Fear the Walking Dead?
Fuck the Walking Dead.
Nothing happens in the main series. Even less happens in the spin-off series.
Every character is fine talking in exposition, 'Look, kid, you got bullied, but now you are tutoring your bully! You're smart!'
'How come you're not in class? Is it because you are smart enough to teach it, but you also don't always necessarily play by the rules?'
But then they have trouble talking about the dead rising, and cannibals. Why didn't the main character (I assume) just be straight up about the cannibal in the shooting gallery (I actually liked that line)?
And then the step-father went to the scene of the zombies? In LA? Fuck that. Even if your son was hallucinating, you are still in LA.
Which brings me to my next point. I'm not sure if it was only in the comics, or if it was in the show as well. But a big reveal is that the living people are the walking dead, not the zombies. Which makes sense for this show, since it's set in LA. In which case you should definitely fear the people. I think the zombies detract from what you should fear.
Also, what the fuck was up with that black kid being the drug dealer? And then wanting to kill his mate? I know exactly how that scene came up in the writer's room. The writer's created a character, that was meant to symbolise lost innocence of the main character (I'm sorry, I didn't take any names). Then later on the studio came to the writers and was like, 'Hey, nothing happens in an entire hour.' Then the writers just decided to make the black nice guy a drug dealer, and then a fucking murderer. In for a penny. And then the writers justify it by having it as a twist.
And how fucking stupid is the mother? I get it, AMC can't have a sympathetic woman on their channel. But for fuck sake. Someone puts 4 and 4 in front of her, and she has 2 sets of 4. 4 and 4 is 8. Figure it out. People are rising from the dead. Kids are downright telling you that zombies are eating people. You investigate a murder and walk up to the zombie and get bit? Good. You're a dumbass. But also, wouldn't it have been better if the mother wasn't a complete pile of shit?
Also, we know from The Walking Dead (now known as 'Not the completely shit one') that people come back from the dead regardless of being bit or not. The first episode takes place over a couple of days. Do you know how many people die a day? Fucking heaps. I'd say Family Guy was spot on. People would realise that people weren't dying in 10 seconds. It would be all over the news. It was just unreal that the only person who met 2 zombies was a heroin addict. Fucking hell.
I can't wait for the next episode. Just kidding. Fuck this show.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Monday, 24 August 2015
Friday, 29 May 2015
Jeff Smith's Bone
I just tore through Bone.
I'm stoked that I didn't read Bone until after it was completely released. The individual volumes were released from 1991 until 2004. My life until I was 13 would have been waiting to find out what happened next. Reading it as an omnibus if I ever wanted to know what happened next I would just read another 100 pages.
The pacing was amazing, the character development was amazing, the world was completely fleshed out. I loved the heroes, the villains, the background characters. It would be amazing to own the coloured version, but an extra $90 for colours was too much for me, personally.
I'd recommend buying the book, because I like to flip through pages and smell them. But if you are interested Issue #1 is available for free, and in colour, on Boneville, Jeff Smith's website.
I was intrigued to read it as I had heard that it was one of the funniest comic books ever. Turns out I was thinking about Chew.
Regardless, Jeff Smith's Bone was fucking nuts.
I didn't know what to expect, I have the 1300 page black and white omnibus on my desk. It is a behemoth. The most apt way to describe it is if Carl Barks and J.R.R Tolkien put their works in a blender. It's an epic, high fantasy powerhouse.
Three Bones from Boneville get lost in a medieval Valley. Fone Bone (Mickey Mouse), his cousin Phoney Bone (Scrooge McDuck) and his other cousin Smiley (Goofy) get ran out of Boneville and have to find their way back.
That's pretty much the story. Until they end up siding with the dragons against the rat creatures in a war that leaves no man or bone safe.
It's nuts. It has everything. The blurb for The Princess Bride would fit perfectly on the back of Bone.
I'm stoked that I didn't read Bone until after it was completely released. The individual volumes were released from 1991 until 2004. My life until I was 13 would have been waiting to find out what happened next. Reading it as an omnibus if I ever wanted to know what happened next I would just read another 100 pages.
The pacing was amazing, the character development was amazing, the world was completely fleshed out. I loved the heroes, the villains, the background characters. It would be amazing to own the coloured version, but an extra $90 for colours was too much for me, personally.
