SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN: IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES TILL YOU BREAK THE MAGIC MIRROR

Monitor monitor on my desktop which fairy tale rewrite is the bestest of all?

Rebooting fairy tales is all the rage these days. Currently on TV is the series Grimm (which I haven't seen) and Once Upon a Time of which I am quite fond. The show is a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale complete with dwarves, evil queen, prince Charmings and with nods to other stories such as Red Riding Hood.

Earlier this year we had Mirror Mirror a live action movie that also tackles the Snow White myth. I have not seen this movie, by all accounts it's a "family friendly" retelling starring a prostitute .. I mean, Julia Roberts

All of which brings us to Snow White and the Huntsman, the reboot of the fairy tale that we recently saw. This ain't no Disney story one could say. Yes, there is an evil queen (Charlize Theron) there is an innocent princess (Kristen Stewart) there is an apple and there are dwarves; there is even a scene where Snow White walks through a forest and much like the Disney cartoon birds sing, flowers bloom ... But there is also a scene where she walks through another forest full of dead birds, slime that eats horses and blackened trees that expel noxious gas

Let's start with the story: SPOILER ALERT YADDA YAADA: Snow White is the daughter of a beloved widowed king who is beguiled by a young woman; Ravena (Theron) turns out to be far from your average damsel in distress. She is, in fact, the Evil Queen and along with her brother (a relationship creepier than most of the dark magic in the movie) she kills the King and sets about killing the kingdom. She endugeons Snow, needing the girl's beauty to keep herself beautiful, not to mention immortal

There is of course a mirror that the Queen consults and from which she gets advise, very much like in the TV series Once Upon A Time. This mirror starts out as a large bronze disc then morphs into a kind of liquid metal human figure, like a medeval T2. Morhping, or more accurately, shape changing is a common theme in the movie, as it is in many mythologies. Ravena can morph into a murder of crows and with the help of enough virgin girls, much in the way of Elizabeth Bathory, morphs from old hag to .. well .. Charlize Theron

Needless to say Snow eventually escapes from Ravena and goes in search of the one Duke who fights the Queen and her childhood friend William. Right, here comes the Huntsman, a drunk emotionally crippled by the death of his wife, hired by Ravena to enter the Dark Forest and retrieve the escaped princess

The dwarves are stumbled upon and they are not the Dopey, Sneezy etc we've come to know. But they are indeed miners, or once were and it is through them that we realize Snow's true purpose and power and the little fellas, along with the hunky Huntsman, devote themselves to helping Snow regain the kingdom

Mostly the story is as simple as all that sounds but Ravena is given a backstory that provides her character with some empathy; I would have liked to learned more about her past but really, this movie is about the visuals and they are spectacular and they do help to tell the story. Some of the visuals remind me of director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) while at other times, with the dwarves and the Huntsman and William and Snow trudging across mountains, it harkens to the Lord of the Rings.

For the most part the cast works well. Charlize Theron absolutely tears up the scenery as Ravena but she is the most watchable thing in the movie; this is Oscar calibre hambone and it's incredibly entertaining to watch.

Chris Hemsworth is a viable Huntsman, he has none of the hautiness of his previous work as Thor, he conveys a human side, but like his superhero outings displays an impressive physical capability, even when it's fighting drunk. Drunken fighting can be an art form, ask Jackie Chan. As William, Sam Clafin does an awful lot with very little. His character as an adult does not have a ton of screen time but he invests in the role and looks handy with his bow

Kristen Stewart as Snow White is another matter. She physically suits the part perfectly. But she's given a lot of scenes where her character is required to show emotion without dialogue and Ms Stewart often fails in that regard. What should be pain or regret often comes across as "Should I order the extra foam on my latte" Whereas Theron dives into her character with both feet, a pair of Goth waterwings and a rose in her teeth, Stewart just drags her toes through the water

The other problem I had with the movie were the dwarves. Overall, the acting was very good and, like Sam Clafin, the actors did a lot with very little. But these are some very good actors including Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane. And therein lies the problem. All of the dwarves are portrayed by full sized actors. For one, I find this a bit disapointing, anyone who has seen Game of Thrones realizes that there are gifted little people actors out there. Secondly, the visuals to make these tall actors look little just doesn't quite work. When contrasted against "unaffected" actors the dwarves just don't seem quite right. And although they are sometimes given gravitas, they are often the main source of giggles in the movie

These concerns aside, Snow White and the Huntsman worked for me. I expected it to be dark but it was a bit more substantial than I had expected. I don't know if the story and characters will linger with me for long but they were compelling in the moment of watching. The visuals were powerful, the score very effective and Charlize Theron was more than worth the price of admission.

