Docteur Qui

How about you watch the movie before deciding if the film won on its own merit or not?

Sorry wasn't really thinking, I've added a warning to my post, thanks Jay.

edited: if you'd rather not know a key piece of narrative detail from the second game don't read this @Knight of Ren

I've been playing Hogwarts Legacy a lot lately. I'm pleasantly surprised (as others are) at how firmly rooted the music is in Williams' language for the series, particularly the first two films. However it's lacking strong cohesion, and repeatedly suffers from cues that are blatant soundalikes. The composers are very good at emulating Williams' music, but they're also good at emulating the likes of Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard in other parts of the game, as well as nods to Hooper and Doyle's contributions to Potter. Unfortunately it creates the overall effect of a rather unoriginal sound that stylistically swerves wildly on a frequent basis. One minute you'll be trotting through the Forbidden Forest to something resembling Hooper's "Room of Requirement" and the next you're hearing the new-age harmonies and swells of Thomas Newman in the actual Room of Requirement. It's a rather jarring experience in my opinion, and I wish that there was a little more consistency in the musical approach. I'm also not at all fan of the cue that plays whenever you do the flying time trials - I have nothing against MIDI tracks when they're done well (as many cues in this score are), but blatant Williams rip-offs should at the very least be recorded with a real orchestra, otherwise his classic orchestration sounds terrible. It's too much, especially that awful french horn part playing right in the top register. But on the whole it's pretty good as an overall game music experience, and some cues are rather fantastic. I love the eerie Swamp music in the RoR, it uses the chords of Hedwig's Theme but slowed down, creating a very otherworldly sound.

Not surprised to hear this, but I'm glad it'll get one last lap, it had a good run. As I've said before, the show finally came into its own in season 4. Hopefully whatever comes next has learned from its many, many mistakes.

It's great fun! Excellent continuation of the SNES DKC series, I'm glad they put this one on the Switch. The Wii-U had some amazing games that I missed out on and this is one of them. It gets proper Nintendo-hard later on in the game though, so be prepared for that. I don't think I ever fully completed it now I think of it, but I don't think I've 100%'d a game since the first Galaxy. I'll always finish the main game/story, but I just don't have the patience for completionist gaming anymore.

Is Metroid Prime limited edition like the Mario All-Stars game? Hope not, I want to get it but it's not in my budget at the moment. I had the game for Gamecube but never got into it which I regret, from all accounts it's a winner. I'd been hoping for a Switch port, but a re-master is even better!

To me it feels pretty consistent with how the show is illustrating Joel. He has narcissistic tendencies and a protector complex, even before the apocalypse his main purpose in life was bailing out Tommy from whatever shit he got himself into. Joel tells us as much in episode 4, and the events of the pilot lay it all out for us. Tommy goes off and gets in trouble, calls Joel, then Joel "reluctantly" goes off to help his little brother. But what kicks things off this time is that Tommy hasn't called Joel. And that's ringing alarm bells in Joel's head, so he goes off with Tess to try and figure out where he's gone. The reason being that Tommy never really needed Joel to bail him out, but Joel absolutely needed Tommy in his life to "save", or give his life purpose. You can see it in Pedro's eyes during the latest ep; Joel's so hurt that Tommy never called him.

I feel like the scene is telling us a few deeper things about Tommy and Joel. It's implied that Tommy was encouraged not to contact Joel because it would put Jackson at risk of exposure over the radio. But it's also pretty clear that if Tommy really wanted to contact Joel he would have - he's a headstrong guy. The subtext is that Tommy is ashamed of Joel, of the things they did together, and of the things that Joel forced Tommy to do so they could "survive", and is cutting off contact. We're being invited to see Joel in a new, unflattering light, as a manipulator of Tommy. Whether or not we agree with that is up to us, but it's how Maria and Tommy feel about Joel (supported by Maria's sharp questioning to Ellie about Joel), and it's not entirely untrue based on what we know. All these layers are operating under the surface of this episode and adds a lot of richness to the performances. Great stuff. I thought for a second that they might've been going down a different path. Then I remembered what show I was watching. You'll forgive me; 99% of adaptations make even dumber changes on a regular basis, I've been conditioned to expect the worst.

I don't think it's underrated. But I do agree it's better than a lot of other blockbusters that came out at the time and since. The story and dialogue are garbage, but it's competently made, and Spielberg's worst efforts are miles ahead of most directors' best in the action/adventure genre. I'll never consider it a good movie though, because it should have been much better than it was.

