Nerd Rant: Batman and the Dead Robins Society

News came out early this week of an upcoming plot development in DC's Batman comic book series: Batman's sidekick, Robin, is going to die. Again.

"Dammit! Alfred, fetch me another Robin from the orphanage!"

The latest dead Robin is the fifth Robin in official Batman continuity--sixth if you include the Robin from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. (Then again, DC has rebooted and ret conned its superhero universe so many times, what really is "official" continuity anyway?) This will also be the third dead Robin, after the second Robin, Jason Todd, was blown up by the Joker back in 1988, and the fourth Robin, Stephanie Brown, was killed in 2004 after being tortured by Black Mask. (Check out the official Robin-torturing Black Mask action figure here.) However, the current dead Robin is the only officially dead Robin because Brown was brought back in 2008 and Todd was brought back in 2010. To paraphrase Adam West, "Some days, you just can't get rid of a Robin!"

According to what I've read, this Robin will be killed while he is saving the world, by an assassin cloned from Robin's own DNA. (Doesn't this qualify as suicide?) How long this particular Robin will stay dead remains to be seen, providing that DC doesn't have some kind of unwritten rule that there must now be at least one dead Robin for Batman to mourn over at any given time. You know, for ready-made pathos that doesn't involve Batman's dead parents.

It's been said frequently that death doesn't last long in superhero comics, which is all too true. However, there's something unintentionally and morbidly hilarious that Batman's kid sidekicks die and then return from the grave on what now appears to be a regular basis. Keep in mind that the character of Robin was originally created in the 1940s as a surrogate for kid fans of Batman, that he enabled child readers of the comics to imagine fighting alongside the Caped Crusader himself. Now, they can imagine themselves croaking and then cheating death too with Batman by their side--providing that Batman himself isn't dead, lost in time, having his back broken by Bane, or some other inconvenience that will inevitably go away within a few issues.

If this isn't enough shark-jumping for you, just take a look at the details behind the killed character in question. The new dead Robin is Bruce Wayne's biological son, Damian Wayne, who Wayne had with Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Batman villain Ra's al Ghul--although Wayne didn't know about it until ten years later. Then it gets weird. As Vaneta Rogers for Newsarama writes:

"Talia had her developing fetus genetically perfected and grown in an artificial womb. Then as Damian grew up, she made sure he was trained by the masters of the League of Assassins. ... Not only did he become an expert in martial arts, but his childhood was a life of cold-hearted competition, a matter of "kill or be killed." ... By the time Talia handed the boy over to his father -- in an apparent attempt to disrupt Batman's investigation of one of her villainous plots -- Damian Wayne had grown into an unfeeling, barbarous, uncontrollable killer. ... the bratty, spoiled, deadly Damian Wayne was immediately a problem for Bruce ... Originally, the kid came across as an almost humorous addition to Bruce's story, because the super-cool Batman was getting frustrated with his inability to control the little bugger. But when Damian went out on his own and beheaded a criminal to "help" his father fight crime, the problem got a little more serious. ... "(Damian) means well but was raised wrong," Batman artist Tony Daniel told Newsarama after the character first debuted."

Robin no. 5 (a.k.a. Damian Wayne), working out his frustrations

over having a crowbar instead of a machete.

Supposedly, the death of this particular Robin is supposed to "redeem" him. You know, to redeem an unfeeling, barbarous, uncontrollable, bratty, spoiled, deadly 10 year-old little bugger who has his own pet Bat-Cow and knows a thing or two about beheading people.* I think it's safe to say that Damian's own death won't involve decapitation, even though he'd get his head back anyway when he returns from the dead and someone else occupies the Robin coffin in his place.

(* Damian Wayne is not to be confused with Cassandra Cain, yet another youth who was raised by a parent to become a deadly assassin but was then taken under Batman's wing for the sake of redemption. Cain briefly assumed the mantle of Batgirl, although the last time I checked I think that Cain was kicked out of the official Batman timeline during the last DC reboot. I guess there can only be one homicidal-yet-redeemable youth in the Batcave at a time.)

Batman writer Grant Morrison says,"Batman will

ultimately always have a partner."

Great Moments in Body Horror Cinema: The H-Man (1958)

Growing up as I did during the heyday of VHS rentals, I noticed one recurring idea among gory, low-budget horror movies: melting people. Quite a few exploitation horror films from the 70s, 80s and early 90s, films such as The Incredible Melting Man (1977), Street Trash (1987) and Body Melt (1993), featured shocking scenes where monsters and/or victims would melt into messy puddles of blood, bones and liquefied flesh. Of course, such a plot device allowed for huge amounts of stomach-churning gore. Yet what's remarkable is that the grandfather of these films isn't that gory at all and is actually much more disturbing for it: The H-Man, which was directed by Ishirô Honda and produced by Toho Studios.

