#what kills me is the budget is TWICE the movies' budget?? so like. how. they're not even doing it cheaply. whats the excuse.

[waffliesinyoface]

watching the lotr bonus documentary on youtube (why the fuck wasnt it on the 4k collection warner brothers, you hacks) and feeling a deep sadness and longing that that level of meticulous detail and craftsmanship and love just simply likely won't exist on that scale ever again.

you know, much like how the elves feel in lotr. the light has faded.

it especially kills me because i'm training to be a carpenter who can make quality furniture. and i live someplace with lots and lots of studios. making real-ass wood furniture specifically designed to be fancy setpieces would be incredible. but lol no the industry doesnt care about artisans anymore, get fucked

[patchoulol]

I've got two main problems with Star Trek: Picard.

First, they bring minor characters back, but twice now with the wrong actor, and then they just kill them. I'd frankly rather they just never come up again and be remembered for their own one or two memorable episodes than that. Sure, it happens in the movies, but they at least get to be played by the right people there, with a two hour movie budget sendoff. Hugh's death, while also at least played by the right person, is borderline pointless because it ostensibly motivates a character who loves murdering people with swords to do it more but also who ultimately also winds up being written out. Unless they do some surprise regeneration of Hugh or something more meaningful with his legacy in the 11th hour, it's a pretty awful trade, and frankly a waste of having Jonathan Del Arco. Even without that, they're using death as motivation way too much, which is pretty amateur writing for a long running series. Oh, and what do they do when they finally find Data? He wants to die. I don't mind this as something Data wants to do to complete his human journey and Brent Spiner will still be around, but unfortunately it's just more mostly unnecessary death in the same story.

Second, humans are just inexplicably okay with murder. It was not a Starfleet regulation that kept humans from killing their enemies at the first sign of trouble. Humans are supposed to have a higher value of life and restraint for taking it than they do in the modern day, which is part of evolving to be able to have a future like Star Trek in the first place. The worldwide trauma of another Great War made people so sick of the way things were that they actually collectively evolved. It's also a really easy thing to uphold even for the people who think it's a stupid platitude, because everyone walks around with an instant non-lethal KO handgun, so it's not like they have to be Batman to not kill anyone. It was only ever after that didn't work that they ever used lethal force and only while in immediate danger. Star Trek has essentially solved valuing both the sanctity of life and the right to self-defense. But in Picard, characters are almost always going for kill shots while showing little to no effort not to, giving in to revenge killing and even killing people on time travel missions with no repercussions somehow. It doesn't even come up, they just kill random people in the past, and there's no downside. Before, in First Contact, it's treated as overkill for Picard to shoot someone who's already a Borg Drone, as if it's some huge breach of character and ethics even to humans from an earlier time that he didn't still try to save Ensign Lynch the way the crew saved him from staying or dying as Locutus. And in the most recent episode, Crusher shoots someone while they're out on the ground and vaporizes them intentionally. The only thing having me reserve judgement on that is that Riker at least points out it's completely out of character for Beverly to do, so maybe they realize how bad their writing around that has been.

Either they thought death and killing would make their stories more mature or they thought their modern target audience loved violent solutions enough to ignore the previous narrative, but they missed me with both. Even when I think they're getting characters like Picard right, they're getting Star Trek humans as a whole wrong.

[takerfoxx]

Magia Record, Season 2, Episode 6, First Impressions!

Kyoko?

Kyoko, what are you doing?

Okay, as my regular followers will recall, I had a real problem with reviewing the first season of The Owl House, because it's episodic nature made it really difficult to come up with new things to say per episode.

Here, we encounter the opposite problem, in that this season of Magia Record is so serialized that each episode is basically a 25 minute chunk of a movie, which likewise makes it hard to comment on something new of what comes out to a steadily escalating climax. So let's return to my original review format from waaaaaaaay back when I did Flip-Flappers: bullet points.

Okay, so did Kuroe straight up kill those girls? Because, um, dark. Still, we get a little more hints to her past, what with that specter of some strange figure. If I recall, her wish was to hook up with some boy that she ended up breaking up with anyway, so that raises questions.

