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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last TV show you've seen

« on: November 26, 2023, 05:13:42 PM »

I finally watched Secret Invasion recently. Can't say it was better than ok.

ICYMI, the show follows Nick Fury as he discovers there are more Skrulls on Earth than he originally bargained for. My issue with the series is that it de-mystifies Nick Fury in a way that makes him sad and uninteresting. It's like seeing how a magician does their tricks, and it's just some lazy sleight of hand.

Basically, Nick Fury has been able to know and do things he shouldn't because he's had a small army of Skrulls working for him the whole time. However, the Skrulls are starting to rebel in a ploy to take over Earth, turning Nick Fury's best weapon against him. Also, Fury has lost his mojo. Is the show about him finding his mojo? No. Is it about him making amends to the Skrulls who feel like he's wronged them? Also, no. You basically have to hang out with a less interesting version of the character without really much explanation for why he's lost his confidence. The blip just messed him up, and he ran away to live in space.

In the first episode you get a cheap major character death that only serves to introduce the stakes. I would've preferred they save killing of Maria Hill for something closer to the finale than the intro. Speaking of, the first two episodes are about an hour, and the last two are like 35 minutes. The steady decline in runtime felt weird.

Anyway, there are some cool parts to show. I don't know why he had to do a suit-up montage to get into his Shaft outfit, but it was cool. And the rest of the story is at least interesting, if not awkward at times.

6/10

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NWR Mafia Games / Re: Mafia XC: Xenoblade Chronicles 1 - Definitive Mafia Edition. Sign-up Thread.

« on: November 26, 2023, 04:55:06 PM »

I'd still be down.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: October 28, 2023, 04:57:03 PM »

I already talked about it enough in my own topic, but I want to bring it up again because it seems to be an overlooked problem: Things have gotten grim for gaming, as someone who is mainly a Nintendo fan. Sony fanboys have taken over the internet, they made their word "the law of gaming" and they destroyed the games of the competition, especially Nintendo's ones, by spreading a lot of deliberate hate and false informations. Because of all of that, I cannot express anymore appreciation over Nintendo games without being victim of online attacks. It's disgusting situation and as long I still get new games I will always be forced to face this crap... which is why I've decided to quit gaming for good as soon Switch ends its lifecycle next year. I'm still going to get most o the remaining major releases on the console, including the remakes (except Luigi's Mansion 2 HD), but as soon the new console is officially revealed, I will stop looking at gaming sites for good, as I will ignore what will come next.

I think you just have currate your spaces more actively. A lot of fan boys are still out there fighting the console wars, but you just have to use your blocks and mutes to filter them out. It sucks, but you can make a nicer space online for yourself.

Personally, since I'm primarily a Nintendo player, I alternate which competitor to keep up with. I had a 360, and only got a PS3 towards the end to play the PS2 remakes/collections. I got an Xbox One S that I woke up one day and realized I barely played. I now have a PS5 and a PS+ subscription for those exclusives.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last TV show you've seen

« on: September 23, 2023, 08:55:26 PM »

Does anyone watch TV anymore?

No. TVMan is dead. You killed him. There is only YouTube man now.

Crap. My bad. Maybe Streaming Man will pick up the slack.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: September 23, 2023, 08:52:24 PM »

The Flash

Nice write up, nickmitch. “Hats on hats” is like the most apt way to describe this movie. And “then get stuck with an even more insufferable version of his character” is almost verbatim when I described this movie to a friend.

Nightmare fuel uncanny valley CGI especially the babies and Superman. I don’t even get the latter. Did they not have any reference materials of Henry Cavill? He even filmed a cameo that was cut. It’s as if the artist who was assigned Superman just rendered Cavill from memory.

Supergirl was kind of bland. And if they planned on bringing her back, way to let her job to Zod repeatedly. I get that it isn’t her movie. Just made her look weak especially since she had help and Superman didn’t in Man of Steel.

Getting tired of multiverse stories.

Thank you! I was actually only able to summarize that down after explaining everything wrong with that scene to my wife in more words than I used here to describe the entire movie. Everything wrong with that scene is exactly what's wrong with the movie.

Supergirl really should've been given more time and characterization. I get that they were going for the Flashpoint version of Superman with her being trapped away from the sun, but they could've given her something. At least a death where she looks like Zod's equal.

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TalkBack / Re: Online Play Confirmed For Super Mario Bros. Wonder In Direct

« on: August 31, 2023, 11:27:31 PM »

Nintendo remembering that people like to play online with their friends is a sign of tremendous growth.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: August 31, 2023, 12:47:47 PM »

I recently saw The Flash on some streaming platform. It wasn't TV or HBO, but I can't remember what it was, and there's no way to tell. Spoilers ahead.

