War of the Worlds movie review

Here's what you need to know; no one involved is happy that Ray has to look after his kids while his ex wife is in Boston, but bigger problems arise when the area is hit by a freak lightning storm, and something massive rises up out of the ground and starts killing people. As entire continents go dark and more machines appear across America, Ray struggles to keep his broken family alive in the midst of the extermination of his species.
I was, and am, a fan of a few of the adaptations of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, loving the 1953 film, and the Jeff Wayne musical. But one adaptation I didn't hold in as high a regard was the 2005 film; a film I admittedly haven't seen in years, while I've been soaking up the musical and original film at a certainly unhealthy rate. Recently I snagged a fresh batch of cheap Blu rays, and the 2005 War of the Worlds was in there, so I watched it, and, to be honest, I was surprised, let's go.

Like the 1953 film, this film opens with a narration to set the scene, only this narration is better, because Morgan Freeman is the narrator, and adding Morgan Freeman's voice to anything makes it better, fact. We then get an introduction to Ray, the estranged dad out to save his kids from the aliens, and thankfully I found myself liking his character a lot more as the film went on, his every man type and family issues don't make him a very unique character, but his desire to protect his kids and the lengths he goes to for that make him more complicated than that, and it makes for a surprisingly interesting character. The same can be said about his daughter Rachel, when she's not screaming that is, she's a surprisingly smart kid, and it's fascinating to see this invasion through the eyes of a child as well as an adult, even if her screaming is annoying. Robbie on the other hand is a character I personally think the film could have done without, as his contribution to the plot was pretty much being aggressive to Ray, and his character's not even around for the entire film, just kind of vanishing in the second half, which makes his inclusion confusing. The film is relatively devoid of major player besides Ray and his kids, Ogilvy, whose name is a lovely homage to the book, seems to be a bizarre blending of several characters and elements from previous versions, his introduction is very abrupt, and with a crucial change this film made to the Martians, the scenes he is in lack a lot of the original context, what I do like however is his descent into madness and eventual demise is more morbid than any previous version, and the addition of a kid makes it even more unpleasant. Something I love about The War of the Worlds is 'the rout of civilisation', I loved it in the 1953 film, and I liked it in the musical, and this film goes for it too, and it is easily head and shoulders above previous adaptations; the film has some genuinely unsettling scenes as refugees go at each other. There's a great scene with a van that is very effective in showing how morbid things would get in this situation, it's excellently done, and it makes this the darkest adaptation of The War of the Worlds by far, obviously more things are possible now than in the 1950s, but it's more than that, it's visceral and personal, and it is actually quite scary. Speaking of scary, this film goes with its Fighting Machines being Tripods again, and wow are the Tripods scary in this film; their introduction when one rises from the ground and starting heat raying people is one of the best scenes in the film, and the Tripods themselves are huge, towering machines, and they are a genuinely menacing presence, for some reason the film loves to show them rising up over hills, and it's brilliant, again, more is now possible, and the Tripods have been turned into something that can actually be feared. And to make it worse, elements from the book like the Red weed and the blood have been brought in, and that shit's nasty. Sadly though, just like the 1953 film, this film's ending is very abrupt, the conclusion is again very much more an issue with the material than the film, but it just comes out of nowhere, even if it's more elegantly explained by Morgan Freeman's narration.

From a visual standpoint this film is as close to flawless as a film its age can be; watching it on Blu ray, the CG holds up really well, especially on the Tripods, and the Tripods are very nicely designed and animated, looking monstrous and alien, but still mechanical, it is weird though that Steven Spielberg, the guy who directed Jurassic Park, didn't opt for practical effects in the basement scene, which is very reminiscent of the Kitchen scene from Jurassic Park, only with Martians and a robotic eye instead of raptors. On the subject of that scene, it too is a great scene, as the humans sneak around and try to hide, while first a tentacle camera thing is looking for them, and then a group of Martians, who are the most obvious CG in the film, while two of the characters are clashing, while also trying not to be found by the Martians, it's a very intense scene. The film also sounds great; the Tripods make an excellent sound, again, monstrous and alien, being more comparable to a roar than any mechanical noise, and the film's soundtrack is cracking, composed by John Williams, of course. The film also has some really awesome scenes; the Tripod reveal is excellent, the Ferry scene is excellent, there's a plane crash scene that's done in a very interesting way, and is great, and there's a horrible scene involving a van, which is excellent. All of those examples are in the first half of the film however, and at a point the film loses it's fast pace, and starts doing a really bad job relaying time. Ogilvy's descent into madness is morbid, but it feels rushed, like either he was already a lunatic, or they've been in the basement a while, long enough for the red weed to take over the landscape, that or it grows really fast, the film is never clear on how much time passes in the second half, and as a result it starts to drag. The second half still has some highlights, mainly the basement scene, but the film loses a lot of its enjoyability in the second half, and where the rout of civilisation made the film dark and tense in a good way, that's gone in the second half, replaced by wonky pacing and a guy who wants to dig tunnels. And while the ending does have more of a build up than it did in 1953, setting up a tiny bit of mystery at the end, it's still very abrupt, and a final scene which re introduces a character makes very little sense, not only that they're alive, but that the Martians and the red weed somehow overlooked an area of a major city, it's just really silly.

