Film Review: Hellboy (2019)

If you blinked then you probably missed it, and that's probably a good thing because it will be on Netflix soon enough to suck up precious moments of your life.

Hellboy for 2019 was a magnum opus for the series, an intent to kick off a new film "expanded universe" while aiming for a stronger depiction of the creative core of the Mike Mignola created character Hellboy and his comic universe. It got a lot of the visuals right, and to be fair the film had some great moments....but it managed to fall flat in so many other ways.

In terms of genre, Hellboy wasn't so much a "superhero film" as it was in the special genre of "campy, somehow not self-conscious action franchises that often have Milla Jovovich in them." That includes the Resident Evil movies for those keeping track...except not as unintentionally funny, alas. Hellboy actually does star Milla as the chief villain, and her performance in this film is pretty good, actually. There is a decent attempt at meaningful performances from most other actors in the film including the new Hellboy, who does the best he can behind the prosthetic makeup he has to wear to convey the gruff and disgruntled Hellboy almost as well as Ron Perlman did.

Unfortunately the story they are trapped in is convoluted, sometimes pointless, often lacks any sense of threat, tries too hard to go over the top when it should have gone for a more subtle approach (living in the shadow of prior Guillermo del Toro works has that effect), and ultimately feels like not insignificant portions of this movie were specifically filmed to fit the trailer they imagined would bring the audiences in droves.

On opening day my family saw and enjoyed it, but the theater was mostly empty. This film was at best pushing a C rating due to such an obscure property with such a failed effort at a script and far too many nonsensical set pieces mixed in with far too many characters we didn't learn to care about. This movie was doomed from the get go and I don't think anyone saw this until it was too late. C-

What Advent Horizons Needs

I've thoroughly read through Advent Horizons now and have grown to appreciate its unique blend of 3rd and 5th edition on character generation. However, I have been unable to motivate myself to run it....and that can be a real issue for getting any game off the ground. Here's the two reasons why AH is as yet unplayed by my group, and what AH needs going in to the future to attract more players. I hope this happens, because I think it's the best iteration of D&D 5E in a science fiction context I've seen so far, but it still needs some serious fixes.

GM Book

The AH core book includes a barebones approach to system generation, plot generation, a handful of foes and that's about it. There is not enough to get a GM properly up and running here....at least not one like me, with limited time to design a lot of content. The background provided is a good skeleton, but it could also use a sample area with more detail and maybe a starter scenario. Really though it needs an "AH DMG" tome to supplement the core rules.

Editing

The book needs a serious edit from a proper copy editor, not merely a word processor proof-read. I think the straw that broke my back on this was reading about an NPC's "quarks." I closed the book at that point and gave up.

Film Review: Spider-Man Far From Home

The first thing that Spider-Man Far From Home does is get details of the "snap" and the five year gap which leads to the "blip" out of the way. It's simultaneously the most "comic book" of subplots even as it defies the traditional logic of comic book universes, which is that nothing dramatic like this normally ever happens--and if it does, it's to an alternate reality and the main continuity stays the same, or maybe it stays that way for a few years and then the stories quietly resume the status quo when the idea has been exhausted and the novelty has worn off.

This, however, is the relatively uncharted waters of a cinematic universe derived from the comics,  so we instead get to see what happens in a post-event version of the Marvel universe. Spider-Man Far From Home is uniquely suited to this task as it conveniently seems to have insured all of Peter Parker's core gang blipped out with him, and then addresses the general social ramifications of a universe which lost and then regained half of the population of sentients over a five year period. Interesting stuff, and weird, but I admire that they were willing and able to engage with their fictional universe at such a level. It doesn't necessarily hold up under scrutiny....but it absolutely holds up under the rules of comic book logic as applied to the four-color realm of human psychology and norms in a universe where cosmic threats happen with sufficient regularity that it becomes mundane.

Indeed, much of the movie focuses on exactly that: what happens when dire threats are potentially all mundane now, and existential threats must be had to get noticed, especially if you are --say-- a wannabe hero like Mysterio? The plot revolves around this notion and does a great job exploring the concept (again, within the highly defined scope of the MCU) while also telling the story of a teenager with super powers who would really like to continue life as a teenager if only the super hero business didn't keep dragging him back to it.

