Battle of Gods "Reviewish"

My earliest memory of enjoying media is of me in my old house’s living room for some reason unable to really move around. It may have been because of what was on the television at the time. I didn’t know it then, but the image scared and amazed me. A young man with purple hair suddenly exerted something and his hair turned yellow. This was my first encounter with the Dragon Ball franchise. Recently (yesterday) I rewatched the movie Battle of Gods, and I have to say they did a great job with it.

With most Dragon Ball movies you get a story already done in the anime (detail wise), super long fight scenes, and of course Goku always wins. This time around though they created a whole new story instead of just new characters. Instead of just rehashing a main story arc they brought in new characters with motivations that don’t fit in with previous characters’. Fight scenes are also heavily improved and aren’t dragged out. And the most surprising but in a pleasant way the film did something new, was have Goku lose. He didn’t find some power out of nowhere, he lost after trying his hardest. The film was very fun to watch, and it was very evident they took what they’ve done, and refined their efforts to create something great.

Show off...

Five Night's at Freddy's

As a late addition to my Halloweek blogs, I am going to speak about the first game of the Five Night’s at Freddy’s series (franchise?) and why I believe it worked so well. The first game, simply titled as Five Night’s at Freddy’s, is a game in which you take on the role of a security guard at a pizzeria and must keep yourself safe from animatronics. That’s right, animatronics.

It's like it's staring right into my soul.

I’ve heard people describe the animatronics as being Chuck E. Cheese but even scarier and to that I say, “Have you seen the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics?!” When I was a kid the thing that stopped me from ever going up to the stage to enjoy the ‘beautiful’ animatronics I saw one animatronic had the back of its head missing and you could see the machinery and stuff in it and that was the last time I went within 20 feet of them. This is because of what Five Night’s at Freddy’s is great at doing, using the Uncanny Valley to give off feelings of nausea and anxiety. The animatronic at Chuck E. Cheese looked so human, but not, and this is the same for the characters in the game who have these very artificial but hyper realistic looks. From their eyes that pierce you to their silent moving, the animatronics seem less like robots, and more like just people in mascot costumes who are closing in on you.

New Characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

(SPOILERS BELOW)

This first sentence is just to clarify there will be spoilers for the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that anyone reading this who doesn’t want to have the current season spoiled for them should stop reading already. Anyway, two new characters have shown up in the show. Robbie Reyes, the new Ghost Rider, and Jeffrey Mace, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Until the fifth episode these characters seem to fit into predetermined roles. Mace is the happy, true of heart good guy while Robbie is a killer who desires nothing more than to do so. With these most recent episodes we learn more about the two of them.

Keeping secrets and being very manipulative, Mace shows his true colors. For Mace it’s not always do the morally good thing, but to do everything for the good. Lying, blackmail, and even hunting down people he knows he can trust just to make everyone else feels safe. Robbie on the other hand finally meets a man he’s been looking for. The person he believes to be the reason Robbie’s younger brother is paralyzed. Yet when he speaks to him he doesn’t immediately turn to flames and kill the guy, no he talks to him hinting that maybe it’s not his will to kill.

The Good Stuff

In the reading “The Secret of Pixar Storytelling”, it’s said by Andrew Stanton that you should, “Refine your efforts until you get to the good stuff. " The films created by Pixar, that were watched on that day, all exemplified this phrase. Luxo Jr. showed that inhuman objects, even lamps, can be made into relatable and enjoyable characters. The Tin Toy takes what they did with the lamps and tries to add CGI humans into the mix as well. While the human in the story was not the most lovable thing, it was an attempt that without would have most likely pushed back Pixar’s movies by a few years. These movies helped Pixar ‘refine’ their skills and create Toy Story. Geri’s Game was another chance for Pixar to create an endearing human character, and they arguably succeed. He may not look super realistic, but the old man in the short film was enjoyable like the lamps. I never felt he was real, but that didn’t matter to me because I could enjoy the film without the knowledge of why they might have made it. And I enjoyed the film even more knowing they had finally gotten “to the good stuff.”

