Justice League Theories, Nintendo, Spotlighting Actors and Episode 200!

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. and welcome to altered geek episode 200

the four -year anniversary show all wrapped in

one joining me in this episode is my original

co -host oh sorry uh i was still trying to get

the settings right from youtube it was like i

could hear you doing the intro but there was

obviously some lag time on the youtube side It's

awesome. I was like, wait a minute. What is going

on here? Yes, Michael Powers here for your enjoyment.

I am so out of the loop. Don't worry, so am I.

I've been working on a new concept for the show

post -200 so that I can more or less chop it

up and I can record different sections with different

people. I'm basically going to take like a almost

radio format with it. Okay. So in essence, I

will do segments with people throughout the week

and then I will basically butcher it all together

into one episode later on. That reminds me of

a podcast that I listened to. There's only been

like five episodes of it, I think. It's called

A Life Well Wasted. There hasn't been an episode

in a few years, but it's by a guy named Robert

Ashley. He used to work for 1UP. And he would

go around doing all these interviews with game

developers and whatnot in the gaming industry.

And so he had all of these recordings from interviews

that he did that he never used. so he put them

all together in like a format like what you're

talking about and and released them like on his

own after he was let go nice um and they're they're

really well done i don't know i i have them all

downloaded um so i have them saved i don't know

if you can still find them on itunes but it sounds

a lot like that um like that that kind of thing

obviously yours isn't like years and Years of

back -recorded footage and stuff like that. But

kind of the same idea, I guess. And it sounds

kind of similar to an idea that I kicked around

many years ago. And I was trying to figure out

how I could still podcast and make time for various

other things. Which was to do an audio magazine,

if you will. yeah i think i remember you vaguely

talking about doing that at one point yeah to

release like one episode a month but to record

bits and pieces and like editorials and and things

like that uh throughout the month and put it

all together in a collage and release it the

way that you're you're talking about doing like

a weekly show i had thought about doing that

for like a just a monthly show um but obviously

that never went anywhere so The concept that

I'm having is I'll do a brief preview of an overview

of the episode before the intro sound. And then

do the brief welcome. And I'm planning, I don't

know if I'll ever get to this point, but I'm

planning a five -day -a -week show of Altered

Geek. However, I've structured them in such a

way that instead of... Because I like to cover

some of the news as it comes out for Geek. pop

culture, gaming, tech, whatnot. I've turned essentially

like I've turned the 10 minute blitz into a three

day event. As far as I have it written down here

in my planning process. So like Monday, Tuesday

and Thursday, that would be a 10 minute episode.

So there would be like the top three stories

that are pertinent to that day. Um, and then

like a biggest news article or our biggest article

or news piece for that specific day, like the

most impressive news, I guess. Um, and then that

would be it. And, uh, so that would give me time

to talk about them, you know, two to three minutes

on, on various topics and get them out of the

way so that when I get to the Friday show, it's

more of the, the fun, uh, kind of stuff that.

everybody enjoys and i enjoy and um it's not

bogged down by the news yeah um and then like

the wednesday show i would do very similar it

would be like a half hour show so essentially

i would do like uh i've been tossing around like

the idea of like a geek history lesson that would

be like two minutes or something and then um

like uh gaming content gaming related news um

And then like some reviews and then like a short

topic that I could pretty much solo on my own

so that I'm going to end up doing the Wednesday

and Friday regardless. And then the the Friday

show would be I would put out like a a poll or

a, you know, question type thing on Wednesday

on Twitter and then have it, you know, where

you could select the answer and then. it would

become like a brief discussion point at the beginning

of the Friday show and then have, you know, like

a couple leading, you know, news things that

maybe we interest us for that week or something

that, you know, we just each pick one or two

and then that's it. And then I was thinking about

having a segment where I highlight other podcasts.

Is, is this, okay. This is obviously, it's all

in in the thought process i don't know if anything's

gonna happen well i was just gonna you know uh

pot calling the kettle black here i guess because

you know um i've been since 2009 i've been a

part of a number of podcasts that have the the

longest one that i personally have produced i

think only went for like 50 episodes and then

we threw in the towel and that was uh off the

cuff for uh you guys Um, but is it, uh, I think

it's kind of interesting that this podcast, uh,

which you started and I kind of jumped in to

help you start and then did together with you

primarily shouldered shouldering most of the

load. And here we are at episode 200, which was

shepherded along by, by you. um uh obviously

but is it is it it seems very i feel like altered

geek is uh that that one podcast that seems very

rare that has gone for 200 episodes and has no

definitive definition of what it is is that fair

i would say that I feel like that's fair. That's

not me knocking it one way or the other because

it's a fun show and I enjoy doing it when I'm

able to do it. It's just been interesting. That

thought just occurred to me while we were having

this conversation about where you wanted the

show to go because we've had many conversations

about what we wanted the show to do or be or

things like that. It's weird to think that four

years on... We or you or Mike still don't know.

I think that's the great thing about the title

is that Altered Geek can pretty much mean anything.

