#im not just talking about the cgi either

[master-gatherer]

One annoying thing is that Amazon has all this money, and yet the production values are still bad

[cj-kenobi]

i miss when nature documentaries were juicy (showed real not cgi animals and told you actual fact about stuff)

[etoileee]

Hello! I hope you're having a good morning/night! (It's morning where I am) I saw your request for questions and thankfully I'm full of them. Question 1. How's the food at the cafeteria? I've always wondered if it's quality or just regular summer camp food status.

2. Is it strange to see nymphs, and other 'fantasy' beings in your DR? Does it give an uncanny valley effect or does it give off movie CGI but in real-time? Or even cost player terms in looks? Because I would feel like I was in Narnia lol.

3. how are the other campers? Besides the main 6 and Nico, I would imagine them being friendly enough.

4. And finally last question, could you tell who's in who's cabin? I also imagine some gods 'genetics' stick more commonly than not (like Athena kids with gray eyes) but! That's all my questions! Hope I didn't blab your ear off! This is my first time able to ask the little nitty gritty questions of a POJ Dr (all the tic-tok videos I see are either from 2022 or disappeared ;-;) but I'm excited! Thank you and have a good week!

HELLOOOO it is in fact 10pm for me right now so yes I am having a good night! :D glad to hear you are full of questions because I love answering them!

1. I can’t say anything about food yet since I’ve only shifted to my pjo dr once and I was only there for one day, I had woken up there right around 9 pm and that’s dinner is, they did offer me food but I declined because I was too in shock to eat 😭 I do remember percy liking the food in lightning thief though so I’m expecting it to not be too bad

2. YES OMG i’VE ALREADY MENTIONED THAT I PASSED OUT WHEN I FIRST GOT TO CAMP AND SAW CHIRON HAAA

its not necessarily uncanny valley, its more like movie cgi in real time, after my talk with nico on the first night when we were walking back to the campfire to meet with the others again one of em emerged from a tree and I screamed because HELL I WAS SURPRISED OKAY and she kinda just looked and me mischievously and ran off, like she liked the reaction she got out of me lol.

3. I didn’t really interact with any other campers the first night other than the hermes kids and a little bit of interaction with a few apollo kids, after the campfire with the prophecy members I went into the hermes cabin to sleep since I haven’t been claimed yet and even if I was there isn’t a NYX cabin for me to be in. the hermes kids were a mix of like.. stand offish and unserious, they were curious about me and they weren’t shy about it. there was an empty bunk in the cabin and it still had someone’s belongings on it, and I can’t help bit think that stuff is luke’s.

4. with some cabins you can definitely notice similarities! and if they don’t look similar physically its their aura, for I saw some apollo kids walking to the hermes cabin, they were sitting outside smoking weed 💀 there was about six of them and they all had blonde hair and tan skin. as I walked they saw me, the new nyx kid with white eyes and they were definitely surprised and confused but most of them smiled at me to gave me a nod as I walked and I appreciated that :P

im so sorry I fell like I couldn’t give you good answers to your questions 😭 but I hope this satisfies you a little bit! I plan on shifting tonight and I plan on staying for more than one day this time so we’ll see how that goes! and I’ll make sure to come back and tell you all about it! :D

[randomthefox]

I random came across your posts about the Sonic movies and honestly I had originally thought the first two were passible but not great. But I was *so* disappointed by the third one and I feel insane everytime someone talks about it because it feels like everyone on earth thinks this movie is gods gift to man and its???? Not good???

It is a relief to see im not the only one and glancing through i didn't realize how inconsistent the movies were(my memory is trash though so it's not surprising I didn't realize).

I just feel like a crazy/broken person who feels like I'm missing something if this movie is apparently so amazing but its??? A mess???

Not to mention I was already disappointed going in because of knowing Amy wasn't in it. She's one of my favs and she's SO important to Shadow's story but everyone keeps acting like it's no big deal. NONE of the adaptations of SA2 HAS HER DOING HER PART??? IM SO TIRED OF THEM REPLACING HER.

But yeah!!! I'm glad to see some words that finally describe exactly what was wrong with the movie because I struggle with explaining why it's not good myself.

It's so hard to take anybodies stated enjoyment of the movie seriously, because nothing they say they like about it comes off as sincere. It either sounds disingenuous and hypocritical, because they're excusing or even praising things about the movie that they'd complain about when it comes to anything else (The Sonic Double Standard). Or it's completely shallow surface level praise, as if they're literally toddlers giggling and clapping over a set of keys being jingled in their face and actively get upset when you suggest one should USE THEIR BRAIN when watching a film. Or they're just transparently hating on the video games, and their proclaimed enjoyment of the movies is just an outlet for them to complain about how bad the video games are.

None of them ever have anything to say about why the movie's is supposedly good that actually sounds genuine. When they discuss the movie I do not feel the passion of someone who has a sincere enthusiasm for something. The way they talk about liking the movie feels fucking fake. That or they're shoving crayons up their nose as they watch this, the Michael Bay Transformers of video game films.

The movies are so fundamentally SYSTEMATICALLY BROKEN as films it defies belief. Everytime I even think about this stupid fucking movie I remember or discover something NEW about how bad it is and how much it doesn't fucking wrong. Jimbotniks death scene starts with him going "this will be my final live stream" BUT JIMBOTNIK NEVER DID ANY LIVE STREAMS AT ANY POINT IN THE MOVIE BEFORE THAT. I THOUGHT it was just Jim Carrey ad libbing something unfunny or something, but it turns out THERE ARE DELETED SCENES OF JIMBOTNIK LIVE STREAMING IN PREVIOUS POINTS IN THE MOVIE AND THEY CUT THOSE FROM THE FILM. But they KEPT the "this is my final live stream" line. HOW THE FUCK CAN A MOVIE BE THIS FUCKING INCOMPETENT? It's like an infinite onion that has endless layers of sheer parasite infested dogshit.

Sonic 1 was bad because it was literally just Generic CGI Character On A Road Trip With A Live Action Human Movie #828649296 and it was so fucking boring that it did not improve upon the experience of staring at a blank wall for the same amount of time. Sonic 2 was a MILD improvement in relative terms but was still an absolute fucking chore to sit through particularly because of that completely asinine wedding plot. But Sonic 3 is legitimately one of the worst most unwatchably bad "big budget, popular, widely praised" movies I have seen in a long fucking time. It is worse than Dr. Strange and the Multi Verse of Madness. It is worse than ANY of the Sequel Trilogy Star Wars movies. I would happily sit down and watch all three Star Wars Sequel movies rather than endure sitting through Sonic 3 again.

I'm sorry to sound like a hipster, but people are fucking sheep. Following the herd off the cliff. That's the only explanation for why everyone is insisting on this movie being anything more than what I've said about it. There is no other explanation. They want to be part of the crowd, whether it's a feedback loop of people proclaiming the movie to be good and they wanna be part of the In Crowd, or because they hate the video games and propping up the movies seems like a trendy way of expressing that hatred. Or because they are the kind of people who would genuinely go watch the major motion picture Ass

[jjmaybankssurfergf]

before y’all say shit to me about Rachel, calling me “racist” or “anti- girl boss?” Im not, I grew up with old Disney. Old Disney meaning not the whole feminism in a CARTOON DISNEY PRINCESS MOVIES ABOUT A LITERAL LOVE STORY

People saying “it’s the directors fault” or “script writers fault” it is partially true. But remember actors and actresses need to take credit too. They are the ones plastered on the front cover, going to interviews, premieres, and staring in the movie.

