My critique of China’s environmental policies will always be that it’s rooted in lessening the impact on the environment for human reasons first, never for the sake of the environment and the other life we share this planet with. It’s also one of my fundamental criticisms of ML theory itself; it still puts humans first. I get that we’re going to tend to default to that, but the amount of Western “leftists” willing to ignore the rape of the planet for human’s sake just to spite western methods disgusts me. Strip-mining for rare earth elements to make better batteries for solar power isn’t exactly a better trade off than burning coal, it just makes you feel better cus it sounds better. And let’s talk about the factory farms it takes to feed a billion people who’ve been moved out of subsistence farming and into a “middle class”.
backalleycoyote
Leon Czolgosz 🤘
And ask former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg what happens when you ride union support to power but then go corporate.
Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, TMNT ‘89, Lord of the Rings.
Whatever the JP franchise is now, it will never go back to full scale animatronics, and without Stan Winston’s magic, it’ll never be quite what the first (and a bit of the second) were.
Cameron himself can’t recreate the magic of T2 even if his films make billions. He never risks having to “nail this in one shot” stunts.
As for TMNT. Nobody gives a shit they’re suits, we could suspend our disbelief and watched mindblowing performances by great stuntmen in some of the most advanced animatronics ever. Michael Bay can’t even fathom how much better that is.
The Hobbit was plagued by a lot of problems, but I don’t know if even Jackson could pull off the practical effects with digital overlay magic that was the first trilogy if he tried.
That era of Hollywood, practical first, digital to enhance (sparingly) is gone it seems. It’s sad Hollywood has forgotten that that boundary pushing era was what made those films iconic. Rexy had weight, she literally tore a car apart. You can see the chaos of the semi landing in the canal. The turtles hit. The Riders of Théoden truly rode for ruin. Tell me you don’t get giddy when you know that scene is about to hit.
Drivers are rude, such attitudes, but when I show my piece complaints cease. Something's odd… Feel like I'm God… You stupid-dumb-shit-goddamn-MOTHERFUCKER!!!
I’m jealous you’ve got a pecan tree in your yard. Wrong zone for me but there’s a couple of untended black walnuts near by that I harvest from and there’s always some garlic to be found.
I’m up in that area as well. Yeah, it does a little too well in the region. Despite having some benefits it can become a problem so probably worth letting them know. It’s not devastatingly invasive like some plants but it’s also not native North America.
“Found an old human in the parking lot and conned it into feeding and housing me. Suck it tree dwellers.”




As I said, practical first, digital secondary or to enhance seems to be the secret sauce of creating something stunning. Most of the intimate shots with Rexy and the kids are practical. When she busts through the sunroof and tries to eat them… terrifyingly real because there’s a “real” thing attacking them. LOTR is real for a different reason- physical armor, cast of thousands. Compare the Rohirrim and armies of Mordor in that movie to the unified CGI mess that is the Battle of Five Armies in the Hobbit. Even using physical miniature sets for the big locations like Minas Tirith gives them weight.