It's become a soapbox for geeky things. Yeah,

so I mean like anything that you're geeking out

about. And this is one of the things that I've

kind of... gotten heavy into the Star Trek stuff

since like a lot of the Batman material dried

up and I noticed this and I was like you know

I could be doing all of the Star Trek stuff on

the Star Trek podcast I'm actually co -host of

and so like all the Star Trek Discovery stuff

that came out the last few days anyway I released

it on future and perfect rather than dump my

load on this show with it all. Because I've kind

of stated my opinion of it, but not really gone

too much into detail. And, and, and there was

a different discussion going on with, with that.

And I felt like I was able to offload it there

because I kind of want to cover more pertinent

things. Like my wife has that, the fit ready

go. So I was thinking about, because. she or

I don't have enough to put together, you know,

a 30, 40 minute podcast on it. So I was telling

her, I was like, how about, you know, you just

do like a five minute clip or something. And

then we just put it in altered geek. And then,

and then I do like some other, you know, like

some kind of a like tech tip or something. And

then I like, I want to cover more of the tech

related realm. Right. Um, because I've, despite

not having money to purchase it, I enjoy the

technology behind it. And so therefore I, I really

enjoy, you know, like they've, they've created

like bionic eye type things and they've created,

you know, these, um, among other things, you

know, it, these tombstones that have, uh, basically

like a video player built into them. Okay. So

like it's it's like a on loop of like, you know,

this is your life of the person that's in the

grave below. You know, I mean, I've seen some

of these like weird tech things that I covered

over the past few months. And I'm like, just

some of it's odd. And then some of it like I

have fun discerning what came from Star Trek

and what didn't. Just a lot of the technology

behind it I've found to enjoy conversing on more

than necessarily some of the superhero related

stuff. I get that. I'm starting to get... Fatigue?

Yeah. Yeah. With the superhero stuff. I enjoy

it. But it's come to the point where there's

so much of it. I just don't care. That's one

thing that I came to the realization. There's

so much going on right now in my Twitter feed

about Avengers Infinity War and Ant -Man this

and all this other stuff. And I'm just like,

I don't care. I really don't. At some point,

I don't know when it was, but I stopped caring.

I I've kind of like, and I've taken the stance

that I did in all things transformers. And I

think that this is why all things transformers

has the following. It does. In addition to the

fact that it's transformers, the podcast, I think

the reason why people gravitate, because it's

still like out of any show that I am a host of,

that is by far the most downloaded show that

I'm on, that I'm on. And it dwarfs this show

even. This is my second tier show compared to

that. But I also started that one about the time

that this is going to be airing, obviously with

this being live and everything. All Things Transformers,

I started nine years ago. Okay. And this one

I started four years ago within the same week

time span. which is really odd. But that show,

I've come to the point with the news that I don't

cover it if it's a casting detail. I don't cover

it if it's very click -baity type stuff. Yeah,

it's more... Unless it's a commentary on something

that's relevant that's happened. I'm not covering

the, oh, you know... The new Spider -Man thinks

that he should be the next James Bond. You're

not covering the minutiae of the geek content.

It's more the concrete stuff that... you should

have an opinion on you're staying away from predictions

and rumors yeah in in like you know cw you know

because i i have this like giant uh show notes

folder of bookmarks on my computer that i i dump

things to and then i periodically go through

and i'm like do i need to talk about this no

and then i start purging and then but I save

it all there in case I need something during

the show. And so like, for instance, like the

CW stuff that I've saved, like, you know, Danny

Trejo is going to be in the flash and, you know,

they've, you know, Legends of Tomorrow teases,

you know, reveal of season three villain and,

you know, so -and -so and so -and -so and so

-and -so return for Legends. And, you know, a

lot of that stuff, you know, or Grant Gustin

wants a new costume, you know, it's all the minutiae

stuff of it. And I'm like, why would I want to

cover any of that? Right. It's not speculation

on the actual show. It's just, it's, it's more

or less like, you know, we, we, uh, we wanted

to make money off these articles. So instead

of putting all this information in one post for

like a massive grab bag on everything, we just,

you know, we sent 50 different posts going out

with all the same information. Yeah. It's like

you go to that website and they're like, top

15 things for this and you go and it's like 15

different pages yeah i hate that i i hate that

too but i really like the ones that are like

view as one page oh i those ones i have respect

for the the creators of the website because at

least then it gives me the option yeah exactly

um but like it it kind of drives me nuts with

some of these news articles so like i've i've

purposely like i'll bookmark them but i don't

necessarily visit them and then like uh one of

my my favorite new rumors that popped up about

you know ben affleck with being the batman thing

which i would be interested to hear your take

on it because it was so back and forth for like

a week of um ben affleck will here won't he take

on batman after you know justice league yeah

um And now there's a rumor going out that says

that he signed up for a Batman trilogy and leading

to Batman Beyond. That's floating around. And

I'm not necessarily like, I don't care for the

rumor, but I'm more so intrigued by the concept

if they actually do Batman Beyond. Yeah. I mean,

it'd be interesting to see it. It would be like

the only way I could see them logically phasing

out Ben Affleck early. Well, everyone that I

follow seems to think that Flashpoint is how

they're going to get rid of Affleck as Batman.

