All posts by Alexander V Woods

Cyberpunk 2077 Updates: Night City Wire

June 27, 2020 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

Exciting New Cyberpunk 2077 Updates

Cyberpunk 2077 is not for everyone, but if you are as excited for it as me, then this week was a very exciting week for updates for the highly anticipated game coming out in November. With a couple different ways to stream it online, I settled on watching it on The MadQueen’s channel, whom I interviewed a couple weeks ago.

She streamed the event live via Twitch, and I was able to watch her reactions to all the news, along with adding comments throughout the 25 minutes. After the Wire was finished, the stream continued for another 2 hours dissecting the new content, and the stream eventually became another community podcast with the three other usual YouTubers: Lastknownmeal, The Neon Arcade, and the Triple S League. Interviews with all three of these high-profile YouTubers will be up soon.

We waited with impatience and counted down to the 6pm Central European Summer Time and were rewarded with a lot of very exciting news for Cyberpunk 2077, which I’m going to break down for you below in the order that it was presented. We also learned that this is the first of possibly three Night City Wires, the second one already coming to us in a few more weeks. So let’s get into it!

1. We got a new trailer: The Gig

The new trailer showcased improved graphics, more of Night City at night, new scenes your friend Jackie, and revealed new locations and characters, as well as car fight scenes, and new augmented body weapons. Oh yeah and we were also treated with a singular scene at the end of the trailer: Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand saying “Fuck.” All of these scenes, apparently are only part of the prologue, and therefore aren’t really spoiling anything from the game.

2. We got more info about the game from Lead Quest Designer Pawel Sasko

Pawel talked about the motivations of some of the characters, specifically about Jackie, Dex, and V. He then talked about an in-game location, Lizzie’s bar, and the gang that reside there, the Moxes. It was really interesting to see this new location and hear about the people and their backstories, it was clear they had put an incredible amount of thought into it. Next he talked about the Badlands, the open area outside of Night City, and the Nomads who live and rule there. Players can choose between three origin lifepaths: Street Kid, Corporate, and Nomad. Each life path starts you off at a different location in Night City, but all three eventually coalesce into the same main story, as The Neon Arcade explains in this video. As I discovered using my own informal twitter poll, most future players will choose the Street Kid path first, with the second choice being Corporate and Nomad coming in third. This was interesting for me to discover as I personally will be choosing Nomad, so knowing that it was the least popular choice made it interesting for me to learn new information about the nomads and badlands. Also, considering everything The Neon Arcade explains in his video, I also objectively think that the Nomad path leads to the most fun beginning part of the game, although the Corporate path seems the flashiest.

Following that he talked about a highly-augmented cyborg from the trailer, Adam Smasher, who also features in the Cyberpunk 2020 Tabletop game. Apparently The Mad Queen is very familiar with him, considering her super excited fist pumps upon seeing Pawel talk about the character on the wire (to see what I’m talking about, look at her reaction at 1:20:00). Finally, Pawel told us a bit about Ripper Docs and Victor Vector.

3. Backwards Compatibility Announced for Xbox Series X and Playstation 5

If you buy Cyberpunk 2077 for the Xbox One or for the Playstation 4, you will still be able to play it on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X when both consoles finally launch. That being said, the new limited collector’s edition of Cyberpunk 2077 for the Xbox One looks really great, so you may want to consider getting that too.

4. Cyberpunk Edgerunners announced for Netflix

Cyberpunk 2077 is already getting the Netflix treatment! They announced on their Night City Wire that CD Projekt Red had partnered with a Japanese anime studio called Trigger in order to create a standalone series set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe called Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The series is set to be released in 2022. This was one of the most exciting pieces of news for me, as I’ve previously mused about the cultural implications if Cyberpunk 2077 was made into a Netflix series to introduce more people to the game and the genre in general, much like Netflix did with CD Projekt Red’s previous hit, The Witcher 3. Also the fact that they hired a local Japanese anime company is just awesome.

5. Braindance feature explained

Braindance is a recording of someone else’s experience, allowing the recording and playback of all five senses–not just sight and sound, but smell, touch, feeling, and even emotion. It basically looks like a detective mode similar to the one in the Batman games by Rocksteady. You can move time forward and backwards during an event, look at little details, and discover new things about characters and their backstories in Night City. This will surely be an interesting and useful feature for players who like taking their time with games and learning as much as possible about every single detail about the world, which for me personally is always more than necessary. It also looks like a cool feature, but wasn’t too interesting for me personally.

6. Developer thoughts about Braindance and the game in general

Patrick Mills, Senior Quest Designer, joins Pawel Sasko in giving his thoughts about Braindance and the game in general. After Patrick explains the origins of Braindance in the lore of Cyberpunk 2077, Pawel adds that you can use Braindance to learn more about the characters as a storytelling tool. The host then asks Patrick and Pawel what they are most excited about in the game. Here are their responses:

“One of the things that I’m most excited about in this game is the characters and the way they interact with the world. We have got this really interesting world that stretches all the way back to the Cyberpunk 2020 source material and all of these events and all of those things, but those don’t mean anything unless they connect with characters”–Patrick Mills

“For me, I would not be myself if I would not say that I’m the most excited about our quests. With our Witcher 3 team, we really have grown so much, we have learned so much, and we have used all that experience to put them into the quests that we have made, and you will not find really a filler in this game, like everything has meaning, like we put so much effort in making sure that everything is all rewarding, is interesting, is talking about characters as Patrick said, is talking about worlds, is talking about emotions, like touching the player in a really, like a real, way, and I just can’t wait to find out what you think.” –Pawel Sasko

Pawel also then shared his quest idea notebook, which was interesting to look at.

Night City Wire Episode 1

To see all of the Night City Wire Episode 1, you can check it out below. For me, this definitely makes me more interested in playing the game, and it was really interesting to see the updated graphics and the new characters we can expect from Night City. I also really enjoyed seeing more about the Nomads in the Badlands.

Thoughts on Night City Wire?

But what about you? Did Night City Wire return some of the hype for playing Cyberpunk 2077? Was there anything you were disappointed about? Let me know in the comments below.

Movies

Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed…Again

June 22, 2020 Alexander V Woods

Why the delay of cyberpunk 2077 is not surprising

Being in the Cyberpunk community, it was a big deal when I found out three days ago that Cyberpunk 2077 was being delayed yet again to November 19th.

I think my initial reaction was something like this:

For more on my reaction to the news, you can check out my YouTube video here.

Remember Keanu announcing the release date?

I remember the excitement I felt after seeing the new Cyberpunk 2077 video game trailer and then watch Keanu Reeves step on that stage on June 9th last year and announce the release date at Microsoft’s E3 Video game conference event for April 16th, 2020.

It was on that stage that a fan said what everyone was thinking, “you’re breathtaking”, and his instantly famous reply “no, you’re breathtaking! You’re all breathtaking!” Needless to say, it was a breathtaking moment.

Remember when they announced on Jan 16th that it was delayed the first time?

I also remember the disappointment I felt when it was delayed the first time to September 17th. During the pandemic it would have been nice to have a game like Cyberpunk 2077 to play during the long hours of confinement, but it wasn’t meant to be. I reasoned, along with many others in the community, that the extra wait time was worth it if it meant a better game as the final product.

