What the fuck aurora cinemas?

Silent Hill has been a video game movie I've been hyped to see for quite a while. Granted I've never played the series aside from the scant amount on my brother's X-Box, but like Penny Arcade said...it's over civic duty as gamers to see all and any video game movies.

To my wonderful dismay though is that our local cinema decided not to bring it the first week it was out. Ok...I forgive them. Instead they decided to bring out "The Sentinal". Ok...that's alright. I mean afterall, it does feature our great lord Bauer and I as a insignificant Bauerite should be humble that they should bring such a under the radar film to my theatre. And I admit, one can't exactly expect anything from Silent Hill. Kinda weird film, by a relatively unknown (to the general masses) director and ooooo...Sean Bean aka Boromir who's a supporting character. A guy who got axed in LOTR: FOTR and makes a slight appearance in LOTR: TTT Extended Edition. I can see how some carriers might be scared to bring this film in, aside from the impending madness it might cause for one to shit their pants.

But one week later, as I eagerly await FSJnow.com to update their movie listings, I click on April 28th's date and lo and behold...instead of Pyramid Head justice gracing my eyes with it's sallow skin...it was fucking United 93. Now usually I'm not very crass in terms of people's feelings regarding tragedies. Even I felt something when 9/11 occured. I usually don't determine's a film quality by its ticket sales. And even though it's safe to assume that these film presentation schedules at Aurora are pretty much set weeks or even months ahead of time, the enraged geek in me wonders. Why the fuck would you show a film about 9/11 which, to my knowledge, hardly affected the city of Fort St. John over a horror movie which was #1 at the box office last weekend?

And so I sit here, typing away my emo anger and having to wait another week (perhaps more) before I can partake in sweet, sweet, evil eye candy of horrors. Well here's hoping.

Shits a brick....(Wii related)

As the internet is a buzz with the stir of Nintendo's apparent new name for it's revolutionary console codenamed: Revolution, one should calm the fuck down and wonder...what did we really expect from it all? How serious are we to expect a non-laughable console name to appear on a new console? The only company that seemed to have avoided incredible scrutiny is Sony, but even back in the 90's Sony Playstation sounded like ass. And the only reason it seems that Sony hasn't changed their console name is because it seems right happy at reminding people at how many generations they've dominated the gaming market.

Let's be frank. Game console names are like 3 steps below Car names and 1 step below names for FPS weapons. I think somewhere along the lines, as the video game geek matured and grew, we all come to expect some sort of lame console name that would put a typical NYC Bestseller Novel's title to shame. That or a Steven Segal film title.

I think in a way the game systems names are pretty self important and even serious in the realm of video gaming...the very same vein of seriousness that some people think that some gaming can be considered a "sport." There are no good console names, just ones that suck the least. Nintendo's console titles read off like a list of suggestions from a hillbilly who was a product of incest. Super Nintendo....Nintendo64, Virtual Boy, Gamecube. It's as if somehow Nintendo doesn't give their fanbase enough credit to discern the different powers of each system; let alone what the fuck the are buying.

I mean fuck...GAME CUBE......and it's even in a cube shape. You couldn't even get more obvious if it was translated from Japanese into "Electronic Funning Zap-u Box!" I mean what the fuck...there are only two other game consoles in the world that have their names describe their appearance...and both of them were very unintentional. That's the X-Box and the Phantom.

IMHO the new title is good enough to describe the entire direction that Nintendo is going. I mean why the fuck would anyone would want to name a console that could be confused with anything else? Revolution sounds like a distant removed cousin of Genesis. It's sure just as pretentious and considering that Nintendo is going in an entirely new direction for video games, might as well reflect that in it's name with not a typical name but a new one.

Ex Machina...

As my friend Mike suggested this comic book series to me since I read Y: The Last Man and Runaways are by the same author, it took a while but I got around to reading it.

Basically said, it's a story of man who becomes the first and only superhero in the world called the Great Machine. His super power is to be able to communicate and command technology even non-digital technology like a gun. However seeing how his powers seem useless, he runs for Mayor of New York after the wake of 9/11, and officially hung up his super hero costume. As I continue to read it it still follows the same Vaughn wit and ability to write the mundane into something extraordinary.

As I finish reading through the first few story-arcs, to tell the truth much of the the comic reads like the West Wing or any other Presidental movie you've seen. You get to see behind the hard choices people have to make in positions of power and sometimes the most simple answer isn't the best one. But what I found engaging about this storyline isn't because there is a lack of superheroism...which there is a great lack of. But that it envokes an old comic idea so well, it's like a new generation of it.

