InvaderStych

Full Episode list ... Thoughts so far ...

Why is that giving me Tintin with the Dragon Tattoo vibes? Yes, I know, completely different countries there, but still ... Re: Popeye Trailer ... Too easy. So Many Other Options ... NCIS: Sweethaven Village ... Ok, maybe just that one before I've had more coffee ... ... for now all I've got is ... Something, Something, Tom Clancy Novel, Popeye, Something ...

Happy Winter Holiday Extravaganza Season, fellow nerds ...

Indeed. As far as I am concerned, Fitz was AoS's true protagonist. His story is far more compelling than any of the other characters. It was surprisingly difficult to find a good image of Hydra Fitz.

Right Idea, Wrong Image.

This: Advantages: -- It is best done solo, ergo you can take all the time you like, at any pace you prefer, and stop/return as your schedule permits. -- You have to turn off XP several times during the course of a run, thus the opposite of leveling. -- Gets deeper into mission text and exploring around than rushing through them does. -- Praetoria is cool. Bonus points for getting the exploration badges and doing the zone events. -- Can be done more than once depending on where you start (Loyalist/Resistance start points). -- If you twink the character and buy yourself a Team Transporter you get the White/Gold skinned one. Praetorian starts should get to keep this, imo, but that's another thread ... Warnings: -- Read through the thread carefully, some folks have run into issues either out-leveling a contact or in some cases killing them before doing their missions. My run was snag-free, but there are some traps. -- Always do the tutorial in order to get the "double-agent" options within the whole "side-switching" framework. -- It helps to keep notes handy on when to stop XP, which choices to make when, etc.

Heh. Pardon my latching on to "Industry Story Time," but I, too, should confess one of my own Crimes Against The Gods of Celluloid. I worked several times for a ... let's call him a Financially Successful Director That No One Has Ever Heard Of who made quite a lucrative living off the recesses of first the Direct To Video and Movie of the Week markets, and these days Definitely Straight To Streaming. The stuff I worked on with him were thoroughly terrible Straight To A Cable Channel movies using a 25 year old script bought on the cheap as the core and recycled multiple times by tweaking a detail here and there. You'd (well, probably not you as you're in the know, but the general audience would) be surprised how cheaply these things could be made. Crew of less than a dozen people, lighting kit that fits in a hatchback, shot on things like a Sony EX-1, in a house legendary for its use in the world of p*rn (I worked on several of these, all of them used the same house as the primary location), with the occasional "don't I recognize them from somewhere?" actor well past their heyday in one or more supporting roles. His other "bread & butter" work is/was "college thriller" movies usually featuring a half-dozen shirtless hunks and one femme protagonist under one pseudonym, and kid's movies about things like talking cats under a different pseudonym. The bulk of the industry has been focused on churning out cheaply made nonsense for a very long time. The stuff we see marketed barely approaches scratching the surface. 🤣 Hilarious guy to work with though. Something about crewing for a piece that no one is taking seriously is a lot more enjoyable than say working for a 1st time director who is convinced their very existence is riding on the success of their masterpiece. Low stakes, low stress. I mean, I worked on some mediocre films that the producers were taking quite seriously, but the crew ... we always knew what was up. 😉 I thought about telling this story in my post in the other thread about financial success not being a good metric by which to measure a film's artistic merit. This guy basically printed money for his distributors. Not because he was churning out great movies, but because he found a couple niche markets with an audience and got them done so cheaply that ROI was a forgone conclusion.

Oh, right. Mordo. He plays some military dude in the 3rd Venom movie. Haven't seen it yet though. Eventually. Can be seen in the trailers. Great actor at any rate. He's in my favorite David Mamet film, Redbelt. Highly recommend to anyone who's not seen it.

You're not entirely wrong there. I'm in agreement with @Without_Pause with regards to some of the stuff they did with the various series. They worked as series in ways that would not have worked as movies. Imagine trying to drag out the Agatha story across more than one movie, or compress it into a single movie. Neither approach would have worked from a story-telling perspective, and the former would have been a budgetary disaster. The problem is that the financial success of the franchise leading up to Endgame has blinded them to the reality that it simply isn't a repeatable formula. They would see more success focusing on smaller stories set in the world they've created than they will ever see trying to repeat the blockbuster success by invoking a "multi-verse," recycling characters, or re-casting so-called "stars." And let's be honest here. F4 is, imo, a meme. The best version of "Reed Richards" is found in The Venture Brothers. Nothing they do with it will crack the interest of the general audience. Dr. Doom without the Victor Von is a waste of a good baddie, and X-Men is better served in a serial format than in big budget films. The dynamics of serial story-telling coupled with the budgetary realities of releasing on streaming vs. trying for a big blockbuster theatrical success is a much better choice all around. I've been saying all along that trying to repeat what was accomplished with the run up to Endgame is doomed to failure for a variety of reasons, up to and including audience expectations. The general reception of these re-casting announcements simply reinforces that theory. The good news is that as this progresses we might actually start seeing a resurgence of moderate budget movies again. What we used to call the "20 million dollar" film 25 years ago. No idea what that is adjusted for inflation. It was the loss of this level of film-making that led to a number of "big movie stars" making the switch to TV in the first place as it no longer signaled the death of a career but was simply a choice to follow to where the stories were being told.

Watched the first two mostly because Tom Hardy can be entertaining. They're both pretty much Paint By The Numbers movies. Nothing special, but not terrible either. Will eventually get around to watching the third via whatever streaming venue it lands upon. This time though more for Chiwetel Ejiofor than any other reason. I expect more Paint By Numbers with a couple of Entertaining Actors as a bonus.

War Mace/Energy Aura ... the combo so strong (and pretty) it spawned its own badge.

Video version, even though this should clearly qualify under Images You Can Hear in standard meme format.

Kae Tempest - Europe Is Lost

Needs to be a panel discussion moderated by Gerald Cooper.

I mean ... https://www.adultswim.com/videos/the-venture-bros/a-very-venture-christmas/