Over the past few years, videogames have become so “cinematic” to a point where they don’t require much from the player other than to press a button to move on to the next cut-scene. Of course, “cinematic” means that we’re engrossed in the story and the characters, which we certainly aren’t in videogames that rely heavily on this method. Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield 3. Ironically, the games that suck the player into their world are the ones with little or no scripted events at all, like BioShock and Half Life.
Take a look at the above example which comes from the recently announced Battlefield 4. It’s one scripted cut-scene after another — one cut scene after another where the all of the story and decisions have been made for the player. All that’s left is to decide how quickly to press the button to trigger the next quick-time event. You have little to no choice as a player — which is the whole purpose of videogames.
Hideo Kojima, a video game maker who definitely seems himself as a “director” famously put hours of cut-scenes into Metal Gear Solid 4. Which didn’t make the “game” any better. Luckily though, we still got some game makers left who know how to actually make a great game that requires participation from the player. Games like the recently released BioShock Infinite.
Comic book movie factory Marvel Studios is really cranking them out these days. This Summer geeks will have Iron Man 3, The Wolverine, and the Thor sequel. Over the next two years, Marvel has no less than 10 movies slated for release, as the above image shows.
Artist Blake Loosli did this great caricature artwork of the main characters from No Country For Old Men, the dark, Oscar-winning Coen brothers flick. Check out more of his work here. It kinda reminds us of the art style from the Team Fortress 2 video game.
If the Sith can have a revenge, so can Sand People, according to graphic artist Mark from Sublevel Studios. The Revenge of The Sand People is actually one Star Wars spin off we’d love to see. Especially when it’s produced by none other than Jabba The Hut.
How often have you heard the line “Get outta there!” uttered in movies, particularly action and thrillers? As the video above shows, “Get out of there” has become such a cliche line of dialogue in almost all movie genres.
Arnie is back! And he’s looking better than ne–oh, he’s got gray beard? That’s cool. And grey hair? Okay, we ca live with that. And some wrinkles? Sure, the man is 64 years old… And still looks like he could kick ass. The above screen grab is from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new movie The Tomb, where he stars alongside Sylvester Stallone. The Tomb is scheduled for a 2013 release.
This little clip is from the documentary “Heart of Darkness”, a behind the scenes look at Francis Ford Coppola during the production of Apocalypse Now. Coppola notes his excitement over “new 8mm cameras” and how they’re going to revolutionize filmmaking and enable everyone to make movies.
Yet this hasn’t happened. Not with 8mm cameras. Not with video recorders. Not with DV camcorders. Not with DLSRs. It will never happen no matter how affordable and accessible the technology gets. Because Coppola forgot one important detail: it doesn’t matter what camera you’re shooting on, if you don’t have a story to tell, it’s useless. You are no more an “artist” if you shoot a shitty story on the Red Epic than on your iPhone. You’re still a shitty storyteller.
A group photo of the cast from Aliens (1986). If you don’t remember who the blonde next to James Cameron is, that’s Newt, the little girl, all grown up. Yep, it’s been that long.
Well, for a man, he looks surprisingly close enough. FYI, the stunt double is actually pro parkour runner Daniel Arroyo. Aka the male version of Jennifer Lopez, apparently.
