Archive for July, 2012

Batman Un-Begins

I saw The Dark Knight Rises yesterday. It was pretty good! In fact, I’m going to paint myself as an Internet heretic and possibly a man who shall be regarded by all as a complete idiot by saying I enjoyed it a lot more than The Dark Knight. Yes, Heath Ledger’s Joker made a more interesting villain than Bane, but TDKR feels more like a complete movie than TDK, which was more like a movie and change and should have ended a good 30 minutes sooner than it did. There’s something to be said for a piece that works as a cohesive whole, and what I like most about TDKR is that it makes all three movies work as a unit, self-contained and complete.

Most of the complaints I’ve seen lobbed at TDKR revolve around its assorted logic holes and plot points that stretch credibility. Fair enough, but a lot of these elements are the sort of thing that every movie suffers from; certainly the first two Batman flicks did. I suspect that expectations had a lot to do with it: People loved TDK so much they expected perfection from the sequel, but what they got instead was a very good movie that made many of the same mistakes and leaps that TDK did. And, absent a late, lamented talent’s tour-de-force enhanced Tom Waits impersonation, those flaws stand out a little more prominently. On the flip side, I felt the TDK was drawn out and kind of irritating, especially compared to the considerably leaner Batman Begins, so I found TDKR to be pleasantly surprising.

All told, TDKR has considerably raised my opinion of TDK, because I have a better sense of that film’s purpose now. And I especially appreciate Christopher Nolan’s decision to work counter to the serial nature of comic books in adapting Batman to film. There’s a completeness to his trilogy that simply never happens in franchised, licensed movies like this. TDKR draws upon both of the movies that came before it, adds some new stuff, and wraps it all up.

In the process it does some dumb things and wanders through the land of heavy coincidence. The part that really chafes for me is the whole five-month police situation, which conveniently disregards the nature of a Manhattan (SORRY I MEAN “GOTHAM”) winter, the sanitation needs of 3,000 people, and, hell, the fact that police uniforms probably aren’t going to look super clean and pressed after that sort of ordeal regardless of how much spray starch was lowered in buckets. The science bits of the movie were pretty stupid, too. But what the hell; it’s a comic book movie about a billionaire playboy who dresses in a suit of tech armor that looks like a bat. As such things go, TDKR ranks up in the top-five percentile in terms of believability and coherence. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say it’s the first comic-based movie I’ve ever seen to include multiple villains (the lines are a little blurry on who qualifies as what, but let’s say three and not count Cillian Murphy’s cameo) without any of them seeming extraneous.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie after all the dire things I’d heard about it. And the best thing is that because it offers such a compact sense of closure, I can comfortably ignore the inevitable needless franchise reboot. Well, unless they reboot it as Gotham By Gaslight. I couldn’t say no to that. And since Nolan managed to hit on Year One, The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, and No Man’s Land, there’s not a lot of other top-caliber material left to be mined. Hmm.

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Not to dwell too much in the past, but…

…we randomly happened upon a classic auto show yesterday (it was taking place in the lot across the street from a hotel we were looking into). We took a few moments to wander around and take in all the beautifully preserved old cars and trucks. I am not a car lover by any means, but I found this ’58 Impala in particular…

…to be a breathtaking piece of design. The sweeping lines, the balance of angles and curves, the needless little embellishments that give it just enough detail to be graceful but not overly busy: Just fantastic. The color scheme, which consisted of the purest, brightest metallic white I’ve ever seen accented by silver trim and perfect red interiors, simply reinforced its appeal.

I don’t harbor any delusions that classic cars were better machines than modern ones. They lacked safety features and had the fuel efficiency of a lawnmower. They were huge and cumbersome to drive. They belched pollutants like a tiny Dow Chemical plant on wheels. But man, modern cars are ugly, boring, and stupid-looking. I rented a van a few months back that was literally a cube on wheels. They couldn’t even come up with an interesting name for it. It was just “Cube.” That is the industrial design equivalent of going grocery shopping in a house robe and curlers. It says, “We have given up.”

It’s a shame visual appeal had to die so that responsible ergonomics could live. In a better world, they’d coexist.

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Not no one, not no how

Last night, Cat and I went to a special screening of The Wizard of Oz as a gift for her birthday. What made it interesting was the way the dialogue track had been isolated, with the music track muted and replaced by a live orchestra. The experience had its shortcomings — the mediocre sound quality of the dialogue in a 75-year-old couldn’t quite compete with dozens of people performing live music alongside it — but overall it was kind of amazing. Why don’t all movies feature live accompaniment like they used to?

