Web Comic Recommendations

I am by no means a comic aficionado; I leave that stuff up to people like Patrick & Dad.  However, I do enjoy comics, every now and then.  I'm not sure yet whether I prefer the physical article or reading on a tablet - more and more lately, tablet is becoming much friendlier - but I've always liked web comics, for sure.  I've gotten out of reading them lately, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, a few months back I asked the aforementioned Patrick for some free comic recommendations and he turned me onto City of Walls, available via LINE Webtoon.  In addition to CoW, I've found a few other gems hidden in the app.  I find that the "popular" and "featured" comics on Webtoon generally do not have me in their target audience, so I've had to do some digging.

Here are my recommendations from LINE Webtoon, in no particular order:

City of Walls - 3.5/5
     I struggle with rating this one.  On the one hand, I really appreciate the art and level of detail; on the other, the writing leave me a little wanting.  Sometimes it's got bad pacing...other times it seems just right.  I like the overall story though.  I don't want to give away too much about it, so I'll just say that the protagonists are kids in a fictional Asian city.  The world building is just great as well.

Zen Pencils - 4/5
     Zen pencils is illustrated by Gavin Aung Than.  This is a series of stand-alone comics that are based on / inspired by actual quotes from real-life people.  Most of hte quotes seem to be about being creative or being true to yourself.  I do sometimes find it off-putting that lot of the advice about dropping everything and doing what you love doesn't present a realistic sense of balance...

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn - 3.5/5
     Author/Illustrator: Tri Vuong (works out of the RAID studio in Toronto).  This one has gorgeous artwork.  The story is only okay - I like bits and pieces of it, but I mainly stick with it for the beautiful art.  The current story - "The Last Soldier of Somme" - is set in WWI and seems to be going somewhere, but pacing can make it hard to follow.  Vuong is admittedly new to writing so I'm willing to cut some slack.  Either way - the character design for Oscar Zahn is fantastic.  It looks like Vuong has had this idea floating in his head for a while now.

There are more, but I feel like I need to get caught up with reading some of them before I can properly recommend them.  Until then - enjoy those three!

Podcasts

I need to get some of the writings I've got in my notebooks out there - not all of them, but I've got a few things that I'm hanging on to that I think people would like to read.  This one is ratings and reviews of podcasts I've listened to over the last week.  I'm keeping tabs on what I'm listening to on a daily basis and writing things down (giving them a rating out of 5) so this kind of thing will pop up again to be sure.

I think the next thing I'll put up here will be relating to web comics.  On to the podcasts for now.  I'll try to group episodes under the same podcast title where I can to reduce the size of the list.  Notes in italics are notes I've added after writing it in my notebook.

Review: X Files Season 10 (Spoilers Maybe)

I honestly don't know where to start with this review.  I guess it'd be best to open with that I enjoyed the 6 episode mini series.  Were I forced to give it an arbitrary rating, I'd probably go with a 3.25 out of 5.

I wasn't the biggest X Files fan while it was on the air, picking up only in the last season (which featured the infamous John Doggett).  I got hooked on the show in spite of itself, and enjoyed the re-run episodes that Space would show every night at 10.  Wish they'd pick that up again - the classic episode marathon they had back in January was close enough I guess.

For the most part, this season actually felt like a regular season of the X Files.  Being a mini-series, I fully expected to be watching a 6-episode story, rather than 6 stand-alone episodes.  I think this was smart - it meant that they were better able to stay close to the X Files tone.  It was pretty much a "Monster of the Week" peppered with shows that serve to drive the overarching story.

I think the very best episode of the bunch was "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", which featured Rhys Darby as the titular Were-Monster.  I feel like this episode was written particularly to fit Darby's style.  Also funny to note that Darby played a werewolf in "What We Do In The Shadows", which is a must-see.  Werewolves, not Swear-wolves!

Unquestionably the worst episode was My Struggle II.  It didn't seem to fit with the rest of the episodes (even though it was a direct sequel to My Struggle).  Also, it featured a seemingly pointless re-appearance of Agent Reyes - that didn't really seem to serve any purpose other than to give us a familiar character to deliver plot exposition.

Here's how I'd rank the episodes:

1. Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster
2. Home Again
3. My Struggle
4. Babylon
5. Founder's Mutation
6. My Struggle II

I'd probably switch around Babylon and My Struggle, but Babylon takes a hit for "Agent Einstein".  Also, I just looked up Founder's Mutation and realized that the director of this one also directed "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", an episode I watched recently and really liked.  Musings was the better episode.  

