The Interview - An Acceptable Film?

The Interview’s original intended Christmas Day release is back on the cards after the release of the Sony film was cancelled amid hacking threats towards the production company in recent days. The Interview is the most recent film starring duo Seth Rogen and James Franco in a comedic assassination plot of North Korea’s infamous leader, Kim Jong-Un. As a result of the controversial theme and even more from the recent hacking of Sony, the film has gained an incredible worldwide spotlight of attention. However, whilst every news website and blog worth their salt is reporting on the updates of both the film’s release status and Korea and America’s political dealing amid the Sony hackings this article will report something different. 

Is it okay to produce films like The Interview?

                The plot of The Interview is about famous talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his colleague and friend Dave Rapaport (Seth Rogen) being invited to interview Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park). The characters are then recruited by America’s CIA to assassinate the Korean leader and a series of hilarious and surreal events ensue. Being this is a personal blog and I am not a company name I am free to state my opinion. I don’t think a film of this concept is morally okay to produce.

                The first moral dilemma I see in a film of this nature is the simple fact that the target of the film’s fictional assassination is a very non-fictional, very much alive and real individual. Whilst Kim Jong-Un and his father before him have always had somewhat of an infamous reputation as world leaders is it truly okay to produce a film about their murder? It isn’t my belief that having a film made about yourself being the target of a CIA funded assassination leaves a great taste in Kim Jong-Un’s mouth and in his position I feel I too would be as vocally offended as he was when the film was first announced. We are talking about putting millions of dollars into the production of a film where the main plot is murdering a real person and portraying doing so in a comedy of all genres.

                Whilst I can appreciate that the film aims for a light, less than serious tone with its comedy setting I still feel this doesn’t detract from the plot of this film. I can only imagine the amount of individuals who would be vocally aggressive towards a comedy film being made about murdering the current reigning British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, or assassinating President Barack Obama. Yet the likes of George Clooney, Steve Carrel and even President Obama himself condemned Sony’s original cancellation of the film after threats were issued to Sony by the culprits of the recent hacking attack.

                In America freedom of speech and creative license is celebrated and has been quoted greatly in regards to The Interview being released, however freedom of speech does have a limit in the country. Offensive and particularly hateful speech is condemned in both the United States and the United Kingdom as hate crime and a film of this nature directed towards any of their own cultural figureheads would be the cause of uproar and rage. I, as an English writer, condemn peoples' acceptance of such a glorified acceptation of a film whose premise is to provide comedy in a film about killing a real living person who is the figurehead in his country.

                If I can say without doubt that I would personally be offended by a comedy snuff film being produced about my own death for people’s entertainment, is it really okay to produce a film to make people laugh about the murder Kim Jong-Un? That, I believe, is very much open and in dire need of debate.

Of Wizards And Handguns - Are MMORPGs And FPSs The Same?

When comparing genres of video games it’s a pretty safe bet to say that MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest are thought of as incredibly different to FPS titles like Call of Duty and the Battlefield series. These games dominate our markets and the nuances of each genre are known well in near every self-proclaimed gamer with Call of Duty releasing its 11^th instalment, Advanced Warfare, in 2014 and Blizzard releasing World of Warcraft’s 5^th expansion, Warlords of Draenor, mere days later. These being only 2 of the MMORPG and FPS series currently dominating the video gaming market just go to show the ever present popularity and success of the genres.

However is it truly honest to say the designs and player goals for these wholly different genres are really as different as some may think? Everquest, created in 1999 and celebrating the game’s 21^st expansion release in October, is one of the oldest MMORPGs still running and featured the gameplay basis most of its genre follows. Players chose a class and levelled through defeating enemies and achieving given goals in the fantasy world. But how can a fantasy world of levelling and questing relate in any way to modern first-person shooters?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first Call of Duty to implement it’s not ever present levelling system into the multiplayer section of the game. Players achieve levels and increased ‘rank’ as a result of defeating other players, achieving game objectives and completing challenges and being rewarded experience points for doing so. With these levels a player can upgrade their equipment and skills. This is starting to sound familiar…

Borderlands, released by Gearbox Software in 2009, embraced the rpg design in their FPS with zany skills, talent trees, and varying equipment stats that alter the style of gameplay for your chosen and developed character. This in turn follows very similarly to Call of Duty’s various weapons and the altering ranges, fire rate and damage of those weapons and how players must also alter their play style to revolve around how they equip their characters.

So finally we ask, why do we love these various games and what seems to be the similar theme of design in them that gamers enjoy? Do players enjoy the rewarding aspect of increased level, the freedom of personal design of a player’s own playstyle? As well as this if the game genres really do hold such similarities then why is it some players do not like one but will play the other? It is a question that is so far unanswered but the similarities in what started as entirely opposite genres are nonetheless showing parallels in how their designers are building these new games. Is this a trend that will continue? With the popularity of the Call of Duty and Borderlands FPS series it wouldn’t at all be a farfetched claim to say, most likely.

(Disclaimer - I do not own or claim to own the featured images. All the images are property of original artists, designers and publishers.)