<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium "]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/95.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
So we usually have annual wrap up and reviews of Geek Media. But whilst this is slightly delayed? It’s a special one, because we’re now a smidgen over a quarter of the way into the current century. And, when I looked back at all that’s transpired in the Geek Media World? I felt quite giddy.

Cast your minds back, if your life on this rock is long enough, back to the year 2000. A time of hope and what felt like unrivalled opportunity. A new year, a new century, and a new millennia, all at the strike of midnight.

It was a time when The Phantom Menace had baffled, disappointed and enraged nerds everywhere, yet hope remained that the next two would suck less. And they kinda did, ish. Certainly sucked less than TPM, but still kinda sucked.

A time when ER, Friends and Fraiser were the top flight of telly. Despite Friends being gak.

A time before social media. A time before shared cinematic universes. A time before streaming. Heck, whilst the discs had been around for a while? A time before the PS2 really brought the now humble DVD into the home in a big way. A time before X-Box even.

The internet itself was starting its inexorable march into every crook and nanny of our lives, but remained largely in its infancy. Pretty sure most homes, at least in the UK, relied on Dial Up Modems for their grumble educational research purposes.

On reflection? There’s a lot of stuff happened in 25 short years, as technology has inveigled itself, like the internet and it’s god awful screeching spoilt brat, social media, into every aspect of life.

But enough scene setting. What are your Geek Media landmarks from that period? What do you think has left us objectively better off, and what has been a bad idea?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802048.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802048.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802122.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802122.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
Not a fan of sequel/prequel/reboot culture but I suppose 80s kids must be the only ones with any money left, so everything has to target us specifically.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802126.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802126.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802192.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802192.page GMT Re:The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
Would it be awesome? Would it fail to live up to such impossible hopes and fall flat?

And holy cow - it was a crushing success. Sure, there was plenty of nerd rage centered almost entirely on minutia that general public consumption would mostly ignore, but it's pretty accepted that 25 years later that the trilogy as a whole still absolutely stands up as probably the most competently-made fantasy material ever to be on the big screen. It even returned to the theatres this month!]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802548.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802548.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
The hype (and the hope) was real. I also remember the much larger group of people who went in without having read the books who discovered something they never expected.

The Harry Potter films had the same effect on children who saw the films without knowing the books: something magical and new that sparked their imaginations. The first film wasn’t as good as Fellowship, so it was a more gradual process, as I recall.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802572.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802572.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
But both were exceptional feats of film making. And they’re part of my personal paradox. I remember first seeing them like it was yesterday, but also comprehend they’re well old.

But let’s be real. They speak to an advancement in modern cinema. The first film in both series turn 25 years old this year. Yet, if you were watching a 25 year old film back in 2001? They bloody looked it..

Even if we remove fashions, which don’t apply to HP or LOTR. But competence of effects, sharpness of recording etc. and that.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802575.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802575.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’ve never read any Harry Potter or Middle Earth books, and likely never will.

But both were exceptional feats of film making. And they’re part of my personal paradox. I remember first seeing them like it was yesterday, but also comprehend they’re well old.

But let’s be real. They speak to an advancement in modern cinema. The first film in both series turn 25 years old this year. Yet, if you were watching a 25 year old film back in 2001? They bloody looked it..

Even if we remove fashions, which don’t apply to HP or LOTR. But competence of effects, sharpness of recording etc. and that.


For movies if we go back another 25 years we get to movies like Star Wars, which was revolutionary special effects for the time. And held up reasonably well, even before they got a freshen up with additional work. Now, there was a lot of cheep effects as well. And when they started to add CGI it was real bad for a while. Jarring where you could tell it was spliced into the film. But by 2000 we were past the worst of that. the transition from practical effects to computer was rough, and makes a lot of 80/90s films worse then pre-Star Wars.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802581.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802581.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium imo. Despite all improvements on the technical side, noone could come even close to the perfection of Lotr.

The 2000's also brought the escalation of superhero movies. Spiderman and X-Men to me really started off what then became MCU later on.

And if we talk about the technical side of cinema remember that Matrix is from 1999, which might be one of the most influential movies for the next two decades to come concerning special effects.
On that note I'll also mention one of the best SF movies that apparently gets rarely mentioned (maybe because it never got a sequel) - Children of Men from 2006. The camera work is outstanding, but it's a unique movie all around.

And whilst the golden age of Star Trek really is the 90's, the final seasons of DS9 and Voyager reached Germany in the 2000's and therefore saw young 12-18 year old me dive deep into Trek and never really get out of it, despite the dark age of 2003 - 2009.

