Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm two episodes into the 2nd season, and it's fine. I suppose the pacing is a bit...deliberate, but I think people forget that while this is a fantasy, it is also a drama. Think more Gormenghast than Lord of the Rings.

And nothing says drama more than two people sitting or standing and yapping at each other.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Did kind of a comedy evening last night. While browsing Reddit, was reminded of the Star Wars COPS parody TROOPS . I remembered that it was on YouTube and decided to rewatch it. A couple days ago I was thinking about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog ​​​​​​ and decided to look it up. Found it on YouTube as well.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I've only watched this once, but I kind of liked it. It was fun and who doesn't like a musical?

I'm halfway through Wednesday. Enjoying it so far, though I'm glad it's only an 8 episode season. I'm interested in seeing how the reviews pan out for the 2nd season as it releases early next month. Though, I'm not sure if I'll watch season 2 right away considering how long it took between seasons 1 and 2. I fell out of like with Stranger Things because of the gap between seasons was so long-I just forgot about it and then wasn't interested in the remaining seasons. Maybe one day.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Me, I am not a fan of the genre. I've tried and I do enjoy the greats (West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain) but other than that, musicals aren't my bag. I did watch Dr. Horrible when it was released and I remember liking the beginning but thinking it trailed off. I didn't even care for the Star Trek musical episode and I love me some Star Trek.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I mostly agree. I *do* have a "short list" of musicals I like and will rewatch but it's very short (depending on the day it's 6-10 movies and includes a couple that are arguable - This is Spinal Tap for one). Dr. Horrible was "OK" but that's about it... Can't stand West Side Story.

The musical short list:


Which Star Trek series are you talking about with a "musical episode" - I don't recall any othey than possible a TNG one that I didn't care for at all. I just remember Riker playing his trombone and maybe Data doing something? I just know when I rewatch that one, rarely as I'm not much of a TNG fan, I skip that episode.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Strange New Worlds had a meta musical episode a couple years ago. (Meta as in they're aware that [Plot Device] is making them sing, they know it's weird, and they scientifically approach/test the boundaries of the problem. But still, there's a lot of singing.) I'm a fan of both musicals and Star Trek, so I enjoyed it -- but lisadoris, if that's the episode you're referring to, I can definitely understand why someone would not like that one! :lol:

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yep, that's it. Season 2, episode 9 "Subspace Rhapsody." No shade to the actors who knocked it out of the park vocally (Celia Rose Gooding won a Grammy and was nominated for a Tony for goodness sake) but I just don't like musicals.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Ahhh... That episode's in season 2 of that series. I own a copy but haven't yet watched it. I liked season 1 enough that I blind buy further seasons as they come out on physical media and go on sale.

I watched a trailer for that episode... It does not look good... and the music style is of a type I do not like at all - sounds like something from a modern Disney movie.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I have to admit, I did think about BobO'Link when I typed that as I remembered they didn't like musicals, but I didn't realize you didn't either! I do get why people wouldn't like them, (I'm not a fan of some of them as well-West Side Story looking at you! though I do like the majority. I've been watching Broadway plays and movies since I was a kid.) I haven't seen the Star Trek epi either but it does sound like fun. I really enjoyed the Buffy one, Once More with Feeling, back in the day though.

If there were more than a couple days to go in the challenge, I'd add on Dr. Horrible just to refresh my memory, but I still have 4 more episodes of Wednesday to go, Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2 to finish off the checklist and get double credit, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which I picked up earlier this month to go. I think I can manage it and that'd cover everything except one box set that I planned on watching this challenge.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Adding to a list of musical episodes: Hercules​​​​​​: The Legendary Journeys had an episode based on the movie Strictly Ballroom and Xena: Warrior Princess had a battle of the bands episode. I have the complete series of Xena.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I love musicals but I totally get that some people don't :lol:

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

The battle of the bands episode, "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire", was broadcast in season 5. The first musical episode was season' three's "The Bitter Suite".

