Monday was the conclusion of our Vampire: The Requiem story. It was...pretty grim.
Last time, recall, Delphine, her father Richard, her girlfriend Rachel, Mordecai, and Myra were in the room at Binion's (Heath was in his office arranging things). Rachel, having just had the truth about vampires revealed to her and not quite believing it, stormed out. Delphine followed her...and saw her grandfather appear from around the corner.
She lunged forward, grabbed Rachel and shoved her behind her, and faced her grandfather...but the man vanished like smoke. Delphine turned around and saw Rachel was gone. She used Auspex to view the event from a different perspective, and realized that the "grandfather" she'd seen had been an illusion...but that the real one had sand on his arms.
Terrified, she grabbed the others and told them they needed to head to the desert again. Heath agreed (having backed up his files and prepared the casino for burning).
They drove out to the desert, and en route Richard told them a little more about what they were up against. He spoke of shadowy beings called Strix, spirits that hated the Kindred and could possess their bodies...as well as those of living people. He said that he wasn't sure how to kill them, other than burn them. Mordecai asked what exactly the plan was, and Heath said they were going to drop off Richard and Delphine and get the hell away. This wasn't their fight.
They arrived at the gravesite. The bodies they'd extracted had been dug up - plus four more, two adults and two children. Mordecai looked through the man's body, and found a wallet and an ID - his name was Edward Paternak, and he was from Orangeburg, NY - just as Mordecai was. He tried to remind the man's face, but couldn't, though it looked strangely similar to his. He noted that all four people - man, woman, two children - had been shot, and they'd been here for years.
Delphine looked at the area using Auspex, and saw her grandfather standing there, forcing Rachel to dig. Her hands were ruined and bleeding. And then he grabbed the shovel away from her and told her to run, and she did, away into the desert.
Just then, the characters saw movement at the SUV - a slight, Asian vampire. Mo Fuji. She opened the back of the SUV and lit the Molotov cocktails, and tossed one in.
Delphine ran over to her, while Heath shot at her. Mordecai disappeared with Obfuscate and started creeping up. Delphine reached Mo and grappled with her, eventually overpowering her and throwing her into the fire. The SUV burned and Mo crumbled to nothing (and Delphine lost Humanity).
And then a flow of smoke, and grandfather appeared, over near Myra. He smacked her in the head, dropping her into torpor (remember, she was pretty badly dinged up). Heath ran. Mordecai snuck over, invisibly, but grandfather apparently saw through it and snarled. Richard engaged him, and Delphine screamed for Rachel. Grandfather vanished, having beat Richard into torpor as well.
Heath, meanwhile, made it to the highway and found Rachel sitting there. He tried to comfort her, but Nosferatu aren't the best at that. A car pulled up, and Heath intended to steal it, but the driver turned out to be Roberto. Hearing that Myra was in danger, he ran to get her, taking the keys. Rachel, hearing Delphine was there, followed. Heath, figuring "fuck it," hot-wired the car and drove off, heading back to Vegas.
Back at the gravesite, Mordecai picked up Myra, probably figuring to get her out of the area, but Roberto found them and saw through the Obfuscate (probably via blood sympathy on Myra). Delphine and Rachel found each other, and Delphine, desperate, Embraced her.
Now stuck in the desert with two vampires in torpor, one with very little blood, and the sun rising soon, they decided to bury themselves in the graves and try and get home the next night.
Heath arrived in Vegas to find Binion's in flames. His cell phone rang - Delphine?
"Hello, Heath," said grandfather. "I want you to do something."
"What?" said Heath.
"Take credit for this," he said. "For these graves in the desert. Don't mention me to anyone. I was never here."
Heath agreed, and hung up.
Meanwhile, in the desert, grandfather, the Strix, sat on the fresh graves holding his son and grandaughter (also his childe, grandchilde, and great-grandchile). "What to do," he said, swirling the sand, "what to do."
Fin.
And the letter:
Dearest Bartholomew,
Two years had passed since the Week of Roses and the OK Corral Tournament, and Kindred society was normalizing. Clans resurfaced, the natural stagnation of the Kindred coming to the fore. And yet, something had changed, something that none of us truly understood.
