Mommar

4 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

Sucks big time.

Sony can kick rocks for this one, and even if Marvel and Sony manage to squeak out a deal as a fan I can't stand becoming vested in a character just for that time to be wasted.

-b.

Doesn’t read like just Sony here.  Disney was the one changing the deal.  Profits were never shared between the studios before.  Though honestly the only reason why this second Spider-Man did so well is because it was Tony Starks epilogue of sorts.  The first Spider-Man wasn’t terribly successful.

I caved in and bought the Sh Figuarts Far From Home Tech Suit because I’m a sucker for Spider-Man figures and I’m so glad I did.  This is hands-down Bandai’s best attempt at a Spider-Man figure (and so much fricking better than their other three POS’es) and it’s risen to my top three Spider-Man figures ever.  It’s a lot of fun.

5 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

I remember more than a few instances where the lifeboats were used, usually involving the Borg.

It does bring to mind the observation I heard or read once about the series not really being intellectually honest about the mission of the Federation.

In essence they are portrayed as space wandering diplomat/scientists, but yet the ships themselves have ever stronger shields and weaponry, which every few episodes they have to bust out.

He said they were glass cannons.  I don’t believe that to be the case at all.  Not a single Galaxy Class vessel was lost during the Dominion war except for the USS Odyssey which survived multiple Jem’Hadar vessels without shields and was only destroyed when the Jem’Hadar rammed the drive section as they attempted escape back to the Alpha quadrant.  They were the only ships that were effective against Borg Cubes until specialized ships like the Defiant and the Sovereign/Streamrunner/etc were developed.  They could punch holes in Cardassian Galor vessels like they were paper.

2 hours ago, Knight26 said:

For a peacetime mission, sure but I would hate to take one into battle.  As was shown many times, they are glass cannons.

Was that shown many times?

Apparently over the Labor Day holiday Sony are re-releasing a Director Cut of the film.  It includes Peter’s prep-montage that was cut from the beginning as well as the fight with the mobsters and quite a few other things.

Somebody managed to make it even more ridiculous.

Got damn lucky tonight.  I never thought I’d be so glad to find a pile of crappy Lando figures from Solo but look who I found hiding in it.

So have the shipping notices begun for anyone?

8 hours ago, Sandman said:

Well i did it. I said frakk it and put down 200 for Chronicle’s Enterprise-D. 16 months of payments...ouch.

We’re all living vicariously through you now.

Here’s two pics of the on/off switch on the Batsignal.  It’s cool how many little functional details they’ve put in.

Despite how much I think Ghidorah is overpriced and terribly engineered.  It does look good propped up next to Godzilla.

3 hours ago, jenius said:

If it's at all like the VF-0, the difference will be obvious in hand.

I've said this about the zero plenty of times.  From a distance in a photo at a trade show they look the same.  Up close in person they're clearly entirely different.

At the very least reviews will be incoming Friday/Saturday.

9 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Aw hell, I never even thought about the idea that the Bat Signal actually works. Awesome!

I’ll have to take a photo when I get home tonight but in addition to a giant on/off switch on the bottom they actually implemented the giant latch used to turn the light on/off like you see in the films, etc.

This guy is better at showing off poses.  I didn't bother with the movie (done with MCU) but I do still like good Spider-Man toys.  I hated the original Tech Suit and Hoodie figures but this one looks pretty good.  At least until I get my Mezco Upgrade Suit because the Mezco Tech Suit was superior to all the rest.

Boy, they really did not get the design for Spider-Man's suit correct.

Summer Exclusive Mezco One:12 Commissioner Gordon came today.

And here’s the Bat signal on the other side of the room.

A better pic has been around for a few days now.

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

Honestly, we just need re-designed shields that include the rotation joint necessary to get the weapons facing forward.  The pylons should be mounted directly on the shields.  How Bandai managed to screw that up is just one more mystery for the ages.  

Bandai always miss obvious details in favor of brilliant/excessively engineered gimmicks. 

3 hours ago, borgified said:

I'm not quite sure that's the reason.. 

The two possible reasons why that the 262 Hs is still not going (and we mentioned in this thread before):

(1) Poorly/over-engineered.

(2) Non-hero valks/mechs don't sell well in Japan.

Fixed that for you.

