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Topics - tempestwheel

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21
Silver Screen / Transformers 3
« on: June 29, 2011, 10:24:06 PM »
Today I saw Transformers 3 with one of my friends, and, after thinking about it for a bit, here's my honest opinion.

Going into this movie, I knew to judge it on a "mindless fun" level, and even that, I had problems with the movie. No, I'm not going to play the "dumb" card, I wouldn't judge this movie based on that aspect, but, in my personal opinion...the movie's main problem was that, IMO it was dull.

"But how can it be dull? It's about giant robots fighting each other!" Watching this movie, having a watch on me, I realized just how little of the movie was the aforementioned fighting robots. All the mayhem and chaos you see in the trailers doesn't really occur till the last 45 or so minutes of this 2.5 hour movie. And even during that final act, most of the action is humans fighting the decepticons, not robot vs. robot.

The biggest sin the Transformers trilogy had is that it never was truly focused on the robots. The character of Sam gets the majority of the screentime, and honestly, despite Optimus delivering the final blow in the end, you could never call Prime the main character of this. And, for the most part, I didn't care for the human characters in this, except for the one who turns out to be evil....

As I said before, I did like the final act. The "collapsing tilted skyscraper" bit was IMO awesome. But prior to the ending, there isn't an action scene that goes on long enough to really be considered an action scene.

As for the fight scenes themselves...they were over too easy, IMO. All 3 of the main villains goes down with 1 successful attack by the heroes. Once the good guys got the advantage in a fight scene, it was pretty much over. I felt the ending lost tension as it went on, but it never became really bad.

Now, like I said prior, the main problem I had with these movies is that they really aren't about "giant robots fighting each other". In fact, I'd have to say that the human characters were arguably more important then the transformer chars, at least the autobots. The Transformers are supporting characters in the series named after them...

To be fair, it could be part budgetary issues. Even with the around 200 Million dollar budget, maybe having more frequent fight scenes would have brought the budget up to astronomical levels that they thought they weren't likely  to earn back in the box office. Who knows.

So, in conclusion, I judged this movie on a "mindless fun" scale, like I said. But nevertheless, because it takes a while for the action to really get going, and how relatively little (and even then, how quickly it went by) of the expected "giant robots fighting each other", I personally found it dull.

Out of 10, I'll give it a 5-5.5. Nothing terrible, but nothing I'd really watch again unless a friend was playing at their house.

And one last note: If you liked/loved this movie, I'm fine with that, and I'm not going to criticize you.

22
Silver Screen / The "mindless fun" defense.
« on: June 28, 2011, 02:45:10 PM »
This being summer, the season of blockbusters, there's something I've noticed happen every year in regards to movies (and it will keep happening) is that summer blockbusters, and often just action movies in general, any criticism of those movies is met with something along the lines of "it's not supposed to be Oscar winning material, you're just a snob, it's supposed to be just simple fun."

After I while I thought about remarks, and I began to think "Does being a big blockbuster/action movie give you an automatic "Get of of criticism free" card?"

NOTE IN ADVANCE: This is not calling people who use this defense dumb, or even criticizing the movies they use this defense on.

I mean, whenever we go into something we want to see/play/read, shouldn't we all have some kind of minimum of how good we want it to be? Should we actually be going into action movies with an extremely low bar set for an expectation?

Yes, I know that each genre of movies, games, and the like can't be critiqued in the same way. For the action/horror movies I like (or more generally the ones I went to see), I don't create my opinion using the same standards I would to judge a more serious/dramatic movie. I don't expect the characters in an action/horror movie to be extremely deep, however, I DO expect the characters to be likeable, and from an audience perspective, I want to be able to know what they're like, even if they don't change much.

Action and horror (arguably the two most criticized genres of movies) have their own merits by which they can be judged. However, I don't consider these types of films to be critic proof. Far from it. With action movies, I ask myself, "Was the action good?" As previously mentioned, though I don't expect the characters to be deep, I at least expect them to be distinguishable from each other, with separate personalities. Same with horror, if the movie's main selling point was the death scenes, I ask myself "were the death scenes good?"

But that's not to say one can't mix action/horror with an entirely serious plot. Inception is a good example. It managed to be a very smart film, yet still be filled with action scenes. I'm not saying "this is the standard all action movies should follow", but I'm just saying that this proofs that you can do a completely serious/ smart action or horror movie, and it can still work.

Now, going back to my problem with people using the "mindless fun" defense, I'll use a personal example: Final Destination 4. By this point, I would no longer defend the series on a plot level, I was well aware by this point, all they could really do with the series was make up creative kill scenes. I went into the movie fully expecting a "simple mindless fun" horror movie, but I ended up disappointed by it.

Not because I felt the film didn't live up to "Oscar caliber" standards, but because the film failed by my standards for a fun gorefest of a slasher movie. The kill scenes, by FD's standards, were weak except for 2 exceptions. Also, I felt we got to know nothing about the characters, so, even though they weren't well developed (which I wasn't expecting), they could be switched around for the most part and the movie wouldn't be any different.

So, what do you guys feel? I don't believe that being escapist entertainment gets you a free "Get out of criticism" card, it just means there are a different set of standards by which it can be judged.