The H-Man is an Atomic Age horror movie from Japan, although it's much different than the Atomic Age kaiju movies for which Japan is largely known. Even though it's often compared to The Blob (which was released in the U.S. later during the same year), The H-Man is actually an early "body horror" movie; it was released the same year as another Atomic Age body horror movie, The Fly, and it predates David Cronenberg's first body horror film Shivers (1975) by over a decade. Director Honda did two other Atomic Age body horror films in addition to The H-Man: The Human Vapor (1960) and Matango (1963).

Not only was The H-Man ahead of its time in the body horror subgenre, it was also ahead of its time in terms of melting people effects. Read on for more details about this strange and haunting Japanese horror classic.

The H-Man takes place in the streets of Tokyo during a police investigation into a drug smuggling ring that operates out of a seedy nightclub. The detectives are baffled when one their key suspects disappears in front of a group of eye witnesses, leaving only his clothes behind. As more suspects disappear and the case reaches a dead end, the police get some answers from Dr. Masada (Kenji Sahara). Masada believes that the suspects are victims of "H-Men", people whose intense exposure to atomic radiation has turned them into gelatinous, amorphous creatures that feed on other human beings by melting their flesh. After a close encounter with the H-Men at the nightclub, the police accept Masada's theory and work with local authorities to stop the monsters before they spread further into Japan.

The H-Man is a creative mix of pulp detective fiction and Atomic Age horror. Honda composes many memorable scenes in this film, from the ominous opening shots of the abandoned and irradiated Dragon King II freight ship (the H-Men's place of origin) to the closing shots of Tokyo's gasoline-imbued waterways going up in flames to kill the H-Men. Before the end credits roll, one of the characters provides a voice-over line that accentuates the endless waves of apocalyptic fire that dwarf the Tokyo skyline:"If man perishes from the face of the Earth, due to the effects of hydrogen bombing, it is possible that the next ruler of our planet may be The H-Man." Interestingly, The H-Man is the title that the American distributors gave to this film; the original Japanese title translates to the much more poetic Beauty and the Liquid Man.

Of course, what steals the show are the H-Men themselves, which appear in two different forms: a thick, green liquid that moves itself up walls and across floors, and a glowing green humanoid shape that lacks distinct features. The humanoid shape usually appears when an H-Man is faced by more than one person, as if to suggest that the sight of other people prompts the liquid creature to fleetingly 'remember' its original shape. Having the formerly human monsters' assume a glowing humanoid shape gives the movie a ghostly feel, of a past that can't be recalled completely but nevertheless refuses to go away and threatens to destroy the present.

Yet of all the elements in this film, the one that really stood out for me (and ergo prompted me to write this post) were the effects used to depict the victims as they are being dissolved by the H-Men. Most melting people effects I've seen over the years were done by a combination of detailed makeup work, fake entrails and stand-in puppets, with the end result being extremely gory. In contrast, the effects in The H-Man are much less gory than its cinematic successors yet just as effective. How can that be?

The answer is very simple: Honda's special effects team created human-shaped latex balloons that were dressed like the actors who played the victims, and then he deflated the balloons while filming them in fast-motion for later playback in the film at normal speed. Such a simple idea is expertly exercised under Honda's eerie lighting and skilled editing; it's hard not to shutter when it looks like an actor's head is collapsing into his torso, followed by his torso and legs collapsing on to the ground in a puddle of ooze. Furthermore, unlike the Blob, a monster that has to cover its victims in order to dissolve and digest them, the H-Men seem lethal simply to touch. The way the attack scenes are shot implies that the victims absorb the H-Men through the skin and thus begin to dissolve from the inside out almost instantaneously--a very disturbing concept to watch.

What’s even more shocking about The H-Man outside of its ideas and effects is the fact that it’s loosely based on a real event. The liquefied fate of the Dragon King II’s crew was inspired by what happened to the crew of the real-life Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon No. 5, after it was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout from the Bikini Atoll thermonuclear device test in March 1954. According to Mykal Banta on his the Radiation Cinema site, "All 23 crew members suffered from acute radiation syndrome, the symptoms of which include, headaches, nausea, bleeding from gums, burns, etc. Within 6 months, the chief radio operator, Aikichi Kubouama, 40, was dead from injures. At the time of the test, the ship was operating well outside the danger zone, as given in US Government warnings, but the test was twice as powerful as expected."

The special effect techniques that Honda used to bring the H-Men to life have their limitations. There aren't any direct confrontations between the H-Men and the film's heroes, since such techniques largely preclude the H-Men and live actors appearing closely together within the same frame and thus dampen the film’s tension during its finale. There’s also a scene where one of the scantily clad showgirls at the nightclub is dissolved by an H-Man that doesn't work as well as the other attack scenes. Since the showgirl isn't wearing enough clothing to hide a human-shaped balloon, animation and frozen frames are used instead to much lesser effect. Nevertheless, most of the balloon effects successfully depict the gruesome, horrific idea of physical dissolution by an inconceivable force--an idea that perfectly complements the many fears that were stirred by the rise of nuclear warfare.

