Movie: The Fifth Element

This movie is one of the handful that I will rewatch at least once or twice a year. There may be a lot of movies I have not seen, but hands down I still think this must be the best futuristic part-action part-comedy movie ever made. That may sound oddly specific but its hard to describe The Fifth Element. Maybe it's a comedy disguised as an action movie, or maybe its really an action movie that just takes place in a comedically-futuristic setting. Whatever it is, it is best in class!



In the opening scenes of the movie, taking place in 1914 Egypt, aliens descend from the heavens to make periodic contact with humans. Now, what is immediately odd is that the scene and dialogue appear relatively serious. There is discussion of continuing to protect a cosmic secret, a standoff with a gun, and some very detailed visuals of the alien space ship. This starkly contrasts the appearance of the aliens, which look like waddling pancake birds in clunky robot suits. You are left thinking, "Wait a minute, is this movie serious? Am I having the wrong sort of reaction to how ridiculous these aliens look?".



Cut to 300 years later, in 2214. A mysterious death planet thing is headed for Earth, and a future space-priest of the same order we saw in the opening of the movie is trying to meet with the president. Again, in contrast to the tense discussion of a possible doomsday scenario, we're met with visuals of dudes with ghostbuster backpacks and tubes coming out of their helmets!

Luckily we're soon greeted by more overtly humorous scenes. We can breathe a sigh of relief that we aren't going crazy. Ex-Special-Forces man turned hover-cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is chilling in his apartment. He makes coffee out of a machine that looks like its buttons were taken off of Darth Vader's suit, smokes a cigarette that is 90% filter, and watches commercials on a cheap television screen with his cross-eyed cat. On exiting, he is greeted by a thug wearing a picture of the hallway on his head, one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie:



The characters and setting of this futurescape border on absurdity, but it's somehow still relatable if not believable. The absurd things we find in our own lives in pop culture, corporate brands, automation, and redundant technology are magnified and made ubiquitous in The Fifth Element. It's a riot to watch Korben Dallas wade through it all!



Enter Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). She falls into Korban's cab after escaping from a military facility that recently resurrected her (rebuilt via computer and DNA sequencing) from a ship destroyed by mean warrior aliens. She speaks a language unrecognizable by anyone, and is suddenly dependent on Korben to avoid recapture. She is smoking hot with her orange hair (already faded at the roots), and is still scantly wrapped in the "thermal bandages" from her resurrection. Korben makes a dash for it in his hover cab, dodging bullets from the burger-eating cops in Daft Punk helmets.



Elsewhere in the city, Mr. Zorg (above: Gary Oldman) and his corporate goons are meeting with the mean aliens from earlier. Apparently Zorg had commissioned the earlier attack on Leeloo's ship in order to recover some sacred stones related to the doomsday situation. The recovery did not go as planned, and the following discussion between Zorg and the aliens becomes one of the most iconic scenes in the film:



Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) also has an awesome video talking about and showcasing a model ZF1, the gun Zorg is selling.

I love how Zorg fearlessly slaps the warrior alien leader in the face to get his attention while patronizing them for not recovering the stones. All of the characters in this film, Korben, Leeloo, Zorg, the Priest, Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker, shown below), and even the minor ones show astounding personality throughout every scene.



Film critic Roger Ebert praised The Fifth Element, but in his review mentioned there was a bit too much of the Ruby Rhod disc jockey character, and the film could have benefited from less Chris Tucker. I disagree with him here, I found Roby Rod a hilarious character. Unlike many other things, Ruby isn't just there to show more absurdity of the future. Ruby develops from a narcissistic and all-powerful pop star to a character that sheds his ego in light of the intense action and battle for humanity that begins to unfold. Well, by shedding his ego I mean he screams like a little girl!



Korben is re-enlisted by the special forces to travel to a resort on a luxurious space-cruiseliner. As the winner of a rigged contest, he is forced to endure the likes of Ruby Rhod while he looks out for a special contact: an alien singer that will be performing at an opera. He is with Leeloo still who has helped track down the meeting spot with this singer, who is here to deliver the sacred stones. Of course, the unfortunate priest who has been out of contact is also pursuing them in an attempt to stop the situation from spinning out of control. Zorg himself under threat from an evil force sends impersonators of Dallas and Leeloo, as do the warrior aliens that Zorg betrayed.



The greatest thing about this movie, and why I love it so much, is how many parties are coming together by the end. The situation becomes intensely chaotic. There are not just 2 sides here, there are like 5 or 6 in conflict or cooperation. Among the struggle and blaze of gunfire is comic relief at every turn. It's not all Korben doing the work either. Leeloo is strong. In an earlier scene when Korben was trying to explain a plan, she tells Korben not to worry. She is the Fifth Element, and she will protect him.



