Recent content by Mercurius

Pleasantly surprised. Not hugely so, but my annoyance only veered to mild plus level, while my enjoyment was solidly moderate (moderate > mild). There were a few standout annoying things. The hologram character. Some bad CGI (the Thing alien looked really bad, like 2005 CGI. Some of the other...

Well, it doesn't have to be the Fortress of Solitude or the Bat Cave. If you've got super powers you can probably manage to get a cabin in the woods somewhere. All of this is contingent on what powers you have. If you're Eleven it is a lot harder than if you're Superman. If you've got...

It would be virtually impossible to evade capture for long. Think of the blatantly bogus reasons that certain countries use to do things, and voila, you're a "national security threat" or you're framed for doing X, Y, and Z. Or the good old false flag. And every powerful nation will want to put...

At this point it is stating the obvious, but The Sopranos killed long-form TV (i.e. the 24 episodes per season format). Or at least the momentum built by the The Sopranos eventually made long-form TV more and more secondary, even peripheral. It upped the bar on what a "good tv show" looks like...

My Top Five Cream of the Crop TV Series: In no particular order, thought Leftovers might be first among near-equals. The Leftovers - Started watching this when it came out, watched the first two seasons and really liked it, but for some reason didn't watch S3, which I just finished up a month...

Cool - so worth doubling up on what Morrus already said. p.s. It is ok not to read the whole thread.

I. PREAMBLE: Some Ruminations on Favorite vs. Best, and the Cream (huh?) In a recent thread, Morrus made a side comment about differentiating "best" and "favorite" when it comes to film. I have gone back and forth about this, and actually veer more towards Morrus' side. On one hand, I get the...

After watching the finale, my general pre-finale view is solidified: It was fun, but lacked the range that made the early seasons so great. The "human moments" were all annoyingly similar and trite: "I need affirmation and reassurance now!" "OK, you're awesome! You've got this!" Rinse and...

Well, I wasn't really comparing them in that way, and don't disagree - though also don't see the need to pull out the measuring stick to compare them. Ha. If anything, I was saying something similar - that Bond is iconic and has attained a kind of "permanence" to it, where death is only...

I sort of suspect that Doom does something with time, and assembles the original Avengers...though why, is hard to imagine, unless to participate in Secret Wars, or maybe because Doomstark has some kind of weird affinity with Ironstark's old teammates. But I kind of suspect Doomsday will be the...

Out of curiosity, how many times were previous Bond story elements with different actors mentioned in some way in later films? I believe that Roger Moore visited the grave of George Lazenby's dead wife, and there was of course continuation with different actors (e.g. Q, Money Penny, etc). But it...

One more thing on the MCU. I think what made Phase One to Three so successful is the patience I mentioned above. They alluded to Thanos as early as the Avengers (2012), if not before, with the story not resolving for seven more years. That gave them time to develop the characters further, as...

And another...This one took longer, because I found myself getting lost in various internet threads and multiverses.... THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE, aka MCU 2.0: THE MUTANT VERSION First, a caveat. I've sort of fallen away from the MCU since Endgame. Of the 14 Phase Four to Six movies, I've...

JAMES BOND What We Know: Nothing. At least as far as I can tell, and beyond the fact that Craig Bond died so anything they do will be a complete reboot, even if still known as Bond 26. We also know it will be James, not Jane. The Big Question - Who?: According to a brief AI-augmented search...