Mawd

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Posts posted by Mawd

  1. Posted

    I've mellowed out on it, mostly because I haven't seen it since but I really, really disliked Daybreakers which was another weird vampire movie with mostly corporate overtones.

     

    I watched it in a really fun way! My highschool mediastudies class co-ordinated with three other highschools and we all went and saw the movie at the office of the chief censor, we watched the movie in their HQ theatre, talked about the context of judging media for content ratings, then tried to rate the film as a group. For some reason I just really capital H hated it but everyone else thought it was awesome.

     

    Might actually have to go back to that one some time.

     

    Anyway for a proper one is basically every marvel movie, it's not just over-exposure they're all pretty forgettable for me now. Maybe the first Iron Man, the Captain America movies, and Thor Ragnarock really stick out. Everything else is warm toast. Something I eat sometimes and forget about.

  4. Posted

    I played BI in a stoned haze when it came out and it was kind of the perfect game for that as it just led you by the nose everywhere. That said I still resented it for that. I remember rolling my eyes at the story and having some bigger problems with it (which we've all heard before). I felt really disappointed at the cut enemies and the loot ratting felt really tedious.

    Umm I also really disliked that the better weapons and enemies by the end were just.. red? They didn't seem to do much new, you saw more uncle sam robots but.. eh?

    I played it and felt very tired at the multiverse thing, it made the mistake a lot of interesting b movie sci fi does where it picks a point to remove every layer of mystery for a heavy handed explanation along with a "now This is where you Feel" moment.

    I don't think I felt like I ever really played a combat differently after a point, just a constant cycle of rinse and repeat that felt unfun.

    A few modern shooters I call amazing also have that problem in parts but they usually make up for it elsewhere.

  6. Posted

    Infinity War (this is just what I said in slack)

     

    Spoiler

    It was all right for a marvel film 6/10
    Ok well going a tiny bit deeper what worked for me was Gammorah's arc and Thanos although I was thrown out in the scene he sacrificed her. Idk something in me feels opposed to the idea that just because someone matters to you means they can be your sacrifice, it needs to be a little reciprocal. Maybe if they built it up a little more, her being more conflicted with Thanos could have helped abate that feeling. As it was the plot called for [emotional moment] and she was just kind of there and then the screen focuses on Thanos' reaction to it all when frankly I'd sooner sympathise with a rock.
    The action was hard to track, at least nothing really felt that meaningful, when the superheroes fought the generic baddies they didn't really feel like superheroes they felt like brawlers, it would have been nice to follow the wananda soldiers more since at least their costumes are pretty.
    Warmachine carpet bombing things didn't feel too enjoyable, it felt a little Too RealTM
    When and where each character was, while being largely explained didn't really matter too much for the plot, I liked that they kept a tiny bit of Thor's humour from TR but it didn't feel like the comedy was that strong in this film, I don't think it's just the tone, I think it might be the directors.
    Peter Dinklage felt ridiculous, I've definitely peaked on Dinklage's GoT archetype character (still appreciate him for things like In Bruges or Living in Oblivion) but here the joke was just "The Dwarf's Real Big now!" and that could have been funny but I wish he played his character differently. The voice was.. I mean they made fun of stupid deep voices earlier in the film!
    I still enjoyed the film more than most other marvel films,  I don't think it lives up to the standard established by Thor Ragnarock and I didn't like it as much as Black Panther but it was fun enough, having a villain with a tiny bit of personality helped a lot even if his moment to backup his ideology felt pretty weak, like 5 beers in, this will solve the world's problems weak.
    I have an easier time nitpicking films than I do building them up but honestly it was alright as a film to watch once and never again, as most Marvel movies are (for me).

     

    For the record my favourite Marvel films are probably Captain America's run, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther (having a villain with personality was nice I wish he'd been given a deeper treatment though), Spider Boy Homecoming,

    Avengers 1.
    I like the GotG films but more for the characters and some of the aesthetic than the plot, the music track nostalgia, etc.

  9. Posted

    12 hours ago, twmac said:

     

    Oh god, someone else summed up my feelings towards Gus perfectly (Shins, knowing more than other people etc). I get that these people are flawed and I have definitely met people like them in real life, but I find these people inufferable in real life and don't want to watch a show about them. It is the same reason I can't stand The Office, I knew people like Brent in real life and the damage these people did to work environments makes him as a character unbearable.

     

    I guess for me it was the fact that Gus kind of gets to slide through the first season just basically doing whatever he wants with a few bumps in the road but ultimately he is fine, whereas Mickey is a mess who hits rock bottom and then tries to crawl out.

