MetaFilter

I have to give Marvel credit for not ignoring the longer term consequences of their mayhem. Fallout is still raining down in the MCU from the Battle of New York; one could argue that Stark's PTSD is what caused him to make the bad decision to create Ultron, and the rebuilding of NYC is the entire backstory of Daredevil. Whereas Man of Steel seems to want to pat Supie on the back and say "good job" for making that hard, hard decision to kill Zod.
posted to MetaFilter by localroger at 6:09 AM on May 17, 2015

What offended me most about the climax of Man of Steel was how the screenwriters had clearly marked off every possible outcome other than Superman snapping Zod's neck and carefully arranged circumstances so that no other option was possible.

As depicted in Tom Godwin's short story, "The Kryptonian Equations".
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 5:51 AM on May 17, 2015

Man of Steel was just ridiculous. Pa Kent "yells" at Clark for using his powers to save the bus of kids. Then he tells Clark not to rescue him in front of crowd of strangers, in order to keep his powers secret, and then Clark listens to him.

Imagine that, you have the power to save one of your parents and they tell you not save them and you listen them. What kind of bullshit is that? No wonder you wind up trashing a city, you haven't been taught to value life!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 5:51 AM on May 17, 2015

Man Of Steel's Superman kills the bad guy because THE BAD GUY MADE HIM DO IT. It's a movie that says, "It's okay to abandon your principles if the bad guys make you do it. Don't worry, you're still the Good Guy; you might have done a few bad things but you didn't have any choice." The perfect message and the perfect Superman movie for modern America.

If that's "a more realistic, mature view of superheroics", you can have it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sing Or Swim at 5:00 AM on May 17, 2015

"Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism", to quote Flex Mentallo.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 3:46 AM on May 17, 2015

>THE ENTIRE SECOND SEASON FINALE IS AN HOMAGE TO THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Maybe, but Iron Man 3 is definitely Lethal Weapon 2.
posted to FanFare by Catblack at 5:03 PM on May 13, 2015

Well, that was the most ominous last five seconds of a season finale involving fish oil EVER.
posted to FanFare by kythuen at 6:22 PM on May 13, 2015

WAIT WAIT WAIT

"IT'S A TRAP"
WE CAN RULE AS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
COULSON'S HAND
SIMMONS IN CARBONITE

THE ENTIRE SECOND SEASON FINALE IS AN HOMAGE TO THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
posted to FanFare by leotrotsky at 4:41 PM on May 13, 2015

'Agents of SHIELD' Season 3: [mild spoiler], Terrigen Crystals' spread and Simmons answers

The article does not have any concrete spoilers but does answer the casting question.
posted to FanFare by Karmakaze at 12:41 PM on May 13, 2015

Me: "Did that ferrofluid just eat Simmons?"

Husband: "uh, yep"

Me: *stands up violently from couch* "WHUT??? NOOOOOOO! Who's going to make Fitz his favorite sandwich???"

That's when I realized that our household desperately needs Agent Carter to come back and punch the patriarchy out of my face again. Hearing it was coming back for a second season is pretty much the only... [more]
posted to FanFare by Unicorn on the cob at 11:35 AM on May 13, 2015

All future Inhumans will be very health conscious.
posted to FanFare by Brandon Blatcher at 8:49 AM on May 13, 2015

The alien stone down in the cargo hold "ate" Simmons.

Love that I can write that sentence. What a great season!
posted to FanFare by Brandon Blatcher at 8:03 AM on May 13, 2015

When they brought back the possibility of the Fitz/Simmons romance, I just said 'welp, one of them is dead'.
posted to FanFare by dinty_moore at 6:45 AM on May 13, 2015

Slightly tangential, but might scratch the same itch for you: Rift Recon has the Art of Escape in San Francisco (though I think they've offered it in other cities in the past), which is a multi-day urban escape and evasion class with a practical exam at the end. You're first trained in ways to evade capture, escape when captured, and use your environment to your advantage, and then set loose in the city to test those skills versus pursuers.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rhiannonstone at 6:40 PM on March 29, 2015 marked best answer

EVE Online has serious intel and counterintel, but it is pretty boring for most people, and more than a little bit creepy. Imma explain it to you in a wall of text, so you can decide if "serious espionage games" are actually a fun thing you want to do. There are two roles, intel and counterintel, and they are each other's adversaries.

Intel: In EVE, playing the spy generally means joining an enemy gaming group and playing on their team, hanging out with them on... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ryanrs at 10:49 PM on March 29, 2015

I would have rather watched a movie directly featuring the Marvel lawyers debating the finer points of being a mutant vs. being Inhuman with Fox lawyers. Comedy gold.
posted to MetaFilter by benzenedream at 12:25 AM on May 11, 2015

Age of Ultron is the worst film of all time.

All Films are the Worst of All time.

Every time I see a film, it's the worst one I've ever seen.

