Board 8 > SaveEstelle & LeonhartFour in New Houses: Year in Review Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Finished the first Hobbit movie. I'm a Martin Freeman fan, so I thought he did a good job as Bilbo. I don't mind the lighter and sillier tone since the book is more geared toward kids than Lord of the Rings anyway. Loved the game of riddles with Gollum and thought they did a good job with it (I'm one of those weirdos who likes Gollum).

Overall, solid movie. Oh right, killer soundtrack, too.

There are a handful of specific scenes I think the Hobbit movies did really well and the game of riddles was one of them.

...people don't like Gollum?

yeah i think gollum's portrayal is pretty iconic and beloved

just watched glass onion - fun romp, though nowhere near knives out

i don't like gollum. one of the reasons fellowship might be my favorite LotR movie is that there's almost no gollum in it. (return of the king has so much great stuff in it that it's hard to decide, though.)

i was always under the impression that i was in the minority on that, though!

Gollum is great

Also got to the Sandsea, I think I stopped playing at a save point just up ahead, which was like 16 years ago damn. The events in the Bhujerba were pretty cool. Especially like the side scenes with Vayne/Cid and Gabranth/Emperor. Felt well directed in a way unsual for FF even. But I think I missed something in one of the earlier scenes because I thought Ondore totally ratted us out but that was exactly the point?

I never had a clue what Ondore's real motives were at any point

everything Ondore says is a lie anyway

Sonic Prime Episode 2 complete!

Wait, the name of the capital of the Paradox Eggman Empire is New Yoke City?

...I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbUxueyjPuc

I love that the MGS voice cast still loves doing MGS stuff together.

I wish they had more games to star in.

Wheel of Time book 12 beated!

4 > 6 > 2 > 12 > 5 > 11 > 7 > 1 > 9 > 3 > 0 > 10 > 8

Whew, what a book. The scene between Rand and Tam is just so masterfully done. It teases you into thinking it's going to give you everything you want and then pulls the rug out from under you at just the right moment.

Also, I think I need an Egwene/Tuon (or I guess she's Fortuona now) at some point now. And Verin definitely solidified herself as my favorite Aes Sedai.

A rare showdown of my two favorite NFL teams on Thursday night football

The game is pretty meaningless for both teams, and the Titans are playing like it, resting everyone important for next week.

But the good news is that former Tennessee Vol Josh Dobbs gets to make his first career NFL start after years of being a journeyman, so that's good for him.

Rand's book 12 storyline is incredible. Absolutely beautiful voyage there. And yeah the scene you mentioned is great. Towers of Midnight's high points aren't quite as high, but there's still a good amount of great stuff.

Yeah, I was blown away that you could have such deep character development for the main character of the series 12 books in, but they pulled it off.

ya go my Vols winning the Orangest Bowl of all

first 11 win season since 2001, hopefully this season is the sign of good things for years to come

Already a few hours into Wheel of Time book 13, and it looks like it's going to feature a lot of Perrin.

I approve

Yeah, not sure how familiar with the process you are, but Jordan had written a decent chunk and made notes for much of the rest, but for some parts, and Perrin's storyline in particular, there was almost nothing. Perrin in 13 and 14 is basically all Sanderson. I'd say 13 is one of the better Perrin books. Not sure how you've felt about Perrin's stuff in the last few books.

The Faile/Shaido storyline lasted way longer than it needed to, but Perrin still had some good moments mixed in there.

the first SELF post of 2023 is here

Happy New Year, everyone

Happy new year!

I guess that also means Monster is now available on Netflix!

LordoftheMorons posted...

Happy new year!

I guess that also means Monster is now available on Netflix!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/9/4/AABKTfAAEDFK.jpg

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

congrats to Triangle Strategy for finishing 2nd in a GOTY poll

Finishing the second Hobbit movie. Yeah, that was a definite step down from the first one. I did enjoy all the stuff with Smaug at the end, but otherwise, it just feels like a lot of filler with a few cool action scenes mixed in along the way.

