Meeting from hell yesterday.
Actually that's not true. But only in so far as it wasn't a meeting but a 'brainstorming session'.
The thing I found the most frustrating was that we got to a stage where I thought we were on the cusp of making a selection. We needed to pick an idea to pursue and I thought we'd done some reasonable drilling down to get to some of those specific things.
However, at the point we were making that decision there suddenly appeared to be a huge leap backwards and instead of being low level we were suddenly very high-level and it seemed like nothing had been decided.
Worse, something totally counter-intuitive happened. We each got to vote and even though one option clearly won, the people who supported the one that lost stuck their heels in and we ended up going for that one!
Even worse than that, it's a shit idea that I quite frankly don't understand. Indeed, no-one I'm working with understands and it's us that have got to write the goddamn bid!
Awful.
Towards the end I was just focusing on one thing: I'm on holiday for two weeks from Monday.
Yes, that's right, two whole weeks off.
Plus, it's a proper holiday to foreign parts. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before properly, but me and the family are going to see the Monaco Grand Prix.
That part of the holiday lasts a week so I've a few days before hand to get my life sorted out and pack and stuff and then a few days after to chill out.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Doubt I'll be bogging during that period, so see you in two weeks.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Thursday, 14 May 2009
24: redemption
And in a separate move of great surprisingness I watched a second film this weekend too!
The film in question was 24: Redemption.
It's intended as a bridge between seasons 6 and 7 of 24. I've obviously not seen season 7 yet, as it's only on satellite, but it comes out on DVD fairly soon.
Season 6 was a disappointing season, overall. Part of the problem 24 has is that it's built up a lot of baggage.
In the first season clearly everything and everyone was new. In the second season many of the characters returned; however one thing they did was to throw in some very neat twists involving those existing characters. The best and clearest of these involved a character called Nina who, in essence, turned out to be a bad guy where we all thought she was a good guy.
Now while that was a brilliant twist it ended up setting something of a tone for the show. Firstly, it started a big trend of treacherous women. Basically, if there's a woman on the show (and especially if she's involved with Jack Bauer) then she's almost certainly hiding something or is a full-on dirty terrorist.
Now that's okay, since a big part of 24 has always been the paranoia and not knowing who you can trust, but it does come across as a bit cynical at times.
The second tone it set was that any recurring character at some point will come under suspicion. Again, this goes along with the whole paranoia thing, but it does mean they set they end up doubling up on themselves a lot. Oh - he's a traitor now too. Is everyone a damn traitor?
It also created that expectation of recurring characters. In a way, 24 is better when it's dealing with new characters. It's one thing to find out that someone you've only just met is actually a traitor (or conversely turns out to be an undercover agent or something), it becomes cliché that everyone you knew and liked last season turns out to be a spy in this season.
The last tonal element that the Nina plotline set was a little more subtle. In season 1 it was pretty much the case that Jack was just doing what he did because he had too.
If he tortured some guy it was because he had to in order to get the Intel he needed (we'll leave the issue of torture being flawed and ineffective aside). However, because Nina was such a personal betrayal it created a vendetta.
Now if and when Jack pursued Nina and, indeed, got his hands on her, any nasty action he would take like torturing her or killing her was clearly now something eh wanted to do for personal reasons. It was about revenge and also hinted that he enjoyed torturing some people, in certain circumstances. He didn't just want to bring her to justice, he wanted to hurt her.
And that also strayed into the area of suggesting Jack might enjoy being a sadist. In other words, because his motives were muddied for Nina, they were generally muddied too.
But what about 24: Redemption?
Well, the basic idea is it's set in Africa. Jack is on the run from being called to justice in the US and nobody he encounters there is a recurring character.
Indeed, even in the stuff set in the States there's a sweep and clear tone to it - the old president is on the way out and a new one coming in. Plus there's a brand new bad guy.
It even looks like the bad guy in question is a proper, higher up bad guy. In previous seasons of 24 one of my frustrations is that Jack never really gets to grips with the proper bad guys. There's often a secret cabal of bad guys in the background who are pulling the strings, and Jack never even gets to know about them, let alone takes the fight to them.
The whole torture issue is somewhat addressed too. The character played by Robert Carlisle is a compatriot of Jack's and basically tortured to death someone who didn't actually know anything and therefore gave false info that resulted in a mission going pear-shaped.
This is good, but the problem in a sense is that although Jack has kind of tortured the wrong people on some occasions, it's never been that clear cut in the same way. It's almost saying Jack is 'better' than Carlisle's character, so it's okay for him to torture people.
They have ended up relying on physical torture a little too much for me in 24. I can see the problem - the show is set over 24 hours. That's not enough time to have him using proper interrogation techniques, which might take days. They also want to keep the show generally fast paced - dashing here and there, trying to capture/stop the terrorists rather than focusing on getting information out of people who have already been captured.
But it gets a little repetitive. I think they could do more in terms of psychological 'torture'. It's like there was one where killed a terrorist's family in front of him until he talked. I mean it was revealed they faked it, but still it's more interesting than just punching someone in the face or stabbing them or whatever.
Anyway, overall 24: Redemption is quite good. It's certainly nice to see some fresh places and people and I hope it continues into the 7th season.
The film in question was 24: Redemption.
It's intended as a bridge between seasons 6 and 7 of 24. I've obviously not seen season 7 yet, as it's only on satellite, but it comes out on DVD fairly soon.
Season 6 was a disappointing season, overall. Part of the problem 24 has is that it's built up a lot of baggage.
In the first season clearly everything and everyone was new. In the second season many of the characters returned; however one thing they did was to throw in some very neat twists involving those existing characters. The best and clearest of these involved a character called Nina who, in essence, turned out to be a bad guy where we all thought she was a good guy.
Now while that was a brilliant twist it ended up setting something of a tone for the show. Firstly, it started a big trend of treacherous women. Basically, if there's a woman on the show (and especially if she's involved with Jack Bauer) then she's almost certainly hiding something or is a full-on dirty terrorist.
Now that's okay, since a big part of 24 has always been the paranoia and not knowing who you can trust, but it does come across as a bit cynical at times.
The second tone it set was that any recurring character at some point will come under suspicion. Again, this goes along with the whole paranoia thing, but it does mean they set they end up doubling up on themselves a lot. Oh - he's a traitor now too. Is everyone a damn traitor?
It also created that expectation of recurring characters. In a way, 24 is better when it's dealing with new characters. It's one thing to find out that someone you've only just met is actually a traitor (or conversely turns out to be an undercover agent or something), it becomes cliché that everyone you knew and liked last season turns out to be a spy in this season.
The last tonal element that the Nina plotline set was a little more subtle. In season 1 it was pretty much the case that Jack was just doing what he did because he had too.
If he tortured some guy it was because he had to in order to get the Intel he needed (we'll leave the issue of torture being flawed and ineffective aside). However, because Nina was such a personal betrayal it created a vendetta.
Now if and when Jack pursued Nina and, indeed, got his hands on her, any nasty action he would take like torturing her or killing her was clearly now something eh wanted to do for personal reasons. It was about revenge and also hinted that he enjoyed torturing some people, in certain circumstances. He didn't just want to bring her to justice, he wanted to hurt her.
And that also strayed into the area of suggesting Jack might enjoy being a sadist. In other words, because his motives were muddied for Nina, they were generally muddied too.
But what about 24: Redemption?
Well, the basic idea is it's set in Africa. Jack is on the run from being called to justice in the US and nobody he encounters there is a recurring character.
Indeed, even in the stuff set in the States there's a sweep and clear tone to it - the old president is on the way out and a new one coming in. Plus there's a brand new bad guy.
It even looks like the bad guy in question is a proper, higher up bad guy. In previous seasons of 24 one of my frustrations is that Jack never really gets to grips with the proper bad guys. There's often a secret cabal of bad guys in the background who are pulling the strings, and Jack never even gets to know about them, let alone takes the fight to them.
The whole torture issue is somewhat addressed too. The character played by Robert Carlisle is a compatriot of Jack's and basically tortured to death someone who didn't actually know anything and therefore gave false info that resulted in a mission going pear-shaped.
This is good, but the problem in a sense is that although Jack has kind of tortured the wrong people on some occasions, it's never been that clear cut in the same way. It's almost saying Jack is 'better' than Carlisle's character, so it's okay for him to torture people.
They have ended up relying on physical torture a little too much for me in 24. I can see the problem - the show is set over 24 hours. That's not enough time to have him using proper interrogation techniques, which might take days. They also want to keep the show generally fast paced - dashing here and there, trying to capture/stop the terrorists rather than focusing on getting information out of people who have already been captured.
But it gets a little repetitive. I think they could do more in terms of psychological 'torture'. It's like there was one where killed a terrorist's family in front of him until he talked. I mean it was revealed they faked it, but still it's more interesting than just punching someone in the face or stabbing them or whatever.
Anyway, overall 24: Redemption is quite good. It's certainly nice to see some fresh places and people and I hope it continues into the 7th season.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
hitman
The weekend rental was hitman.
It's based on a popular game series, though I've never personally played any of the games - indeed I know very little about the games as it goes.
Unfortunately, it did nothing to go against the general rule that film adaptations of games are poor.
The reasons for this were rather many and varied.
Hitman - as the name implies - features a hitman as its central character. The hitman in question, we're told, is the product of a secret organisation that takes lost and missing children and turns them into hired killers.
There's a hint that the organisation in question is of some religious nature, but we don't really find out anything about it, and this is one of the problems. Not so much that they don't tell us anything about the organisation, but it's more to do with how it relates to our main character.
See, the problem is I didn't really care about him.
In a game, empathy with the main character is sort of irrelevant, because you play the main character. In a film we need stuff to relate too. Or, of course, the opposite - if we're not supposed to like them we need to know why.
Now they sort of try to do that using a montage sequence over the credits. But, to be frank, it's piss poor. It's stylistically done and what elements of brutality there are are kinda hidden or have less impact because of it.
So it's failing from the get-go - why care about this kid and the grown up version? I've not enough to go on.
But there are also more fundamental problems. Naturally, the film is about a particular assassination. However, it's a little confusing how and what is going on. It also seems riddled with plot-holes and co-incidences.
There's one bit where another hitman from the organisation shows up and seems to try to shoot our guy. But our guy seems totally un-phased by this and instead of immediately assuming some sort of double-cross or problem, like a normal person would, it's only later that he seems to cotton on, and then apparently only because he's directly told he's in trouble. (Told by someone we've never met before and find out nothing about, btw - maybe if you've played the games it's a little bonus thing, but for us normal people it's just totally random.)
