Oldzilla

As I sit here to write this post, one thing occurs to me. I'm getting old. I used to be the case that going to work after staying up all night doing stuff was not a problem, back in my Games Workshop days it was regularly the case. Games Day's in particular we would stay up all night, then take a coach load of overly excited and sugared teenagers up to Birmingham, spend the entire day feigning excitement and shouting "4 plus" across a battle field with a level of enthusiasm bordering on insanity, then somehow manage to reassemble the same frothing childlings that we had brought with us, pile back onto a coach with a decidedly more pissed off driver, drive back to the store, deliver the child matter to their parental units, the get home for about 10pm. Sure that would be a tiring day, but I thrived on them.

Last night I went in to London with some mates, saw a band in Camdon (I know its Camden, but I like calling it Camdon OK?) caught the last train home and went to bed at 2:30am. I then got up, as usual at 6am and came to work. I am now sat here in front of my computer, several coffee's later, trying with all my might to keep my eyes open.

My conclusion is this, at some point, quite without my permission, I have gotten old and am therefore incapable of doing such things as going out and having fun without dire consequences.
So why blog about this? Well the reasons are 2 fold. Firstly I was going to write not one but 2 blog posts today. One of which was intended to be a review of "The Box", the second was a general geekdom update. Secondly, as if to prove my point, I cant remember what my second one was. The point being, that my brain has rebelled and I am pretty much incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence, either typed or spoken. I was tempted to post this unedited, but honestly it was so rife with miss typings and miss spellings that it made pretty much no sense at all.

On the plus side, writing this has kept me awake for a few extra minutes, which unfortunately, today's subtitling task was not. If I remain awake much longer, I will attempt another more exciting post later.

In the meantime click this link to have your brain exploded.

More Machine than Man...

When trawling the internets for movie related news and stuffs I came upon an article on Dark Horizons about a movie of Machine Man being developed. So obviously I assumed it was yet another potentially cool Marvel adaptation (although based on the relatively obscure nature of the source material, I would probably have safer to assume it would be bad beyond all hope) . However, I was wrong. It was nothing to do with that.

Instead it was based upon a work in progress novel by a guy called Max Barry (who I had never heard of), about an engineer who decides that his body is inadequate, and begins to upgrade himself. (read the article I originally read here). I visited hi hope page and read the first few pages of the "book" online. Before I knew it I had read 30 odd pages and was well and truly hooked. Annoyingly, in a perfectly sensible and intelligent way, only the first 30 odd pages are free then you have to subscribe to the RSS feed for a nominal fee. Being weak willed, I paid the fee and now get a page of the novel emailed to me every week day as well as being able to read it on google feed reader.

Its a great mix of humour, fun and sci-fi elements with a dark core. The main character is equally brilliant, socially inept, deeply disturbed and scarily innocent. His motivations are logical and in his own head (and the story is through his eyes) all his actions are perfectly normal. I would highly recommend giving the first few pages a crack if nothing else.

Anyway, just though I would share this with you as it would be good to compare notes on it with someone else. I am loving it, and really liking the idea behind releasing it a page at a time, although it does have me hitting send and receive on Outlook with increase frequency while waiting for a new page to arrive...

And I thought they smelled bad on the outside...

Was about to go to bed when I saw this in a random email. Had to share it with you. I want one. Somebody buy it for me now. click Probably old news to most but I don't care.

Clash of the Titans

There were few things my brother and I could agree upon when growing up, but one thing that was guaranteed to always shut us up for a couple of hours was a Ray Harryhausen film. Like most boys we didn't care about such trivialities as plot, character development, editing or acting. All we cared about was if the film was going to have any monsters in it (or nonsters if you were to ask my little brother.)

As we have grown old and jaded I find it increasingly likely that I will actually get on with my brother, which is really nice because it meant that yesterday I had someone to phone up and be excited to when I saw this the first teaser trailer for the remake of the classic Clash of the Titans.

People who know me know that I get excited about films, sometimes a little too excited. I also have a slightly unhealthy habit of watching trailers, sometimes a few times too many. Sometimes I prefer the trailers to the actual film... actually that happens quite a lot... I also delight in showing people trailers I have seen and think they need to see as well (although these days this will generally mean forcing my wife to sit at the computer while I show her trailer after trailer, not unlike that scene in A Clockwork Orange, only to become slightly disappointed when she doesn't share quite the same level of enthusiasm when showing here the third iteration of the new Star Trek or Transformers trailer. But what does she know, she's a Twilight fan... (kidding! love you!) )

Anyway I have digressed... considerably...

