God of War

Zeus, Cerberus, minotaurs, cyklopeses, the Sisters of Fate etc. Do these ring a bell? Of course they do, they are all found in Greek mythology. I really love mythology especially the Greek because it has everything you need to tell really nice stories: creatures, heroes, gods, titans etc. We seen these in quite few movies too. I was often thinking about it what if they were real. What if there was a realm where this is all as real as breathing?

Movies can’t really give this feeling back but games can. Since I am a fan of mythology and a gamer this would have been The Game for me. Then in 2005 a game came out with the title God of War. It was a playstation 2 exclusive so I didn’t know about it because back than I didn’t have a PS2. I got one for Christmas and I also bought this game about a month ago.

A game which plays in ancient Greece is expected to have a classical hero like Hercules. But he isn’t who this story is about. We control a guy named Kratos (picture on the right), who is not a hero at all. He is not driven by valor but by rage, a rage which can be described the best as capable to destroy Olympus.

The story of Kratos begins in Sparta. He was the youngest and boldest captain of the Spartan army. Thousands followed him, entire cities fall before him. Until a fateful day which will change him forever. During a fight his army met an enemy they could not defeat. His men were being slayed and his own life was in danger. In this moment he made a mistake that will haunt him. He called out for help to Ares (God of war in Greek mythology) to destroy his enemy and for doing so he will serve him. The sky split in two and Ares stepped through destroying the enemy of Sparta.

The Blades of Chaos were attached to Karatos’ body (picture on the right) and he became a servant of Ares. For 10 years he has served him, his humanity robbed he became nearly Death itself. Ares made him kill his own family which is the turning point in the whole story and the source of Kratos’ rage. From this moment on he lives for revenge. He will kill the god of war.
Athens was under siege by the army of Ares and Athena (God of wisdom and Athens godess) offered a deal to Kratos. His sins will be forgiven if he is to destroy Ares. This is about the prologue, the rest is up to you to discover.

In the journey that follows you will meet classic Greek mythological creatures, some of the gods, and can explore amazing environments. The story itself is also really nice. The creative team of the game did really a remarkable job. God of War is one of the best action-adventure games of all time. It features an unique fighting system great music and voices. What I like about it is it’s duality, it’s a hack’n’slash game but also has nice puzzles.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if there will be a God of War movie soon.

What stays forever

There are always things in one’s life that will stay with him or her forever. It just so happens that it is different, it is special, and it has that little something. It’s like falling in love in a way. I think you all know what I’m talking about. Probably there are also some images flashing before your eyes. There you are, again, reliving that moment…it’s really nice isn’t it? I had one of these moments lately too. It can be caused by many things, for example by this dejavu feeling, I think we are all familiar with it, or a movie and the list could go on much further. For me lately it was called forth by a movie.

I was watching videos on YouTube and I bumped into a video of Lion King 2 with a really nice song. I loved the first one. When I was a child we went to the cinema to watch it about 4-5 times. It’s one of the kind of films that change who you are. Since then I was waiting for a sequel. It came in ’98 but somehow I missed it and slowly forgot all about it. Until that very day, that’s almost 14 years! Wow, I never really realised it’s been THIS long. So I decided to watch it, I sort of owned that to my little self.

There is something about sequels, the succession of them is for me somehow measurable in absolutes. They are whether great or a piece of garbage. I experienced both, actually in the same movie franchise, Spider-man. You know: first one great, second even better, third disappointment. Since I love both Spider-man and The Lion King very much I had this “what if it happens again?” feeling in me. Well I simply had to take a shot.

On Saturday I got the movie, and finally watched it. I’m not going to write about what happened in it because you all have probably seen it, or would like to. It’s really a great movie, a sequel definitely worth watching. I was invited of a little time trip: to my childhood, and to a time when there were nice animated films, like this one, not just these CG garbage movies we got to see nowadays. I really miss those “good old days”.

What if we are the last to survive?

Just imagine, the whole population of Earth is wiped out and you are the last person who somehow survived. This is what I am legend is about.

But first just think about the situation itself for a minute…everyone in the whole world (!), everyone who you have ever known is dead, but for some reason you are still alive and alone, as alone as you can be, literally. Pretty brutal picture isn’t it? I don’t think that even one person on Earth would manage to cope with this.
When I first heard about this film I was thinking about what could lead to such a disaster. We get the answer for it in the first few minutes of the movie. It was a virus, a virus called the KV (Krippin Virus). Dr Krippin was the person who found the cure cancer by manipulating a deadly virus. She described it with a very interesting example: “if we see our body as a highway and a bad person is driving very fast on it causes very much damage. But if we replace that driver with a cop we get the complete opposite result”.
So basically this is it, the cure for cancer is a manipulated virus…well I think it’s pretty obvious what followed. The virus began to evolve and killed 5.8 billion (!!) of Earth’s population. The rest became some kind of mutated beasts and also the animals, they are sensible to light and these things, I can’t really call them persons anymore, eaten up every survivor of the KV.
The films shows the life of the last survivor who is played by Will Smith. He was a colonel in the US army his family was killed during the evacuation of New York. He tried to do everything to get things under control. Actually he still does, he is looking for a cure no matter what. He is experimenting on mutated rats even though more than 3 years have past since the disaster, even though he knows he is the last survivor of KV.
The really touching and undoubtedly human act from him was to put manikins everywhere and to do as if nothing has happened. This is just a perfect example of what each and everyone of us would have done. Everything…simply everything just NOT to be alone.
He has his daughter’s dog with him and they are like brothers in arms, I think this is what describes their relation the best. I think the most touching scene is when his dog dies because she has protected him and after that he goes to a video lender and says to a manikin “ I promised to a friend I would say hello to you, hello…please say hello to me…please say hello…”. He played a role play before this everyday with that manikin, as if that thing were a real woman and he liked her but was only to shy to make the next step, but he promised Sam (the dog) he would do it tomorrow. I can’t find the words for this scene…it was simply devastating. So powerful that you could really relate to that character.
Will Smith did a remarkable job with this movie too. Everyone who hasn’t seen it yet and are interested in the topic should go see it. In the end we also get to understand why the title is what it is.

When our favurites are replaced

Recently I was reading Ultimate Spider-man from issue 101-117 and I love the artwork what Mark Bagley did, but 110 was his last issue, from that a new artist started to do the drawing. It was a certain type of feeling that I felt, a kind of mix to tell the truth. I was a bit disappointed because I loved Bagley's work but I also understood that it was his choice to leave the series and that has to be respected. I also was excited what the new pencilist (Stuart Imonnen), will bring to the series. And I have to admit I am statisfied with his work, he did a really good job. He kind of gave the series a new style, recreated the old charachters in a way the even I, a big fan of Bagley, am pleased with.
I began with this story to introduce the situation what my second entry is about. We all know this: in a series one or more of our favourites have been replaced. This can be either another person or if it's a TV series it can be another actor, or just another's voice. In the case I have described earlier I had been through this with a positive ending. But this is not always the case. Sometimes we get about just the opposite of it and it can be really annoying.
I also posted a picture which shows the artworks of both artists who I wrote about. These are the drawings of both artists of Peter Parker and Spider-man.
So I am really interested what you think about this phenomena, enjoy and comment ;)