For more thoughts concerning The H-Man and its place within Ishirô Honda filmography and Atomic Age pop culture, visit the Radiation Cinema link I posted above and the H-Man articles posted on the Musings of a Sci-Fi Fanatic and the Film Quarterly sites.

Enter the ENCOM Grid in the Tron 2.0 Video Game

With the recent cancellation of Tron: Uprising on Disney XD, I found myself going into intense Tron withdrawal. So, I did the only thing that I could think of to do: I went on eBay and picked up a copy of Tron 2.0, a 2003 first-person adventure game that was developed by Monolith Productions and released by Buena Vista Interactive. Tron 2.0 was the first sequel to the original Tron movie--that is, until Tron: Legacy arrived in theaters in 2010 and thus reclassified the game as non-canon. In spite of its displacement from official Tron franchise continuity, Tron 2.0 is still a fun game that both fans and video gamers in general should enjoy. Read on for my complete review and for thoughts about how Tron 2.0 stacks up against Legacy.

Tron 2.0 focuses on Jethro "Jet" Bradley (voiced by Jason Cottle), son of Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner, reprising his role from Tron). It has been over 20 years since the events of Tron and Jet works with his father at ENCOM, which is in the middle of a business struggle with a rival computer company called Future Control Industries (fCon). In the game's opening scene, Alan is kidnapped by fCon thugs while talking on the phone with Jet; the kidnapping sets into motion a series of events that result in Jet being digitized into ENCOM's computer grid, where he has to find a way to free his father and discover the true motives behind fCon's hostile takeover of ENCOM.

Even though Tron: Legacy replaced Tron 2.0 as the official sequel to Tron, Legacy took many key themes and plot points from Tron 2.0. Both depict a rebellious, wayward son who enters a computer grid to free his captive father. Both include an attractive female program that aids the hero and willingly puts herself in harm's way in order to save the hero in a moment of unexpected danger. Both feature a pivotal fight scene that takes place in a digital version of a night club that is frequented by anthropomorphic computer programs, as well as a climactic battle that takes place both within and around a floating structure that looks like a giant, high-tech airship. Even the name "Tron Legacy" is mentioned in Tron 2.0, although what this name means in the game is much different than what it means in the 2010 movie sequel.

According to what I've read, Tron 2.0 under-performed in sales and was plagued with technical problems during its initial release, so I can see why Disney would want to re-launch the Tron franchise again with a different sequel in a different medium; thus, I'm not entirely surprised that Tron: Legacy is essentially a reboot of Tron 2.0. I think that Legacy features a stronger story than Tron 2.0: Legacy uses artificial intelligence as its source of conflict, which in turn allows the story to explore deeper emotional themes, such as the complex relationship between technology creator and creation and how it parallels the relationship between biological parent and offspring in strange, eerie and unpredictable ways. In contrast, the digitization beam that allows people to enter and exit the computer world is the target of corporate espionage in Tron 2.0, a plot point that shapes the game's story into a simpler good-versus-evil melodrama. Yet a less satisfying story doesn't ruin Tron 2.0 as a gaming experience; in fact, where it differs from Legacy is where Tron 2.0 keeps its entertainment value even though it is no longer Tron canon.

The computer grid created by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) in Legacy is a stand-alone grid that has no contact with other computers or users for the purpose of Flynn's personal artificial intelligence research. Flynn deliberately designed his gird's environments so that they would imitate those found in the human world; thus, the programs Flynn's grid behave more like human beings than the user-controlled programs in the ENCOM grid in the original Tron. In contrast, Tron 2.0 takes place within the ENCOM grid and the networks connected to that grid, so the programs in Tron 2.0 behave in a manner similar to those in Tron. For as human as they look and sound, the programs' actions and beliefs conform to the commands given to them by their users, which in turn provide Jet with challenging situations and problems to resolve as he races around the computer world to save his father from fCon. (Although I know it will never happen, I'd love to see a Tron story of what happens when an ENCOM grid program is put into Flynn's grid, and/or vice versa.)

Because the digital world of Tron 2.0 is larger than that of Legacy, the game consists of many elaborate environments that are based upon actual computing: players explore the internal digital worlds of personal computers, the Internet, firewalls and so on as part of the game. Each environment is amazing to behold (so much so that I would recommend Tron 2.0 just for those alone) and the game's developers get plenty of creative mileage out of the parallel relationship between the real world and the IT world. Many of Jet's missions involve traveling to parts of the IT world that have physical representations in the real ENCOM world but because he has been digitized, none of the other human characters can actually see him anywhere. In one memorable scene, Jet enters ENCOM's electronic security system to free Alan. While Jet walks through a digital representation of ENCOM to unlock doors and watch a digital representation of Alan move through ENCOM, Jet still cannot occupy the same space as his father. There's a brief but poignant feeling of helplessness present in this moment, with Jet realizing how limited he is to help his father no matter how much technology he has at his disposal in his digitized state; he's stuck looking at ENCOM from the outside with no way to enter.