However, when Zorg loses patience and enters the fray himself, the story takes a turn towards being more serious. Leeloo is injured, and after catching up on the last 300 years of human history, she loses the will to fight after learning the history of modern warfare and genocide.



Our friends might be able to escape the doomed resort ship with their lives, but with a death-ball of evil only minutes away from destroying Earth, how would anyone save it when the supreme being is unwilling to fight for humanity anymore?



The Fifth Element is an amazing movie. It transforms our modern world into a surreal future, and sets off an astounding chain reaction of events. Every character and force rapidly crash together in one great climax. I'm laughing, I'm a bit tearful, my fists are clenched, and did I mention how hot Leeloo is?

Anime: Ano Hana

Ano Hana, or "The Flower We Saw That Day", is an 11-episode story about a group of friends who have drifted apart after a tragic event in their childhood. The series seemed to be commonly recommended, I liked the art style, and the synopsis seemed realistic and compelling so I gave it a try. After watching Kill la Kill, all of the silliness and over-the-top action circuits in my brain have been blown away, so Ano Hana was the perfect change of pace!



Episode one begins by following Jinta (above picture, right). We see him alone around the house, constantly pestered by a cheerful little girl with pale hair. Something is not right though. The girl doesn't get a plate of food to eat, and nobody is acknowledging her except for Jinta. Passing out, Jinta reminisces about a summer "back then".



We're suddenly taken to a scene of a much younger Jinta, speaking to a not-so-much younger version of the same girl, Menma. She mentions a wish that she has, and the opening credits play.

Back in Jinta's house (present day again), one of Jinta's peers stops by to deliver schoolwork for him. Jinta has apparently stopped coming to school before summer break. Menma jumps at this new character, shouting "Anaru!" as if missing her greatly. Anaru remains oblivious to Menma's presence, and the atmosphere becomes very negative as Jinta rejects the delivery and Anaru leaves.



After this moment, Jinta and Menma bump into one more pair of friends. Jinta lets Menma's name slip from his mouth as he is trying to both control and ignore the outbursts of this apparition beside him. It's an uncomfortable moment for everyone. This sparks conversation through an entire cast of characters, a topic that has not come up for many years. Jinta blames the appearance of this apparition on himself being extremely stressed out. He confesses to Menma that everyone she remembers has changed, but him most of all.



Ano Hana left a big impact on me. I wouldn't say the series is perfect in what it tries to do, but I can't really pick out specific flaws either. It definitely pulls on some heartstrings, yet it's strange because the tragedy of this show lies entirely in the past. Still, the struggle of having good friends you've drifted apart from is something very relate-able. For the inspiring story it tells, and for bringing back lots of feelings when I listen to the soundtrack even now, Ano Hana has definitely earned a place as another all-time favorite anime of mine.

MUSIC

The scope of this post is making my head spin, but if I try to divide it up into several posts I might never stop posting. Still, the way music impacts me and what kind of music does... it feels very personal, so I'm compelled to share. Hopefully I can touch on a whole bunch of this briefly in one long ramble, and give you a random sampling of Meteo's audio landscape rather than an encyclopedia.

First of all, 95% of the music I listen to comes from games, movies, and anime. There is a very important reason for that which gets to the heart of what moves and inspires me: storylines and creativity. I can get really immersed in storylines at times, but often it seems quite random with what draws me in. When I *am* drawn in, I may end up physically pumping my fists or even crying. Music from those storylines brings me right back in every time. Songs with only a 3-minute music-video backstory can't even compare in this way.

Creativity comes into play because I often am reaching out to make something myself: sometimes games, tabletop campaigns, or some kind of video mashup. When I listen to a piece of music, no matter where it comes from, my mind always always always starts to imagine how that music could be used in the scope of storytelling. Traditional music can speak to me still by inspiring me to think of what could "fit the music", but even if the lyrics aren't that cheesy, they restrict the music to telling only 1 story. It's amazing when a song's lyrics match an idea I could use it in, but it's rare and so I end up listening more to lyricless music like soundtracks.

