Damn Stupid Comic Book Characters - Arseface

Okay Preacher brought us Jesse Custer one cool cat but sadly it also brought us one of the worst comic book characters. One that I hated even more than Arm Fall Off Boy.

Arseface

Arseface appears as part of plot that involves his Father vs Jesse Custer. Sadly, Ennis keeps bringing into story lines and even gives him a special of his own. In short Arseface is called that because his face looks like an arse, the negative result of him trying to kill himself after Kurt Cobain's suicide. Anyway. Arseface's abusive redneck dad doesn't fair to well against Custer and Arseface swears revenge after Custer accidently kills his father by telling him to 'go fuck himself' with the 'Voice of God'. Not a good thing to tell somebody when you have the power to make them do whatever they say. Of coarse Arseface is the ultimate loser so doesn't get any revenge and Custer ends up convincing him his dad was such a dick he wasn't worth avenging.

I can honestly say nothing about this character appealed to me and the dark humour didn't even work. I'm sure there is a cult of people who think the character was genius but I personally just thought he sucked and interferred with the flow of the main story line.

Good Friday == Star Wars

I was watching TV the yesterday when what should I see? A commercial advertising the fact that the Space channel is going to be playing all 6 Star Wars movies back to back starting at 8:00AM on April 10. To me this takes a simple day off and turns it into a reason to get up early.

Which actually brings us to my point, I, like every other normal human being on the planet, concede the fact that the pre-trilogy fell way short of the mark, at least in comparison to the original trilogy. However, I did enjoy them, yes it's true I freely admit this and am not ashamed of it. The problem comes in the fact that there was too much plot being conveyed for the story; ok, the real problem was George Lucas' ego, but that's how it manifested itself.

In order to convey the full themes of the movie it is necessary to understand many fundamental facts about the Jedi/Sith that the original movies didn't even approach, you can only understand this if you've done some outside reading. The movies were long, often boring and, at many times, childish simply because that is what was necessary to set up the plot. If he had stuck to a space opera with lots of explosions and spacecraft the majority of viewers would have been happier, but it wouldn't have given his vision the light of day. Still, how cool was the opening battle in Revenge of the Sith? That's why people go to see Star Wars.

Yes there could have been a big shortcut through everything and not needed the whole clone war aspect, but that would have left major holes in the plot that the true dedicated fans would have ripped to shreds. We needed to watch Anakins development from child to adult in order to grasp how a savior could be corrupted into a destroyer; we needed to see the subplots of Palatines power struggle to understand how someone so inherently evil could rule the galaxy and have people welcome him with open arms; finally, we needed to understand how the Jedi could be destroyed, how this group of powerful and inherently good beings could be wiped out and no one regret their being gone. These are the reasons the movies suffered, but they are also the reason that the stories worked.

I stated that the Lucas ego was the big downfall of the movies but I think I have to backpedal slightly here, Hayden Christensen is the most obvious reason these movies sucked. I understand the motivation of the character and why it was necessary to have him sullen and brooding, but why did he have to come off as sulking and whiny? I can't begin to describe how bad this actor is, he's just horrible; at least Jake Lloyd was a necessary evil and not all that bad considering his age. I don't pretend to know what Lucas was thinking with this one and I won't even try to justify or rationalize it, it was just a bad idea. Oh well, maybe if he's lucky he can end up like Mark Hamil, I'm pretty sure video games and cartoons will still need hammy voice actors 20 years from now.

Damn Cool Comic Book Characters - Jesse Custer

I've been thinking of doing a list of my favorite characters found in the world of comics but I'm to lazy to do more than one at a time and don't want to set a limit as there are sooo many awesome comic characters. Therefore, I'm going to pick one periodically to bring forward as attention deserving.

Reading Rob's post remind of one of my all time favorite comic series, Preacher! Have to say now that he mentions it Ennis does have a lot of annal rape in his story lines but that's a different post.

Jesse Custer

When I stumbled upon the Preacher series it has already finished its run as a monthly series and had entered the realm of graphic novel re-prints. I had been away from comics for years at the time and happened to be staying at a friends house and said friend happened to have all the comics boarded and bagged and highly recommended that I give them a read.

I didn't have any expections and I read it simply because I was stressed out and needed something to take my mind off the real world. Really a comic about a preacher with lame David Hasselhoff hair couldn't be anything spectacular could it? I was wrong!

Jesse Custer really wasn't a preacher kinda guy at, he was forced in to being a preacher by his insane Grandmother, Marie L'Angelle. However, while working as a preacher the man gets fused with the offspring of a Demon/Angel loves fest and gets the 'Voice of God' that will make you do whatever he says when heard. Kinda of a cool concept but definitely not what makes Jesse Custer stand out in the comic world. After the first 20 issues or so Jesse rarely uses his power but kicks ass by being simply one tough SOB. Now this might sound stupid but one of the things I like the best about this character is that his moral fortitude is enhanced by an imaginary guide that comes in the form of The Duke ... yes John Wayne. I never even liked John Wayne till I read this comic and then I ran out and got a pile of his movies.

All in all Jesse Custer is the man I suggest you read a few issues of Preacher if you don't believe me.

Garth Ennis, WTF Dude?

Like so many other people I have been a fan of Garth Ennis for as many years as I have been familiar with his writing. I was first introduced to his creative style in the Preacher series, thanks to my buddy Darcy for this, and have tried to read as much of his work as I could. I have to take a minute here to mention at least one other set, the War Story comics are really, really great, probably the best WWII comics I have ever read, and this is coming from a guy who grew up reading Sgt Rock and GI Combat, see this blog for more on those. Anyhoo, as much as I love the writing of this man, I gotta say, sometimes I just have to wonder where the ideas come from.

I was quite excited to find out that Ennis had taken over writing for The Punisher several years ago and have had very little cause to regret it, but it has brought to light at least one key concept in Ennis' writing style that I find, to say the least, vaguely disturbing. Now religion has always been a pretty obvious literary tool, and used quite effectively in stories like Preacher, and I have no problem with graphic language, I mean I am an adult and regularly use worse language than I read in his stories, and as for the blatant sex, well hell son, bring it on, cause I like boobies; what I do find vaguely troubling is the anal rape.

