DuracellEnergizer

Perhaps.

Ryan McAvoy said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

In all seriousness, I'd like to ask...

What is the point of Religion?

I've never understood what the practical benefit is of believing in something that by default has no proof behind it (That's what faith is). I'd be genuinely interested in how and what it adds to life that many consider it worth spending time, effort and money on?

When travelling in a car, I'd rather there by someone behind the wheel to steer the damn thing than for the front seat to be empty and the car to be headed on a course straight off the edge of a cliff.

Of course, this analogy applies to theism more than religion specifically.  

Whether an athiest or a theist, the car never has anybody behind the wheel. Because, for a theist to believe that God would favour their car over anyone else's on the highway is shear vanity and the athiest believes that random chance is driving the car and nought else.

JFTR, the car I refer to is all of physical existence, whether it be a single universe, a multiverse, etc. As such, we all share the same car.

It's what you do while you are in the car that matters

Nothing in an atheistic cosmology ultimately matters in the end.

It doesn't matter whether you're naughty or nice, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, it doesn't matter if you're healthy or sick, it doesn't matter if you make anybody else's life better or not, 'cause in the end you die, they die, there is nothing for either of you beyond, and in time the Earth, the solar system, and the very universe will die, and none of it will have mattered or had any significant effect in the slightest.

Ryan McAvoy said:

A theist would spend their time reading and re-reading the owners manual and trying to gleam some sort of meaning from it and building a shrine in the glove box.

And what, exactly, is wrong with this? That it takes effort? 

Ryan McAvoy said:

Occasionaly looking out the windows and disaproving of other motorists who weren't driving according to their interpretation of the highway code or were driving cars of different makes and colours (Especially the pink cars!).

Pigeonholing all theists into a set mold, I see.

While far too many believers have a conceited view of their own beliefs -- my parents among them-- I am sure there are others out there for are able to appreciate and respect the theological worldviews of others even if they don't hold to them.

Ryan McAvoy said:

The atheist would just marvel at the beautiful view out the window, stick the radio on to their favourite station and enjoy the music for as long as the journey lasted.

So, in other words, just ignore -- or at least put to the back of your mind -- any distasteful aspects of your (dis)belief system, and just distract yourself with a bunch of pretty colours and loud noises.

I used to do that when I was a believer, and it only worked until I grew out of my teens; I'm never going back into the box of naivete, no matter how reassuring it may be.

RicOlie_2 said:

Star Wars, being a fantasy, contained a lot of symbolism. Traditionally, evil is given a physically ugly appearance in such works, while good is portrayed as beautiful or good-looking (hence the "good" in the latter). Of course the idea that one shouldn't judge things by their appearance can be portrayed symbolically with good guys being ugly and bad guys being good-looking, but in Star Wars the first was employed, so we have ugly bad guys and handsome/pretty good guys/girls.

I fail to see why Star Wars has to be stuck in one mode, though. Why can't different storylines by different people have different styles with different themes?

Reegar said:

DuracellEnergizer shall someday take Mr. Plinkett's persona. Instead of a bat cave, there's a creepy house. He opens up a fridge to find pizza rolls as dramatic music reaches a climax. . .

Let it be known that I now get this reference.

I'd never keep Heather Langenkamp locked up in my basement, though; that'd be like a devout Catholic keeping the Virgin Mary locked up in their basement ;-) 

Ryan McAvoy said:

In all seriousness, I'd like to ask...

What is the point of Religion?

I've never understood what the practical benefit is of believing in something that by default has no proof behind it (That's what faith is). I'd be genuinely interested in how and what it adds to life that many consider it worth spending time, effort and money on?

When travelling in a car, I'd rather there by someone behind the wheel to steer the damn thing than for the front seat to be empty and the car to be headed on a course straight off the edge of a cliff.

Of course, this analogy applies to theism more than religion specifically.  

TV's Frink said:

Wow...why didn't anyone tell me that Fo was having another humor-freeze?

I'm seeing shades of twooffour in his posts here.

Hmmm ... makes me wonder.

