It's one of the nights (or early mornings, if you prefer) where I feel compelled to create something, but I don't really know where to start. So here I am, after 1 A.M., listening to Matisyahu's One Day (which is a beautiful tune, by the way) trying to figure out what to say. And the only thing I can really think of at the moment is what I've been going through lately. If you can bear to stick with me through something insanely personal, I invite you to read on.
So, lately I've been doing a lot of self-analyzing, and I finally had to face the fact that I've been holding myself back in every aspect of my life since I was a kid. I've known this for awhile, but I could never bring myself to say it out loud, and I never went into it with anyone until recently. In the past few weeks, I've been hit especially hard by self-doubt; it got so bad that I finally had no choice but to face up to my problems. This might seem painfully vague, but I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.
It's no secret that I hate to lose. At pretty much anything, really, and to the point where I tend to shy away from any games based on luck, since mine tends to be terrible. Loss, for me, turns to self-loathing in the blink of an eye and puts me in a terrible mood, making me wonder to this day why I thought moving into competitive gaming was a good idea, but I digress.
Let me step back for a sec and talk about my past a bit. I'm not going to go into my heavy religious background, (even though it's very relevant) because that gets really complicated and it would eat up a whole blog post by itself. For reference, my religious experiences as a kid were almost a mirror of Wes Craven's, if you know anything about his background. So, even as a preteen, I hated the idea of losing, which sucked because I was never the fastest, smartest, or any other kind of "est." I had an overactive imagination, and that was about it. I was also saw shades of the "We're All Winners" movement in my childhood, which even at that age didn't feel right ... but you'd best believe I embraced the hell out of it because I was suddenly immune to loserdom.
Then, when I was 15, I finally decided to stop being lazy and learn guitar. Within 2 days, I'd taught myself to play songs, and within another 2 weeks or so, I was writing my own music; it just came naturally to me. And I loved every minute of it (in part because there was no "losing") because it gave me the freedom every teenager wants in their life. I was able to pour my heart out into the various notes and lyrics and no one could tell me I was wrong; it helped me explore religion and injustice in a way you just can't be taught.
I found Robert Jordan around that time, too. Read The Eye of the World for the first time and it changed the way I looked at Fantasy, but I was still too intimidated to try and write anything like that, and not even because I thought it would take too long or that I couldn't finish a book, but because I was afraid it wouldn't be good enough. And there was the fear of failure again, holding me back. For some reason, I was free with music and lyrics, but fiction ... well that was elusive for some reason. That fear held me back until NaNoWriMo 2010, when I finally pushed back my fear long enough to crank out my first book, within 10 days. I was on such an emotional high that I didn't know what to do with myself, and that last a few weeks. Then, when it came time to hit the second book, I hit another road block that slowed me to a crawl. What if this one couldn't live up to the last one? What if I can't reach a satisfying conclusion before the end of the 3rd book? What if everyone hates it? What if no one ever reads my work again because of it? I managed to finish the book, but tore myself apart in the process.
So, while that was going on, I had a few other issues going on, but the one I'm going to focus on now is Street Fighter 4. Fighting games were all but dead, then this game hit the States in '09 and reignited the spark for everyone, and even pulled me in ... for a few weeks. See, I picked up some of the basics of the game pretty quick (I could throw out fireballs, dragon punches and tatsumakis on command) and I was one of the best of our small group in the beginning. But, after a few weeks of practicing, the other guys got better and I didn't. I didn't practice, so I didn't progress, it's that simple. And when I stopped winning, I just stopped playing. That lasted for a few years, even though I loved the game; I gave up something I loved because I couldn't hold that L. Looking back on it now, as I progress in the competitive scene, young Cam makes me sick because of the solid 2 years of practice he lost me. But, you might be asking what brought me back.... The truth is, one day it just dawned on me that the reason I hadn't practiced in the beginning was because that would've upped my stakes. In short, if I didn't practice, I had an excuse for my losses, whereas, if I actually tried to get better, I still might not be good enough. I might fail.
The day that finally dawned on me, I wanted to bash my head against the doorframe for being so stupid. I immediately put money back to buy a fightstick and started working to get better ... and I did. I was leagues beyond the guys that used to beat me, and it felt great. I watched videos, I went into training mode, I played CONSTANTLY, and it all helped me grow. For the first time in my life, I wasn't actively running away from something just because it didn't come naturally and I might fail; I was facing my demons and kicking their asses. But, even that didn't last, because of course I met new players, and they were better than me, which only served to suddenly remind me that I was years behind in training. I might never catch up to them! What difference does it make if I'm leveling up now, if they're just gonna keep doing the same? In other words, my self-pity took over again, repeatedly kicking me in the balls. I thought I was never going to beat this thing.
So, fast-forward to now and what's changed? Well, for one, I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who believed in me when I sure as hell didn't believe in myself. My wife, Anna, she's been great. My bros, John, Rickman, Chris, Andy, they're all irreplaceable, and I wouldn't be here without every one of them. But, in the past year or two there's been someone else pushing me, and I know he never knew how deep my issues ran. He's been more than just my Fighting Game Guru; he's been a life teacher for me, whether he realized it or not. Do I still struggle with my doubts? Yes. But it's getting better, especially now that I'm finally able to admit it. What do you know ... admitting your problem really does kickstart the healing process.
There's a saying I've heard a few times that goes something like: "The difference between a master and a student is the master has failed more times than the student has tried." It's something that really resonates with me at this stage in my life. There are still times (more often than not) that I hate losing, but the loss doesn't define me anymore. I'm not afraid of failing anymore, and it feels great to be able to say that. I let fear, self-doubt, self-pity and my fragile ego hold me back for the better part of my life, all because I thought the only thing that mattered was making people view me as a "winner." There's more to life than that, kiddos, take it from me.
I hope this post actually made some sense. I'm super tired and I'm not even going to spell check this thing before throwing it up, so there ya go. This will be as honest a post as you can get, and if it helps someone with something they're going through, that's awesome. If not, it's certainly a load off my chest, so thanks for taking the time to read. But before we get out of here, I want to take a sec to say a few more words about the friends I mentioned above.
Anna: You're the most amazing wife a man (or woman) could ask for. Thanks for having faith in me when I did nothing to deserve it.
John, Rickman & Chris: Y'know, despite the fact that frat boys have hijacked the word "bro" and bastardized it, I knew you guys before that, so screw it, it's still our word. And it's a word I don't use lightly. We might not be blood, but we're still brothers, and I love you guys.
Andy: Thanks pushing me while I was still a teenager. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to write that first book. Here's to finishing the 3rd one (which I could use a cover for, but we'll talk about that later) and finishing step 1 of that journey.
Isaac: I saved you last for a reason, big guy. No one's had a bigger influence on me in the past year than you have, and I've grown a lot because of it. You're a killer mentor, and I want to say thanks for being patient with me, even when I acted like a brat. Not even sure you'll read this, but if you do, just know that I'm gonna be doing my best to keep growing and make you proud. And when I finally win my first major, you better be on stage to take the bow with me.
And that's it. I'm dozing here, so it's time to call it a night. If there's a moral to all of this, I'd say it's that whatever you're going through, don't be afraid to confide in someone and get it off your chest. Sometimes just saying it out loud makes the problem seem a lot smaller.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Top 15 Anime Series
So, a couple of friends on facebook decided to post a list of their favorite anime series on facebook a couple of days ago. I did the same, but now I'm feeling compelled to expand on my choices a bit, and explain why these made my list over numerous others that could have been on it. If you're interested, keep reading! (Also, after the top 3, these are in no certain order.)
1. Rurouni Kenshin
Yes! My favorite anime of all time, hands down, despite the fact that the second half of it derails a bit. OK, it derails a lot, but even then it's a solid anime with an (overall) good voice cast for the main characters. Minus the voices of Kaoru and Yahiko, I like all of the main cast, especially Richard Cansino (also sometimes credited as Richard Hayworth) as Kenshin. He's the definitive voice of the character to me, and nails every emotion Kenshin goes through perfectly.
Why does Rurouni Kenshin top the list? Because it was the first anime that really got me invested in characters versus archetypes like the anime I'd watched before it. I still remember when Toonami aired the first episode, and I was watching the block because I wanted to see the latest episodes of G Gundam and DBZ. I'd seen the commercials for it, and didn't even care to watch it. I mean, how could it possibly compare to the over-the-top insaneness (yup, I'm coining insaneness as a word) of DBZ and G Gundam? Well, I had nothing else to watch anyway, so I just sat there and waited ... then the end of the episode came and I wanted more. Here was this hero (and he was a ginger like me!) who was the nicest, most soft-spoken and well-meaning guy you could meet who was only a pacifist because of his past life as a murdering assassin. And yes, he was nice to a fault ... until you threatened the people he cared about, and that really resonated with me.
Kenshin's struggle throughout the series to get away from violence while having to use violence to save his friends (usually because of his own past coming back to bite him) kept me coming back again and again. He was a character with a past and a heart, with a personality unique to him. He wasn't the same dumb, fumbling strong guy that wins through sheer luck; he wins because of his drive, skill and his training as a cold-blooded killer. His is a story that says: Just because your past is dark and you've made bad mistakes, that doesn't mean you can't turn it around and use it for good.
Anyone who knows me has probably heard me say a million times over, "I'm a sucker for a good redemption story." Well, what most of them don't know is that it all started with Kenshin.
2. Yu Yu Hakusho
As much as I loved DBZ as a kid, Yu Yu Hakusho replaced it as my go to high-octane Fighting Anime. I still like DBZ well enough, but I feel like Yu Yu Hakusho told a fuller, more complete story in about half the time it took DBZ, and I liked the characters a little bit better. Yuske, Kuwubara, Hiei and Kurama all go through significant changes as the series goes on, and it isn't just relegated to them getting stronger (I'm still looking at you, DBZ.) Every arc of the show challenged the group in new ways and forced them to become a better team. There was no Saiyan equivalent that made every other character useless by the end of the series; Hiei, Kurama and Kuwubara are all relevant right until the fourth season, where Kuwubara backs out because he wants to pursue his education, which made perfect sense for his character.
This is also the series I watched before writing Electus. It influenced it a good bit, I think, at least as far as pacing and characterization goes. I've always been a huge fan of how fast Yu Yu Hakusho moved through an arc compared to most big anime and it never felt like anything was sacrificed. More shows could learn from that.
3. Trigun
Just as I was coming off my Rurouni Kenshin high, I found a new hero on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block to fill my pacifist-hero-that-still-has-to-solve-problems-with-violence-because-he's-haunted-by-his-past fix. Man, that was a mouthful....
