JOURNAL: Arigatomina

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  • stupidity & bs 2008-05-24 20:05:20 So a friend of mine's in bootcamp right now. I wrote her a letter the other day, one I'd been putting off for a while because it contained bad time-sensitive news and I'd hoped the news would get a bit more positive if I waited. Well, it didn't get more positive, in fact it got worse - from $3.79 per gallon two weeks ago to $3.98 per gallon now. Exactly as I predicted would happen, but that's another rant. I finally broke down and wrote the letter of bad news. Then I ran out to my car where I just so happened to have two stamped envelops. I put my letter in one of them, licked it shut, and popped it in the mailbox. Three days later - aka, today - I realized I never addressed that envelop.

    Um... Somewhere there's a letter with no address being dumped into a garbage bin.

    This is as bad as going to get a fresh cup of coffee, dumping the cold coffee down the sink, and then coming back to my desk and trying to drink the empty cup because I never actually poured any fresh coffee into it. Maybe it's lack of sleep times 10 yrs. My brain is so shot.

    /Complete subject change

    Funny. My credit card used to take up to two weeks to process a check. I'd get the bill late - a week or two after the E-Bill hits my email to let me know the real one is coming. Then I'd write out a check as quickly as possibly and mail it out the same day. And then I'd have to wait two weeks and pray they process it before the "payment due" date.

    Obviously they processed it so slowly in hopes of making my payment late, so they can charge the omg %50 interest for late payments. I've looked over my records since I took charge of this card and they used to do that a lot when my mom was making the payments.

    [Ex so I don't look like a child: My mom got the card for her own use, despite it having my name on it. She has four credit cards in my name and uses them when an emergency arises with me or my sister or my brother - like a car accident in my case, or a pregnancy in my sister's case, a girlfriend leaving him so he has to get back on depression meds in my brother's case. Oddly enough the balance got huge over the years so by the time I took the card over the balance was $2,800 owed with a $3,500 cap. I haven't whittled it down much, what with my own charges to it, but at least I've kept it from getting bigger. And unlike my mom, I've never been late for a payment.]

    Anyway! I've noticed recently they're processing my checks super fast. I got the bill Wednesday and mailed out a check the same day, as always. Yesterday they processed the check. Amazing. Here I was hoping they'd hurry it up so I could charge some more - my balance got a bit low last month since I had that Bush-check getting added to my bank account. It seems they finally figured out I'm a frequent spender. The quicker they process the payments, the quicker I can max it out again.

    Somewhere there's a list of all the infrequent but big spenders, whose payments are delayed because interest is the only new debt they'll get from those people. Somewhere nearby there's another list of frequent small spenders, whose payments are speedily handled because the faster they're processed the quicker the spender can make new charges to the card. And my name just went from that first list to the second one. ;p

    /complete subject change

    Forum: "I don't tell my friends their videos are good when I actually think they're utter dog crap. That would be wrong."

    Me: "....how can you type that with a straight face?"

    I'll believe the flamers and critics have no problem with strict honesty. They have a track record for being especially nasty and creative (and thus funny instead of offensive) in their efforts to point out exactly how stinky is the dog crap they've just watched.

    I believe those with few close friends who make amvs could be mostly honest when they have to give their opinion right to the editor's face. So long as they crouch their critique in friendly language the strangers aren't likely to realize how badly they're really saying the video stinks. Most people who don't know me won't realize that a "It's good, but ____" from me means it's pretty stinky but I'm trying to give positive aspects to offset the negative because that's how I was taught to give feedback. If it's entirely negative they'll ignore it entirely. And you can always find positive things to say about something no matter how stinky. That pile of dog crap on the side of the road is covered in the prettiest butterflies. Butterflies like dog crap, even if I don't.

    I believe some people are cynical to the point where even their close friends know better than to expect undeserved praise for their crappy efforts. Not many people on the org like that, but they do exist in the world. I've met a few. I'd be one of them if my friends didn't have such thin skins and the tendency to hold grudges.

    I don't believe the "nice" people are honest when they convince their friends that they're all wonderful with just a few minor flaws. Most editors are crap with a few minor redeeming qualities. Unless you happen to be friends with the wonderful few, who really are as good as you consistently lead them to believe they are, you're lying through your teeth.

