deanb

I meant from an external film viewers viewpoint of casting two Japanese actresses to play the same-ish character. I don't think it would really entirely play out the same way for example in the reveal with her mother. Be a bit harder to play more into the mother sort of recognising her daughter, regardless of her "shell" through her mannerisms (an output of the "ghost" as you will). As for her race and any "tactical advantage" literally nothing would come from whatever race they had her as in-film. From a outside the film thing, as already mentioned earlier regarding sausage factory, it's not really at the "expense" of an actress of Japanese decent since the film just straight up wouldn't be made (which'd be at the expense of all cast and crew).

Hour long demo due on the 27th, so I guess you can play that instead of watching GotG that week.No idea if it'll carry on into the full game mind.

Rhino Hero Hey long time no play for me. I have actually played a few boardgames since my last jaunt here just nothing new. This was new. We got this game out since, not sure if you can quite make out the smaller hands, we had a kid playing and this was kid friendly. It's kind of a cross between Jenga and Uno. The Jenga element comes in building up the tower, in patterns defined on the "roof" cards, and the uno from the fact the roof car on the corner usually has symbols for "take two goes" "miss a go" "anti-clockwise", and occasionally to place a little rhino figuring on the roof too which adds a bit of unwanted weight and difficulty to the next persons turn. So you're trying to get rid of as much of your cards while trying to screw over the next person playing with difficult wall placings and such. It was pretty fun, small box and simple enough rules (the symbols were the only issue but they were so Uno-like most of us got them quite quickly). So if I see it around (seemed quite a niche smaller company though) I'll likely pick it up to play with the younguns. We also played my shiny new official UK copy of CAH at this event (once the child went home) and it was the first time for a couple there and they loved it. Afraid during rounds they'd just keel over red faced looking like they'd just been dosed with joker poison :P. I'd also been a bit wary bringing it up since the woman across and her family (kid included) were all American and she'd been a bit all "oh bless" n such and had mentioned Apple to Apples (which isn't a thing over here but I know as the family friendly predecessor to CAH so I can guess how it plays). Once the grandad took the kid home I kinda floated the idea for CAH since we were a few drinks in and no kids and it scales up more so than most other games I had and she surprised me being all "OH YES!!".

The guy running the company and the woman who kind of "designed" the robots were both clearly white though, so I'm not sure it's cut and dry as a Japanese company*, or that they're developing these high end experimental cyber bodies that they send the first (successful) one off to a specialist task force for average joe japanese consumers. Given the company also had spider tanks I'd assumed it was definitely a more military role that had in mind for this; soldiers with no past to hang on to, super speed and strength, high end hacking abilities, and easily repairable bodies and such. On the flip side there's the thing of where you cast her as Japanese but then plotwise within the story you end up instead of the question of "why would you kidnap a japanese woman, and turn her into another japanese woman" or they do like a laser scan n remake her exact and then it's "why was it a big mystery of her past when a face scan would go "oh you're not Mira you're Motoko". I know in the original she's in a cybernetic body from very young and SAC shows she's attached to her particular frame (despite Batous insistence she get a male body) but is she at all based on her original "human" looks? (obviously as she got older she'd have little to base herself on in that regard). The first (or second) episode of SAC, with the Geisha bots in, even revolves around a cyber brain being put in another guys body to sneak it out the country so it's obviously a thing within that world. I understand that diversity in casting is a sore poin, but I feel that GitS handled it pretty well. Aramaki is a Japanese actor who speaks Japanese throughout, something they could have easily just had him going on in English but instead this was a nice touch and added a bit of depth to the film and the "cyberisation of society" stuff, and IIRC ScarJo is actually the only american in Section 9 and looking into it...yeah that's the case. Got a mix of Danish, Singapore, Japanese, Australian, and Zimbabwean. I just kinda feel that peoples minds went "oh hollywood is adapting an anime film, let's latch onto the first thing we can to tear it down", and that was ScarJos casting at the exclusion of all else. Especially considering there's elements of the film you could use to tear it apart on its own merits such as some of the lazy wholesale use of entire scenes from the 1985 movie rather than deleicate touches (e.g the water uzi/invisible fight versus Oulets secretary with the split fingers thing). Or discussions that in a film built so much around the digital it features some excellent practical props and effects work. *IIRC from the anime stuff it's implied Japan has quite advanced laws around cybernetics compared to other places such as the "American Empire" (the global politics is never alluded to in the film including, as noted, where this is set), so a lot of the development happens there. Same as nowadays Silicon Valley is the hotbed for tech start ups and Hollywood the home of cinema (though that was more about a lack of laws :P)

