I’d like to thank everybody here at Mediabreach for putting up with my shenanigans but I’m going to be taking a vacation in the mead filled halls of Skyrim’s various cities soon. Bethesda has been keeping the hype caravan going over the course of this last month by posting videos depicting various behind the scenes goings on. I love that stuff as much as the next guy when it come to games but this video is making want to storm Bethesda’s gates and plunder me a copy of it so that I can play it already.  So please, enjoy this slice of Skyrim’s day-to-day business as much as I did:

There’s a large, gaping hole left in a weird, over looked film genre, I think. I’m not even sure it could be referred to as an official “genre;” I just feel as though I haven’t seen a movie like Ghostbusters in a long time.  I’m talking about a movie that takes a generally scary topic, ghosts in that instance, and injects humor, irreverence, distinct visual style and still manages to keep a palpable degree of horror at the surface of it all. An American Werewolf in London is in the same ball park but they’re playing cricket instead of baseball…which doesn’t really work for my irreverence arguement as cricket is just silly. Hell, I think that even Ivan Reitman might’ve been so taken aback by what he, Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd made that they just had to copy it in the form of Ghostbusters 2 because they didn’t know where to go after the first one. I’ll begrudginly acknowledge Evolution but only because David Duchonvy keeps his “I can wear James like a puppet whenever I want” award in his pocket at all times, I’m sure.

Set in Norway, the found footage / mockumentary-styled film known as Trollhunter has us following 3 film students from the university of [insert Scandavian word] as they investigate the bear poaching stories that have been all the rage as of late. They narrow down their search to one, grizzly-looking mofo by the name of Hans (Otto Jespersen) and proceed to pester the shit out of him until they can get an interview. After tailing this dude, making note of his odd behaviors (throwing tires all over the gorgeous, Scandavian countryside, for instance) they finally get the balls to follow him into the woods in the middle of the night where they experience the terror of their first troll.  And it’s from here on out and through these kids that we get shoved into the secret world of troll hunting.

Trollhunter might be a good contender for being this generation’s Ghostbusters. It does so many things right that I don’t even know where to begin. If this turns out to be an incoherent mess of circlejerkery, then yeah, it’s like all my other reviews but I promise to use complete sentences this time. I’m still making up words like “circlejerkery” though.

Considering that a good portion Scandinavians unashamedly profess their belief that trolls are in fact, very real things that affect their day to day lives in all manner of ways, it comes as no surprise that this movie keeps its mythology deliciously tight. There are different troll species and you will learn about them, why they act the way they do, why they look the way they do, what kills them AND the fun as fuck pseudoscience behind it. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll have your hands proping your head up with a big, dumb grin on your face whenever one of these exposition-loaded scenes pop up. I immediately went back to my childhood and wanted Ray Stanz to go over other entries in ghostly nomenclature other than that “class 5, full roaming vapor” blurb during these scenes in Trollhunter. That grounded sensation of being part of a world that has a distinct set of rules, even if those rules are grounded in structured insanity, feels so good here.

Monster design can be sorted into the “feel good” folder here too.  They all walk the fine line of goofy-looking and horrifying quite well, betraying an oafishness when they think nobody is looking and violent psychosis when on the trail of would be victims.

The sensation of immediate danger provided by such comedic looking predators is helped by some fine quality found footage camera work and par to great acting.  Tense scenes lose nothing in translation, fear is universal, though I’m sure I missed a few subtle comedic cues here there.  That’s not a problem with the Hans, fortunately.  Things have chewed on this guy quite literally, making him grizzled but never over the top.  Most of the comedy will come out his “and not a single fuck was given” attitude against a screaming hoard of trolls. And because the story provides its own logical reasoning behind said work – film students shot this – all you found footage haters can set up a perfect Scorsese-esque shot of you kissing my ass; this narrative style of shooting works in many cases and Trollhunter proves that.  But really, it’s okay if you don’t like it.

...even I don't like everything.

Overlooking the obvious things not helping American audiences not embrace this like the found footage style of shooting and being in a foreign language, Trollhunter doesn’t have a lot working against it.  The dry humor may be a bit to dry for some – a kink in the armor of my Ghostbusters comparison-a-thon and sometimes the pacing will have folks who need it go and refill their Adderall prescriptions.  But if you sit there and argue against the humor behind Norway’s surplus of gravel, I don’t want to know you.  Approved and recommended.

