Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@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.

In a nutshell, yep. From what I've heard/seen about the latter anyway lol.

@ThanosReXXX Yep, they stretched one book into three movies. Which on paper isn't a terrible idea if you wanted to incorporate the story of The Hobbit almost blow by blow, but they did add a lot of filler. For example, while Radagast is certainly mentioned in the book, he doesn't make an appearance unlike in the movie. I do intend to watch that trilogy at some point, but I'm gonna prioritize LotR first even though it chronologically came later. XD

On the power of silence: Ah, so there's certainly a phone aspect as well. Something I might try, though talking on those contraptions isn't thankfully part of my job. I only use them for personal business if I have to. I can certainly imagine a sales titan smiling with satisfaction on one end of the line while auditory magic does its work....

@MarioLover92 That dog was very likely my first nemesis in video games. I encountered him way more often than Bowser back in the day. XD I wasn't quite talented enough as a kid to make it to King Koopa most of the time.

I was sorry about the SNES games too. I would've gladly sold the ones I didn't want to my relatives and bought the ones I did for a reasonable price. Ah well. That happened years ago, so there isn't anything I can do about it now unfortunately....

Something I like about the hobbit is how they retconned how Bilbo obtains the one ring.

In the original version, Gollum gives it up willingly (or intended to, Bilbo had already found it) after losing a riddle game, and even helps Bilbo escape the caves afterwards. In the revised version, so it fits with the narrative of lord of the rings, Gollum intended to kill him regardless of the result, but Bilbo escapes using the ring anyway.

What I like is that the original version remained in the canon, as the version of the events Bilbo himself made up in-universe.

@ThanosReXXX The effects in the short are really nice, and blend in well with the natural environments. And I agree that the lighting of the voxel enemies was pretty strange. In that we both have some movies to watch! I’ll absolutely give that a watch, and on top of that I do wanna try another Studio Ghibli film. I’ll probably just watch Princess Mononoke, it looks... fascinating.

@MarioLover92 Yeah, I’m not a fan of how Disney just create these cynical remakes that try nothing different. If anything they should have tried to make at least one plot difference to surprise original fans, or to try and enhance the story.

But I can already imagine Disney’s response to this, they’d say that “changing the plot doesn’t fulfilled our vision of adapting these films for a new generation.” They want to please everyone and what follows is a completely sanitised, risk free movie.

@BabyYoda71 Totally understand your argument, really, but why bother spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make and market this movie if it’s just a 1:1 shot remake that doesn’t do anything new? As mentioned above there are almost zero plot differences between the films, which suggests a lack of true effort, and highlights Disney’s desire to make money, over a desire to preserve these films, or keep them in people’s hearts.

For example if a supporting character was killed off it would no doubt shock people, and regardless of whether the publicity is good or bad, any publicity is good publicity. Heck, they probably could have made more money this way.

@Tyranexx I think people are getting way too hyped up about Metroid Prime 4. If it was just restarted in the days preceding the Shinya Takahashi video then all things considered (the length of a normal Nintendo Switch development cycle) we have a good year or two to wait. I feel like the Breath of the Wild sequel has more likelihood coming out before Metroid Prime 4, simply because we have had updates from Eiji Aonuma from a very recent time, September 2020 to be exact, that tell us that they are working hard on the game.

For some instances, like with Blooper987's job interview no news isn't always good news, but when we have Hideki Kamiya screaming at us every five seconds that yes, he is in fact working on the Bayonetta 3 game, you do realise that no news is good news in the videogame industry. Having said that this year might be a make or break.

I just read about Mahler's comments, and at first I thought to myself: "Okay, he apologised, no biggie," but when I realised what he said I think he was wrong for apologising for what he said specifically. He was way too aggressive but I agree with his comments. No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk, their developers lied. I don't fault Hello Games because they've really put effort in to fix it. But CDPR, no. They messed up badly and they haven't done much to fix it either.

And as for Death Stranding, go for it! If you have a PlayStation and the game appears on discount... it'll be a match made in heaven! I got it on discount, and paid only £15.99 for it, which was a steal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-rokG9XS37w

Is it me or Sonic Lost World 3DS and Wii U have some differences not just in graphic but also the places ? 😳

@Blooper987 What... wut... wow.

That was... I have no idea how to describe it.

@Tyranexx You need Sinnoh stones? I have Sinnoh stones for days! I'd happily share them if Niantic let me! I don't remember exactly, but I think there was some repeatable research task that gave them out at one point. Like that Sneasel event we had a week ago or so.

