The fantasy of the avatars, with their assigned strengths and weaknesses, make it possible for the characters to become more honest with themselves and each other. As with the first film, the humor and excitement are nimbly balanced so it never gets too scary or silly, and the focus is more on friendship than romance. This time, there is a light touch of poignance as well that makes the message about friendship more meaningful. And like all good video games, there's a hint of yet another level at the end for those, like me, who are not yet ready to say Game Over.
In the meantime, the Dark General's second in command attempts to capture Blanca for his master, and nearly succeeds. Out of desperation, Blanca uses the magic wand again, absorbing the daoist's powers and turning into her giant demon form. Knowing that the General will now march onto the Snake Catcher Village, where the snakes are hiding, she intends to kill him there, fighting through his forts and armies. Xuan barely catches up with her, but Blanca does not heed his call to stop. Verta then warns Xuan that in the battle to come, he, a demon too now, will have to choose a side.
Woah, there’s a Fighting Fantasy documentary
What do you get when you cross a rules lite system, a rogue like environment, and fantasy monsters? You get Slayers, that's what! The rules are light enough that combat feels natural while it is happening, and the downtime will be enjoyable as there aren't things that bog it down with the endless minutia of finding the last hair of a skinless rabbit to obtain the final ingredient for that long sought after grimoire of unholdthinehandeth!
I felt like, you know, coming up, he was that artist that, you know, each time he released a new album and new music, there was an evolution and we were here for the ride and nodding our heads to it at the same time. But now I'm kind of lost on what to really think about our guy. And, you know, I think the new documentary complicates that more for me.
THOMPSON: When he did "Through The Wire" on "The College Dropout," which is something that he talks about in this documentary, he's rapping through a wire because his jaw has been broken in a car accident. And it's this very relatable and humble - there was a humility to the way that he presented himself as an artist. And as these subsequent albums rolled out, you heard him find his voice more and more and find this power more and more. And so by the time you get to albums like "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," you are just hearing this guy at the top of his game sonically. And as a rapper and as a presence, that is remarkable.
THOMPSON: The loss of her is clearly a massive, massive tipping-point trauma in his life. I did want to talk a little bit about the documentary, which, you know, when you hear there is a 4 1/2-hour Kanye documentary, it's an interesting but very, very flawed (laughter) piece of work. What did you guys think of the documentary?
LEE: So what's really interesting about this documentary, what I'm at once fascinated by, intrigued by, but also frustrated by, is how the directors, Coodie and Chike, sort of operate within his life. Because it seems very true to their experience in that they act as the really concerned friend who want to be there as, like, a presence but don't really know what to make of that otherwise. And I think that also kind of speaks to, I guess, the isolation in his career at this moment. Because like you said, Stephen, like, fame and success, especially to the extent that Kanye has experienced, very, very few of us are going to understand that in each other's lifetimes. There's a reason why Kanye invokes Michael Jackson as a point of comparison because he might have been the only other person to really have understood that.
And I think in terms of just the documentary itself, once you look at it as like, this isn't a documentary that's going to explain Kanye, this isn't a documentary that's going to give you both sides of Kanye - this is Kanye through the eyes of Coodie. That's literally all this is. And that's why it even stops. It's like they drifted apart or whatever you want to call, but there's a gap in footage. And I think Coodie's like, I didn't talk to the man for an X amount of time, so I don't have that footage. And so I now look at it as like, this is the Kanye story, according to Coodie's camera. And I now have an easier time digesting what I've been watching if I look at it through that lens.
And there's that other element - I think it was Te-Nahisi Coates wrote about it - where it's like he doesn't see himself as Black. He sees himself as Kanye. I don't know if you guys saw the O.J. Simpson documentary, "Made In America," where have this same discussion, right? Like, everybody wants O.J. to be more than he is for Black people because of where he is. And O.J. is like, yo, bro; I'm just O.J. I'm not - mmm-mmm (ph). And I feel like that's where Kanye is.
Low-fantasy hang-out. Even the sword duels are paced, stretched out. The sky is always pink, and everything is generally pastel and diffused. Powell and Parsons' shameless score is peplum, it's dub, it's fusion, it's fanfare, anything. There are shots in this movie, whoa there are shots... like, Michelle Pfeiffer in a red riding hood, lying in a shallow ice grave of pine boughs next to Rutger Hauer's black wolf body, duh lit by pink dawn sunlight.
Flesh+Blood rubbed me the wrong way, casting an unpleasant shadow on my Rutger Hauer marathon. As my Hauer resources dwindle, I was concerned that the year would end on that ugly note. Fortunately, there was still one classic left to indulge in, with Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler's near perfect fantasy even letting the late star shine with his Floris swordplay.
Since the beginning of the franchise, the word "Fight" has been synonymous with the heat of battle. Sure, many fighting games used this word to start a match, but there was something especially ominous about the way Mortal Kombat did it.
Upon critically examining my script (which is a fantasy script), I realized there was a potential for a much richer and much more engaging story, that would still honor the basic concept of the movie. 2ff7e9595c
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