[Traverse's Scrapbook] Movie Reviews and Mayhem

[Adelaide Sitai]

I was watching "Ladyhawke" today for what must have been close to the twentieth time - it really is an excellent film, as is Legend - and I would also be very interested to see a review of it. Navarre naturally also takes my breath away (and not entirely for superficial reasons)

Also: I consider myself a "young folk" and would love to see a review of an even older film. For me, the 1930s was a true gem of a decade in terms of Cinema (not only in America but abroad with, for example, the advent of Poetic Realism in France) and one of my favourite American-ish (though really Italian) directors of that period is Frank Capra. As such, I'd love to see a review of one of his films: preferably, one of these four, but I don't really mind. They're not the pinnacle of cinematic art, though I certainly consider them to be thoughtful and very human screwball comedies (with some biting social commentary) but they are wonderfully interpreted and really offer a feel-good ending.

A) Mr Smith goes to Washington
B) Mr Deeds goes to Town
C) You can't take it with you
D) It happened one night

[Traverse]

Okay my first try at video movie reviews! This has two reviews in it and a bit of rambling, sorry if the volume is a bit low, you may have to crank up your speakers a lil bit for this haha.

[Traverse]

Another movie review, and a dog too!

[Traverse]

Just Gamin' So I owe you guys a crap ton of movie reviews, and all sorts of things, but find myself in a weird head space for basically two reasons. 1. is NaNo. This is the first Miz NaNo since I started here that I don't think I'm going to complete, but I also find myself in a blissful state of not caring about that fact. I am having fun on each and everyone of my PC's, and regardless of word count and am just aiming for certain goals with each PC. They also probably won't get done, but November is the glorious month in which I generally give my PC's priority over my ST account, and repeat that blissful uncaring state mentioned above. The other and much more major reason for my strange mental position at the time right now of writing this particular scrapbook post is that a video game I have waited for for years just came out 2 days ago, and I have been going hog wild on it. If you haven't seen my previous scrap posts about it, its Dragon Age: Inquisition, part three and what I'm guessing is the conclusion of the Dragon Age trilogy, made by Bioware the folks that did Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Mass Effect to name a few. Now I love video games, basically the only genre I avoid is FPS's and MMO's, though I cannot understand people who devote hundreds of hours or more to those kinds of games, I also understand I have the capacity to do the same things with different games, and Bioware has the magical ability to fuse believable and enjoyable characters, intriguing story lines, and compelling gameplay in such a way that I literally cannot keep my hands off their games, Dragon Age and Mass Effect in particular. Now Dragon Age 1 and 2 were both good games in different ways, the first was the story and the world setting that made it, the second one got sweet graphics and combat, but lacked a lot of game play features and got a lot of flack for re-cycled maps and all sorts of things, and for Dragon Age: Inquisition it was promised the game would be every awesome quality of both games mashed into one and made even more awesome. This is not a game review, because in the...many hours I have already played through the game I have only scratched the surface, but it is a place to put my mind which has been thoroughly blown by the expansiveness of the setting and all of the qualities of the game I have been met with so far. It is strange because it has a lot of MMO qualities to it, yet at the same time, you feel a lot more connected to any inane quests you do as they almost immediately pay off to allow you to do other things that leaves this very interconnected quality about the...hrm, I feel like I said I wasn't doing a review... Anyway I basically had to physically pull myself out of the game so I didn't play through the night, the concept, myriad of features, and my favorite part of any Bioware game: The companion characters you constantly interact with, are simply superb. I may continue ranting, rambling, and throwing random things here from time to time, so just keep that in mind. Oh, and if you don't see me around...you know what I'm doing

[Annalisa Marin]

Funny you should post this, Trav, as I am also rather busy playing through Inquisition. I had a rocky start myself as any enjoyment I was having was marred by PC hardware issues and DirectX coming into conflict with my graphics card, however I bought a console version after giving up on that and it has been running smoothly ever since. I've gotten about 11 hours in and ignored a number of sidequests to advance the plot and so far its quite enjoyable.

I completely understand the MMO vibe you are getting, my Old Republic (the MMO, not KOTOR) days started flashing before my eyes when I received a mission to kill bring 10 goat meats to a hunter. Its another reason I've avoided a bunch of side quests. The combat I find is serviceable, I rarely use the touted tactical camera as it simply gets in my way and interrupts my flow. Then again, playing a mage the battle pauses whenever I'm casting AOE spells sooo.

Also I hear you about the companion characters, I'm loving most of them and even the ones I dislike are believable and fleshed out. I especially like that they put emphasis on characterizing your non-companion advisors. Cullen and Leliana's return have felt like greeting familiar old friends, and I already have fallen in love with Josephine's accent. >.>

Hope to hear more about your own experiences, I know I am certainly enjoying mine.

