Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream...
-Jake Sully
Note: This being a recent release, this movie review does not contain spoilers. I'll post an analytical detailed review later.
A new world with new dreams. A new exciting place to explore, filled with adventure, interesting sights, and a beautiful forest to rip apart and destroy in order to fill the needs of greedy human corporations. Yep, Avatar is another one of those films that seeks to delightfully expose man for the greedy ruthless bastards that they are and their internal struggle against hippie tree huggers and the few who sympathize with them.
I'll just get straight to the point. In terms of story and characters, Avatar is nothing close to resembling anything unique or original. Grizzled military veteran who loves to shoot stuff? Check. Evil corporate executive who will destroy anything and everything to make money? Check. Hero who finds a way to overcome a (in this case literally) crippling flaw through high adventure? Check check check. It's all been done before. Oh, and of course the obligatory war overtones are here as well. Earth wants to take over Pandora for rich mineral? America wants to wage war over oil? Uh huh. We see what you did there James Cameron.
Yet despite an overly formulaic plot and lack of originality, Avatar manages to be a super fantastic movie. After you enter the world of Pandora, the silly plot troubles melt like lemondrops and you are taken into a fantastic CGI world of wonder. Avatar is a technical masterpiece, with human actors and CGI blending in extraordinarily well. I hate to use the movie as an art form metaphor here, but really at the end of the day Avatar is quite simply a work of art. I'm not sure how much effort and time went into creating the CGI, but it is gorgeous.
And truth be told, the story isn't all bad. Yes I said it was unoriginal and formulaic, but that isn't always a bad thing. At the end of the day, Avatar doesn't break any new ground, but it sure breaks the heck out of the old ground. Really, every you know that has seen it says the movie is awesome, and they are right. It is awesome. Go see it.
I have more to say, but that will have to wait for a more detailed spoiler post.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Code Lyoko
Here we are, going far, to save all that we love;
If we give, all we've got, we will make it through.
Here we are, like a star, shining bright on your world;
Today, make Evil go away!
-Cody Lyoko
For some completely random reason I started thinking about Code Lyoko, an old cartoon show from about 5 years ago that I used to watch. Why I suddenly started reminiscing about a show that I haven't thought about in years is beyond me, but I remembered thinking how awesome the premise of the show was...and how sloppy it was in execution.
To actually explain the concept of the show is far too great a task to explain in a simple blog post. Long story short, a group of friends that attend a boarding school enter a virtual world known as Lyoko where they assist a female AI in thwarting evil AI Xana's attempts to hack into special towers in Lyoko which in turn allow Xana to do malicious things in the real world.
The story isn't really the important thing here though. What's unique about Code Lyoko is that it employs two different animation styles. Scenes in the real world take place in traditional animation, whereas scenes in the digital world of Lyoko take place in CGI. When the group travels into Lyoko to stop the latest Xana plot, it looks and feels like a video game. In a way it sort of is, as the kids gain uber weapons, ninja skills, and have "hit points" that get depleted when Xana's virtual monsters hurt them. Run out of hit points, and you are ejected from the digital world for the remainder of the episode.
As this show aired during the latter years of my video-game junkie phase, I naturally fell in love with the show. At the same time however parts of the show were just plain infuriating. For one thing, the show pretty much had no continuity through the first half of its four season run. It followed a standard formula of "Oh look, Xana's causing random trouble, let's stop him just in the nick of time!" that is standard in most kids action shows. Oh and there's the usual middle-school drama that takes place between the main characters and other inhabitants of the boarding school. To be fair the plot picks up (and how!) in seasons three and four, but the early days were pretty shaky.
The plot isn't really my main concern with the show however. Naturally I'm far more interested in discussing the video game elements of Lyoko. The problem is, the characters and their digital ninja forms just plain sucked at combat. Now I'm willing to understand the need to be cautious (after all, this wasn't just a video game, haha) but even the most basic of Xana's underlings would cause the characters to stop drop and whine before pulling off some random (and lucky) maneuver that would magically kill them all.
