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  • I can remember seeing a fan made trailer for a Magneto origin story film during the first solo Wolverine film days. It was very well made and better than any trailer that’s currently being released from Marvel. Wish they’d gone with that direction, as much as I loved ‘First Class’.


    @comicsgate

    I agree with you on this, especially with Marvel films. That’s why I didn’t want Disney near FOX and the X-Men films because at least FOX tried to keep them serious whereas Disney were trying to make them even more “kid friendly” with each release to the point where it’s now getting silly. Don’t get me wrong; I like a good comedy relief moment in any film as well as a good musical number but it HAS to be at the right moment and not random. This was why I preferred ‘Batman Vs Superman’ over ‘Civil War’. ‘Civil War’ relied WAY too heavily on comedy on the hero vs hero scene. ‘Batman Vs Superman’ kept it dark and serious with the occasional comic relief moment in it. I’m not saying that everything has to be dark and serious like DC but I do agree with a lot of people that the MCU should’ve grown up with the fans.

    #310462
    Vknid
    Moderator

      HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

      THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal
      before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
      than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
      stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
      211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
      vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

      Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April for
      instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in
      that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-
      year-old son, Harrison, away.

      It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very
      hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t
      think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
      intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
      ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
      government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
      send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
      advantage of their brains.

      George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel’s
      cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about.

      On the television screen were ballerinas.

      A buzzer sounded in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits
      from a burglar alarm.

      “That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did,” said Hazel.

      “Huh” said George.

      “That dance-it was nice,” said Hazel.

      “Yup, ” said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They
      weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway.
      They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces
      were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty
      face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the
      vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn’t get
      very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his
      thoughts .

      George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.

      Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George
      what the latest sound had been.

      “Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer, ” said
      George .

      “I’d think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds,”
      said Hazel a little envious. “All the things they think up.”

       

      “Urn, ” said George.

      “Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?” said Hazel.
      Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper
      General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. “If I was Diana Moon Glampers,”
      said Hazel, “I’d have chimes on Sunday- just chimes. Kind of in honor of
      religion . ”

      “I could think, if it was just chimes,” said George.

      “Well-maybe make ’em real loud,” said Hazel. “I think I’d make a good
      Handicapper General.”

      “Good as anybody else,” said George.

      “Who knows better then I do what normal is?” said Hazel.

      “Right,” said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son
      who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head
      stopped that.

      “Boy!” said Hazel, “that was a doozy, wasn’t it?”

      It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on
      the rims of his red eyes. Two of of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the
      studio floor, were holding their temples.

      “All of a sudden you look so tired,” said Hazel. “Why don’t you stretch out
      on the sofa, so’s you can rest your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch.”
      She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag,
      which was padlocked around George’s neck. “Go on and rest the bag for a
      little while,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a
      while . ”

      George weighed the bag with his hands. “I don’t mind it,” he said. “I don’t
      notice it any more. It’s just a part of me.”

      “You been so tired lately-kind of wore out,” said Hazel. “If there was just
      some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take
      out a few of them lead balls. Just a few.”

      “Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took
      out,” said George. “I don’t call that a bargain.”

      “If you could just take a few out when you came home from work,” said Hazel.
      “I mean-you don’t compete with anybody around here. You just set around.”

      “If I tried to get away with it,” said George, “then other people ‘ d get away
      with it-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with
      everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would
      you?”

      “I’d hate it,” said Hazel.

      “There you are,” said George. The minute people start cheating on laws, what
      do you think happens to society?”

       

      If Hazel hadn’t been able to come up with an answer to this question, George
      couldn’t have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head.

      “Reckon it’d fall all apart,” said Hazel.

      “What would?” said George blankly.

      “Society,” said Hazel uncertainly. “Wasn’t that what you just said?

      “Who knows?” said George.

      The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It
      wasn’t clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer,
      like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a
      minute, and in a state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say,
      “Ladies and Gentlemen.”

      He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.

      “That’s all right-” Hazel said of the announcer, “he tried. That’s the big
      thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get
      a nice raise for trying so hard.”

      “Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must
      have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous.
      And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all
      the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred
      pound men.

      And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice
      for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody. “Excuse
      me-” she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely
      uncompetitive .

      “Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,” she said in a grackle squawk, “has just
      escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow
      the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and
      should be regarded as extremely dangerous.”

      A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen-upside
      down, then sideways, upside down again, then right side up. The picture
      showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet
      and inches. He was exactly seven feet tall.

