BrockTalk

2011-09-21T16:49:00.001-05:00

2011-06-15T12:45:00.002-05:00

While going to the movies is always a fun experience, it's not too often that the movie you are paying to see in itself is fun. I'm happy to say that J.J. Abrams's Super 8 is exactly the kind of fun experience I'm looking for when I go to see a summer movie. For me, a lot of the fun factor of this movie derived from pure nostalgia. This movie is the movies that I loved from my childhood, and that I still enjoy watching on occasion today. More specifically, Super 8 is a love letter to the Steven Spielberg movies of the 80's and early 90's. I'm talking E.T., Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the Goonies.

J.J. Abrams who righted the Mission Impossible ship with MI: 3, re-invented Star Trek for a new generation, and absolutely demanded my attention with the tv series Lost, continues to impress. The manner in which he was able to capture the style of Spielberg's films was astonishing. In fact, if I had been told that Spielberg himself directed this film back in 1992 but the film was just now released, I probably would have believed it.
As is the case in many of those films, the children take center-stage in Super 8, and carry the movie very well. Chief among these is Alice (Elle Fanning) and Joe (Joel Courtney) who find each other's friendship when family troubles brew for each of them at home. Abrams handles this relationship very nicely with just the right touches, and Joe's group of friends help keep things in perspective after a train wreck in their little town is just the beginning of strange and miraculous occurences involving the local Air Force and a brooding creature.

Super 8 isn't without it's imperfections, however, as is does make a few small mis-steps for sake of the plot, but nothing that impacts the movie significantly. You likely won't see Super 8 up for best picture at the Oscars next year, and while it's style and plot are far from original, that's okay, because it's not trying to be. It's goal was to simply bring this style of movie to a new generation, and it easily succeeds.

2011-05-10T16:58:00.003-05:00

With the release of the first Iron Man, Marvel showed us that who better to handle a comic-book based movie than the company that makes the comic books themselves, and thankfully they continue this trend with Thor. Thor continues Marvels effort to build multiple character focused stories that are eventually going to meet up in the imminent Avengers movie scheduled for release next year. While not quite as ground-breaking and iconic as Iron Man, Thor is a good start to the summer movie season.

We are introduced to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as he is ready to take over the role as king of Asgard from his aging father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). However, during the celebratory induction Asgard's long-time enemies, the Frostgiants, infiltrate the kingdom's defenses in hopes to steal back an artifact that was taken from them during an earlier war, and until now has served as a thin truce between the two races. Enraged by this break in the truce Thor along with a few of his friends decides to travel to the the Frostgiant's home to demand answers, despite his father's decision to approach this situation differently.
When Odin discovers Thor's insubordination and his refusal to listen to reason he banishes Thor to Earth, stripping him of all his power in hopes that Thor will learn his lesson, and return to rule when he is ready. This leaves Odin's younger brother Loki to step in for Thor as king, and while Loki seems to want to do the right thing it becomes more and more clear that his methods and motives for achieving his end goals are far from the proper path.

Thor does a lot right. There are great tension-filled character building moments between father and son, and Thor and his brother, as well as power-packed action sequences, eye-catching special effects (the world of Asgard and the evil Frostgiants are the standouts in this category), and light touches of humor thrown in for good measure. Though with all of this Thor can't help but falter a little along the way. The relationship between Thor and earth girl Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) seems very forced, especially in the film's closing moments. There's also just a slight feeling of silliness on occasion in parts of the movie that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but may have something to do with the clashing of the two vastly different worlds of Earth and Asgard existing in the same space, not to mention in the same universe that Iron Man exists. It will be interesting to see how this is handled when Iron Man and Thor finally meet in The Avengers.

While Thor doesn't quite fill the shoes of the original Iron Man, I did enjoy it more than Iron Man's disappointing second outing. Marvel has a good thing going and looks to continue this trend with Captain America later this summer. These are all classic Marvel characters that with the help of today's technology are finally getting their big-screen dues.

2011-05-09T13:44:00.007-05:00

PS3 owners have cause to celebrate. The Mass Effect series, one of the very few triple-A titles which was previously a Microsoft X-Box exclusive has come to the Playstation, and boy was it worth the wait. If you are looking for an epic story, interesting characters, and great 3rd person action shooting combined with RPG elements, then look no further than Mass Effect 2.

STORY AND CHARACTERS

Now the first question we need to get out of the way is, "Do I need to have played Mass Effect 1 to be able to play 2?" That's a very fair question, especially seeing as Mass Effect was originally planned as a trilogy, and choices you make carry over from one game to the next. Yes, I know, that's awesome. Luckily for us, Bioware, has come up with a very nice way to catch us up on the story. After the opening sequence of events you will be presented with a interactive back-story presented in a comic book style fashion that catches you up on the events from the first game. Throughout the comic you will be tasked with making certain story changing decisions, that will carry over into your current Mass Effect 2 storyline. For example, in the first game there comes a point where one of two characters dies based on an action you take. With the interactive comic you are allowed to make this decision on the fly, by deciding who gets left out of the continuing story, and who becomes a recurring character. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

From the very beginning Mass Effect 2 wastes no time capturing your attention and sucking you into its fully realized universe, and that's just one of the many things that makes this game so great. As Commander Shepard you are tasked with gathering a team of the universe's most elite specialists in order to confront and take down an alien threat. The team gathering takes most of the actual game time, but don't let that dissuade you. The characters you pick up along the way each have their own character-specific missions and compelling sub-plots that really bring a level of character development not found in most video games. In fact, decisions you make along the game can and will affect who lives and who dies, which can ultimately affect which characters you will see in the final chapter of the series. What this does is causes the player to be invested in their characters and choices, as they can have lasting impact on the story that unfolds.

PRESENTATION

Mass Effect 2 is hands down a beautiful game. The opening of this game is quite possibly the best opening I've ever witnessed in a game, and the beauty doesn't end with the cutscenes. In fact, even the cutscenes are dynamic in that whatever characters you have chosen to take with you on a particular mission, and even the way you have personolized your own Commander Shepherd carry over into the game's cinematic moments. I've never been this vested in a game's story and characters, and the presentation has much to do with that.

GAMEPLAY

Presentation is great and all, but what is a game without stellar gameplay? Thankfully, ME2 pays off big in this department as well. Combining a cover based third-person shooter with sprinklings of RPG elements, ME2 delivers fast, frantic and addictive gameplay. You will control Shepherd and two additional squad mates of your choosing during the majority of the missions. In between popping out of cover to shoot the baddies, you can pause the action by pulling up a command wheel that will let you dish out special powers for you and your squad-mates. Like most RPG's you will choose a character class for Shepherd at the games outset, and this determines what powers are available. Finding a good balance between your and your squadmates' abilities becomes vital especially in the harder difficulty levels of the game, as different enemies are weak to various powers. While I generally enjoy RPG's on occasion, I often find myself becoming impatient with the overwhelming amount of time I spend in menus customizing and-recustomizing my characters. Mass Effect 2 does a beautiful job of streamlining this process by allowing you to get in, get out, and get the job done. While this felt great to me, many have complained that the game had been over-streamlined from the original Mass Effect. New details about the release of ME 3 have shown that some of the control is going to be given back to the players; so here's hoping that Bioware finds a good balance to keep both sides happy. I'm confident that they can and will.

PS3 Extras

Another plus of the PS3 edition is that Bioware threw in three of the downloadable content missions. These missions are far from throw-aways however, as they provided some of the most varied and enjoyable moments in tha game as a whole. Adding addtional characters to your team, and outcomes that could very well have an impact in the finale, these are probably the best downloadable content packs I have ever played, and I would have gladly paid the extra money if they were not included in the package already.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As you can tell, I absolutely loved my time with Mass Effect 2. It very well may be my new favorite game of all time. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I played through it in it's entirety, DLC packs and all, twice. The second playthrough was done on Insanity mode, which is the game's hardest difficulty setting; and while early missions could sometimes be frustrating, it became more and more rewarding as I moved along. The presentation, gameplay, story, and characters came together so well that it deserved every Game of the Year award it received in 2010 when it was initially released on the X-BOX 360. I absolutely cannot wait to see what Bioware has up its' sleeve for the final chapter of this trilogy. They have created a universe and characters so deep and rich, that even at this story arc's epic end there will be a ton of possibilities for future games set in this universe. Count me in.

