LEGO Marvel Superheroes - A review

Remember when I used to do reviews on this blog? Of things that had nothing to do with Zack Snyder or David Goyer or Superman? Yeah, i'm having a hard time too. But it's summer, I don't have a job yet, and I need to do things besides watching whole television series (serieses?) and playing video games. So let's review a video game, then.

LEGO Marvel Superheroes is the second to last lego game to have come out (based on a licensed property, at least (including the LEGO movie video game), maybe period). Since it came out last October, it's available on pretty much every platform you can think of that's out right now. My copy is for the Xbox 360, though I'm sure all of the console versions and the PC version are the same, pretty much.

The Silver Surfer shows up on earth, and is subsequently found by SHIELD as he's flying around. They send in Iron Man to get him, thinking he might be a threat, but then both of them are shot out of the sky by a helicopter. The Silver Surfer's board breaks into a bunch of lego bricks that fall all over the place, and he disappears. Cut to Doctor Doom talking about some evil plans he has with a mysterious person over the computer (though if you know your marvel you'll figure out who it is pretty quickly). He has a bunch of the bricks from the Surfer's board and is gonna use them for... something. But he needs more of them, and this leads into the first level, in which Sandman and The Abomination hold the entirety of Grand Central Station hostage so they can get their hands on one of the bricks (which Nick Fury later coins 'cosmic bricks'). Iron Man and The Hulk go in to take care of it. The game pretty much goes on from there, as bricks are moved, stolen, and recovered, more heroes and villains get involved, and more of the sinister plan is unveiled. 

So, good things first. In my very, very, personal opinion, this game is GREAT. I got it for Christmas and am currently in my second playthrough. I found the story to be interesting and engaging. There are a nice few twists thrown in there to keep things from getting too predictable (though you might see them coming from a little ways away if you're paying attention). There isn't any filler, due to the fact that all of the side missions are only accessible after you've beaten the main game, and that's really nice; all 15 of the main game levels are relevant to the story somehow. I thought they did a pretty good job handling the fairly large amount of characters they had, at least in terms of playing; the game doesn't do a lot of character building because it relies on you to have to have some knowledge of what these characters are already like based on their film and comic appearances. Since this is a licensed game, that's all fine and well. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the characters, and I like how self aware the game is, even without Deadpool breaking the fourth wall. And I love the open world of Manhattan and all of the landmarks, from the Marvel Universes and real life. 

Also, when you go to Liberty Island in free play mode, the Statue of Liberty winks at you. How cute is that???

The thing I like the most about this game, though, is how easy it is to navigate the levels. Not as in playing the game, but as in replaying the levels. They give you two separate ways to access the game levels (You can choose icons off of the world map, or you can go to the control station on the SHIELD helicarrier) which is really nice. This is a big step up from something like LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, where I had a time trying to figure out how to go back and replay the main game to get 100%. It's not as straightforward as the version in LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, but I'm fine with that.

Now for the complaints. With the  exception of the first, most of these are probably nitpicks, because i like this game a lot and can't find any glaring problems with it. The most common complaint I've seen on the internet about this game is "<insert character here> isn't in the game", which is totally valid in one direction and kind of not in the other. If you aren't familiar with the LEGO video games, once the game is complete and you're in free play, there are usually a number of other characters you can unlock and play with (some you gain during the main game, but you can't play as them until it's over). In this game there are something like 116 extra characters you can unlock, if I'm remembering correctly, and I'm not so sure that includes the people you play during the main game, and it definitely doesn't include the additional characters you can get from the DLCs. When it comes to this side of things, I totally get why people would be upset when certain characters aren't included in that huge number. I know there's a limit to how many characters can be in the game, but when people like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are left out, the decision as to who can and can't be in it is pretty suspect. 

