Batman: Arkham City

It looks from my initial write-up of Arkham Asylum that I was quick to get the post out there, without talking about the game that much. And what else is there to say? I've recommended it to friends over the years without much description aside from the simple command: just play it. Because that’s what I did, and fell in love, so I figured others should do the same thing. And it seems they have enjoyed it, although not to the extent that I did (which was perhaps too much), but only in terms of wanting to stay in the Asylum to do as many challenges and to find ALL the Riddler's clues. Sometimes, the gaming stars align in such a way that you can do those things, and others, they simply pass by one another without much notice. Upon completion in Arkham City, I felt absolutely zero need to go around collecting all the Riddler's trophies and puzzles, and even less about doing all the challenges.

Perhaps a reason for the lack of interest in those extras was the other extras throughout the game, specifically: the side missions. There were quite a few of them, and I don’t recall these types of side missions in Asylum.  I didn't complete all of them though, as doing a few made me quickly realize there was a lot of work for not much return – I much preferred to stick to the main storyline. But here, the main storyline felt quite a bit shorter, no doubt pared down a bit in order to make room for all the extra missions found throughout the city. That’s not to say the story wasn't excellent, because it was really, very good. All the voice acting is spot on of course, and the game carries on that feel of the nineties Animated Series with a darker skew. And for a fan of those original cartoons (like myself) these games are the bees knees.

I also wanted to make a comment on the Catwoman content, which is extra from the main game, but is tightly integrated: after certain scenes playing as Batman, you’ll cut over to play as Catwoman on her own little mission against Two-Face and of course, you’ll interact with Batman throughout his story too. It fleshed out the game and added some depth to it, but what I ended up focusing on (aside from the character model herself) was how much differently she played than Batman. She is smaller, faster and not as tough, and it was an absolute dream to take control and beat up some bad guys using the same combat system (minus Batman’s gadgets).

The Catwoman content is actually DLC that comes with the game when you buy it new. This format of
incentive is increasing in popularity; as publishers try to prevent people from buying used games where they see no profit, they offer “incentives” like this. The practice is a turn off for many gamers, but it’s inevitable: if you buy the game used you can always buy the content for the regular DLC price, otherwise, buy the game new and just punch in the code. Personally, I want to wait for the game of the year edition which is going to be discounted and full of all the content. In any event, for Arkham City I would have really liked to see this practice removed and have the Catwoman content present right from the beginning, as I really do feel that it offers valued gameplay and story to the game.

If I had to lodge a complaint against the game it could be tied directly to one of the best aspects of it: the combat. Here it is: they give you a ton of gadgets, and in City you get many more that you can “quickfire” in combat. I want to use them all, all the time: you get more experience and higher scores, and it’s just straight up fun. The problem: I can’t remember all the button combinations. Yeah, most of the time I’m just mashing the attack button and doing counter attacks. Every so often I remember to use a gadget and it throws me completely off to a point in where I lose my combination and I have to see Batman getting punched in the back of the neck. He doesn't like that.

The final battle was good, and I didn't feel as frustrated there or anywhere else in the game like I did in Asylum. A bit of the magic that was present was lost here, probably because of the novelty of your first play through on becoming The Batman himself. I was scared initially when I read about City: thinking the play area was just going to be too big. It’s the opposite problem I anticipated with Asylum, but fear not: the city is an appropriate size as the core game remains essentially the same as you travel from one building to another, wherein all the main action takes place.  

So just in time as I write this little review, I see news of the next game in the series being announced. It’s a prequel that takes place when Batman was just getting started, which is always a classic time frame for him. It won’t be developed by Rocksteady, who helmed both of these games. It also won’t feature the writing talents of Paul Dini, and presumably none of the voice talent. It kind of spells doom and gloom, but we can remain hopeful: it will run the same “engine” so to speak, which means identical combat with new and different gadgets as well as fairly similar graphics. It’s going to hit this fall, which means I’ll probably end up playing it by the end of 2014. I look forward to it! 

A Collection of The Collector

First, let’s get this out of the way and just say that the first movie in this two-part series is absolutely terrible. I hated it. Yet, I continued to watching it; chalk that up to its short run time I guess, and the mood being where it was at. The second film – The Collection – was much better (although still bad, I suppose).

What happened? Well, it was a Sunday afternoon and I was hunting for something to watch, so I had a look at recent movies I've acquired and there sat The Collector. Now, normally I would browse right past this movie but recently the sequel had come out and I had a brief discussion with my friend about it, and how it could be a good horror b-movie to watch one night. Then he said it was the sequel to a film: The Collector. Makes sense, but in my mind: my friend knew about this film series and hence, it may be worth watching. I do enjoy these short thrillers from time to time.

