My Board Game Obsession

My love of board/card games recently only seems to be swelling every day. But not just because I'm developing a game myself. A couple of months ago I started reading my back issues of Knights Of The Dinner Table, which I'm planning to resume purchasing after a three year hiatus from reading it.

Even though the characters in the comic are bellying up to a table to play role-playing games, the kind of chatter and fun that happens during an RPG is similar to what I experience while playing board games. KODT also has a great feature called "The Lost Game Safari", in which out of print board games worth a second look are reviewed. Combine that with the store available at boardgamegeek.com and ebay, and a world of awesome board games suddenly becomes available!

Today I'm on the hunt for boardgame podcasts. I'm not normally a podcast listener, but a recent change in my habits (which I'll probably talk about on Wednesday) means that I'm now looking for something interesting to listen to during my lunch breaks. Boardgamegeek.com has an index of board game podcasts, but there is quite a lot to sift through. So if you know of a good boardgame podcast, I'd love to hear about it!

My Brain Falls Short!

A buddy of mine pointed out that he saw a special feature using "before and after" footage to show the "re-sizing" effects of Captain America on his copy of the Blu-ray. I double checked mine and discovered that the feature was in fact on there!

Not sure how I missed it, but I checked it out tonight and it has some great "before and after" footage that is really cool! So please disregard most of my previous post. (Though the filmmaker commentary is still pretty dry.)

Sorry!

Captain America Blu Ray Features Fall Short

Picked up the Captain America Blu Ray yesterday and immediately popped it in to check out the special features. It has a handful of behind the scenes documentaries on the making of the movie that are pretty interesting, and one documentary about the origin of the comic book character. But I'm half way through the commentary and it's pretty dry.

The commentators are pretty sedate as they talk about the flick and there are no actors involved. Personally, I like commentaries where those involved feel free to joke around a bit, and enjoy actors being involved because they are closely associated with the illusion of the film presents, which I enjoy looking behind.

But the biggest ball dropped in the special features surrounds the amazing effects used to shrink the buffed up Chris Evans into the scrawny Steve Rogers for the first 30 minutes of the movie. (Chris Evans filmed all of those scenes after buffing up to play Cap, and they shrunk down and reshaped his body digitally to make him look skinny.) I saw more about these effects in TV and web specials before the movie was released. I really wanted to see some before and after shots for the "shrinking process", and although they describe how it was done in the commentary, there are no visuals with which we can appreciate this amazing digital feat. What a shame.

My Sister Is In Town!

Woohoo! This week my older sister, Jhannea, and her family are visiting from Grand Forks, North Dakota. A great excuse to take a little time off work and bum around with her at my parents house. (Bound to get some free meals out of it, too!)

I wonder if she remembered to bring her copy of "Circus Atari"? I'm pretty sure I still hold the record on that.

DC Universe Online: Free To Play "Coming Soon"?

Although DCUO was supposed to go "Free To Play: on October 19th, the banner on the site still lists the change as "coming soon". What's up, guys?

I'm getting hosed by Xbox Live's lame security (they're STILL fixing my hacked account) and can't play the game I want to because of it.

It's still a week and a half before Lord Of The Rings: War In The North comes out, which is still just a "maybe" for me until I see reviews.

Elder Scroll 5 doesn't hit stores until November 11th!

What does DC expect me to do in the meantime? Spend money? Be productive? Read a book? Totally unacceptable.

Maybe I can use the extra time to develop my superhero character concept: Theme Music Man!

Okay, I can't take credit for that one. And if you've never read the short story, you're missing out.

Batman: Year One (Blu Ray Review)

In 1986, DC published Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", which arguably re-established Batman as a grim and gritty character and influenced the way Batman stories were told forever after. One year later, DC hired Miller to retell Batman's origin in a story entitled "Batman: Year One". Unlike "The Dark Knight Returns", this story was part of official DC Universe continuity, and even further established the dark tone that this well-known character is defined by. "Year One" served as source material for a number of great comic book stories, and was drawn from heavily in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" movie.

