Testing Chat IV: A New Hope

[Veef]

hey it's not like i posted that here right after he started talking about the problem but before saying it wasn't about any place in particular

[Darksi4190]

Went up shooting with the guys again. Still can't fucking hit anything. I've tried to take their advice into account, but I think I should look into taking a professional marksmanship course, maybe my Uncle can loan me one of his guns.

From what Richard and Alan are telling me, My breath control sucks, my stance is wrong, and i'm still pulling the gun down as I fire in anticipation of the recoil.

[RogueIce]

You can't do sitting or prone where you shoot? Those are generally easier than standing.

Unless you're just doing pistols or whatevs.

[RogueIce]

And speaking of SDN:



seems legit

[Dooey Jo]

oslo? that's where swedish internet scum go when they feel having money should give them the right to stick their dicks in african women with no money

no wait i mean "grrrr arrrgh all these [african girls] are driving all the good eastern european and norwegian [girls] away but i still can't help bragging about paying prostitutes please validate everything about my behaviour other appalling humans who read this"



but i actually came here to disclose the fun fact that template metaprogramming in c++ is a form of functional programming

[Big Orangutan]

Still, at least the creep isn't spamming the place with wholly inappropriate child pornography.

So, SDN.

I've kind of been procrastino-lurking there a bit these last few days, and I've seen a few interesting discussions in the Science-Fiction forum. Kind of want to participate in the discussions, but I've also kind of vowed to myself I wouldn't post there anymore.

Oh well.

The Science Fiction sub forum (alongside the photography/illustration sub forum) is far less irredeemable than the often very stagnant History, the Science Logic Morality place, and the truly abominable N&P (which on hindsight generated most of the drama and upset that pushed SD.Net into slow suicide).

[evilsoup]

Still, at least the creep isn't spamming the place with wholly inappropriate child pornography.

Now I want to know what 'appropriate child pornography' would be
(p.s. I tend to prefer the term 'child sex abuse images', I think using the word pornography in there somewhat legitimises it)

[Big Orangutan]

Still, at least the creep isn't spamming the place with wholly inappropriate child pornography.

. Now I want to know what 'appropriate child pornography' would be

Nothing, I hope.

Anyway a few years back we had this weirdo who turned up on a forum and really did spam images that were pretty much showing child abuse, in every thread and every sub-forum. Does anybody remember?

[Aaron]

Yes, I remember. And fuck you for reminding me.

[Darksi4190]

I must've missed that.


Thank god.

[Oxymoron]

I think I heard about it.

It was before my time.

[Flagg]

I fucking took them to task over it because I literally puked. I also couldn't jerk off for like a month. All because they got lazy as shit and didn't want to deal with approving new members.

[Oxymoron]

I hope they sent the poster's infos to the FBI.

[Darksi4190]

I fucking took them to task over it because I literally puked. I also couldn't jerk off for like a month. All because they got lazy as shit and didn't want to deal with approving new members.

If it was after you joined, then it was definitely after I joined, but I don't remember anything about it. Maybe it happened on a day I was taking a break or something.

[Crazedwraith]

So Man Of Steel. What a mess of a film.

Did Superman's origins always contain Jor-El having a fist fight with Zod? And the Kryptonian genetically engineered society? it's seems even more stupid when the guy you bred from birth to be your science guy tells you something sciencey and you ignore him.

[adr]

science guy

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bebSxF0rr5I

[evilsoup]

see I didn't have a problem with the Kryptonians being incompetent
I mean, I did at the time, but after what was revealed I figure the

Gattaca/Brave New World stuff was just implemented incorrectly -- this also explains why Zod is such a gibbering idiot, and is why superman being the first naturally-born Kryptonian in ages (yeah right) is such a big deal, since he's now free (to fulfil the destiny Jor-el set for him)

For me, the problem was that the film was trying to do like eight things at the same time, and therefore failed horribly at all of them. Also, none of the characters had any charm or screen presence. And the music was shit. The Kryptonian tech looked pretty good, though.

[Manus Dei]

at no point in the movie did zod command anyone to kneel before him and this is biggest problem with the film

Honestly I enjoyed it a lot, and think it's genuinely better than any of the previous Superman films. I mean, it's not cinematic genius by any stretch and given the previous films were dogshit being better than them isn't hard, but still. It was well shot, the story was functional and the fight choreography was aces.

The christ analogies were a little much though. I mean, yeah, alright, Superman is a perfect man who came from the sky and did only good but the bit where

he goes to save louis by floating out of the spaceship backwards with his arms outstretching in a cross pose

almost had me laughing out loud it was so unsubtle

[Bakustra]

Man of Steel continues the recent approach of comics movies in being heavily informed by the comics without feeling bound by them, which is a good thing. Snyder-Goyers' Krypton is very heavily influenced by John Byrne's Krypton (and the Krypton of Red Son, less obviously), but adds significant depth to Byrne's vision of sterility.