Well, the first act of The Collector was insensible and seemingly pointless. I had difficulty following along, as I was drawn to my tablet for some casual Reddit browsing. The main character had a lurid past (maybe) as he was mixed up with the wrong people; the same people who were now forcing him to crack a safe in somebody’s house to get something, or else his family was in “trouble” which I took to mean, they would be tortured and murdered brutally. So our protagonist goes into this house (which he is somewhat familiar with already because he’s a handyman of sorts who was working there earlier) and discovers that somebody else is also in the house (who does not belong) and all of a sudden, the entire house is full of traps and deadly obstacles!  Our friend here had managed to get all the way into the master bedroom but was now trapped inside the house, unable to leave.

My first thought was how long it would take our killer to setup all of this in the house. In movie time, it must have taken a short while but the traps are elaborate enough that I could foresee a team of contractors taking days to get this stuff done. In any case, we find out the family is in trouble (the parents trapped in the basement, being tortured) and the young daughter is hiding somewhere – apparently for hours as the collector setup the house. The movie turns into a claustrophobic, fairly generic thriller from here on out, with predictable results and a cliché ending. Here’s my malfunction with this (because otherwise it would be merely decent): the Collector does not collecting in the movie, or at least, doesn't make it clear why the movie is called The Collector. He’s just trapping, and killing people in horrific ways. I got a heavy Saw sense from this, and lo-and-behold, it turns out this was written as a Saw sequel but was rejected; presumably it was retooled a bit to get its own franchise going. The second item was how the protagonist’s family issue was completely unresolved: midnight came and went, with not a mention of them. The credits rolled and I was left to wonder.

Fear not though, because the family is back in the second one, just to confirm that they were OK, I guess.

The second movie was much, much better. There was very little setup as we get into the traps and horrific deaths very quickly. This is kind of what you came for, and it delivered: a movie-standard team of heavily armed “professionals” enter the Collector’s warehouse of terror with the goal of saving a girl and proceed to die one by one. But here’s the key: they add a little backdrop by throwing in media reports: the Collector is a serial killer who traps people in their own house – killing them of course – but taking one person home. They indicate that there are about fifty missing people so presumably, his home base is going to be full of these people and they are also going to die horrifically. Our protagonist from the first film comes back to guide the goon squad and what we’re left with is a fairly tight, short film that doesn't linger long before showering us with blood and gore. Predictable? Of course, but that’s beside the point when taking in a film that knows exactly what it is, which the filmmakers seemed to have missed on the first go around.

In the end, neither one makes a compelling reason to spend time with: skip the first and see the second, or skip them both.

The Golden Age by Woodkid

First, I have to tell you that Rdio is one of the greatest services that I have ever used, and has completely changed the way that I listen to and discover music. I’ll probably write more about that another time, because the focus here is on one artist I found through Rdio that reaffirms the model and reinvigorates my love for music. It also helps to remind me that there is new, good music out there, and that I’m not crazy in looking for that “click.” See, when I first listened to The National, something just clicked, and I was hooked immediately. I sought out and bought all their music almost immediately. Ever since, I’ve loaded up new albums, had a listen and moved on, never to experience that click in quite the same way. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t degrees of clicking and trying to list those degrees is akin to basically ranking your favourite albums and artists (which is fundamentally unfair, I know). It’s safe to say The National (and specifically Boxer and Alligator) are amongst the top; I could easily just list the most recent additions to my music library as other good contenders. One album though has stood out, which is The Golden Age by Woodkid.

One of the features in Rdio is the “Recent Activity” in where you can see what your friends have added to their own collections. I saw one day that Art added an album called Iron by Woodkid; with interesting album art (it’s amazing that album art is often a determining factor in trying out music) and no indication of what I’m getting into (aside that Art enjoyed it enough to add to his library) I clicked play. I was fairly impressed, and got through the six tracks in no time, but I didn’t feel that instant click. The vibe was strong enough though, that I added it to my collection. I can’t say I listened to the EP again.

Another great feature on Rdio is notifications on new content and specifically, notifications for new content from artists in your collection. Sometimes I receive an e-mail, other times just an in-software alert. I received an alert that new content from Woodkid has been added, and I quickly discovered that it was his debut album coming out. Within seconds, I’ve hit play and I’m feeling that click take hold. I’m always bedazzled when an album comes out and I’m listening to it instantly: no purchases, no downloading, and no music store involved. Everything is at your fingertips and delivered to your speakers/headphones immediately: this is truly the way to listen to music.