So they're going to get rid of everyone? That

is the title of the Flash movie. Which, can I

just take a second and say that is awesome. That

they started out with that? Well, no, no. I don't

want them to get rid of Affleck as Batman. I

don't either because I actually genuinely enjoy

him as Batman Bruce Wayne. I've said, I believe

I've said it on this show, I know I've said it

on other podcasts, and I know I've said it along

with friends, but the only Flash story that I've

been interested in seeing, in fact, I know I've

said it on this because you and I have talked

ad nauseum about Batman v Superman, but... Like

Flashpoint is the only Flash story I want to

see on the big screen. And you don't cast Jeffrey

Dean Morgan as Thomas Wayne if you're not going

to do Flashpoint. Yeah, because he's got that

gruff... For one, they cast him on The Walking

Dead to play that kind of a character. And then

he was in Supernatural before that, still playing

that kind of a character. And I can definitely

see him playing an evil, dark, kind of burnt

Thomas Wayne Batman. I am over the moon for the

title of that movie. And I'm a sucker for time

travel stuff. And I would really like to see...

Man, they could make a shot -for -shot remake

of the animated movie and I'd be happy. Oh, I

would too. Now, whether or not they do that,

I feel like they have the cast that they could

do that because all the key members have been

revealed for that type of story. But, man, I

am super excited for that. My thing with Affleck

is Batman. and I'm waiting for someone to correct

me on this, but nobody really has, and I'm not

saying that I'm right or that I'm wrong, but

it's just my take on the whole thing. I like

Ben Affleck's movies that he's been in and directed.

I'm not a big Kevin Smith fan. I'm not over the

moon for Kevin Smith. No, I'm not either. His

movies, whatever. When I think of Ben Affleck,

I don't think of Kevin Smith movies. So whatever,

like divorce in my mind, those two, those two

people are divorced in my mind. So when I say

I like Ben Affleck, I'm thinking of his movies.

And for the love of me, I've had a beer and I

can't think of any of his movies right now off

the top of my head, but I, I like them and I

like him in them. However, man i feel like a

really horrible person for not remembering his

movies well he did like the town and yeah the

town came to mind and then there was the one

with the uh getting the hostages out of the middle

east where they're pretending to shoot a movie

argo yeah okay so like i i like i like those

movies i think he's a talented director he's

i i like him as an actor but let's think about

this for a second I've been trying to wrap my

head around this, and in my view, I think being

Batman is the most spotlight -intensive role

that Ben Affleck has ever had. Oh, yeah, definitely.

Obviously, he did Daredevil, but... That's not

him. Essentially, he's gone from Human Torch

to... Captain America. I don't even know if it's

that. I don't feel like this is the same. I feel

like Chris Evans he was somebody and I'm not

saying Chris Evans is the same caliber. Let's

compare him with the most recent Spider -Man

then. Even then, okay, like Ben Affleck, I feel

like his life has been primarily very private.

You don't hear that much about Ben Affleck, right?

He's just a guy that he's an actor that does

movies that is or was married. And then he hasn't

done very, like, the movies he's done haven't

thrust him into the spotlight. And other than

just being like, oh, he's a great director or

he's a great writer, but that doesn't put you

in front of millions of fans or put you at the

mercy of, you know, like no one's going to blast

you on Twitter for your accent in Argo like they

would for delivering however you chose to deliver

the voice of Batman. Yeah, they put you under

a microscope. Right. And I don't think... Like,

regardless of if he thought he was ready or not,

I feel like what's gone down with him since he's

been announced as Batman, I feel like that is

all a reaction to the spotlight that has been

shined on him and his life. And from what I can

tell, this role, all the news I've heard about

Affleck since taking this role, none of it has

been positive. No. And I think that the media

itself and social media and whatnot have been

just almost kind of god -awful towards him. Because,

you know, say what you will about Batman v Superman,

like I said, I enjoyed the movie overall. I didn't

like any of the, you know, I, my favorite scenes

had to do with Ben Affleck, but you know, Bruce

Wayne, Batman and Jeremy Irons is Alfred and

Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman. Those were like the

best scenes in the whole movie to me, but the,

the way people were just panning him because

of the, the, the movie as a whole, instead of

just kind of, you know, taking a chill pill.

And, and I think that's, part of geekdom in general

is we, we have this like knee jerk reaction to

like instantly hate everything until we actually

watch it. And then we're like, Oh, it's not so

bad. Well, I think, I think a number of our listeners

would say that would come down on the side of

that Batman V Superman is that bad. Although

I'm in the same camp as you. Although I think

I, I think I look more favorably on Batman V

Superman than most people do. I enjoyed it a

lot more than I did a man of steel. But that's

because it had Batman and it had Wonder Woman

and it had Alfred. So like if it didn't have

those, I don't think I would. So I think, yeah,

I kind of feel bad for Ben Affleck because also

the other thing too is when he was Daredevil,

the internet isn't what it is today. Well, and

it also, I'm sure if it was what it was today,

he would have gotten beat up with a sledgehammer

over that film too. Oh, absolutely. I mean, and

he was to a certain degree, but he knew the movie

was bad. But like he's always wanted to play

Batman. And this is like a dream come true when

everybody's crapping on his dream, essentially.

