The Uncharted franchise was always an interesting series to me.
Each year Comic Con attracts the best cosplayers around and despite the impact of a waning pandemic, this year absolutely did not disappoint.
This year was my first Comic Con experience ever and I got to experience in my hometown of New York. As a kid I always wanted to witness the magic of Comic Con in person but over the years, I just hadn’t had the chance. One thing I had learned in recent years is that the cosplayers here at pretty much the best you’ll ever see and when I finally got to the Javits center and witnessed it all in person, I was just stuck in a state of awe for about a half hour. Seeing a lot of my favorite comic book and video characters be brought rather realistically to life was incredible. Here are some of my favorite shots of the cosplayers from over the weekend.
If there was ever a place to share an early preview of the latest installment in the cult classic Postal Series, NY Comic Con is second to none.
Most gamers today are probably too young to have played Postal 2 when it came out back in 2003, but chances are, many have had a chance to play it today. In fact, I’d bet most dedicated gamers who follow the latest news, trends, and culture of gaming have at the very least some knowledge and respect ofr this 18 year old game. Despite the age, this series has seen a continual renaissance and revival throughout it’s life, first in the early 2010s when Valve’s Steam made it widely available again to a new audience and not too longer after as numerous famous YouTubers like Pewdiepie and Videogamedunkey have played it on their channels which reach millions and millions of viewers.
Given that, I was delightfully surprised to see Running with Scissors, the development team behind the Postal series tucked away on the Comic Con show floor with a demo in hand. Even more interesting was that I got the privilege to chat with Mike Jaret-Schachter from the development who’s been deemed the ‘Chief Bidet Officer’. Cult fans of the series probably already knew who he was as he’s literally engrained into the fabric of the game, but it was a genuinely amazing experience to meet him in person and to hear his unbridled passion for the series and for the fans. He recounted the rocky history of team after Postal 2, which included the strange chapter of Postal 3 which was admittedly not very good and very much only released in Russia. However he along with a few other developers came together to build a proper team and finally create the true successor to Postal 2, Postal 4, all on a shoestring budget funded more or less by their own meager pockets. Especially in this day and age, it was encouraging to see a team of game developers who are literally working for the love of the game and on their own time and money.
Taking a look at an early build, I was genuinely surprised at the graphics. Despite being in development still and by the Developer’s admittance, needing to undergo a visual upgrade, the game looked really good. It’s a little weird seeing a Postal game with the kind of graphical fidelity that the Unreal Engine can provide. With all that said, I’m super excited to see where this goes and glad I got the chance to highlight my favorite surprise from the floor of NY Comic Con 2021.
Ever wonder what David Harbour’s life was like before Stranger Things? It may not be what you would’ve expected.
Success as an actor is often hard to define. Sometimes critical acclaim or commercial profitability are the metrics used to define success. However, there’s another lesser attained category that only a few actors ever get the honor of being – a cult classic. Thanks to Stranger Things, David Harbour has certainly hit that mark. He hasn’t always been the household name he is today and chances are most fans wouldn’t have known his life prior to the culture defining Netflix series. But judging from the response at New York Comic Con this year, they certainly wanted to know more and David was happy to share about his life prior to the show.
For starters, he grew up in New York in the East Village and stayed there for much of his life as he pursued a career as an actor. However, he wasn’t exactly dominating the big or small screen in any capacity. His appearances were mostly confined to recurring roles on short lived TV series and doing off Broadway plays. It got to the point where he was started to worry about where next month’s rent would come from. He was on a tv series that had just shot its first season and he needed it to get renewed to ensure he’d be fine financially for the coming months. He waited by the phone and hoped to get the good news, but when the phone rang, it didn’t go the way he wanted.
As you can imagine, he was saddened by the news, but it was relatively short lived. Not too long after, he got a call to audition for a certain Netflix show – Stranger Things. After auditioning though, he wasn’t exactly encouraged. He figured at first that someone with a better track record or name would get selected as it was a fairly large role and he was right. Someone else did get selected but ended up rejecting the role. Who passed up on that opportunity, we may never know, but the rest, as they say is history.
