There isn’t a more fitting review to write a couple of days after Halloween. A while back, I announced my recent expedition to graphic novels. About half of my purchases were Batman-related. My recent obsession with Batman is quite deep: drawings [see them here] and a replay of what is my opinion the best video game of 2011, Arkham City. Reading the Long Halloween was another great way to solidify my love for the Batman universe. Widely regarded as one of the best Batman Graphic Novels of all time,The Long Halloween adds surprising depth to the Batman universe and in Christopher Nolan’s words, “The Long Halloween is more than a comic book,it’s an epic tragedy”. This review is riddled with references to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, as it’s well known that this graphic novel served as inspiration to the writing of that movie.
This is a recommendation piece, so I’ve allowed as minimal spoilers as possible.
Historical Overview and Basic Plot of Jeph Loeb
Written in 1996 and published in 1997, The Long Halloween was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale. The graphic novel itself received critical acclaim and created two sequels to this series: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome. The basic plot of Jeph Loeb’s story is written during the early days of Batman’s career where crime mob families are still adjusting to the Dark Knight’s presence. But when a serial killer sparks a mob war between two families, Batman tries his best to get down to the identity of the killer before more people are killed. Continue Reading »
It is time for part 2 of my Borderlands 2 in-depth character guides. This week we focus on Zero, the Assassin. With an active ability similar to Lilith’s phasewalk with a lot less power (depending on your perspective on kunais), this character focuses on darting to and fro in battle, concealing himself and throwing enemies off his trail with his decoy before landing immense amounts of damage from the passive boost to gun or melee damage when breaking stealth. In this guide I’ll do the same that I did before concerning Axton. I’ll cover the history of the character, favorite builds, recommended weaponry, and other insightful information pertaining to this character. I will make a side note that Zer0 seems to be one of the most popular online characters for some reason, and many people find themselves lacking in diversity as far as parties are concerned, which intrigues me, as I also started with him. Unfortunately, his ability just didn’t seem to impress me as much as I thought it would, so I converted to playing both Gaige and Axton for a while. I’m also currently working on a Maya, but we’ll see how long that skillset intrigues me. Anyway, on to the guide…
We here at Banana Scoop just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween! The crew went out in the following costumes: SoGoCJE as a Pac-Man Ghost, Rachel as a fairy, Ben as a pirate, and Bruce as Abu from Aladdin.
Part of the fun of many good horror tales is that you have no clue what is going on. American Horror Story plays this card to perfection. It is fascinating to wonder why such experiences are so appealing to people. Aren’t we somehow intrinsically fearful of what we so not understand? Why did I read every Hardy Boys book as a child? I can honestly say that for the first half of American Horror Story I had zero clue what was going on and was enthralled for every second. Plot holes aside I was impressed with the way AHS resolved the story arc and showed how very few of the happenings were truly random. This is the mark of great storytelling. Continue Reading »
Fall TV is probably the best season of TV. There’s just about something on from Sunday to Sunday every night and it’s such a refreshing start after a dull summer of waiting every Sunday for Breaking Bad. So with Fall TV having started most of it’s major players, I’m writing a little update to share with you everything I’m watching. Looking at this list, I watch a helluva lot of television. And I love every minute of it.
Read below if you’re following the….following…shows. Otherwise spoilers beware!
Welcome to the world of proxy damage dealing and the sound of a large rocket mounted turret unleashing the very definition of destruction upon your very unlucky opponents. In this week’s article, I’ll be giving an in-depth look into the Borderlands 2 characters known as Axton, the Commando. While he is very far from being the highest source of damage per second, or DPS, in the game (which honestly shouldn’t matter all that much considering just how much chaos and destruction is being flung around during a normal four man game), he more than makes up for it with his ability, the Sabre Turret. With that ability by his side, any Commando player becomes a force to be reckoned with, hailing down massive amounts of damage with either dual turrets or a single destructive double-barrel slag gun. Within the depths of the following article you’ll find my recommended builds, favorite guns, and a little backstory on the character. Hope you enjoy! Continue Reading »
I love a good montage. Nothing quite says progress (or perhaps a gaping plot hole) like a quick moving, musically depicted action over a period of time. However, with the right combination of clips, soundtrack, and a satisfying end result – a montage can be inspiring, engaging, and epic. Listed below are some of my favorite whirlwinds of non-Sylvester Stallone starring movie and television montages.
