Posts tagged review
Posts tagged review
I was playing games before, “American Mcgee’s Alice” was released but I was around the same age as her when I played it. Now I’ve aged, much faster than her, and I’m so very happy to see her again. Thanks to “Electronic Arts” and “Spicy Horse Games” we see the return of the, very twisted, Alice and her imaginary Wonderland. The game, “Alice: Madness Returns” brings the puzzles, the jumping, that very sharp looking blade, (which in some strange way is sexy) and the mind numbing dialog that makes you feel like you’ve been dropping acid from the lack of comprehension, back for another trip. I became a fan of this version of Alice years ago with the first game, and now with the sequel it feels like a long lost love has returned to me.
Steve Rogers stars in, “Captain America: The First Avenger” as Captain America himself! These comic book movies don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, so they might as well be more enjoyable. I think the casting directors for the comic book movies are seeing more nerdy movie stars asking for super hero movies. Chris Evans plays a very believable “Capt.” and Ryan Reynolds wasn’t far behind with his Hal Jordon. The other super hero this summer, “Green Lantern” suddenly looks completely “under cooked” in comparison to Captain America. Despite the “budged” looking special effects and backgrounds, “Captain America” seems to have done everything right.
I mentioned on my twitter that I could review, “Duke Nukem Forever” in a paragraph but I’m going to be nice to the guy. I’ll do the review in two paragraphs. I’m just a nice guy. Where to start, you remember that game, “Duke Nukem 3D”? If not, the Nukem games are a long running series that combines an Arnold Schwarz-govenator-babymaker-enegger like action hero with silly commentary. Basically all the elements of an old action movie. The “3D” game wasn’t like Hollywood 3D as much as it was just objects interacting within a three dimensional environment, as oppose too a 2D side-scroller game like, “Super Mario Brothers”. Anyways, if you remember playing that game, which was far ahead of its time back then. Than you have already played, “Duke Nukem Forever”. The biggest difference is really just the pixel count in the graphic elements (images, models, animations, etc.)
The final film in the “Transformers” trilogy by Michael Bay has finally made its way to theaters. A final serving of robots, sexy ladies and explosions in one film. Like him or not, Michael Bay has brought life to a well deserved story from my childhood. Unlike the other “Transformer” films, Michael Bay seem worried with making the best possible ending to his story and included as many nerd culture references as possible. This can be seen in not only his selected cast, Leonard Nimoy (Sentinel Prime), and Alan Tudyk (Dutch), but also character dialog. The film does suffer slightly from time constraints, just barely meeting the 3 hour mark in time. Which gives the film a rather abrupt ending feel (maybe extra ending DVD footage), but doesn’t seem to effect the movie’s pace during showing. This is the most comfortable ending to a trilogy since “Lord of The Rings”.
As the credits to, “The Green Lantern” rolled I thought to myself, I can’t wait to see where this takes us. It wasn’t until after that statement that I realized what I had just watched, nothing. I enjoyed my time in my soft theater chair but it felt like I had just sat down to watch, “The Green Lantern”. This can’t be right, I just watched an entire new movie. How could I feel as if I’ve not watched the movie I paid for? Easy enough to answer, nothing happened. The movie is actually more appropriately titled then those that worked on it seem to want to admit. I did in fact watch a movie titled, “The Green Lantern” and it didn’t disappoint. It was in fact a movie about the lantern corp, and that was about it. It reminds me of the episodes that only anime seem to be able to get away with. Those episodes where nothing happens but character development; interactions with each other so we don’t feel left behind as we go forward.
Having waiting so long to actually watch “Black Swan”, I ended up just renting it. By this time though, I had already been beaten to death by the internet and television showing me pieces of the movie. Even though I had known at the release of the movie what it was about, I was consistently reminded. Which is the curse of seeing a good movie late in the game, everyone else already loves it. I did take notice that three guys wrote the script for “Black Swan”, so I was paying an extra amount of attention to the female characters. All I can say is that they did a good job separating each girl as her own, and I hope I can one day write female reactions as well as them.
I’m not one for monster movies, they are not my style. I believe as soon as you see the monster he instantly becomes much less effective. The movie, “Super 8” how ever shouldn’t be thought of as a monster movie. Instead we should think of it as exactly what director J.J. Abrams is so skilled in doing, mystery. Suspense, thriller, sci-fi are some of the categories I would place this film in before I called it a monster movie. This movie, “Super 8” is exactly like one of those movies you watched (or were not allowed to watch) as a child. Back when movies were still magical to you, back when we actually believed what was happening on screen was actually happening. Before we even knew what a summer blockbuster, or special effects even were. “Super 8” takes us back to a time when we were all children and Steven Spielberg was still making movie (instead of paying for them). “Super 8” is the type of film that takes us back to a time before movies were more then just entertainment.
Back when, “Fable” came out it was a game changer, literally. We didn’t have anything like that, a third-person-view in an RPG rules world with a ripple affect that could be felt all the way to the end. Sure we’ve seen RPGs and D&D like worlds such as “Diablo” and “Deus Ex” and “Neverwinter Nights”, but nothing like the world of Fable. It was such a short RPG as RPG standards go but the world was filled with so much new and wondrous things that we didn’t seem to take notice. Years later we were given an amazing sequel to the game we fell in love with, (even if it was rather buggy). Now is the time of “Fable III” and I asked myself, “Will this be the greatest story ever told about me and my Heroic deeds?” I’ll treat it like a band-aid and just pull. No, no this isn’t the game you were looking for.
I wasn’t going to review the movie, “Cold Souls” starring Paul Giamatti until I saw the box art. On the front of the case it has comments from creditable sources in rather large font, “You’ll laugh till it hurts.” -Peter Travers for Rolling Stones. I understand a film need to be hyped and money is never a bad thing to help your next movie but lying to me? I did in fact find the movie funny, but in a “That’s silly”, or “That’s ironic because I see the symbolism” kind of way. Laughing until my side begins to hurt? I don’t see that happening, and it isn’t because it is a bad film. I actually enjoyed, “Cold Souls” but I wouldn’t be calling it a comedy.
I just got Fable III and Dante’s Inferno (again). I’ll be putting together a review for them both later in the month. Till then I had to ask if you (the reader) had anything in mind you would like me to review. I can’t really review broadway plays (though that would kick ass), but other then that what would you like too see? Maybe a new game that is coming out? Maybe, a summer movie or maybe even an older game that has a sequel coming out later this year? This is the first time I’ve proposed this idea so if it works out, I might try it again. Thanks for the feedback, readers!