I don't enjoy anything anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by hellojed at 8:08 PM on May 10, 2015

Metafilter : I don't enjoy anything anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:08 PM on May 10, 2015

I knew I wouldn't think much of her opinions when she said "Thor is a very bad movie."

I think she and many other critics of Avengers 2 are missing the whole point of the Avengers movies.

Marvel somehow made 3 superhero movies in a row that were better than most other superhero movies (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America) with 3 distinct, interesting,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 10:14 PM on May 10, 2015

Well written for a click bait anger article. Which is basically the internet version of the popcorn movie.
posted to MetaFilter by OnTheLastCastle at 8:44 PM on May 10, 2015

Also I want ant-man to be EO Wilson voiceover narrating the activities of an actual ant having ant adventures amidst scenes from extant MCU film canon

This is my biggest goddamn problem with Ant-Man, the concept. I mean, you have all the world's ants at your beck and call, complete with pheromonal ant mind control, and you goddamn use it to make yourself really big in a fight? What the fuck is wrong with you! Ants are amazing! A... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sciatrix at 8:40 PM on May 10, 2015

Which leads me to think which niche does Falcon fill on the team?

Sam's critical to this. He's the only person there with any significant quantity of emotional intelligence on a team with Actual Robot Vision LeJarvis, Literally WWII-Sized PTSD Man, War Orphan, Pining Vengeful Superspy and...well, okay, Rhodey's actually a pretty well-adjusted guy.
posted to FanFare by kagredon at 1:36 PM on May 10, 2015

Over the course of the show I became weirdly invested in the idea that Owlsley would literally become The Owl any minute despite how this was clearly never going to happen. I was screaming at the screen for him come flapping and hooting out of the elevator shaft to fuck up Fisk. Come on man, don't just lie there with a head injury, you're the OWL OF WALL STREET! Use your OWL SERUM! I think you had an actual volcano lair at one point (just like a... real owl?), maybe use that somehow!... [more]
posted to FanFare by emmtee at 10:38 AM on May 7, 2015

The elevator door hole moving in both inner and outer doors bugged me, but overall, I really enjoyed it. They've dug a pretty big hole for our intrepid heroes - how will they survive?!?

I feel bad for Control. She should've shot Greer while she had the chance.
posted to FanFare by DowBits at 10:59 AM on May 7, 2015

The part where the Machine miraculously saves them by turning all of the lights green annoyed me. How else were our heroes going to get their cop car thru the city fast enough? Well, gee, they could have turned on the fucking siren.

It also seemed a pretty mundane achievement for an intelligence that can access all digital information on the planet and can predict much of the future.
posted to FanFare by DirtyOldTown at 10:31 AM on May 7, 2015

Oh, my.

I was overall enjoying the episode: particularly the fact that Samaritan's correction was not a bomb strike or something else silly, but a more surgical plan to get things stabilized, that the Machine started talking to John (even though it was a little hokey at the outset - John doesn't need "Can you hear me" while getting free in a room full of hostile people who, by rights, should've had the drop on him), the T2 homage with John, that Fusco had two... [more]
posted to FanFare by nubs at 8:21 PM on May 6, 2015

Ivan: It's not clear that Elias is dead, given that he was shot in the shoulder, or so it appeared. Co-showrunner Greg Plageman, meanwhile, told TV Line the following:

TVLINE: Turning to the finale’s many deaths and possible deaths: Dominic?
PLAGEMAN: Yeah, he’s gone.
TVLINE: Elias, though, seemed to be hanging on by a thread….
PLAGEMAN: We can neither confirm nor deny...

TVLINE: And Martine was... [more]
posted to FanFare by raysmj at 5:28 PM on May 6, 2015

Cal just being Cal, doing anything.

I really like how we haven't seen him actually do anything super-powered, but every scene with him has a palpable sense of dread.
posted to FanFare by the man of twists and turns at 9:00 AM on May 6, 2015

The Brady Bunch Too Many Koenigs, starring Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, Patton Oswalt, and Patton Oswalt. Also starring Patton Oswalt.
posted to FanFare by leotrotsky at 8:01 AM on May 6, 2015

I still don't trust Raina.

Worse, she's learned an important lesson; "this is what I get when I try to be good."
posted to FanFare by leotrotsky at 8:00 AM on May 6, 2015

Amazing episode, despite feeling like some things don't make total sense. Like everything involving Gonzalez. Not too torn up to see him dead, although I was sort of hoping he transformed in the mist.

We're all set to see full blown Mr. Hyde in the finale!

I'm hoping there was more to Theta Protocol than just the helicarrier. Otherwise there is no compelling reason he needed to keep it a secret from May.

This show is... [more]
posted to FanFare by 2ht at 6:21 AM on May 6, 2015

Also, best use of a Sky Mall catalog as proof of flashback.
posted to FanFare by leotrotsky at 6:07 AM on May 6, 2015

I could not believe that they killed Ben Urich, but at least it was intentional and by the Big Bad.
posted to FanFare by Etrigan at 5:16 AM on May 6, 2015

Major Matt Mason Dixon: "With Melvin Potter, Matt has made a promise to keep Betsy safe from Fisk, and I bet he's not going to be able to keep that promise, and all Gladiator breaks loose."