Bottom line: make a good game

The most important thing is that the game is good. Think about all the bugs that can detract from a massive immersive video game, like Skyrim where you get stuck everywhere or quests don’t spawn the way they are supposed to, or The Witcher where things appear where they’re not supposed to (like your horse roach).

It’s inevitable that bugs will happen in a game this big, but I think it’s important that if they’re finding those kinds of bugs already, that they’re dealt with as much as possible before the game is released. And this actually isn’t that uncommon. Turns out games get delayed all the time.

This happened with the Witcher 3 as well, actually

The Witcher 3 was supposed to come out fall 2014, but in March 2014 (6-7 months before anticipated release) they pushed it back 4-5 months to February 2015. Then, in December 2014 (2 months before), they pushed it back yet again to May 2015 (3 months back). In comparison, CDPR announced in June 2019 that the release date would be april 2020. Then in January 2020 (4 months before anticipated release) they pushed it back 5 months to september. Then, in June (3 months before anticipated release) they pushed it back 2 more months to November. The result? The Witcher 3 was a smash hit, won a bunch of awards, got countless accolades and a huge fan base, and then on top of all that they adapted it into an amazing Netflix live action series.

“Hmm.”–Geralt

A blessing in disguise?

And in the meanwhile, perhaps in a weird sense this is a gift to keep the hype going, the wonder, the curiosity. Imagine 3 months after the game is released, when all that mystery and wonder will be gone. There are communities of fans speculating every day, dissecting every new news piece, waiting eagerly for the day they’ll be able to get their hands on the video game.

We’re going to have new information in 4 days time on Thursday during the Night City Wire event. So let’s treasure and get excited about not knowing, about wondering about it. And let’s see what new exciting information we can learn on Thursday, because it will have to tide us over for the next 5 months. At least.

Your Thoughts

So what do you think? Are you disappointed as well about the game being delayed? Do you think it’s justified? And are you excited about Night City Wire? let me know in the comments below.

Interviews

Interview With Cyberpunk Creator MadQueen

June 13, 2020 Alexander V Woods 7 Comments

Getting to know Cyberpunk Creator The Mad Queen

According to her Twitter and Instagram bio, Mad Queen is a gifted napper, speculative fiction lover, professional hype builder, and an expert in Cyberpunk 2077 lore. She also creates some incredible content about the Cyberpunk genre, specifically the upcoming CD Projekt Red video game Cyberpunk 2077, on her YouTube channel where she has over 24k subscribers. She also happens to be part of the 4-member Cyberpunk 2077 weekly community podcast. This interview is part of a 4-part series where we interviewed the other members of the community podcast, Last Known Meal, Triple S League, and The Neon Arcade. She has a Patreon page where fans can help support her work, too. But who exactly is this Mad Queen, and what can she share about the Cyberpunk genre? Read on, console cowboy.

1. How did you get introduced to Cyberpunk?

Science Fiction has always been very present in my family, my mother loved science fiction so I had lots of Arthur C. Clark and Asimov books at home to read when I was a kid, even though I was too young to understand what science fiction is really about. My father, on the other hand, had a huge collection of books called “Great Mysteries of Humanity” or something like that, they were the style of the History channel, authors like JJ Benitez and the likes, it’s funny because when I was a kid I thought mixing science fiction with real life was an artistic style, like some sort of mockumentary, it took me a lot of years to discover there were people that actually believed this may be possible: Aztec temples, pyramids, the Moáis… You know, if white people couldn’t build structures like this back then, probably it was aliens and not Aztecs or Egyptians.

In the specifics of cyberpunk I discovered one day when I was a kid my father’s collection of a magazine called 1984, that later was renamed to Zone 84. This magazine released each months episodes of comic books mostly based in Science Fiction and Cyberpunk, and my favorite was Judge Dredd. I obviously had to read it in secret since my parents wouldn’t allow me to read comics with so much sex and violence on them. A little later, the local TV of where I grew up reached an agreement with a Japanese anime distributor, and they started to fill their air time with lots of Anime. Differently to almost anywhere else in the West, were television focused on anime for kids, our TV was filled with great adult anime classics, so I got to discover the great Cyberpunk classics Ghost in the Shell and Akira. I soon started to like Cyberpunk way more than any other branch of science fiction because in the Golden Age and New Wave (not counting Ursula K. Le Guin, who had a strong anthropological background) the future societies described weren’t in general much different to the one we live in, and no other branch was as impactful as Cyberpunk for me.

Basically my whole childhood prepared me for when later, in school, a friend of mine would come with the Cyberpunk 2020 basic sourcebook and say “This game looks good, want to give it a try?”.

2. What made you decide to start The Madqueen Show? When did it start? And how did it become what it is today?

When I started my channel I was totally obsessed with building in fallout 4. At that time I had an “artistic” job but, to be honest, the creativity that I could develop there was almost non-existant so I kind of compensated this lack by building in Fallout 4. I shared my buildings on Reddit and soon people started to ask how to recreate structures that I put in my buildings so I started a YouTube channel to be able to explain it better for the people at Reddit. The first week, when I was just starting, I did a video with variants of a structure that a very popular Fallout 4 YouTuber did, and he liked my variations so much that he talked about me in his videos and I got a thousand followers in my first week. Back then I wasn’t taking the channel seriously, it was just a hobby to relax after work, nor was I able to put more time on it as I crunched a lot.

Some time after that I had a very stupid accident and it took me a year to be able to walk again. On the one hand I had a lot of time to reflect on my life choices and I left my job. On the other, I had an insane time as I was at home and I wasn’t able to walk, so I started to do more YouTube videos. At one point, I discovered the existence of the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, based on a Pen and Paper game I loved, and I went crazy. I started to talk about it all the time because I wanted people to understand why was it going to be so awesome, and I became the first YouTube channel focused on Cyberpunk 2077 exclusively (well, almost exclusively), and I was moderately successful on it. I wasn’t taking it very seriously back then, I had the idea of moving to London and get an Art Direction position similar to the one I left behind, but I was always hesitant as I doubted I would get a chance to develop any kind of creativity in “commercial art”. Although positions like this are usually very well paid, money doesn’t make you happy. At least, it doesn’t make me happy. So I went on with the YouTube channel learning new skills to be able in the future to do more creative things based on the Cyberpunk universe, and I opened my Patreon page, I was overwhelmed by the support and, with this, I could go full time. Unfortunately, my personal situation started to get worse and worse and, at one point, for personal reasons I thought about going back to my original plan of getting an Art Direction position and thought about closing my channel for good, I took a 4 months break to decide what was I going to do. After this break, someone I respect a lot gave me the kick in the butt I needed to really focus on what I was doing and really take it to another level or die trying. I would say this is exactly the point where my channel became what it is today, a mix between totally changing my personal situation and a needed kick in the butt.

3. I’ve noticed that your YouTube videos have a really high production quality. How did you become so good at making them?

If you really want to make something, you will find your way. Nothing substitutes the force of will: not money, not skills, not even talent. If you really want to do something, you’ll find the way to do it.