Of course there is the other side, which is when people complain that a certain character is playable in the main game. The most common one I've seen is people asking why Deadpool isn't playable. And, like... i get this -- there's something really cool about seeing you're favorite characters be a part of the game-game -- but at the same time it's just not feasible. As it is, this game has an ensemble cast of characters that it has to spread out over these 15 levels, and each of them has to be useful in some way, shape, or form. There's also the fact that when it comes to who's in the main game, they want to use the most popular characters, the ones that people who don't know too much about marvel will still recognize -- i.e. the ones with popular, half decent movies (the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men). There isn't a single character in the main game that hasn't been featured in a decent marvel movie in the last ten years. I keep emphasizing that the movies included were somewhat good, because I am well aware that Deadpool was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that movie wasn't good -- that's why Gambit and the Blob aren't in the main game either. That's something that's pretty important to remember when going into this. It's a marketing thing, above all, and to get the widest audience it's best to use the most well known and easily recognizable characters at the moment.

My other complaints are small, like the fact once you beat all of the side missions there isn't much left to do in the free play world unless you leave all of the vehicles and characters until the very end. By the time you're done you've pretty much sucked the map dry of all of the gold bricks, and even if you do leave all of the characters until the end, there's nothing to do with them. The timeline that this takes place in is really unclear: it's like two-thirds the mainstream marvel universe and one-third the marvel cinematic universe, with portions of the new Spider-Man franchise thrown in for good measure, but still completely disregards certain things. Like, apparently, in this universe the Avengers happened, like the 2012 movie, but for some reason Loki is locked up in the Raft instead of on Asgard, which is how that movie ended. Again, I realize that this is a marketing thing and they want to reference the super successful MCU (which is why there's a whole level that references Iron Man 3), but like... you'd think they'd keep at least some of that stuff in line, or at least explain it. Why is the Red Skull alive? Why is Coulson alive and walking around the Avengers? Though, in their defense, I didn't think about this at all during the game, so I guess that's all that matters. OH, and there is a severe lack of female characters, both in the main game and as unlockables, even with the DLC. I can count on one hand the number of girls you can play as in story mode (It's Jean Grey, Black Widow, Storm, and the Invisible Woman. That's it.). That's actually a bigger complaint, because there are buttloads of cool girls in the comics, but there aren't enough of them in this game. Also, why is Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel and not Captain Marvel? What's up with that?

Overall, though, I really do like this game, despite any problems I've pointed out. If you're a fan of the LEGO video game and you haven't played this yet, you really should.

-whispers- i rarely do plugs for my own stuff here (that's what my personal is for) but i'm writing a fan fic based loosely on this game, and i posted the first chapter here. again, it's loosely based; they aren't even legos, but hey.

oh lordy

so, guess who watched an hour and a half of man of steel on sunday after game of thrones?

I was gonna say that I'd been avoiding it for a while, but that would be a lie. I never really wanted to see it. but it was on on the hbo west coast channel (it had come on before in actuality) so I decided to see it for myself.

the kicker, here, is that I actually enjoyed it? like I didn't love it and I definitely didn't hate it. the experience was fun. I laughed at the incompetent things as much as I did at things I genuinely enjoyed or were supposed be funny. I was still mad about pa kent's insistence on reminding clark that he was an miracle while simultaneously keeping him from actually being one. the part where lois says that "here it's an s" still made me mad. but I did enjoy it. women! like 5 female characters showed up, and it passed the bechdel test! there were actual good and cool things in there. and let me tell you, even with all of its pitfalls it was way better than reading the book.

like, I'm glad it turned out to be mediocre instead of outright horrible for me, and I'm glad that I actually got to see it so I can form better opinions on it. I'm still not gonna a buy the dvd though.

okay, so you might have noticed that I deleted my posts about racial representation in speculative fiction. I did it because they were pretty wrong. I explain why in this post: http://witabif.tumblr.com/post/82287350679/i-made-a-lot-of-posts-about-how-talking-about-race

just to keep you updated and informed

i'll be real, i don't have anything to tell you today, except that i'm writing a superman fic for the new au i made up a few weeks ago, and i was able to get all of the krypton stuff into one chapter. how about that, greg cox?

