Messages

1

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

« on: November 15, 2023, 12:15:55 PM »

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Development Of Live-Action Zelda Movie

« on: November 07, 2023, 08:19:01 PM »

A cel-animation or CGI Zelda movie was the easiest layup in the world so of course, Nintendo zags with live action.

I’ll keep an open mind given there’s very little to go on. We know some of the people involved which fine. I still don’t have enough information to have an opinion on this.

I’ll definitely watch it on streaming. Not an indictment either way. I don’t go to theaters anymore especially since the one within walking distance closed during the pandemic.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter

« on: October 18, 2023, 12:10:33 PM »

To be honest, I kind of don't like Resident Evil 2 remake so far. Every zombie is a bullet sponge. They often take three or four headshots to go down. And sometimes they still get up. What the fu...

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Movies & TV / Re: Alright! Let's Get Serious With TV Talk! Your Top Shows of the 21st Century!

« on: October 18, 2023, 12:05:36 PM »

Batman Beyond

Looking it up, about half of the show aired in the 21st Century. Around 7 or 8 years ago, I watched through the whole series because I had missed a lot of the third season episodes back when it was first airing and had recently gone through the whole Batman: TAS episodes. This still feels like an underrated series when people think of the DC Animated series as talk usually is about the Batman, Superman or Justice League series. Personally, I still quite enjoy the unrealistic future setting that was created for it and the premise and situation the characters find themselves in. Yet, it also feels like they only scratched the surface here and there was a lot more drama and conflict that could have been found from it beyond how it often felt of just setting up new villain origin stories and foiling their plots when they returned.

As much as I enjoyed Batman Beyond, I docked points for this list exercise due to its real/true ending being on a completely different show. And while Amanda Waller rewriting Warren McGinnis' reproductive DNA with nanobots to match Bruce Wayne's is some of the silliest nonsense I've seen, the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue" still has one of my favorite scenes in any DC movie/show.

In less than two minutes, Batman talking to Ace illustrates a true understanding of the Batman character, certainly better than any other non-comic Batman media. Of course Batman wouldn't murder a child. He simply sits with Ace in her last moments while she faces her own mortality. Batman's empathy is especially missing from all live-action versions of Batman. Instead, we keep seeing Batman recklessly damage property and probably kill people, often unintentionally but weirdly sometimes very intentionally. And yet, sometimes, no amount of kicking, punching, and exploding things will solve a problem. I appreciated Bruce Timm's restraint with the DCAU, slowing a story down and focusing on why a character would behave in a certain way.

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General Chat / Re: After a deep reflection, thinking of quitting following entertainment stuff soo

« on: October 18, 2023, 11:21:15 AM »

.
Long story short: fanboys and haters completely killed my will of keeping going with animation and gaming, and in order to preserve what I already love I'm quitting everything.

My dude, you’re gonna have a bad time if you let other people’s words dictate/affect how you enjoy things.

Does it really matter what “fanboys and haters” think? Can you tune them out, or at least not go looking for their opinions?

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Movies & TV / Re: Alright! Let's Get Serious With TV Talk! Your Top Shows of the 21st Century!

« on: October 06, 2023, 10:03:14 PM »

I'm 100% absolutely forgetting something

Yep. The IT Crowd.

I'll just keep editing this when I remember other shows.

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Movies & TV / Re: Alright! Let's Get Serious With TV Talk! Your Top Shows of the 21st Century!

« on: October 06, 2023, 09:58:48 PM »

Go ahead and include it. As the Hollywood Reporter said, they considered shows that crossed over that starting point. They just went with the episodes that fell past that starting date. That's why The Soprano's made the list since its last 5 seasons were all in the 21st Century and those seasons were still enough for them to put it 2nd. If you feel the Futurama episodes that aired in the 21st Century are worth rating highly then put it on your list. Make it a Top 20 or 30 if you want.

LOL. Clearly, I didn't read the article. 🤷‍♀️ I'm too lazy to make a top 20 or 30.