I see this trend of rebooting fairy tales continuing for some time. What will be next. Humpty Dumpty the First Expendable.

THE PLAYER YOU ARE, THE GAMER YOU GET

I know you've all been waiting. I know you all want it. I wasn't going to give in to the pressure but damnit, I'm only human so yes ..  yes ... here is a new list post.

Human and, apparently, delusional. Ahem.

I've written about movies and I've written about books and I've written about music; now it's time for one of my other favorite distractions: Video games.

My gaming goes back to the PC versions of Wolfenstien and Doom and continues today on the X Box. I do not play online. I like to think that I am capable of keeping my ego in check but no one wants to have their cyber asses handed to them by a bunch of 12 year kids ... and their 9 year old brothers. So I tend to favour single campaign games, I like shooters and I like RPGs (Role Player Games). I don't tend to play straight away strategy games, fighter games or platformers though I don't mind a bit of each of those in the mix.

All that being said, here's a list of my favorite games. They are not necessarily ranked in any kind of order, though my faves will generally show up later in the list.

MAX PAYNE: I played the first two editions of this game on a PC and am currently playing the third installment on my XBox.

Max Payne is a third person shooter. A way, way shooter. I'm about half way through Max Payne 3 and my body count exceeds 1.000. Boo yaw. But this is no average shooter. It is infused with tons of atmosphere, much of it gained from Max's film noirish voice over all supplied by actor James McCaffery, with a dark storyline that includes the murder of NYC cop Max's family, designer drugs, corporate villains, corrupt politicians, betrayal and loss

There is also bullet time, an effect that allows you to throw Max into a slow motion arc as he he mows down the bag guys, Matrix style. The first two games employed comic book like panels to tell the story, the new version uses cinematic effects in its very long cut scenes. Sometimes there are too many cut scenes, where I felt more a passive observer than being involved in the action but the game does have some of the most seamless transitions between cut scene and game play I'ver ever experienced

The first two games had a few more puzzles to solve and the hard boiled dialogue was a bit more effective, but the third version has a lot of colour and just tons of atmosphere; the primal colours of the flavella, a Brazillian barrio, is something lacking from the first two games

HALF LIFE TWO: I've played both editions of this game but the second installment is a true stand out for me. It's a first person sci fi shooter/adventure game where you play Gordon Freeman, the toughest most kick ass nuclear physicist of all time

Your task, as Freeman, is to travel across the futuristic City 17 and help lead a rebellion against aliens, zombies, and an evil corporation. It is a largely linear storyline but you still have choices you can make; there is a lot of shooting but also puzzles to solve. Gordon is a one man phD army but you also gain companions along the way who can help you out.

It's a game with strong shooter elements, you collect weapons (including the anti gravity gun which becomes one of the coolest things ever) but it also has a lot of little puzzles to work out. There are some interesting characters to meet along the way and you gain temporary companions to aid you, at one point you even gain a squad of fighters that you can control. So the game has a lot of variety.

WET: This is another third person shooter and where it is a bit threadbare in terms of story, it is just flat out a riot to play. You play hitwoman and mercenary Rubi Malone, about as tough and sexy character as you will ever find in gaming

As I said, not too strong on story, there is a task there is portrayal and what there mostly is, a lot of characters to dispatch. Rubi is a bit in the vein of Laura Croft wherein she has a lot of agile moves to employ both in the fighting and in some fun platforming sections.

Memorable sequences involve car surfing in heavy traffic in the middle of a gunfight, manuvering yourself in freefall thorugh flying plane wreckage as you're shooting and the effect when Rubi gets blood in here eyes and the graphics become black and red as she enters berserker mode. The game also features flat out one of the best soundtracks of any game I've played.

