007: License to Suck

I want to touch on two things here. First, I think the new Bond looks like a drug addict. Second, I think the news that EA has dropped the Bond game license is really good news. Activision will be picking up the license, now. That in and of itself isn’t super great news. Activision hasn’t really proven itself capable of doing well with certain licenses, case in point: Star Trek. What I think is really outstanding is that EA seems to be actually following through on this whole reinvention phase they’re going through. They really meant it when they said they were going to rely less on licensed properties, like Bond and Lord of the Rings, and release more unique games.

In the same article is news about the upcoming Superman Returns game from EA.

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers and EA have delayed the Superman Returns game from the theatrical release date in June to the DVD release this fall. The film is slated to open June 30.

I like this returning trend of delaying games until they’re better. It used to be this was the norm in the indutry, until all the heavy hitters were more concerned with getting a game out before a certain date, than whether the game was finished, case in point: Knights of the Old Republic II. Now, we’ve seen this happen with Heroes of Might and Magic V and a few other titles from Ubisoft. A game that has really shown some benefit from this practice is Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter for Xbox 360. The Xbox version was craptastic, but the 360 version was delayed from its original status as a 360 launch title and has now become one of the platform’s strongest offerings in the FPS genre. It is easily good enough and fun enough to hold everyone over until Halo 3 comes out.

Anyway, the general trend seems to be that more of the high profile games are becoming much better in terms of overall quality. Yay!

MPAA admits to pirating a DVD

Unbe-frakking-lievable.

The MPAA copied a DVD of a movie recently shown at the Sundance Film Festival. This movie, titled This Film is Not Yet Rated, examines the MPAA’s film rating system and whether or not it discriminates against independent films.

Basically, an MPAA lawyer admitted to copying the film, and then they showed it to some of their employees.

The MPAA’s response:

Kori Bernards, the MPAA’s vice president for corporate communications, told the Los Angeles Times: “We made a copy of Kirby’s movie because it had implications for our employees.”

Bernards also claimed that Dick spied on members of the MPAA’s Classification and Rating Administration, including going through their dustbins and following them as they drove their children to school.

“We were concerned about the raters and their families,” she said, adding that the MPAA’s copy of This Film Is Not Yet Rated is “locked away” and is not being copied or distributed.

So, it’s okay to copy a DVD as long as it is “locked away” and is not being copied or distributed? Well, then why try to force everyone to use Macrovision? Shouldn’t I be able to back up my DVD collection as long as it is “locked away”?

It would seem that the MPAA’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

I am so tired of crap like this. When will consumers no longer be forced into using invasive DRM? Sure, people are ticked off about the Sony rootkit now, give ’em a few years, and it will be back, and likely no one will ever notice.

Uwe Boll Watch: Kotaku Defends House of the Dead

Oh, for crying out loud.

I’m not sure which is more idiotic, watching House of the Dead, or buying it on UMD!

Seriously, between exclusive reports about Japanese trade show booths for 8 year old girls and this latest piece of tripe trying to defend one of the worst rated movies ever, I don’t see many reasons for keeping Kotaku.com in my BlogLines subscription.

Uwe Boll Watch: Interview at 1UP

1UP.com has up an interview with movie genius Uwe Boll. Truly an articulate and intelligent interviewee:

1UP: Though BloodRayne hasn’t officially screened for critics, there have been some select showings, one of which prompted a sharply negative review by Ain’t It Cool News, a site you previously told 1UP you read. Is that the response you were expecting?

UB: no. HARRY and Quint are retards

In case you didn’t know, in the past, Uwe Boll (arguably one of the most auspiciously bad movie directors, EVER) received financing from a laundry list of German financiers. Interestingly enough, German tax law had a loophole that allowed one to write off any expenses due to a horribly failed movie. So, naturally, rich German people found the worst producer possible, and gave him stacks and stacks of cash that they could then write-off. Well, turns out that starting this year, this particular tax loophole has been removed.

1UP asked Uwe Boll about this.

1UP: You’ve mentioned in other interviews that your next projects are already financed, but how will the recent change in German tax law affect later projects?

UB: we will see

Yes, indeed we will.