All in all War of the Worlds is a film I was at least partially wrong about, the film has some excellent things in it, and even does some things better than the original 1953 film. War of the Worlds is also great to look at and listen to, if very morbid at times. It's a shame then that in other areas the film completely drops the ball, and loses a lot of what made it great in the second half, and makes a few decisions that detract from the overall enjoyability of the film. Regardless of the flaws, War of the Worlds is still a film I had a good amount of fun with, and I would recommend it, it's worth watching.

looking upwards (a pain in the neck)

Nothing puts me back in a good mood like a family day out to a giant telescope, which is not only a good excuse to take photos, but a good excuse to just enjoy all of the sciency stuff, which there's plenty of at Jodrell Bank Observatory. After a few hours of walking around, I got less photos than I was expecting, and I remember the gift shop being bigger last time, but then again, I at least got to eat some freeze-dried space strawberries, which were revolting.

The Great Wall movie review

Here's what you need to know; while on a doomed mission in China to find the mythical and mysterious black powder, mercenaries William and Tovar come across something unexpected, an immense defensive wall, and are taken prisoner by the armies manning it. But William and Tovar soon learn of the purpose of the wall, and of the evil that threatens all of China, and must choose between finishing their mission and aiding the armies on the wall in saving China.
Since last time he chose the film we saw The Girl on the Train, I thought it would be fair and interesting to give that privilege back to a friend of mine while out at the cinema, and he chose The Great Wall, a choice I personally was quite happy with. And to get this out of the way, no, people saying this film is whitewashed are wrong, and idiots. Let's go.

The film doesn't start off great in all honesty, with an introduction to the mercenary gang after the black powder, which gets messy with an encounter with a Tao Tei, before a strikingly cheesy introduction to the Wall and the Nameless Order. We were at first very disappointed, but very rarely have I seen a film start off so weak and then do a complete 180 in such a small amount of time, and all of the negativity and most of the pedantics stopped after the first siege. I'm not kidding when I say the opening siege in this film is awesome; the visual effects are nothing mind blowing, but they do a good job of conveying scale, which is helpful when thousands of Tao Tei swarm the Wall, and there's arrows and flaming boulders flying all over the place, it's violent, loud and bloody, it's a lot of fun. When the siege is done, and things have the chance to calm down a bit, you do, somewhat unfortunately, get a bit of character development. William is one of the main guys, a mercenary looking for black powder, and while he gets the job done in the role he fills, his character ark is completely predictable, going from a mercenary out for money to a heroic figure in the Nameless Order, while his less important fellow merc Tovar is actually a tiny bit more interesting, torn between staying and helping his friend and getting away and getting rich, and while Ballard is at first not what I expected, he certainly follows a predictable path, while not being as likable as William or Tovar, who have a good sense of friendship between them. And they're the three characters in the film who aren't Chinese, blowing any argument of whitewashing out of the water; the rest of the film consists of Chinese generals, commanders, and strategists, and are by far the film's most interesting element. The Nameless Order is a really cool army, with their forces split into different troops designated by colour and armour, and it's a cool aesthetic, and seeing the various troops doing what they do is cool. Asides from the cool armour, this film is very nice to look at; again the CG isn't the very best CG you'll ever see, but it's very, very far from the worst, and the more serene landscape shots of ancient China are downright stunning, the setting of ancient China is admittedly something I have a soft spot for, so I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this film. The three biggest figures in the Nameless Order are General Shao, who's a cool general with the coolest armour, Commander Lin, who's a commander of one of the Troops, and Wang, whose name I remembered because I'm immature. What the film does lack in way of characters is a proper villain, the film's antagonist is a swarm of freaky looking lizard monsters called the Tao Tei, and they're kind of cool, but not hugely remarkable, sadly, in a film with stunning scenery and a stunning setting, where everyone has cool looking coloured armour, lizard dogs aren't really the most eye catching of things. And the closest thing to an individual bad guy the film has, the Tao Tei Queen, does literally nothing; really I think she's just there for the convenient ending.