This is a flick where everything good about movies comes together in a wonderful, though just shy of sublime, kind of way.  Steve Carell brings his signature awkward warmth to create Cal Weaver – poster child for the modern, dispassionate gentleman perfectly at ease with wearing New Balance sneakers with a pair of khakis (I’m no clothes horse but I shuddered when I first saw this on screen) and a shirt and tie.  He’s the kind of guy just waiting for midlife crisis to hit him but his wife has one hit her first.  Julianne Moore as Emily Weaver could have easily been written as somebody to hate and a lesser actress could’ve let the role down as written.  Luckily Moore instills a need to identify with a character who, along with her spouse though he doesn’t know it, lost herself somewhere in the middle of all the day to day drudgery professional and parental life affords.  There’s spoilery reasons as to why that hits them a bit harder than most so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s not for shallow bullshit reasons that Emily slips up.

The way Jacob Palmer finds himself mixed up with Cal is at first, a bit unbelievable.  The manner in which Jacob offers his services is seemingly too altruistic a move for the character; meeting what Ryan Gosling made when he first hits on Emma Stone’s Hannah, the dude just seems like a sleaze that’s probably riddled with crabs who have syphilis.  Yet despite that, you accept Jacob approaching this schlub of a wrecked man and wanting to help him because Jacob never actually does anything could be construed as mean spirited.  Sure, he’s a womanizer but he’s respectful and though he’ll badger a girl until she walks away, he knows to let her walk away…which only happens once in the movie.

There are two things that keep this movie from falling into the pit of rom-com Heigel Hell.  Actually, make that three things.  Obviously the first is that Katherine Heigel is nowhere to be seen.  Secondly, touching on the topic of talent again – the three leads all brought their A game obviously – the supporting cast includes performances that feel at home in both dramatic and comedic fashions.  Notables are Marissa Tomei who plays a less pathetic and funnier version of the character she played in What Women Want.  Emma Stone continues to balance adorably hot with spot on physical and verbal comedic timing in a way that should only be allowed in men’s daydreams.  I really don’t know how she does it.

Oh wait, now I get it.

The Bacon known as Kevin makes an appearance as somebody you should hate but never really do but probably the biggest props to secondary roles go to Analeigh Tipton and Jonah Bobo.  The baby sitter, Jessica Riley and the son, Robbie Weaver, respectively put on some great performances.  Even though Tipton’s resume is a bit green, she does awkward, lovelorn teenager quite well.  Bobo’s a child actor and the rough edges show – a lot of his performance doesn’t feel quite natural – still, there’s something undeniably charming about the kid that assures he’ll improve his craft.

The third thing is that plot stays interesting.  You can phone in most Hollywood love stories and it’s true that this has its share of those moments but those moments are saved by the actors performances every time.  Clever plot points pop up just when you need something a little extra to keep the movie from losing its audience.

The only notable kink in the movie is that even though there some truly clever moments in plot development, there are some very awkward set pieces that pulled me out of the movie.  The last scene in particular was just so damn silly that I wanted it to go away.  It was like a kid who just discovered his sense of “humor” and wants to impress your friends with it, that kind of awkward; just lock it in a room until it settles down.  And on a whole, the dialogue is top notch but there are some tired pieces of word candy getting spurt out every so often as to remind us that yeah, this is still a Hollywood love story.

I can forgive all those little nitpicks because Crazy, Stupid, Love manages to be likable while  humorously looking at problems that anybody long term relationship can understand.  Sometimes good things just get broken if you don’t keep up with the maintenance schedule.  There aren’t bad guys in situations like that, just people in a shitty situation and this movie understood that.  So, yeah, definitely see this if you had been wanting to see this or need a date night movie.  You could probably wait until it came out on Netflix otherwise but as it stands, approved and recommended.

From everything I’ve gathered, this year’s Pax was pretty rad as it usually tends to be.  When you aren’t a giant P.R. campaign for the business end of games, that tends to be the case I suppose…*cough*E3*cough*.  Anyhoo, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot in terms of surprises.  Counter Strike: Global Offensive was announced but I’m just getting into that franchise; I don’t know if it’s quite for me yet.  The brains behind Portal, Kim Swift, announced another new first person puzzle game to be published by SquareEnix.  And I just happened to find a trailer for this game while writing this.  Guerrilla writing folks!  So I guess we can start there.

Quantum Conundrum

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Airgtight Games
Platforms: Windows, 360, PS3
Release: Q1 2012

My first reaction to this is that based on the art style, it looks like something that would’ve come out during the last generation of consoles and there’s really nothing wrong with that.  Game play wise, it looks like Portal with an even greater emphasis on physics based puzzles.  Couple that with this being a downloadable title and I think I’m sold.

