The War of the Worlds (1898 H.G. Wells)

"By three, people were being trampled and crushed even in Bishopsgate Street a couple of hundred yards or more from Liverpool Street Station; revolvers were fired, people stabbed, and the policemen who had been sent to direct the traffic, exhausted and infuriated, were breaking the heads of the people they were called out to protect."

I'm a big fan of the musical War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne and WotW has been on my reading list for a long time and finally, Finally! I have gotten round to reading it. Written in 1898 Wells' language is pretty typically Victorian making it a little tricky to read for modern audiences. If you do persevere it is well worth it for the intelligent Sf and excellent themes and insight. 

There are three really brilliant things about this self reflective novel; the attacks on the media, the intelligence of the science and the amazement and captivation by such horrifying and unknown creatures. Throughout the novel it is shown that the media both use the aliens to sell their papers and misinform because of lack of knowledge. There are many amazing ideas in the book including the way the aliens bodies look because of the difference in gravity, this is just one example, the many innovative intelligent ideas are some of the best I have read because of their logical foundations. Finally the narrator's constant captivation by the Martians, his still fear and emotional states are really amazing, you feel like you are in his head. The two things that contrasts this feeling are the self reflective style and the sheer number of other peoples stories that are told by the narrators single voice. This is one of the reasons the book has not had a decent film adaptation, because its many peoples stories told by one person through a retrospective narrative that is difficult to translate into film. 

I really enjoyed the book despite the "hither and thither"s and such other victorian language that I usually find hard work. Its well worth a read and is a slightly different story to the musical I have yet to hear the radio drama but am looking forward to it. It has amazing ideas well translated and mixed with strong emotional turmoil. Sf's fans should read it for sure!

7.5/10

Alternate Avengers Opening, Metal Gear Solid the Movie

Avengers Assemble Alternate Opening

I had heard in an interview that this was the original narrative, a frame to make the audience question the success of the avengers. Some people have labelled it as depressing and dark and it is to an extent, more interestingly it hints to the arc that could be included in A2 and makes the weird shadowed figures and Maria Hill more important to the series. I like it as a deleted scene but understand why it was taken out, the opening they did use got the audience straight into the action before the fairly long "recruiting" section of the film. This may have made the film a slightly different animal, it will be interesting to see if any other deleted scenes follow this story or if A2 and 3 are effected.

Metal Gear Solid, the movie

Shortly after the news of Assasins Creed being developed into a film by Ubisoft Avi Arad announces that he is producing a MGS film with Fox! His statement mentioned his role in bringing comic books into movies and the producing machine said that video games are the comics of today... that doesnt make much sense but basically means hes going to be playing with lots of money to get another new genre into the market. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not, video games dont have a good history in film but MGS has a pretty good story and depending on writer and director it could be a treat. On the other hand it could end up looking like a cheap MI knock off, the main trick will be to convert the unique stealth gameplay into a film without just making an average spy film.
What do you think? 
Do you like the Avengers Deleted Scene?
Will it MGS the film work?
Comment on FB Twitter or blogger!

MARVEL! SHIELD TV SERIES

S.H.I.E.L.D Series announced for ABC

A pilot has been pitched to Disney owned ABC for a SHIELD series produced and run by the husband and wife Dollhouse duo Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Joss Whedon of course stated when discussing the series that he would write and direct the pilot and show up from time to time. 

My mind is literally RACING with ideas of where this could go, there is so little info about it as it has only just been announced. The only thing that has been said about it is that it would be autonomous from the avengers sequel and not a spin off. It might just be my understanding of those two terms but to me that means it will not be in the same universe or at least not the same universe as Avengers 2. Whether this will be the case or whether it will change I don't know but I would personally hope someone forces it to be tied to A1 and 2 as that could bring about some amazing stuff. Anyway GOOD NEWS!!!!

Breakfast Club (1985 John Hughes)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847/
"You ask me one more question and I'm beating the shit out of you."

This film is a classic for sure, its funny, smart, well acted and most of all its got heart. Maybe its a little preachy or over the top but thats the point! It doesn't take a genius to see that this film is telling all college and school students that no matter how extreme a stereotype you are you can make friends, specially if you have a common enemy.

The plot is simple, five kids of different backgrounds get slammed into detention together on a saturday morning. They start the day hating each other, the Jock, Sporto, Beauty Queen, Psycho and Criminal do not get along, in any way. Throughout the day they befriend one another and by the end of the day they are all friends... ok it sounds cheesy but somehow it does it without too much cheese.

With a cast full of soon to be big names the film is full of amazing performances particularly from Judd Nelson who plays the comedic criminal with an abusive family. Whilst all of the characters are extreme stereotypes that only emphasis the point, even the most stereotypical of people can eventually put their differences aside. I really like this film, the humour is perfectly balanced with the drama and it makes for an amazing watch!
RIP John Hughes
8/10

Forbidden Planet (1956 Fred M. Wilcox)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/
"Another one of them new worlds. No beer, no women, no pool parlors, nothin'. Nothin' to do but throw rocks at tin cans, and we gotta bring our own tin cans."

