Replies

Oh, I watched Heretic. Really fun little horror movie. Grant really is wonderful.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective

Jesus Christ, what the fuck, Dutch parliament?

Over the last few days, a lot of journalism came around to saying that Trump maybe deserved the Nobel Peace Price because of the armistice in Gaza. The guy who renamed the Department of Defence into Department of War, and who is trying to ware a war against American cities. It’s… rather annoying.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Dave wrote:

One of the main issues is that they are not only performing there, but they are being specifically instructed by the government not to mention topics or make jokes that will embarrass or ridicule the country or its leaders, and are happy to go along with that kind of censorship of material for the right price. It makes it all feel like a propaganda exercise and makes a bit of a mockery of their support for free speech and claims of the festival pushing progressive thought.

Especially when some of them go on to claim that they are more free to speak than in the US. Presumably because they don’t have any jokes about the Saudi government anyway, but they do have many about how dumb women are and about people with disabilities and whatnot.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Todd, lorcan_nagle

I wouldn’t be surprised at Fox News faking interviews, but using these kind of photos to show someone is supposedly always the same is what a lot of crazy people on the right also did after that school shooting and similar events. Just because the eyes look similar in those screenshots, and similar to that guy in that screenshot, that’s not exactly proof.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Arjan Dirkse

Oh, uh, I was at a little stoner rock / metal festival last month and there were some cool bands I hadn’t heard of before (to be honest, Mantar was the only band there I did know).

Annie Taylor was my favourite band of that festival:

And Battlesnake was the band with the best name and the most entertaining show:

That actually looks really good.

I finished Agatha All Along at some point, by the way. The last episodes actually had some interesting twists and made more sense of some stuff that’d been happening that seemed a bit dumb. But overall, the quality of the show was all over the place, and it’s not exactly required viewing.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Todd wrote:

He never really addressed why people are pissed at him. Poor showing by Conan for not calling him out,

He’s using the same arguments as Ansari is, which is that they’re there for the people and to move the needle a bit. Which is a bit of a cop-out given that they have to know that this festival was created by the government and a publicity effort for the country to show it as modern and open to the world. Jimmy did call him out on that, but he also kinda let him get away with his “I did it for the people” defence.

I do think Burr has a point when it comes to hypocrisy. I mean, exactly what measures have you and I taken to make sure that there’s no fuel in our car tank that’s been made with oil imported from Saudi Arabia?

(Okay, I suspect quite a lot of people here will answer, I don’t drive a car so there, but me personally, I do have one. And the logic applies.)

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Ohhhh that’s very interesting. I’ll take a look at that, cheers!

I am reading some random Vertigo trades (on kindle umlimited) and Tim Seeley’s “Imaginary Fiends” (2018) was pretty good – bit of a shame it only got one storyline (I think it was a mini, but clearly set up to become an ongoing if successful).

It also has some elements quite similar to Something Is Killing the Children, interestingly. Not saying Tynion ripped this off, it’s stuff that’s been around in other places, too. Just interesting that one series takes off while the other didn’t.

Also in there: New Romancer, a Pete Milligan book from 2015 in which Lord Byron comes back to life as an AI in a replicant-style body. It’s fun, but I’m always a bit disappointed with Milligan’s stuff these days (and with these days, I mean like the last twenty years or so) because it just isn’t quite as good as he was in the nineties.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Martin Smith, lorcan_nagle

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Nah, politically correct is more things you know are true, but you’re not willing to say it because it would hurt someone’s feelings.

No, let’s have it, what do you think is true about women or trans people or gay people that you know are true but that you normally wouldn’t be willing to say? Just name a single thing, come on. It’s your hypothesis, I’d like you to provide some evidence.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Ben, lorcan_nagle

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Isn’t it supposed to be a decision to be made by the justice system? I think we have a process in place in the Netherlands to ban parties but it’s not a decision taken by other political parties, it’s a dicision made by a judge.

The decision whether to ban them would be a judicial decision, but parliament has to start the proceedings.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

It should ideally be very simple, if a party in their proclamations and programs repeatedly utter things that are against certain principles of the state, things like equality under the law, or infringement on certain freedoms, ban them. Under such a rule I think the PVVwould be banned here in the Netherlands. They pretty much said they want to ban a whole religion.

Yeah, our national secret service has already declared them right-wing extremists and enemies of the constitution. The rest of it should be pretty easy really.

Well… easy if you look at the people making up the party and what they say and do. They’re clever enough not to put any of this stuff into the party’s official documents, which I suppose is where it gets tricky.

I’m caught up with Gen V, and I don’t know what it is with Hamish Linklater. Every time I see him, I love his performance but don’t recognise him. Took me ages to realise, hey, he’s that guy from Legion! But I’d forgotten again that the guy from Legion is also the guy from Midnight Mass.

Anyway, he’s awesome as the new director of the school.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, lorcan_nagle

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Honestly I’m fine with Germany banning AfD, if they can do so.

I wish they’d finally start the proceedings for this, but the other parties are too chickenshit. I mean, there’s a real risk that there isn’t quite enough evidence to ban them – the hurdles for this are very high, and rightfully so. BUT at least as long as the court proceedings for this would be going on, they’d have to be very aware of it and try and dial back their extremist connections and Höcke’s rhetoric. Because as things are, they’re managing very well to convince the average protest voter that they’re just anti-system conservatives, while at the same time building a neo-nazi network.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

he became politically correct.

