talonkarrde | Entries tagged with random

Short thoughts on:

Movies:

Cloud Atlas is really good, and I recommend you go see it. I'm actually speaking very personally here, where you is literally, you, reading this right now, as you are probably a writer, and Cloud Atlas is, at its core, a work of art for writers like us. There's an interesting framing device that the movie uses where it tells six stories with one common theme and interweaves them, whereas the book actually tells one story through six ages and nests them. Both are good, I think. Definitely Oscar material.
I need to see Argo; I've read the book that it was based on, and it's a heckuva story. Reviews look good.
Wreck it Ralph comes out tomorrow, Skyfall is the week after, Life of Pi is November 21st, and Les Miserables is coming out on Christmas day.

Games:

Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 have both gotten excellent reviews, and are surprisingly focused on characters and interactions instead of the usual running and gunning. This is good; more focus on narrative is definitely a good thing for the industry, I think, even though gameplay always comes first.
Dishonored was very good — a better version of Deus Ex, with a smattering of influences from Thief to Bioshock to Mirror's Edge. There's a lot more to be said, but again, it's a good direction for the industry to go in (which it might not, as Deus Ex the first proved; the industry may quite possibly ignore the game completely). The only argument I have against it is that it doesn't have any real resource management, which Deus Ex was very good at requiring.

Writing:

I still owe five pieces, I think, to four people. I willlllll get them done before December. Probably.

Other:

Looks like the election is wrapping up; there's simply not enough time for Romney to get the 1-2% swing he needs. The hurricane was his last, best chance, and Obama has handled it flawlessly, even by Republican accounts.
California propositions are an interesting bunch. Apparently we like to vote on a lot of things.
Disney got a huge deal out of buying Lucasfilm; I'm definitely looking forward to the next Star Wars movie (just like I look forward to Pixar and Marvel movies, both of which are under Disney).
Going to Australia in July, which will be exciting.

Dai Stihó