GameCube, Donkey Kong 64 (1999) game
I must confess, Donkey Kong was always my favourite of the Nintendo characters' family. Not because he had much of a character, but I was fond of monkeys, apes, etc, as a child, and had owned 'Donkey Kong' on the Game Boy, the remake and expansion of the original arcade game, so knew the history and had a pre-existing connection with the big lump before I really got into Nintendo gaming with the N64. It helped that DK was an ideal choice in 'Mario Kart,' with the ability to barge people out of the way and a good top speed for those who could handle it. Which is all a rather long-winded road to say that I was predisposed towards favour even before this game came out. I got my N64 in Autumn 1999, shortly before this game was released and 'Banjo-Kazooie,' Rare's previous platformer was immediately around the top of my best games list. Once I realised Rare was like the Nintendo Seal of Quality (except genuinely every game they released was excellent, rather than a generic stamp on any cartridge that actually worked for the system it was supposed to, the real meaning of the Seal!), 'DK64' was a title I planned to purchase once I'd waded through those I already had.
There was an added incentive to get this particular game, and that was the bundling of the new Expansion Pak that would double the memory of the N64 - alone it cost almost as much as a game itself (£30), so the best way was to buy 'DK,' especially as it was the first game that required it as an essential. The prospect of real-time lighting, bigger levels, etc, didn't fill me with wonder at the time as I was still new to the console scene, but it did prove fairly impressive when I got around to buying it, though it was games after this that really used it to full potential ('Perfect Dark' perhaps the best example). Playing it now, it is slightly disappointing in the technical stakes, with ridiculous levels of popup: seeing a large mushroom appear in front of you, even at a distance, was annoying, and searching for the last little bits and pieces of a level were made more of a trial by the fact that you couldn't be sure something was or wasn't there until you moved closer. Maybe I was spoiled by 'Banjo-Tooie'? I don't remember such things being an issue, though of course they'd had a bit longer to improve, it's just that it did stand out to me (or not in the mushroom case), and because of the fuss over the Expansion Pak you might have expected better.
I remember liking the game a lot back then, but 'BK' remained supreme, partly because it was so well-designed, but also because it was a new experience to me, never having played a 3D platformer before, and also due to its tighter levels and replayability - few games have I played through as much as that. In contrast, this was only the second time I'd ever played 'DK,' thanks to its sprawling, maybe even a little unfocused, levels, humungous amount of collecting, and, seeing it now, a less dimensional playing experience. What I mean by that is, while there were multiple levels in the game worlds, such as under the ocean, or a huge mushroom to climb up the inside of, in general I had the feeling of a flatter playing area. It's really difficult to describe, but, unlike 'BT' and 'BK' they felt like levels separated into miniature zones rather than being a fluid, wide-open style, like Treasure Trove Cove, for example. It didn't stop me enjoying the collecting and mini-gaming, but it was easier to look at it as a quota to fill: find each characters' items in a zone, then move onto somewhere else. Less free-flowing and exploratory?
The lighting effects were, of course, good, with shadows and colours used effectively, though the game's visual style was slightly less attractive to me than in 'BK,' and even 'BT.' It had more of a shiny, rubbery texture to it, continuing the look of the SNES games in the series (which I never played), and indeed, it was very much a continuation of those games with Rambi and Engarde, Cranky and even the ghost of his dead wife, Wrinkly. So it was nice to feel part of a larger world, and there were a host of new characters introduced with their own idiosyncrasies. The one thing that stayed with me, and has been said in my family ever since, was a line from the awful 'DK Rap' that opens the game: "This Kong has a fon-nee face" - don't ask me why, but whenever something or someone looks strange or out of place we throw that saying out. I remembered most of the levels, though had completely forgotten Creepy Castle and Hideout Helm. I never forgot the drag of swimming around in Gloomy Galleon, though it was an improvement on the swimming sections in the Banjo games as you have infinite air, so no need to keep breaking the surface for breath. But I've never enjoyed platform levels that involve floating, or flying in empty 3D space, and particularly underwater sections as the camera can be a problem and it's just plain boring (think sailing in 'The Wind Waker'). A platform game is supposed to give you absolute freedom in movement, that's the point, as 'Super Mario 64' proved.
Another issue is the stingy system of a character needing a move and you have to locate 'x' amount of coins before Cranky will give it to you, or get to a certain level. It's a little unfair to criticise, as that's how the puzzles are laid out, there have to be restrictions or else Diddy could just fly all over the place and hoover everything up. But having five characters to play, in each level all needing their colour of bananas, plus five Golden Bananas and the Blueprints, not to mention other universal collectables like Banana Fairies and Battle Crowns, the game groans under the weight of items to collect. Yet this is also quite satisfying, hearing the little pop as you pick up each little banana, or the triumphant tune as you reach seventy-five coloured bananas and are awarded a Banana Medal, and especially the happy monkey screams when you get all one hundred. Again, perhaps because I played 'BK' first, I preferred the sound effects, music and graphics of that, but it's all enjoyable and suitably rewarding. My personal favourites were Diddy (I always picked him in 'Diddy Kong Racing'), Chunky and Tiny, who were also quite good value with their moves and physicality. Fungi Forest and it's immense mushroom was always my level of choice, and I liked DK Isle, the hub over-world from which you chose which level to enter, though I wished there had been more to do there - the ocean was merely a boundary with nothing to see or do in it: space for space's sake.
I'd planned to play the game over Christmas having had such a good time with 'BK,' and I happily waited a year to do just that. It does present itself as an ideal type of game to play when you just want to bash through for an hour or two between films, food or other fun, fitting it in without losing track of any 'story' there might be, unlike other games where concentration would be required. The first time I played, it took me around sixty hours to get all 201 bananas, completing the game with 101%. I'd helped my sisters with bits and pieces over the years, so some of it remained fresh, but it was still long enough that I didn't remember every nook and cranny, though I aimed to halve my time if I could. I was all set to do so, but there were just a few things left in various levels: those last 25 coloured bananas and final Golden Banana of Chunky's on Gloomy Galleon (simple as jumping onto the pirate ship, smashing through the hatch!) - I spent ages searching and searching for hidden caves underwater, but I knew the game style was that things weren't really hidden and every area had its areas for each character, but it was complete chance I stumbled into finding Chunky was able to jump onto the ship! Tiny's last balloon was on a platform outside the giant mushroom of Fungi Forest, and Diddy's last balloon was in the coffin area at the bottom of Creepy Castle - press the 1234 code, then back to 1 again! A bit unfair, as it was unexpected, but that was about the only time I felt the game had cheated me slightly.
Chunky's last ever Banana in the game that I needed was in the top of K.Rool's tower, a platform with invisible vines to get to a barrel! Then there was what I thought the final Battle Crown in Fungi Forest's opening (shoot the roving mushroom on the ceiling with the right character for the colour), at first thinking it was to get Diddy's last Banana, but no! Then finally! The last banana barrel for Diddy and 201st banana in-game, and it was just hovering over DK Isles' quiff, rather than at the top of the head, and because of popup I hadn't been able to see it before! Relief… Sadly, just over the thirty hour time limit I'd aimed for, and I still had K.Rool to beat! I beat K.Rool first time (naturally), then realised I had only 99% completion - missing the last Battle Crown from Hideout Helm which I'd assumed I would get from beating the main villain! Aarggh! So I finally did that boosting it to 101% in 30:54, then beat K.Rrool again to see the moderately amusing 'dolphin auditions' ending (with a final time of 31:14). This was the codename for GameCube before it became that, though sadly there never was a DK game on the system after Rare were bought by Microsoft, not even the touted 'Donkey Kong Racing.' Sad. Don't know if DK ever got a game on Wii, and with that my knowledge of his history ends.
Relief was the operative word at completion, as it was a game I felt under pressure to smash through, and having succeeded again it felt like an achievement. It's a shame now as I don't have any more Rare platform games to play for next Christmas! Their stock fell with the arrival of GameCube and acquisition by Microsoft, but for a few years they were the undisputed kings (leaving aside the overlord of Nintendo), of gameplay, and this game didn't disappoint. Perhaps the cracks are there if you look hard enough: the fact that it's a lot of the same old cliched (hot, wet, mechanical, etc), level themes as 2D platformers had been banging out for years, and it could have been a sign of fading originality, but for me, despite some niggles, it was never boring and remained a solid challenge and a pleasure to revisit. We even got a taste of what classic gaming was like with the much harder and less forgiving coin-op recreations of 'Donkey Kong' and 'Jet-Pac' to remind us of how easy we had it. It's hard to believe that we're about as far from 'DK64' now as it was from those games then, as the inexorable march of time relentlessly continues. I suppose that's why I like going back to the N64, the Amiga, and other such gaming greats, because it reminds me of my formative years, the amazing experiences I had back then, experiences that will never be matched, for the intensity of feeling the freedom and magnitude of a computer game for the first times.
****
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Charade
DVD, Smallville S9 (Charade)
There's one thing that has made this season stand out from others that have gone before it, and that is the Lois and Clark dynamic. It wasn't the first season they co-starred on the series (and hopefully not the last, either!), but something gelled this time and actually meant something that all those irritating circular arguments and romances with Lana Lang never did. Lois is fundamentally more likeable and less highly strung, and it may be that it's simply having more of those two characters together that worked out. Indeed, often if an episode concentrates on others in the main cast it tends more to averageness, but this episode once again proves that Lois and Clark are what make this series tick. The opening was nothing special, Lois crashing crooked former DA Ray Sacks' party dressed as a bunny, punching Clark, who's also there, and getting them both fired from the Daily Planet by yet another new Editor, Franklin Stern. To top it all, it then becomes a 'how we got to this point' episode, which is a device very much overused, not just in this series, but in films and TV in general. So not the most auspicious beginning, but things soon turn into something much more interesting than speculation on what would cause Lois to belt her boyfriend in that way: the age-old quandary over whether Clark should let her in on his secret or not.
I think she's pretty much the only person that doesn't know, so when she finally does find out (assuming they play that card eventually - I thought for a while they were going to do it here), she's going to have a lot of bones to pick with a variety of people, not just Clark! But she'll bounce back from it because she's not a holder of grudges and is pretty easygoing. A lot of the tension about Clark's secret went out the window long ago, so it's refreshing whenever it comes back in such a meaningful way, and because this is Lois Lane, not any old bod, and Superman's destiny, it does mean something. It helps that Erica Durance has done such a good job in the role as we've seen various, often uninteresting versions played on TV and big screen, so it's not an easy position to fill. But it's her inadequacies or weaknesses, her childlike trust and soldierly determination that make her someone we care about. And it's her selflessness that comes through this time: she knows that The Blur can't show himself to her because if she knew his identity she'd become a liability (although even without full disclosure she becomes a target), and yet she feels a duty and purpose to life operating under The Blur's guidance that in some ways is deeper even than her affection for Clark.
