For about 5 years now I believe, I've been getting subscriptions to the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Throughout the years there have been good shows and there have been bad, but if nothing else Seattle Shakes always continues to be innovative. Sometimes that takes them in the terrible direction of playing Julius Caesar with a mixture of Japanese culture and modern tech, and sometimes it leads to a show like Electra.
At the beginning of the season, it was originally planned for Hamlet to occur at this point in the season. However, soon before the season started it was announced the director had gone through a family tragedy and wouldn't be able to do the show. Instead of keeping Hamlet under the guise of another director, Seattle Shakes decided to branch out into something completely unexpected...Greek tragedy. Needless to say I was a little surprised, and couldn't help but be skeptical. I've never seen a Greek tragedy performed before, but from reading the plays in high school I honestly thought there was no way to pull one off well. So, as a preface I should just say my expectations were a little lower than normal.
Then, I handed my ticket to the usher, stepped into the tiny antechamber right before you hit the stage, and found the lead actress (the incredible Marya Sea Kaminski) with her back to us, sitting in a tiny space watching what appeared to be old family movies playing on a white sheet in front of her. It looked like something taken directly from a modern art gallery, and I knew I was in for a treat.
Walking in on the stage, there is little but fences. Fencing around the columns, torn fencing along the back of the stage, and the frame of a door behind it. It looked almost post-apocalyptic, as well it should have been for the astounding amount of dread and grief in this play. Costumes were equally bleak, containing elements of traditional Greek attire (especially the queen) while at the same time conveying a sense that they could really be in any time period. It was a stylized blank slate, if you will.
For those unfamiliar with the story let me try to narrow it down. Electra's dad, Agamemnon (of The Iliad fame), sacrificed his other daughter to Artemis (goddess of the hunt), who had stilled the winds of the boats racing to Troy because Agamemnon had killed a deer and boasted about it. In exchange she required his daughter. So he did it, The Iliad happens, and then he returns home to be killed by his wife (Clytemnestra) and her lover Aegisthus who had a beef with Agamemnon over stuff their fathers did that was all too complicated for me to remember. In any case, Orestes, Agamemnon's son, was far away when this happened and thus stayed alive. When the play starts it has been 8 years since the murder, Orestes has returned secretly and Electra waits emotionally and physically beaten for his return so he can avenge their father.
The play, through no fault of its own, started out on a bad foot for me as the man playing Orestes, brother to Electra, was the same man who played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night which I saw a month ago. So for the first few minutes it was simply very hard to take him seriously since he was so damned funny in that role.
Nonetheless, he and two servants entered, gazed around as if they were spellstruck, and then started one of the most brilliant additions to this play: a prayer. But these were no ordinary prayers. Throughout the play the prayers ranged from spreading sand on the ground and speaking to the heavens, to this first instance, where the men prostrated themselves completely, sniffing in the dirt and grit, then rising, pounding their chests rhythmically. These prayers were primal, full of pure and absolute reverence for whichever god they were praying to. Frankly they were some of the most powerful moments in the play, which is impressive considering just how powerful the rest of the play was.
The real reason for this is Marya Sea Kaminski as Electra. She literally had no fear as an actress. The amount of grief, anger, and utter hopelessness that makes up this character would've seemed redundant, excessive, or even boring in the hands of someone else. But Kaminski managed to make each and every moment, each and every word she spoke, so potent and meaningful that throughout the entire 1 hour and 20 minute run time (with no intermission) I was completely captivated. And I for damn sure cried. More than once.
Because this play is filled with GRIEF. Heavy, somber, strangling grief. That, and fiery, wrathful, need-to-claw-someone-to-death anger. It's a heavy, heavy play that *spoiler warning* would've made me want to kill myself if it hadn't ended happily...at least for a tragedy.
