slikmar

Went and saw Murder on the Orient Express. Enjoyed it. Everyone in it is very good. I was pleased that they did not turn it into an action flick, but left it the slow, digging for information it originally was.

Doesn't help that the guy does look like Carey and makes similar facial poses.

I think they are running into a couple problems with their main villain.
1st choice - Darkseid - drat, all the non - fans will just say why are you copying Thanos.
2nd choice - Braniac - everyone knows him as superman's villain, but he is easily upscalable but then it might look like copying Ultron.
ok, so, lets think of 3rd choice - maybe setup for Darkseid - who is his general - oh yeah, that guy Steppenwolfe - we will use him.

Why the heck would they limit themselves like that?  I mean, seriously why?  If anything, actual effort was in exactly the right place.  This is not a 'Game of Thrones' style series of novels with one creator setting a perfect timeline and exhausting outline.  This a 10+ year ongoing cinematic arc.  NO ONE can factor in changing actors, character availability, contracts, movie rights...let alone changing directors' takes (and their important creative inputs), writers and producers, visual styles, and a thousand other things which can vastly affect a set canon and consistency a bunch of guys would've sat around and hammered out 10 plus years ago.  The addition of Spider-Man and Taika Waititi's brilliant curveball with Thor are just a couple of the things that can't be allowed if you have to stick to a bible from a decade ago.

Saw it on the weekend, loved it.
 
Everyone notices the humour, but I haven't seen too much discussion about the extraordinarily high body count (i.e. the entire Asgardian army plus named characters, plus Asgard plus Odin plus - probably - Surtur and Hela. Plus several Dougs.) Without the lighter moments it would be a VERY dark film indeed. Its a real tribute to Waititi that he threads the needle with such aplomb.
 
Loved Karl Urban's Skurge. Really, is there any role that man can't nail? The last stand was straight out of Walt Simonson's run on the comic, too.
 
We all knew Natalie Portman didn't want to come back, but I was a little surprised that Sif was AWOL. However, it turns out that was due to Jamie Alexander having scheduling conflict. Which DOES open the possibility of Sif having been off somewhere else in the universe at the time, and bringing her back to complicate Thor's love life (which would be awesome).

Pet Researchers Confirm 100% Of Owners Who Leave For Work Never Coming Back

There are 2 things that this episode makes me think of when I watched it, especially in letting the masses decide guilt;
1) Should Jason Todd live or die : the masses vote overwhelmingly to die. Why, cause Why Not.
2) Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol and his remaining on the show long past when he should, partly due to the work of Howard Stern. In fact, Malloy even called it trial by American Idol.
It actually reminds me why the founding fathers supposedly put in the electoral college - because when you give the masses the chance to affect things directly without real guidance, it could go horribly wrong, and probably will.

Regardless of how one feels about a direct democracy system, The Orville has used the premise to tell an interesting science fiction story with a touch of allegory. 
 
In other words, pure Star Trek.

There are 2 things that this episode makes me think of when I watched it, especially in letting the masses decide guilt;
1) Should Jason Todd live or die : the masses vote overwhelmingly to die. Why, cause Why Not.
2) Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol and his remaining on the show long past when he should, partly due to the work of Howard Stern. In fact, Malloy even called it trial by American Idol.
It actually reminds me why the founding fathers supposedly put in the electoral college - because when you give the masses the chance to affect things directly without real guidance, it could go horribly wrong, and probably will.

There are 2 things that this episode makes me think of when I watched it, especially in letting the masses decide guilt;
1) Should Jason Todd live or die : the masses vote overwhelmingly to die. Why, cause Why Not.
2) Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol and his remaining on the show long past when he should, partly due to the work of Howard Stern. In fact, Malloy even called it trial by American Idol.
It actually reminds me why the founding fathers supposedly put in the electoral college - because when you give the masses the chance to affect things directly without real guidance, it could go horribly wrong, and probably will.

Oh, he wasn't that bad. He only wiped out half of the living beings in the universe. If you take a glass-half-full point of view, I'd say he let "pretty much everybody" live...

Why the original series worked:
 
1) Great cast of character actors and lesser-known, but highly talented regulars
2) Memorable, strong characters built around archetypes (the ethnic curmudgeon guy in the engine room, the stoic, intellectual scientist, the country doctor, etc)
3) The show was a series of vignettes meant to be individual stories about sci fi thought pieces; Twilight Zone in space
4) The technology was only advanced enough to seem futuristic, rather than magical and able to solve every problem with just SCIENCE!
5) Written by skilled, qualified sci fi authors interested in writing science fiction rather than a TV show
6) No compulsion to be a continuing single story, instead continuing characters and relationships

We took Little Boy Pariah (and his sister, of course) to see Cars 3 for his birthday last night.
 
I give the movie the highest praise I can think of: It was good enough to atone for Cars 2.

I don't think the guy in the chair is the villain. I believe he is the Monitor and is there to "observe" something happening with these 12(?) metas. I find it interesting that his assistant seems to dress very similar to the people in the time building from LoT.

Went and saw The Foreigner, the latest Jackie Chan movie. Was not what I expected. Was very good. More Political thriller then your typical Chan movie. I enjoyed it a lot. Spoilering the impetus for those who wish to see it:
 
 

The irony of a man telling women they can't relate to a character that has, for nearly a century, been an iconic symbol of perseverance and strength for women in a male-ruled society is not lost on me.  This same type of thinking had male writers using WW as the JL secretary for a time.  BTW, she is also a symbol of compassion, mercy and peace...but yeah, she has superpowers so what woman could possibly relate to her?

Another refreshing change with Diana is that so many of those other strong women are also emotionally damaged in some way. James Cameron's female protagonists, like Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, are notable examples -- filled with and driven by grief, anger, fear. In contrast Diana is positive, idealistic, hopeful. She wants the best for everyone and is relentlessly determined to make that happen. If innocent people need help, you help them, no question or doubt. In the movie you see that attitude and determination inspire the people around her, which is what makes it so inspiring for the audience. And when her beliefs are challenged and shaken, she comes through to an understanding that has matured and deepened, but is no less positive.

Didn't James Bond climb up that place once?

Dani had the Demon Bear saga too.
 
Still, while I often take pride in how many genres superhero stories can cross I admit they've probably picked one I have far less interest in.

The Gifted is a well-made show, I'll give it that. But I'm so tired of the villains being our own government. It seems that's the only thing Marvel can come up with these days. At least on Attilan, the conflict is Shakespearean in nature, and not stuck in a 1960s/1970s mindset.

Sad part was, his use in SS was more Batman then in BvsS. His showing "mercy" on Deadshot, with DS daughter right there. That was what you think of Batman. Not Branding villains to mark their "3 Strikes".

Except, in STNG I have no doubt the child would not have been changed. Hence my comment, more like B5. STNG ending = make all the arguments, big shock moment, changes whole racial bias. B5 is show all that except you don't change the bias, just put the seed of doubt into it.

Hmmm, went to watch the second episode and apparently it consisted mostly of the 4th quarter of the Denver vs Dallas football game, which had a delay. I don't see anywhere it is being repeated for now either. Anyone else have this problem? Did I give up to soon on my recording? The game said 12+ minutes left, and since I only recorded an hour, I figured wasn't worth it.

Finally watched the pilot last night.  I liked it.  It has the tone of GQ or the lighter TOS episodes.  Not as good as either, but given the constant whinging I hear from people supposedly tired of grimdark, you'd think we should give this one a chance.