So I meant to have a blog post about this last weekend, specially since I've always been such a huuuge fan of the series, but I kinda forgot...
Sorry?
Anyways, in case you haven't heard about it so far, apparently some clips of a Crash Bandicoot cartoon have recently surfaced on youtube, thanks to original game producer David Siller.
What the what?! That's right! We almost got a Crash Bandicoot cartoon!!
I already discussed plenty about Dragon Ball in my last blog post-updates.
Here's an old quote that rings surprisingly true in regards to the new show Dragon Ball Super, from the creators behind the manga and the anime:
With the Dragon Ball Kanzenban, the
series will be garnering new fans. And being fans, I think they will
probably want to see some new Dragon Ball Z. How about it, Sensei — why
not make a new animated work once a year or so?
Toriyama: Ah, I’d like to see that.
Nakatsuru:
But in the final chapter, Goku’s getting pretty old. And what happens
to him after is already covered in the anime-original Dragon Ball GT.
Still, Goku is the main character, after all. If you’re going to make a
new story without any difficulty, you’ll have to rewind time a bit, and
tell a story from somewhere in the past, or something…
Toriyama:
I agree. Rather than continuing on strangely into the future, or
digging deeper, I’d rather develop it with something like a separate
episode, going back in time to say, “there was such-and-such a story,
involving such-and-such an opponent”. As in, it wasn’t in the coimc, but
this kind of thing also happened. I think that’d probably be better.
There you have it! Long before there were plans for Super! That would explain why the new show's still taking place before the epilogue of the manga!
When adapting a character from one medium into another, you're not just taking that name and putting it wherever and however you want. You must also adapt its universe.
One of the (many) little details that always annoyed me in Christopher Nolan's "more realistic and grounded" take on Batman was how the fact Batman was trained "as a ninja" was kept right there in the beginning of the trilogy, and yet completely discarded in the entire series... (It also annoyed me how he wasn't a "detective" either, but that's an entirely different point.)
About time I wrote this - Did you folks heard about Kojima being fired from Konami? Of course you heard that.
What a sad day it is. I mean, over the last few years, all my favorite gaming studios have either closed down (Neversoft, SNK..), been shut down (LucasArts, Sierra), forced to go under restructuration under new publishers (Sega-Sammy..) and basically been turned into something completely different from their former self (Capcom, and now Konami).
A lot of my favorite creators have left their respective studios (mostly at Capcom) to go form their own independent studios (those same guys now mostly at Platinum Games, Suda and his Grasshopper team, Yuji Naka with Prope, etc.).
But firing the guy that is sole responsible for the Metal Gear/Solid series? I'm not a big fan of the series, to be honest (to each their own), but even so I gotta recognize - you don't fire the creative mind behind the MGS series! Come on!
I wasn't entirely fan of the idea, but it sounded like an original way to bring the series back to attention. And maybe it would be the best thing to happen to SH in ages. Apparently Konami will still continue to develop their own new SH games, but just not that one.
Now that this is over, I would really like to see the franchise back in the hands of Team Silent. Or just get Climax back, they did great work on the few couple of games they did.
Twist: My blog was dead all along I actually still kinda like M. Night Shyamalan. I mean, I don't hate the guy.
Sure he's made a foul of himself over the years and his movies have been increasingly worse one after the other. My guess is that his early fame and success from The Sixth Sense probably got to his head. And then he sort of lost the passion he had and became way too formulaic for his own good.
Plus his writing's been getting pretty bad, film directing skills aside.
But I still a lot of masterfully storytelling and great eye for the picture when I look back at Sixth Sense or Unbreakable. Heck, even Signs.
So what went wrong?
I think he put way too much focus on the mystery and the often-laughed twist ending, and sort of forgot to care about his characters later on. Plus the plot have been more and more nonsensical. I mean, the trees, really?
But I do believe you could still salvage things up if you would mix up the twists amongst the films.
Don't believe me? Well, let's try a little experiment.
Some clips for the upcoming live-action Attack on Titans/Shingeki no Kyojin aired in Japan.
While this is not exactly a trailer, at least it allows us to enjoy some first footage from the film:
(it starts at about 1:00)
I got to say... this actually looks pretty nice. I was expecting some changes, this won't be a direct adaptation of the manga/anime but adapt bits of the overall story into a new (slightly more modern) setting.
From the little I've seen it seems people in the US have been responding pretty negatively to this film - from what I've seen in some English websites. Why's that?
Actually, I don't wonder why, it's easy to see why. People criticize the special effects, but I find them pretty decent and fitting for the film. Apparently if it looks expensive on screen = good special effects. It's not like this is a multi-billion-dollar American blockbuster film, can't people adapt their expectations? How do these sort of people even watch older films or European films? You have to be able to know what to expect depending if you're watching the latest most expensive Michael Bay film, a modest 1980s B-movie or an old black & white 1930s classic. What did you expect with a summer blockbuster from Japan?
