Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper

In the last week we lost two icons in the field of acting, Gary Coleman (who was 42) and Dennis Hopper (was was 74).

I remember watching Gary Coleman on Diff'rent Strokes when I was a kid. He played numerous roles as a guest star on many different shows. One that I remember fondly was a guest role he had on the short-lived science fiction sitcom Homeboys in Outer Space.

Dennis Hopper, on the other hand, I'll always remember as Bowser from the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. I know many people hated the movie and consider it one of the worst movies ever made. But truthfully, I kind of like it. And you have to admit, the acting was superb in that movie. They had big names filling the roles, and Dennis Hopper was no exception.

That being said, hey, I've got a follower. Welcome to the blog, "windbag," and I hope you enjoy reading my entries. Feel free to leave responses once in a while.

Another beloved franchise I may give up on...

I've learned two things recently. Number one: Michael Bay is shameless and only cares about lining his pockets with cold, hard cash. There's no franchise he won't ruin all in the name of getting richer. Number two: It's useless to get into any movie franchises because after just two or three films, Hollywood will reboot it (or in rare cases such as The Hulk, one movie).

I've just learned that a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is in the works. That got me excited. That got me very excited. I am still a fan of the live-action Turtles movies (the animated TMNT, though it follows the three live-action films, I wasn't too keen on -- but I still liked it). Apparently Viacom has purchased the rights to the Turtles. They will be producing an animated show, slated for 2012, and a new live-action movie, also in 2012.

When I heard that TMNT was going to be animated, I was disappointed. I loved seeing them live-action. But I wasn't too disappointed since the animated film followed the first three. But now, as I mentioned about reboots, this new live-action Ninja Turtles movie is going to reboot the franchise. There is no reason to do this. The only actual Turtles villain who was in the movies was The Shredder. None others (we got Tokha and Razar instead of Bebop and Rocksteady, even). There are plenty of villains from the Ninja Turtles franchise that the Turtles could fight. But of course, Hollywood doesn't care about the fans. They just care about making money. And they know that us die-hard fans will go see the movie, no matter what garbage they produce. And this is where Michael Bay comes in.

I really want to like this movie, and I really hope it's good. But Michael Bay ruined the Transformers franchise, and I fear he will ruin the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, also.

Demo Review #1: Green Day: Rock Band

A free demo of the upcoming video game, Green Day: Rock Band, was just released on XBox Live today for anyone with a gold membership. Being a huge Rock Band fanatic, I went ahead and downloaded it. Two full songs are available to play on the demo, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Welcome to Paradise. The former I was very familiar with, having heard it countless times on the radio. The latter I was not familiar with at all.

It's no secret that I do not think Green Day deserves to have their own Rock Band game. The Beatles did. Green Day is nowhere near as influential as The Beatles were and still are. They certainly don't have the diversity of catalogue behind them, and they obviously have not been around as long. Still, Green Day is a household name so it's a game that will sell well. And Harmonix, at the end of the day, is a business.

The game comes in three editions: plain old Green Day: Rock Band, which is just the game and all the bells and whistles that come with it for $60. You'll have 47 songs to play, including two full albums: Dookie and American Idiot. On top of that, all the songs export into the Rock Band platform for $10.

There's the special edition, which includes six additional songs (songs that are already available as DLC in the Rock Band platform) for $70. With the addition of these six songs, you'll have a third full album by Green Day on the disc, 21st Century Breakdown. Additionally, you can export all 53 of the songs onto your hardrive for free. This is obviously the better deal, especially for someone like me who doesn't have any of the Green Day DLC.

Finally, there's the special edition which comes with every major release of Rock Band, which includes the game and the peripherals (one guitar, the drum set, and mic) so the game is fully playable to someone new to Rock Band right out of the box (and is made collectable by someone who already has the peripherals). The peripherals, like with The Beatles game, comes with the Green Day logo.

Unfortunately, only two songs come with the demo. Which is fine, it's still two free new songs to play. But I do wish the demo could have come with at least a couple more new songs. But I will say this: the game looks great. I mean, The Beatles: Rock Band looked great, but this game looks, at least in my opinion, better. Which you would expect from a later release.