Yeah it may not all be Rachel’s fault Snow White is being butchered but she has done damage too. She is going around talking about Snow White saving the kingdom. In the Original (if you all have bothered to watch it) Snow White does not return because the evil Queen almost had her killed by the huntsman. And how she avoided that was because he let her go and took a pigs heart instead.

The prince is not a weirdo, he is not a creep either. Rachel as she said only watched the movie once as a kid. Which means she most likely forgot that Snow White is saved by the prince because the evil queen was disguised as an old lady and poisoned her with an apple. Therefore only true loves kiss can save her and without the prince she would’ve stayed dead. Same thing in Sleeping beauty except aurora pricks her finger on the Spindel of a spinning wheel.

And since I brought up sleeping beauty I will of course clarify that too because when people see my post I think ahead about what they will say. Like this for example “oh the prince didn’t save aurora in maleficent”.

Your right they didn’t, but once again they kept the storyline still, they just told Maleficents side of the story. They also gave it a more mother daughter relationship too, and it wasn’t all CGI and it was good quality in acting and content. Everyone had the same story, just they added more background about Maleficent and Aurora.

[ganeshpnf]

To the anon that sent me an ask about asking my thoughts about the tv show, Im so sorry but something happened and I think it got deleted 😭 But dw I would still answer it here-

So this would be a critism post and I want to make it clear that everyone is free to reblog and comment their thoughts freely, while being kind. Critism is valid and its not rude, but any bad comments or hateful remarks to any actor, especially child actors, would be deleted. I dont like blocking so dont make me please!

Okay to start, I would be so honest and say I did not find the show successful and I did not like it. I would explain all the reasons, but did it make me feel nostalgia a bit? Yes it did. Did it make me cry at the end? Yes :) I would add pros at the end. But first:

Cgi was really bad, I mean that claiming scene would be a laughing stock in a few years. Chimera? Nope- Medusa's hair also looked better in that movie in 2010. Also they avoided showing Grover's legs so much, also didn't even show us riptide's change...They got 15M per episode and if these are the results, then it is a problem. Background of Percy and Ares's fight- so so greenscreen. I wish Disney can take things seriously.

Lighting was so dark, especially for the lighting thief. Which was such a humor filled book and it was way too colorful. Why make it all so dark and lifeless?

Also humor? Way too low for pjo. "But we are not reading Percy's mind!" Yet, there were so many jokes in the books that could have been add, but they didn't. Yes there are some good jokes (pinecone fate) but to the standart, I expected to laugh way more. Its pjo!

Changes? Well to be honest I am a person who keeps book and show separate, I dont think they are the same at all. So I dont complain about the changes at much. But most of the changes were pointless to me and so many things left unsaid. I wish they didn't make Gabe way too soft. Children's show, yes. But then again, what would you do for later seasons if they cant even show Crusty's dead. Sally's real reason to marry Gabe never get explained, why? 4 pearls, why? Missing deadline? Totally pointless. Not mentioning Riptide's name? Chiron might have say it. Love tunnel? Now its a long one. Rick explained they couldn't do spiders and its hilarious, you gotta do sea monsters man- And instead of a chance to see an actual comedy: live on Olympus and Annabeth losing her shit. We get to see such a early scene of Percabeth drama. Why changing one of the funniest scene in the books to drama? You needed more edits for view or smt? Hephaestus falling over to the speech of friendship was nothing but cringe to me. Moving on, Thalia's acting to Annabeth. Why she is not nice to her and Annabeth had to earn her love. The point was Thalia to remember Jason and taking Annabeth under her wings immediatly bcs of it. Medusa's scene- Instead of us laughing to trio's silly behaviours and falling to her trap like little kids would, we get to hear a monster-hero talk. Yay another speech! Ovid's side of the story also bothered me. Greek mythology, why adding Ovid? Just us to sympatize with Medusa. Lotus Casino scene- We could have watch them have fun and going crazy but noo- they had do add more drama with Hermes. Did not see the point of his appearing either. Why is he there? I wanted to see them being children...And wanted to see the magic of the place!

Now if I move to characters, Percy's I know it all side is just annoying and adds no suspense to the viewers. What's the point if he knows everything already? "But his mom taught him!" But guys, remember, the whole point of pjo was: us to learn with Percy! We were learning the Greek myths with Percy, who is new to the world. They go somewhere and Percy immediatly: "You are Crusty, my mom told stories about you!" 😑 What a relief then! You tell us. Percy's sudden bravery at the end? Dude, he has 5 books for that.

Annabeth turning to a stoic child soldier? Suddenly goody-two shoes? Where are her emotions? Her fears? Her flaws? Her fricking love of architecture? She doesnt need to know everything to be smart girl. She had ADHD, she is 12! Ofc she was supposed to fall in traps. We should have watch her blushing as Luke talks, getting all wet by Percy in the toilet, she was supposed to our little girl. She is not just a badass queen yet, please. Give her personality back. Why she only smiled once at the end of the series? And not having a childhood, not even watched a movie? You guys cant be serious- She grew up in chb! She picked up strawberries, she played games and she watched movies when she was little, remember? She was not in legion... She is one of the most emotional characters, should we remind this to Rick and writers? She cries, she has feeling! Dam she was crying when they left Cerberus! She was a trouble-maker, she stole clothes, remember? Her portrayal was awful...

And about the Gods- Just..."He is trying to make them look awful at the beginning" Then why the hell it was only Athena? Almost turning her to second Zeus- Are you kidding me? You make her suddenly a child killer, when in the books she was nothing like that. Why making her worse, when other gods(Poseidon, Hermes, Hephaestus,Dionysus,Ares,Hades) seem way more human and nicer? You cant tell me he tries to make them worse when they are portrayed like that! No sir- Hephaestus is nice enough to release Percy after a friendship speech. Poseidon is suddenly a perfect dad, he is not sorry that Percy is born. Ares is just a dumb twitter bully, where in the books he was threating them to no end. And fricking Hades?! I am sorry but Hades like that- He should have been scary. But no, he is just a lonely cool guy. I thought he softened after Nico. Cant wait for the development now...

Other than that, one of my most important things: vibe. Sorry...Like I said, it was way too boring for pjo. Even that horrible movies had more vibe! Gimme the vibe!

Pacing? Has a problem and I hope they fix it. Episodes being too short? Also another issue.

Now for the chb, I was hoping to see more activity. Why the camp is not full of noisy kids running around, playing hide and seek like in the books, training wild around the areas, camfire and silly songs? Where are our children screaming and being ADHD demigods? Instead they play chess in the cabin- Please, give more life to chb.

Finally, for the things I liked:

Riptide song!!! That song is my favourite thing in the whole show- Like its soo good.

Seeing Sally's struggle to raise Percy. Also a plus for me. Because I was curious. Also adding Poseidon to the scene was okay. I loved that parts.