I included additional personal conditions to corral the list as there were plenty of options:

1. The show must have premiered in the 21st century.
2. The show must have a finale.
3. I had to watch all of it.

I might have made an exception for Futurama had it not been recently brought back since only 17 episodes aired in the 20th century and most of its best episodes are in the 21st century. Slot it in #2 without the conditions above.

The more I dwell on it, the more confident I am about The Good Place at #1. It's a nearly perfect show that stumbles a little right before the end then completely sticks the landing when it matters.

Normally, I don't participate in list threads, but this is giving me a ton of shows to add to the list and gentle reminders for some I already had on there.

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Movies & TV / Re: Alright! Let's Get Serious With TV Talk! Your Top Shows of the 21st Century!

« on: October 06, 2023, 03:03:08 AM »

It feels weird to leave Futurama off this list since it spent less than a year in the 20th century. It's also still going because Disney or whomever won't let it go.

I'm struggling with how to rank my favorite shows because I haven't finished some shows while others haven't ended their run yet. They could be awesome to start and terrible by the end. And there are whole seasons of some shows that are all-timers like Season 2 of Dexter. Overall, that's probably enough to knock them off a top 10 list.

Here's what I have so far (may adjust later):

10. Justice League Unlimited
9. 30 Rock
8. Daredevil
7. Lost
6. Breaking Bad
5. Schitt's Creek
4. Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. Better Call Saul
2. Wonderfalls
1. The Good Place

I'm 100% absolutely forgetting something though I feel pretty good about my top 7. Either Season 5 or 6 of 30 Rock was... not good. Still, collectively, its hit rate is just a little better than Community's as it ran longer and had a better ending (not counting the upcoming Community movie).

It should be noted that I didn't watch a lot of TV between 2004 and 2010, and only circled back to a few shows of that period if they popped up on Netflix. I think Oblivion shamed me into watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Any show that's still on the air was not considered as its placement may change depending on how the rest of its run shakes out such as Andor, Rick and Morty, and Loki. Archer too though I haven't seen anything past Season 5. It's ending this year after its 13th season so I have a lot to catch up to.

Honorable mentions (mostly because they were awesome for a time then fizzled out): Game of Thrones, Arrested Development, and Castlevania.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: October 04, 2023, 02:15:59 PM »

What does failure look like for a successor to one of the highest selling consoles of all time?

“BY GAWD, THAT’S WII U’s MUSIC!”

Then again, there’s also DS to 3DS. It’s wild that Nintendo had successors of two of its most successful platforms perform in vastly different ways within the same time frame.

Nintendo’s success rate with successor platforms is pretty strong so while it’s completely understandable too be skeptical, I’m not. A Switch successor is like the easiest layup in the world. Not impossible to screw up, but like Nintendo would have to go so far out of its way to do so.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter

« on: October 01, 2023, 03:40:20 PM »

I’ll use this Shocktober to hopefully take some games off my backlog.

I’m starting with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes (PS4).

A friend and I were in the middle of running through Resident Evil 6 (PS4) online, but I don’t know, man. That game is so mediocre. I don’t remember if it gets better as you unlock more skills. We got through Leon’s campaign, and it was a slog. In any case, since I’m not renewing PlayStation Plus, it’d be nice to cross it off the list.

Also in the middle of my second playthrough of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, this time on PS4.

If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll officially cross off at least one of the Bayonetta games. I’m playing on easy this time because I keep stopping because I get stuck. I suck at these games, but I enjoy the world enough to keep coming back. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever unlock Jeanne who I always liked more than Bayonetta.

EDIT: Adding Metroid Dread to this list. Current plan is RE2, Dread, then RE3. We’ll see what happens after. Three games to start is a reasonable goal, I think.

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TalkBack / Re: Hideki Kamiya Departing Platinum Games, Next Thing Unknown

« on: September 25, 2023, 11:32:52 AM »

Been reading speculation that PlatinumGames’ LOL attempt at self-publishing and turn toward GaaS as possible reasons for Kamiya’s departure. He apparently pushed for both though these were always precarious moves. It hadn’t shown an ability to consistently create best-sellers. Can’t pay the bills with positive review scores.

