After decades of “development hell,” a film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars stories has finally hit the big screen. SPOILERS below!

The Good

Most of the time, the film was entertaining. That’s the main purpose, after all, and it does that well most of the time.

I like how they made Dejah Thoris a scientist. There need to be more heroic scientists in film these days and it adds depth to her character.

I liked how they intermixed Carter’s last stand against a horde of Thark aliens with flashbacks to him returning from the Civil War to find his wife and daughter dead. That was really well-done.

The scene where Carter defeats the white apes in the arena and then takes control of the Tharks was really well done. He basically echoes Tal Hajus’s challenge to Tar Tarkas earlier in the film back at Tal Hajus and gets him to enter a fight he can’t win. The first scene foreshadows the second well. And the music when he leads the Tharks soon after taking power against the city of Zodanga was good too.

There are a lot of humorous touches in the film, like when Carter leads the Tharks into Zodanga, only to find most of its army and its leader are at the city of Helium instead. Tarkas proceeds to smack Carter in the back of the head. The scene where Carter finds out firsthand Mars’ gravity is different from that of Earth and how he initially has problems moving around is amusing. The rather violent attempt of Colonel Powell to try to coerce Carter into joining his cavalry detachment was also funny–he’s reading from a dossier about Carter and gets interrupted by repeated physical attacks, culminating in him finishing his reading in front of a jail cell with Carter in it. The way the Tharks keep calling Carter “Virginia” is also amusing.

After Carter is transported back to Earth, his scheme to get his hands on an amulet that could take him back to Mars by pretending to have found one to attract the Therns’ attention was really clever.

The Bad
Although Dejah has been praised in the reviews as being all spunky and strong and equal to John, earlier in the film she just came off as abrasive and demanding.

Also, when she’s trying to persuade her father not to marry her off to Sab Than, the prince of Zodanga, she said if her father goes through with it, he loses Barsoom (Mars). I’m not sure what exactly she meant.

The back-story of Sola and how she was (illegally) raised by her mother instead of her egg being put in a collective hatchery along with the other Tharks is hinted at and plays a role in why Tarkas treats her like he does, but in order to really get it, I had to check the Wikipedia entry. That’s a problem.

When Dejah, Carter, and Sola are set upon by Tharks soon after finding the Thern base, it’s not entirely clear why they’re attacking. Earlier Hajus claims Tarkas has betrayed them when they find Dejah, Carter, and Sola had escaped, we see one of the Therns among the oncoming Tharks, and we later see Tarkas in a dungeon, so it would seem that Hajus had finally managed to seize control over Tharks with Thern aid. However, it would be nice to have seen this on-screen. It could be intercut with Dejah, Carter, and Sola’s voyage to build suspense.

Sab Than putting himself into a position where Dejah can kill him didn’t really make a lot of sense. Their two cities have been at war for over a thousand years and he’s basically bullied her father into forcing her to marry him. One of the Therns tells him about the importance of a good, dramatic spectacle earlier, so it might tie into that, or maybe he’s just a big drama queen. And his speech where she has a sword at his throat could be better–the impression I had is that he was trying to woo her with the prospect of all they could accomplish with the combined resources of the two cities and no need for war anymore. That could have been clearer.

Just what the Therns are doing isn’t really explained. When one of them takes Carter hostage, he explains that they don’t destroy worlds, but “manage” the process of their destruction, it seems like they’re parasites feeding off the dying of a planet. However, this is never actually explained, nor do we see just how this would work.

There are some dull moments here and there.

The Verdict
A good movie to see once, but a lot of stuff really needed to be explained better. I hope this does well in order to ensure more “pulp” stories (and so-called “planetary romances”) are made into movies, since the failure of the 2011 Conan remake really wasn’t helpful.

Adobo is the Bolo Yeung of pixels and he is finally getting his time to shine. It all starts with Adobo’s son getting kidnapped and after that the crazy adventure begins. This side scroller sends you to all the classic NES titles with HUGE bosses. The game will be a FREE flash game and you check more out at I-Mockery. For now press play and see how much action is crammed in the trailer.

Here goes a dope live action Modern Warfare 3 trailer featuring Jonah Hill and Sam Worthington for your FPS maneuvers. Also check out Dwight Howard’s cameo, it’s good to see him keeping busy during this horrible NBA lockout.

Grand Theft Auto V is coming and here goes the first official trailer from Rockstar. I can almost hear ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ playing the background while watching clips from Los Santos. The trailer doesn’t give away too much but I will say the character models are looking a lot better than before. I wonder if Carl will make an appearance in V. Check the trailer below and see San Andreas has grown.