2011-04-04T15:24:00.007-05:00

I'm always down for some good science-fiction, so when I found out that the new Jake Gyllenhaal flick was from the mind of writer/director Duncan Jones who was also responsible for one of my favorite sci-fi movies in recent memory, 2009's Moon, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, Source Code doesn't quite match the caliber of Moon, instead opting for something more accessible to a mass audience.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a U.S. soldier who takes over a man's body on a train that has recently exploded, and by using this man Gyllenhaal is tasked to find out the bomber's identity in hopes of preventing an assumed second attack. Source Code, is in many ways a science-fiction take on Groundhog Day, as Gyllenhaal's character only has the 8 minutes prior to the bomb going off to try and figure out who the bomber is. Once the bomb goes off the scenario has to be re-started. I won't go into the details of how the movie explains the science behind how they are able to accomplish this phenomenon, as it could possible give away some of the movie's twists. What I can tell you is that the science and plausibility of this science didn't really sell me. The logic of the characters involved kind of baffled me as well, as they wasted half of the movie trying to find the bomber ON the train, when the movie made a point many times to show you that the train stopped and let passengers off before the bomb blew. Wouldn't it make sense that the bomber would get off as well, so as not to blow himself up in the process and be able to carry out the second attack? Apparently the characters in the movie were a little slow to make this realization. However, with all of that said the movie was still a fun and entertaining ride even if there were some mis-steps in plot points. The fun of this movie is in figuring out along with Gyllenhall's character why and how he has come to be a part of this mission, and what the connotations of this information will be.

Jones second effort in the sci-fi realm isn't the stuff dreams are made of, but offers a good time at the movies nonetheless. Especially if like me, you've been yearning for a reason to go back to the movies as Hollywood did its usual trudge through the early year months. It's not perfect, but held my interest and was intriguing enough to allow for discussion of ideas and theories at its end.

2011-01-05T15:21:00.002-06:00

I, like many others, will never forget the first time I played Final Fantasy VII on the original Playstation. The characters, epic story, and of course the eye-popping graphics made for a game that is still well-loved today, and has given fan-boys reason to get excited any time a new FF game is released. I am not a huge RPG fan myself, as they generally require a large amount of devoted time to complete, and with the large amount of quality games released these days RPG's just can't seem to find space on my must-play list. With that said this is actually the first Final Fantasy game since VII that I have played all the way through.This review is coming pretty late after this game's release, so I have had the opportunity to hear many others likes and gripes about the game, and compare them to my own experience.

Firstly, many have complained about the linearity. This is a very valid complaint as the vast majority of the game is nothing more than straight-forward hallways taking you from point A to point B which does detract from the sense of adventure and exploration that one would normally find in your standard RPG. Even later in the game when the world seemingly opens up some, it quickly gets back to the linear pathways in the sub-areas of the over-world map. This fact didn't bother me as much as it did most, simply due to the fact that as I have previously stated RPG's generally are very time consuming, and the linearity helped to alleviate some of the wasted time spent wandering around aimlessly. Another benefit of the linearity is that it quickly pushes the player forward to the battles, and as gorgeous as the graphics are the battle system just may be the star of the show.

The most important thing to mention before delving into the battle system is that random battles are history. Well, kinda. While the enemies are always in full view, many times avoiding them is impossible, but being able to see them allows the player in some cases to approach the enemies undetected giving the player a first-strike advantage in the ensuing battle. I found this refreshing as having to fight multiple random battles while just trying to reach your destination in previous installments infuriating. While the game holds the player's hand for a little too long in introducing the ins-and-outs of the battle system, once full control is given, this system is a blast. It is true that in the beginnings of the game one can seemingly just push X over and over to win battles without much effort, but if you give the game time, the enemies and the strategies required to defeat them will test your skills in managing all that is going on in each confrontation. Unlike previous installments in this series where the player is required to manage each individual in the party by selecting the attack, spell, or item every turn; FFXIII instead turns the player into more of a manager of the overall battle by making the player switch the party members into various combinations of classes, or as the games refers them: paradigms. Once a paradigm combination is selected the party members evoke the attacks and spells on their own. Sound easy? It's not. As the overseer of the battle it is crucial that the statuses of each of the party members as well as what the enemy is doing at all times is carefully monitored, which is especially true in the game's numerous boss battles. Failure to do so will many times result in quick and utter defeat. Now before Final Fantasy purists cry foul, know that the game still allows one to select attacks and spells individually if one prefers, but the player can only do this for the party leader as each battle depends on the leader. If the leader falls, the battle is over. I for one absolutely loved this battle system. In previous FF titles and other RPG's alike, I always found myself overwhelmed and bogged down by searching through the menus trying to figure out the right attack to use or spell to cast. This system automates the process some for the player while still allowing great involvement in the overall outcome of each battle. I can't express enough the sense of accomplishment I felt in finally taking down some of the major bosses after several failed attempts. The one complaint I did find in the battle system is with the summon spells. Summons have always been a staple of the Final Fantasy series, and while they look as great as ever, their use, effectiveness, and impact in the majority of the battles in XIII is small. The one cool nuance of the summons however, is Gestault mode. When this mode is activated the summon changes transformer-style into a mountable vehicle or animal allowing the character to ride it. The player then has access to an array of attacks to employ for a limited amount of time that is determined by the amount of damage dealt to the enemy or enemies prior to activating Gestault mode.

The leveling system in XIII is nothing revolutionary, but I'll mention it briefly. Each party member has what is called a crystarium, in which experience points are pumped into. Each paradigm has its own crystarium , and it is divided into multiple ringed levels with branching pathways that open up the various attack and spell casting abilities available to each character based on the paradigm. In the beginnings of the game, each character only has access to the crystariums of three core paradigms such as attacker, defender, or medic. Later in the game, however, each character has access to all of the available paradigms and their respective crystariums in the game, although it is usually best to pump your XP into the three original paradigms crystariums available to any given character, as they are usually the character's strong suit.

Now what would a Final Fantasy review be without discussing its' graphics? Simply put, the graphics are beautiful, and this isn't just apparent in the games cut-scenes, but throughout. Long gone are the days of FF VIII's blobby character models that feel out of place once the cut scenes begin. XIII's in-game graphics are crisp, bright, and clear; and while this makes the cut-scenes feel a little less special when they occur, who am I to complain about a great looking game from start to finish? So I won't.

While FF games are known for being very pretty, the series is just as well-known for its' ever popular stories and characters. In this aspect, Final Fantasy XIII is hit and miss. The story kept me interested, but it is a far cry from the epicness of VII. It plot is based around god-like beings who control the balance of the world of Gran Pulse, and on many occasions interfere in the every day lives of the people of this world by assigning them specific tasks to complete with the catch being that they must figure out what that task is. If they succeed, they are turned into crystal, and supposedly taken to paradise. If they fail, then they are turned into zombie-like creatures known as Cieth. The playable characters in FFXIII, have all been marked, and thus must figure out and complete their task, or choose to defy it. The story is very Japanese, but it has its' moments. The characters, on the other-hand, range from likable to downright annoying. Although she is pretty much a female version of Cloud from FFVII, the main protagonist of XIII, Lightning, is by far the best character in the game. On the annoying side of the spectrum come Hope and Vanille. Vanille serves as the narrator of the game, so thankfully as the game progresses she becomes less annoying. There's no hope for Hope on the other hand. Fang, Snow, and Sazh fill out the rest of party and are various degrees of mediocre.

All in all I enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy XIII. The graphics are gorgeous, the boss battles epic (some can take 20 minutes or more to take down), and the battle system revolutionary. While the linearity of the game is by far its' weakest aspect, most players will find that the game will still take 90 to 100 hours to complete, and upwards to 150 if you want to fully max out all characters, and collect everything; meaning that there is definitely no lack of game to be had here. This game is far from perfect, but if you are anything like me, and are usually overwhelmed by the vast exploration to be done in RPG's, and find yourself bogged down in menus trying to fight battles or equip characters, I think you will find XIII a refreshing step in a different direction.

2010-09-08T16:57:00.005-05:00

I could easily review this movie with two words: slow and boring. If that's all you want to know, then great, you can stop reading now, but seeing as this is a review I should do it properly and explain why I beilieve the movie to be slow and boring, so please, by all means, read on.

The plot is this: The Swedes are out to kill George Clooney for unknown reasons, but more than likely it has somethind to do with the fact that he is a killer himself. He is an expert craftsman when it comes to the art of making guns, and his line of work has left him exhausted, alone, and yearning to find love. Sounds interesting, right? Not even close. You will spend the majority of your two hours watching Clooney do push-ups, sitting at a cafe table alone sipping coffee, walking deserted streets while looking around apprehensively, or spending time with a local prostitute who has a heart of gold a la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. There is very little dialog in the movie, and when there is, it is rarely delivered from Clooney. Watching this movie was like watching and waiting for a pot of water to boil, except the pay off in this movie is proabably less satisfying than the climax of the water finally coming to a boil. Yeah, seriously.

While the plot and pacing of the film are its' major setbacks, it must be said that the director did shoot a beautiful movie. Sadly, that alone cannot save the film ,unless of course you enjoy watching two hours worth of compositionly sound pictures of George Clooney. Listen, I get and understand that the director was trying to convey a sense of the life of this character, and how alone this chosen life has made him, but this has been done before and with much greater effect. Cast Away starring Tom Hanks comes to mind.. In fact, that movie probably had less dialog than this one, but it was a heck of a lot more interesting to watch. As a lover of film, I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed many movies that are considered artsy, but I am a very strong believer that in the end, the single most important element of a movie is the story, and delivering that story in a way that holds the viewer's attention.This story simmers for far too long and never comes to a boil.

