Semi Recall: 2012's Total Recall Rebuild - A Review

Verdict:  Enjoyable - If you forget the original.

The Good 

• CGI and casting is excellent including the estimable Bill Nighy as Matthias.
• The reference to Mars is a nice touch and if there was to be a TR2 then we'd probably have gone there
• The actions scenes are well choreographed and only a few times stretch credulity to its limit.
• 3 Boob woman
• implanted phones and electronic tattoos are neat
• who doesn't love flying cars?
• False Flag Attacks to justify invading 'The Colony' for lebensraum
• The exploration of reality - What is real and at what point do we as the audience slip into the possible fantasy with him?  Is any of it real after he sits down in the chair?

The Bad

• The synthetic police/military units are a bit too iRobot/Blade Runner for my taste and the motivations of Cohaagen to build more and more of them seems thin.
• 'The Colony' is apparently the worlds most desirable ghetto
• Kate Beckinsale as waifish as ever paired again with Bill Nighy like this was another edition of Vampires vs Werewolves.
• I still like Kate but seriously she weighs all of 120lbs a stiff wind would knock her about though she does appear to have some athleticism.
• Cold have been better if done as a followup to the original rather than a reboot.

The Ugly:  Nothing all that ugly the dialogue was fairly good for what it was.

Outcasts: A Review

The entire series is only eight full hour episodes thanks to executive meddling.  However those eight episodes never fail to deliver an intense experience for the viewer.  There are times where the series is so overwhelming that I (who can binge through 8 hours of other shows at a time) could barely sit through two without taking a break to absorb what I had just experienced.

****SPOILERS****

The series features fantastic visuals from its filmed location in South Africa.  The mountains look alien to us and the rest of the landscape has this feeling of unfamiliarity since most shows we view in the USA are filmed either in Vancouver BC or somewhere near LA.

The human race is nearly dead on earth from nuclear war and other atrocities.  Our last attempt to save our selves resulted in the development of an antimatter drive to get us to the nearest habitable world that is in the show called Carpathia.  Immediately we are thrown into drama as news of the last transport from earth reaches the Colonial President and his security staff.

Their systems aren't in great shape and many die on the landing and it is well shown how this impacts the welfare of the colony for the worse.  The series antagonist arrives amongst the survivors of this transport.  

What is fantastic about this series is that it concentrates on what it means to be human including genetically altered humans called "AC's" which stands for Advanced Cultivars.  They were blamed for a virus and exiled from the main colony years ago.  They were supposed to be shot...slaughtered like sick cattle but the President spared them despite losing his own children to a virus called C23 (Carpathia Virus 23).  These AC's constantly turn up and are violent but not unreasonable.  At one point we see their leader communing with some planetary force/incorporeal beings.

The colony's birth rate is slowing to a crawl due to some unknown reason, and the AC's who had been rendered infertile apparently have begun having children.  How this is possible is related to the unknown incorporeals who we later find out communicate in some sort of hypersonic language that can manipulate DNA.

So our protagonists find all of this out and manage to come up with a sonic shield (resonant jammer of some kind) just in time to foil a coup by the antagonist and save the lives of at least some of the characters wearing plot armor.  Oh yes while all of the plots were going on the planet was trying to slowly kill all of the colonists.

The President is often visited by the 'host force' as they call it on the show and at first it appears to him as his dead children.  later the force manifests as an alternate version of him.   They converse and we learn a lot.  The host force does not like most of the humans although it seems to be happy with the AC's for no reason given.  It is likely that explanation was meant for season two.  This is especially obvious with how it ends.

The ending - its a cliff hangar ending with the arrival of a secret (and likely militaristic) transport from earth (CT10 - Carpathia Transport 10) and the self imposed exile of one of the protagonists who finds out that she is a special type of AC called an Omega.  Instead of altered body she has an altered mind.  The implications of this are only hinted at as is the fact that the President was involved so deep in the project that his own genes were used as part of her creation.

The series well explores human frailty, violence, compassion and forgiveness.  It also explores to a rather cynical degree the destructiveness of religion and spiritualism...or at least the insincere kind.  Sincere spiritual belief is not shown, rather it is shown as a front for hucksters, frauds and wolves in shepherds clothing.  This may be due to a writers bias or an internal consistency of how events happened on that fictional Earth.  Perhaps religious fervor lead to the wars of annihilation that are alluded to?  Either way the President is a very secular man...but not militantly so.  He prefers people to be rational and not spiritually oriented, but even to the antagonist he only warns him not to proselytize when conducting his official state duties as a councilman.  The antagonist of course always defies him as a way to undermine his authority and yet the President retains a cool head throughout.