Other minor notes - both Aaron Douglas and Alessandro Juliani appeared in the season as guest stars, who both starred in Battlestar Galactica.

Clash of Clans

I got started playing Clash of Clans over the summer, mostly as a way to prevent boredom.  I was terrible at the beginning - and I'd say I'm probably just Pretty OK at it now.  But I log in to play (even if it's just to check in on my base) at least once a day; I'd say without a doubt that this is the most I've ever played a video game - and I'm including countless hours trying to beat Star Wars on the original Game Boy (oh man, that is an impossible game!  I never made it past the Death Star).

For a little bit though I was growing a bit bored with the game.  The only thing keeping me coming back to it was that I needed to upgrade troops/buildings/etc and participate in Clan Wars.  I could see myself slipping away from the game eventually.

But Supercell, the company that makes the game, released a pretty major update about a month ago.  I won't go into full detail, but the biggest change was to add a daily 5-star bonus system.  The gist of it is that once a day you can collect bonus loot that gets added to a protected treasury.

Most mobile games have a daily check-in bonus to keep you invested in the game, but I think this is the best implementation of it that I've ever seen.  In most other games, you simply log in once a day and collect a bonus.  In Clash of Clans, you can earn 5 stars every 24 hours (and the 24 hour clock starts once you collect your first star - so if you time it right, you could start earning stars again immediately after your 5th star).

The genius part about this system is that it gets people attacking other clans outside of war more often by creating a bigger incentive.  Where before I might have attacked once or twice a day, I will attack 3-4 times in order to collect bonus stars.  The update also balanced the game a little more, so while you get raided more often - you don't lose nearly as much loot in comparison because you can gain so much more.

All that said - everything they put into this update has breathed some new life into the game for me, and is keeping me interested in it.  The update also showed some thought and care put into the game, and wasn't just a lazy code addition.  A job well done!

External Monologues Episode 3: Max Hug Raiders

In today's episode, I finally implement a theme (Kyle Cox's Life Is Good)!  I talk about nosy grocery store cashiers, Clash of Clans, Reddit Gold, and X-Minus One.  Links are below!  

The podcast is for sure on iTunes now!

Full download link

- Clash of Clans

- Reddit

- X Minus One

- Backwards Compatible Podcast

- Anthology Podcast

Want to support my other shows? Check out Alternative Airwaves or Futurama Pedia; or consider signing up at Swagbucks or Perk using my referral links.

Titansgrave: Season 1 Short Review

Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana on YouTube

Season One of Titansgrave wrapped up (and hey, I learned after watching Episode 10 that there's at least another season planned) this week.  The final episode was pretty great, I think, and addressed some of the issues I had early on.  I definitely think you should watch this series - most of the episodes are under an hour in length and the story is pretty fun to follow - which makes the finale especially frustrating from a viewing standpoint (in a good way).

To expand on my point...one of my issues with the show originally was that I felt very disconnected during the battle sequences - they dragged on a little too long, at least from my perspective, because I didn't fully understand the game mechanisms.  At the end of the series, I still don't fully understand the system, but I think I've gained enough basic knowledge that I'd be able to pick up and play tomorrow if someone asked me.  And that's all from just watching the game being played, so job well done there.

But what specifically changed for the better for me in Episode 10 was the pacing of the final battle.  Granted, I think this was done specifically because it was the Epic Final Battle - but there was a noticeable change from the earlier episodes.  I hope Wil Wheaton has some behind the scenes material that will be released for the show, because I'd be willing to bet that there was a conscious decision behind the pacing change and it has to do with the gameplay mechanics & getting the viewer accustomed to how the game works.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the last episode except for the suckerpunch right at the end.  Thanks a lot, GM Wheaton.  I'm pretty sure I have spoiled 0% of the show for you, so if you haven't watched it - please go watch it now.

ReBoot - Season 3 + Podcast Review

I binged through ReBoot season 3 last weekend to finish it off, and prepare for sitting through season 4 (which is actually two movies but was split into episodes for TV).  I probably would have taken longer to get through the season, but the third season is actually quite compelling.  I can't remember the last time I watched the season in full, from start to finish (let alone watching the series start to finish!); I feel like the last time this happened, I was 13 and watching it week-to-week when it was freshly released.

