It's that time again ... Oscar 2012

So the 2012 Oscar nominations hit today, and I'll be writing up my complete list of predictions in the coming weeks. For now, I have a few thoughts:

• This was one of those hard years for casual moviegoers, where many of the big, critically acclaimed films were artsy movies that came out in December. That means that they're hard to catch in theaters, and Netflix is a no-go because of the studio's insane 1-2 month restriction. As a result, I've yet to see a lot of these (The Artist, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Descendants, etc.)
• While she won't win, it's good to see Melissa McCarthy nominated for Supporting Actress for her performance in Bridesmaids. To me, she exemplifies what a good Best Supporting nominee should have: she doesn't necessarily steal the movie, or change its focus, but without her, it would have been significantly weaker.
• Jonah Hill is sort of the opposite. Yes, he did a very good job in Moneyball, and he absolutely proved he can do more than sit around and make dick jokes. However, compare his performance to last year's Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale in The Fighter) and it doesn't quite seem up to the same level.
• Really? They stretched out the Animated category to five with the unmemorable-at-best Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2, but couldn't have done the same last year for Tangled? Whatever. Rango wins this category easily.
• Rooney Mara should take the Best Actress trophy. Her performance was stunning.
• Speaking of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I was surprised that Fincher didn't get nominated for Best Director. While I wasn't expecting a Best Movie nomination, I would definitely categorize the lack of Fincher as a 'snub.'
• Also interesting to see both Tree of Life and Terrence Malik garner nominations. That's a very love-it-or-hate-it movie, and I expected most critics to hate it.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks after I track down the remaining movies.

New Dangers in a New Publishing Landscape

One of the things that's often thrown about with self-publishing is the unprecedented level of freedom and control authors have with their works. And sometimes it's true. But if you think you can just assume that well-known companies like Amazon and Apple have your back ... well ... think again:

The nightmare scenario under this agreement? You create a great work of staggering literary genius that you think you can sell for 5 or 10 bucks per copy. You craft it carefully in iBooks Author. You submit it to Apple. They reject it. Under this license agreement [...] they won’t sell it, and you can’t legally sell it elsewhere.

Review: Star Wars The Old Republic - Revan

A clumsy, disappointing followup to a seminal game

*Very minor spoilers follow*

While the exploration of the Old Republic era started in the comics, Bioware's original Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic, created a massive interest in the events that occurred thousands of years before the appearance of Luke Skywalker. At the center of this story was Revan, the eponymous hero of Drew Karpyshyn's new novel. Ever since the end of the original KOTOR, Star Wars fans have wondered what happened to the mysterious Jedi-turned-Sith-turned-Jedi. And, if they're like me, they couldn't be more disappointed.