2010-08-18T12:13:00.005-05:00

If you are a visitor to this site, then you already know that I am an avid fan of video games, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a movie love-letter to video game nerds everywhere. Written and directed by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, Scott Pilgrim is a coming of age love story set in a world whose rules and laws are based on that of a comic book or video game. Physics and gravity don't really seem to have much relevance in this world, evil ex-boyfriends and girlfriends have super powers, and if you die a pile of coins is all that will remain of your existence. In fact, the movie wastes no time sucking you into its' 8-bit nostalgia, as the opening scene instantly looks, feels, and sounds like that of a load-up screen on a game you may have played back in the 80's on your Nintendo Entertainment System. I have to say, this immediately brought a smile to my face. Ahhh.........the smell of sweet nostalgia.

The video game nods don't stop there however, as a majority of the movie's soundtrack is video game based, the characters talk about and play video games, and the visual style of the entire movie screams video game. This is all well and good, but I can't help but feel that in the end the style ends up outweighing the substance. This isn't to say that the movie has a bad story and poor character development, as I felt very invested in both; the script is quick and breezy, as well as very funny, frequently providing laugh-out-loud moments. The problem is that it pushes its' unique style so much that it quickly becomes repetitive and exhausting causing it to lose its' initial appeal. If you have seen the trailers for this movie, then you know that the basic gist of the plot is that Pilgrim must defeat his new-found love interest's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart forever. I quickly began to loathe these confrontation scenes, as several of them are so cheese-tastic and cringe-worthy that I became very uncomfortable watching them. It didn't help that the first battle is by far the worst, instantly leaving a bad taste in your mouth for future encounters. Have you ever seen a music video from India? The first evil-ex is of Indian decent, and his special power is to summon back-up spirits/dancers (I couldn't really tell you which), resulting in them breaking out into a Indian music video dance routine. Too much, too soon. Also, these scenes are heavily influenced by the Japanese fighting game genre, of which I've never been a big fan , and is probably another major factor in why they didn't sit well with me.

With all of that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed many things about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but in the words of video game journalist Jeff Kanata of Shacknews, "I love loving stuff", and I really wanted to love Scott Pilgrim, but I just didn't come away loving it like I thought I would, which is always a disappointing occurrence. Still, if you are a child of the 8-bit era, are a fan of comic books or video games in general, or enjoy movies of the hip-indie genre, Scott Pilgrim is worth your time. Who knows? You may love it, or maybe even eventually love loving it.

2010-07-30T16:19:00.003-05:00

PLAY, CREATE, SHARE

Modnation Racers is a kart racing game set in Sony's Play, Create, Share division that was created with the release of Little Big Planet. If you haven't played LBP, the whole idea of these games is to create a set of tools around a game concept and let the players go crazy dreaming up their own creations while allowing them to share them with the rest of the Playstation world. With the extreme popularity of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook this genre of gaming was inevitable, and there is much fun to be had.

MODNATION VS. LITTLE BIG PLANET

Little Big Planet was released to much acclaim, but was still without its' share of problems. Chief among these was the level creation tool. While there have been many many a player that have created amazingly wonderful levels, there were many others who felt the level creation tools were just too intimidating. I'm happy to say that this issue has been solved in Modnation. Creating tracks in Modnation Racers is extremely intuitive and easy, allowing creators to put together a track in a matter of minutes by including features that allow you to auto-populate terrain and automatically close the track. Add this to the fact that this ease of use is also used to allow players to create their own racers and karts as well. This game has been out a couple of months and the sheer amount of creativity shown in the tracks, carts, and racers is simply amazing. If you have a favorite movie, t.v., or video game character I can almost guarantee someone has already created it.

Finding other players creations is also much more user-friendly in MNR. In fact, when you first load up the game it drops you into the 'mod-spot' which features among other things the top three most popular racers and karts being downloaded, so finding what's hot is extremely easy.

A.I. HATE YOU

The create and share aspects of the game are fantastic, but that would mean nothing if the actual gameplay wasn't any good. So, is it good? Well, the answer is absolutely yes, but absolutely no at the same time. Let me explain. The driving, drifting, and boosting feel spot on, while the single player tracks packaged into the campaign offer tons of fun. Power-ups, a kart-racing main-stay, are also included and offer a unique take by allowing the power-ups to increase in strength if you collect multiple power-ups before firing one off. This is all well in good, but is also where one of the games MAJOR problems lie. The floodgates of hell itself can and will be released on you at any moment from the computer A.I., especially if you are in first place, and more often than not will take you completely out of the race. In fact, the A.I. in this game is completely relentless. You may think you have a comfortable first place lead, but you're slamming on the boost anyway, when all of sudden you get passed by one or more racers. And so the computer is sure you have no chance at catching back up with them you will then quickly get bombed by three different people. That's right, your very comfortable first place lead has quickly changed to last, and no prayer to God will allow you to recapture that first place position before the end of the race. So, that's frustrating yes, but a little challenge builds character right? Well I'm not finished. Each track also offers 3 challenges that upon conquering will reward unlockables that can be used for your creations. This gives each track a fun new goal to complete, but the catch is that 90% of these challenges require you to not only complete the challenge, but also get first place. Many of these challenges are difficult enough on their own, but pair them with the fact that you have to finish first while competing against A.I. that is completely unfair, and it will make you want to punch a baby square in the face. Now video games do from time to time get me frustrated, but I can't recall anger of this magnitude since I was 10 years old, and screaming THIS GAME CHEATS!!!! Any player of old-school games knows this to be true, as games were much harder back in the day.

LOADING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Another major problem rears its' ugly head as soon as the game loads up....it just keeps loading. When you finally get the game up and running every time you finish a race and move on to another, the loading time is absolutely ridiculous. All games have some loading, but I have gone to the kitchen to get a snack and drink and come back to still see the loading screen. Unacceptable.

BUT, WAIT! THERE'S STILL HOPE

So, it seems my experience with the game was not a unique one. In fact, so many have complained about the difficulty and loading times that Sony has announced that a patch is being released to fix both of these problems. The patch is scheduled to release next week and if it fixes these issues like they say it will my complaints will be null and voice because the game underneath these problems is a very fun and polished kart racer. I spent many a day playing Super Mario Kart on SNES with my brother, and while numerous kart racers have been created since, many of which are not so great, Modnation Racers creates a perfect mix of the fun from Mario Kart with the creation and community tools of Little Big Planet. If you were a fan of one or both of these games then definitely give MNR a try, but you might just wait until the patch is released next week so no babies are harmed in the interim.

2010-07-27T13:51:00.007-05:00

Dreams vs. reality is a popular concept to explore in Hollywood movies, and Inception may be the best effort yet. With a stellar cast that includes Leonardo Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, and Michael Caine, and written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight); Inception weaves a maze of a tale that gives the audience just enough information and direction to help navigate their way through the twisting plot while also delivering top-notch action and special effects allowing it a rightful place in the summer movie season.

Inception is not your typical casual summer movie as it requires some concentration on the viewer's part, and while the first 15 to 20 minutes will leave you grasping for some sort of foothold, the masterful direction from Nolan gradually provides the audience with pieces of the puzzle that allows the overall picture to slowly come more into focus. The basic plot involves a heist whereas Dicaprio and his assembled team of dream intruding professionals are hired to plant an idea into a person's subconscious, known as inception. This heist element, however, is really just the plot device that drives the real story involving the Dicaprio character's inner struggle with guilt along. I won't go into further detail on the plot as I couldn't possibly do it justice, and the whole fun of this movie is going along for ride as the movie jumps back and forth between different levels of dream states. What I will say is that Christopher Nolan continues his streak of making great movies, and if this movie fails to get him an Oscar nod this year, as he was snubbed for The Dark Knight, I'm calling heresy.

I'm no psycho-analyst, to be sure, and I'm not entirely sure how logically plausible any of the ideas presented in this movie are, but I don't care. All I know is that I enjoyed the experience too much to nit-pick, and I've always felt that the very best movies are the one's that leave you thinking about them days after you have left the theater, and Inception is definitely one of those movies. I look forward to diving back into the puzzle with a second viewing to see what I missed the first time through.

2010-07-13T15:21:00.007-05:00

WII REVIEW: SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2

Nintendo is known for it's family friendly games and mascots, but don't let the presence of their flagship character Mario in Super Mario Galaxy 2 fool you. This game is as hardcore as they come, by putting even the most seasoned video gamer's skills to the test. Thankfully, the challenges aren't a result of poor level design and gameplay mechanics, but rather very good and even excellent design and mechanics. This is old-school gaming at its' best built for the modern age, and brought directly to you from the company that defined old-school gaming: Nintendo.

This is the first time Nintendo has released two major Mario games on the same console, but the creators knew they had a plethora of ideas left unexplored after the first Galaxy, and thankfully for all of us gamers, they decided to release a second installment. The original Galaxy was a heck of a lot of fun, but Galaxy 2 offers some major additions to its' predecessor. The first is the inclusion of Mario's favorite green dinosaur, Yoshi, and his levels are some of the most fun you will find in Galaxy 2. Just like in Super Mario World for the SNES, Yoshi can grab, eat, and spit out enemies with his tongue, but the designers have taken this a step further. Yoshi's tongue can also be used to grab on to various objects in the world allowing Yoshi to pull, swing, and jump his way to victory. A couple of levels give Yoshi special abilities by consuming power-ups, one of which turns him into a make-shift balloon, and another that gives him super-speed.

