The Watcher - Dredd 3D

Judge Dredd is back and this time he’s harder, darker and grittier than a gravel driveway. Filling the boots of 2000AD’s longest running character is Karl Urban - full of grimace and ready to wash the bad taste of Stallone’s version out of your mouth like that first swig of mouthwash the morning after the night before.

Reminds me of the Daredevil movie poster with Ben Affleck...

Now I know I will most likely offend some of my comic reading cohorts by saying this, but I haven't really ever read any of the Dredd books. Obviously I have known about the character for a long time as 2000AD began in 1977 well before I was born, but the newspaper style artwork had always put me off.

Some may feel a second offense of mine is that I actually quite enjoyed the Stallone version of Judge Dredd which was released in 1995. Growing up as a massive fan of Demolition Man (I still am) I loved the action and cheese that ol’ Sly brought to it.

It's actually quite a good poster, considering Dredd's defining characteristic is arguably his face.

Dredd 3D is a different beast altogether. Gone are the shiny shoulder pads and the flashy future, instead replaced with something a little more believable, something which could be indeed our world-to-come. Endless rioting, wall to wall slums and towering mega blocks - the council estates of the post-apocalypse! Along with the more urban city, Dredd’s suit is more functional. Now he can enter a gunfight without the worry of knocking his colleagues over with a massive golden eagle every time he turns around! One thing I did dislike design-wise were the new bikes. I felt they looked out of place and rather oddly shaped, they should have been heftier! That said, they do force the actors playing the Judges to sit with perfect posture, oddly imposing in the chaos of the MegaCity.

The basic story is that Dredd is assigned to look after a rookie judge called Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) and make sure she is up to the cut. Unfortunately their first assignment leads them to become imprisoned within a mega block which is under the control of gang leader Ma-Ma (Lena Headley). The icing on the cake? She’s manufacturing and distributing a new drug called Slo-Mo (it slows the user's perception of time to 1% of its normal speed apparently) right there in that tower and really doesn’t want to lose her control of it.

Karl Urban plays Dredd how I believe he should be, a man of few words and plenty of action. You never see his face and he never smiles. Yet while all these points which make him a good Dredd, when it comes to creating a relatable character these can also be negatives. This is why we are given Judge Anderson, she becomes your emotional entry point into the world and Olivia Thirlby is wonderful. You watch her grow as the movie progresses to the point where I think even Dredd has respect for her.

Lena Headley plays a brilliantly ruthless villain in Ma-Ma - she is completely convincing and fully committed to the performance. I feel it's a shame that there were not more scenes with her as she was just that good. Of course, if you have not already I highly recommend checking her performance in Game of Thrones.

Or for a different side to Lena Heady, check out her portrayal of Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The considerable pace and comfortable 95 minute length of the movie were perfect; there was not a point where I was bored. Yes some of the slo-mo shots could have been cut a little shorter but they all looked stunning and were the only points in the movie where the 3D looked good. Using the same cameras as those used for slow motion natural history documentaries was an excellent touch. Action films will forever be indebted to hummingbirds! 

Overall Dredd is a pretty basic movie, what really makes it an enjoyable one is the fact its makers did not shy away from making it an 18 rating. This is how Dredd should be - ultra-violent, brutal, bloody and kick-ass!

Stefan Harkins is aware of the comparisons to The Raid: Redemption, but that film began filming in March 2011, four or five months AFTER Dredd. So just let it go!

Big Game Hunting - 10% OFF ALL BOARD GAME PRE-ORDERS!

So, the new Fantasy Flight LCG version of Netrunner came out last week, after it's phenomenal debut at GenCon. It sold at the UK supplier in a day! We've sold out as well, and whilst serving a customer who had sensibly pre-ordered a copy, I realised I've never really promoted our board game pre-order offer.

So here goes...

All customers who pre-order a board game before it's initial release date, will receive 10% of the SRP. To secure your pre-order, there will be a deposit of 25% of the SRP at the time of ordering. This only applies to new board game; I'm afraid customers who special order older games will pay normal price.

Forthcoming highly anticipated board games that you can pre-order includes (but is not limited to):

• Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game
  
  
• Star Trek Catan
  
  
• Level 7 [Escape]
  
  
• Marvel Heroclix: Marvel Super Heroes and Wolverine And The X-Men TabApp Packs
  
  
• Ogre: Designer’s Edition
  
  
• Blood Bowl: Team Manager - Sudden Death Expansion
  
  
• Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition - Lair of the Wyrm Expansion

So pop in and see me! Some great games coming out this autumn/winter.

Restocks of Netrunner are due in next week.

Ben Fardon is really intrigued by the TabApp HeroClix...

New Beginnings - The Phantom Stranger #0

This week we have the first of the New 52 Zero Month issues with the arrival of the Phantom Stranger. Dan Didio is writing the this issue, which as the first of the #0 issues I get to review, is also slightly fitting as he is one of the main architects behind the 52 reboot. From reading up thought I can see he gets involved with some of the lesser mainstream titles, including the recently cancelled OMAC.

This issue opens with our unknown narrator imprisoned and shackled. In a moment of great weakness when he felt there was only one way out. However by taking his own life, instead of being received by Heaven or Hell, another fate lay in front of him. A trial of sorts where he and two equally mysterious counterparts (Pandora and the Question) - who are referred to with him as the Trinity of Sin - have judgement passed upon them.

Of course, we've seen all this before in the DC New 52 Free Comic Book Day issue - released back in May and written by Geoff Johns. It's hard to tell if this story was broken by Johns, Didio and the other DC creative executives together some time ago, as it leads into next year's huge event the Trinity War, but if it was solely Johns' invention then Didio has brought little to this origin save from retelling it from the Stranger's POV.