A simple smart scifi from a time without much understanding of space, computers or CG Forbidden Planet is an instant classic that still has the ability to entertain and charm a modern audience. 

It comically boasts to a modern colour and cinema scope but whilst the visuals largely still stand up as realistic (or at least not bad) it is the simplicity and intelligence of the story that grabs the average viewer. For me personally this film is almost perfect, it fits into a category I really love "old SF". I love this kind of film and book, I love reading something that was written long ago enough that I consider it to be long past that melds that past with a piece of technology or with concepts that still belong to the far future. This melding of past and future, although unintentional, endears it to me as a viewer and gives the film its charming quality. However I should review the film not my personal love of SF!

In the film soldiers travel through space to the planet Altair 4 in the footsteps of a ship, the Bellerophon (a greek chimera god in myth, also the name of a planet in firefly) sent years ago to colonise the planet. The planet is not colonised when they arrive, they are greeted by a robot and taken to the last surviving member of the beleophon Dr Morbius who warned them on radio not to come. Dr Morbius informs them that the rest of the crew were killed by an unknown planetary force and that he and his daughter have lived happily since and the crew can leave. SPOILER When the crew refuse to leave the ship starts getting attacked by an invisible creature, the captain of the ship falls in love with Dr Morbius' daughter and goes to confront Morbius and take Altaira back to earth. He and the ships Dr find Morbius in a Krell room, his study, Morbius tells the story of the Krell, a race millions of years ahead of humans that died in a single night after creating a machine that would end the need for physical instruments. When the Doctor decides to use a Krell machine to boost his brain power he discovers the creature is Dr. Morbius' id working through the Krell machine, the machine that killed all Krell in one night. The doctor dies as Altaira and the captain escape in the ship, Dr Morbius sacrifices himself to save his daughter. END OF SPOILER

Well thats the synopsis pretty much :s One of the most amazing things about this film is that it was made before computers, before space travel and before most popular SF! The contraptions they come up with in lack of computer screens and actual tech is refreshing and opens the film up to some cool unique visuals. The characters are all fairly simple, the drunk cook and flirty soldier add amusing comedy, the captain and Altaira's love story is simple but romantic and Morbius is a well designed villain. A pretty basic rewrite of The Tempest Forbidden Planet is a masterpiece in its own right, its fun light and entertaining. To present day audiences it shows a glimpse of the world before CG and computers (even though its set after CG and Computers) and teaches an audience a good story well written is all you really need. One of my favourite films for sure, it just makes me smile! Watch it, you wont be disappointed!

9/10

"Assembling the Ultimate Team" Avengers Assemble Doc

Its not ling now until Avengers Assemble comes out on Dvd and BluRay, and with the jam packed special feature edition BluRay comes a 90 minute doc about the cast and crew.

That is one of the clips of the doc which looks to shed some light and be a nice little insight into the film making world that brought us the avengers. I am looking forward to seeing this but hope it comes out on DVD and Bluray not just the Bluray edition!

Larp. Larping Around, Dara O'briain's Tough gig

I am a LARPer, I'm not ashamed of it, its good fun. The publicity around larp isn't all that big and most people don't know much about it so this is a little attempt to illuminate a few people with a few video's. It is the big CP event tomorrow I hope everyone has fun, wish i was there!

Firstly Larping around. This 10min doc is a good piece of work showing the LARP that I attend. Although it focuses largely on kit it shows a few peoples perspectives and is a fair representation of the kit side of LARP. It also includes some good battle scenes and is a generally nice little piece.

In a field of really POOR diy docs about LARP this one stands out as a professional looking infommercial style doc that gives a good insight and good images of the LARP community. This is for sure the best LARPdoc I have seen! But my work will be up there competing sometime!

Another goodish representation of LARP is in Dara Obriain's Tough gig in which Dara, the funny guy that he is, takes the challenge to do a gig in front of and about Larpers. So here it is

I think maybe he is a little harsh at times but it does pretty fairly show what goes on at LARP. You get a war, you get attacks on your camps and you get some people that think the while LARP is for and about them and their character is the most important thing in the world.... they can be annoying, some people do get too into it but they are easy to ignore. I liked the stand up and although this isn't the exact larp group I go to it shows how much fun it can be!

Well thats a little look into the world of Larp, I would really like to do some personal work surrounding larp either fiction or non fiction but I have a lot of project on at the moment so that will be something for the future. Its not something everyone will enjoy, some people just wouldn't get it but its like that for every hobby. Give it a try if you want, if not don't but at least try and understand it and understand why we do it! Well thats my little little attempt at spreading understanding over for now.... :)