Anyway, Trigun was always fun for me because, unlike Kenshin, Vash was a bit of a perv and got himself into a lot of trouble he could've avoided because of that. Along the way you find out that the massive destruction caused by Vash years prior wasn't even his fault, but he's still forced to suffer the consequenses. The final episode, where we see Vash finally forced to fight his own brother to the death served as the perfect ending to a magnificent series.
4. Gankutsuo
I had friends who hated this series because of the art style, and I never understood why. To me, it's one of the prettiest series I've ever watched, and that's handy, because it's about all the flashiness you'll get out of this one. Gankutsuo is a re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo, so it's more political intrigue than slugfest. Unlike the film from years back, the anime is much more true to the Count's dark, selfish character; he's a monster consumed with the thought of vengeance and there's no room in his heart for anything else.
This one's probably the biggest oddball on my list, but it's one of those shows that just sticks out in my mind, and now I really want to find it on DVD and watch it again....
5. Saint Seiya
Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac as it was called in the States) is an interesting beast that starts out as a pretty standard fair team anime. You have this group of kids with clashing personalities who are chosen by fate to bear their respective symbols and they have to learn to work together to overcome the big cosmic baddie of the week. What set Saint Seiya apart for me was the fact that over time, they allowed their characters to suffer permanent damage. By the end, Swan loses an eye, while Shiryu is permanently blinded by Perseus, and despite the fact that they live in a world where miracles are possible, these are things they just have to deal with. (That doesn't really make sense, but I digress.)
Other than that, I always enjoyed its blend of Greek mythology and standard anime fare. The biggest twists come in the last season (which was delayed for several years) when we find out that the good guys weren't really the good guys, and ... wait, you mean they were? Oh, awesome, and then Athena has to be rescued and ... wait, they failed? No, it was her plan? So. Many. Twists. Just give it a watch and you'll see what I mean.
6. Ronin Warriors
Ronin Warriors is just plain fun. Picture a better, deeper version of Power Rangers and you're not too far off from describing the show. If you can manage to find it without paying through the nose, pick this one up. I can't really do it justice with a description, so you'll just have to see it for yourself.
7. Speed Racer
This is the one that usually has people scratching their heads, wondering where in the unholy hell this belongs on a list with all my other favorites. And really ... I don't have a good answer for that. I can tell you it was the very first anime I ever saw, and I still enjoy watching it today, even though it's the cheesiest thing you'll ever watch outside of an episode of The Brady Bunch. The characters are all archetypes and exhibit only the most extreme personalities and emotions and the animation is a bit dated. But it still looks alright, and I love it.
8. Cyborg 009
I didn't appreciate this show when I was a kid. I thought the art style looked dumb (and I still kinda do) and I didn't understand the story. But, when I got older and went back to watch it again, it struck a chord with me. When you get down to the meat of it, Cyborg 009 and the rest of his group are all pretty depressing. Maybe that's why I didn't like the show as a kid; this show is really sad. How the heck did it make it to Cartoon Network anyway?
9. Cowboy Bebop
...
...
Yeah, it's really good and no one really argues that, so, moving on....
10. Gungrave
Oy, saddle up for what is quite possibly the saddest anime of all time. What starts out as a story about two best friends fighting their way up from nothing ends with one of them becoming a big underworld leader and the other having to come back from the grave to kill his former best friend. This whole anime tugs on the heartstrings and the animation is beautiful. It's a wonderful anime, but I warn everyone to stay away from it if they don't want something that's going to stomp all over their emotions with as much remorse as my wife has for spiders.
11. Wolf's Rain
Remember earlier when I said Gungrave was super depressing? Well, Wolf's Rain gives it a hard run for its money. Between the two, I honestly can't tell you which one tugged at my heartstrings the most, and I also can't tell you which is the most beautifully told. But if I had to pick a favorite between the two, I'd give the nod to Wolf's Rain just because I really like wolves. But, again, if you don't like stories that were built from the ground up to stomp on your heart like your high school sweetheart the day before prom, steer clear.
12. RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne
This one was fairly mainstream, and because of that it floored me with its level of ... Dark. Yeah, this show is so Dark that the d should always be capitalized. I've tried to get people into this anime in the past and only two of them were able to make it past the first episode. It's weird, it's Dark, it pulls no punches, it ... has one of the most interesting backstories of anything I've ever watched. Not for the feint of heart with all the violence (a good bit of it sexual in nature) and mutilation, but if you can get past that, the story is very rich. There are so many neat little details I catch when I rewatch it that I missed the second and third time I sat through it.
If you've ever watched something on the level of Gantz, then RIN probably won't bother you. Only, unlike Gantz, RIN is good. But there's your measuring stick.
13. Outlaw Star
Ah, my old friend. I remember this one from Toonami, and then again when they aired it on Adult Swim at launch. Then I owned it on DVD and watched again ... then my dumb ass decided to sell it. I made a lot of mistakes in my childhood, but that one still haunts me just because of the sheer stupidity? I mean, if I was that mind-numbingly idiotic, how did I remember to breathe?
Anyway, this anime is great! You want giant spaceship battles? You got it! Want a gun with bullets literally made of magic? Boom, all yours! Want an awesome Ronin chick that could probably kill you with a stare if she wanted? Yeah, she's here too! Want that kind of annoying sidekick character that pops up in most anime? Well, me neither, but we take the good with the bad.
I believe you can find this show now for pretty cheap, so give it a watch!
14. Mobile Fighter G Gundam
They say there's at least one Gundam show for everyone, and they're right! All Bandai had to do was make a show unlike any other Gundam show and I was hooked! Unfortunately, most Gundam fans HATE this show, and I never really understood why. It had fun characters and stylish action, and it didn't take itself too seriously, like most Gundam shows are guilty of.
The whole premise of the rich people floating above earth on space-continents (and no, I'm not joking) and using the planet as their own personal battleground for an annual tournament made so much sense to me. They don't care for the people actually living down there on the planet, they just want to have their tournament and float around on their space-continents (God, that's fun to say) and lord it over everyone else. So, if you've never seen, I recommend at least checking it out. And if you've suffered through Gundam Seed, then this will be like having a nice, juicy steak after 6 months of nothing but McNuggets.
Space-Continent!
15. Eden of the East
I didn't expect to fall in love with this show like I did. It was on Netflix at the time, and I watched it on a whim after hearing about it from a friend in passing. I made it through the whole main series in one day, and moved onto the two following films afterwards. The characters are likeable, the voice acting, animation and music are all top-notch. I really can't say enough good things about this show; it's serious when it needs to be, then it'll make you laugh and feel all fuzzy inside.
You know, I don't want to spoil a single thing about this one. Just go watch it. If you don't like it, I'll ... well, I'll probably just feel sorry for you, but yeah, check it out!
1. Rurouni Kenshin
Yes! My favorite anime of all time, hands down, despite the fact that the second half of it derails a bit. OK, it derails a lot, but even then it's a solid anime with an (overall) good voice cast for the main characters. Minus the voices of Kaoru and Yahiko, I like all of the main cast, especially Richard Cansino (also sometimes credited as Richard Hayworth) as Kenshin. He's the definitive voice of the character to me, and nails every emotion Kenshin goes through perfectly.
Why does Rurouni Kenshin top the list? Because it was the first anime that really got me invested in characters versus archetypes like the anime I'd watched before it. I still remember when Toonami aired the first episode, and I was watching the block because I wanted to see the latest episodes of G Gundam and DBZ. I'd seen the commercials for it, and didn't even care to watch it. I mean, how could it possibly compare to the over-the-top insaneness (yup, I'm coining insaneness as a word) of DBZ and G Gundam? Well, I had nothing else to watch anyway, so I just sat there and waited ... then the end of the episode came and I wanted more. Here was this hero (and he was a ginger like me!) who was the nicest, most soft-spoken and well-meaning guy you could meet who was only a pacifist because of his past life as a murdering assassin. And yes, he was nice to a fault ... until you threatened the people he cared about, and that really resonated with me.
Kenshin's struggle throughout the series to get away from violence while having to use violence to save his friends (usually because of his own past coming back to bite him) kept me coming back again and again. He was a character with a past and a heart, with a personality unique to him. He wasn't the same dumb, fumbling strong guy that wins through sheer luck; he wins because of his drive, skill and his training as a cold-blooded killer. His is a story that says: Just because your past is dark and you've made bad mistakes, that doesn't mean you can't turn it around and use it for good.
Anyone who knows me has probably heard me say a million times over, "I'm a sucker for a good redemption story." Well, what most of them don't know is that it all started with Kenshin.
2. Yu Yu Hakusho
As much as I loved DBZ as a kid, Yu Yu Hakusho replaced it as my go to high-octane Fighting Anime. I still like DBZ well enough, but I feel like Yu Yu Hakusho told a fuller, more complete story in about half the time it took DBZ, and I liked the characters a little bit better. Yuske, Kuwubara, Hiei and Kurama all go through significant changes as the series goes on, and it isn't just relegated to them getting stronger (I'm still looking at you, DBZ.) Every arc of the show challenged the group in new ways and forced them to become a better team. There was no Saiyan equivalent that made every other character useless by the end of the series; Hiei, Kurama and Kuwubara are all relevant right until the fourth season, where Kuwubara backs out because he wants to pursue his education, which made perfect sense for his character.
This is also the series I watched before writing Electus. It influenced it a good bit, I think, at least as far as pacing and characterization goes. I've always been a huge fan of how fast Yu Yu Hakusho moved through an arc compared to most big anime and it never felt like anything was sacrificed. More shows could learn from that.
3. Trigun
Just as I was coming off my Rurouni Kenshin high, I found a new hero on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block to fill my pacifist-hero-that-still-has-to-solve-problems-with-violence-because-he's-haunted-by-his-past fix. Man, that was a mouthful....
Anyway, Trigun was always fun for me because, unlike Kenshin, Vash was a bit of a perv and got himself into a lot of trouble he could've avoided because of that. Along the way you find out that the massive destruction caused by Vash years prior wasn't even his fault, but he's still forced to suffer the consequenses. The final episode, where we see Vash finally forced to fight his own brother to the death served as the perfect ending to a magnificent series.
4. Gankutsuo
I had friends who hated this series because of the art style, and I never understood why. To me, it's one of the prettiest series I've ever watched, and that's handy, because it's about all the flashiness you'll get out of this one. Gankutsuo is a re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo, so it's more political intrigue than slugfest. Unlike the film from years back, the anime is much more true to the Count's dark, selfish character; he's a monster consumed with the thought of vengeance and there's no room in his heart for anything else.
