Contact is one of those rare science fiction movies that actually cares about science. They don't just make things up
willynilly for the sake of creating a plot device or for making some
force commentary. Of course, they make some leaps. Pretty much
everything about the wormhole travel is theoretical in nature. Still,
the science is pretty accurate.
The very opening is
actually pretty cool - especially when you know a thing or two about
science. Starting with a close up of Earth, the camera slowly pulls back
and back and back, falling farther into the depths of space. While this
is happening, we hear radio broadcasts that seem to be going back in
time. The farther the camera pulls back, the further back in history the
broadcasts go. Radio waves, of course, are electromagnetic waves
similar to visible light from stars. Radio waves broadcasted earlier in
time will reach a destination before radio waves broadcasted later. To
see a cinematic telling of this fact was actually pretty cool. They do
explain it later, but if you know science at all, you can appreciate
that shot in the moment a lot more.
It then goes on to
tell the story of our first contact with an alien civilization. The
Drake Equation makes a bit of an appearance in the film, as Ellie
Arroway (Jodie Foster) makes a statement about how unreasonable it seems
to think we are alone in the universe. She sums up the equation (a bit
off, mathematically, but the point remains): "There are four hundred
billion stars out there, just in our galaxy. If only one out of a
million of those had planets, and just one out of a million of those had
life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life;
there would be literally millions of civilizations out there!"
And
so, the film examines what would happen if we ever heard back. What
these aliens did was take our broadcast, make some adjustments, and then
shot it back. But the broadcast that we got back was apparently some
radio broadcast of Adolf Hitler introducing the 1936 Olympics! Some
people took it as a threat, but Ellie and the other scientists were a
little more level headed about it. The 1936 Games would have been the
first television broadcast strong enough really to make its way into
deep space. Yet in 1997 (when about Contact takes place), that
would have been about 60 years earlier. This helps to confirm their
suspicion that the initial broadcast came from around Vega, a star about
25 light years away. (This is pretty tight science, actually. You
usually don't see this in movies. If 1936 was the first broadcast strong
enough to travel outside Earth, then it would have taken 25 years for
anyone near Vega to even get it. It also means it'd take about 25 years
for a response to get back to Earth. So communicating with Vega would
mean you wait 50 years for a response!)
The world then
comes together to build a machine after discovering there were
schematics encrypted in the aliens' response. They assume that this must
be some sort of device for interstellar travel. A committee is formed
to find the right person to send as an ambassador for all of Earth (with
Ellie initially loses out on.)
I think the main reason I liked Contact
more than other typical "first encounters" is that it offers a much
more realistic idea of what would happen: the alien fanatics would come
out and celebrate, the overly religious would come out and protest, the
governments would try to conceal information from the public. It's
probably a much more realistic look at what would likely happen than any
other science fiction movie out there! This doesn't just serve as
simply a "what if?" It also serves as an interesting critique of our
society.
There is a lot in Sagan's vision that leaves a
bad taste in your mouth, that makes you think poorly of humankind as a
species, but in the end, it actually is a pretty hopeful vision. In the
end, he argues that religion and science are not enemies. Ellie finds
herself in the exact position she ridiculed religious believers for:
having an experience that acts as personal proof, but having no hard
evidence to back it up. She finds herself victim to Occam's razor - that
all other things being equal, the hypothesis with the fewest
assumptions should be selected. Indeed, as she gets grilled in hearings
after her "failed" ride in the machine, Michael Kitz (James Woods)
practically quotes Ellie verbatim from a conversation she had much
earlier with Palmer.
The overlying theme though is
about togetherness. At first, it is overtly about our status in the
universe. Are we really a party of one? Is it possible that in a
universe the size it is, life does not exist anywhere else? Wouldn't it
be really something to know we belong to a galactic community? But in
the end, that winds up being irrelevant. In the end, we already belong
to a community here on our own planet with our own people who are so
alike and yet so dissimilar at the same time. We have faith in science
and in God, but we should also have faith in each other. Faith isn't a
bad thing, and neither is logic. While it gets a bit preachy at times,
it is executed well most of the film.
As for
whether I believe we are alone in the universe? Well, I disagree with
Sagan's assessment that there must be millions. I even think that
conservative estimates - around the 10,000 range - seems a bit high
considering all of the things required to happen for life as we know it.
But it does seem absurd to think that given the sheer size of the
universe, we are alone.
It's kind of funny how things have changed. It used to be that comic book movie adaptations were the laughing stock of cinema. While the occasional Fantastic Four or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sneak in to stink everything up, by and large this is no longer the case. People actively look forward to these movies now! Instead, it's comic book-based video games that generally have a bad rap! Sure, a lot of the worst of these are actually adaptations of the movies based on the comics, but more or less, the number of great comic book games are a bit limited.
