Caddickisms

Hicks Picks 9 - Slice of Scifi

AUGH! This is annoying.

“Stargate” movies delayed

The direct-to-home-theater “Stargate” movies are coming–but it’s going to take a bit longer than expected.

20th Century Fox told Gateworld that the first movie, “Stargate: The Ark of Truth” has been pushed back until early 2008 and that the next film “Stargate: Continuum” will also be delayed. Tentative release dates are now March and October of next year, respectively.

“Ark of Truth” is set to resolve the two-year long story arc concerning the Ori and was eagerly anticipated by “Stargate” fans. No official word yet on why the movies have been delayed. “The Ark of Truth” has been in post-production for several weeks now and “Continuum” just finished up principal filming a few weeks ago.

There is some good news for SG-1 fans. On his TV Guide Blog, actor Michael Shanks stated that should the movies perform well, the studio is interested in producing two direct-to-home-theater “Stargate SG-1″ films a year. Shanks told fans to “cross their fingers.” It probably wouldn’t hurt to buy the disc when it comes out either.

There is some speculation that the studio could order a third direct-to-home-theater “SG-1″ movie before the release of the “The Ark of Truth.”

We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for any details and firm release dates as they become available.

What the delay may do, though, is provide some room in the Atlantis scripts for ‘teasers’ about the movies - just little mentions here and there about what’s going on in the Ori fight, potentially drumming up some further demand. That could be cool.

And if it gives them time for another “direct to home theater” project, I’m okay with that, too. Though I have no idea what format “direct to home theater” refers to.

Technorati Tags: Stargate SG-1, Ori, Atlantis, direct to DVD

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The coolest thing about The Illusionist is that every trick he does is something that can be performed practically. The movie does use a little CGI because of production constraints and for a little extra ‘oomph,’ but each trick is firmly based in reality (as stated in the commentary), which is even more amazing when you see the tricks performed.

That’s not a knock on the story, by the way. It’s a very good, engaging, tightly written story. An excellent mystery, full of misdirection with all the clues right out in front of you the whole time.

The only thing that I would have changed, possibly, is the choice of Edward Norton for the title role. I’m surprised by my own reaction, because I like Norton’s work generally, both in this movie and in others, but I think it would have been stronger with someone else in the role.

Still, well worth seeing. Four stars.

(By the way, despite many surface similarities, this movie and The Prestige are extremely different. See both if you can.)

Technorati Tags: Edward Norton, magicians, illusion, mystery, murder, movie review

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Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development: Its a Big @$$ table - hilarious video

I love this. Great Microsoft parody.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, touch screen, youtube, big ass table

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A little girl is brutally murdered on the day of Jack Nicholson’s retirement. The cops pin it on someone convenient, but Jack doesn’t buy it. He’s made a promise to the girl’s mother that he will find the killer. To him, that promise is binding. And thus begins his descent from respected cop to obsessed crazy person.

This movie was made extremely well, and it would probably be a great study in a film class. There is more than one way to interpret Jack’s moves throughout the film, and his acting is understated and brilliant. The movie is filled with big names and excellent actors who all perform beautifully.

Unfortunately, my living room is not a film class.  I was bored silly for most of this movie. One of the tactics it takes is to show a lot of normal life, presumably to lull you into complacency. Normal life is boring. Seriously. There’s a lot of sitting around. A lot of fishing. I get and respect what Sean Penn was doing in this film, but I just couldn’t wait for it to end.

I did like this line, which is a commentary about the state of our world today:

I made a promise! You’re old enough to remember when that meant something.

My pledge to you is that I will never watch The Pledge again. (Unless it comes up in film school.)

Two stars.

Technorati Tags: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Sean Penn, murder, movie review

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The Fantastic Four is all about teamwork and family, when you boil it down. Or at least it should be. Both the original movie and the current sequel, unfortunately, can’t seem to get that right. In the first movie, it was an extremely important part of the story so when it was done poorly it sank the movie. In Rise of the Silver Surfer, they are supposed to be good at working as a team already (for the most part) so when the teamwork aspect doesn’t work well it hurts, but it’s not a mortal wound to the film - the story just doesn’t emphasize it.

The helicopter crash was the one time in the movie when it could be argued they worked as a team. For the rest of the film they each take turns having moments to shine, but there is no true teamwork. At least in the final fight of the first film, they worked together to beat Dr. Doom.

