#a big theme with casey is all these little and big injustices. how everything and everyone seemed to conspire against him

[batsplat]

literally nobody ever mentions that in uccio's crazy 2016 interview, you all know the one, he randomly brings in casey. like, marc he's got a feud with, maverick is valentino's next teammate, both those guys are in the question, what's casey got to do with it?

[aaronmaurer]

Movies I Liked in 2018

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

I may have seen more movies in theatres in 2018 than any other year of my life, thanks to MoviePass during its unsustainable height and now AMC’s A-List. Even so, aside from some genuinely classic new blockbusters, this year’s indie and prestige fare didn’t make as much of an impact on me as 2017’s offerings.

I typically rank 10 films, but this year, due to an abundance of parallels and no clear favorite, I decided to share my recommendations in pairs that might make some interesting Double Features.

Fresh Takes On History

The Favourite

A riveting and ribald take on the costume drama that brings English history to vibrant (and at times, anachronistic) life, The Favourite excels not just through its script and performances, but also through its unique cinematography, using wide lenses to capture entire rooms. The cast is all terrific, led by Emma Stone in arch mode, Rachel Weisz playing manipulative and commanding, and Olivia Coleman as a daffy and indecisive Queen Anne. It’s compelling stuff and far from the genre’s typically stuffy Oscar bait.

First Man

In the tradition of The Right Stuff’s auteur-driven impressionistic history of NASA’s beginnings, Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic eschews easy crowd-pleasing in favor of scenes that put the audience right inside the claustrophobic and frankly, terrifying, cockpits of the experimental airplanes and mission spacecraft that astronauts piloted. Armstrong was known as humble and reserved and Ryan Gosling does a great job of humanizing him with nuanced depth. Claire Foy is his captivating equal as wife Janet, left dealing with the homefront while her husband ventures into uncharted territory. As a sucker for movies about the space program (and a fan of Chazelle’s prior films), this was right up my alley, but I was unprepared for the sheer artistry and realism of the entire endeavor, including its hauntingly beautiful score and POV cinematography.

Gorgeous Cinematography and Radical Empathy

If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins’ adaption of James Baldwin’s novel is a feast for the eyes – stunning cinematography, costuming and production design combine to create one of the most vivid films of the year, justly earning its Wong Kar-wai comparisons. The plot bounces back and forth in time, revealing a love story of boundless promise that is interrupted by systemic injustice and institutional racism. Moments of beauty and hope are contrasted with the dehumanizing reality of a criminal justice system that seems to exist merely to beat those out of people. A harsh reminder of how little has changed since the book was written decades ago.

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón is a master filmmaker and his meditation on his own childhood in 1970s Mexico City is spellbinding. Shot in stunning black-and-white, the compositions and tracking shots employed present a uniquely realized sense of place. Although the film is available on Netflix, I had the opportunity to see it screened in 70mm film and highly recommend viewing on the largest screen possible to fully appreciate the beauty of its filmmaking. Of course, the visuals would be meaningless without a story to serve, and Roma showcases the daily life and sacrifices of an indigenous housekeeper to an upper-middle-class family, fully immersing the audience in her world in all its small pleasures and large heartbreaks. An indelible tribute to the incredible strength and selflessness of women and caretakers everywhere.

Marvel Superhero Domination

Black Panther

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continued to expand this year with Black Panther’s title film following the character’s debut in Captain America: Civil War. Look: you probably saw this movie. What is there to say? It’s very very good. The Afrofuturist art direction and costume design is absolutely fantastic. The CGI is kind of weak (my guess is most of Marvel’s resources were devoted to the next film on this list). It works as a stand-alone feature but still effectively ties into the greater MCU, and it serves as a glorious tribute to black excellence. ’Nuff said.  

Avengers: Infinity War

The payoff of a decade of interlocking films featuring dozens of characters could have been absolutely terrible. There are probably plenty of people who think Infinity War fits that description, but I am deeply impressed at how deftly the filmmakers handled everything, balancing a lot of plot with winning character moments. The fact that this movie is essentially a hero’s journey from the perspective of the villain is a clever upending of expectations and the ending (for now) is a pretty audacious move on Marvel’s part.

The Hollywood Machine at Its Best

A Star Is Born

The most compelling aspect of the latest rendition of A Star Is Born is the way director/star Bradley Cooper puts the audience in the middle of the action, allowing us to share the stage at giant music festivals, the Grammy Awards and Saturday Night Live, among other venues. It’s the most authentic concert film I’ve seen (probably helps that Live Nation co-produced it). The soundtrack is solid and Cooper and Lady Gaga are excellent in their roles, though I often felt at a remove from them, like watching a series of excellently curated vignettes without fully experiencing their inner worlds. So while I like this film a great deal (and it’s an example of what big studios can do best), it lacks the immediacy and intimacy of 2007’s much sparer indie Once, still my benchmark for “two-artists-making-a-connection-and-bringing-out-the-creative-best-in-each-other” stories (see also: La-La-Land).

