Posted by ASandoval on October 22, 2009 under Games, Movies, Music | 
Star-studded celebrity power in games is no longer a big surprise. The rise of multimedia within games along with the million+ dollar production values have almost made it a given with many triple A titles. So it was no surprise to me when Jack Black was announced to voice the main character in Brutal Legend, designer Tim Schafer’s magnum opus centered around the ‘world’ of Heavy Metal visual imagery. Schaefer is most heavily known for his witty writing from the silver age of PC graphic adventures to his last generation sleeper hit Psychonauts, and heavy metal based humor is one of (some may say solely) Jack Black’s claim to fame.
That said, I was anticipating Eddie Riggs to be the 3D doppelganger of Jack Black, or if you want to be cynical, “That guy Jack Black knows how to play”. In terms of Brutal Legend, Eddie Riggs would be that lovable idiot whose love of music doesn’t make up for the fact that he’s not that good at what he does, until he’s suddenly thrown into a Hellish nightmare not unlike you’d see on an 80’s Metallica album, and the trailers did nothing but strengthen this impression I had. It’s not that I thought it was a problem; I enjoyed Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny as much as one objectively could, so it just seemed like the perfect fit for the video game world. But one playthrough of the demo later let me know how wrong I was.
See, Eddie Riggs is not the doppelganger of Jack Black, nor the persona of Jack Black he formed with Tenacious D. In fact, he is if anything, the opposite side of the coin.
Don’t get me wrong, there are similarities. Both characters are intensely, feverishly passionate about music, in particular the classic metal of era (It’s worth noting here that Schafer was born in 1967), but how the passion manifests itself is completely different. JB (The name Black uses as the lead guitarist/vocalist of Tenacious D) is obsessed with becoming the rock star he believes he was born to be. He is in ways, a parody of the epic hero, someone who thinks he stands for everything the people want although in reality no one takes him or his music seriously. He’s obsessed with the glamour of the limelight, the attention and fame the music can give him.
By contrast, the opening intro of Brutal Legend introduces Riggs as a professional roadie who follows bands and helps them with their act by providing guitars or making/fixing stages. And he is completely fine with this, as he explains in the opening monologue:
A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good. Keep someone safe, help someone do what they were put here to do. A good roadie stays out of the spotlight. If he’s good, you won’t even know he’s there.
It’s not that he is incompetent, either. Immediately, we’re shown that the other characters recognize that Eddie is the best there is at pretty much anything in the music world. This isn’t someone who is clouded by delusions of grandeur like JB – Eddie knows he’s good at what he does. In alot of ways, he is to the music world what Solid Snake of Metal Gear fame is to the military – Snake isn’t a soldier for the glamour of being a hero, but believes in ideology of fighting for what one believes in, and therefore sticks to the shadows as an unknown entity. For Eddie, it’s all about the music and the band, even when the music isn’t particularly good.
And the best part is that Jack Black nails the performance. It’s actually a shame that the video game medium isn’t given much thought by film critics, because anyone whose ever say Black can only ‘be’ Jack Black would be hardpressed to find anything that seems remotely slapstick. Riggs is a somber character, passionate about the music but cynical about where it’s going as a medium. Black’s performance is rather quiet, with a subtle tinge of a southern accent to give him an extra push of individual character. I’m sure this is partially from the direction of both the audio production company and Schafer himself – it would certainly explain the more Lenny Kravitz inspired art made when Brutal Legend was nothing more than a premise – but also that Black really embraced who the character was for his performance, seen at many recent award shows and events dressed up as Eddie.
Color me impressed, then; I knew I wanted to play Brutal Legend, but I didn’t see it as a game that would change both how I viewed Tim Schafer as a designer/director and Black as an actor. If anything, it’s a testament to how a perfect melding of minds can make for a unique experience, and this is solely based off of impressions from the demo! Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the full game soon. I’m much more interested in that character and the world than I originally thought I would be.
Posted by ASandoval on August 11, 2009 under Games, Misc., Movies, Music |
Nearly a year ago, a friend of mine was taking part of a group discussion along with myself about a game mechanic idea that she had. I don’t remember the exact details of my reply, just that it left a bitter taste in her mouth. In the end, I was left with accusations of being overly critical and, in her words, of being “Mr. Negativity”.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this; actually I’ve been dealing with accusations of being generally negative and critical for many, many years. It’s no wonder then that I have such an interest in media journalism, as these are the same words being uttered by the internet hive mind about any professional writer who says something they disagree with or just generally don’t want to hear.
Personally speaking, I feel as though I’m fairly laidback in my view of media, because regardless of whether or not they write about it, geek culture is fueled by cynicism. I can hardly ever have a conversation with any of my non-journalist friends and talk about music without talking about why mainstream music is a blemish compared to their musical tastes, but I can generally turn on a radio station and chill out to whatever is playing. I’m also fairly opinionated about movies, but Matrix Reloaded stands as my favorite of that trilogy, I think Ghostbusters 2 is hilarious and while not living up to the ridiculous standard they had to live up to, I’m generally pleased with the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Yes, all three of them.
