The PtP Hall of Fames haven’t exactly been punctual lately…except this one. Before we get to inducting this weeks indisputable picks, (seriously, argue these picks and I’ll be at your house issuing out curb stompings) I want to say congrats to our writers…we had this puppy written by Tuesday…a new record! At any rate, this week Pat prepares for an isometrically viewed war between the Terrans, the Protoss, and the Zerg, only to find out what happens when he can’t afford to produce more units 'cause he ran out of resources; Dabs tears up as he says goodbye to Optimus Prime and Megatron, but finds some comfort in the voices of Leonard Nemoy and the guy from Unsolved Mysteries; Anthony says fuck books and inducts our first TV show, complete with questioning incest, banana stand economics, the importance of segways, and the hilarity of model homes; lastly I ramble on to no end about my favorite album of all time…it’s a good week.
Game: StarCraftIt wasn’t the first real-time strategy game. In fact the parent company of StarCraft released two versions of another popular RTS (WarCraft) before this masterpiece hit the shelves. This game continues to be, even 12 years after it was released (that’s right twelve), one of the most actively played strategy games.
Blizzard has always made creating a top notch game their number one priority. To hell with deadlines or when marketing says the title has to launch; if Blizzard says it’s not ready yet… better sit yourself down and find something else to occupy yourself for the next two years, at a minimum. This requirement for perfection in their games however has created titles that have never disappointed in any aspect of the game, be it the gameplay itself, the cinematics, or the storyline. Each element seems to flow with an artistry and a passion that is unparalleled in the video game industry.
StarCraft’s strength is in its balance. A game comprised of three races battling each other would be just another game with the fatal flaw that there is one specific way to win if you do this list or follow this formula, then you can’t lose. That doesn’t work with StarCraft. You think you can rush someone with a bunch or zerglings and BAM you get F’d by some SCV or worse some Zealot. The tables turn and now you have to go on the defensive. There is no clear cut way to victory in the multiplayer arena though there are definitely strategies that will work much better than others. That is the brilliance of the game, in that it doesn’t matter what you play as or who you face whatever the situation there is a method or a strategy to counter each the other players moves. That is a rare quality in games today.
The single player campaign is also very well put together with a storyline that is enjoyable to follow. Forcing the player to use each race throughout the game creates a certain attachment to each race and gives you an exposure that no doubt will be useful in the coming multitude of multiplayer experiences.
StarCraft is ultimately still the champion in real-time strategy gaming. While there be many vying for the throne I don’t think we will see that happen until Blizzard finally decides to unleash the sequel to this masterpiece.
-Pat
The Movie: Transformers The Movie (1986)Back before Michael Bay and Stephen Spielberg got their hands on the Hasbro goldmine, their was the true battle between the Autobots and Decepticons.
It is because of this movie that I watched the new movie, anticipating seeing my favorite robots in disguise recreated in digital beauty. The new movie was good, but without this classic it is nothing. The stellar cast of Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod...the list goes on...is enough to make a grown man drool. This was a true battle between good, evil and even more evil (Orson Welles amazingly voiced Unicron).
Watching this movie recently with a friend we found ourselves amazed at the attention to detail in the animation. Sure it isn't Wall-E, but it blows most modern cartoons out of the water and doesn't feel forced.
And the story is amazing. Prime overcomes his arch-nemesis, Megatron, but dies in the process, and Unicron threatens to eat all planets. All in a couple hours. How cool is that? Damn cool, that's how cool it is.
The movie is a cultural icon. To try and explain it any further would just be reinventing the wheel.
We watch Bay's Transformers looking for references to the original (the transforming sound, "more than meets the eye") or at least those of us that are geeky enough to sing the song "you got the touch....you got the powwwerr" in the shower.
So honestly, have some 80's pride. If you haven't seen this crawl out of your hermit hole and watch it. The only risk you run is you'll like it more than the new films.