     

    Yeah +1

     

    16 hours ago, Erkki said:

    I totally get that the characters in Love are not as likeable as usual and it makes it less watchable to many. But I also think it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.

     

    Usually anti-heroes or just horrible main characters in TV are so horrible that they’re actual drug dealers, serial killers. People are not used to rooting for just slightly flawed people. Traditionally it either has to be someone actually evil or someone good you could look up to. And I guess characters who fall somewhere in between can seem boring in comparison - they are not super likeable and also their stories are not as interesting as those of the cop serial killer or teacher become drug dealer, or a mob boss. Or at least someone who is in prison.

     

    I kind of like that some shows are also exploring how to tell stories of normal flawed people who don’t necessarily fall under “<flaw> with a heart of gold”. I think You’re the Worst is the best of these, but Love is not bad either.

     

    It's not a saints or sinners thing for me I love watching some properly flawed ordinary people. The extrapolation of me not liking this character meaning I only like characters you find traditionally 'exciting' is not one I agree with. It's more specifically about this archetype who I see getting a relatively freer pass than many others in media because typically they hew closer to the idea of a self insert or a beloved sendup common to introverted self absorbed indie directors (not necessarily a statement about Judd Apatow). I don't find their actions charming; I can understand how/why they act but ultimately I'm just tired of their shit.

     

    Anyway I've been really enjoying Grace & Frankie since I started it and season 2 of Atlanta has been fantastic for me. I think the more I watch Atlanta the more I appreciate the weirder spin off episodes. I already loved B.A.N. and with the recent Darius adventure and Paperboi's haircut episode, it's been amazing.

    Grace & Frankie particularly because a somewhat believable twilight years drama about old people whose only super power is they're mostly well adjusted enough to share their feelings and look beyond their own (sometimes) is rather refreshing.

     

    Also I saw Love, Simon recently and y'know it's fine, tame teen drama about a coming out story and high school public shaming surrounding 4 friends with almost perfect lives and they all live in the suburbs with massive mid-upper class houses. It just goes to show that even the kid that gets a modern car for their 16th birthday and drives his friends to pick up iced coffee every day can also have some really tough problems too yaknow?

    Okay, I have a small chip on my shoulder from this, I've read too many privileged kids saying that gay movies aren't for them because the main character isn't also a white dude who has almost everything and that they don't identify with the mostly indie movies about poor kids with gay problems.

    It's fun, it's nice to have a light hearted gay movie, I wouldn't have had it quite this way but it's fine. We get another teen movie where the protagonist narrates the movie but this time the main guy is a mostly 'normal' (straight passing) gay boy. 
    I kind of had the same reaction to Closet Monster because it has a similar protagonist only that character and the film deal with more serious issues; but CM went through all that and ended with a very soft landing.

  10. Posted

    I bounced off hard from Love because I can't make time for Gus' character. I don't know if he is this but he reminds me too much of the sympathetic quiet-nerd-who-needs-a-chance archetype who probably lives in New York or dreams of going there, definitely listens to The Shins and knows a whole lot more about art and culture than you (knowing more than you is a major pillar of his identity) and whose ideal relationship match is somewhere between a sexual companion, therapist, and a student.

     

    There's just something going on there that provokes a strong visceral reaction from me.

     

    It might not be a Woody Allen character exactly but it feels like a Jason Schwartzman character (an actor who I do like despite some very insufferable -for me- characters)

  11. Posted

    Most of us might know Korean director Park Chan-Wook for making Old Boy but it's actually the last in a series called the Vengeance Trilogy. I think they're unconnected stories but it's pretty interesting watching them as a sort of triptych.

    He also produced Snowpiercer and directed the American set Stoker.

    I saw The Wailing the other night and it was a very interesting horror film, parts of it did feel a little lost in translation and funnily enough my partner and I spent so long looking for Asian themes in the film that we overlooked a lot of obvious intended themes from more familiar cultures.

    Also shoutout to The Host, I don't remember a whole lot but it was very good.

    My favourite Asian director is Takashi Miike by a long shot. He's known for directing a very wide variety of films from the family friendly to the absolutely bizarre.

    You might know him from Ichi the Killer, Audition, or 13 Assassins but some of his smaller movies are absolutely amazing. Lesson of the Evil was a very well put together slasher movie. Gozu is an exercise in the surreal. Izo is.. about an immortal samurai on a mission to kill God? Blade of the Immortal looks like a fun popcorn action fantasy flick.

    Also I mean, I think most people have probably checked out this film at some point but I think Battle Royale is such a well put together film that it'd be a shame not to mention it.

