Big Little Reveal Themes

... help brainstorming! I'm hoping to reveal more power aspects for Taylor ... after that, one of the big problems I have with the ... it's helpful to brainstorm using themes. Like Brian got the hand ... shadow bugs" because that's a little too bare bones! You could ... moving through needs to be big and dark enough for her ...

... help brainstorming! I'm hoping to reveal more power aspects for Taylor ... after that, one of the big problems I have with the ... it's helpful to brainstorm using themes. Like Brian got the hand ... shadow bugs" because that's a little too bare bones! You could ... moving through needs to be big and dark enough for her ...

...5) Jinkx Monsoon’s portrayal of Little Edie in Snatch Game (Season ...pick and assign the runway themes, but forgets to choose first,...) Asia O'Hara's failed butterfly reveal (Season 10) Kameron Michaels becomes ...(Season 10) Eureka's finale "The Big Girl.... WINS" reveal, only to end up losing (... use scissors as a reveal during a lip sync, leading ...  Juicy Love Dion’s handstand into reveal in the lip sync to ...

... than just the usual characters, themes, overarching visuals angle. I've had... show more grain, and shadows reveal it especially strongly. Dark areas... notice it as much. A big dark patch occupies more screen ..., underexposed areas are noisy. A big shadow in an older film ... conditions — especially when it is big enough for the viewer’s eye ... is not frictionless. It has little seams and tremors. And those ...

... “Disneyland has always had a big river and a Mississippi sternwheeler. ... had a price tag a little more than equal to the ... and bamboo walls of Adventureland reveal in the shadow of its ... classic attraction that would incorporate themes and characters from the 2003 ... and new or updated musical themes throughout; a reedy, somber wind ... adventure. The flavors of the Big Easy await; bone-in ribeye steak, ...

...the more… "Adventurer" and "Knightly" themes of the restaurant- is knightly...saying that, Nox has a big evil grin, she turns to...relax a bit, today's a big day I planned, and I ... each other at this reveal, the younger responded "I'm pretty ... Think about it for a little bit more. You don't need ...crafted a little something… Here is my proposition!" She kneels to one knee and opens the box to reveal… A card...

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in. Rotten Tomatoes: Fresh Critics Consensus: Bountiful in action but threadbare in narrative thrust with its episodic structure, this Star Wars is more of a skirmish that coasts on the charm of its central dynamic duo. Critics Score Number of Reviews Average of Rated Reviews All Critics 63% 216 6.00/10 Top Critics 63% 43 Metacritic: 53 (52 Reviews) Sample Reviews: Peter Travers, The Travers Take 2.5/4 - This one-shot movie of a scrapped Disney TV series slides by on the indisputable sweetness of Baby Yoda and Pedro Pascal as his helmet-head daddy. The rest is faking it. Mark Kermode, Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube) - I didn't mind it. I didn't hate it. I liked bites of it. Natalia Winkelman, New York Times - As its return to the IMAX -- I mean, silver -- screen, the saga could do worse than this movie. With their main guy’s face behind metal, that’s a more than respectable showing. Sara Michelle Fetters, MovieFreak.com 2.5/4 - I do think kids will enjoy themselves, and maybe that’s enough to give this middling adventure a pass. Even so, the Force is not with The Mandalorian and Grogu. In fact, I seriously doubt this is the Star Wars adventure most are looking for. Move along. Adam Graham, Detroit News B- - The movie is, in a sense, a series of strung together action scenes, and while it's not top notch action, it's enough, and the creatures conjure up some of the old "Star Wars" magic. Aparita Bhandari, Globe and Mail - The Mandalorian and Grogu is perfectly suitable as a summer flick to beckon you back to the theatres. But will it make a mark as part of the Star Wars mythology? This may not be quite the way. Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal - When it comes to reinvigorating the “Star Wars” series, this is not the way. Sam Adams, Slate - If The Mandalorian and Grogu isn’t the worst Star Wars movie—and it might be—it’s certainly the least: the least essential, the least engaging, the least necessary. G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle 2/4 - The biggest failure of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is its inability to deepen and advance characters that fans know so well. Nothing new is learned about its two protagonists. Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service 2/4 - Grogu’s cuteness may be a powerful force, but it’s not enough to sustain this big screen leap, especially in a blockbuster this bloated, and frankly, dull. If it feels like a serial, maybe it should have stayed a series. Scott Tobias, The Reveal 2.5/5 - The film is all chorus, no verse, with nothing resembling a theme and only enough character work to bridge action sequences together. David Sims, The Atlantic - It is neither a confusing mess nor so offbeat as to divide the fan base. Instead, it’s content to be a nothing burger, two dutiful hours of laser blasts and flat dialogue that will do just enough to keep toys stacked on shelves. Odie Henderson, Boston Globe 2/4 - While it’s nice to see Sigourney Weaver in a spaceship again, most of these explosion-heavy fights lack dramatic tension or a reason to care. At least Ludwig Göransson’s pulsating score makes them seem more exciting than they actually are. Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald 3.5/5 - The first 90 minutes or so are a lot of fun because they take us exploring in the far-flung fringes of the galaxy but as time goes on, the spectacular becomes routine and it looks very much as if Favreau has begun to confuse movement with action. Soren Andersen, Seattle Times 2/4 - Fan service all the way with this one, though it would have benefited from less slam bang and more humor. However, fans will probably love it. Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com 1.5/4 - There’s no reason for anything in this movie except the wish to make even more money. Wenlei Ma, The Nightly (AU) 3.5/5 - The great thing about this little corner of the Star Wars universe is that while there are bigger stakes in terms of the New Republic versus the Empire, the most important one is personal. John Wenzel, Denver Post 3/4 - It’s glorious high adventure that, like the original Star Wars trilogy, is both accessible and visually daring. Justin Clark, Slant Magazine 2.5/4 - Mandalorian and Grogu is, basically, four Mandalorian episodes wearing an IMAX trench coat. Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times - One of the movie’s strong points, absent its story deficiencies, is that, across its many wordless scenes, it’s at heart a solidly rousing, delightfully icky creature feature, in the vein of a supercharged Ray Harryhausen-meets-Guillermo del Toro joint. Hanna Flint, Time Out - It's not a great look when CG-enhanced puppets are outperforming everyone in the line-up, delivering their lines like they turned up to set with a hangover every day. Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict - There’s no shortage of Star Wars–level wow factor, from the slimy beasts to the outer-space dogfights to Ludwig Göransson’s score. Kristen Lopez, The Film Maven C - The plot is non-existent and it really does feel like a fully CGI movie. But when it's just Mando and Grogu going from A to B it's such a sweet story. Jesse Hassenger, AV Club B - When Favreau banishes traditional actors in order to send little puppet creatures scuttling through the verdant landscape, suddenly his human-light blockbuster looks, if not quite visionary, at least novel. Linda Marric, HeyUGuys 4/5 - It's a scrappy, creature-filled adventure movie about a weary warrior and his tiny adopted son stumbling into danger after danger. It may not reinvent the franchise, but it reminds you why you fell in love with that world in the first place. John Nugent, Empire Magazine 3/5 - The first Star Wars film in nearly a decade doesn’t shake up the formula: instead, it’s a lively if inessential extended episode of the series. But Mando remains cool, and Grogu remains cute. Owen Gleiberman, Variety - By nudging “The Mandalorian” onto the big screen, Disney, the purveyor of the “Star Wars” multiverse, is offering nothing more (or less) than a couple of likable, diverting, semi-forgettable episodes jammed together. Mark Kennedy, Associated Press 2/4 - The runtime saps energy and when it’s all done, the scrolling credits for all those special effects goes on a full five minutes. You used to leave a new “Star Wars” movie on a cloud. Here, that galaxy is far, far away. Brian Truitt, USA Today 3/4 - It’s an enjoyable throwback romp with plenty of action and weird creatures to overcome its weaknesses. Kevin Maher, The Times (UK) 1/5 - Would someone please put Star Wars out of its misery? It’s an ailing pop cultural mutant, unrecognisable from the chirpy fable that George Lucas revealed to the world in 1977. Danny Leigh, Financial Times 3/5 - In wrangling his own inheritance from Lucas and Abrams, Favreau has at least given Generation Alpha back the small joys of a Star Wars movie -- in a world getting no less hard for little things. Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post 3/4 - I don’t see “The Mandalorian and Grogu” as a starting point for a series of films so much as a likable enough one-off with plenty of exciting action set pieces. Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies 2/5 - As the story returns things to status quo, it’s hard to think of what has even changed between the two, what they might have learned about each other, and if the filmmakers will ever be an interest in finding out. Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture - Drab and stone-faced to a fault, The Mandalorian and Grogu struggles to capture the inventive vitality of the better Star Wars movies with action scenes that feel frustratingly pro forma and lifeless performances that seem determined to lull us to sleep. Kate Erbland, IndieWire C+ - Inessential and inoffensive, frequently adorable and fun for the whole family, Jon Favreau’s film feels like three good-enough TV episodes smushed together. Matt Singer, ScreenCrush 6/10 - This is the way to turn a season of TV into a solid but unremarkable feature. Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK) 2/5 - With The Mandalorian and Grogu, Star Wars has lost all sense of wonder. Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK) 2/5 - Everything Disney needed to revive the franchise after its seven-year absence from cinemas is in here. The problem is there is only around 20 minutes of it, and much of the rest is hopeless. William Bibbiani, TheWrap - It’s a deft and enjoyable blockbuster, easily the most purely entertaining 'Star Wars' movie since the 1980s, even though it’s hardly the most meaningful or ambitious. Peter Bradshaw, Guardian 3/5 - The film is watchable and barrels along capably enough, but perhaps there isn’t enough of the humanity, humour and extravagant space melodrama which has made and continues to make Star Wars lovable. Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter - It’s hard to imagine anyone experiencing this as their first Star Wars film and getting hooked for life as those who saw the original trilogy in theaters did. Still, it’s an entertaining, fast-spaced space adventure. Nick Schager, The Daily Beast - A swashbuckling space Western that deftly marries combative spectacle and kid-friendly cuteness. Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence B - There have been some exciting new stories told in this universe since The Rise of Skywalker, but watching this latest installment of Lone Wolf and Cub in space just confirms the degree to which Star Wars feels like it’s spinning its wheels. SYNOPSIS: The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu. CAST: Pedro Pascal / Brendan Wayne / Lateef Crowder as Din Djarin / The Mandalorian Grogu as Himself Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt Jonny Coyne as Lord Janu Martin Scorsese as Hugo Durant Steve Blum as Zeb Orrelios Stephen McKinley Henderson as Gatori Shirley Henderson as The Anzellans Sigourney Weaver as Colonel Ward DIRECTED BY: Jon Favreau SCREENPLAY BY: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor BASED ON CHARACTERS CREATED BY: George Lucas PRODUCED BY: Kathleen Kennedy, Ian Bryce, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Karen Gilchrist, John Bartnicki, Carrie Beck CO-PRODUCERS: Noah Kloor, R.J. Mino, John Hampian DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: David Klein PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Andrew L. Jones, Doug Chiang EDITED BY: Rachel Goodlett Katz, Dylan Firshein COSTUME DESIGNER: Mary Zophres VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR: John Knoll VISUAL EFFECTS ANIMATION BY: Industrial Light & Magic MUSIC BY: Ludwig Göransson CASTING BY: Sarah Halley Finn RUNTIME: 132 Minutes RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2026 submitted by /u/chanma50 to r/boxoffice [link] [comments]