-Dabs
The Television Show: Arrested DevelopmentYa, that’s right, we watch some TV at PtP. I’ve made a huge mistake in not inducting this sooner. Fox’s cure for the stale, laugh-tracked, studio audienced sit-com lasted three progressively shorter seasons. The show racked up the awards, but it was not clear if anyone was watching besides the critics. The show is about the dysfunctional Bluth family, a stalwart in the pre-fab home industry, as they try to stay afloat as their father and CEO of the company is imprisoned for various crimes that seem to pile up as the seasons rolled on. The show’s strength was it’s self referential comedy, and layered humor that became increasingly hilarious after repeated viewings. The cast was fantastic, with Jason Bateman’s Michael Bluth at the heart of the show. The standouts were certainly the nervous George Michael (Michael Cera, perfecting his stuttering-shy comedy brilliance), the impossibly self-important G.O.B. (Will Arnett), and the impossibly, um, gay Tobias (David Cross). There are countless moments to mention that combined to make this one of the greatest TV series I’ve ever seen, but this is a show to be seen in it’s entirety. Although a shortened final season after cancellation forced the final episodes to rush to a conclusion, the story arc works fantastically and seemed to be planned in it’s entirety from the show’s inception. Do yourself a favor and watch this show. All of it.
-Anthony
The Album: Tommy by The Who(I placed the album induction at the bottom this week, because to do it justice, it needed to be a long write up…my induction next week will be shorter, I promise)
For me, the truly memorable albums are the ones that are almost a rite of passage; the ones that take several play-throughs to fully enjoy…the ones that demand you claw through lyrics…the ones that make you question what the band was going through at the time…the ones require your full attention to understand it. I want an album to be more than ambient background noise on long drives, it needs to be something complex that I can dive into; layers upon layers of sound coupled with poignant lyrics. I have a handful of albums that fit these criteria...undoubtedly Tommy is one of them.
Released in 1969, the landmark concept album was the first in existence to be dubbed a rock opera. While concept albums have the difficult task of revolving around a particular theme or sound (Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon for example), rock operas are far more complex in that they need to relay a story…easier said than done. Without question the inception of rock operas have led to the most pretentious, overblown albums in history; most aren’t even worth the plastic their packaged in. What all rock operas have in common, even the bad ones, is that they look to Tommy for inspiration, an unattainable meter that has never been matched…and never will.
Gargantuan in scope, the double album Tommy marked a departure from The Who’s early sound; whereas previous albums used distortion and screams to convey their proto-punk angst, Tommy is musically more laid back, allowing the story Tommy Walker to serve as a vehicle for their aggression. If previous albums were an attack on society (My Generation for example) than Tommy was their gentle silence before a nuclear Armageddon, nothing was safe…nothing. Despite sounding fairly upbeat, the album is incredibly dark. Benign compared to today’s music, Tommy was so controversial at the time that it was banned by the several US radio stations as well the BBC.
Tommy revolves around the story of a young boy, who after witnessing a violent feud between his mother's lover and his long lost father, experiences a psychological breakdown stripping him of his ability to speak, hear, and see. Throughout the album, Tommy’s family pursues various attempts to restore his senses, and all the while the boy is subject to various ills of society: radical evangelicalism, drug experimentation, torture, and molestation. In the end, through Pinball, Tommy regains his senses and embarks on a messiah-like journey.
I cannot stress enough how brilliant this album is. Standout tracks have always been Amazing Journey, Pinball Wizard, I’m Free, and We’re Not Gonna Take It, but in all actually, the greatness of these individual songs is lost when listened to out of context. Tommy is in my opinion The Who’s swansong; an album that stands toe to toe with Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds as one of the most influential in rock music. It needs to be listened to from start to finish…it needs several playthoughs…it needs to be accompanied with a lyric sheet…it needed to be inducted…my work here is done.
-Matt
Ya worst thing that could have happened to transformers franchise. Lets throw out some rocking new style 80's tunes and kill the majority of the characters that built this series... and just to challenge ourselves, lets do it in the first 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteSeriously i know Hollywood wanted to attach some big names to the flick to attract a more mainstream audience. But i thought a liberal art critic like Dabs would have more respect for a series that nearly met its death due to Hollywood's Pussification of Transformers.