FAR CRY 2: There is a series of games called Far Cry but really, this game stands alone from the ones before it and the new one soon to be released. Whereas the other Far Cry games take place on a mysterious island, Far Cry 2 is set in a fictional African country, a huge open world environment often referred to as a "sandbox"

This game is a first person shooter with RPG (role play game) element, which I'll refer to as a hybrid. The RPG elements come into play in terms you are able to choose from several character presets; each one plays slightly differently but it's sort of a specious point: Although the world is open you are pretty much forced to play the same story every time with only a few choices to be made. A true RPG usually gives you far more choices. But they also don't have such heavy combat, weapons selection etc that harken to a true shooter like Max Payne

The game has some flaws. Primarily it's the respawning of enemies; you can clear out a location of bad guys, return there 10 minutes later and they're all back. I get the point of needing enemies but it gets to the point of hindering smooth game play. The game has several factions that you can play for but as you drive from one location to the other you are constantly assailed by bad guys for no apparent reason. The plot is so convoluted it makes no sense and although you get to choose from two possible endings, neither one is satisfactory

Having said that, I've played this game several times. The locations are haunting, you get to pick up some fighting companions along the way, the choice of weapons and vehicles are entertaining; hell, you can use a hanglider if that's your fancy. Flying a hanglider and shooting high powered weapons: What's not to love.

BORDERLANDS: This is another hybrid between first person shooter and RPG. You get to choose from playing between several characters, each of whom has different and unique which makes replaying a worthwhile endeavour.

This is a fun game. The action is set on an alien world which may contain a vault of extraterrestial goodies for which you are hunting. There is a basic overlaying storyline but dozens and dozens of other quests and missions given to you by a disparate set of characters. There is lots of action and lots and lots and lots and lots of guns.

The game has a wonky sense of humour some of which is expressed in some of the hilariously violent ways you can dispatch your enemies. It also has a very unique look to it, with thick black lines that reminds one of comic book art. The ending is a bit weak but that's a fairly common problem with a lot of video games

What is nice, is that you can play on after you complete the main storyline and pick up any side quests you haven't completed. You can also play through the entire game from the beginning as your character with all the perks, weapons and abilities you've acquired, though your enemies have likewise "powered" up.

JUST CAUSE 2: Another game sequel that doesn't require you to have played the first, I didn't. This is a first person shooter where you play super secret agent Rico, your mission to go to an island nation, infaltrate the various warring factions and create a lot of Hell

The causing Hell is a lot of fun. There is a main story line and, like Borderlands, dozens of side missions but you gain experience points (which unlock weapons and further locations) from creating what the game calls Chaos which can be anything from blowing up reactors to driving through a gas station. Rico is equipped with a pair of grappling hooks and a parachute, the combination of which provides  you with the some of the coolest moves in gaming, from being able to topple statues, climbing the sides of skyscrapers and flinging yourself up into helicopters.

The world which in you play is a sandbox and a huge one. You can go anywhere, you can steal (Grand Theft Auto style) cars, jeeps, trucks, helicopters, boats, jets ... You can traffic surf, jumping from vehicle to vehicle; jump on the wrong car and the driver slams to a halt yelling "What you doing on my car!" Hilarious. Some of the side missions are fairly repetitive in nature and get to be monotonous but three is action aplenty and lots of creativity in how Rico escapes from his pursuers.

MIRROR'S EDGE: This game is roughly ten years old now, it is fairly flawed in some ways but it holds a very special place in my heart. It is a first person shooter with some very unique gameplay elements that puts it into a class all its own.

Mirror's Edge takes place in a future city which has been taken over by an oppressive government which is controlled by your stereotypical evil corporations. You play Faith, a Runner, who uses her parkour skills to move across the roof tops of the city delivering packages that are "off the grid". What the packages are we never learn, to whom she is delivering them in never really clearly defined and how this all helps the revolution is never explained. The vagueness of the world and its workings is part of the problems in this game but in the long run they don't matter: The story involves Faith trying to clear the name of her sister, a cop who is framed by the vague evil overpowers. In making the story a personal one you lose a lot of context but you gain some genuine emotional rapport.

What makes this game work is Faith's parkour abilities and the incredible way they are transferred to your first person perspective. You run across roof tops, you scale buildings, you leap from one giant crane to another, your run across vertical surfaces, you flip from poles ... when Faith is being pursued, the camera movements, the sense of impact through the controlling and the sound of her breathing really gives you a visceral sense of all this action, unlike any other game I've played,

The movements, however, are not easy to master. They are in fact very difficult. Don't hit a button exactly right and you send Faith plummeting to her death. This has a disconcerting effect of breaking the flow in a game where flow is very important. It took me a couple of run throughs to get proficient, and once I did I truly began to appreciate how exciting the game is. Luckily, it's a very short story so you can run through it quickly, which may be part of the reason why they make it so tricky to learn, it extends the playing experience, thought not in a particularly satisfying way.