Let me clarify here, in the first 50 issues of The Punisher, Volume 5, there are no less than 3 direct, blatant references to men raping men, and in at least one case, gang raping. On top of this are references to past acts of sodomy and assorted man-on-man perversions that are probably best left unspoken. In Preacher there was a fair bit of that too, but I kind of chocked it up to a part of the ludicrous storyline, there were simply no other means to sufficiently communicate the absurd brutality of some of the characters (how else do you sufficiently depict Jody and T.C). Having read subsequent stories and finding more of these references I find myself wondering about this dude.

Now I'm not a blushing virgin who can't bear to hear this kind of stuff. I not only enjoy the adult nature of the comics I celebrate the brutal violence that so thoroughly depicts the lifestyle of these characters he builds. I mean sure I paused for a second when I read the line about raping a corpse in the Saint of Killers origin story, but that's some pretty nasty stuff man. Also, I did find the term Doom cock very amusing, even considering the story behind it. I guess my point is why is the anal rape so repetitive?

I'm not going to rant on here because when you get right down to it I firmly think that Garth Ennis is one of, if not the, finest writers to ever pen a story in a comic book. His collection in Ancient History has one of the finest stories I have ever read, along with the entire Preacher series and the way he has handled the Punisher has been nothing short of genius. I guess when you get right down to it he uses things like anal rape to get to the root of everyone's comfort zone and drill a hole in it (pun intended). Chances are when you use the themes of religion, at least in the way he does, sex, including rape, murder, and torture you're pretty much guaranteed to strike a tender spot with every human being who comes into contact with it, and I do believe that's exactly what he's intending.

But I mean still, anal rape? WTF dude?

"Wrapped" Games

So the other day my son came to tell me that his friend has recently "wrapped" the game Gun. I asked him "what do you mean?", to which he replied that his friend had finished the game. I briefly thought about telling him why this is not "wrapping" the game, but thought, how do you explain the nuances of an archaic style of game play in a manner befitting a 7 year old to impress upon him the magnitude of this anachronistic term he is using? Obviously I couldn't come up with anything so I'll explain it here.

The term "wrap" actually dates back to the origins of video games when there was essentially no story for a video game, a concept was conceived, graphics were created and the game played, essentially the same screen or style of screen, time and time again with very little change other than an escalating level of difficulty, usually just more bad buys moving faster (although they often changed the color on the bad guys too). You see in those days the point of games was to accumulate points; although the further into the game you got the more points you got, the main goal was the points, not so much the level you reached. On top of this, these primitive games had limited scoring capabilities, meaning that you generally had one of two options, once you reached the highest score possible, usually 999,999 points, the game either froze or rolled over to 0 and started again, literally wrapping the score.

I remember the first game I ever wrapped, Megamania; not only was it the first, it was probably the only one. These games just got so boring after a while, no variety or anything new once you got past the first 10 levels as a general rule, that I got bored with them before I could run up massive numbers or roll over the score. I'm pretty sure the only reason I stuck with this game is because my ship reminded me of the Enterprise, and that was about as close as you could get to Star Trek games in those days, especially shooters.

I am not aware of any game that it is possible to wrap in this day and age, the game either has a limited storyline that is completed, it is a sandbox with no scoring value, or the system you are playing on has the ability to track the score as high as it is possible to go, thereby making the term "wrapped" an anachronism. Most console and PC games don't even track scores any more other than to give rewards for experience, they're purely story driven, and that suits me fine.

Now to "wrap" things up here, I don't have a problem with people using this term. Gaming is a full blown culture that deserves its own lexicon and this term does have its place and a real basis in the origins of the species, so to speak. I just dislike seeing people using anything that they don't understand.

Now go forth and wrap something baby.

Dark Reign ... wow I like Marvel

Although, I usually buy Dark Horse Comics typically I'm am in agreement with my buddy Rob's opinion that DC is better than Marvel. . With the exception of the Punisher and anything with Thanos I've never got into the Marvel universe.

The whole mutant struggle just didn't appeal to me and it seemed like, that was the driving force behind to many stories. However, after watching the latest Punisher movie I had a craving to read some comics with the dude and I saw Punisher: Dark Reign in the comic store and picked it up. It was awesome! Punisher vs The Sentry was very well done and it hooked me, meaning I had them add the series to my monthly collection. Yes I realize if The Sentry can catch a bullet he should be able to catch the Punisher but I read comics for the ride not realism.

This weekend I made my monthly journey to said comic store and noticed I could pick up the first 3 issues of Dark Avengers so I figured why not. Again I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading those issues and intend to add that series to my monthly collection. My monthly comic budget has some room since I just dropped pretty much all the DC titles I was buying due to crappy story telling. The horrible writing in Batman R.I.P. really made me re-think my opinion of DC comics. Anyway, so for I like the Dark Reign crossover and it's the first Marvel Crossover I've liked since the Infinity Gauntlet.

Dark Reign is a time where Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, finds himself in control of Stark Enterprises, S.H.I.E.L.D. (now H.A.M.M.E.R.) and the Avengers post Skrull invasion. Now I use to think Osborn was one of the lamer villains but they have turned the guy into one slick, slimy, and appealing villain and in Dark Avengers he has reformed the Avengers with a caste of former baddies, and in some cases current baddies.

- Instead of Iron Man you have Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn)
- Instead of Spiderman you have Venom
- Instead of Thor you have Ares
- Instead of Wolverine you have Daken (Wolvy's evil son)
- Instead of Hawkeye you have Bullseye
- Instead of Ms. Marvel you have Moonstone
- Instead of Captain Marvel you have Marvel Boy
- And you have The Sentry

In the first 3 issues they form and have to go and save Doctor Doom and it is a great ride. I would recommend picking it up.

Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams

So far I've been slightly underwhelmed with the video game prospects for 2009. Now don't get me wrong, there's some good looking stuff on the horizon but not as much as I would like to see, and some of the ones I'm getting really excited about, like Dead Rising 2, most likely won't hit the shelves until next year. However, I'm not here today to talk about my disappointment but my excitement for what well could be the fulfillment of 2 years waiting, to once again roam the halls of Rapture.

