Jessica Jones: New Nightcap Teaser: She's Got a Bad Reputation

     After the nice "It's Time" teaser (that looks like it'll be the opening credits sequence) and the subtle"Good Morning" trailer, we get another hilarious snippet for the upcoming Jessica Jones series brought to us via the combined super team of Marvel and Netflix.

     Krystin Ritter stars as the titular heroine, who's powers are being shown through these great teaser trailers.  The show will also star Mike Colter as Luke Cage and David Tennant as Zebediah "The Purple Man" Killgrave.

     The entire Jessica Jones series will premiere on Netflix on Nov. 20th.

New X-Files: Revival Trailer Promo: The Truth is Still Out There

     Debuting Sunday Jan. 24th, 2016 and continuing on Monday the 25th The X-Files will be reopened in a 2 part special. This premiere event is kicking off a 6 episode mini-series of the return of famed FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

     The series marks the return of creator Chris Carter, David Duchovney, and Gillian Anderson in a great chance to make us believe once more that the truth is really out there.

Heroes Reborn: Enigma Update & Release Announced

     With the Heroes Reborn series having begun, the previously announced video games (Enigma and Gemini) from Imperative Entertainment are on their way to players hands.  Each game is a stand alone story in the world of Heroes with connections to each other and the larger story, but players can come in new without needing to worry about the television show's history.

Enigma:

     Heroes Reborn: Enigma allows players to become Dahlia, an EVO, using her powers of teleportation and time manipulation to escape a secret government facility called The Quarry.  The game is a first-person action-puzzler where you must use your abilities to traverse the complex environmental designs of The Quarry.  It sounds like we'll be playing someone very much like the fan-favorite, series regular Hiro Nakamura in a place that looks a bit like Portal's Aperture Science laboratories.

     The game is made with the Unreal Engine 4 so we can expect some decent visuals for a mobile title, and the story was written under the supervision of Heroes creator Tim Kring.  It will serve as an extension of the Reborn series and will be an experience all on its own.

     Heroes Reborn: Enigma will be available for Android & iOS on Oct. 8th for $5.99.

Gemini:

     Heroes Reborn: Gemini, Enigma's counterpoint, will focus on Dahlia's sister Cassandra.  It is "an entirely different" game that will be coming to PC and consoles at an unannounced later date.

Reborn:

     Heroes Reborn airs Thurs. 8pm on NBC.

Jessica Jones: Marvel & Netflix's First Actual-Footage Trailer: Good Morning

     Netflix & Marvel gave us a small bit of a tease with the release date announcement trailer not too long ago, and now we get a real footage trailer. It shows off just a small amount of her powers, but it is entertaining enough to keep me wanting more.

     "After a tragic ending to her short-lived Super Hero stint, Jessica Jones is rebuilding her personal life and career as a detective who gets pulled into cases in New York City. It's time the world knew her name..."

     Following hot on the heels of the awesome Daredevil series, Jessica Jones will showcase more of the lower case (super) heroes on the streets of the Marvel universe. The series will be continued with Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and will all culminate in a group-centered Defenders series with all the players on a single team.

     Jessica Jones will premiere all episodes on Netflix November 20th.

Josh News Update: Poetry City, USA

     Just a small update here, today is my last official day as an intern editor for Poetry City, USA. It was a great experience and I got to read a ton of poems and meet a truly ludicrous number of highly talented poets. The finished project, Poetry City, USA Vol 5 will be debuting at the Twin Cities Book Festival.

Looky at the cover pic I took! 

     The day long Twin Cities Book Festival is a free event located at the Minnesota State Fair grounds on October 17th, from 10am to 5pm. I would recommend anyone that enjoys books or writing to swing through.
     Previous volumes are available via Amazon for anyone interested, and I'll update the blog when the new product is available.

