[Movies] District 9 (2009)

If you've been reading my movie reviews for any length of time, you'll know that I continually lament the declining creativity of Hollywood and the rise of the cheap remakes and re-imaginations of pre-established franchises. It's a sad consequence of the movie industry trying to get through the recession by making "sure fire hits" every time, it's resulted in less and less originality in terms of how such stories are presented on the silver screen.

Despite how jaded and bitter I've become about this fact, it's nice to be genuinely surprised when a truly good movie comes along and reminds me not to lose all hope in Hollywood just yet. It's even better that the movie in question turns out to be a science fiction piece, and thus all the more enjoyable for a geek like me.

District 9 is science fiction movie brought to life by director Neill Blomkamp (yes, the guy slated for the now dead Halo film) and produced by Peter Jackson (yes, the Lord of the Rings guy). It's actually based on a short film created by Blomkamp that you can view in the embedded video below:


Alive in Joberg by Neill Blomkamp Spyfilms (District 9 director)

Following the premise of the short film, District 9 is about a group of about a million aliens who get stranded on Earth back in 1982. The government of Johannesburg, South Africa eventually creates District 9 as an area for these alien refugees to reside, which is a strong parallel to District 6 of apartheid infamy. Like in 1966, the government eventually decides to relocate the aliens further away from the city and thus find some flimsy legal action to get them evicted and force them to the new location.

This is where Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a field operative of a private corporation Multinational United (MNU), comes in. MNU handle security arrangements for District 9 and have now been tasked with the effort to relocate to the aliens to the new camp called District 10. He pretty much becomes the protagonist of this film and all that's initially revealed is that he does something that makes people brand him as a traitor of some kind. The entire film is shot as a sort of mock documentary and thus it cuts between interviews and dialog that somehow take place after the events of the movie interlaced amongst the "live" sequences following Wikus.

Now the impact of this movie was just something else. I mean seriously, it's not often that a science fiction film makes me feel like I've marathoned movies like Crash and The Constant Gardener for a week straight or something. It's definitely not your typical Hollywood blockbuster with a ridiculous special effects budget and massive battle sequences. It's really about aliens who are mistreated and discriminated against, which is something that will always remain a part of South Africa's history when you think about it.

Not that the movie is devoid of action - the alien weapons are insanely strong and they result in some pretty gory deaths here and there. Plus if you've seen the trailer, then you know there's going to be some pretty nimble powered armor involved, too.

Image by worldchaos81 via Flickr

It really helped the movie that none of the actors were familiar, thus keeping the whole documentary feel to things. The only thing that didn't make sense was why the cinéma vérité treatment was maintained all throughout the movie since there were significant portions that weren't really meant to be documentary footage, unless there really were cameras meant to follow the protagonist around the entire time or something.

It was interesting too that I actually felt strongly for the "prawns", which is a derogatory term for the aliens in the movie. They really did feel like hopelessly desperate refugees suffering a really bad situation at the hand of their human oppressors. The added element of the MNU playing the evil mega-corporation is definitely not an old idea, but was one that was utilized very skillfully and effectively in this movie.

District 9 is definitely a very original piece of storytelling with a very powerful story to tell and the kind of movie we should see a lot more of. This geek definitely recommends that everyone see this movie, perhaps more than once if you need to, in order to support quality movies like this.

District 9 gets 5 cans of cat food out of a possible 5.

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• Canadian effects team beefed up District 9 (nationalpost.com)

[Movies] Avatar Day Preview

Image by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE via Flickr

August 21, 2009 was declared to be Avatar Day by James Cameron, who's directing this particular film. The main purpose of Avatar Day was to mark the official release of the movie's trailer along with special screenings at IMAX theaters around the world of less than 20 minutes of footage from the new movie.

Locally, we got to celebrate our own version of Avatar Day on August 24, 2009 at the IMAX theater at SM North Edsa, and yours truly was one of the lucky geeks who got to catch the screening along with other geeks from the New Worlds Alliance and Fandom Live!

Admittedly, the animation quality was top-notch and Cameron's utilization of the IMAX 3D format was beyond anything I had seen in a long time. I mean seriously, he managed to create true depth of field in the shots and sequences presented to us that really made one feel like they were truly immersed in the environment.

The universe presented in James Cameron's Avatar is a vibrant, colorful and rich world indeed. The creatures have drawn influence from some of the best and the brightest from the realms of science fiction and fantasy and it certainly looks like something I could get into. Plus there's the harsh industrial military side to things that certainly reminds one of The Matrix in terms of look and feel.

However we do need to temper our expectations when it comes to this movie - James Cameron has been raving about his radically new CGI engine and while the animation was clean, it didn't seem all that landmark. We've seen stunning CGI animation in movies like Beowulf and of course Final Fantasy: Spirits Within and Advent Children, so that's not a new thing. The fact that Cameron chose to showcase this new technology using computer-generated aliens (the blue-skinned avatars) seemed like a bit of a cop out since we didn't get to experience how well the technology could possibly render your average human.

The story is also something to be of concern about. The scenes presented paint a picture similar to the world of FernGully or even the whole civilized world meeting the "natives" that was addressed in the story of Pocahontas. The fact that we're comparing the story of this big budget science fiction film with animated feature films is a bit discomforting and I'm worried we're going to end up being really dumbed down when the movie comes out.

Still, Avatar Day was successful in convincing me to see this movie when it does come out in December. More so, I'm pretty convinced that the only way to truly enjoy this movie is to watch it at an IMAX theater, in order to fully appreciate what this movie has to offer.

Avatar is scheduled for release on Deceber 18, 2009. That means locally, we'll have just a week to catch it before the Metro Manila Film Festival starts and takes over all the theaters with the usual drivel we get every year.