I don’t think I’ve seen Oz in 25 years, but I remember every single scene. Still, watching it this way — surrounded by families with kids probably seeing the film for the first time — made it feel fresh and new. The audience broke out into sincere applause a few times: When Dorothy steps into a world of color, the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West, etc. Laughter was frequent and heartfelt.

Small as the picture looks in this image, that distant little screen pulled me in and I frequently forgot about the live orchestra altogether. But most of the time, I found myself paying more attention to the score than I normally would. It’s interesting that much of the music in the film’s first half largely accompanies performances, whereas in the second half it often takes the form of lengthy suites that punctuate the action. And then there was the random Mussorgsky phrase the composer slipped into the score as the companions infiltrated the witch’s castle. All in all, it was a totally unique experience.

Mostly, though, I came away surprised that it took so long for someone to create a video game based on the movie. It’s basically the RPG archetype, all the way down to the dude who handed out annoying mandatory fetch quests.

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Son Son

So there’s a law that every Japanese developer, at some point, is obligated to do a video game interpretation of The Journey to the West, right? Well, here’s Capcom’s: Sonson. Coming from 1984, Sonson seems like their way of getting it out of their system right up front.

On its surface, Sonson doesn’t really offer too much — it’s basically an auto-side-scrolling shooter in which the vertical movement of hero (or heroine? Son Son has appeared in recent games as a female) is restricted to six horizontal channels. It’s somewhere between shooter and platformer.

It’s fun enough, I suppose. Enemy patterns grow increasingly complex as you advance through the stages, with tough “bosses” (see image above) to add a little tension to the action. Plenty of point-rich bonus items appear (and the game is, after all, about the score) to entice players into risky maneuvers. It’s fast, moderately difficult, and reasonably entertaining.

However, the real appeal of Sonson has more to do with its historical role. Look at those enemies up there! Those guys are direct antecedents of Ghosts ‘N Goblins’ iconic baddies. Here at the beginning, you can already see Capcom’s design tracks taking form: Vertical shooters like Vulgus and 1942, and platformers like Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Bionic Commando, etc. Sonson sows the seeds for future classics: A simian shooter that would set down roots and evolve into the arcade masterpieces the company would become known for.

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Exed Exes

Looking back at more old Capcom games, today we go slightly out of order and look at Exed Exes. Spoiler alert: This game isn’t very good.

Or maybe it is. But if so, its quality exists in some arcane measure that I am unable to discern with my feeble human perception.

Exed Exes sounds like a game about shooting former spouses or something, but in fact it involves robotic alien insects (the original U.S. arcade release came in under the title Savage Bees, in fact). I suppose it’s a little like Galaga, except nowhere near as well-considered. Exed Exes feels like a step down from Capcom’s first game, Vulgus, in every way except visuals. The music is especially terrible — a repetitive drone that sounds like it’s going to build into something interesting but never does.

This, as it turns out, is a metaphor for the game action itself! It’s just humdrum shooting from top to bottom — or bottom to top, as the case may be — as your little ship flies ahead and avoids collisions with enemies and enemies’ bullets. Most of the bad guys take the form of, yes, bees. Some of the bees are very large, much like the enormous flies in Vulgus. After a while, you’ll reach the “high point zone” (or something along those lines), where giant skulls drift downward toward you and soak up bullets. Then it’s back to the grind again.

Even though Exed Exes features more elaborate graphics and faster action than Vulgus, it comes off as a less refined game. It lacks the rhythm that makes Vulgus unique and interesting; in that game, learning when and where to fire off those piercing rockets for top score combos becomes the defining strategic element, a bedrock of consistent level design and placement around which less predictable chaos swirls. Exed Exes is just waves of bees that move faster and shoot more. Of all the old-school Capcom shooters I’ve played, it offers the least thoughtful play and most slapdash challenges. Nothing about Exed Exes really defines it as a game; if it stands out among its peers, it’s strictly in terms of its mediocrity. Well, I guess they can’t all be winners.

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Killing forest critters in three dees

Etrian Odyssey IV, as I’ve mentioned before, is really good! So I threw together a video to show off some of the features. I haven’t done one of these in a while. It was a pleasant diversion.

You can read my heartfelt liner notes at 1UP.

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Next after next

As I mentioned, I submitted GameSpite Journal 12 for proofing yesterday, although I’m actually not quite done with my own text. I cheated, yes. Shameful.

Anyway, even as I wrap up this issue, I’m already working on… no, not GSJ 13. I’m actually plugging away at the 14th volume, which will be a little different than usual.

I hope this does not turn out to be a disaster. If it works out, it will easily be the biggest single project I’ve ever endeavored to tackle! That’s why I’ll be really bummed if it ends up sucking.

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