 What I noticed first about The Golden Age (and Woodkid in general) is the voice; it’s rough, grumbly and pretty unique. To that end, it reminds me of the lead singer in The National, except with more grittiness here. The second thing I noticed was the grand, almost operatic scale to the music itself. There is lots of brass, string and percussion represented throughout the album, and I got a very distinct movie score feel from it. The second track, Run Boy Run, is screaming spaghetti western music from all corners: this track is lifting from Ennio Morricone’s score. The third track, The Great Escape, makes me wonder if he had a classic movie on in the background and was composing the instrumentation directly to it. Other tracks can simply be described as epic, with big moving sounds that are easy to get lost in.

The album slows down and speeds up at just the right moments and mix: I’ve always been a fan of the album experience and The Golden Age definitely delivers here. It’s also easy to just throw on a track; I don’t think having a single from the album show up in a randomized playlist will feel out of place. If anything, it’s going to make me stop the playlist and put the album on from the beginning.

Woodkid on Allmusic

Run Boy Run video on Vimeo

Spring Breakers

Deciding on going to see Spring Breakers was a relatively easy process, especially with our current mindset something there. Now, I’m not one to put too much credence into a critic rating, as I have thoroughly enjoyed low rated films and disliked high rated ones. In any event, we had gone to see Warm Bodies a while back in the theatre and we both enjoyed it: it is not typically a film we go to see in the theatre, so it was easy to reason going to see Spring Breakers the other night.

of wanting to find “hidden gems.” Of course, there is the obvious T&A factor going on in this film, which is why movies like Piranha 3D are seen, but there was something more to this film. My friend pointed out that the film had a 62% Tomato rating, which is not insignificant; combined with an audience rating of nearly 50%, you have a fairly conflicted film that has

We were not expecting what we saw. From the outset – indeed, the first few minutes of the movie – is pure party madness. In what sounds like a heavy Skrillex beat, we are introduced to slow motion nakedness and party madness, immediately justifying the films 18A (in Canada)rating and setting the town for a depraved, sex induced 90 minutes of depravity. What we get instead, is a cut from that scene into the college life of our four female protagonists in their classes and dorm rooms – a stark contrast to the litany of colours we were just blasted with. The girls are obsessed with going on spring break but lack the funds to do so; we’re warned that a couple of them are bad news but the “good girl” Faith (played by Selena Gomez) decides to go along anyway. They are all looking for escape from the terrible-ness of their college life.

And quickly, the film shocks you with a supercharged robbery scene that is filmed from the point of view of the getaway driver, who is slowly circling the unfortunate diner. We get to peer through the windows – a true spectator – at the mayhem inside, and are taken aback by the actions of the characters. Now we know their true nature, right? Not quite. The girls get to go to spring break and we are treated again to more colour, more fun and more nudity. Enter Franco, playing a drug dealer named Alien and we get into new levels of depravity that really grabs your attention. At this point, the film could turn into a generic horror film: college students go on vacation, get mixed up with the local scene and end up getting murdered in gruesome ways, but that’s not what you get here. Spring Breakers delivers something much more interesting.

The film has a very dream-like feel to it: full of montages, repeating narration and quick, inserted scenes that flash back to the initial robbery and also flash forward to imagery that can give hints on what is to come. There is a certain level of grittiness that appears throughout – except the party scenes, which are split into colourful acts of indecency and documentary style shots of party goers that makes you believe (and realize) that this stuff is actually happening and does not just exist in the movies.

Franco pulls in a great performance as he truly embodies his character; there is a level of realism and silliness presented to us. In one scene, he is showing off his “stuff” which is his room full of guns and money. But he practically improvises here, showing off that he has shorts in every colour, and draws attention to his nunchuks instead of the wall of automatic guns – arguable more lethal and illegal. He’s charming the girls, without fully knowing himself what they are capable of or have done in the past. It’s fitting that his name is Alien: a true and literal representation of this other world the girls have visited. When one of the girls leaves, they are gone and we, the viewer stay on the alien planet. We can take solace in knowing that she is safe now, but we can’t truly know the damages that have been done because we never leave this planet ourselves and there is no contact with the real world.  I have to wonder how much is dream and how much is reality, but I realize it’s not that type of situation. This is a dark, dark film with a very dark ending. It’s about how far these people are willing to go in order to escape their regular lives and embrace another: they specifically tell themselves to think of it like a video game, and that’s kind of what we get. It’s scary for us to see that transition; it’s scary to see the mayhem and negative morals, and uncomfortable to see them travel down the twisted path, especially since the only somewhat relatable character – the one with common sense – checked out quite some time ago.

While it may not be forever known as a hidden gem, Spring Breakers was a really good watch. Opposed to a generic action movie (looking at you Olympus Has Fallen) this movie was exactly what we were looking for: a thought provoking and more importantly, a discussion provoking film that is open to interpretation. We couldn’t simply walk away and go our separate ways afterward, we had to stay together and talk about what we’ve just seen. And if it’s one thing that will stick with you after this movie, is to never let your daughter go to spring break. Ever.