Romeo + Juliet VFX

Known worldwide for its classic storyline, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare has seen many different remakes of the version of the play. Baz Luhrmann tries to replicate the play by switching the set into today’s environment. Luhrmann makes a great job integrating futuristic aspects, which is one of the reasons why the adaptation was popular.

At first, the movie looked a little bit ridiculous. The opening starts off with the Montague “gang” having a fight with the rival group of Capulet. The dispute seems to be really childish and violent at first because of the way they react to each other’s provocation. But then it becomes apparent that the director is depicting an equivalent situation in the Italian Renaissance. Meaningless quarrels with lots of violence that usually end with many casualties on both sides. When I first read the play in high school, I did not particularly realize how violent the rivalry was. Unless someone is somewhat knowledgeable about Italian behaviors during the Renaissance period, it becomes difficult to estimate the gravity of the rivalry situation. By creating a movie that is relatable to everybody, the play becomes much more personal and conveys the message that it did to the people back in the day.

What is really striking about this movie is that it combines both new visual effects from current movies and old lines from the play. As odds as it sounds, Mercutio rolling in a Chevy Monte Carlo is not a bad sight. After a few minutes of playing the movie, I quickly forgot that the characters were using old English and the exact lines of the original play. I felt like the confrontations were more intense probably because of the presence of guns in the fights. Of course, the fights were as intense back in the day since the only dangerous hand carried weapons were blades. Also the Prince or Chief of Police felt more present than in the play. Because of the visual effects, it was more clear when the Prince warned both factions for their insolence. The camera angles changing and lightning erupting in the background gives a queue to the audience to pay attention to what the character is about to say, which helps understanding some of the confusing syntax of the play.

The visual queues of the movie really help understand other things like emotions. Being a non-native English speaker, I sometimes find trouble when it comes to understand some of the complex double meaning lines. Sometimes it is not the meaning that is confusing, but what the context of the phrase. The tone changes so quickly that it becomes difficult to see what kind of feeling is going through the character. By watching the Luhrmann version of the play, the emotions become very distinct and the context of the lines become less of mystery. For example, the emotions amplify as a result of visual queues. From reading the play, I knew Romeo was very attached to Mercutio. However, from watching the Luhrmann version, I could notice that the death of his friend was very painful to the point that it was driving him to commit the terrible crime against Tybalt.

I think the movie was very good complement to the play in order to understand the emotions and the context of the play.  I would recommend one to read the play first in order to appreciate the movie. However, it also works the other way around since the movie clarified a lot of the confusing lines the play had.

Assassin’s Techniques

Assassin’s Creed II is a very popular game within the growing gaming community. It has been praised many times for renovating the style of action games. I am not a huge action game connoisseur but I do a few things about games from my experience with some strategy games I used to play. Assassin’s Creed II created a lot of hype when it was released to the public as it outshined old actions games with its fancy mechanics. I believe that the game got very popular because of the new mechanics the game created. The various options of climbing and fighting made the game very attractive for the action gaming crowd, making AC2 a huge hit.

The first thing that was renovated when the AC series came out was the climbing mechanics. I was amazed on how fluid the game was when I first saw a friend play Assassin’s Creed I. Of course, many other games (Tomb Raider, etc…) at that time had climbing mechanics but Assassin’s Creed managed to nicely fuse this mechanic with the rest of the game. One feature that is getting more popular in games is the option of climbing route. Just like rock climbing, people have to analyze the façade to find the fastest route to get to the top. There are also other ways to climb to give the game a sense of a free roaming.  Another mechanic that is impressive is the height vertigo. Every tall building and skyscraper on the map is climbable. I feel a great every time I accomplish a long climb since it gives a nice aerial view. And to everything off, you are able to swan dive off the 300m tall building and land safely into a nice thin haystack. The controls are sometimes funky like the backward jump against the wall, but overall, the climbing controls are smooth and pleasant.

