Pop culture consumption
As you may have noticed I'm still busy with the travel report-back, which means my normal weekend rundowns and regular blog features have yet to kick in again. For those of you who aren't interested in my globe trotting, here's a short-ish post on what pop culture I've been consuming since I got back.
Film & DVD:
I've already written reviews for Taken and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, both of which I've caught at the cinema. I'm a bit undecided about going to see Eagle Eye, but this Friday Max Payne is released, and despite the appalling reviews, well I just have to see the film adaptation of one of my all-time favourite video games. "The flesh of fallen angels..."
Otherwise, I finally got to watch cult Russian fantasy film, Night Watch, which I think most people describe as being about wizards vs. vampires. I wasn't overwhelmed by it. Despite director Timur Bekmambetov showing more gritty visual flair here than in Wanted, Night Watch lacks any kind of character development and only demonstrates patches of coherence. Otherwise it's a complete mind fuck.
Can't Hardly Wait was on TV on Monday evening and it blows my mind that this film is already 10 years old. Looking at it now it's packed with familiar faces, some of whom have gone onto much better things... while some others had their 5 minutes of fame and faded into obscurity. So, yeah, this is one of that batch of late 1990s films that forced upon viewers the idea that high school is the most important time of your life. What a joke. It does remind me though that next year marks my 10 year reunion *gulp*, and if I do attend I'm sure it will be an overdose of "marriage, babies and home ownership." Just my cup of tea.
I'd picked up the animated Justice League: The New Frontier DVD months ago, but finally got around to watching it this last weekend. Definitely not for anyone under 11-12, the film (based on a graphic novel) focuses on the origins of the Justice League - basically, the first massive threat that brought the world's greatest heroes together during the Cold War era. Central to events is Hal Jordan's emergence as the Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter's Earth exile and Barry Allen's desire to prove himself worthy of the company of Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman. Definitely one of the more mature animated DC movies I've seen, it's unfortunate things go haywire towards the end of the film - I really did not like the ridiculous main villain at all. Still, the DVD comes with an outstanding documentary on the history of the Justice League and features interviews with such comic industry icons as Stan Lee, Denny O'Neil and Mark Waid.
I admit I only watched the Farrelly Brothers' marriage-focused comedy The Heartbreak Kid to see what kind of actress Malin Akerman (who plays Laurie, the second Silk Spectre in next year's Watchmen) is. And she seems decently talented, and game for anything, which is all a good thing. I actually quite enjoyed the film, although I'm well and truly tired now of Ben Stiller's uptight, mumbling good guy routine.
Oh, and I tried with all my heart to re-watch the 2nd Matrix film, Matrix Reloaded last night and work out exactly what people liked about this one. But you know what, I just couldn't. All the film does is follow the same pattern over and over again: slow-mo something, pointless overly-choreographed fight scene, 1st year Philosophy debate. Gah!
Gaming:
I'm still waiting for my World of WarCraft buddies to download the massive 1.6GB patch that came through while we were overseas, so I haven't actually touched WOW since I've been back. It's weird though. I see the icon sitting there on my desktop and I feel like a recovered heroin addict - I'm perfectly under control for now, but as soon as I load it up, I know it will consume my thoughts and life all over again. Plus, the 2nd expansion is coming out in November so it's probably a good idea to take a break now in preparation for the player rush.
So in the meanwhile I've made something of a return to Titan Quest, playing it for the first time on my new system. What a pleasure to play it with all the settings maxed out. It's absolutely stunning. The only problem is that reinstalling the game clears out everything you have stored in your bank. There is a way around it according to my online research, but it does mean reloading my character backups. Ho hum.
I'm also planning to finally install Lego: Indiana Jones!
And out of interest, the bf is having great fun with EA's GTA-esque free-roaming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. You play a mercenary (choosing from a Norwegian punk, black American ex-operative and English-Chinese woman) who's making a healthy profit from political turmoil in Venezuela. You can get your paws on a wide assortment of military weapons and vehicles and everything is destructible. The explosions are very impressive!
Meanwhile in my weekly D&D campaign, 5 years have passed and my big dumb (male) paladin has upgraded all his kit to enhance damage dealing, learned the Draconic language and become a dragon rider. Best of all, in keeping with Herkon's dubious sexuality, he also has taken a rebellious young teenage boy under his wing. Ah, my very own padawan.
In terms of boardgames, we gave Race for the Galaxy a try on Saturday and I was actually very impressed at the strategic depth of this card-based game. Your goal is as many victory points as possible, which you gain through production and trade, expanding your space colony and upping your technological capabilities. It was also surprisingly easy to pick up - halfway through our first game, the turns were flowing a lot more smoothly.
Books & comics:
It's unlike me but I'm giving up on Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. I'm really not enjoying it at all. Instead, I'm doing a little intellectual regression and reading a lot of Paddington. I'm also intending to dip into my newly purchased graphic novels soon (Superman: Red Son and Batman: The Killing Joke), as well as make a return to Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, seeing as I've now actually visited the places he writes about.
TV & Music:
My TV and music consumption patterns haven't changed at all. With a houseful of people I actually hardly ever get to watch TV, but when I did earlier this week I actually hated it. It just felt like such a mind numbing experience, flipping through dozens of channels and finding nothing to watch.
I think I'm slowly evolving into one of those people who prefers buying TV series box sets (because there are actually a lot of good shows out there at the moment) as opposed to having to wade through all the crap.
As for music, I've been listening to a lot of film scores and Orchestral Metal (Within Temptation, Sonata Artica). I've given up on 5FM with its hip hop and R&B shit, and my tolerance for East Coast Radio drops ever lower. Why don't we have any good rock radio stations in South Africa?
