Juice Columnist

I’m an avid Kevin Smith fan, and one of his books, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, never leaves my side. I regularly watch his films, and quite frankly, I like this dude. I want to give Smith a round of applause for what he is currently doing with his new movie, the dedication he shows to his fan base, and his retirement from filmmaking.

Red State, one of Smith’s final films, tells a story about three friends on a mission to pursue their interest in having group sex with an older woman. Arriving at their destination, they are met with a violent fundamental family that resembles the Phelps family of the Westboro Baptist church. This clash sparks obvious conflict, which results in a standoff similar to what happened in Waco Texas in 1993.

This flick strays away from what Smith is known for; that funny toilet and drug humor we all know from Jay and Silent Bob. There is a dark feel in this movie that isn’t present in any of Smith’s other films.

Another unusual thing (besides the dark, horror-style of Red State) is that Smith is promoting and distributing the movie all by himself. He showed it at the Sundance Film Festival this year, then purchased it from himself deciding that self-distribution was the way to go. This is the same thing that Mel Gibson did when he released his successful film, The Passion of the Christ.

Smith just finished a two-month tour of the film by renting it out to various venues and showing it on a projector that he’s been carrying with him on his tour bus. After each screening, he conducted question and answer sessions. He’s going back to his indie roots and I’m proud to see that his last few movies will be released and made in the same style that made him as a big shot in the first place.

When making a big budget picture, you have to use the budget the studio gives you. Once the movie is created you have to market it, obviously. That’s just more money piled on top of the regular budget, and seeing as filmmaking is a business, making money on a picture is necessary. When you tack on, say 10 million dollars to market a film like Red State (which is only a 4 million dollar film), that equals another million dollars that the movie will have to generate to be deemed successful from a monetary standpoint. On top of that, not many people are aware of Smith’s films so they wouldn’t likely know about new movies of his in the first place. This bugged Smith due to the fact that his films don’t receive a ton of revenue.

After Smith’s first film, Clerks, he developed a solid fan base. So instead of spending tons of money marketing a film that will only be seen by people who follow him, Smith decided to promote the film through his fast growing “smodcast,” which is his podcast network.

He’s using new media to touch his fan-base in ways that studios wouldn’t by informing fans who listen to his various shows about the film tour. He’s literally telling people to go see his movie. I like that idea more than a commercial on TV or a billboard on the street. I feel that Smith is asking me to personally watch something he created. I’m sure all his fans feel the same way.

After Red State, Smith (a big hockey fan) plans on making one final movie called Hit Somebody, which is based off a famous song by Warren Zevon about a hockey player who wants to get “one more goal.”

Red State isn’t being released until Oct. 2011. In the meantime, I hope Smith will keep doing what he’s doing and finish his filmmaking career with a big bang.

The original “Dragon Age: Origins” was an award-winning role playing game; its sequel “Dragon Age 2,” keeps the player in the same world, but changes almost every other aspect that made the original so great.

The story is told though a framed narrative, about Hawke, the main character, and his quest to gain fame in the costal city of Kirkwall after being run out of his hometown.

The producer, BioWare is a few strokes off par when it comes to telling DA2’s story. The story telling is almost too fluid. Several times I would forget exactly what my main goal was when running around the massive city doing various quests, in essence to earn more and more gold. There is no real plot in DA2, and just seemed like BioWare quickly threw it together to act like a piece of cushioning between the first Dragon Age and the third.

However, the one thing that persists in all of BioWares’ games is the story telling device that makes the player pick the fates of the characters on screen. This gimmick really drives you into the story and makes you care about your choices and their outcomes. I always liked this trait in BioWare games, and I liked it even more in DA2 because it incorporated a radical menu when it comes to the different text choices. Each choice you make with dialogue is paired with a picture acting as a symbol for what type of dialogue it is. For example; a jester’s mask for a comedic approach or a hammer for a very blunt violent approach.

This helps those who struggle with picking apart dialogue for the actions the want. It helps prevent their character from saying something they didn’t want them to, and it helps the beautiful dialogue aspects of the game flow right along.

Gameplay:

One of the things stripped from DA2 is the customization of your character. Having an option to customize something (particularly a character) helps drive you into a role-playing experience. I feel this was taken out on a count of the story, and because having various races and backgrounds would be too much for a game that really is just there to fill the gap.

Combat also has changed, but to a more battle oriented level. An addition to combat in DA2 would mean that you actually have to attack enemies in a real-time setting and you can no longer just click a button and have your character do trivial attacks while you figure out which abilities to use. This gives a whole new action game feel when you’re playing and takes away the tactical feel of the first.

Graphics:

Every time I got done fighting a battle, my party would be covered from head to toe with little drops of blood, which looks really weird. It also seemed that I would only really fight battles and complete quests in the same dull areas: a forest, a city, sewers, and back to the city again. Nothing about this backdrop is visually appealing or entertaining.

Overall:

I’m still on the fence with my feelings about DA2. The writing of the dialogue and the little change of the combat system were good, and when I first saw them, I thought BioWare was going to jump the distance for the rest of the game. However, they must have slipped on the execution of the jump with how the story and the overall look of the game turned out. It was kind of a disappointment but I blame that on the success of the first. This game will sit on my coffee table for a while, within reach when I want some intense, over the top bloodshed.