Grim, dark, and amazing.

Batman Begins was fabulous, an excellent reboot to a cinematic series that had previously been filled with corn and hash and cheesiness more aptly suited for the 1970s TV show than for the silver screen.  It was a great flick to bring a little respectability back to the Batman franchise.  Good as it was, however, The Dark Knight was so much better.

Usually, when a superhero flick has more than one villain, the movie suffers from dilution of the plot.  The writing demonstrates shortcuts for the sake of time that ultimately only serve to undermine the integrity of the film as a whole.  Not so with The Dark Knight.  The plot was beefy and fulfilling from start to finish, and when it was all done, I wanted even more. 

If possible, the cast for TDK was even stronger than the one for Batman Begins.  Christian Bale continues to hold a strong presence as billionaire Bruce Wayne and dark avenger Batman, with Michael Caine as the loyal Alfred Pennyworth and Morgan Freeman as Lucias Fox, the genius maker of toys for Gotham’s greatest hero.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is a more than suitable replacement for Katie Holmes as love interest Rachel Dawes, bringing a vibrance to the role that Ms. Holmes was simply unable to accomplish.  Aaron Eckhart’s portrayal of DA Harvey Dent was strong, doubly so when the disfiguring tragedy that cost him the love of his life shatters the mind of Gotham’s white knight. 

But perhaps the strongest player in this film is the much talked about Heath Ledger as the Joker.  Never before have I enjoyed the role of the Joker so much, but Ledger made this most famous of Batman’s arch-nemeses stand out from the screen.  Everything from the insane makeup to the suicidal and chaotic schemes to the final showdown was energetic and enjoyable.  He was the epitome of the villain that you loved to hate.  It’s a shame that Ledger’s talents have been lost forever.  He was by far the best Joker ever.

I certainly hope that Christopher Nolan continues to work with the Batman franchise and that he is able to keep this incredible cast of actors.  These last two films have been more than redemption for abysmal failures that came before them.  Nolan has taken Batman to the silver screen and made this iconic hero his own.

I think perhaps the thing that I have enjoyed most about these two films as the realism of the circumstances, the way the events play out to make me think, “Yeah!  I could see that happening in real life.” Nolan never once forced me to suspend my disbelief all the way to the breaking point, and so I never once found myself slipping from the storyline in disbelief.  His characters are all deeply sympathetic and moving, and I look forward to seeing more from him soon.

IntenseDebate: A commenting system that rocks!

A little while back, I heard the news that Automattic, the folks who develop WordPress, acquired a couple of new services.  One of these is called IntenseDebate, a dynamic commenting system that’s compatible with several different blogging platforms.  Initially, I’d installed it on Reclaimer as a test drive but pretty quickly removed it again.  At that point I didn’t feel it was ready, and my readers confirmed my opinion (rather vocally, I might add). 

About three weeks later, IntenseDebate came back out of their invite-only mode, so it was time to give it another try – and the updates have made all the difference.  I’m running IntenseDebate on four of my sites now, and I’ve watched discussion on Reclaimer alone double and, in a couple of cases, triple from what it was before I had IntenseDebate installed.  Granted, IntenseDebate still has periodic issues and it doesn’t have quite all the features I’d like to see, but it’s improving with each new update, and I’m confident that it will continue to improve.

One of my favorite things about IntenseDebate is the ability to award Reputation Points to quality commenters.  It encourages discussion, I think, and rewards those individuals who leave good comments.  I’d be curious to see the algorithm that determines the ‘leveling up’ of one’s reputation, though, since it’s easier to earn Reputation Points early on and harder later.

There’s good stuff here with IntenseDebate, and now that it’s part of Automattic, I’m confident that it will continue to grow into a quality product.  I’m hoping as time goes on, more and more bloggers and websites will adopt IntenseDebate, making it a truly powerful community-building system.

Driving, jumping, crashing, burning.

I recently pulled Burnout: Paradise back out of its box and plunked it down in the tray.  The reason?  My wife bought me a 26” HDTV for Christmas, which is a huge step up from a 13” SDTV.  Turns out, you can actually see the streets and cars of Paradise City a lot better on a bigger screen.  And let me just say, Burnout: Paradise in HD is absolutely stunning to look at.

Paradise is a bit of a departure from previous games in the series in that, instead of selecting individual events from a map, you actually have to drive around the city and surrounding suburbs to find all the Races, Road Rage events, Marked Man duels, Burning Routes, and more.  In the process you have to find the 400 yellow gates to crash (indicating various shortcuts you can use) and nearly 200 billboards to break through.  There are also Super Jump locations, places where high speed is necessary to make a crossing – and grab a snapshot while you’re at it.