In keeping with the game's IT logic, players modify themselves as they download more data and upgrades while traveling in and around the ENCOM grid. Downloadable upgrades and messages are represented as glowing cubes within transparent data bins; each upgrade is some kind of tool you can use (body armor, a weapon, or a new ability), while the messages consist of e-mails that provide additional information about the conflict between ENCOM and fCon, the strained relationship between Jet and Alan, and the events that took place between Tron and Tron 2.0. Permission codes are also found in the data bins, which you need download to gain access to certain areas, upgrades and information.

Since this is a Tron game, game play inevitably involves light disc combat and light cycle races. You begin the game with a light disc as your primary weapon, and the upgrades give you disc modifications and alternate kinds of weapons. The light cycle races are almost identical to the races seen in the original Tron, where the cycles could only make 90 degree turns. The races in Tron 2.0 include an advanced light cycle model that was created by industrial designer Syd Mead exclusively for the game. Light Tanks and Recognizers also appear in Tron 2.0, but only as part of the background scenery. Multiplayer scenarios are offered in the game in both campaign and light cycle modes, although I didn't try either of those options.

The only complaint that I have about Tron 2.0 as a game are the moving and disappearing platforms that appear throughout the levels. I absolutely despise platform jumping from a first-person perspective, because I can never accurately gauge how near or far I need to be to the platform in order to reach it, so I usually wind up falling to my death multiple times. Thankfully, there's an ample selection of Tron 2.0 cheat codes that can be easily entered into the game that allow you to get past areas of extreme difficulty.

I highly recommend Tron 2.0 for Tron fans and anyone who is intrigued with the idea of exploring the digital landscapes of computerized worlds. Even though it's no longer part of official Tron continuity, it's still fun to play and offers interesting variations on the concepts that were originally presented in Tron back in the 80s. Check out the Tron Wiki for more information about Tron 2.0 and be sure to pick up Tron 2.0: Killer App for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, the only other video game that takes place in Tron 2.0 continuity.

The Tron 2.0 action figures by NECA.

Erth's Dinosaur Petting Zoo is Coming to the U.S.

As I was looking through the newspaper today, I found this interesting tidbit that might be of interest to monster, dinosaurs and/or puppetry aficionados: Erth's educational puppet show, "Dinosaur Petting Zoo", is currently touring England and will soon arrive in the U.S.--namely, locations in California, Texas and Arizona.

According to Erth's site, Dinosaur Petting Zoo is "(a) unique show that allows heaps of interaction for kids and adults while they travel with the Erth performers on a journey through prehistoric Australia. Experience an amazing selection of dinosaurs and creatures that inhabited that landscape millions of years ago. Children will have the opportunity to help feed, water and care for these prehistoric marvels with simple lessons in animal husbandry."

Erth is an Australian puppet company that began in 1990, and has used a creative selection technology and techniques throughout its history to bring a large assortment of amazing creatures to life. Given how impressive live puppetry has been for stage productions of The Lion King and War Horse, I think that it's wonderful that dinosaurs are getting their due in this form of performance art. However, others may disagree:

Click here to see the 2013 Dinosaur Petting Zoo touring schedule.

Nerd Rant: Is the Alien Franchise's Game Over in Aliens: Colonial Marines?

The long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines video game has arrived this week for Xbox 360, PS3 and PCs, and it looks like the wait was a bust. According to review totals calculated by Metacritic, Colonial Marines has gotten abysmal reviews from all over the Internet. From what I can tell, the game's main weaknesses are bad AI, subpar graphics, repetitive and oversimplified game play, poor plot and scripting, a complete absence of suspense and terror, and a wide assortment of technical glitches. The more generous reviews describe the game as an average shooter that might have been impressive ... had it been released a few years ago.

One of my favorite review quotes is from the one by Ben Kuchera on the Penny Arcade site: "The aliens, or xenomorphs as they’ve become known, are supposed to be one of the most brutal and vicious opponents in modern science fiction. Here they run around like clumsy men in suits, and they often swipe at you and then take a step back to either make sure you’re okay, or to give you time to shoot them. ... The combat itself is like being inside a haunted house and not playing along with the actors. What are they going to do, hit you? The aliens don’t seem to know what to do if you don’t kill them all the second you see them. They like to run around each other, only attacking human characters on occasion. You’ll sometimes find them just kind of hanging out with their heads butted up against walls."