I remember that the third season was highly serialized, but I forgot how much it veered into this direction.  A few of the episodes could be watched on their own, but you'd lose out on so much of the story (which, I suppose, is a good reason to have the musical recap).  The season is broken down into three very well-defined arcs: Enzo's struggles to become a Guardian; Matrix and AndrAIa's search for Bob and Mainframe; and the final fight to save Mainframe.  Each arc is 4 episodes long, and are identified via the episode number (for example, 3.1.3 or 3.2.1 - Season 3, Arc 1, Episode 3, etc).

By far my favourite episode is "The Episode With No Name", mainly for the stand-off between AndrAIa and the female guardian.  A close second would be "Showdown", for the extended fight sequence between Matrix and Megabyte.  The whole season was very cinematic, and had parody-after-parody.  I mentioned that season 2 shed the cartoon quality of season 1, but season 3 takes that to another level entirely.

Lastly, I'm glad I stuck with the Mainframe Chronicle podcast and gave them a chance to get better.  The chemistry between the hosts improved a lot, and they both feel a little looser.  There is still a lot of recitation of wikipedia factoids, but the hosts actually bring some personality to the episodes and relate some of their own stories.  Their best episode was Episode 10 - The Visitor, where they had a guest from another podcast join them.  I think it helped to loosen up the regular hosts quite a bit and made an impact for the following episodes.

As I said, I've still got season 4 to watch, but I've started working my way through Beast Wars (or Beasties, as it's better known in Canada).  There's another podcast running that I'll be listening to as well - it's called the Transformers Beast Wars Podcast.   It looks like they're still releasing new episodes, as the latest was out June 2nd.  So far after listening to 1 episode, they're doing what I hoped a ReBoot podcast would have done.

A Few Reviews

In the last week, I got a lot of show watching done, plus some reading.  Read as for some reviews...

Specifically, I binged through two seasons of ReBoot, which sounds like a lot, but actually the first two seasons are each only 10 episodes long.  At roughly 22 minutes per episode, that's 3 hours and 40 minutes. It didn't feel that long though, and was quite enjoyable to watch through.  

It's amazing to note the vast differences between seasons 1 and 2; at the most basic, season 1 was purely a cartoon with some references for the older viewers.  Season 2 took on a more serial nature and expanded the universe, and did away with some of the more cartoon-y aspects (zany sound effects and the like).

After watching, I then listened to a podcast called Mainframe Chronicle. The podcast has long since ended so I don't feel too bad giving it a bad review; but still a little bad, because I could tell the hosts were trying hard to make something enjoyable.

I find it's very similar to Futurama Pedia in terms of basic structure - the hosts (Daniel and Joey) would watch episodes and talk about them.  Unfortunately, this is where the show fell flat.

While Joey sounds a little more loose and comfortable, host Daniel just sounds very boring and monotonous.  It also sounds like they're reading straight from the ReBoot wiki, which I will admit, I might not have noticed had I not gone in and read a few articles before hearing about the podcast.  They don't really offer anything new to the discussion (granted, I'm only 7 episodes in), though they did receive feedback at some point that asked them to do some more research.  I have noticed that they've loosened up quite a bit compared to their first episode, so it's possible they'll get better for season 3 and the movies.  There are points where I've found them hard to relate to but it could be because they're both at least 6 years younger than me and don't quite remember what the world was like in 1994-1995.

I'll give a final review when I finish the series, to be fair.

---

I finally got some comic books read; first up is ChronoNauts #1, by Mark Millar and Sean Murphy.  I bought a re-issued edition that had a comic paying homage to the Back to the Future poster, thinking that there might be some sort of tie-in.  I was wrong, but definitely NOT disappointed.  The basic premise is a couple of scientists invent a time machine, and something goes horribly wrong at the end to kick off the story.  The art is beautiful, and although I found the pacing to be a little off, I really enjoyed it.  I'll probably give it another read, and try to track down more issues.  

I also re-read some old Star Trek comics, most of them missing their covers.  I had a TNG comic which featured Q turning the Enterprise D crew into Klingons, which was fun, ends on a "to be continued" note.  As I don't have the cover, I don't know if I'll ever be able to find the follow-up books to find out how it ends.

I then read two TOS era books, called The Modala Imperative.  These ones were fresh to me, because I never really got into them as a kid.  Another case where I'm missing the conclusion to these books, because I really enjoyed them and want to see the outcome.  Apparently the story line is continued in the TNG era, so there's another set of books to look for.  I guess I have some specific books to look out for at the next ComicCon!

