Let’s Talk About the Freakin’ Panama Papers

The Panama Papers controversy is a crazy phenomenon. It is arguably the best example of the power of information technology. The Panama Papers is the single largest data leak in human history. The Panama Papers consist of 2.6 terabytes of information—to put that into perspective, I Googled how many gigabytes were in 2.6 trillion terabytes, and Google didn’t even answer me. The next largest offshore data leak is just less than a quarter of its size, which itself is slightly larger than the infamous Snowden leaks. Read more

3 PokéTropes That Could Use a Redesign

2016 marks the 20 Year Anniversary of one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises, Pokémon. As expected, Nintendo and GameFreak released digital downloads of the collect-a-thon RPG’s original Red and Blue versions as well as news of an all-new upcoming Pokémon game, Pokémon Sun / Moon.

While the 2015 remakes of Pokémon Ruby / Sapphire are the latest entries in the mainstream series, fans haven’t been given the opportunity to explore a new world or meet new creatures since the release of Pokémon X / Y in 2013. Read more

The Problems with “Prometheus”

I have been a huge fan of Ridley Scott’s original “Alien” ever since I first saw it as a teen. The tension in the atmosphere, the subtle pseudo science, the visceral body horror. It’s the perfect horror film. And James Cameron’s “Aliens” brought the franchise to even higher levels of success as one of the best action movies of all time.

Unfortunately, Scott’s latest dive into the Alien franchise went horribly wrong. “Prometheus” is so riddled by incompetent characters bumbling their way through a contrived plot that by the midpoint I found myself screaming, “Just nuke the whole thing from orbit!”
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“Deadpool” Kills the Cinematic Superhero Universe

deadpool_2016-widePerhaps the most frustrating aspect of a new superhero property entering the cinematic universe is the obligatory origin story. Because it’s a new character or collection of characters, Hollywood assumes it’s audiences will never understand or appreciate them until we see their origin story — it’s called “en media res” folks, Google it.

A young Bruce Wayne falls into the bat cave before losing his parents. Iron Man blasts his way out of a terrorist cave after building an exosuit out of scrap metal. Peter Parker gets bit by a spider and exacts revenge on his high school bullies.

Origin stories have become commonplace and unfortunately tedious.

“Deadpool” is guilty of being yet another superhero origin story, but as the titular anti hero says himself, this is a different kind of superhero story.
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