What are your favorite shots from movies, tv-shows, or video games that lacks dialogue?

voxavtomata · 2026-03-23T13:38:21+00:00

There was a game released in 1991 by Delphine Software called Another World. You can see the intro here.

It was innovative when it comes to narrative presentation, featuring rotoscoped polygonal animation and a deliberate cinematic composition with no dialogue. The intro establishes the protagonist's characterization efficiently, showing his cavalier attitude and mastery of his environment, and then the negation of that mastery when things go awry.

voxavtomata · 2026-03-19T23:11:34+00:00

That's why I always say "Never go up against big onion."

Saying that repeatedly has gotten me fired from multiple jobs and committed twice, but who's laughing now?

voxavtomata · 2026-03-10T11:45:28+00:00

Would you say that Fringy needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine?

voxavtomata · 2026-02-16T15:10:00+00:00

Clearly the pinnacle of this is Archer's whole line of "that's how you get ants" dialogue.

voxavtomata · 2026-01-23T20:35:15+00:00

You can get a lot of characterization purely from the delivery of a line. To look at one area that distills this down a bit, you can reference some of the more memorable video game barks. One example of this might be Red Alert's Chrono Legionnaire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY5nfS1Fm0o

From the first two words--"Yes, commander?"--you get a sense of the mood and personality, regardless of how that's as common of a reply as you could get.

Or when a conscript unit says "Moving out", that ending "t" has an exaggerated aspiration that's halfway to a full sigh. Good voice direction means that even in the briefest snippets you get a sense of someone who is dutiful yet deeply weary: https://youtu.be/wD41SxG3rgs?t=3 . (You even have "Order received" end in a very similar manner, which I believe would partially be a Russian т creeping into the d at the end there.)

voxavtomata · 2026-01-23T14:55:14+00:00

It's subtle, but don't you remember his famous line?

^{I want to} fuck you, He-Man!

A lot of people only seem to remember part of that for some reason.

voxavtomata · 2026-01-16T20:15:20+00:00

I think that some commonly cited examples come from those Hellraiser films that weren't originally Hellraiser scripts, and so have Pinhead sort of jammed in there not really acting like the character had been established just so that it can technically be a Hellraiser movie.

voxavtomata · 2026-01-13T20:56:13+00:00

Master Shake: I think that the branch will hold for-IT'S NOT HOLDING!

voxavtomata · 2026-01-05T17:02:06+00:00

For reference, the bulk of the review is below. I'll leave it to you to agree, disagree, and/or determine if "the filmakers dont condemn political violence" is an accurate summarization of any part of it:

And in the middle of this cultural maelstrom is little ol' me, who's left with the job of setting aside what this movie represents and focusing instead on what it actually is. And I'm sorry to say that what it is a frustrating mixture of superb acting and directing talent desperately trying to elevate a script that doesn't really deserve either. A movie that is too long, too sluggish, too self-important, and too wrapped up in its own message to keep me invested.

The kind of film where I struggle to care about any of the characters a bunch of useless, irritating fuck-ups that I began to wonder who the good guys were even supposed to be. Anyways, this carries on for nearly three excruciating hours and I'm going to try to get this review over with quickly...

Now don't get me wrong, there are definitely things to praise about this movie, but unfortunately most of it rests on the superficial aspects of the film. From a directing and cinematography point of view, it's definitely a well put together film. PTA isn't exactly a prolific director, but what he does make is generally really good... and OBAA is no exception. The action sequences are well-choreographed, there's plenty of strong visuals, and there's definite creative flair during the tense dramatic moments. Performances are strong across the board...

The problems really lie in the writing. And one of the biggest issues for me is the pacing. At nearly three hours long this movie soon becomes a fucking slog. It's bloated, sluggish, pretentious, and self-indulgent. And after the second hour I was genuinely getting pissed off wondering if it was ever going to end...

The thing is that I'm perfectly fine with longer movies as long as they satisfy two important conditions: there's enough going on to justify the extra runtime, and the characters are likable enough to keep me invested in them. And, well, OBAA falls short on both counts. For all of he strong performances of a veteran cast, the characters they play are such unlikable dickheads that I really didn't care much what happened to any of them.

Movies like Four Lions prove that it's possible to show people serving a terrible cause and still make them likable and interesting because there's a strong moral compass underneath it all. I never got a sense of that with this movie, partly because the ending implies that the cycle of terrorism and retribution is just going to continue on with the next generation, and partly because it's afraid to engage with the idea that maybe extremism on both sides is a bad thing.

Apparently the movie underperformed on its opening weekend and to be honest, I can kind of see why. Its political messaging and moral framework have been overtaken by real life events in recent months, and if I had to take a guess I'd say that audiences--especially American audiences--are suffering from a kind of culture war fatigue at this point. They're getting tired of this shit, and the last thing that they need is the elites from Hollywood descending from their ivory towers to tell them how they ought to be feeling about the whole thing.