It was November 2008 when Lori and Ben Dennis died in the parking lot of the Downtown Grand. Suspicion initially fell on Mordecai Pasternak, the Kindred owner and proprietor of the nearby Mob Museum, but the evidence and the support of Heath Newman shifted it. The deaths were not a special concern - people die in Vegas frequently - but the couple's 4-month-old son vanished, and that whipped the city into a frenzy. Tourists with children stopped going out at night, and stopped spending money, and no one, Kindred or mortal, would stand for that.
The story of that baby's disappearance is prosaic. The discoveries that it led to, however, were of a more personal nature than many of the tales I've recounted. And yet, as I watched a piece of Old Vegas burn some time later, I remember thinking that if I could see what I'd seen, know what I knew, and still feel some stirring of grief for those lost, then perhaps I would always be at least somewhat human.
It began, as I said, with the disappearance of a baby. On the night of November 21st, 2008, Martin Rossini's Sheriff, Thomas Pilate, entered Binion's, and sat down for a game of poker...
...Binion's burned on November 24, 2008. Twenty-six people died in that fire, and many more were injured. Heath Newman withdrew from his position as a Harpy thereafter, retiring to his other casino and firing the Kindred he had on staff. Rumor has it he intended to pursue his studies as one of the Ordo Dracul, and such had been his ambition for a long time.
I have heard, however, that he made a trek to the desert, to a lonely place where the sands hold mournful secrets, and when he went to the desert, he had four other Kindred with him. He returned alone. What did he bury out there in the sand? What do the graves in the desert hold? What stories untold, ambitions forever unfulfilled?
We make the mistake, Bartholomew, of believing ourselves immortal just because we do not die. But we do not have the time that we think we do, and in that respect, if no other, we are still quite human.
Yours as always,
-M"
Friday, January 9, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
Movie #295: The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a Baz Luhrmann film, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, and Joel Edgerton. I may be one of the only people in existence who came up through the US public education system and didn't read the book, so my opinions are based solely on the film.
The story starts at a sanitarium, where Nick Carraway (Maguire) is disgustedly telling his woes to a doctor. He used to work in New York, and then something happened to sour him on all of humanity. He recounts the story of the summer he lived in a cottage across the river from the opulent home of his cousin, Daisy (Mulligan) and her loutish husband Tom (Edgerton). Carraway gets sucked into the fun of drinking and sex; Tom takes him to meet his mistress Myrtle (Fisher) and her sister Catherine (Adelaide Clemens) and they all hit it off.
But then Nick meets Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio), the reclusive and immensely wealthy guy living in the freaking castle next door. He wants to meet Daisy for tea; turns out he used to date her some years back, and wants to reconnect now. And then things just spiral out of control, like they do; the truth about Gatsby slowly comes to light (he was poor but felt it was his destiny to rise; he served in the Army, left Daisy because he was broke, and eventually made his money bootlegging and running with gangsters). Daisy refuses to stand up to her husband to Gatsby's liking, tragedy ensues, Daisy runs Myrtle down by accident and her husband, assuming it was Gatsby and that he'd been having the affair with Myrtle, shoots Gatsby dead.
Ain't no party like a Gatsby party, as they say, because a Gatsby party don't stop until two people are dead and everyone's disillusioned with the Jazz Age in general.
This is a Luhrmann film, which means it's fucking gorgeous. The sets are extravagant, the costumes are amazing, and the music is anachronistic, a mix of jazz and hip hop and dance and so forth. Much as in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann doesn't let a little thing like accuracy get in the way of the story, and it works perfectly - the music conveys the feel and the ambiance in a way that's accessible.
The performances, likewise, are good; Maguire is really awesome at being a wide-eyed everyman, and conveying Carraway's "outsider" status even when he's in the middle of everything. Mulligan is perfect as Daisy, who's fucking useless as a human being (to me, any question of her being redeemable evaporates very early in the movie when Carraway asks about her daughter and she responds with this kind of "oh, yeah, I have one of those, let's go get drunk" thing). DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby manages to be cool and suave until Daisy shows up, at which point he starts to unravel and never quite comes together again. And Edgerton as Tom Buchanan also has his moments of freak-out, but stays controlled behind his money and privilege.
