Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?

So I want to ask.
Is this Sonic game doesn't have multiple lives so it will not have Game Over screen, no matter how many times I failed in the game?

Oh so it’s not because of mario wonder is due to 20th of October? Mkay.

solid reviews so far

@Friscobay lol. Real good try there.

Very strange, since I've read someone's thoughts on the Switch version over on bluesky, so why aren't they letting people review it?

The Pushsquare review scores sounds a bit harsh when you balance it against the review content (???). Anyway, waiting for more reliable reviewer reviews for the ol' Switchy!

@LillianC14 yea really weird.

74% average on Metacritic. That should get Arzest out of the shadow of Balan Wonderworld. Looking forward to the NL review!

Maybe the person in charge of handing out codes still thinks Nintendo is the opposition.

Take your time, guys! We have tons of stuff coming out this month, anyway. Looking forward to the review!

Well, so far two hispanic pages that I follow gave the game low scores, while other 2 pages gave it 8 and 8.5. Overall, seem like Sonic Superstars doesn't feel like a classic Sonic game, it's a slower experience, so that may be divisive.

@Anti-Matter Game over screens aren't allowed for the molly coddled generation. Everyone gets a prize.

Did they not give out any Switch review codes? Hmmm.

@Dazman Not every game needs to be something trying to teach you a lesson. The point of gaming is to have fun.

@Dazman It's more that they're a useless relic of when arcades and lack of saving were a thing and nowadays don't really serve much actual purpose so there's no point having them.

Gotta ask. Why do some outlets say "review code?" Don't you mean "A review code" or "review codes?" You're not actually getting programming code that you're analyzing or reviewing, they're just sending you a download code so you can play the game. Always found this odd.

I get the game early, I'm dissapointed
The game not good as Sonic Mania 😔

It's funny that they didn't have time to send a review copy of the game, but had plenty of time to blanket the entire site with ads for it!

Some of the lighting in this game is sub Detective Pikachu level trash. I'd say there's definitely a reason they showed the zones they did, as the quality is uneven to a ridiculous degree.

No review or Switch codes yet? This doesn't bode well for the Switch release.

For now, it’s all a big blur.

I'm pretty sure all the Sonic fans will rate it 11/10 just because it features the hedgehog so the review will only provide a way for them to rage at the reviewer for giving it a lower score.

Even if it's an unplayable mess that crashes on start-up they'd maybe knock a couple of points off.

@Woderwick You could say the same thing about a Mario or Zelda game. Only, generally, those games typically are at a higher standard than a typical Sonic game. But you can't deny the "me too!" crowd that will rate [insert game here] highly just because they are self-proclaimed fanboys. Good thing most of them hold no real power to actually influence real, actual ratings, right?

Well, I still have a few more days for my Sonic Superstars deluxe editions to unlock on both Switch and Xbox, then a few days for Mario Wonder on Switch, and just a month more for Mario RPG. Complain about the review scores and the fanboys all you want, I've got plenty to play for the next couple months! Can't wait... this is going to be a painfully long week.

Well, I plan on getting day 1 for me and my little guy. I do hope it's a good game overall.

It took a 6 on ps5, so on switch... that surely will have worst graphic/performance will be a 5 at least...

@UltraZelda64

My comment was fairly tongue-in-cheek but my son is a massive Sonic fan and I do enjoy mocking him relentlessly about the Stockholm Syndrome nature of being a Sonic fanboy and having to love every game regardless of actual quality.

That's a major red flag imo

fair do's.

@FishyS
its performe well, there is some frame rate drope in some areas.

@LillianC14 I need to pad out my follows on bsky, what's your address?

@Zanzox Switch version runs at 60 FPS supposedly (There is an article about it)

It’s a ploy !
Let me guess the review will materialise after the Mario wonder one.

@GalaxicGlobe I know... But, visual quality? Stability? Slowdowns?

@HaileySheridon

I got Sunshine on release day. Loved every minute of it (except maybe the bloody sandbird level). Still love it now. My favourite mainline Mario game.

As to your suggestion that I be fair to my son; I mean I suppose I could try that. But it sounds like it would be much less fun than the whole relentless mocking thing.

Uh oh. Hope that's not a bad sign regarding the Switch version.

Just waiting for the framerate analysis and resolution on Switch, hope they prioritise that 60fps, nicely frame paced.

@Zanzox From what we have seen it looks pretty good.

So far Metacritic is showing mostly 9s and 8s for the PS5 version, with some 7s and only one below 6. Overall averaging at 7.5, exactly what I predicted. For a Sonic fan, that reads as a 9! lol. 😂 The Push Square review is one of the lowest scores and certainly seems harsh compared to others, but having read the entire review, and a few others, I understand why theres a big descrepancy.

TLDR: If you want a single player classic Sonic game that follows the formula well and has some fun new ideas: that's exactly what you get. For the reviews so far it seems - buy it, its great, you won't come away dissapointed.

However, if your main hope was to have a new experience with the chaos emerald powers reinventing the wheel... or if you were primariliy looking forward to playing this co-op, again a new experience for Sonic fans, again from the reviews so far, looks like you'll be disappointed as neither works especially well.

Yeah, I totally get that. Frankly, I never expected either aspect to be particularly good or game changing, but that wasn't why I was excited for the game. For me, even from the first trailer, the co-op aspect was "thats a neat feature but I can't imagine it working particularly well because of the speed and branching paths... good for a laugh as a side mode though I guess"... and for the chaos emerald powers I actually hoped they weren't too major a part - I love stock classic Sonic platforming and I'm never keen when they add too many gimmicks. For me, the really good Sonic Colours was slightly spoiled by the emphasis on the wisps. I hoped it wouldn't be the same for this game. But I was still super hyped for the game, just to get exactly what I want - more classic Sonic, made to a high standard with new graphics, zones and gimmicks.

So even though I've not managed to play it yet (can't wait for the 17th!) my prediction is it will be an easy 9/10 for me... sounds like the chaos powers will be minimal of an intrusion and just a fun distraction every now and again... and I was never likely to play this multiplayer more than a handful of times. As a single player classic Sonic experience, after reading the reviews, I'm even more sure I'll love it. 😍

It's a red flag if a publisher chooses not to send out review codes for one specific platform. Remember how bad Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was on Switch compared to the other versions? Looks like history repeating itself here.

@samuelvictor

A Sonic fan with a sense of self-awareness! Your comment on it being a 9 for Sonic fans mirrors what I wrote earlier. You and my son would get on like a house on fire. Or a couple of hostages handcuffed to the same radiator.
I'm glad you're enjoying it though. My one thought when it was announced matched yours regarding the multiplayer side of things. It just seems like a total car-crash in that it's either split-screen to make it playable (at which point you'd have to have reflexes like a 12-year old Jackie Chan on speed to deal with obstacles due to the shortage of forward visibility) or it would be single-screen and the best player would just drag the others through the course.
I don't doubt my son will love it when he gets it and I'll have to listen to hours of pedagogic lectures on all the finer points of Sonic lore they've referenced. I suppose it's payback for me boring my own dad senseless while trying to expound on all the things I loved and why he should too. He must have had the patience of a saint to restrain himself from reaching over and snapping my neck like a dry twig just to get some peace and quiet.

Quick edit: I've just re-read your comment and realised you haven't actually played it yet. Which also makes your comment deliciously Sonic fan-like. In the best possible way, and with all due respect, obviously.

@HaileySheridon Critics praised Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. 90 and 92 on Metacritic.

@samuelvictor
ive seen some of the early gameplay and it looks like something i would enjoy, im mainly hoping the switch version turns out well.

so far outside of that my only concerns are that some of the bosses ive seen look like they may drag on a bit and that the OST is oddly inconsistent, some of it sounds more "modern" in terms of what sound samples it uses but then others sound like the classic sonic levels in forces in terms of instruments and one stage theme seemed to have a 15 second loop.

i imagine its due to just how many composers were working on it.

overall am looking forward to playing it and hoping it turns out well on switch.

@Woderwick Haha oh no offense taken I'm absolutely very close to the stereotypical obsessive Sonic fan. I have an unreasonably large and valuable collection of 32 years worth of Sonic related tat and its the #1 thing I'm likely to drop the masking and go on a fully autistic rant about. There are a handful of things I'm very passionate about but Sonic is the only thing others have described as being "like your religion" 😂 I was so trepidacious about the first Sonic movie that I cried in the cinema when I realised I actually thought it was quite good. I also cried when Amy was anounced as playable in Sonic Origins Plus. I'm aware this is very irrational behaviour for a guy in his 40s. But I just love these characters and worlds.

My birthday was last week and my mum asked what I wanted, I asked for a very specific cover variant of a one-shot Sonic comic book, and a physical copy of a Sonic game that I already own several times, because it has different regional artwork on the cover. On the day, my mother very patiently listened to me explaining excitedly exactly why each one was so cool and important, probably for a good 2 hours before I realised she was probably just being polite and there was no way she could possibly understand why this meant anything to me. 🤣

Over the years I've written many articles, helped with many youtube videos, even tv shows about Sonic... I have an ongoing documentary project about Sonic history with many big names involved... I'm also making my own Sonic fangame collection of remakes and reimaginings of all the classic games with the features and characters that fans most request but Sega always leave out... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM allegedly for the fans, but mostly because its something I really, really want to exist. 😅

I say that I'm "very close to" the steroetypical fan, in that I'm at least rational and able to perfectly understand exactly why some people dislike Sonic, why certain games, shows and comics are "bad", how it became somewhat of a meme and some Sonic fans got a reputation as being a little... um... unusual? I don't blindly think everything Sonic is good, far from it. But I root for the brand and characters over all, and right now as a (somewhat long suffering) fan I'm very happy with the direction everything is going. I've not felt this confident in the overall quality of Sonic media since the 90s.

And no I haven't played Superstars yet... I've edited what I wrote to try and make that clearer. I was just summarisied all the reviews. But for an experienced player familiar with the nuances of everything involved, I don't need to play it to know that the physics and controls are just right, and that I love the graphics and music, and level themes. So for me who just wants "more classic Sonic"... its an easy 9/10 unless anything unforseen ruins that. I don't care about the specific emerald powers or the co-op mode, they are just nice novelties tacked on to the game I actually want.

I think co-op could be highly broken but a right laugh and great fun with mates and a few beers sat around the couch, or fun for families to play together. But there's no way in heck it will be a balanced experience, Sonics speed and branching paths don't allow that for the exact reasons you pointed out. The reason I've not mentioned my opinion on this before is firstly its a minor feature in the game to me, and this is also how I've felt about other games that other people absolutely love, so I thought maybe its just me?

For example back in the day, everyone raved about how great the MicroMachines games were in multiplayer - and I've never understood that. Constantly stopping and starting every time someone went off screen just seems madness to me for a top down racing game where there is no way all 4 cars will be at the same speed. It never made sense to me, and it plays really disjointedly. Yet I didn't care because I like the 1 player experience a lot and the creativity of the environments really sparked my imagination. I didn't enjoy the multiplayer aspect for the same reason I think that Sonic multiplayer on a single screen won't work... I think my issue is, for me, both Sonic and racing games are about speed and smoothness, so the stop start nature is jarring. But I've stayed quiet as I'm sure other people will enjoy it, just like seemingly everyone but me loved multiplayer MicroMachines. For me, the single player is what I'm focusing on, and it looks perfect for my taste 😀

@samuelvictor I'm also a mid 40s Sonic fan I suppose, ha, still have my original Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive carts, plus obscure stuff like the Japanese version of Gems on the GameCube which I imported specifically at the time as I figued they would add the US version of CD to the PAL version with the US soundtrack. Stuck with SEGA throughout the Saturn era with Sonic R, enjoyed Adventure 1 and 2 on Dreamcast despite its issues. Played the later games on Wii and PS3, including the disappointment of Sonic 4, along it's quite a lot better episode 2 (what happened to episode 3, it had potential). I liked Mania, less impressed with Frontiers. Looking forward to this new game, though if the performance is poor on Switch, I might need to go for PS4 at least.

