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Bus and Rail Directions via Google Maps
I just noticed that, a week or two ago, MetroTransit announced that route and trip information for their buses and trains throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area is now available via Google Maps. The program, dubbed Google Transit, has been active for a year or two in such major markets as Portland and Chicago, among many others. Here's a trip I just queued up:
On the right side of your trip, you have a map that shows the transfer points and the routes taken, as well as any parts that need to include walking. On the left side, there are three options of similar trips leaving at the time, but notice that only the first one (which is selected) uses the light rail - the others route you down University Ave. and down Snelling Ave. Below the trip you've selected it gives you details of each leg of the trip as well and most locations even include a Street View of the corner.
Why use Google Transit? First of all, with MetroTransit's website, you had to look up the address and then route it. Google Maps is smart enough to figure out the address for you so that saves a step. The map details are much better and gives you a road view as well as a sattelite view, which gives you much more data about where you are going. And many say that MetroTransit's website is terrible, but after visiting some other sites for other services, I've found it to be fairly competent. Still, though, the Google Maps interface for the exact same data gives you all of the route information that you can get at MetroTransit and a bit more in an easier-to-use package.
The St. Thomas Shirt, Take 1
Today, I'm starting off a new feature. Every couple days (or whenever) I will post a T-shirt that I currently own and am actually currently wearing. (The picture may have been pre-recorded, though, on account of not carrying around a good camera at all hours of my life.) I'll post a couple comments on the shirt and then give you a little background on where it came from. And just to make sure I can outdo myself, I'm going to do one of my most boring shirts first! Without further ado, here's the first one:
Yes, this shirt was purchased at my alma mater, the University of St. Thomas. Shortly before graduating, I received a gift certificate from my work-study employer for the UST Bookstore, so I figured I should by some UST merch (besides my uber-cool, limited-edition UST hat). Therefore, I purchased a couple T-shirts that just say "University St. Thomas" in big letter on the front. I usually wear these on pretty boring, low-key days because I'm not that huge of a fan of my alma mater, although I made the best of it.
Pixar and Nintendo Saving the World? Heck Yes!
Since I have nothing exciting to post at the moment, why not just copy stuff from someone else's blog? Here's some from a great post by my friend, Joe:
Because that’s what this movie is about: WALL-E is the protector of EVE and the life she carries inside of her. It’s one of the most beautiful — and perhaps unexpected — metaphors for life, and the role of a husband to protect his wife and family, that I’ve ever seen.
This is just a tiny bit of a great article, so go read it already. Also, check out Joe's blog for more great stuff about gaming, life, and cool movies. Who knows, you might even find Joe and I doing some sort of discussion podcast sometime in the future. I know, that sounds scary. I'd probably get bored listening to it myself.
Strong Bad's Quest for the Ultimate Game
Most of my readers are aware of my love for the website HomeStarRunner.com, which is an animated internet cartoon. Over eight years ago, two brothers started posting their animations online, and now they work full-time creating new content based on their own world of characters. These cartoons are not always safe for the kids, in my opinion, but then again, they're probably better than most of what's on TV for kids these days. Feel free to head over to their website to get an idea of the days of fun that await you, and one of my favorites is the "First Time Here?" link in the top right of the main menu. But this post isn't really about that, it's about games.
Strong Bad, one of the main characters on the site, is an avid fan of games. Like, old school. The cartoons are filled with old game references, from the floppy disk labels on Strong Bad's desk to this whole e-mail episode about how he'd make a game. Of course, it's even more apparent that the creators of the site are fans of old games, from silly arcade games like Trogdor to adventure games such as Thy Dungeonman and Peasant's Quest. But it isn't about these old games that run via Flash and look like you could run them on your 386, this is about the new hotness coming later this summer!
I'll be honest. I've played very few computer games in the last couple years, partly because I haven't had time to do so, and partly because not many games have stood out to me as worth my time. I have kept up a bit with franchises I've frequented over the years, looking at if Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 or 3 was worth buying and continuing to get games in the Myst series. I got SimCity 3000 a while back, but why get SimCity 4 if I can't even get anywhere in SimCity 3000? A friend got me a couple Grand Theft Auto games a year or two ago. I've only played them for a couple hours because I really don't have the time, but just driving around and exploring can keep me entertained for hours in those games, which is why I like them. Also, because I play games very little (mostly when I'm not connected to the Internet), there's little incentive to pay for a game that costs more than $10, or at least that's the price I hold myself to. (The other benefit is that $10 games usually work on your not-so-new computer.)