It's obvious to me he's just kidding around.

generalfrevious said:

I declare DVD a total failure because we never really got the OT on the format, which IMO is the whole reason the format existed.

An entire video format is a total failure because one conceited blowhard refused to release the theatrical versions of three films on said format ...

"Okily dokily doo!"

CO said:

I love T2, but can't stand Edward Furlong as a young John Connor.

 I can't stand Edward Furlong as anyone.

Ryan McAvoy said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Kenneth Branagh as (young) Obi-Wan

 All the joking aside, this would have been genuinely an amazing casting choice that could have been.

 I wasn't joking. All my choices -- Alanis included -- are serious choices.

RicOlie_2 said:

So do I. I would also like if there were more lightsabre colours (or that they were more common). It would be interesting to see more purple, yellow, white, etc. lightsabres and different shades of blue, green, and red.

The lack of multiple lightsaber colours is actually one of the beefs I have with the PT. I'd already become acquainted with the EU prior to seeing any of the prequels, and one of the things I immediately loved about it were all the lightsaber colours the Jedi got to play with.

When AOTC established the rule that Jedi only carried blue and green lightsabers -- and when that rule spread to the EU -- that's when my distaste for the PT really began.

skyjedi2005 said:

Kind of like Gantoris having a purple lightsaber in KJA trilogy.

And everyone hates KJA.

The problems with KJA do not lie with the lightsaber colours he's given his characters; his stories would be just as weak (weaker, IMO) if all his Force-using characters carried only blue, green, and red lightsabers.

RicOlie_2 said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

The Empire Strikes Back

Hired a beautiful young actress to play the body of Palpatine (I would have kept Clive Revill to play the voice, though).

 May I ask why you think a beautiful young girl is suitable to play Palpatine?

I've grown tired of antagonists who are ugly and misshapen on the outside. IMO, true evil is only ugly on the inside -- on the outside it is beautiful and attractive; if it weren't, if it were as ugly on the outside as on the inside, no one would ever give in to it.

On the flip side, I'd also like to see some protagonists who look like the Elephant Man; stereotypically beautiful heroes are just as tiresome as sterotypically hideous villains.

I'm happy for the Batman '66 fans. As for myself, though, I'm not all that interested.

I'm convinced that mainstream rap music is created by white supremacists and self-loathing blacks who want to make the black race look as stupid and ugly as possible.

imperialscum said:

darklordoftech, I became extremely curious as to why you dislike Sith, red lightsbares and such?

Just FYI, he's not the only one. I also dislike the whole "Sith only use red lightsabers" thing.

skyjedi2005 said:

Was Zahn the one that had the Emperor keep slain Jedi's lightsabers as a trophy. Or was that Dark Empire.

Or was that specifically just Luke's lightsaber stored at mount tantiss along with his hand in the vault?

The Thrawn Trilogy established that Luke's hand and old lightsaber were kept at Mount Tantiss while Dark Empire established that Palpatine kept Jedi lightsabers as trophies in his clone chambers on Byss.

I've mentioned some of this stuff before, so bear with me if this sounds a bit repetitive ...

Star Wars

Made the laserfire from Imperial blasters green.

Given characters unaffiliated with the Empire or Alliance their own distinctive blasterfire colours (yellow for good guys like Han, blue for bad guys like Boba Fett).

Kept Han and Luke in their stormtrooper armour until after they got off the Death Star.

Like has been mentioned by others here, I'd have made the duel between Ben and Vader more elaborate.

The Empire Strikes Back

Made Luke's lightsaber cyan instead of azure to distinguish it from Ben's lightsaber.

Played up the whole "Han-Luke-Leia" love triangle by showing more love scenes between Luke & Leia.

Made the laserfire from the probe droid and walkers green.

Shown more AT-STs on Hoth.

Hired a beautiful young actress to play the body of Palpatine (I would have kept Clive Revill to play the voice, though).

Return of the Jedi

Replaced the Death Star II with an Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, and have it serve more as a setting rather than as a MacGuffin.

As mentioned for TESB, I would have hired a beautiful young actress to play Palpatine and brought Clive Revill back to play his voice.