Yeah. So I just feel I feel bad for the guy because

like I feel like if he could have taken the role

and he could have kept his business, his business.

Everything would be fine, but I feel like he's

making the right choices. Like, you know, I'm

not going to my life is in a tailspin. I want

to do this role, but I'm not going to direct

the movie like I'm not going to direct the Batman.

Well, and I feel like, you know, he I feel like

he wanted to, but he knew that because of the

stuff going on with his personal life and the

fact that he has to be so intensive to get Batman.

It's, you know, as a character. Correct. Yeah.

He didn't want to sacrifice his performance for

directing. And so, you know. I feel like people

are making a mountain out of a molehill over

the decision. That's the spin that I'm putting

on it. That's how I'm looking at it. The guy's

looking out for what's best for the role. He

wants to do it. He wants to perform a good Batman

and not have a George Clooney performance. Right.

I totally respect the guy. Especially for being

the first Batman cast since the Nolanverse. which

everybody held in high regard. I was only a fan

of one of those films, so I can't say that much.

Let's sidestep here. I feel like this is a good

way to die. This is a conversation I've been

wanting to have, and I want to see where you

come down on it. Maybe I'll check in on the comments

and see if anyone else, where they come down

on this. I feel like... Okay, there's two things

I want to talk about here and it's kind of like

pivoting on the whole like fandom and You know

the the fan reaction to certain things So I kind

of want to pivot here for a second and forgive

me if I brought this up on the last time I was

on but I feel like I This is this is this is

a smaller one I feel like this one we can get

this one out of the way a little bit quicker

I feel like if Justice League comes out and it's

it all good right now. I feel like it's gonna

be credited to Joss Whedon and not Zack Snyder

yeah and that's the unfortunate part is because

Whedon essentially just tied up the loose ends

that were left and I know that they're doing

reshoots and I know that can have a huge effect

on a movie but man I'm gonna feel really bad

if it like I want it to be good don't get me

wrong I want it to be good I've enjoyed all the

trailers so far there's nothing that I haven't

seen other than the news of Danny Elfman doing

the music. If he can come up with something original

though. Is it the 1989 Batman soundtrack? Yeah.

But I feel like if it's good, it's going to be

one of those. It's good because Joss Whedon fixed

it. Not because the two people worked together

and came out with this amazing movie. I'm kind

of bummed about that. So we'll have to look and

see what happens. But I feel like if it's good,

that's the way it's going to get spun. Is that

Zach Whedon saves DC the way he knocked Avengers

out of the park or whatever. So anyone that listens

to this podcast knows I have a story history

with Joss Whedon and the Avengers movies. But

the other thing, and this dawned on me the other

day. I really like Christopher Nolan. I like

his movies. I enjoy his Batman movies. But what

if he wasn't... Okay, so he was a producer on

Man of Steel. Do you think... You know, everyone's

like Zack Snyder's version of the DCEU, this,

that, and the other thing. If anything, I feel

like the first few DC movies have more of a Nolan

influence on them than they do a Zack Snyder

influence on them. So you want to hear my thoughts

on that? From a color standpoint. Like, do you

really think... I've seen other Zack Snyder movies.

They're colorful. They're action -oriented. I

would almost argue that yes, with the first few

DCEU films, they did follow the Nolanverse kind

of looking almost darker textured everything.

More of the real world feel. However, I would

say the action screams Zack Snyder. Oh, yeah.

Like how the action scenes are shot as, you know,

because Nolan's were more. Bad. Yeah. Whereas,

you know, there's a spectacle to Zack Snyder's

action scenes. Right. And how the camera angles

and how the colors and the explosions hit during

the fight scenes. Yep. Which those I do enjoy

of Zack Snyder's. I think more so what people

have a problem with is the scripting over the

entire films themselves. And I think that people

lump the entire thing on the director because

ultimately it is the director's baby when it

gets done. Yeah, but at the same time, I enjoy

the extended cut of Batman v Superman more than

the theatrical cut. I almost wish that the world

as a whole could have seen the extended cut versus

what we actually got in the theater. What was

so different about it? I feel like it just...

Granted, you're still taking major leaps just

from being a fan of the characters in your mind.

But I feel like it does more to flesh out why

Batman wants to fight Superman and Superman wants

to fight Batman. Whereas the other one it's kind

of just they're fighting. The extended cut shows

Clark investigating the Batman and it also shows

on the flip side it shows Batman putting together

the pieces of Luther setting up Superman. It

shows that more, I feel. The one thing it doesn't

resolve is why Lex has or wants to kill Superman.

Other than it just being he's Lex Luthor, so

that's what he's supposed to do. They don't give

a good reason for him to target Superman as an

individual. They could have done a little better

on that. It just dawned on me the other day.

You never hear about anyone blaming Nolan for

the first batch of DCEU movies. For some reason,

he has been absolved of any wrongdoing that an

executive producer would have on a movie. And

it's all been thrown on Zack Snyder's shoulders.

So it's interesting how that works. So, yeah.