The only unfortunate thing about this play was that besides Marya Sea Kaminski, the supporting performances were lackluster. There were several unfortunate Cornish students who either said little or nothing, the queen overreacted often, Electra's sister's (yes there's another one, who I forgot to mention...she serves the queen to avoid being hit basically) acting was just plain weird really, and Orestes failed to connect for me. But God bless Todd Jefferson Moore and John Bogar, both of whom showed up very little (especially John Bogar as the King who *spoiler warning again* shows up for the last 5 minutes and gets killed) and yet stole the show when they were there. Of course Kaminski would steal it right back from them but nonetheless they were excellent.
I came in skeptical, and I came out amazed.
Electra gets a 9.5/10.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Unfortunately I also have little to say about this movie, though I really wish I had more. It started out with such a great premise.
George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey were all part of a secret government agency called the New Earth Army that focused on developing psychic powers before the Russians did. Ewan McGregor is a reporter who, while interviewing a guy who he believes is crazy, stumbles across the existence of this group. Putting it aside as mere fancy, he travels to Iraq (after troubles with his wife) and miraculously stumbles upon the best psychic in the group, Clooney. They undertake a crazy mission together, searching for...something that Clooney refuses to reveal.
It's especially ironic they hired McGregor for the role as the psychic soldiers called themselves "Jedi" and there's no end to the references to it. And I'm sure it was intentional.
Still, I was totally hyped to see this movie. Great cast, fun concept, basically all the trappings of a great movie. Alas, that isn't what it was. Yes, it was fun, but it was reeeally stupid. They made a lot of jokes, but they just weren't that funny. A lot of the movie simply relied on us laughing at how crazy all these guys were. And it wasn't even the cast's fault. Everyone did a great job as expected. But as happens with so many movies like this the script just let them down. It certainly had its moments but more often than not just came across as silly and forgettable.
The Men Who Stare At Goats gets a 5.5/10.
George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey were all part of a secret government agency called the New Earth Army that focused on developing psychic powers before the Russians did. Ewan McGregor is a reporter who, while interviewing a guy who he believes is crazy, stumbles across the existence of this group. Putting it aside as mere fancy, he travels to Iraq (after troubles with his wife) and miraculously stumbles upon the best psychic in the group, Clooney. They undertake a crazy mission together, searching for...something that Clooney refuses to reveal.
It's especially ironic they hired McGregor for the role as the psychic soldiers called themselves "Jedi" and there's no end to the references to it. And I'm sure it was intentional.
Still, I was totally hyped to see this movie. Great cast, fun concept, basically all the trappings of a great movie. Alas, that isn't what it was. Yes, it was fun, but it was reeeally stupid. They made a lot of jokes, but they just weren't that funny. A lot of the movie simply relied on us laughing at how crazy all these guys were. And it wasn't even the cast's fault. Everyone did a great job as expected. But as happens with so many movies like this the script just let them down. It certainly had its moments but more often than not just came across as silly and forgettable.
The Men Who Stare At Goats gets a 5.5/10.
Fame (2009)
I'm going to keep this nice and short.
It's a movie about a bunch of high school kids in a conservatory trying to graduate and become famous doing something arts related.
First off I was amazed to hear them say it was a high school as just about every cast member looked college age. That was just about the only memorable thing. Every song, every dance, every acting performance was just plain bland. It all mixed together into one big undeveloped mess. There were a whole lot of characters in this movie, and a few are given about one or two scenes in which to develop while most are left completely out to dry, never giving us any reason to care about them.
It tried so hard to focus on the performances these kids put on (which were only okay, really) that it lost focus of everything else.
Fame (2009) gets a 4/10.
It's a movie about a bunch of high school kids in a conservatory trying to graduate and become famous doing something arts related.
First off I was amazed to hear them say it was a high school as just about every cast member looked college age. That was just about the only memorable thing. Every song, every dance, every acting performance was just plain bland. It all mixed together into one big undeveloped mess. There were a whole lot of characters in this movie, and a few are given about one or two scenes in which to develop while most are left completely out to dry, never giving us any reason to care about them.
It tried so hard to focus on the performances these kids put on (which were only okay, really) that it lost focus of everything else.