I know they want to set up a way for Daredevil to get a costume that isn't cobbled together, but it struck me that Potter saying, "Fisk can't know you were here or he'll hurt Betsy!" and Matt saying, "You know what's the best way for me to... [more]
posted to FanFare by RobotHero at 8:53 AM on May 7, 2015

I'm always a little surprised that people don't subscribe via feedreader to various metafilter subsites they are interested in. I get updates in inoreader every time there is a new post to fanfare (and some other subsites). It alerts me to new posts I'm interested in and then I hop over to the site to read the thread. And it's very easy to skip over the things I'm not interested in.
posted to MetaTalk by QuakerMel at 7:01 PM on May 9, 2015

When, in an earlier episode, they alluded to Karen having a deep, dark secret in her past, I was worried that her secret would be that she was a female character written by Frank Miller. It came as a relief to me when it turns out she's just a murderer.
posted to FanFare by 1970s Antihero at 9:10 AM on May 5, 2015

Up until this episode I thought Wesley was going to turn out to be a secret puppet master.
posted to FanFare by sevenyearlurk at 7:54 AM on May 5, 2015

Yeah, Wesley was such a mundane evil that he really added something to Team Bad Guy. In addition to Control/Rage Issues, Ninja Ninja Ninja, The 1%, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Crime Lord, and Two Wild and Crazy Guys, you needed someone who was not as flamboyant but just as threatening as the rest of the gang to sort of hold everything together.
posted to FanFare by robocop is bleeding at 6:37 AM on May 5, 2015

I can't think of any method that would have worked, for Karen to extricate herself from a situation that was about to become even more insupportable, that didn't involve killing Wesley. So good for her for doing what it took to get out.

On the other hand: sorry to see Wesley go. He was a good villain. It probably wasn't ever going to happen, but one of the benefits to having a ridiculously sprawling shared universe, of the kind that exists in comics and now in the MCU,... [more]
posted to FanFare by Ipsifendus at 6:31 AM on May 5, 2015

Maybe it will turn out that this series has a female Punisher.

i keep hitting the subscribe button but nothing shows up
posted to FanFare by robocop is bleeding at 6:20 AM on May 5, 2015

What feels like 30 episodes agonizing about whether or not it is okay to kill a villain and the moment Karen gets a gun in her hand she caps one of the main baddies.

Maybe it will turn out that this series has a female Punisher.
posted to FanFare by maxsparber at 6:17 AM on May 5, 2015

Just remembered: "He wants you to play Blue in the upcoming Play-Doh movie."
posted to FanFare by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:21 AM on April 30, 2015

I enjoyed it and completely agree 2ht that they should have waited for this episode to reveal Frankie playing the steel drums. That payoff would have been so more rewarding.

Props to our space Dracula, he can make the rain happen on cue. Loved the reuse of the frisbrees for the trash compactor scene. I get the feeling that there are just random closets and rooms on campus filled with them due to some red tape mix up of the frisbees not being recyclable, but as... [more]
posted to FanFare by Atreides at 8:43 AM on April 30, 2015

So the real-life former cop is Buzz Hickey, right? I seem to remember him threatening to punch people in the heart.
posted to FanFare by crLLC at 6:17 PM on April 29, 2015

#WhoIsGlipGlop
posted to FanFare by divined by radio at 8:45 AM on April 29, 2015

This was for a job interview, btw. And I totally got the job.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 12:46 PM on May 7, 2015

Yeah, people say shit like that, and are offended when you give them the stinkeye.

When my Opa passed at age 70 after a 13 month cancer fight, someone told me "God needed a hero." Yeah, fuck that and fuck you. I still needed him and Baby ElderMonster needed his Great-PaPa.

My friend who said she'd like to punch cancer in the dick? SHE made me feel better.
posted to MetaFilter by MissySedai at 11:30 PM on May 4, 2015

ColdChef: As many of you who've received sympathy cards from me know, I usually start my cards with, "Well, this is some fucking bullshit..."

This was, word for word, what a friend of mine said with tears in her eyes after I broke the news that we had lost our baby. Maybe there are some people who wouldn't have appreciated it, but I sure did because it was exactly how I felt. It was definitely some fucking bullshit.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:03 PM on May 4, 2015

I just want to tell you both 'good luck'. We're all counting on you.
posted to MetaFilter by flatluigi at 9:55 PM on May 5, 2015

I think I missed something related to Banner and his part in creating Ultron. He starts out against it - and then next you see him 100% engaged with the development. And no one seems to hold him accountable - everyone takes their anger out on Tony.

Tony's always the center of attention, while Banner is usually trying to hide. So yeah, of it makes sense that people focus on Tony. Tony focuses on Tony!

The language... [more]
posted to FanFare by Brandon Blatcher at 7:58 AM on May 5, 2015