Personally the more expansive a film is, the more it all seems like a big waste of money in my eyes... (That's probably why I never watched James Cameron's Avatar...)
And two... are people seriously annoyed that there's not "white people" in this film? "But only Mikasa's supposed to be Asian in the story! It's an important plot point!" Well, I guess now you know how minorities feel while watching every single Hollywood blockbuster film ever. What did you expect from a countries mostly inhabited by Japanese people!?! Plus, like I said above, the story will only be a loose adaptation of the manga. That point about Mikasa being Asian won't be touched upon since the author of the manga hasn't even used or explored it to this day!!
And hey, after a pretty loose recent adaptation of All You Need Is Kill by Hollywood under the name of Edge of Tomorrow (or "Live. Die. Repeat."), just call this payback for that. Speaking of adaptation,I mean, did you know Scarlett Johansson will be playing Mokoto Kusanagi soon?
Anyway, all I want to say is... this looks pretty decent. Wait and see.
The film is expected to be released in two parts this summer.
I'm a fan of the genre... but even so I have to admit... Most of the genre's iconic series have gone completely off rails nowadays... like all the creators left, the teams changed every game and barely anyone who created those first games are still working on the new installments (which is exactly what has happened). Yes. People seem to have forgotten what most of these classic games have been about.
And now producers are forcing studios to churn in random generic games to conform to whatever is popular and selling now.. instead of, say, simply make new games.
A Silent Hill game shouldn't look or feel like a Resident Evil game and both should neither play to be Alone in the Dark. They all have their own strengths and their own spin of the genre.
How far from their respective original movie template have they gone these last few years?
I cant believe Marvel did this whole "Man of Two Worlds" thing on film before DC Comics/Warner Bros were even able to ever try any movies outisde of Batman and Superman!
And yeah, I know, there was that... errr... "Green Lantern" film (not even mentioning that awful Catwoman attempt, which doesn't count since it's basically a Batman spinoff).
So I wanted to take this occasion to random-discuss about X-Men, X-Men movies and stuff.
Apparently, this is only the beginning for 20th Century Fox, as they clean up their X-Men franchise and try bringing it back to the forefront - only fitting since the original X-Men was the sole responsible for bringing superheroes back in full form on the big screen (Blade aside, that first one was more of a muted attempt, only Guillermo del Toro's Blade 2 really amped up the stakes and the production values).
I'm not enjoying a lot of the revamped designs Jim Lee & co did for DC Comics' reboot "The New 52"...
Too much "EXTREME!! 90s"-ness overall.
On the other hand I would have preferred if someone like Art Baltazar did all the redesigns instead.
For one the designs would have been more tasteful and suiting the characters.
And two, there would be room enough for artists interpretations.
(unlike the messy busy designs everybody, from George Perez to Dan Jurgens, have to work with now...)
So here's two Teen Titans gals I tried to base the looks on their Tiny Titans incarnations.
Woow! Call me slow or whatever, but I just noticed Booster Gold's appearance in the "New 52" relaunch-thingie is pretty similar to his Smallville interpretation!
See?
Shouldn't we start calling him Booster Blue now instead?
(a little line mentioning Ted Kord!Blue Beetle as inspiration for the new look wouldn't have hurt either!)
Trolls like to hate on Rob Liefeld nowadays on teh interwebz..
But some years ago it was people buying his stuff that made him the super-popular artist he came to be!
Even his portrait screams EXTREEEEME!!
Anyway, I still find it quite impressive how a guy like him, I never did any art school, came to define the art direction of most comics from the 90s.
Sure he may had some problems with proportions and/or feet. But he never aimed to draw realistically (it's called "stylized").
Here's a random blog-post.
A thought I had, while talking about Star Wars with my bro. (hot damn...couldn't have made it sound more nerdy if I tried :/)
Just Imagine:
“What if the Star Wars flicks had been filmed chronologically?”
I was thinking about Raven and...
Wow... Did I said that out loud?... Uh, this didn't quite came out as I intended it to...
Let's start over....
I was reading some "Titans" comic trade paperbacks from DC, and I started thinking about this character...
And while Beast Boy was all the time hitting on her, it started spinning some questions into my (geeky) mind.
So, Jeph Loeb will now be Marvel's Executive Vice President & Head of Television.
That's a pretty similar role that Geoff Johns has currently at DC Comics, meaning supervising and controlling directly any future comic book to TV adaptation. (while Johns also supervises movies, which Avi Arad do at Marvel)
In case you don't know who is Jeph Loeb, he is a well known popular comic book writer. One of my favorite writers. And one of my least favorite ones as well.
How's that?!? How can it be?!
Lemme introduce you properly to Loeb's work...
(this is an overview of course, the guy did a ton more!)
