#it is definitely somewhere in the top 3 sonic games for me. it's good! and anyone who says otherwise just hates fun | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

northernscruffycat · 3 years

Text

Tagged by @101flavoursofweird

I’ll tag @pandirpus @krokonoko @my-artblog-is-ssjumi @yallemagne @amberrgalaxy @swamp-y and anyone else who wants to do this. But this is a pretty long one, so don’t feel like you have to :3 (On that note, I’ll be putting most of this under a cut for exactly that reason)

How many works do you have on AO3?

131 at the moment. But some of those are different oneshots from FFN that I posted into one fic when porting over to AO3, so I’d be fascinated by what the actual amount of fanfics I’ve written is.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

1242922 words

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Just counting what’s on AO3, so far I’ve written for 17 fandoms. They are: Free!, Professor Layton, Hades Game, Steven Universe, Pokemon, Ace Attorney, Yu-Gi-Oh DM, Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Yu-Gi-Oh 5d’s, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario, Dr. Stone, Tintin, Night in the Woods, GetBackers, Good Omens and Cooking Mama What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

‘just wanted to write a fic where senku says ‘get excited’ during sex’ (My SenGen oneshot that gets a wave of attention whenever a new chapter or episode of Dr. Stone comes out)

‘laughable’ (An Ares/Hypnos oneshot I wrote purely as a sample for a zine app and underestimated how popular that ship is lol)

‘the prince with specific tastes; the king with specific regrets’ (THAT Theseus fic. My absolute fave thing I’ve ever written)

‘Shallow Grave, Shallow Bae’ (A Reigisa fic based on Octopimp’s 50% Off! abridged series of Free!; I honestly do think this fic slaps and I’m glad folks like it)

‘Barrel of Monkeys’ (The AsaIku & KisuHiyo collab fic I wrote with Amber that was a lotta fun and I’d love to do something like this with them again one day for a different fandom. Also, I feel like we captained the small KisuHiyo fandom with this fic back in the day)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I generally respond to comments. Almost always, unless I really can’t think of anything to say in reply, which is pretty rare. Comments make me so happy and I just want to let people who do comment know that I appreciate them.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I think the angstiest fic I wrote was a Free! fic called ‘Moves Across the Land’ - the premise of which is that Makoto died as a young adult of an illness and each chapter is a different person in his life receiving a letter that he wrote for them before he died. But that one had an optimistic ending, with Haru and Kisumi unexpectedly finding a newly strengthened friendship in sharing the grief of Makoto’s death. So I guess technically the angstiest ending I wrote was a short Archie/Maxie oneshot where Maxie gets killed by Kyogre lol

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, but I ended up agreeing with it! Waaay back (probably more that 10 years ago at this point), I wrote a bunch of Layton/Rosetta oneshots that I now don’t stand by. One of them, in my naivety, I went too far with and breached uncomfortable territory. I got a couple of comments about how uncomfortable it was, so I ended up deleting that particular fic and felt better after it was gone.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I am a fledgling at writing smut, which is probably obvious to anyone who’s read my smut haha. When I do write it, I prefer to focus on the dialogue between the characters - I like a banterous smut scene. Also, they’re usually pretty tame. I like writing about handjobs, blowjobs and wanking the most when I do write smut.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, not that I know of, but that would be awesome! A few years ago, a kind person messaged me about potentially translating my Layton fic ‘Grasping Liquid’ into French, but I don’t think they went through with it in the end. Though honestly, the dialogue and slang in that fic is pretty much illegible in English, so I reckon it’d be a tough fic to translate.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, the aforementioned ‘Barrel of Monkeys’ that I co-wrote with @amberrgalaxy It was a lot of fun and I love it :D

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Hmm... I don’t think I have a single all time favourite. I jump through a lot of OTPs and they always mean a lot to me, but it wouldn’t seem fair to pick out a single one that’s always shined brighter than the others, because that’s not really how my hyperfixations work. But my current favourite ships are Momus/Heracles (to be narcissistic) and TheseZag from Hades Game. While my oldest ship that I’m still invested in is Yami/Seto from Yu-Gi-Oh DM.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Shockingly, I don’t have any right now. A few years ago (I think 2018?), I made a point of going back and finishing ALL my old WIPs that I’d left hanging but intended to finish, even for fandoms I didn’t plan on going back to. So that freed my conscience of them and felt pretty good. At the moment, my only WIP is ‘if found please return to the underworld’ - an AU where Zagreus does make it to Olympus, so Hades sends Theseus, Asterius and Meg to try to get him back. But I’ve only just started writing that one, so I do hope to stick with it until it’s finished.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. Definitely dialogue. I’m told that I capture the canon voices of characters pretty well and that’s always what I’m trying the hardest to get right, so it means a lot to me. I also feel like I’m good at keeping a fic flowing, without being bogged down by too much detail. But the downside of that is that I often sacrifice description, so I still hope to find the balance. Since Hades Game has more flowery prose than I’m used to, I think getting into that series actually helped me with this.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I do not think I am experienced enough to be able to pull this off well and would worry too much about making mistakes.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

It was Pokemon, but those fics aren’t online anymore. The oldest fics you can still find buried somewhere with my name attached to them are Sonic fics.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

‘the prince with specific tastes; the king with specific regrets’ - Sometimes I look back at that fic and wonder if I actually wrote it, since I avoided falling into all of my usual traps: I researched it properly and frequently, I kept the focus on the five main characters instead of getting distracted by introducing a million other character like I usually do, I plotted the fucker out from start to finish instead of winging it, and I worked the flashbacks into it in a way that balanced the present-day out instead of distracting from it. Also, I got the whole thing written in about two months, instead of staling for years. ...Whatever possessed me when I wrote that fic, please come back. (It was the first time I’d had two weeks off together in about three years, so I think that had a lot to do with it) OH YEAH and that same kinda villain OC who I recycle in every fandom I’m in actually landed this time. It brought me so much joy to see how much people loved to hate Momus. Those two months when I was posting that fic are easily a highlight of my life. :D

#*Talking #*About Me #*Writing #*Hades Game #*Dr. Stone #*Free Iwatobi Swim Club #*Professor Layton

7 notes · View notes

loadet851 · 3 years

Text

Pc Games With Character Creation Offline

Games With Character Customization Pc

Steam Games With Character Creation

One of the things I love most in a RPG (Role-Playing Game) is the possibility of creating my own character with tons of different options and add-ons. I made a research yesterday and found some interesting PC Games I already knew about, adding them to the titles I have or plan to get with the best Character Customization. I’m going to list them here for you guys also attaching a few videos so that you can see directly how they work and what kind of possibilities they offer.

It’s the main reason I enjoy games like Skyrim and Fallout. But there seem to be so few good (single player) games with decent character creation - and not just picking from a few presets. The character creation in Dragon Age: inquisition was amazing (although I struggled to enjoy the game) as well as Saints Row (which I really enjoyed). Addicting Offline Co-op Games For PC You’ll Want To Play. Dennis Patrick / Features / Best Co-op PC Games, Co-op, Cooperative. Sonic the Hedgehog is a staple video game character. Best MMORPG with Character Creation. Final Fantasy 14 has one of the most complex and sophisticated character editors. In this game, you can change the smallest details using different sliders, pick a unique voice, or add unique tattoos, accessories and facial paint. What Are Best RPGs With Character Creation? Role-playing games let us live out some of our greatest fantasies like slaying dragons, saving the world and owning a house. Whether your main character is dead, alive, or somewhere in between, these games will let you adjust your appearance and abilities to however you see fit. I've always loved games that give you the option to create your character before you start in the world. I enjoy the game even more when it has role playing or social aspects added to it, allowing you interact with NPCs, or other players if the game has a multiplayer feature. Just character creation would interest me enough to check any game out.

Follow me under the cut if you’re curious!

I’ve been introduced to this type of creation with a game I still keep in my heart and consider one of the best of all times; The Sims 2. Seriously, I’ve created so many 3D characters that if I could win an award I’d have 200 on my shelf by now.

With that said, here you are my personal list of PC games with their awesome customization in no particular order:

I tried this game myself (the free beta that is) a few times in the past and I swear the CC included in it is currently one of my favorite. Without the complete pack I probably didn’t have a lot of additional options available in terms of clothes, makeup and hair, but what truly mesmerized me at the time was the shaping tool, not yet common in games when they released EVE. You can grab and drag different parts of the head and body, modeling unique characters every time.

2. Black Desert Online

This game has been released recently with two different packages and it seems to be quite a popular MMORPG (Massive(ly) Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) in Russia and Korea. I’m not surprised considering the quality this game seems to have and its customization is clearly no less. Just like EVE Online, Black Desert offers a good sculpt instrument to shape faces and bodies as much as you like, plus a beautiful variety of colors and combinations.

UPDATE: The game is also available on Steam!

This patch lets you play Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks with mostly non-touch based controls. The new control bindings are Control Bindings: D-Pad=Run Y+Dpad=Walk B=Wide slash B+Dpad=Long slash Y+B=Spin Attack A=Interact A+Dpad=Roll. Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks D-Pad Patch This patch implements non-touchscreen controls for essential actions in Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. Legend of zelda spirit tracks xenophobia patched rom.

3. Blade&Soul

This is another Asian MMORPG with the classical ‘Anime’ style, you cannot freely reshape the character’s structure, only pick one of the available presets and play around with the sliders to modify the whole body. Andy mckinney molly hatchet. Still, I honestly like the bright colors, the races/classes and the fact that you can actually recreate other existing characters using additional content (just like this guy did with Cloud from Final Fantasy VII).

4. BLESS Online

Yes, another Asian online title. Hey, it’s not my fault if they look so pretty! Bless is quite recent and not yet released in its final stage, but judging by how the CC works you have as much freedom as in EVE or Black Desert and the same unmistakable Fantasy touch.

5. The Sims 4

Didn’t I mention The Sims 2? Well, looks like the latest title in the series has improved quite a lot in this area. The shaping/sculpting method is here as well, considering that we finally have more possibilities I certainly won’t complain!

Note: In this video I can see the woman has a few mods installed. If you decide to get this game (or even the previous chapters) I definitely suggest you to do the same if you don’t like the default character design.

6. Fallout 4

Another recent (and quite famous) game. Apparently you can only work on the face here, but once again we see the sculpt tool in action. Even if the hair options are a bit limited you can still customize your character and create unique features playing around with your cursor.

7. Dragon Age: Inquisition

Who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am completely OBSESSED with this game, thus I couldn’t really leave it out. The hair options are definitely questionable and just like in Fallout 4 you do not have any body morph nor slider to alter, but as you can see from this video example you are still able to personalize your Inquisitor in a good way, also using real people or other characters as reference. To be honest I like some of the default presets too, if you don’t like spending two hours working on a face (I do that all the time, but I am a basket case so please ignore my madness :P), you can pick those and get a good result nonetheless.

And don’t forget about mods! 😉

8. Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V)

This one has been around for a very long time and it remains probably the top 1 Fantasy game out there. If you’re not into mods at all and want to keep your game vanilla be sure that the overall quality is not as improved as the current generation, you can see that from the low-res hair and general textures. The reason why I’m including this CC in the list anyway is because even if old, Skyrim looks quite good compared to other games where you only get 3/4 slider options.

9. APB Reloaded

The last game I’d like to mention (and I literally just discovered it) is this not so new title which has a kick-ass Character Creator. Not only it shows some quality graphics there, but the level of customization is unbelievable! You can make hair shorter, beards longer, create beautiful tattoos (and place or rotate them wherever you want!), add patterns to clothes and even get your personal car! 😀

Chose one serial + PILIH Salah satu WORKING 99% per 13 Januari 2013 1330-1971-4830-1762 1330-1912-2628-0850-0232-4869 1330-1148-0472-2735-6555-0617 1330-1544-4195-8131-3034-5634 1330-1886-0283-4688-9152-2034 1330-1118-3174-6558-8260-5378 OR 1330-1971-4830-5668-6067-1762 1330-1912-2628-0850-0 232-4869 1330-1148-0472-2735-6555-0617 1330-1544-4195-8131. The serial number for Adobe is available. This release was created for you, eager to use Adobe Cs6 master collection full and without limitations. Our intentions are not to harm Adobe software company but to give the possibility to those who can not pay for any piece of software out there. Adobe cs6 master collection activation key wondershare.

There are of course many other games with a Character Creator, but they all seem pretty similar or not good enough to be mentioned in my list.

What do you think about these? Let me know with a comment if you like!

Those late-night multiplayer sessions can be really fun sometimes. Surely, everything is better with friends, they say and you’ll agree with that at some point. However, after a long day of work and studying, I like to relax with offline games. Sometimes, it’s satisfying to let yourself indulge in a great single-player story and forget about any problems bothering you. So, if you are like me, then welcome to the club! Below is my list of 20 best offline games for PC and I hope you’ll enjoy them.

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

W2k16 pc download. Well, you’ve guessed it! The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt takes first place on the list with its epic setting, characters, gameplay, and those breathtaking visuals! It’s a compelling game that will offer you more than a hundred hours of non-filler gameplay, and there’s always something to explore. The game looks amazing, and the combat system is great. This open-world title is everything you need on your free days! Combine that with the great RPG elements and fun dialogues with NPCs, and you got yourself a pretty good offline game! Go and play it now, it’s a must-play.

2. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein series has been once again revived with Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. The positive reviews flashed all around the globe, and this game quickly became one of the best shooting games of 2017. B.J Blazkowicz is such a badass protagonist and the characters surrounding the game are interesting. You’ll quickly start to care about each and every one of them, making this game a worthy offline title. Bethesda said that they won’t be focusing on multiplayer, so they can bring an immersive single-player experience. Well, you nailed it, Bethesda; great job!

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda is one of my favorite companies when it comes to gaming, at least they were a few years back. A few years back, this masterpiece called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released and it took the Earth by storm! This offline open-world title offers hundreds of hours of exploration and you’ll probably never get bored of it! The combat system might be dated, but it’s damn fun to play and explore every corner of the game. After six years since its release, I’m still eager to give Skyrim another go. It’s that great!

4. Fallout 4

Games With Character Customization Pc

Fallout 4 is one of those top offline games that you either like or dislike. It’s a great single-player experience, as you explore a huge world of fictional city Commonwealth. I mean, the story here is scattered here and there, and our protagonist is in search of his abducted son. However, the game often steers away from that and let you have some freedom and exploration. It’s a fantastic reboot of the series, and it��s surely the best game in the franchise. If you are up for that Stalker-ish feeling, then give this a try!

5. Hitman (2016)

Hitman isn’t a strictly offline game, but I included it because it has a great single-player campaign. While the previous entry in the series Hitman: Absolution relied more on linear, claustrophobic, and confined experience, Hitman (2016) went in a different direction. Here, you’ll experience a vast, open-world with lots of stuff to do. The levels are not that numerous, but they are as big as hell! You can complete your missions in various ways and earn certain rewards and points for doing so. Hitman is a challenging stealth experience, but once Agent 47crawls under your skin, there’s no going back!

Steam Games With Character Creation

6. Nioh

Nioh is a less-known offline game released this year, and I feel like this game is very underrated. It’s a child of Dark Souls and Bloodborne series, which can tell you much about this game. It has a single, crushing, and unforgiving difficulty that will leave you begging for mercy. It’s hard, and you’ll need some blazing fast reflexes and huge gaming skills to finish it. There are more than twenty bosses in the game, and every single boss will kick your ass! Don’t expect to finish this game in a few days; you’ll need weeks to finish it and it will be painfully slow as the bosses shame you every little time… you helpless gamer!

7. Nier: Automata

Another underrated game – Nier: Automata. How could the gaming community overlook this game? Are you blind, or what? This game offers thirty hours of a pure, refined, and amazing experience! It’s a hack-and-slash title that mergers several genres with it. The open world in this game is huge, and the post-apocalyptic environment looks depressing and feels like a void. Nier also introduces RPG elements so you can now level yourself up, upgrade weapons, buy stuff, etc. On top of that, there are some 2D sections that feel like a great platformer, and that’ very unique! Nier: Automata is better than most AAA titles and costs double the less of that price, which is one more reason to get it.

8. Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls series got a fantastic reboot with Dark Souls 3. Just if it wasn’t enough for the previous games in the series, and now we got this punishing game. What can I say? Prepare to die a LOT in this game, as it’s created to kill you. I’m not joking, the whole game is against you, and you can’t do anything about that except fight like a lunatic. Even when you die, the enemies around you respawn and you must fight again and again, which is really frustrating. However, if you have the balls to play it, and manage to finish it, then you deserve a medal, Sir!

9. Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is the newest installment in the Bioshock series. This cheap game can give you a huge value for your buck, especially when the Holidays come. I mean, for just a couple of bucks, you can get a fantastic FPS game, which campaign isn’t short and definitely isn’t boring! Bioshock Infinite continues its tradition with great shooting mechanics, various powerups, and that fast-paced shooting in a beautiful environment of the game. Get ready to cause mayhem!

10. Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation is that PC offline game that will haunt your dreams every time you try to sleep. It’s a horror game in which you try to stay in one piece and escape that damn space station called Sevastopol. Sounds similar? Well, that’s because the game is based on Alien (1979) movie, which was a very disturbing experience at the time. It’s an intense game that makes your palms sweat and your heart beating so fast that you’ll think it’s gonna come out of your chest! Try this horror if you dare, and watch yourself getting swallowed by the Alien, in a single bite!

11. Far Cry Primal

Elephants are cool, but mammoths are so badass! In Far Cry Primal, you can hunt mammoths and even ride them when you get to higher levels! How cool are you from zero to riding a mammoth? This beautiful-looking game is set 10,000 years BC and no, you aren’t going to shoot guns, but bash the hell out of your enemies. The arsenal of weapons might not be that huge, but the combat is great and requires more thinking, as the enemies are sometimes overwhelming and can easily kill you. If you have the luck to tame a sabertooth tiger, you may survive in this harsh world!

12. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

There is something special about that claustrophobic feeling, especially when it comes to horror games that you can play without internet. That sense of dread and despair when you don’t have much space to move is priceless. Don’t think of me as a psycho, but I LOVE the horror genre! RE7: Biohazard is a game that caught my attention as soon as it was released. This bad boy will provide you with a horrific experience that will leave you scared to death! As the game plays from the first-person perspective, it’s much easier to get yourself immersed, but also scared.

13. Outlast 2

Outlast 2 is yet another offline horror experience, where the developers decided to leave your powerless. There aren’t weapons for you to use, and surely no means to defend yourself. So, what are you left with? Well, a camera and a journal should do the trick! The game does a damn fine job of melding the horror and the dread with stealth and great storytelling. In the end, you may feel a little let down by the ending, but I know you’ll enjoy it until the very end.

14. Dead Space 3

Cat et 2015a factory password generator. While the past games in the series focused more on that horror experience, Dead Space 3 is more of an action-horror game. Sure, there are Necromorphs and they are vicious and all, but the action part is more prominent. Needless to say that Dead Space 3 is an amazing game and I’m very sad that Visceral Games is closed by EA in October. This survival horror game is hugely underrated, but it’s awesome and I recommend you to play it. It’s just a couple of bucks for this experience, don’t be a niggard!

15. Portal 2

There’s something awesome when it comes to Source Engine. The games made with this engine looks amazing, yet they run smoothly. How did Valve manage to do that? Well, as I am not a game developer, don’t ask me! But ask me about Portal 2, which is Valve’s magnum opus, and a compelling puzzle game. The whole point of the game is to use a Portal gun in order to create portals and pass through them. However, the game isn’t that simple and requires some brain skill to finish it. Grab your Portal Gun, and let’s go on a venture!

16. Limbo

This 2D game is straight-up terrifying, dark, and misanthropic from the start to finish! In Limbo, you are a little boy that needs to survive this colorless world of the game as he overcomes various obstacles and escape scary monsters. I like the game’s artwork and the atmosphere is simply top-notch here if you like the dark ambient in the games. It’s a must-play for every offline Indie games lover!

17. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Speaking of the atmosphere, very few great offline games can replicate the atmosphere as it is in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. That post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Pripyat looks great, and the game isn’t colorful, which is the whole point. Everything has that grey-ish tint, as this town suffered greatly when the Nuclear Powerplant in that area exploded. It’s based on a real-life event that occurred around 1989, which gives the game a certain weight and meaning.

18. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

With MGSV: The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima proved that he still has what it takes to create such immersive PC games without internet. This stealth game is challenging and full of stuff to do, due to its open-world nature. The characters are badass and the game feels somewhat dark, with a very serious tone. Oh, and not to forget that plot twist at the end that’s worth those thirty hours I’ve spent on this game!

19. SOMA

Horror fans will be pleased that I mentioned another horror title here. SOMA is an absolutely spooky and nerve-wracking experience! It creates that atmosphere that’s very unique, and with the story being told in the shape of various documents scattered through the game, it’s even more badass! You are all alone here and you’ll fight for your life, only to find out that you aren’t actually alive! A truly wonderful offline game for Windows.

20. Superhot

Superhot is a cartoonish-looking offline game that revolves around time. To make it simple, the time in the game moves when you move, so if you are standing still, nothing will happen. Vice Versa, if you are moving and shooting, then the enemies will do the same. It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of challenges too. I played it with some of my favorite death metal albums, just to ensure that I’m hardcore enough to beat it!

As we are approaching near the end of our journey through the offline PC games, I’m here to ask you a question. What is your favorite offline game for PC? I tried my best to count some of my favorite offline games, and although I’m maybe going to start a war for not including some of the games, I stand behind my words. Oh, and why don’t you tell me what game did I miss? Do you have any favorites besides these 20 games? Please, let me know, and don’t forget to do some gaming today!

3 notes · View notes

sgnserena · 4 years

Photo

* TASK 001 ___ GENERAL PHONE QUESTIONS ;

what kind of cell phone do you have? : — iphone 11 pro in gold, with a black and gold marble case

how often do you use your cell phone? : — an average amount as most her age do

what is your phone’s lock screen photo? : — above ( left ), one of her most liked photos on her instagram from last year

what is your phone’s home screen photo? : — above ( right ), she likes to be ~ aesthetic ~ kind of.

how many contacts do you have in your phone? : — she doesn’t keep count but she’s sure it’s a lot — she doesn’t delete contacts, unless you’ve done her wrong, and that’s mainly because someone could possibly be of use one day.

do you customize contact names or enter as given names? : — mostly customized with different ‘codenames’ that she gives people. if you’re special, she’ll use your actual name and an emoji since it’s easier for her to look up.

what is their default ringtone? : — she would have it to something fun like ‘there some hoes in the house’ beat from wap — cardi b feat. megan thee stallion, but she’s afraid of having it go off while she’s on a date with her sugar daddies. because of that, it’s currently the mighty morphin power rangers theme song. y’know, something more family friendly.

do you have personalized ringtones for your contacts or does everyone use the default ringtone? : — default ringtone, she can’t be fucked to give people personal ones.

how many alarms do you have set and why? : — she has 4 alarms total; one set up 10 minutes before she needs to get up for her monday & wednesday classes, then another set for the time she has to get up. it’s the same for her tuesday & thursday classes as well — she doesn’t have class on fridays. she doesn’t have a hard time getting up in the mornings, but she likes to take those 10 minutes to prepare herself for the day.

what are your top 3 most used apps? : — imessage, seekingarrangement, calendar app

what are your favorite apps? : — burner app ; also one of her most used -- do you think she’s going to give these old ass men her actual phone number? absolutely not. on top of that, she loves the fact that she can just delete a phone number and get a new one at the blink of an eye in case something goes wrong. best money she’s ever spent on an app — helix waltz ; a guilty pleasure that she’ll probably never tell most, but it’s a dress up game that she loves to play during her downtime. she ... may have spent an unhealthy amount of money on power ups and outfits as well.

— cash app ; nothing beats an notification that states that money has been sent to your cash app tbh, the best way to get her excited.

what are your last 3 google searches or the last 3 things you’ve asked your built in ai? : — what does 개이득 mean — veterinary grad school application fee — how bad do pleaser shoes hurt

do you delete your internet search history or use incognito mode? if so, how often, and why? : — no, because she doesn’t feel the need to. no one else is using her phone besides her, so she isn’t afraid of what comes up on her searches.

do you download music or use a streaming app? if so, which one and why? : — streaming app, she uses spotify because the curated playlists are too good to pass up. if you see ads for lingerie on her phone, then maybe you’re too damn close in the first place.

what are the last 3 songs you’ve listen to on your phone? : — ungodly hour — chloe & halle — all night — bree runway — react — the pussycat dolls

what does your photo album consist of? : — an amalgam of so many things ; selfies that she’s made hyungwon take of her, class notes / slides that she couldn’t write down fast enough, pictures of stray cats and dogs she happens to see ( and videos of her trying to lure them back with her ), funny screenshots of messages from seeking arrangement / instagram dms / tinder, drunken videos, thirst traps and nsfw pictures ( use your imagination 👀 ), and pictures of nature & the sky.

what is your texting style? do you reply quickly or are you a slow texter? do you send several messages at a time or paragraphs? : — an average texting time, though she will reply quicker if you’re a close friend. she actually hates people that send 50 texts at a time, as it makes her worried that something’s wrong -- so she tries to send as less texts as possible. definitely a paragraph girl.

what are the last 3 texts you’ve sent? : — hyungwon ; “ don’t @ me but what do i have to do to get you to watch the sonic movie with me? ” — sugar daddy #2 ; “ are you at a meeting? i have a little something i want to show you 👀👅 ” — hyunjoo ; “ do you feel better now? “

who do you text the most? : — sugar daddy #2 & hyungwon. sugar daddy #2 is the clingy type and wants constant communication. she honestly can’t stand it but she plays up the manic pixie dream girl role he expects of her and he pays very handsomely, so it’s all worth it.

what are your top 6 used emojis? : — 🤔🥴💩😒👅💕 — the last one is for her sugar daddies, naturally.

how often do you call others? : — hardly. she doesn’t see the need since text is faster, and she genuinely does not like speaking on the phone. she’ll only call if you’re a sugar daddy that requires it, if it’s an emergency, or if you’re running late to something with her. or if she’s drunk. drunk serena adores phone calls since texting is hard.

who where the last 3 calls made to and why? : — sugar daddy #2 ; again, the clingy type who wanted to speak to her after class. — a professor ; she wanted to speak about her letters of recommendation for grad school — grandmother ; she missed her call so naturally she returned it back, they talked about how things were going for her and how they miss each other

who do you call the most? : — her sugar daddies. a lot of them still prefer phone calls over texts, which she assumes is a generational thing.

do you have someone blocked? if so, who and why? : — she only has one number blocked, and it was guy who kind of turned into a stalker. she ended up getting one of her ripped guy friends from the gym on him and threatened him with a knife to get him to back off, but she’s still slightly afraid that he’s still out there somewhere.

are you apart of any group chats? with who? : — volleyball group chat & student government group chat. she usually takes a back seat within group chats to begin with.

do you use the notes app? : — yes, but she mainly uses it as a to do list or somewhere to keep passwords and other important things she might forget.

#sgn:task01 #sgnwonnie #sgnhyunjoo #* b/c mentioned #* also listen don't @ me for doing this last minute LOL #* or how the calendar app date is wrong i cbf fjdsklfjs

7 notes · View notes

popwasabi · 4 years

Text

Lockdown Lookback: Catching up on the past months’ Pop Culture

Aaaaannnd we’re back!

It’s amazing what a little pandemic can do to shake you out of your creative cobwebs but if we’re all going to die, I want to make sure all my pop cultural hot takes are up to date at least.

Many of us are already on lockdown and many major movies including “007,” “Black Widow” and ummm I guess “Mulan” are all getting pushed to the backburner as no one is leaving their God damn homes unless they’re told to!

(Didn’t realize the thing I wish I had more of in the apocalypse would be sweatpants...)

But there’s still plenty to talk about from the previous months and other hot topics I have been meaning to write about but just hadn’t found the time or energy for. Life has been hard I think for just about all of us these days thanks in no small part to this pandemic. For me personally, I’ve had two different vacations canceled because of the virus and currently working understaffed at my job which is considered essential. Not to mention my therapist is on call only at this time and both my martial arts schools have been suspended, so I can neither talk nor punch my feelings out of my system.

So, I might be just a LITTLE on edge at the moment.

(My internal monologue for most of these past few weeks, more broadly years...)

Anyways, I digress, you come here because you like to read my highly unprofessional takes on pop culture and genuinely to those who have cheered me on from the beginning thanks, you guys are my prime motivators. But anyways let’s talk about all the shit I was supposed to write about these last two and a half months.

“Birds of Prey” was a hot, but needed, mess

Earlier last month I got to see the sort of sequel to the much-maligned “Suicide Squad” in “Birds of Prey and the…waaaay too long of a title for me write here.” I had cautious optimism for it because it looked strange and off the beaten path of most comic book movies and seemed to promise at the very least a fun time at the theater but it’s still also a DCEU movie so the floor was pretty low on its possible quality as well.

In the end, the movie is kind of bit of everything; the best and worst parts of the DCEU.

In terms of the good, it’s definitely outside the box, a sort of fem Deadpool first person story as told frenetically by Harley herself. Margot Robbie is, of course, still quite great at this role and you can tell she’s having a blast as this character. The humor is mostly good and visually the bright colors and cinematography pops on each screen and on that front there isn’t much to complain about.

But as a DCEU movie it does suffer from some narrative imbalance partially due to it’s psycho storyteller but mostly, and more than likely, due to corporate editing that probably axed an entire dance number that I was honestly looking forward to from the trailers.

(Seriously, I actually wanted to see the full unedited version of whatever hell this ended up being.)

It’s definitely in the “could’ve been better” camp of comic book movies but you know what? I’m still glad it exists. You know why? Because comic book movies dominate our blockbuster culture right now and if the genre wants to survive, at least artistically, it needs some outside the box films like this. I HATED “Joker” but I appreciate that it opened the door for stranger, more unique takes on a genre that is getting increasingly more stale. This movie falls into that unique category too.

(Also, to all the faux-intellectuals and alt-right nerds making a culture war out of “Sonic” vs “Birds of Prey” *kindly* reevaluate your lives please...)

We’re at the point now where comic book movies should be getting weirder, not more formulaic, and that means swinging for the fences even if a couple don’t quite make it out of the ballpark. If it takes a few not so stellar takes on the genre for Hollywood to greenlight a truly fantastic one I’m all for it.

In any case “Birds of Prey” doesn’t quite end nor continue the DCEU’s recent hot streak but it is enjoyable enough to where I would be more than open to a sequel. It’s worth a watch.

The Mandalorian and The Witcher: Two shows about violent mercenaries and fatherhood

Both these shows are old news at this point, but I did want to talk a little about both for a bit if you would have me.

First, “The Mandalorian” which was Disney+’s flagship production to begin its streaming chapter late last year is definitely a more than welcome addition to the galaxy far, far away. It’s pretty easy to feel fairly jaded about Star Wars these days given how flat the new trilogy ended but for what it’s worth “The Mandalorian” was a good mix of nostalgia bait and something new and interesting for fans to chew on. Its production value is obviously top-notch, no doubt because of all the Disney money pumped into it, it’s well-acted and thrilling and fun from start to finish. It plays heavily on the genres that influenced the series, primarily westerns and old samurai flicks, and fans of those will certainly enjoy the homages to them all.

The series was something of a coming out party for Deborah Chow who directed two of the season 1’s best episodes. Her steady hand, eye for details and tributes to Asian cinema throughout really gave the series an extra kick at times and showed how Star Wars can evolve still. Chow is set to helm the upcoming “Kenobi” series and one can only hope that she *really* leans into the samurai genre for that show.

(Hopefully, there are some “Yojimbo” vibes in there somewhere...)

The Mandalorian’s best and worst parts though are its semi episodic nature making each episode easy to digest as a one-off but also lacking some narrative tension between each. It plays kind of like a Saturday Morning cartoon to both its benefit and detriment with bite-size easy to digest plots and dialogue for the viewers but not offering a ton of depth beyond that.

The Mandalorian himself is also kind of a Gary Stu. His armor is basically impenetrable and far and away the best killer onscreen typically, making more than a few action scenes lack real stakes and tension. Baby Yoda certainly helps at times to make him more vulnerable and puts him in precarious positions plenty of times but outside a few moments (mainly episode 2 and to a lesser extend the final episode) he’s just a little too overpowered to be a more interesting character.

But this show and frankly the Star Wars series as a whole is meant for kids, no matter what the neckbeards try to tell you (violence =/= adult), and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Plenty of kids productions can be both great and even sophisticated and while I wouldn’t say “The Mandalorian” is either of those it’s a good and fun kids show for the fans.

(And yes I’m aware that the books, some comics, and games have touched on more adult stuff, you weirdos. But how would you describe the overall tone and presumptive audience of the movies and TV series as a whole, guys??)

As far as “The Witcher” goes it also has a bit of an episodic style to it as well with an overarching, albeit, convoluted story that runs parallel to it. The first 3-4ish episodes can be classified as a quasi “Game of Thrones” clone leaning perhaps a little too heavily into the tropes of that series. Once the series finally starts leaning into its real identity, a dry-witted hack and slash fantasy, the series is much more consistent both tonally and narratively.

Henry Cavil is solid as Geralt of Rivia and the supporting cast of Joey Batey as Jaskier, Freya Allen as Ciri and even more so Anya Chalotra as Yennefer are all great in their respective roles delivering some great moments throughout the season.

(And lest you forget this earworm...)

“The Witcher’s” early season struggles keep it from being as tonally or narratively consistent as “The Mandalorian” but where the monster slayer beats the bounty hunter is that it has overall more compelling drama and has more to say, leaning much more heavily into the thematic greys of the plot. There are tons of problems with “The Witcher” on a story-telling level but you can definitely say it cares more about adding some depth in between the more pulpy aspects of the story which is something you can’t say as much for in “The Mandalorian.”

