I admire Andrew Vachss as both a writer and a human being, but dear God his latest novel - Blackjack - is a trainwreck.

I've not read Predator: Race War, the comic Vachss wrote for Dark Horse in the '90s, but I suspect this is the novelisation, except it's not been licensed, so there's no Predator.

Instead something is killing killers (sort of), is constrained by a code of honour (sort of), has some kind of thermographic imaging system (revealed early on, although not much is made of it afterwards), is pretty invulnerable, and is incredibly stealthy. It's basically the Predator.

But when it's revealed (sort of) it's not the Predator. It's... unconvincing. Remarkably so, in fact. What explanations are given would probably have been better off being avoided.

I have no idea what was going through Vachss head at the time, but this feels very much like a rush job. Not good at all.

Final Days by Gary Gibson

This one was promising, but ultimately all over the place, and pretty inconsistant overall. I liked it but, it seemed rushed out to hit a deadline, when it should've had some more streamlining.

Have you read any of Gary Gibson's books other than Final Days? I've only read Against Gravity, but felt similarly a bit underwhelmed by it. Just wondered if he was worth checking out again.

[Jack Reacher (2012)]

Jack Reacher (2012)

How was Herzog in it?

How can you have a mess that can't be fixed in fiction? The only thing holding you back is imagination.

Strange that for something that was always conceived as more-than-one-movie, a source is saying they're having problems working out where the next one goes, as if Scott had no ideas originally and then neither Spaihts nor Lindelof ever talked to him.

Stranger that people would then believe the way this story's being spun. But I guess 'auditioning writers' isn't much publicity, and doesn't fit into the way Fox is selling thePrometheus franchise.

(Hint: look at the promotional campaign for the DVD/Blu-ray.)

My memory is being taunted right now, but they'd released the virus first and then set up Larkhill right to find a cure right? I assumed all the undesirables where 'randomly' selected?

But I just recalled, Valerie was imprisoned after NorseFire rose to power. So now I truthfully can't tell you why they did all that virus stuff!

Yeah, it's pretty confusing!

From my confused and dodgy memory, they get the virus (and/or cure) from V's blood. They then release it, resulting in Norsefire getting elected. So V & Valerie have to be interned by the previous government, which isn't very good at all.

As for the ending, that's the implication I always got. In fact the comic was pretty upfront about it. V's given them another chance, but there's no indicator they wont bugger it up!

Yeah, the comic's got that one nailed. V's fury at the people for not just electing and keeping NorseFire in power, but millennia of just being utterly shit, is pretty scathing. And he leaves the country in ruins.

But the film, it's not interested in that at all. V's demand to the people is just to stand with him on Nov 5th and watch the fireworks, rather than growing a spine and implementing a decent alternative. Much like the comic, at the end it could go either way - but given that it was the previous government that locked V and Valerie up, and that was all done without NorseFire's excuse of some some mitigating catastrophe, it feels a lot more like they're just going to slide into totalitarianism again (except, I guess, that this time round the concentration camps will be filled with NorseFire supporters).

From memory they'd seized political power after Larkhill opened up. I think they where private medical researchers while they where experimenting on the undesirables.

Yeah, but I think that opens up a whole can of worms. Whoever NorseFire's predecessors were, they get voted in to send non-white, non-heterosexual or left-leaning people to detention centres without the convenient excuse of a catastrophe like WWIII or a virus, which does rather put a downer on the ending given the culpability of all those people now wearing V masks.

NorseFire's virus/cure conspiracy then becomes a method to displace one bunch of neo-Nazi bigots with another bunch of neo-Nazi bigots. And that's troubling, because the whole conspiracy angle then becomes just a way of saying that NorseFire are more evil than their predecessors because they killed nice white heterosexual people.

Yeah, that's my guess as well, although plotwise it doesn't make any sense at all.

They (whoever 'they' are) are creating and testing the virus on V, Valerie, and other undesirables they've already rounded up and put in detention centres. Which suggests that they're pretty heavily in power at the time. So why do they need the man-made virus/cure conspiracy?

Well I didn't expect that ending for a film that has three more sequels. But dammit it was a great ending.

Best ending ever!

*Stands up. Starts to sing.*

All things bright and beautiful...

What I have always found weird about this graphic novel creation is the obsession with Guy Fawkes. I understand the notion of using the terrorist act of blowing up Parliament as brilliant symbol/sign of rebellion against the dictatorship that governs this universes UK, but why the need to dress up like Guy Fawkes complete with silly period wig and quaint facial mask?. Why would someone in the 2030's idolise and copy a 16th Century criminal, despite his treasonous act which isn't actually much to celebrate really.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason / Should ever be forgot...

For something that happened four hundred years ago it's left a pretty indelible mark on the English psyche, which is why somebody planning to bring down the state might use Fawkes' persona in the 2030s (or the 1990s of the comic). Or now, courtesy of the film.

