They did put effort. Early MCUs are critizied for having weak villains, and phase 3 is where they start making villains more nuanced. Character developments are plenty in these movies.

Arthouse movies. Nowadays it's mostly indie movies and movies made by acclaimed directors. Mainstream movies are considered garbage by people who loves these type of films. Remember the whole Martin Scorsese hates Marvel fiasco? That's basically it. They're fantastic movies, but I'll be lying if there weren't some pretentious bullshit and snobbery stemming from those kind of movies and audiences. Especially the film snobs.

Not sure about a Secret Santa, but I'm definitely interested in a toy exchange or something. I got a lot of extra Toku Toys I'd like to give a new home.

What is high cinema? Is it like high (epic?) fantasy?

High Cinema is when a movie or theater is pushed out of a plane at very high altitudes.

High Cinema is when you take some drugs before you go to the movie theater.

You also gain a similar effect by getting repeatedly bitch slapped till you see stars (or in my case dancing skulls) right before watching a movie.

Anyone who’s a snob about it doesn’t care so much about the art and what it means to them as much as they care about having some reason to sneer down at others. Elitism is antithesis to any art form.

*removed for potentially political/controversal contents*

Ah-fucking-men.

The thing with this discussion is that both sides tend to be fucking morons, MCU movies are basically popcorn movies, you watch them for fun and enjoy the ride, which is perfectly fine, some people prefer movies that want deep messages with truly fancy camera work and whatnot, they're also perfectly fine. There's no right or wrong answer here but people blow this shit out of proportion

No duh, I enjoy all types of art. I'm someone who enjoys plenty of dumb shit seeing that I'm on a Toku forum after all. I'm personally tied of the MCU, Pixar, etc. being considered to be the end of the be all of cinema. Not to mention, I'm sick of movies trying to copy off of MCU's style. Not every superhero or big budget movie needs to be upbeat with dumb jokes mixed into the movie. I'm not saying every movie needs to be dark and edgy. You can have a fun upbeat movie without trying to copy off of MCU.

My biggest issues with the MCU is that they are almost always allergic to actually talking about serious subject matter in a way that doesn’t feel like it was watered down for the Disney Channel. When watching these movies, I never feel like that I care what was going on. That's why I started to lose interest with these movies after Civil War. The comics handle their themes and stories better in my opinion.

You also have the casual people who like to bash on high art movies too. They are just as bad as the film snobs. After all, two wrongs don't make a right. I do agree with Martin Scorses that the MCU are just pop corn flicks and nothing more. You also have people like David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam that also feels the same way. Hollywood needs more variety like they used too. Most movies these days are superhero movies, sequels to older movies aka nostalgia money gabs, bad romantic comedies, and other big budget movies based on children's franchises (Transformers).

Being a pop corn flick is not always a good excuse in my opinion. Movies like Terminator 2, Death Wish 3, the first two Predator movies, Ronin, etc. are pop corn flicks and I consider them to be better than all the MCU movies in my opinion.

I totally agree. Let people enjoy what they like (unless it's something dangerous or illegal). I honestly hated when you have MCU fans that try to review bomb The Irishman because they didn't like his opinion on the MCU. You can easily ignore his opinion and carry on with your life.

Modern popcorn flicks peaked at Pacific Rim. Everyone's favorite movie of all time is at least 10 years old now because movies back then weren't so concerned about becoming trilogies, selling merch, or systematically winning oscars.

So high cinema is just a figure of speech?

Basically but also covered in a bit a shit when used.

Review bombing is the most childish fucking thing I've seen on the internet, I remember when Last Jedi came out that countless bots on Rotten Tomatoes screaming about how the movie ruined Star Wars forever and is a disgrace to the franchise, yada yada yada. I know for a fact they were bots as they posted those reviews on the page of A Shape of Water. There's also someone who was so pissed off Joker was put in Smash that they reviewbombed the shit out of every SMT game on Metacritic

People seem to have this kneejerk reaction against things they don't agree with, not just movies, before even giving it a chance. I don't exactly know what that's supposed to say about internet culture but it's pretty disappointing.

Welp, speaking of movies I heard Borat 2 is gonna be a thing. That was unexpected.

I didn’t say they didn’t put in any effort. I said they need to put into more effort. Nuanced villains in phase three is nice and all but that doesn’t resolve some of the one note characters and copy and paste storylines. I’m no film snob as there are plenty of trashy art house films too, but by the numbers stories and jokes are just cringe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCb1zjhun3s
Get you weapons people. The hunt begins. Nobody punches Rick Moranis. NOBODY!!!

FINALLY, something worth fighting for.