I'd recommend buying the book, because I like to flip through pages and smell them. But if you are interested Issue #1 is available for free, and in colour, on Boneville, Jeff Smith's website.
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
More than Meets the Eye Issue #1 Review
I'm not a Transformers fan. I had the toys when I was a kid in the 90's. I smuggled Scotch into the cinemas when the first movie came out. Optimus Prime turns into a truck and Bumblebee can't talk. But Humble had a Transformers comic bundle and I needed to donate some money to a children's charity. With all this in mind let's see what I thought about Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Issue #1.
The first chapter is titled The Death of Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime believes he is dead because he is in an unknown location. He believes it is either Robot Hell or Robot Heaven. He checks the co-ordinates on his GPS and it turns out he is on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers. He then tries to figure out if he is in the past or the future. It turns out he is in the present. He walks into town and is saddened to realise that he doesn't recognise any of the Transformers walking around and even more saddened that they don't recognise him. This goes on for about 5 seconds until he is reunited with his best friend Sideswipe.
I have no idea if this comic is a continuation of the cartoon or another comic series. But it is clear that there are millions of years of rich Transformers history that I am completely missing out on. Chapter 1 does serve as a good jumping point because the key points of Transformers are relayed. In 20 pages I understand that the Autobots beat the Decepticons in war. The Autobots (somehow) restored their home planet. Optimus Prime passed the leadership position to Bumblebee (who can talk now) and the Transformers hate the Autobots because they remind them of a war they all hid from.
There was one character that stood out from the rest, and that was Flamebot. He is a red Autobot that wants to go off on mythic quests instead of hanging around on a planet that hates him. Already I see him as the Indiana Jones of the Transformers Universe. I don't want to read about robots playing Game of Thrones, I want to read about Transforming Fire Robot going on adventures looking for Robot Knights.
Writer James Roberts shows new readers a glimpse of a much deeper universe. He doesn't assume that readers will know everything about Transformers and instead subtly guides readers through what they need to know. There were a couple of spelling errors that should have been fixed by now, especially for digital copies, but they were few and mostly unnoticeable.
The art by Alex Milne is ok. My biggest complaint I have with the art is that sometimes I couldn't figure out which robot was talking or if a robot had been introduced earlier. I don't fault the artist. There are a lot of characters that have to look a certain way and it just so happens that they end up looking alike. I can see this problem being remedied in later issues as I am pretty sure the story leads away from the densely populated Transformer planet and instead focuses on a lot less characters.
The story perfectly fits the comic book format, A movie with this many Transformers would need a budget of $500 billion. This story might be too mature for cartoons but could potentially work.
Overall it was a solid first issue and I will definitely read more. If you like the movies then you will like anything. If you remember Transformers fondly from your childhood you will love this series. If you barely have a passing interest in Transformers then you will enjoy this.
You can buy it here or download it here.
The first chapter is titled The Death of Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime believes he is dead because he is in an unknown location. He believes it is either Robot Hell or Robot Heaven. He checks the co-ordinates on his GPS and it turns out he is on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers. He then tries to figure out if he is in the past or the future. It turns out he is in the present. He walks into town and is saddened to realise that he doesn't recognise any of the Transformers walking around and even more saddened that they don't recognise him. This goes on for about 5 seconds until he is reunited with his best friend Sideswipe.
I have no idea if this comic is a continuation of the cartoon or another comic series. But it is clear that there are millions of years of rich Transformers history that I am completely missing out on. Chapter 1 does serve as a good jumping point because the key points of Transformers are relayed. In 20 pages I understand that the Autobots beat the Decepticons in war. The Autobots (somehow) restored their home planet. Optimus Prime passed the leadership position to Bumblebee (who can talk now) and the Transformers hate the Autobots because they remind them of a war they all hid from.
There was one character that stood out from the rest, and that was Flamebot. He is a red Autobot that wants to go off on mythic quests instead of hanging around on a planet that hates him. Already I see him as the Indiana Jones of the Transformers Universe. I don't want to read about robots playing Game of Thrones, I want to read about Transforming Fire Robot going on adventures looking for Robot Knights.
