Unpopular Other media opinions

[Winterwind]

I strongly doubt there is such a thing as "the" Robin Hood novel, considering it's a story that's been told and retold in ballads and books for what, seven, eight centuries or more?

Like with the King Arthur saga, I'm willing to bet there are dozens over dozens of novelizations, both recent and seceral centuries old ones.


For an unpopular opinion on that subject, I really did not like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. Bored me out of my mind. No idea why.

[turkishproverb]

For an unpopular opinion on that subject, I really did not like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. Bored me out of my mind. No idea why.

Tell me about it. Brut was a mroe exciting read in middle english.

[Redpieper]

Hmm I got another one

24 does not live up to what people say about it, I found it mildly interesting to watch at best.

[Cristo Meyers]

Hmm I got another one

24 does not live up to what people say about it, I found it mildly interesting to watch at best.

I didn't even find it that. To me it was just dull.

[TheGreatJabu]

I can agree with what you've said, Jerthanis; my only real objection is merely semantic. I wouldn't call Smith the hero for the sole purpose of the fact that he's fighting "the establishment". Destroying the Matrix would have simultaneously all-but-destroyed all of mankind and all of the machines. Sure, those remaining few humans would be free, but would you call a man who destroys 99% of the world a hero merely because that 1% doesn't have to worry about enemies from abroad anymore? Apart from the single word "hero", I see your points

Can't say I've ever seen an episode of 24, either. Guess it's obvious at this point that I watch almost no television.

And yeah, there are probably 1000 versions of the tale of Robin Hood all in print. The one I probably like the most is his minor supporting role in the story Ivanhoe, which I thought was a good read. Don't know how popular/unpopular that is.

As far as King Arthur goes, The Once and Future King gets my vote as "best telling of the story".

[WalkingTarget]

There may be no spoon, but I am a god of fork().

Awesome. May have to sig that.

BLASPHEMY! Eddie Izzard, Monty Python, educate yourself, and never speak of this again.

As far as the Pythons go, it was because the cross-dressing wasn't the joke. They played those sketches totally straight: they were dressed as women because there were female roles that they didn't care to make Carol Cleveland or Connie Booth play.

seconded and thirded, and this is coming from someone whose seen all of them (yes even the old casino royale). It seems these days that darker=better in the revisiting of old series, see Batman: Begins and Casino Royale.

Agreed. The game of oneupmanship that the established line of movies had developed with itself had reached ridiculous proportions and I'm glad of the reboot.

Anyway, on topic:

Timothy Dalton was a good James Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service wasn't that bad of a Bond film if one ignores Lazenby (I always got the impression that he was trying to play Sean Connery, not James Bond).

I enjoyed the Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four movies.

Enough friends bugged me about the Harry Potter books that I'm giving them a try. I'm about a third through book 5 and I'm not impressed so far.

300 was exactly what I expected it to be and I liked it.

I agree with earlier posts about Mists of Avalon. It's the only book I can think of that I started and didn't finish.

[Jerthanis]

Yeah, if you ignore the implicit but almost certain fact that Smith was overwriting human consciousnesses as well as programs, that works.

Gnosticism: the one religion not represented in the Matrix, apparently.

Spoiler

Show

Yes, Smith was very clearly written as the villain, and the story went out of the way to portray the story as him being the bad guy, intending to destroy everything... but the entire concept of the Matrix was based on the Gnostic idea of the "real" world being a trap, a lie, and that someone would become incarnate in order to bring the world gnosis, and allow people to escape into the actual real reality. But Neo sacrificed his life to bring peace and slavery rather than freedom.

And remember, there were literally billions of humans in the pods, and possibly only tens of thousands in Zion. If we were to ignore the one detail that all the people waking up in the pods would have been Smith, he would have been humanity's greatest hero. Neo, even in success was just a rest stop on the roadmap of the history of the Matrix. This is why I feel they were not in control of the Narrative they were telling. Also, I feel this directly contributed to the failure of the second and third movies in my mind. Even people who don't analyze the movies at all knew on some level that the second and third movies weren't as good. I think the real reason was that the first movie was perfectly in line with countless human myths, very in touch with its references, and was very mythologically accurate... while the others just didn't have as much success appealing to our deeper senses.

Ugh, enough talking about the Matrix... more unpopular media opinions
- Superman 3 is absolutely hilarious, Superman 4 wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. It would have been awesome if they had gotten David Bowie to play Nuclear Man.

uh... I can't think of anything else

[Nerd-o-rama]

WalkingTarget: just be sure to credit that to Smith, otherwise it makes no sense.

