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Post by Mod City on Sept 25, 2018 20:45:44 GMT -5
Not sure if it's a pointless list, but it is interesting. I kind of fell out of Blu-Ray when my machine stopped playing them many years ago, though it still plays DVDs. Upgrading just wasn't a priority at the time and next thing you know, it's completely disconnected from my television, just sitting there. I got a 4K television in February, finally upgrading the 1080p I'd had since 2007. Bigger, brand new, but no HDR. I wasn't really paying attention to that at the time, but for the money, I couldn't pass it up. It has a great interface, looks awesome and it streams extremely well. Very happy with it. But now it would be probably worth it to upgrade my Blu-Ray player. I've streamed from Vudu in the past, and liked the service, but rumor is they compress their stuff quite a bit (I'm no expert). A good Blu-Ray player would help solve that problem, and let me check out stuff that really takes advantage of what my TV can do, even if it doesn't take advantage of HDR. Any recommendations on a player? Couple of other quick hits before I turn this into a novel * Lexi Alexander directed the best Punisher movie there is. That's not really saying that much - the others are not too hot - but she got the closest to making a really good movie out of the character. It's easily the most entertaining entry in the pantheon. That's a tough character to get right. Netflix tried hard with their series, too, and while it's also very good, nobody has quite figured it out yet. Really, they had a hard time of it in the comics, too. * Your entry on Blade made me want to watch the first two movies again. What a crazy kick-off point for the "modern" comic book movie era, predating the first X-Men, if I'm right. I'd love to see him join the MCU. Snipes is 56, but I'll bet he could still pull it off. Heck, have him in a mentor-type role to a successor or something. Would be a great team up with Doctor Strange. Or Ghost Rider. Or, hell, both. * I'm not sure I've ever seen Howard the Duck all the way through. And what I did see was in high school. Everyone gets a kick out of him but it's just not my bag.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Sept 26, 2018 11:29:45 GMT -5
Any recommendations on a player? The only player I've ever used is this guy. It's a solid player, though it's about two years old now and there are little bugs popping out on it. Some of the apps can get a little...weird. Like some will freeze at times, and there are points where YouTube gets jumpy. And if you use the apps before you put a disc in, if you watch a movie the sound will be out of sync. A lot of these problems are solved if you just reboot it though. Also it's fairly important to note that if you get a UHD player and play anything with HDR on a TV that doesn't support it then you need to turn off the HDR colors on your player and opt for the simpler color spectrum. For a while a lot of my 4K discs looked dark and murky on my player (something like Suicide Squad was unwatchable) but I eventually started playing with the settings on it and now all my discs look they they normally would on blu-ray, just with the sharpness 4K gives. Occasionally the lack of HDR can gimp a disc though. My copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has moments at the Quiddich World Cup that feature a lot of spotlight lit faces that just come out completely white, while the new Solo disc doesn't really look that great. I don't know if it's an HDR problem or just a crap transfer (for the record I thought the picture looked bad on both blu-ray and 4K), though the streaming transfer I played at a friends house looked fine. It might be my TV on this one. * Lexi Alexander directed the best Punisher movie there is. That's not really saying that much - the others are not too hot - but she got the closest to making a really good movie out of the character. It's easily the most entertaining entry in the pantheon. That's a tough character to get right. Netflix tried hard with their series, too, and while it's also very good, nobody has quite figured it out yet. Really, they had a hard time of it in the comics, too. I'm a fan of the Thomas Jane one myself, which I thought was a quality revenge thriller, though if one wants the Punisher actually punishing people then War Zone is the way to go because the Punisher action is just...wow...in that. Though I do feel War Zone is a tad bit ostentatious for my liking, I'm not above watching it just to see people explode. The Netflix series is a mixed bag for me. I love Jon Bernthal as Frank and his run on Daredevil was fantastic, but it has a lot of problems I find Netflix shows usually have in that they take too long to tell a singular story for me. While yes they can do character development with doing a full thirteen episodes, but I agree with Marc Bernardin from Fatman Beyond on this one, after a while the grim, singular storyline just wears you down and it doesn't play to television's strengths, which