If we go back a few decades or so, we can see people picking up the Spiderman comics. One of the greatest appeals of Spiderman at the time was that even though Spiderman was a great superhero, his alter ego faced the pitfalls of growing up in a teenage world, responsibilities of a teen, awkwardness with women and even trying to make ends meet with a measly paying job. The fact that the superhero was humanize in such a different way, that basically a kid was a superhero with real life problems seemed to have resonated with fans.

To tell the truth I missed the boat on that era. I still see Spiderman as a hero first really, Peter Parker second. As other teenage superheroes appeared to try and bank on the same formula, with comics such as Speedball, Darkhawk, and even the Marvel's response to the Teen Titans...The New Warriors; I didn't really bite. It seemed a bit stupid to me to have a teen fight adult villains or any villains in general while balancing homework or continuing some pathetic excuse for a soap opera amongst the team members. What was really wrong with the whole problem was that there really wasn't enough humanizing, or at least quality humanizing at all. I think the main point that people were missing was...you don't fucking need children or teens to have the human part of a superhero.

Ex Machina grasps the concept very well, so well I imagine for a smarter, more learned generation to embrace the concept like our forefathers did with Spiderman in their childhood. I find it great that in humanizing the character, they never do it in such a way where they seperate the hero from the character in the traditional sense. Usually when the hero uses his/her secret identity, they minimize the use of their superpowers. If they have to use it under their alter ego, they do it in secret.

However with Ex Machina, Vaughn has made it so the main character actually uses his superpowers on a day to day basis, but not as a superhero, not even as a mayor, but as a human being with the ability. The fact that a character could use his superpower fairly openly and most important...practically, impresses me to no end. It's not like having Cyclops toast his bread, shut off his lights, open a door, act like a stoplight all with his optic blasts. Vaughn doesn't write situations in which it says "ho ho ho...look at what I'm doing. I'm using this super power IN A CASUAL MUNDANE WAY." But instead it creates a world where you can say...yeah he would use it that way. Yeah that's what I would do have I had that power.

Another great aspect is how it shows the implications of superheroism or the collateral damage it could create. In Spiderman, instead of being blindly praised, the newspapers label him as a menace, only adding to the constant troubles and feelings of apprehension with Peter Parker. However where that was a blatent attempt to antagonize a character for something he's obviously doing right, Ex Machina results in a character that is hated or disliked by everyone for good reason; and most of it being justified. In some respect showing the aftermath or implications of superheroism reminds me greatly of an old comic series "Damage Control" which was a series that explored a company that was hired to fix up parts of New York City after super hero encounters result in major property damage.

In the end I like this series a lot. I like the fact that the superhero past and origins always come back to haunt the main character, so much so that it satisfies my superhero cravings. It's a series that I suggest to read.

The Davinci Code Book Review

Seeing the paperback version of the novel appear at my store, and seeing how I had some time during my housesitting a few weekends ago, I decided to pick up this highly touted novel and see what the hub-bub was all about. I'd considered waiting for the film to come out first, but my indifference to the entire subject really didn't present me with any moral conflict.

My friend Rob had told me about the book last year and I tend to agree. The basic structure of the book is exposition, exposition, dialogue, history lesson/flashback, witty dialogue. It seems impossible for anyone to have exhibit qualities of both overusing a theasaurus and not using it enough. If I never hear the term "the sacred feminine" again it'd be still far too soon. The overall tone seems to exude a type of giddy feeling of writing, but not in a good way. In someways it seems that real, more serious and well versed Da Vinci Code novel was published somewhere and Dan Brown, after reading or even writing that one, decided to write a fanfic version of the very same book. Even if you haven't read fanfiction of any sort, you can picture the author being entirely impressed with how he's writing "edu-tainment." I can hear him as hey typed out each line, saying "Man...I am sooooooooooooo cool."

Another fairly problematic thing I found about the narrative was how it decided to unveil the mystery or even the past histories of the characters. The histories usually leads to the motivations of most of the characters, but it seems that rather than actually showing each part bit by bit, it slows it down even moreso by repeating certain past occurences to a certain point and stopping from giving away too much information. What's worst, an entire section dedicated to explaining a part of the past, which would also explain a bit of the mystery; doesn't shed any light on the subject except for giving us more background, but this time from a different angle. I think there would only be so many times we can explore the details Sophie's estrangement from her grandfather without actually saying what happened; before we realize how repeatitive it is. It's like one toe step forward, 3 steps back.

