Green Lantern Trailer

The first official trailer for the upcoming Green Lantern movie was released today... and it looks neat. I'll definitely see it. I'm a long-time fan of the comic and I think this trailer looks entertaining and cool. I like that they seem to be using the full mythology of the Green Lantern corps, including glimpses of Oa, Kilowag, Abin Sur, and everything else. I'm not a huge fan of the costume, however. I don't mind that it is completely rendered in CG, I just don't like the color scheme. It really needs those white gloves to tie the whole thing together. Also, Ryan Reynolds is a funny, charming actor, but he just seems all wrong for Hal Jordan. Why do comic book movies always have to be "funny"? He'd be a great Guy Gardner, however.

Anyway... check it out here. I think it looks cool and remain cautiously optimistic.

Final Fantasy XIII: First Impressions

I bought this game about a week ago, and I just started getting into it. If you had called me the first night I bought it to ask me how it was, I would've said it sucks.

But now, a week or so later, I think it's kind of the bomb. That was a pretty steep learning curve and warming over period, and it hurts the game because I can't imagine most casual gamers would make it past the first three or four hours without bailing. The first level or so of this game (if you could call it that) flat out sucks. It's just monotonous and boring, with you doing little more than following long hallways, pausing here and there to have awful battles that require nothing more than hitting the A button over and over again. But, as I said, it got better. After that first section of the game, your characters become L'cie (don't ask), giving them the ability to wield various forms of magic. Before that, you were only able to use a generic attack over and over again. Once you are able to actually perform magic and use other abilities, the battle system became amazing. This is seriously one of the best battle systems in any RPG ever. It's and furious and actually requires a lot of strategy. The battles quickly went from being a chore to being one of the most fun parts of the game.

I could see how long-time fans of the series might complain about how the new battle mode is a bit easier and more user-friendly, but that's exactly what I like about it. I actually feel as though I'm in control of my team during the battles, instead of just watching them play out in front of me while I input directions here and there. It is a little odd that your party heals after every battle, but, again, I don't mind because it cuts down on the frustration. The only real complaint I have with the battles is that there is no victory fanfare. What's that about?!

The story is deep and rich and entertaining... and also completely impossible to follow. It has something to do with a conflict between the Fal'cie and the Pulse La'cie, who convert humans into L'cie and Pulse L'cie, over control of Cocoon... or something. It is super hard to follow, moves really fast throwing so many details at you in each sequence, and everything sounds the same. Luckily, there's an in-game database that keeps you up to date on story progress and key terms, but I wish the story had been told more deftly so homework wasn't a requirement to keep up with the story. But this is a Final Fantasy game, so convoluted stories that make little sense are par for the course. Also, I'm still too early in the game to expect everything to make sense at this point.

The graphics are pretty much the best graphics I've ever seen in any game ever. I can say that with out any fear of hyperbole. It's just gorgeous, with an amazing art style and ridiculously detailed character models. Remember how amazed we all were by the video clips in Final Fantasy VII? Well, the in-game graphics in this game blow those away. Gorgeous game.

So I like it. It's probably the most fun I've had playing a Final Fantasy game since part IX on the original Playstation. Check it out if you're a fan of the series.

Sons of Anarchy Season One

I rented this on Netflix and enjoyed every minute of it.

I don't know a whole lot about the culture of motorcycle gangs, so I can't speak for the accuracy or authenticity of what is shown in the series, but it was certainly entertaining as hell. Sons of Anarchy tells the story of a motorcycle club in Northern California, that runs the fictional town of Charming, selling guns, bribing police officers, and generally kicking ass and taking names. Like I said, I don't know if most motorcycle clubs are anything like this, but the Sons of Anarchy sure are figgin' badass. If anything, this show makes it clear that being in a motorcycle gang probably isn't all that fun, since they get shot at, arrested, and in trouble with rival gangs in just about every episode. It's kind of odd that anybody would even stay in the gang considering all the drama they have to endure. Don't they realize that anybody can just ride a motorcycle without all that hassle?

But, whatever. All that drama makes for a fun show. There is a lot more than just the drama and action, of course, since there are real, human stories to be told about the various members, foremost being Jax, who is almost based on Hamlet, with his entire storyarc being somewhat Shakespearean in nature. His father and uncle started the club as sort of utopia for free ideas, but when his father died and his uncle married his mother, the club became corrupt and dirty. It's a bit overwrought and pretentious in places (especially the device of Jax finding and reading the journal written by his deceased father at various points in every episode), but the writing is so rich and the acting by the ensemble cast is so engaging that it's just so much fun to watch.

I highly recommend checking out the first season, which I devoured as quickly as Netflix could send the discs, and I already have season 2 at the top of my queue. 

