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Victim of The Night
That sounds perfectly reasonable. I, too, like you and don’t see why this should impact any further interaction between us going forward. V. happy to leave that one there. My reference to “baiting” was not intended as personal or as a dig, though I realise it came off that way and I’m sorry about that. It was intended as me commenting on how sarcasm about such things doesn’t elicit the same reactions in everyone.

Obviously I did not literally mean “social engineering”, I meant steering the cultural conversation in one particular direction a bit too forcefully.

Edit: And no, I am not an incel (for some rather obvious reasons, but okay, anyway). I referenced (in a rather hyperbolic way) the “girly” things women do such as putting on makeup because unless we’re talking noughties stuff like Mean Girls, I find it’s rarely portrayed in film (though most women, even all-powerful CEOs, do them daily), which again I find a bit disingenuous. I did not mean that unless a woman is seen hoovering on screen, I don’t find her believable. I meant that it might make female characters more, not less, nuanced for us to see them doing such things too instead of incessantly kicking ass. E.g. Devil Wears Prada showed Miranda (unsuccessfully) trying to juggle childcare with running Vogue, and I thought that worked well.

End.
To be clear, I didn't take your baiting comment as a dig more as a point of procedure and I understand how it could raise an eyebrow.
And with your clarification, I see what you mean. Much less incelly.
Well, like you said, I take nothing personal or negative away from this conversation, if anything it's been civilized, so cheers.



To be clear, I didn't take your baiting comment as a dig more as a point of procedure and I understand how it could raise an eyebrow.
And with your clarification, I see what you mean. Much less incelly.
Well, like you said, I take nothing personal or negative away from this conversation, if anything it's been civilized, so cheers.
Haha, phew.



Yeah, exactly. And I think that's bidirectional: the less effort and expectation they have for writing, the less it even makes sense to work hard on great FX, which in turn reinforces the lack of concern for the story (somewhat), and so on. It's just a bit of coasting after the first big chapter, which I'll continue to argue was and is something genuinely special. But I think the MCU has become what some of its critics thought it was all along. For now, at least.
I have heard the occasional anecdote about how there's just way more demand for CGI than there is supply, at least in terms of the good stuff. In other words, a lack of super talented CGI engineers, combined with many of the talented ones stretching themselves thin anyway. I can buy that.
Isn't the MCU like massively out-sourcing a lot of the CGI work to different companies at the same time to try to keep up?
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I agree, and I noted when I first became involved in this conversation that that kind of reading makes perfect sense imo. But that’s the question: do you choose to read it as a very deliberate tongue-in-cheek commentary that no, women actually can’t manage anything without men, or do you take it at face value? I just can’t imagine it being so ironic as to intend the point you’re making. But that would certainly be very interesting/original.
Something had to come first between the idea to cast a woman, and the idea that the character would be underestimated and not considered a threat. I don't think one way looks better or worse than the other. My thought is why not cast a woman who is strong and capable and everyone including predator knows it. She still kicks ass and we believe it.



But can they?
I mean, who is the really charismatic character that's in good movies now for the MCU outside of Peter Parker?
They're trying to act like Stephen Strange is the new Tony Stark but I don't think anyone's buying it. And they obviously don't have a ton of confidence in Captain Marvel. Eternals (relatively) bombed so I doubt we'll see any of them again. Awkwafina was the actual star of Shang-Chi, not, ya know, Shang-Chi. They didn't put in the work and now they have a bunch of characters a lot of die-hard fans don't really care about and aren't necessarily inspiring enough to be the groundwork for a soft reboot of the universe.
Speaking from the outside, because I really haven't seen anything from Phase 4 aside of Black Widow, but in a way they're back to Phase 1, and "beginnings" are always hard. I, for one, didn't care for the original Iron Man or Thor, and still haven't seen The Incredible Hulk (which most people consider an outlier). Because of that, I didn't really get into the MCU until they were about to finish Phase 3, when I more or less caught up with everything in between.

Now, I may be an exception, but I'm sure they can find their way around whatever issues they had in Phase 4, and polish things for the upcoming phases. Like I said, I haven't seen them, but I think they were clever enough to bank on the earned goodwill to use this Phase to introduce more "obscure" characters to the universe, like Shang Chi and the Eternals, while pairing them with favorites like Thor and Spider-Man. And regardless of quality, Shang Chi, Multiverse of Madness, and of course Spider-Man, they all made a lot of money, so they obviously have financial cushion.

If anything, I'm more worried by their rushed up schedule. I mean, Phase 1-3 spanned 11 years, whereas Phase 4-5 is supposed to span 4 years? Plus TV shows? Considering that a lot of people are already complaining of superhero fatigue, they are really bordering, if not already in oversaturation.