They should have at least stuck to the original 2-movie idea. You really feel the drag in the last two movies.

they should have stuck to one movie. the hobbit is the length of fellowship of the ring.

I think 2 would have worked reasonably well also. 3 movies was...questionable shall we say.

Also realizing the scene with Smaug was in movie 2 makes me realize I just actually don't remember anything from movie 3. Wasn't this like 90% of the way through the book or am I forgetting how much stuff was actually in the finale?

SeabassDebeste posted...

they should have stuck to one movie. the hobbit is the length of fellowship of the ring.

Not even! It's probably about 80% the length of Fellowship.

pyresword posted...

Also realizing the scene with Smaug was in movie 2 makes me realize I just actually don't remember anything from movie 3. Wasn't this like 90% of the way through the book or am I forgetting how much stuff was actually in the finale?

Well, they carry some Smaug stuff over into movie 3.

But yeah, I can only imagine how much filler is in movie 3 because there wasn't much left in the book at this point.

although I guess they can beef up the actual battle of the five armies since they don't talk about it much at all in the book itself

One movie could have worked but I didn't mind the extra length it gave to some of the canonical setpieces.

Finished the third Hobbit movie. This is an easy 1 > 3 > 2 ranking. The shorter runtime and spending a pretty hefty chunk of it with a fantasy battle definitely benefited the third movie. The most confusing thing is why people kept giving important responsibilities to Alfrid.

Pros of the Hobbit movies:
--Bilbo and Bard's portrayals, and I'll always love Ian McKellan's portrayal of Gandalf, of course.
--The game of riddles with Gollum
--The showdown with Smaug
--Thorin coming to his senses and joining the battle
--Killer soundtrack for all three movies
--Nice setpieces and scenery

Cons:
--Too much unnecessary filler, especially in the second movie
--Only a few of the dwarves have any real characterization (to be fair, this was true in the book, too)
--They spent a lot of time adding in retro-foreshadowing for Lord of the Rings just to pad the run time

Overall, I'm glad I finally watched them, but I'm not sure I'll take the time to see them again unless my son takes an interest in them when he gets older.

I think the time has finally come for Danganronpa V3

oh my

Played up to the first save point. Not much to say other than it's good to see the series hasn't lost its trademark cringe

Surprised at that Hobbit movie ranking, I thought the third one was by far and away the worst one. I haven't watched them since they came out, but I'm also certain it covers a good bit less of the book than the first two. I remember 2 as the best one actually, but they should have settled for just two movies in total, maybe even one.

For me it was 1> 2 > 3 without any really being close to each other

The only thing I recall for certain is that 3 is last without being close to the other two.

Leonhart4 posted...

Played up to the first save point. Not much to say other than it's good to see the series hasn't lost its trademark cringe

indeed so

I only saw the first one. Iirc it was okay, but definitely worse than all of the LotR movies.

After finishing Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, we decided to move on to a Star Wars re-watch (movies only). Episode I is still so, so boring.

https://youtu.be/hEcjgJSqSRU

I feel like you could listen to this song and learn all you need to know about Phantom Menace without actually having to watch it.

should do an indiana jones watchthrough

pjbasis posted...

should do an indiana jones watchthrough

would that include having to watch Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

personally I think someone stumbling onto a nuclear testing ground and surviving by hiding in a fridge is the height of filmmaking

Played a little more DRV3, and the two characters we start with are the Ultimate Pianist and the Ultimate Detective. Wasn't Kyoko the Ultimate Detective? Can you have more than one Ultimate?

Although I guess Makoto and Nagito were both Ultimate Lucky Students, right? Circumstances for that are unique though. Regardless, Danganronpa likes to set up red herrings and misdirections like this, so we'll see where this goes.

Titans miss the playoffs and now I have to fret over the possibility of another dumb Cowboys playoff loss until next Monday night

i am giving the cowboys my energy

but it's never helped the jets so maybe you don't want it

The Titans ended one Tom Brady run, maybe the Cowboys can end another