They could have, but his eyes were blue to begin with. The shift to vibrant blue would be less jarring than a shift to vibrant green. Plus, just try to picture vibrant green eyes. They still look really weird. Blue is bright enough to be noticed, but still subtle enough to keep from being a big distraction.Signa said:
The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
Depends on how necessary they felt the subtlety was. Personally, I'm picturing the green eyes to be totally bad ass. I guess the fact that they changed the eyes at all meant that they wanted it to be noticed somehow, so subtlety wasn't crucial.The Long Road said:
Once again playing devil's advocate here. I don't give two shits what Halo does. I was amused by the video how all these themes were coming together, and probably none of them were intentionally relevant at all. It actually caused me to gain a little respect for Halo because it makes it look far more thought out than I gave it credit for.
I've never played Halo, never will. It did seem though to me that Moviebob was slightly talking out of his ass here. Why does everything have to be about a race war? Why can't it just be alot of different looking scary aliens are attacking mankind? In short i find it preachy and more based on MovieBob being biased then informative.
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That's all fine and dandy you politely disagree with the guy blabla... BUT(!), like MovieBob said, what the fudge was your point with the mario franchise??i7omahawki said:
Was it a poor attempt at a hurtful poke? Is it because Mario = Mussolini just because he's Italian? Or did you just throw a random videogame in there, your point being that you can basically over-analyse any game and make it into something it's not?
No seriously, I wanna know what you were thinking.
Oh, and give the guy some slack, it's not like he insulted your mother or something (I'm actually surprised he didn't make an explicit master race - master chief connection).
I suppose the point was: Would MovieBob bring Mario up to the same critique? In other words: Would he notice this sort of issue in a game he liked? If he had pointed out a similar trend in another game - which he liked - it would have empowered his argument. As it stands it looks like someone who doesn't like a game, and can't give any interesting reasons as to why not, made up some controversy accompanied with a crude psychological portrait of the typical Halo player.Laerid said:
I think the case could made that Mario's Mushroom kingdom is a monoculture, lots of diverse races etc. but one ruler, and a stomp on the head to all dissenters. Just because that case could be made, doesn't mean it isn't ridiculous, however, I think that Bob's case against Halo is equally absurd, and grounded in nothingness.
As for the master race - master chief connection, what connection? Both have the word master in, that's all I can see. The Spartans are not a certain race, they are just strong individuals who were put through harsh and immoral experiments.
So I was just watching this again, and something popped into my head, the whole eyes turning blue actually makes sense if they are actually trying to make a super soldier that can fight in any environment; if I recall correctly there was a study done in the 80s that showed people with blue eyes did better in low gravity, something about them holding their form better, so if you're going to make a hyper advanced killing machine, go all out.
I've always liked Moviebob because of the fact that he avoids one of the biggest annoyances I have with film critics in general. Let me explain.
The deconstructive and analytical nature of the profession of critiquing, in my opinion, seems to always generate this tendency in the critic to draw parallels and connections between what their critiquing and other things, be it other media, past or present cultural or political events, whatever.
To me, its always given me this impression of creating connection out of coincidence. For example, I'm an aspiring writer, and when I write my stories, I come up with a general premise and then move forward with whatever comes to mind as I write. I'm sure someone, somewhere, could read my work and find parallels to some past event or movie or book, etc.
Essentially, Moviebob spent 5 minutes all-but-blatantly comparing the Halo mythos to the belief structure of Nazi Germany and Neo-fascism. Whenever I see a critic doing that (not exclusively with Nazism and fascism, mind), I can't help but conjure this image of a story-writer throwing up his hands and going "Dude, I just wrote a story, that's it."
Just because there are noticeable parallels between two separate events does not intrinsically mean that the one of those events was inspired by the other.
Edit: In conclusion, Bob spent this review doing the one thing I dislike most about critics. But it was still an interesting take and here's hoping that it doesn't remain on that path.
The deconstructive and analytical nature of the profession of critiquing, in my opinion, seems to always generate this tendency in the critic to draw parallels and connections between what their critiquing and other things, be it other media, past or present cultural or political events, whatever.