Overall I loved this movie, it was a really well paced, carefully structured movie with a medley of engaging and likeable characters, a great twist that even I as an old comic fan thought was suitably interesting (and yes, this relates to Mysterio's "reveal.") The best parts related to Peter Parker's long running interest in Mary Jane Watson, and the interplay of that process with their friends. Overall a great, fun, relaxing summer movie and maybe the only one I could really advise people "don't miss." Also my favorite Spider-Man movie to date. A+++!

Film Review: Men in Black International

So the good news is this one was fun! Actually my favorite MIB movie outside of the original film, and honestly if you haven't seen any of them then I suggest watching the first, then this one, and pretend like 2 and 3 don't exist.

I went in to Men in Black International expecting a mediocre film made better by the likes of Thor and Valkyrie, and came away pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a great movie by any stretch, but it was more engaging than several other films this summer and I did not feel ripped off afterward. Overall, a lot of fun to be had. Here are some highlights (some spoilers ahead):

Yes, Thor and Valkyrie as Men in Black, a perfect combo for the most part!. Chris Hemsworth plays himself (the best and only way to take in a Hemsworth, I assure you) while Tessa Thompson (of Valkyrie fame from Thor: Ragnarok) plays the new up and coming MIB agent. Their chemistry works well, although this film lacked any meaningful romance or tension....Hemsworth and Thompson both come off like they are testy brother and sister than anything else. It's an odd thing for me to note....I generally am not that interested in seeing romance on the big screen in action films since it can be done so terribly, but every now and then a movie like this comes along where it sort of feels like it would have been fun to see.

Liam Neeson is great in his role as Agent T, director of London operations. SPOILER! He is also obviously the secret villain reveal and this is painfully obvious despite their making no initial effort to tip their hand just because a key failing of this movie is its strict adherence to trope and cliche with the script. When you see him show up it is fairly obvious despite vague attempts to pin the possibility of a traitor on another character that it was Liam all along.

Speaking of villains, the big bad at the end as a great Cthulhuesque monster, and a great special effect. I very much enjoyed the reveal at the end even if it was obvious thanks to the terrifying transformation and the overall plan to drag in the enemy known as The Hive from some other region of space. Also, the finale was mercifully short....no prolonged, needlessly long fight scenes. It was too the point, refreshingly so.

The overall plot of MIB International may have been predictable, but the road trip to the end was great. It felt at times more like a James Bond movie with aliens in it, filled with lush locales and interesting areas to explore, all on earth no less. The locations and filming were great.

In the end, this was a fun movie, well worth my time to watch with the family, although I think you would be happier with discounted ticket prices (I did luckily see it at a matinee price). Solid B+!

Alternity RPG - Where are the Forums? Why is Sasquatch Studios so bad at website updates and support?

While diving in to my recent excursions into the various D20 sci fi games out there (Starfinder, Advent Horizon) I noticed that a game I had enjoyed reading but shelved due to the fact that it needed more content to be useful suddenly had more content. Specifically the Alternity RPG from Sasquatch Studios, the spiritual successor to the late great Alternity of 20 years back.

So if you haven't seen them, Alternity has some products in PDF and two in print here, including the Xenologist's Guide and the Protostar Mission Guide. The core rulebook can be found in print with a bit of sleuthing here. I think I've blogged about it before (maybe not?) but it's a decent system with a good core mechanic, but it lacks some of the depth you can get in Traveller and clearly needed more content out (and soon) to sustain interest. That hasn't really happened since 2017 until now.

I was rooting around looking for some evidence of fan support on forums, and noticed that Sasquatch Studios doesn't seem to be all that good at keeping up on their web presence. They have a webstore, but it's hard to find and not even close to the first search link when looking for the game. The PDF products aren't easy to find unless you know to look at drivethrurpg.com. There's no forum or fan place to post right now.

I did recall that the game was Kickstarted, so I went over there to see what activity was on the web page and noticed that it, like so many other Kickstarters, appears to have been behind on its promises or not fulfilling to the expectations of backers. Some of the comments on the Kickstarter are nice, but some are mean-spirited in that special way only backers can get (and rightfully so, sometimes; when you sink money into a project with promises on the content delivery you expect them to come through).

Unfortunately, I suspect that the side effect of a mixed bag when it comes to the core fans who backed a project being vocal in their displeasure at the KS's follow-through is that it means there's probably less incentive for the developers of the game to provide forum support which leads inevitably to more places for people to gripe and bring it all down. Ironic, given that the game is at least fulfilling its goals, albeit slowly from the looks of it.