Also also: I was born 1989, I had watched the original Star Wars Trilogy as a kid and when the Phantom Menace came out - I really liked it. Just as my Students now even like episodes 7-9 because that's what they grew up with (I don't think I even watched 9 because 7 and 8 were already terrible JJ Abrams failures just like his Trek movies).

I still like Phantom Menace today and would rate it above Episodes II, IV and V. *Mikedrop*]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802625.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802625.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
Terminator likewise was all over the shop. Sure, I adored Dark Fate, but I get why that’s not exactly a universal opinion.

Oooh, in terms of horror? We saw Saw and Paranormal Activity both take off. Saw brought the Torture Prawn (well, it’s sequels did, I still maintain the original is a masterpiece), Paranormal Activity redefined Found Footage and made it Actually Good.

As a horror fan? It can be hard to remember that prior to those flicks, studios were still trying to wring the last out the much abused slasher genre, and Sexy 30 Something Teens Being Sexy 30 Something Teen Idiots.

After them? OK results vary, this is horror after all. But we then got The Conjuring and Insidious series, which again reshaped the industry.

Moving closer to the modern day, and going back to my comment about Prey and Romulus? We’ve also seen a move to Latter Day Sequels. Sure, mixed results again. But there are brilliant ones. Most notably Mad Max out of absolutely nowhere. Not you, Tron Pooping On Its Legacy and Tron Arse. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802630.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802630.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
The Predator franchise also had Predator 3 in the 2000's which I would rate just below Prey but it's certainly a movie I like to rewatch every now and then, on that note it's like AvP1 - just a fun movie.

Yeah, Saw 1 is a strong one and I suggested non-horror Fans to watch it in a cut Version on free-TV because the story is just that good.

You also brought me to a negative side of the 2000's, stupid stuff like Scary Movie, Fantasy movie and all that rubbish...
The 2000's also saw the completely unnecessary Indiana Jones 4 Which probably kicked off several of these kinds of late sequels? Thinking of The Thing 2, which was even more unnecessary than Indiana Jones 4.

Talking of Horror, typical 2000's to me also is Final Destination.

Edit: we haven't touched on Vampires yet, Blade, Twilight (ew), Underworld, Van Helsing- the 2000's were really into Vampire and werewolves stuff. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802652.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802652.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium LOTR is definitely a tremendous achievement in film making. I have loved them for a large part of my life, and I was SO excited when they first came out.

But these days I find I'm not really able to watch them. The bad choices made in the script which really damage characters I love from the books and especially the choices that cheapen, dumb down or coarsen characters from the books I really can't stand.
I'm not bothered about skipping plot elements or changing them, but I think getting characters wrong and especially intentionally making characters worse is a terrible thing to do. Frodo, Aragorn, Gimli, Gandalf, Theoden, Denethor, Faramir, Merry and Pippin all come out worse in the films, and I think only Boromir and perhaps Gollum are elevated.

In that sense, comic book films have often done a better job at getting the character right even if the plot is very different. Of course it helps that there have been many different versions of characters over the years to draw from. I like the Marvel films up to Endgame and I think the Tom Holland Spiderman is a great take on the character. I really liked Ed Norton's Hulk too. DC had a lot more misses but the recent Batman film was excellent and I liked the Superman film too though it wasn't as good as Batman (but then Superman rarely is!)

I definitely felt spoilt by comic book movies for a while there. The marvel ones seem to have run out of steam and I haven't watched many of the post Endgame ones, but that was a hell of a run and had a huge (mixed) impact on the landscape of film.

But I am a bit curmudgeonly about a lot of very modern stuff. I find the scripts tend to be awful and I think my generation are to blame - millennial writing really is awful.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802656.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802656.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium lol) of the venerable zombie.

From remakes to game adaptations to The Walking Dead. Fast, slow, dumb, smartish. The whole smorgasbord of undead flesh eating delight.

Sure, for every 28 Days Later, there are several dreadful ones. But that’s kinda just horror for you. Someone the formula right, and others dog pile on.

Going more general? Streaming has forever altered how I consume media. Yes, I still get DVDs, but only if I can find a given show streaming anywhere.

And, as much as we not unjustifiably complain about it not being as good as it was? It’s still head and shoulders above cable or satellite. First, we’re not tied into any contracts, so if you’re disciplined you can enjoy a service for a self-set period, cancelling and reactivating a subscription month to month.

