I think he doesn't want to try it because he fears he might just like it, and the thought of that repulses him   Wouldn't want to be caught dead reading YA? That's why the Harry Potter versions with alternate covers were made for

Computer doesn't meet the minimum specs. *sigh* Oh well...

Might as well say that Return of the Jedi is impossible to understand without having read Shadows of the Empire, otherwise how would the audience know how Leia got her bounty hunter armor from Boushh and Snoova?  

Not really quite the same thing, because the story itself is contained within the movie itself. It does reasonably well at telling the story it needs to tell, minus some extra detail that one can read in novels should someone choose to do so.  Compare that to Star Trek where it left a chunk of the backstory out including some major hows and whys that could have and should have been in the movie in the first place. Not saying the story is impossible to follow without it, but it feels incredibly thin and hollow without it in the context of a universe that tends to be rather philosophical. The backstory as told in the movie almost feels like some throwaway lines. For all we know, Spock gave him an atomic wedgie that he's just really pissed about.

It's not that we can't understand him. It's that there wasn't enough backstory to create something satisfying. The movie just relies on shock and awe, through and through to make up for it which doesn't hold up very well over multiple viewings.

I agree that the Young Adult category has changed a lot in recent years. I'd avoided them for the longest time before Harry Potter, but since then I've delved into Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. In general, I'm actually pretty shocked at how good some of the writing can be. In the Dark Materials trilogy, I was quite surprised at how much he was able to get away with, as it can be rather dark at times. So, while I'm sure some of the writing in the YA category can be fluffy, I think it can actually be pretty decent.

I loved The Artist, so I'm glad to see it won Best Picture. Everyone needs to see if it they can. Simply a wonderful movie. First movie in a long time where I felt it deserved a win.

The how and why isn't necessary if you give the viewer enough information to form his own ideas of the situation.

Except that there wasn't. It was simply, Angry Bad Guy Nero wants revenge, oh and btw, he lost his wife, so he's going to destroy Vulcan! Why? Oh, you'll just have to read the comic book!  That's hardly enough information to even make a person care and to fill in the blanks by speculating.   At that point the movie can only add depth by showing what should have been in there in the first place. Doesn't really make sense to remove it as it's not doing your movie any favours.

To make matters worse, the comic book is like a middle finger to the audience, ie "Read the comic book for the full story, except it doesn't count, losers!" I had heard that J.J wanted the Nero parts to be canon while the TNG parts weren't or something to that effect, but we all know how that goes. It's not a very good idea to leave stuff out and then tell people to read a comic book that isn't even canon. That just sucks. Backstory like this is essential in general, for any movie. It's just not fair to those watching. For a movie like Star Trek, where they were trying to appeal to non-fans, I'd say it's even more crucial, because it's those people who aren't going to be the ones buying the comic book to get the extra part of the story that should have been in the movie, so they're effectively shooting themselves in the foot in regards to that. Yes, it's fine to have people make up their own ideas about the situation, but at the same time, it's only fair to build it up enough so that anyone can follow it no matter what in terms of the who's who and what's what in a universe as convoluted as Star Trek, because otherwise you lose those new fans you're trying to create and keep, to make it interesting enough for the new fans to want to stay by intriguing them. Don't and you're basically left with shock and awe which won't last very long.

Exactly, McNutt. I found it very hard to care about Nero's intent because we didn't know enough about him or what happened in terms of backstory. That part felt very weak. It ultimately was a revenge story, much like WoK was. But it worked in WoK because we already knew Kahn and we could understand why he was angry at Kirk and wanting revenge. We really had none of that going in with Nero. Just an angry Romulan who wants revenge is all we got, and we're supposed to care? Hell, even Shinzon in Nemesis had more of a backstory, partly due to the fact that he was cloned from Picard. There was just so much they could have done with the backstory to flesh him out and give us a more compelling reason.

Anyhow, I do have another theory for Cumberbatch. Could he be a Section 31 agent? Black uniforms normally represent Section 31. And another thing. Could he be Future Guy from Enterprise? Maybe he's both.

I know this is repeat information and it shouldn't require another media to provide the backstory, BUT, the series Star Trek:Countdown provides the info on Nero. It explains the anger, the bald heads, the tattoos, and pretty much what happened in the prime universe before the time rift.

