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!