Fame (2009) gets a 4/10.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Borderlands
So, I haven't technically finished the game, nor have I even played any other character class besides Mordecai, the sniper. Still, I think I've played enough hours now to get a good feel for the game.
Borderlands takes place on the bandit-ridden world of Pandora. In a brief initial cinematic, you choose which of four classes you would like to play as. Mordecai, the sniper, Roland, the soldier, Lilith, the Siren (relies on elemental attacks and teleportation), and Brick, the berserker (fists and explosives). Each class comes with their own special ability and skill trees. For example, Mordecai's ability is to summon Bloodwing, a bird that flies out and attacks a target you designate. His skill trees are essentially oriented towards either sniping, improving Bloodwing, or pistols.
After choosing you're dropped off in your first town, Fyrestone. You arrive just in time to find it overrun by bandits, and have to kill them all and save the town. This is when you begin to discover the true magic of the game. Remember Diablo 2? How it consumed many of our souls for years and years, and still continues to be awesome? And how most of that was because of the massive randomization of weapons, equipment, and maps? Well, while the maps are the same, Borderlands uses the same kind of randomization for weapons and shields, allowing for a total of approximately 17 million weapons.
17...MILLION. And with the new expansion packs it can only be assumed that number has increased.
The main story is actually that you're in the search of some kind of Vault that contains unimaginable treasure, and a mystical Guardian Angel speaks to you to tell you what you need to do to reach it. Along the way you help rid Pandora of hordes upon hordes of gangs and weird but deadly wildlife. At least, that's supposed to be the story. But really this whole game is one long quest for better loot. There are TONS of side quests along the main one, some promising their own unique weapons, but the funny thing is that often by the time you finish one of these quests you've actually found a random drop that's better than the quest one. Nonetheless, there are still some quite funny things you do (unclogging crap from some pipes is one example) that make each quest different and fun to go on.
The terrible thing about this is that just like Diablo 2, it's terribly addicting. You're always on the search for something better, and the good drops are random enough to keep you going for hours. Not only that, but once you've played through the game you're allowed to go through again just with harder enemies (Nightmare difficulty anyone?), and once you've done that...you can do it again (Hell difficulty). Technically there's 4 person online co-op that I haven't tried yet, which could add all sorts of fun to it, but the single player campaign is enough to keep you hunting for a long long time.
The graphics aren't that great honestly. Yes, I realize they're "stylized" but it mostly looks like an excuse to not focus as much on it. The settings all look similar as well. Perhaps this will change as I move into new areas, but the first two are both bland desert with rocks and some weird plant life. Oh, and some caves. There are vehicles you can ride around that not only make it easier to move around the giant maps, but also make it ridiculously easy to take out anything you come across by running it over. Unfortunately, at least on PC, it suffers from the same ridiculous mechanics as Resistance, where you push forward or back to accelerate or reverse, but it will only do it in the direction the camera is facing, creating endless annoyance as you try to strafe and can't. Thankfully it at least lets you lock on to enemies, making it somewhat easier, but still it's a hassle.
Essentially Borderlands takes Diablo 2's randomization, plugs it into an FPS with RPG elements, and then sits back and leaves you on a mad search for better guns. Still, the characters are funny, the battles are challenging, and even though I know that the entire game is essentially one big experiment in variable reinforcement, it's still a whole lot of fun.
Borderlands gets an 8/10.
Borderlands takes place on the bandit-ridden world of Pandora. In a brief initial cinematic, you choose which of four classes you would like to play as. Mordecai, the sniper, Roland, the soldier, Lilith, the Siren (relies on elemental attacks and teleportation), and Brick, the berserker (fists and explosives). Each class comes with their own special ability and skill trees. For example, Mordecai's ability is to summon Bloodwing, a bird that flies out and attacks a target you designate. His skill trees are essentially oriented towards either sniping, improving Bloodwing, or pistols.
