Movie Review: Turtles Forever

If there is any one thing that defines my childhood it's The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I started watching the Ninja Turtles before I could even walk and the turtles' names were among some of my first words... oh and pizza. I would don (see what i did there) my Ninja Turtle cloths, play with my Ninja Turtles action figures and sing the Ninja Turtles theme song as I ran through my old New York apartment. They were what I aspired to be.

25 years later its hard to find someone who hasn't heard of the quartet of kung fu reptiles and while many kids may be familiar with a more contemporary iteration of the Turtles, retailers and merchandisers still sell plenty of first generation Turtle schwag for the nostalgic suckers in my generation. So what did I think when I heard that, in response to selling the rights to produce Ninja Turtles cartoons to Nickelodeon, they were making one last feature length movie depicting an adventure spanning three Turtle-verses and starring the casts of the original 90's Ninja Turtles, the contemporary Turtles AND the Eastman and Laird comic book Turtles? ... I think I crapped my pants in that moment. Sadly I had completely forgotten about the plan months and months ago. It wasn't until recently that I remembered its existence and discovered the movie had already been released. So I did what any true Ninja Turtles fan would do and downloaded it (DVD release hasn't even been announced yet). This is a review of that film...

The movie opens up with the new Turtles discovering that doppelgangers have shown up to fight their baddies for them... and got captured in the process. The two Turtles teams eventually meet up and find out that the 90's Turtles accidentally sent themselves and the Technodrome to the new Turtle's universe. They do an incredibly great job contrasting the two teams and portraying the tongue-and-cheek mentality of the Turtles I grew up with. Eventually the 90's Shredder (literally one of my favorite villains in fiction, period) and brain without a body, Krang, figure out what has happened and Shredder, in his misguided ambition and excitement, attempts to locate this universe's version of him thinking he can team up with what he believes to be some super bad ass version of himself. He learns however, that this version of Shredder really has no intrest in teaming up and is completely and totally ruthless. Many hilarious shenanigans ensue and without ruining what happens they end up in "Turtle Prime", home of the original comic book Turtles (or more specifically, the Turtles as they appeared in the first few issues). Its awesome how they acknowledge in the Ninja Turtles universe (or multiverse I guess) that the original comics is where it all began.

The movie is a great adventure for fans young and old, but is way better if you are familiar with the many forms the Turtles have taken over the last 25 years. I am not very familiar with the newer Turtles, but they seemed to act a lot like the Turtles of the New Line films, with the exception of Donatello acting like Corey Feldman. The voice acting for the 90's Turtles was as good as you could possibly do without getting the original actors (its been two decades...) with the exception of Leonardo... he sounds weird. The animation was pretty damn good as well and the fight scenes were surprisingly epic.

Bottom line the movie was awesome. Seeing characters like the original April, Rocksteady, Bebop and Krang running around in a movie made in 2009 made my nostalgia glad almost explode. I give the film 5 Anti-Technodrome roller skates out of 5.

Spring Break Blog: Camping

Looking back at my "To Do List" it appears I have yet to do the Spring Break blog I was assigned a pretty long time ago. Well there's no time like the present right? I had some pretty interesting plans early on but ended up shafting them for simply going home and relaxing. Honestly I don't regret that decision in the least. I got some well deserved (and needed) relaxation and hung out with a lot of my old friends.

Other than that I camped. Now, my family is not a big camping family, in fact my mother and I are the only ones who even slightly enjoy the prospect. Fortunately my family was not involved with this trip. The last three times I have camped in the last seven years has been with my buddy Jeff (and his dad and brother depending on the specific trip) who makes what would normally be a boring and nightmarish endeavor into a fun adventure. By adventure I don't mean hiking or fishing or finding ancient artifacts... my definition of adventure is much simpler.

Adventure - Staying in the wilderness for more than an hour.

Most people these days hate camping. As the comedian Jim Gaffigan put it, "the only happy camper is the guy leaving the campsite." Too many people these days think you have to be an outdoorsy person to enjoy camping, but I'm not one by any stretch of the imagination so that can't be it... I just don't think people understand how to have simple fun anymore. I am the product of the information age. I have played video games since the age of two and have the attention span of a hamster on speed, but even I understand there is fun to be had in the dark scary woods.

Its simple really. Make sure you bring the right equipment to be comfortable and make sure you bring some entertaining friends. I think the problem most campers have is not bringing the right people on the trip. We (me, Jeff, his brother Davy, Tim and his girlfriend Heather) literally did nothing but talk and joke around for hours and I had the time of my life.

Its pretty simple really... unless I just have really entertaining friends... I here bringing alcohol helps, but I don't drink so I can't really support that theory.... Anyway camping can be fun, you're just doing it wrong.