If you don't know about Bioshock then I don't know quite what to say other than get yourself a copy and play it. Named the Game of the Year in 2007 by IGN this game blew me away for several reasons. The story was magnificent, the settings and the artwork were breathtaking, and the mood set by everything up to and including the soundtrack were phenomenal; I'd love to do a full review here, but I'll just tell you, if you haven't already done so, go play the game, and, if you have, go play it again, it's worth it. Originally Bioshock was only released for the 360 and PC but early last year it was announced that a PS3 version would be marketed; now the reason this is relevant is because that gave us the first taste of the sequel. The PS3 release included a few extras, like some minigame play, and most notably the teaser for the new game, you can check it out here. Not much there, but that's why it's called a teaser and not a trailer.

Well fast forward another few months and we still don't have a trailer but at last we are getting a few details and I gotta say I'm really looking forward to this. In the original towards the end of the game you get to wear a Big Daddy suit, but in the new one you are a Big Daddy, in fact you're the first Big Daddy, you play as the prototype for the whole series. What this means is that you get to use the Big Daddy weapons like the drill on his right hand and the rushing shoulder block that makes them so hard to deal with; sure, you can keep your distance up until the minute that a Big Daddy decides he doesn't want any distance. On top of this since you're a prototype, an overpowered proof of concept if you will, you have abilities that weren't built into the later models, namely, the use of Plasmids, the weapons that put the "Bio" in Bioshock. Add to this the ability to combine weapon and plasmid attacks and I think we're looking at a winner here. Finally, the plasmid upgrades have been altered, giving different types of attacks with upgrades instead of simply making them more powerful; Incinerate level 1 acts the same as before whereas Incinerate level 2 will now give you the ability to throw fireballs.

The storyline and the setting are perfect already so I'm hoping they don't mess with anything there and judging from what I've seen this will be taking place after the events of the first game. I'm not sure what that'll mean for a plot to the game but they have a lot of latitude with this so there's no reason that it should suffer, other than the fact that they may be pushing out a piece of crap simply to capitalize off the name and they spend nothing on writing. Currently the best estimate I can find for the release date is quarter 3 of 2009, so we won't be seeing anything for at least another 4 months, and I'm thinking it'll be closer to 6 months, if we actually see it this year.

This one is getting Robs "On the Edge of my Seat, Peeing my Pants Excitement" seal of future approval. Hopefully I can provide you with some better details in the near future, but in the meantime, pass the Adam and don't spare the Eve!

Finally The Watchmen Review

Although, I was excited about this movie I wasn't quivering with anticipation like many of my friends and fellow comic/graphic novel fans. On more than one occasion I've heard The Watchmen referred to as the Citizen Kane of comic books but personally have all ways felt the book was a little bit overrated. The concept was cool, considering when The Watchmen comics originally ran they were a welcome change from Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lass or worse Bouncing Boy. Plus, what comic book fan wouldn't think Rorschach was an interesting character: he's an anti-social combination of Batman and the Punisher. Aside from a good concept and interesting characters I've always felt the story never flowed, felt choppy, and at times was just plain boring. It's the only thing I can recall reading by Alan Moore and honestly wasn't impressed enough to make note of his name for future reading material. However, I digress this is a review of the movie not the graphic novel.

Let me be clear and first state that I didn't hate the movie. I thought it was an okay movie and was very accurate when compared to the graphic novel. Any changes or omissions made were for the better: cutting out that sub plot of the comic within the comic was definitely a good choice. The problem is I wasn't blown away by the graphic novel so consequently wasn't blown away by the movie. Some close 3 hours movies are amazing and don't feel like 3 hour movies but The Watchmen felt long and I found myself looking at my watch.

I did like the cinematography and the special effects, the world definitely came across as a dark and violent place. I specially liked what the heroes from the 50s and 60s, maybe it was 40s-50s, looked like in the flashbacks. They didn't look like the Dark Knight they looked like a bunch of people in masks and that fit the story and time period. These were suppose to be the golden age heroes and for that to work they needed to look a little cheesy and campy which contrasted nicely with the next generation of hero (i.e. Nite Owl II, Rorschach, and Dr. Manhattan) who had a more modern Black Knight/Xmen movie look.

The casting was excellent with the exception of Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II. She had the right look but was the worse actor in the movie and regrettably her character is in a lot of scenes. Jackie Earle Haley was perfect as Rorschach and I do mean perfect and Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II was amazing. It really was like they brought the characters from the graphic novel to life. The other one to catch my attention was Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre but really Carla Gugina is stunning and sets my heart a fluttering no matter what movie or role. I always liked Bill Crudup and liked him as Jon Osterman but I didn't like the CGI Dr Manhattan at all. Dr. Manhattan should be godlike and I thought he came off a little too much like C-3PO wait more like Data. Yes I realize with his abilities he is becoming distant and inhuman but that doesn't necessarily equate to robotic.

In short, if you've read the book and liked it you will like the movie. Personally, I would have more fun staying home and playing World of Warcraft but that doesn't mean it was a bad movie.

World War Z

Thought I'd do a book review today and since I recently finished reading World War Z I figured that would be as good a place to start as any. Although the book was published in 2006 I didn't give it any thought until about a month ago when I saw a documentary about zombie culture; one of the people interviewed was the author Max Brooks who, as we all know, also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide. I put the show on in the background for noise while I was working but found myself actually watching it by the time Max came on and started talking about the Survival Guide.

The Survival Guide was one of those books that I had often thought I should read but never got around to so that's what dragged me in. What really got me watching the show is when I heard him talking about doing the lecture tour after releasing the guide, not because I think these are necessary life skills, I'm a geek not an idiot, but because of his attitude. He basically said that he thought the lectures were a joke to fill some time but then he saw the numbers of people showing up and he figured he may as well play it up and make it worth their time; I can respect that attitude. I thought he was going to be all serious and sanctimonious about it but he set out to entertain and from what I can tell that's exactly what he delivered. So, a couple of minutes later when he started talking about World War Z I was willing to check it out. However, I have to say that what truly clinched it for me was when I found out his dad was Mel Brooks. That dude has been making me laugh for as long as I can remember, seriously, one of my earliest memories is watching Blazing Saddles at the drive in and who among us hasn't seen Spaceballs almost as many times as Star Wars itself.

Which brings us to our book review for World War Z. This was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed, not a groundbreaking piece of artsy literature, I can't read that crap, but a really solid story that drew me in and kept me reading. The full title of the book is actually World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and that is exactly what it was, a series of interview done by one man about 10 years after the War that almost destroyed the human race. Each story is short, I read it on my Palm so it's hard for me to be exact, but the longest story couldn't be more than 7 or 8 pages. However, due to the nature of these stories, they draw you in and enthrall you quickly. I believe my favorite one was fairly early in the book, a woman telling the story of the first night that they faced the zombies, torn from their normal everyday lifestyle into a living horror story, or possibly the one told by a girl who was four or five when the zombies attacked and how she was almost killed when the horde attacked the church she and some other survivors were inside.