     

    Also V/H/S/2 has a really good Asian setting horror short story co-directed by Timo Tjahjanto who I think is a German born Indonesian film maker. He's one half of The Mo Brothers and together they directed Killers which looks pretty neat.

     

    I haven't really kept up with many other contemporary Asian directors although I always love hearing about new horror movies, especially Korean horror. Watching Train to Busan soon, & eventually going to dive into Akira Kurosawa.

  12. Posted

    I liked the show and I liked Holden's portrayal, kind of went through liking him and enjoyed as they drew out his flaws to the point that stopped. As for him being a real character I kind of see pieces of myself in him from back when I was coming out of some heavier things in my life. I really wish they'd done more with the female characters, kind of had standard Fincher vibes where the female leads were quite under-utilised and let down in places; it's been just about long enough that I can't really name specifics so it's just the impression left on me.

  15. Posted

    7 hours ago, Spud said:

    I am simultaneously saddened by the "Zach" news story (which was quite widely read here in NZ) and enthused to know that someone else from New Zealand cares enough about IIT to submit reader mail. I hear you, Chris.

     

    Was it you who sent in the article?

    I had also never heard of either of the Whales or any of their companies before this episode. Honestly after watching the video from last year on Stuff, and seeing the way they talk about their business ventures, I am actually thinking less that this is pure scam from Albi and more in the direction of a delusional disorder or bipolar.

     

    I shared the article in the forum thread for the previous episode but I think someone else emailed it in as well which is pretty neat.

  16. Posted

    7 hours ago, your name here said:

    The zach thing is crazy. So, these people have not only cracked the code on natural language processing (which is already extremely far-fetched in its own right) but they appeared have developed a general purpose human-level ai, which is basically science fiction. No ai system in the world trains based on written notes about how it's doing. I am convinced that this is an investment scam.

     

    Also

    this is nonsense.

     

    Trying to learn more about the organization, their telephone company doesn't have any rates or services. Their charity doesn't appear to have actually funded any initiatives. Looking at their filings, the charity doesn't do anything except own their other companies, and accumulate money. This is 100% a scam.

     

    This follow up article came out a few days ago so I sent it off but just fyi:

     

    The Mystery of Zach the Miracle AI, Continued: It all just gets Terribler

     

    It goes into their share offers, a dubious valuation claim, Dr. Seddon Smith, Trustee Member gets a bit defensive, we learn perhaps unsurprisingly that Albi is a bit of a prick, and we hear about Zach's other identity, Hustle a virtual solicitor avatar. 

     

    For the record I don't think this person Albi Whale or his Dad, David Whale are particularly well known in NZ, their ISP isn't a major one, Terrible might have been a company group I've heard of before but not with any importance.

     

    Anyway I'm super keen to hear how it turns out; the journalist investigating this story is really good at bringing weird situations to light as well as other business bullshit. 

  17. Posted

    Do you think you're immortal only as long as you have the wine? I feel like it'd take away a lot of the angst & horror that comes with immortality. Plus you'd get to send yourself off with a supposedly excellent wine that you've still somehow not found time to develop the skills to appreciate despite being functionally immortal.

     

    Also just hearing about the marmite experiment at the end here I have a quick suggestion for 2 good marmite snacks, the first is having a thin layer of marmite and buttered toast with slices of fresh tomato on top with a bit of salt and pepper added, the second is another baked toast called a mouse trap where a thin layer of cheese is grated over marmite toast and baked on in an oven. It's not something I make often so I've just found directions online here.

     

    Anyway I just wanted to share this article about a possibly true but likely false story about a cutting edge AI that writes patient notes for doctors by.. emailing and waiting 20 minutes or more for a response.

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-best-of/06-03-2018/the-mystery-of-zach-new-zealands-all-too-miraculous-medical-ai/

     

    The journo in this article is also the creator of the documentary Tickled which is also a very strange rabbit hole to dive into.

     

     

  19. Posted

    On 28/10/2017 at 4:13 AM, Gwardinen said:

    I felt the other way about it - a lot of this film read to me as a desperate grab at recreating Guardians of the Galaxy's success by aping its style visually, audibly and comedically. Which isn't to say that it didn't succeed a lot of the time, and I'll take a fun, light-hearted superhero (really more sci-fi) romp over the endless grinding misery of most of DC's attempts any day.

     

    Visually I guess although I'd say Guardians goes for a darker palate. The reason why I'd compare the movies in the first place is they're both going for more whacky take on mostly stone serious comic book movies. I think Guardians still sticks to being more conventional which is something TR isn't doing. That's just my feeling though. I don't really believe that TR could exist without Guardians coming first and paving the way. The people commissioning this film definitely had Guardians in mind while making this, but I do think that the director took that feeling and ran with it as far as he could.

