Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Yafisz Returning and New Writer

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that while I will continue to post on Cutlock, it will be more personal pieces that I post here sporadically. I'm shopping out to a bunch of other websites but have yet to accept which website I will write for. I trust you this will not interfere with 2BINProductions because come October I will resume my YouTube videos and will continue posting on here. Many of you came on when Yafisz started writing, I am glad to tell you that after his brief hiatus he will be returning. His posts will be much more censored than before because I'm telling you, I couldn't handle it with that shit. The new writer who will be joining this cadre is a girl from Surrey BC, Anna Sandhu. I have no clue when the hell she will post so bug Yafisz about that. Anyways, I'll see you guys with memories back then.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

An Obscure DC Movie?

Okay, now, if you know DC's movies then you should know that most of DC's successes have been on their obscure properties. Watchmen, V for Vendetta, A History of Violence and The Road to Perdition. Here is the thing, though, only two of those films have comics that people bother reading and here is the thing, despite the greatness of those films, they immediately become a disservice after reading the comics. Why? I don't know because I don't feel that way, it's just that the majority does. Guardians of the Galaxy has been what people are calling a success for Marvel Studios because it capitalizes on an obscure property that was not that well known that now has renown. Well, the same could apply for Iron Man before 2008, not that many people knew about him. The fact is, the Guardians were a replacement for the Fantastic Four and would have had no movie had Fox not owned the rights to that film.

So, lets talk about a property from DC that is "obscure" in that sense that could not be that well known. I'd prefer to see a live screen version of Static Shock, for kids who grew up watching his TV show, who are also the ideal age that the movie would target in the majority, they would love it. Also, if they advertised it in such a way that is similar to the new TMNT film, I have no doubt that the kids would love it as well. Metamorpho is a similar character who has a surprising roundness to him despite honestly, being very weird and generic. He'd work better in a team film, sure, but what team? The Outsiders, it could be a nice little spin-off that doesn't need to be connected to Batman. It would be nice if it was, but that would make it little more than a petty spin-off, which is really what they wouldn't need. A team leader in Black Lighting, field commander in Katana and DC's got themselves a nice little property. Black Lightning and Blue Devil could probably carry their own film. Oh, and I forgot Grifter and Deathstroke in Team 7. Not too obscure yet? How about a film on Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld... yeah, not going to happen with a Wonder Woman film announcement looming. That is honestly all I can think of as of now.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Something Good

Imagine, if in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice we are greeted to Batman and Wonder Woman, shown Victor Stone playing football and Lexcorp security footage of the Flash and Aquaman. That was the plan all along, not shoehorned in like Venom for Spider-Man 3, everything in Iron Man II and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now, imagine that we get the rest of the Justice League in the Justice League film. Now, imagine the bad guy is a parallel to Loki, mischievous badass that you love to want to win: Black Adam played by Dwayne Johnson. Now imagine that Captain Marvel is also played by Dwayne Johnson, double role: WINNING. Then there is the Dark Universe series of films, set in another universe that lets us finally have a Swamp Thing film that is either horror or action, not the goofy mix of both. Then there is the TV universe, Arrow, Flash and Arrow's upcoming second spin-off (Atom, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter?). That last one has hinted towards Crisis on Infinite Earths. Think about it, all of those universes converge for one big film against the Anti-Monitor, then diverge back into rebooted universes. Kind of seems different to what Marvel has been giving and slightly true to the comics.

I don't have much to post today, but I felt like posting anyways. You know what has been going along really good, Jurassic World. That movie seems like it will kick ass, want to know why? No, not Chris Pratt or any of the other actors and definitely not because of the director. It is asking, what if the park went successful before it went to shit? I would want to see that, it's a reboot, a remake and a sequel all in one. People who want the series to lay lie can go fuck off but this seems like it is going to be a very enjoyable ride, do you want to know why? Isla Nublar Roller Coaster rides that is why, Hulk Hogan guest appearances that is why, oh and the random protest group that gets deinonychus' thrown at them! Anyways, it might not have any of the really big dinosaurs that made number three worth it like the Spinosaurus and probably won't feature the T-Rex's crocodile swimming, but I'm still certain that it will be an enjoyable romp with mind bending and heart stopping moments that gets us thinking about the moral ethics of cloning. And then we forget about it until somebody clones Homer Simpson into real life and then he dies of being fat.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Something Bad