Definitely the film's greatest weakness is it's lack of meat and substance; the film's characters are either just there to facilitate the story, or there to get your attention with not very interesting scenes of development. The film does get one element of character development right, in the friendship between Tovar and William, because you get the sense there is one, they crack jokes to each other, and can sometimes actually be pretty funny, and it is interesting to see the two of them learn what they really want out of life, and seeing that starting to come between them. Again though, the journey William goes on is just not interesting enough, his transition from merc to hero is completely by the numbers, and without Tovar's banter, I doubt he'd be all that more gripping. The friendship between him and Lin is done well enough, but again, nothing remarkable, I'm just glad they didn't go all out with the by the numbers character journeys, and have the two of them kiss at the end, spoiler alert, they don't. There's a soldier in the Order that William saves from a Tao Tei early on, and yet again, the film wants you to care about him, but doesn't give you a good enough reason, other than him being a runt who is seen by his fellow soldiers as a coward. Even two of the bigger characters of the film never give you a real reason to care about their lives, and when one of them dies, earlier than I was expecting, and they hold a huge ceremony for them on the Wall, it was cool, but their death didn't have the weight that was clearly intended. The Tao Tei are similarly weak, again the Queen serves practically no purpose other than to facilitate the ending, which just strikes me as really convenient, as their unbeatable problem suddenly has as a simple solution, it's feels a bit lazy. Being honest though, I still see this film in a very interesting way, because while I know of and can appreciate this film's many weaknesses, there's just something I love about it, and that's the action. The first siege is awesome, and easily the best siege in the film, but the various action scenes are just enjoyable, seeing William and Tovar fighting blind in thick fog, listening for Tao Tei stuck with noise making arrows is cool, seeing them swarming the Wall, World War Z style, and ripping shit into the Nameless Order, while the Order is ripping shit back into them is cool, seeing the final battle as William and Lin try to kill the Queen is cool. When things start going down in this film, I can't deny I had a lot of fun, enough to at least temporarily ignore the weak characters. All in all, The Great Wall is no masterpiece; its characters are cardboard, their development isn't very good, and the film's lack of the proper villain only makes this more evident. The monsters get the job done but are nothing special, and when the film tries to hit the feels, it just doesn't have the power. But when the film tries to hit the action it has plenty of power, having a few really enjoyable action scenes. Couple that with the film's gorgeous imagery and cool setting and aesthetic, and I'll be honest, I liked this film, The Great Wall is worth a watch, for sure.

And on a finishing note, The Great Wall has American money in it as well as Chinese; hence the film kind of needs to be marketable to an American audience, which is why Matt Damon, a well known American actor is in it. I'm sure I'll be saying something similar when I see Ghost in the Shell, but the simple fact is when American money is involved, it's important to make a product that's marketable to an American audience, since the investors still want to see a return on their investment. The race of the persons cast has nothing to do with it, so to who it concerns, your whitewashing argument is not relevant, stop trying to make up problems and start enjoying the films.

The War of the Worlds movie review

Here's what you need to know; a pleasant summer evening takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious meteor lands near a quiet California town, the severity of the situation becomes clear however when death rays start erupting from the crater. As the military moves in to resist the mysterious attackers, and more meteors start landing across the globe, it becomes apparent that this is an invasion, and that Humanity is seriously outgunned.
Long ago I saw a stage performance, and while I usually am not drawn to them, this one was special, because it was Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds. And very recently, I listened to a CD of that show, and remembered why I loved it so much, and immediately hunted down my DVD of The War of the Worlds, the 1953 film I hold in as high a regard as Godzilla and King Kong, and one of the films that I couldn't get enough of as a kid, let's go.

The film opens in a very different manner to the sci fis of today, with a narrated introduction to the Martians, setting up their reasons for attacking Earth in a surprisingly decent effects heavy scene, before getting down to Earth with the meteor crash, and giving an introduction to some of the film's characters. Our lead characters, and pretty much the only characters you gravitate to in the film, are Dr Forrester and Sylvia; Dr Forrester gets the job done as the lead hero of the film, he's a scientist, so he's smart, and he is there when the shit's going down, giving us a good perspective of the invasion, but as a character, he's not as interesting as the scenario around him, and what development he has isn't well incorporated into the story, but more just delivered in blobs. Sylvia has the same problem; an interesting enough character with development that's just dumped in exposition heavy scenes, rather than told throughout the film. I can't really see this as a bad thing however, since a lot of films of the period were like this, the original version of one of my favourite westerns; 3:10 to Yuma, had the same problem, and films these days are bound to have more complex characters anyway. What's truly fascinating about this film and actually a bit freaky is the depiction of the end of the world on offer here. This is at times an intensely morbid film, and it's portrayal of 'the rout of civilisation' is very unsettling, as people start running for their lives and turning on one another to survive. While it's more reflective of the period, I particularly like people's retreat into their faith, and it, again, is very morbid, especially near the end of the film, when you see churches packed with praying people as the Martians level the city outside, and the scenes of panic and chaos, immediately followed by utter desolation, are unpleasant to watch. This is something that still brings chills, because it's in human nature, apocalyptic events are accompanied by lawlessness and anarchy, as people fight to survive in an unfamiliar and primal world, and this film nails it, and is very depressing in the process. The film is filled with side characters to flesh out its themes, military guys are abundant, as are scientists, and again religion plays a part in the film's characters, with one particularly interesting character; Uncle Mathew, who's only in the film briefly, but adds an interesting element to the film, and makes its theme of religion all the more bleak and depressing. It is a shame that the film's characters are flatter than its story, but what story's on offer here is really good, even with it's very abrupt ending, which is more of a problem with the source material than the film itself, and is a very convenient Deus ex Machina that, while kind of making a bit of sense, comes across as sudden and underwhelming.

