I don’t disagree that it was a very quippy movie, but I’m not sure it’s a bad thing? I feel like tables which have a consistent, dramatic tone throughout a campaign are much more the exception than the rule (and often populated by professional creatives). In my experience, most campaigns wind up being occasional islands of drama surrounded by a nonstop stream of attempts (of varying quality) to make each other laugh. Sometimes, you can even hold the drama. Idk, like I said, I understand why it would annoy you, given the wider movie landscape, but I also feel like it was authentic to an “average” game of a 5e DnD, and therefore it didn’t bother me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the more earnest takes on epic fantasy that have been set in the Forgotten Realms / DnD, but I also get that coming out treating DnD as Very Serious Business ™ was going to be a pretty tough sell.

You’re under no obligation to continue the discussion, sure, but it seems disingenuous to me to open a thread saying “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a bad movie because it fails to follow it’s own internal logic”. Then, upon having that assertion challenged, you jump to, “I’m not gonna argue about this.” Like, why comment at all if you’re not interested in discussing, and yes, maybe even defending, your take? Regardless, if that’s not what you’re here to do, have a good day.

I admit that I saw Sky Captain once, many many years ago, so I’m not going to be able to back this up with too many specific citations, but you’ve also not said specifically what rule they set up and fail to follow, so we’re even.

It’s a pastiche of pulp fiction concepts from the 30s-50s. Giant robots, airships, Nazi scientists, Shangri-La, dinosaurs, android assassins, the works. The whole thing is like a loving homage to Doc Savage’s greatest hits. I don’t see how any of that “breaks rules”.

Like I said, I won’t dispute your overall finding of the film being, “meh”. I watched it once 20 years ago and haven’t gone back since, so I’m not exactly leaping up to defend it’s execution, but I also think “the rules kept changing” is an empty critique, as it stands currently.

Not saying you’re wrong, but praising the giant robot attack on New York before swerving into critiquing the latter half of the movie for being ridiculous is a funny juxtaposition.

Until this very moment, I assumed that Steve Zahn was reprising his character from the first film (somehow). Turns out, that was Eric Stoltz, and I’m reconsidering the degree to which I suffer face blindedness.

Oh, that device from the classic “Don’t Build the Torment Nexus!” series of science fiction novels? Wow, I can’t believe the future is finally here.

Wandering through to mention that your local library almost certainly has a collection of cookbooks spanning decades, and, depending on your area, might even have stuff tied specifically to your region. Take the book, photocopy the recipes you’re interested in, return it, get to cooking!

There’s a passage in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy about that, if I remember right. Some alien species is grievously offended by something Earth does (unknowingly). They marshall their proudest battle fleet and commence an invasion of the planet. However, “due to a small miscalculation in scale, the entire fleet was swallowed by a passing small dog.”

I’m sure you don’t mean anything by it, but by the third one I feel compelled to say something.

James GunN Michael ROOker Nathan FilliOn

Pete Davidson you nailed, though.

I heard they’re made in the same factory, they just change the letterhead.

I can understand that, but, from my biased perspective, that take is either unsupported by what I wrote, or requires a remarkably uncharitable reading. I asked for help, he provided it, and suggested I could use ChatGPT in the future to answer questions like this. I confirmed he had found the correct answer and explicitly thanked him for having taken the time to do so. I did reject his suggestion that I should just prompt a chatbot in the future though. I attempted, clearly unsuccessfully, to couch that pushback by underscoring again (for the second time in as many sentences) my gratitude that he took the time at all, but I stand by my question: what is the purpose of this community if the top level response to most questions is, “you should try prompting ChatGPT. It’s like Google but with faster and better results.”

Despite his assertion that I’m a tech hating Luddite, I have no issue with AI output being cited in this forum. When I balked at being told I should use ChatGPT instead of posting here, he assumed I was rejecting AI altogether and decided to take his ball and go home.

Idk, maybe I’m just having a legitimately unpopular opinion here, but my read is that communities like this one exist, in spite of their gimmick being well suited for a chatbot question, specifically because people want to interact with other humans, not bots. So, I stand by my original point, suggesting an OP in this community should prompt a bot is missing the point: not because AI is bad, but because, if they wanted to avoid human interaction, they would have asked the bot already.

On the bright side, I’m reconsidering my hunger for human interaction and am coming around to the idea that maybe it isn’t worth the effort lol

I understand this is not everyone’s default assumption online, but, please, give me the benefit of the doubt that I am engaging with you in good faith.