if you want to read that thing, you can find it here. trigger warnings are on the post.

tips for novelization (and, by proxy, fic writing)

somehow, in the sea of things i have to do for school (do NOT talk to me abt nano pls) i've found the time today to think about adapting. now, i know nothing about adapting prose to film but i do know a thing about going the other way around (turns out fanfiction is good for something).

so, you want to adapt your favorite movie/tv show/video game into a novel/novella? great! but don't start writing just yet; you need a few things first.

1. find yourself a script. for the love of god, find yourself a script. please, oh please, do not go into this without a script of the movie, preferably the shooting script, if you can. this is soooo important. if you can't get a hold of that (which happens), look for transcriptions of the movie. both have their pros and cons depending on what exactly you're doing: if you want novelize the movie the way it is, transcripts are best because you won't accidentally write in deleted scenes, but for fic i've found that looking at scripts work better in some cases. for video games you most likely will have to use a transcript. do not try to write your novel by memory or just using the piece of media, it will not work. that being said,
2. have the piece of media on hand as well. this is important too, especially if you're just working from a shooting script. scenes get changed around all the time, and if you're doing a straight novelization you need to make sure your scenes are all in line in a general sense. if you're a visual writer, this is also good for building an aesthetic (if you're a visual writer like me, this is really important).
3. write an outline. this is one of the most important things for any book with more than one chapter. you neeeeeed to know how your story is going to go for at least a few chapters ahead of what you're doing. in original stories, i say you should plan at least five chapters ahead, but for this kind of thing you can go all the way. if you're wondering why you need to write an outline for this, something that is already structured, one good reason is because writing outlines is good for establishing povs, as well as when certain chapters will begin and end. the second reason is because of 
4. stitching. i've talked about this in the man of steel reviews plenty of times. stitching is when you put the scenes of the movie together to make up the book's chapters. it's soooo important to do this because if you don't the book will be choppy as hell and hard to keep up with (see my review of the first chapter or so of the tdkr novelization for more on that point). how much you have to do this will depend on who wrote the script, as well as what pov style you use; 3rd person omniscient requires more, while 1st person and 3rd person limited will require a bit less, still depending on the writer.
5. establish you narrative mode. another important thing for all books. the narrative mode you write in can affect the mood of the book. you have a lot of things to choose from (excepting 2nd person because that wouldn't make sense), especially in this day and age, because writers have been kind of bending the rules and creating a lot of new ways to write in 3rd person. each of the traditional modes will have their own limits; 1st person (hunger games style) and will require that your main character be in every single scene. on the other hand, both of these will give you a more personal relationship with the pov character. 3rd person omniscient (the prologue of the tdkr novelization style) will give you a lot more scope and access to character histories, but you can lose a connection to the characters by accident. traditional 3rd person limited (harry potter style) lets you choose just how limited you are at points, but it still can have the limitations of 1st person. non-traditional 3rd person -- i.e. more than one limited pov told in 3rd person (a song of ice and fire series style) -- gives you the connection with the characters as well as not making you choose one character, which is not always feasible. this is the style i tend to write in the most for my fics, as it gives me more freedom to limit on my own terms, but in the end you should choose a mode that fits your work.
6. if you're writing in 1st person or 3rd person limited, establish your pov character(s). like i mentioned, if you go with 1st person you need to choose a character who is present for every main event that happens in your media. the difficulty in doing this will vary depending on how many important characters the story has. for example: you could tell inception completely from the pov of dom cobb, because (and especially with this piece) the film focuses on him the most. the same goes for something like the film adaptation of scott pilgrim, any rpg and most military shooters (it's right in the name of one subgenre of them!). however, if you tried this with, say, the avengers, it wouldn't work at all, because that movie has six main characters! the same goes for most movies with ensemble casts, games where you switch between two or more characters, and most tv shows. don't switch to the pov of a char that isn't important to the plot in a major way (narrows eyes in the direction of greg cox).

