X-Men: Days of Future Past: Sentinels Revealed

     With all Bryan Singer's X-Men advertisement and social media hype, this one actually has me interested- a few pics and a promotional video.  There is now a website for Trask Industries, the creators of the Sentinels that hunt the mutant populace.  This is the first new items that give me a small amount of hope for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

     Most notable is the Sentinel designs and the size compared to human are now shown.  They aren't nearly as bad as I was thinking.  I'm also wondering if we'll get some future designs that won't be shown until after the film is in theaters.  These few images are from the "past" scenes, and one would reason that they would get more advanced as time progresses in the film.  Maybe we'll find a self-aware Master Mold, or possibly even the ultra-futuristic Sentinel Nimrod.

     Although I'm still worried Singer will pull a Brett Ratner with 100 characters being smashed into one film and leaving us with a cameo-palooza instead of a coherent story.  Hopefully he has upped his game since the first two X-men movies, so he can at least compete with more modern superhero films.  Granted he's only really gotta beat X-men: Last Stand and The Wolverine films (more specifically X-men Origins: Wolverine that's a movie that makes David Hasselhoff's Nick Fury and Dolph Lundgren's Punisher look like decent entertainment)

     I know I complain about all the crappy film adaptations of comic stories I love, but this might actually turn out for the better.  Days of Future Past was good at the time, but doesn't hold up well, and stands to possibly benefit from an update.  Then again, how many Hollywood script writers end up crapping out garbage?  I suppose I can just resign myself to disappointment, so if it does turn out awesome I'll be happily surprised.

Nicholas Straight: "The Call" Comic Strip

     My best friend and Drawmit blogger Nick made this for the City Pages comic issue.  Hopefully he gets in- years of work and constant effort should be rewarding him soon.  This particular one is very nice and sums up most artists' struggle with creativity in life.  Too many responsibilities bog us down, and the call is smothered by life's necessities.

The Wolverine: Review: Seriously Marvel- What the F*CK?!?

     After seeing this new Wolverine film, I have to openly say- Marvel, please take off the kiddie gloves.  It's time to grow the F*CK up.  This is Wolverine, Marvel Comics' most bad ass person.  He's supposed to be the "best there is," and what he does is kill, not mope in teenage angst in the rain.

     !!! SPOILER WARNING !!!

     This is my quick summary of the movie:

     This film was supposed to be based on the Wolverine run by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.  Upon viewing the movie, that statement had to have been made with the loosest possible meaning.  It's like they took the story, and instead of reading it, took some kids retelling of it, and then wiped their asses with the pages they never actually read.  Who is OKing these scripts?!?

     Why do the film makers insist on showing Wolverine as this overly regretful man that insists his immortality is some horrible burden?  Sure he's aging slower, but he's only around 120 years old.  Stop focusing on his grieving and move the f**k on.  Have Apocalypse show up and tell Wolverine to go f**k himself, Apocalypse is THOUSANDS of years old.  Deal with it.

     This was a chance to take the character and show him at his best and worst.  Show him learning the art of being a "Ronin" and the process and dedication that sticks with him later on in life.  Show the growth that a man who has been an animalistic killer can become a man of honor.  Show him become the ronin he is called many times.

     It also would give viewers a chance to show that, despite all his abilities, an old man can still easily beat him with a single sword.
     That is quite possibly the biggest flub of this film.  The Lord Shingen fight.  Wolverine barely fought the billion ninjas he was supposed to didn't bother me nearly as much.  Sure he got some Yakuza slaying done, but Shingen was where this movie could've shone.
     They cut the fundamental moments out of this historic battle to make room for an absurd Silver Samurai (mechanical suit) duel.  Why?  Absolutely ridiculous. 
     The Shingen fight in the comics showed Wolverine being systematically sliced up.  Cutting up nerves and stabbing vital organs, Shingen's skill makes Wolverine look like a child.  This is how it should've been handled, not like the film did it. (See pic below)

     Should I even mention that Viper could have, and very well SHOULD have been cut from the film?  And the strange robot insects that attach to hearts were unnecessary.  If they had the tech to subdue Wolverine's healing factor, theoretically they should be able to duplicate the power as well. 