And, of course, Luhrmann uses his famous sweeping shots, making you feel like you're flying through large parts of the movie. It's a pretty heady experience, and I sort of wish I'd seen it in theaters.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch value: Medium-low
Next Up; The Island at the Top of the World
The story starts at a sanitarium, where Nick Carraway (Maguire) is disgustedly telling his woes to a doctor. He used to work in New York, and then something happened to sour him on all of humanity. He recounts the story of the summer he lived in a cottage across the river from the opulent home of his cousin, Daisy (Mulligan) and her loutish husband Tom (Edgerton). Carraway gets sucked into the fun of drinking and sex; Tom takes him to meet his mistress Myrtle (Fisher) and her sister Catherine (Adelaide Clemens) and they all hit it off.
But then Nick meets Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio), the reclusive and immensely wealthy guy living in the freaking castle next door. He wants to meet Daisy for tea; turns out he used to date her some years back, and wants to reconnect now. And then things just spiral out of control, like they do; the truth about Gatsby slowly comes to light (he was poor but felt it was his destiny to rise; he served in the Army, left Daisy because he was broke, and eventually made his money bootlegging and running with gangsters). Daisy refuses to stand up to her husband to Gatsby's liking, tragedy ensues, Daisy runs Myrtle down by accident and her husband, assuming it was Gatsby and that he'd been having the affair with Myrtle, shoots Gatsby dead.
Ain't no party like a Gatsby party, as they say, because a Gatsby party don't stop until two people are dead and everyone's disillusioned with the Jazz Age in general.
This is a Luhrmann film, which means it's fucking gorgeous. The sets are extravagant, the costumes are amazing, and the music is anachronistic, a mix of jazz and hip hop and dance and so forth. Much as in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann doesn't let a little thing like accuracy get in the way of the story, and it works perfectly - the music conveys the feel and the ambiance in a way that's accessible.
The performances, likewise, are good; Maguire is really awesome at being a wide-eyed everyman, and conveying Carraway's "outsider" status even when he's in the middle of everything. Mulligan is perfect as Daisy, who's fucking useless as a human being (to me, any question of her being redeemable evaporates very early in the movie when Carraway asks about her daughter and she responds with this kind of "oh, yeah, I have one of those, let's go get drunk" thing). DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby manages to be cool and suave until Daisy shows up, at which point he starts to unravel and never quite comes together again. And Edgerton as Tom Buchanan also has his moments of freak-out, but stays controlled behind his money and privilege.
And, of course, Luhrmann uses his famous sweeping shots, making you feel like you're flying through large parts of the movie. It's a pretty heady experience, and I sort of wish I'd seen it in theaters.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch value: Medium-low
Next Up; The Island at the Top of the World
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Monsterhearts: Brief and Brutal
That's more like it. :)
Last time, you might recall, Genesis had just zipped out of class following her brother enrolling at the same school. Her brother, Bastion, went and sat down next to Briar. Briar introduced him to the other PCs (and Austin), and he revealed he was Genesis' brother. Erika went to find Genesis (she was in the bathroom) and talked her down a bit.
Genesis, for her part, was happy to see Bastion, but afraid for him - the surface world was dangerous. She came back to class and everyone chatted a bit. Bastion was just as naive and clueless as Genesis had been during season one (Genesis: "Was this what it was like with me?" Briar: "Yes."). He'd left his pelt in his locker, and revealed to the others that if someone takes a selkie's pelt, they can make the selkie do things (which the other PCs hadn't really known).
They talked a bit out the family; Bastion mentioned that their father had been to the surface in his younger days and thus couldn't return, but that their mother never had. Genesis paused a bit, wondering what kind of shenanigans her father had gotten up to on his "semester at land."
Classes progressed. During choir, Bastion sang scales and the whole school stopped to listen. Genesis told him he'd probably need to fend people off with a stick. He seemed confused.
Psych class rolled around, and Genesis warned Bastion about Mr. Baron - he was trouble and he had her pelt. And then he walked in and greeted Bastion; apparently he'd helped Bastion get classes set up and so forth (which explained how it had happened so easily).
Cassi gazed into the abyss looking for information on the lighthouse. She saw Baron sending Genesis to the lighthouse, with a being of smoke with glowing eyes standing behind him, watching. But when Genesis got there, she couldn't get in - the door was locked.
The lesson in class that day was on split-brain surgery, and Cassi went up and asked Baron some inane question about seeing a lighthouse out of one eye and what part of the brain would perceive it. Baron said, "Oh, the lighthouse. I didn't think of that. Thanks. Extra credit." Cassi sat down, realizing that she might have fucked up.