I haven't purchased a copy of the game (thankfully) so I can't comment on it myself. Nevertheless, I'm disappointed to read just how bad this game is after everything that was done to hype it as a canonical installment in the Alien universe. Gearbox, the company behind Colonial Marines, has heavily promoted this game as a "true" sequel to Aliens that explains some of the narrative gaps between Aliens and Alien 3. It also released many articles and videos that emphasize their developers' love of Aliens, their in-depth knowledge of Aliens trivia, and personal meetings with key figures from the Alien franchise such as Ridley Scott, Ron Cobb and Michael Biehn.

So, with the critical and technical failure of this latest entry in the Alien franchise's long list of video games, I can only ask one question: Just how much longer can video game developers rely on the franchise's Colonial Marine characters and weapons to create new games? Read on for my complete face-hugging, chest-busting, acid-bleeding rant.

The major selling point for Colonial Marines is that it's a first-person shooter that allows players to explore familiar Alien saga environments (e.g., LV-426, the U.S.S. Sulaco, the derelict space jockey ship, etc.) and kill hordes of Aliens by using Colonial Marine weapons and technology (e.g., pulse rifles, motion trackers, flame throwers, Power Loaders, etc.). The problem with this selling point is that there have already been eight Alien video games that featured this same selling point since the 90s, when first-person shooters appeared on the video game scene. Here's a list of arcade, PC and home console games that are similar to the game play style of Colonial Marines:

* Alien 3: The Gun (arcade, 1993)
* Aliens vs. Predator (home consoles, 1994)
* The Alien Trilogy (home consoles and PC, 1996)
* Aliens vs. Predator (PC, 1999)
* Alien Resurrection (home consoles, 2000)
* Aliens vs. Predator 2 (PC, 2001)
* Aliens: Extermination (arcade, 2006)
* Aliens vs. Predator (home consoles and PC, 2010)

More recently, there was Aliens: Infestation, which was released in 2011 for the Nintendo DS and was also developed by Gearbox. Infestation is similar to Colonial Marines--same locations, same weapons, mostly the same plot--but it's a 2D side-scrolling shooter, not a first-person shooter.

I have played the Aliens vs. Predator PC game from 1999 that I listed above, and I think that it's one of the better franchise games. It doesn't have much of a plot to it, and it takes place in between Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. It also utilizes quite a few ideas from Dark Horse's Aliens comics; this felt appropriate, since Dark Horse was the company that originally came up with the Alien/Predator crossover idea, and the extra details add some richness to the game's overall content. Much of the game's appeal stems from how many of its levels are modeled after locations from the movies: one level takes place on a cargo ship similar to the Nostromo from Alien, while another level takes place in the Fiorina 161 prison colony from Alien 3. Yet because the game's human campaign casts players as a Colonial Marine, most of those levels are modeled after locations similar to those in Aliens. A few levels take place in a military ship similar to the Sulaco, while a few other levels put players back on LV-426 over 50 years after the events of Aliens in a colony similar to Hadley's Hope--a Weyland-Yutani research colony built around the derelict space jockey ship. Aliens vs. Predator is a fun game to play, but I'm dismayed that here we are 14 years later and game developers are essentially making the same game all over again and with so many glitches to boot.

I love Aliens. It's a great movie, it's a great sequel to Alien, and it shows how talented Jim Cameron is as a director. But the franchise as a whole has so much more to offer than just Aliens. If video game developers can't--or won't--take advantage of the wider range of possibilities that the Alien saga provides, then I think that the franchise's valuable contributions to video game entertainment have come to an end.

NECA Brings Aliens, Robots and Caped Crusaders to Toy Fair 2013

It's February, which means that yet another Toy Fair has come and gone. I've looked through many of the horror and sci-fi offerings that were displayed at this year's event, and I'm glad to say that the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) keeps bringing the good stuff to the geek masses at affordable prices. Click below for a list of what NECA has in store for horror and sci-fi collectors later this year, complete with pictures courtesy of NECA and Figures.com.

Predator

I don't know exactly how valuable the Predator toy license is but if the 2013 preview items are any indication, this product line must be doing extremely well for NECA. So far, NECA has produced replicas of just about every Predator to appear in the stand-alone movies and the AvP spin-offs, so what could possibly be left? The skull trophy case from Predator 2, that's what. The trophy case includes all of the skulls that were seen in the 1990 sequel, and it's on the same scale as NECA's Predator figures.

NECA will also be releasing series 10 of their Predator figure line. The latest series includes action figures that are based on action figures from Kenner's Predator toy line from the 90s, with some sculpt modifications to make the original designs more movie-accurate.

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Aliens

With the eagerly awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines video game arriving this week, some Aliens merchandise will also be appearing on toy store shelves as well. NECA's contributions to the Aliens revival include action figures based on the Colonial Marines characters from Aliens--namely, Hicks and Hudson--and Alien Warriors with varying degrees of battle damage. Whether NECA will continue its Aliens line to include nods to Kenner's Aliens toy line from the 90s remains to be seen.