The acting is overall well done and the production values are appropriate.  The sets are well made for what the colony is...a last desperate escape from a ruined world.

The problem with this series is - The writers should not have had a cliff hangar for the season 1 finale.  If you don't know that you're coming back for a second season...don't write your series in such a manner as it leaves you only the options of a second season!

They could have left out the landing of the CT10 and simply had it still in transit.  That would have allowed for a better sense of things being wrapped up but each plot arc also was a cliff hangar so...really the network should have committed after seeing episode 1 and 2 to a second season.  The show is very high level for sci-fi which mostly devolves into a fantastical action series rather than a deeper exploration of the human condition.  There is action but only to forward the story and not for its own sake.  The action creates character development as does the day to day living situations with families and their precious children.

It really is a shame more shows aren't like this in the quality of writing.  If there was one show that deserves a return to the air it is Outcasts.

Dragon Age II - Trying it after a few years

Well I started a new female Hawke mage.

Glaring mistake right away?  They remove the ability to have a meaningful choice right away when the mere choosing of your class means that one sibling or the other will die.

They could have made it a choice on who to save but nope...its just a function of your class.  That is about 5 minutes into the game.

So then you're in cutscenes for the next 30 fucking minutes accomplishing almost nothing in game.  Literally nothing but cinematics...and then you're set free in the most empty of cities to ever have claimed to be too full of refugees to let more in.

Then you meet the only good character in the entire game (Varric Tethras) aside from Bethany (who in this case is dead).  And then you're left in neutral.  The cutscenes do nothing in the game at this point except take up space and give you some narrative.

So the entire game ends of feeling like you just played through david gaider's novels and had no choice whatsoever.  Sure the protagonist is fully voiced and the game is smooth as heck.  No question that much of it was well done.  But after playing even Mass Effect 2, 3 and other newer games it not only shows its age but also the lack of detail and love that was put into it.

This was the real abortion that came out of EA and honestly was a prelude to what we'd see in ME3...which was still much better than DA2.  DA2 suffered from producers not fighting for their teams.  The entire game could have been fantastic...like the Legacy DLC was.  And it was fantastic.  But they screwed it up and didn't have the courage to admit it.   Nor did they come up with a solution.  They pumped out crappy DLC and much much later after libraries full of criticism finally kinda half heartedly admitted they screwed up.  And only promised to do better next time.

Now - Over four years later they are about to release Dragon Age Inquisition.  I do hope it is what fans expect it to be.  But I am not holding out too much hope.  I have seen quite a bit of gameplay and well...it looks promising.  One can only hope that the writing is much improved and we don't have mooks jumping out of walls in stupid wave spawns.

DA2 - Chapter 1 Flaws

1) Gamlen's House - feels more like a mission hub than a home.  Not enough to do and doesn't feel important after initial family missions
2) Lowtown - Feels empty in the day time and at night its a ghost town
3) No city guard patrols...even after you get Butch Ginger Valkyrie in charge of everything.
4) the city feels very tiny - no real exploration
5) You can't kill Sister Petrice even after she betrays you - she's wearing plot armor and it is inexcusable.
6) Arishok most sympathetic character - and yet he is forced to be your enemy.  You should have been able to help him take over the city.  But of course that would have completely messed the plot for the rest of the game...showing you how flimsy the entire plot is in the first place.
7) Blood Magery - stupid female elf mage is a blood mage.  You can't turn her in to the chantry nor kill her.  She's so witless it hurts and that just isn't cute.  Her motivations aren't strong enough nor is she honest with you from the beginning because she is in collusion with demons.
8) Thrask and his mages - makes no sense in its resolution.  You can change nothing about it.  Your attitude affects nothing except companion perception.  Another 'decision' without consequence.
9) You've already seen several levels reused by now and Fenris is a slob.

DA2 - Deep Roads (Pending)

The Mass Butterfly Effect

Mass Effect 3 - The end of Trilogy 1 - The Shepard Cycle

Though there are different flavors of each of the three basic endings it is important going forward to focus on the three basics and how they will affect the future.

Destruction - Shepard may live or die depending on war assets.  EDI dies, the Geth asplode and tremendous damage occurs to the entire tech base of Galactic civilization.  The Citadel is likely also destroyed or in terrible shape.  No more Reapers (though maybe some still exist in dark space for all we know).