[Movies] FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

The strong industrialization vs the environment themes presented in the trailers for James Cameron's Avatar had a lot of my fellow geek friends thinking about a much older animated movie that addressed the same topic - FernGully. I never got to catch this cartoon in the theater myself and pretty much got to catch it during the really strong video rental era when everyone borrowed VHS tapes and (gasp!) laserdiscs!

You know these kinds of movies - the ones that studios struggled to get out there since they weren't part of the Disney animated empire. Sure, these days we have the likes of Dreamworks presenting serious competition to Disney in the animated movie arena, but back in the 90's Disney pretty much dominated and thus it was a small miracle that movies like this made a mark on our collective childhood experiences the way it did.

Image via Wikipedia

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a lesser-known animated movie from 1992. The story followed the magical land of FernGully and the various fairies and pixies who cared for the rainforest. Things changed when a group of loggers started to cut down the forest. One of the loggers, Zak (Jonathan Ward), encounters Crysta (Samantha Mathis) of FernGully who saves his life from a falling tree by shrinking him with her magic. Together with the fruit bat Batty Koda (Robin Williams), Crysta shows Zak the wonders of the rainforest. At the same time, the loggers eventually cut down the ancient tree that served as the prison of Hexxus (Tim Curry), who is an evil spirit that the fairies of FernGully once fought and eventually defeated. He then proceeds to steer the efforts of the loggers towards FernGully in order to vanquish his enemies once and for all.

The animation style was decent enough for its time, a period still covered pretty much by hand-drawn art but already was visually enhanced by touches of computer animation here and there. It gave things a nice clean look that seems to have become par for the course for many cartoons on TV today.

The story itself was strangely gripping despite the very strong environmental tones. It's not that I have anything against the environment - it's just that more often than not, such messages end up being afterthoughts that don't mesh well with the core story. Thus you end up with a sloppy piece of storytelling with a sometimes unexpected moral at the end. This was not the case for this movie and the overall result was quite delightful.

I'm not sure what they were thinking in terms of the voice talents since performances were rather mixed. They got the job done well enough, I suppose, and perhaps another factor might be some of the awkward dialog written for them at the time. The character of Batty was clearly introuduced for no real value other than comic relief and this wasn't written all that well. I'm sure Robin Williams did the best he could givne the limitations, but they definitely could have done better.

FernGully remains to be a poignant and memorable movie from our animated childhood past and will now become required viewing for anyone planning on watching James Cameron's Avatar. Just trust me on this - it'll all make sense in December when the movie comes out.

FernGully gets 3.5 tree Levelers out of a possible 5.

[TV] Geek Shows for the Fall

The fall TV season in the US is about to begin, and naturally that means new seasons of our favorite shows and new shows to watch out for. While we can't guarantee how good these new seasons are going to be just based on past performance or stuff like that, still we're all going to set our calendars, DVRs and torrents for those fateful days.

Here's my short list of shows that I'm really looking forward to this fall:

Returning Shows
The Big Bang Theory - Naturally what geek can NOT be waiting for the return of our favorite geeks and so we can finally learn what happened after they all shipped out to Alaska. This is probably one of the best geek comedies as of recent years that celebrates geek culture while still being able to just laugh at itself as well. The Big Bang Theory returns on September 21, 2009.

Dollhouse - The Joss Whedon show had a bit of a bumpy start and sort of struggled for viewership before really gathering steam in the second half of their first season. Despite all those challenges (most of all being on FOX), the Actives and their Handlers are returning for a second season and will hopefully reveal more about Echo's emerging powers of memory and possibly revealing what has happened to Alpha. Dollhouse returns to TV on September 24, 2009.

Lie to Me - While not a typical "geek" show per se Lie to Me is a great series that has a very alternative spin on the classic TV crime drama. Instead of using forensic evidence, the Lie to Me crew spot people in the act of lying and use this to help their clients with their cases. The first season really surprised me and one can only hope they further expand the series in interesting ways with the second season. Lie to Me returns to the small screen on September 28, 2009.

New Shows
Glee - While one can argue that this might not be a "new" show since its pilot debuted in May, that still wasn't the regular season run. Thus musical comedy series about a high school glee club of misfits trying to fight against all odds to win the regional championship. Glee finally gets the ball rolling on September 9, 2009.

FlashForward - The trailers and teasers for this show definitely have me curious about ABC's planned direction for this show. Based on a book of the same name, Flashforward is about a strange event that has everyone seeing a glimpse of their lives six months in the future. Based on this glimpse, they all need to figure out whether or not the visions were real and whether or not they can do anything to change that outcome should they not have liked what they had seen. Flashfoward debuts on September 24, 2009.

V - V is a remake of a prior series from the early 80's show about life after aliens arrive on Earth with significant numbers. Rather than the typical plan of just laying siege to the planet like most other science fiction stories, V has the aliens appearing kind and benevolent to everyone given a hidden agenda already at work to gain control of the planet. V is definitely one of the shows I'm most excited about given the premise. V will debut all the way on November 3, 2009.

Happy watching folks! I know I'll be keen to..."acquire" copies of these shows as they broadcast live in the US. You just have to love the internet for that.

[Facebook Apps] Mafia Wars

In my efforts to try and build up my Wired Wednesdays, I'm trying my hand at reviewing Facebook applications.

I have to admit that in terms of Facebook Apps, I mostly stick to games. I mean seriously, I don't need more productive apps since I have those built into other services I have or perhaps within my Firefox installation. Of course this can't be all that bad - there are a LOT of pretty good games on Facebook these days that make it a robust gaming platform in its own right. No wonder most offices don't allow access to the site, hehe.