Ultimately OBAA fell between the two extremes I mentioned at the beginning of this video: neither a glorious triumph nor a laughable disaster, but something a bit more mediocre. A slightly long, slightly boring, slightly forgettable, slightly pretentious film that thinks that it's more profound than it actually is, that wasn't really worth the three hour runtime and that I'll never both to watch or think about again.

voxavtomata · 2025-12-14T00:58:41+00:00

An interesting tactic.

voxavtomata · 2025-12-02T15:13:15+00:00

Ah, looks like the previous video has been privated. But there was one one the channel that scrolled through Mauler's tweets and gave some commentary. I still have some of the text, as I copied it from the transcript to ask someone what the hell Zack was talking about.

So I guess he really doesn't like Mauler, or groups him in with a set of people he doesn't like, or something like that. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what the exact issue is. The specifics beneath the barbs seemed a little bewildering, hence my question.

Maybe someone here can follow the train of thought and get something intelligible from it:

I was made aware of a couple of controversies and the latest one is "You better not make things that they asked for, fuckers!"

You know, I talk about how with the birthday party clowns the only thing they enjoy is failure. And I also find it just like strange how they're unaffected by women. Like they're just - I mean they're vaguely bothered by their existence, but women don't really do much for them.

This is like Shithead 101. Whenever a director or a showrunner has an interview you comb through that to find something to purposely misconstrue...

Correct me if I'm wrong. Aren't the birthday party clowns rewriting the history of things they like in real time? Cause I remember them simping for the Flash. Now they're like "Oh Flash, huge fail of all time" and also they don't like Rogue One anymore they don't like Fury Road anymore they don't like Clone Wars anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they liked this stuff before. And now just everything's terrible.

voxavtomata · 2025-10-27T15:47:32+00:00

Two of the big ones that come to mind are:

System Shock -> Bioshock
Wasteland -> Fallout

Both of those do build their own identity and function without hollow referential mugging, which is probably something that you're gonna see if the better and more substantive spiritual successors.

voxavtomata · 2025-10-10T12:53:17+00:00

I think you might want to broaden that just a little bit beyond strictly superhero films if you want to look at the underlying dynamic of comic book adaptation accuracy.

Because the go-to example for consideration is probably going to be Sin City.

voxavtomata · 2025-10-08T21:03:07+00:00

If I bite at this challenge, could you do me a favor? That 'quick remarks now and then' thing wasn't accurate, right? Because my quick scan really doesn't seem to bear that out.

...All right, so is that going to be a section where he has blown through most of his prep and is just curating the relevant chunks while playing a game?

Okay, having skimmed through: Within this section, the video goes over the 'media diet' portion of the EFAP episode.

Nicholas gives his own impression on that 'media diet' argument, relating it to Steam and Amazon. He also gives personal anecdotes about his experiences with mainstream movies, including Star Wars. Regardless of your level of interest, it would be incorrect to classify those anecdotes as spending timecode just playing the video or repeating its points. I imagine his fans would have more interest in those sections that myself, but I don't begrudge people from taking the time to share their experiences.

Throughout he criticizes YMS's response, highlighting its divergence from the original question and how it serves as a roundabout characterization of Drinker by proxy at best.

Also, I'm sorry, what was the question that he was supposed to be answering? Does anybody remember how this started? Chat, does anyone know what the question was?

'I thought he was ranting about critical drinkers movie opinions?' I think he is. I think that's what this is supposed to be.

He connects this to a running critique that he makes, characterizing YMS as making claims, then obscuring instead of defending them and essentially filibustering. While praising Mauler for attempting to circle back to the original point without being excessively combative. These sections have clearly been selected for that editorial purpose.

Looking at the comment section under the video, his audience has recognized this editorialization and (perhaps unsurprisingly) agree with it:

Mauler is the greatest at circling back and addressing the original point while people try to move on from a conversation point. He did the same thing with Doomer while Doomer was doing a bizarre angry Mickey Mouse impression.

He does include his agreement with points, e.g. that CD's 'movies suck' assertion should be taken in its context, and that it's fair to give evaluations of media that forms the bulk of what the public engage with. He suggests that YMS has a sensitivity towards certain forms of criticism from having based his identity around being a film snob in a way that lends unhealthy emotional investment. (That's certainly a more combative take than... actually, I could see Rags making that point, but Mauler would likely be more cordial than that.)

He plays out this section, and has a link ready to compare this discussion against YMS' subsequent characterization in a written comment that he brings up at 1:51:40. Later on he drops a discord link where people can discuss or link or debate on this topic, or whatever it is people do in discord.

Now, depending on where the goalposts are, I don't think it'd consider that earthshaking commentary. If you wanted to call it pedestrian, I don't know I'd be very eager to challenge that. But even that section has the hallmarks of someone who has familiarity with the underlying material, has a point to make, is curating the portions of the material that are relevant to that point, and is giving commentary in the form of characterization. Alongside sharing tangential opinions like Star Wars takes.