I wish Kamiya luck on his own though he’s best when someone else keeps his worse impulses in check. That isn’t an indictment of Kamiya‘s talent. Most people have trouble with the killing-your-darlings aspect of creative works.

As for PlatinumGames, if it stays independent, it’s probably looking at some lean years of support and licensed work. And after that, there aren’t tons of options beyond being a Bayonetta factory.

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

« on: September 22, 2023, 07:22:05 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.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

It’s fine. I recently rewatched all of them and only Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is actively bad. I’d be here all day if I compiled a list of gripes about that movie. Even Temple of Doom is pretty good; it’s just really mean-spirited.

Anyway, Dial of Destiny is too long. Maybe I’m just old, but I often have trouble watching movies longer than two hours in one sitting. I found myself constantly saying, “That could have been cut.” For example, most of the opening scene. Sure, CGI Young Harrison Ford was coolio and all, but that entire set piece felt like an eternity.

I’m too lazy to write a whole big thing. Some quick thoughts:

1. Indiana Jones wanting to remain in the past would have hit harder had the movie spent more than 12 seconds on his son’s death and how it destroyed his marriage.

2. Didn’t need to bring back Sallah.

3. The movie never addressed how Jones was wanted for murder then just isn’t when he returns to America.

4. People were dunking on Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She was fine, not amazing or anything.

5. I liked the ending, but it would have been better had this movie released in the 2000s and Indiana Jones 4 release in the 1990s.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 22, 2023, 06:13:43 PM »

eh.  If Microsoft runs the studios into the ground, the talent will leave.

It's not like Activision is using 99% of their IPs anyway.

I’m not as confident as you are. Activision Blizzard King has been a dumpster fire for a good long while now especially in the last two years yet people still work there. The last non-acquisition related story I read about the company was this one which is like the most “ABK gonna ABK” thing that could ABK.

Still, am I the only one who thinks it’s hilarious that Microsoft saw what was happening at ABK and was still like “Yep, let’s make this my problem now” primarily for Call of Duty. I can’t look away; it’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I kind of feel bad for the talent, but y’all should have jumped ship ages ago. They remind me of the band playing in Titanic while it’s full-on mayhem in the background.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 22, 2023, 03:00:21 PM »

Hopefully news like this will finally make people stop sucking Phil Spencer's dick and realize he's no different then the rest Microsoft management.

It won't. The people wearing kneepads for Spencer are already in Microsoft's PC/Xbox ecosystem. They would only stand to benefit from Microsoft acquiring Nintendo.

Collectively, I'm just over it. The regulators in charge of preventing companies like Microsoft from acquiring their competition and becoming even larger are simply going to approve the acquisitions anyway.

Often feels like it's on Nintendo to protect itself because regulators seem content to do jack and **** about it. If there ever came a point that Nintendo wasn’t Nintendo anymore, I have a sick backlog so when it comes to new games, I’ll straight up:

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 20, 2023, 03:01:04 PM »

According to Google, Nintendo only owns 10% of its own stock.

Were you using this site?

If so, 10.35% still makes Nintendo itself its largest shareholder:



Not a stock broker/investment expert or privy to the board of directors, but my (very rudimentary) understanding of public trading is there are voting stocks and common stocks (AKA non-voting stocks). I imagine (but am too lazy to verify that) Nintendo has the most voting stocks of any singular entity.

Regardless, I’m not even remotely invested (heh) in that. Microsoft has been coming for Nintendo for over 20 years. If it was so easy to get controlling interest of Nintendo, Microsoft or another company probably would have done so by now. You’d have to convince the largest holders of voting stock to sell those shares. It’d have to be such an egregious overpay like Elon Musk with Twitter to go anywhere. And even then, there are methods to prevent a hostile takeover though Spencer did mention in the email he was against hostile action, opting instead to play the long game (at least for now). However, the likeliest scenario is Nintendo would just buy up the voting stock itself than let Microsoft have it, right? I feel like Nintendo did just that the last time this happened.

