Whatcha Been Watching?

[Todinho]

Just saw the Korra season 4 trailer and since we dont have a Korra thread I'll post what I thought here: welp like I predicted they placed a 3 year time-skip and all the events of season 3 will cease to matter so we can have a new villan of the season and another poorly explored subject and also it's coming this october because Nickelodeon seem to want to get rid of the show as fast as possible for some reason...Well at least the animation is still great.

[dezm0nd]

I am finally getting the enthusiasm to watch the latest 24 series. Its predictable as always but there's something about it which makes it watchable.

Also watched the second episode of the strain. Reminds me of fringe and had better production values than the pilot. Still tough to say of its good or not but I'll stick with it

[DomsBeard]

I really enjoyed the last series of 24 even if it got off to a shake start. Also Yvonne thingamabob was a great addition. By the end it felt like a greatest hits.

[Electric Crocosaurus]

I need to give a lot of credit to Peter Capaldi and the team behind this year's Dr Who. After a couple of very hit and miss series (even if the 50th anniversary episode was great) I was unsure about the future of Dr Who under Steven Moffat's reign. Yet Capaldi seems to have re-energised everyone, and there's yet to be a duff episode this series. The opener was a little sluggish in places, but ep 2's Enter the Dalek was fantastic, Listen was probably the most interesting character piece Moffat has written, and the fun episodes have managed to be fun instead of infantile (Robot of Sherwood, Time Heist). They've not shied away from allowing Capaldi the freedom to go darker than the character has been for a while, and while I don't think that darker instantly means better, it's a new direction for a show that has revelled in its fairytale aspects for a few years.

[Scrustle]

Yesterday I watched The Wind Rises. Supposedly Hayao Miyazaki's last film. Really enjoyed it. It's got stunningly beautiful animation. It's got that style and level of quality that you would expect from Ghibli, except they also decided to do something different with it this time. A lot of the animation was quite exaggerated in a really interesting and expressive way. For example there's a scene where there is an earthquake, and there are these amazing shots of the earth rolling and undulating like a stormy sea. There are quite a few dream sequenced within the film, and they use this style quite a lot too.

The audio design mirrors this style as well. For some of the sounds in the film, they add in human voices to the mix. Like the plane engines have the sound of someone blowing raspberries in there too. It never feels wrong or distracting too, despite the film having a realistic setting. It just feels like it's part of that expressive, and I suppose you might call it hyperrealistic style.

But at the same time there are a lot of small details too. Really little subtle things that add a lot to it. Like the way the image distorts through a character's glasses, and the way the light falls on their face through them.

In terms of the story though, I'm not sure what to make of it. It didn't really feel like it had a flowing plot. A lot of scenes didn't seem to have much point in the grand scheme of things, and others I was sometimes unsure of exactly where and when it was supposed to be taking place. It feels like maybe there were a lot of scenes that were originally intended to be in the film, but were not included because there's only so long you can make a film. But then what they actually selected still feels kind of scattershot. That would kind of make sense, given how the film is based on a real person's life, but there are other things that don't really fit that either. A lot of the film feels like it's a kind of idealised, romanticised version of this person's life. The main character has pretty much no character flaws. Nothing bad happens to him directly either. The central romance of the film also feels really idealised and fairytale-esque too. I might even say it was cliched and shallow. But I still found it to be quite an evocative and moving story, so I don't know.

[Combine Hunter]

Saw Book 4 - episode 1 of Legend of Korra (legally too!) The show continues to be awesome, and challenges what western televised animation can be. Book 3 was an amazing return to form after the inconsistent quality of Book 2, and it "looks like" Book 4 will be continuing that trend. Zelda Williams' performance as Kuvira "The Great Uniter" was stellar, and I can't wait to see (or hear) more of her. No US animated show comes close to what Michael, Bryan and studio Mir have done with both the Avatar series.

[KissMammal]

I watched Jon Favreau's Chef over the weekend.

I thought it was pretty flawed - some of the twists the story takes are rather unlikely/implausible even for a film, and overall it's basically one big vanity project for Favreau (it's quite transparently about his own experience of making films in Hollywood, and he also writes it so that his character gets to

Spoiler: show

(off-screen) have it off with both Scarlett Johnsson and Sofia Vergara.

Despite all this though, I did actually end up enjoying it quite a bit. Bit of a Sunday afternoon comfort film. I also now really have to try a Cuban Sandwich.

[Todinho]

Finnaly watched Seven Samurai I expected it to be a slog thanks to it being almost 4 hours long but the movie is so well paced that it wasnt a issue,it kinda ruins my theory that all the characters Mifune plays in Kurosawa movies are actually the same guy in different points of time but it was a great story anyway and much more poignant than I thought it would be.