    I hate being asked to read a friend's story. How nicely can you explain that their writing is utter tripe and the only way they'll improve is by going back to grade school and learning how to write a simple sentence? You can kill yourself trying to come up with positive things to say about a story, but if the person writes like a retarded five year old because they slept through elementary school, no amount of sugar coating is going to help them. Going back to school is the only way those lacking the basics will improve.

    Translate that into amvs. Some people are just hopelessly bad. And if you're unfortunate enough to have these people as "friends" then you have three choices. Take them back to the beginning and walk them through the entire thing, teaching the basics as you go along, because you're a nice person who helps your friends even if it means making their videos for them; point out the positive aspects and then provide moral support (ignore them, they're just jealous) when they get rightfully blasted by strangers for being hopelessly bad; explain to them as nicely as possible that maybe they should try a different hobby.

    I believe there may be people on the forum who are willing to walk a friend through editing from the beginning. I've heard stories of this happening. The resulting videos usually look like they were made by the helper instead of the person being helped. Go figure.

    I know for a solid fact that there are people who tell their hopelessly bad friends to "ignore them" because "they're just jealous". That's where the circle-jerking phenomena comes from, after all.

    I don't believe there are people who would risk losing a friend by explaining that they're beyond redemption and should give up before they make an even bigger fool of themselves. You don't tell your friend that she's grossly obese and likely to die of a heart attack, even if you really like her and wish she'd live past the age of thirty. You don't even tell her that she's unlikely to pass the cheerleading tryouts when her fat rolls are more energetic in their flopping than her breasts. No, you pat her on the back and avert your eyes, and hang around to sympathize and make her feel better after the wolves have ripped her a new one. That's what friends are for.

    Actually, I love that thread. It's like having someone come into the forum and post a "I know we're not supposed to, but does anyone here use downloaded footage or bootlegged programs?" And then having a dozen replies of "We would never do that because that would be wrong."

    Yeah, right. Excuse me while I laugh. 
  • addendum 2008-05-23 02:10:30 It should be stated that my other forum is down for maintenance and I am very bored. I want to make a D.Gray-man music video and I can't settle on a frickin song. All I want is to do a simple random action video. I wouldn't even put it on the org, I'd just pop it on my site. There is absolutely no pressure involved in this. And still I can't settle on a frickin song because the one I *really* want to use has a lyric that refers to some sexual relationship gone sour - and in an action video this will inevitably be yaoi. I don't want to make a yaoi video. I want to do random action, damn it.

    Bored + quickie amv I want to but can't make = org forum searching + eye-rolling = rant rant type type type.

    And, wow, there were a lot of typos in that rant. Get me a spell checker, stat! ;p 
  • Originality 2008-05-23 01:54:30 Let us begin by debating whether the human has a soul. Little is so entertaining as endlessly debating the frothy nothings out of which, amazingly enough, nothing comes. There will be no consensus, just as there has never been one since certain educated men, forever after known airily as philosophers, decided their lives were better spent arguing about nothing in hopes of accomplishing nothing. Because they were called to do so. Because it is worthwhile to devote oneself wholly to what one is called to do. Though if they were called instead to count the threads in a tightly woven ash-stained carpet in a filthy apartment we would dub them mad, because they wear eccentric glasses to go with their rumpled hair as they speak lucidly in fervent debates about things which the common man is too busy making a living to even consider, we know they are wise.

    I've never understood how philosophers can claim their "work" is "worthwhile" with a straight face. Speak to a fanatic, whether the fanaticism is women's rights or creationism, and you might well be speaking to a frothing dog at the end of a frayed tether. It accomplishes nothing. Just like the foaming howling noise accomplishes nothing aside from telling the rest of the world that, no, there will be no debate with this mad dog. Call the pound to put him to sleep, buy some ear plugs and learn to ignore him, or move far far away from his pen. Engaging him will get you nowhere, except maybe the infirmary. Rabies and infection often come from animal bites, human animals included.

    Oh, that's right, we were discussing originality. Excuse me. I do like to hear myself speak just as much as the rest of the time-wasting experts. It's entertaining, after all, to watch the second hand tick along and have nothing to show for it save dry eyes. Blink more often, and you won't even have that. Two more hours gone and for what? Why, nothing. That's the entire point of discussing the frothier topics.