@Mgalens From what I've seen, the Switch version plays great, almost entirely 60fps in the capture footage I've analysed (yes I downloaded the videos and opened them in editing software to check for frame drops... I'm aware this is beyond nerdy) however that was all footage that was officially put out there by Sega so I'm sure if there are areas where it doesn't perform as well, they would strategically not include them. But basically, I'm confident it will mostly play smoothly. The graphics are noticably cut back but I still think they look really nice and I'm happy they prioritised framerate over some fancy shaders or particle effects.

If I'm 100% candid, bosses are always my least favourite part of any platform game. For me, its all about the speed or fluidity of movement, and exploring new environments. I find it hard to know when a Sonic boss is "good" or "bad" - I prefer them to be visually interesting, but easy and over soon so I can explore the next zone. I've not watched any full playthroughs of the game yet, I'm waiting to experience them myself. Before SAGE this year I played a lot of the best/most professional 2d Sonic fangames from recent times and for me, some of them were as good if not better than some official games, but the bosses were always the things that I felt held them back. Boss design is seemingly hard to get exactly in that sweet spot.

In my own big platform adventure, I've somewhat cheated in that there are mini bosses of more powerful characters that you meet along the way, but the handful of actual "boss fights" that stop you progressing further in the story play like big eventful turn based FF battles, so that if you find any particular boss too hard, you can go and grind and build your XP, or buy more potions, craft more spells etc. I'm aware this will be a matter of contention for some, but its my game I can make what I want! lol

@BTB20 Those games were both near universally prasied by the gaming press at the time mostly because the previous Mario and RARE games were so universally loved, and the games were so anticipated. A bit like how music critics panned "Whats the Story Morning Glory" then realised the public loved it... so they universally praised "Be Here Now" because they thought fans would love it... only for it to be extremely divisive.

More modern critiques of Sunshine and DK64 are a lot more varied in their opinion. Some will absolutely tear them to shreds for the very same reasons that others will praise them. I would say both are an acquired taste, and whether you think they are excellent, or terrible, you are correct. Its uncommon to find people that fall inbetween, but I think I'm one of them. Both games are games I can play in short bursts and enjoy, obviously high quality products, but neither are games I've ever felt compelled to complete... they both get tiresome for me after a while, whereas Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie I can play start to finish over and over. But I understand how others could feel the exact opposite way.

@samuelvictor

Christ, you've just confirmed that I absolutely cannot let you and my son occupy the same physical space. It would undoubtedly generate the levels of pure fan-love that the laws of our physical universe cannot handle. I'm thinking either an outgassing of power that make the CERN dudes feel like you've just told them their cock doesn't work, or the final scene from Altered State.

And I love you both for it.

I also get the total fanboy thing. Don't get me started on how much I love John Carpenter*. Or Frank Herbert. Or Keanu Reeves. I just find it quietly amusing how Sonic fans love it despite the flaws. And for me, when it doesn't descend into ridiculous angry rants against anyone who doesn't share that love, I think it's a totally awesome thing. I can bore the pants off anyone with my theories about how Fight Club == Calvin & Hobbes all grown up, how and why post-apoc films only work on a low budget, or how Childs is The Thing (and don't get me started on how much I love Keith David). I think that for me, I tend to spread my love across so many different things that people find it hard to keep up when I, as you say 'let the mask slip' and go full-on neuro-divergent about the things I love because I hop and skip from thing to thing in some bewildering manner that makes total sense to me but to an outsider must sound like I'm pulling a Hans Zarkov and just repeating everything I've ever learned to stop Klytus pulling it out of my brain.

And I'm not too proud to admit that there is some sort of envy for those like yourself and my son who can stay that focused. Myself, I'm a total flipping mess. A combination of all the stuff I've ever read/learned/enjoyed (I've got about a thousand books here and I'm quite happy to spend a couple of hours expounding on each one).

Also, your mum is a solid gold legend. Give her a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug from me next time you see her. People like us very much need people like her in our lives.

*I was once lucky enough to meet Mr Carpenter himself at a gig of his in Tower Hamlets. I got a limited edition signed They Live poster, and also got him to sign my copy of a crappy miniature combat game I wrote and got printed and bound called Escape From Milton Keynes. I gave him a copy as well. The only two copies in existence. He probably binned his but fair play, he's my legend, I'm not his.

@Ristar24 Nice, I always like hearing about Sonic fans that have been around since day one and ridden the differing waves of quality and reputation of the characters etc.

For me, Sonic 4 Episode 1 is probably the low point and thing that upset me the most... I probably wouldn't feel it was such a trevesty if it was just a mobiloe game and called something different. You're right that episode 2 was a significant improvement but still a long way off base. For me, Sonic Mania is the "real" Sonic 4 and I pretend that other game doesn't exist as its the only one that makes me irrationally angry or upset 😂 Maybe the GBA port of Sonic 1... but its a port so that doesn't count in my head, I can ignore it.

Frontiers is far from perfect but its the best a new 3D Sonic game has been in decades and has real potential, and I've really admired how active Kishimioto has been in interacting with fans and even the modding community in going back and trying to improve the game, fix it, add requested features etc. The 2nd and 3rd free DLC really fixed a lot of my biggest issues with it, and they've confirmed that they are building on what they've learned with the next mainline game, rather than going back to the drawing board, so I'm more hopeful for 3D Sonic than I've been in a long time.

Mania, Origins and Superstars are all pretty great for 2d Sonic and I'm hopeful more classic Sonic games will continue to be made and they now at least understand how the physics, controls and level layouts should be, the improtance of the base set of characters, and have areally good team of people on the art, animation and music departments. (I wish we'd get a more colourful and cartoonish feeling 3d game with them all workign on it, but thats probably a long way off happening).

Sonic as a brand overall though is really on an upswing outside of the games. The two movies were far better than people expected them to be and the second really was given the freedom to be more of a "like the games, for the fans" thing than the first, I can only see that continuing with the third. The recent shows have been good, better than many previous attempts. The IDW comic series is absolutely killing it in my opinion. The marketing Team in America, Katie, Justin, Mike, Kenneth, Aaron, Jasmin and all are all very clearly lifelong fans with a real passion and knowledge for the history and clear vision for the future, and area actually listening to the fans and putting out quality products that are requested.

With all that in mind, I feel like Sonic as an overall brand is getting over its awkward mid 2000s "joke brand" era and theres whole new generations of kids just growing up loving it unironically, and it warms my heart to see parents enjoying sharing taht with them, just as I did with my own kids (who are now fully grown... jeez time goes by so fast as you get old).

@samuelvictor
yeah for me it can definitely depend on the game but with sonic i prefer the stage bosses to be fast and snappy with plenty of chances to hit them, its one of the reasons why im really not a fan of the heavy gunner boss from mania despite loving that game, i feel it brings the pacing to a halt on each run.

i don't mind final bosses lasting longer so long as they are visually interesting, i felt like sonic 3k's combination of its giant final boss followed by doomsday zone to be a great climax with some fantastic music and some great visual spectacle for its time.

@Mgalens Yeah I love Mania too but I agree some of the bosses slow it down on replays. The Mean Bean Machine "boss" is actually my favourite, I was so delighted when playing that for the first time! That entire ending sequence of S3&K is absolutely amazing.

@Woderwick Hahah Your son sounds great, I'm sure we'd get on very well! Probably best to keep us apart though as you many not get a single word in edgeways, nor any sleep as we would just keep going for days about stuff that doesn't really matter, but for some reason it does to us. 😂

In many ways you and I are very similar and have a lot of shared interests, as we've discovered before! I could write a good couple of paragraphs at least about almost everything you just briefly mentioned. I've no idea how Calvin and Hobbes is Fight Club, but as a big fan of both I think thats something that deserves a long discussion over a pint one day! 😅

Thats really, really cool that you handmade your own game and gave a copy to Carpenter, I'm sure he genuinely appreciated that. I've not gone that far but there are a handful of true legends and lifelong heroes that I've had the pleasure to wrok with professionally and rather than make it awkward for them (or maybe it made it even more awkward I don't know) I write them each a hand written letter thanking them and explaining why their work meant so much to me and why it was an honour to meet them, and handed it to them as I was leaving, once it couldn't negatively affect our experience working together. I know that for at least a couple of them they actually read the notes and were very touched.

I mostly keep personal stuff offline but in short, yes, my mum is 100% solid gold wonderful person I'm so lucky to have had her in my life and right now I'm treasuring every day and experience with her that I can. My dad is also equally wonderful in different but equally important ways. Sadly they didn't stay together but even with diverging paths both have been a consistent source of inspiration to me throughout the years and I feel lucky to have known them for as long as I have.

@samuelvictor Yep, I remember playing the Mega Drive version on a demo unit in Index the Catalogue Shop in the early 90s and entering the cheat code to see the other zones...

Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive is almost still my favourite, maybe its just nostalgia, but I actually liked the run speed limiter in the first game (which you can toggle with a cheat in origins) as I felt they designed the slower paced platforming sections with that in mind. The Master System games had a similar set up. I got Sonic 2 pretty much at release, and immediately noticed the slight physics change where you didn't need to roll to keep building forward speed, but could just run. I'd usually end up running into a badnik or off a ledge! There have been some bad Sonic 1 ports, the GBA gets attention but Dreamcast Smash Pack Vol.1 is joke emulation and the DS versions cropped the edges of the screen. I think Origins has been patched into a good compilation at this point, and it really excels for low latency.

I think with Frontiers, I was limited to the PS4 version, so in part it was the irregular frame pacing at 30fps that was putting me off. I should download the latest patches and see if it's improved at some point, or otherwise wait until I possibly get a PS5 at some point to play it.

Now, does anyone remember 'Turbo the Tortoise' on the C64, sadly, he got no sequels...

@samuelvictor

Let's not start welling up here, but damn. I so much love the idea of the handwritten letter that I am absolutely going to steal that idea (unlikely as it is that I'll meet many/any of my own personal legends). It's so utterly perfect that 'perfect' cannot encompass it.

And briefly, because you sort of asked (or at least gave me an opening, which was a tactical mistake ) my view is that Edward Norton is Tyler Durden. That's his name and everything. He's little Calvin having grown up into the $h!tsh0w that our world is and he's forgotten everything about the wonder and magic and joy he felt with his imaginary friend as a child. Brad Pitt is Hobbes (he even wears a tiger-print shirt when he first appears). He's finally come back to rescue his best friend from a life of drudgery. But Hobbes has also witnessed the world through Calvin's eyes and Hobbes was always a little bit quicker on the uptake, a little bit more cynical and a little bit more subversive. And so he steps in to save his best friend and what happens, happens. Interestingly, the original novel has a different take, and is all about destroying history because Men (with a capital 'M') can't live up to the men that went before us. But that's another conversation.

And yes, I think we could have a lot of fun chatting nonsense that means stuff to us, sitting and sipping and toking (If you partake; It's Friday night here, I've got a big bottle of rum and Clinton's On His Way).

@Ristar24 I absolutely know Turbo the Tortoise... I have the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad versions! I have somewhat of a soft spot for any game trying to recreate the appeal of Sonic, but on the 8 or 16bit microcomputers. The C64 version is definitely the best, though the Spectrum one is impressively smooth for the hardware. The reason it never got a sequel is that it was the last game by Hi-Tec Software just as they were in the process of sadly going bust. Infact Codemasters stepped in to somewhat save the game and many copies have a Codemasters logo instead of Hi-Tec.

Also, you just really took me down memory lane with mention of Index. Perhaps it was because we had an "Index Extra" but I definitely felt that they were better for console games than Argos, always a bigger selection and older games at very reasonable prices as well as the latest titles. Several times I'd go into the store with £60 saved up intending to buy a game for my newly acquired SNES and instead walk out with 5-6 Master System games that I'd missed out on instead! some absolute bangers as well! Asterix, Lemmings, Marble Madness, PacMania... 😍

Sonic 1 on Megadrive was the game that made me fall in love with the series of course... I played it at a friends house in 1991 on release and it genuinely felt like my whole world changed. I loved EVERYTHING about the character and Green Hill Zone (the only zone I got to see). I find the uneven pacing between the levels to be frustrating for replays (Marble Zone is my least favourite, so havign it right after Green Hill dampens my enthusiam for playthroughs) so for me its the wekest of the Megadrive titles, but still one I love to bits. I actually feel the Master System Sonic 1 is a better gaem, as do many, but certainly not all people! haha. But that first Green Hill Zone just really did everything right and was just in your face with awesome characters, concepts, and easily the best graphics and music I'd ever heard from a game until that point. That single experience is teh spark of why I've been pretty much obsessed ever since, not only with teh games, but the characters, music, designs... reading every comic, watching every show, making my own fan projects since I was a kid. Literally in 1991 I made a Commodore version of Sonic 1 so that I could play it, when I knew my parents couldn't afford a Megadrive. Also that summer holidays drew an enormous 20+ page comic, learned piano to play Green Hill Zone theme...