---

Lastly, I've been watching a lot more Dark Matter, setting Killjoys aside for the time being.  Initially I felt that Dark Matter was a little predictable - and it still is, in some ways - but in the last couple of episodes, I feel that its tone has changed to something a little more mature.  It's still trying very hard to be the next Firefly, but it is at least standing on its own.  The latest episode I watched - Episode Four - was set on a space station and it looked fantastic.  Without blatantly telegraphing everything, you get a good feel for how this universe operates.  Also, TIL that the episode names are given numbers, akin to how the crew refer to themselves by numbers.

Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011); I've been meaning to see it for some time now, especially with the next Transformers film due out this summer.  Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've seen it, so it's not entirely fresh in my head; but to be honest, that doesn't really change my outlook on the film.  I even missed the first 20 minutes, and I don't feel like I missed out anything.  That in itself should probably give you some indication of how good (or bad) the film is.

I recently listened to a podcast reviewing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; in it, the reviewers had the notion that maybe the producers were trying to "forget" The Motion Picture and start fresh with a new movie.  Thinking about Dark of the Moon, I really get that same sort of feeling: that the producers were trying to ignore the existence of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  Gone are the annoying "twins" (though replaced with equally annoying but less featured smaller Autobots) and Megan Fox.  Sam has a new girlfriend - whom apparently he loves and has always loved.  Some of the Decepticons are different - Megatron's form is changed, as is Soundwave's (Soundwave is definitely better this time around).  I did some reading, and apparently Michael Bay did acknowledge the poorly-received Revenge of the Fallen and made some decisions to reflect that, but in my view, he didn't go far enough.  Still, this movie fits the overall feel of the other two movies, so it's definitely not out of place.

Interesting to note - though I'm not sure how I feel about this - the Transformers seemed to be much more "organic" than ever before in that they bleed when injured.  It's a little strange - Transformers seem like they should be completely mechanical.  However, this helps to illustrate that they are alien beings from another world.  I just don't know if it worked for me or not.

Thematically, the connection to NASA here mirrors the first film.  I really appreciated that, and thought it added a nice touch to the film.  It makes the second film seem even further out of place, which lends more support to my theory that Bay just wanted to move on from the second film.

One of the more interesting aspects of the film's plot line was Sam's apparent existential crisis in the first half of the movie.  He's graduating from college and going for his first job - but he's saved the world twice now, so understandably he feels that an entry level position has no meaning for him and is beneath him.  It's a little God-complex-ish in the first two films - a coincidence almost - that he is so central to saving the world.  In this movie, I feel that he has less to do, and is actually held a little bit helpless / hostage to the Decepticons and can't really do much to affect the outcome of the film.  Wisely, it's the Transformers (and military-trained humans) who do the bulk of the saving the world.  I honestly forget how Sam figures into the end of the story, but I think he's satisfied or something.  Either way it's pretty clear that he's not important for the future of the franchise.

I liked that there were some bad humans in this movie.  I don't like that it was obvious who they were, but when you think about it, it makes sense that the Decepticons would coerce some of the less scrupulous members of society to get what they want.  After all, aren't the Autobots essentially doing the same thing by having the humans act as support for their fight against the Decepticons?  Of course there is a difference - the Autobots feel responsible for the humans, whereas the Decepticons use them as they see fit - and they see them as disposable.

Overall, this isn't a huge thinkpiece of a movie, but Transformers: Dark of the Moon gives you a bit more to chew on than the previous two installments.  I don't hold the same expectations for Age of Extinction, but come on - Dinobots!

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Recently I watched the latest installment in the X-Men movie series, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  You can creep my twitter profile for the short version, but where's the fun in that?  Read on (sort of spoiler-y I guess)...

Let me start off with the best part of the movie: Magneto as played by Michael Fassbender.  All of the sequences involving him (either taking part of the action or just in the action) are excellent.  The best sequence is from the end - and I'm definitely not spoiling the contents of that scene, because it's worth experiencing.  A close second would be Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique.  She also had some very strong scenes in the film, and without spoiling it, was very central to the plot.

Now then...there were some weaker moments, as I alluded to on Twitter.  The worst moments: Wolverine piping in with "...but I know someone who can help us!" when they run into a road block.  To be fair, I think this only happens twice, but the overall characterization of Wolverine is actually not very strong.  To me, he comes across as much more emotional than we've seen in any of the previous movies.  Yes, he's shown some strong emotions (other than "GRR!  I'm angry!") in the other movies, but in this one he almost seems sentimental.

