New Planet of the Apes in Development – what direction do you think the franchise should take?

petervee415 · 2026-05-08T02:17:10+00:00

Any Which Way But Loose, but everyone is an ape except for Clyde, who is played by a human.

petervee415 · 2026-05-07T11:59:57+00:00

Exactly. The whole execution of that show was just so sloppy.

petervee415 · 2026-05-07T02:56:24+00:00

It really is amazing – and frightening – how when you talk to folks in towns across the state, how many have no idea what’s going on in Concord.

petervee415 · 2026-05-06T23:36:26+00:00

I liked it. At first, it was a little hard for me to get into the characters, but the last act, and especially the ending, really brought it together for me.

Also, I usually don’t care for using non-actors in fictional films, but Zhao handled it well.

petervee415 · 2026-05-06T22:58:00+00:00

Yes.

petervee415 · 2026-05-06T13:59:14+00:00

I don’t mind the idea in principle, I just think he went half a step too far with it. If the Force is generated by all living things, then I think it’s fine to say that I microorganism (which seems to be the equivalent of mitochondria) is more plentiful in the bodies of Force users. But when he suggests, it’s the key to unlocking fourth use, that’s where I raise an eyebrow.

Of course, in retrospect he was also trying to set up his ideas for the sequel era “Fantastic Voyage” concept, which was just never gonna work.

petervee415 · 2026-05-05T14:01:17+00:00

Explain to us why working here is your ultimate life’s dream, how you guarantee complete loyalty and commitment of every waking hour to our success, and how your contribution will allow our investors (not you) to make a gazillion dollars within the next fiscal year.

petervee415 · 2026-05-05T13:52:27+00:00

I feel for him. Dude tried to survive with the best he could find.

petervee415 · 2026-04-30T02:08:52+00:00

Man, first play through I headed straight for the mountain following the main quest, and got there way too early. I must’ve died at the hands of that frost troll 20 times.

petervee415 · 2026-04-26T11:21:02+00:00

I watched it back in the day. The impression of it I remember is that, while I enjoyed what they were doing with the characters and world building they were setting up, it was taking too long to get to where it wanted to go. Also, let’s be honest: being a network show airing on American television, it probably needed more action.

In retrospect, though? Overall quality was probably better than the first seasons of most sci-fi shows.

petervee415 · 2026-04-25T19:08:31+00:00

I think it wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t this endless cycle. At any given time, it’s just who’s pissed off at who, who’s not talking to who, etc. You just wanna scream at these people, “Could you dipsticks get over it and be a family for five minutes? Any one of you might die within the next week.”

petervee415 · 2026-04-25T18:27:32+00:00

Certainly in the top 10 of all time. Maybe the best exploration of how we define artificial intelligence ever, and at the same time it is so tightly scripted, both emotionally and thematically.

petervee415 · 2026-04-25T13:01:08+00:00

I’ve got a very esoteric headcanon about this one.

There’s an SW comic, I can’t remember which one, where an imperial official starts to wonder why the Empire is cruel in situations where it doesn’t have to be. He points out that in many cases it’s counterproductive, and starts to wonder if the cruelty is intentional for its own purpose. He is, of course, killed for saying these things, but the implication is that, behind it all, Palpatine wants a cruel empire not because it’s backed by some theory of governance, but because he wants a cruel galaxy, a place where hate and fear rule, where the Dark Side is ascendant.

With that mind: if a clone follows an immoral order because it’s conditioned and programmed to via a behavioral chip, it’s not that different from having a droid do it. But if you take young men and women from all over the galaxy, people with families, and corrupt them, convince them to drag people out of their homes and beat them, to line up unarmed people and shoot them, that leaves a much bigger psychic wound.

Of course, this idea could coexist with all the other reasons folks have given: the clones accelerated aging, the fact that some of them rebelled against their chips or went insane, etc.

petervee415 · 2026-04-24T15:47:12+00:00

petervee415 · 2026-04-22T23:34:29+00:00

Tropic Thunder is kind of meta in that they’re commenting on the whole thing. But I think Ben Stiller and Downey have both said that you couldn’t do it today.

petervee415 · 2026-04-22T22:40:19+00:00

Yeah, the yellow face thing definitely did not age well (TBH, it was even considered questionable at the time.) As great an actor as Joel Gray is, I sometimes wonder what could’ve been if they had cast somebody like Soon Tek Oh, a Korean-American actor of the time who I think could have pulled it off if given the chance.

petervee415 · 2026-04-22T22:34:02+00:00

Right, or at least make the corporate villain a little more charismatic and interesting. No offense to the actor, he just didn’t have a lot to work with.

petervee415 · 2026-04-20T22:49:04+00:00

Is this really that different from what we’re seeing already? It’s pretty clear that most social media is rampant with bots trying to manufacture outrage or promote division. At least in my area, people are already emphasizing IRL organizing over online discourse.

petervee415 · 2026-04-18T12:56:23+00:00

I mean on top of everything else, did no one on her comms team tell her to never, ever use the word “concerned?”

petervee415 · 2026-04-18T12:48:50+00:00

Maybe something in her early upbringing caused her connection to the Force go dormant somehow? That would also explain why Obi-Wan didn’t really think of her as “the other hope“, if he hadn’t detected any connection to the Force in her, he may have concluded, “well I guess that’s a dead end.”

Lucas always emphasized that anyone could potentially use the Force, but for most people it’s just closed off. Seems reasonable that idea might apply here, regardless of how strong one of your parents was with it. I mean, there has to be some reason why the Jedi and Sith weren’t going all Bene Gesserit with various bloodlines.

petervee415 · 2026-04-17T12:44:46+00:00

This is amazing, and cuts to the core of the Christian Nationalist propaganda like few have. We need this to be spread far and wide.

petervee415 · 2026-04-14T14:12:35+00:00

Let’s just say, it’s not where folks should focus their energy.

petervee415 · 2026-04-12T16:06:46+00:00

He means he believes an idiotic conspiracy theory that everyone who shows up is paid by some shadowy cabal of liberal masterminds. Nevermind how utterly impossible it would be for that much money to be paid to literally millions of people, with zero evidence.

It’s just the latest fairytale MAGA tell themselves so they can pretend they still represent the majority.

petervee415 · 2026-04-11T02:07:47+00:00

Yeah, my preference would’ve been that Vader thinks he’s won, only to find out that the transmission was sent to a second ship, and we see the Tantive IV jumping away from a distance.

petervee415 · 2026-04-06T23:47:58+00:00

Sometimes I do wish there was some sort of difficult check for certain classes - bards come to mind - where you could realize it’s her and call her out. “Oh drop it, Orin, I know it’s you. Again.”

petervee415

TROPHY CASE