I also recall reading about governmental resistance against foreign ownership of (I think) culturally relevant Japanese companies of which Nintendo would absolutely apply. I’d have to do some sleuthing, but like… will I?

I still don’t believe the revelation that Microsoft is still lusting for Nintendo to be the big story in the leak. Like name a video game company that wouldn’t want to acquire Nintendo. Microsoft’s hardware release schedule is just available to everyone now. I’m imagining Nintendo prepping Switch 2 and a new 3D Mario looking at Phil Spencer’s email like, “Imma end this man’s whole career.”

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 20, 2023, 12:59:56 PM »

The thing that makes this email bad us Microsoft's history - especially Nokia - combined with them having an "inside man" gobbling up Nintendo stock on the sly.

Not defending the practice in any way, but isn’t this a thing that regularly happens?

Ultimately, no one gets controlling interest of a company like Nintendo without Nintendo knowing. I thought it holds controlling interest in itself. Can someone else verify?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 20, 2023, 11:23:01 AM »

Has anyone seen this?

Yeah, I’ve been following it mostly on another Nintendo message board.

This email, while embarrassing, isn’t even the worst part of the leak. Multiple unannounced games including a new Doom installment, plans for an updated Xbox Series X/S controller with accelerometers, plans for multiple new Xbox Series models including a digital only Series X, and tentative plans to launch a Series X/S successor in 2028 etc. are all worse. That has like fiscal year implications among other things. And imagine Nintendo and Sony now having this much lead up time to plan around your future releases. YIKES!

As for the email itself, I mean, it isn’t a stretch that Nintendo, with its wealth of popular IPs like the most recognizable character in the world, is considered the ultimate acquisition in the gaming industry. Every company with interest in video games that also has the capital/stocks/assets to even make a run at Nintendo if it was ever for sale (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google) would love to acquire it. Unfortunately for every one of them, Nintendo is currently the most successful it’s ever been and recently expanded to movies and theme parks. A private email brazenly admitting all this getting leaked isn’t that bad, right? Bad optics but people will forget about it in time aside from occasional mentions on video game message boards.

And I doubt this changes anything at Nintendo. The company knows how valuable it is. Another company looking to merge/acquire is like Tuesday at Nintendo. This already happened at least once. Microsoft pitched an acquisition in like the early 2000s and got laughed out of the room. A hostile takeover isn’t feasible either as majority Nintendo stock is safely held by the company and trusted partners. I imagine Nintendo has been happy to reap the benefits of Microsoft’s goodwill over the past several years without really giving up that much in return. Maybe that changes now? 🤷‍♀️ However, no one at Nintendo will lose sleep if, for example, Microsoft decides to be petty and not license Banjo-Kazooie in the next Super Smash Bros. If anything, Microsoft stands to lose more by not publishing games like Ori and the Blind Forest on the eShop.

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TalkBack / Re: Another Code Games, Including Wii Title Unreleased In North America, Being Remade For January La

« on: September 14, 2023, 02:33:19 PM »

Really looking forward to this. I just bought Trace Memory last year, didn't mod my Wii/Wii U to play the second so it's nice to get Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories as well.

The cover art is gorgeous. It's brand new art from Taisuke Kanasaki, the director and character designer of the original.

But... Hotel Dusk and Last Window... now *those* are two games that deserve a wider audience. And I think Last Window is kinda pricey to get now.

I've been trying to snag Last Window: The Secret of Cape West for a couple years now, and you're absolutely right. The lowest I've seen it was for $74, and I don't believe it included shipping. I couldn't justify it. If Nintendo is remaking Cing games, I hope these are next.

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TalkBack / Re: F-ZERO Returns Today as the Next 99-player Title

« on: September 14, 2023, 02:25:58 PM »

Not even an F-Zero fan, but this looks really fun. The draw for me here isn't F-Zero. Rather, the chaos of playing with so many people. I love the 99-series.

