Visit to London

…at least on the big screen. I’ve been to the movies yesterday, watching the new “Sherlock Holmes” movie. And I do not regret a single cent I spent for it, seriously.

The new movie isn’t based on any of the original stories (but there’s a long tradition of that when it comes to Sherlock Holmes), but it nevertheless has a very interesting story that is told in marvellous pictures. From the very beginning, the story has a drive and lots of action.

But, unlike some other movies with a lot of action and marvellous pictures, the new Sherlock Holmes actually has a very interesting story to fill it all out. There’s fighting (a lot of it and usually close quarter combat), there are explosions, there are people risking their lives (and others suddenly ‘coming back’…), but there’s also a great mystery behind it all.

There are mysterious, maybe even supernatural things happening in London – and simply arresting the guy behind it all (or even hanging him) doesn’t stop it. (The catching and hanging happens, I would guess, within the first thirty minutes or so of the movie. The movie actually starts with the catching of the dangerous and mysterious Lord Blackwood.)

And, as if that wasn’t enough, Holmes does have quite different problems, as Watson has found a nice woman he wants to marry. (That part is, almost, completely within the traditional lore when it comes to Sherlock Holmes. Watson marries Mary Morstan whom he meets – unlike in the new movie – when she comes to consult Sherlock Holmes.) And Holmes doesn’t like the idea of it one bit (which will probably fire up the good old “Sherlock Holmes”-slash section on any fanfiction page) and does everything within his powers to prevent it from happening.

At the same time, though, an old flame appears again in his own life – Irene Adler, the only woman whose mind and resourcefulness is equal to his. In Doyle’s work, Irene Adler only appears once, in “A Scandal in Bohemia”, one of the earliest stories ever published. In movies, though, the only woman Holmes could fall for has played an important role before. She makes a wonderful opponent (together with Professor Moriarty who – surprise! – also appears) and in this movie quite a good cure for his problems with Watson (or rather his fiancé), too. Miss Adler surely isn’t one of your usual helpless females, either…

But she’s not the real adversary here, that’s Lord Blackwood, a man with powers beyond human knowledge (or so he claims). A dangerous man with great resources and a very clear vision of the future – in which the good old Empire comes back to life (including the United States, of course).

I was really caught in the story and love to think about the details again while I write this. A good sign for a movie. There’s quite a bit of humour there, too, a great balance to the action and the murders (oh, come on, a “Sherlock Holmes” movie without any corpses?). A lot of it stems from interactions between Holmes and Watson and Holmes and Adler. Let’s say some of it leads to a very bad awakening and a maid getting hysterics. (But the cushion has been placed very well, indeed.)

As someone who has read almost all “Sherlock Holmes” stories throughout her life (starting at the age of ten or so), I could recognize a lot of small details that had been taken from this or that story. This shows me the screenplay writer actually did a good job and quite some research before writing the script. Story itself, however, is original and not just put together from a lot of other stories.

So, would I recommend the movie to anyone else? Definitely. And you don’t even have to know anything about Mr. Holmes beforehand. Isn’t that nice?

Weekend Update

What? It’s already Saturday again? Wow, what a short week (despite shovelling snow). So, this is what I’m going to do this weekend:

• DVD to watch: probably “Hot Fuzz” once more (love that movie)
• Book to read: going through my “Myth-Adventures” collection (two heavy tomes)
• Game to play: “Nick Chase and the Deadly Diamond”

Maybe I’ll also be playing “The Sims 3” and I think about writing something about the development of adventure-games for computers.

Weekend Update

And here comes the weekend update for this week.

• DVD to watch: nothing really planned, but I’ll find something
• Book to read: “Cemetery Dance” by Lincoln and Child
• Game to play: “The Sims 3” probably

I just hope we don’t get any more snow next week.

News from my settlement

A long time ago (probably), I wrote the last post about “Anno.” It’s “Anno 1404” by now, the currently last part of the series.

Again, some things have changed, others have stayed the same. On the whole, I can’t say anything real bad about the new part. Nothing has gone from good to bad, only some things the other way around. The game still isn’t perfect – but which game is?

All pictures in this post were taken from the same game, although during various stages, so the settlement has developed in the meantime.

This is the very beginning of a settlement (well, not the ‘beginning’ beginning). We have a market place, a church and a couple of houses. The first citizens have already moved in as well.

Here the settlement has grown quite a bit already. You can see the pub in the middle of the picture and there’s another market place with a second church in the far right of it.

This is the view from the eastern farms (hemp production for clothes and ropes) towards another island. This island is inhabited by the representative of the emperor – he’s a nice guy, sells a lot of goods and also offers missions for more fame and various wares.

In the middle you can see the first houses inhabited by aristocrats, the highest level of settlers you can get. (It’s farmer, citizen, patrician, aristocrat.) I haven’t had many of them yet (and have a lot of development to do for my oriental settlement – you need one for several wares and products).

Still, with the rather early production of tools (you need tools and wood for basically every building in the game, later on also stone and glass), the game has become a little bit easier over time. In the first game of the series (“Anno 1604”), you could produce them very late in the game – and always buying tools is extremely expensive. This way, you might need to buy tools once or twice before you can produce them yourself.

“Anno 1404” is a very good game and fun to play. You don’t need to wage war on others to win and can build quite some interesting things. And managing two settlements now is actually quite interesting.

Avatar and no end

I was foolish enough to enter a discussion about the movie “Avatar” in my favourite forum. I have decided to drop out of it now – because especially one of the others who participate in it doesn’t seem to understand that it’s a difference between saying a movie has a weak story and lots of CGI and saying ‘CGI is evil’ as a rule.

I do like CGI and am fascinated by the many options for filmmakers. But I don’t like a movie that neglects the story for other factors (not just CGI, but also lots of mindless action sequences or famous actors). That’s my point of view which doesn’t seem to get through to this other fellow.

What I don’t like is hyping a movie with a weak, transparent story. It will lead to more movies of that kind – that’s what the past tells us. “Avatar” is such a case. It does have great graphics and overwhelming effects. But the story is obvious and transparent and the message is ancient as humanity. It is, basically, “Pocahontas” with lots of technology and without the good music from the Disney movie:

I do understand why some people might think it’s great. At a first look, the movie is interesting. There’s really a lot of effects and the story seems political. But what’s political about a message we’ve had over and over again in the past? ‘It’s wrong to fight a war against a seemingly weaker society for resources’ – especially when they could probably be obtained from other places, too. But that has happened oodles of times in the past. It was, perhaps, done to the Neanderthals. It surely was done to the Indians in America. It was done over and over again by European empires in Africa and South America. That doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t make a great and novel message for mankind, either.

The characters a one-dimensional, too. They fit with stereotypes and nothing they do is really surprising. The soldier who was turned into one of the aliens decides to fight for his ‘new’ world? Shocking, we’ve never seen that before. The ‘chieftain’s’ daughter falls for the stranger, even though her parents are against it, and helps him? I’ve never heard of that happening in the past. The seemingly weaker people win the war in the end? Has never happened before, has it? (Ewoks? I know no Ewoks…)

Still, as far as I am concerned, the discussion is over. I won’t enter into it again, I’ve got better things to write about. Check “Writer’s Blog” for a post about the “Royal Doll Orchestra” and Zombie-dolls.