It was really great getting this story and many others like it from David and other cult classics at Comic Con. Be sure to check out the other coverage here on the Knockturnal for more interesting stories like this.
Easily the worst thing I’ve seen all year
Not all films work for everyone. There are in fact people who did not enjoy commercial successes like Titanic or critically acclaimed films like Citizen Kane. By and large, however, people did find something to love and adore in these films. I mention that because when I saw Lamb I was rather puzzled. So much so in fact, that I decided to chat up several of the other reviewers and writers afterwards only to find more of the same reaction.
The film opens on a couple who are seemingly devoid of joy in their lives and spend their days tending their flock sheep. That is until an ominous and mysterious visitor comes and leaves ‘a gift’ on Christmas Eve, so to speak. At this point during the onset of the film, I was genuinely intrigued to see where this was going. There were hints of Kierkegaard and a divine connection, a teasing of the subtle take on a narrative structure that would continue throughout, and most curiously a very unsettling discovery of events. But all of these threads either led nowhere or to a payoff that simply isn’t worth it.
From the opening scenes to the inciting incident, the film takes its time in dreary fashion. I’m always willing to give a filmmaker the time to tell his story, however, from those opening minutes, the film continues to meander for another entire hour. To better describe what that looks like, it’s reminiscent of a silent film of the pre-code era. The majority of the film, especially the first two acts, are just framed shots of mundane activities, not unlike b-roll you would find in passing at the MoMA. To be fair, these scenes are beautiful to see and are brilliantly shot, but film has progressed to be more than just moving images during the past century. The only breaks during this monotony are the first climaxes of the first and second act and the midpoint. And to clarify, I’d give more details as to what these moments were, if they didn’t completely ruin the film for any poor soul that would subject themselves through this film.
Despite all that, there is some credit to give. This is Valdimar Jóhannsson’s feature debut and I do admire the fact that he tried to take a daring approach to tell a story. There were numerous creative liberties he took with telling a narrative story that made this film even remotely watchable. Specifically, the way he went about discovery of information – through the use of mise en scène and strategic timing – was particularly good and unique. However, that’s the only positive I can give this director or this film. The sad fact of the matter is that the underlying story itself is so tragically underwhelming and unsuitable for the format of a feature that it inevitably reflects poorly on him. At the end of the day, the plot is a paper thin story that’s been told hundreds of times during the past century to much greater success. Here we have something I’ve seen common in many European films of the past decade: a few good twists and tricks, but no actual substance. And that to me is rather damning considering the current state of American cinema as well. Additionally, and I always repeat these in my reviews, not all stories need to be told in two hours. If this story was told through a ten-minute short, it still wouldn’t be good, but, it would be at the very least digestible. It’s far easier to endure ten minutes than the torturous ninety-seven I sat through.
Performances were great all around. Needless to say Noomi Rapace breathed much needed life into the film. That’s not to say she was alone in that, as Hilmir Snær Guðnasan and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson rather perfectly filled their roles. They were understated when needed and dynamic when the moment called for it. It’s also another credit I want to give to Jóhannsson as great performances are also due in large part to solid direction.
All in all, this film was very much like a train that’s run out of tracks – it went nowhere. In fact, it’s definitely one of the worst films I’ve ever seen and after getting initial reactions from others, I’m not alone in that opinion. It doesn’t even make sense to discuss the thematic message of man’s relationship with nature as it’s a touch trite in this day and age and it doesn’t come across very clearly in the film. Despite that, I genuinely believe that Jóhannsson has got what it takes to be a great director and should get more projects in the future. Lamb releases on October 8th, and unless you plan on making a drinking game out of the film or exploring experimental storytelling, I don’t recommend you see it.
Marvel’s 25th film is a simple, yet compelling, coming of age story with one minor issue.
Is this one of the best Marvel Movies to Date?
They may be one big heist away from calling it all quits
Cinema’s favorite monsters face-off for the first time in decades, but suffers from a fatal flaw.
Although gifted with a promising premise, the film ultimately falls short of what it could be.