Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@TheJGG Ah, Tenet, that one is still definitely on my "to watch" list, but seeing as the cinemas are currently closed over here, I guess I'll have to wait, because I think that watching it on a small TV screen wouldn't do it justice. I can definitely understand the confusion about the plot, in that respect, it kind of reminds me of Inception, a movie I had to watch at least twice to see all the things I missed the first time. I actually also own that movie on Blu-ray.

On a side note: if I perhaps gave that impression, then don't think that I don't like movies based on books. In fact, the one I just recommended to you is also based on a book. It's just that I don't like that specific type of movie, where you already know that it's going to be sad or tear-inducing. Well, perhaps I should exclude art house movies, seeing as it's mostly the Hollywood movies meant for a larger audience that have this slightly over the top, deliberate/intentional purpose. It's just too directed in my opinion, for lack of a better word.

P.S.

Better not watch the Tomato meter in regards to "Love & Other Drugs", seeing as it's stuck at 49%...

@ThanosReXXX I did an English assignment for Inception, we watched half of the movie in December. I watched it once, in my own time, and almost completely got it, then watched it a second time and noticed a ton of new stuff that otherwise would have escaped me. It applies to Tenet too but at least with Inception the idea... felt coherent and fully-formed, I suppose. The cast was also much more dynamic, they all played off each other, and didn't feel like some soulless meat puppets, which they kinda do in Tenet. In that movie the main weakness is the characterisation.

But honestly, you'll feel like the smartest person on Earth if you're able to piece together everything without looking it up much. Same thing with the idea of dream stealing in Inception. I watched it with my family a few years back and sometimes I'd have to have some concepts explained to me by pausing the movie for a bit. A few months ago I showed a friend this film over Zoom, and I was now in that position of explaining stuff. It's a nice change of pace and it shows you get the movie.

Sometimes the critics disagree with me. One example is "Pixels" which is the ultimate fan fiction to 1980s arcade addicts. Adam Sandler's okay in it, and the visual effects are really good, but any special effects with humans in it, sucks. Like during the final battle where the three heroes (including Kevin James, who plays the US President who was formerly an arcader) play a game of real life Donkey Kong where they have to climb up the stage. That movie got under 20% on the Tomatometre but it's a nice guilty pleasure.

The Emoji Movie, which was produced by Sony two years later, is a dumpster fire. It's a complete pile of garbage that is so pathetic and meaningless I still have no clue whatsoever, as to why and how I was convinced to sit down and watch this whole movie in its entirety. I feel like an idiot.

But hey, we've both seen Inception. Mensa, where are you at?

@TheJGG Currently in a semi-hibernation like slumber, awaiting a better, more contact heavy society to re-emerge again, so I can finally fulfill my evil destiny...

And you did NOT just mention Pixels. That movie was bad, and an EXACT example of what I alluded to in my previous comment when mentioning how Hollywood "sometimes" takes things too far.

In this particular case, they took a simply brilliant internet/YouTube short, which was meant to serve as a tribute to classic gaming icons, and then they ran all the way out of the stadium and out of the city with it, spreading the (in all honesty already very minute) story out WAY too thin, to be able to stretch it into a full feature film.

And I'm not even among the "I f***ing hate Adam Sandler" crowd. I actually like most of his movies, albeit not all of them equally...

@Tyranexx Looks like we're not so different in regards to the SMB trilogy - SMAS was the first time I played them, though I've also played the NES version of SMB1 back then too (it was the version that had Duck Hunt). So I have a bit of a nostalgic bias towards the All-Stars versions, lol. Plus you could save your progress in All-Stars, so that's one big advantage over the NES originals! I'll be sure to get Drill Dozer as soon as I can, before the Wii U eShop is history.

My dog just chewed up my microSD card. It’s fine, I found all the pieces, but I’m going to have to buy a new card. If I had multiple digital games stored on my SD card, would my save data transfer over to my next card? The games are still there, but I don’t have enough storage to re download them.

@ThanosReXXX I meant it was a guilty pleasure because of the copious amounts of blatant video game references. Honestly, Ready Player One is a better movie, but for arcade junkies Pixels is there.

And thinking back, all of the special effects, jokes and action sequences were awful. Except that part where PAC-MAN bites off Toru Iwatani’s hand. Now that was comedy.

