#the last one in based on a line in 1-5 where gregson (?) says that after an hour of blood loss even sholmes piped down or something

[pherredraws]

from the homumiko mines

#dgs #tgaa #dgs spoilers #tgaa spoilers #homumiko #idk why mikotoba is taller in the kiss. hes on his tiptoes #the first one is inspired by the moment when sholmes puts his hands on ryu's neck so he can feel how cold they are from blood loss lol #anyway i continue to be deeply fascinated with early years homumiko #i feel like my view of their relationship is more slowburn than most #like. they were both not at their best when they met and i can very much see a scenario where they start living together w/out necessarily #liking each other #the last one in based on a line in 1-5 where gregson (?) says that after an hour of blood loss even sholmes piped down or something #which makes me think he would not shut up beforehand. and i think he'd say some stuff He Really Shouldn't Have #but susato wrote it off as delirium + she was too worried abt her dad and messing with the crime scene #que like 5 months later her going .........ohhhhhh #thats not how you write que i think. anyway

[2bstudioblog]

Konami’s wheels are turning... slowly

Lot’s of interesting news heading to our heads this Monday from what I heard from Yong Yea’s video about Konami wanting to outsource their IP’s to 3rd parties.

Obviously, Akira Yamaoka has kinda given away a strong hint that he’s working on a project with Bloober which in this case would be the long awaited SH remake or the direction they had with PT before it got cancelled. Akira Yamaoka also decided that (too late) he wanted to amend the article from his interview and release it later down the line. It’s very unusual that these news happen, but we all know Yamaoka is most famous for his music in Silent Hill.

Which brings me to a funny story about my own involvement of a Silent Hill game. I mentioned this on a podcast that I was part of 2 Konami-owned IP’s that went into another direction and killing off their franchises which have been like dead bodies in a morgue for the last 7 years.

I got the request to write industrial-metal music for a Silent Hill (of course at this time I only knew the IP and their most famous version of the game has been Silent Hill 2.) game. First I was of course very excited to be part of the series, but I jumped to early until I found out it was a Pachinko-machine (A japanese style pinball-game mixed with a touch-screen and a one-armed bandit and a slot-machine in one.), and my heart sank a little. I think I produced 4-5 cues for the machine, but I’m glad that nobody will be able to hear my “mediocre” masterpieces because all you would hear are metal-balls falling into a tray. But the thing about this machine, it had taken cut-scenes from Silent Hill 2, upscaled or even re-mastered/remade the graphics which would have looked great if it was its own game. But it was the same thing they’ve done with all their other IPs when those transfer over to this kind of entertainment. All what was left of it, Jim Sterling turned the game into a Meme and all I can hear is the -”HIT THE LEVER!” and the effects overpowering the music behind it. But I’m glad it didn’t go further then that. Technically here, Silent Hill(s) died with the arrival of the pachinko-slot machine and the series have tried to re-establish itself ever since.

Another game I was a part of was a Castlevania (Dracula in Japan) themed Pachinko-slot machine, with the revolutionary phrase “Erotic Violence” in it’s PR material and video-commercial. I mean, they took the music production part of this machine very seriously because I wasn’t aware of the “EV” part. I just thought it would be a machine praising the history of Castlevania. I was assigned to re-write and re-orchestrate a few songs from Neo-classical Metal music into more Progressive Metal style, and I was super-proud of this one because they had the sheet-music already available for me. All I had to do was re-arrange some parts for a string-quartet (1 cello, 2 violins and 1 viola) and I believe it was engineered and recorded by famed engineer Kenji Nakai who was under and working with famed engineer Mr Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones).

From that moment me and Mr. Nakai stroke a friendship because he has a passion for Progressive Metal and he asked me if I could send more songs his way. From this we both have been incredibly busy on both of our ends, but I hope we can be able to work on something in the future. I have a feeling that might be soon.

So a long story short, Konami spent a lot of money for recording, they approved everything and we were done. But when it turned out to be a pachinko-machine and not a world-wide videogame release, I just had to facepalm myself, asking the question why they keep doing so many poor decisions. Why leaving all those fans out in the cold and really start making Castlevania mean something. This void of “lots of fancy things, but no substance” started right here...

