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Pan wrote: Felt like the influenced by Batman movie. Touch of Bladerunner detective noir, dark rainy crime ridden city with emo rock like the crow, cat and mouse like game between the riddler like the Dark Knight... Great influences and I really liked the film, but I dont think it has its own identity, which will keep it from being considered a great movie. Now that they've green-lit the sequel it might get it's own identity as a package of two or three or four movies. I think Honest Trailers makes a case for this being the most noir of the franchise, and that's a start on it having a unique identity. Pan wrote: Cast was excellent, and I liked a more introverted Batman we got from Patterson. Turturro proved, once again, he is a real underrated actor that out did himself in this film (so much presence!). Colin Ferrell's Penguin gave a real comic book almost Dick Tracy feel. They were well directed and don't feel derivative of anything that's come before. Though I've not seen all of the pre-Nolan films... in fact, maybe only the very first one. It's just too bad that superhero and scifi films don't ever get proper recognition for their actors. Ian McKellen killed it as Gandalf in the first LotR movie but had no real chance of winning Best Supporting Actor. Pan wrote:
Kudos for the director for making a 3-hour movie that didn't creep along. .
thejeff wrote: At least to start with - you can bring in the gadgets to help cope with the more extreme supervillains that come along. Not like a jobs program would really help with the sometimes super-powered monsters that Gotham attracts. A jobs program isn't really comics accurate either. That would be a whole different movie. Nor, IRL, does something like that actually solve the problem. Helps maybe if instituted among a plethora of other efforts, but even then doesn't "solve it". People are too complex for that kind of fix. Bill Gates rather proved that with the billions of dollars he spent on education. IIRC his schools were audited a decade later and got a "C" grade despite all the money and latest tech being thrown at the kids. ![]()
AceofMoxen wrote: I finally saw this yesterday. It was overall really good, but I was really bothered by how often Batman gets shot and just doesn't care. At least three times, he gets shot and keeps standing there. Batman getting shot should at least get a reaction. Ideally, Batman uses stealth and brains to take out gunmen before they shoot. He's an angry young man. By the time he's Batffleck he's well past his MMA phase and more into defeating opponents via 4D chess. :D Best film of the year so far. Best film noir (albeit in color) in my lifetime. Won't get at many Oscars as Dune did though. ![]()
Okay, maybe it's tech companies proportion non-COLA raises according to where employees fall out in the company rankings and then cut from the bottom when there's a need to RIF. As for teachers, I grew up next door to two and another lived across the street and down one house. Nice neighbors and I had friends who were in their class(es) and liked them. They weren't living in the worst neighborhood, far from it, and they always had at least one late model car around. Solidly middle class. I remember my mom talking with the next door teacher one summer and her saying that the toughest part of her job were the parents. Looking back on my middle school experience and you couldn't pay me enough to teach the middle grades. Between the unions, totally disengaged parents and the helicopter parents, I don't know how the situation gets fixed because that covers a large majority of kids. Parents of some means often home-school or private school their kids and I can say from my college experience those kids were always among the top students. Still, your kids will have to live and work with the majority. ![]()
Tristan d'Ambrosius wrote: Knowing the actual categories available for nomination is a broadly useful skill. Just sayin. Try it sometime and you might see it works for you. Clearly it can't hurt. Why? I don't care what they call a given category. They change all the time. As long as I got the bases covered I'm good. ![]()
NobodysHome wrote:
One of my advisers for undergrad Uni never gave a grade lower than "B-" so as to avoid all the whiny parents, and the occasional whiny student. Public K-12 are already generally understaffed and/or underpaid. Firing incompetent teachers won't change anything until they get directly compensated for their work. Maybe look at student improvement from beginning to end of the school year. The more improvement the more pay they get. High paying tech companies are known for cutting the bottom n% from their staff each year. But then they typically pay better than public K-12 schools. Any word on what charter or private K-12 schools pay their teaching staff? ![]()
Oh, I thought the complaint was about there being only 17 categories listed. Hence listing a few that were inapplicable to represent all the inapplicable ones. At any rate I was simply listing the possible ones originally. You know, "real shot" ≠ "must be nominated". Reading for comprehension is a broadly useful skill. Just say'n. Try it sometime and you might see it works for you. Clearly it can't hurt. ![]()
Oh No! You uncovered my "inadvertent" and nefarious plot! I confess and here's an edit of the reality: Best Director (Well they missed this one!) Best Adapted Screenplay (Well yeah!) .
