Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Regarding Steampunk - I have limited exposure to it, but I've assumed we're generally seeing people as they were 'back then'. E.g. we're seeing them in Edwardian times but decades later they might be flying to the moon with magic powered vessels.

But they'd be doing that in a sailboat or whacky steam locomotive, of course. And that's part of the problem - they aren't having to think as hard about how to solve the actual science.

Maybe that's why they might end up stagnating?

I find Wakandan technology annoying. It's Future-punk magic decades ahead of the rest of the planet.

I guess it's a bit dependant on how you define Steampunk, but the first contact I had with the style was Wild Wild West, a movie that I think had (and has) quite negative reviews, but 14 year old me went 3 times to the cinema to see it and must have watched the DVD at least 40 times.
There's no magic in that movie (there IS disregard of physical laws, though ), the Steampunk instead is just Bond Villain building his giant steam attack spider with the tech that is available at the time, so stagnation is not really the issue, it's rather, just like a Bond movie, stretching the tech of the time (1870's I think?).

Wild Wild West is a really fun film. Personally I never saw why it wasn't better received. Will Smith was at his height of fame; the effects were good for its day and honestly stand up well to the test of time; the story was simple but well done and in general it was a fun adventure of a film.

That sort of thing I don’t mind so much. It knows it’s being silly and is doing so entirely wilfully.

It’s the “oh yeah, this society hit steam and just stopped in terms of further power sources. Now they am has clockwork steam power lasers” stuff.

Maybe, like some of my early forays into Anime, I’ve been unfortunate enough to only really encounter lazy drivel. But it’s such a bad experience that, unlike Anime, I feel no compunction whatsoever to attempt to explore further.

 Overread wrote:
Wild Wild West is a really fun film. Personally I never saw why it wasn't better received. Will Smith was at his height of fame; the effects were good for its day and honestly stand up well to the test of time; the story was simple but well done and in general it was a fun adventure of a film.

Indeed. Of course I see some sloppy technical errors and strange logical holes today (why is Selma Hayek just falling into the train without any explanation again? ), but it IS a fun movie, well paced, fun dialogues, good actors. And its setting is quite unique. I even like the theme and the theme song.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That sort of thing I don’t mind so much. It knows it’s being silly and is doing so entirely wilfully.

It’s the “oh yeah, this society hit steam and just stopped in terms of further power sources. Now they am has clockwork steam power lasers” stuff.

Maybe, like some of my early forays into Anime, I’ve been unfortunate enough to only really encounter lazy drivel. But it’s such a bad experience that, unlike Anime, I feel no compunction whatsoever to attempt to explore further.

Yeah, steampunk has never made any logical sense. Steam power has its place, even today steam turbines are a staple of energy production where fossil and nuclear energy are just variants of "generate heat to turn water into steam to turn a big fan", but the technology just does not scale down because it needs a ton of water and water weighs a ton. That's why humans went on to develop stuff like the internal combusion engine, you didn't need a massive tank of water as well as your fossil fuel. Not to mention that walking around with a giant copper boiler on your back would quickly result in you having a very well done back.

So, steampunk just ends up invoking handwavium and magical fuel to justify the "victorian with cogs and gogs" aesthetic. But then, when you have this magical super energy rich fuel source, why does technology just stall at steam and not, say, refine this fuel into a form that can power a combustion engine? Or a rocket engine?

Meanwhile, Warhammer actually avoided this with Warpstone where you have a wide variety of uses and an evolution of its usage throughout time as skaven technology advanced. Warpstone tipped ammo, warpstone liquid fuel for flamethrowers and their rockets etc.

Warpstone/Wyrdstone I’ve always seen as Magically Radioactive. So you don’t necessarily need to burn it.

The wiring and stuff being there to channel the radiation into destructive blasts etc.

Dwarves and Empire are the Steam Punk factions of Warhammer. It's just that the Dwarves don't touch the tech outside of very restricted use (barring a certain half mad Engineer Slayer); or Man O War; whilst Empire is at the very start of Steam Punk development.

Technically Cities of Sigmar are 100% full steam punk in AoS. The problem is this is only seen in stories, whilst the models are really not all that steam punk. It's like someone in Black Library decided on Steam Punk; no one stopped them but also no one told the design studio beyond mentioning cog-forts.

