Ghostbusters Trailer (2016)

Why is this trailer making the movie look so bad?

The first thing I’m going to point out is the black woman stereotype because it’s the one aspect of this movie that should piss people off the most. Ernie Hudson did not portray Winston Zeddemore as a black stereotype. Winston was an everyman, a blue collar working man, the 80s were hard, and he needed a job – “If it means getting a steady paycheque, I’ll believe anything you say.”

Now I’ve been told that Leslie Jones has this loud angry black woman shtick on Saturday Night Live. Fine, it’s a comedy show, they do skits, they make fun. She may have some range but the writers of this new Ghostbusters movie aren’t willing to take a risk. What do we hear from her when we first see her? “You girls may be good at this science stuff but I know New York.” Translated: You girls are book smart but I’m street smart. Yes, it’s the year 2016 and audiences still aren’t ready to see an educated black woman in their movies. And during Melissa McCarthy’s possession Jones becomes a Southern Baptist. What the hell?

Secondly, the comedy is sorely lacking. Ok, I know funny is subjective but come on. Wit is replaced by gross-out gags (puking slime ghost), slapstick (head turning, face-slapping ghost possession), low-brow (stuck in every crack) humour. I don’t think anything hits the mark here and if that’s the case in the trailer, where you’re typically meant to get a flavour for the movie, then the full feature is going to be really disappointing.

Thirdly, it’s not really clear where this movie is set in relation to the previous movies. It was supposed to be its own tale set apart from the originals but this trailer refers to them at the beginning. So is it a reboot or is it set in the same universe 30 years later?

Positives – well the ghosts look nice even if I don’t like the design choice; Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig are good actors; there’s a decent supporting cast. Unfortunately, right now, it doesn’t look like being a fun movie.

No Mega Structures Found Yet – SETI

So the good folks at SETI don’t think there’s an alien megastructure around KIC 8462852. My stupid brain is inclined to agree with that assumption. The universe is big. Bigger than any one of us can get our heads round. The vast distances between stars is unsettling, particularly to generations of folks who grew up watching Star Trek and Star Wars both of which told us the universe was teeming with life and everyone mingled sometimes in harmony, other times not. Our universe is much bigger than that and the chances of us encountering another civilisation are extremely slim. There could be millions of civilisations out there and none of them would come into contact.

However, there is always a chance, and for those hoping there’s a Dyson sphere out there, here’s a few reasons why SETI could be wrong.

SETI can’t eavesdrop on alien chatter. The distance to KIC 8462852 is far too great and there is no way we could pick up local signals. The only way SETI could have found a signal is if 1400 years ago those hypothetical aliens building the mega structure or structures were aiming a signal directly at us for 2 days. A signal that we could interpret and one powerful enough to travel the distance so that we could hear it.

That’s assuming they send out radio signals. A civilisation building a Dyson sphere, Dyson rings, or something similar around a star are likely past the use of radio and using something far more efficient to communicate vast distances. The aliens may not be transmitting anything at all. If there are civilisations out there, they may not want to let anyone know for fear of who or what may be listening. ET may not come in peace.

Of course SETI could be right but for the wrong reason. There may not be active signals because what we’re seeing is the remnants of a mega structure. It could be a forgotten relic of a civilisation long dead or even one that has moved on to a more stable system.

Or, more ominously, it was destroyed when an unimaginably advanced alien race hell-bent on aggressive colonisation passed through and obliterated everything.

But that’s probably not what happened. It’s just space rocks.

Warcraft Trailer Released

The world of Azeroth is being brought to the big screen and the new trailer of Warcraft looks like a very familiar type of movie.

 

You’ve got your sweeping landscapes; look at that cinematography; you have your enlightened leaders who desire to cooperate with each other for a better, safer world; and you have your angry confidants, suspicious of the other side and wanting their destruction.

The success of Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth tales tells us, and more importantly tells the heads of film studios, that high fantasy is big business. The opinion is reinforced further by the popularity of HBO’s Game of Thrones. So, it comes as no surprise that the vast world of Warcraft would be selected as the next big adaptation to takes orcs, elves, dwarves, and magic to your local theatres.

The movie seems to be based on Orcs and Humans as we see a clip of the Orcs fleeing their dying land of Draenor and seeking to make Azeroth their new home. We see glimpses of the dark portal; we see baby Thrall in the arms of Durotan, and in a shot getting sent down the river by Draka in what I assume is an attempt to protect him from the war; and we see a pretty impressive Stormwind, and in the keep at the council table you can just make out a dwarf and what appears to be a couple of high elves.

At the end of the trailer, Fel Orcs, Frostwolf  Orcs, and Stormwind soldiers face off in a mighty battle. Hard to tell if it’s a battle of three armies or two with possibly the Frostwolf Orcs on the side of either the Fel or the Alliance.

Looks like it might be alright.

Activision & King – Match made In Hell

King Digital Entertainment, the nastiest mobile game company in the world, is being acquired by Activision Blizzard. For $5.9 billion. To put that into perspective, when Disney bought Lucasfilm a few years ago they paid George Lucas $4 billion. King will keep its current structure and operate as a subsidiary under Activision who, in turn, will be gaining a ready made mobile development studio that knows how to make money.