is weekly diversity. These shows can have an overarching story, but it would be more interesting if they were presented like The X-Files, where you have episodes that push it forward with some diversions in between. I mean, Matt Murdock is a lawyer, give him some cases. Jessica Jones is a PI, give her an assignment. While these episodes might be accused of being filler, it's better than being boring filler where an entire episode exists to see Frank Castle have a character moment with somebody but then wander around aimlessly for the rest of it's runtime. And yet, the Marvel show that does this the worst isn't even on Netflix, and I'm going to pick on Freeform's Cloak & Dagger for a second. This show has some virtues, but it's slooooooooooooow as heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllll. I haven't even watched Iron Fist season 2 yet because I want to get through this slog. They spend the first half of the season...not doing anything. I keep thinking to myself "This is a superhero show. Do something super! Do something heroic! Hell, just DO SOMETHING!" Though in fairness I did finally get to episode 7, which is a fantastic episode where Cloak and Dagger finally do some cloak and daggering, so maybe it gets better after this point. * Your entry on Blade made me want to watch the first two movies again. What a crazy kick-off point for the "modern" comic book movie era, predating the first X-Men, if I'm right. I'd love to see him join the MCU. Snipes is 56, but I'll bet he could still pull it off. Heck, have him in a mentor-type role to a successor or something. Would be a great team up with Doctor Strange. Or Ghost Rider. Or, hell, both. Snipes has been saying for the last few years that he's discussing with Marvel about possible Blade projects, one of which is apparently him as Blade mentoring a young Daywalker. I don't know if Marvel is interested in adopting the Blade films into cannon, but they might be working on doing an MCU Blade. * I'm not sure I've ever seen Howard the Duck all the way through. And what I did see was in high school. Everyone gets a kick out of him but it's just not my bag. Howard is an acquired taste. You have to love a certain flavor of bad movie to embrace that one. And even still, a lot of comic Howard fans disown the film, though that's fine. I'll just adopt it.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Sept 27, 2018 0:54:40 GMT -5
I skimmed my new 4K discs, which I hope to be able to watch more thoroughly in the upcoming months, and what can I say? I'm no professional when it comes to picture quality but I thought they looked great. I know the first two X-Men where shot and finished on film, which makes them true 4K, so they'll be the ones most look forward to on the box set. I will say I found them a tad fuzzier than the also-shot-on-film Spider-Man trilogy that received the 4K treatment last year, but it's really a small complaint over some handsome movies. The Last Stand also looks pretty good, true to its 2K master.
I don't know much about how the Punisher films were filmed, though they're both fairly grainy so I'm inclined to believe they were shot on film as well and are also genuine 4K (I could be wrong). Both blu-rays of these films suffered from being early in that format's run (especially the first one), so I think these new transfers are fairly welcome to my eyes. War Zone has lots of neon colors in it while the first film is fairly muted in color, so I'm going to assume that Lexi Alexander's film gives the HDR a bigger workout. Hell, that might be true out of all five of these discs.
Worth a purchase I'd say. These probably aren't on a par with some of my better 4K Marvel discs like Raimi's Spider-Man films, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians 2, or Infinity War (I'd also say Batman v Superman and the Dark Knight trilogy probably blow them out of the water), but they're worth a spin.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Sept 27, 2018 17:05:20 GMT -5
* On the Cap Marvel stuff... it can go to the extreme on the other side too. If you express one small concern, OMG your a hater, get the pitchforks and the torches. And I like the actress, I think she's superb, she a great choice, I never said otherwise. But jiminy, fanboys go to extremes. One side to the other. Can we not meet and discuss in a sober, relaxed middle ground? Anyway, trailer looks great. Luv the Easter eggs. Looking forward to it.
* On BD players. Mine was getting touchy as well and of course, the company was no longer offering upgrades. (Cute - What a way to force me to buy a new one.) So I bought an all region DVD and BD player online. Mostly because I was getting tired of waiting for the States to release certain movies (and I mean I waited years, decades even). So I finally was able to see "Whistle Down the Wind", and own the restored, uncut "Perfect Blue" on BD, as well as several releases from Eureka and BFI (though BFI are getting good about offering all-region BDs of late).
Interesting talk about the 4k discs, BTW.
