iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Holy shit.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 4h

That could be interesting, definitely, tho the timeline is a bit confusing due to differences between Fall of Reach (book) and Reach (game) which are contradictory. I just think going forward and having a fresh start would be best; let the past be the past and start where you have a clean slate.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 5h

And if you want to win over lapsed Halo fans, announcing "the 343 games didn't happen" would be a pretty quick way to garner goodwill, since the one thing that unifies the fandom is "the 343-era stories make no sense and shouldn't have happened."

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 5h

Just treat the Bungie games as Old Testament - it happened, but long in the past - and start fresh from there. Halo 3 ended in such an open way, you could jump a century ahead with Chief being unfrozen and basically have free rein to do whatever you want.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 5h

Halo definitely needs a reboot, no question - the continuity is so gnarled and broken there's basically nowhere to go - but a Master Chief origin story is very fucking dumb. Honestly, an alternative Halo 4 - where he and Cortana wake up in deep space for a new adventure - might be the best option.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 5h

Yes, but it's VERY long. It does a good job introducing all its mechanics, and it's not particularly difficult or punishing - but it's an enormous game. If you just want to get your feet wet to see if you like FE, Engage is the best of the Switch era for that. Or just the GBA games on the NSO app.

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mcc @dryad.technology · 04/10/2026

Have you noticed, lately, or noticed people around you commenting, that there just seems to be no money anymore. There's no money for companies to make the tv shows you like, the video games you like, the local diner you like shut down, no one you know can find a job. Think about that in context of

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 19h

I still think that Switch 1 version is miraculous - particularly in handheld, it genuinely looks very good on its own terms - but having a fully current-gen version of the game with full feature parity on Switch 2 is awesome. You can't really ask for more.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 19h

One big upside of that is you can still play the Switch 1 code if you want - they're just fully separate apps, with CDPR's cloud save system allowing cross-progression. So if the Remaster's artistic/mechanical changes aren't to your liking, the original isn't messed with in any way.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 19h

Also just a tremendously generous upgrade. I have the physical Switch 1 cart, and it just fully gives you a digital license for the Switch 2 game, with no cartridge needed after redemption. I loaned the cart to my brother and he got the license too, no issues at all.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 19h

Witcher 3 Remastered on Switch 2 is the biggest graphical upgrade from one generation to the next I've ever seen, on any set of platforms. It's absolutely crazy - Switch 2 really leapfrogs the PS4 version to now look much more like the PS5, albeit at 30-40fps instead of 60. Looks amazing.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Granted my “circle” is largely full of critics and academic types who are generally interested in cinema and experimentation…but still, it’s interesting how that didn’t translate to most of the mainstream outlets reviewing this one.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I honestly had perhaps the most mixed reaction in my circle. For the most part, people seem to appreciate the giant swing more than they’re turned off by it. Rare case where audiences seem to enjoy an “art film” more than professional critics. www.jonathanlack.com/p/review-ina...

jonathanlack.com

Review: Iñárritu’s “Digger” is a broken movie for a broken world

A review in two parts

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

FWIW, basically everyone I follow on Letterboxd liked or loved DIGGER. It’s got an overall 3.8 on the platform - exactly the same as the much more positively-reviewed RESIDENT EVIL. Take that for what you will, but this isn’t being universally panned by those seeing it.

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

republicans: we are nazis media: do democrats have a Hasan Piker Bin Laden problem?

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I’m catching up on Season 2 of THE REHEARSAL ahead of the new Nathan Fielder doc this month, and I honestly think the Sully episode has got to be one of the 4 or 5 best things broadcast on American TV this century. Absolutely transcendent stuff. I am utterly in awe of it.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If ABBA had recorded this song in the 70s it would have topped the charts and later shown up in both Mamma Mia movies.

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Aaron Hammond @aaronhammond88.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The Ellisons are doomed to fail because they’re in so much debt that they can only make mega-hits but they’re also going to insist that all of these movies be devoid of woke and play to Middle America and that’s just completely unsustainable

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Anyway, a movie culture without the possibility of insane overpriced whiffs will be a less healthy movie culture, and I'll eat these words the day that I can say that David Ellison has taken at least three big creative gambles, but I'm not holding my breath. x

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

100% right. If you don’t take risks, you never get good movies. Period. The 2020s has bounced back theatrically on the back of *risky*, interesting films, not just Spider-Man. You don’t have to like Digger, but what it stands for - a big-budget auteurist swing - is unambiguously good.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Seriously: Hate Digger all you want, but [pauses for flow of hate] movies like Digger are why we need studios. A world in which Digger doesn't get made one in which Sinners and One Battle also don't get made. You miss with Heaven's Gate and you still swung. You miss with Paw Patrol and you >

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Most of the beltway shares the same ideology as university administrators/trustees: "my job is to justify the whims and abuses of the rich and powerful." That's why the five members of Cornell's "External Advisory Board" for their report included David Brooks and an AEI scumbag.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I actually think if you’re trying to identify the mainstream movie that says the most about the culture of that awful, decadent, xenophobic decade, it probably is Transformers (maybe Revenge of the Fallen). There are no films more *of* the Bush-era 2000s than those.

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Waschesalon Grammy Campaign Manager @reginageorgebush.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A24 accidentally and unwillingly becoming one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates in America by being the only people who are aware that highbrow liberals spend more money than anyone else

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The headline sounds horrible and gross, but the actual details are much more technical and wonky - nothing particularly objectionable here. They're not promising to turn RE Engine into an AI slop machine.