After choosing you're dropped off in your first town, Fyrestone. You arrive just in time to find it overrun by bandits, and have to kill them all and save the town. This is when you begin to discover the true magic of the game. Remember Diablo 2? How it consumed many of our souls for years and years, and still continues to be awesome? And how most of that was because of the massive randomization of weapons, equipment, and maps? Well, while the maps are the same, Borderlands uses the same kind of randomization for weapons and shields, allowing for a total of approximately 17 million weapons.
17...MILLION. And with the new expansion packs it can only be assumed that number has increased.
The main story is actually that you're in the search of some kind of Vault that contains unimaginable treasure, and a mystical Guardian Angel speaks to you to tell you what you need to do to reach it. Along the way you help rid Pandora of hordes upon hordes of gangs and weird but deadly wildlife. At least, that's supposed to be the story. But really this whole game is one long quest for better loot. There are TONS of side quests along the main one, some promising their own unique weapons, but the funny thing is that often by the time you finish one of these quests you've actually found a random drop that's better than the quest one. Nonetheless, there are still some quite funny things you do (unclogging crap from some pipes is one example) that make each quest different and fun to go on.
The terrible thing about this is that just like Diablo 2, it's terribly addicting. You're always on the search for something better, and the good drops are random enough to keep you going for hours. Not only that, but once you've played through the game you're allowed to go through again just with harder enemies (Nightmare difficulty anyone?), and once you've done that...you can do it again (Hell difficulty). Technically there's 4 person online co-op that I haven't tried yet, which could add all sorts of fun to it, but the single player campaign is enough to keep you hunting for a long long time.
The graphics aren't that great honestly. Yes, I realize they're "stylized" but it mostly looks like an excuse to not focus as much on it. The settings all look similar as well. Perhaps this will change as I move into new areas, but the first two are both bland desert with rocks and some weird plant life. Oh, and some caves. There are vehicles you can ride around that not only make it easier to move around the giant maps, but also make it ridiculously easy to take out anything you come across by running it over. Unfortunately, at least on PC, it suffers from the same ridiculous mechanics as Resistance, where you push forward or back to accelerate or reverse, but it will only do it in the direction the camera is facing, creating endless annoyance as you try to strafe and can't. Thankfully it at least lets you lock on to enemies, making it somewhat easier, but still it's a hassle.
Essentially Borderlands takes Diablo 2's randomization, plugs it into an FPS with RPG elements, and then sits back and leaves you on a mad search for better guns. Still, the characters are funny, the battles are challenging, and even though I know that the entire game is essentially one big experiment in variable reinforcement, it's still a whole lot of fun.
Borderlands gets an 8/10.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
After hearing so much about Uncharted 2 being the most amazing game ever made, I knew I was going to have to play it eventually. I hate jumping into a game series without knowing all the stuff that came before it, and so I picked up Drake's Fortune.
I should say that I started out with somewhat low expectations. From what I had heard, Uncharted is a fun single player experience, but as you're stuck on a tropical island the entire time the settings merge together, and as such it's really only good as a one-time playthrough.
So first let me say, THOSE REVIEWS WERE WRONG.
Uncharted is by far one of the best single player experiences I have ever played. And with all the praise being heaped on Uncharted 2 I literally cannot wait to jump right in. However, let's deal with the details since this technically is a review and not just me saying "IT'S SO AWESOME!". Though it kind of will be that.
Uncharted sets you in the treasure hunting shoes of Nathan Drake, descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake. Nate gets a tip about the location of Drake's tomb, and assumedly the treasures that are also contained wherein. Nathan is joined by his long time friend Sully, and Elena, a reporter sent by the people who financed the mission to record everything for a documentary. They quickly find the coffin of Drake, open it up...and find nothing, proving that Drake actually faked his own death. However, he left behind essentially a guide book full of clues towards the location of the fabled treasure of El Dorado (which happens to be a big golden statue and not a city). Before you have a chance to sneeze, pirates come to steal the treasure are upon you and the action begins. From then on it's basically a non-stop action movie involving Spaniards, Nazis, car chases, jet skis, ancient puzzles, and a HUGE twist that officially solidified it as just plain awesome.
