Would you recommend it? I've been wondering whether to start watching it but I've got loads of other things I also want to watch. Like Higurashi.

Higurashi is amazing.

I would definitely recommend it. It's pretty good!

I've been sick because of my allergies the past few days and I decided to watch something today and I picked an action thriller called Hanna. I've had it on DVD for quite a while anyway so might as well finally check it out.

It was... decent I'd say. The Chemical Brothers made the complete soundtrack and that was definitely one of the better things about the movie, the tracks were really good (an example). The acting was pretty average, a bit over the top at times. Some of the fights in the movie sucked balls, they were just stupidly unrealistic. I mean there's this one fight where the main character's dad goes up against three or four bad guys and they all just fucking wait there for him to knock out their allies and one of the dudes even has a gun pointed at him for the whole fight, but doesn't take a shot at him, it was so dumb. The movie also suffers from a few really badly shot scenes where the main character is basically just running and the camera goes fucking everywhere in circles or in nauseating angles, it was very frustrating to watch, they could have just used one or two clear angles and even that would have been more enjoyable to watch.

There was also this weird family in the movie that helped the main character escape from a few locations (because plot devices, fuck yes) and then when they were caught and interrogated they were never heard of again, it's almost like they just forgot that whole 'side story' during the making of the film, that was really strange in my opinion.

But still, there was definitely more good than bad in the movie and like I said, it was a decent action flick, not sure if I'd watch it again but I'll probably download the soundtrack from somewhere, really enjoyed that. I guess I'd give the movie a solid 6.5/10.

Watched The Raid a few nights ago after hearing about it from a friend. Watched the film with literally no knowledge of it, I was surprised it was actually a Indonesian martial arts film. (I Honestly thought it was an American action film. :))

Anyway, the film was excellent. The fighting was really good and well choreographed. Just fantastic. The action was nicely paced and some scenes were pretty tense. Enjoyed the crap out of it.

I also watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Despite it's gorgeous visuals and great acting, this one failed to really get my attention. I always knew The Hobbit films wouldn't be as great as LOTR, but I thought the first hobbit film was fantastic. This one was a bit of a let down.

Still. It was nice to see Legolas again and it was left on a much better cliff hanger than the first one. Hopefully the third film, (which has just been named as The Battle of the Five Armies) is better. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Yeah. The Raid is really really good, and the editing is so unique compared to most action films. The lack of quick edits during action scenes means that they can't get away with badly choreographed fight scenes, and the choreographing is excellent. I can't wait to see the second one.

Let's not talk about The Hobbit, if Sekto sees you won't be able to get him to shut up about it.

why do they pronounce it as "smaow-g"? i always pronounced it "smorg". smaug, smorg. that's how you say it. fucking illiterates.

Screw it, call it Smug.

I say Smorg because it sounds like forge, another firey thing.

Also smörgåsbord, which is Nordic (though considering "smör" means "butter", I doubt there's any connection).

Su-Mor-Guh does not sound a thing like Fuh-Or-Juh.

Wait, is this conversation about the Elder Scrolls?

It’s like how it was always Soar-Ohn until Peter Jackson got a sour taste in his vocabulary.

I'm currently re-watching Code Geass anime. It used to be my #1 favourite.


...I think it still is.

Code Geass is definitely my favorite. In fact, I think I might just go rewatch it now.

I've finally changed somebody's life. Great feeling

I think he liked it before you told him :/

Watching Code Geass is like taking a really painful stinky shit you have to squeeze out in places, but it feels satisfying in the end.

Best fucking analogy I've heard.

5 years on I'm still kind of wondering about that cliffhanger at the end of the first season. Overall I really enjoyed it, so I'm kind of scared to finish it off because I've heard mixed, although usually negative, things about R2.

I liked R2. Without spoiling anything, I can say that it's considerably less light hearted, jokes and comedic scenes are very scarce. I definitely say it's worth watching though.

What, why? Elaborate.

1, The outrageous Japanese wet dream premise. This takes a bit of background explanation but basically the Japanese feel really really sorry for themselves over the end of WW2 and want everyone else to do so too.

