Set wands to stun, Mr. Baggins.
Lusipurr and SiliconNooB board the FellowShip Enterprise, and beam down with Capt. Reynolds, Mr. Snape, and Dr. Who to Hill Valley, 12 November, 1955, to defeat the Eye of Voldemort and Darth Tannen, who are trying to use the One Wand to rule the galaxy.
Dancing MattPlease Hammer, don’t hurt ’em.
Dancing MattI’ll root for West Indies as it’s my closest-to-home team. I think the stadium in my county is affiliated with them too. Can someone link to a list where all the games will be played?
LusipurrAll of the World Cup games are being played in Australia and New Zealand.
Here’s a link to the fixtures and dates (in GMT): http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/23501452
LusipurrYesterday night, England thrashed the West Indies in their warm-up game. Demolished them. Woakes was on a hat trick in the first over, and only missed getting it by a hair (if that).
LusipurrNote: I was going to talk about Majora’s Mask 3D in this podcast, but I’m saving that for next week. We’ll see if I remember!
KisakiProjectI love the Hobbit discussion. I agree with all your points though I probably would have been harsher.
Lusipurr@Kisaki: My scorn is pretty intense. I think if anything I moderated it for this podcast.
There’s a scene in the second movie where the Ranger gal and the Dwarf guy are leering at each other romantically, and the music swells, and there is a light source shining down on them through the trees or something. When I saw this in the theatre, I actually exclaimed, “Jesus Christ!” prompting my wife to elbow me in the ribs.
KisakiProjectThat’s awesome. I saw the second one with my fiancee for our “anniversary” and we spent the rest of evening lamenting how terrible it was instead of enjoying each others company. In particular the tumblr-esque dwarf elf love abomination cause the greatest offense. I think I updated my status at the time to something like “I can’t believe I paid money to watch Peter Jackson rape Tolkien’s corpse.” I think the best article I read on it was the Desolation of Tolkien by Daniel Larison. I have yet to see the third and have no intention to do so sober. And likely will make quite a scene when I finally inflict it upon myself.
Lusipurr@Kisaki: All I can say is hang on tight. Because Bilbo was unconscious for most of the battle (a fact which Jackson disregards anyway), there is little description of the fight in the book. Hence, Jackson et al. have had free reign to improvise, with particularly ridiculous effects.
The death scenes are handled well enough, I have to say. As for the rest, it’s bollocks.
LegendaryAppleThe first Hobbit movie is the best, Smaug the worst. I must say that I had the most fun watching Five Armies because I spent a good chunk of the film laughing at how absolutely silly everything was. As stupid as it all was, I had a very good time watching it, so time well spent.
As for Harry Potter, I must say I’m sorry that SiliconNooB didn’t enjoy Goblet of Fire. It’s my second favorite in that Octalogy. Azkaban takes top spot.
In the case of both Harry Potter and The Hobbit, the books are FAR superior to the films.
Lusipurr@LegendaryApple: We might have some serious difficulty trying to come up with movies where the films are better than the books.
Actually, I’ve just thought of one: Twilight, because it’s over in ninety minutes, which is less time than it takes to read the miserably-written, excremential text.
EthosWhile I’ve never read the book, the general consensus seems to be that Fight Club‘s movie version is superior to the novel. The author agrees, if I remember correctly.
I have not seen any of the Hobbit movies and have never had much of a desire to. Maybe in a decade for a good laugh.
LegendaryAppleI was going to comment that Fight Club was an example but you beat me to it, Ethos! I prefer the movie ending to that of the book, and I always felt that the movie took the subject matter further than the book did. Both are great and I only hold the movie above the book by a tiny margin.
When people argue about Fight Club, it usually comes down to which ending you prefer.
Other than that, I can’t really think of any other movies that were better than the books.
SiliconN00B@Lusi: I’d wager that Kubrick’s ‘The Shinning’ is better than the Stephen King book of the same name, though I’ve not read it.
WolfeJust want to say that I -really- enjoyed listening to you two talk about both the film and books of two of the most prominent fantasy series out there. I agree with most the points made in both conversations, and the points I didn’t were so miniscule I can’t remember what they were. I’m not happy with what I’ve seen of the new Hobbit trilogy, for the record.