With Zod impersonating The Blur for a bit (though he doesn't appear this time), he's got her in a bit of trouble which Clark has to undo by finally ringing her in character and telling her not to accept any more instructions because he has to break communications for her own good. It's such a difficult situation, mainly for Clark, because he's painted himself into a corner where she trusts The Blur wholeheartedly, but he can't be sure that his identity isn't being misused, as it has been. Yet he can't solve it by telling her the truth because, as she knows, she'd be under threat. I loved the poetic idea that the reason she trusts The Blur is actually because he refuses to reveal himself, showing her that he cares enough about her safety not to jeopardise it at any cost. The tension and the minefield of this is the main thing that raises the episode above some of the others recently. The story stops being about getting to that point in the party again, which gets sorted out about halfway through the episode, and isn't a disappointment, Lois having punched Clark as a distraction to get closer to the guy with the phone who took a snap of The Blur (though you'd think he'd have uploaded it to the cloud, or to his email address, something that meant it wasn't just on a single device!).
Thrown into the mix are some intriguing developments that season the tasty meal: we get several names chucked out there, but rather than distracting they add interest. The whole deal with the revolving editorship of the Planet gets called out as we meet the newest, Franklin Stern, who promptly fires Lois and Clark for their antics. This could have been a silly knockabout comedy with the two reporters trying to outdo each other in their competition for one job, but that was never really an issue and doesn't take away from the emotive content. There's also the return of Sacks, a bitter enemy if ever there was one, and a potential future thorn in the side - his early release from a life sentence raises the question of how, or more specifically, who, got him released. And we meet another member of Checkmate, The Black King, Maxwell Lord who is a mutant of some kind and wants aliens taken out because he knows from firsthand what dangers they pose. He has powers, the ability to suck people's thoughts out, which is what he tries to do with various people who've seen The Blur in part, hoping to add these mental images together to create a positive ID. Spectacularly, Clark smashes through his 3D screen just as his own face appears, in an extravagant set-piece that succeeds due to its ramifications as much as for visual flair. I was wondering why Clark didn't simply zip over to Lord at speed before he had a chance to mess up Lois' mind, but interrupting Lord's probing might cause the consequences he'd threatened. Regardless, Clark does do that in the end and Lois is fine.
There were the occasional nitpicks such as why this top secret agent goes around with a black king on his pocket hankie so everyone can see, or why Clark as The Blur didn't just call Lois and tell her someone had been impersonating him, but everything gets straightened out by the end or is irrelevant, so it was a fully satisfying experience and just makes you wish, as ever when episodes that are good and solid come along, why they can't get it right like this every week. Even at its best, the series isn't incredible, but it could at least be satisfyingly good quality on a regular basis, this episode proving that good themes, character development and visuals can be achieved! We're left with a little more in the question department when Lord is picked up by a mysterious woman he knows as The Red Queen. There's still the question of whether Clark will let Lois in on his secret, but at least he finds, from her experience assisting The Blur that they have exactly the same perspective on ordinary life being selfish when they have greater things to do, like taking something from the world at someone else's expense, the true curse of the superhero (and placing Lois in the mirror of Tess who felt the same, believing Clark's small ambitions had to grow due to his ability and potential). It ends with the question of whether Clark, representing ordinary life to Lois, is enough. So you feel he's going to keep her in the dark for now.
There's a quality and a thoughtfulness to the story that could really do with being seen more often on the series, but I'm not going to bash it after such a good episode. Ironically, it's an episode that has a lot less in the action quotient, but has more depth than fights and saves. But it also features some strong heroic imagery that wouldn't be out of place in the more evocative pages of a graphic novel than can be achieved in a TV show: The Blur looking down, framed by the Moon, or reflected in the flatscreen used to show Lois' thoughts where she refuses to look round and see his face, only the white 'S' there as proof of the man she served, who puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but can't even speak for fear of revealing who he is. Powerful storytelling imagery. There are also small asides that please, such as Clark dressed in his Blur outfit in the Kent farmhouse which I don't think we've seen before, and Chloe wearing a green leather jacket as if to reassert her loyalty to the absent Green Arrow. Even Clark lifting up a tractor and working in the barn was a lovely throwback now that he's become unemployed. But now that the knowledge of Zod's false brotherhood is known to him, not to mention Tess and Zod's alliance, he's probably not going to have time for a nine to fiver any more…
***
There's one thing that has made this season stand out from others that have gone before it, and that is the Lois and Clark dynamic. It wasn't the first season they co-starred on the series (and hopefully not the last, either!), but something gelled this time and actually meant something that all those irritating circular arguments and romances with Lana Lang never did. Lois is fundamentally more likeable and less highly strung, and it may be that it's simply having more of those two characters together that worked out. Indeed, often if an episode concentrates on others in the main cast it tends more to averageness, but this episode once again proves that Lois and Clark are what make this series tick. The opening was nothing special, Lois crashing crooked former DA Ray Sacks' party dressed as a bunny, punching Clark, who's also there, and getting them both fired from the Daily Planet by yet another new Editor, Franklin Stern. To top it all, it then becomes a 'how we got to this point' episode, which is a device very much overused, not just in this series, but in films and TV in general. So not the most auspicious beginning, but things soon turn into something much more interesting than speculation on what would cause Lois to belt her boyfriend in that way: the age-old quandary over whether Clark should let her in on his secret or not.
I think she's pretty much the only person that doesn't know, so when she finally does find out (assuming they play that card eventually - I thought for a while they were going to do it here), she's going to have a lot of bones to pick with a variety of people, not just Clark! But she'll bounce back from it because she's not a holder of grudges and is pretty easygoing. A lot of the tension about Clark's secret went out the window long ago, so it's refreshing whenever it comes back in such a meaningful way, and because this is Lois Lane, not any old bod, and Superman's destiny, it does mean something. It helps that Erica Durance has done such a good job in the role as we've seen various, often uninteresting versions played on TV and big screen, so it's not an easy position to fill. But it's her inadequacies or weaknesses, her childlike trust and soldierly determination that make her someone we care about. And it's her selflessness that comes through this time: she knows that The Blur can't show himself to her because if she knew his identity she'd become a liability (although even without full disclosure she becomes a target), and yet she feels a duty and purpose to life operating under The Blur's guidance that in some ways is deeper even than her affection for Clark.
With Zod impersonating The Blur for a bit (though he doesn't appear this time), he's got her in a bit of trouble which Clark has to undo by finally ringing her in character and telling her not to accept any more instructions because he has to break communications for her own good. It's such a difficult situation, mainly for Clark, because he's painted himself into a corner where she trusts The Blur wholeheartedly, but he can't be sure that his identity isn't being misused, as it has been. Yet he can't solve it by telling her the truth because, as she knows, she'd be under threat. I loved the poetic idea that the reason she trusts The Blur is actually because he refuses to reveal himself, showing her that he cares enough about her safety not to jeopardise it at any cost. The tension and the minefield of this is the main thing that raises the episode above some of the others recently. The story stops being about getting to that point in the party again, which gets sorted out about halfway through the episode, and isn't a disappointment, Lois having punched Clark as a distraction to get closer to the guy with the phone who took a snap of The Blur (though you'd think he'd have uploaded it to the cloud, or to his email address, something that meant it wasn't just on a single device!).
Thrown into the mix are some intriguing developments that season the tasty meal: we get several names chucked out there, but rather than distracting they add interest. The whole deal with the revolving editorship of the Planet gets called out as we meet the newest, Franklin Stern, who promptly fires Lois and Clark for their antics. This could have been a silly knockabout comedy with the two reporters trying to outdo each other in their competition for one job, but that was never really an issue and doesn't take away from the emotive content. There's also the return of Sacks, a bitter enemy if ever there was one, and a potential future thorn in the side - his early release from a life sentence raises the question of how, or more specifically, who, got him released. And we meet another member of Checkmate, The Black King, Maxwell Lord who is a mutant of some kind and wants aliens taken out because he knows from firsthand what dangers they pose. He has powers, the ability to suck people's thoughts out, which is what he tries to do with various people who've seen The Blur in part, hoping to add these mental images together to create a positive ID. Spectacularly, Clark smashes through his 3D screen just as his own face appears, in an extravagant set-piece that succeeds due to its ramifications as much as for visual flair. I was wondering why Clark didn't simply zip over to Lord at speed before he had a chance to mess up Lois' mind, but interrupting Lord's probing might cause the consequences he'd threatened. Regardless, Clark does do that in the end and Lois is fine.
There were the occasional nitpicks such as why this top secret agent goes around with a black king on his pocket hankie so everyone can see, or why Clark as The Blur didn't just call Lois and tell her someone had been impersonating him, but everything gets straightened out by the end or is irrelevant, so it was a fully satisfying experience and just makes you wish, as ever when episodes that are good and solid come along, why they can't get it right like this every week. Even at its best, the series isn't incredible, but it could at least be satisfyingly good quality on a regular basis, this episode proving that good themes, character development and visuals can be achieved! We're left with a little more in the question department when Lord is picked up by a mysterious woman he knows as The Red Queen. There's still the question of whether Clark will let Lois in on his secret, but at least he finds, from her experience assisting The Blur that they have exactly the same perspective on ordinary life being selfish when they have greater things to do, like taking something from the world at someone else's expense, the true curse of the superhero (and placing Lois in the mirror of Tess who felt the same, believing Clark's small ambitions had to grow due to his ability and potential). It ends with the question of whether Clark, representing ordinary life to Lois, is enough. So you feel he's going to keep her in the dark for now.
There's a quality and a thoughtfulness to the story that could really do with being seen more often on the series, but I'm not going to bash it after such a good episode. Ironically, it's an episode that has a lot less in the action quotient, but has more depth than fights and saves. But it also features some strong heroic imagery that wouldn't be out of place in the more evocative pages of a graphic novel than can be achieved in a TV show: The Blur looking down, framed by the Moon, or reflected in the flatscreen used to show Lois' thoughts where she refuses to look round and see his face, only the white 'S' there as proof of the man she served, who puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but can't even speak for fear of revealing who he is. Powerful storytelling imagery. There are also small asides that please, such as Clark dressed in his Blur outfit in the Kent farmhouse which I don't think we've seen before, and Chloe wearing a green leather jacket as if to reassert her loyalty to the absent Green Arrow. Even Clark lifting up a tractor and working in the barn was a lovely throwback now that he's become unemployed. But now that the knowledge of Zod's false brotherhood is known to him, not to mention Tess and Zod's alliance, he's probably not going to have time for a nine to fiver any more…
***
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Upgrade
DVD, Smallville S9 (Upgrade)
Slight, another one of those insubstantial runarounds that isn't much of a standalone episode, while it carries on subplots and story-lines to its heart's content. On the other hand it features the unlooked-for return of likeable Brian Austin Green as John Corben with his Iron Man mechanical heart, which doubles as a Kryptonite weapon. I couldn't remember what happened to him, but it was nice to see him again, though he was really only returned to use as a McGuffin to save Clark from red Kryptonite dust which he inhaled when searching the secret lab in which… John Corben had been held. All a bit circular, as is the return to apologising from both Clark and Chloe, so it had the definite flavour of one of those many episodes from the middle seasons that wasted so much time. I wouldn't say this was a waste of time, it does continue things, but not in any great and fascinating way. It's all a bit arbitrary: so Red Clark is just the man to be mates with Zod, who had already been working on him, and is his physical equal, having used his blood (a plot point which ends the episode when he gathers together the more loyal Kandorians to feast on his own blood, presumably, and then there'll be lots of powered up Kryptonians for Clark to deal with). They hang out on rooftops, create freak snowstorms for fun, and go over to Dad's to play with the stereo. Or something like that. It should have come as a shock that Clark would reveal the location and existence of his personal, private, and important Fortress of Solitude, but it's done in such an offhand manner.
