Difficult Simple

I love going to the movies. I love the humongous screen, the booming speakers and the full attention a movie screen demands. There are no distractions in a movie theater (if you’re lucky), no pause button, no nothing; it’s just the movie and you.

Over the years the experience of moviewatching has grown more than a little disappointing for me. There was a point not so long ago when I’d visit the theater once a week, and while I saw a lot of junk, I also enjoyed the experience. Plus, it was something I could do that was affordable. And that brings us to today.

I watched Iron Man on the big screen and it was well worth my time and money. How much money? Eight bucks for a matinee. That’s just not right, particularly when DVDs run roughly twice that and can be watched again and again without further charges accruing.

Then there’s the psycho factor. As homes have become the de facto standard for moviewatching, there’s been a marked increase in the number of douchebags in the audience. I read a lot of whining about noisy kids, but I can count on one hand the number of noisy children I’ve encountered in my whole life going to the movies, whereas I don’t have enough fingers and toes to account for all the rude, noisy, stupid adults I’ve had the misfortune to watch movies with.

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The comic book world has its iconic superheroes like Batman and Superman and Spider-Man and even the Hulk. Each have gotten the big-screen, big-budget treatment — many times over, in some cases — while other longtime heroes have waited for their chance to shine. Oldsters the Fantastic Four recently got their shot and were a disappointment. The X-Men started strong, but then Brett Ratner got the reins of the film series and drove it directly into the ground.

After a successful reboot in 2005 with Batman Begins, a second go-round with the Dark Knight titled (appropriately) The Dark Knight is due very soon. But he’ll find he’s not the only four-color hero at the multiplex. After a disastrous encounter with Ang Lee in 2003, the Hulk is back in action come June, but one of Marvel Comics’ most venerable superheroes has already made a spectacular debut: Iron Man.

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Once upon a time I had a lot of discretionary income. Since I am mindful of my rights and duties as an American, I didn’t save that money, but spent it all on crap. Years later I’m still digging out from underneath that mountain of useless junk, though the debt has at least been retired.

Sometimes it’s easy to ditch the stuff we find hidden in closets or in anonymous boxes tucked away here and there. Other times I know there’s no point in hanging on, but I find myself reluctant to say, “Okay, drop it in the donation bin.”

I like McFarlane Toys, even though their lineup has gotten a little stale — Osiris Spawn? Really? — I still enjoy seeing most of what they put out. In my time I’ve purchased a lot of McFarlane’s stuff, and a couple of these figures (mint in the box!) turned up recently.

One is Wings of Redemption Spawn, which is probably in the top five best figures ever manufactured by McFarlane Toys. Even without having read the comic from which it comes (I didn’t), the sculpted image is striking. It doesn’t have the fanboy aura around it and is just well done.

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I have a metric ton of PS2 and Xbox games that remain either unplayed or unfinished. Recent reviews of Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront II are the byproduct of my attempt to methodically proceed through these games, finishing them definitively one by one. Right now my project is Sniper Elite.

I have a tortured history with this game. First there was the hassle of just finding it, as it’s a fairly obscure title from the UK developer that also made the excellent (but likewise unheard of) Rogue Trooper. Once I got my hands on the game, I discovered just how incredibly, mind-bendingly hard it can be.

First things first: I have an ongoing fascination with snipers and sniping, and it’s not just because I live in the home of the Beltway Sniper. I was no more than one hundred yards away when Iran Brown was shot, which was more than a little creepy, but that’s neither here nor there. I come from a military family. My father was a United States Marine and a Vietnam vet. I grew up in San Antonio surrounded by military men and women, and among these people snipers are a special breed and their exploits are legendary.

Sniper Elite is the most detailed sniper simulation out there, and having done more than my fair share of time behind a virtual scope, I thought I was prepared for the challenge the game presents. Boy, was I wrong. In Sniper Elite, everything that affects a sniper — in terms of the shot, if not the physical and mental stresses — comes into play, from heart rate to hand tremor to wind and gravity. Each element can be toggled on or off individually, but even at its most basic Sniper Elite is a profound challenge.

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I’ve started and stopped a number of blogs over the years — personal and professional and specialized and not — but it’s only recently that I’ve been able to get hard data on specifics in terms of visits, what people like to read and how they got here.

For whatever reason, the current iteration of this blog goes through wild fluctuations traffic-wise. As you can see from the attached graphic, in the past week alone I’ve seen huge spikes and troughs, going as high as 60 hits in a day (DailyKos I am not) and as low as two. But it’s nice to know that those two visitors are probably just interested in seeing videos of mutant rape… I guess.

Comments are an even more barren field, and consist largely of my wife and I talking to each other about what I’ve posted. Sometimes, anyway; more often it’s just silence, terrible silence.