Avi Arad, the man who spearheaded much of Marvel’s film endeavors, has recently acquired film rights to two well known video games - Mass Effect and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, both of which I think could work well as movies.

Mass Effect (produced by Bioware, same folks who made KotOR) especially has a structure that, truncated, would fit a film pacing well. It has an adaptable and dynamic hero, a colorful cast of support characters and a compelling villain. Granted that all means nothing without appropriate talent around the project, but hopefully the talents of Mr. Arad will put together a solid cast and crew.

That sounds really cool. As a kid, I always figured that one of the signs that I’d “made it” would be a genuine arcade cabinet in my living room.

Surprisingly, I never really got into arcade games until Street Fighter II came out. Sure, I’d waste a few dollars here and there, but Street Fighter marked the beginning of my fighting game (and video games in general) addiction.

Now that I have all the newfangled game consoles, I don’t really feel like I need an arcade cabinet. But if I ever “make it”, I might just have to buy one for kicks.

I noticed after I wrote this commentary that the producers credit “The Bible” as being on of their sources for show ideas, along with “The Stand” and “Star Wars.” They’ve obviously worked some Eastern thought in there as well (The Dharma Initiative, Alpert’s test for young Locke, and so forth), but I’d say 90% of the religious analogy ties in directly to Judeo-Christian thought.

I am finding myself having a hard time accepting Locke as a Christ figure, but I think the show would be boring if he was. In light of this week’s episode, it appears that he’s up to something unfathomable to the rest. We’ll see where he’s going in the finale, I suppose!

Even though I liked Resident Evil and the animated Street Fighter 2, I cannot fault where you are coming from in the least.

Sorry, your post got caught in my spam filter for some reason, so here it is, added 2 months later.

I think it’s unfortunate that the show has taken a radical new direction with Michael leaving to start his own company, because it indicates that the writers are really reaching. But, with that said, I think there’s room for examining why the more realistic boss, Charles Miner, is an even worse boss than Michael was.

It’s a sad truth that there are many people out there like Charles who are competent enough managers, but unable to deal with people effectively or to understand that bad employees tend to be the ones who suck up the most. Jim is far from a model employee, but the way Charles dismisses him and tears him down every time he gets an opportunity to shows Miner’s lack of perspective.

I’m sure that either Dunder Mifflin is eventually going to acquire the Michael Scott Paper Company or the writers are going to have everyone leave to go work for Michael so that things will return (somewhat) to normal, but I’m hoping the next season works to evolve Michael from being a childish buffoon to a more believable boss… and that some of the dark wit of the British original can return.