Comments by "Ronin Dave" (@RoninDave) on "The Critical Drinker" channel.

  1. The weird undertones of the whole black civilization thing sounds eerily similar to the Ayran myths of the Nazis. Afrocentrism have created this mythology where all the ancient was black including Greece stretching all the way to Japan as though there were some kind of homogeneous connection to it all and something to be proud of while indignant it was stolen and hidden from them - again similar to the Ayran myths. Funny thing is this black identity means little in Africa North or sub-saharan. It's primarily an American thing
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  2. Messing with canon is like one of the greatest sins in fandom. Throughout the show's history they would do some modifications but they were usually very careful how it was done especially in the older series. To suddenly throw out the idea of the first doctor being the first doctor is a slap in the face of the fans. If ever this shows gets revive they'll have to pretend this whole Whitaker doctor never happened.
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  3. Preachy sanctimonious blue aliens say "human greed bad!" Gee, thanks for the revelation! Avatar fans were like 11 when it came out and they thought it was really deep.
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  4. Only anthony hopkins could play anthony hopkins as played by Tom Hiddleston
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  5.  @yonghominale8884  true but it was also an inner-dialogue primarily in the US against the racist norms and ideologies of the day. The problem is in modern times it has spilled out beyond our borders and now you have hoteps attacking Egyptians as invaders of their land
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  6. JJ is good at fooling people with surface level gloss that hits the nostalgic vibe but it rarely stays in the memory unlike the original work he copies. I liked both the first Trek and Star Wars film at first but over time (a short time) they faded and the flaws became glaring and unavoidable. The biggest flaws are how hollow and forced everything is - Spock&Kirk's friendship, Rey being a Force expert, very little character interaction in either film to build them into memorable characters, pointless scenes shoved in for fan service like Kobayashi Maru or the mcguffin map to Luke that mirrors the Death Star plans of IV but makes no sense in a universe with hyperspeed. People thinking he will save Star Wars are out of their minds because he set up the new series on such flimsy ground that it was bound to fail as the reboot Star Trek franchise has.
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  7.  @mikeoxlong9522  some people complain about the female superhero line up near the end of Endgame but I see that as the Russo Brothers saying to the Captain Marvel team that "we already have female superheroes who are badass, have flaws, and are likable." Scarlet Witches' confrontation with Thanos had far more impact than Cap Karen's did which is why I think the Russo's had her practically punched out of the movie till the end line up at Tony's funeral.
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  8.  Jack and Bt Sandwich  it's never made exactly clear how the Thing assimilates. The ambiguity of it adds to the fear and paranoia of the characters
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  9. The whole season was largely padding and filler then in the last half-hour of this 9 hour snoozefest they suddenly cram in the making of the 3 Rings and damn if it isn't underwhelming (not too mention lore breaking). The rings are ugly as sin like the cheap gaudy jewelry big-haired grandmothers wore in the 70s and 80s that they got at Dollar General.
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  10. it was silly to make her seem more of a threat than the white walkers but they tried to do that in Episode 4 by miraculously killing off a dragon with a once in a lifetime shot then wrecking a good part of Danni's fleet. It made you think "hey, maybe Cersei is a big threat! Then Episode 5 her entire army is obliterated in less than 10 minutes
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  11.  David Renton  There's a difference between tweaking canon and outright changing it completely. Having women play male roles in Shakespeare is not an example of changing canon or having black actors play the Founding Fathers. Not anymore than setting Richard III in a WWII-ish setting. Those are not changing the fundamental aspects of the story in terms of plot and character. I think you are not familiar with what canon exactly is because your examples don't fit especially not with Doctor Who. Canon is the established story elements within the fictional universe ie a character's backstory and origins, the political situations, the history of the world, the history of characters, the character of the characters, etc... Basically think lore. For example with Doctor Who it was never really stated where the First Doctor and his granddaughter were from. This allowed the writers freedom to eventually create whole Time Lords and Gallifrey story elements which they added to gradually over the years careful not to give too much while not contradicting themselves too much. For a long long time the Time Lords and their history was the established canon of the show with occasional tweaks. This episode completely rewrote that history throwing out the original origins for something completely different and not offering up much of a reason as to why the established lore was incorrect. It also changed the Doctor's origins from being from Gallifrey into some strange entity making the Doctor far more important in the Doctor Who universe that he/she ever was throughout it's 50 year run. And a big change was making William Hartnell's doctor not the first doctor. When the writers first established the regeneration concept at the end of Hartnel's run it was not messing with canon as they had left the Doctor a mysterious character to whom they could add elements to as they went along such as a way to change the face of the character but make it part of the established lore. For decades it was established about the number of doctors, the number of regenerations, how the time lords came about then along comes Chibnail rebooting the show within the original show's framework changing this established lore that writers had been building on for half a century. Since he did not create the character and universe, it's not really his right to completely do so which is why people are angry. Previous writers might tweak here and there but they were careful not to do something that would throw already established canon out the window. One simple reason for this is that changing canon betrays the trust between writer(s) and audience. If Harry Potter suddenly became hard science fiction and that Voldemort was a cyborg the whole time, fans would be pissed as everything they had been told up to that point has been rendered moot and they essentially had wasted their time on a story that completely changed direction and character.