Anticipating the Summer

It would be insane to say that I do not anticipate the summer and so as to not waste anymore of your time, yes, I can't wait for the summer. Why is that? Well for one, I won't be in school so my stress levels will drop substantially. This semester has been my most ambitious and consequently most difficult semester yet. Every moment I have between all the work I must slam my face against is spent fantasying about setting in a lawn-chair in my backyard drinking a soda doing nothing.

I do have some cool plans for the summer however. I am supposed to meet some of my family from Pittsburgh up (somewhere) and hang out with them for a few days. Then my cousins from Tampa have vague plans to come up to Atlanta for about a week, a tradition a decade old. Probably going to spend a good amount of time up at the lake house around July 4th and hopefully get to ride some jet skies and maybe even get to whitewater raft. For what I would have to say is the highlight of the summer, in late July, I am going to the San Diego Comic Con with my step-dad and get autographs galore. Before fall semester starts back up I am supposed to go to Mayhem Festival in August (Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God... you get the picture). In lieu of all this I am running a Mass Effect d20 campaign and playing in a D&D 4.0 campaign weekly AND possibly working at the local retro-game store.

... and probably mow lawns too...

So do I have enough time to relax in my backyard and take afternoon naps? Probably not, but hopefully I won't have too.

History of the Berlin Wall

After World War II, Germany was divided into four occupying zones split between the Allied powers. Two years later, due to an increasingly hostile political climate, the US, UK and French zones combined into one zone.

The Soviet Union's Eastern Bloc in an attempt to seize more power and bring all of Germany under Soviet control, instituted many things, the most notable of which was the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The allied response was known as the Berlin Airlift that assisted those cut off by dropping off food and supplies.

Eventually the the Soviets ceased the blockade, but the conflict changed Berlin for years to come. The eastern block took complete control over East Germany, forming the German Democratic Republic, and the allies helped form the Federal republic of Germany in West Germany.

Many people found ways to emigrate from East Germany to West Germany easily in the 50's which angered the Soviets and led to what they called the "Brain Drain". Many of their young working citizens were leaving East Germany costing them billions of dollars.

East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles, and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 97 miles around the three western sectors, and the 27 miles that divided West and East Berlin.

Soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields, and other obstacles were installed along the length of the inner-German border between East and West Germany.

Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs. West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land.

While many people continued to try to cross the border to the West the two halves of a once great city attempted to cope on its own. It is estimated that around 100-200 people were killed attempting to cross the border.

"We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan

After the wall came down Germans reunited with their friends and family that they hadn't seen in decades and the great country of Germany was once again united. The Berlin Wall symbolized the Cold War in a nushell and its collapse signaled the end of the conflict. The wall has not only effect Germany for the remainder of its existence but helped shape Europe for decades to come.

Game Night: Episode Two

Looks like we've made it to the homestretch. This Friday is our last game of the campaign (finally) and I get to make all the players crap their pants. With that said I had to do something special for the game that preceded it. I couldn't make it completely bland and boring compared to the climax of the entire campaign... but things don't always turn out as you plan. That's not to say the game was not fun, it was, I just never really foresee all the distractions and setbacks we always run into.

Carl just straight up didn't show and never called to let us know that he was going to sleep the entire time. The result? His droid is a talking head... warned you dude! On a different note I finally gave Allysa and Don something interesting to do. I feel like I neglect them sometimes because their characters came in relatively late and we never got around to fleshing out their characters or really making them relevant. Giving Don a connection (via cultural origin) with one of the baddies and Allysa a buddy-buddy relationship with one of the main party NPCs (non-player character) made things a whole lot more interesting and will lead to some interesting developments leading up to the final session.

Other than that Andy hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and took about 45 minutes to figure out what his character wanted to say because he was so out of it and Blake threw a hissy fit because he got shot (which was hilarious). I'm confident that the final session will be pretty epic and as I begin to prepare for the next campaign I will be running next semester (not Star Wars) I know who to invite next time and who I won't be inviting... some people are just not cut out for sitting around a table role playing as fantasy/science fiction characters it seems... don't know if that's a good or bad thing...

Favorite Piece of Art... Mass Effect? Part 2

In the last segment of this two part blog (something I seem to do a lot) I went over why I believed Mass Effect to be a work of art in a board sense and outlined some of the achievements of its narrative (and probably did not do it justice). I will now attempt to explain the awesomeness of its other assets.