The thing that makes these stories truly work are the fact that you can empathize with most of the people, you can see the characters taken from a cross section of every day modern life, no matter what country they came from or escaped to in order to survive the war. You understand the choices these people make because they are the same ones you would make in that situation, or at least hope you would make. The zombies are there and while they are the "bad guys" in the story, they rarely play a large part; they serve as more of a backdrop, a common theme that united the people.

There was only one thing I would have liked to have seen different about the book. Each person only tells one story and I would have liked to have heard some of them tell a story from a different part of the war; for example the woman I mentioned earlier, I would have liked to have found out if her family survived, and if so, how. Other than that small complaint I wouldn't have changed anything, it was a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone, not just zombie nerds.

The movie comes out next year and I hate the fact that I'm looking forward to it, you know it's going to get butchered in the translation.

Time to Spin the Propeller

Here at Geeky Blithering we pride ourselves on being full range geeks, not just limiting ourselves to the juvenile pursuits of comic books, video games, and action figures, but also being propeller heads of the first order.  With that in mind I'd like to do my first tech related review,  Googles addition to the browser world, Chrome.

Now at first I thought this was going to be a lame attempt to further Googles world dominating pursuits, just another piece of software drivel that would pollute most peoples desktops with no real use, but after  4 months of use I'm a firm believer in this unit; last month it even got migrated to my default browser, leaving Firefox in 2nd place, just ahead of IE.

Below is a screenshot of what I see when I open Chrome on my laptop, and yes it does look different on my desktop.

This is exactly what I see on my laptop every time I open a new browser or tab.  Lets run down the list, shall we:

1.  Tabbed Browsing:  Yes I know you're saying "So what, I expect that of my browser, even IE is delivering tabbed browsing these days!"  I agree except for one fact; each time you open a new browser and/or tab in Chrome you're starting a new thread in the process list, meaning that if you find one tab is eating your resources or has crashed you can close that tab and the drain leaves.  Neither Firefox or IE have delivered this as yet.  Techy!

2. Recent bookmarks:  This list of the 9 latest sites you book marked is always there when you open a new tab.  Maybe not the most exciting thing ever but it is nice to have it at your fingertips.  Neat!

3. Recently closed tabs:  How many times have you opened a new tab, checked something out, then closed it only to wish you hadn't closed it yet?  Well it happens to me and this mini history is always here when you open a new tab, plus the list gets flushed when you close Chrome, starting a new list the next time you open it.  Handy!

4. History:  Yes this is available in all browsers, but again it is nice to have it at your fingertips whenever you open a tab, one click and the entire history is displayed on the page.  Nifty!

5.  Thumbnail Links:  My personal favorite, I love this.  Chrome keeps constant track of the 9 sites you visit the most and keeps a thumbnail of it on each new tab; click the thumbnail and the page opens.  Plus, since its dynamic, if your tastes change and you stop visiting one site and start visiting another the old link will eventually disappear and the new one will put itself up.  Cool!

Having said that, I do have to admit a couple of issues.  First I wish you could use plug ins, I miss my Adblock for Firefox along with a few others.  Second, I wish they would let you customize the links on your desktop or even lock them; I like the dynamic nature but sometimes I'd like to erase some links that pop up, you know what I mean ;).  Finally it needs some advances in the tools, like interfacing properly with Flash and even Java sometimes, and it often fails  completely with active x controls.

That's it in a nutshell, I really like the browser, mainly becuase it gives some nice functionality at your fingertips. There isn't much groundbreaking but they managed to put the features into a decent layout that does enhance your online experience in a smooth and dynamic fashion.  I'd urge everyone to at least try it out, you don't need to get rid of Firefox or IE, I still use all three browsers for different purposes on any given day, so what have you got to lose?   Unless maybe you'd rather wait for Steve Jobs to tell you what to do.

King of the Hill

Thought I should talk about this one before it's no longer relevant due to the show is coming to an end, the final episode seems to be scheduled for March 22nd. King of the Hill has been on the air continuously since 1997 making it the 2nd longest running American animated series in history, right behind the Simpsons, and was named one of the greatest television shows of all time by Time magazine; of course let's not forget that this is the same magazine that in times past has chosen both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as men of the year.

I'm a big animation fan and I'm always willing to give a new cartoon a chance so that's exactly what I did back in January of 1997. I gotta say that I wasn't blown away but I did find myself entertained, and that basically sums up the entire run of the show and, in my opinion, the root of its success. The show never really had a big splash and never captured a giant audience or made a major impact in popular culture and, as a result, it never had anything to live up to; each episode led gently into the next and although they did have a few cliff hanger episodes it was nothing that would really draw in new viewers but it would rivet a regular watcher. The show just kept chugging along purely on its characters and their quirks. Finally I gotta say that they always had real solid writing with a really good creative team to find ways to make these characters funny and surprisingly fresh despite their lack of depth or development.

I think the big problem with King of the Hill was the Hills themselves, Hank was as exciting as paint drying, Peggy was annoying in every way imaginable , and Bobby got the worst of both parents, Hanks boring personality with Peggy's obnoxious quirks, and I'm sure he was at least mildly mentally challenged. The supporting cast though was some of the funniest characters every assembled, from Bill the fat has-been loser to Dale the wussy survivalist, all the way up to Lucky, the redneck with the monster truck who made his money by "slippin' in peepee at the MegaLoMart", voiced surprisingly well by Tom Petty. My favorite was Hanks father Cotton, a veteran of WWII who had his shins blown off in the Pacific theatre, although not before he "killed fity men!!".

I have to say that I always had a fondness for Luanne, voiced by none other than Brittany Murphy herself, someone who can get my motor running with nothing more than the sound of her voice. Speaking of voices, check out the person behind the voice of Bobby, not too bad for someone who has the ability to sound like a mentally challenged 13 year old boy from Texas.

