Nathaniel Hoover | Guy Whose Website You're Viewing
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Series Opinions
    • Mega Man >
      • Mega Man Classic >
        • Mega Man 1-6
        • Mega Man 7-11
        • Mega Man Game Boy Games
        • Mega Man Spinoffs
        • Mega Man Remakes
        • Mega Man Sports & Arcade Games
      • Mega Man Sequel Series >
        • Mega Man X1-5
        • Mega Man X6-8 + Command Mission
        • Mega Man X Portable Games
        • Mega Man Zero Series
        • Mega Man ZX Series
        • Mega Man Legends Series
      • Mega Man Spinoff Series >
        • Mega Man Battle Network 1-3 + Network Transmission
        • Mega Man Battle Network 4-6 + Battle Chip Challenge
        • Mega Man Star Force Series
    • Star Trek >
      • Star Trek TV Series >
        • The Original Series (TOS)
        • The Animated Series (TAS)
        • The Next Generation (TNG)
        • Deep Space Nine (DS9)
        • Voyager (VOY)
        • Enterprise (ENT)
      • TOS Films >
        • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
        • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
        • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
        • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
        • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
        • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
      • TNG Films >
        • Star Trek: Generations
        • Star Trek: First Contact
        • Star Trek: Insurrection
        • Star Trek: Nemesis
      • Ones That Don't Count >
        • Star Trek (2009)
        • Star Trek Into Darkness
        • Star Trek Beyond
        • Discovery
        • Picard
  • Games
    • Mega Man Fangame Tracker
    • OH JOES! (A Proto Man Adventure)
  • Presentations
  • Writing Samples

Worlds Apart

6/13/2015

2 Comments

 
Jurassic World restored my faith in humanity a little bit.

Dramatic, I know. But if you've heard or read anything I've said about the modern state of Star Trek, Mega Man, Metroid, or any of my other favorite entertainment franchises, you know I've become bitter. Like I'm the only fan who cares about integrity, continuity, coherence. We can't just make sequels and prequels and interquels anymore. Everything has to be a reboot, even if it isn't technically a reboot. Everyone has to tell a story on their own terms, even if that means tearing down the foundations that have held a series together. Modern entertainment is selfish, nearsighted, and usually terribly written, but that didn't stop me from getting excited about Jurassic World when I saw the first advertisement for it.

Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time. It's been my favorite movie since I first saw it in the theater with my mother back in 1993. I've written about why I love it, but in short: Dinosaurs! As any child will tell you, dinosaurs (if not ninjas or robots) are the coolest thing in the world. Jurassic Park perfectly evokes those childlike feelings of awe and wonder, followed by utter horror and helplessness as things spiral out of control, which ultimately gives way to a mature admiration and respect for these fearsome creatures. No matter how old I get, the movie never fails to make me feel like a kid again, and by the end of it, I've grown up a little more, just as the characters have.

The sequels don't come close to duplicating the quality of the first movie, but they're at least reasonable continuations of the story. Despite some moments where I find it difficult to suspend my disbelief, I like Jurassic Park III  (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni go a long way in improving my opinion of any movie). I tolerate The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Jeff Goldblum and a rampaging T. rex go a long way in improving my opinion of any movie). With nearly 15 years' distance from the last installment and a two-sequel precedent of "generic action movie" to follow from, Jurassic World had every excuse to be a disappointment.

I left the theater in tears. But for the first time since maybe 2009, when a layer of ice shaped like J.J. Abrams started to cover my heart, those were tears of joy. Jurassic Park was the one thing—and I mean the one thing—left in the entertainment world that I held dear that nobody had messed with, and Jurassic World brought it back with the kind of care and dignity that, pardon the irresistibly obvious pun, I thought were extinct.

Jurassic World remembers where it came from. It understands what makes the first movie so much more popular than the next two. It caters to a new generation of fans without leaving the old ones behind, also capitalizing on the current popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Chris "Star-Lord" Pratt and Vincent "Kingpin" D'Onofrio playing key roles. Touchstones to the first movie are everywhere, and they're not just there for the audience; they play an important role in the story—a story that recaptures that childlike wonder, offers up some fresh scares, and thoughtfully explores the possibilities of a successful park filled with dinosaurs. Jurassic World reboots the franchise without severing ties to continuity, and it clearly has a plan for where it wants to go from here...but if this is the last Jurassic film we ever get, it's not a bad stopping point, either.

That's not to say I wouldn't change some things. The film is about 10 minutes too slow, getting hung up in the beginning on multiple introductions that could have been condensed or conveyed through other means. There's a hint of romance that doesn't necessarily take away from the movie, but that could have been excised for the welcome novelty of having a male and female character not end up together after spending a whole 90 minutes with each other. One character gets killed off in a particularly gratuitous fashion that befits an especially vile villain, but not an unassuming person just trying to help. John Williams' unforgettable Jurassic Park score is back in full force, but the new music tends to meander, and the score as a whole sometimes overshoots or undershoots the tone of a scene.