As for the difficulty, it was pretty much where I expected it to be. There will be two- and three-part harmones in the game (like there were with The Beatles: Rock Band).

Boulevard of Broken Dreams -- This song, as you might expect, was very easy. I got a full combo on this song on vocals, drums, and bass -- which is the closest I've ever come to a one man band full combo. Plus, this is the first song I've ever gotten a sight read full combo on drums. I would have full comboed the guitar but a part during the solo kind of took me by surprise. All in all, this one won't give anyone any trouble.

Welcome to Paradise -- This one is very easy on vocals (as I expect most of the songs in the full game to be). Guitar is not too bad. However, drums will give you a lot of trouble. The trouble comes mostly from how fast the song is. There are some fills that might give you trouble, but their simple sixteenth note fills that you just need to practice with. And the bass on this song was a pleasant surprise. Much more fun than Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

All in all, I think Green Day: Rock Band is shaping up to be another great entry in the Rock Band catalog. I don't expect the game to be insanely difficult (though a little more difficult than The Beatles was). And even though I'm not a fan of Green Day, I think the game will still be quite enjoyable.

The A-Team and Evolution

No, these are not related topics.

First of all, I saw a trailer for the upcoming A-Team remake for the first time. It seems they kept the premise the same (a group going to jail for a crime they didn't commit, they escape and become guns for hire). They even found a Mr. T lookalike to play B.A. Barracus. I haven't been a fan of Hollywood lately because of the extreme lack of originality. All Hollywood's been good for has been remakes (and most of them have been just plain awful), reboots (and most of them have been just plain unneccessary -- I'm looking at you, Spider-Man), sequels, or movies based off an alternate medium (such as books). I feared the upcoming A-Team movie was going to be bad, but it looks as if my fears may be unfounded. It remains to be seen.

Besides having Mr. T, the original A-Team show also had Dwight Schultz (playing H.M. Murdoch), who went on to a recurring role as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Just one more reason to love the show.

But my thoughts of been on Evolution lately. Now, there's a difference between micro- and macro-Evolution. Micro-Evolution is change within a species, such as how humanity at the beginning of civilization was not nearly advanced as humanity is now. Yet through learning about the world and the universe we have been able to create new and better technology.

However, macro-Evolution is what is more commonly thought of when mentioning the term. That is the change from one species into a brand-new species. Now, there's a lot more to it than that and I certainly don't have the room to go into everything about it. In fact, I don't even know a whole lot about the current nuances of Evolutionary theory. Now, for the most part it's not my fault. The problem is that Evolution theory is constantly changing. I've had to unlearn a lot about what I did learn in elementary and high schools about it. When I was growing up, the "missing link" was basically the holy grail of Evolutionary theory because scientists "knew" it was out there, yet they could never find it. Now I hear that the term "missing link" is outdated and they're not searching for one anymore. I even picked up a copy of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in an attempt to learn more about it, yet now I hear that most of what Darwin proposed has been thrown out in favor of new discoveries.

They say that macro-Evolution is observable. I'd like to ask how? If the process supposedly takes millions or billions of years, how on Earth can we observe it? Civilization, it is said, is only about six-thousand years old. There's no way we could observe an evolutionary change in our lifetime, or even since humanity has started keeping records. Perhaps it's because they'd claim there are some species in a transitionary stage. Well, how do you know they're in transition? Be honest. Isn't it just as possible that the species began life that way rather than in the course of Evolution?

It seems that at the heart of Evolution, which seems to be the very backbone of science (because if a scientist rejects Evolution as being false, he/she would be ostracized and would not be taken seriously as a scientist despite being otherwise qualified), is a very unscientific statement: "Given enough time, anything is possible." Yes, I've heard that one quite a few times. But I fail to see how a species can become something other than what its DNA makes it out to be. There's a difference between adapting and evolving.

Anyway, those were just some thoughts I've had on the subject. Feel free to leave a note and we can talk, but be respectful. Please keep it clean, as well.

