Hey guys, I really enjoyed this episode.

I didn't watch Star Wars until I was about 12 or so, so I missed out on it being a defining childhood experience. And as an adult, no offense, but I've found Star Wars fandom really insufferable (you know, being super-precious about it, everyone insisting their interpretation of what Star Wars "is", is the right interpretation, the endless fanwank etc), and have grown to resent it quite a bit.

BUT! This cast has actually made me feel kinda optimistic about the future. I agree that Disney expanding it and opening up the universe and generally being willing to experiment is really gonna be a good thing. Experimentation is good anyway, but also Sturgeon's Law means that the good 10% is gonna be a lot more prevalent. So yeah, cheers.

P.S. I agree with whoever suggested a Star Wars murder-mystery. So much yes. I just wish Peter Falk were still alive for it.

Hmm. I haven't heard any negative reviews of it though. I know a few people who refuse to watch it on the basis of Tom Cruise, but I find it hard to believe that's the whole story.

I do often wonder what it is that gets people to go see movies. It's probably not reviews, 'cause people have to seek those out rather than passively consuming them, right? Doesn't seem like that accounts for enough numbers.
Trailers? 'Cause the trailer for EoT was excessively po-faced and missed out on the energy and charm of the movie.
Word of mouth?

I have no answers. I'm just confused by the disparity between quality and consumption.

Not dubious taste, but possibly something that may not have turned up on your usual channels:

So I ended up relapsing and watching The Goonies. I still have mad love for it.

Things I noticed as an adult: the score is an excellent mix of playfulness and mystery, without getting too twee.
And Sean Astin as Mikey was already a good actor at that age, and brings some serious heart to the movie.

To anyone who watched it for the first time as a kid: you know what I mean.
To anyone who watched it for the first time as an adult: sorry my peers won't shut the fuck up about it. Think of it as my generation's Star Wars.

Disclaimer: don't take that last sentence too seriously. You know what I mean, let's not do the tedious semantics thing.

Wow. These are excellent suggestions, thanks a lot!

I don't think I'll ever stop being surprised by how many powerful tools (snigger) are freely-available like this. Amazing.

Hah! My friends have a podcast (The Black Dog Podcast) where they re-review films to see if they are as good as we remember (rose-tinted specs) or as bad as we remember (shit-covered goggles).
Next week's episode is The Goonies.

Mainly, I've found that if you watched it as a kid, you will still find love for it as an adult. But, let's be honest, Goonies is one of those films that people are disproportionately vocal about loving. So when people watch it for the first time, as adults, they don't have the nostalgia that'll keep you moving along with the film.

I've still got love for it, though. I wasn't gonna watch it or send them feedback this week, but I saw the trailer, and I'm now really leaning towards watching it again.

It's also worth noting that the trailer makes it look really po-faced. The film itself made me laugh out loud quite a lot. This isn't one of those "people like it 'cause it's a bit better than the usual mediocrity", this is a film that is legit a good movie.
Also, I would recommend seeing it while it's still at the cinema, it's a fun one to watch with an audience.

Hah! By this point, the appeal is probably being measured in stables.

And yeah, I know that the 'judging public appeal by internet' thing is kinda dodgy, but with GoT, they pretty much know that even though a lot of people torrent/stream the show, they're also really likely to buy dvd/blurrys, and since HBO is gonna see the majority (if not all?) of those proceeds, there is absolutely NO fear of cancellation.

Frankly, when they announce show renewals, HBO's press release for Game of Thrones should probably just be "What the hell do you think? Have you seen your twitter/facebook feed on a sunday night? That's what we thought. Boom!".

I dug it. I think Lady Stoneheart woulda been cool, but I see the point that it would make the finale a bit too busy (and I wasn't expecting this episode to end on Arya, but that worked so well. especially with the big soaring music cue!).

I do wonder where exactly they'll put Lady Stoneheart next season though. It's a shame this show doesn't do cold opens 'cause that would make a great "what the actual fuck?!?" one for the premiere.

edit: also, what Dorkman said about the skeleton fight. i love the fact that the CGI wasn't overly fluid. i mean, it was smooth, but it also had an impressive heft/momentum to it. totally had the Harryhausen spirit going for it. big love for that.

I'm not at all invested (I think the original trilogy are good fun entertainment, not a religious experience), but this story really makes me want a sequel to Christine, with the Millennium Falcon as the titular terror. Now THAT is a Star Wars movie I'd get excited about.

Hey Teague, flippin' good job on these tutorials, man! I got bored and checked out the Boolean one, and thought I'd give this a try today, 'cause I've never really done anything visually creative before.
I used Blender, but as far as I can tell it could do everything Lightwave can.

Anyway, these tutorials really made this is all clear and logical and accessible, so thanks a bunch
I even felt confident enough to try some UV mapping. It's pretty crazy the things you can do with open-source software these days. Jeez.

Disclaimer: I'm new to this, I know my topology looks pretty broken. I swear each piece I built was clean, but somewhere along the line of mirror/rotation/boolean, the inconsistencies started to accumulate and the final product suffered. But still, I'm gonna keep at this, and challenge myself to redo this in less time with less verts/edge/faces etc.

Anyway, thank a lot, I appreciate the effort you went to with the tutorials