Movie, TV, Web Series, and Music Hot Take(s).

FakeSympathy

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The hot take itself:

My response:
I mean I have been liking the first two episodes so far, but let's not forget oh-so-many adaptations that fell hard. Resident Evil, Assassins Creed, Alone in Dark, Max Payne, BloodRayne, Hitman, Silent Hill, House of the Dead, etc
 

BrawlMan

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The hot take itself:

My response:
I mean I have been liking the first two episodes so far, but let's not forget oh-so-many adaptations that fell hard. Resident Evil, Assassins Creed, Alone in Dark, Max Payne, BloodRayne, Hitman, Silent Hill, House of the Dead, etc
I find it ironic that this is coming from IGN of all places. I know it's a different writer, but back in the 2000s and even most of the 2010s, they were invoking the curse or acting like it existed. I never believed in the so-called curse, but there are a lot of bad adaptions, only because it was put in the hands of people who didn't care or just wanted to make a quick buck. Comic book movies went through the exact same thing.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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My take on this is: who cares about the "video game curse"? What a meaningless thing to care about honestly. I get that there is some sentiment that saying TLOU broke the curse discredits the actual good video game adaptations that have come before it, but.. who the fuck cares what the talking heads in movie and TV media are saying?

I always assume the worst for video game movie or TV adaptations. Any reasonable person would, given their track record. If an adaptation is bad, then nothing is lost. If it's good, then fucking great, we all can enjoy a good movie or show. As we have all seen, the "curse" is hardly discouraging studios from making more video game adaptations.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Pre-internet, network style TV had its merits.

This may make me seem really nostalgic or old man yelling at sky, but the preponderance of content, franchise bloat and streaming glut has made me miss the style of television from before HBO created the "prestige" show. When TV was its own thing- I think HBO with Oz and the Sopranos introduced the idea that TV is just long movies delivered in pieces.

Now, I love Oz and the Sopranos and plenty of "prestige" TV. And lord knows I don't miss commercials. But the need for commercials also created a certain rhythm to the story-telling that, at its best, was really nice. And it forced brevity in genre TV.
I mean, Star Trek, right?- the best episodes work because of how they fit a good idea, with a classic dramatic structure, with the rising beats and resolutions around commercials. And now with DVDs/streaming/etc, we skip the commercials so it's best of both worlds.

I am currently watching Kindred on FX, which adapts the classic Octavia Butler novel. I'll post a review of it on the other thread when I'm done but it is clearly dragging it out to make it multiple seasons. And it is seriously weakening it for me. It's like a big mess of CONTENT, and I'm so annoyed by feeling like I'm consuming CONTENT.

I got myself some Columbo, I'm gonna watch that. I never actually watched a whole one consciously but I keep seeing references and tributes and I like the character. I can re-watch the good episodes of Trek or Twilight Zone or Babylon 5, in part because of that old-school TV rhythm, in a way I wouldn't every re-watch Mad Men or Justified even though I love those shows.

Now I know and remember all the crap from back then, I'm not romanticizing it. Just saying that it had its merits.
 

Dalisclock

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The hot take itself:

My response:
I mean I have been liking the first two episodes so far, but let's not forget oh-so-many adaptations that fell hard. Resident Evil, Assassins Creed, Alone in Dark, Max Payne, BloodRayne, Hitman, Silent Hill, House of the Dead, etc
I forgot half of those existed. I just wait "Wait, there was an Assassins' Creed movie?" and then I remembered that there was and more importantly, why I forgot.

On a similar note, I literally fell asleep for half of the Max Payne movie and when I saw the part I missed later, realized I really hadn't missed anything.

And let's not forget, the Final Fantasy movie. It was a certainly a movie that exists. It was a very movie-like movie. You can watch it even.
 

BrawlMan

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I literally fell asleep for half of the Max Payne movie and when I saw the part I missed later, realized I really hadn't missed anything.
There are some Max Payne fans that see the movie in a better light, or like better in comparison to Max Payne 3. They're insane and in denial. I will take MP3 a million times over the shitty Mark Wahlberg movie. This fan film from 2003 is a better Max Payne movie than the official movie. I was about 14 when I saw the fan movie.