The future: The Cycle is over.  Reapers (at least in this galaxy) are dead and the rest are without the guidance of the citadel's systems...perhaps they will appear someday if they exist at all.  The Galaxy will be rebuilding and whatever the main protagonist does it will be as an N7 operator.

Given that ending this game should have the most news about rebuilding and recolonization.  It is also possible that the Krogan are dying if you chose to sabotage the genophage cure.  The Geth are extinct and the Quarians are probably a non-factor having most likely concentrated on rebuilding their homeworld.  With no Geth resistance they are free to rebuild...but without the geth help they COULD get in other endings they are probably still in poor shape and probably not a part of this trilogy in any manner.

The Geth...dead
The Krogan...dead or dying (perhaps still a chance to save them as we know for sure they are in Future Mass Effect).

Humans - Duh we're so vain that it acts as actual plot armor against extinction
Asari - yeah they should be around being one of the most advanced and wide spread civilizations
Batarians - Most likely extinct.  Even if they are still around in some minor fashion they are a non-factor
Raloi - Perhaps the Reaper War passed them by since we never saw any of them ascended for Shepard and crew to kill.
Turians - In bad shape...most of their fleet destroyed and their planet cratered by the reapers...like Earth it would be in recovery but still have massive scars.  Also a long time space-faring race they will be wide spread like the Asari.
Salarians - In the best shape probably.  They are the second longest space-faring race of this current cycle and they would appear to have suffered little to no damage to their home world during the Reaper War. Possible repercussions with the Krogan.  Would also put them at odds with Turians politically speaking.
Quarians:  They could also be dead

Control - This is Shepard's favorite store on The Citadel!  Shepard's ghost now controls the Reapers...making them a protective force and they probably helped rebuild everything.  The Reapers are still giants astride the galaxy and should be seen around helping and protecting.

The galactic infrastructure should be beyond what exists - but perhaps people only criticize Shepard's parental control quietly.  He might not be the kindest of despots.  All of the council races should be closely tied and cooperating.

Humans - Earth rebuilt - probably now has its own reaper protection force
Turians - Palaven rebuilt - Probably with its own force of reapers to protect it
Asari - as above for Thessia
Salarians - Had few Reaper problems...probably now have Reaper guardians as well anyhow.
Krogan - could be dying still...or genophage cured
Raloi - who the fuck knows
Quarians - Perhaps they're dead - if alive they are rebuilding rannoch...if the geth are also alive the geth are helping them rebuild...and perhaps they chose to leave the galaxy behind.
Batarians - perhaps they have been able to rebuild with Shepard's help.
EDI likely survived as did the rest of your comrades - hey maybe you got Liara preggers!

Synthesis - The 'best' ending you can hope for.  Requires the most war assets and requires you to have both deleted the geth heretics and blown up the reaper base beyond the omega 4 relay.  The citadel is probably somehow now self aware...or at least self maintaining.  The Keepers are likely released from their servitude somehow.  Galactic infrastructure is not merely on par but likely above where it would be under the control option.

This best ending means everyone survived and is now enhanced...all life in the galaxy is now enhanced not just that which had direct contact with the Reapers.  Life has now truly ascended.  Beyond visual distinctiveness there should be some manner of other advancement seen.

Humans - Earth not only rebuilt but in a golden age
Asari - same as Earth
Turians - same as Earth
Salarians - Probably also in a Golden Age
Krogan - genophage cure being required for this ending...they are also in a golden age and Tuchanka is blooming.  All past transgressions are put aside.
Raloi - Perhaps mistrustful (if they are in the game) since they have been forcibly altered by Shepard.
Geth & Quarians - Rannoch is rebuilt and the joint Quarian/Geth society is ascendent.  Perhaps they are in a period of isolation or perhaps have fled the galaxy together.
Batarians - probably still rebuilding but better off than in any other scenario.  Perhaps we get a trip to Khar'Shan?

In all of the scenarios it is likely that we have moved beyond the use of Mass Effect Relays to explore the Galaxy in a wider and more flexible manner.

My hopes - choices mean something.  And endings mean something.  Far enough into the future and the differences even out...but there would be massive changes at least in dialogue if not the actual appearance of the game!