The Clash of the Titans trailer has got me all excited for several reasons:

1. Dude, Clash of the Titans...
2. It doesn't look totally shite.
3. It has nonsters in it.
4. Clash of the Titans!!!!!

To be honest it looks like 300 crossed with Troy with Monsters thrown in for good measure. What i liked a lot was the way the Monsters, particularly the giant scorpions, although blatantly CGI, do look as if they COULD have been done with stop motion. What I mean is they still have that more traditionally animated feel to them. The marketing is also pretty obviously aimed at those who saw 300, but that's not a bad thing. Assuming this film isn't arse, if everyone who saw 300 goes to see it then that cant be a bad thing.
I do have my gripes with what I have seen so far, (my mother has already said that she doesn't want to see it if Boobo isn't in it) but even with those gripes I have still watched the trailer a good dozen times or more since yesterday.
Besides... Dude.... Clash of the Titans...

Space Hulk, Wolves and Warmachine...

I'm not quite sure how I managed go the entire month of October without a single post, but I did. I will make no apologies for this, I will instead write some new posts :)

A few weeks ago I managed to get my soiled mitts on a copy of Games Workshop's new, limited edition, version of Space Hulk. How I scoffed when I was repeatedly told it would be limited. How I laughed when I was told it was sold out online. How I was gutted when I was told by my friends at Games Workshop that this was all indeed the case and my chances of getting one without paying upwards of £100 for it on ebay were slim at best. However when I eventually dragged my sorry, jaded butt into my local GW to purchase some Space Wolf wolf guard for my new army, I was forced to part with £60 instead, as my good friend informed me they still had a copy secreted in the back of the store! Glee! I am intending a more thorough right up/ review/ battle report type thing later.

My friend (the previously mentioned Rob) and I have begun a campaign of sorts with Space Hulk, working our way through the missions included in the book. We have decided to play it "Video game style", meaning neither of us will be able to move to the next mission until we have successfully completed the previous one. We take it in turns to play through the missions as Marines and are awarded a point if we complete the mission. Thus far we have played the first mission once each and the score is tied at nil.

In addition to the re awakening of my lagging hobby with Space Hulk, I have also begun work on a Space Wolf army. Thus far I have assembled 2 whole models... I have also been through my many (many) boxes of sprues and the like and located enough stuff to build a pretty comprehensive army out of. Although somewhat stubbornly, I am still going to buy some more of the new miniatures because they are ace. I will post my progress on my army from time to time as it grows and things get painted.

I have also been threatening/ intending to get into Warmachine for quite sometime. I think my good friend Den has given up on me ever getting anything done, or for that matter coming round to play, or just visit come to think of it... But I will prove him (and indeed myself) wrong! I have decided what force I am going to collect and y the time anyone reads this I will have ordered my Khador battle group! Hurrah!

Games Day 2009

*Disclaimer!! : I was going to write this with more explanation of the actual Games Workshop Wargaming hobby, but the post had already gotten massive so I gave up on that idea... If you don't know a Space Marine from and Imperator Titan, this post will not make much sense!*

I apologise for the lack of pics. I simply didn't take any!

For many Games Workshop is the Evil Empire of wargaming. I have never felt that way, in fact I have played GW games since I was 10. I worked in GW retail for nearly 12 years and have stuff for pretty much every game and army they have produced. These days most of my hobby consists of playing Warhammer Online although I do still buy the odd model or army if the mood takes me and frequently "intend" to paint something or play a game.

Every year for as long as I can remember Games Workshop has run Games Day, a giant gaming convention and celebration of all things Games Workshop. some criticise that the event should encompass all aspects of wargaming, but those same people think GW is evil and would probably not attend anyway... I thin I have been to the majority of Games Days since 1993. The first I went to was in Donnington but since then they have moved to larger venues, the NIA in Birmingham and more recently the Birmingham NEC. It was to the NEC that my self and my mate Rob journeyed at 5:45 on Sunday morning.

The last 2 Games Day's since leaving the company, Rob and I have driven up to the event, preferring that to the alternative of going up by store ran coach, filled with the customers I used to deal with on a regular basis. It also offers a certain degree of freedom, like when you have to get up, toilet breaks and leaving before everyone else does! So anyway we got there about 8:45 am which gave us plenty of time to get in the queue. As it turns out it gave us too much time... we were about a third of the way from the front of the eventual queue and for the first time ever in all my Games Day's they actually let everyone in late :(

So what was the event actually like? Well if you have ever been to a Games Day then the format was pretty standard, everything was well set out and accessible with no real chance of not being able to find anything you wanted to see. If you haven't been before then I shall elaborate. Games Day these days consists of 3 large halls each containing something else. One hall contains all the gaming tables and hobby activities (conversion/ scenery building, bring and battle tables and the giant mega battles and store run games.). the second hall contains all the retail stands (mail order, Warhammer/40k / Lord of the Rings, Forge World and the Black Library). the final hall contains the Studio, Golden Daemon competition as well as any licensees that wanted displays.

