Wreck-It Ralph

Just saw Wreck-It Ralph last night. That was a hefty shot of nostalgia, pointed right at the arcade generation (which I definitely am), I'm sure somewhere on the internet someone is already hard at work detailing and cataloging every single cameo and game reference in that movie. Because that's what the internet is for.

However, Ralph is more than just nostalgia bait fortunately, and it's actually quite a good movie. Although it probably sets the record for the highest licensing fees (or product placement depending on who's paying who) and it's not just video games. However, almost all of the fanservice (no, not that kind of fanservice) can be found within the first quarter of the movie and the rest of it focuses on Ralph's story with original characters and game worlds. So you get your nostalgia hit to start you off, then you can ride that through the movie's pretty visuals and great humor. I'll avoid spoilers and not go into details, but I will say that I loved it all and it had a great sense of humor and a story that was interesting (but also surprisingly dark at times.)

The voice-acting casting choices were probably the high point of the movie for me. Casting Kenneth from 30 Rock as Fix-it Felix was absolutely perfect (and no, I don't mean Jack Mcbrayer, Felix is clearly being played directly by Kenneth). Sarah Silverman was another great pick for Venelope Von Sweet, a character who could have been really annoying but ended up being terrific. Ralph himself was great, but was almost outshone by the really colorful and insane characters he's surrounded by, but he makes up for it by being extremely likable.

Of course, the high point of the movie for NJ was at the very start: the Paperman animated short thrilled the hell out of her. She's a big fan of 2D animation and hopes to see more 2D (or quasi-2D as the case may be) stuff from Pixar in the future. 

Things I Think About Things: Thor

Just saw Thor last night (I'm terribly slow when it comes to catching movies. Last movie I saw in theaters was Sucker Punch) and quite enjoyed it. I like the tendency I'm seeing with Thor and Iron Man for Marvel's movies to focus on just being fun. Not funny or silly but just enjoyable. It's a hard quality to define, sort of like the movie equivalent of a game of tag: a bit of excitement, some tension and a feeling of enjoyable exhilaration. Thor has less comedic moments than Iron Man but that's probably for the best. If you make things too funny then you begin to realize just how ridiculous all the Asgardians look. It's a refreshing change of pace from past comic-movies (and movies in general) which focus heavily on superhuman angst and drama.

Be warned, spoilers ahead.

I'm especially impressed with how the movie handled its antagonists. The SHIELD agents who swoop in, confiscate equipment, arrest Thor and otherwise get in the way are never shown as incompetent or malicious. In fact some of them (especially their leader agent Coulson) are downright likable. I even found myself kind of liking Loki, which was very surprising. You actually find yourself applauding some of his clever lies and misdirections and that's a great trait to have in a villain. Hopefully it's something they keep in future movies. 

The movie wasn't flawless by any means. I wish there was more Thor being the God of Thunder rather than learning what it's like to be mortal. The fight with the Ice Giants near the beginning was fun (although the Ice Giants blend in so much with the background that it can be hard to see what's going on) and a great way to establish just how powerful Thor is. However the fight with the Destroyer was basically a non-event. It could have been a good opportunity for Thor's Asgardian sidekicks to show off how badass they can be but they just end up getting thrown around like ragdolls until Thor gets his power back and treats the Destroyer the same way. Thor's fight with Loki is more intense and extended but it takes place on a giant glowing bridge in space and without an environment to interact with there's little to give us a sense of power or scale to the conflict, especially since neither of them use much in the way of flashy moves.

