Monday
May 9, 2005
arts.michigandaily.com
artspage@michigandaily.com
'Kri' sequel
features
stunning
Pgraphics
By Ryan Guerra
DailyArts Writer
VI DEOG A ME R EV IE W
In 2002, "The Mark of Kri" garnered a
cult following with minimal mainstream
support. The game fea-
tured an excellent story
presented through eye- Rise of
catching animation, solid the Kasai
voice acting and innova- PS2
tive combat. But rather SCEA
than building on the
strengths of the original,
the sequel just delivers more of the same.
"Rise of the Kasai" continues the story
of the warrior Rau, taking place during
the 10 years before and after the events in
"Kri."Once again, the story is told through
voiceover and visually stunning scenes that
are cut to resemble paintings in motion.
The style makes players feel like they are
bearing witness to a mystical legend.
"Kasai" features three new playable
Wharacters, including Rau's sister Tati, who
is now 10 years older and ready to fight on
her own. While Rau is the typical brute
character, Tati is quick and agile. One can
also play as Rau's mentor, Baumusu, or his
fellow warrior, Griz. The levels consist of
large spaces where players can work alone
A RTS
9'
or with a computer-controlled partner.
But the computer becomes a nuisance
because of its lack of intelligence. When
confronted by large groups of enemies,
the computer eliminates the threat; but in
the face of stealth action, it always alerts
the guards, causing unnecessary battles.
That said, "Kasai" is still a solid game.
It retains the same targeting system as
"Kri," which assigns enemies different
buttons to create a more strategic hack-
and-slash experience. There are also sev-
eral combo variants with each weapon.
Still, the game feels rehashed - so much
so that it plays like exactly like "The Mark
of Kri" with new characters.
Nevertheless, "Rise of the Kasai" does
a decent job of standing on its own, but,
like its predecessor, it will remain in the
shadows of better-advertised titles like
"God of War." And while "Kasai" may
not beas good as "God of War," it is defi-
nitely worth picking up for its amazing
presentation, even if it just as a rental.
Racism
captured
in 'Crash'
By Jennie Adler
Daily Arts Writer
FILM REVIEW N N
Paul Haggis's directorial debut,
"Crash," teeters between the bludgeon-
ing obvious and skillfully subtle racial
themes and metaphors. Haggis made a
big splash in Hollywood with his Oscar-
nominated screenplay
for "Million Dollar
Baby," but, reminis- Crash
cent of his earlier roots At Showcase
in television, watch- and Quality 16
ing "Crash" is like Lons Gate
cramming a season's
worth of televised
plot twists into a two-hour feature. But
the film's thought-provoking take on
contemporary Los Angeles fares far bet-
ter than any episode of Haggis's earlier
creation, "Walker, Texas Ranger."
"Crash" is filled with seamless tran-
sitions between characters that distin-
guish themselves through actions and
words but whose motivations tend to
blur together in lieu of the dominant plot
twists. Despite this, each complex char-
acter, including Sandra Bullock ("Miss
Congeniality 2") as a district attorney's
neurotic wife and Don Cheadle ("Hotel
Rwanda") as an apathetic detective, fluc-
tuates from loathsome to heroic, and
tourhesy
"It's okay, sweetheart, no one saw 'The Truth About Charlie.' Real
they all eventually find their place in the
multi-faceted narrative. The film ulti-
mately emerges as a meditation on the
interlocking experiences of the markedly
diverse cast and the far-reaching effects
of their racially driven interactions.
Even among the stellar, all-star cast,
some performers stand out from the rest.
Bullock delivers her best turn in recent
memory as the film's only unredeem-
able character, while Cheadle naturally
emotes pain and sarcasm so well that
there's almost no need for dialogue.
Rapper Ludacris is also surprisingly
grounded and well cast as a street-savvy
racial philosopher.
1 Even so, the racial prejudices that
Ludacris so eloquently illuminates are
exceedingly prevalent, and by the end
of the film, they become repetitive.
But when dealing with such controver-
sial, loaded issues, taking the "loud and
clear" approach is often necessary. And
though the film mainly focuses on the
effects of racism, Haggis emphasizes
fear as a chief cause of it as well.
Stylistically, 35mm has never looked
so beautifully raw. The carefully con-
trolled framing of every shot and the
stark lighting juxtaposed with the dark,
gritty production design provide the
film with a unique visual aesthetic. This
serves to house the film's gorgeously
written dialogue, which bestows the
movie with the remarkable ability to
simultaneously build tension and fear in
each of its climactic moments.
Despite some heavy-handed meta-
phors and overuse of the fate theme,
"Crash" is a brutally honest film that
leaves no one - white, Persian, black,
Asian or otherwise - in its wake. The
movie couldn't have been made at a
better time, with racial stereotypes con-
tinuously increasing. "Crash" sends the
message that though no one wants to
be defined by his race, sometimes such
classifications are unavoidable.
New Order's latest trumps
dance-punk youngsters
By Evan McGarvey
Daily Arts Editor
IMUSIC REIvEW * *
Writing about New Order is exceed-
ingly difficult. It's not just because their
history is tied up in
the ghostly, industrial
legacy of Joy Divi- New Order
sion and Ian Cur-
tis. And it's not just Waiting For he
cause pretty much
very young "new" Watner Bros.
band (the Killers, the
Bravery, the Rapture) is basically a chord-
for-chord, word-for-word rehash of the
Manchester playbook. What makes New
Order simultaneously enthralling and con-
fusing is their ability to commit all of pop
V usic's cardinal sins - commonplace lyr-
s, boyish, overreaching emotions and an
insistence on disco-ready percussion - all
while skating away from the scene of the
accident, Teflon-coated and dragging a sea
of dancing, devoted fans along with them.
Or maybe New Order works because
they have the most relentless drummer in
(neo?) post-punk history, Stephen Mor-
ris; the tingling, warp-speed bass lines of
Peter Hook; and the ageless Bernard Sum-
ner cooing into the microphone. It's amaz-
ing that 20 years after "Blue Monday," the
band is still known as "that group made
after Joy Division ended" instead of a col-
lection of talented musicians.
A warning: their latest, Waiting For
The Sirens' Call has no "Blue Monday,"
no "Bizarre Love Triangle," no "Perfect
Kiss" or any other four-minute pop gem.
But there are still riffs aplenty. Lead single
"Krafty" has high-altitude atmospher-
ics and lines that only a self-convinced
crooner like Sumner could pull off. Hook's
lightning bass on "GuiltIs A Useless Emo-
tion" helps listeners stomach couplets like
"Real love can't be sold / It's another color
than gold."
With an album full of sentiments like
that, one could argue that the band's song-
writing died with Curtis. New Order is
always unfairly slammed for dancefloor
simplicity while older artists of similar
lyrical "approachability" (read: shallow-
ness) like U2 and R.E.M (neither of whom
have made half the impact of New Order)
are treated with kid gloves.
The album doesn't distinguish itself
from other recent New Order releases,
but its adherence to the band's mant-
festo - get people moving ("Turn"), get
people kissing ("Dracula's Castle"), get
in a few surprisingly down-beat lyrical
barbs ("Jetstream Lover") - is a welcome
show of workmanship in a sea of twenty-
somethings pitifully trying to reinvent the
dance-punk wheel. New Order created the Dill
precious middle ground between punk and
the disco ball; they don't need to go any- THEPI
where else. This album would be a career BACHE
maker for any other group. While Waiting
For The Sirens' Call isn't an entirely new
atmosphere for the band, it's a nice enough
shot of oxygen for the rest of us.