…stopped being sexist and a dick.

Let’s remember that the term “politically correct” was introduced by the right to discredit attempts to be less of an asshole to minorities and women, yeah? Replace it by “being less racist and sexist” every time it is used, and the perspective changes quite a lot.

Maybe – through therapy and mushrooms – Burr has just understood that there’s no use bashing progressives and women because they’ve lost. Trump’s waging a military war on progressive cities now, maybe even the “edgy” comedians are beginning to understand that it’s not great to stand on his side of things.

The Riyadh thing is pretty shitty though.

4 users thanked author for this post.

lorcan_nagle, Todd, Uncle Retrospective, Ben

Soooooooooo jealous!

1 user thanked author for this post.

lorcan_nagle

I’m jealous. I want to be at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Heh. Well, it’s a good PR gag for that agency. But this isn’t feasable yet. I mean, look at Tilly’s Homepage and click on the photo of her at her desk:

https://www.tillynorwood.com/

Who wouldn’t want to employ the star of movies such as rfffftto or …ennukae?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Baby Jesus has a point there, one has to say.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, lorcan_nagle

I’m really looking forward to that one, after everything I’ve seen and heard. This might be a rare PTA movie that I like without reservation.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Martin Smith wrote:

EA is now owned by Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner, via leveraged buy out. So expect a lot of cost-cutting, layoffs, studio closures and more Saudi teams in Not-FIFA.

Well that’s depressing.

I don’t get to play a lot of games anymore, and I haven’t played an EA game in a looooong time, but… I still remember how it felt to see that logo while I was waiting for The Bard’s Tale to load on the C64.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Ben wrote:

Smart use of the wider DC world but general enough for it to work anywhere. Gunn would be a fool to not fo a sequel.

He’s already confirmed that Blue Beetle is part of the new DCU movie universe, hasn’t he?

Haven’t seen BB yet, but now I’m looking forward to it!

A personal perceived definition is a fantastic idea.

1 user thanked author for this post.

lorcan_nagle

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Christian wrote:

Sounds like Bernie Sanders to me!

He’s going to be 87 in 2028 ;)

Prime age for an American Presidency these days!!!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Sounds like Bernie Sanders to me!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Well, not if what we get in its place is fascism. And that seems to be the way things are going.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective

God, I want to weigh in on this so much! But it’ll be another two weeks for me or so before I can started on Peacemaker. Gotta wait for when the kid comes over the next time.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think it comes down to who comes across better in public. I’m not sure if Newsome is a good debater but he seems to have some charisma. I could be wrong about that though. I heard he did well in the debate with DeSantis but I haven’t seen that myself.

 

His politics would be similar to Biden I guess.

Newsome would probably win against whoever the RNC put up after Trump leaves, given the ruinous state the country will be in. But I do hope the Dems will finally grow some balls and nominate someone way more to the left than him.

I know, I know. Fat chance of that.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Not exactly a surprise. One thing I did hear is that she now accuses the Democratic Party as being too timid (in sticking with Biden for so long and not wanting Buttedgieg as her running mate, I think), which… well, yes, the being fucking chickenshit is always the Dems’ problem, but it’s also why she became VP in the first place.

I’m not saying there isn’t probably a plethora of reasons to boo her. I’m just saying I’d rather forget she exists. She will never again have any importance in US politics.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Have you read any of the extracts of her book?

I have no interest in her book whatsoever!

I imagine the same goes for the vast majority of people.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

In their defense, I think you can be angry at the democrats for not being better. Yes they are better than the republicans, but that’s a low benchmark. They should be doing much more, and better, than they are doing at the moment.

Well, yes, but what exactly is the purpose of heckling an ex-Vice-President at a reading?

Wouldn’t that energy be better spent trying to do something about Trump? Or, if you want change in the Democratic Party, supporting Biden and AOC and Mamdami?

4 users thanked author for this post.

garjones, Todd, Al-x, Ben

Dave wrote:

I also liked Ade Edmonson getting in on the action. Presumably the frying pan was just out of shot.

Heh. Yeah, I also liked that we got his background as the first synth Boy Cavalier built to replace his dad.

By the way, when Wendy told him “You’re not really Peter Pan”, I half expected her to actually say “You’re Willy Wonka” :)

3 users thanked author for this post.

Bruce, Dave, Todd

Huh. So they’re still doing that thing that Scott McCloud tried out twenty years ago?

I’ve got to re-read Zot!, come to think of it.
https://www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/zot/zot-01/zot-01.html

I liked the finale, but I was also surprised that so much was left open, given that they weren’t sure they were getting a second season, I think?

Poor Arthur, the guy can’t even catch a break in death. Jesus. But hey, good reaction time there, Joe! I really liked how fast he was in getting into the class cage and out again. Great sequence.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Dave

Can they fucking stop talking about the messages on the bullets and the names of the perps? Can the media please do the bare minumum to not encourage more crazy people to commit shootings?