That's not the character we know; however one could argue that this decades-long war against the sentinels with deaths of all his friends has changed him.  I would buy that argument if maybe we'd seen a movie set completely in the future (or the present? I know it's supposed to be the future in the comic book, but it's a little muddy in the movie).  It does help that we see some of the mutants get killed in horrible ways in the opening sequence - it helps cement the idea that this is a terrible state of affairs for mutants.

I also feel that James McAvoy's Professor Xavier recovers a little too quickly from his depression.  I feel like this should have been a more important part of the plot, but it's not handled with much grace.  On the other hand, I think this is a third strong point I found in the movie - James McAvoy.  I won't say too much - I just liked his performance in the movie.

I would definitely watch this movie again and anticipate the day it arrives on home media.  One thing to note if you were let down by X-Men 3 - this movie pretty much wipes its events out of the movie series canon.  I liked parts of X-Men 3 but I feel like that was a good move; unfortunately the movie also undoes some of X2, but it's unclear exactly how much of that has been undone.

The next X-Men movie should be pretty good - it's supposed to be set in the '80s, so none of the "old" trilogy actors should be appearing in it (though wouldn't you think that James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are still a little too young-looking in the '80s to pass as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen?).

A Short Post About Glee

Please allow this brief interlude from talking about weight loss (I think I need a break from talking about that anyway).  I'd like to talk about Glee.

I like the show; that apparently is not a popular opinion for guys to hold, and I'm not sure why.  I guess some guys don't like singing and dancing?  Anyway, having said that, I don't like the last two seasons of Glee as much as the first three.  I think we're at 5 seasons - it's hard to tell with the amount of hiatus periods this show has (which is something I definitely do not like).

I liked the first three seasons because of several reasons, chiefly that there was actual character growth.  The overall plot was also somewhat realistic - the Glee club didn't win it all the first go-around (or even the second time), and had to deal with true adversity.  It wasn't until the third season that they actually were able to pull it all together and win - and it felt like a truly well-deserved win.  I liken it to a professional sports team, who after learning how to lose, finally wins it all.

I felt that the writers/producers hit all of the right beats in those first three years, and that's where the last two seasons fell short.  I will grant that they tried to make me care about the new cast and give them original stories; but you could tell that they realized that avid fans still wanted more of the original cast - hence the split time between Lima and NYC.  However, I don't think it's a coincidence that the show changed focus to NYC and dropped the Lima stories.

Going back to character growth for a quick minute - it just seemed that the characters in the last two seasons were cardboard, and that the whole show became a parody of itself.  I like that it is self-aware (if it wasn't, I think I would have hated these seasons), and I'm glad that the high school kids didn't win Nationals in the end - I swear, everything I was watching felt like they were going to win it, even though they didn't deserve to.

The show is apparently going in another new direction (haha...get it??), so I'm not sure what to expect.  All I know is that if I were to want this show on DVD, I would stick with the first three seasons.  It was a solid show, but it's just faltered a little bit.  Who knows, maybe it will pick itself up again.

A Brief Review of A Storm of Swords

I haven't written in a long time, but George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords inspired me to at least write something short about it as a review.  No need to shield yourself from spoilers - I'm not going into specifics with this review, but you'll get more out of it if you've read the novel.

I came into this novel after enjoying the first three seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones.  I read A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, and felt generally underwhelmed with GRRM's writing.  The plot was great, but the execution involved a lot of eating.

However, there seemed to have been a switch when it came to "ASoS", as fans seem to enjoy calling it.  The same great plotting is there, but the writing is dramatically improved.  I can't identify exactly what is better about this novel, but part of it is the characterization.  The characters definitely have more identity to them than before, so that helped my enjoyment level.

There are still moments where I'm left wanting more from him, but overall there was enough here to warrant a five-star rating.  I haven't started reading the other books (I need a break!), but I'd easily call this one the best.

As far as surprises go, there was only one plot point I knew going in (thanks to season 3 of the TV series); there were three others that caught me completely off-guard, and I was appropriately impressed.

Review: Red Shirts (Novel, 2012)

Project 52: 9/52

I've been thinking for a long time about how to write this review without spoiling anything (which is now impossible because by writing this sentence, I'm indicating that there is something to spoil). This is one of those books where you should go in with a blank slate. All you need to know is the main premise: the story is one told from the point of view of "red shirts", those disposable characters who died a lot in Star Trek.

So, since I can't write this without spoiling, I've marked this article as "classified" and have removed any remarks that would give anything away.