Comic Book Accuracy

I am a big fan of comics. From a young age, I was interested in the different art styles found in comics and the humor and seriousness in tone that could be found. So, when TV shows or films are produced based on them, I can’t help but be excited. One thing that is always a hassle though when it comes to recreating scenes from comics, is the accuracy.

I’ll get this right off the bat, I care up to a point about the lengths they go to be comic book accurate. Like all scenes in media there are moments that are good but changing them up can increase the emotions you get from it, like in the Walking Dead when a kill or two is made but in a very different way than in the original comics. Some details should be cut out though, like in Man of Steel how Superman now longer sports his bright red briefs. In the comics, pre-52, it’s fine, it’s part of his history and in drawings don’t seem off. In the real world it would be kind of hard for us to take someone seriously who dressed like that. Comic book accuracy is fine and good, but sometimes changes are made for the better.

"Bad Milo" Reviewish

Okay, who brought in discount ET. 

Bad Milo was not originally on the list of movies to watch for Halloweek. I had heard the name before but never really was I interested in watching it or even just looking it up. This year though I’ve made the goal to watch horror movies that I don’t really find interesting. So, let’s get into my thoughts.

(Spoilers Below)

I didn’t want to say anything about the plot because it’s simple, there’s an alien/demon (the subtitles are very indecisive about it) that lives in this guy’s colon. With a film like this there’s usually only two options, either be super bad or so cheesy that it’s a good movie. At least that’s what I thought going into it. There were parts of the movie that I did enjoy, jokes that were funny. Yet most of the movie was boring and while I did feel bad for the protagonist, I didn’t really care for the other characters in the film. If I had to compare it to another movie I’ve seen recently, it would probably be Kubo and the Two Strings. Both movies I wasn’t interested in watching, and after watching them I felt them to be okay movies and I would likely want to watch them in the future, but not for a while.

"Holidays" Reviewish

A part of Halloweek traditions is watching horror movies. This year’s new horror movie in that I chose to watch was Holidays, anyone who read the title knows that don’t know why I felt the need to say this.

When you finally get your grade back and it's not an F.

The movie is a compilation of six different short films directed, and written by different people and only sharing the theme of taking place during the holidays. As with every Reviewish I do there will be a spoiler warning even though I tend not to really spoil anything, but just in case.

(Spoilers Below)

Due to the six films being directed and written by different people the stories all have a very different feel and are tricky to pin down. Some are very gory, some are just very realistic and that’s where the horror comes from. You never know what exactly is going to be the style of the films as you watch them. Where one involves a girl being bullied and her murdering her bully, you think “Oh, well these aren’t going to be supernatural or anything.” THEN Jesus shows up with the head of a hairless Easter Bunny and he makes a girl take his place. It’s refreshing to watch something like Holidays where each story is like a surprise that you wish you didn’t have to open and could give back to your demented gift giver.

Barry Kramer My Editor Idol

My last blog was on Guild Grumps, a show based around the Game Grumps. Because of this I have decided to make this blog over the one, the only, BARRY KRAMER!

I’m not just making this blog to speak about a Game Grump, but because the influence he has had in my future goals. When I first started watching Game Grumps, I didn’t stick around for the people on the show, I stayed around because something about how the shows were edited. They each had a unique style and the editor of the shows got to speak through his edits. At the time, I was going to a vocational school during half my school day where I got to work on film production for both the school and local businesses. Growing up I tried my best to create my own style of art but I found no matter how hard I tried, my work never lived up to my expectations, until I started editing.  Seeing Barry’s work as an editor made me realize that editing can lead to me showing my own style of work while also being able to push the work of others into the spotlight. Editing is something I love to do, and while I would have likely realized I had some interest in it, being able to the see the work of people like Barry Kramer has helped me push that interest into actual projects where even when the product isn’t very good, I enjoyed creating it and learning new techniques.

"Guild Grumps" Reviewish

(Spoilers as Always)

Guild Grumps is a show starring the five main grumps at the time of its airing. One of the Game Grumps, Ross forces the other four grumps to play World of Warcraft. Each of them starts off at level 90 and must reach level 100 in the span of five days. Those who do get $1000 dollars donated in their name to charity and those who don’t get $500 dollars donated and the other $500 split up between those who did reach level 100.