Elements of the original novel have been changed or abandoned for this film however, the setting has been switched to a more contemporary setting of 1950's California, rather than 19th century England, and the tripod fighting machines have been replaced by more conventional flying saucer type craft, albeit with invisible magnetic flux legs, and an eye stork that houses the death ray, other elements like the Martians eating humans and the red weed have been dropped, and the Martians themselves look very 1950's, and are easily the cheesiest and most outdated thing in the film. But as far as outdated things go, the most outdated things are the Martians and the flat characters; the effects, while not comparable to modern CG from a technical standpoint, are still very impressive and, in my opinion, cooler, but I'll always prefer props and puppets to CG, I grew up watching Supermarionation and Tokusatsu. And when the effects heavy scenes come, it's awesome, The Martian ships a simplistic in their appearance, but still look cool, and the effects used to create their weapons holds up very well, unlike when they turn people into ash, which does look goofy. The scenes where the military try and fail to fight the Martians are exciting and loud, as they should be, as guns and tanks are let loose on the Martians, and the practicality of the effects is so full of charm, and adds a physicality and weight to the film that really adds to its bleakness. The film's sound effects and music are also great, the shriek of the death ray is an awesome noise, with all the perfect amounts of power and otherworldliness, and is very charming in that old sci fi movie kind of way, and the same can be said for the music. All in all, The War of the Worlds is a film I very much enjoy; the film's characters are flat, and the film does a poor job of giving them any genuine development, but they get the job done in the roles they fill. The film's story however is excellent, depicting an exciting alien invasion and an unsettling downfall of society as the Martians begin wiping out humanity, and the surviving humans become desperate and violent. Some elements of the film are symptoms of its age; the emphasis on religion, which is a surprisingly interesting element, and the goofy look of the Martians, as well as failings like its characters, but its visual effects hold up very well, and look really good despite the age. Arguably the film's greatest flaw isn't even a flaw with the film, but with the book it's based on, and whether or not that's a flaw at all is debatable. The War of the Worlds is an excellent little sci fi, and it's definitely worth watching.

The Lego Batman Movie movie review

Here's what you need to know; Batman loves his rock star life as Gotham's vigilante saviour, but continues to struggle with his lonely, isolated life and the loss of his family. But as the Joker launches his latest evil scheme to destroy Gotham, Batman is forced to confront his fears, and learn to be part of a team and be a decent dad to his adopted son. However Joker, as ever, has a trick up his sleeve, and soon Batman, Robin, and newly promoted police commissioner Barbara Gordon are dealing with an apocalypse descending on Gotham.
I had the chance to watch Fifty Shades Darker, but I didn't, can't imagine what informed that decision, instead I just decided to watch The Lego Batman Movie again, after all, when I go to the desk asking for a cinema ticket, better an animated film about a toy brand than a cheesy porno romance with all of the cringe and none of the sexy, let's go.

The film got me right from the first second, literally, as Batman mocks the style of epic movies, while being every bit as narcissistic as he was in The Lego Movie, before a cool plane hijacking and an awesome battle in a power plant between Batman and more Batman villains than I could count. Just like the first Lego Movie, this film loves to take the piss of the licences it's using, and this time it has Batman and DC comics to play with, leading to two very subtle jokes at the very beginning of the film that were unbearably funny, seriously, I was dying laughing. Being as satirical as it is, it pulls from a huge amount of Batman's history, and mocks various things, from Tom Hardy's Bane, to Batman and Robin, and some really funny pokes at the 1960's TV series with Adam West. But despite being a complete piss take of everything Batman, The Lego Batman Movie still manages to tell a very interesting story, one that, like its predecessor, goes to some very interesting and mature places, and while it goes to different places, and loses some of the emotional weight of the first film, it makes up for it with it's really good Batman story. Batman is, as you'd expect, the star of the film, and like I said before, he's every bit as egotistical as before, constantly feeling the need to remind everyone that he's Batman and that Batman's awesome, this could very easily have been annoying, but it isn't, instead it's a brilliantly satirical take of Batman. But like all Batmans, this one has a lot of trouble dealing with his emotions, and it's actually depressing to see how lonely he is in this film, literally how lonely it is with just him and Alfred in his massive island mansion, and it lends a lot of sense to his narcissism, making for a surprisingly interesting and deep character. His life looks like it might be brightening up with Robin, who also suffers from intense loneliness, and struggles to deal with the loss of his parents. But, very adorably, he absolutely idolises Batman, and is ecstatic about finally having a father figure in his life, and getting to help his hero fight crime. His energy and naivety works well with Batman's gruff talking lone wolf attitude, and the pair of them bring out the more interesting elements of their characters. Alfred serves a similar role to Batman that Batman serves to Robin, being the parental figure in his life, but is constantly getting protest from Batman, who sees him as overbearing and restrictive, when all he wants is what's best for Batman. In an interesting reverse of Robin, Barbara also idolises Batman, but sees his unlawful law enforcement as outdated and ineffective, and seeks to make a real change in Gotham, much to Batman's disapproval, it's also very funny that Batman seems to idolise her, and it's cute to see her slowly become a part of his family. What's weird is how interesting the Joker is, as his character is an exploration of the Yin and Yang, the duality of Batman and Joker, and the need the two have for one another, it's handled in a very funny way however, as Joker almost wants it to be a relationship, wanting Batman to admit that he's his greatest enemy to try and validate his own existence, and it makes Joker a surprisingly sympathetic character, as this flaw in his character motivates his evil schemes. While not as serious as The Dark Knight or as morbid as Batman, The Lego Batman Movie still tells a very emotional and interesting story, while having a great sense of humour and loads and loads of references.

