Messages

126

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: Movies you've recently watched

« on: March 04, 2014, 02:51:33 PM »

While I will say the movie doesn't do the book justice Enders game wasn't "just awful, awful crap."

Care to support this opinion?  Even on the plus side, I can't think of anything they did more than competently.  Ford was awful.  Ben Kingsley had nothing to work with.  Viola Davis was good.  Most of the kids were okay.  The screenplay was scraped off the bottom of someone's shoe. 

127

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: Movies you've recently watched

« on: March 04, 2014, 02:20:15 PM »

Yeah, at the theater I kept sneaking back into other showings at the part where the Chinese space station is starting to hit the atmosphere, just cause it was SUCH a pretty piece of SFX. 

A friend of mine had a bunch of sound clips from the Space Core from Portal II on his phone and I have to say they made the empty-theater experience VERY amusing.   (SPAAAACE!!!)

On a similar note, I just checked out Tom Cruise's 'Oblivion' which was much the same, very pretty with great design and sound work, all hung off the wispiest of plots.

Oh, and I watched "Ender's Game" out of curiosity after skimming the book in the bathroom over the previous few weeks...  It was just awful, awful crap. 

Europa Report I enjoyed, not my favorite movie ever but nice to see a solid independent sci-fi movie gettin' itself out there.

Pacific Rim I enjoyed a lot, possibly because I love giant fighting stuffs but hate the Transformers movies and I was just so jazzed to see some big screen giant robots that were not Transformers and without any shia leboufs.  And also because I am that weirdo who thinks Burn Gorman is super hot.  Also because I like Ron Perlman in anything/everything. 

John Carter of Mars!  I thought it was going to be a pile of shit but I ended up enjoying it just because they did such a great job with the all the CGI and the Green Martians.  I was pretty fucken disappointed that they pussed out and did not make the Red Martians red. 

Oh and "Chronicle" was another one I didn't expect to like at all but ended up really enjoying.  The plot was very simple but it did end up feeling like a pretty honest take on what would happen if a couple of random kids suddenly got superpowers.  The escalation towards the end genuinely amazed me.  It just..  you know how all the destruction in the latest Superman just made you go 'jeez they blew up half the city, great job Supes'?  The opposite of that.  It was the way destruction ought to make you feel.  Just sort of standing back and going "Oh, shit!" 

Also, the newest Riddick movie.  It was dumb.  The doggies were excellent.

Elysium:  Silly, fun.  Jodie Foster was AWFUL.  Bleah.  Pflbfpth pth pthflb.

LEGO movie:  Great.  A+ 

I forgot about Dredd!!  I loved it!  I'm a casual fan of the Judge Dredd franchise and, basically, IMO, they did it right.  I think I like Trek Reboot Bones a lot more in this than I like him in Trek or in that 'wait I forget, are we subverting racism or are we just racist' robot-cop-buddy-show.

128

Site & Forum News / Re: Aazealh, SK.net's new 2nd-in-Command

« on: December 31, 2013, 08:53:46 PM »

From me too!  Happy belated!   

129

Shootin' the Breeze / Re: If a girl gives you her number, does that mean she likes you?

« on: December 06, 2013, 01:44:30 PM »

Also depends if she's a typical on the phone txting all the time type or not.  Some girls are glued to their phones and not replying is usually deliberate.  Other girls use it more for an actual point of contact when needed, conversations being a low priority, and not replying is usually not intentional.

Either way though yeah, though it's hard to take the 'relax and let things happen naturally, let her know you're interested but not by standing on her feet' type advice, it is generally good advice. 

While I have run into a few fellow girls who do seem disdainful towards guys who don't try hard enough, I will frankly say I've never seen those particular girls with a guy who looked like he was enjoying a healthy relationship. 

130

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: Movies you've recently watched

« on: November 23, 2013, 03:32:14 PM »

There's a fair amount of handwaving to do in Gravity, yeah.  I don't think she's ever supposed to be OUT of oxygen though just always *almost* out.  Except for the one part where she turns it off on purpose and gets all hallucinatey (and presumably turns it back on herself).

131

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Gigantomakhia—new 6-part scifi miniseries by Miura

« on: November 22, 2013, 01:51:53 PM »

Also, did anybody else get some serious Nausicaa Valley of the Wind vibes when looking at it? Has a very Miyuzaki like feel to it. That just me?

I did, but it's probably inevitable when you combine great, detailed art and the desert/insect/razing giants themes.  Some of the first manga I ever got was Nausicaa..  I loved the art but the storytelling was too dense for me at the time (I was really into Gunnm, aheh).