King generates well over $500 million in profit every year but it has only been doing that since 2013. Like all mobile developers it depends on a few hits to generate interest among casual gamers and it’s not easy to predict what those hits will be. Those games also tend to have a short lifespan as the attention of their target audience is diverted to the next big mobile app.

The majority of people who play the game probably don’t even know who make it. Don’t know what a nasty, scummy company they are. I guess Activision will be happy with all the money they make from COD/Candy Crush crossovers.

The best reaction to the news was on the Twitter.

Activision acquires Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment for $5.9B in the largest accidental in-app purchase in history.

— sean rose (@sean_a_rose) November 3, 2015

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How Deadpool Spent Hallowe’en

Good guy Ryan Reynolds took to the streets this past Hallowe’en to recruit some young mutants to foil crime and kick some ass. Or commit a little crime and kick some ass. The actor, a big fan of the Marvel anti-hero, is clearly enjoying the perks of the role and uploaded a video of his Hallowe’en endeavour. In the video he’s in character speaking to a group of children dressed as various members of the X-Men.

 

It was probably pre-planned and the kids have most likely been fed some lines but it’s still a pretty cool thing to do. Ryan also makes a pretty good Deadpool. In fact, you could say he’s as good a fit for Wade Wilson as Robert Downey Jr was for Tony Stark.

The marketing for the Deadpool movie has been pretty much spot on so far with Reynolds being allowed to exploit the nature of the character. Whatever happens, with regards to the success of the movie, we know it won’t be Ryan Reynolds’ fault if it tanks. 

Rebellion Acquire Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

Failed, botched, screwed-up Kickstarter game Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries has been bought buy UK studio Rebellion. Original creators GRIN Gamestudio had requested $50,000 to fund the game and ended the kickstarter with over $72,000. The game had a mixed reaction when it was released on Steam in March and suffered from poor sales.

It looks like the developers over estimated the costs associated with creating the game. They moved from 2D platformer to 3D gameplay and in the end the game didn’t know what it wanted to be. The gameplay is very rough and the physics and combat mechanics need a lot of polish. Visually it looks fine but it’s another typically gritty interpretation of a fairy tale.

So why do Rebellion want it? They’re mainly known for the excellent 2000AD and not very spectacular bang-bang shooter games. Well, on the Woolfe Kickstarter page they say,

Aside from developing our own IP, Rebellion occasionally acquires unique and exciting projects from other developers, and we like to think we have one of the most diverse games portfolios out there. 

Interestingly, our book imprints have published quite a few dark and twisted retellings of classic tales, and so Woolfe’s gorgeous, twisted take on Red Riding Hood immediately caught our interest when we heard it was up for sale. 

But aside from our experience of self-publishing games on Steam for PC, we dug a little further and discovered many of Woolfe’s Kickstarter backers had still not received their rewards. 

With our connections to merchandise companies, book printers and the like, we realised we’d also be better placed than most companies to step in and provide backers with their rewards.

I hope, particularly for the backers’ sake, that they can make the game successful and keep the promises GRIN couldn’t.

Nintendo’s NX is on the Horizon

Reports surrounding Nintendo’s new NX games console may cause many WII U owners hearts to sink a little. According to the Wall Street Journal Nintendo have begun distributing development kits for the NX and an announcement is expected next year. Oh crap.

Development kits are basically used to modify existing games for a console or create new ones. Nintendo would obviously like to have a head start on launch titles for the NX, learning a valuable lesson from the poor launch of the WII U. What I’d like to know is what developers are using it for. If a lot of them are actually recoding existing games for the NX then the console could be released as early as Christmas next year.

The WII U is certainly lagging in terms of sales and only passed the 10 million mark this year having been out for 3 years now. If it was released late next year the WII U would have been out 4 years, close to the minimum expected life-span of a console. The 3DS sales are slowing too and with both consoles appearing to be reaching the end of the runs, maybe Nintendo feel it is time to move up a gear, and maybe even a generation.

Nintendo are reportedly planning on using industry leading chips in the console and that may very well make it the most powerful console available. A Nintendo console hasn’t had the edge over a Sony device since the GameCube. Yes, folks, the GameCube was more powerful than the PS2. It didn’t sell very well though which may be why Nintendo are reaching out quickly to third party developers. Third party games sell a system because, god knows, the Xbox One and PS4 don’t have a lot in terms of exclusives. And Dragon Quest XI may be one of the first games on the new NX. Square Enix said back in July that a version of the new JRPG would be available for the new machine and that’s set to be released next year. The year of Dragon Quest’s 30th anniversary.

What the console will look like is anyone’s guess. As the Wall Street journal reports, one mobile unit may be included with the console, similar to the WII U gamepad, but it can be taken on the road. Nintendo, under the guidance of the late, great Satoru Iwata, had long envisioned a console that would be compatible with handhelds. They basically wanted a situation where you could develop games that could be used on home consoles and handhelds without having to change the coding, meaning both systems had the same architecture. The NX may in fact not be just one system, but two separate devices that do exactly that.

The most important question, though, is what the hell happens to WII U Zelda now?! Does it become the WII U’s last Nintendo game and a launch title for the NX? Godammit, Nintendo, I’m gonna have to buy an NX next year, ain’t I?