On the other hand, Sasquatch Studios release Primeval Thule a while back and didn't provide support for it online either (no forum or regularly updated website). But that was also a Kickstarted project and I also recall some fans being unhappy with at least the 13th Age iteration of the game. I personally really liked the 5th edition version of Primeval Thule. Soooo....hard to say if the problem is that Kickstarted games with release issues lead to fewer venues for forum support, or Sasquatch Studios just isn't good at (or has the time for) making sure they have website support for their games. Either way it's a shame.....I like Alternity RPG and would love to see more content and discussion about it online.

Another thought has crossed my mind, too: could this decent RPG be suffering right now because it took the popular name of a beloved SF rpg that inevitably will be held up against it in scrutiny? There's no disputing that while the new Alternity is a good game with a design that I find better than the other game of the same name, it definitely lacks the graphic style and design of the original. But if all the attention surrounding the game came from the title, then it's inevitable that it will be judged not by what it is, but by what it claims to succeed.

If I'm wrong about this and there is forum support somewhere, let me know! The closest I could find was at the traditional original Alternity website which has a corner for "Altenity 2.0" that appears to be quite out of date.

Either way, I will try to write more on this one soon. Alternity RPG 2.0 is a nice game system, and accomplishes more with what I am looking for in an SF RPG right now than the other systems I was messing with, so I may finally try to play it soon.

The Current Final Word on Starfinder

So I decided to shelve Starfinder for a while. Here's my basis for the decision:

1. When I start running Starfinder what I really want is a Science Fiction game with Paizo's brilliant graphics and appearance. I am not in love with Starfinder so much as I am in love with how Starfinder looks.

2. When I run Starfinder I find it hard to take seriously because I am so innoculated against the core conceits of the D&D/Pathfinder style universe that blending it with science fiction is hard to do. As a result, I can construct a universe but it feels more like a universe with trappings of Red Dwarf and Battle Beyond the Planets than something more serious, which I desperately want in my D&D types right now.

3. The reason I feel an incongruity after every game is because what I want is to run a hard/serious science fiction game. Starfinder is not the game for such a task. When I run it, I feel like I am distracting my precious life minutes away from a task that would be better suited to the use of said time. Traveller, for example, would fit my needs much better than Starfinder.

4. When I am in the right mood, it is a lot of fun, but I can't sustain it. I haven't pinpointed exactly why this is so (beyond points 1-3) but it is enough to know that if I don't get excited to run it every single week that a session is up then that is enough to shift my focus elsewhere. To contrast: I am always excited for a Call of Cthulhu or Cypher System night.

Also, blame Advent Horizon to a certain extent. It was while trying to prep for AH that I realized that my problem with Starfinder was rooted in the fact that it neither embraces the fantasy nor the science fiction enough to truly become one or the other. And since I've never been a big fan of "mixed genre" SF/fantasy mashups, I lack the critical requisite interest necessary to know what to do with it.

But, most importantly of all.....

5. I have limited time in my life, so even though there's a lot in Starfinder I like, it takes too much time for me to prep, and as a result I need games which cater to that limited time I do have. This is sad....Starfinder makes excellent headway in the "ease of access" zone of D20 based gaming, yet my life is so booked up these days that even with the improvements SF offers I just can't find the proper time to invest myself in it. This, in the end more than items 1-4 above, is the main problem.

You might ask, "Why not read the modules?" and I would point out that for my style of GMing I take far less time to prep a game I design than to try to read and prepare someone else's work. And that's a big part of the problem....I have not got the time (or inclination) to sink into absorbing the enormous amount of Starfinder content I have on my book shelf. And that includes either world building or reading and learning the default Pact Worlds setting.

Doesn't bode well for Pathfinder 2.0.....crossing my fingers and hoping it is excessively user friendly!

Zweihander Revised - the Retail Edition

I was shocked to discover two copies of Zweihander Revised sitting on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble, truly something that I would ordinarily never expect --and with B&N being bought by a hedge fund that is putting a guy in charge on the record for wanting to cut down on the "hard to sell" books, unlikely to be a thing in the future, either.

Anyway, I'd only been acquainted with the POD version previously, so was shocked to see such a pleasant, high-quality bound tome, with ribbon, full color interior and incredibly nice design qualities for a paltry $65 so I grabbed a copy. You should look for a copy of this edition if you can, it's well worth it. I might plan to actually run a game soon, as the grim and perilous standards of Zweihander suit my gaming mood a lot more these days than the happy and heroic form of D&D 5E. This is also a good version of the game for fans of the system (like myself) from the old Warhammer 1E and 2E days who have never cared much for the Games Workshop Warhammer fantasy setting as such....liked the aesthetics if you will, but not the execution.