Hans Zimmer - Dream is Collapsing from Inception

With Hans Zimmer's "Dream is Collapsing" up above, I often imagine some kind of stand-off in outer space. The calm before the storm represents tensions rising, or maybe the crew of a ship are slowly coming to realize that a part of their ship has been compromised and they are losing control. In either case, there is definitely a black hole nearby, and as the music reaches it's crescendo, the characters involved engage in a barely-controlled plummet towards it as they either fight, escape, or attempt a rescue. Eventually things get out of hand and all operations come to a halt as the characters reach a tight orbit around the black hole and the music reaches its FINAL climax. Decades wizz by in seconds as the crew becomes subject to time dilation in their near-lightspeed orbit. They emerge ejected from their orbital system after who knows how long or in what direction, and the story... begins. Or wait, maybe you split the music track at each point before it picks up and loop it, and either advance or dial back the music depending on the player's decisions in a game! Hmm... or maybe this would best be used in a combo video where I demonstrate increasingly complex tactics until the end where I do something never done before! Let me replay that again and think on it...

If you didn't notice in my previous blog about Trackmania, the music playing on "Meteo Track 3" is in fact from Kill la Kill, which I also wrote about. The music is actually two different tracks that I spliced together, and attempted to do so in a way that very roughly might fit the action of the race. It ends up drifting off-beat a bit towards the end, but that's because I plan to get faster and finish earlier! It all comes together in a combination of revisiting an impactful story and re-purposing it to show something new.



Reflecting on it, playing DDR and Stepmania (video above) had a very large impact in what kind of music I find stimulating. The songs/levels that were the most difficult AND fun were the ones with a high level of complexity. Non-repeating patterns, odd notes like 12ths, 24ths, and 32nds amongst a background of unpredictable streams of 16ths made for perfect material when it came to creating new "stepcharts". The more layers of beats, the more you could do with a song, and the more entertaining it was to think about. Eventually, this became so engrained in my mind that it became simply the kind of music I enjoyed listening to without even thinking much about it.



Both of those videos were songs by The Flashbulb. It's coincidental because I didn't even know that's where the second one came from. The second video was originally just that animation you see with a smaller clip of of the song on loop and was created part of the "Machine Code" meme. See, my interests there are colliding from multiple angles, a meme from chan sites back in the day that I frequented them, and totally separately from the Stepmania community.

Another collection of music that I like from multiple angles and has a lot of community behind it is from the Touhou games. Zetherin might know them as "Doll Shooters". I listen to a crazy amount of this stuff because of how it's been featured time and again in so many music games, so many memes, the music itself is highly layered, there's an infinite number of remixes, and it all originates from an incredibly difficult series of games that coined the term "Bullet Hell". *Puts on hipster glasses* I mean who HASN'T heard of the tracks "Necrofantasia" or "UN Owen Was Her" or "Nuclear Fusion"? Even the community for Skullgirls has done some crossover content!!!











Yeah so just imagine that but with over 500 more originating tracks instead of just 1.

I once created some of my own music, using Apple's little music toybox "Garage Band" shown as the first picture of this article. It's still on newgrounds actually. Aside from mentioning that and the fact that I do like to chill out to more downtempo electronic beats, I'm finally at the last part of this article which I wanted to get to... Posting a random assortment of favorite tracks and tracks which I am recently listening to!:


Foo Fighters - The Pretender
I find this track highly inspirational, I want to break through any barrier in my way when I listen to it! Also I considered making a music video for it documenting a trip to a large gaming tournament.


Linkin Park - Krwlng
This is the Reanimation version, which I like more than the original and is probably my favorite from the band. A new tone was concentrated on much more than the lyrics this time around.


Ronald Jenkees - Stay Crunchy
Basically, the best track ever. Jenkees is brilliant, I looked up what he is up to these days and he's basically just chilling with his wife and life. He can play this kind of music on a whim using his electronic keyboard setup.


Maplecrest from Skullgirls
Ok, back to my typical stuff, haha. I love this track and plan on trying to work it in as a town theme in an RPG Maker project.


All-Out Attacks from Code Geass
A great anime with a lot of similarities to Death Note, this intense track is a heck of a battle theme.


The Passage of Emptiness from End of Evangelion
Yeah I still listen to Evangelion soundtracks, and you should too.


Zircon - Ladder to the Sky
Back to some great electronica!


I Want to Know from Kill la Kill
A somber but critical English song from Kill la Kill. Well, maybe not that critical because the series doesn't stay serious for long, but hell this cheesy song still strikes a nerve for bringing back the struggle!


Blinded by the Light from Final Fantasy XIII
So what if I didn't play the game much, and so what if this tune has been overplayed in the trailers? I like it!


Machine Head from Redline
MACHINE HEAD!!!!