     [ UPDATE ] Here is the link to Amazon for Poetry City, Vol. 5.
          (Disclaimer- I do NOT make any money off of this)

     As for my own prose on poetry piece in the journal, my favorite part was cut. It makes sense as the journal can only be so long. It went from 4 pages to 2 pages, and then down to a single page. No worries though, I'll find another use for it. Here is that small clip from what was cut:

     "Some poetry can be experimental, taking strange and new approaches- a Jackson Pollack filling a shotgun and splattering words across a canvas.  Some find form to be the perfect way to go- like Michelangelo carving the image out of a block of marble.  Did he do the same for his poetry?  Chiseling a massive dictionary down, page by page, to just the right words befitting the ideal piece of work it contained within."

     I really liked the imagery, and honestly, it's how I work when writing- as my background is primarily in the visual arts like painting, drawing, and graphic design. It was the only part of my piece I really, really liked, it stayed in from the very first draft all the way up until the last draft. Although, I'm already working on another piece for a small work of my own with this particular chunk so maybe it'll see print one day in a chapbook or something.

     Seriously, there were so many amazing submissions, it would've been great to print them all.

     Official Site [ Poetry City, USA ]  [ Facebook Page ]

Star Wars: Heroes Path: Review

"A long time ago, on an iPad far, far away..."

     Star Wars: Heroes Path is another game with unavoidable similarities to Hitman GO. As simply put as possible, Heroes Path is a tiled, turn-based puzzle game covering the events of the first film, Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. The plot as a whole follows many key scenes and only in the end of the game does it take an intriguing turn, where you actually control an X-Wing instead of a character.

"Heroes Path Spaceport. You'll never find a more bland game of dull mediocrity."

     Heroes Path is a game of strategy. Simple movements in taking turns moving around a digital board and using what skills or abilities the current character has to find ways around enemies. New elements get added regularly like moving tiles or transport tubes to "teleport" you to another place. But nothing truly clever or imaginative. All the levels feel half-assed, like they focused on the Midi-chlorians instead of letting the Force be mysterious and work its magic. None of the puzzles are that difficult, although there is a very moderate replayability through the use of a star collecting system. Each level has 3 star goals, some of which can only be obtained by a single way through solving the level's puzzle forcing you to replay it in a different way for another star. A cheap way to extend the length of playtime.

     What the game has going for it is slim. The graphics are decent, and although I really enjoy the art style, the animations are merely average at best. A more stylized look, or smoother animations could've done wonders here. To be fair though, there are nice comic book-ish cut scenes that are handled well enough.
     Being a Star Wars game, the sound design is top notch. Everything sounds accurate effects-wise and the music is great. Honestly, I don't recall any Star Wars games with poor sound effects or music, and that is including the really cheesy old games like the vector graphics arcade game.
     The controls are adequate. Nothing amazing or notable, and I must note a couple times when the moves I attempted didn't register and the character just sat there. A small annoyance.

"That's no game, it's a cash grab."

     The biggest issue with the game is actually with the IAPs. When you purchase the game you get a fair amount of levels, but none of the Han Solo or Obi-Wan Kenobi levels included. To play the entirety of the game you have to pay the initial $3.99 (4 characters and 6 chapters), and then another $3.99 to get the remaining 4 chapters (24 levels). There are also purchases for hints on how to solve a puzzle or for extra special abilities for characters to use, a fact made worse by some of the level goals necessitating the use of a special ability.
     This cash grab is a huge slap in the face. The game could've been an easy flat fee of $4.99, with maybe a small fee for extra hints, but this feels like it is purposely withholding parts of the game to make more money. This proves to be a great disturbance in the wallet.

"This isn't the game you are looking for."

     As a lifelong die-hard Star Wars fan, Heroes Path offered roughly 6 hours worth of enjoyable entertainment. As a fan of the game that heavily influenced this, Hitman GO, it gave me a little more joy for my dollar, but only moderately. The best thing the game has going for it is the potential for more levels. They could easily add the other 2 original trilogy films, then the prequels, and maybe even The Force Awakens as future DLC. But because this game is only mediocre it is highly doubtful that any more content will be added.

     Star Wars: Heroes Path is a game I can only recommend to hardcore Star Wars fans, otherwise, just buy Hitman GO, it is a superior game in every way. One would think that if they copied from such a tremendous game, how did this end up so uninspired? And that makes me sad because this game could've held immense potential with better designers. It's clear that this game wasn't made for the players. It's too simple and repetitive, and would've been much more appreciated if it had no damn IAPs, because it's already paid game.