Loyalties and alliances are confused and disparate, so much so I'm not sure who's on who's side! Chloe and Oliver had created caches of Kryptonite weapons all over the globe (though Olly doesn't appear this time), ready for the outbreak of war, and obviously in his drunken state, Clark don't like that! He and pal Zod mash at least one of them up in flames, but it's not clear if it was just one they found or if they paid a visit to all. They didn't seem much in the mood to be scouring the Earth for such things, more like wanting to have a bit of fun together and a chat. Later, Clark admits it was Chloe's weapons cache that saved the planet in the future he saw, so is it a good thing or not? Chloe herself has to work with Tess and her super-soldier, Corben, under Tess' control, to get Clark out of his red stupor, going as far as chloroforming her own cousin, who has her own investigation rolling with John. It should be no surprise that it's all over the place in the story department, and if they'd concentrated on a couple of ideas and explored them more fully it might have made for a satisfying experience. Zod and Clark as mates; Clark under the influence (yet again - they do love their Red Clark stories, don't they!), Chloe and Tess; Lois and John and his quest for survival… Pick and choose, don't cram it all in.
Amid the many plots bubbling away I noticed the occasional gaff such as Clark walking into a table as he smoothly turns to leave the Watchtower, or when Corben's trapped in an icicle after the combined frozen breath of Clark and Zod freezes him, you can see he's not really frozen because his head moves slightly! It makes me suspect that the production was getting tired as we come towards end of season, and that they didn't have the time to be as slick as they usually try to be. It's a lot of men in long, black coats, talking in shadows, or women in long coats talking in shadows (how come Tess is working with Zod, again? I forget), and it's just never exciting or frightening, it's not got the charm or fun of the Lois and Clark episodes earlier in this season, so it's much of a muchness, nothing special, not a letdown or a bad episode, just forgettable. Which is unfortunate as there are a lot of details sprinkled throughout that we're supposed to be keeping track of, such as all those allegiances and alliances, who knows what, who has what (fun to see the old hexagonal ship key again, which is what Corben uses to get to the Fortress), and why. I'm hoping things improve in these last few episodes because in general I think of this as being one of the better seasons, one I'd almost keep, and I haven't been much tempted to do that for a long time.
**
Slight, another one of those insubstantial runarounds that isn't much of a standalone episode, while it carries on subplots and story-lines to its heart's content. On the other hand it features the unlooked-for return of likeable Brian Austin Green as John Corben with his Iron Man mechanical heart, which doubles as a Kryptonite weapon. I couldn't remember what happened to him, but it was nice to see him again, though he was really only returned to use as a McGuffin to save Clark from red Kryptonite dust which he inhaled when searching the secret lab in which… John Corben had been held. All a bit circular, as is the return to apologising from both Clark and Chloe, so it had the definite flavour of one of those many episodes from the middle seasons that wasted so much time. I wouldn't say this was a waste of time, it does continue things, but not in any great and fascinating way. It's all a bit arbitrary: so Red Clark is just the man to be mates with Zod, who had already been working on him, and is his physical equal, having used his blood (a plot point which ends the episode when he gathers together the more loyal Kandorians to feast on his own blood, presumably, and then there'll be lots of powered up Kryptonians for Clark to deal with). They hang out on rooftops, create freak snowstorms for fun, and go over to Dad's to play with the stereo. Or something like that. It should have come as a shock that Clark would reveal the location and existence of his personal, private, and important Fortress of Solitude, but it's done in such an offhand manner.
Loyalties and alliances are confused and disparate, so much so I'm not sure who's on who's side! Chloe and Oliver had created caches of Kryptonite weapons all over the globe (though Olly doesn't appear this time), ready for the outbreak of war, and obviously in his drunken state, Clark don't like that! He and pal Zod mash at least one of them up in flames, but it's not clear if it was just one they found or if they paid a visit to all. They didn't seem much in the mood to be scouring the Earth for such things, more like wanting to have a bit of fun together and a chat. Later, Clark admits it was Chloe's weapons cache that saved the planet in the future he saw, so is it a good thing or not? Chloe herself has to work with Tess and her super-soldier, Corben, under Tess' control, to get Clark out of his red stupor, going as far as chloroforming her own cousin, who has her own investigation rolling with John. It should be no surprise that it's all over the place in the story department, and if they'd concentrated on a couple of ideas and explored them more fully it might have made for a satisfying experience. Zod and Clark as mates; Clark under the influence (yet again - they do love their Red Clark stories, don't they!), Chloe and Tess; Lois and John and his quest for survival… Pick and choose, don't cram it all in.
Amid the many plots bubbling away I noticed the occasional gaff such as Clark walking into a table as he smoothly turns to leave the Watchtower, or when Corben's trapped in an icicle after the combined frozen breath of Clark and Zod freezes him, you can see he's not really frozen because his head moves slightly! It makes me suspect that the production was getting tired as we come towards end of season, and that they didn't have the time to be as slick as they usually try to be. It's a lot of men in long, black coats, talking in shadows, or women in long coats talking in shadows (how come Tess is working with Zod, again? I forget), and it's just never exciting or frightening, it's not got the charm or fun of the Lois and Clark episodes earlier in this season, so it's much of a muchness, nothing special, not a letdown or a bad episode, just forgettable. Which is unfortunate as there are a lot of details sprinkled throughout that we're supposed to be keeping track of, such as all those allegiances and alliances, who knows what, who has what (fun to see the old hexagonal ship key again, which is what Corben uses to get to the Fortress), and why. I'm hoping things improve in these last few episodes because in general I think of this as being one of the better seasons, one I'd almost keep, and I haven't been much tempted to do that for a long time.
**
Checkmate
DVD, Smallville S9 (Checkmate)
One of those episodes that is a triumph of style over substance, with a story that's unfocused and requires you to keep track of many different elements, and it doesn't really have a grand denouement or explain everything, but it may be that having a few weeks off from the series, I forget how twisting its narrative often is. Very much a throwing of characters together without it appearing to be all that planned out, but I quite enjoyed this ramshackle (in narrative terms), runaround, even if it did rush about like a Mad Hatter, featuring Green Arrow, Tess as a secret agent, Clark in full black coat action, Chloe kidnapped (kidnapped, on this series, no way!), and the Martian Manhunter, Detective John Jones. So it should be no surprise they didn't squeeze in Lois or the Kandorians as well. As it is, they dash through the story madly, when they could easily have allowed it time to flow naturally over several episodes. But no, we have to rush to get through it, discover Checkmate's Bond-like HQ, and as a consequence it appears more over-directed than usual. Checkmate, or Suicide Squad are back in, though I'm still unclear what's what: is Checkmate the name of the mission, and SS the name of the group Agent Waller, the White Queen, was pulling together? With Suicide Squad in current genre consciousness thanks to an approaching film, I already know a little about it, that it's a government sanctioned and controlled organisation that rounds up villains to go up against even worse villains, only in this case it's any super-powered people.
I'm not sure how well Waller achieved her aims in the episode, as it was her plan to get Watchtower, Clark and the minions (the JLA members are all mentioned by name even though we never ever see them these days!), to be a part of it. Might have been simpler to ask them. And what's the point exactly? Get a group together to take on aliens because she's found some alien blood? We know the Kandorians are around, but so what? A lot of the episode seems to be spent with us waiting for characters to catch up with what we already know, which isn't great storytelling, to say the least. If I sound like I'm talking myself out of the enjoying the episode, I'm not, but it did strike me as typically weak logic and an approach to building a story that was really only setting up the cool sequences and character interplay that kept it worthwhile. It's good to see all these people doing their stuff, particularly Martian Manhunter, though as we were reminded of his true appearance thanks to the 'story so far…' bit at the beginning, it would have been nice to have him in that guise again. He gets to show off some powers, such as reading people's minds and wiping said minds, although I'd be surprised if Waller's intel on the identities of Green Arrow, etc, were only in her head - we didn't see him wiping computer files or burning notebooks.
If we're looking at inconsistency, and it's hard not to, the sequence where Green Arrow's lured into protecting Tess, cunningly disguised in a black hairdo (Tess, not Green Arrow!), whom you wonder how he couldn't have recognised since her face is the same (but you can take it that the darkness is 'screen darkness' and in reality it could have been much darker), and then she and her men fail to remove all his gadgets and stuff, allowing him to escape. Taken all together it's a pleasingly impressive visual sequence or two, but while the hyper real Bourne-like opening sequence and inexplicably dramatic slow motion to emphasise Tess' moves (kicking the car door back into the goon's face which smashes through the window was especially impressive), it mainly draws attention to the style and even takes you out of it as we're not used to some martial arts, crazy 'Matrix' action in the series - usually when things go slow-mo it's purely to celebrate Clark's abilities. But though odd and over the top, it was still pretty enjoyable, with Arrow's escape from the van by blowing the door off and sliding along on it, a highlight. The best visuals of the episode undoubtedly go to Clark's saving of Chloe - blackmailed in a clever way (though not clever enough - better not to have held her in the same castle, or don't they know about Clark's super-hearing?), he still manages to burst in when the power goes down and emergency lighting flickers on and off. In the moments of light we see his actions captured in still pieces and it really felt like watching a comic in 3D! I wouldn't want to see it all the time, but as a visual treat it was excellent.
I love it when they do simple things to demonstrate Clark's power, too, such as when he's talking to Chloe at Watchtower as they watch Jones at the site of Arrow's kidnapping (they do love their abandoned railway tracks set, don't they!), then he whips away and before Chloe's had time to fully realise, he's on the CCTV they were just looking at! Simple, but very effective. A bit like Clark sometimes… There are other things which you have to take for granted, such as Tess somehow knowing the Green Arrow would see what was happening and follow her when she wanted to kidnap him, and it is a little hard to stomach that Tess was a government agent all this time, just waiting to be reactivated, as she's always seemed to be for herself, or Lex. I liked that she showed some concern or the ghost of a memory flitted across her face when it was suggested she's more loyal to someone else, as it told me that she still has that loyalty to Lex. Subtlety has never been a strong suit of the series, and it may be I'm reading too much into it and she was actually thinking of Clark or something more recent, but it could be read in multiple ways.
One big development I didn't even realise was of that magnitude, was when Tess realises Oliver is Green Arrow. I just assumed she had known long ago and that it hadn't mattered! That's what comes of watching things slowly - in reality I could dash through a season in a couple of weeks if I watched an episode or two every day, but I always preferred to savour and digest things, so I suppose I do it anachronistically. It gave us some fun moments between them, such as her throwing things at him, but, like Oliver, I never trust what she says so you never know if she means what she's doing or not. It's a bit like the line Jones has at the end, about things not always being black or white, and she's definitely proved her greyness over the couple of seasons she's been with us. Jones' hint that he's working for some other interest or power besides Clark and the good guys, Waller, Tess and the bad guys, and the Kandorians, certainly sparks some interest, though not speculation because I know almost nothing about any of the comics characters. Maybe he's working for Jor-El? Who knows, at this stage?