4 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Dave, lorcan_nagle, Ben

[Christian]

Speaking of terrible trailers with Grogu and the fucking Mandalorian, the first trailer for The Bride! is fucking amazing. I knew nothing about this movie and now I desperately want to watch it.

Kudos, Miss Gyllenhall!

Edited to add the “!” to “The Bride!”, because that makes the title of the movie so much cooler.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by Christian.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Dave

I always love it when Clancy Brown appears. Like all of us, I’ve loved him since Highlander, but I became an actual fan watching Carnivale.

2 users thanked author for this post.

njerry, Uncle Retrospective

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

It’s a shit trailer for a terrible show. I can’t express how much I don’t like that trailer. I hate it so much.

Heh. Love the post.

And yeah, that trailer is impressively bad, even if – like me – you hated the later seasons of the show and have no interest in the movie in the first place. But I mean, come on, maybe I’m over-winneable. That trailer had no rhythm, the editing was weirdly choppy, the start was just weird scenes showing off that Grogu is a Henson puppet… this is supposed to get me to the cinema? Jesus fucking Christ, people.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Depends on who you mean by “the left”. Are there people on social media pushing for cancelling people simply for not being careful with their language? Sure. But have they done it as a government in power?`Not in the US, I think.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Al-x, Uncle Retrospective, lorcan_nagle

Well, let’s hope the second one is more consistent than the first.

Todd wrote:

Eh, that’s not really a good example of the “Uber Bat”. Guy is ultimately just an ordinary person with a magic ring. I still remember the issue of Green Lantern years later where Hal and Guy had a fistfight to determine who would wear the ring. (This led into Guy getting the yellow power ring.)

Yup. But the point is in Giffen’s JLA Batman was always the most intimidating guy in the room, no matter the other people’s powers.

Yeah, it’s common for characters to be portrayed a bit differently in team books versus their solo titles. It’s one of those things that requires the suspension of disbelief as the solo character calling in the team for everything wouldn’t make for very good comics.

Yup. And this always goes all the more so for the non-super-powered guys. Green Arrow, Bats, Hawkeye… in their own books, they can be defeated by a couple of drug-dealers and psychopaths, but in the team books, they’ll take on Darkseid and Ultron.

I think one of the dumbest fan bits about Batman is that “if he had time to prepare, he could beat anyone!” Well, idiot, give ANY character prep time and they can take down anyone! Any character could even take down Batman if they have time to prep.

Not Guy Gardner. He’d have a drink and try to have sex with Black Canary.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Pam Bondi coming out against hate speech and saying it should be prosecuted is a bold move.

 

I notice a lot of politicians don’t really have principles about this stuff, it’s just if we do it, it is good, but if you do it, it is bad.

Actually, the right has always been very consistent in this in the US. They preach free speech when it comes to hate speech against minorities or death threats against the left, and for them free speech means that no private individual should be allowed to speak out against racism, sexism, homophobia etc.. But wherever they are in power, they actively practice government censorships against everthing they don’t like, banning books from school libraries and persecuting criticism against the authorities. The Trump admin is super-charging this, but it’s what the Republicans have always done.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Al-x, Ben, lorcan_nagle

Sean Robinson wrote:

“We’re pretty bullish on Alien: Earth and we’ve told him that assuming, as we hope, Alien: Earth is a returning television series, we want him to focus on at least writing two seasons of it before returning to a possible sixth season of Fargo.”

Oh God, season 2 of Alien:Earth or a sixth season of Fargo. Fuck, I really don’t know what to root for here.
Either way, I hope Hawley has some good performance-enhancing drugs at hand because I need him to be working 24/7 here.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Dave wrote:

Watched the latest (and penultimate) Alien: Earth. I’m still really liking this show but there’s a definite sense here of needing to bring things together for the finale, and the fear/creep factor wasn’t quite as strong here. Although I quite like the idea of being able to call in a Xenomorph attack like you’re pressing the A button in Streets of Rage.

Yeah, things escalated rather quickly there… I would’ve liked this show to have more episodes, to be able to breathe a little more. But then again, I think I also just would like to spend more time with these characters and this story.

My favourite moment this episode was Kirsh finally making his move and check-mating Morrow. We still don’t really know why he did it the way he did – did he just want to observe an alien gestating? Did he want another specimen for himself? Or does he have plans that go deeper, and that are in conflict with the Boy Cavalier?

Looking forward to the finale.

I’m also watching the new season of Generation V, but there’s still a Boys thread around, I think…

2 users thanked author for this post.

Dave, Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

The situation in Europe is really precarious at the moment, the two main drivers of the economy in the EU are Germany and France and they’re really doing badly.

Yeah we are, there’s no two ways about it.

Al-x wrote:

Now a lot of media personalities are losing their spots and their shows. It was Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago, but now over comments about the shooting:

And this time, with direct government censorship (the FCC head basically saying he wants him off the air).

Uh, where are all those free speech warriors now? Elon? Anyone? Hello?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Todd wrote:

Grant Morrison did the character no favors with his “Uber Bat” interpretation. He turned Batman into this apex predator of the DCU that could take anyone down.

This JLI page is from the eighties.