Consider it as Indiana Jones: the game. Except better.
Gameplay consists of typical platforming/puzzle solving, third-person firefights, and a fun combination of the two where you can be hanging from a ledge and using it as cover while you toss grenades at your foes. Cover is heavily used in this game. If you're not behind something, you're pretty much dead. Unless you're reeeeal good at headshots. There are also vehicle sequences, one in a truck where you're shooting down pursuers and I think 3 jet ski sequences where you're zipping through the water avoiding gunfire and exploding barrels. Unfortunately the jet ski controls are pretty flunky, and it's a big hassle to stop, shoot barrels, and then keep going, but the car chase was all kinds of fun since all you're doing is shooting down cars and watching them go BOOM. Some of the platforming elements can be hard to get sometimes as well, especially since the button to hang off an edge is the same button to roll, creating some amusing times when Nathan will roll straight off a cliff. For the most part, however, everything runs smoothly and takes little effort to master.
And once you do master it, boy does it all look pretty. The jumping, hanging, swinging, shooting...hell, even when Nathan is just walking or running it looks lifelike. And this is all not to mention the BEAUTIFUL scenery. When I first looked around at all the trees, and the sunset, in HD, I just kind of stood there for a minute looking at how pretty it was. And as for the uniformity in scenery, that's a lie. Every single location looks different from the last and carries its own fun things to look at.
On top of the great graphics and fun action gameplay comes the greatest piece of the puzzle, the characters. What makes a truly great game or series of games last are the characters involved, and these are in a solid place to last for many games to come. The dialogue is hilarious, and it's actually witty instead of trying to be so. Everyone, even the villains, are likable. And much like Indiana Jones, Nathan isn't some big macho guy set to kill an army, he's just a normal guy with some skills who gets into a lot of trouble.
Like any straight single player game, there is admittedly little replay value. However, I have no doubt that I'll be playing through it again at some point, trying to collect the 60 treasures hidden throughout (I found 20) and unlocking some of the harder trophies (like kill 5 enemies in a row with a single punch after softening them up with gunfire), and I'll do it because it's fun and it's challenging enough to always make it interesting.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune gets a 9/10.
I should say that I started out with somewhat low expectations. From what I had heard, Uncharted is a fun single player experience, but as you're stuck on a tropical island the entire time the settings merge together, and as such it's really only good as a one-time playthrough.
So first let me say, THOSE REVIEWS WERE WRONG.
Uncharted is by far one of the best single player experiences I have ever played. And with all the praise being heaped on Uncharted 2 I literally cannot wait to jump right in. However, let's deal with the details since this technically is a review and not just me saying "IT'S SO AWESOME!". Though it kind of will be that.
Uncharted sets you in the treasure hunting shoes of Nathan Drake, descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake. Nate gets a tip about the location of Drake's tomb, and assumedly the treasures that are also contained wherein. Nathan is joined by his long time friend Sully, and Elena, a reporter sent by the people who financed the mission to record everything for a documentary. They quickly find the coffin of Drake, open it up...and find nothing, proving that Drake actually faked his own death. However, he left behind essentially a guide book full of clues towards the location of the fabled treasure of El Dorado (which happens to be a big golden statue and not a city). Before you have a chance to sneeze, pirates come to steal the treasure are upon you and the action begins. From then on it's basically a non-stop action movie involving Spaniards, Nazis, car chases, jet skis, ancient puzzles, and a HUGE twist that officially solidified it as just plain awesome.
Consider it as Indiana Jones: the game. Except better.
Gameplay consists of typical platforming/puzzle solving, third-person firefights, and a fun combination of the two where you can be hanging from a ledge and using it as cover while you toss grenades at your foes. Cover is heavily used in this game. If you're not behind something, you're pretty much dead. Unless you're reeeeal good at headshots. There are also vehicle sequences, one in a truck where you're shooting down pursuers and I think 3 jet ski sequences where you're zipping through the water avoiding gunfire and exploding barrels. Unfortunately the jet ski controls are pretty flunky, and it's a big hassle to stop, shoot barrels, and then keep going, but the car chase was all kinds of fun since all you're doing is shooting down cars and watching them go BOOM. Some of the platforming elements can be hard to get sometimes as well, especially since the button to hang off an edge is the same button to roll, creating some amusing times when Nathan will roll straight off a cliff. For the most part, however, everything runs smoothly and takes little effort to master.