Of course, I’m partially overselling “The Witcher” a bit here, it’s not anywhere near “Game of Thrones” best (yet at least), and on the flipside one could argue that “The Mandalorian’s” more subtle sense of story-telling does its themes better. But when it comes down to these two shows you get somewhat similar story-telling ideas, mostly involving both characters and their smaller counterparts, in two very different genres with equally diverging conclusions to their respective seasons.

(🎵 Toss an “Oof” to your Witcher...🎵)

All in all, they’re both good and worth a watch and I think they deserve a chance to evolve and hopefully showcase more of what they have to offer moving forward.

“Parasite” wins Best Picture! Many people have some hot takes, including the president...

Last month one of my favorite films of 2019 “Parasite” won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s a movie that is becoming increasingly relevant as elites and celebrities alike are getting front of the line testing despite being asymptomatic in the middle of pandemic and think they can assuage our concerns and dread by poorly singing “Imagine” together within the comfort of their McMansions.

It’s about as a good time as any to revisit this movie, I mean where else are you going to go during this timeline, and at a later date I’ll write something more extensive about it eventually (hopefully) but first here’s a helpful video on one particular thing that came out after director Bong Joon Ho took home the night’s top honors:

youtube

“Cats” is still a fever dream of madness

Back in late December, I watched “Cats” for science, as I had AMC A-List and a friend crazy enough to join me. I figured it would be bonkers and unlike anything I had seen before in the worst way but even then, I don’t think I was truly prepared for what I ended up seeing that fateful night.

I remember quite vividly going to the bar inside the theater and ordering a stiff drink beforehand to numb the pain and the bartender asking “So what are y’all watching tonight?” and beginning to laugh manically like an insane asylum patient at the innocuousness of the question. Walking into the theater was like that feeling you get before getting on a particularly scary-looking rollercoaster at Six Flags but instead of the pre-ride jitters eventually subsiding to the eventual fun and joy of the ride, only a deep sense of existential dread built up and sustained itself through what felt like six hours of the most baffling thing put to screen in front of my eyes ever.

youtube

(The music that played in my head as I exited the theater...)

Have any of you watched the Stanley Kubrick movie “Eyes Wide Shut” before? You know the scene when Tom Cruise is walking around in his mask observing the strange occult sex orgy going on around him at the mansion? That’s kind of what “Cats” felt like except way more terrifying, somehow MORE sexual, and definitely crazier.

(Is...this some type of...intepretative dance to summon an eldritch horror??)

There’s a voyeuristic terror that comes from sitting in that theater room as you watch bipedal humanoid looking felines dance to confusing songs about “Jelicle” cats (whatever the fuck that means) and all other manner of things that should NOT take human form throughout it’s near-endless runtime. A lot was made about Rebel Wilson and the disgusting roach people she consumes but NO ONE warned me about the frankly HORRIFYING mice children in the same scene!

(I am not perusing the internet to find that image again for y’all. I have enough nightmares each night...)

The saddest thing about the whole movie is everyone, save for Ian Mckellen who seemed to be acting as if a gun was pointing at him offscreen and Judi Dench who looked 100 percent like a geriatric in her digi fur, was giving the movie their fullest effort in what can only be described as a Titanic-sized level of hubris by all parties involved. This movie really needed a “Chaostician” involved in evaluating the production for studio heads and shareholders because there were definitely NOT enough people on this project wondering whether or not this film SHOULD exist...

(Dr. Ian Malcolm coming to Universal Pictures to access the film.)

What has “Cats” wrought upon this world? The universe has been clearly out of balance since this movie came out and while I’m not saying it’s director Tom Hooper’s fault, I’m not saying it isn’t either.

“Cats” is one of those things, much like The Matrix that cannot be simply described but must be seen to believe. It’s one of the worst things I have ever seen onscreen but with the right group of people and a few stiff drinks it’s certainly an experience you won’t forget. Consider it for your next Google Hangout during this apocalypse.

Anyways, that about wraps up my thoughts on the last few months. Going to try to be more consistent going forward especially given how much more time I have now to write, for better and worse. But more importantly, just want to say stay safe y’all. It’s going to be a process to get through this and while things are more likely to get worse before they get better there will be a day when this all ends and some normalcy may yet return to our life but in order for us to get there we need to remain vigilant.

So stay at home, wash your hands, and if you want to watch movies just order it online for now and we’ll just wait until aaaallll this blows over…hopefully.

Don’t panic...

24 notes · View notes

sege-h · 4 years

Note

1, 10, 16 for Cyclone. 5, 13, 20 for Storm. 3, 14, 22 for Ry. 11, 23, 31 for Sharp. And 7+29 for all four.

tHESE ARE LONG SO

Cyclone

1. How does your character sleep? Peacefully, fitfully? What position do they sleep in? What is their typical bedding like?

Tbh I don’t know him well enough yet to know if he sleeps peacefully, or be a 100% certain on his position. But he strikes me as someone that sleeps either on his back, or on his side. Tho I do know for sure that his bed is a nice big one, and it’s a mess of pillows and blankets. Some of the covers are soft, akin to silk. It’s just him in his bed but that doesn’t stop him from surrounding himself with pillows, with at least 4 by his head.

10. How is your oc about medical care? Do they avoid any form of healthcare that they can, do they seek it out over every little scrape? Do they treat their injuries/illness all by themselves?

He usually treats his injuries and illnesses by himself, unless it’s something pretty serious, then he seeks out a doctor.

16. If your oc could only eat one thing for the rest of their life (while miraculously not suffering from malnutrition), what would it be? Does this match their favourite food?

Oof this is another one that Idk him well enough for. But I know he likes meat, so probably steak? Well seasoned, maybe with some sauce on it. I think he rarely eats things plain, like JUST a steak with nothing on it.

7. How would you describe your oc’s voice? Do they have an accent? Do you have any voice claims for them?

He’s p new but also I suck at describing voices. I don’t THINK he has an accent? Definitely no voice claim. His voice is…idk. Gravely??? I feel like that’s not the right term. Like Idk gravely but more high pitched??? IDK

29. If your oc was in a video game, what would their idle animation be? (When the player stays still for too long, the animation that plays.)

I feel like it’d be him tapping his foot and going from grinning to a lil frown.

Storm:

5. Your oc has to make something for an art exhibition. What would they make? How terrible is it? Would they enjoy making it?

Tbh I feel like Storm’s the kind of person to just leave random garbage on the floor and watch people be like ‘hmm’ at it like it’s modern art. Or he’d put in a bit more effort and crush something metal or a soda can in some weird impossible-ish way and just leave it there.

13. What is your oc’s immune system like? Are they invincible to illness, or are they compromised completely from the slightest of dirt?

He’s somewhere in the middle, honestly? He’s usually relatively okay, but is prone to falling ill when it’s cold/flu season around winter, though when he does get sick he rides it out pretty fast.

20. Does your oc have any pleasure that embarrasses them so they keep it secret? Or are they open about all the things they enjoy?

He doesn’t have anything that embarrasses him as far as things he enjoys go. Though there are things that he’ll keep secret for the sake of the safety of his friends. He won’t reveal that he lives in a big mansion (the fact that it’s a mansion doesn’t matter to him, just that he has a roof over his head), or just how much he enjoys Zee’s company, unless he’s really close to someone.

7. How would you describe your oc’s voice? Do they have an accent? Do you have any voice claims for them?

Storm’s actually one of my few OCs that has a voice claim! Kind of. The voice from Mugen from Samurai Champloo, but a tad more high pitched. He has a southern accent, though he fakes it. Whether it’s convincingly or not depends entirely on how funny it’d be for it to be obvious it’s fake in the moment HSGDHSGDSH

29. If your oc was in a video game, what would their idle animation be? (When the player stays still for too long, the animation that plays.)

He’d play around with his artificial arm by making crackles of electricity.

Ry:

3. How easy to annoy is your oc? Do they have common pet-peeves or are they stoic in response to everything? What is their reaction if the source doesn’t stop?

I feel like it’s not easy to annoy him if you’re a stranger, at least as long as you’re trying to annoy him just by jabs at his own person. He’d get more annoyed if jabs aimed at his brother start happening. But otherwise he either brushes off annoyances, or fires back at the people trying to annoy him by trying to annoy them in turn.

14. Does your oc do anything “just for the aesthetic”? Or are they completely practical in everything?

Tbh 90% of his look is ‘just for the aesthetic’. There are practical uses in the things he uses, such as things that conduct electricity and/or will amplify the power of his element based hits. But there’s also no practicality in the back of his shoes being able to draw from his power and light up and leave an electric trail behind him. It’s all just shiny zappy aesthetics SHDGSHGD

22.How long can your oc stay focused on one task before they get bored? Do they constantly have to switch things up or do they hyperfocus? What sort of things is it the opposite for?

Unless he’s in some sort of danger where he definitely has to 100% focus on the task at hand and getting out of trouble, he can get pretty bored if what he’s doing isn’t interesting to him. Like he could mess around with the zircon for hours, trying to figure things out about it. But give him, idk, a rubiks cube, and he’ll mess around with it for like 5 minutes before going ‘uGH I cant do it this is boring’ and trying to find something else to do.

7. How would you describe your oc’s voice? Do they have an accent? Do you have any voice claims for them?

Ngl I have 0 idea how to describe his voice and I definitely have no voice claims

29. If your oc was in a video game, what would their idle animation be? (When the player stays still for too long, the animation that plays.)

He’d pause and. Idk how to describe like. Take a stance with his arms on either side of him to make electricity surge over them a few times, kinda like mini lightning crackles.

Sharp:

11. How competitive is your oc? Is every little task something that they can win, or are they just in competitions for the fun of it? Is there anyone they’re most competitive with?

GOD HE’S SO COMPETITIVE. If you give him ANYTHING and tell him it’s a competition, he HAS to come out on top. Doesn’t matter who he’s up against, especially if you introduce him to it like ‘this is a competition and this other person is SO good at this, I bet they’re better than you at it’ he’ll go fuckin. Feral. SHDGSHDG. He HAS to win and prove that he’s better or at the very least worthy

23. What is the most annoying sound to your oc? What’s the most pleasant? Is there any reason?

Tones of voice that sound even the littlest bit condescending to him while someone is talking to him HSGDHS He hates being looked down upon, or made to feel like he hasn’t tried his best even though he knows he has. He really really hates the type of talk that makes him feel like the person talking is basically saying they know him better than he does himself.

He loves the sound of rain. He loves rain in general, and if it’s not an outright windy storm, he’ll go out in it. Being out in the rain is connected to him getting to relax and calm down at this point.

31. What time of day is your oc most awake? What about most tired? Do they get up at the same time every morning without need of an alarm, or is their sleep schedule all over the place?

The morning is when he’s most tired, and the afternoon is when he’s most awake. His sleep schedule is all over the place when it comes to waking up. Sometimes he gets up in the morning without being prompted to, other times he sleeps in. Winter is when his schedule leans more towars “sleeps in” 90% of the time because he’d rather stay snuggled up in bed than get up.

7. How would you describe your oc’s voice? Do they have an accent? Do you have any voice claims for them?

I ACTUALLY FIGURED THIS OUT RECENTLY AND I HATED HOW IT HAPPENED SHDGSHDGSH

Ok so I had like a clear type of voice for him in my head for months, but no examples of it or ways to describe it. And then a week or so ago there was a video on my dash. You know the purple scientist dude from OK KO? Well evidently he’s voiced by a VA that also voices a character in GTA.

So the video was voice clips from his character in GTA, synced to clips from the dude from OK KO. It had some types of profanities bc ofc it did its GTA, the types that’d normally cause me to stop a video and move along. But I didn’t because the goddamn voice was *perfect* for Sharp. ESPECIALLY how he sounds like when he yells. There’s this one bit where he yells “rrgghHHHH ASSHOLE!!!! EVERYBODY!!!! ASSHOLES!!!!” and it’s goddamn peak Sharp both in the line and in the voice and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. So I just sat there listening to this continuously like ‘wow! I hate when certain things are mentioned but this is Sharp’s voice!!’

29. If your oc was in a video game, what would their idle animation be? (When the player stays still for too long, the animation that plays.)

God honestly this made me imagine like. You know how in Sonic CD if you leave it for too long, Sonic taps his foot a few times and then when too much time’s passed he just goes ‘I’m outta here!’ and jumps off the screen?

Something like that except instead of occasional foot tapping Sharp’s muttering things like ‘c’mon play the game’. And he progressively gets shoutier like ‘play the game…just…just. PicK UP. THE CONTROLLER!! AND PLAY THE GAME!!!! PLAY THE GAME ALREADY!!!!’ until he finally has enough and lunges at the screen like “juST FUCKIN GO ALREADY GIVE ME THAT CONTROLLER!!!!” shdgHSGDHSGDHS

#tHANK U NIKKI #ask #meme responses #Sonic stuffs #FCs #Cyclone #Storm #Ry #Sharp #long post #bunnikkila

5 notes · View notes

ebachan · 5 years

Text

Sonic’s Movie is Good

Okay, I have heard quite a few ridiculous claims Sonic’s Movie will suck despite the redesign. That is quite a claim with nothing to back it up. Or almost nothing.

Not much is known about the plot, but before we move to it, let’s remind ourselves what each Sonic game was about.

Games:

Sonic 1

Sonic 2

Sonic 3

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Sonic A1

Sonic A2

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic Colors

Sonic Generations

Sonic Forces

Sonic and Black Knight

Sonic ...

Uuuuf... Let me catch my breath first, I’m not that fast as Sonic ;-)

So, here we have a small sample I cooked up at the spot. So, what is the plot? It can be summarized in four words - Save the world/stop Eggman

Okay, theoretically it’s five... But, my point still stands.

So, people kind of complaint Sonic’s Movie is about him saving the world = simple/primitive even. (Do I get it right?) If “saving the world”-trope/plot is lame, I guess LOTR or Star Wards are lame too. After all, they are “just” about saving the world as well.

Now, please notice the sarcasm. I use it when dealing with close-minded humans. Thank you for understanding. My point is - every story has a theme. Being it save the world, go on an adventure, or solve a mystery. I have somewhere read an article about Seven Main Plot Lines in Books (Maybe it was more of them ^_^;). Each book, no matter how awesome it is, can be categorized in one of those “cliché plots”.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t make them bad or boring. Do you go and read a book to know how it ends? Yes, some books have shocking ends you don’t expect. With some, you know how it will end - hero will beat the baddie and lives happily ever after.

Well, how about the journey in the middle? Isn’t it the most exciting part of the story? It sure is. It can have anything - humor, action, adventure, mystery, romance, angst, twists, character’s growth, world building. The list can go on. The end is just a cherry at the top, it’s the middle part that sucks us in.

In other worlds - Stop judging Sonic’s Movie based on the premise. It’s stupid.

What do we know for sure:

Sonic is an alien.

Different planet, but in one universe

Or different dimension means two different universes like in games.

Government is after Sonic

You telling me this is stupid? I would be knocking on my forehead if no military was involved when Sonic appears, especially after the shockwave knocked out half of the continent. You can’t ignore him. This part reminds me of Season 1 of Sonic X when Sonic was chased by humans to find out how he ticks.

Also, this has E.T. vibes, and nobody says the premise of a human kid helping a lost alien to escape from the government to return home is stupid ;-)

In other words, Sonic is a too big deal to be ignored by the military. They have to take action.

Pair up Sonic and Tom

No problem here. We often see two unlikely individuals joining forces to beat bigger baddies. It provides nice dynamics and often helps both parties to see the world from a new perspective.

Game inspiration

There seems to be still the confusion about what type of story Sonic’s Movie tells. I think it was even officially stated, that this movie is a prequel to Sonic 1 and partly Sonic 1 too. So kinda like Sonic 0.5.

It tells how Eggman/Robotnik and Sonic became enemies. The game never explained this, nor why Eggman wants to conquer the world. At least that Amusement Park of Death is an original tidbit :-D So, in a way we can get some answers or the alternative way how to look at their frenemies relationship from games.

We can also get more about how the Two Worlds (Mobius, Earth) are connected. For me, I still can’t wrap my head around it. It kinda feels they made it up to cover some plot holes, but whatever. The idea itself is interesting.

It has a lot of Easter Eggs but introduces Sonic to kids

There was a test screening during January/February and here is the comment from that person (found on Reddit).

The movie aims to bring a new origin story for Sonic and Robotnik. Its main goal is to introduce children to Sonic the Hedgehog as a character, but at the same time throw references and pay homages to details from the original game series for the longtime fans. It aims for a PG Rating.

He gave the movie a 7/10 grade. “It’s geared towards new fans with respect for the older peeps. Just go into it knowing that new kids will fall in love like we all did at one point.”

About how the movie was like, he said that “ Id say it is more TMNT with reference to story and action balance. It’s a solid mix between engaging action which continues to develop the bromance between sonic and Tom.”

