Clone Wars had at least one extended, cool-looking space battle, something the last two movies have been somewhat lackluster in, IMHO. And never once did it grievously insult my intelligence, as the last two movies, sadly, have done.
So I will buy it when it comes out on DVD for those reasons alone, because there is a small part of me that still wants to like Star Wars despite the many disappointing things done to the franchise since 1999.
Well, no slam intended to Clone Wars, it's great stuff, but these episodes are like 3 minutes long apiece and have very little dialogue; some have none whatsoever. A good majority of them are just 3-minute fight scenes. I think comparing them to the movies (lacking as I will admit the prequels are in the writing dept.) is kind of apples and oranges.
It's true that it is an imperfect analogy, but to some degree it creates an example people can understand. Working in tech support I hear a lot of things along the line of "but it was working yesterday!" and users who are outraged that their computer will not run forever without any kind of maintenance.
What I tell them is that a person generally wouldn't buy a car, drive it constantly without checking or changing the oil, putting gas in it, or doing any maintenance at all, and then take it to the car dealership, furious, when suddenly it will no longer run for whatever reason, and say "but it was running yesterday!" Yet people do this all the time with computers.
Computers are a mechanical device and require maintenance to keep running properly. True, they are unlike cars in most other respects, but it is a helpful primer for people so clueless they think computers operate on a mix of fairy dust and moonbeams.
"B-but, Open Office doesn't have Clippy, the helpful paper clip. Or a wizard. Or a little Microsoft logo that tells you when you're writing a letter (because obviously, you don't know). We even have a helpful little puppy! You like puppies, don't you? Everybody likes puppies! Fine, go ahead and use Open Office, puppy killer!"
$40 million, I don't care WHAT kind of video card I need! That's WAY too much to pay for a game! This is an outrage! I mean, Doom III is only going to cost $500,000 to play at MOST...
Addresses an issue in which Finder unexpectedly quits if the View menu option "Show icon preview" is enabled while dragging a significant number of icons to another location.
Yeah, this is a great fix... shame it isn't actually fixed.
I just installed the update and restarted, and it's still doing it. So obviously there is still some work to be done.
I doubt it; if there's any kind of adaptation where Tom Bombadil is really gonna be at home, it's in a musical. That character was pretty much born for this!
Now, Glorfindel, on the other hand... you know he's gonna get the shaft again.
I once read an interview with comic book author Alan Moore in which the interviewer asked him how he felt about his comics being "ruined" by dismal, piece-of-crap movie adaptations (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the like).
He responded. "Ruined my books? No, they're fine, they're right over there on the shelf."
I feel the same way about this. Certainly it has every chance of being a dismal, laughable production, but the original source material has survived worse lambasting already at the hands of the Harvard Lampoon and a thousand poor imitators writing ten-book doorstop epics in homage to Tolkien. The original LOTR material is going to be just fine.
Thanks for your post! However, Slashdot law now requires me to post this link and compare you, unfavorably, to the individual represented therein. It's nothing personal, mind you, just something that has to be done.
I suppose instead they will be focusing on releasing a series of World War II-themed massively-multiplayer first-person shooters -- just what the world needs, right?
That's seriously disappointing. I used to be a video game fanatic in years past, but that has waned steadily ever since the moneymaking trends in gaming have slid rapidly towards exclusively online games, WWII shooters, 3D RTSes, and more of the same-old same-old.
Give me a good old LucasArts adventure game... I'd buy it. I can't be the only one.
Re:in 250 hours you could have...
on
Borg Cube Case
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· Score: 1
- flossed your teeth 3,000 times. - earned $1287.50 flipping burgers for minimum wage
LOL. Gosh, just think, if only he'd had sufficient foresight and wisdom, he could have been flossing his teeth or been up to his armpits in grease at Burger King instead of making a cool case for his computer... Oh, wasted youth!
On the other hand, what could you have been doing in the time you were advising other people on what they could be doing with theirs? (And thus opens an infinite loop of time-wasting accusations.)
Re: A lot of spare time
on
Borg Cube Case
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· Score: 4, Insightful
So if you had some spare time, you'd do something you enjoy.
Well, this guy does have spare time, and he's doing something he enjoys.