Like The Lego Movie before it, this film has a relentless script, with jokes coming fast and hard for the majority of the film, including some stabs at Batman's previous theatrical outings that are decently hidden, and massively funny when you pick up on them, with some highlights coming from its fun with the 1960's series. It also deploys a huge number of Batman's villains, ranging from well known ones like Riddler and Catwoman, through to obscure ones like Calendar Man and Condiment King, even with someone joking that villains like them and Kite man sound made up. In addition to Batman's villains, both famous and obscure, just like the first film, this film is filled to the brim with appearances of other famous characters, this time with the Joker assembling a team of the world's most evil super villains, similar to the team of Master builders from the first Lego Movie, and it's awesome to see these characters, and to see them teaming up to do evil together. Speaking of Master Builders, Batman in this film is still a Master Builder, and can still take his surroundings and turn them into cool gadgets and vehicles like his Quadruped city scaling Scuttler, and while it's less important here than in The Lego Movie, it's still cool to see. What's also cool to see is action, and this film has lots of it, opening with a huge action scene, and past a certain point being nothing but action until its conclusion. There's just one bothersome point in the film, where things just slow down, and the action takes a backseat to character development and development of this film's family theme, and while it does make sense to do this, when the rest of the film is so fast, this moment where it slows down feels like it really slows down, it actually kind of drags on until Joker makes his move, and the film gets back to its normal speed. This is also a Lego movie, so it's all Lego, just like The Lego Movie, and the aesthetic of this animation is still awesome, it's cool to see this world built out of bricks and plates, and to see the mini figures going about their days, with the same perfectly imperfect animation, though I noticed more elemental effects in this film like water and mist not carrying on the Lego aesthetic, but it's something that can easily be overlooked, and other effects like fire and gun shots are still done in Lego. And while this film is very definitely meta and self referential, it doesn't take it as far as the first Lego Movie, with the big emotional punch of that film's conclusion replaced with this film's own themes, and the big reveal of the first film left pretty much ignored.

All in all, while I can admit this film has more failings than the first Lego Movie, and drops a lot of what worked in that film, it replaces it with its own stuff that works equally as well, and makes for an equally interesting and emotional, if less meta, story. Film definitely has a huge amount of fun with its source material though, pulling from both the good and the bad of Batman's history, and having a good laugh at it all, while also pulling from other licenses like its predecessor. The film also provides a roster of far more interesting characters, including a surprisingly well developed hero and an excellent villain, and the film ramps up the chaos, with more exciting action sequences, which do eventually make up for the very slow point the film definitely has. While I didn't find myself loving The Lego Movie like many people did, I did find myself loving The Lego Batman Movie, and it's definitely a must watch.

The Buzzword Game

A few years ago, back when I was way more stupid and slightly more of an arsehole, I engaged in a spot of japery on an anonymous confessions board, and after hopefully helping a few Christians get over their shame of watching porn, I decided to do some confessing of my own. Taking from an experience I had a few months prior, I 'confessed' a hypothetical conundrum I was in, that an ex girlfriend of mine had, since our breakup, gone full Tumblr Feminist retard, and I was concerned that she would continue going down the rabbit hole and become even less equipped to deal with the real world. I soon got a comment, and was somewhat disheartened by it, as I'd never been branded a bigot before, this was the first time someone had actually called me a bigot, and it did bother me. It sadly wasn't the last time I was called a bigot; as I started getting interesting in politics and social justice, watching youtubers like Sargon of Akkad, the odd joke I made in Sixth Form got me scornful looks from some of the Sixth Form's more zealous students. What this experience ultimately taught me was that these people didn't actually know me, but were looking at me through an ideological lens, which made my remark about the LGBTMobile (a rainbow coloured Lamborghini) homophobic, and my opinion on the Charlie Hebdo shooting islamophobic. These words meant nothing to me, as I didn't see them as applying to me, not because every man's right in his own eyes, but because I didn't have a problem with gays and I didn't have a problem with muslims, and I still don't.

