Category: Rant

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Is Ready Player One Filmable?

Ready_Player_One

I recently finished Ernest Cline’s geeky pop culture video game novel Ready Player One, and now I am not so sure that I want Steven Spielberg to attempt to make it in to a movie.  I mean there is so much going on, and just about every major geek property is included in this book from Star Wars to Marvel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Maybe if the Disney was doing this movie and not Warner Brothers they could figure out a way to make most of the licensing work, but even if they get all the licensing (or enough of it anyway), they will still have to make it in to a movie that non-geeks are going to want to watch. Spielberg’s name will help bring in audiences, but even for the father of the modern blockbuster hits are not guaranteed.

The problem is people escaping real life and living in a video game might be to high concept for audiences to wrap their minds around, and even if they do, will they be able to keep up with the non-stop 80’s video game, TV, and movie references?  Some of them were even lost on me as I read the book.  This is going to be a hard movie to get right, and if it goes wrong it will go really wrong.  I guess I am just worried that a very fun book will turn in to middling movie that no one will watch.  We will find out in a little over two years how Mr. Spielberg captures the adventures of Parzival and his 80’s loving virtual pals.  I just wish I felt better about it all.  If nothing else the book is still great, and you should add to your reading list if you haven’t read it already.

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//Sobbing Noises// Pacific Rim 2 May Be Canceled…//Continues Sobbing//

pacific-rim-background

This has been a hard week.  There have been some difficulties at work, and now this.  I can barely bring myself to type the words: Pacific Rim 2 has been put on hold indefinitely and may be canceled.  What is wrong with this world!  We were this close (imagine my fingers really close together) to getting a movie about giant robot proliferation!  “Giant robot proliferation” might be the greatest thing I have ever typed.  I mean I want to just keep typing it (giant robot proliferation).  Nuclear proliferation might be questionable, but giant robot proliferation is a defense that I think we can all get behind.  A movie about it?  Even freaking better!

I guess I need to hold out hope until there is more to go on, but the picture that The Hollywood Reporter paints isn’t pretty.  This movie needs to happen.  I will get a big hat and we can all put money in it to fund this film independently.  If 190 million of us all just give a dollar we should be good.  Well at least Crimson Peak comes out soon, so I can get my Guillermo del Toro fix that way, but creepy gothic horror is no substitute for giant robot proliferation.  Anyway I think I need some alone time…

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Why Does Warner Brothers Even Want To Make An Akira Movie?

Akira

So there is a new rumor going around that Christopher Nolan is going to produce not one, but three Akira movies for Warner Brothers.  Now the Christopher Nolan part of this rumor isn’t what surprises me, he has made a lot of money for Warner Brothers, so having him in charge of what WB sees as a massive franchise makes sense.  No, what surprises me is that Warner Bros thinks this is a massive franchise.  I mean I don’t even see it as a medium franchise, or a franchise at all.

The anime movie and the manga are both classics, and they should be seen and read by most sci-fi lovers at some point, but they are both super Japanese.  I don’t mean that as a slight, I love that Akira is over the top crazy Japanese, but most people will not.  Exploding telepathic humans and tentacle monsters are not things North Americans usually go in for (unless there is a Marvel logo), and if we change it to be more “Western” Akira will loose so much of what makes it great.

I am pretty sure that Christopher Nolan can make something watchable from the Akira source material, but I don’t think it will be the Akira anime fans want, and if it is a sci-fi move that is not Star Wars, Star Trek, or Marvel, I am not sure that it will reach a large enough audience.  Sooner or later Warner Brothers will make an Akria movie because they are so heck bent on doing it.  I am just not sure why they are so determined.  I mean they haven’t even made new Akira movie in Japan yet, so if the Japanese think it is too crazy to reboot, I think WB should stay far, far away.  Though when it gets made, I will of course have to watch it to prove how right I was.

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It Might Be Good For Radeon To Get Away From AMD…

Print

I am an AMD/ATI fanboy from way back, so in 2006 when AMD bought ATI, I was pretty excited.  I thought that they would work well together, and that together they would bring us some incredible technology.  While they still do produce good stuff, they just can’t seem to keep up with Intel or NVidia.  Now due to declining revenue and continual financial losses AMD is starting the process of spinning off ATI, or the now named Radeon graphics division.

It is kind of sad that they were never able really compete with the big boys, but now that Radeon is on its own (and I am sure up for sale), maybe we will see some cool new video cards come out that really put NVidia to task.  Good competition helps us all.  AMD on the other hand will probably continue to decline.  In a world that doesn’t need desktop computers it hard to be the guys making the slower less efficient chips, even if they are a really good dollar/performance value.

It is kind of hard to be the fanboy on the loosing side, but I will get over it.  I just hope the new Radeon group will be able make me proud.

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The Holiday Game Release Cycle Needs To End!

fallout-4-logoFall is here so you know what that means: every game company will try and release their games in the next three months.  I mean what the heck.  Just this month we started off with Mad Max and Metal Gear Solid 5.  Then a week later Forza 6 arrived, and then next month is Halo 5.  After that my life ends when Fallout 4 comes out.  Sorry Rise of the Tomb Raider or COD: Black Ops 3, you will have to wait three months for me to come out of my Vault.

That doesn’t even take in to account top shelf expansions for big games like Destiny or The Witcher 3.  Speaking of The Witcher, do we really need more stuff to do this soon?  The game has 200 hours of content.  I bet there are only like five guys saying, “hey I needs more Witcha’ ova’ here!”  I am happy for those guys, but me?  I am just trying to finish the game as quickly as possible (I am like 65 hours in) so that I will be ready for Halo 5.

That is the problem with this season.  There isn’t enough time to play all these games, and when one or two of them fail whole game studios will get wiped out.  It isn’t fair to me the consumer, and it isn’t fair to the people making the games.  We need to break out of this cycle.  Movies have shown in the last few years that good movies can launch any time and be successful, and I think games are now starting to be the same way.  The Witcher 3 which I mentioned earlier came out in May, but it still sold 6 million copies.  As matter of fact the May release probably helped it because there were less games to choose from.

This Holiday I will only be buying two games for myself, and with all the great games to choose from that is a shame.  If only more companies would take Microsoft’s lead like they did with Quantum Break and move some of their major games to Spring.  My wallet and I would appreciate it!