Don't think Yoshi gets all of the fun, however, as Mario gets a handful of new special power-ups of his own. In addition to the returning bee suit from the original Galaxy, new suits include a cloud suit that allows Mario to place up to three cloud platforms allowing him to reach new heights, and a boulder suit that gives Mario the ability to roll into a ball and bust things up real good. My favorite new Mario tool, however, is the drill. This tool drills through the planets' surfaces allowing Mario to either reach the other side, or in some cases, enter and run around the inside of the planet.

The great thing about Galaxy 2 is how every new level you encounter, especially in the beginning of the game, introduces you to a new game mechanic allowing the gameplay to remain fun and fresh. You will obviously end up re-visiting a lot of the mechanics throughout the course of the game, but they are varied up nicely. Just as in the original Galaxy, Mario's main objective is to retrieve power stars, and if you want to retrieve all 120, you'll definitely need to get your game-face on. This isn't to say that the game is impossible, as it doesn't require you to obtain all of the stars in order to progress through the levels, and it is the not-required "prankster" stars that provide the toughest challenges, but if you are a completionist as I tend to be, you will definitely have your work cut out for you. Also, if the game recognizes that you are dying a lot in a particular spot, it will present you with an option to bypass the problem-area. The boss battles are another highlight of the game, as each encounter provides its' own unique and fun challenges to take down the foe.

Mario Galaxy 2 isn't perfect, however. Just like in the original, the circular 3D aspect of many of the levels sometimes make it difficult to see or feel just where Mario is on the plane, causing a little disorientation to the player, and the occasional death. This can no doubt be frustrating, but isn't a big enough problem to warrant not playing an otherwise fantastic game. My second minor complaint is that even though the new additions are great-fun, Galaxy 2 is really no more than additional Galaxy 1 levels with a few new mechanics. Heck, even the story is almost exactly the same, even though this is really no surprise seeing as how Mario games stories have pretty much stayed exactly the same over the years. I guess Mario games have always been more about gameplay over story anyway.

Overall, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the best if not the best game you will play on the Wii. Flagship Mario titles always seem to be system defining games for each Nintendo console, and the Galaxy games are no different.If you haven't played the original, then I would highly suggest just going straight to this installment since as I mentioned there's really no story to miss out on per say, and if you're still left wanting more of the platforming plumber then go back and pick up the first Galaxy.

2010-07-09T10:41:00.003-05:00

PS3 REVIEW: PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE FORGOTTEN SANDS

In 2008 Ubisoft attempted to reboot the popular Prince of Persia franchise with the self-titled Prince of Persia using a whole new art style, combat system, and story-line. The results were somewhat polarizing. Many felt the game was too easy with it's impossible to die mechanic, while others bashed the combat mechanics. These things never bothered me much as I felt the franchise was beginning to get a little stale anyway, and I had an appreciation forwhat the developers were trying to accomplish. I particularly enjoyed how they gave it more of an open-world feel. Still, the original next generation Prince of Persia known as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time retains the crown as the pinnacle of the series, and after the criticism the last game received Ubisoft decided to take The Forgotten Sands back to the original story-line established in The Sands trilogy. The result is a game that recaptures the feel of The Sands of Time with some interesting new platforming and combat mechanics, but at the same time feels like a step back for the series.

STORY

The Forgotten Sands takes place in the seven year gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, and sees the titular prince riding to meet his brother. Upon his arrival the prince finds his brother defending the kingdom in a losing battle. Seeing that the battle is not going his way, the brother decides to call upon an ancient power to come to his aid. This turns out to be a very bad idea as the release of this ancient magic in not interested in aiding anyone, but rather in gaining its' own power with the prince's brother as its' vessel. This is the set up, and pretty much as interesting as the story gets as the remainder of the game is just the prince trying to help/stop his brother and lock away this power forever. This left me somewhat disappointed as the story from Sands of Time was much more interesting, and had a very satisfying conclusion. Interesting enough in fact to spawn a movie adaption released earlier this summer.

PLATFORMING MADNESS

Anyone familiar with past Prince of Persia titles will feel instantly at home when jumping into The Forgotten Sands. This worried me at first since as I mentioned before the Prince of Persia series had begun to get a little stale, but Forgotten Sands gradually ramps up the platforming difficulty by introducing new mechanics, chief among these being through the prince's ability to stop time which affects running water opening up new platforming possibilities. I'll give an example: The player will be presented with a solid wall directly across from a running water fall with another solid wall on the other side of the waterfall with the objective being to reach the ledge at the top of the wall. The player must wall run up wall 1, wall jump through the waterfall to the other solid wall, wall jump again, freeze time in mid-air turning the waterfall into a now solid wall, and then wall jump again off of the waterfall to reach the ledge at the top of solid wall 2. This is just a simple example of this new gameplay mechanic. As the game progresses, these types of platforming puzzles get more and more complex and require a great amount of well-timed button presses. The prince gains two additional abilities throughout the game that adds to the platforming dynamic; one which allows him to perform a speed dash/warp in mid-air to a nearby target, and another that allows pieces of building eroded by time to reappear. These abilities make for some great platforming that feel right at home in Prince of Persia. Most important to the platforming, however, is the very welcome return of the ability to rewind time. This remains one of the best gamplay mechanics ever placed in a video game due to its' perfect balance of taking out the element of constantly dying resulting in seeing a game over screen while still rewarding the player with a since of accomplishment by putting a limit to the amount of times this mechanic can be used.

COMBAT

With platforming being the star of the show Prince of Persia's combat, while not terrible, has never been its' greatest strength. Unfortunately, it hasn't been much improved here, but the prince is given new combat abilities such as fire, ice, and ground-pounding throughout the game which adds a lot more interest to the combat gameplay. The main problem is the flow of combat still lacks a little fluidity, and the enemy types don't really change much throughout the course of the game, rather only the number of enemies you fight at one time. This often results in a lot of random button-mashing, so the new abilities add a bit of freshness to the mix.

PRESTATION/GRAPHICS

2008's Prince of Persia went with a whole new cell-shaded art style,which in my opinion looked rather beautiful, but with Forgotten Sands the developers decided to go back with the more realistic look that was used in Sands of Time, however the colors and graphics come across a little muddy and somewhat ugly compared to other games in this genre. This is somewhat disappointing seeing as how Ubisoft's other franchise, Assassin's Creed, looks so fantastic.

OVERALL

Fans of the Prince of Persia series and those turned off by the 2008 version will find a fun and enjoyable experience to be had with The Forgotten Sands that brings Prince back to its' roots. My wish for the future of this series is that they take the elements that made the original series so great while marrying those elements with the things that worked with the 2008 version, namely the open-world feel. I had a good time playing this game, but with the campaign only taking 8-10 hours, no multi-player element, and low replay value I would probably recommend this only as a very good rental

2010-06-28T10:31:00.004-05:00

Leave it to Pixar to make me eat my words. After seeing Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon I was convinced that this would finally be the year that Pixar lost in the Best Animated Film category at the Academy Awards, knowing that Pixar's entry this year would include a number 3 in the title. While my initial assumption was correct in saying that Toy Story 3 wouldn't feel as fresh as How to Train Your Dragon, Pixar has created a movie so well crafted in story and character that if Toy Story 3's name is read when the envelope is openened come the big night I won't be surprised in the least.

The central theme of the Toy Story films has always been the toys' need to be played with and loved by their owners, and Toy Story 3 is no different. This time, however, Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz, and the other familiar toys has grown up and is headed to college. He is tasked by his mother to clean up his room before he leaves and has to decide what to keep, donate, or throw away. As you have no doubt seen in the trailers, a mix-up occurs and our toys all end up getting sent to a daycare center. Upon arriving at the daycare center the majority of the toys decide to accept their fate, and are satisfied with the fact that they will still be played with. Loyal to Andy to the end as always is Woody, who refuses to give up and find his way back home. As Woody begins his adventure back home the other toys stay, but soon find out that the daycare center is a prison of terror under control of a jaded toy named Lotso-Huggins Bear leaving Woody to come to the resuce. Comedy, adventure, and emotion all follow in true Toy Story fashion.

In many ways Toy Story 3 is very similar to its' predecessors in terms of plot devices, but what this does is really allow the story of the toys to come full circle, bringing closure to the series that started it all for Pixar. What makes Pixar's films stand out from other animated films, is their ability to treat the audience like adults while still appealing to the kids. They do this by focusing first on a solid foundation of story and character allowing them to create emotional connections to their characters and their worlds. In addition to a beautifully shot, touching, and emotional scene towards the end of the film, the opening and closing scenes are absolutely brilliant. I can think of no other animated movie that has ever left me a tad bit watery-eyed, which proves my point on Pixar's ability to create emotional connections. Toy Story 3 is every bit as good as the first two films in the series, and while maybe a tad dark for very young kids in parts, will leave older kids and adults completely satisfied. Bravo Pixar, bravo.