That’s how people become good in whatever they are doing. And I just couldn’t (and can’t) stop doing what I can’t help doing. So I just learned how to do it, and I still am, I have a lot to learn.

4. Where do you get your ideas /inspiration for your videos?

I’m a brainstorming machine: I have a notepad filled with ideas for videos, the half of which most probably I won’t be able to develop because I have only two hands, and I’m constantly creating new. People who visit my channel tend to tell me that I’m very open-minded, and this is the key: how you see life is how you generate ideas, because, in the end, everything is possible and if you don’t have an open mind and listen to people on different backgrounds to yours you limit yourself and create a tunnel vision that doesn’t allow you to generate original ideas because your own personal universe is very limited. It’s not about thinking out of the box, is realizing there is no box in the first place, you just created this box to find a space that is mentally comfortable, but if you always stay where it’s comfortable you will never do anything interesting.

I also have a huge audiovisual and artistic baggage, which is very important as well.

5. What are your top three Cyberpunk works, and why?

Mind Players by Pat Cadigan would be the first. Is not as complex as other Cyberpunk works regarding structure, thematically is very complex but Cadigan has a mastery for words that not even William Gibson can match, so is much more comfortable to read than other classics like Neuromancer, for this reason I always recommend this book to people that want to introduce themselves to the Cyberpunk genre for the first time. Is has the warmth and humanity that other Cyberpunk works don’t have, although some people consider it to be post-Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk worlds are cold, threatening, and unforgiving, but they’re ultimately filled with people and although coldness may emerge when people are fighting for their lives, people still have a heart. And, no, the story is not romantic, I don’t mean that kind of heart.

The film adaptation of Ghost in The Shell by Mamory Oshii is a masterpiece, that ultimately show people will still be people no matter what technology they have available. Way more serious than the comic books, which I honestly appreciate. The mix of opposites of, on the one hand, talking about what it means to be human in a world where humanity and technology are merged and, on the other, the political means of those who are in control of such technology is splendid. Too bad the live action remake failed to understand most of it and only explored the visuals which is funny, as it wasn’t Ghost in the Shell, was only the Shell.

A Scanner Darkly is a masterpiece, both the Philip K. Dick book and the Richard Linklater film adaptation (starring Keanu Reeves, by the way). It’s technically not Cyberpunk, mostly proto-cyberpunk, written in this stage of Philip K. Dick’s life where he was taking a lot of drugs and it took a toll on his surroundings, so the technology that is impacting on the setting of this story is a synthetic drug created from a plant, that, as cybernetic technology, makes the protagonist wonder about his humanity. Also the right amount of politics centered on manufacturing a threat to use it as excuse to control the population, because this is Cyberpunk and the Cyberpunk genre is and has always been strongly political. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be called “punk”.

Cyberpunk 2077 questions:

6. I’ve noticed you have a lot of videos about Cyberpunk 2077 lore. Can you explain where the Cyberpunk 2077 universe comes from, and what has happened in the history of the universe (like the end of the Net between 2020 and 2077).

Cyberpunk 2077 is inspired by, and follows the timeline of, the pen and paper game Cyberpunk by Mike Pondsmith, published by his company R. Talsorian Games, and it’s a parallel universe to ours that started to diverge in the late 80s. It’s hard to explain the whole timeline of events from 1989 to 2077 in some lines, as a lot happened, but let’s say that the climate change (and the lack of policies by the governments of the world to combat it), the world stock market crash provoked by an organization headed by the CIA that took control of the government of the Sates and the corruption of civil servants that needed the money of megacorporations to survive, provoked a slow economic and environmental apocalypse, so slow people didn’t even noticed until it was already here and changed the world order. This new world order included a society so heavily focused on extreme capitalism that megacorporations acquired the absolute power and the people of the street level do whatever they can to survive, as they mean nothing to anyone. But some people try to escape the control of the megacorps and think by themselves, called the Edgerunners or Cyberpunks, although they’re powerless and they know it. They believe in social upheaval to fight the economic powers, but while they daydream with anarchy they do what they can to survive.

7. You are one of the few Youtubers providing videos in Spanish. Do you also have videos/subtitles in Spanish and Catalan? And why is it important for you that videos be available in languages that aren’t only English?

My videos are available in English, Spanish, German, and some in Polish. I started adding Spanish subtitles as people around me in real life, who don’t speak English well enough to follow the videos as their main languages are Spanish and Catalan, wanted to see what I did. German subtitles came because a German follower wanted the videos to be available for people around them, same with Polish subtitles, although not all Cyberpunk videos are available in Polish. The rest are added by the community. In the end, only the Spanish subtitles were my idea, the rest are my community’s idea, and I think it’s great, this way people can learn about the Cyberpunk lore without language being a barrier. Thanks to one of the moderators, called Ben, every single video I publish has Spanish subtitles.

8. How did you come to join the community podcast, and what is it like being one of the 4 each week?

Syb (from the Triple S league) and I worked together for years (and did zillions of Cyberpunk podcast in the past together for years) and we always wanted to collaborate with more creators and to create a place for the community around Cyberpunk 2077. After I returned from my 4 months break, more creators started to focus exclusively or heavily on this game, the Neon Arcade created his channel and Last Known Meal started to put a focus on it, so it was a great way to invite them to make something together. It’s funny and I love it, back in the day it felt very lonely because there wasn’t such a big interest on Cyberpunk 2077 and it was very difficult to find people to do things with, but now the attention on the game is massive and I have more people to play with.

Final question:

9. What does Cyberpunk mean to you?

I think Science Fiction and, more specifically, Cyberpunk, are responsible for the worldview I have nowadays and my lifelong evolution as a person, so I have a lot to thank to Mike Pondsmith. And this is the shortest I can explain it without entering in a hundred pages dissertation.

Profiles

Cyberpunk Actor Profile: Keanu Reeves

June 7, 2020 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

Keanu Reeves: A Cyberpunk Icon

Keanu Reeves has been in countless Cyberpunk films: the Matrix Trilogy, Johnny Mnemonic, and A Scanner Darkly just to name a few. But beyond just a face on the silver screen, Keanu Reeves has known not just fame and fortune, but great heartbreak and hardship in his life as well. So here at Cyberpunk Matrix I thought I’d take a walk with you through the gallery of all the Cyberpunk films Reeves has been in, and have a look at Hollywood’s new favorite leading man and internet sensation. So join me and learn something new about the humble powerhouse that is Keanu Reeves.

A Difficult Childhood

Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon on September 2nd, 1964 to a British mother and Hawaiian American father of mixed heritage. They married in Beirut when his mother, Patricia, was only 19 and his father Samuel was 21. They had one more child, Kim, and then Samuel abandoned the family struggling from substance abuse when Keanu was only three years old. After his divorce with Keanu’s mother in 1966, he went to prison for ten years for selling Heroin at Hilo International Airport. Keanu then moved to Sydney with his mother for a year before moving again to New York City, where Patricia married the Broadway and Hollywood director Paul Aaron in 1970. The marriage lasted a year before divorce in 1971 and the two moved yet again to Toronto. It would be here, in Yorkville, that Keanu would spend the majority of his childhood. In 1976 Patricia would marry her third husband, a rock music promoter named Robert Miller. The marriage would last until 1980. Her fourth and final husband was a hairdresser named Jack Bond, and their marriage lasted until 1994. Because of the busy and tumultuous life of his mother, Keanu and his sisters were mainly raised by nannies and his grandparents. He attended 4 different High Schools, one of which he was expelled from for being “a little too rambunctious” before he dropped out of High School altogether at the age of 17. This was partly because at 15 he decided he would become an actor, and had begun working as a production assistant for his stepfather.