Writer James Roberts shows new readers a glimpse of a much deeper universe. He doesn't assume that readers will know everything about Transformers and instead subtly guides readers through what they need to know. There were a couple of spelling errors that should have been fixed by now, especially for digital copies, but they were few and mostly unnoticeable.
The art by Alex Milne is ok. My biggest complaint I have with the art is that sometimes I couldn't figure out which robot was talking or if a robot had been introduced earlier. I don't fault the artist. There are a lot of characters that have to look a certain way and it just so happens that they end up looking alike. I can see this problem being remedied in later issues as I am pretty sure the story leads away from the densely populated Transformer planet and instead focuses on a lot less characters.
The story perfectly fits the comic book format, A movie with this many Transformers would need a budget of $500 billion. This story might be too mature for cartoons but could potentially work.
Overall it was a solid first issue and I will definitely read more. If you like the movies then you will like anything. If you remember Transformers fondly from your childhood you will love this series. If you barely have a passing interest in Transformers then you will enjoy this.
You can buy it here or download it here.
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball Review (Android)
A couple of days ago I bit the silver bullet used to kill werewolves and I paid $3 for the Avengers Pinball and The Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball. This is big for me. I would rather spend $70 on a PS3 game than $3 on a mobile device.
I bought the game after seeing the movie, which was amazing (that's my review, 4.75 stars), and seeing this article, I didn't read the article. But I did read the title, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball may be best table yet'. And boy did that title get me intrigued. I bought the Marvel Pinball App for $1 and it came with The Avengers table, I had to fork out another $2 for the Guardians table. It is worth noting that as of the time of writing this Marvel Pinball is free on iOS.
Now I have played a few pinball machines in my time, my father was a Pinball Wizard and my mother a Pinball Queen so I spent a lot of time playing them as a child. The only other digital pinball I played was Pokemon Pinball on the Gameboy Color, and that sucked major balls compared to the real thing. Shit I also played Sonic Spinball, but that is more of a spinball than a pinball so it might not count.
So how do the Marvel App Pinballs hold up compared to other digital titles I have played? It blows them out of the park. They look, sound, and feel exactly like a real table. Obviously they are smaller, and lighter, and portable; but other than that they are a true recreation of actual pinballs at a tiny fraction of the price.
While the Guardians of the Galaxy table is really good, and definitely worth the extra $2 there are some noticeable problems. The game starts with a Multiball, all the balls in the table come out at once and you muck around with them for a minute, this minute doesn't seem to affect the score too much, the highest I got from it was 2.2 million points. After the minute-multiball-mania, Peter Quill ( GuardianOfTheGalaxyMan) says that he needs his 70s inspired music and it is your job to hit a ball that launches at you into a specific ramp. This will net you an easy 5 million point headstart if you can land it. As well as the 5 million points you are also treated to a 10 second trailer with the title of the movie flying in space, it is terrible and takes away from the flow.
If you are trying for a high score you will need to repeat the minigame every time, all up it takes about a minute and a half, just to start a new game. It may be fun a few times, or every now and then but you could honestly just leave your phone on the desk until the real game starts and not really be penalised for it.
There are these cartoon figures littered around the table and they will dance around and spout typical pinball one-liners. Overall they add a layer to the game that could not exist on an actual table but there are certain point when they can get distracting. For example there is a skill game that has Peter Quill and Ronan (AntiGuardianOfTheGalaxyMan) shooting plasma at each other. Ronan also shoots plasma at your ball when he wants to vaporise it. It's fine if he wants to vaporise my ball, it's distracting when he wants to vaporise Peter Quill and it looks like it vaporises my ball. I have lost my ball because I thought it got vaporised only for it to fall down the guts of the table.
Those are my only two complaints. The stupid long intro, and the sometimes distracting nature of the cartoons.
I have spent the last three days playing this game. My thumbs are worn down and blistered from playing the game too much. I have probably racked up about 14 hours between the 3 tables I have. It is most definitely a fun game.
The ball feels like a ball, you never find yourself cursing the game for unfairly putting the ball in dire situations. You are always in control.
The music in the game is heavily inspired from 70s rock and it sounds amazing. It fits the tone of the movie by not being overly dramatic and by just being fun. It's the song in the trailer above if you want to hear it for yourself.