      The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever
      born heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men
      could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he
      wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses.
      The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him
      whanging headaches besides.

      Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry,
      a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison
      looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three
      hundred pounds .

       

      And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times
      a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his
      even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.

      “If you see this boy, ” said the ballerina, “do not – I repeat, do not – try
      to reason with him.”

      There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.

      Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The
      photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as
      though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

      George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have –
      for many was the time his own home had danced to the same crashing tune. “My
      God-” said George, “that must be Harrison!”

      The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an
      automobile collision in his head.

      When George could open his eyes again, the photograph of Harrison was gone. A
      living, breathing Harrison filled the screen.

      Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood – in the center of the studio.
      The knob of the uprooted studio door was still in his hand. Ballerinas,
      technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him,
      expecting to die.

      “I am the Emperor!” cried Harrison. “Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody
      must do what I say at once!” He stamped his foot and the studio shook.

      “Even as I stand here” he bellowed, “crippled, hobbled, sickened – I am a
      greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can
      become ! ”

      Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore
      straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.

      Harrison’s scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.

      Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head
      harness. The bar snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his headphones and
      spectacles against the wall.

      He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor,
      the god of thunder.

      “I shall now select my Empress!” he said, looking down on the cowering

      people. “Let

      the first woman who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her throne!”

      A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow.

      Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical
      handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask.

      She was blindingly beautiful.

       

      “Now-” said Harrison, taking her hand, “shall we show the people the meaning
      of the word dance? Music!” he commanded.

      The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of
      their handicaps, too. “Play your best,” he told them, “and I’ll make you
      barons and dukes and earls.”

      The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly, false. But Harrison
      snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang
      the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.

      The music began again and was much improved.

      Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while-listened
      gravely, as though synchronizing their heartbeats with it.

      They shifted their weights to their toes.

      Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist, letting her sense the
      weightlessness that would soon be hers.

      And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!

      Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the
      laws of motion as well.

      They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.

      They leaped like deer on the moon.

      The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers
      nearer to it.

      It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.

      And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended
      in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long
      time .

      It was then that Diana Moon Clampers, the Handicapper General, came into the
      studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the
      Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

      Diana Moon Clampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and
      told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.

      It was then that the Bergerons’ television tube burned out.

      Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out
      into the kitchen for a can of beer.

      George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him
      up. And then he sat down again. “You been crying” he said to Hazel.

      “Yup, ” she said.

       

      “What about?” he said.

      “I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.”

      “What was it?” he said.

      “It’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said Hazel.

      “Forget sad things,” said George.

      “I always do,” said Hazel.

      “That’s my girl,” said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting
      gun in his head.

      “Gee – I could tell that one was a doozy, ” said Hazel.

      “You can say that again,” said George.

      “Gee-” said Hazel, “I could tell that one was a doozy.”

      “Harrison Bergeron” is copyrighted by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.

       

       

      • This topic was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by Vknid.
      #309552

      Some think that Tucker is going to be the VP pick. I was listening to one of the dissidents the other day and he said that Vivek is almost too perfect in every statement and word and that Vivek is like an A.I. constructed candidate almost. I marvel at how he performs. No one else can do what Ramaswamy does. He does not use a teleprompter. His speeches are memorized, which makes me think he actually wrote all three of his books. His idea about Rogan and Musk moderating the debate was thinking big and exposed the GOP as very lame controlled opposition.

      I have no opinion on the Daughter on Tiktok point, but my favorite was the part about tax money going to restrict or destroy churches in the Ukraine. Nikke sat there like a dolt. Haley is very preachy like a Jeb Bush and she virtue-signals a lot in speeches but never mentions when churches are attacked or set on fire in the world. She’s definitely a poser and fake moral person. I know that look too. It’s a look of paralysis and she just sat there and took it because she knew Vivek had her. I will not vote for Nikki Haley under any circumstances and she is my very last pick out of both parties and independent parties, too. Vermin Supreme would get my vote before her.

      Also, I must say this about Tiktok. Our industrial base and manufacturing base was off shored to China a long time ago and China has had most favored nation trade status for about 30 years. That may have changed, but it’s not the point. Stop talking about China as a threat and war with China when boomers could not wait to ship off everything there. It’s still that way. I saw Kevin O’Leary still had that level of thinking. Get it all to China as quick as possible. This is why any talk of a ban on Tiktok is curious. I know they restricted Huawei for that reason, too, because they cannot compete with slaves. Trump was absolutely correct on his trade ideas.