“Its definitely being targeted towards youth demo. It seems their goal is to intro sonic to the next Gen of fans. More so with access to their parent's wallets for the spin-off merch and happy meal toys. I enjoyed it similar to seeing transformers. Don’t expect the green mile storytelling but turn your brain off and just enjoy for what it is, The cast does a great job” Robotnik is only called by the Robotnik name in the movie, no mention of the Eggman name at all.

It's about 90 minutes long

“ It’s a good balance between giving the old fans something but introducing him to kids. I went in not knowing it was gonna be screened or any expectations. Cheesy but enjoyed it from start to finish. Jim Carrey kills the role.”

“ Action scenes were great in storytelling and execution wise. Effects weren’t complete so a lot of it was still early CGI and the hidden actors playing sonic. At one point he was just a blue doll on the counter lol”

The post contains some “plot” for the movie, so I won’t post more. I actually skipped once I noticed this ;-)

I don't know how you, but I’m going to watch this movie no matter what!

@movie-sonic-positivity @movie-robotnik-positivity

#sonic movie #sonic movie 2019 #sonic movie positivity #sonic movie 2020 #movie sonic #sonic the hedgehog #dr. eggman #dr. robotnik #jim carrey

115 notes · View notes

skekteksfurby · 5 years

Text

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: A Lookback

I’ve been uncertain about whether or not to do it, but I’ve decided to go through with it. Tonight is the finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a series that used to be a huge part of me. It’s a bit of a bittersweet ending for me. I know I’ve already seen the leaked final episodes, but I’m going to be watching them again after they’ve officially aired tonight.

But for now, I’m just going to look back at this show, my thoughts on it, and how it affected me.

Pre-G4

My journey with the MLP series actually goes way back. I remember watching the G1 series and movie a lot of times. I collected some of the toys, though I only started getting into collecting those when G2 was just coming out, as those were the toys I had the most of (and to this day still like the most aesthetically). I also had some of the G1 episodes on VHS, which I would watch over and over again. My favorite G1 pony was Sweetstuff!

I actually never watched the G2 series, My Little Pony Tales, and (from what I’ve heard), that’s maybe for the better. I really enjoyed collecting the G2 toys, though, and playing the G2 game. I to this day regret losing it somewhere.

G3 I also enjoyed. At least, what I saw of it. The A Charming Birthday special still was the one I watched the most due to having a VHS of it as well. I saw the occasional other special of G3, but never a lot. I stopped watching the series after a while, having reached the age where I moved onto other things, though I still collected those tiny Ponyville ponies that came out. Finally, after doing nothing with my old ponies (my collection was mostly G2 and G3 at this point) I gave all of them (safe for the Ponyville ones) away to a local school.

Then G4 came along.

G4- Season 1

My first thoughts when seeing the images and clips of the new series was just mostly neutral. I thought Fluttershy looked like Posey and I was at first honestly kind of pissed off they made Rainbow Dash a pegasus tomboy (I actually really liked her G3 counterpart back in the day, so seeing her this different was weird to me).

I didn’t actually watch the show, but a lot of my internet friends these days were into the series, and I started to see the Brony phenomenon pop up slowly and surely more and more. It didn’t really bother me, just thought it was kind of odd at first, but soon accepted it.

Then, finally, though I don’t know what it was that made me do it, I checked out the opening two-parter. And I really liked it. I watched a few more episodes after that, though out of order, and eventually grew disinterested, so I abandoned it after a whilewithout having watched some season 1 episodes. I also didn’t like the finale of this season (which I really thought would be the final episode back when). I still liked some aspects of this series. Over a Barrel and Sonic Rainboom were my favorite episodes, and I really loved Rainbow Dash as a character.

I didn’t participate much in the fandom, however, unless you count me chatting with my back-then best friend Abra about it.

G4- Season 2

I got back into the series when season 2 just came out, and this is the point where I like to consider myself officially becoming a fan. A popular animash YouTuber I was subscribed to back in the day uploaded the two-parter to his channel, and I watched it, and just kinda got hooked from there. I loved Return of Harmony and Discord as a villain.

I watched all of the other season 2 episodes as they were coming out. I didn’t tune into livestreams quite yet, but all of the episodes were still safely uploaded to YouTube (Hasbro didn’t go copyright strike-mad yet) and I watched them there. My favorite episode that I watched when it came out was A Canterlot Wedding. Another one that just really hit close to home was Hurricane Fluttershy, and slowly but surely she started to become my favorite pony, after Derpy (yes, I used to be big into background ponies. Don’t judge me, I was having fun).

After I was out of season 2 content to enjoy, I started to go back and watch those final season 1 episodes I missed out on earlier. I also started to participate more in the fandom, faving tons of MLP art on DeviantART and of course making my own OC’s. I even wrote a fanfic for a while (in my back then very, very broken English) about my OC Thundershot. It was horribly unoriginal and she was basically diet Rainbow Dash, but what can you do.

I also bought some of the G4 toys while this was going on, though I was very shy about it since I had no one to share it with and I was by this point well past the target demographic. I probably had it easier than most male bronies at this point, but still felt very awkward about it.

G4- Season 3-4

Season 3 marks the point where I figured out how to watch livestreams. I remember being really excited for The Crystal Empire (and ultimately being disappointed by it). I was there during the livestream of that, and, yes, I did indeed experience the Gak meme being born. Good ol’ times.

All other episodes I also proceeded to watch of this season on stream. This was also roughly where I discovered the MLP review/analysis community. I animated a lot in these days (we’re not going to talk about what) and would have these videos playing in the background to have something to listen to.

I also recall really liking some season 3 episodes that others hated. I’m actually kinda fond of Apple Family Reunion and Spike at Your Service to this day. Spike and Applejack also were my least favorite characters back then, so it was unusual for me to enjoy their episodes. As for the Discord redemption thing... I used to be all for it back when, but nowadays I honestly think I’d preferred it if he stayed a villain, or got a better redemption. More on that later.

Season 4 was and still is my favorite season of this show. It gave us wonderful episodes such as Flight to the Finish; Rarity Takes Manehattan; Pinkie Pride, Maud Pie; Testing, Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3; Equestria Games and of course the very best episode to come out of this entire show: Twilight’s Kingdom. I will fight you on that.

By this season Rarity slowly also started to be one of my favorite ponies, and I even grew to like Spike a lot more. Applejack I still couldn’t care less about, though. No matter how much I want to like the character, I just can’t connect to her at all.

This season was where I liked to consider my fan-ness for this series was at it’s peak. I actively drew fanart, browsed art, listened loyally to every major analysis/review brony’s thoughts on each episode, watched a shitton of those GMod/SFM animations, PMV’s, joined nearly every stream, etc. Now I just had to wait for season 5.

G4- Season 5-7

This is, unfortunately, where things started to become a blur for me. Not only because I felt that nothing could top season 4, but also due to my deteriorating mental health. 2015 is where my depression started. I had less gusto to do literally anything, including participating in the fandom and watching the show.

There was also more shit going on in the fandom, with major analysis/review bronies (among others) leaving (and some making quite a big stink about it, too). I myself still watched some of the streams of the earlier episodes, but felt more and more disconnected from the show. One episode I did really cling onto, though, was Amending Fences, as it really hit close for me.

I continued to watch little to none of the new episodes. I know season 6 was coming out at some point, but just ignored it. I had at this point lost all my care for a lot of things, MLP included.

However, as I eventually got better, I finally started to be interested in the show again. I had a shitton of catching up to do, as I think season 7 was already past the halfway point or maybe even nearly done. So I continued to watch the new episodes. And I... enjoyed it. In moderation, maybe, as I still wasn’t back to how I used to be, and I still don’t enjoy a lot of these episodes to the same extent I did some of the older ones, but I enjoyed it at the very least again.

Some things I did not care about in 6-7 were Starlight Glimmer and how Discord was handled. Starlight I initially liked, but quickly saw how bad of a character she really was. I was also all of Discord’s redemption in season 3, but then the seasons onward proceeded to turn him into an expy of the Genie from Disney’s Aladdin. Feel free to chase me with your pitchforks for saying this but, I never quite liked Genie from that a lot. He’s funny at some points, but also really annoying and needlessly busy for me? I always got this feeling that he would overstimulate me if we got more content of this guy. I just never cared much about the Genie, so seeing Discord become essentially this was a big disappointment.

I did like Trixie’s return, though she could also be needlessly air-headed. Overall, seasons 5-6-7 were much more of a blur for me. A blur I somewhat enjoyed, but still more or less a blur. I can recall very little episodes of these seasons by name, or name very little I actually really liked.

G4- The Movie

If you want to hear my full thoughts on it, just go here, where I did a Movie Thoughts on it. I actually saw this one in cinema with my friend... in Dutch. Yeah, there was no OV release of it here, so I had to go to the cringy Dutch dub if I wanted to see it in cinema. I did this and, the horrid dub aside, I enjoyed it fine. Nothing grand, but it had some good animation and moments. I liked Tempest (though I definitely think she should’ve had more comeuppance for her crimes) and “Open Up Your Eyes” especially.

The movie didn’t particularly reawaken my old love for the show again, but I still thought it was decent and deserves some credit. I’d just rather re-watch some of my favorite episodes of the show over this film.

G4- Seasons 8-9

Though I was doing much, much better again at this point, the show still remained somewhat of a blur for me. I watched each episode, but, much like during 5-6-7, felt little to no need to watch them live or multiple times unless they stood out in particular.

I still don’t quite know what to make of the whole School of Friendship idea. I like the Young 6, but still wonder if they were really necessary. Couldn’t they have just told more stories about characters we already knew? We also got some episodes I really didn’t care for like Horse Play, The Parent Map, A Matter of Principals, Friendship University, The End in Friend and especially Yakity-Sax. As for Rockhoof and a Hard Place, I’m not even going into that. Yikes.

I also thought that the idea that the villain that is a kid gets sent to the MLP version of hell is really...yeah. No thanks.

I also watched some of the specials (Rainbow Roadtrip and The Best Gift Ever) during this time and felt rather uninterested about them. Also, no, I won’t be bringing up Equestria Girls in this.

Season 9 I’ve also seen in its entirety thanks to some Dutch streaming service leaking the final few episodes (again with the bad dub, but there’s not much to be done about that until the official release). Season 9 is again very much a blur for me. I tried to like it as much as I did in the old days, but I just don’t connect that much to this show again.

Still, I felt really bittersweet when the final few episodes were over. No matter how slowly disconnected I became from the show overtime, I still grew up with these characters. I was about 13 when I first got into the show. Now I’m 21 and a whole different person. I’ve combated a depression and trauma, learned to accept my gender identity, grown as a writer and artist, etc.

So, no matter how slowly I drifted apart from the show, I definitely do feel something for it. It’ll always have this special place in my heart, especially the first four seasons. I met a lot of people and got to experience what it was like being in a fandom for the first time. True, not everything that came out of the show and the fandom was pretty, and I still don’t feel comfortable calling myself a brony anymore. I just casually enjoy re-watching some of my favorite episodes from time to time.

Sorry for this rambly random distorted mess of a post, but I just wanted to do something for the 9-year anniversary and the final episodes coming out today. Thanks for the good times, MLP. I’m curious to see what G5 will have to offer. So long, horses.

#mlp: fim #mlp:fim #My Little Pony #my little pony friendship is magic #my little pony: friendship is magic #mlp #mlp g4 #tekrim text #long post

9 notes · View notes

prevdustinhendrsn · 6 years

Text

100 Questions

I was tagged by the beautiful @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold; thanks Kath!

1. What is your nickname? i don’t really have one; I know a lot of people on here call me ‘anna banana’ though

2. How old are you? 16

3. What is your birth month? September!

4. What is your zodiac sign? Virgo

5. What is your favorite color? red!

6. What’s your lucky number? idk??

7. Do you have any pets? i used to have a cat and a dog!! i loved them so much but we moved and had to put them up for adoption :(

8. Where are you from? southern USA

9. How tall are you? 5′5

10. What shoe size are you? like, a 9 maybe? it depends on the shoe really

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? six i think?

12. Are you random? i don’t even know what this question means

13. Last person you texted? one of my good friends

14. Are you psychic in any way? i’m creepy good at those games where you have to guess how many of x is in the jar

15. Last TV show watched? shadowhunters, i think? i’m starting a stranger things rewatch soon though

16. Favorite movie? AHHHHH there’s so many - maze runner, hunger games, greatest showman, dirty dancing, love actually, love simon, the imitation game, whiskey tango foxtrot, harry potter, tons of others

17. Favorite show from your childhood? avatar: the last airbender. i get so nostalgic at any mention of it - me and my brother watched it religiously and we still need to watch korra

18. Do you want children? big no

19. Do you want a church wedding? definitely not

20. What is your religion? i mean, my whole family is Christian but i don’t particularly believe in anything. if there’s a god, that’s cool, and if there’s not, that’s also cool

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? yep, for my tonsillectomy

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? no?

23. How is life? pretty good tbh

24. Baths or showers? i love using bath bombs and i prefer baths for shaving but otherwise showers are just quicker and easier

25. What color socks are you wearing? black

26. Have you ever been famous? no...?

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? i mean it definitely sounds awesome but i know there’s tons of crap that goes along with it

28. What type of music do you like? pretty much anything - alternative, classic rock, pop, whatever - as long as it isn’t country or gospel

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? once

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? three

31. What position do you usually sleep in? i usually fall asleep on my side and wake up on my back so

32. How big is your house? not huge, at least.

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? cereal or the miscellaneous piece of fruit

34. Have you ever left the country? yup!

35. Have you ever tried archery? i did, in a hunger-games-spurred phase that lasted all of ten minutes after i actually got my hands on a bow

36. Do you like anyone? nope

37. Favorite swear word? shit, it’s the one i say the most

38. When do you fall asleep? somewhere around 1:30 usually

39. Do you have any scars? i don’t think so

40. Sexual orientation? i don’t know! bi is probably the most apt word right now but i’m still figuring it out

41. Are you a good liar? yeah, but i feel horribly guilty about it after lol

42. What languages would you like to learn? i’m currently doing japanese bc i really want to live in japan at some point

43. Top 10 songs? i can’t list ten off the top of my head but a favorite right now is ‘who are you really’ by mikky ekko

44. Do you like your country? landscape wise, i LOVE my country. and we have sonic and chick-fil-a, which is fantastic

45. Do you have friends from the web? i’ve got a handful of online friends, yeah, but i’ve never met one irl

46. What is your personality type? INFP, according to this quiz

47. Hogwarts House? slytherin!

48. Can you curl your tongue? i think so? can’t roll it though

49. Pick one fictional character you can relate to? the first one i can think of is mike wheeler

50. Left or right handed? right

51. Are you scared of spiders? not really, unless they’re. like. on me.

52. Favorite food? kath is always so relatable - tex-mex is the best

53. Favorite foreign food? kath we have the same taste buds - italian or chinese

54. Are you a clean or messy person? messy pretty much

55. If you could switch your gender for a day, what would you do? AGAIN, KATH HITTING US WITH WINNING ANSWERS: go out at night and not be afraid. enjoy having pockets

56. What color underwear? black i think

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? like ten minutes

58. Do you have much of an ego? i don’t think so??

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? i bite them right off the bat. sue me

60. Do you talk to yourself? all the time. when am i not talking to myself

61. Do you sing to yourself? i sing out loud all the time

62. Are you a good singer? i like to think so! it’s about the only music-related talent i have

63. Biggest fears? the slimy stuff in the ocean. blindness.

64. Are you a gossip? i hate to say it but kind of

65. Are you a grammar nazi? i am in terms of your, you’re, there, their, they’re, and spelling

66. Do you have long or short hair? right in the middle - it falls to the top of my chest

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? if you gave me a map to label, i could do everything except the tiny ones in new england

68. Favorite school subject? math

69. Extrovert or Introvert? introvert, completely

70. Have you ever been scuba diving? yes!! it’s crazy awesome

71. What makes you nervous? confrontation lolol

72. Are you scared of the dark? only after i’ve watched a horror movie

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? mistakes as in spelling, yes.

74. Are you ticklish? of course i am

75. Have you ever started a rumor? not that i’m aware of

76. Have you ever been out of your home country? yep

77. Have you ever drank underage? yeah

78. Have you ever done drugs? nope

79. What do you fantasize about? having friends

80. How many piercings do you have? just my earlobes, but i’d love to get an industrial

81. Can you roll your R’s? nope

82. How fast can you type? 100 wpm ish

83. How fast can you run? pretty fast for all of ten seconds

84. What color is your hair? light brown

85. What color are your eyes? blue

86. What are you allergic to? eucalyptus! i found that out when i went to a koala zoo

87. Do you keep a journal? yeah, it’s super therapeutic

88. Are you depressed about anything? not really

89. Do you like your age? yeah!

90. What makes you angry? homophobia. shadowhunters being cancelled. mike’s bowl cut. flies.

91. Do you like your own name? i’m neutral on it

92. Did you ever get a foreign object up your nose? i mean. i sure hope not

93. Do you want a boy or a girl for a child? neither

94. What talents do you have? writing, eating an inhumane amount of chocolate, skipping rope (does that count). sleeping late.

