Shmee.Me

August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

Five Favortie Star Wars Characters!

I have watched a lot of Star Wars movies, played a ton of Star Wars video games, and read more than a couple Star Wars books and comic books, so I thought I would give you my favorite Star Wars characters.

5: Jek Porkins

Porkins cracks me up every time I watch Star Wars IV: A New Hope. All my life I have wondered how desperate the Rebel Alliance must have been to recruit this guy, but like all things Star Wars the expanded universe has given him tons of back story so he doesn’t seem like a the fat incompetent idiot he is. I mean even his name is a joke, but that is why I love him. It is the sort of thing that only Star Wars would try and get away with. Stay on target Porkins, stay on target.

4: Darth Vader

It quite is fashionable now to bad mouth George Lukas, but when he created Darth Vader it was a moment of pure genius. I don’t think there is a more iconic super villain in all of fiction. The Joker may get close, but he is no cyborg mage with a laser sword that can choke you from across the room with his mind.

3: Han Solo

Speaking of genius creations, has there ever been a character that oozed cool like Han Solo? The more of a jerk he was, the more lovable he became. Being a Jedi is pretty sweet, but he is the character I wanted to be when I grew up. All I need to do now is find a Wookiee that will be my friend.

2: R2D2

R2D2 is the hero of the Star Wars movies. Delivering messages, open doors, hiding light sabers, and pretty much anything else. Without R2D2 the Rebel Alliance would have fallen apart and the Empire would have won. I am not sure that you can say that about any of the other characters. This foul mouthed droid is the best character from the movies bar none.

1: HK-47

HK-47 is from the video game Knights of the Old Republic, and the only character on this list not from the original trilogy, but that is because HK-47 Personal Assassination Droid is awesome! His name is stolen from another famous video game assassin, and he loves to kill meatbags. In the game if you let him kill people he loves you, and if you don’t he hates you. He was not the most powerful character in the game, but his lines were so well written that you needed to have him in your party just to hear the stuff that would come out of his speakers.

Dishonorable Mention: Boba Fett

People love this guy for some reason, but when his big moment came did he shine? Oh no, he gets knocked in to Sarlacc pit while wearing a jet pack by a blind Han Solo. Maybe you should be paying attention eh buddy? If there was ever a chumpier way to get beaten, I have not seen it. This dude is the worst.

So there is my list with a little Boba Fett trolling thrown in. I hope you like it, but since we are geeks, I don’t expect you to agree, and I would love to hear your list!

August 12, 2013August 12, 2013

They Made a Sequel to Despicable Me?

Despicable Me 2 is obviously to the sequel to the 2010 movie Despicable me. What is different this time around is that it went from a pretty large hit last time to a mega hit this time already taking in over $750 million dollars worldwide, and still going strong, but much like last time this movie is saved by the adorable yellow minions.

The film starts with a giant magnet flying over a top secret base and stealing it, so the AVL (Anti Villain League) recruits Gru (Steve Carell) to help them find out who did it since he was once a villain himself, but Gru is much more interested in keeping his oldest daughter away from boys, and the minions just do a bunch of wacky stuff.

The problem with this movie is that they totally waste what made Gru somewhat interesting and that was being super villain and coming up with crazy schemes. Don’t get me wrong he is a sweet dad, but it is just not as interesting as him trying to steal the Moon. They could have at least let him create a crazy plan to counter the evil villain’s crazy plan, but at least minions are as funny as ever.

The special effects are as good as you would expect for a current day 3D animated film, but at this point if they weren’t it would be very disappointing.

The actors all know their roles, but there were not really any standout performances. Just Steve Carell with a crazy accent and bunch of people getting paid, and with the success of this film they will probably get paid a whole lot more for next time.

If you liked the yellow minions than you will like this movie. If you like the rest of the characters than you probably will be disappointed because they do not do a whole lot. It is no wonder the minions are getting their own spinoff, and I am sure it will make oodles of money.

August 10, 2013

I Hang Out with the Gangster Squad!

Gangster Squad is an early 2013 movie and fictional account of the ‘Gangster Squad’ that went after Mickey Cohen in the late 40s and early 50s. It was directed by Ruben Fleischer. It is probably most famous for being delayed and reedited after the Aurora Colorado shooting. It is a good action movie, but people expecting more than that will be disappointed.

The movie starts with John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) busting up a forced prostitution ring, but since it is Cohen’s (Sean Penn) turf he gets a slap on the wrist instead of a slap on the back. Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) finds out about it and decides that he is just the man he needs to build a squad of men to start a war with Mickey. The men he picks out are: Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) as the playboy, Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) as the knife expert, Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) as the smart one, Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) as the old gunslinger, and Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) as the kid that tags along with Kennard. So they leave their badges at home and go to war with the mob.

