Sunday, April 04, 2010

Media Update

A quick review on some of the media I've been consuming:

TV
Lost: The final season, and it's been pretty excellent. It does seem like they're stalling a little bit as they head towards the end. On the other hand a few of the episodes have dumped a ton of answers. My only complaint is they've split up the characters in such a way that you go full episodes without seeing certain characters. I wish that wasn't happening.

V: I don't find this show as intriguing as Lost, and somehow its theme of "anyone could be a V" makes me think of Battlestar Galactica (which was much better). I'll keep watching for a little bit but I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay on board.

The Office: I thought it had jumped the shark with the wedding episode but there have been a few good episodes since then. Maybe it'll be making a turnaround.

Law and Order / Law and Order SVU: The NY Times wrote about this recently. Law and Order has been getting better, and meanwhile SVU is getting worse. SVU is so contrived lately, but meanwhile the cases on the regular Law and Order are about as good as they've been.

Batman: Brave and the Bold - check it out! It's not just for kids. It's funny.

Smallville: I can't believe they want to bring this show back for another season. Yet I can't stay away.

24: I haven't seen this season yet but it's the last season according to reports. It takes place in NY, so I'll be watching.

Video Games
Last year, when I bought my PS3, I had 1-2 games I was interested. Now my library of games is 16. In that time, there were a lot of Christmas sales, but also a lot of good games. Amazingly, the best 2-3 have been very recent.

God of War 3: I just finished this game. It's better than the first two (which I also replayed recently in the HD versions). The bosses are tougher, the scale is more epic, and the story, well, it's not as straightforward but it's not anywhere near a Metal Gear Solid level of complexity.

Uncharted 2: Another amazing game. I think this, God of War 3 and MGS 4 are probably 3 of my favorite games ever. Great graphics, great gameplay and a movie level of story. While GOW 3 is more on the side of action and MGS 4 is more on the side of cinematic story, Uncharted 2 is nicely inbetween.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: This is one of the best comic adaptation games I've ever played. I had played this before Uncharted 2 and GOW 3, and thought it was great. Now that I've finished those two other games, I'd have to revise my review. Arkham Asylum is certainly fun and engaging, and makes great use of the Batman license. But it is nowhere near Uncharted 2 or GOW 3 in terms of fun, gameplay or graphics.

I haven't seen a ton of movies lately in the theater. Avatar was totally overrated, I'm glad it didn't win that many academy awards. If we gave Oscars based on groundbreaking effects, then Independence Day and Jurassic Park should have won more Oscars. On Netflix - Justice League: Crisis on 2 Earths was good, Hangover was overrated, Public Enemies was a bit boring, Funny People and I Love You, Man were better than I expected, Bruno was not as good as Borat.

2 comments:

PJ said...

My 2 cents:

Lost - still awesome as always. Some people complain that the show created random mysteries early on and never really concluded them satisfactorily, but I say it doesn't really matter. I just think the storytelling is really good in this show.

L&O: I had noticed that SVU sucked a lot more, but I've long since given up on the original.

24: This show has sucked for so long, I can't bring myself to waste 24 hours watching the final season.

Uncharted 2: Really really good. One underrated thing--the voice acting and the facial rendering are really smooth. When you watch it, it seems so natural, and the characters don't seem as wooden as other animated video games (see: Heavy Rain).

Batman: Also a really good game, but I do feel it falls short of being a GREAT game. Not enough good boss fights. But given that all Batman games previous to this have pretty much sucked, I won't complain too much.

Avatar: I thought this was awesome when I saw it opening weekend, but subsequently it's become a little too overhyped. Still one of the best theater experiences I've been to in a while.

Hangover: Really? I thought this was pretty freakin' hilarious, even though everyone was building up my expectations.

Funny People: My expectations were too high, but in general, I thought this movie was pretty weak. That last half hour was pretty excruciating.

I Love You, Man: Good movie. Bonus points for incorporating an unhealthy obsession with Rush.

Bruno: Agreed, not as good as Borat. Also, I guess penises are funny, but this was a little much.

Blogman said...

24 - that it takes place in NY is a little more incentive for me to watch this season. Last year's wasn't too bad, I thought. They had 1-2 really bad years in there, specifically the year with Robocop, Peter Weller.

Agreed on Batman - there was something repetitive about this game, but it has a wonderful art direction and environment. Something stiff about the controls.

Avatar - the story / effects disparity wasn't as great as say, Star Wars Prequels, but something about the "white man comes to save primitive people" story that is a bit dated. Not only is it a cliche, but it's kind of offensive!

Hangover - Yeah, I thought it was a little slow. First half hour was not particularly funny.

Funny People - You're right - I forgot, the movie is way too long. I watched it over 2 sessions so I forgot about that. It had a few nice stand-up comedy moments.

Bruno - Yes, so you can show a penis on screen and everyone will go crazy but I thought the best parts in Borat were the scenes with regular people that it wasn't clear if they were staged or not. Bruno had much less of that. It was apparent most of Bruno was scripted / staged.