    What is originality?

    What is heaven?

    Wait just a second, we haven't agreed there is such a thing as heaven, so you can't introduce that question.

    Really? Are you sure? We haven't agreed there is such a thing as originality, either, but that doesn't stop people from taking a side and talking it to death.

    That's different. Or maybe it isn't. Either way, leave religion out of this and stick to the topic. Originality. What is it?

    Hm... Originality is an editor's idea of perfection. Perfect in that it goes beyond everything else in existence to such an extent that there can be no comparison. It is original, it has never been done, it has no equal. It stands above, and others can only stare up at it in awe and lust and envy. It is the pinnacle of creative thought. It is his dream. It is his heaven.

    Hey! I said not to involve religion in this! No talk about heaven, damn it!

    I am rebuked. May I continue?

    Do you have to? You do realize that talking, or writing, to yourself is a sign of madness, right?

    Depends on who you ask. Some would call it eccentric, and since philosophers must be exceedingly eccentric to fully delve in the frothy nothings, it's only right that I partake in that eccentricity.

    ...whatever, just tell us what originality is.

    Excuse me, but I believe I already have. Originality is an ideal. It exists in the mind of the individual. Others may agree on that ideal and so collectively they hold it high as their standard whilst marching into combat against other groups with an opposing belief. Where the two meet there is much bloodshed and endless debate about the frothiness of originality.

    ...huh?

    If you'd let me use the religion metaphor freely, I wouldn't have to talk around so much. I'm saying that originality, like heaven, is a matter of faith. What do you believe in? If you believe something to be original because it's new to you, then it is original. To you. Not to anyone else, perhaps, but it's up to them to determine what is and is not original to them. The first time you encountered a bizarre six legged creature crawling across your pillow you might thing you've discovered a new creator because you've certainly never seen a spider like that before. Or you might assume that since there are many insect species you know nothing about, it's probably been identified and dismissed long before now. Unless you consult someone with a list of all the spiders known to man, you'll never be sure if yours is an original find or not. Luckily there are a finite number of identified species and there are experts and lists to consult. Not so for amvs.

    Do you believe there are stories that have never been written? Or you do accept that maybe they've all been written and you - limited to one person's lifetime - simply haven't read them all and so are unaware of the fact that the story you find so amazing has been done a dozen times over as entertainment for a small science fiction magazine in Alabama? It probably depends on whether that amazing story was written by you or by your rival. If it's yours you have plenty of reason for choosing to believe it's as original as you want it to be. If it's not yours, you've every right to withhold belief in its originality due to the inability to check and make sure it hasn't been done a dozen times over somewhere else.

    Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. You'll most likely never know if it has happened or not. It hasn't happened on your computer, you haven't seen it on the org, you assume it couldn't exist on the tube, but who's to say it isn't being shown at an anime club meeting in some high school in California as I type this? You can't say it hasn't. I can't say it has. We each believe what we choose to. And that's it. Nothing. Frothy addictive inconclusive time wasting tripe.

    What is originality? A theme for bored people to waste time debating. And an ideal some strive their entire editing career to achieve, never knowing if that achievement will prove to be moot when an exact replica appears on the org, having been made two years before yours in that little anime club I mentioned a paragraph ago. Is this a worthwhile theme to debate? Is it a worthwhile ideal to strive for? That's a matter of opinion. If you're a philosopher, then yes, any subject that can be debated endlessly with no hope of reaching a consensus is worthwhile. It's the debate that matters, hearing oneself talk, knowing you fanatically believe what you're saying.

    If there is a god, he could choose to come down tomorrow to set all those endless frothy debates to rest by proving one side right and the other wrong. If there is such a thing as an original amv, the day might come when every amv in existence is documented and all we have to do is scroll down the list like a scared renter trying to identify that spider on his pillow. Till then both topics are person, frothy, and pointless.

