What are we watching now?

[Aelred]

Achilles already made the "where did the eggs come from?" counterpoint and IMO it was a good move to amp up the stakes in a sequel and make it work with lots of aliens crawling around.

And I already made the "lifecycle of the Xenomorph was right there on the ship" counterpoint to that.

Driving down the highway, just crashing into a factory that can melt the liquid metal man who makes no sense if you think about it for a second... apart from being way-cool CGI compared the stop-motion of T1.

Yeah, your mileage does vary! Enjoy as you like, I find Cameron's work lacking in depth.

 

[State of Epicicity]

What's your take on the last scene at the beach house?

Spoiler: My 2 cents

When they visit the doctor right before the end he tells them to go ahead and take their beach vacation, but that he'd need to begin treatment - temporary institutionalization? - when they got back. Prior to this Shannon had been grappling with acceptance of his condition, mainly (I think) because it was going to drive that last thing he had away - his wife and kid, he'd lost everything else.

The last scene is a dream where not only is he at peace with the 'coming storm', but they were also right there with him.

Oh Man, I like your idea; I had not thought of that as a possibility, but I could see that being the case.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The argument against that is, all his other dreams do involve horrific things actually happening, not about to happen, and there's no meaningful interaction with with loved ones in those dreams, just disjointed horror. In the beach scene, he has meaningful interactions with his daughter and, most significantly, with his wife. The way she nods in acceptance of his "prophecy," if you will, tells that this is real, because his subconscious has already shown paranoia when it comes to other adults, including his wife.

I could be wrong, but that's what I'm thinking.

 

[Achilles]

I could be wrong, but that's what I'm thinking.

One of his nightmares involved driving with his daughter, getting in an accident cause of oily rain, and then they get attacked and someone pulls the daughter out of the car.

 

[Whizzinby]

Olympics from morning to night atm.

I enjoy annoying the shit out of my family like I’m an expert at the judging criteria for gymnastics and diving etc. I’m in my zone rn.

 

[Aelred]

Ah, the Olympics...

A very strange form of Nationalism descends upon my country (Australia) every time, because we start off having success in the swimming pool, which quickly disappears by week 2. The sense of failure at losing the Bronze to the USA in Women's Rugby 7's has never been felt before...

I miss Roy and HG commentary, especially the gymnastics. https://www.royandhg.com/gymnastics

 

[State of Epicicity]

One of his nightmares involved driving with his daughter, getting in an accident cause of oily rain, and then they get attacked and someone pulls the daughter out of the car.

Spoiler

I was thinking about that one too in furtherance of what I was saying. To me it was disjointed horror in which he is paranoid about the adults in the dream, but is analogous to something real that might happen after the beach scene if he is unprepared. I see it as a foreshadowing, that the tornados in reality appear as the people in the dream you're referencing, that the tornados will rip her away from him like the the people do in his dream. I think the film has a twist that he in fact is getting visions of a possible future, but in a way so deeply upsetting he cannot cope with what will happen. He is so rattled that he has to try to place his upset on things he can control, in this case the people around him, by replacing the unstoppable menace of the storm with an unreal menace in his dog, friend, and wife. He control what he fears most in this storm by seeing these loved ones as the menace instead and removing each one as a threat, easy to do with the dog, harder with the friend, and not possible with the wife. I think I see this kind of behavior in people a lot, acting in injurious ways to try to control the uncontrollable.

Again this is my armchair psychoanalysis, so it may be bullshit haha.

 

[la szum]

Olympics from morning to night atm.

I enjoy annoying the shit out of my family like I’m an expert at the judging criteria for gymnastics and diving etc. I’m in my zone rn.

Same. It is nice seeing people be somewhat selfless, and sacrificing for something greater than
their own isolated egos. Though I would imagine that no one is actually egoless. But still.

That, and the pursuit of excellence, combined with the immense pressure of having only one
shot to nail it---holy shit! Drama! I cringe in my chair when I see some fail. That's hard!

Nice seeing France and the French being able to rejoice in some epic wins on their home soil, too.

 

[Achilles]

It is nice seeing people be somewhat selfless, and sacrificing for something greater than their own isolated egos.

Google Alex Zaliauskas and the 1992 Olympics.

He was my main point of contact at one of our customers for a number of years so we got to chat a lot over the phone.
To summarize his take on the Olympic experience:

Bunch of not fully matured hard bodies in the prime of their physical lives on an all expenses paid uber luxury vacation
where they have to do their jobs in front of thousands of adoring fans during the day and then spend all their free time
at night partying (within limits) and screwing pretty much every other hard body in sight.

 

[la szum]

Man, even I am not that cynical.

 

[Achilles]

Man, even I am not that cynical.

Figure by the time I knew him the memories were about 20 years old and he'd been long married with kids.

We weren't on Zoom calls so I could never see his face but man, the sense that he was grinning from ear to ear
while sharing the stories was REALLY strong!

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

The Alien Isolation game is the best thing done in the franchise for years. It's genuinely terrifying to play and even storywise has all the makings of a good Alien story.

100%

Killer game. I've played it all the way through countless times.


A very close second for best Alien game is this 4-man-small-squad-based 3rd person RTS game:

Aliens - Dark Descent

 

[laxu]

100%

Killer game. I've played it all the way through countless times.


A very close second for best Alien game is this 4-man-small-squad-based 3rd person RTS game:

Aliens - Dark Descent

That's been on my list to buy from some Steam sale. Have had too many games on my plate to go for it.