While we can't say that all of the games on this list are truly "great" games, they are games that we enjoyed a lot. It's what we would generally consider the best of the comic book games, and are things we would recommend checking out to our fellow comic geeks.
The rules are pretty simple: the game must be based on a character or franchise that existed as a comic book before becoming a video game (so no Gears of War or Halo or Mass Effect since those were video games that were turned into comic book properties as well). This also excludes games focused on super humans, like inFamous or Saints Row. And most importantly, they're games that we had to have actually played! But that one is probably a given. (So, sorry DCU Online and X-Men Legends, we just have had time yet!)
Justice League: Heroes is a dungeon crawl game Warner Brothers put forward, largely to ride on the coat tails of the more successful X-Men Legends series from Marvel. The strength of X-Men Legends is that it allows you to pick from pretty much the entire team on any given level. Heroes opts to take away that choice for most of the game. The story causes the team to split up, and often forces your teams without your say so. The powers are pretty fun to use though, and the Justice League seems based on the popular animated show of that time. Frankly, this game is pretty much interchangeable with Marvel Ultimate Alliance which came out a week after. Ultimate Alliance has a better team, but Heroes, in our opinion, looks a little better and is a little bit more fun.
There's something about the Hulk that makes him really difficult to translate to the big screen, but Ultimate Destruction highlighted what makes him such a fun character to use in video games. An open world game, players control the Hulk and can just pretty much do whatever. Or rather, can just destroy whatever. The story is penned by Paul Jenkins, a former writer of the comic, so it feels as much like a Hulk story as it can. While the battles can get a little stale and tedious after a while, it's still just tons of fun running around and being the Hulk - something that hasn't really been captured since.
Main reason we like it: Free roaming destruction of whatever you want!
Metacritic Score: 83
Metacritic User Average: 8.7
8. INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US (2013 - XBox360, PS3, PS4, PSVita, Wii-U)
Fighting games can feel pretty repetitive. They can also get really frustrating for players unfamiliar with them, as it can very quickly turn into little more than button mashing and hoping for the best. Injustice isn't ultimately much different in that regard, but it does feel a bit tighter than a lot of 2D fighting games. A solid roster and interactive environments helps make the game feel a little less generic. Fans of the comics will probably just have a lot of fun. We're admittedly not big fighting game fans, but we had a blast playing. As usual with these games, it's more fun to play with friends than the single player experience, which has a pretty "meh" story, but then, no one really plays these games for the plot.
Main reason we like it: Great beat 'em up combat.
Metacritic Score: 81
Metacritic User Average: 7.9
7. SPIDER-MAN: WEB OF SHADOWS (2008 - XBox360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii)
Spider-man games have had a bit of a checkered history. Sure, they've never been as terrible as, say, Superman games. In fact, a lot of them have actually been pretty fun on some level! But they've never quite felt much like Spider-man games, really. Things started to change after the Sam Raimi films, and Spider-man 2: The Video Game really opened up what was possible. That game, in reality, is terrible, but it paved the way for future Spider-man games. While its story isn't exactly the best (not that it's the worst either), Web of Shadows is perhaps the most complete Spider-man experience to date. Set in the Marvel universe, players are treated to a variety of cameos from other popular characters. Combat is very fun and rewarding. There's this cool element too where you get to choose how often you're in the symbiote suit, and that impacts the game. Most importantly though, swinging around the city actually feels awesome, giving you a more detailed and entertaining New York City sandbox to play in. While not our favorite Spider-man game, this would be the one we describe as the most definitive web-slinger experience yet.
Main reason we like it: Most accurate Spidey experience we've encountered.
Metacritic Score: 68
Metacritic User Average: 8.6
Marvel had seen success with its X-Men Legends series, and even carved out a place in the dungeon crawl market with its own Ultimate Alliance. The sequel isn't too far of a departure from that formula, but it mixes in enough new elements to make it superior. Apart from just looking better and including more characters (although not necessarily better, per se), the game also includes a pretty distinct choice early on. The story is loosely based on Marvel's big crossover event Civil War, and as such, you essentially have to choose which team of heroes you want to play as. Much of the time is then spent fighting other heroes, as well as traditional villains. Ultimately, it doesn't give the game that much replay value, as the differences aren't great, but it's always fun to go back and play as the opposite team. What's even more awesome about the game though is that it allows for four players, so it's a great party game.
Main reason we like it: Fusion attacks, which have team mates combine powers.
Metacritic Score: 74
Metacritic User Average: 7.1
5. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010 - XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network)
If the comic (and subsequent feature) are heavily built on video game nostalgia, the video game adaptation takes it to a whole new level. Scott Pilgrim is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game in the same vein as most of those classic arcade games you can think of. Or, really, of those earlier days of superhero video games. Each character has their own unique moves, and gain experience, giving it a bit of an RPG feel to it. Players earn coins during battle, which they can spend on upgrades at shops. It plays a bit differently from most beat-'em-ups as a result. Co-op play is fun, and it has - as one might expect - a killer soundtrack. It's every bit a love letter to those retro games, while being just as fun.