Video Clip of the Week: Monday Morning

This is a "video" only in the most limited sense of the term... but who cares? I'm posting it as my video clip of the week because it's Monday morning and because, no matter what day it is, this is just an awesome song. Fleetwood Mac is a great band, but I really only like their songs song by Lindsey Buckingham.

Na'Vi Sex

I didn't love Avatar when I saw it in the theater, but I still picked it up on Blu Ray the other day because it was very entertaining. Also, as Blu Rays go, I've never seen a disc that better shows off the technology. This Blu Ray looks amazing. In fact, I think it looks better on my Blu Ray player than it did in the theater, despite the fact that it's not even in 3D.

Anyway, all I really wanted to say is this: I just don't believe Jake Sully would have sex with a Na'Vi, no matter how strongly he felt toward her emotionally. I mean, she was a freaky looking blue chick with cat eyes, mouse ears, and a tail. I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't have sex with her, which does not in any way make me a racist against the Na'Vi. I don't think that corporation should've killed any of them or made any attempt to forcibly remove them from their home. But come on. I understand that he was in an Avatar body, but even then he wouldn't consciously think about that fact. It's not like there are any mirrors out in the wolds of Pandora. He would still think of himself as Jake Sully, human being.

I dunno. I guess I'm just saying that the film would have been better had they gotten rid of the love subplot. Wouldn't it have been that much more profound if Sully had risked his lives to save the Na'Vi because he loved their culture and wanted it to survive, and not just because he fell in love with some weird blue chick and had nasty sex with her?

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Video Clip of the Week: An Important Message from George Takei

Good Luck, Tanya! (Updated with Results)

All of us here at Blessed Are the Geeks want to say good luck to our sister Tanya, who is running in the ING New York City Marathon today. Good luck, Tanya!

If you are so inclined, you can track her progress (or Bobby Flay's, Al Roker's, or Jared from the Subway commercials) by typing in her name at this website. Pretty cool.

UPDATE: She finished! Her overall time was 5 hours, 34 minutes, and 47 seconds. She blew Al Roker away, whose time was 7:09:44. She was evenly matched with Subway's Jared who finished with 5:13:28. And my boy Bobby Flay managed an impressive 4:01:37.

Great job, everybody!

Gears of War 2

I don't have much to say about this game other than that I beat it yesterday afternoon. It's a good sequel in that it's just like the first game, only better. It has improved graphics, more refined controls that get you stuck to walls a lot less, and gives you a longer, more epic campaign. It's not a great sequel, however, in that it really only offers minor improvements and upgrades, and doesn't really change the landscape of the genre. It's just better. If you've never played either one, I'd definitely recommend part 2 over part 1. However, if you played part 1 and aren't sure about whether to get the sequel (which came out a while ago, by the way), it's hardly a must-buy title.

It continued the story from the first game, but considering how little sense it made in either title, who really cares? The story is so muddled and poorly written that it's nearly impossible to follow or engage in on any real, emotional level. I play these games for the action, which is absolutely off the hook. Great game, great fun, highly recommended.

The ending totally sucked, however, with one of the lamest end bosses in videogame history.

The Walking Dead: Pilot Episode

Well, as pilot episodes go, I thought this was absolutely phenomenal.

I'm not sure if it will make a brilliant, enduring TV series, since the premise is a bit thin and overdone by this point (a world taken over by zombies), but as a single episode of TV, it was amazing and well worth watching. It's available for free online at AMC's website, so you have no excuse not to check it out right now. If you are a fan of horror, the zombie genre, or just great writing, directing, and acting, you'll enjoy it. Anyway, I did. As I said, I thought it was just fantastic, and I don't think I can stress that enough.

I also have my doubts, of course, as I mentioned above. So far, it hasn't really shown that it will bring anything new to the zombie genre, although the writing and acting was definitely better than anything we've seen in any other zombie production, and that's saying a lot because there have been too many too count. Also, the original comic book on which this TV series is based also started strong and fizzled out, in my opinion, although many people might argue with that point. I started reading the comic because I'm a zombie junkie, but I grew bored quickly from writer Robert Kirkman's boring plots, unlikable characters, and lack of any real excitement or entertainment value. I basically got sick of paying $3.00 a month to buy single issues that only really had enough content to fill a page of any other comic. Very little happened in this comic, so I jumped ship after the issue where that woman spent an entire issue torturing and murdering the man who raped her. Twenty pages or so of a woman chopping at that guy's genitalia was enough for me.

Although it's too early to make a call like this, I'm a bit confused as to why it's even based on the Walking Dead comic anyway, since the only real similarities are that there are zombies, the main character is a former cop named Rick, and he woke up at the start from a coma (all of which Kirkman stole from Romero's zombie movies and 28 Days Later anyway). I'm guessing it was more of a marketing thing, since the comic is fairly popular and well respected within the zombie fan community. Or maybe series creator Frank Darabont was just a huge fan of the comic and plans to follow the storyline very closely. I hope I'm wrong about that, because the comic, as I said, was boring.