     In all honesty, I would've loved to see how Darren Aronofsky would have handled this story.  I can only imagine he would have done Claremont and Miller justice, and created something along the lines of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series.
     Does anyone else think he dropped out due to a crappy script?  They blew a chance to display an amazing Japanese culture and it's darker noir underworld.  Once again, I am quite disappointed in the handling of a classic story translated into garbage for money's sake.

Dragon Fantasy Book 1: For PS Vita

     Over the years I've come to the conclusion that I don't really enjoy RPGs.  Mostly due to the mass amounts of grinding to up levels and gear just to handle the absurd difficulty spikes- then repeat the cycle in the next area or part of story.  I gave Dragon Fantasy a go after my brother, who is an RPG-aholic, told me I would actually like this one.

     Well, he was correct, I did like this one.  Firstly, because while there was tedious grinding, it was much less than the games of the 8 bit era it is emulating.  Secondly, the game has a great sense of humor.  Sure it gets highly repetitive, but the game is short enough, overall, to overlook the flaws.

     Though I must say I wish there was more exploring and less wading through enemies.  In the first of 3 story parts (and 1 "intermission") it is super annoying that as retired hero Ogden has to grind for an immense amount of time.  Even the smallest enemies hit for a quarter of your life and they appear at a rate of every 2nd step.  If the first chapter was a little bit longer it would be a massive problem.
     There is also an insane amount of missing when attacking.  I counted at one point 17 misses in a row on my party of 4.  That is an unacceptable occurrence. 

     What kept me going is the humor.  There are tons of small references and nods to things in the game.  The first one I found was an enemy early on is a fly called a "Goldblum."  Nice.  It's hard to go wrong with a Jeff Goldblum joke.  There are wolves called "Blitzer," "Steely" Dan desert nomads, and man-eating flowers named Audrey.

     But my personal favorite is in a dungeon, I came across a Troy and Abed from NBC's Community reference- more specifically an Inspector Space-Time and Constable Reggie reference.  Very nice. 

Troy and Abed in 8 Bits!

     If they keep up the humor and tone down the grinding the part 2 could be a much better installment.  And fix the rate of missing for attacks.  A 25% chance of missing is ridiculous.

Remember Me: Sadly Lacking Despite Great Ideas

     Remember Me could've been so much more.  It had the balls to start something truly interesting, create a dystopian future world that was interesting on a level I haven't seen too often, but it failed to deliver on the scope.  A future of commercialized memories.

     As Nilin, a "Memory Hunter" that can enter and actively change subtle things in someone's memory, such as moving a table a mere foot into someone's path, causing a completely new chain of events and subsequently creating a divergent memory.  Nilin has a unique ability to CHANGE MEMORIES and thus CHANGE PEOPLE, but the creators of the game only gave us 4 times to really use it.  This is a grand premise to begin with.  Only it isn't developed properly.  It fails because it lacks a singular purpose.  What could've been done if this memory remixing was the focus.  Make a stealth game where you can alter a guard's memory to sneak past.  A game that in the end you've become your own problem because while you may have wiped enemy minds, you've also erased things imperative to your own survival- maybe someone had idea's to assist you, but in changing the memory you are now an unknown or an enemy? 

     I wonder what kind of game could've been made if they had left out much of the cheap and linear platforming.  Neo Paris, despite it's ludicrous name, is an intriguing place.  Maybe some exploration might've added to the experience, maybe not.  If they would've made it more open world and less restricted Remember Me could've been just a little bit better.
     Bland combat systems became an annoyance too.  It's not terrible, just dull.  Even the adaptable combos that allow you to tailor to your needs (you can add power hits, health regeneration, cooldown additions, etc) and it still gets to be just a bit too tedious by the 60% complete mark.  Combat is unremarkable at best, boring at worst.  Honestly, the worst enemy in combat was the camera.  It got all wonky on a regular basis, and would seemingly at random look away from the attackers I needed to see to dodge.  It's damn frustrating when the camera is constantly working against you.