The other reason I've not played games is that they rarely make games of of the kind they used to these days. (Or, at least, I don't hear about them.) Another set of games I loved to play back in the day were kinda like Myst games, except generally more silly and more interaction with other characters. I enjoyed playing through King's Quest 7, the demo of Space Quest 6 numerous times, as well as even an old text adventure game called Humbug. Joe Bowar also got me into some LucasArts games like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and from there I got Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, another point-and-click game where Indy asks the right questions and pick up random items to get him out of scrapes and solve the ancient mysteries. During college, I got into the Monkey Island series, where wannabe-pirate Guybrush Threepwood goes on cartoonish, blundering voyages through the Carribean. Somewhat sadly, these games are no longer made anymore, or I might be playing them.
This brings me to this summer's excitement. The folks at independent game developer Telltale Games, which is founded by a number of ex-LucasArts employees, have teamed with Strong Bad and all the folks at HomeStarRunner.com to release a game based on the online cartoon. It's called Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People and it's fully 3-D, but it retains a simple point-and-click system. Throughout the gameplay previews that I've seen, Strong Bad and characters, all voiced by the characters in the cartoon, continue to make hilarious little quips. In most cases, it seems you control Strong Bad, who gets "missions" to do via e-mails, just like the cartoon. The game looks amazing and brings the 2-D animation to life in beautiful 3-D. I'm sure it's tons of silly shenanigans - for proof, just look at this infomercial-style teaser:
Another great deal is the price. I don't know exactly how long these games really are, but the game is distributed in "episodes" that take at least a couple hours to play through each. Each episode goes for about $9, and the entire 5-episode series will most likely go for only $30 or $35, if not less. In this day and age where game content is a bit slim and prices are high, I think these prices are aggressive and benefit from being a small, independent company who distributes primarily via the Internet, while still keeping the gaming experience exciting.
And, finally, I have to hand it to The Brothers Chaps, who created the Homestar Runner cartoons, for keeping true to their roots and staying independent. I've heard they've been offered the ability to be on Cartoon Network or get sweet placement elsewhere, but they did not want to change their style and compromise their product just to make a buck. In the same way, I'm glad they chose the able hands at Telltale Games to make their game instead of going for the big money by licensing an arcade game for EA. Also, it's great to have them so involved that they're doing all the voices and most likely contributing ideas for the game.
In conclusion, mostly because I've been a fan of Strong Bad, Homestar, and even Homsar for years, I'll probably get into SBCG4AP. I'm also going to have to check out more Telltale Games products, too, because I see they just announced some episodic games starring Wallace & Gromit, another set of hilarious characters I love (although it looks rendered instead of claymation, which is understandable due to cost but a bit disappointing). Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People's first episode will debut sometime in August, unless they push the date back even further.
Lightning, Red Bull, and Big Red
On a more personal note, we had a really fun night last night. After dinner, we wanted to head down to the Store Arch Bridge to see the Red Bull Illume exhibit. We saw a large storm coming, but we decided we'd risk it. When we got to the exhibit, we found that the photos didn't start projecting until sundown about 9:30pm, so we decided to wait it out. But there was a huge wall cloud coming from the northeast, so we decided to take shelter in the Guthrie Theater building. The new Guthrie is a spaced-aged design that is tons of fun to explore and includes many great overlooks of the Saint Anthony Falls area, so it was an ideal place to watch the store blow over.
First we stood out on the Endless Bridge, which is a cantilever stuck 178 feet out of the side of the building and puts you right above the center of the beautiful downtown river area. We watched a huge wall cloud move across the sky and even withstood 70mph winds for a minute or two. Then, of course, the rain started pouring, so we went into the indoor part of the Endless Bridge.
After hanging out in there for a bit, we went up to the Dowling Studio space, also known as the "Yellow Box". This was an even higher overlook of the river area, but all the windows were colored a bright yellow. I'd never been in this space, but it was really fun to watch the sun set and lightning flash through the sky in this alternate yellow world. After the rain fully subsided, we went back to the Endless Bridge to see the lightining flash through the sky in its real bright purple hue. It was amazing to see because you could see lightning for miles around in all directions.