The voice-acting can get a little repetitive but the characters all have voices true to their movie counterparts. Quill will deliver one-liners differently than his movie counterpart but sticks to the tone. Groot is amazing, whatever he says in certain situations is exactly what he would say in a similar situation in the movie. Rocket, Drax and Ronan are perfect, Quill and Groot are obviously different voice actors, but it is a little harder to tell with Rocket, Drax and Ronan. Gamora was jibbed in this game though. She is told to wait in the ship at the start of the game, she tells Quill to leave his music behind and she sounds exactly like Peggy from Married With Children, otherwise she has no other lines in the game. Maybe a couple on her mini-pinball, but nothing worth remembering.
An amazing addition to this game are the Leaderboards. In the beginning (two days ago) I was always trying to improve my score, just for the sake of beating my score. Now I look at the scores of the world. Currently I am ranked 22nd in the world. It's a great feeling and now that I know I am competing against the world I can easily improve my score again.
The game is great despite its flaws. It is better value than buying a real pinball, it is better value than putting dollar coins into a pinball at the pub. So far it has cost me 30 cents for every hour I have played and the more I play it the better the value will be. If you are a fan of the old brick and mortar pinballs I recommend buying the game. If you hate digital pinballs, maybe don't buy it. If you think you will get your moneys worth out of it then you should definitely buy it. I bought it and I had no idea I was going to enjoy it so much. As a game I would give it 6/10, as a pinball I would give it 8.5 out of 10.
I bought the game after seeing the movie, which was amazing (that's my review, 4.75 stars), and seeing this article, I didn't read the article. But I did read the title, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball may be best table yet'. And boy did that title get me intrigued. I bought the Marvel Pinball App for $1 and it came with The Avengers table, I had to fork out another $2 for the Guardians table. It is worth noting that as of the time of writing this Marvel Pinball is free on iOS.
Now I have played a few pinball machines in my time, my father was a Pinball Wizard and my mother a Pinball Queen so I spent a lot of time playing them as a child. The only other digital pinball I played was Pokemon Pinball on the Gameboy Color, and that sucked major balls compared to the real thing. Shit I also played Sonic Spinball, but that is more of a spinball than a pinball so it might not count.
So how do the Marvel App Pinballs hold up compared to other digital titles I have played? It blows them out of the park. They look, sound, and feel exactly like a real table. Obviously they are smaller, and lighter, and portable; but other than that they are a true recreation of actual pinballs at a tiny fraction of the price.
While the Guardians of the Galaxy table is really good, and definitely worth the extra $2 there are some noticeable problems. The game starts with a Multiball, all the balls in the table come out at once and you muck around with them for a minute, this minute doesn't seem to affect the score too much, the highest I got from it was 2.2 million points. After the minute-multiball-mania, Peter Quill ( GuardianOfTheGalaxyMan) says that he needs his 70s inspired music and it is your job to hit a ball that launches at you into a specific ramp. This will net you an easy 5 million point headstart if you can land it. As well as the 5 million points you are also treated to a 10 second trailer with the title of the movie flying in space, it is terrible and takes away from the flow.
If you are trying for a high score you will need to repeat the minigame every time, all up it takes about a minute and a half, just to start a new game. It may be fun a few times, or every now and then but you could honestly just leave your phone on the desk until the real game starts and not really be penalised for it.
There are these cartoon figures littered around the table and they will dance around and spout typical pinball one-liners. Overall they add a layer to the game that could not exist on an actual table but there are certain point when they can get distracting. For example there is a skill game that has Peter Quill and Ronan (AntiGuardianOfTheGalaxyMan) shooting plasma at each other. Ronan also shoots plasma at your ball when he wants to vaporise it. It's fine if he wants to vaporise my ball, it's distracting when he wants to vaporise Peter Quill and it looks like it vaporises my ball. I have lost my ball because I thought it got vaporised only for it to fall down the guts of the table.
Those are my only two complaints. The stupid long intro, and the sometimes distracting nature of the cartoons.
I have spent the last three days playing this game. My thumbs are worn down and blistered from playing the game too much. I have probably racked up about 14 hours between the 3 tables I have. It is most definitely a fun game.