Young Percy did awesome and he was such a good actor :)

Percy's dreams were good, I loved seeing them. Congrats! Andd, child accurate cast. It was important. But I wish they hurry so then we wont have it anymore 😭

That was it! Like I said, I find it a bad show, as a fan of 12 years. I waited this for so many years. I was dreaming this. But sorry, bad show is a bad show. At least it did give me some nostalgia and it did make me cry at the end :) I hope they improve because it would suck if they get a cancel before season 5. The bad thing is, I feel they knew we pjo fandom wanted a show for years. And they knew we would eat the crumbs. Its just not fair, you know. They would like it anyway, type. They are not taking it as seriously as they should. With that budget, look at other shows with that budget. I know, its still a kids' show. But I dont think its an excuse for them to upset the fans who waited this long...

Thanks for the ask anon! And like I said, feel free to add your thoughts :)

[obligitory-fma-blog]

I watched the second fma Netflix adaptation. Here’s the best of my notes:

They had the whole fma original soundtrack to use for this movie and tHEY DIDNT??

Purification arts of Xing?? Just call it Alcehestry like they do in the show?? (No I didn’t spell it right I was noting stuff as I went and didn’t look it up)

Okay the weird pause before Lan Fan pulled out the smoke bomb…

ITS AN ACTUAL BOMB?????

Lots of weird pauses and slow-mo’s to mimic anime fights but it reads weird as live action and I don’t like it

HUGHES THANK FUCK PLEASE MAKE THIS LESS WEIRD

Wtf never mind hi envy with your shit ass wig (I forgot they killed off Hughes in the first one 😭😭)

LAN FAN BODIED HIM LMAO

Ed really be like “you do you ig”

“Yeah people exploding today!” Is my favorite line so far. (English Captions with Japanese audio; this was the train hijacker guy from fma 03)

Ed’s expression when Mustang shows up is the most in character thing I will say that (after train stuff)

I will say they did better on characterization this time around I feel like they’re close to the actual characters

But it’s hard to get close to them since they aren’t, well, animated characters. Trying not to judge too harshly.

Not terrible so far actually

Okay nevermind about the cgi WHAT IS WITH XIAOMEI

“I mean, we’re just some decent human beings.” -Ed who wanted to leave Mei behind

GO OFF MEI YEAHHHH TELL HIM THE BITCH

Okay we’re gonna have a really awkward explosion-over-short moment that just will not work because it isn’t animated

GIRLIE ARE YOU HAVING A SEIZURE

Mei being a bitch back is warranted

They be running

“You’ll never catch me, tiny rice man!” -Mei (rice man?)

The dialogue being altered where Ed says he doesn’t have a god to pray to before scar kills him bothers me

I like Alphonse’s movements on the ground when he’s incapacitated, I think the cgi works well there

Hi Mustang good on you for saving your pseudo sons

Riza with the side eye lmao

The slowmo’s again like hello

ARMSTRONG HIIIII You look really fuckin weird tho But HIIIIII

Okay the flexing I can do without thanks it looks weird

Yes Breda why is he shirtless

The red eyes don’t look good either. (For scar)

N ow see why wouldn’t you put in a leitmotif for the brothers theme in this scene with Ed and Al and instead just put in sad piano that sounds vaguely similar to it

WHERES THE LINE ABOUT THEM BEING BROKEN BUT ALIVE WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THAT

Riza being the best and putting her coat over Ed >>>>

Mustang go comfort your son’s PLEASE

Okay just ignore that I’m on the found family train

Girlie that looked like a bad PowerPoint presentation WHY WOULD YOU DO IT LIKE THAT?? (The part where the officer shot the ishvallen child)

Gluttony… hi… again…. Can’t wait for your cgi…. (It didn’t look as bad tbh)

Sorry but with the military uniform off and just the white collared shirt he looks LIKE A DAD LIKE CMON (Mustang)

“You’ve grown… at least I think.” -Hoenhiem, observational genius

“I think I like this scene better than canon a bit actually? Cause Ed gets to express his emotions more than just calling him a bastard

Okay Hoenhiem just ignore him??

Uh oh they have to walk back together

“Our hair matches :D” -Hoenhiem

Ed immediately takes his out of the ponytail

Im not gonna lie I chuckled at that

Also I love seeing Ed with his hair down we don’t get enough of that

“stop following me” -Ed

“we’re going to the same place? 😥” -Hoenhiem

Okay we’re talking about Xerxes instead of Ed and Al’s mom or…?

And the bitch is gone

YOURE GOING TO XERXES WITH AUTOMAIL YOU DUMBASS YOURE GONNA OVERHEAT

Ooooo love the look of Xerxes ruins

Awwww Winry’s parents :D we get more of them

They’re gonna die tho and I hate that :(

This is gonna be so hard wrenching actually-

GIRL IM GONNA CRY

5 minutes into Central and you’re already causing trouble, good job Ed

Al I feel like has the weakest characterization so far in this adaptation he’s just reacting to stuff rather than doing stuff as far as I’ve seen

Scar when Winry is having a breakdown🧍

Ruhroh Winry’s got a gun

Okay the slowmo makes more sense here

Ed saves the day :D

Also we finally see scars brother after getting no context on him

Good acting on Lan Fan’s part

Also why is this calling her Ran Fan? Is that a dub thing (they called Ling “Lin” but this was all in the captions so I’m confused)

“King Bradley is a Homonculus” very serious Ling “hUh.” -Ed

Any Mustang and Hughes content is good Mustang and Hughes content I don’t make the rules

Also it’s good they didn’t change the layout of Riza’s explanation montage for Ishval because it works really well in canon and translated pretty well to live action

Riza and Roy’s speeches near the end >>>

Oh great the bros are gonna try and catch scar alone this can only end well

Well they definitely didn’t catch him

WINRY HOW TF ARE YOU HERE??

MUSTANG WHY TF ARE YOU HERE???

Oh hi Riza :D

Mustang’s like “let ur gf speak to him if she wants like damn”

Ed’s like “bb girl if he says anything shitty I’ll fight for you”

WINRY GIRLBOSS LUV HER

“Hell no I don’t forgive you for shit, but I’m gonna patch you up anyway.” -Winry

Okay cool message, someone must endure pain if it means they can prevent further suffering and cycles of violence

Uh oh Gluttony escaped

He be runnin

YEAH ED AND AL SAVE UR DAD

YEAH SCAR SAVE WINRY

YEAHHHHHH

“Wait I won’t leave you behind” MUSTANG BEING A DAD AHEGWIWNWN

“Colonel your fight is elsewhere” SCREAMING

Oh hi envy

ED SAVINF LING

and they got eaten lmao

Yay we’re all trapped in Gluttony’s stomach :D

Envy is so cynical what a bitch lol

“Tf is a portal of truth 🧍” -Ling

Oh great we’re gonna get cgi envy this will go well right?

