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Review: Warm Bodies
Warm Bodies is about a zombie who captures a human and falls in love with her. It’s the juxtaposition of a zombie movie, romance, and a dash of comedy. The film has some heart but I feel like it doesn’t offer much that isn’t in the trailer. Once you get past the novelty of a human and a zombie falling in love with each other, the plot eventually becomes straightforward and there isn’t much more to the movie. It lacks that extra ‘magic’ that separates good movies from great movies.
Here’s the trailer:
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Star Wars meets anime
I wish I was this talented… check out this fan-made Star Wars animation.
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Shows That Go On Forever
I know this is old news but The Simpsons has a bucket load of episodes. (A bucket load is equal to roughly 500 episodes) Now I used to be one of those people who said they’d seen ever episode but by now I don’t think I’ve seen half! On the other had I just watched episode 256 of Naruto Shippuden and before that there were another 220 episodes before it. Why is that?
Why I stopped watching The Simpsons
1. They wanted to stop. Remember when Futurama showed up?! The idea was that Futurama was eventually going to replace The Simpsons and it made perfect sense. The creators were getting a little tired, but more importantly Futurama was designed to be a longer lasting version of The Simpsons. Futurama can have an infinite number of possibilities, just travel to a new planet, create a new futuristic device. The Simpsons ran out of rational story lines years ago.
2. Re-writing history. The Simpsons don’t age but they’ve been on television for over two decades. This creates problems, when did Marge and Homer get married. Recently the writers rewrote history to be in-keeping with modern times. That shit is whack.
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War really does drive the Economy
I think there is no debate that war fuels economy but games about war do too. Last November’s retail sales were up 0.3% from October. That might not sound like much but when the figures are in the billions it is. There was a 29 million increase in stores that sold video games (namely Call of Duty). The only sector that did better then video game sellers was the gas station companies.
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Digital Comics: The Squeakquel
I’d like to revisit a topic that I discussed briefly in a previous Graham’s Grumbles – Digital comics (http://uberfriendship.com/grahamsgrumbles/1923). I’ve had some new experiences with them that have prompted some new thoughts. Well, new for me anyway.
On a whim, I decided to get the first issue of the new series The Avenging Spider-Man. Not a huge fan of the title, but it’s got a concept that I think could be fun. Essentially, it’s a new Marvel Team-Up book with Spidey paling around with a new Avenger every few issues. Considering how many Avengers there are these days, I don’t think he’ll be running out of partners anytime soon. This first arc features Red Hulk and is written by Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira. Part of the incentive is that you get a free digital copy of the comic.
This offers a unique opportunity to easily compare a digital comic with the tried and true, everyday, ink and paper comic book. I’ve read quite a few digital comics on my computer, so with this I wanted to try using my iPhone. Getting it on there was more time consuming than it should be, since I had to activate my purchase on a computer, and then download it with my phone but that’s something that can be easily fixed. There’s another problem that isn’t as easily fixed. When you read a comic on your phone, each panel fills the entire screen. So, in a comic, each page can have any number of panels, but when it’s translated digitally each panel is basically its own page. This is all well and good until you reach a splash page, or a two page spread.
When an artist does this in a comic book, the reader is meant to stop and admire the page. Something of significance is happening – sometimes a big fight, sometimes an establishing shot, but always something that is meant to make you go “Wow.” This effect is lost on a phone, since the two page spread ends up looking like any other panel in the comic. For example, in Avenging Spider-Man 1 there are several panels depicting a marathon being run in New York. There’s a panel of people jogging, a panel just of feet, and a panel of startled expressions. These all fill up the same amount of the screen. The next panel in the comic is actually a two-page spread of dozens of moloids overwhelming the bridge and the runners. On the phone, though, it’s no bigger than the previous panels and is kind of underwhelming.
One of the ways that they’ve tried to fix this on some digital comics is to incorporate camera moves. It’ll start with a close up of one part of the panel and then zoom out. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but this seems to miss the point of what a comic is. Comics are essentially storyboards, and your mind is supposed to fill in the blanks between panels (see: Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics).
