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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Master_Keralys, Jan 1, 2009.

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  1. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I haven't watched any of the trailers or opened the thread in the YJCC so I know very little about TWS at this point, which is how I like it. I never go see movies opening weekend because I don't like crowds, but as long as nobody spoils me on Facebook, I'm not too concerned.

    I've never needed an Internet blackout to avoid spoilers but this place and Facebook are pretty much the only sites I visit that aren't work-related.
     
  2. Cynical_Ben

    Cynical_Ben Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2013
    You know what sold it to me? Robert Redford. Robert Redford is in it, he isn't hamming it up or over the top, nor is he sleepwalking. He gives an invested, nuanced performance. In a movie about Captain America. It's a fascinating phenomenon to watch.

    That's the thing I noticed most about it: it feels comfortable in its own skin. Like the filmmakers and actors knew what sort of tone and style they were going for, they knew what the characters were supposed to be, and they felt fully able to do what they could to make the film work without being over the top. It's hard to explain, but something about some of the earlier Marvel films, especially the Phase 1 ones like Thor and the first Cap, felt a bit... generic and artificial, like they were forced to hit a certain quota of cliches or concepts that kept the filmmakers from really stretching their wings. This one doesn't feel like that. It feels more natural and confident in what it wants to be.

    All of the actors are clearly giving it their all, ScarJo turns in her best performance yet as the Black Widow and Chris Evans is fantastic. Anthony Mackie, the Falcon, is a great addition to the cast and I really hope he shows up in further installments (sooner than Cap 3, at least). There are others I'd highlight, but I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible. It is good, the bad reviews of it out there either have their standards too high (not every thriller is going to be Spy Games or Sneakers) or they're just trying to be countercultural, being "edgy" by going against the flow.

    It really highlights something I hope continues: the growth of the Marvel brand to tell more than just superhero stories. This movie is a spy thriller, Thor: TDW tried to be epic fantasy (to varying degrees of success, IMO), and Iron Man 3 has elements of an 80s action/comedy, like Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop (which is why it's a numbered sequel instead of a subtitled one). Guardians of the Galaxy looks like straight-up Star Wars-style space opera action comedy whatever you want to call it, and Edgar Wright has already said that Ant-Man is basically a heist movie. The only real straight-up superhero movie that's still on the docket is Avengers: Age of Ultron. The further these movies get from being traditional superhero films, the better. It'll invite better acting, better scripts, more diverse and complex visions for the stories to come.
     
  3. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004
    I'm actually a fraud because I went to HS in San Diego county, but The OC went on TV the fall after I graduated HS and was a pretty accurate depiction. Yeah, the NJO encompassed my HS years (although Reunion, The Final Prophecy, and The Unifying Force came out after I graduated).
     
  4. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Alright, I finally got around to watching the G.I Joe themed episode of Community. It was one of the funniest and best put together episodes they have done in a long time! Granted, I grew up watching the original cartoon, but it was brilliantly done and full of so many awesome little touches. Bravo to Dan Harmon & Co!

    GO JOE!

    --Adm. Nick
     
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  5. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Funny little coincidence about Captain America and Robert Redford. I'm catching up on Marvel comics history (ridiculously slowly), In one of the more important issues of Englehart's run (the one where Cap becomes Nomad), some random dude mistakes Cap for Robert Redford (guy probably would have made a great Steve Rogers back in the day).

    Totally meaningless, but I got a kick from it. I promise I was not high.

    CynicBen, I have to disagree on the first Captain America movie being more generic than the others. Its execution was far from perfect, sure, but I loved it as it, like many of the other Marvel movies, played with genre; it's a WWII film. Not a genre, of course (though a case could be made about 'War movies'), but certainly a very distinctive flavor. As I said, The First Avenger gets it only in spots, but I'm of the opinion that the first hour of that movie is fantastic, with the second hour being a bit weaker. They really nailed the whole propagandist side of Captain America's existence, in my opinion, as well as clearly conveying why Steve Rogers is such a great person, why who he is is just as important as "what came out of the bottle", as Tony Stark put it. And while they only touched on it (I would have loved to have seen this side of Cap explored more), I do like they at least acknowledged the notion that Captain America is a soldier first, and a super hero second. He's not Superman; he will kill if he has to (what's Man of Steel?).
     