Thank god for Michael Bay finding finding the true voice for Optimus Prime. The original Megatron would have been cool tho too, unfortunately Star Scream just sounded real gay but it would have been a real throw back.
If you want true transformers go back to the orignal episode 1. It is still my fav and just really has everything the series really stood for.
Here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ16d-qpBEE
I don't have time to describe how wrong you are.
ReplyDeleteI say we settle this the old fashioned way.
ReplyDelete"One shall stand, one shall fall."
I'm actually a huge fan of that old Transformers movie. Its pretty fucking ballsy to kill off a bunch of main characters from a TV in the first 10 minutes of a movie, never mind a fucking movie made for children. Just the number of robots killed off in that first fight on the ship is ridiculous. Yes, a ton of loving that movie is how many times I watched it as a kid but it still stands up. Cheesy music aside (and actually most of the time the music stands up too because its a fucking kids movie, or maybe you were expecting something awesome like the super-shitty song at the end of the newer Transformers movie-which Megan Fox was the only good part of) the movie is very well done. Also, first swear word I ever heard in a movie: "Damn it, open!" It has to be taken into context that, for the type of movie that it is, its phenomenal. As a kid, it was traumatizing and made me think of things I never needed to watching GI Joe, He-man (which, upon review earlier this year, was just so absolutely bad I was embarassed I even watched it when I was younger) and yes, the show was amazing but I fail to see how making a film that wasn't a cookie-cutter approximation of what Transformer fans were expecting (the new fucking Transformers movie, for instance) and being ballsy and creative and going out on a limb and doing things that no one else in the medium of childrens movies were doing at the time makes it well worth anyones time. Nostalgia plays a huge part and, though I like them, the songs can be debated as overly cheesy, its a great pick. Stands up much better than any other movie of its type.
ReplyDeleteAnd realy, why does anyone even watch the new Transformers movie? Any Transformers fan who a)sites that as a better film than the cartoon one or, b) even uses it in a discussion about Transformers (except to site it as a completely seperate entity because it does not do any kind of justice to the cartoon or a true Transformers fan shouldn't even be listened to.
Really, does Optimus Prime need a motherfucking MOUTH?? Who made that deicision. An absolutely pointless, corny, bullshit change. He always has his battle mask. And bumblebee can't speak now? And why the FUCK the Autobots trample the shit out of that dudes yard instead of transforming into cars and pakring on the goddamn street. Aside from the Dinobots, I never got any indication that any of the Transformers were fucking retarded. Michael Bay will have to show me where he picked up that tidbit.
And for killing off characters, both did in Jazz. So whatever. That movie doesn't even deserve to have the word Transformers in its title. Piece of shit compared to the brilliance and expectation shattering of the cartoon. Hot Rod and Cup as the Main-Fucking-Characters. Bad guys got transformed. We find out megatron is actually kind of a pussy without someone guiding him, starscream gets a much needed revamp, and, I must stress again, the killing off of main characters in a childrens movie is the coolest thing thats ever happened. Ever. And RC is still kind of cute. I could really go on and on about this and how deep some of the themes in this movie went and how dark it was for a kids movie but that might be for another time. Maybe I'll get a guest post and write an essay on the absolute brilliance of this fim. You guys should really let me do that. I have lots of ideas. Mike gets the Matrix.
Man, the animation in that movie is just incredible.
ReplyDeleteExcuse the typos. I was writing this really quickly before work and my emotions were getting the best of me. It just poured out.
To say that is was ballsy to kill of the main characters in a children's movie is ballsy like this one is really naive. Everyone knows the only reason they were killed off was so that you could have big name actors at the time doing the voices so you would have something on the movie poster. I mean it was either throw Leonard Nimoy, Orson Welles and even throw in Judd Nelson as well as Robert Stack for back in that day.
ReplyDeleteIt was easy to toss the likes of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker to the side cause who really knew them or knows them. The kids sure as hell didn't care who the man behind the voice was or the acting repertoire that they had developed.
