Uwe Boll responds to slagging match over ´Postal´

There has been a slagging match going on between German movie director Uwe Boll (´House of the Dead´, ´Bloodrayne´, ´Alone in the Dark´) and Chris Kohler from Wired´s Game|Life.

In his review of Boll´s latest movie, ´Postal´, Kohler called the German a "bad movie director" and went on to transcribe a few of the gags, adding:

If this all sounds funny, it is because I am a pretty funny writer. The jokes, as seen in Postal all fall flat. I don't think it's the fault of the talented actors that Boll enlisted -- it's just all done with the same unavoidably ham-handed crafting that Baker so elegantly describes in his feature ("haphazardly scripted, sloppily edited, badly acted and, most crucially, brutally received"). (...)

I'm kind of sad I saw this for work, because maybe it would be awesome if I was blind drunk.

In return, Boll sent Kohler an E-Mail, which states:

your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her ...because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.

Well, I had the chance to interview Uwe Boll (who I found to be a kind and surprisingly low-key person) for my television station RTL II the day before yesterday and I asked him about his reaction. Watch the video in German or read the English translation below.

RTL II: Since you are aware of the fact that the movie is rather provocative, why are you disciplining your critics with such harsh language? Your reply to the Wired review got quite famous on the internet. I think it was Game|Life´s Chris Kohler?

Uwe Boll: That was an unusual situation. The film was showing in San Francisco, at the San Francisco festival. It was well received: 300 people, deafening applause. And Chris Kohler came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on a great movie. He then interviewed me and wrote a review in which he ripped the movie to bits, as personally insulting as it gets.

Then I lost it and I sent him that mail, which he decided to make public. Normally, I can deal with criticism. I can deal with negative feedback. But people have to put their money where their mouth is and not tell me they think the movie is great, suck up to me and then write a scathing review. That is what I resent and that is why I reacted in that way.

Kohler and Boll have been exchanging mails since then. Funnily, Kohler writes in his first reply that they "didn't get to meet at the Postal premiere", which seems to contradict what Boll was saying.

At any rate, I share some of Kohler´s criticism about the film losing momentum and direction after an hour or so. It is also quite gratuitious in parts and deliberately so. But, to be fair, ´Postal´ also contains a number of funny scenes alongside the cockpit one. So I guess it is worth watching, after all. The slagging match is more entertaining, though.

EDIT Chris Kohler linked to my clip and told me: "No, I didn't talk to Boll at the premiere. A friend of mine did introduce us while I was standing far away, and I waved and smiled." So Uwe Boll must have gotten something confused. Perhaps this is all a misunderstanding on his part.

EDIT Uwe Boll has just sent out an article entitled Why I produced & directed ‘POSTAL’. Here it is in its entirety:

After the September 11th. attacks, our world went through some dramatic changes. We have wars and terror in Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and various states in Africa. The USA & Europe are scared to loose the leadership of the planet to China & India. Moslem fanatics & fundamentalists are gaining enough power to destroy our security and freedom.

The American & European people are heavily swayed by the mass media that is supporting the USA strategy of resolving these threats through war. We have quickly developed an innate self-censorship in order to survive this crazed and fragile state of existence. People are now afraid to speak their mind for fear of repercussions.

The world is in need of a film that is tougher in it's humorous mockery of the globe than "SOUTH PARK". The audience is ready to approach this type of satire with live actors rather than cartoons. "POSTAL" will not accept any form of censorship.

Our present political situation is intolerable. We have deranged religious fanatics on one hand and lobbyists from the oil & weapon industries on the other hand. Both sides are actively working at destroying the planet. This world is slowly dying due to global warming & pollution caused by man’s corporate greed and stupidity. If intelligent people do not stop this madness, then our grandchildren will not experience life.

"POSTAL" will insult all cultures, religions, political groups and leaders. No one will be spared. The film is intended to provoke thought, laughter and open debate. Our world is out of balance and "POSTAL" will reflect just how fucked up we are.

I see myself as a member of the world community. I have no religious affiliation. Religion has often been a catalyst for the many crimes and wars throughout history. Religion allows people the opportunity to blame their actions on a higher source. We live in a world that is sensitive to people's religious beliefs. How ironic that non-religious groups fail to receive the same level of sensitivity from the establishment. I have nothing against religion and tolerate religious feelings - but religion should be part of the private lifes and driving political decisions.

Apart from the firemen and rescuers of 911, how about the victims of the September 11th. attacks that are now being labeled as heroes? I say that they were not heroes at all. They died in a terrorist attack. They were normal people and did nothing heroic; they died an unfortunate death.

Since September 11th, more than ONE MILLION AFRICANS, JEWS and ARABS have died in terrorist's attacks, civil wars and wars. Their lives and deaths were not featured by the mass media. Does this mean that their lives had less value than the life of a NY stockbroker dying in the World Trade Center?

It's time to wake up!

May "POSTAL" shock, stir, offend and entertain you !!!!! All theaters should play POSTAL - whoever is not showing POSTAL shows exactly what POSTAL is critizising: selfcensorship. The MPAA liked POSTAL and gave it an R RATING - there is no reason anymore not to make POSTAL available to everybody in all cities. The audience is tired of every week the same formular movies - and a movie like BORAT showed that people want from time to time something special: POSTAL.

Source: Game|Life, Game|Life
Thanks to: NeoGAF

´Metroid Prime 3: Corruption´ earns massive praise

First reviews of ´Metroid Prime 3: Corruption´ are full of praise for what is emerging as the must-have title for the Wii console. Metacritic notes a score of 95. And check the Gametrailers review, who awarded the game a 96:



Here are some of the comments from the above review:

"The four or five hours leading up to this [the finale] are some of the greatest moments in gaming ever burnt onto a disc."