Main reason we like it: Super retro.
Metacritic Score: 77
Metacritic User Average: 7.8
4. THE WALKING DEAD (2012 - XBox360, XB1, PS3, PS4, PSVita, Ouya- because that was a thing...remember that thing? It was a thing once, I swear)
Telltale Games have a nice little thing going. Telling narrative-driven games with limited gameplay, but built entirely on player choice allows for some interesting things to happen. At some point though, it stops being particularly fun or interesting and starts feeling tedious. Still, for all the problems that exist within it's overly simplistic game engine, The Walking Dead really transformed what people thought of these sort of "choose your own adventure" games. Broken down into "seasons," each with five episodes, it plays out a lot like the comic. You play for a while, get to some crazy cliffhanger moment, and then you have to wait for the next episode! This can get frustrating for a lot of people, but comic book readers should be used to that by now, especially for The Walking Dead. The first season is extremely flawed, rendering your choices clearly meaningless from the get-go. This is a huge flaw in a game entirely built on the idea of player choice being the only game mechanic. Even with that though, it still managed to pack an emotionally compelling story - with some of the best character development and emotional punches in the entire Walking Dead license! The second season does a much, much better job covering up whether your choices make much of a difference. While perhaps not as emotionally potent, the overall experience of the season two is substantially better, to the point where it might have very well saved the Telltale formula from collapsing in on itself.
Main reason we like it: The feels...oh...those feels...
Metacritic Score (Season 1): 89
Metacritic User Average (Season 1): 8.7
Metacritic Score (Season 2): 80
Metacritic User Average (Season 2): 8.2
3. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY (2011 - XBox360, PS3, Wii-U)
Gliding around a sizeable chunk of Gotham (or rather, a prison in Gotham) creates perhaps the definitive Batman experience. The strength of City is how it fits its narrative and sidequests into this dark, dreary sandbox. Even when distracted by side villains, you never stray too far from the central story of the game. It works in Batman's villains seamlessly, all while never clogging your to-do list with too many tedious and time consuming chores - as can be the case in open world games. Combat doesn't feel all that different from the first game in the franchise, but it's still fluid and extremely fun. Boss battles have been a little tricky for the Arkham franchise, but they actually feel pretty solid here. Frankly, it was kind of a toss up on which installment to put here. Most people would probably rank City over Asylum, and it's not hard to see why!
Main reason we like it: Feeling like the Batman, gliding around the city.
Metacritic Score: 96
Metacritic User Average: 8.6
Listen, it might not be the best Spider-man game, and we can totally see why some people won't be into it, but we're admittedly big fans of the alternate reality Spider-men. The story involves traversing different dimensions, giving the player control of four different versions of Spider-man. There's classic Spider-man, Ultimate Spider-man in the symbiote suit, Spider-man Noir, and Spider-man 2099. While the story is that inherently silly kind (which itself is actually a lot of fun), it connects to gameplay. By throwing the player to these different versions of the character, the gameplay is regularly changed up. Some people might not be into it, but it can be really interesting and engaging to get various styles of play. Each Spider-man has his own unique abilities, which forces the player to play differently in each world. It spices it up. (And really, we'd absolutely buy a Spider-man Noir game on its own!) Far from a particularly accurate Spider-man experience overall, we found this to be one of the most fun Spider-man games we've played. It's maybe not a great game, but it's great fun.
Main reason we like it: Different worlds with their own style of play. Spider-man Noir is especially fun.
Metacritic Score: 76
Metacritic User Average: 7.6
1. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (2009 - XBox360, PS3)
Let's just be real here: Arkham Asylum opened up what the comic book game could be. It's innovative and extremely satisfying combat system has been cloned time and time again. It blended practically every era of Batman into one thing - incorporating elements of the Nolan movies and the comic books with elements of the animated series and even the Burton films. Even people who aren't particularly huge Batman fans can appreciate this amalgamation (and yes, non-Batman fans do exist). A lot of folks might bemoan the linearity of the game, especially compared to later installments that focus more on open world environments. What's great about Asylum though is how it works that into its narrative and gameplay. The whole story takes place in this one mental institution. The series of tight spaces and linear corridors creates a claustrophobic atmosphere that really makes it feel like this is a crazy house. When engaged in combat, it adds a sort of desperation, as you don't often have a ton of room to maneuver. Caught in a group too big? You can't really just flee. Certainly, the bosses in the game are disappointing, but overall, we still every so slightly prefer this to City. How much of that is just because it came first is up for debate.
Main reason we like it: Super satisfying combat system.
