I'm going to be wowed. I'm baffled at Rotten Tomato's 75% approval rating (of reviews & viewers). Though reading the clips from some of the "Positive" reviews makes me wonder how they judge it positive.

Here's some 'positive review' quotes:
• "There's definite mastery here, but it's hardly a masterpiece."
• "Prometheus tells a much bigger story and does it well, but it's missing what matters most. It's inorganic."
• "I'll say this much for it -- it's not boring."
• "Alienation for some, ecstasy for others. Certain to reign as the best disappointment of 2012, Ridley Scott's Prometheus is a work whose visual splendor can't be denied but whose narrative content will divide audiences."
• ""Prometheus" is visually impressive, so much so that it overshadows the shortcomings in the script by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts."

Not boring? Best disappointment? Missing what matters most? These are positive reviews? Fuck Rotten Tomato, what the fuck?

I checked and a couple of those had 3 stars (presumably out of 5), others made no such rating.

Oh well, I guess I'll find out on my own soon enuff.

On the Venus transit, I made a resolution similar to Prak's. I've said to others that I'd rather see it next time anyway.

echoVanguard · Post by **echoVanguard** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:29 am

I just saw Prometheus, and I enjoyed myself - the movie definitely has a great soundtrack and some really amazing visual effects. That being said, it is much closer to Cabin in the Woods than Alien. I strongly suggest not opening the spoiler until after seeing the film.

Sweet Jesus, the crew of the Prometheus must have been selected by finding the stupidest goddamned people on the planet. I don't even know if I can count the number of ridiculous decisions made by some of these doofuses.

- "Hey, we're on an alien planet with toxic atmosphere, but we appear to suddenly be in an area with breathable air despite not passing through an airlock! Let's take off our helmets with complete and utter disregard for any biohazard protocol! Best of all, our on-board xenobiologist can't scold us for it, because we didn't bring one!"

- "Hey, we found some unidentifiable goop! Should we stick our fingers in it with total lack of concern for what it might do to our suits or chemical makeup? Why not! Maybe we can cram some of it in our mouths too!"

- "Uh oh, us two engineers, presumably with PhD-level educations, are stuck down here on the planet's surface! Despite the fact that we have a comprehensive 3-D map of the entire complex which we built ourselves less than an hour ago, we seem to be totally lost! Let's wander around and poke things with a stick! Uh oh, we found some unknown material! Let's practically smear it all over ourselves! And now that an unknown life-form has appeared, let's treat it like a cute kitty cat instead of showing perfectly understandable concern for our mutual well-being!"

- "Hmm, I, a super-intelligent android, have found some clearly hazardous biological contaminant! Rather than subject it to any kind of tests that might allow me to utilize its properties judiciously, I'd better use it to infect one of my core science personnel in a scheme calculated to result in his imminent demise and the endangerment of my entire crew, significantly reducing my chances of completing my mission objective successfully!"

- "Sweet! One of our companions, whom we clearly saw was dead about an hour ago, has apparently showed up outside our airlock with a broken helmet in an atmosphere earlier established to be lethal after 120 seconds of exposure! Clearly we'd better open the doors and let him in instead of using an externally-mounted camera to examine him!"

The list goes on and on and on, right up to the end when the second-to-last survivor fails to figure out the survival merits of taking ten steps to the left during a two-minute time-span. By the end of the film, I was downright amazed the entire crew didn't die from eating paint chips and drinking drain cleaner immediately upon waking from cryosleep!

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film. But you'd think with this much money behind a film, the characters could have acted like intelligent humans.

echo

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:45 am

Yeah Charlize Theron dying because she couldn't run sideways for 10 seconds is just.. painful.

Also, What's with all these scientists that aren't scientists.

So, humanity is created as an act of terrorism. And they plan to remedy the problem by wiping them out. It's been 2000 years. Where's the distress signal, where's the engineer rescue team. Why did the command crew of the ship go into cryo sleep for 2000 years, in the middle of some kind of bio-weapon break out.

