Category Archives: Film/Television/Broadcast/Radio

Metroid: The Sky Calls

Fan films, as I have discovered before, can capture what makes these honored franchises so special. Metroid: The Sky Calls is a short film by Rainfall Films. The film portrays Samus in way that kind of heals the wounds left by Other M. Rainfall also does a great job of keeping space mysterious, with more focus on the locale than the action.

Check out this awesome fan film before Nintendo takes it down.
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How Nintendo Could Make A MOBA

Gaming trends come and go. Hell, when Doom appeared, developers frantically emulated that iconic first person style. For many years, FPS games were referred to as Doom Clones. When a game truly perfects a style and is wildly successful, developers will inevitably put their own spin on it or sometimes shamefully try to make a quick buck.

Nintendo seems to ignore these trends in the industry. In fact, it’s just now getting into the mobile-gaming scene, years after Apple and Google created an environment, which generates tons of revenue. What’s sad is that there are many Nintendo franchises that can easily be used in interesting ways. I’m not saying it should just copy everything that becomes popular, but there are whole genres being developed that could use that Nintendo touch, just for the sake of the genre.

Nintendo has so many creative licenses that a MOBA just makes sense.

This is why Nintendo needs to make a MOBA.

Before I go any further, let me first say that I am in no way a MOBA fanatic. In fact, the only MOBA I regularly play is Smite and its a prime example of what can be done with the style. That being said, I have immense respect for what MOBA games have done for that style of game, the heightened awareness of competitive gaming that comes with its popularity.

Without MOBAs like League and DOTA 2, this wouldn't be possible.
Without MOBAs like League and DOTA 2, this wouldn’t be possible.

While trying to come up with the general concept for a Nintendo MOBA, I spent hours thinking of how it could be done without it being too much like Super Smash Bros. Using that sort of model, a MOBA by the Big N would simply be an extra mode for Smash, something that wouldn’t really take advantage of the mechanics of the genre, a rushed multiplayer mode on a clearly single player experience if it were.

That's right Bioshock 2! I'm looking at you.
That’s right Bioshock 2! I’m looking at you.

Then, a revelation occurred while playing my DS. What other Nintendo franchise has a vast history, tons of characters, and a strategy-centered gameplay? Fire Emblem.

Fire Emblem has a vast history and cast that can be pulled from to make a truly awesome MOBA experience.
Fire Emblem has a vast history and cast that can be pulled from to make a truly awesome MOBA experience.

Think of it this way. How simple would it be to replace all the characters in Smite or League with characters from Fire Emblem? Even that simple act alone would still be an interesting way to play. Add in some locales from various games and let the money roll in. However, something that simple wouldn’t take advantage of the concept, even though it would inevitably be profitable.

The legendary Kung Fu nuns in Ladakh At the Drukpa nunnery of Ladakh, every morning witnesses a completely new avatar of the nuns- in kung cialis cost fu attire. For the purchase cialis here, all of the persons are not eligible for purchasing the medicine. You’ll have a voice in who runs the company, its mission, its profits, its tadalafil uk price global possibilities. You can also look out for Kamagra tablets and Kamagra Oral Jelly.1) buy viagra online Kamagra Tablets: Consume Kamagra 100mg and maintain a brief 30 minutes gap between the consumption and activity as a gap helps in providing men with hard erection which is stiffer and extra hard than usual so that a good climax can be achieved without any trouble or worries. Considering that Nintendo focuses almost entirely on console gaming with their own dedicated hardware, this Fire Emblem re-imagining could be the birth of a MOBA unique to consoles. Sure, Smite is available on Xbox, but it did start on PC.

This Fire Emblem title could also make interesting use of the Wii U gamepad or the dual screens of the 3DS. Not only could maps be presented, but players could also ping locations, and mark out strategies; pretty much anything that could be done with a PC is possible. This would also give Nintendo a chance to add more voice chat support to its games.

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One of the defining features of Fire Emblem is that characters can upgrade their class. This could be done mid-game, allowing players to choose to upgrade after reaching level ten. Players could also hold back on upgrading for the extra stats as well, just like in the source material. This could create many interesting decisions from players and develop unique abilities for characters. Add in characters that can choose between a few classes will make things even better.

As another interesting spin, most MOBA games are played in real time, while every Fire Emblem title is turn based. Thus a MOBA could be created in a turn-based system, fitting more with the style of the source material, while experimenting with the genre. This could also be played against friends similarly to the Civilization series that enables players to play a single game over several days, if not longer. That sort of play could also be ported over to smart phones with little difficulty.