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Robocop

NECA hasn't done much with the Robocop toy license so far, although it deserves kudos for finally giving fans a Robocop figure with a movie-accurate spring-loaded pistol holder built into the figure's right thigh. As an encore to that accomplishment, NECA will be releasing an ED-209 figure this summer.

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Pacific Rim

Speaking of robots, Robocop isn't the only mech-centric license in NECA's portfolio. NECA has also picked up the toy license for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro's kaiju-vs.-giant-robots epic that will hit movie theaters later this year. So far, NECA's Pacific Rim line includes three robots from the movie: Gypsy Danger, Crimson Typhoon and Striker Eureka.

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Batman

Like many other toy companies, NECA has eagerly jumped on the superhero bandwagon in the search of blockbuster profits. Upcoming NECA figures include versions of Captain America and Iron Man that are based on the latest live-action films; however, when it comes to Batman, NECA has decided to go retro with Batman figures based on the Adam West and Michael Keaton versions of the classic DC superhero.

NECA isn't the only company to look to the past for future superhero toys. Mattel plans to release a full series of action figures and vehicles based on the 1966 live-action Batman TV series.

8-Bit Music: When Techno Goes Retro

Being a child of the late 70s and early 80s, I remember falling into a state of slack-jawed awe when video games began to play their own soundtracks. Not just music cues that would play every now and then, but actual soundtracks that would play a music track throughout a level and then switch to a different track on another level, and so on--almost like a movie or a TV show. Mind you, these early video soundtracks were very simple in their arrangement but back during the heyday of coin-op arcades and early home gaming consoles, the arrival of 8-bit music soundtracks hinted at the successive waves of increased technological sophistication that were inevitably on their way in video gaming entertainment. Thankfully, even though video game soundtracks have since moved on to include compositions played by full orchestras, 8-bit music has stayed alive to create an underground music genre of its own.

I recently discovered that 8-bit music, otherwise known as "chipmusic" or "chiptunes", is still being composed and distributed by artists who specialize in electronic dance music. According to Wikipedia, 8-bit music "is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers, video game consoles, and arcade machines, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became less expensive and more accessible than they had previously been. This led to a proliferation of outdated personal computers and game consoles that had been abandoned by consumers as they upgraded to newer machines. They were in low demand by consumers as a whole, and not difficult to find, making them a highly accessible and affordable method of creating sound or art. ... (I)n its modern form, the terms 'chip music', and 'chiptune' refer to music made by the sound chips found within early gaming systems and microcomputers."

I've been listening to 8-bit music tracks on YouTube and even though some of the tracks sound like the simple compositions played on 80s-era coin-ops, the best 8-bit music utilizes the full range of sounds that the technology provides to create complex and unique music. Read on for a small selection of few tracks that I recommend for those who wish to hear the 8-bit musical sounds from decades past taken to a completely new level.

Naturally, there are many 8-bit covers of popular rock hits available on YouTube, but most of them sound like what these songs would've been like if they had been used as background tracks for a Nintendo Entertainment System game. The most impressive covers are the ones that apply an inspired selection of 8-bit sounds to the original composition in order to create something that sounds both fresh and familiar. Here are two examples of such creativity at work:


The Pixies, "Where is My Mind":

Weezer, "Just Like Buddy Holly":

Where 8-bit music maintains its ongoing livelihood is through musicians who continue to find new ways to apply 8-bit sounds to modern musical tastes, musicians such as 8-Bit Weapon and 4mat:


Anamanaguchi, "Blackout City"

8-Bit Weapon, "Bit and Run":

4mat, "Chipmusic is Dead":

The examples that I listed above are just a few of the chiptunes that I've found so far. There are plenty of other examples of 8-bit music and artists around the Web.

The Past Outruns the Present in The Abandoned (2006)

I first saw The Abandoned when it was making its rounds at movie theaters in 2006 during the annual, limited-run "8 Films to Die For" After Dark Horrorfest. I saw it after a showing of The Gravedancers, another film that was included during that year's selection of horror titles. Both films were good but while Gravedancers was fun to watch, The Abandoned left me speechless. Few films affect me like that, so I thought that I would return to this gem to review why it's one of the best overlooked horror films from the last decade. Read on ...

The Abandoned tells the story of Marie Jones (Anastasia Hille), a woman who was orphaned as an infant and is returning to her birth home of Russia on the eve of her 41st birthday. She's returning to claim--and quickly dispose of and forget about--a piece of property that she inherited from her birth parents, an abandoned farm that's located on a lake island deep inside the rural Russian landscape. Shortly after her arrival on the farm, ghostly visions appear that give her clues about her mysterious past ... and possibly her future.

