DrCrowTStarwars

SilverWook said:

The original Land of the Lost, which aired the same year, has much better dino FX. And that was a mix of stop motion and "live" puppets.

I'm guessing the Beeb couldn't afford Ray Harryhausen's services? ;)

 Yeah the budget for Doctor Who was much lower then even children's shows in the states at the same time.

To give you some idea of just how much lower Doctor Who's budget was then the average American show I will compare the budget of two episodes of Doctor Who to one episode of Star Trek made in the 1960s since they have the same run time. Now remember Star Trek's special effects have been mocked from time to time. Well any way for the same run time Doctor Who had a budget of between five and six thousand pounds converted to dollars that makes just under ten thousand dollars give or take. Star trek had a budget of between one hundred and fifty thousand and one hundred and eighty thousand dollars for a fifty two minute episode. That means that Star Trek had a budget of around fifteen to eighteen times what Doctor Who did.

I know this conversion isn't perfect and that both shows had there own problems to contend with(Such as Star Trek's larger cast and model shots that were needed every week)but I bring it up to demonstrate why some times Doctor Who would come up short in the special effects department. Personally it never bothered me,even as a kid. As long as the actors reacted as if they were seeing monsters and space ships I believed in the monsters and space ships even if they were bits of clay and pieces of old toy.  Then again I grew up watching a lot of stuff that had bad special effects and was always more interested in the ideas that made up a story then how it looked on screen so I know I do not represent your average viewer.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Truth be told, I don't enjoy the MCU. There's far too much style, not nearly enough substance.

I'd much rather watch superhero movies that are smaller in scale, with more emphasis placed on character development, than ones with big explosions, CG monsters, and megalomaniacal villains trying to take over the world. 

  I think they got the focus just right,these are supposed to be adventure stories for kids after all so the focus should be on the adventure.

Each movie has had enough moments to make me care about the characters and the setting so I don't really have a problem. I mean people have complained that the Spiderman and XMen series had too many shots of heroes crying so you have to find a balance and I think they did.

Then again i may just have awful taste in movies because I like those cheesy adventure shorts from the 30s and 40s and I enjoyed the two Fantastic Four movies. You may not want to take my word for what is good and what is bad.

Yeah I can't wait to see TWS now and I am loving AOS.

I find that a good rule of thumb is to give a new show a season or some to find it's feet. It's not easy figuring out the correct balance on a TV production,you are not given a lot of time so the producers and writers have to learn as they go. MASH,STTNG,and B5 all took most of their first seasons to figure out what worked,so I stuck with it on Shield because I liked the characters and it seems like everyone working on the show is trying.  My favorite characters of FitzSimmons.

I have to say the way they ended the last episode was so shocking I was surprised it was not the season ending cliffhanger. The wait for Tuesday is killing me.

I have to say I love it and I think those posters are amazing. I grew up reading comics and this is exactly the sort of thing that I hoped would happen,a bunch of interlocked and fun movies. To me these are the perfect summer popcorn flicks,they are exciting,have good timeless characters,and a sense of fun and adventure that has been missing from comic books lately. Now don't get me wrong I love movies like Citizen Kane and the Seventh Seal,but some times I just want to watch a good adventure and so far the marvel movies have delivered. The only one I have not enjoyed in Iron Man 3 and for comic book movies that is a great track record.  7/8 of all their movies being something I enjoy is an amazing feat that my hat goes off to them.

I think my favorite part of the universe isn't even the super hero movies. I know a lot of people felt let down by it but I am really enjoying Agents of Shield. In superhero movies before I always wondered how the big events effected people without powers and now I have got a whole show that if focused on just that and the latest plot arc that ties in with CATWS(A movie I hope to see tomorrow)has been great. What is more I like all the characters and it has been the most enjoyable show I have been able to watch this season. I wish I had high speed because it looks like the other shows are going to Netflix where I will not be able to watch them,but you can't have everything.

I have to say I have never read a GOTG comic but I am really impressed that Marvel isn't just sticking to the safe books and they are making a movie out of something that goofy and campy and based on the trailers I am really looking forward to it. That and Godzilla may be the movies I am most looking forward to this summer.

I think Marvel has done a great job so far and even if they put a foot wrong once in a while they really seem to be trying and car about their movies so i will keep coming back. Long live the Marvel cinematic universe I say.

timdiggerm said:

The board fails to recognize https urls as links

 Okay,thank you. That it explains that. it was really confusing me,so thank you for explaining that.

I would like to bitch about the lack of people using the word bitch in the bitching thread.What is wrong with you bitches? Don't you know we can't have a bitching threat if you don't bitch. So start bitching or I will bitch slap each and every bitching one of you. It's time to bitch so start bitching or I will keep bitching about the lack of the word bitch.

