Ides
Yesterday was a solemn one, indeed, with the anniversary of the passing of our dear great DM. In memoriam to Gygax, March 4th is GM Day which is just another reason to stir up some creativity in the collective community. Because of this, coinciding with Marissa being here for court-related BS, I’ve decided that two months is a long enough hiatus for D&D and we’ll be resuming Group A’s shenanigans tonight. I’ve been holding off playing with this group because they are so far ahead of the other one, but I’m starting to really feel bad that Cody is looking forward to hearing about their tales when none have yet to be forged by his comrades. New to the sessions is a pimped-out DM corner and, what I hope to be, a much more elegant layout for player sitting. I’ve also added a D&D Pictures page above there, which pulls from my FlickR album and displays them in a little flash applet. So far it’s only iPhone shots, and mostly horrible, but I hope to grab more with each session; it’s already March and we have but a dearth of photos to show for it!
Remy brought over another DVD offering, as he is prone to do, and I was treated to the belated comedy that is Role Models. It’s the best movie about a mid-life crisis ever made, I’d have to wager. It’s also a good reason why I never got into LARPing and probably what people think of when I say I play Dungeons and Dragons. While I have been known to don my robe and wizard’s hat from time to time, I don’t think I’d ever go to a city park with a foam sword and play pretend Lord of the Realms 2. It’s a curious thing, too, because LARPing involves far more social interaction and physical exertion than any D&D campaign, yet it’s absolutely considered lower on the ladder of pathetic nerd shit that we just love to roll around in. Ah well, fake royalty and overwhelming old lady cleavage press on regardless.
The Watchman animated comic was another thing that Remy brought over (he does this a lot) and, with the box-office launch tomorrow, I can feel the overwhelming hype ripping at the seams of the internet. Many have seen it already, through special pre-screenings, and I haven’t heard a negative review yet. The more I think about the change to the ending, the more I can’t wrap my head around it; when you get down to brass tacks, that ending is the entire underlying plotline of the comic! I can tell you this much: I’d rather spend the cost of a movie ticket or DVD sale to instead watch Scott Kurtz parody the entire thing, as he’s doing here. That shit is comedy gold! And you know what? It’s probably the funniest and most welcome thing I’ll read all year. I’m just going to be sad when it’s run its course.
I grabbed the soundtrack to the Sims 2, which features a mash-up of “real” music whereas the first game was mostly original content involving classical piano (which I love). I say “real” music because the guys at Maxis sign deals with musicians to record some of their hits but in “simlish”, which is a fake language they created for the game. Hearing Something for Rocket’s “I never know” for the first time in simlish was enough to make me want to get the real thing, and this proceeded along for quite a few other songs. What else made it my recent playlist? The Street Fighter soundtrack is on there, or the intro is at any rate, and then there’s this.
I haven’t really had any Lunesta or Vyvanse since I last posted. The former didn’t do anything for me in the long run, and the latter hasn’t had any real need. I think the average person falls asleep in 8 minutes, which I call bullshit on because this is a nation of Ambien and insomnia. Maybe if you average the 1.5 hours it takes me to get to sleep with the 10 seconds it takes someone on Ambien, you’ll get that number, but I refuse to believe that I could ever reach a point in life where I could restfully doze off in under ten minutes. I’d have to have worked my ass off the hours prior and be physically exhausted from staying up on top of that. Getting away from that gripe, I guess I thought I’d bring it up since I had so much to say last time. I actually did experience the metallic taste the night of that post, but it wasn’t as awful as some people made it out to be. You’re just lucky this shit doesn’t cause testicular cancer and scientists wont know about it for five years.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Personally, I didn’t really like the sci-fi feeling behind the giant squid monster. I think this seems more realistic and easier not only for the “average” person to wrap their head around, but also easier to produce in film.
In case you didn’t notice, people really wanted a movie made out of this and there have been several attempts, but nothing ever got off the ground until this one.