Link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/05/dirty-washing-dethroned-hollywood-golden-couple/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_washing-dethroned-hollywood-golden-couple/ The dirty laundry that dethroned Hollywood’s golden couple By Abigail Buchanan Blake Lively’s legal war with Justin Baldoni was meant to be a victory lap. Instead, the fallout has made her and Ryan Reynolds pariahs No one was expecting Blake Lively to appear on the Met Gala red carpet – in sparkling pastel Versace, no less – just hours after the lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, her co-star on It Ends with Us, was settled out of court. Lively’s appearance may have been intended as a victory lap, but she has little to celebrate. The two-year-long legal battle, in which she accused her co-star of harassment, sexual misconduct and orchestrating a smear campaign against her, has backfired spectacularly. The film, based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, was a great commercial success. It made $351m (£259m) from a budget of $25m. However, that was immediately overshadowed by the nastiness of the dispute between Lively and Baldoni. Baldoni claimed that Lively tried to control the film by rewriting and editing scenes herself. Lively, meanwhile, always maintained that her lawsuit was a necessary stand against “pervasive retaliation I faced, and continue to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others”. Critics, however, have seen it as little more than an act of hubris and legal overreach. As one half of Hollywood’s most bankable couples, Lively clearly assumed that she could use her considerable power and connections, and those of her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to override Baldoni. Now, however, there is a very real possibility that the fallout from years of bitter legal and PR battles could harm not just Lively’s long-term career prospects, but those of Reynolds. Indeed, an executive at Sony, the studio in charge of the film’s release, described Lively as “epic-level stupid” in leaked emails and said: “[She] probably will never work again, or not for a while.” Baldoni denied Lively’s accusations and counter-sued for $400m, leading to a car crash of litigation that revealed unflattering details and cringe-inducing text exchanges between Lively, Reynolds and a cabal of their famous friends (Ben Affleck and Taylor Swift included). This airing of dirty laundry has, according to multiple sources, changed the public’s perception of Lively and Reynolds – not for the better – and even led Hollywood’s power players to question whether the couple is worth working with. Studio sources have suggested that Lively has gained a reputation as a “backseat director”. One film executive told the Daily Mail: “This lawsuit has ruined her in Hollywood… She had a reputation for being difficult, one of those toxic people who always thinks she knows best.” And in the end, it was all for nothing. A judge dismissed Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit last year. In April, a federal judge dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, including the key allegations relating to sexual harassment and defamation. Those remaining were claims of breach of contract and retaliation against Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer. The final, 11th-hour settlement – in which no money is thought to have changed hands – is a conclusion that gives the whole sorry saga the air of a mud-slinging competition. It is notable that, for the Met Gala on Monday night, Lively attended alone. These are the key moments – both damning and just plain embarrassing – that have dethroned one of Hollywood’s foremost couples. Exchanges between Lively and Baldoni offer a peek behind the curtain of the early days of a Hollywood film’s production. The couple appear to be on such a charm offensive with Baldoni that it is almost unbelievable that relations soured so soon after. The messages are cloyingly sweet, and the banter – on both sides – is outright cringeworthy. In one, Lively tells Baldoni: “You’re safe here.” In another, referencing a scene in the film that she has rewritten, Lively says: “If you knew me (in person) longer, you’d have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ballbusting would play. It’s my love language. Spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth.” Reynolds was also involved in the film from the off, messaging Baldoni to say: “I happen to adore you, Justin.” In another telling exchange, Lively compared herself to Daenerys Targaryen, the “Mother of Dragons” character, also known as Khaleesi, in the fantasy series Game of Thrones. “You’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons,” she texted Baldoni. “For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really, we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.” These “dragons” and “gorgeous monsters” are presumably Reynolds, as well as Lively’s most famous friend, Swift, as in the previous exchange, Baldoni says: “I really love what you did [with the script]… (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” with a wink emoji. It is surely no coincidence that since these and so many other strange messages were made public, Lively’s popularity has plummeted. According to Parrot Analytics, which tracks public sentiment on social media, just above 10 per cent of people had a “positive” view of Lively at the end of last year, compared with more than 80 per cent in January 2023. The only person less thrilled than Lively that her personal messages with Swift would be included in the lawsuit must have been Swift herself. They show that Lively appears to have asked Swift to step in as the saga unfolded on multiple occasions. In one, she asks Swift to “tell him you’re excited for the movie”, and praise her rewrites, calling Baldoni a “clown” and Swift “the greatest living storyteller”. In another thread, Lively asks Swift if “everything [is] OK” as she “felt like a bad friend lately”. Swift replies: “I think I’m just exhausted in every avenue of my life, and in recent months had been feeling a little bit of a shift in the way you talk to me”. Swift adds that some of Lively’s recent messages had felt “like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees”, going on to say that it had “just caused a little distance”. The loss of Swift as an ally is a blow to Lively’s star power. It wasn’t only Lively who attempted to bring in the big guns when it came to ensuring that she had creative control over the film. Court documents revealed that the couple had also enlisted the help of Bradley Cooper – who is thanked in the end credits – and Ben Affleck and his ex-wife, Jennifer Lopez. Reynolds messaged Matt Damon and his wife, Luciana, in an apparent group chat, asking them to watch the film. “This is such a zero-pressure ask…” he says, “[but] we’d LOVE to get your well-earned [point of view].” He continued: “This movie has been one of the all-time zingers on and off set.” Lively then jumped in to say: “Blake here. Adding more zeroes to the pressure.” In another message to the couple, Reynolds called Baldoni “a malignantly vein [sic], sociopathic FAUXminist with almost no sense of boundaries or shame. I cannot believe he hasn’t gone to jail or returned to the sun”. The revelations around Lively’s many edits to the film, as well as Reynolds’s willingness to call in A-list reinforcements to push these edits through, have done little to endear the couple to directors. In fact, it has left many “nervous” to work with her, according to gossip reporter, Rob Shuter. A studio source told Shuter: “She’s talented, yes – but she’s earned a reputation for being controlling. Directors are asking themselves: ‘Do I really want that drama?’” Somehow, despite the animosity between the two leads, production rumbled on, and the film was completed. On the press tour in August 2024, Lively was widely criticised for what appeared to be a flippant attitude to its promotion – this was considered inappropriate by many, given that the plot deals with domestic abuse. In a video that seemed to pitch it as a light-hearted romance, she said: “Grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it.” The post-premiere party featured cocktails made with Reynolds’s gin brand, with cutesy names such as “Ryle You Wait” (named after Baldoni’s character – naming a promotional cocktail after a domestic abuser did not go down well with the public). Baldoni, who conducted all his press separately, focused on the film’s more serious themes. This clumsy handling of a sensitive topic shifted the needle in terms of public perceptions of Lively. It isn’t true that all publicity is good publicity – a lesson Lively and Reynolds have learnt the hard way. Edit: Author/journalist’s name is added. submitted by /u/Enough_Gur_8833 to r/ItEndsWithLawsuits [link] [comments]

This is the official Eurovision Live Blog of Vienna 2026, coming to you from right in front of the Wiener Stadthalle stage! We’re sharing what we see as the artists rehearse their performances for the very first time. Got questions about anything? Ask away in the comments section! We’re here all day. We wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else, would you? 🤩 Here’s the rehearsal schedule for Day 1. We start with Moldova, apparently take a brief detour to Palma de Mallorca (???) and after five more countries have rehearsed, we end the day with Finland. Fin. 10:30 🇲🇩 Moldova: Satoshi - Viva, Moldova! 11:10 🇸🇪 Sweden: FELICIA - My System 11:50 🇭🇷 Croatia: LELEK - Andromeda 12:45 🇬🇷 Greece: Akylas - Ferto 13:25 🇵🇹 Portugal: Bandidos do Cante - Rosa 15:00 🇬🇪 Georgia: Bzikebi - On Replay 15:40 🇫🇮 Finland: Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen - Liekinheitin All times are in CEST. Which is appropriate, because if you open your map app in Vienna and zoom out, you realise that you really are right in the heart of Europe, they’re not just saying that because it sounds poetic ❤️🤍❤️ --------------------------------------- 10:15 - We're in Wiener Stadthalle The Live Blog is where Eurovision fans and friends come to get the very first insight into what all 35 performances are going to look like on 12 | 14 | 16 May. Before our photos are published and our preview clips released, this is your place to discover every detail and ponder every prop. Until the visuals arrive, you can rely on our words. And as we’re in Austria, the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe might even be popping up to assist. Who The Hell Is?... First things first. Your gal Heidi, who you’ll remember from doing the Live Blog in previous years, is currently off on a multiple-week jaunt around Europe. But she hopes to be chatting with you again in the future 💬 Instead, you’ve got me, the social media guy. I write the captions across the Eurovision social media platforms all year round. And it’s nice to not be restricted by a shorter character limit here, because I’m sure there’ll be plenty to say. --------------------------------------- 10:30 - Moldova and mash-ups We're waiting for Satoshi to take the stage. He said it would happen and he was right - Moldova is about to be on duty! I was humming Viva, Moldova! earlier this morning and it suddenly drifted into Forogj, Világ by NOX. That’s got some monumental mash-up potential right there - 🇲🇩 2026 vs 🇭🇺 2005 In the grand spirit of the Käärijä x Baby Lasagna interval performance at Basel 2025, drop your dream Eurovision mash-ups in the comments below. --------------------------------------- 11:15 - Saluti. A tutti. The first Live Show of Vienna 2026 on Tuesday 12 May has got its party-starter, its hype guy and its on-your-feet crowdpleaser all in one. This is an ideal Semi-Final opener from Moldova - Viva, Moldova! by Satoshi. If you’ve seen the Selecția Națională performance which won in Moldova, you’ll be well aware of the BIG energy that Satoshi exudes by bouncing enthusiastically around the stage. Well, at