This one's probably the biggest oddball on my list, but it's one of those shows that just sticks out in my mind, and now I really want to find it on DVD and watch it again....
5. Saint Seiya
Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac as it was called in the States) is an interesting beast that starts out as a pretty standard fair team anime. You have this group of kids with clashing personalities who are chosen by fate to bear their respective symbols and they have to learn to work together to overcome the big cosmic baddie of the week. What set Saint Seiya apart for me was the fact that over time, they allowed their characters to suffer permanent damage. By the end, Swan loses an eye, while Shiryu is permanently blinded by Perseus, and despite the fact that they live in a world where miracles are possible, these are things they just have to deal with. (That doesn't really make sense, but I digress.)
Other than that, I always enjoyed its blend of Greek mythology and standard anime fare. The biggest twists come in the last season (which was delayed for several years) when we find out that the good guys weren't really the good guys, and ... wait, you mean they were? Oh, awesome, and then Athena has to be rescued and ... wait, they failed? No, it was her plan? So. Many. Twists. Just give it a watch and you'll see what I mean.
6. Ronin Warriors
Ronin Warriors is just plain fun. Picture a better, deeper version of Power Rangers and you're not too far off from describing the show. If you can manage to find it without paying through the nose, pick this one up. I can't really do it justice with a description, so you'll just have to see it for yourself.
7. Speed Racer
This is the one that usually has people scratching their heads, wondering where in the unholy hell this belongs on a list with all my other favorites. And really ... I don't have a good answer for that. I can tell you it was the very first anime I ever saw, and I still enjoy watching it today, even though it's the cheesiest thing you'll ever watch outside of an episode of The Brady Bunch. The characters are all archetypes and exhibit only the most extreme personalities and emotions and the animation is a bit dated. But it still looks alright, and I love it.
8. Cyborg 009
I didn't appreciate this show when I was a kid. I thought the art style looked dumb (and I still kinda do) and I didn't understand the story. But, when I got older and went back to watch it again, it struck a chord with me. When you get down to the meat of it, Cyborg 009 and the rest of his group are all pretty depressing. Maybe that's why I didn't like the show as a kid; this show is really sad. How the heck did it make it to Cartoon Network anyway?
9. Cowboy Bebop
...
...
Yeah, it's really good and no one really argues that, so, moving on....
10. Gungrave
Oy, saddle up for what is quite possibly the saddest anime of all time. What starts out as a story about two best friends fighting their way up from nothing ends with one of them becoming a big underworld leader and the other having to come back from the grave to kill his former best friend. This whole anime tugs on the heartstrings and the animation is beautiful. It's a wonderful anime, but I warn everyone to stay away from it if they don't want something that's going to stomp all over their emotions with as much remorse as my wife has for spiders.
11. Wolf's Rain
Remember earlier when I said Gungrave was super depressing? Well, Wolf's Rain gives it a hard run for its money. Between the two, I honestly can't tell you which one tugged at my heartstrings the most, and I also can't tell you which is the most beautifully told. But if I had to pick a favorite between the two, I'd give the nod to Wolf's Rain just because I really like wolves. But, again, if you don't like stories that were built from the ground up to stomp on your heart like your high school sweetheart the day before prom, steer clear.
12. RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne
This one was fairly mainstream, and because of that it floored me with its level of ... Dark. Yeah, this show is so Dark that the d should always be capitalized. I've tried to get people into this anime in the past and only two of them were able to make it past the first episode. It's weird, it's Dark, it pulls no punches, it ... has one of the most interesting backstories of anything I've ever watched. Not for the feint of heart with all the violence (a good bit of it sexual in nature) and mutilation, but if you can get past that, the story is very rich. There are so many neat little details I catch when I rewatch it that I missed the second and third time I sat through it.
If you've ever watched something on the level of Gantz, then RIN probably won't bother you. Only, unlike Gantz, RIN is good. But there's your measuring stick.
13. Outlaw Star
Ah, my old friend. I remember this one from Toonami, and then again when they aired it on Adult Swim at launch. Then I owned it on DVD and watched again ... then my dumb ass decided to sell it. I made a lot of mistakes in my childhood, but that one still haunts me just because of the sheer stupidity? I mean, if I was that mind-numbingly idiotic, how did I remember to breathe?
Anyway, this anime is great! You want giant spaceship battles? You got it! Want a gun with bullets literally made of magic? Boom, all yours! Want an awesome Ronin chick that could probably kill you with a stare if she wanted? Yeah, she's here too! Want that kind of annoying sidekick character that pops up in most anime? Well, me neither, but we take the good with the bad.
I believe you can find this show now for pretty cheap, so give it a watch!
14. Mobile Fighter G Gundam
They say there's at least one Gundam show for everyone, and they're right! All Bandai had to do was make a show unlike any other Gundam show and I was hooked! Unfortunately, most Gundam fans HATE this show, and I never really understood why. It had fun characters and stylish action, and it didn't take itself too seriously, like most Gundam shows are guilty of.
The whole premise of the rich people floating above earth on space-continents (and no, I'm not joking) and using the planet as their own personal battleground for an annual tournament made so much sense to me. They don't care for the people actually living down there on the planet, they just want to have their tournament and float around on their space-continents (God, that's fun to say) and lord it over everyone else. So, if you've never seen, I recommend at least checking it out. And if you've suffered through Gundam Seed, then this will be like having a nice, juicy steak after 6 months of nothing but McNuggets.
Space-Continent!
15. Eden of the East
I didn't expect to fall in love with this show like I did. It was on Netflix at the time, and I watched it on a whim after hearing about it from a friend in passing. I made it through the whole main series in one day, and moved onto the two following films afterwards. The characters are likeable, the voice acting, animation and music are all top-notch. I really can't say enough good things about this show; it's serious when it needs to be, then it'll make you laugh and feel all fuzzy inside.
You know, I don't want to spoil a single thing about this one. Just go watch it. If you don't like it, I'll ... well, I'll probably just feel sorry for you, but yeah, check it out!
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
It Follows
Wow, I just got off of a very entertaining thrill ride called It Follows, a film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, and I gotta tell ya, I haven't had a modern Horror film hit me like this in a very long time. It's well-shot, amazingly scored and features a cast of characters played by actors who are not only good at what they do, but look like ordinary people and not like the standard cheerleader and jock types we're used to seeing in these kinds of movies.
Another refresher is that we don't focus on the standard dumb teenager/young adult, and instead focus on fairly level-headed (or as close to level-headed as any of us were in our earliest 20's anyway) individuals who are forced to deal with a situation I don't even want to imagine myself in. This isn't a movie where you're going to see dumb kids making the same dumb mistakes we've seen a thousand times, but instead they make their own mistakes, due in part to their lack of familiarity with the creature they're dealing with. In a way it's a sort of allegory, with the lead girl being a fresh college student and feeling her way through adulthood, where every decision you make seems like the wrong one, no matter what you do.
I'll try to avoid spoilers here, but I will be touching on a scene here or there to cast some light of the various themes that can be pulled from the movie, so a minor spoiler or two is possible. So, with that in mind, read on at your own risk.
The movie starts with a girl running out of her house, frantic as her dad calls back from the house, asking if she's alright. Meanwhile, we notice her eyes focused on something in the direction of the camera. Something that the lady on the street next to her doesn't seem to notice. She runs back into the house, then runs back out a few seconds later with her keys, then hops in her car and drives away. Next, it's after dark and we see her sitting on a beach alone and her phone rings (it's interesting to note that this use of the cell phone is something you won't really see again) and she apologizes to her dad for being a bad daughter sometimes, and it becomes apparent that she's saying goodbye, having accepted her fate.
Skipping ahead, we meet our lead, Jay, played by Maika Monroe. She's swimming in the pool in her backyard without a care, minus the two neighborhood kids peeking in on her over the fence, but she doesn't even let that bother her, telling them with a smile that she sees them. Shortly after she's on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh, played by Jake Weary, and everything is going pretty well. Watching this scene reminded me of how awkward first dates were when I was young. Even the best of first dates tend to have those awkward moments you can't get around when really getting to know someone for the first time. Very quickly though, once they get into the theater and sit down, ready to watch their movie, things take a turn. Hugh points out a girl in a yellow dress that Jay says she can't see. Hugh starts to panic and says they need to leave. Jay questions him about it outside, but he's deflective and won't tell her. To be concise, they do end up having a second date, where they have sex ... and then Hugh uses a chloroform rag to knock her out.
Now, here's where the meat of the story and the root for all of the movie's symbolism begins. Jay wakes up tied to a chair, scared and confused as Hugh talks to her and begins to tell her what he's done. There's this thing; it doesn't have a name, and he only knows it as, well, "It." He tells her that It will begin to follow her now, always at a walking pace and It can look like anyone. He warns her against going anywhere that only has one exit, because "It's slow, but It's not stupid." Then, after making sure she sees It and is convinced it's real, he pulls her away to his car and drives off, after suggesting that she has sex with someone else to pass it on. Apparently once it's passed on, It follows that person until they pass on the curse or It kills them. And after It kills someone, the last person in the chain is the next target. Oh, and only those touched by the curse can see It, and that's what makes It so terrifying.
The message(s) that this film tackles ... well, it doesn't shy away from anything. There are so many interpretations that can be gleaned from this movie it can make your head spin. It's the kind of thing you can watch with two other people and each of you can pull different meanings out of it, and none of them are any more right or wrong than the others. I wish I'd been able to watch it with a group the first time to see what my friends pulled from it, but I definitely plan to do that later. This movie has the kind of heart that Wes Craven's work is known for, and I applaud it for going the direction it went. Not to mention that Jay is, in my opinion, the best female lead in a Horror film since Nancy Callahan in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah, I went there.
The last things I'm going to talk about are the period of the film, and the soundtrack. As far as the period goes, the director did a great job maintaining ambiguity. We see a cell phone or two, but the decor in the houses we see look very 80's or early 90's, which puts it somewhere between a nostalgia trip and our modern reality. It walks that line very well, and nothing ever feels out of place. Now, the soundtrack ... WOW. The composer is someone you may recognize if you've played the video game Fez, Disasterpiece. I already thought his work was good, but this film convinced me he's about a league past brilliant. Pulling a lot from John Carpenter's work, he weaves together a score that not only sends chills up your spine when it needs to, but conveys an almost dreamlike confusion at other times. I don't think I've ever been more impressed by the music in a Horror movie, ever.