Anyway, this movie was bad. Ezra Miller (even if we put their issues aside) plays a pretty insufferable version of Barry Allen. We then get stuck with an even more insufferable version of his character, who I'll call Alt-Barry. Alt-Barry got to live with both his parents, so he was never motivated to learn science and is a reasonably immature 18-year-old.

I don't want to talk too much about the opening action scene. It's so much CGI, and it's just hats on hats. The whole movie is just a hat on a hat on a hat when it comes to most things. But they establish early on that Barry is constantly hungry and needs to maintain a calorie load, but it just doesn't seem to come up in the ending where there are two of them, and they're just ripping and running at max speed the whole time.

The film seemed to want to showcase Barry's maturity and experience being a hero by having Barry lose his powers and Alt-Barry gain them, setting up a forced mentorship scenario. This allows the film to highlight how annoying Alt-Barry can be. But one thing that stood out to me was the scene where Barry tries to phase through a wall by just walking right into it and then poking it, only to realize he doesn't have his powers. It didn't seem like he understood how that worked AT ALL, but he's later able to explain exactly how it works.

The scene of Barry getting his powers back was also just a slog. The first lightning strike almost killed him, but then Supergirl carries him into the sky, which somehow works. I don't understand what the difference was supposed to be.

The ending gave me mixed feelings. Ultimately, Barry ends up doing the obvious thing he should've done from the beginning. It was weird that his dad seemed to put on a whole-ass disguise to buy some tomatoes, but I could roll with that. His getting that one convo with his mom was also a bit ham-fisted. Seeing George Clooney made me laugh, but I saw a video where the ending was meant to be ambiguous and allow for this Flash to segue into the new DCEU. But I guess this character is just stuck in this alternate timeline forever (and Aquaman is also there).

I'll just rattle off a few other things I didn't like. Barry has to slow down and concentrate to activate his powers. They show a real-time pause when some onlookers catch him "charging up," which I thought was weird. There's no reason for Barry to be late to anything. That's a tired Superhero trope that just doesn't fit a fast enough character to run backward through time. Especially if he can save a collapsing hospital, have a conversation with strangers, have another conversation with Batman and Wonder Woman, and make it back in time for his sandwich to be done. During the final fight, Alt-Bary asks if he can go back in time, but regular Barry says he shouldn't be fast enough yet. That was a good explanation, but Alt-Barry just said, "lol, watch me." The contrast of the blue and orange lightning colors made filming sense, but there was no story reason for the two to have different lightning colors. It's bizarre that Barry didn't go straight to Bruce's house when he needed help and instead Googled every other Justice League member first.

There was a good movie in there somewhere. I think Barry learns a good lesson about changing the past by watching Alt-Barry slowly corrupt himself. That's a good use of the multiverse trope; the pointless emphasis on Superman overshadows it. Steven Universe did this whole story in about 11 minutes. There is also a good showcase of classic Flash stuff, like the tiny suit in the ring and him making a tornado, which I found fun.

That's way too many words for something I didn't like. 4/10

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - August 3, 2023

« on: August 02, 2023, 06:44:18 PM »

* Price was not listed on US or Canadian eShop during article preparation. US price originally estimated based on EU price but confirmed once game was available.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last TV show you've seen

« on: August 01, 2023, 04:28:43 PM »

Does anyone watch TV anymore?

Just watched Severance, so I'm even later than the last post on Severance.

It was pretty good. There's enough meat on the bone to make me excited to see the second season (whenever that happens). The last two episodes did a lot of switching between a dark scene and a harsh white scene which nearly gave me a migraine. There's also a lot of inexplicable shakycam that annoyed me.

The mysteries of the show were pretty cool. But I ended up being more interested in the mystery of each character's background rather than what the big corporation is secretly up to.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Dread?

« on: July 27, 2023, 05:33:24 PM »

Did they really sit on that idea for 10 years?

15 years, actually! Source.

“15 years ago, I suppose that was around the time that the Nintendo DS was around. Just speaking in terms of the specs that I had in mind, it was a bit difficult to realize that concept with that hardware. And now, where we are today, the Nintendo Switch is our current system. The specs are what they are, and also the system for development that we have in place is also a bit better.”

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TalkBack / Re: 100 Classic Books Review

« on: July 09, 2023, 07:22:37 PM »

HD Switch Port WHEN??!

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: July 09, 2023, 07:19:55 PM »

I actually liked what they did with MODOK. He's a comic-booky-ass comic book character.  A giant floating head with dangly limbs is just too silly. Having him as a serious threat would've felt forced, so making him something of a joke that's still some kind of threat felt right. Having the callback also gave him some additional motivation and gave something for the characters to play off of.