2010-06-18T12:25:00.006-05:00

When Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto III for the Playstation 2 back in 2001 they blew open the doors on what was previously thought possible in a video game. They continued to improve on the franchise with various releases, and pushed the open-world sandbox genre even further with the release of GTA IV in 2008. Since the release of GTA III there have been hundreds of games released in the open-world genre that have followed Rockstar's formula, so much so that the genre has, in my opinion, gotten pretty stale over the years. Leave it to Rockstar to show everyone how it's really done. Using the same engine and feeling very similar to GTA IV in many ways, Red Dead Redemption somehow brings a breath of fresh air to the genre even though you can tell it's basically GTA IV re-skinned with a wild west theme.

PRESENTATION

Like it did in both GTA III and even more so in GTA IV, Rockstar has once again created a world that feels more alive than any other setting for a game that I have ever experienced. There are very few times that I can remember playing a video game where I just stopped playing to watch the world moving around me. Red Dead Redemption provides many of these types of experiences. Galloping across the plains of the wild west on a trusty steed and watching the sun come up over the mountains while music straight out of a classic spaghetti-western plays quietly in the background is simply breathtaking. In fact, the entire landscape of this game is just beautiful, and it can change drastically from one region to the next. In the soundtrack department there are a couple of key moments in the game where you finish a certain mission and as you ride to your next destination a song kicks in that just feels so right it's awesome. It's not too often I notice the soundtrack of a video game like I do in a movie, and Red Dead absolutely nails it which just adds to the overall presentation and experience of the game. Graphically RDR is pretty comparable to GTA IV as well. As I mentioned previously, the landscapes in Red Dead are gorgeous, but Rockstar's character modeling and animations, while not bad, have never quite blown me away.

GAMEPLAY

It will take a long time for a player to run out of something to do in Red Dead Redemption. While the main missions would probably take anywhere from 20-25 hours to complete if played straight through, most players will find that they will not complete the game in this amount of time as there is just so many ways to get easily distracted. There are a great amount of fun mini-games including poker, blackjack, horseshoes, liar's dice, five-finger fillet, and even arm wrestling. But that's not all; you can go on treasure hunts, animal hunts, complete side-quests, break in horses, help out your fellow man, raise havoc causing a bounty to be put on your head, ride a train, and the list just goes on and on.

As you can see there is much fun to be had in the world of Red Dead Redemption, but that doesn't mean it's without it's problems. While running around in Rockstar's worlds has always been a great experience, much like in GTA IV, the control mechanics are still a little wonky at times and just don't always control as smoothly and intuitively as I feel they should.

RDR keeps the mission structure of the GTA games in place, which has always been one of my major complaints about the GTA series and its' copycats as this structure gets boring after a while. You either drive somewhere, or drive somewhere and shoot some guys, rinse and repeat. Thankfully, RDR seems to vary up the types of missions a little better than GTA has, but this just may be due to the fact that you get to ride a horse rather than drive a care this time and takes running red lights and smashing pedestrians in a hurry to get to the next objective out of the equation, which was always frustrating and took me out the experience of the game. The horseriding can still get a little stale at times, however, but I think it works a lot better as you're not obviously breaking the law with every turn of a corner as there are no traffic rules in the wild west.

STORY

Rockstar has always been pretty good at telling a decent story, but this time they really nailed it. Now, while the story isn't anything too unique to the wild west genre Rockstar's careful pacing of the game and the way they develop their characters is spot on. This is especially true in the final act where the pacing completely changes to focus completely on character development such as I've never seen in a video game before. While this change of pace doesn't provide for the most riveting gameplay missions, what it accomplishes for the plot and characters makes it well worth it.

MULTI-PLAYER

As if the single player campaign wasn't time sucking enough, players are given the entire world of Red Dead in online multi-player form as well. Upon first entering multi-player you're thrown into Free Roam mode where you can posse up with up to 8 of your friends and explore the entire map from the single player campaign complete with all new challenges, and gang hideouts to conquer which will aid in leveling up your character and unlock new outfits, guns, horses, etc. While a posse can only hold up to 8 people the Free Roam map allows many more players to be on at the same time, allowing you to work together or duke it out and claim your posse as supreme. The multiplayer experience doesn't end in Free Roam however, as you can jump into the standard deathmatch and capture the flag options at any time as well. These can be fun, but these modes have been done much better in other games, so are really no more than a minor distraction. My major complaint about multiplayer is that all of the mini-games from the single player campaign such as poker, dice, and horseshoes have been stripped from the muliplayer experience. Would these not fit perfectly here? Hopefully Rockstar is planning on opening these up later with DLC, as not doing so would be a major missed opportunity.

SUMMARY

Overall Red Dead Redemption is almost everything you could ask for from a game set in the Wild West, and this new franchise has a lot of future potential. The beautiful landscapes, music, and plot all meld together nicely making for a satisfying single player experience, and the multi-player options provide for hours more of gameplay one can squeeze out of this package. However, while not game-breaking RDR has had a fair number of bugs reported in the weeks since it's release, and while the mission structure is a little more varied than in GTA, it can still get a tad repetitive at times. I'm very anxious to see what Rockstar can do with the next iteration in the series, but hope they can take it and GTA in slightly different directions so they won't feel so similar next time out. Many critics have praised this game with A ratings, but I'm going to hold out my A for next time. For the reasons stated above, RDR barely misses the A mark for me, but deserves the highest B rating it can get.

2010-06-11T14:55:00.004-05:00

In just three days, the biggest video game conference of the year will finally arrive. E3 is where the big 3 companies known as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft unveil their plans for the next year in regards to their home video game consoles. As an avid video gamer myself you can probably guess that I'm pretty excited for the event and all of the big announcements that will be made. Although dozens of rumors precede E3 each year, until the day arrives we never quite know what to expect, but it's always fun to guess. Here is my breakdown of what my expectations from each company are, and my hopes and wishes from each.

SONY
I think I became a Sony fanboy at heart the second I picked up the original Playstation, and the Playstation 2 and 3 have only continued to capitalize on this fact. Though I own all three major consoles and have a love for video games all around, it's Sony's press conference that I'm always the most excited about.

Sony will no doubt have some major focus this year on their two new technologies; the Move and 3D implementation into their system, but these are just two things that I honestly care very little about. 3D has yet to impress me at the movies so buying a new TV and 3D glasses to experience this fad at home is probably not going to happen any time soon. The Move is Sony's attempt to capitalize on the Wii's popularity by bringing some of that market into the Sony's HD arena with one-to-one control precision. While the Wii can sometimes be fun in a group setting, throwing my arms around to play a video game is just not the least bit appealing to me the majority of the time.What does and always has excited me about Sony's product is their game library, so here's hoping that they don't spend too much time with the Move and 3D and give me what I really want, GAMES!

The game I'm probably most excited to see, but whose existence is still yet unconfirmed is Resistance 3. Developer Insomniac always has presence at Sony's conferences and this year should no different. I fully expect this game to be announced, and my hope is that the awesome co-op mode of Resistance 2 makes a glorious return, while the scope and scale of the single player campaign can be merged back with what made the original Resistance so good.

The just announced Infamous 2 will no-doubt get some major stage time, and while the character redesign of Cole has received some flak I'm interested to see this game in action. The Last Guardian, Rockstar's new IP announced at last year's E3, Agent, and possibly even an Uncharted 3 teaser are all expected to be covered, but what I'm really hoping for is a new major franchise from one of Sony's major developers, maybe even from Sony itself. With the God of War series kind of wrapping up, will Sony Santa Monica have a new IP in store for us?

NINTENDO
My Wii spends a lot of time gathering dust, but I own Nintendo's console for three reasons; Zelda, Mario, and Metroid in that order. With Metroid releasing sometime this year and Mario already seeing two major releases, that leaves only Zelda. I know Zelda has technically already been on the Wii, but it was really no more than a ported over Gamecube game. We know that Nintendo has been working on a new Zelda, and it is fully expected to finally be revealed in a matter of days. If Nintendo follows through with this reveal, and promises that it will be released within the next year, that's all I will need from their conference. Obviously, Nintendo should have much more in store for us however. The Wii is losing ground fast to Sony and Microsoft's consoles which means Nintendo needs to announce some major shake ups to stay in the lead. Nintendo is known for being non-traditional when it comes to the path they follow, and while I don't play the Wii all that much Nintendo has proved time and again that they are geniuses. I can't wait to see what else they have up their sleeve.

MICROSOFT
Last and my least anticipated conference is Microsoft's X-Box. I can't really tell you the exact reason why I have a secret hate for Microsoft's console, but nothing has ever really excited me much when it comes to the X-Box. When it comes down to it I really think it's the games. Microsoft's two major franchises are Halo and Gears of War, which will both make appearances at the show. While these are good games, neither one puts a fire in me the way Sony's and Nintendo's major franchises do. This year Microsoft is expected to put major focus on its' motion controller currently code-named Project Natal. What we've seen from this technology so far is very intriguing, but again I really don't feel like spending the time I play video games jumping around like and idiot. Video game time is sit back and relax time, and while I think Microsoft's technology will open up many interesting opportunities, I'm just hoping it's in other ways other than throwing my arms around to play a game. If Microsoft really wants to capture my attention they need to show me they can release a great game that has a captivating story with personality, looks great, and is something other than a shooter.