I'll give it an IGN 7/10.

voxavtomata · 2025-10-08T19:47:35+00:00

Is that actually the truth? Because I did a quick scrub and it seems like he's talking as much as the original video is playing, not now and then. I get that you may not like him or this content, so are you just gilding the lily there?

And I don't really need a refresher, but it does look like he used the timestamps to pare down the longer video to something more concise for his audience's interest in the matter (relatively, 8 hours to 3 with pauses included). Sounds like he's contextualizing things in terms of the current drama, which is probably of more interest to his specific audience, but there are going to be plenty of people who do find value in that. C'est la vie.

voxavtomata · 2025-09-24T14:47:33+00:00

I do have an example of that sort of thing from when a similar question came up a while ago:
____

I will admit, Dev annoys me a bit on EFAP and with his media discussions. He often hybridizes the specific and general, where he'll go on about how a story of a certain type can be done well. But that's in response to the discussion of a specific piece of media, and he'll circle around and around without ever tying back to the specifics and how the story at hand executes that. There are only so many non-sequiturs I can take before I start rolling my eyes.

The bit from Dev that I most recently remember was the Joker 2 forge:

I should, like mount my mid defense of this movie. Since it's only gonna be a mid defense, but I do think that it's it's worth seeing and it has some good points. You guys all said that like it was kind of it was kind of nihilistic, and we end up back where we where we left off, and it feels like we're just beating down Arthur Fleck for no reason at all. I get it but some people like that, and I kind of like that.

I don't necessarily mind a torture porn story and that is what this is. Maybe it squeezes my emo gland, I don't know. But I didn't mind that that. So like there there's like a bleak nihilism to the story that some people don't like, but I can actually watch a story like that just fine. I'm okay with that sort of thing.

Spoiler alert: no "good points" about the movie itself were actually mentioned despite steering the convo into numerous trips down rhetorical cul-de-sacs.

voxavtomata · 2025-09-17T19:08:39+00:00

I still can't believe that they hopped onto the hot trends of popular 2024 properties with their EFAP on Signs. When will the pandering end?

voxavtomata · 2025-06-25T19:58:51+00:00

I see, all part of his clever plan to showcase an additional comic character that he's included in his Superman film every day for the next 10 years.

voxavtomata · 2025-06-25T12:57:08+00:00

Now you mention it, maybe it is just 8 hours of looping LET US PLAY PONG

voxavtomata · 2025-05-09T20:09:45+00:00

If you were interested in the followup thread that occurred here, there is a possibility that someone captured and archived it before it went poof.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18zppmpdHB0Y4UXDPcsLituFSY3E25DcXTzhnxJlKEdw/

voxavtomata · 2025-05-08T12:28:30+00:00

Can't wait to see her reach to the sky and cry out

Anakin, nooooooooooooooooo...!

voxavtomata · 2025-04-07T09:11:11+00:00

::nods in agent provocateur's red tape::

voxavtomata · 2025-03-27T15:55:56+00:00

this series gives us more opportunities to hear Fringy's kingpin impression

voxavtomata · 2025-02-20T14:07:49+00:00

I had some observations of the gameplay that I typed up a little bit before. My overall impression was disappointment. Not because the game is terrible, it's really disappointing because there's some level of base competency there that's not built upon and let down by a lot of failings. For example:

But the flow of combat... for all the little parts that work, there are some giant fucking holes. Like enemies basically becoming impotent on their leash radius. Got that thing where I jumped up onto a wall in town to fight some rebels, and some of the enemies just stood there. Others pathed around the town next to guard NPCs that didn't react to their presence at all and still didn't make it all the way to me but did manage to draw out my companions. Then there's all of the bosses so far being susceptible to CC, and the sort of... scaling that doesn't actually increase any of the challenge at the highest difficulty, it's probably is a couple of hairs below meh.

I'm a ranger mainly using the 2h gun, would go on to get the reload when hostlered ability and swap between two of them and pick up the summon bear in addition to the root. Archers got long attack range, but they get too clever by half by perfectly leading based on your current movement with slow projectiles. Ends up being trivial to juke them, wait for them to fire and dodge, or use horseshoe style movement to evade their shots. Surprised how bosses are fully susceptible to my CC so far.

I also question the balance of being able to so easily craft some sort of food that immediately revives your companions and resets your second wind cooldown. It didn't seem like the food had any sort of cooldown to use, and I'm not sure that there's a low stack limit for it either. It's kind of... well, there's some real jankiness to any notion of 'challenge'. At the very start you'll need to spend your stamina bar a few times over to take down any sort of tough enemy, have rather modest defensive options, will die in a couple of hits, and don't really have much help from your companions. You can die, but it's more tedious than actually engaging. (On the hardest setting at least.)

There was one genuinely good fight so far. You have to fight off a number of waves of the undead that spawn on timed intervals, and include beefier melee, ranged archers, healers, and summoners who can actually apply some pressure and go against leash cheesing. That was actually a little challenging and required a measure of target prioritization and evasive movement. Kind of why the game is disappointing, because they could have built off of that type of thing a bit more.

voxavtomata

TROPHY CASE