Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 

Question of the Week: What’s your most iconoclastic pop culture opinion?

We all like to be contrary. Pop culture isn’t monolithic, no matter what some people think, and we all have our own brains, so it’s not surprising we’re occasionally going to be contrary, but let’s face it – it can be fun, too. Nerds in particular are stereotypically bedrocked about their opinions, so if someone comes along and says something contrary to that, they get really, really angry and that can be fun. I mean, this works for sports nerds, too – just say to a basketball person that Michael Jordan wasn’t the greatest player ever and watch the steam come out of his ears! But that’s part of the fun of debate, too, especially when people don’t get so angry – it’s fun to argue about whether Al Williamson or Klaus Janson is a better inker (it’s Williamson, come on!) or whether Mike Schmidt or Brooks Robinson was a better third baseman (Schmidt, hands down). People still get angry, especially when the opinion they hold is the overwhelmingly majority one. I mean, most people do think Jordan is the best, which is why I find it very fun to say that Wilt Chamberlain was better. It just gets them all riled up, even though it doesn’t matter one iota. That’s what pop culture can do to us!!!!

So I’d like to know what you think your absolutely most contrary opinion is. I mean, if you say Janson is a better inker than Williamson, I doubt if anyone will get too worked up about it. It’s fun to debate, but nobody is going to threaten your life over it. Some opinions you have, though, might cause fisticuffs! My personal “most iconoclastic” opinion is, I think, my befuddlement over the love London Calling gets. I’ve written a little bit about this before, but I just don’t get it. It’s not a terrible album by any means, but it’s just a fairly mediocre, overlong pop-punk album with some very good tracks (the title track, “Train in Vain,” “The Guns of Brixton,” a few others) and a lot of filler. Yet whenever someone puts together a “greatest albums ever” list, it’s invariably in the Top Ten or even Top Five, and I shake my head in wonderment. What the hell, people? I mean, just in 1979 ABBA’s Voulez-Vous is a better album, The Wall came out in 1979 as well, and it’s better, and I could make a good case for Supertramp’s Breakfast in America and Styx’s Cornerstone, and that’s without even thinking too hard. So why London Calling? It never ceases to amaze me. Yet the people who like London Calling really like London Calling, so to suggest that it’s not that great sends them into paroxysms of rage. “How can you not feel the overwhelming passion? How can you not feel the anger and sincerity in the lyrics? How can you not understand the social anxiety?” Blah blah blah. I truly believe in my opinion, but if I didn’t, I might have to hold it anyway just to piss people off.

I have a lot of other contrary opinions – Frank Miller’s Daredevil is a bit overrated, the Beatles are a bit overrated, the first Star Trek movie is the best one, South Park sucks – but I think my opinion about London Calling is the most iconoclastic. So let me have yours. We’re all friends here!

You be the judge!

86 Comments

  1. Peter

    I don’t know if this is my most contrarian opinion, but it does come up in conversation pretty frequently: Batman Begins is the best Batman film. It seems like there’s a new Bat-film every year or so and everyone’s always ranking these movies, and critical consensus seems to always favor The Dark Knight and sometimes even the Burton flicks. Yet I maintain that, while those movies have charm and great villains, the essence of Batman is captured much more in Nolan’s first outing.

    Contrarian opinions I hold that very few people care about:
    * Axis: Bold As Love is actually the best Jimi Hendrix album and Electric Ladyland is the worst.
    * Chuck Austen’s art on Miracleman isn’t bad! Not Davis or Totleben level, but capable enough and not worse than some of the stuff that would appear in issues of The Sandman or something.
    * James Harden is better than Dwyane Wade ever was and will end up as the 2nd-greatest shooting guard of all time.
    * Neil Gaiman is not a very good prose writer – he should have stuck with comics, even though at his best in that medium, he still wasn’t as good as Peter Milligan or John Ostrander let alone in the Morrison/Moore echelon.

    1. Peter

      Oh, last one: Burger King has the best fast food french fries. Better than McDonald’s, Wendy’s, etc. I feel like I’m on an island with this but it’s an island I’m happy to live on.

