Time travel in media (books and movies)

Time travel is one of the ultimate dream and an ultimate fantasy for a lot of people. Who haven't dreamed of going back in the past to correct some personal mistakes? On even on a bigger scale, to go back to correct history by preventing some major events to happen? Time travel, for now is still a fantasy but it a inspired a lot of stories on different types of medium. In this post, we will talk about time travel in medium such as books and movies.

Time travel has been used for different purposes in media. Some have written about time travel to explore the paradoxes that could arise from modifying the past. Others use it as a plot device, a way to create more dramatic feature to the story. For others time travel is a talent for only one person or it's controlled by some sort of control organization. Time travel maybe the consequence of technology development or being due to a mutation. In this latter case, it only affect the mutant and possibly his/her offspring. For some authors, time travel is only possible in the past and it will affect only the timeline of the traveler. For others, every event which happened during time travel will create a new timeline different from the one of the traveler. And finally, there some who presented time travel like and enhanced movie experience, you could watch the past but you can't modify any aspect of it. In this post, I'll try to present one work on each of those approaches for time travel.

The man who murdered Mohammed, by Alfred Bester (first published in 1958). In this short story, a man came at home in the evening and find his wife cheating on him. He went to his lab and create a time machine in order to go back in time to kill his wife grand-parents. When he came back to his present, his wife was still in the midst of aldutary. He traveled back in time several and killed historical figures in other to modify his present. But he failed every time. He finally realised after killing Mohammed that his actions in the past didn't alter his present by only modify his own existence (he was slowly fading after each murder). His last murder completely anhilate him and let the present unchanged. This text is an example of how actions of a time traveler don't alter his current timeline, but may only alter his own existence as a human being.

Alfred Bester

The time traveler's wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (published in 2003). In this story, time travel is more a plot device. It's only affect the story of the two main protagonists. The male one is able to travel in time due to a genetical mutation but he has no control over it. He can't control when he will travel, how long he will stay in the period. It is very random. But this feature gives a new light to his lovestory with his wife. This story is a statement to the idea of some people are meant to be together no matter what is happeneing in their lifes. The focus is more on the development of the relationship then on time travel itself. But time traveling serves the purpose of the story very well in my humble opinion.

The Time Traveler's Wife movie poster

Back to the future saga (1985,1989,1990) written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. This saga was very interesting in various poinst. The choice of a car as a time travel machine opens up the possibilities for mobility. And the Delorean is just amazing. They tried to consider a lot of possibilities about consequences of actions made in the past on the present. In this saga, Marty McFly travel in the past and the future. Events modified, if not corrected in the past, have a certain influence on the present and the future of Marty.

Back to the Future Trilogy

Predestination, film by the Spierig Brother and based on the short story All you Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. The movie starred Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor. It was relased on 2014. Yhis move is a very special one on some aspects. It's telling the story of two people discussing in a bar around a few beers and a pool game. One of them is the bartender and the other is a random customer. The customer is telling is life story to the bartender. During the telling, he begins to share a bound with the bartender. After this meeting, the main protagonist will discover that their lives are very bounded together. Can say more without spoiling the movie. But this movie is the best and most weird way to talk about time travel paradoxes. It also arise a kind of philosophical question : are we bounded to live a life written in advance? And also what came first the egg or the chicken? It must be seen if you want to have an opinion about it.

Predestination Australian movie poster

Time cop starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and released in 1994. The movie is based on a comics of the same name published by Dark Horse comics. In this movie, there's a organization which main purpose is to control time travel. Time Enforcement Commission track down people who use time travel for their own personal profits. In this movie, actions in the past also affect the timeline of the main protagonists.

Time Cop movie poster

Looper starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis. It has been released in 2012. It this movie, time travel is fordiden. The main use of time travel is for sending back people to be excecuted by people called Loopers. They are sent head in an bag with silver bars. If the person arrived with a sack filled with gold bars, that is used for closing the loop (the older self of the Looper in sent to be execute by his younger self).

