If you thought the PS3s magnum opus was a wholy original work of art, you might want to watch The Road. Now, The Road was a Cormac McCarthy survival-horror novel before it starred Viggo Mortensen on the silver screen, but theyre both essentially the same story and they both predate The Last of Us. Whether its the book or film, The Road follows a Man and his Boy trekking across country in a post-acopocalyptic wasteland. Sound familiar? The Last of Us largely follows the same premise, obviously swapping The Roads Boy for Ellie, and while she isnt Joels child, she certainly fills that roll. Both Ellie and the Boy were born after the world went to Hell, a motif that informs their perspective throughout each journey. On the flip side, Ellie is a young teen, while the Boy is easily less than ten. Her age and tenacity make her much less a victim, but its her literal importance that is perhaps the biggest difference. The most raw human drama in either story stems from the ever-present struggle to preserve ones humanity. The Man protects his Boy with everything he has, fueled by the purity and innocence his child represents and what it means to the preservation of civil mankind. Without spoiling anything, Ellie represents a more literal savior role, while both stories regard the protection of their star youths with tantamount importance. The Last of Us did introduce an original take on the zombie concept an end-of-world trope that The Road never touches with a fictional spreading of a real fungus known as Cordyceps. This parasite invades and eventually replaces host tissue, not unlike the alien virus from The Thing, but dont worry Google seems to think it only kills video game people and bugs. Like Dead Space before it, The Last of Us does something new and amazing with a story we love. As long as it does enough new to be its own thing while maintaining a certain level of quality that respects the source material, we dont mind any storyteller going down that road.
Real Science Magazine called James' addiction to video games "sexually attractive." He also worked really hard and got really lucky in college and earned some awards for acting, improv and stand-up, but nobody cares about that out here in LA. So... He's starting over fresh, performing when He can. His profile picture features James as Serbian, vampire comic Dorde Mehailo with His anonymous Brother and Uncle at the Nerdmelt Showroom in West Hollywood. In James' spare time, he engages in acting, writing, athletics, hydration, hours of great pondering and generally wishing you'd like him.