Happy Gilmore 2

“Well, we have our first fatality.”

It’s about as funny as the first one. The writing and pacing feel more consistent, in that it does not have the lows or drag the first one does it parts, but it also doesn’t have the highs and iconic moments that the he first has. The memberberries got annoying but eventually came around to being part of the joke. If you liked the first one you would probably like this one.

You also get to see one of the most annoying current SNL members get pelted with golf balls and then punched in the face.

Rob Schneider factor: 10 seconds at most.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
What follows is merely an expression of opinion.

To me? It’s just so bloody lazy. The heyday of Steam is super interesting and genuinely fascinating, and was the first step on the technological rollercoaster that leads us to right here, right now. Indeed Nuclear Power Stations encompass the same principles. And whilst I’ve not looked into it? I suspect fossil fuel stations do the same. Burn/Expend the fuel to heat the water to turn the turbine and generate the lekky.

It allowed proper industry as we know it, like the agricultural revolution but even more bonkers and advancement.

It evidently and undeniably did huge amounts of good, but with far from insignificant sociological downsides, not to mention all the pollution.

And pretty much all the spaff vomited into the Nerdosphere that is Steampunk denigrates that. Like….actually all those party to taming and harnessing Steam could’ve done more. That somehow mankind as a whole would just Sort Of Stop There.

I don’t mind magic at all. Magic is cool, because it’s magic. But to use an actual, well researched and experimented technology and then just “BuT aLsO MaGiC aNd FoR rEaSoN cOmPleTe EnD tO aDvAnCeMeNt In OtHeR aReAs” in such an insult to humankind’s continued advancements.

Thank you. What follows is merely a personal opinion. I don't like 'steampunk'. I don't see the 'punk' part. Cyberpunk is grand and important and good and also cool and the 'punk' part makes sense. Steampunk (or any -punk genres thereafter) only seem to chase some legitimacy by using that suffix. But that's just a minor detail.

My problem with Steampunk (and similar settings) is that to me it seems so superficial and slightly lazy. I like history; history is full of amazing stories. It does not need to be enriched by twisting it simply based on some visual bullet points. What's more though is that it takes human history and always turns it into a Disneyland based on our current sensitivities. Slightly less of a problem with Steampunk, but I think it gets really appearant when we get into the first half of the 20th century with Dieselpunk and the likes, because the usual fare is "we take the 'visually cool' parts and just ignore historical context or the icky bits'. Which is not how history should be handled.



Oh well. Over the holidays I watched a few things. Started a comedy starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, but kinda lost interest because it starts promising, but gets very, very silly. Apparently it's a remake and the original starred Marlon Brando and Richard Niven. Now THAT I should look up. Then I started watching a 1992 comedy called Once Upon a Crime which I'd never seen before either, starring everybody. Jim Belushi, John Candy, Richard Lewis, Cybill Shepherd, Sean Young, etc. Starts with everybody being in Rome and down on their luck, when they come across a little dog and atthe sametime a newspaper ad saying that there's a USD5000.00 finder's fee for the person to return the dog. And it goes on from there. Directed by Eugene Levy, produced by Dino DeLaurentis. I should have finished that one.




Then I watched The Iron Claw (2022) (German dubbed version, because Amazon Prime is stupid and didn't have the original audio). It tells the story of the Von Erich wrestling dynasty during the 80s and early 90s. Being somewhat familiar with the story it's a very straight-forward affair.


It's all very brown and grimey, but it fits the topic/scene. Enjoyed the grappling scenes and how that was staged. I liked the whole film.

Great to see Maura Tierney as the mother.



Watch It. if you feel like this is a story you may be interested in in any way.




Then I watched Four Lions (2010) again. I just like that film. It's such a tricky thing the film tries to pull off, and I think it does so as well as possible given the insane task.

Today I watched Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) again, because it was christmas and new year's eve and all. What can I say, that thing just gets to me every time. It's great.


Happy new year, everybody!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

I also remain baffled as to why Atlanteans are all superhumans, yet Momoa, being a hybrid with 50% Regular Smelly Hooman is somehow even more superhumaner.

Hybrids often retain a mix of traits from either side. So he retained the Atlantean super strength and ability to breath underwater, while also having the human abilities to survive on land and be really annoying.