Red Shirts, a 2012 novel by John Scalzi, is predominantly a comedy sci-fi novel - so pretty much what I've come to expect from Scalzi (see Agent to the Stars). As I mentioned, it's a story about crew members who come to realize that they're disposable when compared to the main crew (sort of like Kirk/Spock/McCoy) and want to do something about it.

That's where this book [REDACTED] and Scalzi writes some [REDACTED] scenes. You won't believe [REDACTED] and [REDACTED].

[REDACTED]

I definitely recommend this book and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Five out of five.

Sudden revelation about Ready Player One

Project 52: 8/52

I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark this morning and came to a sudden realisation about Ernest Cline Ready Player One: it has a parallel plot.

Stay with me: in Cline's novel, the "Sixers", the ostensibly evil group trying to obtain Halliday's easter egg, at one point get information about a clue - but they only get half the information they need.

In Raiders, the Nazis mistakenly use the wrong length of staff, which gives Indiana a head start.

I don't know if that was done on purpose, or if anyone else caught that before me, but it just blew my mind.

Review: Ready Player One (Novel, 2011)

Project 52: 5/52
"...Cline has written in Ready Player One a strong story..."

I'm a week late writing a review for Ernest Cline's debut novel, Ready Player One.  I say I'm late, because I finished reading it a week ago and am currently half way through Redshirts (John Scalzi) - but don't worry, I'll have something for that soon.  Back to the review - Ready Player One is, in a nutshell, about an immersive video game quest chock full of 80's references.  I guess I'd classify it as a Young Adult novel?  It's a strange one to classify, precisely because of the 80's pop culture references.

To be slightly more accurate with the book's synopsis, an eccentric billionaire leaves his entire fortune to the player who can successfully locate an "easter egg" within Oasis, a massively-multi-player-online video game the billionaire designed.  As the quote on the front of the book says, it's a little like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

Obviously, the story is more complicated than that - it has to be.  What kind of stakes could be expected in a story that takes place in a video game?  "Oh no, the protagonist's avatar will die!"  Thankfully, this is where Cline excels: the story takes place in 2044, in a very plausible future where money is scarce and people are forced to live in RVs stacked one on top of another (seriously).

Think about all of the real-world problems we face today, and multiply them tenfold.  This creates a world where a contest to win billions of dollars - in a video game - becomes something certain people would most definitely kill for.  And that's how you effectively create stakes for a story set in a video game.

As for the 80's pop culture references, as prominent as they are, they manage to take a back seat to the story.  I realize how little sense that makes, considering how important those 80's references are to solving the clues that lead to the ultimate prize.  What I mean is that Cline could have easily come up with some other clues that didn't hinge on knowledge of the 1980's, and the story would stand up just fine.

And the story does hold up.  Cline has written in Ready Player One a strong story with characters who make choices that feel right for them.  In my book, that's what counts.  That a bunch of awesome 80's references were included as a gimmick?  That just makes it more awesome.

Some other random observations:
I was strongly reminded of Cory Doctorow's For the Win, which isn't surprising; the subject matter in both books revolve around online video games with real-world stakes.  However, I prefer Ready Player One.

I hope that the success of this book leads to more re-discoveries of some of the better aspects from 1980's pop culture.  I've already put War Games on my "to-watch" list - I've never seen it, so hopefully it's an enjoyable experience.

I noticed an IMDB page for Ready Player One.  While the story seems like it would translate well to the big screen (though I'm not 100% certain of that), I'm concerned about rights issues.  Specifically, I imagine in some cases it would be prohibitively expensive to license certain rights and the story might actually be compromised.  Well, I guess we'll see if anything actually comes from it.

Good Night And Good Luck (Review)

Project 52: 3/52

Easily the best movie from 2005 that I own - and it turns out I own a lot of movies released in that year - this is the black-and-white movie portraying Ed Murrow's fight against Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950's.  I say this now without watching George Clooney's other 2005 feature, Syriana, but I'm confident it will hold up.

The movie is beautifully shot - can you imagine if it was released in colour?  It would be even more visually striking.  As it is, it works even better mixed with the historical footage from actual McCarthy hearings.

What I especially like about this film is that it portrays the people actually acting like real people.  I think some might find that distracting and consider the film boring, but it adds a level of realism to a fantastic biopic.

I really don't have much more to write about it than that...but I just had to get it out there.  If you haven't seen it before, go check it out now!

CD Reviews - 54-40 - Dear Dear (1992)

Project 52: 2/52

In the interest of writing something every week, I picked an easy subject: album reviews.  But there's a twist; I recently spent time putting my CD collection back into their cases.