Anyway, it's a little late in the shows life to do a review, I just wanted to let anyone who may be interested that it's reached the end of its life and if you want to check it out do it now or forever hold your peace. I think they managed to produce exactly the show they wanted in exactly the way they wanted to, something of a metaphor for real life, and I respect that. I for one will miss it but the bigger problem I have is that I don't believe that the show that will be replacing it will be any good. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to give Cleveland his own show?

Darcy's List of Actors that have Disappointed

My Nicolas Cage post got me thinking about all the actors whose presence in the credits use to make me cough up money for the theater but now the mere mention of their name makes me wince.

This will be a 5 count down because I'd have to stretch to think of 10.

Number 5 ...... Brad Pitt


Brad I wanted to hate you because or your poster boy looks but you totally blew me away with Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, Kalifornia, and your bit part in True Romance was awesome! I even found myself liking A River Runs Through It thanks to your performance. I would have never believed a story around fishing could have been that good. Wait ... okay maybe I still like 90% of your movies it's just the constant bombardment about your relationship with Angelina and Jennifer that wears on my nerves. I know its not your fault so I apologize for you being on the list but I'm sorry your name in a movie trailer now makes me wince.

Number 4 ...... Christian Slater


Dude you were in my all time favorite movie, True Romance! You made the early 90s classics Kuffs, Heathers (ok Heathers was 80s), and Untamed Heart. Yes those might be kind of lame movies but you managed to make them cool. Then you disappeared and the first movie I see you back in was the horrid movie Alone in the Dark! It's going to take more than a few voice overs in Robot Chicken to win me back.

Number 3 ...... Mickey Rourke


Okay this might seem strange that I'd put you on this list Mickey after your supposed success with The Wrestler. The Wrestler was okay for what it was, an artsy independent flick, but it lets be honest it wasn't The Godfather or True Romance . Mickey I loved your performance in Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Johnny Handsome, and you were awesome as Marv in Sin City. Why oh why do you do things like your acceptance speech at Independent Spirit Awards. It made you look like a dumb ass!

Number 2 ...... Mathew McConaughey


Okay Mathew I think it's cool that you lived in a trailer and are totally into the the surf/beach life. Maybe you should retire and just commit to 100% to perfecting the beach push-up. Yes you have Amistad, A Time to Kill, and Reign of Fire tagged to your name but you also have Sahara (my god that was awful) and even worse Failure to Launch. In fact, the only other non-horrid movie I can think of is The Newton Boys. You seemed to have some acting ability but all the pot and naked bongo drum playing must have killed it.

Number 1 ... suspense .... Nicolas Cage


Really I said it all in this post.

Special Mention Goes to ...... Ray Liotta


Ray you were in one of the best gangster movies ever, Goodfellas. Then you star, In the Name of the King, a Uwe Boll movie! Making things worse you came off as the cheesiest evil wizard ever in movie history. Did no one point out the online petition for Uwe Boll to stop making movies. The only reason you never took the top spot is that honestly other than Goodfellas I can't think of any other movie with you in that wasn't just bad, maybe Cop Land but that is a big maybe because I honestly can't remember much about it.

Wow once I started I could have gone on to mention many many others but I'll stop here for now. Next post will be positive I promiss :)

Family Guy and Star Trek: TNG?

OK, no overblown opinions from me today, at least not many, just a little bit of news. I did a Google on Star Trek today, nothing better to do, and I ran across this. Should be good for a laugh so I'm looking forward to March 29th.

I'm a regular Family Guy watcher and although the show hasn't been the same since it came back from its cancellation, I still enjoy it. The endless 80's references remind me of times gone by and who among us doesn't appreciate a good poop joke? I guess in its own way it's still trying to push boundaries and shed light on the shadows of society, I just don't think they do it as elegantly as they did in the first couple seasons.

As for the TNG connection, I'll admit to also being a fan of the entire Star Trek franchise and it should be entertaining to see what the Family Guy writers do with the characters. Who knows, maybe the future holds an opinionated blog about Star Trek and its spin offs. For the meantime I will say this, love 'em or hate 'em the Star Trek Captains have been some of the most memorable characters in TV and movie history.

One last note on that thought, if you want to read a quality book from the Star Trek universe I would recommend "The Captains Table", a half dozen stories each comprising an adventure by one of the Star Trek captains, starting with Christopher Pike and leading up to Katherine Janeway. I won't go into too much detail here, although it is an older book that is still worth a review, I don't want to tell a tale before it's time, so suffice to say I recommend  this one for both seasoned Star Trek readers and new readers looking for a segueway into the Star Trek universe.

Live long and be freakin' sweet!

Nicolas Cage You Need to Read This

In the 80s and early 90s I loved Nicolas Cage. His movies were always a little weird but he always came across as one cool dude. At some point in the late 90s his movies took a turn for the worse and he has officially surpassed Tom Cruise in my rating of the most annoying actor: I liked War of Worlds okay! I actually wince when I see a movie trailer for any Nicolas Cage movie and I think this website explains why perfectly.

http://www.cracked.com/topic/118-nicolas-cage/

Seriously, watch the montage of scenes from the Wicker Man, a remake of a classic and I don't like original either to but that's a different story. I'm going to create a Drinking game where one needs to take a beer every time he punches out a woman in the Wicker Man, I've never noticed that till I watched the montage ... sheesh. However, despite the stupidity that is The Wicker Man one of the worst acting performances I've ever scene was Cage as Ghost Rider, Eva was just as bad but at least she was nice to look at.

Please Nicolas just stop, you have lots of money either retire or take your craft seriously.

I think I found this link on my friend Tyler's blog, thanks man.

Console or PC?

If you game at all you've got an opinion on this matter. Some people can't imagine playing on anything less than a powerhouse PC with their mouse in one hand and a keyboard firmly under the other. Others just don't think the experience is complete unless they have a controller in their hands and are comfortably planted on their couch. Me you ask? I'm a console gamer through and through and right now I'm a big fan of the 360.

Now don't get me wrong, I game on my PC too and sometimes it's the best option, those flash games can kill a lot of time in a big hurry, and I've recently become a Steam user, but that's something for another day. I've come to believe that my hands were just engineered to use a controller and nothing else will do.