I enjoyed the movie, but I wondered how the rest of the audience followed Nero's motives.

Yeah, all info that should have been in the movie. All we have is that one scene in the movie which feels like an afterthought.  I read the comic book after a friend lent it to me, and it actually made me even more pissed about the movie due to the fact that they needed to put out this comic book. They could have easily have had a few minutes before the Kelvin encounter, such as maybe Romulus exploding in the prime universe to give the audience some reason why Nero was angry. Would have had much more impact, if the first thing we saw was the supernova destroying Romulus. Would have been such a WTF moment carrying a lot of weight. I realize the Star Trek movie was an action movie, but even for an action movie it was thin on exposition. I get it why the Romulans, or Nero's gang in particular have tattooed heads, but only after reading the comic book. At the same time, it was unfair for them to not mention it in the movie as the Romulans have never been presented that way before.

It's gotta be Trelane. Hiring a British actor to play an aristocratic omnipotent being seems fitting.

As for Nero, yeah, I agree. I don't think he was a great villain, and the backstory was weak, explained away in a single scene. The thing that upset me about the movie the most was that, nevermind Vulcan being destroyed in the alternate universe, but the writers destroyed Romulus in the Prime universe, the event that triggered his revenge.

I think she'll do fine, as long as adult doesn't mean like Twilight. The Harry Potter books were very successful in terms of having adults read them, to the point that there were even adult versions published where the covers were more adult-like rather than cartoon-like. What she does really well is world-building, so I'm intrigued and look forward to seeing what she writes. But I do agree and hope that the writing will be more complex, more in the way of Time Time Traveler's Wife than say, Dan Brown style sparsely detailed writing.

Now if we can only imagine our other favourite authors taking on a childrens series...

Well, after having just seen The Artist, I do hope it wins Best Picture. Brilliant movie.

I haven't seen Rango, but what impressed me about Tintin was how it managed to be convincing and move beyond the uncanny valley of motion capture to the point that it felt more like traditional animation than motion capture and I think it's artistic in its own right, but it might be that Rango edged it out.

[McDonald's shamrock shake goes nationwide]

How about a green milkshake? 

McDonald's shamrock shake goes nationwide
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/08/news/companies/mcdonalds_shamrock_shake/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

Interesting. I always thought they were national. They always had Shamrock shakes when I was younger.

Snow White, the first animated feature, was rotoscoped.  Meaning that, while hand drawn, it was done over an actor's performance.

It's just that the tools are different now.  A computer is still an artist's tool.  I could spend the hours studying motion capture software and completely understand it.  However, if you sat me down to make Gollum, it would look like crap because I'm not a great artist.

Exactly! Hey, we agree on something. Good point about Snow White. I hadn't thought about that, and it's one of the examples most people have in mind when animation comes to mind, and like you point out, it shows that even traditional animation has used different tools to achieve their effects, so why not Tintin?

Hmmm, yeah, I'd agree on a category for that as well, Purge. So much good stuff that could be nominated.

Although I don't really think SW: Episode 1 counts in terms of animation. Sure, you have your CG characters like Jar-Jar, but it's not a fully animated movie as the movie is mostly live-action, so I don't think it could get in even if it wanted to. We're talking fully realized worlds and characters that have used computers to create them to create an animated feature. Like Bullwinkle says, tools are different now, which means the landscape itself is changing, and there has to be a shift at some point. I think we can all agree though that the Zemeckis motion capture technique should be used as an example of what not to do in terms of motion capture.

Well, that definitely puts things into perspective. But like you say, the line is blended, and motion capture is getting more and more sophisticated. In a movie such as Tintin, they've still got to make the scenes and characters, and then and only then do they let the actors animate the characters, but everything else is realized by those behind the scenes. Both heavily use computers, only they use very different methods to go about creating their world. I'm sure though that there was lots of resistance against 3D animation vs traditionally animated, though now that's all done by computer too. I think with the direction things are going in for motion-capture, that they'll eventually have to create a category to recognize the work being done. Otherwise it's simply not fair to those who've worked on them. They've got to have their place too.