On the whole I liked the episode and was impressed by the effects work, gratified by some good character scenes, such as Clark apologising to Chloe and the air being cleared with their talk of Chloe going Big Brother and Clark keeping her sidelined, so maybe the big story I suspected of Chloe's descent won't happen after all. It did cross my mind that she could die in this episode, knowing she didn't come back for the final season, but it didn't happen this time. Not that the real Chloe is still alive anyway, the version I liked was transmogrified after the early three, four or five seasons into someone quite different. The new player in the game does leave me wondering and, while I concede it's usually good to go back to the series after some time away and that that can make me feel more generous to it, I couldn't deny its positives.
***
One of those episodes that is a triumph of style over substance, with a story that's unfocused and requires you to keep track of many different elements, and it doesn't really have a grand denouement or explain everything, but it may be that having a few weeks off from the series, I forget how twisting its narrative often is. Very much a throwing of characters together without it appearing to be all that planned out, but I quite enjoyed this ramshackle (in narrative terms), runaround, even if it did rush about like a Mad Hatter, featuring Green Arrow, Tess as a secret agent, Clark in full black coat action, Chloe kidnapped (kidnapped, on this series, no way!), and the Martian Manhunter, Detective John Jones. So it should be no surprise they didn't squeeze in Lois or the Kandorians as well. As it is, they dash through the story madly, when they could easily have allowed it time to flow naturally over several episodes. But no, we have to rush to get through it, discover Checkmate's Bond-like HQ, and as a consequence it appears more over-directed than usual. Checkmate, or Suicide Squad are back in, though I'm still unclear what's what: is Checkmate the name of the mission, and SS the name of the group Agent Waller, the White Queen, was pulling together? With Suicide Squad in current genre consciousness thanks to an approaching film, I already know a little about it, that it's a government sanctioned and controlled organisation that rounds up villains to go up against even worse villains, only in this case it's any super-powered people.
I'm not sure how well Waller achieved her aims in the episode, as it was her plan to get Watchtower, Clark and the minions (the JLA members are all mentioned by name even though we never ever see them these days!), to be a part of it. Might have been simpler to ask them. And what's the point exactly? Get a group together to take on aliens because she's found some alien blood? We know the Kandorians are around, but so what? A lot of the episode seems to be spent with us waiting for characters to catch up with what we already know, which isn't great storytelling, to say the least. If I sound like I'm talking myself out of the enjoying the episode, I'm not, but it did strike me as typically weak logic and an approach to building a story that was really only setting up the cool sequences and character interplay that kept it worthwhile. It's good to see all these people doing their stuff, particularly Martian Manhunter, though as we were reminded of his true appearance thanks to the 'story so far…' bit at the beginning, it would have been nice to have him in that guise again. He gets to show off some powers, such as reading people's minds and wiping said minds, although I'd be surprised if Waller's intel on the identities of Green Arrow, etc, were only in her head - we didn't see him wiping computer files or burning notebooks.
If we're looking at inconsistency, and it's hard not to, the sequence where Green Arrow's lured into protecting Tess, cunningly disguised in a black hairdo (Tess, not Green Arrow!), whom you wonder how he couldn't have recognised since her face is the same (but you can take it that the darkness is 'screen darkness' and in reality it could have been much darker), and then she and her men fail to remove all his gadgets and stuff, allowing him to escape. Taken all together it's a pleasingly impressive visual sequence or two, but while the hyper real Bourne-like opening sequence and inexplicably dramatic slow motion to emphasise Tess' moves (kicking the car door back into the goon's face which smashes through the window was especially impressive), it mainly draws attention to the style and even takes you out of it as we're not used to some martial arts, crazy 'Matrix' action in the series - usually when things go slow-mo it's purely to celebrate Clark's abilities. But though odd and over the top, it was still pretty enjoyable, with Arrow's escape from the van by blowing the door off and sliding along on it, a highlight. The best visuals of the episode undoubtedly go to Clark's saving of Chloe - blackmailed in a clever way (though not clever enough - better not to have held her in the same castle, or don't they know about Clark's super-hearing?), he still manages to burst in when the power goes down and emergency lighting flickers on and off. In the moments of light we see his actions captured in still pieces and it really felt like watching a comic in 3D! I wouldn't want to see it all the time, but as a visual treat it was excellent.
I love it when they do simple things to demonstrate Clark's power, too, such as when he's talking to Chloe at Watchtower as they watch Jones at the site of Arrow's kidnapping (they do love their abandoned railway tracks set, don't they!), then he whips away and before Chloe's had time to fully realise, he's on the CCTV they were just looking at! Simple, but very effective. A bit like Clark sometimes… There are other things which you have to take for granted, such as Tess somehow knowing the Green Arrow would see what was happening and follow her when she wanted to kidnap him, and it is a little hard to stomach that Tess was a government agent all this time, just waiting to be reactivated, as she's always seemed to be for herself, or Lex. I liked that she showed some concern or the ghost of a memory flitted across her face when it was suggested she's more loyal to someone else, as it told me that she still has that loyalty to Lex. Subtlety has never been a strong suit of the series, and it may be I'm reading too much into it and she was actually thinking of Clark or something more recent, but it could be read in multiple ways.
One big development I didn't even realise was of that magnitude, was when Tess realises Oliver is Green Arrow. I just assumed she had known long ago and that it hadn't mattered! That's what comes of watching things slowly - in reality I could dash through a season in a couple of weeks if I watched an episode or two every day, but I always preferred to savour and digest things, so I suppose I do it anachronistically. It gave us some fun moments between them, such as her throwing things at him, but, like Oliver, I never trust what she says so you never know if she means what she's doing or not. It's a bit like the line Jones has at the end, about things not always being black or white, and she's definitely proved her greyness over the couple of seasons she's been with us. Jones' hint that he's working for some other interest or power besides Clark and the good guys, Waller, Tess and the bad guys, and the Kandorians, certainly sparks some interest, though not speculation because I know almost nothing about any of the comics characters. Maybe he's working for Jor-El? Who knows, at this stage?
On the whole I liked the episode and was impressed by the effects work, gratified by some good character scenes, such as Clark apologising to Chloe and the air being cleared with their talk of Chloe going Big Brother and Clark keeping her sidelined, so maybe the big story I suspected of Chloe's descent won't happen after all. It did cross my mind that she could die in this episode, knowing she didn't come back for the final season, but it didn't happen this time. Not that the real Chloe is still alive anyway, the version I liked was transmogrified after the early three, four or five seasons into someone quite different. The new player in the game does leave me wondering and, while I concede it's usually good to go back to the series after some time away and that that can make me feel more generous to it, I couldn't deny its positives.
***
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
cinema, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
First off, the title: none of the modern SW films have had a good title, with 'Revenge of The Sith' coming closest to achieving a modicum of aptness and imagination, and that was mainly because it was a mirror of the original title for 'Return of The Jedi' which was to have been 'Revenge of The Jedi' until they remembered Jedi aren't supposed to be vengeful! 'The Force Awakens' is as nebulous as 'The Phantom Menace,' and since the Force never sleeps, rather equivocal, but we can take it as being poetic rather than literal, with the Force awakening in Rey during the film. Still, as soon as I heard the title I was a bit put off and right up until the opening title crawl, since the BBFC card had it as 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' so my first thought was to wonder why no episode monicker. Fortunately 'Episode VII' stood proudly atop the familiar yellow text and all was well.
I've reached the age where I really don't care that much any more about things like the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare playing before the film, and didn't even notice that there was no Disney logo, just the Lucasfilm one. But it's a strange place to be for me, because back in the nineties and early 2000s, I would have been absolutely thrilled if Episode VII had been announced. I even liked Episode II back in those days and it's only on my recent watch through the double trilogy that I realised how weak that one was. But in the years since, beginning with Episode III, I was beginning to go off SW on the whole. I'd seen the Original Trilogy too many times and I'd aged, not a happy combination. So even when it was announced that Lucas had sold SW to Disney for over 4 billion, and that more films were forthcoming, I was only a little excited by the news, not full of joyous expectation.
I knew the SW name was still enough to get me in the cinema, when I'd begun to go off cinema visits in recent years, but I didn't have much anticipation. Still, I avoided all spoilers and knew very little going in, which I always think is the best way to watch a film, any film (unless it's historical, when it's good to know the context and surrounding events). I'd heard, though the reviews were almost universally positive, and as expected, it had become the highest grossing film of all time (inevitable on the name alone), that it was pretty much a rehash of 'A New Hope,' and I expected that, since after the prequels were generally considered disappointing once the hype had died down, they were sure to go as back to basics as possible in opposition. That's why I had some hope that the flavour and feel of the old films could be pulled off, even though it was directed by JJ Abrams who'd already made a SW film, using my own favourite franchise, 'Star Trek,' to pull it off! I've never been that impressed with Abrams' work, and although I ultimately liked the first of his Trek films, and the third 'Mission: Impossible,' neither lived up to the previous entries in their series', and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' didn't even live up to his first attempt at Trek.
He was clearly suited to the more fantastical, fantasy world of SW, but at the same time you know what you're going to get with him. A friend of mine who I saw Episode VII with, and who is a SW expert, said it best, describing them as 'playing it safe.' That may have been the best decision financially (as their profits proved!), but aside from my overriding feeling (more on which in a moment), I felt like there was very little, if anything, I hadn't already seen in the OT. This bit was taken from that film, that moment was from this film, it was all very derivative. Not to say it was boring, because it wasn't that, but the aforementioned overriding feeling I experienced was weirdness. It was insane that we're getting to see Han Solo, Chewbacca, 'General' Leia, and Luke Skywalker (or not!), after so many years, played by the actors that first brought them to life. This is what drew me, and likely the majority of people over the age of thirty, in to see it, because I realised something: SW is more for children. Just like the modern 'Dr. Who' or the Abramsverse Trek films, the style and the storytelling is still at a level that is aimed at children, and that's not enough for me these days.
It was weird to think that the entire span of my life has taken place between the last time these actors played their characters, and now, when they're reprising them. It's bizarre and uncomfortable, and I spent as much time considering mortality while viewing this film as I did concentrating on the actual events unfolding on screen. I supposed that's a good thing if a film makes you think, but I'm not sure it was the film itself as much as its position and connection to the past. I'm not saying the story and acting were juvenile, they were fine, and I certainly did not dislike any of the characters, unlike Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II and III, whom I detested! But I can't imagine that if Harrison Ford and the others hadn't been involved, I would have had much of any investment in the new characters. They were fine: Finn the Stormtrooper with a conscience, Poe Dameron whom I was immediately convinced was Luke's son thanks to some facial resemblance, and Rey, the modern Luke, though of course, this being the 21st Century, we must have a female version! Not to mention Kylo Ren, who turns out to be the son of Han and Leia.
As fine as the actors were, I was never going to see the magic spark in them that I saw in those original actors, simply because time has moved on, I can't be impressed any more, I feel I've seen every story and situation played out too many times to be surprised. I'm not even criticising the film, just the model upon which most 'big' films these days are based. Of the bunch, I felt Kylo Ren was probably the most interesting - at first I was noticing the parallels between the film and Episode IV (starting on a desert planet; young person ends up in space; involved with a mission; a droid must carry a message to the rebels, etc), and it was hard to miss the clonk on the nose of this character who might as well have been named Darth Vader: long black cloak, breathing apparatus, mechanical voice, evil servant of the Supreme Leader (…Snoke? Sounds like something from 'The Moomins'!), and to dismiss both the character and the story as being, again, derivative, unoriginal… but not boring. At least there was a bit of mystery to begin with, since Luke wasn't in posters or trailers and I knew there was something going on with him (the intriguing opening crawl points to finding him as being a major part of the plot, though I didn't expect it to be the plot in its entirety), my first suspicion was that he was somehow the bad guy in the mask. You soon realise this couldn't be so, since this character reveres Vader (even keeping the charred remains of his helmet, though I'd seen that image from the trailer), and wants to be like him, and Luke would never do that.