     

    Comedically I'd say no it's definitely Taika Waititi infecting the film with his brand of on point Nu Zullund comedy.

     

    Just quoting from Thor and his magic patu: notes on a very Māori Marvel movie

    Spoiler

    What is Māori humour?

    Discussions of humour and its cultural origins are quite rare, chiefly because it’s tough to do and a very bad idea. But we can all agree that Ragnarok has a very Kiwi sense of humour, so within that scope we should safely be able to discuss the elements of humour that are distinctly Māori. Take another look at Taika’s very Māori-centric films (Two Cars One Night, Tama Tu, Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople), compare them with his other work (Eagle vs. Shark, What We Do In Shadows), and you’ll recognise a tone that is consistent across all of them: the comedy of deflation. Deadpan has a strong history in Aotearoa, not least via the rise of the Taika-adjacent Flight of the Conchords. But if there’s a factor which is definitely Māori in Ragnarok it is the pervasive and all-encompassing sense of irony that drains the dramatic tension from its source material and delivers equal-opportunities mockery.

    The elimination of ego through humour runs through all of Waititi’s films and follows a basic formula: The Joke Is Always On The Person Trying To Be Smart. In Ragnarok this means the lead character – the superhero, the guy the film is named after – is generally the butt of the joke as he tries to outsmart The Grandmaster, insists he is stronger than the Hulk, tries to act nonchalant in front of Dr. Strange and generally fumbles as he tries to gather the pieces of his ego from the floor. In contemporary Māori culture there are few burns that scald quite so deep as being called “a cool guy”: “Far, what a cool guy”, “Cool guy is it?” There is no sin so cardinal as attempting to claim power or status that doesn’t rightly belong to you. Very broadly, it’s seen as a misappropriation of mana.

    The seam of irony that runs through Thor: Ragnarok couldn’t be more different than previous Marvel films which feature Robert Downey Jr as a billionaire smart-ass dropping glib one-liners. It also stands in opposition to the corny dramatics of Joss Whedon’s Avengers scripts, which Waititi seems to delight in gently mocking, as when Thor murmurs “the sun’s going down” a la Black Widow trying to calm the Hulk in Age of Ultron?

    The comedy of deflation, the definitive directorial touch that makes Thor: Ragnarok so fun, has been a constant presence in Taika’s work from his first Oscar-nominated short to Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It’s not uniquely Māori, but it is distinctly Māori in tone, in rhythm and as a kind of philosophical outlook.

     

  20. Posted

    I definitely feel like Thor: Ragnarok is Taika Waititi's success more than Marvels. I mean it still feels like a capital M Marvel movie but it looks like they gave him a pretty free reign.

    It was nice seeing all the kiwi in-jokes and familiar faces from the Sam Neill cameo to the Brotastic Maori Alien and Rachel House hamming it up as Jeff Goldblum's toughest flunkie. Poor Karl Urban's gotten lost under a slab of muscle and tough guy persona but it's great to see him again too.

    I was a bit worried obvious kiwisms would ruin it for me but everything seemed to fit together fine.

     

    Meanwhile the plot seemed nice enough for back seat fluff and it didn't interrupt the fun too much, I think the movie was a whole lot of fun, probably one of the best in the Marvel run so far.

    Jeff Goldblum was such a treat too, I was worried he was just in it for a hot minute but he stuck around for a good while serving premium Jeff Goldblum content.

    Waaaaay better than Guardians. Both movies are whacky but TR goes over and above. I think it's plotting was a lot better too.

  21. Posted

    I've started my first Real Job after many years doing odd contracted labour stints (I actually got into IT back in 2012 while picking farm weeds for money).

    I work for the local city's Chamber of Commerce (business community advocacy and networking) I'm basically an office manager in training but I get the salary of a receptionist; there's been a bit of recent office drama that doesn't really concern me except that the two critical admin support staff left recently and I got referred as a good replacement. I'm pretty happy with the minimum wage pay because it's a 6th month contract with the promise of further pay and renegotiation down the line, plus my base hours is 30 a week and they're more than happy to have me working more hours for more pay if the work needs it.

    Anyway I'm one week in and I've basically taught myself the job which is fine and fun I just wish I had more to do at the moment since I'm clearing through the easy office tasks while waiting for big events and projects to pick up. I've been learning things like writing and creating newsletters, email and website copy, managing the company website, social media account (I'm even getting some training in that which feels weird), and just your day to day office management stuff short of handling invoices and payroll (it's a really small office so the last office Manager basically handled all that and a lot of events management).

