Return to the Grid (Tron: Uprising Prelude Review)

This week’s review is going to be a little different as there is not a single film being released this week that I’m a) interested in or b) available in my area. The wife and I are waiting to see what the reviews are for What To Expect When You’re Expecting, Samuel L. Jackson’s The Samaritan doesn’t appear to be screening nearby, and you couldn’t pay me to see Battleship. Some friends went to an early screening and had nothing good to say except that the fight scenes were incredible. The throwback references to the board game, while amusing, aren’t enough (for me) to spend what little movie money I have on schlock. Well, at least Michael Bay schlock – I do own Meteor Man and Tank Girl, so I don’t mind some schlocky-ness in my film experience.

So instead, this week, I’ll be diving into the Grid to discuss the upcoming Disney XD cartoon Tron: Uprising. Designed to take place between Tron and Tron: Legacy, the story follows a young program named Beck as he takes up the mantle of Tron to become the protector of the Grid.The prelude episode, “Beck’s Beginning”, airs tonight at 9:30p ET on Disney XD, but it can be downloaded in advance for free in both HD or Standard from iTunes or viewed on Youtube.

Borrowing from the previously successful Batman Beyond model, Uprising features a young man (Beck) who wants to make a difference being mentored by a retired hero (Tron). Beck’s call to arms occurs when his home, Argon City, is occupied by the oppressive General Tesler (Disney clearly didn’t get the memo that Edison is the jerk, not Tesla) and he sees his friends paying the price for insurrection in the land of tyranny.  (Ok, I’m making it sound a little more dramatic than it is, but the premise is simple and I don’t have the cool animation capability that they do to fill in the gaps between brooding conversations.)

SSX DLC: It’s (Finally) Tricky

Yesterday EA Sports released the Mt. Eddie DLC for SSX (2012), and it’s what fans of the series have all wanted. No crevices to fall into. No need for wingsuits, ice picks, pulse goggles, armor, or any other reality-based equipment. Like in the beginning, it’s just you, your board and all the jumps, rail grinds, and fun you can handle.

Let me take a step back for a moment. The latest edition of SSX, released back in March, was heralded as the second coming for the SSX series. When the title was unveiled as “SSX: Deadly Descents”, the most vocal of fans decried it as an enormous step away from what made SSX great – odd characters, fun slopes, gravity-defying tricks. Though “Deadly Descents” was dropped from the title, it wasn’t dropped from the game. In fact, EA utilized creative-commons satellite imagery of the Earth to create 9 distinct peaks to race, trick, and survive. I’m not a big sports gamer, and the only new-gen racing game I own is Split/Second, but there is a harmony to the SSX series. Once they tried to make it based in reality a LOT of the fun went out the window.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Demo)

Premiering to Xbox 360 Gold members late Monday night, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 demo brings the Sith(Jedi?) secret apprentice Starkiller back the dead. I played the original Force Unleashed on the 360 and loved it. Thought he camera was a little irritating and the force grip controls buggy, as an avid Star Wars fan, I could feel it flow through me with every button push – which was great because that meant I was either electrocuting someone with lightning, moving them out of the way with force push, or chucking them for distance with force grip. I didn’t care if my lightsaber was red, blue, green, purple, gold or black – it cut through AT-ATs, stormtroppers or rogue Jedi with precision. The demo for The Force Unleashed proved that the designers knew what worked and focused their energy on that.

Year Of The Black Rainbow

This Tuesday, April 13th, brought the release of the fifth Coheed and Cambria album – Year Of The Black Rainbow.

“Harbinger of doom and art critic. Your evil knows no bounds” – from Year Of The Black Rainbow, the novel companion.

Coheed and Cambria has been called many things throughout it’s career – rock, emo, prog-rock, alt-rock – the list can go on. I think that it depends on the album you’re listening to which determines the sound. Unlike most bands, Coheed and Cambria uses their albums to tell a story, each album providing a little bit more information than the last. Serving as a prequel to the other four albums, Year Of The Black Rainbow provides the origins of characters established in The Second Stage Turbine Blade, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Vol 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness, and Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World For Tomorrow.