Film & DVD:
I've already written reviews for Taken and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, both of which I've caught at the cinema. I'm a bit undecided about going to see Eagle Eye, but this Friday Max Payne is released, and despite the appalling reviews, well I just have to see the film adaptation of one of my all-time favourite video games. "The flesh of fallen angels..."
Otherwise, I finally got to watch cult Russian fantasy film, Night Watch, which I think most people describe as being about wizards vs. vampires. I wasn't overwhelmed by it. Despite director Timur Bekmambetov showing more gritty visual flair here than in Wanted, Night Watch lacks any kind of character development and only demonstrates patches of coherence. Otherwise it's a complete mind fuck.
Can't Hardly Wait was on TV on Monday evening and it blows my mind that this film is already 10 years old. Looking at it now it's packed with familiar faces, some of whom have gone onto much better things... while some others had their 5 minutes of fame and faded into obscurity. So, yeah, this is one of that batch of late 1990s films that forced upon viewers the idea that high school is the most important time of your life. What a joke. It does remind me though that next year marks my 10 year reunion *gulp*, and if I do attend I'm sure it will be an overdose of "marriage, babies and home ownership." Just my cup of tea.
I'd picked up the animated Justice League: The New Frontier DVD months ago, but finally got around to watching it this last weekend. Definitely not for anyone under 11-12, the film (based on a graphic novel) focuses on the origins of the Justice League - basically, the first massive threat that brought the world's greatest heroes together during the Cold War era. Central to events is Hal Jordan's emergence as the Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter's Earth exile and Barry Allen's desire to prove himself worthy of the company of Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman. Definitely one of the more mature animated DC movies I've seen, it's unfortunate things go haywire towards the end of the film - I really did not like the ridiculous main villain at all. Still, the DVD comes with an outstanding documentary on the history of the Justice League and features interviews with such comic industry icons as Stan Lee, Denny O'Neil and Mark Waid.
I admit I only watched the Farrelly Brothers' marriage-focused comedy The Heartbreak Kid to see what kind of actress Malin Akerman (who plays Laurie, the second Silk Spectre in next year's Watchmen) is. And she seems decently talented, and game for anything, which is all a good thing. I actually quite enjoyed the film, although I'm well and truly tired now of Ben Stiller's uptight, mumbling good guy routine.
Oh, and I tried with all my heart to re-watch the 2nd Matrix film, Matrix Reloaded last night and work out exactly what people liked about this one. But you know what, I just couldn't. All the film does is follow the same pattern over and over again: slow-mo something, pointless overly-choreographed fight scene, 1st year Philosophy debate. Gah!
Gaming:
I'm still waiting for my World of WarCraft buddies to download the massive 1.6GB patch that came through while we were overseas, so I haven't actually touched WOW since I've been back. It's weird though. I see the icon sitting there on my desktop and I feel like a recovered heroin addict - I'm perfectly under control for now, but as soon as I load it up, I know it will consume my thoughts and life all over again. Plus, the 2nd expansion is coming out in November so it's probably a good idea to take a break now in preparation for the player rush.
So in the meanwhile I've made something of a return to Titan Quest, playing it for the first time on my new system. What a pleasure to play it with all the settings maxed out. It's absolutely stunning. The only problem is that reinstalling the game clears out everything you have stored in your bank. There is a way around it according to my online research, but it does mean reloading my character backups. Ho hum.
I'm also planning to finally install Lego: Indiana Jones!
And out of interest, the bf is having great fun with EA's GTA-esque free-roaming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. You play a mercenary (choosing from a Norwegian punk, black American ex-operative and English-Chinese woman) who's making a healthy profit from political turmoil in Venezuela. You can get your paws on a wide assortment of military weapons and vehicles and everything is destructible. The explosions are very impressive!
Meanwhile in my weekly D&D campaign, 5 years have passed and my big dumb (male) paladin has upgraded all his kit to enhance damage dealing, learned the Draconic language and become a dragon rider. Best of all, in keeping with Herkon's dubious sexuality, he also has taken a rebellious young teenage boy under his wing. Ah, my very own padawan.
In terms of boardgames, we gave Race for the Galaxy a try on Saturday and I was actually very impressed at the strategic depth of this card-based game. Your goal is as many victory points as possible, which you gain through production and trade, expanding your space colony and upping your technological capabilities. It was also surprisingly easy to pick up - halfway through our first game, the turns were flowing a lot more smoothly.
Books & comics:
It's unlike me but I'm giving up on Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. I'm really not enjoying it at all. Instead, I'm doing a little intellectual regression and reading a lot of Paddington. I'm also intending to dip into my newly purchased graphic novels soon (Superman: Red Son and Batman: The Killing Joke), as well as make a return to Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, seeing as I've now actually visited the places he writes about.
TV & Music:
My TV and music consumption patterns haven't changed at all. With a houseful of people I actually hardly ever get to watch TV, but when I did earlier this week I actually hated it. It just felt like such a mind numbing experience, flipping through dozens of channels and finding nothing to watch.
I think I'm slowly evolving into one of those people who prefers buying TV series box sets (because there are actually a lot of good shows out there at the moment) as opposed to having to wade through all the crap.
As for music, I've been listening to a lot of film scores and Orchestral Metal (Within Temptation, Sonata Artica). I've given up on 5FM with its hip hop and R&B shit, and my tolerance for East Coast Radio drops ever lower. Why don't we have any good rock radio stations in South Africa?
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