Brett

3 hours ago, Metropolis said:

This has been the point for a while. It was that way in the EU/Legends and in this new timeline. The easiest way to think about it is if there was a strong Republic there wouldn't be much Star Warsing going on. 

It doesn't need to be a strong New Republic, it just needs to be strong leadership. Why has the NR in this show already resorted back to a panel of Senators making mundane military decisions? The NR would still be a largely military-lead/military-hierarchy organization in the years following ROTJ.

Errr, yeah, I was kind of shocked to see the rotten tomatoes rating. Not that it matters. The human villain was boring as hell. AI as the main threat is goofy. The interplay of gadgetry and heist planning felt non-existent or really under-thought. The movie felt oddly small stakes and low budget for being a world-ending scenario. However, my standards are so low for summer blockbusters now that I just (at the bare minimum) deeply appreciate that nothing looked like CG/cartoony crap in it. And the ending (the whole setpiece is ****ing fantastic and worth a matinee ticket) was just a train going off a cliff and not a whole city block getting sucked into a blue laser. Yyyep.

Oh, and also because I'm not particularly invested in the overall plot developments, and mostly can't remember, when did Kitridge come back? The last one? I vaguely remember him in one of the last two, but when the meeting scene happened at the beginning of this I was like "didn't he die in the first one, the hell?"

Also also: can we stop with the whispy, silent, lady assassin thing, please? I DID like the woman in this okay, but it's getting tiresome.

Is the mcguffin going to be a CG face replacement device that will allow Harrison Ford's likeness to keep playing Indiana Jones for the next thousand years? 

I really enjoyed it. It felt like the people making it all wanted to be involved and had a lot of fun... which is about the highest praise I can give a movie these days. 

Here's an idea: they should just declare Roman and the Bloodline 'Super Eternal Champions 4 Lyfe', give them token matches every PPV to affirm said status, and then come up with a new belt so that we can go back to having something resembling a title chase. 
 

I always put Samara Weaving in a sub-category of Emma Stone clones. Youngish blonde/redheaded actresses with enormous eyes.

Glenn Close and Meryl Streep. William Hurt and Jeff Bridges.  Oh, and James Cromwell and Bill Nighy for some reason.

Keaton returning as Batman is the only fan service I'll bite on anymore... so, of course I'm seein' it. That being said, it's weird seeing Burton's Batman doing anything remotely acrobatic. He was basically Robocop in those movies.

I don't know if it's just me but it really feels like heel ringside interference has gotten almost farcical lately. It's reaching surprise roll-up levels of overuse.

1 hour ago, Darth Krawlie said:

The reason is Vince, and he’s gone now.

Yeah, I don't know enough to say for sure but my theory is that Vince got too attached to his personal vision of wrestling which was heavily caricature based. So when someone is just on point with a persona, regardless of how "broad" or generic it may seem, he would poo poo it. But, I mean, the counter to that would be Stone Cold, right? There were times when Vince just let wrestlers follow their whims, I think.

Yeah, I'm not particularly interested in Bray as a wrestler but WWE has been sorely missing a horror character. So, for that alone I'm glad he's back. And his comeback speech on Smackdown was really sweet. It seems like he's been through a lot. I know it's a TV show but it's nice that WWE seems to be letting wrestlers just be people every once in a while.

And thank freaking god, they've let Shaun Riker go back to being LA Knight. I'd like to know what the reasoning is for some wrestlers having to do stupid character changes when they come up from NXT. All I can think of is that maybe it's a way of creating the illusion of getting good really quick (when they change back to a better persona)? A cheap way of generating hype? Dunno. I'm just not sure who thought his fashion mogul persona was more interesting than LA Knight. They need to push him hard. Said it before but the dude knows how to play a crowd better than just about anyone at this point.

Smackdown in particular is starting to feel more and more like NXT black and gold. And yeah, RAW basically has all of The Way minus Indi Hartwell. I guess the whole main roster is benefiting from that great crop.

I like the Rey Mysterio to Smackdown move. I'd love to see a rivalry with Santos Escobar... although this doesn't bode well for Dominic. Kinda feels like a sink or swim time for him now. If I had one piece of advice it would be to get an acting coach to help him not look like he's about to start laughing all the time. I honestly think that's just a byproduct of having grown up in a happy, affluent household. I don't think he's ever really had to have a chip on his shoulder about anything.

Sorry for the novels, I watch wrestling in marathon blocks and just dump my thoughts here.

I'd love to know the behind the scenes of the last few months. Raw's quality has jumped up dramatically. Was Vince McMahon really that much of a boat anchor? Geez. Either way, Triple H is killin' it. Were all of these re-hires actually let go in the first place or was it just misreported and they were taking time off before being implemented on the main roster?
Random thoughts from the last month or two:
Asuka and Io on the same show and in rival groups? There might be a god...and his name is Paul.
Ciampa and Miz is a weird pairing, but I think it's kinda starting to work. Ciampa lends Miz some badass cred and Miz lends Ciampa some 'pizzazz'.
Dexter Loomis... thank you jeebus. It would have been a waste to let him go. And I think he'll be a great rivalry for the Miz if they go in that direction.
Braun... hell yes, I wasn't expecting that at all because the last thing I read was that he had already started his own promo or something???
Soooo happy to see Johnny Gargano back. Love that they immediately had him butt heads with Austin Theory AND really glad that WWE is now acknowledging past story lines and NXT story lines etc. They're usually really bad about just dropping former associations into the void.
Does Rhea Ripley ever actually wrestle anymore? I watch the edited Hulu version of Raw, so it's possible I'm just missing it.