But the weird thing is that the plot, even though it's a little confusing, is also very generic. It's difficult to explain - it's like initially the filmmakers assume you know what's going on because they're re-using other people's plot devices, so they don't really explain. Instead, stuff just happens, but because you've not be told you get a bit confused.
Then, the filmmakers think to themselves "hmm, what if they didn't get that?" so they add in some explanatory dialogue after the fact. You hear that dialogue and realise what's going on. But you also realise that you've seen it before.
I'm sure that makes no real sense, but I know what I mean.
Another aspect of well-worn-ness is in the action. It really feels like it slipped out of the 1980s. Now that's okay, but a hallmark of 1980s action films is the one-line quip. This quip clues you in that they know it's all a bit daft too.
But because our hitman is basically a silent slab of muscle there are virtually no quips, so it just comes across as tastelessly ultra-violent.
It's quite poor.
Oh, and while the idea of a hitman wandering about with a barcode tatood on his totally bald head might seem like a cool conceit in the game it comes across as just plain daft in the film. i mean, if you're a hitman you don't want to be standign out like a soar thumb, right? Well a baldy with a barcode does stand out like a soar thumb. So much so that you wonder why members of the public aren't pointing and staring.
Also, no extras at all.
It's based on a popular game series, though I've never personally played any of the games - indeed I know very little about the games as it goes.
Unfortunately, it did nothing to go against the general rule that film adaptations of games are poor.
The reasons for this were rather many and varied.
Hitman - as the name implies - features a hitman as its central character. The hitman in question, we're told, is the product of a secret organisation that takes lost and missing children and turns them into hired killers.
There's a hint that the organisation in question is of some religious nature, but we don't really find out anything about it, and this is one of the problems. Not so much that they don't tell us anything about the organisation, but it's more to do with how it relates to our main character.
See, the problem is I didn't really care about him.
In a game, empathy with the main character is sort of irrelevant, because you play the main character. In a film we need stuff to relate too. Or, of course, the opposite - if we're not supposed to like them we need to know why.
Now they sort of try to do that using a montage sequence over the credits. But, to be frank, it's piss poor. It's stylistically done and what elements of brutality there are are kinda hidden or have less impact because of it.
So it's failing from the get-go - why care about this kid and the grown up version? I've not enough to go on.
But there are also more fundamental problems. Naturally, the film is about a particular assassination. However, it's a little confusing how and what is going on. It also seems riddled with plot-holes and co-incidences.
There's one bit where another hitman from the organisation shows up and seems to try to shoot our guy. But our guy seems totally un-phased by this and instead of immediately assuming some sort of double-cross or problem, like a normal person would, it's only later that he seems to cotton on, and then apparently only because he's directly told he's in trouble. (Told by someone we've never met before and find out nothing about, btw - maybe if you've played the games it's a little bonus thing, but for us normal people it's just totally random.)
But the weird thing is that the plot, even though it's a little confusing, is also very generic. It's difficult to explain - it's like initially the filmmakers assume you know what's going on because they're re-using other people's plot devices, so they don't really explain. Instead, stuff just happens, but because you've not be told you get a bit confused.
Then, the filmmakers think to themselves "hmm, what if they didn't get that?" so they add in some explanatory dialogue after the fact. You hear that dialogue and realise what's going on. But you also realise that you've seen it before.
I'm sure that makes no real sense, but I know what I mean.
Another aspect of well-worn-ness is in the action. It really feels like it slipped out of the 1980s. Now that's okay, but a hallmark of 1980s action films is the one-line quip. This quip clues you in that they know it's all a bit daft too.
But because our hitman is basically a silent slab of muscle there are virtually no quips, so it just comes across as tastelessly ultra-violent.
It's quite poor.
Oh, and while the idea of a hitman wandering about with a barcode tatood on his totally bald head might seem like a cool conceit in the game it comes across as just plain daft in the film. i mean, if you're a hitman you don't want to be standign out like a soar thumb, right? Well a baldy with a barcode does stand out like a soar thumb. So much so that you wonder why members of the public aren't pointing and staring.
Also, no extras at all.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
shock horror
In what I can only really describe as a shocking move of horror (or a horribly shocking move I think it's meant to be) I actually watched some anime on DVD this weekend!
Freedom is basically I gigantic advert for pot noodle (Well, not actually pot noodle the company, but another brand with the same basic idea - freeze-dried noodles in sauce you add boiling water too. They're very popular in Japan and kinda represent the default "instant food".). I'm pretty sure it uses cell-shaded animation, which is a type of computer animation.
Initially, it's slightly freaky to watch if I'm honest. The same technique was used in the Appleseed movies, but there they made it more obviously CG style. Here it still looks very anime, but has that computer animation vibe to it too. It works best with action and fast moving stuff, which there's plenty of here.
Unfortunately, however, I couldn't watch it all. Freedom was actually produced in high-def, but released on the HD-DVD format. It was right around the time this was coming out that HD-DVD bit the dust, and unfortunately the final, 7th, episode was never released on HD-DVD (it's actually on a dual format - DVD & HD-DVD, which is how I can watch it). They are putting out a complete DVD version sometime later in the year, though.
Oh and I didn't say - it's pretty good. It certainly looks nice, with high production values, and the story is enjoyable enough, if a little far-fetched. You do kinda end up with a hankering for pot noodles, though, which can't be a good thing.
Welcome to the NHK okay, so here the shock and horror kinda falls down a bit, because - truth be told - I only watched 1 episode. I liked it, but it's not really much to go on is it, so I'll kinda have to get back to you on this.
But I've also been reading lots of manga!
Kurohime I'd never heard of this before a few weeks ago. It popped up as a recommended title on Amazon and what intrigued me to have a look was the artwork - it looked remarkably similar to stuff by Masamune Shirow. Having got the book it was quite interesting - the title character, Kurohime, is drawn in a way very reminiscent of Shirow, but the rest of the artwork doesn't resemble Shirow's stuff at all.
It also gets off to an odd start - the second volume is almost like a 'reboot' (I gather from the notes it changed from one publication to another, hence the restart) of the series. And to be frank the story is not hugely great. I mean it's okay, it's just a little repetitive if I'm honest, although this did improve with the later volumes. The art pretty much saves it, though, even if there is that occasionally weird moment of feeling like Shirow is drawing it.
Kurokami (Black God). Initially I decided I was going to re-read the first volume of this before going ahead and buying any more volumes. Unfortunately I was a little impetuous and also a little mistaken and, figuring there were only 5 or so volumes out I'd actually ordered them all already. Unfortunately I wish I'd done what I said as I'm not hugely impressed. It's a bit like oh my goddess meets bleach with some guff about doppelgangers thrown in as well. I think I may be dropping this an e-baying what I've already got.
Keroro Gunsou (Sergeant Frog) is interesting. I picked it up because I'm a fan of Mine Yoshizaki's artwork - his cute and sexy girls are great. The story is a bit all over the place, if I'm honest. I'm currently undecided whether to continue buying it or not. It's a gigantically long series - something like 17 volumes out already and it's still going strong. I may well purchase a couple more volumes and see what I think of them.
Also not sure if I mentioned but I decided to buy the other volumes of the Full Metal Alchemist. I quite liked the first volume, especially as it wasn't quite what I expected.
Freedom is basically I gigantic advert for pot noodle (Well, not actually pot noodle the company, but another brand with the same basic idea - freeze-dried noodles in sauce you add boiling water too. They're very popular in Japan and kinda represent the default "instant food".). I'm pretty sure it uses cell-shaded animation, which is a type of computer animation.
Initially, it's slightly freaky to watch if I'm honest. The same technique was used in the Appleseed movies, but there they made it more obviously CG style. Here it still looks very anime, but has that computer animation vibe to it too. It works best with action and fast moving stuff, which there's plenty of here.
Unfortunately, however, I couldn't watch it all. Freedom was actually produced in high-def, but released on the HD-DVD format. It was right around the time this was coming out that HD-DVD bit the dust, and unfortunately the final, 7th, episode was never released on HD-DVD (it's actually on a dual format - DVD & HD-DVD, which is how I can watch it). They are putting out a complete DVD version sometime later in the year, though.
Oh and I didn't say - it's pretty good. It certainly looks nice, with high production values, and the story is enjoyable enough, if a little far-fetched. You do kinda end up with a hankering for pot noodles, though, which can't be a good thing.
Welcome to the NHK okay, so here the shock and horror kinda falls down a bit, because - truth be told - I only watched 1 episode. I liked it, but it's not really much to go on is it, so I'll kinda have to get back to you on this.
But I've also been reading lots of manga!
Kurohime I'd never heard of this before a few weeks ago. It popped up as a recommended title on Amazon and what intrigued me to have a look was the artwork - it looked remarkably similar to stuff by Masamune Shirow. Having got the book it was quite interesting - the title character, Kurohime, is drawn in a way very reminiscent of Shirow, but the rest of the artwork doesn't resemble Shirow's stuff at all.
It also gets off to an odd start - the second volume is almost like a 'reboot' (I gather from the notes it changed from one publication to another, hence the restart) of the series. And to be frank the story is not hugely great. I mean it's okay, it's just a little repetitive if I'm honest, although this did improve with the later volumes. The art pretty much saves it, though, even if there is that occasionally weird moment of feeling like Shirow is drawing it.
Kurokami (Black God). Initially I decided I was going to re-read the first volume of this before going ahead and buying any more volumes. Unfortunately I was a little impetuous and also a little mistaken and, figuring there were only 5 or so volumes out I'd actually ordered them all already. Unfortunately I wish I'd done what I said as I'm not hugely impressed. It's a bit like oh my goddess meets bleach with some guff about doppelgangers thrown in as well. I think I may be dropping this an e-baying what I've already got.
Keroro Gunsou (Sergeant Frog) is interesting. I picked it up because I'm a fan of Mine Yoshizaki's artwork - his cute and sexy girls are great. The story is a bit all over the place, if I'm honest. I'm currently undecided whether to continue buying it or not. It's a gigantically long series - something like 17 volumes out already and it's still going strong. I may well purchase a couple more volumes and see what I think of them.
Also not sure if I mentioned but I decided to buy the other volumes of the Full Metal Alchemist. I quite liked the first volume, especially as it wasn't quite what I expected.
Monday, 11 May 2009
more colonization
Bit of a non-weekend, truth be told.
I mean, I wasn't sat around doing nothing, but the stuff I did do was not particularly note-worthy. I'd hoped to summon up some willpower and do a load of scanning, attacking my last pile of "permanently unscanned" magazines. But in the end I was a bit fatigued after the horrible weeks I've been enduring recently, so instead I played a good wodge of Colonization.