[Sal Mander]

It's 1998, you're a wide-eyed impressionable teenager, having grown up with a healthy habit of reading, and a love for all things fantastical and inspiring. Along comes BioWare, dropping Baldur's Gate into your lap and from there consuming literally hundreds of hours of your time henceforth. That was an exciting time back then, taking the first tentative steps into another medium that could offer as much an engaging world and enjoyable characters as any books I had read.

Needless to say, I'm something of a fan.

Bioware and I have something of a tumultuous love affair. Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and Dragon Age will always be three of my favorite games. But on the downside I'm one of those that really felt empty and dissatisfied after DA2, while the end of Mass Effect 3 was a total letdown. I was kind of at a crossroads when it came to the announcement of Inquisition. Could this be the game that would begin the healing process, returning us to the highs of Mass Effect 1 and 2, and the first DA? Was that Morrigan in the trailer? Did I hear Leliana is back? Okay, now I'm interested.

No, in all seriousness, I've been counting down the days for this, following its development from announcement to release. Not only was it promising to be a return to form, but I've still been waiting for the first real classic for the next gen consoles. Watch Dogs was a huge let down, Destiny turned out to be a total grinding bore, and while Shadows of Mordor is a really fun game, it's too short and had a very weak ending.

I've actually had it bought for me as a birthday present for next week, and no amount of bribery or arm twisting will get them to give it up any sooner. But I'm hearing good, good things about it and will no doubt disappear from the real world when I leap headfirst into what I hope will be another BioWare classic.

[Traverse]

It always pleases me to find fellow Bioware fans, though I shouldn't be surprised people who enjoy collaborating on stories and interacting with the vast and unique host of characters Mizahar offers also enjoy those heavy character and story based games. I feel like I am in the vast minority of folks that was not utterly disappointed by the ending of ME 3, I mean I certainly didn't love it, but I was entirely satisfied up until I checked the web and read all of the understandable, though pretty violent vehemence to the 'color coded' endings, and then felt somehow wrong in feeling okay with the ending haha. I think what disappointed me most about ME 3 was that they really hyped up the fact that 'your decisions would matter' and they really just didn't, other than that, very much enjoyed it. So now I have been continuing to happily ignore most of life around me, firmly entrenched in DA:I, and I have to say I am just as pleased as previously, though perhaps not as blissfully overwhelmed as my first 2 days sinking into the game. I wasn't precisely sure how to write this post, because I don't like the idea of writing it directly to my fellow Bioware/ Dragon Age fans, but neither do I want to bore folks (and said fans) that may not be interested with details on this game or already know them. So I figured I'd try to find a nice happy middle road and focus on the characters you are introduced in the game which I am just thoroughly enjoying to no end. One of the classic things people love about bioware is the party banter. You have 3 people that travel with you on missions, and on them they will talk and interact with each other, sometimes doing this this back at whatever your player's home base is in the form of cut scenes or just simple chatting. It creates this wonderful sense of unity when you as the main character are generally a blank slate to be filled as the player wishes, yet are surrounded by mostly (with a few exceptions) rich personas to chat, argue, flirt, befriend or create rivalries with (or whom do the same thing with each other). I believe that Dragon Age Inquisition stepped up these relationships and interactions to a whole other level with this game. I could spew on and on about each and every one of the folks you deal with in the game but to shorten it you have 9 companions: A zany archer all about the little guys, a prissy court mage as prim and proper as they come, a boy that seems to be a strange melding of spirit and human, an elven mage obsessed with the world beyond, a currently unemployed warden whose real job only comes up once every several hundred years, a determined woman who basically founded the order you are put in the head of, the plucky dwarf who was dragged along from the events of the last game in the series, A snarky alcoholic mage, and a massive mountain of an entity who runs his own fighting band. Yeah that's the short description, and I really struggled with a few of those, hopefully they make sense to those of you that have and haven't played . In addition to these guys, three of which you can take with you at a time, Inquisition also added the feature of having 3 advisors that consult on the matter that is their specialty: Intelligence, Military, and Diplomacy. Though they rarely ever 'travel' with you, they play quite the large role in the game as well. This is also discounting several characters that pop back up from previous games to play varying degrees of important roles as you proceed. At first I was struck by the similar and always entertaining party dynamics. I always enjoy swapping party members out to see what people say to each other, though generally find myself with my favorite party combination I also just hate to separate. One of the things I did enjoy about Dragon Age 2 was that they really tried to drive home the fact that your companions had lives when you weren't around. You'd walk into somebody's home and some of your companions would be finishing up meeting with them, or if you weren't romantically involved with someone, they might hook up with another member of your party. Here quite often when you have a cut scene with someone, someone else is participating, whether this is helping out a friend, sparring, drinking, etc. A fun example was that the zany archer asks you to pull pranks on your advisors with her, and in a mini mission to help one companion, I found two others that cared for him in different ways tagging along with me. Wow. That turned out to be way longer than I thought it would be...well there it is! If anyone wants me to expand on one of those little character profiles I'd love to, if not I'll probably have another review/explanation like installment in the near future

