Tag: Film

Character Look – The Joker

Last week I read the latest in the Opinion Battles hosted by Movie Reviews 101. It was “The Best Batman Villain.” I always read these at Emma’s site emmakwall (explains it all) and after reading the different opinions in the battle as well as the comments left on Emma’s site, I decided to drop my own, a mini-rant on why Joker was the best villain. Emma prompted me to write an entire article on it, so here I am.

My analysis on the Joke isn’t just in terms of films, but also comics, where most of my knowledge of the character comes from.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the Joker is that he’s a force of chaos, that what he does is just random and with the only goal being more chaos, but the reality is different. Continue reading Character Look – The Joker

Adaptations – Altering the Source

Yesterday I caught a few glimpses of The Killing Joke’s animated film adaptation, and while I won’t give you a review until I’ve seen it, the clip I saw got me thinking on the subject of adaptations and the ways people go about them.

TV Tropes has a vast list of different adaptation tropes, from Compressed Adaptation, where in the process of adapting the story to a new medium they cut out entire chunks of the story or universe hoping the overall experience remains the same, no matter how many holes there are. There’s Distillation, which is about simplifying complex elements of the source material to make the transitions easier. Pragmatic Adaptation is the most reasonable of all, where you cut out or remix the elements that just won’t work in the new medium. Continue reading Adaptations – Altering the Source

Entertainment – The Hook

One of the things I keep seeing when people give you recommendations on writing a novel is that you need to have a hook early on. The hook in this regards is that part of your storytelling that glues the audience to your product, and makes them stay until they’ve enjoyed it fully.

The Hook extends beyond publishing of course and it’s perhaps one of the first things people tell new creators about. Your game needs a hook early on, to grab the player. Your TV series needs a strong hook on the first episode, something to keep the audience coming back for more. Continue reading Entertainment – The Hook

Kaiju and Tranformations – The Tokusatsu Genre – Introduction

I love Kamen Rider. I used to call the series my guilty pleasure, until I decided that “guilty pleasures” is one of the dumbest things in the planet—there is no guilt, associated to it, only the perception that people will ridicule you for liking certain things, to which I say do your worst, bub! Continue reading Kaiju and Tranformations – The Tokusatsu Genre – Introduction

Review: Warcraft: The Beginning

A father and chieftain doing the best for his people, a General and King doing their best to keep their kingdom safe, a Guardian with great secrets and an evil Warlock bent on conquering Azeroth, what do all these things mean? Warcraft!
Continue reading Review: Warcraft: The Beginning

Warcraft: The Beginning…and maybe also the end?

I love the world of Warcraft, the universe. I love the stories, the characters and its rich history—that is not without its retcons and mess-ups. Up until the moment I started country hopping, moving to a new place with frightening frequency (a little adventure I hope has ended), I collected and read every novel written in the universe. I enjoyed reading about the War of the Ancients by Richard A. Knaak, the man responsible for the entire Dragon lore in the Warcraft universe and many more stories. I loved reading Christie Golden’s stories on the Rise of the Horde and The Lich King. Jeff Grubb took me to Karazhan to meet Medivh and his increasingly erratic behaviour and possession by Sargeras. Continue reading Warcraft: The Beginning…and maybe also the end?

Review: Star Wars – Episode VII – The Force Awakens

It’s been a long time coming, but in a galaxy far, far away, someone made a new Star Wars film. I saw it, now I review it. Continue reading Review: Star Wars – Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Star Wars Legends – Remembering the Expanded Universe – History and Society

As mentioned yesterday, this week I’m talking about the now non-canon Star Wars Expanded Universe, the collection of media that made this universe we all love a much bigger and more interesting place than it would’ve been with only the films. With the announcement of the Disney merger and the plans to have new episodes of the film saga, the Expanded Universe lost its canonicity and was rebranded to Star Wars Legends. Today I’m focusing on Galactic History.

When it comes to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, most sources will agree that it detailed, in one way or another, over 36.000 years of the Star Wars galaxy. The Galactic Republic, the setting for many of the stories, characters and locations we see in the various media, existed for about 25.000 of those years, with the Jedi Order coming into existence over 10.000 years before that. The Infinite Empire of the Rakata predates both by several thousand years and their technology driving the technological evolution of future species, particularly the Humans and Duro, who adapted their Hyperdrive technology.

I’ve thought long and hard on how to write this piece and ultimately decided against giving you a complete and rather dull timeline and talking about all the different planets, customs and cultures, from the decadent lifestyle of the upper Coruscanti to the hard living on Nar Shaddah and the physical and spiritual balance ideologies of the Matukai.

Instead, I’ve decided to tell the story from four points of view, from the perspectives of four recurring ‘peoples’ in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Their actions and ideologies shape the galaxies and drive most of the conflicts in the Star Wars saga. It beats covering every single war…there are way too many and I admit I don’t know about them all. Continue reading Star Wars Legends – Remembering the Expanded Universe – History and Society

Star Wars Legends – Remembering the Expanded Universe – Foreword

Star Wars: The Force Awakens released last week. I have yet to see it, having learnt in the past never to go to a premiere. I’ll be watching it in the coming days and I’m as excited as every other fan of the saga. But to me it’s all been a bittersweet experience, one that started with the announcement of the buyout and the plans to make new films, and I’m sure it’s the same for many fans. The reason is that with a single announcement, over thirty years of Star Wars lore became non-canon.

Yes, I’m talking about the Expanded Universe, the continuity formed by both the films and all the material published in one media or another that served to complement it. A fun detail that very few know is that the EU predates the films, with the official novelisation of A New Hope releasing months before the first Star Wars film. Continue reading Star Wars Legends – Remembering the Expanded Universe – Foreword

Striking Voices – Video Game Voice Acting

Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, SAG-AFTRA, announced they had approved the strike by video game voice actors after a 96.52% vote in favour by members (of a 75% minimum required).

The strike looms over us. We don’t know all the details due to a media blackout and what little we know comes from SAG-AFTRA and vocal members such as Wil Wheaton. I’ve been wondering about what it might mean for our industry if all voice acting work suddenly stopped and it got me thinking about the conditions the actors deal with, what they’re asking for, some counter-arguments I’ve read but also about the importance of voice acting in video games, the impact these actors have on our experiences, on the memorable characters we love. Continue reading Striking Voices – Video Game Voice Acting