The first age begins after the destruction of the two trees.

Chucho68 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I have finished my PhD training and will move close to Philadelphia, PA to start a new job at Villanova University.

Know of any good gaming stores around Philly?

Héctor.

Congratulations!!!

So I watched the new "Suicide Squad" movie last night.  It was....okay.   I didn't hate it.  But I defiinitely didn't love it.  It was...weird I guess is the word.  I suppose I'd give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

SPOILERS NOW! ----------------




So the first thing that struck me is that the movie is GORY.  Egregiously bloody, with guts and brains flying everywhere.  Right from the get go till the end.  It's like Grindhouse on steroids.  I'm not turned off by a little movie blood, but this was excessive and to me not all that enjoyable and didn't add much to the film.

The second thing I'll count as a mild negative is the characters chosen for the story.  I'm a long time DC fan and although I won't say I'm an expert I'm pretty well versed in that world, and even I couldn't easily recognize several of the players.  Hell, my brother watched it with me and he's pretty much Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons, and even HE couldn't remember who they were from the books.  I mean they really raided the bargain bin for the most obscure D listers in the DC universe.  Polka Dot man?  Ratcatcher's Daughter?  I will say they gave her some back story and it was pretty good.  I actually started to care what happened to her.  But the rest?  Nah.  Even Harley Quinn has a rather weak supporting role, not counting a truly bizarre side story about courting and killing a third world dictator.  And the  Killer Shark role was just awful.  Zero character development and just did not need to be in the movie at all.  And neither did Thinker, another obscure player who is clumsily inserted into the film solely as a disposable exposition bot. On that note, the lead character (as much as there is one) is a villain EXACTLY like Deadshot in every way you can imagine without being called Deadshot.  He's like Discount Deadshot.  This was obvious and not explained very well.  Why not just put Deadshot in that role?  To be fair,  Idris Elba did a good job with the role IMHO and I didn't dislike his character or portrayal, really.  But all I kept thinking is "why is this not Deadshot?"  

Amanda Waller is her usual scary self, with one exception near the end of the movie where her staff rebels against her and sides with the anti-heroes, who disobey her orders to save a city from Starro.  One of her aides actually knocks her out with a golf club to stop her from remotely killing the squad for their disobedience.  And when she wakes up she does.....nothing.  Which is kind of a relief, as an authentic Waller would have shot them all dead for their trouble when she came to.  Still, weird for her to be so accepting of that situation.  I do like the actress they have playing her though, she does a good job bringing Amanda to life.

The story in and of itself wasn't bad really.  Not too much in the way of SJW flag waving, so that was a relief.  There is a bit of the almost obligatory "America is a terrible evil country" plotline fluff but it's not really front and center and it does actually link in with the story ARC.  I liked that they used Starro as the end Baddy, I thought that was daring but ultimately a bit too ambitious.  Starro is a very tough foe for even for the combined Justice League, including Superman.  I think pitting a few D list Villains + Harley Quinn up against him/it was hard to realistically swallow.  (And I mean Realistically in a very "happy to suspend my disbelief cuz it's just a movie but geez can we at least still stay within the constraints of the DC Fictional Universe" way.  It's a dumb SH movie, I get it.)  One more little nitpick I have is the plan itself, IE the reason they send the squad out, which is "blow up the bunker that's keeping Starro contained."  Which of course, results in setting it free to wreak havoc.  But as my brother noted,  it could be argued that the PTB thought this would kill it.  So I can let that slide.  

Also, and these are my biggest problems with the film, they kill Flag.  And they kill Captain Boomerang.  Dude.  Just No.  You can't kill those guys.  I mean I know Boomerang is a love or hate kind of character, but he's kind of a DC mainstay.  I don't think it's cool to kill him off.  And kill off Flag?  Come on man!  

I know the above mostly comes off as criticism but the bottom line believe it or not is I didn't hate this film.  It was okay.  There was some entertainment value to it.  There is alot of action, if you like that sort of thing.  The story even with some minor flaws does make some sense and it does move along pretty well and coherently (excepting the weird Harley Quinn detour in the middle) and there's some pretty humorous dialogue.

Let me put it this way.  It's a pretty good movie if you don't take it too seriously and like alot of action.  Is it a good DC movie?   Meh.   They could have done alot better.

Vague Discalimer:  IMHO, YMMV, Etc Etc....

On a tangent, I watched the first one (2016) last night

I liked that, decent fun but thought they didn’t have Joker in it enough, as I thought Leno played him like the original ‘60s with some Ledger thrown in which worked. But there was a bit too much cheese at times and as I didn’t know enough DC history, it seemed to make a few leaps of faith I didn’t get.
I think it could’ve been more dark and gore and moved away from cheese personally. Sound track though was great  

Plaag wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Does the MtG Forgotten Realms Gift Bundle pack have different cards (i.e. dungeon cards etc) then the regular bundle? I know the dice is different and packaging, but curious on the extra stuff.

ShaneG.

Not sure but contents do not seem to merit buying more than one bundle. Anyway, I find this site helpful:

Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms - MTG Wiki

Héctor.

Chucho68 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Brother of a colleague has a TTRPG on Kickstarter. Looks quirky, original, and fun, and it is cheap to back:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/go ... olden-mart

Héctor

The photo of the random neckbeard saying how he wrote the game to highlight the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community really sells it, doesn't it?
I can get behind, 'here's a game about killing orc robots' or, 'here's a game about survival in the ghettos of apocalyptic Mega City, but, 'here's a game about the sexual politics of my gender fluidity.' That's a whole different FRPG that I can't quite get behind.

I loved Clerks!  It should totally be an rpg, what a great idea. Repo Man was a great movie too, someone should gameify it as well

Hey all,

Anyone here familiar with this book coming out next week?

Historian tackles D&D, documenting the battle between Gygax and Arneson - Polygon

Ronald

Not until I get a chance to read it, but I already know I want the minis on the cover.