Shane Carruth: Signs with WME for The Modern Ocean

     The exceedingly talented Shane Carruth has officially signed with talent agency WME for his new project. All that is known about the project so far is that the film will be titled The Modern Ocean and is considered to be "nautical action-adventure."

     It will be very interesting to see how he handles his first real big budget film. His previous works, the very mind-bending and experimental Upstream Color and the made with a threadbare budget of $7,000 Primer, were unbelievably well done. Primer is easily one of the greatest time travel films ever made, if not the best itself.
     What he did is even more amazing when you think of the fact that he wrote, directed, starred, and produced them among other things. He pretty much makes the films by himself. His films are made with a distinct style, and have a special something about them that makes them stand apart from the typical low budget fare. This is a cinematic artist of the highest caliber, and whatever he does will likely be amazing.

     If this project goes well I wonder if he'll ever find a producer for the film he had in the works years ago A Topiary? The film once had the backing of Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher. Despite great excitement for the ideas, no studio would help with the 20 million he was asking to make it. Even after dropping the asking price to 14 million, nothing came- so he had to drop the project and move to something else.
     As Tom Bond of One Room with a View put it:

     "To put it as bluntly as possible, A Topiary is the most mind-blowingly ambitious screenplay I have ever read. Working my way through its 245 pages I found myself shaking my head in disbelief every few minutes at the staggering vision on display. A Topiary is at once so complicated it dwarfs anything Primer or Upstream Color attempted and so simple it makes you look at the world around you with new eyes."

     And a similar sentiment is also shown by Carson Reeves over at ScriptShadow:

     "The script can be frustrating and it can feel long at times and it can lose you at others, but it also feels like it was written by someone who knows exactly what they want to do with it and have a clear vision on what it should look like in the end. It’s an original work and boy do we need more of those right now."

     For those of you that are curious to read Carruth's 245 page tome of a script it can be found through a search engine quite easily. I don't know if it is ok to post a link directly to it or not so I must refrain from doing so.

     Source [ Deadline ]

Heroes Reborn: Premieres Tonight!!!

     Anyone that has followed this blog for a very, very long time would know that I began this blog with a large number of horribly formatted, and frankly, very poorly written Heroes posts back in 2008.  I thought the first season was absolutely amazing and I made sure to watch every episode all the way through the long downhill slide into its cancellation, commenting and posting most of the way.  It was like watching a friend slowly dissolve before my eyes.

     Many, including myself, are hopeful now because series creator Tim Kring is back on board, and also because the series is a limited one.  So there should be no strung out, never ending story lines and no filler episodes.  There should be no room for anything to really waste our time or dilute the show.  With a definitive beginning and end the show now must adhere to an economy of footage and to really make it count.

     Though, to be honest, my hopeful attitude is very hesitant.  If you've looked through my old posts about the Heroes universe they are rife with letdown.  I had hopes and ideas far too large for the show.  So, in the mean time, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this series recaptures the magic of the first season.  The later seasons did have a few really good episodes like the "Shades of Gray" and "1961," but they were few and far between, and I hope they really hit those high notes again.

     I still have a "Five Years Gone" Hiro Nakamura action figure pinned to my wall, as well as a slew of trading cards, comics, and a stack of the official Heroes magazine.  It would be awesome for the show to be amazing once more.

     On a side note- I'll also try and get a review of the Heroes Reborn: Dark Matters the digital prequel to Reborn up sometime in the next couple days as well.  I got the Heroes app on my phone a long while back with the exclusive episodes, although I see they've been adding them to the Heroes Youtube channel recently for those without the app, so I suppose I should finish the review and post it soon.

     For related posts [ Heroes ]

Gravity Rush 2: Story & Character Details Emerge

     After the SCE Japan announcement of the Gravity Rush (aka Gravity Daze in Japan) sequel and the Gravity Rush Remastered at the Tokyo Game Show 2015 during their press conference fans have been eager to learn more of what's to come of the heroine Kat.  

