It’s not that dumb things can’t be tonally serious. There aren’t even any discernible battle tactics, group dynamics, or worldbuilding attempts. Nor does anything we’re seeing seem “important.” There’s no stakes, no character, no plot, nothing. Problem is, there isn’t even a friggin’ story in this video. This is a video that literally opens by claiming that “this is the part of the story that’s really important.”
The issue I’m really taking with this advertisement (aside from the boneheaded action choreography) is the tone. I’ve shot plenty of things myself, and enjoyed quite a bit of it. Look, I get that video games make the vast majority of their money by featuring faceless (or at least personality-less) avatars running around shooting things. Probably not funny.Īnd to close out this totally-not-crappy advertisement for the most hyped game of the year, we have… an even bigger Thing.* It cuts out before we see what happens, but I bet a hundred bucks that the guys in masks shoot at it. Is this supposed to be badass? Tense? Cool? Funny? I have no idea. There’s no dodging, no fire taken, no cover found, just a totally arrhythmic firing range scene. Why aren’t the Masks getting shot, again? Seriously, this is bad aim on a scale that Stormtroopers and Bond villains can only dream of.Ī clip of exploding pistol rounds later, and the threat is neutralized. Except their victory makes even less sense here, because the Things have shields and guns and superior numbers. We’re still treated to nonsensical images of Mask, Mask, and Mask as they stand in one position and shoot Things. There’s a second scenario in the back half of the video to underline this idea. But it’s not like the ad goes to any effort to have them, you know, act like a team. I suppose that the Law of the Jungle comes in with the idea that Destiny is going to revolve around team/co-op gameplay, and the video displays that by having three masked people instead of just one. Suddenly, guns! Mask and his companions (“Mask” and “Mask,” respectively) are surrounded by the Things, and have to fight them. The point is… well, the point is the Law of the Jungle, obviously. In the first segment, the main character (“Mask,” for short) looks down over a group of (presumably) bad things. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. “This is the part of the story that’s really important.” Good guy? Bad guy? Morally grey drifter? Who cares? “Pay attention,” a voiceover orders. Is he a robot? A human? An alien? Doesn’t matter. In the opening, we’re treated to a slow close-up of a character in a mask. More specifically, people in masks shoot at each other.
If the advertisement is meant to give some idea of the game’s content, that’s almost literally all that can be gained. Because all that actually happens in this video is some people shoot at things. Httpv://…Okay, where exactly is the Law of the Jungle exemplified in here? Other than in the voiceover, I mean. “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” What is this ad actually selling the game with? I mean, I know that the name recognition carries a lot of weight here, but beyond that? According to the narration, the “Law of the Jungle” has something to do with it. So now you know what I mean when I say the “Law of the Jungle” ad for Destiny is pretentious as hell. Its “importance” is an affectation as opposed to an earnest intent. I prefer to use the term, not to describe a work that’s really attempting to dig into an issue, but to describe something that PRETENDS to significance that it absolutely does not have. Presumably, this phenomenon will demonstrate itself in the comments shortly. On a more day-to-day basis, a lot of criticism that aims to deal with more than the surface-level qualities of a given work will get slapped with the label, too. Usually it seems to find itself attached to movies with lofty philosophical ambitions, like Tree of Life, or The Seventh Seal. “Pretentious” is a word thrown around an awful lot these days.
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