I don't think so. I'm to understand in this he's one of the Grandmasters bodyguards. I'm not entirely sure if he'll even be Asgardian. Also thinking on "people that've been cast but we don't know who" I've just been reminded that Sly Stallone is in GotG2 and we don't know who as and that's 2 weeks from now. IMDB lists as blank, and Wiki says "member of Nova Corp" but I can't see him just being some rando-ish Nova corp member a la Peter Serafinowicz (he should aim to become as famous as Arnie so Google adds his surname to their auto-correct dictionary). I think Spider-man might end up the weaker MCU film released this year(though like Pixar a weak MCU film is still better than most), despite the hype when he showed up in Civil War. Which I guess if you'd said to someone coming out of Dark World about this years line-up and one of the big films is a Thor too.

Eh, I'll take a week head start on the MCU films over a month for Colossal.

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract The DC animated movies have been far superior to their live action output so far but I'd say this is one of the weaker ones so far. Though I feel that most of my mehness towards it is as soon as Terra shows up you go "oh wait I know this storyline", and you think "but maybe they'll go with something a bit different here?"...nope. I did find the jokes about Starfire and Nightwings relationship amusing as a side plot. "Starfire and Nightwing have a training duel Starfire: "You did very well, you lasted far longer this time" Teen Titans: *snigger* Starfire: "I meant in training of course, he's very proficient when we have s-" Nightwing: "KORI!" Also it's in a kind of pseudo Young Justice world too (not sure if it's canonically following it mind, but much the same character set). Voice wise, cos I was "I recognise that voice but from where" Christina Ricci is Terra, and not a "I recognise that voice" but did the name, Dr Tam is Nightwing. Oh and the relationship between Slade and Terra is certainly not what you got in the old Cartoon Network show. :/ It's worth a shot and all, especially if you like the current animated output (I'd say it's worth giving a shot) and fond memories of Teen Titans back in the day, but I felt it was jsut a bit flat and cliched in the telling.

Me: "Wait Colossal is out, I've not seen a peep about it" *googles* It's not out in the UK until mid May. :/ Good to hear you enjoyed it, certainly a premise that intrigued me.

Skurge is Karl Urban. I think he was like the second announced after Hemsworth. Feels so long ago. Urban seems pretty damn hyped for it too. But yeah Ruffalo been announced for a while. I'd say big question is how he got there but Grandmaster has a habit of grabbing folks to make them fight. This has been described as a "buddy road trip movie" with Thor and Hulk. We also don't know if Hela is "Death" in a Thanosy way but there's good money on that being the case.

