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hinch said:
TallSilhouette said:

Had something of a scifi animation week.

Next Gen: Just started learning Blender and wanted to see how it does with an entire feature film. Both the visuals and the storytelling are a pretty mixed bag. Some elements look top of the line, others are subpar. Some moments made me roll my eyes, but others were genuinely funny or touching. In any case, it's very impressive that 99% of this film was made in a single, free program that we all have access to and has only gotten better since. Very motivating.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines: Solid movie all around with a particularly interesting sense of humor. The art style at times is genuinely dazzling and you can feel some of that Spider-verse DNA.

Love + Death + Robots S2: More of that good, adult animation that made S1 so refreshing. Pop Squad, Snow in the Desert, and The Drowned Giant were highlights for me. Also amazing how photoreal Life Hutch looks at times.

On the last few episodes on Love Death and Robots (S1) and its pretty good. Love that each one has a small self contained story, easy to watch and some dark humour to boot. Is the second season as good as the first?

Also half way through Expanse (S1) and am enjoying it. Not usually into sci-fi shows, though this one is more grounded and really well done.

It has been a while since I watched season one so I may have forgotten some of the good ones, but I thought as a whole season that S2 was a little stronger than S1 (of which there are only a couple stories that stood out and I still remember well).



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hinch said:
TallSilhouette said:

Had something of a scifi animation week.

Next Gen: Just started learning Blender and wanted to see how it does with an entire feature film. Both the visuals and the storytelling are a pretty mixed bag. Some elements look top of the line, others are subpar. Some moments made me roll my eyes, but others were genuinely funny or touching. In any case, it's very impressive that 99% of this film was made in a single, free program that we all have access to and has only gotten better since. Very motivating.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines: Solid movie all around with a particularly interesting sense of humor. The art style at times is genuinely dazzling and you can feel some of that Spider-verse DNA.

Love + Death + Robots S2: More of that good, adult animation that made S1 so refreshing. Pop Squad, Snow in the Desert, and The Drowned Giant were highlights for me. Also amazing how photoreal Life Hutch looks at times.

On the last few episodes on Love Death and Robots (S1) and its pretty good. Love that each one has a small self contained story, easy to watch and some dark humour to boot. Is the second season as good as the first?

Also half way through Expanse (S1) and am enjoying it. Not usually into sci-fi shows, though this one is more grounded and really well done.

TallSilhouette said:
hinch said:

On the last few episodes on Love Death and Robots (S1) and its pretty good. Love that each one has a small self contained story, easy to watch and some dark humour to boot. Is the second season as good as the first?

Also half way through Expanse (S1) and am enjoying it. Not usually into sci-fi shows, though this one is more grounded and really well done.

I'd say it's pretty similar in quality to the first.

Been meaning to watch The Expanse some time. Heard great things.

The Expanse is awesome, one of my favourite shows ever.

First two seasons are amazing, three a slight step down but still very good, four another slight step down but still above average, haven't seen 5 yet as I refuse to give any money to Amazon.



TallSilhouette said:

I'd say it's pretty similar in quality to the first.

Been meaning to watch The Expanse some time. Heard great things.

Nice will be nice filler in between seasons since there's not too much new to watch these days. What I also really like about it is that there's so many different styles of animation in it. And every episode is completely unpredictable. But yeah Expanse is worth a watch, especially if you're into Sci-fi and Space.

curl-6 said:

The Expanse is awesome, one of my favourite shows ever.

First two seasons are amazing, three a slight step down but still very good, four another slight step down but still above average, haven't seen 5 yet as I refuse to give any money to Amazon.

5 seasons.. Didn't realise it was that long running! A lot to catch up on I suppose And fair enough heh. You could always sign up with free Prime and month and binge through it.



hinch said:
TallSilhouette said:

I'd say it's pretty similar in quality to the first.

Been meaning to watch The Expanse some time. Heard great things.

Nice will be nice filler in between seasons since there's not too much new to watch these days. What I also really like about it is that there's so many different styles of animation in it. And every episode is completely unpredictable. But yeah Expanse is worth a watch, especially if you're into Sci-fi and Space.

curl-6 said:

The Expanse is awesome, one of my favourite shows ever.