At CCP we have been working hard to expand the gaming landscape by applying the knowledge and expertise we’ve built up with EVE Online to create a new experience within the EVE Universe in DUST 514, as well as a new video game franchise in World of Darkness.
During the last few months, as evidenced by our interaction with the community, we made some missteps on that journey.
As we reexamine our outward relations, we are also taking time to reevaluate our internal goals. In doing so, we have come to the conclusion that we are attempting too many things for a company our size. Developing EVE expansions, DUST 514 and World of Darkness has stretched our resources too thin.
Rather than allowing this to persist, we have made the decision to sharpen our focus. Sadly, this means reducing our staff. We estimate that around twenty percent of global positions will be affected by this process. These will be predominantly in our Atlanta, Ga. office, although select positions in our Reykjavik, Iceland office will be affected.
We are very sad to lose some of our talented and dedicated colleagues to this necessary process. Naturally we are making every effort within our means to help them find alternative employment. Decisions like these are difficult for all those involved and extraordinarily sad for all of those whose lives are affected.
Following this reorganization, we must do a better job by focusing on these priorities:

* For the immediate future, our mission is to enrich the vast EVE Universe by strengthening the continuous development of EVE Online while preparing to bring DUST 514 to market on the PS3. We do this in order to realize our ambitious and challenging plan of joining the two in a cross-platform, truly massive online world.
* World of Darkness will continue development with a significantly reduced team. This team will continue to iterate and expand on the gameplay and systems they have designed. We will also redeploy creative teams in Atlanta to support the launch of DUST 514.

This will enable us to accelerate timeframes for new features and increase our ability to respond to community needs. The fruits of this realignment will be seen as early as this winter with the upcoming EVE Online expansions and the launch of DUST 514 private trials.
We understand how an announcement such as this can be perceived by our community and industry peers. We feel it is important to clearly address two questions that might arise.
First, EVE Online is in good health. Our subscriber numbers are higher today than they were a year ago. Unlike many other MMO’s on the market, we have continued to grow year-on-year since launch in 2003. However, over the past two months, our subscribers have gone down from their peak this summer. We attribute this to our own mistakes and poor communications with our players. We are correcting that now.
Second, World of Darkness lives on. Its concepts are revolutionary. CCP continues to believe that it will alter the landscape of the MMO as significantly as EVE has done but we need more time to continue to develop them before dedicating the substantial resources required to bring this experience to market.
As an innovator in the industry, CCP has never shied away from tough decisions, remaining agile to allow for shifts in production, technology and gaming trends since even before the launch of EVE Online. While our decision to refocus is a solemn one, it will benefit our players through a renewed commitment to the EVE Universe and its fans.

The new ESPN on Xbox Live update is now officially live and it’s a lot better than the previous version. The layout can take a few for some to get used to but once you figure it out its all the stats and videos you can handle. Watch the commercial and get a taste of what’s waiting on the Xbox Live dashboard for you.

• My Sports – ESPN on Xbox LIVE now allows you to choose your favorite sports and teams and designate these channels as “My Sports,” so you can jump directly into the games and content you care most about. ESPN on Xbox LIVE will automatically provide you with a personalized daily feed of news and highlights based on “My Sports,” catching you up on only the teams and sports you care most about.
• Mini Guide – The Mini Guide gives you a preview and quick access to all the sports content you care about right at the bottom of the screen. Saturday is all about college football, and now the best fans don’t have to miss anything. Is another game tied up late in the fourth? Instantly switch to that game. Halftime? Play the earlier highlights.
• Split Screen – Because true sports fans want to watch more than one game at a time, ESPN on Xbox LIVE is adding Split Screen, allowing you to watch two events at once. Watch live events on both screens or a live event on one while you catch up on news and highlights on the other. You can even control both screens independently, pausing and rewinding each separately so you never miss a second of the action.
• Voice Control with Kinect  – Focus on your team instead of looking for the remote. Navigate through the Content Guide, skip to the next highlight, or play, pause, and rewind that big play…all with the sound of your voice and the magic of Kinect .
• Scoreboard – ESPN on Xbox LIVE is also adding a live college football scoreboard that you can jump to any time. You can even use Split Screen to watch the big game on one side of your screen while the live scoreboard occupies the other, keeping you up on all the action from around college football.
• Reminders – Too many big games to keep track of in your head? Not to worry – ESPN on Xbox LIVE now lets you tag games and set reminders so you never miss a moment.Live Alerts – With new live alerts, ESPN on Xbox LIVE will keep you posted on score changes from around college football, even if you’re not keeping a close eye on the scoreboard.
• ESPN BottomLine – The addition of the ESPN BottomLine to ESPN on Xbox LIVE keeps you in the know with breaking news and score updates from around the world of sports.