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

There’s a mournfulness to the latest M:I (my favorite action franchise) that pervades the moments between breathless tension and pumping adrenaline. Though character development has never been central to this series, there’s a greater sense here of what Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has given up and the character’s inner goodness. Not wanting to sacrifice even the one innocent person for the sake of millions and willing to expend himself over and over, he is a classic Christ figure, kenosis personified. He may be a cipher, but we see the pain and weariness behind his eyes. Fallout is all the more powerful for it. Oh, and the helicopter chase (in IMAX!): that was badass.

Quirky Tales With Depth

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

As a collection of standalone Western-themed shorts (originally conceived as an anthology TV show), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs initially feels like a lesser Coen Brothers effort but proves to have a lot of staying power. Suffused with the standard Coen wit and moralistic existentialism, the chapters range from comedy to tragedy and all points in between with no shortage of idiosyncratic characters. The penultimate tale, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” is one of the strongest and most moving, with an ending that reveals itself to be more complex the more you reflect on it. While the vistas look great on the big screen, this is another Netflix production, so it’s easily accessible and revisitable from home.

The Old Man & the Gun

In the Old Man & the Gun director David Lowry pays homage to 70s-era caper films, putting Robert Redford’s infinite charisma to use in the role of a serial bank robber and prison escapee who could be a latter-day version of his character from The Sting. Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker, the film explores the tension of its protagonist’s draw toward heists and desire to settle down once and for all. The terrific supporting cast includes Sissy Spacek as Tucker’s love interest and Casey Affleck as the detective who puts the case together and becomes engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with him throughout the film.

Like Those? Here Are Some More Worth Your Time:

Innovative Animation - Isle of Dogs / Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

Family-Friendly Tributes to Decency - Won’t You Be My Neighbor? / Paddington 2

Environmentally-Conscious Indie Dramas - First Reformed / Leave No Trace

Explorations of Police Brutality Featuring Members of the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton - Monsters and Men / Blindspotting

[etechwire-blog]

Dragon Age 4: everything we know so far about the open secret of a sequel

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/dragon-age-4-everything-we-know-so-far-about-the-open-secret-of-a-sequel/

Dragon Age 4: everything we know so far about the open secret of a sequel

It’s now been more than three years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition and although we’re still squeezing fun out of the game, we think it’s pretty understandable that fans are getting somewhat inquisitive (sorry) with regards to when we’ll hear about the next game in the franchise. 

Even though we all knew, on some level, that there would definitely be another Dragon Age game, it was nice to have a confirmation from executive producer Mark Darrah. Whether it will actually be called Dragon Age 4 is up for debate –historical naming patterns in the series meaning it could really go either way – but we can still get excited.

Named or not, now that we know Dragon Age 4 is in the works we think it’s time to start keeping an eye on the latest news, and start building a picture of what the game might eventually look like. So we’ve put together this hub of news and rumors to keep you up to date on the latest news from Thedas. 

[Update: In a recent interview with Eurogamer, former Dragon Age boss Mike Laidlaw discussed the franchise and what he may have done differently with the last title: Dragon Age Inquisition. According to Laidlaw, when it was released, The Witcher 3 highlighted weaknesses in Inquisition and made him feel that his games was “a little hollow”.  With the benefit of hindsight, Laidlaw has said that  he’d “look closer to The Witcher 3” with relation to the game’s open world and story-heavy quests. 

With Laidlaw having moved on we can’t be sure these feelings will be carried over to the development of Dragon Age 4. However, it seems likely that Dragon Age fans would appreciate more depth in the game world they love.]

Cut to the chase

What is it? The fourth installment in the popular RPG franchise, Dragon Age

What can I play it on? Not confirmed but it’s likely to be Xbox One, PS4 and PC

When can I play it? It’s likely to be a couple of years away 

Release date

Despite the fact that the game’s development is currently a very open secret, Dragon Age 4 hasn’t actually been officially announced by BioWare. It’s hard, then, to say how far along the game’s development might be, and how close we might be to seeing it released. 

Back in May 2017, writer Alexis Kennedy revealed that he was working on a part of the game’s story in an interview with Eurogamer. This part of the story, he revealed, is “well-segregated from other parts of the game”. At this point in time, the game was still clearly in the very early stages of development. 