Trackmania

Trackmania is getting to be a pretty old game series; It was not on my radar anywhere near its peak in popularity. The original version was out in 2003 and in design has not changed much. I do think aging games can still have a lot of value even as they lose popularity, and Trackmania is a good example. Servers are still running for it, the developers seem to be still supporting the expansions and the community, but the period of players making names for themselves and one-upping the latest and greatest tracks and videos is likely past.

Racing games have been close to my heart always, especially unrealistic arcade-like ones. Trackmania is no exception, and it has two features that really differentiate it from most other racers I've played. One is that you can easily create your own tracks (as ridiculous as you want them to be), and the second is that you can race against or replay an UNLIMITED number of "ghost" replays all at the same time.

Below is the very first track I made. I just threw it together without testing it extensively, and only used a super limited portion of the track pieces available (I didn't see an option to view more pieces at the time). You'd easily go flying over the edges on it if you weren't careful. On it, I recorded over 100 replays and laughed harder each time as the number of my ghosts increased:

Watch live video from Meteo2 on TwitchTV
My second track I really got carried away on. I accessed still mostly basic pieces, but spent lots of time testing and implementing new ideas for track sections, and also seeing how much track I could cram into a small space. A single lap on this endurance monster takes about 10 minutes:

As I started playing on multiplayer servers, I realized I was excluding a large amount of the track content in the game. It took me a while, and I still don't quite understand how to make everything I've seen, but after experimenting with the editor more it became possible to make a "proper" track. After a little planning time while I was away from the computer, in two nights I put together a new track that is finally aesthetically and inventively satisfying to me:

Trackmania - Meteo Track 3 from Meteo Two on Vimeo.

Games that let you get creative and screw around so much are a blast; They become modern toyboxes that you can spend hours in without even following a set objective. Trackmania runs smoothly, makes content easy to create and share, puts everyone on a level playing field online, and definitely embodies "easy to learn, hard to master". Overall it's been a great experience, and I'm glad I was able to catch the last boat before it disappears. Then again, it might never! Also, here are a couple incredible Trackmania videos from other people; Both are collaborations from many players:

SF4: Battles vs Rugal, Deejay Success

Rugalitarian is another Vega player whom I've know for a long time. He has a habit of coming out of the woodwork to challenge me to matches in SF4 and Skullgirls. I prefer to fight him in SF4 since I have not been practicing Skullgirls at all. This week alone we've played several sessions in Endless Mode of close to 20 games each of nothing but Vega vs Vega. We banter back and forth on Steam before and during the set. In the most recent set he bested me 10 to 7.

Having been playing SF4 rather constantly since late '09 or early 2010, and now playing mostly on PC where the players are generally weaker than on consoles, matches between players of equal or greater skill than me become rather uncommon. Compared to the competitive scene, I'm not a great player, but online it fells like I'm an apex predator in a sea of prey that get devoured in a single bite.

To enter a private 1 vs 1 lobby, vs a player as good as if not better than you, someone you have a history with, someone you might not encounter for stretches of time, someone who has walked the exact same path as you but has learned a slightly different style, it is quite a dramatic and exhilarating situation. The game music carries on as it always does, but in my mind the sound drops out dramatically when the round is about to begin. Is Rugal going to come right at me? Will he be able to punish me if I jump right away? Can he react in time to retaliate after blocking a risky but surprising attack? Will he directly fight on the ground if I approach?

No, no, yes, no. I know these answers already because we each know eachother so well. I attack first, Rugal baits me into losing patience. It's how every match begins because it plays to our strengths much more than deviating in hopes of a surprise. Rugal attempts to space himself deceptively so that my attacks might barely miss, and takes a risk to make sure he doesn't get cornered. My reactions with focus attacks are superb and as I advance I mix them in to keep him from poking out my advances. Rugal weathers the storm as best he can until...

Rugal gains his first bar of super meter, and the game changes. Rugal's execution with Vega's difficult but powerful hit-confirms into EX-Walldive is much better than mine. His ability to catch my grab attempts with cr.LP threatens to turn the game around on any approach of mine that isn't perfect. If he catches me, I get knocked down, and if I get knocked down, Rugal will come at me in a fury until I am able to deflect him back into my focus-attack range again. The basics of our game average out, and what makes and breaks the win isn't our knowledge nor mechanical skill, but the mindgames of predicting and countering the exact thing out of all possibilities that the other player is about to do.

