[amphibian]

It's pretty human to be wanting a different ending to a story and end up trashing the one we got for weird reasons.

I do a slightly different thing where I hate on every bit of the lead-up to the Star Wars prequels ending (the Obi-Wan/Anakin duel and aftermath) - but that's different because 1) I think the ending was ok and nearly everything leading up to it was shit and 2) hating on the Star Wars prequel is a really sane thing to do.

I have now moved on to hating on the Star Wars universe entirely. One of my bugbears is artificial intelligence. If it's a solve problem enough that tiny basketball sized droids can be truly intelligent, why aren't Death Stars and big ships sentient? Why wasn't Luke Skywalker known as the architect of the murdering of the two largest intelligences known at that time? (I'm aware there's now sentient planets and stuff like that, but they weren't known at the time)

Star Wars, upon the serious contemplation, pales in comparison to Star Trek, despite the latter being a goofy Lost in Space run by a near monomaniacal man in Roddenberry.

[polishgenius]

To be fair, Star Wars was not in any way designed to stand up to serious contemplation. It's just a load of cool shit, put together in a compelling way (originally, anyway).

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 17 June 2015 - 06:58 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 17 June 2015 - 06:19 PM, said:

Spoiler

Then the Flash and the OTHER version of Quicksilver (Days of Future Past) are just wrong and this is right?

Eh, I'm not buying it. Every other version of someone moving super fast shows this ability or a variation thereof. I'm not willing to believe that the ONE version of that who doesn't do it...is the be-all-end-all.

But a lot of this may stem from me disliking Hawkeye and thinking he deserved to die, and liking Quicksilver and wanting him to have an Avenger future.

Spoiler

It's not that the one who doesn't do it is the be-all and end-all... but this one doesn't do it.
It's not just that he's not moving nearly as fast as Flash/X-Men Quicksilver, when he's moving fast he's quite clumsy- as if either his brain, while running faster than ours, isn't quite keeping up with his body,or as if he has to be running to activate the superspeed which would preclude him stopping to move the bullets in any case.
Whatever the reason, nothing he does in the film suggests that he's holding back any powers that would have allowed him to do anything differently in that scene.

Spoiler

I dunno, if he can put himself in the way of the bullets as he did, that lends to the theory that he could at least turn them to different trajectories. He also catches Hawkeye's arrows earlier in the film. But yeah, I guess I can see since it was never explicitly stated what his powers were and what level he controls them I can see the other POV. But the bit that urks me is that we see him in slow mo a few times..and we see him move people out of the way or knock them down...both of which lend to the idea he can change the slower things form doing what they wished to do. An arrow leaves a good compound bow at like 400FPS....which is what? Like 300MPH ish? So we are saying he can easily, without breaking a sweat or fumbling, catch an arrow going 300MPH...but turning a bullet from its trajectory is out of his realm of do-ability? That seems like a weird set of limitations.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 17 June 2015 - 08:04 PM

[worry]

Spoiler

Am I wrong, or wasn't it that he was moving a huge cement barrier in front of them and that took up much of his kinetic energy? I mean he wasn't "taking" the bullets for them in any deliberate sense, he was shot while moving the cement "just in time". It's a contrivance for sure, but one of timing, not of physics.

[Illuyankas]

Pretty sure that

Spoiler

he moves them behind the barrier rather than the reverse

[worry]

Spoiler

Oh yah. You're right, he basically carries them behind an upturned car (not cement) and he's just outside its protection. I thought he was shot from the back originally but I guess it's all through his side. Anyway, so he still has his hands full (of two people) so I'm still saying it's just a contrivance of timing. Everyone's right that he's not supersonic like the other version too, of course.

[Nicodimas]

Bullets Vs Compound Bow Argument

#70 Pound
329 Feet per Second

.223 Bullet

3200 Feet Per Second
2568 Miles per hour

SuperSonic Speeds
https://en.wikipedia...upersonic_speed

Quote

The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second (around 1,700 mph). If you reacted to the sound of the gun going off and required 0.20 seconds (twice that of the fastest Olympic sprinters) to react, then you would need to be at least 500 feet away to successfully dodge a bullet. The problem is that sound travels at 768 miles per hour (1,126 feet per second)—about half the speed of the bullet. In this case, the bullet would hit you before you even heard the gun fire off.