I’ve really enjoyed this second look at the game, and there is so much detail to be seen on a larger screen.  If you like your cars fast, your crashes spectacular, and your adrenaline rushing, then this is the game for you.

Speed Racer driving toward a win.

A lot of reviews of Speed Racer hail it as yet another example of just how far the Wachowski brothers have fallen since The Matrix.  But I have a hard time identifying anything about the flick to criticize.  It’s cheesy and campy, sure, but it’s artistic, fast-paced, and a whole heckuvalot of fun.  The Wachowski brothers have a knack for creating unique aesthetics and wrapping a story inside them.  The colors of Speed Racer are gawdy, but that just adds to the appeal. On top of that, the camera angles and visuals are flashy and very anime-esque.  The story itself is a feel-good tale of family values and doing what’s right.  I’ve watched Speed Racer a handful of times now, and it’s a delight to watch every, single time.

That said, I’m not overly thrilled with the new BioShock title for Xbox 360.  I played through the demo a couple of evenings ago, and at first I was thrilled to discover a game with an intriguing steampunk-style storyline.  I mean, what’s not to love about an entire sub-oceanic city built during the World War II era?  Of course, it didn’t take long to discover that this pseudo-steampunk game has a far darker side than I like.  Something has gone terribly wrong in a very Dr. Moreauian kind of way.  The inhabitants of this aquatic city – Rapture – have apparently been the subjects of experimental genetic experiments, and now most, if not all, of them are now monsters that more closely resemble zombies than humans. 

My first clue that I was going to hate this game was the creature that attacked the pod I rode into Rapture on.  My second clue was when I picked up my first weapon – a pipe wrench.  I had immediate flashbacks to the Prey demo, and sure enough, the first battles against the enraged citizens of Rapture were every bit as bloody and distasteful.  Of course, I acquired a pistol a little further on that I never quite got the hang of using (it took me three or four shots to lay out just one of the zombie-like genetically-altered creatures of Rapture).

A number of reviews I’ve read rave about BioShock, and one even ran a comparison of the game against Halo 3.  Ultimately, though, I decided that BioShock is zombies meets steampunk meets science fiction.  It’s that first part that turns me off to it and ultimately ends up being the reason why I won’t be buying the game.

Valhalla

Valhalla is far and away my favorite map of the three.  It’s a roughly symmetrical map set in a valley with a base at each end.  A small stream flows through middle, bisecting the map and giving a little visual interest.  And let me just say that the water effects are stunning!

My favorite new thing here is the man-cannon – grav lifts tilted to a 45-degree angle so as to launch your avatar into the map.  Each base has two man-cannons, one of which shoots you straight to the middle of the map and one that shoots you 30-degrees off to one side.  Your gametype strategy will often determine if you use one of these and which direction you wish to launch. 

Each base also hold a variety of weapons, two Mongooses, and a Warthog – the latter of which now features a pumped-up chain gun that will quickly lay waste to almost all opposition. 

There are all kinds of great locations on this map for various strategic maneuvers.  Commanding the knolls in the middle, though, is often the best spot for controlling the map.  A sniper rifle or Spartan laser based here can kill just about anything that moves.  But watch out for that ‘Hog and gunner because they can drive over that hill before you realize you’ve even been gunned down.  So far, my favorite gametypes for this map are Team Slayer and Territories.  I’ve yet to play a CTF game, so I don’t really know how the dynamics play out here.

High Ground

High Ground is just that – a ruined base sitting at the top of the hill that must be defended (or stormed) at all costs.  Access can be gained through a portable grav lift over the wall on the left side, through the bunker at the base of the wall, through the main gate (that first has to be opened from inside the base, by a stairwell on the right side, or through a short tunnel off the staircase.  Despite these access points, the defense can quickly force a chokehold on access, making it very difficult to secure those territories, grab the flag, or plant the bomb. 

Weapons litter the map, and two new action items – the bubble shield and the power drain – grace this map with their presence, affecting the dynamics of battle in new and interesting ways. 

Oh, and watch out for those spike grenades.  They stick to whatever surface they strike and throw shrapnel every which-way.  They’re only instantly deadly is they get stuck to you, but they’ll take your shields down in an instant, if you happen to get caught in the blast cone.

Storm the base, take the High Ground.  That’s what this map’s all about.