With that little anecdote out of the way, I can get to the point. For years now, as the rabid ideologues of the left went further down the rabbit hole, and they started looking less like a political movement and more like a religious one, their arguments got debunked to the end of the Earth, and they became the target of mockery. Either unable or unwilling to challenge their ideological opponents with arguments, they started the buzzword game, branding people who thought different to them with derogatory labels, just as I was branded a homophobe for making a joke. If you challenged feminism, you were challenging the idea of gender equality, and you hated women and thought they deserved fewer freedoms and rights, you were sexist, you were misogynistic. If you challenged the idea of diversity in movies and games, then you were challenging the push for a more inclusive industry, and trying to keep minorities down and push them away, you were racist, you were homophobic, you were transphobic. This is where we get to a significant event; Gamergate, depending on who you ask, it's either a movement for more ethical journalism, or a misogynistic harassment campaign against women. It's very difficult to get facts about Gamergate, even the Wikipedia article on it is a complete piece of shit, but from what I understand, it began with a dev called Zoe Quinn and a game called Depression Quest, what blossomed shortly there after was Quinn's infidelity, having affairs with multiple people while dating her boyfriend, including a Kotaku writer, which raised a lot of eye brows. The extent of the collusion was revealed in the GameJounroPros leak, which exposed a private messaging group of numerous journalists, including the Kotaku writer Quinn was banging, what followed was a cyber war between game journalists and Gamers, who the gaming press had dismissed and degraded as 'dead' and all just basement dwelling losers. This blew up in their faces however when a bunch of advertisers started pulling out of the big sites, not wanting to be associated with them. They picked a fight with gamers, branding them all misogynistic man children, when gaming is in fact an industry that's massive all over the globe, and is enjoyed by millions of people of all races, and of both genders, they thought they could win, and they got crushed. Anita Sarkeesian is another good example of this labelling; her feminist 'criticisms' of games were nonsensical, but when her arguments were roundly and rightly shredded, she became a poor woman who was being targeted by evil sexist trolls, and when her massively over funded project 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games' never reached completion, her legitimacy and motives were brought into question, but again, it was all just sexism. Similar accusations were thrown at people who were critical of Ghostbusters, and this vindictive and abusive marketing tactic resulted in a miserable failure at the box office. Buzzwords are so easy, aren't they, if you're a journalist who's secretly emailing a bunch of other journalists and colluding with them to craft narratives, and this gets exposed, or you're a director or studio making a naff product, rather than being honest and taking responsibility, you can just dismiss the people calling you out, because they hate women, and society at large hates people who hate women, you know this no matter how much you ramble about the patriarchy, and hopefully no one will listen to evil misogynists when they're calling you out for your shitty actions.

It's such an easy way to explain all of the world's problems, it's so simple and black and white, people critical of you aren't people with opinions and arguments, they're bogeymen who hide under the bed, they're bad people. Brexit and the 2016 Election are two hilariously stupid examples of why the buzzword game failed. For so long people had been called sexists and racists and misogynists, and these once powerful words eventually lost all of their meaning, becoming toothless and petty, and the final cry of an ideologue's desperate efforts to escape those mean, critical poo poo heads. So when the Brexit vote rolled around, and people began expressing concern at the lack of accountability in the EU's unelected bureaucrats, and the insane open borders policy that is literally killing (and raping) people on the continent, these were not seen by the elite and the inteligencia as serious or legitimate grievances, the people who held them were just racists, they were islamophobic small minded little Englanders who just hated immigrants, rather than normal people concerned by the massive crime wave hitting Europe and the prospect of that coming to Britain, and seeing their wages being strangled by an influx of cheap labourers, since mummy and daddy don't pay for their University educations. As the vote came closer and the prospect of a leave victory got more real, Project Fear starting stepping up its game, a vote to leave became a vote for racism, for sexism, for fascism, and Britain would die a painful death if it voted leave, and if that wasn't enough, there was always Jo Cox to exploit. The vote comes around, and evidently all the fear mongering and branding people racists and sexists failed, as the leave side were a million votes up. When calling leave voters racists and sexists failed to sway them, you'd think people would realise that the buzzword game is now over, smearing people with buzzwords doesn't work, but no, Britain was seeing a fascist uprising, a racist, nationalistic revolt had robbed Britain of a glorious future in the EU, I saw a few people blame it on backwards thinking racist old people, and saying they shouldn't be allowed to vote, key words there are shouldn't, be, allowed, to, and vote. A strikingly similar situation played out in the Presidential election, the race was between a brilliant, wonderful, honest, healthy, trust worthy woman, and an evil, racist, sexist, rapey, homophobic, islamophobic, transphobic, fascist Nazi. You'd think that after the Brexit vote, they'd realise that calling people poo poo heads isn't an argument any more. You might also notice that since Sarkeesian and Gamergate, the buzzword game has become harsher, it went from sexist and racist, to fascist and Nazi, and later to White Supremacist, when their old weapons became blunt, they switched to new, sharper ones, and, not able to learn from their mistakes, immediately got to work making them blunt too. But while the words had changed, the game itself hadn't, and even these harsher accusations became pathetic and pointless, and when the big day came, and Donald Trump won, they still didn't learn.