I now because I feel the need to be an asshole I will say that putting Legend of Aang and Korra anyway on the same level is a heresy of the highest degree!Im very offended sir!

[Combine Hunter]

To each his own. Do I think the original series is better overall? Sure. It benefited from having a long form story arc in place right from the word go, where as Korra went from being a one off mini series, to two seasons, and then to four seasons due Nick's idiotic handling of the show. But I think it's easy to forget how clumsy and lacking in confidence the first season of Aang's story was. Season 2 and 3 of the original series were so overwhelming great, that it was easy to forget this was the same show that gave us "The Great Divide." Legend of Korra may have a new story and a new threat for each season, but I think it's inaccurate to say the events of each season don't have a lasting affect on the entire show. The events of Season 4 are directly linked to the events of Season 3, and the same is true of Season 2 and 3. The first season is the only one that stands alone, and that's because it was intended to originally.

I prefer the original series, but I can't think of any animated show better than Korra on TV right now. And I certainly can't think of another western animated show with Villains as complex and fascinating as Amon or Zaheer.

[Todinho]

I get what you mean but like you said even in season 1 Aang still had a direction it was journey so the filler episodes werent all bad and even if it was more of a "kids show" then it still raised the bar.

Spoiler: show

Now I get it that Korra had many issues outside the control the creators but I still see it as a show with a potential much greater than it delivered,and dont get me wrong when it comes to western animation Korra is still way above the average but I cant help but feel disappointed, because when you say the series had some of the most complex villains I know that is true but at the same time I feel they ended up doing nothing with them. Now I know you really like season 1 and the ending(I dont remember if I even said this but I found out about Cane and Rinse thanks to a podcast you were on about it with Dan from Extra Credits I think)but I was really disappointed,you have this great Villain with an interesting set of ideas that present the perfect challenge to the avatar universe but in the end what it all boils down to?Nothing Korra airbends,Amon gets shown a hypocrite and defeated and bam everything is back to normal.It`s not like the equalist movement didnt have any good points but did that get adressed in any way?No,do we hear about this issue later?No,it`s like it wasnt a problem at all and we just move on.

Even if you take that season 1 was it`s isolated thing lets see season 2 the main issue was the co-existence of people and the spirits,what happens in that season Korra opens the portals to the spirit world and has abig anime fight with Avatar Satan.Was the core problem of the season explored in a meanigfull way(other than the Wan episodes) and did it have lasting consequences to the world?No,even if we take that the airbenders returning is a consequence the main thing that is humans and spirits living together and how they deal with that was touched upon at all other than a few scenes to say they are there.

And now season 3 had a similar set up to season 1 but with anarchism and I was super excited for because I thought they would do it right this time but in the end it all boiled down to a big fight(that was visually cool) at the end how was the idea o anarchism been explored in this season other then showing how crazy Zaheer could get,there was certainly an attempt to do it with them showing how decadent the Earth Kingdom and Queen were but in the end it boiled down to Zaheer is evil so we have to beat him up.I remember someone saying I dont know if it was you that Korra would have to defeat Zaheer but that it wouldnt be on a fist fight it would be in a kinda of a paicho match like Bolin and Asami were showing,but in the end nothing like that happened.

So I dont know after watching along with Korra stuff like Psycho-Pass and Fate/Zero I cant help but feel wanting and I realize I am perhaps setting the bar too high for a nickelodeon show but I really expected more from the creators of one of my favorite shows of all time that even if it didnt have complex/gritty themes or villans still managed to be one of the best animated shows I have ever seen just on it`s own qualities.

Man I honestly didnt expect to write that much when I started this TL;DR:I Korra is cool but I just wished it was much better than it is and I believe it could be.

[Scrustle]

Honestly, the more I think about the show the more I find myself agreeing with Todinho. Pretty much every series of Korra so far, while good, has always felt like it had missed potential, and failed to fully follow up on how the situation was felt in the last series. I guess we can't ever expect the show to have a decent overall arc, since that ship sailed with Book 2, but it still feels like there were a lot of missed opportunities. I often find myself between series hoping that the next one will be the one that finally gets in to the swing of things, but it never happens. It's still a great show, and it's definitely one of the best out there right now, but I agree it could be so much more.

As for the first episode of Book 4, I'm not really sure what to think of it. Seems like it could be the perfect example of what I'm worried about. A lot of things seemed to be set up for this series, and then we get a massive three year leap? What the hell? That's by far the longest span of time that has passed in the show (except for between TLA and Korra), and it all happened off screen. It's quite jarring, especially since Book 3 only finished so recently. The condition of Korra is a bit hard to buy, thinking about the logistics of what happened between Book 3 and 4, but with that said, I think what they're doing to her character right now could be pretty interesting. Again, something with a lot of potential, but at this point, I'm not so sure how confident how I am that it'll go anywhere really significant.