Snowbound

Snowbound is my least favorite map at the moment, but it’s growing on me the more I play it.  This map features two bases in a winter landscape.  The bases are connected by an underground tunnel, and there are a series of force-fields in each.  Players can pass through, but weapons-fire and grenades cannot – you might just find yourself with a face full of explodey if you’re not careful.

Be careful not to walk outside the perimeter of the map – there are cannons lined up for the sole purpose of blasting your sorry butt back onto the map.  So, no straying!

Ghosts are the vehicles of choice on Snowbound.  After all, anything with wheels simply won’t roll well on this terrain.  Oh, and grenades don’t bounce on the snow, either.  Remember that.

All in all I’m loving the Halo 3 Beta.  The visuals are fabulous, taking advantage of the greater processing power of the Xbox 360 and launching the Halo experience to the next level.  I can’t wait to see what multiplayer maps get released in the final version in September!

Odd has other gifts as well.  One is something that he calls “psychic magnetism” – it is the ability that, when he thinks almost exclusively about a single person (living), he will inevitably be drawn to them.  He can walk or drive, seemingly at random, but ultimately will nearly always find the object of his thoughts.  Odd has discovered that this can also work in reverse, by drawing people to him of whom he is thinking.  This is typically the less desirable option, as it can have the unintended consequence of drawing danger blindly to himself.  So Odd prefers to seek out the object before it can find him.

There are also creatures that Odd calls bodachs, though that is not actually what they are.  These beings are singularly evil, being shadowy creatures that are drawn to cataclysmic events – events that, if not prevented, end in immeasurable pain and suffering.  These bodachs seem to delight and subsist on these horrors, so wherever Odd is aware of bodachs, he works to determine what this event will be and attempts to stop it before it can begin.

In Odd Thomas we are introduced to this colorful and unique character as he, along with the love of his life, Stormy Llewellyn, a girl every bit as odd as Odd himself, race toward an unknown but devastating event that has brought hundreds of bodachs to the sleepy little town of Pico Mundo, California.  Odd and Stormy race against time, fleeing poltergeists, meeting with ghosts (who, incidentally do not communicate with the living), driving the ghost of Elvis around town, and seeking out ruthless killers.  Not a bad day’s work for a fry cook.

Like the rest of Koontz’s work, Odd Thomas is fast-paced from beginning to end and captivating to the last page.  Who else could literally resurrect the King of Rock and Roll without the effect being cludgy?  You’ll love Odd Thomas and the entire cast of characters that springs up around him – from a delightfully (but frightfully) obese author to the sheriff of Pico Mundo to the owner of the Pico Grille where Odd slings up hash every morning.  This book is a great read and must-have for all Dean Koontz fans.

Upcoming Reviews: Forever Odd by Dean Koontz, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Old Man’s War was wildly entertaining, riddled with wit and humor that kept me laughing all the way through while opening a window into a possible future where humanity has to fight in order to live and expand.  The chronicles the experiences of John Perry as he leaves Earth at the ripe age of 75 to enlist in the Colonial Defense Forces and travels the universe fighting battles on numerous planets, battles which will help ensure that humanity will continue to survive in the universe.

OMW is a quick read – it’s done almost before you realize it.  It’s a simple read – light on deep philosophical ponderings² with a smattering of hard sci-fi throughout (see, skip drives).  The sarcasm and humor will keep you chuckling with almost every page turn, and the descriptions of technology and events will keep you entranced.

This was a very fun read and much more light-natured than I expected.³ I’m already eager to get my hands on a copy of The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony, as well as a copy of The Sagan Diary.  I think I’ve just become a Scalzi fan.

Upcoming Reviews: Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

1. The book actually felt like a cross between Starship Troopers and I Will Fear No Evil.
2. Unlike a number of other science fiction novels I’ve read recently.
3. In hindsight, shouldn’t have been such a huge surprise; I have, after all, been reading Scalzi’s blog for quite some time now and have become fairly well-acquainted with his particular brand of humor.

Elantris

This is the tale of three people whose separate stories interweave intimately with one another as they struggle to bring order out of chaos.  The story is filled with political intrigue and magic, dead men and demons, noblemen and traitors.  You come to love Raoden and Sarene and to hate Hrathen and his follower Dilaf.  Yet, in all cases you empathize with the characters, sympathizing with their dilemmas.  Sanderson has built rich characters in this book that drive the story onward to a climax and resolution that leaves you breathless.  This is by far one of the best and most enjoyable fantasy novels I’ve read.

