The Death of Gestural Play?

A few years back, David O'Grady, Jen Porst, and I completed a visual essay on the video game phenomenon of gestural play:  games that involve an interface that requires players to mimic "real life" bodily gestures (swinging a tennis racket, playing a guitar, etc.) in order to master the game.  The essay can be found at Mediascape.  

Scream 4 (2011)

The problem with the first Scream film in over a decade, Scream 4 (AKA Scre4m, 2011), is that it is too much of a Scary Movie (2000-2009) and not enough of a scary movie.  The first film, directed by Craven off of a script by Kevin Williamson, was released in 1996 (when the target demographic for the fourth installment was still in diapers) and provided viewers with a refreshing bridge between comedic, self-reflexive cinephilia and genuine horror.  At the time, it was groundbreaking formula and it re-vamped the horror genre in the same way Quentin Tarantino de and re-constructed the crime thriller.  Over the span of three films and four years however, the “Scream” franchise slowly lost its way.  When the parodies of a parody arrived in the form of the “Scary Movie” films, the final nail seemed to have been placed into the Scream coffin.  Yet, unfortunately for those nostalgic for the magic of the first film, the killer in Scream 4 is Wes Craven.  He took a beautiful, young genre in the form of self-reflexive horror and gutted it for all eyes to see. 

The Outrageous Origins of the Motion Comic and Women Comic Book Readers Day

In Media Res ran my short piece on the history of the motion comic today.  I'm curious to see what fans and readers have to say about this formal phenomenon.  Do you purchase them?  Do you know about them?  Do you like them?  Essentially, my initial impressions have been that the American comic book industry sees a bright future ahead for motion comics while readers downright loathe them.  I'll let you weigh in by following the link here.  

For more on Women Comic Book Readers Day, my grassroots campaign to make the industry notice the female consumer demographic, proceed after the jump.  

September 21st 2011: Women Comic Book Readers Day!

Comic book fans have displayed mixed emotions at the announcement that DC would be essentially "rebooting" their entire universe come September.  The move by DC is undoubtedly an attempt to gain new readers, considering the stagnation comic book sales (complex continuities can be intimidating to newbies, as are the glut of titles being offered).  Concurrently, women comic book fans have been taking DC to task for a lack of gender diversity behind the page.  This gave me an idea:  I want more gender diversity in the bullpens (racial diversity is hopefully on the way with the new Spider-Man) and I want more people to fall in love with comics, a form that means a lot to me.  My idea is to bring the two together and to make September 21st 2011 (the launch date of Wonder Woman #1) Women Comic Book Readers Day.  Essentially, if we want more people to read comics and greater diversity, let's show the industry that women matter.  

My argument is that writing editorials and grilling personnel about the lack of gender diversity simply isn't enough.  In order to get a profit industry to adopt radical change, they need to be affected where it really matters:  their finances.  

Machete (2010)

At the press conference for Machete (2010), co-director Robert Rodriguez was asked the inevitable question about the film’s political subtext.  For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it tells the story of a Mexican illegal immigrant (Danny Trejo) turned assassin who avenges the wrongs visited upon his race via violent acts that eventually spiral into a social revolution.  Given the subject matter, the journalist inquired if Rodriguez had specifically intended to make a statement regarding the controversial steps Arizona had taken in dealing with illegal immigration.  Rodriguez responded that “There are real issues going on in any movie…[Immigration is a] real issue and people want real answers….It’s just a backdrop.”   Rodriguez’s answer, both in the form of the press conference and in the form of the film, is disappointing.  As an homage to exploitation filmmaking, Rodriguez and co-director Ethan Maniquis’s film takes the form of a scratchy, blood soaked negative and attempts to critique the anti-immigration sentiment that has grown to define much of America which has a great deal of potential in theory.  Unfortunately for the film, the filmmakers, and the audience, the film does not nail the landing as its critique and ability to provide visceral thrills quickly dissipate by the end of its first hour.    

Spider-Man: Turn On the Dark

Forgive the headline, but I cannot contain my enthusiasm for the news of the most recent challenge to the racial boundaries of comics.  Sure, Marvel has had Nick Fury and DC has had Steel.  However, if there was going to a Mt. Rushmore constructed out of Superheroes, it would white as the actual granite cliff face (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine?).  In June, that hypothetical sculpture will drastically change:  Peter Parker is dead, Miles Morales is now Spider-Man.  

Maps, I Don’t Love You Like They Love You

Those players who have purchased Call of Duty:  Black Ops (2010) for Playstation 3 (this guy) and/or X-Box 360 have essentially signed up to be victims of a Ponzi Scheme.  Essentially, upon release, publisher Activision sells consumers an incomplete game for $60 and then continues to bleed the same victims for $15, three times (for an additional $45, a total of $105) for downloadable content (DLC) in the form of “map packs.”   Now, Activision does provide a decent bang for the buck:  each map pack includes four newly designed multiplayer maps and one additional zombie mode map.  It’s not so much the quality of the additional content that I find frustrating.  Rather, it’s the method in which they are sold and the quality of the original content.