Ben X

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Ben X

  1. Posted

    16 hours ago, Ben X said:

    I really hope this season picks up in the second half and lives up to the hype!

     

    I have been told that this is in fact the case, and actually now I'm on the second mini-arc it has immediately picked up!

  2. Posted

    I've started binging Agents of SHIELD. I skipped most of the first 10 episodes, then pretty much watched everything once it got to the Winter Soldier tie-in. The first few episodes were pretty ropey, but it definitely keeps improving. It's never really got beyond Buffy seasons 1&2 levels of quality for me, though.
    Season 3 was definitely the strongest so far. It's not mind-blowingly great, and I still wish I could have gone through every script with a red pen to clean up grammatical errors, clunky wording and terrible quips before filming, but it's consistently solid with lots of good moments sprinkled on top.
    I like what they did with

    Spoiler

    Ward (committing to him being unredeemable then flipping him to an alien big bad before he gets dull) that they brought in Powers Boothe (that's a really cool way of expanding a minor character from the movies and even explaining the quirk of him not showing up in Pierce's office in Winter Soldier, which I'm guessing in real life was a scheduling issue) and what they've done with Hydra being an ancient cult (so clever how they show that rams head design both disguised as a NASA badge and evolving into the Hydra logo, and all the Maveth stuff is dope).

    The action is a lot better, the effects work is impressive, and the narrative is more propulsive.

    It still needs a lot more character work (FitzSimmons have never ceased to be annoying as fuck, there are a lot of two-dimensional/cipher background cast, and even the leads don't have that much to them - compare the Firefly crew characterisation after 6 episodes to this lot after 2.5 seasons) and more narrative experimentation (the occasional flashforward bookend does not cut it! Episodes like "4,722 Hours" are a good start, but they really need to play with the format like, say, Buffy or Person Of Interest would).

    I was looking forward to S4 because I'd heard here and elsewhere that that's where it gets really strong, but I'm 8 episodes in and I'm a little frustrated because so far it's at best on the same level as S3 but if anything it's worse. I was also told that they did a (ugh) 'soft reboot' here, but so far all they've done is shuffled some pieces around so there's more frustrating bureaucracy to deal with, and replaced the strong 3-seasons-build-up villains with some boring

    Spoiler

    ghost scientists.

    They've even managed to make

    Spoiler

    Ghost Rider

    dull. Brannigan mentioned that here they moved from season-long arcs to three or four mini-arcs, but I'm 8 episodes in and it all feels like wheel-spinning for future stuff so far.

    I'm going to keep watching it, because there's still good stuff in there, it got a proper ending apparently, and, well, it's the COVID quarantine what else am I going to do. But I really hope this season picks up in the second half and lives up to the hype!

  5. Posted

    @AlexGamechuck this is supposed to be a reference list of released indie games with brief entries. Might be better to move those two posts into their own thread if you want to keep us updated on your (lovely looking) game. Example entry:

     

    :buyme: Lair Of The Clockwork God

    By: Size Five Games

    Available: £15.49 on Steam or GOG

    Synopsis: adventure game/platformer mash-up, written by and starring me and a friend. Comes with a free visual novel prequel.

  6. Posted

    I gave up on Picard. Very slow, clunky writing, dull story. I got a few minutes into episode 5 when another character pretty much looked into camera and said "this is my backstory and emotional arc", and then I was reminded of the prospect of a 'casino planet' episode and that was it for me.

     

    Also, re. this Discovery discussion

     

    On 3/2/2019 at 9:00 AM, Ben X said:

    Yeah, you're probably right. It definitely feels like more reveals are planned, though - that Ba'ul design seems notably vague..!

     

    I gave up on Discovery too, but seems like

    Spoiler

    they didn't do much more with the Ba'ul/Kelpian thing except use them as factions in the serialised Red Angel stuff.

  14. Posted

    Got round to seeing Part 2. I didn't think much of it until the last section where the metaphors and twists come out in full force and it reveals itself as an anti-MRA, anti-toxic-masculinity, pro-genderqueer movie, and it all works really well. Also, the song over the credits is Beck in a more modern Midnite Vultures mode with The Lonely Island rapping about credits, and it's fantastic.

  20. Posted

    This looks and feels great - I love the visual style, especially when it gets extra trippy, and it's very satisfying when you get into the flow. I did sometimes feel like I was just fluking my way through rather than having an 'ah ha' moment and figuring out a tactic, but I made it to the end without using invincibility!