On September 17 2021 16:25 Jockmcplop wrote: That story has literally nothing to do with wokeness.
What do you mean? Netflix changed historical facts to fit into their "wahman stronk, man bad" narrative. If that's not woke then I don't know what is...
On September 17 2021 16:25 Jockmcplop wrote: That story has literally nothing to do with wokeness.
What do you mean? Netflix changed historical facts to fit into their "wahman stronk, man bad" narrative. If that's not woke then I don't know what is...
Did you think it was a documentary?
In fairness, the mistake they made was quite bad. They mentioned a real female player from the time and said she had never competed against men, but this wasn't true, and it was a huge achievement for her at the time. I would be pissed if I was her. But its clearly a mistake, because no-one would do that deliberately as part of a woke agenda, that's just nonsensical.
On September 17 2021 16:25 Jockmcplop wrote: That story has literally nothing to do with wokeness.
What do you mean? Netflix changed historical facts to fit into their "wahman stronk, man bad" narrative. If that's not woke then I don't know what is...
Did you think it was a documentary?
I didn't but there's a lot of people who see "based on a true story" etc. etc. and consider everything in it to be gospel.
On September 17 2021 16:25 Jockmcplop wrote: That story has literally nothing to do with wokeness.
What do you mean? Netflix changed historical facts to fit into their "wahman stronk, man bad" narrative. If that's not woke then I don't know what is...
Did you think it was a documentary?
I didn't but there's a lot of people who see "based on a true story" etc. etc. and consider everything in it to be gospel.
The Queen's Gambit is based on a fictional book. You should watch it, it isn't 'woke' and its actually really good. Probably the best series Netflix has made. Good characters, authentic representations of chess, but plenty of interest for non chess people, its just great.
I've seen it. Visually stunning, great score accompanying the imagery. Problems: + Show Spoiler +
skimps too much on fleshing out characters, political intrigue is very superficial. Even though Villeneuve produces a great commercial for the planet Arrakis, and even though he does follow the book quite well, skipping certain aspects in favor of time and grandeur is still a hurdle for people attempting to make this into a movie. For example: the Duke sniffs out the backstab and knows Dune will be his grave, yet the movie does an appaling job conveying this to the audience with the single throwaway line: "I thought I had more time" and that's about the depth Villeneuve was willing to go in the intergalactic political games the Emperor and houses are playing. I hope for a bit more scheming in the second film.
Conclusion: Artistic vision: Villeneuve uses the plot in the book to guide you through Arrakis and puts the people who drive that plot in the background (in the sense that they feel quite superficial). However, I can understand the choices made in sake of run time. Acting and casting: I didn't really like Timothee as Paul and did like Jason Momoa, which I did not expext. Jessica feels miscast, since she's kind of a badass, but comes across as a whimpering mother most of the time, which I must remember wrongly probably. Javier Bardem plays a great Stilgar and I'm ready to soak in his performance in the sequel. Runtime feels okay, although it did feel like it was dragging a bit in the second half/last third.
On September 17 2021 16:25 Jockmcplop wrote: That story has literally nothing to do with wokeness.
What do you mean? Netflix changed historical facts to fit into their "wahman stronk, man bad" narrative. If that's not woke then I don't know what is...
Did you think it was a documentary?
I didn't but there's a lot of people who see "based on a true story" etc. etc. and consider everything in it to be gospel.
The Queen's Gambit is based on a fictional book. You should watch it, it isn't 'woke' and its actually really good. Probably the best series Netflix has made. Good characters, authentic representations of chess, but plenty of interest for non chess people, its just great.
I did watch it. Not the best series Netflix made, rather forgettable if you ask me.
I enjoyed Dune. Went to watch it with my girlfriend who hasn't read the book (I have) and didn't really know anything about the story. She also enjoyed it, mostly due to amazing visuals/soundtrack as mentioned above, but she was also gripped by the story. So that's great, I was worried the movie would only be enjoyed by ppl that read the book. I hope we get the sequel.