A Fire Emblem MOBA could also give players a chance to create their own champions, due to the classes of the games each having unique looks and skills. Players could choose a class, edit a model, and gank lanes as their own characters. Most characters would be the iconic characters throughout the series and could have powers unique to their stories or design, retaining the general idea of their respective class.

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Even though I can see this sort of project being immensely amazing for fans of Nintendo, MOBA games, and the Fire Emblem franchise, I don’t see this sort of thing happening for a while. Nintendo really doesn’t like to take risks with its franchises. Although, sometimes those titles such as Metroid Prime or Wind Waker, prove to be some of the most interesting. In fact, maybe Retro Studios need to head this project. Seriously guys, this could be a great chance to get Nintendo into MOBA games or even the PC market. Call me if you need a project leader.

Or fans should start making this a reality. Of course Nintendo would cancel it, but hey, it’d be fun for a while.

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Until I can have Lyn take out monsters in the jungle, I can be found putting some serious hours into Shadow Dragon on the DS.

Hasta la Vista, Franchise!

A poster for the film, which opened July 1, 2015.

“Old, but not obsolete.” That was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest catchphrase in Terminator: Genisys. If only the same could be said about this franchise, which couldn’t be saved by the combined forces of the T-800 (Schwarzenegger), the Doctor (Matthew Smith) and the queen of dragons (Emilia Clarke).

After the defeat of Skynet, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor (Clarke) from a Terminator intent on killing her before she gives birth to resistance leader John Connor. However, when he arrives in 1984, he discovers the timelines have been drastically altered and nothing is as it once was.

Normally, I would post a spoiler warning at this point in my reviews, but in this case I don’t care. I haven’t been this disappointed and angry at a movie I saw in a theatre since G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. James Cameron’s first two Terminator films are classics, both of them ranking among my favorite movies. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a retread of T2 and runs counter to its theme of beating fate. Terminator: Salvation at least tries to be different by focusing on the war with the machines in the future, showing plot points that had only been hinted at before.

Genisys, on the other hand, is a muddled mess. A better title would’ve been Terminator 5: Wibbley-Wobbley-Timey-Wimey. Heck, Steven Moffat, the (in)famous showrunner for the BBC’s Doctor Who known for intricate time-travel plots, would watch this and say, “What the bleep is going on?!” It would take an entire chalkboard to diagram this script.

The original Terminator is sent back to 1984, but another T-800 that was sent back to 1973 from an alternate timeline interrupts its efforts to find clothes, theoretically (a word this T-800 is overly fond of) creating said alternate timeline, except that timeline is negated when Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese travel to 2017 to halt Judgment Day (which was somehow postponed again) after battling John Connor (Jason Clarke), who had been transformed into a nanomachine Terminator and sent back in time by Skynet to ensure its creation in an alternate timeline from a future that no longer existed.

Did any of that run-on sentence make sense? I wrote it and still can’t decipher it. This plot has more holes in it than a wall after a machine-gun fight. It gave me a headache the more I thought about it while watching. I was so busy trying to unravel these tangled threads or hoping they’d fix it by the end, I hardly noticed the few genuinely entertaining moments in the movie.

This isn’t the first time a “soft reboot” like this has been done. J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek did it first in 2009, followed by the video game Mortal Kombat in 2011 and last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. All of them did involve time-travel. There were two big differences, though: 1) the time-travel was simpler and made more sense, and 2) they respected the continuities that came before them. Each of them told time-travel stories that wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the other entries in their respective series. For example, had the previous X-Men films not happened, there wouldn’t have been a terrible future both Magneto and Prof. X wanted to prevent by sending Wolverine back in time. Also, in these cases, some characters did remember what happened in the old timelines, so those stories weren’t invalidated.

In Genisys, though, it utilizes nostalgia to increase its appeal only to slap those stories and their fans in the face. The audience sees Skynet fall and both the original Terminator and Kyle Reese be sent back in time—only to have Skynet in a robot body “assimilate” John Connor. Then through recycling old footage and/or painstaking frame-by-frame reconstructions, the first T-800’s arrival in 1984 is seen as it was in The Terminator, only to be interrupted by an older Schwarzenegger. Then a T-1000 inexplicably shows up and attacks Kyle Reese, who’s then saved by a Sarah Connor who’s skipped ahead to T2 mode. It was an exercise in instant gratification.
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Artwork by White_Wolf_Redgrave. Courtesy of Deviant Art.

(Ironically, Skynet’s avatar is played by Matt Smith. Yes, the 11th Doctor is responsible for all these screwy time-travel shenanigans. I’m not surprised. The irony doesn’t excuse the poor storytelling, though).

