metadigital

Many thanks. I let my fingers race ahead back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Third Reich's march into Paris in 1940, whilst my head was still answering the first question.

Yep, I think we ended up agreeing (violently or not). I think I am one of those who is guilty of trying to get too much out of a film like SW. But I blame human's innate tendency to pareidolia. Not me. :D

The full experience can only be enjoyed by watching all the films in a row, whilst drinking. Don't forget that one of the better outcomes of Rocky III was Eddie Murphy's great stand-up routine about Jedi Mind-tricking Mr T. :D

Far from it. That's the basis of meta's contention with me, but it's not what I implied. Rather, I insisted on a partial separation of genius and popularity - that Tolkien's legacy in the form of high fantasy was not particularly exceptional (therefore, any name would do), but that it is also independent of his literary merit. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'll put a break in here because I think you are jumping to a conclusion in the next sentence. Partial seperation of genius and popularity? Okay: but the point of genius is that it may take some time to be recognised from the milieu. But if it is genius, then it will be recognised. Popularity is not taken as a snapshot. Not sure what point you are making here; that (immediate) popularity is no measure of merit? I don't particularly want to watch Wagner's Ring Cycle, but I can appreciate the artistic merit involved in having the fourth trumpet play a slightly higher note at the end of a quatrain to give an unheard of subtlety and profundity of nuance. Yep. I can't see how "anyone" could have reproduced the immediate impact and legacy of Tolkien. The landscape would be significantly different, without him. Maybe people like Robert Graves might have filled the vaccuum with their interpretation of the classic mythology.

It's called a discussion. We were talking about PST and ...[dramatic drumroll]... we disagreed. OMG! Can you believe it? Really? Having an opinion is considered hilarious here? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Can we drop the "here" and "there" "us" versus "them" childishness?

Where does it say that?

They're on their third republic. In WW1 the French were almost in open revolt, after some of the more heinously pointless campaigns, like Verdun and the the Somme. There were hundreds of thousands killed in single days of conflict. The Napoleonic wars are regarded as one of the contributing factors to the Great World Wars of the twentieth century.

Yet it's the PT that gets all the criticism. A very unspecific, vague and generic criticism, that could fit the OT just fine for all intents and purposes, too. If you say that SW is [insert epithet] when compared to some renowned piece of literature or cinema, you'll probably be right (though you'll have to support your claims much better than what I've read here), and I'll most likely agree. If you say that the PT is [insert epithet] when compared to the OT, then chances are you are unaware of the effects that nostalgia has in your judgement. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> O come on! Are you saying that The Empire Strikes Back wasn't a better film than ANY of the prequel films? And you are also ignoring the fact that the early films had no / a lot less CGI. Blue screen was still being perfected: it was an immature effect in 1977 (only one moving object in the frame at once); it was still expensive and difficult in 1979 (more than one object moving in the frame), and when CGI turned up it was well and truly overdone with the farcical RotJ. Yes, this did coincide with everyone aging; but MORE IMPORTANTLY it corresponds to the film industry aging. When Spielberg made Jaws, the fact that the shark spent more time being repaired than filmed, meant that the trialoque interplay between Brody, Hooper and Quint had to take centre stage. For the film and our general betterment. GL just kept making films trapped in the 1970s, just with more CGI (I believe he is on record with wishing he could replace ALL actors with CGI). I certainly agree that the OT was not perfect. (In fact, it was a high degree of cheese, wrapped up in spectacular new Special FX delivery mechanism.) It was FIRST, though, and provided a platform for every other film, director and producer to learn from.

Rome:Total War is brilliant. Can't really get into the Barbarian Invasion, though, even with the lure of night and water battles. Don't forget to check out the Total Realism mod.

What about a maliciously evil sorcererous paladin?

I don't think there is actually an OT versus PT deliniation, and I think that is disingenuous you make that observation. More, I think that GL's films have been on the slide for a long time, so any further films need to reverse a siginficant entropic trend.

The prequels had extensive CGI effects. A great advertisement for ILM. The plot, dialogue, script, acting, entertainment value, etc were completely without merit. Yep, it was crap too. Just like the next two films: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: Battle for Endor. No, but it just became neuron-meltingly obvious as his films carried his peculiar filmmaking to its logical extreme. Yes. Yes. Lightsaber battles. But that was it. The dialogue wasn't good enough for a dubbed Japanese cartoon. So what are the redeeming features of the prequels? Lightsaber battles? MORE CGI? I don't give a toss about GL and his inability to make films. What I am annoyed at is the time I have lost watching the infantile crap he foisted on us. Talking down to people is no way to tell a story. You might like bright flashing lights and think that makes a good film. I don't. Cf. RotS and Serenity.

The owl looks quite irritated. I wouldn't want to be a squirrel-shaped messenger, sent to give an update of some unplesant situation ... :ph34r:

They aren't going to bomb France: there are US soldiers' graves there!

That's true, Return on Investment is king for the investor, having said that though I have always been led to believe that this was a PC title. The mention in the company report just adds a refererence to "next generation console", not distancing itself from the PC. It is far too small a piece of information to make any conclusions from.

First time I've read someone take the "blame" for a poor K2.

Did you even read the link? Chris Avellone

Have you seen their job lists :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Typical. Japanese weirdos place out all their kinky fetishes with

I like the advert; it always seems like the Final Fantasy attacks are stupidly over-powered. Like channelling the energy fourteen large black holes into a flying kick to an opponent, that does several hundred hitpoints of damage (and gives them a broken fingernail).

Have you seen their job lists :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Typical. Japanese weirdos place out all their kinky fetishes with

:Darque:

This is my understanding of it: In a rather amusing paradox, the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail are suing Dan Brown for copying 'their' ideas while maintaining that their book is non-fiction. If their book is fictional and the ideas are of their own imagining, they may have a case against Dan Brown. However, they claim their work to be non-fiction, based on research. If that is true, Dan Brown might easily have accessed the same sources for his novel. Therefore, in order to win their case, they must effectively admit that their book is fiction, and not non-fiction as they previously claimed. I don't think they have much of a chance, but there is a chance the court case will delay the release of the movie version. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The point is that Holy Blood, Holy Grail has re-entered the book bestselling charts, where it dominated for the entire eighties with the sequels Messianic Legacy (great half a book on the historical life of Jesus the Christ) and the third one, about the Freemasons. So irregardless of the outcome of the court case, Michael Baigent et alia have had their licence to print money re-issued by the controversy. And also don't forget that this was all used to great effect in Deus Ex, as well.

I expected it from someone but not from you meta, never from you. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, I only added it after you rejected the very reasonable advice and assistance of my fellow forumites. Given your new stated position and level of patience, there is little else to do except by a game pad.