It's an interesting game. One of the things about Civilization is that it's very open ended. There are always numerous ways to play and win - not least of all in the various victory conditions, but also different style of gaming. You can be aggressive and conquer your neighbours or work with them. You can spend all you time building up all your cities or you can focus on specialising each city. Or you can build a spaceship and fly off to Alpha Centauri.
However, colonization is much more focused. It's like a mod for civ with a cut down set of victory conditions and restricted rule set. It's not bad for that, it's just it's more limited. For example, in order to win you have to declare independence and beat the king's army. So you have to always plan ahead for that - you can't win in a peaceful way.
It's also in some ways strangely easy, but in others strangely difficult. It's easy because the best way to approach the game is to get lots of money. To get lots of money you need to do lots of trading and to do lots of trading you needs lots of resources. To get them you need to sprawl your settlements like a motheherfucker and build loads of wagon trains. You then only need to focus on having a few "manufacturing centres" in order to turn raw materials into processed goods that sell for much better prices.
But while that plan is pretty easy in theory it becomes a pedants playground of settlement micro-management. It's like it's best to have 1 city that you focus on tool production so you can have it pumping out loads of tools every turn. But in order to build stuff in your other cities (to do the manufacturing, for example) they need tools. That means you have to ship around all these tools, which can be mind-boggling complex given how many settlements the above mentioned plan suggests you need.
The good thing, though, is that I like the whole micr-management pedantry thing - it's why I love Civ - so I'm right in my element.
I mean, I wasn't sat around doing nothing, but the stuff I did do was not particularly note-worthy. I'd hoped to summon up some willpower and do a load of scanning, attacking my last pile of "permanently unscanned" magazines. But in the end I was a bit fatigued after the horrible weeks I've been enduring recently, so instead I played a good wodge of Colonization.
It's an interesting game. One of the things about Civilization is that it's very open ended. There are always numerous ways to play and win - not least of all in the various victory conditions, but also different style of gaming. You can be aggressive and conquer your neighbours or work with them. You can spend all you time building up all your cities or you can focus on specialising each city. Or you can build a spaceship and fly off to Alpha Centauri.
However, colonization is much more focused. It's like a mod for civ with a cut down set of victory conditions and restricted rule set. It's not bad for that, it's just it's more limited. For example, in order to win you have to declare independence and beat the king's army. So you have to always plan ahead for that - you can't win in a peaceful way.
It's also in some ways strangely easy, but in others strangely difficult. It's easy because the best way to approach the game is to get lots of money. To get lots of money you need to do lots of trading and to do lots of trading you needs lots of resources. To get them you need to sprawl your settlements like a motheherfucker and build loads of wagon trains. You then only need to focus on having a few "manufacturing centres" in order to turn raw materials into processed goods that sell for much better prices.
But while that plan is pretty easy in theory it becomes a pedants playground of settlement micro-management. It's like it's best to have 1 city that you focus on tool production so you can have it pumping out loads of tools every turn. But in order to build stuff in your other cities (to do the manufacturing, for example) they need tools. That means you have to ship around all these tools, which can be mind-boggling complex given how many settlements the above mentioned plan suggests you need.
The good thing, though, is that I like the whole micr-management pedantry thing - it's why I love Civ - so I'm right in my element.
Friday, 8 May 2009
well now
I was in a really bad mood all day yesterday.
I'm guessing the root cause of this was the other day where I had a silly amount of work to do. But it was weird - initially when I got up in the morning I was in a really bright and chipper mood.
However, the journey to work was rubbish. I got stuck in a jam at the Shepherd & Flock roundabout. Now, one of the reasons I set off for work as early as I do is to avoid this roundabout's busiest period. But for some reason yesterday morning it was horrible - queueing like it always does at more normal rush-hour times. Contrast that with this morning, when I was slightly later getting there and yet drove straight through with literally only 1 car to wait behind.
Then, on the bit of the A31 that leads down from the traffic lights on the dual carriageway bit there was some woman whose car had packed up. It was just at a distance from the lights that everyone can get up to full speed (50 limit) so with people pulling into our lane to get around her (there's no hard shoulder) I had to slam on. There are a lot of trucks that use that bit in the morning, so I couldn't tell why we were slamming on until I was parallel with her car.
Then, when I was approaching the Alton roundabout some silly person in a red car was sat in my blind-spot not quite overtaking me, but not flashing to let me out either (I have to turn right at the roundabout into Alton). So I had to just pull out and pretty much cut her up.
As I'm then driving through the industrial estate the car is following me and it occurs to me - one of my work colleagues drives the same car. More thorough look in the mirror and yup, it's my work colleague who I'd cut up.
One of the things I like about being first in is the up-to half hour it gives me to settle in without anybody else there. Because of the bid needing to be in there were several other people in the office already. One of whom immediately asked me a question before I'd even gotten my cup of coffee.
Nobody should ever talk to me before I get my morning coffee.
And to cap it all off, when doing one of my morning jobs I grabbed the wrong thing and so had to run back upstairs to get the right thing, so I was really rather flustered.
So with all that crap I wasn't in a very bright mood. Though I'm also sure the reason I stayed in the bad mood was because I was so knackered.
I'm still not exactly recovered. I'm really looking to the weekend and having a good, hard sit down.
I'm guessing the root cause of this was the other day where I had a silly amount of work to do. But it was weird - initially when I got up in the morning I was in a really bright and chipper mood.
However, the journey to work was rubbish. I got stuck in a jam at the Shepherd & Flock roundabout. Now, one of the reasons I set off for work as early as I do is to avoid this roundabout's busiest period. But for some reason yesterday morning it was horrible - queueing like it always does at more normal rush-hour times. Contrast that with this morning, when I was slightly later getting there and yet drove straight through with literally only 1 car to wait behind.
Then, on the bit of the A31 that leads down from the traffic lights on the dual carriageway bit there was some woman whose car had packed up. It was just at a distance from the lights that everyone can get up to full speed (50 limit) so with people pulling into our lane to get around her (there's no hard shoulder) I had to slam on. There are a lot of trucks that use that bit in the morning, so I couldn't tell why we were slamming on until I was parallel with her car.
Then, when I was approaching the Alton roundabout some silly person in a red car was sat in my blind-spot not quite overtaking me, but not flashing to let me out either (I have to turn right at the roundabout into Alton). So I had to just pull out and pretty much cut her up.
As I'm then driving through the industrial estate the car is following me and it occurs to me - one of my work colleagues drives the same car. More thorough look in the mirror and yup, it's my work colleague who I'd cut up.
One of the things I like about being first in is the up-to half hour it gives me to settle in without anybody else there. Because of the bid needing to be in there were several other people in the office already. One of whom immediately asked me a question before I'd even gotten my cup of coffee.
Nobody should ever talk to me before I get my morning coffee.
And to cap it all off, when doing one of my morning jobs I grabbed the wrong thing and so had to run back upstairs to get the right thing, so I was really rather flustered.
So with all that crap I wasn't in a very bright mood. Though I'm also sure the reason I stayed in the bad mood was because I was so knackered.
I'm still not exactly recovered. I'm really looking to the weekend and having a good, hard sit down.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
too much to do
Yesterday I did something like an 10-hour day at work.
Now, this wasn't a usual format day, wither. Usually I take an hour for lunch - I only took 45 mins yesterday. Also, I'll typically spend a good chunk of the day procrastinating. These are the usual things everyone does in an office day - it's why everyone should work 4 day weeks, because nobody can do 5 solid days of proper work.
Anyway, yesterday was different. From 8am I was pretty much heads down (I had my earphones in - a sure-fire sign I'm trying to not be distracted) until about 6:15pm. That pretty much means I must have done 8 solid hours of work if you factor in lunch, getting coffee, taking a pee, and a little bit of time uploading the blog here, for example (it's just not possible to work solid without breaks - when I'm busy those are only 5 minute chunks, though, just to remind myself I've not gone insane).
When I went home last night I could actually feel my mental faculties almost running on empty.
Today I'm therefore a little worse for wear.
My brain feels a little fuzzy and I'm already feeling myself getting distracted by stuff.
Hopefully I won't be needed to keep working on the thing I was doing yesterday. Maybe just a little bt of it. I've other stuff I can do, plus I'm apparantly supposed to be having a teleconference meeting thing at some point.
I hate teleconferences - I have a thing about phones in that I find them unpleasent to use. I don't know why, but I've always had it. It's a little difficult to describe, though, so I won't bother here. Maybe another day.
Now, this wasn't a usual format day, wither. Usually I take an hour for lunch - I only took 45 mins yesterday. Also, I'll typically spend a good chunk of the day procrastinating. These are the usual things everyone does in an office day - it's why everyone should work 4 day weeks, because nobody can do 5 solid days of proper work.
Anyway, yesterday was different. From 8am I was pretty much heads down (I had my earphones in - a sure-fire sign I'm trying to not be distracted) until about 6:15pm. That pretty much means I must have done 8 solid hours of work if you factor in lunch, getting coffee, taking a pee, and a little bit of time uploading the blog here, for example (it's just not possible to work solid without breaks - when I'm busy those are only 5 minute chunks, though, just to remind myself I've not gone insane).
When I went home last night I could actually feel my mental faculties almost running on empty.
Today I'm therefore a little worse for wear.
My brain feels a little fuzzy and I'm already feeling myself getting distracted by stuff.
Hopefully I won't be needed to keep working on the thing I was doing yesterday. Maybe just a little bt of it. I've other stuff I can do, plus I'm apparantly supposed to be having a teleconference meeting thing at some point.
I hate teleconferences - I have a thing about phones in that I find them unpleasent to use. I don't know why, but I've always had it. It's a little difficult to describe, though, so I won't bother here. Maybe another day.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
futurama-thon
This week's rental DVD was... well, actually nothing.
Owing to how the rentals work, I occasionally have weekends where there is no DVD for me to watch. Which is not necessarily a bad thing as it lets me catch up on other stuff.
The odd thing this time, though, was the lining up with my 4 day weekend. This meant I ended up basically spending an entire day watching futurama. Or more specifically, the straight-to-DVD feature-length futurama DVDs.
Yes, all four of them (though admittedly I'm still sorta watching the last one during the evenings of this week). So I thought I'd do some mini-reviews:
Bender's Big Score
Yeah.
There's a particularly funny bit at the beginning of this film that addresses the cancellation of the show. After that things get... complicated. And dense.