(long, spoilery thoughts)

The crucifixion pose is actually him saying goodbye to his father for the second time, now that I think about it. Really, this is probably the first film to get what Superman is- he's not Jesus, he's God (or alternatively, a golem, but the two are often not particularly distinct). The final flashback underlines this the heaviest- even as a kid, humans are like dogs to Kal-El. But of course, we love dogs. So too, with Superman.

The scenes with the Daily Planet crew are probably some of the best in the film, especially the rescue scene. That's the purest essence of Superman, and this is where the editing shines.

A lot of people are so goddamned mad about the neck-snap (although they don't have a problem with Jor-El and Lois mowing down Kryptonians with laserguns, lawlzers), but the entire tenor of the scene denies nonsense like this ComicsAlliance review: "Either way, the choice is troubling, as the movie neglects to send any other moral message. This is not a movie about truth, or justice, or heroism, or sacrifice, or hope."

Which is why Superman reveals his identity to Lois Lane, helps out the people on the oil rig, turns himself in, decides to trust the people of Earth... or why Pa Kent and Jor-El sacrifice themselves for their son. Or why Perry White pulls Jenny Olsen (~personal headcanon~) from rubble, or why Dr. Hamilton and the pilot sacrifice themselves to pull all of Zod's army into the Phantom Zone. Yep, no moral elements to this film!!

This is also a Superman that thinks and acts globally, that recognizes that saving New York/Metropolis/America is immaterial without saving India/the Third World as well.

This is a movie that's not afraid to make Lois Lane excellent.

Hell, this is a movie that's willing to admit that farmers aren't all fat, mentally handicapped rednecks. This movie owns.

To nerd out a bit, this movie seems to be thematically setting itself up for Darkseid and the Fourth World, which would be nice if it happens with anything like this level of quality. Also, you know, LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises, but those are pedestrian things. Bring on fucking Brainiac.

[Bakustra]

Also, Antje Traue was really good as Faora and I hope she gets more work.

[Bakustra]

T-t-t-triple p-post, but holy shit I could quote reviews all day long. Ahahahahahahaha

It's just another example of the insane pandering this movie does.

"Superman, you can save them all!" so Superman slowly drifts out of a spaceship looking like Christ for no real reason.

"Superman, you gotta inspire humans!" so they look up in the sky and see Superman punching a guy and decide "fuck it I'm gonna save my co-worker instead of letting her get crushed by rubble".

You can't defend this stuff by saying oh the filmmakers intended this. You can put stuff in films without beating the audience over the head with it. It's like if Lois Lane was supposed to fall in love with Superman so she talked to him a couple of times and then said "Superman, I love you." It doesn't work that way! Except in this film where everything is done wrong and nothing makes any sense.

I ended up rooting for Zod because he was the only interesting character. Arguably the movie could've been fixed with better editing, but the Superman character and supporting cast were boring as hell and I don't know how you fix that in post. I feel like Man of Steel was a much more solid film than Iron Man 3, but I'll watch Iron Man 3 again because the cast is great even when the movie is doing some really stupid shit.

ahahahaha

[Bakustra]

SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!

Anyways, the Jacobin has a good review that uncovered another layer of the film for me.

[Oxymoron]

Comment on spoiler :

"he's not Jesus, he's God" : isn't it supposed to be the same thing ?

[Flagg]

Can we get the MoS shit moved to another thread? I haven't seen it yet and don't really wanna be spoiled by accident.

[Questor]

Depends on the liturgy, Oxy. For Catholics, Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are, shall we say, three sides of the same coin. They're different aspects of the same being.

I could get in to the theological aspects of it further, but I'll say this: This movie does get the distinction (and Goyer is WELL aware of this, considering his novels), and the scene that everyone is bitching about (neck snap time) is the proof. Jesus would have sacrificed himself, the holy ghost would have converted Zod, but God? God smites the wicked.

As for the movie, I am skeptical of it because so much feels like setup for Justice League.

Getting from <Our Earth> to <Earth where the Justice League is needed> is not easy. Think about what would have happened if Marvel had released The Avengers without the prepwork!

Farther, rebooting Batman at this point is a bit of a risk, and as a business decision, I would postpone making it until I absolutely have to, this introduces some constraints on my story (assuming that I am prepping for Justice League). The movie must depict the development of Superman's powers. In order to continue to maintain the in/out of continuity question on BB/TDK/TDKR, superman cannot already exist, otherwise the question of "Where was he when Bane went nuts?" comes up.

In order to further continue the ambiguity, the situation at the end of the movie must have drastically changed the "state of play" in the universe. Leveling a large portion of a major metropolis is going to get Bruce Wayne's attention, and I don't think that it would take even a halfway decent writer for him to convince me he came out of retirement because of concern about this new guy.

Thinking on it farther, I think Nolan hasn't made up his mind yet. Saying, "Different Universe" would be simple, but I don't see any suggestion that he's said that. So would saying, "Yup, its the same universe, but Bruce is retired, and we're looking at ways to build the justice league without batman." <-Cue the rotten fruit"