2, The mess that battles eventually turned into. The conceit that Lelouch, a high school student, was the only person capable of micromanaging his army and that they were really fucked without him (See the end of S1). Real battles don't work anything like chess, and aren't won by having a great idea or two about how to use the scenery to your advantage. It had the effect of artificially dumbing down all his opponents, and I can't stand that.

3, The hamfisted racism theme. Japan can't into discrimination. They just can't. Whenever Japan does discrimination it comes out smelling awful.

4, The pacing and energy of the series meant that the plot didn't slow down for new characters introduced, which left them kind of hanging there until they were useful and then having a few odd lines. The biggest offender being Rakshata, but there were other characters who didn't bring anything to the story and had no characterization.

5, The plot twists. The you know what in S1 that was basically the equivalent of prolonging the series for thirty episodes by slipping on some banana peel, and the philosophy that every single episode in R2 needed to end on a cliffhanger. Suddenly we're back on the level of movie serials to hold the viewer's interest. Special mention goes to the Black Knights betraying Lelouch towards the end of R2. I mean, haha what?

6, Overuse of amnesiurrrrgh. It's fine when Lelouch's power can cause it and Charles' power does cause it, but when a character independently gets it herself, it's overusing maybe the most hackneyed dramatic device in the book. Special points go to Geass inflicted amnesia and 'real' amnesia happening within the space of two episodes.

7, The two times Lelouch won a conflict by predicting everything his opponent was going to say within a five minute conversation. You fucking what?

There are other more minor things. It's a very very fun series. Always entertaining, but I wouldn't call it well written. It's junk food like pizza (How apt!)

Oh shit I forgot a big one. The fact characters don't die unless you explicitly see them bleed out and pronounced dead on camera, otherwise they come back in increasingly stupid ways.

This later becomes a habit of the main writer.

So, I re-watched some of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World yesterday but I had to stop watching it because the first half of the movie is so fucking cringy I just couldn't bear it. I don't know why I thought it was so good a few years back.

This is increasingly becoming a problem in almost all fiction, and I'm kind of sick of it. One of the more blatant ones that sticks out in my mind are the Game of Thrones books. He kills off an absurd amount of important characters (this is fine. It's war. People die in wars), but if you don't explicitly see the death happen, or if it stops short of showing the body after death, it's almost guaranteed that this person is either still alive, or is coming back by magical means. See Jon Snow, Tyrion, Stannis, and Bran, just to name a few.

Hm. That's right, but I seem to be invulnerable to that, as Poland tends to do that even more. It's kind of new to me to watch some other nation acting overly nationalistic

There were some (maybe many) real life battles that were won because of the use of scenery

I've seen worse. Not in anime though.

True, I agree.

I'll get to that when I rewatch R2, I hardly remember anything except the ending.

Yes.

He's presented as an incredibly smart guy. And he plays chess, so he's used to mind-reading people (lol)

Though most of your points are valid, I definitely wouldn't go as far to call it like that. I think it still has some very interesting, well-written characters, moral choices and cool concepts behind it.

Yes.

Is it just me, or is a lot of anime affected by this? The best pacing I've seen in an anime is by far Higurashi, hands down. But every other one I've watched (which admittedly isn't many) has issues with the pacing. Oh, except for Paranoia Agent, that was fine.

A distinct one I remember is Mirai Nikki, the only well developed characters in that were Yuno and Yukki, and that's only because they got 27 damn episodes.
Also, I distinctly remember Dragonball's pacing being unbelievably horrible, but it's been years since I've watched that so I could be wrong. I'm either thinking of Dragonball or Fist of the North Star.

With the exceptions of YYH and Hunter x Hunter (Written by the same guy, a very talented and dynamic mangaka) all shonen long runner suffer from pacing issues.

Dragonball Z was far and away the worst though.



Just look at this shit!

I could swear it didn't feel so like a self-parody when I was watching this as a little kid

There's a really good part three hours in. It's the part where Goku says 'Raaaawwwwwwwr!'. You can't miss it.

That was actually what I was referring to.
That shit went on for 8 fucking episodes.