Sequelitits: Sometimes it's a good thing

Usually when I hear about a sequel to a movie I liked I usually am excited but cautious at the same time. On one hand I enjoyed the original a lot, why wouldn't I want to see more of the same characters in new situations? On the other hand sometimes directors and script writers try to do too much with a sequel and add more of what made the original great to begin with. The end result is a over bloated mess of a movie trying to fit everything in a two hour time frame. Too may plots, too many situations, and too many characters lead to many unresolved conflicts and an ultimately unsatisfying ending.

Video games are usually different. Designers often will listen to what made the original so great, what the players liked the best about it, what worked and didn't work and try to compile that into one giant improved sequel. Most of the time it works and in many cases video game sequels (at least in my experience) have been better playing and better looking games. Metal Gear Solid 2 played much better than Metal Gear 1 and Half Life 2 took the open world physics based one of the original and ran with it. No longer were confined to a single base but a huge alien infested world to explore.

Just like movies though, not all sequels get it right. Developers, like directors have a knack for "overcooking" the formula which makes their prequels great. "You liked fighting that enemy? Well how about you fight him three more times in this game."

Metal Gear Solid 2, while having a great game play suffered in the story department where a convulted, overly complicated story line made nearly everyone loose interest in the story and characters. The story in 1 was relatively simple with a few twists, but overall it had a clear villain, clear goal, and made you follow along as the characters worked towards their goal. 2 had none of this, instead opting for twists and philosophical banter from the characters instead. Good idea for a book or movie, but not for a video game (at least not in this context).

Finally you can get a sequel that really isn't all that different from it's predecessor. Bioshock 2 had a new playable character and story but it still felt very similar to the original, almost more of an expansion rather than a sequel. Despite the differences and tweaks the game still played largely the same and the same tactics and techniques could be used in the sequel. Even the story while different, was similar to the original and did not contain as many unique plot elements as the first. Developers usually stick to this similarity formula for two reasons: Their development cycle is shorter than other studios, which is why the Call of Duty series is so similar to each other with each of the development studios both Treyarch and Infinity Ward having little over a year to get their games up and running. The second is the fans. Fans like what the studios keep making, which is justified through the sales and hours of playtime online. Games which have a very large fanbase have to be careful not to alienate this audience. Radical changes to the game play or even story and characters can have the potential to turn of long time fans and potentially loose a large chunk of money.

I for the most part enjoy video game sequels, especially if I enjoyed the originals so much. I cant help but wonder though how easy it is for me to analyze and critique what developers did wrong and right in their sequels and a development team spends countless hours and sleepless nights to make sure their game ends up hitting that magic spot and pleasing everyone, when in most cases it won't.

Meh, I try not to think to much about that. Back to Moder Warfare 2 for me.

Three Episodes In

This is probably the first time in memory I have watched the Star Wars movies in order. Usually I watch them in order per trilogy. Episodes 1 through 3 and 4 through 6 separately. It's been a real treat to watch them consecutively every night in order. There's a lot of things I never noticed before and it really changes my appreciation of the trilogy as a whole.

If there is one thing the prequel trilogy has going for it by going overboard with CGI is the look. It looks nearly nothing like the original trilogy. This always bothered me as I felt that after awhile the different looking prequels separated themselves from the original. The originals felt real and felt like they had weight, and a impact on the world they inhabited. In Empire the AT-ATs felt real. Even though they were models they felt real, they felt like large mechanical monstrosities which shook the very ground the walked on. In the prequel trilogy they were and felt like CGI creations. The planets and cgi aliens and vehicles which inhabited the world had no realism to them, you know they were cgi and shiny and had no presence on the screen.

This used to bother me but as I started watching a New Hope right after Revenge of the Sith, I noticed the stark contrast between the two and it finally hit me. The look of the original trilogy, typically after the prequels looked real but it also looked gritty. It looked post-apocalyptic, it looked run down, dirty, and dangerous. It looked like a galaxy ravaged by a power hungry empire after a golden aged republic. Even the camera angles and shots were smaller, more focused and less grandiose and sweeping. The original trilogy despite the magnitude of the battles is a smaller and more closed galaxy.

This was probably unintentional but when watching in order I love the way this look works. It really brings the universe alive even more and brings the oppressed atmosphere alive. It really does make it look like dark times and the desperation for the Rebel Alliance all the more important.

I never thought I would use apocalyptic and Star Wars in the same sentence, but two separate tastes which taste great together.

Darkplace and British comedies

I am a sucker for British comedies lately. I don't know what's come over me lately to suddenly have a desire to watch quirky British comedies but it's hit me hard, and I am having a blast watching them in my spare time.

If memory serves me right, Monty Python was probably the first British comedy I can remember watching. I remember it was a typical boring summer day, with me as a young boy having nothing to randomly turned the channel to PBS to see what will never leave my brain. An old disheveled man stumbling out of the ocean and speaking in some random gibberish. Afterwards a weird animated montage of weird sights of naked Victorian women being smashed by giant feet.

