International markets, particularly China, took to the first Pacific Rim, extremely well.

De Palma usually swipes good scenes, so I am just guessing the helicopter was an original bad idea.

The sequence of Cruise dropping into that room is iconic. If there’s a weakness in the recent films, I think it’s only that they don’t have moments quite like that (climbing the Burj Dubai comes close, though.)

Yeah, totally agree with you on the first film. At this point it almost feels like a completely different cinematic universe compared to 4-6.

Here’s the thing with Mission: Impossible 2. It’s not bad. Not by a long shot. It’s directed by John Woo, for crying out loud. The issue is it was the first sequel, so the franchise wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be yet.

Jackson’s statements come at an unfortunate time for Marvel Studios, which is currently under fire for using artificial intelligence to create the opening credits for Secret Invasion instead of, you know, actual artists. It’s far too easy to imagine the studio being more than willing to replace actors with…

And oh boy when I’m trying to defend my film what I definitely want to do is invoke the name of another big budget box office bomb

“Everything is distorted in terms of lights and textures. We enter this ‘waterworld’ which is basically being in Barry’s POV. It was part of the design so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended.”

Boy, these guys at DC sure love announcing things. The cynical explanation is that the studio wants to express supreme confidence in The Flash, so we get this whole narrative about how everyone loves Andy Muschietti.

Fair enough, man (or woman -- I’ve met Lexes of both sorts, and one hates to presume).

The issue here isn’t acquisitions. The issue is that Embracer took a $2 billion gamble that didn’t pay off.

It’s not ridiculous in this specific example, because a lot of gamers were acting like Embracer were good guys, so were, however dimwittedly, buying into the cheap kayfabe that Embracer were “helping gaming” and a Face. And thus for them - a fairly numerous group - this is absolutely a Heel turn.

I know that writers don’t compose their own headlines, but calling it a “heel turn” when an acquisition spree turns into a squeeze is ridiculous. Embracer burned through cash because they thought their portfolio would attract even more investment. And, as usual, the money people probably have no skills other than…

The bigger surprise, for us, is the Avatar stuff. Those coming every other year seemed totally attainable but now there are three and four-year gaps? That seems wild, especially since they’ve all been preplanned.

Sure it’s a bit squishy (although the health regen is insane) but you also generally have the tools to one shot everything and get out to avoid explosions so it’s not any riskier than tanky class, possibly even less so.

Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to trying that out. My rogue is still relatively low-level. But Twisting Blades seems to be the foundation of many, many mean combinations. I started the game playing necro, which feels a little too passive for my taste, with finicky positioning when things get rough.

I feel like Rogue can thrive in the early game on damage alone. The combination of Twisting Blades and Dash is good for mowing down crowds and playing keepaway with bosses. Double tap the blades, dash through the mob, then the blades return. Ton of damage, and you can dash back through the crowd afterward if you land…

This feels like the same trap people fall into when they discuss X-Men as a queer allegory. It plainly IS a queer allegory, but not every character is literally queer. That’s why the allegory is useful: it’s presenting something within the genre world in a way that challenges a real-world bias. Which I suspect AtSV is…

Do you know a lot of NYC cops with trans pride flags on their uniforms?

This seems like a worse solution than simply getting rid of user reviews, but that is never going to happen because they drive engagement. Those reviews make sense on a storefront like Amazon, where they are a form of accountability, but otherwise they only matter to people who hate criticism in the first place.