I'd say it's a bit disingenuous to say he was "trespassing". He hadn't snuck on board through the wheels like some kind of android hobbit. He'd bought a ticket, he'd been boarded. United then decided they wanted to clear some seats for their staff, offered what I'm to understand is kinda lowball figures and when that didn't shift people decided to "randomly" pick people to kick off. Guy refused to "volunteer" (word of the day folks) and was beaten and dragged off the plane. They then lost a crap ton off their stocks. far in excess of not only the ticket, but the cost of the entire plane. It would have cost them less to offer him a plane in return for bumping him off the flight than the losses the company has taken for kicking him off how they did. The CEO I'd say is the one to nail for that given it's his absolutely shitty PR that did it. Could have (sorta) saved face and threw his employees under the bus, but he stuck by his guns and fucked over the entire company, and that's before any court case goes. Also I imagine there might be a push for laws to stop airplanes overbooking their flights. It's kinda having your cake and eating it. You're essentially selling futures, and if you fuck up and don't have the supply you don't beat up your customers, you compensate them well for your total fuck up. Also kinda endemic of the super violent police that america is currently breeding. Oh and digging into the guys past is not a good look for some reporters right now, as if it has any bearing. Dude had his medical license revoked, he wasn't beaten on the plane for some outstanding warrant or what not. And in other news because people like to one-up each other at the moment with fuck ups Sean Spicer has said that Hitler didn't use chemical weapons on his own countrymen like Assad is doing. For those not entirely clued up on C20th history, he gassed millions of Germans. So either Spicer is completely clueless of a basic historical fact and yet a political press officer Denying Hitler used chemical weapons That the Jews and gays and political dissidents weren't really "Germans"

So United Airlines eh? Pretty fucking gross. I'd guess only people pleased with it are Pepsi. You're gonna need a hell of a..fuck I forget their name. Those specialist PR teams that deal with like..you just crushed a kid under your sign on live TV type PR guys. Airlines get pretty bad rep when they go and kick off someone of colour because another passenger is like "they're a terrorist writing terrorist plans on their laptop" and it turns out their a maths professor writing formula. Beating up a doctor and dragging him off the flight because you overbooked and want to put your staff on in their place is a terrriibbbllle look. I'll be interested to see the outcome, I'd say not only does he have a pretty good case against them but other passengers too for emotional trauma. In more political news, it seems more info coming out that Trump is probably at least partially illiterate. Which tbh isn't a huge surprise.

War in the North is £3, which is worth a shot with. I played it on PS3 as a rental, and I'd say my only major issue with it was it's built to be co-op. So I'd say if you're getting it try and get at least one other person to get it with you. I like that it has your usual LotR trope characters but puts them in the North to keep them mostly out the way of the regular LotR narrative (unlike say Third Age where you play..that other fellowship). Dragons Dogma is also worth grabbing if you're not currently invested in another RPG (which I feel most of us currently are atm). I can't entirely remember if it's just naturally through Steam or you need to link some otherway but you can totally use my pawn if you get it. She's a monster. Mad Max is also in the £3 range too, and I'd also say worth a gander. Especially if you liked Fury Road (which I guess is "if you watched Fury Road" cos who doesn't like Fury Road?) S-E section has Sleeping Dogs which was a surprise hit and pretty good. I hear they're making a movie of it. Which'll be interesting given there's some bits in the later game that I'd struggle to see making it into main stream film release. Oh and all the Lego games are dirt cheap. Lego Marvel Super Heroes is my strong recommendation. It's the Avengers film we can't get cos of licensing. It's also really holding its price on the consoles so I'd say that's a good indicator of quality. I'd avoid the LotR (and presumably Hobbit too) given they're kinda sucky RPG-elements to them that I feel doesn't entirely work.

Oh it's not Thursday saying that, it's from the interview. Which I've only just noticed counter to the headline isn't actually with Japanese actresses at all as all but one are American. Which makes it as good an interview as asking Mark Hamill the plight of English actors being cast as villains because he is of English-descent. Which I think is a big part of the backlash, it's quite an American thing with racism n what not. Like, the actually Japanese director of the original movie is all "so what?". I'd say it's a decent thing to note that the Japanese mother doesn't act like a traditionally Japanese mother would (though the interviewee says of "especially moms generation" which given the setting would actually be like..our generation). However it's a bit brought down by being she's directed like an "American bitch" and "mimicking an American" and "get us to act American" when...the director is English. And hugging your mum is certainly something you'd do over here. (Also I think a black British director would probably have the mother hug too, so it's not a "I knew she was directed by white directors" thing either..).