Movie Review #1: Mega Man (Independent Fan Film)

I've been wanting to write a review for a long time now, and since I started this blog I figured now was the perfect time to do so. Since my favorite video game franchise is Mega Man, I said to myself, "Self, what better movie to write a review on than a movie based on my favorite video game franchise?" To which I replied, "What a splendid idea!" (No, I'm not British.) So here we are. Eventually I will probably review other movies/video games/shows, etc, but Mega Man being recent this would probably be a good choice.

Before I begin, you should definitely go and watch the film yourself. I mean it. Go! Here is the link: http://screwattack.com/videos/Mega-Man .

Did you watch it yet? The bottom line is, I loved this movie. And in this review will be many spoilers so I recommend going to watch the film first. Even before I saw it, I knew I was going to want to write a review on it. So I watched it twice; once as purely a Mega Man fan, to get the best experience possible. Then again, with a more critical eye for the review. The movie is Mega Man by Eddie LeBron. But let's dig in!

Plot

To be honest, this is the best video game movie out there. Even better than Hollywood has given us. Now keep in mind that this is a completely independent film, meaning they didn't have a huge Hollywood budget to work with. From what I understand, they filmed this movie with almost no budget at all. So while the effects aren't competely convincing, for an independent, fan-made movie, it looks fantastic. While Hollywood would bring in a big-name producer who knows nothing of the franchise to film a video game movie, because their most important goal is making money and they want the film to appeal to as many people as possible, Mega Man is a film made by Mega Man fans for Mega Man fans.

First, let's talk about the plot. One of the reasons this movie is so great is because it stays true to the subject matter. And every Mega Man fan knows basically what's going to happen. Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, two geniuses, create a series of robots (first Blues, Rock, and Roll), then the robot master series. Along the way, Dr. Wily grows tired of Dr. Light getting all the credit so he decides to enter the spotlight, reprogramming the six robot masters to do his bidding. Realizing that the local police and even the military won't be able to stop them, Rock volunteers to receiving an upgrade into a fighting robot known as Mega Man.

I genuinely became excited as soon as the film started and the very first thing we see are the words: "In the year 20XX..." When I saw those words, my fears about the film were calmed. I knew this was going to be good, and respectful to the Mega Man franchise. One thing that is puzzling, however, is that a number of plot points were taking from the PSP remake Mega Man Powered Up (such as the robot masters being reprogrammed to believe they're fighting for justice when in fact they are wreaking havoc on the city). This begs the question: Why didn't they use the two robot masters that were retconned into the franchise in the game, Oil Man and Time Man. Possibly due to time constraints and the fact that originally there were only six robots, so most people would be more familiar with them. This is a little puzzling considering that most Mega Man fans don't considered Powered Up to be part of canon.

Additionally, one plot point comes from Mega Man: The Power Battles (the whole thing about Proto Man's core). One last plot point to mention is that once Mega Man destroys a robot, he gains the robot power (which matches the video games). This is in stark contrast to the animated series in which all Mega Man had to do was touch the robot's arm to gain his weapon. In the animated series, Proto Man was a bad guy (when in the video games, he is a good guy). So again, this film is closer to the video game franchise than the animated series ever was.

Even though they were respectful of Mega Man's story, a few liberties were taken with the plot. For instance, Proto Man wasn't inroduced into the Mega Man franchise until Mega Man 3, and even then he disguises himself as another robot, Break Man, in order to train Mega Man for entering Dr. Wily's third fortress. This is the first he learns about Proto Man. However, Proto Man (known by his Japanese name Blues) is in this film and Rock first meets him while wandering about in the city with Roll. And for further information, it seems Mega Man and company live in a place called Fujiwara City (which I don't think was ever established in the games).

In the movie, Dr. Light was once married to a woman named Aiyaka. She was pregnant with twins when she and the twins all died (though I don't remember if how was ever explained). This was never in the video games but was the reason Dr. Light decided to create Rock and Roll. He wanted to fill the void in his life left when his children died.

There were a few more liberties taken, but I don't want to analyze the film to death. I will say that even though there were some liberties taken with the plot, they were all pretty much necessary. So I don't fault them for it at all.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, composed by Daniel James, was really quite good. Considering that the music used in the trailer was taken from other films, I didn't expect this movie to have an original soundtrack. I thought the soundtrack really helped to capture the moods in the film.