The series is very different than the other Game Grumps series as it focuses more on the relationships and lives between the grumps. Instead of the usual 10-15 minute episodes, the show’s five episodes are about 30 minutes each. A longer runtime gives more room for the grumps to talk in a real-world environment. We see the grumps be emotional and argue. They aren’t just best friends all the time, here they get to show how their large friendship works in real life. In the end their arguing doesn’t make them rethink their friendships, in fact all of it helps them grow closer to each other. Real friends fight over small stupid things, because they’re the ones who care enough about those small stupid things.

"Buddy System Episode 1: Tucked Up" Reviewish

Buddy System is a show created by Rhett & Link of Good Mythical Morning and Commercial Kings fame with help from YouTube. It is one of the many YouTube Red Series like Sing It! and Game Lab. I have not felt the time has come yet for me to purchase a subscription to YouTube Red, so I tend to base my expectations for what the show is like that I’ll be missing based on the free episode.


The free episode for Buddy System is called Tucked Up and gives me high hopes for the series when/if I eventually purchase a subscription. The epis-wait, wait I know. Spoilers Ahead. Okay back to the review. The episode is what all pilots are, a way to introduce to the audience the characters and a partial bit of the struggle they will be facing on the show. Unlike most pilots though, Tucked Up has a very Good Mythical Morning feel with Rhett and Link not only being exaggerated versions of themselves, but also a musical number in the middle of the episode. A very interesting and fun song dealing with how darkness can hide dangers to people. There’s also the idea of being confident with yourself and your quirks. 

Cast Your Ballot!

As we near the end of October I feel it’s time we remember the future of our country will be decided soon and that we shouldn’t take this responsibility likely.

I know there’s three candidates that are most talked about, but let’s be honest, only two of them really count as the other will more than likely just serve as a place to throw away votes. Besides he’s very flighty in his opinions and seems to care more about his public image than helping move the country in the right direction.

Of these two candidates one of them is taller and is definitely more spoken about in the media and feels all accusations made about him are false and he is what we need. He relies on shock value and is very frank in what he says. Is that the type of leader we want for the United States?

The other candidate claims that not voting for them and voting for anyone else will lead to regret and a leader who is all talk. They rely on scare tactics and promises full transparency but has shown no proof of this.

So remember to cast your ballot on which Halloween cereal mascot you believe is the right fit for this country, I know I will.

"Catlateral Damage" Reviewish

I usually do movies or television shows for these types of blogs, but I decided to do something different (that is my whole reasoning for doing this). Anyway this game actually was not something I’d been meaning to buy when I found it. There were a bunch of games on sale on the PlayStation network and I could only find one I wanted, a game called Screencheat, but alas it was only 3.99 or so and since the store would take out $5 automatically I decided to just buy a second game as well. You can guess what that game was.

After playing the game for a couple of hours I was able to form an opinion on the game. When I’d first seen it on sale it seemed like a boring old cat game. It was definitely a cat game, but not boring. I’ve got to say that those couple hours of playing were very relaxed and enjoyable as I spent time in the video game as a cat knocking things on to the ground. I tried to do better each and every round, learning tricks to help raise my score. While I hadn’t had high hopes for the game, it was very fun. 

"Arrow S5 Episodes 1-3" Reviewish

(Spoilers Below!)

Recently the fifth season of Arrow has started, and with it a whole slew of new characters and a new beginning for the main protagonists. For those who aren’t caught up yet are reading this anyway, Team Arrow has split up as Laurel is now dead, Diggle had to kill his own brother, and Thea doesn’t want to be a vigilante. In the months since the separation Oliver has been…well I’ll let him say it.

“My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal: To save my city. Today I fight that war on two fronts. By day, I lead Star City as its mayor. But by night, I am someone else. I am something else. I am the Green Arrow.”

Oliver's Preferred Method of Training Involves Being Shot, A Lot.

The first three episodes of the season are all about new beginnings. Oliver has to learn to trust and create a new team to keep Star City safe. Diggle is dealing with corruption in the army that he holds dear to his heart, and Thea is struggling to do Oliver’s job as he begins spending more time with his night job. Trust is essential to all three of them, Oliver needs to trust, Diggle no longer can trust, and Thea must be trusted.

