The other night, I decided to sit down and watch a movie on Netflix. I was feeling really down, and so I started scrolling through my Instant Queue, trying to find a movie I hadn't seen that might be good to watch (and to fulfill Marter, I saw Scorpion King 3 months ago, and yes, it was brilliant in parts). Of the 400+ movies saved on my list, I decided to go back and rewatch Punch Drunk Love for the fourth time.
I'm not here to talk about the movie, needless to say, if you haven't seen it, it's Adam Sandler's best work, but that's not the point of this topic. What is the topic is that I watched this movie for the fourth time, still enjoying it, laughing at it, and at times, being moved by scenes, or ideas, that were conveyed to us by the writer, who is also the director, Paul Thomas Anderson.
It took me a bit to think to myself, "Why do I like this movie?". It's not the best film, at all, but I like it so much. The more I watched the movie, I started thinking about themes. Unconsciously, I think I like the movie because it's a love story of sorts (An misunderstood individual who finds love and begins caring for somebody, to odds that make him seem serial killer in context, but he means well behind it).
Is this a theme? Probably not, but it resonates with me. I started looking into my games, and I realized that some of my favorite games involve defending somebody. Not concepts, or ideas, but people.
Ico is a game I find I love more then most action games, because I'm caring for somebody. It may be sexist to have Yorda not having the ability to defend herself, but to me, I'm drawn to the idea of taking care of somebody else.
I was replaying Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee last night, and while it's a bit more skewed to say it has the same theme (as I understand themes), you are saving a race of creatures from being consummed. It's not a game I replay often, and it's still aged quite well, in my opinion, but as for a reason why I love the game so much, I think, is because I have to take care of somebody who isn't me.
Another game I tote quite a bit for being one of my favorites is the King Kong game on PS2.
It's really not that bad of a video game movie, in fact, it's probably one of the best, in my opinion. As I bought the game a long time ago, and put my efforts into beating it, I found the first person levels to be quite boring, and the Kong Beat-em-up levels to be more, shall we say, emotional to me.
I am clearly not a 50 foot gorilla in real life, but when I played King Kong, yes, I was punching T-rexes, and that's always fun, but Some deep part of me goes out of my mind to protect a screaming woman (read: It felt important to me to protect her, rather then protecting her to advance the level).
This doesn't apply to every movie and game I own, clearly, Fritz Lang's Metropolis is one of my favorite movies, as that doesn't have a love that needs to be defended, but it does have it's protagonist escaping from his Ivory tower to better himself as a person, A concept I live with now, but the ones I call my favorites tend to have this recurrence that I've noticed here recently.
So I would like to ask the Escapist, maybe I'm reading too much into this thought, but I haven't seen it come up yet. Are there particular themes or ideas that you are attracted to, especially when you look back at animes/games/movies/books/songs that you call your favorites?
I'm not here to talk about the movie, needless to say, if you haven't seen it, it's Adam Sandler's best work, but that's not the point of this topic. What is the topic is that I watched this movie for the fourth time, still enjoying it, laughing at it, and at times, being moved by scenes, or ideas, that were conveyed to us by the writer, who is also the director, Paul Thomas Anderson.
It took me a bit to think to myself, "Why do I like this movie?". It's not the best film, at all, but I like it so much. The more I watched the movie, I started thinking about themes. Unconsciously, I think I like the movie because it's a love story of sorts (An misunderstood individual who finds love and begins caring for somebody, to odds that make him seem serial killer in context, but he means well behind it).
Is this a theme? Probably not, but it resonates with me. I started looking into my games, and I realized that some of my favorite games involve defending somebody. Not concepts, or ideas, but people.
Ico is a game I find I love more then most action games, because I'm caring for somebody. It may be sexist to have Yorda not having the ability to defend herself, but to me, I'm drawn to the idea of taking care of somebody else.
I was replaying Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee last night, and while it's a bit more skewed to say it has the same theme (as I understand themes), you are saving a race of creatures from being consummed. It's not a game I replay often, and it's still aged quite well, in my opinion, but as for a reason why I love the game so much, I think, is because I have to take care of somebody who isn't me.
Another game I tote quite a bit for being one of my favorites is the King Kong game on PS2.
It's really not that bad of a video game movie, in fact, it's probably one of the best, in my opinion. As I bought the game a long time ago, and put my efforts into beating it, I found the first person levels to be quite boring, and the Kong Beat-em-up levels to be more, shall we say, emotional to me.
I am clearly not a 50 foot gorilla in real life, but when I played King Kong, yes, I was punching T-rexes, and that's always fun, but Some deep part of me goes out of my mind to protect a screaming woman (read: It felt important to me to protect her, rather then protecting her to advance the level).
This doesn't apply to every movie and game I own, clearly, Fritz Lang's Metropolis is one of my favorite movies, as that doesn't have a love that needs to be defended, but it does have it's protagonist escaping from his Ivory tower to better himself as a person, A concept I live with now, but the ones I call my favorites tend to have this recurrence that I've noticed here recently.
So I would like to ask the Escapist, maybe I'm reading too much into this thought, but I haven't seen it come up yet. Are there particular themes or ideas that you are attracted to, especially when you look back at animes/games/movies/books/songs that you call your favorites?