At the same time, the Luke I knew wouldn't abandon his responsibility to the galaxy and hole up somewhere, and I'm sensing some tragic backstory of how it was his fault that Kylo Ren ended up on the Dark Side, which will no doubt be revealed piecemeal through the coming films. That's another weird feeling: to be left in the dark. I'm so used to having the full saga spread before me, and as much as I don't like certain choices (much of Episodes II and III), I like having the answers, as disappointing as that was at the time. I'm not familiar with the lack of information and had to keep reminding myself that if I'd watched Episode IV the first time, I'd have been just as lost. The difference is that that film remains a seminal piece of work that I enjoyed just as much when I recently watched it, as when I had in the past, if not more, filling me with joy at the end. It's a self-contained story. I knew going in that this film would end on a cliffhanger, but I had not an inkling of how frustrating that would be! If I was disappointed about something in the film, it was that we never got to have the old gang back together in their entirety. Yes, we get Han and Chewie, and for a lot of people I'm sure that was the main draw, but I loved having C-3PO and R2-D2 (which even the prequels utilised better than this), as well as Han, Leia, Chewie and Luke (no sign of Lando, so I wonder if they'll bring him back in one of the films to come?).
It isn't that I expect to see all my favourite scenes recreated, but I had slight hopes that we'd have some form of Yoda (the old woman in goggles, Maz, who knows about the Force, despite not being a Jedi, was the closest thing: squat, old, wise, and possessing vital information as well as the lightsaber of the Skywalker family), and because his voice had been used in one of the trailers I even hoped for some kind of CG version of old Alec Guinness to bring his ghostly form back to 'life.' My expectations were generally low (Abrams, Disney, the title…), but I still harboured these ridiculous minor hopes. But of course they can't rely on old characters, this is a new SW for a new generation, and that's my point about it never developing into something new: like so much in life it gets to a certain point and resets, and younger viewers come along and find what I found in older films or TV, and so the cycle continues. About the only exception I've found to that rule were the first three (and a bit), Trek TV series'. It began in the sixties with a fun adventure show that had much promise, then 'TNG' came along in the eighties and enhanced and tightened the focus, then in the nineties 'DS9' (and to a lesser extent, 'Voyager'), built upon and ran with what had gone before, and I got to see this development (not all in order, but still), and marvelled at how it grew with me as I went from child, to teenager to adult.
That's the only example I can think of, and so you learn to accept what comes and try and enjoy those lesser years again through the eyes of the young who are coming to such things for the first time, and which will probably be as wild about these new films as I felt about the OT. But I realised that films aren't really made for me any more, and the things I grew up with haven't changed (except in ways I can find unpalatable, such as losing mystery, joy or logic). And yet I still have an opinion and I still want to write about these things, although I must say it's hard to have a complete opinion after watching this film once. I can't even truly say there's no mystery because the film does a good job of providing plenty of hooks for me to wonder about: what manner of creature is Snoke, who takes Palpatine's place as Lord of All Evil, Kylo Ren's master. Presumably he's Sith, and I hear rumours he could be Palpatine's own master, Darth Plagueis, though I'm sure the Emperor said even he couldn't defy death in the end. It does leave me wondering, even though I miss Ian McDiarmid's steady hand (except when he went crazy at the end of Episode III!), on the tiller of the Dark Side and being the glue that keeps things together. Why was Snoke shown so massive, does that reflect his actual size, or is it simply to glorify himself in front of his servants?
Having been primed and ready for a continuation of the saga after reading the Thrawn trilogy, which for many years was the definitive post-OT history, I knew that it was going to be all about the next generation, the children of the characters we know. So every young person that had a major role I expected, and assumed, were sons or daughters of the Skywalkers or Solos. It didn't even occur to me until quite late that Rey could be unconnected, but we didn't get any confirmation of her parenthood beyond the fact she didn't want to leave the desert planet of Jakku in case whoever left her there returned. Personally, seeing how the film was so heavily representative of the story and style of the OT (which is what people wanted), and as both previous trilogies were about following a main hero who was from the Skywalker family, and that Rey is the main character in this new trilogy, I'm betting she's Luke's daughter. There was no time for any confirmation or denial since we end with her returning Luke's lightsaber to him on that island. Two points to raise here: unfortunately, I'd recently seen the shooting location they used for this place, a tall green island with huts of slate, which had been used by monks or something, in a documentary about the history of monasteries, I think, so it really took me out of the film. And I was confused about the weapon - at first I thought they'd made a major booboo by saying this lightsaber was both Vader's and Luke's, but the green one was made by Luke. Ah, it's the blue one… But he lost that falling through Cloud City, so did Vader retrieve it? Just one more question to be answered.
The big event of the film was of course, the murder in cold blood of Han by his own son. I knew that Harrison Ford wasn't a fan of the character, and I knew he'd been offered a huge chunk of cash to reprise the role, so I also had a strong (and bad!), feeling that he was going to die in the film, even before I went in. As soon as I saw the bridge and that he was going to confront his estranged son on it, I knew he was going to fall and I never trusted Ren for a moment. So for me it wasn't a heartwarming moment of reconciliation between Father and son (like the end of Episode VI), and it wasn't a surprise when he got a lightsaber through the middle. But what a way to end such an iconic character! For Ren to really be a bad guy he had to do more than prance around pretending to be Vader, he had to show us how bad he was, so I knew that was coming, and I also knew he'd survive for future films, simply because he had to be damaged and mutilated so that he truly got his wish to be like Vader: to have all the pain and anguish like the real Vader had. And I liked that aspect of the character, that he was really nothing more than a foolish boy who idolised his Grandfather, a man he never knew, but had become this symbol to him, although Anakin himself would have been disgusted. It was the Vader before redemption that he cared about, but even that Vader would likely have only seen him as a threat and killed him, so it's like worshipping the devil: loving something that wants nothing better than to see you permanently and irrevocably ruined.
Which is exactly what happened, you get a lightsaber battle in the woods in the falling snow, and it was nice to see something real, without the CG acrobatics we'd come to expect from the (later) prequels. That's one key element that gave me hope from the earliest days that Episode VII was going to be done right: they were concentrating on reality, just like the OT, rather than the totally CG environments and characters which lacked weight and heft and physicality. I assume the space-based stuff was all CG, as they don't really do models any more, but the important stuff, with actors and sets, was to be done for real and that makes a difference. I was surprised that despite this, and that it was a 12A, only the second SW film to be rated such, that it was very child friendly. The characters weren't sexed up, the action and fighting wasn't gory, there wasn't the swearing you'd get in other 12A films, and in fact I was surprised it given a 12A. I think that was one of the positives of the film, it didn't try to needlessly shock - I suppose Han being 'sabered was an example of why it was given the rating, not so much for the actual penetration violence, which occurs below camera, but that a friendly old man is so suddenly murdered. Episode III's burning of Anakin's entire body certainly deserved a strong warning, but I'm not sure this film needed to be more than a PG.
Like a few other bits and bobs I'd picked up, I already knew about the overpowered lightsaber Kylo Ren has, with side shoots, and so I didn't spend any time tutting in my head, but it was a stupid idea, and just continues the trend that lightsabers aren't enough of a marvel, we have to have some kind of variation in each new encounter: the double-bladed version Maul had in Episode I was a logical development and created the best fight of the prequels, but then Christopher Lee simply had a bent handle in Episode II, and Grievous used four (to poor effect), in III. I also felt the whole idea of this First Order was unexplained and came from nowhere. What is the balance of power in the galaxy? Is this Order battling with the Resistance for supremacy, or is it a smaller entity slowly gaining momentum? Or is the Resistance the lesser force? None of this came through for me, and as for another Death Star being built… that was almost an aside, and even though they called it out and made sure to say on screen that this is NOT the Death Star, it's a 'Star Killer,' it really was, and was not handled effectively. The difference this time is that it can destroy multiple planets at once. Right. Starkiller was another thing that took me out of the reality of the film, too, as it was the name they were originally going to use as Luke's surname before they decided on Skywalker. It's a sly nod to those in the know, but it's too meta and too in your face to be acknowledging real world history.
I also found it hard to believe that Finn was able to survive a lightsaber blade slicing down his back! He's left on life support at the end of the film, but even so, he should have been dead! And he didn't look young enough to be on his first ever battle, I assumed early on (knowing there would be a Stormtrooper who leaves his army), that it would be the combined effect of all he's been through that finally causes him to question his motivation. That would have made for a deeper character and is another example for me of the film being fairly surface and not having the depth of an Episode V, despite Lawrence Kasdan, writer of that film, being one of the writers here (I reckon his was the good idea to make Kylo Ren a Vader follower and emulator). I liked Finn, just as I liked Rey, but I wasn't attached to them and I wouldn't have given a Gamorrean Guard if either had been killed. I am interested to hear Rey's backstory, and I do want to know why Luke became a hermit and I hope to see the old characters continue to be a big part of other episodes, but I think I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be, even though I kept my expectations low.
I did almost get a tear in the eye when Han and Chewie first board the Millennium Falcon, but as I said before, it was as much about me being confronted with my own lifespan, those around me, and the passing of time that made me feel almost irrelevant as an audience member - too old to be able to appreciate such things fully. I'm not saying I'm 'too intelligent' or 'advanced' for SW, because I still enjoyed the OT and some of the prequels when viewed recently, and perhaps when I've had a chance to view the film again on DVD, and especially when I've seen the whole trilogy and know the story, I may be able to reevaluate it, but at the moment, my impression is a little too much lukewarm attack of the clone, than Luke Skywalker, Return of the Jedi.
**
First off, the title: none of the modern SW films have had a good title, with 'Revenge of The Sith' coming closest to achieving a modicum of aptness and imagination, and that was mainly because it was a mirror of the original title for 'Return of The Jedi' which was to have been 'Revenge of The Jedi' until they remembered Jedi aren't supposed to be vengeful! 'The Force Awakens' is as nebulous as 'The Phantom Menace,' and since the Force never sleeps, rather equivocal, but we can take it as being poetic rather than literal, with the Force awakening in Rey during the film. Still, as soon as I heard the title I was a bit put off and right up until the opening title crawl, since the BBFC card had it as 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' so my first thought was to wonder why no episode monicker. Fortunately 'Episode VII' stood proudly atop the familiar yellow text and all was well.
I've reached the age where I really don't care that much any more about things like the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare playing before the film, and didn't even notice that there was no Disney logo, just the Lucasfilm one. But it's a strange place to be for me, because back in the nineties and early 2000s, I would have been absolutely thrilled if Episode VII had been announced. I even liked Episode II back in those days and it's only on my recent watch through the double trilogy that I realised how weak that one was. But in the years since, beginning with Episode III, I was beginning to go off SW on the whole. I'd seen the Original Trilogy too many times and I'd aged, not a happy combination. So even when it was announced that Lucas had sold SW to Disney for over 4 billion, and that more films were forthcoming, I was only a little excited by the news, not full of joyous expectation.