Introduced the existence of other Sith Lords/Dark Jedi beyond Vader who serve the Emperor.

Placed Jabba's headquarters on a new world instead of on Tatooine.

Changed how the whole "rescue Han from Jabba" sequence goes to make it work better.

Have Han show some distrust/resentment towards Lando for what happened between them on Bespin. Lando would only regain his trust later on when he chooses to fight in the Battle of Endor.

Removed the whole "Leia is Luke's sister" bit.

Removed the whole sugar-coated "from a certain point of view" crap. Ben would admit that he lied, but that he did it in Luke's best interests.

Exchanged the Ewoks for a more intimidating race (I prefer Trandoshans, personally).

Exchanged Palpatine and Vader's "if you kill me, you'll join me" method of converting Luke to the dark side for something that makes more reasonable sense.

And, finally, either have Han die so that Leia can finally be with Luke OR have Luke choose to let Leia go so that she can be with Han. 

Humby said:

CO said:

Hayden's in the ST = I'm out

Ben Affleck in the new Batman/Superman movie = I'm out

 

Hardly comparable situations, but I respect your opinion.  At least Affleck has some acting chops and can carry a film without making you roll your eyes.

To be honest, I'd rather watch a non-PT performance by Hayden than anything by Affleck.

darklordoftech said:

I hate how KOTOR totally misinterpreted TOTJ. This is supposed to be an era before Darths and red lightsabers.

Let's not forget the technology. Ships and weapons and other various pieces of machinery were very crudely shaped, bulky looking, and dingy in TOTJ, yet only a generation or so later in KOTOR, everything's become streamlined and shiny like in the PT.

skyjedi2005 said:

darklordoftech said:

Did Lucas intend the Jedi to be so stupid in the prequels or is Lucas himself actually as stupid as they are?

 They come off as stupid.  But i think its to show how dogmatic they are and set in their ways like religious fanatics.

Morally superior and arrogant to the core.

If i did not know any better i would think it was a nod to certain Christians of the right wing political persuasion in our own country.

After all Anakin quotes Bush.

I get this impression, too. Of course, it's still poorly executed, what with the whole "look how cool the Jedi are with their lightsabers" thrown in alongside it.

The only way I could see ROTJ Palpatine using a lightsaber would be the same way I could see a Satanist using a crucifix -- as an improvised weapon to murder a priest, taken from the priest himself. He certainly wouldn't make one himself and carry it on his person. 

Ryan McAvoy said:

 Is it? I can't remember. What made it hurt for me, was that you could still detect trace elements of the first superior comic book...

...buried in the setup/script beneath a billion rewrites and watered down budget based revisions. That ^ comic is even drawn like a film, almost storyboard like with Alien-movie like dialogue. Kinda like Dances-with-Predators meets a John Ford Western, produced by Ridley Scott. The tech design was first class, from the spaceships to the upgraded Predator armour, it all had that classic Syd Mead/Moebius feel. Would be awesome if they adapted that one day. I really wanted to see Machiko and Broken-Tusk go back to back against some Aliens on the big screen,

It would've been an expensive film though, I'm guessing. This was the same story novelised...

I read the novelization a number of years back. Beyond the basic plot, I can't remember much of the story; the only specific detail I can recall is that the facehuggers were referred to as "mobile penises" or something like that. 

Oh, you mean Earth-H ("H" for "Hollywood").

darth_ender said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001) - 5.8/10

 I wouldn't have gone any higher than 5.46 on this one, myself.

Well, seeing as a perfect 6 equates to an average rating in my ratings system (3/5 for overall quality, 3/5 for enjoyability), I still see the movie as being worse than that, so it gets a few decimal points lower.

Ryan McAvoy said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Alien vs. Predator (2004) - 0.57/10

Think you misplaced the decimal point. ^ Corrected ;-)

LOL. I've only rated it as high as I did because I liked the set design.

^Definately agree with you. I think Gobbie ended up looking more like Jack Nicholson than an evil Power Ranger in the movie, though ;-)