Touka and Nemu remind me a lot of Magneto, in that they're both members of an exploited minority with superpowers that still end up getting fucked over, and they're so fed up with it that they're willing to take the Us vs. Them mentality and commit genocide.

Mifuyu being a depressed drunk does serve as a reminder that despite her and Yachiyo's youngish character designs, they're both unusual in basically being young adults as opposed to early teens like the rest of the cast. Also, I did feel for her here. She lost most of her friends, realized how fucked she was, turned to the WoM out of desperation, and now feels damned because of the severity of their plans. That scene when she realizes that she's not beyond saving, that she can return to the villa really struck a note.

Mami is still an Uwasa, and it seems Tsuruno is too. Is Mami the one powering the hotel and Tsuruno the one powering the theme park?

Speaking of which, remember how Walpurgisnacht had a real carnival thing going on in the OG show? Just thought I'd mention it.

I take it that ghost charm Sayaka was holding has some Japanese cultural significance? Because that was just odd.

Is this the first bit of dialogue Alina has had this season?

Okay, so Connecting is that thing where two magical girls combine their powers! We were first introduced to it in The Rebellion Story, but it seems it was something they do regularly. Which really puts the whole bit about the OG cast being a bunch of either clueless rookies or uncaring renegades disconnected from the magical girl world at large into contrast.

Kyoko? I'm glad you're still around. Your team-up with Iroha is neat, the giant crossbow was badass, I loved the high-five, but...

Just...tf?

Like, why? Did'ja think that after giving Iroha your WoM cloak, you needed any disguise? Did you think that the carnival had active mascots walking around so this might work? Girl. Girl.

Okay, like before, I watched this twice, and the second time I was paying special attention to the animation, because I noticed a lot of people complaining about it after the episode aired, and for most of the runtime everything seemed fine, with some impressive directing and action.

But then at the very end everything kind of fell apart. There was a lot of weird cuts, the sound seemed out of synch, there was one part that seemed like they straight up forgot to record the dialogue for, and there was a bunch of Meguca-face going on, even on the close-ups.

Oops.

Hopefully they wanted to save the rest of their budget for the final two episodes, because yeah, that was noticeable.

Y'know, as much as I'm rooting for both the OG and the new cast to save their missing friends and escape, I can't help but shake the feeling that this is all going to end like Oriko. I hope not, but I can't see how else things could go, unless they want to go full AU.

Also...

^$%$%&$%%@^^(&^#% THEY'RE RIGHT THERE!

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SAYAKA AND KYOKO HAVE OFFICIALLY SHARED THE SCREEN SINCE REBELLION STORY! DO SOMETHING WITH IT!

[slamsams-blog]

Dr.No - #24WeeksofBond

#24WeeksofBond continues this week with the first ever James Bond film under the leadership of Harry Saltzman and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli who would form Eon Productions to produce the James Bond films.  Hollywood was skeptical about the films and didn’t want to make too much of an investment in it, saying that the novels were too British and sexual.  When they finally got the green light to produce Dr.No, they were only given 1 Million dollars...can you imagine that?  It takes 10 times that to shoot a rom-com these days.  Well even back then, 1 million wasn’t all the much to make an action movie - and it shows.

There’s only so much negative you can say about this movie before you start sounding ungrateful or pretentious.  It’s hard to really shit on Dr.No since this would be the start of a franchise that will last 57 years and counting.  The longest Hollywood franchise ever all starts here with this stripped down, methodical, detective thriller that brought Sean Connery into mainstream heights.  Cary Grant was the man who was the strongest choice for the role, however he was only willing to commit to one film and they needed someone who could provide a bit more staying power.  In walks Sean Connery.

Connery was a relatively unknown at this point, he had a few roles on stage and in film but landing the role of 007 was Sean’s breakthrough.  He went from “oh yeah that guy” to household name in two hours (or whatever the run time is for this film).  Ian Fleming was originally against the casting of Connery but quickly changed his mind after how much of a commercial success Dr.No would become and started to work Connery’s Scottish heritage into the character in the novel “You Only Live Twice”.  