And once you do master it, boy does it all look pretty. The jumping, hanging, swinging, shooting...hell, even when Nathan is just walking or running it looks lifelike. And this is all not to mention the BEAUTIFUL scenery. When I first looked around at all the trees, and the sunset, in HD, I just kind of stood there for a minute looking at how pretty it was. And as for the uniformity in scenery, that's a lie. Every single location looks different from the last and carries its own fun things to look at.
On top of the great graphics and fun action gameplay comes the greatest piece of the puzzle, the characters. What makes a truly great game or series of games last are the characters involved, and these are in a solid place to last for many games to come. The dialogue is hilarious, and it's actually witty instead of trying to be so. Everyone, even the villains, are likable. And much like Indiana Jones, Nathan isn't some big macho guy set to kill an army, he's just a normal guy with some skills who gets into a lot of trouble.
Like any straight single player game, there is admittedly little replay value. However, I have no doubt that I'll be playing through it again at some point, trying to collect the 60 treasures hidden throughout (I found 20) and unlocking some of the harder trophies (like kill 5 enemies in a row with a single punch after softening them up with gunfire), and I'll do it because it's fun and it's challenging enough to always make it interesting.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune gets a 9/10.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
District 9
Just about everything in this movie felt like a refreshing change. This alien invasion gone wrong film from newcomer Neil Blomkamp sets us in Johannesburg, South Africa instead of the typical disaster areas like New York. The actual invasion isn't really an invasion and instead ends up with a dead mothership hovering above the city while its 1 million alien inhabitants remain below. Instead of desperately fighting for their independence, the aliens actually make do and integrate many aspects of human culture into their slum. Most of the beginning and end of the film are from a documentary perspective, which while it has been done before works quite well for this scenario. It's what happens when you take a Hollywood like movie and take it out of Hollywood's hands, instead giving it to someone with a fresh perspective.
Without giving too much away, the humans can no longer abide having the aliens living so close to them and decide they need to be relocated farther out of the city. A new project manager, Wikus van de Merwe, portrayed brilliantly by Sharlto Copley, is assigned to the task. In a series of interviews and test shots we see Wikus as a kind of silly, awkward guy who just can't believe his luck. He and his replacement in training set out with the military to confront the aliens and give them notice that they have to leave. While many houses they raid contain alien weapons, one house in particular holds something that changes Wikus' life forever.
Many complained that Blomkamp took a great premise and then turned it into a mindless action flick for the second half. I disagree. Instead I thought the action fit quite well into the story and the message of the film, and they built up to it a lot better than most action movies out there. The action and special effects were especially great for being built on a low budget yet looking top of the line.
It certainly had its problems along the way, but I easily overlooked them.
District 9 gets an 8/10.
Without giving too much away, the humans can no longer abide having the aliens living so close to them and decide they need to be relocated farther out of the city. A new project manager, Wikus van de Merwe, portrayed brilliantly by Sharlto Copley, is assigned to the task. In a series of interviews and test shots we see Wikus as a kind of silly, awkward guy who just can't believe his luck. He and his replacement in training set out with the military to confront the aliens and give them notice that they have to leave. While many houses they raid contain alien weapons, one house in particular holds something that changes Wikus' life forever.
Many complained that Blomkamp took a great premise and then turned it into a mindless action flick for the second half. I disagree. Instead I thought the action fit quite well into the story and the message of the film, and they built up to it a lot better than most action movies out there. The action and special effects were especially great for being built on a low budget yet looking top of the line.
It certainly had its problems along the way, but I easily overlooked them.
District 9 gets an 8/10.
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