Injoostice!

When you put all the cut-scenes of this video game together, you get quite the lengthy movie.

What happened is that the Joker managed to get Superman to kill Lois and his son... wha? Yes, this is a parallel universe, but how else to quickly justify beating up various superheroes rather than super villains. Anyway, our main heroes are dragged over into that universe, and then one after another there is justification for one on one fights, some times between a hero and themselves. Superman, basically, went mad, and now the heroes must take him down.

Now, what readily becomes apparent is that most of these fights shouldn't really work. When you get down to if, if it was really being honestly, a lot of fights would be one-sided, and Superman should have gotten rid of all people in his way after about five minutes. One bit I do like is they give a nod towards this by coming up with 'kryptonian enchancement pills' that puts normal people on the level of these gods. (Now that's something that could easily come into the normal continuity and lead to fascinating plots.)

And another apparent point: despite being two hours of cut-scenes, the plot is incredibly thin, and only serves to set up the next fight. Yes, this is a fighting game, and this is needed, but as comic fans, we should get more of an actual story. Flashpoint had tons of excuses for one-on-one fights too, but hey, an actual story we could get into! Here, they didn't try, and just said 'parallel universe, good heroes, bad heroes, fight!'

I have no interest in fighting games (...because, yes, I suck at them...), but next time can they give more meat to this?

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Nichijou

I've talked about Azum... hang on, no I haven't! Okay, that post will be happening soon. It's a slice of life / school / comedy series. I like that genre of anime, and sought out more recently. And found Nichijou. Which, while funny, is no Azumanga Daioh (which, as I said, I will come back to later).

Here there are a few groups we are following, and for the first half of the season (it really feels like two different seasons, but it is listed as only the one), the groups are separate. There are the three school girls, there is the robot girl and the eight year old professor inventor (and the talking cat), and a few others, teachers and students, that we drop in on. The format is very much brief vignettes, some normal school life, some rather odd bits (did I mention the robot?), and it feels rather disjointed.

In the second half, the robot girl goes to school and joins the three, tying those two groups together, but we also jump more around the others. There is an actual on going plot over the episode and over the series, which, as I said, really makes this feel like a completely different take on the series. And I'm not sure we are supposed to invest too much in the other plots because they don't really go anywhere.

The series is fun enough, but the lack of overall cohesion, and the inclusion of Nano (the robot) make this not quite a decent school / slice of life / comedy series.

Fun opening songs (this is the first of two):

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Gasland Part II

I saw the first one, so of course I would watch the sequel. Clearly all issues have been sorted out because the attention brought by the first and this movie is just chronicling the obvious changes? Ha, but it is to laugh.

In some ways, this movie is simply a retread of the first. People are living near fracking stations, and the water table is getting screwed, and they can set their "water" on fire. We do get new things in, for example, the EPA did a two year study looking at the impact of fracking on the environment, and just as they were about to release... a political change declared the drinking water safe. Which is a common theme. Money is trumping science. As long as there is money to be earned, and those earning the money are not living where the consequences are, everything is fine. (Not exactly news.) Basically, there is more fracking stations than before, any people are screwed.

There is some effort towards 'hey, look at wind and sun, renewable energies we could use to power the planet instead', but that isn't going anywhere beyond the few idealistic people. Money talks, and the oil companies have all the money.

This is a case of 'second verse, same as the first'. And the song is not a good one (in that the message isn't good, the movie is fine).

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Raiding some Tombs

I did say I wasn't going to buy Tomb Raider didn't I? Yeah, well, it was a good sale... by which I mean an expensive sale... sigh. Anyway, I did pick up TR (and the DLC), so I've been playing that. I would like to play more, but just find myself running out of time between trying to catch up with tv shows and rpg audios and watching stuff so I can blog and... So far I've sunk ten hours into it, and hopefully I'm over half way.

One problem I'm having is that there are a lot of cut scenes in this. Most of them are obvious, but there's also a fair few that fit seamlessly into the game play. While that might not sound like much a problem, this does mean there are moments where I'm not sure if I'm doing anything, and others when I'm not sure I'm supposed to do anything. This also can tip into QTE segments, but usually I only fail those once.