As a first venture, what better app to feature than one of the most popular ones around?

Mafia Wars has pretty much become the flagship browser game for Zynga these days. Let's face it - with over 5,000,000 players, it's a pretty strong game by anyone's standards.

Mafia Wars follows what has become pretty much the standard format for many Facebook games but within the mafia / mobster theme. Here you take missions to earn money, loot and of course experience, which you'll need to reach higher levels. The social aspect of the game comes in when it comes to each player's "mafia", which consists of invited friends who also play the game. The larger your mafia, the stronger you could potentially be. Add in the extra balance element of a variety of weapons, upgrades and vehicles and you can create a pretty robust player.

Image by billynom (Hates Marmite) via Flickr

I like the game since it plays on the limitations of Facebook (or other social networks like MySpace) as a primary platform. Since people are not on the site 100% (I hope), the main limitations of the game are time-based such that you earn energy and eventually money based on a variety of timers. Thus there's no benefit in playing straight throughout the day - you really have to leave the app and wait for more energy to be regenerated.

What I like most about this game in contrast to other Zynga offerings that follow the same style is how they've chosen to deal with the conundrum of the importance of friends. In most other Zynga games or other games of this nature, normally even the jobs / missions you take require increasing numbers of friends as a prerequisite before you take the subsequent missions. Zynga didn't follow that model this time around (I've seen it in Space Wars) and thus one can continually play the game and reach higher and higher levels without needing to resort to desperate friend-recruiting.

Even playing style plays a bit of a factor based on your initial character. You could be just an independent busy bee who wants to do jobs all day and not be too aggressive. Others still can choose to defeat as many other players as possible in order to advance. Ultimately the playing style and strategy is up to you.

I can see why not everyone likes the game. It can get a bit repetitive as you take more and more missions and there are those moments of frustration when you need to continually repeat older missions in search of particular loot items that you'll need in order to execute later tasks.

The recent addition of the option to fly to Cuba and take missions there has been rather refreshing - certainly a nice touch on the side of the developers in terms of their continued efforts to keep the game fresh and interesting. They've tweaked the game options a bit such as having businesses instead of money farms like restaurants and businesses in terms of the NY side of things. You really need to try it to find out.

Mafia Wars remains to be one of my favorite time-wasting Facebook Apps and it gets 4 Tommy guns out of a possible 5.

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 10 - The Wake

All good things must come to an end, they say, and that happens often enough in the comic book world. Sometimes series end abruptly and it leaves the fans reeling, trying to figure out just what happened. Other times the ending is deliberate and planned and things end well enough but it still leaves us wishing things didn't have to end that way.

The seven year run of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman certainly changed the face of comic books for many and helped define the kind of stories Vertigo as a line would try to tell in the years to come. It also showcased for the world just what Gaiman was capable of and further endeared him to a much larger fan base.

The writing in The Sandman was radically different from most of the comics that came before it and even the way things ended was unique to the series. How often do you get to spend 6 issues on just discussing the end of a series?

The Sandman: The Wake is the tenth and final collection of The Sandman series of comics. It collects the last 6 issues of the series, #70-75.

With the death of Dream in The Kindly Ones (along with the "birth" of Daniel as the new aspect of Dream), the time has come for him to be mourned properly. Given he is one of the Endless, his funeral is different from anything else we mere mortals would enjoy. The Endless gather (save for Destruction) and go through the appropriate arrangements which lead up to all of creation joining the ceremonies in The Dreaming. Thus it unites pretty much all characters that have gotten involved in the series at one point another and a generous amount of cameos from the primary DC universe.

Beyond the funeral, the book also covers a few standalone stories that pretty much follow other parts of the world and how they respond to the death of Dream or at least deal with the prospects of his end.

I found the way Dream's wake was handled to be highly interesting, no matter what angle you look at things. Sure, it's pretty cool that one can summon all of the dreamers of the world into one place to mourn the passing of an Endless but was even more striking was the intricate ceremony The Endless themselves had to go through in terms of their funeral arrangements. Now it truly made sense why the necropolis Litharge was introduced in a prior collection, Worlds' End - naturally they would take part even in these proceedings.

Plus there was the whole strange angle of the fact that while they were mourning the passing of Morpheus, the last Dream, a new Dream had been instantly created upon his death in the form of Daniel. How does one mourn a predecessor who is still essentially you in terms of overall identity? What does it feel like to have your new family mourn the passing of your former self and yet you are also that same person? The possibilities remain limitless and truly Gaiman deserves kudos for a story as complex as this.

Then come the last three stories that try to address the end of the series in the a different way. Naturally the funeral was meant to act as an end to the series in is own right but Gaiman went further than that and explored things suing some of the other characters he introduced in the series - the undying Robert Gadling and even William Shakespeare. In the usual fashion of the series, these are stories that don't feature Dream or the Endless as the fore but instead focus on other characters, and yet the discussion therein and the plot itself still involves the fate of the Endless as well.

Seriously, I can't think of a better way to end this series given the very way it carried on over the years. At the end of things I was naturally left with a longing for more Sandman stories, but at the same time I was beyond content. Going through all 75+ issues was a highly rewarding experience and one that I definitely won't mind repeating if need be.

The Sandman: The Wake gets 4 stray kittens out of a possible 5.

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 9 - The Kindly Ones

The Sandman stories have always tapped into classic mythology for many of its stories, or at the very least its characters. One can trace things back to the Christian creation myths given the presence of Eve, Cain and Abel and naturally the larger pantheons like the Greek, Norse and Egyptian gods. Being a fan of mythology myself, it certainly made it a lot easier to relate to many of the characters. Tapping into pre-established characters always saves one time in terms of needing to establish character histories.