132

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Gigantomakhia—new 6-part scifi miniseries by Miura

« on: November 20, 2013, 09:04:10 PM »

Yeah, that looked like octopus siphons used as flamethrowers to me too. 
They remind me of the big 'eared' critters like these: http://everythingoctopus.blogspot.com/2009/02/species-grimpoteuthis-or-dumbo-octopus.html

I love the guys with the stag-beetle helmets (heads?) OMG.

133

Speculation Nation / Re: Are the God Hand now physical?

« on: November 19, 2013, 07:10:49 PM »

The God Hand do not have a physical body. Hence the function of the 1000-Year Incarnation Ceremony.

What is it that we see happening to Griffith's body during his transformation to Femto?  A diffusion of a physical body, replaced by an incorporeal one?  And presumably he's able to interfere with Casca et al cause the Eclipse is an example of an exception to the rule, where the generally incorporeal GH both appear and act as though their forms were physical.  Hence SK making his bid for an attack inside the Eclipse.

So though it looks like Griff is only changing physical forms, that's a misunderstanding of the exceptional nature of physical reality inside the Eclipse.

Griffith displays all of his human traits and does not display the cold demeanor of Femto during his stint as the savior. He behaves like the calm gentleman and even politely offers Guts and Rickert a place in his army on the Hill of Swords. He feels no guilt or care, but it seems that he has no malice either.

I have never considered the charisma displayed by the incarnated Griffith to be anything but a tool.  He is an ice-cold thing whose only concern is to get what he wants.  Along those lines, he is playing a long game, and has no capacity, much less any reason, for getting emotional about anything at all.  He presents himself as a force of nature would present itself.  Acting like a saviour will get him what he wants so that's what he does.  I do not believe for a moment that he feels any warmth towards, for example, the people he comforts by showing them phantoms of their departed loved ones.  It's all part of, not exactly an 'act', but a persona that he has created on his road to his goals.

134

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: Movies you've recently watched

« on: November 12, 2013, 03:21:40 PM »

I also saw Gravity in imax 3D which was really good. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip, even if it got a bit ridiculous at parts. It was unique and exciting.

Yeah Gravity was worth it just to see some of the scenes they set.  Every once in a while the movie would stop and there would be some acting but then the movie would go again!  Slightly exhausting.  I was reasonably entertained.  LOVE the whole sequence on the way to the Shenzhou.

It looks like it must have been exhausting to make too.  Imagine your 9-5 job was to act hyperventilation-quality stress out for the big screen.

135

Shootin' the Breeze / Re: The Hawk want YOU! Go Berserk!

« on: November 05, 2013, 12:53:51 PM »

I HATE Farnese    Sometimes i think Miura has a sever distaste for any christian themes (can't blame him) and goes out of his way to utterly destroy/disprove any relevant bearings it would have on the story. Ie. Farnese going from zealous witch-hunter to magical apprentice.. it doesn't fly with me. Seeing her burn that poor baby bird was the last straw.

Well, keep in mind, the young Farnese is basically unhinged from straight-up rich-kid neglect.  You're not supposed to like her, exactly, but you're supposed to recognise that she is, like everyone in the world of Berserk, largely a product of her circumstances.  And, I assume,  you're supposed to empathise with the way she wants to change when her world expands beyond what she has known up till then.

She was a witch hunter because she was a tiny, lost thing, and taking control of the fire was the only relief she knew how to get.  The catalyst for her change was seeing how wrong she was about having any control in the first place.  Her pursuit of magic is her choice to face the problem of being a small thing in an ancient world, and to learn how to relate to it instead of railing against it.

The popular religion in Berserk is very intentionally not Christianity, or even Catholicism, in the same way that the Midlands are not Germany and Vrittanis is not in Italy.  Miura uses a lot of the real world as source material for building the world of Berserk, but I wouldn't mistake it for a straight allegory or anything.  It's borrowing a lot from Catholicism of course, but to whatever extent the events of Berserk are actually meant to be allegory, they are allegory for fanaticism, for mob psychology, for what people do when confronted with extreme adversity.  In short, for organised, hierarchical religion as it relates to frightened masses, in general.

And don't forget that we still know very little about the popular religion in Berserk; we have no idea whether it's associated with a real god or not at this point, or if it's strictly man-made, or if it's an intentionally hollow religion crafted by darker forces with the express purpose of misleading the masses.  All we know is that it's been easily co-opted by the powers Femto has on his side. 