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is a profound violation not just of journalistic ethics, but basic human decency

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Every new detail about this is so sickening. It seems like the DA just fully shrugged this off without giving it a second’s thought - and then lied to the world about it. Very glad Kathy Hochul took it out of his hands (and did very so publicly without mincing words).

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Nicole is a leading expert on the issue of campus sexual violence. I am floored that USA Today would do this to her. I find this kind of journalistic behavior unethical and morally reprehensible, twisting an interview with a renowned advocate for survivors into a hit piece against a survivor.

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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Expect projects like this to become rare. WB and Paramount are being folded into Skydance. Evidence of their unique corporate identities will get scrubbed, as when Disney took over Fox. And the recent execs who were barely interested in history are being replaced with people who have zero interest.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

That said, I would not be surprised if there’s a scene in Doomsday where they kill off Shang-Chi, Ms Marvel, Monica Rambeau, America Chavez, and all the other heroes they’ve introduced and then completely ignored who also all just coincidentally happen to be non-white characters.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Avengers Infinity War/Endgame had 5 major deaths (Black Widow, Iron Man, Loki, Gamora, Vision) and literally all of those actors continued in the MCU, all but one (RDJ) in the same role. Vision show is coming out *this month.* Loki is in the Endgame re-release. Death means nothing.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hollywood has been absolutely abysmal at playing the long game, and it's fucking almost everyone right now. If you aren't making investments in talent, even and especially risky ones, you aren't preparing for the future - you're just making it to the next quarter. That strategy doesn't work.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They have been successful at that. A $125 million bomb is worth swallowing as reputational cost if it allows you to keep the big filmmakers whose movies make bank. Again: the shortsightedness of the last regime led to WB missing out on both Oppenheimer and The Odyssey, and a combined $2.5 billion.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is going to be reported in the context of DIGGER bombing this weekend, but let's be clear: One or even a few bombs does not an unsuccessful tenure make. Part of Abdy/De Luca's missive was to restore WB's relationship with filmmakers post-COVID, when they lost people like Christopher Nolan.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Insanity. The reason WB as a films division is worth buying in 2026 is because of these two, who just ran the tables at the Oscars a few months ago. A very clear indication Skydance wants no part of this “art” bullshit.

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

Drew McWeeny @drewmcweeny.com · 02/10/2026

Disastrous decisions right off the bat. Fuck Skydance. Warner Bros. is cooking these days under these two, who genuinely like movies and love making them. This is a great indicator that this merger is going to ruin EVERYTHING.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My DIGGER review contains "spoilers," but in this case 'spoilers' just means "the actual premise of the movie, which has been hidden in advertising for reasons I don't really understand," and you might actually enjoy the film more knowing it going in. In any case you can't discuss the film w/o them.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Between JD Vance and these chucklefucks, a lotta rich fascist assholes assuming the Pope is as craven and for sale as they are, and absolutely flummoxed by the idea of someone who actually has principles they’ve thought about for more than 5 minutes.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Last night I started writing about DIGGER, and I couldn’t stop. I don’t know if this movie is “good,” but it got a pretty complicated, deep reaction out of me. Here’s the result - www.jonathanlack.com/p/review-ina...

jonathanlack.com

Review: Iñárritu’s “Digger” is a broken movie for a broken world

A review in two parts

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

R. Scott Rogers @arrscott.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

$20 million represents the total income tax payments of 1,053 households. A thousand American families worked full time for a whole year just to pay for Trump’s campaign ads.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Gavin Newsom’s entire political project seems to be acquiring power precisely so he can make sure absolutely nothing is done with it. He is the worst of what Democrats have to offer and we will deservedly be destroyed if we elevate him in any way.

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Reposted by Jonathan Lack

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/10/2026

i suppose i’m not surprised that it is difficult to make people care about something that is low visibility — the vast majority of people have no idea who piker is — and low salience. i think we’re also going to find, for similar reasons, that the anti-trans messaging isn’t working either.

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Xero now with 100% more 🎃 @artificer-ind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Still patiently waiting to be "left behind" by AI rather than it chasing me across every damn space like a slasher in a low budget flick.

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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If you’re not opposed to capital punishment in principle, oppose it in practice.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I've been covering the death penalty in depth for a dozen years now, and few nights have been as disturbing and dispiriting as tonight. This was a moral, ethical, and legal failure on several different fronts from many different actors. It wasn't *just* SCOTUS, though they sure were a key part.

lawdork.com

After SCOTUS allowed Tennessee execution to go ahead, Tennessee botched the execution

SCOTUS, over the liberals’ dissent, cleared the way for Tennessee to kill Christa Pike. The alarming order from DC was followed by even more disturbing developments in Tennessee.

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Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 01/10/2026

It’s banal and useless to point out the hypocrisy of American conservatism. Nevertheless, every justification I have ever been given for capital punishment is predicated on the firm commitment that things like this won’t happen. Monstrous. Shameful. Raze the prisons to the ground.

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Jonathan Lack @jonathanlack.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

After 3 days, this is our best performing Japanimation Station season premiere ever on YouTube. I know they’ve fiddled with view count calculations, but either way it’s doing really well! The People just love them some Zeta Gundam talk! And they’re getting more next week! youtu.be/l9IrKm1FL5A?...

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TOMINO-THON Returns! Mobile Suit ZETA GUNDAM Part 1 – Seeing the Tears of Time | S6E14

YouTube video by Japanimation Station

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KZ @kzxcellent.live · 30/09/2026

Xbox tutoring reporters is the final form of what Phil and co did for PR back in his era Appear on various podcasts, "he's just like us", "he doesn't like console warring" turning the brand into a friend Now its escalated beyond the pale to tutoring the few remaining games outlets into mouthpieces

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