Yeah, so, I mean, I kind of can see that, though,

from that perspective. Zach can do color. If

you see the behind the scenes footage for any

of his movies, everything's in full color. It's

like they were trying to keep that same tone

from Nolan's movies. This is just me still beating

this drum. I posted about it a little bit when

those rumors were flying around about Affleck

not being or not not being or not wanting to

be Batman anymore like it's almost like when

they shot Man of Steel they didn't know 100 %

if Christian Bale was going to be done playing

Batman so they essentially waited yeah it's like

it's like okay let's make a Superman movie that

if it has to it will blend in with my Batman

movies It wasn't until we got Batman v Superman

and we knew that Bale was actually out, but by

then you'd already set a tone. On the flip side,

all of Marvel's movies have a look, but they

all have a look to them, but they all have different

tones. I feel like that's what DC was going for

too. They were trying to have a consistent look,

but obviously that doesn't match all tones. No.

The look that they chose going into it doesn't

match all tones, whereas Marvel, their look is

consistent and matches all tones. It's almost

like Marvel is creating movies using the standard

box of crayons. Just in terms of color palette.

And DC was trying to use a box of 16 crayons.

But all of their colors skewed towards the darker

shades. Well, I would almost say that the DC

stuff has more of a noir look to it. Yep. Which

I don't think is bad. No, and I just think that

if people more so understood what was... what

they were going for rather than, than just lumping

it on Snyder. Cause I mean, I've not been the

biggest fan of his stuff either, but I'm not,

I have no love for any particular director. So

it's, I go by like the overall product and then

I will tear it apart from there. It's, it's not.

Like I can see stuff wrong with Marvel stuff

as well. I think this is like a, uh, it's a weird

conversation. Cause it's like, I will, there

are movies I will see simply because of who directed

it. See, I'll, I'll watch certain movies depending

on who's acting in it. Well, yeah. Like I'll,

I'll go, Oh, that, that director is directing

that guy in that movie. Yes. I will go to that.

Or maybe it's just a director. I will go check

that out. Or maybe it's just an actor. I will

go check that out. But it's always some combination

of things that gets me to go see a movie. And

that's the way it is with everybody. But at the

same time, I don't go... We could pivot this

and get this off of Batman and the DC stuff.

Let's go look at the other... at another elephant

in the room which is the transformers movies

all right let's just okay to me uh transformers

is giant robots blowing crap up okay that is

all transformers is to me that's it that's pretty

much what it is right And so way back in probably

like 2005 when they announced that Michael Bay

was directing Transformers, in my mind, there

was, and there still is no better person to direct

giant robots blowing crap up than Michael Bay.

Okay. Now, I don't go, you know, it's like I

didn't go into Transformers expecting it to be.

any Transformers movie. I don't care which one

it is. I don't go into them expecting to have

some life -altering epiphany or have something

get stirred inside of me that is just going to

be so profound. There are certain directors that

direct things like Steven Spielberg and Saving

Private Ryan. you kind of expect that kind of

gravitas. But if you throw Zack Snyder into anything,

I know what I'm getting. Basically, what I'm

getting is I know what I'm getting by who's directing

it, and I don't expect them to deliver something

that they've never delivered before. So it's

like, I want to see Superman be Superman, which

is something I've never seen on the big screen

before. and you tell me Zack Snyder's directing

it I'm gonna go see that you tell me you're gonna

put giant robots on on the screen that's blowing

crap up I can't think of a better director off

the top of my head that's gonna do at at Transformers

at the basic level of Transformers as I see it

there isn't a better director out there to do

that than than him maybe Peter Berg because I

think the movie Battleship is a better Transformers

movies than the Transformer movies But that's

just the way I see it. And I say that about Battleship

and Transformers because I think Battleship is

better military porn than Transformers is. And

Bay is usually really good about military porn

with the exception of the Transformers movies.

That's because he has to do an entire movie with

Transformers. Which is part of the problem. He

can't use his military stuff or his reused footage.

It's that kind of thing. It's like going to see

a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Think of the movies

as a producer that Jerry Bruckheimer produces.

I'm going into them to just mow down on popcorn.

Not to have existential conversations about what

I just saw on screen so yeah and in that vein

when they you know they announce like certain

directors like I already know what I'm getting

going into that movie and I don't expect anything

like if now that's not to say I can't be surprised

if Zack Snyder were to turn around and direct

a movie about the Holocaust you know I would

probably go see it because I'm a fan of Zack

Snyder. To be honest with you, at that point,

I really wouldn't know what to expect. Because

you can't make the Holocaust cool, which is what

Zack is primarily known for. I'm just saying,

that's just the way I view it. I feel like I

already know what I'm in for. So I never get

too bent out of shape when I go to see a movie

because usually it's right on the money for me

in terms of what I'm expecting. Makes sense.

I tear movies apart all the time, but it doesn't

mean that necessarily I would not watch them.

I'm just very critical on the movies themselves.

I just watched ghost in the shell. I haven't

seen that yet. I mean, I've seen like probably

half of ghost in the shell standalone complex.