A while back I reviewed the Simpson's movie. I'm not sure if I actually said it then, but one of the problems it seemed to have was trying to cram in all the series characters. A bit like spot-the-famous face.
The problem with this was it ended up being a case of shoe-horning every one in. And it was a mistake. I can see the temptation: give all the fans of comic-book guy his one minute in the limelight, to make them happy, for example.
The trouble is that it's not how story works. Sticking in gags, especially non-sequitor ones involving random characters, works in a half-hour TV show, but it doesn't work in a feature-length movie.
The reason? Well imagine someone telling you a story about something that happened to them. If the whole story lasts two minutes, you'll forgive them if they went off on a tangent for 30 seconds. If the story lasts half an hour, you'll be pissed off if ten of those minutes were off on tangents.
Or at least, it's a problem here because you know the tangent only really exists to get that character into the movie. It's not a random tangent, it's a planned tangent.
Also, the story, being time travel, gets quite complicated, so it didn't really need time being lost on random tangents.
The Beast with a Billion Backs
Interestingly, this actually follows on directly from the previous film.
Well, no, actually that's not true - it follows on, but it would seem six-months or so have elapsed since the first film. Certainly, Fry acquires a new girlfriend... even though in the last film he was jealous over Leela and also their relationship was sort of affirmed in a weird way.
Anyway, a few slight oddities like that aside, it's a much better episode. The gag-per-minute rate is much, much higher and, crucially, it doesn't try to do too much. The story is of a reasonably sensible complexity, so it gives a bit more room for gags.
Also, it does genuinely feel like a sensible single, feature length episode. The others end up feeling a bit like three regular episodes stuck together - like a 3 parter edited together.
Bender's Game
If I was ranking the four movie this one would come in third - Big Score is at the bottom for the problems I mentioned. This one is second from last for different reasons.
First off it feels the most like several individual episodes stuck together. Especially since half way through it flips into a kind of alternate reality.
But the biggest problem is the alternate reality itself. Futurama is generally in that sphere of affectionate parody. Normally it's focused on science fiction, but occasionally veers into fantasy - specifically Dungeons & Dragons.
Now I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy, especially of the D&D type with orks and dragons and stuff. I mean, it's okay at times and in small doses, but often I find it a bit limited and therefore sometimes dull.
So to me Futurama doing D&D should be crammed full of good gags - there's so much potential material it's almost silly. And yet there's very little in the way of gaggery.
I think the problem was that on the whole the writers like D&D (some of the special features indicate it was popular amongst some) so they didn't go for it like they should have. Instead, the D&D stuff is mainly all about plot. I mean even the stuff at the beginning with the kids playing actual D&D didn't have gags in it - no-one even called them nerds.
Into the Wild Green Yonder
Of the four movies this was probably the closest to feeling like a proper Futurama episode.
The non-sequitor gag was back in abundance and while there were environmental and feminist themes, it did the thing of making gags about both sides.
I'd have to say the end was a bit hockey, though. It felt too much like a "neat wrapping up" where it could have done with a little sting or gag in there to let you know it's still Futurama.
Overall the four movies have bucket load of extras. I'm not sure that watching them all in such an intense fashion like I did is such a good idea, though - a bit of fatigue sets in. I'd say watch them over a few days, rather than all in one day.
Owing to how the rentals work, I occasionally have weekends where there is no DVD for me to watch. Which is not necessarily a bad thing as it lets me catch up on other stuff.
The odd thing this time, though, was the lining up with my 4 day weekend. This meant I ended up basically spending an entire day watching futurama. Or more specifically, the straight-to-DVD feature-length futurama DVDs.
Yes, all four of them (though admittedly I'm still sorta watching the last one during the evenings of this week). So I thought I'd do some mini-reviews:
Bender's Big Score
Yeah.
There's a particularly funny bit at the beginning of this film that addresses the cancellation of the show. After that things get... complicated. And dense.
A while back I reviewed the Simpson's movie. I'm not sure if I actually said it then, but one of the problems it seemed to have was trying to cram in all the series characters. A bit like spot-the-famous face.
The problem with this was it ended up being a case of shoe-horning every one in. And it was a mistake. I can see the temptation: give all the fans of comic-book guy his one minute in the limelight, to make them happy, for example.
The trouble is that it's not how story works. Sticking in gags, especially non-sequitor ones involving random characters, works in a half-hour TV show, but it doesn't work in a feature-length movie.
The reason? Well imagine someone telling you a story about something that happened to them. If the whole story lasts two minutes, you'll forgive them if they went off on a tangent for 30 seconds. If the story lasts half an hour, you'll be pissed off if ten of those minutes were off on tangents.
Or at least, it's a problem here because you know the tangent only really exists to get that character into the movie. It's not a random tangent, it's a planned tangent.
Also, the story, being time travel, gets quite complicated, so it didn't really need time being lost on random tangents.
The Beast with a Billion Backs
Interestingly, this actually follows on directly from the previous film.
Well, no, actually that's not true - it follows on, but it would seem six-months or so have elapsed since the first film. Certainly, Fry acquires a new girlfriend... even though in the last film he was jealous over Leela and also their relationship was sort of affirmed in a weird way.
Anyway, a few slight oddities like that aside, it's a much better episode. The gag-per-minute rate is much, much higher and, crucially, it doesn't try to do too much. The story is of a reasonably sensible complexity, so it gives a bit more room for gags.
Also, it does genuinely feel like a sensible single, feature length episode. The others end up feeling a bit like three regular episodes stuck together - like a 3 parter edited together.
Bender's Game
If I was ranking the four movie this one would come in third - Big Score is at the bottom for the problems I mentioned. This one is second from last for different reasons.
First off it feels the most like several individual episodes stuck together. Especially since half way through it flips into a kind of alternate reality.
But the biggest problem is the alternate reality itself. Futurama is generally in that sphere of affectionate parody. Normally it's focused on science fiction, but occasionally veers into fantasy - specifically Dungeons & Dragons.
Now I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy, especially of the D&D type with orks and dragons and stuff. I mean, it's okay at times and in small doses, but often I find it a bit limited and therefore sometimes dull.
So to me Futurama doing D&D should be crammed full of good gags - there's so much potential material it's almost silly. And yet there's very little in the way of gaggery.
I think the problem was that on the whole the writers like D&D (some of the special features indicate it was popular amongst some) so they didn't go for it like they should have. Instead, the D&D stuff is mainly all about plot. I mean even the stuff at the beginning with the kids playing actual D&D didn't have gags in it - no-one even called them nerds.
Into the Wild Green Yonder
Of the four movies this was probably the closest to feeling like a proper Futurama episode.
The non-sequitor gag was back in abundance and while there were environmental and feminist themes, it did the thing of making gags about both sides.
I'd have to say the end was a bit hockey, though. It felt too much like a "neat wrapping up" where it could have done with a little sting or gag in there to let you know it's still Futurama.
Overall the four movies have bucket load of extras. I'm not sure that watching them all in such an intense fashion like I did is such a good idea, though - a bit of fatigue sets in. I'd say watch them over a few days, rather than all in one day.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
slightly older, but no wiser
Well now, long time no blog.
Or at least it seems that way - really it's only been 4 days, 2 of which were the weekend in which I don't normally blog anyway. But still, feels like a long time.
Or maybe not.
Maybe it's because I'm now officially one year older.
I'm feeling thoroughly rested this morning. It was good to have the time off. As usual, I'd made a gigantic "to do" list. And as usual I only got about half of it done.
My normal to do lists I have for the weekend are honed and perfected things. I've learnt over the years what I can achieve in the given time. But when a long weekend pops up I suddenly start adding in loads of extra stuff.
Now really I could have achieve it all, however, that's not the issue. The issue is that a long weekend is there to relax - watch a bit of telly or a DVD, maybe clean the car - those sorts of things. So by adding in to many chore-like activities I'm defeating the purpose of that and I tend to rebel against it.
Anyway, the point is I didn't do everything I wanted to do, but did achieve everything I had to do and also a few I didn't have to but were kinda nice to do.
Specifically on Sunday I finally sat down and watched the last bit of telly recorded on my PVR - Red Riding. Throughout all of Sunday evening and Monday day it was totally empty. It did acquire a few things last night, admittedly, but those are the usual culprits.
And generally on the whole telly has calmed down a lot - there's only about 9 things across the entire week I'll watch, which is down to a third what it was. Plus three of those end this week or next week.
I may finally return to trawling through anime DVDs!
Anyway, I watched Red Riding as I say. It was a three-part job, each of which was adapted from a different book in a series and each of which was two hours long, so not a small amount of screen time.
If I'm honest and I'd watched part 1 at the time it was broadcast I'm not sure I would have watched the other two parts. It was kinda rubbish.
The filming style was very... stylistic, shall we say? I'm not sure there was a room that hadn't been filled with smoke from a dry ice machine in the entire thing. I get why - grim up north, gloomy, but it was a bit over the top.
Also, the narrative was confusing. Partly this was due to the style, but partly it was because we didn't really spend any time getting to know the main character. We were just dumped in at a certain point and left to figure things out. Now in some ways this is good writing, but in others it's confusing because we've also got to figure out the murders as well, and it's difficult to do both.
Certainly in the other two parts the main characters are introduced more normally - we get to see a little of their lives before they become wrapped up in the main mystery.
And that's one of the reasons the other two parts were much better. The other reason was that the mystery is more clearly framed in the other two parts.
In the first, the character is bumbling around not really knowing what he's doing. But then equally he's portrayed as being this go-getter reporter. And also as a womanising shag-monster.
Now I know complex characters are good, but as I say - this is a mystery crime drama thing, so if we're focusing on working out this complex character, then what happens to that part? It gets short shrift.
But as I say, the other two parts are much better.
Although there are some holes left. I think this is probably a reflection of the fact that it's adapting a series of books - I'd guess it would need to have been 12 hours long to get it all in, so it's inevitable that some bits get left out or fudged.
My last real criticism is that the timeline jumps around a lot. Now this isn't fundamentally a problem except it's jumping around by only a few years. So normally where you'd use things like fashion or hairstyle to clue you in as to when something is, those things aren't really changing all that much so it's difficult to tell.
For example, someone can get into their car in 1983 and then in the next scene they're getting out of their car in 1980. You can see how that might be confusing.
But overall it pretty much does what it says on the tin - horrible murders and appalling police corruption & incompetence.
Or at least it seems that way - really it's only been 4 days, 2 of which were the weekend in which I don't normally blog anyway. But still, feels like a long time.
Or maybe not.
Maybe it's because I'm now officially one year older.