I think it’s been this way for a looooong time before Morrison, and for a good reason: The only way Batman as a non-powered hero works at all within those super-powered teams is if he can outmaneuver any and all of them. If he can’t do that, he’ll be dead within a day, with the threats they’re taking on. Morrison went full throttle with that, but it was there before.

That means that Bats has to be different in those books than in his own, of course, but once again that really always was the case. The JLA or JLI Bat could call in his colleagues any time a threat in Gotham gets too bad, and that’d be that. It’d be insanity not to do it, so you have to kind of just go with him being to different Batmans.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Ben, Dave, Vikram

All the mainstream newspapers here are kind of praising Kirk as someone on the right who sought dialogue and wanted to have conversations about the right way to do things. Which is weird when… that was just his influencer shtick, right? Pretending to engage with left-wing students when actually that was just so he could generator 20-second-clips of him berating 20-year-olds on tiktok?

Yeah, it sucks that the right has another pretense to further militarise, but it’s not like they weren’t going to do that anyway.

6 users thanked author for this post.

njerry, Uncle Retrospective, JRCarter, lorcan_nagle, Ben, Todd

Got the first two W0rldtr33 trades. Tynion continues to be on fire.

Also, second Power Fantasy is out. Fuck yeah!

3 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Dave, Ben

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Just read a bit by our national media on the declining acceptance of lgbt lifestyles. The person interviewed said “I assumed every next generation would be more prgressive.” It’s such a dumb normie view. And what does progressive mean in this respect? For some people “progress” would mean progress towards theocracy and illegality of homosexuality. Judith Butler famously called Hamas and Hezbollah progressive, well guess how they see homosexuality. Foucault thought the Iranian revolution was progressive.

I think she called them part of the global left because they’re anti-imperialist, which is different from being progressive in the liberal sense.

And while I think you’re not wrong about progressive being a subjective idea, I do get the sentiment of the interviewee. It certainly always felt like my generation was more open to differences in sexual orientation than our parents, and I’d also say I kind of expected things to keep going that way. It’s still strange to me that so many of the young generation want to go back to traditional ideas of Germany, including fascism becoming more attractive again.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Sean Robinson wrote:

Where are we up to?

I have the first Compendium.

I (weirdly) buy my best friend the HC’s for X-mas and birthdays, etc.
He needs a fix.

Or I could just go a find that Saga Book 4 (issues #55 – 72) comes April 28th.

And then admit I pre-ordered on July 30th.

Yeah, the trade I read contains 67-72, so that’s the story up to there. #72 was also the last issue to come out, in March this year, so they’re apparently taking a longer break before the next storyline. If those books weren’t so brilliant and beautiful, this would be annoying, but whatever time they need to keep up this quality is fine for me.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Ben

[Christian]

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

(You could also think about teaching kids to meditate, thingslike that)

Things like that are happening to some degree, by the way. There are schools who have “happiness” or similar subjects where kids are taught things like meditating, expressing emotions and so on – things that are good for mental health.

Problem is that it doesn’t really fit in with a system that is built to judge effort and achievement in the traditional subjects and awards worth according to those only, really.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Christian.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

I just read the latest Saga trade, and that book can still make me cry a little.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Uncle Retrospective

Dave wrote:

Given that Labour were elected almost entirely on a platform of We’re Not The Tories, it’s baffling that now they’re in government they seem to think that they have to try and be some kind of shit Tory tribute act.

It’s always the fucking same, innit. Our Labour party is currently helping the conservatives dismantle our social system, and our Labour finance minister (and head of the SPD) has decided to spend the money budgetet for climate transformation instead on paying fees to the EU that we have to pay because we’re using too much CO2. Let’s say this again: We are not spending money meant to be spent on changing our society so we don’t use so much CO2 anymore on that cause. Instead, we will keep burning fossil fuels and spend that money on the fines we’re incurring by doing that.

I am not a violent man, I swear. But Lars Klingbeil is trying me so, so hard.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Daniel R, Dave, lorcan_nagle

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Socialism is just one of those political words that have many different meanings. Same as democracy. North Korea calls itself democratic.

Well, you know, there’s different meanings and contexts, but there’s also straight-out lying. Which is the case with North Korea, and pretty much every other dictatorship.

Hey, is there any dictator out there right now who is calling himself a dictator and who doesn’t hold elections but just tell people, Listen, I am going to keep ruling you no matter what because I’m the best and you shut up. That’d be kind of refreshing at this point.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Nah schools suck, the kid is right. I went to school for twenty one years or so and it was pretty much worthless.

Oy, that’s my place of work you’re talking about here!!!

Nah, I’m kidding, I get it. School is a system that serves some people pretty well, but it is incredibly rigid and there are just too many people it doesn’t work for and who are dealt significant damage by it. There’s a lot of people working within this system who are doing their best, mind you. But schools should be very different from what they are, at this point. (Which is basically: Still modelled on the 19th century factory system.)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, lorcan_nagle

That looks fucking awesome! I hope I can see this one in a theatre. The rate at which Lanthimos is putting out movies is insane, though, I haven’t even seen Kinds of Kindness.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Dave, Todd

Todd wrote:

Interesting choice. I would have never considered her for the role.

