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fantastic_four

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Everything posted by fantastic_four

  1. fantastic_four
    I'm the opposite with regards to his fighting style. He's waaay too stiff, like he's counting the moves in his head like it's some rehearsed motion. There's nothing fluid about it. And as a result, I don't feel his saber sequences translate well on screen. Conversely, Shin Hati's fights have been great because she moves as though there's a level of rage just boiling under the surface. He reminded me of Christopher Lee as Count Dooku who was also stiff with a lightsaber. Not that surprising given that they were both older actors while doing their lightsaber scenes. At the extreme end of that stiff to smooth and agile spectrum is Ray Park as Darth Maul. His moves in Phantom Menace are the best by any Jedi or Sith in any of the films.
  2. fantastic_four
    Unions of factory workers in the 19th century and in the early 20th century tried their best to use strikes to fight the automation of their jobs, too. Back then there wasn't as much history of it happening for them to know it was a doomed effort. I thought the Actor's Guild would be somewhat aware of the history of fighting automation--and particularly unions fighting automation--and give up on their AI demands, but apparently not. So yea, it's going to drag on if they keep clinging to their AI provisions.
  3. fantastic_four
    If extras are not signing a contract giving their digital likeness away then the studios aren't thinking things through. Certainly any future Denzel would sue them silly once a studio started earning significant income from their digital likeness if there wasn't a contract.
  4. fantastic_four
    No young actor serious about being an actor will ever sign a contract giving away their digital rights. If you do you'll essentially be ending your career, or at least shortening it once fully-digital actors become practical. And if you're young that's going to happen long before you'd be ready to retire. All of this applies to the current generation of kids in EVERY career. There are a lot of white collar jobs I'd be extremely skeptical about sending my kids to college for from now on because we aren't far from them becoming obsolete just as actors are having to face.
  5. fantastic_four
    If you think you have talent--either natural or from varying amounts of training--then you don't sign your digital rights away. If you don't, you do. Or you don't, it's up to you. So yes, real actors won't be starting out as extras anymore. Lengthy performances that are completely automated are still quite a ways off, and I doubt most of us in this forum live to see AI versions of the next Denzel, DiCaprio, or Pacino giving Oscar-worthy performances crafted by computer animators. If real actors--even unknown ones--hold out the studios won't have much choice but to have a different contract for them. All of this is short-term anyway. Actors eventually won't be human anymore; it's inevitable. All labor eventually won't be performed by humans, but that's far further out. Some actors will probably find employment for another few decades; maybe even for another half-century. But their days are numbered. They're numbered for most careers. Which I'm sure sounds really negative to most who hear that thought. It isn't. Automation replacing humans will be a great thing, eventually.
  6. fantastic_four
    I'm with the writers and actors on the majority of their demands, but not this one. Yes, real human extras will eventually become completely obsolete. So what? So will plenty of professions--accountants, lawyers, etc etc. Roy will remember this line of thinking because he and I have discussed automation replacing humans for years in the Water Cooler. All of these anti-AI provisions the WGA and SAG are pushing are inanely Luddite. They're trying to turn the clock back on technology, but it's never worked before and it won't work here. I mean, it might, it's certainly possible the studios will cave on this for this 3-year contract, but automation replacing human labor is inevitable. You can't avoid it forever.
  7. fantastic_four
    Why does it need to be stopped? If it's not in the contract then yes, it has to be stopped. But if that's the case a strike isn't the resolution, a civil lawsuit is. I'm guessing since this is a strike instead of a lawsuit there has been language in their contracts giving the studios free reign to use their digital avatar in the future. Big stars would just never sign that contract. I don't see why such a contract shouldn't be allowed for unknown actors. If they care they don't sign, if they don't they sign. If you're an extra why would you care? You're not doing it for a living anyway so I would imagine most extras would sign their digital selves away--and in most cases amused if they ever see themselves used in another way other than the scenes they explicitly shot.
  8. fantastic_four
    I'd have to see the wording of what they're demanding. If an actor wants to sell their digital self they should be able to, but if they don't they shouldn't have to. When it has happened so far was their language in the contracts they signed that they breezed past too quickly that allowed the studio to use their digital avatar in other content? Without the context of what has happened and what exactly the WGA is demanding I don't have an opinion.