If you only played that PS4 version of Frontiers at launch, I think you'll find the game has massively improved since then, though I can't vouch for if performance has changed. Its not just vast amounts of new content thats been added but the controls have almost completely changed and been refined (and allow you to customise to make them feel how you prefer).

@Woderwick Aw, I'm glad you felt that way. There is something special about a handwritten note nowadays. I also like to make handmade cards or draw custom bits of art for people that I love. I think in these days where everything is so digital, it means more to have something tangible that someone took time to do, even if its just writing a quick note.

For obvious reasons I won't get into who, but one of the people I worked with and wrote a note to actually ended up being someone I worked with on a few projects, and if we happened to coincidentally be at the same industry events as each other they would recognise me and come over and say "hi", even sometimes breaking conversation or even temporarily stepping out of interviews to give me a hug. We got to be good friends and I even spent Christmas round their house one time for an incredible dinner. While I was there, they brought out a lovely scrap book that they keep as a reminder of big moments in their career, and they showed me that they had pasted my note into it, and said it really meant a lot to them. I was so happy that it meant a lot to them, I remember feeling somewhat timid in handing it over incase it would seem silly or insignificant to them.

I can totally see where you are coming from with the Fight Club connections there... in my headcannon I find it very hard to imagine Calvin and Hobbes ever growing apart, in the same way I can't with Snoopy and Charlie Brown, or Christopher Robbin outgrowing Pooh. Thats probably due to my own undealt with issues of refusing to grow up and leave aspects of my childhood behind! 😅 Thankfully I've managed to make a career out of it. The pressures on what it means to be a "man", especially in the current day and age, and how capitalism and a consumer society (and the effects of various political and social movements in that) are a huge point of interest for me, and actually the combination of these two points (men not wanting to grow up, not having a place in society, societal pushing of agendas for certain genders and social groups in order to feed the capitalist machine and make money) are the underlying themes of my first big Superhero movie that I wrote... can't say much more than that but I think you'll find it interesting judging by what you wrote!

@samuelvictor

I totally get what you're saying and where you're coming from. When I write my own stuff my missus says she likes the writing but hates how brutal and harsh it is. But my point is that keeping hold of the childlike wonder in the face of the world is incredibly important. While most people may meet me and assume I'm an extra from a Guy Ritchie film (covered in what I like to call 'sci-fi gang tatts' I'm a bit of a thinker and I think you have you have to face up to the reality of the world with eyes pinned wide flipping open, but that doesn't meant you have to compromise who you are. And you must always, always, take the piss. Even (especially) out of yourself.
I flatter myself by thinking I'm English to the core, in that I root for the underdog, hate pomposity, and truly love gallows humour. Because when the Grim Reaper comes for you, the best response is to have a pop at him for turning up late, then point out that he's wearing a dress and try to goad him into giving you a quick flash before he swings the scythe. The saucy tart.

@samuelvictor Ah, glad you remember Turbo, it was pretty good! I actually like Marble Zone and even Labyrinth Zone, the changes of pace are something I enjoy replaying the game and the music is all good. I'd maybe dust off the PS4 and boot up Frontiers again after downloading the patches, thanks for the heads up!

Im forever amused by sonic fan apologists when a new sonic game is bad.

@Woderwick Ah, I love everything about what you wrote there! Funny that you say you look like an extra from a Guy Ritchie film, that was literally the look and image I was somewhat typecast in for many years, both from my notariety in the rap music world and from earning my dues in the film industry working on countless low budget cockney gangster and football hooligan films. I got tattoos, shaved my head, worked out a lot and fully leant into it... as a somewhat effeminant kid who was bullied I must admit to have enjoyed cosplaying for a while as a "hard man" and leaning into the uber masculine traits and have people accept me as that.

After a while though I realised it wasn't all that fun and that some people were scared of me, or assumed I was sexist, racist, or violent... whereas I just thought I was being "manly" I was coming across as "Neo Nazi" after a while (only from appearance, not by IRL behaviour of course) ! Which is the absolute furthest from who I am. As soon as I started to get enough power to make my own projects, write my own scripts, get the parts I wanted etc I started purposefully going against that stereotype, getting parts in romances, comedies, growing my hair back (many colleages had assumed I was bald!) etc. I'm somewhat fascinated by societal gender constructs as none of them ever made much sense to me and as an autistic person I've just been feeling my ways around them all my life. Nowadays I'm at the point where I finally feel ok to just be unasahmedly me, and like what I like, act how I act etc. I think the world is a lot more accepting of that nowadays than it was when we were kids though.

I also have a very strong urge to take the mick out of myself, or want to be taken down a peg or two if ever I get too self important or am in a position where people are looking up to me. I've written several films where I end up playing the lead role, and in all of them I end up makign the character a bit of an arse who thinks he's cooler than he is. Often they think they are a ladies man but end up getting slapped or taken advantage of rather than actually coming off as cool to the audience. Even in my short lived but occasionally briefly reappearing rap career I just can't in all seriousness have the necessary confidence and bravado without also putting a load of self depricating jokes in there. There is definitely a British reserve that stops me from going full "aspirational figure / role model / sex symbol" in any American media I work in.

@Ristar24 Marble and Labyrinth aren't bad, per se. They are actually very nicely designed. Its just that it feels that they are from a completely different game, and it changes the flow very quickly. I recently saw a video about the history of the game's creation and the original designers explained quite succictly how each zone in Sonic 1 was purposefully designed to be a completely different gameplay experience in order to make what they hoped would be a well rounded game and show off the range of the character and the engine. I think they succeeded there, but for many people, Green Hill is so strong an impression that to immediately forcefully slow Sonic down feels jarring.

Forgot to mention it before but I'm impressed that you noticed the speed cap or lack there of. Theres a really difference between the momentum and speed differences between sonic 1, 2 and 3 and in my game engine for my fan game I've made sure to have toggleable options for players to choose which suits their prefered playstyle better.

@samuelvictor
It's interesting you say that as I like to think (and flatter myself once again) that I straddle that line between macho nonsense and introverted philosophising about the world I perceive. My ink is all blackwork and from a distance (with the solid black tatts, shaved head and mutton-chops) I'm not surprised when people make negative assumptions about me. The fact that my right shoulder is covered in a blackwork/negative space depiction of a black woman with a massive afro (my missus, in actual fact) belies those assumptions, but I don't begrudge people for it, I know what I look like.
Likewise, I value plain-speaking and probably come across as a weird mix of vulgar and cultured. But I'm not bothered about the assumptions others make. I'm only interested in people that get to know me and like me for who I am. It's taken a long time for me to be able to look myself in the mirror and not despise myself. So I hold fast to people who accept me for who I am and like me without pretensions.
I'm not trying to look like a hard man or pretend to be one. I am who I am, and I've treated my body like a canvas to express who I am to the outside world. If they don't get it, that's their problem, not mine.

P.S. I shave my head because I look like one of The Beatles if I don't. And I wear the chops because at one point I had stress-induced alopecia and all the hair on my chin fell out. I decided I liked the look and stuck with it. My kids probably wouldn't recognise me without the chops.

How about calling the Sonic Mania guy to make the next one? Pretty hard to nab this one at a $60 price tag.

@rushiosan If you mean Christian Whitehead, he has confirmed that they actually used his code for the physics in this one! And also there should be several retaillers selling this game at $40 if you shop around There certainly is in Europe, I've not paid more than £40 for my copies, delivered.

@Woderwick Ha! Honestly you sound like my kind of person. Its great that you are so confident in who you are nowadays, I'm sorry that it took a while to get there, that's certainly a sentiment I can empathise with very clearly.

I started getting my tattoos in my music industry days before having any concept that one day I would be an actor, I always planned on getting many more over time but as soon as I started getting roles in films I stopped as I realised it could limit what I could play, both in terms of tone but also time period. Nowadays I have to take care of my skin, body, diet, exercize etc as part of my job. (I'm far from an oil painting but Iook far better now than I did in my 20s!)

Again though I think the world today doesn't have as negative a perception of tattoos as it used to, you see just as many leftie liberal snowflakes (like me!) sporting them as biker gangs or football hooligans. Infact younger generations see it as more of a sign of being an artistic person and therefore likely to be kind or at least interested in talking to them about their ink and why they got each piece etc. Definitely more of a conversation starter than the "leave me alone" it used to be for our parents generation.

@samuelvictor
Yes, the general perception of tattoos has changed a lot over the last couple of decades. I got my first piece done about 25 years ago and got told by my boss at the time (crappy office job) that I'd get fired if I displayed it openly. Funnily enough he took a different view of the older guy in the department who had an old regimental design inked on his forearm and didn't appreciate it when I pointed that out.
With regards to film I get what you're saying but surely you could just use cover-up cream if required? I'm pretty sure Nicholas Cage has some stuff done that magically doesn't appear on film when it's not germane to the character he's playing.
Then again, he also had a CGI team to give him more defined abs for that one scene in Ghost Rider. 😆

The unnecessary co-op brought down the ps5 review. Personally i will play solo so easily an 8/10 for me. Developers really need to stop making games that fits all, because it just ***** things up.

@Axelay71 Eeeeexcept for all the reviews saying that the game is made better with co-op.
Some say it's better for it, some say it's worse, Sonic fans are citing both as reasons the reviews are biased/wrong. Interesting. It's like people seeking evidence for some foredrawn conclusion. Strange behavior, I tells ya.

@Woderwick hilarious. My ex gf worked at a YMCA, and she got in trouble for her "unnatural" hair color after she died it purple. All of the women around her had fake weaves of purple and green and blue and tinsel, etc...but that same boss was scared to talk to them. Ain't that a trip...

@LikelySatan personally I always saw this game having co-op a big flaw. Its inevitable that players would get split completely messing up the experience. But hey each to there own. I never play on line or co-op so solo is always for me.

@Axelay71 Same, besides some sessions with the kids every now and then, I'm single-player all the way. I still hope fans enjoy this game. I just don't think Sega has it in them anymore to go all out with a cool concept...but then, why would they need to?

@LikelySatan totally agree, unfortunately Sega aren't what they used to be for sure. Its annoying with all the the amazing back catalogue they have as well.

@Axelay71 I say it all the time, Mania and Streets of Rage 4 had a bunch of passionate fans make them. If Sega isn't going to do it right, I'd love to see teams like those get a shot.

@LikelySatan again totally agree, give these old franchises to devs that really are passionate about retro gaming.

75 score on metacritic meh..

@Woderwick Haha that's funny that your boss had that double standard... yeah military tattoos were the one exception for older generations that I nearly mentioned also in my previous post but it was already gettting pretty long! lol. I'm glad perceptions have changed nowadays. I'm not always a fan of other people's tattoos, but surely thats the point - they are for them, not me. Its a very personal thing and a way of expressing or remembering something important to you.

When we were talking before about how nice it is to hand write a letter, it made me think of the song "Tweet" by Alizée, but its in French so I didn't bother to mention it... essentially though the lyrics are about how in modern times romance is lost through just sending texts and likes, using hookup apps etc and not properly "courting" like our parents or grandparents generations did. Dancing, walking together, love letters.

However, now there is even more context to also talk about her so I will get it out of my autistic brain to get some closure! Long story short about her she is a very well known celebrity in France, for many years, starting off as somewhat of a French equivalent of Britney Spears in the lolita-esque early marketing, but she has stuck around in popularity to this day through various different career ebbs and flows. I've met her a few times through both the music industry and Disney (where she voices some French dubs and sings french versions of the movie songs) and she's lovely. To people in the English speaking world, she is quite infamous within certain gaming circles and some of the nerdier sections of the internet, for an old performance of hers going viral, basically for her doing a somewhat provocative dance that became a meme / milkable gifs and then was integrated as an emote / taunt in various videogames, including being the dance that the night elves in World of Warcraft do.