The Phantom Stranger's origin in the DC New 52 FCBD issue

This New 52 version of the Stranger seemingly dispenses with the anonymity of his previous incarnation who had at least four conflicting backstories. Instead the heavy references to his betrayal of a friend in return for a handful of coins clearly suggests Judas Iscariot. Although no one ever says that name or any other in relation to the Stranger, the suggestion is very heavily there in a variety of ways.

The main direction of the Stranger’s purpose is then opened up. Thrust back into the realm of the living - and shackled with a new necklace made from the blood money he was once paid in - he understands he is to walk the Earth until specific souls needs “assistance”. The troublesome part in this is that for his penance, every time he helps he will ultimately betray that person as is his nature. This doesn’t always mean that this is bad though - even in this issue we see the arrival on another significant mysterious figure as the Spectre is introduced to the New 52.

The same events, in The Phantom Stranger #0
(preview pages taken from IGN.com)

I’ve never read about the Phantom Stranger before this comic so it was of interest to me. As a character I’ve seen him in 52, Blackest Night and of course the New 52 FCBD issue, but I’ve never really considered who or what he really was. That said the first read through didn’t massively grab me. It was only on the second reading and some additional research that I felt this was a much more thought provoking story than I'd first appreciated.

As a #0 issue it does the job that it needs to and sets up the realms of possibility for the title. I do worry that it is a very simple premise that will play through almost to a template, but I am hoping there is more to it than that. When you consider the plight that is facing our hero there is now only 29 more times that he can do this as each soul that he intervenes frees him of one piece of silver from his necklace.

The splash page teaser for the Trinity War from the FCBD issue.
It has to be said, this looks like it will be even bigger than Blackest Night!

It's worth considering that the Phantom Stranger is part of the Trinity of Sin and the only one of their number with his own comic. He will certainly be a huge part of the next big DC event, so this may be the title with a lot of foreshadowing and story development as we move towards this impending Trinity War. I suspect it will be a title that rewards your interest if you are a fan of the New 52 DC universe!

Matt Puddy will be looking at Team 7 #0 next week as Zero Month continues...

Digital Canvas - Moving Pictures

In previous articles I have talked about how some webcomics utilise the opportunities of their chosen media by including various Flash or GIF animations to create a mixture of moving and stationary art. But what of those creators who decide to go all the way, creating a series of animations to rival their favourite Saturday-morning cartoons via the advent of the internet? This article is for those brave few.

If you’re wanting to discover a great animated web-series, a good place to start is a video/animation-sharing community site such as YouTube or Newgrounds, where creative types can easily upload their works and receive almost instant kudos or much-needed criticism.

A good example on the Newgrounds site is a Korean series called “There She Is!!”, made by a small independent animation studio called SamBakZa. The series of short cartoons (mostly set to music and without dialogue so as to cater to an international audience) follows a rabbit girl falling in love with a cat boy, in a world where inter-species romance is seen as taboo. The first few episodes are light-hearted and filled with humour, but the story progresses into much darker territory, exploring the consequences of prejudice and the ups and downs of love. This series would not have come about (and SamBakZa would not have gotten much needed financial backing) without the huge success of the first instalment via Newgrounds bringing this foreign oddity to the English-speaking world.

A wonderfully silly example of a web-toon series on YouTube would be “Baman and Piderman”, following the bizarre exploits of the child-like parodies of Batman and Spider-Man, who here share a house together and are “best fweinds”. The duo are often found relaxing and doing fun activities together, but they’ve also had such surreal adventures as awkwardly confronting the bad-guy versions of themselves in their basement, and embarking on a quest to save their friend - a pumpkin - from slowly rotting away. The wonderfully old style animation, created by the same people behind tv cartoon Happy Tree Friends, is very reminiscent of Rhubarb And Custard cartoons.

If you’re looking for something with a bit more Britishness to its humour, try Weebl’s Stuff, a site that primarily showcases the animations of a small team headed by one British guy called Jonti “Weebl” Picking. Mr Picking has found some moderate success creating viral animated advertising for several products, and even a few TV commercials. The site hosts a number of different animated series’ dreamt up by Jonti and others, including the highly popular Weebl And Bob series, following the misadventures of two egg-shaped beings and their quest for pie. Also of note are the wide range of musical toons, where the weird (sometimes NSFW) animations play out the scenes sung about in the humorous song lyrics. Indeed, the site makes ends meet from marketing albums of these bizarre songs on iTunes (I highly recommend the ode to Stephen Fry on the “Magical Chalk Toilet” album). I feel the need to warn you that much of this site could be considered “odd”, chalk it up to the British sense of humour.

If you prefer something with a little more finesse to it, the slow-to-update but rather enthralling Bitey Castle might be the place for you. The Brackenwood series (named for the fully realised forest setting in which the action takes place) mainly follows a rather mischievous speedy imp called Bitey, a true anti-hero bully that you can’t help but root for, in a sequoian world of fantastical plants and animals. The series is created by ex-Disney employee Adam Phillips, and his past employment truly shines through with every beautiful frame. The site also hosts a series of tutorials and tips if you want to digitally animate like a pro too!

Lastly but certainly not leastly, any list of recommended web animations just HAS to include the sadly defunct Homestar Runner. A true web phenomenon of the early 2000’s, the site managed the impossible (at the time) of netting a profit without the help of banner adverts, purely via merchandise sales alone. Basically it was an homage/parody of your average saturday morning cartoon, but with a good dollop of bizarre and a side order of snarky college humour, following the adventures of silly sportsman Homestar and his various oddly-shaped friends. Unfortunately the site hasn’t been active for quite some time, but the huge archive of animations should keep anyone busy for many days!

Todd Marsh wishes he had the time and a good excuse to watch kids cartoons all day.