You know, listening to this vlog reminded me of The Wire. At first it was just the use of the word pandemic, which immediately made me think of the brand of heroin with the same name from the show. So I chuckled and was like, “Pandemic, getcha Pandemic!” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the show. It’s seriously one of the best shows in history and if what I say about it interests you at all, get your ass to iTunes or a DVD store or whatever and see it.

Now that I think about it, this movie is actually rather similar to The Wire in that it deals with things very realistically. Where Spoony says Contagion does a good job of enacting how real-life people would deal with a global outbreak, The Wire is basically a police procedural with all of the fakey CSI bullshit scraped away. The creator of the show, David Simon, worked closely with the police and used to work for the Baltimore Sun, and so on.

The Wire also works with a lot of protagonists (moreso than Contagion because it’s a five-season TV show instead of a movie), but instead of a global scope, it’s limited to the city of Baltimore, a setting the show is inherently tied to. I can’t say that the character don’t do stupid things, but when characters do stupid things, they’re characterized as such that you can totally believe they would do it, and the consequences don’t play out in typical television tropes as you typically see in cop shows.

In summary, anything that reminds me of The Wire cannot possibly be a waste of time, and I will try to see this movie in theaters. If you’re interested in a police procedural that looks at the viewpoints of cops, drug dealers, politicians, and all sorts of people in a decaying American city and an uncompromising, no-sugarcoating look at life there, watch The Wire. If you’re sick of every critic prostrating themselves before this series like geeks do to Firefly, do your best to give the series a fair shot anyway. I can’t say much more than that without looking obsessed, so there you go.

Oh yeah, and I also forgot to add that the show isn’t episodic at all, and there are no previouslies. The closest parallel I can think of for its structure is 24, except it doesn’t take place over a whole day. You pretty much have to start from the beginning, and it might take a few episodes for it to really kick in. So if you’re impatient, and I know some of you are, you might not like it anyway. Your loss.

One of the best things about Contagion was how genuine it was.  I watched it with my mom, who used to be an infectious disease epidemiologist.  She said that, based on her knowledge of the field from the 90s, this movie was around 90% accurate with the real science they would actually do in this kind of situation. 

She said the only thing that seemed unrealistic was how fast they developed the vaccine, but mentioned that she may simply be behind the times with the vaccine tech, since she hasn’t worked in the field since the mid 90s.  So if the tech is up to snuff for what they showed, it’s entirely possible that this movie was totally realistic.

This is one of those movies I really want to see but I can’t go but I can wait till the DVD hits stores!
I would love to actually see a zombie moviemade like this.  Ithink WWZ is suppose to be but I’m sure it’ll turn into another Zombie flick but I’ll still be happy then!

COVER YOUR DAMN MOUTH!!! (hold shotgun to 3 yearolds head)

wasn’t interested in that movie, but after watching your vlog, i’m pumped to see it, thanks Spoony and Miles – this sounds like my kind of flick

ACTION SCIENCE….I LOVE ACTION SCIENCE! IT’S THE BEST TV SHOW EEEEVVVVEEEERRRRRRR!

I just watched Outbreak with my friends – it is one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies ever made. They must have blown their budget on big name actors, because the rest of the acting is so atrocious you’d think the producers had to bring in their family members to act! Not to mention the whole “big, bad military!” premise is just ridiculous. In fact, I think you should review it Spoony!

I hope there was a scene where the guy says “I got a shotgun” :P

Huh, I wasn’t interested in this movie at first, but now I might try and go see it when it comes out here.

I love how in order for a movie to defy expectations or be not be predictable is to essentially be un-movie like. Go figure, eh?

heh. i love this kind of stuff. reminds me of the character i’m playing right now on our wednesday games.

see i’m playing a wizard in a pathfinder (a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 spinoff for those who don’t know) game and our GM, bless his heart, gave us a Clay Golem Manual. this item lets you create 1 golem without needing the particular spells as well as a few levels earlier then normal. the steps are pretty much :

1) make body of clay
2) create pentagram around it
3) press button found on book
4) enjoy golem

so i have this big ‘ol clay golem… so how does one go about their daily lives with a 2.5k Kilogram Gumby?

shove him in a Portable Hole (a 10x10x10 extradimentional space/rug) for easy carry!

now, think about this for a second: you have 2.5-3 meters tall, 2.5k Kilo, near indestructible (at least for the most part) terminator.

a lot. so far i’ve:

-used him as a trapspringer (the golem has a very specific damage reduction ability of decent strength, poison immunity & crazy magic resistance makes most traps negligible). the rogue, the cleric and the group’s two wizards rather dislike getting spear’d or arrow’d, especially if poison is involved.

the golem, not so much. i’ve yet to figure out if he’s even noticed the stabs.