      1. Le Messor

        I agree, but my favourite overall Batman movie is Returns.

        I agree about Gaiman, too. I read Neverwhere, and just couldn’t get into his prose style.

    2. Greg Burgas

      Batman Begins is definitely the best Nolan Batman movie. I haven’t made up my mind if it’s the best overall!

      Austen’s art on Miracleman is terrible. It made me question whether Moore is a good writer, that’s how bad it was!!! šŸ™‚

      I like Gaiman’s prose. Not as much as his comics, but it’s pretty good.

      I don’t eat enough fast food to have strong opinions about fries, but I always like Burger King’s.

    3. jccalhoun

      I agree on Chuck Austen. I read Miracleman before the internet was really popular and didn’t really notice anything terrible about his art.

      I have given up on Gaiman. I was all in on Sandman from the start but lost interest during the Kindly Ones. I read American Gods and didn’t think it was very interesting. His comic book work since has been terrible. 1602, Inhumans, and Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader are all bad. His Doctor Who episodes aren’t good either.

      1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

        Well done on making it to the Kindly Ones!

        I tapped out after the preceding trade, because I genuinely didnā€™t give a fuck about the main plot or the main characters of Sandman, and saw that The Kindly Ones would be like 10 issues exclusively focused on those elements of the story.

    4. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

      ā€¦who thinks Dwayne Wade is the second greatest shooting guard of all time?

      Not to mention that the statistical delta between Wade (whom I loathe) and Harden is based almost entirely on the fact that Harden has spent most of his career playing PG.

      ā€¦or that Wade had more Finals starts pre-LeBron than Harden does in his career.

      1. Peter

        Haha I’m pretty sure most people have Kobe as #2 but still have Wade over Harden. I’m arguing that Harden has already surpassed Wade and will surpass Kobe by the time he retires. Hot take, I know, but I love the Beard.

  2. Edo Bosnar

    I agree with you about London Calling and have always been mystified by its frequent appearance in ‘best ever albums’ lists. It’s not even the best Clash album! (That would be Combat Rock.)

    1. Greg Burgas

      Yeah, it wouldn’t bug me except for the fact that it always shows up high on those lists. I always think, “What the heck am I missing?!?!?!”

  3. Saying The Beatles being overrated isn’t all that rare among people who were born after 1970. They were/are a cultural and musical phenomenon, and you almost Had To Be There. The fact that they’re still talked about (BEATLES #1, the #1 album of the oughts; Get Back) is a testament to their ability to have synthesized what came before them (Little Richard, Buddy Holly especially) was part of their magic. The other factor, especially in America, was that they were initially a flop, which made Beatlemania, when it hit, far more profound. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2009/04/02/1-the-beatles-2-the-beatles/

    It’s rather like Hill Street Blues. It was an extraordinary series in the 1980s. Looking back, it seems stodgy and dated, but it created the framework for what came later.

    1. Greg Burgas

      I know that’s not too controversial an opinion anymore, and I do like the Beatles, I just think they were the beneficiary of being first in a lot of things. That’s great and innovative, but being first at something doesn’t always mean you’re the best! šŸ™‚

      1. I have, no exaggeration, four dozen covers of Beatles songs and even whole albums, maybe more, in genres from country to classical to jazz to punk, even the Grey Album where Danger Mouse mashes up Jay-Z and the Fab Four. Their music (usually) stands up to the variations.
        And their effect on everyone from Billy Joel (Scandanavian Skies) to XTC to ELO to Motown (gazillion covers) is remarkable. Yes, they were the first, but their alchemy and talent made them, rather than contemporaries such as the Dave Clark Five, played over half a century later.

  4. Eric van Schaik

    The start of Alien3 is wrong! No way in hell would they miss an egg after all that happend, and how did the queen have the time to make 1 anyway?

    On other comments:
    I don’t like The Clash.
    The Beatles are way better than The Rolling Stoned.
    All 3 Nowlan Batman movies are better than the Tim Burton films. Begins is the best of the three.
    We don’t have a Wendy’s in Holland but Belgium fries and beers are the best there are. šŸ˜‰

    1. Greg Burgas

      Eric: Sadly, I don’t think your dislike of the beginning of Alien 3 is all that controversial. I tend to agree, but there’s a lot of hand-waving in fiction, so I tend to let it pass a bit.

