What we watching? – Mudspike at the movies

Hangar Flying
3332

Yeah, you will need to read the first two. They have mashed together the characters and major plot points from both books.

@smokinhole Sounds like you signed off from the books at the ideal time to watch the series?

I’ve finished re-reading the first about 3/4 of the way through book 2. In “The Dark Forest” we have jumped about 200 years into the future (and Earth’s fleet has just been ■■■■■ slapped by the probe)… If anything it will be even harder to film than the first series?

At least with this they have a completed story to work from [/cough George R R Martin /cough]

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3333

I just finished the ep with the Panama Canal. I have some notes about the physics of that ship… :slight_smile:

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3334

With every sci-fi work, there will be notes from practically anyone who paid attention in high school. This series requires LOTS of note-taking though. It reflects I think his upbringing in a small, mostly unelectrified village during the cultural revolution and seeing technology through fresh eyes later in childhood than did most of us. That weird yet well-studied perspective is what makes his books so different–and sometimes dubious.

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3335

I watched this the other day on Netflix: Fighter (2024) - IMDb

It’s a Bollywood top gun movie. Mig 30’s, F16’s, M2000’s, singing, dancing, romance, and patriotism. The dog fights are laughable but I thought it was fun.

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3336

On a different note, I just watched Oppenheimer for the first time. My perhaps not-so-popular opinion…

And…good. I mean, it’s a good film, does the job, but…I don’t get the hype?
Did the cast do a good job? Yes. It wouldn’t have been a good film if not. I can even see why Murphy and Downey were Oscar contenders. I didn’t see Stark or Scarecrow or other characters they’ve played before, I saw them as who they were portraying so A+ there.

Beyond that…it was just a biopic. While I can’t name a biopic I think is better (because it’s not my type of genre, I only watch them rarely), I don’t see it as best-in-class or anything.

In other words, a solid but not groundbreaking entry. For a sci fi metaphor, it wasn’t 1977 Star Wars or even 1982 Star Trek II Wrath of Khan.
Maybe it was 1996 Star Trek First Contact.

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3337

Again, totally with you. I enjoyed “American Prometheus” at about the same level. Read it. Recommended it to my brothers. Immediately forgot it until 20 years later when the movie was announced.

3338

I liked Oppenheimer - kept me in there for the duration but I didn’t know most of the story details or other real life people. Good thing with Amazon is you can see who they are playing and do some research on the way.

Saw this - better than the 3 main films I thought.

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3339

I am now about halfway through the 3rd book (Death’s End).

Overall the series is a great summary of current theories about interstellar travel and the nature of extraterrestrials/first contact. Liu has really done his reasearch, but this ‘mash up’ means there is an overall lack of ‘coherance’… or maybe that is due to the translation from Mandarin to English?

In any case, regardless of the story, it is a fascinating glimpse into the modern Chinese ‘mindset’ for those not familiar with it. Even if all the English characters also speak like they are straight out of CCP central casting.

I have also just learnt that a Chinese TV series was realeased only a couple of years ago. I will have to track that down. The political climate was a bit more ‘relaxed’ under Hu Jintao when the books were published. It will be interesting to see which bits have been changed to comply with ‘Xi Thought’?

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3340

I read that one reason the first book doesn’t start with Ye’s father’s death, despite the author wanting to start the book that way, was because the censors tend to look at book beginnings and ending and breeze over the middle.
So by planting the story in the middle of the book, it didn’t raise their hackles.

For the series, Dave and Dan were able to place it at the start as intended.

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3341

The English translation of the book has the ‘struggle session’ at the start of the book. I did not know that about the original.

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3342

Surrender Hell !

image.thumb.jpeg.5764fa2186f9fedb31ce4c09339241e8
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An officer leads a band of Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese in anticipation of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return.

The subject matter could have made for a good movie but this was not it.

Wheels

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3343

Just ordered the DVD set of Three-Body.

I am very interested to see how it stacks up against the Netflix version. At 30 episodes I have the feeling that it follows the book a lot more closely?

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3344

For the Fallout fans. It is here.

Currently using all my willpower to get the chores done before I start watching it. If it is good I will be in trouble for binging it when there is work to be done.