To me, its always given me this impression of creating connection out of coincidence. For example, I'm an aspiring writer, and when I write my stories, I come up with a general premise and then move forward with whatever comes to mind as I write. I'm sure someone, somewhere, could read my work and find parallels to some past event or movie or book, etc.
Essentially, Moviebob spent 5 minutes all-but-blatantly comparing the Halo mythos to the belief structure of Nazi Germany and Neo-fascism. Whenever I see a critic doing that (not exclusively with Nazism and fascism, mind), I can't help but conjure this image of a story-writer throwing up his hands and going "Dude, I just wrote a story, that's it."
Just because there are noticeable parallels between two separate events does not intrinsically mean that the one of those events was inspired by the other.
Edit: In conclusion, Bob spent this review doing the one thing I dislike most about critics. But it was still an interesting take and here's hoping that it doesn't remain on that path.
"...these video games (shows Halo box art)"
Oh for Christ's sake Bob, we get it. You don't like Halo. Fucking drop it already.
Yeah I despise Halo too, but seriously, it's getting old. I predict references to it or using it as a euphemism for "bad" or "bland" in just about every damn video moviebob releases. You know, for every primitive "knuckle dragging" space marine shooter, there's about a dozen good games. Can't he talk about one of those games? Please?
Call me cynical, but I'm starting to like the old moviebob who talked about a number of thought provoking things and not leaning on the "Nintendo is awesome/Halo sucks" crutch. It's not really the topic that bothers me so much as how "by the numbers" his disdain for Halo is and how unsurprised of all of the things in the world he could cover for his first episode, he chooses, yet again, to talk about a certain stupid, boring, yet oddly successful first person shooter.
Oh for Christ's sake Bob, we get it. You don't like Halo. Fucking drop it already.
Yeah I despise Halo too, but seriously, it's getting old. I predict references to it or using it as a euphemism for "bad" or "bland" in just about every damn video moviebob releases. You know, for every primitive "knuckle dragging" space marine shooter, there's about a dozen good games. Can't he talk about one of those games? Please?
Call me cynical, but I'm starting to like the old moviebob who talked about a number of thought provoking things and not leaning on the "Nintendo is awesome/Halo sucks" crutch. It's not really the topic that bothers me so much as how "by the numbers" his disdain for Halo is and how unsurprised of all of the things in the world he could cover for his first episode, he chooses, yet again, to talk about a certain stupid, boring, yet oddly successful first person shooter.
I think it's mostly a matter of players expecting a variety of enemy types. Whether or not your own team is diverse, in most decent action games the enemies will be.
You raise an interesting point though, and the blue-eyed space marine thing is a little unsettling in that context. I'm just going to assume they're pumping him with spice.
You raise an interesting point though, and the blue-eyed space marine thing is a little unsettling in that context. I'm just going to assume they're pumping him with spice.
I guess MovieBob really isn't a Halo fan. While I'm not a ravenous "Halo-or-Nothing" type, I do respect the game for the simplicity of its damage system and the unorthodox backstory. What Bob said about the multicultural aliens being the "bad guys" (and therefore "diversity = bad") is not what I saw at all. I saw the concept behind Star Trek's Federation of Planets turned on its head. In this reality, humans aren't responsible for getting all those different aliens to work together. The galactic collective is already out there and the strength that comes from their diversity is as awesome and intimidating as the Federation's. Unfortunately the flying Drones, the cunning Elites, the powerful Brutes and the ubiquitous Grunts are a fighting force squarely aimed AGAINST humanity. WE are their demons prophesied to cause utter destruction. WE are the cosmic scourge that must be exorcised from the heavens. This makes for a necessarily uphill battle for the player to fight. The Covenant isn't necessarily "bad"; they simply misunderstood what must be done. Making the Covenant out to be a direct corollary for cultural diversity (or possibly blind-faith religion) diminishes the complexity of their collective character.
And besides, I would have thought the colorful aliens just made for better game visuals.
And besides, I would have thought the colorful aliens just made for better game visuals.