There's a hotly rumored remaster of F-Zero GX. I was more surprised it wasn't announced alongside F-Zero 99. Maybe it's a Switch 2 game.

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Random LOL of the day thread

« on: June 30, 2023, 06:11:08 PM »

Have y'all seen Groundhog Day for a Black Man?

Apparently, "Two Distant Strangers" on Netflix completely ripped off the above short and won a Oscar for it. Boo/hiss

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

« on: June 30, 2023, 06:04:05 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.

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: On a Quiet Day at Work...

« on: June 30, 2023, 05:40:07 PM »

I figured everyone kind of just moved on. I joined another Nintendo forum because I had no where else to talk about Nintendo things. I know, I know. There are a handful of y'all I miss chatting with. Such is life. 🤷‍♀️

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TalkBack / Re: Federal Trade Commission Case Reveals Proposed Power Level Of Switch Successor

« on: June 30, 2023, 05:33:14 PM »

My concern though is was the Switch's strong third party support a happy accident?  Did Nintendo put any thought into that when designing the hardware or did it just happen?  Is it something they consider important for the Switch 2?

Nintendo added more RAM to Switch because Capcom asked nicely.

Source

I couldn't find hard numbers as the article only mentions it was "raised considerably" though it's speculated the RAM was doubled from 2 GB to 4 GB. Unless Nintendo does a complete 180 with a Switch successor (which, to be fair, none of us would be shocked by), I imagine third party support and feedback is important to the Nintendo.

Anyways, a lot of the speculation that I've seen up till now does Suggest the "Switch 2" can stretch to PS4 levels, if not in raw marketing numbers at least in what actually shows up on the screen. And the longer we go on without the Successor releasing, the longer technology has to get more inexpensive/more powerful/more efficient.

Perhaps more importantly, a Switch successor would be using more modern technology as well as being compatible with the latest middleware etc.

Rumors suggest a Switch successor will support DLSS though not a ton of games currently support it particularly since it's exclusive to Nvidia GPUs and developers would have to go out of their way. Graphical fidelity can get close enough to PS5/Xbox Series X with DLSS. I suspect mostly Nintendo published games will make use of it. That said, from what I read (and I'm admittedly not an expert), the CPU is expected to be the bottleneck. There's simply nothing Nintendo/Nvidia can do about that due to the generated heat/lack of adequate cooling for a handheld.

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

« on: June 01, 2023, 01:03:13 PM »

Still waiting for the Nuggets to get that extra point that was missing from Jokic's 3 that counted as a 2.... That they showed the replay of several times and mentioned on the broadcast, but never updated the score....

Davis was called for offensive goal-tending that was't one. Call it a wash.

Anyway, some quick thoughts/questions:

1. BNM, thoughts on Bob Myers stepping down? Homeboy really signed Poole to one of the worst extensions in the league then decided to dip.

2. I keep reading that Draymond will turn down his player option. No one else is paying him $27.6 million. He's taken discounts in the past so maybe it isn't about the money. Thoughts?

3. Anyone read up on the new CBA? Yikes. Most teams are majority owned by billionaires or a group largely comprised of millionaires and billionaires. They whine about spending but once it starts limiting and affecting them, they'll whine about that. Keep an eye on the Hawks next season as they're above that really punitive second apron.

4. Who here has watched the playoffs? I'm a little disappointed in most series. Only Kings/Warriors was really good and even that series had two blowouts.

5. Who is everyone rooting for in the Finals? I don't mind either team. I'm leaning toward the Heat because I like Jimmy Butler and the narrative that they have four undrafted players logging significant minutes.

I also like Jokic. Despite back-to-back MVPs, people keep hating on him/downplaying how good he really is. I don't really care that the Nuggets have never won a title. With roster and ownership turnover, teams aren't really the same. To that end, I roll my eyes any time fans brag about past titles especially if they happened over 15-20 years ago.