But then, I could see how people might find this pilot episode boring as well, since very little happened other than that Rick woke up from a coma, found the world was full of zombies, and set out on the road to find his missing family. It was mostly an hour-long set up of this world overrun by zombies, as well as a set up of the overall mood and atmosphere of the series. There were a lot of very long scenes of Rick walking through fields as he just looked around, taking everything in. As I said, I could see how somebody might be bored, but I was rapt with tension the entire time. Frank Darabont is just a wonderful director, and if you've seen The Mist or Shawshank, you'll already know the level of quality of which he's capable.

Darabont also assembles wonderful casts and gets the most out of their talents. Series lead Andrew Lincoln was unknown to me, but this performance is going to make him a star. He was incredible. The first scene of the show (well, after the intro where somebody killed a zombie) was just ten or so minutes of him talking to one of his deputies in their squad car, and it was one of the best scenes in the entire pilot. The two actors were both so good and the dialogue was so well written, I would've have minded if the entire hour was just those two talking. And every other actor was at that same level, and they all got pretty good monologues to read.

Anyway, the episode is free and at that price it's the best deal you'll find all day. I loved it and will check out the next episode this Sunday. It hasn't brought anything new to the zombie genre yet, but this pilot was the best entry in the genre since Romero completed his original dead trilogy 25 years ago. Check it out.

Toy Story 3

This movie was brilliant, but it came about five years or so too late for me to really get excited about it and love it as much as it deserved. Toy Story 2 came out ten yeas ago, so by the time Pixar finally finished and released this final (?) installment in the trilogy, a little too much time had gone by for me to have the kind of emotional connection I used to feel for the characters, nor did saying goodbye to the characters strike as emotional a chord as it would've had I seen the previous two films more recently. But as a movie, it was absolutely phenomenal.

I'm not going to say a whole lot about this film because they are all more or less the same movie, and if you've seen the first two, you already know if you'll see and enjoy this one. It had the best animation of the three films -- obviously -- and some of the funniest lines, but I still preferred the second Toy Story film because its store was just more epic and scope, and because it was such a huge leap over the first film. But if somebody wanted to say this was the best Toy Story film ever, well, I wouldn't disagree with them. As I said about, it was brilliant. And it was also and ending, not to give anything away, so the entire film just wrapped up so wonderfully and emotionally, that it would be hard to imagine anybody not walking away satisfied. In fact, I can't even imagine anybody could sit through it without crying at least once, though I'm pretty sure I teared up multiple times throughout.

Not to spoil anything, but the scene at the end where the toys all hold hands and resign themselves to their fate at the end of the incinerator was absolutely amazing. You rarely scenes that like in any film, let alone in something that is ostensibly supposed to be a kid's film. But I think the scene that really hit me even more was when we learned about the backstory that made Lotso the way he was. If you can make it through either of those scenes without shedding a tear, well, you must be as cold and heartless as Lots-O'-Huggin'-Bear himself.

But the film elicited just as many laughs as it did tears. My favorite character by far was Michael Keaton's amazing portrayal of the Ken doll. He may have been my favorite character in the entire trilogy, and the scene where he put on a fashion show for Barbie was one of the funnies things I've ever seen in any movie. I didn't feel that it was as action packed as the second Toy Story film, but it was just as funny, and maybe had a little more of an emotional wallop. Anyway... just go see it.

Two thumbs up.

Game Consoles Round-Up

Just for fun, I'm going to run down the list of every videogame system I've ever owned. I'm not doing this to brag, since I didn't own any systems that most people didn't (except for the Sega Saturn, which nobody else wanted to own), but because I wanted to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I have nothing really important or historical or critical to say about each console, so I'm just going to share my memories, opinions, and reactions about each one.


Going in chronological order:

Atari
Of course, the first gaming system in our home was some kind of Atari. I don't remember which one, since I was just about three or four, but it was probably the 2600, but I also remember getting another one that was probably the 5200. Anyway, classic gaming systems that were a lot of fun.  


Though not technically the first home videogame console (I believe that would be the Odyssey), the Atari was certainly the first one to achieve world-wide fame, and I credit it with the creation of the videogame industry as the phenomenon it is today.

Nolan Bushnell, Atari's founder, later went on to create the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain. Remember those?

Video Clip of the Week: The Sammy Maudlin Show

For my money, there's never been anything on TV as funny as SCTV. And SCTV was never funnier than when they had Bobby Bittman appear on the Sammy Maudlin Show. This isn't my favorite of the Maudlin/Bittman skits, but Joe Flaherty's reaction to Bittman's joke at around one minute and thirty seconds or so is just about the funniest thing I've ever seen. I can watch that over and over again and it never stops being amazing.