And I, okay. I liked the movie. My wife liked

the movie. It was a very pretty movie. If you're

a die -hard fan, sure, you'll probably walk away

disappointed. If you had an issue with the casting,

sure, you'll probably walk away disappointed.

But I feel like this is the first time that I

sat down and watched a live -action movie based

off of an anime and felt like I was watching

a live -action anime. Maybe not Ghost in the

Shell, but I really felt like they captured the

essence of anime in a live -action format. I

don't even know if that makes any sense whatsoever,

but it was good. I enjoyed it. I just saw that

because it was Scarlett Johansson, and I liked

her in Lucy, and I like her as Black Widow. She's

easy on the eyes, so why not? That was one of

the ones that I bought. That was when I wasn't

going to the movies. I was just pre -ordering

stuff. I think that's the last one that was on

my list. Actually, no. I take that back. I just

added Atomic Blonde to the list of movies that

I'm going to buy without seeing in the theater.

Alright. I can change it up here real quick.

We can kind of pivot to games. Maybe. Sounds

good. What are some that you've been actually,

I know you mentioned off air a particular system.

Well, since the last time I was on actually a

week after I was on, I was able to pick up a

switch. It was the, The last Friday of my vacation,

and I was just sitting down on the couch one

morning, and I just happened to log on to Amazon,

and I went to just check the listings to see

what was there. Usually, it's like, pick up a

Switch for $420 or from some third -party person,

but it was like, Switch, $299, shipped from,

sold by Amazon. I was like, what? So I grabbed

it. And I had it sent, you know, it was going

to be delivered on Sunday. But I was like, I

don't want to just have one day to play with

it. So I paid a little extra for one day delivery.

And I got it like within 24 hours. Like I had

it in my hands at 10 a .m. on Saturday. Oh, wow.

And well, I could be wrong, but OK, I'm not wrong.

But I feel like I live in I live in Columbus,

Ohio. And they have it's one of the it's one

of the cities in the US that has like Amazon

now. So I feel like they have. There's like a

bunch of Amazon hubs around here. So I feel like

they have the ability to move product a lot faster

than most places. Plus, I've also noticed that

they will deliver like seven days a week here.

So but that's neither here nor there. Anyways,

I got it. It is, on a surface level, it is a

glorified Kindle Fire with controllers slapped

on the side of it. Set it all up after I went

through the complete and utter hassle of trying

to figure out what my Nintendo ID is. Because

apparently I have like three different ones because

I didn't know. Nice. So once I got that sorted

out and I got everything signed in the right

way, my wife and I, we purchased Mario Kart 8

Deluxe, which we already owned on the Wii. On

the Wii U, sorry. We purchased Zelda because

what else is there to play on it? Snipperclips

and 1 -2 Switch as party games. My wife has been

playing it more than I have because she really

got into Zelda. I can't. I can't for the life

of me. There's just too much that I don't like

about that game. I understand why people do like

it, but for me, I usually end up having a problem

with just about every Zelda game, which keeps

me away from playing it. It's almost like I come

up with an excuse to not play a Zelda game. I

really had high hopes for this one because on

the surface and all the ads and all the videos

I saw, it was like my whole opinion on the thing

was Zelda finally catching up with every game

that it has inspired. In the last 30 years. And

it's almost there. But not quite. And without

getting the wrath of too many people, that's

all I'm going to say about that. I'm not a huge

fan of Zelda in general. I'm a fan of Zelda -style

games. But Zelda just hasn't... It almost caught

up with those games that it inspired. That have

taken what Zelda did. And made it better. But.

It's just not quite there yet. There are things

like the controls. Don't feel very good. And

there's no way. To change them. So that they

do feel good. Yeah. It's just. It's kind of a.

It feels for a Nintendo game. For like the first

actual Nintendo game. That I put my hands on.

in 10 years more than 10 years um because since

since the gamecube i've really only played like

wii sports and mario kart so like for the first

actual nintendo game that i played in about 10

years that this was not not a good reminder But

I like the hardware. It's nice. I leave it primarily

in docked mode. My wife, while she's playing

Zelda and I'm at work, she will play it in the

handheld mode while she's watching Friends on

Netflix. She's enjoying that. I'm enjoying playing

through Mario Kart 8. I've done online races

once with a friend of the show, Danner. Because

he's the only other person I know that has a

Switch. It's a nice little piece of hardware.

I did end up going out and buying the Pro Controller

because that makes playing Zelda a little bit

easier. I did pick up Splatoon 2. Which, like

the first one, is colorful and fun to play. So

I've got that. I'm still on the hunt for the

SNES Classic. Do you have pre -orders? Yeah,

I know that that's out. I'm assuming that the

N64 will be next year. Yeah, but they have to

release the SNES stuff first, and that hasn't

happened yet. Yeah, which I believe that's next

month, isn't it? Yeah, it's supposed to be out

sometime in September, but no one's taking pre

-orders yet. In fact, the one company that accidentally

did pre -orders, which was Walmart. canceled

all of the pre -orders. Did you hear about that?