Bastion left during class to get his pelt, but didn't come back. After class, Skylar and Genesis went to look for him. Skylar found him in the pool - in sea lion form. She told him that changing forms at school might be unwise, and he changed back and went to dry off. Skylar attempted to turn him on, but failed, and Genesis arrived to get everyone to lunch.
Meanwhile, Erika went to Dora's old sanctum, and contacted Chantico, using her strings attached move to find a way to get Genesis' pelt back. The goddess said that it would give her the means to summon Balam, a servant of hers, that night. Erika found a slim, leather book in her locker with instructions.
At the lunch table, the characters discussed their predicament. They knew that Baron had Genesis' pelt, and they knew that this lighthouse contained...something related to Rook. Cassi wanted to get it back, and drew a picture of the lighthouse from her visions. They all went to the library to go to the books, and learned where the lighthouse was - not far off the coast, and at low tide it was possible to walk there (though it was difficult). They decided to go out to the beach; Ash, Briar, and Cassi would go check out the lighthouse, while Erika would perform her spell and Austin, Genesis, Bastion, and Skylar stayed with her.
At the lighthouse, Ash used casting the bones for Cassi. They saw the key open the lighthouse door, and a blast of frigid air hit them. Inside were shelves made from ice, holding dozens of crystal eggs. Each one, as Cassi reached for it, revealed Rook trapped inside...but which one was the real Rook?
Further down the beach, Erika built a fire and cast her spells. A jaguar made of smoke appeared. She told it that someone had Genesis' pelt, and they wanted it to retrieve it. The cat pounced on Bastion and bit into his skull.
Erika tried to shut it down, but failed. The cat crushed the back of Bastion's head, mortally wounding him. Genesis used ocean's breath, and the ocean responded, exploding up from behind them and smashing a wave down on the beach. It took Balam and the fire out to sea, but Bastion was dying. Genesis tried to hold steady and failed; another wave crashed on the beach, inflicting more Harm. Erika tried to hold steady, too, but failed and was swept out to sea.
Down the beach, Briar saw the wave and ran, realizing that Austin was with them. She got there and called for him, but found him down the beach, nearly drowned. She held steady and helped him up and get back to the others.
Skylar, having seen Erika get pulled out to sea, used dissipate to fly through the water to find her. Skylar held steady, and carried Erika back to shore (and got to mark Experience for saving her, since she's the infernal).
On the way back, Briar heard someone call her name. Mr. Baron stood there on the edge of the beach, and held Bastion's backpack out to Briar. She lashed out physically and knocked him down.
On the beach, Genesis tried to comfort her dying brother. He had a pelt clasped in his hand - hers. "Traded," he gasped, before dying. Genesis knelt there on the beach, weeping over Bastion, and Ash came to comfort her.
Baron picked himself up and handed Briar the backpack. In it was Bastion's pelt. "I brought this out of respect for him," said Baron. "He traded it to me for Genesis' pelt."
"If you hadn't taken her pelt, this wouldn't have happened," Briar spat back.
"How far back shall we go?" said Baron. "If Rook hadn't stolen my key, this wouldn't have happened." Briar didn't have a good answer for that. "Before you go trying to open that lighthouse, you need to get the smoke off your fingers. That thing - you know her as 'Chantico' - has her hooks in you all." And with that, he turned and walked off.
(Fun fact: Briar bought Unholy Allies this session.)
Back on the beach, the characters stripped off Bastion's clothes and wrapped him in his pelt. A woman, clad only in a pelt, walked up out of the water - their mother. She knelt down and looked at Genesis, who said she had some things to take care of here, but then she'd be home. And then their mother picked Bastion up and carried him back into the water.
End Credits: "Time," Tori Amos (originally by Tom Waits)
Last time, you might recall, Genesis had just zipped out of class following her brother enrolling at the same school. Her brother, Bastion, went and sat down next to Briar. Briar introduced him to the other PCs (and Austin), and he revealed he was Genesis' brother. Erika went to find Genesis (she was in the bathroom) and talked her down a bit.
Genesis, for her part, was happy to see Bastion, but afraid for him - the surface world was dangerous. She came back to class and everyone chatted a bit. Bastion was just as naive and clueless as Genesis had been during season one (Genesis: "Was this what it was like with me?" Briar: "Yes."). He'd left his pelt in his locker, and revealed to the others that if someone takes a selkie's pelt, they can make the selkie do things (which the other PCs hadn't really known).