The Gaming Hall

Games Day is a great place to come and play a few fun games over the course of the day. They had some awesome battles, some even had 40k scale Titans (including a particularly impressive, if slightly over sized Warlord Titan that lit up, hurrah!) These tables were ran by poor sap Games Workshop retail stafflings and surrounded by slightly scary looking caffeine fuelled gamers of all shapes and sizes. Having had to run these games for over 10 years, I had very little interest in taking part. But the tables looked impressive and everyone seemed to be having fun.

What was odd was the Hall seemed largely empty... I cant remember if the games were in the same place as last year, and the games themselves were packed to the brim and there were lots of people milling about, but the hall was so huge that all this really only occupied a corner of it which made it seem really empty.

The Retail Hall

I must confess they I simply could not be arsed to get into the Black Library section, they had some limited books on sale and the main authors were signing, however the cattle barriers that all she frothing gamer sheep were being herded along looked unpleasant and really don't need any more books I wont get around to reading to add to my pile of books signed by Dan Abnett.

The Forge World stand was predictably packed, It never seemed to be less than 5 people deep. Rob wanted to get a few bit so I stood in queue with him for a while before eventually getting bored with the interesting concept of queuing that some people had and moved to the side. (seriously every time someone left the area having bought their resin goodies or books, 8 people would force themselves into the space he had left behind, usually forcing themselves in front of people who were actually queuing sensibly.)

The actual Games Workshop retail stand was a let down. This is only my opinion as an old crusty retail veteran but here are my quibbles.

• It seemed really small and was positioned on its own in the hall once again making the massive space of the room appear empty.


• They weren't selling a whole lot. Sure there were boxes and boxes and boxes of stock. Very few or no blisters. But it seemed like they had cherry picked what they thought would sell (which makes sense) which meant that there were shed loads of the same product.


• The Presale. For me one of the coolest things about Games Day is the stuff they sell early. In the past I have bought models at Games Day that haven't been released for months, in some cases... never at all! This year they were pre selling Space Wolves! My favorite 40k army! I could buy all the new miniatures barring the blisters! Awesome! Except the models come out in the shops on Saturday, so they were not even a week early. I was expecting them to have at least something from Skaven, the new clan rats for example, not that I would have bought them cos I hate Skaven. In the end I bought (on my third trip to the stand) a box of the new Space Wolf plastic marines. They are awesome. All in all it wasn't BAD per say, just a little underwhelming. I would have been happy with whelmed.

The Studio (and Golden Daemon)

Now I will mention here that I did not look at the Golden Daemon stuff. For me, I prefer to see the models photographed nicely in White Dwarf or on the web (they should be up at the website by now http://www.games-workshop.com/ ) to having to shuffle along a bunch of glass cabinets, pressed up to a large guy with questionable hygiene habits, occasionally having my face smashed into the glass by an over excited cretin who "has to see his mates model" (cos of course seeing it in a cabinet is so much better than having him show it to you). So yeah, Golden Daemon was ace and full of lovely models, just chose not to look at them :)

If you have never been to Games Day, or never been to Warhammer World or never worked for Games Workshop, then the Studio is epic win. They go through in detail about every aspect of the design process from actually designing the miniatures, to sculpting, to designing the packaging. It is really interesting and all the actual guys that do it are there and more than happy to answer any questions you like. However... if you have seen all this stuff before the you really only want to see one thing. What they are working on now. You see like most companies, the stuff the studio is working on wont see release for anything from 3 months to several years down the road. The stuff they have in the cabinets might not be out for a year or may never see the light of day. Seeing models for your favorite armies, that have literally just been sculpted and are sat there in all their green glory is something indescribably exciting. Years of Games Days have had the coach journey home literally abuzz with talk of things people had seen. Last year tucked away behind the Ork Stormboyz that weren't coming out until the following January, was a new sculpt for the Eldar Jetbike. Truly awesome but has to this day remain elusive with no word of when it will come out...