I can see why The Abandoned is not a favorite of many horror fans: It is an extremely gloomy, mournful movie, even by horror movie standards. Co-scriptwriter and director Nacho Cerdà permeates his film with an overwhelming sense of dread, even during the opening credits; doing so makes The Abandoned less of a ghost story and more of a meditation of how the past shapes us as individuals throughout the course of lifetime--even events that we don't fully remember or don't remember at all--and that we can never escape the past in a genuine, decisive way. Such a depiction stands in sharp contrast against the prevailing American attitude of self-determination, so I can understand why many American horror fans would prefer to avoid something as unrelentingly bleak as Cerdà's film. Depending on how you look at it, The Abandoned is a more mature, fatalist version of Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on movies; it's also the thematic equal and polar opposite of Meet the Robinsons. (Yes, really. Go watch The Abandoned and Disney's 2007 CG animated family film back to back and you'll be surprised at how they are similar and yet are still so different, other than being in separate genres with separate target audiences.)

In terms of plot, the structure of The Abandoned puts it in the horror subgenre I have dubbed as the "Lost Souls" subgenre. As I first described it in my review of Wii's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, "Lost Soul movies usually revolve around a protagonist who has experienced some kind of forgotten trauma. The trauma is forgotten either because it happened so long ago or that it was so intense and violent that it caused the protagonist to experience memory loss. The protagonist is also haunted as the result of the trauma. The hauntings may be the result of hallucinations induced by the trauma, or they may be caused by a supernatural presence; depending on the movie, the difference between the hallucinatory and the supernatural is never made clear and they remain indistinguishable. The hauntings prompt the protagonist to try to understand the trauma, which results in the revelation of an existential truth so shocking that the protagonist is never the same again. The Lost Soul narratives are apt metaphors for what trauma survivors experience in the real world, which is why they make for effectively chilling horror stories."

The Lost Soul subgenre consists of movies such as Carnival of Souls, Jacob's Ladder, Head Trauma, and The Broken. The Abandoned fits this subgenre as well, but what sets it apart is that the forgotten trauma in it is inseparable from the protagonist's identity. Thus, Marie's exploration into her infant past evokes moods of tragedy and inevitability. Throughout the movie, Marie is conflicted: She would prefer to forget her past but at the same time she also wants and needs to understand it because it is so much a part of her as a person, even if attaining such an understanding puts her in jeopardy when the past and present begin overlapping each other in delirious arrangements. As the narrative progresses, we learn more about Marie's adult life, as well as the life of someone she meets along the way, and realize that both characters are very broken people with very broken lives; thus, there's a painful symmetry between Marie's forgotten infancy and turbulent adult life that is both sorrowful and appropriate.

At its core, The Abandoned portrays an example of when a traumatic past is best left forgotten--especially a past that threatens to destroy the survivors of such a trauma, no matter how much the survivors feel the need to understand what they experienced and how it made them who they are as individuals. This is weighty subject matter for a horror movie, and The Abandoned handles it in a way that is creepy, thoughtful and anguished in equal measures.

Green Lantern and Young Justice Have Been Defeated by Cartoon Network

The first few weeks of 2013 have been depressing ones for fans of sci-fi and superhero cartoons. First, Disney XD aired its final first season episodes of Tron: Uprising during January with no intention of renewing the series for a second season. Then, Cartoon Network announced the cancellation of its current "DC Nation" series Green Lantern and Young Justice. According to news sources, Cartoon Network will replace these two shows in April with a new Batman series, Beware the Batman, and Teen Titans Go!, a revamped relaunch of the previous Teen Titans cartoon series that first aired in 2003.

I have a personal theory about what is happening here, at both Cartoon Network and Disney XD. While I don't have access to the ratings information of any of these shows, I do know that each of them have proven to be successful among certain age demographics; unfortunately, for the network executives, they are the 'wrong' demographics. Older fans of sci-fi and superheroes, such as teenagers and adults, have shown their support of cartoons such as Green Lantern, Young Justice and Tron: Uprising by watching episodes on TV or downloading episodes through online services, but this kind of support is not enough for their respective networks. What the networks want instead are demographics that watch the shows AND buy as much of the licensed merchandise as possible, merchandise such as toys, clothing, linens, and so on (i.e., they want viewers who loyally watch Young Justice and loyally buy Young Justice action figures, Young Justice toothbrushes, Young Justice bed sheets, Young Justice wallpaper, etc.). Adults and teenagers don't fit these merchandising goals, but children do. I suspect that this rationale was also behind the cancellation of Genndy Tartakovsky's Sym-Bionic Titan series back in 2011.