Looper main male cast

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Have a great holiday season. Feel free to leave a comment.

Top 3 underrated games (Shiro choice)

Some of the best game , with good hype and great marketing, stay in mainstream history forever ,while others only a few know of their greatness, welcome back to VGBM and today we will look at my top 3 underrated action games. For this list I’ll be talking about games I played that I feel that not a lot of people (or no one ) know of their existence and that I personally spent hours enjoying these games.

1 - Psi-Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy

Game cover

First on our list is a game I played at end of the PS2 era. Developed by Midway Games , the studio responsible for the Mortal Kombat series before it shutdown, the game was a third person shooter that also use psychic powers like telekinesis , pyrokinesis, mind control and remote view. The story was relatively good but what I liked about the game is the fact that for me it was the first action game that used super powers very well. For example I remember when I was out of ammo I used to toss enemies around like rag-dolls with telekinesis , another used of telekinesis was using a metal board to get from one ledge to another ( Felt a bit like Magneto) .Unfortunately with Midway closing it doors its sad that this franchise is practically lost forever.

Telekinesis

2 - True Crimes : Streets of New York

Game cover

If you ask me in my PS2 days to name my top 5 games, this one would have been in it.Published by Activision this was one of the first sandbox games I played outside of the gran theft auto series. As in all sandbox games you had a third person view but this game equaled the GTA series on a lot of levels. You played a policeman trying to redeem yourself after the death of your partner in a street accurate recreation of New York. Like in the GTA series you’re a gangster making his way up in True Crimes you’re a policeman working through the rankings. A part of the great story where you’re taking out the different gangs of New York, you also can respond to random disturbances for example some rockstar trashing a hotel room or my personal favorite you need to separate a marital dispute. You can also enter a lot of buildings in the city non-related to the story. You can also learn different fighting techniques from the different dojo’s in the city may it be Wing chun dojo , muay tai dojo or just a plain boxing gym. Now you’re gonna ask me why I think this game didn’t really showed up in mainstream radar well I got 2 theories , it was a released about 6 months after GTA San Andreas , and about a month after the San Andreas hot coffee mod was discovered.

View of in-game New York

I admit it was by pure luck I ran into that game but it will always stay in my gaming memories.

Arresting a felon

3 - Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

As I mentioned earlier I fell in love with True Crimes :Strets of New York , so imagined how hyped I was when its spiritual successor , Sleeping Dogs, was coming out , and I was happy I wasn’t disappointed. Developed by the new Square-Enix joint studio continued to put you in the role of a policeman only this time you play the role of an undercover officer in Hong Kong infiltrating the triads gang. This game is one of my favorites in PS3 and has one of the best stories you will find in gaming. It is boosted by incredible voice acting by a lot of asian actors including Will Yun Lee who portrays main character Wei Shen with appearance from Byron Mann , Edison Chen , Emma Stone and Tom Wilkinson. In addition to shooting and fighting there are parkour (Free running) abilities added to the gameplay. There also possibilities for street racing and fight clubs .There are many unlockables like vehicles , gadgets and attires . Game is very well paced and as I said a very compelling story. A sequel is planned but not yet confirmed so we wait.

Will Yun Lee as Wei Shen

Parkour in Sleeping Dogs

Thank you again for reading and tell us which is your underrated action games. Have a good day.

Shiro favorite comic book writer

In any kind of media, be it movies, video games and books, it needs a good story to succeed. Welcome back to VGBM and today I’m going to talk about my favorite comic book writer, Scottish born Mark Millar.

Mark Millar

I first came into contact with Mark Millar work at my second coming of comic books. As you all know growing up in Haiti, most of the marvel comics came through translation from an French company called Semic. So when it stopped we didn't receive any new comics. But thanks to the internet and digital comics, I started to read comic books again. At the time there was the new marvel Ultimate universe where I first been exposed to Mark Millar especially ultimate X-Men.