They talked a bit out the family; Bastion mentioned that their father had been to the surface in his younger days and thus couldn't return, but that their mother never had. Genesis paused a bit, wondering what kind of shenanigans her father had gotten up to on his "semester at land."
Classes progressed. During choir, Bastion sang scales and the whole school stopped to listen. Genesis told him he'd probably need to fend people off with a stick. He seemed confused.
Psych class rolled around, and Genesis warned Bastion about Mr. Baron - he was trouble and he had her pelt. And then he walked in and greeted Bastion; apparently he'd helped Bastion get classes set up and so forth (which explained how it had happened so easily).
Cassi gazed into the abyss looking for information on the lighthouse. She saw Baron sending Genesis to the lighthouse, with a being of smoke with glowing eyes standing behind him, watching. But when Genesis got there, she couldn't get in - the door was locked.
The lesson in class that day was on split-brain surgery, and Cassi went up and asked Baron some inane question about seeing a lighthouse out of one eye and what part of the brain would perceive it. Baron said, "Oh, the lighthouse. I didn't think of that. Thanks. Extra credit." Cassi sat down, realizing that she might have fucked up.
Bastion left during class to get his pelt, but didn't come back. After class, Skylar and Genesis went to look for him. Skylar found him in the pool - in sea lion form. She told him that changing forms at school might be unwise, and he changed back and went to dry off. Skylar attempted to turn him on, but failed, and Genesis arrived to get everyone to lunch.
Meanwhile, Erika went to Dora's old sanctum, and contacted Chantico, using her strings attached move to find a way to get Genesis' pelt back. The goddess said that it would give her the means to summon Balam, a servant of hers, that night. Erika found a slim, leather book in her locker with instructions.
At the lunch table, the characters discussed their predicament. They knew that Baron had Genesis' pelt, and they knew that this lighthouse contained...something related to Rook. Cassi wanted to get it back, and drew a picture of the lighthouse from her visions. They all went to the library to go to the books, and learned where the lighthouse was - not far off the coast, and at low tide it was possible to walk there (though it was difficult). They decided to go out to the beach; Ash, Briar, and Cassi would go check out the lighthouse, while Erika would perform her spell and Austin, Genesis, Bastion, and Skylar stayed with her.
At the lighthouse, Ash used casting the bones for Cassi. They saw the key open the lighthouse door, and a blast of frigid air hit them. Inside were shelves made from ice, holding dozens of crystal eggs. Each one, as Cassi reached for it, revealed Rook trapped inside...but which one was the real Rook?
Further down the beach, Erika built a fire and cast her spells. A jaguar made of smoke appeared. She told it that someone had Genesis' pelt, and they wanted it to retrieve it. The cat pounced on Bastion and bit into his skull.
Erika tried to shut it down, but failed. The cat crushed the back of Bastion's head, mortally wounding him. Genesis used ocean's breath, and the ocean responded, exploding up from behind them and smashing a wave down on the beach. It took Balam and the fire out to sea, but Bastion was dying. Genesis tried to hold steady and failed; another wave crashed on the beach, inflicting more Harm. Erika tried to hold steady, too, but failed and was swept out to sea.
Down the beach, Briar saw the wave and ran, realizing that Austin was with them. She got there and called for him, but found him down the beach, nearly drowned. She held steady and helped him up and get back to the others.
Skylar, having seen Erika get pulled out to sea, used dissipate to fly through the water to find her. Skylar held steady, and carried Erika back to shore (and got to mark Experience for saving her, since she's the infernal).
On the way back, Briar heard someone call her name. Mr. Baron stood there on the edge of the beach, and held Bastion's backpack out to Briar. She lashed out physically and knocked him down.
On the beach, Genesis tried to comfort her dying brother. He had a pelt clasped in his hand - hers. "Traded," he gasped, before dying. Genesis knelt there on the beach, weeping over Bastion, and Ash came to comfort her.
Baron picked himself up and handed Briar the backpack. In it was Bastion's pelt. "I brought this out of respect for him," said Baron. "He traded it to me for Genesis' pelt."
"If you hadn't taken her pelt, this wouldn't have happened," Briar spat back.
"How far back shall we go?" said Baron. "If Rook hadn't stolen my key, this wouldn't have happened." Briar didn't have a good answer for that. "Before you go trying to open that lighthouse, you need to get the smoke off your fingers. That thing - you know her as 'Chantico' - has her hooks in you all." And with that, he turned and walked off.