I don't really have an opinion on it, I just find it interesting that Raquel Rodriquez's tag team are champs now. I think it's a way to put her in a corner for a while so that it doesn't beg the question of why she isn't just immediately breaking everyone in the women's division in half. I'd like to see a rematch with her and Rhea, who feels like her only plausible opponent.
Kevin Owens is really kickin ass lately, although I get a chuckle out of his claim that he deserves another title shot "because the Usos and Heyman interfered". No shit. That's like 3/4th of Roman's title bouts.

I'm going to try to keep my saltiness to a minimum here, but they really need to start wrapping up this Bloodline shit. Now we have Solo Sikoa. Exciting. I swear to god if they're just doubling down on this storyline...
They need to do with him what they should have done when Jimmy Uso came back: sowing the seeds of fracture and demise.
With precious few exceptions most of Roman's title defenses are placeholder exhibition matches. It's just a running joke at his point. Here's what I want: one of the faces actually freakin' hires some backup when they enter a title match. Have the Usos do their usual shenanigans and then like four wrestlers pop out of the stands to kick their asses. I know it's a super common wrestling trope but NOT bringing backup to a match with the Bloodline at this point just makes the faces look like complete morons. It's a double whammy of stupid: cop-out interference matches that the faces deserve to lose for not having anything resembling long-term memory.

Yeah, good for Karrion Kross. I don't particularly enjoy his work but he deserved wayyyy better than that first introduction... and this time, smartly, with Scarlet.
But, again (I know I'm a broken record) the Roman title run is getting so stale they're already queuing up the next feud before Drew is even done. It's just a revolving door. They should have had another wrestler standing behind Kross.
They've GOT to figure out some kind of shakeup.

fuck yeeeeeeeeees. Io! Finally! Although I still don't get the weird name changes, especially with her who's so well known and doesn't use any part of her real name. Are they seriously keeping all three of them (Dakota, Io and Bayley) on RAW? Because that feels like really stacking the women's roster over there. I'm absolutely cool with it if it means a potential Io/Asuka dream match... in which I will rapturously ascend to the heavens before even getting to watch it.

In other news: oh, good, Lesnar gets buried by Reigns again. Oh, look, Drew is next in line to get buried by Reigns. Oh, look, the Usos are probably going wrestle the Street Profits and again. Yay.

Haven't watched Smackdown in a while, good to see Shaun Riker finally on the main roster. Although his new name sucks and it seems like they're gonna use him as a gimmick character.

It's also weird seeing Pete Dunne as a lackey now. And "Butch"? Really?

Same with Gunter, Walter was such a great name. It made me think "this guy's so badass he doesn't need any flair whatsoever." Oh well, I hope they don't get buried.

Watched it last night. I will say this show looks a hell of a lot better than Mando and especially Fett. Not sure if they pumped more money or talent into the production design, but good job.
That being said, this feels like an issue of Dark Horse's Star Wars Infinities. I didn't need to see kid Leia... or a disgruntled Obi-Wan. He still seemed pretty ****ing professional at the end of ROTS. I know he wasn't currently living in the ****hole that is Tatooine, but he also didn't seem bitter or disgruntled in ANH either. I just figured he was an aristocratic retiree in hiding on a planet with little-to-no Imperial presence. The more gaps they try the fill in, the more diluted the original material becomes.

And the trend of Star Wars killing off cool villains continues! The main inquisitor dude was interesting.

You know they're just gonna use some kind of Jedi/Men in Black mind wipe as a get out of jail free card to go on whatever retconning adventures they choose at this point. 

That being said, it's the most okay Disney SW show for me so far. 

I didn't realize Kushida's contract had expired. Damn.

Wow. Great. Lots of the great news. It's like WWE is personally escorting fans over to AEW. 
With Lumis it just always felt to me that no one was really ever interested in doing anything with the character. Since I started watching a few years ago I think his only storyline has been marrying Indie Hartwell... or at least that's all I can recall. 
Dakota Kai seems like she got caught in 'popular but not a sure-fire bet for main roster so let's just cut her' limbo. Ugh. And yeah, Malcolm Bivens is great. Another stupid one. But I think WWE has been slowly phasing out ring managers or just non-wrestling, on-camera personnel over the years... less people to pay. 

On 4/2/2022 at 2:34 PM, Darth Krawlie said:

GIgi and Jacey are nowhere near main roster ready anyway.

Ciampa, Knight, and Bron all moving up I think.