    2. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

      Iā€™m not huge on either the Beatles or Stonesā€¦but Sticky Fingers is the best album either band released by a fair bit.

        1. mike loughlin

          My favorite albums by either the Beatles or the Stones is the White Album and Abby Road, which I imprinted on at an early age, but Sticky Fingers is excellent. I don’t know if I could place it above Exile on Main Street, though.

    1. Greg Burgas

      Well, you’re wrong, because Sandman is great from start to finish and is almost never pretentious. It’s okay to be wrong – embrace the wrongness! šŸ™‚

        1. Greg Burgas

          I love different reactions to things, because I don’t find it condescending at all. I think both Shakespeare stories are excellent looks at the creative process, where people are at different stages of their careers, and what was going on with Dream in the series. But you see something completely different. That’s fascinating to me.

      1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

        If The Boys were up its own ass about hating superheroes ass much as The Sandman is up its own ass about how precious and smart and clever Neil Gaiman is, I wouldnā€™t have been able to finish it.

  5. I suppose, and YOU pushed me to it, is that if we’re talking about SIXTIES music, I believe it should cover 1960-69, not 1964-69.
    Ditto FIFTIES music, which is Way different before 1955/1956 and after.
    Or we need new terminology.

    1. mike loughlin

      I think of ’60s rock as pre-psychedelic/ post-psychedelic. There’s not a clean break, but Bringing it All Back Home & Highway 61 Revisited/Revolver/Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper is the doorway. After that, we get Hendix, VU, Cream, The Doors, Janis, the (ugh) Dead, new sounds from the British bands, etc.

  6. tomfitz1

    BURGAS: In no way can DOOM PATROL (Morrison and/or tv) could ever be overrated.

    Under-rated, yes, but not overrated.

    I just want the MIRACLMAN series by Gaiman and Buckingham to be over and done with so I can FINALLY cross it off my bucket list. šŸ™‚

    I happen to live in the only city in N.A. that has a cult following after the movie PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. I am ashamed to say to my everlasting regret.

      1. tomfitz1

        BURGAS: Sometimes, I find myself singing the words to some of the songs from the soundtrack.

        You’re right, though, it’s not a great movie, but it was fun – waaaaay back when. lol

  7. humanbelly

    1) I couldn’t get past episode 2 of THE MANDALORIAN, and have no desire to try.

    2) Ringo Starr is honestly not a bad singer at all– he is DEFINITELY not tone-deaf, and can carry a harmony line, and has a sense of (simple) vocal stylizing that folks seem to ignore entirely. He just doesn’t have a very remarkable vocal instrument in itself– he has a “regular” voice with a modest range. Lordy, let me add fuel to the fire by saying he is a MUCH better vocalist (IMO) than Bob Dylan. . . (!!)

    3) Every panel ever drawn by Jack Kirby is not a GOAT masterpiece. I get very, very worn out on him when reading a long stretch of his books.

    3a) Jack’s Inhumans, New Gods/Forever People, and Eternals are all the same thing. And while visually interesting, were all similar in their lack of nuance and depth.

    4) Marlon Brando’s performance in THE GODFATHER shouldn’t have even been nominated. . . let alone won him an Oscar. (I only watched the film for the first time about 5 years ago, and my PROFOUND reaction was. . . “That’s IT???”)

    5) Spider-Man 3 was fine– not great– but still fine. Iron Man 3 was DEF better than Iron Man 2. GotG2 had the worst script I’ve seen in a Marvel film—

    6) Janeway is by FAR the superior commanding officer in the mainstream Star Trek TV offerings. I admire Kirk less & less as I get older. . .

    7) Controversial Point?: Changing the race/ethnicity/gender of mainstream characters and heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from what they were in the source material is PERFECTLY OKAY, and merits support. The spirit of the story far outweighs the details that “Originalism” demands.

