My Latest Verbs (December Edition)

A new month, a new year! And as always, more media consumption habits to write about for the past month.

Star Wars: Episodes I-VI (-ish)

Confession time: prior to just a few weeks ago, I had never seen a single Star Wars movie, TV show, spin-off — nothing. It’s somewhat miraculous, but I knew due to the quickly approaching ‘The Force Awakens’ that I wouldn’t be immune to Star Wars fever much longer. As such, I decided to take the time to watch (almost) all of the original episodes to gear up for the newest.

I decided to watch the original trilogy first, so I started with Episode IV: A New Hope (honestly, this confusing episode structure is one of the major inhibitors that kept me from watching these awhile ago). I liked it. It was good. But I immediately started wondering/worrying that everyone who loves these movies might have their rose-colored glasses of nostalgia on whenever they explain how great they are.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back made me feel like an idiot. I finally felt like I understood all of the hype and praise that the series recieves. I was completely and totally enthralled by the action, drama, and storytelling unfolding. I feel that it’s rare for a movie of this age to hold up so well over the years, but I honestly felt like (barring some of the awful CGI that was introduced in the versions I watched) this could’ve been released this year and it could stand up to some of the over-the-top Hollywood blockbusters.

Moving on to Episode VI: Return of the Jedi — I felt this was a satisfying and memorable way to wrap up the trilogy. After reading into some of the production and cuts made, I do wonder if it ends a little too well for pretty much everyone, a little too cleanly. But overall, the original trilogy has definitely earned all of the praise and respect it has consistently received for my entire life.

Then, I decided to start on the prequel episodes. Despite constantly hearing horror stories about them, I thought ‘surely they can’t actually be that awful’. Oh, how I was wrong. I watched Episode I: The Phantom Menace and was left feeling confused and disappointed, but I still held some hope that some aspect would get better. I watched half of Episode II: Attack of the Clones and fell asleep. I realized the next day, when I was about to start from where I last remembered, that it actually felt like a chore to have to watch the rest. So, I decided to cut my losses and read Wikipedia summaries of the rest of the movies. Some interesting things seem to happen, and the way it ties into the original trilogy is compelling, but by and large, I don’t think I‘m missing much by not actually watching them. Maybe someday I’ll hate myself enough to try again.

All in all, I was incredibly satisfied by the original trilogy, and since the latest movie was a direct continuation of that, I couldn’t have been more excited for…

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Yes, I, along with pretty much anyone who’s anyone, saw The Force Awakens in December. Due to my idiocy, and my lateness to the bandwagon, I didn’t manage to get tickets to a midnight premiere, and instead went early in the morning to the IMAX on the Saturday following its release. I knew it would still be full, but even arriving an hour early, I was greeted with a line around the building, but only a short wait in the brisk wind.

I’m not going to delve into anything nearing spoiler or even story range, because I’m not an asshole (like the guy who divulged the major spoiler in an unrelated article I read prior to Saturday). But I will say that even though I took the time to watch the original trilogy, and doing so is something I’d still recommend, I truly don’t think it’s 100% prerequisite that you’ve spent any time at all in the Star Wars universe to enjoy this film. You’ll get a whole bunch more out of it, but generally, The Force Awakens is setting up a whole new trilogy focused on all new (brilliant, wonderful, amazing) characters. Basically, I think everyone should see this movie. I’ve seen it twice. There’s no guarantee that I won’t go see it again. I cannot get it out of my mind. Please help.

Making a Murderer

If you’re not a fan of true crime stories, then you’re probably sick of hearing everyone talking about this Netflix Original Documentary Series. A ton of people I follow on Twitter had been raving about this series for the past few weeks, and with a small New Years’ break upon me, I decided to start it. Needless to say, I flew through the 10-episodes in no time at all, and like everyone else that has commented on the series, I feel an indescribable rage, sadness, and bewilderment. I’m not going to talk about anything specific to the series, as I believe it would be a disservice to have any type of pre-knowledge going into it. I’ll just say that it is definitely worth your time, despite the feelings of anger and sadness spread throughout.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

As I said earlier, I can’t get Star Wars out of my brain. It’s probably not helped by the fact that I’ve been pouring this soundtrack into it ever since seeing the movie. My favorite thing about this music is that its already so iconic that just from the title of the song I know exactly what part of the movie it’s from and I’m immediately transported back to it. Again, probably not the best remedy for an already bad case of Star Wars fever. My favorites are ‘I Can Fly Anything’ (at about a minute in, I get chills every time) and ‘March of the Resistance’ (blast this in your car if you want to feel like a bad-ass while driving).

St. Lucia — Matter

I feel like St. Lucia is a pretty under appreciated band, flying under the radar of many. Their first album was a complete surprise to me, filling in my insatiable desire for more neo-80’s music, while simultaneously having a distinct sound all their own. Their upcoming release seems to be a continuation of this, all while exploring new themes and styles. They’ve released two singles so far, and both are bright and poppy hits. Perfect driving/dancing/exercising/living music. Just try and not bump along to the beat of this:

Undertale Soundtrack

Another soundtrack? This one is a little more unusual — the beginnings of a new genre to add to my already eclectic list of loves. This is probably technically classified as being chip tune music, but I like to think it has a little more depth than that in some areas. I can’t exactly explain why I like any of this, but I got it with my purchase of Undertale and decided to give it a shot, and my ears are happy when I listen, which is all I need to know. (Also, if you don’t know what Undertale is, don’t worry, you will in just a few short scrolls!)

Undertale

If you don’t regularly follow the gaming industry, you’ve probably never heard of Undertale. It’s currently one of the most talked about games of 2015, and it was only released in September. I’m only about 2 hours into it, so I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s to come, but judging by what everyone is saying, combined with what I’ve seen so far, this is also a game with one of the most clever concepts of gameplay. Right off the bat, you’re presented with a unique combat system — you don’t actually have to kill any of the enemies you encounter. In just the short time I’ve played, I haven’t killed a single enemy, despite often being pressured to do so. (mind games abound!)

Undertale is a turn-based RPG that plays similar to Pokémon. Random battles spring up sporadically and you’re immediately given the choice to Fight or to Act. Fighting plays out how you’d expect, but the real interesting thing is the ‘Act’ menu. Depending on which ‘monster’ you fight, you’ll have different options in the ‘Act’ menu. Most times, these are comical actions like flirting, chatting, or dancing. One enemy wears a fancy hat that it only wants you to be jealous of, but if you decide to continually ignore it, it will grow disappointed and bored enough to leave. It’s completely up to the player to grant mercy to the ‘enemies’ they encounter. It’s such an interesting dynamic, and really makes you think about every other game that blindly puts power in your hands to kill everything in sight.

Another interesting aspect of the game is how it saves your progress. Apparently, and I haven’t experienced this myself, but according to claims I’ve read, if you kill a main character early on in the game, even after you beat the game and attempt to play again, you won’t be able to change your decision (at least not without entering the root files deep in system memory). Which is insane. This is definitely a game focused on the power of choice and the ramifications of such choices. It’s brilliant — and I’ve only just begun. It’s currently on sale on Steam and available for both PC and Mac — I highly reccommend it, even for those who consider themselves to be non-gamers.