In 2006, Marvel released a series of DVD-Roms that had the best version of digital comics I’ve seen to date. Each disc had every issue of a specific title and sold for around $60. The only one I have is the Avengers one, ‘cause I was picky and short-sighted. They also released discs for The Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Silver Surfer, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and last and least Ghost Rider. There’s 40 or more years worth of comics on each of these discs (except Ghost Rider) and they are presented exactly as they were originally intended. There are ancient ads, and letters pages, and you get the complete experience. A double page spread still has impact because it’s still bigger than every other panel.
It’s still not a perfect solution, and it’s not a very profitable way of releasing product, but I think it’s the most effective translation of traditional comics to digital. Someday, they’ll start releasing digital comics that are never meant to be released in print and that’s when we’ll finally see what digital comics can do. For now, they’re still just a poor copy of the printed page.
Graham Becksted is a hollow man not at all like Kevin Bacon. He is the author of Graham’s Grumbles the second blog that is listed when you search for Graham’s Grumbles on Google. If you would like to be his 51st follower, he can be followed on Twitter @GrahamBecksted.
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Tagged Avenging Spider-Man, comics, Digital Comics, Graham's Grumbles, Joe Madureira, Marvel, Zeb Wells
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Voltron, how much nostalgia is too much?
Couple weeks ago Voltron the game came out on XBLA and PSN. Now I remember that I used to love Voltron. And I mean love Voltron. Get dressed up and punch people in the face love Voltron. Yet, I can’t remember a single thing about Voltron besides the fact that we is a giant robot put together by 5 mech-cats and he fights evildoers from space. I don’t remember the characters or the plot. I don’t remember the vehicle Voltron, non of it. But when I heard there was a game I was excited. I was excited for no good reason. Now I don’t want to go into a rational for cashing in on nostalgia and what it’s all about but I just want to point out that this game was purely made because of it.
Why? Because Voltron is an inherently flawed premise for a game (or at least one as a downloadable one). It supports 5 player co-op yay! But Voltron is only cool when he merges into one giant robot. ONE! How can you properly have 5 people trying to control one thing!
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Choosing a password. 123456
So apparently people still choose dumb passwords like 123456. Other popular choices QWWERTY, trustno1. and various sports like football or basketball. Two that I find kinda hilarious is Dragon and monkey?! I don’t know if that’s awesome or sad. Also a common name to use as a password is Ashley. So Ashley, you either have dumb and uncreative parents or you’re some crazy ass mistress!
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Newspapers can be dumb.
Today I picked up the newspaper (yes I still read a physically tangible paper) and read not one but two articles back to back that in my mind were slightly bullshit. The first was talking about the 1% (because of all this 99% business) and how those people are deserving of the money because they are all well educated as opposed to the lower end of the scale who aren’t. Well no shit, except it fails to mention that higher education COSTS MONEY!
Article number two is about a hockey player and his girlfriend dressing up as Jay Z and Beyonce. Not too terrible until you find out they colored their skin a la blackface! There was no malicious intent, it was more ignorance than anything. Lots of people are defending what they did which is, whatever. I take issue because the excuse for why they didn’t know any better was because they are Canadian and being a hockey player is a very insular environment. They rationalize that Canadians were never taught about Al Jolson and blackface. I remember learning about this in grade 4! We don’t have the same issues that America has but we still have things like black history month to at least inform us about basic racial issues.
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Sleeping in
I was trying to figure out why for the past several days it’s been so hard for me to get out of bed. Then I remembered, I’ve switched back to the duvet. Sooo comfy. Apparently the duvet is called the doona in Australia. Doona kind of sounds like a tribal music instrument…
Anyway, speaking of the changing of the seasons/it’s getting friggn cold out, I was just on the search for a new coat. Something nice and water proof, and warm. I’m convinced that every MEC coat is identical, it also hit me that I’m not really that sporty. So moving onto non-mountainy stores!
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