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Green Lantern: First Flight Review

August 9th 2009 06:25
Green Lantern: First Flight



Official Web Site Watch the intro, I really liked it. Also, the wallpapers are less than satisfactory for me.

This movie was an animated film about the origins of the first Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. It was good. You might also be thinking that after seeing the words "animated" and "green lantern", that this would be some immature kid movie like the crap shows you see on TV, but it was actually very human and mature. This was an issue for me, since I'm sick of animated shows coming out about heroes like batman, and the makers are scared of showing blood. Between jokes about drunk sex in Cabo, and some mild swearing, the characters portrayed are surprisingly deep and subtle.

I heard about a Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern film, and admittedly, I think that would beat the pants off of this (if directed correctly), but that is just because I grew up on Disney classics and Dragon Ball Z. If it's not Lion King, or straight up anime, I probably won't like it regardless. This is about the best they could've done with the animated movie and the things that were available to them (I would LOVE to see a movie like this come out with a HUGE budget and really well executed, but alas, animation is a lost art in the box office).

The animation in this movie is extremely well done and detailed. I loved some of the space-scapes and original places, like the Star Wars like space bar, the Green Lantern Headquarters, and the space station in one of the later scenes. The action was very well done as well. I think the action in these is very easy to do relatively, since it's a bit more obvious than heroes like Batman, or even people like Wonder Woman or the Flash.

The voice acting was great. No one sounded out of place, and I read online (from the REAL geek sites) that they paid homage to original voice actors that did the series and the characters themselves. I'm not too into Green Lantern itself (but I love the concept) so I honestly have no idea about it.

I read the reviews and a lot were very good, so I thought this would be a good thing to watch, and I was very pleased that it wasn't a repeat of Batman: Gotham Knight (more on that way later). I think it's a great way for all of you grudging geeks to get into this series and learn a little backstory.

The directing was AMAZING, and I loved it. The shots chosen were great and the pace and all of that was done very well. I'm a sucker for traditional comic book music, so I loved that too.

The only complaints I have about it are that some of the writing isn't too well done, and that the art itself is not stylistically what I'd like to see. About the writing, I feel that some of the dialogue tries too hard to be witty and just came across as juvenile (cheap laughs). Sometimes it felt like what the characters were saying was too predictable and stereotypical of this genre. The art is also another thing that bugs me. Justice League Unlimited and most of the older animated super hero shows were a lot like this one (everything I know but "The Batman"). To me, it just says that this is a kiddy movie, despite the PG-13 rating (look below). I'd like to see something different done with the art, and that's one of the only aspects of Batman: Gotham Knight that I liked. The art made that movie/compilation more enjoyable (which, admittedly, wasn't too hard).

Penultimately, I must issue a warning to all parents that this is not something your kid should watch if (s)he's not old enough for the "birds and the bees" talk. I'd probably let a mature 10 year old watch it, but that's the limit for me. There is a scene with implicit (space) drug use, swearing, gory violence (impalement to be exact), and references to alcohol consumption and sexual relations.

Useful information about this movie for those more hardcore

It's wikipedia page


It's IMDB

Overall it's a great movie and a good animated comic book adaption, and those are hard to come by.
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Why We Should All Hate RPGs.

August 7th 2009 05:03


At first glance, I thought that goblin looked kind of inviting (it was really small when I looked this image up). Now I realize that he's just trying to kill me and eat my innards. This is what RPGs do to us. There's a reason that videogames cost money, and it's so that we are more reluctant to buy them and we only get sucked into ones that we can afford.

Well, that's until I went to my public library, around May or June, and I realized that their selection was actually ridiculously good. I had previously played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and I had gotten totally sucked into it. Up until I had lost my posse, I had been completely enthralled in the game.

Once I realized that the storyline was equivalent to that show my sister watches, So You Think You Can Dance, I stopped and returned the disc.

That was the only game I actually got from the library, until I spotted the first KOTOR. For a week this summer, I was COMPLETELY incommunicado. If you asked what my gmail and facebook statuses were for the whole week, I would've laughed and then said "Playing KOTOR, please call." I played until I got to the boos battle and there was nothing else to do. I had three hours before I had to start paying for it (late fees and such), and I decided not to risk the effort and long cut scene at the end.

Three days ago (you can tell because I took a break from Orble), I rented Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. This was ridiculous. I was completely obsessed with getting tons of money, becoming a first class thief, and monk, and completing the game. This is when I woke up and said, "Will becoming a Master in the Thieve's Guild really matter in three days?" Then I decided that, yes, it really did.

Role Playing Games are hopelessly addicting, and my advice to anyone would be that you should block off the time you want to spend on that game. If you are like me, and one mission could take upwards of 30 minutes since you want to exhaust all your opportunities and milk it, this game (and by "this game", I mean any good RPG) could take a really, really long time.

I'm going to go play more Morrowind now, because I want to advance in the Thieve's Guild, but you guys out there can have fun doing real things.


I guess.

P. S. Please don't get into a debate over what a real Role Playing game is. If you can change the outcome of the game, it's an RPG. Kingdom Hearts is not an RPG. The Elder Scrolls Series is totally an RPG. urbandictionary definition Wikipedia definition
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