While Elantris stands alone as a single, self-contained novel, this reader hopes that Sanderson will return to the land of Arelon again.  Many questions remain to be explored an answered – the origins of the Aons, the tying of the Aons to Arelon, the origin of the lake, and the origins of the Seons, to name just a few – as well as potential conflicts to be faced – Dakhor Monastery, Wyrn.  Sanderson has said that a return to Arelon is not necessarily out of the question.  In the meantime, I know that I’ll be collecting his other books and keeping him at the top of my reading list.

Upcoming Book Reviews: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Eldest picks up the story immediately where Eragon leaves off and is, in my opinion, an even better story than the first volume in this trilogy.  Eragon makes his way to the forest of Du Weldenvarden to complete his training with the elves and become a Dragon Rider, one who will hopefully be powerful enough to face and overthrow the evil Galbatorix.  In the process, young Eragon faces numerous philosophical and intellectual challenges, in addition to his physical and magickal training.  He experiences heartache, betrayal, and loss before leaving us with a cliffhanger ending.  The evolution of Paolini’s writing style shines through in this second volume.

These two novels may be classified as Young Adult fiction, but they are well-crafted and strong enough for anyone to enjoy.  Paolini tackles some difficult topics and, in so doing, weaves together a world that is fascinatingly complex.  Lovers of fantasy fiction will enjoy these two books and eagerly await the arrival of the third.  It only remains to be seen, then, whether Paolini will extend this universe beyond this initial trilogy into an epic series to rival the likes of Middle Earth and the land of Shannara.

Hamilton’s opening 2-volume novel, broken down into The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence and The Reality Dysfunction Part 2: Expansion, introduces many of the pivotal characters in this series (though not, by any stretch of the imagination, all of them).  We pay witness to a humanity that has spread throughout over 800 planets across the galaxy.  There is also a group of humans who have branched off from the main body of humanity and have embraced biotechnology to become the Edenist culture.  They dwell in living habitats, each of which has its own personality.

In these two volumes, humanity is forced, through a chance accident, to face the fact that each human being has an immortal as the souls of billions of those who have died begin to invade and possess the bodies of the living.  The possessed spread like wildfire and begin taking entire planets out of the universe.  Humanity is faced with a crisis, though none yet know just how dire the situation actually is.

In The Neutronium Alchemist Part 1: Consolidation and The Neutronium Alchemist Part 2: Conflict, humanity and the possessed alike rush headlong in search of a rumored doomsday weapon.  The possessed want to use it against the humans, and the humans simply wish to destroy it.  All the while, the possessed gain a stronger foothold and one possessed in particular wishes to bring about the complete destruction of all – human and possessed alike – for the sake of his bloodthirsty lord. 

Meanwhile, the records of one alien race make mention of an all-powerful entity that may provide the solution to the possession crisis, and a handful of individuals gather together in preparation to seek out this god.  Events heat up and the action starts to kick into high gear in Part 2 of The Neutronium Alchemist.

The last book in the trilogy, The Naked God Part 1: Flight – Part 1 and The Naked God Part 2: Faith, proves to be the most exciting and breakneck book of the three.  A small bands of non-possessed humans go in search of the Tyrathca god, hoping that it will be able to shed some enlightenment or help on the crisis.  In the meantime, the rest of humanity wages war against the possessed, at great cost to both sides.

The back cover of The Naked God Part 2 provides a hint to the conclusion of this series: deus ex machina.  Joshua Calvert and company find a being powerful enough to provide resolution to the crisis, giving humanity a reprieve from the possessed and sending the lost souls on into what afterlife awaits.  Deus ex machina is appropriate both in the literary mechanic of a being that provides a solution to an insoluble difficulty as well as in the literal translation, god from the machine – in this case, god is the machine and provides the only solution that will save humanity from utter destruction.

This trilogy requires some patience to read through.  As stated above, it starts out rather slowly as Hamilton introduces multiple story arcs and develops the backstory for each of his main characters.  The plot trudges along for the book three volumes and doesn’t really start to really get rolling until the beginning of The Naked God.  But then, the ending is so breathtaking that it makes the long wait well worth it, as Hamilton piles more action, intensity, and plot twists into that last book than in the first two combined.  If you can hold on through that first half, you will greatly enjoy the series as a whole.

Hamilton’s universe is a fascinating one of technology and cultures, as several alien races interact with one another and with humanity.  It is a broad, comprehensive look at a possible future, dire in its predictions yet hopeful in its conclusions.  This series has seemingly religious undertones to it at points, but ultimately, nearly every facet of the story is explained in some sort of scientific terms.  The hard sci-fi adherent will probably take Hamilton to task for some his creative liberties, but for the sci-fi fan who simply desires good fiction, this trilogy comes well-recommended.²

1. It’s so big that the three books had to be further subdivided into six volumes.
2. I still think Hamilton wrote too much sex into the books, though nothing overly graphic, but that’s almost par for the course with science fiction.