I have no issue with you having used AI to find the result. Truthfully, I’m surprised that the AI was able to find it so easily where a regular Google search, even with search operators, kept returning wildly inaccurate results. What I commented on, couched by attempting to underline my gratitude first and foremost, was that this whole community is built around, “There’s this thing I vaguely remember, can anyone help me find it?”. As you say, yes, clearly AI is well suited to this task, given it found the item in question based on what I wrote in one go. So, almost every post in this community could have “I plugged your prompt into AI and it thinks this is what you’re looking for: […]”. What then, is the point of this community?

I am arguing that this is not the space to be evangelizing chat bots, not because they are an inappropriate tool for this task (or whatever other issues people might moralize about on here), but because to do so actively robs the community of further content, in the sense that the lesson it imparts is, “Don’t ask here, ask ChatGPT”.

Of course, I could be misapprehending your intent. If so, I’d like to know where I’ve gotten off track.

Here’s hoping, though I can’t imagine they’ll command the same budget nowadays, which makes me wonder if the style will need to change. After 15 minutes or so, I adjusted to the stylization of Alita’s appearance and it didn’t bother me, but I have to imagine ditching that touch could save a fair chunk of VFX change. Making every frame containing your main character a visual effect shot can’t be cheap.

This is the correct story. I appreciate you finding it. Google was not cooperating. That being said, and I do want to underline that I appreciate you having taken some time to search for it, the entire point of this community is to help one another find esoteric bits of media with a more personal touch than a search engine or an AI chatbot. Responding to any post here with “have you tried AI?” is sorta missing the point, even if you’re factually correct. It’s kinda the “Let Me Google That For You” of the new era.

Sorry man, I’m not knowledgeable enough about computers to provide a summary, but I’ll mention this fun tidbit: apparently, the shipped version of task manager contained thus guy’s home phone number in the code by accident. He commented it out, but left the phone number in there, which means he can find instances of the source code being hosted online by reverse searching his home phone. Which is still a number he maintains, and he asks people not to call. Which is a bold thing to leave in the video imo

In broad terms, sure, but we’re talking about the business of theatrical exhibition here, which over the past several years has had a real rough go of it. In some ways, this is because the industry is addicted to shooting itself in the kneecaps at ever opportunity, and in some ways because COVID accelerated the trend of people waiting for VOD rather than seeing something in the theater. So, a movie smashing box office records in today’s environment is still newsworthy.

No I hear you. I just think you’re letting your negative perception of that element of the game’s community weigh in a little too heavily on your analysis of the game. People being annoying by talking about the game like beating it is a badge of honor (spoiler alert guys, you’re meant to beat the game) and your assessment of the Souls-like gameplay loop are, at best, tangentially related.

No shade to you, by the way. How the culture receives and talks about media is as big a part of its legacy as any constituent element of the text, and it’s a worthy subject for criticism. It’s just that, in my opinion, criticism is sharpened when the author is very clear about when they cease to review the game/book/movie and when they start to review the phenomena around that media.

Fwiw, this subject has been on my mind since reading a review of the movie Eddington in which the author talked about the temptation to stop talking about the movie and start talking about the subjects the movie was touching upon. I have been making a concentrated effort to improve my critical writing this year, and that line resonated with me. So, this diatribe has been fermenting in my head for awhile now, and your post was my excuse to get it out. By no means do I mean to lecture you on how you should feel about Dark Souls or it’s fandom.

Depends on how reductive you’re being. To me, your initial assertion that Dark Souls isn’t difficult (or is not as difficult as an online game) because it’s ultimately just a test of your pattern recognition / memorization and reflexes is ignoring the forest for the trees. If I applied that same mindset to playing an instrument, I could argue that, mechanically, they’re the same. You learn a boss’ pattern (I.e. learn the sheet music) and then it’s just a matter of moving your fingers to hit the requisite inputs.

Of course, I think most people would balk at describing making music as nothing more than playing the right notes at the right time, and rightly so. We tend to attach a certain amount of ineffable poetry to that act. I’m not saying that they’re 1:1 equivalent, mind you, but I’ve heard enough folks discuss a Souls boss fight in musical terms (tempo, rhythm, crescendos, etc.) to see the parallel.

I’m sure, prepared correctly, it’s lovely, but liver and favs beans sounds like a Fancy Feast variety.