The worst part was—as the movie’s spoiler-ific second trailer showed—turning John Connor into a Terminator. It wasn’t enough to simply have a machine masquerade as him. No, the hero who’d been a focal point of the entire franchise was turned into Skynet’s pawn. It rivals Frank Miller’s deplorable treatment of Superman in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, where he’s become a willing servant of Lex Luthor. It’s beyond stupid.

Salvation was intended to be the first of a new trilogy, which I’m guessing would’ve been focused on the war with the machines, showing John Connor’s rise to power, and ultimately culminate with what was the first 10-15 minutes of this film. Everything would’ve come full circle. Unfortunately, the studio that made Salvation, the Halcyon Company, went under, leaving the franchise in limbo. So, after that was all sorted out, they gave us this.

There’s a scene where Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese remark on how people seem glued to their mobile devices—smartphones, PDAs, etc.—that are all about to be connected through a network called Genisys (which is actually Skynet). It was meant to be a commentary on modern man’s dependence on technology. I think this tangled mess of a “reboot” was made just for that scene. The stupid thing is this has always been one of the franchise’s themes. It’s a timeless idea. If the filmmakers wanted to “modernize” it a bit for the kids, they should’ve just done a straight reboot. Even that isn’t necessary. Despite advances in technology, the older Terminator films—especially the first two—still remain relevant.

Apparently, there are plans for two sequels to this film already. Now I wish someone could send a Terminator back in time to prevent Genisys from being made.

Final Grade: D

Enjoy the article? Watch my video review–wherein the T-800 tries to keep me from watching the movie!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTurkNMHfw]

Catching Characters In the Everyday – Review of Figure Fantasy: The Pop Culture Photography of Daniel Picard

Figure Fantasy CoverI jumped at the opportunity to review Figure Fantasy: The Pop Culture Photography of Daniel Picard; the idea of seeing some of my favorite comic and movie characters in everyday, realistic situations is intriguing and funny.  Using 12-inch figures from Sideshow Collectibles, Picard creates these well-detailed, meticulous scenes that take playtime to a whole new level.

I’d always wanted to see the Joker face off with G.I. Joe or the new Star Wars characters interacting with the old Star Wars figures. Photography for me is a way to express my own stories as a fan. – Daniel Picard

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The book is a bit smaller than I expected, in terms of length, width and height. At 9.5” x 8.5” and 120 pages, it is a coffee table book that can be easily carried in a midsize purse, backpack or briefcase. Initially, I flipped through it quickly and the first picture that caught my attention straddled pages 12 and 13: The Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer walking their dogs; images such as these fill the book.

The Gentlemen walking their dogsWhat is most enjoyable about the volume is discovering the intricate details in the images. Though they are actual photographs taken in different locations (many of which are described on the photos), Picard often includes elements that provide additional realism to the characters inhabiting the world he created. One of the introductory images, for example, shows Batman kicking down a door in what looks to be an old rundown apartment building; littering the floors and walls are The Riddler’s trademark green question marks.

Batman kicking in door to The Riddler

The real message seems to be that it’s important to play and have fun with these toys. This book reclaims that notion in a most wonderful way. – Simon Pegg

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And after years of making snow angels with my Snowtrooper doll as a kid, one look at the stunning, hysterical photographs in this comedic (and artistic) collection is like a time machine back to a simpler age. – Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith wrote the afterword. Like Pegg, he also felt this book captured the notion of play. He emphasizes that his dolls  lived in the world that Picard created and he could revisit those mash-ups in the pages of Picard’s work.

Palpatine and Darth Vader on a canoePicard is upfront about his relationship with Sideshow Collectibles, and though you could think of this as an advertisement for the companies product, I didn’t feel bad when I wanted to look them up and see what other collectibles of interest they had in stock. In all, this book presents a creative mixing of of some familiar characters’ universes and back stage peeks into their lives, some less familiar. The book is an enjoyable first read and would also stand up to subsequent reviews. It should have a spot on the coffee table for anyone into collectibles or video games, comic books and other pop culture characters.

You can purchase Fantasy Figure for $29.99 (hardcover) at Insight Editions.

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Top Fan Films (So Far)

Through my life, I’ve learned one universal fact. . .

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Cosplayers often dedicated a lot of time and money to become closer to their favorite characters. Image from Santana Cosplay

Geeks are the most passionate people on the planet.

This passion often leads us to wield our various talents to try and become closer to the works we so enjoy. This has led to many creations: from terrible fan fiction that becomes a movie to amazing film projects highlighting technical skills and upcoming actors.