-for those who don’t know, Invisibility is a D&D spell that lets you be, well invisible until you attack an enemy. that “until” part is pretty important as it lets you get only a single surprise attack… it does, however, include a clause that lets you take actions like cutting a chandelier’s rope (and thus making it fall on someone) without breaking the invisibility.

so i asked the GM if could simply deploy the portable hole near an enemy… and then let the golem grab their ankle from inside the hole, thus dragging them into his space, (IE: inside the hole) and then simply closing the hole while they’re in there fighting for their life. if the golem doesn’t kill them, they only have 10 minutes of breathable air.

every time i’ve done this, the GM had me clean out my portable hole due to messy golem-based dismemberment. it’s usually reserved for the enemies who’ve really cheesed us off and deserve the ignoble death called “the golem hole”.

-on more then one occasion i’ve had the golem create doorways, ferries or makeshift bridges where there were none and simply carry us where we need to be. the golem stands 2.5-3 meters tall, my character is about 2 himself. so with the golem’s outstretched arms easily holding my wizardly weight i can easily get boosted to where i can reach ledges 6 or so meters off the ground and easily keep my own feet 3 meters off the floor (which could be made of water, acid, snakes, spikes or some such annoyance).

it’s great size and strength also allows it to be the best packmule ever. after we put all the little widgets in the golem’s hole, we simply have the golem carry the large, heavy stuff… or the REALLY large stuff after i’ve shrinked it.

while we’re no longer dismantling doors off their hinges and selling them to the evil necromancers across the lane, we still do enjoy grabbing the odd things, like a 2-meter long model ship, because… well, just because.

i mean, it was a REALLY nice model caravel.

-remember the golem’s magic/poison immunity i mentioned? one of the PCs, another wizard, likes the cloudkill spell. cloudkill is a cloud… that kills you. it’s name really says all you need to know. it’ll quickly whittle away at your constitution if you stay in it too long. thankfully, it’s generally content to roll along the ground at a speed of about 10 feet per round and you can usually just walk out of it too… i mean, it’s a cloud. unfortunately, that doesn’t help much when the golem (due to it’s superior size & strength) is dragging you on the floor in this horrific mustard gas while not being affected by it.

very often do we use the golem to simply manage enemies in this way, let the golem win an attrition war with enemies we can’t simply alpha-strike while we debuff them.

one of the changes from your standard 3.5 that the Pathfinder variant did, was give the specialist wizards X rounds / day of certain effects. now, i’m an evoker, a specialisation in one of the weaker schools (for those who don’t know, evocation generally consists of spells that do damage, while a wizard’s true forte is in the sheer variety of non-damage options they have).

at level 8+ evokers can create magical walls of [element of your choosing] damage for up to X rounds a day, divided as they choose. these walls, if created on someone or if they pass through it, deals damage that can’t be avoided with a reflex save, like you could with Fireball or Lighting Bolt (wizards aren’t too creative with spell names, you can guess what these spells do).

now, remember how the golem is immune to magic? and how i have the golem grab enemies? on more then one occasion i’ve had the golem grab an enemy, hold him to the ground while beating his head in, all while surrounded with a wall of flame that the golem simply shrugs off. the golem’s own 2d10+numbers and my own wall’s 2d6+numbers rips through most enemies like a hot, clay knife through butter.

or worse… cause here’s the kicker: the golem’s magic immunity has a few loopholes. like how magical acid heals it. so i often find myself surrounding the golem with a caustic wall of healing that hurts the poor schmuck who’s gotten himself grappled.

-golem-based tactical nukes, or “i open the hole, on the ceiling, above
the enemy”. i’ve simply crushed more then a few enemies under the
golem’s massive bulk. i remember one fight where the other wizard tried to cloudkill a monster, hoping to kill it. unfortunately, it was immune to poison and a rather strong melee type.

it also stood guard at the bottom of the well where our objective, a tomb, was.

unfortunately it was also underneath the golem’s only way down, which ended up with two wizards & a cleric cheering on from the top of a well as 2 3-meter tall colossi duked it out in a circular ring, all while the rogue (who had sneaked down earlier under the cover of Invisibility) tried not to get murdered.

All in all our GM has taken it all much better then i had hoped he would. for some people, a golem is nothing but a servant. for us (or at least me), he’s a valued teammate that’s generally underrepresented in the GM’s blog for his contribution.

I personally didn’t like Contagion. The virus wasn’t exactly apocalyptic enough for this kind of movie.