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  6. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Oh. Boo. Boooooooo !


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
  7. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    Yeah I hope to see TWS this week if possible.

    instantdeath You pretty much nailed it regarding Cap. One scene that I found particularly insightful was the "grab the flag" bit where the sergeant offers a ride back to base for anyone who can get it. While the others gormlessly try to shimmy up a sleek and skinny flagpole, Steve just takes a totally different tack and casually hands the flag to the sergeant (the look on the noncom's face is priceless). I hope TWS at least touches on the "fish out of water" potential that's in the story (don't you dare spoil it for me!).
     
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  8. Revanfan1

    Revanfan1 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 3, 2013
    Agreed. He definitely doesn't pull his punches; I haven't seen WS yet but in the 4-minute preview where he does the boat raid, he definitely hits those guys with his shield hard enough to kill, or at the very least break every bone in their torso. He's a nice guy with his friends and people he loves, but he's not afraid to be brutal with his enemies (see the preview for the elevator scene).
     
  9. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    My grandfather bought one of the second-generation game consoles, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F]Fairchild[/url] Channel F. So I was playing video games when the first Star Wars movie came out.:p
     
  10. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
  11. Cynical_Ben

    Cynical_Ben Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2013
    Oh, I liked the first Cap movie well enough; WWII era war movies are some of my favorites. Basically, the first half of the movie, up until Cap and the Howling Commandos come back from the Hydra prison, is terrific. But after that, the pacing is... all off. They rushed the story, IMO, not really doing the story or the other characters justice. It's like they ran out of real story ideas and just went from the beginning of the story to the end so they could get Cap prepped for The Avengers.

    And the fact that Cap is willing to kill is something I was thinking about as well, and it's touched on in TWS. Nick Fury and Cap have a discussion about the differences between being a soldier and a spy, about the differences in eras that they live in when it comes to who goes down and when. It's short, but it's great character building for both of them, especially since it comes early on and we get to see both of their convictions tested as the movie goes on.
     
  12. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    Nope. I've been a PC man my whole life. :p Got http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A]this[/url] computer for Christmas in 1982, and never looked back. The first console I ever "owned" was a PSX I bought for my girlfriend and now we have a PS2 and X-Box 360 and it makes me angry just thinking about it.
     
  13. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004
    My grandparents had an Intellivision that I played when I was 4.
    [​IMG]
     
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  14. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    I'm seeing Winter Soldier tonight, so that'll be fun. I've enjoyed all of the MCU films so far and I think a big reason is because yeah, they delve into a bunch of very different genres.

    I enjoyed GI Jeff too, AdmiralNick22. Having Shirley's shtick being her 3 kids was brilliant. XD Also Chang, "What am I again?" "CHINESE!" "I feel Korean.", which is great because Ken Jeong actually is Korean. :p

    As for my high school experience, it was too boring to be similar to a TV show. It was literally White People: The School, with a veritable mix of rich, middle-class, and poor kids from all around town. I can literally count the amount of black people from my entire school on one hand. How's that for a lack of diversity. :p But nah, high school and middle school were fun. Things were always just laid-back enough that I could act as eccentric as I liked and the teachers would just go "Oh you!", and the students would be like "lol".

    Fortunately almost everyone in my school system came from well-adjusted families, so bullying was virtually nonexistent. Being a nerd was no big deal, and a lot of the "popular" kids were into some nerd stuff anyway. Cliques were also pretty much nonexistent; all the "groups" of kids mixed and matched between sports, arts, class officers, etc., so even though we were 95% white, we had a lot of variety of interests.
     
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  15. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I've once again fallen behind on Community, so I'm not going to read these posts. However, I get the gist that people are calling it the best episode ever. Tell me, how does it compare to the DnD episode? That's easily my favorite thus far.
     