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Yep, this concept was once a labor of love for Twilight. However, this becoming a top-selling book gives me hope as a writer.

Today’s list will be of the latter.

Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope

The talented folks of Robot Underdog bring much shame to Hollywood’s attempt to bring the high flying action this legendary anime is known for. Light of Hope is an adaptation of the animated film The History of Trunks, one of the most emotional moments in DBZ‘s history. With this as its inspiration, Light of Hope has a lot to work with as far as scenarios and character development.

Even though there is only a pilot episode available, Robot Underdog delivered one of the most accurate live action visions of the Dragon Ball Universe. Every punch is highlighted. Energy ripples from the fighters. Malice drips from the Androids like hot oil. All of this is used as the paint that wets the canvas, displaying what DBZ fans have been wanting for a long time.

My only complaint is waiting for the series’ completion. Keep rockin’ the dragon, Robot Underdog!

Spawn: The Recall

Some of the most amazing art in comic books comes from Todd McFarlane, whose main man is none other than Al Simmons aka Spawn. While the Avengers were fighting a giant purple dude with bling, Spawn was dethroning Satan, destroying the world and recreating it in his own image. While Spawn has been kicking ass in comics, his live action experiences have been lack luster.

Michael Paris and his team sought to redeem the red-caped knight and did just that in their short film, The Recall. Spawn’s tales have always been oozing with darkness, which is why this project’s direction of being more of a horror film makes sense. There’s all sorts of disturbing imagery and suspense that leads up to some of the best effects I’ve seen in a movie period, let alone an indie project. I’d share more, but its just so good that after the eight minutes are over, you’ll be crawling to the feet of Malebolgia, begging for more.

Croft

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It’s this image of Lara that Can Cinema latched onto, creating a gripping short story of a hostage situation. What’s interesting in this piece is the desperation Lara shows, just as she did in the newest game. Each kill is done effectively for the huntress, but every time there’s a bit of regret in her eyes. The film is filled with action, but these tender moments with the character is what makes it worth while. Even fans of the original character will enjoy a few notable scenes, as a lot of inspiration was pulled from the Tomb Raider’s early years.

Welcome to Hoxford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stnRvFzGWY8

IDW Publishing has been putting out comics such as Transformers and Ninja Turtles for several years. Yet, there is one mini series that they released that stands out, Welcome to Hoxford. The story centers on Ray Delgado, a murderous, insane man, believing himself to be Chronos, lord of the Titans. He is sentenced to death for all of his crimes and transferred to Hoxford. Unfortunately, the prison is being run by a group of werewolves that enjoy hunting down their inmates. Ray faces these monsters head on, knowing that he is destined to destroy them.

Like the comic series, the fan film highlights the dark nature of the story in its visual style. Reflections are bright, stark contrasts to the encompassing darkness of Hoxford. Coupling this with absolutely brutal action scenes, the film seems to have been done professionally on the same level as 300 or Sin City.

Personally, this fan project has sparked a deep interest in the comics. Hopefully this team will get a chance to expand Ray’s story into a full length film.

Joker Rising

D.C. Comics has inspired a flood of fan films. Whether it’s the overall need to put these characters onto the silver screen in ways closer to the comics or the general ease at which these scenes can be recreated, I’m not sure. Either way, there have been loads of amazing projects featuring characters from the D.C. Universe.

Joker Rising tells the origin story of the Clown Prince while paying homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. The fan film was shot in just over a week and has a vibe similar to Blow. What’s amazing is the deliverance of the character, building on each scene that leads to a climax that is chilling, but also puts the Joker in a sympathetic light. In fact, this portrayal rivals Ledger’s in my opinion.

https://youtu.be/VoGAv23-FL0

Smoking Alien will also be creating a sequel series called The City with Two Faces and a pilot episode is on the way. Keep a sharp eye on their Youtube page for more information, as well as other projects they have produced.

Over the course of researching for this list, I’ve discovered not only these amazing projects, but a multitude of worthy films. The D.C. Universe is a playground for these indie developers, for I stumbled upon an excellent Harlequinn story and a Nightwing Mini Series.

Fan films give producers, directors, writers, and actors a chance to make their mark in an industry that’s nigh impossible to get started in. Yet, even if they don’t have absurd budgets or A-list actors, their passion for films rings out louder than ever.

Even though its hard, log off Netflix, shy away from Hollywood and explore the world of indie film once in a while. There are amazing stories being told. Don’t forget to spread the word about these films; each of them deserves being viewed much more than they have.

Please share your favorite fan films in the comments below! They may even be mentioned in future articles.