Metacritic Score: 91
Metacritic User Average: 8.7
When trying to pin down a list here, it became clear that comic book video games have really seen a ton of improvement in the last ten years. Maybe it's that the technology is finally at the point where you can translate comic book worlds to video games, or the characters and their powers to consoles, or maybe it's just that so many people grew up with these characters at this point that there's more care in getting it right. To be sure, there are always terrible games. A lot of those comic book movie based games just feel like cash-grabs (X-Men Origins: Wolverine being the lone exception, where more care seemed to be given to the game than the film). Otherwise though, it really does seem like original comic book based games are trying harder to get it right.
For us comic book nerds, it's pretty exciting times.
Looking back on the list, it seems like a lot of these games could easily swap positions. Don't think of the rankings as particularly permanent, especially since it's been a while since we've played some of these. What do you think are the best comic book inspired video games?
Preface: I don't really review much television. It's not really one of my go-to mediums. Not that I don't like TV shows; I just don't care about that many shows, at the end of the day. The Powerpuff Girls was such a pleasant time when I revisited it that I just had to talk about it a little bit. I'm throwing it in the "comics" category just because that seems like the closest fit. It's an animated superhero show. Seems to belong there more than "movies."
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the options on Netflix Instant hoping to find something I could put on and only half pay attention to as I ate lunch before work. After a minute, I came upon the Powerpuff Girls and remembered how each episode was broken down into two mini-episodes. That made it ideal for lunch-watching!
But I knew I was going to want to finish re-watching it all from the moment the opening theme song came on! Easily one of my favorite themes, it is very visual in its sound. It rocks out when Buttercup pops up on screen. It softens and becomes cute when Bubbles shows up. It gets menacing when the horde of villains appears. It's an awesome theme song! Here:
Pretty catchy. Stays in the brain.
A lot of people probably pass off the Powerpuff Girls as your typical animated kids show, but it is much more than that. Like all great "kids' fare," is really does cram a lot of stuff for the adults in there too. There are a lot of jokes that kids just wouldn't possibly get (and those jokes are actually pretty funny!) Here's an example:
There's no shortage of adult-aimed humor. (I think my favorite was the episode where the girls are rewarded with candy and they wind up with a candy addiction. The way that they eat the candy and react to it...well...it's gonna fly over the heads of kids, for sure.) You can also see that they target an older crowd with episodes like "Meet the Beat Alls," an episode that essentially parodies the Beatles, while almost every line of dialogue is from a Beatles song. There are also a fair number of Star Wars references. (And here, my personal favorite reference occurs during a random conversation between the girls and the Professor where they keep rhyming. The Professor then says, "No 'buts' and I mean it!" Then Bubbles follows up with, "Anybody want a peanut?" It's a really funny, sick reference to The Princess Bride.)
Seriously. There are tons of references, from Scarface to South Park to Ocarina of Time to Planet of the Apes. There are all sorts of shout outs (including a rather random shout out to Mos Def). Then there is a lot of oddball humor, like when everyone is turned into a cat. We see owners allowing their cats to do all sorts of things like sleep on the bed and scratch up the curtains. Then we cut to a silent shot of the Mayor slowly licking his cat. It's really strange, but ridiculously funny.
The humor is one of the strengths of the show, but it's far from the only one. The Powerpuff Girls each have their own unique and widely differing personalities. Bubbles is cute. Blossom is smart. Buttercup is a badass. Everyone has their favorites (mine was Buttercup, but in the rewatch, Bubbles quickly became my favorite!)
How can you not just melt watching that? Daaaawwww....
The rapport the girls have with each other and with the Professor feels pretty genuine (for a cartoon). They definitely seem like a family. They get along, but aren't without their fights and conflicts. The Professor himself is just as funny as the girls are too!
And of course, if a superhero comic is only as good as his/her villains, well, the Powerpuff Girls still hold up. Their cast of villains are incredible. You've got the troublesome Gangreen Gang. There's the rich and spoiled wannabe Princess. There's Fuzzy, the creature who only cares about his property. There's the inept Amoeba Boys. Then there's the gender-confusing devil known only as "him" (my personal favorite villain). And of course, their main arch nemesis: the super smart chimp Mojo Jojo. All of these villains - like the girls - have very well defined character traits and personalities. To me, this is the ultimate strength of the show and why they are able to do so well in the humor department. If these characters weren't as intentional in their design, or if they weren't so unique and odd, the show would probably fall in on its own cultural references. These characters prevent the show from ever truly becoming dated.
The Powerpuff Girls is somehow more entertaining and more hilarious than I remembered it being. If you watched the show when you were younger, then I definitely recommend you watch it again. Even if it's just a few episodes here and there, odds are you will find yourself laughing more than you anticipated.