EW

Could be worse but

EW

Conclusion: it was okay. There were parts I genuinely liked. There are things that also bug me to no end. The soundtrack from the original series would’ve fit way better and a lot of times it sounded like an off brand marvel track. Acting and cgi was a lot better (at times.) An improvement on the first one, and a semi-worthwhile watch if you have nothing else to do and you like fma. Cannot and will never be a substitute for the original obviously. Seems like less of a cash grab and more of a genuine effort this time which I appreciate. Overall? 6.5/10

(Lemme know if y’all want my full notes version because it has way more of me screaming and being goofy)

[mingus-archives]

is gyeongseong creature worth the watch? i see a lot of people talk about it on my dash but im still a bit hesitant to watch it

Omg hello bloomingqwarrior! Okay so I just finished ep 9 and I definitely recommend! Now, some info that I feel may be helpful to know about my rec:

-I am a big fan of Han So-Hee from My Name so I will literally watch her eat cold oatmeal and therefore I am biased toward any action series with her

-I personally find the main characters to have a lot of chemistry. I've heard that others don't find that to be the case. For me, I think the chemistry is just different than other kdramas. Because the characters are both caretakers and living in a very hellish period in Korean history, I find that they're kind of quiet love built on respect and protectiveness to be v believable and v wonderful to watch

-There is a cgi monster (you get a hint to that in the trailer). I found it to be believable enough but I know some didn't like the look of it *shrugs*

-I've also heard that people thought it wasn't horror enough. I agree it wasn't a traditional horror movie but I think it was plenty scary and, more importantly, there is plenty in the show that is horrifying

-My biggest rec for the show is that it works phenomenally with the themes of colonization and oppression. The show is set during the Japanese occupation of Korea and the show absolutely focuses on the horror, violence, and evil inflicted upon the Korean people. Although it is fiction, the acts of human experimentation, torture, and cruelty are drawn from real history. It does not shy around to discuss Korean liberation and criticize the japanese occupation (Han So Hee and Park Seo-Joon are reportedly expecting to be banned from Japan due to their roles in this show due to showcasing the often horrible nature of the occupation).

One note, a very important aspect of the show is the switch characters make between speaking korean and japanese. Netflix english subtitles do not indicate when they are speaking each language. I was able to distinguish mostly between the languages just from watching lots of japanese and korean language shows though I don't speak either, but if you cannot def recommend trying to find a version with better subtitles lol

If you watch it please let me know!!! So few people I know have seen it and I wanna talkkkkkk

[s8tanicpanik]

the modern destruction of gothic cinema #1

personally i think theres nothing worse than some cheap ass modern adaptation of already great movies. i mean look at me, ive come back to tumblr JUST to complain because im so sick of this.

So lets talk about the new wednesday addams. and stay with me - we will go over some points..... (and i dont care that it has been two years-my hate has no timeline)

wednesday

since the 40s comic the addams family was created, there were various films and tv series made and in my opinion the best actress that played wednesday was christina ricci, i mean she just had the perfect facial expressions to make her one little miserable child and i bought it

and hear me out i was excited to hear that there would be a new version, completely focusing on wednesday i mean ive been watching all the media that was ever created of the addams family since i was a child so my expectations were high.

originally wednesday is this emotionally reserved, morbid child that loves the macabre so i fail to understand why they made her some modern 2024 angsty teen?

like i look at her and i see smn that consumed the addams family lore and then decided to change their whole personality and looks just based on the media they consumed, its just playing dress up at this point, "goth" girl meets bootleg monster high.

i mean PLEASE im begging you why cant i have ONE character that doesnt give me the try hard vibes à la: im not like other girls - non-chalant - my lore is too miserable for you to understand - youre not as deep as me. absolutely horrible..

i want some proper weird girl that gets actually misunderstood with quirks and dislikes! am i asking for too much?!

also enough with the kubrik stare.

like you cant just have the kubrik stare throughout the full show in order to make u look more manic i mean, christina ricci always looked either bored, displeased or annoyed and thats what i was expecting, it felt real. who actually f*cking walks around with the kubrik stare? no one.

and (spoiler alert) what the f*ck is up with the visions? where did they come from? after years and years of this character existing - without some supernatural powers- they thought wednesday needed the sight? this is so absurd. and even if she misteriously got these powers, do you really think she wouldnt be able to master them?

storyline

i mean what kind of garbage is that? it feels like a childrens show with teenage drama? was the target audience 10 year olds???? i mean COME ON. the whole thing was a disney-esque storyline with some sprinkles of edgyness. the whole thing was incoherent and dont even get me started on the fillers...

and please - what is this horrible cgi monster it is the goofiest thing ive ever seen

morticia and gomez

yes the show revolves around wednesday but i cant talk about the addams family without mentioning the iconic lovers morticia and gomez....and THE COMPLETE LACK OF CHEMISTRY THEY HAD

and again was the budget nonexistent or why did they do my girl morticia so dirty for the love of god smn give her proper MAKEUP

it just so incredibly disappointing to see that essence of the addams family is just gone, they were supposed to be a dark weird family with their backwards reality and all we got now is a wish version of it

this was a opportunity to make smth great and now its nothing more than a kids show with a tragic teen drama so thank you netflix for another miserarble show. supporting the complete and utter destruction of originality and creativity.

[as-i-watch]

in my opinion i think the opla did a very good job of trying to emulate the one piece manga and anime, but there’s a part of the anime that they can’t really convey through the live action. like… i think that the cartooniness of one piece, as well as the occasional emotional moments is what makes one piece one piece, but while the opla was able to get some of it, being a live action, it wasn’t able to convey all of it

it’s still wonderful, and i love it, but i like to compare it to the percy jackson movies. good live actions in their own right (still think opla did it WAY better) but compared to the original, it falls short (percy jackson a lot, opla a tiny bit)

i think the main issue for me is the characterisation. inaki did a very good luffy, but you can clearly see how it’s so inaki luffy instead of luffy luffy. still good, but still different

and i think mackenyu did zoro well, but in my opinion, it doesn’t fit him very well. zoro (while i still love him) isn’t as pretty as mackenyu is. mackenyu is too much of a pretty boy

i actually remember hearing in an interview that mackenyu grew up with anime, and of course one piece. i think he emulates zoro extremely well, and he tries his best to make it anime accurate, but he as a person just doesn't fit perfectly, the vibes are kinda off. still absolutely in love with him though

i think that it shouldn't have skipped so many parts of the original, but of course, it completely makes sense why they did

anyways, like i said, i think that if you don't compare them to each other, it's very good, and i do love how they did it (i'm also so happy that so many people loved the live action that they're actually starting to watch the anime!!)

I just finished episode 3 but i totally agree

My biggest fear when the adaptstion was announced was precisely that, bc one piece is so one of a kind, it can make you smile, it can make you sad, you cry tears of joy and of pain, and the anime takes the time to develope the charecters, the stories and the world, so sometimes the emotions are conveyed in such a subtle but effective way bc they took the time to make sure it did. Not to mention the tone and aesthetic. There's a lot that was gonna be difficult to translate to live action

That said, so far i think they did it great! I think they found a certain balance between the cartoonish and the 'real world' lets call it, and they took advantage very cleverly of cgi and practical effects to achive that too.

I agree the thing that perhaps lacks for me too is the charecters and also the pasing imo. But again, it was impossible to fit the storytelling way of the famously 'too long' anime in a 8 episodes per series format.

I too think Luffy feels the most different, i already talked a bit about that and i think it was just the result of it being a western production plus the complex charecter Luffy is. But Iñaki put so much love into his Luffy, you can feel it, its endearing

I dont have a problem with Mackenyu's Zoro funny enough. Sure, i miss how silly anime Zoro can be (but again, the tone thing) and they tried to make it too purposefully imo. Zoro is not edgy. He is badass and a maniac but he doesnt want to wear only black or cares about pressenting an "attitude". But there's a ray of hope for me (i havent finish the show so it might change my mind), the biggest stupid ass smile when he said he'd cut Helmepo's hair. He can be silly and less serious, so i hope i get to see more of that as he feels more comfortable in the crew.