I knew the SW name was still enough to get me in the cinema, when I'd begun to go off cinema visits in recent years, but I didn't have much anticipation. Still, I avoided all spoilers and knew very little going in, which I always think is the best way to watch a film, any film (unless it's historical, when it's good to know the context and surrounding events). I'd heard, though the reviews were almost universally positive, and as expected, it had become the highest grossing film of all time (inevitable on the name alone), that it was pretty much a rehash of 'A New Hope,' and I expected that, since after the prequels were generally considered disappointing once the hype had died down, they were sure to go as back to basics as possible in opposition. That's why I had some hope that the flavour and feel of the old films could be pulled off, even though it was directed by JJ Abrams who'd already made a SW film, using my own favourite franchise, 'Star Trek,' to pull it off! I've never been that impressed with Abrams' work, and although I ultimately liked the first of his Trek films, and the third 'Mission: Impossible,' neither lived up to the previous entries in their series', and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' didn't even live up to his first attempt at Trek.
He was clearly suited to the more fantastical, fantasy world of SW, but at the same time you know what you're going to get with him. A friend of mine who I saw Episode VII with, and who is a SW expert, said it best, describing them as 'playing it safe.' That may have been the best decision financially (as their profits proved!), but aside from my overriding feeling (more on which in a moment), I felt like there was very little, if anything, I hadn't already seen in the OT. This bit was taken from that film, that moment was from this film, it was all very derivative. Not to say it was boring, because it wasn't that, but the aforementioned overriding feeling I experienced was weirdness. It was insane that we're getting to see Han Solo, Chewbacca, 'General' Leia, and Luke Skywalker (or not!), after so many years, played by the actors that first brought them to life. This is what drew me, and likely the majority of people over the age of thirty, in to see it, because I realised something: SW is more for children. Just like the modern 'Dr. Who' or the Abramsverse Trek films, the style and the storytelling is still at a level that is aimed at children, and that's not enough for me these days.
It was weird to think that the entire span of my life has taken place between the last time these actors played their characters, and now, when they're reprising them. It's bizarre and uncomfortable, and I spent as much time considering mortality while viewing this film as I did concentrating on the actual events unfolding on screen. I supposed that's a good thing if a film makes you think, but I'm not sure it was the film itself as much as its position and connection to the past. I'm not saying the story and acting were juvenile, they were fine, and I certainly did not dislike any of the characters, unlike Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II and III, whom I detested! But I can't imagine that if Harrison Ford and the others hadn't been involved, I would have had much of any investment in the new characters. They were fine: Finn the Stormtrooper with a conscience, Poe Dameron whom I was immediately convinced was Luke's son thanks to some facial resemblance, and Rey, the modern Luke, though of course, this being the 21st Century, we must have a female version! Not to mention Kylo Ren, who turns out to be the son of Han and Leia.
As fine as the actors were, I was never going to see the magic spark in them that I saw in those original actors, simply because time has moved on, I can't be impressed any more, I feel I've seen every story and situation played out too many times to be surprised. I'm not even criticising the film, just the model upon which most 'big' films these days are based. Of the bunch, I felt Kylo Ren was probably the most interesting - at first I was noticing the parallels between the film and Episode IV (starting on a desert planet; young person ends up in space; involved with a mission; a droid must carry a message to the rebels, etc), and it was hard to miss the clonk on the nose of this character who might as well have been named Darth Vader: long black cloak, breathing apparatus, mechanical voice, evil servant of the Supreme Leader (…Snoke? Sounds like something from 'The Moomins'!), and to dismiss both the character and the story as being, again, derivative, unoriginal… but not boring. At least there was a bit of mystery to begin with, since Luke wasn't in posters or trailers and I knew there was something going on with him (the intriguing opening crawl points to finding him as being a major part of the plot, though I didn't expect it to be the plot in its entirety), my first suspicion was that he was somehow the bad guy in the mask. You soon realise this couldn't be so, since this character reveres Vader (even keeping the charred remains of his helmet, though I'd seen that image from the trailer), and wants to be like him, and Luke would never do that.
At the same time, the Luke I knew wouldn't abandon his responsibility to the galaxy and hole up somewhere, and I'm sensing some tragic backstory of how it was his fault that Kylo Ren ended up on the Dark Side, which will no doubt be revealed piecemeal through the coming films. That's another weird feeling: to be left in the dark. I'm so used to having the full saga spread before me, and as much as I don't like certain choices (much of Episodes II and III), I like having the answers, as disappointing as that was at the time. I'm not familiar with the lack of information and had to keep reminding myself that if I'd watched Episode IV the first time, I'd have been just as lost. The difference is that that film remains a seminal piece of work that I enjoyed just as much when I recently watched it, as when I had in the past, if not more, filling me with joy at the end. It's a self-contained story. I knew going in that this film would end on a cliffhanger, but I had not an inkling of how frustrating that would be! If I was disappointed about something in the film, it was that we never got to have the old gang back together in their entirety. Yes, we get Han and Chewie, and for a lot of people I'm sure that was the main draw, but I loved having C-3PO and R2-D2 (which even the prequels utilised better than this), as well as Han, Leia, Chewie and Luke (no sign of Lando, so I wonder if they'll bring him back in one of the films to come?).
It isn't that I expect to see all my favourite scenes recreated, but I had slight hopes that we'd have some form of Yoda (the old woman in goggles, Maz, who knows about the Force, despite not being a Jedi, was the closest thing: squat, old, wise, and possessing vital information as well as the lightsaber of the Skywalker family), and because his voice had been used in one of the trailers I even hoped for some kind of CG version of old Alec Guinness to bring his ghostly form back to 'life.' My expectations were generally low (Abrams, Disney, the title…), but I still harboured these ridiculous minor hopes. But of course they can't rely on old characters, this is a new SW for a new generation, and that's my point about it never developing into something new: like so much in life it gets to a certain point and resets, and younger viewers come along and find what I found in older films or TV, and so the cycle continues. About the only exception I've found to that rule were the first three (and a bit), Trek TV series'. It began in the sixties with a fun adventure show that had much promise, then 'TNG' came along in the eighties and enhanced and tightened the focus, then in the nineties 'DS9' (and to a lesser extent, 'Voyager'), built upon and ran with what had gone before, and I got to see this development (not all in order, but still), and marvelled at how it grew with me as I went from child, to teenager to adult.
That's the only example I can think of, and so you learn to accept what comes and try and enjoy those lesser years again through the eyes of the young who are coming to such things for the first time, and which will probably be as wild about these new films as I felt about the OT. But I realised that films aren't really made for me any more, and the things I grew up with haven't changed (except in ways I can find unpalatable, such as losing mystery, joy or logic). And yet I still have an opinion and I still want to write about these things, although I must say it's hard to have a complete opinion after watching this film once. I can't even truly say there's no mystery because the film does a good job of providing plenty of hooks for me to wonder about: what manner of creature is Snoke, who takes Palpatine's place as Lord of All Evil, Kylo Ren's master. Presumably he's Sith, and I hear rumours he could be Palpatine's own master, Darth Plagueis, though I'm sure the Emperor said even he couldn't defy death in the end. It does leave me wondering, even though I miss Ian McDiarmid's steady hand (except when he went crazy at the end of Episode III!), on the tiller of the Dark Side and being the glue that keeps things together. Why was Snoke shown so massive, does that reflect his actual size, or is it simply to glorify himself in front of his servants?
Having been primed and ready for a continuation of the saga after reading the Thrawn trilogy, which for many years was the definitive post-OT history, I knew that it was going to be all about the next generation, the children of the characters we know. So every young person that had a major role I expected, and assumed, were sons or daughters of the Skywalkers or Solos. It didn't even occur to me until quite late that Rey could be unconnected, but we didn't get any confirmation of her parenthood beyond the fact she didn't want to leave the desert planet of Jakku in case whoever left her there returned. Personally, seeing how the film was so heavily representative of the story and style of the OT (which is what people wanted), and as both previous trilogies were about following a main hero who was from the Skywalker family, and that Rey is the main character in this new trilogy, I'm betting she's Luke's daughter. There was no time for any confirmation or denial since we end with her returning Luke's lightsaber to him on that island. Two points to raise here: unfortunately, I'd recently seen the shooting location they used for this place, a tall green island with huts of slate, which had been used by monks or something, in a documentary about the history of monasteries, I think, so it really took me out of the film. And I was confused about the weapon - at first I thought they'd made a major booboo by saying this lightsaber was both Vader's and Luke's, but the green one was made by Luke. Ah, it's the blue one… But he lost that falling through Cloud City, so did Vader retrieve it? Just one more question to be answered.
The big event of the film was of course, the murder in cold blood of Han by his own son. I knew that Harrison Ford wasn't a fan of the character, and I knew he'd been offered a huge chunk of cash to reprise the role, so I also had a strong (and bad!), feeling that he was going to die in the film, even before I went in. As soon as I saw the bridge and that he was going to confront his estranged son on it, I knew he was going to fall and I never trusted Ren for a moment. So for me it wasn't a heartwarming moment of reconciliation between Father and son (like the end of Episode VI), and it wasn't a surprise when he got a lightsaber through the middle. But what a way to end such an iconic character! For Ren to really be a bad guy he had to do more than prance around pretending to be Vader, he had to show us how bad he was, so I knew that was coming, and I also knew he'd survive for future films, simply because he had to be damaged and mutilated so that he truly got his wish to be like Vader: to have all the pain and anguish like the real Vader had. And I liked that aspect of the character, that he was really nothing more than a foolish boy who idolised his Grandfather, a man he never knew, but had become this symbol to him, although Anakin himself would have been disgusted. It was the Vader before redemption that he cared about, but even that Vader would likely have only seen him as a threat and killed him, so it's like worshipping the devil: loving something that wants nothing better than to see you permanently and irrevocably ruined.
Which is exactly what happened, you get a lightsaber battle in the woods in the falling snow, and it was nice to see something real, without the CG acrobatics we'd come to expect from the (later) prequels. That's one key element that gave me hope from the earliest days that Episode VII was going to be done right: they were concentrating on reality, just like the OT, rather than the totally CG environments and characters which lacked weight and heft and physicality. I assume the space-based stuff was all CG, as they don't really do models any more, but the important stuff, with actors and sets, was to be done for real and that makes a difference. I was surprised that despite this, and that it was a 12A, only the second SW film to be rated such, that it was very child friendly. The characters weren't sexed up, the action and fighting wasn't gory, there wasn't the swearing you'd get in other 12A films, and in fact I was surprised it given a 12A. I think that was one of the positives of the film, it didn't try to needlessly shock - I suppose Han being 'sabered was an example of why it was given the rating, not so much for the actual penetration violence, which occurs below camera, but that a friendly old man is so suddenly murdered. Episode III's burning of Anakin's entire body certainly deserved a strong warning, but I'm not sure this film needed to be more than a PG.
