TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Voyage Home's ending is a great triumphal end to the II-IV trilogy, no doubt about it.

And, yeah, when I talk about the final season of DS9 being a mess, I'm almost entirely talking Dukat.  (The Breen are messy, too, I guess--it is anybody's guess why they join the losing side of the war, other than the prospect of some Cardassian territories that they could have seized more easily through military force, by joining the winners--but they're just too cool not to enjoy.  And I suppose it helps the drama when the Dominion gets some new allies, and isn't quite so obviously Germany in late '44 in terms of ability to win the war or even fight the Allies to a standstill.)

But the disconnect between the pagh-wraiths/Dukat/Emissary stuff and the Dominion War is crazy, especially given that the Prophets, the pagh-wraiths' mortal enemies, are also the only thing keeping the Dominion from swooping in with reinforcements that would dwarf the Alpha Quadrant powers and end the war in weeks.  It almost seems impossible that those two threads weren't tied together.  It's a real problem in the finale, which is thus obligated to climax twice, to provide an ending to two completely separate (and somewhat tonally dissonant) storylines.

You know, for some reason I thought the Breen came in a bit earlier in the war, but then I actually looked and it was three quarters of the way through the last season.  I guess it was a way to create a little more tension in the war. 

Yeah, I think it would have been better if they'd ended the Dominion War 2 episodes before the finale, and then run the pah wraith bit afterwards.  It just seemed too overloaded, like in the Phantom Menace when you were switching from the droid battle to the lightsabre duel to Anakin in space to Padme fighting in the corridors.  And the dual climaxes in the same episode was a bit jarring.  Also, I'm not 100% sure that I really liked Dukat as the instrument of the pah wraiths.  The problem is that everyone was just so in love with his performance and the character, but his arc essentially ended in Waltz, where he's trapped on the planet with Sisko.  I think I would have liked it better for Dukat to die there, and Kai Winn to take his role with the wraiths.

"Waltz" is a tremendous episode, and I could've lived with that being the end of Dukat.

I'm just not sure I like the wraiths stuff period.  It's this weird magical superhero story in the midst of a somewhat more-grounded science fantasy, and I'm not entirely certain I could ever really embrace it.  And putting Kai Winn in the midst of the climactic Harry Potter duel is not necessarily an improvement, either... although at the least it gives her character more than being Dukat's helpmeet.  (When her big problem was that some black guy from Earth got to be the Emissary, it's kind of a double-bummer that it was likewise the Space Nazi who oversaw her planet's Space Holocaust got to be the Bajoran Devil.  Seriously, I'm not convinced the wormhole aliens actually like the Bajoran people one bit.*)

*Even though I'm fond of the fan theory that the wormhole aliens are, indeed, Bajorans from the future, who will at some point evolve to exist outside of linear time.

But, regarding Season 7 more broadly, there's still a lot to like.  I like Ezri Dax a lot, considering her a major improvement over Jadzia (whom I also liked, but had a tendency to be written as the most annoying possible version of herself).  Likewise, Chrysalis is one of my all-time favorite bottle episodes--in case we've forgotten, it's the one where Dr. Bashir pulls a Flowers for Algernon on one of the genetically-engineered mutants from Statistical Improbabilities, mainly so that he can sexually exploit her.  It's one of the weirdest, brittlest, and most psychologically on-point things I've ever seen risked in a Trek episode (even if it was probably half-accidental)--and the thing even has a bitchin' musical number.  Then again, I also enjoy Take Me Out to the Holosuite.

That's glib as fuck, huh?

[Berkut]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

[Norgy]

I watched, or rather re-watched "In The Heat Of The Night" the other night.
That is one great movie and a great Sidney Poitier.

A new Norwegian movie called "Birkebeinerne" is hitting theatres this weekend. It's "epic", meaning its historical setting translates into shitty dialogue, action scenes on skis and totally unwarranted Viking references. The Middle Ages in Norway weren't lumbered with Vikings and some sort of rememberance of the old gods. It's sad, because the story of Håkon Håkonsson is a great topic for a movie.

[celedhring]

Last week we got three Fast and Furious sequels, this week we get...

http://deadline.com/2016/02/transformers-sequels-dated-for-2017-2018-2019-1201701360/

Paramount Dates A Trio Of 'Transformers' Sequels

Please, stop.

[Ideologue]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

It's a moronically tone-deaf thing for someone to say, even an old person, "when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry."  It's an innocuous, maybe even praiseworthy, comment in some other context; but if her response to a question specifically about black representation in film was "We're all Africans!", thereby denigrating the problem in a ridiculous, frivolous manner, then that's not "parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by," it's patently offensive.