For good reason. I felt she wasn’t a particularly good Jean Grey, and I absolutely do not believe she has the charisma to carry the lead in a series like this.

But, you know, good luck to them. I didn’t even see the Vikander movie, I’m afraid. That franchise has run its course for me.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Very cool! I’ve got the Weyland-Yutani shirt, too (in a washed-out Quertee variant), and also this one:

https://cdn.qwertee.com/images/designs/product-thumbs/1726083803-143683-mens-500×600.jpg

Dave wrote:

The last episode was great again and almost like an Alien mini-movie.

Yeah, that was exactly what I thought, this was an entire alien movie in one episode. Very cool. And it was a very nice move to wait this long until the showed it to us (with only those few flashes before).
We hadn’t really seen the bug thingies yet, have we? I wonder if they’ll pop up again. Scary little motherfuckers.
Standout moment of many in the episode was the eye octopus/xenomorph fight. I was really rooting for the little eye guy, that devious motherfucker.
And of course I am now kind of on Morrow’s side of everything. Hope he gets to kill Willy Wonka.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Dave, Todd

Todd wrote:

Weeelll, keeping a bunch of dangerous alien species alive to study is not the brightest thing. But then, we wouldn’t have a show, right? ;)

Oh, I don’t think that in itself has anything to do with being stupid, it’s just the logic of capitalism. The question is whether you go about doing this smartly or stupidly. In a lot of alien material, people made very dumb mistakes to get infected or for the alien to escape. Here, up to this point, nobody has been careless or stupid. Of course, the aliens will still escape :).

Dave wrote:

I also love that they’re laying on the Peter Pan parallels so thick to disguise the fact that this is really a Charlie And The Chocolate Factory story (five kids being tested by an eccentric childlike genius to potentially take over his company when he’s gone). He even had a line the other day about kids having access to a world of pure imagination.

Ohhhhhh that’s a nice catch! Awesome!

Another thought: At first, it struck me as kind of weird that Hawley would be interested in doing an Alien show. But apart from the fact that he’s been widening the scope of what that can be about, I was also in some moments of this show weirdly reminded of Fargo. Because in the center of Fargo – at least the first two seasons – there is also something alien crashing into the world, and it’s about the people who encounter these predators trying to make sense of this sudden presence of something cold and alien and evil in their world.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Dave, Ben

I think that’s just his brain, or the way he works.

Alcohol may be a thing with him, but I don’t really get the impression.

Al-x wrote:

He still thinks all this is his reality show where he can fire whoever he wants.

Well, isn’t it? I don’t see anybody stopping him.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Ben

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Alright, I’ve got a new desktop background!

2 users thanked author for this post.

lorcan_nagle, Uncle Retrospective

Which I think is kind of the point. With the new Superman, they already knew that Supes isn’t the draw that Batman is these days. So I think they were content with getting the same kind of numbers, and with the positive reception and reviews are confident they can keep building on that. Of course they were probably also just relieved this didn’t go the way of Black Adam, Flash and Aquaman 2.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Uncle Retrospective

That’s the thing, isn’t it? The killing-the-dictator bit would’ve been fine in an Authority movie. Fits a Superman movie far less well.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

I’ll have to write a longer post about this at some point, but I absolutely fucking love Alien:Earth. Two things I want to mention now: Has anybody done the opening credits thing like this before? It’s genius, I think, and beautifully done.
Also, and this is especially relevant to an Alien movie, nobody is doing dumb stuff. I mean, the kids are kids and they’re naive of course, but none of the adults are stupid. Nobody got dumbly facehugged yet. Morrow is doing the manipulation thing beautifully, but Kirsh has already caught it and is playing along for his own reasons. Dame Sylvia triggers the alarm at the first sign of danger from Nibs. Arthur actually makes sure nobody can hear his criticism of the Boy Cavalier. And so on. It’s always such a relief to watch a show that doesn’t rely on supposedly competent people doing dumb shit.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Dave, Todd, Sean Robinson, Ben

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Pure cheese? Masterpiece? Both?

Number 15 ladies and gentlemen…

No.15 Sisters of Mercy – Floodland

I love Floodland. I listened to this endlessly in the nineties. Still know the lyrics to pretty much every song.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective

Yeah, I get that. I do think that some of his stuff holds up, but a lot of it was of its time, I’d think.

[Christian]

Dave wrote:

I very much doubt Superman did the numbers DC were hoping for (it made significantly less than Man Of Steel, even without adjusting for inflation)

Well, currently Man of Steel has 670 mil to Superman’s 600, but the run isn’t quite finished yet, is it? Seems pretty close to me. And inflation, yeah sure, but the same goes for the budget, which is pretty much the same for both movies, as well.

I think it’s close enough to be seen as a success, if Man of Steel was seen as such (and given that it started a series of movies, too, I suppose so). And Superman was reviewed way better than MoS was (or most other DC movies were), so I think they’re hoping for it to continue to be a draw on streaming etc. due to good word of mouth. In contrast to recent Marvel movies that may have done okay in the theatres.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Christian.

Martin Smith wrote:

Nah, it’s a dictator. Death’s the best way to deal with them. And what, we’re afraid of offending dictators now?

