Thursday, December 20, 2007

News and Notes

First up, the required Rock Band discussion. Justin came to town on Sunday, and gave me what is perhaps the best Christmas gift ever: a second Rock Band guitar. It was incredibly timely as well, since the down strum on my existing guitar had started to get spotty. Up strum still worked great, which is just perfect for a bassist. After rocking a bit of two player band world tour mode, we hopped online with me on bass and him on lead guitar. Tons of fun, I must say, since there was some guy (or gal, although the avatar was male) playing expert drums. INSANE.

Given the aforementioned trouble I was having with my initial guitar, I RMA'ed it. I opted for the express delivery, which meant EA shipped out a replacement via two day air, and all I had to do was put the borked guitar in that box and ship it back at no charge to me. The new guitar arrived on Wednesday, which was just in time to get the crew together for some four player action. Holy shit that was awesome. Playing online with other people is great, but when you have four people in the same room rocking the entire house, there's nothing else like it. I can't wait to do it again.

Before we rocked out last night, a bunch of us went to see I Am Legend. I've never read the book of the same name that inspired it and the first two film adaptations, The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man. I did see The Omega Man, and my primary beef with that film was the savior angle it adopted at the end that seemed completely tacked on and unnecessary. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that the book pitted Robert Neville, the sole survivor of the apocalypse, against a legion of vampire-like creatures. As Neville hunted the vampires during the day and killed them while they slept, he was unaware that some of them were still human. He eventually learned he was killing still living people along with the undead, and after they attacked and executed him, he became legend as the vampires once were.

I think that's a fantastic premise for a film, but apparently today's movie-going audience is either too stupid or too Jesus happy to accept such a deep and haunting ending like that. Like The Omega Man before it, I Am Legend derails into a sappy, shoe-horned savior ending that had me shaking my head in disgust. Here was a film that had so many elements of the book: viral infection that caused worldwide devastation, vampire-like monsters, feelings of isolation and despair, and a canine companion. It also had Will Smith, who is tremendously entertaining to watch, some great music (Neville has an obsession with Bob Marley), an unexpected twist in the middle followed by an emotional gut-punch (honestly, there might have been tears), and a number of very impressive CG shots of a completely deserted New York City. It had a lot of things going for it, and then tossed it all away to give us hope that if a viral infection ever does wipe out humanity, someone like Robert Neville will be guided by God to find a cure and become the legend who restores civilization. Oi.

I've also been watching a lot of TV, and it's just about time for my mid-season rundown. I'll make a new post about that in the next few days.

Finally, this is hilarious. Happy Holidays!

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