For some reason those don't always come up on this site,I have no idea why.  Half the time when I try to post a link it comes up as clickable and half the time it doesn't and I have no idea why it doesn't when it doesn't because I do the exact same thing I do when it does. At any rate copy and pasting isn't that much trouble so while I don't have time to watch that right now I look forward to watching it latter.

Thanks for the link.

Bingowings said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Have you ever been browsing the web only to .com across something that is just strange and or confusing and you just have to share it with other people? if so do it here. If I am the only one that feels the urge to do this then comment on my posts here.

^Fixed

That's not that weird. It does go to prove the immediate masculinification effects of growing a good beard though.

I never thought I'd woof Frazier but here goes...

WOOF!

He does look like he belongs in an action movie and that may be the strangest part. I think it would almost be less strange if he looked like he didn't belong in the movie. As I said this is kind of a brilliant move since I would have waited to see this movie on Bluray but now I will have to see it in theaters since I will want to see this with my own eyes as soon as I can.

Have you ever been browsing the web only to com across something that is just strange and or confusing and you just have to share it with other people? if so do it here. If I am the only one that feels the urge to do this then comment on my posts here.

For me today it was this.  I really have no interest in seeing Expendables 3 in theaters but in a brilliant piece of really insane casting the producers have ensured that I have to see it because of this.  Just to be sure it wasn't a joke I checked out the trailer(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bPJrbzjLls) and I now have no words. I really like both Cheers and Frasier and I think Grammer is a good actor but if there was one style of movie I never expected to see him cast in this would be it.  my mind is just blown and I am really confused. I mean how does he fit in with a cast that includes Stalone and Harison freaking Ford?!  This just confuses me and now I have to see it with my own eyes.

I want to bitch about the lack of a bitching about comics thread.

DuracellEnergizer said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

What is more if you talk to the fanboys all you hear about is how great modern comic books are because they are dark. That is one reason I love Linkara's reviews he sees this poorly written garbage for what it is.

Yeah, I love Linkara's reviews, too. It's refreshing to hear the opinion of a comics fan who doesn't buy into the "Grim 'n' gritty is awesome!" BS.

 Yeah i started watching them a couple years back and when in the first review he made jokes about how bad One more day was(I have not read a Spiderman comic since and I have read Spiderman since I was six)I knew I was a fan.

I tend to avoid comic book fans for the exact reason that grimdark has become such fad that the only people left reading comics are grimdark fans,it's so refreshing to hear from a fan who doesn't buy that and will recommend good comics that are not grimdark.

Hopefully there are more people like us out there just waiting to become writers and things will change at some point.

DuracellEnergizer said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

This is just sad,they do know that since kids can no longer read comics their sales are just going to keep shrinking right?

DC and Marvel are both run by continuity-obsessed fanboys who haven't been kids in decades, thus their audience is largely made up of continuity-obsessed fanboys who haven't been kids in decades.

Basically, they only write stories for themselves -- stories which are almost always Z-grade ripoffs of Frank Miller and Alan Moore stories -- and are incapable of seeing past their own egos to understand that they're shooting themselves and the companies they work for in the foot.

Or they could hire some of the writers who worked on Batman the Animated series or Spectacular Spiderman,they seemed to understand how to tell good comic book stories without going to far. Anything would be better then this.

I know that Paul Dini worked as a writer on Detective Comics. I haven't read any of his storylines, though, so I can't say how good they are.

 Yeah That is what I thought.  To me comics should be for the kid in all of us not the blood thirsty adult. What is more they keep trying to top themselves and like pop stars who wear less and less clothing every time they go on stage pretty soon there will be nowhere left to go and that is just sad. What is more if you talk to the fanboys all you hear about is how great modern comic books are because they are dark. That is one reason I love Linkara's reviews he sees this poorly written garbage for what it is. Just because something is dark doesn't make it good. Darkness like everything else has to serve a point. Man I hate living in the grimdark age.

I don't know about Paul Dini,I will have to see if I can find his stuff online. If you ask me his work in the animated universe was far more adult then any of the comics we have today because the darkness that was there had a point and he remembered he was telling stories about men in capes who fight crimes and made the stories for kids.

I really wish modern comics would look to shows like Doctor Who for their tone. I mean that show can be scary,sad,and dark but it also never loses it's sense of adventure and it rarely goes too far for the kids and yet it still appeals to adults and remains popular. Maybe the next generation of writers will be fans of stuff like Doctor Who and we will be able to leave this sad stupid area behind us at last.

DuracellEnergizer said:

SilverWook said:

Holy gratuitous violence, Batman! As context is everything, I presume that's not some evil alternate universe Superman or something?

It's Superboy Prime AKA Emo Superboy AKA another character modern DC has fucked up to whittle more money out of its shrinking fanbase of aging manchildren. 

AKA the guy Linkara is always mocking by giving him the stupidest voice in history.