Film Review: John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum

Two great things came out of this movie experience with John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. The first one was when my son turned to me in the middle of the film and declared, "Papa, you know, this movie is made for combat fans. And you know what? We are combat fans." He was spot on....if you've ever wanted to watch a movie with just enough fill between the amazing action sequences to justify the next action sequence, John Wick (all the movies) fit this description perfectly.

The second was the moment I realized that John Wick's charm comes about from the fact that this is basically Male Romance in film format. The John Wick trilogy (soon to be a four parter) is about Keannu Reaves as the embodiment of the middle-aged man who had found his purpose, had it stripped away from him, then rekindles that purpose in the only way he knows how: by some serious murderation. It's unabashed in its revelry of the violent form as the medium of expression. It does not question its own universe, which appears to be one dominated by a heirarchy of assassin cabals who run the world. It sprinkles just enough world building in to make you feel like there is some structure and purpose to the universe, but not enough to trigger the weird fans who must have answers to all questions. It's not about that. It likes to entertain a bit of mystery....but once again, only enough to get you to the next major combat scene. 

So yeah, this has been my favorite film of the year so far. A+++!

Film Review: X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix suffers for several reasons. The key problems this film faces include the following:

1. It's a sequel to X-Men Apocalypse, which was the weakest of the rebooted series so far, and as a result it continues with a bunch of characters that didn't get the best setup in the prior film to begin with.

2. It's a franchise that Marvel fans are convinced is imminently going to be rebooted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Disney. This probably will happen, but I will predict we won't see it for at least 5 or more years.

3. It's taking on the most infamous and well-remembers storyline from the old Byrne/Claremont days of the X-Men during it's heyday, a hard story to adapt to film without making serious concessions.

4. No Hugh Jackman, which means we could not have a squicky Wolverine/Jean Grey/Cyclops love triangle.

5. According to some sources, it was slated for a February release but as booted up due to a conflict with Battle Angel Alita. This shows; the film is a darker, broodier story that would suit a winter audience's sensibilities better....it was clearly not meant to be summer popcorn wahoo fare.

All of that aside, I actually really enjoyed Dark Phoenix and felt like, taken in itself, the film was a better follow-up to X-Men First Class and Days of Future Past (two films I greatly enjoyed), and that if it were possible to simply forget about the existence of Apocalypse then Dark Phoenix might have been even better.

Now, taken in and of itself, Dark Phoenix did a lot right. Chief among these were that it kept the run time to two hours, and as a result had a rather tight and a clean storyline. This despite what I understand were a lot of reshoots and edits, which apparently were meant to fix some glaring issues from test audiences and also maybe to tighten it up as an end to the four part X-Men run.

The actual story made me more empathetic to the Jean Grey character; the actress always struck me as more of a "Jean Grey cosplayer" but I am told she's actually well known from Game of Thrones (something I have never watched, ain't got that sort of time!) so whadda I know. Still, she managed to do a much better performance here than in Apocalypse.

The story also tried....as best it could....to incorporate some elements of the original Dark Phoenix saga in to it. There's the threat of the Phoenix Force as a world-eating malevolence. There's an alien race (not the Shi'ar, alas) who seek to bring it to justice or harness it, or something. Jean Grey's transformation from confused mutant to omnipotent power is underplayed but works well for me, and it probably helps that they establish early on that she was never really that ethical to begin with (the story delves into some early childhood trauma, mutant style).

Overall....I felt this was worth my time to see, and appreciated what they tried to do here with the final non-MCU version of the X-Men before some future reboot happens. The movie remains a victim of this Summer's film apocalypse, and perhaps rightly so, but I definitely had more fun with this than Godzilla KOTM or Hellboy. Solid B+

The Idea: Micro Posts

June has been the slowest blogging month for me in years, possibly since when I first started. Some of it has been time (limited), stress (copious) and interest (fluctuating all over the place). A lot of it has just boiled down to "I got other stuff going on."

But! I still do occasionally have something to write or say, I just don't feel it is worthy of an immense blog post. I think I'll toy around with the idea of "micro posting" occasionally when I have something I feel is worthy of discussion but maybe not worthy of a lengthy blog post. We shall see how it goes....