This thread is miserable. Of course you're going to notice the CGI if you post still-frames and slow-mo gifs. Reminds me of all those dismal Youtube video essay "critics".

Call me crazy, but pretty much all the IJ movies have some garbage special effects in them. I know I'll get roasted for this by the rose-tinted glasses brigade, but it's true. If you're having a good time watching it then it doesn't matter.

Ahaha I love that. Feels like a throwback to the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. And now I present one of my favourite things from childhood, the unhinged song from that show, set to the melody of the Mario overworld theme: The little stumble at the end... it's perfection.

Great post @Cerebral Cortex and I couldn't agree more. In a few months I will have a direct line to my childhood, and the moment I fell in love with music in general through JW's scores. That happened to be in the late 90's, which as you mentioned is likely why my excitement is so high. I haven't been this excited for a score since 2015 and the promise of TFA. He knocked that one out of the park and I have such fond memories of falling in love with a sophisticated and incredibly crafted score. I'm sad to say that my heart has hardened around anything Star Wars related since then, due in equal parts to the relentless output of the franchise and the tiresome discourse around it. But that's not the case with Indy, so my inner-child has stirred from his slumber and waits in anticipation for what's to come (before retiring once more as "the discourse" inevitably approaches).

I got what they were going for, and the arc itself worked fine. It just felt like a pretty stock-standard story for a series that is known for taking much bigger swings. One thing that did really work for me was seeing Kathleen surrounded by fire, chaos, soldiers and infected; her world literally crumbling around her as a direct result of her obsessive revenge. And even through all that all she wants is to kill Henry. That was a pretty great visual summary of what the episode was going for. But for me it would've landed better if her earlier scene in the childhood bedroom was more compelling. I also want to mention how fantastic the young actor playing Sam was. I was really impressed by his performance, and the dynamic he had with Henry and Ellie was wonderful. It made their eventual fate truly heartbreaking, something that I didn't quite feel from the game even though it played out pretty much the same. The decision to age Sam down and make him a deaf person probably contributed to that.

I was also a little underwhelmed with Kathleen’s arc. I was optimistic at first, hoping they’d lean more into the idea of her being an unlikely leader, but she was just the de facto because her nicer brother was killed. Seemed like a waste of Lynskey’s particular acting style. A rare miss for this show so far. I was also a little disappointed that the sink-hole just turned out to be… a hoard of infected plus a bloater. I was hoping for some kind of mega-tendril action or something, which is admittedly a little silly, but still.

They're called bloaters. They're the final stage of cordyceps infection, after clicker. If the host survives long enough it becomes completely covered in hardened fungal plates making them very difficult to kill. In the game they also have sacs on their bodies that they rip off and throw at people which explode with spores on impact. But as the spores aren't in the show I guess they don't do that here. Totally agree on the child clicker. It was nightmarish - reminded me a lot of the zombie children in GOT's "Hardhome". The way it contorted over the car seats was chilling. Good episode. In many ways it felt more like a part 2 to last week's episode, meaning that it was mostly payoff. For the most part I was satisfied with it, and it had some great game adaptations like the abandoned colony in the tunnels, and Joel with the sniper rifle out the window. I wonder if they filmed and cut out the discovery of the childrens' bodies in the tunnels because it's just so damned grim, or perhaps they wanted to imply a worse fate for the kids by showing us the child clicker. The final few scenes with Sam were truly heartbreaking. I appreciated the bait-and-switch with Ellie's "medicine blood", for a second I thought they really were going to go there with that (which I would've hated), but it was subverted immediately.

I'd agree that a lot of her character remains to be seen - why or how could someone like her end up in charge of a militant rebellion? I imagine we'll learn more next week. I think I was just struck by the casting choice which is bold and interesting, and having watched Heavenly Creatures I feel like we're in safe hands; Lynskey knows how to wrangle these kinds of character contradictions. I also have complete faith in Mazin's writing and vision, he genuinely hasn't dropped the ball once. I found out after listening to the official HBO podcast (which I listen to right after watching, it's really great, even if Druckmann doesn't get to say much most of the time lol).

I will never not hate "nostalgic solo piano rendition of a famous theme drenched in reverb" as a trailer music choice. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I thought S4 of Discovery was its strongest yet, felt like a proper Star Trek story with far fewer clunky or eye-rolling scenes than seasons 1-3. I hope you stick with and enjoy it, I can't remember how long it took to get going but if you're not on board by mid-season then you probably won't like it.