95. Sun or moon? moon

96. How did you get your name? my parents just liked it

97. Are you religious? not really

98. Have you ever been to a therapist? nope

99. Color of your bedspread? it’s a blue and yellow quilt

100. Color of your room? white - i share the basement with my siblings. we should paint it though tbh

tagging @janeswheeler, @cstlebyrs, @moodyandmoonyeyed, @summer-in-hawkins, and @sadiesinkt

#wow this was a lot #idk who's already done this so only do it if you want to!#thanks for tagging me kath!#tagged #about me #i was going to put this under the cut but it looks hideous with my theme #i gotta get a new one soon

5 notes · View notes

glumvillain · 3 years

Text

GlumReviews #3

For today’s review we stay in familiar waters, the late 70′s. Yet another band that is heralded as a progenitor of the New Wave era. the Talking Heads, formed in New York City with a very apparent mission. To bring the nation the sounds of anxiety and paranoia deep from the heart of a city that most people only experience through movies.

Now I am not a Talking Heads newbie, lets just get that part out of the way, I am at most a “singles” kinda guy in this matter. This series is meant to review albums I’ve never heard before in their entirety and give my review within the same day. Burning Down the House, Psycho Killer, that one David Byrne song with the music video-- that’s my extent of knowledge here. So without further ado:

1.Thank You for Sending Me Angel

For some context to what this album enters with, its worth taking a look at what was popular when this released, as per Billboard and Wiki

...yea. The country had Saturday Night Fever. And in the Mad Max-ian hellscape of disco there were these emerging bands that didn’t sound like your typical punk band but were doing every damn thing they could to tell an industry to go fuck itself. As synthesizers entered the picture at this point in music it’s interesting to hear all the ways they were being experimented with and I feel like the chaotic unknown of these sorta new instruments lends itself to Byrne’s erratic yelping and anxious singing. This intro to their 2nd album is a nice sampler of what Talking Heads are all about, what sounds like random noise is pulled together with eclectic percussive elements and Jerry Harrisons distictive guitar playing.

2.With Our Love

One thing the Talking Heads really have going for them are these plainly written lyrics that really leave no neuroses untouched. At times you feel like you’re reading from a page from Byrnes’ diary circa ‘75. Byrnes plays heavy on the theme of self reflection and the anxieties of boy/girl dynamics in this album. This track begins like a pseudo-disco jam, but as more elements are introduced into the mix we get into the familiar pacing of a Talking Heads song, that slow thumping, that guitar barely hanging onto the tuning. Byrnes’ erratic, broken vocal delivery adds to the feeling of chaos. The bass and guitar work really shine in portions here. Dare I call it emo disco?

3. The Good Thing

This album is admittedly a bit of a slow burn for me, this song feels like it could been left off to preserve the progression of the album. It’s light and airy, the lyrics are actually really good though. Like a daily affirmation, something to meditate on, I advise if you’re not into the song at least look up the lyrics. Don’t feel bad if you skip this track.

4. Warning Sign

If there’s one thing I love is a good bass line, and we enter with this great great guitar lick from Jerry Harrison to accompany. The jam intro gives way to an ominous tune that is the inner workings of self doubt and over-thinking. Is it paranoia if there are truly signs everywhere? Fans of Sonic Youth rejoice, this is the song that birthed several of theirs I’m sure. Definitely one of the better songs on this album and I’d say it has a home somewhere in a playlist of yours.

5. The Girl Wants to be with the Girls

A very mindful song about the observations of male/female society. Nothing cryptic to unravel here “Girls want things that make common sense/ The best for all concerned/ They don’t want to have to go out of their way”. Which is some pretty sane shit if you ask me. Lyrically a great song but musically unimpressive for what really impresses me later on in the album.

6. Found a Job

Another strong point for this album is the infectious bass grooves that are just non stop at points, once the energy is gained that momentum is never lost. (dont mind track 3). This song tells an interesting story that’s worth your time, a Talking Heads essential if I could be so bold. A story about a couple who are television writers, inventing situations, putting them in their scripts, making stories about their friends and family. “So think about this little scene, apply it to your life/ If your work isn’t what you love, then something isn’t right.” And what more is there to say but hell yea David Byrnes.

7. Artists Only

If one of their first singles, “Psycho Killer” was Scream, this would be Scream 2, (electric boogaloo, sorry.) In such that it conveys that same dark, manic feeling of that first person point-of-view. It’s dissonant and creepy, if you have a Halloween playlist, chuck it in there for some major artheux points. And I think any creatives out there would really appreciate the tone of this song as it conveys what we’ve probably all felt in our processes.

8. I’m Not in Love

The slow burn is over. I find myself liking the latter portion of the album alot more than the first portion. Maybe it’s because I get major Queen vibes from this, there’s some disco in there. This is probably one of my favorite tracks off of the album purely for the structure and lyrics. “I can answer your questions if you won’t twist what I say/ Please respect my opinions, They will be respected someday/ But I don’t need love--”. And again-- hell yea David Byrnes. Despite any small changes in sound, each flavor is completely their own as that ever distinctive guitar owns so much real estate in these songs. Please please please, for the love of Freddie Mercury, do not skip this song.

9. Stay Hungry

This song in itself is a slow burn but there’s a beautiful payoff if you can just wait a minute. literally. This is a beautiful Talking Heads moment as you get the classic two for one song, one song leading into a completely different one. This is like a direct descendent of a Nine Inch Nails song. And as we all face our dietary woes in this pandemic, who can’t agree with the title of the song? This song has a bass line that just kills me. Don’t skip.

10. Take Me to the River

It’s nice to have a reference for a cover so if you got the time, check out the original here. It’s an interesting choice for a cover, but you hear the original and you think to yourself, well damn it’s like it was made to be covered by this exact band. Tacking on an extra two minutes from the original, it’s a masterful cover that only builds on an already-legendary record. Don’t skip. Every performer in this recording is at the top of their game.

11. The Big Country

The album closer takes a hard turn down south into a country-western type beat. A stark contrast of what the usual representation of what life on the road as a rockstar would be. It’s a hard wind-down from all of the energy and chaos of the past 10 tracks, the lyrical content and clarity of the track comes off as the clearest parts of his mind have purged all of the quirky mannerisms and humor to shirk off the dark feelings of depression and/or anxiety. This is a beautiful song, in complete opposition from what the rest of the album presented. Another point on this album is that it always leaves you wondering what the next song is gonna sound like. From this album alone no two songs sound alike, no experience feels duplicated, but at least one track could have been left off just to make that slow burn a little faster

This album was a bit harder to digest than the previous two and I needed to listen to it a few times before it really grew on me. I stand by my statement that this album definitely gets better in the latter half and it has some amazing songs worth checking out.

⭐⭐⭐/5

The more I listened to it, the more it grew on me, but I can’t help but feel like I wasn’t listening to their best. While their best songs on this album were really good, I think Talking Heads has yet to be fully realized in their sophomore album.

0 notes

dynamite-derek · 6 years

Text

My personal top-10 games of 2017

With 2017 slowly fading, it feels like my favorite games of the year are locked firmly in place. 2017 was a strong year and while it was hard compiling a list of my favorite games, I also feel pretty good about my list. That said, there are some games that I didn’t get around to playing that I feel had a good chance of making my list if I had gotten around to them. They are: Nioh, Resident Evil VII, Trails in the Sky 3 and Golf Story. After I finish Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I think I wanna tackle RE VII. Alas. Only so much time in the day. So, let’s get started.

10-) Splatoon 2 - Not the most original sequel ever made, but I had a lot of fun with it. Splatoon 2 carries a lot of what made the first one so great over to the Switch. There are some new features - including new weapons and a wave-based mode where a squad of human players takes on AI called Salmon Run - but it’s mostly more of the same. Given that this is only the second Splatoon I can look past that. I had a lot of fun with it and am happy that people who couldn’t experience the original on the Wii U can fool around with it now.

9-) Tekken 7 - I have a lot of love for the Tekken series. I remember renting and playing Tekken 3 for hours. I once wrote a way-too-long column about how Tekken 5 was like a love letter to fans. 7 was just a really solid new addition to the franchise. The character customization was super deep and allowed for very unique feeling takes on familiar fighters. It also has both Akuma and Geese, which is the closest we’ll ever get to a Capcom vs. SNK 3 it feels like.

8-) Sonic Mania - I don’t buy into the belief that there has never been a good 3D Sonic game and I certainly don’t buy into there never being ANY good Sonic games. That said, I will definitely say that the series has had far more spotty entries than good ones. When I first beat it, I think I suggested that it was better than Sonic 3 and Knuckles. That’s insane. A Sonic game in 2017 is at least on par with 3+K, a game many consider to be the best Sonic game ever. And it’s made by fans! If I had to describe my experience with Sonic Mania in one word it’d be: joy. Shame Sonic Forces also came out this year, robbing me of all my blue blur joy.

7-) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - It feels insane to me that Zelda is only ranked at 7, but that’s how strong 2017 was to me personally. Breath of the Wild brought an entirely fresh feeling to the very stale Zelda franchise. Honestly, I hated Skyward Sword. I didn’t have a whole lot of hype for Zelda. If it wasn’t a launch game with the Switch, I might have waited to give it a go. ...Obviously the hype around it would have brought me in eventually. And it was totally different. It brought a world that was fun to explore with mechanics that were fun to tinker and experiment with. For weeks, people would post videos of them doing weird things with the various objects in the game. It’ll be interesting to see what a new Zelda game does. Will it be another big open world? Is this the new face of Zelda?

6-) Cuphead - Aesthetically one of my favorite looking games ever made. It legitimately looks like a 1920′s era cartoon in motion. The visuals only aid in how great the game plays. It not only has a retro aesthetic, but in the gameplay department it also brings with it a retro-feeling difficulty. You have to memorize boss patterns, look for visual cues and have a quick trigger finger in order to survive. With the difficulty also comes the sheer joy of beating boss that is just dominating the hell out of you. I feel like I struggled for over an hour on this clown boss. I almost feel like I got lucky even beating him. His stupid charlie horses always popped up at inappropriate times. But when I managed to win, it felt like I really accomplished something. My only complaint about it is that I wish there were no run-and-gun levels. I just wanted to not play them and get back to the boss battles. They felt like an after-thought.

5-) Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - I did not see this game hitting me as hard as it did. I enjoyed the first two Danganronpas and even endured the anime, which served as a conclusion to the storyline that played out in the first two. DRV3 plays much like the first two games, but where it shines is the story. A big twist occurs in the first chapter and the hits just keep coming after that.Then chapter 6 hits and brings with it one of the best plot twists and endings I have ever seen in a video game. I’m not going to spoil the ending in case a person who wants to play DRV3 stumbles across this list somehow, but the last couple hours of the game hits the player hard and makes you think about narrative and story telling in general in a really interesting way. One of my favorite bits towards the end involves real life things about the game, like the logo. It’s just well thought out and compelling. Even if you’ve never played a Danganronpa, play this game. It also introduced my favorite character of the year Kokichi Ouma.

4-) Nier Automata - A sequel to Nier making my personal top-10 list probably isn’t that shocking. What is shocking is that Nier Automata has garnered praise from all over the gaming world and has become something of a surprise hit for Square Enix. There’s a good reason for this. Automata’s visual style, amazing music and depressing story telling help create a compelling world for the player. The story, as everybody is probably aware, is the real star of the show. It makes you ponder about life and humanity in ways rarely touched on in video games. One of the endings to the game, E, is one of the most effective ever. It really speaks to the player. I’m sure I’m not alone in sitting at the decision you need to make and really pondering it. The gameplay is also solid, but honestly a little weak for a Platinum game. Nier Automata feels like a miracle of a game and I’m thrilled that it has taken off as much as it has.

3-) Super Mario Odyssey - This game was just a pure delight. For years, it felt like they just weren’t making Mario games I was terribly interested in. I would never say Mario 3D World was a bad video game, but it just wasn’t what I wanted out of a Mario. It felt like a 2D Mario game in everything but the 3D gameplay. Mario Odyssey brings back the big worlds filled with objects to find seen in 64, Sunshine and Galaxy. The worlds were all really interesting too. I think everybody was excited to see New Donk City (Metro Kingdom), but to actually run around a realistic looking world as Mario really just feels surreal. It’s just great. It’s interesting to think about how Nintendo’s two biggest franchises took two different but equally successful approaches. Zelda completely flipped the script and tried to do something different. Mario refined what made some older Mario games great. Mario felt like a really polished Mario game, and honestly most years that will put it up there as one of the best games of the year.

2-) Yakuza 0 - I had always wanted to try to get into the Yakuza series before this year. The story just seemed too daunting to get into. There’s a lot of it, after all. I decided to give Yakuza 0 a shot because of its nature as the first chronologically in the series. I also saw hilarious screenshots, which helped to further my decision. I was hooked. Yakuza 0 not only tells an amazing story, but it gives you a world with a ton of things to do. There are amazing mini games - I found myself hooked to the Maid Cafe in particular - and a ton of sub stories to experience. You get to meet characters like NOT MICHAEL JACKSON, you can play Outrun, you can become a real estate mogul. Honestly, Yakuza 0 does a better job of creating what feels like a living, breathing city than even a Grand Theft Auto. Also, I just love Goro Majima. This game was so good that I played through Yakuza 1(Kiwami)-5 just to see what would happen to Kiryu and Majima. That’s not an insignificant chunk of playing time. But the world and story weaved by Yakuza 0 was so strong that I knew I wanted to be along for the ride. Play these games.

1-) Persona 5 - I had to think long and hard about whether Yakuza would top Persona. In the end, I honestly feel both games are among my favorite games ever made. Persona 5 seems like a title that was made specifically for me. It is amazingly slick, has some of the best music I’ve ever heard in a video game (Specifically Rivers in the Desert), and features a cast of characters that I really deeply cared about. I wanted to see more of their lives and I was actually sad when Persona 5 ended because I knew it’d be a while before I saw Makoto Niijima or Yusuke Kitagawa again. There are things I’d like to see Persona 6 work on - it’d be great to see your confidants interact with more people for instance - but Persona 5 was a gripping experience and really spoke to me at times. And honestly, sometimes it’s fun to turn your brain off and just grind against demons in a dungeon. It was a close race, but I knew Persona 5 would be my favorite game of the year before the year started. It’s nice to be right for a change.

That’s all for now. I know this is tl;dr, but I wanted to write out my favorite games somewhere.

#Game of the year #video games #opinion #Splatoon 2 #Tekken 7 #Sonic Mania #Breath of the Wild #Cuphead #Danganronpa V3 #Nier Automata #Super Mario Odyssey #Yakuza 0 #Persona 5 #games

19 notes · View notes

pixelgrotto · 6 years

Photo

Sega and franchise decay

Sonic Forces, the newest 3D game to star a certain blue hedgehog, is out now and receiving middling reviews. Rather than talk about it, I’d rather discuss the 2D Sonic Mania, which came out a few months ago. I never got the chance to blog about it until now, but you can read my Steam review for what it’s worth. I would’ve preferred that the game be composed of all new levels instead of a few new ones and remixed oldies, and in some ways I do believe that Sonic Generations did the “celebration of past and future” shtick a tad better, but overall, I had a good time with Mania. The most impressive thing about it, in my eyes, is how well it captures that 90s-2000s Sega “magic.” It’s hard to describe this in words, but during those years the company’s output, especially their in-house, exclusive stuff, just radiated coolness and creativity that was a little different from what Nintendo was doing. Whether it was the neon visual smorgasbord that encompassed all of the zones in Sonic’s games or the Moebius-inspired fantasy trappings of the Panzer Dragoon series, Sega’s games often seemed fresher and sexier, with dashes of unexpected punk and sophistication in them that the Big N could never really capture. I mean, the run ‘n jump levels and cheery tunes of the Mushroom Kingdom in the Mario games were wonderful, but hell, Sonic 3 featured snowboarding action and a soundtrack that Michael Jackson worked on.