I don't think about life with kids. I mean, I'm so far removed from that even being a possibility! But I do know that if I have kids - boy or girl - that kid is watching the Powerpuff Girls. (Oh yeah, it really is a show for everybody! It really isn't "girly," but it also isn't a show you would think, "boys watch this" either.)
It definitely stacks up. Weird, clever, cute, touching, hilarious, and great characters mixed with an interesting and attractive animation style, it's as good an all-ages cartoon show as it gets. It has to be up there with the likes of Adventure Time.
It isn't very often that I come away from a first person shooter feeling bad for the character I'm playing as. Don't get me wrong here: I find FPS games to be really entertaining. I've played a good number of them, and some of them would make a list of favorite and/or best video games of all-time! Typically though, when it comes to the story and characters, they can have a habit of feeling a bit lackluster.
At first glance, a Wolfenstein game should be just another military shooter. Going back to replay Wolfenstein 3D, it's hard to argue otherwise. You play as this big, Schwartzenneger-esque action hero - except an American, naturally - named William "BJ" Blazkowicz. You basically just run around, killing Nazis. The Wolfenstein games separate from normal World War II shooters by placing you in an alternate history timeline. The Nazis always have futuristic, advanced technology that comes straight out of a sci-fi movie.
It's something of a silly change of pace, but it makes a world of difference. Even though at its core, it's just the same as any other WWII-era shooter, it never feels like it. They specifically avoid trying to do what everyone else is doing. Visually, it is more interesting in that way, and even though realism was never the point, they still include some of those classic "war is hell" moments found in every post-Saving Private Ryan games. It also goes a long way to making the game a lot of fun. Right off the bat, you find yourself against robot attack dogs, and you know this isn't just another WWII shooter clone.
Wolfenstein: The New Order has very smooth controls and gameplay, which is the most important part of any game, really; especially fast-paced action shooters. The number of weapons you get access to is somewhat limited, but they make up for it by allowing you to dual wield anything. Few things are more fun than running through an area with two shotguns in hand! Still, it might have been nice to allow players to mix and match. Running through with a rifle in one hand and a shotgun in the other would have been really fun too.
What's really helpful, and a mechanic that seems to be increasingly popular in first person games lately, is the ability to lean. I know, I know. It sounds like such a minor thing, but it does make a difference. A lot of third person shooters incorporate some sort of cover mechanic. You can hide behind objects, peak over, and fire. With a lot of first person shooters though, you're restricted to ducking behind cover where you can't see anything. The only thing to do is pop out of it, exposing yourself to enemy fire. The ability to lean doesn't prevent you from taking damage, but it reduces the chances of being hit. Leaning from cover, and being able to shoot from that position, is hugely helpful.
The game also includes a few choices, as is popular in modern gaming. While some of the decisions are tough - and impact the unraveling of the timeline in several ways - it isn't particularly a shining example of the mechanic. They're fine and interesting, but it rarely feels like it matters much. The first big decision you make near the beginning isn't really about who to save; it's really about whether you want health upgrades or armor upgrades, which kind of detracts from the emotion a bit.
Perhaps the most surprising element of the game though is its narrative. Blazkowicz looks like your stereotypical FPS protagonist, but he behaves very differently. While he's completely capable of kicking ass and killing Nazis, he frequently whispers to himself about how much he hates the war. He is there because he has to be, not because he wants to be. At times, it drives him into more a much more traditional hero archetype, but it's still refreshing to play a war game as someone who doesn't actively enjoy it.
The story isn't perfect, but it's still pretty good. Some plot elements happen far too quickly (like Blazkowicz's relationship with Anya), but eventually it evens out. I must admit, there was a good stretch of the game near the end where I was starting to legitimately worry that she was long dead. And the ending is one of the more bittersweet conclusions to a gamein a while. Traditional wisdom says to leave the players feeling totally empowered, heroic, and satisfied, yet there's been a stretch of games lately that specifically avoid doing that. The Last of Us, BioShock: Infinite, Mass Effect 3, and yes, Wolfenstein: The New Order. It's not as complex an ending as those ones, but it's in a similar vein.
Anyway, as someone who never cared all that much about this franchise, Wolfenstein: The New Order was an extremely fun game with some really interesting story elements and fast-paced action. By no means perfect, it's still one of the better FPS games of the past few years, especially if you love sci-fi historical fiction which pits you fighting Nazis on the moon!
Oh yeah, and there's totally tons of little nuggets to find about this alternate history. The best things often involve things like a German version of the Beatles, or the German who was the first to land on the moon. They really do a good job filling out that world. It adds to the fun.
A small British film in 2011, Attack the Block probably hasn't
quite made it onto the radar of a lot of Americans. Yet it might be
one of the best science fiction movies in a long time. Produced by the
studio that gave us Edgar Wright's fare, you knew right away that
something awesome was coming up.