I could go on, diving into the themes of the movie, talking about what Paul's relationship with Jay represents and maybe touch on the themes of sexuality throughout the movie, but instead I think I'll let you find that out for yourself. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie, preferably with a group, and really think about it. You won't regret it. I hope I've convinced you to give it a shot.
Another refresher is that we don't focus on the standard dumb teenager/young adult, and instead focus on fairly level-headed (or as close to level-headed as any of us were in our earliest 20's anyway) individuals who are forced to deal with a situation I don't even want to imagine myself in. This isn't a movie where you're going to see dumb kids making the same dumb mistakes we've seen a thousand times, but instead they make their own mistakes, due in part to their lack of familiarity with the creature they're dealing with. In a way it's a sort of allegory, with the lead girl being a fresh college student and feeling her way through adulthood, where every decision you make seems like the wrong one, no matter what you do.
I'll try to avoid spoilers here, but I will be touching on a scene here or there to cast some light of the various themes that can be pulled from the movie, so a minor spoiler or two is possible. So, with that in mind, read on at your own risk.
The movie starts with a girl running out of her house, frantic as her dad calls back from the house, asking if she's alright. Meanwhile, we notice her eyes focused on something in the direction of the camera. Something that the lady on the street next to her doesn't seem to notice. She runs back into the house, then runs back out a few seconds later with her keys, then hops in her car and drives away. Next, it's after dark and we see her sitting on a beach alone and her phone rings (it's interesting to note that this use of the cell phone is something you won't really see again) and she apologizes to her dad for being a bad daughter sometimes, and it becomes apparent that she's saying goodbye, having accepted her fate.
Skipping ahead, we meet our lead, Jay, played by Maika Monroe. She's swimming in the pool in her backyard without a care, minus the two neighborhood kids peeking in on her over the fence, but she doesn't even let that bother her, telling them with a smile that she sees them. Shortly after she's on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh, played by Jake Weary, and everything is going pretty well. Watching this scene reminded me of how awkward first dates were when I was young. Even the best of first dates tend to have those awkward moments you can't get around when really getting to know someone for the first time. Very quickly though, once they get into the theater and sit down, ready to watch their movie, things take a turn. Hugh points out a girl in a yellow dress that Jay says she can't see. Hugh starts to panic and says they need to leave. Jay questions him about it outside, but he's deflective and won't tell her. To be concise, they do end up having a second date, where they have sex ... and then Hugh uses a chloroform rag to knock her out.
Now, here's where the meat of the story and the root for all of the movie's symbolism begins. Jay wakes up tied to a chair, scared and confused as Hugh talks to her and begins to tell her what he's done. There's this thing; it doesn't have a name, and he only knows it as, well, "It." He tells her that It will begin to follow her now, always at a walking pace and It can look like anyone. He warns her against going anywhere that only has one exit, because "It's slow, but It's not stupid." Then, after making sure she sees It and is convinced it's real, he pulls her away to his car and drives off, after suggesting that she has sex with someone else to pass it on. Apparently once it's passed on, It follows that person until they pass on the curse or It kills them. And after It kills someone, the last person in the chain is the next target. Oh, and only those touched by the curse can see It, and that's what makes It so terrifying.
The message(s) that this film tackles ... well, it doesn't shy away from anything. There are so many interpretations that can be gleaned from this movie it can make your head spin. It's the kind of thing you can watch with two other people and each of you can pull different meanings out of it, and none of them are any more right or wrong than the others. I wish I'd been able to watch it with a group the first time to see what my friends pulled from it, but I definitely plan to do that later. This movie has the kind of heart that Wes Craven's work is known for, and I applaud it for going the direction it went. Not to mention that Jay is, in my opinion, the best female lead in a Horror film since Nancy Callahan in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah, I went there.
The last things I'm going to talk about are the period of the film, and the soundtrack. As far as the period goes, the director did a great job maintaining ambiguity. We see a cell phone or two, but the decor in the houses we see look very 80's or early 90's, which puts it somewhere between a nostalgia trip and our modern reality. It walks that line very well, and nothing ever feels out of place. Now, the soundtrack ... WOW. The composer is someone you may recognize if you've played the video game Fez, Disasterpiece. I already thought his work was good, but this film convinced me he's about a league past brilliant. Pulling a lot from John Carpenter's work, he weaves together a score that not only sends chills up your spine when it needs to, but conveys an almost dreamlike confusion at other times. I don't think I've ever been more impressed by the music in a Horror movie, ever.
I could go on, diving into the themes of the movie, talking about what Paul's relationship with Jay represents and maybe touch on the themes of sexuality throughout the movie, but instead I think I'll let you find that out for yourself. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie, preferably with a group, and really think about it. You won't regret it. I hope I've convinced you to give it a shot.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Batman: Arkham Knight Review
Welcome back, guys! Time for my first video game review (on this
blog, anyway.) As I'm sure you've gathered from the title, I'll be
talking about Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady's final installment in
the Arkham series. So, with that said, does the final installment live
up to the gloriousness that is Arkham City? Is this a solid sendoff for
Rocksteady? Let's find out.
SPOILER WARNING!
I'll be revealing the Arkham Knight's identity during this review, mainly because I don't feel it's a well-kept secret. But, for those who don't want it spoiled, this might not be the review for you.
In the opening of Arkham Knight, we see the body of Joker lying in an incinerator, with a prompt telling you to hold down a button to burn the body. Afterwards, we jump several months after the events of Arkham City, and we find out that GCPD has been able to not only regain control of the city, but the crime rate has dropped significantly with Joker gone, as if he were a beacon of chaos for the lowlifes of Gotham City. But, we wouldn't have much of a game without a new enemy to fight, so enter (my personal favorite of the original rogues) Scarecrow. With just five ounces of his latest toxin, he's thrown all of Gotham into a panic and forced a citywide evacuation, leaving only the criminals, GCPD and Batman & Company. The setup for the story is very well done. Forcing you to play from the perspective of a cop in a diner during the outbreak, putting you on the ground floor of the whole thing.
As soon as you take control of Batman, everything feels right. The sluggish controls of Arkham Origins are gone, back to the tight feel of Arkham City. From the moment Batman opens his mouth and you hear Kevin Conroy back in the role, there's a sense of comfort and familiarity; the man was born to play Batman. While I'm at it, I should mention the overall voice acting, which is important in a game this story-heavy. I don't have a single complaint with any of the cast for this game. They've done a great job casting every single character in their world, and even managed to get Mark Hamill back to reprise his role as Joker. (Don't worry, Joker is still dead, but the way they weave him into the story here is excellent.)
Shortly into the story you're introduced to the most annoying aspect of the game: The Batmobile.
Yeah, I said it. The Batmobile was an interesting idea, and it can help you move through the city a bit faster, but there are way to many sequences in the game where it feels forced, like they couldn't really come up with creative story purposes for it, so they shoved in these sequences to say "See! The Batmobile is awesome! Aren't you glad we gave you this?!" No, Rocksteady. No, I'm not. I'd much rather glide around the city like I did in Arkham City, and with the new grapnel upgrades, it's nearly as fast as driving anyway (and more enjoyable.) Don't get me wrong, the Batmobile controls well enough, with the ability to transition from normal car to tank with the press of a button, and tank-mode is the way you'll be using it for almost every story mission with it. God forbid you actually get to DRIVE the car. I mean, I like blowing things up as much as the next guy, but after the first five times, it gets old. It also make getting all the Riddler trophies a pain, since so many of them require the car.
Other than the Batmobile, the gameplay is exactly what it should be, with just enough new features added to keep it feeling fresh. The only takeaway is in the predator sections, where it feels like you get less reward for being unseen. There were several instances where I would study the patrol patterns of the guards and pick off the one that NEVER crossed paths with any of the others with a Silent Takedown ... then, for no reason at all, one of the others would deviate from their patrol patterns and find their buddy unconcious, putting them all on alert. By the end of the game I was just rushing through these sequences, taking them all down as fast as possible and it actually worked better. Maybe Rocksteady wanted the players to feel more powerful this time around and decided to encourage a more aggressive style during the predator segments. That's fine, and it works well enough, but I preferred the old approach a little better.
Unlike its predecessors, Arkham Knight focuses less on giving you new gadgets, and more on letting you upgrade the ones you're familiar with. By the end of the game, you can upgrade the grapnel to the point where you're launching yourself into the air with the speed of a bullet (which, again, almost eliminates the need for the Batmobile.) They also upgrade your suit, allowing for multiple takedowns at once, which is incredibly handy, but can only be used if your enemies are unaware of your location. The only new standout gadget is the Disruptor, which is basically an EMP rifle. Once fully upgraded, it can disable guns and gun lockers, stun sticks, med packs and so on. In my playthrough, this was the gadget that got used the most before a fight.
Now, let's move on to a couple of story elements that rubbed me the wrong way:
1.) For one, as some friends have also pointed out, Batman and the other characters refer to each other by their real names with bad guys standing a few feet away. In the comics this NEVER happens, because they aren't complete morons. What's the point in wearing masks if you're going to go around blabbing who you are within earshot of random thugs. This is inexcusable, and reeks of bad storytelling, much like my next point....
2.) The Arkham Knight's identity, to anyone who's cracked open a Bat-Comic in the last 10 years or so, (or knows anything about the current DC universe) will be the worst, most lazy attempt at a "mystery" in, possibly, the entire history of video games. From his first appearance it's blatant that this is Jason Todd. Then, later on in the story when they try to give you "subtle" hints with all the Jason flashbacks, it's kind of infuriating. Rule number one of being a halfway decent writer is never talking down to your audience, and that's exactly what they did. Rocksteady underestimated the intelligence of their fanbase and that rubs me the wrong way, especially after how well Arkham City's story was crafted. City never talked down to you in the narrative, and was very faithful to the various characters' attitudes and mannerisms.
3.) Near the end of the game Jason and Bruce have a "moment" where Bruce apologizes for not being there for Jason and trying to turn him around, then Jason runs off like an angsty teenager only to reappear at the end of the game to break Bruce's bonds so he can beat Scarecrow ... and that's it.... There's no real payoff for Jason's character, and even the Red Hood story missions don't expand on it. This is just sloppy.
4.) The mood set at the beginning of the game is fantastic, but by the end Scarecrow is kind of a joke. His big plan to break Batman is laughable compared to all the things he's faced during his career and the payoff for what you've been working toward the whole game falls flat. I won't go into too much detail, to avoid spoilers, but it really is disappointing.
