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Affilliation
Nomad Gaming Log 2008.06/12
Happy Independence Day, Philippines!
To slowly ease out on the D&D wagon, today’s collection are geek and gaming related.
Somewhat Recent Gaming News
- Magic: The Gathering Duel Decks for November - Unlike the new MtG Theme Decks, this one will be complete 60 card decks. Probably like the Elves vs Goblins thing they released a while back.
- Alpha Point: Designing the HeroClix Alpha Rules System
- Cthulhu Dice Now Unlimited!
- The Gamer Dome: Community Game Design Projects
- Rubik’s Cube Algorithm Cut Again, Down To 23 Moves
Gaming Features
Movies/TV/Animation
- Grayskull: Masters of the Universe Script Review - Hmmm. Ok, it could work. I just hope they don’t start thinking that a hip-n-edgy “My Little Pony” would work too.
- Interview: Dave Gibbons talks Watchmen and more…
- Pinoy animators form ‘holy alliance’
- HBO turns ‘Fire’ into fantasy series
- 10 year old cartoonist, Alexa Kitchen, signs with Hyperion/Disney
Misc. Geek Stuff
- Podcast Interview with H.P. Lovecraft Scholar, S.T. Joshi
- 7 Super Heroes We Can Live Without
- McFarlane, Portacio on ‘Spawn’ - Haven’t heard about anything from those guys in a while. I wonder how Whilce’s art style would look on Spawn?
“The Secret History of Star Wars” (ebook)
I’ll let the author, Michael Kaminski, introduce his free downloadable book in his own words:
The Secret History of Star Wars is a new full-length e-book exploring the writing and creation of the Star Wars saga. Culled from over 400 sources and filled with quotes from people such as George Lucas, Gary Kurtz and Mark Hamill, The Secret History of Star Wars traces all the way back to 1973 to examine how the first 14-page treatment that began the series came to be and was slowly built, draft by draft, year by year and movie by movie. Covering a period of over four decades, you will discover how George Lucas got his ideas for the original film, how Darth Vader was made into Luke Skywalker’s father in 1978 and forever altered the arc of the story, what happened to the infamous third trilogy in the series and how the prequel stories came to be. The book also reveals the style and method of Lucas himself and how his personal life affected and shaped the story, for better and worse. This is a book which challenges many legends surrounding the series and places the films in a new light. For the more casual fan this will be a mesmerizing read and for those who think they know everything about the series, prepare to be surprised!
After going through the first few pages myself, it’s proving to be quite an interesting read. As with most things like this, take it with as much salt as you feel is needed.
You can download “The Secret History of Star Wars” for free from it’s official website.
Tags: has downloads, Star WarsIron Man (movie review)
Iron Man is all over the place! It’s already the 2nd best opening for a non-sequel (Spider-Man still at #1) and the 10th largest all-time opening! But is the movie any good? I’m very pleased to say it is!
I’m not all that up-to-date with the comics, so I came into the movie with less background than, say, Spider-Man, X-Men, or Batman. The plot is not that deep, so I’ll spare you the potential spoilers. All you need to know is that Tony Stark is a tech-genius, multi-billionaire, playboy who doesn’t care much of the misery his weapons company creates until he comes into an encounter which will change his point of view, and happen to force him to develop the armor. The rest is armor development, romance, various conflicts, and the said armor in use.
At arms length, this sounds like typical super-hero movie fare. Yes it is, but it does that focused job beautifully! Robert Downey Jr. does a superb job playing Tony Stark. The quirks, character flaws, behavior, and character transformation all come through as authentic, entertaining and believable, no small feat for a super-hero movie. The Iron Man (or Iron-Mans) are well done, you will never get bored looking at them and you’ll be waiting for what it can do next.
The biggest surprise for me was the Gwyneth Paltrow’s portrayal of Pepper and the treatment of the whole love-interest thing (I guess there always MUST be a love-interest, oh well). Typically, female love-interests in superhero movies are either hapless victims who need rescuing (and who are the greatest source of inspiration/inner-power for the hero) or gung-ho master’s of their own domain who are at par with the hero, if not superior (at least prior to the hero’s “final inspiration moment”). Pepper, on the other hand, although obviously instrumental in Tony’s life, is NOT the sole object of Tony’s existence. She’s an assistant, no special fighting skills, no hidden powers, just the assistant who genuinely cares for the lead and who does what she can to help out. Hapless victims get annoying, and gung-ho love-interests are fun, but this time, the relationship is kept somewhat real. I was fully expecting Gwyneth to be annoying, instead I found her very refreshingly convincing in her role! Kudos!
My only minor gripe is that you really really want to see the armor in action a lot more. It’s not that the armor ain’t in action (it was objectively adequate given the story), it’s just that it isn’t in action all the time. This was a similar feeling I had with the 1st Spider-Man movie, you only really get to see Spidey in action in the later parts. The thing is, the armor in action is just so cool that you really just want to see it all the time, even though Robert Downy Jr. does excellent acting outside of the armor. Also, I wish the final-battle scene wasn’t “underpowered”, I’d really have loved to see a long long continuous booster/repulsor/missile/armor battle. They had that, but it was a bit short for me.