Heartbreaking Losses

Keanu has experienced many heartbreaking losses in his life, which admirably haven’t broken Keanu’s kind, humble spirit.

Death of Best Friend River Phoenix

After working with River Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix’s older brother, in the 1990 movie I Love You To Death Keanu became very close best friends with River. He would then star with him the following year in My Own Private Idaho. Unfortunately, River died suddenly on October 31st, 1993 from a drug overdose at the age of 23, which heavily affected Keanu.

Death of Baby Ava (Stillborn)

In 1998 Keanu met the love of his life, Jennifer Syme, at a party. The following year they learned that she was pregnant with a baby girl. The couple were apparently over the moon, until Jennifer realized the baby hadn’t moved in a while. An ultrasound on Christmas eve revealed that the baby had died after 8 months, and would be a stillborn. The news devastated Keanu and Jennifer, causing them to split up shortly thereafter.

Death of Ex Jennifer Syme

After a couple years had passed, Keanu and Jennifer had remained good friends and things were looking like they might be able to rekindle their relationships. Unfortunately, it was never meant to be. On April 1st, 2001, after attending a party at Marilyn Manson’s home, a friend drove a drunk Syme home. However, Syme wanted to return to the party despite her state, and got behind the wheel of her car in the early morning of April 2nd. She would then drive into some parked cars in LA, and because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was ejected through the windshield and died instantly. She was later buried next to Ava.

Sister Kim Develops Leukemia

In the early 2000s Kim was diagnosed with Leukemia, which was very hard on Keanu to hear. In a show of support, Keanu took good care of her, and even donated millions towards cancer research and various charity organizations, hoping to help save her life. This time, however, there would be a happy ending. After 10 years battling the deadly disease, she finally emerged victorious, thanks to her determination, self-belief, and her brother.

Acting Career

Keanu officially started his acting career in 1984, but his first major motion picture appearance was in the 1986 film Youngblood alongside Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, and Cynthia Gibb. He then appeared in the academy award-winning film Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and two Bill & Ted time-traveling comedies (Excellent adventure, 1989, and Bogus Journey, 1991). During the 1990s he also starred in the cop action thriller Point Break (1991), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and the action Hollywood blockbuster Speed (1994). Finally, in 1995 he would star in the titular role of the first of what would be many different Cyberpunk films: Johnny Mnemonic.

Cyberpunk Films

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Johnny Mnemonic was a 1995 Canadian-American film and one of the earliest films to visually represent cyberspace and the internet. It’s based on the short story of the same name by William Gibson (Neuromancer), who also assisted as screenwriter. In the film, Keanu plays Johnny, a courrier who stores sensitive data in his cybernetic brain, a bit like an organic USB stick. The film is set in a dystopian future where megacorporations dominate the landscape and there are strong Asian influences as well, such as the Yakuza. The movie would eventually bomb (maybe because of the code-breaking Navy dolphin? No, I’m not kidding…) but it did garner a bit of a cult following afterwards. However, this would pave the way for Reeves to finally take up the mantle for his perhaps most recognizable and historic roles, Neo in the Matrix Franchise.

The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003)

The Matrix trilogy needs no introduction, and is my favorite trilogy of all time (for more on WHY I love the Matrix so much, check out my Legacy of the Matrix post here.) Reeves plays a computer programmer called Thomas Anderson by day, and hacker Neo by night, until he meets Morpheus and learns the truth about the world, that he is living in a simulated virtual reality and the real world is actually a dystopian future with a war raging between humanity and machines. 100% would recommend.

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

After the Matrix trilogy, the next cyberpunk film Keanu did was called A Scanner Darkly. Yet another adaptation of a PKD novel (there were a lot of those), A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 thriller written and directed by Richard Linklater. Cast included Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. It told the story of another near-future dystopia controlled by intrusive high-tech police surveillance in the middle of a drug epidemic. 20% of the population are addicted to a hallucinatory drug called Substance D. Keanu plays Bob Arctor, an undercover agent who uses a “scramble suit” to keep his identity hidden while at the police station. It’s a film filled with paranoia and uncertainty, another thrilling story of questioning reality. It’s also shot in a very unusual style: by being shot digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope, giving it its animated look.

Man of Tai Chi: Reeves’ Directorial Debut (2013)

Technically not Cyberpunk, this is a worthwhile mention since it is Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut. Directed and starring Keanu Reeves as Donaka Mark, Reeves cast himself as the movie’s main antagonist for perhaps one of the first times. The main character, Tiger Chen, is actually the protege of Yuen Woo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Matrix choreographer) as well as Keanu’s close teacher and friend. He also had a minor role in Matrix Reloaded–you may recognize him as that guy who was shocked when Neo clubbed him to death at the end of the fight in the chateau.

“Uh-oh.”

John Wick Franchise

The following year in 2014, Reeves played the titular assassin in what would become a surprise hit and franchise. While not technically Cyberpunk, it does have an underground world of assassins and simply tons of badass action sequences including fistfights, handgun fights, fights with assault rifles and shotguns, and fights with everyday objects! The films were directed by Chad Stahelski, who worked as a stunt double for Reeves in the Matrix franchise. He is also reported to be helping out with stunts again in the upcoming Matrix 4 sequel.

Replicas (2018)

The final Cyberpunk film with Keanu Reeves in this list is the indie and little-known film called Replicas. Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Keanu plays a neuroscientist who brings his family back to life via copying their consciousness into androids after they die in a car crash. Unfortunately, it was panned critically.

Cyberpunk 2077 (September 2020)

Not a film but rather the first time that Keanu Reeves voices and features in a big-budget video game, Reeves will star as the augmented punk rocket Johnny Silverhand. As perhaps one of the most highly anticipated videogames of 2020, Reeves’ role was announced with a new video game trailer in 2019, before Keanu himself walked on stage at the Microsoft E3 2019 briefing to announce the (now-delayed) release date of Cyberpunk 2077.

In the announcement a fan yelled that he was breathtaking, to which Keanu, ever the humble man, replied “no, YOU’RE breathtaking. You’re ALL breathtaking!”

Interesting Hobbies

During his long and highly acclaimed acting career, Keanu has also taken part in a lot of interesting side hobbies, in addition to his philanthropic actions. Some of them may surprise you.

Band Bassist for Dogstar

Dogstar was a band active from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, and in their band Keanu Reeves played the Bass guitar. The band formed when Keanu ran into Robert Mailhouse in a grocery store, and they just started talking and hit it off. After jamming together a couple times they formed the band, which was later joined by Gregg Miller, the oriignal lead guitarist and singer. He would end up leaving the band because of his demanding schedule in hollywood.