5.) The true ending for this game requires 100% completion, Riddler trophies and all. Now, normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but when the "true" ending is literally just a small tacked-on scene a couple of minutes long that requires hours upon hours of annoying Batmobile-Centric riddles only to answer NO questions and make no*&%#$@ sense.... Well, I was a little angry.
There are a few more story gripes, but I'll stop there.
That said, is Arkham Knight a bad game? No. There's a lot of fun to be had exploring Gotham and doing most of the side-quests, with enough content here to warrant the 60 bucks you'll need to shell out for the game. The Joker subplot was also excellent (and should've been the main focus of the story), and that alone makes the story worth playing. But, is it as good or as innovative as Arkham City was? Not even close. From story to mechanics, Arkham City hit the ball out of the park and nothing, to me at least, felt tacked-on. The only place Arkham Knight really beat it was in scale and with the inclusion of Nightwing in the story (but that last part is really just for me) with everything else only meeting or falling short of Arkham City. Overall, I give Batman: Arkham Knight a 7.5 out of 10. It's still a game worth playing, but with the sloppy writing and overused Batmobile mechanics, it falls short of the masterpiece Rocksteady gave us just a few short years ago. This isn't the sendoff we needed, but it's the one Rocksteady thought we deserved.
SPOILER WARNING!
I'll be revealing the Arkham Knight's identity during this review, mainly because I don't feel it's a well-kept secret. But, for those who don't want it spoiled, this might not be the review for you.
In the opening of Arkham Knight, we see the body of Joker lying in an incinerator, with a prompt telling you to hold down a button to burn the body. Afterwards, we jump several months after the events of Arkham City, and we find out that GCPD has been able to not only regain control of the city, but the crime rate has dropped significantly with Joker gone, as if he were a beacon of chaos for the lowlifes of Gotham City. But, we wouldn't have much of a game without a new enemy to fight, so enter (my personal favorite of the original rogues) Scarecrow. With just five ounces of his latest toxin, he's thrown all of Gotham into a panic and forced a citywide evacuation, leaving only the criminals, GCPD and Batman & Company. The setup for the story is very well done. Forcing you to play from the perspective of a cop in a diner during the outbreak, putting you on the ground floor of the whole thing.
As soon as you take control of Batman, everything feels right. The sluggish controls of Arkham Origins are gone, back to the tight feel of Arkham City. From the moment Batman opens his mouth and you hear Kevin Conroy back in the role, there's a sense of comfort and familiarity; the man was born to play Batman. While I'm at it, I should mention the overall voice acting, which is important in a game this story-heavy. I don't have a single complaint with any of the cast for this game. They've done a great job casting every single character in their world, and even managed to get Mark Hamill back to reprise his role as Joker. (Don't worry, Joker is still dead, but the way they weave him into the story here is excellent.)
Shortly into the story you're introduced to the most annoying aspect of the game: The Batmobile.
Yeah, I said it. The Batmobile was an interesting idea, and it can help you move through the city a bit faster, but there are way to many sequences in the game where it feels forced, like they couldn't really come up with creative story purposes for it, so they shoved in these sequences to say "See! The Batmobile is awesome! Aren't you glad we gave you this?!" No, Rocksteady. No, I'm not. I'd much rather glide around the city like I did in Arkham City, and with the new grapnel upgrades, it's nearly as fast as driving anyway (and more enjoyable.) Don't get me wrong, the Batmobile controls well enough, with the ability to transition from normal car to tank with the press of a button, and tank-mode is the way you'll be using it for almost every story mission with it. God forbid you actually get to DRIVE the car. I mean, I like blowing things up as much as the next guy, but after the first five times, it gets old. It also make getting all the Riddler trophies a pain, since so many of them require the car.
Other than the Batmobile, the gameplay is exactly what it should be, with just enough new features added to keep it feeling fresh. The only takeaway is in the predator sections, where it feels like you get less reward for being unseen. There were several instances where I would study the patrol patterns of the guards and pick off the one that NEVER crossed paths with any of the others with a Silent Takedown ... then, for no reason at all, one of the others would deviate from their patrol patterns and find their buddy unconcious, putting them all on alert. By the end of the game I was just rushing through these sequences, taking them all down as fast as possible and it actually worked better. Maybe Rocksteady wanted the players to feel more powerful this time around and decided to encourage a more aggressive style during the predator segments. That's fine, and it works well enough, but I preferred the old approach a little better.
Unlike its predecessors, Arkham Knight focuses less on giving you new gadgets, and more on letting you upgrade the ones you're familiar with. By the end of the game, you can upgrade the grapnel to the point where you're launching yourself into the air with the speed of a bullet (which, again, almost eliminates the need for the Batmobile.) They also upgrade your suit, allowing for multiple takedowns at once, which is incredibly handy, but can only be used if your enemies are unaware of your location. The only new standout gadget is the Disruptor, which is basically an EMP rifle. Once fully upgraded, it can disable guns and gun lockers, stun sticks, med packs and so on. In my playthrough, this was the gadget that got used the most before a fight.
Now, let's move on to a couple of story elements that rubbed me the wrong way:
1.) For one, as some friends have also pointed out, Batman and the other characters refer to each other by their real names with bad guys standing a few feet away. In the comics this NEVER happens, because they aren't complete morons. What's the point in wearing masks if you're going to go around blabbing who you are within earshot of random thugs. This is inexcusable, and reeks of bad storytelling, much like my next point....
2.) The Arkham Knight's identity, to anyone who's cracked open a Bat-Comic in the last 10 years or so, (or knows anything about the current DC universe) will be the worst, most lazy attempt at a "mystery" in, possibly, the entire history of video games. From his first appearance it's blatant that this is Jason Todd. Then, later on in the story when they try to give you "subtle" hints with all the Jason flashbacks, it's kind of infuriating. Rule number one of being a halfway decent writer is never talking down to your audience, and that's exactly what they did. Rocksteady underestimated the intelligence of their fanbase and that rubs me the wrong way, especially after how well Arkham City's story was crafted. City never talked down to you in the narrative, and was very faithful to the various characters' attitudes and mannerisms.
3.) Near the end of the game Jason and Bruce have a "moment" where Bruce apologizes for not being there for Jason and trying to turn him around, then Jason runs off like an angsty teenager only to reappear at the end of the game to break Bruce's bonds so he can beat Scarecrow ... and that's it.... There's no real payoff for Jason's character, and even the Red Hood story missions don't expand on it. This is just sloppy.
4.) The mood set at the beginning of the game is fantastic, but by the end Scarecrow is kind of a joke. His big plan to break Batman is laughable compared to all the things he's faced during his career and the payoff for what you've been working toward the whole game falls flat. I won't go into too much detail, to avoid spoilers, but it really is disappointing.
5.) The true ending for this game requires 100% completion, Riddler trophies and all. Now, normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but when the "true" ending is literally just a small tacked-on scene a couple of minutes long that requires hours upon hours of annoying Batmobile-Centric riddles only to answer NO questions and make no*&%#$@ sense.... Well, I was a little angry.
There are a few more story gripes, but I'll stop there.
That said, is Arkham Knight a bad game? No. There's a lot of fun to be had exploring Gotham and doing most of the side-quests, with enough content here to warrant the 60 bucks you'll need to shell out for the game. The Joker subplot was also excellent (and should've been the main focus of the story), and that alone makes the story worth playing. But, is it as good or as innovative as Arkham City was? Not even close. From story to mechanics, Arkham City hit the ball out of the park and nothing, to me at least, felt tacked-on. The only place Arkham Knight really beat it was in scale and with the inclusion of Nightwing in the story (but that last part is really just for me) with everything else only meeting or falling short of Arkham City. Overall, I give Batman: Arkham Knight a 7.5 out of 10. It's still a game worth playing, but with the sloppy writing and overused Batmobile mechanics, it falls short of the masterpiece Rocksteady gave us just a few short years ago. This isn't the sendoff we needed, but it's the one Rocksteady thought we deserved.
Friday, January 23, 2015
The Beginning
It's been awhile since my last post, and I hate that. My intention was to make a post at least every other week, but life's been giving me a rough time lately and I just haven't found the time. But, to be fair, I've tried more than once in the past month to sit down and write about something, but with my job leaving me so drained and stressed, I usually end up even more frustrated and push my computer away.
So, now that we have that out of the way, let's dive into today's subject: Storytelling.
I know that seems kind of vague, but what I'm going to be covering here are the right and wrong (as well as the subjective right and wrong) ways to go about telling a story.
Now, we'll start where all good stories start: The Beginning. This is where you hook your reader (or viewer if we're talking cinema) and proceed to drag them along for the ride. It's incredibly important that you get your claws into the audience here, at the very start of the story, or you might not get them at all. Today's society is a lot more fast paced than when I was growing up. Back then, people were reading Tolkien, and no one really questioned the painfully slow start to his stories; it was just what you had to go through to get to the meat of the story, and that was fine for the time, but if Tolkien were starting out in today's literary world, his books would most likely bomb. A lot of modern readers have been drawn into books from watching the movies they're based on (like Harry Potter, and a certain sparkling mess we won't mention.) Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the type of storytelling that sells had evolved, because if you're coming from a movie diet into a book diet, then Lord of the Rings is a shock to the system.
Now, you could argue that the book sales of Harry Potter and the like was the reason the movies were successful, not the other way around, and that's somewhat true, or at least it was in the beginning. That said, a good half of my friends started with the movies because of all the hype, and it drew them to the books. So, I'd say it turned out to be a fairly equal marriage by the end of it all. And even if you don't agree, the current and last generations have grown up with so much more stimulation, specifically from TV and movies, than any generation before us. Like it or not, by the time we get to books, our idea of successful storytelling has already been altered from the old school mentality.
So what does this mean for the future of storytelling? Well, for one, if you're writing books, you'll have to start getting your hooks in the reader a lot sooner than, say, Tolkien did. I love The Fellowship of the Ring, but the first few chapters are tough to get through, with far too much exposition that could very easily be trimmed down. Back then, Tolkien was inventing a genre, and the expectations of literary stories were far different from today, so he got away with it. Now though, instead of the dull, drawn out opening Fellowship had, you'd need something with a little more flair to sell it to a modern audience. I personally think the way Peter Jackson handled the opening in the film was great; he set us up with a nice opening monologue from Galadriel, and we got to see an exciting fight scene. I disagree with a lot of the changes Jackson made, but this one made perfect sense to me.
I'll move past Tolkien for a minute and give you a more modern example. In Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, one of the main characters, Raoden "awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he'd been damned for all eternity." Now that's a hook! The very first line of the book, and I already want to know what the heck's going on. Elantris came out in 2005, and to this day I don't think I've read anything with a more in-your-face, inviting opener for a novel.