This is just sad,they do know that since kids can no longer read comics their sales are just going to keep shrinking right? 

Anyone who thinks you need this or the way Frank Miller and other writers treat woman to tell a good story is insane. Comics have gotten so far out there you can't even parody them any more.  I hope that one day a few decades from now will will all look back on the grimdark age(As I call modern comics)and laugh at them as a stupid phase comics grew out of. You know maybe if the comic book companies would hire some woman in positions of power they could hold the fifty year old man chrildren who seem to be running the business at the moment in check and bright back some adventures that kids can read and that don't make me want to throw up.  Or they could hire some of the writers who worked on Batman the Animated series or Spectacular Spiderman,they seemed to understand how to tell good comic book stories without going to far. Anything would be better then this.

Yeah if you have not listened to the commentary on the Bluray release of the movie do so now,you will thank me latter.  It's just that good.

So do we have a release date on this? I have the movie on Bluray but because I am so young I have only ever seen a few episodes on TV.  I really can't wait to see this on DvD,any idea when it will be out?

If anyone is interested in reading some stories I wrote here they are. Please keep in mind that these are all unedited works in progress and I lost my computer for most of the last nine months so some of them have not been updated or edited in a while.  But Hey I am doing this to get feedback so I can become a better writer(There are not any classes in my area that I can afford so the feedback I get on these is the next best thing)still for what it is worth enjoy.

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4224399/Matthew-G-Given

Here is a link that saved my computer. At one point this stupid program was using 90% of my ram and it happened to me twice. After I followed the instruction in this link it was smooth sailing from then on.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-disable-windows-7-media-player-network-sharing-service-wmpnetwk/

Oh and if you have the PC version and you didn't already know about it,here is a link to the fan made ending mod.  it saved the series for me.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358/1

Ryan McAvoy said:

Yeah some of todays comic artists should have read less Frank Miller when they were teenagers.

Yeah can I be honest and say i never really liked his work.  I know it was groundbreaking at the time but I started reading a few years after that and I have to say I always found his artwork ugly,his stories overly dark(If that is your thing more power to you but I always enjoyed the high adventure aspect of comics more),and his treatment of woman cringe worthy.  I was just never able to get into him and now we have an inter generation of writers and artists who think of him as the god of comics and it has completely turned me off mainstream american comics. You pretty much have to go to other countries or smaller comics if you want something with the same style heroics that you have in the movies.

Now please don't misunderstand me as saying that you can't tell certain types of stories in comics or that they can't get dark. I love Watchmen after all but there are limits and the darkness has to serve a purpose besides being dark because hey if something is dark that makes it better and more adult,I don't think it does.  My thoughts on darkness in adventure stories are best summed up in the Red letter media review of episode 3.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABcXyZn9xjg

Any way when i pick up a comic about say Superman or Spiderman I am looking for high adventure because let's face it those characters don't led themselves to really dark story telling. I don't want to see Superman ripping people's arms off and I don't expect to see Spiderman selling his mirage to the devil(As long as I have been reading comics Spiderman and Marry Jane were a married couple and I had stuck with them through some really bad story lines,even the clone saga,so when that happened it was the last straw for me.)
 Every story doesn't have to be completely dark and devoid of hope and our heroes should be tested but in the end they should still act like heroes and not selfish nut jobs(I am looking at you civil war)and comic should never have an image like that last one in them. I have seen a lot of horror movies in my time but that just made me feel like throwing up.  If you ask me the perfect comic appeals to kinds but is smart enough for adults. When I was a kid I read comics all the time but I tell you one thing if I ever have kids I will not be letting them near modern comics.

If you want to see some good comics check out All Star Superman,Tom Strong,or most of the Doctor Who comics,that is the type of comic book I wish there was more of.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Here's why I don't read modern superhero comics anymore:

(WARNING: these pictures are gory)

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120315001307/marvel_dc/images/0/0b/DeathPsychoPirate.PNG

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091111041956/marvel_dc/images/6/63/Death_of_Terra-Man_01.jpg

http://pooke.thedreamisdead.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IC4risk.jpg

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/5/54054/1082733-ic4pantha.jpg

http://g1rm.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/sentrygore.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bdQdS-kzyI4/TU8pUTq67rI/AAAAAAAACmE/ghvERA6KojI/s1600/Wolverine+Best+There+Is+-+Blood.jpg

Yeah that kind of ultra dark stuff plus garbage like One more day really turned me off comics.  The last comic I read and enjoyed was Tom Strong. Now that is how comic books should be done.

That last one may be the single most Fed up thing I have ever seen. What is wrong with these people? They wonder why sales of comics are in the toilet but the movies are doing so well,it's because the movies don't do stuff like that.  In the movies the heroes are still heroes and they are full of bold adventure not shocking murder and I don't know what else to call that last one. A word has yet to be invented that expresses how completely messed up that last one was. I feel ill.