The movie was junk. Was it good VS evil, yes. Did they sell out (or tried to sell out) the series for dollars?... Yes.
You wanna talk about something that takes your childhood dreams of your fav series and crushes it; take that piece of crap as exhibit A.
Micheal Does one thing well and that is make things explode. Not saying that the new Transformers was amazing, other than Megan Fox's amazing figure, but really it was a hell of a lot better than some revamps of old cartoon movies. Case in point, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
And don't get all upset cause Linkin Park was the poster child for this flick cause they weren't promoting homo-erotic touching as the previous film did. I think i just found the cause of the AIDs outbreak in the 80's... Transformer's: The Movie with their song "The Touch".
Your right about one thing though the animation wasn't that bad. And Optimus with the whole mouth moving also doesn't make sense to me, what the hell is going on inside there... just a bunch of metal rotation? What gives?
I can't believe you have a problem with homo-erotic touching in a children's movie. Right up there with this film in things that shaped my childhood.
ReplyDeleteAnd, c'mon, its way ballsy to kill off characters in a kids movie. I cried when some of those robots died when I first watched it (and I went down to the video store at the bottom of Oak St. every week with my parents when I was younger and literally rented this every other week). What age were you people when you saw this? And I feel like you all have some kind of serious problem with them getting perfectly credible big-name actors for a BIG-SCREEN version of a kids cartoon. They didn't fucking pick Suzanne Summers and John Travolta. Eric Idle, Robert Stack and Orsen Welles in his LAST ever movie. How DARE they want big(good) actors in place of minor-major characters and no one, NO ONE, can say that killing off Optimus fucking Prime in the first 30 minutes of the movie wasnt ballsy, no matter what they think of the movie. Bad decision or not, it took balls. I can't beleive this is getting more shit than Star Trek 6.
Hey, have you guys seen Lethal Weapon 4?
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I think the big thing we're missing here is context.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I've been able to tell, the big beef with the Transformers animated movie is that it was homo-erotic, particularly in reference to the soundtrack. It was the '80s. Look at other cartoon contemporaries--He-Man was a guy in bondage gear with a bowl cut--but we loved him anyway. Popular music of the time featured dudes with long hair and tight pants gyrating their pelvises back to back while playing guitar. No one said that "The Touch" was an amazing gem on the soundtrack to the movie. Just as I fail to see an argument for how good a selection "What I've Done" was as a featured track for the new Transformers movie.
Questionable music selection aside, the animated movie took our Saturday morning cartoon, removed the cornball voice acting by hiring legitimate actors, and decidedly went out on a limb by taking a darker approach to what could've been a cookie-cutter heroes beat villains unscathed story.
Instead, let's kill off half of the heroes--notably the most beloved character in the franchise, Optimus Prime--while any villain deaths are nullified as they're brought back to life stronger than before by an even greater evil. Oh, and just to spice it up, let's say "shit" in a kid's movie... not once, but twice. How is that not a ballsy move? You're introducing young minds to some harsh realities of the real world in a medium that's palatable to them. "Hey kids, sometimes life sucks and people you care about will die." The biggest life lessons that were tackled by cartoons and kid's movies of the day were "obey the golden rule" and "don't drink things under the sink."
On top of that, you can take this movie for its pure aesthetic appeal. The level of detail is pretty unreal, and at the time, was fairly jarring to American audiences. I'd be willing to trade generic movie explosions for impressive hand-drawn images any day. But hey, let's continue to fetishize mindless pyrotechnics in movies until plot becomes a total thing of the past.
Maybe you guys forgot the point that you all sold out to the man on this one to back the big names just cause it would draw the crowds. Really i think its cool that Welles was in the flick but to kill off the other characters wasn't ballsy it was reckless and purely motivated by marketing.
ReplyDeleteAnimation was sick i have to admit that, and its nice that we started introducing our kids to the realities of life... talking robots aside.
And really if your trying to use transformers as a example of plot, even with the "The Movie" that's a stretch. Love the franchise but it serves the purpose of entertainment, if i want enlightenment i think i'll start somewhere else.