I come from the first generation of console gamers, (I never owned Pong, but I knew people who did) I got my Atari 2600 back in 1983 and man what a blast that was, at least for a year or two; even then those games only entertained for so long. Move the clock forward a few years and I rolled into my NES, I tell ya if you don't remember that time then you can't imagine how that sucker blew peoples minds. The concept of the 8 bit graphic allowed actual people to be on the screen for the first time and opened up a massive franchise of games, some very god ones too. A little bit later the SNES came along, and I have to say that the SNES had some of the finest co-op player games ever. M co-writer Darcy wasted many an hour playing Street Fighter on that one.

Not many years after that the home PC came along, but at that time the internet wasn't a big thing yet and I couldn't justify spending the money to play games that my Playstation would play, plus I wasn't a keyboarder yet so why would I give up that wonderful batterang style controller that Sony created. Fast forward a bit more and we were looking at the Xbox, a really solid console, and the PS2, probably the most prolific console the world has ever seen. Now by this time I was getting into computers, but I still couldn't justify going PC over top of my consoles, I was married to that controller.

Which brings us to the modern world. I have a decent PC in my office, my laptop is a few years old but will play some older games really nicely and conveniently, but you know what? 80% of my gaming time is spent in from of my TV with either my 360 or PS3; I have a Wii too but that's also a story for another day. And do you know what it is that keeps me married to my consoles? Well I'm glad I asked so here you go:

When you buy a console today you know that any game they make this year r the next year or the year after that is going to be able to play on that console. You don't have to worry about your video card not supporting the shading required for the new games or running out of hard drive space to install your games, or catching a virus and not being able to play games. This doesn't mean that the consoles are infallible, let's not forget the 360 RROD, but it does make for less worry, less upgrades, and more time shooting bad guys.

And let's talk about the recurring theme for a minute, controllers. The 2600 used a joystick or a paddle; I had the jet fighter joystick with the molded grip handle and the fire button on the top, man that rocked. The NES and SNES had essentially the same controller, flat with a directional arrow and a couple of buttons; the Playstation controller gave us the basic design for modern controllers, two handed full grips with triggers for each hand; the original still used the directional pad and later moved to the dual analog sticks. That brought us to the modern units with enough buttons to be confusing if you don't pay attention and for me that's worth it right there, the thought and design that go into making a controller interface that is efficient and intuitive. Yes the mouse gives you fine control on First Person Shooters but there's no elegance to the interface, and I'll take quality and elegance every time.

I guess the question you have is "Why should I care?" In truth you don't have to but here's the moral of this story: I plan to give many reviews and opinions in the future and I figure I should let you, the dear reader, know something about what makes me tick and how I make my decisions and form my opinions. Let the word go from this point on, I like consoles. Happy gaming!

Comic Book Publishers

Now being a geek of noteworthy status, at least in my own opinion, I have some very set ideas about comics and their publishers, including the fact that the DC universe is much better than Marvel. I understand the impact that Stan Lee had on the comic industry and I thank him for his contribution, and The Punisher is one of my favorite characters, but DC just offers a more enjoyable read.

Now my dear reader you ask why is DC so much better? Well for one thing they have some of the iconic figures of the industry: Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern to list a couple of my favorites. Superman is literally the yardstick against which all other superpowered heroes are measured and during the late 80's to mid 90's had some of the most creative writing that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Batman writing never quite reached that quality during that time but then how do you fault one of the only truly unpowered people to ever fight crime. Green Lantern is one I didn't really appreciate until a few years ago, but it's a great concept and some fine characters have worn the power ring over the years.

Characters in themselves are not enough to drive the universe, you also need writers and artists to put it altogether and although I've never been an art critic writing is something else. The stories in the Marvel universe are always to emotional and thinky, DC has always been about packing a punch and showcasing superpowers. If I want high drama I'll read a real book, I don't need that in my comic books, that is a visual medium first and mental medium second. 

As I previously stated I like some of the Marvel universe, but then who doesn't? The Punisher rocks, watch for more about him specifically in the future, and some of the other characters are great concepts; Spiderman comes to mind, along with Iron Man, Captain America and a few others, however these same characters showcase my point. I don't care about Peter Parkers love life or how many girlfriends he has gone through or accidentally killed, I want to watch him mix it up with Doc Ock or the Goblins, either one is good, even Sandman. Furthermore, I don't really care about the personal motivations of these bad guys either, they just need to be evil. Case in point, the Joker; this guy is the most brilliant bad guy ever and what's his motivation? He's crazy and he likes to kill, what more do you need? Lex Luthor? He hates aliens and wants to rule the world, love it, perfect, lets decide how this '"normal" man is going to almost kill Superman this time. 

During the 80's there was a great concept for an Iron Man 6 parter, the Armor Wars, where he decided that his armor designs were being used for evil so he set out to destroy all armor but his own, including that used by the American government. Like I said a great concept, but then they went and put in alcoholism and personal relationships breaking apart for Tony Stark; I can't stress this enough: I DON'T CARE. I want to see him destroy stuff with his repulsors, not guzzle Scotch and hurt peoples feelings. The Punisher, the anomaly in the Marvel universe, works because we know his motivations, he lost his family and is going to die while making the bad guys pay. 

There are more publishers out there worth noting but they are in a slightly different class, guys like Dark Horse and Vertigo, so I'll get into them another time. The purpose of this was just to put my feelings out there, everyone who is into comics has their opinion on the publishing giants of the world and I firmly believe that everyone should pick a side, hold it, and say it loud and proud. Agree with me or disagree with me, that's your choice and I don't care, I'm here to simply state 1 thing: Vive Le DC!

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans ... Best Underworld Yet

Okay I was hoping to review The Watchmen but I've been debating about letting my daughter come with me, it has a 18A rating, so still haven't gone to the movie. Not to worry though last Friday I begrudgingly when to the newest Underworld Movie and will share my all important opinions of the latest installment of that Vampire vs Lycan series with you.

I say begrudgingly because I honestly never cared for the first two Underworld movies. Yes, I acknowledge, like most hetero-sexual males, that Kate Beckinsale in skin tight black leather is a sight to behold. However, that couldn't overcome the boring story line and horrid casting of Scott Speedman. Plus I thought the vampires were too wussy and the lycans too powerful too buy into fact that the vampires were winning the war. Consequently, I pleasantly surprised when I found Underworld: Rise of the Lycans enjoyable.