    HB

    1. Greg Burgas

      Kirby is also not the greatest writer, so I get your point. I love Kirby, but yeah, you kind of have to read him in small doses or it becomes overwhelming.

      I dig Brando in The Godfather, so pistols at dawn there, I guess! šŸ™‚

      1. humanbelly

        Honestly, I dropped out of a pretty big Bronze Age FB Group (I can’t recall the specific name– edo’s a member too, I believe?) because of so much vitriol being hurled around along those lines. The moderators did their best– but when you discover you’re sharing space with literal neo-nazis, well— it just no longer feels like a safe, neutral space, y’know-?

        HB

        1. Edo Bosnar

          Yeah, I think I am a member of that FB group you’re talking about, but I hardly take notice of what’s going on there. Frankly, I kind of joined a few too many FB communities (not just those dedicated to comics, but also, say, classic SF art, sword & sorcery, planetary romance, pulp fiction, etc.) and usually just skim over the stuff that clogs my feed every day. The only ones I occasionally pay more attention to and where I sometimes participate in discussions are Back Issue and Plaid Stallions.
          To your point, though, I have noticed some pretty ugly or at least questionable comments (in the sense of being crudely sexist, racist, etc. or teetering on the edge of being that) in some of those groups – esp. the ones dedicated to sword & sorcery or pulp fiction.

    2. Edo Bosnar

      Oh, man, leave it to my old BAB buddy HB to suck me into this conversation – despite an unusually (for mid-July) load of work that’s giving me the side-eye:
      Anyway, not only do I totally agree with what you said about Kirby in points 3) and 3a), I’ll add that most of the art Kirby was producing in the 1970s was just … not that good. And yes, both his art and his scripting makes reading more than a few issues of anything he did at the time kind of tiresome. (In fact, I think the first six-issue story arc in Captain Victory is probably the best work he produced in that post-1970 period – it’s a coherent, enjoyable story and even the art is generally a cut above.) I think in his comics work, he always worked best with a collaborator.

      As for point 6), well, I’ve made my love for Voyager clear both here and at other places, so no argument from me about the merits of Capt. Janeway. I’ll just add: Voyager > DS9 – by a lot…

      1. As I’ve mentioned before, my first extensive exposure to Kirby was his Bronze Age work, mostly post Fourth World, and it ranged from readable (The Demon)to forgettable (his Black Panther). Only The Eternals (as I discussed in my review a while back) and Kamandi gave me any reason to think “Kirby is a genius” had any connection with reality. Looked at Captain Victory but it didn’t change my mind.

        1. mike loughlin

          As a fan of a lot of Kirby’s ’70s work, I disagree. OMAC 1 is startlingly effective at laying out an unsettling future world. “The Glory Boat” and “The Pact” are a one-two punch of action followed by a resonant emotional ending. The “Happyland” issue of Forever People is effectively horrific. I really liked his 2001 comic, with loopy sci-fi visuals. Ditto Kamandi. “Street Code,” his brief autobiographical strip, is as lively as anything he did in the super-hero genre.

          That said, not everything from that era is good. I don’t think his Black Panther run was very good, and the latter issues of Mister Miracle lack the verve of his earlier 4th World comics. He also did some issues of 1st Issue Special that were uninspired (“The Green Team” being the worst). Still, the fact that he came up with so many new ideas and series in the latter half of his career has always impressed me.

          1. mike loughlin

            Bill Reed: d’oh! Yeah, I meant Dingbats of Danger Street. The whole “kid gang” genre (which yielded hits in the ’40s for Simon & Kirby) doesn’t do it for me.

            Frasiersherman: sorry, I misread your original post. But I stand by my assessment of 2001 & “Street Code,” they rule.

  8. jccalhoun

    Music: Bands I don’t get: The Clash, The Replacements, Radiohead.

    Film: Christopher Nolan is the most overrated director today. I have seen nearly all his films and every single time I come way saying, “meh. It wasn’t that good.” Then the next one comes out and I swear I won’t see it but it gets so much buzz that I do and I come out saying, “meh. It wasn’t that good.”

    TV: Doctor Who. I have lots of thoughts but the main ones are: Murray Gold’s music is terrible. The Chibnall era has been far from perfect but it isn’t anywhere near as bad as the haters make it out to be.

