Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

This Tuesday gone, courtesy of the Total Film newsletter (and a little bit of cheeky multi-email amount manipulation) I manged to obtain 4 tickets for an advanced preview of the latest Edgar Wright movie, an adaption of of the Oni Press comic, penned by Brian Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Now before I begin to review in ‘earnest’ I have a confession to make. The first I heard of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (henceforth known as Scott Pilgrim) was when I saw the super advanced mega preview trailer from last years Comic Con (I think). It wasn’t until a few months later when I noticed one of my friends had posted on facebook that he was reading the 3rd volume of Scott Pilgrim that I discovered that Scott Pilgrim was a comic series. After a bit of hunting, I managed to procure the first few volumes.

And I promptly fell in lesbians.

I’m not a huge graphic novel fan, simply due to my reading pace. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love graphic novels, graphic media in general. I would read dozens of different mangas. I have many comic series’ that I desire to enjoy. The problem is the cost to duration ratio. You see, I can read a £8 graphic novel in a single evening, easily. Compare that to a similarly priced book which may last me a week or so, and it just doesn’t seem worth it. But recently I’ve circumvented this by two means. Firstly, I borrow a lot. I’ve been leant V For Vendetta and Watchment, both of which I massivly enjoyed. Secondly, and less legitimately, I’ve been downloading comic book series’ online and viewing them using Comic Rack. Now I know this may make you devout purchasers shudder and scream at me, but understand this, I can’t afford to buy all the volumes, so it’s either that or I don’t EVER read them. Which means that I will never purchase them in the future (I’m not going to spend money on a graphic novel I don’t love) I have purchased download titles, such as my prized 1st Edition Appleseed complete set and my first few volumes of Gundam 0083. But this is not about the ethics of piracy, not is it about comic books in general. This is about what I thought of Scott Pilgrim vs The World (the film). Lets get started with the good:

Lowest Common Denominator? Screw Em: When you have a film based on a previous piece of niche media, be it a comic book, a video game or a book, there is often the temptation to water down the original source material so those not indocrinated into the brotherhood don’t feel alienated. This happens mainly with video games, so seeing as Scott Pilgrim is heavily video game influenced, this was an ever present worry. But worry not my friends, Edgar Wright knows what he is doing. Just as he seemed to make Shuan of the Dead for zombie fans, he made Scott Pilgrim straight up for fans of the comic. That’s not to say that someone who hasn’t read the series won’t enjoy it. I went with my girlfriend, her sister and her cousin, none of which had read the comic, and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In fact, her cousin laughed the loudest out of the whole theatre.

Best Graphics Ever: I had my doubts that the film would be able to encapsulate the comic/video game art style of the original series. There were a lot of elements that work well in ink, but maybe not so well on screen. This wasn’t the case. From game style HUD moments to floating words to caption sound effects (watching Scott bang his head against a lampost with the words Thud, Thud, Thud hanging in the air above him was briliant) The fight scenes were beautifully choreographed and the effects really made them feel vibrant and suitably beat ‘em up!

Made From Concetrate…..d Win!: It’s often hard to distil a story that spans several volumes of graphic novel, over the course of months of even years. But Scott Pilgrim did this well, (but not without a few problems, see bellow). You have two choices in this situation 1) Put the plot on hyper speed to hit every point in 120 minutes, which can leave the audience confused and feeling rushed, or 2) Miss out some elements, which may be critical to side plots, don’t impact on the main story. Scott Pilgrim does a a little of both, which works really well in getting the story over, but does have some negative effects.

And now the Bad:

They Missed That Out: There were a few things missed from the film that were great parts of the comic. Clash at Demonheads drummers robot arm, Scotts 12 months moping about after Ramona leaves, Kim and Scotts history, and even Knives and Kims lesbian kiss! Although these plot points don’t contribute directly to the overall story of defeating 7 evil ex’s, they add flavour and a suitable environment. You don’t need salt and vinegar on your chips, but it’s nice to have it.
The biggest casualty was the ending, where it was revealed that the big band, Gideon Graves, had a collection of 7 ex girlfriends and planned to add Ramona to the collection. And everything was the result of his ability to mess with peoples heads and memories. That was all kind of glossed over in favour of a big bad mind control chip.
Oh yeah, they also forgot his samurai sword battle with Knives ninja father….