The ball feels like a ball, you never find yourself cursing the game for unfairly putting the ball in dire situations. You are always in control.
The music in the game is heavily inspired from 70s rock and it sounds amazing. It fits the tone of the movie by not being overly dramatic and by just being fun. It's the song in the trailer above if you want to hear it for yourself.
The voice-acting can get a little repetitive but the characters all have voices true to their movie counterparts. Quill will deliver one-liners differently than his movie counterpart but sticks to the tone. Groot is amazing, whatever he says in certain situations is exactly what he would say in a similar situation in the movie. Rocket, Drax and Ronan are perfect, Quill and Groot are obviously different voice actors, but it is a little harder to tell with Rocket, Drax and Ronan. Gamora was jibbed in this game though. She is told to wait in the ship at the start of the game, she tells Quill to leave his music behind and she sounds exactly like Peggy from Married With Children, otherwise she has no other lines in the game. Maybe a couple on her mini-pinball, but nothing worth remembering.
An amazing addition to this game are the Leaderboards. In the beginning (two days ago) I was always trying to improve my score, just for the sake of beating my score. Now I look at the scores of the world. Currently I am ranked 22nd in the world. It's a great feeling and now that I know I am competing against the world I can easily improve my score again.
The game is great despite its flaws. It is better value than buying a real pinball, it is better value than putting dollar coins into a pinball at the pub. So far it has cost me 30 cents for every hour I have played and the more I play it the better the value will be. If you are a fan of the old brick and mortar pinballs I recommend buying the game. If you hate digital pinballs, maybe don't buy it. If you think you will get your moneys worth out of it then you should definitely buy it. I bought it and I had no idea I was going to enjoy it so much. As a game I would give it 6/10, as a pinball I would give it 8.5 out of 10.
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Superior Spider-Man Discussion
What day is it? The 17th of April? No. No. Get excited. It's fucking Spider-Man day.
Why is it Spider-Man day? Because the second Amazing Spider-Man movie comes out today? Yeah, I guess so. But also. Wrong. Today the final issue of Superior Spider-Man comes out. Man am I pumped. I'm going to buy this bad boy first thing in the morning.
This blog is going to be broken up into two sections. This section, which is sort of an intro-y section and the next section, which is me going on about how great Superior Spider-Man is.
Why is it Spider-Man day? Because the second Amazing Spider-Man movie comes out today? Yeah, I guess so. But also. Wrong. Today the final issue of Superior Spider-Man comes out. Man am I pumped. I'm going to buy this bad boy first thing in the morning.
This blog is going to be broken up into two sections. This section, which is sort of an intro-y section and the next section, which is me going on about how great Superior Spider-Man is.
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| To say I was excited would be a statement.
Dan Slott didn't get me into Spider-Man, that honor goes to Brian Michael Bendis with his Ultimate Spider-Man. But when Peter Parker died I swapped right on over to Amazing with his Big Time run. It was amazing. There was enough of a backlog for me to read up to #698 to get current on Spider-Man and then disaster struck. Peter Parker was dying. For me, Peter Parker was dying again. And I relate to Peter Parker, because everyone does, that's his character. A relatable guy with spider-powers. I just stopped reading Ultimate because Peter Parker was dead and now I had to stop reading Amazing because Peter Parker was dead. And Dr.Octopus was taking over. That fat guy with the stilts for hands. But fuck me swinging. Web swinging. Spider-Ock was awesome. He was a completely different Spider-Man to Peter and he kept it fresh.
It wouldn't be a Spider-Man Day without some music.
Spiderpus would kickass, take names then kick some more ass. He was organised. He protected the whole city, albeit in a totalitarian fashion, but he set out to do what he believed needed to be done to preserve Peter's legacy. And he made friends and enemies and he started having sex with a midget. Spiderpus was very open-minded, and that is what I expect from a super-hero. I think her name was Anne-Marie, which is more creative than Mary Jane. Just.
And he gave himself more powers. He redesigned the spider-suit to give him like, extra vision powers and he had octopus tentacles come out of his back. And he had henchmen and spider-bots and giant spider-bots. He launched an assault on Shadowland, the most powerful organised crime land in the Universe and he barely broke a sweat. He saved lives using synergy and proactivity. He even started a Spider-Man Incorporated.