     What I did like in this game was actually a few things.  I really like the main character Nilin's design.  She has the major potential to be quite a new Lara Croft level badass.
     The "Remembranes" are a nice addition as well- strange ghost like memories other people leave that you can access.
     Lastly- I REALLY like the Zorn robot design.  Especially the roar it does, because when it happens an old black & white, grainy film looking yelling mouth hologram is projected.  Strange, but I like it anyway.

     When you boil it down, Remember Me isn't bad, it just doesn't live up to it's concepts.  The comic book I got with the preorder was better at handling the ideas than the game.  If they somehow get the backing for a sequel, they can do this story justice, and maybe they can put the wonderful potential in this game to use.

     On a side note: I wonder why they didn't go with this concept art design of Nilin?  I like it much better than what they went with, clothing wise.

Knights of Badassdom FINALLY Getting Released

     I recall hearing about this like 2 years ago and totally forgot about it- and now they are getting an actual release.  The Knights of Badassdom is an indie comedy/fantasy film about LARP-ers (live-action role players) that accidentally summon a succubus demon into real life.  Now that I've seen the trailer I really want to see this.

     Starring in this are the ever amazing Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Firefly's Summer Glau, Danny Pudi of Community fame, True Blood's Ryan Kwanten, and Steve Zahn.  Just Steve Zahn.
      Written by Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall, and directed by Joe Lynch.


Source [ Deadline ]

Star Trek 3: New Writers and Thoughts

     By the looks of it, according to the rumor mill, Bad Robot has found a new set of writers for Star Trek 3.  The new duo of Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz may be up to the job.  They've previously done Thor, X-Men: First Class, and worked on Fringe, Andromeda, and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.  Not too bad, at all.

     By no means is this a done deal, but I suppose Paramount wants it done kind of swiftly to get the next film out in time for the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek in 2016.

     While this could be amazing news, seeing as all my big complaints about the new Star Trek movies are directly related to crappy storytelling, we still need to be wary.  Two of the old writing team (Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci) are still attached as producers, but they may still have some writing sway.
     Now I don't mean to slam Damon Lindelof, but he really, REALLY needs an editor, and I'm fairly pleased that he's been removed right now.  He's a great idea man, but he fails to keep things cohesive.  Does anyone know what the hell was going on in that giant mess called Lost?  And by god, he ruined far more than he helped with John Spaihts' Prometheus script.  Mystery is not created by simply eliminating parts of a story!

     They started the J.J. Abrams Trek series reboot with a brilliant plan- altering the path of Trek history.  To boldly go in new directions.  Instead we got a ridiculously homage filled slog with Into Darkness.  The homages are nice, but it shouldn't be the focus.  What's the purpose of changing the history if they continually repeat what's been done before?!?

     Everyone knows the opening monologue:

"Space.  The final frontier.  These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.  Her 5 year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations.  To boldly go where no man has gone before."

     Where is this wonder and exploration now?  It seems to have been replaced with special effects and rushed, shoddy storytelling.
     Shouldn't they be shooting for something more?  Other Trek writer's knew this.  Think of this amazing quote from the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale "All Good Things."

Capt. Picard: I sincerely hope that this is the last time that I find myself here. 

Q: You just don't get it, do you, Jean-Luc? The trial never ends. We wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons. And for one brief moment, you did.

Capt. Picard: When I realized the paradox.

Q: Exactly. For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.

     This is what the new writing team should always keep in mind- it's what I believe to be one of the most important quotes in any of the Star Treks.  This is the ideal in storytelling that the new teams should strive for- particularly Q's last statement about possibilities.