      #307747

      “I guess what i’m trying to say, as an outside fan of the counter culture movement, I’d like to see more of an expansive creative spawning ground with this community fostering more writers and artists, and them finding the best of one each other, and from all this teams of amazing creators teaming up to do really cool stuff.”

      Well I can see how you feel that way, but you need to be grounded with a foundation if you want to be able to take risks in the first place. Furthermore, what do you consider “counter culture?” The idea of counter culture has changed.

      The counter culture today is about going to church, having a family, and having a stable income. The counter culture of yesterday is dead along with “anti establishment” since that’s become the new establishment.

      Even punk rockers from yester-year are saying that’s the new counter culture. So to me, when you say “rippaverse needs to work more towards the counter culture” I see that he’s already doing that.

      The opposite of comic book culture right now would to be “safe and stable” because right now the comic book industry in the mainstream is very risky and volatile. Woke agenda being pushed into readers, unproven writers getting a shot to change marvel characters in comic to sell them, and losing excessive amounts of money.

      Rippaverse, despite making millions, still needs to stay grounded and stable because that’s why they’re winning. So Rippaverse is in fact part of the counter culture, it’s just not the counter culture you remembered growing up.

      Corporate comics today are about pushing agendas and we just don’t get that with Isom or Rippaverse which is the counter culture. Maybe down the line, when rippaverse more established and they have those risks, maybe he will give opportunity to new talent, but right now skilled and proven talent is what’s going to turn up sales, not taking unnecessary risks because that’s what corporate mainstream comics are doing and spoiler alert: its not working.

      #307692

      Well, the reason many were drawn to Geeks and Gamers was we were unhappy about the direction of star wars and it was refreshing to see someone call it out. We’ve learned over the years that our society is built from the ground up by the sort of financial institutions that provide us our entertainment and give us jobs and culture. There’s this entire societal  machine that springs up around products and how those products generate money and how they interface in politics and how they foster talent, and who gets a slice of the pie.

      If the Rippaverse’s cultural value was measured purely in dollar signs, I think we’d all be beyond impressed. But it’s not, and for me I look at all the success Eric has had and it’s very much rooted in this frustration from the fandom menace. There is only room for maybe 1 or 2 Rippaverses, anything beyond that and the customers start to become stretched.

      I’ll be honest, this has gone probably as well as it could have. It seems to be an above average comic, it could end up being better over time, but Eric seems like a big fish in a small pond. There really wasn’t much competition in this space. If doomcock had put out a comic, or if Jay had tried to do a superhero book, I don’t think it would have compared to Rippa’s first outing.

      But if we go back many decades to the old comic book, it was this big pool and there were tons of creatives competing with each other over many many years and from that came the behemoths of DC and Marvel. Good things spring out of competitive environments, when you don’t know if you’re going to sink or swim, you put the axe to the grind and you go HARD. You’re not comfortable, you’re not picking yes men, you pick highly talented people who are going to push your projects but might be hard to work with because you need an edge to compete.

      I don’t want to ramble too long, but long story short is this just feels like a very safe bet from Eric. And there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s nothing wrong with Eric seeing an opportunity to make a lot of money while living his dream to make his own comic. But from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like he’s going to give others a chance, or take risks trying to be the next Stan Lee by really pushing the envelope and trying to push the medium and do something exciting for the fans. Like it’s just Rippa, and his hired guns, which is admittedly smart and can safeguard the business venture from dangerous actors. There just seems to be so much untapped potential these days, I guess I’m just frustrated that Rippa isn’t trying exciting new things with untapped talent. We’re in a new frontier, we have new ways of networking, new ways of monetizing, new stories to tell, new mediums to make comics in, new creatives who can help make comics in new ways and draw  an audience in new ways.

      And what we’re left with is a very tight lipped company, full of yes men, who are all in service to Eric’s vision, which is unproven, and thus far hasn’t made huge waves outside of simply generating lots of money. Not his fault, it can take time to build a universe, and he COULD end up being a rare talent, I guess time will tell. In the meantime this excitement, this big wave for a new alternative to the falling giants will only crest once, and it’s Eric who’s positioned himself to be the sole benefactor of the movement so many cultivated, while taking seemingly no risks or sharing this creative venture with any other people.

