The Vaticisms Exorcan

Because why should the US be the only ones making bad religious based movies? (Actually, to be fair, the US are making bad ghost based movies, it is other, more religious, countries that do their horror based on religion.) This is the case of a US movie maker in Italy, but it is basically an Italian film crew that is making a bad religious based movie. (And I can't link to an IMDB entry, because there isn't one.) And you can tell it's going to be a bad movie with two small indicators. One, it is 'based on a true story' and two, the titles are in shaky cam.

This 'movie' is about the director looking into the dark side of the Vatican (in the first part of the movie, he busts a black mass cult), and films exorcisms in action. Which are totally believable and amazing evidence for actual supernatural possession. But while getting engaged, strange things start happening to Joe... and then during one exorcism, he disappears... and that's it.

The best you can say for this movie is it is epitomising 'when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you'. When you get too close, you identify with the situation, and small events stack up to suggest the same is happening to you. But that isn't quite pulled off, and instead we are supposed to jump to the devil exists and he spent time pantsing Joe? I presume Joe actually cared about this story he wanted to tell, but his idea most likely sounded better in his head than executed.

This movie isn't claiming to be the best thing ever, so I'm reluctant to be too harsh... but the main complaint I have is that it just too boring and doesn't go anywhere.

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Superheroes in other Comics???

Okay, confession time. Something I learnt a long time ago, because people don't tell you everything. This would be in my early teens...

Back then, when I got sick, or as a treat, my Granny would buy me comics. Usually newspaper comics like Nutty (oh, I had so many of those comics... all thrown out now). But also superhero comics. In particular, she got me Green Lantern. I think I got some issues around vol 2 #140 mark, as I definitely remember those, and also later around #160. My 'collection', as such, was spotty. But I was a big fan. This superhero, magic ring, but had to overcome weird foes who always managed to prey on the weakness of yellow, and all pushing Green Lantern to the limit...

I slowly collected issues of this series, enjoyed working out the order (okay, not hard, they were numbered), and wondering what happened in between, when all I had was 'in the next issue' or references to past events to go on.

And then, in a small second hand book store, I found Superman vol 2 #14:

This was part of the Millennium crossover event, and has since spurred my interest in getting all the issues related to this (because it was the first one I was aware of). And I have all but about two issues of the cross-over event, and only one or two issues of the spin off comic series The New Guardians. (Why don't comic companies put out volumes of cross over events that have all the comics related to each week of a cross-over? They could have done eight volumes here, one for each issue of Millennium and all the associated related issues. Plus a ninth for Guardians! And they could do this for Crisis and Zero Hour and all the others! The money possibilities!)

But that's not the important thing. The important point was after I got this, and tried to place it in the Green Lantern time line. I worked out which GL issues occurred at the same time, but... there was no mention of this adventure in those issues. What?

What I didn't realise then, and this is the thing: the superheroes can appear in other comics and have unrelated adventures.

Mind. Blown.

Fine, yes, you can take that cavalierly now, but you didn't always know this either. Someone told you, or you worked it out as well.

And it was at that point I knew I would never be able to get all the Green Lantern appearances, there were just too many. Sigh.

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How long an LP?

Yep, I'm talking about Let's Plays again. In particular, I've just finished watching an LP of Dark Souls. (Although there's that Stream of the game to also work through.)

Why is that impressive? Well, take that a video is around 20 minutes each... and there's over a hundred of them. So... around 40 hours, more or less. Nearly two days of just one LP. Is that too long to watch? (Granted, at double speed!) [Also, while they were youtube videos, I did download them (I have the technology), which is how I was able to watch at double speed... but at some point VLC should become the online video player, and so we'll have all that functionality online whenever we watch a video. Subtitles, audio tracks, aspect ratios, and variable speeds. Go VLCTube!)

Dark Souls itself is a game I have no interest in playing (just like I don't want to play the predecessor Demon Souls). So watching an LP was the best that would happen... but 40 hours? Just long a game do you need to be watching someone else play? Fortunately, it was fun, being a somewhat blind run and the commentators being amusing, but still... how long should a game be?

Conversely, 24 episodes of a 45 minute show is only 18 hours. So this is a solid two seasons of entertainment. At this point, I'm not watching a game, I'm watching an unusual tv series. For free (legally!). So... yeah, yay that! In fact, where's a Skyrim LP?

(That all said, not sure I'd want to sit through a JRPG LP. There's only so many random encounters you can put up with watching people select 'hit' for everyone.)

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Wendy took a Stand

Filibustering is an odd thing. If you can talk long enough, then a bill is defeated? I'm surprised it's not happened more. I presume there are conditions around when you can do it, or lots of bills wouldn't have passed... but it seems like everyone knows when they can do it and when they are going to do it.