The film starts off looking like it might be the British equivalent of The Wire
with a young woman in the "block" is mugged by a group of youths.
Things quickly take a turn for the stranger when right after, a
meteorite crashes right nearby. As they examine the crash, a dog-like
creature lunges out and attacks one of the kids before fleeing. Moses,
the leader of the gang, pursues the alien beast, and they kill it and
parade it around the block.
They figure that the safest
place for it is in the weed fortress of a drug dealer at the top of
their apartment building, Ron (played by the always amusing Nick Frost).
From the upper floors of the building though, they are able to spot
other meteorites as they crash nearby. It is quickly apparent that this
is an alien invasion. The kids, feeling invincible, gear up with
baseball bats, collector's katana, knives, and loads of fireworks and
then roll out to find and kill these new aliens.
The
creatures, by the way, look awesome. The most striking detail of the
creatures is that they are not CGI. Indeed, they are motion actors
wearing giant, furry suits and running around in a way that seems to
cross a wolf with a gorilla. (One of the kids even calls it a "big alien
gorilla wolf lookin' motherfucker.") To have them be real objects in
the shot instead of computer images superimposed really adds to the
feel of the scenes. Those creatures are literally in that garage with
them, literally in that room with them, literally in the building with
them. It enhances the nervousness you feel watching the movie.
As
for the creature design, they look really frightening in their
simplicity. They are an extreme black with glowing blue teeth. It's
extremely intimidating. They primarily use smell as a means of finding
where to go, so they are able to find everyone with limited problems.
And because they have strong arms and legs, they are extremely mobile
and agile, able to climb up the buildings, jump far, and cling to the
ceiling.
The characters are mostly young, but they are
all very well fleshed out. Each character has their own personality that
feels complete. You get insight into their respective living situations
and backgrounds. But most importantly, you see the development of these
characters too. The relationship between Moses and Sam (the woman he
mugged earlier who is trapped in the block with them as they battle the
aliens) is one of the most intriguing in any movie of the last five
years. The way that all of these characters intertwine with each other -
from the kids, to their female compatriots, to Sam, to the weird white
druggies upstairs, to the major drug dealer - is so tightly wound. Mix
this with how smoothly all of the scenes transition from one to the
other and you realize just how well crafted this kind of cult movie is
actually made.
The acting and directing and writing is
all solid. It's scary and funny at the same time. And it's not your
typical "kids stepping up and being brave" fare! These kids are in
danger. Any one of those characters could be killed! You have every
reason to worry (and spoiler: not all of the kids make it). The gore is
also quick and not necessarily super graphic (there are a couple of
graphic gore, but they're both really quick), so even if you don't do
gore and blood, it's not bad.
The movie also have a killer soundtrack. From the very get-go, the music creates the feel of the block and of the film.
It's
definitely a fun, exciting movie with a surprisingly well developed set
of characters and relationships. The effects are awesome and not
heavily based on CGI (which is refreshing). I don't want to say that if
you liked Edgar Wright fare, you will like this, but it seems that
there's a good amount of cross over.
Frankly, it's one of my favorite films in recent years.
Oh, you don't read stuff from Red 5 Comics? Oh, you've never even heard of them?
That makes total sense, actually. Red 5 Comics is a small, independent comic book publisher founded in 2007. It mixes creator-owned content with content created by the publisher itself. Being so new and small, it doesn't have a huge selection, but it does offer an interesting variety of titles. If you've heard of any Red 5 title, it was most likely Atomic Robo (which was nominated for an Eisner in 2008).
I try to make it a point to pick up whatever series they're putting out. Most are miniseries that are self contained. Atomic Robo is some 40 issues strong at this point, but it is not presented in your traditional on-going way. Each story is a self-contained miniseries, with little to no reference to past stories. It's actually pretty refreshing.
A couple of years ago, I picked up We Kill Monsters (from writer Christopher Leone and artist Brian Churilla). It seemed like a fairly simple and enjoyable premise: two inseparable brothers must defend their town against an invasion of strange monsters. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but never really strays into "overly complex" territory. Andrew is still in love with his ex-girlfriend Vanessa. A big part of their breakup stemmed from Andrew's relationship with his brother Jake. The mechanic brothers were inseparable, with Andrew feeling a responsibility to constantly look after Jake. This put strain on his relationship with Vanessa. But the town is small and he sees Vanessa frequently. He finds that she has begun seeing Dennis, a suave, attractive, and well-off businessman who works for a cereal company.
One night after moping in the local bar, the two brothers run into a crazed monster. They are able to kill it, but not before it is able to somehow infect Jake with something strange that causes his arm to turn into a monster arm. For the rest of the series, the two hunt down these monsters popping up armed with a tricked out tank truck. Jake meanwhile finds that if he "drinks monster juice" (essentially, the blood of the monsters), he can somehow change his arm into new monster-like forms. Essentially, his monster arm takes on the characteristics of the monster whose blood he drinks.