Anyway, this has lead to English speaking audiences mostly only really knowing her for that one performance ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6omsDyFNlk ), and idolising her beauty captured in that moment... but that was many years ago. Right after that performance, she got married, moved out of the limelight for a while to start a family, before coming back to release new albums later. She is still a very beautiful woman, but she's now 39, has had several kids and over the years has amassed quite a lot of tattoos. None of which should be remotely strange! Time passes, who'da thunk it?

It puzzles and saddens me to see how many knee-jerk appalled reactions there are to the fact that she "ruined herself" according to many random internet dwelling folk who somehow expect her to look exactly the same as she was when she was 19 in the video they obsess over, and how angry a few tattoos make them... especially as the majority of them are related to nerd friendly things like anime, videogames, fantasy, disney... I've talked to her about her tattoos and the stories behind some of them are very personal and quite moving but a lot of people are just "pretty woman shouldn't have tattoos" full stop. I don't understand why anyone would want to police what someone else does with their body...

As for me, no-one has told me not to get tattoos, and of course yes they can be covered for filming with makeup or even removed in post with CG. I've done that for my own projects. But I'm no-where near famous or important enough to be able to warrant taking any extra expense or time, as far as most casting directors are concerned! Easier and cheaper to find someone without! I'm easily replacable! 😂

@samuelvictor

I've never understood the dislike of girls with tattoos. I've known many inked ladies and it's often quite beautiful work. I took the missus down to Brighton for her birthday a few weeks ago and we walked past a girl with her throat covered in gorgeous geometric designs. I can't imagine any other response than "Wow, that looks bloody awesome!".
While I may not always like somebody else's work, it's their body and as far as I'm concerned they can do what the want with it.
There's a South African techno/hip-hop duo called Die Antwoord (you've probably heard of them, they were in the film Chappie). Ninja has got a collection of deliberately 'bad' tattoos that look like low-rent prison ink, including the words 'PRETTY WISE' scrawled across his throat in free-hand. I absolutely love his dedication to the space that he occupies, and I also like the fact that his tatts are the antithesis of the whole 'ink = art' movement.
I know that there are people who will write me off at first glance simply because of my ink and I'm actually totally OK with that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and if someone is going to dismiss me because of my tattoos it's unlikely we were ever going to be friends anyway.

@Woderwick Yeah agreed, if someone will judge you for something as simple as a first visual impression they probably aren't the kind of person you want to be friends with anyway!

Chappie was a great film. I remember first hearing Die Antwoord when they released "Enter the Ninja" and I recognised the "Whatever you like" sample and of course the meme/gamer Butterfly interpolation. I remember the lyrics amused me by throwing in random gaming references and also bits of 90s culture including several Vanilla Ice lyrics. As they were South African I wasn't sure if he was serious or if it was meant to be funny but it was certainly unique and memorable and I see why they gained a lot of traction after that.

I've subsequently heard lots of not very nice things about him, which of course is a real shame if true. In my industry, sadly, its becoming a liability to align myself with or even speak admiringly about anyone as turns out many have skeletons in their closet and then people say stuff like "you must have known!" "theres all these pictures of you together!" etc. Obviously I'm glad that we are now in the position where people can call out problems in the industry and poor behaviour etc, the thing that botherrs me is that it seems so prevalent and of course there is no way to know who is a "good" person or not. Anyway, side rant for another day. I agree that "purposefully bad / prison style" tattoos are cool in a punk rock "not art" kinda way!

@samuelvictor

I haven't heard any not very nice things about Ninja. Disappointed if such things are out there and true as he's always seemed like such a dude. Well, he's always come across as a bit of a ***** too, but he kind of owns that and I've a certain respect for people who are ***** but only direct their ****** at people who deserve it.

*Looks like this one escaped the swear-filter which should help decode the words that didn't.

And yes, there was the whole thing at the start of whether they were a joke band or not, but they are entirely (mostly) serious and, regardless of anything in his past that I'll no doubt now go looking into and subsequently have to add to the list of "Damn, not you too.", I think he's a good MC with a love of proper old-school hip-hip and a disdain for pretension.

They used to say you should never meet your heroes. I think the modern version is to never even Google your heroes. Except that doing so would be to choose ignorance, and that is a sin I resolved to never, ever commit.

EDIT: Damn. Even the Wikipedia article contains enough horrific accusations. And yes, we can all agree that accusations don't == guilt. But he and Yolandi Visser have always had enough of a flirtation with messed-up stuff that some of the nastier stuff is somehow not entirely surprising. That is; if, like me, you're sickened enough by the world and the way some people twist the whole nature of transgressive outsider art into being a license to be vile and a cover for outright villainy.

The worst part is that it ju-. No, the worst part is what happens to the victims. But another Very Bad Thing is that it gives people who despise outsiders and outsider art another piece of ammunition to hurl at those of us who are firmly outsiders but also just as firmly not monsters.

@LikelySatan

Sorry chap, missed this earlier in amongst a flurry of notifications. I too despise double-standards like that.

My son's school tried to ban him from wearing his hair in cane-rows (corn-rows to Left-Pondians) because of supposed 'gang connotations'. Ignoring that fact that he's a friendly, geeky little dude and just focusing on the fact that he's mixed-race.

Meanwhile, the white lads at school swaggering round like ersatz gangters (affecting limps, co-opting West Indian patois and threatening to stab people) largely passed without mention.

Needless to say, the management team at the school got short shrift from me and the missus on that score.

@Woderwick Wait, wutt? A mixed race child can't have corn-rows because of "gang connotations" ?! Are you f'in kidding me? I'd have gone right to the local press and also phoned a lawyer. Thats about as blatant internalised institutional racism as you get. Black hairstyles are very important culturally, sometimes even religiously linked. I've never heard of any London gang where rows are compulsary (and I've worked with people from many a London gang, in both music and movies). Did they even consider googling their historical significance or why they are so common for people of colour to wear? Good lord.

Also, yeah, sadly there's been a lot of stuff quietly going around about that dude over the years, not least from his own son. Innocent til proven guilty of course but as you say, his revelling in joking about or simulating some of the nastier things in life as part of his stage act makes some of it easier to believe. Real shame when stuff like that enforces stereotypes of certain alternative cultures or helps certain media figures to be able to claim that media personalities should be taken at their word about what they say in songs rather than seeing it as acting or performance art. Recent and repeated revelations about Marilyn Manson also spring to mind.

Sometimes people believe their own on stage persona so much that it bleeds into their personal lives... but of course 99.9% of the most violent/scary metal artists and gangster rappers are actually the sweetest most shy people off stage. I have travelled with many of them, and can attest to this! Also, I ghost wrote lyrics for a lot of them and I'm about as lefty liberal wet rag as you get 😂

@samuelvictor

Yes, sadly my son's school are very much like that. And that moment barely scratches the top 5 of random racist/micro-aggression stuff he's had to deal with (remind me to tell you about the time a teacher pulled him aside, asked about his heritage and then tried to suggest that it's his cultural background that caused him to stand up to a bully in no uncertain terms. I laughed because if he's inherited any form of aggression/disdain for unjust authority/simple 'that ain't right so I won't watch it happen' it's very, very firmly come from me).

He was bullied quite badly for a couple of years and, while we didn't call the press or activate lawyers, I turned up at the school gates a few times to ask a couple of lads why they were picking on him before the school started to realise it was the white people in his family/'chosen family'* who were more of a threat. And not because I did anything threatening but I look a particular way, I have a bit of a 'war-face' on me even when I'm perfectly happy, and I tend to surprise people by mixing a certain robust linguistic eloquence (not trying to ring my own bell here, even though I probably sound it) with what what missus would describe as a borderline-autistic inability to back down when I'm in the right.
Long story short, it ended up with us on a Zoom meeting with the school heads and the city education board. The missus and I layed out our grievances, the school erected a fairly pitiful defence and the headman basically came across as JK Simmons with a "Really, is that it? I'm bored now, fix this nonsense." He did very, very well at putting the head teacher firmly in his place while not even seeming to pull rank on him but at the same time everyone in the room clearly see what happened.

*Chosen family/Found family. I read a lot. And I mean a lot. That comes partly from Andrew Vachs (who is a cast-iron dude) and partly from my own experiences with various people, both good and bad. Friends are the family you choose. I draw no distinction between my family and the friends I consider family. Neither do they and that's why I consider them family.

@Woderwick I'm sorry to hear of all the problems, and I'm very glad you got that sorted. There is absolutely NO excuse for that kind of ignorance in Britain in this day and age. Still think you could easily have had a justified lawsuit on your hands! I would have been furious. I'm furious on your behalf just thinking about it 😤

And I totally agree on chosen family. There are a small but carefully selected group of people in my life that I love just as much as any blood relative. Not only that but I have 2 kids only one of whom is "biologically" mine and that fact matters not one tiny jot (in fact I 100% forget most of the time until people bring up subjects like this). I very much chose to bring both my children into my life and I love them more than anything. 🥰

@samuelvictor

Maximum respect to you for that, sir. My dad brought up my sister (technically half-sister) as his own and she fully 100% considers him to be her father. In fact, she tracked down her 'real dad' at some point and made a point of telling the prick that she didn't need him because she had a Real Dad.

Likewise, my bestest friend in the whole wide world stuck with a girl after the 2nd time they'd hooked up simply because he saw her two kids were heading towards a crap life and couldn't watch that happen. They absolutely adore him (both in their 20's now), as do I, and both would take issue with anyone who suggest he isn't their dad.
People like you and he are few and far between and should be cherished. :heart-emoji-I-can't-work-out-how-to-do-on-my-laptop-right-now:

Also, your mention of not knowing any gangs that require specific haircuts made me laugh out loud. I've known more than a few 'unsavoury' types. Some are by my bestest friends. In my experience, people involved in the underworld couldn't care less if, for instance, a bloke turns up wearing a frock. If he can batter the first three guys that step to him (or be otherwise useful) and he's reasonably loyal/trustworthy then he's in. Because for proper criminals it's a full-time thing and, unless you're an idiot, utility far outweighs ideology.
That privately amuses me. Because capitalism is a coin with two faces, and the obverse can't function without the reverse. Maybe I've read too much James Ellroy and Erich Schlosser. But I strongly doubt it.

@Woderwick Aw, that's lovely, thanks mate. Though the honour and pleasure of having my kids in my life is all mine. I'm exceptionally lucky to be associated with 2 such amazing people. I'm sure I've learned more from them than they could possibly learn from me. I don't talk about private life online so I'll leave it at that, but they have grown into 2 incredible people and while I don't credit myself for that, I couldn't be more proud of them.

And yeah, spot on with the real criminal types. Also the higher you rise in society and the more powerful "legit" people you work with, you realise there's very little difference between big business and organised crime, always the two cross paths and and often they merge. At the very least, they co-exist very comfortably often because of each other - but to an even higher extent, the most successful businesses (and indeed organisations and institutions) are just criminality wrapped up in fancy legal jargon and obfuscicating paperwork.

@samuelvictor

Very much so, sir.

As to your second paragraph; James Ellroy and American Tabloid is probably the most explicit and well-written treatise I've ever read on that subject and more than confirms the way the real world works. To throw a few quotes out (from various sources): "Money only cares about money", "The biggest secret of the world's secret police is that they all talk to each other", and (one of my personal favourites) "If work was so good the rich would have kept more of it for themselves". But yes, the crossover between money/politic/underworld is plain for us to see that have witnessed a certain amount of stuff and are eyes-wide-open to the way the world works.
I've never known anyone famous or powerful or rich but it only takes a moderately intelligent person to sit down, intake and analyse the facts and from that discern the way the wind blows.