Konami are turning their wheels a little bit too late and too slow until now. After they got rid of Hideo Kojima (Who I believe was thinking of the international-market rather than the domestic one), Konami had only one thing on their minds: Making money quick and domestically. No more wasted time on translations, straight for the gambling crowd. No need to write interesting stories. No need to introduce kids to this adult material. They wanted to earn it back as fast as possible. But we all see their decisions put them on the map as a “black-company”, who mistreat their staff, shaming them out in the office for overstaying their lunch-breaks. Moving staff from one business to another, from a programmer to a Konami-fitness Center-staff, or as a toilet-cleaner at a Konami-owned pachinko-slot gambling hall. The management of the company has been horrendous for the full-time employee. I’m glad I was not part of these later projects and only wrote stuff for them for Pro Evolution Soccer series from 2009-2012. (My work on 2010-2012 was unfortunately un-credited work. :(

Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain In My Ass

When the playable teaser called Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes, came out on the PS3 and later on the PS4, it was an introduction for the new graphics engine designed by Hideo Kojima’s team, simply called The FOX-Engine. Basically this “game” was more of a demo rather than a full-product. But it looked great and with a fantastic score by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forssell and Harry Gregson-Williams, it had everything going for it to become something really awesome. It became a standard approach from Hideo Kojima now to produce “Playable Teasers” to show a great concept while offering a 3-4 hour short campaign, showing off the engine’s graphical capabilities.

Still, the story was under progress and I knew early on that Hideo Kojima really didn’t want to do it after he always felt that Metal Gear Solid 4 was final. But here is the curse of the die-hard fans, and I’m sorry to say it. No matter how many Iron Man movies Marvel crams out, at the 3rd movie, I started to feel “This does not feel like Iron Man anymore”. But that’s what the fans wanted and is a standard in the movie industry. Always produce a trilogy. Indiana Jones has always been the 3 movies from 1981-1989. The 4th one doesn’t really need to be called Indiana Jones at all. It was there I felt, just like with Metal Gear Solid V, they were beating a DEAD RACE HORSE.

I can’t deny the talents on display for Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes. It laid down some really cool foundations for the gameplay, but I still believe the better game-series for stealth was beaten by the likes of Splinter Cell and most recently Thief. Stealth in MGS has always felt a little bit childish and I only really enjoyed MGS 1, MGS 2, tried to play MGS 3 (still have it one my Vita!) and will try to finish it. MGS 3 has felt like the TRUE Zeroes experience, with the inception of the story and lore behind the cloning of Big Boss. MGS 4 finally brought it all to a great finale and I felt, there is NOTHING more to tell. MGS 1, 2 and 4 is the Trilogy, MGS 3 serves as the Prequel and I see nothing wrong with that.

Mission - Erase Kojima’s Legacy

The making of MGS V - The Phantom Pain is kinda true to it’s title. Can you feel the nostalgia? Or are we just imagining the sensation of a Metal Gear Solid game past it’s prime? The missing link? The missing limb? And with the worlds biggest cop-out  of everything that had to do with story was completely missing.

Each mission is playing out every time the same, with an intro to a TV-show, giving away massive spoilers to who would appear in the mission, you do your thing (not so much of story, just a “go-here, do that approach, sneak back out, head to pick-up) rinse and repeat. I wonder how much of this was Kojima’s fault? I don’t think he was up to it. I’m sure he fought for more story but the big heads didn’t want to listen to what makes a MGS game a MGS game. The new management had now already played the hand to disown the man who put Konami on the map for games since the mid 80s.

The game is no longer marketed like before. The tagline “A Hideo Kojima Game” no longer exists and will never be part of Konami’s mission of erasing the person who gave them their fame and the recognition that a game carrying the name Konami was a brand of quality for any gamer out there. Me myself, personally only played PES because of the stellar animations, but its recently since 2012, I stopped playing the series. FIFA had already cheapened itself, PES likewise. Updating the graphics, but the same old animations have been recycled back to the PES3 days. Maybe there’s been an update in the collision engine, but otherwise everything stayed the same, with the huge amount of data collected from previous years of motion-capture, why do it all over when its all about the brand recognition? Saving money on processes wherever possible. Simple Math. And here it is. MGS V is not a MGS game.

We already knew it was going to be a massive budget behind the game of MGS V. But what can Konami do to save money on MGS V? They already have the Fox Engine running from Ground Zeroes. The assets for “Snake” (I’ll let you know why I put quotation-marks around it) and standard models will extend somewhat. Oh, yes, let’s save money on a character that doesn’t speak (Quiet), over-sexualize the character to start a fan-base of people who just dig character design, animated a sexy “shower” routine for the character for boys to go nuts over. What about voice? Let’s not really try to sync the voices to the mouths. Let’s have the guy from “24″ record his performances onto tape-logs. Kiefer Sutherland would have been a good “Snake”, but I understand now that you are not “SNAKE”. The game explains pretty soon at the end that you are just a Medic and all the tapes you’ve been listening to is the original Big Boss. You never where the character of Snake. Even though this all could have been handled better, Konami wanted to save money wherever possible. We also knew David Hayter was not asked or put forward to return as “The Voice of Snake”. But in this case I start to wonder myself, David Hayter might have dodged the biggest bullet in the most expensive, commercial and very controversial game of all time once Konami decided to kill everything that built up their reputation.

