Silent-Q.com

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Argyle was bored. That’s probably not the way you remember it. Deal.

I had a major game liquidation recently. Just realized I was hanging onto a lot of games for no apparent reason, and the cash would be more useful to me. I don’t miss anything I’ve gotten rid of so far, and I doubt I’m done yet. There are some that definitely won’t be leaving - but did I really need that copy of Unlimited Saga? I’m thinking “no”…..

So I’m enjoying life in beautiful Greenville - which is to say, I’m giving my Zune a workout while my parents watch Wheel of Fortune (the lo-def channel on their new hi-def tv…but I’m giving up that fight for tonight). I think I’m losing even more of my mind. The plan is to go back to Montgomery on Weds…here’s hoping I make it.

I’ve watched a couple of movies over the weekend - Sweeny Todd and National Treasure 2. Both were excellent, but if someone had to choose just one of those to see, I’d give the nod to Sweeny. Granted, I’m a huge Tim Burton fan - but also, it’s not every day you get to see a musical about a murderous barber. It’s top-notch from beginning to end, and had me enthralled the entire time. I’d see it again, no problem. I think I’m going to have to pick up the soundtrack, as well.

I brought along my 360, and when I can steal away the tv I’ve started playing Blue Dragon. I’m about 5 hours in so far, and have been pleasantly surprised. It’s very reminiscent of Dragon Quest (even beyond the obvious similarities since they share the same character designer). It has an old-school RPG slant to it, which I was looking for, but it also throws in some nice curves. For example, you can choose to engage multiple groups of enemies at once - it will throw up a roulette wheel between groups that gives you a random bonus between the fights, but otherwise you don’t get a break. The story is simple so far - another DQ similarity - but the characters seem interesting enough.   Just wish I could get more time with the tv.

Oh, one more piece of sad news - I just read that Sega is taking down the Phantasy Star Online pc servers in March. This will be the official end of PSO (I say official, because I’m assuming - and hoping - someone has figured out a way to setup your own server). It’s an end of an era - I’ve been playing PSO since it first released on the Dreamcast back in 2001. It’s been by far my favorite online game. I always found it soothing just to sit and play. Unfortunately, we didn’t find PSU to have the same draw that the original did. I think this calls for a moment of silence.

Spoiler Alert!  The rat wins!

So this week, if you couldn’t guess by the title, I watched both Ratatouille and Beowulf. Both were CG animated movies. Both featured main characters that were naked for a good part of the movie. Unfortunately, only one of them was really that good.

Ratatouille is a return to form for Pixar after the disappointing Cars. Granted, a disappointing Pixar movie is still better than most other studios’ movies - but stealing the plot verbatim from Doc Hollywood just isn’t like Pixar. Ratatouille is much more original, features more likable characters and truly jaw-dropping animation.  Even tho I’ve only seen it once (so far), I think it’s safe to say it’s the best Pixar movie since Finding Nemo. If you haven’t seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Beowulf, on the other hand, is skipable. It isn’t *horrible*, but it isn’t that great either. It’s very slow-paced for one thing. The beginning drags on and on with nothing notable happening, and then once something does happen….it’s over quickly and you’re back to the movie dragging again. Another problem is the animation. They used the same motion-capture technique that was used a few years back in The Polar Express. They still haven’t fixed the problems with it tho - the characters go from looking realistic to creepy and back throughout the movie.

Finally, the movie ends - and although I was glad to see that it was over, the ending was very abrupt. It doesn’t help that after researching the epic poem that it’s based on, I found that the movie almost completely changes the plot - the only thing it really has in common with the poem is that it contains the same characters.

The 3D effect, which is probably the main draw to the movie, was done pretty well. There aren’t very many “duck” moments in the movie, where you really feel like something’s coming at you. But the 3D effect, even though used subtly, is nice. It’s not nice enough to pay the inflated ticket price to see a mediocre movie though - I’d recommend skipping it.