One Michael Sheen is so much cooler than Scott Speedman as the main male character. I always thought lycans were a monster that could be scary but could never be cool. Hell even Jack Nicholson couldn't pull it off in 1994's Wolf but Michael Sheen as Lucian was a cool character, I'm going to have to look up some other movies with that guy. Yes I know he's in Frost/Nixon but that movie really doesn't interest me at all. The female lead was Rhona Mitra who I like a lot, I even sat through Doomsday because she was in it. Ahhh Doomsday a movie which such promise that lost it's way: it did have one of the best scene's ever using the music of the Fine Young Cannibals's Good Thing. Anyway, I digress, I have nothing against Kate Beckinsale but Rhona is far more believable as a tough slightly cold female lead who can kick ass.

Other than better casting the special effects were better and I thought the lycan's movement was done beautifully, just enough jerkiness to appeal to my love for stop motion animation and make them seem surreal but not so much that it seemed obviously fake. I have a soft spot for medieval movies so the time period was appealing and it made the idea of waring lycans and vampires seem more plausible. The story moved along nicely and didn't get stuck on the love story or some kind of battle with an inner demons. Point of fact that yes there was a love story but it supported the events it wasn't the event; an action movie not a love story. The Mummy Returns you should have learnt that balance. All in all I would recommend the latest Underworld to anyone who likes fantasy movies and plan to pick it up on DVD.

Comics: The Haunted Tank

I literally grew up reading war comics.  During the 1970's WWII was still fresh enough in people's minds that it took over a large part of our culture, books, TV, movies, toys, comics, and maintained that hold until the 80's, at which point it started falling out of vogue until the rash of WWII games over the last couple of years.  During the 70's though the comic rack wasn't filled until you had issues of SGT Rock, The Unknown Soldier, The Losers, and, my personal favorite, GI Combat.  Oh and yes, I understand the politics of the Vietnam War, but this is how you see things as a kid.

GI Combat was a collection of stories, 3 or 4 in each issue, usually ending with the Mercenaries, a couple of guys on the run from the French Foriegn Legion for desertion, but always starting out a Haunted Tank story.  For those of you not in the know let me explain:  the Haunted Tank told stories about a particular Sherman tank and it's crew.  What gave the tank it's name you ask?  The fact that the tank was shepherded by the ghost of American civil war General JEB Stuart, a cavalry general known for his bold and daring tactics; I won't go into detail but you can read more about General Stuart here.  

The General wouldn't do much except give sage advice to the tank commander, a Lt Stuart, never anything straight forward like "Watch out, the Germans have a tank trap set up", something cryptic like "Valor is in itself reserved for the valorous"; somehow Lt Stuart got the problem solved and saved the crew (although it always seemed to me the he would have had better luck just fighting and not worrying about decrypting hidden messages from beyond the grave).  Oh and by the way, the crew couldn't see or hear the General, they just heard their commander talking to himself, sometimes screaming; apparently anti-psychotics weren't invented until after the war. 

A word about the Generals advice, you see even in those days it wasn't generally acceptable to use comics to recruit for the army or glorify war so they made really cool stories about people in war doing awesome heroic things and then put in a message about why it wasn't cool to be in war and have to do heroic things; what can I say, it was the 70's! 

What makes this relevant today you ask?  I recently read the first issue of a new mini series launched by Vertigo that contemporizes the Haunted Tank.  The tank is now an Abrams in Iraq and the General has shown up to avail himself to the crew once again.  This time, however, he takes an active role and is not only able to use the .50 mounted on the tank, but he also manages to slice the barrel of an Iraqi tank with nothing more than his sabre.  They made another departure by making the whole crew aware of the General, but then again we do have anti-psychotics today, and they made the tank commander, again named Stuart, into a black man; stick that in your Confederate pipe and smoke it.  

I am here to recomend the series on what I've seen, excellent art work, great writing, and an interesting plot to the story; yes its a bit contrived, but then this is a comic book and it's only running for a few issues.  There have been a few of these contemporized WWII stories lately, and I have thoroughly enjoyed most of them, although the SGT Rock story didn't come of as well as I would have liked.  If you get a chance check it out, it's not exactly a slice of the 1970's but trust me, as someone who lived through them, the 70's are better left in the past.

Left 4 Dead Part II

So the last post I promised to finish up my the Left 4 Dead review and here it is.  I've already covered the general game and some of the broad details, team play, mechanics, etc. so I'll get down to some specifics this time.

The infected consist of 7 types: 

1.  Common infected, these being general zombie types.  They hang around everywhere and make life a general nuisance for you.  The good news is a solid headshot puts them down everytime.

2. Hunters, a big pain and can be deadly.  If you hear a high pitched scream you can expect to get jumped by a hunter.  They crawl along the ground and pounce from a distance; once they have you on the ground they literally proceed to rip your guts out.  Good news, if you see one pounce you can usually hit it with your melee attack and kill him before he can get up and jump again.

3.  Smokers,more a nusance than anything else.  They run around and use their tongues to grab you from a distance; however the tongue can be shot off and they have very little physical attack, they mainly hold you for the common infected to take care of.  No problem if you have a little help from your friends

5.  Boomers are big fat dudes that puke on you; the problem is that the barf has a pheremone that attracts that common infected, a bad scene if you're low on ammo.  Good news here is they make a lot of noise and make a big target for an easy kill.

6. Witches are scrawny little women who sit around and cry and generally whine a lot.  If you leave them alone they leave you alone, although the AI excels at spooking witches.  Once they are pissed they attack who ever woke them up and don't stop till that person is dead; once the offender is dead they leave everyone else alone and go back to sleep.  Turn off your lights when you hear a wicth and leave them off until you know where she is.

7.  Tanks are giant roid-raging SOB's.  These are the ones that make you wish for a rocket launcher, but if the team responds correctly they are killed quickly, you just have to keep moving and not let yourself get cornered; a molotov helps too.

As for weapons the game doesn't get real inventive, you default with a pistol with unlimited ammo and, if you find a second, you can dual weild, a life saver when you hit the ground during a swarm.  The beginning also gives you the option of an Uzi or a standard shotgun, they both have their pluses, but personally I'm a spread the ammo type player so I go with the Uzi, bigger magazine and faster reloading, however you pay in hitting power.

As the game goes on you get the choice of picking up an M-16, an automatic shotgun, or a hunting rifle, looks like an mini 14.  Here I generally go with the M-16 but I'll get into my personal gaming tactics another time.  The shotgun is great for tanks and close in work but the hunting rife takes some skillz to use right.