Even during production Kojima managed to start working on PT. The game Konami “silenced” after it was released on the PS-store. Guillermo Del Toro and his friendship with Hideo Kojima’s dream-game was put on ice. All because Kojima was about to get frozen out of the company that was according to Konami “Wasting too much bloody money”. I might get blacklisted for saying this, but once the new management started to mess with the other IPs for just domestic/gambling market, that’s where everything went sideways. Konami wasn’t treating their heritage with respect.

It took them 7 years to realize their mistake! And now, for those who wants to be part of 3rd party developers who would get a crack at a new Castlevania, a new Metal Gear Solid (remake I hope), Konami has realized that the only way they will survive (Yeah, Metal Gear Solid Survive killed them HARD) is to let other’s take over. Maybe my dream of scoring a Metal Gear Solid game would be somewhat more possible now rather than working in the confined space of limitations posed by the higher ups at Konami. Let 3rd party developers breathe life into the IPs because I know there are smarter ways to tell a story and I would gladly like to see the return of David Hayter in the seat, without having to deal with the blank-face approach that he was faced with every time he had to audition for Snake in MGS 2, 3 and 4! David Hayter is a fantastic writer, actor and voice-actor. He has the chops and I think we are all ready for either a re-make or a better follow up to MGS 2 and the time between that one and MGS 4.

#Metal Gear Solid V #the phantom pain #Konami #Hideo Kojima #Akira Yamaoka #Yong Yea #Castlevania #Pachinko #Silent Hill #PT #Ground Zeroes #harry gregson williams #ludvig forssell #3rd Party #Bloober team #remake #Metal Gear Solid Remake

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #117 - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Spoilers Below

Have I Seen It Before: Yes.

Did I Like It Then: Yes.

Do I Remember It: Yes.

Did I See It In Theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes. No.

Format: DVD

1) I don’t rewatch this film as often as some other Dreamworks movies (The Road to El Dorado, The Prince of Egypt), and only vaguely remember it. I was incredibly surprised however to realize I TOTALLY remembered the main theme (composed by Harry Gregson Williams) as it started playing in the film.

2) Michelle Pfeiffer as Eris.

The first character in the film we’re introduced to, Pfeiffer brings a wonderful fun to this villainess. According to Wikipedia (which quotes it from Entertainment Weekly):

Michelle Pfeiffer, who voices Eris, the goddess of chaos, had struggles with finding the character's villainies. Initially the character was "too sexual," then she lacked fun. After the third rewrite, Pfeiffer called Jeffrey Katzenberg and told him "You know, you really can fire me.", but he assured her that this was just part of the process.

Pfeiffer is a delight in the role, and Eris is animated wonderfully. She’s a total treat to watch every time she’s on screen and a delight in the role.

3) Brad Pitt as Sinbad.

Brad Pitt as Sinbad is pretty good. I think one of the film’s biggest failings is that Sinbad’s character development doesn’t seem to flow too well, it just sort of happens (although that just may be a me thing), but Pitt brings the roguish charm and just pure fun that is needed for this character.

4) This film does have some good swashbuckling fun in it, and it’s what makes the movie as good as it is.

5) The bromance between Sinbad & Kale is nice. We know that Sinbad and Proteus had a past relationship as friends but it’s Sinbad and Kale who have the relationship NOW. Kale knows Sinbad well and he’s loyal to him until the end, and Dennis Haysbert is a joy in the role.

6) That’s not to discount the interesting conflict the relationship Sinbad & Proteus brings to the film though. It’s a unique idea I’m glad was included.

7) Honestly the CGI monsters are the things I remember most from this movie. They’re each fairly memorable in their designs. Plus I think McDonald’s or Burger King had toys of them.

8) The first fight with Cetus (the monster above) is a good way of showing off Sinbad’s ingenuity and smarts in a fight. He doesn’t go head first into danger thoughtlessly, he thinks things through.

9) Chekov’s Quote.

Eris: “When a goddess gives her word, she’s bound for all eternity.”

10) Catherine Zeta Jones as Marina.