Like a few other bits and bobs I'd picked up, I already knew about the overpowered lightsaber Kylo Ren has, with side shoots, and so I didn't spend any time tutting in my head, but it was a stupid idea, and just continues the trend that lightsabers aren't enough of a marvel, we have to have some kind of variation in each new encounter: the double-bladed version Maul had in Episode I was a logical development and created the best fight of the prequels, but then Christopher Lee simply had a bent handle in Episode II, and Grievous used four (to poor effect), in III. I also felt the whole idea of this First Order was unexplained and came from nowhere. What is the balance of power in the galaxy? Is this Order battling with the Resistance for supremacy, or is it a smaller entity slowly gaining momentum? Or is the Resistance the lesser force? None of this came through for me, and as for another Death Star being built… that was almost an aside, and even though they called it out and made sure to say on screen that this is NOT the Death Star, it's a 'Star Killer,' it really was, and was not handled effectively. The difference this time is that it can destroy multiple planets at once. Right. Starkiller was another thing that took me out of the reality of the film, too, as it was the name they were originally going to use as Luke's surname before they decided on Skywalker. It's a sly nod to those in the know, but it's too meta and too in your face to be acknowledging real world history.
I also found it hard to believe that Finn was able to survive a lightsaber blade slicing down his back! He's left on life support at the end of the film, but even so, he should have been dead! And he didn't look young enough to be on his first ever battle, I assumed early on (knowing there would be a Stormtrooper who leaves his army), that it would be the combined effect of all he's been through that finally causes him to question his motivation. That would have made for a deeper character and is another example for me of the film being fairly surface and not having the depth of an Episode V, despite Lawrence Kasdan, writer of that film, being one of the writers here (I reckon his was the good idea to make Kylo Ren a Vader follower and emulator). I liked Finn, just as I liked Rey, but I wasn't attached to them and I wouldn't have given a Gamorrean Guard if either had been killed. I am interested to hear Rey's backstory, and I do want to know why Luke became a hermit and I hope to see the old characters continue to be a big part of other episodes, but I think I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be, even though I kept my expectations low.
I did almost get a tear in the eye when Han and Chewie first board the Millennium Falcon, but as I said before, it was as much about me being confronted with my own lifespan, those around me, and the passing of time that made me feel almost irrelevant as an audience member - too old to be able to appreciate such things fully. I'm not saying I'm 'too intelligent' or 'advanced' for SW, because I still enjoyed the OT and some of the prequels when viewed recently, and perhaps when I've had a chance to view the film again on DVD, and especially when I've seen the whole trilogy and know the story, I may be able to reevaluate it, but at the moment, my impression is a little too much lukewarm attack of the clone, than Luke Skywalker, Return of the Jedi.
**
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2015
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2015
2015 was the year I returned to my old purple box of joy, the GameCube. I'd been playing games on there in recent years, of course, but I started hunting out all the games I'd never bought back in the day, but had had some interest in. Thanks to eBay I went bid crazy and amassed a number of titles, some of which I got through, and others are still queued up, ready for 2016. It helped that I continued last year's specific and regular gaming sessions as part of my weekly routine, rather than fitting things in whenever I had time (but rarely did), so that discipline kept me playing through the good, the bad and the ugly, regardless, though I can't deny some games were a bit of a chore. You pick some good ones, you pick some bad, and you live with the consequences, that's the fun of gaming, and if you're dedicated enough you get through all the games you started and write a blog post about it so you don't need to play them again.
[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]
January: Banjo-Tooie (2000, N64) - I feel like I may have given this game an overly unfair critique when I reviewed it, as I look back on it and think favourably of the time I spent on it, but it may have been because I played it so soon after 'Banjo-Kazooie,' a seminal game that casts a long, wide shadow of greatness which few can escape. I think it's safe to say this was the best Banjo game I played all year… but not the only one. In retrospect I'm going to bump it up to four stars rather than three as I still think well of it, especially having enjoyed another of Rare's classic platformers this year. ****
January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - The 30th January marked a milestone for me: the tenth anniversary of when I started the game file. I continue to battle on regularly, still keeping roughly to real world time (in months - I'm in 2009 in game time), and still finding it a solace to go back to, a reminder of the past and something that remains addictive enough to keep me returning, week after week. It's reassuringly familiar and comfortable and I have absolutely no idea how long I'll continue it. Probably a while yet as I bought replacement blank floppy disks in case of disk failure. Whether the old monitor will hold out is another matter, however, as the connections are loose and unreliable, and it's quite annoying having to keep getting up to adjust them! *****
January - March: Spartan: Total Warrior (2005, GameCube) - One game that kept me up and going through the winter months, this hack and slasher with links to the 'Total War' series, but with a far more arcade approach, had its moments, and as I say, kept me up late some nights, and that's primarily what I remember it for. It wasn't easy, but neither was it too difficult, so it allowed a pleasing level of challenge, though not one I'd revisit. ***
March - July: R: Racing (2004, GameCube) - This was a game that only just scraped in on the 'good' end of the rating system as it was a little lacking in some areas, but, like 'Spartan,' it provided a challenge and I kept coming back until it was all done. All but 0.2% which was impossible to achieve thanks to a bug or failure in play testing (not the last game with bug troubles I was to play that year). It had varied racing types and I like racing, so although it wasn't ideal (I'd planned to play the next 'Need For Speed'), I got it cheap, and it was the game that started me regularly bidding on low-priced 'Cube games that I had the slightest interest in, so I can thank it for that, if nothing else. ***
May: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (2003, Game Boy Advance) - A pocket-sized version of the bear and bird adventures with similar music, looks and moves. Simple, more child-friendly rather than serious platformer of depth, it was a pleasing, if short experience to herald the summer, and a nice thing to play in the garden with the sun warming me. ***
August: Future Wars: Adventures in Time (1990, DOSBox) - I didn't remember as much of this as I'd thought (the start, up until you climb into a barrel in the Middle Ages, and a red, futuristic ruined cityscape were all I recalled). Sound seemed inferior to the Amiga, but it remained a beautifully visual game, with intuitive controls and a good story involving various time periods (present, past, future, and distant past), with even a little arcade action thrown in (shooting Crughons - or is that Klingons; running to the control room and back in a tight time limit which turned it into 'Impossible Mission'). It's the little puzzles and neat solutions that are most enjoyable as you appreciate the minute detail of the visuals, so tiny and compact (in a room or enclosed space the game screen shows only that area, whereas when outside you have the whole screen, making it alternately intimate and open), adding to the graphical pleasure, as well as the amusing messages when you Examine things. Not as humorous and clever as 'Monkey Island,' my other favourite point-and-click adventure from the time, the controls (left button = move, right = select), may be topsy-turvy compared to other games, but it was nowhere near as frustrating as 'Enchantia,' - less developed, but a tighter experience, with a sense of fun and irony. Sometimes tricky puzzles that were never unfair, my only caveat was the slow walking speed and you had to be careful to pick up or examine everything, or risk being impossibly stuck later. The game went down as one of my favourites on the Amiga - it may be my memories that made it an amazing game as it was a lesser experience this time, but I include my nostalgia in the rating. I couldn't give it the full 5 stars I once would have, but more than just a good game, it remains a strongly enjoyable experience that it was fun to revisit over fifteen years later (1998?). ****
August - October: Space Station Silicon Valley (1998, N64) - This game's claim to fame in my house was that it killed my N64's power lead after sixteen years of use, but that wasn't the only thing I held against it, as it was so tough, and even though it was supremely satisfying (and a relief), to finally beat it and get every Souvenir, it was horribly disappointing that a bug in the game meant there was one you could never pick up thanks to missing collision detection. I had no nostalgia for it as this was the first time I'd played it, and it didn't quite live up to the impression I had of its place in the console's pantheon and was a bit of a chore to complete. A shame, because I really wanted to like it. **
October - December: Gun (2005, GameCube) - Another one that didn't quite succeed in my eyes, despite pulling off some wide open spaces and good visuals, not to mention stirring music, it ended up not being varied enough and having content geared away from the usual Nintendo demographic: those that prefer cleverness and bright good humour to murderous, swearing, miserable violence and bleakness. Still, while it was sometimes a game I just wanted to finish, it almost sneaked into the 'good' category for its technical achievements on the machine. It stymied itself making you want more freedom because of its ambition, and the story wasn't that interesting on the whole, but I still had the drive to complete everything in it except for finding one piece of gold. **
December: Donkey Kong 64 (1999, N64) - After enjoying the relaxed play of a platformer the previous Christmas I resolved back then to dust off this classic when the festive season rolled around again, and how quick it came! It once again proved that an undemanding collect-'em-up is the order of the day when you're dosed up on turkey and mince pies and want something to fill the void between films. I didn't quite finish it, rattling off around two thirds, but it was lovely to get back to something of this kind, and while the levels aren't as well-designed as the Banjo or Mario games, being less impressive, more like expansive chunks connected to other chunks than properly laid out levels (with the usual cliched themes), it was fun to try and beat my previous time of sixty hours, which I'm well on course to smash. Provisionally: ****
Honourable mentions should go to the multiplayer modes of 'Perfect Dark,' 'Burnout 2,' and 'Age of Empires II,' which all played their part in the Christmas festivities as they once regularly did years ago, and it was really nice to get back into those competitive and familiar arenas, even if the AI showed itself up as the creaky and simplistic 'brain' that it was.
Next Year - The goals are to mostly keep playing regularly, and I certainly achieved my wish to play more 'Cube games, another racing game, finish 'Banjo-Tooie' and get the GBA Banjo game. Even if I failed again to hook up with an XBox 360 or play many DOSBox games. In 2016 I'd like to:
- Play more 'Cube games, something I'm guaranteed to do, having bought more 'Cube games (I've also started re-reading old issues of NGC Magazine from the beginning, just in case there's a game I forgot about!).
- Play more DOSBox games, especially the 'Star Trek' ones since it's the 50th Anniversary in 2016.
- Get the 'Re Lo Kick' disk that I've learned will make it possible for me to play Amiga 500 games on my 1200, as there are a number of old games I'd love to play ('Flashback,' 'Fire & Ice,' 'APB,' for some examples), without having the trouble of turning out the loft for the older A500 or A1500, plus the extra power lead and bulky adaptor.
- I'm tempted to purchase a Wii, as it can play 'Cube games and would also open up some new experiences and games, but I have so many to play already this is a remote likelihood.
Happy New Year!
2015 was the year I returned to my old purple box of joy, the GameCube. I'd been playing games on there in recent years, of course, but I started hunting out all the games I'd never bought back in the day, but had had some interest in. Thanks to eBay I went bid crazy and amassed a number of titles, some of which I got through, and others are still queued up, ready for 2016. It helped that I continued last year's specific and regular gaming sessions as part of my weekly routine, rather than fitting things in whenever I had time (but rarely did), so that discipline kept me playing through the good, the bad and the ugly, regardless, though I can't deny some games were a bit of a chore. You pick some good ones, you pick some bad, and you live with the consequences, that's the fun of gaming, and if you're dedicated enough you get through all the games you started and write a blog post about it so you don't need to play them again.