    And for the record, I hold to the "if I haven't seen it, it's original to me" side of this debate. I also subscribe to the "we will never know of all the amvs being created at home in all the parts of the world with electricity and so we'll never prove conclusively that a seemingly original amv idea hasn't actually been done a dozen times over somewhere else" faith. It's a big world outside your computer. Just because you don't see what's being made, doesn't mean those things aren't being made. You can only define originality in a closed system. What's new to you, what's new to the org, what's new to the tube. You can't make any definitive claim about what's new to amvs as a whole. Don't bother trying. You just end up looking naive. 
  • AVP:R 2008-05-10 23:56:24 Why do the Predators keep ending up as the good guys? Consider for a moment.

    Aliens = animals to be hunted for sport or used as weapons
    Predators = game hunters who use who use humans to breed aliens for them to hunt
    Humans = would-be predators who'd like to get some aliens to breed for weapons

    Who are the "good guys" in this setup? The aliens. They're just animals. All they do is breed and eat and fight back when Predators or humans start killing off their children. My favorite part of the first AVP was when the queen alien called her kids over to free her so she could go hunt some Predator ass. I thought, "Yes! The deer have horns after all!" and I looked forward to watching the hunters get picked off by swarms of aliens.

    Instead we have Predators who are out to "save the Earth from being overpopulated by Aliens." Um...hello, didn't the Predators introduce the aliens to Earth in the first place so they could have a handy place for their kids to come on a hunting trip? The aliens wouldn't be there if it weren't for them, so the fact that they're trying to clean up their mess does not endear them to me. The human soldiers in Alien Resurrection tried to clean up the mess they'd caused and I still cheered when they got blown up and had the back of their heads punched in by aliens.

    The AVP movies don't seem at all familiar with the source material.

    Look at the Alien saga.

    First movie - humans went into an Alien nest and brought back a baby alien. The alien killed a human as it was being born (natural, considering it was planted in the human's chest) and the humans spent the entire movie hunting and trying to kill it while it hid in the air ducts to get away from them.

    Second movie (assuming you've seen the uncut version with the extended scenes) - humans went into the Alien nest again, sent by guys who wanted Aliens for weapons, and brought back a baby alien. They also - I'm assuming - woke up the rest of the Alien nest to the fact that there was a whole colony of human hosts nearby. The aliens went about their 'catch & plant eggs' business until another group of humans (sent by the same 'we want them for weapons' people) came into their new nest and stirred them up. The big difference from the first movie is the "Queen vs Ripley" mother face off. Ripley fired the queen's eggs right in front of her and she chased after Ripley to get revenge.

    Third movie - an egg hatches and the face-hugger gets a dog. The resulting alien runs across some humans in the tunnel it was born in and eats them. Ripley discovers she's a host to a queen and tries to kill herself before the human military bad guys can come and use the queen to breed aliens for weapons. The loose alien protects Ripley - or rather the queen she's carrying - against the humans supposedly threatening her and gets tricked into a fiery death. Ripley suicides to keep the alien queen away from the human bad guys.

    Fourth move - which was a joke - the human bad guys have finally gotten their queen alien to make weapons. The weapons get lose and build a nest, where they go about their breeding and eating until the humans blow them up.

    Do we see the pattern? Aliens are only dangerous if you approach them. Where do they come from? No one knows, but apparently they can't survive without a host, so if you stay away from them they'll have no host and die out. Their eggs may survive until a host approaches them - who knows how long the eggs were in that abandoned spaceship in the original movie - but they're harmless until riled.

    Now let's look at the predator movies.

    The first movie - humans are in the middle of a bloody war in an isolated jungle. A predator gets wind of the carnage and comes to use the bloodshed to mask his own hunting as he pits himself against armed humans in combat. He finds his match in a Macguiver-type soldier. The two compare weaponry - homemade vs advance technology - and brawn - wrestling matches that involve rippling muscles and lots of growling. When the Predator is defeated, he snickers and self destructs like a sore looser.

    Predator 2 - humans are in the middle of a gangland warzone in a trashy city. A predator gets wind of the carnage and comes to use the bloodshed to mask his own hunting as he pits himself against armed humans in combat. He finds his match in a stubborn cop. The two stalk each other through the city, with the Predator taking time out to kill armed people on a subway and to spare a pregnant woman (since killing babies is icky and beneath him). The cop is distracted by the evil military bad guys who want to get the predator technology to make weapons. The military bad guys get killed when they attempt to catch the Predator and the cop follows him to his hidden spaceship and kills him with his own weapon. The predator's friends show up to give the cop a very old guy - proof that they've been hunting humans for centuries - before going on their way. There is no snickering self destruction here. Possibly because the predator would have taken out a city of civilians as well as the human who defeated him. The military bad guys curse the loss of this chance to catch a predator and the cop says, don't worry, they'll be back.