There is nothing more to this movie than that it is simply and war/gangster movie staring a bunch of good looking guys shooting at each other in a beautifully stylized 1950s LA. The characters never really grow past their introduction. The movie is simply that Mickey Cohen is bad, so we are going to bust up his operation and kill a bunch of gangsters in the process, but it does that really well.

Considering all the Oscar level talent in this movie some may have been expecting more out of this movie, like an examination of a post war violent LA, or to go deeper in to whether all the violence was worth it, but that does not happen. Fleischer just shows us a bunch of really well choreographed gunfights, and they are stunning.

The actors all seem to be having fun in their sharp tailored suits, and shooting each other with tommy guns while playing out their war movie caricatures, and they play their parts well. Sean Penn especially got in to Mickey Cohen as the excessively evil sociopath, and Emma Stone does her best glamorous damsel in distress as Grace Faraday.

Gangster Squad was a fun movie, but I know a lot of people didn’t like it because instead of a smart deconstruction of the gang violence of the 50s it was just a glorification and exploitation of it, but if you go in wanting a stylish action movie you will be happy because that is exactly what you get.

August 9, 2013August 9, 2013

I Complete the Book of Deacon Trilogy

Not that long ago I reviewed the book The Book of Deacon by Joseph R. Lalio, and I was quite impressed, so I decided to finish the trilogy. I am glad I did, and they wrap up the story quite nicely.

They continue to follow Myranda Celeste as she attempts to track down and help the Chosen end the great war and save the earth, and she has become a very capable wizard in the process.

In the second book of the series The Great Convergence we meet the rest of the Chosen, Lain the Malthrope (fox man) assassin, Ether the shape-shifter, Eve a sort of Mathrope, Myranda herself, and one more that I am not going to give away. This book wanders a little, but there is plenty of action and character building, and we get to learn more about the evil Generals of the Northern Alliance that are keeping this war going.

The third book The Battle of Verril obviously brings it all together in quite an epic fashion. Tons of action and magic all over the place, and you get to learn much more about all the characters as they continue their quest. Do they defeat the Generals and stop the war?

Lalio has done a great job with this series, and I am glad that my indie bundle gave me all three of these books. I will definitely be looking in to his other work. You can find his books on Amazon or anywhere else indie books are sold.

August 8, 2013August 8, 2013

You Should Play Shadowrun Returns!

Not that long ago I pointed out that the Kickstarter backed Shadowrun Returns was now available for purchase, and I am happy to say that you should indeed purchase it. The game is a turn based tactical isometric RPG, which is a fun way of saying you get to look down on the game, take turns, and level up.

The game’s plot allows you take the role of a down and out Shadow Runner who gets a job thanks to a “kill switch” on a dead friend. The switch phones you with a recorded message saying you will get a $100,000 life insurance policy if you can avenge his death. Since you need the money you get yourself to Seattle to find your friend’s killer, and like all things Shadowrun it gets much more complicated.

The setting is in a near future version of Seattle, and in the near future magic has reemerged, so the world is filled with elves, dwarves, and trolls, and you can use a mixture of future weaponry and magic.

The game’s mechanics are simple. You use your mouse to point where you want your character and party members to go and to select the skills and items you wish them to use and what or who you want to use them on. In combat you only have so many moves you can make called “Action Points”. For example if you have two “Action Points” you can move a long ways, move a short ways and shoot, or shoot twice, and you can do that for every member of your party.

For leveling up you get Karma points for completing tasks or doing good deeds, and you can spend those on things like being able to shoot more accurately or being able to carry more items, or if you are like me, making your robot minions much more deadly. My biggest problem with this is that there are a lot of non-combat skills, but the game is mostly combat oriented, so they are a waste of points.

The art style is fantastic. It is dark, but they use neon colors to brighten it up, so it is not all bland and gray. The areas of Seattle look like a cool future version of the city, but not a utopian one.

I have a couple of other minor complaints, there is no manual save system, so you have to rely on an autosave. It does save fairly often, but it means you cannot get up and leave whenever you want to, and the game is fairly linear, so you do not just get to go out and explore, you stay on a set path and series of events.

That being said the game is fun, and for a group of indie developers it is a job well done. Thanks to the level design kit there are already mods being developed, for instance the old SNES Shadowrun game is already in alpha on the new engine, and a free expansion is coming out in October, so it is well worth the money. Have fun in the shadows!