you're finally ready to start! have fun adapting your thing!

happy writing friends!

the verdict on the man of steel novelization

okay i know i haven't been here in a while, but i gotta say some things.

this post was originally gonna be the review for chapters 10 and 11, but i CAN'T

do it anymore. the verdict mentioned in the title is that the man of steel novelization is unreadable.

maybe it's because after the day that i read chapters 10 and 11 i read the fault in  our stars, which is actually a good book, and awoken, which is a bad book that's still fun to read, but i can't make myself trudge through that elementary shit any more.

all that you missed was a short chapter where clark found out about this thing buried in ice, and then the chapter when we meet lois lane. it's just the same old shit as before, but with more annoying ***.
so, if you're like me and you don't want to watch man of steel, but want to know what happens, read the page on the DC comics wiki . It's probably better written, and it won't take as long.

idk what i'm gonna do here next, but whatever it is it'll happen after nanowrimo. happy early halloween and, if you're doing nano, good luck.

man of steel chapter 9

remember how the last two chapters were good? yeah... no

okay, let me step back: this chap isn't terrible, but it is back to the same old shit, while managing to keep all the dumb stuff we got in the good chaps. i thought we were getting somewhere, but apparently not. let's get on with it

we come back to where we left off before the last flashback, with clark floating naked in the water with the whales. the whales are pushing him back toward the surface, and, for some reason, clark thinks they want him to keep going even though he might not want to. now, that's an optimistic way of thinking, but dude, they're whales -- they don't care about you, you were probably in the way or s/t. 

anyway, there is a nice use of clark's super abilities to show us that, a) he cares that people are okay and b) to tell us that we don't have to worry anymore either, things which, i've heard, were not expressed well in the film. it's ruined by the line where clark thinks 'i couldn't save everybody, but i made a difference'. like, way to show that you don't trust us to get the message of the story, author! thanks.

there's a thing that the author does a lot - especially here, but everywhere in the story - where the chars will have lines to themselves. this would be fine, and it happens in a lot of books, but they're not done well here. they draw attention to themselves instead of adding to the feeling of being in the character's head, and they happen so frequently it starting to feel like clark is breaking the fourth wall. in a good book, that could be used to the story's advantage, but this isn't a good book, so we're stuck.

there's also this thing where the author constantly reminds of things that we already know. he repeats himself a lot. i mentioned this a few times in the reviews of the krypton chapters as well, and i'm remembering why they were so exhausting. we know clark has super strength, you don't have to constantly tell us! it's superman for god sakes, no one going in to this has no idea what's going on!

in this chapter we have the resurgence of one of the important artifacts from the beginning of the book: that little black key thing! clark wears it around his neck ever since pa kent showed it to him (we'll get to that in a bit). it's not explained anymore but that's okay because none of our chars know what it is either.

we get another flashback, proving my point that, yes, they should have just put them all in one chapter. the only time i've ever separated flashback from each other was because i thought it would be too long, and even then the two chapters were right next to each other. this one was triggered by a bus passing by after clark got back on land. its when he was in middle school, and he saves the bus from sinking into the river. he goes home and some lady comes over and is like "you're son is an angel!!!' or s/t and we get that one part where pa kent tells clark that he has to keep it all a secret or bad stuff will happen. he shows clark the baby ship and the key and stuff. it didn't move me, honestly.

my main problem with this chap, though, is the number of *** that happen. the narrative changes to lana lang for a moment, which was unnecessary, and that one part is separated with the ***. this guy has a real aversion to writing transitions and it's just coming off to me as lazy. it's not hard at all! come on. the chapter ends after this flashback.

all i can say after this is uuuuuugh. back to the old exhaustion. there's a bar called the bearcat in the next chapter, so there's a ray of light. let's do some group prayer for this next one.