There was one bad bit where I kept dying over and over, because I had no idea what to do. Usually if I die, I know that I moved in the wrong direction, or didn't manage the combat properly (shockingly, I'm playing on Normal mode, not Easy!!!). Often there's a ten second cut scene or something, which gets really annoying when you are seeing it over and over again, but it's clear what I'm screwing up. In one case, however, I just had no idea what to do. It looked like I should jump to a beam, but no matter how I moved, that didn't work. It wasn't until I tried pressing different buttons each time around that I finally found out what the game expected me to do (oh, dodge, not move and jump). And then there was the moment where I made the jump and was supposed to trigger a cut scene... but it didn't the first three times. And then there was the cut-scene that froze up, so I had to skip it, even though it was one of the most narratively important ones...

But I have been having fun. I'm not going to talk about the ludonarrative dissonance, because I knew that was there going in. I've raided some tombs (although Lara apparently doesn't like them), which are basically puzzle rooms. I hunted wildlife. And I've got looking for oh so many collectibles... so many collectibles. (That also counts as grinding.)

And soon, I'll get back to it! And then I can watch it being spoiled.

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Equestrian Girls

Yes, I continue to watch pony stuff. And you can too.

Kinda of an odd one-off here, with the basic gimmick being 'what if the ponys were human?' The set up gets out of the way quickly, and then we're off on a typical 'new girl at school' storyline. You can see where it's going early, and there it goes. And, of course, there's a heavy dose of 'friendship is magic' littering the place, especially at the end.

To be honest, the best jokes are ones poking fun at the usual pony way of doing things. 'It's like you've never held a pen before.' Quite. And I hope you like songs because towards the end, they come along at a fast trot (I see what I did there). The human forms are pretty much on point, although the hair is the main point of similarity, but I'm sure the toys will sell well.

And, of course, the main lesson of all this is:  every one loves to wear head bands with ears and fake tails.

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Cinemania

Since I never really talked about this movie, I'm going to talk about it now! This is a great documentary that follows five film buffs who are, basically, compulsed to watch films.

We have Jack (who is the most normal of them, although even he states he isn't normal), Bill (who thinks that peanut butter slathered in a thick layer on bread is an adequate sandwich), Harvey (who knows the lengths of all films), Eric (who is willing to watch videos in terrible states), and Roberta (who has some amazing film giveaways). These people don't just go to movies occasionally, they plan out their schedules to fit, at times, up to five movies in a day. As many days as they can. Jack inherited money, Roberta, Eric and Harvey are on disability, and Eric is getting unemployment... and the money is going on movies. Usually older movies (mostly they talk about the black and white era). And we see their homes... which does show off that their compulsion has led them to be rather lacking in other area.

Which is where the character of the movie comes through. Seeing them as film buffs, but also as people with this compulsion getting by in society, and not well. (And I'm not claiming any form of social aggrandisement myself.) Everything they do is centered around going to films, even down to planning what they eat carefully so that going to the toilet doesn't become an issue. This really is a mania for the cinema.

And it's great. This is a documentary that should be watched by everyone. Who watches the film watchers? We do, and it's a great watch.

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Watching the Ghosts

This was a documentary done by the BBC in 1992. It is a recording of a live show where a group of people investigate a haunted house, and it was hosted by Michael Parkinson! I watched this, and so did a Jet Simian.

There's the most haunted house in England, with recorded phenomena of a poltergeist affecting a family of a single mother and her two children. The BBC give over an hour (although they end up running longer because of events) one Halloween to run cameras there and see if anything happens. Michael Parkinson is in the studio with paranormal specialist Dr Lin Pascoe, and at the house outside is Craig Charles (yes, that one) and in the house is Sarah Greene. Nothing happens for a while, and they cut back to the studio where callers ring in, but then there are bumps... which is traced to one of the children. But then more tapping occurs, things fall off the walls, and people get hurt, and the studio goes haywire...

It's the most amazing demonstration of paranormal investigation that I've ever seen, with very dramatic results.

...

Now this is how you do it! A slow build of atmosphere, keep it subtle, but definitely have something progressing over time! This is where Paranormal Activities and the ilk fail so hard. Just a simple house, two levels, just a bedroom and a kitchen, and yet... bam! Complete with the studio set up, and completely treated as how the BBC would handle such an investigation! If only we could have investigations like this and have these kinds of results! Everything thing was just done brilliantly...

And you might be able to watch for yourself Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Please, America, just stop. The BBC did it far better than you did, over twenty years ago.

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