I guess the revamps are no longer called Storyteller system, or whatever it was? Cuts to the chase a bit more game philosophy wise! Probably because my gaming group encountered Ars Magica first when it was with White Wolf, we played our Supernatural: The Noun games with troupe style in mind.

I’m not worked up over this, but Black Widow was definitely more fun than some entries above it, and having finally seen Eternals...it’s a mixed bag mostly on pacing—though remarkably straightforward and competent I thought given it’s brief. What it does have that very few MCU movies have is actual moral consequences…

Le Grand Chef!

One of Rotterdam’s claims to “fame” is that it was firebombed extensively in WWII, so there especially anything that predates the leveling of the city is considered pretty special.

I know entirely more of what’s going here than I expected! I don’t play the wargame itself, but I have played 40K video games and spending time on Heresy lore videos from Arbitor Ian. From my youtube gleaned knowledge, that looks like a year’s worth of stuff to do!

I just want them to expand on Valkyrie to rework what she was doing before Ragnarok—as it stands she’d been a slaver for Grandmaster’s games for whatever length of time. If it was since the defeat to Hela, then thousands of years.

It’s not showing up as much anymore, but in the beginning of the news cycle on this, how WNBA players are forced to play overseas to get paid was mentioned here and elsewhere.

Yeah, there isn’t a “good” deal there’s just a deal. I can’t pretend to do the moral calculus on anything of this level. Maybe some sanctioned Russian business person? Do we want to trade sanctions? We’re not some perfect moral actor ourselves, (there are probably more non-famous Brittney Griners in our justice…

The thing for is, in recognizing that it’s political theater, casting judgment on the circumstances feels like falling for the theater to me. She’s played in Russia for years, where she’s a star foreign athlete—it’s not like the Russian league isn’t a vanity project itself. I think it’s just as plausible that she’s…

Oh, the Rock is the last minted movie star of that type. Even his poorly received movies, like Rampage say, make their money back and then some.

I’ve read that the Viktor Bout deal may be possible, where he’s traded (he’s 11 years into a 25 year sentence for arms dealing) for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former Marine accused of espionage whos been in Russian custody since the end of 2018.

I don’t think it’s quite so easy as make movies for streaming—though I don’t disagree that going forward it’s the cultural shift of what “cinema” expectations are to see where cinema is growing—and actually quite healthy looking. Movies are very upfront expensive to make though, and the opacity of streaming finances…

Indeed I do. And further, the intent of the creator to “comment on sexism” doesn’t always mean they successfully escape replicating it either. Mostly, that speaks to a creator’s intent, not necessarily the creation’s effect. Why, it’s like there’s even nuances to commentary!

I’m kind of overselling that part here—there’s not actually a ton of it, but there’s the feel of a contractually obligated scene sex scene an episode. It’s just a small part of it’s show formula. Like I said, always two adults consenting, no sexual peril, and then the action gets rolling—so if one were reviewing it, I…

So I used to watch Strike Back, and action shooty show from Cinemax—do people still now Cinemax exists? Is it’s rep still skinamax because of all the softcore sex on it?—anyway, I liked that show. Special forces magic soldiers and sexy scenes, but diligent about never having sexual peril and all sex on it was fun and…

I love Kogonada’s Columbus and found After Yang pretty cold (more austere than Columbus), a touch arch in it’s influence of Ozu, and I see where the review is coming, but I also think that’s a pretty ungenerous review and pretty glib. It’s definitely right about Jodie Turner-Smith’s character, but while it’s…

Their partner for this one makes immersive theater, and their hits are Shakespeare based. I don’t think this was a codename.

Punchdrunk who they partnered with makes immersive theater experiences—the one they run in NYC is called Sleep No More and is loosely based on MacBeth and the movie Rebecca.

I know there are a lot of examples to draw from, but this feels very Zhang Yimou inspired. I’ve always been pretty partial to Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time, though, so I hope there’s some room for his more expressionistic take on wuxia. Helpfully, that movie is actually about Jin Yong characters.

Every appearance of Gor/Bale in the trailers is confusing the hell out of me tonally.