Hyperspeed Motion Blur: Sometimes accelerating a plot can make things seem a little rushed. For example, Scott seemed to transition from one Ex-Battle to the next in the space of 30 minutes (in film time) whereas in the comic the span was more like 3 month. This kept the pacing up in terms of visual stimulation, but the way the cast dealt with the pace seemed a little stilted. No one seemed to comment that Scott had fought one ex an hour ago and was now up against another.
But the biggest victim of the increased pace was our hero, Scott Pilgrim. In the comic, he falls in love with Ramona Flowers while he is still dating Knives Chau (who is very much in puppy love with him). Now although this is incredibly douchey, and he gets called out on this douche-bag behaviour, the pacing of the comic means that this issue is resolved, and Scott is punished for his actions, in suitable time. But this isn’t the case in the film. Scott seems to plunge into the full on Ramona relationship and defeating 7 evil exs before Knives name is even mentioned. My girlfriend commented multiple times that she was having trouble empathising with Scott because he was such a douche for cheating on Knives. And I had to agree that the pacing of the film made Scott into a giant douche.

Overall, I freaking loved this film and would definatly see if for a second time (paying to see it that time)

Faithfulness to Original: 7.5/10
Graphical Style: 8/10
Humour: 7/10
Awesomeness: 9/10

GamerPost #04 Assassins Creed 2 Review

Well, I’ve done it, I’ve finally fully completed a game. We’re talking 100% in game completion. We’re talking 1000/1000 gamer points. We’re talking EVERYTHING. As such, I feel I can offer my best possible review, breaking it down into what I loved and what I loathed.

LOVED IT

Some of the Old – This game took everything that was great about assassins creed and brought it back. The free running, the stealthy assassinations, they sick sense of pleasure you can get from using a throwing knife to send a guard toppling off a building. It was all there.

Something New – And it takes all these old classics and expands upon and adds to them. You now have access to poison blades which can be used to ‘indirectly’ kill guards. You can use the grab function in close combat to throw people off buildings. There’s a much wider selection of weapons, allowing you to choose between sword, spear or axe. The game adds so much to the experience it is simply fun to think up creative ways to off random guards.

Less Repetition – One thing Assassins Creed suffered from was being repetitive. AC2 does away with this. Each mission and side quest feels unique. I never once found myself thinking “Oh no, not this again” It was all fresh as a daisy.

Now He’s Got Character – The entire cast was well written and engaging, with a nice touch of dry, adult humour. You actually watch Ezio, the character you play as, grow and mature, from a rowdy teenager into a man, into an assassin.

Not Shying Away – The story doesn’t cut corners with plot. Ezio drinks, he has sex, he seeks revenge. It doesn’t gloss over anything. The best bit was a quick time event to take a girls top off (not that you actually saw anything).

LOATHED IT

Story? – I often at times found myself wondering ‘why?’ Why did I have to kill this man? Why was I listening to this person? There wasn’t a compelling story, which was a shame considering the wonderful characters that populated it.

Hmm, wonder what I can use that for? – The game also had a handful of items that just seemed tacked on. This includes two Da Vinci inventions, the wrist pistol and the flying machine. Apart from when you’re forced to use them, I found them inconvenient compared to the more ‘traditional’ hardware

Crystal Skull Syndrome – Spoiler Warning Right Here! The ending left something to be desired if I’m being honest. I think they gave away too much too quickly and have dimmed my interest in the third in the series. The alien/time travellers just leaves a bad taste in my mouth like at the end of the last Indiana Jones movie. I like my mysterious organisations surrounded in more, well, mystery.