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  12.  @silentwitness536  I don't think you know how words work. Herodotus actually visited Egypt in Ancient times as opposed to this grandmother who likely never visited the country and certainly not in Ancient times. Her assertion of Cleopatra's ethnicity is simply not anecdotal evidence as she never met the lady and apparently was not aware of Cleopatra's incestual Greek descent.
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  13.  @barryboucher4587  give it a rest, shill! Even the bloated Hobbit films didn't change the lore and characters to the level that ROP did just in the first episode. It's poorly written with bad dialogue, uninteresting unlikeable characters, contrived plot, and pointless mystery boxes
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  14. but Roy is memorable. He's an antagonist who really is the protagonist the whole time albeit an anti-hero type. His quest for more life makes him very human and relatable. Meeting his creator then killing him in an act of disappointment was like a Greek Myth meets Nietzsche. The final scene is his triumph. He beats his adversary but at the last moment saves him in an act of mercy when he finally accepts his inevitable fate. Roy's struggle is basically humanity's struggle with our awareness of our mortality. Roy's story comes full circle - a fight against inescapable death and a final acceptance of it on his own terms. This is missing in K's story. His death is an accident not an unavoidable one like Roy's. His is a story that would be more fitting in a type of Spielburg's/Kubrick's A.I. story about the sentience and purpose of artificial lifeforms.
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  15. Rey defenders have tried to say for years that "Luke is Gary Stu just like complain Rey!" And obviously they never watched the films or paid attention to them. The quintessential Mary Sue named after character in a parody of bad Star Trek fanfic can do no wrong and immediately impresses the other established characters. Luke got his ass handed to him repeatedly in New Hope from Tusken to bar brawlers to trash pit monster. Han called him a farmboy and dismisses his shooting down a Tie Fighter. Leia comments he's too short to be a storm trooper. Rey on the other hand impresses Han Solo within minutes of meeting her. Leia hugs her first time she see her. The established characters and the new characters constantly give her respect and talk about how good she is at astro-mechanics, flying, fighting, and using the Force. As for fighting, Rey takes almost no damage the entire trilogy. She beats Kylo every time she fights him and even beats Luke. And as for character arc, there is none. She learns nothing about herself except she was always good and just got better. The only she had was a weird attraction to emo bad boy which led to twisted Reylo Fans.
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  16. When you think you're right for no reason except for existing you create these kind of terrible protagonists. It's the Captain Marvel syndrome. She's a hero because we say she's a hero without showing willing to sacrifice herself or do real heroic stuff. Galadriel did hardly anything to be considered heroic and on top of that threatened genocide for the sake of torture. Jeez!
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  17. Battlestar started out excellent and meandered up its own ass with self-importance and mystery boxes that would have made JJ Abrams splooge with joy
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  18.  @MidnightatMidian  the question of deckard being a replicant or not was not meant to be a literal but a metaphysical one of what is it to be truly human. Deckard is just like all the other humans in the film - cold and detached and it's only in coming in contact with the replicants and their very human wanting to live does he change.
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  19. This whole "Galadriel will go on a journey of humility" sounds more like damage control after the fact when they realize how unlikeable her character really is. She single-handedly ruined everything. She brings Sauron back to Middle Earth, gets a bunch of Numenoreans killed and their Queen blinded, fails to stop the creation of Mordor, and lets Celebrimbor complete the making of the 3 Rings despite knowing Sauron was obviously planning something. And no one not even herself calls her out on it. Instead they give her the commanding moment of telling Celebrimbor to make 3 rings instead of one or two like she deserves to give any advice after all the stupid shit she had done.