Towards the end of that, we watched the huge lit-up photos from the Red Bull Illume exhibit turn on and it looked amazing. (You can see a photo taken from the same spot on the home page of the Red Bull Illume site if you browse the photos at the bottom a bit.) We then went down there and found some amazing photos, most of extreme sports of all kinds. They were amazing, and if you have time some evening to come down in the next week, you really should do it. The exhibit seems to be open pretty late, because the photos were still lit up at midnight when Isaac and I left the theater as well.
That's right, Isaac and I actually had to hurry past the Red Bull exhibit because we wanted to catch this weekend's blockbuster film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In usual St. Anthony Main theater fashion, we walked in 3 or 4 minutes late for the start of the film due to 10 minutes of ticketing lines, but the rest of the experience was positive. The second installment of Guillermo Del Toro's Dark Horse Comics adaptation almost matches the first one, although most of the "character development" revolved around a romance of some sort for almost every major character. It was nice to see more of Doug Jones's Abe Sapien character, although he rarely kicks butt. Del Toro goes a bit overboard, in my opinion, with the sets and otherworldly characters, making some look too much like Pan's Labrynth, which brought me a bit out of the Dark Horse Comics characters, I think. Ron Perlman continued to do a great job as the reluctant but prideful superhero, Hellboy, while I felt Selma Blair's character continues just to be an emotional wreck. The theater was pretty packed, but who knows if the series will warrant another installment or if Guillermo Del Toro will be doing it after the next four years or so on the Hobbit projects. All in all, it was an entertaiing film, but definitely not one I'm gonna run out and buy on DVD (just like the last one).
iPhone Day at the Mall of America
Yesterday was the launch of Apple's updated iPhone 3G, and since I work just across the street from the Mal of America, one of the largest malls in the country, I had a pretty prime spot for the retail madness that was the updated iPhone. So here's what yesterday looked like for me.
First, I had a meeting before work at Starbucks, so we passed by the Mall of America Apple Store, where there was about 70 people in line at 7am. The store opened at 8am, a couple hours earlier than usual, in order to take care of the demand, so the folks in line didn't have too much longer to wait. About 5 minutes before 8am, we went by again and the amount of persons in line had actually doubled. Then I went to work.
During the morning, a couple co-workers were trying to get an iPhone. Pete took the morning off and got to a local AT&T Store at 7am, but was told that the store only had 20 iPhones and the line was already there to get those. I think he went to another AT&T store and was there for a couple more hours working to get an iPhone, but in the end, only the 8GB iPhones were still left. He was working to see if he could trade up later as he was told that some AT&T stores were getting more stock that afternoon. Josh only started looking at about 7:30am, and after seeing the line at the MOA Apple Store, he thought he'd check the AT&T store. He still had to be at work around 8am, so he decided not to wait in that shorter line either.
Sometime around 7:30am (CDT) nationwide the iPhone activation servers started to get flaky from the overwhelming traffic. Like I said, Pete got an iPhone, but the activation process was not working, so neither his old phone nor his iPhone now worked until he could get it activated. Also, because of the cheaper price being subsidized by AT&T, they were doing all the signing up and getting it activated in the stores, which made the lines long because it took 15-20 minutes or more per person to get signed up.
Over the lunch hour, Josh and I walked around the mall seeing if we could get an iPhone. We walked into an empty AT&T store and were quickly told that the had completely sold out of the 140 iPhones they had. At the Apple Store around 12:15pm, we found about 60 people in line, and we knew that it'd take an hour or two that we didn't have to get through the line, so we went back to work again.
Mid-afternoon, David came by and showed us a brand-new, working iPhone 3G that he got after over three hours at an Edina Apple Store. It was fun to play around with it a bit, but of course the best part of the new iPhone is the downloadable applications, and I was not about to fill David's phone with applications he didn't want. (I hope one of the co-workers will buy Super Monkey Ball because I really want to play it.)
After work at 5:15pm, I walked past the MOA Apple Store again and found about 50 people in the line outside the store. I asked one of the guys at the front how long he'd been in line, and he told me about an hour. I also tried to check up at a downtown Minneapolis AT&T store on my way home, but that part of downtown is a ghost town by 6pm, so I couldn't even get into the building, and the skyway store was probably closed anyways.