"The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" Reviewish

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and our hearts.

The movie follows, wait SPOILERS (there got that out of the way), a high school girl who claims to be lucky and proceeds to have the worst day of her life ending with her death. She ends up going back in time and not dying. Realizing the awesomeness of this new-found power she uses it to have fun, but her fun ends up causing problems for other people.

We're going digital! Completely digital.

I really enjoyed the movie. It was a great “just sit down and watch a movie” movie where you could think about the implications of events in the movie, but you don’t really need to. The story is simple but fun, the characters are interesting, and the animation is very nice (very nice is how I described it, you can tell I’m not an animation student).

The only complaint I have with the movie, is the ending. I said spoilers so here they are. The main character says she’ll wait for the guy who she accidentally took the powers from. It drove me crazy because I felt like she was just making the same mistake her aunt had made. In short, I liked the movie, but not the ending. 

"Arkham Knight" Reviewish

(Spoilers Below)

For those who have never played the Arkham games, maybe because you're tired of Batman or superheros in general*, I highly recommend playing at least City and Knight. Origins and Asylum are good games, but I believe City and especially Knight had more to offer. The game [Knight] starts out, of course, as Batman trying to save his city. This time though the enemy is Scarecrow, a villain who uses toxins to put fear into people. As you proceed through the game, Batman will try to make a martyr sacrifice, only to fail and ingest too much "fear toxin". This gives Batman an internal companion, a version of the Joker who knows everything about Batman since he is just a figment of Batman's fear.

Batman struggling with The Joker 

In the comics, Batman and the Joker are always said to only be bad/good day from becoming the other. This is no less true in Arkham Knight. Throughout the game we see Batman become increasingly violent to enemies, hitting them with his car, using explosions to "knock them out", and hitting them with bean bags shot out of a CANNON. The imaginary Joker is quick to point these things out, and soon begins to "take control" of Batman due to his deteriorating psyche. This game isn't about Batman versus Scarecrow or Batman versus Joker. No , this game is about Batman versus himself. Batman no longer becoming Batman, but something much worse. This is how the Batman died.

*Note: I don't know the reasons you may not want to play these games and merely offer suggestions for why it could be.

R-Ratings: Part Three

Well here we are, the end of the line. Hopefully everything up to this point hasn’t been just ramblings. Now then, anyone who is at this point has likely read parts one and two and were interested because I have a point or I don’t and look like a jackass. Maybe both.

Possible picture of me.

Anyway, as stated in part one the handbook never says R-rated movies can’t be owned and viewed on campus, just to be sensitive to those around you. In fact, combing through the movies in Becker Hall will lead to identification of several R-rated movies like Akira or Argo. Part two of these blogs talked about the movie Kingpin and provided an example of what’s wrong with the rating system.

What do the two things have to do with each other? Did you know you can watch any movie if you’re seventeen and over according to the rating system website? Why? Because you can make your own decisions about what you watch at that point. The entertainment you take in, you take in. That’s why there’s no actual rule against having R-rated movies on campus or watching them, because most of us are seventeen or over and by the rating system’s own guidelines, able to watch the movies we want to watch. 

Now then, these posts have obviously been my opinion on the subject with supporting evidence I’ve found. Does that mean I’m right? Of course not. Does it mean I’m wrong? Again, of course not. I’m just one side to this who didn’t give out very much evidence. To really understand this sort of stuff further research would help advance the topic. In the end, the decision is up to you to find out what you believe is right because you believe it’s right, not because I or the university say its right.

R-Ratings: Part Two

Woody Harrelson is one of my favorite actors. Bowling has always been something I like to do for fun when given the chance. So, once I found out about the movie Kingpin, I had to watch it. To those just hearing about the movie, and honestly I wouldn’t have known about it if my older brother wasn’t almost a teen in the nineties, it stars Woody Harrelson as an ex-professional bowler who helps a bowling Amish prodigy (Randy Quaid) attempt to win a million dollars in a bowling tournament.  

You can't make this kind of stuff up.

