Hospital Beds and Angry Fairies: A Modern Take on a Shakespeare Classic
February 16, 2012
Messing with Shakespeare is hardly anything new. His universal themes can come alive and reveal even deeper depths when applied to a different place or time. Also, how many times do you want to watch Romeo climb up a trellis in Elizabethan pantaloons? From the serious-minded (Patrick Stewart’s Macbeth) to the ill-conceived (Julia Stiles in O) to the whackadoo (Hamlet 2), Shakespeare’s characters have wound up in all sorts of times and places.
Usually the attempts to mess with Shakespearian setting have to do with desperation to lure in jaded fans or new audiences that are uncomfortable with antequated speech. Someitmes you’ve gotta wonder if the producers were just getting high backstage. (“It’s Othello… in SPACE.”)*
For Chris Adrian, author of The Great Night, the choice seems much more personal. Read on…
Stevenson’s Lastest: A Sugar Buzz of a Novel
January 20, 2012
Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE, an action-packed roller coaster sparked by an MMORPG-based virus, has all the ingredients of a great thriller. Cunning hackers. A reclusive millionaire. Vengeful Russian mobsters. Heartless Terrorists. The book’s incredible pacing makes its 1000+ pages fly by, and many of the characters are compelling people—individuals we feel we know and care about. Read on…
The Dragon Age: Redemption Conundrum
November 17, 2011
There is an intrinsic difficulty in reviewing a web series. I like the base my opinions on a reasonable set of expectations. With a smaller budget and narrower focus, online media demands a set of critical training wheels. You have to ask yourself, what this trying to accomplish? How difficult is it to get there with limited resources? Does niche appeal outweigh catering to a broader audience? As web production enters a new generation, an influx of new technology, talent, and lucrative distribution options are forcing me to stop coddling people, no matter how much I admire their spirit.
Dragon Age: Redemption is a six episode web series that provides backstory to the Mark of the Assassin DLC. In doing so, it walks a fine line between an extended promotion and legitimate, stand alone entertainment. Much to my relief, it teeters toward the latter. Read on…
The Witcher 2 Will Kick Your Ass
October 3, 2011
I completed the enhanced edition of the first Witcher game this past weekend. After an epic ultimate sequence, I found myself seething in an all-too-familiar sort of nerd rage. The game’s concluding cinematic includes a dangling hook, a piece of information designed specifically to get you drooling for the sequel. Curses! I said to myself. How could they leave it like that? Then, of course, I remembered that I had the next game installed and ready to go on my desktop, happily pre-purchased from GoG to avoid any pesky DRM. Read on…
A Song of a Wildly Popular TV Series: Game of Thrones Season 1 Review
October 3, 2011
The following review contains spoilers from episodes 1-9. Around ten years ago, a group of my high school friends were deeply engrossed in a series of books by a miraculously talented author with a penchant for driving his fans insane. They pleaded for months for me to start reading, promising I would be rewarded with a truly epic experience. When I picked up “A Game of Thrones”, first book of A Song of Ice and Fire, I did so with the trepidation of someone who’d been convinced to try heroine. Read on…