Why do we have to read this "this guy doesn't enjoy the same hobbies I do, so therefore he is wasting his time" nonsense every time anyone does anything? Get over yourself. Not everyone is interested in the same things you are.
I don't speak for myself personally, but dissection is enjoyment for some people.
I have a friend who is a big movie enthusiast, who loves to predict exactly what will happen, 20, 40, and 60 minutes into the future of the film. Then he sits back, utterly unsurprised by the plot twists he saw coming a mile off, and crows about how he saw it all coming. This strikes me as really perverse, but it's how he enjoys movies.
Other people get off on finding flaws that people like me would never be able to spot in a hundred viewings. It's just the way some people are wired up.
Once the hype wears down, people are going to laugh (or be disgusted at the extremely low quality) of these movies.
I don't think so. Looking at some of the other swords & sorcery efforts out there (the Dungeons & Dragons movie springs to mind), I think we got off pretty lucky.
If you want to see an extremely low quality interpretation of Lord of the Rings, check out Bakshi's animated version sometime. Once you stop shivering in a fetal ball, you might not think Jackson's so bad after all.
The first two movies, I had very few issues with. I wasn't crazy about Arwen supposedly causing the flood at Bruinen, but I could get over it. I thought Eomer was short-changed because he disappeared for most of the movie and his best lines were given to everyone else -- but Eomer was my favorite character from the books, so I'm biased. Again, it was forgivable.
The only egregious change that really bothered me, and continues to bother me, was the Gandalf "I'm going to beat you to death" scene where he lays the smack down on Denethor. Gandalf is a wizard, an Istari, and in the book talked Theoden out of his malaise... but when Denethor goes nuts, he can't do any better than to bludgeon him into unconsciousness? Ridiculous.
That and Denethor's death was completely over the top and mis-managed. It's easily the weakest scene in an otherwise fantastic movie IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
Clone Wars had at least one extended, cool-looking space battle, something the last two movies have been somewhat lackluster in, IMHO. And never once did it grievously insult my intelligence, as the last two movies, sadly, have done.
So I will buy it when it comes out on DVD for those reasons alone, because there is a small part of me that still wants to like Star Wars despite the many disappointing things done to the franchise since 1999.
Well, no slam intended to Clone Wars, it's great stuff, but these episodes are like 3 minutes long apiece and have very little dialogue; some have none whatsoever. A good majority of them are just 3-minute fight scenes. I think comparing them to the movies (lacking as I will admit the prequels are in the writing dept.) is kind of apples and oranges.
It's true that it is an imperfect analogy, but to some degree it creates an example people can understand. Working in tech support I hear a lot of things along the line of "but it was working yesterday!" and users who are outraged that their computer will not run forever without any kind of maintenance.
What I tell them is that a person generally wouldn't buy a car, drive it constantly without checking or changing the oil, putting gas in it, or doing any maintenance at all, and then take it to the car dealership, furious, when suddenly it will no longer run for whatever reason, and say "but it was running yesterday!" Yet people do this all the time with computers.
Computers are a mechanical device and require maintenance to keep running properly. True, they are unlike cars in most other respects, but it is a helpful primer for people so clueless they think computers operate on a mix of fairy dust and moonbeams.
"B-but, Open Office doesn't have Clippy, the helpful paper clip. Or a wizard. Or a little Microsoft logo that tells you when you're writing a letter (because obviously, you don't know). We even have a helpful little puppy! You like puppies, don't you? Everybody likes puppies! Fine, go ahead and use Open Office, puppy killer!"
...oh.
Sure, you laugh, but you just know there's fanfic out there somewhere depicting just that.
Addresses an issue in which Finder unexpectedly quits if the View menu option "Show icon preview" is enabled while dragging a significant number of icons to another location.
Yeah, this is a great fix... shame it isn't actually fixed.
I just installed the update and restarted, and it's still doing it. So obviously there is still some work to be done.
That's what I keep telling my boss... "I got the laptop and the wireless, what more do I need?" He won't go for it.
I doubt it; if there's any kind of adaptation where Tom Bombadil is really gonna be at home, it's in a musical. That character was pretty much born for this!
Now, Glorfindel, on the other hand... you know he's gonna get the shaft again.