Ultimate X-Men

The Ultimates

There was something about his vision about the marvel universe that seemed a bit more believable then the 616 universe. His characters seemed more flawed so in another words more believable for example how wolverine was sent to murder the X-men so he infiltrated the team by sleeping with Jean or the way Hawkeye killed Black Widow for being responsible for his family’s death or the way everybody tought Thor was mentally ill for thinking he was a norse god not to mention a fan favorite X-man being homosexual in the ultimate universe. You know its those little things , the ambiguous and the morally grey area of the Ultimate version of the characters that makes us come back not to mention all of the brutal fight scenes involving his different characters. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself its true his run on The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men put him on the map but his run on the main universe and his own personal projects really exploded his popularity in the comic world.

Civil War

If you ask anybody why Wolverine is one of my top 2 comic book characters and Mark Millar was a big reason for that with the Wolverine:Enemy of the state and Wolverine :Agent of SHIELD arcs those can be hands down one of my favorite stories of all time . So much I remember telling a friend “Mark Millar is the ****” after reading that arc. It had everything you needed in a great story, a fallen hero , many casualties and one of the most bad-ass villains ever who gave Wolverine , Electra, Nick Fury and the whole SHIELD organization a run for there money. Another great arc he did was the Marvel Civil War arc that pitted Iron Man pro-registration act against Captain America’s resistance and to prove how good that story was , I’m only gonna say that the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 video game and the next Captain America movie will be based on that Arc.

The Gorgon : main protagonist of  Wolverine Agent of SHIELD arc.

Although Mark Millar has been writing for Marvel Comics, it should also be noted that he was the mind behind 2 great comics, Wanted and Kick-Ass and his sequels. I know most of you were disappointed with the Wanted movie starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy but I promise you that the Wanted comic is way way better and with the success of the Kick-Ass movies you can imagine how good the comics were. I have to note that the Kingsman : Secret Service movie is inspired by his comic of the same way ( But I haven’t read it yet).

Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl

Wanted poster

I know in comics there’s a long list of great writers Franck Miller, Alan Moore, Brian Michael Bendis,  Jhoss Whedon, everyone who has a certain style that attracts me to them but my admiration for Mark Millar is so strong I wanted to share it with you guys.

Feel free to leave a comment and tell us who is your favorite comic book writer.

Top 3 games to introduce to new generation via sequel or reboot (Shiro choice)

Today I’m gonna talk for my top 3 choices of game needing a sequel or reboot for the new generation of gaming, for this list I’m gonna look at games I have enjoyed for the past consoles and never got to enjoy recently or have not heard of a sequel or reboot for the last 5 years.

1 - Star Wars : Rogue Squadron

Star Wars : Rogue Squadron cover

First on my list is the arcade style space combat game based on the star wars universe. Set in the timeline of the original trilogy, the game lets you take control of different fighter spaceships like the X-wing, Y-wing or A-wing .Developed by factor 5 and Lucasarts ,the game had great graphics for the time and the gameplay was fast paced. I really enjoyed the different type of missions that kept me coming back for more. It had 2 sequels but for me the first one was the best. The last sequel was released in 2003, so it’s been a while since I enjoyed such a great spaceship shooter. Altough Star Wars: Battlefront 3 is announced and will include spacebattle nothing beats  the lighting fast and fun factor of the Rogue Squadron series.

Select your craft screen

Dog fight in space

2 - Dino Crisis

Dino Crisis cover

Back in 1999, Capcom released Dino Crisis a survival horror game produced by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami for the original Playstation, the Dreamcast and the PC. In the game, you played the role of Regina, member of a Special Operation Unit sent to investigate an island that’s been overrun by dinosaurs. Although the gameplay was exactly the same as of Resident Evil; I really enjoyed the tone and the premise of the game. The puzzle were more complex of that of Resident Evil , and  in the healing department you also had to manage your bleeding because raptors would follow your blood trails. It had 2 sequels which didn’t had as good reviews as the original, last one was release on the original X-box. So I think and hope they will think to reboot such a great game which basically is Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park.

