Monthly Archives: February 2012
Building Better Worlds? The Weyland Corp story starts here!
Featuring an intriguing TED-Talk from the future in 2023, the recently released promo for Prometheus centers around Guy Pearce striking an imposing figure as Peter Weyland, head of Weyland Industries. The video is an interesting departure from the more action packed fare released late last year but is at the same time incredibly compelling.
Directed by Luke Scott the video and more information can be found here : http://blog.ted.com/TED2023/ . While there is little literature on the blog there are a few interesting snippets about Sir Peter Weyland that are worth a read. The video and more info can also be found at https://www.weylandindustries.com/ .
There will no doubt be more websites popping up in the run up to the release of Prometheus (June 1st 2012) . I’m looking forward to the inevitable viral advertising campaign almost as much as I am looking forward to the film itself.
Oscar 2012 Gold?
So the day after years Oscars we’re all asking the same question, did anyone actually care this year? I mean The Artist cleaning up came as no surprise as it was the best of an average bunch. Yeah it was a good film but was it really as good as say Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Shame? Not really, like I said it was a really good enjoyable film with some good performances. But looking back on it I can’t really say it left that much of an impact like the 3 films I mentioned earlier did.
Looking at the nominees for best picture this year it really felt like a huge step backwards from the last 2 award ceremonies when they had 10 best picture nominees. In 2010 we had 2 Sci-Fi films, possible Pixar’s finest hour Up, the smart and witty Up In The Air, Tarintino’s Inglourious Basterds and even a somewhat surprising winner The Hurt Locker. The year after we saw Inception, Toy Story 3, Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are Alright, Black Swan and The Social Network getting well earned recognition. Yes the safe option won in the end but it did give me a little hope that maybe the awards have finally started to catch up with modern audiences.
Fast-forward a year later and the only award that wasn’t quite nailed down yet was best actress. Who would win? Meryl Streep for a strong performance in an average period film or Viola Davis for a strong performance in an average period film. When the Razzies are less predictable then you know you have a problem.
Overall, I just hope that next years ceremony has an improved range of nominees. On a more positive note, glad to see Rango (Best Animated Feature) and The Muppets (Best Original Song for “Man Or Muppet”) win an award each!
Double Fine Kickstarter Update
As of now Double Fines adventure game Kickstarter is sitting pretty at a grand total of $2,241,879 (though the figure kept going up while writing this). With 15 days left to get pledges in it looks like this already staggering total will top out around the $2,500,000 mark though I would not be surprised if it surpassed that total.
The original figure set by Double Fine was, a now paltry sounding , $400,000 and the additional money that has been raised is going to be channelled into improving the game itself, widening the number of platforms it will be available on as well as the filming of the entire production process by 2 Player Productions.
There are now several videos on youtube featuring Tim Schafer (with cameos from Ron Gilbert and others), outlining what exactly is on offer to backers of the project, with the basic buy in being a modest $15 which will get you a copy of the finished game on either pc, mac or linux, as well as access to the video series about its production and a private discussion community.
I look forward to seeing how the project turns out, not only the quality of the game but also the impact that it has on the games industry as a whole. The cutting out of a publisher is a very bold and interesting move and it is one that could impact the way the industry operates in the future. Any change that puts more power in to the hands of game developers and consumers is in my view, a move in the right direction.
Borderlands 2 First Impressions
So about 20 sconds into this video it tells you to get ready to joy puke your face off…yep, Borderlands is back! It’s sense of humour and comic book style animation really drew me into the space western FPS. The simple charm of 17millions different guns and loot, loot and more loot makes up for what it lacked in the story department. It was not so much an large interactive world but more of a giant playground..with a hell of a lot of toys. So the announcement of a sequel in August got me excited and it has only grown since watching this trailer. From the looks of things there seems to be a bigger emphasis on story involving an uprising against Handsome Jack, who has taken over the Hyperion Corparation with the riches he gained after taking credit for finding the vault. We are also introduced to our 4 new playable characters as well as characters from the previous game with main characters returning as NPC’s. The new characters are awesome with more emphasis on customisation of the special abilities. We have Salvador who has the ability to allow him use 2 weapons at once, Maya is the siren of this game who instead of phase-walking can Phaselock, Axton who is similar to Roland from the first game in terms of abilities…except his turret can be customised to be used at different ranges. Our final character is Zero who is an assassin whose special ability is a stealth mode with the use of a decoy. His melee weapon is a samurai sword. Enough said. Overall this game is shaping up to be a contender for game of the year in my opinion with only drawback so far is having to wait till September to play it!
Rampart
Rampart is based in 1999 Los Angeles, where the main focus of the film is Vietnam vet/Rampart precinct cop Dave Brown. Safe to say he isn’t exactly the shining light of the force. He’s a bigot who isn’t afraid to use excessive force, a womaniser and a frequent drinker. He does all this whilst trying to prevent his dysfunctional family from finding out. One day whilst on patrol he ends up in a collision and ends up brutally beating the other driver whilst being filmed by a passer by. This end up being big news and the rest of the film unfolds around Dave’s life falling apart.
That’s pretty much the bulk of the narrative as it’s exclusively based around our main character. As a result you learn very little about the supporting characters as anything they do is based solely on how they interact with him. It can also feel a little limited in terms of story telling so it doesn’t exactly make it the easiest film to get into. However, if you can get around that you get an excellently crafted character study. Woody Harrelson delivers a tour-de-force performance as the corrupt Dave Brown. He plays the charcter perfectly starting off arrogant in the belief that he’s right to his decline which sees him grow more and more paranoid, blaming the world around him for his situation. There are also some great performances from a top rate support cast including the likes of Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver and Ben Foster to name a few. The movie is also shot in superb fashion, feeling intimate with every scene.
Summary
Whilst it does have it’s clear flaws, this a well directed character study with a superb performance from Woody Harrelson.
Awkward Intro
Hello, I am a co-author of this blog and just thought I’d make my first post a brief introduction. I’ll be posting on movies, games, comics and football/soccer. I’ll be trying to get at least one movie review a week on the latest cinema releases in the UK (sorry if it seems like I’m behind!). My first 2 posts will be a review of the Woody Harrelson picture Rampart and my views on the latest Borderlands 2 video. So hope you enjoy!
