[scifinoir2] Conan was Re: Call for: Worse Saves In SciFi History

2007-12-28 Thread B. Smith
Blasphemy!!! LOL. 

Conan did stuff like that in the books all the time. Conan, Tarzan, 
Doc Savage and other peak humans regularly perform flatout 
seemingly superhuman feats so those have never bugged me.

The only thing that bugged me about the movies was the origin story. 
Conan as a placid slave/gladiator didn't mesh with the book version 
of a wild, skinny youth who:

-Was part of the Cimmerian army that sacked Venarium when he was 15. 
It was a pivotal battle in that universe and only time the Cimmerians 
were united as an army. The destruction of Venarium stopped the 
Aquilonians from expanding into Cimmeria.

-Was captured by the Hyperboreans and enslaved. This lead to his life 
long hatred of them.

-Escaped into the wilderness and promptly started killing zombie 
kings, demi-gods, frost giants and the like. 

Another nitpick: Thulsa Doom was a Kull villain and was totally 
different than his movie namesake. Thoth-Amon was Conan's great 
nemesis. 

As you can see I devoured that stuff when I was a kid. When I grew up 
and found out more about Robert E. howard it dampened my love for the 
stories.



--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Both Conan movie finales. In the first Conan flick (which I love) i 
thought Conan overcoming Thulsa Doom's mental control to chop off his 
head was anticlimactic. He wobbled for a bit, then starts swinging 
the sword. Always feel let down by that one.
 
 And in Conan the Destroyer, the fight with the god at the end is 
just laughable. With the obvious fake lightning and thunder 
(stagehands flickering the lights and hitting metal sheets with 
hammers) Conan jumps on the underworld creature and literally tears 
its mouth open to kill it. Supposed to be a big deal, but seemed 
stupid to me. Who's he supposed to be, Hercules?
 
 -- Original message -- 
 From: Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 
  During our discussion about over the top with bad plot block 
busters, we 
  started talking about over the worse saves in speculative fiction 
  movies. So far two were raised. They are: 
  
  1. Data putting the freakin' Borg *to sleep* to save the day in 
Star 
  Trek Next Generation 
  
  2. How Jeff Goldblum was able to with his Mac laptop and a few 
hours of 
  virus coding couldn't topple the computer system of a 
technologically 
  superior society of interstellar conquerors on the first try in 
  Independence Day 
  
  Got any others 
  
  
  
  Yahoo! Groups Links 
  
  
  
 
 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





Re: [scifinoir2] Conan was Re: Call for: Worse Saves In SciFi History

2007-12-28 Thread KeithBJohnson
okay, okay, i'll give you some of that! But surely you can't defend that scene 
in the second flick when conan defeats the wizard by smashing all his mirrors! 
Was that corny or what? And what kind of idiot wizard lets a guy with a big A 
sword into a room full of breakable glass that's the source of his power?!

When you say you soured on Howard, is that due to a deeper realization of his 
racist views?

-- Original message -- 
From: B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Blasphemy!!! LOL. 

Conan did stuff like that in the books all the time. Conan, Tarzan, 
Doc Savage and other peak humans regularly perform flatout 
seemingly superhuman feats so those have never bugged me.

The only thing that bugged me about the movies was the origin story. 
Conan as a placid slave/gladiator didn't mesh with the book version 
of a wild, skinny youth who:

-Was part of the Cimmerian army that sacked Venarium when he was 15. 
It was a pivotal battle in that universe and only time the Cimmerians 
were united as an army. The destruction of Venarium stopped the 
Aquilonians from expanding into Cimmeria.

-Was captured by the Hyperboreans and enslaved. This lead to his life 
long hatred of them.

-Escaped into the wilderness and promptly started killing zombie 
kings, demi-gods, frost giants and the like. 

Another nitpick: Thulsa Doom was a Kull villain and was totally 
different than his movie namesake. Thoth-Amon was Conan's great 
nemesis. 

As you can see I devoured that stuff when I was a kid. When I grew up 
and found out more about Robert E. howard it dampened my love for the 
stories.