Anakin is Clutch

So, I picked up a snazzy Star Wars Episode I watch from Booger King (still feeling somewhat queasy from all the BK food I bought when they were giving away the chibi Star Wars toys). I got to thinking about how much Jake Lloyd bugged, and this led me to think about how Episode III hints that Emperor Palpatine (or maybe his master, Darth Plagueis) was responsible for using the Force to create Anakin. But why? Why did the Emperor need Anakin before taking over the galaxy? What purpose does he serve, besides typical Sith shenanigans of killing Jedi, spreading fear, oppressing innocent people, and such?

Then, I got to thinking, we could look at this question in the sense of football quarterbacks. A lot of people used to say (unfairly, IMHO) that Tom Brady isn’t that great of a QB, he’s just a regular guy that is in the middle of a great system in New England under Belichek. The argument being that you could put almost ANY quarterback on that New England team and win 3 out of the last 4 Super Bowls.

Which brings me to Anakin. Was he merely placed in a really good system with a really good coach (Darth Sidious)? I say yes. There is no doubt that Anakin was talented, and probably the most powerful Jedi ever born… er… hatched, er… whatever. However, couldn’t Palpatine taken any young and upcoming Jedi and used him to perform key tasks such as cleaning out the Jedi Temple and killing the Separtist leaders? Yes. Did he really need Anakin to go into the Jedi Temple at all? No, that’s why he had legions and legions of Clone Troopers.

I will say this, though. Anakin, like Tom Brady, was big in clutch situations (both to the advantage and ultimate detriment of Emperor Palpatine.) The one point where Palpatine faced certain defeat was at the hands of Mace Windu. The Emperor had no problem handling Yoda, especially once they got into an open field, but in the close quarters of the Chancellor’s Office, Mace bottled him up and was ready to lay down the Jedi smacktitude… until Anakin showed up and knocked Master Windu out of the park. Fast forward 20 years and he was also reponsible for saving the galaxy when at his son’s request, chucked the Emperor over the railing.

Beyond these key plays, Anakin did very little. He got his arm chopped off by Dooku, then Yoda had to bail him out. Obi-wan had the “high ground.” He choked Natalie Portman (moron!) He let the Millenium Falcon escape how many times?

On the other hand, he did build C-3PO. Oh, wait… that might be a point against him.

Anakin is like Michael Vick. He’s got horrible numbers, but somehow he wins games.

Sony: not ALWAYS stupid

I saw on IMDB (via EvilAvatar) that Warner Bros. will be releasing movies on UMD. Meh. Whatever. What really got my attention was this:

Sony on Monday opened an online store where Japanese owners of the PSP can buy movies that can be downloaded to PSPs for about $9.00.

Oh, REALLY? Not a bad idea at all. For the price of a single movie ticket (in most markets) you can legally own a movie which can be downloaded and watched on the PSP. Yes, of course Sony will pile on the DRM to keep the movies from being played on anything else, which will last all of a few hours before someone cracks it and allows you to burn these movies to writable DVD, or anything else that is a guaranteed right under Fair Use. The only catch here is that I buy most of DVD’s based on how many special features are included with the film. Yes, I listen to movie commentaries quite a bit, and I assume such features would not be available for your $9. But hey, still not a bad concept.

Serenity Online

You can see the first 9 minutes or so of Serenity. Yes, legally. Universal has made it available, so if you know anyone who is still not sure if they want to see it, give them this unprecedented sneak preview.

http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/index.html

PETER JACKSON TO PRODUCE HALO MOVIE!

It is not April Fools’ Day.

And this is not a joke.

My day?

Made.

Love Joss Whedon?

Yes. Yes, I do.

Google’s ads are sometimes eerily intelligent in the questions they might pose.

Define Irony

Situational Irony occurs when one event is expected but another oppositional event occurs.

Like when Serenity is rated 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, but grosses fewer ticket sales than Flightplan, which is rated at 37%.

Then again… Brothers Grimm is rated 38% by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe I shouldn’t judge Flightplan until I’ve seen it, but COME ON! Better than Serenity? I doubt it.

…

Okay, Okay… I’m a browncoat. So what? I can still be objective. Somehow.