Well, that’s convenient -  Some of the Puzzles just seemed a bit too conveniently set up. For example, you’d be expected to navigate a jumping puzzle that was supposedly set up when the building you’re in was first constructed, yet the puzzle would require  jumping to and from objects placed there during the renovation of the building. It just breaks the suspension of disbelief a little.

THE FINAL SCORE

Graphics – 8/10 – Nothing ground breaking, but still impressive and breath taking in places

Gameplay -  9/10 – A wonderful free running experience

Audio – 8/10 – I didn’t really notice the music much, although at times it did pick up quite nicely

Story – 6/10 – Like I said, I felt a little lost by the story at times and felt that I was just being dragged along for the ride.

OVERALL – 8/10

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 4 or….

So lets get the dull stuff out the way, my exercise crap. This week was a bit of what I’ll call a ‘blip’. On two separate days I ‘over indulged’ By over indulge, I mean one day where I partake in a large amount of funyuns and mountain dew, and another where I again consumed an excess of said funyuns, followed by KFC for dinner, which is never a good plan. But both these transgressions can be put into a suitable context, which I will do so later on.
On a more possitive context, my exercise and fruit consumption has greatly increased. I’m walking an average of 15+ miles a week minimum, with any journey of 2 miles or less being undertaken on foot. As for my sit up reps, I’m up to 50 reps a night, every night (that’s 350 a week!) and hopefully within the next week or so, I’ll be up to 60. I’ve found a devious method into tricking myself that I’m doing less than I am. I break my set down into ever decreasing groups of reps. For example, for 40 reps, I would do 20, rest for a few seconds and have a drink, 10 then rest, 5 then rest, 3, then 2. For my current 50, I’m doing 20, then 15, then 10, then 5. This works very well at helping me pace myself effectively.

Now on to the more awesome parts of my last week. Firstly we have dungeons and dragons on Sunday. Postponed from the previous week due to illness, this session was a prime example in the importance in feedback. By working with my players, I managed to iron out some minor problems they had been having.
There was a hilarious exchange between the five of us about an hour into the session, towards the end of the last encounter. One of my players had received an update to her Magic Missile attack. It now was an instant hit, set damage attack, meaning that minions (high defence, 1 hp monsters) would fall like dominoes before her. She was getting a little drunk with power and in the very last room, she walked in and saw a man in the corner. Literally the first thing she said after I put down the mini was ‘I shoot him with magic missile’ to which the following exchanged took place:

“I use magic missile!”
”Are you sure?”
”Yeah! Blast him with magic missile!”
”Are you really sure?”
”Um, yes? [to other players] Am I sure?”
”What was your quest?”
”Um, kill zombies?!”
Other Player “No, wait, it was to save some guy…..oh! Don’t magic missile him Wessie!”

This lead to a running joke about the groups Wizard using her magic missile to solve every possible problem. Slight cough? Magic missile to prevent spread of infection. Can’t open a jar? Magic missile! Drops her wallet? Magic Missile! It was a running joke for the whole day!

Onto Monday, my girlfriends dad bought us all some really tasty cuts of steak, which combined with tasty chips and long beans, made an amazing dinner. I hadn’t had a rare steak in so long, so it was amazingly tasty!

Then came Tuesday, and the best day of the week by far. You see, I’m signed up with a website that sends people free tickets for advanced screenings of films. And I managed to score a handful of tickets to go see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World! I’ve been psyched about this film for months, since reading the comics and I wasn’t disappointed! I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but if you ever played an 8bit game, or played video games full stop, or just ever felt awkward and useless in life, this film is for you. I can best describe it as Wayne's World for bitpunk generation! They nailed the casting, the key plot points, everything! SEE THIS FILM!

