deanb

So who gonna kick bucket? My guess is: (I feel wants to be in spoiler just cos?) Also Ant Man 2 will be post-Infinity War but also Phase 3. Seems to be an Ant-Man thing. Not sure on any reason why it is.

Counterpart Just wrapped up the first series of this. I quite enjoyed it, despite the fact that 'intrigue' isn't my usual go to genre. Cast is absolutely cracking. Definetly ramps up towards the end, though mainly it has some weird kind of pacing issues, like there's certain plot threads that needed to come together at certain points so some are dragged out to keep on hold and some are sped up. I dunno, hard to explain without going deep into spoilers. I guess something I've liked is it's ultimately quite a sci-fi show, a core part is parallel earth, but it's more of a cold war spy thriller. And up until the final episode there's not much in the way of weird tech (and even then all it really is is a conference camera I guess). Oh except the hand scanner/cleaner things on the other earth. Unfortunately can't properly watch it over here in UK, but in US you can watch it on every Nemesis favourite TV channel. So if you're wanting a 10-episode show to have a crack on it's a good one to start on.

I've not properly watched Black Mirror but it seems that this is following a couple of them with a crime twist. Also you should watch Gattaca if you haven't.

Hey, it's @Ultra TCP favourite shot.

Love, Simon Went to go see this with a colleague and her friend. She's obviously never seen Arrested Development. It's a fairly standard rom-com with a bit of a gay coming out wrapping on it with essentially the ending of "Never Been Kissed" thrown in. It's warm-hearted, fun characters n more. Maybe my main complaint would be it's a bit naive, and I imagine with time it'll be considered quite simplistic. It's based on a book, and I'm to understand the book portrays the blackmailing character a lot less sympathetically than he is in the film as a sort of goofball/class clown type. Really the main failing is on maybe having more characters than the director could handle (though unfortunately they're nearly all kind of needed, especially for the love triangle/web thing going on). Though it works out quite well on some of the more focused bits. I'd say it's a decent film, much more packed cinema than I'd expected too, but maybe more targeted at a younger audience especially those that maybe need some comfort and reassurance. Which I guess might be why it is kind of a slightly rose-tinted view and some of the bits that actually are bad (blackmailing isn't pushed upon much and it's played for laughs that the teacher has straight up assumed the two known gay kids are partners). Otherwise nearly everyone is quite supportive (on the coming out front at least) and probably kids need that.

1 million frames from films. Do not watch if you have issues with flashing lights n such. If you watch it straight through I'd say it's near impossible to actually recognise particular films, but there's defo flashes of "hey that's Fassbender". (Also I'm guessing if it's truly 1million frames it isn't at 24fps. You'd be looking at like LotR length not 5 minutes).

Far Cry 5 So straight up the story in this is absolutely shit. The system of breaking the map into three regions where as you reach certain points of "Resistance" it then forces you into story missions, even if all that pushed you over that point of resistance was trashing one of their trucks. So yeah it super sucked, especially when playing co-op and getting driven into a string of missions that pushed it into a 2AM gaming session. Otherwise the game is pretty dang solid, I liked some of the (minor) puzzle elements around the Perk stashes, the vehicles were pretty fun, your HP was kinda fucked, stripping out the whole 'skinning' animation was a great QoL choice. In fact loads of QoL improvements such as not needing to hunt rare beasts to increase weapon carrying, instead using the perks or just letting you carry a shit ton of stuff. The Arcade is a great component of it and I'll certainly have a dive into that at some point to make some stuff (have played some existing maps already). Kinda looking forward to the DLC, hoping it'll be zany levels of Blood Dragon. Hopefully.

This is also almost the exact opposite of this thread but pretty interesting none the less. Quite like this channel with some of the quirky tech of years gone by

I wonder if that's more of a convenient excuse on cost cutting. Not attending one of the big trade shows is sure to save you a fair few pennies.

So I did a gamble when I saw some smaller games on Wish, and it kinda paid off with picking up One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Surprisingly the actual game arrived, just minus a glossy instruction manual and a sturdy box. I was expecting it to just not be One Night Werewolf at all given some other purchases didn't exactly match the images. They also have Catan, Coup n Resistance on there too and I'm tempted to bulk out my collection. On the board game front I did also pick up a cheap (£10) board game at The Works. Never heard of it before, but it's Asmodee so actually "branded" of sorts. Mainly got it cos hey these games tend to be like £40, and also I was with my mum and they had a selection of similar games I could kind of go "look, these are the kind of board games I play". https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/127096/metal-adventures

Not sure I can embed but worth a watch. Never has a series of sweet adverts had such a gripping tale.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/how-50-female-characters-were-described-in-their-screenplays.html Female characters as described in screenplays. Sarah Connor in T1 SARAH CONNOR is 19, small and delicate-featured. Pretty in a flawed, accessible way. She doesn’t stop the party when she walks in, but you’d like to get to know her. Her vulnerable quality masks a strength even she doesn’t know exists. Sarah Connor in T2 SARAH CONNOR is not the same woman we remember from last time. Her eyes peer out through a wild tangle of hair like those of a cornered animal. Defiant and intense, but skittering around looking for escape at the same time. Fight or flight. Down one cheek is a long scar, from just below the eye to her upper lip. Her VOICE is a low and chilling monotone. As for the above motion control tech itself is pretty old, though in this case the main tweak is the software n control UI. When I was setting out motion control it was all in regular 3D software (though my pipeline was to include CG compositing, so being able to match the '3D' and the real camera to each other. Personally I'd imagine that we'd unlikely to see the kind of quick moves shown above in films, but hey give it 20 years and it'll probably happen.