Despite that major failing, this was a vast improvement over the first outing (though sadly that’s not difficult). The effects were top notch, the “villain” was sufficiently challenging on multiple levels, and the story was at least somewhat compelling. The Silver Surfer was incredibly well realized, visually, and Laurence Fishburne was a great choice for his voice. He was also a compelling and mysterious character. The Stan Lee cameo was appropriate and funny. There were some good moments between Johnny and Ben (The Human Torch and The Thing).

In the talk on the ride home with my wife, I think we hit upon the true failing of this series: no one involved in the making of the Fantastic Four movies really seems to “get it.” With Superman Returns, Brian Singer is out there talking about why he wants to make the movie; with Spiderman, Sam Raimi is out there talking about why Spiderman is a compelling character; with Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan is out there talking about what makes Batman interesting. With the Fantastic Four, we get nothing. It’s strictly a money-maker. The story comes a far second to the spectacle. There really is nothing driving the characters. That’s a shame, because these are good characters that deserve some attention, and these films are sadly unrealized.

Geez… even the “Wonder Pets” do teamwork better than this.

Three stars.

Technorati Tags: Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Jessica Alba, Stan Lee, teamwork

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In my last post, I mentioned a definition of e-Learning I wrote a few years ago. For the record, this is what I said:

How do you define e-learning? What are some examples?

My definition would be: Learning opportunities in which the learner/instructor interaction is facilitated through technology.

I would divide it into three catagories:

• Self-paced
• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Self-paced courses are probably the first ones that come to mind for most people. These could include the infamous pathetic page-turners, well-designed, human-computer interactive courses, simulations, and guided web research sessions, for example. (It’s worth noting the the instructional designer here acts as the instructor in the creation of the content and voice).

Synchronous examples include web conferencing, virtual classrooms, conference calls, and video conferencing.

Asynchronous examples include discussion boards/communities, email, etc.

How does your definition differ, add, or subtract from mine?

Now I’d probably add some other examples, like blogs and podcasts for asynchronous vehicles, but the basic definition I think still stands. There were some interesting thoughts posted on that thread a few years ago. What are your thoughts?

Technorati Tags: e-learning, education, instructional design, technology, definitions

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The Podcast Challenge

Michael Allen is a very smart guy, and a leader in the world of e-learning. He knows the world of training and has spent a lot of time telling us how to use technology well to create successful knowledge transfer and the ever-elusive behavior change. I respect his opinions greatly.

That said, while he is making valid points in his article, he seems to focus on podcasts as stand-alone training, for the most part avoiding acknowledging that they could be used as part of a larger strategy. He does make a slight allowance for it in the end, but really plays down the role it could play. That’s disappointing to me.

Despite my disagreement with his focus, his points are excellent, though. What really got to me was the technical side of his ‘challenge’. He asks that you go to listen to a podcast he created and then answer a poll on his site. A fine concept (if not scientifically valid). The problem is that the podcast is only available on iTunes, which means I’ve got to install bloated, proprietary software to access it. How is that good usability? I’m not even allowed to install iTunes at work (and my IT guy keeps telling me to uninstall it every time he sees its “helper” process running in the background), so even if I wanted to - and I do - I can’t listen to it at work. It’s perfectly germaine to my job, so it’s not like I would be wasting time; he just put a technical inconvenience in my way that’s big enough for me to skip the whole thing.

And while I’m complaining about usability, I might as well mention that I really don’t like sites like his that set a defined size to the content area. A lot of sites limit the width of their content - I understand why they do that despite finding it annoying - but his site also limits height, which really bugs me. I have to scroll all over the place because he only lets me use at most 1/4 of my viewing area. Plus everything is crunched together visually. PLUS the whole site is in Flash, which makes precise bookmarking a challenge (though his setup does allow for more deep linking than other Flash sites I’ve seen).

By the way - a little bit of trivia: Michael once asked if he could quote me for his 2006 book. I had written a simple definition of e-Learning that he had liked, including some examples, on ASTD’s e-Learning discussion board (and now it seems that discussion has been deleted from the ASTD boards for some reason [ooo... and the Wayback Machine saves the day]). It turns out he didn’t directly quote me, but expanded the points I made and restated them with his own take. I’m flattered to have been in the draft at some point, though.