Sure, there’s an awful lot of guff, but also plenty of good stuff, including originals. And we can still watch whatever we want, whenever we want. TV no longer dictates our social schedule. We’re not ransomed by whether or not we set the video or TIVO right, or that a family member taped over or deleted something we were yet to watch.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802657.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802657.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
While I agree marvel movies had an overall higher quality than DC, the Dark Knight series to me is the zenith of the genre, it never was as good again as in these three parts. The only superhero movie to come remotely close was the first Joker, which wasn't even a superhero movie to begin with. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802658.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802658.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
But great films all the same. The third film I think is a bit weaker but still a good film and on par with your average Marvel movie.

I was thinking mostly of the Snyderverse stuff - he seemed to only like deconstructions of the characters rather than the characters themselves. I'm very glad the recent films have restored the public image of the characters.

Another big deal was Star Wars of course as others have said. I love the original films, especially the first two, but the prequels are bad in my opinion. I thought so at the time too. I was never a Star Wars superfan, I just like the films, but I was hopeful when they did the sequels. TFA is good fun, nothing groundbreaking, but I thought it was a good time. The Last Jedi has some interesting ideas and strong scenes but ultimately doesn't stick the landing on the good stuff and is weighed down by a lot of nonsense. I wish they'd committed to disillusioned Luke properly, because really, the Jedi ARE awful and inhuman, and not really "the good guys". Their philosophy is all over the place and makes no sense and deserves critique. Moving the series forward to a "third way" would have been great, and could have been pulled off, but they chickened out.

ROS is pure crap, not even worth discussing.

Solo was a good laugh and Rogue One had good moments, but I'm not a huge fan of either.

So for me now Star Wars is 11 movies and of those 2 are great (the first two), 2 are good (the third and first sequel), 3 are okay (the spin offs and Last Jedi) and 4 are awful. It's not a great hit rate really, for such a popular series!

As to streaming, I dunno I'm probably weird but I just don't bother with it. I've sometimes done a month or so to watch a couple of series, but I've often been really disappointed in series too - like I loved Stranger Things series 1, liked 2 a lot and thought 3 was awful and haven't watched any more. Rings of Power was awful and is my go to example of terrible modern scriptwriting (and no, I don't really care about the race of characters in the show - it's the terrible writing that gets me. The actors mostly did a decent job and the whole thing LOOKS amazing). I suppose "watching stuff" just isn't a big past time of mine any more, if I have time I'd rather read a book or listen to an audiobook.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802682.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802682.page GMT Re:The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium Destroyermen, by Taylor Anderson. There's like 15 books or so, but once you read the first one you'll want to read the rest. He even started a new series set in the same world called Artillerymen, but I haven't read any of those yet. Other series I enjoyed are Ian Douglas' Star Carrier series, Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem and its sequels, as well as a lot of the post-Nemesis Star Trek novels. Probably my favorite Star Trek books of all time, the seven-book Vanguard series, came out in this era.

And while we're on the subject of books, I should mention that a fair number of young adult-oriented book series/trilogies came out in the last 25 years, and many were adapted to either movies or streaming TV series (sometimes both). Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, and probably others I'm not thinking of. Also Twilight, but I'm not sure that would in any way count as young adult-oriented. These all varied widely in how successful they were of course.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802754.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802754.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
In terms of fantasy novels, I'm not certain on the exact publication dates but I loved the Robin Hobb trilogy of trilogies Assassin, Liveship and Tawny Man series. Fantastic series with a brilliant pay off at the end. I know she wrote more but I didn't pick it up because I was so satisfied with what had been presented.

Otherwise the fantasy scene was dominated by big, very long, series for a long time. But GRRM and Rothfuss are not going to finish theirs and the market seems to have moved on to romance novels aimed at young women because young men don't read as much any more. One name from the earlier period is JV Jones, whose second series The Sword of Shadows is great fun, and she had a long break between books due to unfortunate life circumstances but has recently finished her next book in the series Endlords and is looking to get it published. Just in case anyone was following along like me and is happy to hear one of the unfinished fantasy epics of the past 20 years is actually moving forward again!]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802757.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802757.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
I mean, “kids book” could on its own mean anything beyond a book purely intended to help children learn to read.

Young Adult to me means it’s at least touching on mature themes and moral posers. Something suitable for growing minds, a transitionary thing between simple moral tales and more morally ambiguous stories.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802760.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802760.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
Otherwise they can run the gauntlet from being very childish to very mature and sometimes that's less the content and more the writing style the author uses.