You see, several years ago when I moved to Sudbury, I had to move all of my CDs into a binder so that they were more portable.  Until just a few nights ago, they stayed that way.  Now they're back in their cases, and alphabetised.  Now I can re-visit them in alphabetical order and write about them.

First up is 54-40's 1992 album, "Dear Dear".  For the life of me I can't remember why I bought this album; was it for "She-La"?  For "Nice To Luv You"?  Probably the first one.  Either way, "Dear Dear" is a fairly bland alternative rock album that hardly kept my attention the whole way through.  Sorry, 54-40 fans.

There is one track that did work for me, though.  Strangely enough, it's not one of the official singles - which is not surprising when I think about it.  What were the singles?  The two I listed above, I think.  Prime examples of the bland, inoffensive nature of the album.

The track I enjoyed was "You Don't Get Away (That Easy)".  It has a few more layers to it and is overall much more interesting than any of the other songs on the album.

In short, if I were to downsize my collection (and that is a distinct possibility), 54-40's "Dear Dear" would be the first in the Value Village box.

Up next: Aerosmith - Honkin' On Bobo (2004); The Acorn - Tin Fist (2006); Herb Alpert - Definitive Hits (2001)

My All-Time Movies List

For some reason, I found myself thinking about the movies I watched over and over as a kid; the movies that, no matter how many times I'd seen them, I could always pop in when I was bored.  These are the movies that I watched when I was sick; when I was home all summer; on weekends.  These are the movies that I want my kids (when I have them) to watch as they grow up.

The movies aren't in any particular order - I just listed them as they came to mind.  Most of these movies were recorded from TV, and were watched complete with glorious '80s commercials.

Back to the Future
What can I say about this movie?  What can I say about any of them?  As kids, we watched this from a VHS tape, recorded from some TV channel I can't remember.  I should point out that I'm referring primarily to the first movie, not the entire trilogy.  We never had Part II or III on tape, but we watched the hell out of the first one.  It's an easy plot for a kid to wrap his head around.

The Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)
The unfortunate thing about this trilogy is that I'm unlikely to ever find copies of the original, unedited versions (without going on eBay finding the DVD copies that were released a few years ago with the original theatrical versions) in high definition, because this is how I grew up watching them.  I think that I would definitely want to show my kids these versions, and I'll do my best to make sure that happens.  I think there's a lot to be said for using physical special effects instead of computer generated crap.

The Karate Kid Part I and II
This one's a funny one for me; I remember watching both of these movies quite a bit - mostly the first one - but I really prefer the second one.  The problem is, our copy of the second one got messed up in the recording.  Oh well!

Bigfoot
This is an obscure one, and I've never seen it available in any media ever, anywhere, except our one VHS tape that we recorded from TV.  There are probably a dozen movies by the same name, but in this case I'm talking about the 1987 made-for-TV film starring Candice Cameron Bure.  Yes, starring DJ from Full House.  I think the only other bigger stars in that movie were Colleen Dewhurst and Joseph Maher.  Have you even heard of them?  Yeah, exactly.  Okay, actually, the father, James Sloyan, appeared in a few Star Trek episodes (TNG, DS9, Voyager), so there's at least one "famous" character actor in it too.  Look, it's a great movie, and you should watch it.

The Great Muppet Caper + A Muppet Family Christmas
I think my favourite of these two is The Great Muppet Caper, but both are excellent films (the latter is made-for-TV I think) that showcase The Muppets at the height of their amazing-ness.  While last year's The Muppets was great, I don't think it can ever top The Great Muppet Caper - even though it may have matched  it in tone at least.

Ghostbusters
Another of the great '80s films, I probably watched this one just as much as the Star Wars movies.

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, and likely will come to mind after I hit "Publish".  But if I only remember these movies, that's still one pretty great list to show my kids.  There's only one modern movie I can think of that I would add to this list - and it's Moneyball.  It seems like a strange choice, but I just finished watching it for the umpteenth time, and I'll likely watch it again and again.  It's become one of those movies, like those listed above.

I didn't really have much of a point to this post, just stuff I wanted to share.  Got any movies that you watched over and over in your childhood?  I'd be interested to see what any '90s kids watched too.

Is Fight Club Ruined by Spoilers?

Please note that this post will have spoilers in it - and even though I'm talking about a movie that is more than a decade old, this probably still matters to somebody out there.