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Watching the new War of the Worlds film starring Ice Cube. I've never even heard of this movie being made

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yeah, this isn't good.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

As this challenge winds down, don't forget it does overlap the animation challenge until dawn tomorrow!

I'm going to get Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2 off my watch list, which will give me the final check I need for the checklist as well. Not my favorite series, but I'll be glad to finally get Brother Bear 2 off my to watch list.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I watched Lilo & Stitch and Transformers The Movie for my overlaps.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I just finished watching The Phantom Menace ​​​​​​ for an overlap. Been making a list of animated series I own that would also count double. While it is a series in the middle, I've been considering at least a few episodes of Transformers Super God Masterforce due to receiving both God Ginrai and Cloudburst in the mail. Two Autobots from that series.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I finally got around to watching Arcane: League of Legends. Fantastic show, and I blew through the first season in a couple of days. Of course, Netflix cancelled it after one more season (although at least they got that).

Didn't have that much time to watch older things this year. I did rewatch Altered States, which made a big impression on me when I first saw it as an early teen on HBO. I still really like it. Ken Russell's visuals are trippy. While the underlying science is ridiculous all the characters are so passionate and hysterical that you buy into it.

On the other hand, Damnation Alley didn't hold up so well. Although there's something to be said for how much happened in just 90 minutes. You have an extended pre-WW3 scene in a missile bunker, giant scorpions, killer cockroaches, homicidal gangs, biblical floods, and a time-out in Vegas to pick up women. It looks a lot cheaper than its budget, although reading on Wikipedia I learned the studio funneled money away from this into Star Wars, screwing the filmmakers in post-production. You hate to see people lied to and screwed over ... but I think the studio made the right call on that one :lol: The shoot sounds more interesting than the movie. One story is that star Jan Micheal Vincent caused a lengthy delay when he disappeared for days tripping on peyote.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I saw Damnation Alley in theaters. :lol: And I was young enough to get really freaked out by the cockroach scene. For nostalgia's sake, I got it on BD, but Vudu has it only in SD wut? :lol:

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

The long shots were bad, but the close-ups where they covered the actors with real giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches was freaky.



And it's comforting to know that if the climate is destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, there's a good chance the climate damage will just correct itself in a couple of years and everything goes back to normal (at least if you live in Albany) -ohbfrank-

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I hope everyone had a good challenge! I'm going to give everyone another day or so to wrap up their lists before doing one last post. I'd love to hear if you had any ideas or issues with the checklist, even any suggestions for next year (we had a lot of deaths over the last couple weeks, anyone who might qualify for next year?) Let me know!

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Last post for the year!

We had 27 challengers with only 1 person who didn't have a list this year. We had a total of 1,675 watches, averaging 62 watches per person. Not too shabby!

8 people started the checklist, 4 finishers and 1 blackout! tarfrimmer managed to find a watch for every single check!

Random info: 6 of us watched some sort of Lord of the Rings related show/movie. 3 people watched a version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and 4 people watched a version of The Crow! (Also, two people watched The Last Starfighter, which is an old favorite of mine and while I didn't watch it this year, it was very loosely on my list. I will have to get to it next year...) I also saw quite a few watches of some sort of Star Trek or Star Wars. I didn't count up how many, but it was quite a few!

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Thanks for hosting this. I had a blast.

Re: The 18th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Can't speak for others, but several checklist items pretty much screamed "Watch a LotR" or "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" film. I did my best to avoid those but wound up watching a few anyway just for the list - well... I watched The Hobbit trilogy on BR for the first time (was planned as I've owned a BR copy for 2+ years and have never made time to watch it - I've watched the DVDs a couple of times) which meant I "needed" to watch the LotR trilogy BR again. lol

It was a very fun month and I hated to see it end! Even with the week of mostly playing board games with my son and grandson I watched over 150 movies - a record for me in this challenge. And I used "Traditional/classic" numbering for things (always do as it feels wrong not to).