      I guess what i’m trying to say, as an outside fan of the counter culture movement, I’d like to see more of an expansive creative spawning ground with this community fostering more writers and artists, and them finding the best of one each other, and from all this teams of amazing creators teaming up to do really cool stuff. Instead we have Rippa rising above everyone else, and stiff arming everything towards his vision without much engagement to the community at large or trying to make this exciting by collaborating with fresh blood rising stars. In a word it just feels “corporate”.

      Anyway, if someone was going to get rich off all this, glad it was Rippa, he’s a genuine guy who loves comics and he’s as good as anyone to lead a company like this, solid work ethic, principles, and level headed. But the eggs are also all in one basket, and he can be a bit stubborn about his own work, and very controlling about who he allows in and when. I suppose in a lot of ways, that’s not his fault, and more everyone else for not being able to get something going themselves. It’s just frustrating. But I suppose inevitable in this new culture where creators in this space put out a new video every day, expecting them to hunker down and put pen to paper to create a creative work that isn’t meant to be digested and thrown away isn’t necessarily in their wheelhouse.

      #307656

      And I wouldn’t call these characters generic either lol I hear the term “generic” but I have only seen one or two characters with a cape so far and everyone else seems to have their own outfit and place in Rippaverse. No one is genuinely a “good guy” and even the guy who aspired to be a hero had failed. Isom’s universe is about men becoming heroes, in DC it’s about heroes being human.

      Isom follows the marvel formula of comics that these are characters who are very human pushing to be more than human which is great, but there is a lot of groundwork too. The story seems pretty obvious but then you see that Isom doesn’t fit the bill for super humans either. There’s some guesswork and the story does tend to drag in places where it shouldn’t, but to me this is the basis for modern storytelling in comics and maybe that’s the issue. It’s not starting in the glory style of comics where fights just happen and you get explanations or you get sequence into an action moment. To me, the workplace of storytelling starts with more drama than action. If we break down what we are missing from Isom, I think we could pencil our own assessment of what can improve.

      Again, DC and Marvel have dragging points too. In fact, batman has a lot of points where it just drags on, divulging plot points and really getting story technical rather than action based. I could analyze it all day, as could you. I’m still saying it’s too early to tell

      #307640

      Buddy, I respect that you see Rippaverse as “low effort” and “just a cash grab” but to be honest, I don’t see it.

      I’ve seen where the rest of modern comics have gone pushing identity politics, pushing self-inserts, pushing hate politics, but sadly, going to disagree.

      I bought, read, and enjoyed Rippaverse so far, I see a genuine willingness to make a decent comic and every ink soaked page has been a wonderful read. The colors are vivid, the scenes are well thought out, the characters are pretty original, and the concept of creating a single universe as opposed to having a multiverse is 100% ambitious and going against modern media.

      To me, low effort implies that Eric July doesn’t care about the work and it’s just to make money. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t think the comics would be as well written as they are or have actual artists, it wouldn’t be well put together and it wouldn’t sell, Isom checks all these boxes. Sure, maybe the stories aren’t the best written stories ever, I can admit to that because it’s a new comic book series and it has to start from somewhere. Imagine starting day one, first comic on Batman and saying “oh a guy in a batsuit fighting crime, that’s so uninspired and low effort” but batman went on to make millions and become an iconic comic book character.

      The same has to go for Isom or any other comic book creation, the starting comics don’t always have the best opening stories. I mean we see people poking major holes in Batman’s plot, but he’s still a beloved character to readers. I also don’t see the problem with Eric July doing a self insert for his character because at least it’s his own character and not someone else’s.

      In the comic book industry, many fake creators have changed existing characters to push a self insert instead of doing something original, That’s the problem With today’s industry, there’s no effort.

      Rippaverse shows 100% effort in branding, art, and writing. If you don’t like the art, you don’t like story, and you don’t like series, that’s your right as an individual and Eric has also said many of times: if you don’t like it, that is your choice and you don’t have to buy it. That’s your opinion if you think it’s low effort, but if Eric’s “low effort” is making millions off 2 comics, then I would be shocked at what his high effort can do. 😲

      I honestly don’t see what you’re talking about and you let a clown’s opinion get to you. I won’t say Eric July made the best comic book ever, but if I compared it to every comic book coming out today, I would say it’s 100% more effort than anyone else is doing. Rippaverse is going places and it’s still in the world building phase too, so I definitely think you’re judging his work a little too early to be saying it’s bad when it’s literally only two comics in, but from what I gathered, it will need some work like every other comic book series. Superman didn’t always have the power of flight you know?