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

« on: June 01, 2023, 12:58:14 AM »

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

It's good. The plot is by the numbers though I figured that's intentional as this is targeting young children specifically. The movie visually looks good with a very distinct Mushroom Kingdom in particular.

Chris Pratt was fine. Jack Black was excellent though his normal voice slips through sometimes when Bowser sings.

My only criticisms:

1. The plot moves too quickly. It rarely gives the audience time to think/appreciate what just happened before moving to the next set piece.

2. I didn't love all the pop culture songs though they did start with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys so this is a Decision Button criticism for me.

3. The Mini Mushroom seemed to only make someone small. It would have been nice if Mario used it like he does in the games (i.e. floaty jump, walk on water) though the ending kind of doesn't work if the Mini Mushroom wasn't just an outright negative.

4. No Daisy.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

I watched this months ago so none of this is fresh. It was excellent.

One of my criticisms isn't one. The movie is like half an hour too long, but it needed that extra 30 minutes to handle T'Challa/Boseman's death effectively, appropriately, and respectfully. Had Boseman not passed away, it's very easy to see where Ryan Coogler would have a more streamlined narrative. For movies with longer run times when streaming, I will sometimes split it up into two or more sessions.

Anyway, T'Challa's death was handled very well, serving as the emotional through-line of the entire movie. Absolutely amazing character work for Shuri throughout. Letitia Wright was acting her ass off there in that final scene of Shuri on the beach, burning the funeral robe (though some of that was probably not acting), communicating so much grief without a single word of dialogue.

I'll have to rewatch as I didn't fully understand aspects of the Talokans (?).

I both loved and hated a particular cameo.

Namor was awesome.

Didn't particularly like Riri Williams/Iron Heart.

As always, this movie could have used more M'Baku.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

I almost broke my No More Movie Theaters rule to see this almost entirely for Jonathan Majors which yikes. Like nickmitch, sucks about that whole dealie. As always my thoughts are "If there's any kind of fuckery, you gotta go. However, I am willing to adjust my position when more information is presented."

As for the movie, ehh. It's fine. Eternals is the worst post-Endgame MCU film. I'd place Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania right above that due to:

1. Overuse of CGI.

2. Too many characters, not enough time for all of them. For example, Jentorra was more important narratively than Hank yet received far less screentime. Bill Murray's role so greatly reduced that he could have been excised from the movie entirely with a few more tweaks.

3. Majors was good as Kang (playing him very differently than He Who Remains) yet like most MCU villains, Kang felt grossly under-utilized and under-developed so I'm hoping that isn't the end for this version of the character.

4. Janet was frustratingly evasive... about everything (as nickmitch mentioned). In the Lemon of Troy episode of The Simpsons, Nelson tells everyone something happened and that there's no time to explain but on the way he stops to drink from a water fountain and reiterates that there's no time to explain. That was Janet for most of this movie.

5. If there's a Thanos-level threat stranded in the Quantum Realm (where the Avengers just traveled through to save the trillions of sentient lifeforms), maybe that's something Janet should have mentioned to someone on the outside. Feels like all of this could have been averted entirely.

6. Recasting Cassie felt like a colossal waste of Kathryn Newton who is too old to be playing this character anyway. Cassie says Yellowjacket attacked her when she was six and Ant-Man takes place in 2015 so if Quantumania takes place in 2025 then Cassie is 16. Newton is 26.

7. Ant-Man and the Wasp (and Stature for that matter) all keep taking their helmets off when they talk. Did they do that in the first two?

8. Kang didn't just shoot Cassie who stood there like an idiot after Ant-Man and the Wasp both shrank to attack him. He straight up stops shooting lasers out of his hands to monologue after everyone is licking their wounds. Then, he creates a shield on the ground where most of the ants are instead of flat-out fucking flying away which we know he can do because he floated down on that blue energy disc thing. Just all-around bad direction. Reed is normally better than this.

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.

There's probably more; I'm just tired of writing this.