This year the only thing they were previewing in anyway shape or form. Was the Space Wolves. You know the ones that come out on Saturday and are plastered all over White Dwarf. They didn't even have any Skaven. And they are out in November.

I will admit, that it is feasible that there was a cabinet full of glories I somehow missed. And if someone can prove me wrong (and no I am not going to count the single new Skaven Clanrat 3 up they had with the Space Wolves.)

That said, it is really cool to see all this stuff if you haven't before. And they did tease us with artwork covers for both Skaven and Tyranids who are allegedly out in January (damn you Games Workshop for releasing my 2 favorite 40k armies back to back!) I also spent a good half hour chatting to my mate Christian Byrne who works for White Dwarf, so that was nice.

They also had a few stands for the various computer games and licenced games (the Fantasy Flight games stand was pretty busy and in all honesty I forgot to go back and check it out). Thy had a big screen showing trailers for various THQ 40k games, Dawn of War II has an expansion due and they showed footage from the FPS game Space Marine due out on consoles in the near future. They also had several PC's set up so you could try out the DofW II expansion if you wished (its got Chaos in it.) Mythic were conspicuous in their absence and there was no mention of Warhammer line anywhere that I could see. The Blood Bowl computer game had a pitiful 3 PCs set up in a corner with like 1 poster up. I didn't look too hard.

Again all this area seemed smaller but in a larger space than last year (mostly due to the fact that they had a section covered up for a presentation last year, and a full size Rhino taking up all the room.) There was less there this year in the computer game area.

The most interesting thing was the post card I was handed when leaving this area. It has an Ultramarine U on it and said "ULTRAMARINES : A Warhammer 40,000 Movie" with http://www.ultramarinesthemovie.com/ underneath...

All in all the day was pretty much like other Games Day's I had been to. I felt it was lacking in a lot of areas, but most of those were because they didn't have what I wanted them to. I think most of their decisions with space were to prevent crowding, but it just made the whole thing look really empty. I enjoyed it to an extent, but could have instead quite happily had a lie in. If it is significant in anyway... Rob and I left at 1pm. Yes we were actually there for less time than it took us to drive up...

If you want more info got to GW's website, also http://www.warseer.com/ is a great place for info, check out their forums.

Still alive... Still on fire!

Ok so all my good intentions of keeping this thing regular seem to have vanished, made evident by a distinct lack of a post for the last week and a half...

But fear not! I have stuff to post, just haven't quite gotten around to it yet. Much to do! Tonight is Halo night...

Despite the fact that the brand new Halo 3: ODST was released yesterday, we are actually going to be playing Halo 3 tonight. I haven't played Halo in a while so last Thursday night I thought I would sit and restart the campaign. Anyone that knows me will know that I am truly awesome at all FPS games, a sight to behold, my accuracy is unsurpassed and my ability to survive against all odds is truly awe inspiring... This is of course a lie. My usual gaming night consists mostly of me respawning, or waiting to respawn, or shooting wildly in the vague direction of my foe until I run out of ammo. I suck at Halo. Brief moments of unexplainable awesome do sometimes occur. But they are rare indeed. Last Thursday I played Halo3 in campaign mode for nearly 4 hours and didn't finish the first level.

Tonight's Halo fest is intended as a prequel of sorts for our vaguely planned ODST-fest in a few weeks time. Tonight I will suck. But it will be gooooooooood... :)

If I can find an easy peasy way of doing it, I'll put up some of my abysmal attempts at playing on here for all the world to see! Bwahahahahaha!

District 9, Neill Blomkamp and the Halo movie that never was

At one point, this post was intended to be my District 9 review. However I read Den's review over at his Blog and decided that everyone should read that instead of whatever waffle I was gonna write.

The only problem I had with District 9 was that by the end of it I REALLY wished that Neill Blomkamp and Pater Jackson's version of the Halo movie had gotten off the ground. If you didn't know about it, or how close they got then indulge me a brief history lesson.

The Halo movie that was, died about 2 years ago after the studios funding it pulled out. Peter Jackson was producing and had Weta doing preproduction on the film for up to a year or more before the plug was eventually pulled. Pater Jackson had originally asked Guillermo Del Toro to direct but he turned it down in favour of directing Hellboy 2. Jackson then asked Blomkamp to direct and he accepted.

This was happening around the same time that Bungie was gearing up the promotion for Halo 3's release. As the movie had been killed off by then and Weta still had a large amount of preproduction work done, Neill Blomkamp direct a few Halo 3 TV adverts. The full version of this short film is embedded below.