I mean, not to deviate from the Predator conversation, but well...



. . . Considering that a lot of people are already complaining of superhero fatigue, they are really bordering, if not already in oversaturation.
I fell into the superhero fatigue bucket about 10 years ago.



Well Im watching Prey right now and so far its the best Predator installment Ive seen since the original.



Well Im watching Prey right now and so far its the best Predator installment Ive seen since the original.
That's more or less where I fell, although I think Predators is really solid.



What if we tried

"Catch and Release Predator"? He comes to Earth, but no one's spine/skull is pretty enough, so he just let's them go.

"Bring your kid to work day Predator?" He comes to Earth with his kid who just wants to play his Predator Game Boy and humans have to be boxed in so that the child can rather ineffectually shoot them from a deer stand.

"Waiting for Godot Predator?" Our humans await the Predator on it's traditional hunting grounds, but the Predator never arrives. Or... ...the Predator waits with Vladimir. They just sit awkwardly waiting for Godot.

"Predator replaces Smoky the Bear"? The forest service works out a deal with the Predator to stop humans from starting accidental wildfires that are harder to control as climate change worsens. Predator even gets a TV ad where he growls and clicks at the camera standing in the great outdoors, the translation reads "Only I can prevent you from starting forest fires."

"Predator vs. Alien vs. the Mummy vs. the Bride of Frankenstein"? Sure, we've seen the Predator vs. Alien, but what if there are so many movie monsters that we can't tell what their motivations are, why they're in the same universe, let alone who is doing what on screen? A cornucopia for the senses.

There is always something we can do with this old franchise.



The doors of wisdom are never shut. - 'Socrates'
I'm waiting for them to bring a female predator movie out as you know they gotta represent 'girl power'.
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Did you know that in the 1980s movie PREDATOR the titular character was not originally portrayed by Kevin Peter Hall. It was in fact Jean-Claude Van Damme donning a much more insect inspired full body suit before he left the production which then led to the recasting and redesigning of the famous hunter.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Well Im watching Prey right now and so far its the best Predator installment Ive seen since the original.
Listening to people rank Predator II as the second best movie makes me want to pull my hair out. Great cast and all (not Danny Glover) it’s nowhere close to Prey and Predators.



I'm waiting for them to bring a female predator movie out as you know they gotta represent 'girl power'.

It worked for ALIENS. It also worked for the Borg in Star Trek (or did it?).



Listening to people rank Predator II as the second best movie makes me want to pull my hair out. Great cast and all (not Danny Glover) it’s nowhere close to Prey and Predators.
Yeah, I have it fourth, very much separated from #3 Predators. I like the concept of the "concrete jungle" as opposed to the actual jungle, and like you said, the cast is solid, but the execution wasn't completely there.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Someone I use to date told me this one time…

“I’m watching AvP tonight.”

my reply, “What do you mean?”

“I watch it every year. I like it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”



Finished it. Liked it very much. I never have seen Predators, is it as good as Prey or better? Any opinions?



Victim of The Night
What if we tried


"Waiting for Godot Predator?" Our humans await the Predator on it's traditional hunting grounds, but the Predator never arrives. Or... ...the Predator waits with Vladimir. They just sit awkwardly waiting for Godot.

There is always something we can do with this old franchise.



What if we tried

"Catch and Release Predator"? He comes to Earth, but no one's spine/skull is pretty enough, so he just let's them go.

"Bring your kid to work day Predator?" He comes to Earth with his kid who just wants to play his Predator Game Boy and humans have to be boxed in so that the child can rather ineffectually shoot them from a deer stand.

"Waiting for Godot Predator?" Our humans await the Predator on it's traditional hunting grounds, but the Predator never arrives. Or... ...the Predator waits with Vladimir. They just sit awkwardly waiting for Godot.

"Predator replaces Smoky the Bear"? The forest service works out a deal with the Predator to stop humans from starting accidental wildfires that are harder to control as climate change worsens. Predator even gets a TV ad where he growls and clicks at the camera standing in the great outdoors, the translation reads "Only I can prevent you from starting forest fires."

"Predator vs. Alien vs. the Mummy vs. the Bride of Frankenstein"? Sure, we've seen the Predator vs. Alien, but what if there are so many movie monsters that we can't tell what their motivations are, why they're in the same universe, let alone who is doing what on screen? A cornucopia for the senses.

There is always something we can do with this old franchise.
Predator vs Killer Clowns From Outer Space!



I am the Watcher in the Night
I am massive fan of the original Predator because its a great action movie and stars the greatest action star of all time...everything since then has verged from okay to terrible.

However I have yet to see Prey but honestly I'm not that interested. The original was lightning in a bottle and very much a movie of its time...its impossible to build on that.
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