Quote from: Omega on September 23, 2024, 04:33:20 AMWell the Minecraft movie teaser's been out a but and people are still flipping out over it.

Is anyone expecting anything from a Minecraft movie? Is Pong next? I look forward to Tic Tac Toe Rises.

Quote from: yosemitemike on September 18, 2024, 02:56:55 AM

Quote from: Bedrockbrendan on September 17, 2024, 10:26:43 PMI remember doing a marathon of those movies on VHS in high school. I believe at a certain point they start re-using footage from previous movies to pad out the scenes

They started with the second one.

That sounds about right lol. I don't remember them that well, but recall the second one being entertaining but a lot times for unintended reasons

Quote from: Wrath of God on September 19, 2024, 04:07:08 AM(Rationalism and empiricism) came very much from Greeks and Greek philosophy. ...OF course ... if you take Greek myths vs Greek philosophical ideas, you can kinda imagine putting them in conflict as very opposed things.

Sure, but in this universe the logical conclusion would be that the mythology would clearly have won out in that struggle, by virtue of the gods being actually real.

And even Greek rationalism and empiricism never presumed to do more than answer temporary local questions, and was only practiced by individual thinkers; Ancient Greece may have sowed the seeds of science, but to come to full flower, the philosophy of science as we know it today required culture-wide assumptions about the laws of nature as eternal and universal, the phenomena of independent secondary causation, and the value of collective research and knowledge-sharing that no other culture but the Christian West possessed. (See this article from SF writer Michael Flynn for more.)

Of course, one can always answer it by saying that perhaps some of the gods (Apollo, Prometheus or Hephaestus) gave the Greeks this knowledge directly, and they used it to rule the rest of the world ... but then one has to admit the gods have actually done a whole host of amazing things for humanity, which this writer clearly doesn't want to say.

QuoteHave you thought the satire here is less pointed into Church but more into modern billionaires and their sometimes cult following. Something about it sounds more like gods are those filthy rich people, who exploit working masses of world for (their) own gain, while common men are lied (to that) they can (gain a) rich Elysian state...?

That's another way to read it, sure; satires can be aimed at multiple targets at once. But whether the creator's using an exaggerated caricature of religion as a way to ridicule billionaires, or billionaire celebrities as a way to ridicule religion, either way, she's treating something crucial to the lives of billions of people as a joke not worth respecting, and something humans are better off without. (From episode 7, Caeneus to Eurydice: "Tell (people) to live! Tell them to really live, for once! Not for the gods, for themselves! We have one life. You have to tell them to make it count. ...Just ... tell them that all the best things are human." I don't really see another way to read that.)

Quote from: Ratman_tf on October 04, 2024, 10:02:17 PM

Quote from: Omega on September 23, 2024, 04:33:20 AMWell the Minecraft movie teaser's been out a but and people are still flipping out over it.

Is anyone expecting anything from a Minecraft movie? Is Pong next? I look forward to Tic Tac Toe Rises.

I figured they would go the "people visit the Minecraaft world and stuff happens" route.
I did not expect them to just copy elements from Jumanji. The big one being Steve has been there a long time.

As for what was expected. Honestly just a "explore the weirdness of the world and survive." sort of plot which is pretty much the start of any minecraft play.

But for some reason they instead adopted the plot from the Minecraft tactics game that doesnt even exist anymore. Fending off piglins who do not like people building stuff or somesuch.

Did they really need conflict that badly and could not just work with the existing threats of zombies, skeletons and so on?

Since I am not super attached to MC. Aside from the questionable plot choices. It looks about as expected. A little more and a little less blockier.

Quote from: Omega on October 06, 2024, 06:23:53 AMI did not expect them to just copy elements from Jumanji. The big one being Steve has been there a long time.

And the fact that Jack Black was in the Jumanji movie as well. He's really been in way to much stuff lately, such as ruining Claptrap in the Borderlands movie.

My kids have no interest in the movie and said they would have preferred if they had just made the entire movie in CGI instead of trying to make is live action.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on October 06, 2024, 12:02:01 PMMy kids have no interest in the movie and said they would have preferred if they had just made the entire movie in CGI instead of trying to make is live action.