Having seen District 9, and having re watched the Halo 3: Landfall video a few more times, I think I can safely say that we have missed out on a Halo move that could have been something special. But hey apparently they are prepping another one now... (not with the same people though...)

Oddzilla and The Guild

For just over a year now, I have spent a somewhat ridiculous amount of time playing Warhammer Online. In case you are unaware, Warhammer Online (WAR for short) is a Massively Multyplayer Online Role-Playing Game or MMORPG (pronounced Mamorpahger). My main Character is a Level 40 Black Orc called, surprisingly enough, Oddzilla.

Last December a few of us, disgruntled and jaded about the guilds we were in, banded together to create a new guild. Jaded Brutality. For nearly a year we have grown as guild, made some good friends (I've even met one of them! In Norway no less!), achieved greatness and had a bloody good time!

However this post is instead intended to draw your attention to The Guild. The Guild is a web based series, kind of a sitcom really, centering around a group of people who all belong to a Guild in a fictional MMORPG. If you play or have played a MMORPG, then you will find it cuttingly amusing. If you haven't, well it's not exactly going to make you want to play one, but it is very funny.

Go to their website and check out the episodes... the first of which is embedded below. (They are also available on Xbox live... In glorious HD no less!) They have just begun to release the third season so there is a bit of it to watch!



Incidentally, the main character, Codex is played by Felicia Day (who also writes it) who recently appeared in Dollhouse, which is awesome TV.

A Deadend update...

Ok I said yesterday that I would post a few pics form Deadend. This is partly true and partly lie! I will post one pic.. but only because it is connected to something I am going to blog about now.

As I have mentioned before, I constantly surprise myself when reading through the various bits of gumpf I have written for Deadend over the years. Part of this has been due to exactly how much I had already fleshed out regarding Issue Zero.

The above pic is, I believe, a test piece Chris did based on one iteration or other of the Issue Zero concept. One of the more interesting things I found about Issue Zero was a file called "Stuff you need to design". Fairly self explanatory really. This little document pretty much contains all the elements that are/ were/ might be incorporated into Issue Zero. It also contains many of my random warbling, which is to be expected really. Feel free to give it a read.

http://www.4shared.com/file/131373597/840a5555/Stuff_you_need_to_design.html

Feedback is appreciated.

Oddzilla Googled!

Ok I know this is REALLY sad. But I just googled Oddzilla and looky what happened!!!!

I really don't know why I am so excited that my pitiful excuse for a blog comes up THIRD if you run a search for Oddzilla... Who would actually google Oddzilla anyway?

Oh and three posts in one day... wtf?

Two Posts, One Blog

Wow I have manged to do two entire posts today! Admittedly both of them are of the "blogging for blogging sake" variety.

Anyway a couple of things have been pointed out to me in the last couple of days (by someone who mysteriously goes by the name of Quazimojo in an attempt to anonymously stalk my blog... YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!!). Basically I have been somewhat lax in my proof reading of my own blog posts, with spelling mistakes galore and things that just plain make don't sense. (Incidentally that was on purpose... ha ha aren't I funny...) Not wanting to appear more incompetent than normal, I have gone back and corrected all the spellings and the grammatical irregularities I could spot in all my previous posts! Yes! My day really has been that exciting!!!

Secondly, it has been requested that I post some of the Deadend images I have on my blog. I had decided that I would leave the posting of pictures to Chris but am happy to put a few up here in my next post provided he doesn't mind hehe :) I have plenty of images that Chris has sent to me in the past, so this isn't really a problem. But I do heartily recommend that you actually check out his blog here as it is better than mine.

In other news, My good buddy Den has expressed an interest in helping with our little project and may indeed provide us with lettering, if the comic ever sees some form of paper based issue... Be sure to check out his blog here for far more interesting things than I post on mine.

Norwegian Zombie Fish

This is actually more a blatant promotion of my YouTube Channel. Mostly because I am going to be adding a whole slew of stuff there soon. Most of it is work based but some of it is just dumb idiocy. Like this. And just because I can, I'm going to embed it as well



Do my powers of internetness know no end? Well yes they do...

Hope Springs Eternal

Part of what we always intended with Deadend was to create a universe that was a fully fleshed out as possible. To this end, we decided to write an Issue Zero that would set up the universe a little more fully than jumping straight into the main plot.

The main objective of this was not to introduce any of the main characters, that would wait for the first issue. Instead this was more to give a taster of the background and the events that lead humanity to where it will be when the story proper begins.