I think Mel Gibson ought to direct a musical of "The Silmarillion" done entirely in Elvish. Estimated running time: 13 hours!
That ought to cure the general public of their love for Tolkien's material in a big hurry!
I once read an interview with comic book author Alan Moore in which the interviewer asked him how he felt about his comics being "ruined" by dismal, piece-of-crap movie adaptations (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the like).
He responded. "Ruined my books? No, they're fine, they're right over there on the shelf."
I feel the same way about this. Certainly it has every chance of being a dismal, laughable production, but the original source material has survived worse lambasting already at the hands of the Harvard Lampoon and a thousand poor imitators writing ten-book doorstop epics in homage to Tolkien. The original LOTR material is going to be just fine.
Thanks for your post! However, Slashdot law now requires me to post this link and compare you, unfavorably, to the individual represented therein. It's nothing personal, mind you, just something that has to be done.
Have a nice day!
I suppose instead they will be focusing on releasing a series of World War II-themed massively-multiplayer first-person shooters -- just what the world needs, right?
That's seriously disappointing. I used to be a video game fanatic in years past, but that has waned steadily ever since the moneymaking trends in gaming have slid rapidly towards exclusively online games, WWII shooters, 3D RTSes, and more of the same-old same-old.
Give me a good old LucasArts adventure game... I'd buy it. I can't be the only one.
"Hm... upgrades."
- flossed your teeth 3,000 times.
- earned $1287.50 flipping burgers for minimum wage
LOL. Gosh, just think, if only he'd had sufficient foresight and wisdom, he could have been flossing his teeth or been up to his armpits in grease at Burger King instead of making a cool case for his computer... Oh, wasted youth!
On the other hand, what could you have been doing in the time you were advising other people on what they could be doing with theirs? (And thus opens an infinite loop of time-wasting accusations.)
So if you had some spare time, you'd do something you enjoy.
Well, this guy does have spare time, and he's doing something he enjoys.
Why do we have to read this "this guy doesn't enjoy the same hobbies I do, so therefore he is wasting his time" nonsense every time anyone does anything? Get over yourself. Not everyone is interested in the same things you are.
"Mom! Mom! Can I have a Playmobile for Christmas?"
"Sure you can honey."
And then some kid ends up feeling profoundly ripped off...
Unfortunately, I don't think Amazon sells beer.
And only takes up 640K.
Hey, with that money, you could almost buy yourself a new CD!
Oh, wait...
No, but I would like to recommend a marriage counselor!
Or perhaps a divorce lawyer.
I don't speak for myself personally, but dissection is enjoyment for some people.
I have a friend who is a big movie enthusiast, who loves to predict exactly what will happen, 20, 40, and 60 minutes into the future of the film. Then he sits back, utterly unsurprised by the plot twists he saw coming a mile off, and crows about how he saw it all coming. This strikes me as really perverse, but it's how he enjoys movies.
Other people get off on finding flaws that people like me would never be able to spot in a hundred viewings. It's just the way some people are wired up.
Quiet, you fool... they'll start expecting us to read every article before we start posting, and then it'll be anarchy.
Once the hype wears down, people are going to laugh (or be disgusted at the extremely low quality) of these movies.
I don't think so. Looking at some of the other swords & sorcery efforts out there (the Dungeons & Dragons movie springs to mind), I think we got off pretty lucky.
If you want to see an extremely low quality interpretation of Lord of the Rings, check out Bakshi's animated version sometime. Once you stop shivering in a fetal ball, you might not think Jackson's so bad after all.
The first two movies, I had very few issues with. I wasn't crazy about Arwen supposedly causing the flood at Bruinen, but I could get over it. I thought Eomer was short-changed because he disappeared for most of the movie and his best lines were given to everyone else -- but Eomer was my favorite character from the books, so I'm biased. Again, it was forgivable.
The only egregious change that really bothered me, and continues to bother me, was the Gandalf "I'm going to beat you to death" scene where he lays the smack down on Denethor. Gandalf is a wizard, an Istari, and in the book talked Theoden out of his malaise... but when Denethor goes nuts, he can't do any better than to bludgeon him into unconsciousness? Ridiculous.
That and Denethor's death was completely over the top and mis-managed. It's easily the weakest scene in an otherwise fantastic movie IMHO.