      The color, the contrasts, and the scenes all look better than modern day Marvel or DC and he’s making more money than them too. When I hear people criticize the art, I laugh because every inked sheet I see, has quality writing and art right in there. Whatever little details that the hate groups want to point out, I would say they are nitpicking and I would be right. The only valid criticism to the art that I agreed with was the leg on one of the Alphacore  members(in the first comic) looking funny. Sure, I can see that, but really have you seen half the art that came out of marvel? This is from an indie Creator and they can manage to do all this?  That’s high effort my friend, higher than anyone else.

      The story has Avery, a man who shut himself out of the world coming back to a city running amok with crime organizations and a friend being prostituted while the city gets controlled by excepts’. Then we come around to find the magical principles of the underworld are behind some these issues and goes after Isom? Is Isom magical? Spiritual? Why are demons interested in him? Does he hold a special power to link their pocket dimension to his world?

      The questions are open my friend, there’s genuine interest in the story for me. only an actual high effort comic can do that to you. I want you to list of examples of why you think it’s low effort because I strongly disagree. There’s actual story, art, and effort in it. I’m all in.

      Lastly, if Eric was so high ego, he wouldn’t be putting his readers first. High ego is thinking you’re the best no matter what, I’ve seen Eric admit to mistakes, that takes level head and grounded ego which keeps me from agreeing with you.

      Eric has called out haters, yes, that’s part of his generation of wealth much like any other content creator. If you’re going to point fingers at Eric, point them at every other content creator. At least Eric sticks by his word and provides his product.

      Look at his peers: that one marvel writer who made his own comic, he made a promise for his comic 2 years ago and never stood by his Kickstarter or patreon or whatever he did, but never released a single page to his backers physically and he had the audacity to criticize Eric July when he released his comics, he has actual physical copies.

      Low effort would tell me he would go straight to digital, but no. He has it printed physically, made by real writers, made by real artists, and used his own money to make it happen. Low effort is going on Kickstarter, low effort is hiring one person, low effort is not trying to make something compelling that people love and get criticized.

      Comparing him to Kathleen Kennedy is just a empty argument. Kathleen Kennedy made Disney star wars about herself and ruined the entire franchise. Eric made something out of himself, he didn’t rely on someone else’s work, he made his own work and hired the help of real writers and artists to make it happen. Kathleen stood on the shoulders of Disney and Lucas to make woke garbage. Eric stands on his own to make his brand and vision happen and owns his errors. Big difference.

      I just don’t know what to tell you, I don’t see the low effort, the ego, or the lack of quality. Eric has earned my dollar and my business and I respect that he still has to earn yours or you don’t want it and that’s fine too, but I will argue til the end of days that Eric is genuine.

      #307221

      Age of Ultron was adequate for me. I liked the movie, but see where critics are coming from with the jokes. Marvel was so good back then that anything they did worked. What I liked about some Marvel movies was just the little things. The little thing I liked in Age of Ultron was when Hawkeye got shot in the beginning and had to go to a 3-D Printing machine to heal his tissues and organs. https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Regeneration_Cradle It is good science and good reading and good possibilities to see organic 3-D Printing in practice. It’s a touch of futurism. Michio Kaku would have a field day with it.

      Marvel also explored 3-D Printing in Spider-Man: No Way Home where Peter printed a Stark suit on the jet. https://scitechdaily.com/6x-tougher-than-kevlar-spider-silk-is-spun-by-genetically-modified-silkworms-for-the-first-time/ The 3-D printing or organic tissue or other materials is one little, teeny tiny thing that used to make Marvel movies super interesting. Sometimes, even one scene in a sci-fi movie makes it worth watching even if the overall movie is not very good. Key scenes. Does a movie have that? Marvel used to have an aura of greatness about it.

      #306996

      Someone mentioned that they managed to do Luffy better than like a Ms. Marvel or Mr. Fantastic. True. All about the sequences and execution.
      Also, the swords seem to be more interesting than the light saber duels.

      #302824

      It’s been a good, long run, but the Spielberg/Lucas era is coming to an end. From what I heard about Indiana Jones, I liked the ideas. It is congruent with a professor that, at the end of his life, he’d want to be around Archimedes and explore those kinds of minds. It is not believable to me for a guy in his 80s to be doing action movies. One glance at the trailer was enough for me to miss the latest one. He’s not the same guy. Chris Gore made a great point that if the torch was passed to Short Round, it would have been great and also, a gesture of goodwill to the eastern markets.