THAT IS ALL

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 3

Or “My Most Productive Week in a While, With A Few Complaints Thrown in For Fun”

First off, lets start with PLOT. I’ve noticed 3 major things with my weight loss ‘program’

1. I’m finding exercise progressively easier. I’m currently doing 40 sit ups a night and happily walking/cycling at least 4 miles a day. I’ve noticed a steady decrease in how tired I am after each bought of exercise. Now the obvious result of this is that I’m going to have to increase the amount of exercise in order to keep the benefit up.

2. People have begun to comment on my appearance, in a positive way I may add. I had to laugh when Viv told me that her aunt commented that I looked like I had lost weight and Viv was worried that I’d be offended by that. The only way I could have been offended was if her aunt had instead said “Davyd isn’t looking as fat any more” which would have still be encouraging. I’m finding this kind of feedback much more motivating that looking at scales every morning.

3. I’m not losing fat from the desire areas of my body in the order I’d prefer. In order to illustrate this, let me refer you an diagram.

This is me:

Or, more accurately, this is me:

 

Ideally this is how I’d like to lose weight, with red areas being most urgent, orange being second most, yellow being third most and green being least urgent:

Now this is how I’m currently losing weight:

As you can see, I’ve got much thinner/less flabby arms, but not much change in my stomach, sides and chest. My face is the only area that I’m currently happy with. As I am now, I have knobbly wrists and stringy arms, lol. But it’s still weight loss and I’m going to keep working at it.

Now for something different. This week has been pleasantly productive for me. I’ve finally managed to sort out my job seekers allowance. As some of you may know, I’m currently unemployed and as such have had to resort to claiming benefits. The first of these was job seekers allowance, a not insubstantial sum of £50 a week, which goes a long way when you know how to shop sensibly and eat healthily. After claiming several weeks ago, I received my first payment today, meaning I don’t have to stress over phone and internet bills, which is a weight off my mind.
Secondly there’s housing benefits, in order to help pay my rent. Now I’ve been even more stressed about this simply because it’s taking so long and I’m already behind on this months rent. But today I got a great phone call. My landlord had received my email about needing a proof of tenancy letter and a break down of inclusive bills. Not only is he not annoyed over the delay, he also said that he would make my share of the bills (in other words, how much of my all inclusive rent goes towards said bills) less. Officially this is because I rent the smallest room. What this does mean is that I will receive more towards my rent. Once I’ve got this letter and all my proof is sent off, hopefully it will all finally be sorted.

On a more recreational note, I’ve finally finished writing my second Dungeons and Dragons campaign; volume 2: Evil in the Dark. As some of you know, I dungeon master for a group of my friends and my girlfriend, and as part of this I’m writing a series of custom campaigns. Now these aren’t short little dungeon delves, they’re full on stories. The last volume, The Clockwork Quest, was 3 chapters (a chapter being roughly equal to one in game day) spread over 40 pages. This volume that I’ve just finished is 5 chapters over 55 pages with more monsters and loot than I’ve ever had before. Thankfully my group has scheduled to play fortnightly on a Sunday, which is working out really well, with the next meet up this coming Sunday. I’m currently working on a fictionalised account of the players adventures which I’m going to try and publish on here shortly.

Finally, I’ve managed to fix my adobe CS3 master collection. To add a dash of context, a few months ago, thankfully just after I finished uni, I got a rather unpleasant message about serial authentication server errors when I booted up Photoshop cs3. Since then, no matter how many times I tried to install master collection, none of the programs would successfully install, meaning I was stuck using Photoshop 7! I mean considering that we’re on CS5, using cs3 is pretty dated (Photoshop CS3 was released in April 2007, Photoshop 7 in 2002!) I had all but given up, resigned to the fact that my install file was damaged some how. Then I had an idea, I would install it on my girlfriends computer to check it worked. And it did! So I now knew that I needed to fix the problem on my computer. After a bit of research, I found out the adobe clean script, used to remove all tracers of adobe cs3, had a ‘secret’ level 3 clean mode. Normally you’re only given two levels of clean, with the second being the most thorough. Previously this hadn’t worked for me. On discovering there was a third level, I thought hell, I’d give it a shot. And after a few restarts, a chkdsk scan and a long install, I finally had a working copy of adobe master suite cs3! Spectacular! The main motivation for this was the news that I might be getting a small inheritance sum from my gran, who passed away last year. This made me think about what would be the best way to spend this, and one of the first things that came to mind was investing in an Intuos4 Large graphics tablet by Wacom. Now, I’m not going to bore you with specs, let me just say this thing is a beauty! OLED buttons, touch wheel with 4 modes for zoom, opacity or layer scrolling, 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt sensitivity and a widescreen work area bigger than A4 all means this is the device I need to start producing some serious portfolio work. Now this money is definite, but if it does come through, I will hopefully be able to start publishing some sketches and digi-paintings to my deviant art.