Yeah, I heard about that. Since then, nobody

else has put them up yet, so I don't know what's

going on with that. I've heard that around the

world though, like Amazon and other companies

that are doing the pre -orders this time, they're

not allowing people to buy more than one. attempt

to cut down on scalping. See how that works out.

Anyone that wants to scalp one is going to scalp

one. Other than that... on the video game front,

that's pretty much where we've been at. I've

been, you know, my wife and I, and that's, I

will say that's the one interesting thing, at

least about Zelda. Like I will sit on the couch

while my wife plays and we'll do the shrines

together, which are like little mini dungeon

puzzles. And she'll try to do it. And if she

can't do it, she'll hand me the controller and

we go back and forth about like that. And we've

never done that with a game before. Like her

and I have not both played the same game before.

So that that's been kind of cool to see or do

that together I am looking forward to Mario Odyssey

in October and obviously Definitely looking forward

to my personal favorite which is Metroid Prime

4 Which I don't really expect to see until like

2019 So I bought the system a little early but

that's kind of what i do i you know i bought

my first playstation game was final fantasy 7

and i bought that four months before i even had

a playstation oh wow so yeah i have a history

of doing this but this time at least it's the

hardware and not just the game so Yeah, I've

been playing the, which I'm sure the listeners

have heard me talk about consistently, Star Trek

Online. Yeah, I remember you talking about that.

And I've, and I explained my process in Future

Imperfect, but I've been essentially playing

the stock market in the game. Okay. Well, they

had an incident a couple weeks ago. They did

an update, and certain characters or certain

toons on the accounts lost bridge officers during

an update. And I was on vacation when this happened.

And so as a... compensation for the time being

dumped into these characters and not being able

to restore them, they give you two different

options. Well, one was we can restore your character

back to the way they were. However, any progress

made since then will be reset back to that date.

And we'll give you 3000 Zen, which essentially

is $30 in the game. And option two. They give

you, I think it's like 30 ,000 dilithium, which

can be turned into about 96 zen. And then they

give you $20 in credit. And then they give you

the original series bridge crew. Like the entire

set of like Spock, or not Spock, McCoy, Scotty,

Sulu, Chekhov, Uhura, and Yeoman Rand. And they're

all like, holographic, uh, photonic characters

like the EMH from Voyager. Um, and that was the

option I wanted. Well, because during this time

I was kind of pissed that they took, I lost my

characters for the, the, the one character I

deleted the character and they're like, well,

the only way you're eligible is if we restore

this character and then you get the 3000 Zen

or you get nothing. And I was like, well, crap

i was like just bring my character back and then

they restored it and they gave me the 3000 zen

so i turned around and bought the uh the master

keys for the uh um uh to get the um uh for the

lock boxes and so i've been playing the the market

with those and i i bought i i spent all of it

and and have managed to propel my monetary amount

in game to $250 million or something in the game,

which I need at least $300 and something to get

the Abrams Enterprise. Okay. Essentially, I've

got a lot of work to do. I've been playing the

market, as it were, to basically artificially

inflate the pricing, which is kind of messed

up. But it's essentially because I had so much

millions of credits to deal with. I was offloading,

basically buying up all my competition that was

below a certain price point that I wanted to

make up for another price point. Okay. So like

earlier today, I jumped from, I think it was

like 200 and I don't know, 230 million to like

260 million. Just based on the fact that I did

this with, the market and i just kept doing it

and then i kept doing it and then i kept doing

it and um artificially inflating the uh the the

network which again it helped me get rid of them

a lot faster and i was making a decent profit

off them although it's kind of bit me in the

rear in the last like 45 minutes well not 45

minutes but like couple of hours um because now

i have like 45 keys and nobody's buying so oh

that's all right i'll get rid of them uh that's

the nice thing about the market is if you sit

on something long enough the price goes up so

um so yeah i i've I've been sitting on this waiting

for a while. So I originally was trying to get

one particular ship, but I don't see that ever

happening because it's 1 .5 or 1 .1 to 1 .5 billion

in the game right now. So, yeah, I've been essentially,

like I said, just buying up competition. Nice.

So worse. This is kind of like a hybrid of our

first two topics here. I'm not quite sure how

it'll go on, but I kind of want to spotlight

it real quick. It's kind of got video game hooks

and obviously has a big movie hook coming up

here, but have you seen the trailer for Ready

Player One? I have, but I don't know how to feel

about it. Oh, come on. How is there any other

way to feel about that than excited? Like, okay,

forget that. Forget the fact that it's based

off of a book or it's being adapted from something.

But how can you honestly watch that trailer and

be anything but excited? Because I don't really

understand. But just seeing what's in it, like

the nostalgia is so hard. I just, I don't know.