The other main mechanic of the game that was revamped is the fighting. Nowadays, games are getting more and more violent, which surprisingly attracts a bigger audience than other games. There are two parts to the fighting in ACII: the assassination and the direct confrontation. Because assassination is the emphasis of the game, the designers gave the users a lot of tools at their disposition to dispose the target. The varieties of fighting and assassination combos get very entertaining as the game progresses on because of the skills and new weapons the character unlocks. However, if your assassination is not successful then you are going to find yourself in trouble and get quickly surrounded by guards. I like to play action games casually meaning that I play the game not the way I am supposed to be. For example, I often miss assassinations, which is not a bad thing, but the problem is the game mechanics forces you to run away for a very long duration or fight the entire city garrison. The actual problem is not the running away option but rather in the option to confront the guards. The direct confrontation mechanic is very easy and one sided. There is only one control to do during the entire fighting which is to counter every attack the guards throw at you. This sounds rather difficult to execute but it actually quite simple. Each guard attacks one by one and each counter is a instant kill on the target which makes fighting option mandatory and the running away option rather useless. But the fighting mechanic does give the user fancy battles with violent and deadly combos and attacks which ultimately brings in the action game crowd.

Overall, the game mechanics make Assassin’s Creed II leaves the public in awe with its innovative climbing and fighting variety.

The Rebirth of the World

When I think of the Renaissance period, it often brings up an image of a new world with new forms of technology, art and lifestyle. Especially when other people talk to me about it, I get a sense that this period of enlightenment only brought grandiose things that revolutionized the world. It is true that the benefits of the Renaissance outweigh the downside but the atrocities are often discarded from history lectures or casual conversations. Since I was a kid, I was always interested by history and attentively listened to European history lectures. However, I never heard the full story behind the daily lives of the common people, which made my views of the Renaissance one-sided.

 

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Renaissance is the scenery of the architecture. I am not exactly sure if famous paintings bring up these depictions to my head or just my own personal experience.  When I was a kid, I used to live rather close to Italy so sometimes during the summer; my family and I would visit Italy in the summer.  If I recall correctly, we visited quite of lot of places like Florence, Elba Island, Roma, Pompeii, etc… I was small so I was quite uninterested about the history of the monuments but I enjoyed the scenery. After a lot of glances at paintings and many complaints to my parents about how I was tired of walking, I would finally walk around in another place and observe the architecture and the scenery. It didn’t really strike me that the Renaissance period was truly an amazing period on the first experience. But now that I ponder over Italy with recollections of old memories and some old pictures, I can see that the Renaissance period must have been quite a change.

 

The city that reminds me of the Renaissance the most for me is probably Florence. The location resembles the perfect antique cities that are shown in movies.  The atmosphere of the city is special in some way. The location is picturesque as it rests around the Arno River in the valley. But what really gives the scenery character is the silhouette of the Duomo as the dome towers over Florence.  One of my favorite forms of Renaissance art is probably the new Architecture style that succeeded Gothic style. The Cathedral of Florence and the Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica show a good example of a slick design of the building by creating proportionate, symmetrical shapes. Because of my preference for architecture, the exterior look of Renaissance buildings is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the Renaissance. However, there is much more to the Renaissance than the revolutionary look of buildings.

 

Another aspect that comes to mind is the revolution of science. While the classical beliefs started getting challenged by famous philosophers like Galileo and Da Vinci, the understanding of natural phenomena changed. Not only that, other inventors started making discoveries in other fields that dramatically changed the life of common people. Small but great inventions like the printing press generated snowball effects to create other inventions. Because of the tremendous rate of change, it makes the Renaissance period truly incredible in my opinion.

 

Recently, I saw two movies (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) that were related to the Renaissance period, which slightly changed my perception of the Renaissance. It gave me the feeling that the Renaissance had mysterious side, which sparked my interest even more. By watching Angels & Demons, I realized how powerful the papacy was back in the day and showed me how the social classes were spread out more than ever. Overall in my mind, the Renaissance period is full of change that revolutionized the world and created huge progress for mankind. Without it, the world could be a much more different place than it is supposed to be.