Now you want a term that's even more daft - at least in the UK bookshops - Horror. Horror does not mean horror, it means vampires, werewolves and hot romance stuff. Seriously more than half the horror sections are horror-romance ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802765.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802765.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
Hobbs assassins and Liveship stuff was late 90s.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802785.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802785.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802809.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802809.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
But…DVD Boxed Sets.

Sure, many tv shows saw (often extensive) VHS releases. But not boxed sets, and not all shows.

But now, with sometimes a little hunting around, you can find more or less affordable Complete Series boxed sets for all sorts of shows of what is now yesteryear.

Which again has been to the consumer’s advantage. Spesh as once bought on DVD (Blu-Ray if necessary) that’s mine forever, and won’t wear out or be taken down mid-season.

Examples in my collection that aren’t available for Streaming? The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote, Poirot, Jeeves & Wooster, Thriller, Armchair Thriller, The Goodies. All completely complete.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802813.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802813.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
 Flinty wrote:
I think there has been some amazing sci-fi books released since 2000. Banks, Hamilton, Stross, Roberts, Corey, McLeod, Tchaikovsky. Unique ideas, massive galaxy spanning melodramas, great characters and interesting explorations.

Hobbs assassins and Liveship stuff was late 90s.


The Dresden Files has also been hugely influential on the genre.

Brandon Sanderson might not get Tolkien big, but he is beloved by a generation of fantasy readers.

And Cormac McCarthy’s The Road will be around a while.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802858.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802858.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
I really enjoyed his "Roman Legions + Pokemon" series, it is a bit ridiculous but I had a lot of fun with it all the same.

And I heard the second Cinder Spires book is out, that was good craic as well. Haven't re-read the first one in a decade though, so I might need to refresh my memory before the second one!

Brando Sando seems like a nice guy and I thought the book of his I read was fun enough. He does the "hard magic" thing where the magic is like a comprehensible system that all works together and there's almost a puzzle element to it. It's satisfying, but I just find I prefer fantasy where magic is a bit less like physics, because real physics is more interesting than fake physics. And I thought his prose was kinda flat. But he's got a huge following, and he broadly did a good job finish WOT. Unfortunately he didn't get Mat right, but it was a big ask for him to do it and I felt he mostly stuck the landing.

I am (or used to be) a scientist and I teach physics these days, but I don't often want to read Sci Fi. I often feel I should go read some of the really good stuff that's being written but then I don't get around to it!

If we're talking books, the Horus Heresy series is all this century right? Certainly had a big impact on our corner of the world. There's even like a dozen good books in there. My feelings on the series are very mixed though, especially now that I know how it ends in that extremely bloated book.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802901.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802901.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium HD resolution blu-rays and dropping it all so we can endless stream things into a tiny pocket sized screen. That whole jump is wild, but I think the scary thing is that 15 years later it feels like little has changed other than the content.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802905.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802905.page GMT The first 25 years of the 3rd Millennium
NES - SNES - N64 - GameCube - Wii were sea changes in visual quality, game length and game complexity. The differences between each generation were simply far more obvious than they’d become. As were those of the competitors, but we were a Nintendo house.

Even then, I’ve included the Wii mostly for the motion control.

What doesn’t help the feeling of stagnation there, at least for me, are the constant re-releases and re-masters of things like Skyrim, GTA V and so on. Typically they’re very fine games, but I don’t think anyone is going to be shelling out for the latest console just to play them.

Now, there are changes going on with the hardware, of course they are. But I think we’ve kind of plateaued in terms of games developers finally being able to realise long held dreams.

Certainly I think we’d have a bloody hard time convincing Young Whipper Snappers to get off our lawn that say, the N64 and PlayStation had absolutely mind blowing, jaw dropping graphics when they first launched. Because today? Those graphics look like what they are. Early, primitive playing around with Polygons over Sprites.

The same with VHS to DVD. Granted, a chunk of that depended on the transfer. And particularly in my extensive horror section, I’ve some exceptionally ropey picture quality DVDs, because the company was too cheap remaster and tart them up.

Heck. There’ll be teenagers around today that never went to the video store, and so entirely missed out on that shared cultural experience. The old “one weekend, three rentals, choose wisely young man”. Or indeed, spotting a much heard of movie hiding up the back of a Saturday Night telly schedule and setting an alarm to remind you to watch it.

Hell, with lesser restrictions on what is and isn’t allow on broadcast TV, there’ll be those who’ve never heard Mother Father, F-Dam, Melon Farmer and other usually hilarious overdubbing of Rude Words. Nor know the revelation of getting something on DVD, and then finding out the telly broadcast had edited out all the good bits.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802908.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/818332/11802908.page GMT