Co-founded Arch Motorcycles

Keanu is also an avid motorcyclist–he even featured in a motorcycle ad during the superbowl! He was enough of a Motorcycle fan that he co-founded a designer motorcycle company called Arch Motorcycles.

A long and interesting life

So these are all the things that stuck out for me about the interesting life of Keanu Reeves, and why he is one of the most cyberpunk actors out there. But what do you think? Do you know of anyone else who is as synonymous to Cyberpunk films as Reeves? If so, who? Let me know in the comments below. And let me know if I left anything out!

Movies

Matrix 4 Updates May 2020

May 24, 2020 Alexander V Woods

Matrix 4 Updates May 2020

A lot of these updates are the same ones that I posted back in March, but now you get to see my thoughts and reactions in video format! Like what happened to Neo, why does he look that way? And who were those people suspended in mid-air between the skyscrapers, and what does it mean if they were who I thought they were?

Coronavirus News Included

Present in this video that was lacking back in March are the COVID-19 production updates that hadn’t happened yet back in March. On March 16th they announced production for Matrix 4 would be delayed, and then luckily on May 13th just a couple weeks ago they announced that they would start buck up again by early July at the latest in Berlin, Germany. Over on the NeoMatrixology channel, Lazarus has reported what such a reopening may look like here.

Lana Wachowski directing the action herself

A final additional update is that we learned that Lana Wachowski will be directing the action herself, as reported in this article. This is great news, because it will ensure that the action scenes for Matrix 4 are as impressive as they were for the original trilogy.

What did you think about 2020’s Matrix 4 news? What do you think we have in store, and do you think COVID-19 will force an additional delay in the production of Matrix 4? Will the release date be pushed back past May 21st, 2021? Let me know in the comments below!

Movies

Review: Minority Report

May 23, 2020 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

Minority Report: Classic Sci-Fi Cyberpunk from 2002

There’s a good chance you probably remember Minority Report, the classic Sci-Fi flick from 2002 directed by Stephen Spielberg. Perhaps all you remember is the cool futuristic hand-interface he used, or the eyeball scenes (you know which ones). If you’ve never seen this film, you should really check it out, as it was very influential, popular, and definitely fits comfortably in the Cyberpunk category. And coming from no surprise, it’s one of many films that was inspired from a short story by Philip K Dick.

The movie itself was optioned after total recall, and is one of the few from Steven Spielberg in the Cyberpunk category, who most recently did Ready Player One — which was also an adaptation from a literary story.

The Story

In the year 2054, crime has been virtually eliminated through the creation of Pre-Crime, a law enforcement squad that prevents crimes before they happen. In order to operate, they rely on three gifted humans called “Pre-cogs” who have visions of future events that will occur. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) leads the team and believes in it completely, until one day the Pre-Cogs predict him of killing a man he has never even heard of before. Thus he goes on the run to escape the rest of his team while at the same time unraveling who was predicted of killing, and why. Tom Cruise as John Anderton gives an exciting, excellent performance, alongside an ambitious rising officer Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), Max Von Sydow as the Pre-Crime director, and Samantha Morton as the main Pre-Cog.

A Dark Cyberpunk Visual Style–for the most part

It’s well known that Cyberpunk has its visual roots in film noir. Which is why it’s easy to recognize in this film, which uses deliberately overlit scenes, desaturated colors, and a negative that was bleach-bypassed in post-production.

“I had John Huston in my ear,” [Spielberg] explained later in an interview. “I went back and looked at The Maltese Falcon and Hawks’ The Big Sleep—to see how some of those film noir mysteries were resolved. They didn’t dot every i and cross every t. They tried to keep you off-balance. They asked more questions than they could answer in those days.”

In the first 20 minutes we have drugs, a dealer with no eyes, giant billboards spewing propaganda along rainy pavements and city streets at night, and an introduction of how the 3 precogs allow for pre-crime and how it works (predicting a victim and perpetrator, and a young newcomer just arriving to see how it works) as a man is stopped from killing his wife and her lover.

Free Will vs. Determinism

This is interesting in comparison to the Short story, which is a lot cleaner and more elegant. The ending result will be more elegant for the short story as well, focusing more on politics and power than on what happens, whereas the film focuses more on the free will vs. determinism and action elements, as well as the film noir mystery being solved (where is my minority report? asks a desperate John Anderton). The question of this paradigm is in the foreground throughout the film, especially in its climactic conclusion.

Futuristic, yet Realistic, Technology

Just remember Tom Cruise did it first.

Also, the idea of moving around visual images from a recording using a hand or a glove was completely novel when this film came out in 2002. Robert Downey Jr. has perhaps since popularized it with his marvel character Tony Stark in Iron man, but that movie came out a full six years later, in 2008. Minority report would prove to be truly visionary and predictive of the future to come (with technology nowadays such as VR and Google Glass).

Microsoft’s Holo Lens

Other futuristic technology includes animations and audio on the cereal box (you can see the hilarious scene of which below), and back-lit glass screens for computers. There are also holograms in Anderton’s room.

This was no coincidence, as Spielberg invited 15 experts from various fields of science and culture to participate in a three-day “think tank” to try to imagine and predict a possible future society. This is how we got the Pre-Crime user interface mentioned above, self-updating newspapers, personalized billboards, and the mag-lev transportation system.

The highways going vertical and horizontal, sloping along buildings, with slim cars like covered motorbikes without steering wheels was incredibly interesting to see back in 2002.

Ads being created by eye scans is definitely something that would be possible in the future.

Also police using jetpacks was one of the first times I saw such things in a movie set in the near future.

“I wanted all the toys to come true someday”–Steven Spielberg

A final note on the technology were the creepy “Spyders”, autonomous robots used as ways to identify humans in buildings. They entered apartments in entire apartment buildings, and no matter what the residents were doing–like a mother with her children, an old married couple fighting, a young couple having sex–all were alarmed, then allowed themselves to be scanned, before continuing on with their business as usual–as if they were quite used to the whole process.

A Familiar Soundtrack Style–from John Williams

The Soundtrack was done by John Williams and feels as such. Close your eyes at times and it could be mistaken for scenes in an Imperial Star Destroyer, or duel of the fates. I think it’s due to his heavy use of violins and horns. When John finds out he’s supposed to be the one to kill, and then climbs on his own car, again I have visions of Anakin Skywalker doing the same in Revenge of the sith with the elevator. John Williams’ music is so familiar!

Déjà-Vu

The idea of an echo, a pre-cog déjà vu, was something novel in the movie that was not in the short story. However, déjà-vu and questioning reality is of course something Philip K Dick would have liked all too well.

A Subsequent TV Series (that was cancelled)

The movie also resulted in a TV series that was cut from 13 to 10 episodes and then cancelled due to poor ratings.

Final Thoughts

Minority Report is a fun, exciting film that combines elements of thrilling film noir with a fast pace set in a fascinating realistic future while also making the viewer think. It doesn’t hit you over the head with existential questions the way others like the Matrix might, and while heavy on action, it also gives the film time to breathe. Also, like many of Spielberg’s films, it has a secondary focus on broken families. This film, although Cyberpunk in its seemingly utopian society, is lighter on the typical cyberpunk aesthetics and while it has somewhat futuristic technology, there is no biopunk, robots, augments, or any other transhumanism elements (other than a black market eye transplantation). There’s also no virtual or AI elements either, although there are some drug addiction elements present. Nonetheless, it’s an excellent film, one that’s withstanding the ages, and a welcome addition to the Cyberpunk Genre.

