A Singularity

So… I signed up for NaNoWriMo.

Yeah I must be insane. There is no way.

Anyway my user name is Nojh.

Feel free to buddy me. I’m going to need a lot of support…

Battlestar Galactica re-invigorated television for me. It and Heroes are what got me addicted to television, something that I am attempting to now ween myself off of in order to do more productive things like write. Yet if you look back in this journal, you will find that several episodes of BSG spawned entries in this journal, lamenting, ranting, praising.

But I’m not reviewing BSG. I’m reviewing BSG: The Plan.

Or am I?

BSG: The Plan is a direct to DVD/BD movie that answers one question that was never answered in the first two seasons of BSG and was ultimately never revealed. What was the Cylon’s plan? The movie follows various models of Cylons in the aftermath of the destruction of the colonies. Particularly the ones that find themselves hiding amongst the human resistances (The Caprica resistance and the Fleet). In particular it focuses on two model ones, or Cavil, as we know him both on Caprcia and in the fleet. It is a thrilling introspective look into the Cylons during the first two seasons when the Cylons were a looming mysterious threat and particularly into the mind(s) of cavil. It does this by showing almost “behind the scenes” looks at the various activities of the cylons including clips from TV series in order to give the viewer a frame of reference.

This movie was in no way written for someone who has not seen the TV series.

And that is partly the reason why I have a hard time expressing how awesome or sucky this movie is. Because at its core, this movie is the TV show. The end of it left me feeling exactly like nearly every single episode of the TV series. Both enlightened and confused, thrilled, excited, a little sad. And its major flaw, it left it wanting more.

Yes. The movie left me wanting more. I want to see more of BSG. I want to see more of BSG from the Cylon’s point of view. See the movie ends around season 2. And there are three more seasons after that. And while it is true that after season 2, the Cylons became far less of a mystery we really didn’t see everything from their point of view. There is still plenty to tell. During the TV series, this was fine. I knew there were more episodes coming. This movie, on the other hand, is it. We don’t know if there will be any more BSG. Caprica is coming soon but that is a different color jacket.

I leave that to you to decide if that is a good thing or not. If it is a disservice to the fans of the show to create a movie that says it will wrap up some aspect of the show but instead leaves you wanting more.

So, with that off my chest, I can go into how awesome the movie was. Because it was indeed awesome. For one the effects budget was not skimped for this movie. We get to see the attack on the colonies in its full glory from multiple perspectives. We get a vista view of each of the colonies and a narration by the hybrid herself. Centurions are everywhere in this movie, so much so that they are almost their own character. And, of course, the skinjobs themselves, standing next to each other. The techniques were masterful.

The story itself is thrilling, as I mentioned before, but it does have one other downside. If it has been awhile since you’ve seen the first two seasons, you might find yourself getting a little lost. The cut scenes will jog your memory, but this movie will make you want to go and re-watch the series. I have already started doing so, so this wasn’t an issue for me. The acting in this movie was on par with the standards of BSG. Edward James Olmos once again proves his directing capabilities. I believe I will be listening to the commentary in the near future.

Now for the more fan-ish/spoiler-ish commentary. (continue reading…)

Biotechnology at its very core. Growing foundations. Living architecture. I live in a digital age. In an information age. Perhaps our descendants will live in a sustainable age.

So as I write more and more of these reviews it makes me wonder how I should go about formatting them. When I move to my new blog, I don’t know if I’ll have the lj-cut capabilities. So how do I handle spoiling? If you have any thoughts on the matter please feel free to share.

Paranormal Activity

First off if you aren’t aware of this movie, don’t be surprised. Its advertising campaign was very viral and low to the ground. It wasn’t marketed like a normal movie and it certainly is not a normal movie. The marketing for this movie was done by doing a limited release, then pushing a viral marketing of trailers through the internet. They then registered with a site that had people register to claim to want to see the movie in their theater.

The trailer showed the movie of a young couple who seemed to be haunted and had taken to video taping their hauntings as they slept.

And that is exactly what the movie was. And wow did it scare the crap out of me.

So let me first say that I was in a poor theater. Living where I am, I am blessed with attending movies with college students. I’m being stereotypical here but I had three girls behind me, two with boyfriends, and then four… we’ll call ‘em jock-equivalents, to the right of me. I’ll give ‘em credit, for most of the movie both groups were fairly quiet. But when shit really started getting scary out came the giggles, and the “oh my god”s and the “AHH!” in order to try and scare the shit out of their buddy crap. This just reassures that I will not go to another horror movie after 5pm within a week of its opening where I actually expect to be scared. At least not in my city.