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Post by Mod City on Sept 27, 2018 17:57:23 GMT -5
If you express one small concern, OMG your a hater, get the pitchforks and the torches. And I like the actress, I think she's superb, she a great choice, I never said otherwise. But jiminy, fanboys go to extremes. One side to the other. Can we not meet and discuss in a sober, relaxed middle ground? Anyway, trailer looks great. Luv the Easter eggs. Looking forward to it. This is great point - there doesn't seem to be a neutral middle ground when offering honest, thoughtful criticism. That truly does suffer in the age of people being in a constant defensive posture and all non-agreement is a flat-out attack. But there is a contingent (not the majority, but loud enough so as to appear to be) spouting clearly sexist nonsense, and I don't think there has to be any middle ground treatment when it comes to arguing against that. To be fair, that's existed in the comic book world long before the movies/casting/directors became a thing. Look at Batman as an example. I like the character, respect the character, recognize him as one of the greatest comic characters of all time. But I'm not a huge fan, or anything. Get in a conversation with certain Batman fans and you'd better duck if you don't agree he is God incarnate. (Swap in basically any character for Batman and you can still find fans like that). The age of social media and hypersensitivity have just made everything worse in that sense. Jumping back a bit, the Dark Phoenix trailer came out yesterday. I've liked of the X movies, though I'm partial to the first two and the original cast. The new actors are great, as well, but I miss that continuity and I like how well the MCU has done that, comparatively. I can only think of two major recasts in the MCU - Hulk and War Machine, and they were both changed right after their first appearance. Out of 20 or something movies that's not too bad. The trailer looks good, if a bit of a slow burn, but I think what does it, again, is the music. They're using a cover of "The End" by The Doors, the original of which had a stark role in Apocalypse Now, a reaaallllly dark movie. It definitely inspires a feeling of dread. When I first heard it in the trailer, my thought was not about its relation to the plot of Dark Phoenix, but the looming MCU takeover of Fox properties. It feels like an emotional selection straight from 20th Century Fox.
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Post by GarrettCRW on Oct 2, 2018 1:56:18 GMT -5
Here is an example of what I was originally talking about. I can hear a shared sensibility, at least, between Aliens and TWOK on these two clips, even though they're clearly not exactly the same. The scene where Ripley runs over the alien has music similar to the scene where Khan's ship appears suddenly on the Enterprise view screen and opens fire. It's brief, but it's there. Man, do love these two movies. I never picked up on the Predator/BTTF connection. Will have to listen for that. While there are certainly similarities, I'm a bit inclined to chalk it up to Horner's musical style because his TWOK and TSFS scores feature Craig Huxley's blaster beams (literally the only carryover from the first film score-wise, because Horner was somewhat discouraged from referring to the first movie). With that said, the Aliens clip there sounds more like the music for the Klingons in Star Trek III (a score which has a lot less of Huxley's blaster beams than Star Trek II).
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Oct 5, 2018 19:01:26 GMT -5
Took some time out of my schedule to see a little flick called Venom today. I had heard that it was a bit... Well...as a big Spidey fan...a big Venom fan as well...um...I...liked...most of it? It's hard to describe how I feel about this movie, though it was even harder for me to describe how I felt about that odd as hell Predator movie a few weeks ago, so I'll give it a shot. I thought the first half of the movie was a lot of fun, with Eddie Brock investigating the Life Foundation and his struggles with the symbiosis. Hardy's clueless but craving performance here is a lot of fun, as it's silly though it doesn't betray the event that's taking place with its humor. The movie actually begins to go a little bit in the wrong the minute Venom starts to become unleashed, as the action is not very well shot and it often just features blurry images of CGI blobs clawing at other blurry images of CGI blobs. Plot holes and inconsistencies start to come into play, as the film tries to give the symbiotes a motivation which seems undercooked and undeveloped. The Venom symbiote's own agenda itself is conflicting with the other symbiotes, though it's never clear exactly why. While I like Hardy's performance, I'm not too keen on the script's portrayal of Brock. I've always considered Brock a dirtbag who saw his use of the symbiote as a chance for redemption or a meaning to his own life, though here he is just a guy who made a bad choice for the right reason and had to live with his decision and the symbiote is just something he puts up with. That's not really the Eddie Brock I know. I'm a little hesitant about Venom's portrayal as well, as he's portrayed a bit too heroic here for my liking and the monster is held a bit too much at bay. I don't really care much for the "voice in the head" portrayal of the symbiote, since another impression of Venom I've always had was that Brock and the symbiote thought in unison whereas here they're clearly separate entities that are putting up with each other. Venom's actually just kind of a pet in this movie. It might be worth seeing if you thought the trailers looked fun. If your a critical thinker you're likely going to dislike this movie, but it's just more or less a popcorn-munching effects ride with some laughs and action. I'd see a sequel, though I'd prefer a more even effort.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Oct 7, 2018 19:10:02 GMT -5
Well, by no demand I'm doing a DC 4K list. Like I said, Warner owns most of these titles except for Batman 66 and the Swamp Thing films, but let's see where I think these might stand.
The films currently on/upcoming on 4K: Superman Batman Begins The Dark Knight Watchmen (Ultimate Cut) The Dark Knight Rises Man of Steel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition) Suicide Squad The Lego Batman Movie Wonder Woman Justice League *Red and Red 2 are on 4K, but its debatable as to whether or not they're "DC" movies, despite the logo in the opening*
Superman and the Mole Men - This is actually going to be a part of the Superman 4K set that comes out next month, but I think it's only on the blu-ray disc. I wouldn't count on a 4K restoration for it, because it's mostly a forgotten curiosity that WB pairs up with the other Superman films.