I go away for one weekend and I come back to this...a civil war over the hall of fame...I love it! Here's my two cents worth:
ReplyDeleteIS THE MOVIE HOMO EROTIC? Yes, but you will struggle to find any 80's movie that isn't at least a four on the Kinsey Scale. Yeah, watching this film made me want to close my door so the world didn't think I was parading around my room in drag or something...I probably was, but thats besides the point.
IS THE STORY AMAZING? Fuck no. If we at PtP inducted every competant good vs. evil film that rips off Star Wars we would never get a rest from writing HoH posts. We'd be doing them everyday and I struggle to keep up with the once-a-week inductions...so does Anthony...Let's not kid ourselves, the story is fairly generic...nothing new to be found here.
IS THIS FILM A WORK OF BRILLIANCE? Yes and no. Is is cinematic brilliance...hell no. B&M could write 50 guest articles and I'd laugh at all of them and their delusional sense that this movie is a work of divine inspiration. Where the film is brilliant is what we don't see: off-screen. It is brilliant in the sense that McDonald's is brilliant. Yeah, the substance isn't anything to write home about but the process involved in amazing. Both are testaments to capitalism
IS IT BALLSY TO KILL OFF THE MAIN CHARACTESRS? Certainly! That was a huuuuuuge marketing risk...killing off signature characters for new ones. In 10 minutes your favorites kicked the bucket...ballsy as hell. Now lets not look too much into this. Is it an important tool to teach kids about death as someone suggested? Are you fucking crazy?! Plenty of kids movies have death in the story; its not that amazing that transformers did it too. You wanna teach kids about death, get them a fucking goldfish...the stupidity of that statment pissed me off for atleast 30 minutes.
IS IT VISUALLY STUNNING? No arguments here. The animation is amazing. I wouldn't get to caught up in visuals, however...can't induct movies just because they are pretty.
DID I LIKE THIS FILM? I fucking hated it as a kid and after recently watching it, I fucking hate it now. Simple as that.
DOES THIS FILM DESERVE TO BE INDUCTED? I see quite a lot of hostility towards this induction, but that does little more than suggest its controversial. In the end, I'm going to defend it. While it's lacking in a lot of areas and is a film I would never want to watch again, I think we can at least agree it is important to the genre of animated movies...a crucial part of film that has been criminally neglected up until this point. I mean c'mon, it's an important piece of 80's nostalgia that has pop culture significance and has played a historical role in animated movies. By not allowing this flick to be inducted we are really putting ourselves in a bind as far as standards go. I we can't have Transformers, can we have Disney flicks? Snow White has to be inducted someday. Can we have the Breakfast Club? It's laughably 80's but important none the less. What about the Ninja Turtles? Obviously a marketing tool but certainly HoF material. In the films defense, i did legitimize childrens TV shows being adapted to the big screen. It wasn't the first to do it, but one could easily argue it had never been done to this scope. Look at the voice actors involved. Was there ever a children's move that attracted so many stars before it? I would guess no. In a sense it really set the stage for what is going on with CG flicks today: big name actors being drawn to voice children's movies. Despite being a movie just for hardcore Transformers fans, theres more here than meets the eye (God that was fucking campy), but you you have to go digging for it.
Dabs, I fucking hated this film, but I'll stand by you in defending it. Suck on that
I like that Matt broke the Lincoln vs. Sanford battle that happens with nearly every induction. He's joining us.
ReplyDeleteAlso think it's a shame that because Transformers created such a hullaballoo no one could say:
"Wow, Tommy is fucking amazing, good pick."
gotta bust up the factions when I can...I'm just upset that this entire debate brought about no Anthony bashing...
ReplyDeleteSo everyone is in agreement that the animation in Transformers is great? Really? So, like when a van drives by you guys with a painting of the wizard you guys must be amazed.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the fact that this is a product of the 80's is an indictment, not an excuse for the animation, theme, music, and story... if we could nuke time periods, I'd nuke the 80's. I'm the only good thing to come out of the 80's