First two seasons are amazing, three a slight step down but still very good, four another slight step down but still above average, haven't seen 5 yet as I refuse to give any money to Amazon.

5 seasons.. Didn't realise it was that long running! A lot to catch up on I suppose And fair enough heh. You could always sign up with free Prime and month and binge through it.

That's a good point haha, I didn't realize they had a month long free trial, thanks. Guess I'll be checking it out once I finish with The Orville. I like to pace myself when it comes to shows so I don't run out of stuff to watch haha, like 1-2 episodes a day.



Last episode of invincible. Enjoying it.



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Holy shit has Bo outdone himself. A comedy special evolves into a transcendental art piece that hits you right where you live. Bo bares his genius and his soul and creates a true masterpiece as he films his mind unraveling. This will go down as one of the best and most poignant products of the pandemic; one for the history books. Please don't kill yourself, Bo. Find the balance you need...



Watching the Matrix trilogy.
When the first Matrix film came out, people seemed to really find the story deep, described it as a work based in postmodern philosophy.

On the surface, it looks like postmodern philosophy because the world of the Matrix is demonstrated to be a construct. But then they go outside of the Matrix and it turns out it's just an illusionary world, but that there is a true world outside. This isn't postmodern philosophy, this is Platonic philosophy. This same story was demonstrated via Plato's Cave Allegory written in Republic where people lived in a cave, and their whole concept of existence was silhouettes on a wall - then they take one guy out of the cave and show him the real world, before putting him back in.

But anyway, it seems the story is more of a backdrop, or framing for the real point of the film - constructing a reality for where their crazy action scenes could take place. In that, I think the film series is successful... This is actually the first time I watched Reloaded all the way through, as I only caught a part of it at a party when I was a lot younger; I barely remember anything from Revolutions except a lot of machine gun fire and yelling.

Like Inception, the story is very exposition heavy in regards to how its subworld works - but Matrix blends the exposition quite well and seamlessly into story; Inception was really just explaining the story the whole way through, and the conflicts were all in the explanation. In other words, Matrix used exposition as a bit of a hand-hold through the story the characters were moving through, while with Inception the exposition was the story.

Also, to comment on the action sequences; they are the first films to use excessive amounts of slow-motion - the thing is, unlike films like 300 and super hero films, it's not just arbitrarily shoved in - the slow motion actually has a logical reason because it's part of Neo's perception. Like Inception, the story was used to kind of provide a world where this kind of crazy action would take place - it's really up to opinion on which one did it better; I prefer the Matrix's approach.

So, the Matrix series, not really my thing, to be honest, but I respect what they did. I like the cyberpunk and action genres. This is a nice blend of the two. Bladerunner is probably the most iconic cuberpunk film, but it's VERY different from The Matrix. As I said earlier, The Matrix holds your hand through the story, Bladerunner and 2049 do as little hand holding as they can possibly get away with and just hope you can keep up.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 29 June 2021

I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

I'm going to post here only the list of series I've watched in the last few months, leaving the movies for another post, because there are more than one hundred in that list.

Also, in the following spoiler tag, I explain my criteria when scoring a movie/series, but the only reason I post it is because I feel the need to do it, even when it's completely unnecesary. So... well, you can just skip it. =D

Spoiler!

Before going to the table, I'd like to explain my criteria when I rate any series or movie. Basically, I tend to give as much importance to the scriptwriting and the story than to all the other technical aspects (acting, scene composition, lighting, types of shots, color, etc.). Why do I do it that way? Because to me, the way a story is told and paced, as well as the way dialogs are written, is like the work of an architect, while all of the technical aspects that bring the former to life are like the work of a constructor. And if you want to build a house, you can't choose one or the other - you need both.

So that's why both are equally important to me: a story with artificial lines of dialogs, which feels too forced in order to reach certain objectives and where the plot is stagnant and the characters are plain, too superficial or poorly developed is something I could hardly consider a good movie, no matter how good the materials are. And inversely, a very good work of storytelling and scriptwriting means nothing and completely falls down if it's built with a weak structure and deficient materials - when the technical part fails to achieve minimum levels of quality.