Unfortunately, while the Nintendo of 2017 is kicking butt with the Switch and has upcoming releases scheduled for most of their classic franchises, the Sega of 2017 is in a much different position, and the changes began after the sad failure of the Dreamcast in 2001, when Sega killed off its hardware unit. In the years since, the company’s slowly morphed from a creative house that bankrolled a franchise of games starring an alien-fighting aquatic mammal (Ecco the Dolphin) into a conservative organization that does NOT want to repeat the monetary losses that were suffered during the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast eras, and is therefore highly selective with what it publishes and develops. And somewhere along the way, most of the older franchises that Sega was known for went by the wayside, because their most recent entries either underperformed or they were considered too risky for today’s gaming environment. If you look at the company’s website, you can see a list of what modern Sega considers to be their top tier franchises, and most of them are Western ones that were acquired fairly recently, like Company of Heroes. As far as notable in-house Japanese stuff is concerned, you’ve really only got the Yakuza and Hatsune Miku games (guaranteed moneymakers in Japan, which is why they keep getting made), and Sonic (a guaranteed moneymaker in the rest of the world). What happened to all those franchises of the past, then? Sega let them decay. Shinobi got its last release - a pretty good 3DS game - in 2011, and there’s been nary a word since. Anything is possible with ninjas, since Capcom brought Strider back from a 15 year retirement in 2013, but for now, Joe Musashi is AWOL. Ecco the Dolphin died in the Dreamcast era, Shining Force seems to have sputtered out after several PS2 and PSP releases that barely resembled the series’ strategy roots, and Panzer Dragoon vanished after Sega’s short-lived flirtation with the original Xbox in the early 2000s. The Oasis series (Beyond Oasis and Legend of Thor) never survived past the Sega Saturn, despite featuring excellent top-down action RPG gameplay that had the potential to go up against Zelda, if Sega had only invested the resources. While we’re on the topic of RPGs, Phantasy Star *sort of* still lives on as an MMO, but the single player entries in the series have long been dead, and even after five years, Sega has still refused to localize Phantasy Star Online 2 outside of Japan. And then we have two really depressing ones - Streets of Rage has been MIA even though Sega went out of its way to issue a takedown notice for a popular fan remake that was released in 2011, and Virtua Fighter, despite being pretty much the earliest 3D fighting franchise, hasn’t seen a real entry since 2006, and only exists as a cheap mobile game now. (I realize there are plenty of other franchises I’m leaving out here like Jet Set Radio, but I decided to limit my focus to games I’d played.)

In the aftermath of Sonic Mania’s release, there were a number of threads on NeoGAF (before GAF, well, imploded), speculating on what franchises should receive a “Mania” type resurrection. And if you’ve read up to this point, you can guess what my answer will be - damn near all of Sega’s old series could use this treatment. New versions of Shining Force and Panzer Dragoon that respect their legacy by emulating the style of their forefathers while introducing just enough new stuff to appeal to younger fans would absolutely make me lose my mind. But I feel that we’re unlikely to ever get a “Shining Mania” or “Panzer Dragoon Mania,” because the circumstances that brought us Sonic Mania are unique. Sonic has always had a robust fangame and ROM hacking community, and it was Christian Whitehead, one of those fan engineers, whose mobile port of Sonic CD just happened to be good enough to get Sega to hire him to port other Sonic games to phones. One thing led to another, and eventually Christian got tasked to take the lead in making Sonic Mania. Sega’s other old franchises don’t inspire fans and homebrew projects in quite the same way, and even though Streets of Rage came close with that 2011 remake, Sega swooped in pretty fast to nuke that one from the net, and I don’t think they gave any of the former devs jobs. This is because Sega just doesn’t care about Streets of Rage, Ecco the Dolphin, or even Virtua Fighter as much as Sonic. The blue hedgehog is a long-term mascot who’s managed to survive oodles of so-so 3D games (like the new Sonic Forces) to still be popular 25+ years after his birth. He’s not seen as a risk to the conservative Sega of 2017. A new Oasis game, on the other hand, probably is, and why should Sega stretch their lessened in-house production studios on what might be criticized as a Zelda clone when they can instead make another proven thing - a new Sonic, or perhaps a Yakuza or Hatsune Mika spinoff? No, I think the only way some of these franchises could be resurrected is if the original devs manage to grab hold of the license and take to Kickstarter, as is the case with Shenmue 3, a rare success story in this day in age. (Emphasis on the word RARE…and I’d actually rather not call Shenmue 3 a total “success” until the game is out, to be honest.) Franchise decay isn’t unique to Sega. It’s an affliction present in many other production studios, from Square Enix (I miss you, Parasite Eve) to Capcom (the mobile Breath of Fire 6 does not count) to Konami (Contra, Suikoden, damn near everything). Even Nintendo, who have generally done a fine job at avoiding this by bringing Kid Icarus and 2D Metroid back from the dead, have seemingly gone out of their way to not make a new F-Zero game for an awfully long time. But Sega is definitely the king when it comes to the sheer number of oldies that could stand to be updated for a new generation, but won’t be. And Sega are also the only ones to tempt us with Sonic Mania, a game chock-full of easter eggs to old titles that also offers a template which would be PERFECT for something like Shinobi or Streets of Rage…but one that likely won’t be used. Because the magical Sega of yesteryear, the one that got Michael Jackson to fiddle with Sonic 3 and used to be oh so fresh and oh so cool, is not the Sega of today. RIP, Shinobi, Ecco, Shining Force, Panzer Dragoon, Oasis, single player Phantasy Star, Streets of Rage and Virtua Fighter. Somewhere, in the same alternate universe that Sonic Mania manifested from, the Dreamcast did super well and all of you are on your tenth respective entries right now.

It’s a blast processing fever dream, but isn’t it a nice one? (Header Sonic Mania screenshot taken by me. All the other pics I jacked from Mobygames.)

#pixel grotto #musings #video games #sega #sonic mania #sonic the hedgehog #shinobi #ecco the dolphin #shining force #panzer dragoon #beyond oasis #phantasy star #streets of rage #virtua fighter

11 notes · View notes

weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

Text

The Weekend Warrior March 6, 2020 – ONWARD, THE WAY BACK, EMMA and MUCH More!

Thankfully, February ended pretty well as The Invisible Man fell just shy of my abridged $30 million opening prediction, but still, $29 million is pretty damn good, and the movie’s “B+” CinemaScore makes me think that it will do pretty well going into March even with another Blumhouse genre film opening next week. Oh, yeah, and A Quiet Place Part 2. Anyway, next week is next week. Let’s get to this week…

March kicks off with ONWARD, the latest animated movie from Disney’s Pixar Animation division, which his coming off its 10th Oscar in the Animated Feature category last month, as it launches its 23rd movie over the course of 25 years. It’s pretty amazing how far Pixar has come since it was launched with John Lasseter’s Toy Story way back in 1995, the company having amassed $6 billion in North America alone and $14.4 billion worldwide.

Onward is the new movie from Monsters University director Dan Scanlon, a fantasy involving two elf brothers, voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, who go on a quest to find magic that will help them bring back their dead father. The movie also features the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Tracey Ullman, Lena Waithe, Octavia Spencer, Ali Wong and Mel Rodriguez.

This is Pixar’s first original movie since Coco in 2017, but it’s also the first movie released by the studio outside of the profitable summer and holiday box office seasons. It’s certainly a departure, but this will also be the third time where there are two Pixar movies in the same year. The last time this happened was in 2015 when the summer release Inside Out was another $350 million hit but it led to the November release of The Good Dinosaur, which to date is still Pixar’s lowest grosser even compared to 1998’s A Bug’s Life. Good Dinosaur opened with just $39 million over the normally-lucrative Thanksgiving weekend and only grossed $123 million domestic. The March release might make some wonder if Onward isn’t one of Pixar’s stronger offerings. (Pete Docter’s Soulis getting the studio’s higher profile summer release, but that’s what comes when you turn original movies like Up and Inside Out into blockbuster hits without the benefits of being a sequel.)

Having big stars like Pratt and Holland providing the main voices might normally help, especially in terms of getting publicity for the movie, although Holland just provided his voice for Fox’s animated Spies in Disguise with an equally big star like Will Smith and that only grossed $66 million after opening last Christmas.

A last-minute boost for Onward might come from the fact that it’s preceded by a brand new “The Simpsons” short, another benefit from the massive purchase of Fox and its properties by Disney last year. That and the Pixar brand should drive business opening weekend, which should be good for roughly $50 million even with stronger family films like Call of the Wild and Sonic the Hedgehog, which will step aside to give Onward the required berth. I’m not sure Onwardwill achieve the $200 million benchmark of other non-Pixar sequels but it should be good for around $160 to 170 million with a bump from schools having spring break in March. (I’m not going to start presuming that the current corona scare might impact moviegoing, at least not just yet, although it’s something that needs to be kept in mind.)

Having not seen Onward yet, I don’t have that much more to say, but I have good news, and it’s that I’ve been invited to see Disney’s Mulan, so a.) I’ll have a review for you, and b.) I’ll hopefully have more insightful thoughts on that movie’s box office since I’ll have seen it.

The other wide release this weekend is the second team-up between Ben Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor, following their 2016 hit The Accountant. Unlike that thriller, THE WAY BACK (Warner Bros.) is more of an inspirational drama about a man trying to overcome addiction to find redemption. Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star struck down by alcoholism, who is given another chance to coach his old high school basketball team. The drama comes from whether he can overcome his demons to find redemption. It wouldn’t be a particularly inspirational movie if he doesn’t.

Oddly,The Way Back is a far more common type of March release than Onward but it is also Affleck’s second attempt at a comeback, having recovered from the bombs of the mid-00s to find favor as a director with the Oscar Best Picture winner Argo, which followed a decent-sized hit with 2010’s The Town. Unfortunately, Affleck’s 2016 movie Live By Night bombed really badly, countering the success he had as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Supermanand in 2016’s The Accountant, which grossed $86.3 million. The fact that Justice League made $100 million less than Batman v Superman got Affleck replaced by Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, due out next year, so Affleck definitely has something to prove with this movie.

Besides reuniting Affleck and O’Connor, The Way Back also has a chance to draw in older males by being set in the world of basketball, as we’ve seen movies like Coach Carter, starring Samuel L. Jackson, open big with $24.8 million over the MLK Jr. weekend in 2005. On the other hand, Disney opened the basketball drama Glory Road, starring Josh Lucas, on the same weekend and that opened with half that amount. O’Connor is no stranger to inspirational feel-good sports movies having directed Disney’s Miracle about the 1980 US hockey team, which ended up grossing $64 million after a $19 million opening in 2004. Obviously, these are all movies that are nearly 15 years old, and it’s harder to find more recent sports hits unless you look to the world of faith-based dramas, and maybe Warner Bros. hopes that crowd will be out for this story of redemption.

I wish I had more confidence in this film, although I generally have never been a very big Affleck fan, and I’m not sure if this is the kind of movie that will entice older males in the same way as The Accountant (which I didn’t like, mind you). I’d like to think that the movie can do somewhere in the range of Thunder Road’s $13 million opening, but I have a feeling that this will end up closer to $10 to 11 million this weekend and will have to rely on word-of-mouth if it wants to maintain business through a month with a lot of strong offerings to come.

Mini-Review: On paper, The Way Back would seem like a very obvious movie, both for Ben Affleck and also for director Gavin O’Connor, who has dealt with inspirational sports movies and those seeking redemption. (Warrior is still one of my favorite films he’s made to date.)

We meet Affleck’s Jack Cunningham as he’s still on a low after splitting from his wife (Janina Gavankar) with a beer can always in hand, although we won’t find out what happened until much later. Out of the blue, Jack is called by the pastor of Bishop Hayes Catholic high school where Jack was the big star destined for greatness decades earlier. Even though he hasn’t touched a ball since then, Jack takes on the challenge of trying to turn things around for the worst team in the league. At the same time, he tries to help a few individual players and not get on the bad side of the chaplin with his constant swearing.

This is a great vehicle for Affleck and O’Connor, working from a script by Brad Ingelsby, whose screenplay for last year’s American Woman was another nice surprise. Affleck really has never been better in a role that allows him to pull from his own addiction and marital issues to create a fully-rounded character. The way O’Connor shoots the basketball games and the progress of the team keeps things exciting.

The only significant problem with the movie is that the first 2/3rds of it seems like two separate movies, one involving Jack trying to bring Bishop Hayes back from being the worst team in the league and the other being Jack’s alcohol problems. The two sides of the movie rarely intersect for a good chunk of the movie.

The real surprises come in the film’s last act where we think everything is going great and can’t imagine things could get bad again for Jack… and of course, they do. I won’t say about how and what happens, but when you’ve spent the whole movie watching him do something so inspiring, it’s a little deflating to be brought back down to reality.

Sure, The Way Back may be predictable (to a point) but it’s a damn good version of the movie that you’re expecting, offering a big-time tug on the heart strings. Rating: 8/10

Hitting theaters nationwide this weekend – roughly 1,500 theaters -- is the new Jane Austen adaptation EMMA. (Focus Features), starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Bill Nighy. The movie has done pretty well platforming, but it will be a tougher sell as it expands into regions outside major cities, so the per-theater average will fall quite a lot since last weekend. I think it should be good for $2 to 3 million which will allow it to place in the top 10 but we’ll have to see how it fares before expecting much more of an expansion.

Also, Sony Pictures Classics is planning to expand Michael Winterbottom’s Greed, starring Steve Coogan, into a nationwide release, but who knows if that’s 400 theaters, 500 theaters or more? (UPDATE: Theater count is confirmed at 596 so I’m sticking with my earlier prediction of $1.2 million.) I’m not sure they should go very wide with a $7,124 per-theater average this past weekend (worse than Searchlight’s Wendy), so I don’t think it will make enough to crack the top 10 this weekend even with a fairly low entry point.

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Onward (Disney-Pixar) - $51 million N/A

2. The Invisible Man (Universal) - $16.3 million -44%

3. The Way Back (Warner Bros.) - $10.5 million N/A

4. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount) - $8.5 million

5. The Call of the Wild (20thCentury) - $6.8 million

6. Emma. (Focus Features) - $3 million +71% (up .8 million)*

7. My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (FUNimation) - $2.7 million

8. Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $2.4 million

9. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (Warner Bros) - $2.3 million

10. The Impractical Jokers Movie (TruTV) - $1.6 million -55%

-- Greed (Sony Pictures Classics) - $1.2 million

*UPDATE: Keeping most of my predictions the same except that I’m giving a little bump to Focus’ Emma, since it should act as decent counter-programming to the other new movies.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

The big festival kicking off in New York this week is the annual “Rendezvous with French Cinema” up at Film at Lincoln Center, which runs from this Thursday through March 15. It kicks off on Thursday with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first French language film The Truth as the opener with stars Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke introducing the film at 6:30pm after doing a separate conversation earlier (only standby available for the conversation and early screening but tickets available for the 9:15pm screening sans introduction). I’ll probably write more about this next week when it gets its limited release, but the two actors play a couple who come to France to spend time with her actress mother Fabienne (played by the amazing Catherine Deneuve) who is publishing her contentious memoirs. The other movie I’ve seen which I liked a little more is Quentin Dupieux’s quirky Deerskin, starring Jean Dujardin (The Artist), which also opens theatrically this month. I wasn’t able to catch Alice Winocour’s Proxima, starring Eva Green and Matt Dillon, but hopefully that will be one of the films that finds distribution, as many of the “Rendezvous” offerings, this festival might be the only time to see them. Other returning filmmakers include Cédric Klapisch, Bruno Dumont, as well as Christophe Honoré’s On a Magical Night with Cannes winner Chiara Mastoianni in attendance, plus more. Click on the link above for the full rundown.

LIMITED RELEASES

This is a pretty decent for limited release, so if you’re in New York or L.A. and have already seen some of the expanding movies or aren’t interested in the new wide releases, you have a LOT of other options… and that’s even before we get to the repertory stuff below. There are just way too many limited releases coming out the next couple weekends.

I’m gonna do something a little different this week. Instead of picking just one “Featured Movie,” I’m gonna go with a “Featured Theater” since two decent movies are opening at New York’s Film Forum this coming week. (Plus it begins a new Hitchcock series, which you can read about in the repertory section below.)

We’ll begin with SORRY WE MISSED YOU (Zeitgeist/Kino Lorber) – opening at Film Forum Weds. and in L.A. at the Landmark Nuart on Friday. It’s the new film from director Ken Loach, who has an amazing filmography of British “kitchen sink” dramas but also great historical films like The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Loach’s last film I, Daniel Blake was in my top 5 a few years back and Sorry I Missed You is very much a follow-up, once again dealing with Brits struggling with the system to make a living. In this case, it’s Kris Hitchen’s Ricky Turner and his wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) as he signs on for a “zero-hour” job delivering packages, a system that requires working longer hours. Meanwhile, Abbie is working just as hard as a home care worker. As they struggle to make a living, their teenage son is skipping school and getting into trouble.

Although as a freelance writer, I could definitely relate to the idea of having to work extra-hard in order to earn enough money to survive, especially in the jobs I was doing getting paid by piece which was never helpful in making ends meet. Seeing how the package delivery industry in northern England is used to take advantage of individuals is partially what keeps things interesting. Like The Way Back, you sort of expect things to get bad for Ricky, especially in regards to his son, but there’s a certain point where you think he’s gonna crash his van cause he’s so exhausted. It doesn’t happen but what happens next is almost worse than that. Either way, it’s another decent movie from Loach (and regular writer Paul Laverty), maybe not as good as I, Daniel Blake but still worthwhile.

