Well, we didn't get to see Exorcist: the Beginning this weekend. I read that it was pretty bad, and Kim was not excited about it at all. So, instead, we watched some stuff from our Blockbuster Online queue. We watched The Butterfly Effect, Taking Lives, and Cabin Fever. Cabin Fever we had already seen, but the other two were new to us. The Butterfly Effect is a good idea executed poorly. It sets the rules early on, then proceeds to break all of them later when it suits the plot. You just can't do that in a time travel movie because then the events do not make sense. Kim liked it, but I say it's cheating and poorly written. I planned on diagraming the logic problems, but it just wasn't worth the effort. Perhaps if I get some email from people who like it, I'll explain why it doesn't work. Taking Lives is just another movie about a female FBI profiler chasing a serial killer that isn't as good as The Silence of the Lambs. Seems like they've been making this same movie for the past 13 years.

Since I finished Song of Susannah a little ahead of schedule, I was looking for something to read. I may try to squeeze in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it is looking more likely that use this time to read some graphic novels. Catching up on comic book mythology could be a full time job. I recently bought Origin: The True Story of Wolverine which details his life as a child before the Weapon X program, and I'm reading that now. It's pretty good so far, and I had read that it was not any good. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter if it is any good or not. The story is published which makes it official, so if you want to be involved in comic books, you should read it. I've got some others on the way.

posted by Travis at 8:21 PM

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Friday, August 20, 2004

I finished The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah last night. If you asked me what it was about, I couldn't tell you. It feels like the whole book is just ramping up for the next book. September 21st brings the arrival of The Dark Tower, the seventh and final book. I hope the story ends well. I don't mean that I hope everything works out in the end, I just want the end of this long story to be satisfying in some way. Ever since The Matrix Revolutions I've been very weary of the endings of long stories.

posted by Travis at 11:15 AM

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Sunday, August 15, 2004

I went to see Alien vs. Predator with Mike today, and I have to see it was slightly better than I expected. The writing is poor and lazy and the story isn't too good, so I'm not sure why I enjoyed it. I think just the idea that this movie got made and delivered on even some of the promise makes me happy. It has some good action scenes and some really good moments, so it is definitely worth seeing if you are a fan of either franchise.

This weekend I also beat Doom 3. In a previous post, I complained about the game's simplicity, and it never really got better. It was always just a pure life-bar shooter through and through. I did like the ending and the last battle, but mostly because the last boss is gigantic. So it's a good game with exceptional graphics. Having said that, I did notice one little detail that they left out in their supergraphics powerhouse, and after I noticed it, it continued to bother me the rest of the game. Your character does not cast any shadows. In a game where they live and die by the lighting and atmosphere, not having your own character cast shadows around the environment is a big detraction in my book.

posted by Travis at 9:20 PM

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Friday, August 13, 2004

We went to see Open Water today. This is a very stressful movie. When it started I feared the worst because they used four edits to show the guy putting the luggage in the car. The guy is just loading luggage. There is no need to cut four times to make that more dynamic and interesting. You usually see this kind of thing in film school films, so I worried I was watching one. Also, the two actors are a little stiff in the beginning. Once the second act starts and they are alone in the water, they get a lot better, but the scenes where they are being normal looked like actors trying to be normal. Another thing I didn't like about the beginning, and I never thought I'd say this, was the brief nudity. Is it really necessary to show this girl naked in bed? It felt a little gratuitous. However, once the movie gets going, it is really tense, and there are some great moments. I do not think that the comparison to The Blair Witch Project is accurate because in The Blair Witch Project the camera is part of the action. There is no fourth wall. So you get that feeling you might be watching something real. Here, the very premise of the movie negates that possibility, so it is clear that you are watching a movie and not real events. If you like indie suspense movies, this is a good one. There is practically no violence to speak of, so even if you don't like gore this is worth seeing.

Also, we saw a trailer for Saw that I had not seen yet, but I found it Quicktime's site here. I really want to see this.

posted by Travis at 7:11 PM

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Thursday, August 12, 2004

Kim and I went to see Collateral tonight. It's no Heat, but it's pretty good. A lot of good footage of LA and the principals are in their element. I think Tom Cruise does a good job, but he's still Tom Cruise and he's still charismatic and all that. He does not have the menace that someone like Sean Penn has in Mystic River, and I think this character would have benefited from that kind of presence. Also, Wes Craven was in our theater.

posted by Travis at 10:02 PM

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Steven Spielberg directing Tom Cruise in a modern version of War of the Worlds. That sentence costs $100 million all by itself. Check this link for more details.

posted by Travis at 12:21 PM

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Sunday, August 08, 2004

I've been playing Doom 3 for the last few days, and while the graphics are the best I've ever seen in a PC game, I think the gameplay leaves something to be desired. I'm not sure what I was expecting. The gameplay is true to the Doom formula; kill the monsters and find the door. I just wanted it to "Wow!" me. Don't get me wrong, the game is good. I mean the graphics are absolutely stunning, but if you're looking for deep gameplay in addition to that or a fleshed out multiplayer option, this isn't the game for you. I'm thinking that Half-Life 2 may deliver more of what I'm looking for.

Kim has been out of town since Wednesday, so the dogs and I have been holding down the fort. When she gets back, I think we're going to get the site for my script up and running. Alex, the artist I hired, has done some excellent work for the site, so I'm really looking forward to getting it up and running and shopping the script again.

posted by Travis at 4:55 PM