TheOtherTed

Not sure how I feel about the fact that I got the reference 🤢

On live I had a character named Methane Man - really just a vehicle for fart jokes and Spines-related innuendo. Spider Plant. The themesong writes itself (Spider Plant, Spider Plant, does whatever a spider can't...) Big Shirtless Rob, as an homage to a woefully underrated Simpson's character.

Not really - too obvious an "evil villain" trope, with plenty of escape time built in to their dastardly plan. I have as well, but only in the context of fishing boats, Merchant Marines, or the Navy. "Perfecting one's art" suggests a lot of freedom and a big pile of money - very different kettle of fish. So to speak. That said, I'll readily admit my age likely influences me here - anyone under 30 has an uphill climb to win this old dog's respect (as do many over 30). As for the Oompa-Loompas, I'd rather see several extras of short stature (or whatever the proper term is these days) than an army of mo-capped heads CGI'ed to one or two mo-capped bodies. IMO one major problem with CGI is that you can too often tell it's CGI; thus, it challenges your suspension of disbelief just by existing. Cool - will have to check that out too. The more I read about the guy, the more intrigued I get...

So I finally figured out the most bothersome things in the trailer. All IMO, of course. The saccharine (pun not completely intented) quality of it - everything's all Disney-Mary-Poppins wonderful, without a trace of anything remotely frightening. Even the trailers for the sanitized Wilder film had scenes that could make one question Wonka's intentions and/or sanity. I suspect this film has sanitized things even further. This Wonka gives off a strong "Marty Stu" vibe. Everyone in the trailer (outisde the obvious bad guys) seems to like him, including apparently some whose job it would be to keep his brand of chaos in check. Plus, I don't know how old Chamelet (sp?) is, but he strikes me as way too young to have spent the past seven years travelling the world to perfect his craft. A big "Enterprise" moment - people literally floating around years, maybe decades, before Wonka supposedly developed his Fizzy Lifting Drink. The CGI of Hugh Grant's Oompa-Loompa is a bit off. After the initial reveal, it slowly but surely sinks into Uncanny Valley territory. Not looking forward to more Oompa-Loompas. On the plus side, it does give me an incentive to read Dahl's original book...

Much as I'd like to see Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa, I'm gonna pass. Not sure why (yet), but that teaser turned my stomach in a way that Gene Wilder at his wildest could never do.

I never played Colony Wars, so please forgive my first impression. It looks like a Fallout 4 mod, and sounds like it will make my brand new computer feel obsolete. That said, it has promise. I'm curious to see how it develops. Too bad Bethesda decided to nuke thier game forums a few years back...

Now playing in the Death Star Cabaret: Richard Cheese - Darth Vader Imperial March

Good song lyrics are gold for this kind of thing! At one dark point literally decades ago, the song "One Slip" by Pink Floyd told me what I needed to hear - "Was it love, or was it the idea of being in love?"

...I wish you hadn't reminded me...

This will sound picky (because it is), but the art and animation style kind of kill it for me. Well, not "kind of." The only charcters I immediately recognized were Sheridan and Londo; the former only because of the voice and the latter because, well, Londo. Garibaldi took a few seconds; Ivanova took a few more, even with Claudia Christian's iconic voice. And my brain still refuses to match the Narn in the last scene with G'Kar. I'm making an intuitive leap to connect the person at 1:35 with Lyta Alexander, and that's only the basis of hair color. Silly complaint, I realize, but I'm not getting a sense of connection between this trailer and the live-action show. ... ... ...if, however, Lennier sings "Fish Heads" in this, I may reconsider.

A place to share your favorite sayings, quotes, aphorisms, etc. No expectations that this spaghetti will stick to the wall, but figured I'd throw it anyway. “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” ― John Maxwell

Well, mainly, he was famous for being the guy with a silly voice. He could also be a bit... energetic... with his stand-up routines and talk show appearances.

The voice of Pain in Hercules. How can this be?

Not one of you mentioned Bobcat Goldthwait.

Quick tangent - James Woods as Hades seems like it would almost, almost, be worth swallowing my stubborn pride and watching one Disney movie. Just one. What harm could it do? That said, Andersen's (presumably translated) words above struck me as a bit Disney in a sort of "can't have the kiddies crying over the protagonist's fate, now, can we?" kind of way.