Welp

Rubicon - An under appreciated series

Rubicon, one of AMC's first generation of original series from 2010 was based around the political thrillers of the 1970's including "The Parallax View".  One of the many complaints about the series was a distinct lack of action.  The episodic arcs are punctuated by action...but sudden action.  There are no fight scenes, no struggles involving hand to hand combat.  In fact most *action* happens off screen.  The suspense is in the mundane.  Walking to work, office politics and general issues of trust and the human relationships.  The series is meant to address the issues of the feeding cycle of private and public and the use of intelligence for private profit reasons and the lengths that people will go to protect the moneyed interests.

Some thought the plot was slow to develop but to me the tediousness of the plot adds to the suspense and the sense of unease and stress.  The uncovering of a conspiracy is difficult and the series portrays the difficulties involved especially as part of a private contractor in the intelligence division.  The human relationship drama is the core of it all and the series concentrates on that.  There are no action heroes...that isn't this story.  The internal conflict and drama isn't overwrought like in shows such as SCANDAL and the like.

The personalities never quite get enough time to develop where the viewer is invested in the characters.  This is of course the horror of the mundane...fairly Kafkaesque with the frustrations of the analysis teams and the layers of bureaucracy and territorial gate keepers that frustrate and foil attempts at genuine good will and effort.

The show isn't tedious to me, rather it is deep and thoughtful.  I would say that most people don't have the attention span or curiosity intellectually to even desire to process all that goes on.  Most dramas are filled with actors being large hams (a la nicholas cage).  They are volatile, flawed in grossly obvious ways and have skills that accentuate their vulnerabilities.  In Rubicon the characters give off the initial appearance of being relatively well adjusted...slightly distracted but otherwise stable.  Sure they have some self-destructive tendencies (pomposity, drinking/drug related issues, social preoccupation, or lack of self confidence) but their redeeming qualities are also mundane.  They care about their jobs, they work hard and they suffer daily of the same agonizing things that are common to anyone else in a stressful occupation with failing relationships and they are consumed by it.  That same consumption is part of their internal drive to exceed and analyze.  They don't ham it up on screen.  There is some light situation comedy with the big boss having his smoke filter fan die so he has to crack a window.  Even the man at the top has his addiction that he needs to satisfy...his vulnerability.  Not much is made of it, but in the intelligence world personal habits are a good thing to catalog.

The show deserved a second season perhaps with the main character starting at the CIA or NSA proper as the head of some international desk.  The plot could have extended into international conglomerates and even more shadowy market manipulations.  The rabbit hole is lovely dark and deep...On top of it by the third season we could return to the good ole US of A for a look at election season politics and how that shows up in intelligence analysis.  Much could be made of think-tanks, NGO's (election observers) and various domestic extremists.

Sadly again this requires of the viewer a good attention span and focus.  The plots are thoughtful rather than overstated and the drama is written on the character's faces rather than spoken aloud.  It is about what goes unsaid more than what is said and I have a feeling that the show needed something more to hook the viewer.  The drama might have appeared to be too mundane or the cracks didn't show enough.  The truth is that people hide their cracks...even the most mentally disturbed people can put on a convincing facade for short periods so when someone in a drama melts down it makes no sense unless the pressure is immediate and acute.  And the realism behind Rubicon delivers too little in the way of hammed up drama because no one is passing the idiot ball.  Everyone is a rational actor and isn't screwing up left and right simply due to overwrought character flaws.

Shows like Revenge and Scandal are overwrought hammed up shows.  And we see they get many many seasons and people are engrossed in these fantastical characters.  Show them a real person with a deep and thoughtful personality (perhaps with a quirk of melancholy or pensiveness) and you get a shrug of apathy.  Quite sad.  Rubicon deserves another go now four years later.

Ann Coulter Misses The Point

Her new opinion piece HERE

Step 1) insist that raising the minimum wage will result in people being fired.
Step 2) Show lower unemployment in countries with higher minimum wages
Step 3) Ignore the whole velocity of money and marginal utilities ideas presented in econ 101
Step 4) Create Red Herring
Step 5) Scape Goat the Red Herring

Immigration policies are partly a red herring in terms of buying down the price of wages.  It is contributory but not solely responsible.  Oddly enough her friends over at the Chamber of Commerce are very very much for expanding permissive immigration/guest worker policies. (You don't say!)

Good Gravy In the Crimea

As many have seen in recent days the events surrounding the so-called protests in The Ukraine have continued to escalate though not in a linear fashion.  The West (EU/US/NATO) was engaging in a campaign of agents provocateur to bring into power a regime favorable to a NATO and EU alliance.

