Movie day!

Yesterday, triadruid and I went to see Stardust. Somebody on my flist, perhaps kenllama, thought it as funny as The Princess Bride, and while I don't necessarily agree with that statement, I did really enjoy Stardust, and would see it again. And besides, The Princess Bride has a pronounced lack of cross-dressing air pirates, so how can you even compare the two films? I ask you.

In addition to the aforementioned cross-dressing air pirates, Stardust also has a sort of Greek chorus of deceased princes, who sit on the sidelines of the story and offer helpful hints and snide commentary to the main characters, who can't see them. This works brilliantly, and totally saves some of the slower scenes in the film. Also, I always enjoy looking at long-haired boys in frock coats, particularly if they fence, which they do.

We didn't make it in time for all the trailers, but we felt less loss than usual about that, because it meant that we missed half of the trailer for The Dark is Rising, which nobody should have to sit through more than once anyway. I dread the coming of that film, mostly because even with the general awfulness of the trailer and the conversion of Will Stanton into an American pre-teen who engages his enemies in shopping malls, I will probably see it anyway. Alas.

On the other hand, we did think we'd go see Elizabeth: The Golden Age (large-scale naval battles! Sir Walter Raleigh! Cate Blanchett in a ludicrous variety of wigs!) and Beowulf (the heavy metal version, with Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother! Fire and Monsters! A ridiculously A-list cast!). We have very little shame with regard to film. Alas. :)

Movie day!

Yesterday, triadruid and I went to see Stardust. Somebody on my flist, perhaps kenllama, thought it as funny as The Princess Bride, and while I don't necessarily agree with that statement, I did really enjoy Stardust, and would see it again. And besides, The Princess Bride has a pronounced lack of cross-dressing air pirates, so how can you even compare the two films? I ask you.

In addition to the aforementioned cross-dressing air pirates, Stardust also has a sort of Greek chorus of deceased princes, who sit on the sidelines of the story and offer helpful hints and snide commentary to the main characters, who can't see them. This works brilliantly, and totally saves some of the slower scenes in the film. Also, I always enjoy looking at long-haired boys in frock coats, particularly if they fence, which they do.

We didn't make it in time for all the trailers, but we felt less loss than usual about that, because it meant that we missed half of the trailer for The Dark is Rising, which nobody should have to sit through more than once anyway. I dread the coming of that film, mostly because even with the general awfulness of the trailer and the conversion of Will Stanton into an American pre-teen who engages his enemies in shopping malls, I will probably see it anyway. Alas.

On the other hand, we did think we'd go see Elizabeth: The Golden Age (large-scale naval battles! Sir Walter Raleigh! Cate Blanchett in a ludicrous variety of wigs!) and Beowulf (the heavy metal version, with Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother! Fire and Monsters! A ridiculously A-list cast!). We have very little shame with regard to film. Alas. :)

Insert Fanboy Whining Here.

Soooo.... D&D 4th edition. triadruid asked me this morning, "So they said they'd make it simpler than 3.x. How much simpler could they possibly make it?". I couldn't let it rest, I had to find out.

As it turns out, in the Brave New World, apparently, one's choices of character class will be limited to four, with variants: a tank sort, a healing sort, a ranged weapons sort, and magic-using sort. Apparently, if you would like to know more, you could watch this video. (Disclaimer: I haven't done so yet, but will probably check it out later. I took the above assessment from the general feeling of the D&D board at wizards.com, which one has to subscribe to a service for now... when did that happen?)

Anyway. I don't imagine we'll convert any time soon. Aside from the general ...meh... factor, I own too many 3.x books.

And all of this doesn't answer the most burning D&D question currently on my mind: Why the hell do rangers even get spells? Where does their magic come from? (In most campaign settings, this probably wouldn't make a bit of difference, but in mine it will. Feh. Why can't we just build a medieval-fantasy-britain-world with wizards and dragons and nobody asks why anything exists in the way it does? You know, like everyone else does.)

Insert Fanboy Whining Here.

Soooo.... D&D 4th edition. triadruid asked me this morning, "So they said they'd make it simpler than 3.x. How much simpler could they possibly make it?". I couldn't let it rest, I had to find out.

As it turns out, in the Brave New World, apparently, one's choices of character class will be limited to four, with variants: a tank sort, a healing sort, a ranged weapons sort, and magic-using sort. Apparently, if you would like to know more, you could watch this video. (Disclaimer: I haven't done so yet, but will probably check it out later. I took the above assessment from the general feeling of the D&D board at wizards.com, which one has to subscribe to a service for now... when did that happen?)

Anyway. I don't imagine we'll convert any time soon. Aside from the general ...meh... factor, I own too many 3.x books.

And all of this doesn't answer the most burning D&D question currently on my mind: Why the hell do rangers even get spells? Where does their magic come from? (In most campaign settings, this probably wouldn't make a bit of difference, but in mine it will. Feh. Why can't we just build a medieval-fantasy-britain-world with wizards and dragons and nobody asks why anything exists in the way it does? You know, like everyone else does.)