I enjoyed the movie, mostly the visual aspect of it. The sound is also great, but i have some problems with it I discuss under spoilers. I feel that i needed the pre reading of the book, and the persons that i spoke to about movie that hadn't read the book missed the plot and was just another visual blockbuster. + Show Spoiler +
I feel the characters are thinly portrayed, and the person that actually shows emotions is Lady Jessica, that has spent her whole life controlling and not showing them. So kinda got it wrong. The mentat aspect of Dune is left out, although it is vital to the understanding of how the world functions. The humans is the computer and thinking machine are forbidden because something happen in the past. This let you understand why the visual is so rough and bare from the normal sci-fi we are used to. But also the lack of mentats leave Hawat and Piter is uninteresting person in the movie. Feel the sound of the movie is great, but is miss the songs of Gurney and the feeling the bring to Paul. Chani ask about the in his dreams and Paul takes an instrument after defeating Jamis in the book. I feel it is really i missed opportunity to give some depth to the characters without much dialog. Other the that you can discuss what to leave out and not, sure i missed some other stuff but the pace was good and could not have been much slower for my taste. Hope the series will show some of the politics on Dune before the attack.
Well, TV, not movie. But I think I'm souring on Foundation. Episode I- I thought was a thoughtful adaptation. Sure, there was the typical Hollywood adaptation shenanigans, but you eye roll and move on. And yeah, they bumped up the action- but there wasn't much to begin with, but it felt like they were fleshing out what was an otherwise very short story, looking to fill in the spaces.
Episode II- Rather than jumping forward in time they do a second episode with the same characters. Okay, this gives the TV writers time to tell a bridging story with complete freedom. Tell more of the fall of the empire, flesh out the characters and what psychohistory actual is. Let's see how it plays out. And yeah, reasonably well for most of it. But the ending. What a twist! But one I thought was entirely unjustified unless I somehow missed all the foreshadowing. But maybe Episode III would create fill in the blanks post hoc. Episode I- surprisingly good. Episode II- okay, but with a bad ending, unless Episode III supports it.
Episode III- Nope. Time jump. Don't even touch why we had a face-heel turn. It's all history and we're not going back. That retroactively makes Episode II worse. The beginning has a very long stretch with the change of power in the emperors. But it's not clear to me why it's so drawn out. I think they have Something To Say. But aside from a weakening empire, a lot of the messaging is lost on me- like I know they are bringing up a theme or subject, but it's not really clear what the show has to say on said theme or subject. But maybe I'm just stupid.
But this is where it goes off the rails for me. Salvor Hardin. Now also a black woman. Ok. GoGo, Strong and Independent Women. Whatever. More importantly, she is not the mayor/ figurehead (emphasis on figurehead) leader of the colony. Furthermore- her deal is "Let's find some weapons and see what damage we can do." Violence is her first resort. Book Hardin. "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." This is not just not the same character, but this is a negation of the character. TV Hardin is the opposite of Book Hardin.
Worse still is introducing the 'chosen one' (herself) theme. Which unless they are going to undercut it in the next episode, it is a theme that is contrary to the Foundation series. The whole handling of the Vault as a mysterious alien artifact that only the special one will be able to open is a big miss for me. Foundation is about paradigm shifts- entrenched and calcified ways of doing/ thinking that is overthrown by the next ways of doing/ thinking for surviving the Downfall. And while there are important people to make (or sometimes NOT make) important shifts at those turning points, they are no way 'chosen ones' or born into specialness.
Even if the chosen one aspect is a giant misdirect, I don't think they are doing a sufficient job to lay the ground work for the big reveal. This is essentially a filler episode, but it's not doing it's job well enough. I'm down to see the story fleshed out more to see how people survive in the hostile environment. Sure, let's see how the colony builds itself out. However, things it needed to establish more obviously: 1) There are no mineral resources- they cannot become an industrial super power. 2) They have nuclear technology 3) The Galactic Encyclopedia is THE hub in the colony. They are the central power and the colony revolves around it. The mayor is simply a figurehead to the Encyclopediests. To some extent a large portion of the population lack purpose because they are not a part of the Encyclopedic. The tv shows the Encyclopediests as something that some people are doing and they might have some level of influence- more because of the mother-daughter relationship. But it's not enough for the big undercut from Hardin's play and Seldon's reveal. It's basically a wasted episode for that reason alone. The show almost had it, but needed to lean in even more.