QB wrote:
And so it is.... or close enough. ![]()
So there's this: WOTC Sold Over $950M in Tabletop Games in 2021 ICv2 wrote: Wizards of the Coast booked $952 million in tabletop game sales in 2021.... tabletop games accounted for 74% of the nearly $1.3 billion in sales for the segment in 2021, and grew at a blistering 44% rate.
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‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Series for eOne THR wrote:
Will this be the second entry in the D&DCU? :D ![]()
Speaking of crazy, 10 Oscar Noms! Woot! Best Picture (Well yeah!) Best Director (Well yeah!) Best Adapted Screenplay (Well they missed this one!) Best Score (Well yeah!) Best Cinematography (Well yeah!) Best Editing Best Costume Design Best Production Design Best Makeup and Hairstyling Best Sound (Well yeah!) Best Visual Effects (Well yeah!) ![]()
@belgrath9344 There is an excellent discussion thread here from May of 2021, which you started, and it pretty much unofficially answers your question. And @keftui is right, this is the wrong sub-forum. Maybe go bump your old thread? ![]()
Aberzombie wrote:
Spoiler:
Tying all all the character threads together, however tenuously, is a great way to cut down on the advertising budget and it allows the creators to show facets of known characters we haven't seen before - Luke talking to Ashoka e.g.
As for Cob Vanth's fate - Favreau and Filoni have learned from Lucas not to kill off named characters with speaking parts. Even their bad episodes are curb-stomping the DCU TV-verse. ![]()
BigNorseWolf wrote:
How does any tech in the SW universe work? ![]()
Huh, I always thought it was merely a trope that super heroes with secret identities can't keep them secret when the plot requires. Which is virtually in every story. OTOH Mark might be onto something with the contractual angle. I always think of the MCU/DCU movies like live-action cartoons and just go with it. ![]()
Aberzombie wrote: Thanks. That's why I wanted to ask. Still, sounds like I might have a new series to watch. It's a cartoon so everything but the swearing I find odd to complain about. The art style isn't even particularly realistic. "Nudity" LOL! It's rated at "16+" if that helps. If you liked Amazon's Invincible you might like this. I found the first episode to have an odd mix of scatological humor, sexual elements, hyper-serious character backstory and physics-defying combat to really get into it. I might watch the rest of it at some point but won't be setting aside time to make sure I do. ![]()
NobodysHome wrote:
You only need to get to ~1/10,000 before it becomes a legit complaint over a quirk, IMO. API seems vanishingly unlikely in terms of monetization, IMO. Anyone know one of the Devs? ![]()
Precisely! What's not to like?
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JoelF847 wrote:
Well at least it wasn't MoCap. ![]()
Aberzombie wrote:
Shades of a FPS cut-scene. Yikes! ![]()
I have that actually for a couple of the services but watching movies on my laptop with buds is not my preferred method. My cousin has a ridiculously nice* entertainment center and a comfortable couch. * As in so nice that it's not practical to maximize the experience, not even close, for all the "noise" neighbors tend to complain about. ![]()
NobodysHome wrote:
Safeway Apparatchik wrote:
FWIW - I've been shopping groceries in the middle of the night since before the pandemic. Staff always outnumber customers at those hours and, if your convo is pleasant, they'll even retrieve items from the dock that are apparently out of stock. ![]()
Greylurker wrote:
Not sure, but you definitely pay a lot less if you watch all your streaming content over at your cousin's place - the one subscribed to all the streaming services. It's practically free that way. :DYMMV ![]()
JoelF847 wrote: Just watched it and I liked it quite a bit. Not in my MCU top 5, but that's a high bar. I don't really get why it didn't resonate with so many people though.... Oh, just this: Eternals Pitch MeetingTechnically this is meant to be funny but like all these it's funny because it's bitingly-true. ![]()
Mark Hoover 330 wrote:
My dad's friend explained it as being like the final episode of the old Seinfeld sitcom - basically a big bleepyou to the whole shebang. "Oh, so you liked these characters did you? Well let me show you what big so-and-sos they were, and then show you some more, and then show you some more, and then rub your noses in it, and then do that some more...." Having not seen any episode of Seinfeld that I can recall, I'll take his word for it. ![]()