However, with a recent report from Kotaku suggesting that some of the Dragon Age development team has been pulled off the title to focus on creating Anthem, we think it’s likely to be a while before we hear anything concrete about Dragon Age 4’s release date.  

News and rumors

Roundabout confirmations

Regardless of whether or not BioWare had confirmed it, Dragon Age fans were pretty certain that another game was going to be in the works. Partly because they had faith in the power of their sheer force of will and partly because over the last couple of years there have been hints from BioWare that something would indeed be happening. It’s the secret that was never really a secret. 

The most recent non-official confirmation has come from executive producer Mark Darrah, who tweeted in January 2018 that he’s working on both Dragon Age as well as BioWare’s next big IP, Anthem. 

Halfway through my trip to Barcelona!I’m here showing Anthem internally to EA. I am EP of BOTH DA and Anthem working with @Bio_Warner as Game DirectorAnthem’s up next but there are people hard at work on both franchises and I look forward to sharing more in the futureJanuary 24, 2018

Though he’s now left the company, BioWare veteran Mike Laidlaw was tweeting that there was still another couple of games in Dragon Age series yet back in mid-2017. Even before that, Alexis Kennedy became the writer that launched a thousand headlines after comments he made in an interview with Eurogamer were taken as a semi-official confirmation of the game’s existence and his place in it. 

There is no planned ending for DA. There is an evolving plan that tends to look 2 games ahead or so. https://t.co/6Tp1lP6d5GAugust 8, 2017

In the interview Kennedy teased that he’s been “given considerable autonomy to work on a storyline bit of lore which is well-segregated from other parts of the game.“ 

”I don’t want to exaggerate the degree of the chunk [I’m writing],“ Kennedy he was at pains to add. ”It’s nothing that grandiose, but it is distinct. It’s a bit of lore which has not been addressed much to date in Dragon Age.“

Story and character

Every game in the Dragon Age franchise has had a heavy emphasis on story and character and fans will be glad to know that Dragon Age 4 isn’t likely to be any different.

After Mark Darrah tweeted that he was working on the game, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson chipped in with his own elaborative tweet. In this tweet he said it was “too early to talk details” but the game would be “story & character focused.”

Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on. Story & character focused.Too early to talk details, but when we talk about “live” it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.January 25, 2018

It’s not clear whether this will be a brand new standalone game or whether it’ll continue on directly from Inquisition. Certainly, the end of Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC suggests there is a story thread to follow with Solas, which would see the Inquisitor chase the elf down to stop his plans. 

We already know there are writers working on lore and side quests, following Alexis Kennedy’s interview with Eurogamer in 2017 in which he confirmed he was working on a part of the game that’s “well-segregated” from the rest and focuses on some lore that’s not been widely addressed. 

Kennedy, who has worked on titles such as Sunless Sea and Fallen London, said the subject matter would not be surprising to those familiar with his work. To us this implies that his quest (or quests) will include thoughtful choices, themes of tragic love and desire and an underlying sense of unease. 

New live elements

In the January 2018 Kotaku report on Anthem and Dragon Age, it was mentioned that sources had informed Kotaku that Dragon Age had been “rebooted” in order to implement more “live elements” into the game.

Naturally, there was some fan panic in response to this given EA’s increasing penchant for service-based games. Fans expressed concern that BioWare was going to take the Dragon Age series down a Destiny 2, always-online multiplayer route. 

That doesn’t appear to be the case, however. In his tweet, Casey Hudson also stated that the “live” elements being considered are actually ways of continuing the game’s story after the main story has been completed. This is something we’ve already seen in games such as Assassin’s Creed Origins. 

Things we’d like to see

A world like Dragon Age: Inquisition

We hope that the next Dragon Age game has a map similar to the one in Dragon Age: Inquisition, by which we mean we hope it’s big and open without being overwhelming. It was the perfect follow-up to the closed and repetitive maps of Dragon Age 2 and we’d like this approach to continue. 

Explore more of Thedas

There’s one very notable part of Thedas that players have yet to be allowed to explore and that’s the Tevinter Imperium. Once the most powerful nation in Thedas, the Imperium is a shadow of its former self. Its history, stratified social structure and maintenance of a magocracy would make it an immensely interesting and different part of Thedas to allow players to explore, while allowing the franchise to continue to explore themes of social injustice, power and prejudice.  

The fact that the area is references throughout other Dragon Age games is enough to make us think it’s a viable setting for Dragon Age 4. However, the ending of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC makes us think it even more likely, as it sees the Inquisitor stab a dagger into a map of the Imperium with a vow to track down Solas.

Solve that cliffhanger

Our previous point brings us to this one – we’d really like that Solas storyline to continue to be explored. He’s the perfect focus for the next game and the player’s approach to him is the perfect narrative crux.