Panron

joined 1 year ago
[–] Panron@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

imo, it already crashed (or at least is inches away from a crash). Into the Spider-Verse was an unexpected, yet solid 10/10 for me. Whenever I think I have some sort of "comic book movie fatigue" I can put that on still be blown away by how good it is, which drives home the point, for me, that it's just modern MCU and DCEU movies specifically that I'm tired of because they just aren't very good (I'll agree to disagree with anyone on this point).

Across the Spider-Verse took all of that and crapped out an extremely ill thought out attempt at tying into the MCU multi-verse (thus tying itself into my growing dislike for the MCU). The idea of "canon" events that have to be allowed to pass is so antithetical to the genre I'm shocked it wasn't tossed out during the brainstorming phase. You're telling there's a whole universe of heroes and all of them (except for Spider-Punk) accept the idea that they have to stand by and let people die because it's canon to that timeline? Nah. A hero is someone who risks their own life to save other people's lives. Full stop. An ordinary person will make a choice about which track the trolley goes down, saving either one person or many people. A hero would sacrifice themself to (at least attempt to) save all of the people on the tracks. Then when the movie came to a fairly natural stopping point, it kept going for a few more minutes to end on one of the worst cliffhangers I've seen in a very long time.

Across the Spider-Verse is a 4/10 for me. I would still give the third movie a chance (only because of how good the first movie is) but it will have to do some incredible course correction to redeem the second movie (if it's even possible). Otherwise, I'll just keep Into the Spider-Verse and think about how it's a shame they never made any sequels to such a good movie.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I'd be fascinated to know why people are downvoting you here.

Do they not know that the Wheel of Time is set in, what is called by some, the Third Age, approximately 3000 years after the apocalyptic destruction of civilization and literal reshaping of the world, which itself occurred an unknown thousands of years after the end of the First Age (which is believed to be the Age we're currently living in).

From RJ's notes:

The First Age ended when fire rained from the heavens. The flesh of men melted, and those who did not melt were charred like coals. Plagues, boils and sores roamed the world and famine, yet to eat or drink often meant death, for waters and fruits that once were wholesome now slew at the eating. Even the air or the dust could slay. The wind could bring death. Rivers filled with dead fish and birds fell from the sky. Invisible vapours from the land that slew. Noxious fumes that corroded men’s flesh.

Or are they downvoting you for saying WoT isn't science fiction, despite having certain characteristics of science fiction sprinkled throughout (e.g., characters studying the natural laws of their world and, through a combination of inborn abilities and technology, finding ways to advance their understanding and capabilities)?

Or are they downvoting simply because WoT isn't a movie, and thus deemed irrelevant to the topic at hand?

shrug

Whatever the case, I do agree with the spirit of your rebuttal. Not all post-apocalypse movies are science fiction.

For example, I would never place Left Behind (or any other similar religious post-apocalypse movie) on the science fiction shelf.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I've never met a person who I know has seen it but doesn't like Equilibrium.

...And it's at a 7.3 on IMDb. That's a pretty good rating.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I see no real benefits in this proposal and an increased attack surface for the supply chain.

I'd also disagree that Django's developmental pace is slow. Granted, I only came onboard with version 2, maybe older versions were slower. After years of dealing with JS churn, I appreciate Django's pace (actually, I think they could even slow down the major version increments).

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Spot on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_R-rated_films

That list isn't adjusted for inflation, unfortunately, so the rankings aren't entirely fair. Two things stood out to me, though. The early 00's were a little sparse on R-rated hits (you have to go all the way down to #20 before they start to become more common). And 1991's Terminator 2, adjusted for inflation, surpassed Passion of the Christ by $100,000,000, despite only being #18 (after PotC's #10).

A short list further down the page shows only the timeline of highest grossing R-rated movies at their time of release. PotC is obviously absent from that list.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (4 children)

That's a surprising number. Especially so since I don't really recall any blatant product placements (well ok, I think there was one scene that stood out a little bit).

I'd say the number of brand partnerships is less a problem than how prominent those brands are displayed. I can't think of the exact movies off the top of my head, but the most egregious instances I can think of only had one or two brands. Apple and BMW, for example, have had some seriously obnoxious brand placements in movies.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Probably an unpopular opinion, but:

If users experiencing issues with the ambee library in this package, they will knock on my door. And I'm not willing to support that or accept that burden. Especially as I don't see a good repacking reason in this case.

As a developer, this seems like a reasonable argument to me.

Also, I see from a comment you made recently that you seem to be involved with NixOS:

There’s always Nix but the dev behind HA has a personal vendetta against Nix people building his software (for some ridiculously stupid reason…he doesn’t understand the tech!). We packaged home assistant in nixpkgs anyway because we don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Calling him a terrorist is rather melodramatic. And I think further enforces his point, that your actions are creating unnecessary problems for others, and you simply don't care.

Edit:

Did Frenck come off as a bit of an asshole? Yes. But in my opinion, so did all of the NixOS people. Kind of a bad situation all around.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I was thinking Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend.