After reading that, I listened to a podcast where Sanderson was talking about successful opening lines for books, and how important they were in today's world. He cited that opening as one of his proudest moments, and rightfully so. But even after listening to the podcast, I still wanted to go deeper; I wanted to find the perfect formula for a good opening line. Did I ever find it? Maybe. I thought long and hard about it, and this is what I came up with: A good opening line, is an answer that makes you ask questions. Going back to the opening of Elantris, the fact that we know Raoden has been damned for all eternity if interesting, but why has he been damned? Who damned him? Is he going to die? (I think you get my point.)
After that, I started going back through some of my favorite books to see if they met this new criteria, and most of them did. The prologue to The Eye of the World certainly did, along with Dan Wells' I Am Not A Serial Killer. Is it indisputable? No, not at all. There are books even now that don't follow the rule and find great success, but a good number of those (at least in fiction) tend to be from authors who have already proven themselves and have a dedicated fanbase, like Stephen King or James Patterson. In my opinion though, for a writer starting out today, slaving over a killer opening line is one of the most important choices you can make. Do you have any idea how many people today will walk into a bookstore, pick up a book and decide whether or not they're going to buy it after the first line? I see it happening more and more. Even I've gotten to that point. With so many books out there that I'd like to read, I have to narrow things down somehow, and that's one of the quickest, easiest ways to do it.
You might be wondering if this is the definitive future of writing, and I doubt it. Just look at how far it's come since Tolkien's day. The most important thing for anyone looking to get their book published is to keep in touch with the times, and not fall into the Pit of Yesteryear, so to speak. Stay Current. Now, I'm not saying you should pick up the latest Stephen King or Dean Koontz novel and do exactly what they're doing, but you can probably pick up a few useful techniques from them to make your work more attractive to a wider audience. Pay attention to the way they kick their books off and how they set and maintain the pace. Despite their massive followings, most bestselling writers don't maintain the exact style from book to book, and if the big guys feel the need to keep things fresh, it should be a lesson to everyone else; don't let your work get stale.
Is following this advice going to magically get you published tomorrow? Well, if you're lucky, maybe, but either way it's a good way to catch the eye of an editor. So, the next time you sit down to write a story, hover over the beginning for a minute. You might be surprised what comes to you with a little patience.
So, now that we have that out of the way, let's dive into today's subject: Storytelling.
I know that seems kind of vague, but what I'm going to be covering here are the right and wrong (as well as the subjective right and wrong) ways to go about telling a story.
Now, we'll start where all good stories start: The Beginning. This is where you hook your reader (or viewer if we're talking cinema) and proceed to drag them along for the ride. It's incredibly important that you get your claws into the audience here, at the very start of the story, or you might not get them at all. Today's society is a lot more fast paced than when I was growing up. Back then, people were reading Tolkien, and no one really questioned the painfully slow start to his stories; it was just what you had to go through to get to the meat of the story, and that was fine for the time, but if Tolkien were starting out in today's literary world, his books would most likely bomb. A lot of modern readers have been drawn into books from watching the movies they're based on (like Harry Potter, and a certain sparkling mess we won't mention.) Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the type of storytelling that sells had evolved, because if you're coming from a movie diet into a book diet, then Lord of the Rings is a shock to the system.
Now, you could argue that the book sales of Harry Potter and the like was the reason the movies were successful, not the other way around, and that's somewhat true, or at least it was in the beginning. That said, a good half of my friends started with the movies because of all the hype, and it drew them to the books. So, I'd say it turned out to be a fairly equal marriage by the end of it all. And even if you don't agree, the current and last generations have grown up with so much more stimulation, specifically from TV and movies, than any generation before us. Like it or not, by the time we get to books, our idea of successful storytelling has already been altered from the old school mentality.
So what does this mean for the future of storytelling? Well, for one, if you're writing books, you'll have to start getting your hooks in the reader a lot sooner than, say, Tolkien did. I love The Fellowship of the Ring, but the first few chapters are tough to get through, with far too much exposition that could very easily be trimmed down. Back then, Tolkien was inventing a genre, and the expectations of literary stories were far different from today, so he got away with it. Now though, instead of the dull, drawn out opening Fellowship had, you'd need something with a little more flair to sell it to a modern audience. I personally think the way Peter Jackson handled the opening in the film was great; he set us up with a nice opening monologue from Galadriel, and we got to see an exciting fight scene. I disagree with a lot of the changes Jackson made, but this one made perfect sense to me.
I'll move past Tolkien for a minute and give you a more modern example. In Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, one of the main characters, Raoden "awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he'd been damned for all eternity." Now that's a hook! The very first line of the book, and I already want to know what the heck's going on. Elantris came out in 2005, and to this day I don't think I've read anything with a more in-your-face, inviting opener for a novel.
After reading that, I listened to a podcast where Sanderson was talking about successful opening lines for books, and how important they were in today's world. He cited that opening as one of his proudest moments, and rightfully so. But even after listening to the podcast, I still wanted to go deeper; I wanted to find the perfect formula for a good opening line. Did I ever find it? Maybe. I thought long and hard about it, and this is what I came up with: A good opening line, is an answer that makes you ask questions. Going back to the opening of Elantris, the fact that we know Raoden has been damned for all eternity if interesting, but why has he been damned? Who damned him? Is he going to die? (I think you get my point.)
After that, I started going back through some of my favorite books to see if they met this new criteria, and most of them did. The prologue to The Eye of the World certainly did, along with Dan Wells' I Am Not A Serial Killer. Is it indisputable? No, not at all. There are books even now that don't follow the rule and find great success, but a good number of those (at least in fiction) tend to be from authors who have already proven themselves and have a dedicated fanbase, like Stephen King or James Patterson. In my opinion though, for a writer starting out today, slaving over a killer opening line is one of the most important choices you can make. Do you have any idea how many people today will walk into a bookstore, pick up a book and decide whether or not they're going to buy it after the first line? I see it happening more and more. Even I've gotten to that point. With so many books out there that I'd like to read, I have to narrow things down somehow, and that's one of the quickest, easiest ways to do it.
You might be wondering if this is the definitive future of writing, and I doubt it. Just look at how far it's come since Tolkien's day. The most important thing for anyone looking to get their book published is to keep in touch with the times, and not fall into the Pit of Yesteryear, so to speak. Stay Current. Now, I'm not saying you should pick up the latest Stephen King or Dean Koontz novel and do exactly what they're doing, but you can probably pick up a few useful techniques from them to make your work more attractive to a wider audience. Pay attention to the way they kick their books off and how they set and maintain the pace. Despite their massive followings, most bestselling writers don't maintain the exact style from book to book, and if the big guys feel the need to keep things fresh, it should be a lesson to everyone else; don't let your work get stale.
Is following this advice going to magically get you published tomorrow? Well, if you're lucky, maybe, but either way it's a good way to catch the eye of an editor. So, the next time you sit down to write a story, hover over the beginning for a minute. You might be surprised what comes to you with a little patience.
Friday, October 31, 2014
The Power of 8: Horror Films
It's Halloween! Not quite sure what that means for everyone else, but for me, it's a chance to explore some dark(er) history, and enjoy some good ol' Horror flicks. Now, before I move forward with this list, let me just say that, as with most any story, I enjoy Horror movies that make me think. I prefer my Horror to be more than just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around in circles while some maniac chases them with various sharp objects. That said, off we go.
8. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Yeah, this one probably won't be popular with most people, but to me, the third Halloween, beyond the first one, was the most daring and outgoing of the franchise. The reason it failed to perform was because the fans of the day only wanted more of the same, and when another Halloween came out and didn't have Michael Myers, they freaked. Which is a shame, because it was one of the few films to delve into the roots of the holiday.
The anthology series the creators wanted to make would have been beautiful. If Halloween III had been successful, the next movie would have been a ghost story, and every film after would focus on new themes and characters, all set on Halloween. But no, instead we got Slasher after Slasher until the series became a parody of itself and died off ... then was further ruined by Rob Zombie a few years later....
Since this is one I don't think as many people have seen, I won't go into the plot, but it's something that should be experienced by any true Horror fan.
7. Scream 1&2
I typically don't like Slashers very much, but when they're played as smart as the first two Scream movies were, I make an exception. Instead of relying on the same, tired tropes, Scream dared to call out those tropes. Yes, some are still followed, but it blazes trails in other areas. The characters are all unique and well-written, and Sydney Prescott is easily among the strongest female protagonists in Horror cinema. But, in Wes Craven films, strong female leads have come to be expected.
The film starts out simply enough, with a young girl sitting down to watch Horror movies. She gets a phone call that starts innocently enough, then takes a quick turn for the worse as the voice on the other end threatens her. After watching her boyfriend gutted in front of her, she's chased down and murdered by the killer. Like I said, simple. After that though, as the body count rises, a particular movie buff starts to see a pattern and tells everyone what to watch out for to survive.
For me, the killings pretty much being called out by Randy before they happened added another layer of tension. You start to think maybe, since it's been so blatantly called out, that character has a chance to survive. And the whodunit element in the first two movies made them both even more fun to watch.
I recommend the first two films to anyone. Especially if you like watching strong female leads beat the crap out of their tormentors. The climax on the second movie will always make me cheer. After all the torment Sydney's been through, she fights back with a vengeance. It's what I always wanted to see in a Slasher flick. Now, I can't really recommend the third Scream, because, even though it gets off to a pretty strong start, the ending falls completely flat and ruins it. I can't speak for the fourth, because I haven't seen it yet, but the first two are worth watching either way.
6. John Carpenter's The Thing
A remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World. I prefer it to the original (even though both are great in their own right) because Carpenter's focuses more on the trust issue of the story. The Thing could be anyone, even the guy right next to you who seemed fine five minutes ago. That element is what made the movie so terrifying to me. If you can't trust the guy next to you when you're up against something so big and scary, what are you supposed to do? You can't even adequately fight against The Thing, because you HAVE to constantly watch your back unless you want it to take you too.
The special effects in this movie also deserve a gold star. They might be dated now, but for 1982, they were fantastic and gruesome and wonderful. The head-spider scene always comes to mind when I think of think of The Thing, and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what I mean.
Needless to say, this should be on your watch list tonight. Just don't watch it alone ... or maybe it would be safer that way. Can you really trust the person next to you?
5. Horror of Dracula
In 1958 we got our first taste of Christopher Lee's Dracula, thanks to Terence Fisher and Hammer Films. But more importantly, we got Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and that's what gets this movie on the list. Not only did Horror of Dracula put an interesting twist on the story at the beginning, but it also gave us a Dracula film with a lot of blood, which was, sadly, kind of rare at the time, even for a movie about the "original" vampire.