Nami i like, im waiting for the Arlong park arc to make up my mind bc thats where her true colors shine either way. Really liking her dynamic with Luffy so far tho

Havent seen Sanji yet

And Usopp, i just met him and this might sound mean but this Usopp is too cool. Kinda like what you said for Zoro. I think this Usopp has more confidence in himself than anime/manga Usopp did back then and he is not that much of a coward. The coward part is important bc every time he stood up to fight it meant so much more. But again, is early for me to make up my mind this is just first impressions

But like you said, this is just bc of the comparison, on its own i think they are all doing amazing jobs and, so far for me, the writers managed to pull off something that to me was next to impossible and in a great way too.

Im curious to see how someone that hasnt watched the anime reacts to the mixed tone of live action meets silly cartoonish vibes, i hope its not too of context for a first time watcher

[calkale]

As someone who relatively enjoyed MI7 (bc I go no thoughts mode and just watch Tom run around), im sooo curious about your thoughts

im putting this under the cut cause I need to rant about it again and its gonna be LONG, thank you for asking tho

a lot of this is gonna be a repeat of what I said when I watched the movie (I have not seen it since it was in theatres), idk where those posts are but they should be under #mi7 spoilers if you wanna find them.

okay first off im not gonna talk about the overall plot, I couldn't care less about it and I knew that going into the movie. its the stunts and the overall feel of that movie that piss me off. I watch mi movies because I wanna have a good time and watch tom cruise do cool stuff and thats not what I got out of this movie.

im starting with the cliff jump stunt cause I was just thinking about it. the buildup was Ass with a capital A. they cut away from ethan riding up the mountain too many times and for too long at a time. I was comparing it to the scene when ethans chasing walker in fallout because to me that was cut perfectly. Cutting from ethan to benji and sometimes walker for a few seconds so I knew where ethan was and where he was trying to get to but I still felt the build up, I knew he was gonna catch walker but I was still thinking "omg is he gonna make it?". and the cuts to benji and luthor worked well because they were still a part of what was going on and the map on benjis ipad helped visualize what was going on. in mi7 when Ethans riding up the mountain the cuts between him and benji where really good but I hate that they kept cutting back to the train. They could've easily had more obstacles for ethan on the way up the mountain if they needed! its a long ride but showing the mountain and a few shots of Ethan at different parts would've been good enough, we could've had Benji asking him "are you there yet?" like every minute so we get that a lot of time is passing but not enough that the tension stops building and a funny little joke between the two of them. I understand why it cuts back to grace/alanna on the train during that time but those are two very different things going on that are building tension in very different ways. call me crazy but ethan jumping off a cliff is different than grace dressed as someone she's not sitting down to talk to someone. it was just really hard to get invested in either of the two things going on. then the actual jumping off the cliff was such a letdown, I did not feel a fucking thing when he jumps off then it cuts away immediately after like that wasn't The Stunt of the movie?? you dont put a stunt like that on posters and post a 20 minute behind the scenes video about it for it to feel like that and show basically none of it!! show ethan flying through the sky!! show him landing on the train!!! I thought he was gonna land on the train but no that gets taken away in favour of a fucking joke when he crashes through the window. yes mi movies are supposed to be funny im fine with that I love that but come on!! let tom cruise land on the train!!! he can still slip and fall on top of the train but let that old man get his enrichment time!!

now for the train. Im sorry but it looked horrendous, the cgi was Not Good and I can't get past it. with other movies I try my best to not care but this is Mission Impossible. I know they did crash a train I love that but all the cgi added in around it and when Ethan and Grace are climbing through the train looks So Bad. it takes away from everything going on because you know its not real. I get it yeah yeah they can't dangle actors from wires while a train is slipping off a cliff but theres gotta be some way to make it look better. like I said about the bike stunt there was no tension there to me and I felt so disconnected from the movie and the characters, I like putting myself in situations and its hard when im like hm thats not real.

the fiat car chase. this was when I was like "fuck, I hate this movie", im sure we all know by now I am not a hayley atwell fan, so what sue me im allowed to not like people. I didn't like this car chase because it was mostly her driving. BABE THIS IS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IM HERE TO SEE TOM CRUISE DRIVE NOT HER!!! if she was good then whatever but shes not for the bit. I feel like a lot of things that could've been really cool were pushed aside in favour of humour in this movie and I hate it. you can have both!! they literally did it in rogue nation and you're allowed to have callbacks in this movie so you can have a car chase like the one in rogue nation again!!! just let tom drive so it looks cool or even let hayley drive I dont care I just want it to look cool and have the humour stay inside the car. doing bits like this made the movie feel more generic and like they were trying to appeal to, dare I say, mcu fans. i like mission impossible because they get the ratio of humour to action perfect every time, and they're always so good at timing it too but in this movie especially during this chase it did not work for me and I didn't even find it funny if im being honest.

obviously I also have to talk about ilsa and im gonna shit on mcqs writing so apologies. there are two ways to look at this, one shes dead and two shes not dead, both are bad writing IN MY OPINION. if she is dead that was an awful way to send off such a loved character, she was hardly in the movie. im all for more women in movies but she definitely could've replaced grace and I think it would've given her and ethan a much better dynamic. ilsa barely has any lines??? I wouldn't even call her a side character in this movie like my friend didn't even know her name thats how insignificant she was. the sword fight was cool as fuck, rebecca slayed, but she really should've won that fight? maybe if she was outnumbered id be like okay thats a little more likely but it just feels really out of character for me. now if she DIDNT die then im also pissed because fake killing a character twice in the same movie is a little much for me, if it happened at the start of the movie and the end of the movie then okay I can deal with it but she died twice in like the first part of the movie? im sorry to say it but im sure most casual viewers forgot about her by the end of the movie and if they go back for part two and she comes back it's not gonna mean a whole lot to them. and ethans reaction to her death didn't sit right with me, this guy was a theatre kid he can at least somewhat act sad when the girl he loves fake dies and he should be allowed to, for like 5 minutes at least, I know theres a lot of stuff going on but he loved her!! let him cry a little!! and if we're supposed to believe shes dead then ethan not reacting is not helping.

one last thing I wanna add and I know im probably the only one who feels this because I know most people liked the movie, but when you make a part one and part two that release at different times you want people to like part one. it needs to be able to stand well on its own so people want to watch part two and are excited for it. am I gonna watch part two? probably yeah I wanna see that plane stunt but im not excited for it and I really feel like im just gonna be let down in the same ways again. I dont want to go see a movie for the stunts when I know I hated the stunts in the first part and I didn't come out of it caring about the plot or the characters (other than benji <3) so what am I going for? i have no reason to see that movie or be excited for it

I would also like to add I know this is not the movie tom and mcq wanted to put out since the original cut was like what 4 hours? and the movie was extremely over budget because of covid but I can still be mad about the finished product

[metanarrates]

talk more about little mermaid 2023

bad movie! but since when is that news to anyone

here is a short list of things I liked:

-shockingly, the actors playing prince eric and ariel had pretty decent chemistry! i thought their scenes together were somewhat cute. they were certainly the only actors in it who seemed like they were trying to give their all, except for maybe a few minor largely unnamed side characters. nothing special, but in a soulless CGI cash grab poorly disguised as a "live-action" work, having a handful of vaguely pleasant scenes was better than nothing.