     The amazingly made Gravity Rush 2 official site has put up some new info:
      (thankfully translated for us over at Gematsu)

In the aerial city of Hekseville, reconstruction is progressing after the new weapons incident caused by the former mayor D’nelica. 

After a strange gravity wave disturbance was observed, the gravity princess Kat begins an investigation with her shifter partner Raven, and Syd, a police officer. 

Kat senses something strange and the area is hit by a gravity storm on an unprecedented scale. The three investigators are sucked into a gravitational whirlpool before even getting a chance to use their powers.

A remote, alternate dimension. Kat was engulfed by the gravity storm and finds herself in Banga Village, where people mine gravity ores amongst ruins for a living. 

Separated from Dusty, the cat who gives her the power to manipulate gravity, Kat is without special powers, and spends each day doing hard labor in the mines. 

One day she heads to work with Syd, who found himself in the same village, and a type of Nevi they’ve never seen before—called a “black insect” in this world—appears. The two are in deep trouble, but then… 

Kat
A girl who lost her memories. She saves the aerial city Hekseville from a gravity storm attack, and its people endear her as a gravity princess. 

Raven
A girl who used to be Kat’s rival, but now appears as her partner. 

Syd
A police officer who resolved a number of incidents with Kat. But he’s also a troublemaker that invites unrest. 

Gravity Rush 2
A bright and bustling town where you can feel the vitality of its citizens. 

A new dimension of gravitational action.
With your new power, face the threat that stands in your way, and discover the fate that awaits Kat.

      There's a bunch of small tidbits, but the good news is we get a new partner, a new place, and a new power all to help fight a new threat.  There isn't a whole lot for plot detail, but enough to keep our interest peaked.
     I'm actually really curious about the ability to feel the vitality of the citizens.  Could that be a hint to what the new power will be?  Will we see Dusty again?  So many questions to ask while we await the game.

     Gravity Rush 2 will be available on PS4 in 2016.

     Gravity Rush Remastered will be available in Japan on Dec. 10th, 2015...
          ...and in the EU and US in Feb 10th, 2016.

Blade: Snipes & Marvel Considering a Return of the Daywalker

     Fans of the Blade series have been waiting since 2004's Blade: Trinity to hear news like this.  Huffpost Live's host Zerlina Maxwell interviewed Wesley Snipes to discuss his new NBC show The Player, and of course, the topic of Blade and his recent Marvel talks came up.

     "There's always a possibility, you know. It's in Marvel's hands. They're controlling the pace and the flow with that. Conversations have been good. They see the value in it. We see the value in it," Snipes said. "I'm still in shape enough and fit enough to handle the role. We'll see how it goes. I don't really know what's going to happen to it yet."

     Going further, she asked him about the possibility of crossing over with the Avengers:

     "That would be interesting. I mean, I know it's in the comic book. It would be interesting to see where they would place him and where he really would fit in," he said. "He's got to bite somebody. I don't know who he's going to bite."

     It is an awesome thing that they are considering his return to the character, and many of us would love to see it done.  Obviously Snipes would want a crossover with the Avengers for monetary gain and popularity, but Blade feels like he's from a different world.  The same divide as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist have.  The Defenders are on a smaller scale, working in the shadows of the Marvel universe.

     So, personally, I believe it would be much better done as a darker toned TV show.  It would fit in with the underworld vibe of Daredevil, especially considering we'll now be seeing the Punisher in the next season.  

     Blade has a heavy horror story feel, and a television show would give it the proper time to develop an atmosphere to really hit home with his character.  Taking into consideration the fact that a Doctor Strange film in the works is a good sign, as he is more of an occultic background and should contain the realms and potential to work Blade back into the Marvel's shared cinematic and televised universe. 

     Snipes returning as the Daywalker would be amazing so hopefully they take this project up.  I'd like to see a return of Ghost Rider as well, which I still have a lengthy post in the works for.  It keeps getting put off, but maybe I can crank it out and edit it for the weekend.

     Source [ Huffington Post ]