The story is basically the same on the whole, but the actors in this version gave us something special. Peter Cushing is the best Van Helsing ever put on film, and throughout the Hammer Dracula films, he always performed like he was shooting for an Oscar, long after Christopher Lee stopped trying. So, if you want a good vampire movie to check out, and you want to see Cushing in action, give Horror of Dracula a shot. You won't be sorry.
4. House of Usher
No Horror list would be complete without at least one Vincent Price film. I love the man far too much to put into words, but I'll try to keep my gushing to a minimum.
The story starts with a young man approaching the House of Usher, searching for the love of his life. She ran off because she was ill, and her overbearing brother (played by Price) says it's a family curse. Our "hero" doesn't buy it, and thinks that she can be helped with the right doctors. As you might expect, overbearing brother is against her leaving and does everything in his power to keep her there, even going as far as to bury her alive in a coffin.
House of Usher features one of Price's best performances. You can feel the pain of his disease as he describes it in one of the earlier scenes. There are a lot of Price films I'd like to have on this list, but for the Halloween season, this one seems to fit best.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street
Before the series descended into ... what it descended into, Wes Craven crafted one of the most clever Slashers of our time. The subtext of the movie, if you care to dissect it like that, is really thought-provoking. But, I won't get into all that right now.
The movie starts with a young girl being chased in her dreams by some creepy guy with a burned face and a claw on his right hand. What's that you say? Oh, you thought this girl might be your lead? Too bad she gets killed shortly into the movie!
Enter Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, you're real lead. Her parents are divorced, forcing her to live with her alcoholic, neglectful mother. Of course her mother doesn't believe her when she says Freddy Krueger is the one killing the Elm Street kids. Understandable, seeing as Nacy's parents were among the group who burned Krueger alive years prior for, you guessed it, killing children.
This was before Freddy was being played for laughs like in the later movies. He still had personality, but wasn't throwing out one-liners every three seconds. And what made him even more scary was where he attacked you. Your dreams are supposed to be a safe haven, where you don't have to worry about death or pain. Freddy took that away from you, forcing you to think twice every night before you drifted off to sleep.
2. Dracula
This 1931 Universal masterpiece still holds up today, especially if you watch it with the updated score by Phillip Glass. Bela Lugosi gives a brilliant performance as Dracula here, and gave every Dracula that came after a template to follow. Dwight Frye also deserves praise for his portrayal of Renfield, specifically after he's enthralled by Dracula and driven insane.
Unlike the Hammer films, this is one you watch for Dracula and not for Van Helsing, although Edward Van Sloan makes a solid Van Helsing. But what really sells this movie for me is Lugosi's eyes. The shots where the camera zooms in on his eyes are downright entrancing.
I'm sure almost everyone has seen this one by now, but it's always worth another look. And if you've never watched it with the Phillip Glass score, do yourself a favor and find it. (It's on youtube as we speak.)
1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
I finally got my wife to watch this one with me for the first time a few months ago, and throughout the movie she kept saying "This is so meta!" And she was right. New Nightmare is anything but your standard Horror film, and in case you haven't figured it out, it's pretty darn meta!
Any time of the year I can sit down and watch this movie, and it seems like I get something new out of it every time. Just like in the first Nightmare, Freddy isn't played for laughs here; he's a terrifying creature Wes Craven has kept trapped by making movies. But now that a new movie hasn't been made for awhile, the demon is breaking into the real world, and so Wes Craven (playing himself in the film) is writing a new script, and it starts coming true as he writes it. Heather Langenkamp is forced to take on the role of Nancy one last time, because she's the only one Freddy sees as a threat.
It's a really smart story with good special effects and an ending to remember.
Honorable Mentions
Like I said before, there are some other films I would've loved to put on the list, but there just wasn't room. So here are a few honorable mentions.
Freddy vs. Jason
I don't really consider this one a Horror movie, or even a good movie for that matter, but I laugh so hard every time I watch it, I have to recommend it.
Masque of the Red Death
Another Vincent Price gem. In this one he plays a Satanist leader who thrives on cruelty and the suffering of others. Worth watching, especially on Halloween.
Halloween, Halloween II and H20
The first Halloween was terrifying not because of what you saw, but what you didn't see. The second one wasn't as good, but it was a decent conclusion to the story.
H20, while most people hate it, I find entertaining because of one particular scene. Laurie has been forced into hiding for twenty years, constantly looking over her shoulder, so when she finally confronts Michael, she's had enough, and proceeds to let him have it. Even at the end when everyone else thinks he's dead, she knows better, and steals the ambulance he 's being carted off in. She's not going to let him come back this time; she pins him to a tree with the ambulance and cuts off his head with an axe. Yeah, she finally got her revenge. I like to pretend this is the true ending of the series, and the abysmal Resurrection never happened.
And that's about it. Hope you guys enjoyed this little list. Happy Halloween!
8. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Yeah, this one probably won't be popular with most people, but to me, the third Halloween, beyond the first one, was the most daring and outgoing of the franchise. The reason it failed to perform was because the fans of the day only wanted more of the same, and when another Halloween came out and didn't have Michael Myers, they freaked. Which is a shame, because it was one of the few films to delve into the roots of the holiday.
The anthology series the creators wanted to make would have been beautiful. If Halloween III had been successful, the next movie would have been a ghost story, and every film after would focus on new themes and characters, all set on Halloween. But no, instead we got Slasher after Slasher until the series became a parody of itself and died off ... then was further ruined by Rob Zombie a few years later....
Since this is one I don't think as many people have seen, I won't go into the plot, but it's something that should be experienced by any true Horror fan.
7. Scream 1&2
I typically don't like Slashers very much, but when they're played as smart as the first two Scream movies were, I make an exception. Instead of relying on the same, tired tropes, Scream dared to call out those tropes. Yes, some are still followed, but it blazes trails in other areas. The characters are all unique and well-written, and Sydney Prescott is easily among the strongest female protagonists in Horror cinema. But, in Wes Craven films, strong female leads have come to be expected.
The film starts out simply enough, with a young girl sitting down to watch Horror movies. She gets a phone call that starts innocently enough, then takes a quick turn for the worse as the voice on the other end threatens her. After watching her boyfriend gutted in front of her, she's chased down and murdered by the killer. Like I said, simple. After that though, as the body count rises, a particular movie buff starts to see a pattern and tells everyone what to watch out for to survive.
For me, the killings pretty much being called out by Randy before they happened added another layer of tension. You start to think maybe, since it's been so blatantly called out, that character has a chance to survive. And the whodunit element in the first two movies made them both even more fun to watch.
I recommend the first two films to anyone. Especially if you like watching strong female leads beat the crap out of their tormentors. The climax on the second movie will always make me cheer. After all the torment Sydney's been through, she fights back with a vengeance. It's what I always wanted to see in a Slasher flick. Now, I can't really recommend the third Scream, because, even though it gets off to a pretty strong start, the ending falls completely flat and ruins it. I can't speak for the fourth, because I haven't seen it yet, but the first two are worth watching either way.
6. John Carpenter's The Thing
A remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World. I prefer it to the original (even though both are great in their own right) because Carpenter's focuses more on the trust issue of the story. The Thing could be anyone, even the guy right next to you who seemed fine five minutes ago. That element is what made the movie so terrifying to me. If you can't trust the guy next to you when you're up against something so big and scary, what are you supposed to do? You can't even adequately fight against The Thing, because you HAVE to constantly watch your back unless you want it to take you too.
The special effects in this movie also deserve a gold star. They might be dated now, but for 1982, they were fantastic and gruesome and wonderful. The head-spider scene always comes to mind when I think of think of The Thing, and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what I mean.
Needless to say, this should be on your watch list tonight. Just don't watch it alone ... or maybe it would be safer that way. Can you really trust the person next to you?
5. Horror of Dracula
In 1958 we got our first taste of Christopher Lee's Dracula, thanks to Terence Fisher and Hammer Films. But more importantly, we got Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and that's what gets this movie on the list. Not only did Horror of Dracula put an interesting twist on the story at the beginning, but it also gave us a Dracula film with a lot of blood, which was, sadly, kind of rare at the time, even for a movie about the "original" vampire.
The story is basically the same on the whole, but the actors in this version gave us something special. Peter Cushing is the best Van Helsing ever put on film, and throughout the Hammer Dracula films, he always performed like he was shooting for an Oscar, long after Christopher Lee stopped trying. So, if you want a good vampire movie to check out, and you want to see Cushing in action, give Horror of Dracula a shot. You won't be sorry.
4. House of Usher
No Horror list would be complete without at least one Vincent Price film. I love the man far too much to put into words, but I'll try to keep my gushing to a minimum.
The story starts with a young man approaching the House of Usher, searching for the love of his life. She ran off because she was ill, and her overbearing brother (played by Price) says it's a family curse. Our "hero" doesn't buy it, and thinks that she can be helped with the right doctors. As you might expect, overbearing brother is against her leaving and does everything in his power to keep her there, even going as far as to bury her alive in a coffin.
House of Usher features one of Price's best performances. You can feel the pain of his disease as he describes it in one of the earlier scenes. There are a lot of Price films I'd like to have on this list, but for the Halloween season, this one seems to fit best.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street
Before the series descended into ... what it descended into, Wes Craven crafted one of the most clever Slashers of our time. The subtext of the movie, if you care to dissect it like that, is really thought-provoking. But, I won't get into all that right now.
The movie starts with a young girl being chased in her dreams by some creepy guy with a burned face and a claw on his right hand. What's that you say? Oh, you thought this girl might be your lead? Too bad she gets killed shortly into the movie!
Enter Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, you're real lead. Her parents are divorced, forcing her to live with her alcoholic, neglectful mother. Of course her mother doesn't believe her when she says Freddy Krueger is the one killing the Elm Street kids. Understandable, seeing as Nacy's parents were among the group who burned Krueger alive years prior for, you guessed it, killing children.
This was before Freddy was being played for laughs like in the later movies. He still had personality, but wasn't throwing out one-liners every three seconds. And what made him even more scary was where he attacked you. Your dreams are supposed to be a safe haven, where you don't have to worry about death or pain. Freddy took that away from you, forcing you to think twice every night before you drifted off to sleep.
2. Dracula
This 1931 Universal masterpiece still holds up today, especially if you watch it with the updated score by Phillip Glass. Bela Lugosi gives a brilliant performance as Dracula here, and gave every Dracula that came after a template to follow. Dwight Frye also deserves praise for his portrayal of Renfield, specifically after he's enthralled by Dracula and driven insane.