-also shockingly, I did somewhat like most of the scenes the movie added from the original. rather than being a straight-up adaptation, they added a number of scenes to either flesh out eric's character, flesh out the romance, or to further explore ariel's experience on land. they weren't all great scenes, and were basically the equivalent of polishing up plastic, but some of them worked fine at a mechanical level, and at least it shows that a little bit of effort was made? although a number of creative choices were clearly to Ward Off Discourse. we will discuss this.

-uh. i thought the costumes were okay. there was an attempt

ok that's it for good shit the movie did. here's the stuff i did not enjoy:

-BAD cgi. like APPALLINGLY bad. I'm by no means a visual effects expert but the way the actors were integrated into underwater environments was horrible. they didn't look like they belonged there, their movements were too floaty even for underwater, and the way their hair was animated to float looked distracting and unnatural. additionally, the "camera" was set up frequently in action scenes to not capture a lot of the action, seemingly because the movements were difficult to capture well in CGI. a lot of the time in the CGI environments, the lighting would be distractingly weird and make the whole environment look even more fake than usual. the color palettes didn't feel like they always had a lot of thought into them, which also led to weird lighting and visual problems, and it never felt like the CGI animals had much weight. speaking of which...

-WHY DID THEY MAKE THE FUNNY ANIMALS WHO SING AND DANCE LOOK LIKE REGULAR CRABS AND FISH AND WHATNOT

-NO SERIOUSLY IF YOU'RE TRYING TO PAINT-BY-NUMBERS RECAPTURE THE WHIMSY IN THE ORIGINAL? GOING FOR "REALISM" IN ANIMALS THAT DON'T PARTICULARLY EMOTE IS A HORRIBLE CHOICE

-halle bailey seems to be a perfectly fine actress, based on what i've seen of her. it didn't seem like the director wanted her to facially emote hardly at all ever. she mainly goes for the wide-eyed vaguely pleasant disney princess expression the whole film, and it makes her performance feel horribly strained. im not expecting a disney film to have stellar acting - its a movie targeted to kids and millenials with nostalgia - but it kind of sucked to watch because there were a few moments where she DID emote more and it felt like she was doing pretty well in those moments! it felt to me like, rather than a lack of ability, she was simply hamstrung by those directing her :(

-awkwafina rap written by lin-manuel miranda.

-on that note, none of the new songs were very good. they also changed under the sea to not be an ensemble piece? look, im not the biggest fan of the original film, but having the fun colorful song where lots of fish and whatever sing all together change into a sebastian solo act with ariel support is... a weird choice. it does kind of feel like the whimsy has, in general, been sucked out of this film at times.

-outside of a few side characters, nobody seemed like they wanted to be there besides the leads. the deliveries were awkward and strained. king triton ESPECAILLY seemed like he did not want to be there. sir was there a gun held to your head here

-perhaps the biggest sin of all, but ursula did NOT serve cunt. half the fun of watching the original movie is how over-the-top she is as a performer, and here the actress is just Not giving it. her vocalization sounds really oddly strained at times? ma'am is there also a gun held to your head

there's a certain structural ethos applied to this movie. I alluded to it earlier with the comment about warding off discourse, but probably a better way to word it would be "trying to retroactively defend the original film, and try to make parts of it more 'up-to-date' when thet's not possible." a sort of repolishing and image-update of the Little Mermaid brand, if you will.

obviously, remakes have frequently done this in the past. I would argue that is often the point of a remake: a way to make the IP still viable in the modern day as a source of income to the company. but it felt very transparent here. the little mermaid has often been criticized for being an insta-romance where ariel's only dream is to marry a random guy? here's several more scenes with eric and ariel to establish their chemistry. people have discussed some of ursula's lines in "poor unfortunate souls" as being objectifying? we're cutting them. and hey, let's just show everyone that the little mermaid is now a diverse story that values women. let's cast a black lead actress and have several side characters be woc, including a new character who is eric's mother.

to be clear, I don't think these changes are bad, in and of themself. it's nice that these actresses of color were cast! the changes made to the plot were kind of fun! but all of these changes are only in service of trying to squeeze even more money out of an existing cash cow. it's very obviously an image and marketing thing, rather than people feeling passionate about retelling an existing story. and really, there's only so far you can go with a story originally only showing white people and written in 1989. all you can do is polish. there are no broader, structural changes you can make to it, because all that would do is turn it into a different story. and of course disney is never GONNA tell a different story, made by and about black women, because there's not a cash cow in that. in the hands of a megacorporation, diversity is only going to be a token gesture to accumulate more profit.

it's a disney remake. at the end of the day, there's not too much point in thinking too hard about it. I watched it for a laugh with my good friend, basically. but I'm still interested in it as a gateway into the decision-making process of the disney board of directors and stakeholders. i've seen some of the other disney remakes, since my mom and younger siblings do like watching them and this one in particular strikes me for how little care was put into it. I'm wondering how well it did at the box office, because this really does feel like we're reaching the final possible end for these remakes. they're not making very many cultural waves. it seems like nobody likes them. but clearly, the disney board is hoping for them to be a perfectly marketable recapturing of whatever the existing IP had. who knows how many remakes the studio has left in them?

whatever. the late-stage capitalist megacorporation media landscape continues to be a depressing slog. I'd recommend going and finding something actually good to watch lmao

[dirtyoldmanhole]

so i've been low key pondering over what is it about gunter that twigged my 'dude, you are a freak nasty kinky fuck (solidarity 🤝)' radar from day one.

ergo, have an old school ~*krad does a character analysis essay*~

under the cut for kink talk and also sheer length !

introduction

why would I want to lead into this reading?

gunter is honestly, to me, an extremely cool subversion of his own FE archetypes on top of (imo) what types of characters are "allowed" to be kinky. a good chunk of FE characters, particularly jeigan archetypes tend to be one note about their devotion to their lords and/or country, and a little stuffy/uptight. when they do have a personality, they still tend to be pretty "safe" nurturing caretaker type of archetypes (eg, titania, and i say that loving her as a character).

of course, nothing wrong with liking said archetype; my tastes just happen to run differently.

gunter is explicitly both those things (could be read as uptight and a caretaker) and still, fascinatingly -- has his darker sides. you don't have a whole-ass ingame cgi and arc of going ham as the possessed yandere villain with a pretty consistent sexual undertone and still keep a ~purely wholesome~ reputation.

so what's the in-game canonical nods that started pinging the radar?

point one: i'm still not over the whip reference in his corrin supports

the tl;dr of his fcorrin C-A support is they pick up an old game of theirs since her northern fortress years -- playing catch with an old leather ball. it isn't until the A support that you hear gunter made the ball from a whip that garon handed to him to whip corrin as discipline.

this assumes several things: (1) gunter knows his way around whips (2) to the point of most likely whipping somebody in discipline before, otherwise why would garon be so convinced he'd follow through? and then

(3) nintendo why the fuck would you add something like this if you didn't intend on us reading some kind of vibe here LMAO. the fact that treehouse kept this line while "sanitizing" most other deeply horny fates scripts makes me inclined to think they knew they'd be breaking gunter's entire characterization if they'd tried to bowderize it, or they just didn't give a shit, thinking that they could probably get away with it since he's not niles-popular. (both can be true).