It would have been amusing as hell (and probably more entertaining) for the film to just be a big budget version of watching a player play the game.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on October 06, 2024, 03:13:40 PMIt would have been amusing as hell (and probably more entertaining) for the film to just be a big budget version of watching a player play the game.

Over the years, I've seen hundreds (it feels like) of "Minecraft Lore" videos, like why do the players look different from the villagers, why do the zombies look like the players, where do the evil villagers come from, etc, etc, etc.

I think they could have made a more true-to-lore Minecraft movie similar to how they did with Five Nights at Freddys.

On the anime front, there is a Terminator anime on Netflix called Terminator Zero. Despite being animated by Production I.G., it's pretty mid. The story is basically a side story telling a parallel version of the first movie. In 1997 Tokyo, a Miles Dyson analog, Malcolm Lee, is frenetically trying to complete his AI named Kokoro, in the hours before Judgement Day happens. Meanwhile, his annoying kids run away from home and stumble across some kind of literal robot carnival lying dormant deep underground. And of course, there is a terminator sent to kill Malcolm, and a freedom fighter from the dark future sent to stop it.

The first problem is that this is basically the first movie, but watered down with unnecessary subplots.

The second problem is that there is basically only one Terminator story I really want to see at this point: the one where John Connor finally takes the fight to Skynet and does all the brilliant Napoleonic leader stuff we were promised. This is not that story.

There is also a curious remake of Ranma 1/2, which is almost identical to the original, except that the nudity is somewhat more censored. I'm not sure I see the point. Maybe they will actually write an ending for this one?

Quote from: Lurkndog on October 06, 2024, 08:32:18 PMThere is also a curious remake of Ranma 1/2, which is almost identical to the original, except that the nudity is somewhat more censored. I'm not sure I see the point. Maybe they will actually write an ending for this one?

Ok, I had not heard of that. Ranma is one of those things I thought for sure would get memory-holed. It's pure 90s sex-comedy and the premise is essentially impossible to wokify. On the basis of some quick googling, it looks like the remake is still a Japanese production, so maybe it's less in the "woke remake" category and more of a pure nostalgia cash-grab. Still, if you cut out the pervy stuff you're going to lose like half the jokes.

QuoteSure, but in this universe the logical conclusion would be that the mythology would clearly have won out in that struggle, by virtue of the gods being actually real.

Yeah well if gods are actually real, then evidence for this will push Greek philosophers to include them in their philosophical models. Plenty models assumed some gods so I don't think it would be much fuzz.

QuoteAnd even Greek rationalism and empiricism never presumed to do more than answer temporary local questions, and was only practiced by individual thinkers; Ancient Greece may have sowed the seeds of science, but to come to full flower, the philosophy of science as we know it today required culture-wide assumptions about the laws of nature as eternal and universal, the phenomena of independent secondary causation, and the value of collective research and knowledge-sharing that no other culture but the Christian West possessed. (See this article from SF writer Michael Flynn for more.)

Belief in eternal and universal laws of nature is quite common (and if anything Christianity was not believing it - as you have different pre-Fall laws, and ante-Fall, and different world post second-coming, so in Christian worldview current state of Universe is much more temporarily nuissance than for Greeks or Hindu many of which believed in infinite cyclical timeloops.

But you mentioned actual think that gived Christian culture edge, it was not believe in laws of universe, or rationalism or empiricism - all that ideas were practiced elswhere as well, and till very modern times everywhere by small elites.

Organised academia systems that arose from theology and law schools and expanded, with relative freedom of work granted by guild organisation - that was gamechanger. Thanks to strict religious underpinning all universities followed simmilar system, exchanged teachers between them in unprecedented manner.
Also they were not just bound to religious or philosophical circle, but was producing specialists state needed - lawyers, theologicans, physicians... and so it went from it to stars.

