Towards Mecca

A couple of weeks ago, I took my two youngest brothers and my youngest sister to see Wall E. I’m a huge Pixar and so I expected the best! Dreamworks might make funny 3D animations but, in my humble opinion, they’re not generally instant classics like Pixar’s work. We were at a premiere  in a packed and age-diverse theater filled with excited people. The lights went out, the movies started, and about 90 minutes later the credits rolled. During those 90 minutes I was treated to a wonderful story and an epic feat!

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No one denies that video games can inspire art or that they contain art within them, but are they art when taken as a whole? Roger Ebert has stated that video games can never be “high art”. I personally couldn’t give a damn what some high society windbags deem “High Art” and what they think is too low for them to consider.  High Art is and always has been simply art that the ruling social class prefers. Should gamers care that some old farts look down on the hobby we love from their high horse?

The answer is simply: No! Let’s not forget that Shakespeare’s plays were originally written for and performed to the poor masses and not High Society. It took those arrogant bastards quite a while to recognize Shakespeare’s genius. The same is true of Edgar Allan Poe who is considered one of the best writers of all time but who died penniless and unrecognized. How many brilliant painters only become famous years after their deaths?

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When first I heard that Yoda and Darth Vader were going to be in Soul Calibur IV, I was more peeved that I was going to have to decide which version to get since Yoda was to be on the 360 version, and Vader on the PS3. Although the choice was easy (Vader > Yoda), I was still peeved that I wouldn’t get both. That’s how I felt when Soul Calibur 2 came out and I had to play with Link when Spawn was the character I really wanted (forget Heihachi, he was useless anyway).

I loved Link and, although I agree he didn’t fully fit-in because his bomb move and other similar moves, I still had fun playing with him. And Spawn has had many incarnations, one of which was Medieval Spawn. Having those two in the Soul Calibur world was a bit of a stretch, but not NEARLY as big of one as having Star Wars characters.

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When Kotaku first revealed that Capcom wanted to “do to video games what Marvel did to comics”, I have to admit I was disappointed. Overall, the Marvel movies sucked. The only good ones that come to mind are the first 2 X-Men and Iron Man. I mean, come on, all the Spider-Man’s were bad and the Hulk was awful and those were pretty much the runner ups too. Besides, Capcom already has a bunch of Resident Evils and Street Fighter: the Movie which I have not seen to this day (and will never see despite being a former die-hard Street Fighter fanatic).

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When I heard the news that the new Iron Man movie was actually pretty good, I have to say that I took it with a grain of salt. To be honest, I don’t think much of the recent Marvel movies. Sure, they’re pretty much all better than Superman Returns, but none so far have been as good as Batman Begins (with the possible exception of the second X-Men movie). Coming from me, it might sound strange since I’m a huge comic book fan and movie enthusiast, but I started to believe that non-Batman comics and movies should not cross paths again. At least not when Hollywood is involved.

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I’ve had a lot of people complaining since I’ve installed that decal on the hood of my car (see previous post) about why I chose the Decepticons instead of the Autobots.

The main argument of those Autobots lovers is, since it’s a CAR, it had to be an Autobot. Hell no! The Decepticons have several wheeled vehicles in their line-up and the Autobots have got several ‘non-cars’ in theirs so that’s not a very valid argument (You know what? Next time I own an F-15 I’ll put an Autobot decal on it, how ’bout that?)

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My good friend Jean-Francois just sent me this picture of his car! For the people out there who think they have everything figured out, this isn’t photoshopped, it’s a stencil he bought off e-Bay. I’m so jealous it’s not even funny

Inspired by the many dedications to video game characters I’ve seen around, like this one of Mario, I’ve decided to make my own dedication to my favorite Street Fighter character: Ken (a.k.a. Ken Masters) from the Street Fighter video games/movies/comics.

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Since MP3’s, WinAmp, Napster, iPods and the like, the Music industry has been in trouble. Fewer people are buying Music CDs and more are downloading songs and albums. The Recording Industry sees declining revenues year in and year out. They’re also not the only ones complaining. Both the PC and Console game markets are seeing declines in sales due to pirating. The movie industry is trying to crack down on the number of illegal movie downloads to no avail.

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I can’t say that I went into this movie with very high expectations. Quite the contrary, I’m actually very wary of movies with a lot of hype and mystery surrounding them. Still, I did watch Cloverfield with an open mind. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t as disappointed as most. In general, most people I spoke to were disappointed.

Even though I did somewhat enjoy the movie I have to admit it had many plot holes, bad decisions, and absurdities. In a whole, it was entertaining, I give it that, but the following points keep it from being good in my eyes. Warning, from this point on the article is pretty much all spoiler:

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