Batman (1966) - Fox owns this title, soon to be owned by Disney (lol, Disney owns a Batman title!). Fox does some decent work with their catalog titles in the format, but they're mostly genre fare that are far more recent than this. I don't think doing a 4K version of this film is quite on their mind, but I wouldn't put it past them to exploit their one DC asset. Though Disney is more gunshy about catalog titles on home media, so even if it's a Batman feature I'm not sure they'd be interested. Too bad. Those bright colors would look interesting in HDR.
Superman II through IV - Disc based home media releases for these have usually started out in box sets with the original film. With the blu-ray format they tested the waters with early editions of the original's extended cut and the Richard Donner cut of II before knocking out a grand slam with their excellent Superman Anthology set. If the first film proves to be successful then we might see a box set sometime next year, with individual releases at some point after that. Sucks for the people who bought the original movie separately though.
Swamp Thing - MGM owns this one. I don't think they've entered the catalog 4K game. Even when they do, I doubt Swamp Thing is on their radar. After all, the film only got a blu-ray release when Shout Factory licensed it from them. So unless Shout goes 4K, I wouldn't expect this title.
Supergirl - The Girl of Steel has been passed around like a cheap whore when it comes to distribution. The Salkinds originally produced the film anticipating Warner would release the film like the Superman films, but the studio passed and TriStar picked it up and had the thing cut to shreds. Somewhere down the line Warner reacquired it and restored a fuller international cut for a more presentable version. But long story short I wouldn't anticipate a 4K of the film (unless somebody gets the bright idea to group it with the Superman films) because the film only hit blu-ray thanks to Warner's disc on demand division. If Warner Archive goes 4K then maybe it has better chances.
The Return of Swamp Thing - I'm not 100% sure who owns this, though it probably says something on one of my discs. Warner licensed the film for DVD while MCI Visual licensed the film for blu-ray. Like the original film a 4K disc is unlikely, unless the licensee is in the game of 4K releases.
The Burton/Schumacher Batman Movies - Warner loves Batman, so I imagine there is probably something in the works for these, or at the very least the original. It's worth pointing out that next year is the 30th anniversary of the first film's release, so I'd bet that they're working hard on a disc as we speak (much like Superman's 4K was timed for that film's 40th anniversary). Oh yes, Batman is coming.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - It took a long time for Warner to even consider this for blu-ray, initially released via Warner Archive but will be released wide through the Complete Animated Series set later this month. I don't think Warner would see much 4K potential in this title, but then again they didn't see much blu-ray potential in it either. The fans proved them wrong on that one.
Steel - Warner likes to hide this title. It was only released on DVD through a burned disc via Warner Archive, and it never reached blu-ray at all. I'd say don't bet on it.
Catwoman - Lol. Probably not. Movies worse than it have been released on the format, buuuuuuuut...I don't think very many people would buy this one.
Constantine - Warner seems to be fond of Constantine as a character, pushing his own failed TV series, an animated web show, and currently having him join the cast of Legends of Tomorrow. This seems like it's a dependable go-to catalog title for them that reliably sells, and it's a handsome movie. I'd lean toward yes on this one.
V for Vendetta - Another cult title that seems to be a solid seller for them. It's probably just as likely as Constantine.
Superman Returns - A lot of people seem unhappy with the blu-ray of this one (I barely recall anything wrong with it really, but I'm not an expert), so a 4K would probably be welcome. That said, the saturated picture of the film probably wouldn't work well for HDR. However if the other Superman films get a box set then this will likely be packaged with them. It also could be the on title in that potential collection that's most likely to see a single disc release.
Jonah Hex - See Catwoman.
The Losers - I doubt there's much demand for this one, which is unfortunate because I enjoyed it. Maybe if that Losers franchise sparked off Warner might be more into it.
Green Lantern - On first glance this might be a Catwoman situation of Warner sweeping a title under the rug. However the one advantage Green Lantern has is that Warner hasn't given up on franchising Green Lantern. If they can set in stone a production team soon we may very well see a reboot in a few years, and the original Green Lantern could see release as a tie-in cash grab. But it's still a game of roulette.
Teen Titans GO! to the Movies - This was originally rumored for 4K but it looks like they decided to go blu-ray and DVD only. It's a very basically animated movie, so I'm not too surprised. However Warner has been doing their direct to video animated fare on 4K for about a year now, making this films exclusion quite odd since it played in theaters. It's probably not a big loss that it's limited to blu-ray, but it's still annoying.
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And there you have it. Maybe I could do more, like non-Marvel or DC titles, but that would take a more calculated effort on my part. Not sure I have the energy at this time.