What makes Minority Report so good isn’t the fact it managed to successfully predict several aspects of the future, or that it offered some revolutionizing insight into the ever-going philosophical debate of free will versus predetermination, or that it features great performances from not only Cruise but also Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow and Samantha Morton. This film is great because it delivers a thrilling spectacle that’s at the same time both brains and brawns. As Ebert noted in his original review, Minority Report is a film that works on our minds and our emotions made by a “master filmmaker at the top of his form.”–Sven Mikulec, Cinephilia & Beyond

Final Verdict: 8/10

Video Games

Review: Hyper Jam

May 16, 2020 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

Hyper Jam: Neon-Soaked Arcade Fun

“Hyper Jam is what happens if you paint a Neon Synthwave sheen over Super Smash Brothers. With fast-paced, high-intensity action and constantly spawning items that can be thrown, its levels include punishing consequences if you step out of the arena.”–Cyberpunk Matrix

Hyper Jam is a neon-soaked indie arcade brawler that came out for PC, XBox and Playstation in February 2019. With its new release on Nintendo Switch, I’m going to take a look at what makes this game the must-have for cyberpunk parties everywhere.

Beautiful Neon Colors and Retro Vibes

The first thing that you notice when you start up this game is the beautiful aesthetic in lovingly-rendered 80’s neon colors. From the characters to the maps to the perk selections and menus, everything is delivered in a simple, yet pretty package.

A Killer Synthwave Soundtrack

The second thing you notice is the stellar Synthwave soundtrack that matches the game’s aesthetic perfectly. This is also one of the major things that immediately drew me to the game after seeing the trailer below.

The trailer immediately hits you with Paradise Warfare, one of my favorite tracks by Carpenter Brut, also an all-time favorite Cyberpunk and Synthwave artist. Once you buy and load up the game, however, the song you’ll probably most associate with the game is the one that plays automatically in the home menu screen, which is Dressed to Kill by Dance with the Dead–another excellent synthwave artist, and decidedly more fast-paced and upbeat a tune to get you psyched up to get right back into the fray. Other synthwave artists whose tracks you’ll encounter in the game include Meteor, Vulta, and more.

Making a Profile and Choosing your Character

Before playing, it’s advisable to create a profile for yourself before choosing your default character to play as. This was a mistake I made at the beginning, as I wanted to jump right into the action without creating my profile. What the game doesn’t tell you is that after you create your game profile, you then have access to selecting your preferred skins, taunts, and you can also access the key bindings menu from here too–all options that are completely hidden if you don’t create your profile and nickname first.

Your 4 character choices are: Max (The Hunter), Ghost (The Nightmare), Yuki (The Lantern), and Vance (the Fixer). The only differences between these four are what they look like and the taunts they have, which vary in what they say and their voices of course. Taunts are unlocked progressively as you play more, and are a fun way to celebrate defeating an opponent at the end of each round.

Maps

There are five maps to choose from in Hyper Jam. All are beautiful maps and good fun, my only complaint here is simply that there aren’t more of them! Also, while it’s possible to choose a randomly selected map, once your map is selected it remains the same for the entire game. I would have liked to have a randomly-selected map for each round, making the game play even more varied. The six maps you can choose from are Overpass, Jungle, Assembly, Subway, Hotel, and Tower

Fast-Paced Combat

The biggest draw to this game is the tight, fast-paced combat game play. It feels very reminiscent to the feeling you get when playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl, as you have to always be moving, and an attack can come at any moment. As you play weapons appear on the screen at random, which you can pick up and use. They are either in the form of melee (Katana, Sledgehammer) or long-range weapons (bow and arrow, grenade launcher, missile launcher), with the melee weapons breaking after using it four or five times, and long range weapons running out of ammo after four or five rounds as well, depending on the weapon. Weapons can also be thrown for a small amount of damage and to knock players back, which really adds a more frenetic experience as players dash to new appearing weapons, realize the ones they have broke or ran out of ammo, or run away from opponents with empty hands in the incredibly small arenas. See the resemblances?

Striking Beyond the Grave

One very cool feature that’s different from Brawl is that you can strike beyond the grave to avenge your death, kill the player currently in the lead, or simply intimidate the players who are still fighting. After you die, your cursor becomes a faint cursor for about 5 seconds before it slowly changes into a square targeting reticle. Position your reticle above an opponent and fire–there’s a 2-second delay, but if they don’t get out of the way in time because they’re busy, you’ll be awarded with a satisfying blow of additional damage that can sometimes take them out entirely.

Countdown Killing Circle

A second cool feature is that if the battle is taking too long, Sudden Death will be announced and a circle will appear in the arena, with the area inside the circle remaining normal but the area outside the circle turned red as it becomes a damage-dealing kill-zone. This circle then slowly shrinks, forcing the combatants closer and closer together if they want to avoid taking any additional damage. It also makes for risky choices as a player may be tempted to venture into the killing circle to grab a weapon lying on the ground that is just out of reach.

Perk Progression and Drafting System

The combatants fight each other in successive rounds, gaining points for things like being the last man standing or for dealing damage, and losing points for things like falling off the map, not dealing damage, or killing themselves by accident (yes, it’s possible). Once a player reaches a certain threshold of points, they just need to survive as the last man standing for one final round and then they win the game.

In order to spice up the game, after each round a certain number of perks become available to add to the combatants. The twist is that whoever has the lowest points and is last in the game gets first choice in which perks they want. Perks overall are fairly balanced, however, and usually there isn’t a clear choice of which perk is better. Perks do stack, however, and so a three-stack perk for one player might be better than a new 1st level perk.

History

The team behind Hyper Jam had worked in different Melbourne-based game studios while they developed Hyper Jam’s core mechanics and identity in their spare time. After they attended GDC 2017, they were inspired to leave their respective game studios and found Bit Dragon, where they began work on Hyper Jam full time.

Final Review: 8/10

Because of the aesthetics, soundtrack, and fun game play, I highly recommend this game. The game play mechanics are smooth and work well, the perk draft keeps things interesting and allows players to catch up, and this is simply a game that sounds great and looks beautiful. As a brawler it’s great, but don’t expect any story whatsoever, as there is none. This game shines in multiplayer fighting, as playing against bots can become a bit boring after a while. For myself, I ended up taking a long time waiting for an automatic match-making to happen so I could play against someone else online. Fortunately, you have the option to play locally against bots while you wait. The fact that this game offers cross play means that with the new release on the switch, hopefully the game will become more popular and thus more players will find it and play it. This is definitely the type of game I would love to play locally with friends who come visit, or simply online. My hope is that Bit Dragon Studio can continue developing this game, by adding even more weapons, maps, characters, and having more people play online allowing for faster multi-player matchmaking.