The big reveal at the end is actually pretty cool. I don't want to spoil it even though they do make it obvious nearing the end, but it actually is pretty clever and unique. The writing is pretty good. Christopher Leone does a pretty good job mixing the serious moments with the funny. Most Red 5 stuff is pretty lighthearted, and this is no different, but it does hit a few key heavy moments. The art is probably the big seller here. Brian Churilla's art is fairly cartoon-like (adding to the lightheartedness), but the way he draws and designs the monsters is great. They are all essentially just messed up animals, like a rabbit or a hornet.
I was also a big fan of Jake's constantly adapting and changing monster arm. It's definitely shades of Bionic Commando, but with an organic twist. It was a fresh take on a somewhat familiar (but not overdone) concept.
It's a fairly quick read, weighing in at six issues. What's nice about Red 5 Comics too is that there aren't ads scattered throughout, so you can pretty much just sit there and read straight through, which is actually a lot more awesome than it sounds. It's not my favorite Red 5 Comic, but it's definitely one of the better and more enjoyable ones.
Definitely check it out if you are into monster related stuff, or just easy, entertaining, lighthearted comics.
If the original Gojira is a fantastic piece of film making and the Americanization is a cleverly made adaptation for a different cultural audience, Roland Emmerich's 1998 version Godzilla is - for lack of anything more apt - a heaping pile of horse shit. Look, there's just no other way around it. It's not a good movie; it's especially not a good version of Godzilla.
Thing is though: it starts off seeming like it will be! Like the original, it opens with a Japanese fishing boat on the high seas getting attacked by Godzilla. Though there are a few notable differences (namely that in the original, they don't show you any element of Godzilla whereas this shows you teeth and a tail, which makes the mystery more intriguing in the original). Also, the special effects in the opening shot are awesome.
But after opening up with a somewhat dark sequence, it immediately jumps to a stupid joke. Immediately following the scene wherein all but one die, we cut to the introduction of scientist Nick Tatopoulos (a miscast Matthew Broderick), wearing headphones while driving in the rain - singing "Singing in the Rain," of course - while he goes to study the effects of nuclear radiation on earthworms in Chernobyl. As he is almost mindlessly conducting his tests - all the while singing in the rain - a helicopter lands behind him to take him away. As it turns out, Godzilla has reached land and they are bringing Tatopoulos in to help.
Ok, not so terrible so far. In fact, when we get to the site where Godzilla reached land, it too feels a bit (though only a small amount so) like the original. We see villagers surrounding evidence of the giant creature - including a washed up, totally wrecked ship and a bunch of footprints - we see other scientists studying the evidence. There's even a brief nod (sort of) to the original where Tatopoulos can't figure out where the evidence is, only to realize that he is standing in a footprint.
It becomes increasingly clear by watching Roland Emmerich movies that Emmerich really is not a big fan of military personnel, as he always writes them in hyper unrealistic fashions. I like Kevin Dunn as much as the next guy, but he is not a great candidate for playing Army Colonel Hicks - in charge of the military's hunt for Godzilla. Additionally, the character of Sergeant O'Neal exists only for comedic relief in a movie that itself is nothing but.
Hicks and O'Neal aren't even the worst of the crappy, annoyingly unrealistic characters. The worst offenders are the inclusion of Mayor Ebert and his sidekick adviser Gene (get it?? Emmerich is soooo clever). Their childlike, cartoonish nature feels like an inside joke from Emmerich (since it is), but never quite lets you in on it. Then of course, you get half the cast of The Simpsons in the movie with Harry Shearer playing the sleazy, jerk reporter and Hank Azaria playing the brave, but stupid news cameraman.
The cast tells you exactly what you need to know: this movie exists solely as a vehicle for jokes. This is not a problem if this movie were an adaptation of an older comedy, but it was supposed to be America's take on Japan's nuclear allegory. It was America's take on the dark nature of a beast who represented Japan's anxieties and fears. And America hired a German director to make fun of it. Awesome.
Why???!?
And the actors aren't even that great in their comedic efforts! Azaria is amusing as usual, but the movie plays as one giant confirmation of the New York stereotype. Meanwhile, the military and government are depicted as bumbling idiots in all the wrong ways. Sure, the dialogue is truly a disaster on an Emmerichian scale, but the actors also sound stiff - as if they are literally just reading it off of a card! If you told me that Matthew Broderick read the script prior to five minutes before the shoot, I would not believe you at all. And it's a shame because in a movie centered around a giant monster running through New York City, the ONE thing they could have gotten realistically was the characters. And they missed. Badly.
