Mental_Giant

I've read enough analysis by haters to know the plot holes, but the narrative arc of the movie carries it for me. Whether D9 is "smart" or not is irrelevant. I buy Wilkes' transformation (regardless of the actual mechanism), and that's what's important.

The technology in the movie was definitely a mash-up, but what bothered me more than the hyper-modern weapons in a WWI setting (I mean, the Mech obviously had a computerized HUD even though it was supposed to be more diesel/rocketpunk) was the COPIER in the orderly/pimp's office.

Bah, I just goggled Xerox and it looks like they put a Xerox_914 in that office. Since it came out in 1959, I guess it's not that far off.

Still, the copier bothered me more than the ultra-tech guns and mech controls. I was expecting Sweet Pea to be covered with purple ink from a mimeograph machine.

Exactly... Brazil? When I think big guys with light shooting out of them before exploding, I think Voltron, as in, that's how almost every Ro-beast died. When did Voltron come out? 1984. Brazil. 1985.

Game, Set, and Match.

Also: people who didn't like District 9 can't be reasoned with.

Word.

So does this mean you'll take Tex's handle?

Everybody who was on the planet when it got zapped died, but there were survivors. What's your requirement here? Extinction or planetary destruction? Both? I'm sure there are a few global plague/zombie apocalypse movies that wipe out the populations with (relatively) little property damage. In Beneath The Planet of the Apes I believe all life on Earth was extinguished.

Also:

Titan A.E.
When Worlds Collide
Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Oh... spoilers, I guess?

I'm sure there are others, but generally global disaster movies leave the planet standing, so to speak.

Have you looked at the neighborhood names in Brickstown? Hell, it even has a Ziggurat! Jack liked all the ancient Western mythologies, not just Greek.

The river Temarc in winter.

The Passage seemed fine to me; it's a big book that covers a lot of ground, but I didn't feel that it dragged, really.

I can see someone enjoying the WoT "as is" if they loved the world enough. For me, when we had Mat Cuathon disappearing for more than a whole book, I thought the story was just unbalanced, and focusing on minutia I didn't care about and that didn't seem relevant to the story.

There is certainly room to trim the fat in the latest book, but he doesn't even approach the Jordanian rule of 99% fat, 1% plot advancement that we saw in the later, pre-Sanderson Wheel of Time books.

Reading The Gathering Storm and The Towers of Midnight is reminding me of why I loved the WoT series in the first place. Sanderson has a laser-like focus on getting to the Last Battle and winding down side-plots. True, sometimes it feels like things are forced, but I let it slide because I want the story to get back on track.

Another reason GRRM rules... no one is safe!

Except Dolorous Edd; he will be the sole survivor and will take the Iron Throne... only to die of infection a week later because of scratches caused by the throne.

Oh, I give props when they're due. Tolkien is the greatest world-builder in fantasy, and I loved The Hobbit & LOTR (never did read The Silmarillion or the other ancillary books), but he had problems with his characters. Martin's an adequate world-builder, but he has so many characters that I love and feel like I actually know, and there's a moral complexity that usually isn't done well, if it's present at all.