Yeah, I know about the animated one. I have it. I mean this is my favorite anime of all time. But this just in the initial deals have been signed for a live action version. Get your Otaku Hat on and hoist a tequila in Spike’s memory.

Like so many others I saw Dark Knight this weekend. How many ways can you say cool movie. This iteration of the Batman universe is by far the best. Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker is just freaking awesome. Harvey Dent/Two Face while feels slightly added on is still just as intense and darn right nasty. Let’s hope that they don’t screw it up in the next movie.
But sitting there in the theater, I realized I basically had my own utility belt. When I got out the theater I jingled my key ring. Let’s see what we have here. Two thumb drives. An MP3 player. Remote for the car. A small folding multi-tool. And three keys that actually use. Yeah, it’s like a utility belt. More other stuff than keys. Ain’t it a grand techno world we live in.

Seems like there was a total melt down this weekend. Check it out here and here. I’m not here to point fingers or anything like that. It’s sad that this all came about because two people got into uber ass hat mode on the internet.
As a fan, I really liked the West End stuff. Star Wars d6 was a classic. The whole d6 system is one of those ever lasting systems. Shatterzone, Torg and Bloodshadows were fascinating and fun backgrounds. And remember they were one of the first RPG companies got after licensed games. They did Ghostbusters, Tales from the Crypt and who could forget Hercules and Xena. And then there’s the recent announcement of the Open d6 project. Guess that’s pretty much dead in the water. I had been even considering resurrecting the d6 system for our gaming group. Now it’s time to wait and see.
But there are rumors of good companies making offers for West End’s IP namely some of the guys at Pinnacle Entertainment and Steve Jackson Games. Personally, I won’t rule out Mongoose either since they’re doing Paranoia.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog is up for this weekend only. After that you’re going to have to wait for the DVD or other means of viewing.
For those not in the know, it’s Joss Whedon’s latest creative endeavor staring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Dr. Horrible is a super villain worthy of the Venture Brothers mix it up with a Rocky Horror type musical score and throw in Joss Whedon’s creative genius and, well, do I really need to say more?

So this weekend I watched Hellboy II and the remake of the Andromeda Strain. I’m really getting tired of directors blatantly throwing in some sort of social statement into their movies. Yeah, it’s their right but it gets tiresome and it’s really starting to get heavy handed. Now it wasn’t that bad in Hellboy. You did have the elves were complaining about what bastards us humans are and of course our penchant for building things. And there was the little abortion thing. I’m not sure of the message on this one but in one scene Liz is standing there looking all thoughtful and in the background there’s this billboard that said something like “Making a decision together.” or something like that. Then there’s the quote “I’m a tumor not a baby.” I really don’t know if these two are connected but it did set off my radar.
But it wasn’t as bad as Andormeda Strain. I know made for TV, should have warned me. But I gave it chance. Here come the spoilers folks. And I don’t feel guilty.
You should know the basic premise. Satellite returns to Earth with a really nasty virus. Lots of people die. Scientists struggle to find a cure and save the world.
Now on to the craziness. In this version, we find out the killer micro-bug is sent through a wormhole from the future. The people in the future who have managed create at least some sort of time travel decide the best way to communicate with past people is to ASCII binary code within the materials that making of the casing carrying the virus. Apparently, they don’t have history books. The ancient people of Earth know ASCII but we won’t risk it with something like English or Chinese or any of those other popular languages. In case you didn’t notice, they even sent back the nasty bug.
It gets even worse. The message from the future is just a number and Bacillus Infernus. A special type of bacteria that only lives near thermal vents on the ocean floor. A important subplot: The president is involved in a big controversy about mining the ocean floor next to, you guessed it, thermal vents. And you know what means? There’s no Bacillus Infernus in the future to fight killer bug.
The stupidity continues to intensify. They grow massive amounts of the savior bacteria. And spray it over the infected area. By this time, Andromeda has killed everything in its path even plants and fish. You can see the fish floating in the water and the rivers turning reddish brown. Whole lush hillsides are defoliated in seconds. But once sprayed with the hero bacteria. They quickly turn green again. I don’t think the fish come back to life but it wouldn’t surprise me if you looked close.
The frosting on the cake. That number that come from the future. Yeah, that’s a storage locker on the International Space Station where the conspiring government puts a sample of Andromeda.
So the bug that is ravaging the future, apparently is released by them messing with an ancient space station and not having any sulfur eating bacteria handy. So they send it back in time and the loop begins. Yes our descendants will master time travel but not so much on the common sense.