  9. fantastic_four
    The AI moratorium is the long-term concern. What will be different in 3 years when a hypothetical new contract ends? Nothing, aside from AI screenplay writers being even better. They just need to drop that part of their demands. Automation has been putting humans out of work for thousands of years. What is up with Hollywood writers thinking they deserve an immunity to it that nobody else has?
  10. fantastic_four
    Looks like the Ghost Haslab will be fully funded within the next few hours. I bet it goes above 20K before it ends. Friday the Marvel Legends team will reveal their next Haslab. It's almost certainly a comic Giant-Man.
  11. fantastic_four
    Only saw this thread because Roy tagged me in it, but I definitely have thoughts. Most of them will come later after I've read the thread later today or tomorrow. Responding to the general idea--the writers aren't going to win on their proposed AI moratorium, and they need to drop the AI provisions and focus on the others. I'm not sure it's the death knell Roy is projecting, but I won't be surprised if it eventually is and how far out that will be remains to be seen. AI is here, it ain't going away, it will at minimum reduce the number of writers required in the entertainment industry, and there's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. The writers can try, but they will fail. My guess is that it just reduces the number of screenwriters for the foreseeable future. It won't eliminate them for at least a decade or three, but I won't be shocked if that job is gone entirely by the mid-21st century.
  12. fantastic_four
    I'm not at all knowledgeable about what the international numbers are this year--the guy on the Fwoosh who claimed what the Asian numbers were may have been mistaken. And even if they added the numbers in at the end with the previous Marvel projects I followed that doesn't mean they're doing the same thing this year. Who knows, they could be piloting unified international backer counts with this Haslab, or possibly even several of the ones that preceded it like the GI Joe Dragonfly.
  13. fantastic_four
    Reva and Sabine survived because Vader and that lady Sith pulled the saber straight out, and they missed vital organs. I knew as soon as I saw the torso placement of the saber in Sabine and the Sith pulled it straight out they'd have her live.
  14. fantastic_four
    With the Sentinel and Galactus Haslabs the numbers just suddenly got a bump of several thousand the last week of those campaigns. Somehow people on the Fwoosh knew it was the international numbers being added in, although I forget how they knew. My memory is telling me someone on the Marvel Legends team explicitly said that's what it was, but I forget for sure.
  15. fantastic_four
    I've seen charts from action figure forums projecting that the Ghost should be fully funded through the last bonus tier based upon where we're at with the usual last day bump factored in. Also Asian numbers almost certainly aren't factored in yet. I dunno how to get to Hasbro Pulse Asia to look at the numbers, but I've heard it's in the thousands there. They usually add international numbers up together during the last week or so of Haslab campaigns.
  16. fantastic_four
    Yes, IMDB authors don't know more than the rest of us. Before a film has released or before a series has completely aired they often don't know who's in every episode. Sometimes they do when the studio explicitly releases that information, but usually they don't.
  17. fantastic_four
    This was my biggest question with the first two episodes. The saber went in at a near-ideal place on the human torso to not kill her, but why would the Sith just pull it STRAIGHT back out? I pretty much wondered the same thing in Phantom Menace when Darth Maul did that with Qui Gonn, or in Obi-Wan when Vader stabbed Reva. If you're trying to take the other person out you don't pull out, you swipe up, or down, or sideways and cut them in half. It's certainly possible that Vader and this Sith in Ahsoka WANTED their opponent to live, but there was no way Maul did. Qui-Gonn died anyway, but I still don't get why you don't guarantee it by swiping the saber.
  18. fantastic_four
    I barely cared about history as well until I was around 21 or 22. "Those that do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them" is a nice introduction to why history is important, but it's nowhere near enough. MANY, many examples for why looking at history is important are what's needed. One hook into valuing history is any kid who is bummed about the future for whatever reason--war, famine, climate change, divisive politics, social media, or whatever. People have worried about everything we worry about today MANY times before, and every time it turned out not to matter nearly as much as people were worried about. Give me something you're worried about and I can dig up a dozen or more examples of people worrying about the same or a similar thing in the past and being wrong about how bad that thing was. It's also nice to look at history and be reminded about how much better everything gets over time. If you take any century in the history of human civilization and subtract 100 years from that time things were MUCH worse in every single example. So 1923 was way worse than 2023, 1823 was way worse than 1923, 1723 than 1823, etc etc.
