Metalocalpyse - Season 3

Metalocalypse's third season definitely felt like a creative shift away from the first two. All of the old characters are still there and there's the same formula from episode to episode: the members of Dethklok are idiots, the Tribunal plots a scheme against them based on what's going on, but they'll probably manage to play a big gig somewhere anyway. But after a couple experiments with it last time, every episode is a half hour now, leading to a different pacing to everything. There's half the number of episodes at double the length, so more time is provided for individual story ideas to breathe and develop the comedy, and there is less of a need for a wave of random violence to resolve everything quickly right at the end. It's still basically the same show, but if you would be disappointed in a drop in the body count and a larger variety of styles in the original music (as in, not all death metal), then you're just going to have to deal with it.

I kind of liked the shift, though. It just seemed like a funnier show without them having to rush through the plots at lightning speed, and just let the band be amusing jackasses for a while before blowing everything up. Not every story was the best, and even if there was some good humor I'm honestly tired of stuff like Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown. Pretty much all the main characters got their own dedicated episode, and it allowed for a reasonable amount of character exploration in a show you might not expect that from, especially after seeing its first two seasons. Apparently a lot of the changes were probably attributable to the departure of one of the two main creative people behind it (he still does his voices, though). It still seems more or less on track for its original vision of an absurd, over the top storyline involving an insanely popular metal band, even if they haven't done enough to develop it in the last four years. Whatever, it's a cartoon.

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is captivating from the moment it begins to the moment it ends. It's disturbing, thought provoking, and often actually quite funny. Stanley Kubrick's keen eye for visuals gets a complete workout, and Malcolm McDowell's performance as Alex is amazing, incredibly dark yet still likable. In case you can't tell, I liked the movie a lot.

The movie begins with several scenes depicting Alex as the leader of a street gang, consisting of him and his "Droogs". They beat up homeless men, fight with rival gangs, and assault women. The latter is depicted in particularly stark style, with Alex bursting into a rendition of "Singin' in the Rain" while his friends hold down a man and Alex cuts off his wife's clothes. Eventually though, he is betrayed and arrested for murder, sending him to jail. That's where the plot really gets going, as he is made subject of a radical and experimental treatment that makes him physically repulsed by thoughts of violence or lust. It seems to do the job, but it raises a lot of questions about free will, and what the actual purpose of the justice system is, and what makes a man good. As I said, it's really interesting stuff, and made all the more entertaining by the performances and Kubrick's direction.

The use of music is perhaps the most memorable element of the film. There's the aforementioned "Singin' in the Rain", but most of the soundtrack is a mix of classical stuff, particularly Alex's favorite "Ludwig van", and some more electronic/synthesizer type-stuff. Also, with Kubrick at his height here, there's just an endless supply of unforgettable imagery. The use of slow motion or fast motion, some well chosen long takes, it's all perfectly appropriate for the scene. Just the opening shot with a slow pullout of Alex's face as he sits in a bar is great. There's not much about the film that isn't enjoyable or at least interesting to watch, unless you find the sexual violence particularly repugnant I guess (it's never very explicit). Dr. Strangelove is still my favorite Kubrick film, but A Clockwork Orange is a nice runner-up.

Star Trek: Generations

We're finally drawing to the end of my planned exploration of the Star Trek franchise. Before it's over though, I have to get through the last four films, which range in fan opinion from pretty good to downright awful. I've seen all of them, and while I didn't hate any, I didn't think any were particularly great either. We start things off in thoroughly mediocre fashion with Generations, the only film to feature both James Kirk (and the only original cast members willing to slum it with him) and Jean-Luc Picard. Unfortunately, they don't do a whole lot with the opportunity, with Kirk relegated to an ignominious death scene at the beginning and a shoehorned role in the plot's climactic (by default) moment. Most of the film is just an average TNG episode stretched out to feature length without a whole lot justifying it. It wasn't too bad really, as I spent most of the time mildly bored instead of really bothered by anything. "Not terrible" isn't really the best endorsement, though.