For a Superman movie, I think it’d have been a stronger image to see Supes delivering the guy to The Hague for trial. It’d also have been a better ending for that whole arc, given the interview at the start of the movie and everything – having Hawkgirl finish that line of conflict was kind of a cop-out. And dropping him to his death was more along the lines of Gunn’s Peacemaker sensibilities.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Dave, Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

There were lots of failed predictions from the science world when it comes to climate change, and a lot of it is doomerism.

There are also a great many things that have happened as predicted or even faster. The glaciers are almost gone, as is the Great Barrier Reef, the yearly rise in temperatures is pretty impressive and the sea levels are rising.
That not everything has developed exactly as predicted is to be expected, but in general, the predictions have been depressingly accurate.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Ben, Al-x

Interestingly, Superman is apparently seen as a success by Warner Bros., even thought it only make like a a hundred million more than FF, and had a slightly larger budget. But I think it’s different because the DC movies were never huge successes (outside of Batman and, weirdly, Aquaman 1), so Superman going slightly beyond its break-even point with 600 million at this point is seen as a good start to build from. Marvel, on the other hand, is still trying to recapture their billion-dollar-movies and failing to do so once again, so it feels like less of a success to them, even though it’s done okay and got reviewed well.

—
Well, Justice League did slightly better than MoS but with a considerably higher budget, and BvS

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

They also killed the big monster and the dictator I think.

Well, the monster was a monster (even though Superman fought to save it), but yeah, I forgot the dictator! Right!
Another one that should probably have been handled differently in a Superman movie.

They opted to go for a slow, muted dread instead, which I found an interesting choice, and I kind of liked it, but it’s not usually the thing blockbuster action movies are made of.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Honestly I’m fine if they do something about the climate, but if it leads to worse living standards for poor people that’s unacceptable. Then it’s time to burn everything down.

There’s the rub, isn’t it? Currently it seems the only way the electorate is ready to accept tightening belts is if it hits mostly the poor and the marginalised. I mean, why would you think about taking away somebody’s eightth yacht? What monster would even consider such a thing?

Todd wrote:

This is the hill I choose to die on, but I think the 1960s setting was a huge mistake. That was something a segment of old fans of the comic book were begging for. I think it was a turnoff for younger viewers, as I doubt they would connect with that time. The FF have always been about the future. This seemed like a major step backwards. It should have been set today with Reed creating things that we can only dream of. They should have been moving forwards.

I also think Reed and Sue were miscast, and the movie itself was just meh.

Bottom line, they screwed up the Fantastic Four.

I think the bigger problem with the movie was how slow-moving it was and that it was pretty heavy on the dramatic elements. Comparing this to Superman, I can see people being more excited leaving the cinema after watching the latter.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

The funny thing about that is we kept being told reproducing is bad for the environment

It is. But not reproducing is bad for upholding our standard of living. It’s a matter of perspective.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Also wasn’t automation going to take away jobs?

It has. But capitalism can’t allow people to work less and still live good lives. Because that’d be terrible.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think a lot of what we’re being told is bullshit, frankly.

Always depends on who’s doing the telling. When it’s the capitalist discourse, then yep, mostly bullshit.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think it’s telling that few governments have remained popular in the period between 2020 and now.

Honestly, I have no idea how any government is supposed to be popular right now. We are much closer to the crisis point in the climate catastrophe, and everybody knows it, but the changes we would realistically have to go through to enable our future are so hard to take that the moment any government tries to put anything real into effect, people will turn on them for doing it. But if they don’t, people will turn on them for doing nothing and destroying the future.

Democracy is at its limits here.

I am seething with anger that the only service showing this in Germany is one of the shittiest one around. I currently have a subscription with a service that shows pretty much all Sky and HBO content, except for the fucking DCU stuff. I am debating how long to wait to get a subscription for the shit service just to watch Peacemaker. I’ll definitely wait until the episodes are at a point where I can watch it all in one month because I won’t give them more of my money than that.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

njerry wrote:

Christian wrote:

Jesus, Lorcan, it’s as if you and Greg Pak still haven’t understood that all we need to do is to hand over the those marginalised groups to the nazis, stop respecting women’s rights and trying to save the planet and once we’ve done all that everybody will just go back to normal and to voting proper conservative like they used to. Because nazis won’t be needed anymore then, and historically, giving in to fascists means they’ll then be satisfied and just go away and disappears. Is that so hard to understand?!

Wait…..what?!

Jesus, Jerry, have none of you understood that in order to properly defeat the fascists, you just have to do everything they want?!

4 users thanked author for this post.

lorcan_nagle, Todd, njerry, Martin Smith

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Honestly I don’t believe any mainstream politician wants to solve migration. They may say that to get votes. But they want migrants to do shitty jobs for low pay.

Yeah, and simple truth is that while those jobs should be better-paid, we need people to do, you know, stand at counters, drive buses, collect the trash and so on. These are important jobs, but they’ll never be especially well-paid, and migrants are the most likely people we can find for that.