(Fun fact: Briar bought Unholy Allies this session.)
Back on the beach, the characters stripped off Bastion's clothes and wrapped him in his pelt. A woman, clad only in a pelt, walked up out of the water - their mother. She knelt down and looked at Genesis, who said she had some things to take care of here, but then she'd be home. And then their mother picked Bastion up and carried him back into the water.
End Credits: "Time," Tori Amos (originally by Tom Waits)
Friday, January 2, 2015
Movie #294: Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 is the final Iron Man movie (so far, though Downey Jr. is apparently wibbly on how much more he wants to do; Marvel might decide to give someone else a shot - I'd love a War Machine movie, frankly), and stars Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Ty Simpkins, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, and Rebecca Hall.
Stark (Downey Jr.) is more reflective this time out; the events of The Avengers kind of messed with him. Suffering from panic attacks and insomnia, he spends his nights building new suits of armor. Pepper Potts (Paltrow), now his girlfriend and living with him, is also running his company, and his friend and former bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, not directing this time) is head of security.
The world has its own problems - a terrorist called the Mandarin (Kingsley) is blowing things up all over the US, and apparently SHIELD hasn't figured out how to find him (SHIELD is in fact entirely absent from this movie, and since this is before Captain America: The Winter Soldier I kinda think that's a bit of a plot hole). Meanwhile, Aldrich Killian (Pearce), director of Advanced Idea Mechanics, is trying to get funding from Stark to finish his "hack the body" program called Extremis. And Stark's buddy Rhodes (Cheadle) has been rebranded as the Iron Patriot, and kind of takes over the "police the world" thing that Iron Man used to do.
Of course we know the big twist - Mandarin isn't Mandarin, he's a British actor and something of an idiot, hired to be the bad guy by Killian, who is actually the Mandarin (kind of). After an attack on his house, Stark winds up in Tennessee befriending a young boy (Simpkins) and investigating the "bombings," and does a Lethal Weapon-style raid on Killian's compound before a climactic showdown on a boat with lots of Iron Man suits.
I'm conflicted about this movie. On the one hand, I like it. Everyone is comfortable in their roles, and it doesn't feel like a retread of the first movies (if anything it feels like a retread of Lethal Weapon 2; same director, and we'll get to the L's). Some things - Stark's fixation on the Battle of New York, the way other characters note that in the post-Avengers world, things are different - make it feel very much like an MCU movie. But again, the problem I have is: Where is SHIELD? I'm fine with Stark not being able to call up Cap or Thor for help; they have their own shit going on. But where is Romanoff? Where's Fury? They don't need to show up, but their absence might have been explained a little better, especially in light of the Mandarin kidnapping the President. It feels like they wanted the movie centered on Stark again, but the world has gotten big enough that it's hard to arrange that without some deft maneuvering, and I think there were some missteps here.
But, the effects are good. There are some nice emotional beats, though a lot of them (Happy Hogan getting put into a coma, Potts briefly getting superpowers) get lost in the general chaos. A lot of later superhero movies make the mistake of putting in too many villains, and I don't think that's the problem here. I thin the villains make sense, but the movie is messy thematically. Of the MCU movies, I think it's the weakest. (So, still good, just not as good.)
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next Up: The Great Gatsby
Stark (Downey Jr.) is more reflective this time out; the events of The Avengers kind of messed with him. Suffering from panic attacks and insomnia, he spends his nights building new suits of armor. Pepper Potts (Paltrow), now his girlfriend and living with him, is also running his company, and his friend and former bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, not directing this time) is head of security.
The world has its own problems - a terrorist called the Mandarin (Kingsley) is blowing things up all over the US, and apparently SHIELD hasn't figured out how to find him (SHIELD is in fact entirely absent from this movie, and since this is before Captain America: The Winter Soldier I kinda think that's a bit of a plot hole). Meanwhile, Aldrich Killian (Pearce), director of Advanced Idea Mechanics, is trying to get funding from Stark to finish his "hack the body" program called Extremis. And Stark's buddy Rhodes (Cheadle) has been rebranded as the Iron Patriot, and kind of takes over the "police the world" thing that Iron Man used to do.