EDIT: (because stuff has happened this weekend and, for reasons, I'm most of a bottle of rum down, so I forgot to address your first paragraph): As to your first paragraph: I'm a total misanthrope and I sometimes find it hard enough to hold true to the people I've chosen to love. The fact that someone will do that without question towards someone they have no outward obligation to do so towards will always draw utmost respect from me. Personally, I'm a total misanthrope and I truly treasure those few humans I decide to love. My kids get it unconditionally. I'd like to think if I found myself in a situation such as yours/my bestest friend's I'd act the same. But you never know, and I fear I'd fall short. Hence my total respect for those who don't.

@Woderwick Thanks again mate. As I said, I'm privilidged to have them in my life and to have watched them grow into peopel far greater than I could hope to be.

As for American Tabloid, I haven't read it but I'm very aware of the subject matter and a lot of it is based on fact and real people. On your strong recomendation I've just gone and put all 3 books in my wishlist on Amazon to remind me to get them as soon as I get a moment to actually sit still and read something! (usually when I'm traveling for work).

Originally, Bruce Willis's production company bought the option (meaning that no other company can adapt it) but sat on it til it expired (read a conspiracy into that if you want!). Interestingly it now lies with Playtone, Tom Hanks' company, supposedly because he wants to turn it into a multipart drama. For very obvious legal reasons I can't say why, but assuming that they are genuinely developing it rather than purposefully preventing it getting made is especially interesting given certain things about Hanks. Hmm.

Entirely unrelated observation: Certain circles of Hollywood seem to delight in telling on themselves.

[edit] hah scrap that, he did indeed sit on it. He got those rights back in 2008 and nothing has materialised. Typical. Scary how in my mind I read that news just a few years ago. Getting old sucks!

For anyone still here looking for Sonic content after we accidentally hijacked this thread (sorry!) I've been playing the Switch version of Superstars and oh boy is it good! 😍 Posted my thoughts so far here: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/10/round-up-the-reviews-are-in-for-sonic-superstars#comments

@samuelvictor

Interesting that it's been optioned a couple of times and not actually made. Not that surprising though, as I think Ellroy's work is largely unfilmable without heavily bastardising what he originally wrote.*

For instance, I love LA Confidential as a film, but the novel has so many more layers, and they completely cut the sub-plot about his Walt-Disney-With-The-Serial-Numbers-Filed-Off being involved with all sorts of nastiness including a brutal serial killer.

I do love his work, even though it's not very pretty. Hope you enjoy American Tabloid. I love so much about that trilogy but I'll leave you to discover it for yourself. Pete Bondurant is an absolute dude though.

• It would be amusing if Woody Harrelson was involved at some point, considering his dad's background and rumoured entanglement with the events at Dealy Plaza.

give us a veeeeery goodlooking sonic pinball sega!!! with an option of vertical screen
and nice rumble and online.

not again the same as usual.

@Woderwick Yes thats often the case with novels - I've actually been approached to write screenplays based on several novels and its often near to impossible because so much of the work is either completely impractical to film dues to overly ambitious visual effects or descriptions that work better in your imagination rather than on screen... or more often, impossible to film in a non-hackneyed way due to much of it being inner dialogue...

"as he looked at her, she reminded him of someone he previously knew. That kind of person was impossible to trust. Or perhaps his vision was clouded by the way things had ended. God he missed her. The light caught the woman's eye in a way that returned him back to earth with a bang. He had no idea what words had been coming from her mouth for the past minute - but boy what a mouth. He focused on her lips. No. Focus on the job. You're here for business not pleasure."

I meant that to be a terrible off the cuff example, but actually thats not too bad lol. Impossible to film without making a noir-esque voiceover or annoying inconsequential flashbacks though.

The reason I was semi-conspiratorial about the book being optioned then allowed to expire twice is because this commonly happens on purpose, with no real intention to ever make the movie, just to stop the movie being made by a rival company. If you have a major publishing deal for a novel, its extremely common to have multiple movie option deals offered to you even before the book is published. They buy the rights early for a small retainer FAR cheaper than they would pay if it was a successful property already, in the hope that one of the countless books they do this to will become a hit, and they have those rights for if they choose to use them. But for books that expose or allude to real life events that make the us governments, armed forces or establishment heads look bad, I have often felt that they buy the rights then sit on them to prevent the contents of the book becoming more accessible to the great unwashed masses.

@samuelvictor

Yeah, the language of film is very different to prose and some things are 'easier' to achieve in each of them. It's about picking the medium that best suits what you have in mind. Although that's not possible when some studio exec is determined to turn a hugely popular novel into a money-spinning blockbuster.
And yes, I understand what you mean about buying rights to films just to effectively block their production for one reason or another. Similarly, you can get a director or producer who is determined to put their own spin on the subject matter. For example, I love Conan The Barbarian. Absolute classic, great actors and story, and yet it's tediously obvious the John Milnius applied his own politics to the piece. Hence Tulsa Doom reperesents the spectre of socialism with his 'mindless drones' of followers and his army of flower children standing in for the hippies that Milnius so detested. It doesn't stop it being a great film, but it's laughably clear that he was very much grinding a personal axe with the story.

EDIT: Then again, there are times when the translation to film works brilliantly. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is an interesting book, but a bit of a mess (symptom of a disordered mind and all that), and while Bladerunner substantially changes the story, the result is absolutely fantastic. Likewise, the original novel of Fight Club is about how the history of 'great men' has lead to modern men feeling like they can't live up to those that came before and so the agenda is to destroy all history by blowing up museums etc. The film shifted the focus to the way capitalism traps us in a hamster wheel of tedium and the agenda is to wipe out store cards, credit accounts and debt to free people from the burden on that. Far better than something like I Am Legend which completely misses the point of the entire book, which is that the vampires end up ruling the earth and, due to the protagonist's actions in killing them in their sleep and then killing himself before they can arrange a public execution, humans become the bogeymen of the nascent vampire civilisation.

@Woderwick Yes, Bladerunner and Fight Club are rare but textbook examples where I prefer the take of the films to the original novels. As at least somewhat of a comic book guy, I find the attempts to adapt Alan Moore's work are often very hit and miss, more often than not make a pretty decent film, but miss the point of the graphic novels. Though I really like how V for Vendetta came out, even if its not too faithful. The movie version of Watchmen was visually interesting and action heavy but I feel like it missed the point entirely.

I feel directors putting their own politics into movies can be great, but flat out should not be a thing in movies based on novels written by otehr people. It feels a violation. It does occasionally produce great results though!

Theres been a somewhat heated debate in the Hogwarts thread on this site today, but one thing that I will say in favour of Rowling (even though I strongly dislike her recent heel turn) is that I know from many discussions with people who were privvy to the deals that she was SO ADAMENT on being involved with EVERY decision in both the movies and the theme park adaptations of her work. She turned down enormous amounts of money for both from Disney because they wouldn't let her have creative control. They even tried to outright buy the IP at one point and she flatly refused. BAre in mind, when the first movie deal was being negotiated, she was not a rich woman by any standards and Disney were offering VASTLY more money than what was basically the mid budget indie taht the first film was. She turned down serveral million because she had faith that she was the best person to make sure her ideas were reproduced faithfully.

@samuelvictor

Alan Moore is a difficult one, partly because he's a particularly difficult character himself, and partly because his work contains so many themes and layers that it's almost as though they're delibrately designed to only work in his chosen medium. Which I can respect. I agree with your sumaries of both V For Vendetta and Watchmen as films. Similar to Constantine. I think it's a great urban fantasy film, and I think Keanu Reeves is geat. But he's not John Constantine and it's not a Constantine film.

Fair play to Rowling for taking that stance, as I can understand how easy it must be to just take the money and accept that your art it going to be crassly exploited. I'm reminded of Lucas's comments about selling Star Wars to Disney being like selling his kids into slavery, but he wasn't exactly short of a bob or two so I'm not really sure why he did that. I haven't been at all impressed with the results. Except for maybe that Star Wars LARP hotel they've made, which massively appeals to my inner child.
Personally I can't stand Harry Potter though. In my opinion it's a series of OK books that tread an exceptionally familiar path of that whole 'secretly you are the special one' which I think is pretty damaging and I'm much more into tales about the everyman hero, or massively flawed characters of the type Ellroy is so enamoured with.
Added to that, and something that I truly despise, Potter bought about the recent surge of grown adults reading kids books and gushing about them as though they're somehow amazing. It makes me despair when I look at the massive amount of incredible novels out there (I've got about a thousand books here that I've built up over the years, mostly by scouring charity shops for interesting bits and pieces of old sci-fi, noir, etc) and see that instead of reading something that can explain a facet of the human condition or explore the world around us, people are diving into simplistic plots and paper-thin characters that are literally intended for an audience of minors and are just regurgitating the same pap we tell kids because we don't want to expose them to the reality of this world just yet.

I realise I probably come off quite snobbish about it, which is not my intention, but I think that kids books and 'young adult' fiction have their places, but those places are for kids.

At this point I'm just an old man yelling at clouds though. So be it.

@Woderwick Yes Alan Moore is certainly somewhat of a prickly character and I definitely don't agree with everything he says or does, though he's someone I greatly admire. I've had the pleasure of attending a few talks by him and briefly spoke to him on one occasion, seemed a thoroughly decent chap. I agree on your assesment of Constantine too.

As for Harry Potter, you know, that was my opinion when the first book came out and everyone was going mad over it, adults included, and I just didn't get it and was quite snobbish about it. I thought the writing wasn't much special and the themes and settings were all thoroughly recycled and played out from a million other teenage witch/wizard school retreads (say the person making a game about a young witch. Oh well. Its a trope I'm fond of). I only paid much attention as my kids were the right age to enjoy the movies and each one improved over the years (I even worked on the last 2 in a tiny capacity).

However, as the books went on and she became more bold with the political and social commentary that she felt she could get away with squeezing in there and I thought it became a lot more interesting. Some of it is quite ambiguous and clearly meant to make young people think of the grey areas of difficult subjects. One example would be Hermione wanting to free the elves from what she percieves as slavery, but actually they were quite happy with the arrangement and when they were free'ed, some of them couldn't handle a life with no purpose, especially when all they had ever experienced until that point was servitude. It can be read all kinds of ways, some of which are not very favourable to Rowling (certain races love to be oppressed! It makes them happy!) but others of which could be percieved as a commentary on the Western "democracies" going to war to "free" certain countries with very different regimes, but leaving them a splintered mess and causing terrorist groups and extremeism to flourish etc... the fact these conversations happen within universe and doesn't give clear direction or easy answers is pretty bold for a kids book. Things like the balacning of the personality traits of the 4 houses is very well done too - would have been very easy to just make Slytherin the bad guys but thats not the case at all, and actually is easy to read as a societal allegory for all different types of people with oposing views and ideologies having their place and being an important part in society regulating itself.

Upcoming rant on Star Wars which I'll type in a separate reply!

@samuelvictor

I think my issue is that the more she tried to introduce larger concepts the more ham-fisted her execution became. And I think I previously ranted to you about my thoughts on Jar-Jar Abrams* and his contribution to the Star Wars universe.

*I'm conviced JJ stands for Jar-Jar, they're the only two who have done about equal levels of harm to the franchise. Except for maybe Lucas himself, but it's his baby so I suppose he's free to mutilate it as much as he wants.

@Woderwick Now. Star Wars. I'm glad you brought that up. I realised the other day that you'd mentioned the Disney Star Wars stuff before and I'd replied, but for whatever reason my reply was lost. Which annoyed me as of course I'm rather tied to that brand in several ways over the last decade. First off, the reason Lucas sold to Disney is because he was sick and tired of the fanbase constantly harassing him because they didn't like the Prequel trilogy and felt he'd "ruined their childhood". Its only in recent years when kids who grew up with the prequels are now adults and very vocal online that people are reassessing them. It can't be overstated how much hate there was towards them and anything to do with them for many years. I was lucky enough to be invited to Celebration this year, and Hayden Christensen (who nearly took his life over the constant hatred) stepping on stage for the first time in over a decade and getting a standing ovation was an absolute moment. He could barely speak and it was so lovely seeing the fans old and young bandying together to make him realise he wasn't hated and it was actually nice to have him back.