I guess that will always be one of the main things that make me love Neil Gaiman's writing - his penchant for taking the ordinary or otherwise familiar and tweak things ever so slightly into something else entirely.

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones is the 9th compilation of The Sandman series of comics. It collects issues 57-69 and Vertigo Jam #1. One could say that this story arc is pretty much the climax of the entire series, at least in my opinion. I say this only because this major story arc pretty much draws on many of the diverse characters that Gaiman had introduced into the series over the years.

Here, Hippolyta Hall comes home to find her son Daniel missing and is eventually led to believe that Dream of the Endless is responsible. She eventually joins with the triad of witches or the Furies, depending on which aspect of their identity is presented during the story. The Furies are motivated by their own need to exact revenge on Dream for the crime of spilling the blood of a family member, in this case that of his son Orpheus whom he euthanized at Orpheus' request.

Image via Wikipedia

Now the story itself comes off pretty complex and I found myself digging through previous books in order to refresh my memory in terms of who the characters were. We had the return of the Norse gods, especially Loki and even the reviving of storylines related to characters like the witch Thessaly and Puck / Robin Goodfellow to name a few. Thus it gave it the sense that this was a very well-planned story, and perhaps one might theorize that a lot of the previous stories were groundwork deliberately created in order to accomplish this masterpiece work.

Different analyses of the story compare it to a classic Greek tragedy in terms of structure, and I can certainly see that. It's probably what makes it such a rich and complex story and overall it was executed masterfully.

I have to admit I wasn't comfy with the change in art style. After getting used to the predominant style of the series over the years of its production, this sudden shift so close to the end was rather dramatic and added an extra layer of difficulty in terms of taking in the story. Let's face it - many of the characters tapped from the older books looked a bit different this time around, thus the need to compare with the earlier issues more and more.

Ultimately, this story just has too many possible angles, that it's more than tricky to try and understand things in one go. One will definitely benefit from repeated readings of this story arc and those that link to it in order to better understand the events but more importantly to understand why Dream did what he did. his actions certainly fell within the definitions of the Greek tragic hero, but there's more to it than just that. I'll leave it to you to fully appreciate that nuance on your own.

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones gets 4.5 emeralds out of a possible 5.

[Movies] Up (2009) Review

I've been a huge Pixar fan ever since they first started releasing feature-length films. I mean seriously, Toy Story was a landmark production in its own right and with every subsequent release, Pixar made it very clear that they had a very unique style of animation coupled with great comedic writing, thus leading to some truly classic films over the years. No wonder Disney went to such lengths to retain them beyond Cars.

Pixar has always done a great job of creating animated movies that have something in store for the young and old alike. That's not as easy as it sounds but Pixar has managed to capture that consistently over the years. Beyond that, it seems Pixar's style is also evolving, especially past WALL*E. The prior movies were highly dependent on great voice acting and excellent writing to drive the stories and the comedy. Now there's a lot more their movies than that and it's something that hearkens back to the silent film era - a particular device used a lot in this movie.

[Movies] Starter for 10 (2006)

I first got into James McAvoy when I first saw him in the SciFi Channel (SyFy) adaptation of Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. There he played Paul's son Leto II, who spent a more than essential amount of screen time running around shirtless. Sure, he was a fine enough actor in terms of skill, but the running around in the desert didn't hurt either.

His career has proven rather interesting since then given the diversity of roles he's taken on. He has a flair for dramas but has demonstrated he can work in action settings as well. Either way, he's a man worth following and I'm thankful I picked up that first VCD, hehe.

Like any other actor, he has his fair share of unusual roles of movies that didn't get a lot of promotion but were worth watching in their own right. This was yet another one, and it seems fitting it was brought to life by the folks at HBO Films. Let's face it - HBO tends to know movies!

Starer for 10 is an HBO production made in association with BBC films. This Toronto Film Festival piece follows the story of Brian Jackson (James McAvoy), a freshman at Bristol University who has been a trivia guy all his life. He had been an avid follower of the TV quiz show "University Challenge" and was quick to sign up for try-outs for the college's local quiz group. There he falls in love with his fellow teammate Alice (Alice Eve) while at the same time developing a friendship (or more) with local activist Rebecca (Rebecca Hall).

The movie was decent enough to follow, although there were certainly moments when it felt rather slow or dragging. I guess it's a consequence of these sorts of TV dramas at times, especially given the setting.

What made it a lot easier to survive was definitely the great music used to highlight the era. The soundtrack definitely sounds like the kind of gem any child of the 80's could relate with and totally get into, which is probably what they were aiming for. I'll not spoil this for you - it's something else to just go along with the movie and enjoy the wave of nostalgia you get when you hear each song.

Image via Wikipedia

James was his usual quirky, geeky self and was fairly believable as a college student. It also helped that he clearly wasn't as physically fit as he would later be in films like Wanted. The accent wasn't too hard to get around and he still has those odd moments when your mind it torn between him appearing cute or perhaps disturbing because of those deep eyes of his.

The rest of the cast was okay but nothing overly amazing. Rebecca certainly reminded me of Olivia Williams (DeWitt on Dollhouse) at times, but maybe that's just the whole British thing, hehe.

Overall, it's a quaint movie and a different spin on the whole coming-of-age, discovery kind of movie. It's not something I would say that you HAVE to watch, even if you count yourself to be a James McAvoy fan. It really is just a TV movie, the kind of thing that's cool to catch should it be playing but there's no need to go out and look for it.

Starter for 10 gets 3 question cards out of a possible 5.