That was my introduction to British humor, and I loved it. A few years later I watched another comedy with my father called "Keeping Up Appearances" a show about a ordinary woman go to great lengths to try and fit into high society. It wasn't as wacky and over the top as Monty Python, but it still was witty and a fun way to wast away a half hour on a Sunday evening.

After that show, there was a long hiatus in my viewing of anything British related in humor. It wasn't until the theatrical release of Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead that I started to take notice again. The quirkiness and the snappy dialog combined with a ton of horror and movie references made me fall in love all over again. My love for the movie did not diminish one iota unit the release of Hot Fuzz what turned my love of 80's action movies into a hilarious and respectful parody. After this I searched for more Edgar Wright and stumbled upon his earlier tv show Spaced. Three days later I marathon-ed the entire first and second series and was watching a few episodes over. I told all of my friends and anyone I knew to check out this show. British comedy was back in my life again.

Now I watch the Mighty Boosh, another out there show that seems to channel equal parts Monty Python and the buddy stylings of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Darkplace is a parody of cheesy 80's sci fi and horror in the mockumentary style similar to Spinal Tap where each of the "actors" are self aware that they created this show that we are watching and also blissfully unaware of how horrible it is. So horrible it's impossible not to laugh. Look Around You is another parody show, this time parodying those educational films watched by students in middle and high school. A cheerful narrator and happy looking students all learn lessons which are purposely wrong and comically filled with very wrong answers. What is the answer to 6 minus 2? You're on Easter Island. Weird and out there stuff, but I love it.

I'm not even including the British sci fi that I watch. Dr. Who and Primevil are two of my current favorites I go to for my wacky sci fi fix, but that's for another day.

I don't know what it is about the British and quirk, but they have it nailed down to an art form.

Starting the Saga Over

Every year at least once, I pop in the original Star Wars trilogy dvd's. I know people moan and complain that the DVD's aren't the "original" original trilogy, Greedo still shoots first and Mos Eisley is still filled with long legged creatures and droids slapping other droids to the ground but that's not the point, I still enjoy the original trilogy even with the additions, although I would like to one day a proper transfer of the unaltered original three. Maybe blu ray can solve that problem for me.

I pop the dvd's in because in all honesty they never get old to me. The characters are likable and identifiable and the story is simple yet engaging and entertaining. Han Solo represents the cool guy we all want to be. Luke represents the individual in us yearning to break out and explore our world and make our own destiny. Star Wars is the hero's journey told and retold since the dawn of time so it's a story that everyone is familiar with. That's what makes Star Wars so likable and the characters, planets, and stories immortal.

My youngest brother had never seen the original trilogy. Sure he's familiar with Darth Vader. He's heard the "I am your father" line dozens of time, knows who Chewbacca is and recognizes some of the other minor characters, but he has never seen the original trilogy nor has he seen the complete prequel trilogy. He's seen some minor clips from them but beyond that my brother became a fan of Star Wars through the Clone Wars animated series.

My brother loves the Clone Wars. He loves the duo of Anakin Skywalker and Asoka Tanno. He loves how the clones are actual individual soldiers with personality rather than the blaster fodder they were in Episode 2 and 3. He has experienced Star Wars in an entirely different way than I did and I'm not sure how I felt about that. Sure, the Clone Wars isn't a bad series, but there were so many rich stories and characters integral to the saga he wasn't even aware of. I had to change that.

Combined with the recent 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back and my urge to watch the original trilogy again, I decided to do something I haven't done in four years, marathon the saga. Start from Phantom Menace and end at Return of the Jedi. I told him my idea and he reluctantly agreed, he didn't seem too thrilled. I told him he'd have a blast.

We pop in Episode I and I sit back and watch as his eyes slowly open wide to things he's never seen in the cartoon. After the movies was over he couldn't stop talking about how cool the ships were, how he couldn't wait to see how Obi Wan and Anakin became closer friends and partners, and how the clones became to be.

I was pleased. If he was this excited for the opening chapter I couldn't imagine how his mind will be blown when he watches Anakin become Darth Vader, Obi Wan become an old hermit, and Anakin's son Luke enters the scene for the first time. I literally cannot wait to see his reaction.

My brother is experiencing the saga in a way I never did and never could. From the beginning, able to watch the characters grow from their beginning to the climatic ending.

For once I envy him. He's in for one crazy ride.

What is it's purpose?

Hi everyone. I decided that the 90 in 90 wanted to keep me writing, so I decided to start a new blog talking about my two favorite past times: movies and video games.

I am a big fan of both and anyone who knows me knows that I usually end up talking about the two every chance I get so know I get to write about them. I'll be writing about anything I have on my mind when it comes to the two so it keeps my topics fresh and me writing for the rest of the summer so I can also become a better writer in the process.

I'll have my first post tomorrow, I am excited to get started.

The writing never ends, but I don't mind at all.