As far as the iPhone goes, I'm glad that the iPhone App Store is finally here so that other developers can fill in the functionality gaps for me and entertain me with innovative games. However, AT&T's updated monthly rates are, as my friends say, "hella expensive," such that whenever I get an iPhone I'd be paying $25-$30 more per month - and that's a hefty price to pay. Therefore, I'm still in no hurry to upgrade to an iPhone over the Palm Treo I currently have, but once I get an iPhone, I will enjoy the enhanced experienced delivered from my mobile phone. And, who knows, by then, they'll probably have the newer and better one out.
The Search for the Perfect Watch
I love watches. I've had a watch for most of my life, and I just like the fact that the watch makes it so easy to check what time it is. (In my case, it's nice because I can get it up close and look at it really easy too.) I didn't have a watch for my senior year of college, and I guess I got by just fine, but I really do like a good watch. My most recent watch buttons are not working, so I'm going to ramble on a bit about what I want and how I cannot seem to find it.
For at least the last decade, I've been using Timex digital watches. I think I started out with a large digital Ironman watch, and I just loved the functionality. Of course, the alarm is great, but some of my favorite features are the stopwatch and the countdown time. I actually use the countdown timer every week to remind me that my load of laundry needs to be changed every week. Also, you can keep track of the time in another time zone, so if you're traveling around a bit, you can remember what time it is at home. These are the features that make the digital functionality a must-have. Plus, the Timex watches are all laid out the same, so once you know how to change settings and o things on one, you know them all, and they're very intuitive, such that I've almost never referred to a manual.
For the last seven or eight years I've had Timex's analog-digital hybrid watches, which I've also loved. These feature a great analog display on a metal armband and case that has a digital display inside the bottom of the face. It looks really stylish, but also is very functional. I got the metal armband because the cloth armbands would, after time, start to get damp and smelly from sweat, but the metal, I've found, just starts getting deposits of dead skin cells and gunk in the cracks of the band, so I guess it's a little better. I also love the Indiglo nightlight technology that lights up the entire watch face for great viewing at night, which is another thing that Timex seems to have perfected in the watch space.
So what's the problem? Well, I think I take pretty good care of my watches. They say they're "water resistant", but I've found that's not the case as much as I'd like. All the analog watches have the dial on the side that you use to adjust the time on the watch and that dial has rusted out on every single watch I've had. It's not like I'm wearing them while swimming or showering, but I do wear it while doing dishes or in places where my arm might get a bit wet, and taking off the watch and stowing it away from water would be a big nuisance. Somehow, on the watch I had 4 or 5 years ago, clouds of water formed underneath the watch's clear covering and then the watched stopped completely shortly after. On this current watch, it's been working like a champ for almost four years, although the buttons have been getting a bit rusty and it's been reacting a bit to my skin. But, just last night, one of the buttons has completely stopped working such that I cannot use any of the digital features of the watch besides the current time. (I can't even turn off the alarm that most likely goes off every morning at 5:27 am.) I did have the battery on this watch replaced once within the last year, and it has worked really well.
What I would like to find is a watch that lasts for much longer. I'd rather not have the buttons and face get tarnished or rusty. Also, I want something simple and stylish, not complicated-looking. I want to know if there are better digital watches out there. I'd even be willing to forsake the stylish analog part in the place of a professional-looking digital watch. Anyone have a watch you use and like that has these features? What's your experience like?
While looking around, I was intrigued by the Casio Wave Ceptor digital watch. It's got a square design and a big time display, plus all the usual options. But, at the hefty price of $160, there's a bunch of extra cool features. The watch gets its time updated from the atomic clock in Colorado automatically and it also includes a battery that recharges via light from the sun. These are both interesting developments, especially the second, because I expect that's where the price increase is.
My problem is that these features leave a lot of questions, and I tried to look around on the 'Net a bit, but I couldn't find any good answers or places to get these questions answered. First, if at some point I had to replace the battery, how much does a rechargeable battery cost? Second, if the battery will last for a long time, is the construction of the watch good enough that the buttons and case won't wear out before the really nice functions? I've only paid $50 or $60 for my earlier watches, so if I'm going to pay much more, it's going to have to last for most of a decade. There are other similar models without the recharging capability that I might look into, but I'd love to hear input that anyone has.
The iPhone Looks Cheaper and Faster Than Ever
On Monday, Steve Jobs and his regular stable of Apple executives made a nice event around the iPhone - the newest in their three main product lines at Apple. As expected, the iPhone has 3G wireless in it, which means it should be faster and sound better for talking, but it still remains to be seen whether it'll be much better than the first one. The main takeaway, however, is that the iPhone Software 2.0 and the App Store will be making iPhone experience better and more powerful for both new and old iPhone users. Last year Steve Jobs announced that developers would be able to make web apps to reach iPhone customers, but this year a majority of the developers at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference were there to develop programs to run exclusively on iPhone and iPod touch.