So beyond all of this knocking me out of my suspension, I still was getting a nice adrenaline rush, and more than once focused my eyes to different parts of the screen in order to try and calm myself down. I really can’t imagine what it would have been like if I had been alone in the theater. It probably would have been Blair Witch all over again.

(As an aside, I watched The Blair Witch project all alone in a completely empty theater with no real preview of what it was going to be about. Talk about a mind fuck.)

I’ll summarize before the spoiler review by saying, try out the trailers and if it perks your interest, definitely go see it.

(continue reading…)

Coming soon, Nojh’s Blog! Stay tuned!

Okay again I’ve been a little remiss. I never reviewed Tales of Monkey Island Part 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay. Suffice it to say that it was at least of quality that I finished it, had several laughs, and was frustrated with how long I needed to wait for the 3rd episode, especially with the cliffhanger ending!

Now we fast forward and the cliffhanger is revealed! And wow did it take me by surprise. Actually having a side kick along on this once was an amazing and amusing, especially one who obviously idolized Guybrush. On top of that, the face off contest was so hilarious and nostalgic I have to give them points. This particular episode also felt longer than the prior two. It seemed to have more acts. And of course everybody’s (nearly) favorite character is back and is as awesome as ever. No I’m not talking about Guybrush. I found the ending to be slightly unexpected regarding the ships but the epilogue… well we were all kind of expecting it, right?

I know this isn’t really a proper review. But honestly how do you review adventure games other than to just say ‘its good’ or ‘it sucks’. Anything else would be ruining the story which is 90% of the game!

Man now I have to wait in limbo again about Episode 4. Grrr.

So I am actually a little late with this review and I apologize. Life got in the way a bit. I went and saw this movie late Thursday night. Which is rare for me. It meant that I got home exceptionally late and I did not find time to write a review.

But none the less, here it is.
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So Brutal Legend was a video game I rattled on about back in April and August. If you don’t remember here is a direct link.

http://TheSingularityBlog.Net/archives/tag/brutal-legend

So the demo for the game came out. And honestly, I was a little worried about playing it. Would the game meet my expectations? Would it be as funny as the original trailer (click above) made it out to be?

I should never have feared.

So Brutal Legend is about a roadie named Eddie who idolizes rock/metal music. But in this modern age, rock has been diluted by pop-rock wannabes. But through means that is explained in the demo that I don’t want to spoil, Eddie is transported magically to the land of rock metal, where he takes up a symbolic ax and a not so symbolic guitar, and begins kicking butt!

The game when synopsized does not come over as anything particularly original. The game play is a somewhat classic third person beat ‘em up with the standard melee/attack ranged attack lock on control scheme.

Okay I admit, I’m down playing the averageness of the game only because of the awesomeness it does have. For one the game has story. The demo gives you a good glimpse of it with a series of cut scenes. The story is narrated by Eddie (who is voiced by Jack Black) and he has some of the best lines regarding roadies I’ve ever heard. He really does make the lifestyle of a roadie sound interesting and epic, even. Thats how good the writing for at leas the demo is. It gives me great hopes for the actual game.

Second off is the music. I suppose if you really really hate rock music, you’re going to hate this game. Not only is the music inspired and from a lot of awesome bands (see link above) but almost everything in the world Eddie is transported to is based off of old style metal concert sets, and rock concepts. The flavor is intense. Its both a parody and a homage.

While I did mention that the game play was fairly basic. There were some aspects of it that were new to me personally. The attacks had a stronger versions of themselves that you could use by holding down the button. This led to a simplistic but interesting combo system. The game play itself is a little loose. But thats almost become a style of Double Fine Productions (whose last major product was Psychonauts).

The humor in demo was another aspect that I can’t ignore. From the very beginning all the characters you meet are interesting and each of them humorous in their own absurd way. Eddie is huge, can fix anything, and is voiced by Jack Black. The band he works for is a bunch of pop-punks who don’t listen to him and keep asking him to build more “modern” sets for them. At one point during the inital cut scenes, Eddie is about to say “Mother Fucker”. However the game stops, and prompts if you want to have the authentic roadie experience, or if you think it’d be funnier to bleep it out. I liked this little touch. It adds value to both choices. Later in the cut scene the entire story stops once again, only to ask you if you don’t mind gore in your game. Its presented once again in a cool fashion of ‘Gore is only used in this story when it is necessary, for historical accuracy, or when its really really awesome.’ and your choices are ‘Okay yes, but only if its very very awesome’ and ‘No gore please!’. Which pretty much sums up both sides the argument.

To add to the humor, your main character talks almost constantly during the actual game play, providing commentary to the absurdity of the world he has been dragged into. At one point your character is forced to ride a four legged altar down a pile/path of bones. During the entire time he is praying in a fumbling fashion to whatever being created the realm he is in, accidentally insulting him. It is hilarious, even if I don’t describe it well. The same thing happens during combat.