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Post by Triple_sSs on Oct 8, 2018 22:36:22 GMT -5
Recently saw Venom for myself. Overall I though it was pretty "eh". It's a total mess, but Tom Hardy's performance makes it worth watching. I also think there's enough unintentionally funny moments that would make it a great candidate for a RiffTrax riff.
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Post by Mod City on Oct 10, 2018 9:38:50 GMT -5
It sounds like James Gunn will end up landing on his feet. www.newsweek.com/james-gunn-suicide-squad-2-director-writer-1160584I guess this shouldn't be that big a surprise. I know he had tweeted in the past that he was looking forward to Suicide Squad before the movie came out. Also sounds like it may be more of a reboot than a sequel, but who knows. It's obviously early in the process, and it may fall through, but Marvel/Disney made an dumb move and DC swooped in immediately. If it works out, it could pay off big.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Oct 10, 2018 21:59:16 GMT -5
My honest reaction to this was that this is either the smartest decision Warner has made or the dumbest non-Twitter decision James Gunn has made.
I mean that first Suicide Squad is so obviously a reaction to Guardians of the Galaxy, a set a misfit, loser underdogs winning the day and quipping away against the backdrop of a kickass soundtrack. Bringing in the guy who actually made Guardians to make it not suck weeks like a good decision. Gunn on the other hand is brought on board to fix a knock off of a movie he made. I'm sure he has his own take, but much like David Fincher directing a sequel to World War Z I'm a little perplexed by what is attracting him to the project.
But I really want DC's universe to work, so by all means bring in that talent. I'm really curious about that Birds of Prey movie they're making, personally.
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Post by Torgo on Nov 1, 2018 10:34:28 GMT -5
The answer is yes: The blu-rays of Batman: The Animated Series are worth every penny. I haven't watched a lot, just the feature documentary and my favorite episode (Almost Got 'Em), but this show looks stunning in the format.
I'm a tad disappointed the set comes with Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero but not Mystery of the Batwoman. But then I remembered that was made several years after the show ceased production and had a largely different production team.
Now I want Superman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond on blu-ray as well. There is probably zero demand for them, but damnit I'd buy the poopie out them. Maybe once I'm done with these I'll look up those Justice League blu-rays.
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Post by Torgo on Nov 9, 2018 3:55:21 GMT -5
I never posted anything on the new Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K release. Looks good, though it's not exactly a handsome movie to be servaced by a gorgeous home format. Movie is still low key fluff that only moderately amuses, but fans will want to pick the disc up. Special features are fair and brief, like all Disney releases.
The 1978 Superman movie hit 4K a few days ago and I was far more interested in that. It seems very faithful to the source master, as it features some of it's time grain and some shots feel more consistent than others. Certain moments are crystal clear, while others feel a bit hazy (but the film really has always looked like this). My opinion on it hasn't changed. It's fabulous for two acts but it doesn't stick the landing in its climax. It also occurred to me how different superhero cinema is nowadays. I've babysat children who get frustrated when Spider-Man isn't in the opening scene of his own movies, yet in Superman we don't get to see the Man of Steel do any heroics for an hour and ten minutes. But when it happens, it's wonderful. "You've got me?! But who's got you?!"
It also occurred to me that this was possibly the first time I've watched this movie since Margot Kidder passed away. Hard to believe both Lois and Clark are now gone.
And I'm done watching random episodes of my Batman TAS blu-ray set. I've now started watching it from beginning to end. All I can say right now is...
"You killed Captain Clown? YOU KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN!!!"
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Post by Torgo on Nov 20, 2018 22:50:46 GMT -5
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Post by Mod City on Nov 26, 2018 22:01:10 GMT -5
Say what you will about Kevin Smith, but it sure doesn't sound like BS when he talks about his love for comics and his appreciation for creators like Stan Lee. That was a cool, moving remembrance. Hard to watch that and not get a little red-eyed. And while I know it's a long shot, I wouldn't feel bad at all about Smith taking over Guardians of the Galaxy. I haven't seen some of his recent work, but I thought Dogma was a damn good flick that showed some decent action chops (even though it's a dark comedy, not at all an action movie). His humor isn't exactly like Gunn's, but it can go places it probably shouldn't - and can still come up with great results - just like Gunn. Plus, he's a huge fan of the franchise. Of course, Disney probably wouldn't hire Smith because of Dogma, anyway, so it's moot. Also, watched the new Aquaman trailer. It looks...not bad? The trailers continue to look good, so I guess fingers crossed. I will say this, though. That last shot of him in front of the waterfall striking a pose with the trident is pretty damn epic.
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