Also, I've never really got the hate for The Great Divide. Sure, it's not one of the better episodes, and it drags a bit, but it's hardly bad. I liked hearing the story about why the tribes hated each other, and the different interpretations on that story, as well as Aang's own take on it. I suppose it's true that him lying about it wasn't exactly a perfect way out of that situation, but honestly it didn't seem unreasonable to me considering how stupid these kind of old grudges between cultures can be.

[kappisun]

Did anyone watch Resurection? Quite enjoyed it & interesting premise but feel (without spoilers) it may have blown its load a bit early....why I don't write for tv mags is beyond me

[DomsBeard]

Just watched edge of tomorrow. Loved it bar

Spoiler: show

the last two minutes, I'd have preferred it if he'd woken up in his office at work before it all happened. What did happen and him waking up when he did didn't make sense.

I'd love a video game based like this, it'd make dark souls seem like child's play

[Todinho]

Watched the first episode of "Fate/stay Night unlimited bladeworks" which is a sequel to one of the best anime in recent memory and one I cant stop raving about Fate/Zero,now this new show is actually a remake of the original Fate/stay night anime that was based on visual novel from 2004 and Fate/zero was actually prequel to that done by a different guy and team but this new fate/stay night is being done by him,yeah it`s weird.

But yeah im not really sold on it,it`s the basic same setup(A battle royale betewen 7 mages and 7 summoned heroes from legends)but now the average age of the participants is 16 instead of 30 and that means I have to watch japanese school drama and hear the world Senpai repeated ad nauseum. I really doubt this will reach the high notes of fate/zero both in the character and plot departament but it`s nice to see what happened to some of the characters from zero and the fight scenes are great.

[Beck]

I've just finished season 3 of Korra, I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's just me but I like the filler, it's a breath of fresh air from other anime that I've watched. I've enjoyed seeing Tenzin struggle with the unexpected opportunity of rebuilding the air nation.

I watched Avatar with one of the kids my fiancé child minds. He loved avatar but really struggled with Korra, I'm the opposite. Avatar was definitely aimed at children whilst I assume Korra is aimed at teenagers. There was a lot of complex ideas thrown into Korra quite early on and they just didn't appeal to the eight year old kid. He lost interest by the third episode which is a bit of a shame.

I dunno if I would say Korra has underachieved. I've felt the creators have done well, they had a hard task to introduce a whole set of new characters into a beloved world. They have modernised the world and moved away from that almost Scooby doo formula that avatar seemed to have.

I'd really like season four to focus on the cross element bending that has appeared. The fire / lightning and earth / lava bending has been cool to see, I'd like to see where else it could go. I can see this season being full of characters from the Avatar world, I'm not sure if I want that personally but I could see why the creators would do so. It seems fair to do it, especially if this is their last season.

[registradus]

I need to give a lot of credit to Peter Capaldi and the team behind this year's Dr Who. After a couple of very hit and miss series (even if the 50th anniversary episode was great) I was unsure about the future of Dr Who under Steven Moffat's reign. Yet Capaldi seems to have re-energised everyone, and there's yet to be a duff episode this series. The opener was a little sluggish in places, but ep 2's Enter the Dalek was fantastic, Listen was probably the most interesting character piece Moffat has written, and the fun episodes have managed to be fun instead of infantile (Robot of Sherwood, Time Heist). They've not shied away from allowing Capaldi the freedom to go darker than the character has been for a while, and while I don't think that darker instantly means better, it's a new direction for a show that has revelled in its fairytale aspects for a few years.

I really love Capaldi's Doctor ( I also loved Matt Smith's) but there is something about the stories that I have trouble connecting with. I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet.

Other than Doctor Who I just finished watching Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire (the last episode was pretty amazing) and started watching Season 5 of The Walking Dead (the first episode was also amazing).

[DomsBeard]

I watched the Dragon Age Inquisition trailer that was on the Ps4 desktop and it hard crashed my ps4!.

[DomsBeard]

So I watched Malificent today which I thought was a lovely afternoon film.

I then watched 2014 Godzilla. Total crap, Godzilla looked great when he finally appeared. I feel they went for the "let's delay showing him" but took the piss by about a hour.

[The_Rooster]

After watching the new Avengers trailer I'm gonna have a Marvel catch up. Not seen the new Thor or Capt America. Plus thought X-Men DOFP was poor when I saw it at the cinema so gonna try that again. I know it's nothing to do with avengers but it's still the universe. Also was pissed when I watched Ironman 3 (from what I hear it's still crap).

[Bakers_12]

. Also was pissed when I watched Ironman 3 (from what I hear it's still crap).

Not as bad as 2. Though Marval bad is better than most action/adventure films of late