    Do we see the pattern? Predators consider humans dangerous animals worth hunting to prove their strength. They come in when humans are busy killing each other off and look for the strongest ones to pit themselves against. When defeated they either self destruct - thereby taking out their enemy and technically winning after all - or they leave with the threat of coming back later for another go.

    Now we have AVP 1. Where did this one go wrong?

    First, the predators have been hunting humans since the civil war. They clearly consider humans worthwhile animals to fight against. Why would they resurrect aliens on Earth when they can hop over to Iraq and hunt some humans instead? If they had that handy alien hunting tomb just waiting to be woken up, why did they bother chasing Arnold and Danny all over the place in Predator 1 & 2? Aliens are cooler than humans - they actually kill a few predators when they face off, while it takes a whole bunch of human deaths to kill a single predator. If the Predators had that alien factor, the first two predator movies would never have happened. The premise is severely flawed. [Though, I do admit it was a neat thought that Predators had introduced pyramids to Earth. I've always been fond of the alien visitation theory to explain the advance of technology on very remote parts of the earth at roughly the same time despite the lack of contact between the civilizations. This was a very neat idea.]

    Wayland was introduced as a good guy and made one of the most sympathetic characters. No. The real Wayland showed up at the end of Alien 3 and tried to talk Ripley out of killing herself so he could get the alien as a weapon. This movie proposes that the Wayland in Alien 3 was an android, after all. There's nothing to substantiate that. Wayland showed actual emotion when Ripley offed herself - the Bishop android did not show emotions even when he was being ripped in half. Even assuming the Wayland in A3 was an android, the original Wayland must have lived long enough to be copied when humans had the technology to create advanced androids. Keep in mind that in A1 the androids were faulty and badly made. They got much better 50 yrs later when A2 and A3 took place. Wayland must have been alive between A1 and A2 in order for him to be used as a model for the Bishop android. He couldn't have been alive in AVP unless he was a very young man and he survived to use the encounter to quickly jump into the technology boom following AVP:R. It's just a big mess of continuity issues. Oh, and Wayland is the major bad guy who - according to Alien3 - was behind the deaths in the first two Alien movies. He should never have been used to derive sympathy from Alien fans. Not gonna happen.

    Humans teaming up with Predators. This is like having Ripley team up with Burk in Alien2. No way. He's the guy responsible for all the deaths, he's the one who wants to use the aliens instead of wiping out the entire species. You kill him, then you take care of the aliens on your own. The woman in AVP - whose name I can't even remember - should have used the Predator weapon on the predator and then gone about escaping and using the mining equipment to seal the tunnel, or even figuring out how to activate one of the dead Predator's self destruct mechanism and sacrificing herself in order to blow the entire alien nest apart. That's what a Ripley clone is supposed to do. Having her team up with the alien, even going so far as to feel sorry for him, was a betrayal to the "good girl Ripley clone" theme. To quote Burke, "It was a bad call."

    And now we get to AVP:R - which was supposed to be the main theme of this ranting.

    The premise - an Alien-Predator hybrid was born at the end of AVP. It looks half-predator. Yet it is capable of reproducing by laying eggs inside a human host (no need for face-huggers).

    This is just wrong. Aliens reproduce by laying eggs inside a host, the eggs hatch and a baby alien bursts out. The only time an alien was deformed, taking on characteristics of its host, was when a face-hugger latched onto a dog in A3. The alien born from that was abnormal, instead of bursting out, it merged somehow and grew in the dogs place. When it 'birthed' the dog's skin fell off and there was a pseudo-alien standing there. This was a new entry to the Alien theme particular only to A3. We can safely assume it only applies to dogs, or that there was something wrong with the embryo that face-hugger planted inside the dog. Aliens don't become humanoid simply because they burst out of a human chest. Aliens didn't become huge and weird looking like the alien corpse on that abandoned ship in Alien 1 - even though we know they burst out of that thing's chest. There's no reason an alien would take on Predator characteristics just because it burst out of a predator chest. And even if it *did* - it would still be soldier or queen. This thing was a soldier. It didn't have the crown or the ant-butt for egg laying. The only way this thing could be capable of reproducing is if the Predators themselves reproduce by spitting eggs into a host and letting them burst out of the belly. I'd rather believe they screwed up royally with the alien theme, than to believe they're actually proposing Predators are parasites who reproduce inside hosts the same way aliens do.