The unexpected maintenance update definitely warrants something new or crazy here at Banana Scoop. As a matter of fact, it’s a little bit of both. As bloggers I’d imagine each and everyone one of you who is reading this [all 4 of you, hi Mom and Dad], might understand the emotional and invigorating feeling you might get when you try to overhaul your blog for the better. In the past, Banana Scoop made a humungous jump when I first tried to include 15 – 18 posts a week on a regimented schedule and then another big jump when we tried to make that 20-24 posts a week. Next thing I knew, I had quadrupled the amount of writers on the site [4 x 1 = 4] and we were pumping out so much content weekly. With so many humungous changes in the past and each as [semi] life changing as the last, we now make another big change, hopefully for the better of the future. Today’s post is focused on the main point of those changes..And to those I still have on a leash at this point: interwebz points for you.
We’re Reducing Post Frequency by over 80%
Big one. The number of scheduled posts a week was 24. Reducing that by 80% brings you to about five posts. Five posts a week. That’s a big change and I don’t think we’ve had that since towards the beginning of this blog. That’s a big change up from 24 and I think it will bring us in the right direction. The 20 or so posts we’re cutting out are the pictures, videos, and links-related posts that used to litter our site. Those short posts were essentially the praises of other persons on the internet for their good work and while we liked to praise them for their dedication to pop culture, their promotion made me feel as though Banana Scoop didn’t provide enough of it’s own good work. So by reducing the numerous posts of others, we’re only doing our original 1000+ word articles.
Friday, Saturday posts have been postponed due to extreme changes in Banana Scoop format. Please bear with us until the Sunday Newsletter to get an idea of what major changes will be occurring. Thank you for understanding.
It’s not an immediate surprise that the Simpsons paves the way for a lot of great pop culture moments. I stumbled upon this obscure Simpsons clip where Homer stumbles upon the grave of Walt Whitman and begins to start kicking and yelling at it. Now I’ve barely seen a complete episode of the Simpsons, so I have no idea what the context of this clip is. But what I did make a connection with is the top rated Youtube comments. Surprisingly this is a Breaking Bad related clip, so hit the more button to explain/discuss the hilarity of this clip with many Breaking Bad SPOILERS.
The Walking Dead returns this week and it’s a good time to start hyping up for it. This is a cool picture from Cabm84 that combines two really awesome things: AMC’s the Walking Dead and Plants vs. Zombies. Being huge fans of both, this picture really captures everything I love about pop culture. The picture has a couple of little interesting tidbits here and there: using the pea shooters as guns, cherry bombs as a grenade-on-the-belt type thing. Walnuts in the background guarding the sunflowers in the back. You can see the Gargantuar in the background and then the multiple types in front of the bus. I hope he does another scene including more plant types, as I can really see how creative you can get with ’em.
Alrighty, so what may just be the final DLC for the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer has released, and a ton of things have come along with it. Mostly I’ll be covering the characters and maps, as I haven’t really gotten used to the weapons enough to really give you all a streamlined view of how they work. I do know for sure that they work similar to the prothean particle rifle in that they don’t rely on ammo crates for usage. Otherwise I can tell you that they don’t seem to be up to par, but that may just be a level issue, as I’m comparing them to level X rares and a couple mid-range UR weapons. Anyway, prepare to delve into what I think is the finest DLC Bioware has published to date. Continue Reading »
…a lot of times, [movies] that you tell yourself you’ll check out one day, you totally forget about before they arrive on DVD. Unless someone prompts you, a friends goes on at length about how great a film is, or a particular pop-culture website harps on about the film every other day because it stars Ryan Gosling or Joseph Gordon-Levitt, there’s often no one around to remind you to check out that movie you said to yourself that you’d like to check out one day.
I’ve personally only seen 3/13 of these, and heard of only about half. It’s true that they’ve been on my queue forever. Do me better? The ones I’ve seen below.
If you’ve ever played an Assassin’s Creed game, then you know that about 75% of the game is being an urban monkey, swinging off man made structures and scaling towers in obscure robes, and then falling stories into a pile of hay assuming everything would be okay. This is obviously based on and hyperboloed (I don’t think this is a word) off of the (popular?) sport of parkour. Parkour essentially has you doing the same thing where you use elements in the urban environment to make bone-cracking jumps, and crazy (although unnecessary) flips. Well someone kind of found the medium and decided to do legitimately realistic parkour in Ezio Auditore’s wardrobe. It’s actually really cool and I’m surprised that whoever was taping him was able to keep up. Check it out above.
Here it is! The Mechromancer from Borderlands has finally arrived! A full week ahead of launch, the robot assisted mechanical girl is now available as a playable character with the latest update from Gearbox. Without even requiring a DLC download, Gaige will become unlocked as soon as the player updates their game files. Sporting her best friend, Death Trap, as an ability, this little girl packs a huge punch, with an ability arguably better than Mordecai’s Bloodwing from the original. Seemingly invincible and rather strong, I’ll let you guys decide on what to think of her after giving her a whirl.