I know it sounds like I'm taking the piss out of the comic. I am a little bit. But I love it. It is the first series that I have read the entirety of it's run as it came out. As amazing as Amazing Spider-Man was this series is more amazing (can't think of a better word). If you haven't read this series because it has a fat octopus-man in the body of a skinny spider-man then you are doing yourself a huge injustice. As it stands this is one of my favourite comic book series of all time.
It is also the only comic I have ever gotten signed by it's writer. Thank you Dan Slott for making this.
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Follow me on Twitter if you want to talk Spider-Man- @KrisCreedYo
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Saturday, 5 April 2014
Captain America: Winter Soldier Aussie Thoughts
G'day mate. You've been hurt before. It's ok now. The first Captain America movie was beloved by a lot of people. Those people were Americans. Some other people may have liked it but it was Captain Stars & Stripes the Amazing Patriot VS Nazis. The movie was probably fine I, like all my friends, fell asleep watching it. I still went on movie discussion forums and all I saw was praise for the first Captain America movie. I have since chalked this up to patriotism.
So when the reviews for the second Captain America movie started rolling in positively I had to critically think whether it was going to be a good movie or not. The positive reviews could have been American propaganda for all I knew and expected. Surprisingly though, Winter Soldier was amazing.
The movie expands on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not everything is as it seems, which is great for a 70's style action spy thriller modern superhero movie epic. There is corruption within SHIELD and Captain America doesn't know who he can trust, so he trusts the first person he meets after being told not to trust anyone and also he trusts the person he ran past at the beginning of the movie. It is still really cool though.
Comic elements are made more apparent in this movie than the previous Iron Mans and Captain America. Not everything is cemented in reality, thus making the movie a lot more fun than previous movies. The Triskelion from the Ultimate Comics makes an appearance and is moved to Washington DC from New York. Everything makes sense in this movie. Corruption. Super Villains.
This movie could have easily been Agents of SHIELD: The Movie. The plot is SHIELD centric, the villains are villains of SHIELD more than Captain America, though the titular villain does have a lot in common with Cap.
The casting was perfect. Chris Evans nailed Captain America moreso than the previous movies. Scarlett Johanson provided more depth to the Black Widow. Samuel L Jackson showed Nick Fury as more than the all-knowing badass that he has been depicted as. GHB had an amazing cameo as Batroc the Leaper. Holy Fuck The Winter Soldier was a beast, he was the Terminator mixed with Robocop mixed with Captain America, massive beast. Cobie Smulders was a badass, that Falcon guy was a badass, the badass guy who fought the Falcon was a badass. Any one of these characters could have been swapped with John McClane and the movie would make perfect sense. That is how badass everyone is.
The theme of the movie, Surveillance VS Freedom Cage Match XXX, correlated a lot with what is happening in the real world. It shows insight into Big Brothering the world and whistleblowing. Americans may take more from this movie than the rest of the world but the message is internationally relevant.
With this movie Marvel has expanded the Earth elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The world is now being lifted from realism into something a lot more fun. Intrigue, superpowers, super villains. This movie has it all.
If you are wondering whether to see this or the Lego Movie, do yourself a favour and see this one first.
So when the reviews for the second Captain America movie started rolling in positively I had to critically think whether it was going to be a good movie or not. The positive reviews could have been American propaganda for all I knew and expected. Surprisingly though, Winter Soldier was amazing.
The movie expands on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not everything is as it seems, which is great for a 70's style action spy thriller modern superhero movie epic. There is corruption within SHIELD and Captain America doesn't know who he can trust, so he trusts the first person he meets after being told not to trust anyone and also he trusts the person he ran past at the beginning of the movie. It is still really cool though.
Comic elements are made more apparent in this movie than the previous Iron Mans and Captain America. Not everything is cemented in reality, thus making the movie a lot more fun than previous movies. The Triskelion from the Ultimate Comics makes an appearance and is moved to Washington DC from New York. Everything makes sense in this movie. Corruption. Super Villains.
This movie could have easily been Agents of SHIELD: The Movie. The plot is SHIELD centric, the villains are villains of SHIELD more than Captain America, though the titular villain does have a lot in common with Cap.