while it doesn't mean everyone with a passing interests in leather and whips is automatically some flavor of kinkster. just. speaking from IRL experience, the crossover between the groups is also a wee bit higher than the background population. either they tend to be a younger man looking to be "badass" like indiana jones, or their job involves some flavor of implement or ... yeah.

point two: mcorrin/fcorrin script differences & gunter harboring feelings for fcorrin (always has been.jpg)

additional script differences cost money. companies like nintendo hate spending money especially when there's a finite budget, and doubly so for non-popular characters.

so ime, when there's a clear difference between scripts in a non-obvious spot, and it's there in both the JP/EN versions like gunter's final revelation talk with mcorrin and fcorrin, i pay attention. that's nintendo more often than not underlining something and saying "hey, this matters to characterization".

cue this bit after you bring gunter back from the brink of being possessed and talking some sense into him:

Corrin: Whatever your motivations, you stayed by my side and helped me. Your intentions may have been dark, but you were still good to me. (If Corrin is male) Corrin: And that's what you'll always be—my friend. (If Corrin is female) Corrin: You'll always be important to me. Gunter: But, I... I killed Scarlet... Corrin: I know, but you were under the control of Anankos. You weren't you. If you truly wish to atone for what you've done, you must live. Live for Scarlet's sake. Live for the family that was taken from you. I need you to help me fight Anankos. To protect all the people he could still hurt. (If Corrin is male) Corrin: Let's go. Our final battle awaits. (If Corrin is female) Gunter: ... Corrin: Let's go. Our final battle awaits.

now obviously, with a literal "dot dot dot" line, you by definition have to read into the sentiment. one could just as easily argue that here....

.....

nope, i got nothing, lol. m!corrin gets a very pointed "you're my friend" line, and if nintendo wanted to dissuade from the romantic/sexual subtext, they could have awkwardly tried to stick to their more neutral "you're my mentor/father figure/etc" guns which read way more platonic, especially if you kept it the same for both.

that script change is only for f!corrin, and gunter has a few other script mentions where f!corrin gets something extra from him. this combined with f!corrin's particularly sexual-subtext-ladened support chain with the whip-ball (versus m!corrin's pretty platonic "feed the poor kid") vibe hints that he's always held a flame for f!corrin, which leads into asking some pretty interesting questions about his tastes.

it's some kinda vibes all right!

imma also be honest: (possessed!)gunter gets a little sexually subtextual in general. there's other revelation quotes like this during the confrontation --

Gunter: I would tear every last bit of innocence away from you.

(dude) (wow)

-- and the gothic horror camera angle/framing of certian scenes with him alone with corrin, most pointedly when corrin's alone with him, anankaos channels himself through gunter, the screen goes white, and corrin wakes up with him leaning right over her, practically on top of her. all of these add up to one hell of a sexual subtext in the last three chapters.

i could break this down further into shot by shot visual analysis since that's my field as a design manager, but this essay's long as is (and I'll cover this in the current revelation liveblog anyway).

point three: there's a suspicious amount of nohrian characters that have explicit kinks

there's xander with his JP crossdressing supports. niles with his ... nearly everything in his quotes, bless him. and camilia too on the ladies side what with her sadisim and S/M behavior, more blatant in the JP script side which is (ime) the more faithful one.

I'm probably missing an example here (garon also felt weirdly sexual for a FE dad/final boss, somewhat usually lampshaded in the comments of the 'azura dances for him' cgi movie), and that's not even mentioning the faceless which -- i don't know about you, but i've seen actual folsom BDSM gear less kinky than that enemy design.

clearly: nintendo's not exactly afraid to lay some sexual subtext with nohrian characters. hoshidos generally don't get this treatment, this often.

is it likely part and parcel of how they intended to "villain code" nohrian characters, since adding kinks to an antagonistic faction has a long history in media to make them feel more "othered" and dangerous? most likely!

regardless, i absolutely get why they'd layer in that vibe with gunter especially in revelation's route when he's one of the final bosses. adding an edge of sexual menace is an easy if cheap way to butter on that foreshadowing, and it separates him from the "nice(r) guy gunter" in the conquest married route.

sort of.

to which ...

point four: there is no polite way to get around the incesty caretaker daddy vibe in their married route so imma just say it lmao

[ just gestures wildly at his A-S support chain with fcorrin ]

somebody who is completely vanilla is not uhhh, going to have that love conversation/confession right after a literal 'father figure' mention :'D

people are entitled to their own tastes, and while i'm the type to bounce in when people bounce out "because it got too creepy", i do think it's pretty telling that there's a hell of a lot of people that got twigged out of their support and don't generally pursue it unless if they're completion fanatics. even if I'm reading way the hell into this -- they're responding to something, that's for darn sure.

one more thing to point out with the supports --

Gunter: And since you missed, you must answer a question I have for you. Corrin: All right, ask away. Gunter: Is there anyone in camp that you have particularly strong feelings for? Corrin: Wh-what? Why would you ask that? Gunter: Ah, I'm the one who is asking questions.

by itself, that last line could read fairly platonically. but with everything else.... whew. this is a man who's very aware of power dynamics. speaking of --

point five: just trust me bro

call it uhhhh prurient interest, but there has been quite a few times when i've nailed a (IRL) person's interest in kink by that version of a gaydar :P just a little too many times for it to be coincidence.

if you're asking me, the tell-tale hints are usually :

(a) a hyper-awareness of power dynamics compared to normies,

and

(b) hints of adjacent interest/sub-cultural aesthetics. (eg, goth and alt-fashion, common kink implements that can be hidden in plain sight like handcuffs, whips, boots, leather as a fashion).

and obviously we're talking about a fictional character which changes the conversation (characters being built from the ground up to serve a plot. rather than a fleshed out autonomous human being with their own set of preferences that can change over time), but listen, mate -- if my kink radar was a geiger counter, gunter here lit up like fucking chernobyl. :P

all I have to do is point at the whip bit to (5b), and regarding point (5a) ... well. you know the interesting thing about kinksters is that in addition to power dynamics, some of them have a particular thing about titles?

you know who else has a whole very specific thing about titles?

in conclusion

now, all that said, could it be wish fulfillment? absolutely. and it does need to be said -- i dig the character a lot for many other reasons! but i'm focusing on this kink angle in this essay as frankly, it's not a popular topic to talk about in fandom, and it's a fascinating itch to scratch at.

there's the sense in wider media these days that anyone over the age of 40-50 isn't allowed to have a sex life much less something as edgy as kinks unless if they're a complete monster, which is both as untrue as it is unfair. shame never helped anyone -- and i've always been partial to my messy favorite characters who never apologized for what they were. once a villainfucker, always a villainfucker.

either way, there are distinctly too many coincidences for me to write him as anything but, and I'm having fun in this sandbox ~

thanks for reading!