Don't get me wrong. MODOK didn't need to be serious. Rather, he needed to be necessary. Like I said above, there are too many characters. Bringing back Cross only to dunk on him the entire time didn't justify the screentime. There's a whole rebellion with characters I did not care about because the movie says so little about them. Still, if anything, a lot of these characters including MODOK should have been excised in order to give Kang more to do especially if they're using this movie to partially set up Avengers: Kang Dynasty.

Also, I saw a supercut (which I can't find) of the MCU mocking a lot of the sillier comic book names and whatnot. Hadn't realized how frequently that happened. Instead of leaning into the weirdness of comics, they do a wink and a nod to the audience, and I disagree with that choice.

That's fair. They definitely could've done more with Kang. And the rebellion felt so unimportant story-wise despite being somewhat needed to give the heroes and offset to Kang's army. Definitely could've scaled down a lot.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: June 29, 2023, 05:28:50 PM »

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

9. No good reason to bring back Darren Cross. This is related to #2. He didn't even do anything, and he's treated as a big joke the whole time. There was one scene where Kang abuses MODOK which shows Kang being a dick. There were any number of ways to accomplish the same thing.

I actually liked what they did with MODOK. He's a comic-booky-ass comic book character.  A giant floating head with dangly limbs is just too silly. Having him as a serious threat would've felt forced, so making him something of a joke that's still some kind of threat felt right. Having the callback also gave him some additional motivation and gave something for the characters to play off of.

It does suck that a normally recurring villain once again dies in their debut movie.

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TalkBack / Re: AEW Fight Forever Rings Opening Bell On June 29

« on: May 25, 2023, 03:03:14 PM »

"Press X to superkick the dog"

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: May 25, 2023, 02:54:36 PM »

Fast 9

I know Fast X is out, but I hadn't seen 9 yet, and it was on HBO Max, which is dead now. Anyway, the movie mostly sticks to the formula but makes a few changes. The fun street race or heist that normally opens these films is replaced by a stock car race flashback, and it still works. John Cena is Dom's long-lost brother, which is weird for a guy whose main thing is "family". You'd think Dom would've reached out by now. Cena is great in the movie. There's a lot of retconning going on. Also, they finally go to space.

I think the best parts about the movie aren't touched on quite enough. Tyrese (Roman) realizes that he and the rest of the gang might be immortal, but the rest of the group writes this off as them being lucky, despite him having a really good point.  I mentioned the irony of Dom having an estranged brother. There are scenes where Dom is all "mmm...family" and Cena is just watching and seething. There was clearly a found family vs blood family dynamic that was sold, but not fully explored. I honestly think the film would've been better exploring Tyrese's existential crisis and Cena's family-envy more instead of the space stuff, which was largely superfluous and felt like it was tacked on because they felt the need to do it.

Not the strongest in the series, but a good romp. Definitely a "one of these for fans of this" movie 7.5/10


Ant-Man and the Wasp in QUANTUMANIA

Sucks about Johnathan Majors. But this was a pretty good movie. I think this got a bad rep because Ant-Man is a B-list hero who's clearly punching above his weight class. Phase 4 also doesn't have a proper "Avengers" team-up movie, so this coming toward the end probably felt like a letdown.

The movie does well enough on its own though. You get to hear some of Ant-Man's book, which is basically how the world found out about what happened with Thanos. But instead of more "post-blip" world-building, they throw you straight into the Quantum Realm. One grievance I have is that Janet Van Dyne keeps this secret about what's going on in the Quantum Realm with no reason not to go into detail. The group is basically just walking around while she refuses to explain the very real danger they're in. That irked me quite a bit.

The comedy is pretty good and not heavy-handed. Ant-Man wins the day in kind of an Ant-Man way. Bill Murray is in it. It's a solid "like this for what it is and not what it ain't and you'll have a good time" movie. 8/10

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

« on: May 17, 2023, 08:43:30 PM »

But does it feel better because it’s an expansion of BotW’s world, or despite it? I don’t know.

I lean towards the former on. I started out expecting the world to be vast, yet familiar. Instead, the game was able to subvert my expectations by having a landscape that is more altered than I expected. BotW's Hyrule was great because it was vast, expansive, and new. TotK's Hyrule is all that while also being familiar.

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General Chat / Re: NBA Thread: Brought To You By The Tampa Bay Raptors Of Toronto

« on: May 17, 2023, 08:37:09 PM »

Looks like Ja Morant could miss more than the 2 announced games for the Grizz....
https://sports.yahoo.com/grizzlies-coach-taylor-jenkins-has-no-timeline-for-ja-morants-return-after-gun-video-suspension-022832825.html

What a bozo.