Finally you get the explosives, your choice between a Molotov or a pipe bomb.  The molotovs are great for area denial, throw one and let the zombies rush through the flames.  Plus they do decent damage to the special infected, and when you're low on ammo and a tank is rushing at you out of an alley you need all the help you can get.  The pipe bomb on the other hand is one of the best things I've found in any game I've played, it beeps and has flashing lights, attracting every zombie within range; save these babies for when you have to make a rush across an infested area such as the final run to the rescue vehicle.

Not a whole big bunch more to the game, 4 different campaigns, a city, a small town,  a rural countryside, and an airport, each with their own high and low points. All about the same length with the same problems, just different settings, but they all make for good zombie kiling fun if you can find the right people to play with

What it all boils down to is this game is a gooder!  Get some friends together and get on a server and you won't be dissapointed.  I've played this on both the PC and the 360 and can vouch for the play on both of them so take your pick and get shooting.

Robs First Post

So I figure I may as well jump right in here myself; the big D got the ball rolling so I'll give it a kick before it stops.

So you ask:  "Who is Rob?"  Well in a nutshell Rob is a complicated guy with simple tastes.  I like science fiction, zombie entertainment, video games and collecting; like I said simple tastes, the complexity comes in later.

Lets start off with two of my favorites that can be rolled into one, the zombie shooter. I have played some excellent zombie games, and I will discuss them in detail later, but I have to say that I have found a really solid deal with Left 4 Dead.  A quick rundown for those of you not in the know:  the story is fairly simple, 4 survivors who have to cross a given environment and then ultimately call in an escape vehicle of some sort, all the while fighting off hordes of homicidal maniacs.  It seems that a virus, closely related to rabies, has infected the bulk of the worlds population, turning almost everyone into a maniacal murderous freak bent on killing anyone who isn't infected.  To put the icing on the cake, they have started mutating into a few different "super" zombies with special powers.

The game is an FPS, built to have up to 4 people on line playing at once, no squad based tactics, you only control yourself.  The game can be played as a solo campiagn, using the AI for the other three players, but frankly thats not much fun.  The game has an excellent AI that is actually a little too good, you need to take the initiative, but once you do the computer will basically clean up the house for you and make sure you stay alive.  There are only 4 campaings in the game, each of which can be played through in about an hour and there is really nothing inventive about the settings or the action.  I will add at this point though that it has a really solid control system, intuitive layout and play on both console and PC, and no bugs, when you switch weapons you get the next weapon just like you should.  Having said that though, it's the co-op that lets this game shine through the hordes of undead.

You never want to be left alone, if your alone your dead.  You need to play as a team, taking down hordes and special infected isn't a solo job and you often need someone to pick you up off the ground.  Plus, to promote the team play the game uses a subtle system to single out players who don't contribute well, allowing the other players to do things like limit health packs, forcing players to conserve them, hopefully for themselves, and not necesarily use it on you just because you got brave and tried to take on a tank by yourself.  If you do die you will respawn, but you have to wait for someone to get to you and save you; and there's no rule saying you have to save a respawned player.  Plus, I personally like the glow that boomer barf gives you, letting you know exactly who didn't react fast enough and brought down the horde on you.

One last note before I wrap this one up, try to play with people you know or at least can depend on.  I got into an online team one time and not only did I get left behind and subsequently murdered by a hunter, they used the exisiting med packs with no thought for the other teammates, and this was after I saved one of them from a witch and played reargaurd while they did a "tactical retreat"(cowardly bastards) .  I can't stress this enough, when you're playing on a team, try to be a team player, one doesn't necesaily mean the other.

Next time I'll give a bit of a rundown on the "Special" infected, weapons, and a bit about tactics, but until then, rock on baby!

Inaugural Post and Warcraft Edict

Decided to start this blog so I had to place to comment on my geeky fixations. I did a few posts on my other blog but they just don't fit the theme there; in fact, I think the ramblings here are the counter opposite of what I'm trying to prove at the other blog.

Any who, anyone who knows me knows I've developed a huge World of Warcraft addiction. Yes I'm a bit late jumping on the WoW band wagon but in the past I've avoided rpgs as I related them to, thanks to Final Fantasy, 20 minutes of flashy videos with little game play. I apologize to all the Final Fantasy addicts out there nothing against you, my wife is Final Fantasy fan, but I hate that video game series. Consequently, I've always leaned towards first person shooters until my loving wife bought me an World of Warcraft battlechest for Christmas. I installed it thinking I would play it a bit so my wife didn't think she gave me a lame present but fully intended to shove it aside for other geeky pursuits but after a couple hours of game play I became hopelessly addicted and as a result spend a lot of my free time in the virtual WoW landscape, which leads me to a couple comments on WoW edict. Now I do want to disclaim this; I play on a Role Playing server not a Player versus Player server so have no clue what proper edict is on a PvP server.

Killing the Quest Givers:
Dude if your a level 80 something or another and raiding please resist the urge to run up and kill the quest giver when a level 10 something or another is trying to get or turn in a quest. It's just annoying and ruins the game for those starting out.

Dueling:
If for what ever reason you want to duel someone who is a more than 2 levels below you don't just run up and challenge over and over. I would suggest asking and offering a little silver.

If you want to duel someone don't wait from them to finish fighting a MOB where their health is low and then challenge them or hit them with a spell that negatively effects their abilities and then challenge them. This morning I was running down a road and some one hits me with this spell that weakens my attack power and then runs up and issues a duel challenge;, what an Ass! Also if you lose a duel don't swear at the person who kicked your ass or make comments like, "If I was your level I'd beat you no problem". One don't challenge someone higher than you if your going to be a suck and two don't be a dick!

Stealing the Boss/Quest Item:
This happens so much that it drives me crazy. You spend a tonne of time clearing a path through the mobs and then some putz runs through your cleared path and kills the boss or takes the quest item while your busy taking out the last couple mobs. Yes this can be an accident but it happens so often I don't believe it can always be excused as a mistake. If it's obvious that the person in front of you making your trip easier is after the same thing as you ask them if they mind grouping so you don't have to wait for a respawn or just suck it up and wait. Still feel free to take advantage of the cleared path to the respawn spot after all it would be stupid not to.

Well that's enough Warcraft ramble next post I plan to hopefully review The Watchmen movie!