"You, poor little mermaid, have tried with your whole heart to do as we are doing; you have suffered and endured and raised yourself to the spirit-world by your good deeds; and now, by striving for three hundred years in the same way, you may obtain an immortal soul." By the dour standards of nineteenth century European literature, that's a pretty happy ending. Quite possibly the happiest ending that a being without an immortal soul could hope for.

Nope - I just wondered if it was another IMDB/ROP situation, but the circumstances don't track, and OG's explanation is good enough for me. Believe it or not, it is possible to have a fascination for pop culture weirdness without having some sort of agenda.

@Techwright I actually (does usage of that term make me an honorary neckbeard?) meant Hans Christian Andersen's original story (which did have a sort of kind of happy ending, although very metaphysical, and not involving a handsome prince). Never saw Disney's take on it, in no small part because I already hated Disney with a burning passion back then. As for the current state of movies or shows, I don't think it's COVID-related. I think it's the culmination of trends that started in the first decade of the current century. For example, though I watched and enjoyed them (kind of), not one of the reboot Star Trek movies could hold a candle to the OG cast movies (except maybe "The Final Frontier," but we don't need to talk about that one). I have my ideas about why that is, but I also have ideas about other people's ideas about my ideas, so it's probably best to let it drop...

I'd heard it was good, from some surprising sources - but the dramatic flip from "meh" to 90+ percent in a week or three surprised me. Never really cared for the story itself, though, even the original. All those head-over-heels love-at-first-sight stories just leave me shaking my head and saying "yep, no good can come of it."

...did anyone else notice the strong discrepancy between Rotten Tomatoes' and Metacritics' audience reviews of "The Little Mermaid"? I tried to backtrack ownership of those sites to see if there were vested interests behind one or the other, but I came up empty. Disclaimer: I have no interest in "The Little Mermaid" one way or the other. I check out movie reviews for "controversial" flicks whenever they pop up in my social media feeds, and the Rotten Tomatoes audience review did a complete about-face since the last time I checked looked. I briefly thought that review bombing might be in play, but that should have affected both sites.

The RealID thing happened while I was on a break, and I didn't get wind of it until much later. Otherwise, I would have deleted my account right then and there. I came back to the game shortly before Cata released, in part to pay final respects to Cairne Bloodhoof, and partly because I found out that an old college buddy of mine was actively playing. Speaking of Cata, that expansion convinced me, even before release, that the developers had basically run out of stories to tell. I figured they'd release one, or at most two, more epxansions before putting the game in maintenance mode. I still think I was right on the creativity front, but as for it's longevity, I was wrong. Yes, I, even I, TheOtherTed, was wrong.

Yeah, well, I'm not, so...

Apparently EA Games is shunting SWTOR off to Broadsword Online Games. Not sure what BOG can or will do with it, or what this means for EA's other MMO titles. BTW, anyone have any info on BOG? My paranoia sense tells me this is a Nemesis plot, since the two games BOG reportedly took over a while ago are still listed in EA's stable of MMOs.

Cautiously optimistic as usual. All the stuff is there, but we'll see if round 2 of Neil's little Miller-Urey experiment will spark up something new. My only concrete reservation at the moment is that I'm not sure if a deliberately one-dimensional character from the first season can work as the plot focus of the second. I am very curious, though, if this is something that Gaiman and Pratchett discussed before the latter's passing. Regardless, I probably won't see it for a while. Amazon has a lot to live down before I give them another dime.

Design by data analysis. If all the data suggests that the majority of players had settled on one "meta" (though I hate the term), decision-makers (not necessarily the devs) may see nothing wrong with to supporting that "meta" to the exclusion of other playstyles, and build from there. It sounds "clean" and "rational," but it completely ignores all the little voices saying that there's much more to the game than the "meta." That said, DCUO's leveling content was short to begin with. A filthy casual like myself could get to max level within two weeks without trying. The first time I quit, it was because the transition from open-world leveling to gear leveling felt like I was suddenly thrown into a pool of sticky molasses that had gone a bit "off."