The first event of the morning keynote was to talk about the exciting new enterprise features of iPhone 2.0, and included high praise from large corporate IT managers about how great it was to be using iPhone. Steve Jobs announced that 35% of Fortune 500 companies participated in their corporate beta program, which is pretty crazy. Apple is really going to be quickly beating RIM's BlackBerry in no time if they continue to take an aggressive stance such as they are right now. (In other corporate-related news, it was announced in another presentation that day that the next version of Mac OS X will include full Microsoft Exchange support, so Apple's even making it easier to use Macs at the corporate desktop.)
Scott Forstall came up and gave much of the same iPhone developer information that he gave three months ago, and there was not a ton of new information there. He demoed creating, testing, and debugging an application and then invited a whole host of iPhone developers onstage to demo and talk about their applications. Sega's Super Monkey Ball again made an appearance, as did games from Pangea Software that were ported from Mac OS X, Cro-Mag Rally and Enigmo. The first two games used the built-in accelerometer to control the game by tilting and turning the iPhone around. Enigmo just used intuitive touch controls but had very complex gameplay that reminded me of Sierra's old Dr. Brain games. A Spanish game developer called Digital Legends Entertainment has also started a "fantasy action-adventure game".
Forstall also brought up developers from companies such as eBay, Associated Press, and MLB.com up to showcase their applications as well. eBay and TypePad basically had slightly more streamlined versions of what you could find on the web. Associated Press also featured an improved news browser and also gave a way for users to submit pictures and stories right within their application. Major League Baseball showcased a really nice version of their GameDay stats board designed for the iPhone as well as the ability to watch video clips taken just moments before right on the iPhone. A couple medical apps were shown for both teaching and diagnosing purposes and a social network showed off a program where they used many of the phone's location and mapping functions to find nearby friends in real time. The most fun, though, was probably Moo Cow Music's neat little program called Band that allows users to play a simulated instrument right on the iPhone's screen. The neatest was the "12-Bar Blues" area, which has all the instruments necessary to be a full blues band on your iPhone screen. The application demos were a bit long in parts, but most were really interesting to see innovative ways to use the iPhone. A later poll of developers at WWDC found that most people are going to give apps away for free, but it seems most will be under $10, which means I might buy a couple games or other useful programs when I get an iPhone.
The last geeky, developer-focused announcement was that Apple is putting together a notification service for iPhone developers to use. All real-time notifications while the program isn't running will have to go through Apple, which can be a downside for a developer, but the upside for the iPhone user is that all the cell phone's resources are given to the application that are running. It seems that developers will have to run a server-side service to push the notifications themselves and Apple may not deliver them as real-time as some developers may like, but this seems to be a creative, diplomatic way to allow programs to notify users of new information without slowing down and crashing the phone.
Steve Jobs returned to the stage to talk about a couple new features of iPhone 2.0 software, such as better language support, better reading of MS Office documents, the ability to delete and move multiple items at a time, search for contacts and a scientific calculator. All of the features so far are going to be available with iPhone 2.0 software, which will be released sometime in the next month and will be a free upgrade for iPhone users and a $10 upgrade for iPod touch users.
Of course, the most exciting announcement (but the least geeky for a developer conference) was an updated iPhone with 3G wireless support. The phone looks a bit sleeker with the tapered edges and black plastic back, but is just a tiny bit thicker. The recessed headphone jack is gone, so you can listen to your music with any headphones you like without an adapter. Plus, the best news is that the 8GB iPhone is $199 and the 16GB is only $299, although we'll talk a bit more about that later. The back of the iPhone is a black plastic and the 16GB ones are alwo available with a white back.
Loading web pages, at least in their tests, was at least 50% faster on the next-generation AT&T network that is available in most U.S. cities. The battery life has also been improved, although turning off the 3G features and GPS will greatly improve the battery life overall. If you turned off all the phone features, the iPhone can play music for up to 24 hours. They did not show turn-by-turn directions with the GPS, just that it gives a blinking dot where your phone is on the Google Maps application. However, things such as GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G network use will drain the battery in a couple hours if they are on and used heavily throughout, so there are options to turn these off.