In the end it's a fairly neat plot. The ending is fairly typical and even almost expected even if it seems a bit dues ex machina. However I suppose we all need to be reminded of our childhood with this Encyclopedia Brown for Adults entry in the literary world.

ZOMG the anime gurl hotness...

To tell the truth much of my anime girl infatuations are purely regulated to the fighting game world. Although less characterly developed than typical anime characters (a comment in which is an oxymoron unto itself since most anime characters are shallowly developed), they fit well into my fighting game interest. So when I hear so much stuff about anime girls this and anime girls that, I being a person with marginal anime experience, find most female anime characters to be possibly the worst kind of characters in all of creativity.

It's hard to find creativity within the anime world considering most of them rely on blatent stereotypes to make them appealing in a sort of possessive way. Even a character as well developed as Faye Valentine of Cowboy Bebop fame, doesn't really strike a chord of resounding sexiness that she exudes most of the time. I appreciate her as a character, but appealing she is not. To tell the truth, too many buxom ladies or school girls are in the anime scene for me to really take notice.

Alas enter Seras Victoria:

(picture blatently stolen from this personality quiz site)
She's basically a new fledging vampire in the anime/manga Hellsing. I've always wanted to see this anime since it seems to have a rich history and basically had a neat enough character design for me to take a look. Even though I'm quite the purist when it came to anime, I decided to watch the series in the english dub as opposed to the Japanese with sub-titles. It wasn't entirely bad considering it all, the writing was consistent enough with anything that Anne Rice might write...or at least some non-horrible Anne Rice fanfiction. But when Seras appeared and knowing that she'll eventually become part of the main cast, I didn't think much of it. But then when she reappeared, vampired up with red eyes and with a capacity to kick some ass...for some reason the whole idea of a female anime character being boring and unappealing changed entirly for me.
Red/Orange hair aside, you noticed that she looks very very youthful. This is pretty much seen in most anime, but certain characteristics kinda emphasize that. It does kinda concern me insofar that it makes me think I'm a total pedophile because I'm liking the fact that she looks younger than she really looks, but this is anime really....everyone looks like they are 17 but developed like they're 27. It doesn't help that she was called "kitten" for a while. At least I'm not alone in the anime world in thinking that she is sexy.

So yes...I like a character even though by all means she probably encompasses all the boring aspects of what I described of the typical anime female character. She's a weak little kitten who needs to grow up and embrace her powers a vampire blah blah blah drink blood etc. But character flaws aside, I absolutely LOVE the character design. At first glance she doesn't look all that appealing, and yet in someways she encompasses some stupidly fantastical aspects of geeks.

Of course being a main character, she has to wear garb that is entirely different from the rest of her co-patriots who are pretty much filler for the rest of the attack squad. Instead of camo green, she appears as is in police woman blue. She typically carries a weopon that is far too heavy for a normal human, so in some sense, she's an amazon. The red eyes are something new and almost give way to more emotional expressions of her face. But as my primary facination with fantasty characters seem to dictate, one would wonder why I would like a character with absence of that feature? Well in some what really appeals to me is that it's cleverly hidden. It's clear that she has big breasts, but in no way is that emphasized by cleavage or something skin tight. In fact what really appeals to me is how it's almost designed to hide the fact that she has big breasts. The front pockets almost make a patterned effect that just takes away any breast form. There is something to be appreciated that you could make a woman feminine looking without resorting to something so simple and cliche as cleavage. What's more interesting is how the gloves basically cover her hands which make her a bit more unfeminine by not having pointy delicate fingers.

In some ways she reminds me of Bjork in which I used to describe a game character that I like.

Shermie from the King of Fighters series is one of the most loved characters in the entire series. So much so that upon her return to an installment, a lot of animaiton was used for fanservice type animations. She has one of the biggest chest measurements in the series, but you could never know that considering how they cover it up in her clothing. She has a mysterious side to her but also a sort of child-like aura in how she acts, talks and even fights. And yet all those attributes combine to make her very sexy in a very a typical way. It is sort of like Bjork's music where it sounds infantile, innocent and yet it resonates with something very powerful, mature and dangerous even.

I'm not saying Seras is exactly like that, but something about her character design is very appealing from a design standpoint. Even if she sports a very unpractical anime hair cut.