My favorite movies are the ones that allow me to connect the story to my own life so that I can explore what it means to be happy and fulfilled in real time with the characters of the film. There are exceedingly few films however that have the ability to produce such a cathartic effect on me. I must be transfixed, lost, entranced. Often Hollywood movies are too formulaic and conventional to provide the realism psyche uppercut that I crave. When you feel as though you’ve seen the movie a thousand times before you are much more likely to remember that you are indeed watching a movie. That is why offbeat, low-budget films are so appealing to me. The filmmaker is often not trying to break box records; they are attempting to communicate a narrative. Independent films are the fresh squeezed orange juice that I wish everyone could appreciate on a hot day. I happen to believe that life is strange, confusing, and messy so when I see films described by these adjectives it does not strike me as a negative thing. I flock towards it in hopes of a stronger connection with the story.
Another ingredient for a truly powerful tale is great acting. If the characters are not genuine, sympathetic, and believable your chances of connecting the film to your life are slim. At the risk of sounding like an art snob (although I like to think I’m not so sensitive to be ashamed of what I prefer) I want to mention that independent films have a boosted believability factor due to the less famous actors/actresses that they often feature. It takes extraordinary talent to overcome stardom and continue to create unique characters. And thankfully there are many that possess this talent. But sometimes even that is not enough. I love Matt Damon but every time I see him in a movie I can’t help but think about all of his other roles that I have seen him play. That does not mean that I do not enjoy his movies, it means I can’t connect to his character in a way that I feel he is real. There are so many factors that go into a film that teleports you completely and gives you sublime reflection. The most important factor however is that the subject matter sparks your interest. This is my review of a movie I just saw that defines all of the favorable things that I just wrote about. This is my review of Jeff Who Lives at Home from the writing/directing team of Jay and Mark Duplass. Continue Reading »
If we consider just the bastard children that are mentioned in the books, [Ned Stark] didn’t have enough evidence to really make this determination. We know of four bastard children, all with dark hair. If Robert is homozygous BB, then this is by far the most likely outcome. However, if Robert is heterozygous Bb, he would still have dark hair, and it would still be fairly likely for four bastard children to have dark hair (think about flipping a coin and getting four heads in a row). When you add in the fact that some of his mistresses and whores likely had dark coloration as well, it becomes even more likely that all four illegitimate children have dark hair. So as far as Ned knows, Robert could well be Bb. And if he is, then the fact that he had three blonde children with the almost certainly bb Cersei Lannister is again reasonably likely. This is why Tyrion remarks that Joffrey’s – and hence Cersei’s – claim would be foolproof if she had had even one child with Robert: someone with dark hair married to someone with light hair having some children with light hair and some children with dark hair is utterly normal.
Mike Erhmentraut has been trending on the internet lately because of his sheer awesomeness. He was involved in a few unforgettable moments in season 5 of Breaking Bad, and has therefore spawned an amazing commercial that plays on the “Be Like Mike” campaign that revolved around Michael Jordan so many years ago. An upbeat tune of being “Like Mike” has a different connotation to it because the original campaign wanted you to be like the awesome and inspiring basketball player, while this version aspires you to be a fixer and cold-blooded murderer. Check out the original Like Mike commercial below and beware because the above video contains massive spoilers.
This is a neat image revolving around famous video game protagonists and their inabilities to speak sometimes. Besides a usual ‘hiyeah’ and grunt, these guys have little to say and much more to do. While I do recognize all four, I’m kinda embarassed to say that I’ve only played Mario and Zelda games. I’ve never played a Half-Life game nor Chrono Trigger, but I kind of assume that they’re also soft spoken. I wish I could dig up the artist, so if someone happens by them, please let me know.
So Bad Piggies has been a vacuum of time wasting and a staple to how I spend my time in class. Between Bad Piggies and stressing to get articles done in time, I think I might enjoy some mindless time wasting via Rovio’s latest mobile app. Bad Piggies is a spin-off of the Angry Birds franchise that circles around the bad guys of the original game. This time, they’re in your hands to acquire the thing they desire most: eggs. On your way to get the eggs, a number of hijinx ensue where you must help the pigs acquire pieces to maps that lead to the eggs. Unfortunately pieces are in unattainable areas and require you to help the pigs build miraculous contraptions to ge from point A to point B. The process is fun, challenging, and the time spent:payment ratio far exceeds the $0.99 game for iPhone.
An Appreciated Directional Change by Rovio
After a string of similar spin-offs: Angry Birds: Seasons, Angry Birds: Rio, Angry Birds Space, bringing the franchise in a new direction [and even keeping the old direction with the confirmed Angry Birds: Star Wars], using the Piggies as new protagonists in a completely different setting is really cool to see. Everyone thought this spin-off would be just another Angry Birds rip-off, but it’s pretty clear that this new game is built from the ground up with similar addictive elements like 3-star grinding and secret hunting.
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