That evidence is in plain view via the diplomatic efforts of the USA including and living up to the trope of 'Cookie Pushing'.  Additionally the US ambassador (cookie pusher) also had a conversation leaked where she was discussing who among the opposition parties were most acceptable to the US/EU.  Well we all know 'acceptable' is code word for who can be most easily pressured or bought off.  Of course the media made a big ado about her other comment in that call, 'Fuck the EU'.  Well that was just her being candid about whose national interest was most at play here.  What upset the EU wasn't the comment but rather they probably thought the USA had at least some of their interest in mind and this revealed that it was clearly playing all sides against each other.

Russia on the other hand during most of this was hosting the Olympic Games.  So while the world was watching Putin began various staging maneuvers and then as quickly as he could inserted special forces into the Crimea as the Ukraine's government began to collapse.  Sevastopol is Russia's largest naval base in the area, the people are Russian speaking (so bet on them all getting Russian passports as a token/piece of propaganda) and though many favor an independent Crimea it is unlikely to happen.  Russia appears resurgent.

The United States, having destabilized Syria was attempting a similar method of attack in the Ukraine.  Much of this policy comes from white papers written by Susan Powers, Cass Sunstein and others like them.  All of these policies are underwritten By George Soros and the Tides Foundation at large as part of the 'Open Society' Project.  Of course in this society there is this philosophy of the 'Right to Protect' where Team America World Police is more of a reality than a comedy.  These same leftists who criticized G.W. Bush for his foreign excursions are simply continuing the same imperialist policies; albeit in a more nuanced fashion.

The Crimea is an important location both geographically and historically.  Geographically is it strategically located in the Black Sea and cordons off the Sea of Azov.  Its many excellent ports are dominated by the Russian Navy and up until quite recently Sevastopol was a closed city belonging to the Russians though inside Ukrainian lands.

UPDATE

Crimean citizens voted in a referendum over the weekend to become independent of The Ukraine and to join Russia by a staggering 96.8%.  This means a couple things.  First it further legitimizes Putin's push westward to reclaim former Soviet republics and secondly that EU/US/NATO policy is failing.  For good or ill the US has pushed a destabilization of the Ukraine in order to get them closer to the EU/NATO side.  Additionally covert/false flag operations inside Kiev resulted in the overthrow of current/former (depending on your POV) Yanukovych.  The people installed by the US/EU/NATO are now dealing with insurrection and the threat of invasion and annexation.  The United States will not stop Russia militarily.  

As a result of the Crimean referendum the US/EU have imposed travel sanctions against Russian officials.  Russia will likely respond with the same.  It is odd for a nation such as mine (the USA) to go out openly against a people deciding what nation they wish to be a part of.  Self-determination is a part of our culture and a part of the UN charter and one would think that we would be for a nation or a group of people to decide what political affiliation they want.  Instead we are installing puppet governments and opposing democratic movements world wide.

The question then becomes..not why because we know that there is some national interest driving this...but rather 'What is the national interest being so keenly hidden from the public that is driving this conflict?'.  When you have George Soros coming out and saying that the future of the EU depends on the Ukraine it is something special.  And more so...why is the EU in such dire need of expansion to include the Ukraine?

And here we get into some dark territory.  The Ukraine's economy is the size of the estimated fraud within the EU economy as it is so much larger.  The Ukraine has a precarious amount of debt that is cannot repay.  The real power struggle seems outlined HERE without the author really knowing it.  This is why George Soros is speaking out (or one of the reasons).  The other reasons have to do with natural gas/oil exploration and transportation in the region.  This has absolutely nothing to do with what is good for the people of the Ukraine on any side.  They are meat-sack numbers as a friend once told me.  That is how the government sees you and that is how they will treat you.   The Ukraine would be used as another location in the ever present race to the bottom in terms of labor pricing.  At the same time more immigration would happen in Europe as a search for more jobs would happen.  The flood of Ukrainians into Poland and Germany and nations farther west would begin to drive the price of labor lower for everyone.  The increased profits over time would flow upward and that is what Soros is after.  It is just more piracy.

The Ukrainians are pawns in an international banking scheme and Russia is simply trying to get a larger part of that scheme.  No one is a good guy here and it would be foolish to think so.  Is one evil better than than the other?  I for one don't like evil at all and the people of Crimea had a slim chance to choose neither.  Instead they chose to be closer to their historical and ethnic ties.  Only time will tell if that is preferable to real independence or partnership with the EU.