Faith can fight hand to hand which works well and she can use guns which doesn't work so well. The game has a beautiful graphic design, the city is mostly rendered in tones of white and blue with occasional flashes of over saturated reds and oranges. It's quite quite beautiful. The voice acting is also very strong. Most of the cut scenes are done in a very two dimensional anime style that is a bit jarring at first but which I dame to appreciate. Other cut scenes are rendered in the same three dimensional style as the rest of the game and it makes things a bit uneven. Still, I came to love the city, I came to love the parkour action and Faith is one of my favorite characters in gaming.

FALLOUT THREE: This is getting close to being the most successful cross between an RPG and a first person action game. You follow a fairly linear storyline but in an open world in which you get to set many of your character's attributes from gender, to look, to attributes such as intelligence, strength, aggression etc. You also have the ability to flip back and forth between first and third person perspectives but it works best in first person mode.

Fallout takes place in a future that has been devastated by an atomic war. But it was a war that happened in an alternate 1950's america so the apocalypse has a lovely vintage feel to it. The game unfolds in a bombed out Washington DC and environs and the setting is a big part of the joy of this game; the world is rendered with a gritty realism. The image of the Mall, with a headless Lincoln Monument and the Washington spire is a haunting one.

Some people retreated into giant vaults to escape the war and you play one of these vault dwellers, a person who knows nothing of the world above, you are forced outside in a quest to find your father. Along the way you meet a diverse cast of characters including humans, irradiated ghouls, murderous supermutants and a wide variety of monsters. Some characters can be convinced to accompany you and provide you with back up in some fairly intense firefights. There are various factions and you have the option to play evil or good; no matter which you choose you build up corresponding kharma which can affect how other characters respond to you And you can get a dog companion. Of course I have to love a game where you get a dog

There is a lot going on here. The world is huge and diverse, there are many side missions to complete and a lot of advantage to just wandering around. There is some nice off kilter humour in some of your encounters and the dialouge options offer a nice variety. There is good voice acting including Liam Neeson as the father and Malcom McDowell as an evil leader with a hidden agenda.

The ending is a bit weak but this is a game with high replay potential and I seem to discover something new every time I play it

FALLOUT NEW VEGAS: Another Fallout game but not really a sequel. The action takes place years later and in a different location, this time the post apocalyptic landscape of Las Vegas and the Nevada desert. Once again, these locales are a big part of the game, you start in the desert and when you finally see the lights of Vegas it gives you a little chill

This Fallout gives you even more choices in your role playing. You begin the game as a courier who has been shot and left for dead, all for posession of a platinum poker chip. Off you go to find out why and exact vengeance on your assailants. Along the way you will encounter several main factions in the apocalypse and if you have to choose with whom to work; these decisions effect the outcome of the game so there is good replay value right there.

You get companions in this game but there are more of them than in Fallout 3 and you are able to have one human companion along with a non human; the later being either a robot dog or a flying robot. Yes, it is rather silly at times but there are some moments of surprising pathos in it as well. Each companion comes with a quest and a past and some of their stories are well written and surprisingly emotional.

The world is vast, besides your main quest there are many side missions; as in Fallout 2 and Borderlands you can gain experience points which in turn allows you to gain attributes, like the ability to carry more gear, withstand pain and scare the crap out of people. There are dozens of locations, some tied to story and quests some just there; sometimes you come across a place that has a story, you just never learn what the story actually was, I actually like that

More good voice acting here (including Kris Kristofferson) some very good writing; the action isn't quite as intense as Fallout 3 but there is a far greater variety. You can make yourself into a hand to hand beast or a stealthy sniper. It's a very deep game where you can discover something new every time you play

RED DEAD REDEMPTION: I've played a few Western themed games before but was never totally satisfied with the results, then along comes Red Dead, not just the best Western game I've played but flat out one of the best games I've played period.

Red Dead gives you a vast sandbox world in which to play, including a fictional American territory reminiscent of Texas and a Mexican state rife with revolution. You play John Marsten, a former outlaw who left the life and who has been dragged back into it by the federal government who need John to track down his former gang mates. Tough, sarcastic, honorable, violent, conflicted, sweet and cruel, John Marsten is, simply, one of the best characters in gaming.