And if you want classic Hollywood overkill just look at the Disney live action remakes. Bland, uninspired movies made only to profit off the original’s artistic merits.

@BabyYoda71 Well, seeing as save data should in most cases be stored in the cloud, "all" you'd need to do is re-download your games, and you should be alright again.

@TheJGG Have you ever seen the original YouTube short of Pixels? Just in case you haven't, here it is:

They also made an extended version, still only a couple of minutes long, a couple of years ago:

@TheJGG As much as I like Disney, I kinda have to agree with you on the live-action remakes. It seems like they're running out of ideas as they make more of them. Granted, Beauty and the Beast is the only one I've seen, but (potential spoilers here?) it's literally the same story as the animated one with a couple differences thrown in. So not too much motivation for me to see the other ones. Plus I heard the live-action version of Mulan is atrocious.

Oh yeah, I heard terrible things about Emoji Movie, and it already looked dumb to me. So that's one movie I ain't seeing!

@ThanosReXXX Okay I assumed so, but thanks!

@MarioLover92 @TheJGG I’ve always sort of been on the opposite side of Disney opinions about pretty much anything. I don’t mind having the same story so I like a few of the live action films, and 2019 Aladdin is one of the greatest films ever. I don’t like the Beauty and the Beast one though. I liked Milan, though I don’t think it was worth Premier Access. Emoji Movie is straight up horrible.

@BabyYoda71 Mind you, I'm kinda assuming you had cloud saves switched on by default. If you haven't done that, then it's bye-bye saves...

@ThanosReXXX I did, thank goodness

@TheJGG Metroid Prime 4 was an early announcement misstep I alluded to in my previous post; while I'm glad it's still happening at all and understand why its development was initially announced at the time, I'm afraid the end result will be either 1. Unrealistic expectations since the original trilogy set such a high bar or 2. Folks will lose interest before the game even releases. Since Nintendo had to restart development from the ground up, I highly doubt we'll see the game for at least a couple of years yet. Probably near the end of the Switch's lifespan.

Before the fiasco that was Cyberpunk 2077's release, I hadn't heard much about it - or the Cyberpunk series in general - other than the building hype. What I do know of the universe's canon sounds like Shadowrun, only without magic. Refusing to give out review codes before launch is also a heck of a red flag. The game should've spent much, MUCH longer in development and not been rushed. I'm generally in agreement with Thomas Mahler's comments earlier this week (though not their tone).

I might track down some of the trailers for Death Stranding now. It at the very least sounds like an intriguing game. I don't believe I've seen anything outside of the first look/reveal trailer that surfaced a couple years ago though. That one didn't reveal much.

@ThanosReXXX I'm sure you have, but I believe that information slipped out of my mind at some point. There are only so many brain drawers, rooms, bookshelves, and atriums in my mind that, eventually, some information becomes buried or deleted. XD

I don't really put much store into the whole "X sign has these traits" and so on as many of those are vague and can fit many people. And don't get me started on fortune cookies and tabloid blurbs lol. At least the former are fun to read while enjoying their crunchy coverings. The latter aren't even worth digging through all the rumors, altered shots, and weird advertisements to get to. To me it's all a bit of fun, but nothing I necessarily believe in.

That's not to say that I don't think the universe doesn't affect us in other ways. Natural light has been proven to help regulate one's Circadian rhythm, and winter/seasonal depression certainly is a real phenomenon.

stubborn, somewhat impulsive, adventurous, emotional, tough and to some extent, impatient

On my traits: I CAN be passionate, though that entirely depends on the subject at hand. Stubborn fits as well and melds into a definition of "tough", though I'm rarely if ever impulsive. Adventurous fits some, but not all of my moods. Emotional....Overall, I'm not VERY emotional - it takes a lot to get me to shed tears - but it depends on the situation and my mood at the time. Impatient....I've gained some patience over the years, particularly when it comes to game releases, but that's pretty spot-on admittedly. XD

If we're talking the Western zodiac, I'm a Libra. The most boring sign, if you ask me lol.

Completely unrelated to our discussion, but I absolutely loved that scene in Lord of the Rings. I need to re-watch the trilogy now that I've finished all three novels.