Update: Done for the day, the good thing about being ‘self employed’ is that I can knock-off whenever I want. Just finished the first episode and so far:

two thumbs
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3345

I just finished Amazon’s Fallout series, and my take away:

Bethesda, once again, seems to only have a very surface level understanding of Fallout. It isn’t just “how would a post-apocalyptic America look?” It’s mostly about humanity, its will to continue, how it rebuilds society, how power corrupts, and how the weapons of war may advance, but the nature of war (as Ron Perlman puts it) never changes.

It starts out so very strong and the show isn’t at all let down by performances. Not in the least. Purnell and Moten were amazing as the lead pair and Goggins stole the show as Cooper Howard.

But, I found the lore-crafting to be utterly offensive in how simplistic it was. Huge changes were made to the Fallout-lore in service of the plot. What I found most grating was the ease of break up of the New California Republic in the wake of Shady Sands getting nuked. Sure, it’s going to hurt, but would it precipitate the end of the entire Republic? Our own various governments made contingency plans during the Cold War for such a dire eventuality. The most affluent and powerful republic in the wasteland, one that was even able to establish the largest professional fighting force on the continent just… evaporated in the wake of MacLean’s decision? We just spent 2 entire games learning how cutthroat and ruthless the NCR was, would this stop them? In fact, why would equally avaricious monsters like Vault-tec want to waste this potential resource when there’s clearly a seat at the table for them?

In addition, it’s made pretty clear that the US wouldn’t have gone the same route with an instant sunrise in DC. It had to be nuked into total annihilation to cease existence. But one bomb in Shady Sands, the NCR throws in the towel.

Also, what happened to the Brotherhood? How in the hell did they suddenly grow in power from the last time we saw them on the West Coast? The manpower isn’t a problem, but where’d they get the resources? Where’d they get a vessel similar to the Prydwen? Actually, is it the Prydwen? If that’s the case, what’s happened to the East Coast Brotherhood? That was their greatest strategic advantage in theatre.

And really? We’re bringing back the Enclave? At this point, they’ve been nuked AND had their best facilities destroyed by the Lone Wanderer. Even the Doctor had the decency to spare a Dalek or two.

It all seems to hinge on our recent up-tick in skepticism and out right agitation against corporate powers, which is a good thing in its defense, but it’s done so in the most clumsy and shallow manner. And it all felt so drawn out because of all the distractions. The most compelling sections, to me, were the ones with Norm investigating the inconsistencies of Vaults 31, 32, and 33 AND the pre-war visions of Cooper Howard unraveling the web of lies his wife has spun. They had focus and clear motivation.

Bethesda views Fallout in this very simplistic manner. They view it as a playset filled with power armored troops, mutants, monsters, raiders, and vault dweller action figures strewn across a plastic wasteland terrain. Everyone’s kicking about like the bombs dropped last decade when it’s been over 200 years.

Yeah, I didn’t care too much for it. It was carried by the actors, but the overarching story is downright puddle deep.

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3346

I watched the first episode. I rarely watch more than 2 eps a day of anything, so I won’t be finished until most likely next weekend.

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3347

Seen the first 3 episodes of Fallout this week - very good so far IMO. Never played the game but will watch any dystopian fantasy of that quality.

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3348

Can we PLEASE start a go fund me to buy victork2 some power armour

Every day, literally one victork2 goes to bed without power armour. This injustice should not be allowed to stand

Only you, can help a victork2 stomp around the house and sound awesome

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3349

raw

Wheels

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3350

I can see your point of view and I have only played Fallout 3 and New Vegas + a few of the expansions. So I’m viewing it through a much narrower prism. But:

Is exactly how I remember the game and I really liked the show. I looked up where it fits on the timeline, so I’m OK with the liberties it took.

For a Game → TV adaptation, this one sets the bar IMHO. It oozes style, acting, direction, sets, everything :star_struck: I loved all the sly nods to the source material that I’m familiar with and it makes me want to re-install New Vegas (Based on the closing scene and credits)

3351

I’ve seen up through ep 4 now. The Mr Handy voiced by Matt Berry was just awesome.

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