Jerthanis: So you're saying the writers had no clue wtf they were doing? I concur fully.

Ho hum, have I got anything on topic? Let's see...ah, there is such a thing as a good dubbed foreign film/show, although it's rare and takes a lot of effort on the part of the localizers.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

The opium poppy was the greatest gift to poetry since language. A lot of people morally object to the sentiment, at least.

[TheGreatJabu]

All the cool historical figures were on some type of dope! There's no denying that one.

[Neon Knight]

All the cool historical figures were on some type of dope! There's no denying that one.

If this were actually true, Theodore Roosevelt just became ironically awesome.

Unpopular Opinion:

Max Brooks World War Z was poor both as standard fiction and as zombie fiction.

[Griemont]

.

Well, I have a personal rule to never judge how funny something is, because all humor is relative.

Forgot everything else I was going to say

[hanzo66]

Ansem Retort, while not the God's gift to webcomics like people say it is, is the only good thing to come out of Kingdom Hearts, excluding Chain of Memories, which was much more fun than the console games.

I like that comic as well. Something about the completely utterly depraved Dead Baby Humor is just highly amusing.

Personally I'm more of a fan of Webcomics than I am any Manga. I choose Order of the Stick over the newest chapters of Bleach/Naruto (which I only really check on updates periodically on Wikipedia).

Never watched Heroes or Lost. I prefer Animation nowadays. I still enjoy the Discovery Channel.

Anime is decent (I still prefer satirical versions rather than the real versions IE The Abridged Versions more than their actual counterparts). I like most Dubs (4kids being the exception, but I watched One Piece as a kid before I got into Anime and learned of the butchery Khan is capable of).

Halo may not be Best Game Ever, but it's still fun to play with a group of people. I don't really think that the XBox is complete and utter crap and people who own it are trigger-happy language-impaired morons (those who defend their systems by criticizing others with childish immature insults are another story).

[Talkkno]

Naruto is good, but Bleach sucks
Ranma 1/2(expect the ending, I like Shampoo better :D) is better then Inyusha.
The Star Wars prequals didn't suck.
Second Winterwind's point on Star Trek I second for the most part.
Yakitate Japan makes bread awesome.
Most animie dubs don't suck.
Halo is overrated.
Dystany Warriors is boring.
Spiderman, Superman, and Batman are boring.
Second Setra point on animie.

[Duke Malagigi]

All the cool historical figures were on some type of dope! There's no denying that one.

True, but Theodore Roosevelt's drug of choice was coffee. He drank 2-5 gallons of it a day.

[SurlySeraph]

The opium poppy was the greatest gift to poetry since language. A lot of people morally object to the sentiment, at least.

I disagree. The greatest gift since wine, maybe.

Of course, I don't think much good poetry's been written since T.S. Eliot died (with the possible exception of Robert Frost), I think poetry as an artform been going downhill since the fall of Rome, and I hate Baudelaire.

[warty goblin]

OK, my turn:

- I refuse to watch/read anime/manga. I'm not saying it sucks (although what I know of it in general fails to impress me), I just can't stand it. Probably the hair that looks like the love child of a starfish and a hedge.

- In the future, after the Nerd apocalypse, the world will be ruled by the trinity of Tolkein, Martin and Pratchett. And I can't wait, gritty yet humorous action on a mythic backdrop, I'm so there...

- Rap sucks, end of story. The only exception is when parts of Linkin Park songs are rapped.

- Which reminds me, Linkin Park is actually pretty good.

- The Matrix (yes the first one, didn't watch past that) was overrated. Plot was crappy, "religious symbolism" was shallow ("Hey, let's give this thing a name from a religion somewhere!") and the action sequences were overrated. Equilibrium was better in every way possible.

- Superheroes of any ___man/woman ilk fail to rock my world at all. Frankly capes and leotards bore me. Some of the movies can be fun though.

- TV wise, Firefly is the greatest show ever. Good characters, interesting universe, good action, good acting.

- Bablylon 5 is a close second. Complex plot arcs that actually take intellegence to follow and build to a climax over time, interesting political issues. Also, J'Gar and Londo. Very nice and pretty believable space combat as well. "Point of No Return", "War without End (1&2)" and the entire Earth Civil War arc are simply amazing episodes. Remember kids, your space battles don't qualify for the prestigious "Warty Goblin's Excellent Space Combat Medal" until I see at least one capital ship, its hull shot to hell and systems failing, reactor going critical, ram another capital ship in a last act of defiance. This must be done without evacuating the crew for it to be interesting, otherwise its just the world's most expensive missile without actual pathos.