Well that’s all for this longer than average blog. Look after yourself internet peoples!

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 2

So, week 2 of my ‘exercise’ routine has rolled around and how am I doing I hear you all scream so very, very loud. Well, mixed I would say. Because I spent a lot time at Vivs, I wasn’t able to do my usual cardio, but kept doing my sit-ups. As I currently stand, I can do 40/40 (that’s 40 minutes of cardio, 40 sit ups). The sit-ups are getting easier surprisingly quickly. But yes, no cardio for a lot of this week, which wasn’t bothering me too much, because I was under the impression, that my previous impression, that doing reps didn’t burn much fat, just built muscle, was a wrong impression. But it later turned out that I had the wrong impression about having the wrong impression (but both impressions were still wrong). Long story short, reps don’t burn as much fat as cardio, but the still burn fat and help maintain core muscle. So I was a bit disappointed that I’d let my cardio slip. But there I found out something (not really that) surprising; walking and running burn roughly the same calories per mile.

You see, I usually calculated my cardio burn based on calories per hour, which is a very deceptive measurement scale. If you think about it, it would be much easier to walk for an hour than maybe run at a solid pace for 30 minutes, but running burns more calories per hour than walking, so walking isn’t the best option. But then I discovered/realised that if I look at calories per mile rather than per hour, they’re both the same, and it’s all due to thermodynamics. You see, calories are a measurement of energy, and work is the amount of energy (foodies) expended/transferred by moving a mass (fatty me) through a distance (the walk to shops). This is independent of velocity, and as such, a walk to the shops one mile away burns as many calories as a run to the same shop. Obviously the power (work done over time) is much higher for running, but when time isn’t a concern, walking is much better an option.

With this ‘new’ found knowledge in hand, I decided to sort out some errands I had to run. Now, a 4 mph walk speed burns 114 calories per mile, slower than this burns slightly less. With this in mind, I came up with a clever little plan:

1. Using Google maps, I planned my route to where I was going, choosing the longest route I could feasibly do (just under two miles). The trick is to not pick a route that is inanely longer, just say the longest out of your usual two or three routes.
2. Again using the googly maps, I made a note of 1/2 mile way point landmarks along the route. This worked out really well.
3. Knowing that I wanted to average 4mph, I set myself of reaching each waypoint at 7m30s intervals.
4. I left, stop watch running to help me keep pace. 4mph is a little faster than most peoples walking speed, think ‘the train is pulling into the station, you’re almost at the platform, ticket in hand, don’t want to run so you’ll just walk fast’ It’s sustainable
5. Much to my surprise, I made it to my destination within a minute (under actually) of my target and my return journey was bang on.

After working out how far I’d walked today (about 10 miles) I calculated I’d burnt just over 900 calories! I did two forty minute round trips (had to take something back to the shop two hours after purchasing it) and one thirty minute round trip.

Having learnt that walking can be a very viable way of burning the pounds, I’m planning to do it more. Obviously 4mph might not be feasible if you’re walking with others, but even 3mph burns 90 calories a mile!

I found the majority of my information from this article on the interwebnettubes. I haven’t managed to weigh myself yet (I’m still assuming I’m pretty close to my starting 200lb) but I’ve noticed that my wrists are looking thinner, lol!