Note: Portions of this article previously appeared on Cyberpunks.com

Video Games

Review: Cyberpunk Slasher Ghostrunner Demo

May 9, 2020 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

Cyberpunk Slasher Demo Now Available

Without any warning except for some cryptic posts on their twitter, the Cyberpunk wall-running time-bending slasher Ghostrunner just dropped their demo on Steam, PS4, and XBox (and yes, it’s free!). However, make sure to pick it up quick, as it’ll only be available until May 13th. For more details, check out their website.

With a final release date that still hasn’t been announced (maybe sometime this August?) Ghostrunner is the OTHER Cyberpunk video game we’re all really looking forward to this year. Since the demo was free and I have a Steam account, I was able to give it a go. So here are my thoughts on the 20 minutes of gameplay I spent on this new demo.

A Beautiful Cyberpunk Intro Video

Ghostrunner starts with a beautifully done introductory video of you, the titular “ghost runner” with a lightsaber-style katana Cyber-sword and a full mech-looking body including a closed helmet. Who are you exactly? We don’t know. All we know is you run fast and mortally slash all in your way.

An Exciting Introduction

The beginning short video also introduces to you the types of moves you can look forward to making in-game, like wall-running, big leaps and dashing forward in the air, slashing enemies, and some sort of slowing time ability.

“Ascend humanity’s last remaining shelter, a great tower-city. The tower is torn by violence, poverty and chaos. Conquer your enemies, discover the secrets of the superstructure and your own origin and obtain the power to challenge The Keymaster.”–Ghostrunner Game Description

Beautiful Cyberpunk Visuals and Environment

One of the reasons why I completed the level in 20 minutes my first time (I’ve seen online that some were able to finish it in as little as 4 minutes, but that’s quite difficult) was because I really wanted to take the time to appreciate all the environments. It’s not every day that you get to really walk around in an immersive 3D Cyberpunk environment like this one. I encourage you to take a look at the ads and posters plastered everywhere, and then go back and run through it as quick as possible. The irony of a game like this is that its producers spend all this time designing beautiful levels with stunning screenshot potentials, and then players run through it without even bothering to take in the details (as you run your environment blurs ever so slightly because of how fast you are running, making it even harder to take in your Cyberpunk atmosphere). It also has great synthwave music, I’m happy to report. They sure know their target audience!

Simple Armed Enemies

Not much to say about these simple armed guards. You don’t have much of a chance to look at them, since they fire at you as soon as they see you, and they’re fairly easy to dispatch. The intro video above suggests more difficult enemies later on, including a boss of some sort with robotic arms? An interesting twist was that to pass a certain level, I had to kill all the guards to unlock the doors, who had chips implanted in them that kept the doors locked (and if they were dead, all chips would go offline I guess).

Wall-Running Action

The wall-runnning action reminds me a lot of the fun fast-paced action in Titanfall 2. Except this time you are armed with a glowing sword and nothing else. Sometimes the walls are just walls, other times they are curved billboards, or pieces of wall suspended in midair by inert cranes.

Open Levels with Deep Chasms

The levels have 2 challenges: the guards shooting at you, and the empty spaces that you need to traverse. Get shot by the guards, even just one shot, and you’re dead. Fall to your death, of course, and you’re dead with no chance to recover. Whenever you die, however, you instantly respawn and reset to an earlier checkpoint that saves automatically (so no need to save the game continuously). It also encourages you to get right back into the action, similar to how deaths in Halo, for instance, result in an instant reset and throws you right back into the action.

Final Verdict: 8/10 for a Cyberpunk game demo

Ghostrunner is a fast-paced, exciting game with stunning visuals and great music. The game itself is a level-crossing slasher, with wall-running and slow-motion options. It’s meant to be played fast, so it’s quite hard but rewards repeated attempts to cross its levels. Playing well rewards good instincts and experience through multiple attempts, rather than any planning or logic. With no chance to shoot back at your opponents and very little story to speak of, if you like fast-paced wall-running slashing action, this game is for you.

Television

Review: Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 (Full)

May 7, 2020 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045: A Complete review

For my review of the first episode, check out my previous preliminary review on Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 here. Since my first episode review, the English audio has finally been released for the series–I highly recommend watching it in that format, since the voice acting is pretty good. Also, when compared with the English subtitles, the English audio is significantly different and more natural.

A General Overview

Alright, after 12 episodes of about 20 minutes each, the new Cyberpunk series from Netflix called Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is a fun, fast-paced (for the most part) Cyberpunk action/mystery series, created in 3D CG and is a welcome addition to the Cyberpunk titles on Netflix. Unfortunately, the series is clearly not finished in telling its story.

An Unfinished Series

Why is it not done? Because the first season of Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 feels like a lackadaisical combination of 2 different parts connected by a standalone episode, and ends abruptly without any closure whatsoever. Perhaps it was their intention to keep you hooked, but the structure was a little surprising storytelling-wise.

More great Cyberspace Visuals

We have a lot of great Cyberspace visuals here when the team confer in their online cyber-room. One example is when Togusa is trying to find a lead on the security outfit called Obsidian, and infiltrates a virtual group. The white hallway with countless identical doors feels very similar to the back doors Neo accessed in Matrix Reloaded.

There’s also a fascinating part 20 minutes into the same episode where Togusa is able to very easily access a merchant’s cyber-brain, because she never bothered to secure it. In it he’s able to access countless files, including the mortgage on her cyber-brain, the contents stored on it, and a video log of everything she’s seen before, including the members of Section 9 that he is looking for. It’s a brilliant new example of cyber-sleuthing presented in a very cool way.

A Japanese Take on American Culture

Throughout the series there are a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle references to American culture, in what feels like how the Japanese see American culture since it’s a little overdone. The first episode, for instance, features the Major drinking a Budweiser. We later see an American operative called John Smith smoke Lucky Strikes. I was surprised his second in command wasn’t the Marlboro Cowboy eating a cheeseburger.

Highlight of the Series: Face-off with Patrick Huge

If you liked the action sequences from Episode 1, then you will love the climax of the series with Episode 5 when the team face off with Patrick Huge. Without any proper intel about who (or what) he is, Huge ends up being a creepy, mysterious, and very worthwhile opponent to the Major and her entire team–no small feat for Section 9.

The First Bank Robbery: A Stand-Alone Episode

After the thrilling 5th and 6th episodes revealing the new real threat (post-humans), all of a sudden the series takes a hard turn with an episode that is completely standalone. Aptly named “PIE IN THE SKY The First Bank Robbery,” it is exactly that–just a bank robbery episode featuring only Batou. It’s a refreshing episode that gives the series a breather and takes a look at basic people living in this new world and how their lives were affected by the simultaneous global default in currency. However, for the main plot of beginning their investigation and battle against post-humans, it’s quite a halt in pacing and was quite surprising.

A Return to Mystery-Solving Before the End

After Episode 7, the series slows down as it returns to its mystery-solving and cyber-sleuthing roots for the rest of the season until its conclusion. With episode 8 featuring more detective work with Togusa, episode 9 is an interesting new murder-mystery to stop another post-human who is going on a killing spree with an enhanced cyber-arm. Unfortunately, it starts and concludes in the same episode. The final 3 episodes involve the prevention and disarmament of a new cyber-weapon attacking people’s minds, with the post-human behind it out of sight.