Case in point being Senator Wendy Davis, who Filibustered for 13 hours... standing, not leaning on anything, not allowed help, can't go to the toilet... what the hell is up with that? Just as well she wasn't disabled!

But the bill she was talking against was to repeal abortion clinics in Texas. Yep, one of them uppity women-folk dared to take a stand against the old white guys who wanted to tell a woman what she was allowed to do with her body, because they believe a medieval text (or at least claim to, so they have power).

And she nearly got there. Filibustering can be stopped if you make three errors or something, and she was caught out nearly before midnight (again, something to do with needing to get a bill voted on before midnight). But then there was still delays taking the record of votes, and not everyone voted before midnight...

...or did they? The record shows all votes were in. This is the same record that previously showed that votes were recorded after midnight. Bah, like facts have stopped them before. But, hey, the bill passed!

...or did it? This is what happens when you piss off the peoples. Uproar (although still largely contained uproar) and discussions, and... the bill didn't pass after all!

But it nearly did. And with shenanigans like this, it could easily pass again.

But at least the media covered it... no wait, no, no they didn't. I watched it unfold on twitter, because CNN and co didn't even acknowledge it was happened, too busy with reruns and Paula Dern. What the hell?

Is it wrong that I really want to see what The Daily Show does with this?

(A more readable version with a better understanding is to be read over at Movie Bob.)

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It's a Miracle of Sound

One of the features of The Escapist is Miracle of Sound, where the performer, Gav, does sounds based on video games, and sometimes movies. He started due to Half Life 2, and does some great songs, and the Escapist does the videos with footage from the games. He has three download albums, the first of which I got free during Desert Bus.

So let's highlight some songs. There's Mind of the Bat and Joker's Song, of course. He has does a fair few songs about Call of Duty and associated games, and isn't happy with Second Chance, and has some things to say about playing the Shooter Guy. And then there's Wheatley's Song.

And he can get very powerfully emotional too. If you ever played Walking Dead, you will not make it through The Best I Can. And stand for Normandy. Feel for Little Sister and Dream of the Sky.

So many songs, but I clearly need to have show off one here... and I'm going for one that's, while not necessarily the top of people's lists, does have one important quality: it will get into your head and make you remember it...



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My Little Brony

There was a season three, so of course there would be a third post. While there was no compiled season three video on YouTube (...yet?...), you can get the individual episodes. And I'll just remind you this was all started because of Gonzo Planet.

Anyway, on to the lessons!

Ep 1/2: Just because you are the one to take a test, doesn’t mean that you have to be the one to take the test.
Ep 3: Clones are too stupid.
Ep 4: Backstory is a bitch.
Ep 5: Lord Acton still has it.
Ep 6: Princesses of the Night hang out in your dreams.
Ep 7: Second best is never good enough.
Ep 8: Are you having fun yet? Better answer ‘yes’ or else!
Ep 9: Timber wolves (made of actual timber) are freaking cool!
Ep 10: Freddy wasn’t crazy. Eating paper is something being do do.
Ep 11: Crystals are a worse drug habit than cocaine.
Ep 12: Mistaken Identity is always hilarious. Always! HILARIOUS!
Ep 13: All you need to change your destiny is a visit to a tattoo parlour.

Ye gods... just realised there will be people out there who have tattoo’d their own cutie marks into their bodies... there are some things I won’t google for...

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Superhero Cartoons are fickle

I did give it a go. And yet... Out recently is Avengers Assemble, clearly cashing in on a certain big blockbuster movie. Although not exactly the same roster of heroes, and jumping in with a collection of the villains (more easy to do that than the movies can). I watched the first two episodes... and nope. They just didn't go anywhere, so that's it, I'm done.

Reaching back a few years, I tried Marvel Super Hero Squad. A whole raft of cast, both heroes and villains. And it's comedy! Ha! Oh dear... again, I tried two episodes, and nope. Comedy is hard, it can bomb very easily. Or perhaps I'm just too old and cynical to ever laugh again. Either way, not the series for me.

Still, better than the recent Teen Titans cartoon. One look at the animation screen grabs, and I'm not even going to try it.

Trying to move onto more positive results, I have been recommended the Batman Animated cartoon, so I've got two series of that to try. (Very cheap too!)

And I did finally go back to check out the Green Lantern cartoon. It definitely goes in a different direction to the comics, but parallels a lot of the events. And became rather watchable. At least, the first half did, haven't gotten the second half.

And in non Marvel nor DC, there is the Monsters vs Aliens cartoon, which continues on from the movie. They've made a fair few changes (such as making Susan able to change her size), introduced more aliens, changed the voice cast... and it is also watchable. And, hey, New Zealand involvement!

So while my patience for cartoons is low... there are some good ones around.

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