Even I was amazed by the result of the election, despite all of the shit surrounding Hillary Clinton, all the scandals, all the corruption, all the lies, I still thought she'd win, but instead Trump won, which makes me happy. Just like Brexit however, when the side that was labelled all the isms in the book still won, it wasn't seen as a wakeup call to all the ideologues that calling people names doesn't work, it was seen as a cold and frightening reminder that the nations of the west were still deeply plagued by misogyny, white supremacy, racism and islamophobia, and the rise of Trump to the White House was a sign that the white supremacist Nazis were powerful and dangerous. Here's where we get Mr Richard Spencer, according to the left, he's a neo Nazi, I don't know if that's true, I know very little about him, but sadly, I'm not going to believe he's a neo Nazi until I see proof, because everyone who isn't a advocate of social justice is apparently a Nazi, so I'll reserve my judgement. Spencer was at Trumps inauguration doing an in interview when a member of the communist black bloc came up and sucker punched him, this is bad enough on it's own if you ask me, Spencer was targeted by this attacker because he's supposedly a Nazi, even though he wasn't doing anything, he wasn't attacking anyone, he wasn't even spouting Nazi talk, he was just doing an interview, doing nothing wrong, and he got punched for it. A Winston Churchill quote springs to mind, as the AntiFa movement call themselves anti fascists, while using blatantly fascist tactics to shut up their opposition, attacking them in the street for expressing an opinion, to try and scare them into staying quite. It's also something I saw in the Chicago Kidnapping I ranted about in Bring on the Meteor, what the victim was is the reason he was targeted, he was white, and white is evil, and he was mentally disabled, which made him an easy target, I can't help but see it that way, the four kidnappers may not have been motivated entirely by race, but it was undeniably a part. When in the video they yell "fuck white people"  they aren't saying fuck him specifically, they're saying fuck his race, because white people and cops aren't individuals, they're just a thing, a group of people that can be lumped together on their skin colour or their badge, and be treated and judged according to your bigotries towards that group. I see the same thing in Spencer, he's a Nazi, he's not deserving of dignity or respect, because he's just a Nazi, and Nazi's are, to these people at least, less than human. This is something you could see very clearly in the youtube feminist and social justice community, as highlighted by youtubers like Bearing, Richard Spencer is a Nazi, and he has terrible ideas, and therefore he deserves to be attacked in the street, for having an opinion that you don't like. I will still believe my favourite Milo Yiannopoulos quote on this matter, that sunlight is the best disinfectant, the best way to kill bad ideas is to give them a platform, let people who think them make their case, and let people make up their own minds. Speaking of Milo, we saw yet more violence directed at a so called Nazi, this time it was Milo Yiannopoulos, speaking at UC Berkeley, but while they usually just protest, or smear themselves with fake blood, pull fire alarms, that kind of thing, this time that wasn't enough. People were beaten with flap poles, at least one person from what I saw was knocked unconscious, people were pepper sprayed in the face, windows were smashed, and things were set on fire, it wasn't a protest, it was a riot. While I know barely anything about Spencer, I know a fair bit about Milo, more than enough to know he's no fascist, but the ideologues have already proved, again and again, that facts will have no effect on them.

This, in a lot of ways, is a natural evolution of tactics, they tried arguing, that failed, so they tried to smear and suppress the opposition with buzzwords, and that worked for a while, until the buzzwords lost their power, getting desperate, they switched to harsher words, but that failed, and the more revolutionary of their number, members of movements like AntiFa and BLM, started getting violent. With massive defeats like Brexit and President Trump, instead of realising why they failed, they doubled down with their buzzwords. And a larger number of them became violent, which is what we saw at the inauguration, and what we saw at UC Berkeley. These people are so entrenched in their belief that they've become zealots, opposing Trump and Milo not because of their actions or their ideas, but simply because they exist, and because they're evil. But what they always fail to realise is why Trump and Brexit happened, why right wing parties are rising in popularity across Europe, because people are tired of their shit, their buzzword politics is annoying, and they never address problems honestly, like they didn't with the Orlando shooting, the Cologne rapes, the Nice and Berlin truck attacks, BLM riots, the Dallas shooting, the Chicago kidnapping, and so on and so on. And now that talking isn't getting them anywhere, they're switching to fists and pepper sprays, and in the process, revealing who the real fascists are. But violence will not work, and this is where things get really dangerous, on both sides of the political spectrum are unhinged ideologues, on the left it's Marxists and communists, and on the right it's Fascists and White Supremacists, but while they preach about stopping the far right from coming to power, they ignore the simple fact that it isn't the far right attacking people, it's them. In a morbid way, this is great publicity for the far right, who can frame all this far left violence as justification for their brand of authoritarianism, and if the left wing violence doesn't stop, in the words of JFK, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable." It's only a matter of time before the most unhinged ideologues of the far right get tired of being victimised by the far left, and will start retaliating with violence. Italy saw this in the 'years of Lead', and it's only a matter of time before it happens again. While it may be a natural evolution when calling people names stops working, it's an even worse tactic, and the problem stops being the bad ideas that were discarded, and becomes the people who are so desperate to push their treasured ideas that they can justify terrorism. An idea is just an idea, it's existence hurts no one, regardless of how terrible it is, and while it does have the right to exist, the belief that this idea should be silenced and suppressed by any means necessary is something I can never and will never get behind, I have no right to dictate what people are and aren't allowed to think, and there isn't a single human being in the world that should have that power. Controlling and restricting what people are allowed to think is oppression, and these ideologues apparently hate oppression, but they don't hate hypocrisy it seems. Changing and diluting words while trying to keep their connotations is the aim of the Buzzword game, a misogynist is someone who disagrees with a feminist, but misogynist is also someone who hates women, same word, different definition, but with the same connotation, that person hates women. But like a sore loser, when they lose the ability to shut people up with mean words, they switch to more vicious bully tactics, not seeing how this will inevitably make them the targets of retaliation in the future. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, that is another belief I hold; as cynical as I am, I do enjoy a bit of hope, and I hope that things will calm down, but only time will tell, and with how things are going, I have my doubts.