At the end, they fed the overhype by showing a cheesy, Ocean's Eleven-style that touts the 3G iPhone as finally here. The only problem is: Who cares? Must cell phone customers don't even know what 3G wireless is and what it means, so why name the phone after the 3G features? Only major cities in the U.S. have 3G wireless coverage, so if you're not in one of those places, the major benefit will be of no help until they build out their 3G network. And, although the iPhone 3G looks cheaper with that $199 price tag, you'll be paying more than the difference with the more expensive 3G plans that are as cheap as $70 per month. Of course, this only really applies to the U.S. - in the rest of the world, Apple needs this to compete because 3G phones and service are everywhere. The $199 price is subsidized by AT&T by at least a couple hundred dollars, so it looks like it will be much harder to get an iPhone here in the states without immediately signing an AT&T contract.
In the end, I think that the iPhone 2.0 software is an amazing and much-needed update to the iPhone's functionality. The iPhone 3G is slightly better, but for most Americans, there's not much extra built into the iPhone hardware that requires you to upgrade.
What am I going to do about all this iPhone business? Like last year, I'm waiting for a couple things. First, last year I decided to go with a different phone, so I'm waiting for my two-year contract on it to play through. Second, I want to see what kind of apps come out of the iPhone App Store and if they fill the holes the iPhone software currently has for me. And, well, I'm still a bit apprehensive about switching to AT&T. I've had very little real problems with Sprint in the last 4 years or so and I've been a good customer of theirs for 7 years, and it doesn't sound like AT&T is better. Fourth, I'm not sure if I'm going to like having the annoying GSM network side-effects (that annoying buzzing from time to time in nearby speakers). The major reason to have an iPhone is because I'll no longer have to carry a phone and an iPod on a regular basis though. Most likely, I will be getting an iPhone in 2009 because there's very little enticing competition on the horizon, at least from what I've heard.
Summer Blockbusters and Speed Racer
If there's anything I've learned in the last year, it's that everyone I know thinks I'm totally insane. Well, at least anyone who asks my opinion about movies. So, for those of you who think I'm off my rocker, enjoy this next little bit. If you still think I know something about movies, feel free to learn a bit or two.
I've only seen a couple movies so far this year, but so far my favorites have been the ones I wasn't expecting - I had see the movie trailers and wasn't planning to go see them. After the movie was in theaters, there was enough buzz (not hype) about the films that I ended up catching them in the theaters. These films were Iron Man and Speed Racer. The former was a fun story of another self-made superhero like Batman - Tony Stark realizes that someone has to stop the violence in this world and therefore starts his quest to build an armored suit filled with amazing nanotechnology. It was lots of fun.
I just got back from seeing Speed Racer, which was an amazing sight to behold. Probably my favorite thing was that every frame of the film was filled with the most vibrant rainbow of colors, even more than the amazing Curse of the Golden Flower. It's the most psychedelic film I've probably ever seen and the twisting, ridiculous tracks the characters race on were more than exhilarating for the viewer (think MegaRace taken to a whole new level, for you old-school PC gamers). Also, it was possibly the most fast-paced movie I've seen throughout the film's 135 minutes, with most slower plot points mashed together via fast cuts and innovative wipes. The plot was a heartwearming tale of fast-paced racing, family values and sportsmanship pitted against those who make the game into big business.
Although the film was only rated PG, I don't think it's a great one for young kids. One of the major comedic elements is a young kid and the family monkey, which are obviously aimed at the kids, but there is some language and a bit too many scenes of immodest women to show this to the youngsters, in my opinion. John Goodman and Susan Sarandon do a great job as parents of the main character, Speed Racer, as he deals with his growing success and making his own decisions.
Of course, this time of year is the time of the summer blockbuster, a huge movie event that is full of special effects and is, for sure, best viewed on a big screen. These films are from the first crop of the year's blockbusters, and so far it's been a good ride. The other major blockbusters, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian were both more of a spectacle than their previous incarnations, but both failed to blow the mind in the same way as these newcomers did (as is often the case). Of course, in any given year there are the non-blockbuster movies, which I get to whenever I can because they're not something you have to witness in the theaters. These types of films just aren't the same at home on DVD, at least not yet (or at any of my friend's houses).
For any of those who are wondering, here's the films I'm looking forward to checking out this summer (although we'll see if they're all as good as I hope):
- The Incredible Hulk (June 13) - Edward Norton can make this one work, I think.