I also think they need to start pulling out galactic star charts. Because they mention Arceneum is about to attack, but as visual medium something needs to be shown to get a sense of the geopolitics that is going down. The empire is starting to fragment, but a passing conversation is insufficient for a viewer to grasp what is going on in the neighbouring region. (Maybe a couple less PG13 sex scenes, which seem to be shorthand for relationship in this show, and instead a scene or two in space to drop this information? Or better yet, cut back on those ponderous Cloned Emperor scenes to provide more geo-political context local to the Terminus system.)
I'm not overly stoked that Arceneum is attacking because of the alien artifact- either it's all a misdirect and they've undercut most of their foreshadowing and missed the really important foreshadowing or it isn't and we are in a very different story than Foundation.
Anyways, I'm holding out that Episode IV will turn things around. I held out until half way through Shannara before deciding it was bad. This is downward trajectory, but it's possible at the very least for TV Hardin to have revelatory experience in the next episode and actually start espousing some of the beliefs that the character she is named after actually believed. It's possible the chosen one is a misdirect (but then still makes for a lot of wasted screen time.) And it's possible Episode IV does a better job building up to big shift. But Episode III spun out its wheels pretty hard.
If a show that, for whatever reason, decides just leave out characters, and change genders of certain characters then that show doesn't even have a plan to finish up, let alone follow the source material.
Watched The Green Knight over the weekend, good god i have no idea what happened during the main bulk of the film, the only thing i understood clearly was the start and end. Also it felt like i was watching a pirate film with all the dark parts of the film legit having 0 light in making it hard to even make out what was going on.
It had 2 starts on Amazon i noticed and i think that is generous, very strange film lol.
On October 10 2021 08:09 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: If a show that, for whatever reason, decides just leave out characters, and change genders of certain characters then that show doesn't even have a plan to finish up, let alone follow the source material.
Well, in theory it needn't be. There is conservation of characters so there is a tendency to reduce numbers. Expanse did a great job. I think the documentary crew on the Roci gets reduced to the reporter and one techie. Drummer becomes a composite character of Bull and some others, but it's otherwise reasonable accurate to the heart of the story (so far as I've read.) They nailed book Amos in the TV show. A person can always hope, if futiley.
Episode IV didn't really resolve much. Very slow pacing with much on the Empire rather than Foundation. "And faith is forged in the fires of eternity." I feel like this supposed to be deep, but I don't know what the heck it means. But it's par for the course in the voice over Deep Thoughts.
I still don't know which direction they are going to jump with the heart of short story they are adapting after the second episode on the same story with at least one if not more to resolve. They are drawing this one out. I'm holding out for the show to find the book's twist, but it seems vanishingly unlikely. They bothered to bring up book Salvor Hardin's motto... and trampled all over it as 'old men's doctrine'. Because the story is still as of yet unresolved, it's theoretically possible for the main character to have a change of heart and not consider it 'doctrine of old men'. But I don't think so. This episode effectively is putting the new paradigm in the category of the old one to be rejected. And if that's so, that's just cruel- taking the story's theme and spitting on it.
It be like Jackson's Gandalf saying, "And some people might say it was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Pity and mercy: not to strike without need. But those people are chumps who get beheaded like Ned Stark. Frodo, if you see Gollum, cap that fool."
I'm bending over backwards trying to be open-minded to the changes in adaptation. However, aside from episode I, the show isn't doing itself any favours thus far. The main character basically has the Force right now, mind reading, predicting coin flips, and experiencing visions. Not sure where it's going with the Divergent character, but I'm less hopeful all the time.
"Your women are smarter than your men." Okay, okay okay. Girls rule. Boys drool. Pump the brakes there bud.
Watched Dune yesterday night. The scenery was good, the music okish but overall i didnt like the film at all. A friend of mine that has read the book and knew more about the lore etc enjoyed it alot tho. because it was a fast paced movie with not much dialogue I felt like if I also knew more stuff I would have enjoyed it more. if I had to put a score i'd score it a 5 or 6 out of 10. Also dont know if anyone else felt it but it gave me some Prometheus vibes. Especially the imperial army how they were talking.
Oh? Interesting. I thought from the trailers it sounded like a simple story. Eager to see it. Last good medieval movies I saw were The King (Timothee Chalamet) and Outlaw King (Chris Pine).