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| Sunday, December 11, 2005 08:54 PM |
| Shadow and Flame |
 by Fëanor |
- Are video games art? I think so. What do we mean, then, when we speak of a genre of video games called "art games?" I would say, the same thing we mean when we speak of "art films" - works whose purpose is to say something artistically, rather than to necessarily be entertaining, fun, or commercial. Some people would call this genre, in both video games and film, pretentious, boring, and pointless, and that's probably true for some entries in the genre, but for others, perhaps not. Anyway, it's interesting that enough art games are being created and are getting enough attention that they now have their own genre. Hopefully this is another step towards respectability for video games in general.
- Conan is set to come back, and in a big way! We've spoken here in the past about the possibility of new live-action and animated films starring our favorite devotee of Crom, but now there's word of an RPG video game called Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, with both single-player and online multiplayer components. The screen shots don't look quite as awesome as one might hope, but still - Conan!
- That was no boulder that nearly took out Indiana Jones... (Via Joystiq)
- Couldn't resist this one: Cinematical's Seven Sci-Fi Movies For People Who Don't Like Sci-Fi Movies. I like very much the inclusion of Gattaca and Blade Runner on this list; both are great examples of films that are not only great when compared to other genre films, but also when compared to other films in general. Charly and The Final Countdown are kind of odd choices, and I wouldn't call them the cream of the sci-fi crop, but they're both respectable enough. I haven't seen Serenity or Until the End of the World, but taking what I know of the filmmakers and what I've heard about the films, I'm pretty certain I'd like the former and hate the latter. Any film by Wim Wenders should not be included on anyone's list of best anything, in my opinion. The guy makes the worst kind of art picture - pretentious, utterly dull, corny, and ultimately meaningless. As for Contact, there are good things about it, but all-in-all, I really don't care for it. It gets really mushy, melodramatic, and cheesy at the end, to a gag-inducing extent.
But anyway, the list isn't all bad, and is certainly fun to critique.
- Hey, remember when I posted a while back about King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining, and how it had been shut down, and you should all emulate me and sign the petition to keep it alive? Well, guess what, it looks like the petition worked!! Apparently, they have to take the "King's Quest" out of the title, and just call it A Silver Lining, but no biggie. The important thing is, Vivendi has granted Phoenix Online Studios a fan license to finish development of the game with the King's Quest characters intact, and even make the sequels they'd planned! Excellent!
- From Cinematical comes the link to the trailer for Sofia Coppola's next film, Marie Antoinette. And yes, it is indeed a period film about the titular unfortunate queen. The trailer is basically just a series of beautiful scenes of Kirsten Dunst as Antoinette frolicking and enjoying her extravagant life. We don't get to hear any dialogue; instead, there's a great track by New Order playing in the background. Some people don't like the idea of using modern music in a period piece, but I think it works here. And anyway, for all we know, this song might just be for the trailer, and the film's actual soundtrack might be all period music.
I kept waiting the whole trailer for some hint of Antoinette's violent end to darken the beauty and happiness we were seeing, but it never came. Still, I'm sure that will be the dramatic climax of the film.
To sum up, not much to see here, but what I do see is quite lovely. And I'm pretty much in awe of Coppola's talent after The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, so I can't wait to see this one.
- Speaking of movies I can't wait to see, could The Prestige look any better?? We already knew that it was about a war between magicians; it was being directed by the talented Christopher Nolan; and it was to star Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman and Christian "Batman" Bale. Then came the rumor that David Bowie had joined the cast. Now it looks like that not only is Bowie confirmed, but he's playing Nikola Tesla! And furthermore, the lovely and talented Scarlett Johansson is also in the movie!! Rocking.
- I read an article about Star Trek: New Voyages in Wired, and then it popped up at Sarcasmo's Corner, so finally I gave in and downloaded the first two episodes via my new friend, BitTorrent. The story is, a bunch of huge fans of the original series got together and decided to finally complete the Enterprise's five year mission, which was so tragically cut short when the show was cancelled after its first couple of seasons. Their work, which has barely begun (they're still working on their third episode), but is picking up a lot of buzz and support, is all available for free download online. The latest episode (which sadly is not finished yet) even features Walter Koenig reprising his role as Chekhov! I'm pretty excited, so I'll be watching these pretty soon, and I'll definitely let you folks know what I think.
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