The LARP hotel you mentioned was a great idea but excecuted terribly. It was like $5000 for 2 nights, and during that time you couldn't even experience Disney World else you'd have wasted your money. It was an underwhelming claustrophobic 100% indoors experience (not even windows) with a luxury price tag that meant only the richest of fat cats could afford it, and most of those people don't want to be part of "dinner theatre" style crowd interaction. If you weren't aware, it closed after only being open about 6 months.

That said, the Star Wars land ( Galaxy's Edge ) is great and you can full on larp til your heart's content, drinking at the cantina, pilotting the Millenium Falcon, building a droid, getting assigned a Kyber crystal and being given lightsabre training with your custom blade. Its pretty cool. Movie producer friends of mine got married there, it was a trip. If you don't fancy a flight to the States, they are building it in Paris next year - I'll be able to get you in free 😋

You mentioned before that you got a distaste for the Disney Star Wars after watching Episode VII / Force Awakens and didn't watch beyond that, and were somewhat annoyed with Rian Johnson for leaving his indie routes to make Last Jedi. I have many opinions on the Sequel trilogy. They are far from perfect, but I can see merit in all of them. The biggest problem is that they AREN'T a trilogy. They are 3 almost unrelated films. Each one has a miriad of issues, most of which come from trying to please the increasingly fractured fanbase. A single director with an arching vision for all three and the confidence to just make what they wanted to would have been far better. But Disney had so much money riding on it all, I think it was a safer bet in their minds to at least try and appease the fanbase, which meant each film was very different to the last to try and course correct what people complained about in the previous entry, and each time they went too far in the opposite direction.

I'm biased because I know too many people both on camera and behind the scenes, and I know the passion and love that went into creating even the smallest details. I'd be hard pushed to say that I think they are all "good" films but each one has elements that are amazing and absolutely worth experiencing as a Star Wars fan, and they add real value to the canon. You just have to look past all the obvious cringe, mistakes and plot holes. Similar to the prequels, theres really good stuff hidden in there amongst the not so great stuff. I concentrate on the bits I like.

One point I should make is to somewhat stick up for Rian Johnson (even though their film is the one I like the least, by a long margin). Basically what Disney (and all other big studios) do with a franchise picture (ie ones that people will go and watch because of the brand) is look to the indie space to hire talented and well regarded people from lower budget movies and offer them a chance at a step up the ladder. The reason for this is they are much cheaper to hire than a big name director, and that big name (Speilberg or whatever) would have no impact on whether people would pay to see the movie. Every big franchise film will have people from the indie world picked to direct it. I myself am a fiercely independent "starving artist" type who is often head hunted for hollywood stuff nowadays and its very likely that I'll agree at some point if I'm lucky enough to be asked to direct something my inner child would have been excited by. I see nout wrong with it, its not selling out. Hollywood vs indie is often a "one for me, one for them" ethos. If you only make art, you'll fall out of favour and run out of money very quickly.

I completely understand you not feeling like watching any of the sequel trilogy, or even the recent shows (most of which are quite well recieved, comparitively. Andor is especially good).

However, the one that I was the most involved with, and the one I very briefly act in and mentioned that I actually wrote a line which went on to be very famous and a springboard for doing good in the world (and for which I recently went super viral accidentally when I did an AMA about for the official reddit) is Rogue One.

Even without bias, I'd thoroughly recomend you watch Rogue One. Not for me, I'm barely in it. Blink and you miss me, almost all of what I did was chopped out. But instead because its by far and away the best thing Disney have done with Star Wars and the one thing almost all fans universally agree is actually really good.

The reason for this, is its not a "Star Wars" movie, as you'd traditionally expect one to be. And its not part of the new continuity. Its essentially "Episode 3.5" and the film that bridges Revenge of the Sith ( Ep 3 ) to A New Hope ( what we oldies used to call "Star Wars" ). Its a very cleverly written film that very satisfyingly fixes a few of the most egrigious plot holes in both those films, and helps make the continuity between the prequels and the original trilogy make sense.

But its also more than that. I say its "not a Star Wars movie" in that it doesn't start with an exposition crawl. There are no lightsabre battles. Barely any ships or dogfights (exception one super cool one thrown in there which many think is the best in the series). Its a human film, about the ethics of war, global politics, corruption, the fact that in life there are no "good guys" or "bad guys". It humanises the people fighting for the empire. It shows bad eggs in the Rebel alliance. And most importantly, it satisfyingly explains exactly why the Death Star was built with such an obvious flaw of a self destruct button thats just sat there, exposed for Luke to shoot, and how Leia even knew about it in the first fricken place! 😂

Both Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy (who essentially co-directed) are huge talented people. Again, Edwards (the named director) is someone who I came up with, him making super low budget indies and making visual effects freelance for the BBC before Hollywood scooped him up.

I think out of everything Disney has done with Star Wars, for better or worse, Rogue One almost justifies everything. And Lucas was never going to make another film anyway. I think overall, its a net positive rather than just letting it die. And likely, just as the prequels are now reasessed as many kids grew up enjoying them, the same will happen with the sequels. They are films made for kids, after all. It just rankles for us adults when stuff doesn't live up to our childhood memories. But its nice that it continues and is contantly reimagined - if a certain incarnation isn't to my taste, another might be - much like the Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Spider-Man et al (and indeed Sonic! See, we're still on topic!) its a mixed mag, but always being refilled and taking another stab at it. And some of the attempts are pretty cool.

@samuelvictor

That's an interesting read, and I did worry previously that I'd upset you with my previous comments. I also get the idea of indie directors 'stepping up' and being given a big project to work on, and it's not something I'm against in principal, I just see it failing so often because the director isn't a good fit for the project, or the project itself isn't that good but once they've signed on they either see it to the end or bow out and (I'd assume) pretty much burn all their bridges in the filthy town that is Hollywood. I don't recall the last time someone pulled an Alan Smithee although I know some people still do walk away from projects but the power imbalance between indie director and massive studio is so ridiculously one-sided that it's not an option for most people.

As to Lucas, I don't hate him at all, I don't even hate the prequel trilogy particularly, but I don't think they're very good films and I think that the more you delve into the Star Wars universe, the more you expose the flaws in its conception that David Brin exposed in his essay about it. What I loved about Star Wars as a child, without even consciously realising it at the time, and what set it apart from so many other similar films at the time (and this is speaking as a huge fan of Corman's work and Battle Beyond The Stars in particular) is that Star Wars felt like a massive universe into which we were seeing a tiny slice.
The more films they make, and the more the dwell on the same characters, planets and situations, the smaller that universe seems. It starts to become a morality play (with a fairly warped set of morals) around a single family and that's something I never felt it was about with the first trilogy simply because it 'felt' like there was a much larger universe outside of the Skywalkers playing their 'divine right of kings' game.

As I mentioned previously, my issue with Awakens was that it just felt like picking some iconic scenes from the first trilogy and cramming them into a new film with a lot of nudges towards the fanbase to get them to accept the new characters. They essentially took the ending of Jedi, moved it forwards 10 years and then reset it all back to the way it was at the start of A New Hope, so they could retread the same ground. Oh, and the Rebellion have had a rebrand, changed their colour scheme from red to blue, and then called themselves the Resistance. By definition 'Resistance' is less forceful than 'Rebellion'.

@samuelvictor

I hit the length limit on that one so here's the rest of it:

Your mentioning of the TV stuff realised I was unintentionally dishonest earlier though. I did actually sit down with the missus and watch the first series of The Mandalorian and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Yes it uses a few too many elements from the original trilogy but I suppose they had to stick a Yoda and a Skywalker in to make it seem like it wasn't completely separate from the rest of the Star Wars universe.

I liked the setting, I liked the direction, I loved some of the characters and it's the first time in years that I've watched something that actually felt like Star Wars. I also loved the way it was largely a spaghetti western take on Star Wards and the fact that it managed to make the Mandalorians themselves actually fit into the rest of the universe with a proper explanation for who they were that gelled with the original trilogy while not doing the same reductive crap that Awakens did.
I haven't watched the Boba Fett series yet but I do plan on getting round to it. It's just that apart from the odd thing here and there I haven't watched TV for over 20 years now and it's not something I feel a great urge to do very often.

I do stand by my complaints about Awakens though. It was Abrams at his CTRL+C>>CTRL+V worst. He's made a career out of knocking off Lucas and Spielberg and I know it's a very personal thing as to whether you consider something a loving homage or a pedestrian rip-off but I know which side of the fence I'm on when it comes to his films.
It's a shame because I think he's actually quite a talented director, and I don't have a problem with wearing your inspiration on you sleeve. But my personal opinion is that you need to take the things you love and that inspire you and put them together in a new way with your own creative spin on it. Not just jumble the same elements about a bit and wait for the audience to applaud.

I'm trying (and struggling slightly) to think of a good rcent example what I mean. Musically it's easy for me to hold up Janelle Monae and sceam "This! This is what I'm talking about!" until I run out of oxygen. She's equal parts Bowie and Prince and Queen but it's clear those are inspirations, not blueprints and she adds her own incredibly magic to that.
Filmwise, I suppose Mandy is a sort of good example. It's inspired by pulp 'mens adventure' novels and grindhouse trucker films mixed with those sort of weird old sci-fi/horror films like From Beyond and The Keep and it just works so well because it also has it's own feel and themes and remains logically consistent throughout.

But it's all very subjective and personal and I could see why others would look at Mandy and think it totally derivative. I suppose for me it's whether or not I can see that the creator has their own vision that comes through, or whether it just feels like they're doing it because somebody else did and it was popular. Not that I claim to know one way or the other, it's very much a 'feeling' thing, but I like to think I can tell when someone is being 'authentic', whatever that may mean.

@Woderwick "I don't recall the last time someone pulled an Alan Smithee although I know some people still do walk away from projects". I have done exactly this several times. Was a shame to do as they were projects that would have looked great on my cv too. Though I walked off not because of creative differences (which you expect when working on a studio picture. Always "too many cooks"), but because of extreme ideological differences, or discovering something really awful about one or more of the people funding the projects, so those were bridges I didn't mind burning, and can happily justify if anyone ever questions me about it. As you said, Hollywood can be a "filthy town".

As I've mentioned elsewhere on this site, I did turn down a $30 million budget movie as the changes they wanted me to make to the script were unconscionable to me. That was not an easy thing to do. Perhaps it was foolish. What I do know is if I was offered to direct something that young me would have been excited by - Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Marvel, Muppets and a handful more franchises, I'd gleefully accept knowing full well that studio interferance would absolutely sabotage everything I tried to do and the finished result would probably not be what I wanted. But still, its an honour to be associated and a rite of passage to be chewed up and spat out by the evil corporate machine! lol.

I'm too close to JJ to give any objective opinion on your critique (not that we are friends or anything, he probably wouldn't even remember my name! Might recognise me in person though) but I will say that he's a thoroughly decent bloke who has used his association with Star Wars to do an enormous amount of good. Force For Change was set up by him and I was one of the founder members, it raised many millions for unicef and I felt lucky to be involved with a lot of wonderful fundraising events that made a lot of kids happy, whilst doing genuine good in the world.

Your criticisms of Force Awakens are the most common and are perfectly valid - it very much plays like a "greatest hits" of Star Wars moments. But thats exactly what he was tasked to do by Disney, its barely his fault to follow orders. You've got to remember how long it had been since a Star Wars movie. They knew Force Awakens would be many kids' (and even teens') first experience of Star Wars and they tasked him to make something to instantly show and explain why its cool to a new audience of attention defecit (I say that with love) kids. As a parent it was a moment for me to take my own kids to the cinema to experience their first Star Wars film on the big screen, and see how excited and immediately invested they were. Suddenly it was their favourite new thing, they wanted lightsabers, droids and X Wing / Millenium Falcon toys, and it gave a window for me to explain the older stuff to them, and also for us then to be able to enjoy the theme park stuff together as a family. Force Awakens was never going to be a satisfying "Star Wars" film for long term fans, but as a "quick catch up" establishing the universe and themes for a new audience, it nailed the landing. Its very much a film by commitee, but thats par for the course when Disney had just chucked literal billions into buying Lucasfilm. It had to be a safe bet for the long term - IE onboarding basically 2 generations of kids who had no concept of what a "Star Wars" even was.