From China comes THE WILD GOOSE LAKE (Film Movement), the new film from Daio Yinan (Black Coal, Thin Ice), which is quite a different film for Mr. Yinan, starring Hu Ge as mob leader Zhou Zenong, who gets into a feud with another local gang leader, ends up killing a police officer in the ensuing mayhem and ends up hiding out in the area of Wuhan known as Wild Goose Lake, becoming entangled with Gwei Lun-Mei’s Liu. This is another interesting take on the crime noir genre from Zenong, one that maybe gets a little more artsy-fartsy than Black Coal but one that also veers further into genre territory, particularly with some of the violence and bloodshed involved. It offers further proof that Yinan is a true master of cinematic storytelling since it’s so unlike the many other Chinese crime films that have come from both Hong Kong and the mainland. This one is quite the film, although I still recommend seeking out Black Coal if you ever have the chance. This one will open at the Film Forum on Friday. (While you’re going to the Film Forum, check out Corneliu Porumbiou’s crime-thriller The Whistlers, which I watched over the weekend, and it’s quite different from many other Romanian films I’ve seen, not only because it’s under 2 hours.)

Next up is THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY (Sony Pictures Classics), Giuseppe Capotondi’s adaptation of Charles Willeford’s book, starring Claes Bang from The Square and The Girl in the Spider’s Web as art critic James Figueras, who is giving lectures in Italy when he meets Elizabeth Debicki’s Berenice. It’s a meeting that turns into a fast relationship that has them both in bed, and when James is called to the mansion of a rich Italian art lover named Cassidy (played by Mick Jagger), he brings Berenice along with him. Once there, James learns that Cassidy has become the benefactor for reclusive artist Jerome Debney, played by Donald Sutherland, whose entire body of work was destroyed in a fire. Cassidy has gotten James an exclusive interview with Debney with the condition that he gets one of Debney’s in-demand paintings out of the deal. I’m not really a fine art fanatic nor have I read Willeford’s book, but I found this to be an interesting dramatic thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley as you watch this cat-and-mouse game being played between the characters. Sutherland is pretty awesome as Debney, who flirts with Berenice while playing mind games with James, and the way these dynamics play out is what makes this film better than other art-driven films. As you watch this movie, you’ll probably realize that Claes Bang really should be playing a James Bond villain and then Mick Jagger appears on screen with him and you REALLY think that Jagger should have played a Bond villain anytime in the last few decades as he’s great at playing devious. This is another great release from Sony Classics in a year where they seem to be turning things around from the last couple years. So far, besides this, I’ve also liked Greed, The Traitor and The Climb, which will be released later this month.

Having been delayed from its intended December release due to many controversies, George (The Adjustment Bureau) Nolfi’s THE BANKER (Apple+) will finally hit select theaters for a few weeks before launching on Apple+ on March 20. It stars Anthony Mackie as Bernard Garrett, a young genius growing up black pre-Civil Rights and dealing with the Jim Crow racism in his hometown of Texas, so he moves to Los Angeles and becomes heavily involved in the real estate business. Eventually, he finds a partner in Samuel L. Jackson’s Joe Morris, a club owner with money and a good amount of real estate experience himself. Slowly, they begin buying up buildings in downtown L.A. using the ambitious white Max Steiner (Nicholas Hoult) as their frontman, while letting affluent black people in to build a community and Bernard decides it’s time to buy the bank in his old Texas hometown. That’s where things start going wrong, but I won’t get too deep into the story. This is a decent film from Nolfi with particularly strong performances from Mackie and Jackson, as well as Nia Long as Garrett’s wife. It’s very reminiscent of Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman with a similar level of humor despite being about a serious subject. It does hit a bit of a lull when the story moves back to Texas and the trio’s dealings with the banks, and it gets a little bogged down in all the numbers, but it does end up delivering a decent true-life story that will be of interest.

Kelly Reichardt’s latest period piece is FIRST COW (A24), set in the Pacific Northwest during the time of the Gold Rush as a cook (John Magaro) encounters a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) in the Oregon Territory and the two of them hatch a money-making scheme to sell biscuits using stolen milk from a local landowner’s prized cow. Although I have not really been a fan of Reichardt’s work, even her historic film Meek’s Cutoff, I think with this movie she really finds her footing with two great actors/characters and a story that’s fairly intriguing in its own right. I wasn’t too crazy with how the film ended (foreshadowed by the film’s opening framing device) but it’s one of Reichardt’s few films where I didn’t get bored or lose interest, so that’s certainly sayin’ something. What’s even more impressive is that two local theaters (BAM, MOMI) held repertory series in conjunction with the release of First Cow and apparently, other cities are doing the same.

From Brazil comes BACURAU (Kino Lorber), Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s odd genre film that’s based around a small village in the Brazilian equivalent of the Outback, a remote place whose matriarch Carmelita has just passed away at the age of 94. There are forces at work trying to drive the villagers out of their homes, including putting a dam to cut off their water supply, but things get stranger when a nearby farmer and his family end up dead, which leads to a twist that takes the film directly into genre territory. I don’t want to say too much about what happens but it involves Udo Kier and a lot of weapons… Bacurau opens at the IFC Center downtown and Film at Lincoln Center uptown (with QnAs at the latter, which is also holding a “Mapping Bacurau” series starting March 13.)

Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ SWALLOW (IFC Films) stars Haley Bennett as a newly-pregnant housewife married to her perfect husband Richie (Austin Stowell, who recently appeared in Fantasy Island), but as she tries to please him and his parents, she starts developing a dangerous habit in the form of a disorder called pica that has her compulsively swallowing inedible objects. Okay, then. It will open at the IFC Center, the Laemmle Monica Film Center and as well as On Demand and digital. Bennett won an award for her acting at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, but I somehow missed it.

Next, we have a trio of films opening at New York’s Village East Cinema and a few other theaters both in New York and select cities:

I really wanted to like Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman’s Irish horror-comedy EXTRA ORDINARY (GDE) more, since the trailer really made it seem like something I might enjoy. In the movie, Maeve Higgins plays Rose, a smalltown driving instructor who has supernatural talents who is called upon by Barry Ward’s Martin Martin, whose daughter is being used by a former rock star (played by Will Forge) who needs a virgin to commit a Satanic pact to regain his fame. The movie just seemed rather silly and not nearly as funny as the trailer makes it seem, but maybe it would be better seing it with an audience.

Another movie that looks good (and I hope to watch soon) is Ricky Tollman’s directorial debut, the political thriller Run This Town (Oscilloscope), which stars Ben Platt (from Pitch Perfect), Mena Massoud, Nina Dobrev, Scott Speedman, Jennifer Ehle and Damian Lewis, quite an impressive cast. Platt plays Bram, a young journalist who becomes entangled in a political scandal with his political aide friend Kamal (Massoud) after catching the latter’s city hall boss doing something bad that can help the former’s career.

Also opening this weekend at the Village East and other cities, Anna Akana stars in Emily Ting’s semi-autobiographical Go Back to China (Gravitas Ventures) playing a spoiled rich girl named Sasha Li, who is forced by her father to return to China after blowing through her trust fund. Once there, Sasha finds herself by reconnecting with her estranged family and getting into toy designing. I haven’t watched this yet but the trailer looks cute, and I might have to make an effort to watch this.

Sadly, I had to refrain mentioning Daniel Radcliffe’s previous movie released last week, but he stars in another one this weekend, Francis Annan’s Escape from Pretoria (Momentum) based on Tim Jenkins’ autobiography “Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison,” a thriller about the attempt by two political captives to break out of prison during apartheid South Africa. It also stars Daniel Webber, Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter and Nathan Page.

A few other films I haven’t had a chance to watch include William Nicholson’s Hope Gap (Roadside Attractions), starring Annette Bening and Bill Nighy with Bening playing Grace, a woman who learns her husband (Nighy) is leaving her after 29 years and how that break-up affects their grown son (Josh O’Connor).

Freida Pinto and Leslie Odom Jr. star in Takashi Doscher’s Only(Vertical Entertainment) in which a comet releases a deadly virus that attacks all the women in the world forcing the two of them into hiding in their apartment from the savages hunting the surviving women. That’s a pretty strange premise that sounds like the opposite of the comic book series “Y the Last Man.” If only there was enough time to watch half the movies opening this weekend.

I accidentally included D.W. Young’s doc The Booksellers (Greenwich) in last week’s column, but it actually opens at the Quad in New York and other cities this Friday. It takes a look behind the scenes at the world of rare books with appearances by Parker Posey, Fran Lebowitz and Gay Talese.

From Bollywood comes BAAGHI 3 (FIP), Ahmed Khan’s martial arts action movie, starring series regular Tiger Shroff (who is filming a Bollywood remake of Rambo!) and Ritesih Deshmukh as brothers Ronnie and Vikram, the latter being kidnapped and beaten while abroad for work and Ronnie seeking revenge. Shraddha Kapoor returns after starring in the first movie of this action series.

Other movies, mostly hitting On Demand (with limited theatrical) include Transference (Epic Pictures), which opens in L.A. on Friday and hits On Demand next Tuesday, Final Kill (Cinedigm), Beneath Us (Vital Pictures) and Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss (MarVista Entertainment).

STREAMING AND CABLE

Some big stuff hitting the streaming…um… streams this weekend, including director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg’s latest collaboration, the action-thriller SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL on Netflix. I have really enjoyed this duo’s collaborations in the past, including Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor. (Mile 22 was a bit of a disappointment, considering how great those other three were.) This one has Wahlberg playing the title character Spenser, an ex-cop who teams with his roommate Hawk (Winston Duke from Usand Black Panther) to take down criminals responsible for killing two Boston police officers.

Equally exciting is the launch of Alex Garland’s new sci-fi series Devs, which will launch on FX on Hulu on Thursday. This is a really terrific premise from the director of Ex Machina and Annihilation with a fantastic cast that includes an amazing cast that includes Nick Offerman, Alison Pill, Jin Ha, Cailea Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and more.

Also launching this week on Hulu is Nanette Burstein’s documentary Hillary (Hulu), which followed former Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton over the course of her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The movie just premiered at Sundance in January to raves.

Steven Spielberg’s revival of his popular ‘80s anthology series Amazing Stories will debut on Apple TV+ this Friday with the first episode, “The Cellar.”

REPERTORY

Before we get to the regular repertory stuff, I want to mention that Satoshi Kon’s classic 2003 anime Tokyo Godfathers will get a nationwide theatrical release via Fathom Events with Monday night, March 9, being the original subtitled version while Weds. the 11th, there will be a dubbed version.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The big debut this week is the Metrograph Pictures release of the restored version of Fruit Chan’s 1997 classic Made in Hong Kong, which has never been released in the United States! Apparently it was also the first movie released in Hong Kong after it received independence in 1997. It’s an interesting crime tale that deals with the relationship between three young people, hoodlum August Moon, who collects debts for a local loan shark, his dim-witted friend Sylvester and Ping, an attractive but troubled young girl who begins a relationship with August. It also deals with the death of a young girl who seemingly jumped off a roof and the three of them trying to solve the case and get a few letters she left behind to those they were meant for. If you can imagine a cross between River’s Edge, Me and Earl and the Dying Girland the recent Peanut Butter Falcon, all set in the gritty street crime culture of 1997 Hong Kong, then you can only begin to imagine what you’re in for, but it’s an amazing film and nothing you would ever see made or released in the U.S., so good on Metrograph for picking up the distribution rights and getting it out to the world.

On Sunday, Metrograph regular Alex Ross Perry will be showing Peter Hyams’ 1974 film Busting, but on Saturday, actor Chiara Mastroianni, who will be in town for “Rendezvous with French Cinema” (see above) will show her “Dream Double Feature” of Dino Risi’s 1962 film Il Sorpasso and Charles Laughton’s psychological horror classic The Night of the Hunter (1955).

This weekend’s Late Nites at Metrograph is Fassbinder’s 1972 film The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant and apparently, the “Playtime: Family Matinees” has been replaced with “Metrograph Matinees” on Saturday and Sunday, which includes some less kid-friendly fare. For instance, this weekend, they’re showing Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1967), which I’m assuming isn’t for the kiddies.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” is Robocop 2, while next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the 1989 giallo Paganinni Horror, starring Donald Pleasance, and “Weird Wednesday” is the 1985 action film Sword of Heaven.

Over on the West Coast, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles will screen 1968’s Wild in the Streetsas it’s “Weird Wednesday.” Saturday’s “Kids Camp” is The Shaun the Sheep Movie and then Sunday is a Brunch screening of The Brady Brunch. Marc Bernarndin’s Monday “The Minority Report” screening is Joss Whedon’s 2005 film Serenity. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is Kathryn Bigelo’s Near Dark and then the “Weird Wednesday” is Bobcat Goldthwait’s 2011 dark comedy God Bless America

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds’ afternoon matinee is Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter (1973), while the Weds/Thursday night double feature is The Man Who Would Be King (1975) with Zulu Dawn (1979). The “Freaky Fridays” matinee is Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Trooper (1997) and then we’re into the weekend with Friday/Saturday double features of Blake Edwards’ The Return of the Pink Panthe r(1975) and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1975), both starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. The weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee” is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princeand the Saturday midnight screening is Hal Ashby’s fantastic Harold and Maude. Sunday and Monday will continue the Blake Edwards love with 1965’s The Great Race with one of the greatest all-star casts of the decade. On Monday afternoon you can see the classic House Partyfrom 1990 and then Tuesday’s Grindhouse is David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979) with Scalpel (1977).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The big rep series beginning this week on Wednesday and running through March 19 is “The Women Behind Hitchcock,” mostly focusing on Hitchcock’s relationship with wife and editor Alma Reville and secretary Joan Harrison. The series includes Hitchcock classics like Rebecca (1940) and The Lady Vanishes (1938), as well as Robert Siodmak’s 1944 film Phantom Lady (produced by Harrison) as well lots more. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Jim Henson’s Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and Friday is a screening of Claude Lelouch’s Oscar-winning 1966 film A Man and a Woman with Lelouch in person. (That’s already sold out online but will have a standby line.)

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Thursday offers an encore screening of the Russian film Come and Seeand then Friday begins “Noir City Hollywood: the 22ndAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir” with a double feature of The Beast Must Die (1952) with Gilda (1946) and then Saturday offers a TRIPLE FEATURE of Fritz Lang’s 1931 M, Joseph Losey’s 1951 remake M and El Vampiro Negro, the 1953 Spanish Language. That’s a LOT of “M”s. Saturday night in the Spielberg Theater, “Joe Dante’s 16mm Spotlight” will screen Brian De Palma’s 1968 film Murder À La Mod. Sunday offers two Film Noir double features, two from Robert Siodmak: The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) and Fly-by-Night (1942) and then the Korean noir The Housemaid (1960) with My Name is Julia Ross (1945). Meanwhile, the AERO will mainly be doing the West Coast version of “Canada Now 2020,” and then on Monday, David Mamet will be on hand to show his film House of Gamesas part of “Noir City: Hollywood.”

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Horace B. Jenkins’ 1982 film Cane River continues through the weekend, as does Pandora and the Flying Dutchman and Brazilian filmmaker Bruno Barreto’s Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976) plays Saturday night and then again a couple times next week.

MOMA (NYC):

Lots of new series this week including Modern Matinees: CicelyTyson, which will focus on the Tony, Emmy, honorary Oscar and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree and her body of work with matinee screenings on Weds through Thursdays. It kicks off Weds with 1954’s Carib Gold, followed on Thursday by Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Friday’s screening of Rob Cohen’s 2012 movie Alex Cross. The latter might seem like a strange movie to screen at MOMA, but this week also begins In Character: Daniel Craig, which will cover the roughly two decade career of the British actor best known for playing James Bond. The latter begins on Tuesday night with a screening of his Bond debut, 2006’s Casino Royale, but then it will take a week off and be back next Weds for a repeat. SThe latter is delayed for a retrospective on Israeli journalist Efratia Gitai and her filmmaking son Amos Gitai’s work called “In Times Like These.”The weekend series includes 2009’s Carmel, 1986’s Esther, 1989’s Berlin-Jerusalem and 2002’s Kedma, as well as a staged reading of his mother’s letters.

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NYC):

A new series begins Thursday called “1995: The Year the Internet Broke” with a mix of sci-fi films like Hackers, the anime Ghost in the Shell, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, The Net, Johnny Mnemonic, Virtuosity and more. It looks like a pretty solid series, while the more obscure Dusan Makavjev, Cinema Unbound through Sunday. Next Tuesday begins “The Cinema of Gender Transgression” begins with Neil Jordan’s 2005 film Breakfast on Pluto.

NITEHAWK CINEMA (NYC):

Williamsburg will show the Julia Roberts Oscar-winning Erin Brockovich and then the Friday night midnight offerings are Dan Bush’s newish The Dark Redand Ben Wheatley’s underrated 2012 movie Sightseers. Saturday morning screening is Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve from 1950 but your other option is the ubiquitous Nicolas Cage in 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas. Monday night is a special screening of Anna Rose Holmer’s 2016 film The Fits as part of “Women’s Month.” (Next Tuesday night screening of Cage’s Gone in 60 Secondsis already sold out unfortunately.)

