Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

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The summer movie season is kicking off and hollywood is starting out with two big blockbusters that are looking really great. For those of us that are big fans of fantasy we are in for a special treat and it is great to see how our favorite genre has gotten really popular over the past several years. Gone are the days where fantasy movies were considered to be escapist and shallow and the underlying themes of both our new summer movies can attest to this. Here is a look at the two movies.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - (Movie opens May 22nd) This is the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise and the inspiration for the movie is based on ancient Mayan legend that there are 13 crystal skulls that when united hold the power of saving the Earth. It is a pretty interesting story and there is a lot of controversy surrounding these skulls that supposedly possess mystical powers. One of which is that no skull can be documented to be more than a couple of hundred years old yet they are often proclaimed to have originated from between 300 and 900 A.D. 

 If you want to read more about the Crystal Skulls here is an AP article.

About the Movie: Here is the offficial movie site - The film has been shrouded in secrecy so I really can’t tell you a whole lot. And it has been such a tightly held secret that the studio actually registered a variety of phony titles for the movie to throw people off track. They even have taken legal action against an extra who violated his non-disclosure agreement.

There are some indicators of success for this movie - This is the widest release that Paramount has ever done and the movie will be premiering at Cannes. This is something that no Spielberg movie has done since E.T. It is also reported that the movie needs to make 400 million to break even which does tell us they didn’t spare any expenses on it.

Who’s In it: Karen Allen returns to this movie which should be some nostalgic fun. Sean Connery is not in it which is probably for the best. He states that he is enjoying his retirement. Harry Winstone is also in it. (He played Beowulf in last summers Digitial enigma of a movie) Cate Blanchetts Plays a villain, ala The Bond Franchise sexy villianous which should be fun.

About Harrison Ford: My first reaction to this movie was “Wow, Isn’t Harrison Ford getting kinda old for this kind of film? He is 64 after all.” But after reading some promo materials I am leaning toward a good for him kind of thing. He states that he has been working out three hours a day for the film and he refused to dye his hair for shooting. I say bravo to that. His attitude was  that his return to the character of Indy would help Americal get over its paranoia about aging. So kudos for that. I agree with his stance.

Wrap Up: So will the movie be good? Beats me, there really is no telling and sometimes movie studios will push a movie real hard because its the only thing they can do to try and break even with it. It isn’t the ground breaking new adventure film that the first one was of course but it should be a great addition to the Indiana Jones Franchise.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Movie Opens May 16) Official Movie Site

Ever since I read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time as a youngling I can never get enough of these fantasy stories about children having great adventures and exploring fantasy worlds. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Narnia movie for what it was: A lighter version of LOTR.

There has been a lot of buzz about this movie being a lot better than the first and I tend to agree with this because  it is a much more epic movie with a bigger scale and bigger things going on. Me likes me stories to be epic!!  Another thing I like is the common fantasy tool of differing time rates. For the Narnia children one year has passed yet in Narnia it is 1300 years later. Kind of cool. I use this in my writing and it is in lots of other fantasy writing. Gives a sense of immortality to our plain old earthling children/heroes.

Wrap up: I think its going to be a really good movie. Disney has a penchant for making this kind of movie. They learned a lot in the first one and I bet this one will be even better.

One more thing: While you are over on the official Narnia website register to win a trip to the set of the next narnia movie in New Zealand!

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I just finished making up a fun little paper based role playing adventure game.  It is called “Storm The Castle”. And it is a free download in a packet of ten pages.

The King has turned evil and is ruining the kingdom, raising taxes, and throwing peasants in prison. It is up to you to be a hero and de-throne him. The only way to do it is by storming the castle!

It comes with a gameboard, player, some tokens and a playbook. You make your way through various parts of the castle like the kitchen, dungeon, etc. And you discover secrets along the way. Just a fun little game and I had a lot of fun creating up the story. Totally free download, print and make.  The game is located here: Storm The Castle adventure game. I do have a youtube video that explains more about the game here: Youtube Video of the Game 

One thing I wanted to point out about this game is that it is a good spring board for learning how to make your own paper based adventure games. By looking over and using my game you can get a good idea on how something like this works. So you will be able to make a similarly structured game of your own. Just create your own story and events.

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