And we also need highly-trained mmigrants, and a lot of them because, guess what? (Speaking for Germany here:) Our entire country is going to collapse because we have to many old people retiring and nobody’s there to fill the gaps. It’s already a big problem, and it’s going to turn into a huge one in ten years. So what our government should be doing is making Germany an attractive country to migrate to, not the fucking opposite. But even the regular, “normal” conservatives are so blinded by the arrogant assumption that Germans can’t be the fucking problem, it has to be Jonny Foreigner and that things can only get better if there are less brown people around.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Speaking of newagist magic nonsense, I was at an exhibition last week about alternative forms of living in Germany around 1900 and it was a lot of fun. Lots of people doing naked dances, mostly (Hermann Hesse amongst them), and some very cool art (my highlight was a great sculpture of Madame Blavatsky).

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Also I thought it was too bloody, lots of people died in the movie.

Actually, I don’t think anyone did apart from the falafel guy and possibly Ultraman. The, uh, flying guys… what were they called? They were shown to be moving after Supes shot them out of the sky, and it was also shown that Metropolis was evacuated before the rift came. That leaves falafel guy, and his death was actually a very big deal. His death was probably too dark (also in the way it was staged) and that and the way some of the action was staged was probably a little too violent. I mean, Superman didn’t need to be PG-13, I think it could easily have been just PG with very little changes. If Gunn could’ve held back on those tiny things, he’d have had a wider audience and that would probably have been better, given that the general vibe of his Superman is actually very kid-friendly. I mean, stuff like him saving the girl, checking that everybody is okay in the building during a fight, saving the woman in the car and hyperbolically even saving the bloody squirrel, all that showed the brighter, more innocent Superman that Gunn wanted and that would probably have been clearer if Gunn had been able to check his b-movie violence sensibilities (which I love) a bit more.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson

Martin Smith wrote:

Dave wrote:

The biggest loss there for me isn’t so much the joy of channel surfing or the comfort of Saturday morning cartoons, but the possibility of discovering something that you never would have ordinarily chosen for yourself. Loads of my favourite TV shows or movies were things that I initially stumbled across or checked out on a whim, rather than actively wanting to watch already.

Yes, absolutely this. There’s various shows I enjoyed as a kid that I’m not sure I would have actively chosen to watch if given its premise.

Isn’t that what Tiktok is for?

I’m kinda serious, I think tiktok and instareels and whatever pick up a lot of moments from TV shows and movies and presumably some of that generates interest in the actual show or movie it’s taken from? I think the same is happening with the resurgence of some songs.

Looks fun!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Martin Smith wrote:

I mean on demand programming is great, but there is something to be said for just taking TV as it comes, channel surfing etc. The same way that radio still exists and does well in a world of personal music players, let alone streaming.

Yeah, there definitely is something to that, but like Dave said, it’s something our generation will be the last to appreciate. This isn’t for the kids.

Jesus, Lorcan, it’s as if you and Greg Pak still haven’t understood that all we need to do is to hand over the those marginalised groups to the nazis, stop respecting women’s rights and trying to save the planet and once we’ve done all that everybody will just go back to normal and to voting proper conservative like they used to. Because nazis won’t be needed anymore then, and historically, giving in to fascists means they’ll then be satisfied and just go away and disappears. Is that so hard to understand?!

5 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, lorcan_nagle, Todd, Dan, Martin Smith

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

AfD was the biggest party in opinion polls in Germany recently, with 24 % of the people saying they’d vote for them. That is scary, but still 24 % is very far from a majority and no other party is willing to make a coalition with them. However the current government needs to step up to make sure they don’t grow larger.

That’s the problem. Merz and the CDU’s campaign was built on populist stop-immigration nonsense. They made promises that are impossible to deliver, both because a lot of it’d be illegal and insanely expensive and because migration isn’t really the problem responsible for people feeling like they’re losing everything, it’s just the scapegoat. And because the CDU built this up and are now failing to deliver “solutions”, the AfD will keep rising in the numbers. Which will lead to more coalitions made up of parties who are just too different to do anything beyond preserving the status quo, which will lead to more votes for the AfD which will lead to larger and larger unstable coalitions which will…

I have no idea whether this circle can be broken at this point. It’s more likely that we’ll have a CDU-AfD (or even AfD-CDU) government sooner rather than later.

Bought some trades that I needed to catch up with – first one of Nice House by the Sea, the latest Saga, one Something’s Killing the Children… oh and I got the first Copra trade, as I’d read the first issue for free on Kindle and it was fucking awesome.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Ben, Dave, njerry, Vikram

I think I mentioned this before, Al, but if you liked his books, do read his brilliant novels:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/75407-john-dies-at-the-end

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Yeah, I also liked the first ep of the show a lot. Like I hoped and expected from Hawley, the show obviously goes way beyond just doing an Alien horror thing – not that there would be anything wrong with that, as such. But there are a number of other themes being established in the first ep (which does a lot of work, but without getting too clunky, I thought) and I am very much looking forward to how it deals with them in the next episodes.

Man, it just feels good to have a new Hawley show on TV.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd

I liked it, but it was rather a slow movie.

Loved the world-building and designs, and the character interactions were good. The action scenes – the few there were of them – were fantastic. And on the one hand I liked how seriously they took the situation of Galactus approaching Earth, the sense of pervading dread. On the other hand… man, did they take their time to build that. That part of the movie went on too long, and I wish they’d shortened it and instead put some more other ideas and sideplots into the movie, maybe just in the first third to see more of the FF doing their thing. Or a quick adventure in space on their way back.

