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SpyNavy wrote:

I'm all for a good action movie and more Michael B. Jordan, but the only thing these share with the Clancy material is the names. Call it something like Tom Clancy's Net Force or Jack Ryan Jr, even The Division, but the only thing this does is irk people who read the older books. I'll watch it and at least from the trailer I'll like it, but is Tom Clancy the name even a draw for anyone but old folks like me who cut their teeth on the original?

Ditto... that teaser trailer was sneaky too. I watched it and there was just enough there that it was following the book with some extra boom boom. The full one is just wrong for the book.

SpyNavy wrote:

I'm all for a good action movie and more Michael B. Jordan, but the only thing these share with the Clancy material is the names. Call it something like Tom Clancy's Net Force or Jack Ryan Jr, even The Division, but the only thing this does is irk people who read the older books. I'll watch it and at least from the trailer I'll like it, but is Tom Clancy the name even a draw for anyone but old folks like me who cut their teeth on the original?

Younger people probably only recognize the name from the game franchises.

I loved Clancy's stuff back in the day, especially the early stuff. I can't remember where I left off in reading though. I've thought about going back and trying some of the Jack Ryan Jr stuff.

Yeah, they should have named it something else, because the name combined with what I could garner about the story just confused and distracted me. Instead of saying "this could be cool" I said "I don't remember him threatening any government operatives in the book."

Also, the changes in the details of his tragic loss not only make it different than the book, they're

Spoiler:

actually a rip-off of a Mitch Rapp novel!

Anyway, the trailer looks fine taken on its own. I'll see it if it gets enough buzz; "toughest former soldier on Earth" stories are a bit dime a dozen, and right now I'd rather see the second Equalizer or Jack Reacher movies.

I just got caught up with Invincible. Never read the comic. What a weird show. I swear with every scene the writers roll a six-sided die to determine whether it will be:

1: A Kevin Smith / Seinfeldian conversation about nothing
2: A Silver Age Superman power fantasy
3: A Spider-Man superpowers-as-puberty metaphor
4: A Young Justice conspiracy thriller
5: A The Boys dark / gory deconstruction
6: Roll twice!

None of those tones / elements are ever as good as the thing they're obviously pulling inspiration from, and the acting, writing, and animation quality are all over the place. So I don't think it's precisely good, but as a weird remix of the various phases the superhero genre has gone through, I'm finding it entertaining.

Or butt hair.

KELLY CLARKSON!!!!!

I'm about four episode into Them and not liking it. I'm not sure if I'll go back to it. The show is about a black family that moves to Compton. The white people are trying to get them leave so lots of racism misery porn. There is supernatural stuff going on but I have no idea what it is. I really don't like shows where a ghost or something can do literally anything but for no reason at all they don't just straight kill people.

The show isn't bad I'm just sick of misery porn and hate stupid ghost with stupid powers that make no sense. I just watched The Nun which has the same problem. I was also let down before watching a episode because I thought it was going to be a series version of the movie with the same name.

misery porn?

maybe this review will explain it to you.

And here is another. Both are spoiler free.

That's funny, I was just watching a YouTube video by Barricade Garage about tuning out who he called "despair merchants".

Edit: DYAC!

I agree - I have a tough time watching that type of stuff and I'm a privileged white guy that never had it happen to me. I think it is important we have that time of history well documented so we don't repeat it, etc and of course if creators want it in there that is fine. I had to stop watching Lovecraft Country due to it even though the show had some great mystery themes and great acting.

(Again just want to note that it is a personal reaction for me - I get so disgusted that people had to deal/still deal with that type of behavior it affects my viewing experience )

The Dissident

Wow. Just. Wow. On so many levels.

Only rent or buy here in the southwest wastelands of North America.

Watched Episode 6 of Invincible, after having binged the first five last Friday.

I think I was having a rough day last Friday and was thankful to have something, ANYTHING to distract me from it and was inclined to be extra charitable. A week to clear my head has not been kind to my perception of this series. This episode doubles down on the boilerplate "teen superhero has trouble juggling superhero stuff with dating / college / mundane stuff" plotline, which is NOT the series' strong suit.

It's just so been-there-done-that. It has nothing new or interesting to add to ground that's been trodden absolutely flat and barren by decades of similar stories. And it gives more screen time to a gay best friend character who is the gayest, bestest, friendliest character in the history of gay best friend characters. He has no personality other than being the main character's best friend and wanting to bang dudes. He has no arc. He's just a big nothing.

I dunno. With only two episodes to go I'll probably slog my way through to the end of the season just to see if they do anything interesting with the main murder mystery plotline, but the way they've been dragging that out and treading and retreading the same "everyone knows whodunnit but nobody knows why and he's so powerful that everyone needs to pretend they don't know hedunnit" ground, I'm not optimistic.

I haven't watched any Invincible, but I read like 80 issues of it years ago. It definitely wears its influences on its sleeve, and it's probably even fair to say that it's derivative of other works - notably Spider-Man, Superman, and Green Lantern. But I still found it worthwhile and entertaining for a long time. I've given a little thought to a re-read and finishing the series, since it's over now.