In Deadend, Humanity is pretty much a bottom feeding lower class citizen in a vast galactic alliance. How we ended up in this position, and indeed how we even become a part of the alliance, was to be covered in the Zero issue. At the beginning of our tale Earth is on the verge of total ecological meltdown (in fact, come the start of Deadend, Earth was intended to be fundamentally abandoned, with the majority of Humanity on other colonised worlds or in orbiting stations around Earth.) However an attempt was made to save the human race and indeed earth when the governments of Earth got together and created a star ship from which they could find a new habitable world for Humanity to colonize. The ship was called Hope Springs Eternal and its exploits and indeed fate where to be the main subject of Deadend Issue Zero.

Whilst going through all the Deadend stuff, I found that I actually have the majority of Issue Zero already written. It needs work... and finishing, but I thought it would be interesting to post a vague description of how far I got.

It starts with the launch of the Hope, with the President of the U.S. giving some kind of inspirational speech. The next few pages focus on the journey of the Hope, told through news clips on TV. I was going for an almost documentary style with the issue, to give it a sense of history. Anyway... I don't want to give too much away, but the fate of the Hope leads to unavoidable tension back on Earth and eventual war. When humanity is at it's weakest, The Mentarthans make their presence known and war erupts.

So by the end off the issue, Humanity has had to pull them selves out of World War and battle an alien threat. But I'll let you read the issue to find out exactly how it all goes down!

A long time ago...

No this post isn't Star Wars related...

Ok so kind of in tandem with some stuff that my good buddy Chris has been posting over on his blog Edible Brain (go look! it has stuff!), I have been thinking a lot about the comic project that he and I have been working on for the past... actually I don't like to think how long it has been going on!

Most of the basics about the comic are already detailed in various posts on his blog (here, here, here, here and here) so I wont go too much into it at this point. What i will say is that having him post all this has got me thinking about revisiting what I have already done to the comic. Looking on it with fresh (albeit older and dare I say wiser) eyes may give me the kick I need to actually crack out an issue or three for Chris to play with.

You see, as Chris has said, the comic itself is actually remarkably fleshed out. All the main characters are pretty much designed, as are many of the various alien species that inhabit the universe. The main "mythology" had been established and a few of the initial plot lines were also pretty much done. Really all that is actually missing is an actually completed issue, in either written or drawn form.

So here is my goal. I want to have an actually completed issue of Dead End written by the end of the year. I will keep an update on my blog as to my progress with it (as that is pretty much what blogging is all about!), as I will be doing this in my spare time I wouldn't expect too much progress too quickly.

First job is to find all of the Dead End stuff I have stored on my hard drive at home to see exactly where we were with it...

Time flies...

Eep! It's been a week since my last post! I was getting so good at posting as well...

Anyway I still have a few things to write about that I haven't gotten around to yet, like the Avatar day footage for example. I am also working on another post that hasn't quite gone right as yet, but I'll be sure to get on that as soon as I can. I have also been spending a fair chunk of time getting some work done on my other blog and website which are more work related. If you fancy checking them out they are linked bellow as well as on my side bar.

I also have a youtube channel now where I have been uploading short films and such that I have done for work. most of it is pretty unexciting, but I do have some projects for work and some more fun things in the pipeline so it is sure to fill up pretty quickly.

oddportfolio.weebly.com

www.youtube.com/user/IamOddzilla

Check them out if you have the time or the inclination. I'll be posting more here soon!

Inglourious Basterds Review

Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's 5th (or 6th if you count Kill Bill as 2 movies) film. This time he tackles the subject of World War II, specifically the exploits of the so called "Bastards" a group of 8 Jewish Soldiers tasked with fighting a war of terror against the Nazi's. In a non spoiler way, the films main plot revolves around a plan to kill off the majority of the Third Reich's high command at a movie premiere in Nazi occupied France.

The one thing that should be pointed out about this film is that one of the very first things to appear on screen is the phrase "Once upon a time...". That said I am sure there will still be people who see the film who will think that this is based on actual events!

So is it any good? This is most definitely a Tarantino movie. To sum it up simply the movie revolves, as is often the way with a Tarantino movie, around several long conversations, more often than not around a table. These conversations are broken up by actions shots (of which there are very few, but more on that later), exposition elements (my favorite being a brief shot explaining the relationship between Goebbels and his french Interpreter!) and Chapter breaks (the film is split into five chapters.) Being a Tarantino movie it doesn't shy away from the gore, although it does go for more realism than say Kill Bill with its over the top Blood Spray. Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine asks for 100 Nazi scalps from each man under his command, and it is safe to say that you see that happen at least once! Tarantino's love of movies is clearly shown throughout the film with winks and nods to various styles of film and film makers throughout, perhaps even more so than in previous films.