    Firefly: The most overrated scifi show ever.

  9. Oh, here’s an opinion: Miracleman is pretentious crap. The early issues were Moore screaming “Look at me deconstruct superhero comics!!!” with zero subtlety or depth. The later issues where the mythology was more developed just bore me.
    For that matter Ellis’ Planetary is remarkably overrated and uninteresting. But then, everything I’ve read by Ellis leaves me uninterested.

    1. tomfitz1

      Mostly, I think all comics/tv/films are pretentious crap.

      They are only there, for our amusement. Either we enjoy it, or we don’t.

      There’s no in-between. (GAWD!!! I sound like YODA!!!)

    2. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

      I donā€™t love Miraclemanā€¦but Planetary perfectly marries the premise (Concept Comic about the evolution of popular literature in the 20th century) with strong characters, emotional realism and genuine stakes!

  10. conrad1970

    I donā€™t get the love for Friends or The Big Bang Theory, i really despise both of those shows.
    Oh and Burtonā€™s Batman is far superior to Nolanā€™s. The guy just didnā€™t know when to quit, it just drones on and on.
    The less said about Schumachers Batman the better.

    1. humanbelly

      Oh, BIG agree on FRIENDS-! And I would pair it right up with SEINFELD, for that matter. I do have a really big soft spot for BBT, though. If we want to go back to an actual Bronze Age show— THREE’S COMPANY, despite its immense popularity, struck even young-teenage-HB as being a new low for TV sitcoms. It was like it was written by a hormonally overcharged 12-1/2 year old boy. . . ugh. . .

      HB

        1. Peter

          Ha this is the one take hot enough to rile me… I think Seinfeld live in a theatre is actually really funny but I can see how his filmed standup doesn’t translate into laughs today. I think the show is just so ingenious, though – not that I hate sentimentality, but it was one of the first sitcoms to really commit to the comedy every minute and avoid substituting likeability for humor. I was only a kid when the series was ending, but I still remember thinking it was better than contemporaneous stuff like Wings or Friends because it was all jokes, no filler.

          (I will say – I would probably put Frasier ahead of it on my all-time sitcom list, because Frasier always seemed to have just the right amount of sentimentality to go with its physical comedy, elaborate farce plots, and highfalutin wordplay)

          1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

            Iā€™d definitely say that a huge part of the affection for Seinfeld is based on its first mover advantage as a laugh-a-minute, ā€œno hugging, no learningā€ showā€¦but some of those episodes are just insanely brilliant.

      1. mike loughlin

        Agreed! I caught 3ā€™s Company in reruns and was mystified as to how it was a hit. I get that some of the appeal was the ladies, but lots of shows starred attractive people. Blanking on the lead actorā€™s name, he was really selling the physical comedy, good for him. I just didnā€™t find it funny.

      2. Edo Bosnar

        HB for the win again – yes, I never, ever liked Three’s Company, and never understood why it was so popular back then, and still fondly remembered by many now as a ‘classic sitcom’.
        Connected to that, I never understood why John Ritter was considered such a great comedic/slapstick actor. I never found him particularly funny. In fact, the best roles I’ve seen him play are bad guys – like a made-for-TV movie I watched years ago (can’t remember what it’s called) in which he plays a respected small-town doctor who’s actually a murderer and who’s gaslighting his wife. He nailed that one.

    2. At least Nolan understood how Batman should move. Burton’s Batman in the first move is ludicrously stiff when he’s in action.
      The second movie was Burton throwing Burton-stuff at the wall and not caring whether it stuck. It was unadulterated crap except for Pfeiffer’s Catwoman. Not that I have strong opinions about it or anything.

  11. Denny O’Neil is not very good. He struck gold with Batman (though a lot of that is Neal Adams) but most of his work just falls flat. He might have done better if he’d begun a couple of decades later when Vertigo offered an alternative to regular superhero stuff.

