ADAM FRAZIER
And so it’s time for another edition of “The Cynical Optimist.” I’m Adam Frazier, resident cinephile and lover of all things nerdy. In this edition I’ve got some good stuff for you. First up, a look back at “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.” Then I’ve got a couple of video game reviews for you and finally the typical recommendations and random tidbits to get you through the week.
In March of 1954 U.S. government Officials announced that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. In that very same month, Universal Pictures introduced it’s own product of the nuclear age – “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.â€
One of the last original monster franchises, “The Creature From the Black Lagoon†helped the horror genre escape its Gothic roots and head for the atomic age of science-fiction horror.
A creature feature in the vein of “King Kong,†the film’s story focused on an expedition in the Amazon, where fossilized evidence of a link between land and sea animals has been uncovered. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) finds this evidence in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers.
After returning to the states he goes to see his friend Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), an ichthyologist who works at a marine biology institute. After some persuasion by Reed to the institute’s financial backer, Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a small group goes on an expedition back to the Amazon in order to find the complete skeleton.
Reed, his girlfriend Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams), Williams, and another scientist named Dr. Thompson go aboard a tramp steamer called the Rita, which is captained by Lucas (Nestor Paiva), the crustiest of crusty old sailboat captains.
As the Rita heads toward the Black Lagoon, we are introduced to the real star of this iconic Universal Horror picture. The Gill-man, as he would be known by monster afficianados, quickly makes his presence known as he quietly claims the lives of a couple of Lucas’s shipmates.
One of the most iconic scenes involves the beautiful Julia Adams swimming in the lagoon in her signature white bathing suit. The creature lurks below admiring her beauty, as we all know the true weakness of any misunderstood monster is the beauty of a woman.
At the end of the film, after trying to take Julia Adams’s character back to his underwater dwelling, the Gill-Man is scared off by Reed and sinks back into the depths of the Black Lagoon.
That wasn’t the last we would see of Gill-man. In the 1956 sequel, “Revenge of the Creature,†the creature is captured and sent to the Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida, where an animal psychologist and his ichthyology student study it.
The psychologist attempts to communicate with the Gill-man, but his efforts are hampered by the creature’s attraction to his student. Eventually the Gill-man breaks free from its tank and escapes, in hopes of snatching a new would-be beauty.
The creature begins stalking the ichthyology student and kidnaps her, but is soon tracked down and once again repeatedly shot, forcing it to leave empty handed back to the lonesome ocean.
At this point, the Gill-man had faded into the plethora of science-fiction B movies. The Gill-man’s tragic tale was concluded in “The Creature Walks Among Us,†which hit theaters in 1957.
I suppose executives at Universal decided that the monster was no longer scary – that we had learned its secrets and shined light on the Amazonian shadows that so eerily shrouded the monster in mystery. They decided to evolve the character… literally.
In this film, the creature is found living in a Florida river and after a vicious struggle, is inadvertently immolated. The Gill-man’s burn injuries are so severe that its scales and gills fall off, forcing its captors to perform surgery on it to prevent it from suffocating.
X-rays on the creature show it has begun developing a land animal’s lung structure, so a tracheotomy is performed, opening an air passage to the lungs, transforming the Gill-man into an air-breathing, nearly human animal.
This film is completely absurd, and maybe in some small way, is a commentary on the introduction of plastic surgery in Hollywood. The once proud and iconic Gill-man walks around dressed it in a prison jumpsuit as it is carted off to a California estate where it is imprisoned within an electric fence.
The creature eventually escapes to the ocean, where it presumably drowns. Sad, but beautifully poetic, isn’t it? The world had changed, moved on even, and the creature no longer had a part to play.
“The Creature From the Black Lagoon†will always hold a dear place in my heart. The Gill-man was my favorite monster as a kid – much cooler than Dracula or Frankenstein, and more fierce and frightening than the Wolf Man. I remember the iconic musical queue as the creature came out of the water, its webbed hand rising to grab the ladder of the Rita. Those claws, razor-sharp and longer than dinosaur teeth, ready to grab scientists and sailors encroaching on its territory.