DungeonmasterCal wrote: I thought the chase with the mayor's assistant and the cyborg kids went on too long. It looked pretty cool, for sure, but they could have shaved about a minute off and use it for something else. It did indeed feel like filler. DungeonmasterCal wrote: I don't think we've seen the last of Krrsantan. If he's written like most fans have come to regard Wookiees he's not going to just shrug off Fett's letting him go. Chances are if he comes back, he'll be on Fett's side. I do wonder why he doesn't "speak" like how we've come to expect Wookiees to do. There's a lot of acting nuance that is necessarily missing from being trapped in a costume. If they were to rely too much on the same cues I think it would make Wookies seem like Clone Troopers - "Just another one of those mooks". DungeonmasterCal wrote: I suspect The Twins aren't going to just fade away, but the Pykes will very likely be the real heavies for the remainder of the season. Yes, as long as there's another season. And yes, definitely. ![]()
DungeonmasterCal wrote: I'm definitely going to get a short-time test done Sunday and will likely get the more in depth one, as well. I have some other health issues that might be exacerbated by the virus so I really try to stay on top of it. For those with risk factors it's definitely the better move to 'over test' than under. ![]()
NobodysHome wrote:
Note: Had to look up "Mirror, mirror" trope. I think you're right. That trope is fun for an audience - people participating passively. Like for a TV show. It's no accident that the trope comes from TV and not TTRPGs. In fact, you answer your own question:
So if you have buy-in from players as DM to play out the trope then it works. Otherwise no. I knew a guy who was awful at actual role-play or character background as a player. Brilliant in those respects as a DM.
Don't know. Meh, people.... ![]()
There's been a spat of "news" items around the Thwaites glacier recently. Even though it's been hitting the news from time to time for many years now. I think what's driving the news this time is the fact that the water measurements near the base of the glacier are about 3.6°C, whereas previously it was estimated to be about 2.0°C (see first video link above). But the issue goes deeper than this mere mis-estimation of temperature (see second video link above). Sure, that will increase dramatically the rate at which the "plug" of Thwaites pops out. And as Thwaites goes, so too does the Pine Island glacier and indeed virtually the whole of the West Antarctica Icesheet, resulting in a global sea level rise of at least 10', and that before the end of the century. Eric Ringot is on record as saying it is difficult to know what a "tipping point" is but quite clearly we know not only that the "fuse is blown" (his words) and that we are well past anything like a tipping point for West Antarctica. But the issue is yet deeper! Previously I learned that AGW would take ~1,000 years to modify the global thermohaline circulation, particularly working its way through to the circumpolar current around Antarctica. While that's still true, in a pedantic sort of way, it's also significantly untrue in the sense that rather obviously that mechanism was bypassed. Bypassed to the tune of ~100x the melt rate than heretofore estimated. Oopsy! In other related news - the world is estimated to have burned a record amount of coal last year. This won't be coming from from NA or the EU to any significant degree. In fact, those areas are continuing their ablation of coal power at record setting rates. This then highlights the real issue for all things AGW as we head into the coming decades. Namely, it matters almost entirely what China, India, Brazil, the rest of S and SE Asia, and Africa do. And essentially not at all what new reductions happen in the USA/Canada, Japan, or the EU. The issue is no longer up to the "West" to solve to any significant degree (with the small possible exception of Australian coal). I'll draw a parallel to Lennon's song Imagine. It's a popular tune and got a bit of a celebrity boost last year. The lyrics are really quite nice, a perfect mix of longing and ennui, but they are terrible anthropology. At scale, humans don't act like the lyrics in Imagine tell us to and never have. Because we can't. So, while it sounds good to 'sound the alarm' in the "West" about our coal and other fossil fuels use, like the lyrics to Lennon's song it's really is a distraction from the real solutions we'll need over the coming few decades. Let's hope the deciders at COP27 can address the issue head on and not simply imagine a solution that merely sounds good. ![]()
DungeonmasterCal wrote: I'm just putting my faith in Dave Filoni and trusting him and his creative team to put out another great Star Wars product. "The Book of Boba Fett" could still fall completely flat on its face, sure. But the folks who worked on the various series he's helmed seem to have a greater grasp on what makes Star Wars tick than the ones who put together the sequel trilogy. This^ BTW - This guy seems to live to keep an eye on all things SW. You might check his video selection out.
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