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Both Conan movie finales. In the first Conan flick (which I love) i 
thought Conan overcoming Thulsa Doom's mental control to chop off his 
head was anticlimactic. He wobbled for a bit, then starts swinging 
the sword. Always feel let down by that one.
 
 And in Conan the Destroyer, the fight with the god at the end is 
just laughable. With the obvious fake lightning and thunder 
(stagehands flickering the lights and hitting metal sheets with 
hammers) Conan jumps on the underworld creature and literally tears 
its mouth open to kill it. Supposed to be a big deal, but seemed 
stupid to me. Who's he supposed to be, Hercules?
 
 -- Original message -- 
 From: Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 
  During our discussion about over the top with bad plot block 
busters, we 
  started talking about over the worse saves in speculative fiction 
  movies. So far two were raised. They are: 
  
  1. Data putting the freakin' Borg *to sleep* to save the day in 
Star 
  Trek Next Generation 
  
  2. How Jeff Goldblum was able to with his Mac laptop and a few 
hours of 
  virus coding couldn't topple the computer system of a 
technologically 
  superior society of interstellar conquerors on the first try in 
  Independence Day 
  
  Got any others 
  
  
  
  Yahoo! Groups Links 
  
  
  
 
 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[scifinoir2] Conan was Re: Call for: Worse Saves In SciFi History

2007-12-28 Thread B. Smith
Agreed on that scene and yes Howard's views soured me on his work. He 
may not have been a rabid racist like H. P. Lovecraft or Jackkk 
London but he was a man of his time. Plus his close friendship with 
that repugnant troll Lovecraft raised all sorts of flags.

He actually had some decent black characters and Conan never showed a 
shred of racist behavior on page but I can't really get past his 
personal views. 



--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 okay, okay, i'll give you some of that! But surely you can't defend 
that scene in the second flick when conan defeats the wizard by 
smashing all his mirrors! Was that corny or what? And what kind of 
idiot wizard lets a guy with a big A sword into a room full of 
breakable glass that's the source of his power?!
 
 When you say you soured on Howard, is that due to a deeper 
realization of his racist views?
 
 -- Original message -- 
 From: B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 Blasphemy!!! LOL. 
 
 Conan did stuff like that in the books all the time. Conan, Tarzan, 
 Doc Savage and other peak humans regularly perform flatout 
 seemingly superhuman feats so those have never bugged me.
 
 The only thing that bugged me about the movies was the origin 
story. 
 Conan as a placid slave/gladiator didn't mesh with the book version 
 of a wild, skinny youth who:
 
 -Was part of the Cimmerian army that sacked Venarium when he was 
15. 
 It was a pivotal battle in that universe and only time the 
Cimmerians 
 were united as an army. The destruction of Venarium stopped the 
 Aquilonians from expanding into Cimmeria.
 
 -Was captured by the Hyperboreans and enslaved. This lead to his 
life 
 long hatred of them.
 
 -Escaped into the wilderness and promptly started killing zombie 
 kings, demi-gods, frost giants and the like. 
 
 Another nitpick: Thulsa Doom was a Kull villain and was totally 
 different than his movie namesake. Thoth-Amon was Conan's great 
 nemesis. 
 
 As you can see I devoured that stuff when I was a kid. When I grew 
up 
 and found out more about Robert E. howard it dampened my love for 
the 
 stories.
 
 --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, KeithBJohnson@ wrote:
 
  Both Conan movie finales. In the first Conan flick (which I love) 
i 
 thought Conan overcoming Thulsa Doom's mental control to chop off 
his 
 head was anticlimactic. He wobbled for a bit, then starts swinging 
 the sword. Always feel let down by that one.
  
  And in Conan the Destroyer, the fight with the god at the end 
is 
 just laughable. With the obvious fake lightning and thunder 
 (stagehands flickering the lights and hitting metal sheets with 
 hammers) Conan jumps on the underworld creature and literally tears 
 its mouth open to kill it. Supposed to be a big deal, but seemed 
 stupid to me. Who's he supposed to be, Hercules?
  