[Theater] tick, tick...BOOM! (Ateneo Blue Repertory)

Growing up Atenean, I was no stranger to theater. you have to admit, the ADMU makes sure there's a healthy theater presence starting with ACT in grade school all the way to the various theater groups at the college. I've seen my fair share of school productions of varying degrees of quality but regardless they're usually generally enjoyable, one way or another.

You need to sort of respect things for as they are - these are budding artists who are honing their craft so there's no point in expecting Tony-level performances from them (or from most theater groups in the country, sadly enough). But at the same time, one can look forward to some interesting productions may they be lesser-known off-off-OFF Broadway productions to the major shows that have already gained world renown.

I was lucky enough to get invited to watch this particular production by a friend and given sudden availability for the night, I was glad I was actually able to go. One can never get enough musical theater in his life.

I watched Ateneo Blue Repertory's staging of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...BOOM! last Saturday, and it turned out better than expected. It certainly made for an interesting evening, especially given I had not heard of the play before.

tick, tick...BOOM! used to be a one-man performance act that Jonathan Larson (yes, of RENT fame) used to stage himself. After his death, it was adapted to be a three-person play in a highly interesting fashion. The story follows the life of Jon (yes, it's practically autobiographical in some aspects), an aspiring musical composer who's about to turn 30 and is feeling the pressure to make it big before time "runs out". The two other main characters are Michael, his life-long friend and for now his roommate who gave up his acting career to become a marketing executive and Susan, his dancer girlfriend who is considering starting a family and leaving New York. The story is building up to the workshop staging of Jon's play "Superbia", upon which all his hopes and dreams are now pinned on as part of his play to find the success he's been looking for before his birthday.

The actors for the night were Marc Baluyan as Jon, Ivan Aldover as Michael and Mian Dimacali as Susan.

I can appreciate why Marc was cast as the lead role - he certain;y has the kind of singing voice needed to carry the character. Acting-wise he was decent, although clearly he didn't feel comfortable swearing or being overly intimate with Susan. Ivan was decent as Michael, although he didn't make much of an impression whether vocally or in terms of his acting, but maybe that's just me.

The real gem of the show was Mian, who was just amazing as Susan and the various other roles she played during the night. It's hard to try and do all those voices on stage in order to represent the diverse roster of roles like Jon's Jewish talent agent and many others, and she managed this flawlessly. She also has a pretty strong singing voice and is well on her way to really making a name for herself, I'd like to think. Plus she was just a lot of fun!

Overall production was pretty good. It didn't overly feel like a minimalist college production and it certainly captured that Larson New York feel. The diversity of the sets and the scenes they created was pretty impressive given the amount of stage space they had to work with.

Overall is was a decent performance and certainly a nice way to enjoy the evening. I think I just might try catching more blueREP productions in the coming months, depending on what's showing.

blueREP's tick, tick...BOOM! gets 3.5 belts out of a possible 5.

[Videos] Do You Wanna Date My Avatar

I got into the web series The Guild a little late in the game - something I know I lost geek cred for. Still, I made sure to catch up ASAP. How could any geek resist a web series all about a group of MMORPG gamers that's written and stars the geek goddess herself, Felicia Day? I know right?

Well with their second season finally being released for free on YouTube and the third season set to debut on Xbox Live and the like later this month, it's the perfect time for...a music video? Don't knock it - given this is Felicia Day, you know she's going to pull it off.

This is just classic and definitely worth the time of day. Go and sing along!


The Guild - Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?

[Media] Social Media Revolution

I love statistics - it's probably because of my background as a debater or something. You have to admit that we tend to appreciate information more when it's presented to us in factoids, charts and percentages. It somehow makes things easier to understand.

Socialnomics has put together an interesting video looking at the effect of social media on the current marketplace. Sure, it's clearly directed at companies in order to convince them to start allocating funds towards social media advertising and other online efforts, but that doesn't the fact that the video does present a number of interesting notions and ideas and certainly shows us an aspect of our development in this social media driven world.


#1 - Social Media Revolution

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 8 - Worlds' End

As The Sandman series drew to a close, you'd think that there was nothing much else for them to do. In the course of the life of the series, Dream had been imprisoned, escaped and reclaimed his realm and the tools of his office. He addressed various threats to hi realm and he survived the gift of Hell itself. He had located his brother, Destruction, after years of being "missing" and so many other things. All was as good as could be expected considering The Dreaming, but then Neil Gaiman made sure there was more yet.

This collection is the last of the short story anthologies of sorts that often get assembled from various one-shot comics that stand independently of any of the other major story arcs in the series. It's definitely one of the more focused one given the central theme that ties all the stories together, to a limited degree, but as always it remains to be highly impeccable reading.

The Sandman: Worlds' End is the 8th collection of The Sandman series of comics and contains issues 51-56. Like Dream Country and Fables & Reflections before it, it contains several stories that don't necessarily connect to one another but further enrich the Sandmanb universe in one way or another.

Unlike other short story collections, this book has a strong unifying element - the inn known as Worlds' End where all the stories in this book end up being told. The inn acts as a sort of safe port in a storm when reality breaks down and the walls between dimensions and realities weaken. Some comment that this set is loosely connected to the DC crossover event Zero Hour, but that's not readily apparent.

Each of the five stories in this collection a very strong and I'm torn in trying to figure out which one I like best. The first story, A Tale of Two Cities, is distinctly disturbing with that H.P. Lovecraft feel, which is executed very well. On the other hand the fourth story, The Golden Boy, is striking in its positivity and feelings of hope against all odds without seeming overly unrealistic despite the strong fantasy / fiction pulse going through the entire arc. The last one is just so...unique, words fail me. A story about denizens of a necropolis who have built a culture around various funeral and burial practices is definitely odd and a clearly different spin on your run-of-the-mill zombie-like folk. Cerements definitely stands on its own and it eventually connects to the ending of the series, loosely enough. Heck, the circumstances that have them all trapped at the in connect to the end of the series as well.