We only know that previous religions were definitely associated with real entities, because Schierke knows how to contact such things.  And even Schierke softens her initial scorn in Enoch when the preist agrees to honor the older spirits there.

We don't even actually know who sent the vision, or what effect it will eventually have on the story.  At the moment it's helping Griffith, and we assume it was sent by the God Hand for that purpose, but it's at least conceivable that at some point people might see things that change their mind about what it meant.

136

Current Episodes / Re: Berserk Hiatus for 19+ Weeks—A New Record

« on: November 02, 2013, 09:39:17 PM »

said series depicts the world of Berserk 100 million years after the current story.

ASOIJDOEIFHWEIFHOWIFHOJKL  COOL

True or false, what a great idea.   


Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Femto!

137

Berserk Merchandise / Re: AoW New Product Dragon Slayer Soft Sword

« on: October 25, 2013, 01:25:58 PM »

What?  It's like..   three feet long?   

The blade at least looks nice but the foam parts NEED more than just the stabilizing laminate to look non-crap.  Really, really, REALLY need at least a couple layers of polyurethane dip or something.  If this is the final product I don't know what they are thinking.

138

Shootin' the Breeze / Re: The New Picture Thread

« on: October 10, 2013, 02:08:39 PM »

hahaaa awesome!  Ron Perlman's one of those guys who has been in stuff I like damn near my whole life.

139

Creation Station / Re: Pimping random people's awesome fanart

« on: October 10, 2013, 01:57:08 PM »

I've been particularly attached to this image for a few weeks now,



Just did a google search by image and came up with nothing, and I sadly do not remember where I found it. If anyone recognizes it lemme know! I'd love to give the author some credit.

Sourced!!  http://darkdux.deviantart.com/art/guts-zodd-2-115672232

It's by Darkdux/Rudy Wilde on Devart.  He's a French pro illustrator.  His stuff is great.  He has a couple other Berserk pieces in his gallery, too. 

140

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: What are you watching? (television thread)

« on: October 09, 2013, 03:14:29 PM »

Deadwood is all kinds of awesome.  Basically just hard-cussin brutal nigh-lawless old west with lots of semi and demi-factual cameos.  It's loosely based on historical stuffs.  Ian McShane, who I have loved for basically ever anyways, has a major role as one of the guys scheming to stay on top as the town rakes in gold and becomes more infamous.  Generally everyone in it is awesome and the writing is great. 

Now, the cussin is modern cussin, not period cussin; the writers explain that the period cussin the real townspeople used was, for its time, gonna make your ears fall off, so to evoke that effect for the modern audience everybody going shit damn fuck all the fuckin time. 

I usually just watch the first two seasons though cause the third season depressses meeeeee

141

Creation Station / Re: Lith's colors & tutorials

« on: October 07, 2013, 02:32:53 PM »

Thanks Grail! 

Arright, Grunbeld's finally done!



foooomsh  *huge blazing fire noises*

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Creation Station / Re: Lith's colors & tutorials

« on: October 05, 2013, 03:09:23 AM »

Ah great!  Thank you Walter.   

143

Creation Station / Re: Lith's colors & tutorials

« on: October 04, 2013, 08:20:54 PM »

Man it's been a while!  I've been puttering a little bit.  Right now I'm working on a few colors inspired by the TCG.  I've got Grunbeld almost finished, but just since I haven't posted anything in yonks, here, have this Lisa Frank abomination that is Amethyst Grunbeld 



Oh, and I remember someone figured out exactly what flower Chich is, but I can't seem to find the post now - does anyone remember or have a link?

144

Shootin' the Breeze / Re: It Came From The Internet

« on: September 26, 2013, 02:19:13 PM »

For the record, the arpanet dialogs are satirical fiction.  I do love them though.  I think they nailed it.

145

Anime Asylum / Re: Berserk Golden Age Arc III: Descent [Review]

« on: September 16, 2013, 07:01:45 PM »

Then again, were any of the Falcon's lieutenants really there outside of Guts and Casca? They're barely a step above "nameless_sergeant_07".

Yeah.  Even so, leaving out that moment with Gaston during the eclipse felt like a punch to the gut, worse than anything else the movies did wrong.  Of course they've been ignoring characters left, right and center the whole time, but in that moment, it was like the movie was actually yelling at me that it didn't care about any of these guys.  The other mistakes left me going 'ugh, geez' or 'wtf' or 'why did they ruin that' but when Guts finds Gaston already dead I was..  I dunno, personally offended.