In addition to /all/ of this, there is a Psychonaut reference at the very beginning of the demo. Did you catch it?

I will most certainly be purchasing the full version of this game.

So a few people have asked me (in RL) what I thought of Surrogates. It might say something that I saw it last night early in the evenings and came home and did some work instead of writing a review. But it probably doesn’t say what you think it says. Let me explain.

Surrogates is a good movie. Bruce Willis once again portrays a character I feel for and identify with despite having no similarities. He is tough and plastic, as well as soft and human, both roles very much needed for a film like this. James Cromwell was excellent as was every doll portrayed in the movie. The world was well introduced and there was plenty to see. Aspects of it were touched upon lighting. The story was coherent and without holes. The characterization was was nothing to sniff at. Special effects were realistic and subtle, which is pretty much what I asked for.

Based upon the above, you’d think I’d say that it was a good movie. Maybe even an excellent movie. And you’d be right. However the reason why I didn’t run home to tell you all this is a bit more of a personal quandary than any jibe at the movie. It has to do with my slow readings into Transhumanism. So I’ll split up my spoiler reviews into two parts. One for the movie, one for my issues with the movie and Transhumanism.
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So you’re going to see a lot of reviews by me this week. There are a lot of movies out that I really want to see. The first and probably funniest is Zombieland. I really am not certain if this is my favorite zombie film or not. I mean I love 28 days later…

Okay here we go. So there are really only two other films in this genre. Zombie Comedies. Two other feature length films that I’ve seen. There might be more. Anyway those films of Shaun of the Dead, and Fido. And while I love Shaun of the Dead as the homage it is to Zombie films, ultimately it has a lot of British-ness to it that does not help my enjoyment. Fido, on the other hand, is hilarious for its absurdity and mocking of a different era of American life. Zombieland, on the other hand, is no homage or mockumentary. It throws all of that out in favor of mixture of comedy, gore, and shock value that will make you laugh to tears as you watch people get mutilated and die.

Zombieland manages to do what slasher/gore films have been doing for years, but with the full intention. Getting us to laugh at people dying horrible. Zombieland also manages to provide an interesting story and characters too boot, something most slasher/gore films fail at even when they try. And then of course there is completely original story element that just blew my mind.

Two things I loved about this film were the narration and the visualization of the rules. Actually there were way more than two things I loved about this movie. I loved that we never really learned the character’s names, well except for Witchata. But it was a neat twist. I’d love to read a book listing all the rules for living in Zombieland. I liked that the girls conned the boys, twice. And the ending with them almost driving away was hilarious. And Tallahaessee’s roller coaster ride.

I would play a video game based off of this movie.

The movie had a few cons that I forgive mostly because it is a comedy. For example the fact that the zombies weren’t really “undead” zombies. They took the 28 days later route. Actually I don’t have a problem with this at all. But some zombie purists might. Also the lack of need to find gas or basic survival items beyond weapons. The gas thing bothered me the most. Since the movie is a comedy, time spent focusing on attaining supplies (other than twinkies) would have been superfluous and not very funny. So its a nitpicker’s complaint if anything.

I did mention shock value in my opening mixture. And gore. The introduction of this movie is very gory. I loved it. My friend who went with me did not. I didn’t actually realize how gory it was going to get or I might not have tried to convince him to go as much as I did. Luckily the movie was actually very hilarious which made up for it in the end. But I suspect that the initial slow-mo zombie gore of the movie was there to help us get over the gore level of the movie. See excessively violent movies have a threshold before the violence becomes so overwhelming that it starts to become funny. The humor we find in it is due to our minds considering that much level of violence absurd. Its actually a type of coping mechanism. But I think Zombieland introduced the slow-mo zombie attacks with high levels of gore and violence in order to start filling up our thresholds very quickly, so that the violence can reach that humorous level. Thats just a theory of mine.

There is one insanely scary moment. The first clown moment. Man that actually got everybody in the theater. The shock value was intense. I loved it! Man do I hate clowns.

Actually I could identify with the main character a lot in this movie. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that.

I don’t even really want to mention the Bm scene even in the spoiler section just in case someone who hasn’t seen the movie reads this part. But man was that so completely and utterly awesome. I don’t think I stopped chuckling from as soon as BM entered until BM left. I have way more respect for BM now than I did before.

Overall this is a must see movie for fans of comedy or zombies. The previews might make it look like a cool concept but ultimately just a lot of dumb physical humor, but that can’t be further form the truth. I saw it matinée price but it is well worth full price and I’d consider going to see it again. Just to watch that one death scene again.