An Unsatisfying Ending

The investigation leads the team, with Togusa and Batou in particular, to a shed in the woods as the team follow the post-human’s memories as a teenager. And then the series just…ends. It’s very odd, and was quite surprising. This must be to leave viewers on a cliffhanger to renew the series for a second season.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

With a strong beginning and great parts action and cyber-sleuthing, this was a fine first season if you can get past the 3D CG animation. However, this season has serious problems with pacing and maintaining a consistent engaging story throughout the entire season, in particular with the final three episodes, and the anti-climactic ending doesn’t help. With a couple welcome new ideas like the introduction of Post-humans, including their abilities and fighting style, this series is notably absent of social commentary and feels more like a CSI series set in a Cyberpunk world. The “post-currency sustainable warfare” environment the season is placed in also feels like a misstep, giving more questions than answers. Nonetheless, characters like the Major and Togusa are easy to like, the post-human villains are interesting, and Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 is overall a solid, engaging addition to Netflix’s Cyberpunk repertoire.

Is this Cyberpunk?, Movies

Big Hero 6 — Is This Cyberpunk?

May 2, 2020 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

Big Hero 6: A Cyberpunk Entry? Let’s Find Out

Note: This is part of my ongoing series Is This Cyberpunk? where I look at different media in the Cyberpunk grey area, to help come to that ever-elusive definition of what Cyberpunk really is. In today’s post, I will consider if Big Hero 6 counts as a Cyberpunk movie, or not.

What is Big Hero 6 Anyways?

Big Hero 6 is a 3D computer animated Disney film that came out in 2014. It’s loosely based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name and tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young prodigy in robotics who creates a technology that becomes stolen by a masked villain. With the help of the medical robot Baymax, Hiro founds a team of superheros to help fight the masked villain and reclaim his stolen tech.

Baymax, the Robot of Big Hero 6

Very early on we meet Baymax, a lovable inflatable medical robot that dispenses both physical and emotional assessments and treatments on any human within distance. He also learns and adapts pretty quickly to his environment, including how to fist bump.

“I will add ‘fist-bump’ to my care-giving matrix” –Baymax

He’s clearly a very advanced android.

The Other Characters

A very important character you meet early on is Hiro’s older brother, Tadashi. At the beginning of the movie we find Hiro lost, unmotivated, and participating in illegal robot battles in his free time. In order to set him back on the right track, Tadashi introduces brings Hiro to his University’s lab, where he shows Hiro Baymax.

This is the first important acquaintance that Hiro makes early on in the movie. Tadashi will also significantly impact Hiro’s motivations throughout the rest of the movie. But when Tadashi brings Hiro to his lab, he also introduces him to the rest of his friends: Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred. These four will later become the rest of the Big Hero 6 team members.

The Story

Hiro becomes motivated to develop a new technology and present it in a conference meant to impress the judges enough to make them offer him an invitation into their prestigious university. During the conference, however, there is an incident that sets into motion the plot for the rest of the film. Hiro’s tech is lost, or so he thinks, before he finds it again years later in the hands of a mysterious figure wearing a kabuto mask. In order to solve the mystery of who this masked man is and reclaim his tech, Hiro teams up with the four friends and Baymax to form the Big Hero 6 team.

An Interesting Setting: San Fransokyo

One of the first things that really springs out to any proper Cyberpunk fan is the very Cyberpunk-like aesthetic in this film, in particular in this film’s setting. The movie takes place in a fictional city called San Fransokyo, a rather obvious mix between San Francisco and Tokyo. It would appear to be modern-day San Francisco, but if the city had been taken over by Japanese inhabitants. This city kept the Golden Gate Bridge, but added Japanese architectural flourishes to it.

It turns out that there’s a reason for why San Fransokyo seems like a mix of the two cities. According to the city’s Fandom wikipedia page, San Francisco experienced a major earthquake in 1906 caused by the collapse of an energy amplifier created by the artist Lenore Shimamoto. The reconstruction of the city led to its rebirth, as Japanese immigrants combined the San Francisco and Tokyo-style architecture in order to mitigate the effects of any future massive earthquakes.

Cyberpunk Visuals

As a result of the massive metropolis that is San Francisco, combined with the neon lights at night time and a more tech-focused slant of the city, this movie seems to have taken very clear inspirations from Blade Runner. Take a look:

San Fransokyo at Night

Unlike many Cyberpunk films, however, they show both the night and daytime. San Fransokyo in the daytime looks like this:

San Fransokyo during the day

Throughout the city are floating blimp-kite things with fans. They look like Energy kites that provide wind power to whatever the kite is tethered too. That’s just a guess, however, as the movie never explains what they are. In an incredible stroke of good luck (for me, at least) the viewer is treated to a closer look at the city from the air as halfway through the movie, Hiro creates a suit of armor for Baymax that includes a jet pack. Hiro then rides Baymax up in the sky, eventually landing on one of these energy kite blimp things to enjoy a beautiful sunset. It looks like a lot of fun.

Baymax and Hiro atop an energy blimp thing.

But it’s not just the city itself that looks Cyberpunk as hell. Hiro himself could be counted as a little Cyber Punk, as he starts off the movie in illegal Black Market Robot battles that strongly reminded me of that short film Sonnie’s Edge from Love, Death & Robots.

Robot Battle In the Ring

This was really interesting, fun, enjoyable, and different from what I was expecting. It was the Punk aspect that I had been looking for. But the movie goes well beyond just Punk. There’s a lot of high-tech nods that were really fun to see featured in subtle ways throughout the film. For instance, Hiro uses a virtual keyboard, and then later on designs Baymax’s armor in the air like Tony Stark modeling his Iron Man armor.

Designing Virtually

In the same frame, he alternates between an Apple standard physical keyboard, and a virtual keyboard projected onto his table using a little blue projector. The blue colors and green virtual screen also felt very Cyberpunk.

Projected Keyboards

Then, in what clearly felt like a nod to the Matrix Trilogy, Hiro programs Baymax to fight using Kung-Fu movies! He uses a program to capture the movements shown in the action scene, then maps them out into moves that Baymax can mimic. Baymax literally has his own “I know Kung-Fu” moment!

Baymax knows Kung-Fu

If that’s not Cyberpunk then I don’t know what is. The final thing I noticed in the film was Hiro’s use of 3D printers, technology we already have today, in order to create Baymax’s armor.

Final Verdict and Review: A fun family movie, it’s a Superhero Movie first, but definitely Cyberpunk second.

So yes, it’s cyberpunk, but it’s more of a Superhero movie with a Cyberpunk style. It just barely passes the sniff test to count as Cyberpunk, but it passes the hurdle nonetheless. With good pacing and a plot that’s not too predictable, Big Hero 6 shines in the development of its main character but loses a bit with the amount of characters it has (all 4 sidekicks are quite forgettable). With a solid soundtrack, incredible visuals, and a good amount of humor and fun, this is the perfect Cyberpunk animated Disney movie.

The Final Word?

So that’s how I feel about the movie. But what do you think? Have you seen it? Do you agree with my verdict? Why/why not? Feel free to have the final word in the comments below.