Posts Tagged ‘new release’

I have discussed comic book movies a few times on here, including a few from last summer, some good, some bad, and some of the more terrible examples in the history of adaptations, like Batman & Robin.

When we think of comic book movies we usually think of classic examples like that— Batman, Iron Man, X-men—but there are also comic book movie adaptations from lesser known comics.

Those are the examples I would like to discuss today, because there are three such movies coming out in the near future that look pretty damn good: Kick-Ass, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
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If there was one literary/fictional device that I hate most it would be the love triangle, or even worse, a love shape. I hate them in reality too, but it’s even worse to throw them in where we’d like to have a happy ending, thank you, since happy endings happen even less often in real life.

Anime is one of the most rampant mediums that use such tactics. Love triangles and shapes are literally everywhere you turn, in almost every setting, especially shoujo.

SHOUJO: This title is used to describe anime that is intended for an audience of young females, and is usually centered on emotion-based storylines.

While this blog is called “The Shoujo Love Triangle” that is more in reference to the usage of triangles, not to say that I will only be looking at shoujo anime examples.

Let’s start with a couple classics, shall we?
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In my early years of gaming I began like many others, first watching my siblings and then trying my own hand at classics like Super Mario Brothers and Burger Time.

I eventually matured to the Final Fantasy series, Xenogears, Diablo, and Metal Gear Solid, and was just as willing to attempt the next RPG as I was a mindless excuse to kill things as can be found in most Blizzard Games.

Those styles of gaming all still exist, but many of them have something a little extra these days—a choice between good and evil.

What I mean by a ‘good vs evil’ game is this: A game where the storyline is directly affected by the player’s choices, which determines whether the protagonist will become a selfless hero or a self-serving bastard.
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I was going to have this first blog of the New Year be a review of the Sherlock Holmes film that came out Christmas Day, but after seeing two other very notable geek films in December, I have decided to also include them.

Here’s to a great way to end 2009, a praising look at The Princess and the Frog, Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes.
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To even begin my review of the new PS3, Xbox 360, and PC phenomenon, Dragon Age: Origins, I must first discuss the company responsible for the masterpiece as well as many other claims to fame: BioWare.

BIOWARE

BioWare is a Canadian electronic entertainment company that started up in 1995 and is responsible for some of the more cutting-edge and popular games of our day, like the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the Mass Effect series.

These guys know their role-playing video games. They are known best for allowing for substantial customization in both player character appearance and in the options given throughout the games in choosing various paths, ie Light Side vs Dark Side.

Dragon Age: Origins is a culmination of years of successful gaming, and at this point I can only imagine that BioWare will continue to do better and better.

BioWare is currently a part of Electronic Arts (EA) but has retained its autonomy. It is safe to say that EA appreciates and understands the cash-cow they have in BioWare, and they are even restructuring their gaming development into a new RPG/MMO team headed by one of the BioWare founders, Ray Muzyka.
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I hate Twilight. I think Stephanie Meyer’s poorly written and inane series is the worst thing to ever happen to fictional vampire culture. Possibly the entire fiction world.

Vampires that sparkle in the sun? Seriously?

And don’t even get me started on the abusive relationship between Mr. Hot Vampire Guy and his totally unremarkable leading lady.

But this isn’t a forum for me to bitch about Twilight. At least not today. Today I am comparing as impartially as possible the franchises of Twilight and Anne Rice’s older series, The Vampire Chronicles that began with its most notable title, Interview with the Vampire.

My bias is even worse here since I have reed the entire original series by Anne Rice and I absolutely adore it, at least up until the point when the author lost her mind, but again, I will do my best to remain impartial throughout.

Onto the history.
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I am a Trekkie. I admit that readily, prepared to take whatever teasing and low-blow remarks naysayers might think to throw at me.

My husband, John, is more of a Star Wars fan, however, which would usually mean we were set for a death match. Somehow we still manage to love each other.

The rivalry between Star Trek and Star Wars has been around for as long as both fandoms have existed. Both are science fiction themed, set in outer space on starships and alien planets in some distant future, but their universes could not be more different, and they each have a very unique following of fans.

Allow me to give you a quick history.
 
 
 
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This was a good summer for movies. This was a good year for movies. Was already, and it’s only half over with many more promising films to go. I think it is fair to say that before now we have been having quite a few years of crap movies, where only a passing few slipped by that were actually worth paying $10 to see. But this year has been remarkably different. I was finally excited to go to the movies again, and almost every new preview I come across increases that movie-lover joy just a little bit more.

But I have come to realize something as I have gotten older and been able to look at films with a more critical eye. While there are still original ideas out there, the films that are made most often, that Hollywood knows are going to sell, usually have an already existing basis: books, comics, older movies, real life stories, etc. There haven’t been too many first-edition Star Wars, if you catch my drift. And while the films that are being made can still be very good, there is almost always something, one little thing about an actor, a scene, the ending, that makes me go ‘oh, if only this had been different’.
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Batman

May of this year celebrated Batman’s 70th birthday, having first appeared in Detective Comics #27. Ironically, our modern DC Comics decided to celebrate this milestone by killing Batman off. This instigated the Battle for the Cowl miniseries that named Dick Grayson (the original Robin) as the new Batman until Bruce Wayne’s inevitable return.

But even if Batman were to remain dead, lost forever to the comic world that needs him, he would never be forgotten by fans thanks to his many other incarnations since first being imagined in 1939. Batman has been a comic book hero, a television hero, a movie hero, a video game hero, and more, so many times that listing them all would probably be ostentatious. Batman is DC Comics’ crown jewel, even more popular than Superman, who has been around longer.

For me, the love of Batman did not begin with the comics, or with Adam West, or even with the wonderful Tim Burton movies—Batman’s 1989 release having marked the then 50th anniversary of the character. No, my love affair with the Caped Crusader began with a cartoon.

I am referring to, of course, Batman: The Animated Series.
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