Shmee.Me

February 25, 2016

I Shouldn’t Have Waited So Long To Read Sandman Overture!

Sandman Overture is the six issue prequel to the main Sandman series published by Vertigo. It was written by Neil Gaiman with art by J. H. Williams III and colored by Dave Stewart. It is an amazing piece of work! I wasn’t sure about more Sandman. On one hand the Sandman series was spectacular so of course I wanted more, but on the other it told a complete story, and unfortunately we have learned through recent years that sometimes when they bring back the things we love they don’t come back the way we want them too. I shouldn’t have worried with Gaiman behind the pen. Sandman Overture is just as good if not better than the rest of Sandman.

Sandman Overture tells the story of how Morpheus became so weak that he was able to be captured in the first issue of Sandman. I am not sure how Gaiman does it. He is able to grow Sandman’s Universe in massive ways while still telling an intimate story about duty and pride. It blows me away how good he is.

While the story is always the most import part of a comic book, the art still needs to be able stand up to the story being told, and somehow Williams and Stewart bring everything to life in grand fashion. The art in the main Sandman series was very good, but Overture’s is much better. It is some of the best art I have ever seen in a comic book. Every page had something new and interesting to show me, and the vibrant colors continually drew me in.

While I think you would get the most out of Sandman Overture if you have read Sandman first, I think Overture can stand on its own, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t read it. Sandman Overture is one of the best books I have read, comic or otherwise. So in other words it is right up their with Sandman.

February 24, 2016February 24, 2016

Is Sony Going To Be The Savior Of VR?

Preorders for Valve and HTC’s Vive came out yesterday, and the news for proponents of VR was not good: The Vive with controllers and sensors will set you back $799. Plus you will need a $300 video card. I have a mid-range gaming machine, so for giggles I ran the Steam VR Test Tool, and it said I could run the Vive, but all my settings would have to be on low. However, at least Vive comes with the motion controllers, those will be extra with Facebook’s Oculus Rift. For now it just comes with an Xbox One controller. Though the Rift will ‘only’ set you back $599, but with the Rift not only will you need that $300 video card, but three dedicated USB3 ports, so I would have to buy an extra card making my total around $950 (still not including their controllers which I am sure will not be cheap).

I am sorry, but if a consumer needs to spend around $1000 to properly use your product, it is DOA. Especially considering I am a least starting with a decent gaming desktop, so for most people the price of entry may be as high as $2000. That is bonkers. People rightly mocked Microsoft for launching the Xbox One for $500, so double to quadruple that price is almost insane.

VR as I see it has one hope left, Sony’s Project Morpheus.

Why Morpheus you may ask? Because a lot of people already own the PS4, so they will not need to beef up their machine. The initial hardware cost is built in. If Sony can launch Morpheus under $500 they may have a hit on their hands. $500 is still a lot, but it is well within the price range of first adopters, and it is a price that the average consumer can save up for. Not to mention the best part, I am sure it will be much easier to setup and configure than either Rift or Vive.

I am not sure VR is something I want, but I know I that I don’t want it for $1000 or more. If Sony can launch Morpheus at a reasonable price it might be something to consider. Especially considering the initial hardware cost is whatever deal you can find on a PS4, and there are some good ones out there. Plus I am sure Sony will have a Morpheus bundle that shaves a few bucks of the base price of the console. If VR has any shot at mainstream appeal Morpheus might be its only hope.

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016

Deadpool Is On Its Way To Being The Biggest X-Men Movie Of All Time And That Scares Me!

Deadpool’s amazing success has been a surprise to just about everyone. As of right now it has made almost $500 worldwide in just its second weekend. It only needs about $250 million more to pass X-Men: Days of Future Past to become the largest grossing X-Men movie ever. Since the movie only cost $58 million to make it has already generated about $150 million in profit just two weeks in. That is almost unheard of for a movie. This is a scary situation.

I think studio executives are going to try and create more ‘Deadpool’ movies, and I don’t just mean sequels (though we are sure to get tons of them). I mean cheaply made ‘R’-rated ‘funny’ superhero flicks. I bet they are going to pull out all the weird dudes out of the closet. I am sure Lobo has been greenlit without a script. What they should be taking from Deadpool’s success isn’t that people want raunchy superheroes, but that they want original superheroes.

People love comic book heroes right now, but they don’t want to see the same movie over and over again, and Deadpool was a great relief to the never-ending Avengers storyline. With Deadpool we got to see a ‘hero’ unlike any other, so superhero movie houses should be looking for more original heroes, or at least be looking for ways to change up their storylines, not just to recreate Deadpool. I am worried because I am enjoying the superhero movie golden age, and I would hate for greedy executives to bring it to end with a glut of bad ‘R’-rated flicks.

February 22, 2016

Tour The War On Drugs With Sicario!

Would you like to watch an action movie staring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin? I would too, but Sicario is not that film. That is not to say it is bad, as matter of fact it is very good. It is just important to know what you are getting yourself in to with a movie, and Sicario is a slow burn tactical thriller about the War on Drugs during its height in the early 2010’s.

Emily Blunt plays Kate Macer an FBI SWAT team leader that has been assigned to a joint task force to take down a major Mexican drug cartel, but much like people watching Sicaio thinking it is an action film, the operation is not what she expected. The longer she sticks with the mission, the crazier things get.

Sicario is a drug-land version of Alice in Wonderland. Around every corner is something new and unexpectedly horrifying, but the viewer much like Kate needs to stick around to the end to see if any sense can be made of it all. While the movie has a clear political stance it is smart enough not to give any convenient or easy answers to the complex problems the film represents.

With a cast as talented as the one in Sicario it is no wonder that acting is fabulous. From Blunt’s wide eyed FBI agent to Brolin’s almost smarmy task force leader there is good work all around, but the clear best of show goes to del Toro as the mysterious and stoic ‘agent’. While he is always in control you can see his violent and troubled past bubbling beneath the surface.

I love the way the director Denis Villeneuve depicts the ‘action’ in this film. While it is no doubt violent it is shown in a matter of fact way. These violent acts are being carried out by professionals taking care of business. There are no Rambos here. It is shocking almost how mundane it all seems. These are their nine to five jobs.

Sicario was a crazy tour through Mexico’s drug war. It was thrilling and alarming if not terribly exciting. If you go in knowing you are going to watch, you are in for a very good film made a by a group of extremely talented filmmakers. Though here is hoping we get that Blunt, del Toro, and Brolin action film one of these days.

February 19, 2016February 19, 2016

Blade Runner 2 Gets A Release Date, But Why?

Blade Runner 2 is coming out January 12, 2018, but why do we need one? I didn’t always like Blade Runner, but now that I finally get it I am sort of upset they are making a sequel. I mean Blade Runner was so influential it changed the way we see the future. Not only in our minds, but almost every movie that takes place in a technologically advanced future copies its style in at least some way. I am not sure that a sequel will be able to add anything to its story or lore in any meaningful way. It is bound to be a disappointment.

Blade Runner may have been one of the few movies that got better with re-edits, but it was always still the same movie, just a slight different view of it. A sequel will have to come up with something totally new while not trampling all over the movie that came before it, and I am not sure that will be possible. For one thing it is going to answer the question of whether Rick Deckard is a Replicant or not, and that alone will make the first movie less fun because arguing about that fact is one of the reasons Blade Runner is still talked about today.

Blade Runner 2 is now officially happening, and I am very grumpy about it. All I can do is hope that it is good, but the track record of movies that make sequels decades after the original is less than stellar. Granted I will probably see it, so I am part of the problem, but sometimes I wish they would let classic Sci-Fi movies be. They aren’t going to get any better than perfect.