Yep, have mine on preorder and it's shipping as we speak


Here's a good preview of it:

http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/reviews/star-trek-the-next-generation-the-next-level-blu-ray-review.html

For anyone wanting technical details, here's an interesting article by the Okudas:

http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/24/interview-mike-denise-okuda-talk-star-trek-tng-the-next-level-part-1/
http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/25/interview-mike-denise-okuda-talk-star-trek-%E2%80%93-tng-the-next-level-part-2/

They seemed like such jerks. Even Shredder couldn't stand them.

well,i didn't think he was meant to like them 

Yeah, you have a point there, but it was quite the contrast.

Someone actually worried that Transformers 3 might get nominated for best picture?  

Yeah, can't ever see that winning. Motion capture is being used more and more often to accent live-action movies, such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes  and Avatar and are used as tools. . But then you have movies like Tintin that are in a category of their own. The animation didn't recreate any actor likenesses unlike say Beowulf or the Polar Express, but it put to life some classic characters that wouldn't have otherwise been possible, and the motion-captured helped make it more realistic and add weight to it. To that extent, how can they say that Pixar style 3D animation is legitimate and Tintin is not?

That's a stupid rule, then. At the very least, they should get their own category, but to effectively shut them out just because they happen to use motion capture is just stupid. The two can co-exist as they bring about different kinds of movies, just like different tools bring about different things, and they shouldn't be thought of any less. They're still animated movies made using different tools. It just so happens that Pixar and the like are more traditional. But as years go by, more and more animated movies will be made using motion capture. Will they be shut out too?? Shortcuts, my ass. That's like shutting something out in an art contest because they happened to not use a brush but instead used spray paint; in the end, two are still paintings with different tools used to make them. I can understand not wanting to award the likes of the Zemeckis motion captured movies, but TinTin is far above that and should be recognized. The people that worked on them didn't work any less than Pixar did in creating theirs.

I can see why this was done due to Cars not winning, as people were incensed, but come on, this feels like the other end of the extreme where something will not be recognized simply because it's motion-capture. Something needs to be done that will recognize both, not one or the other.

Tintin gets snubbed in the animated movie category in place of two animated movies I haven't heard of and Kung-Fu Panda 2? Seriously? Kung-Fu Panda 2 feels more like a mainstream effort while Tintin actually pushed the boundaries and had amazing 3D. And Spielberg at that... Spielberg got snubbed.

That's a crime.  I loved Kung Fu Panda, but the sequel was terrible.

Was it? I haven't seen it. Saw the first, but I wasn't very enamored about it. Felt too much by the numbers, without much risk.  Tintin on the other hand felt like art, like it had tried something new in its animation style, with the backdrops looking realistic, and the characters half cartoony, half realistic. It was gorgeous and not just another run of the mill animated movie. It was an artistic achievement.  The fact that the Academy snubbed it when it wasn't a popular franchise in the US speaks volumes.

This could be awesome! Makes me miss the 80's Turtles. The new ones have no personality. There was an animated movie a few years ago that was a crossover between Old & New Turtles and even the original Comic Book Turtles and the new ones just didn't hold a candle to the 80's Turtles. They seemed like such jerks. Even Shredder couldn't stand them.

I loved 1nsane. I felt it was a great off-road racer that attempted new things never done before, like capture the flag on 4 wheels? I loved that every vehicle felt different.  I was addicted to that game, and I loved the free-roam aspect and I was surprised they hadn't followed it up with a sequel. This looks more like Motostorm rather than a true sequel, but I guess what Motorstorm doesn't have is tiled maps, right? Is this available for consoles? I might be interested in eventually picking it up.

Awesome. I can actually kind of recognize it. I think they did a good job. I won't be playing this though, as sadly my computer would whimper at the thought.

Tintin gets snubbed in the animated movie category in place of two animated movies I haven't heard of and Kung-Fu Panda 2? Seriously? Kung-Fu Panda 2 feels more like a mainstream effort while Tintin actually pushed the boundaries and had amazing 3D. And Spielberg at that... Spielberg got snubbed.

Just out of curiosity are there any of the locations from the original game? If so, I'd love to see what they've done to the places.

Thanks. I guess I should have mentioned I'm playing it on a PS3, so I guess I'll have to read the manual.

Edit: Found out I have to hit Square.