There are so many holes in the plot, you'd think George Lucas wrote the script.

that being said, I kind of liked the movie.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:55 am

FrankTrollman wrote: So Wolverine was an Avenger for a while, and on that basis he appears in teamups with Spiderman and Daredevil. Beast: same deal. But Xavier isn't in the Avengers and nothing Captain America ever does has to interact with the fact that there is a Telepath with a giant computer that can find anyone in the whole world and change their memories.

I'm pretty sure that Wolverine didn't become an Avenger till very recently (in New Avengers, along with Spider-Man)he's crossed over with pretty much everyone else, because he's absurdly popular and putting Wolverine on a cover of an issue is a guaranteed way to sell a few extra copies.

And before Wolverine became super-popular in the 90s there was Marvel Team-up featuring Spider-Man, which pair Spider-Man with pretty much everybody, obscure and popular. There's even an issue where Spider-Man teams up with Killraven, who is from an alternate reality where H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds really happened except that the Martians won and have occupied Earth, reducing humanity to a slave-race. I'm not sure how that one was supposed to work.

Prak_Anima wrote:Actually, hell, isn't She-Hulk one of the most popular female Marvel characters for no reason other than her giant green endowments and the fact that, though few admit it, many men find the idea of a woman who can benchpress them incredibly hot?

She Hulk is also a lawyer. In fact, there's one volume of her comic that's essentially Ally McBeal with superheroes. It was surprisingly good.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:03 am

sabs wrote:

Yeah Charlize Theron dying because she couldn't run sideways for 10 seconds is just.. painful.

Also, What's with all these scientists that aren't scientists.

So, humanity is created as an act of terrorism. And they plan to remedy the problem by wiping them out. It's been 2000 years. Where's the distress signal, where's the engineer rescue team. Why did the command crew of the ship go into cryo sleep for 2000 years, in the middle of some kind of bio-weapon break out.

There are so many holes in the plot, you'd think George Lucas wrote the script.

that being said, I kind of liked the movie.

My own theory:

I got the impression that they were going to wipe us out to free up some real estate. But that's me.

Sashi · Post by **Sashi** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:44 am

Yeah, you can't really add the Mutant members of Avengers to the Avengers movie until they decide whether the Marvel and Avengers movie universes intersect (also the Spider-Man movie universe seems to be separate).

Avengers 2 will probably have Ms Marvel, and if they decide to gamble on a Ruffalo Hulk movie, I will be very happy if it introduces She-Hulk. Though I'm really confident that they won't because unless This Lady ends up being a passable actress and willing to bulk up, you're going to have a character with fight-scene effects costs just to have Alley McBeal conversations.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:35 am

Yeah, can anyone get the plot straight for me (from Prometheus)?

Spoilers Below

So a solitary engineer stands on a waterfall, eats bug juice, and then dies, seeding the planet with his DNA. At the same time, a space ship takes off, and I assume it carries all the rest of the engineers... So how did humans meet the engineers? And how did they learn about the star cluster?

Then what the hell was that black ooze? I'm getting the feeling that the it wasn't alive itself, but it made things grow (seemed like a cop-out, the way "radiation" was/is a cop-out for stuff like spiderman and that movie about giant ants). There was a clip of worms in the ground from when they were in the face-room, and I assume the liquid made the worms grow into monsters. Then Halloway turned into some sort of... werewolf... thing... And when he had sex with the other lady, she had a face-sucker baby. Honestly, none of that made sense.

And what in the hell were David's motives? Seriously, he was just a huge prick the whole movie.

And as a final note, the planet they landed on was LV 426, but in Alien it's LV 226, so the story most definitely is not over, and that seems intentional.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:53 am

Sashi wrote:Yeah, you can't really add the Mutant members of Avengers to the Avengers movie until they decide whether the Marvel and Avengers movie universes intersect (also the Spider-Man movie universe seems to be separate).

That's a understandable decision, really. I mean, would YOU want to be anywhere remotely near a superhero whom in an alternate realit--aaaaaagh! SPIDER-MAN, NOOOOO, DON'T MAKE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL ACKPTH WHY GOD WHY?!

Yes, I will be doing this every 4 or so months until that plot point gets fully retconned.