Unlike the Hammer films, this is one you watch for Dracula and not for Van Helsing, although Edward Van Sloan makes a solid Van Helsing. But what really sells this movie for me is Lugosi's eyes. The shots where the camera zooms in on his eyes are downright entrancing.
I'm sure almost everyone has seen this one by now, but it's always worth another look. And if you've never watched it with the Phillip Glass score, do yourself a favor and find it. (It's on youtube as we speak.)
1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
I finally got my wife to watch this one with me for the first time a few months ago, and throughout the movie she kept saying "This is so meta!" And she was right. New Nightmare is anything but your standard Horror film, and in case you haven't figured it out, it's pretty darn meta!
Any time of the year I can sit down and watch this movie, and it seems like I get something new out of it every time. Just like in the first Nightmare, Freddy isn't played for laughs here; he's a terrifying creature Wes Craven has kept trapped by making movies. But now that a new movie hasn't been made for awhile, the demon is breaking into the real world, and so Wes Craven (playing himself in the film) is writing a new script, and it starts coming true as he writes it. Heather Langenkamp is forced to take on the role of Nancy one last time, because she's the only one Freddy sees as a threat.
It's a really smart story with good special effects and an ending to remember.
Honorable Mentions
Like I said before, there are some other films I would've loved to put on the list, but there just wasn't room. So here are a few honorable mentions.
Freddy vs. Jason
I don't really consider this one a Horror movie, or even a good movie for that matter, but I laugh so hard every time I watch it, I have to recommend it.
Masque of the Red Death
Another Vincent Price gem. In this one he plays a Satanist leader who thrives on cruelty and the suffering of others. Worth watching, especially on Halloween.
Halloween, Halloween II and H20
The first Halloween was terrifying not because of what you saw, but what you didn't see. The second one wasn't as good, but it was a decent conclusion to the story.
H20, while most people hate it, I find entertaining because of one particular scene. Laurie has been forced into hiding for twenty years, constantly looking over her shoulder, so when she finally confronts Michael, she's had enough, and proceeds to let him have it. Even at the end when everyone else thinks he's dead, she knows better, and steals the ambulance he 's being carted off in. She's not going to let him come back this time; she pins him to a tree with the ambulance and cuts off his head with an axe. Yeah, she finally got her revenge. I like to pretend this is the true ending of the series, and the abysmal Resurrection never happened.
And that's about it. Hope you guys enjoyed this little list. Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 24, 2014
The Horror! The Horror!
Well guys, we're on the back-end of October and Halloween is almost on top of us. With that in mind, I thought it'd be a good time to explore a topic near and dear to my heart: Horror.
Now, unlike most people I know, I didn't have a love for Horror growing up. For one, I was never allowed to watch it growing up, and other than a passing curiosity, I never cared enough to explore it. Instead, my love of the genre came in around the time I turned 20.
At first my approach was very slow. I'd read Frankenstein and Dracula growing up, and those were a very different kind of Horror than I was about to dive into. Those books were more social commentaries than straight Horror, I think. Yes, I still consider them Horror, but those elements seems to only be a backdrop for the issues the authors wanted to explore. But I digress.
Anyway, after Frankenstein and Dracula (both wonderful books, by the way) I decided that Horror was maybe more than I'd been told all my life. If these books were any indication, the genre wasn't all mindless smut used as an excuse to show as much gore as possible. The Horror genre could be used as a vehicle to explore things that no other genre readily allows you to. As a writer, that idea fascinated me, and I couldn't wait to see what else I could dig up.
Stephen King was the next logical step for me. Again, this was a writer that my family had convinced me was not only a, most likely, devil-worshiping, goat-sacrificing, "spiritually disturbed" mess of a human being, but also just another drone in the Horror machine that perpetrated the smut I referred to earlier. First of all, not only is Stephen King a Horror writer, (even though that's how he's generally labeled) but also a brilliant Fantasy writer ... and a Pulp writer ... and Drama.... You see my point? The man writes a little bit of everything, and even though not all of it's to my taste, I admire his ability to jump from genre to genre like that. It's something a lot of writers today can't do. But, a constant theme in his work is the everyman overcoming the unspeakable evil. He likes to play with hard good and evil contrasts, whereas a lot of writers today tend to place their villains in a moral gray area. There's nothing wrong with that, but it gets a little tiresome when that's ALL you see. King's evil is the sort that makes those gray area-dwellers piss themselves, and I find that entertaining.
But, to keep things moving, I'll go ahead and move on to the main point of this post. You see, once I moved on to Clive Barker, then into Wes Craven and John Carpenter films, then the horrendous slasher cliche's like Friday the 13th, I realized that Horror was arguably the most primal, personal form of storytelling in existence. The horrific parts of the stories weren't always the blood-soaked killings, but rather the personal issues the characters were forced to face. The Silent Hill series of video games (specifically the second one) excels at this, and I'll say until the day I die that Silent Hill 2 is the single most terrifying fictional story I've ever been exposed to. Had that been a first person shooter series, the story Silent Hill tried to tell would have been impossible. You weren't a one man army slaughtering hoards of demons on mars, you were just some guy with a dark past unlucky enough to step into the fog. From there, you couldn't escape until you, literally, faced your personal demons (both literal and figurative) and overcame them.
So, for me at least, Horror is one of the most essential form of fiction we have. And yes, it gets a bad rap because of your Friday the 13th ripoffs (which were bad ripoffs themselves) but I maintain that those aren't even really Horror. Seriously, when was the last time you watched a Friday the 13th film without laughing hysterically at the repeatedly dumb decisions made by the protagonists, or the over-the-top deaths, like when Jason caught someone completely zipped up in their sleeping bag and beat them against a tree while they were stuck in it? Even Freddy vs. Jason, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, is much more comedy than Horror. With the Scream films, at least Wes Craven and company were aware of those stereotypes and poked fun at them in-film while still crafting a well done story that kept you guessing and gave you chills.
When you dissect some of the truly great Horror stories, you find things you might not expect. The easiest example would be Freddy Krueger, who represents loss and neglect, and according to Robert Englund himself in reference to the second Nightmare film, homosexual repression. And that's just the monster; try really taking a look at Nancy in Nightmare 1, 3 and New Nightmare. And so we've come full circle with that. Just like Dracula and Frankenstein, the best Horror has something to say. It can be much more subversive than those novels, but the thrills and chills, and the very nature of the Horror structure allow so much freedom for writers. Fear and Love are two of humanity's strongest drives, both of which Horror can handle like no other genre could ever hope to.
And there you have it. That's what Horror is to me. I hope I covered all my bases well enough and didn't make any of that too confusing. I'd also like to hear from everyone else about what Horror means to them.
Until then, it's Halloween guys. Read some Clive Barker, watch some Wes Craven, and have fun. It'll be a real scream!
Anyway, after Frankenstein and Dracula (both wonderful books, by the way) I decided that Horror was maybe more than I'd been told all my life. If these books were any indication, the genre wasn't all mindless smut used as an excuse to show as much gore as possible. The Horror genre could be used as a vehicle to explore things that no other genre readily allows you to. As a writer, that idea fascinated me, and I couldn't wait to see what else I could dig up.
Stephen King was the next logical step for me. Again, this was a writer that my family had convinced me was not only a, most likely, devil-worshiping, goat-sacrificing, "spiritually disturbed" mess of a human being, but also just another drone in the Horror machine that perpetrated the smut I referred to earlier. First of all, not only is Stephen King a Horror writer, (even though that's how he's generally labeled) but also a brilliant Fantasy writer ... and a Pulp writer ... and Drama.... You see my point? The man writes a little bit of everything, and even though not all of it's to my taste, I admire his ability to jump from genre to genre like that. It's something a lot of writers today can't do. But, a constant theme in his work is the everyman overcoming the unspeakable evil. He likes to play with hard good and evil contrasts, whereas a lot of writers today tend to place their villains in a moral gray area. There's nothing wrong with that, but it gets a little tiresome when that's ALL you see. King's evil is the sort that makes those gray area-dwellers piss themselves, and I find that entertaining.
But, to keep things moving, I'll go ahead and move on to the main point of this post. You see, once I moved on to Clive Barker, then into Wes Craven and John Carpenter films, then the horrendous slasher cliche's like Friday the 13th, I realized that Horror was arguably the most primal, personal form of storytelling in existence. The horrific parts of the stories weren't always the blood-soaked killings, but rather the personal issues the characters were forced to face. The Silent Hill series of video games (specifically the second one) excels at this, and I'll say until the day I die that Silent Hill 2 is the single most terrifying fictional story I've ever been exposed to. Had that been a first person shooter series, the story Silent Hill tried to tell would have been impossible. You weren't a one man army slaughtering hoards of demons on mars, you were just some guy with a dark past unlucky enough to step into the fog. From there, you couldn't escape until you, literally, faced your personal demons (both literal and figurative) and overcame them.
So, for me at least, Horror is one of the most essential form of fiction we have. And yes, it gets a bad rap because of your Friday the 13th ripoffs (which were bad ripoffs themselves) but I maintain that those aren't even really Horror. Seriously, when was the last time you watched a Friday the 13th film without laughing hysterically at the repeatedly dumb decisions made by the protagonists, or the over-the-top deaths, like when Jason caught someone completely zipped up in their sleeping bag and beat them against a tree while they were stuck in it? Even Freddy vs. Jason, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, is much more comedy than Horror. With the Scream films, at least Wes Craven and company were aware of those stereotypes and poked fun at them in-film while still crafting a well done story that kept you guessing and gave you chills.
When you dissect some of the truly great Horror stories, you find things you might not expect. The easiest example would be Freddy Krueger, who represents loss and neglect, and according to Robert Englund himself in reference to the second Nightmare film, homosexual repression. And that's just the monster; try really taking a look at Nancy in Nightmare 1, 3 and New Nightmare. And so we've come full circle with that. Just like Dracula and Frankenstein, the best Horror has something to say. It can be much more subversive than those novels, but the thrills and chills, and the very nature of the Horror structure allow so much freedom for writers. Fear and Love are two of humanity's strongest drives, both of which Horror can handle like no other genre could ever hope to.
And there you have it. That's what Horror is to me. I hope I covered all my bases well enough and didn't make any of that too confusing. I'd also like to hear from everyone else about what Horror means to them.
Until then, it's Halloween guys. Read some Clive Barker, watch some Wes Craven, and have fun. It'll be a real scream!
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