There were some things about Guardians of the Galaxy that were a tad bit frustrating. The first one was, what the hell happened to the Aether? When the Orb went all ka-blooey did it get free? Did the Orb have such a volatile reaction because the Aether was present? Is the Aether still contained? Given the power and magnitude of the Aether, something like that should really have been explained and been given depth. The second major thing was when Star Lord went out to save Gamora and gave her his mask, he should have died in milliseconds due to the lack of pressure. He is a human, Gamora maybe has some evolutionary advantage, but Star Lord is a human and no alien daddy of his is going to change that (because from what we've seen, his alien parentage has hardly changed his physiology or anything, it's just made him more immune to Infinity Stone withdrawal, so essentially he still is human). The third is that the movie totally underwhelmed Thanos, they had him all prepped up and big and all and then when Ronan uses the Infinity Stone for his own power he says he'll kill Thanos and the Mad Titan cuts the comm link. Boom, that really made him look tough, he hung up on Ronan. Maybe a statement of how much he would make Ronan suffer would suffice.

Then there is something I've wanted to talk about, Mass Effect. It was a video game series that for a lot of time, primarily because it started out as Xbox exclusive, that I didn't know what to think. I was at a mindset where I didn't really believe that sci fi could be melded into RPGs in such a way. Then there came in sex scenes. I really thought this was just a Song of Ice and Fire sci fi video game (I don't know if the show was out yet). The collection, which contained all the DLC, was out for about thirty dollars and so I thought what the hell, might as well. I made my own custom Shepard, made him an engineer and an Akuze background. The first game was gripping, it was very fun and amusing to play with, although I didn't like how I had to use the Mako to get resources. Then in Mass Effect 2, the stakes were high, unbelievably high (I wanted Jack to die but Legion died instead, which ultimately screwed up Mass Effect 3. Also, Kolyat and Mordin died as well). It was amazing, especially the scanning system. Then came Mass Effect 3, which did a lot of things wrong. The first, it took out a holster option. That's just a slight annoyance. The second it couldn't up it's mind thematically. The third, it changed the scanning system into something really odd, awkward and annoying. It did one thing so right though that was really good. It made Shepard such a humanlike character that you actually for the first time, felt for him. In the earlier games, Shepard was there, sure, but I never really cared what happened to him or his crew. When Samara commit suicide, when Tali commit suicide and when Tiks commit suicide I felt for Shepard. Those characters I never really felt for when they were companions, not like I did for Garrus and Kaiden or Miranda and Liara. But the game had a human aspect to the story, so it worked.

The third thing in this post is the WWE 2K series. Hopefully, since this is the game where Visual Concepts takes more control, we have the don't remove, but add and make better policy. Sometimes in WWE games, features that were there for a while would just disappear for no apparent reason. I believe that what should be happening is they give us 2K Showcase which is a nice historical mode and just kick out all the tweaks that existed in the Attitude Era mode and the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode. Then this My Career, make it like the old career modes of SvR 2008 or Here Comes the Pain. Then Universe Mode, make like GM Mode and add cutscenes, have your player run the show, have a rivalry progress based on wins and losses, oh and add all the features the people want. Things like Creative Suit should be upped for next gen graphics and well, that is all.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