The one thing I wasn't expecting to be such a large element in this film was the humour. Don't get me wrong, I was expecting it to be funny, but there are parts of this film that had me giggling far into the next scene (Brad Pitt's attempt at Italian, while still speaking with Aldo Raine's southern drawl is particularly amusing). As if to juxtapose this, there is a real sense of menace to the film's main villain, SS officer Col. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz. His character has some of the best scenes in the film. He is also one of the funniest characters, but everything he does is done so with an underlying menace. It's difficult to explain, but particularly the first chapter of the film, he comes across as funny and a nice (for a Nazi) but at the same time you get the very tangible sense that at any second something really horrible is about to happen.

The acting varies from hammy to dead pan to emotionally drenched straight depending on the character rather than the acting prowess of the whoever is playing them. Brad Pitt's Aldo is played with his tongue firmly in his cheek (Although it looks like his tongue is firmly in his bottom lip through most of the film), but that works perfectly. The rest of the Bastards vary in performances, Eli Roth's is also fairly hammy, where as the character of Hugo Stiglitz (played by Til Schweiger) is played totally straight. This isn't to say that anyone one particular character is there for comic relief. There are a few cameo's to look out for, Mike Myers being a good example (although his name is in the beginning credits so its hardly a spoiler to point him out.) There are two others that led to fun debate after the film as neither are credited. But I'll let you see if you can spot them yourself.

Overall the film is a lot of fun. At just over two hours it never feels long. The pace is typical for a Tarantino film, in other words a lot of long conversations, so some people may find this a tad tedious. If you are expecting a full on action movie with lots of shooting and explosions and heads blowing up, then you will probably be pretty disappointed. I'm also pretty sure a fair chunk of people simply wont get it. This film is Tarantino's take on how he would have liked WWII to have happened, it's not historically accurate, but it is a really good fairy tale.

Overall 9/10 - go see it!

Avatar Day

It's safe to assume that anyone reading this is at least aware of the new James Cameron movie, Avatar, which is being released at the end of the year. Well tomorrow (Friday 21st August) is officially Avatar Day! It's the day that the first trailer for the movie will be released, but that's not all! There will be a special screening of 15 minutes of the film at select cinemas all over the world many of which in Imax 3D.

So why am I blogging about this? Despite trying in vain for the last few days I was unable to secure myself a ticket to any of the screenings near me (being near London gave me a few options as well!). Empire magazine had codes for 10% of the allocated tickets, as did Total Film but all of those seats were snapped up pretty quickly. I tried to find out from the Odeon cinema website whether the tickets would be available, but to no avail. However, last night after I got back from seeing Inglourious Basterds (review to come!) I checked my email and found that within the cinema listings for the Greewich Odeon, there was a link and a code to get Avatar Day tickets! So tomorrow night I will be going to the Greenwich Imax to see the footage :) I am intending to put up a post as soon as I can afterwards to give my thoughts on what I see. I'll probably stick up a link to the trailer as well.

UPDATE: The Avatar trailer appears to have broken a whole day early and is currently available on the Apple website if you can get it to work...

Sneak a peak at it here:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/

Man versus Alien...

Ahhh the amount of time I spent playing Space Hulk in my youth. The only thing that puts me off of getting the new version when it is released later this year, is the fact that it's being released in conjunction with the original game's 20th anniversary. That makes me old.
The version does look quite fantastic though, the new miniatures are awesome looking and I already have intentions to add the new Genestealers to the already heaving ranks of four armed gribblies in my Tyranid army - not that I will ever get the buggers painted. Alas it has no potato headed Genestealer Hybrids, which is kinda a shame as I always had a soft spot for those guys, even if it was in the same way that you always kinda feel sorry for club footed pigeons.
There is also a pang of disappointment with the Terminators. Don't get me wrong, the new ones are amazing and would look at home in any self respecting Space Marine army (once you have filed off all the dirty Blood Angels gumpf...) It's just that I always like the 2 dimensional nature of the old ones, with their shoe box guns and the neat gimmicky way you could sheath the guns with a lame looking flame thrower attachment. Sod it, they were lame. The funny thing about nostalgia is that when you actually think about it, the old stuff was always shit. Try watching the original Transformers cartoon... go on...
I dare you...

Back to Work...

