Hollow

Well I imagine that's not the case, and what if there is more to it? I'm just saying I personally didn't understand that plot point, and I wish it was explained. I don't need 3 prequels of explanation of how Finn got to become Finn but for me, I felt that it was random. I actually would have preferred if there was no backstory at all; for example in A New Hope Han Solo is just a guy, a badass. There's no mystery to him and I like that. It just kind of peeved me how despite being conditioned to be a Storm Trooper, presumably his whole life, he just doesn't want to do it anymore. That's why I feel like, maybe there's more to it than that, like he had to have had SOME sort of influence that made him want to feel that way. I just found online that there's a book called Before the Awakening that gives some insight into the characters, including Finn, and how he had friends and showed empathy. I just wished this was conveyed in the movie. I guess the bloody hand on the helmet sort of did that, but that didn't occur to me while watching the movie. I laughed because this book is for ages 8-12. I'm just saying guys I'm an old man who reads at an elementary school level. But like I said I want to watch it again, soon, and probably the issues I had with the film will just end up becoming absolute non-issues.

If I have to accept that his origin story was bland for me, then that's what I'll have to do. BUT, for now, I don't want to do that. I just realized the parallel of Kylo Ren, being born from two 'good guys,' raised by good guys but ends up becoming bad, with Finn, who was raised, molded, conditioned by 'bad guys' but ends up becoming good. We know more about the history of Kylo Ren but we know very little about Finn's history, other than he was first a baby and then a Storm Trooper. It's entirely possible that they won't come back to it again, and I'm thinking too much about it, and I'll just have to accept that. But I think it'd be interesting if his backstory has more significance.

Yes that's fair. I knew he was a human; my assumption just made it feel random to me. I guess the logical question for me is "what makes him so special?" and I hope they answer that in the sequel, or at least they show others like him in some capacity. I think Neblix is joking, no? Is it possible to quote a response to another quote and still keep the original response quote intact? Quotception. TM

I didn't really enjoy it, although after I saw it I can't stop thinking/reading about it and I want to see it again, just to form a more definitive opinion. The bad: Most of my issues come from randomness and awkwardness. Finn randomly wanted to stop being a Storm Trooper. Why? and why is he the only one? If more people end up doing that, fine, but for now he's the only one we're aware of. If they took him when he was a baby and he's been surrounded by Storm Troopers and that's all he's known his whole life, I don't understand why all of a sudden he would want out. I thought Poe and Finn's interactions were awkward, especially when Poe gave Finn his name. My feeling was basically "Who are these new characters and why should I care about them? At the moment, I don't." I guess I didn't really like their character introductions, but Rey on the other hand I really liked her introduction and character. I thought Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were just awkward. Han Solo had some good parts and some awkward parts. I hated one line, "I like this kid!" or something like that when referring to Finn. Just came off as weird to me. Not sure if it was director's or actor's choice but General Hux was really awkward to me; his voice, facial expressions, weird. Some of the humor was funny but some of it fell flat for me. The good: I really, really liked the acting of Rey and Kylo Ren. Their mind-reading exchange blew me away. I found it surprising that some people in this thread felt his acting was stiff, but I thought his performance was very nuanced, and impressive considering he wore a mask most of the time. Kylo Ren came off as an emo kid, rebelling against his parents, as if he fell into the wrong crowd, but I think it worked for his character. I didn't find the movie terribly interesting until Han Solo confronted his son, and from then until the end it got really good for me. I wanted better light saber scenes but I was okay with it, because all three of them are relatively young and inexperienced. Finn and Rey can fight, sort of, but even with Rey and The Force, she is untrained. And Kylo Ren as others have mentioned was injured, and although he's strong with The Force, I imagine his training was rather incomplete, misguided. I thought the ending was really epic; Rey is connected to everything somehow, and for her to meet the only Jedi (in the galaxy?) was really epic and I can't wait for the next one. Considering the bad and good, overall I just didn't enjoy it all that much, it just didn't gel for me at the time. I happened to be rather tired and maybe I just wasn't feeling it, but like I mentioned above I want to see it again and I have a feeling upon 2nd viewing I'm going to end up loving it.

I enjoyed Gravity. It was exciting and thrilling and I generally enjoy disaster movie elements. Probably 4/5 stars. You know, I didn't enjoy Interstellar--the 1st time around. I thought it was slow, long, boring, and I didn't understand Matt Damon's character or acting. His acting felt off and weird, kind of random. The whole movie was confusing and pretty blah. BUT--after I watched it, I thought about the film a lot, and that's usually what Nolan's films do to me. They leave me in a thought-provoking state. And the 2nd time I watched it, I loved it. I watched most of it on my phone. I guess I kind of knew what I was getting into. But this time, I was engaged throughout the whole movie; I think my favorite parts were the action/thrilling parts, e.g. ::SPOILERS:: the water planet scenes, the scene where Cooper is able to dock the ship after Mann's catastrophic failure. I really like how Nolan handles tension and release. Most things I didn't like or understand the 1st time, I liked/understood a lot better the 2nd time. The love between father and daughter that transcends space and time--that was intriguing and it was pretty compelling to me. The general concept of "this planet is failing so we must travel through a wormhole to find a suitable planet or else everyone basically dies" is awesome, and I think they pulled it off well. I also thought the time dilation elements were really interesting. Matt Damon was still weird to me, even after the 2nd time. I know anyone who hated or strongly disliked Interstellar will most likely not watch it again, but I highly recommend a 2nd viewing if you can stomach the idea. 4.5/5 stars. I have yet to see The Martian but I want to.

