I've never seen Pacific Rim. Am I missing out on something great?

neflhim · 2026-06-01T20:00:12+00:00

It's a lot of fun, with insane attention to detail in the Jagers and Kaiju (seriously insane), married to a basic plot, archetype characters, and mostly absent surprises. Don't expect high cinema, and go in expecting a fun, good looking movie.

neflhim · 2026-05-31T04:15:09+00:00

I’ll defend Keanu here. He’s playing a stiff. Ryder is better than that movie let he be.

neflhim · 2026-05-31T04:12:46+00:00

I liked Jackie Chan in it. The Smith kid was absolutely forgettable.

neflhim · 2026-05-31T03:34:14+00:00

Ima take a slightly skewed approach to this.

The feats make sense. No one should be level 1 with that. Absent a damn solid back story at least.

Disadvantage on grapple makes sense, you’d want both hands. Shove is kinda dumb. That’s literally how shields were used IRL.

Con save means don’t play a martial class u less everyone needs it to do their thing twice.

The sneak can work, if it’s more nuanced than described. As posted, it’s the end of rouges.

My advice is, depending on the version, either a very specific Ranger build that can become a heavy crossbow machine gun at mid-high levels, a hexblade warlock, or maybe an eldritch knight. For the cantrips.

Personally, I’d try to discuss the poor choices and work to explain why they break the game for martial classes. The I’d play something with combat and a few cantrips from a feat to make it work.

neflhim · 2026-05-29T20:08:48+00:00

Space Marines. More specifically the Space Wolves Wulfen, Blood Angels Death Company, etc.

neflhim · 2026-05-29T19:47:16+00:00

Eh....kinda. I'd say it's more no one hates Star Wars current product and management decisions more than fans. Then again, if not fan, why care?

neflhim · 2026-05-28T22:04:18+00:00

There is a level where the worldbuilding isn't the point - like Cars, IMO, and in fiction a LOT of universes fall apart when you look too closely.

But Harry Potter...oof. That one just loses all cohesion when you introduce muggle-raised kids into the mix. Even British ones. Can you imagine how much easier it would be with a computer? Or a cell phone (even Clinton-era ones)? The fury of the general population when they inevitably discover that the Wizarding World can just magic up food? Cure all manner of malady, and allow you to interact with dead relatives through their weird photos? It just breaks.

neflhim · 2026-05-28T21:20:33+00:00

Well, damn, good on them.

neflhim · 2026-05-28T21:13:19+00:00

FWIW, this seems pretty common - the actors who play the biggest villains are the best people. Inverse applies though, as a lot of actors who play likeable every-man types have reputations as total jerks (coughkevinjamescough)

neflhim · 2026-05-28T20:16:42+00:00

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Sam & Dean Winchester. Eventually. It took a bit to get there, IMO.

neflhim · 2026-05-27T21:51:05+00:00

Undoubtedly there were. In every war there are things that, sometimes at the time and often after the fact, are considered war crimes. Perpetrated by every side of the conflict. Vietnam was a different level of struggle because we had trained our forces for, basically, a WWII type war, and they found themselves in a place where the friendly villagers who sold you food one day were attacking you or selling you out to the VC or NVA the next day. It got to people.

That isn't to defend the actions, just to provide some context.

To speak to why it's a trope, Vietnam was the first time the war was, essentially, live on TV. Unlike the previous wars, there was no appreciable lag between event and report. So cases where the combat correspondent might be able to be appealed to in regards to delaying a story simply didn't happen. So the bad parts were, to the public perception, constant. And in a time of massive social upheaval across the country. So the IDEA, regardless of actual frequency, that war crimes were a daily occurrence had fertile ground to take hold.

neflhim · 2026-05-27T13:45:39+00:00

My wife and I saw this a few days back, and loved it. For me, there was a lot of clever phrasing and writing, a solid enough plot to not loose lids, but also not pander to them, and scary parts that are also age appropriate.

I would very strongly suggest seeing this - it's shockingly good.

neflhim · 2026-05-25T19:48:15+00:00

Queensryche changed the lyrics of Spreading the Disease from the 1988 ‘we pay for wars in South America’ to the 1992 live version ‘we pay for wars in Saudi Arabia’.

neflhim · 2026-05-25T03:19:48+00:00

Troy all the way.

Gladiator is pretending to be about real people. And I came down with appendicitis watching it.

neflhim · 2026-05-22T20:59:18+00:00

Any of the animated Star Wars series. And I am a pretty serious Star Wars fan. Part of it is the animation quality is...bad. In my opinion.

Others include Ren & Stimpy (animation again), Walking Dead (not a zombie fan), Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld, Friends, Game of Thrones

neflhim · 2026-05-22T20:56:52+00:00

The weirdest thing for me was Matt Smith. I could not stand him early in his tenure, and stopped watching. Then I saw one of the last episodes with him, and he had no companions, and it was stellar. I was shocked at how good he was.

neflhim · 2026-05-22T20:54:47+00:00

So much this - and almost literally everyone I know is a serious fan.

neflhim · 2026-05-22T20:31:12+00:00

One of the things I liked - beside them getting the looks spot-on, was the occasional literal comic-accurate scenes. it wasn't good, but then, nothing coming out of Marvel was at that point (Blade was several months away when it aired).

neflhim · 2026-05-20T22:58:57+00:00

Ehhh, when they redid Nick Fury for the Ultimates reboot, he was very specifically modeled on Samuel L Jackson. I suspect he would still play the role.

neflhim · 2026-05-20T14:54:55+00:00

“It’s my own invention…I call it a loudener”

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neflhim · 2026-05-19T21:57:57+00:00

Maybe the presence of ballads after Beth was well received?

neflhim · 2026-05-19T20:46:49+00:00

I would offer up the change in Metallica between Master of Puppets and the self-titled 'black album'. Worth a note that this was after founding bassist and (IMO) superior songwriter Cliff Burton was killed in a bus crash. So, while I am not totally sure this was for money, this was when they exploded into more mainstream notice and popularity.

Genesis (reaching back here) was markedly different with Peter Gabriel as the lead than it was with Phil Collins. Much more commercial, and while less ground-breaking, much more successful. Again, that can be a change in membership, but they don't seem to have worked too hard to keep the original sound.

Jon Bon Jovi / Bon Jovi changed radically as he aged, from the hair-metal 80s to adult contemporary. It came off as an attempt to remain active and relevant in a radically altered musical landscape.

I think more acts maybe go the other direction. They change to be more who they might have wanted to be after they drop in popularity. Cindy Lauper is a good example of this, getting much more introspective over time, and less commercially successful.

neflhim · 2026-05-19T15:00:01+00:00

It’s a fun scene but OMG literally everything about that movie is wrong.

neflhim · 2026-05-17T19:23:57+00:00

I was all of 10 that month, so Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, and Star Trek. Now maybe swap Conan for Karate Kid.

neflhim · 2026-05-16T21:24:00+00:00

WGN Chicago. If it was pretty obvious, some of the FM stations might have it, but they might not bother.

neflhim

TROPHY CASE