Jones (or is it Zeta Jones?) does well in the role of Marina. She is able to balance the character’s sense of nobility and responsibility with the heart and brashness of an adventurer, both things which are needed to understand her character and that character’s internal conflict.

11) I always like it when you have third-wheel characters in movies - like Proteus in this film - who aren’t dicks. Like it would be so easy to make the boyfriend an asshole but the conflict is deepened when Marina has feelings for someone other than her future-husband and that future-husband is a great guy.

12) I’m pretty sure when Sinbad discovers Marina snooping around his ship she glances at her boobs for the briefest of moments. Just thought I’d share.

13) The siren scene is another excellent example of great fun and good monsters.

Harry Gregson Williams music is very good and blending pretty with creepy. You KNOW something is wrong, that we’re in danger, but the vocals are really beautiful. The scene also shows off Marina’s skills on the ship, which are great.

14) I cringed so hard at this. But I loved it.

15) I personally think Sinbad & Marina have better chemistry when they’re having fun bickery banter (like when Sinbad, “thanks,” Marina after saving their life) then when they’re acting all sweet. But there are a lot of movies out there which I feel that way about.

16) Other than the issue I mentioned above, I think the film is a little overstuffed with monsters for too short a runtime. You go from sirens to this sort of weird fish island to the snow bird all pretty quickly. And it may just be me who feels this way, but I’d rather have the fish island cut if that meant we got more time with the snow bird. That doesn’t mean the fish island isn’t visually stunning though.

PS: I’m sure there are some Sinbad fans out there who probably cringe when I use terms like, “snowbird,” and, “fish island,” since there are probably official names for these monsters out there. I apologize for that.

17) According to IMDb:

In the scene in which the entire crew, including Spike, is losing their lunch after traveling at top speeds you can hear a man say, "Hey, where did he get the carrot?" According to the filmmakers, that line was a joke someone said during story production that made everyone groan so much that they decided to put it in the movie.

18) I did not understand this joke as a kid. I laughed so hard when I watched it now.

19) I do REALLY enjoy the ice bird scenes and the design on the creature (and Sinbad/Marina’s chase from it), I just wish we’d gotten more time in this environment.

Again, an example of a very neat CG monster in this film.

20) I love this.

Rat: “It’s the edge of the world!”

Gin [to his brother Li]: “Pay up, it’s flat.”

21) Aaaand the ship is flying.

22) The bromance between Sinbad & Kale is only strengthened when - before entering Tartarus - Sinbad tells Kale that the ship is his if he doesn’t return.

23) Tartarus is truly visually fascinating, keeping with the themes of the CG monsters of the movie and Eris’ animation.

24) It’s probably just me, but I feel like Marina’s, “I love you,” to Sinbad isn’t really earned. I love her and I love him and I think they have fun chemistry and a good relationship, I just wish we’d gotten a bit more nice honest moments with them before she said she loved him. We did get a few nice honest moments, but I feel like one or two more would’ve helped.

25) I like that Sinbad comes back to sacrifice himself to save Proteus, because he returns knowing he’ll be a dead man. And he thought he was lying when he told Eris he’d do this! He thought he was a coward but it just proved that he’s not. And then comes the twist: since Eris promised Sinbad the Book of Peace if he answered one question honestly (will he go back and die if he doesn’t get the book) and he does go back even though both he & Eris thought he was lying when he said, “Yes,” (holy run on sentence Batman) then he’s not lying!

Seven year old me did NOT see that twist coming.

26) Three people who I were surprised to see in the credits of this film:

John Logan wrote the screenplay. John Logan is the creator of “Penny Dreadful” and writer on the last two 007 films.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson was head of story. Jennifer Yuh Nelson directed the last two Kung Fu Panda movies and holds the record for highest-grossing film by a solo female director. (Technically Jennifer Lee has the record for highest-grossing film directed by a woman with Frozen but she co-directed with a guy.)

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott (writers of the first four Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Road to El Dorado, and Treasure Planet among others) served as creative consultants.

I like Sinbad, I really do. It’s a fun adventure even if (in my opinion) it doesn’t hold up to The Road to El Dorado or The Prince of Egypt. But a film should not be judged based on the quality of other films. The animation here is great, the voice acting is fun, and it’s just an enjoyable time all around. Go put it in if you have the chance!

#Sinbad #Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas #Michelle Pfeiffer #Brad Pitt #Catherine Zeta Jones #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Dennis Haysbert #Joseph Fiennes #John Logan #Jennifer Yuh Nelson #Movie #Film #GIF