musings

H.O.P.E. (Cheers, Jed!)

I picked up a Nintendo DS on Sunday, along with Spider-Man 2. The DS is killer – I mean, really, totally killer. Spider-Man 2 … not so killer. The gameplay is basically good fun, but the levels are awful. Overly large, with no map, and unforgiving – on most levels (okay, on levels 1 and 2, at least) you need to find every civilian (level 1) and convict (level 2). The problem is, I can’t even find all the convicts on level 2. I capture 22 out of 23 and simply can’t find the 23rd. It’s driving me insane.

I can’t believe that it will do anything but suck, but it’s still noteworthy for freaks and geeks – the Wachowski brothers are going to turn Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta into a movie.

The Rasterbator is about the coolest, craziest thing I’ve seen in ages. It makes giant multipage posters out of images, that you print and put up on your walls. It’s a total throwback to the silly daisy-wheel posters from when I was a kid. Love it!

Oh man. I was deeply distressed to find today that on November 13, 2004 John Balance died. John Balance was the founding member of one of my favourite bands, Coil. It is a sad day, indeed. The man was a genius. He will be sorely missed.

So I watched Casshern tonight. Casshern is a Japanese movie based on a 1973 anime of the same name, and is one of the first “digital backlot” movies. Like the relatively dreadful Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the movie was filmed almost entirely in front of a bluescreen, with the final film being composited during post production. Unlike Sky Captain, however, Casshern has a real story. The trailer makes Casshern look like an action movie, but that’s far from the case. Casshern is a serious drama – much of the movie is spent in dialogue. Not that this was a bad thing – I love “talky” movies, only that I wasn’t expecting the movie I got. On the upside, Casshern is a visually stunning movie. Though not seamless, the digital backlot was far more convincing than that of Sky Captain, and the art style and design aesthetic was far more appealing. On the downside, parts of the movie were painfully slow, and the story often leaped about spastically making the movie somewhat hard to follow. Doubtless some confusion stemmed from the translation. Still despite all, Casshern is a great movie. It’s a desperately depressing anti-war movie that reserves a tiny spark of hope at the end. Magnificent visuals, a good (if sometimes jumpy) story, and a thoroughly engaging cast (Toshiaki Karasawa, in particular, was entrancing) made for one of the best films I’ve seen all year.

Best Rant Ever.

Yasser Arafat has died.

I just got back from seeing Skinny Puppy, and it was a bloody fantastic show. The band sounded awesome – like no time had passed. They played four songs off the new album, and for the remaining hour and forty minutes of the show they played old favourites. Convulsion, Hexonxonx, Worlock, Testure, VX Gas Attack, Gods Gift (Maggot), Deep Down Trauma Hounds, and Smothered Hope, amongst others. Two encores, great sound, and an incredible stage show. Ogre is the only guy I can think of that looks good covered in blood, mud, and chalk. It was a brilliant show. The night was made all the better because I went to see Puppy with some friends I’d not seen in just about a year. Great tunes, great show, and great company – what more can you ask for?

So I went and saw The Incredibles. All the reviews for it have been positive, and mine’s not going to break that trend. Technologically, it doesn’t push forward from previous Pixar films the way something like Monsters Inc. did, but it has a really nice look. The story is a fun, if predictable, ride, and there’s jokes about every fifteen seconds that’ll appeal to all the different age groups in the audience. Go see it.