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  20. Movies like Captain Marvel appeal to the kind of woman many other women don't like.
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  21. 2049 was a forgettable attempt to copy the elements that made the original memorable
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  22.  @patmos09  didn't say that about Bladerunner certainly not the original but I was addressing your argument where you are going on about the replicants having feelings and such which was already established in the original so no new ground there. What you are describing is a different film that doesn't really fit Bladerunner the original which didn't need a sequel. The original deals with the themes of humanity and mortality. The question of Deckard for example being human or not was not a literal one but there to make the audience question what it means to be human. Overall the brilliance of the film is that the antagonists really are the protagonists as their quest for longer life is a very human and understandable goal one that has been echoed in many stories since the time of Gilgamesh and the Sumerians. The humans are the unfeeling and uncaring creator gods who made the replicants for single purposes then have them expire with a short life span. The confrontation scene of Roy and his maker Tyrell is such a powerful scene drenched in metaphysical trappings of man meeting his creator then killing that creator in act of agonizing disappointment when robbed of his last chance for some semblance of happiness. And there's the theme of mortality, the irony that even the human creators will also die is inescapable - [no one] lives forever, but then again, who does? Roy Batty after going to great lengths to stay alive finally accepts death and in a final act of humanity shows empathy for his foe. Batty/Hauer's death brings everything together. He is like a futuristic Gilgamesh, a bad character at first who failed in his quest for immortality and finally accepts his inevitable fate with a very human show of mercy. This is what makes Bladerunner transcend what could have been a surface-level sci-fi action story of killer androids and a bitter alcoholic film noir detective tracking them down to exterminate them. With 2049 there's really nowhere to go as the original said what it needed to say and we didn't need more. However in our time of mining the past for creativity, it couldn't be left alone if there was something to make money on so now we have a potential war between replicants and humans which wasn't there before and the chance replicants can have offspring -- um, ok? They did a good job capturing the visual and slow pacing of the original but that's just it, like a JJ Abrams film, it relies too much on the original to be its own original thing and hopes audiences will think it's on the same level like the original. And because many movies today are shallow, it appeals to those wanting something more but it's a cinematic Emperor's New Clothes and unlike the original will be forgotten.
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  23.  @MiddleEarthGirl75  that's a banking I wouldn't trust a penny with. None of it makes any sense because it's contrived lazy bad writing. There was no reason for him being out there in the sea nor on a raft except to create (ie force) a reason for Elendil to find them and bring them to Numenor. How on Middle Earth would Sauron know Galadriel was going to be sent to Valinor as part of a scheme to get rid of her and that she would unexpectantly jump ship at the last moment? He just decided to get a ship of humans off to the west for no reason then sink the boat and float on a raft with the hope of finding a swimming Galadriel in a wide open sea then further hope a passing Numenorean boat would spot them and save them? Hoping Galadriel would believe his pouch made him a reluctant king seems to be the least of his problem in this grand convoluted scheme of epic proportions banking on numerous coincidences and sheer luck.
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  24.  @trinelangohr6661  Good point. People calling ROP fanfic don't realize most fanfic wouldn't mishandle the lore and characters this badly for the fear of being flamed to bits.
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  25.  Whytebio  diversity agenda driven white folk seem to have a problem if there is more than one diverse character of a similar background as then they'd have to write actual character traits
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  26. looking the people gushing over the power couple of Sauron and Galadriel is enough to make you wish an asteroid would swing by to take us out of our miseries. The other another group is those who like the show for the fee-fees and member-berries. It's like they have no idea what a good story is anymore.
