We're Busy

"Excuse me, but don't you mean gettin' busy?"

Enjoy this picture of Ricky Tan; he's a busy man, like us. We know November has been a lean month at Code Redd Net, but we promise to have some exciting, new content for you in December. Posts, podcasts, all that. Keep watching the skies.

Save TimeSplitters!

There's an online petition hitting the social media right now to either bring back the TimeSplitters series for a fourth go-around, or at least for an HD collection of the first three games in the series. Both ideas sound dandy to us; you know our love for everything TS (citations here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Of course, there's been numerous, generally informal, petitions for new editions before, but this one has some official weight behind it, as the petition makes clear: "...the CEO [of Crytek, the game developer that absorbed series creator Free Radical Design in 2009] Cevat Yerli also said that if there was enough demand, they would perhaps make a new game." For Yerli, "enough demand" means 300,000 devotees.

Even IGN News is on top of this, so you know it's important:

 

As of this writing, the petition has 57,404 signatures of the needed 300,000. You can sign the petition by following this link. For what it's worth, Code Redd Net fully endorses this petition to bring back TimeSplitters. Both directions seem equally pleasing for fans of the series. I would suggest, however, that even if the petition reaches the required number of signatures, Crytek's hesitancy wouldn't immediately subside. They would probably throw out the HD collection to test the market themselves (I'm operating under the assumption that producing an HD collection of old games would cost significantly less than developing a brand new game) and guage the property's success prior to going forward with TS4. Nevertheless, this is great news for fans of the series.

Nobody Reviews It Better: Skyfall (2012)

Finally, Skyfall has arrived; it doesn't disappoint. Thrasher gives you all the details in the conclusion (for now) of our Nobody Reviews It Better series. Truly, we can think of no better way to celebrate Code Redd Net's 11th anniversary than by reviewing this fantastic film.

Throughout Skyfall, villains and allies alike allude to Bond's aptitude for the job; that he has "lost his edge" is certainly the consensus opinion. I take this as a tacit apology for Quantum of Solace, as much for his fellow characters as for his audience. Skyfall is a resurrection narrative, a literal reinscription of the Bond mythos. The generic "bad grammar" of Solace is corrected systematically, starting with the traditional pre-credits sequence. As always, this is pure spectacle and is satisfying on those terms alone (indeed, all the stuntery in the film is clean, well-choreographed, and logical), but a simple gesture reintroduces Bond as we knew him before; as Bond leaps onto the back of a train, which he has just creatively demolished, he adjusts the cuffs of his shirt before continuing the chase. It may seem a banal thing in isolation, but it's a crucial signal, something which Craig-Bond has too often forgotten. Even on the level of story, Skyfall is an investigation, and ultimately a validation, of the renewed relevance of 007. Instead of trying to "update" Bond, Skyfall retrofits his world, gives him Moneypenny, Q, his Astin Martin DB5 (complete with ejector seat!); it places him once again in exotic locales, all shot in expressionistic tones; henchmen routinely meet beautifully absurd deaths; and in a world of increasingly cybernetic, faceless threats, embodies the Other in the classically cheesy villain Raoul Silva, played with aplomb by Javier Bardem. Such retroactivity never seems merely self-referential or cannibalistic, and it's truly wonderful to see the series finally come to terms with its status as an anachronism rather than try to compensate for it. Skyfall is unquestionably Craig's best Bond film, one that finally proves, beyond doubt, his qualifications.

Happy Birthday, Code Redd Net

Memories...

Code Redd Net is 11-years-old today, and we get to celebrate by taking in Skyfall this afternoon! It's been quite a journey, from the days of Geocities (if you know what that was) to the Blogger of today, and we hope you continue to enjoy our prose. As ever, we're committed to engaging with new media as well as lovingly embracing the neglected, aging artifacts of gaming and film. Look for new reviews of Skyfall (the exciting conclusion of our Nobody Reviews It Better series) and 007 Legends, as well as a Jackie Chan Retrospective coming out later this month. Of course, we'd love to hear from you, so drop us a line in the comments below or send a nice, loving birthday e-card to codereddnet@hotmail.com. Now, if you're feeling as nostalgic as we are, we entreat you to check out the following commemorative articles which Chicken Man and I penned last year in celebration of 10 years of dedicated adolescent fandom:

An Ode to Code Redd Net
A Concise History of Code Redd Net

And if you didn't already know, take a look at the Code Redd Net Awards. They're subjective, of course, but wonderfully so.

Movie Review: Looper (2012)

Recently, it seems that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been riding an increasing wave of popularity with release after big release. Some of them have been very good, such as the Chris Nolan films Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, as well as 50/50, while some have been questionable, like Hesher. But it seems that he is not yet big enough to command that other actors conform to his image. In Looper, he plays the younger version of Bruce Willis, being made up to have somewhat similar but unconvincing facial features. Even though he doesn't look like a real person, I somewhat like the caricature-esque face, which makes it almost more play-like. It is not written for the live performance format, though, as it is a science fiction thriller set in 2044. Gordon-Levitt plays the role of Joe, a looper, which is an executioner. Time travel is invented in 2074 and by this time body-tracking has made it difficult to dispose of bodies, so what the mafia does is send them into the past to be killed by a looper. However, a looper has only a limited-time contract with the mafia until their future selves of 30 years are sent back to be killed by themselves, which is called "closing the loop." After this they are allowed to retire and enjoy the next 30 years. The reason for closing the loop, if it was explained in the movie, was missed by me (nor was the reason for the prevalence of such anachronistic weapons given). It simply seems to be a poor business practice. And what happens is a case in point: Joe fails to kill Old Joe, played by Bruce Willis, who escapes and wants to keep the undesirable events of the future from happening. Like any good sci-fi film, Looper clearly has a very interesting concept, but unlike movies such as In Time, it develops this concept into a good story. It is more than just an action film, blending themes of difficult moral decision making involving selfishness and loyalty, as well as being disturbing enough to leave me a little trippy while walking out of the theatre late at night (I thought that one time through the loop was enough). At no point is it boring; I was engaged throughout. In addition, Looper seemed like classic Bruce Willis, in that the action scenes were more like the ones in the first Die Hard rather than the outrageous ones in the sequels. Sometimes simple plausibility in these matters is more appealing than the MacGyver/van Damme/Brock Sampson who can kill legions with only a pair of chopsticks and some fishing line. It is by no means the best sci-fi thriller, but I think it gets the job done, particularly if that job is watching a satisfying movie of this genre when there are no other film priorities.