[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]
January: Banjo-Tooie (2000, N64) - I feel like I may have given this game an overly unfair critique when I reviewed it, as I look back on it and think favourably of the time I spent on it, but it may have been because I played it so soon after 'Banjo-Kazooie,' a seminal game that casts a long, wide shadow of greatness which few can escape. I think it's safe to say this was the best Banjo game I played all year… but not the only one. In retrospect I'm going to bump it up to four stars rather than three as I still think well of it, especially having enjoyed another of Rare's classic platformers this year. ****
January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - The 30th January marked a milestone for me: the tenth anniversary of when I started the game file. I continue to battle on regularly, still keeping roughly to real world time (in months - I'm in 2009 in game time), and still finding it a solace to go back to, a reminder of the past and something that remains addictive enough to keep me returning, week after week. It's reassuringly familiar and comfortable and I have absolutely no idea how long I'll continue it. Probably a while yet as I bought replacement blank floppy disks in case of disk failure. Whether the old monitor will hold out is another matter, however, as the connections are loose and unreliable, and it's quite annoying having to keep getting up to adjust them! *****
January - March: Spartan: Total Warrior (2005, GameCube) - One game that kept me up and going through the winter months, this hack and slasher with links to the 'Total War' series, but with a far more arcade approach, had its moments, and as I say, kept me up late some nights, and that's primarily what I remember it for. It wasn't easy, but neither was it too difficult, so it allowed a pleasing level of challenge, though not one I'd revisit. ***
March - July: R: Racing (2004, GameCube) - This was a game that only just scraped in on the 'good' end of the rating system as it was a little lacking in some areas, but, like 'Spartan,' it provided a challenge and I kept coming back until it was all done. All but 0.2% which was impossible to achieve thanks to a bug or failure in play testing (not the last game with bug troubles I was to play that year). It had varied racing types and I like racing, so although it wasn't ideal (I'd planned to play the next 'Need For Speed'), I got it cheap, and it was the game that started me regularly bidding on low-priced 'Cube games that I had the slightest interest in, so I can thank it for that, if nothing else. ***
May: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (2003, Game Boy Advance) - A pocket-sized version of the bear and bird adventures with similar music, looks and moves. Simple, more child-friendly rather than serious platformer of depth, it was a pleasing, if short experience to herald the summer, and a nice thing to play in the garden with the sun warming me. ***
August: Future Wars: Adventures in Time (1990, DOSBox) - I didn't remember as much of this as I'd thought (the start, up until you climb into a barrel in the Middle Ages, and a red, futuristic ruined cityscape were all I recalled). Sound seemed inferior to the Amiga, but it remained a beautifully visual game, with intuitive controls and a good story involving various time periods (present, past, future, and distant past), with even a little arcade action thrown in (shooting Crughons - or is that Klingons; running to the control room and back in a tight time limit which turned it into 'Impossible Mission'). It's the little puzzles and neat solutions that are most enjoyable as you appreciate the minute detail of the visuals, so tiny and compact (in a room or enclosed space the game screen shows only that area, whereas when outside you have the whole screen, making it alternately intimate and open), adding to the graphical pleasure, as well as the amusing messages when you Examine things. Not as humorous and clever as 'Monkey Island,' my other favourite point-and-click adventure from the time, the controls (left button = move, right = select), may be topsy-turvy compared to other games, but it was nowhere near as frustrating as 'Enchantia,' - less developed, but a tighter experience, with a sense of fun and irony. Sometimes tricky puzzles that were never unfair, my only caveat was the slow walking speed and you had to be careful to pick up or examine everything, or risk being impossibly stuck later. The game went down as one of my favourites on the Amiga - it may be my memories that made it an amazing game as it was a lesser experience this time, but I include my nostalgia in the rating. I couldn't give it the full 5 stars I once would have, but more than just a good game, it remains a strongly enjoyable experience that it was fun to revisit over fifteen years later (1998?). ****
August - October: Space Station Silicon Valley (1998, N64) - This game's claim to fame in my house was that it killed my N64's power lead after sixteen years of use, but that wasn't the only thing I held against it, as it was so tough, and even though it was supremely satisfying (and a relief), to finally beat it and get every Souvenir, it was horribly disappointing that a bug in the game meant there was one you could never pick up thanks to missing collision detection. I had no nostalgia for it as this was the first time I'd played it, and it didn't quite live up to the impression I had of its place in the console's pantheon and was a bit of a chore to complete. A shame, because I really wanted to like it. **
October - December: Gun (2005, GameCube) - Another one that didn't quite succeed in my eyes, despite pulling off some wide open spaces and good visuals, not to mention stirring music, it ended up not being varied enough and having content geared away from the usual Nintendo demographic: those that prefer cleverness and bright good humour to murderous, swearing, miserable violence and bleakness. Still, while it was sometimes a game I just wanted to finish, it almost sneaked into the 'good' category for its technical achievements on the machine. It stymied itself making you want more freedom because of its ambition, and the story wasn't that interesting on the whole, but I still had the drive to complete everything in it except for finding one piece of gold. **
December: Donkey Kong 64 (1999, N64) - After enjoying the relaxed play of a platformer the previous Christmas I resolved back then to dust off this classic when the festive season rolled around again, and how quick it came! It once again proved that an undemanding collect-'em-up is the order of the day when you're dosed up on turkey and mince pies and want something to fill the void between films. I didn't quite finish it, rattling off around two thirds, but it was lovely to get back to something of this kind, and while the levels aren't as well-designed as the Banjo or Mario games, being less impressive, more like expansive chunks connected to other chunks than properly laid out levels (with the usual cliched themes), it was fun to try and beat my previous time of sixty hours, which I'm well on course to smash. Provisionally: ****
Honourable mentions should go to the multiplayer modes of 'Perfect Dark,' 'Burnout 2,' and 'Age of Empires II,' which all played their part in the Christmas festivities as they once regularly did years ago, and it was really nice to get back into those competitive and familiar arenas, even if the AI showed itself up as the creaky and simplistic 'brain' that it was.
Next Year - The goals are to mostly keep playing regularly, and I certainly achieved my wish to play more 'Cube games, another racing game, finish 'Banjo-Tooie' and get the GBA Banjo game. Even if I failed again to hook up with an XBox 360 or play many DOSBox games. In 2016 I'd like to:
- Play more 'Cube games, something I'm guaranteed to do, having bought more 'Cube games (I've also started re-reading old issues of NGC Magazine from the beginning, just in case there's a game I forgot about!).
- Play more DOSBox games, especially the 'Star Trek' ones since it's the 50th Anniversary in 2016.
- Get the 'Re Lo Kick' disk that I've learned will make it possible for me to play Amiga 500 games on my 1200, as there are a number of old games I'd love to play ('Flashback,' 'Fire & Ice,' 'APB,' for some examples), without having the trouble of turning out the loft for the older A500 or A1500, plus the extra power lead and bulky adaptor.
- I'm tempted to purchase a Wii, as it can play 'Cube games and would also open up some new experiences and games, but I have so many to play already this is a remote likelihood.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Escape
DVD, Smallville S9 (Escape)
My concern was what had happened to Lois! She gets taken over (in yet another possession story), and the creature becomes itself when Clark turns up, but I thought it just changed her appearance, that was the impression I had, yet Clark burns it up in his fiery heat vision and we see there's nothing left of it. Hence my concern for poor Lois (I couldn't even tell if was played by Erica Durance or someone else, the makeup was so good), and it doesn't help that she isn't seen again until the last scene when they arrive at the Talon apartment. I must have missed her falling away and being replaced with the creature, that's my only explanation. Not that it made much sense to fight sound waves with fire… Aside from the opening where Chloe's on the phone to Clark, relaying crime hotspots to him so he can whizz round and stop them, I was quickly disappointed by the prospect of another super-soap episode, dedicated to romantic weekends away when we see that Chloe and Queen have gone to the same McDougal Inn Clark and Lois are heading for (although the explanation of how they both chose that destination was conceivable - Clark had seen Chloe's brochure and assumed it was Lois' and she wanted to go there), but then I hoped that at least it would turn into some old-fashioned comedy with the two couples trying to avoid each other, so I had to concede there was potential for levity - there was a bit of fun in the awkward breakfast conversation between Clark and Oliver, trying to make small talk about superhero matters in a half-embarrassed way, but it turns into a more traditional horror story for the series.
Still, at least the lovey-dovey stuff wasn't the focus after all, even if I hate it when magic is brought in as Clark's only other vulnerability apart from Kryptonite. It's such a weak angle to take, as magic can be anything, and maybe that's why it was brought into the Superman mythology, because he was practically invulnerable, but I can believe in Kryptonite based danger, not the magical, and they don't even attempt to link it to that when it's witchcraft and wizardry, so it was in the style of the older episodes, but without any interest. I assume this Silver Banshee was another of those characters from the comics that was pre-existing, otherwise why give it a name like that, and there were probably viewers in the know squealing with delight, having never thought such a character would ever show up on the series. But, as usual, not having any comics knowledge, I have no idea whatsoever. I liked her design, with the black and white look and homespun outfit that you could imagine had roots in Scottish culture of the distant centuries, but there was no character there, it was a simple case of possession, hopping from one female to the next. And it did present some amusing situations, but it's all stuff we've seen so many times before on this series and others (even 'Voyager' did an episode, 'Favourite Son,' about a race of women that lured men to their world only to drain the life out of them), so there wasn't anything new to recommend this version.
One scene that did appeal, at first, was Tess and Zod's meeting in Clark's barn. Not only does he look at a picture of Jonathan Kent (something he repeats in the house in the final scene, which makes me wonder if they're setting us up for a cameo from Mr. Kent at some point - or is my wishful thinking reading too much into it?), but his enmity with Tess turns into some sort of alliance. I thought she was in deadly opposition to him and his people, seeing them as the threat to the world that Clark exists to combat? She's either playing a dangerous game of luring Zod to his own destruction, or she's got some other motive we don't know. She's not an easy character to follow because she seems hellbent on one thing at one time, then acts differently another, so you're kept off-balance. Maybe that's the point, and I did at least like her cleverness in discovering if Zod's power really had returned, and her preparedness in having some Kryptonite handy with which to stop him from having the upper hand. Like Lex, she always plans ahead. The episode turned out quite differently to what I expected from the Zod story - from the way Clark was doing so much good in the city at the start, and the way Zod was hearing the people championing The Blur, I thought he was going to rush round sabotaging his rival's reputation while he was out of town (perhaps coming into conflict with John Jones who'd been left to patrol in Clark's absence), especially as he was dressed the same, so who could say he wasn't The Blur? Instead, Tess tries to convince him that Clark is one of his own.
As often happens, the episode had a basketful of inconsistencies and oddnesses: a storm is the reason Clark and Lois' booked room is unavailable, not because of a leak in the roof, but a leaky pipe. Not sure what could cause an internal pipe to leak because of an external storm, but I'm not a plumber, so maybe… Then there's things like Chloe going out for a calming walk in the woods, the next night on from hearing a weird cry and the host saying it could be from wolves! Okay, so the host (whom I assumed was going to be the murdered woman who came back from the dead in her family's legend, but wasn't), told Clark, not Chloe, but I'm sure it would have gotten around the whole inn. What about that painting? They say that a new portrait has been painted over it, but in fact an extra canvas has been pasted over it, which is quite different and less believable! Then there's Chloe's insistence on venturing further into the wood once she's seen a person with glowing eyes! Why would she do that, she should have turned tail and gone for backup, but her curiosity was too strong. It's sad to see her further descent, as we've already seen her appetite for surveillance, even of her friends, and now she's become a bit of a playgirl, wanting only fun without obligation or responsibility. Some might see her as growing up, but I would say it's like she's become more juvenile this season. At least she got in a good 'Star Wars' reference when talking about how she used to love Clark, "A long time ago, in a Smallville far, far away." Another low point of the season, is my ultimate opinion, maybe not as low as it could be.
**
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