I'm feeling thoroughly rested this morning. It was good to have the time off. As usual, I'd made a gigantic "to do" list. And as usual I only got about half of it done.
My normal to do lists I have for the weekend are honed and perfected things. I've learnt over the years what I can achieve in the given time. But when a long weekend pops up I suddenly start adding in loads of extra stuff.
Now really I could have achieve it all, however, that's not the issue. The issue is that a long weekend is there to relax - watch a bit of telly or a DVD, maybe clean the car - those sorts of things. So by adding in to many chore-like activities I'm defeating the purpose of that and I tend to rebel against it.
Anyway, the point is I didn't do everything I wanted to do, but did achieve everything I had to do and also a few I didn't have to but were kinda nice to do.
Specifically on Sunday I finally sat down and watched the last bit of telly recorded on my PVR - Red Riding. Throughout all of Sunday evening and Monday day it was totally empty. It did acquire a few things last night, admittedly, but those are the usual culprits.
And generally on the whole telly has calmed down a lot - there's only about 9 things across the entire week I'll watch, which is down to a third what it was. Plus three of those end this week or next week.
I may finally return to trawling through anime DVDs!
Anyway, I watched Red Riding as I say. It was a three-part job, each of which was adapted from a different book in a series and each of which was two hours long, so not a small amount of screen time.
If I'm honest and I'd watched part 1 at the time it was broadcast I'm not sure I would have watched the other two parts. It was kinda rubbish.
The filming style was very... stylistic, shall we say? I'm not sure there was a room that hadn't been filled with smoke from a dry ice machine in the entire thing. I get why - grim up north, gloomy, but it was a bit over the top.
Also, the narrative was confusing. Partly this was due to the style, but partly it was because we didn't really spend any time getting to know the main character. We were just dumped in at a certain point and left to figure things out. Now in some ways this is good writing, but in others it's confusing because we've also got to figure out the murders as well, and it's difficult to do both.
Certainly in the other two parts the main characters are introduced more normally - we get to see a little of their lives before they become wrapped up in the main mystery.
And that's one of the reasons the other two parts were much better. The other reason was that the mystery is more clearly framed in the other two parts.
In the first, the character is bumbling around not really knowing what he's doing. But then equally he's portrayed as being this go-getter reporter. And also as a womanising shag-monster.
Now I know complex characters are good, but as I say - this is a mystery crime drama thing, so if we're focusing on working out this complex character, then what happens to that part? It gets short shrift.
But as I say, the other two parts are much better.
Although there are some holes left. I think this is probably a reflection of the fact that it's adapting a series of books - I'd guess it would need to have been 12 hours long to get it all in, so it's inevitable that some bits get left out or fudged.
My last real criticism is that the timeline jumps around a lot. Now this isn't fundamentally a problem except it's jumping around by only a few years. So normally where you'd use things like fashion or hairstyle to clue you in as to when something is, those things aren't really changing all that much so it's difficult to tell.
For example, someone can get into their car in 1983 and then in the next scene they're getting out of their car in 1980. You can see how that might be confusing.
But overall it pretty much does what it says on the tin - horrible murders and appalling police corruption & incompetence.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
it's my birthday
Well, actually tomorrow it's my birthday, but I'll be taking a much needed day off, so I'm posting here basically just to say that.
Yeah, that's about it really: a day off tomorrow and a bank holiday on Monday, so I'll see you on the flip-side.
Yeah, that's about it really: a day off tomorrow and a bank holiday on Monday, so I'll see you on the flip-side.
beowulf
The next rentalage was beowulf.
It was okay.
According to the time counter it was the best part of two hours long, and it didn't really feel like that, and that's always a good sign. I think this was mainly a reflection of the story, which was quite interesting.
I've heard of Beowulf before as a kind of ancient heroic epic. From what I understood (and I can't even be arsed to go and google) it's written big-arse poem style and is Nordic in origin.
Which is why I found it odd that some of the characters were speaking with Welsh accents. Strangely it was only some of them though - as if they'd that it was a good idea and then half way through decided not to keep it up.
I've no idea how close the film was to original story then, but I guess my point is that it wasn't delivered in verse and it didn't seem to have a Nordic bone in its body. But for all that it was entertaining enough.
However, the main thing of note about Beowulf is that it was CG animation. Yes, yes, loads of stuff is CG animation, but this is CG animation of the type attempting to be as realistic as it can be. It's not toys or monsters (well, there are monsters, but not of the cute, simplified style) it's actual humans represented with proper proportions and realistic movement.
Well, that's its aspiration anyway. Unfortunately it kinda fell a long way short.
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't unwatachably bad - but it was a long way short of the point where you'd think "these are real people".
As a player of video games, to me, it resembled an extended cut-scene. A very high-end cut-scene where they've spent a big chunk of the budget, but a cut-scene nonetheless.
The problem really is that it's still incredibly difficult to capture the tiny subtleties of human movement and keep the process practical. Well, and affordable - it works way better if you're talking about short special effects sequences in a traditional film. An entire movie done like that has to take some shortcuts or it'll cost, like, five times as much as any other film ever.
To me it actually looked like they were using motion capture (with the white balls and people in green suits).
One of the weird things about motion capture is that most of the time it looks like what it is - a slightly simplified version of actually people moving about. However, occasionally, it'll capture some subtlety that cons you into thinking it's real. And that's its downside - these hits emphasise the more prevalent fails.
In a way it's where traditional animation excels. There's something about the way introducing a human brain into the process that captures the nuisances. Even though, ironically, they'll often actually be exaggerations.
Anyway, the point is Beowulf both shows how far this sort of animation has come, but also shows there's still a long way to go.
It was okay.
According to the time counter it was the best part of two hours long, and it didn't really feel like that, and that's always a good sign. I think this was mainly a reflection of the story, which was quite interesting.
I've heard of Beowulf before as a kind of ancient heroic epic. From what I understood (and I can't even be arsed to go and google) it's written big-arse poem style and is Nordic in origin.
Which is why I found it odd that some of the characters were speaking with Welsh accents. Strangely it was only some of them though - as if they'd that it was a good idea and then half way through decided not to keep it up.
I've no idea how close the film was to original story then, but I guess my point is that it wasn't delivered in verse and it didn't seem to have a Nordic bone in its body. But for all that it was entertaining enough.
However, the main thing of note about Beowulf is that it was CG animation. Yes, yes, loads of stuff is CG animation, but this is CG animation of the type attempting to be as realistic as it can be. It's not toys or monsters (well, there are monsters, but not of the cute, simplified style) it's actual humans represented with proper proportions and realistic movement.
Well, that's its aspiration anyway. Unfortunately it kinda fell a long way short.
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't unwatachably bad - but it was a long way short of the point where you'd think "these are real people".
As a player of video games, to me, it resembled an extended cut-scene. A very high-end cut-scene where they've spent a big chunk of the budget, but a cut-scene nonetheless.
The problem really is that it's still incredibly difficult to capture the tiny subtleties of human movement and keep the process practical. Well, and affordable - it works way better if you're talking about short special effects sequences in a traditional film. An entire movie done like that has to take some shortcuts or it'll cost, like, five times as much as any other film ever.
To me it actually looked like they were using motion capture (with the white balls and people in green suits).
One of the weird things about motion capture is that most of the time it looks like what it is - a slightly simplified version of actually people moving about. However, occasionally, it'll capture some subtlety that cons you into thinking it's real. And that's its downside - these hits emphasise the more prevalent fails.
In a way it's where traditional animation excels. There's something about the way introducing a human brain into the process that captures the nuisances. Even though, ironically, they'll often actually be exaggerations.
Anyway, the point is Beowulf both shows how far this sort of animation has come, but also shows there's still a long way to go.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Productivity
So, the aforementioned productivity that I, er, mentioned... before.
Er, what?
Oh, yes - productive weekend.
I had a lot to do (chores mainly), and while I still felt a bit tired after the preceding week, I pushed through on Saturday and got it done in an efficient fashion.
One of the things I was pleased I kept on top of was the telly. There was both a MotoGP and a F1 GP to watch, as well as all the usual telly stuff I record and I managed to watch all of it.
I've still only got Red Riding waiting on my PVR and we now seem to be getting into the proper summer schedules. That means there will be far less on that I'll be interested in, which is a good thing.
I also did all the scanning I needed to and watched some fansubs while I worked:
Valkyria Chronicles, my first real show of the new season, was quite good - surprisingly so, actually.
I understand it's based on a game so I wasn't hoping for much and to be fair the plot is a bit on the tried and tested side (if not a bit played out). However, it does have some interesting characters, and they're what really count.
I mean, again, you've probably seen them before, but they're not done badly and are quite likeable. The main guy is especially interesting with a kind of blunt way of looking at things, but disarmingly charming with it.
Charady no Joke na Mainichi was bloody awful.
Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, but if something is called "daily joke" and then basically isn't actually all that funny, it's kinda failing from the get-go, isn't it?
Add into that the use of cheap CG animation and you've got something that's distinctly not my cup of tea.
And speaking of poor CG animation, Macross Fufonfia is right on up there with it. I've not got a link for it, btw, as I'm not sure it really counts as anime.
What they've basically done is take the Macross Frontier girls and put them in office jobs, but chuck in a few jokes relevant to the Macross world too.
It was pretty tedious.
Examurai Sengoku was quite good.
I never know what genre this sort of show falls into, but I tend to call it "hard-boiled samurai" in that it features lots of tough-guy samurais. In fact, I think mostly they're yakuza. At times they border on stereotypes, though I don't think it's being played for laughs (well, I didn't find it funny).
It was enjoyable enough if you didn't think too hard about it and took it just for entertainment value.
Kemono no Souja Erin was quite good. I'm pretty sure it's aimed at kids and has some rather obvious "message" bits, but they aren't too bad - certainly not up to the cringe worthy standards of kids cartoons in my youth.
The setting is also quite nice and there's an interesting conflict in the set up, in that the peaceful and pleasant village the main girl lives in trains fearsome beasts that are then used to fight wars. These wars being nasty, but also presumably why the village itself is so peaceful and pleasant.
One annoying thing I did discover is that GONZO's arrangement with Bost is now defunct. This means that having paid for Strike Witches I now can't watch it there.
I also discovered that the streaming of it on Crunchyroll is coming to an end - you can only get it by paying.
Perhaps I was being dumb, but I'd always assumed that one of the advantages of these download/streaming series is that the shows wouldn't expire in such a fashion. I'm not sure I'm as keen if it's entirely geared to people watching the shows week-on-week.
Er, what?
Oh, yes - productive weekend.