The overlay of individuals telling stories while waiting for the "storm" to pass is a timeless one indeed and is a concept that everyone can connect to on some base enough level or another. It provides an interesting domain for everything to play in and the whole story about stories format will never get old for me, admittedly enough.

The Sandman: Worlds' End gets 4 fruits of immortality out of a possible 5.

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 7 - Brief Lives

The irony of The Sandman comics is that it often barely features the title character and the rest of the Endless. Thus you know it's not like every other mainstream comic of its time when you really have to focus on your lead and just build his or her surrounding universe. What Neil Gaiman did was to create a world to write stories in, one that did sometimes feature Dream to some degree, but he wasn't necessarily the main focus.

The Sandman comics just focused on the nature of the stories themselves, the players, the events, the environments all put together. That's part of the brilliance of it all - what makes the stories so inviting is the very infuriating fact that they don't follow the typical "formula" by holding back on the characters people most want to learn about.

To some degree, this title changed that since this one story arc focused on The Endless more than any other, and in a very intriguing manner as well.

The Sandman: Brief Lives is the 7th collection of the critically acclaimed series. The volume compiles issues 41-49 and is built around a very Endless-centric story.

In Brief Lives, Dream's younger sister Delirium (once Delight) decides to go on a quest to find their lost brother, Destruction, and attempts to enlist the other Endless in her quest. After being denied by the others, ultimately Dream agrees to accompany her through The Dreaming, the Waking World and beyond to find their lost brother. At the same time, some unseen force appears to be acting against them by killing off all mortals who might possibly aid them in their quest or have some inkling of where Destruction might be.

Image via Wikipedia

The real "scene-stealer" of this story is definitely Delirium, whose unique way of thinking is both endearing yet disturbing at the same time. Why exactly the universe needs a manifestation of insanity is anyone's guess but whatever that reason is, Delirium certainly fulfills her role very, very well. I have to admit she became pretty much my favorite of The Endless after I read this arc.

On a side note, I can so imagine Evanna Lynch playing Delirium based on her Harry Potter performance, if ever someone is mad enough to attempt a movie about The Endless.

It's a very creative story and a gripping one at that. While The Sandman books are more known for their diversity and their ability to often stand independently of one another, when Gaiman commits his characters to strong storyline, he does so very, very well.

The resolution at the end of the book is both shocking and satisfying, an event that has major repercussions towards the end of the series. I find myself continually contrasting when describing this book, which is ironically fitting enough. It's a book that has its fair share of Light and Dark and things are balanced quite well such that you come to and ending that is tinged with gray. It becomes up to you to determine what you think of things and so you can ultimately evaluate the story as a whole.

Brief Lives is one of my favorite collections of the series and it definitely gets 5 floating fish out of a possible 5.

[Movies] The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer

Image via Wikipedia

Terry Gilliam has come a long way from just being another Cardinal (and many other roles) on Monty Python's Flying Circus. He's become quite the visionary writer / director which such visionary works as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits and more recently films like The Brothers Grimm and Tideland.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus trailer
Uploaded by blankytwo - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

His more recent production, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has had the added bonus of being the last work of Heath Ledger. Given his death, it's interesting how the film has evolved to include three other actors playing the same character as Heath Ledger - Jude Law, Colin Farrell and fantasy's favorite friend, Johnny Depp. The trailer certainly looks promising and it seems to indicte that this just may be a pretty striking work even though initial reviews and previews have very mixed feelings. I'm just highly appreciative of the fact that they managed to somehow retain the look of the portagonist despite four different actors playing him and of course Gilliam's signature love of high fantasy, dizzying visuals and exciting sequences.


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Movie Teaser HD

[Music] The Return of Aqua

Once upon a time, the music video scene was assaulted by the odd stylings of the Danish pop group Aqua with the release of "Barbie Girl". It was just so in your face that a lot of us didn't really know how to take it. Sure, they tried to evolve into something more "serious" over time, but at the core they were still a bunch of crazy kids who had some really weird music.

In line with the release of their Greatest Hits album, apparently they've also decided to release a few new songs. So yes Ladies and Gentlemen, Aqua is back with an appropriately campy tribute song to the 80's.

Could there be more beyond this? Who knows really. I'm not sure the world is ready for more Aqua, hahaha!


Aqua - Back To The 80's [HQ]

[Movies] The Rundown (2003)

I first encountered Peter Berg on the hospital drama Chicago Hope. It was a pretty good show and it taught me more about hospital administration rather than just the hardcore medical stuff. Yeah, and there were those odd moments were my budding homosexuality told me he was kinda cute. It's interesting to note that he's moved on to the world of directing with a variety of films of differing qualities and most recently it's been announced that he'll be trying his hand at yet another adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is hardly what would come to mind when someone says the word, "actor", and yet he's been really trying his best to break into movies and he's had a few decent box office showings here and there. Then there's Seann William Scott whom I've never really thought to be all that funny but I've always considered him to be rather hot despite the annoying banter. Oh boo me and my love of upper body development.

Put all these guys together and add in one boring afternoon and you end up with a surprisingly good afternoon despite very, very low expectations.

The Rundown (or "Welcome to the Jungle") is an odd action comedy about Beck (Dwayne Johnson), a professional "retrieval expert" who is trying to get out of the retrieval business in order to open his own restaurant. As a last job, he's tasked by his boss to retrieve his son Travis (Seann William Scott), who is searching for some lost treasure in South America. Retrieval should have been easy enough were it not for Hatcher (Christopher Walken), who pretty much runs the town of El Dorado. He believes that Travis knows where a particularly valuable artifact can be found and will not let Beck leave without the prize.