[Traverse]

A New Year (And big surprise, talking about movies) This time of the year is always difficult for me to draw up motivation for most anything. There is something keenly refreshing about a new year and new opportunities as well as a somewhat fresh slate, but I usually find myself bogged down in my loathing of winter and own procrastination issues to fully take advantage of it. I haven't posted on any of my PCs in weeks, and the loss of the first consistent, longer term, and hardworking ST in my domain has me feeling a bit empty when I look at Falyndar, a largely empty region that sometimes I feel I just can't do enough justice nor help out the players in each city to keep them coming back for more. But that's the end of any negativity in this post. Though I hate Maine Winters, and as I write this am fighting a cold and stranded indoors surrounded by icy disgusting weather, I am also excited by so many things. I am on the cusp of opening my own little Etsy shop, am having a grand old time doing pottery in my small apartment, and vow this year to learn how to play the violin in the back of my closet even if I only fiddle around with it for ten minutes a day. I have been having an absolute blast with the new Dragon Age game (bet you hadn't noticed), and having begun painting again both for Mizahar and my own creations, and I am prepared to meet this new year slowly but surely and have fun, and beat the crap out of this stupid winter one way or another. My plans for Mizahar are along the same vein. Firstly it'll be getting back into my PC's, getting them going and moving one way or another. My major goal for Tinnok is to actually get her out of Falyndar and on the move. She has had so much growth over her life as a PC, but needs to go see the world and freak the heck out over it. On an ST level I want to devote time to each and every city, do fun stuff with the few PCs that have been hanging out with me and have a great time with it. Though Black Rock's development progress has been slow I have been having an absolute blast with it, and I want to emulate this in Taloba and Zinrah by bringing in some fun different stuff to the development forums and get back in touch with the essence of each city, if that makes any sense. Vblogs are on the horizon as well as I want to do a lot of senseless rambling on cities, and maybe some of it will have...some sense...maybe. This post originally was going to be early December on the day that marked my two year anniversary on the site. It's always weird thinking about being here for two years because in a lot of ways it doesn't feel like its been that long...at all. On the other hand it entirely does. I find it fun to reminisce sometimes of the time two years prior starting as a floating AS under Goss's tutelage, petrified of doing anything wrong, so much so more than once she would tell me to take it easy and take a step back. I had so much freakin' fun floating around from city to city, and truth be told very shortly after I became an AS I knew precisely and completely that I wanted to be RS of Falyndar, not only that I wanted to do it, but that I could. The environment, the races, the aura of the place spoke to me so strongly and still does today, and though I would love more activity, I also know I simply couldn't handle the numbers and populace of other regions, and love aiding the small player base in the jungles. So with all that sappiness and plans and things out of the way I wanted to talk about the all important topic of movies. There are so many movies I'm excited about this year, I don't know if many of them will be any good, but I do not care so this is a following list of release dates (to the best of my and google's knowledge), links to their trailers, and my brief one sentencish thoughts on them: February 6, 2015 Jupiter Ascending - Sci-fi fantasy movie with Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, and Sean Bean where Kunis is a secret space princess? Heck to the yes. March 2015 Cinderella - Live action re-hash? I may not want to want to watch this, but I want to watch this. Also it has rob Stark from Game of Thrones as the Prince! March 27, 2015 Home - Animated movie with Steve Martin, whats his face from Big Bang Theory and Rihanna, about adorable aliens, people who don't fit in, and cute life lessons May 22, 2015 Tomorrowland - Just looks sweet, the teaser trailer really endeared me as well. June 12, 2015 Jurassic World - So I know everyone gets down on the movie industry re-hashing everything, I mean I do it too, but lemme tell you something right now, I love Jurassic Park too much to care, even if the premise in this trailer is like the worst ever. My group of friends theorize the hybrid is a raptor/t-rex combo, WHO DOES THAT? Why not test stuff out on a triceratops/ stegosaurus combo, overaptor and an iguanadon, you know ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T WREAK TOTAL HAVOC?! Cannot wait to see it. July 17, 2015 Antman - this isn't really a trailer, its more like a joke teaser so don't feel obligated to click it. I am not that big of a fan of ant man but I love Paul Rudd and the idea of him being Antman excites me to no end. July 24, 2015 Pan - Found this trailer when looking up other trailers to show you guys, love Garret Hedlund and Rooney Mara so, I'll probably look into it I know there are definitely more movies I'm looking forward to, but that comprises at least a chunk of them

[Sal Mander]

Scrap your list. There's only one movie for 2015, lol!

[Traverse]

Oh my gosh you are so right, how could I have missed that, its clearly going to be a classic! Also another one I forgot. I love spy movies, and don't get me wrong I have enjoyed the new James Bond movies, but a fun filled action packed movie staring Colin Firth? Yes, a thousand times yes. This one looks to be a real treat.