IntenseDebate - XmassCthulhu

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - In Upcoming Memoir, Ac... · 0 replies · +1 points

And yet, that's not what she wrote.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - In Upcoming Memoir, Ac... · 0 replies · +3 points

I'm going to guess, almost all of it.

It really requires a very particular lens through which to view the world. A kind of lens that doesn't distort the scene before it, but actively ignores it.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - In Upcoming Memoir, Ac... · 2 replies · +11 points

“I believe that the social construction of gender ... is the root cause of poverty and suffering around the world.”

Really? Are resources no longer scarce? Why didn't anyone tell me?

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Video: Some 'Captain A... · 1 reply · +1 points

Again, my vision is fine. And even if it weren't I'm sitting right by the computer. I can read regularly capitalized text.

Now, there are in fact other sources of information that aren't the Pentagon. So, I think it's perfectly plausible that the creators of Captain America may have very well gotten their ideas from somewhere else, but not, as you put it, from the ether. If you have proof that they got it directly from the military, please, share it.

And the fact that technology changed and the military adapted their camouflage mean that they're becoming somehow more nefarious. It just means it was time to change their uniform design. It happens all the time.

And if you want to entertain the notion that conglomerates are attempting to control public opinion, I'll happily listen. Of course they are. They want the populace to be as susceptible to their marketing as possible. They want dupes. And while creating a society of apathetic morons is certainly a stepping stone in the road to military dictatorship, I don't know that they're consciously forcing such a future.

I think they just want to sell DVDs and ad space.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Video: Some 'Captain A... · 4 replies · +1 points

You know, my vision is fine, I can read things without the caps-lock, though your consideration is certainly appreciated.

I'm afraid I can't take the idea that Hollywood studios, populated with, as you called them, "modern day Bush Policy haters" are likely to be consciously involved in a global conspiracy to usurp the world's powers and replace them with a single military dictatorship very seriously. Particularly when your example comes from Starship Troopers, a Hollywood film which spent the moments not featuring bugs exploding mocking such a society.

That would be like Goebbels making a propaganda film about the Nazi Party that said, "Hey, Germany, watch out for these guys-- they're nuts."

And, I decided to actually Wikipedia the movie-- and while I know Wikipedia has from time to time been known to ring false, I thought it would be worth sharing the fact that, supposedly, Red Skull answers to Hitler. Therefore, it's a good bet that there'll be some Nazism in there somewhere. So, crisis averted, eh?

And let me say, this is not an argument I had anticipated having today, so thanks, I think.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Video: Some 'Captain A... · 7 replies · +2 points

There's a difference between not having Nazis as the focus of a movie and "white washing" the Nazis.

One could argue that actually using the Nazis as the enemy of a comic book character would reduce the actual menace and horror of the Nazis to a cartoonish caricature. People might take the concept of Nazis less seriously if they were being constantly butted in the face with the brunt of Captain America's shield.

Using something that is a symbol or approximation of an actual evil when pitting it against a superhero might be the smarter move, and more conscionable, than using the "real" thing, or else one might begin to view a very real threat as something silly.

Now, I'm personally fine with using the Nazis as bad guys (gotta love Wolfenstein, Hellboy, and Indiana Jones), they are after all our go to evil-incarnate when we need someone audiences will really hate, but I think there are actually reasons why we may not want to... For lack of a better expression, wear them out. Once we see them juxtaposed two-dimensional archetypes, we forget they were real people and that they represent a frame of mind that could still exists today.

Now, this is getting a little abstract for my tastes-- my fault, I know-- so I'll end this comment here.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Video: Some 'Captain A... · 9 replies · +1 points

A dangerous precedent?

If you want to complain about historic revisionism in a movie about a super-soldier charging around with a bullet proof shield as his main weapon, you might be taking things a little too seriously.

It probably does make better marketing sense to leave out the swastika when they can. Like HMMurdock suggests, they probably just want to make it a bit more kid friendly. I mean, how many mothers want their children playing with a toy bearing the symbol of the most reviled regime of mass murderers in the 20th century?

Anyway, I haven't really looked into it. Maybe the studios are just wussing out (for some reason) I don't know. It just seems odd to get miffed about it. To me.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - ‘Battle: LA’ Revie... · 1 reply · +2 points

Haha, touché.

However, if someone were to seriously make such a parallel between Earth's plight and Iraq's, I don't know that they would make the distinction.

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - ‘Battle: LA’ Revie... · 5 replies · +7 points

Wait, wait, wait... Was this movie NOT about a technologically superior fighting force invading an unprepared country to harvest their natural resources to fuel their weapons and vehicles; the classic critique of the Iraq War?

13 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Perez Hilton Could Get... · 0 replies · +2 points

Well, if it's airbrushed or Photoshopped or what-have-you, then I really don't care about any of this.

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