12 hours ago, Foblander said:

I've heard of some people's toys yellowing even after they've store them in their boxes.

This means nothing anyway.  Plastic outgases so keeping a thing in the box almost guarantees yellowing more than not.

Checked walmart again, I’m always too slow for that damn Cap.

Odd, I went by Walmart this morning hoping to find a Captain America somewhere.  Was met with a wall of Captain Marvel Binary movie figures instead.

5 hours ago, Knight26 said:

Thought I might dust this off, my thoughts no how a simple rewrite of Ep-8 could have saved it.
 

 

The Last Jedi Fixes

There is nothing quite like a good Shrimp burrito, when all the ingredients are there in just the right proportions and combinations it is a flavor explosion that cannot be beat.  But, when the cook doesn’t prepare it right, using days old fillings, or the tortilla that’s been sitting just a little too long you get just a taste of the greatness, but not the whole experience.  That was the taste left in my mouth by The Last Jedi.

I’m not saying it is a terrible movie, at it’s core it was good with great potential, but it was mixed with stale ingredients, the wrong spices and wrapped up with tired cliches.  The scenes involving the Jedi were great, though sometimes a bit odd, but those were the core of the story that kept it from being terrible, though even they could have been better.  It could have been saved though, one more story revision and it could have been near perfect.  Here’s how I would saved it.

The biggest issue with the movie is one of timing.  The movie takes place too soon after the last and over too short a period of time.  It is a common misconception that in Empire, Luke was only on Dagobah for a few days, however it is established in canon that he was there for months as the Millenium Falcon trudged its way up to light speed and back down again on its much slower accelerating reserve hyperdrive.  The movie just does not make that clear, something a single line of dialogue could have fixed:  “We’re almost out of supplies too Lando, that reserve hyperdrive takes weeks to get you into hyperspace.”

The problems with the timing are massive.  The last movie ended with the Galaxy in utter chaos, the Republic capital has been destroyed, billions dead and its fleet scattered, this is bad for our heroes.  The First Order isn’t much better off, their capital has been blown away as well, but as a smaller overall force, they would be able to rally faster.  So give them a few months, 3-6.  The Republic will still be in disarray, and skip the evacuation of Resistance base, instead start with the pursuit.

The pursuit is 3-4 months on, the Resistance is haggard, down to just a few ships.  They have been unable to call for aid, unable to resupply, refuel, rearm, rest, think the episode 33 from the NuBSG.  Pilots and crews are all exhausted and the First Order is able to bring in its ships from throughout the galaxy to pursue them, each one coming with fresh crews as they track the Resistance through some unknown means.

In a desperate gambit, Poe leads a bomber force against a First Order dreadnaught, but not the stupid B-17s in space we got in the movie. Instead we get the new gen B-Wing (or its replacement) making torpedo runs with one final bomber, piloted by a good friend (or lover) of Poe making a suicide run into the soft spot of the ship.  But the bomber force is still devastated, giving Leia her excuse to demote Poe.

Meanwhile (3 months earlier)  Rey has her meeting with Luke, he still tosses the lightsaber and refuses to train her.  Cut to a montage of her waiting outside his hut for days on end before he finally opens the door to start “Training” her.  This plays homage to the old Kurosawa Samurai movies that also inspired Lucas.  Much of what happens from here on can remain relatively untouched, but maybe show a bit more training actually happening.

This takes us back to the Fleet battle.  Leia has been injured and the Admiral (in a proper military uniform, or keep Ackbar/the new general from Ep7 alive for Force sake) has taken over.  She/they reveals their plan (you know, respecting the intelligence of her troops instead of keeping them in the dark) that they are heading towards an old, disused base on the rim with a transmitter that can reach the remains of their allies and the scattered republic forces.  But, they only have so long they can wait to get there due to their dwindling supplies.  They need to lose their First Order pursuers and have only a few days to do so before they either run out of fuel or take their chances.  So, she order Poe and the newly revived Finn to find a way through the shields of the First Order flagship to destroy the tracker, sending them off on their sidequest.

Boom, we just deleted the second biggest issues with the movie, the Rose and Mutiny storylines.  Instead we get Poe and Finn off doing their buddy cop thing from Episode 7 more, developing and maybe rocking that friendship some more, no forced love story, no criminally bad fan service.