 

[norminal]

If you’re into PRS guitars or just interested in seeing the early makings of the brand, this is definitely worth a watch:

 

[TSJMajesty]

Just watched Cuck. A bit bizarre maybe, but I liked it.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Joker. I'm loving this! Almost done, and they're playing Cream's White Room while he's being driven to jail. Perfect!

 

[State of Epicicity]

Joker. I'm loving this! Almost done, and they're playing Cream's White Room while he's being driven to jail. Perfect!

I really thought that was a great film. I'm so uninterested in superhero films these days, but I respect the hell out of Joaquin Phoenix. He's just one of the best. And the director for that one was great too.

 

[laxu]

I really thought that was a great film. I'm so uninterested in superhero films these days, but I respect the hell out of Joaquin Phoenix. He's just one of the best. And the director for that one was great too.

I'm kinda hating they are making a sequel because Joker is one of those perfect "one and done" movies.

Sometimes there's movies where you feel like you'd like to watch more of the same, and then there's films or TV shows that feel like "well, that story is done, no need to do anything else." Like there doesn't need to be a Squid Game season 2 (and apparently 3 in the pipeline).

 

[State of Epicicity]

I'm kinda hating they are making a sequel because Joker is one of those perfect "one and done" movies.

Sometimes there's movies where you feel like you'd like to watch more of the same, and then there's films or TV shows that feel like "well, that story is done, no need to do anything else." Like there doesn't need to be a Squid Game season 2 (and apparently 3 in the pipeline).

Good point. I think it's worth it to make sequels if you're adapting a good novel and you want to include as much as possible. But the superhero phenomenon to me is just a soap opera with muscles and costumes. Like Star Wars is a soap opera with different elements. It's designed never to end, and in the end it becomes as him drum as the next episode of a mediocre TV show. You hire some asshole or group of assholes to churn out new "content," cut that to its most generic elements, include the worst writing mechanics like plot holes and pointless tangents, and now you have a film. I see this phenomenon like the empty shell of film, where all the elements that move me are replaced:

Character development for cheap plot devices

Muscles and physique for character and personality

Snappy dialogue instead of introspection

Regurgitated themes instead of original thought

Not all superhero films fall into to this in my mind; I did like so many elements of Batman Begins, and most of Joker (sans my usual complaint about Robert De Niro making every role just feel like an interview with him as a person and no actual character creation). For me I just like good film, where it feels honest and smart, and it moves me in some way.

When I think of sequels in general, I just see the desire to turn original art into reliable revenue streams. Smart business idea, but antithetical to art. I'm very cynical about Hollywood in general, that it's just business and destroys much of what it touches, but I do think there can always be meaningful film, and that's what I hope for.

Like, the reason the Joker film hit me was that it really did explore psychological themes with intelligence and respect for the audience. It gave air and space to important elements that transported you to a place to gain empathy, nuance, and horror. To me it was a real film.

 

[laxu]

Good point. I think it's worth it to make sequels if you're adapting a good novel and you want to include as much as possible. But the superhero phenomenon to me is just a soap opera with muscles and costumes. Like Star Wars is a soap opera with different elements. It's designed never to end, and in the end it becomes as him drum as the next episode of a mediocre TV show. You hire some asshole or group of assholes to churn out new "content," cut that to its most generic elements, include the worst writing mechanics like plot holes and pointless tangents, and now you have a film. I see this phenomenon like the empty shell of film, where all the elements that move me are replaced:

Character development for cheap plot devices

Muscles and physique for character and personality

Snappy dialogue instead of introspection

Regurgitated themes instead of original thought

Not all superhero films fall into to this in my mind; I did like so many elements of Batman Begins, and most of Joker (sans my usual complaint about Robert De Niro making every role just feel like an interview with him as a person and no actual character creation). For me I just like good film, where it feels honest and smart, and it moves me in some way.

When I think of sequels in general, I just see the desire to turn original art into reliable revenue streams. Smart business idea, but antithetical to art. I'm very cynical about Hollywood in general, that it's just business and destroys much of what it touches, but I do think there can always be meaningful film, and that's what I hope for.

Like, the reason the Joker film hit me was that it really did explore psychological themes with intelligence and respect for the audience. It gave air and space to important elements that transported you to a place to gain empathy, nuance, and horror. To me it was a real film.

Yeah there's a lot of that going around. I don't mind a popcorn summer blockbuster every now and then. I liked for example Godzilla vs Kong The New Empire...that's just a fun, really stupid movie that has zero subtlety to it.

But it amazes me how Hollywood manages to make films that are so incredibly by the numbers, especialy in the writing department. Either they are multiple unrelated scripts shoehorned together, studio meddling taking every edge out of them or they are just churned out in a week by mediocre writers, then given to directors who are there just for the paycheck.

Good examples would be the Netflix Rebel Moon movies (haven't watched the 2nd one, the first one was already bad), or The Creator where you can see that they had good ideas for visual design, but somehow managed to make something downright boring to watch, where you don't care about any of the characters and can tell every story twist well before it happens on screen.

You might enjoy the 2022 The Batman with Robert Pattison. It's more of a noir-ish detective story than a superhero action movie.

 

[Achilles]

Sometimes there's movies where you feel like you'd like to watch more of the same, and then there's films or TV shows that feel like "well, that story is done, no need to do anything else.

I want to learn more about the movement he's started with the disenfranchised masses.
Does he learn how to wield his celebrity power or does he remain a very loose cannon?



DID NOT expect, nor want them to inject a stupid boy/girl love story with the sequel.