QuoteOf course, one can always answer it by saying that perhaps some of the gods (Apollo, Prometheus or Hephaestus) gave the Greeks this knowledge directly, and they used it to rule the rest of the world ... but then one has to admit the gods have actually done a whole host of amazing things for humanity, which this writer clearly doesn't want to say.

Greeks discovered them on their own, gods just exploited them later

Quote(From episode 7, Caeneus to Eurydice: "Tell (people) to live! Tell them to really live, for once! Not for the gods, for themselves! We have one life. You have to tell them to make it count. ...Just ... tell them that all the best things are human." I don't really see another way to read that.)

On hand that sucks, on the other I have weird feeling REH would support it.

Quote from: Lurkndog on October 06, 2024, 08:32:18 PMOn the anime front, there is a Terminator anime on Netflix called Terminator Zero. Despite being animated by Production I.G., it's pretty mid. The story is basically a side story telling a parallel version of the first movie. In 1997 Tokyo, a Miles Dyson analog, Malcolm Lee, is frenetically trying to complete his AI named Kokoro, in the hours before Judgement Day happens. Meanwhile, his annoying kids run away from home and stumble across some kind of literal robot carnival lying dormant deep underground. And of course, there is a terminator sent to kill Malcolm, and a freedom fighter from the dark future sent to stop it.

Mid is being polite.

I say too much fucking jibber-jabber for a Terminator show. Did not enjoy the philosophy debate.

Quote from: Lurkndog on October 06, 2024, 08:32:18 PMThere is also a curious remake of Ranma 1/2, which is almost identical to the original, except that the nudity is somewhat more censored. I'm not sure I see the point. Maybe they will actually write an ending for this one?

I have only watched one episode buy they mainly seem to be updating the art and animation.  The art and animation in the original are pretty crude and dated looking now.

Came across an odd one have apparently missed as it never aired that I am aware of locally when was a kid.

The Vampire's Ghost from 1945 With John Abbot as a rather non-standard vampire. More unusual is that it is set in Africa. This vampire can survive sunlight at least briefly and has a potent hypnotic power. Also the conditions for his destruction and revival are a bit different.

Really slow paced. But an interesting divergence from the norm for a vampire movie.

Quote from: ForgottenF on October 07, 2024, 09:29:20 AM

Quote from: Lurkndog on October 06, 2024, 08:32:18 PMThere is also a curious remake of Ranma 1/2, which is almost identical to the original, except that the nudity is somewhat more censored. I'm not sure I see the point. Maybe they will actually write an ending for this one?

Ok, I had not heard of that. Ranma is one of those things I thought for sure would get memory-holed. It's pure 90s sex-comedy and the premise is essentially impossible to wokify. On the basis of some quick googling, it looks like the remake is still a Japanese production, so maybe it's less in the "woke remake" category and more of a pure nostalgia cash-grab. Still, if you cut out the pervy stuff you're going to lose like half the jokes.

It's for the transes!

Quote from: GeekyBugle on October 09, 2024, 01:13:23 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on October 07, 2024, 09:29:20 AM

Quote from: Lurkndog on October 06, 2024, 08:32:18 PMThere is also a curious remake of Ranma 1/2, which is almost identical to the original, except that the nudity is somewhat more censored. I'm not sure I see the point. Maybe they will actually write an ending for this one?

Ok, I had not heard of that. Ranma is one of those things I thought for sure would get memory-holed. It's pure 90s sex-comedy and the premise is essentially impossible to wokify. On the basis of some quick googling, it looks like the remake is still a Japanese production, so maybe it's less in the "woke remake" category and more of a pure nostalgia cash-grab. Still, if you cut out the pervy stuff you're going to lose like half the jokes.

It's for the transes!

The thing about that is that all the gender-bending humor in Ranma is fundamentally bio-essentialist. The main character getting forcibly turned into a girl every time he gets cold water splashed on him isn't a hilarious mishap if you think gender is a social construct, and all the supporting cast are doing hate-crimes by only being in love with the male or female version of the character. The contemporary trans movement would fucking HATE Ranma 1/2 if they watched it and paid any attention at all.