Of course we know the big twist - Mandarin isn't Mandarin, he's a British actor and something of an idiot, hired to be the bad guy by Killian, who is actually the Mandarin (kind of). After an attack on his house, Stark winds up in Tennessee befriending a young boy (Simpkins) and investigating the "bombings," and does a Lethal Weapon-style raid on Killian's compound before a climactic showdown on a boat with lots of Iron Man suits.
I'm conflicted about this movie. On the one hand, I like it. Everyone is comfortable in their roles, and it doesn't feel like a retread of the first movies (if anything it feels like a retread of Lethal Weapon 2; same director, and we'll get to the L's). Some things - Stark's fixation on the Battle of New York, the way other characters note that in the post-Avengers world, things are different - make it feel very much like an MCU movie. But again, the problem I have is: Where is SHIELD? I'm fine with Stark not being able to call up Cap or Thor for help; they have their own shit going on. But where is Romanoff? Where's Fury? They don't need to show up, but their absence might have been explained a little better, especially in light of the Mandarin kidnapping the President. It feels like they wanted the movie centered on Stark again, but the world has gotten big enough that it's hard to arrange that without some deft maneuvering, and I think there were some missteps here.
But, the effects are good. There are some nice emotional beats, though a lot of them (Happy Hogan getting put into a coma, Potts briefly getting superpowers) get lost in the general chaos. A lot of later superhero movies make the mistake of putting in too many villains, and I don't think that's the problem here. I thin the villains make sense, but the movie is messy thematically. Of the MCU movies, I think it's the weakest. (So, still good, just not as good.)
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next Up: The Great Gatsby
Board Game: Paranormal Investigation
It's actually a card game, but why split hairs? I got this game from a Kickstarter a while back. I have to say, as Kickstarters go, it was pretty smooth, start to finish.
The Game: Paranormal Investigation
The Publisher: Touch Paper Press
Time: 10 minutes or so
Players: Me, +Michelle Lyons-McFarland, Al, and Will
The basic idea here is that you're playing paranormal investigators, each of whom has an agenda and an affiliation. Your agenda determines your win condition; the Fraud just wants to lose all his cards, while the Skeptic wants to uncover the Rational Explanation Mystery cards. Your affiliation gives you a way to break the rules a bit. I played the Fraud and was affiliated with the Church (which seemed a bit on the nose), so I could peek at a Mystery card every time a Poltergeist card came out (I think; I don't have the cards in front of me).
You play evidence cards on the face-down Mysteries; once they hit a certain number, they flip. At the start of the game you get to peek at one or two, so you might know which ones you need to reveal to win or which one your opponents need. You can also discredit other people's evidence, or send Poltergeists out to just wreck everything (which means "pass cards to either side").
Opinions: I'm actually really happy with this game. It's simple to learn, but the varying combinations of agenda and affiliation give it replayability. The artwork is nicely evocative and not overblown; reminds me a little of Lunch Money. And, again, these guys ran their Kickstarter really well - they didn't overdo it, and they shipped on time. Glad I backed.
Keep? Yep.
The Game: Paranormal Investigation
The Publisher: Touch Paper Press
Time: 10 minutes or so
Players: Me, +Michelle Lyons-McFarland, Al, and Will
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| Will decided to LARP this, for some reason. |
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| Setup. |
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| A Mystery revealed. |
Keep? Yep.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Movie #293: Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2 is, of course, the sequel to Iron Man, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Picking up some time after the events of Iron Man, we find that Stark (Downey Jr.) has continued his campaign of protecting America from foreign powers. He claims to have privatized world peace, and that other countries are years away from developing arc reactor tech, even though rival weapons designer Justin Hammer (Rockwell) seems to be helping them. But for all that, Stark is having trouble; he's dying from the element used to power his heart magnet, and acts reckless and carelessly. He makes his assistant Pepper (Paltrow) the CEO of his company, and jumps in a race car because what the heck. He is then attacked by a man called Ivan Vanko (Rourke) using tech similar to his, and learns that Vanko's father was a contemporary of Howard Stark.
Rockwell and Vanko go in together to try and destroy Stark, but really Stark's worst enemy is himself. Finally SHIELD shows up, in the personage of Nick Fury (Jackson) and a woman who, till now, had been acting as Stark's assistant Natalie (Johansson). They give him enough information to finish one of his father's projects, creating a new element (which isn't named, which is a missed opportunity) and Stark is back in the game! Just in time for he and his buddy Rhodes (Cheadle), now wearing a modified Iron Man armor, to trounce Vanko and his Hammer-built drones.