      The woke stuff is all recent. Spielberg and Lucas made good movies at one time. Marvel has an incredible run of movies and they were actual good movies. At one time, old school cinema was criticizing the superhero movies, but at the time, the casting, characters and stories made them better movies than the alternatives. Now that mass production has taken over, the quality is diminishing. Chuck Dixon said that he’s seen it before when every movie used to be a western and one day, it all went away and was replaced by a different genre.

      One thing that is correct is, after all those great movies, that once they get the public hooked, they put out The Message of race swaps and gender swaps, etc. Not sure if you saw, but Spider-verse was banned in the Arab Muslim world because of BLM and “protect Trans Kids” posters on the walls of Miles Morales.

      I went to see Sound of Freedom and it was ok. It’s an alternative. It’s also an opportunity for people to see something that is against the grooming that is going on. We have the trans stuff, PRIDE month, Epstein Island, 50 Shades, Madonna, and Sound of Freedom just represents a tiny, tiny difference from the smut peddlers in the country. Faith films are kind of a joke, but I can only speak for myself that the perverted secular mass produced consumerist materialist product has become stale and cliche’ and monotonous. In fact, I remember watching Sound of Freedom and leaving the theater, the muzack piped into the mall was sexually suggestive and it occurs to a person that we live under a cloud of massive pressure to conform to being some kind of Pimp or Ho. SOF was not the best movie, but I will support Angel Studios in the future because they are trying to make human interest movies.

      Sound of Freedom stays with you though. I walked out thinking meh, wasn’t much, but a day later, I was still thinking about it. That’s the difference. Special effects don’t give you that. Sound of Freedom has substance to it. It’s not easy to watch. To be honest, I was very uncomfortable. Sometimes, in life, I’ve been disappointed that faithful people would not speak out on an issue, but that is what the movie does. It’s dark territory. It’s meaningful. You can kind of feel the tension out there around it.

      #302771

      For a time, The Black Cauldron was Disney’s biggest flop and biggest bomb. What sucks about that is Lloyd Alexander, like Don Bluth, is another legend and a very underrated writer. I went through a Lloyd Alexander phase. His books Westmark, The Iron Ring, The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, and The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian were all a lot of fun and up to the level of The Prydain Series.

      It’s a shame that The Black Cauldron flopped and his writing seems to have been abandoned. Lloyd Alexander also had a character that was up to the standard of Tomb Raider, which was the Vesper Holly series. Vesper Holly was like a young lady version of Indiana Jones and shows why swapping characters is not necessary because good female characters have already existed. She was a really smart girl who made good allies, so it was by wits, luck and teamwork that she was able to beat her corrupt foes.

      I’m glad you guys bring up the soundtrack and music from the Don Bluth films, because they are somewhat esoteric and I am tempted to post them here. So many quality songs that have been forgotten. I did hear “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail the other day. It is almost too wholesome and sweet and innocent. They don’t seem to be able to craft songs like that anymore. Heart of gold type songs, but that one was a big hit. The ones I’m talking about are really ones that I have not heard before or have no recollection of from the Don Bluth era.

      Screenshot 2023-07-08 at 03-11-12 24781._SX300_.jpg (JPEG Image 300 × 454 pixels)

       

      #302261

      In reply to: The Flash

      The Flash breaks a negative DC film record…and almost Marvel’s

      Thus, after grossing $55 million worldwide in its first weekend, the second weekend drop was no less than 72.5%, the largest in the history of DC movies.

      And how about compared to Marvel?

      In fact, it’s almost the biggest in superhero movie history, were it not for Morbius’ 73% drop last year.

      So, this is (as the legacy media is claiming) superhero fatigue?

      The contrast with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse, which grossed $300 million in one month, is especially painful.

      Nope, just shitty movies won’t make the money none shitty movies get.

      Fortunately for The Flash, it still has time to make the $200 million it cost to make, but at this rate… it seems hard to believe it can.

      And now the legacy media refuses to report the TRUE costs, which include all those extra reshoots and marketing costs, and how the studio only gets HALF the money as the other half goes to the theater owners.

      Lying by omitting FACTS, the legacy media is.

      #301523

      Whoa, co-created Wolverine. King of the Silver Age, says Razorfist.