the Wiener Stadthalle he’s got even more space to cover, and you can tell he’s absolutely in his element exploring every inch of it. He’s as happy to be in Vienna as we are delighted to have him - and Moldova - right here with us. At the start of the performance we even get to see the Moldovan flag beaming out in big lights from behind the screen. And it’s a beautiful sight! Call us Athena Manoukian in 2020 because we’re currently thinking one thing: CHAINS ON YOU! Satoshi is adorned with rows of chain mail on his shoulders, draped over a blinged-out sports top in royal blue. Royal blue - fitting for our Moldovan king 👑 The choice of accessories has caused what you could call a chain reaction… those chains have extended to his band and his co-performers (oh HEEEEY, Aliona Moon, it’s been a minute!), with every outfit accented with a touch of shiny metal. Not that the heavy material is weighing anyone down… So! Much! Bouncing! If you’ve been getting to know Satoshi since his national final win, then you’ll be familiar with his deep appreciation for Japanese culture. He’s ensured that this is on full display here, with a cute n’ colourful backdrop that viewers will no doubt find adorable. Cos it is adorable. And features even more bouncing. --------------------------------------- 11:40 - First Look photos are on their way We’re officially SEATED. And we hope you are too. Our seat is in the Wiener Stadthalle, facing the stage. To our right is a big production team that are checking every performance closely on their monitors. They’re made up of lovely folk from the Austrian broadcaster ORF, as well as our Eurovision office besties. To our left is the phenomenally talented Eurovision photography team 📸 We’re truly blessed to have Corinne, Sarah-Louise and Alma are back with us once again. They’re gonna be darting around the arena at an impressive speed, taking gorge pics of all 35 First Rehearsals and painstakingly choosing the best shots to upload. The first images will be released tomorrow on the Eurovision Song Contest Instagram and Facebook! Now, Sweden is up next. Time to open our head, our heart... --------------------------------------- 12:00 - MY 💥 MY 💥 MY SYSTEM Guys, we’re shaking. We’re physically shaking. Not because we’re in the presence of icon FELICIA (though that can’t be fully counted out), but because those banging synths near the end of the song (you know the part we mean, we know you know) are making the arena floor actually vibrate. It’s like a potent current of epic electronica is running underneath us. And it’s not an unpleasant feeling, truth be told. FELICIA is dressed in black and sparkling red, the colours of a Black Widow - which is incidentally the name of her debut single, if you’re on the hunt for more FELICIA bops. It ain’t the black and red number you saw at Melodifestivalen, however; her outfit’s had a system upgrade! The performance opens with FELICIA getting the wind-machine treatment, parting a cloud of smoke and revealing the Swedish singer standing on stage. Well, revealing her as much as one can behind that mask. And yes, Tuesday night viewers are going to get to enjoy that thrilling switch-out of masks near the end of the song. Accompanied by GIANT FELICIA climbing out of the screens and into the audience. It's still a total gag, no matter how many times you've seen it. As with the Melodifestivalen-winning performance from March, FELICIA is engulfed in lasers throughout. Lots of 'em. But new for Vienna is some interaction! During the second verse we get to see FIGHTER FELICIA literally battling away lasers with her bare hands, before she tames them into doing her bidding. Before long those lasers are framing her poses so that she can look extra stun for audiences at home. This diva knows her lighting. --------------------------------------- 12:35 - Stationed for the Croatian nation There’s just something about being in the presence of the LELEK ladies singing in unison. It changes you. We may never be the same again 🥵 Not long into their performance of Andromeda, we get a stunning shot that really makes use of the catwalk leading from the Green Room up to the stage (and it’s the first time viewers will get to see the catwalk element properly pop). It serves as a dramatic presentation of the Croatian group, giving their arrival to the Eurovision stage the majesty it deserves. LELEK fans will know from their Dora-winning performance that the band LOVE a robe ensemble. The striking fashion choice returns for Vienna, but this time they’ve woven a deep blood-red colour into their scheme. It’s a chilling visual and therefore a superb stylistic choice for a song teeming with this much drama. The ladies aren’t doing all the legwork, however. The screen behind them plays a big role in the telling of their story. It takes the viewer from a mystical cave to an enchanting forest, closing the performance by pulling us through a wormhole at such high speed, it feels like a time warp we have no choice but to travel through. Can that time warp take us back 30 minutes please?... We wanna watch those three run-throughs again! --------------------------------------- 13:00 - Ferto fun for all coming up Everyone has had a well-deserved break, but we're all back in the arena now. Another rehearsal? Ferto! A new performer to see? Ferto! Akylas from Greece? Su léo ferto!!! He's about to take the stage for the first time 🇬🇷 --------------------------------------- 13:35 - Hey kitty kats 😸 Is this real life? We’ve just been taken right inside a video game. And we’re legit winning 🎮 🕹️ 👾 Akylas is taking the Eurovision Song Contest from Arcade to arcade games! This game creates multiple illusions for the viewer and, in it, Akylas wants to introduce you to some new characters. But we’ll let him tell you more about them on Tuesday 12 May… Our Greek hero Akylas turns into a tiger on that Wiener Stadthalle stage. Not least because he’s dressed stylishly in an orange and black palette. The furry boots are out in force, as is the cutie kitty-kat hat with the lil’ ears. No Eurovision fancy-dress party is ever gonna be without one. And Ferto is certain to be a dance floor staple at those parties for at least another 70 years. Just when the audience thinks they are getting to know Akylas, everything changes. He stops, removes his funky shades, steps out of character and addresses his mother in an emotional display. Mommies everywhere are gonna love this. Daddies, too. --------------------------------------- 14:10 - Time to look at the world through Rosa**-tinted glasses 🌹** Portugal’s staging commences with a continuous shot that pans through the lineup of Bandidos do Cante singing to their audience. It’s like a Wall of Song - if the video game theme from the entry before them had continued into this one, then the Portuguese Wall of Song would be a proper ‘final boss’ moment! Like a lineup of football players singing their national anthem before a trophy-deciding match, you can tell that Bandidos do Cante are just as proud to be showcasing their beloved Cante Alentejano genre as the world watches. In Rosa, they’re not just performing in the genre, they’re telling the listener about it, too. If you watched the boys’ performance from Portugal’s Festival da Canção, then you’ll remember that they are momentarily joined by a sixth member! Their violinist is back and contributing a magical moment to proceedings, enhancing the soothing tone that’s already been set by the band. Bandidos do Cante give the First Half of the First Semi-Final a change of beat, which many viewers will no doubt appreciate. The performance ends with the visuals on the screen behind the band springing into life. This is when Rosa blooms, literally and figuratively speaking. And there’s not a thorn in sight. --------------------------------------- 14:15 - BREAKING! 🚨 No, literally, we're going for a break It's lunchtime. And we're gonna need to be on a high-energy bzzzz for Georgia. Not to mention the fire we'll need for Finland! 🔥 See you shortly xoxo --------------------------------------- 15:15 - Ready for replay Shall we talk about the stage? One thing we mentioned in the LELEK write-up was the catwalk element. It runs all the way from centre-stage to a double set of steps leading right up to the Green Room. It ends up splitting the arena completely into two halves. If you enter one side of the floor, you won't be able to pass into the other. One of our favourite things about the Live Shows in recent years has been the camaraderie we’ve seen going on between the artists in the Green Room. Everyone is rooting for one another! With this set-up, the performers are going to be able to strut down the catwalk, look up and see all of their new besties cheering them on. And that’s such a wholesome thought 🥹 Back to Day 1 rehearsals and Georgia are up next. We're gonna watch their song On Replay. Well, for three run-throughs, anyway. --------------------------------------- 15:50 - Don't. Think. Let. Go! It’s the stuff of dreams. Bzikebi representing Georgia at the grown-up Eurovision Song Contest - and they’re dressed fully in black and yellow 🐝🐝🐝 The talented trio are proud to pay homage to the big buzzzz around their Junior Eurovision beginnings and their outfits are a cute Easter eggs for longtime fans. Their hornet-themed high fashion has understandably had quite the glow-up since that Junior victory back in 2008. We’re at Vienna 2026, but Bzikebi look like they’ve come to us from some decades in the future. Yellow catsuits cinched in with black-striped PVC. It’s giving superhero, which is fitting really, because Bzikebi are our very own connecters of the ESC and JESC multiverse. But wait… there’s more! More Bzikebi, that is. Performing behind the Georgian group is a second iteration of the trophy-winning trio. Meet CYBORG BZIKEBI! They may look intimidating (don’t stare into those eyes for too long), but they’re here to help our Bzikebi babes. These cyborg overlords are surging the popstars with power. And with great power comes great… lasers! The laser show on display here is electrifying. Bzikebi weren’t lying when they said they were gonna “la, la, la light it up”. --------------------------------------- 16:40 - He's ready to sing and she's ready to string 🎤 🎻 Have you been likin' Liekinheitin? Linda Lampenius stands alone on the deserted stage of what was once an orchestra. Now, it’s been littered with the overturned chairs and sheet-music stands of Linda’s former musician colleagues. But what could possibly have happened here? Shall we head to the confessional box to find out? There, we find Pete Parkkonen, and he’s been in touch with the wardrobe department for an outfit upgrade. In the confessional box, Pete has got some things he’d like to get off his chest - and this all-new open top of his is gonna make that an easy-breezy process. It’s not just Pete who’s had an appointment with the Tampere tailors. Linda Lampenius has lightened her colour palette! Her dress, while structurally similar to what you’ll have seen at the Finnish pre-selection UMK, is now a striking silver. It makes her slow descent towards the burning confessional box even more otherworldly to the eye. And it’s difficult to look away - both performers are emanating star power so brightly here. The staging for Liekinheitin has turned the Eurovision Song Contest into an Olympic sport, with silver-clad Linda Lampenius going for gold in the sprinting category. When the camera pans away from her towards the big climax of the song, the audience at the Wiener Stadthalle will be able to watch as our heroic violinist races towards the back of the stage to be reunited with her duet partner. There, she’s lifted up onto the abandoned orchestra seating for a final showdown with Pete. It brings him to his knees and the set goes up in flames, destroying all evidence! --------------------------------------- 16:50 - Now it's your turn! We just had our big finish with the Finnish! Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen were the last act to rehearse for Day 1. Social media guy has some social media stuff to do, but I'm sticking around here for a little while too. Ask me some questions in the comments below and I'll see what I can answer. --------------------------------------- 17:30 - What to look forward to tomorrow What a day. What a tonne of top-tier tunes. What a load of lasers. We'll be back tomorrow morning at 10:00 CEST sharp ⏰ And we've got all this to look forward to: 🇲🇪 Montenegro: Tamara Živković - Nova Zora 🇪🇪 Estonia: Vanilla Ninja - Too Epic To Be True 🇮🇱 Israel: Noam Bettan - Michelle 🇧🇪 Belgium: ESSYLA - Dancing on the Ice 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Lion Ceccah - Sólo Quiero Más 🇸🇲 San Marino: SENHIT - Superstar 🇵🇱 Poland: ALICJA - Pray 🇷🇸 Serbia: LAVINA - Kraj Mene We'll also be posting some First Look Photos from today's rehearsals, so that you can finally get to see a glimpse of how things will look. Oh, and mark your diaries for 10:00 CEST on Monday, too. Not only will we be back with Day 3 of the Megathread, we'll also be revealing some news about the Live Shows on eurovision.com 👀 submitted by /u/eurovision to r/eurovision [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/glitterglazegloo Originally posted to r/AITAH Previous BoRUs: #1 [New Update - 1 Year Later]: AITAH for telling my mom “I’m used to it” after my parents ruined the surprise of my engagement and the wedding dress? Trigger Warnings: entitlement, manipulation, neglect RECAP Original Post: April 26, 2025 I (27F) am getting married in September 2025. I’m in a long distance relationship. My partner lives in England and I’m in the US. We’re lucky enough that I work remote and visit about 3 times a year for six weeks at a time, and he visits me in the US about four times a year for once a week. When he was planning to propose, he had asked my parents blessing in March 2024. My parents had “assumed” that I would know when he was proposing, and my dad had told me in a conversation that following week he was proposing in December 2024. As you could imagine, I was upset. My mother invalidated my feelings and said I was making it a big deal and being stupid for not assuming it was going to be during Christmas because that’s when both of our families were together. My argument is that while I could have had a hunch, I didn’t want to be told when it was, and basically could have gone practically a whole year wondering excitedly when it would be. For all I know, he could’ve proposed before that, and Christmas we would have had an engagement party. Anyway, basically my dad apologized but my mom has stood firm on saying I’m dramatic for being upset. Since then, more things have gone wrong, and has started to leave me just so sad about wedding planning. None of this has been a good experience and I’ve started to feel like it’s a chore. Flash forward to today, my partner is visiting (just for one week.) and we’re all sitting on the couch in the living room. My mom randomly turns to me and goes, “Have you picked up your veil from the bridal store yet?” Right in front of him. And then my partner smiles and goes, oh, you’re wearing a veil? And I just got super frustrated. There are only two surprises in a wedding— the engagement and the dress. And both of them have been handled so carelessly. So I turned to my mom and said, can you please not mention anything about the dress? Not the shoes, nothing. I don’t want him knowing anything. She rolls her eyes, walks around, and about 10 minutes later gives a half-hearted apology just saying, “Sorry, OP.” And I replied, “it’s fine. I’m used to it at this point.” And now she’s gone back and locked herself in the room. So I guess, AITA for being upset? EDIT: I know a lot of people are asking if this is like her— it isn’t. She has already had one of her four daughters get married, I’m the second. She never ruined the engagement or the dress. And she seemed to care a whole lot more about her than she has me during this time. Second EDIT: Nowadays a lot of brides opt to wear veils, tiaras, sometimes hats, or embellishments, or nothing at all. I forgot to mention that my fiancé had told me he didn’t want to know if I was wearing a veil or anything and wanted it all to be a surprise. Since he’s very mild tempered and sweet, he was surprised but was trying to be nice in his reaction because he knew I’d be upset. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Are you the scapegoat of the family? Because her bullshit smells of personality disorder. OOP: Her mom has borderline personality disorder and is a narcissist. My mom exhibits a lot of those qualities too. Commenter 2: If you're going to elope, then know that you have to do the prep work in advance. You can't visit the UK and just get married. OOP: Yes I know! We’ve started looking into the requirements Commenter 3: But...why are you even sharing anything with them when it’s so blatantly obvious that they don't care to keep these secrets? you need to accept that your parents are lousy parents to you. Do not share anything about the wedding with them anymore. They're not invited to the dress fittings, don't know what you'll buy or wear, and they most certainly won't be told any secrets. Does it suck? Oh yeah obviously. But look at what happened? No matter how much you beg and plead you'll always be the one "overreacting" and being the one out of line. If they ask why you're not telling them anything or trusting them with anything you can tell them that they've repeatedly shown you that they do not care about making you happy. So you stopped caring about involving them. They still have two other daughters to show they care. And from their track record it looks like they might actually care more about them than about you. but be prepared to have your sisters get involved or share secrets with your parents (so no involving them either) or try to admonish you for "hurting them" OOP: I’ve definitely decided to not include any family members, because my sisters definitely would tell my mother anything I said.   Update #1: April 27, 2025 (next day) So for context, a lot of things have gone wrong since we have been in talks of getting engaged. Obviously my dad had told me about the engagement, but then other things went wrong like: my partner’s sister causing drama the day before our engagement, the day of our engagement going horribly wrong to the point my partner told me he’d propose again, finding out last month that my partners dad got remarried a year ago in secret (we didn’t even know he was dating anyone) and him asking for a plus one for the wife no one had even heard of (while also telling my partner he’s ridiculous for being upset because it isn’t a big deal), and my best friend bailing on my bachelorette for someone else’s. So it’s safe to say that since December, it’s been stressful. And those are only the bigger issues I mentioned. I know everyone was saying my mom should be on an info diet— she already was by her own choice! She hasn’t asked or been part of anything by her own design and it’s felt like she couldn’t care less about the wedding. The only time she cared was when she found out we were only inviting 40 people and people she wanted there weren’t invited (like her friends, who I barely see or know, and her brother and cousin, who I both haven’t seen since I was 11). That’s when she insisted on paying for them so they could come. And that’s the only time she’s asked about anything having to do with the wedding, or to be honest, anything involving me. She hasn’t checked in to see if me and my partner are okay, given all of the other stuff that has happened, either. So I ended up speaking with my mom a little while after what happened, and I told her that while I know I shouldn’t have said “I’m used to it,” that ultimately I’m upset because it seems nothing has gone right. She seemed apologetic at first and said she didn’t know why she said that and knew that she shouldn’t have. I nodded and said just please don’t say anything else regarding what you know about the dress. (She was there when I got the dress and veil with my sisters) I then told her that I’m just tired of things going wrong, and that my partner and I have felt super unsupported and alone. She responded back starting her sentence with, “OP, only a handful of things have happened. I feel like you’re looking for things to be upset about at this point.” And to be honest, when she said that, I kind of lost it. I basically said that I didn’t go looking for any of this, and all of these things that have happened to my fiancé and I were out of our control. Like, you’re the one who brought up the veil, not me. I didn’t go looking for any of these issues. I definitely didn’t go looking for my partners dad (who has been single for 15 years) to not only lie about dating but secretly go get married and not tell his son for a year. I told her that if there was one problem, then fine, I’d have handled it and moved on, but that the repeated offenses have hurt me and I’ve been trying to get over what’s occurred but something else happens to make the wedding planning even harder. I told her that I’ve felt super alone during a time that’s supposed to be joyful, and that her carelessness and thoughtlessness has been super hurtful, especially when she’s continually invalidated my feelings. She shrugged and said that she’s done nothing and she’s not going to talk to me or ask about me about the other problems going on because I’ve been upset and she doesn’t want to deal with it. lol. After a lot of your comments, I realized that I definitely was attempting to include someone who has shown not only should they not be, but they don’t want to be. My partner leaves back to the UK today, but at this point I’m considering eloping with him (if I can) when I’m visiting him in England in May. We’ve already paid half of what we owe to our venue and photographer, so cancelling isn’t really an option, but maybe we’ll have just the reception instead of the ceremony. Thank you to the commenters who pointed out that if we ever have children, to keep the important moments to ourselves of gender or birth date or names. I think you’re right, and my mom has pretty much ensured she will be on a permanent info diet for as long as she’s in my life, because if not, she’ll more than likely spoil it and then invalidate my feelings. I think ultimately it wasn’t about the veil for me. I know my partner will still be surprised, I’m just sad because he told me he didn’t want an idea of anything and wanted to be completely clueless about what I would be wearing. But ultimately this was about the continued thoughtlessness and invalidation that’s pretty much been the theme for the last four months. If my mom had said she was sorry and left it, it would’ve been fine. But acting like I went looking to be upset when she randomly ruins yet another detail is just wild to me. EDIT: I also forgot to say, yes, I am moving to England! We are hoping to make that jump at the beginning of 2026. Second EDIT: I know a lot of people are saying completely cancel the venue, but we already have friends and family from my fiancés side who have bought their flight tickets to come (at least 10 have already confirmed). I don’t think I have the heart in me to cost people that kind of money when they’ve already invested into this. Third edit lol: I’m not sure if my mom cares that I’m moving. I am in England for six to eight weeks at a time every few months, so she’s already used to me leaving for a significant amount of time. She doesn’t seem sad I’m leaving, and if anything has said she understands why I’m moving. If she is sad, or that’s the real reason behind all of this, I’d actually be super surprised. I won’t rule it out, but my mom isn’t the type to care about that sort of thing. