A Singularity

A discussion of the use of violence in media and how it may or may not contribute to violence in society but, more importantly, what we should do about it.

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I never had a love for the original trilogy of Star Wars. As I grew up, I was far more of a Star Trek fan. My friends loved Star Wars but when compared to Star Trek, Star Wars looked dinged and dirty. Don’t get me wrong, I had my obsession with lightsabers and R2-D2 but the Jedi never impressed me and Darth Vader never scared me.

So when the original trilogy came out, I didn’t have the whiplash effect of most of the fans of Star Wars. But I also wasn’t enamored with the movies either. I remember stating clearly “Phantom Menace is a movie for five year-olds and forty-five year-olds.” I was a teenager at the time. Jar Jar Binks vaguely amused me but mostly annoyed me. My love of lightsabers was rekindled, and I had to admit Qui gon Jinn kicked some serious butt. The subsequent films did nothing to impress me further, culminating in Dart Vader’s reveal and the infamous cry that made me laugh at out in the theaters.

Fast forward a few years to the present and lately I’ve been wondering if I need to give Star Wars a fairer shake. I’ve always had friends and fans around breathing on my neck. I’ve seen a few episodes of the Star Wars Clone Wars televisions how and enjoyed it even if the plots are generally geared towards a younger crowd with little content for adults and I can’t honestly say I’ve really seen any of the original trilogy movies in a sit down and watch type of session, save for Empire which I saw in theaters on re-release.

So I recently stumbled on Film Nerd 2.0. He is a well-known internet movie critic among the internet movie critic circles and he decided to introduce his two sons to Star Wars, and wrote about each movie viewing. They’re excellent reads.

A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Phantom Menace
Attack of The Clones
Revenge of The Sith
Return of The Jedi

After reading about how the kids experienced the films, I think I may do this as well sometime, although probably as more of a marathon, and try out McWeeny’s viewing order.

I found this via a tweet of a friend who linked to Movie Bob’s website. So if you’d like his commentary on the subject, click here.

Movie Bob delves into a reason why feminism takes issue with modern popular video games.

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I admit while I knew about the problem of the portrayal of women in video games, the specific why is never something I’ve tried to analyze, making this video something of an eye opener. I also more or less agree with Bob that feminism seems to have a significant and rather undeserved stigma among male gamers. Hopefully the above video let you understand the female perspective a bit better.

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I really wasn’t expecting to find anyone willing to positively review this film. The fact that Movie Bob was willing to eat crow makes this a much watch for me, personally. I was willing to set aside my adult higher brain functionality to let my inner ten-year old run wild at this movie but it looks like both inner and outer parts of me are going to get a treat.

Movie Bob has shown up on this blog before a few times primarily as a movie reviewer and general culture commentator. Today he is appearing as the latter, specifically for video games.

The Game OverThinker – Episode 57 “Supreme Responsibility”

I suggest actually starting the video at around 3:45 minutes in if you aren’t a regular fan of the Game OverThinker series. That is when the real meat of the discussion starts.

If some of you remember, awhile back the Supreme Court of the United States of America threw out a California law that tried to regulate and ban violent video games. This has set a precedent which will no longer allow states to make laws which censor, regulate, or ban violent video games. Which is awesome and great. But, as Movie Bob points out, now is the time for some self-reflection. We’re free from the war that could ban an entire form of entertainment. Now it’s up to us, the creators and consumers of this mode of entertainment to start taking a look at the bad apples that gave our opposition ammunition against us.

The Game OverThinker explains it better I think, and I am still formulating my thoughts on the idea, so take the time to watch the video.

Long time readers will know I like Scott Pilgrim. I like the comics. I like the movie. Long time readers will also know that like is an understatement when it comes describing Scott Pilgrim and me. Scott Pilgrim was not the perfect film ever but it was one of the best films to come out of the year 2010 for a variety of reasons, the primary one being that the creators of the film actually cared. They took time, and lots of money, to provide everybody with a movie that cared as much about giving us an entertaining story as anything else it tried to do, including making money.

And Scott Pilgrim flopped, financially. The estimated markets still say it only did half of its budget internationally, and numbers aren’t good on the DVD/BRD sales either. I’m going to let Movie Bob explain why this is a bad thing.

Get it? We vote with our money and we’ve been repeatedly telling Hollywood that movies like Transformers and The Expendable are the only way to make money and movies like At the Mountains of Madness die.

I don’t have the answer to this problem but I’m hoping this point gets across.

Movie Bob talks about a topic I wasn’t even aware of since I don’t follow sports games. A animal abuser Michael Vick will be featured on the cover of Madden 2012. Here is a fairly good rundown of how he kept a dog and cock fighting ring. I, for one, agree with Movie Bob. Kids buy these games, and parents buy these games for their kids. Why can’t EA pick someone who might be an actual role model both on AND off the field?

Extra Consideration: Controller Evolution [ The Escapist]

Awhile back I linked to an The Escapist article where some of their well-known content creators discuss topics about video games. This is the continuation of the prior topic regarding video game consoles and controllers.

Since then another topic has been released in the article series, this time tackling the state of stories in video games.

Extra Consideration: The Story [ The Escapist]

Extra Consideration: The Rest of The Story [ The Escapist]

I do find the titles of their articles amusing.

Extra Consideration: Console Gaming by MovieBob, Yahtzee, and James Portnow (The Escapist)

James Portnow (of Extra Credit fame), Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation Fame) and MovieBob (of MovieBob fame) rambled on for four pages about the state of console gaming and motion controls. Not a lot of controversy between the three but they did reaffirm some of my beliefs about the PS3 and the X-Box 360 regarding both their development and the release of their motion controls.

If you’re curious about the state of the console gaming industry from the perspective of its critics, here is a great opportunity!

So I should probably just rename my blog the Scott Pilgrim blog. But I figure I’d share. The above animation supposedly is a direct prequel to the movie that released today. I’ll be seeing the movie later tonight, but don’t expect a review. Instead I’ll link you to Movie Bob’s review, which will likely sum up my words.