    After all that though there's a lot of cool things like attending the board meetings, learning about the problems and politics that go into massive transit plans (turns out creating a 4 lane, 27km motorway from scratch is a lot of work), being under the wing of my ex mayor boss, working daily with listed MPs (they're all centre-right but I can't hold it against them), going to small business talks and learning about new business models (heard how a dental business was delivering free dental care to 12 local low-med income high-schools), and a lot of other cool stuff.

     

    Plus it's reeeeeally nice to be earning an actual wage instead of living off of the unemployment benefit (9 months) or student loans (5 years).

     

    My boyfriend's starting work soon too for a company that develops car-dealership software.

     

    Anyway it's soo fucking nice to feel like we can actually make financial plans instead of riding the weekly budget rapids. We're looking at saving up for our own place to rent in a nice part of town instead of living with super unreliable friends flatmates in a house that calls rubber tubes and a pipe fixed to bath taps a functioning shower.

  22. Posted

    Resi is still this stupid guilty pleasure for me xd Some of the films just ended up being boring but the original 3 and the one in the simulation are pretty fun.

    I also like (to a lesser extent) the Underworld movies (or just parts of them) which is another famous Director and Star couple series.

  24. Posted

    Building on dium's obvious rant is another obvious point that a lot of people (inc. me) have treated it as some kind of back door cheat code into their psyche and that to 'get them' (and the implied higher level of friendship) you have to delve into all the things they like and cherish.

    Of course the real mistake is assuming that's important at all.

    Other even more self serious men will treat it as a filter so they don't have to deal with dumb 'normies'. Do you have your eng lit. passport ready? If you haven't heard of their thing well then they get to tutor you until they're sure you think about it the same way they do. It becomes a hobby for 'em since hey the more people that think like them then the more right they must be, right?

     

    Anyway that article reminded me about another article I half remember about the author being entirely sick of lib-soc bros assigning/'recommending' Slavoj Zizek to her 'mind expansion' pile that she started being blithely indifferent to them about how she'd never heard of him.

     

    I guess that's the final sad thing about it right it's 'assigned mind expansion' that comes with the premise that you aren't seen as interesting, smart, aware, or  world-weary enough so you should really invest time into studying this thing they like so a) you act differently in future b) they can quiz you on it c) they get the ego boost for knowing someone did a thing they wanted them to do.

  25. Posted

    I kinda agree that the discovery system could be used to 'game' games into obscurity that don't deserve it. At the same time I don't agree that nothing should be done. I liked using steam as a platform to find interesting games -way back in 2013.

    I think one of the problems of asset flip games is that the flood of crappy low effort cons makes me farrr more wary of lowfi games in general. It's harder to tell if it's an aesthetic a dev is working with out of necessity or style rather than because it's some new shovelware. As more games end up embracing the look of 90's 3d games or older source games I suspect it'll become harder to tell. Still it does seem to come back to Caveat Emptor at the end of the day.

     

    Basically what Beasteh, jennegatron, Twig, and TychoCelchuu said.

     

    I don't buy the idea that because Valve has a lot of smart computer people that they're warranted to be smart about all areas of their business. They might consider every angle but it wouldn't be that hard for them to come from a cultural/business bias that sees them placing a smaller concern on issues we find are larger. Speculation but for all the talk about how heartening it is to be listened to I doubt they place a lot of confidence in their influence either.

     

    Also talking about what an asset flip is I think the poster child for this is a bunch of the games that used some Unity package for a blocky, minecraft like game which involved shooting a lot of zombies in some framework buildings. It's not that the artstyle is similar to minecraft or that the game is built using premade assets - many successful games surely are; when I play ARK: Survival Evolved and look at other UE4 games I see many similar rocks, plants, and ground terrain but I don't hold that against them. The problem was that people bought one asset pack, found a bare bones demo included in the pack, and re-sold that by itself on Steam with sometimes no other change at all beyond the Menu UI. Also I think in some cases people are actually just.. Pirating the Unity packs?

     

    p.s yes I am a Sterling fanboy but the dude was a review editor at Destructoid for a number of years. Everyone knows of him as a youtuber now but he has worked professionally before he went indie. Also the fascist persona/iconography comes largely from the bad dude from Killzone and he's more like the Paul Verhoven version of Starship Troopers than the stonefaced serious book version. His persona is an outraged obnoxious shitstirrer most of the time and he doesn't seem like most people's idea of a social justice skeleton but he is in a bunch of ways. Just ask the gators, they're more than happy to call him a ------- ----.