Also really enjoyed the analysis of the Harry/Draco home life influence. Humility does seem to be a point driven home many times in the series, and some part of me thinks that’s a very English manner, and one which I quite agree with.
Always looking forward to the next read from Interview. Finally ordered my own copy and intend to re-read it just for the more personal experience. Thanks for re-introducing me to the series. I didn’t realize it’d strike a chord with me.
Re: Chris and the blocks of Zestria. For the love of god, get a reaction from him. Even if you wait a while, and leave him confused, deliver us a response from him. I absolutely need to hear his reaction to this.
Great show, as usual gents.
WolfeOh, and the Back to the Future score lead in was great. I couldn’t help but grin. I highly encourage random musical pieces from anything and anywhere as lead-ins to the show (provided you can do so legally).
Grand Bupapest Hotel sounds wonderful, and I can’t wait to see what you lot come up with for it. The phone call idea sounds hysterical. And this reminds me that I still haven’t seen the actual Grand Budapest Hotel film and need to.
Ethos@SN – Of course! I knew there was another that was escaping me.
LusipurrI can confirm that a block of Zestria has been ordered.
Mel@SN:
The movie is amazing, but the book humanizes the characters a lot more while having a LOT more disturbing imagery and ghost encounters, context for the former residents, and sad slow plunge into madness that goes almost entirely skipped in the movie. And I don’t think it’s just because reading a book can be more personal and maybe gratifying, there’s just more depth to everything involved, including Torrence’s alcoholism and past years as a teacher, and his brush with child abuse from his father and with his own son. The wife also comes off a bit stronger in the book. And there’s a whole element with a giant boiler that’s about to explode throughout the entire novel. Halloran, the chef, is given more exposition and so is the notion of “the shining” itself.
The movie helps to visualize the novel, and since I watched the movie before I read the book of course I had all the actors and sets in my mind while reading. I don’t endorse King much but this book is a really fun horror read.
EthosThe slow plunge into madness goes entirely skipped in the movie? I don’t know about that. It’s just done with cinematic language, I’d argue.
MelI felt like he went pretty much from unpossessed to possessed by the hotel in the movie. He either was or wasn’t acting irrationally. In the book he battles constantly with himself and the hotel, regretting and second guessing himself a lot. There’s just not enough room in the movie to show all of that, which is more or less the problem with most movie adaptations from books.
EthosI haven’t studied it enough to articulate a counterpoint, but that’s not the sense I got. But I also don’t have the book to compare it to, so my anchor points are different.
MelIn fairness, it might just be that the book labors over that aspect so much that, by comparison, it seems to me that the movie never touches on it.
EthosFair enough. Also, Kubrick is just such a great composer of cinema that perhaps I give the benefit of the doubt too easily. Like I said, my feelings are just reaction, not studied opinion.
BupWait… where’s Dice Admiral?!
Lusipurr@Bup: Too much infoblast. Blew himself apart. Splat.
DiceAdmiral“@Bup: Too much infoblast. Blew himself apart. Splat.”
Not too far off the mark. I have been making a lot of splats while blowing my nose. I’m terribly ill AND busy this week. I might be able to find time today though.
DiceAdmiralInfo Blast doesn’t need roads where it’s going
This week’s panel
Silicon Noob
Lusipurr
Also featuring:
Bup
Upcoming Features
Written Review
-Eternal Sonata
NEWS
EA: Our games are too hard to learn
Bup Talk
Favorite Harry Potter book
Imitanis Literature Corner
Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice
Finally! Some more real vampires! Awesome!
Imitanis Gaming Moment
*Segment cut for sake of posting the entire post*
DiceAdmiral Travel Moment
*Segment cut for sake of posting the entire post*
Final Notes
If you’re doing classic cinema theme songs then I’d love to hear E.T.
Today I learned that the US has a cricket team.
“I’d like to see every listener donate for Zestria” So like 10 blocks?
Donators
Cumulative total record holder: Imitanis
Single Donation record holder: Imitanis
Donators eligible for end of year drawing: 3
Lusipurr@DiceAdmiral:
Whoa! It’s an Info Blast from the Past! Approproiate, given the parody opening…
“I’d like to see every listener donate for Zestria” So like 10 blocks?
More like 7. :(
“Donators eligible for end of year drawing: 3”
Bzzzrt! ;)