I am so glad I pretty much gave up on comics after reading One more day.

Wow,I only know him through Linkara and Spoony's videos but it still strikes me as sad since he can't of been that old.  I feel sorry for his family.

I guess this means we will never get the gritty reboot of the Warrior comics.

:(

AntcuFaalb said:

Don't lock yourself into using a proprietary OS if you can't accept the consequences of the fact that big public companies like M$ have to answer to their shareholders, not to you.

http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html

¡VIVA EL SOFTWARE LIBRE!

Yes exactly. If a product is unpopular and doesn't sell the people who gave the company the money to make their products in the first place have every right to require the company to find out what went wrong to try and make a popular product or fix what was unpopular about the product. That is just the way the world works.

ray_afraid said:

Why are there CAUTION signs on automatic doors?

The fine print should say "Carefully walk through this door way in any fashion you choose. Doesn't matter. The door will open automatically anyway. So, uh, you know... be careful."

  Also if it is one of those doors that swings open by the time I am close enough to read the sign the door has already opened. So if the warning is about it hitting me in the face,by the time i have seen the sign the door has already hit me in the face.  Thanks.

So you think that if a product doesn't reflect what the customers need or want they should still pay for it and shouldn't be allowed to tell a company why it doesn't work?  That's just insane.  Just because something is new doesn't always make it better and if it doesn't work or is harder to use then people are not going to buy the thing.  You seem to assume that Microsoft is some perfect company and that anything they release that is new is better and that if a paying customer doesn't like it and says so that customer is some evil monster plotting against progress. That is not how technology or business works. Technology goes up dead ends and tries out bad ideas all the time. Businesses exist to provide products that make customer's lives easier. They exist to provide a service in exchange for money. The customer does not exist to give them money on demand so they can "push things forward"(By the way who gets to say what is forward progress any way. What makes the people working at Microsoft so special that they get the final say in this?)and if a product doesn't work for customers they are free to say so. That goes double for something like Windows 8 where it comes preinstalled on our new computers and we are never given the option to not get it and we have to spend $150 downgrading to the last version just to get something we can use. Oh and the companies that last they are the ones who ask the people who are not buying their products why they are not working so that they can change the product to reflect the needs of their customers so that they don't flee and use a competitor's product and they get to stay in business. 

Let me put this is personal terms.  I write fan fiction as an exercise to learn how to become a better writer. It's fun and it lets me try out ideas that I have in settings I already know and I can get some great feedback. It's no English 101 or creative writing course but it's better then nothing and the feedback I get helps me become a better writer. You want to know what reviews I find the most helpful and that I ask for? The negative ones. Because I care about what I am doing and I want to provide the reader who has taken time out of his busy day to read my story with a good well written tale. To that end if I keep making the same spelling or grammar mistakes,my prose are clunky,or a plot element doesn't make sense I want to know. So I can be a better writer and one day write something that people will pay money to read. The people who leave negative reviews on fan fiction dot net are not whining and they are not my enemies who I need to defeat,they are my best friends. They are the people who I am working to entertain and their feedback is making me a better writer. I am not doing anything to Microsoft that I have not had done to me.

I applaud Microsoft for in this case listening to their customers instead of ignoring them and then just complaining that their sales are down.  I am still upset about My computer not being an icon and my friend still has trouble with using his windows 8 pc to program and debug stuff but at least they are taking steps to fix this with 8.1 and it looks like 9.

You can't know if a new idea will work or not until you put it out in the real world and have it tested by real people. True forward progress isn't made by just putting an invention out their and saying "This is how it is going to be and no changes will ever be made." True forward progress is made when an invention is put out in the real world and the inventors look at what happens when it is used in the real world and they make tweaks to make it work better in the real world based on what people that use the product say about it. Just look at early cars and how many weird ways their were to steer them and signal and just how unsafe some of them were. The car became what we have today because the people that made them looked at how people used them in real life and looked at what people said about cars and zeroed in on the most popular and most needed features. That is how true forward progress is made,when the companies putting out a product and the people buying it work together to make the product better and easier to use. The customers get a better product and the company makes more money,everyone wins.

Also as I said if you want Windows without a program tree or any icons it's called DOS. Windows is a program designed for idiots like me who found DOS too hard to use. It seems to me what you really should be doing instead of trying to get Microsoft to make Windows more like DOS which seems to be a losing proposition is instead let them know that you would like to see them launch a new version of DOS alongside Windows. Let them know there is a market for DOS 2015 and maybe they will grant your wish.

As I said true progress is only made when their is feedback from the customers,so give them your feedback. Just know exactly what you want so that you can make it clear to them what you want.

I will make it reeegal.

Oh,well that still sounds good since I love Mac and Cheese.

I think Shakespeare said it best as always.

"Kill all the lawyers."