Now let me explain that Fan Service.  Rose is the worst kind of fan service, she is a fan replacement, a fan of the film in the film.  Her hero worship of Finn makes no sense in the timeframe of the movie as it stands, Finn would be little known at this point, especially amongst the lower level crew.  At most, they would have heard about the First Order defector who helped destroy Starkiller base, but not much else in a day or two.

You could also cut most of the slave/animal abuse angle.  Star Wars has always been for kids, yes.  But, the first two movies did so with minimal pandering, The Last Jedi pandered to the kid audience hard in those scenes, and it didn’t need to do so.

The character of DJ, a wasted performance, did not need to happen or turn traitor.  He could have been a legit ally, but what would have been better is this:  Have it be Captain Fasma instead.  We’ve never seen her face before this, so, while the audience might be in on her being coming betrayal, the characters would not.  Or have it be that he was working for her the whole time, and it was all a trap or setup to wear the Resistance fleet down, capturing Finn is just the icing on the cake.

The rest of the movie can play out largely the way it did, the hyperspace ram (most awesome scene in the movie) can still happen as a last ditch effort to get the Resistance planetside when the other plan fails, but keep the Admiral alive, an astromech could have piloted the ship at that point.  Rey can still show up when she does, the scenes with Snoke could be expanded, but would remain largely intact, as well as the fight between projected Luke and Kylo Ren, as it was the most Jedi thing ever for Luke to do.  But have Luke use Vader's lightsaber in the fight.  Imagine:  he ignites the red saber, Kylo demands it and tries to grab it.  Luke just looks at it, shakes his head and "concentrating" turns the blade to blue or green, enraging Kylo even more.

Even have there be minimal response to their call, but add one last thing, a rescue by the shattered republic.  Instead of only a few dozen people making it aboard the falcon, have it be a hundred or so crammed into a handful or dropships getting cover by a squadron of advanced X-Wings.  This gives us a bit more hope for the future, and maybe even a cameo by the real greatest pilot in Star Wars, Wedge Antilles, and even Lando.   Imagine:  Leia the other arrive at the Falcon with hundreds of survivors and start to lose hope because there is no way to fit them all on the Falcon.  A TIE swoops in only to explode and a T-75/80 X-Wing in Republic colors swoops by.  Everyone whoops in joy, cut into the cockpit, it's WEDGE MOTHER F'N ANTILLES "watch how a real pilot flies kid," clearly aimed at Poe and his Rogue Squadron holds off the 1st Order forces while numerous transports land to pick up the survivors.  On the lead transport the ramp descends and the suavest man in the galaxy, Lando, walks down to great his friends.  "Sorry it took me so long, had to pick out the right cape."  Leia, seen only from behind, then collapses in his arms (dealing with the loss of Carrie IRL) and they rush her aboard where she dies.

We then cut back to Luke on his rock, he disappears, but just as we are grieving the loss of Leia and Luke a hand, a right hand covered in skin, slaps onto the rock.  Have there be a faint shimmer, like a force ghost, but solid.

The movie could even close on the slave kid using the force, a clear sign that Jedi still exist and are being born.

Overall I think that covers the biggest story issues with the movie.  Does it address all the fan complaints, no, but it doesn’t need to.  The identity of Rey’s parents was fine, they didn’t need to be connected to the rest of the movies because it shows that anyone can be a Jedi and opens up the possibility for a huge number of Jedi in the future.  Snoke being a bit of a glass cannon was fine, though his identity should have been fleshed out, it showed that Kylo Ren was a real force to be reckoned with that he could fool his master in such a way.

As it stands, Episode 9 will have a very weak base to stand on after these last two films.  It has a lot of issues to address, the biggest of which is real life death of Carrie Fisher, something this movie should have fixed in reshoots.  I do not feel that the franchise stands on solid ground at the moment and with Abrams coming back to helm Episode 9, I do not have much hope.  Rogue One left me on a Star Wars high, Ep8, has dropped me back down, but I didn’t have my hopes high to begin with.

Could have been three words.  Re-write episode 7.

11 hours ago, jenius said:

So more expensive than 27k... Oh well.

It’ll probably be 30k.

I went ahead and ordered one.  I’ve always been a fan of the Tallgeese.