Cornered by raptors

Death by raptor

3 - Onimusha Series

Another title from Capcom , Onimusha is a third person action-adventure set in feudal Japan. All 4 games were exclusive for the Playstation 2, where you played the role of different characters slaying demons. There were also horror and puzzle elements in the game. I literally played all 4 and enjoyed every single one of them as much. The graphics were top notch, with an enthralling storyline and great voice acting. These games had also the advantage of having their characters modeled after well known actors and also bringing  Yūsaku Matsuda who died in 1989 back to life for Onimusha 2.

Takeshi Kaneshiro as Samanosuke Akeshi

Demon slaying in feudal Japan

Yusaku Matsuda as Jubei Yagyu

Jean Reno as Jacques Blanc

That's all for today. Hope you enjoy the reading. See you soon.

Actresses to play Carol Danvers

With Marvel recent announcement of phase 3 of their movie franchise, we were greeted to the good news that a Captain Marvel movie based on the character Carol Danvers are in the works. What have not been revealed is which actress is going to play the lead character. Today I am gonna give you my choice for actresses that can play the role, and as for a rule I will not choose an actress who is currently playing a role in either the marvel or DC universe movies.

Before I begin, just a little recap on who is Captain Marvel, From her real name Carol Danvers, she is former Air force pilot who was working as head security for a NASA base. It’s while working at that base, she came into contact with the alien superhero Mar-Vell who ( and you guessed it ) was the first Captain Marvel. While aiding Captain Marvel in his adventure Carol Danvers was captured and was experimented on, which rearrange her DNA that made her half-human and half-Kree, which in turn gave her superpowers. With her powers she aided Captain Marvel under the moniker Miss Marvel until his death. During her superhero career, she worked with many other heroes including Spider-man, the X-Men and the Avengers. Her powers consist of superhuman strength and agility , flight, energy absorption and photonic blast.

Using her photonic blast.

Now lets start with the list.

1 - Ali Larter

 

As Nikki Sanders in Heroes.

Best known for her dual role of Nikki Sanders and Tracy Strauss on the TVshow Heroes , Ali Larter has been acting since the late 90’s , she also plays the role of Claire Redfield on the movie franchise of Resident Evil. A part from the fact she looks like Carol Danvers in my head, she has the experience in acting that can help the dual role of tough as nail military and confused as learning her new powers in the movie franchise. She still have to film the final Resident Evil movie and she stars in the TV show Legends, so in the time management point of view it will be difficult for filming, but in my head it’s a good choice.

As Claire Redfield in Resident Evil franchise

2 - Anna Torv

As Olivia Dunham in Fringe

Best known for the voice of the video game character Nariko from Heavenly Sword and starring as FBI agent Olivia Dunham in the TV Science Fiction Drama Fringe, Anna Torv is my second choice for this list. I chose Anna Torv mostly for her acting, during the (wonderful) seasons of Fringe , she has proven she will go wherever the character needs her to go , she has that perfect mix of beauty and determination that would be needed for her character to stand firm in front of the likes of Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers. She haven’t done anything significant since the end of Fringe which can cause her popularity to go down a little bit , but who knows anything can happen and Captain Marvel could be her second coming.

3 - Katee Sackhoff

As Starbucks in Battlestar Galactica 2004 reboot

Admit it you knew this was coming , and you are right , with the popular trend and to the delight of my partner Protoformal,  my best choice for Carol Danvers is Starbucks herself Katee Sackhoff. Known for her portrayal of Kara Thrace of the Battlestar Galactica 2004  reboot , Katee Sackoff brings a bad-ass vibe to the character and an army of fanboy. Seriously who wouldn’t pay to see Katee Sackoff hold her own against Ronan the Accuser and with the Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet coming up we can already imagine her kicking ass side by side with the Hulk.

