Escape to the Movies: Pompeii

Bleidd Whitefalcon

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The Great JT said:
I'm still kind of hopeful for the next Fantastic Four movie. I mean, Marvel Studios has the rights back (I think, I need to pay more attention), so they're at least going to TRY.
Nope, it's still Fox. Which means it'll probably suck.
 

Jacco

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May 1, 2011
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Cybylt said:
Jacco said:
Izanagi009 said:
God, as a person who studied Latin and has been to Rome, this movie just feels horrible.

If you want to make a movie of people in Pompeii (and nearby Herculaneum since that also got wiped out),their lives and how they reacted to a volcano(no science so they probably thought Vulcan was angry), focus on the little people: the artisans, the prostitutes (kind of a poor term since the politics surrounding them gave the women a lot of control)and the families who probably used the volcano's geothermal heat for the thermae. Focus on a small personal story about ordinary people living their lives normally before the volcano and looking back on their lives. Why did you have to make a story about a girl falling for a poor boy with competition from a rich suitor; it's been done to death and can be done at any location with any type of situation. Its just a waste of a concept and location.
The idea that ancient humans didn't have any understanding of what we call science is asinine. Especially the Romans. Really, only very early humans attributed events like that to gods. Any reasonably advanced society had at least an idea about natural/supernatural. The Romans were advanced enough to know that a volcano eruption was a natural event, even if they didn't fully understand why.

People seem to have this idea that humans were 100% superstitious until about 1500. That's just not the case. They had the same cognitive and intellectual abilities as we do.
These are people that thought putting sheep balls on your face was the cure for the cold and pissing in the direction of someone was good manners. Scattered genius does not equate to a genius society. The 30's and 40's had Einstein but that sure as shit didn't mean everyone was on the verge of discovering relativity or crafting new mathematic theorem.

More on topic - As someone who knows a bit of history, this movie's lack of Pompeii's fairly famous porn graffiti and statues of Pan having sex with everything is a letdown since it just preserves the mentality of the pristine advanced culture bullcrap that pervades society today.

Further, that eruption only took 10-15% of the population of the island, tons of people saw it coming and had vacated long beforehand. So I guess "disaster" might irrelevant. So I guess at least they were smarter than presented in the movie. In some respects at least.
As someone who's education is in history, it pains me that opinions and views like yours are as pervasive as they are. Looking at history through the lens of our modern sensibilities is simply ridiculous.

I wasn't saying everyone was a genius. I was saying that as a society, they had an understanding of natural events. And besides, your own argument implodes on itself because what you describe are superstitions and not every single person in that society shared.
 

SnakeoilSage

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Sep 20, 2011
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McMarbles said:
Whoops... seems I actually HAVE missed the point, sorry. I actually agree with you.

On the other hand, Marvel's TV efforts so far have been "NCIS, but with some superpower stuff." Arrow has AoS beat hands down.
Granted. I haven't watched much of either, to be honest. AoS looks okay, but I haven't paid attention to it since Episode 1. Decent ideas but not the best delivery for a superhero themed TV drama.

As for Arrow, it feels very "Batman if he killed people," but at least it's building a narrative.

I have more optimism for the Netflix series (even given recent Comcast debacles), because they generally have larger budgets and tighter stories. They're not trying to fill in a time-slot so there's less pressure to get out "flavor of the week" episodes.
 

walsfeo

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Feb 17, 2010
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Quiotu said:
walsfeo said:
C.S.Strowbridge said:
Malisteen said:
That's a fine criticism and all, but it will really only carry any weight when Marvel Studios puts out a movie that doesn't primarily revolve around a white dude.
Luke Cage is getting a TV series, so I'm cautiously optimistic things will pick in that area.
Because Marvel has a great track record at TV.

But really, I hope you are right. It's possible that with a tighter scope and a real Marvel character to hang the story on, the Luke Cage show won't suck. Please let it not suck.
By Marvel's track record are you referring to all ONE shows they've done so far? The one that's still Tuesdays' second highest-rated show next to NCIS? If that first sentence was meant as snark, then it's about as full of shit as you could get without it seeping into the sentences around it.
And the Transformers movies made a lot of money. Man those were great films! Or not.

So yeah, I can see if you use ratings as the only benchmark to validate a series, then Marvel has a great track record at TV, but Marvel doesn't have a reputation for creating engaging and entertaining TV. The only reason I'm still watching Agents of SHIELD is because it only goes two steps back for every three forward. Oh, and because it's Marvel and I want to be watching if/when they actually start making high quality episodes on a regular basis.

If Marvel continues to put out TV shows of such marginal quality it will hurt the overall brand. I hope it gains some story traction, and becomes an additive facet of the MCU instead of just not completely sucking.
 

walsfeo

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JimB said:
Quiotu said:
By Marvel's track record are you referring to all one shows they've done so far?
I am aware of at least three TV programs Marvel has done: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, the Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man. That is, of course, referring only to live-action series and is ignoring all the animated series they've done, which are too numerous for me to even bother counting.

Anyone who cares could probably Google it and come up with about fifty titles.
And that's a great point, I was only considering live action from within the MCU time frame. I've enjoyed some of the animated shows, and wasn't even thinking about the old Hulk show.
 

AdagioBoognish

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Nov 5, 2013
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King Whurdler said:
Trishbot said:
Sorry, I know there was a review in there somewhere, but all my brain heard for the rest of it was "Ooga Ooga Ooga Chaka"...

... It'll probably be there until August.
It's Blue Swede's version of 'Hooked on a Feeling' in case you weren't aware.

OT: Nothing much to say really, other than the fact that I can't wait for 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' I have no history with the series, but it still looks pretty perfect... so far.
I've just heard about it as well. Guardians just looks like a lot of fun and I can't wait to see it. I'm bugging some friends for their comics to hold me over till then.
 

VondeVon

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Dec 30, 2009
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Thank God for YouTube. I am not sitting through some godawful love triangle just to get to the SFX.

Imagine if this movie had been a 'Love Actually'-style story of a dozen interwoven threads (romance optional), followed by the volcano? HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE?

You'd actually be on the edge of your seat for the volcano, desperately hoping your favourite character - or at least some of them - made it out alive. Children, parents, siblings, friends, rivals and romantic interests - Pompeii could have been alive before it died.

Oh well. That's what fan fiction is for I suppose. Or maybe fan-videos... It works for video games.
 

Atmos Duality

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Mar 3, 2010
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Safaia said:
So am I the only one who the whole 'Anderson usually gets to the point here time to end the video quickly' gag?
Considering that it took bob over a minute and a half of video time before even started talking about the actual subject of the video, no. You aren't.