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Have you looked into the visas? I moved to the UK 18 years ago it can be stressful dealing with immigration and expensive OOP: Yes! I’m a little worried but I think we’ll be fine. Original plan was to get married, do long distance a little more, and then for me to apply for residency and move over there. Thankfully he is over the financial threshold for me to move. Commenter 2: Honestly I'm trying to figure out what the big deal is that your fiancé's father got married? How does that affect you? It doesn't. What's the big deal about knowing that you'll be wearing a veil? It's just a piece of fabric and odds are most women wear veils. Sorry but IMO it does seem like you're making a big deal out of stuff you have no control over. You need to just ignore the stuff around you and enjoy your wedding. Although I will say your BF? She's an AH. How could she do that?? I hope you uninvited her from the wedding. OOP: His dad didn’t tell anyone he was married. He randomly told my fiancé last month because he wanted to ask for a plus one, and when my fiancé asked why he needed a plus one, he finally had to fess up he’d married someone and didn’t tell anyone. My fiancé was rightfully hurt by that, he didn’t even know his dad was dating anyone. If your dad, who you were close with, didn’t even mention he remarried someone a year ago, I think you’d be shocked too. It also created tension because my fiancé’s parents don’t speak already, and they are both unpredictable people. His dad also said he would more than likely leave the wedding early and that he refused to meet with the mom beforehand to prevent any issues on the wedding day. Caused a lot of drama and he uninvited his dad from the wedding because of it. The veil was frustrating because it was obviously another thing my parents revealed. My fiancé didn’t want to know a single thing or hint over what I was wearing. And yes, lol. Best friend has been uninvited. OOP on her fiancé helping with the wedding planning and how the stress has been affecting him with his own family issues OOP: My fiancé does what he can to help with wedding planning all the way from England. He’s definitely involved in this, and every time he visits we have ironed out as many details as we can. To clarify, I am not directly involved with his dad, but obviously I love my partner and support him, and it has been a source of stress. You may have missed my other comments, but the problem is my fiancé’s family has a lot of tension. His mom and sister don’t speak to his dad, and haven’t for over 10 years. Already there were concerns about what their behavior would be like at the wedding because the three of them are all very unpredictable people (his sister had caused a bunch of drama the day before our engagement for instance) and it’s totally feasible that they would have drama on our wedding day. My fiancé didn’t even know his dad had been dating anyone. When my fiancé went to go meet him for a coffee catchup, his dad asked for a plus one. My fiancé was confused, because our wedding is small, and we hadn’t accounted for him wanting one. When he asked his dad why, his dad beat around the bush until finally admitting he’d married someone in secret a year ago, and literally no one, I mean NO ONE knew. Not only that, but his dad in the same breath, essentially said that he wasn’t going to meet up with the mom & sister prior to the wedding (which my fiancé requested so the wedding wouldn’t be the initial shock of seeing each other and could avoid problems) and that he’d also probably leave our wedding early. My fiancé was, understandably, shocked. His dad basically said my fiancé was ridiculous for being confused and upset and he should get over it. While it isn’t my dad, my fiancé and I are each other’s support systems, and it’s been distressing information for him to find out. How would you feel if your dad had been married for a year and you didn’t even know he was seeing anyone? Regardless, it DOES affect me, since it’s our wedding. It’s another person who has brought a stressful element into planning, and my fiancé had to make the difficult decision to disinvite him from the wedding to keep peace, since his dad and mom are unpredictable and his dad has already provided a hint and a half he will be difficult and only cares about his own interests. OOP responds to a longer comment regarding her parents spoiling the surprises and the moods for the engagement and wedding planning OOP: My parents are not that old, they’re both in their mid-50s, and both are mentally fine and healthy. They also have had another daughter get married previously to me, so this isn’t their first rodeo. I didn’t go looking to blame my mom for what my dad did. But my mom DID make him think that I knew when the proposal was. When my fiancé asked for their blessing, that night they had been discussing. My dad made a comment that he thought I didn’t know, and my mom said that of course I knew. So my dad thought it was fine to say to me. Not only that, she brought it upon herself from the get-go to say that I was ridiculous for being upset and it’s not a big deal. I never blamed her for what happened, but I do think it’s shitty to take it upon yourself to seek me out to tell me I’m ridiculous for privately being sad. So not only did she not apologize for her assumptions, but went out of her way to tell me I’m ridiculous. I think there’s a lot of assumptions here in your reply. I think my dad was good natured and really felt awful. My mom was indignant that my feelings had no place. I think, when you’re the one who causes the confusion, and you go out of your way to invalidate someone’s feelings, you become part of the problem. Ultimately I’d be happier having a parent who made me feel valued and loved and like my feelings had a place, and get to experience a lovely relationship like the one you’re describing, than my parent who makes me feel ignored, unheard, and ultimately just all around invisible. Just because someone is alive doesn’t mean they are instantly better. I’m sorry and my condolences about your dad.   ----NEW UPDATE---- Update #2: April 24, 2026 (nearly one year later!) UPDATE: AITAH for telling my mom “I’m used to it” after my parents ruined the surprise of my engagement and wedding dress? A few people over the last few months have been asking, so here’s the update! A lot of you will be disappointed to know that we did not end up eloping or cancelling the wedding. It’s easy on the internet to say to cancel, but I couldn’t take the idea of giving up the $13,000 I’d already invested into it lol. While there were definitely some hiccups along the way, my husband and I had decided to not let anyone’s pettiness or juvenile behavior bother us anymore, or dictate our special day. Thankfully, I didn’t deal with much more from my side. While my mom never really apologized, or acknowledged how I felt, I remembered something a therapist had said to me about her a long time ago: Why are you surprised by this? She’s been the exact same person she’s shown you she is. You’re angry because you expected something different, but she’s shown you she’ll never be different. I love my mom, and she’s a great mom, but she also has major flaws and she’s hurt my feelings a lot. Ultimately, in the last year, I’ve grown to accept that she is who she is, and I shouldn’t keep giving her the space to hurt me. As a lot of you suggested, I’ve implemented the grey rock method like crazy. And you know what’s funny? She hardly knows anything about my life anymore, and she doesn’t seem to mind. It’s a win-win. My poor husband did endure a lot of issues as well at the same time, and had one last tiff on his side, which resulted in him not doing a mother/son dance. Weddings can really show you who’s in your corner, and while we definitely learned that, we also found out exactly who our support system is!! The best example being the best man, who made sure everything ran smoothly, double checked we always had full glasses, coordinated with the venue owner so I didn’t have to, and even rented us a fancy car to end the night with! HAPPY THINGS that happened on our wedding day: I had bought a second “reception dress” to change into. I had been feeling so out of control, that I decided to buy a dress second hand, for $400, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I told no one about it, kept it to myself, and had the best time jumping out for a reveal before we started dancing. I love that dress so much! And because I love it so much, I’m actually going to attach a picture so people can see. We got married September 21st, and it ever so lightly rained right before the ceremony, which they say is good luck, so I was very pleased. The venue was stunning, our ceremony was so lovely, and it was so relieving to see that everything we’d gone through to be there in that moment was SO. WORTH. IT. Literally I have no complaints. Every single guest told us it was the best wedding they’d been to (not to toot my own horn). But that day was absolutely perfect. The photographer was great, the food was amazing (I’m Mexican and Colombian, so we catered in food trucks and had mariachis play while we ate), the music was perfect. Everything was so relieving, and exciting, and perfect. And then we jetted off to a quick honeymoon in Cancun, where we got to just lay on a beach and relax and think about nothing! But next year will be our real, big trip together: Bali! For those who will ask, no, I have not moved to England yet. Unfortunately, I’m a business owner, and we learned my taxes will be a doozy. I’m currently looking to slowly transition out and be fully living there in 2027 or 2028. We are still doing long distance until then. I am set to go to England next at the end of April and will be there for two months! pictures from the wedding descriptions of the pictures in chronological order 1) Both groom and bride has their moment for the first dance of their wedding reception. Bride has a short white dress with detailed lace sleeves. The groom is in a white shirt with dark trousers. In the background is the indoor venue for the reception. 2) In the background, there are multiple white chairs set up for the ceremony likely on the patio outside the wedding reception location. Several chandeliers are showed along with a disco ball, creating cute decor. 3) The moment is captured after the vows where the groom is dipping the bride backwards in a classic pose. Bride is wearing a long white grown with a flowing train and detailed lace, She has a white bouquet of flowers. The theme appears to be white colored 4) The picture is in black and white. Groom and bride shares a first kiss at the atlar. The frame is based on the upper bodies and faces, but not the full scene. 5) Bride is seated on a grey couch, displaying her off the shoulder wedding dress. The dress is decorated with lace appliques and beadwork. Bride has her engagement ring showed as her left hand is placed near her knee between the dress' high slit. 6) a close up of the bride's torso and hands featuring the detailed elements of the off the shoulder wedding gown. Sleeves are made of lace, extending to the wrists with pearl accents along the edges End of the descriptions Relevant Comments Commenter 1: The food must've been amazing! That's such a cool idea and must've been so much fun. OOP: It seriously was. I forgot to add we’d catered in a paleta (popsicle) caterer. She had passion fruit, coconut, mango, all these popsicles and toppings. It was so good. I’m pissed I didn’t eat very much that day! The nerves had gotten me haha! Commenter 2: So you're married but still long distance? OOP: Unfortunately, but I am fortunate enough to be able to fly to England often. I’m there about 4-6 months out of the year, and he visits in the gaps! Commenter 3: No one has mentioned the gloves? Girl, not only did you look amazing in both dresses but those gloves 😭 I'm obsessed. Wishing you all the happiness! OOP: Okay RIGHT!? The gloves made that dress. I love them!   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

Teaser Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk3rfUC80DE Keynote Info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aCGzxWczCM Details on the expansion include: (updating as info is dropped) Featuring a frozen realm theme "Just a teaser trailer, a lot left to be understood" "Taking Final Fantasy XIV to The Next Level with... The Godless Realms Saga" The Godless Realms Saga is the name of the next story arc following the conclusion we saw in Endwalker This will be a long keynote, probably the longest done, to share a LOT of new information Japanese title tranlates as "Wanderer or Explorer of the Silver" On track for January 2027 release We will be visiting the Reflection known as The Fourth: "A Reflection Fallen Into Ruin, ravaged by ever-spreading ice" "Who will join you, and who is The Wanderer?" Patch 7.5 will set up the story transition toward Evercold. Info from today will help explain what we've seen in 7.4 already and will see in 7.5 Artwork and screenshots are shown "All The Fourth Is A Stage" is shown as its own separate title card alongside these images More in-depth look at the images, with Yoshi teasing what each part might be. He mentions he cannot share names of any locations just yet. Going through all kinds of art and "speculating" about what each might be and mean. "The Fourth is not a world without danger. This time, that danger is going to be massive." A new creature is shown. Teased about what it is. "Arcane Giants Roaming The Ice" shows alongside an image "There will be many of these roaming. Are they friend or foe? Or are they Gods?" Next up are images of town areas. "Fantastical, representative of the art direction of Evercold." New character is shown that looks like a cat. "Looks like one of the new races we're going to meet on The Fourth." The story from 7.5 will be split into two halves, as usual. That said, by the time Berlin Fan Fest happens, there will be more that can be shared about Evercold. Game Design Updates "An Ever-Evolving FFXIV" A timeline of each expansion (with