Episode 4 was solid. It's difficult to follow up from last week's fireworks, but it did what it needed to do in order to get Ellie and Joel moving on their journey. Loved all the quiet moments between them as we start to see their mutual affection start to really grow. I'd forgotten about the book of puns from the game, I enjoyed its inclusion here (the cover is even identical to the one in the game!), it's a great little device for showing us more about these characters. Ellie really does feel like a kid with all her giggling at stupid jokes. I loved the moment Joel cracked and we see him smile broadly and then laugh almost hysterically. The rebels/Henry/Sam stuff worked well enough; I particularly like the casting of Melanie Lynskey as the de facto rebel leader. She really sells the idea of a completely normal person pushed to the absolute limits of their humanity; I get the impression that pre-apocalypse she was just a fun auntie with a bubbly personality, right down to the way she's dressed. This episode was very much concerned with humanising the antagonists which is very welcome. Also nice to see Jeffrey Pierce (who voices Tommy in the game) get a cameo as her lieutenant, what a beard! I like that they're building multiple threads of tension in Kansas City. Henry and Sam have Joel and Ellie at gunpoint, while the entire rebel city is hunting them, but uh-oh, what's that ominous crack underground mean? Continuing to love the additions they're adding to cordyceps beyond the zombie horror, like the tendrils and now this mysterious underground activity. It really adds a fresh element for people familiar with the story and piles on the tension and dread of what's to come. A big drawback for me was that this was the first episode that felt like it was merely a part of a larger serialised story, without a strong internal structure. The first three episodes had very clear thematic statements which served as scaffolding for the scenes, giving each story a solid beginning, middle and end while still moving the larger story along. It gestures at a theme of "innocence lost" through the Joel and Ellie scenes (capped off with a child holding a gun at Joel's head) but for me it wasn't as effective as the last two episodes and felt like a lot of setup for the next episode.

I haven't watched the Cushing movies but I'd like to, they look like fun. There's a hilarious moment in Moffat's novelisation of Day of the Doctor implying that the Cushing movies exist within the universe of Who; posters for the films appear in the Black Archive and Clara and the Doctor have a short exchange about it. That easter egg was apparently supposed to be in the televised story but they couldn't clear the rights for the posters which is a shame. I recommend reading the novelisation, it's a lot of fun, and also captures some of the mystery and poeticism around the Time War which could never be translated to the screen.

They may have, but the idiots who pull these campaigns always have a way around those kinds of protections. At any rate we're talking about IMDB which clearly has no such interventions.

I wouldn't put Steam reviews in the same category as IMDB or RT because Valve have an explicit financial interest in the games that are being reviewed. I agree that it's an inherently unfair system which should be pushed back on, and it's only in the past few years that other online gaming shopfronts have become even remotely competitive. It's a similar situation to Amazon reviews; I don't trust them at all, even with all the attempts at transparency and user verification. Billion-dollar mega-corporations are not trustworthy platforms for reviews. The equivalent would be if RT or IMDB were the only places to view the movies or shows that are being rated, which is not the case. The biases that I'm concerned with are informed by the user base rather than any shady business practices. In terms of the critic reviews Rotten Tomatoes literally just aggregates existing data, and all those conspiracies about the site shilling for Disney because The Last Jedi has a 90% rating are completely bogus. But that didn't stop an actual conspiracy to review-bomb the film from occuring. One could argue there should be more transparency to whom Rotten Tomatoes considers to be a "critic", particularly in the changing media landscape, but as far as I'm aware there haven't been any major controversies surrounding this.

I don't think it's terribly important to have a mass rating/opinion system at all to be honest, at least when it comes to art. I'm quite happy listening to the communities that I'm involved with that have similar interests, and reviewers whose critiques I find compelling and well-argued. Too many people put stock in populist ratings when they tell you absolutely nothing about what is being rated. 97% on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't mean something is better than 97% of what else is out there, just that the majority of the reviews are "positive"; not necessarily glowing or outstanding, just "not bad". A film or show that is incredibly influential and meaningful to a specific audience may only get a score of 50%, which isn't at all indicative of the quality of the art in question. IMDB is even worse; on one hand you have sycophants rating everything 10/10 and on the other you've got trolls bombing things for political reasons with nary a nod to nuance.