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| This photo would have worked better in my Zombie Apocalypse/Captain America blog |
The casting was perfect. Chris Evans nailed Captain America moreso than the previous movies. Scarlett Johanson provided more depth to the Black Widow. Samuel L Jackson showed Nick Fury as more than the all-knowing badass that he has been depicted as. GHB had an amazing cameo as Batroc the Leaper. Holy Fuck The Winter Soldier was a beast, he was the Terminator mixed with Robocop mixed with Captain America, massive beast. Cobie Smulders was a badass, that Falcon guy was a badass, the badass guy who fought the Falcon was a badass. Any one of these characters could have been swapped with John McClane and the movie would make perfect sense. That is how badass everyone is.
The theme of the movie, Surveillance VS Freedom Cage Match XXX, correlated a lot with what is happening in the real world. It shows insight into Big Brothering the world and whistleblowing. Americans may take more from this movie than the rest of the world but the message is internationally relevant.
With this movie Marvel has expanded the Earth elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The world is now being lifted from realism into something a lot more fun. Intrigue, superpowers, super villains. This movie has it all.
If you are wondering whether to see this or the Lego Movie, do yourself a favour and see this one first.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Literature Discussion - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
I don't know how this is classified as Supernatural Literature. Well I do, but I disagree.
The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Benjamin Button is a crime drama written by M Night Shyamalan. It would have been interesting if the twist hadn't already been ruined the day I was born. The twist is that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the same person. Props to doing it before Fight Club, but still, I don't care.
The 'supernatural' element is the shocking transformation that happens when Dr Jekyll drinks a concoction. So the 'supernatural' element is alcoholism. The concoction makes Dr Jekyll a cool guy that sometimes kills people. Again, drawing parallels to alcoholism.
Dr Jekyll is a lame version of Bruce Banner. He may have some friends and the know-how to alter his appearance with drugs but Bruce Banner is a beast when it comes to science. Bruce Banner is heaps smarter and has a stronger moral code.
Mr Hyde is a lame version of The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk can fight toe-to-toe with demigods and survive Nuclear Bombs. I would pit Mr Hyde's strength levels around that of a gorilla. All it would take to take down Mr Hyde is gorilla tranqs. I take back what I said earlier, Mr Hyde is a lame version of Bruce Banner as well.
The protagonist of the novel is a lawyer named Phoenix Wright (citation needed) he tasks himself with figuring out who this Mr Hyde guy is. The most noteworthy thing Phoenix Wright does is say "If he calls himself Mr Hyde then I shall be Mr Seek". This piece of dialogue is noteworthy because the name Mr Hyde was always a setup for that terrible line. I love how it demeans the whole book.
Mr Hyde's plan is to kill Dr Jekyll so that Mr Hyde can inherit Dr Jekyll's fortune. If there is one thing I've learned from comicbooks is that there is no Hyde without Jekyll. The two share the same body. How is this guy even serious? The two share a symbiotic relationship. Imagine Spider-Man killing Peter Parker. You are both the same person, also Spider-Man doesn't kill.
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| I sure hope this blog doesn't make comparisons with The Incredible Hulk |
The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Benjamin Button is a crime drama written by M Night Shyamalan. It would have been interesting if the twist hadn't already been ruined the day I was born. The twist is that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the same person. Props to doing it before Fight Club, but still, I don't care.
The 'supernatural' element is the shocking transformation that happens when Dr Jekyll drinks a concoction. So the 'supernatural' element is alcoholism. The concoction makes Dr Jekyll a cool guy that sometimes kills people. Again, drawing parallels to alcoholism.
Dr Jekyll is a lame version of Bruce Banner. He may have some friends and the know-how to alter his appearance with drugs but Bruce Banner is a beast when it comes to science. Bruce Banner is heaps smarter and has a stronger moral code.
Mr Hyde is a lame version of The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk can fight toe-to-toe with demigods and survive Nuclear Bombs. I would pit Mr Hyde's strength levels around that of a gorilla. All it would take to take down Mr Hyde is gorilla tranqs. I take back what I said earlier, Mr Hyde is a lame version of Bruce Banner as well.
There are tons of videos on YouTube with the same shitty song and same shitty footage.