I had a lot to do (chores mainly), and while I still felt a bit tired after the preceding week, I pushed through on Saturday and got it done in an efficient fashion.
One of the things I was pleased I kept on top of was the telly. There was both a MotoGP and a F1 GP to watch, as well as all the usual telly stuff I record and I managed to watch all of it.
I've still only got Red Riding waiting on my PVR and we now seem to be getting into the proper summer schedules. That means there will be far less on that I'll be interested in, which is a good thing.
I also did all the scanning I needed to and watched some fansubs while I worked:
Valkyria Chronicles, my first real show of the new season, was quite good - surprisingly so, actually.
I understand it's based on a game so I wasn't hoping for much and to be fair the plot is a bit on the tried and tested side (if not a bit played out). However, it does have some interesting characters, and they're what really count.
I mean, again, you've probably seen them before, but they're not done badly and are quite likeable. The main guy is especially interesting with a kind of blunt way of looking at things, but disarmingly charming with it.
Charady no Joke na Mainichi was bloody awful.
Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, but if something is called "daily joke" and then basically isn't actually all that funny, it's kinda failing from the get-go, isn't it?
Add into that the use of cheap CG animation and you've got something that's distinctly not my cup of tea.
And speaking of poor CG animation, Macross Fufonfia is right on up there with it. I've not got a link for it, btw, as I'm not sure it really counts as anime.
What they've basically done is take the Macross Frontier girls and put them in office jobs, but chuck in a few jokes relevant to the Macross world too.
It was pretty tedious.
Examurai Sengoku was quite good.
I never know what genre this sort of show falls into, but I tend to call it "hard-boiled samurai" in that it features lots of tough-guy samurais. In fact, I think mostly they're yakuza. At times they border on stereotypes, though I don't think it's being played for laughs (well, I didn't find it funny).
It was enjoyable enough if you didn't think too hard about it and took it just for entertainment value.
Kemono no Souja Erin was quite good. I'm pretty sure it's aimed at kids and has some rather obvious "message" bits, but they aren't too bad - certainly not up to the cringe worthy standards of kids cartoons in my youth.
The setting is also quite nice and there's an interesting conflict in the set up, in that the peaceful and pleasant village the main girl lives in trains fearsome beasts that are then used to fight wars. These wars being nasty, but also presumably why the village itself is so peaceful and pleasant.
One annoying thing I did discover is that GONZO's arrangement with Bost is now defunct. This means that having paid for Strike Witches I now can't watch it there.
I also discovered that the streaming of it on Crunchyroll is coming to an end - you can only get it by paying.
Perhaps I was being dumb, but I'd always assumed that one of the advantages of these download/streaming series is that the shows wouldn't expire in such a fashion. I'm not sure I'm as keen if it's entirely geared to people watching the shows week-on-week.
Monday, 27 April 2009
colonization
I had a very productive weekend.
I'll probably blather on about it a bit more tomorrow, but today I just wanted to mention I actually played a game! After months of buying them but never actually playing them, I sat down on Sunday afternoon and had a mini-session.
The game in question was Civ4: Colonization, which is a stand-alone expansion, if that makes any sense. It allows you to take on the roll of a colonist heading to the new world (the Americas) and setting up a new country.
What they've done is use the Civ4 engine, which is very pretty, to update a very old spin-off game. I never played the original, but so far I'm enjoying this version of it.
Although I do have to admit it's a little daunting to start with - unlike most Civ games there's no tech tree. That means you can access all units and improvements from the get-go, which is interesting, but it means there's a veritably bewildering list of options and stuff to get your head around.
It's a real vertical learning curve to start with, although after a while it becomes apparent that having mastered those basics, that's all there is to it - there's no new technology/resource going to come along and change everything.
So far, from my little toe-dip I've enjoyed it. Certainly more than I did the proper Civ4 game, which was shiny and pretty but seemed like "Civ-lite" to me.
But we'll see how I go. And whether I'll have any spare time to really play it!
I'll probably blather on about it a bit more tomorrow, but today I just wanted to mention I actually played a game! After months of buying them but never actually playing them, I sat down on Sunday afternoon and had a mini-session.
The game in question was Civ4: Colonization, which is a stand-alone expansion, if that makes any sense. It allows you to take on the roll of a colonist heading to the new world (the Americas) and setting up a new country.
What they've done is use the Civ4 engine, which is very pretty, to update a very old spin-off game. I never played the original, but so far I'm enjoying this version of it.
Although I do have to admit it's a little daunting to start with - unlike most Civ games there's no tech tree. That means you can access all units and improvements from the get-go, which is interesting, but it means there's a veritably bewildering list of options and stuff to get your head around.
It's a real vertical learning curve to start with, although after a while it becomes apparent that having mastered those basics, that's all there is to it - there's no new technology/resource going to come along and change everything.
So far, from my little toe-dip I've enjoyed it. Certainly more than I did the proper Civ4 game, which was shiny and pretty but seemed like "Civ-lite" to me.
But we'll see how I go. And whether I'll have any spare time to really play it!
Friday, 24 April 2009
Nope
No more energy today I'm afraid. In fact, quite the opposite - I'm proper bloody knackered. Dunno why, I had a pretty good night's sleep. I think I'm just generally worn out.
Let's see, what can I talk about?
I guess I've read a bit more manga.
I finished up to volume 10 of Claymore. Really enjoyed that - volumes 11 on are pending from amazon.
I've also read the first volume of Doujin Work. It's a bit of "hmm" one. I guess part of it is that it isn't quite what I was expecting. The Doujin Work anime was one of the first I discovered after I switched to blanket coverage of fansubs.
Before that I just used to check out stuff I thought I'd be interested in, but discovered I was missing a few hidden gems, so I adopted blanket coverage. Anyway, Doujin work was one of the first that I really had no inkling I would like, but then really did. It was a "shorts" type of anime with eps about 10 minutes long and followed a girl (and her oddball friends) as she tries to become a Doujin artist.
The manga is sort of the same. It's one of those 4-panel gag mangas, which means story flow becomes a bit difficult. Also, it seems to head off in some really diverse tangents. In a way it's actually more like Genshiken and explores otaku culture, where the anime is more squarely about girl makes doujins.
Which isn't to say I don't like the manga, just it wasn't what I expected.
Weirdly, I've been kinda having the same experience with the other two manga I've been reading.
First off is Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei. Another one I'd probably not have known about if not for the blanket coverage and another I really enjoyed. And also another where the manga isn't quite what I expected.
Mainly, unfortunately, because the manga isn't as good as the anime. It's a bit weird in a way - they're very similar, it's just... I dunno, it's difficult to explain. The anime version just works better - the gags are clearer, better developed somehow. It's almost like the anime gags work because of the delivery and you loose that in the manga - you don't know where to pause. Plus the panels are often jam packed with extraneous 'stuff' so you're busy reading/looking at them and you forget what the joke was supposed to be.
It's also very rooted in Japanese culture. Now the anime was too, obviously, but I dunno, it didn't matter so much in the anime for some reason.
I'm really struggling to say why, but essentially I much preferred the anime version, even though they're actually very similar. Odd.
It's a similar story for Yozakura Quartet. I'd never have checked it out if not for the blanket coverage, liked it a lot and am not so keen on the manga. However, here I know why much more clearly.
The anime is quite different to the manga. I mean, the core story is still the same and the characters and their personalities are still the same. What's different, to be frank, is the quality of the storytelling.
The manga is all over the place - it's like the artist really doesn't know what he's doing, veering from one thing to another with only the vaguest hint of an overall plan. Something I read suggests it focuses better in the later volumes, but the introduction of focus to the anime is what really makes it better.
A good example of this is in a story to do with a character, Hime, adopting a stray dog. In the manga it's only one chapter and is kinda half-hearted. It's quite a harsh story and it's like the author stepped back a bit from making it harsh. In the anime the same story is much more sizeably told (not sure, but I think it's two episodes) and also it doesn't shy away from the harshness - it nearly made me cry.
Still, the artwork's nice.
And I managed to do something half resembling a blog entry!
Let's see, what can I talk about?
I guess I've read a bit more manga.
I finished up to volume 10 of Claymore. Really enjoyed that - volumes 11 on are pending from amazon.
I've also read the first volume of Doujin Work. It's a bit of "hmm" one. I guess part of it is that it isn't quite what I was expecting. The Doujin Work anime was one of the first I discovered after I switched to blanket coverage of fansubs.
Before that I just used to check out stuff I thought I'd be interested in, but discovered I was missing a few hidden gems, so I adopted blanket coverage. Anyway, Doujin work was one of the first that I really had no inkling I would like, but then really did. It was a "shorts" type of anime with eps about 10 minutes long and followed a girl (and her oddball friends) as she tries to become a Doujin artist.
The manga is sort of the same. It's one of those 4-panel gag mangas, which means story flow becomes a bit difficult. Also, it seems to head off in some really diverse tangents. In a way it's actually more like Genshiken and explores otaku culture, where the anime is more squarely about girl makes doujins.
Which isn't to say I don't like the manga, just it wasn't what I expected.
Weirdly, I've been kinda having the same experience with the other two manga I've been reading.
First off is Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei. Another one I'd probably not have known about if not for the blanket coverage and another I really enjoyed. And also another where the manga isn't quite what I expected.
Mainly, unfortunately, because the manga isn't as good as the anime. It's a bit weird in a way - they're very similar, it's just... I dunno, it's difficult to explain. The anime version just works better - the gags are clearer, better developed somehow. It's almost like the anime gags work because of the delivery and you loose that in the manga - you don't know where to pause. Plus the panels are often jam packed with extraneous 'stuff' so you're busy reading/looking at them and you forget what the joke was supposed to be.
It's also very rooted in Japanese culture. Now the anime was too, obviously, but I dunno, it didn't matter so much in the anime for some reason.
I'm really struggling to say why, but essentially I much preferred the anime version, even though they're actually very similar. Odd.
It's a similar story for Yozakura Quartet. I'd never have checked it out if not for the blanket coverage, liked it a lot and am not so keen on the manga. However, here I know why much more clearly.
The anime is quite different to the manga. I mean, the core story is still the same and the characters and their personalities are still the same. What's different, to be frank, is the quality of the storytelling.
The manga is all over the place - it's like the artist really doesn't know what he's doing, veering from one thing to another with only the vaguest hint of an overall plan. Something I read suggests it focuses better in the later volumes, but the introduction of focus to the anime is what really makes it better.