Hawken

Publisher: TBA
Developer: Adhesive Games
Platforms: TBA
Release: TBA

That’s a lot of “TBA’s” in the header there but you need to repeat this to yourself while watching the trailer: “This is an indie game made by 9 dudes.”  If you can understand that, then you can let stuff like release dates slide.  Even if this turns out to be vaporware, I’ll be impressed with what I’ve seen.  It’s an FPS with mechs and caters to my laziness by being downloadable. [via Reddit]

Prey 2

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Human Head Studios
Platforms: Windows, 360, PS3
Release: March 2012

This is essentially the same trailer we’ve seen floating around for awhile but with the added bonus of its developer, Chris Rhineheart, providing commentary.  If you don’t feel like watching the trailer again, this is Rhineheart telling you that everything in the trailer is possible during gameplay.  Betcha feel like watching the trailer again, huh?  Good, it’s in three parts. I never played the first Prey so I’m happy to hear that I don’t even need to think about the first one in order to play this.  Blade Runner in space with aliens?  Fuck yes.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platforms: Windows, 360, PS3
Release: November 11, 2011

I haven’t watched this trailer.  I know it has the red-headed bizarro of Patrick Dempsey that is Todd Howard singing sweet siren calls of all that is good about Skyrim amidst is gloriously beautiful game play.  But I’m not going to watch it.  I can’t drool for this game anymore; my salivary glands need a break.  But by all means, you go right ahead and watch it.

Minecraft Beta 1.8

Publisher: Mojang
Developer: Mojang
Platforms: Java platform, Java applet, Android, iOS, 360
Release: I really don’t know anymore.

Originally scheduled to be released on 11/11/11 along with Skyrim, 1.8 was set to seriously overhaul the core gameplay of Minecraft by adding a more adventurous set of goals to the virtual sandbox.  Now, the update is going to be released in parts (1.8.1, etc.) sometime throughout now and whenever.  Y’know at this point, if you’re not into the game, you may never get into it.  But if the prospect of raiding dungeons, NPC villages, and having ravines and vast oceans to explore interests you, borrow a friend’s account and take it for a spin. [via IGN]

TrackMania² Canyon

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Nadeo
Platforms: Windows, OSX
Release: September 14, 2011 (WIN), n/a (OSX)

Holy shit does this look fucking great.  “I-Have-To-Buy-A-New-PC” great.  What I’ve done to my PC’s WASD keys because of the first game could count as abuse were computers sentient.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to get into this franchise and this piques your interest, go set up a steam account and download the first game because it is very free.  Don’t worry, if my ’07 family friendly PC can handle that game smoothly, yours can too.  Then we can both be sad because our PC’s can’t handle this beautiful beast of a racing game. [via Gamespot]

This is the kind of thing you want to start your morning off with – validation that your perfectly natural crush on a girl half your age is normal. Actually, I didn’t need that as both Emma and I were born in the same decade. I’m just happy Jim decided to work out his feelings in a youtube video so we could all laugh uncomfortably together.

Even better is the fact that Emma Stone’s the one that posted this. I love a girl that can take creepiness in stride and even laugh about it.

James Cameron’s Aliens is better than Ridley Scott’s Alien. Check out that shit stirring! But really, everybody falls into either one of those two camps when it comes this franchise. I happen to prefer the more actiony sequel but I won’t prevent anybody from stating otherwise; the first is a fine thriller. But you can’t make a video game about the first one…well you can but it’s called Amnesia: The Dark Decent and you’ll have to invest in econo packs of underwear to play that (plus it’s not about Xenomorphs.) Suffice to say, I’m over the moon about this game and trailer two here will demonstrate why.

I’m fucking GIDDY.  This is also probably the only game that I’m keen on seeing how it works with Wii U’s controller.  Any version of this game can’t come out soon enough but spring 2012 works, I guess.

Yup. That was it.

I have to say, this feels noticeably underwhelming when comparing it to the initial video released last summer. In that first video, there was a discernible amount of cheese but I loved it because it was unmistakeably a Mortal Kombat variety of cheese that was just aged a bit differently than the main brand. Granted this is the first episode so they’ll have plenty of time to build up the tension (or actually have tension) but this only left me wanting more because I’m thoroughly in the thralls of the current Mortal Kombat renaissance. Had I not known this was associated with the franchise in any way, I would’ve written this off as a B movie my childhood self would’ve ignored while thumbing through cable channels on a weekend. When I wasn’t ignoring them, I fast forwarded through most of the action sequences in this episode which means I fast forwarded through 75% of it.

In the long run though, I’ll keep up with this because it’s free and I have lunch breaks with time to kill. I really hope it picks up though.

