Monthly Archives: July 2011

Batoru Rowaiaru

1 Reply

There’s only one problem with Battle Royale. The premise doesn’t make even a lick of sense. The introductory text scroll lays it out like this: Japan is in economic turmoil, with record unemployment and an extremely bad delinquency problem among the youth, apparently because they see what they have to look forward to? So, the adults fearfully pass the BR law, which… here’s where it makes no sense. Apparently, once a year, a randomly selected ninth grade class is sent to an island, given bags full of equipment and random weaponry, and asked to kill each other over the next three days. If there is more than one survivor after 72 hours, everyone left will be killed. Pretty straightforward, right?

And the events portrayed in the final 80% of the movie are chock full of hard decisions and violence and teenage melodrama, in which anyone can die at any moment, just like you’d expect of a pack of inter-murderous ninth graders. So if you can get past the premise, there’s a great deal of that, and I approve! But still, I can’t figure out how it makes any sense. That is to say, how does the “law” help anyone? At one class per year, it’s not going to make a dent in any population concerns. And randomized with such a small incidence, it’s not like the kids have any fear-based incentives to change their ways; if anything, I’d expect them to get a lot more disaffected and violent than before. (Except this particular class didn’t seem to have any idea the annual event existed, which is its own kettle of worms, believe me.)

Still, to be clear, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the other 80%, it just drove me crazy at the start of the movie and again while considering my review. So, y’know, mixed bag.

Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams

Leave a reply

They may eventually get bad, but so far, I cannot say enough good things about the Silent Hill series. And unlike last time, this is one I had… well, okay, I had played it before, but I never finished. Last time was spooky and inexplicably satanic, I think? Whereas Silent Hill 2 (and, I hope, the future entries as well) was deeply psychological, with no hallucinogenic drug rings to be seen. I should first mention that although the 360 claims backward compatibility, there were still some sound bugs, less bad than last time but still present, and also I found out an hour in that you can only have one save game slot, total, or the whole thing falls apart. So that bit of replaying sucked.

But the rest of the time? Awesome stuff. See, there’s this guy James, and he’s come back to Silent Hill where he and his wife Mary had the best vacation of their lives, years before, because Mary has sent him a letter asking that he meet at their “special place”. Only, Mary’s been dead for three years, the town is mostly abandoned and all the roads into it are blocked, and the people he does meet are split between disturbing homicidal creatures, seemingly disturbed humans, an oblivious child, and a doppelganger of his dead wife, a stripper named Maria. Oh, and a hulking, unstoppable brute with a giant sword and a red pyramid-shaped helmet who is bar none the scariest dude I’ve ever seen in a video game.

In the midst of these dangers, James must unravel the mystery of his wife’s summons and the dark history of the town, and in some ways, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. All this amidst the best kind of bump-in-the-night sounds, a moody score, and halfway decent graphics. Even while playing the short prequel with backstory on Maria after I finished the main sequence, there still managed to be a moment when I got an accidental adrenaline jolt from an unexpected bad guy popping up in front of me. I am impressed, it’s been awhile since a game managed that!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

1 Reply

I glanced at my reviews of the last couple Pirates movies, and they are a lot more positive than I remember the movies in my head. I wonder which of us is right! My point being, who can say how well you and / or future me can trust this forthcoming review of the fourth poncy Johnny Depp vehicle? Oh well, we’re both here, may as well read it anyway.

So, I have a few disconnected thoughts, and they are presented here in no particular order. On Stranger Tides demonstrates better than I remember the other movies having done that pirates, by and large, are bad people. Not so bad that I wish I hadn’t watched the movie, but I felt slimier than I really wanted to, once or twice. That said, the action set-pieces did a good job of distracting me from that sporadic feeling, much as they distracted me from what were at the time glaring plot holes, most of which I’ve forgotten since, which just goes to show you quite how successful said set-pieces were. The action wasn’t the best in the series or anything, because they’ve always been amazing. But it was absolutely at the same level of quality, minimum.

Two events stood out from the rest, though, and neither are spoilers, so I will tell you them! 1) Impressive use of the Greek literary technique, deus ex mickina. 2) Disturbingly spot-on interpretation of the Japanese dolphin capture / killing bays. (There’s a documentary in the last year or two, if you have no idea what I’m talking about. The descriptions have convinced me I would hate watching it, though.) But anyway, yeah, this was pretty good. Oh, right, some people want an inkling as to the plot, I forget that sometimes. What is is, is they’re looking for the Fountain of Youth.