A good example of this is in a story to do with a character, Hime, adopting a stray dog. In the manga it's only one chapter and is kinda half-hearted. It's quite a harsh story and it's like the author stepped back a bit from making it harsh. In the anime the same story is much more sizeably told (not sure, but I think it's two episodes) and also it doesn't shy away from the harshness - it nearly made me cry.
Still, the artwork's nice.
And I managed to do something half resembling a blog entry!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Strugglering
I've been struggling a bit with the old blog entries this week.
It's been a bit of a task to find any time to sit and do them for one thing - we're monumentally busy at work. Plus I've had some hectic weekends just recently and it's sucked the energy out of me a bit. It's like I've gotten on top of the telly stuff so I should really either have been watching anime DVDs or scanning the new anime mags, but I just can't be arsed.
I've only had the energy to read manga. And I can't be arsed to do mini-reviews of them either.
Maybe I'll have more energy tomorrow.
It's been a bit of a task to find any time to sit and do them for one thing - we're monumentally busy at work. Plus I've had some hectic weekends just recently and it's sucked the energy out of me a bit. It's like I've gotten on top of the telly stuff so I should really either have been watching anime DVDs or scanning the new anime mags, but I just can't be arsed.
I've only had the energy to read manga. And I can't be arsed to do mini-reviews of them either.
Maybe I'll have more energy tomorrow.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
run, fat boy, run
This weekends DVD rentalage was Run, Fat Boy, Run.
It stars Simon Pegg, who was of course the creator of Spaced, the greatest sitcom ever.
He's pretty good in the film. The character he plays is a bit of an odd one, though. At the beginning he leaves his bride-to-be at the altar while she's pregnant.
Now here we have the films first and biggest real problem. Jilting your pregnant wife at the altar makes a humongous shit. A ginormous steaming turd of a man. Reasons are given and on some level they're understandable reasons, but they're not good reasons - that's the problem.
The reason boils down, essentially, to cowardice. Pegg's character needs to grow a pair - and that's the essence of the movie. He redeems himself by becoming a man, essentially. Except, as I say, the thing he did is so utterly appalling this isn't really satisfying.
I think if he'd been in a much worse position, or perhaps if people had acknowledged how big a shit he was a bit more then it would have compensated to some degree.
Anyway, when we pick up with him again he's become an over-weight security guard and his ex-fiancée is in a new relationship with a smarmy American twat. This spurs Pegg's character to enter a marathon - American twat being a marathon runner.
To some extent some of these things start to fall apart when examined to closely - how did ex-fiancée and American twat meet, for example? And how come their relationship is so advanced, yet Pegg hasn't met him before?
Especially since he keeps turning up to see his son. This story element is a mixed blessing - Pegg & son's relationship is screen gold, but it opens up more questions about why and how she let him see her. If Pegg is such a ginormous cowardly shit of a man, how did he have the stones to approach her?
Pegg and ex-fiancée's relationship also seems strangely cordial, given what a gigantic shit he was to her. And what about her family? Or his family?
Anyway, these things could be forgiveable - it's a romantic comedy, so the key elements are romance, which is pretty much there, and comedy, which is kinda there, some of the time.
I mean, there are a lot of good gags in the film, don't get me wrong, it's just they're unevenly paced. You can go twenty minutes without a single chuckle and then there's ten minutes of good belly laughs. And I don't think this is just me not getting the gags - there just aren't any.
Plus some of the gags are pretty much incidental - random funny stuff, that is unrelated to plot or anything else. If they were cut you wouldn't notice them going.
Still, it's an enjoyable enough watch, if you don't dwell too much on the plot holes.
No extras, though.
It stars Simon Pegg, who was of course the creator of Spaced, the greatest sitcom ever.
He's pretty good in the film. The character he plays is a bit of an odd one, though. At the beginning he leaves his bride-to-be at the altar while she's pregnant.
Now here we have the films first and biggest real problem. Jilting your pregnant wife at the altar makes a humongous shit. A ginormous steaming turd of a man. Reasons are given and on some level they're understandable reasons, but they're not good reasons - that's the problem.
The reason boils down, essentially, to cowardice. Pegg's character needs to grow a pair - and that's the essence of the movie. He redeems himself by becoming a man, essentially. Except, as I say, the thing he did is so utterly appalling this isn't really satisfying.
I think if he'd been in a much worse position, or perhaps if people had acknowledged how big a shit he was a bit more then it would have compensated to some degree.
Anyway, when we pick up with him again he's become an over-weight security guard and his ex-fiancée is in a new relationship with a smarmy American twat. This spurs Pegg's character to enter a marathon - American twat being a marathon runner.
To some extent some of these things start to fall apart when examined to closely - how did ex-fiancée and American twat meet, for example? And how come their relationship is so advanced, yet Pegg hasn't met him before?
Especially since he keeps turning up to see his son. This story element is a mixed blessing - Pegg & son's relationship is screen gold, but it opens up more questions about why and how she let him see her. If Pegg is such a ginormous cowardly shit of a man, how did he have the stones to approach her?
Pegg and ex-fiancée's relationship also seems strangely cordial, given what a gigantic shit he was to her. And what about her family? Or his family?
Anyway, these things could be forgiveable - it's a romantic comedy, so the key elements are romance, which is pretty much there, and comedy, which is kinda there, some of the time.
I mean, there are a lot of good gags in the film, don't get me wrong, it's just they're unevenly paced. You can go twenty minutes without a single chuckle and then there's ten minutes of good belly laughs. And I don't think this is just me not getting the gags - there just aren't any.
Plus some of the gags are pretty much incidental - random funny stuff, that is unrelated to plot or anything else. If they were cut you wouldn't notice them going.
Still, it's an enjoyable enough watch, if you don't dwell too much on the plot holes.
No extras, though.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
turned out nice again
Well the weather's taken something of a turn for the nice just recently.
There's been the occasional day of rain of course - it is April after all - but for the last couple of days it's been veritably summer-ish.
This is good news for me for a change. I'm not the biggest fan of summer and hot weather, being of the morbidly obese body-type, but the last few years seem to have brought a string of miserable summers followed by perishing winters. A bit of sun (even if it just reminds me of why I'm not keen on it!) will not go amiss, I think.
One interesting surprise on this front as well. The shining of the sun usually seems to bring out the ants that have been infesting my house. However, just recently I've virtually not seen them at all.
Now I've obviously got every finger and toe I possess crossed in saying that. The presence of irony in the world would tend to suggest that upon my return home I will be swamped in a surfeit of the little buggers.
However, in theory there's a reason for their disappearance. I recently bought a device that claims to act to repel insects, firstly by emitting a super-sonic squeal that insects find unpleasant, but also by making your mains wires produce an EM-filed that repels them.
Now when I first plugged this in it didn't seem to have much of an effect - the ants kept coming. However, a couple of days ago I tried changing the setting (as I say - it didn't seem to be working, so there seemed nothing to loose) and since then, almost ant free.
Here's hoping that when I return home tonight this is still the case!
I'm still blasting through Claymore. It's a really good manga and it's so easy to read.
There's been the occasional day of rain of course - it is April after all - but for the last couple of days it's been veritably summer-ish.
This is good news for me for a change. I'm not the biggest fan of summer and hot weather, being of the morbidly obese body-type, but the last few years seem to have brought a string of miserable summers followed by perishing winters. A bit of sun (even if it just reminds me of why I'm not keen on it!) will not go amiss, I think.
One interesting surprise on this front as well. The shining of the sun usually seems to bring out the ants that have been infesting my house. However, just recently I've virtually not seen them at all.
Now I've obviously got every finger and toe I possess crossed in saying that. The presence of irony in the world would tend to suggest that upon my return home I will be swamped in a surfeit of the little buggers.
However, in theory there's a reason for their disappearance. I recently bought a device that claims to act to repel insects, firstly by emitting a super-sonic squeal that insects find unpleasant, but also by making your mains wires produce an EM-filed that repels them.
Now when I first plugged this in it didn't seem to have much of an effect - the ants kept coming. However, a couple of days ago I tried changing the setting (as I say - it didn't seem to be working, so there seemed nothing to loose) and since then, almost ant free.
Here's hoping that when I return home tonight this is still the case!
I'm still blasting through Claymore. It's a really good manga and it's so easy to read.
Monday, 20 April 2009
big food
This last Saturday a good friend of mine was having a mini birthday celebration.
She's not been very well for a while now, but seems to have been doing better recently. Anyway, she seemed in relatively good spirits at least and it was a good day. I hope she didn't tire herself out, though.
It was also a long day for me - I set off about 9:30am and got back about 9:30pm - and a very filling day. She'd made a lovely lunch, but the portions were a little on the large size, even for me. The cake actually defeated me - tasty though it was, I was just too full to finish.
Anyway, Sunday I just crashed out. I was knackered anyway because of all the work we've got on at the moment and Saturday just finished me off and I watched telly all day. About the only thing I achieved was doing the ironing, which is pretty much a necessity or I don't have anything to wear at work.
Still, it meant that I cleared huge swathes of the PVR madness. All I had left was that Red Riding drama I mentioned a while back. If things go to plan, I should be able to start watching DVDs again soon, which is good as I've been a bit silly and bought loads more.
She's not been very well for a while now, but seems to have been doing better recently. Anyway, she seemed in relatively good spirits at least and it was a good day. I hope she didn't tire herself out, though.
It was also a long day for me - I set off about 9:30am and got back about 9:30pm - and a very filling day. She'd made a lovely lunch, but the portions were a little on the large size, even for me. The cake actually defeated me - tasty though it was, I was just too full to finish.
Anyway, Sunday I just crashed out. I was knackered anyway because of all the work we've got on at the moment and Saturday just finished me off and I watched telly all day. About the only thing I achieved was doing the ironing, which is pretty much a necessity or I don't have anything to wear at work.
Still, it meant that I cleared huge swathes of the PVR madness. All I had left was that Red Riding drama I mentioned a while back. If things go to plan, I should be able to start watching DVDs again soon, which is good as I've been a bit silly and bought loads more.
Friday, 17 April 2009
manga-la
I've been ploughing through some manga recently - mainly over the Easter weekend because I took several volumes with me to read.
I read the latest volume of Ichigo 100% (or Strawberry 100% if you prefer), number 8. Ichicgo 100% is a pretty generic manga. I've actually done a review of it at trismugistus.com . My summary of it there is pretty much how I still feel about it. The main protagonist's inability to decide which girl to pursue is very annoying, but then if it wasn't for that it wouldn't be jam-packed with fan-service either, I guess.
I read the first volume of Black God (or Kurokami). I have to say I'm distinctly un-impressed - it's so generic as to be boring. Girl with Super powers. Big fights. Really annoying, arrogant, un-likeable protagonist. He's fawned on by his childhood friend, who's totally hot. Super-powered girl is 'bound' to him.