      Romita had based the design for Mary Jane Watson on actress Ann-Margret.

      https://news.yahoo.com/john-romita-sr-marvel-artist-171833747.html

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/john-romita-sr-who-drew-early-spider-man-comics-and-wolverine-for-marvel-dead-at-93/ar-AA1cxLRw

      John Victor Romita Sr. was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating characters including Mary Jane Watson, the Punisher, Wolverine, and Luke Cage

      @ Vknid: ” He was also heavily into evolution and used that in some of his platform where he thought the Germans were the peak of evolution and everyone else was lesser than them or maybe just steps to get to that point.”

      This is a popular, but false allegation. It was part of allied propaganda during WW2.  He never once called the Germans the peak of evolution, just a “higher race”, which supposedly gave them a divine destiny. The idea of higher and lower races predates Darwinian theory, and dates back to the early days of transatlantic slavery, and before that to Arab slave trade. It was generally viewed in a teleological way, much like the American idea of manifest destiny.

      As for evolution, Hitler categorically denied it:

      ”Whoever would dare to raise a profane hand against that highest image of God among His creatures would sin against the bountiful Creator of this marvel and would collaborate in the expulsion from Paradise.[15]
      ”It was by the Will of God that men were made of a certain bodily shape, were given their natures and their faculties. Whoever destroys His work wages war against God’s Creation and God’s Will.[16]
      ”The most marvelous proof of the superiority of Man, which puts man ahead of the animals, is the fact that he understands that there must be a Creator.[17]

      “What right do we have to believe that man was not from the very
      beginning what he is today? A glance at nature informs us
      that in the realm of plants and animals alterations and further formation
      occur, but nothing indicates that development [Entwicklung] within a
      species [Gattung] has ever occurred of a considerable leap of the sort that man
      would have to have made to transform him from an ape-like condition to
      his present state.”

      I found a few articles that claim hitler spoke of evolution a few times, but when I looked up the quotes, Hitler used the term “entwicklung”, which can mean evolution in rare cases, but generally means development or condition. And yes, I speak German. No one in Germany thinks Hitler was an Atheist or Darwinian. Not even his political opponents before his election ever accused him of that. Even the Social-Democratic party at the time (SPD, who still rules Germany today), while calling him every name in the book, never called him two things he is often falsely called today: 1)  an atheist    2) a right winger

      PS: Another argument against Hitler believing in evolution would be his goal of a classless society (which again he justified theologically, claiming “God created nations, not classes.” A classless society runs against the very concept of evolution. How can there be evolution, if all are made equal? Evolution means you have winners and losers, and the winners get to breed in higher numbers. It’s not for the state to decide either, but for each individual based on their individual merit. Just like in nature. Nature doesnt give all bears and tigers and equal share of food. The most capable hunters catch the most prey. Incompetent hunters starve or are unable to feed their young.
      Translated to human evolution, this would mean that if the Germans had been superior, why woulds they have feared the Jew? Had Hitler believed in evolution, he would have just let the competition play out.

      • This reply was modified 9 months, 2 weeks ago by Wisdom.
      #301483
      Vknid
      Moderator

        Anyone old enough to remember the term “yuppie”?

        https://www.britannica.com/topic/yuppie

        When I was growing up their was this prevailing thought process that rural life was boring, oppressive and meaningless in spite of the fact this is how humans have lived since the beginning of time in one fashion or another.  Along with this went the idea that big city life was exciting, full of meaning and the only real way to experience life.

        I personally believe this is when people began to all but worship places like New York, London, Paris and so on.  Back in those days (80’s) if you were working or living in such a place it was considered that you had “made it”.

        I wonder if this was organic where society just shifted as it began to marvel at itself and started to lose touch with God.  Or, was this when some of the propaganda started to push people to cities, materialism and consumerism?  I know from 80’s movies there was indeed some of this propaganda around both in the realm of sexuality and consumerism.  In fact terms like “the battle of the sexes” and “gender bending” came out of the 90’s if I recall correctly.  I believe these to be embryonic versions of the insanity we see today in gender.

        What do you guys think?

        EDIT – I wanted to mention something to personalize this a bit.  I too bought into this thought process myself for a long time.  In my younger years I thought having a big house and a nice car was success.  And I did well to that extent but after working for a Fortune 500 for several years my values and what I held dear began to radically shift.  This is especially the case after I got married and had children.  At this time the only way I would work for such a company again or live that lifestyle is if I had to.

         

        • This topic was modified 9 months, 2 weeks ago by Vknid.
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