I am excited for this. I'm at work so I couldn't read all of the previous posts, sorry if I'm repeating. At the Distant World concerts, I want to say that Nobuo Uematsu arranged the music, but I'm not super certain on that. I know that doesn't necessarily mean that concert arrangements would translate perfectly as game arrangements, but I'd trust Uematsu could make it work. I hope they get him for this. I saw a few seconds of the trailer and I'm excited for it. I have to start saving now for a PS4 sigh. I agree with the post about Advent Children voice actors, I thought they were amazing. Rachael Leigh Cook is a personal favorite of mine, and Steve Burton was great as Cloud.

My wife and I had 0 interest in watching this movie, possibly negative interest. We were not attracted by the billboards nor the trailers. I was just impressed and intrigued by the 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and I figured I wanted to see what all the fuss was about this "explosions in the desert" film, and I wanted to see it at least once in the theater. Even when we bought tickets, I wasn't excited to see it at all; I wanted to get it over with like ripping off a band-aid. But we ending up really, really loving it. Spoilers. I haven't seen any of the prior films. I thought the beginning was boring and kind of weird. The first 'neat' moment for me was when Furiosa got out of her truck thing to shoot a guy behind them, reminded me of Vincent Valentine from Advent Children. But then, [AGAIN, SPOILERS] I was pretty much sold when they were shooting at the motorcycle guys flying back and forth. There's this recurring theme in media where a 'ragtag team' or a 'bunch of misfits' get together to accomplish a goal, Star Wars comes to mind, a bunch of FF games, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. I don't mind the recurring theme as long as it's done well, and I thought it was done so well in this movie. I thought it was done so much better than GotG, but I didn't love that film like most people did. But that's a different story. At the end of the movie, I just gave out a heavy sigh, and it was so exhilarating for me that it felt like I was holding my breath the whole time. I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. It's just a super weird and awesome feeling to go into a movie having no expectations, and just coming out blown away. I am recommending it to everyone I know, which is basically my wife and anyone who reads this.

I marched snare for 3 years in high school. I still practice on a pad for fun. Gotta keep those chops up. I know people say you should not have regrets in life, but I was just thinking the other day that I regret not continuing it. I auditioned once for a college drumline, didn't get in, but that was the end of it. I didn't even try to get into other drumlines or drum corps after that. So now I feel like an old man with only high school level chops. doh. I probably couldn't be much help because I've never played bass, nor have I ever taught or written for bass lines. I imagine as part of the process, you could always just give it to them and see what happens, and if it's just a total mess you could rewrite and try to simplify the parts. Good luck with everything.

I am not familiar with the source material at all, but I couldn't even get thru the trailer. My memory is fuzzy but "let's record her singing, put it up on youtube, get millions of hits, now all of a sudden the 'top producer' wants to sign us' " or something like that, all seems very horrible to me. I try to have an open mind when I can, but I already vehemently do not want to see this. Vehemently, I say. Vehemently.

... or like a crossover where it starts off as a Star Fox flight simulation ride, but then your ship breaks down, so Link comes along to help and you continue the adventure in the world of Skyward Sword, because why not. Donkey Kong Mine Cart roller coaster. Ooh now that MindWanderer mentioned Super Mario Galaxy, a ride that simulates low gravity. And then crossover with Metroid.

This headline made my eyes widen. Star Fox Tours would be amazing. I'm a sucker for dark rides, even as an adult. They semi-recently renovated the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland, and people have been loving it. It's a happy marriage between practical audio-animatronic effects as well as projected animations; it's really well done and I could totally picture this in the Mario World. Maybe the ride vehicle could be Yoshi somehow? Pipes w/the flowers going up and down, Bowser at the end, I think it would be cool for children and adults to enjoy. A similar concept could be done in a Donkey Kong world, riding in a barrel or something. Mario Kart car rides. Or, a Donkey Kong ride in a barrel similar to the defunct Soap Box Racers ride at Knott's Berry Farm. They've also been making some cool hybrid rides where you play a game inside the ride. But, maybe it'd be cool to go in a completely different direction. Maybe they could somehow incorporate warp pipes into the ride, so that it the experience would be slightly different every time. For selfish reasons, I think the park should be in California.

This was my entry for PRC288. It is a remix of two sources from FF8: Waltz for the Moon and Lunatic Pandora. Gravitational Pull of Absurdity

Here is my entry from OHC331. Silent Shatter

I unintentionally set this as my alarm recently: It's pretty peaceful to wake up to. But I don't use it as my regular alarm; I wouldn't get up from bed from it. I think I need something harsher to 'help' me wake up.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I watched this video prior to making this track, that's why the panning is weird. Soooo basically I did what's in the video; I duplicated my final track, twice, so there's three tracks total. One is centered, one is panned left, one is panned right. I duplicated the WHOLE track, drums and all. I've since stopped doing that, and I don't include the drums when I duplicate/pan. I don't know if it's a good trick but the video seemed cool so I tried it. Thanks for the feedback and encouragement . I've been trying to work on arrangement , or at least put some sort of direction in the music. This track and the one I did today are from the one hour compo. Maybe I'll post the one I did today also.