On a superhero note, I've been rewatching the various Spider-man movies to introduce them to my girls... we've already done the original FF (first one good, second one less good, skipping the reboot entirely), and eventually aiming to work up to the MCU. SM1 and 2 remain fantastic after multiple watches. It had been a while since I watched Spider-man 3 because I thought it was awful, and it turns out it was still awful, but I can't help but wonder how awesome it could have been if the studio hadn't shoehorned Venom into it. Because Sandman was fantastic, and Harry's Goblin MkII was an interesting take. At the very least, if they were going to force Venom in there, they should have watched Raimi a little more closely to avoid the resultant malicious compliance...

I also don't think I had seen Amazing Spider-man since it was new, and I enjoyed it a lot more this time around... Partly because I've finally got over them not continuing the Tobey version of Spidey, and partly because it's actually really, really good. Once you're not sitting through it being cranky about it being a reboot, Andrew Garfield is a better Peter than Tobey was, Emma's Gwen is a more interesting and far less annoying character than Kirsten's MJ, and the story is solid with some great emotional moments and some clever reworking that avoids repeating the previous version while still capturing the important concepts.

On to ASM2 next, and then possibly starting in on the X-men.

Oh, I also watched three Laurel&Hardy films. Enjoyable. Very modern, very clipable.

 insaniak wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

I also remain baffled as to why Atlanteans are all superhumans, yet Momoa, being a hybrid with 50% Regular Smelly Hooman is somehow even more superhumaner.

Hybrids often retain a mix of traits from either side. So he retained the Atlantean super strength and ability to breath underwater, while also having the human abilities to survive on land and be really annoying.

And this kind of thing is pretty common in many stories, where the sum of an individual is greater than the individual parts of their heritage.

Half-demon half-humans being stronger than pure demons in Devil May Cry, for example. Part angel part demon nephalem in Diablo being stronger than either parentage. The half-Saiyan characters in Dragonball (Gohan, Trunks, Goten).

Trap House

Dave Bautista action thriller. And not at all what I was expecting.

The Big Man is a DEA Agent, and his team are trying to counter cartel activity near the Mexican Border. One of his team mates is killed during an op.

Said team mates kid goes to school with Bautista’s son. Finding out the DEA won’t do much to help deceased’s family? The son and his friends decide to….steal from the cartel. With the sort of results you can reasonably expect.

The title suggested to me this would be some kind of Home Alone. Bautista suggested it would be played for laughs.

But no, it’s a pretty straight action flick. It’s…comfortably average. Head and shoulders above Seagal Drivel, but not going to be a classic. Rambo, Last Blood did it waaaaay better in every respect. But if you’re in the mood for something a bit different? It’s a pleasant enough way to spend 1h 40m.

6/10 I’d say.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Guns Up

An action “comedy” starring Kevin James and Christina Ricci.

Yes. That Kevin James. And no, shockingly, the quotation marks there aren’t related to his awful comedy.

There’s just….nothing particularly comedic about this. But to my genuine shock and awe? This is a pretty cromulent mob based action film. Seriously. I put this on expecting absolutely drivel to riff on, but it’s unexpectedly quite enjoyable.

As with Guns Up it’s nothing new, but it’s learned its lessons from more illustrious predecessors, and turned out a reasonably well made flick.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Amazing Mr Blunden

Wow! This knocked my socks off. Stuck it on as a random Prime Find, and I was treated to part Ghost Story, part Quantum Leap early 70’s kids flick.

It’s really bloody good! We’ve a solid cast, a genuinely fascinating and at least original to me story told pretty damned well.

Sole criticism is the last bit has some editing issue, for instance, two peeps scrapping it out upstairs, and when we next see them one is conked out toward the bottom of the grand staircase, and the other might actually be d.e.d. on the ground floor by the stairs. I wonder if it’s an issue with the overall edit (scene chopped for the lowest rating). Which seems the most rational explanation. Indeed most of my nitpicks are most likely down to the child friendly rating.

Especially charming at the end is the main cast, during their credits saying goodbye to the audience. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, but yeah. It’s just super charming.

Apparently Mark Gattis did a remake for Sky Movies. Given I think the story overall could be done darker with similar success, I’m off to see if I can find that anywhere online. Defo want to see it. And I genuinely cannot believe this hasn’t previously appeared on my radar. It’s right up my street in terms of theme.