Another thing that I should point out is that I adjust my judgement to what I'm watching: for a comedy, I mainly expect that it makes me laugh or at least smile; for an action movie, I expect... well, action. And so on. If a movie offers what one should logically expect from it, and does it right, I'll try to rate it accordingly.

Also, in relation to that, I want to say that I like to go as blind as possible into movies, so the only information that I generally have about a film before I watch it is the score in FilmAffinity* (I don't like to go that blind =P), sometimes the genre(s), if I want to watch something specific, and less often the release year, in case I'm in the mood for something newer/older. The reasons why I do this are 1) because that way I can adjust my expectations to what I'm actually watching, instead of having some preconceived ideas about the movie, and 2) because that way there's a lot more room for excitement and surprise. Still, it's not always possible to go blind into a movie (particularly in the case of big blockbusters or franchises), but I do it more often than not.

Lastly, when I rate a movie, I try to always be fair, and also use all the technical knowledge that I have to make my score as well-grounded as possible. However, I'm just an imperfect human amongst billions, so my own personal criteria, and my personal interpretation of that criteria is just one of many and doesn't have to match anyone else's. Also, I don't consider myself an expert, but rather a very curious, art-prone mind in a process of constant learning, so my technical knowledge is continually improving over time and the judgments I'll make, let's say, in five or ten years are probably better than the ones I'm doing now. In any case, it doesn't matter much, because in the end these scores and the comments that I may make are just my opinions, which I'll defend and back as best as I can, but knowing that they're only that: mere opinions in a ocean full of them.

*Speaking of FilmAffinity, I use that website because I find that the scores there are the most trustful on the web (at least for me, and that I know of) and not too inflated by default, like in other sites (IMDb, for example). Also, another reason why I use it (which doesn't seem to be available in the English version, unfortunately) are the reviews that other people write about the movie. Not always I read them, I must say, but sometimes I like to do it and, while not all all of them are interesting or useful, sometimes you can find good reviews that are much worth reading. Also, having different perspectives is always nice.

Tips to read the table

Title1 = It's a musical.

Title2 = It's an animation movie/series.

Title3 = It's a documentary.

(score) = Didn't finish watching it and have no intention to do so.

Score system

10 = Superb

9 = Excelent

8 = Great

7 = Good

6 = Decent

5 = Mediocre

4 = Deficient

3 = Bad

2 = Terrible

0/1 = You rather take your eyes out than watch this piece of shit.

TV SERIES DEBUT YEAR DIRECTOR(S) / CREATOR(S) MY SCORE
Cosmos3 1980 Carl Sagan 10
Psychoville 2009 Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith 9,5
Paranoia Agent2 2004 Satoshi Kon 9
Yes Minister 1980 Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn 8,5
This Country 2017 Tom George 8
Yes Prime Minister 1986 Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn 8
Jack the Ripper 1988 David Wickes 7,5
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto2 2016 Shinji Takamatsu 7,5
Laetitia 2019 Jean-Xavier de Lestrade 7
The Black Adder 1983 Richard Curtis & Rowan Atkinson 7
Adult Material 2020 Dawn Shadforth 5,5
Young and Promising 2015 Siri Seljeseth (5)
The Sacred Blacksmith2 2009 Masamitsu Hidaka 3,5
Wayne 2019 Shawn Simmons 3

By the way, I may edit this at a later date to add a few comments about the series above. I wanted to do it now, but it was already late when I started writing this, so maybe tomorrow. Not that anyone is interested, anyway, but I feel better if I say it.

Last edited by Verter - on 10 July 2021

I'm mostly a lurker now.

Just got back from Black Widow. A bit disappointing for me. It's not bad, just okay. The story wasn't very compelling, Natasha's inner character wasn't really mined enough, and it generally didn't feel like much of a sendoff for her or ScarJo. Trailers made the action look good but there wasn't much to write home about beyond what was already shown. I liked Taskmaster's visual design but was pretty disappointed in what they did with the character beyond that. Harbor and Pugh were good, though. I hope we see more of the former and am looking forward to more of the latter.



Been watching Loki. It's been an awesome show so far. Looking forward to the season finale! :D