Though I obviously have my favorites, I truly cannot wait to see what all three companies have in store for us come Monday as a single announcement could shake up the console war and change the game drastically. While Sony is still king in my heart, sales speak otherwise as the Wii has dominated this generation of consoles. With the gap closing quickly however, this is the opportune moment for Sony to recapture its' crown or for Microsoft to obtain it for the first time. Monday can't come fast enough.

2010-06-01T12:19:00.004-05:00

The video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released on the Playstation 2 in 2003, and still holds a place in my heart as one of my favorite video games of all time. With that said, when I heard they were making a movie adaptation I was initially intrigued though I knew in my heart that most video game-to-movie adaptations are quite terrible. When the promising trailer was finally released and it was also revealed that the same team behind the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were handling the Prince franchise I became even more intrigued. If they could turn a theme park ride into a decent movie, what would they be able do with an established story, especially one that was pretty strong for a video game? Well, I'm happy to report that while the movie version of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is far from perfect, it is by far the best movie-to-video game adaptation to date.

Prince of Persia holds true to the core heart of the story established from the original video game, but obviously makes changes and additions as needed to make for a full movie and provide greater character development. Speaking of character development, I'm going to go ahead and praise Prince for doing what other movies I have seen this year could not. It completely baffles me that for a movie based on a video game the character development in Prince, while not the best ever, far excels the character development of a movie based on an earlier movie and a movie based on a popular book franchise. If you have read my earlier reviews you know that I'm speaking of course of Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson and the Olympians respectively. While the final screenplay has its' moments of cheesiness and flaws, the story backing it is probably the movie's greatest strength. The plot involves a young orphan boy living in the slums of Persia who is adopted into royalty after the king witnesses him saving another in an act of courage and selflessness. Flash forward several years later and we rejoin the boy now known as Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhall) in the middle of a siege on a kingdom suspected of housing weapons of mass destruction. (Yes ,this part of the story was no doubt plucked straight from our headlines). While the initial search seems to turn up nothing of the sort, Dastan soon finds out that a dagger he acquired during the battle is in fact the weapon to which they were searching for. This dagger has the ability to turn back time and only the wielder is aware that anything has taken place at all. This power in the wrong hands could be a very dangerous thing indeed, which is why the princess of the city under siege was the dagger's sworn protector. However, something is afoot as the young prince is suddenly thrown into the role of outlaw after being accused of murdering the king, and is forced on the run with the accompaniment of the princess. The plot unfolds and results in a satisfying sweeping adventure in the same vain as The Mummy and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The movie has received much flak for casting white actors in the role of Persians, but this didn't bother me too much as I understand Disney is really banking on this to be its' new franchise to replace Pirates, and needed a well known actor to helm the title role. Gyllenhaal provides a solid enough performance among the other supporting actors to carry the film, but doesn't provide the spark Johnny Depp was able to give the Pirates movies. This isn't necessarily Gyllenhaal's fault as the role doesn't require the flamboyance and fun that Depp's role did, but this will no doubt impede Prince from enjoying the same break out success as the Pirates films.

We now come to my main complaint of the movie which is the action sequences and special effects. This is too bad as the whole fun of the video game was watching the prince run up and across walls, swing from flag poles, and slide down tapestries so I feel this should have been a priority for the film. The director no doubt made a wise decision in toning down some of the stunts as to not have them be too unbelievable, but when they do occur the angles and techniques used are so terrible that many times they result in either being cheesy or too hard for the viewer to identify what's taking place on screen at all. There is a scene in the final act of the film shown in the trailer where the prince is caught in a landslide of sand, and the cgi used on the prince as he is sliding down in the whirlwind of sand just looks incredibly off. Another poor directorial decision I noticed was early in the film when Dastan was trying to find his way around in the castle during the siege and just like in a video game the camera showed the path needed to make it to the prince's destination. While this works in video games as a way to help show the player the ultimate goal, there is just no need for this technique to be used in film as it again just comes off as cheesy.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ultimately has its' fair share of flaws, but still provides strong enough story telling, decent acting, and sprinkles of fun to be an enjoyable summer movie popcorn flick. I have to say that both my wife and I agreed that we enjoyed it more than Iron Man 2, although we may be somewhat biased as we are both fans of the original game. This opinion could be swapped if you are a bigger comic book than video game fan. Either way, if you go into Prince with your expectations not set to the stars you'll find your typical summer movie style quality with enough fun to be had to foot the bill.

2010-05-17T10:42:00.004-05:00

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have teamed up for the fifth time to finally give us a Robin Hood to take seriously. However, this isn't the Robin Hood story that you are no doubt familiar with, rather this is the story of the lead up to the events of how Robin became the notorious outlaw beloved by the people.

We join Robin as a common soldier during the Crusades led by King Richard the Lionheart. After the king's untimely death England is left in a fragile state and handed over to Richard's brother, the cowardly Prince John. Meanwhile, Robin and his small group of men voyage to Nottingham as a favor for a fallen comrade where he soon meets Marion and the good Friar Tuck. All of the characters we are familiar with are now in place as the plot focuses in on a traitor's conspiracy with France to overthrow England in it's weakened condition.

Crowe makes for a very good Robin Hood,the always fantastic Cate Blanchett gives a solid performance as Marion, while Scott proves once again that he knows how to make a sprawling, thrilling epic as he has done before with Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven, and uses that great eye for capturing clashing swords and whirring arrows here with great effect. There are many sweeping epic-style shots of the landsscpape and the battle scenes that are absolutely gorgeous and when backed with the moving score are simply breathtaking. The story and characters are all developed nicely (Percy Jackson and Clash of the Titans should take a few notes from this film if they plan on making future sequels). The only thing holding me back from giving this movie an A is due to the fact that we have all seen these epic style movies with their battle scenes hundreds of times by now, and nothing is really done differently here to make them any more unique or interesting, but again Scott has perfected capturing the action and does it again here so well that the experience is still well worth the price of admission.

If you are a fan of semi-historical action epics in the same vain as Gladiator, Braveheart, and Kingdom of Heaven, then definitely check out Robin Hood. It is a complete package of story, direction, and acting. When the credits hit the screen I instantly wanted the story to continue with the legend of Robin Hood, and I'm hoping Ridley Scott and company decide to make a sequel that satisfies my wish. Robin Hood earns a very solid B.

2010-05-10T08:30:00.004-05:00

Let's face it. It sucks to be Iron Man 2. What's a movie to do when it has to follow in the footsteps of the likes of The Dark Knight and the original Iron Man; two movies that set the bar on how to make a comic book-to-movie adaptation? If you're Iron Man 2 then you try your hardest to surpass the mark set by these two films, but in the end you inevitably fall short.

Let me just start by saying that Iron Man 2 is not a bad movie; in fact, if this would have been the first for the franchise my feelings for this film would have probably been much more enthusiastic, Sadly for Iron Man 2, as the number in its' title so blatantly states, it is the second installment for the franchise which means that I as a viewer have a very well made template to use for comparison. The first film was light on its' feet, fun, and fresh. Iron Man 2 however, quickly gets bogged down by politics, Tony Stark's self-destructive pity party, and worrying too much about setting itself up for later films in the Marvel universe. I kept waiting for this movie to really take off, and it just never did. Every time it would start to rev its' engine it would quickly stop to check its' gauges one more time. Outside of the race track scene that everyone has no doubt seen in the previews by now, and a very silly party scene involving a drunk Stark wearing the suit and fighting his best friend James Rhodes; it's not until the final 20 minutes or so that we finally get some true Iron Man action, and even then the final confrontation is too quickly resolved. It really felt this was just a set-up movie reserving its' big payoff for a later installment; whether that be Iron Man 3 or the heavily hinted to in the film movies of Thor or The Avengers, I don't know.

There are no doubt some great actors and actresses backing up the charismatic Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 2 including the returning Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L Jackson, and new additions Micky Rourke, Scarlett Johannsen, Don Cheadle (filling in for Terrence Howard from the first film), and Sam Rockwell who all turn in solid performances, but Iron Man 2 spends too much time trying to shuffle between its' main plot and many sub-plots that it ultimately doesn't give some of these characters enough screen time.

The original Iron Man took me by complete surprise, and thus I was really looking forward to Iron Man 2 hoping that they could somehow pull it off again. As I have previously stated, Iron Man 2 is by no means a bad movie, and other than the things that I have already mentioned I was really perplexed on to why I was not enjoying myself as much this time around. After contemplating it for quite some time I realized that the main element I believe this movie is lacking that the first was full of is charm. Now that's not to say that 2 is completely void of charm, as Downey Jr. still plays the ego-driven Stark with the charisma he nailed in the first film, but the overall film is much more heavy-handed than the first; and where I found myself chuckling numerous times in the first, 2 only managed to squeeze maybe two very mild chuckles out of me. I still have a lot of interest and hope in this franchise, as Iron Man is just too cool of an on-screen superhero to write off, but this viewer is holding out hope that the next time the man in iron graces the screen he will leave me with the sense of awe that he left me with when we first met.