Speaking of Sinnoh, what do you think of all the rumors and so-called leaks that we're getting D/P/PT remakes this year? I really loved Platinum back in the day and would love to revisit it. I really do hope that a remake of gen 4 would be based on Platinum, not Diamond and Pearl, because not only did Platinum have a lot more features and content (Battle Frontier, party member trainers, winter appropriate clothing...) but it reworked the Sinnoh Pokedex to actually be decent. In Diamond and Pearl, if you didn't pick Chimchar, your options for a fire type (pre E-4) were... Ponyta, Ponyta and... Ponyta! And just in general Platinum had more regional Pokemon.

Better still than a remake though, I think a new game set in Sinnoh would be cooler. A belated Platinum 2. It would let them tell a new story, maybe change up some gym leaders, introduce either Megas (as the rumors suggest) or Dynamax (which I think is more likely, given the likelihood that the game would be built on the same engine as SW/SH) And then they could have the player character from the older games, be older and be either the reigning Champion, or have him be a hidden super boss, like Red was in G/S/C.

I'm just comming here to say I'm not dead bc I'm not commenting Just injoying life.

@Tyranexx what level does Shellos evolve into Gastrodon

@PokemonGirl99
Read this.
https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shellos_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

Btw, you don't need to ask every trivial questions about Pokemon games to Tyranexx.
You can find the answer by finding from Google, that's simple.

Also, you have played a lot Pokemon games so i don't think you don't have some basic knowledges about Pokemon evolution.

@Tyranexx Well, phones... it's what it's called in general: telesales. Just the original label that it has, but nowadays, it's all VoIP tech with just a computer and a head set.

As for The Hobbit: yep, like I said, it's not even that it's only just one book, it's also a far smaller book than the first part of the Lord of the Rings, so when Jackson made the decision to also turn that into a trilogy of three 2,5 hour long movies, he had no choice but to translate every minute moment, every look, sigh and thought into a scene, so as to be able to pad the story out into what it has ultimately become.

And what he also did, and what I forgot to mention previously (although I did mention historic references) is that he used bits and pieces of other Tolkien books as well, which contain these historic references and/or additional story lines to fill up gaps and/or add to the story. (for example, considerable bits and pieces from the separate book(let) about Smaug the dragon)

Either way, even though they don't even remotely come close to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they're still entertaining movies in their own right, and they do have the same vibe which Jackson has been able to capture from the books and translate to the silver screen so expertly, but it is less moving than the original trilogy.

@TheJGG Wait, WHAT??? You never saw Princess Mononoke? Ah, sometimes I forget about the age difference. To me, it seems like not too long ago, but for you, it was probably before your time, so I guess you're excused, then.

Either way, I can definitely recommend it. It isn't a multiple-award winning movie for nothing. Great story, great voice acting, both in English and in Japanese, and a highly thought-provoking topic, which will keep you thinking and reminiscing long after the credits have rolled.

Basically, the moral/underlying message of the story (which I can give away without spoiling the movie) is the path to industrial progress, as in loss of/destruction of nature and all its magical wonders, in favor of human society and all its wants and needs. But if you read that synopsis, then it probably doesn't really sound like a firm recommendation at all, and some might even find that summary utterly boring.

And in and of itself, it could be, but it is what Studio Ghibli does with that, which is what makes it truly magical and well worth watching. And multiple times, I might add.

I'm already looking forward to your verdict, so be sure to let me know when you've watched it.

On a side note: you might also want to browse through the rest of Studio Ghibli's movies, because they're basically all good and worth watching. Depending of course, on if the specific topic interests you.

@ThanosReXXX I've watched the first fifteen minutes already and it has a really fascinating outset. The supernatural elements, like an evil deity possessing that gigantic boar, would have unnerved me if it wasn't an animated movie. On that note the animation is as is the case with other Studio Ghibli films; stellar with natural backdrops, and really gritty and disgusting with the more supernatural elements, like the tendrils surrounding that pig, which I just learnt were CGI, composted onto Ashitaka's hand. As soon as he mentioned not touching the demon I knew he'd find a way to (not on purpose of course) touch the pig. All in all it looks awesome and I can't wait to resume tomorrow!

Unfortunately I got the subbed version, so I can't hear the dulcet tones of the English cast, which I've heard is stellar. I'll do it for my second viewing. Besides the original Japanese will allow for all the right emotions.

Spirited Away had themes of environmentalism too, so as far as thought provoking movies go I know I'm in for a ride! For sure I'll keep you posted!

@TheJGG I can agree with that. I probably would like them a lot better if they changed the story more than they have. I think Disney would be successful if they were like Pixar and stopped making sequels and remakes for a while.