  -- Original message -- 
  From: Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) tdlists@ 
  
   During our discussion about over the top with bad plot block 
 busters, we 
   started talking about over the worse saves in speculative 
fiction 
   movies. So far two were raised. They are: 
   
   1. Data putting the freakin' Borg *to sleep* to save the day 
in 
 Star 
   Trek Next Generation 
   
   2. How Jeff Goldblum was able to with his Mac laptop and a few 
 hours of 
   virus coding couldn't topple the computer system of a 
 technologically 
   superior society of interstellar conquerors on the first try in 
   Independence Day 
   
   Got any others 
   
   
   
   Yahoo! Groups Links 
   
   
   
  
  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 
 
 
  
 
 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





Re: [scifinoir2] Conan was Re: Call for: Worse Saves In SciFi History

2007-12-28 Thread KeithBJohnson
I know little about Lovecraft other than references to him in everything from 
Clive Barker's work to the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. He was a bigot?  I heard 
that about Jack London, but didn't know it was that bad.

-- Original message -- 
From: B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Agreed on that scene and yes Howard's views soured me on his work. He 
may not have been a rabid racist like H. P. Lovecraft or Jackkk 
London but he was a man of his time. Plus his close friendship with 
that repugnant troll Lovecraft raised all sorts of flags.

He actually had some decent black characters and Conan never showed a 
shred of racist behavior on page but I can't really get past his 
personal views. 

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 okay, okay, i'll give you some of that! But surely you can't defend 
that scene in the second flick when conan defeats the wizard by 
smashing all his mirrors! Was that corny or what? And what kind of 
idiot wizard lets a guy with a big A sword into a room full of 
breakable glass that's the source of his power?!
 
 When you say you soured on Howard, is that due to a deeper 
realization of his racist views?
 
 -- Original message -- 
 From: B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 Blasphemy!!! LOL. 
 
 Conan did stuff like that in the books all the time. Conan, Tarzan, 
 Doc Savage and other peak humans regularly perform flatout 
 seemingly superhuman feats so those have never bugged me.
 
 The only thing that bugged me about the movies was the origin 
story. 
 Conan as a placid slave/gladiator didn't mesh with the book version 
 of a wild, skinny youth who:
 
 -Was part of the Cimmerian army that sacked Venarium when he was 
15. 
 It was a pivotal battle in that universe and only time the 
Cimmerians 
 were united as an army. The destruction of Venarium stopped the 
 Aquilonians from expanding into Cimmeria.
 
 -Was captured by the Hyperboreans and enslaved. This lead to his 
life 
 long hatred of them.
 
 -Escaped into the wilderness and promptly started killing zombie 
 kings, demi-gods, frost giants and the like. 
 
 Another nitpick: Thulsa Doom was a Kull villain and was totally 
 different than his movie namesake. Thoth-Amon was Conan's great 
 nemesis. 
 
 As you can see I devoured that stuff when I was a kid. When I grew 
up 
 and found out more about Robert E. howard it dampened my love for 
the 
 stories.
 
 --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, KeithBJohnson@ wrote:
 
  Both Conan movie finales. In the first Conan flick (which I love) 
i 
 thought Conan overcoming Thulsa Doom's mental control to chop off 
his 
 head was anticlimactic. He wobbled for a bit, then starts swinging 
 the sword. Always feel let down by that one.
  
  And in Conan the Destroyer, the fight with the god at the end 
is 
 just laughable. With the obvious fake lightning and thunder 
 (stagehands flickering the lights and hitting metal sheets with 
 hammers) Conan jumps on the underworld creature and literally tears 
 its mouth open to kill it. Supposed to be a big deal, but seemed 
 stupid to me. Who's he supposed to be, Hercules?
  
  -- Original message -- 
  From: Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) tdlists@ 
  
   During our discussion about over the top with bad plot block 
 busters, we 
   started talking about over the worse saves in speculative 
fiction 
   movies. So far two were raised. They are: 
   
   1. Data putting the freakin' Borg *to sleep* to save the day 
in 
 Star 
   Trek Next Generation 
   
   2. How Jeff Goldblum was able to with his Mac laptop and a few 
 hours of 
   virus coding couldn't topple the computer system of a 
 technologically 
   superior society of interstellar conquerors on the first try in 
   Independence Day 
   
   Got any others 
   
   
   
   Yahoo! Groups Links 
   
   
   
  
  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 
 
 
 
 
 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]