Rians film was the follow up, and tried to do a knee jerk to the criticisms you laid out, and instead made an "artsy, indie, subverts your expectations" kind of film, which purposefully shat on a lot of what was set up in Force Awakens, and managed to (in my opinion) actively damage or even disrespect beloved characters, and broke long standing continuity by trying to retcon stuff that to many fans was sacred. It was brave, but felt like a film made by someone who didn't even like Star Wars and was somewhat sneering at the fanbase. Its beautifully shot and edited though! Great cinematography whilst ruining our childhoods!

I'm glad you enjoyed Mandalorian. Boba Fett isn't up to the highs of that series, but I'd say Andor is actually better, and so far Ashoka is great, especially if you know the character already from Clone Wars / Rebels and can get invested in Prequel era lore. If anything, Disney's current Star Wars "problem" is not so much teh quality, but the quantity. There's so much, its hard to keep up, or for it all to feel "special" when there is such an abundance of it. But overall the TV series in both live action and animation are of a good quality, I just think they should slow down a little and pace them out.

I feel even more certain that if you enjoyed Madalorian, then you'll find things to like about Rogue One. Its very similar, but obviously higher budget and adds to the films we grew up enjoying in the same way Mandalorean does.

@Woderwick Interesting you mention Corman. My film teacher at the Hollywood Film Institute was Dov Simens who was a long serving line producer for Corman and therefore an expert on making films that came in under schedule and under budget to ensure they made a profit for the investors and therefore the next one would be funded. Genius teacher - cares less about the art and more about the business, but really good at being realistic about getting people to have a long running career rather than trying to create one great master piece and getting chewed up and spat out by the machine.

As well as being my film teacher, Simens was also teacher to some far less important names, such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. Both of whom are directors who very liberally "borrow" from other films and shows. I'd be interested to know where you sit on them, but personally I think Tarantino especially is on the right side of "inspired by" and "homages" but joined together in an artful and cohesive way. Ritchie probably less so, but I'm very fond of his first two films at least.

And yeah, Mandy was wonderful but I have a blindspot for anything involving Nick Cage. Even when the films bad, its good because he's in it. 😂

[edit] "I did worry previously that I'd upset you with my previous comments. " Noooo not at all. If you ever did upset or insult me, I'd just tell you! 😄 I felt annoyed that I thought I'd typed a really good response to what you wrote, then wondered why you hadn't replied a week or so later, and when I checked, the post wasn't there. Must have gotten lost in a server update or something. I actually was concerned that you might feel I'd ignored your message, so I was glad when you mentioned Star Wars again and it reminded me.

@samuelvictor

I totally see what you're saying about Awakens needing to introduce a new generation to the series, but my take on that is that before I took my son to see it, I sat down with him and we watched the original trilogy together, and I kind of assumed most other people would have done the same. I also have great memories of my dad taking me along to watch all 3 in a back-to-back showing when I was probably around 6 or 7. He had no idea how long it was going to be, and this was before the days of mobile phones so mum went absolutely ballistic when we got back. She thought we'd been kidnapped or something.

And it's very easy for me to be opinionated/obnoxious about this stuff because I'm very much an outsider with an educated interest (I did a degree in writing). In my defence, I'm equally passionate about stuff I love so I think it sort of balances out. Or possibly not. JJ may be a lovely bloke and have done a lot of cool things, but I'm not a big fan of most of his stuff. I liked Cloverfield (mostly because it was a fun monster movie and the meta-media stuff around it was really interesting and well done). I had no time for Lost, thought it was boring from the start and when they revealed that they just made stuff up and left it to work out what it all meant later it was like a textbook example of how not to set up a mystery. If you don't know where it's going when you start then why should I want to follow it along? There's no cohesion or internal logic to follow, it's just chucking weird stuff at a wall and then cobbling together a way to explain it after the fact.

As to Tarantino, I love some of his stuff, other bits I think are where he disappeared up his own arse a bit. He's incredibly talented, and very good at taking stuff he loves and putting his own spin on it. I also really like that most of his films are set in his own universe. I didn't enjoy the Grindhouse films particularly, because I felt it was a bit too self-indulgent and both he and Rodriguez were selling themselves short (I love Rodriguez too, I've a very well-thumbed copy of Rebel Without A Crew around here somewhere and if I ever do make a low-budget film it will very much act as my bible on how to work around your limitations).
I didn't enjoy Inglorious Basterds at all. It felt too much like a bunch of charicatures and too little like it's own thing. Also, I'm not at all a fan of Eli Roth, either as a director or actor.
With Ritchie, I love Lock Stock and Snatch, even though they felt very much like he was doing an English Tarantino. I quite like Revolver despite its flaws because I can see what it was aiming for.
The Sherlock films were surprisingly good as well, and even though Wrath of Man felt fairly deriviative it was a decent enough flick. I didn't go a bundle on Rockanrolla because it felt like 2 or 3 ideas wedged together (although the Archie Slap is an absolute truism). I thought The Gentlemen was a return to form and I quite liked the Austin Fortune film because for me it felt like him doing his own version of a Matt Helm caper and I'm always up for a bit of campy 60's-inspired spy action.
I think with Ritchie, I love a lot of what he does, but I'm weirdly a little bit surprised that I like them as much as I do. I think I keep waiting to be disappointed and yet he keeps pulling it out of the bag, even when he sort of doesn't.

@Woderwick Great reply, really interesting, thanks! Yes sometimes its hard for me to be objective when I know people or am privvy to behind the scenes stuff, or are just more realistic about the business side over the art, because when billions are at stake you sometimes have to make those concessions. Its not just about making endless cynical money for "the man", of course each film is hundreds if not thousands of jobs for normal working class people.

From a personal standpoint I don't love all of JJ's work, though I agree Cloverfield was brilliant. One of my favourites actually. 10 Cloverfield Lane was interesting too, although he only produced that one. Lost is a very interesting case, I actually felt it started very strongly. The real problem was that the writers' strike happened and the tv company insisted they carried on making the show without its writers and showrunners. Absolutely ruined it and killed all momentum or planned continuity. The same thing happened with Heroes. Lots of potential needlessly squandered with both those series and many others. Thankfully, seemingly this lesson was learned and the same didn't happen during this recent writers strike, everything just shut down production rather than arrogantly carrying on with no writers.

Broadly, I agree with all you said about both Tarantino and Ritchie, though you are kinder to Ritchie's later work than I sometimes am. A lot of my friends worked on Rockanrolla and at the time I was dead jealous but I really didn't enjoy it when it came out. Something got lost in translation somewhere along that films journey I think.

Funny you said Lock Stock and Snatch felt like he was doing a British Tarantino. The reason Ritchie trained with Dov is because Tarantino was very vocal about crediting him with his career. Ritchie literally did the course because he hoped to emulate Tarantino and of course the association as a sound bite would be useful when raising funds, or in interviews. And then I did exactly the same a few years later, studying with Dov because of the useful soundbite that I have the same film teacher as them both! 😂 He's genuinely a great teacher though. Spike Lee and Will Smith have subsequently gone to him for advise on various projects they've produced. He knows his stuff.

Rodriguez is someone I admire a lot and yeah of course Rebel without a Crew is a wonderful example of exactly the type of zero budget guerilla indie filmmaking that is the stuff I'm most passionate about. Him and Tarantino work well together, though I agree Grindhouse isn't their strongest work, though I get what they were going for and they got the aethetics mostly right - for me the fake trailers were the best bits though!

Eli Roth is a mixed bag for me but I really liked the first Hostel film, and thought the second one was very interesting in that it essentially entirely remade the first film, but gender swapped which gave and extra layer of interesting social commentary about stereotypes of how women and men are marketed to and manipulated by the media, on top of what was already an interesting piece of social commentary on how Ameraicans opinions of foreigners and otehr cultures are manipulated by the media. The third one was really weak sauce though. A friend of mine recently got cast as one of the leads in a project he's helming so I hope its one of the better ones!

I agree that in an ideal world, parents would sit down and watch the original Star Wars trilogy with their kids before taking them to he cinema, but in Disney's eyes, thats still too big a risk. Many (most?) parents use Disney movies as proxy baby sitters and substitute parents, rather than sitting down and watching them with their children, and of course Disney were also hoping to get kids interested even if their parents weren't existing mega fans. Force Awakens was essentially what it had to be to justify that huge upfront cost to shareholders. Like I said, it was a film by commitee. Given that, I think the fact it was as entertaining, visually interesting and well made as it was (for example using actual practical sets, animatronics, droids etc rather than cheap quick CG, shooting on 35mm film to have better continuity with the look of the old films) its the best we could have realistically hoped for, despite its shortcomings.

Its just a shame that Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker didn't continue the story beats it was so clearly trying to set up for the arc of the trilogy. The three new main actors were great and had good chemistry, only for all that to be somewhat squandered by 2 more films that were absolutely intent on keeping them apart and not playing to their strengths. Again, I'm somewhat biased as Boyega was someone I sort of knew and had worked with before, and liked a lot. But I think him, Ridley and Issac could have made a really nice modern replacement for the "Luke, Leia, Han" dynamic, had the films followed the original plan JJ was trying to set out.

@samuelvictor

I see what you're saying about Awakens being a film by committee, and maybe I'm being a little harsh on it, but it pretty much did exactly what I didn't want to see and I suppose I assumed that JJ had much more creative license because of who he is (and how it seemed to confirm a lot of my worst suspicions about his style of film-making).

Interesting that you should mention Heroes as well, as that was one of the things that put the final nail in the coffin of my TV watching. I'm not sure how much of it was due to the strike, but I loved the first series and then it just seemed to lose its way. They forgot which powers Peter Petrelli had so he did stupid things (or it was just for plot reasons which is just as bad) and the whole thing seemed to get stuck in retreading what came before instead of moving forwards (which may indeed be due to the strike). I stopped watching after the episode where he escaped prison with a bunch of villains then watched one of them fry a guy to steal his car and just seemed to sort of shrug it off. Totally out of character for the way they'd built him and I just didn't go back.
More than that though, it was a bigger thing about US TV and how you can largely just watch the recap at the start of each episode and not miss much at all. It felt like storylines are too often padded out to fill the episode quota which dilutes the strength of the story and leads to hours of meaningless chaff. I understand that a lot of that is due to the demands of the networks and money-men but at the end of the day it's not what I'm interested in spending time on.
Shame about Heroes though, especially as it had Djimon Houson in it and I'll watch him in pretty much anything.

Then again, I realise I'm a massive outlier when it comes to film and TV, and quite hard to please in a lot of ways, while at the same time being insanely forgiving in others. Which possibly explains why I give Ritchie so much time. His stuff is like comfort food for me, pulpy and silly but ultimately entertaining and it appeals to my sensibilities as English bloke who's bored of seeing US culture reguritated endlessly.

I mean, I'm the guy who give you about an hour long monologue on why Vamp is such an amazing film, delving into theories that were probably never in the director's head. It's campy and crappy and yet at the same time I absoutely love every bloody second of it. And not just because many of those seconds feature Grace Jones.

@Woderwick I too am a fan of high camp, and also ott b-movies and ultra low budget weird artsy fun experiemnts and will give any and all the above much more of the time of day than most super high budget bland but very polished blockbusters.

Heroes was absolutely a casualty of the writers strikes and everything you said is correct. Its started off extremely strongly and after the first series everything very, very quickly fell apart and it never recovered, and the time invested in the first series seemed wasted. This is one of the reasons I don't watch most "must see" televsion until they finish their run. For example I avoided Game of Thrones thinking "when its complete I'll binge it, if its actually worth it after the hype settles" and SO many people who kept telling me to watch it got so angry with the last season that they now disavow ever even liking it in the first place.

You are astute to notice that about American shows and the filler / catch up nature. Its because their networks always used to order a very fixed amount of episodes, rather than British television companies which ask the writers how many episodes they think they need. So often arcs are stretched in American dramas, or filler plots are added. Its the same reason why American sitcoms and animated shows have "bottle episodes" or especially egrigiously those dreaded "clip shows". This is less of a thing with the high budget high concept dramas for streaming services like Netflix, Max etc which concentrate on quality and working with directors and writers to negotiate the most fitting amount of episodes, budget required etc, rather than first selling a show to advertisers then telling the writers how many episodes to make.