There were a few things I enjoyed. Data's experiment with an emotions chip was pretty funny for a while, until the plot really got going and it had shockingly little importance to any of the significant events. That was just sort of weird. Malcolm McDowell is a fun actor, and he does a solid job as the movie's villain at the same time that Picard and his crew fail miserably to counter him in a well reasoned way. To be honest, I'm struggling with finding good things about the movie... as I said, it's not egregiously poor, but there's so little about it that was memorable or interesting that it's hard to be even neutral on it after the fact. At least Picard acted like Picard the whole time, which becomes a huge issue in the sequels. They destroy the Enterprise to add some drama in an overly long crash scene and also to give an excuse for a rebuilt ship in future films that accommodates the wider aspect ratio, at the same time Picard is entering a strange alternate reality where the two captains finally meet. As I said though, it's not the most exciting result ever, as the big action finale is a few old dudes beating each other up. They pretty much dropped the ball, which honestly describes all these movies pretty well. Well, no matter. It's hard to be too disappointed by it when the last Trek film was so awesome.

God of War III

Anyone who goes into God of War III expecting a lot of new ideas and changes to the series is going to be disappointed. God of War's strength has always been its spectacle and the strength of its design and production in every area, not its innovation in the video game landscape. If the first game was more consistent, I might call it the best in the series, simply because the formula was still new at the time. But because of the general nosedive it took in quality in the final act, I preferred the sequel's more even design, and since the third game follows at about the same level and is improved by the big jump in graphics and scale in some of the more important battles, I have no trouble calling it my favorite of the three.

No, it's not very original. God of War never was though, and it succeeds because of the confidence with which it takes all of its familiar elements and combines them into an entertaining whole greater than the sum of its parts. God of War III wraps up Kratos' story, at least for now, and does it with enough panache that it seems like a fitting send-off for the character and the storyline. The ending seems a bit out of place for the general tone of the series and also adds some mumbo jumbo that I didn't really expect, but in the end I didn't mind it that much. The climax of the plot features an interesting (although again, not wholly unique) interlude with a very unusual visual style that's probably worth seeing, and in general, while Kratos isn't a very sympathetic protagonist, I enjoyed the way everything escalated and seeing him unleash his rage on everything around him while the war he's raging wreaks havoc on the world. It's almost absurd how many famous gods and other Greek figures he manages to kill while only managing a few in the first two games, but I've always enjoyed the special way the series butchers the mythology, and its takes on a few personalities are pretty interesting.

For the most part, the game plays like a prettier God of War. There are some nice additions to the combat, like a grapple to pull yourself towards enemies and a few weapons besides the traditional chain blades. The first two games had other equipment that was worth screwing around with for a bit, but this is the first time I can say that they are actually about as much fun to play with. I especially liked the cestus, which is the standard powerful fist weapon except it manages to avoid feeling clunky. Tying Kratos different magic attacks to the weapons allows for some extra abilities to, and along with easier weapon switching your options in combat are more numerous than ever. Besides just killing lots of guys, the platforming and puzzle elements are as strong as ever, with some unique situations to use your different climbing skills in and mind-twisting setups as intriguing as anything in the series. There's one area that's eventual solution seems ripped out of Echochrome and the labyrinth stands up to any puzzle set piece in the series. As usual, there's a sort of circular design to the game, as you see certain obstacles long before you can actually get past them and you get the feeling that it's a living world instead of just a linear series of levels, revisiting some places without it feeling like backtracking.

The graphics make everything more enjoyable, with some amazing background vistas, really good looking characters, and very nice effects on things like blood and fire. But where the new hardware really shines is in the few situations where the game's new sense of scale really comes into play. Anyone who played the last game knows it ends with Kratos accompanying an army of titans climbing up Mount Olympus, and that's right where the third game begins, except this time it's all really happening in engine around you, as you have to fend off a gigantic enemy while riding on the back, arms and head of Gaia herself. There's nothing terribly revolutionary about the mechanics of the fight, but the fact that you're doing it in this situation and they're actually pulling it off is very impressive. There are a couple other situations where this sort of scale shows up, and it never stops being impressive. Not every moment in the game is great, with some fights going on a bit too long and the occasional unintuitive bit of design. But in general, it's a very confidently and competently made game, with great boss fights, amazingly brutal moments, solid voice acting and music, and gorgeous graphics. There's something to be said for simple spit and polish, because it can take anything good and make it better.