But even for all of those examples, I have a rhyme and reason for it. I’m not satisfied with merely liking or disliking something, I have to understand why I feel that way about it and why someone may agree or disagree with me. That is the true nature of being critical about something. This leads me to what I’m driving at: since when did being critical become synonymous with being negative?
Certainly you can be negative when being critical. In fact, it seems that when someone is opinionated, it’s the negativity that other people choose to focus on. That’s all fine and good, but does someone having a different opinion than someone else have to be taken so personally? Moreover, should it influence a person’s opinion of the kind of person the critical one is?
And being critical about something you dislike is not always about negativity as well. To use a personal example, a good deal of my friends, including myself, are not fans of the Halo series of video games. For a couple of them, they feel as though the game is an abomination, even going as far as saying the only reason people like such an “average and un-unique” game is because its popular (This is a logical fallacy known as circular logic, but again, geeks = cynics). While I’m not a fan of the game and believe there are better shooters (or to be more precise, shooters that appeal more to my interests), Halo has many positive merits and I can understand why someone would enjoy the game, such as perfectly paced level design and compelling A.I. that does not rely on cheating (See Mario Kart’s infamous rubber band A.I.) or smokes and mirrors (See Half-Life).
Right now, the world of media journalism is rough. There has never been any set standard or rule like there is in news journalism (although whether that is followed itself is debatable, but I digress.) which gives readers an incentive to lack credibility in media journalists, to an almost unfair degree. Even worse, with the economy the way it is and trade magazines falling left and right, it gives publishers/studios an edge against publications when it comes to controlling information, meaning people should be more worried about journalists becoming slimy PR reps rather than being opinionated dickheads. Thus is another benefit of someone being critical: at least you know they’re honest with you.
I don’t expect to change any minds with this article; I don’t even have a real readership to influence. But highlighting myths about who I am and the way I think makes me feel better about myself, so at least there’s that.
Or maybe I’m just being negative about others. Who knows?
Posted by ASandoval on June 4, 2009 under Games, Movies |
It’s been a busy-yet-unproductive week thus far. But is that going to cause me to delay Ghostbusters Month until after the first week of June? Nay I say, nay.So yeah, welcome to Ghostbusters Month. At the end of June, The seminal movie (And quite possibly my favorite movie of all time) Ghostbusters will be having it’s 25th anniversary since its release, and also by that time, the new video game for the 360 and PS3 will be a little less than 2 weeks old. That means the DR will be featuring all things ghostbusting, from talking about the movies, the cartoon, the games and games kind of like the movie as well.
Normally this would be where you’d expect to hear about how I was introduced to the movie, but I can’t really tell you myself. I was born exactly one month after the movie’s release, so as far back as I can remember, Ghostbusters has just always been. I was even too young to remember when the cartoon started, all I know is that I watched it whenever it was on, and usually a month couldn’t even go by without me watching the movie at least once. Those were good times, I must say.
And while I still love the movie, nostalgia has nothing to do with it. Indeed, many things I used to think were flawless as a kid have had their effects wear off as I’ve gotten over (Case in point, Astyanax on the NES) yet Ghostbusters, among all of the hundreds if not somewhere in the thousands of movies I’ve watched since then (Side note: Life really needs one of those status counters you see in some games so I can keep track of things like that) doesn’t remain just as funny and entertaining as it did then, it’s even better now. I understand the jokes more, I feel the awesome chemistry amongst all the principal cast members and barely see any flaws at all in the movie.
So assuming I can collect my bearings after a seminal E3, we’ll start the festivities with Luigi’s Mansion at the end of the week, and start focusing on the movies as well as some of the classic games, all building toward the release of the new video game. I hope you’ll stick around; it should be a fun experiment if anything else.
Posted by ASandoval on March 9, 2009 under Movies |
… but I agree with everything this man has to say about the Watchmen movie.
If I thought he’d read it, I’d say someone needs to actually send Mountain man this letter.
Posted by ASandoval on June 22, 2008 under Games, Movies |
Just picked up Space Invaders Extreme. First impressions: Wow, I actually need a manual for Space Invaders. This is awesome.
Second impression: Since when does Square Enix own Taito?
No, seriously, this is an amazing game. Lots of cool game modes, power ups, boss battles, dual screen mini games. And it’s only 20 bucks, which was my main motivation for picking it up.
Movie runs have been rare this year, which is weird because a lot of good films are out. I did get the chance to check out Get Smart in theaters… Which is, you know, standard blockbuster comedy fair. It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of the original show (of which I’m a big fan of), a little heavier on potty humor for my taste, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Subtle throwbacks to the show are there, but not overplayed as to be like “Look, it’s just like the show!”, which is appreciated. My final word is if you’re a fan of the show, it’s worth seeing, and if you’re too young, than wait for it on DVD.
Oh, and don’t listen to critics, but as far as movie critics go, that’s not really saying much you didn’t already know. They’ve been just as out of touch about this movie as ever, and I’m guessing are letting there nostalgia cloud there vision of what the original show actually was: A campy primetime sitcom. Considering the source material, this movie is about as good as it possibly could have been. It’s faithful unlike the worst of the fair (Underdog) but it’s still update enough for the hipsters to appreciate.