[chaosandthe-deadblog]

i have something to say about cg vfx (and why i love the sonic movies) and no this isnt an anti-cgi post. however i do want to explain why people dislike cgi.

im not a vfx artist, im just really autistic about visual effects. general rule of thumb is that, if something looks real, it either IS real, or a big part of it is.

a lot of vfx artists will tell you that the best way to get something in a movie to look real is.... by making it as real as possible. sure, you cant blow up a real bridge for a shot, but you can build a miniature of the bridge, shoot it in slowmotion, and blow it up on the set. it'll look exactly like a real thing (this is how the original star wars was filmed, by the way, but this post isnt about that) so, in general, if the vfx artists are allowed and have the budget to do so, they will go practical because it just. looks. better.

but, there are things you cant do with practical effects. lets use the sonic movies for example and i'll just compare them to something random off the top of my head uhhhhh the mcu:

so say you have a movie where most things have to be acheived through cgi, for example, an entire character. you have a few options:

you try to do as much of the shot practically, using stand-ins, real props, real effects, real lights, real everything except for the cgi, then add whatever you couldnt acheive (or whatever didnt look good) with cgi. this is how the sonic movies were (mostly) made. they look THAT good because in most shots, everything that isnt sonic or tails or knuckles is made practically.

now... with marvel. this is common knowledge, but more often than not, marvel doesnt do this. why hire someone to build props and sets when you can slap a blue/green screen and call it a day? who cares! those nerds will fix it in post! the marvel movies look bad because most of what we're seeing isnt real, it's just carefully made digitally to look real.

but i said this wasnt an anti-cgi post. cgi isnt bad, when its properly used. i think its a fascinating craft and i admire the cgi artists that are capable of bringing scenes to life (take in mind... they have to figure out lighting, physics, dimensions, pretty much everything about a shot if they dont have a reference, mcu cgi artists are essentially animators) cgi is GOOD. when it's used accordingly.

the sonic movies are great because cgi isnt being used instead of practical effects, it's used to help them look better. which is how it SHOULD be used. whatever you cant do practically, whether it be for budget reasons or simply because itd look bad, you do in cgi. and... well i guess also characters who are cartoons. you dont hate cgi, you just hate how its abused in marvel movies.

YESH ive talked for a while. i'll TLDR:

cgi is a wonderful craft, and i have nothing but admiration for cgi artists. it's great when used accordingly, the problem (and what makes people dislike it) is that as of late its not being used accordingly. practical is always better, and cg helps make it even better

[unhelpfulalienwholovesyou]

So I started watching watching Once Upon a Time...

I am years late, I know! I know this is an old show that had its moment and most people just remember fondly, but this show is insane and if I can’t talk about it on tumblr I can’t talk about it anywhere, so im gonna talk about it !!

The following includes spoilers for season 1

Thoughts on the main characters: 

Mary Margaret is a hypocritical protagonist (tm) and I don’t like her, but her coats and fashion is peak 2011 style

Emma is boring and also hypocritical 

Regina is evil lesbian Hillary Clinton and I love her, also her backstory was so funny because I was like “I wonder how they are going to justify all her anger towards Snow White?” and then the answer was kind of stupid, but also i really liked that episode so idk 

Prince Charming is the worst character. He is a cheating manipulator and I don’t like him 

The kid (now adult man?) who plays Henry is doing a pretty good job, especially for child actors 

August (pinocchio) is kind of sucks until he shows his wooden leg and then I thought he was kind of hilarious and I loved that 

MR GOLD IS THE BEST PART OF THIS SHOW!11!! He doesn’t chew the scenery, he fucking eats it! This man rolls up with his cane and snappy suit and floors these bitches, and also I am so excited for more Rumbelle

And finally: JUSTICE FOR STEALTHY (and grumpy is like 100% gay but also its awesome he wants to fuck a nun) 

Of course non of these thoughts apply to the actors, they are all totally cool people im sure 

Other random thoughts:

The CGI is so bad in the fantasy sections of the show. Its not even the CGI artists fault either. I just cant it all looks so bad and sparse. like none of the rooms have any stuff in them because of the green screen

Also I kind of expected Red to be the wolf, but at least her whole story was kind of badass 

This show is hella anti-adoption too! And, I get the foster system is fucked up and its meant to be all fantasy, but they go in real hard on “real family” and especially early on in the season it feels weird to me. 

I do like the costume design, especially Red’s costumes and the whole town’s style is very early 2010s disney edgy t-shirt, like the ones where minnie was tatted and stuff

I think all the main characters are sort of crummy people. They have committed fewer actual crimes than Regina, but they aren’t really good either. It reminds me of my favorite song in Into the Woods 

[psilactis]

Ok here's reaction to episode 2 and 3, this will be a spoilery one so it will go under the cut

The Soundtrack keeps being awesome and the characters started feeling more like the ones we know, but like....

Why are they together tho. Sure, they had to leave Shells town together on account of being hunted, but no one but Luffy even wants to be there. By the time they finish fighting Buggy, each one should've gone their own way. Neither Nami nor Zoro has agreed to join Luffy as crew, and Zoro is still acting like a pirate hunter and Nami as a thief. They don't really have any reason to stick together at all!!

Why are so many scenes being filmed in the dark now.... I can't see anything...... The circus was ok but confusing to keep up with, but Kayas mansion is just so grim and dark, why.....

On to things I liked now tho because oh boy.

I love loved love love Buggy. He's so good he's so stupid and emotional and goofy and beautiful. Oda really did make this whole TV show just for Buggy, and it shows. And I thank him for it.

The whole Buggy episode was really good, them really going off with the circus theme and making it all creepy. Kinda sucks we didn't get much of buggy's crew action tho.

Im really enjoying Zoro being an Actual Pirate Hunter, like knowing the pirates and their names and their bounties. Its a really small detail but that I feel like it works to tie the whole universe together really nicely.

I love Kaya in this!! I'm really indifferent to her in the anime/manga, but in the show she is very charismatic. The decision to have her be literally poisoned instead of being just implied poisoned is also very good. This is something that has been going on on the show, instead of just implying they really do say their stuff, and I feel like it does add to the whole thing, like Zoro actually killing people instead of it just being implied.

Im not sure how I feel about the Coby thing. I think taking away the scene of Luffy telling the marine Coby used to be a pirate was a bad decision. That scene helped to develop both their characters, Luffy as someone who will help his friends, even if in a convoluted way, and Coby finally cements his will to become a marine and fight pirates. It also settles their relationship - one of mutual respect and friendship, even if on diverging sides that will clash one day. Giving the role to Garp to know that Coby was a pirate once feels really weak and really puts off the relationship between our boys.

I also don't think the whole Morgan debacle made much sense. Sure, me as a manga reader know that Morgan was corrupt and abused the town, but we don't see much of that in the show, apart from the marines causing mild discomfort at the bar. So why was he crucified? Because he was defeated by three kids? Doesn't make much sense. Doesn't make sense for Garp either....

Usopp looks a m a z i n g. I liked the way his backstory was told, the transition was very cliche but felt really nice to see. I think the jump of him meeting Luffy and immediately taking him to Kaya didn't make any sense tho. In the Manga/anime, they talked for a while, and then Usopp left, and Luffy and Co followed him to Kayas place. Feels kinda odd that Usopp would care so much about her, and then drag virtual strangers to her place like that.

While some adaptation is necessary, it feels like the TV show is kind of relying a lot on the audience having some previous knowledge of the source material, which isn't good.

Before I forget, the CGI is looking great actually. Every city and ship feels real. The fights can be a bit wonky sometimes but not in a bad way, it really does feel more like something of the universe, which is good.

I feel like Luffys backstory should have been told all at once, or in two episodes instead of three. However, the way it was done isn't necessarily bad, just feels a bit dragged out. They tried juxtaposing his past with his actions from the present, which, cinema, I guess, but also feels a bit unnecessary and a bit on the nose. The fight of the red hair pirates vs the mountain bandits was top notch tho!