[Berkut]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

It's a moronically tone-deaf thing for someone to say, even an old person, "when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry."  It's an innocuous, maybe even praiseworthy, comment in some other context; but if her response to a question specifically about black representation in film was "We're all Africans!", thereby denigrating the problem in a ridiculous, frivolous manner, then that's not "parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by," it's patently offensive.

Of course it is, because you can come up with a way of being offended, hence it must be offensive.

Obviously she is a racist, and probably a secret Grand Dragon of the KKK.

[Valmy]

I don't find it offensive I just find it stupid.

'Ukraine is in serious danger of losing it's independence to Russia!'

'But aren't all Indo-European States Ukrainian? India is fine so Ukraine is fine.'

''

Rather like those people who get all bent out of shape that 'Black Lives Matter' implies that the lives of Mongolians doesn't matter. Um ok why don't you suggest a slogan that better addresses the actual substance of their statement rather than an idiotic semantic quibble?

[garbon]

Yeah, I'm not offended but think it was a very silly and dismissive answer. Basically, I'm disappointed as I would expect better from her.

[Martinus]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

It's a moronically tone-deaf thing for someone to say, even an old person, "when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry."  It's an innocuous, maybe even praiseworthy, comment in some other context; but if her response to a question specifically about black representation in film was "We're all Africans!", thereby denigrating the problem in a ridiculous, frivolous manner, then that's not "parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by," it's patently offensive.

Of course it is, because you can come up with a way of being offended, hence it must be offensive.

Obviously she is a racist, and probably a secret Grand Dragon of the KKK.

This may sound somewhat politically incorrect, but isn't the obvious answer not that the film industry is racist but that it is painful and shamelessly pandering to its audiences? Outside of period drama and indie cinema etc., people are generally interested in watching stories of people like them, having similar experiences to them. Perhaps US whites are more likely to go to cinema, so the industry is making films about people who are like them?

[Valmy]

It is not that white people only want to see white people just that white people are seen as 'generic' or 'neutral' or something. Asian people have no problem seeing a movie full of white people but might avoid a movie filled with black people as being a black film. And vice versa.

[Eddie Teach]

Outside of period drama and indie cinema etc., people are generally interested in watching stories of people like them, having similar experiences to them.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

You may love Annie Hall to death, but that's not the kind of thing people typically like to watch.

[celedhring]

Outside of period drama and indie cinema etc., people are generally interested in watching stories of people like them, having similar experiences to them.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

You may love Annie Hall to death, but that's not the kind of thing people typically like to watch.

If we don't count voice work (James Earl Jones in Star Wars films, Zoe Saldaña in Avatar), first film headlined by a non-white doesn't show up until #39 (Independence Day) 

What always shocks me is that black film is almost always about black issues (and certainly those stories need to be told), but you don't see many black actors or directors in mainstream romcoms or blockbusters (there's exceptions, of course).

[Malthus]

Some forms of entertainment are dominated by one group or another, often for purely historical reasons.

For example, it is well known that there are lots of Jews in Hollywood - this goes back to the old vaudeville era of Jewish entertainers. There was a similar tradition of Black entertainers, but it was predicated on pandering to offensive stereotypes and so died out (well, except for Jar Jar Binks  ).

Blacks in America have, on the other hand, consistently outperformed their "quota" in other areas of the entertainment industry, such as certain sports and music.

[Barrister]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

It's a moronically tone-deaf thing for someone to say, even an old person, "when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry."  It's an innocuous, maybe even praiseworthy, comment in some other context; but if her response to a question specifically about black representation in film was "We're all Africans!", thereby denigrating the problem in a ridiculous, frivolous manner, then that's not "parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by," it's patently offensive.

Of course it is, because you can come up with a way of being offended, hence it must be offensive.

Obviously she is a racist, and probably a secret Grand Dragon of the KKK.

This may sound somewhat politically incorrect, but isn't the obvious answer not that the film industry is racist but that it is painful and shamelessly pandering to its audiences? Outside of period drama and indie cinema etc., people are generally interested in watching stories of people like them, having similar experiences to them. Perhaps US whites are more likely to go to cinema, so the industry is making films about people who are like them?

I'm not sure that's supported by the evidence however.  White audiences seem perfectly happy to see black movie stars such as Will Smith, Denzel Washington or Eddie Murphy.

[Valmy]

I'm not sure that's supported by the evidence however.  White audiences seem perfectly happy to see black movie stars such as Will Smith, Denzel Washington or Eddie Murphy.

White people have never had problems with black people entertaining us. As black comedians love to give us shit for.