Downtown Rumbles: Sharp's Scotch Bar

[master of read]

Still here.

Try again soon.

keep talking. he'll get to you soon.

[Guy1]

[Iron_Twister]

Not a knock against Discovery, I just find this amusing.

"If we want to show the Klingons we have good intentions, shoot the unholy hell out of them."

...That is a pretty interesting tidbit of Trek history. Imagine First Contact if the Vulcans gave a Vulcan Hello to the humans.

[Beadle]

I've only watched 90% of the first episode of Discovery, but my thoughts so far are that it's really decent, but:

a) There's very little character definition for the crew except for three people. That's not really enough.
b) For me it suffers from the same problem that's plagued all Star Trek series that have been created since Roddenberry died. They seem to be terrified of changing anything significant in the main universe. TOS, TNG and DS9 all moved things forward, and weren't constrained in terms of the impact they could have. Then Roddenberry passed (DS9 had at least been created at that point), and since then we've had Voyager, which was set so far away from the Alpha Quadrant as to make it essentially meaningless as far as development of most things are concerned, and then worse Enterprise and Discovery set in the past, so we know up front that nothing of lasting significance can happen because we've seen the universe afterwards. I want to see something that builds on TNG, DS9 and the TNG movies (and OK, fine, Voyager) to progress the mythos.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

keep talking. he'll get to you soon.

He's tried and failed several times.

[master of read]

time for some more world cup action. and it's my boy, sawatari!

[bruceleegreyhulk]

well One Punch Season to will be produce by JC Staff. the anime of note to me by this studio are Slayers and Excel Saga.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...-staff/.121831

now I know people a freak out about this but I'm not that worried. JC Staff isn't a bad studio and at lest it isn't Studio Deen.

[master of read]

still unsure about MVCi? then let max give you his review of the game. and this is after playing the game for 2 week straight.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

So, not sure how this might be taken, but I finally watched Blade Runner for the first time (so as to prepare for the sequel coming out soon, which looks interesting).


And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what to make of it. I can't decide if it was good or bad. I'm actually leaning more towards being mostly ambivalent towards it, though acknowledging the contribution it gave to Science Fiction and all the other media that has taken cues or ideas from it.

It's just, outside of Roy, the badguys are just....nothing. Deckard is somewhat smart but is far too easily bested by all three of the other Replicants and only gets lucky taking the second and third ones out (and he's lucky the first didn't just kill him when she had him knocked down instead of running away).

Even Roy, beyond his motivation to live, is somewhat lacking a personality. I do really like his last monologue, and it's very interesting, but seems a bit contrived as the only reason he got to say it was he saved Deckard at the last second just so he could monologue at him.

Am I alone in this? Or did I just miss the bus for when people really liked this?

[Hiromi]

Blade Runner is the most your mileage may vary classic movie in the history of movies, I mean plenty of people watch it and say they can't stand it, and the people who love it understand why perfectly.

[Sharpandpointies]

So, not sure how this might be taken, but I finally watched Blade Runner for the first time (so as to prepare for the sequel coming out soon, which looks interesting).


And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what to make of it. I can't decide if it was good or bad. I'm actually leaning more towards being mostly ambivalent towards it, though acknowledging the contribution it gave to Science Fiction and all the other media that has taken cues or ideas from it.

It's just, outside of Roy, the badguys are just....nothing. Deckard is somewhat smart but is far too easily bested by all three of the other Replicants and only gets lucky taking the second and third ones out (and he's lucky the first didn't just kill him when she had him knocked down instead of running away).

Even Roy, beyond his motivation to live, is somewhat lacking a personality. I do really like his last monologue, and it's very interesting, but seems a bit contrived as the only reason he got to say it was he saved Deckard at the last second just so he could monologue at him.

Am I alone in this? Or did I just miss the bus for when people really liked this?

It's possible the film doesn't hold up well, considering what has come out since. But here's the thing - Blade Runner was never really about plot. It was about mood.

And it does that well.

Ford does a grand old job playing his world-weary character who may/may-not be a replicant (depending on which version you see) and not even know it. The replicants do a decent job playing these completely inhuman creatures who are, still, living beings in their own right. The setting is done amazingly well, especially for the time it came out, especially due to the lack of CGI. The movie itself definitely manages to capture the whole 'film noir' feel, despite being a serious science fiction. And it was a dystopian look at the future at a time when 99% of sci-fi was Star Wars adventure or Star Trek navel-gazing/optimism.

And there's so much freaking symbolism in it, it practically beats you over the head with it.

As for Roy, after realizing he couldn't do anything for his lifespan, and after losing everything else (all of the others killed), he maybe had a very human moment - he wanted to kill Deckard, but was conflicted. Maybe he didn't want to go out a killer. Maybe he had killed so many things already that he did want to do that any more. Maybe at the end of his life, he realized that all life is sacred. Look at the dove he's holding. There's a symbol of peace, and a symbol of sacrifice. And clearly, his death has a serious effect on Deckard - Deckard, between his love and this encounter with Roy, likely grasps that these things aren't just targets, they're alive in their own right.

And maybe Roy felt that making that point was more important than killing Deckard.

Regarding the other 'bad guys'? I think the point is that they aren't 'bad'. They are what society made them - in this case, quite literally. But like all living things, they want to live. That's all we really need to take from them. They show curiosity at times, interest in things outside of their quest for survival, etc...that's enough to show that they aren't just robots.

Deckard isn't supposed to be an action hero - it's film noir. :D

There's a lot of stuff in it that really grabs me. Is it the depth of the characters? There's a little of that, but many things do it better. Is it the story? It's interesting, but in and of itself it's pretty pedestrian. It's the way they did everything, the mood, the symbolism, the various themes about humanity and what it means to be human, the insanity we see in the culture, the echoes of racism in that society (hatred of what is different, the dehumanizing of it), etc, etc.

It's a pretty wild ride, all nicely wrapped up in an incredible soundtrack by Vangelis.

Me, I loved it. But as is noted, mileage may vary, and I get it.

[The Dog]

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

That's well said, Sharp. I do think the atmosphere, setting, tone, and look were all very well done, and the actors did an excellent job. And, yeah, I can see what you mean about Roy's last moment. That actually makes more sense now, come to think of it.

[Sharpandpointies]

I DO completely agree with Hiromi - there doesn't seem to be a middle ground with the movie. And I get that. ^_^

...I'll note it's a little off to say Roy had a Human Moment. I should have found a different way to phrase that, because we sure don't have a lock on empathy.

[master of read]

if you want to see a different take on "blade runner", i'd suggest looking up "snatcher". a visual novel-like game that came out for the sega CD.