The obligatory love interest is also annoying, mostly because there is absolutely nothing interesting about their relationship. They meet and fall in love in the course of a day or two. If they had played with the nature of the relationship a bit more they might have managed to create something worth watching. Maybe a hot-blooded god like Thor can easily fall madly in love with a mortal woman upon meeting her (fits the mythology for most gods after all) while things move far, far faster than she is used to. Or perhaps Thor's godlike charisma means that the mortal woman is instantly smitten with him while he remains relatively aloof (after all he's thousands of years old and she'll be dead in scant decades). But having the two of them just fall into one another's hearts makes it just another bad Hollywood romance. She's supposedly a scientist as well but you never see her do anything resembling it. She drives a car, she looks at some photos, she occasionally says the words "Einstein-Rosen Bridge". That's it. In fact, she doesn't actually do anything at all, she's not even the one who gets him out of SHIELD custody after he's captured. She seems to exist purely to kiss Thor before he leaves and make him sad when he can't go back to see her. I find the relationship between Thor and the senior scientist Erik Selvig much more interesting as he slowly begins to realize that legends are coming to life before his eyes. 

But like I said overall I definitely enjoyed the movie and would recommend it for any comic fan or anyone who's looking to run a high-powered fantasy RPG (if you're playing Exalted and you need to explain the First Age to your players, just show them Asgard).

Things I Think About Things: "Alice"

The Silent Hill series has given me an appreciation of horror movies and games and it's also made me realize just how rare it is to find things that are truly scary. Well last night I watched a movie that definitely qualified. It's simply called Alice in the US version (or Něco z Alenky originally, it's Czech I think) and it's a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Now I know what you might be thinking, "Wow, another "creepy" version of Alice in Wonderland, that's new." Well the film itself is from 1988 so it can hardly be accused of jumping on the bandwagon. I haven't had much experience with the more recent "creepy wonderlands" but I doubt Tim Burton or American McGee managed to create an Alice story more disturbing than this one.

I hardly need to go into the plot so I'll just focus on what makes this a good horror film. First and foremost the animation is entirely stop motion which is creepy enough when the filmmaker isn't trying to make a horror movie. To make things more messed up almost all the creatures in the film are either dolls/puppets (i.e. horrifying) or animal remains. 

Meet the white rabbit.

That's an actual taxidermied rabbit corpse right there. The stop motion means it twitches oddly, walks unnaturally and basically looks exactly like the horrific walking corpse it is. It's tendency to carry a huge pair of scissors helps as well. The other creatures are equally horrifying. Some are created from other preserved animals, some from dolls and puppets and there's an entire crew of mismatched animal skeletons that follow the white rabbit around. Other than the white rabbit I'd say the scariest is the caterpillar, showing that if you're a good filmmaker you don't need anything other than a sock, some dentures and a pair of googly eyes to make nightmare fuel. 

Despite the horrific inhabitants wonderland isn't actually all that hostile. It's a perfect example of atmospheric horror which is the kind I like best and the kind that is also the hardest to find done well. There's almost no violence or even much in the way of danger. The place is just creepy and disturbing on a deeper level. Wonderland is a giant decaying house where everything is decaying but also disturbingly alive. It feels like you'll get tetanus just by walking down the hallway and Alice's well-documented tendency to put just about anything into her mouth makes things even more visceral. You know the creators of a horror movie are good when they can make the sight of a pocket watch being buttered seem disturbing and grotesque. The sound is another really great aspect of the movie. There is no music that I remember no "jump chords" or "tension music" to artificially heighten the mood. In many scenes the only thing you hear is dead silence that's broken only by the sound of Alice's footsteps or the horrific noises that some of Wonderland's inhabitants make. 

The ending isn't amazing. Dialogue begins to take over and the horrific meat-mannequins that filled Wonderland are replaced by giant animated cards. It's interesting but it's not nearly as scary. Fortunately this is perhaps the last 10-15 minutes and the first hour more than makes up for it. 

As a GM the film is a great source of inspiration for horror games. Just watch it and you'll see tons of things you can modify or clip wholesale from the movie for use in your games to build a sense of the grotesque or frightening. You want a nightmare for a character? Just load up the scene with the crawling slab of meat. Want a terrifying elevator ride? The movie has that too. Check out this trailer to get an idea although it certainly doesn't do it justice.

The movie is available streaming on Netflix so if you've got it I strongly recommend you check it out.