I'm not, I'm not coming down on you. I'm just,

I'm just trying to, you know, I'm just messing

with you, but like, I mean, I read the book and

I really enjoyed the book. And when I, I, you

know, when they, I don't remember if it was like,

I can't, it's chicken egg situation here, but

I don't remember what it was. If it was like

a, who should direct ready player one, or if

it was already, or if I saw this quote after

they announced that Steven Spielberg was directing

the movie. like somewhere I saw the headline

or a line in an article that said the only way

to make the movie of Ready Player One is to get

Steven Spielberg to direct it because all he

has to do is ask to use a certain property and

like sure that's a cool quote like from an article

like when you when you're reading about like

they're gearing up to make this movie but then

when you see the trailer and you see how true

that actually is like and were you excited for

wreck it ralph like when you saw the trailer

for it like yeah i mean i guess i should i should

probably go back and watch it and kind of dissect

it and see what's in each scene yeah i mean because

i i really wasn't i was looking at it like without

a magnifying glass on essentially yeah yeah no

i get that like if you're if you just see if

you just watch it once and you have no idea what

it what the book even really is or what's actually

going on it kind of just like flies by you but

and granted i did the iconic stuff sticks out

right like the delorean oh yeah that i obviously

that stuff sticks out but I watched a breakdown

that Slashfilm did, which was, let's tear down

this movie frame by frame, this trailer, and

see what's in it. And they point out stuff like

Duke Nukem and the gun from, or like a guy from

Doom, and a gun from Halo, the DeLorean, the

demon car from Christine. bigfoot the monster

truck bigfoot the motorcycle from akira uh dumbledore

um deadshot and harley quinn and like they they

point all this stuff out then you just have to

like go back and you have to you just dig into

it and then it just becomes like like i watched

the first time and i was like i already knew

i was gonna see the movie because i like the

book right and when i watched the trailer the

first time i was like that's a pretty cool trailer

definitely a comic -con trailer right but it

was still a cool trailer and then i read the

breakdown and then i went back and watched it

again and i just got the feels like all over

again like i was just so excited for for for

the movie like i just think it looks in a sense

it kind of reminds me of tron well that's essentially

what it is um Only it's, I mean, where Tron,

you're actually going into the computer and you're

looking at the subsystems. Like, this just, Ready

Player One has more to do with virtual reality.

So, they don't really get into this too much

in the trailer, but there's a company that has,

like, the two heads of the company are very much

like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. And they create

this system called the Oasis, which is this massive

online role -playing game that it starts out

like every other MMO, but then it adapts and

evolves to support virtual reality, which means

now you can actually be in the game and you can

take on like personas and there's different worlds

that you can go to and all the worlds are themed

after something. so like you could go to like

a doom world or like a tomb raider world or a

batman world and when you go there like everyone

there is role -playing as like a batman character

you know it's like that's that that's kind of

what it is um and they all like come together

and just real quick i have to give a quick shout

out how in my opinion it's freaking awesome that

they get to use the iron giant um in in ready

player one especially since i know what the iron

giant is going to be used for that's awesome

so um but they so the guy one of the creators

of the oasis he passes away and he leaves like

it ends up being like a willy wonka style thing

where he leaves his entire he leaves the company

to whoever can this easter egg that he planted

in the oasis okay so there's like the evil company

that like it kind of ends up being like an allegory

if you will to like net neutrality so the oasis

is this place that functions only on the internet

and it's all free and people can go there and

you can work there you can do whatever you want

there but oasis doesn't own the infrastructure

but it drives a lot of people there And so the

company that actually provides the internet service,

you know, they want to find this Easter egg because

they want control of the Oasis for themselves

so they can monetize it and just destroy it.

Right. And so that's what in the trailer, all

the, like the, the group of generic people that

you see, like get in the cars when it flips over

to that rush song. Those are all people that

are working for the company that's trying to

bring down the Oasis. They have teams of people

scouring the Oasis looking for these Easter eggs.

Then you have other people that are the main

characters in the story. They're just super fans

of the creator and they've dissected his entire

life and they've ingested all the things that

he enjoyed from the 80s and the 90s. like they

become super knowledgeable in all all things

related to that era or those eras and i mean

some things from the book probably won't translate

into the movie like there's um one of the tests

that they have to do because it was like a thing

early on it was like a type of a game that was

created where you had to reenact a movie like

scene for scene kind of like uh imagine like

dance dance revolution but for a and like War

Games was that movie so like someone had to take

on the role of Matthew Broderick and they had

to deliver all of his lines like verbatim and

you were like scored and rated like you would

be in like a rock band or a dance dance revolution

so it's just the book is full of stuff like that

and the only way they could have made a movie

like that is if they had gotten someone like

Steven Spielberg and they're going to take liberties

like For example, the Iron Giant, while he's

in the trailer, in the book, the Iron Giant is

Ultraman. Okay. But obviously they changed it

over to be the Iron Giant, which I think is much

cooler. So yeah, I don't know. Watch it again.

Check out a dissection video or an article. And

then watch the trailer again. As a fan of movies

and video games, there's just so much in there

to get excited about and geek over. Lara Croft

is in there. It's going to be really fun to watch.

I'm excited for that one. Yep. Where else do

we want to take it from here? Episode 201. Yeah,

that could be. So, yeah, guys, just let us know

how this episode, how well you liked it, how

well you liked the discussion, what you think

of the concepts for future Altered Geek episodes,

structures, and yeah, so just get a hold of us

on the Twitters. I'm at SCP21. I am at BoothNinja81.

So until next time, get Altered Big Geeky with

the Altered Geeks.