So here we are, off to the races in 007′s first ever adventure to Jamaica where he will go and stay.  Usually with the Bond films they are shot in multiple locations, but with the budget they had - they shot everything in Jamaica and in the famous Pinewood Studios.  Dr.No isn’t what I would call a high octane, action adventure.  The film itself is quite dull and slow, but it is more about the mission than it is about the stunts and the gadgets and the cars.  This is a straight up detective drama.  MI6′s contact in Jamaica goes silent, so they send Bond down to Jamaica to find out what happened.

First of all, this opening is just so 60′s, I love it.  No pre-title sequence that will start to be a tradition come the follow up film “From Russia With Love” so it opens with the gun barrel sequence that Connery’s stunt double films right into this psychedelic light show that makes you feel like you’re raving at Studio 54. (Not sure if thats the right time period for that reference, but oh well).  We see a man named Strangways get shot and killed followed by his secretary.  Now Bond is on the case.  But first we are taken to the local casino where we will meet Bond playing his favorite card game.  Connery looks so good here, and delivers his first “Bond, James Bond” line to perfection, complete with cig hanging out of his mouth.

Right away we get a sense that James Bond is as smooth as butter and takes a lovely lady named Sylvia Trench to the cleaners with the game they're playing.  He charms her and they become a thing.  But after that, Bond is now on the mission in Jamaica.  We come to find out after Bond’s great police work that there is this island named Crab Key that people on the island are scared of and rumors of a Dr.No running the island like a camp.  Bond’s ears are perked up and he is curious.  But everyone who gets a little too close to the island ends up dead.  Naturally Bond finds convincing Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) to take him there.  Quarrel tells the story of a dragon that lives on the island and Bond rolls his eyes.

While Bond is on the trail, there is a few attempts at his life.  One right away when he arrives in Jamaica and a man posing as a driver takes him in his car.  Then he finds a freaking tarantula in his bed while he’s sleeping and Bond get sweaty with fear.  Bond finally defeats the spider with some very intense shoe squishes.  Then there is another “car chase” on his way to ladies house.  This car chase is so hilarious.  You can just tell Connery is doing everything he can to simulate a car chase in front of a green screen with wonderful uses of his facial work.

Bond manages to avoid all the attempts on his life and finds his way to Crab Key with Quarrel’s help.  Here Bond meets Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), an explorer & orphan who loves wildlife and is very guarded, strapping herself with a knife to protect her seashells.  I love Honey Ryder, she’s sexy but also has a dark past that doesn’t allow her to get close to anyone and is untrusting of anyone.  I guess that’s just what Crab Key does to you.  Bond’s crew is complete and it’s now time to get this Dr.No fellow.

This is where the movie finally picks up a little when the “dragon” or tank that shoots fire kills Quarrel.  Poor Quarrel.  Bond and Ryder are then brought to Dr.No’s office where they will dine and be softened up.  This is where we finally meet Dr.No (Joseph Wiseman), The character that partially inspired the Dr.Evil character in the Austin Powers movies.  Dr.No reveals that he is a member of SPECTRE, a name Bond has never heard before, and little does Bond know that SPECTRE will soon be a big ole pain in the ass for him.

What Dr.No is doing is toppling missiles by use of a beam in an effort to control the airspace and use it to extort countries.  So Bond kills Dr.No because that’s not okay.  But in doing so he has made it so the whole place is going to up in flames.  They escape and the place explodes!  Now apparently the studio got an extra 100,000 dollars to finance this explosion shot.  It was worth it, because that is the big climax that they were building towards.  I think It paid off.

I mean, that’s about it...Dr.No set the bar for what the essence of Bond is, a charming and confident detective who is damn good at his job.  While this film lacks in crazy fight scenes, and plane shoot outs, and remote control cars, it is meant for the viewer to just get to know who James Bond is.  From Russia With Love will then raise the bar when it comes to action, while Goldfinger sets the standard all Bond films from then on will have to live up to.

If you like a Dragnet sort of pace in your detective movies, then Dr.No is the film for you.  I have all the respect in the world for this movie, but it just doesn’t do it for me as a stand alone film, and that’s my take.

What did you think?  Let me know!

24 Weeks of Bond will return next Monday with - 

The World Is Not Enough