- Battlestar Galactica is simply crap. I only watched what I did for the humor value- in the sense of "this takes itself so seriously yet is so bad, its funny". The episodes where they were running out of stuff were particularly good examples of this- its like nobody noticed the water/fuel shortage until it hit crisis state. Right, that's what I call poor planning and logistical skills, Read Horatio Hornblower, find out how closely a decent captain tracks this kind of thing, and come back and talk then. Then I got tired of the poor mythological parallels ("Hey, let's name stuff after Greek gods, nevermind that they make absolutely no sense in this context!") and constant robot sex became a little to much.

- Which brings me to my love of the Horatio Hornblower books. Really, there's not much more I could ask for in a series, good characters, suppurb action, and an actually interesting main character. Plus, any battle so hardcore that by the end the hero has to decide how to indicate their surrender, since all of their usual methods of indication are destroyed is pretty cool. Actually, any book where the hero loses a battle and surrenders is pretty cool.

[Closet_Skeleton]

- I refuse to watch/read anime/manga. I'm not saying it sucks (although what I know of it in general fails to impress me), I just can't stand it. Probably the hair that looks like the love child of a starfish and a hedge.

- Rap sucks, end of story. The only exception is when parts of Linkin Park songs are rapped.

So basically, all your opinions are based on extremely limited exposure and you really have no idea.

[warty goblin]

So basically, all your opinions are based on extremely limited exposure and you really have no idea.

In a way yes, although I disagree with your implication that I am narrow minded and rejecting these things without reason. I dislike anime because I cannot stand the art style. I don't need a large exposure to it to realize that. Once I reached that conclusion, I really have no reason to continue exposing myself to it. Similarly with rap, I listen to pop radio a good bit and came to the conclusion that I didn't like rap, or at least the rap I'd heard. Given that, it would be pretty stupid for me to go out and buy rap CDs, now wouldn't it?

In short, of course I have less exposure to those forms of media, because what I saw of them turned me off and gave me no reason to continue my exposure. That does not invalidate my dislike of them however. Put another way, say you don't like Jessica Simpson's music, I'm assuming you don't go out and buy CDs of it to broaden your exposure?

[Closet_Skeleton]

In a way yes, although I disagree with your implication that I am narrow minded and rejecting these things without reason.

You have reasons for rejecting things, but that doesn't make them good ones. I may have badly worded my post to have acusatory implications though.

I dislike anime because I cannot stand the art style. I don't need a large exposure to it to realize that.

But there is no single anime art style. There's a lot of variance in art styles, some of which you might like. I don't like every anime I've watched. Most anime are pretty bad anyway and I wouldn't force anyoen to watch them, but it's a huge classification. There are anime with very unique art and even anime with no spikey hair.

Given that, it would be pretty stupid for me to go out and buy rap CDs, now wouldn't it?

But it wouldn't be so stupid to go see live rap once or twice. Or talk to people who do like rap and learn more about it.

Put another way, say you don't like Jessica Simpson's music, I'm assuming you don't go out and buy CDs of it to broaden your exposure?

I've never heard of her to be honest. I might see if she has any free stuff and then buy some if I like it though, but probably not.

[Athaniar]

What I think:

Stargate: Atlantis really isn't a good series. Bring back SG-1!

2001 was only confusing.

I actually liked Catwoman.

Jar Jar Binks is funny. (please don't burn me at the stake!)

[warty goblin]

But it wouldn't be so stupid to go see live rap once or twice. Or talk to people who do like rap and learn more about it.

Live rap?? In Iowa? Surely you jest.

And no offense taken if none was offered. Well actually, no offense taken even if it was offered.

And I realize that anime is probably a very broad classification with a lot of stuff in it, but frankly there's enough media/books and stuff that I do like to keep me plently busy. I've got no reason to go looking for more stuff. It's also not just the hair that I dislike, although that's one of the more obvious things, the general way that characters look doesn't thrill me, the generally high powered nature, these do not fill me with thrills and chills.

[Tengu]

- In the future, after the Nerd apocalypse, the world will be ruled by the trinity of Tolkein, Martin and Pratchett. And I can't wait, gritty yet humorous action on a mythic backdrop, I'm so there...

- TV wise, Firefly is the greatest show ever. Good characters, interesting universe, good action, good acting.

- Bablylon 5 is a close second.

Since when those are unpopular opinions?

Most of the rest qualifies though, especially the dislike of anime ( ).

[Kallisti]

The Office is drivel, and Saturday Night Live's humor is hit-or-miss at best.

Bleach is...not bad, but pretty boring.

[averagejoe]

The Mod They Call Me: Thread necromancy.