The Division of The Dark Knight Returns

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This post contains some spoilers for The Dark Knight Returns

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This past week I finished watching part two the DC Comics animated release of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which adapted the comic book miniseries of the same name by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson released in 1986. Set in a dystopian near-future (relative to the 1980s) version of Gotham City, an aged Bruce Wayne (55 years old) returns to his role as Batman, after 10 years of absence, in an effort to quell a resurgence of violent crimes afflicting the city.Read More »

Book Review – Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson

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Why I Hate Canadians

This past week I finished reading Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson, a collection of essays and anecdotes published in 1997 about the author’s experiences as a Canadian, as well as Canadian culture and history more generally. As the title suggests, Ferguson takes a sarcastic and humorous approach, challenging a lot of the points we use to define ourselves as Canadians, often referencing history, contemporary culture, and politics. The print I read was the 10th anniversary edition, with a foreword from the author. It being nearly 20 years since the books original release, the foreword helped to but the book in context.Read More »

Nostalgia, Remakes, and the Female Ghostbusters

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While by this time it is rather old news, a little while ago the all-female cast of the new Ghostbusters remake was announced. In the places I frequent online I noticed a very common response — a lot of people seem to absolutely hate it. Many called it pandering, doomed it to fail, or otherwise complained about the “damage” they were doing to a beloved nostalgic film. While the kind of hate it has drawn has a range of implications, I think a lot of it boils down to the simple fact that most people hate change.Read More »

Book Review – Sarah Court by Craig Davidson

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This past week I finished reading my first novel of the year; Sarah Court by Craig Davidson. Published in 2010, the book is Davidson’s third novel — excluding those written under a pseudonym. The novel takes place in and around Niagara Falls, Ontario, following five families who all lived on the same block together — Sarah Court. Though not a collection of short stories, it is not a straightforward narrative either. The novel touches upon each family in sequence, never returning to each chapter’s narrator upon completion.Read More »

My Theory on Bioshock Infinite

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**Spoiler Warning for Bioshock Infinite**

Over the past couple of weeks I have been replaying the 2013 first-person shooter Bioshock Infinite on the Xbox 360. Though I have many thoughts related to this game that I want to flesh out more before writing about, I have a theory in relation to the world that the developer Irrational Games has created that I want to put out there, for the satisfaction of sharing if nothing else. I have not done any research into other people’s thoughts or official details on these aspects of the story, rather I want to share how I interpreted it myself when I first played it.Read More »

The Dark Departure – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

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SkullKid

This past week was a rather exciting one for me in terms of video games. Via a Nintendo Direct presentation on the 14th, Nintendo released information on their New Nintendo 3DS console, specifically with a special Majora’s Mask edition to be released. Having pre-ordered one for myself and the fast-approaching release of the revamped Majora’s Mask 3D next month, I decided I’d make a post discussing why The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is one of my favourite video games.Read More »

“It’s Just a Kids Movie” Isn’t an Excuse

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Anastasia Iron Giant

Over the last few months, an argument has been brought to me a few times that I take issue with. My friends and I are fans of a lot of animated movies, so it isn’t uncommon for us to watch a fair amount of movies intended for younger audiences. During one of these viewings we were watching Anastasia, a 1999 20th Century Fox film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.

Part way through the first act I expressed that I was not enjoying the film because I did not think it was very well written. A friend of mine simply dismissed my criticisms, however, stating “It’s just a kids movie; don’t think so much about it.” This is a mindset I have always taken issue with. The genre or intended audience of something does not automatically forgive its shortcomings.Read More »

Finishing Wizard & Glass

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My final book for 2014 was supposed to be Wizard & Glass, the fourth book in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Despite my best efforts, however, I was unable to finish it before the New Year. Nevertheless, it definitely would have fallen on my list of favourite books for 2014, so I thought I’d talk a little about my feelings on the novel.

This will not entirely be a review. While I will be critiquing it and discussing what takes place in it, it does not sit well with me to give a full review on the fourth installment of a series without having discussed any of the previous entries (this was also the reason I didn’t review A Dance with Dragons).Read More »