There is a main story to follow and it is a very compelling one. John has settled down with a wife and son and now is force to chase down the member os the violent gang with whom he once road, men he has known since boys, united by violence. He is a perfect anti hero; he did not choose this path but he is willing to do whatever needs be done, regardless the cost.

Besides the main story there are many side missions you can choose; in this third person game you come across many strangers in this vast world and many of them have quests you can take on, ranging from sad to funny to just plain strange. You meet and work with a variety of characters, some of whom you rescue, some of whom fight by your side. You do a lot of Western stuff from gunfights to cattle herding to jumping on trains to racing horses.

It all works very well, the world is incredibly detailed and like other games you can gain new weapons and new skills. There is a lot of humour. But as I played the game I began to see that it was on a level beyond many of the others I've played. At one point you meet a new stranger but something is up with him; this may a ghost of one of John's past victims, he may be the Devil he may be God and his purpose is mysterious and compelling

The first part of the story takes place in New Austin, a Texas like environment where John begins his quest to bring his former riders to justice.After tracking down and losing one such man the trail now leads you to Mexico, a place John has never before visited. He is alone now, he has left behind his companions and he rides into Mexico, with the sun setting. Up to this point thevmusic has been a very well done Morricone inspired soundtrack but as you start this new chapter, you experience one of my all time favorite moments in gaming:

Riding into Mexico

It was a moment that was entirely unexpected and it made the hairs on my arms stand up. There were other such moments and it elevated this game beyond what it was, it went from being an enjoyable time waster to something approaching art. The game's story is linear but there is pleasure in replaying it mostly to go back to that world and just have that experience

WHAT I LEARNED FROM RAY

Ray Bradbury passed away several days ago now so it is not news (I know, and you thought this blog was the place to catch up on the very latest news ... crack kills brain cells, just saying) Still, it would be remiss of me not to make some mention of this author

I can say with all honesty that Ray Bradbury was one of my earliest and most powerful influences on me as a writer. Sytlistically Ray and I parted ways many years ago but I owe a great deal to this author and his long and important body or work.

As a writer, when I look at other artists who have influenced me, I want to distill what form that inspiration takes. How did they inspire me and even if I have left that author behind, so to speak, why do they continue to influence me.

The answer is rather simple. I learned from that author, they taught me something that may still resonate in my work to this day. So that being said here are some of the things I learned from Ray:

THE SCARIEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE THE MOST REAL:

I don't really think of Ray Bradbury as a horror writer but damn, the man could put the cold heebie jeebies down your spine. He didn't do this with ick oozing aliens or ancient monsters from another dimension, he did it with everyday mundane concepts, the stuff that made you look at the world differently from there on after.

One of the best examples is the story The Small Assassin first published in 1946. It is about a mother convinced that her newborn baby wants her and her husband dead. Everyone, from the husband to the doctor, thinks the mother is delusional (the term post partem depression is never used but that's what it is) and discount her "hysteria". Then the mother dies from an odd accident. Then the husband commits suicide but the doctor concludes that there was no way the man could have killed himself in such a fashion. In the last scene in the story the doctor enters the house where the baby is but before doing so, fetches an object from his bag. The object is a scalpel ...

Another example is The Fruit At The Bottom of the Bowl. In the story a man kills someone in their home. I don't recall the motive of the murder but that really is irrelevant in this story. After the murder the killer realizes he has to cover his tracks so he begins wiping off his prints; off the bannister, the mirror, the table, and as the cops investigate because he's been in there so long, he gleefully wipes the fruit at the bottom of the bowl ..

THE POWER OF WORDS:

This sounds like a "duh" moment doesn't it, like: Duh, he was a writer of course he used words. Yes, of course, all writers use words. All hunters use rifles, but it doesn't mean all of them will be enjoying a venison steak this evening.

Ray chronologically began his professional writing career in the pulp period of sci fi but there was nothing pulp about his writing. Ray could some times be a touch florid but what he brought to his stories was a sense of poetry. Ray's Mars is a dream place, a world that exists between what humans see and a lost world that may or not be a dream

He was one of those sci fi writers who really didn't care how we got into space but why we went there and what it does to our minds, our hearts, our psyches. I think one of the thing the short story format does for an author is make him incredibly aware of his words; what are the best phrases to express high ideas in a short form. My training in copywriting usually means I use very short, strict words to express my ideas.

Ray Bradbury was a poet. His word choice tended to be lyrical.