A Bit of Both

Hey, there were many times in June and July that I wanted to post but didn't because I was way too lazy. Sorry about that, but, I'm here to give you guys a really big post because you all deserve it. I've going to start it off with a bang. Let's talk Ted DiBiase Senior, you know, the famed technician who often battled with Hulk Hogan. The Million Dollar Man who was, you know, one of the greatest villains of the age of theatrics. What an a-hole. Yeah, I met him the other day with a friend. Town fair is always fun to go to, there are rides, displays, rodeos for people, animals, acrobats, bike stars and even amateur wrestling. Last year there was the Honky Tonk Man (who knows why) and this year there was the Million Dollar Man, and up until this year I didn't know he was a Christian Minister. Yeah, town fair was evangelized this year. What should have been a multicultural event was overtaken by religion and heading it was Trillionaire Ted. I had never seen such a lack of colour. Ted was out there giving his sermons, then there was Elvis-Jesus doing it as well. Cool, I don't have a problem with that, but when you overtake the fair and make it a Calgary kind of thing, I don't like it. So I meet Ted DiBiase, he jokes about how he liked working with Hulk Hogan because he made money. His gimmick was money so we ask him to sign our money, he looks at us like we're retarded and signs the bills. I ask about Randy Savage. Old idiot must be going senile because he starts acting like I don't know wrestling is a scripted live stunt tv show and starts educating me on heels and babyfaces and how it's fake. I asked one simple question. Oh, he signed that bill all right and guess what, he put some Bible verse on it as well. I'm not Christian, he should've been able to tell by looking at me. I get it, you're a minister and you love your religion but why are shoving it at my face?

Next, I have to tell all of you about Hercules. It's directed by Brett Ratner and so it should've sucked, it should've sucked as much as that Kellan Lutz movie, but it stars Dwayne Johnson. As long as Dwayne Johnson is involved, so is charisma and guess what, the movie kicks ass. So what if all of the magical components and properties are involved only in the beginning? It has Ian McShane in it, who does his best performance since Blackbeard, and John Hurt who shows that he is the profound actor. It's got Reece Ritchie in it as well, for good measure if you like that sort of thing. All in all, I was disappointed by length and lack of magic, but was impressed. Several characters were rounded out even though they remained flat, Hercules had a full character arc and so did his nephew. It was left ambiguous as to whether or not the Graeco-Roman Gods were real or not (and why he's Hercules instead of Heracles in Greece), but I'd rather lean towards them being real. Honestly, this movie might've had a moderate box office opening in domestic territories, but for domestic, it's halved it's budget and when you combine it with foreign has already beat it's budget. We won't be getting a Robocop 2 because all the bitches who loved the first movie (and cannot see that this remake was an infinitely better and more humanly intimate job) made sure that even though it beat it's budget by over $100,000,00 it received mixed reception. However, Hercules has a lower budget than that, has beat it's budget and will likely end it's domestic run evening said budget and foreign run by beating it. I would love to see a sequel, with a longer run time and more ass kicking by Dwayne Johnson. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Hercules and his mercenaries popping up in a possible Jason and the Argonauts remake as a part of Jason's crew.

Now, lastly, the titular post title topic is Guardians of the Galaxy, I know this movie, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming out, is not going to be a box office hit of Thor: The Dark World proportions for Marvel. It's sequel on the other hand, will be that and more. It was an amazing movie, but I still can't get over why Bradley Cooper (heart crusher) did not play Star Lord and why Chris Pratt (y'know Emmett from the animated Lego Movie) did not voice the animated Rocket Raccoon. I can't say which one of them stole the show, although with Gamora (isn't that the place in New Vegas with the hoes?) glowing neon green made me want to poke her arm. Batista was surprisingly good as Drax, although I hope this doesn't get him thinking he's an actor as good a draw as Dwayne Johnson. The best part of this movie, however, were the designs, mainly Star Lord's ship. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of work I have seen from Marvel in a while mostly because of it's simplicity and you know what, simplicity works a lot. I put a lot praise towards that. I'm not going to talk about what the movie means in terms of the MCU's future and all that crap, but it's darker than you would expect. Trailers sugarcoat it with humour and violence and sex (Gamora's nude scene which wasn't in the film), but it is not the comedy that you would think it is. Yes, there is a joke around almost every turn, but that is all theater comedy. That is comedy that you laugh it if you are in a large group. The movie takes itself very seriously and that is what makes those "jokes" work. When it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD, watch it a few friends or your family, the jokes you'll laugh at then are the real jokes of the movie. The film is very good and the worst part, James Gunn's directing. He was the worst possible candidate for the role and the fact that he pulled it off so perfectly makes me wonder about how well somebody else could have done it (Jose Padillha perhaps?). All in all, watch Hercules and watch Guardians of the Galaxy. I'll try to post more consistently, my next post will be about video games, Mass Effect and the WWE series, so next time.