Okay, that's out of the way; I can get on with this quasi-review.  This week, I both read and watched Fight Club for the first time.  I'd seen the first 20 minutes of Fight Club when I was in High School, but never finished the movie.  I'm sure most of my readers have seen this shirt before*, so it should come as no surprise that I knew of the major twist at the end of the movie.

My question then is: did knowing this spoiler ruin the movie for me?  For that matter, do spoilers in general ruin stories at all?

First, I think I should mention that while I read the book before watching the film, I'm going to concentrate on talking about the film - most people haven't read the book anyway, I assume.  I should also assert that the simple fact of knowing that the narrator is Tyler Durden DID colour my viewing experience.

While I was watching, I was looking for all the clues that point to Ed Norton really being Tyler Durden.  You know what?  There are a lot of clues, starting with one of the opening lines: "I know this, because Tyler knows this."  There's also an almost throw-away scene on a city bus where a passenger knocks into Norton, and not Tyler.  All the references to sleep - the narrator never knows if he's awake or asleep; Tyler disappearing when Marla shows up; the subtle camera angles when both Tyler and Nortn are supposedly in the same room that only shows one or the other.**

These clues are fairly subtle, and I'm not sure that I would have noticed all of them had I not known the big secret at the end.  These are clues that I would have definitely picked up on during a second viewing of the movie.  Honestly, as much as I enjoyed the film, I don't think I would watch it again.  In a way, this was my second viewing.

In this instance - just this particular case - I believe the spoiler did ruin the movie for me.  But not because of someone else telling me the secret; I would have only watched it a second time anyway, no more.  What may have been ruined was the whole "my mind is blown" moment, but I'm not too concerned about that.  I can tell you what wasn't ruined: how I enjoyed the film.

Yes, the joy of discovering the truth about Tyler Durden was taken away from me, but instead I had fun picking out those "Aha!" moments that I mentioned earlier.  You know what?  I probably even missed more than what I mentioned, and could find more on a second viewing.  So to answer my initial question, Fight Club was NOT ruined for me because I knew the story's secret.

But what about in general - are stories really ruined by spoilers?  Most of the time a spoiler is just one small tidbit of information, and in no way affects the rest of it.  I knew that Snape Kills Dumbledore, but I didn't know the Snape was the Half-Blood Prince (sorry).  While I'm not presenting very much evidence in support of my theory, I think my stance here is fairly obvious.  Spoilers don't ruin anything beyond a brief surprise at the end of it all.

* I'm not a fan of the wording of "Tyler Durden isn't real".  While it gets the point across, I'd very much argue that Tyler Durden is very, very real in Fight Club.

** I really appreciated the way these clues were pulled off.  Also the fact that the writers/director didn't feel it necessary to go back to each instance and hit us over the head with it, as many other entries into pop culture dealing with an imaginary person do (*cough*Dexter*cough*).

The Dark Knight Rises

I was going to write out a whole review of The Dark Knight Rises.  I had even started writing it out in a notebook (I got to two and a half pages, and still wasn't finished).  But here's the problem.  Since seeing it last Tuesday, I've called into question my opinions of the film.  And no, not because I've listened to reviews of it that disagree with my initial grade (I thought it was the best of the trilogy immediately after watching it), but because I went back and watched the first two Nolan!Batman films - and that's when my opinion changed.

Call it revisionist history; I always felt that The Dark Knight felt like a really long movie, like they stiched two different stories together.  Don't get me wrong - I really liked The Dark Knight, but I felt that it had too many flaws to be really a "great" movie or "greatest movie of all time".

This is why I felt that The Dark Knight Rises was a superior movie.  It proceeded along the plot in a timely manner, and didn't feel too long (despite being actually longer in length).  But then, as I said - I re-watched The Dark Knight recently, and I saw it in a different light.  It didn't feel as before that Nolan was stitching together two stories (that of The Joker and Two-Face).  It felt like a fairly cohesive story that worked quite well.

So all that's really changed is my opinion on which movie is better - and that is, The Dark Knight is better.  That's not to say that The Dark Knight Rises is a poor movie - on the contrary, it's very good.  I think I enjoyed Bane as a villain more than The Joker.  However, I enjoyed The Joker as a character more than Bane.  It's quite an interesting dilemma.

Suffice it to say, if you haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, you should.  I also urge you to NOT compare it to The Dark Knight if you hold it up on a pedestal.  In all likelihood it's in your best interests to avoid watching either Batman Begins or The Dark Knight before watching Rises.  Trust me, it stands very well on its own (despite its flaws).