And the big conflict of the movie – will they give up Franklin? – doesn’t quite work to hold up the middle there. Especially not when it’s resolved by Sue giving a moving speech. At least one guy in the background should’ve shouted “Well, fuck you Sue, we’re still all going to die!”.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Martin Smith

Saw it yesterday, and pretty much loved it. I’m at the complete opposite end of Dave here, I thought it had a very clearly structured plot, well thought-out motifs and characterisation and it managed to pack in all of this world-building and character introduction without getting too clunky and with very good action scenes in a way that the movie never lost steam and just breezed by. The humour worked well for me, too, there were several moments that had me laughing out loud (e.g. the garage door and the Justice Gang fighting Mr. mxyzptlk (or something?) in the background while Supes and Lois have their conversation. Also particularly loved the Mr. Terrific fight scene, I could’ve watched that forever.

I also liked the basic conflicts for Superman that he struggles with, and the basic approach to the character, which is pretty much the opposite of Snyder: While Snyder’s movies emphasised Superman’s superiority and his alien-ness, this one emphasises his humanity.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Tobias Radesäter, Sean Robinson, Todd, Martin Smith

Late Night with the Devil is a really neat little movie. It’s got a great premise, and it follows through on that very nicely. A really fun low-budget horror flick.

Also, I really liked Murderbot.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective

I mean, sure, but the problem with capitalism’s ability to co-opt and integrate criticism is there isn’t much you can really do, is there? There’s activism, sure, but the only way to achieve actual change would be through a major political movement, and anti-capitalist parties have become more and more irrelevant in the last years.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Ben, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Same here. I had my bikes stolen multiple times over the years – the last time was just a month or so ago (it was an e-bike, and luckily I had insurance).

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Late-stage capitalism is from Marx’s writings, one more thing he accurately predicted.

Unfortunately, he was more successful in analysing the state of things and predicting how they got worse than in predicting a way out of this fucking mess.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Ben, lorcan_nagle

I just read the first The Power Fantasy trade. It’s a very Gillen kind of book – reads a bit like a mixture of WickDiv and Über. But it’s also very, very good. I couldn’t tell you when the last time that I enjoyed a superhero book this much was.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Vikram, Ben, Dan

Yeah, it’s currently on amazon prime here.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think there’s something evil happening with the DOJ talking to Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Okay, Gislaine, remember to say that Trump didn’t even know Epstein and definitely never was on his plane, his island or had any private sex parties with underage girls with him. And in return, well, we can’t pardon you immediately, but he’ll do it at the end of his term, okay? Now there’s a good girl.”

Something along those lines?

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd, Uncle Retrospective

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think in the coming year in the EU we’re going to see kind of a shutdown of the internet, where the only opinions you’re allowed to see are regime approved.

What makes you think that?

Personally, I would love to see some more EU regulation for social media algorithms. But I don’t think that’s going to happen in any effective manner.

I’m watching From, which is pretty good. Not all performances are equally strong (and I hate the new arrival family, the adults are very dislikable without being meant to) and some of the writing is too plot-oriented. But mostly it’s well done, and it does the mystery thing works really well, as in it keeps me wanting to watch the next episode as soon as one is finished. Very entertaining.

Dave wrote:

I finally finished watching this. What a maddening series – very mediocre and dull for the most part, but then it turns into a really good Daredevil show at the last minute just before it ends.

I hope that means the next series will be good, but I wonder how many people will have waded through the crap to get there.

Yeah, I’m with Dave here.

I thing I understand least is how much time they spend with really dull and annoying side characters and how little they do with, well, Daredevil. Look, I don’t fucking care about Boy Deputy Mayor and his relationship to the Girl Reporter, and neither do I give a shit about Matt’s fights with his office co-workers, and if you really want to make Heather the dumbest and most dislikable person on the planet, and if you are too bad at writing to give her any charm or wit or appeal at all, at least try to give her some, I don’t know, sexual chemistry with Matt because his being with her at all became impossible to believe very quickly indeed and just cringey to watch. And fucking Muse turned out to be the dullest villain ever. Jesus. Really the bank robbery ep was probably the best of the season, and the reason for that was that Matt got to be Daredevil and there wasn’t any other dull, convoluted shit going on (well, except for Kamala’d Dad going on about his daughter all the time, sledgehammer writing at its fucking best).

The show only came alive somewhat when Frank and Karen entered the picture, but honestly the Kingpin side of things was still pretty boring.

I do appreciate that the team that came in is probably responsible for the things that worked in the show, so hopefully it’ll get better. But those scenes of KP recruiting Heather into his team doesn’t really make me excited for the next steps.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Al-x wrote:

AOC Queens office vandalized:

With a sign claiming she “funds genocide in Gaza”.

“If you’re saying I voted for military funding, you are lying,” she wrote. “Drag me for my positions all you want, but lying about them doesn’t make you part of the ‘left.’ If you believe neo-Nazis are welcome and operating in good faith, you can have them.”

‘s weird, she’s been very outspoken about Gaza. Just another case of the left doing what it’s best at and attacking itself, I suppose.