But there are, for whatever reason, so many possibilities for what it could've been (including the mostly live action Demonlover)

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Cell phones basically ruined horror movies.

This is an oft repeated idea. I don't really buy into it though.

If you're in immediate danger, a cellphone isn't really going to help you. Sure. Call the cops, or whatever. While you're fumbling with the phone, the killer has a chance to catch up to you. Maybe you drop the phone and have to leave it because the killer is so close. But "dropping the keys" is already an annoying cliche, so let's avoid that. You manage to call the cops. It'll take at least a minute to explain your situation to the dispatcher. Assuming they believe you (ie, you aren't dealing with a supernatural threat, which they'd either assume you're pranking or having a mental health episode) and immediately request a police response, it'll still be another 3+ minutes in an urban setting until the police arrive, or 30+ in a more rural setting (add on another minute or so if they don't believe you and you need to request that they send police anyway). If you're camping, staying at a cabin in the woods, or in some other remote setting, you're probably on your own for at least an hour.

So you've managed to call the police and know they're on their way. How long do you have to fend off the threat? It only takes Leatherface a minute or so to hack you into pieces with his chainsaw. Ghostface just slices your stomach open and is gone fifteen seconds later. Maybe you can lock yourself in your bedroom. That's not going to help if the second or third killer was already hiding in your closet. Or they can just dowse the house in gasoline and hide in an alleyway to see if you try to escape. It's a horror movie, they'll be able to evade the initial police response. If you're a primary target, they can just come for you later. Or just move on to the next target of opportunity.

If the threat is supernatural, walls are meaningless, and police are powerless.

That's not the only use for a cell phone. It can also be used as a light, but screen time kills battery pretty quickly (not sure about using the camera's flash as a light source, I'll assume that also drains the battery pretty quickly). But that light, along with either the ringtone or vibration motor can serve as a beacon if you're trying to hide from a threat.

The camera could be used for evidence. Well, see Blair Witch Project, et al. Horror already is capable of dealing with character with cameras, nothing new there.

TL;DR:

If your movie takes place after cell phones are commonplace, you need to establish some answers beforehand about “why dont they just call the cops?” and you need to establish those in a way that feels natural to the plot otherwise it will stick out to your viewers.

A decent movie can handle these issues easily (either taking a few seconds to show why the cell phone can't be used "right now", or having an opening kill where the character does manage to call the police and dies anyway.)

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

https://www.marvel.com/movies

Deadpool & Wolverine is listed under "Marvel Movies," whereas Deadpool 1 & 2 are listed under "Other Movies." This is the best source I can find that D&W is part of the MCU.

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

If you want to view it that way, sure, I won't disagree.

But L&T having that problem also contributes to the problems of the MCU at large, where each movie has to be some "villain of the week" that's introduced at the start of the movie and disposed of at the end, with a chance of a tease that the villain may return or perhaps a hint of some larger threat; either of which may ultimately lead nowhere. Up to to Infinity War, they were pretty good about those hints of a large threat, obviously with Infinity War and Endgame paying that off. Since then... What have we actually got? They seem to have finally settled on a new major arc, until some real life drama may have derailed that (maybe Deadpool & Wolverine will advance that plot? idk)

At least in retrospect, I think L&T could have been a more interesting movie if it had completely eschewed the villain a-plot and focused either more or completely on the Jane b-plot. Christian Bale's villain could have made for a really good ~3 movie arc, though, either beginning or ending in L&T. But yeah, the Taika Waititi humor really didn't mesh well with either a- or b-plot.

I think Endgame itself was really the beginning of the current MCU problem. They were in too much of a rush to conclude the Thanos story. Where that movie started with a scripted five year gap, we should have had that five year gap for real. Let us feel the consequences of the Snap the way the characters did. Give us the Hawkeye/Ronin and Black Widow movies (amongst others) that show everyone dealing with the catastrophe. Let the consequences of their failure to stop Thanos really hit home. (And while I'm typing all this, please conclude that story without time travel, but that's an entirely separate rant, lol.)

[–] Panron@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Use those to start a new MCU. An MCEU or whatever lol.

I personally think the current iteration has too much baggage. Too many mediocre to downright terrible movies post-Endgame that would have to be slogged through to get the X-Men or whatever else. Too many dropped plotlines, and too much wasted potential.

They've already introduced the multiverse, so they can treat the X-Men as a soft reboot. If it goes well and they have a vision that requires it, they can merge it back into the current MCU to pick up whatever plot they were already building towards, except with hopefully better writers and revitalized creators.

That, plus their output should be limited to 1 or 2 movies per year, max, and no TV shows. Or if they do have TV shows, keep them completely separate, like the Netflix shows were.

If they do that, I'd considering giving them another chance. Otherwise, if it's more or less business as usual, Love and Thunder and GotG3 will have been the last MCU movies for me (mainly because of how bad L&T was).

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