146

Anime Asylum / Re: Speculation about Movie IV

« on: September 16, 2013, 06:54:15 PM »

I don't think there will be any problem. It's just upper-body nudity. Also, her age is... uncertain. 

Her apostle form sure, but apart from flashbacks she's buck naked the entire time and in both half-pumped and elfy-girl form she is equipped with one hairless punani.

Huh!!  I completely missed her in the movie, just went back to look.  Anyone else who missed her, she swoops into camera in the very last moment before the credits roll.

147

Anime Asylum / Re: Berserk Golden Age Arc III: Descent [Review]

« on: September 16, 2013, 05:03:31 PM »

Agreed 100% about Carcus.  Especially if you're going to cut him down so much, you really need the voice acting to pop or it'll be like he's not even there.   

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Anime Asylum / Re: Speculation about Movie IV

« on: September 16, 2013, 04:58:39 PM »

One thing I would enjoy about a Lost Children movie would be the demi-fans of the other movies wondering why their awesome medieval battle series is suddenly Guts Vs Mothgirl.

Now that I think of it I wonder what fans of the manga at the time thought of the direction everything took after the Eclipse.  And for that matter what fans who started with the Dark Horse trx thought when they got up to vol 14 or so.

I wonder whether 4°C will begin to work in the demon baby?  I mean if they continue to adapt the series, they can't leave him out forever...

Does anyone know whether/how problematic Rochine/Rosine/etc's nekkidness is as far as censorship?  Obviously some naked girls have been in the movies already but I don't know if her situation is different or not.

Lost Children is one of my favorite arcs, though, I can't deny I'd love to see any of it animated.

149

Creation Station / Pimping random people's awesome fanart

« on: September 13, 2013, 01:06:36 PM »

I don't usually go around all 'omg look at this' but David Müller recently posted this gorgeous painted version of a Berserk page and well damn just go look at it, it's pretty as hell.

http://www.kopfstoff.blogspot.com/2013/06/berserk-fanart-golden-age.html

150

Anime Asylum / Re: Berserk Golden Age Arc III: Descent [Review]

« on: September 11, 2013, 12:17:53 AM »

Finally saw it.  They left out so much... 

It was frustrating to watch some of these long drawn out scenes with no dialog when there was so much important dialog in the book.  Agree that adding things like any of the cut parts of Guts & Casca's scene would be shutting the barn door after the horses ran away during the first two movies...  Nevertheless I would have been so much happier with it if they'd tried.

The movie looked much better than the last one, but kept breaking its promise by putting more awful CG on the screen every time you start to really feel immersed.  When we see the actual drawn version of Carcus during the eclipse, I don't know how anyone unfamiliar with the story would even know it was him; up til then, 90% of the time he was an awful CG puppet.

Removing so much dialog and plot also made things a lot slashier than the source material.  Casca never brings up Charlotte as the reason there was no room for her as Griffith's woman, for example.  It ends up sounding like the reason she couldn't connect with Griff, was Guts and only Guts.

Though I knew we would never see it in this stripped adaptation, I still missed Charlotte's scene during the rescue, when she steps up to mislead the guards.  I'd held out a little hope, since she seemed to be one of the characters that was still getting to be in the story a little.

So many scenes I missed.  I know there wouldn't have been time for all of them but we coulda included one or two and cut Griffith's trippin' scene.

Lots of scenes I preferred the anime version of.  The biggest one that sticks out is that I liked the anime's version of Griffith's vision of the creatures coming out of the wall.  The manga gives me the impression of stillness and quiet, and the anime stuck with that; in the movie he's shivering like crazy, and it just didn't feel right to me.

There were a few scenes I liked as well.  Pretty much, the ones that were most like the manga and had the least CGI in them, and also the least unfortunate music choices.

I'll have to check out the dub at some point and see if I like it any better, too, because there was a LOT of voice work I did not like at all in this movie.  Way too many stereotypical shonen anime voice trope type choices.  Especially the gathering apostles all having the 'bad guy comedy flunky' voice at the beginning of the ceremony.  Like for REAL?  THIS is how you build atmosphere?  And Zodd is just a guy just going 'groar!' ?

All the colors and backgrounds were great, up til the Eclipse at least. 

I found it completely bizzarre that they ended the thing by ripping off the anime's ending.  I mean that..  that isn't in the books at all; like at ALL. 

To clarify; the manga also ends with Guts walking away but the tone and lead-up are completely different.  The anime and movie both end with a shot of Godo's furnace and Guts taking the DS and leaving without a word.