Colorado police also looking into the situation.... 🚔
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1632829012178337795?s=20

Guess you can upgrade bozo to dumbass. 🤦🏿‍♂️

What's the upgrade after dumbass? Is it shithead?

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo May Have Just Confirmed the Timeline Placement of Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of th

« on: May 17, 2023, 08:33:22 PM »

During my playthrough, I saw the references to the Imprisoning War and immediately thought about the Hyrule Historia timeline mentioning some kind of war that hadn't been covered in a game. I'm glad BotW's placement is also finally settled.

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TalkBack / Re: European Union Approves Microsoft Acquisition Of Activision Blizzard King UPDATED With UK Respon

« on: May 17, 2023, 08:29:36 PM »

I'm a little disappointed by the EU decision, but some of the arguments presented were incredibly weak. You can't argue about a marketplace that doesn't yet exist. It isn't clear what that market will look like long term or if it'll even exist. Oversondolidation in the existing market should be a good enough argument.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

« on: May 08, 2023, 07:53:53 PM »

So the game has been leaked.  Anyone trying to avoid spoilers should just turn their computers off for the next 2 weeks because shits spreading like wildfire.

Not going to say anything in particular but Holy **** this game is massive.  For all the people wondering why it took 6 years for this to come out, your about to find out in a really really really big way.

Seriously, **** ****, holy **** this game is going to be beyond insane.

I think I added like 20 words to my muted list on Twitter when I saw the game leaked. This includes the word "Link" which is adding other complications to my casual scrolling, but it's fine.

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Movies & TV / Re: I cast myself as Pop Culture Characters

« on: May 08, 2023, 07:50:30 PM »

The Robin one was a really good look.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: April 17, 2023, 10:33:53 PM »

I always thought it made sense that the power stars got updated in Mario 64. Power Stars are the Nukes of Mushroom Kingdom.

When I was making Mario Maker Levels I'd use them like keys, as in there is no way you can get through this section without one.

That's a pretty cool design element. But the stars in Mario 64 aren't making the villains temporarily invincible. And characters all over seem to have them from King Bob-omb to Mama Pinguin. They clearly have some power, but maybe not quite nuke level? I guess they power the castle and/or protect its inhabitants in some kind of way. I don't remember too great.

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TalkBack / Re: Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (Switch) Review

« on: April 15, 2023, 08:33:54 PM »

I would highly recommend anyone playing these games for the 1st time to start with Battle Network 2, as I did way back when. The 1st game is very rough, and it's missing features like style changes that the series would add from the second game onwards that helps to lesson the repetition somewhat. Absolutely nothing of story significance happens in the 1st game that isn't recapped in the 2nd. Naturally, the reviewer made little to no mention of any additions the sequels made.

These games are extremely similar to each other, but judging the entire series by the mediocre first game is a mistake.

I played 2 first as well. I went back and tried the first game once, and it was not great, lol. Definitely not worth it considering the story recaps you mentioned.

I found out some time last year that these games had an active online community (which, wow), so I hope the online is enough for those fans specifically.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: April 15, 2023, 08:26:21 PM »

I saw the Mario Bros Movie yesterday and think I give it an 8/10.

The pacing is swift. The movie wastes little time, even if the story isn't particularly complicated. I found Bowser's primary motivation and related insecurities to be a hilarious interpretation of the character. I also really liked how the power-ups were interpreted in the film, though it made it seem like Mario needed the mushroom to jump well but Peach didn't, which might imply she's always big, but I'm likely overthinking it. Peach does mention she had an edge having grown up in that world, which is enough of an explainer.

I think I was caught up in the references/excitement of a Nintendo movie coming out in 2023 to really enjoy the actual humor the film was going for. That's not a knock on the movie, that's just me being a dork.

It felt like the biggest issue was how Mario met Peach. Like was this scene written by Nintendo? Because it was just a level tutorial. Very strange. It also just felt like there was no connection between them.

I thought it was a fun touch that Mario still had to go through a tutorial level. It made the narrative feel more videogame-y.

The biggest knock that I have against the movie is that they seemingly blew the load on references. We got a freaking fire flower Donkey Kong in this movie, which I don't think has been in a game? Kart action on Rainbow Road with green and blue shells also got checked off the list. I'm definitely excited to see where they take things even if the bonus scene showed a Yoshi egg hatching in the real Brooklyn despite us seeing Yoshis in the film, but I guess that would actually force a Mario/Yoshi interaction.

The other gripe I have is pretty small. Bowser really wanted that power star, and there seemed to be one in that world. But it ended up being more like the 2D game power-up than the N64-style mcguffin.

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Movies & TV / Re: IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!! [OT] for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Movies & TV)

« on: April 15, 2023, 08:05:25 PM »

That looks great, imo. A nice, sci-fi romp. I'm all in.