    But let's accept the Pred-Alien. It's somehow able to reproduce, and it has mandibles and dreadlocks like a Predator, with the rest of its body being soldier-alien in form. Okay. We accept that on face value. What does this Pred-Alien do now that it's on earth? Go about it's usual role of reproducing the species. Okay. His motivation is the same as all aliens. Fine.

    Now enter the Predator who's heard about the ship crashing and has come to earth to check up on it. He's destroying evidence. He's a little angry about all the dead Predators on the ship. He takes time out to kill off a human and skin him, showing he's as petty and bored as the Predator in P2 (who hopped a subway to shoot armed humans just because it was there and he could). He's stalking around town killing aliens, who are reproducing much quicker than he can kill them. What does he hope to accomplish? The movie plays it as if he were coming to clean up the mess. He's not. If he were, he'd have walked to the middle of the town and self-destructed. That would wipe out all of the evidence and all the aliens (in case he was killing them for revenge). If he was trying to hide the aliens from the humans, why did he come alone? Predators - in the AVP canon - have been using aliens for sport for centuries. They know how quickly aliens reproduce. They've been hunting humans for centuries - in the Predator canon - they know how few humans are able to fight, let alone against alien/predator type enemies. He must have known the aliens would be swarming the town before he even arrived on earth. Is he stupid? A hot shot hoping to take care of it himself to show off to the Predators back home? It makes no sense.

    Why even bother hiding evidence from the humans? I can see killing the aliens off since they would quickly overwhelm the planet and the Predators would lose their prime hunting playground. But predators don't consider humans intelligent technologically adept creatures - they're the ones who introduce pyramid building to a bunch of dumb apes. In the AVP canon, humans are only useful to breed aliens - they're not even intelligent/dangerous enough to be hunted by Predators. What difference would it make to a predator if humans wandered by the decimated town later and found some acid-for-blood scraps of left over alien?

    Again, you have to question the entire premise for AVP 1. If Predators like hunting aliens so much, and they see how good humans are to make hosts for a huge population of aliens, why not just drop some aliens on the planet? Let it get overrun by aliens, then send in your young hunters to see what they're made of. That would be a real hunter-playground. But then...if the Predators wanted a planet full of aliens to hunt, they could just go to the Aliens' home planet and hunt there.

    Yeah. That's what Alien vs Predator should have been. A movie set on either the Alien home planet - being hunted by lone predators looking for sport - or an invasion set on the Predator home planet where the big game animals get back at the hunters for using them over the years.

    In both AVP movies, the humans are fodder. AVP:R had the smarts to use them as fodder without pretending they were anything else, but it still put them in there. Humans have no place in an Alien vs Predator movie, just like teen sex and drug addicts had no place in a Freddy vs Jason movie. When we come to see two monsters go at it, we want to see the monsters go at it - not waste time watching nameless human things get stepped on because they didn't get out of the way quickly enough.

    I guess most of the problems I have with AVP:R stems from the concept itself. I wish just once a ___ vs ___ movie would be about the two ___'s and not about the grass being stepped on while the ___'s go at it. Humans are grass. They're a dime a dozen and no one gives a shit.

    The humans in AVP:R were especially annoying. Why, why, why introduce the teen stereotypes into this series? There were no teens in the Alien or Predator movies. It was adults, soldiers, and a few civilians (in the sequels) who got mixed up in the mess. The teenagers in this movie are annoying. My favorite part is when the Predator is fighting some aliens, the stupid teens run into the middle of it, and one of them gets hit by the Predator's cool weapon. Moral of that, children? When you see two monsters fighting each other with acid and weapons flying around, don't run in between them. You'll get hit. Duh.