Let us begin with the acting. Normally when you think of video games you do not think of acting. Many gamers underestimate the importance of voice acting in the video game industry assuming that many of the games' "cinematic" features rest solely on the graphics. While this is true (and trust me, Mass Effect has the area covered) video games are looking and feeling more and more like movies everyday, and as we all know, acting is an enormous aspect of film. Relying on graphics for your cut scenes may have been important in the 90's, but times change. With all that said, Mass Effect has some of the most superb voice acting I have ever seen in a video game (on par with some of Pixar's best films) and both games have great casts with well known actors such as (film and voice actors): Seth Green, Keith David, Martin Sheen, Jennifer Hale, Adam Baldwin, Steve Blum, Tricia Helfer, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and even Yvonne Strahovski. Some of the actors even use there likeliness for the characters they play: Jeff "Joker" Moroe (Seth Green) and Miranda Lawson (Yvonne Strahovski).

In terms of art direction I would have to say that Mass Effect has a nice balance of new yet familiar. You can tell its a Sci-Fi epic by looking at it, but the game offers amazing and stunning visuals that may surprise even the most jaded science fiction buff. Mass Effect has some of the coolest looking aliens I have ever seen.

To top it all off, Mass Effect has some of the most unique and interesting lore of any science fiction setting ever seen in fiction. As young as it is, Mass Effect has an enormous amount of depth that will gives us decades of fun and intrigue. Strangely enough, the game is also considered hard science fiction, making it a very believable and relate-able universe. Some well know astronomers and physicists have actually commented on how accurate some of the game's theories are. If you are not into all the scientific mobo-jumbo however, fear not! Most of the scientific lore in the game is optional. When it comes down to it though, the aliens make the lore as awesome as it is.

Anyway I think I have burned out this topic. Moral of the story: Mass Effect is awesome and if you haven't played it please do so. Now, as I promised, the launch trailer for Mass Effect 2, the best launch trailer in video game history:

Favorite Piece of Art... Mass Effect? Part 1

Mass Effect, a Bioware RPG/Shooter epic released in 2007, is probably among one of the best works of art I have ever witnessed in my life. I picked Mass Effect because it is one of the only video games I have ever played that I can classify as art. From the narrative, to the art direction, to the lore, to the acting, Mass Effect is better than any film I have ever scene.

So what is this game you ask? Well the story of Mass Effect (or rather the Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect 2 came out last January) takes place in the late 22nd century after humanity has discovered ancient technology left on Mars by an extinct race of space faring beings and joined the galactic community after unlocking the secrets of FTL travel (Faster-than-light) and mass effect fields. You play Commander Shepard, a human marine who's background you can choose for yourself and whose journey you can play out in any way you want. Shepard is the player's character and no one will play the exact same Shepard.

I won't bother going anymore into the plot than I already have because, honestly, I don't want to spoil it and because I honestly don't need to. The other aspects of this game can speak for themselves. That isn't to say the narrative itself is not formidable, on the contrary, Mass Effect has one of the most compelling stories ever told in the video game medium.

Let's start with what makes this game a brilliant story; the narrative structure. Basically the game can be classified as an RPG (role playing game) not only because it has many of the same game play mechanics but because you ultimately have full rein of how your Shepard progresses through the story. You can be a nice guy... or you can be a douche... or you can be something in between. Bioware has a gift of writing very morally ambiguous stories and you are constantly bombarded by these decisions throughout the story. Most decisions are not between right or wrong, they are between logical and what you feel in your gut, between convenience and risk, between the lesser of two evils and sometimes both decisions sit on very sound foundations. Those are the best kind of decisions and why this game's story telling is ultimately so compelling.

Minor spoilers: My favorite part of both games, is not an epic space battle, or an emotional romantic scene. In Mass Effect 2 the game digs deeper into one aspect of their lore in which, long story short, one species used a stability plague against another species to end a war. Throughout the entirety of the first game you hear nothing but the Krogan's side of the argument (the species that got effected by it) and you will most likely come out thinking the Salarians are responsible for a horrible crime. In the second game you get the full explanation of the Salarian's side of the argument. This all coalesces in one amazing scene in which you take your teammate, Dr. Mordin Solus, a Salarian scientist partly responsible for the re-engineering and re-implementation of the genophage (sterility plague), to the Krogan homeworld to save his old colleague. Upon arrival you investigate the labs scattered throughout the base riddled with the corpses of test subjects. It turns out the Krogan had been running experiments on living subjects to try to cure the genophage, and after defending the plague for the entire game Mordin shows an enormous amount of self doubt and maybe even guilt at what he sees. It is one of the most compelling scenes in fiction I have ever experienced... honestly the writers need some awards for it... as well as Mordin's voice actor.

Holy crap turns out there is a lot to talk about here. Well might as well talk about it more in my online journalism blogs!

Well here is the launch trailer for the first game... the Mass Effect 2 launch trailer made me crap my pants the first time I watched it... I post that one in part 2:


To Be Continued...