QHC

Never heard anything bad about Pine. Are you thinking about Chris Pratt, perhaps? Because he has certainly gotten some heat for his alleged affiliations with far-right religious/political groups (because those are the same things now, apparently).

Jokes can usually include a message, and often are more effective at delivering that message than a serious monologue with full citations.

Therefore, saying something is meant to be silly or a joke does not do anything to address whether the message behind that joke is a good one or not.

follow-up to the micro-budget British slasher that went viral last year for its childhood-bludgeoning premise, became one of the most talked about films of 2023

I have literally never heard of the original movie.

Do 'journalists' just get to decide something is massively popular because two people talked about it on social media?

I agree with all of this. The Borg Cube especially was very difficult to assemble, and I've done some pretty big official Lego sets so I'm used to a good challenge. I had to resort to gluing some parts in place, as some of the plates were bent and just would not stay in place while I worked on the next side.

I also really came to dislike the tiny black pieces they use to add studs to the bottom of some bricks. Too small, too hard to insert, and way too easy to just roll away and never be found.

That said, the final product looks fine and nobody ever questions if they are legitimate sets or not. I don't regret the purchases, just didn't enjoy the build process like I normally do.

Why would a refugee or asylum seeker "never have a chance" at getting hired by a company like SpaceX? Seems like that is part of the problem, no?

It's also pretty damning to the franchise that all of the directors were already established--or like Gareth Edwards and Rian Johnson, are up-and-comers--who are generally seen as being better than the Star Wars films they were involved with.

Clearly the problem was not just the directors. The whole approach was fundamentally broken.

I am a semi-frequent WAN show watcher and I definitely get that vibe. Some people will say that Luke stands up to Linus, but from what I've seen it's only superficial. I have never seen him push Linus enough that it becomes a real disagreement--not on an actual controversy like this, at least. The WAN show where they discussed the Billet Labs review is a perfect example: Luke says "well, maybe we should have re-tested" but then Linus goes off on his "$500 of employee time" tangent and Luke doesn't call that out as completely ridiculous and hypocritical.

He does voice his disagreement, but not in a way that is going to change anything.

You are correct to call me out on this. I edited my comment to clarify that I've now read her whole thread and her complaints are valid. The detail she provided with the frat-bro culture and sexual harassment is entirely unacceptable and I have no reason not to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Also, to clarify the part you quoted, I was not trying to downplay Madison's perspective at all. By "anything of value that she mentioned" I was primarily referring to the rushed production schedule, which is what I got mostly from my original read since that is what she focused on first.

Big fan of Insurrection getting some respect! I love it for being the big budget, high production mashup of TNG that it clearly is, even though it also doubles down on the Picard-as-Action-Hero trend that ends up ruining Nemesis (IMO).

Putting Generations and Insurrection below Into Darkness is a slight I won't tolerate. Whatever flaws those movies had, they at least tried to explore something about the human condition.

And to have Nemesis above both of those... oof.

Maybe I got the episode that focused on his perspective the most? If the rest of the season is more like the first and doesn't always portray him as sympathetic, I could get behind that.

I enjoyed the first season a lot, but I could not get into the second season. Lack of a similar framing device, missing some of my favorite actors (at least in the early episodes), but worst of all is, sadly, the performance by Richardson. From what I watched, the second season really leans into his "constantly talking to fill awkward silences" schtick. It was just too much. Nobody in real life acts or behaves that way and is not considered an asshole.