Now, I would have liked to hear more tunes from Mega Man, especially from the very first game (although Mega Man 2's soundtrack is more recognizable, the first Mega Man game still had some very solid tunes). If you listen closely, you will hear two Mega Man tunes that were arranged orchestrally. In the flashback scene describing the construction of Blues, you hear a lone, haunting trumpet playing the familiar whistle tune from Mega Man 3. Then we hear an orchestrated version of Whistle Concert (heard at the end of Mega Man 3) plays. And one thing that should make any Mega Man fan smile: As Mega Man approaches Wily's Fortress, the most popular Mega Man tune, Wily's Fortress from Mega Man 2 (also known as Okkusenman) plays.

Ethics

Something that science fiction is known for is not only great, imagintive storytelling but to express an ethical standpoint. I love the fact that Eddie LeBron doesn't leave Mega Man a shallow story about good vs. evil. Mega Man actually goes through a time where he questions why he was created, and what his purpose was in life. And the added touch of being created to fill the void left by the loss of his wife and children was nice. It added a little bit more depth than simply being created to help in a lab and to fulfill his destiny of saving the world.

There was also the issue of free will, which Proto Man was unintentionally given due to a faulty core. The faulty core will probably one day result in his death, but he won't allow Dr. Light to fix his core because doing so will also take away his free will.

There were a couple of problems I had with the robot masters. Dr. Light explains to the reporter at the beginning of the film that the robots would never harm humans. But it's never explained why. Most science fiction fans are familiar with Isaac Asimov's robot series. They can't harm humans because of the Three Laws of Robotics: 1) A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2) A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. To the best of my knowledge, the robots in Mega Man abide by these three laws. But again, it's never explained in the movie why they would not harm humans.

The other problem I had was this: Why would the robots have to be reprogrammed to believe that doing evil is enacting justice? Again, this was a plot point in the Powered Up remake so it wasn't LeBron who came up with this. If you were trying to convince a human to do evil, then you would have to convince them that doing evil were the right thing to do. But these are robots. Why not just reprogram them to do evil instead of doing good? Robots don't need a reason; they just do whatever they're programmed to do. Perhaps explaining why the robots couldn't harm humans would have answered this question, as well.

Characters

The characters in this movie definitely lived up to how we have come to know them from the video games. There wasn't much character development in the robot masters, but there didn't have to be considering they were simply programmed to do evil and they were going to be destroyed in the movie, anyway.

Rock/Mega Man (played by Jun Naito) -- The robot created by Dr. Light to help out in his lab. I thought he did a convincing job of Mega Man, although there really wasn't much of a difference in any of his lines. They were all played the same, which I guess is really all the script called for. But he didn't really seem any different, even after things became personal when Wily kidnapped Roll.

Roll (played by Jeanie Tse) -- Mega Man's "sister," a robot created to do general housekeeping. She was real...perky, for lack of a better word, and pretty light-hearted in the movie. I suppose this is okay, considering the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Roll is her line from Mega Man 8: "Good luck, Mega Man!"

Blues/Proto Man (played by Sung-Mo Cho) -- The first robot created by Light and Wily (hence the name Proto Man). He was a real tough guy in the movie. Personally, I think Cho did a great job as Proto Man. He's one of my favorite characters in the movie, and he was a great addition to the franchise in Mega Man 3. I feel he was a bit overpowered in this movie, though. Elec Man completely beat the tar out of Mega Man, yet his thunder beam did no damage to Proto Man.

Dr. Thomas Light (played by Edward X. Young) -- The genius partner of Dr. Wily, instrumental in creating several human-like robots. I thought he did a very good Dr. Light, very gentle. But I thought he was too gentle at times. He didn't sound very convincing when he was supposed to be angry, and the profanity they gave him really just seemed out of place; almost like they threw it in because they felt it would be more convincing. I also didn't understand why, when Mega Man was almost killed by the Yellow Devil, Dr. Light didn't shed any tears. Mega Man was supposed to fill the void left by the son who died. It just feels like Dr. Light didn't emote properly, and that he wouldn't be the type to just bottle his feelings up inside.