  12. John King

    In video games I have never liked the Grand Theft Auto series – though I admit I did not properly try the early 2D games so my negativity is more for the 3D games.
    I tried a couple, couldn’t get into them, did not like the driving or shooting in them. I did like the soundtrack but I don’t play games to listen to the soundtrack. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been into gangster movies.
    Though, I didn’t like Red Dead Redemption either

  13. mike loughlin

    London Calling is an all-timer. Great songs, great energy, even the filler keeps my attention until ā€œLovers Rock.ā€ For a double-album, thatā€™s unprecedented.

    But I get that itā€™s not everybodyā€™s thing. I donā€™t get mad about taste opinions too often, because whatā€™s the point? Iā€™m above such things.

    So hereā€™s my iconoclastic opinion, just for Greg:

    ā€œRUDY CANā€™T FAILā€ ALONE IS 20 TIMES BETTER THAN ABBAā€™S ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY COMBINED YOU PHILISTINE!!!!!

    *Ahem*

    (Actually, I like ABBA fine. ā€œGimme Gimme Gimmeā€ and ā€œSOSā€ are my favorite of their songs.)

    Ok, my real ā€œhot takes:ā€

    – I love the Beatles, but ā€œYesterdayā€ is a lame, boring song.

    – Pink Floyd was a groundbreaking band important to a lot of peopleā€¦ but I find most of their music boring and often pretentious.

    – Nearly all ā€˜70s & ā€˜80s arena rock and prof rock was made by very talented musicians, and nearly all of it sucks. Boston, Bad Company, BTO, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Yes, Styxā€¦ nope.

    – Also Billy Joel: ever notice how many of his big hits are him moralizing, saying everyone else is wrong or bad but heā€™s different and good? ā€œPiano Manā€ doesnā€™t fit that mold exactly, but is insufferable, with terrible lyrics and Billy making himself the hero. Blech. ā€œScenes from an Italian Restaurantā€ is alright, though.

    – While he has written some good comics (including ROM, of which Iā€™ve only read a few issues) Bill Mantlo was usually a mediocre writer. Itā€™s tragic what happened to him, so I feel bad writing this.

    – Most Bronze Age comic book writers werenā€™t all that good, frankly. I love a lot of ā€˜70s & ā€˜80s comics, but most of the dialogue and plotting were pretty rough.

    – yeah, Friends is a dumb show.

    1. Greg Burgas

      I read somewhere that Piano Man takes place in a gay bar but the singer doesn’t know it, and it makes the song a billion times better (and I liked it before that, but still). I like Joel, but you’re not entirely wrong with that take.

      1. mike loughlin

        Wow, that does make the STUPID STUPID SONG better.

        You know what song I like better? ā€œMr. Fantasyā€ by Traffic. Amazing guitar work by Dave Mason. Steve Winwoodā€™s vocals & organ ainā€™t shabby either. No oneā€™s the hero either, the drunks pleading or the musician at the bar.

  14. Lee

    I’ve got three (okay, four):

    In the world of music:
    I’ve never really understood what people like about U2. I know they’ve sold tons of albums, and people go on and on about how great they are, but I can’t think of one song of theirs I really like. I just don’t understand the appeal.

    In the world of movies:
    The Princess Bride is not as good as everyone seems to think it is. I mean, it’s certainly not *bad*, and I quote from it a fair amount (I like to say “Have fun storming the castle!” when I say goodbye to someone, for example) but there are parts of the movie that drag on. About half of it is really good, the other half is merely mediocre.

    In the world of comic strips:
    Calvin & Hobbes is totally overrated. Again, I like the strip — I even have the complete collection. It’s good. It’s not the best strip in the history of newspaper strips, though. There are plenty that I like better. I think the Bill Watterson story helps to fuel this impression — not authorizing licensed merchandise, being famously reclusive, and ending the strip before it got stale (which is all super interesting).

    And a bonus, again from the world of music:
    I can’t stand Tom Petty’s voice. It has a nasal-like twang that just grates on my nerves. Everyone else seems to love him, but his stuff just makes my skin crawl.

    1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

      Even as someone who doesnā€™t love U2 (although War, Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby are classics) this seems calibrated to annoy me, haha.