Btw, I’m going Saturday night with Mychael to see it in imax at the Spectrum. I asked Garrett to ask if anyone wanted to go, but no response yet… He probably forget..
March 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Really? You honestly think people are going to have a hard time “wrapping their heads around” a plot device when we have such outlandish bullshit movies out there already?
I’ve come to realize that the average movie goer is either A) Incredibly and utterly stupid or B) has everyone convinced he is. One of the biggest things that Alan Moore, creator of the Watchman, said about Hollywood and a “Watchmen” movie is that it’s like a mother bird regurgitated food into baby bird’s mouths. In other words, it gobbles shit up and then just spits it at people and they eat it up; there’s no pacing in movies, there’s never enough energy or time put into getting the same level of art and subtly that the original format had, and you’ve got a shit load of image wrecking marketing that goes with it (the Watchmen video game blew). It’s just you the consumer sitting down and eating whatever they give you.
So yeah, okay… maybe the squid is “too much” for people who’ve seen shit like Hostel and Saw, and in a story where a blue naked guy goes to mars, lord knows a squid is too sci-fi.
Without the squid, there is no island. Without the island, just what exactly is it that the Comedian discovers that makes Veidt want to kill him? A conversation between he and Dr. Manhatten RE: going nuclear? Okay… but if Manhatten is in on the whole thing, how do you explain the scenes with him investigating the mysterious shit behind Veidt’s doings? It’s tweaking a big plot line and I’m pissed.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Comedian probably finds out about Viedt’s stockpile of nuclear weapons or something… Are you that dense? He blames Manhatten for the bombing of NY and he accepts it and leaves because it is better for humans that way, the same as the book. It’s basically the same because everyone was blaming John for the increase in tension in nuclear threats anyway.
Like I said, I never liked the island and squid part of the novel anyway, so I like the movie that much more for leaving it out. I think the novel should have been that way. Instead of Ozymandias explaining to the world that they should be wary of alien invasions and unite that way, they unite after a huge catastrophe caused by the one that increased nuclear threat in the first place.
When you make a movie that is exactly the same as the novel, is there any point to reading that novel after seeing the movie? Of course not. It’s the same way that people can argue that animes have the right to change mangas. They’ve been doing well for themselves for a while too.
And furthermore, the only really sci-fi about the story prior to the squid is Dr. Manhatten. At least he flows with the story and has sympathy and understanding from the audience (with his background as a normal guy). I feel like the squid & island were just sort of thrown in there when the writer got high or tripped on acid one day.
To conclude, people have been asking for a movie to be made forever. Most people took it for a real surprise that they made it as good as it is. In the end, it’s a movie doomed by its original story.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
During the Cold War, if the U.S. blew New York up while fucking around with nuclear weapons, do you really think that would have resolved in world peace? Hell no. Didn’t you ever see War Games? The US would have thought that the USSR dropped the bomb on New York (they don’t know about Ozymandias’ plan, remember?) and then they would have shot a nuke off and that just doesn’t make sense as a plan for Ozymandias.
What I heard is that Ozymandias convinces Dr. Manhatten to go nuclear so that HE is the threat the world unites behind. I don’t know if that is true or not, but even that one doesn’t make sense to me because Dr. Manhatten is a symbol of American strength so it’d just give the USSR more reason to gain allies against the US and their foolish experiments.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s something else entirely, but I really don’t think this is a case of, “Oh they changed it in the movie so it’s automatically terrible.” I am not mad just because of stubborn nerd opinion; I genuinely dislike the changes I’ve heard so far.
I’m sure it will be an enjoyable movie and makes lots of money and even get a lot of people to buy and read the original comic. I just dislike the idea of dashing the creator’s original image for the benefit of Hollywood.
March 7th, 2009 at 12:19 am
I swear my boyfriend falls asleep that fast. It pisses me off so I sometimes wake him up.
When will he learn?
March 7th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Hail, Lunesta!
March 7th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Ah yes. To-sleep, perchance-to-dream.