Now, the DC animated studios have turned their attention to "Batman: Year One" and set out to create an animated version of this iconic story. I'm pleased to report they succeeded wonderfully.

The character driven story is what really sells this movie so well. Surprisingly, for those who haven't read the original comic, this story is more about James Gordon than it is about Bruce Wayne. Gordon has just transferred to Gotham with the rank of police lieutenant, and is having to survive as an honest cop amidst a corrupt police force. His stance for honesty and justice put both himself and his family in danger, and his only ally may just be the vigilante he is trying to capture!

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is discovering his calling and what it really takes to fight crime in Gotham City. This is Batman well before he becomes the seasoned veteran with a plan for every situation. He makes mistakes and suffers the consequences, resulting in injuries he's forced to suffer through and "back to the wall" situations he has to think his way out of on the fly.

With Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" being the only exception, I think DC's animated version of "Batman: Year One" is the single most faithful adaptation of specific comic book pages to the screen. Fans of the comic will recognize numerous panels that have been brought to life, though with a cleaner look and a few more colors added to the palette.

The cast performances were solid, though not perfectly suited to the project. Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli captured the grim despair of noir. And though this film aims to retain that feel, the 1st person voice-overs, representing the thoughts of James Gordon and Bruce Wayne, have a little too much inflection from time to time. I also thought that the voice of Batman, while appropriately young sounding given the age of the character in this story, was having to try a little too hard to achieve that natural, guttural sound that makes the best Batman voices work.

The animation and lines are beautiful on Blu Ray, and the the character of Gotham City deserved its own credit. The original artwork was clearly the basis for the visual design, and with just a few enhancements, the original visuals translate wonderfully.

The run-time is once again pretty short at only 64 minutes. But it's more than enough time to tell this story well. And the numerous great features on the Blu Ray(creator commentary, round table with current Batman creative staff, documentary on the original comic, Catwoman short feature and more!) easily make up for any perceived brevity in the main feature.

Although it may not lead to conversation after watching the movie, a major theme in James Gordon's story is doing the right thing, even when it hurts. Gordon is a flawed man, but strives for most of the movie to make the right decisions, despite the pain it brings him. When contrasted with the modern pop-philosophy of "do what feels right" or "follow your heart", Gordon's pursuit of honesty and justice is refreshing and inspiring, whether it impacts the entire city, or just his relationship with his wife.

For those interested in an introduction to the Batman comics mythos who aren't quite ready to flip through an actual comic book, this is as good as it gets. A solid, serious representation of Batman with a grounded, human story that even many non-genre fans will appreciate.

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sexual material.

Quality: 9.0/10
Relevance: 7.5/10

For information about my scoring system, visit spiritblade.net/reviewscores
You can also listen to this review this weekend at spiritblade.net/podcast

Green Lantern Extended Cut

As you might have guessed, I rushed to the store on Friday to get my copy of the extended Bluray version of the Green Lantern movie.

For those wondering, the added footage is great and adds appreciated depth to character arcs, though it doesn't fix any shortcomings you may or may not have felt in the flow of the story as a whole.

What it DOES do is give us more reason to invest in Hal and in his fight to overcome fear. The added 14 minutes is almost all in one section at the beginning, which flashes us back to Hal's childhood. We see his childhood connection to both Carol and Hector and experience with more vulnerability the death of Hal's dad.

With a little more time and less freshness to my first viewing experience, I might modify my quality score to an 8.5, which I don't think this extended cut improves enough to bring it back up to 9. But the degree to which I personally enjoy the film still hasn't changed. (LOVE it!)

In fact, now months later, with the responsibility to write an unbiased review well behind me(and failed anyway), there are aspects of the movie that I'm even allowing myself to be more forgiving in. I'm even more impressed with the CGI suits now that I've seen the "making of" and know how much work went into them. And Blake Lively's portrayal of Carol Ferris, while no better, is one I'm "adjusting to".

Everything else I loved about the movie: the constructs, the action, the performances (Peter Sarsgaard is AWESOME as Hector Hammond!), they're all still fantastic. A great flick!