its year of release) is shown next. With Dawntrail, they are approaching almost 35 million registered accounts(!) In the 13 years since ARR, everyone has changed. Life has changed. While there is something comforting about a product that remains unchanged, without change a lack of progress comes in place. The screen fills full of Tomestones as "Fighting Off Fatigue" displays on screen. Been able to grow to where they are today but keeping familiarity in game systems. But they are going in a different direction now to continue to grow. Consistency beings fatigue so to escape the inevitable, FF14 must change and adapt. So much to cover the changes, they will do so across all three Fan Fests, but today they lay the foundation... Adventurer Activity UI is shown, which looks like a Battle Pass? progression bar at the bottom, and "Season 1" in a corner. Waiting to hear more about this... Switch from a Daily-based system to a Weekly-based system Efficiently obtaining 450 tomes per week means doing dailies repeatedly through the week. The same format for the past 10+ years. Evercold will change it to a weekly system to benefit players to help allocate limited free time. Still in development and UI is extremely likely to change before release. UI is shown that has a list of Standard Missions that can be completed, with a checklist. Some have 0/1 and some have 0/5. Each has a different point value assigned to it. These contribute to your Activity Level. As this rises, you gain Rewards. Considering adding a feature to earn unearned points from previous week if you finish your current week New ways to raise item level being explained next... Up until now, only two ways to raise iLvl: gear from Savage Raids or Tomestone exchange. This locks players into certain content while locking players in/out of content in between patches and creating a gap. Evercold will bring changes to this. More details to come at Tokyo Fan Fest "Now introducing Seasons!" Koji acts skeptical of this. "Seasons?! As in F2P? Extra Pass? Extra cost?" Yoshi: "No. Absolutely not." Season is basically the same as "Patch" (if I follow correctly) "1 Season = 2 Patches (Even + Odd)." 1 Season would be 7.0/7.1, then 7.2/7.3 would be another. 8.0/8.1 will be Season 1 for Evercold The team will also try to reduce the amount of time between patches as well. Character-focused design changes up next. Armory System Update is first up to discuss. Gone untouched for past 13 years. iLvl has been specific to each job thus far. In 8.0, jobs will still need to be leveled separately, but players will be able to "reflect" their highest iLvl to other jobs. This gets massive applause from the audience. Players will be able to choose which job they can help or join content as, whereas currently if the job in demand isn't "high" enough in iLvl, you're just locked out. Character Action Skins are up next. Players can customize character with additional animations for actions, earned from new Rewards More details to come in Berlin Also planning on broadening character creation options. Also big applause for this one. Color picker for eye/hair/skin Improved eye and lips, and eye shadow Face paint layering No butt sliders. "Yet?" asks Koji? Yoshi laughs dismissively. Can even toggle on and off sleect parts of individual gear. Comparison screenshots are shown and look great. Examples of some of these new options are shown. Ever-evolving content Improving Public Fields... More dynamic events and content in each area in order to truly master those areas. Public Fields have been lonely since everyone is busy in Duty Finder. "That's our fault." Changes will be made. Improving Quests... QoL features to be added to improve burden of question. More details to come in Berlin. Evolving Battle Adding third difficulty level for 8-person raids in between the two current ones 85% clear rate for Normal but only 20% for Savage. This middle difficulty can help bridge that gap to help skill up players. More about this in Berlin. Adjusting progression routes for 24-person raids. 24-mans can be a lengthy commit. No plans to shorten this but looking into ways to address it overall. More about this in Tokyo. Adding all-new types of battle content Ever-evolving systems After 13 years, same-region player matching will be implemented. Large positive reaction from the crowd. Players will match across all worlds across an entire region. This will include Party Finder. This change will actually come in Patch 7.5X New Jobs Two new jobs will be introduced with Evercold: Tank and Physical Ranged DPS Yoshi shows his shirt: "Guess who's back" is written on it. Rhitahtyn sas Arvina is pictured on it. Both new jobs are FF14 originals, and not found elsewhere. First will be revealed in Berlin. New Job Action System: Reborn Mode and Evolved Mode Currently have 21 jobs plus 1 limited job. These new modes will only be available for these (and not the Limited ones) Reborn Mode: Keeping it Familiar. What we have now. Same battle action rotations we've been used to since A Realm Reborn. Available for all existing jobs. Evolved Mode: Emphasizing Individuality. This will include different rotations, different from ones in Reborn Mode, and will be available for all 21 jobs. A graphic shows branching options. These will include fewer keystrokes or button presses. "Oh, so it's just an Easy Mode? No. In no way is Evolved Mode a simplified watered-down version of Reborn Mode." Example: DRG will have its own unique actions and rotations in each mode. So almost like there are two Dragoons. But there will also of course still be overlap as well. Players can toggle between two modes at any time outside of battle Job level and gear are shared between modes as well. No need to relearn actions or gather mode-specific gear. Both modes immediately unlocked when a job itself is unlocked All content is clearable with BOTH modes. Evolved is just a little bit stronger, though, says Yoshi P. Some content may feel better suited to one mode over another. All new jobs will only have Evolved Mode More will be shared at the Dev Panel later today Additional Updates Level cap increase to 110 Treasure Hunts, FATES, and The Hunt "evolution" is being considered as well New Dungeons, several to be introduced with Evercold. Some teaser artwork is shown. New gear and recipes. Artwork of these is shown as well and get a great reaction. New Threats. Artwork of some new enemies is also shown. New 8-player raid, with new difficulty level. Theme to be revealed in Berlin. New Ultimate Raid as well, coming in 7.5 New PvP updates Duty Support update. The team is trying to see if they can implement "pairs" in dungeons. More details in Berlin. New Alliance Raid. The theme for this Raid is.... (screen goes black, and new video plays...): Evangelion Evangelion: Ghosts of Desire, wihch features a stylized Dragoon as its logo? (sorry, not familiar with this) This is a celebration of Evangelion's 30th anniversary, and a cross-collaboration between the involved teams. System Requirement Updates No big changes being made here However, one request to PS4 players: 8.0 will still run smoothly on PS4, but as the game grows, they're reaching the data limit of PS4 capacity. Soon it will be impossible to contain all of FF14 on the PS4 hard drive. "We think we will be okay until 8.3... So, if you are still playing on the PS4, you've got two years to save up for a PS5!" Patch 7.5 news New job: Beastmaster. All about taming creatures, then fighting with them in battle employing unique battle rotations that change based on your pet Lots of job-specific content to come New Ultimate Raid: Dancing Mad (Ultimate) (released in 7.51) Synchronizing Korean version patch releases. Expanded free trial to now include Shadowbringers! Upcoming Schedule 7.5 on April 28 MSQ Part 1 New Trial Echoes of Vana'diel Part 3 7.51 on June 2 New Cosmic Exploration New Custom Deliveries Dancing Mad (Ultimate) Fan Fest in Berlin in July (25/26) 7.55 on July 28 Hildibrand Occult Crescent: North Horn Phantom Weapons 7.56 on September 8 MSQ Part 2 Beastmaster limited job Fan Fest in Tokyo (Oct 31/Nov 1) And that's a wrap! EDIT Yoshi P invites Square Enix CEO on stage, who announces Final Fantasy XIV Online for Nintendo Switch 2 this August!!! Testing to begin a month beforehand (no fees). Subscription to begin when it officially launches Switch 2 version will require its own subscription fee separate from a sub you already might pay (for PC, Xbox, PS, Mac). However, it will not require a Nintendo Switch Online membership. Yoshi made it sound like Nintendo required this but that they got the NSO not needed as a compromise. Players with a subscription on any of these other platforms will receive a 50% subscription discount for Switch 2 version. Thanks all for reading along! More to come throughout the day, I'm sure. Check out the Live Thread or any in-depth discussions about any and all of the above. submitted by /u/RetroDadOnReddit to r/ffxiv [link] [comments]

Lately I've been on a franchise binging kick after binging all the Saw movies back to back and really enjoying the experience. I noticed Netflix had (almost) every Bond film until April 20th. Naturally, I decided to watch them all in two weeks. I went mostly in release order (except Never Say Never Again, which I forgot existed and had to awkwardly circle back to at the end), and I skipped the 1967 Casino Royale because… I simply do not have that kind of strength. A few weeks ago I made a post on the James Bond subreddit saying I wanted some general advice moving forward through the Bond series. And like most people said, the advice didn't help because it seemed there was no consistency to my opinions. I heard if I'd liked more down to earth movies certain movies would work better for me and vice versa. In the end I just ended up tolerating what I did on a case by case basis. And I do say tolerate, because I didn't end up leaving this project any more enamored with the franchise then I was going in. These movies just aren’t my thing. I struggle to connect with Bond, a lot of the films blur together, and somehow they’re both over-the-top and kind of boring to me. That said, this isn't a hate post I genuinely love hearing other people’s opinions, and I know these movies mean a lot to people. I love that you love these movies. Instead I am here to offer you a unique perspective with my take on every Bond movie in release order as a non Bond fan. So think of this as one non-Bond fan’s full-series experience, with me trying to focus on what I did enjoy. I tried to focus on the things that I like when watching a movie so this won't be a huge post of me bashing every single entry I promise. Quick disclaimers: Yes, the sexism and racism is there. I noticed. Sometimes it really hurt my feelings. Sometimes it made me feel like I was less than human. But I’m not going to repeat that 26 times, because even the new movies are still pretty bad in these regards. BUT AGAIN this isn't what I want to get into, just assume every movie starts with the sentence "sexism/racism aside-" I like old movies. I like long movies. That’s not why I didn't like these. A lot of my favorite movies are very old or very long. So those two factors have nothing to do with me not "getting" the movie. I did grow up with Bond, mostly Connery's version. so it’s not a nostalgia gap either. These movies blended together so much that I started giving them alternative titles, which honestly became one of my favorite parts, but it became harder the further I got so some of the titles just turned into what I remembered most from the movie. --- Dr No: The one with the beach It’s the first Bond movie ever made, and… yeah, it feels like it. It's no secret that I don't like this movie very much, although there is a chance I would like it more upon rewatch after sitting through much worse content. However, I think I'm fine never watching this one again. One thing I liked about this movie was James Bond himself. "like" is a strong word for it, but I did find him the most likable here then I do for a long time. Otherwise most of this is a blur for me and I unfortunately found it to be a bit of a bore. Great theme song though, I hope I get to hear it 24 more times constantly in each movie. Three blind mice was iconic. From Russia With Love: The one with the train The one my dad really liked. This is a solid movie. I appreciated it more as I watched more movies that came after it that really sucked! So that's cool. I found it to be much more entertaining then the first movie, and didn't get all that bored making my way through it. Although it's far from my favorite, it's one that I'll always