tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post4530926063930418404..comments2023-09-12T19:01:16.556-07:00Comments on Chris Writes About the End of the World: Bonus Blog- The Dead Island Trailer: Why Killing Children Is AwesomeChrisfarnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13493760691926809015noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post-32441168244904891242011-02-19T03:13:59.378-08:002011-02-19T03:13:59.378-08:00The "totally awesome" was referring less...The "totally awesome" was referring less to the guitar sound track, and more to the kill-counter in the corner of the screen, the guy wearing a moose head and the motorbike with two chainsaws attached to the handles (which, y'know, cool!)<br /><br />The distinction I was going for was the difference between trying to get a reaction from the characters in the story (Which amounted to the, admittedly cliched, need for the father to protect his daughter-cliches aren't always a bad thing) and simply going "LOOK! DEAD BABIES!" The question was, is the use of this traumatic image justified. I'm not judging my a hugely high criteria, but I think the answer is yes.<br /><br />You won't catch me arguing that sci-fi and horror *don't* also belong in ancient cultural traditions. As I mentioned in the very first blog- sci-fi writers are thieving bastards.Chrisfarnellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13493760691926809015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post-56496905050466822392011-02-19T01:29:58.808-08:002011-02-19T01:29:58.808-08:00Btw, I thought your discussions on the sci-fi and ...Btw, I thought your discussions on the sci-fi and horror genre of the previous post were very interesting. I take a bit of a different slant myself - I tend to insert these genres into historical traditions as ancient as possible - but still, I thought it was a refreshing and stimulating way of approaching them.The Judgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911072587886208028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post-53390550843949244282011-02-19T01:27:16.185-08:002011-02-19T01:27:16.185-08:00"Personally I find it refreshing to see a vid..."Personally I find it refreshing to see a videogame advert that presents violence as anything other than totally awesome."<br /><br />The thing is, I don't think the Dead Island trailer is doing anything very different. It changes the tone, but it doesn't change the depth. Dead Rising 2 stimulates very simple emotions with an electrical guitar, Dead Island does so with a piano, but they're still both going for facile emotions.<br /><br />In part, I don't see the distinction you're making between an 'emotional beat' and 'shocking for shocking's sake'. You could argue that emotions are there for their own sake, or that shocks are never there for their own sake (even if their purpose is just selling a product). My problem is that for all of its cleverly inverted narrative structure, it's still composed fundamentally of cliches.The Judgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911072587886208028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post-70906857926174967972011-02-18T15:41:57.515-08:002011-02-18T15:41:57.515-08:00I think for a narrative that takes place in a litt...I think for a narrative that takes place in a little over three minutes it's pretty complex. And yes, throwing a child out a window is a pretty easy way to get an emotional response (We've all found that out one way or another) as is the two hands reaching for each other at the end. And I will give you that things happening in slow motion while sad music plays is vastly overused by games adverts (slow motion and BACKWARDS though?).<br />But the main drive of my argument is that the trailer manages to pay for the shocking imagery it starts out with. There are enough details (sparse as they are)given to the characters to make the kid's death an emotional beat in a story, as opposed to just being shocking for shocking's sake.Chrisfarnellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13493760691926809015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454434077347648648.post-66302047190690375072011-02-18T14:13:34.340-08:002011-02-18T14:13:34.340-08:00That trailer is fucking sick.
And that's a de...That trailer is fucking sick.<br /><br />And that's a declaration of my personal taste, not a statement on the text's value, of course.<br /><br />That being said, I think it's a pretty poor trailer and you may be overestimating it. I appreciate the attempt to thread something like a narrative rather than just throwing some game footage out there and calling it a day. But the narrative itself seemed pretty rudimentary. In particular it appealed to very easy tropes to elicit emotion, from the loving family picture to the slo-mo, through the softly tinkling piano. Ever since Gears of War figured out that just about *anything* can seem deeply artistic or moving if you stick a fucking Nyman track over it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8&feature=fvst), it seems we're getting quite a few wannabe Spielbergs out there.The Judgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911072587886208028noreply@blogger.com