And so I raise my glass to the prehistoric amphibians of old – the missing links of evolution that graced our silver screens all those years ago, when the secrets of the world were waiting to be found. “The Creature From the Black Lagoon†reminds me of the mystery that used to fill horror and science fiction films… and makes me sad for the lack of it today.
Grand Theft Automaton
gta4boxart.jpg Here’s an insightful history lesson on perhaps one of the most vilified video game series to ever hit the market. Published in 1997 by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto allowed the player to step into the shoes of a would-be criminal. The player can roam around the city and do whatever he or she pleases, from simply stealing a car and driving around town to going on a murder spree. On the more structured side of things, various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes.
GTA is commonly known as an ‘open world’ game, in which the player doesn’t necessarily have to complete any objectives to play the game. The world is a complete sandbox, available for the player to explore and interact with. The original Grand Theft Auto has since spawned two expansion packs and eight standalone games.
In 2001 Grand Theft Auto III hit the PS2 and brought a third-person view to the series, rather than the traditional top-down view of earlier titles. The graphics were given a heavy makeover courtesy of a brand new 3D game engine. While not the first of its kind, the gameplay engine expanded the explorable world of GTA III, doing away with more traditional game structures.
The whole controversy surrounding the GTA series really started with III, but the fourth game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, came under sensationalist criticism for hate crimes: a mission in the game involves a gang war between Haitians and Cuban refugees, with the player acting on behalf of both gangs to plot against one another. Haitian and Cuban anti-defamation groups highly criticized the game (“The game shouldn’t be designed to destroy human life, it shouldn’t be designed to destroy an ethnic group,” said Jean-Robert Lafortune of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition) for this and similar scenarios, including using phrases such as “kill the Haitian dickheads” in reference to the gang with which the character is having a shoot-out.
The following sequel, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is similar. After the game’s release, hackers managed to find unused code in the game and released unofficial patches for the PC version enabling the player to engage in crudely rendered sexual mini-games (dubbed “Hot Coffee” in reference to a euphemism for sex used in the game). These mini-games were never intended to be playable in the final version of the game, but were left partially intact in the game’s code. This prompted suspension of the game’s production, application of an Adults Only (AO) ESRB rating to the “Hot Coffee” version, a re-release of a version lacking the controversial content to restore the Mature (M) rating.
And now here we are, Grand Theft Auto IV has just hit shelves for the PS3 and Xbox 360. This time the game is striking back against that controversy with even more over-the-top mayhem. The story goes something like this: Niko Bellic, an immigrant of Eastern European decent, is 30 years of age and a veteran of the Bosnian war. He has come to Liberty City to pursue the “American Dream”. Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed in multiple e-mails to Niko that he was living a fabulous life, with a mansion, women, hot tubs and sports cars. Roman’s claims turn out to be lies to hide his own failures and in reality he only owns a small taxi business, which he wants Niko to work for.
The game is great, though probably not the perfect 10 that many video game enthusiast sites are rating it. It has it’s flaws but they’re easily overlooked I suppose. If you own one of the Next Gen consoles, then you really must experience GTA in one form or another.
When it comes down to it, this game is extremely graphic in its depiction of violence and sexual content. It is rated M for Mature and cannot be purchased by anyone below the age of 17. Thus, it is the job of parents to control what their children do. I’ve been playing these games for the past 10 years and haven’t killed anyone yet. But, of course parents and those looking to place blame on anyone but themselves will point to Rockstar Games and GTA, who is more than willing to take the heat.
Something to think about:
Prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, there have been reports in the United Kingdom of violence perpetrated against people waiting to buy the game. One man was stabbed while waiting in line to buy the game in Croydon on 29 April 2008. Some bystanders said that they initially thought the attack was a stunt pulled to whip-up yet more excitement for the eagerly anticipated title.
In Leyland, Lancashire an 18-year-old man was mugged later the same day by two thieves who punched the victim to the ground and then kicked him, shattering his nose and jaw, before snatching the game and running away.
Anarchy in the UK?
Mario Kart Wii
It all started in 1992 when Super Mario Kart raced onto the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. If you’re a member of the X or Y generations, odds are you’ve heard of Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom before. The premise of a Mario Kart game is simple: characters from the Super Mario universe get together and race go-karts around a variety of tracks. Players obtain items by driving through question mark blocks. These items include iconic weaponry from the Mario series, including red shells, bullet bills and mushrooms. These items can be used for either defense, offense or by powering up the engine for a short amount of time, which delivers a boost to your player.