I know, the premise is pretty odd and complicated a bit more by the fact that Beck chooses not to use guns in executing his missions, but that's just fun fluff. Naturally Johnson has some pretty fun action sequences, which I have to admit were done rather well more often than not. Christopher Walken only knows how to play Christopher Walken, which isn't at a bad thing given the role he fulfills here. He's such a scene stealer, I swear to the high heavens.

Image via Wikipedia

Acting-wise, I have to admit I felt that Johnson was more believable than Scott. He really figured out his role this time around and managed to stick to it. Scott on the other hand still needs to work on taking his wise-cracking routine a few notches higher in order just being the college jock stereotype that he's played over and over again in his past films.

It's not a life-changing movie, but it's certainly entertaining and fun to watch, which is a good thing after a long and stressful day. I'm just not sure what Peter Berg is going to bring to a Dune adaptation based on this piece. Now that's something to think about.

The Rundown gets 3 humping monkeys out of a possible 5.

[Movies] Kaze no Tani no Naushika / Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

My first venture into the realms of Studio Ghibli, My Neighbor Totoro, was certainly pleasant and more and worth the venture. Given my partner possesses the Studio Ghibli Collection on DVD, I now pretty much have the opportunity (or the responsibility) of exploring these diverse animated films and Hayao Miyazaki's vision.

With that film alone I started to see certain concepts that Miyazaki likes to stress of apply more emphasis towards. To name a few we have strong female character leads, a rich sense for the environment or the setting and a definite knack for capturing the key elements of the people, may it be the innocence of children at play or the watchful love of a father trying to hold his family together.

This next venture into the Studio Ghibli universe certainly altered the setting significantly, but some of these key elements were still certainly there.

Kaze no Tani no Naushika / Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is theoretically Studio Ghibli's first animated feature, athough it appeared even before the Studio was formally named. It's based on a manga title of the same name, although it certainly had that Miyazaki touch in terms of the core look and feel and how it was translated into an animated feature.

Image via Wikipedia

In a post-apocalyptic setting, the world is dominated by the sea of decay and the hordes of monster insects that reside there. Communities of people huddle at the fringes trying to survive while keeping the spores and insects at bay. One such community is the Valley of the Wind where a young and adventurous Nausicaa is its princess. She has a knack of communicating with wildlife, including the massive insects that roam the Sea of Decay that she explores fairly regularly with the aid of her glider. Things change when a Tolmekian airship crash lands in the valley. Amongst the wreckage Nausicaa finds Princess Lastelle from the kingdom of Pejite and a large organic mass that no one can identify. In time the valley becomes the center of a massive conflict, a plan to raze the Sea of Decay and an empire bent of global domination.

While certainly a lot more action-packed than Totoro, this tale has its share of what I have to term as beauty shots - moments of silent bliss when the music just carries you as the animators manage to show off some part of the landscape or the creatures that populate this world in greater detail. You still get that provincial feel throughout the film given the simplicity of the lives of the valley folk, contrasted against the harsh steel of the militaristic Tolmekians.

Ghibli certainly has a thing for steampunk - it goes a long way in conveying the fact that this is all very, very mechanical and not just high technology. There's an implied clunkiness and dirtier nature to steampunk I suppose and it provides a sharp difference to the villagers who try to live more in tune with nature.

Oh, and don't get me started on the flora and fauna in this film! Like Totoro, there were certainly a variety of interesting creatures ranging from the fearsome Ohms down to the very, very cute fox squirrel. Miyazaki seems to make it a point to have a lot of fantastical and original creatures and plants in his stories but he also makes sure to remain grounded in reality. Many of the designs are clearly based on existing living things, but altered ever so slightly to great effect.

Nausicaa is certainly an interesting protagonist, and one who owns what is probably one of the coolest gliders I've ever seen. The tricks she manages with that one device a nothing short of astounding and yet it all still seems to follow an odd sense of physics that makes it still remotely plausible for such a device to work.

Environmentalism is certainly a strong theme here - something that makes me thing of similar undertones in the Final Fantasy series of video games. Given the Japanese culture and their history, I can understand the inevitable need to put importance in that aspect of things. Miyazaki also manages to push this theme well enough without seeming overly preachy.

It's a great story and rather compelling considering it's a 2-hour movie. It's definitely a masterpiece of animation and it's sometimes hard to believe this was still completely hand-drawn given the time it was created and released. Yes, I definitely have a more than growing respect for Studio Ghibli if all their works are anywhere nearly as good as this movie.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind gets 5 fox squirrels out of a possible 5.

[Viral Video Chart] Guy Catches Laptop With His Butt

I don't even know where to begin in terms of how to introduce this video. Seriously - only on the internet.

Just watch it if you dare.


#1 - Guy Catches Laptop With His Butt

I think the folks behind Idiocracy were absolutely right in terms of the current path of human (de)evolution.

[Videos] The Multicolored Multitask

There's more to life than just playing Guitar Hero. Apparently for this guy, it means trying to solve 2 Rubik's Cubes while playing Mr. Crowley on expert level on Guitar Hero. As much as you wonder how long it took this guy to master this (without leaving the confines of his home), you certainly have to give him credit for actually pulling it off.


#10 - The Multicolored Multitask (Guitar Hero + Rubik's Cube)

[Videos] Bikini Cinema - Star Wars

Talk about creativity.

I've seen a lot of ways advertisers try to sell their products. This has resulted in some pretty great commercials, billboards and other creative media formats.