A couple of flimsy plot points aside (how did Vanko know that Tony would be driving at the Grand Prix?), it's a solid movie. It picks up where the first one leaves off and delves into the same themes and tones, but also takes us deeper into the MCU in general. SHIELD isn't a pervasive presence, but they're there, and we get to see Coulson (Clark Gregg) on assignment again, being nicely professional. Rourke is appropriately brutal as Vanko (although apparently his Russian sucks; I wouldn't know), and Rockwell is fun in a reimagining of Justin Hammer.
There's a lot of collateral damage in this movie, which I kind of wish would get addressed at some point; it never really does, not in this or Avengers, but then, it also never reaches the level of disaster porn that Man of Steel hits, either. All in all, it's a solid continuation of the story.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Iron Man 3
Picking up some time after the events of Iron Man, we find that Stark (Downey Jr.) has continued his campaign of protecting America from foreign powers. He claims to have privatized world peace, and that other countries are years away from developing arc reactor tech, even though rival weapons designer Justin Hammer (Rockwell) seems to be helping them. But for all that, Stark is having trouble; he's dying from the element used to power his heart magnet, and acts reckless and carelessly. He makes his assistant Pepper (Paltrow) the CEO of his company, and jumps in a race car because what the heck. He is then attacked by a man called Ivan Vanko (Rourke) using tech similar to his, and learns that Vanko's father was a contemporary of Howard Stark.
Rockwell and Vanko go in together to try and destroy Stark, but really Stark's worst enemy is himself. Finally SHIELD shows up, in the personage of Nick Fury (Jackson) and a woman who, till now, had been acting as Stark's assistant Natalie (Johansson). They give him enough information to finish one of his father's projects, creating a new element (which isn't named, which is a missed opportunity) and Stark is back in the game! Just in time for he and his buddy Rhodes (Cheadle), now wearing a modified Iron Man armor, to trounce Vanko and his Hammer-built drones.
A couple of flimsy plot points aside (how did Vanko know that Tony would be driving at the Grand Prix?), it's a solid movie. It picks up where the first one leaves off and delves into the same themes and tones, but also takes us deeper into the MCU in general. SHIELD isn't a pervasive presence, but they're there, and we get to see Coulson (Clark Gregg) on assignment again, being nicely professional. Rourke is appropriately brutal as Vanko (although apparently his Russian sucks; I wouldn't know), and Rockwell is fun in a reimagining of Justin Hammer.
There's a lot of collateral damage in this movie, which I kind of wish would get addressed at some point; it never really does, not in this or Avengers, but then, it also never reaches the level of disaster porn that Man of Steel hits, either. All in all, it's a solid continuation of the story.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Iron Man 3
Board Game: Alea Iacta Est
Michelle and I played this game the other day, so I took some pictures!
The Game: Alea Iacta Est
The Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Time: 20-30 minutes
Players: Me and +Michelle Lyons-McFarland
We were looking for a game that works with two players. There are games that are designed for that kind of play, and games that technically can be played two-player, but work better with more. This is one of the latter games.
In this game, you're playing Roman emperors trying to amass power and fame. You can do this by taking over provinces, bribing senators, praying to the gods of fortune (this doesn't happen in a two-player game, so I'm not sure how it works), and yapping in the forum. How do you do this? Matching numbers, baby.
You roll a bunch of dice, and then arrange sets in various places. The forum requires sequences of numbers, the military requires matched sets, and the senate requires individual dice or two totaling five. You can use some or all of your dice in turn, but then you reroll them and you have to use them all every round. They just might wind up in the latrine, which grants you rerolls.
Opinions: So, I'm not generally a huge fan of set-collection games, because they're boring. Yahztee! doesn't make any sense to me; like, couldn't you make up a program to randomly generate sets of numbers for you while you go and play a more interesting game? But this game requires you to do different things with the sets and otherwise make decisions, so it's a little better. I really want to try it with more people and see what that does.
Keep? Sure.
The Game: Alea Iacta Est
The Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Time: 20-30 minutes
Players: Me and +Michelle Lyons-McFarland
We were looking for a game that works with two players. There are games that are designed for that kind of play, and games that technically can be played two-player, but work better with more. This is one of the latter games.
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| Setup. |
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| Michelle, preparing to take over Rome. |
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| My strategy was "I'll take over the world, that makes sense." |
Keep? Sure.
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