MechE

Conrad

I don't get it, isn't she just confirming the rumours rather than dispelling them?

I mean, we all want Ruby to win, but let's not kid ourselves that it's because of her ability to get dough to rise... Anyway, "Who is Luke Sidewalker?"

He was worse this week, but at his best he's better than any of the others at their best. And he actually tried to fulfil the brief, rather than just bake within his comfort zone like Manon did. My money's on Ruby going out this week.

Plus there's a spelling error in the opening credits.

I can't wait for this. Been getting strong reviews all over the place.

Related to this Marijam Didžgalvytė is an excellent person to follow on Twitter for articles, videos, talks and tweets with a socialist perspective on the games industry. Here's a relevant video.

Rude

The idea that superhero stories are fascist is not a new one - Watchmen for example is essentially a 450 page essay on this thesis. Here's Joss Whedon exploring the idea. John McTiernan says goes further and says the makers of superhero movies are themselves fascists. I think a lot of people misuse the word and essentially see it as a synonym for totalitarianism when it's got a much more nuanced meaning. Both Brexit and Trump can be explained through the mainstream acceptance of fascist ideals, partly because our popular media does such a good job of championing them. If anyone's interested in the history of fascism and what it looks like in the 21st century I recommend the following talk.

Especially as it's the first comic book movie in ages that polictally isn't some fascist wank fanstasy and actually pays lip service to modern day social issues. There are more deserving targets for people's ire.

I enjoyed the shit out of it, and I reckon you would too. I find practically all the MCU films a little safe and bland, but this was goofy and rough around the edges, and all the better for it. I don't understand these comments about it being 'unintentionally funny' - everybody involved in this was having a great old time and the laughs were fully intended. It feels like a superhero movie from the Sam Raimi era.

There's no 'right', just varying degrees of wrong.

Scum?

A PC version of a Red Dead game!

I kind of go the other way, where I feel it was a missed opportunity to inject some additional dramatic tension through their lack of familiarity with the controls and the state of the decrepit Falcon. Whereas in TLJ they play up to the rickety-ness of the vehicles on Crait to add to the desperation of the assault. I agree with the sound design of the action scenes in TFA though.