Jupiter Ascending

whisper SCREAM whisper!


Man, I love an ambitious failure. JA feels like the next adaptation of a formula YA “You’re the chosen one” saga, along the lines of Twilight, Hunger Games, or Harry Potter. It also attempts the goofy-cool charm of a less-sexy Fifth Element.

My wife’s pronouncement was the film “laid it in a bit thick”. This is true for every aspect of the film, including the acting and the writing. Every actor outside of the two protagonists gave the right performance. The script is filled with far out ideas that would work in schlock sci fi novels but never a movie. The production design, production value and effects are tremendous. The cinematic fundamentals are bafflingly incompetent*, and the score might almost be sarcastic**. And even though we spent a lot of time laughing at the movie, we were never less than entertained. We would all see another film in the series if the Wachowskis ever got to make one.

*in the climax of a chase scene, the film botches a 180 shot-reverse-shot where two craft approach head on and one pilot of shown in the right facing left, and the other pilot is…on the right facing left. The camera slowly spins around dialogue shots then jumps position to continue spinning, but lacking a point or purpose—it feels inhuman, as this kind of unthinking constant panning is what makes AI trailer shots look off. There’s also really egregious ADR and bad shot continuity

**During the big climactic scenes the score sounds exactly like Weird Al’s UHF’s score during the Rambo parody. It’s impossible not to chuckle.

 insaniak wrote:

On to ASM2 next, and then possibly starting in on the X-men.

So, we did Amazing Spider-man 2, and I'm a little surprised that I didn't like this one the first time around, because it's really, really good. Interesting takes on Electro and Goblin, and some great world building in this one. It's a shame they didn't get to continue it.

Talking to the kids about the differences in the movies, it hadn't really struck me before how Tobey's trilogy really focuses on how much being Spider-man sucks for Peter, while Garfield gets to show how much he enjoys it. Both of the Amazing movies were just so much fun.

Also decided to keep X-men for the older child for the moment... We did the first two (which remain excellent despite their liberties with the source material and poor costume choices) a while back, and just endured the Last Stand, which starts out with some truly awful de-aging that has ironically not aged at all well, and gets progressively worse from there. It does have some bright points, allowing everyone to really cut loose with their powers, and getting to see Beast in action in the movies for the first time was admittedly very cool.

On to Wolverine Origins...

 insaniak wrote:

So, we did Amazing Spider-man 2, and I'm a little surprised that I didn't like this one the first time around, because it's really, really good. Interesting takes on Electro and Goblin, and some great world building in this one. It's a shame they didn't get to continue it.

Talking to the kids about the differences in the movies, it hadn't really struck me before how Tobey's trilogy really focuses on how much being Spider-man sucks for Peter, while Garfield gets to show how much he enjoys it. Both of the Amazing movies were just so much fun.

So I think that's why, even though Tobey's trilogy started when it should hit the nostalgia button harder, I loved Garfields Spider-man's more. The films just felt like the joy I always got out of Peter Parker from the comics I read as a kid. Now don't get me wrong, Tom Holland has killed that aspect. But back then I couldn't imagine why people praised the Tobey movies and panned the Garfield movies and why we didn't at least get the third one. His Villains were so good.

Also it makes Garfields character way more interesting in No Way Home

There's a lot I liked about the Garfield movies. They do great things with the acrobatics and webbing and Garfield himself is really solid even if he seems to jump between several iterations of the character.

The main problem with these films is they've just got too much going on to have a clean heart of the story to connect to. They're pulling way too much bad Spider-Man mythos that makes Peter too special rather than the outsider and the villains just don't have the heart behind them to come across as either sympathetic or hateful enough to be truly memorable. Both films have exceptional ingredients, just not the right mix.

As for Aquaman 2 its unfortunately just a bad film all around. The original was way better than it had any right to be, but its pretty clear that this one got made under the looming death of the Snyderverse and the collapse of WB with the intent to get what they could out it. This is a real waste of time and huge disappointment. Not even bad enough to be memorable. It's the worst kind of bland mediocrity.

Must have had a brain fog moment - I thought you were refering to the ginger cat for a moment!
Garfield acrobatics???

Long covid is a pain in the ass but the brain fog can be funny....

Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man

Tron Arse

In which creepy, emotionless void of charisma Jared Leto pushes his acting chops by playing a computer programme that’s a creepy, emotionless void of charisma.

Sadly, Mr Leto has been cluttering up tv, cinema and music for 54 years, when his character, Arse, can only exist for around 25 minutes.

This film isn’t interesting. I don’t care about anyone or anything in it.

I think the worst thing about Tron: Ares is it trying to make us believe that Billionaires might actually care about something other than their own wealth. Laughable.


Zootopia 2

I honestly had no interest in seeing this. However, I was invited to go and I did not want to be a douchebag and decline.

This is.... completely forgetable and kinda boring. There are a couple cute sight gags and references to better movies.

Honestly, this feels like a cheap Dreamworks flicks. It had some watered down, weak anti-corruption messaging, some weak anti-racism messaging too. The subtext of the story they were too scared to really commit too.

Completely disposable and when I write about the movies I recall from 2026? This will NOT be on the list. Disney is just too pussy to commit to the political implications of their work. They are afraid of the ramifications from their own audience and fans if they actually leaned into it.

My advice to them is simple. Look closer at Hero if they want to learn how to make a good movie that tows an Authoritarian message. They might be less afraid of the pushback they would get from that messaging.

So, more Elio than Inside Out? Easy skip.

They have another Incredibles sequel coming out soon, right? The messaging in the first movie, that some people are inherently superior and it is against the natural order to challenge that, might resonate with modern audiences, no?

Der Tiger

It's German Fury in short.

In long, German WWII stuff is always some kind of interesting and this is no exception. If Fury tells a very American story of the war about heroism, sacrifice, and bravery, Der Tiger is a very German story about conscience, culpability, and reaping the whirlwind. It's not an amazing movie. It's production values are lower than any budget American war flick, but it is a much moodier and in turn more thoughtful film and very German in its presentation which at least makes it the most important thing; interesting.

I recommend for tank fans, war film fans, and people who like their movies of a more artsy variety.

Psychoville

Sort of murder mystery from the minds that brought you The League of Gentlemen and Inside No 9.

Like those, it might be a too grotesque for everyone. But it’s so well written.

Tron: Ares has finally come to D+

When I saw the trailers for it this summer I thought "Maybe I'll go see that".
Then it came out & I was just plain busy. I blinked & it had left the theatres. So I thought "eh, when it comes to D+ then".

Wow, that was 2hrs of lackluster meh. Glad I didn't waste $ on it in the theatre....

I was disappointed in the score.

After Daft Punk's Tron Legacy score, Trent Reznor's was kinda meh.

I was hoping for so much more.

At least I know that MDG will watch another Jared Leto movie soon. He-Man is coming soon!

Asher (2018)

Ron Perlman plays a hit man for New York's Jewish mob. Mostly he just wants to live and work in peace, but have you ever seen a hit man movie where things go straight for the protagonist? Yep, this one doesn't break the mold either.

I was entertained, mostly for Perlman playing a guy who's just old and tired but doesn't know what to do but to keep going the way he always did. I'm not sure I'd call the movie fun, though. Its pace is slow and the murder and mayhem is dressing more than anything, with the aforementioned old and tired guy being old and tired as the film's clear focus. Might even be depressing to watch, depending on your predisposition. Much less an "old guy still kicks ass" movie that you usually get in the aging assassin section, and more of a character study. A good one in my opinion, if you're into that kind of thing.

 LordofHats wrote:
Der Tiger

It's German Fury in short.

In long, German WWII stuff is always some kind of interesting and this is no exception. If Fury tells a very American story of the war about heroism, sacrifice, and bravery, Der Tiger is a very German story about conscience, culpability, and reaping the whirlwind. It's not an amazing movie. It's production values are lower than any budget American war flick, but it is a much moodier and in turn more thoughtful film and very German in its presentation which at least makes it the most important thing; interesting.

I recommend for tank fans, war film fans, and people who like their movies of a more artsy variety.

I've been debating whether I should watch this. It shouldn't be hard to get me with a movie about a big old kitty cat, but on the other hand I try to avoid German movies whenever possible. It's certainly not encouraging to see the movie described as very German.

The Fifth Element

No fancy review. It’s a classic. I love it. You love it. Go watch it.

My favourite.