  19. fantastic_four
    Finally saw the movie this week. I would have watched it MUCH sooner had I realized that High Evolutionary was the big bad, but I assumed it would be Warlock without realizing that it was the High Evolutionary who genetically engineered his species to begin with. I liked it a LOT. I found volume 2 a bit boring, and there was a 2-year gap between when I watched the first half on Blu-Ray and finally finished it on Disney Plus. The High Evolutionary and Rocket storyline compelled me to finish it quickly this time though. Definitely the second-best film of phase 4 and 5 behind No Way Home, so now I wish I had seen it in theatres. I had originally wondered if High Evolutionary would be the trigger for the X-Men entering the MCU in the same way he was involved in Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's comic origin by evolving their DNA, and further that the X-Men would already have a latent X-Gene implanted into humanity hundreds of thousands of years ago by the Celestials as Kirby outlined in his Eternals storyline, but this film showing how focused Wyndham is on Counter-Earth and the Sovereign I'm now thinking he won't be involved. I still really enjoyed him as the focus of this film. Two questions about plot points: At some point Mantis gets her arm horribly disfigured, but soon after she just jams it back into place. How is her species able to do that? I get how Nebula does it as a cyborg, but how did Mantis do it? Why was High Evolutionary implanting cybernetic limbs into organisms? Did he do that in the comics? If he did it in the comics I never saw those stories. I thought his goal was biological perfection via DNA manipulation, so the cybernetics confused me.
  20. fantastic_four
    A few days ago you said it was the Secret Invasion showrunner who was told this. Now it's everyone? And if they tell everyone, how are the comic references and easter eggs making it into every show?
  21. fantastic_four
    I just realized that it should be implicit that the Celestials couldn't be harmed by the Infinity stones. If they were vulnerable to them they would have taken possession of them billions of years before life evolved, right after Arishem kicked off the Big Bang.
  22. fantastic_four
    How would they have known? Celestials and the various gods are either very powerful or omnipotent, but they're not omniscient, i.e. all-knowing. The Living Tribunal is probably omniscient, but he may not have cared what Thanos did in one universe since it wouldn't threaten the multiverse. The Avengers knew only because they had three of the stones, and after Thanos took the space stone from Loki Banner warned the Avengers about Thanos and his plan. I saw no indication there was any further knowledge of the fight with Thanos among anyone else aside from the Avengers and their allies.
  23. fantastic_four
    I'm mostly fine with the heroes who didn't fight Thanos being explained by the simple fact that they had no idea what he was up to. Some got dusted and some didn't. The exception to that are the Celestials and Eternals. There are two possibilities there with the first being that they were both somehow immune to the Infinity stones. If they weren't immune then there's a broad swath of possibilities I won't explore for now because it could go on for pages.
  24. fantastic_four
    I'm not following the first half of your post with regards to Fury. What does introducing all of those new characters after the blip have to do with Fury and the Harvest? I assumed you mean he was so traumatized by being dusted by Thanos that he started searching for a way to counter all super-powered beings, but if that's what you mean what does that have to do with the way they're introducing new characters? Just commenting on the origins for coming heroes I don't think they will pull the X-Men or FF from the multiverse. The FF is easy--just have them get their powers now, so they were around and some or all may have even been dusted by Thanos. Same with the X-Men--they can all just be individuals with powers some of whom got dusted that didn't know each other existed until Xavier and/or Magneto start rounding them up. I still think they will tie the origin of the mutant X-gene to the Eternals and the Celestials like Kirby did, but we'll see. If they do that then you can choose any arbitrary start date for when the X-gene finally activates including post-blip.
  25. fantastic_four
    To be replaced by whom? What he did from 2005 through 2019 has literally never been done by anyone else in film history. DC has desperately been searching for their version of Feige for decades and has yet to find one. Let's not throw out the bathwater before ensuring the baby isn't still in it... Let's particularly not jump to pull the plug on Feige until he's proven he can't even manage the A-list characters anymore. Everything since Endgame has been C and D list characters aside from the last two Spider-Man films, both of which were superb. But of course doing films on the C and D listers was Feige's call so that's also his fault, but we've got A and B listers coming up on the slate, and those are the true make-or-break titles for his legacy.