 

Dalisclock

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There are some Max Payne fans that see the movie in a better light, or like better in comparison to Max Payne 3. They're insane and in denial. I will take MP3 a million times over the shitty Mark Wahlberg movie. This fan film from 2003 is a better Max Payne movie than the official movie. I was about 14 when I saw the fan movie.

As someone who feels like MP3 is the least good of the 3 games(Gameplay is good but I really enjoyed the Noir atmosphere in the first two over the Brazil setting of the third), yeah, it's far better then the movie was.

All 3 games are playable on modern systems so why not just play those?
 

Gordon_4

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I forgot half of those existed. I just wait "Wait, there was an Assassins' Creed movie?" and then I remembered that there was and more importantly, why I forgot.

On a similar note, I literally fell asleep for half of the Max Payne movie and when I saw the part I missed later, realized I really hadn't missed anything.

And let's not forget, the Final Fantasy movie. It was a certainly a movie that exists. It was a very movie-like movie. You can watch it even.
You know, I’ll go into bat for The Spirits Within. It’s a good movie with an interesting premise and setting. I liked it a great deal even if I thought Squaresoft as they were back then were really high on their own supply if they thought they were going to make Aki Ross the first digital superstar.

But the movie itself, perfectly serviceable sci-fi.
 
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BrawlMan

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A lot of the popular video game/TV entertainment comedy/dark-comedy focused web comics from the 2000s and early 2010s I personally disliked or were indifferent about. It does not help that a lot of them (though not all) relied on characters being assholes or the creator(s) being shit heads themselves. I know some of those creators changed for the better and others that didn't. I am just glad the stylings of web comics have changed for the better, and more variety or are doing the humor without being dickheads about it. Bad content is always going to exist of course. Sturgeon's Law and all that, but it's just something that was on my mind.
 

LegoDnD

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The Young Pope begins with Jude Law as the title character dreaming that he crawls out from under a giant pile of uncanny-CGI naked babies. This symbolizes that either he enters this world of religious authority with much more youth than anyone else, or all the pedophilia that the Catholic Church is polluted with. Then when he finally speaks on the balcony to address the public for the first time, it's to tell this crowd full of Bible-thumpers with children in-tow that "We have forgotten how to" do all the things that Bible-thumpers don't like. If he kept it to masturbation, I might have shrugged it off; but no, he needs to include abortion with a big grin too. While priests ran to him from other rooms, I just turned off and will switch it out via full refund for anything else.
 

XsjadoBlaydette

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NowTV as a steaming service (UK version of HBO max) has always been the greediest of the streaming choices, but now am suspicious they may be fostering an audience of mouthbreathing amoebas when it comes to their film rating system. 1 star for In The Earth??? From acclaimed director Ben Wheatley?? Uncultured swines, the lot of 'em!
 
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Thaluikhain

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I liked Predator 2 the most (not seen Prey yet, though), because we've already got the slow burn of Predator, it can move quickly to the action. But Predators kept the spirit of the original in a very surprising way, I was expecting it to be as bad as The Predator turned out to be.
 

BrawlMan

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For an alien race that has an invisibility machine and makes a big fuss about sneaking around, Predators are really into dramatically posing at people.
They're cyber alien ninjas. The whole point of being a ninja is to outwit, scare, and confuse your enemies. Make it seem like you were never even there. I know the Predators are a different case of sorts, but it's still sort of counts when they're hunting. Plus, they are a warrior race.

 
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Gordon_4

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They're cyborg alien ninjas. The whole point of being a ninja is to outwit, scare, and confuse your enemies. Make it seem like you were never even there. I know the Predators are a different case of sorts, but it's still sort of counts when they're hunting. Plus, they are a warrior race.

Wait. When did the Predators become cyborgs?
 

BrawlMan

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Wait. When did the Predators become cyborgs?
I meant to say cyber, as they use technology and stuff. They don't have cybernetics parts integrated in their body, but they do use highly advanced technological weaponry Google speak messed it up again.