The Lego Movie movie review

Here's what you need to know; Emmet is a very unremarkable Lego figure, living an unremarkable life as a construction worker, buying overpriced coffee, and blending in with his fellow Legos in an unremarkable Lego city. All of that changes however when he discovers a mysterious relic, and finds himself wrapped up in a prophecy to save the universe from Lord Business, a tyrannical ruler who aims to end the world. Completely out of his element, and with the assistance of master builders Wyldstyle and Batman, Emmet embarks on a quest defeat the Kragle, and save the universe from business' evil plan.
I was first made aware of this film in one of the few positive memories I held on to from sixth form; the teacher and the class just shooting the shit when we should have been doing work, fast forward a few years, it's out, it's getting really good reviews, and I'm in a cinema with my friends watching it in 3D. Fast forward another few years and there's another one coming out, so I'm getting in the mood by re watching the first Lego movie, let's go.

The film opens with a quick introduction to the villain, as well as to one of the film's master builders, and sets up that this film is exactly what it says in the title; a Lego movie. It shouldn't be surprising that The Lego Movie is made out of Lego, but it is, and it's a fascinating aesthetic, as the Lego people go about their lives in their Lego worlds, which are all shiny and clean, and built from bricks and plates. Something else that's striking and unexpected is how smart this film is, dealing with some serious and very mature themes, while also being a film made out of Lego. While it's easy to see the Lego city as just a normal city, filled with skyscrapers and pedestrians, it's equally easy to see a creepy commentary on social conformity, and the dangers of big government and monopoly of big corporations. It's not something the film dwells on, as it has more smart places to go, but it's interesting to see that a kids film about a toy can be so deep with its themes. Another theme of the film is embodied in its main hero, Emmet, who is a very un unique personality at first, like the rest of his fellow Legos, he conforms to the society around him, and is devoid of any originality or creativity, it's this flatness that allows for his character growth and for the film explore the themes it explores, as he realises what he's truly capable of, and that there's more to the world than annoying songs and expensive coffee. What opens his eyes to this bigger world is a master builder named Wyldstyle; while Emmet is a boring construction worker, she's capable of much more; able to fight off Business' robots, and, as a master builder, build weapons and vehicles from her surroundings, a very clever use of the Lego building system in the film. She's also Batman's girlfriend, Batman in this film is one of its best characters, purely for how narcissistic he is, and how side splittingly funny a super narcissistic Batman is. It's not really an issue that none of the characters have any serious depth, because of how funny they are; every character in the film is a comedy gold mine, and the jokes are fast in this film, really fast, and consist of not just slapstick, but some brilliant visual humour, cleverly used pop culture references, and a script that's fast, and brimming with sarcasm and humour. It's at times difficult to keep up with the comedy in this film, and it's great. Vitruvius fits the bill that most characters in this film fit, being little more than what he appears to be, a blind old wizard, while Benny is a lunatic spaceman and Metalbeard is a pirate and scourge of the high seas. The only characters with any significant depth are Emmet and Business, with Emmet learning the power he's capable of, and what makes him special, and Business being an uncompromising perfectionist, who fails to see the reality of the world around him, and would rather strangle creativity and keep everything the way he likes it. This is another one of The Lego Movie's deeper themes, and is the thing that relates Emmet and Business, not just to each other, but to the audience. The film holds nothing back in terms of absurdity either, it's a silly, silly film, filled with appearances of famous characters and Lego licenses like Superman and Star Wars, and weaves a world where all of these ridiculous elements are allowed to coexist, and in a very weird way, it makes sense, especially when the ending happens and all is revealed.

Yes, this film goes places in its final act, I know I'm not the first person to say it, but in its final act, it becomes comparable to Pixar's best efforts in terms of how it burrows into your brain and heart, in a twist that makes sense, and grounds the whacky events of the film is a very adult and very human context, and while I personally don't think this reveal was handled as well as it could have been, the intent is clear, and it's very effective, though I can't spoil it, obviously. When the film comes to its conclusion, the arks of Emmet and Business are concluded, which is what matters as this serves as the film's main emotional point, like I said earlier, none of the other characters are all that interesting, and they're very much on the flat side, which isn't a negative, as it leaves room for Emmet and Business, and means less time filling in backstory and more time cracking jokes. The Lego Movie is an animated film, as one would expect, and usually, animation that looks plastic and fake is a very bad thing for an animated film, this film however has an excuse, and it's used very well. it's weirdly perfectly imperfect in its animation; again, everything looks plastic, it's all clean, the Lego figures move imperfectly, and even elemental effects like explosions and water are done entirely in Lego, these are very deliberate, and they work to add a huge amount of character to the film. What doesn't however is the soundtrack; apart from the horrifically annoying Everything is Awesome, which is still more tolerable than Let it Go, the film's soundtrack does very little to make an impact on the film. In a way I admire the brilliance of Everything is Awesome, even if I hate it, much like I hate overpriced stuff and crappy Television, and all the big government and social conformity waffle I brought up at the beginning. All in All The Lego Movie is a strange thing; at first, I didn't know what to expect from it, but I ended up finding this to be a very enjoyable film. I was surprised by how seriously the film handled it's more emotional themes, while sticking to its guns of fast, witty comedy, and how it explored deeper ideas that it really didn't need to, and did it in a way that really works. All the while the film has exciting animation and a gorgeous aesthetic that's very Lego, and is a brilliantly funny film about ninety percent of the time. While I don't love The Lego Movie as much as other people do, I still enjoy it when I watch it, and there are elements to it that I still think are really smart and that I do love, The Lego Movie is definitely worth watching.