"It [the game] proves that there is no better control option on any console."

"You´ll never want to play another shooter with dual analogue sticks ever again. It´s that good."

"Playing Metroid Prime 3 can be a near-religious experience."

"It can hold its own against any title on any other platform."

"The original Metroid Prime is one of the highest rated games in existence. But ´Metroid Prime 3: Corruption´ is easily superior."

Also, here is IGN´s video review (including some spoilers), which is only slightly more critical with a score of 95.



Finally, while Gamespot´s review is due next week the site offers plenty of gameplay videos. So does 1UP, who gave the game 90 marks.

I have already given you some brief impressions from my hands-on last week. I guess there is little to add to the above reviews.

EDIT Actually, Gamespot just published their review. They did write that it was forthcoming next week, but that was last week, so here it is. They are even more critical than IGN and awarded the game an 85.



GamePro also gave the game an 85, dragging the Metacritic average down to 91.

Sources: Gametrailers, IGN, Gamespot, 1UP

Games Convention 2007

I am just returning from three very busy days in Leipzig and can finally give you some impressions. First of all, I spent the last few hours playing Metroid and Mario and both titles look and feel great, with Mario perhaps the most convincing offering. The graphics are clearly a step up from current titles and the gameplay mechanics and control scheme hint at what Miyamoto said: 'Super Mario Galaxy' will be the true sequel to Mario 64.

Metroid is much darker in colour and offers far less contrast, obviously. But this creates a tense atmosphere and the playable level could easily have been mistaken for 'Halo' or 'Mass Effect' in parts. There was no options menu implemented and the controls were slow, but this will be adjustable in the final game, no doubt. All in all, it looks set to become a solid title, but its graphics are not quite as impressive as the ones in Mario.

In terms of announcements, I already hinted at Track and Field being announced for DS with a Wii version possibly in the works (well done to those of you who guessed it). Sony's big announcement turned out to be a DVB-T receiver (wich will allow Europeans to watch digital terrestrial television programmes and record them via the PS3). A nice bonus, but this was less than I and my colleagues at RTL expected, given how much Sony had hyped their announcement prior to the press conference. We did not include it in our reports.

Every report I saw included Wii Fit, though, as did mine. After turning a remote into a game controller, Nintendo managed to utilize another household object in the same way: scales. And the strategy worked again, as plenty of people were eager to try it out. I played it briefly and it felt pretty accurate. I am seriously wondering, though, if developers will be able to put the balance board to as many uses as the remote. It seems far less versatile in terms of gaming applications. Nevertheless, I was a member of the 'Best of GC' jury again and we did give it the innovation award.

It was obvious that the Wii was also the focal point of developers. Sega was pushing 'Mario & Sonic', Konami was proudly showing off 'Dewy's Adventure' and Vivendi prominently displayed 'Geometry Wars' for Wii. But some developers were concerned that Nintendo's great success with those casual titles would become an incentive to cut budgets for the hardcore games.

Julian Eggebrecht, head of 'Lair' developer Factor 5, seemed genuinely keen to work with the platform, but was highly sceptical of Nintendo's seemingly lacklustre marketing for 'Metroid Prime 3'. From a business point of view it would even make sense to prioritize casual games. A title like 'Brain Training' costs a pittance to develop when compared to the Retro Studios shooter, but has sold more units than most titles will ever achieve. Let us hope that Nintendo will not simply act out good business sense but realises the advantages of a broad portfolio that is broad enough to include the hardcore crowd.

As far as other consoles go, I was very impressed with the PS3 offering at the show. 'Lair' looked spectacular and, perhaps most of all, 'Eye of Judgement' is set to become a killer app. The game's graphics could not possibly be any better, it seems. And the interaction with the monsters (you can slap them and they react) is tremendous fun. Trading cards are a huge market and this game may prove to be the first real revolution in this field. With Hasbro on board, I have no doubt that this game will be a system seller like no other PS3 game on the horizon. It has mass appeal and shows off the technological advantages of the pricey hardware. Dear Sony, I would like to see more PS3 games like that.

Of course, the Xbox360 also had a huge showfloor which was well populated. But with me having attended both the 'Halo 3' and 'Bioshock' events, there were was nothing new for me, at least nothing of a magnitude that would necessitate a mention here. Microsoft did some great marketing, though, with an entire ferris wheel set up behind one of the halls.

Next to that was the 'Rock Band' stage. And while I fear that the product may cost as much as $200, the fun I had playing it would justify that price point. A great title that will take multiplayer gaming on consoles into a whole new dimension.

In terms of interviews, I talked to dozens of developers, from ex-LucasArts staff to the head of Running with Scissors. I will update you on some of the more interesting interviews in the coming days. On a final note, though, I have spoken to a reliable source about the Wii-exclusive Star Wars game I learnt about last year. This source has seriously questioned whether LucasArts would consider exclusives at all with their current titles being strictly multi-platform. The person I spoke to also questioned my original source. To me, though, such a game would make perfect sense, business-wise, since pretty much every Wii owner would gobble it up. Either way, we will find out the truth about this soon enough, since the game would have to be announced this year, I guess, if it really exists.

EDIT Undoubtedly, you have come across some early impressions of the upcoming Wii title ´Rockstar presents Table Tennis´ complaining about the control scheme. I have played the game as well and did not find the controls problematic at all. While it takes a few minutes to get the timing of the motion right, it is great fun once you got the hang of it. I only thought the graphics were very sobering. But in my opinion, gameplay mechanics work a treat.

EDIT My new source on the Star Wars lightsaber action game for Wii may have been too hasty. Australian site Gameplayer writes:

"LucasArts’ Mark Montuya commented today that [Lego Star War´s] motion-sensitive lightsaber action is “just a taster” for a future release involving motion-sensitive lightsaber combat."