What I've never seen is trying to market to geek audiences by having girls in bikinis read lines from the Star Wars movies. I'm not sure what market they're going to tap this way - bikini-wearing geeky girls perhaps? - but it does make for an oddly entertaining video.


Bikini Cinema - Star Wars

[Videos] The Ballad of G.I. Joe

The witty folks at Funny Or Die came up with this timely video supposing what the G.I. Joes and Cobras do during their off days in the form of a pretty strong ballad. You have to give credits for the accuracy of some of the costumes in this video - I'd have paid to see a Baronness like this, hehe.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 6 - Fables & Reflections

When comic book companies create compilations (as is the case for anyone else compiling serial works), there's always the liberty of rearranging things in order to create new meaning or perhaps to provide more of a sense of continuity. In the world of comic books, this can become very important given that not every single issue is always part of the overall story and there are often side ventures into one-shot issues that more or less stand alone. We saw something similar in how the original Aeon Flux cartoons were handled when presented in DVD - the order of the episodes implies a logical sequence even if the series as a whole was very non-linear, to say the least.

More so with The Sandman, given the concept of the series is that we are talking about the infinite possibilities afforded by The Dreaming and are helpless but to follow along. Previously we saw one compilation, Dream Country, as acting more as a collection of short stories. Such is the case with this volume, and the stories remain very rich, even if they seemingly do not directly connect to the larger story arcs of the series. Emphasis on the word seemingly.

The Sandman: Fables & Reflections is the sixth compilation of Sandman comic books and it contains a diverse set of issues: #29-31, #38-40, #50 Sandman Special and Vertigo Preview. As mentioned at the start of this review, this was done in order to collate several one-shots that didn't fit in with the overall story arcs of A Game of You or Brief Lives. Other reviews have mixed opinions about this collection being too unfocused, but I think things still managed to work out to some degree.

A number of the short stories are based around the months of the year and seem to touch on various monarchs of different sorts ranging from the likes of Emperor Augustus Caesar to Joshua Abraham Norton, the supposed first and last Emperor of the United States. Then there's the tale "Thermidor", which features more of the story of Orpheus, the son of Dream (or at least his head anyway) and ultimately the story "Orpheus", which better explains things.

Personally, I really liked the story, "The Parliament of Rooks" the best since it interestingly features various stories told within the story - something that is a common theme in the series and something that is done a lot more in a later volume. I guess I've become quite the sucker for the diverse natures of Cain and Abel and how they play off one another. Beyond that, another good one was "Ramadan", which had a nice Arabian Nights kind of feel.

Sure, the collection is very diverse in terms of stories but they're all very good ones - but could you expect any less from Neil Gaiman? As always, many of the stories provide glimpses of other characters that become major players later on and thus the book serves its own function in terms of the overall series.

The Sandman: Fables & Reflections gets 4 Cities in Bottles out of a possible 5.

[Comics] The Sandman Vol. 5 - A Game of You

As one approaches the relative "halfway" mark in terms of The Sandman comics, you start to feel a certain degree of comfort that by now you should be getting used to Neil Gaiman's style in terms of how he crafts his stories and sets direction for the series. Then he just comes along and turns everything on its head, thus reminding you that perhaps you don't understand things as well as you did.

Most other writers would settle on a certain set of characters and just build stories around them. To some degree, Neil Gaiman did that too during the run of The Sandman, but he went beyond that. He created a seemingly endless cast of characters that he continually added to over the years and if almost at random he'd pick up the stories from past issues and turn them into full-blown story arcs. It's the kind of writing that could drive you insane since the moment you encounter someone from the comic's past, you end up needing to dig up the past volumes, reviewing who the person was in order to better appreciate what Neil had in store this time around.

The Sandman: A Game of You is the fifth compilation of The Sandman series, collecting issues 32-37. At the center of the story is Barbie, who used to be just another person in the apartment building that Rose Walker stayed in during the events of The Doll's House. It seems that despite her current inability to dream, her dream world is now coming after her in order to gain her assistance. A giant doglike creature called Martin Tenbones manages to escape from The Dreaming in order to give Barbie an amulet known as the Porpentine. This enables her to dream and return to her fairy land which is under threat from a being known as The Cuckoo. Meanwhile, the various residents of her apartment complex end up trying to deal with her effects of her dream world in the waking world.

This started out as a somewhat confusing story, as is the general sense of disorientation one gets when starting a new story arc in a series as diverse as The Sandman. Once you figure out why Barbie seems so familiar given her appearance musch earlier in the series, it then becomes a little easier to catch up, but not by much. This is The Dreaming after all and almost anything can happen. The whole mix of the fantasy world and reality was pretty interesting and certainly gave it a sort of twisted Alice in Wonderland feel given the threat of potential death in both The Dreaming and the waking world.

Of all the characters, I naturally enjoyed Thessaly the most. She's the kind of strong, kick-ass female character that readers are inevitably drawn to and she really lives up to her role. Heck, she certainly crosses the line in terms of what is usually deemed "acceptable" and yet you can't help appreciate her fire and the way she chooses to deal with the world.

It's interesting how Neil Gaiman presents dreams in this story. The notion that there is this magical realm known as The Dreaming that is sort of the central stage for all dreams to happen is hard to reconcile with the notion that we all make our own dreams out of the things stored in our heads. This story manages to touch on that and it gives you a lot to think about in terms of just how things might work out.

Plus there was the bonus of a bonafide transsexual character who isn't just there for shock value or comic relief. Wanda / Alvin Mann is an interesting enough character in the story and one who serves an important function in terms of everything else. I just had to cite that little piece of pink trivia for everyone, hehe.

The Sandman: A Game of You gets 4 bleeding faces out of a possible 5.