2010-05-07T15:30:00.038-05:00

Admit it. We all love lists. We love to agree with them; and more often than not we love to disagree with them. That's the idea behind my Favorites Friday posts. I may not post one every Friday due to the fact that I may run out of subjects too quickly, but feel free to comment if you'd like to see me post a list on a certain subject related to my blog. I'll start it off with my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Now, the first thing to note is there are some very great films that are going to missing from my list. My top 10 is based solely on two things. 1.)How the movie affected me long after viewing it, and more importantly 2. How many times I could re-watch the film and still thoroughly enjoy it. A perfect example of this is my inclusion of Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite. While these are well-loved films many will say I'm crazy for including these over such classics as Godfather. So again I refer you to points one and two above. I have seen these two films numerous times, and they still give me a good chuckle. Also, it is very hard to narrow this down to ten, let alone decide on an order as my top 3 could be easily interchanged in any order for sure, but the rules of a list imply that each be assigned to a number so here they are. Let the great debates begin!

1. Pulp Fiction
If you read my Kick-Ass review then you know that I love Quentin Tarantino. He is an absolute cinematic genius. His love and knowledge of movies gushes from the screen. Yes, his movies are violent, but somehow out of his love of violence comes humor. The characters he paints are always larger than life, and very often given dialogue straight from movie heaven. Pulp Fiction wasn't his first movie, but was the one that put him on the map; and in my opinion it's still his best.

2. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
There's nothing I love more than a big sprawling epic to whisk me away to another world. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was what I had been waiting oh so long for. Not since Star Wars had I been so drawn in to a world of fantasy. The second and third installments of the trilogy suffered a few very minor hiccups, while this first installment was near perfection. From the beautifully subtle opening scenes in the Shire, to the shear terror brought to the screen from the ring-wraiths, to the down right jaw-dropping battle between Gandalf and the Balrog;itwas surely an epic to behold.

3. The Big Lebowski
An instant cult classic and my favorite comedy of all time. This movie made me laugh more every time I watched it. The Dude is a character for the ages, and as great and prolific of an actor as Jeff Bridges is; this is still his most famous role. The Dude abides.

4. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
Well, we're only on number four and Mr. Tarantino has shown up again. Now I know I'm kind of cheating listing volumes 1 and 2 on one number, but they were really meant to be one movie in the first place so deal with it. Volume 1 was all style, while volume 2 spoon-fed the viewer scene after scene of the tasty dialogueTarantinois know for. Together they make one heck of a cool movie.

5. Fight Club
Speaking of style and coolness factor; Fight Club may just well be the definition of both. It was also responsible for shooting Brad Pitt into super stardom.Fight Club says you're welcome ladies. If you haven't seen this movie, well then all I have to say to you is: The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

6. Moulin Rouge
What!?!? Moulin Rouge!? I know what you're thinking; musicals suck and are for girls. I would have agreed with you before seeing this movie.I had absolutely no desire to see it, and constantly made fun of it, but when I found out it had been nominated for Best Picture I had to give it a fair shake. I almost didn't survive the first 15 minutes, but then something strange happened, I actually began to enjoy it. Really enjoy it in fact. It's use of modern day songs was pulled off brilliantly, and the cinematography was breathtaking If you haven't seen it, give it a shot, but keep in mind to give it at least 15-20 minutes.

7. The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars holds a special place in the hearts of nearly every child of the 80's, and I am no exception. I can't pinpoint the first time I saw any of these films, or which one I saw first, but I'll never forget just how mesmerized I was with the Star Wars universe as a child. I don't need to explain the inclusion of this movie on my list, or even why I picked Empire over the other two. My only hope is that my children will hold the same amount of wonderment I did as a child when they are finally old enough to watch these films.

8. Napoleon Dynamite
This quirky small budget movie became a small phenomenon in 2004-2005. It was hard to go a week without hearing someone spout off a one-liner from the film, and Vote for Pedro t-shirts became common attire. Every character was hilarious in their own way. My favorite? Uncle Rico."Napoleon, you know we can't afford the fun pack. What, do you think money grows on trees in this family? Take it back! And get some Pampers for you and your brother while you're at it."

9. Office Space
Anyone that has ever worked in an office can completely relate to this movie. Similar to Napoleon Dynamite this movie created a cast of characters all equally hilarious, and one-liners that have been quoted since its release. The main protagonist of the film, Peter Gibbons, became the everyman hero, as his character's rebellious ways fulfilled the dream all of us office drones secretly held inside. Very funny stuff.

10. No Country for Old Men
I can't remember a movie ever having an impact on me quite the way No Country For Old Men did. The decision to have no soundtrack in the movie immediately set the mood in the opening minutes and helped create a haunting tension that kept me on the edge of my seat during the entire viewing. Many people felt unsatisfied by the ending, as I thought I was initially, until I let it really sink in and soon realized how perfect it really was. Too often Hollywood provides us with a perfectly gift-wrapped ending that leaves us with nothing to ponder. Great movies make you think about them long after you have stopped watching, and No Country left me contemplating it's greatness days later. This is the second film on my list from directors Joel and Ethan Coen, and this movie is their masterpiece.

2010-05-05T12:41:00.015-05:00

Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt stars Michael Cera once again playing the timid high school virgin character he has perfected. What's different this time around however, is that he also gets to play the complete opposite of this side when his character develops an alternate personality akin to Jim Carrey in Me, Myself, and Irene. Hilarity ensues, and his character learns a few things about life along the way. If you're a fan of coming-of-age movies albeit with slightly darker undertones you might give this movie a shot.

My Grade: B

Shutter Island

Forget all you Leo haters. Mr. Dicaprio proves once again that he can act. He may just well be my favorite actor working today, and his on-going collaboration with legendary director Martin Scorsese has produced some of the best movies released in the last decade. Shutter Island is probably my least favorite from the actor-director combo, but that isn't saying much. That's like saying chocolate is my least favorite flavor of ice-cream. It's still ice cream.

My Grade: B

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I went into Percy Jackson looking for something to hold me over until the last two Potter films are released, and holding out hope that maybe this franchise could fill the gap once Potter is gone. Sadly to say I was greatly dissapointed on all fronts. This movie was absolute torture. I can't remember the last time I wriggled in my seat so much at the theater, constantly checking my watch, praying for the agony to end. I got so frustrated at one point that I actually called out loud during the movie, "This movie is killing me!". The main character moves along the movie's plot without a care in the world. He finds out he's a demi-god, then a couple of scenes later his mother gets killed, and all along he shows no emotional reaction to the events that are transpiring around him. He's just simply along for the ride. The characters treat the audience like kindergartners by constantly stating out-loud the blantantly obvious, and the movie makes no effort to make me care for any of the characters or their motivations. To make matters worse all of the demi-god children get their demi-god combat training at what looks and feels like boyscout camp. Hogwarts this most definitely is not. In case you couldn't tell, I absolutely hated this movie. Do yourself and me a favor and avoid it at all costs.

My Grade: F

Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton's movies have always been hit-and-miss with me, but even when he misses I find myself intrigued by the canvas he paints with each new world. Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland created what is now referred to as literary nonsense, and Burton's talent of exploring the strange seemed like a perfect fit. Thankfully, it was. Rather than re-treading the story so many of us are no doubt familiar with, the movie's creators decided to create a semi-sequel of sorts to the events that transpired in Carrol's books by having Alice return to Wonderland as a teenager who has forgotten the innocent and imaginative days of her childhood. I felt this gave the story a fresh twist, and made it seem somewhat new again. I do have one complaint however. I chose to see the movie in 3D as it was promoted, and was thoroughly disappointed. I wasn't too impressed with 3D in the first place, and Alice put the final nail in the coffin for me in regards to 3D. In my experiences 3D does exactly the opposite of what it is trying to accomplish. Instead of immersing you further into the world you are viewing, I feel it detracts from the experience and pulls the viewer out. The glasses cause the movie to look very dark and shadowy around the edges and dim the colors tremendously, which is sad because Alice had some beautiful coloration. Needless to say I will not be seeing another movie in its 3D form until they have greatly improved the technology, and I am actually hoping the fad will suffer a quick and miserable death.

My Grade: B

How to Train Your Dragon

Dreamworks finally pulled it off. After living for years in Pixar's shadow, they have created a film that is worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as some, but not all, of Pixar's works. In fact, I am predicting that How to Train Your Dragon will finally beat out Pixar at the Oscars for the Best Animated Picture award this year since Pixar's entry this time around is not only a sequel ,but the third entry in their Toy Story franchise. Toy Story 3 will just not be as fresh and fun as Dragon proved to be. This movie had great characters, thrilling action sequences, and breathtaking visuals. Its weakest attribute is the story, and not because it isn't good, but just familiar. It has an eerie resemblance to Avatar, which we all know by now was not original in and of itself, but that shouldn't stop you from seeing this movie. Prior to Kick-Ass, this was my favorite movie of the year so far, and whereas I can't recommend Kick-Ass to everyone, I can whole-heartily recommend How to Train Your Dragon to each and every person young and old. This movie is a treat.