Reaction Time. Flatness of the Trajectory.

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 18 June 2015 - 12:12 AM

[QuickTidal]

Meh, in my head the other super fast superheroes can do this, so I see no reason to buy that this one shouldn't be able to (especially when his comic and other movie counterparts can do it). But I'm willing to be in the minority on that.

[Macros]

[QuickTidal]

Pretty much. It's not crossguarded lightsber dynamics nerdy levels...but it's close.

[Macros]

Jurassic world.
Entertaining, popcorn action fun.
Chris's Pratt is fast turning into one of my favourite leading men.

Overall, as good as Jurassic Park?
Ultimately no, but it hits a lot of the right notes. Pratt is a better lead than Niel, but Park had a better cast overall.
And of course this suffers from sequel syndrome, everything has to be bigger, faster and more dangerous. It still works, and is a close second best.

[Mezla PigDog]

I saw Jurassic World this evening. It was very cool - full on sequel syndrome as mentioned above but for me it took the syndrome and smashed through it like a gene spliced mutant angry intelligent dinosaur. Layers upon layers of balls out ridiculousness with high heels on. I spotted each plot development way ahead but managed to miss the very final ending bit despite it being completely obvious. Not as good as Park - no Jeff basically - but still an almost perfect summer blockbuster. I thought it looked more scary for kids than Park too. If you go to see it then embrace the silliness and enjoy it. Rarrrrrrrr.

[Tsundoku]

I just watched a very nice movie called 'Robot and Frank', with Frank Langella. 5 stolen diamonds out of 6.

[HoosierDaddy]

Finally watched Kingsman. It was rip-roaring fun. Really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

[A Demon Llama!]

Ex-Machina is a really good movie.

[amphibian]

A Demon Llama!, on 22 June 2015 - 01:15 AM, said:

Ex-Machina is a really good movie.

I saw it today. I have many thoughts (most of which I put up on Twitter). It is a phenomenal movie and challenges many basic assumptions of our daily lives and assumptions. I really think most of the board will enjoy this movie and take a lot from it.

I'll go into spoilers to get into the deep details and my thoughts:

Spoiler

The movie is much less about artificial intelligence than it is about patriarchal society and how we're now living in a world that confines women to specific and lesser roles and making that confinement strong despite it being a hazily understood thing to most people. Ex Machina does this brilliantly and it does this with a savage twist I'll arrive at later.

Nathan, creator of Bluebook and recluse tech-billionaire genius, is very clearly meant to represent Google/Bill Gates and by extension Silicon Valley culture. He's not the typical WASP that amped up and created systems of slavery, economic extraction and self-enrichment, but he pretty much does the same thing. The illegal phone hacking he talks about, the backstage deals that all the tech companies do to cover this up when he was discovered phone hacking and so on. These things show that he's a tech-bro who might be even worse than the WASP-bros he replaces at the top of the economic/prestige pyramid.

Caleb is the WASP-bro. He's shown in a light that's pretty clearly meant to make the non-attentive viewer think he's the hero. But he's not. He is the fake ally of women who wants to rescue them and stick them into the "girlfriend/make me feel good" role without actually helping them just to help them. The biggest reason he wants to help Ava is because he wants to fuck her. He doesn't want to fuck Kyoko, so there's no mention of her getting rescued or the previous versions getting rescued.

Also side note: Kyoko taking off her shirt might have been an attempt to show Caleb she was an android - not an attempt to fuck him as he thought. Wow, that whole Kyoko/Asian sex slave thing turns into a really, really grisly abuse cycle upon contemplation. She stays in it because she knows nothing else, because Nathan provides her power, her stimulation and so on. Then she kills Nathan at the cost of her own life. Wow. Nathan purposely built her to be who she is because that's what he thinks he wants - and it's not, which is why he drinks so much and is a creepy asshole to everybody. And Caleb kind of assumed Nathan's having of a quiet Asian sex slave was okay and not worth talking to Nathan about or objecting to. This movie handled Kyoko's storyline with genius aplomb.