Its mostly a holdover from literal live broadcast television channels, because they sold their advertising in blocks of fixed amount of weeks so needed to have a guarantee what show would be on for a fixed window, and that was easier if all shows had the same amount of epsiodes so the blocks all aligned. Same reason why episodes are an exact fixed length, rather than running as long as they need to to best tell the story like a streaming or on demand show can. Also back in those days, longer running shows would push to hit 100 episodes even if it meant tonnes of filler or the quality diving off a cliff, because the networks could then package and sell the show to syndication which is where the real easy revenue was in the longterm. Again, with streaming, no need for a fixed amount of episodes. [edit - forgive me if any or all of that is obvious and you already knew or intuited as much! I have a tendency to over explain stuff just incase]

I honestly think with both Star Wars and Star Trek, JJ had little to no real creative control other than suggesting things and hoping the upper brass liked the ideas. In both cases he was just more lke a giddy fanboy who couldn't believe he was allowed to be associated with such properties and was willing to do whatever to make it work. Also to his credit he got a lot of work for others from the indie space on the films where he could. He really didn't have as much power or sway at that stage of his career that it sounds like you are assuming. He was essentially just another indie who got lucky and was offered to try something bigger. Back then, TV success did not matter a jot to movie execs, they were seen as completely unrelated and TV was a lowly unrespectable trash by comaprison in their minds. However he had written for some quite big movies, so Mission Impossible III was his "lets see if this unknown indie guy can direct a franchise pic" which because it did well lead to Star Trek, which then lead to Star Wars - each one a step up the ladder in budget and brand responsibility. Similarly, Gareth Edwards went from Monsters to Godzilla to Star Wars.

@Samuelvictor

We really are very, very similar. I'm also very good at not watching things to avoid disappointment. For example, I've only ever watched the first Matrix film. Absolutely loved it, loved the cinematography and world-building, loved the way it fits gnostic theories and Plato's Cave into a really cool superhero origin story. I heard the sequel wasn't a patch on it and decided I wouldn't bother.
Game of Thrones is interesting too. I've never watched it because I read the first book when it came out and really didn't enjoy it. I later heard some not at all nice things about Martin which totally put me off any of his work so I've never had any interest in watching the show.
Likewise Star Trek. I heard enough bad things about the films to know I had zero interest in sitting through them so I've never bothered. I do totally understand that JJ wasn't in total control of it and I think he was handed a hack script to work from in the first place.
I loved Monsters though. Totally not what I was expecting but such an entralling film. Godzilla looked terrible from the first trailer though so again, I skipped it.

I'm the first to admit that my tastes are weird and insanely idiosyncratic so I know I'm not the target audience for most things. That's probably why I spend so much time reading rather than watching. It's much easier to do what you want when the budget is your imagination and the cost of getting it out there in front of the audience is miniscule compared to being handed millions to produce a film and knowing it has to make a decent return or it'll probably be your last job. Hence authors have a lot more leeway than directors, and the project involves fewer creative types so can be more focused on what the creator wants to say. I understand there are still editors and agents and publicists involved, but if I want to write a description of a room I don't have to worry about the lighting director and director of photography sticking their oars in and arguing they'd like to set it up the way Boorman would or that someone thinks the audio should be mixed in from an exterior location because it works for Soderbergh so well.

I also think there are some big shifts in the film industry that mean the things I enjoyed when I was younger are unlikely to ever be made in the same way. You had the out-there stuff in the 60's that then fed it into the indie directors of the 90's who then got co-opted into the big studios when they realised people were raving about tiny films by tiny directors and who wouldn't want to be given a huge budget and access to incredible actors for their next project.

At the end of the day it's an industry and that means the industrialisation of creativity towards turning a profit. It's awesome if you can do stuff you're truly passionate about and have the luxury to do that but everyone has to put food on the table and the chance to do that while working at creating something/anything is an awesome opportunity. And even though I may complain about the bean counters and executives, you can't expect them to splurge millions on a film only 4 people will ever actually enjoy. While I may feel the industrialisation has gone way too far, they're not running a cinematic charity for tortured artists.

@Woderwick What a great reply! You nailed so many things on the head there. Exactly right, even if some of it seems depressing you clearly understand the dilemas and realities of the situations. That said, I do feel the winds of change are blowing. Old giants are falling and its easier and easier for talented indies to get "hollywood style results" in their own back yards with consumer affordable equipment and edit at home. Give those people the smallest of actual budgets and access to one or two semi recognisable faces and they've made a blockbuster. We will soon have a new rennaisance of indies both big and blockbusterish, and small and artsy experiemental.

The big studio machine has recently failed to make the money it used to. There have been almost solid wall to wall disaterous flops from every major "blockbuster" in the last year. Studios can no longer assume that if they spend $500 million they will get a billion returned... more often than not they lose $300 million. And if talented indies can make a film of a similar quality for just $1 million, they'll make a huge proft where the studio film would have made a loss on the exact same box office. Its interesting times and I have hope that things are changing for the better, albeit slowly. I'm trying to be on the right side of history as far as all that, and encouraging and guiding it where I can.

But yeah, its still the "film industry" not "film art". You can make an award winning beloved film but if it doesn't return a profit, you'll never work again. Make something universally panned but that turns a profit, you'll be asked to make a sequel, or get funding for whichever new project you want to make. But when making smaller budget projects, its far less risky and you can make a return far easier, so you get to experiement.

You've probably seen/heard this because its very well known, but just incase you haven't heard it, Kevin Smith (someone who I have a huge amount of time for, lovely chap) telling of when he nearly directed a Superman film really encapsulates many of the experiences I've had over recent years with being an indie being courted to make studio pictures... I know the exact exec he is talking about (Jon Peters) and he's not exagerating for comic effect 😂
P1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk
P2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60

@samuelvictor

I've not watched that before but it was brilliant and does totally tie in with what we've been discussing.

I too love Kevin Smith and have so much time for his films and his general sense of humour and geeky love of geeky stuff. Love Clerks, still quote Mallrats to this day, etc.

I watched Jay & Silent Bob Reboot last year and I had tears in my eyes at some points. Not just because it's so funny and brings back some of the best characters from his earlier films but also because it feels like his vindication after spending a few years in the wilderness. And it also ties into the themes of him returning to those iconic characters with a few more years under his belt and scars on his hide and he uses it not just as a chance to rail against the inanities of the film industry but also to send himself up massively and who he sort of turned into at his 'worst' moments.

And in addition to all of that, it referenced How High (which I love) and then Reggie and Meth turned up in an absolutely perfect scene. That part definitely got me.

Along with the stuff about Jay actually almost growing up a little bit. Probably about as much as I've grown up, to be fair.

@Woderwick Ah! Well I'm glad I shared it with you then. Indeed is a classic story and smith is a great story teller. I don't doubt a word of it, I've had very similar meetings and scenarios - especially having to have the same meeting several times and saying the exact same thing, but each time there being a slightly more important person in the room to hear you say it. 😂

Yes I'm especially fond of his early work, and the recent callbacks to them in his latest films have been great. But I even enjoy his less celebrated work - for example the entirely stupid concept of a film "Tusk" in the first half at least (before Johnny Depp turns up) is incredibly well excecuted, for such a knowingly stupid idea it plays it so dead pan and the writing and acting is far better than it has any right to be. Some of the best slowly raising of tension and unease of any movie I've seen. Which is all the more funny to be being the entire film was made as a joke.

@samuelvictor

I've heard of Tusk but wasn't at all sure about it. I think partly because it was made from the start as a joke film based on a joke plot I sort of wrote it off, and I think yours is the first mention I've heard of it since it was announced. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm looking for something to watch.

My plan for tomorrow evening is to see if I can convince the missus to sit and watch Salute of the Jugger with me, because she's never seen it and I love it to bits. Then again, that's always bit of a minefield with her.

I got her to watch the aforementioned Vamp and about 20 minutes in she turned to me and said "You know this is rubbish, don't you?" Likewise, after getting her to watch the first 20 minutes of Johnny Mnemonic she asked "Is all the acting supposed to be this wooden?" So I may stop giving her the opportunity to apply her withering critical skills to films I love.

In which case I'll turn my attention to Bone Tomahawk, a horror/western with Kurt Russell (absolute legend, who else could be Plissken, Burton and Macready?)
I only noticed it because I've recently watched two other films by the same director. Dragged Across Concrete is a supremely well-done neo-noir affair that feels so much like a James Ellroy story I had to check he wasn't involved (he wasn't). And Brawl on Cell Block 99 is one of the most brutal and well done grindhouse films I've seen in a long time. Vince Vaughn plays the lead and it's not a role I'd ever have expected him to attempt, let alone carry off so well.
Both films also feature Udo Kier, another favourite character actor of mine. His voice alone makes him supremely watchable, let alone how many good films he's popped up in.

@samuelvictor

Hello chap. I just realised that you made a very, very prescient comment earlier to which I didn't respond. Largely because I nodded in total agreement and internalised what you said but I felt it was worth coming back to acknowledge it properly.

You mentioned how much easier and cheaper it is for amateurs to get into the film game what with the advent of digital cameras and how that will, yet again, change the industry.

I totally agree, and think it's actually been a long time coming. I remember hearing the cinematographer (is that even the right term) for Gladiator, which was released about a hundred years ago now, mentioned that he bought all the kit he used for the film from Tottenham Court Road, and later that 28 Days Later was specifically filmed using digital footage because the 'frame shortening' effect (again, not sure if that's the correct term) made all the action sequences seem that much more kinetic and brutal. But it's still taken a long time for that to percolate down to the level of where it's almost at 'any idiot with an idea and a phone' can make a film.

To extent that has been true since the advent of handheld (or at least shoulder-carryable) VHS recorders, but only if you want your film to look like an extended episode of Eastenders.

Now though, we really are at the cusp of the democratisation of film-making, a point which music reached a fair few years ago, and which has all its own benefits and drawbacks. It's great that anyone with an idea and some friends to help out can make a film, and lots of them will be crap, but plenty of films with massive budgets and experienced crews will turn out to be barely watchable bilge for a variety of reasons that you're far more familiar with than I am.

But broadly, it's a Good Thing. I do hope we don't end up with too many Birth of a Nation style nonsense being made but that's the thing with genies and bottles and we have to accept the results.

@samuelvictor

(OK, I'm starting to realise that you, me and the comment limit on this site are not a workable relationship)

I do still think there's a higher bar in terms of film-making than there is music-making, and that's simply because it takes a lot more moving parts to make a film. I think Primer is a great example of what you can do with some vision and passion and some willing friends, as is something as old-school as Man Bites Dog, but at the end of the day, and despite all the open source tech you can get for free, someone who properly understands lighting is hard to come by (and hugely underrated)

What a film really needs is someone who understands the language of cinema, and how to write dialogue, and how to edit a film properly to convey what you want to convey while cutting the bits that just aren't relevant (and as a sometime writer of 'things', I understand how hard it can be to cut something you're pleased with even if it just doesn't fit).

And what you also need is to find some 'actors' who are comfortable on camera and I think that's one of the hardest things. I may be able to imagine how a scene I've written should be played in my head but damn is unexpectedly hard to be natural when that lens is focused on you.

My go to example for this is the video to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Every time I watch that vid all I can do is imagine the director screaming at the band "Is there any chance you guys can walk down the street like normal effing people?! I mean, is it that hard? You walk all day every day. Just walk from here - to there - like a normal person".

I think I may have lost the thread a little, but I do totally agree that we are on the verge of seeing a whole new wave of directors and cinematic styles coming in. And some of it will be stuff that I detest, and no doubt I'll at some point watch some low budget nothing and it will really speak to me. And that's pretty much the way it has always been. The same, but different.

@samuelvictor

Oh, and one more thing (in true Columbo style)

What I forgot to add in earlier is that stuff like learning the language of cinema and how to write good, natural, dialogue can easily be learnt from a book or even from just watching other people's stuff and paying close attention to what works and what doesn't.

I'm not trying to act like some gatekeeper with that comment, it's just that there are ways to do those things well and then there are, other ways. But anybody is capable of learning them quite easily, with a bit of diligence and research and what have you.