Mind you the characters did have a good reason to be cautious. This is because in Lyoko everyone has the constitution of a box of Kleenex. Seriously, if you get so much as grazed by a laser in this world, then you lose like 50% of your hit points. Every time someone got hit with a laser or bludgeoned with some object it was always "careful! another hit like that and you're a goner!" I know ninja character archetypes aren't the most durable people in the world, but you should seriously be able to withstand more punishment than these guys are dying over.
Speaking of dying, this series also suffers a bit of Disneyitis. Everytime Xana causes trouble in the real world, it usually involves some kind of crazy destruction for ye olde boarding school. No matter how badly the place gets destroyed though, it doesn't matter. When Xana's attack is stopped in Lyoko, the female AI I mentioned earlier performs a magic time warp that reverts the real world back to the point time before Xana screwed everything up. Everyone but the main characters forget that they were 5 seconds away from dying or what have you, and life goes on...until the next attack that is. Here's the really strange thing though: no one dies during the attacks, which can sometimes get quite serious. Reason being is that a time-warp cannot bring back the dead. Despite the fact that a magic time warp occurs and fixes all boo-boos and property damage, if someone dies, they're still dead, despite the fact that time warped back and the death never actually happened. Illogical? Yes. Loophole probably invented because it was a kids show? Most likely. Oh well. C'est la vie.
So yeah, as much as I liked the whole video game virtual reality components, it's filled with loopholes. Even still, it has cool video game virtual reality components that kept me coming back for more like a crazy drug. See the dilemma I was having? It was like the original pokemon anime all over again.
One thing I never knew about the show until after I watched it was that it actually had a cool theme song. This was mainly because Cartoon Network didn't air it for I presume time reasons. Although the English version was kinda subpar (I did like the refrain though, which is what I quoted at the beginning of the article) the French version was actually quite awesome. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that this show was developed (and takes place) in France. No Japanese import here! Maybe it's because everything sounds cooler in French, but the French version of the theme song has earned a place on my IPod once again.
If we give, all we've got, we will make it through.
Here we are, like a star, shining bright on your world;
Today, make Evil go away!
-Cody Lyoko
For some completely random reason I started thinking about Code Lyoko, an old cartoon show from about 5 years ago that I used to watch. Why I suddenly started reminiscing about a show that I haven't thought about in years is beyond me, but I remembered thinking how awesome the premise of the show was...and how sloppy it was in execution.
To actually explain the concept of the show is far too great a task to explain in a simple blog post. Long story short, a group of friends that attend a boarding school enter a virtual world known as Lyoko where they assist a female AI in thwarting evil AI Xana's attempts to hack into special towers in Lyoko which in turn allow Xana to do malicious things in the real world.
The story isn't really the important thing here though. What's unique about Code Lyoko is that it employs two different animation styles. Scenes in the real world take place in traditional animation, whereas scenes in the digital world of Lyoko take place in CGI. When the group travels into Lyoko to stop the latest Xana plot, it looks and feels like a video game. In a way it sort of is, as the kids gain uber weapons, ninja skills, and have "hit points" that get depleted when Xana's virtual monsters hurt them. Run out of hit points, and you are ejected from the digital world for the remainder of the episode.
As this show aired during the latter years of my video-game junkie phase, I naturally fell in love with the show. At the same time however parts of the show were just plain infuriating. For one thing, the show pretty much had no continuity through the first half of its four season run. It followed a standard formula of "Oh look, Xana's causing random trouble, let's stop him just in the nick of time!" that is standard in most kids action shows. Oh and there's the usual middle-school drama that takes place between the main characters and other inhabitants of the boarding school. To be fair the plot picks up (and how!) in seasons three and four, but the early days were pretty shaky.
The plot isn't really my main concern with the show however. Naturally I'm far more interested in discussing the video game elements of Lyoko. The problem is, the characters and their digital ninja forms just plain sucked at combat. Now I'm willing to understand the need to be cautious (after all, this wasn't just a video game, haha) but even the most basic of Xana's underlings would cause the characters to stop drop and whine before pulling off some random (and lucky) maneuver that would magically kill them all.