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  27. It was yet another sign how the new series completely missed the point of the source it was shamelessly ripping off. In the original, the shout served two purposes - 1) it was from Kirk who had a history with Khan and it was done in reaction to being taunted by Khan for leaving him stranded as Khan had been stranded and 2) it was also a ruse since Kirk knew the Enterprise was poised to pick them up. Even as a ruse, the shout had meaning as Kirk had every reason to be angry and it was a good shout. It became so memorable that it was referenced in so many parodies over the years. In Nu-Trek, the KHAAAANNN!!! is shouted by a character who doesn't have a history with Khan. Nu-Khan had killed Pike, Kirk's mentor and Marcus whom Kirk had more of a relationship with both as a former friend and foe. Having Spock shout "KHAAAAN!!" at Kirk's death was practically meaningless as Kirk had died indirectly of Khan's actions, a Khan who had been an ally 10 minutes ago and who had no real reason to personally dislike Kirk or Spock. There was hardly any connection between him and the other characters of Nu-Trek. The only reason that scream along with the death (that was reversed 10 minutes later) was in the film was for pathetic fan service of two iconic moments from the original but stripped completely of their gravitas and meaning.
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  28. the patch is supposed to represent the patriarchy hampering women and keeping them from their true potential - accidental goddess hood in this case. She's like Spiderman in this case but the difference is Parker became a self-centered jerk and paid the price for his arrogance and grew from this experience. Marvel went from strong to really strong to super strong learning that she's always been awesome. Yay, character development?
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  29.  @Thissentenceisfalselosers  lol as many have said in the wake of this tragic comedy that The Hobbit trilogy isn't looking so bad now in comparison. That's an accomplishment!
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  30. too many protagonists in film and tv these days are always right characters and everyone else they clash against is just simply wrong. It's nice to see protagonists make mistakes and learn from those mistakes but certain "ahem!" characters of a Sue variety are often not allowed such human traits.
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  31.  @Magneticlaw  and operate a ship on rough seas despite that desert upbringing. Ugh! what a crap character!
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  32. some blame Jaws and Star Wars for killing off the 70s style of film-making but they still had those elements in them particularly in pacing and characterization. It was 80s blockbuster films that started the trend of dumbing down plot and character though many of them are still miles better than their 2010 remakes/reboots.
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  33.  @Nomalos  no one calls her out on these flaws nor she is shown that she is in the wrong
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  34.  @Nomalos  really? Where does she really acknowledge she messed up? She still feels confident enough to come up with the idea of 3 Elven Rings despite Sauron's fingerprints all over them and possibly part of some nefarious plot of his. She doesn't even tell them that Halbrand is Sauron.
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  35.  @BenignViewer  that's a meaningless stretch comparing an inevitable death but at an uncertain time to fast approaching death of limited life span. One of the main reasons a sequel never should have been made is that Bladerunner should never be taken so literally. Bladerunner is more of an existential film, a holdover from 70s style film-making. We're not meant to dig too deeply into it like caring about the ramifications of a hybrid child or peace between humans and replicants. It's a metaphor for mortality. Getting bogged down in details misses the overall point.
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  36. I think everything that needed to be said was done in Bladerunner. Roy Batty's death scene sealed it. There is no point revisiting that story universe.
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  37. Boromir's death is a tragedy. Galadriel of ROP's survival is a tragedy.
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  38. When you promote a cadet who clearly cheated on an important test to captain of his own starship you get an inexperienced immature buffoon that gets everybody killed. That was Nu-Trek's message right? In Into Darkness, he loses a lot of his crew to Marcus and Khan before Khan crashes into San Francisco killing tens of thousands of people. In the third film, he lost his entire ship to a trap. And all of this was during his 5-year mission, the beginning of his starship captain career. How has Nu-Kirk not been court-martialed and thrown into prison?
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  39. I feel this is a time capsule from 2010 how everyone in the video is acting like Youtube is some new thing either barely knowing it or being veterans teaching the newcomer who is getting on youtube without a clue what they want to do (in 2020?). It's like when kids find out they can record their voice and play it back they go crazy with it recording everything they say. It's cute at first then gets really old fast. However there are enough vapid people out there who want this kind of fluff while pretending to be progressive for virtue points that it could succeed (plus having major backing from Youtube and studios helps).
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  40. The Mandalorian showed how to use Finn properly with Bill Burr's character in Season 2. They needed Burr's previous experience as an Imperial to get them into a base and bluff their way around with his knowledge of tedious Imperial protocol. Other than being a janitor on the Star Killer base, Finn barely offered any insight into the First Order and you'd easily forget he was ever a part of it once he was out of his armor.