That is the huge problem with the movie: everything is just a set up to some crappy joke. The following sums up exactly this issue: from the very beginning, they refer to Godzilla as male. It's always, "He's found a good hiding place!" "He's found a good food supply." "He...he...he." Then, randomly, Tatopoulos decides to run a pregnancy test (as, ya know, you do when you're convinced something is definitely male), and of course, it comes back positive. Turns out, "he's" pregnant. They have this entire five minute scene talking about it and explaining it. The entire time, you're wondering, "How did they know it was a he in the first place? If you're going to make the creature pregnant, why not just simply make the beast a female so you don't have to try to over explain anything?" Indeed! But then you miss this gem: Tatopoulos explains Godzilla is pregnant and reproduces asexually (apparently, Godzillas are "born pregnant" he later explains). This of course prompts the allegedly funny line, "Where's the fun in that?"
No piece of the movie quite captures the shitty writing quite like this scene. Here, we have an overly complicated piece of unnecessary science fiction exposition that was completely and totally avoidable for the SOLE PURPOSE OF MAKING A CRAPPY JOKE. That happens all the time in this movie! Even during Godzilla's initial rampage in the city, where we see people getting stomped on and crushed in cars - dark stuff if you really watch it - we are interrupted by an annoying scene with Shearer on the phone looking for a story. His assistant sees Godzilla pass in the background and nervously points out that his story just walked by. Shearer turns around - just missing Godzilla's head pass the building - sees nothing, then turns back as if his assistant is crazy. Then, Godzilla's tail passes the building.
Even the badass characters of the French Legion - headed by the only good element of this movie in Jean Reno - often break character for bad jokes wherein they mock American coffee and do Elvis impressions to get by military personnel (again showing the incompetence of the military in the wrong ways). Everything to Emmerich is just one big joke.
On the one hand, it makes total sense. Americans prior to that point had never truly seen the original Japanese movie, so in a lot of their minds, that's exactly what Godzilla was: a big joke. Still, the film makers did have access to the original piece and never seemed to pick up on the blatantly heavy and dark tones and themes of it. Instead, they watered it down so much that what you got was...well, straight up water! They couldn't even get the action right, really. Here's a movie about a giant lizard attacking a city. So what did Emmerich do? He decided to make the pivotal action sequence happen with smaller, baby Godzillas. In a movie about a giant monster, Emmerich decided to shrink the scale. Instead of getting more, epic Godzilla rampages, we got a Jurassic Park style chase sequence featuring large velociraptors chasing an out of shape Broderick and Reno.
What? Even if you stripped Godzilla of all his layers and allegorical connections, no one in any capacity watches Godzilla movies for small scale action sequences!
The only other thing worth touching upon is the design of Godzilla. My feeling about it is that I actually do think I like the design of the creature, but not for "Godzilla." If this had been a generic monster movie, I would have really liked it. But what they did was change Godzilla from this giant, lumbering symbol of death and destruction - something that was hulking and slow, but inevitable - into this quick and agile animal. Sure, maybe you feel a little bit more for the creature when it is defeated in the end, but that connection comes at the cost of any possible deeper meaning.
It's kind of funny. The legendary Ray Harryhausen often talked smack against Honda and co. for ripping off his movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Except when you go back and watch those two movies, there are only surface level similarities. Gojira is so much deeper, so much darker, so much more layered, and so much more profound than Beasts. Essentially, Honda took The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and turned it into Godzilla. Then Roland Emmerich took Godzilla and turned it back into The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
What gets especially frustrating is that in the special features on the blu-ray, one of the dudes was talking about how he felt this was true to the source material (which already pisses you off if you liked the original). He also goes on to say that he felt like only now and only in America did the technology exist to make Godzilla in the way that the original creators "intended." This further proves that the makers of 1998's shitfest of an "adaptation" had no idea what the point was.
Still, as a giant Godzilla fan, it is important in Godzilla's history. The entire point of Toho's selling the rights to Sony was to pass the torch. They felt that they had gone as far as they could with the character. Plus in Japan, Hollywood had long been more successful at the box office than domestic films. Yet after seeing that movie, Toho quickly responded by putting out Godzilla 2000less than a year after the release! And then they made several more before finally retiring the beast again. So on one hand, this movie was a complete shitfest - not even just as a Godzilla movie, but as a movie in general. Yet on the other hand, we wouldn't have gotten those seven other Japanese Godzilla movies without it. (They even make fun of it.)
The movie is good if you hate decent dialogue, hate scripts that make sense and don't try to get convoluted, hate decent, fleshed out characters, like cheesy romance stories, or like terrible jokes. But then really, "Where's the fun in that?"
Related: I'm not sayin' Godzilla: Final Wars was a good Godzilla movie (in fact, it's my least favorite in the entire Japanese franchise), but it is a little bit worth it for this:
I don't remember, but I think after the fight, the angry dude says something like, "I knew that fish-eating monster was useless!"
