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@Mr.Myoozik
You mean the #1 song?

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

@Dex Stewart
I read that version, yeah! I remember those pages from it.

Here’s a hot take: If they wanted to do a direct adaptation of the comic of The Crow, it shouldn’t be a live action film at all… it should be an animated miniseries.

The miniseries would be the best format in regards to showing all the events of the comic, including the flashbacks to Eric’s life he had before with Shelly, while fleshing out some of the other characters more. And making it animated would be the best way of capturing the stylization of the source material. Imagine if it were animated in Sin City style, where everything was black and white except the blood, but then the flashbacks are in full color, symbolizing life, bliss, and joy, to contrast the black and white bleakness of the present day.

Honestly, a lot of comics would benefit from having animated adaptations instead of live action ones, but that’s a conversation that Hollywood isn’t ready to have.

Forever fascinated by media franchises that live solely on the strength of having one or two beloved installments and have nothing else that’s remotely watchable.

Two nights ago, in preparation for the inevitable disappointment of the new movie of The Crow, I stayed up way too late reading the original comic. Golly, you can tell it was written by a guy who was grieving his fiancée’s death.

A huge amount of the comic, amidst Eric’s quest for vengeance upon those who killed him and his fiancée Shelly, is focused on his grief for her. There are flashbacks to their Christmas together, the domestic life they had, even like really mundane stuff like painting the house. Shelly is also given a personality and isn’t just a flat character whose only purpose for the plot was dying.

And that grief for that person that she was is what lets Eric hold onto his humanity: it’s what drives him to do things like adopting the cat Gabriel after its owner is killed by thugs, and then make sure Gabriel has a home when it’s time for him to leave this world for good; it’s what leads to him giving Shelly’s ring to young Sherri as the first gift she’s ever received, treat Sherri gently, urge her mom to get clean, and let Officer Albrecht know that she needs protection. Even when Funboy, one of the members of the gang, talks with Eric and tells him he doesn’t know why he is the way he is, doesn’t see the way to be better, and thinks resisting Eric pointless, he lets him take drugs to overdose and have a relatively peaceful end instead of killing him himself. Not only because of Eric’s own personality buried under layers of rage and depression, but also because of Shelly’s retained influence on him beyond the grave.

The film leaves a lot of this out, and Shelly’s passing is more of just the backdrop and driving force of his quest for revenge; however, there are some aspects of the film that I like better. Specifically, I like how much more it fleshes out both Albrecht and Sarah’s characters, while in the comic they’re mostly confined to the background. Especially Sarah (Sherri in the comics), who I feel there’s even more of a reason for Eric to care about, given that Shelly had cared for Sarah during her life.

I also love the graphic stylized nature of the comic, which was carried over to the film.

Woe

The dumb haircut ruins the entire character’s design. Heck, he’s barely even trying with the makeup either. And I can already tell from the trailer that it doesn’t capture the heart of the original comic or the 1994 film.

This is just Metallica with Kirk and Lars in the Load/Reload era.

@Penguin Dragneel
Honestly, that’s why I was skeptical of Hazbin Hotel before it dropped. Helluva Boss really lost my interest as it started focusing more on romance drama and characters’ daddy issues than on the original plot of the show.

@Mildgyth
I think this is the one!

There were a few scattered diamonds in the rough before the Beatles broke out, but there’s a marked improvement in overall quality after they enter the scene, and you can see their influence and changing trends in real time.

@Mr.Myoozik
Aw man, R.I.P. “All by Myself” is a great song.

So, genuinely, what’s the point of test screenings for films? Are they just there to make films appeal more to the masses? Because I’ve never heard of a film that was improved by changing stuff because of what test audiences liked, and I’ve heard of many films that were made worse by it.

(This question was prompted because I recently discovered that The Little Mermaid almost cut “Part of Your World” because kids were getting bored by it during test screenings, and I quite frankly find that unimaginable because the film doesn’t work without that song… and songwriter Howard Ashman agrees, because he threatened to pull out of the film if they cut that song, which was a good call because the song is now probably the most famous in the movie.)

@♬𝕸𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜 𝕽𝖍𝖞𝖙𝖍𝖒♪
Oh


Oh no

@♬𝕸𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜 𝕽𝖍𝖞𝖙𝖍𝖒♪
Right? It would fit if it were, like, the Pet Shop Boys, but not ELO.

The original logo is full of color, vibrance, and personality, and more importantly it actually resembles the letters it’s trying to spell out? I couldn’t look at the second logo and see it was supposed to be ELO.

In case you ever think logo oversimplification is bad nowadays, just remember what Electric Light Orchestra did to their logo in 1986.

Yeesh.

@Commune
Heh. It’s true!

Another way that helps understand the Beatles’ influence and popularity is something I discovered recently; there’s a video where it plays all the #1 hits from 1959 to 2023, and if you’ve heard the hit songs that were popular between 1959 and 1962, before the Beatles broke out, their music was genuinely a breath of fresh air and breathed life into the otherwise stale scene.

@Darth Prime
Same energy:

@blue-case90
True. It just saddens me that Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of my favorite shows, has become consumerism-pilled and are partnering with companies like Arby’s.

But also, if they are going to make a product tie-in… really? Boring-ass beef and cheddar is the best they could come up with? That’s just a regular burger. It’s not even four elements like is being advertised. They could’ve tried so much harder!

Saw this ad yesterday:

Ah yes, because there’s no better spokesperson for a meat-based company than

Aang, who is a vegetarian

That saddens me as an answer. I mean, I believe you’re telling the truth, but the thing that prompted this is, I recently had to drop the class I’d started taking at PVCC because of a combination of external issues related to the testing and my job needing to take up more time. So in doing so, I’ve robbed myself of several potential connections with other classmates, and I wonder if I’ve just destroyed the last opportunity I’ll have to make those friendships with people close to my age.

Yeah, places like breweries aren’t really suited for making connections.

I’ll see about those clubs. I don’t know what clubs would match my interests, maybe a music club. Possibly a hiking club, I do enjoy taking daily hikes. Pretty much all the college clubs are off-limits since I dropped that class and am technically no longer a student, but maybe there are outside-college clubs? :(

@Beth
Yeah, and my job is online too (and most of the company is located in Maryland), so that’s not really a viable option.

Going to church is a thought I’ve considered. Challenge is, of course, that I’m an atheist. I’ve tried convincing myself to believe in God, but it’s just not happening.

@ᎶㄖҜㄩ 乃ㄥ卂匚Ҝ
Well, I do drink caffeine, so it’s slightly better, but most people at coffee shops are just looking at their phones, so trying to speak to them is a no-go.

@kleptomage
Pretty much. And while I have a few online friends, I can’t really get into online friendships or relationships the same way I get into RL ones because there is a 0.0026% chance of me ever meeting any of them in real life. So the connections are always hampered by that knowledge.

Question: Where the hell do people meet other people outside of an academic setting? I’ve never been educated on that and I’d like some actual friends to hang out with so I won’t be so dang lonely all the time.

(Before anyone asks, “Hang out in bars” is not a good option because I don’t drink alcohol.)

“Alright, it’s just a goofy adult cartoon with numerous sex jokes and 301 swears in eight episodes. No need to go too hard on the soundtrack.”

Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg:

@Dex Stewart
That’s actually kinda sad.