understand being someone else's favorite. I find the whole mission set up to be pretty funny, and I liked Tatiana. I especially liked Klebb, she was a fun little villain. Good theme song, certainly an iconic movie. Goldfinger: The one with the golfing Sorry guys, I'm a normie. This is my favorite Bond movie. I still have a million problems with it, it isn't a movie I'd just put on very often. But I found this one to be the best mix of genuinely good, and fun for me. I do think it goes on a little long but none of the movies ever reached my enjoyment of this one again. Goldfinger (the guy) is iconic, I love how pathetic and greedy he is. And how much of a stinky cheater he is too. The golfing scene was so much fun (never thought I, someone who does not like golfing at all, would ever say that in my life) and Pussy Galore ("I must be in heaven") is still a forever icon. Also what a good theme song! So good that they brought Shirley Bassey back twice! Thunderball: The one with WAY too much scuba diving I hated this movie. "No but you don't understand people from the 60's had never seen water before! you just don't get it-" I do, I do get it. The water is pretty, it is very cool that they did all that. But it never ends. As soon as the movie ended I couldn't even remember what the plot even was, all I had ingrained in my memories was SO MUCH SCUBA DIVING!!!!!! I watched all the Saw movies and didn't miss a wink of sleep, but suddenly my dreams were nightmares ridden with scuba diving. This was torture. If you love this movie, WHY? No but if you love that, I understand that for many its like a vibes vacation movie. A lot of people hate Bambi for the same reasons but I enjoy it because it's a vibes movie that I can get behind. I can see where you could maybe possibly get enjoyment in Thunderball. I am just so not the person that ever could. The beginning stuff with the jet pack was awesome but that was about it for me. The theme song was solid, not my favorite but it did the job. You Only Live Twice: The weeb one Pretty sure my dad liked this one a lot too, one of my greatest wishes is to find a way to go back in time and ask him why? Sexism and racism aside, I mostly found it so hard to care about anything in this movie or root for our titular character at all and I found it to be really slow and was begging for it to end by the time he got turned into a Japanese guy. Some good things, I cheered at the beginning because James Bond died! Too bad it didn't last. I do also like a lot of the volcano stuff, especially because it was so dumb and fun on its own that Austin Powers just kind of took it and did it verbatim as a joke. Also I nearly had a brain aneurism when I saw Roald Dahl wrote this, what are you doing here dude? He returns to write the screenplay for the most underrated James Bond entry, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as well. The theme song was alright, I love Nancy Sinatra but it didn't stick with me. Generally like alot of stuff visually in this movie but everything else is so not for me. On Her Majesty's Secret Service: The one with the skiing This is a weird one for me. I didn’t think I liked it while watching, maybe it was residual YOLT trauma, but afterward it stuck with me. Maybe it is the ending that does a lot of heavy lifting, as it is definitely the best ending in the series as far as I'm concerned. I like that not many things carry over to the other movies but the loss of Tracy does. It was also just really well done? Everything from the wedding to the credits rolling felt like a sweet little end of an era. Him waving goodbye and throwing the hat to Moneypenny? My heart! but again, this is just maybe 3 minutes I might be basing all this on. I liked the love story here pretty well, I liked the funny hypnotism army of hot ladies. I declare this movie a pretty good entry! We have all the time in the world by Louis Armstrong makes me emo, great little theme. Also hours of skiing >>> hours of scuba diving. Diamonds are Forever: The one in Vegas God this was dull. I barely remember it. I remember liking the two assassin villains in this quite a lot, I wish there was much more of them. The funeral stuff was kinda fun? I'm grasping at straws here guys. It felt like it was trying to be as safe as possible and by doing that, it felt like no one wanted to be there and everyone (including me) was bored. I was pretty excited at this point to move on from Connery and see what the Moore era would offer me. The theme song was great though! Good job as usual Shirley. Live and Let Die: The one with the alligators Who knew that the Wings song was the theme of this movie? Oh all of you did and it was just me? Yeah that makes sense. That said I had a pretty good time here. It felt too long by the end but it was silly enough that I was never bored. The music is great here. I just like the vibes here man. That said, this is probably as good as Moore ever was for me, and even then I was thinking "I can't wait till he gets better at these so I can really root for him" And once again I never really did end up that enamored with him. Loved seeing Geoffrey Holder, he should have been in more things! Also Yaphet Kotto of alien fame is here? We got such a stacked cast. Overall, a bit too long but silly with good music and style. The Man with the Golden Gun: The one where that man has a golden gun Christopher Lee as a Bond villain who can only be recognized by his third nipple. Color me intrigued. I had more fun with this then I expected. It was far from perfect, definitely a step down from LALD and felt way more boring and long at times. However, the ending fight was pretty fun and can we talk about how this movie has probably one of the coolest car stunts ever that is ruined (or dare I say elevated) by a slide whistle sound effect. Anyways this movie was solid a good mix of I'm hating this and loving this, mostly because it is earnestly being very silly. I however, did not like the theme song, it felt like she had to get it finished before the due date at midnight. Only upside of it was I definitely didn't forget that there was a guy who had a golden gun in this movie. The Spy Who Loved Me: The one with the submarine Uh oh here comes the normie again...I liked this one. It's my second favorite Bond movie for sure. I think I'd be more likely to rewatch it over Goldfinger too but I acknowledge that one as being more consistently good rather than whatever this movie was. Definitely good for a Bond movie. It felt like the first real movie I'd watched for ages. Anya was a great character with a great arc, and I LOVE Jaws. It took me forever to actually remember his name so I deemed him Chomp man to the friends I was relying my Bond experiences to, because this guy loves to chomp anything he sees. Huge fan of him. Fantastic music, Bond should be more disco more often. And Nobody Does It Better is definitely my favorite Bond theme by a mile. I listen to it all the time just in my free time cuz it jams so hard. Moonraker: The one with the rocket ship They really needed to hurry up and go to the moon guys. This movie would be so much better if they hurried up and just went to the damn moon. I remember looking at the poster and going "There's no way they're doing James Bond in space" But they were! Only for them to barely give me a taste of it. Surprisingly quite dull for a movie about rocket ships and going to the moon. Chomp man does return and gets the redemption and ending he deserved 10/10 best bond character. I originally thought this was the worst Shirley Bassey theme but upon relistening I actually think its just as good as the others. She never misses! For Your Eyes Only: The one in Greece? or maybe with a little ice skating? I don't know what happened in this movie This was boring guys. As soon as it ended I couldn't remember anything that happened other than thinking Bibi was a little annoying but I felt mean for thinking that. I took notes saying more ice skating then I expected and just underlined the word Greece so that's all I had to go off of! The hockey mugging was weird, Margaret Thatcher was weird, and it all just feels very tired. I was subconsciously fully expecting the theme song to be If I Could Fly before I watched this and realized that's a One Direction song and is pretty unlikely to be the theme for a Bond movie in 1981. The one they actually used felt like a sitcom opening, not my favorite. Edit: I have been notified the Tracy grave seen that I thought was in the Spy who Loved Me is actually in this movie. I watched all three movies on the same day so I mixed a few things up and that's my bad. Bonus points to this movie for that scene cuz it's a good moment! Octopussy: The one with the circus Guys I was so excited to watch a movie called Octopussy. I was expecting full camp and absurdity, nearly like I was getting with the earlier Moore films. But instead I got a pretty boring movie with a handful of good scenes. I heard a few people say "This movie is great if you ignore the clown stuff" NO! This movie is only great when there is clown stuff! I love when he was a clown and trying to convince them there was a bomb but he was a clown in a circus so no one was believing him. There was a lot of little stuff like that in this movie that I had hoped would add up for me, but in the end it was sadly did not. I think I'm just ready for the the Dalton Bond era. A View to Kill: The one with the horses Christopher Walken and GRACE JONES WITH SUPER STRENGTH are the bad guys and also own a fancy horse business or something (I don't know anything about horse businesses if you cant tell). Everything about this should have worked for me, I am a recovered horse girl from childhood, I love Christopher Walken and I LOVE Grace Jones. But once again, it was a bit dull. Certainly too long. Overall I'd say uneven. Id be bored, then something cool would happen and id get bored again. OR something crazy would happen like Christopher Walken's father figure, the Mortner guy, who did steroid experiments on pregnant women in concentration camps that made babies psychopathic geniuses (spoiler Walken is one of those evil babies). That is soooooo Metal Gear I love that. (yes I know metal gear is really just one big James Bond reference but I played those before I saw this). Duran Duran made the theme song? Thats crazy! I've heard better themes but its fun nonetheless. The Living Daylights: The one with the exploding milk bottles Timothy Dalton has finally arrived, and he does a pretty good job! I think he might be my favorite Bond? Maybe because I like him as an actor quite a bit outside of the James Bond role (which I really don't like). It's hard to say for sure when he only made two movies. By this point in my viewing experience I wasn't having much fun anymore. So I asked a friend to join me for the rest of the movies who had no opinion on Bond and had only ever seen Skyfall (which they liked when they were eleven). This movie was pretty good for the first hour, then it fell off a bit towards the end. I think it suffers from the same issue most Bond movies do, they're too long. Again, I am not against a long movie! I just watched a three hour movie the other day and loved it. I just think it often feels like they don't justify the runtime for me. That said this felt like a real movie and I liked the more espionagey feel it has. Overall it gets a "I kinda like it/10" The theme was done by a-ha? This is getting far too local for me (it gets even more local as we go). It was a catchy solid theme song, good job! License to Kill: The one with the wedding I really expected to like this one more. I've been told time and again that this is the dark one, this is the one that means business! But it really felt like just like all of the other movies. Rip Sharky though, that guy was a real one. But honestly, I think the beginning is great and sad. It's a good motivator for sure. The end was pretty fun too. But that middle chunk, at least for me, was really rough. I know a lot of people like this one, at least in retrospect, so I'm sorry I really didn't. But I DID like Gladys Knight absolutely popping off in that theme song, what a jam. I'm sad this is it for Dalton! I really enjoyed his take on the character, it made me hate him a little less. Goldeneye: The one with Sean Bean I always either heard this was the worst movie ever or it was actually the best movie ever. I fall in between. It's a James Bond movie, they're all pretty similar. I was way less bored here than in Licence to Kill. The music is great, the plot concept is solid, and I agree it’s objectively the best Brosnan film, even if it’s not my personal