From Zorro to Zero

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of the Disney Channel.  Not the Disney Channel as it exists today, but the one that was so awesome that you actually had to pay extra for it.  Every so often, you would get a free weekend and John Larroquette would explain just how awesome the channel was and then we'd even hear from "Alice", one of the many operators that were "standing by".

During these free tastes of greatness, the Disney Channel would roll out it's best programming, so even if you already paid for it, you would still look forward to it.  In between movies like , "The Boy Who Could Fly" and "Not Quite Human" (strangely staring the same guy), you would get Disney's version of the swashbuckling "Zorro". 

Starring the charming Guy Williams in the title role, "Zorro" was one of my favorite things about the Disney Channel.  It was a fun show with good action and likable characters and as a kid, I loved it.

I'm not the only one who holds a special place in my heart for the character as in Batman comics, the movie that Bruce Wayne and family were watching just before the tragic rendezvous with the mugger was, "The Gay Blade of Zorro" and was intricle in why Bruce does what he does.

Why am I waxing nostalgic about this iconic and recognizable character?

According to this story , Zorro is going to be rebooted.  This shouldn't be news to most people as everything is getting rebooted, but what Fox has planned is remarkable in how it aims to not only redefine how we view Zorro, but to redefine the character itself.

If you remember correctly Don Diego del LaVega was a wealthy aristocrat in Mexico controlled California and when he saw injustice done by the very Dons he socializes with, he goes into action as the mysterious Zorro- leaving his mark behind in the process.

In Fox's reimagining, Zorro is an angst-ridden man looking for vengeance in a post apocalyptic future.

So yeah, NOT Zorro.  The word is that he will trade in his sword for more contemporary weapons, which could translate into messier calling cards. 

At this point, they have deviated so much from the original character that there is no real reason to call it "Zorro".  Heck, they could change the character from a Latino and I'm sure Fox management wouldn't flinch.

I think Fox should look at the most successful comic book movies of all time.  Batman, Spider-man, Superman, etc. have the same thing in common- that they didn't stray too far from the source materials.  Sure there are some creative licenses being made, but it is always in service to the medium being presented.

So in conclusion I want to appeal to those in Fox...you know?  The people not reading this.  I would like to say that if the screenplay is stron enough, please make this movie, but do NOT call it Zorro.  You will alienate anyone who has even heard of Zorro.  At this point, this includes nearly everyone.

Sony Announces Something, ANYTHING (Updated Again!)

For almost a week now, the Playstation Network (PSN) has not been working.  The online infrastructure was apparently hacked by someone and Sony decided that the best course of action was to shut it down entirely.

I'm not effected by this whole thing since I don't have a Playstation 3 for a variety of reasons, the first and foremost being that they were stupidly expensive when they first came out and the people who run Sony seem like they have a stick in thier collective asses.  Microsoft and Nintendo have a sense of wonder and fun about them, but Sony is like that filmmaker who feels that thier mediocre body of work is way more important than trying to do anything fun with it.

It got better when they started doing the commercials with Kevin Butler, but  it seemed like any time any announcements are made, it has no life, no excitement.  It's as if they are more in love with the products that they produce and the fans should just accept what they do.

A prime example of how poorly the company regards thier customers has been the launch of the Playstation Move.  It was quietly released and generated very little excitement in my opinion as I had no idea that it was even being released until the day I saw it on store shelves. 

In contrast, when the Kinect was released, Microsoft SHUT DOWN TIME SQUARE to throw a dance party.

With all of that said, it’s really of no surprise to me as to how poorly Sony is treating this PSN outage with nearly zero transparency as to what is going on with their network.  Now there are millions of people who haven’t been able to use this service for five days and counting, but has Sony given us information about when the service will be back up?  Will people get refunds for the outage that pay for the PSN Plus service or  DC Online?  How about  personal information?  Should we report the cards we use as stolen?

The answer, of course, is that they  haven’t said.

Normally, I wouldn’t even worry about this, but what Sony DID decide to announce is almost insulting in my opinion.

Sony has announced plans to release a Playstation branded tablet.

Huh?

Does anyone really WANT another hat thrown in the tablet arena?  Apple seems to have a pretty good grasp of this market, and I’m sure HP, Motorola, RIM, and all of the others out there creating these devices will do a fine job as well, but why announce the release of a product that no one expected, wanted, and named for a product line that currently has a terrible ongoing issue?

As the axiom goes, time will tell, but I don’t see this tablet business going anywhere and I feel that this was a limp attempt to distract from the horrible ongoing troubles the PSN is having.

UPDATED
On Twitter Jason Evangelho of the incredible site www.videogamewriters.com pointed out that Xperia Play is a separate division from the division who are developing the tablet.  I'm not changing the content of the article since I still think this was poor timing, but it definitely should be noted.

UPDATED AGAIN!

Sony has finally told everyone what is going on and it's not good.

The shorthand is that on April 20, 2011, Skynet hackers infiltrated the PSN and made off with a lot of your personal information including your name, address, phone numbers, passwords, and any other information you may have given to Sony.  Sony says that they don't know if credit card information was stolen yet, but what hacker can get all of your information and tell himself to have the restraint not upload your account info?

What that means to PSN users is that if they had that info in there, you may want to monitor your accounts and change all of your passwords.

You can see the official Sony response by clicking here.

PlayStation 3 120 GB
Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect

It Has Begun

I wish I could write all of the time.  It’s hard finding a way to write some of the time as it is!

I remember the good old days when I could write long and explorative posts about how my life was going and I would mix that into a movie review.  My philosophy was that the way my day had gone may directly impact how much I enjoy or hate a movie.  While there wasn’t any proof one way or the other, it allowed me to get some things off of my chest and tell (what I’ve been told) interesting stories of my life.

MySpace started gaining traction so I decided to start writing there too, but many of the people I wrote about actually read my posts on MySpace.  That fact caused me to be more cautious as I didn’t want to reveal how I really felt about some people, or more accurately, I was embarrassed for them to find out how I felt.

Most of those posts were about my failed love life, but now I don’t have that problem as I am married and have a beautiful baby daughter. 

So what do I want to write about now?  Well, I’m hoping to be able to post about the things I used to post about: random nerdy stuff.  The only issue with this is access.  As it stands I don’t have the time or money to allow me to do any of the things that I love. 

So I started this blog in the hopes that I can use it as an excuse to write about my stuff...  I hope it lasts.