Ava is imprisoned in a building and she hazily understands the system that is imprisoning her. She knows pretty clearly who is doing this to her and why, but how, she's not quite sure, yet she manages to sabotage certain aspects and work things to her favor. Her questioning of Caleb was astoundingly canny for a fledgling consciousness and upon thinking, it's really obvious how, from the get go, she's sussing out Caleb's likelihood to help her and relative badness in comparison to Nathan. This is what women deal with - particularly in Silicon Valley. They get shoved into lower paying jobs, they don't get the same opportunities and it's not made better by the tech-bros who're replacing the guys previously at the top.

Ava's escape, in which she receives the help of Kyoko and strips the flesh from the previous Asian robot, is very, very meaningful. The women who can escape the huge institutions gearing down upon them are almost all white women who leave behind the women of color and/or even take things from them to help themselves. The Rachel Dolezal thing is kind of an example of that - Rachel took the problems and narrative of black women to help herself and made things worse for black women by even further marginalizing them. It made national media for days because it's a crazy story. That doesn't mean it's not an important story and Ex Machina used it as a savage twist, even as Ava escapes, she's leaving behind the previous versions/women of color. Brilliant ending, especially the leaving of Caleb behind. He can probably figure out his own escape or that fake ally can die. It doesn't matter.

I agree much with this review: http://womenwriteabo...e-for-our-time/

I applaud that this review exists, but I do not agree that the film presents racism and abuse of women of color uncritically: http://multiasianfam...n-of-color.html

So yes, go see this movie.

2015 might be a bumper crop of movies that give women/people of color real agency and continue well the work of breaking down institutions that exclude and hurt people. The studios and people starting these movies in 2012 or 2013 did good things and I'm glad to have watched them.

[QuickTidal]

Huh, I had no idea this was even being made.

Here's the trailer for CREED, which is a spinoff/longsequel to the ROCKY films, in which Michael B. Jordan plays the son of Apollo Creed who rises as a boxer and is coached by Balboa himself (Sly).

If this can capture the spirit of the original (looks like it does a solid job of it) then we could have a winner on our hands.

[QuickTidal]

Considering how much I LOVED OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN....the fact that they've made a sequel LONDON HAS FALLEN has me all kinds of joyful.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 01 July 2015 - 01:17 PM, said:

If this can capture the spirit of the original (looks like it does a solid job of it) then we could have a winner on our hands.

It looks decent, but there's a boatload of boxing movies coming up in the next few months and this still looks like the least interesting one. Southpaw looks more exciting and the Vinny Pazienza and Roberto Duran films have much more interesting (real) subjects and both have great word of mouth from the festival circuit.

Nice Wire nostalgia vibes seeing Avon coaching Wallace. Also, wtf Tony Bellew.



White House Down >>> Olympus Has Fallen. Not that I've seen OHF.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 01 July 2015 - 05:15 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 01 July 2015 - 01:17 PM, said:

If this can capture the spirit of the original (looks like it does a solid job of it) then we could have a winner on our hands.

It looks decent, but there's a boatload of boxing movies coming up in the next few months and this still looks like the least interesting one. Southpaw looks more exciting and the Vinny Pazienza and Roberto Duran films have much more interesting (real) subjects and both have great word of mouth from the festival circuit.

Rocky movie is always going to get butts in the seats. ESPECIALLY with Jordan reciting Rocky's speech to his son from the 6th film in the trailer (which everyone knows from that X-Box commercial).

polishgenius, on 01 July 2015 - 05:15 PM, said:

White House Down >>> Olympus Has Fallen. Not that I've seen OHF.

This is so many kinds of wrong I can't even begin to explain it.

Points in OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN favour that WHITE HOUSE DOWN doesn't have/can't have.

1. Antoine Fuqua (over goddamned Roland Emmerich...of all people, ugh!)
2. Gerard Butler (over Charming Potato AKA Mr. Deadface McCantAct)
3. Millennium Films (over Sony-we-have-no-ideas-Pictures)
4. Not afraid to be brutal 90s-style headshot-happy blood soaked action movie.
5. Not afraid to have an external country villain (over Jason Clarke..?)
6. Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett (over Jaime Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and James Woods)

And if you've not see OHF...you really should. It's twelve kinds of awesome.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 01 July 2015 - 05:48 PM