So, here's a question that hopefully isn't a spoiler. I've got a few shouts I'd like to unlock, and it says I need dragon souls to unlock them. I have at least one dragon soul, but no obvious way to unlock them. Do I need to visit the Greybeards before I'm able to or am I just missing something obvious?

Saw this tonight. Wonderful movie. I was skeptical about the style they were using with the characters, but they made it work quite brilliantly. The characters show a lot of emotion, something which is rare to see in an animated movie. It's got enough realism in the details, yet doesn't detract from it being a cartoon. The 3D was very well utilized, and I hope we see more of Spielberg going in this direction with animation compared to Zemeckis.

Best episodes are the Berlin episode and the Haiti episode, and the pilot. You can pretty much do without the others.

koodo is Telus's cheapo brand, IIRC. Much like Fido is the non-contract company for Rogers, since the buyout.

I wasn't aware that Telus owned Koodo. Still, phones are available from Telus for as cheap as $30.

What about Minecraft on peaceful mode?

Your carrier already has roaming deals with the local companies. Depending on your expected usage, it might be cheaper to sign up for a carrier like Fido or Koodo where you aren't tied to a contract.

http://www.fido.ca
http://koodomobile.com/
Your data will then be local, only the phone calls will be long distance.
You could forward your US number to your other number, and voila... or use Google Voice or Skype for your calls and have them all go through your temp data account.

And Telus. Telus is great. You can just buy the cards and pay as you go. Yeah, my advice is to get a cheap phone that you can use while in Canada and use those cards. Just don't set it to have it topped every month.

You know, that'd be a good site idea. Sites dedicated to gaming news used to do this, but it can be hard keeping track of updates amidst the other gaming news, and they can easily be drowned out. A dedicated site to news about game updates might be a great idea.

Yeah, I was quite impressed too, although ultimately they couldn't solve my problem. I think it showed that there was interest in getting things to work as I likely wasn't the only one with the problem. There must be something that it doesn't like about my system, because the games made by the engine consistently don't run. It's only an XP system, so surely it shouldn't have too much trouble. Actually, it ran for awhile. I managed to play one of their games one day before all the problems started. Something happened, because the next day when I tried to get back to it, it wouldn't work, and any games I try with the engine just hang and give me an error. It leads me to believe that there's likely a file that they all reference that got corrupted somehow, leading to the hang. Not due to anything I did either, so I think the engine is rather unstable that way, prone to hissy fits and corrupting an important file. I did manage to find a game using an earlier version of the engine that could run, for at least awhile, but ultimately it started running into the same problems and getting unstable and getting corrupted.

One of the things in the first one I really didn't like was how the assassinations were presented. You'd go ahead and accomplish the kill, but the cutscene that followed where you'd be talking to them surrounded by the VR effect just pulled me out of the game.

My computer seems to dislike the engine they use. Any game made on that engine, my computer pretty much refuses to run. I had posted on their forums for help on one of their games, but they were completely puzzled and even had to bring in the help of another developer using the engine to try to help. Shame as it looks pretty good.

I'd only recommend Logitech due to them being one of the only ones consistently putting out lighted keyboards. If I had the choice, I'd likely go back to using the Saitek Eclipse, but they stopped making the first model in red, which I loved, and their keyboards don't seem to be readily available. I got a Logitech G110 as a replacement when the Eclipse bit the dust, but I felt the quality was really off for the price I paid for it. When I had just gotten it, the keys felt very stiff and would often get stuck, something I'd appropriate to an older keyboard and I wasn't too happy with it, but the keys have eventually loosened up.

I started playing the first one recently and I'm noticing that while there's a lot of attention to detail in the world, that there really isn't all that much to do in it, which is a shame. There's no real incentive to go exploring and I've become bored after having done the first assassinations in each city. Quite tedious having to climb those towers in order to find out the first objective.

I guess that does make sense when you look at it that way.  I never looked at them much as competitors either, but rather parallels if that makes any sense. It's all in the preferred platform. That's why I feel PC gaming won't die off as there will always be developers making games for them.

Still, 4 months is hardly much of an exclusive. These things happen more often than we realize, with release times being offset a little. Doesn't stop the fact that they'd made PC games before this before they ever were on consoles.