P.S. - Yes, I kept my vow and did not see this film in 3D in case you were wondering.

My Grade: A

Clash of the Titans

I had somewhat of an advantage going into Clash of the Titans ,as I have never seen the original and thus could hold no bias in comparing the two. Sadly for this film, it didn't help its' case. Clash had one of the same major problems as its' fellow Greek mythology movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, in that it gave me no reason to care about any of the movie's characters whatsoever. In fact, I almost felt as if I were watching the same movie I had just watched a month prior. Here we have Perseus rather than Percy, both are bastard children of gods, and both have lost family members at the hands of these same gods. Really? Seeing as how Clash of the Titans is a remake it seems Percy Jackson stole a few notes, which doesn't help my already avid hate for that film, but Titans does little more to make me like it any better. Perseus is shuffled as quickly as possible from one special effects extravaganza to the next, all in an effort to get revenge on Hades and save a princess that he, or the audience for that matter, has been given no reason at all to care about. Add this to the fact that the build up to the big Krakken showdown is quickly resolved and hugely anti-climactic, and you are left with my overall feelings about this film. Meh......... It's not a terrible film, but it's not worth two hours of your time either. What's so frustrating is that if it had been given 30 to 45 more minutes to help flesh out the characters, this review could have been quite different.

My Grade: D

So there you have it, my quick report card on the movies I have seen so far this year. If you were still trying to decide whether or not to see some of these films, I hope this helped. Feel free to agree or disagree with me by posting your comments, and be sure to check back soon if you're a gamer as I plan to do a report on the first quarter video games as well.

2010-04-26T12:17:00.319-05:00

WELCOME TO THE BATTLEFIELD

The Battlefield franchise has been around a little while, but until the release of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I had been somewhat oblivious to its relevance to the world of first-person shooter warfare gaming. I had heard of it, but not enough that I felt it warranted my attention. Enter Battlefield Bad Company 2. It has released to very wide commercial and critical success, which is impressive considering this was done in the wake of the very recent juggernaut that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Now it had my attention.

Now, if you're like me, you most often begin a new game by playing through the single player campaign not only to familiarize yourself with the world, the weapons, and what not, but more importantly to get some much needed practice in before jumping online to get your butt kicked by the rest of the world, right? Well if you don't, more power to you, as you are much braver than I, but with that said let me get the campaign discussion out of the way first. BBC2 will immediately feel very familiar to anyone who has spent any time playing the numerous war based first person shooter games released in the last 5-10 years. Shoot the enemies, hide behind cover, shoot the enemies, drive some vehicles, shoot the enemies some more, rinse, repeat. Pretty standard fare really, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The gameplay is solid, the controls are fluid, and the story and characters are fleshed out enough to hold one's interest. The campaign doesn't offer many over-the-top action packed cinematic sequences nearly as often as the aforementioned Modern Warfare 2, but has a few bright spots to offer nonetheless. The first thing you will notice is how pretty much everything in the environment is destructible. This may not sound that impressive at first, as many games are doing this now, but here this really allows the gameplay to open up compared to the forced bottle-necking of similar first-person shooters. There were multiple times during the game where I just couldn't get the right angle I needed on the enemies, and quickly realized, hey, why not blow a hole in this house with an RPG, bust through that door over there, and flank the enemy? This seems to almost always be an option, and really allows the player to be creative when planning out an attack strategy. Second, there is a level about midway through the game that shifts away from the linear path gameplay and places the squad in the middle of a desert with multiple objectives to complete allowing the player to choose which to accomplish first. It takes on a very open-world sort of feel, and really kept the gameplay feeling fresh. Sadly, this was the only level that offered this and left me wishing there could have been at least one more in this style.

TAKING THE BATTLE TO THE WORLD

Now to the important part, the online multi-player gameplay. Online multi-player has become big business, so much so in fact that pretty much every game released today includes an online aspect of some form or fashion whether the game needs it or not. Thankfully, BBC2 was made for online multi-player, and pulls it off with great success. It comes packed with four different modes: Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, and Squad Deathmatch. Conquest focuses on the control of flags similair to MW2's Domination mode, Rush (the star of the show) pits an attacking team against a defensive team in a struggle to destroy/defend satellite links, Squad Rush is the same as normal Rush with the focus limited to two four man squads, and then finally Squad Deathmatch is your standard deathmatch mode, but restricted to teams. In fact, teamwork is essential in all modes. Your standard one man army will not get it done in BBC2. Your squad either has to work together to accomplish the goal, or it's lights out. The game offers four different classes to help balance out your team including Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon each with their own specialty varying from repairing vehicles to demolitions experts.

What really differentiates BBC2 from its main competitor Modern Warfare 2 is the inclusion and importance in battle of vehicles, which are fully operable by the players themselves. There are ATV's, humvees, tanks, helicopters, and boats galore. What's even more fun than jumping into one of these bad boys however, is blowing one off the map. See a tank coming down the road to take out your team's stronghold? No matter, just have your engineer class pull out an RPG and take care of the little fly. These moments provide for extreme gaming satisfaction that I have never seen matched in an online experience prior, and make me smile every time. The destruction aspect I mentioned in the single player campaign also carries over into the multi-player realm, and can turn the tide of battle tremendously. For instance, after placing a charge on the enemies sat link the opposing team will usually rush the bomb to try and disarm it before it goes off. If your team has set C4 charges around the supporting walls of the building before planting the bomb you can effectively take out the whole team in one fell swoop when they come running. How awesome is that?

The huge maps and focus of gameplay on co-operative squad based objectives rather than kills really help BBC2 stand out in regards to the pacing of the gameplay most of us are familiar with in other online shooters. One very welcome touch includes the ability to re-spawn on your surviving teammates no matter where they are located on the map which is vital when your team is making a push across enemy lines. Rather than spawning and immediately dying, in most cases you have the ability to plan your point of spawn, gather your surroundings, and come up with a plan of attack that will best assist the team. Another unique element is a dedicated button that allows the player to call out enemies to teammates when spotted by placing a marker on them that displays on the game's screen as well as in the mini map.

JOIN ME ON THE BATTLEFIELD

In short, the multiplayer game is phenomenal, and I will recommend it over Modern Warfare 2 any day. The multiplayer component is worth every bit of the price tag alone, and the inclusion of a decently solid single player experience makes this a must play for any first-person shooter fan. So what are you waiting for? Go pick up your copy and join me on the battlefield soldier!

2010-04-21T15:01:00.029-05:00

KICK-ASS LIVES UP TO THE NAME

The initial trailers for Kick-Ass deceived me. They painted the movie as a light-hearted comic book style action-comedy in the same vain as Judd Apatow's recent hits Superbad and Pineapple Express. I don't know, maybe McLovin's (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) starring in the movie left me with this impression, but I couldn't have been further off-base. The comedy in Kick-Ass more closely resembles Quentin Tarantino's take on humor, in that most situations shouldn't be funny, but the way in which they are executed with over the top violence and biting satire makes it so. I feel I can describe this movie best as two parts Kill Bill vol. 1, and the rest equal parts The Dark Knight, Sin City, Watchmen, and a sprinkle of Superbad to lighten the mood for good measure. Still interested? Read on.

I am a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, so the moment I realized that this movie was largely influenced by his movies I was immediately drawn in. This is first evident in a great early scene between Nicolas Cage's character and his daughter, played by the wonderful Chloe Moretz. I don't want to give away any details of the scene, as it is so edgy that details would rob it of some of its' power, but it must be said that with the conclusion of this scene I welcomed back Mr. Cage with open arms. He became cool again. If only we could get him to stop chasing National Treasures and Ghost Riding and stay with us awhile, life would be good. (Sadly, sequels have already been announced for both of these franchises, sigh.........)

With all of that said, Kick-Ass actually almost lost me about the mid-way point due to the fact that its tone became so dark that it risked crossing the line. I think the reason it bothered me so much was for the fact that the movie's main characters are teenagers and an 11 year old girl. All of these characters are thrust into a world that is darker and more adult than they could ever have imagined. In fact ,most of the controversy surrounding this movie revolves around Chloe Moretz's character (she was 11 years old during filming) who has a slight case of potty mouth and murders the bad guys with reckless abandon. But just when I thought that just maybe it had gone too far, I was reeled back in when it busted out into full over-the-top comic violence to a pounding soundtrack a la Kill Bill, and with arguably greater effect. I was completely mesmerized. Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl absolutely owns the last 20 minutes of this movie and they are glorious. It is the most fun I have had at the movies in a long time, and I still can't wipe the grin off my face that I left the theatre with four days ago.

However, Kick-Ass is not for everyone. Similar to Tarantino's movies there are times that it will make you uncomfortable perhaps even more so, but the over-the-top action and violence are done with such style and fun that any squeamish moments there were to be had earlier in the film are quickly forgotten. Let if be said, I LOVE THIS MOVIE.