I've finished the second series of Voltron. Pretty fun, and a lot "faster" than the first series, though part of that I guess is down to the sort of T1000-esque "constantly being hunted and on the run" element of it for much of this series. There's a plot element introduced regarding one of the paladins which I'm a bit "err, what" about, but helps bring in some tension I guess. Onwards to other tele shows.

This is pretty much the primary reason from an "sausage factory" stand point on why she's the Major. "Hey money guys we'd like to make a live-action adaptation of a Japanese animated movie. Please give us lots of money to do this." "Okay, but we want a return on investment. We're already at a risk on adapting an anime given *points to Dragonball Evolution*. So make sure there's a big star to draw the crowds" "Well we had planned on Rinko Kikuchi" "Never heard of her, no money for you" "Okay what about ScarJo" "The lead female from the billion dollar grossing Avengers franchise? Sure, here's your money go make your film" (also if you didn't catch it right at the opening when it's rattling off the producers it's partly Chinese funded, which probably goes further than any to explain why it's a big hollywood star). Also personally I think it's reaching to equate the "it's the best of robotics" to be "they're saying white is better" when it's much more linear to equate it with "replacing your parts with super-servos and artificial skin that can be tougher and healed easier, and given you tech that lets you go invisible is better". Hanlons razor n all. If Major was a black actress you'd have people going "oh she can run faster cos she's black" and it's "no, she can run faster cos her legs are made from high-end motors and hydraulics".

Who is the spoiler-tastic character? Unless you, for some reason, turned off Thor the Darkworld a few minutes before the end you'd know that Loki was alive and well. Hela is a core component of the film. We've known Hulk will be in this for ages. Goldblum was a big announce too and will be unknown to most "general" audiences except those that go "oh he's dressed and make-uped a bit like Benico Del Toros guy in GotG". Doctor Strange is meant to be in this too, though he hasn't shown up in the trailer (I'm to understand the Doctor Strange sting is set mid-film). Only person we don't know of in the film so far is who Sam Niell will be, and it's possible he could be voicing Beta Ray Bill(that's just my personal theory/wish). But otherwise I imagine he'll be someone special given he's currently not listed as who he'll be. And I think the GotG vibe, apart from being director in question, is down to this being the final bridge between cosmic marvel and regular avengers earth bound stuff since after this is Black Panther (earth based) and then Infinity War (which we know from the first scene shot is at the very least Quill, Stark and Parker). We've got GotG 2 at the end of the month and that could do something to bring them to earth, be it in the plot or a stinger, but I feel we'll likely see a team up of sorts start in Ragnarok. Thor Dark World was the film that had the GotG lead-in stinger so I'd say it's possible.

I guess if we assume that having killed off one of the original guys their plan might be to (apart from Luke I guess) phase out these characters so she might just end up in some kind of "over the holographic battle table" role like Mon Mothma style in which case they've likely a bunch of footage like that already just in the course of shooting the film. The last shot of Tarkin in New Hope is just him stroking his chin, and that could have been shot at any time then cut in for dramatic effect. I maintain that the editor is the pivotal role of making or breaking a film and they can do a lot of magic on the edit table.

http://www.glitchable.com/skyrim-script-extender-skyrim-special-edition-delayed/ So SKSE is delayed for the special edition, and that's really gonna hurt the Special Edition in long run I feel. Sounds like mods are going to be quite limited compared to the original release. I remember using SKSE for the changed UI which was pretty necessary for the PC version (and still is given jack shit has been improved in the PC version).

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/late-carrie-fisher-final-star-wars-movie-article-1.3030154? Carrie Fishers brother confirms she'll be in Episode IX, though using current footage and not CGI.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-dualshock-4-wireless-controller-starter-kit-for-playstation-4-black/5623686.p?skuId=5623686 This seems a pretty dang solid deal if you're in the US. Not only get the USB dongle for your PC, but pretty sure that DS4 controller is cheaper than if it was standalone.

Yeah the spoiler I'd heard ages ago. I might give it a go, though majority of M Night movies have kinda never really fit with me.