- The Happening (June 13) - Hopefully M. Night Shyamalan can get Mark Whalberg to do something interesting for the first time.
- Get Smart (June 20) - This one might be good.
- Wall-E (June 27) - No doubt. This is the movie event of the year.
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11) - Guillermo del Toro is back to work his magic.
- The Dark Knight (July 18) - Christopher Nolan is back for an amazing thrill ride.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (August 15) - Who knows if this will be good, but it looks like it could be a nice 3-D animated fleshing out of the Clone Wars.
Well, maybe it's not that people don't respect my opinion; maybe it's that I have too many types of films I enjoy. I mean, my favorites from last year were Ratatouille, Hot Fuzz, and There Will Be Blood - how many people do you know that liked all of those films and has a modest collection of Disney films in their DVD collection? The only one I know is me.
Of Lions, Rings, and Harry at the Movies
Over the past day, I've enjoyed the three to four hours it took me to read Prince Caspian, the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia series (if you count them correctly). It had been a long time since I read it, but I really enjoyed the experience of a good children's fantasy book, which I haven't had since last summer's Harry Potter tome. Narnia is a great, wild world, and Lewis also brings a rich history of characters and exciting landscapes to each and every book. But seeing as this post is more about how the movie will end up, let's talk about the other recent fantasy franchises.
First and foremost, there's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, written by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed for the screen by Peter Jackson. This one was epic. Everything was so masterfully done that every detail screamed "this is Middle Earth". With the long film runtimes (and especially in the extended editions), they were able to put in many of those touches that made it as close as you can get to authentic Tolkien. The films were made on such a big scale that they were events to behold. There were a number of aspects of the films that grossly misrepresented and misinterpreted Tolkien's vision, in my opinion, but the films were, overall, very enjoyable and at least in the overall spirit of the Middle Earth that Tolkien chronicled. I went to see each movie a couple times in the theater and watched all the extended versions once.
The second and most contemporary of the fantasy epics is the Harry Potter series, which tells the story of young Harry Potter in his years at Britain's foremost school of wizardry. The first couple films were slightly lacking in the special effects department, but all of them solidly brought J.K. Rowling's magical world to a vibrant life. I've enjoyed every film immensely, but for some reason I've never had the desire to watch any of them a second time. I guess I don't watch movies numerous times unless I find them so cool that I want to show them to all my friends, but I never felt that with Harry's movies. Maybe it's just because everyone else is into them. Maybe it's because it follows the books so closely that I feel like I've already seen it before. And maybe it's because I find the book was better and my imagination found it cooler, but I'm not sure.
This brings us to the first installment of The Chronicles of Narnia in feature-length film, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I went to see it with a friend on opening weekend just a week after reading the novel it was based on. I'd read it a whole number of times in my childhood, but I found it still was a great read even in my mid-twenties. However, when I saw the film, I was a little disappointed. I didn't feel the filmmakers captured the epic land of Narnia that well, and I found the movie's special effects a bit too unpolished to be believable. It was a good, faithful adaptation of the book, but it lacked the connection I felt with Jackson's interpretation of MIddle Earth. Even in the couple years since the Wardrobe released, I've had no strong desire to give it another look.
In my opinion, Prince Caspian is going to be pretty hard to make into a film. The book lacks connection with the main characters for long gaps, as the first third follows the Pevensie's as they rediscover Narnia, the second talks about the titular character, and the ending has almost all of the action and brings both parties together. It could easily be a problem for the pacing and development of the film. Also, with the basis of the first film firmly behind us, there's actually not that complicated of a plot, so I can see why the old BBC version just spun it into the start of Dawn Treader.
All this is to say that I hope they can do better with Prince Caspian and not just try to churn out a sequel. It could be with less to do in the 140 minutes that they will do a better job of bringing Narnia to life. Walden Media has historically done a great job with creating films from books, and with Douglas Gresham helping out with production just like the last film, it could be the best film of the year. On the other hand, Andrew Adamson's only film experience besides Wardrobe is directing the immoral and unintelligent Shrek and Shrek 2, so there's very little depth to draw upon from the director. I'm still going to see it this Friday, but here's to hoping that the production team can overcome the film's inherent hurdles. If not, we have next to look forward to a possible adaptation of The Screwatape Letters sometime in the next couple years and the film adaptation of one of my favorites, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in May 2010.