Since then there have been numerous sequels spanning every Nintendo console to date, including the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Now, after the Nintendo Wii has proven that it is more than a simple fad, one of the brand’s premiere titles has just slid onto shelves.
Mario Kart Wii takes advantage of the Wii’s motion controls by allowing the player to actually steer their kart with the wiimote. The game comes with a wii wheel shell, which you place the wiimote in to give you the experience of actually racing. Yes, while it sounds gimmicky, the wii wheel is actually the prefered way to drive.
Also new in the Wii successor is the addition of motorbikes. Now after choosing from characters such as Donkey Kong, Yoshi and of course, Mario and luigi, you can choose from a variety of karts and bikes that bring different driving elements to the table. In many ways, Mario Kart Wii isn’t as option-packed as its Gamecube counterpart, Mario Kart: Double-Dash. You now only control one driver and thus only have one item slot – there are no character-specific powerups.
Instead, Mario Kart Wii feels like a more natural evolution of Mario Kart 64. The golden mushroom (an infinite boost for a limited amount of time) is back along with some other classic powerups. There are also 32 courses in this interation of Kart, including 16 retro tracks and 16 brand new ones. That’s 8 cups of kart racing action – pretty intense. The retro tracks are fun and will definitely bring back memories of those who have been with the series since its conception.
The game is fun, and insanely challenging on its higher difficulty settings. Overall, with the addition of the wii wheel, the game is better than Double-Dash and, in my opinion, Mario Kart 64. On top of the advances in gameplay, Mario Kart Wii offers an online multiplayer mode.
The Wi-Fi Connect multiplayer mode is actually, well, amazing. Nintendo has had nothing but problems out of its online connectivity but I haven’t experienced a single second of lag yet – and this is playing 12-man races with players from all over the world. It’s quite a feat for a free wi-fi service. Now if only we could get some Nintendo voice chat love.
I’m having a blast with Mario Kart Wii, and it’s certainly something I look forward to picking up and playing with friends, and my girlfriend, who is an absolute mario kart fiend. I mean, she’s good… really. She beats me on the 64 version to the point of tears. I don’t really like to play that one anymore.
Overall, Mario Kart Wii is the same thing its ever been… fun. Though this time around things can be sadistically unfair, and at times you might want to bash someone’s head in with your Wii Wheel, it’s still a great little game to caught up in.
Recommendations and News
– “The Orphanage” was released on DVD here in the states on April 22nd. If you haven’t seen this amazing film then most certainly move it to the top of your Netflix queue. You can check out my review here.
– Jonah Hill in “Transformers 2” – is this right? I hope this stays strictly a rumor. Don’t get me wrong, I loved “Superbad” and I think Hill is extremely funny, but I’m worried that audiences are already getting a little tired of him – being as Apatow finds it necessary to put him in every single movie he’s involved with. The rumor is that Hill would play Shia LaBeouf’s college roommate and provide the comic relief.
Am I confused? Was Shia not the comic relief of the first film? What about the talking robots? What about Anthony Anderson playing DDR and running around eating donuts and babbling? Do we need more comic relief in a “Transformers” movie?
– Be on the look out for a new “The Dark Knight” trailer on Sunday…
– From SlashFilm: “Warner Home Video has announced that they will be releasing a director’s cut of Alex Proyas‘ cult film “Dark City” on July 29th 2008 on both DVD and Blu-ray. The original 1998 release ran 96 minutes and the new director’s cut is about 15 minutes longer, clocking in at 111 minutes. The new cut supposedly has improved special effects and a new and improved sound mix.
Dark City has a huge cult following within film industry insiders and cinephile circles. Roger Ebert named Dark City the best film of 1998, and was even featured on the original dvd release in a commentary track, which is considered by some film enthusiasts to be one of the best DVD audio commentaries ever recorded. Ebert supposedly recorded a new audio commentary for the forthcoming release before his health problems.
The studio’s press information states that the new release also features two additional commentary tracks that “take you deeper than ever before into the world of one of sci-fis most exciting and revered tales.†No other information is known at this time.”
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS RELEASE!