Still, these are shortcomings I can live with. Changing them wouldn't change the fundamental character of the film. Jurassic World breaks new ground without desecrating the old, and it does so with style and love. That's what I want out of a sequel. I sat through the whole credits with a grin on my face, wiping the joyful tears from my eyes, remembering just how good it feels for one of my favorite things in the entertainment world to make me happy for a change.
2 Comments

Retrospective: May 2015

6/9/2015

0 Comments

 
I'm still here, I swear! Let me prove it to you. Here's what I was visibly up to online in May:

This Blog:

I seem to have fallen away from blogging. Part of it's that my lunch breaks, which are normally prime writing time, have grown shorter and fewer due to the demands of the new job I've been working for the last couple months. It's also gotten more challenging to use the Weebly post editor in the last year or so; I'm a big fan of em dashes, but the keyboard shortcut to produce one inexplicably kicks me out of the post and loses all my progress since the last autosave. Remembering to copy/paste one of my favorite punctuation marks is a small but obnoxious way to throw off my writing groove, and my e-mail subscriptions are still showing up with the same light text color used on the website and not the dark color I've specified that would make the text legible. I love writing, but conditions are not ideal right now.

- Retrospective: April 2015

GameCola:

...That being said, I still do a fair amount of writing. I'm trying to keep my GameCola participation to transferring old podcasts to YouTube, editing the occasional article (mostly from the archives), and writing short articles that can be hammered out in a day and polished up in less than a week. Participating in podcasts and video commentary, as always, only requires as much effort as it takes to show up. So I've got a lot to show for myself.

Columns:
-
The Lost Art of Good Game Design: Lufia: The Legend Returns
- Q&AmeCola: Classic Games Remade for Virtual Reality
-
Q&AmeCola: Your Personal Theme Song

Podcasts:
-
Process of Elimination RPGCast – Part 2: Save the World with Money

Videos:
- GC Family Game Night Returns!
- [NSFW] Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Playthrough – Part 3: Everyone Dies, Including the Commentators

YouTube:

Nothing new to report, but some old to report. As previously mentioned, I've been dusting off some ancient GameCola podcasts, and I happened to appear in a couple of them this time around. These are from the days when the podcast format was still in flux, and before I started to hit my stride (which happens in the 20s, so we're close). I'm almost to the point where I'm ready to pick back up with Mega Man 7 bonus video recording; the break has been refreshing, but I'm starting to feel that pull again...

GCDotNet:
- Podcast #12: Cap’n Eric
- Podcast #13: The Unlucky Podcast

Comcastro:

A newcomer to this lineup, Comcastro is a fairly new website with, among other things, podcasts about business, politics, the entertainment industry, and geek stuff. I was invited to participate in an interview about my YouTube work and Mega Man in general, which of course digresses into deceptively erudite absurdity.

- Podcast 38: Gemini Laser – In Depth Retro Nostalgia, Is Mega-Man Allegory for the Russian Revolution?

The Backloggery:

My online gaming backlog has become a hub of social activity, so I've been keeping chatty with my fellow Backlogger...ers. I've also been busy curating my collection. Lots of new additions: My wife gifted me with some games she thought I'd enjoy from a bundle she picked up; I continued my mission to collect any Mega Man games I don't yet own (which I didn't realize was a mission until reviewing my purchases over the last two months); I snagged a review copy of something from GameCola; and I had a bunch of Club Nintendo points burning a virtual hole in my virtual pocket. You might notice a new abbreviation on the list, "VCH"; I think that's short for "Virtual Console Handheld", now available to me on my New 3DS, courtesy of my company's generous employee rewards system. I am officially as modern a gamer as I've ever been.

New:
- 3D Classics: TwinBee  (VCH)
- About Love, Hate and the other ones  (Steam)
- Dustforce  (Steam)
- Hogan's Alley  (SNES)
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga  (WiiUVC)
- Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker × Ninja  (NDS)
- Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker  (NDS)
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble  (Steam)
- Radar Mission  (VCH)
- Rise of the Robots  (SNES)
- The Last Tinker: City of Colors  (Steam)
- The Silent Age  (Steam)

Started:
- Grim Fandango Remastered  (PC)
- The Silent Age  (Steam)

Beat:
- N+  (NDS)
- The Silent Age  (Steam)
- Ys Book I & II  (VC)

Completed:
- Mega Man Powered Up  (PSP)
- Mega Man X8  (PS2)
- N+  (NDS)
- The Silent Age  (Steam)
- Ys Book I & II  (VC)

Mastered:
- The Silent Age  (Steam)

This space for rent.
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    See what my wife's up to!
    Things I Put In My Husband's Lunch

    Archives

    April 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Anime
    Art
    Books
    Collecting And Collectables
    Conventions And Events
    Exfanding Your Horizons
    Fantasy
    Food
    Gamecola
    Holidays
    Internet
    MaGMML
    Marriage
    Mega Man
    Movies
    Music
    News
    OH JOES!
    Opinion
    Philosophy
    Politics
    Religion
    Retrospective
    Sci Fi
    Social Media
    Star Trek
    Star Wars
    Stories
    Television
    Video Games
    Videos
    Writing

    Creative Commons License
    This work by Nathaniel Hoover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.