23
Animation / Flying hero Sheegwa
« on: June 18, 2011, 10:23:07 PM »


Caption away! (In case you're wondering, this pic comes from a fantasy sequence when Sagwa and Dongwa are telling her a story)

Rejected story idea: The cat who could fly.

24
Silver Screen / A new Muppet movie
« on: June 18, 2011, 04:22:21 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWJ2S4vpKoU

Besides Fraggle Rock, I'm a die-hard Muppet fan in general, and I was excited to learn there's another theatrically-released movie coming this fall. The jokes look good, and it seems they're bringing back practically all the original Muppet characters.

PS: Be sure to look up the parody trailers that were released before this one. They're a riot!  :)  :DD  :lol

25
General Land Before Time / Could the sequels have been made darker?
« on: June 18, 2011, 03:58:13 PM »
Though I do like the LBT sequels, I can sort of understand the critique that they weren't as serious/dark as the original LBT.

Like the topic title says, do you think any of the sequels could have been with the same more serious tone that the first one had while still keeping the same basic plotlines?

IMO, The Mysterious Island I think could have been as serious as the first 1 with a few tweaks. The first portion or so of the movie works just fine, with the valley losing all of the green food, and the dinosaurs having to go into the Mysterious Beyond.

Now for the portion of the movie occurring on the island, had they perhaps given more focus on Chomper, and maybe go more into his mind, and imply that him choosing to not try to eat his friends wasn't such an easy choice and that he might be conflicted between his friendships and his instincts could have been an interesting conflict.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

26
Silver Screen / Favorite movie of 2011 (so far)
« on: June 12, 2011, 08:18:42 PM »
Nearing the end of June means we're approaching the halfway mark of 2011, so, out of what has been released so far, what's your fav film of 2011?

For me, my current favorite of the year is Scream 4. Honestly, the film did not let me down.  It was one of the funnest slasher (and imo films overall) movies I have seen for a while, and the mystery was good.

I liked how modern they made the killer's motive, and the film's great subversion of the concept of "the new generation."

What about you guys?

27
Animation / Kovu and Zira
« on: June 08, 2011, 06:31:28 PM »


Kovu turns to his mother for therapy, it isn't working.... :DD

28
Gamers Zone / The "Wii" series
« on: June 07, 2011, 09:32:44 PM »
For you Wii owners out there, what do you think of the series of games named after the console featuring just the Miis?

Currently, there is Wii Sports, Play, Fit, Music, Sports Resort, Fit Plus, Party, and coming soon: Play Motion.

The original Wii Sports-imo though it is kind of the defining game for the Wii, it's no personal favorite of mine. However, the bowling will always remain a classic.

Sports Resort-Loved it. I liked the setting, which I explored a lot in the flying minigame. The expanded variety of sports really put this over the top, though it actually isn't my fav of the series, TBH.

Play-rather weak, I didn't really get into the mini games this one offered.

Fit-Rather enjoyable, and it does provide a workout. I worked my butt off on the balancing, soccer, and hula hoop games. I broke a sweat constantly.

Music-Don't play many music games myself, so I didn't go for this one.

Party-IMO the best of the bunch. It managed to be a good Nintendo party game without any Mario elements. I liked the variety of ways to play the "main game", with World Tour actually being my favorite mode, though it seems a lot of reviewers didn't seem too fond of this one.

Though I didn't care much for Wii Play, the upcoming sequel, Wii Play: Motion actually looks good IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el98ccQBIj4

(Though not said in that trailer, based on a US ad for the game, I really wonder what is going to make the game get an E10+ rating.  :blink:

29
Role Play Discussion / Idea: Scream 5
« on: June 07, 2011, 12:28:15 AM »
Since my previous "Final Destination" rp got a fair number of you interested, I thought I'd try another rp based off another horror franchise I like: Scream.

Now, it will take this rp some time before we can really start it, mainly for one reason: Setting is everything, and we can't really have a cast of characters without a setting in mind.

Possible places I considered: A major US city like Chicago or New York, or maybe a big mode of travel, like a cruise ship. Wherever we decide, the rp will be set after the events of Scream 4.

Other rules: To be able to have a realisitc number of chars like the movies, including canon and OCs, we really shouldn't have more than 20 characters total. Also, once we decide on a setting, we should, for the most of the OCs, give them a connection instead of making them all strangers (like a group of friends, business partners, etc...)

Also, once we set up a cast. I'll PM the individuals (or have them PM me) about who I (or they want) to be the killer, and I won't release that information to anyone who's not playing the killer(s). So, I'm hoping to get about at least 5 people including myself involved in this.

 Anyways, for canon chars-if anyone wants to take them: (And going by only the ones still alive):

Sidney Prescott-
Sheriff Dewey Riley-
Gale Weathers-Riley-
Joel Jones (former cameraman for Gale, survivor of Scream 2)
Detective Mark Kincaid (LAPD officer, survivor of Scream 3)-
Deputy Judy Hicks (Woodsboro police officer, survivor of Scream 4)-


Anyone interested?

