voyage to mars

Monday, February 28, 2005

Sorry, guys: no annual 'Ragnar blogs the Oscars' this year, and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even have the energy to stay up to watch the show. It's been a tough month, and I was totally wiped out last night after a full weekend of work - the second in a row, following a busy travelling schedule. I was going to try and avoid spoilers this morning, and watch the show in reruns, but that turned out to be a futile exercise. This is the first year in, well, years that I've missed the Academy Awards, but I have to say that neither the nominees nor the host made it seem worth my while to stay up all night. Not that they were bad movies - quite the contrary - but there were few surprises.

If they bring back Steve Martin and nominate Batman Begins, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Land of the Dead, Serenity, and Doom for best movie of 2005 - then hell, yeah, I'll stay up and blog myself silly next year. That's my promise to you.

Speaking of movies, I watched Constantine last night (in a rare reprieve from the game development grind), and I'll try not to damn it with faint praise. It was good. It was much, much better than it could have been, and not quite as good as it should have been...if that makes any sense whatsoever. I love Hellblazer, the comic book, and the US-centric changes imposed on the character and the setting aren't all good, but L.A. works, Keanu works (incredibly enough), hell works really well, and the movie stays true - for the most part - to John Constantine and his world. There were some excellent scenes in there, and some not-quite-as-excellent ones, and the movie was a bit slow-moving and ponderous at times, but, hell, let's be grateful that it turned out as well as it did. I had fun, and I hope this kickstarts a franchise.

And I have to say it was nice to see the 'Vertigo' logo up on the big screen. Gave me the chills, it did. Bring on a Gaiman-scripted Sandman, and I'll be very happy. ¶ 09:22

Comments:

a sad day indeed. well, i look forward to next year.

# posted by Harkins : 8:23 PM

"If they bring back Steve Martin and nominate Batman Begins, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Land of the Dead, Serenity, and [strikethrough]Doom[/strikethrough] Sin City for best movie of 2005"
Karl Urban is great, don't get me wrong, but Doom with mutants instead of hellspawn? That's like setting The Lord of the Rings on a space station. It's not even on mars for christs sake. Even if the directing is good, what the hell can they do with a script that bad.

# posted by Anonymous : 9:43 PM

I haven't seen the Constantine film, but I've just played a demo of the game. Although it's not bad in itself, constantly shooting demons with "artefacts" is not what the comic was ever about.

# posted by Steve : 3:57 PM

"The Lord of the Rings on a space station"? They did it. It was called "Babylon 5."

# posted by Anonymous : 5:48 PM

I loved Babylon 5, it does have a lot of Tolkien influence, but it isn't called the lord of the rings, and was never meant to be LotR on a space station.

Mira Furlan was on lost, and I didn't recognise her for about 30 mins.

# posted by Anonymous : 8:07 PM

I'm just glad "The Incredibles" won.

# posted by Anonymous : 8:07 AM

Personally I'd rather see Stardust or American Gods made into films ^_^

Any chance of a high quality Dreamfall trailer being released after E3?

Cheers!

# posted by Sol : 6:13 PM

This post has been removed by the author.

# posted by Sol : 6:14 PM