  16. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Well David Cross elevates anything he's in, and his interplay with Hickey was pretty great, so I'd probably favor the D&D one over most Community episodes. GI Jeff was pretty damn good though, a definite highlight of the season.
     
  17. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004
    GrandAdmiralJello

    I finally hit 10 because I really haven't had a whole lot of time to play, and I reached 9 with my EP DK and decided to switch to DC with my DK with which I hit 10. I also have a Dunmer Nightblade I created in the EP to replace that character, but I keep hearing how rare healers are so I am considering making one. I have a Nord Templar that I created but never played, but I dunno if that's what I want to do. I'm also unsure of which PVP campaign I should join, as I might want to join a PVP guild and choose theirs.
     
  18. King of Alsakan

    King of Alsakan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2007
  19. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Yeah, been slow going for me too. MMOs are timesinks and I just don't have the time to sink. I'm at 11 on my AD Imperial and still at 6 with my EP Dunmer which I'm not going to worry about for now. I think leveling really slows down after the first 5 levels, so it's a bit of a slog now. I want to get to level 16 so I can craft a new hat for myself, but alas that'll take time I don't have.
     
  20. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    I remember that game!!!! [face_hypnotized] I hadn't thought about that since... uhhh... wow, it seems like another lifetime ago. I'm having a Gandalf-out-of-body-experience moment. My parents got rid of their Intellivision games when I was starting elementary school, so I must have been around 4 too last time I played it. I just never thought about it since....until now...
     
  21. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    My parents would have never owned a console. :( I played Atari at friends' houses.

    Even now, they'll ask me how much technology time my sons get per day, and give me blank stares when I say "As much as they want as long as their homework is done."
     
  22. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    I was a console gamer during the late 80s, but only when I was fortunate enough to have friends who had a Nintendo or when visiting grandparents that had a console and an interesting selection of games, until at some point we got hold of a used NES and accessories (I used to play Duck Hunt right up against the screen). We were also late to the Super Nintendo party, and never had more than a few games (Link to the Past, Super R-Type, Star Fox and U.N. Squadron were my favorites). When our house was broken into, they stole our SNES, but with the insurance money we got a Nintendo 64. It's too bad the company never really let third parties develop for that console, because it really was superior to the PlayStation.

    Once I got a computer of my own, a high school graduation present, I never went back to consoles. PCs, especially ones you build yourself, really are a lot more flexible, and it seems both sad and a bit desperate on the manufacturers' part that they want to turn their consoles into hardware-locked, subpar imitations of gaming computers filled to the gills with draconian DRM that are oh so needy that they absolutely must be connected to the Internet. Remember those E-Machines from the 90s? If so, do you also remember what their fatal flaw(s) was/were?

    I'll wait for a few guesses before revealing the answers... ;)
     
  23. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    Considering my brother had one and we fixed the problem in an unconventional way, the fans were crap and the machines were prone to overheating. The same thing happened repeatedly to an eMachine that staff member at a local group home had. I suggested the same fix, which was to position a small desk fan behind the tower and have it blowing on it constantly. Problem solved.

    Another solution was to remove the tower's cover entirely.

    These were cheap and easy fixes outside of replacing the fan itself with something with a bit more punch.
     
  24. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    As kids yeah, it seems quantity beats quality but that quartet you had is hard to beat.

    As for N64 vs PSX, 64bit vs 32bit, yeah I'd say the 64bit was superior! :D
     
  25. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    TrakNar The other huge flaw was that it was impossible to upgrade an eMachine. The motherboard was either soldered to the case or there were crossbars that prevented you from removing certain parts to replace them, thus making un-upgradable and if one component failed, you ended up with a $300 brick.

    Jedi Ben Yeah, but growing up poor, you learn to take what you can and make the most of it. With Link to the Past it was the quest to attain the holy grail of 000 at the end while enjoying the story, while with the others it was just to finish it at all (I wasn't that great at side-scrollers). That reminds me of another one: Cybernator, in which you pilot a four-story-tall combat mecha. I loved the yellow laser weapon; max out its level and you needed nothing else.
     
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