• Thundera,¬† the Thundercats home planet in the original series, now appears to be kingdom that exists on Third Earth itself.¬† How they’ll handle this will be interesting considering one the driving forces behind the narrative in the original was how everything on Third Earth was new to the Thundercats and it basically allowed the writers to go nuts with original ideas.
• Hearing Larry Kenney as Claudius but sounding exactly like old school Lion-O is kick ass.
• We get our first glimpse of Slithe, leader of the Reptilians and in the original series, the Mutants as a whole.
• Our first full look of Mumm-Ra in his standard, little old mummy guise.¬† There are just some characters that didn’t need a whole lot of reimagining, visually speaking, and it’s great that this show’s creators get that.
• First look at Jaga and his Ian McKellen-esque voice over which works just fine.
• Lion-O sounds like an older kid.¬† This’ll probably rub a lot of people the wrong way but it worked for me.
• Panthro’s still M.I.A.
• First look at Wilykit and Wilykat in motion

This is shaping up nicely.¬† It’s very apparent that the show’s creators know their Thundercats and are very respectful of the source material.¬† Even the original show’s musical themes pop up here but in more dramatic fashion.¬† There’s still no word on the series premiere which is a shame because I need to know when I need to get cable again.

From what I remember, Battle: Los Angeles is about an alien invasion of Earth, specifically the battle that takes place in Los Angeles, California. All major cities around the world are also having their own alien invasion battles to deal with but fuck them; this is about L.A. We know this because it’s in the title of the movie. Aaron Eckhart (Thank you for Smoking, The Dark Knight) is the noble Sgt. Michael Nantz, two weeks from retirement and then boom, fucking aliens. He helps lead a group of young, noble marines through L.A. to Santa Monica to help rescue survivors who are held up in a police station during the assault. From here on out, genuine character development is almost null and void and I didn’t really hate that.

There was only one way this movie would work and not annoy the piss out of people and that’s if it played out like a Marine recruitment film which it does for the most part. Yes, there are some moments in the story where the characters get a break from dealing with the alien menace and frankly, those are some of the most distracting parts of the movie. There’s a particular scene that everybody knows is going to happen between Sgt. Nantz and one his men from way early on in the film; it’s probably the one scene that barely needed to happen. But as it played out, it took way too long with about 3 minutes of the dialogue standing there awkwardly.

Now please don’t take this as me being against character driven stories because that’s far from the truth – I actually prefer them. It’s just that this movie works best when it’s being what it should be which is an almost-documentary following a Marine unit on mission during an alien invasion and fortunately, that’s the majority of the movie. I’m okay with the pro-military, one dimensional “everybody in our unit is a selfless defender of Earth’s freedom” schtick because that’s established from the get go. The story didn’t need to be bogged down with internal conflict.

But all that stuff is irrelevant, isn’t it? Let’s talk about the aliens!

“Yeah fuckin’ aliens, man! I bet they’re all kinds of weird n’shit and have laser fingers and can only hatch their young on people’s toenails and they all look like Tilda Swinton!”

GTFO.

Nope. Sorry. In fact, these nameless assailants are remarkable only for being unremarkable. Their technology, their appearance, their possible motivation for invasion: all of these things are mundane to the point of actually being refreshing. This is the thing that so “meh” it’s “meh…m’kay.” Earth’s forces are essentially fighting something that doesn’t require the greatest mac powerbook in all of cinematic history to take them down or the David Levinson-esque character to find out all about them which is my favorite thing about this movie, actually.

Battle: Los Angeles actually managed to circumvent the need for a “Dr. Exposition” by having the story not really give a shit about the aliens in a “let’s flesh out the bad guys” sense. They invade, they’re assholes, they need to die. Any information that is pertinent to this goal – our heroes’ goal – is obtained through unobtrusive means via snippets from television and quick, necessary action by our heroes. This keeps the movie moving and the pace fairly even. If the action had been something of note, I might actually have liked this movie a lot.

If you absolutely hate Battle: Los Angeles, you are wrong. That’s not to say that you can’t dislike it – it doesn’t have a whole lot to particularly “like” in general – but to fling vitriol at it for existing is akin to hating vanilla ice cream that’s just the best damn vanilla ice cream it can be…but yeah, it’s still vanilla ice cream.¬† This is a rental at best but your life won’t be incomplete if you miss it entirely.¬† Michelle Rodriguez still scares me.

TL;DR Metaphor of the Mundane

Yay. You just won a tube of toothpaste. That’s one less thing you have to worry about. I guess.

Whether or not you like FPS’s, mechs (who doesn’t like mechs?), or things blowing up, you have to admit that this is a goddamn pretty game. I mean, REALLY pretty, especially for a PSN/XBLA/PC release. Also, major props for some fantastic sound design.¬† It’s great to not hear space marines rubbing one out when they get shot for a change.

As fan of both the first Armored Core and the two Zone of the Enders games, this is right up my alley and this is with it still being in a very early stage of development. As far as a release date goes, it’s got the frustrating “done when it’s done” time stamp on it but hey, I’m liking that I’m frustrated; it means I give a shit. [via PikiGeek]

Cockpit. lol.