    I still can't believe they used a "dislikable bum-boy chasing hot slut-girl with a dumb-bully-boyfriend" theme for two of the main characters in the movie. Who cares about a bum boy and a slut girl? I didn't. Then there's the ex-con who was released from prison and his former friend who's now the sheriff. Um...okay, is the moral of this movie that opposites attract? And they could have gone without the new Ripley-clone soldier woman and her squeeling Newt-clone daughter. I didn't like the first Newt and this newest R-clone was barely a main character. She doesn't take charge, she doesn't endear herself to the audience, and her only purpose - blatantly obvious - is to be a female who can operate the get-away chopper.

    I can't think of a single character I liked in this movie. I sort of liked the evil military guy toward the end. He reminded me of Burke, who would have been a great addition to this movie if they'd decided to clone him. There's nothing like a spineless possibly gay military bad guy who smiles and waves his hands when he's being threatened. At least the bad military guy in this movie does the Ripley move of destroying the aliens - and screw the money/lives lost in the explosion. Not even the Predator had that much sense in this movie.

    So what do we have in AVP:R? A cast of cannon fodder humans, none of which are likable, none of whom have names I can recall. Lots of action that takes place in the dark and in the rain, so you can't see anything. A Predator vs Pred-Alien face off at the end where it's so dark you can't tell which is which, not that you care which of them wins. And enough continuity issues that you wonder why they didn't just label the series an AU (alternate universe).

    I like the idea of an Alien vs Predator movie. But I think it should be true to its origin. People wanted to see a Predator hunting an alien because in Predator 2 there was an Alien skull on the wall of the Predator's ship, alongside his other trophies. Where did he get it? We assumed he'd gotten it from the Alien home planet, which would be teeming with aliens and a thousand times more hostile than any sport to be found on Earth. Instead of doing sequels that have to be mutilated to fit them between Predator 2 and Alien 1, they should have done prequels. Follow the Predators and see where they came from. Follow them all the way to the source of the aliens - where did *they* come from??? Find out how the alien species exists when - by its very nature - it kills its hosts in order to propagate. How do aliens survive after they've killed all the species on a planet? What would have happened on that colony in A2 if they hadn't blown the place up? All the humans were dead, there were no more to play host to alien babies. What do the aliens do after they've decimated the species they need to reproduce? I'm sure the Predators - who've been hunting this species since before humans were talking - know the answers to these questions. A real Alien vs Predator movie would answer those questions.

    And since I consider Aliens more sympathetic than Predators, since aliens are animals and predators are the ones using them for their own recreation, I'd like that movie to have the aliens win. It's only fair. The aliens have been getting the bum rush in all the Alien movies. The Predator movies have a single predator getting killed, while the rest of the species stays at home or flies off on a huge spaceship. Let's see some aliens kicking ass for once. 
  • ...huh? 2008-05-07 00:05:09 Where are all the D.Gray-Man videos? 0_0

    I just used the "By Anime" search and out of the 82 vids listed, the only vids with more than one op are either multi-anime or from 2007 or earlier. Why? Have ops gotten that rare in the last two years or do all the D.Gray-Man vids on the org suck? Do I need to donate in order to see the good vids? Please tell me there *are* good vids. Featuring Kanda? Pretty please?

    I knew I was late getting to the series, but come on. It's at least on par with Bleach in the old "elite demon-killer society" genre. The animation's nice, the voice acting is good, and there's a pretty girl twirling around showing her legs in half the episodes. I at least expected vids featuring her.

    How the hell am I supposed to get my Kanda-fix now? Half the vids actually listed here link to the tube for the videos. I might as well use fansubs and do my own if that's the best I'm gonna get for this series. Thanks a lot. I'm very disappointed in the org. I get all hyped to see this pretty swordsman in random action vids and so I stop by here and I get jack. Nada. One 'KandaxAllen' vid that uses the first 9 episodes (like there's good bloody Kanda scenes in those, pshhh) and is in wmv format. Even I got standards.

    Very disappointed. If I didn't have three Kanda-main dj anthologies arriving via EMS tomorrow, I'd be severely annoyed right now. As it is, I'll settle for irked. I'm gonna go rewatch my favorite fight scenes now. You guys wouldn't appreciate a bloody bishy in action if he slapped you upside the head with his pony tail. >.< 
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