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  41. exactly! Heroes need to fail and learn so when they succeed it's more satisfying for the audience. This what people who support Mary Rey Palpatine over Luke Skywalker don't get especially when they try to dismiss arguments about Rey being a Mary Sue by saying Luke is one too. In the first film alone, Luke got his ass kicked repeatedly and had to be saved by practically everyone while getting derided for being a farmboy and short. Even blowing up the Death Star he needed Han and R2D2's help. Rey in her first outting beats off attackers, expertly flies the Falcon and is praised for this by Han, uses mind control successfully all by her own, and beats the Darth Vader of her film in her first fight with him in her first lightsaber duel! And the other two films she just got stronger and never really suffered any real defeat to learn from. Boooooooorrring!
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  42.  @MiddleEarthGirl75  yeah GOT was such a disappointment starting off so great. But what bugs me is when people stretch themselves into mental pretzels to ACTUALLY defend bad writing rather than to understand the writers' minds and see how badly the ideas were or how badly executed they were. People are trying to come up with all kinds of reasons Sauron was on that raft thinking it was brilliant 4D chess move rather than a contrivance
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  43.  @APsychicMonkey  dinosaurs were less hardy than mammals? They survived for over 150 million years twice that of mammals. And Paleolithic (not Neolithic) humans lived in a world with big cats, mammoths, giant sloths, etc... for tens of thousands of years. Their extinction had more to do with climate change than overhunting.
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  44.  @zachrohler1047  i never said they were immune to bullets only that hitting a moving target in real life is a lot harder than it is in movies and video games especially with machine guns. There's a reason the US Military took away Auto on M-16s.
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  45. People got sick of me complaining about Prometheus because I couldn't get over how stupid it was and how pretentious twats could defend it with pseudo-intellectual posturing. One of biggest problems I had with the story was the overall premise that started the story - two scientists with no evidence other than a cluster of circles in various ancient depictions concocted a story about the Engineers (a name that made no sense) who created humanity and apparently told ancient humans offscreen about their planet. Even the Ancient Alien guys try to come up with more evidence for their theories but these guys didn't even back it up with myths or hieroglyphs. It was just "these circles mean aliens created us and want us to visit them" and that was enough for a multi-billion project funded by an old man who thought this would also mean these aliens would know how to save him from death. Who needs logic anyhow? Then it turns out the planet is a military science experiment lab - why would they have told ancient humans about that place? They wake up an Engineer and instead of being amazed at humans being there and 2000 years having passed decides to kill them and launch on his original mission of destroying Earth for some unknown reason (funfact - it's been hinted that the death of Jesus was their reason for destroying Earth. So Buddhists, Hinduists, MesoAmericans deserved to die for the death of someone in a backwater area of the Roman Empire? FFS) without bothering to check if his home planet was still around, if the mission still had the go-ahead, and if he was going to get 2000 years of back pay. So the Engineers apparently told humans about the lab planet and when they show up, they get mad at them for doing so? And finding out the creepy xenomorphs of the original was the creation of black goo made by angry careless Engineers and a wayward android kind of ruins their mystery.
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  46.  @bojangles8873  Clegane-bowl is a good example of the old adage be careful what you wish for
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  47. The Thing is a perfect blend of paranoia, brooding atmosphere, claustrophobia, and mystery. You don't get many good horror films like this. They rely on cheap jump-scares, too much reveal of the monster with CGI, and they're too much geared to the short-attention span PG-13 market. 1982's The Thing was more for a mature audience who wanted a horror to have an atmosphere, subtleness, and buildup. The prequel is for braindead morons who want jump-scares every 5 minutes and the music to tell them how to feel.
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  48.  @BenignViewer  unlike Batty who knew he was going to die, K's occurred in the fight which could have had a different result. Batty was fighting against time from the beginning
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  49. With Alien and Blade Runner he explored interesting concepts that made the viewer think and ponder but his latter films while technically good don't have much real substance in them to have critics and film buffs discussing and debating the characters and themes long after. Or they are pretentious but hollow like the Prometheus series.
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  50. The reveal in 2049 aside, I always thought the idea of Decker being a human or replicant was not meant to be a literal one. It was to cast doubt on what it means to be human and what it means to be alive. I like the idea that the "human" tracking down the "non-humans" is more robotic and lifeless than the ones he is retiring. The movie is a more of a metaphor on what it means to truly be alive as well as the acceptance of inevitable death that comes with that life.
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