      The Princess Bride is nearly a perfect movie, and the only comic strip Iā€™d rate at the level of Calvin and Hobbes is The Boondocks, which the creator ended early for a TV show which would let him curse.

      Also, Tom Perryā€™s reedy, nasally voice is exactly the reason his Free Fallinā€™ is legendary and John Mayerā€™s sucks.

      Heā€™s a man who has a guitar and a few stories to tell, and he consciously uses the limits of his voice to tell those stories in a more emotionally impactful way, goshdarnit!

  15. Der

    I think Warning is the second best Green Day album(obviously Dookie is their best album) and American Idiot is maybe the third best. Maybe fourth best

    That’s pretty much the extent of my musical opinions, unless you want to hear about Final Fantasy soundtracks(The best song in the entire series is not Battle on the bridge, is Chaos Temple, specially the FFI for PSX version)

    Also: old coloring and old paper is better for old comics than shiny paper and new coloring

    1. Le Messor

      Also: old coloring and old paper is better for old comics than shiny paper and new coloring

      Agreed!

      Also, real controversial opinion:
      I enjoyed comics more under the Code than now. (Maybe not some of the more draconic aspects of the code; no vampires? What?)

    2. Darthratzinger

      Warning is Green DayĀ“s best album but itĀ“s their only album that doesnĀ“t really sound like Green Day which is probably why it flopped.

  16. Jeff Nettleton

    I don’t think Citizen Kane is a terribly great movie. It has some tremendous individual scenes and some pioneering cinematic techniques; but, it doesn’t hold that well together, as a story (especially in the latter stages) and it wears out your interest about 2/3 of the way through.

    Dr Mabuse is a more interesting super-criminal than Prof Moriarty, except in the hands of Kim Newman and he really juts uses him as the boss of Col Moran.

    There is nothing erotic about vampires. They are parasites.

    Quentin Tarantino’s “genius” is nothing that couldn’t be duplicated with IMDB and the F-word used as every 5th word in a sentence. Oh, and more than a little foot fetishism.

    Natural Born Killers isn’t biting satire; it’s just shock value for the sake of attention.

    The Sex Pistols are overrated in the world of Punk music. Actually, that isn’t that iconoclastic.

    I prefer Asia to Yes or King Crimson and liked Genesis better with Phil Collins.

    The world missed the boat on Allanah Myles and Joanna Dean.

    The Knack wasn’t a one-hit wonder. They had at least two hits!

    Dave Edmonds and Elvis Costello sang Nick Lowe’s songs better than he did.

    1. mike loughlin

      “The Sex Pistols are overrated in the world of Punk music. Actually, that isnā€™t that iconoclastic.”

      Yeah, they can’t hold a candle to their contemporaries. Also, I never cared for John Lydon’s posts punk group, Public Image Limited.

      “There is nothing erotic about vampires. They are parasites.”

      I have never understood vampire eroticism. They’re soulless corpses. As you wrote, they’re also human mosquitos. No thanks.

      “Quentin Tarantinoā€™s ā€œgeniusā€ is nothing that couldnā€™t be duplicated with IMDB and the F-word used as every 5th word in a sentence. Oh, and more than a little foot fetishism.”

      Ok, the first sentence could be argued, but the second sentence… Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

  17. Jurassic Park is not a very good movie. It’s got cool dinosaurs and it’s well directed, but it’s full of really unnatural and annoying characters, and features a bizarre clash of tones throughout.

    The Matrix is overrated. So is Black Panther (the movie).

    None of the current Marvel shows has been consistently good (usually failing toward the ending). The Falcon & the Winter Soldier was by far the worst–possibly my least favorite project put out as part of the MCU.

    Mission Impossible III is the *best* movie in its franchise.

    The original “Tron” movie is awesome (in spite of its failings). The sequel is not great but I’d probably trade all future Star Wars projects to get a good Tron III.

  18. All of the live-action Batman movies have been disappointing to one degree or another. They all seem to think that Batman is a ridiculous concept, so they end up either making fun of him, or “justifying” it by saying that Batman is mentally ill. For a Batman movie made by people who actually like Batman, see Mask of the Phantasm.

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