The thing is though, I can and can’t watch the movie on campus. It’s like Schrödinger’s DVD up in here. This is because the movie is both R-rated and PG-13. Why you may ask? Because four minutes of extra footage was added to the extended cut. FOUR MINUTES. Some might say that it’s because of the two implied sex jokes. Oh, well of course my bad, I’ll pack up and just head out now.

Oh look, the back of the Blu-ray case.

Hey, wait a second.

That’s right, the R-rating is because the movie has crude sexual humor, just like PG-13 version! I’m a little passionate about this subject, because the rating system is flawed, just like the idea that there's a rule about no R-rated movies on campus.

R-Ratings: Part One

The rules are weird. Well to be more specific, one rule is very strange. Page seven of 2016-2017 Student Handbook, under Entertainment, states, “R-rated movies have been a concern because the content of many of those movies is not compatible with the Christian standards…” and, “students may benefit from some guidance in making mature decisions about entertainment.” It doesn’t actually say R-rated movies aren’t allowed on campus. Now one might say, “Hey, that’s not even from the section about Movies!” Chances are since I’m continuing to write, the movie section in the handbook also doesn’t ban R-rated movies…Wait, what?

Yep, that’s right. The student handbook doesn’t even say R-rated movies aren’t allowed on campus. They literally just restated the quote I pulled out about it being a concern. See, look!

Now I am not saying all R-rated movies are all right, or that everyone can stomach the more gory or violent ones. I understand some people are sensitive to that kind of stuff. I also understand I’m nineteen years old and can make mature decisions not based on the actions I witness in a movie.

Not me this Halloween.

Definitely me this Halloween.

"Memories" Reviewish

 

When the last donut's about to be taken.

This week at Signs and Wonders, I watched the movie Memories, or rather a collection of episodes in the Memories trilogy. When I’d saw the Facebook post describing the movie it made think of other items I’ve watched made up of different parts to fit a theme and made me excited to see this animated movie.

I’ll try my best not to spoil too much of the movie and would recommend watching it. Memories was made of three separate episodes. The first one, Magnetic Rose, was a sci-fi ghost story that was very enjoyable. Its theme felt obvious, but not in a bad way. There’s many surprises in this first episode.

The second episode in the trilogy was titled Stink Bomb. It was a very funny story even with its dark prospect. I’ll be honest though, I didn’t understand its connection to the theme of memories. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t see the connection.

Finally, we reach Cannon Fodder. This episode’s scenes are typically very long tracking shots. It was so weird at to see this that I was nauseous at first. Where Magnetic Rose’s  connection to memories is stated, Cannon Fodder’s is more left to you to realize.

You're Getting Old (well not you)

Spoilers ahead for the fifteenth season of South Park.

South Park has always been one of those shows that as a kid I realized tended to make adults argue. One mention of South Park in middle or high school would have people angrily calling it out for the extremes it goes to make certain jokes while others would say it’s messages were very serious and done well. Recently season twenty of this infamous show started and I decided to rewatch some episodes.

 “You’re Getting Old” is the episode I’ll be  talking about. It’s very different than other  episodes of South Park in general. The episode  was one when I first watched it when it aired, I  had this overwhelming feeling of “this cartoon  just became too real”. In the episode one of the  main boys, Stan Marsh, has his tenth birthday.  One of the gifts he receives is a CD of a band  that is then taken away by his mother who  claims it’s just crap. Stan, before losing the CD,  has the music downloaded to his computer, but  once he listens to it, all he hears is literal crap  noises. The rest of the episode spends time  showing Stan deal with this change as  everything he once loved and enjoyed is crap. This change for Stan is labeled as just part of growing up, but this change also leads to his parents realizing they no longer love each other and Stan’s mom moves out of the house. The end of the episode shows Stan sees everything as crap. He doesn’t find anything as enjoyable anymore like most people and shows signs of clear depression, but the adults in his life are too caught up in their own problems to notice. He even sees his best friend as a pile of crap and gets alienated from his friends. The episode didn’t end on a happy note, and this was done to show that life doesn’t always happy endings. That sometimes growing up, means seeing people for who they are and deciding whether they can still be a part of your life.