     The current writer's have got the characters all nailed down, but they lack something important to the story itself- plot.  The movies feel like a loosely held together series of implausible events that ended up as a sort of Rube Goldberg sci-fi film.  Don't neglect the potential of this untrod path.  Take chances.  Make the stories matter by charting those unknowns.


Source [ Badass Digest ]

The Name of the Wind Coming to Television (Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles)

Still My Favorite Cover

     It sounds terrible, but Patrick Rothfuss' series The Kingkiller Chronicles has been optioned by New Regency Productions and 20th Century Fox, and I am a bit dismayed.  I should be excited, but with the history of books adapted for the small screen- 9 times out of 10 they are terrible.

     I absolutely love the first 2 books, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, but with the poor quality adaptations that get put up make me fearful, and I am NO wise man to be sure.  Some would argue, "What about Game of Thrones?"  Well- that series is run by HBO, they have a much larger budget and generally better quality of all their productions.

     It doesn't help that Eric Heisserer (The Thing remake, Hours, and Final Destination 5) is listed to adapt it for the screen.  Really.  Re-read those movies.  I don't have much faith in this adaptation as of now.  Granted, I could be completely wrong and it could turn out to be a staggeringly great work, but right now- no, I do not believe it will be.
     And I've heard rumors of Felicia Day wanting to play Auri.  Honestly, I like Miss Day in a lot of stuff, but don't believe she would be quite right as Auri.  Once again, I could be very wrong- if she somehow manages the part, she could be brilliant, but I think they should cast all unknowns.

     In the mean time, while we await the 3rd installment- going under the working title The Doors of Stone (set to release 2014)- I look forward to seeing what will come of this televised version. 

     To Mr. Rothfuss, take your time, no rush- we will wait for whatever you write.  On the plus side, you're still twice as fast as George R.R. Martin.


     In the mean time I'll be thinking of small blog posts to toss out ideas I  have about the books- such as Kvothe's thrice-locked chest.  I believe Kvothe locked part of himself inside and subsequently changed his name to Kote.  Names hold great power in this world and it would make sense that he would, or could, lock away a portion of himself perhaps a part of his name itself) to protect someone or something.  Which would explain his problems with Sympathy (magic) and why he has a hard time with even small magic as Kote that would've been effortless years before while Kvothe.
     It's even more plausible as he sort of did the same thing when he was attempting to hide his past from people in Tarbean- hiding himself and slowly losing power.  Another example would be tied to his parents deaths and the Door of Forgetting.
     Or... what if he locked another being in the chest?
     As it has been quite a while since I read them, I may need to re-read them as a refresher.

     Note: This may be of slight comedic coincidence, but after a quick run of the Spellchecker, only names appeared as misspelled.  Nice.

The Huh Gets A Palindrome

     Came on to type up some more things, and get some blogger drafts edited and I found that the number of site hits was a palindrome.  Nothing special, and not even close to a vast amount- but thank you for anyone that has swung by and read what I've posted.  There's a ton of crap to sift through. 

     Seriously, thank you.

     Also, 256 of the 728 posts are drafts.  Some go back as far as 2008.

BBC's Sherlock: How Sherlock Survived the Fall...

     As one of many BBC Sherlock lovers, I am quite curious as to how Sherlock survived the plummet to his concrete doom in season 2's finale: The Reichenbach Fall.

     Molly seemed to be the pivotal, but overlooked, key to survival.  Did they use body swapping?  Forcing our expectations to believe something we thought we "saw?"  Hidden airbags or exoskeletons?   

     Anyway Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive video with Benedict Cumberbatch describing how he survived- and it's  a wonderfully hilarious explanation at that:

“F**k it, I’m going to tell you how Sherlock survived … I know you guys like your spoilers and I feel so much better telling you. Freedom!”

Check out the video here [ Entertainment Weekly ]

     By the looks of it, it involves stuffed monkeys, tricking snipers, a phone call, sad faces, and some tea.  Talk about a genius writing!  Brilliant stuff even if we must still wait.