I'm still a couple weeks behind (and I kinda skimmed through his in-ring monologue) but I got the impression Ciampa was probably retiring. I hope he gets some main roster time.
Bron, dude is just great, but I agree with Metropolis that he's a still a little green.
Knight, I reallllly hope gets called up. I think he has the potential to catch fire. He's just got that classic, effortless, swaggy ego. It's been nice to see the audiences at NXT finally on his side after those first few months of crickets.

Good... really f'n good. It has a lot of problems, yes, but it's: visually gorgeous and tonally consistent from beginning to (almost) end, doesn't have any shitty attempts at comic relief, doesn't show his parents getting shot again, and it's the first superhero movie in a really long time that actually made me feel something other than the ennui of spectacle or the occasional chuckle. This rides the line perfectly between street level crime "realism" and straight-from-the-comics. It's "dark", violent and brutal but still more or less feels like the Arkham games smooshed together with Noir and serial killer stories. When this movie is firing on all cylinders, which I'd say is about thirty percent of the runtime, it really is something special, bordering on classic.
And Gotham mostly feels like Gotham. That made me so happy. All it was missing were the blimps, gargoyles and giant art deco faces.  

I don't know if it would be a spoiler but what's-his-name is really good as the Riddler. It was cool to finally get a well rounded version of the character on screen. Penguin was great too. Outside of Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow he feels like the most straight-from-the-comics Batman villian we've had live action.
Zoey Kravitz did good job as well, she felt very natural and effortless while still doing Selina's balancing act between flirty sex-kitten and pragmatic/cynic. It didn't feel like she was insane, hamming it up, or making too much of a leap from one part of her psyche to another. 

I think the only consistent problem I had (outside of the general structure of the final third) was that I kept humming the Imperial March to Batman's theme. I did enjoy most of the score but that specifically felt oddly minimal. 
Minor gripes: of course, you-know-who making an appearance. They just can't help themselves. Please, for the love of god, keep him in Arkham for a few more years.
And the lack of title sequence/credits. I hate this trend. I will admit that it almost works here, because it feels like you're being plopped blindfolded into this murky hellscape, but I don't think their exclusion is ever really warranted. Or, I should clarify, that it no longer feels like a stylistic choice but just a general trend that's spawned from the (skip intro>) button. 
 

I just saw that William Regal is officially out. We all knew it was coming, but it still sucks. The dude was so good. 

It would have been nice if he had had a proper sendoff from the show. I know he essentially gave a live resignation speech where it was clear he was done, but they still kinda carried on with that botched storyline of Samoa Joe being his enforcer until all that petered out.

I don't think NXT will ever get to those heights again: where it, for a time, was rivaling the main shows quality and talent-wise. Quite the feat.

They should have done the whole "getting to know you" portion of the show with the Sarlaac pit instead of the Tuskens. He lives there for a few years, starts a family, leaves for cigarettes and never comes back. And then an aggrieved Sarlaac comes looking for revenge in the final episode.

Watched episode 3: I didn't know Star Wars had any wtf moments left in it... or at least not any it could elicit from me... but that biker gang... and that chase. It's all so sloppy I almost kind of feel bad for Favreau and Rodriguez.

Also, what's the deal with the lack of blasters in this? Why was evil Chewbacca's plan to choke Boba to death when he could just shoot him while he was sleeping? Why didn't the Mortal Kombat ninjas just shoot Boba from the rooftops? Sniper rifles are canon in SW, correct? It just seems like very convoluted attempts at forcing hand to hand combat in a universe where everyone is packing heat.

I guess it's in line with Jango in the prequels, but OT Fett (I think it's safe to assume) was a cut-throat, hard-nails, opportunist... and mostly a lackey.

I know a lot of people wanted him to be The Man With No Name, but I never really got that. I never pictured Fett as having any sentimentality, code of honor, or having a heart under a gruff exterior. He would have Anakin'ed the sand people and split... especially when Star Wars '77 set them up as disposable set-dressing. I think they're leaning just a liiiiittle too hard into the Westerns influence with this. Whatever.

Also, it's always weird to me watching the concept art in the end credits of this and Mando. They look so much more interesting and Star Wars-y. Not sure why other than maybe the shows having generally flat lighting, or the visual quality being too crisp. I understand there are budget and time restraints but all it makes me think is that I wanna see THAT show.

WWE is really grinding my interest into a fine paste. It's theoretically possible they could have some sort of interesting scenario lined up for Big E to get back on top, but for me this just feels like the continued ripple effect of booking around the same handful of wrestlers, specifically Reigns. They had to give Lesnar something since he was sticking around, so, sorry Big E... hand it over.
I need to get TNT.
 

Wellll, uh, this exists. Neil Patrick Harris was good. I think it's better than 3. That's about it. Mostly it felt like a bait and switch where the first thirty minutes is playing with expectations and asking interesting questions, but then just turns into a soft reboot. Neo even says the line "it feels like nothing we did mattered" and then does nothing with that obvious question. As if simply drawing attention to the mechanics of irrelevant remakes is somehow clever or gives it a free pass to continue down that same road.

I guess as far as soft reboots go, it was competent, but overall pointless. Which is exactly what I suspected.