favorite. It just makes the most sense most of the time. I did like the crazy Russian lady she was fun. And things like Alan Cumming hacking the planet is so 1995 I love it. So I generally liked the style, but not the actual content (Honestly, that sums up my feelings on the whole series: I generally love the style, even if I’m lukewarm on the actual content). Funny enough, the friend I’ve been marathoning these with begged for mercy after this one. They hated the Dalton era and couldn't understand how I was still sane. I was shocked since GoldenEye is so much more watchable than something like For Your Eyes Only, but then I realized they hadn't been "in the trenches" with the older films like I have. Anyways I love Tina Turner but this song felt like a little less good version of Gladys Knights License to Kill theme. I do like the backtrack part of it but the theme itself is a tad forgettable. Tomorrow Never Dies: The one with the motorcycle I feel like a lot of people also hate this movie and say it's the worst one, it isn't. It's fine. It is the most okay movie ever made and thus I don't have a lot to say. The villain in this is a cartoon and really disjointed and weird. This feels like what might have happened if Roman Roy got made chairman in Succession. Michelle Yeoh wasn't in this enough. She ABSOLUTELY stole the show from Brosnan anytime she got to do something. I love Sheryl Crow so this was a jammin theme. The World Is Not Enough: the one with the oil pipelines (riveting). The movie was not enough. This is easily my least favorite Brosnan entry. Not even a character named Christmas Jones could save it. I will miss Q, his exit made me kind of emotional despite never caring much about his character before. Ya never know what you have until its gone...and its replaced by a pretty unfunny John Cleese or later on, twink Paddington. I appreciate the attempt at scale here but everything going on just falls flat. The guy you think is the villain seems like he'll be cool because 1. He's Rumpelstiltskin in OUAT and 2. He cant feel pain! I wonder how the movie will utilize that? (They don't do much with it). The villain ended up being PLOT TWIST the girl is evil. If you sleep with Bond too early you're either Evil or dead. The theme was written by Garbage, how telling for the quality of the movie- Okay I'll stop being mean. I actually like the band Garbage, but the theme was sort of meh. Overall the movie wasn't that much worse then a lot of what I'd seen before but it still wasn't very interesting. Die Another Day: The one with Madonna It's time I come clean. This will be my hottest take yet. It will make you lose all respect for me. The Madonna theme was actually a huge bop and everyone needs to put some respect on it. Does it suit James Bond very much? No not really. Has it been on loop after being added to my spotify playlist? Yes it has. Sigmund Freud? Analyze this. I'm no Freud but I'll try to analyze my thoughts on this movie. Is it very good? no. It makes no sense and is a complete mess. Is it the most fun I'd had since the early 70s? Absolutely. This is like the Saw 7 of James Bond movies (only true intellectuals will understand the comparison). It is best watched as a comedy then anything else. I also really love the action in this movie, the sword fight was awesome. Halle Berry is fun. And Madonna is a fencing teacher! How nice of her to keep her role to a minimum for this extended Madonna music video starring Pierce Brosnan. Overall not good, but also very good. Casino Royale: the one with the poker This was a well made movie. I expected to like it more since I love the cast to death and although the director did make that really bad Green Lantern movie, he also made the Zorro movies and those are fun. I was shocked by how mean Bond was in this, he's always mean but the movies tend to act like he isn't, he's just cool. This one was actually going "woah! chill out dude" constantly and he never chilled out. I do get thats the point though. This Bond is different, he is less suave charisma, more cool serious guy. I never did decide if I liked this direction, I was begging for them to make Bond have actual arcs and make him more fallible. And Craigs iteration does deliver on that, but feels a bit more generic now. I know every Bond is different and they represent their eras idea of the coolest guy ever, but they all still somewhat felt like the same guy to me. Craig's feels quite different. He is more emotional and best of all he fails sometimes, but it feels disconnected nonetheless. That said I think that was the goal, this Bond is meant to feel different and especially seem like an asshole at first so you recognize his growth through his CONTAINED set of movies. Craig has his own beginning middle and end unlike the rest of the franchise, they never felt like a reboot till now. I'm fine with this direction, I'm sure it's what was needed at the time. But not exactly what I personally wanted. Back to the actual movie. As for the plot, Vesper is okay, but I didn't buy the depth of their relationship. Her fate didn't phase me because it felt rushed, especially compared to the solid pacing of the rest of the film. I know Bond has always rushed through relationships, even the better relationship he had with Tracy was very rushed. But this one stood out for some reason. I know he has always been orphaned (from the climbing accident) but this movie begins the cycle of that becoming nearly 70% of his whole personality. It felt a little awkward (as it always does for me) but it's mostly fine here. Hannibal Lecter is great here. I definitely didn't expect him to bust Bond's balls, that was sure something. At times I felt the movie thought I was stupid. Do I know how to play poker? No. So them telling me about tells and stuff made sense but they were constantly over-explaining and pointing out Le Chiffre’s "tells" only to pull a "Haha, gotcha!" when it was a fake tell. Yeah, you got me, because you told me five times! It’s a nitpick, but it was irritating. Still it's one of the better movies. The theme song was pretty good, suited Craigs first movie for sure. Quantum of Solace: The one that has something to do with the water supply Uh oh. The worst Bond movie ever made. Did I hate watching Thunderball more? Is something like Never Say Never again or For Your Eyes Only clearly a worse made film? Sure. But when I tell you that I remembered NOTHING that happened in this movie when it ended I am not exaggerating. At least in the past forgettable movies I remembered Greece existed or something. This movie gave me absolutely nothing. Not even a good theme song! The theme song sucked! Only saving grace is someone's name was Strawberry Fields, but the movie was too cowardly to tell me till the end. At least in the World Is Not Enough they owned Dr. Christmas Jones with their full chest. Skyfall: The one with the Batman-ification of James Bond This might be my biggest hot take yet, possibly even bigger than liking the Madonna song, but I didn't actually like Skyfall that much. DON'T SHOOT ME! I honestly don’t get why this one impressed everyone so much. I do like a bigger focus on M, before Judy Dench became M, they were like the least interesting person in the extended cast. I wasn't sure how I felt about Paddington being Q now but the idea of Q looking like a One Direction reject has grown on me as that is SO 2012. I also liked Moneypenny, even if her name reveal felt a bit awkward (very Spider-Man Homecoming MJ reveal). I don't really like the Nolan-ification of James Bond that the movies really swerve in the direction of here. But I get it is a popular style so I'll deal with it. What I don't get is the mommy issues with M that Bond has now or how Dark Knight this movie is. Before you ask "have you ever seen any other movie? just because they're both orphans doesn't mean he's batman" I agree! I'm probably wrong. But the whole time I was like Javier Bardem is just the Joker in this (what with the intentional convoluted capturing plan and his manic yet incredible genius or whatever). You see Bond's childhood home where he was mostly raised by the family's employed groundkeeper in this large empty mansion. I'm just not a fan of the "orphan trauma" angle, and it’s dialed up to eleven here. Also now M is gone and instead I have the blandest Ralph Fiennes ever as her replacement! As for Adele’s theme? The visuals were great, but I have literal school-age trauma from that song being played everywhere. It’s overplayed, though objectively good. Skyfall is a well-made movie and wouldn't rank at the bottom of my list, but personally? It’s just a little overhyped. Spectre: The one where Blofield is his long lost kinda brother Wow, this movie sucked. That sudden family connection was so clunky, and they somehow managed to make Christoph Waltz boring. How? I like Léa Seydoux; her character is one of the better-developed love interests I’ve seen in a while, even if she’s better in the next one. It also feels repetitive, a lot of it I'm like okay didn't we just do this in the last movie? I know Bond is always doing the same things in slightly different font but since the Craig era tries to have a serialized plot rather than the old episodic style, I’m less inclined to suspend my disbelief when the story stalls out like this. Also the theme song, it is pretty good if not a little bland but I was shocked Sam Smith was here. That is the most 2015 choice I have ever heard. Overall way too long and way too clunky. No Time to Die: The one where he in fact, did find the time. After disliking pretty much every Craig movie save for Casino Royale, I was not expecting to like this movie but I really did! Rami Malek's villain isn't very strong, I actually don't understand him at all. He saved Madeleine then was like you owe me several decades later for some reason? I did think he was creepy enough though. And although I think this movie gets Madeleine involved in a weird way, I like a lot of what I see anyways. I love the opening sequence with the home invasion. Her break up with Bond felt more emotional then the Vesper situation (to me), and she was a pretty fierce mom. Speaking of, if Skyfall is the batmanification of James Bond, this is the Loganification. I liked it though. I am much more easily manipulated by that sort of trope than deep-cut orphan drama. I even, god forbid, got a bit emotional at the end and MIGHT have shed a very manly single tear. It was a good send off to Bond and especially Craigs iteration. Also great theme song! A solid movie with some plot contrivances I was happy to overlook. [Bonus] Never Say Never Again: The one where they did Thunderball again After I finished all of the real Bond movies I realized I forgot the non-canon ones and quickly made myself watch this when I REALLY didn't want to because it was going to be gone within the next 24 hours. This movie is JUST what I wanted, more Thunderball. I found it easier to follow than Thunderball, I actually enjoyed the first 20 to 30 minutes and the general concept here, that this guy is super old and has to go to physical therapy and stuff. Then I got quickly, very bored. Although there was thankfully much less scuba diving, I found everything about this much less memorable. So I guess...I will painstakingly give Thunderball the win here. I could not get myself to track down Casino Royale 1967 just to torture myself further by subjecting myself to seeing Woody Allen, so I stopped here. I wish I stopped at No Time to Die because that was a much more memorable ending for this binge. --- And there you have it, the longest review ever. I feel like I sounded way too negative towards the end, I just generally found the older dumber movies sillier and had an easier time being positive with them for whatever reason even if I actually disliked them more. I may have gone into this expecting to leave as a Bond fan, and didn't. But I still am quite proud of this binge and I regret nothing. There was always at least one scene I enjoyed in each movie, and I always loved the styles and music of these movies. It was fun to see the changes from year to year to decade to decade, and how the character changed a bit depending on who played him. I may not be a Bond fan, but I do understand the fans a lot more now. If you have any questions or want to share your own takes please feel free, the only thing I like more than sharing my opinions, is hearing someone else's. Also! If anyone wants to see how I actually would rank them from most to least tolerable here is my list, but I warn you it is not anywhere near objective. submitted by /u/zeeloo99 to r/movies [link] [comments]