Technorati Tags: e-learning, podcasting, michael allen, astd, training, learning technology, education, usability

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Hey, guess what… this review will be completely devoid of jokes about having seen this movie before. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of any movie I’ve seen Denzel Washington in that I didn’t like. This movie is no exception. It’s got it all—Sci-fi, Sci-fact, love story, action, and even a couple funny moments. And for a movie that has the potential to involve paradoxes, it handles the story pretty well, too.

While investigating a murder that seems to be linked to a ferry bombing, Denzel’s character sees the words “U can save her” spelled out in alphabet refrigerator magnets in the victim’s kitchen. That’s the first (obvious) hint we get that this movie will be different than just your run-of-the-mill action/murder mystery flick. When an FBI agent (Val Kilmer) approaches him about joining a team that can watch events unfold 4-1/2 days in the past to try to catch the killer, Denzel agrees, though he soon discovers there is more to this technology than he is being led to believe.

Director Tony Scott does a very smart thing in dealing with the science-fiction aspect of the movie: while it’s obviously integral to the plot, he never lets it become the focal point. It’s there, as a tool, doing its job, but the focus is always on the murder/terrorism plot, and specifically Denzel’s investigation. Even as we learn more about it, it’s never “oooo, look what we can do,” but rather, “how does this help us solve the case and save lives?” It’s a good move that keeps the film grounded in reality and makes it more believable.

While not perfect, the paradox issue is handled nicely. I do have some issues with items he finds at the beginning of the movie in the victim’s house, but it wasn’t enough for me to get bent out of shape about. I don’t want to give away anything, but I will say that some things shouldn’t really be there.

That said, it was a well-written, well-acted, well-directed movie. I was entertained for the full two (and a bit) hours. I also like the DVD feature of integrating behind-the-scenes documentary footage into the film as part of the commentary feature.

Four stars.

Technorati Tags: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Bruce Greenwood, science fiction, paradox

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Okay, after my last post I got sucked into the world of lightsabers on YouTube and ran across these two series:

Three in the Afternoon (and the upcoming sequel, Six in the Morning) is a funny take on what you might really do if someone dropped off some real lightsabers on your doorstep.

Ryan vs. Dorkman (and RVD2) is full-on action. Not a word of dialogue and none is needed. The original was an entry in the Lightsaber Choreography Contest on TheForce.net. If this is representative of the entries, I gotta see more! There is really some inventive choreography in these films. The music and camera moves are all pretty good too, especially for a fan film. I put this one up against my long time favorite lightsaber fight film, Duality, and I gotta admit, for sheer choreography, RVD wins it. Duality wins on looks and immersion into the Star Wars universe, but RVD’s action is smoother and more varied.

And though it has virtually no lightsabers in it, the Chad Vader series is still one of the funniest Star Wars offshoots around.

Technorati Tags: lightsabers, jedi, Star Wars, sword fighting, choreography, Chad Vader, fan films

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Wizard Entertainment

The “New York Jedi” are making a stop at the “Wizard World” convention in Philadelphia this coming weekend. They’ll even train people on sword choreography! Sounds like a fun time. That’s almost enough to get me to drive out there and get my geek on.

The New York Jedi, a group of costumers, performers, actors & non-actors, and martial artists who have a particular passion for sword fighting with light sabers (not real ones kids, don’t worry) will make their first appearance at Wizard World Philadelphia – June 15-17th! Learn from the masters on Saturday and Sunday by taking part in their classes throughout the weekend featuring sabre battle demos, Padawan Academy for kids 13 and younger and basic sabre choreography. A formal Jedi Academy class will be held Sunday, June 17th at 4 pm in the Marshall Rogers Room. FREE SABRES TOO! A limited number of Hasbro light sabres will be given out at various Jedi classes throughout the weekend!*

Man… somebody should open a swordfighting choreography camp near me. I’ve been a sucker for that kind of stuff since I first saw Errol Flynn in “Robin Hood,” then Star Wars pushed me right over the top! I used to practice all the moves - mostly against trees, unfortunately, but hey…. I never lost. I did have a quick dual with a guy who was in a fencing class once, and he said I was pretty good. That was a long, long time ago, though.

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, jedi, philadephia, swordplay, fencing, movies, sci-fi, geeks, conventions, martial arts

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