For V's creators it was intended a rehabilitative act - David Lloyd struck on the image as iconic, noting that Fawkes' effigy shouldn't be burnt every 5th November, but celebrated due to his attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

I also liked the lesbian/gay sub plot in the film set within the fascist regime. Now I'm guessing this is in the graphic novel as its a brave move to be so bold with this kind of content (but this is a UK film, and the UK is brutally PC).

Yeah, it's in the original comic. To be honest it's pretty difficult to imagine an English fascism that wouldn't include homophobia, especially as NorseFire were based on the National Front.

The film is heavily cliched but has many undertones which can be looked at in different ways. Unsure how accurate it is to the original source material seeing as Moore didn't like it but none the less its a thoroughly fun action film that boarders on operatic at times!

Don't think Moore's seen it, but he saw an early draft of the screenplay and didn't like that.

The core of the story remains, but it's mostly been airbrushed. The film's V is a much nicer person - there's nothing left to suggest that he set up  NorseFire to fail, or that he's as pissed off with the population for allowing it to happen as much as the government. Everything to do with anarchism's been removed and replaced by some pretty facile democratic alternative. The whole thing about fascism not being sustainable has been removed. There's some bizarre stuff about Threewaters(?) and viruses and the like that's been inserted and doesn't make much sense, presumably as a replacement for WWIII allowing NorseFire to come into power.

But as Moore screen adaptations go, it's probably more faithful than most.

I didn't really agree with one action that the director makes Harris's character (König) carry out in the film, a grim scene involving a young boy he trusts. Unsure how accurate that is suppose to be, I dare say its completely crap, they shouldn't really add things like that unless its accurate.

Its accuracy is more on the dramatic license side of things. König probably never existed, so whatever he does is fair game. The boy is based on a real person, Sasha Fillipov. The child of shoe-makers, and would go to the German HQ to repair shoes and, while he was at it, steal any documents he happened to come across and pass them to the Red Army. When the Germans found out about this, they hanged him. But it's very unlikely he even met Zaitsev, much less worked for him.

I think it's well worth checking out videos of the old A:CM's demo and seeing just how much things have come along in the last decade graphically, even for a game as bad as the new A:CM.

But then I also think it's well worth checking out videos of say, Doom 1, and seeing just how little things have come along creatively in the last two decades.

[Sebastian]

No, but then it's somewhat unusual to actually know when a game has been signed. It's much more normal for a game to be announced when it's around halfway complete. Sega's very premature announcement did neither Obsidian or Gearbox any favours.

Yeah, during the six years' time since the game was announced Gearbox had started and finished Borderlands & Borderlands 2. Also getting ahold of the Duke Nukem Forever license and getting that piece of shite out the door.

So it's highly doubtful they spent much more than 1-2 years on A:CM.

Dunno how interested you are in this, Sebastian, but that Aliens: Infestation game on the DS might be a bit illuminating regarding dev time on A:CM.

According to Wayforward, Sega and Gearbox contacted them about doing a DS port / spin-off in 2007. They work for about a year on it, incorporating Gearbox's A:CM work into it, then they (presumably) get told to stop. Come 2011 they're back on it, saying they did about another year's work before it's release in September.

This ties in to one of the rumours, that Sega checked on Gearbox's progress in 2008 (which was roughly when they were expecting the game to be close to release) and were none too happy with it. There were a number of redundancies at Gearbox from this time, which might be tied to the project being put on hold.

Sega commission Rebellion for AVP3, monitor the sales on it after release, determine that A:CM is still financially worthwhile. As a result, Gearbox takes A:CM out of limbo, gives it to Timegate, and Wayforward goes back to Aliens: Infestation.

That's my take on it, anyway - A:CM's held between 2008 and 2010, no development happens during that time.

There's no way that as an employee of Gearbox you can credibly say that it took 9 months to release the game when it has spent 6 years in various stages of development. There is no excuse for professionals to spend 6 years on a product that has such a shocking lack of polish in its finished form.

Who said anybody was working on it for six years? Yeah, Gearbox signed to the project in 2006, but that doesn't mean much or any time was being spent on it from then on.

Oh come on, there are plenty of excuses, and post-2007 one of them is actually quite reasonable.

From Gearbox's side of things, the game-as-released took about 9 months (although I'm not terribly sure that can be believed).

[Happy Birthday BlackWatch]

A bit late, but Happy Birthday BlackWatch!

I dunno, a bit like he asteroid mining thing, I find myself thinking "this could be where it all kicks off!" and then realise I'm falling into the old SF trap.

If the crew died on day one of this mission it would make no difference, the fly-by would still happen. They're more experimental test subjects than crew. The whole mission's about how cheaply we can send people into interplanetary space with a relative degree of safety.

If it succeeds then that's great, but it still doesn't answer the question of why we'd want to send people up there anyway, beyond dreams and ambition. It's great that it's a motivational and inspirational challenge, but motivation and inspiration to what ends, exactly?