Over in Prospect Park, the Saturday brunch offering is Agnieszka Holland’s 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden and then on Tuesday night is a screening of Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) as part of “Woman’s Month.”

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“See it Big! Outer Space” continues this weekend with screenings of Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity on Friday and Sunday and Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Saturday, plus 2001: A Space Odyssey screens on Saturday afternoon, per usual.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Kelly Reichardt Selects: First Cow In Context ends on Wednesday with Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuel takes a couple more weekends off, while Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020s is showing James McTeigue’s 2005 adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta. Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020 will show Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

The Cage run continues with Paul Schrader’s 2016 movie Dog Eat Dog, co-starring Willem Dafoe,on Weds and 2011’s Drive Angry Thursday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

Uh oh, this Friday’s midnight is…the 2019 disaster Cats!

Next week is a busy one with four new wide release ranging from Sony’s Bloodshot, starring Vin Diesel as the Valiant Comics hero, to Blumhouse’s The Hunt, the faith-based Lionsgate film I Still Believe and David Batista’s family comedy My Spy (STXfilms).

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

#TheWeekendWarrior Onward TheWayBack Emma Movies Reviews LimitedReleases Streaming Repertory SorryWeMissedYou TheWildGooseLake

0 notes

indiikaa · 7 years

Text

Meeks CinemaSins’ Wreck-it Ralph

This is what I did last weekend when I slowly went insane. It’s under the cut, btw...

Because my ISP has decided to fuck up our service for the past four days, I have been stuck watching BLU-Rays. Unfortunately, I don’t have that many BLU-rays to watch, so I’ve been mostly watching one of my favourite movies over and over again. Which movie? Wreck-It Ralph.

Now, when this happened before, I did this hilarious Watch Through where I wrote down EVERYTHING I thought was weird, funny, or just wanted to point out in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Kind of like Cinema Sins but with more humor/ insight. I decided to do it again with Wreck-it Ralph because I mean, come on.

START

v When you pause, Chris Hardwick talks to you.

v Why did Ralph never make a house in the dump like he does at the end of the movie beforehand? Sleeping on Bricks has to hurt.

v In the intro, Felix doesn’t actually fully fix the building, there are still broken windows near Ralph.

v Is the bulldozer sentient by itself or if there someone inside it?

v Where does the bulldozer live?

v You can see a lake and a nice forest behind the Niceland apartment, with a nice walk around it; why doesn’t Ralph live near there? He can move his stump there!

v Despite what everyone says; Zombie is definitely from Night of the Living Dead, a real arcade game about Zombies with Hatchets. I swear.

v Bowsers hair looks very... not Bowser.

v Kano put that heart away that’s gross.

v Why is Clyde the only Pac-man ghost we see at Bad-Anon? Are the others at Tappers? We see them in Game Central Station, so they must have gone somewhere.

v Does Eggman wear a rubber jacket? Cause... wtf Eggman.

v M. Bison should bring snacks.

v Zangief is a good friend, he even saved Ralph a spot on the tram!

v That Turtle looks like he’s enjoying his book...

v Beware of roaming packs of Space Marines.

v Why was Q*Bert unplugged? They never tell us why!

v I get that DJ Hero was a thing and all, but... WHY?

v So Pac-Man, Sonic, Skrillex, Some sun dude, A turtle named Glen from Frogger, A bartending Clown, Mario, some gram crackers, all the Nicelanders and Felix were invited to the party, but no one invited Ralph? They wouldn’t have a GAME without Ralph!

v Why don’t Ralph and Felix move like the Nicelanders?

v Gene is such a pompous asshole. Like, there’s absolutely no reason for it.

v You mean to tell me in 30 years, no one’s even taken the time to get to know Ralph? Ralph is better off without the Nicelanders.

v Gene, that was totally unnecessary.

v I agree Felix, let’s just eat the cake.

v Gene just makes the situation worse. Ralph should wreck him. Not that way.

v Why are all the splatters pink? Shouldn’t they be multi-coloured?

v I see a Space Invader!

v Tapper has to be busy every night. Like, so many games, One bar game...

v How did the Metal Gear Solid exclamation mark get into the lost and found? Metal Gear doesn’t have an arcade version...

v Markowski’s callsign is “Hold Em!”. No seriously, his shoulder pad says his callsign.

v Or it could be Ace, because all the cards are Aces.

v You can see the port that Q*Bert would have been plugged into.

v There is absolutely no way that Fix-if Felix JR. and Hero’s Duty would be plugged into the same power block. Not unless you want a shit ton of cables that cause a tripping hazard.

v Why does Calhoun not wear the same uniform as everyone else?

v Literally she’s more vulnerable because she has less protection.

v Unless it’s coded that she can’t get hit by a Cybug.

v The girl literally screams, but then seems not to care the next second. Wtf is with that?

v Okay so I have a few beefs about Sugar Rush, but the main one this early in the movie is this:

As we learn later, the roster changes every day. This gives us a total of 9 racers per day, as it’s a

3x3 column. Remember this.

v The Nicelanders are all worried, it’s their fault that their game is Out Of Order.

v They’re all surprised that Ralph Gamejumps. I would too if I was treated like dirt.

v It took Ralph ALL DAY to climb the tower? It takes him maybe 3 seconds to climb to the top of the Niceland Tower. Nope, not buying it.

v If Hero’s Duty is only the landing strip and the tower, with the drop off vehicle at the end of the landing strip, where do all the AI live?

v What triggers all the eggs to hatch when the game starts?

v Why are there stairs when the First Person Shooter AI-Bot thing has wheels? It won’t be able to make it up the stairs, unless they turn into a ramp.

v Baby Cybugs are adorable.

v Okay, Ralph just activated so many baby Cybugs. Why did they not hatch?

v Sonic, you weren’t even hit by that, why did you lose your rings?

v To think about it, why are there even escape pods at the top of Hero’s Duty? Is it so when it’s Game Over and they made it to the top of the tower, that the AI can escape?

v Why does Sugar Rush have its name written in mint sticks?

v Pocky Pussywillows. Yummy.

v Who gave Sarah Silverman a microphone?

v Why do Double Stripes break? There is no reason for anyone to know this except for Ralph’s inconvenience.

v No, seriously, I’m hung up on this tree thing. Why in a game about racing is there a rule about not touching double-stripe tree branches? Unless it’s a part of a race track where you race through the trees or something and the track gives way under you if you go across a double stripe area...

v When Ralph is hanging from the Double Stripe branch, why does it take so long to disappear?! The others were instant!

v Okay so why are Hero’s Duty, Sugar Rush and Fix-it Felix JR. all plugged not the same extension? That’s impossible, since they’re all across from each other in separate sides of two isles.

v Some of the Graffiti is hilarious, but I don’t think Arcade Games would know who Leroy Jenkins is. Or Aerith for that matter.

v How can Burger Time be Now Playing, if the arcade is closed?

v Where the hell does Calhoun hide that giant gun? Know what? Never mind, I don’t want to know.

v Those FIFA guys keep walking around in the background in the same loop cycle.

v 14 of the Sugar Rush racers show up. If you look closely, most of the background ones are wearing the same thing – Parkas, Bows or hats with pig tails. Are they just bad re-skins of the same character, or all different characters?

v Wouldn’t that get confusing to the gamers though? It’s the same character design but just a different colour.

v The 9 racers of the day were: Rancis Taffyta, Blue Pigtails, Candlehead, King Candy, Pumpkinhead, Blue Parka, Snowcone hair and Green Bow. I’m going to guess that you can’t have more of the same “character” on the roster because that would confuse players, or would it?

v Unless their all related.

v What would players who have played Sugar Rush in other arcades think if they saw King Candy, if you know his story? Would they be like “Who the hell is King Candy? Where’s Princess Von Schweetz?”

v What if you’ve never won a race? Are you just not allowed to race?

v All the Racers names:

Taffyta Muttonfudge, Crumbelina Di Caramello, Gloyd Orangeboar, Adorabeezle Winterpop, Citrusella Flugpucker, Nougetsia Brumblestain, Sticky Wipplesnit, Minty Zaki, Snowanna Rainbeau, Rancis Fluggerbutter, Jubileena Bing-Bing, Swizzle Malarkey, Candlehead, Vanellope Von Schweetz and King Candy.

v Looking at the names, none of the racers could be related in any way, so why are half of them just reskins of the other half?!

v Who names their kid Rancis?! No seriously, check the scoreboard, it says his name is Rancis, not Francis.

v If Vanellope is really a glitch, why would her picture appear next to her name? Wouldn’t it be a placeholder icon? Or wouldn’t her name be all glitch?

v Someone didn’t lock up the narrators memories.

v Why is there a random cupcake standing on a pedestal like that? It makes no sense.

v Police Brutality.

v Taffyta, his name is RANCIS, not Francis. Get it right.

v How does King Candy know who Ralph even is? Vanellope didn’t know who he was, but if it isn’t obvious that there’s something up with him...

v More Police brutality.

v Ha ha, Disney bought Star Wars just to use Darth Vader’s breathing noises.

v Okay, so if Vanellope is at the Junkyard “fixing” her cart, why doesn’t she make one out of the thrown-out carts instead? There’s wheels, full carts with no engines; so all she’d need is an engine to go.

v Only 10 of the racers show up, so one of each duplicate racer can come gang up on Vanellope’s car.

v Wtf is Snowanna’s car even supposed to be? (Snowconehead)

v At least Vanellope gets Rancis’s name right.

v Why are they so offended with her car?

v Who died and made Taffyta Queen of the Racetrack? Oh right.

v Why is there a broken stoplight? Who killed the stoplight?!

v That Jawbreaker split really cleanly...

v Felix, seriously? You are so dense that you can’t see that something is wrong?

v Turbo Time was next to Fix-it Felix JR..

v How does Turbo hitting the car a cause for a glitch-out? It makes no sense.

v And even so, when we learn what happens to Turbo, how did he game-jump for so long without anyone knowing?

v How does Felix know what Laffy Taffy is?

v Why is he Fix-it Felix JR. when his uniform just says Felix?

v Why does his hammer work outside the game?

v He totally can’t hold her, he’s not even half her size.

v How DID the Cybug survive the Candy Swamp anyway?

v How does one enter the Make Your Kart mini-game?

v Does Sugar Rush have a Make Your Own Racer area too? That would be better than the 4000 different reskinned characters.

v There is NO WAY that Kart would come out looking like that, from THAT mess. Nope, not happening.

v Is it like in real racing arcades where you can create a profile, put in your secret code and keep playing from last time?

v Why is there a Nutrition Facts label in the Security Office?

v Get it? Their Bear Claws. That’s why they’re C.L.A.W.

v Hidden Mickey!

v There is no way that Ralph and Vanellope are faster than King Candy and the cops.

v Wouldn’t King Candy know about the hidden passage?

v How does Vanellope know the lollipops are sugar-free?

v Mentos agreed to this.

v Wouldn’t broiling hot diet coke smell really bad? It sure tastes bad.

v Where do the other kids live in Sugar Rush? The trailer park or? We don’t see a village or houses or anything...

v How many different tracks are there in Sugar Rush anyway? We see at least three – the unfinished bonus level, the one the kids race on, and the one at the end of the movie.

v Why did Vanellope look around her dashboard for the start button? She literally has only ONE button on her dash! The rest are lights!

v Why would Racing be the only thing that Vanellope still has in her code? Wouldn’t King Candy have taken that out too?

v Why is the Contra code something in an Arcade?

v I don’t think Sugar Rush was made by Nintendo.

v I don’t think it was even on the NES, not with those graphics.

v Why is King Candy’s profile so much bigger than everyone elses? Is it because racers think he’s a super rare character or something?

v Technically, wouldn’t he glitch out because, he’s not from Sugar Rush?

v Great example of PTSD.

v Why does Felix refer to Ralph as his friend? He hasn’t done anything to warrant calling Ralph a friend!

v When did Vanellope have the time to make Ralph the cookie medal?

v Why did King Candy return to where he last saw Ralph and Vanellope anyway?

v If King Candy took the medal out of the pot, wouldn’t the game glitch and Vanellope be unable to race? Technically she bought her way in with the game thinking the medal was a coin, so why not?

v According to King Candy, Sugar Rush is next to Dig Dug.

v King Candy knows a lot about what happens when a game is unplugged. Was that the fate the twins had when Turbo Time was unplugged or? Did Turbo just sadistically watch his game get unplugged and watch the twins glitch out trying to get out?

v How can Ralph hold onto Vanellope when she glitches?

v Vanellope is seen glitching off the tree, why doesn’t she just glitch off before Ralph breaks the kart?

v Wouldn’t Ralph have seen the other Nicelanders in Game Central Station when he was heading back to Fix-it Felix JR.?

v Why did Gene stay behind? To shove it in Ralph’s face?

v Gene, he seriously wanted friends and you’re just being an asshat. Good riddance.

v When Ralph looks to Sugar Rush (Which brings back the question: HOW ARE THEY PLUGGED IN THR SAME POWER BLOCK?!), we see Vanellope in a racing-style outfit. Why don’t we ever see her in this outfit?

v We also see her driving her actual kart, wouldn’t that tip Ralph off that King Candy isn’t driving the right kart, since he drives Vanellope’s original kart, with added horns and flags?

v How was King Candy able to lock up memories?

v How does Sour Bill know how to fix Vanellope’s code? Wouldn’t he have forgotten, or King Candy forced him to forget?

v Oh hey, I forgot Calhoun was in this still.

v Calhoun’s GPS sets off the Cybug’s eggs, so why did Ralph touching them with his foot earlier only set off one and not the whole gang?

v Felix, you hit the broken bar with your hammer. Bar repaired and strengthened itself. You didn’t touch it; you hit it with a hammer.

v Try using your fists next time.

v It took 30 years, almost drowning in chocolate milk mix, and being imprisoned for Felix to finally realize what Ralph goes through every day.

v That “Bad Girl” sign was awfully specific.

v “Glitch Proof” but what if it’s not actually a glitch?

v Wow, it took them like 4 hours to clean up the starting track.

v Hah, she burned out at the start line.

v Why is there, excluding King Candy, only one male racer?

v They stole item blocks from Mario Kart. Quick Nintendo, sue them!

v Who let Candlehead put fire on her kart?!

v Cybugs are Asexual reproducers.

v Who is the stupid racer who is only like 10 feet from the start line? Like, really?!

v How did King Candy know about the secret road?

v How could no one figure out King Candy was Turbo? Like, wouldn’t he have been missing for a while and wouldn’t people wonder what happened to him after he game jumped?

v As many have theorized before: Vanellope’s glitch isn’t actually a glitch, it’s an ability, since she can use it at will even at the end of the movie.

v Why did the sky suddenly go dark? Having Cybugs appear wouldn’t magically change the skyline, unless they ate the code for day.

v Why would Turbo’s Cybug body looks totally different than any other Cybug? Is it because he’s a “virus” or a Glitch in the game?

v That was incredibly selfish of you, Ralph.

v Fucking Bad Guy Affirmation. Tissue time.

v Okay, I get this is a super emotional scene and I admit to crying in the theater when I saw it, but who’s car did Vanellope steal? Why didn’t she glitch hers out of the crash and go after Ralph with her own?

v I get the cola is broiling hot but that wouldn’t destroy the Cybugs, would it? In Hero’s Duty, the Beacon is like a bug zapper. This is just hot cola.

v Why are Ralph and Vanellope drenched? Before, the chocolate didn’t work like that.

v Why does Vanellope’s code have her hair like she’s had it during the movie (in a pony tail), and on the side of the box (still in a pony tail), but when she’s Princess Vanellope, her hair is in a bun?

v I love you, Calhoun.

v Would racers at Litwak’s Arcade think Vanellope is a super secret unlocked racer or something, because she would have never been seen before?

v She can still glitch, so there has to be a reason for that in that it’s her special power.

v So, why are the Nicelanders nice to Ralph at the end of the movie? Did Felix talk to them or something? Why? It makes no sense!

v Zombie smiling is weird.

v Wouldn’t the Q*bert guys glitch out or something in Fix-it Felix JR.?

v Isn’t it taboo to wear the same wedding dress?

v Wait, why would the racers get coins? At the end, Vanellope gets a trophy. Where do the coins come from?

v Was it the surge protector responsible for all that graffiti?

v Doom/Wolfeinstein-Style Hero’s Duty. Okay.

v Ralph is overkill in destroying the car come on man.

v Felix looks weird in 64-bit.

v Look at all the Medals they left behind! There’s no way that between the four of them, they didn’t get all the medals.

v Overall, Wreck-it Ralph took place over the span of approximately two days. (“I’ll get someone to look at it tomorrow, but if he can’t fix it, it may be time to put ol’ Ralph and Felix out to pasture, like my Nana!” – Mr. Litwak). One of those days, Calhoun is in Sugar Rush trying to find Ralph with Felix; who did she leave someone in charge of Hero’s Duty – Like Cohut? – or?

v See Timeline of Events to understand that one.

v Q*bert!

2 notes · View notes