I guess in cinema world it was a lifetime ago but I distinctly remember that it being the first and major part of the MCU to actually be "MCU" was attributed to why it hadn't done too well, and had rubbed Favreau the wrong way. In hindsight a Cinematic Universe is seen as the bees knees, but back then it was somewhat of an experimental unknown quantity and people were not super happy on all this stuff of referencing Thors hammer and bringing in Black Widow n such. And early Marvel didn't handle it as well as they could and general audiences weren't as receptive as they would be now (DCU for all it's fucking up has a lot to give Marvel credit in buttering up people to the idea of a Cinematic Universe). Incidentally on the experimental front: while Brannagh was a bit of an odd choice given he'd mainly done Shakespearean films* previously it was quite fitting with the MCU mold that'd continue (up to including Waititi). They had their big tent pole film directed by that guy known for his TV shows. Heck the guys behind Arrested Development n Community are doing Infinity War (and did most the Captain Americas). In fact Joe Johnston (of First Avenger) is probably the most established Director in the entire MCU given back catalogue of films (and he's got a pretty fucking solid list tbh). *though given the nature of Thor it's not that odd...

You...re-watched?

The "low-tech herders" are just for show and cover, as seen later on thier woven cloaks are high tech force fields n such. As established in early film Wakanda is seen as a crappy farming country with minimal wealth though no desire for outside aid. As for 'magical powers' from Vibranium: as established by Spider-man in Civil War: "that shield doesn't obey the laws of physics". Though the strength of the Black Panther n the dream dead world thing is assumed to be largely tied to the Soul Stone rather than the vibranium.

Mainly focused on DC as a whole rather than the films (though the films inherit these issues from the comics, and in BvS case make it worse) but yeah a rather odd geographic choice in DC that echos across its entire history.

Not creepy at all.

Goldblum on Goldblum. Looking forward to Isle of Dogs.

Nintendo in non-standards shocker! I wonder if it's not standards complaint because they genuinely don't know how to implement it or if they wanted the cheapness of using the readily available USB components, but purposefully slapping on their own physical stuff to require properly licensed components even if it is something like USB-C (which I'd swear is likely a breach of USB IF rules anyway to basically steal their designs, at least with say iPhone cables it's compliant on the USB end).

I've been playing Far Cry 5 (gracias to @Chewblaha). It's pretty damn fine, and streamlines a lot of elements. I really like that the main missions show up on the map n hovering over them you get like a CB radio message. Also the side-missions n miniquest things pop up as you save people, they'll usually have heard a rumour or what not about someone being harassed by Edens Gate or what not or some area that might have a stash in it etc. I'm not keen on how with it sort of split into three areas (not like physically, it's like between the family members, you end up with weird forced missions that kind of throw you off when you're first doing shit in those zones. Also Faith can shut the fuck up. Like it was neat the first couple times, but limited dialogue in an open world and no ability to make her go away (apart from I guess do her areas missions n eventually kill her or whatever) drags on a bit. It's somewhat obvious it's gonna pussyfoot around a few elements that initial marketing implied it was gonna tackle directly, but this is a multinational AAA studio. They do put a few jokes in the descriptions, such as when you torch an animal instead of arrow it you get 'burnt meat' which the description says slap a bit of tomato sauce on it and it'd be good enough for a president. Also I'm on Normal n maybe I just straight up suck, but I seem to die a lot, and not just from shooting but like jumping if you open the parachute and it's like..higher than you'd comfortably jump but not a plane it usually just kills you on impact so I'm not wholly seeing the point of the parachute. Seems way less forgiving than it was in 4.

Ready Player One This Spielberg guy is a dab hand at adaptations, who knew! So I've only read about half the book, and it follows a few core beats but changes up quite a lot of other stuff and that's right from the get go with the race for the first challenge(instead of it still being an unknown in the book, and also not a race), and I think that works out quite well in showing how streamlined a lot of the film is compared to the books. Which means next to no chunks on expository dialogue of "oh as we know school high was the school in that 80s movie which was Hallidays favourite film during 1988 which is also when that game came out he likes". (apart from for bits of the final quest where it's thematically important). A lot of the reference stuff is mainly visual so takes up like zero time and is more there for you to be like "huh, there's that thing" and in chunks there's so much going on that you will both miss a chunk, and there's enough for everyone to get something from it. I think it zips along at a good pace, with nice moments of pause in it which are kind of needed (it throws you well into the deep end of everything all on screen right from the get go, which makes sense given later remarks n sort of a core chunk of the film theme). It is at its core a videogame retelling of Willy Wonka; kooky guy has a prize to win his fortune with hi-jinks and 'tests' along the way. I do feel that despite it not being Spielbergs first dabble into pure CGI and he's not exactly one to shy away from effects work there was some unsureness on parts of the Oasis segments, compared to the IRL stuff that felt much more like it had Spielbergs touch to it and I do wonder if there was a lot of that left to ILM to deal with and come up with when it wasn't more character centric components. Especially around the race and the final battle. Also there's Planet Doom which I'm not entirely clear if it's more of a reference to Doom the videogame or like Mount Doom and how uninspired a name that was for the finale location. Or both. Basically it's a pretty fine adaptation, some of it's quite trope heavy (as to be expected) but it's a pretty neat film, and potentially a good dive into some ideas hidden in that might inspire presenting film in a VR friendly way (maybe).

I'm waiting out on it too. Late convert though.

I'm comforted knowing that Carrie Fisher got to slap Oscar Issac about 50 times.