The CineSneak returns after a three week hiatus. With a convincing British historical horror story set in the late 19th century.

Daniel Radcliffe starrs as a young widower who has to leave his son for the week to work as a lawman. Traveling to the country side he unravels the mystery of a haunted house which the locals would rather see abandoned. But not without causing more and more casualties to occur. Will he really be able to calm the unforgiving soul of the woman in black?

I’m actually glad this wasn’t shown in 3D…

… due to technical problems.

Hopefully they’ll get those fixed ’til the 22nd…

If you have a 3DS, try clicking on the pics in your 3DS browser to see them in 3D!

Nothing, really. Because due to technical problems there weren’t any screenings at the CineStar yesterday evening when I arrived, and there won’t be any until at least Wednesday, or so I was told. Thankfully they returned the money for my already paid ticket.

In 1987 a game changed the way we interact with opponents in JRPG battles: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei allowed the player to talk to and even befriend the enemies in addition to the option of fighting them. In the sequel from 1990 the player could even spare a boss’s life, capture him in a jar after his defeat and transformation into a measly frog. This act of mercy ultimately lead to the player being able to side with the demons against an absolutist god who would condemn all demons as evil. In Japan Megami Tensei II was considered one of the four great RPGs of its time, the other three being Dragon Quest IV, Final Fantasy III and Wizardry III.^{1 http://www.geocities.jp/dobiniq/4RPG-1.htm} Two years later in 1992, the series reached its peak with Shin Megami Tensei for SNES:

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1. http://www.geocities.jp/dobiniq/4RPG-1.htm [↩]

A small group of plane crash survivors tries to escape the cold and the wolves threatening their lives. Their numbers are severely reduced as we experience nature at its harshest and reality at its most cruel. Liam Neeson starrs as a professional wolf hunter trying to save his fellow male workers.

I guess there’s a first time for everything. I didn’t like this week’s offering at all.

One of the reasons for that was similar to why I couldn’t quite get into London Boulevard. Too realistically painful violence. But London Boulevard at least had a varied plot and likewise characters, with lots of dialog and characterization. In Safe House the action rarely ever stops. And there’s really only two characters that matter, the former CIA agent gone rogue played by Denzel Washington and the other guy who was supposed to keep him locked up.

The supporting cast gets so little screen time and dialog they are merely extras for the carnage that makes the guy not Denzel Washington question his loyalty to the CIA. And even these two major characters are being less illuminated than some of the minor ones in London Boulevard.

The other problem I had with Safe House was that the plot felt so empty. Of course it had some cool bad assery and lines to go along with it. But inbetween the few events that moved the plot forward there was too much reliance on action. Kind of like The Matrix.

It’s not that I as a viewer couldn’t sympathize with the message of the movie, but it takes an awful lot of time to say so little. Fill your narrative with some more detail and distractions or you’ll end up being obvious and trite.

If you liked the movie, good for you. It just wasn’t for me.

No comment.

I tried to do some pixelart levels this time, adapting some classic sprites that hopefully haven’t been adapted yet.

Bub from Bubble Bobble

Alena from DQIV (recolored)

Heracles from GoHII

I think the Heracles one nicely incorporates some bit of enacted “story-telling” that’s true to the series. Jump (down)! Jump weakly, boy!

And I also made one from scratch:

An original character by myself

Not much of an artist, as you can see.

Jean-Jacques Annaud’s new movie starring Antonio Banderas takes us back to the early 20th century when oil was discovered in the Arabian desert. While being an opportunity for change and for obtaining wealth this also caused violent repercussions over traditional and religious sentiments.