If my theory is correct, then it's bad news for fans of American animation entertainment that's aimed at older audiences. It means that the business model for syndicated TV cartoons in the 80s still applies to cable TV cartoons of today--that the only cartoons that will receive long-term support from American entertainment companies are those that are 30-minute commercials for kids. I suppose that's why Disney XD cancelled the animated Tron: Uprising series but Disney itself is still moving forward with the live-action Tron 3 movie: Disney feels that when it comes to the Tron franchise--in terms of economics and demographic appeal--it will get a greater return on investment from a live-action movie than it will from a cartoon series. That's a disappointing way for a quality TV cartoon series like Green Lantern, Young Justice and Tron: Uprising to end, but that seems to be the way the cartoon business works these days.

J.J. Abrams, Star Wars, and Super 8

There's been so much buzz on the Internet about J.J. Abrams helming of the next Star Wars movie that I suppose it's my geek duty to say something about it. After all, with Star Trek under his belt, Abrams is going to be the first director to add his creative input to two of today's largest sci-fi franchises.

I honestly believe that the strength of the next Star Wars movie lies much more with the script than with how it is directed. In a way, the prequels had it easy: All they had to do was answer and expand upon key questions left over from the original trilogy, such as how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, how Emperor Palpatine rose to power, and what the term "Clone Wars" meant. In contrast, the sequels that take place after the events of Return of the Jedi can go just about anywhere within the enormous Star Wars universe. Rumors have been circulating for years that George Lucas had an idea for three additional Star Wars films after Jedi, but nothing can be verified for sure until more news about Abrams' sequel becomes available.

That said, I do think that Abrams' suitability to direct the next Star Wars movie can be seen in his 2011 film, Super 8. Since the announcement was made, fans and articles have largely been scrutinizing Abrams' Star Trek reboot movie from 2009 to determine how Abrams will fare with his Star Wars movie. That's not entirely inaccurate; in fact, it has been argued that the box office success of Abrams' Trek movie hinged upon him making Trek more like Star Wars anyway. (I happen to agree with that opinion.) Yet Super 8 showed something that I think is even more relevant to long-time Star Wars fans--namely, that Abrams wrote and directed that movie to prove how talented he is at capturing the summer blockbuster aesthetic that was popular at the box office during the late 70s and early 80s, the years of the initial heyday of Star Wars. Read on for some additional thoughts on how this summer season creature features provides hints regarding the future of the Star Wars franchise.

To be sure, Super 8 is Abrams' love letter to Steven Spielberg (which was also produced by Steven Spielberg, no less). Sure, the popularity of the original Star Wars trilogy had a major impact on fantasy and sci-fi filmmaking during the late 70s and early 80s, but it was Spielberg's directorial approach to fantasy and sci-fi filmmaking that shaped the look and feel of other fantasy and sci-fi films from that time and in years since then. Super 8 even references Spielberg's film stock of choice when he was shooting movies when he was a teenager (ergo the film's title) and makes ample usage of one of Spielberg's recurring interests, modern UFO mythology, as part of its story.

Almost every scene in Super 8 is analogous to Spielberg's most popular fantasy, sci-fi and horror movies--particularly Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Poltergeist, and Jurassic Park. The dramatic themes, narrative structure, casting choices, visual style and goofy humor of Super 8 are almost identical to Spielberg's work; even the soundtrack, which was composed Michael Giacchino, sounds remarkably similar to the work of longtime Spielberg collaborator John Williams. For those who have argued that Spielberg should have directed at least one of the Star Wars movies as part of his career, they're in luck--as Super 8 shows, Abrams is capable of being the next best thing to Spielberg when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi filmmaking. Furthermore, Super 8 was a hit at the box office, which showed that Abrams' ability to mimic Spielberg's cinema aesthetic also has cross-generational appeal.

On the other hand, there are problems with Super 8 that could also be present in Abrams' Star Wars movie. The biggest problem would be this: Can Abrams' bring something genuinely unique to the franchise to extend its appeal into a new generation of fans, or will he be too focused on recapturing the look and feel of the original trilogy to offer something other than a repeat of what has come before? I think that Super 8 is a fun movie, but the most remarkable thing about it is how closely it imitates Spielberg's style, not how good the movie is as its own story. In other words, it felt like it was a tribute to Spielberg first and a story second; as such, character development and plot details in the movie felt like they were determined more by how closely they emulated tropes from Spielberg's movies, not by their own narrative logic. Super 8 is a great example of Abrams' talent as a director but I thought that it felt somewhat hollow as I watched it, as if the spark of creativity was snuffed for the sake of creating an accurate and obvious homage to Spielberg's greatest box office hits.

I would like to think that with Abrams' experience with writing, directing and producing such a wide range of titles during his own career, he should be able to use his position as director to bring a new kind of creative energy into the Star Wars saga. It probably also helps that Abrams is not writing the sequel's screenplay--that responsibility has been given to Michael Arndt, who also wrote Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3. However, what Abrams will and will not be allowed to do with his Star Wars sequel ultimately rests with Disney, the franchise's new owner. I'm sure Abrams will give Disney exactly what it wants, but will that be what everyone else wants too?