One of my favorite features of the game is the cinematic effects.  The camera angles shift as you move along, providing you with unique and interesting viewpoints.  Of course, these camera angles can also sometimes be annoying, but such instances are few and far between.  The fighting sequences are both fun and frustrating, but once you get the rhythm, they’re generally pretty easy¹ to move through. 

I really enjoyed this game, so much so that I’ve already started a second run-through, and despite having beaten it once, it’s actually no easier the second time around.  Of course, a healthy dose of over-confidence may be partially to blame for this.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time comes highly recommended from me.

1. ‘Easy’ here is a relative term.

MySpace is, indeed, evil.

There are a number of reasons why I say this.  For one thing, customizing site profiles breaks just about every rule for good web page design that there is.  The way the site is set up, for instance, margins break all the time.  I use a 1024×768 screen resolution on my monitor, and far too often I am forced to sidescroll twice that width in order to view the entire page.  This is usually due to the annoying practice that many MySpacers have of pasting images that have no business appearing on a computer screen into the comments.  Someone left one such comment on my own profile, and I summarily deleted it.  It would be better to completely disallow images in the comments, but I do not see such a thing occurring anytime in the near future.

Apparently, few people have ever been told that it is really bad form to load onto their web pages audio or video files that start automatically.  It is not uncommon to surf to a MySpace profile where at least one audio file is playing, and sometimes there are two or three playing on top of each other.  Two words – cacophony.  Links to files are good; embedded files are bad.

MySpace also gives non-registered users the sense that there is more happening behind the scenes.  I was disappointed to find that this is not really the case.  Yes, there are image and video galleries that are only accessible to registered users.  There is also a pseudo-mail system at work and bulletin boards, but aside from that, there really isn’t a whole lot happening on the backend.  What you see on the front page is pretty much all there is.  Again, two words – blasé.

My end conclusion is that MySpace is a lot of fluff and nonsense with no real substance.  It’s a social profiling site, and in my opinion, that’s a waste of both time and effort.  If I really wanted to get to know someone, I would do it in real life, not through a shoddy, poorly designed web page system.  Take part in a discussion forum, chat over Xbox Live, meet people in real life, but by all means, whatever you do, avoid MySpace.  There are better ways to socialize over the Internet than via this site.²

A well-designed MySpace profile can be a good thing and can be very useful if you want to promote something, like a new novel or a band you’re in, etc., but such profiles are a scarcity.  The amount of junk and the number of broken profiles that proliferate the system far outweigh any advantages MySpace holds.  As such, it’s best left alone. 

Maybe we’ll get lucky and the whole thing will cave in on itself.  We can hope.

1. And no, I’m not providing a link; it’s probably not going to be active much longer, anyway.
2. By the way, I hold the same opinion about similar sites, like Facebook, etc.

A big part of the humor for me revolved around the redneck character Mater.  His over-the-top antics reminded me all too well of the hillbilly community in which I grew up.  The tractor tipping scene left me laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face.

I admit to being somewhat apprehensive when I first saw previews for this film.  It appeared that this film might be less interesting and humorous than most of Pixar’s prior works, but I was delighted to be proven wrong on this count.  Cars makes a wonderful addition to their collection of animated films as well as a great addition to our personal movie library.

The DVD also contains two short films.  Mater and the Ghostlight is hilariously funny and will leave you in stitches, and One Man Band follows in the footsteps of Pixar’s delightful film shorts.

I’m looking forward to seeing Ratatouille, the next of Pixar’s upcoming animated films.

Rating: 5/5

In “The Last Stand” we finally get to the see the epic battle between mutants and humans and between mutants and mutants.  Magneto finally puts together his Brotherhood to face-off with the X-men.  Epic though it may have been, however, it was still less dramatic than one might have expected, considering the power of the mutants involved.  But there are limitations to what can be done on the silver screen, both in the visual range and in the time allotted.  Ultimately, the final product was more than acceptable, though the Phoenix’s ending was perhaps slightly cheesier and more simplistic than believability might allow.

The storyline for the third film was a logical progression of the first two and was, in my opinion, stronger than the second chapter.  Put together, the three films make a highly entertaining and enjoyable series to add to the collections of comic book lovers and speculative fiction enthusiasts everywhere.

Rating: 4/5