Mind you the characters did have a good reason to be cautious. This is because in Lyoko everyone has the constitution of a box of Kleenex. Seriously, if you get so much as grazed by a laser in this world, then you lose like 50% of your hit points. Every time someone got hit with a laser or bludgeoned with some object it was always "careful! another hit like that and you're a goner!" I know ninja character archetypes aren't the most durable people in the world, but you should seriously be able to withstand more punishment than these guys are dying over.
Speaking of dying, this series also suffers a bit of Disneyitis. Everytime Xana causes trouble in the real world, it usually involves some kind of crazy destruction for ye olde boarding school. No matter how badly the place gets destroyed though, it doesn't matter. When Xana's attack is stopped in Lyoko, the female AI I mentioned earlier performs a magic time warp that reverts the real world back to the point time before Xana screwed everything up. Everyone but the main characters forget that they were 5 seconds away from dying or what have you, and life goes on...until the next attack that is. Here's the really strange thing though: no one dies during the attacks, which can sometimes get quite serious. Reason being is that a time-warp cannot bring back the dead. Despite the fact that a magic time warp occurs and fixes all boo-boos and property damage, if someone dies, they're still dead, despite the fact that time warped back and the death never actually happened. Illogical? Yes. Loophole probably invented because it was a kids show? Most likely. Oh well. C'est la vie.
So yeah, as much as I liked the whole video game virtual reality components, it's filled with loopholes. Even still, it has cool video game virtual reality components that kept me coming back for more like a crazy drug. See the dilemma I was having? It was like the original pokemon anime all over again.
One thing I never knew about the show until after I watched it was that it actually had a cool theme song. This was mainly because Cartoon Network didn't air it for I presume time reasons. Although the English version was kinda subpar (I did like the refrain though, which is what I quoted at the beginning of the article) the French version was actually quite awesome. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that this show was developed (and takes place) in France. No Japanese import here! Maybe it's because everything sounds cooler in French, but the French version of the theme song has earned a place on my IPod once again.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Moving Day
Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear.
-Pat Riley
So after coming to the conclusion that blogger is indeed way better than wordpress, I've decided to move my old Ars Arcanum blog over to blogger. With the change comes a new name: Rose-Covered Waltz.
Why change the name of the blog? Well for starters Ars Arcanum was already taken, haha. In all seriousness though, I've decided to change the name of the blog to reflect the many changes that have occurred in my life over the last year or so. A lot has happened in my life lately, notably over the last few months. It has not been a gradual process however, rather it has been one that has gone on since last Spring. To give the full story is not one I will do lightly, and indeed only a few people know it. Suffice to say, calling my life a rose-covered waltz is my preferred way of phrasing the awesomeness that has been life leading up to and beyond this point.
If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that hesitation breeds regret. To that end, I've learned the importance of waltzing through life, enjoying both the big and little moments as they've come. Sometimes I end up forgetting this message, yet not too long ago a realization hit me that really drove this point home. I look forward to continuing to waltz through life and this blog, enjoying the good and handling the bad as it comes.
Movie/book reviews will be returning soon. Coming up: New Moon reviews for both book and movies, and a rather...gross film.
-Pat Riley
So after coming to the conclusion that blogger is indeed way better than wordpress, I've decided to move my old Ars Arcanum blog over to blogger. With the change comes a new name: Rose-Covered Waltz.
Why change the name of the blog? Well for starters Ars Arcanum was already taken, haha. In all seriousness though, I've decided to change the name of the blog to reflect the many changes that have occurred in my life over the last year or so. A lot has happened in my life lately, notably over the last few months. It has not been a gradual process however, rather it has been one that has gone on since last Spring. To give the full story is not one I will do lightly, and indeed only a few people know it. Suffice to say, calling my life a rose-covered waltz is my preferred way of phrasing the awesomeness that has been life leading up to and beyond this point.
If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that hesitation breeds regret. To that end, I've learned the importance of waltzing through life, enjoying both the big and little moments as they've come. Sometimes I end up forgetting this message, yet not too long ago a realization hit me that really drove this point home. I look forward to continuing to waltz through life and this blog, enjoying the good and handling the bad as it comes.
Movie/book reviews will be returning soon. Coming up: New Moon reviews for both book and movies, and a rather...gross film.
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