This really infuriates me. Not just because it is many people's childhood hero Rick Moranis being punched, but assaulting a person minding their own business for no good reason?

I heard about this. This really pisses me off!!!

I mean elitist fans are the worst, no matter what fandom they came. That's why people hate gatekeepers so much. People just want to enjoy things, but elitist people sneered around just because they wanted to appear superior to others.

Hell, I love MCU, but I despise MCU stans. Being passionate about things are fine, but acting snobby and hostile towards others is not. That's how toxic fandoms are born.

Regardless, Scorsese is right. If movies like Ferris Bueller was make in this day and age, it would have bombed. Cinemas now rely on franchise (and horror) to make money, even comedies are a risk. If anything it creates a divide between popcorn flicks and art movies.

Having franchise movies are fine, but another problem is Hollywood is creatively bankrupt. Not every movie needs to be MCU, as much as I despise the Snyderverse at the very very very least I kinda appreciate that they're trying to be different, just executed horribly. I don't know, we're the generation that grows up watching these shows, we want to see the likes of TMNT, Power Rangers and the like to be executed well on the big screen. It is why people like Bumblebee so much. Yeah it's basically ET, but it was the Transformers movies that people wanted. A step in the right direction.

Lastly regarding of MCU, they do need to change the formula. Superhero fatigue exists when there's mediocre movies. If most of the movies are Ant-Man and the Wasp level of quality then it is dead. People are already growing tired of it, so Phase 4 needs to be refreshing.

Also why. Who the fuck would punch Rick Moranis? Bill Pullman?

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I have no idea who Rick Moranis is, but who one Earth goes around punching people like that out of the blue anyways?

No need to be ashamed, got you covered. He used to be part of what was pretty much the equivalent of SNL in Canada called SCTV decades ago from the mid 70s to mid 80s and later went on to be in movies such as Strange Brew, Spaceballs, Ghostbusters I and II, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels, Little Giants, etc.

Moranis is an unbelievably talented actor.

And he quietly gave it all up to take care of his kids after his wife passed.

I've been really swamped with college lately and it's starting to get to me. I need to get back to writing or doing something expressive.

Perhaps try a hobby that's not too time-consuming and can be one in short periods of time? Like reading or working on fanart? For example, I sometimes edit the Kamen Rider Wiki which I can do in short bursts of time while I'm on break.

Also, getting back to writing? Interested to know what you've written.

This. :rock:
I remember hearing about this a while back and if this act does not deserve respect I don't know what does.

Honestly it's amazing that some actors have up their career for the sake of their family. I remembered that Chris O'Donnell could have been a huge movie star, but he chose his family and that that is why he's just working on small screen instead.

Well, family is always important so mad respects to Mr. Moranis.

So how does he generate income now?

He made albums and worked on small acting roles iirc, mostly jobs that enable him to prioritize his fanily. He is however making a comeback in a Honey I Shrunk the Kids sequel for Disney+.

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing alright. I've got the weekend to myself basically, so that's nice.

Just watched the Fandom Highlight episode of Let's Talk Toku, and they sadly didn't use the clip I sent in for the episode. I'm not sad about it. TBH my clip was straight up boring compared to the creative stuff everyone else sent in.

Still, they asked for ideas for topics. Maybe I'll try contacting them to talk about Toku Anime. Doubt they'd have me on the show itself, but hey, if they still end up using the topic itself, that's good enough for me!

I have a series I work on from time to time. A lil' fantasy/sci-fi thing that's... so far mostly worldbuilding than getting any stories actually down.

I am trying to push myself to get good a Blender, and I really really need to understand that I won't be great at it after a day.

That's the hardest part of training, is knowing that you're going to suck at something for a while. It can be dispiriting, but as long as you can (and this may sound dumb) get a little bit more confident in sucking at something, you'll eventually get better.

Like, it'll help to get a little faster at screwing something up, or getting more aware of when you make a mistake. Little things, you know? Just keep failing and you'll eventually succeed. That's what I learned from Kamen Rider Blade, anyway.

(Sorry, we're talking about Tachibana in the Hibiki thread. But I do think you can make it if you're okay being bad at something at first!)

I mean you're not wrong. The best way to grow is to fail then learn. A confidence boost would be nice tbh, gotta work on that as best I can.

Also does anyone want me to bid on this ultraman lot? I feel like it's going to stay relatively cheap, and I love snagging a deal.

I finished Build Divers Re:Rise S1. My biggest regret is that I didn't watch it when it first came out. Although if I did I probably wouldn't watch the amazing dub.

Also, my ears are getting pretty itchy lately and it's driving my Q-tip addiction wild. Ughhh.

Happy 5th anniversary to Kamen Rider Ghost!!