Dr. Albert Wily (played by Dave Maulbeck) -- The genius partner of Dr. Light who becomes tired of living in Dr. Light's shadow. He reprograms the six robot masters to try and take over the world. It seems to be the general consensus that Dr. Wily stole the show in the movie. Dave Maulbeck did a great job as Wily. I did feel, though, that the scenes at the beginning of the film where they were establishing Wily's character were a little overplayed. Such as when he tried to force himself into the interview and then argued with Roll afterward about it. Also, a new character created for the film, Olga 5000 (played by Elizabeth Lee), was introduced. She's apparently a robot companion for Wily that he leaves behind to take his place in his fortress.

Two of my favorite scenes in the film were with Dr. Wily. The first being the scene in which Wily turns evil. He didn't just become evil because he's he antagonist. He went through the thought process of why he actually wants power. The second scene I loved was after Wily kidnapped Roll and gloats over her. Also, my favorite line in the movie comes at the end, where Mega Man says to Dr. Wily: "Now it is you who serves no purpose."

The movie also features Alan Fung as Elec Man, Hugo Salazar, Jr. as Fire Man, Wayne Chang as Ice Man, Sonicmega as the voice of Guts Man, Andrew Decrescenzo as the voice of Bomb Man, and Daniel William Clark as the voice of Cut Man. On top of the six robot masters, the Yellow Devil and the Mega Man clone also make an appearance in this film.

Battles

Bear in mind this is an independent film without a big Hollywood budget. The fight scenes, it is generally felt, could have been much longer and grander. But that probably would have required a larger budget. For being an independent film, it's really a good looking one. My favorite battle scenes are the first battle where Mega Man takes them all on, then the battle with Ice Man.

One thing I did find amusing is that no one walking around the city was concerned about the robots walking around. Also, it was kind of disappointing that the minor enemies seen in the game weren't in the movie. Sniper Joe was mentioned but not shown. It also would have been nice to see some Metools (Hard Hats to the American gamers).

Easter Eggs

Keep an eye out for the many easter eggs scattered throughout the movie. A few that come to mind are: Rock and Roll playing Contra on the NES, Mega Man's pixelated face appearing in a couple of spots, and the robot master select screen when Mega Man is deciding whom to tackle first.

Overview

Mega Man is not a perfect movie (for instance, at about 20:00 into the film, it seems that Edward Young actually flubs his line). But for an independent film, it's really quite spectacular. It stays true to the subject matter, and there are some genuine laugh out loud moments in the film. Every Mega Man fan should watch this movie, and if you're not a Mega Man fan, you should still check it out.

Overall, I'd give this film a 9/10.

Greetings

Hello! This is my first time on Blogger, but this is not my first blog. Hopefully my posts will be enjoyable to read through and at the very least thought-provoking. I hope to open some interesting dialogues.

Let's see...

A little bit about myself, then. I am a Christian, and a classically-trained musician. Clarinet and piano are my main instruments, but I dabble in a few others. I play in several ensembles, both classical and jazz, as well as in a worship band at my church. I also play as a solo musician around town, and sometimes out of town.

My theological leanings are conservative, leaning towards the Southern Baptist side of things. I absolutely love to think about things. I read a lot of books by theologians and philosophers, as well as by scientists. I just enjoy experiencing as much as I can in life.

I am also a nerd, as the title of my blog suggests. I am a major Trekkie, and despite that I also enjoy the Star Wars series. Wait...did I just hear someone yell blasphemy?

Anyway, I enjoy science fiction in general. I am also a gamer. My favorite franchises are most of the major ones: Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man (probably my favorite), Final Fantasy, etc. I love RPG's. As much as I love to read books and watch television/movies, RPG's hold a special appeal to me because you not only control the story, but you become a part of the story. I love the interactive nature of RPG's.

Well, that's about it for now. If anyone stumbles across my blog, then I welcome you. Feel free to comment on it, let me know you're out there. Take care.