Fallout 3

I haven't played any of the other Fallout games, but from what I can tell, Bethesda's first stab at the series takes the skill system and trademark sense of humor and transplants them effectively into Oblivion's engine. Coming out two and a half years later Fallout 3 isn't the big step forward I was hoping for, but it's still a great game when you play it. It still has some of Oblivion's glitches and awkward moments, but it does do a fair amount of things better. Characters look better, and there's way more variety in the voice actors. The speech and bartering system relies on numbers and chance instead of a conceptually moronic mini-game. There are little additions like an indicator if a container is empty so less time is spent searching for items. And they finally got the auto-leveling enemies thing right, in a best-of-both-worlds sort of scenario. The way it seems to work, wandering around outside will always produce enemies at a similar skill level to you, so it doesn't seem too easy. But once you've been to a specific location like an underground tunnel, the enemies will always stay at the level they were when you first went there, so going back for whatever reason lets you take care of them easily without having to worry about constantly getting beaten. It's a pretty good system, maybe the best that can be done with this sort of extremely non-linear game.

On that end, Fallout is in ways better and worse than the Elder Scrolls games. Doing only the side quests that naturally came my way while playing, I beat the main story in about 22 hours. I don't think that's much less than Oblivion, and Fallout's story is certainly more interesting. They really did a lot with the humor, making it a bit more enjoyable to just be in the world, and it has a number of quests that are more creative than anything else I've seen them do. Tranquility Lane springs instantly to mind. And there's a bit more freedom in proceeding through it, with multiple ways to complete certain objectives and a lot of options in the dialogue that make it replayable. But the whole world around the main quest is a bit more barren, and that's the part of Oblivion I liked the most. I know there's a number of significant things I haven't done yet, but it seemed like fun diversions just weren't as easy to stumble across. Only the Wasteland Survival Guide came close to having the depth of one of the Elder Scrolls' factions, and it's not even just the quests - wandering around a deserted wasteland and ramshackle towns built on destroyed pieces of the old civilization is a bit more depressing and purposefully empty than an intact fantasy empire. Fallout 3 is designed to be more focused and narrow than Oblivion, and I liked that game for its breadth.

Not that Fallout isn't very good at what it does. There was some concern about the combat system, but I think it works pretty well. The V.A.T.S. system to target specific weakpoints is useful, although I tended to go for the head pretty exclusively. The normal aiming isn't very good for a shooter, but it's functional enough that you don't feel helpless when you can't use V.A.T.S. and it can actually be satisfying to use it by itself. I didn't try too much melee combat, but it seemed to function a lot like Oblivion's without any blocking. The karma system seems a little deeper than the average good-or-evil gimmick more and more games seem to be having, and unlike most of the others, it actually gives a compelling reason to be neutral. The writing is better than some of their earlier work, and overall it's a bit more polished as a product. I've been comparing the game to Oblivion for the entire review, but in the end it's probably worth checking out if you're interested, even if you've never touched an Elder Scrolls game.

Metalocalypse - Season 2

Metalocalypse's second season features the same sort of humor as the first, but steps up the complexity of the plot and brutality of its frequent violence quite a bit. I guess you need to be in a certain mindset to enjoy the show, as some people certainly don't "get" it. There's a certain disconnect between the humor, which is subtle conversational stuff, frequently relying on just the goofy way all the band members talk, and the horribly graphic deaths that frequently happen, usually near the end of the episode to conveniently get rid of a threat to the band's success. It certainly makes for a different kind of series, but it's one I've grown to like quite a lot.

The team definitely did some experimenting in the second run, and it took them a while to wrap it up, as thanks to breaks in the airing schedule the finale was shown almost a year after the premiere. I usually prefer to just know the show's going to be on every week until the season's over, but with Adult Swim I usually watch every week anyway so it's not as much of a problem. It's just a bit harder to remember everything when it comes time to reflect on what happened. A lot of the episodes are still one-shots, but it's not uncommon to get a hint at what's coming up with the sinister characters plotting against Dethklok operating in the background. The third to last and last episodes were half an hour in length, and proved to me the show could survive in that format if they wanted to do it. They were among the better shows in the season, although the climax got a little boring around the umpteenth time a character was saved at the last minute by a friend hitting the bad guy from behind. Still, it was a solid conclusion, although it leaves you hanging about what really happened to certain people.