Well those three weeks or so off sure went quick! Here I am back behind my desk / fortress at work doing all kinds of worky type things. Which is nice. Actually it's pretty cool as I am the only one not on holiday in my office this week, so I have the place all to myself. That means I can listen to music all day without any interruptions :) I'm currently in a metally kinda mood so have my "work mix" playing on my headphones. All good :)

Tomorrow I am gonna put up a post of cool stuff from my holiday to Norway. Would do it today but all the pics are at home lol. Was an awesome week, but more on that later :)

In other news, I have started working on some more reviews. I have decided though to tackle the format and such of these far differently from my lengthy and still unfinished Wolverine review / rant... You may also notice that the Wolverine "Review" has vanished, I may post it again one day, who knows lol.

Anyway off to do some more stuff... mmmm stuff....

It's August!

Not that this is anything to be particularly excited about but I am just getting onto the second week of my three week holiday and its August. I know this isnt really interesting but had you spent the las 12 years working for Games Workshop you would know that the summer holidays is the busiest time of the year next to christmas. Having time off in the summer was only ever allowed due to special dispensation. Having it the end of July, beginning of August was unlikely at best. Having over THREE WEEKS which spanned July and August wat unthinkable!
That said I feel that I have currently squandered much of this time. Yesterday I spent the entire day playing Warhammer Online in my pants. The day before I spent playing Call of Duty 5 with Ian (I like Tanks). Wednesday I think I spent the entire day playing Warhammer Online (in my pants). I am noticing a pattern...
Well as I sit here writing this (in my pants) (with Warhammer Online windowed behined this window) I have come to several conclusions.

1. I should spend more time in the holidays dressed.
2. I actually NEED to get out more.
3. It is possible that I am becoming one of those Gollum like creatures that does nothing but play MMORGS.
4. Next week I am not at home for most of it and will be out in the world doing "stuff".
5. The week after I am in Norway for a week.
6. So thats effectively 2 weeks that I wont be able to play Warhammer Online.
7. Therefore playing it a little obsessively lately isnt such a bad thing as I will be having a break.
8. I think I'll log in after I have written this post.
9. I have realised I have a knack for justifying my own actions, even if only to myself...

Ok well I am going to post again later as I have stuff to post about for a change, I might even post some of my previously written posts that I deleted long ago lol.

Also intending to do some movie reviews in the near future, I thought a good way to start would be GIJoe as I am seeing that this week. I then thought I would retro review the other Summery type films. Mainly because I already have most a review written for X-Men Origins: Wolverine which I need toi finish and edit down as thus far it is somewhat epic lol.

Goal for the day: Stop typing lol.

Apparently there is a new BSG soundtrack CD out.. I may have to find a way of obtaining it...

A little late

For some unknown reason this blog has remained stagnant and as unimpressive as an old ladies undergarments for far too long.

I would say that this is because I am lazy, but that is most decidedly not the case. The simple fact is that I have been overly judgemental with everything I have previously written and there fore deleted it long before it was even seen by other human, or indeed inhuman eyes.

But what has prompted me to actually fill out a post I hear all one of you cry? (well perhaps not cry, more murmur.. or maybe that was just a burp?) Well it's simple. Christian. If that bugger can actually start a blog then I'll be damned if I wont actually post on this thing!

So anyway.. as i may have mentioned before. the intention of this blog is to talk geek and offer my opinion on all manner of geeky shite. This will include reviews of movies, talking about the inconsequential bollocks I have been up to, geeking over geeky things and very rarely ranting over something that has pissed me off.

Yes I will swear (although I will try not to say c*nt.) (Fuck... I'll try not to say that again...) (look I'll even stick a * in it so it doesn't look so bad.)(that * was a U up until a few seconds ago, I hope you are happy... damn censorship.)

So what am i doing right now (not that this is Twitter or any such balls, I just thought it would be nice to share.) Currently I am sat at my computer desk, in the "middle"room of my house. I currently have my work computer at home so I can do some work while on holiday (no really!). My work computer is a Quad core Pentium 2.83, 4 gigs of Ram, 1 gig nVidea 9800 GT graphics card and a Cool master case that is black and glows ethereally red. I fucking love this computer. It plays Warhammer Online on full graphics spec with zero lag. That makes me moist. And it should make you moist too. My darling wife is sat watching TV with my in laws. They were watching Shrek, which I hadn't seen for some time so was quite enjoying... however they have turned over and are now watching some bollocks reality TV police car Chase accident fucktards in Britain type program... so I lost interest.


I think I might write another post later. But I leave you with this thought...

If He Man is so strong... how come everyone else has the same sized muscles as him...?