Also, people talk a hell of lot for an action manga and while the artwork is nice enough, it's nothing special. Bizarrely, the bonus chapter is actually way better than the main story.
I'm considering just dropping it - I could sell the 1st volume on e-bay and be done with it. I mean it's still an ongoing series, so if I was to collect it it could last for years, which I really don't fancy.
I'll give it another read and decide from there, I think.
Another new manga that I did start and like a lot is Claymore. I can't honestly say I'm that familiar with Berserk, but I'm reliably informed they're similar. Certainly the roughly-medieval setting is very similar and it's all about swordplay and monsters.
Claymore is very brutal - people are chopped up without a second thought and the blood really flies. But the clever thing about it is that it's really an exploration of the character of the Claymore's themselves. They're women who have undergone a sort of surgery to become half-human half-monster and they then hunt the real monsters. What Claymore explores then is the humanity (or otherwise) of these girls and how they're treated by real humans and the monsters.
The artwork is a little odd - some strange proportions and strange figure deformations, but it does seem to improve in later volumes where I've flicked through. It's also very fast-paced and so easy to read - there are big chunks of pages with no dialogue at all. That's not a criticism, by the way. Blame is one of the best manga ever and features entire volumes with next-to no talking.
I'm definitely going to be keeping up with Claymore.
What else have I read?
There was the latest volume of Battle Angel Alita: Last Orders.
The artist, Yukito Kishiro, is one of the best manga artists ever. The action sequences in Alita (and it's an action manga) are so perfectly realised, every page is like a master-class. Sometimes the story goes a bit wonky - he has a tendency to dive off on a tangent that can last several volumes.
These are generally of good quality, but it makes things confusing when you come back to the main story. You have to refresh yourself with what's gone on. Also, because of the big gap between this and the original, it can be confusing remembering who they're referring to sometimes.
It's always an entertaining read though - especially given that Kishiro drops in a lot of very black humour.
I've also relatively recently read the latest volumes of Rosario+Vampire (they seem to be pumping the volumes out for this in very short order), Princess Resurrection, Ikkitousen and Black Lagoon. I've not much to really say about them that I haven't said before either here or in trismugistus.com reviews.
The last thing of note is therefore that I've started Full Metal Alchemist. I've got to say, so far it's not what I was expecting.
So that you're aware, I've never seen any of the anime. I know it's extremely popular, but I've just never really got around to it - I believe it's one of those shows with 50-odd episodes, and that never really helps for me.
However, what I have seen are a lot of scans and wallpapers for the series and they predominantly depict it as being quite serious. Now that could obviously be a false impression since I've never watched it, but the point is the manga isn't like that at all.
So far, the manga is more like a gag-manga than a serious action manga or thriller. It's odd - I mean it's not bad, just not what I was expecting.
I read the latest volume of Ichigo 100% (or Strawberry 100% if you prefer), number 8. Ichicgo 100% is a pretty generic manga. I've actually done a review of it at trismugistus.com . My summary of it there is pretty much how I still feel about it. The main protagonist's inability to decide which girl to pursue is very annoying, but then if it wasn't for that it wouldn't be jam-packed with fan-service either, I guess.
I read the first volume of Black God (or Kurokami). I have to say I'm distinctly un-impressed - it's so generic as to be boring. Girl with Super powers. Big fights. Really annoying, arrogant, un-likeable protagonist. He's fawned on by his childhood friend, who's totally hot. Super-powered girl is 'bound' to him.
Also, people talk a hell of lot for an action manga and while the artwork is nice enough, it's nothing special. Bizarrely, the bonus chapter is actually way better than the main story.
I'm considering just dropping it - I could sell the 1st volume on e-bay and be done with it. I mean it's still an ongoing series, so if I was to collect it it could last for years, which I really don't fancy.
I'll give it another read and decide from there, I think.
Another new manga that I did start and like a lot is Claymore. I can't honestly say I'm that familiar with Berserk, but I'm reliably informed they're similar. Certainly the roughly-medieval setting is very similar and it's all about swordplay and monsters.
Claymore is very brutal - people are chopped up without a second thought and the blood really flies. But the clever thing about it is that it's really an exploration of the character of the Claymore's themselves. They're women who have undergone a sort of surgery to become half-human half-monster and they then hunt the real monsters. What Claymore explores then is the humanity (or otherwise) of these girls and how they're treated by real humans and the monsters.
The artwork is a little odd - some strange proportions and strange figure deformations, but it does seem to improve in later volumes where I've flicked through. It's also very fast-paced and so easy to read - there are big chunks of pages with no dialogue at all. That's not a criticism, by the way. Blame is one of the best manga ever and features entire volumes with next-to no talking.
I'm definitely going to be keeping up with Claymore.
What else have I read?
There was the latest volume of Battle Angel Alita: Last Orders.
The artist, Yukito Kishiro, is one of the best manga artists ever. The action sequences in Alita (and it's an action manga) are so perfectly realised, every page is like a master-class. Sometimes the story goes a bit wonky - he has a tendency to dive off on a tangent that can last several volumes.
These are generally of good quality, but it makes things confusing when you come back to the main story. You have to refresh yourself with what's gone on. Also, because of the big gap between this and the original, it can be confusing remembering who they're referring to sometimes.
It's always an entertaining read though - especially given that Kishiro drops in a lot of very black humour.
I've also relatively recently read the latest volumes of Rosario+Vampire (they seem to be pumping the volumes out for this in very short order), Princess Resurrection, Ikkitousen and Black Lagoon. I've not much to really say about them that I haven't said before either here or in trismugistus.com reviews.
The last thing of note is therefore that I've started Full Metal Alchemist. I've got to say, so far it's not what I was expecting.
So that you're aware, I've never seen any of the anime. I know it's extremely popular, but I've just never really got around to it - I believe it's one of those shows with 50-odd episodes, and that never really helps for me.
However, what I have seen are a lot of scans and wallpapers for the series and they predominantly depict it as being quite serious. Now that could obviously be a false impression since I've never watched it, but the point is the manga isn't like that at all.
So far, the manga is more like a gag-manga than a serious action manga or thriller. It's odd - I mean it's not bad, just not what I was expecting.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
the bourne ultimatium
Owing to the hugely busy Easter weekend I didn't really get a chance to watch my next rental DVD over the weekend. So instead I've been watching it in the evenings this week.
The DVD itself was the Bourne Ultimatum, which is the third of the Bourne films. It also pretty much represents the end of the trilogy. They've managed to make the films into a proper trilogy - there's a good through-plot to them all.
Although that's also one of the problems of the third film. It's very reliant on you having seen the first two films. I mean, they've tried to make it generally accessible, but I really don't think you'd get this third film if you hadn't seen the others.
That's especially problematic here where they've set this film between the last two scenes of the second film. It's therefore very much a part of the second film.
It also has a bit of problem in that in each film they've tried to give them a proper end. This means that each time Bourne beats the bad guys, in the next film you get an odd moment of "well, no actually, there's these baddies who were, like, the bosses of the last film's baddies... or something... bear with us."
It gets a little old that this keeps happening. Also it comes across as a bit odd that these bad guys keeping trying to get Bourne, despite always failing. You'd think they'd try a different tack.
The third film also pretty much lacks any sort of love interest. This makes sense given the timing of the film and what happened in the last two, but it also means it looses that element. I mean, there is a girl in it and there's a suggestion Bourne has a past with her, but he doesn't remember and it's not rekindled.
There are also a few logical flaws. At one point Bourne is knocked unconscious, and rather than the baddy kill him, he heads off after someone else. There's also a section with a reporter and it seems bizarre that the CIA or anybody initially doesn't seem to know who he is and allows him to write the stuff he does, but then decides to kill him when Bourne tries to contact him.
But where it does well is in the action scenes. The Bourne films excel at visceral, physical action. There's a reliance on practical effects, rather than digital effects and clearly a misty-eyed nostalgia for the action thrillers of the seventies. And it really works.
One thing I'm getting sick of though is the whole hand-held camera thing. It's really jerky in thsi film and it makes me a little nauseous. I mean, it's okay as a thing, but they seem to have gone a bit over-the-top here and it's very distracting.
There are loads of extras. They're of a varying quality and most revolve around staging the stunts and fights and stuff.
Overall it was enjoyable when it was going full-on action, but the story seemed a little like retreading old ground.
Also, he totally failed to give anyone an ultimatum :/.
The DVD itself was the Bourne Ultimatum, which is the third of the Bourne films. It also pretty much represents the end of the trilogy. They've managed to make the films into a proper trilogy - there's a good through-plot to them all.
Although that's also one of the problems of the third film. It's very reliant on you having seen the first two films. I mean, they've tried to make it generally accessible, but I really don't think you'd get this third film if you hadn't seen the others.
That's especially problematic here where they've set this film between the last two scenes of the second film. It's therefore very much a part of the second film.
It also has a bit of problem in that in each film they've tried to give them a proper end. This means that each time Bourne beats the bad guys, in the next film you get an odd moment of "well, no actually, there's these baddies who were, like, the bosses of the last film's baddies... or something... bear with us."
It gets a little old that this keeps happening. Also it comes across as a bit odd that these bad guys keeping trying to get Bourne, despite always failing. You'd think they'd try a different tack.
The third film also pretty much lacks any sort of love interest. This makes sense given the timing of the film and what happened in the last two, but it also means it looses that element. I mean, there is a girl in it and there's a suggestion Bourne has a past with her, but he doesn't remember and it's not rekindled.
There are also a few logical flaws. At one point Bourne is knocked unconscious, and rather than the baddy kill him, he heads off after someone else. There's also a section with a reporter and it seems bizarre that the CIA or anybody initially doesn't seem to know who he is and allows him to write the stuff he does, but then decides to kill him when Bourne tries to contact him.
But where it does well is in the action scenes. The Bourne films excel at visceral, physical action. There's a reliance on practical effects, rather than digital effects and clearly a misty-eyed nostalgia for the action thrillers of the seventies. And it really works.
One thing I'm getting sick of though is the whole hand-held camera thing. It's really jerky in thsi film and it makes me a little nauseous. I mean, it's okay as a thing, but they seem to have gone a bit over-the-top here and it's very distracting.
There are loads of extras. They're of a varying quality and most revolve around staging the stunts and fights and stuff.
Overall it was enjoyable when it was going full-on action, but the story seemed a little like retreading old ground.
Also, he totally failed to give anyone an ultimatum :/.
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