Fingers crossed!!!!

Fell free to leave a comment and to give your personal choice of actress to bring Carol Danvers to life on the silver screen. Hope you enjoy the read. See you all soon.

Shiro favorite comic book artist

 So today I’m gonna talk about one of my favorite comic book Mr. John Romita Jr, I want to talk about his work , his style and what drew me to his particular style.

John Romita Jr is the son of another comic book illustrator John Romita Sr, he mostly worked with Marvel from the 1970 s to the 2000’s but he also worked with Icon comics and is currently working with DC comics for the Superman comics. Some of his early work was the Iron Man comic book but my first contact with him was with his run on the X-Men and Spider-Man comics.

 

Now one could argue that his style is not appealing and I might agree especially when it comes to character design. But one things he brings to his style is the gritty world in which he illustrated perfectly in his run of Daredevil.

And it was this style that illustrated the perfectly dark world of some of my favorite storyline in comics most notably “Wolverine: Enemy of the state”, “Kick-Ass” and “Punisher and Batman: Deadly Knight”. I also enjoyed his run on X-Men where he also helped create some memorable characters like Forge and Valerie Cooper.

 

John Romita Jr, although his style isn’t pretty, its gritty , puts the atmosphere for dark storyline , presents some characters in some bad situation and with a career over 3 decades long shows that he’s one of the most recognized artists in the business.

Hope you enjoyed. See you next time.

paskr18 favorite comic book artist

I was first introduced to comic books by my father and my cousin. It was during my childhood. Through my father, I was introduced to European comics characters like Tex Willer, Akim and Zembla. The first both were created by Italian artists and the later on demand of a French publisher (Lug Editions) but also drawn by Italian artist. My cousins introduced me to the DC and Marvel comics worlds. My first reading was in French (Semic was the French publisher who officially translated the major American comics brands at the time and publish them). My cousin also gave me my first English written comic: Bishop The Mountjoy Crisis.

Akim	Tex Willer	Zembla

We'll talk another time about European comics and in how they differ from American comics. The main focus in this post is my favorite comics artist from an American comics publisher. When I think of it, I grew up mostly reading Marvel comics than any other publisher. So without surprise, my favorite comics artist is one who work on various titles for Marvel. Even though I really like the art from Salvador Larocca on graphic novel X-Men No More Humans, one work of him was not sufficient criteria to call him my favorite artist. I was also a big fan of the work of the Kubert brothers and also Jim Lee. But I really think my favorite one is John Byrne.

Bishop: The Mountjoy Crisis	X-Men : No More Humans

I was first introduced to the work of John Byrne via Alpha Flight which is maybe one my favorite super-hero team (although I'm a huge X-men fan). I really like the costumes he designed for the cast of this team, most of all Guardian’s (great mix of Maple leaf and the Canadian flag colors) and also the Beaubier twins’ costumes.

What I really like about his style in general is the fact that most of the characters he draw can be easily identified with. Let me explain myself. Even though those characters have super-powers most of them have a very standard human frame (athletic frame mostly). Compare to more modern iterations of heroes who tend to have hypertrophied muscles for the males and amazingly bimbo like frame for the females.

With his version of She-Hulk he made a very feminine character without being over feminine or without too many bimbo attributes. He did an incredible job with giving his characters, at the same time, a very normal frame and a great share of athletic display.

His work with some titles I was less aware of, at this time, lead me to pay a greater attention to them. He is the one who made me start to like more titles like Namor the Submariner and the Fantastic Four. I really enjoyed reading those during his shift as main penciller.

Fantastic Four	Namor the Submariner

I also greatly enjoyed his work on X-Men during the Hidden Years era. It was a great pleasure for me to read them.

Hope you enjoy this entry of our blog. The next should be on Shiro’s own choice of favorite artist.

Enjoy this entry of our blog. The next entry should be on Shiro favorite comic artist. till then, have a great day.