I suppose if my interest in horror and noir represent my cynical side, than my love of scifi represents some sort of hope. I cut my teeth on the space operas of the 80s, which if anything, were massive in scope, and hugely inspiring.

‘In a galaxy far far away’, boom, i’m at the edge of my seat, and the stage has be set for something massive. It wasn’t until later i learned how actually massive galaxies were, and I had an existential crisis about my place in a limitless universe, but then vodka came along, and now it’s allllll good.

Where am i heading with this… well, video games. By their nature more immersive than movies of comics, but crippled by their inability to structure a cohesive 3 act narrative, unless they are just interactive movies. And at that point, why bother? But then with the advent the multiplayer experience, developers realized they could scale back their content, and let the interaction between players create plot lines. Like always, if you didn’t want to talk to actual people you could always do the grind and slay rats for exp outside the tavern. But, like minded individuals were with you to share your experiences and sometimes call you the N word cause the internet is a horrible, horrible place. But it was more immersive.

So it was with guarded curiosity I kept an eye on ‘No Man’s Sky’, the procedural generated universe exploration game with a near infinite amount of stars and planets and plants and animals that lived on them. You’d be one person adrift in the cosmos, with only the slight chance of meeting anyone in vastness of space. Which would be realistic, but they would be out there…. somewhere.

Except that they weren’t and head of the company ‘hedged’ when he said there would be virtually no chance of meeting anyone, instead of just saying ‘this is a single player experience’.

Does it matter? To some, yes. The internet erupted, people calling him a liar, other people rushing to his defense after plunking down 70 and tax. But nobody runs into anyone real in fallout 4, and i know a few people that spend their evenings wandering a desolate wasteland shooting npc raiders. So maybe people just don’t like the feeling of being lied to. Or maybe people just don’t like knowing for a fact they’re exploring a universe without even the slightest chance of meeting another person to interact with. Like we could handle being alone together, but not without people sharing that… somewhere. Well, you can still always just shoot rats outside the tavern for exp.

The Lobster (2016)lobster

First off, i just thought it was interesting to mention this movie based on the Kris Station timing, in as much as it’s about a man, facing the probability of becoming a lobster. Are there coincidences to my story? Sure. Am i gonna pursue legal action over it? You bet your sweet ass i’m gonna. A team of lawyers are salivating over their legal pads as i write this. Watch out Hollywood! I’m gonna sue your balls off.

I’m not gonna say this is a great movie, but it is worth a watch. It’s a little slow at points, and it’s going to be too weird for alot of people, but i think it was an interesting idea. These days, you get a participation award just for trying, so long as your movie isn’t a remake or a sequel. Having said that, I don’t want to give away too much, cause i think half of the fun of this movie is the utter confusion in the first 20 minutes while you piece together how the world works, and what exactly is happening.

The overall feeling was as if Wes Anderson directed an Ambien nightmare. The main character is played by Colin Farrel, who seems to me like the kind of person that if you met them in real life you’d want to slap, and then immediately take a Purell bath. but i like everything i see him in, so I’m conflicted. John C Reilly was there, and it was kinda fun to see Dr Steve Brule get his hand burned for jerkin’ it.