Aside from this, everything else is great! The movie appears to be doing quite well with ticket sales, and it deserves to be. There are quite a few hints on franchise expansion, the obligatory Stan Lee cameo, and, if you listen closely, you’ll hear renditions of the old Iron Man cartoon theme song. Also, you really have to wait until the after credits scene.
To sum this Iron Man movie review, WATCH IT! And when you do, don’t forget to WATCH THE AFTER CREDITS SCENE!!!
[update]
After doing so well in the box-office, I’m not surprised that Marvel would annouce a sequel, and then some (see the Pipeline segment).
No tags for this post.Nomad Log 2008.04/18
No news for today, but I have found a great survey, a list of movies I’m looking forward to, and some geek stuff.
- Take the Geek Test!
I got 37.47535% on the 1st try, 43.58974% on the re-test, and a possibility of pushing it to 44.37869% (given the books I plan to get in the next few months). All “Major Geek”, but pushing it precariously near “Super Geek” if I do accomplish my planned readings.Moviewatch
- Iron Man (2008.05/02)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008.06/13)
- Wanted (2008.06/27, loosely based on the comic)
- (Batman) The Dark Knight (2008.07/18)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008.11/21)
- Watchmen (2009.03/06)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009.05/01)
- Transformers 2 (2009.06/26)
- (Avatar) The Last Airbender (2010)
— edit 2008.05/13 —
There’s better and more comprehensive 2008 Summer Geek Movie Guide at Yvette’s blog. The release dates are based on US release schedules, though, but it’s basically near enough (if not the same) as that of the Philippines.
Geek Life
- 56 types of geeks
- Create a Geek Code for yourself! <- Now THAT is geeky!
CloverHurl
I came into the movie knowing it’s gonna be a handycam film like Blair Witch. It wasn’t enough to prevent me from feeling like I just came ashore after taking a less than gentle tugboat ride in the sea.
For those who don’t know yet, Cloverfield is a monster movie. The movie is set in New York where a group of friends are slowly exposed to various calamities caused and eventually leads up to the source of all the chaos. I saw on TV that the director wanted to create a uniquely US monster, since Godzilla, Mothma, et al didn’t exactly originate there (where did King Kong come from?). When I first heard about it, I thought it was great. I haven’t seen a giant monster movie seen King Kong, and I was excited to see something new on the prowl.
Then I learned that the movie was gonna get a the handycam treatment. I prayed that it wasn’t going to be a hurlfest.
Unfortunately, it pretty much was.
From the get go, the audience it given a taste of how shaky the camera would be. I’m not so sure about the others, but it wasn’t steady enough for me, and I knew things would only get worse. I was fortunate enough to have a tougher stomach for this than my SO and our friend, but that didn’t it really doesn’t pay to keep your eyes glued on the screen all the time.
Hudson, or ‘HUD’ is the cameraman for most of the movie (HUD, get it?), and he’s actually the most paradoxical part fo the movie IMO. On one hand, I really feel that they could’ve made HUD’s handycam movements less realistic and the film would actually be more watchable. On the other hand, HUD, as a character, was actually one of the things that made you want to stay and watch (or listen) through the whole movie.
To be fair, I did find a couple of things well done. All the shots that were supposedly from TV news cameras seemed real. The monster in question wasn’t hidden all the time (although it’s far from being well exposed either). There was also a particular scene that I thought was excellently executed, the camera wasn’t so bad at the time, and the tension/panic really came through (this isn’t at the latter of the film).
Overall, Cloverfield’s still a hurlfest. It does have gems here and there, but it will depend on your constitution if you can get to those parts. Admittedly, I myself am not sure if those gems are worth the almost 2 hour ocean boat ride. If you do decide to see it, here’s a tip: if they’re running up stairs or running/walking from nothing in particular, there’s probably nothing interesting to see, so you can just listen and keep tabs with your pheripheral vision until someting worth looking at does come up.
No tags for this post.Cool Commercials: Burger King Transformers
I actually saw this commercial in LA during my California vacation. Given that me and my friends from the Philippines just watched the movie right before I got to LA, I immediately shared this with them.
For the other pinoys, check out this commercial we missed out on.
Cool Commercials: Halo 3 Mountain Dew
Product advertising has made vast strides in “watchability” since I was a kid, particularly in the Philippines. The problem is, unless it’s on cable (which is mostly localized), we don’t get to see the fun foreign commercials.
If I run into any, I’ll give you guys a heads-up. For now, I’ll start with the one on Halo 3 and Mountain Dew.
Transformers: The Movie (2007)
It’s 01:18, I just got home from watching the 2.5 hr robot-fest that is Transformers.
Simply put, it might very well be the greatest movie of the year!
I haven’t watched anything that put me at a loss for words in a very long time. I haven’t enjoyed a movie this much since 300. The movie is just so satisfying in so many levels that it has surpassed the fulfillment I had in 300.
Now that I got that out of the way (for now), I’ll mention that the story was average. But if you think about it, I really can’t imagine how you can make talking robots from outer space that turn into cars and other vehicles any more plausible than how this movie did it.
Effects? I’m simply speechless.
I’m sure I’ll find flaws in the movie eventually, but this does not change the fact that I loved this movie so much that I am actually considering watching it again in the big screen (a very rare thing for me).
A MUST WATCH!!!
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