@MarioLover92 IIRC, the version of Super Mario Bros. I played also contained Duck Hunt; I'd cheat by standing right next to the screen with the NES Zapper and hit the clay pigeons that way. XD It's a shame you couldn't also put that annoying dog out of its misery.... I still have a vendetta against that pile of pixels. When I do get around to playing Smash Ultimate, I'll more than enjoy pummeling that character.

I'd forgotten you could save your progress in SMAS! I wish my aunt had given me their SNES games instead of binning them all when the system quit working. Though SMAS hadn't worked for years by that point. Still, even if the SNES was beyond repair, they could've fetched a great price for many of their games that did still work....Except maybe Captain Novolin. I'm certain the only reason they had that one was because two of my cousins have Type 1 Diabetes.

@Tyranexx You're a libra? Well, color me stupid, then. I saw you mentioning ram earlier. Now I have to redo my entire previous astrology layout...

Nah, just kidding. I'll forego retreading paths. That's not me. Onward we go. Looking back is for losers...

EDIT:

I could have already kinda guessed you'd like that scene from Lord of the Rings, based upon previous talks where we discussed both the movies and the books, but yeah, it's definitely one of my favorites in the entire trilogy.

Another reason why I like it so much, and one which I already hinted at in the previous comment, is the delivery of the text. It's such a short sentence, but by pausing after the comma, instead of instantly reciting the entire sentence, Viggo Mortensen makes it more heavy and lasting and it impresses accordingly. It's basically the power of pause, or rather: the power of silence, as we say in my line of work. Sometimes pausing or even remaining completely silent in a conversation can be multiple times more powerful than trying to persuade someone with more or "interesting"/smart words.

@ThanosReXXX Yep, looking back other than when reminiscing about a good memory is rarely if ever beneficial lol. Best to keep moving forward! I've found "What if" is a dangerous thought process.

On LotR: It's one of the few times where I'm glad in hindsight that I watched the series before reading the books; normally I strive for the opposite. There are a few changes to be sure, but the movies, on the whole, are pretty faithful to the books. Unlike The Hobbit trilogy; though I admittedly haven't watched those in full yet, the clips I have seen definitely deviated more from the source material.

The power of pause definitely leaves quite an impact in the right circumstances, particularly in your example. That definitely takes a form of training and mastery. I daresay I'm pretty efficient with the written word, but with my speech....Well, it depends in part on how alert I am and my knowledge on the situation of matter.

@Tyranexx Ha, you beat me to it. If you hadn't mentioned The Hobbit trilogy, I would have. I did actually enjoy the movies, but not nearly as much as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is indeed VERY faithful to the books. The whole problem with The Hobbit trilogy of movies is that it's based upon a book that isn't even half the volume of the first part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and as connoisseurs of the books know, it's sole purpose is to be a prequel to that trilogy.

But Peter Jackson went completely overboard with the padding out of the story. Perhaps his initial intent was pure and honest, but in the end, it's a lot of needless fluff, and not at all faithful to the original book. He simply filled in the gaps which were intentionally left out in the book, because they were meant as mere side notes, such as historic mentions, and switching of focus from one character to another, where in the movies, you also get to see what happens in the mean time with the others, which is simply skipped in the books, because it basically only follows Bilbo.

As for the power of silence: you'd be surprised how much of it you'd be able to implement. You see, you don't have to be in direct contact with people, much less have to mingle in crowds, to use it. Nine out of ten times,
I only use it when on the phone with people.

It's also easier to do that way, because sometimes I catch myself having to smirk at it working for the umpteenth time, and if I would have been face to face with my intended target, that would definitely not have been very conducive to getting good sales results...

For the lord of the rings, they condensed and adapted a three book epic to fit three movies.

For the hobbit, they stretched and bloated a short story to try and come up with three movies.

@Eel They? I wasn't aware that Peter Jackson was a non-binary person...

Peter Jackson, the movie studio.

@Eel Ah, Eel, my Mexican friend. Tell me you didn't REALLY feel the need to answer that decidedly "pulling your leg" reply of mine...

@Tyranexx Ah yes, the Duck Hunt dog. Always laughing every time you miss. That dog just can't get it together, huh?

Ah, sorry to hear about the SNES games. I still have mine in a chest, and they're well worth keeping, especially considering how much the original cartridges go for these days. Although there were some games I used to have (Axelay and Super R-Type come to mind), but not anymore.