The gay best friend didn’t have a ton of personality in the comics but he was way less of a stereotype than the show has relegated him to. Most of the show is really faithful to the comics but there a lot of small, inconsequential changes and most them just don’t make sense. Changing Science Dog to Seance Dog is another, it’s such a small background change that won’t really matter to the overall series but... why?

I’m not completely thrilled with the show but it’s fine. I suspect I know how the rest of the season is going to play out and I urge anyone on the fence to tough it out until the finale if you’ve already come this far.

I enjoyed the ep.

I was confused about Seance Dog, too. I assume it's either a)trademark or similar legal issues and/or b)maybe at some point they will establish that the comics version is an alternate universe to the animated version and Seance Dog vs Science Dog is like seeing a Revenge of the Jedi marquee in Bioshock Infinite. I'd assume the former is much more likely but could see them also doing something like the latter as kind of a throwaway gag or minor side plot.

A little Google-Fu turns up a quote from Kirkman about the Science Dog -> Seance Dog change:

Robert Kirkman wrote:

[...] the nuts and bolts answer is that Science Dog is a separate comic book that Cory Walker and I created that just happened to appear [in Invincible]. It’s possible that we may do a movie or TV show or something at some point. Instead of putting that down in our deal with Amazon, on Invincible, we decided to strip it out and put in something new so that we would have the ability to do that.

After a few heavy hitting viewings, and readings, and ruminations, of our fractured reality, I have swerved to escapism in fiction. The sci-fi flavour, with (Gene Roddenberry's) Andromeda, which I remember rather fondly from way back when, in 2000/2001!

Random thoughts.

I'm not sure I ever made it past the second season. Television schedules. Life. I lost track as much as I endeavoured not to.

I own three of five box set binders that piece together a season. The first in this instance. I am missing an A1 and an A5, the respective bookends. They were not easy to locate back in what was still a predominantly bricks and mortar era. They were also individually expensive, and collectively eye watering. I recall £25 to £40, ballpark, per each 4 to 5 episode binder (which was two jewel cases). Streaming services and single purchase complete sets make this look all the more ludicrous now.

I remember friends getting dreamy eyed over Keith Hamilton Cobb, or Lexa Doig, per persuasion. When finding someone attractive wasn't a punishable offence. Unreal! I know.

Watching back now I can see potential influences for Mass Effect, and FTL!

Amazon inexplicably has the episodes out of order. I had to locate a guide and look up a missing episode.

I also see Farscape is present and available with Prime. I'd forgotten about that one.

I finally got around to seeing Shazam! which was both fun, and wholesome. The silly wasn't as front and centre as select previews had alluded. Rather, it was sprinkled to maintain a balance. Not too grim. Not too dark. Not too serious. I also dug each of the Shazam! family. Good casting there. The hues on film echoed the vibrancy found in the recent comics as well. Overall, a worthy watch. Better than I had expected. I'm down for a follow-up.

Accidentally posted this in the Netflix thread. Re-posting here because it’s free on Prime video.

No idea if it’s been mentioned, and I totally missed it in theaters, but Seven Psychopaths is frikkin’ brilliant. Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, some Tom Waits, and Sam Rockwell in literally the most chaotic role I’ve ever seen him in. It was pure delight, for me.

I absolutely loved Seven Psychopaths, I fully endorse the above post.

I enjoyed Seven Psychopaths. I did not realize it was made in 2012 initially.

Damn, wish I'd seen that recco before now! I was laying around all day today after getting my 2nd Pfizer yesterday. Ended up finally watching Dredd on Prime and the White Boy Rick documentary on Netflix.

Watched One Night in Miami and liked it a lot. The guys playing Ali and Malcom X were especially good.

One Night in Miami was excellent

Invincible gets 7/10 for effort but a 5/10 for over all quality from me. It was a mess of not terribly original ideas married with Kevin Smith lite dialog in a lot of places and a smorgasbord of characters, some a lot better developed than others and some good voice acting alongside some very questionable voice acting. Still you can’t go wrong with J K Simmons.

I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy it though. There’s a good show in there somewhere.

Just watched Invincible and loved it. Watched it in two sittings. I wasn't really in a hurry to watch it since I read the comic and thought it would be mostly the same. The big beats are the same so far. The show is basically a streamline version of the comic with a few minor changes. I think if you like the show you will also like the comic and they are different enough to make it worth wild to read watch both.

A change they made in the show was to add more diversity. The comic is pretty diverse already but now there are female soldiers, pilots and other background characters. They also get murdered just as much as the dudes and just as violently.

I was hoping we would get more backstory on some of the minor characters but they copy the comic in only focusing on Invincible and a few people in his orbit. There are a mega ton of characters I would like to know more about but most we will never learn anything about.

One of my favorite things about the show is how the title card comes up as part of a statement in every episode, makes me smile each time they do it. Also love the voice cast which must be a huge part of the budget. The art and music was a blast also. The scene when someone accidently goes to the bug dimension and its all in that red hue, nice.

I didn't like everything. The gay friend was more of stereotype which happens a lot when there is a gay character in a animated show. They character was much better in the comic. I was also hoping Amber and Eve might get together. I guess they could still go there but probably not,

JK Simmons, Steven Yeun, and Sandra Oh were killing it in that last episode. No pun intended, just great voice acting.