The amount of random ultras, extremely telegraphed and risky moves, we throw at eachother is quite high. You never do them as anticipatory attacks, but in our matches we do. Why? They almost always hit. I jab Rugal twice, he blocks them, I ultra out of the blue and correctly predict that he would be counter attacking at that very moment. Rugal jumps, I block it, he jabs me and pushes me back as I block more, Rugal waits a split second and ultras out of the blue, and he has caught me attempting to step forward and grab.

Well, I do find myself using Vega less and less now that I'm getting better with Deejay. Aside from these private 1v1's, Vega only comes out as if he is my "final form" once someone manages to beat my Deejay, making matches vs opponents like Rugal even more special.

Deejay is my new alternate pick. My #2. I don't have the same knowledge and mechanical skill with him like I do Vega, by I do have my reactions, my mind games revolving around a high walk speed, and my ability to charge special moves insanely fast. Deejay laughs, he points, he says "AYYY" when backdashing. He's a perfect troll character to keep me interested, and his instantaneous anti-air kicks provide strength exactly where Vega is weak.

I still don't think I'd pick him in a tournament, because I still feel like "If I can't win with my main, I can't win". However, with Deejay I can still prove to be a serious nuisance vs even the hardest opponents. I usually only suffer a slight to moderate disadvantage compared to how my Vega fairs.

His air-to-air punch is insanely good.

In other news, I finally earned the #1 spot in "North American Battle Points for Vega on PC". This is basically the same as saying I'm the #1 "Grindiest example of a particular low-tier character on the least played platform for a short time long past the game's peak in popularity, ignoring Asia and Europe". My more important metrics, which reflect skill a little better, are not nearly as good:

I blame Deejay.

Anime: Kill la Kill

I first heard about Kill la Kill in a Steam chatroom that I frequent. The chatroom was founded based off members of a sub reddit of this other game that blah blah blah, its another story (Nick knows). The take-away is that the members consume lots of anime and Japanese games. A lot of what they like isn't my cup of tea, so I didn't look into Kill la Kill until a co-worker started talking about it as well. At that point I decided to check it out.

At first glance it was rather cartoony-looking with over-the-top fanservice, but by episode 3 I was really enjoying the visuals and dialogue. The series quickly turned out to be over-the-top action, silliness, and dramatic encounters.

The story follows the path of Ryuko, the scissor-sword wielding girl on the bottom right. On her path of investigating who killed her father, she finds herself enrolled in a highschool that is run by... fascists with superpowers. This school is built like a massive military fortress that is the centerpiece of the entire city, in which the power and wealth of the families within depend entirely on the rank of their enrolled students. At the peak of it all is Satsuki, the girl on the top left. Satsuki is the student council president, but wields so much influence she is in fact a dictator of the entire school and city.

One of the early antagonists in the series is the tennis-club leader. These club leaders are serious business, as they are high ranking in the student body and thus have more power granted to them. If Ryuko wants to get anywhere near Satsuki, she has find a way through the culture and powers of people like this:

And where do these powers come from? Apparently from some mysterious component of the uniforms, "life fibers". With a higher percent of life fibers meaning more power. Ryuko comes into possession of a 100% life fiber outfit. This uniform itself is a main character... so yeah when you stop to think about what is going on, it is pretty ridiculous.

As would seem typical and eye-rolling, Ryuko and Satsuki use outfits like this to transform into scantly-clad modes and do battle.

The lead-up to these battles, the music, and the animation are just great though. At least the series has an explanation for a lot of this nudity, being that the life fibers can actually be quite dangerous and thus too much skin contact can be a big risk. Random fan-service in anime is usually a big turn-off for me, but what makes this nudity a non-issue for me, was how it does not feel like it's pandering softcore love to the forever-alone audience. It is always presented unsubtly, with strong characters, with a lot of humor, and just as many male characters end up getting their clothes ripped up or powered up in the same fashion. It becomes a huge plot point actually, defining the series while at the same time being really damn funny.

All in all, its definitely hooked me. The plot moves extremely quickly most of the time, and every episode now has me clenching my fists and rising off the couch at some point. I look forward to every new episode that gets translated each Friday!

The Beginning

This is the first post in my blog. I assume you can edit this long after it is posted, so this is currently just a placeholder for an introductory thingamajig. Maybe I'll just leave it like this forever.

Purpose of blog (as first conceived):

- Showcase various things I find personally fun or interesting to my close friends.

Tonight I had a conversation with Ish and Zetherin about the difficulties of sharing our interests during times of not being into the same things (or simply things that happen when others aren't around). In place of trying to convey these different interests through explanation or random links, I thought maybe a blog would be a good place to showcase a little bit of what we may be personally doing during the week. Enjoy!