 :)

30
The Written Word / A Rock-a-Doodle fanfic
« on: May 29, 2011, 10:30:29 PM »
Since I've seen only a few fanfics for RAD, I figured I'd make one. Since a major complaint the movie got was that it wasn't dark enough, I figured I'd give a dark little twist on the ending....heh heh

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7033276/1/The_Owls_Picnic

(There's chapter 1, I have two more chapters planned.)

31
Gamers Zone / Top 5 PSP games?
« on: May 26, 2011, 05:15:02 PM »
Since there's alreayd a topic for DS game,s I figured there should be a topic for PSP games that are your favorites. (And please, no turning this into a Sony-bashing topic.)

Mine are:
Sonic Rivals
Sonic Rivals 2
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Modnation Racers
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII


32
Animation / Hunch stew!
« on: May 18, 2011, 06:36:12 PM »


Losing a chance to eat the kitten, the Duke resorts to cannibalism...and his first target is an easy choice for him to make...  :lol

Caption away!

33
Silver Screen / Favorite episodes of your favorite shows?
« on: May 17, 2011, 04:53:11 PM »
Like the topic title says, what are your favorite episodes of your favorite tv series? You can list more than one for each show you choose.

Some of my picks:

Monk-"Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect" and "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" for pretty much the same reason for each-a challenging mystery.

Fraggle Rock-"The River of Life"-for being a very serious story, yet never feeling preachy. I used the basic concept of this episode and the title for a big part of my original Sharptooth Valley fanfic.

Total Drama World Tour-"I See London..." for giving my favorite character, Noah, a time to shine, even though he was eliminated at the end.

What about you guys?

34
Animation / Scared Sheegwa caption
« on: May 15, 2011, 06:25:40 PM »


Caption away!

35
Animation / Shere Khan and Mowgli caption
« on: May 01, 2011, 10:49:28 PM »
I found this before and had it in the old captions, so I wanted to resurrect this.



Caption away!  :DD

36
Silver Screen / Your DVD collection...
« on: March 22, 2011, 01:48:48 PM »
Since James Rolfe recently made a video showing what he owned in his DVD/VHS collection http://www.cinemassacre.com/2011/03/21/jam...dvd-collection/ , I thought of making a topic where we could share what we have DVD, Blu-ray, or VHS-wise.

I'm just going to list DVDs, and I'm dividing my collection into 2 sections: "Horror" and "Non-Horror."

Non-Horror:
Case Closed: Time Bombed Skyscraper
Case Closed: the 14th Target
Case Closed: Last Wizard of the Century
Case Closed: Captured in Her Eyes
Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street
Street Fighter (1994)
The Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Fraggle Rock: The animated series
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Tropic Thunder
What's New Scooby-Doo Volumes 5-10
Sealab 2021: Season 1
Sealab 2021: Season 3
Robot Chicken: Season 4
Jacka$$ 3
Alpha and Omega
Fraggle Rock The Complete Third Season
Fraggle Rock The Complete Final Season
4-mini Fraggle Rock dvds with 4 eps each
All Dogs go to Heaven 1 and 2 combo pack
Case Closed Season 4 volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4
Case Closed Season 5 Volumes 1, 3, and 5.
Dane Cook: Vicious Circle
Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs
Futurama: Bender's Game
Monk Season 2
Monk Season 3
Monk Season 4
Monk Season 7
Monk Season 8

Horror: (Admittedly, some of these I stretched the definition to consider them horror.)
Saw II unrated
Saw III unrated
Saw IV unrated
Saw V theatrical cut
Saw VI unrated
Saw The Final Chapter unrated
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Child's Play
Child's Play 2
Seed of Chucky (this is more comedy, but like I said...)
Prom Night (1980)
Terror Train
Happy Birthday to Me
Sleepaway Camp
My Bloody Valentine (1981)/April Fool's Day combo-pack
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
Urban Legend
Urban Legends: Final Cut
Valentine
My Soul to Take
Inception (one of those I stretched the definition on.)
Poltergeist II/III combo pack
Stephen King's It
Stephen King's The Mist
Halloween II (1981)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
My Bloody Valentine (2009 remake.)
The Final Destination
Coraline
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
9
Shutter Island
Devil


There's my collection. As you can see, I seem to like slashers a lot.

 :)  :DD

37
Animation / The owls' picnic
« on: March 21, 2011, 10:39:43 PM »


The Duke: Somebody's taking the idea of chicken nuggets too literally...

38
Animation / Kaa and Shere Khan caption
« on: March 05, 2011, 07:59:53 PM »


Caption away!  :DD

39
Animation / The mud sultan Caption 2
« on: February 26, 2011, 08:49:38 PM »


Mud sultan: What do you mean I'm only in this episode?!  :anger

40
Random Role Play / Sagwa RP
« on: February 24, 2011, 08:59:22 AM »
(Here we go guys, and though we haven't added all the characters yet, we can take more roles as we go on.)

It was another beautiful morning in China as the sun was rising in the sky. The Miao family, the royal pet cats of the Village's Magistrate were sleeping.

Sheefwa, the youngest kitten was the first to awaken. "Hey guys..." she started to say to her siblings, when she saw they were still dozing.

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