Offbeat Geek

Avatar, the new movie by James Cameron, comes out next week in the US.  Despite all the hype I can not seem to get motivated for this movie.  Maybe it’s just me but it seems to have borrowed too much of itself from other sources. Check it out:

1. The Battle for Tera.  Yes I know they are not entirely the same but the principle of a huge conflict between man and some peace loving aliens seems all too familiar. Especially when the one man falls for a female of the other species, changes sides, etc etc.
2. The Matrix. Do those Mech suits look like a “shiny”er version of those featured in “Revolutions”? Or is that just me? The Principle of the avatar itself? Residual Self Image perhaps? (I know its a bit of a stretch but with all the other similarities I had to put that one in) (continue reading…)

Sam Rockwell (“Galaxy Quest”, “Hitchhiker’s Guide”, “Jesse James”, the upcoming “Iron Man 2″) portrays Sam Bell, the lone employee serving on the Lunar Industries mining base “Sarang”. He is serving the last couple of weeks of his 3 year contract before returning to earth. Though he is the only human crew member he does have one companion, a machine named GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacy.

When Sam crashes his moon rover after a hallucination things start to unravel. With the startling discovery he makes back at the crashed rover he doubts his sanity and very existence. I don’t want to give away anything, not that it would really spoil anything. The real meat comes from the character’s resolution of the situation. I can’t recommend this movie highly enough. Yes, even for someone who is not a science fiction fan.

The musical score, by one Clint Mansell, is perfectly fitting and ranks right up there with K-Pax, and Solaris’ scores. I have been listening to the main theme on repeat for a while now and it just does not get old. It is one of those tunes that has great depth and works well throughout the movie’s varied emotional states. Clint has proven yet again that he is not a one themed wonder like other notable composers around these days.

All in all Moon is well executed and enjoyable.

Part one of Assassins creed Lineage has been released on youtube. Check it out now!

The preview trailer for the live action trilogy of short movies, Assassins Creed Lineage, was released today! Set as a prequel for Assassin’s Creed 2, Lineage will be airing on youtube October 27th. Check out the video!

Hybride who have worked on”Sin City”, “Snakes On A Plane” and “300″, secured the visual effects work from Ubisoft. If the trailer is anything to go by these shorts could be quite fun. I can’t help but wonder though if  the Microsoft and Bungie excursions into live action advertisements for Halo prompted Ubisoft to do the same?  More entertainment for the consumers I suppose.

A nice post about bloggers being movie critics.  There seems to be a bit of chatter about it at the moment.  Personally I would like to know what exactly makes a person a critic.  Is there any quantifiable definition for being a professional critic?  Anyone who offers their opinion on something is being critical on the topic.  Shouldn’t a person who is able to critique the merits and faults of something eloquently and accurately be labeled a critic?  As it stands critics are known for they’re general dislike of something.  It seems the more you slate a movie as a critic the more “critically-acclaimed” you are.  I believe this is what led us to present problem.  Bloggers who are authorities in their respective fields are often more knowledgeable primarily from experience so their reviews are getting more weight.  Maybe its time for a new breed of critic to match today’s new media.