The protagonist of the novel is a lawyer named Phoenix Wright (citation needed) he tasks himself with figuring out who this Mr Hyde guy is. The most noteworthy thing Phoenix Wright does is say "If he calls himself Mr Hyde then I shall be Mr Seek". This piece of dialogue is noteworthy because the name Mr Hyde was always a setup for that terrible line. I love how it demeans the whole book.
Mr Hyde's plan is to kill Dr Jekyll so that Mr Hyde can inherit Dr Jekyll's fortune. If there is one thing I've learned from comicbooks is that there is no Hyde without Jekyll. The two share the same body. How is this guy even serious? The two share a symbiotic relationship. Imagine Spider-Man killing Peter Parker. You are both the same person, also Spider-Man doesn't kill.
In this blog I have made the book seem silly and made it appear that I didn't like it. That's because the book was silly and I didn't like it. It isn't supernatural, I suppose it is literature because of all the deviations that come from it. It isn't good. It's a crime drama with the ending ruined.
Let me know in the comments if you disagree. Your opinion is of value.
Let me know in the comments if you disagree. Your opinion is of value.
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Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Literature Discussion - Frankenstein
I just read Frankenstein, the old book written by Mary Shelley. The edition where the doctor marries his cousin because they are European. I was surprised in how different the monster was in the source material than every other interpretation. He was yellow, didn't have bolts in his neck and didn't die in a fire in a windmill. There are a few points that I would like to discuss about the novel that might fix a few misconceptions.
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| He looks like this, except without a mangina. |
The Monster's Name
You alway hear it. Frankenstein is the name of the doctor that created the monster, not the monster himself. What is the monster's name then? In the book he makes connections between himself and the son of God, Adam. If I compare myself to Clark Kent that doesn't make me Superman. So his name isn't Adam but I can see where the creators of I, Frankenstein were coming from. Throughout the novel the monster laments that he was never given a name, yet he knows who his creator is. I like to think that he inherits his name from his father, like Victor did from his father. The monster does not have a first name, but his last name, through inheritance from his father, would be Frankenstein. A lot of people have a problem with this, even people who have read the book, but screw it. Frankenstein is as good a name for a monster as any.Who Actually is the Monster?
The monster is. Victor Frankenstein creates the monster in body, but does not create the monster in mind. The monster is shown as kind in it's origin but then goes around killing people. Victor Frankenstein, at most, comes to the role as a neglectful father, not a monster. Having a neglectful father does not justify going on a killing spree. The monster threatens his creator to create a mate for him so that he isn't lonely. Victor says he will but chooses not to when he realises he could be potentially be creating another monster to go around killing more people.
Some may argue Alice Cooper is the real monster.
Frankenstein is deluded with Grandiose Ambitions
Victor believes that he, and he alone can overcome the barriers between life and death. That may seem delusional, but it was a goal for Victor. And he achieved it. The advances in medicine and technology could revolutionise how humans live. He very well may have had the best of intentions but was overcome with grief and fear. If he was truly selfish in his motives he still could have made millions of gold bricks (the currency of the 1800's if I understand correctly) off of his findings. Instead he realised he didn't want to create monsters. Victor Frankenstein is selfish, and a coward, and an idiot. If he were deluded with Grandiose Ambitions, it would probably help him out in the long run. He could afford his own security, he could buy a crossbow and shoot his monster in the head, he could treat his family to their own castles and he would benefit science for the entire race.
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Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Stick of Truth AU Review
South Park the Stick of Truth is an amazing South Park game and a decent RPG.
I've been a fan of South Park since the first season aired in Australia and I have seen every episode of it. I love it, the jokes are smart, the characters change over time, and the world continually gets bigger. The RPG format matches South Park and it is a wonder the game was not made earlier.
The game starts with the mute protagonist being ordered to leave the house and make friends in his new home town of South Park. Immediately you make friends with the local boy, Butters, and he gets you into the Human clan of a Dungeon & Dragons-esque group ruled by the Grand Wizard Cartman. For the first part of the game you spend your time recruiting factions and battling elves to reclaim the stick. In true South Park fashion the story escalates out of control leading to being abducted by aliens, shrank by underpants gnomes and travelling to 8-bit Canada to translate abortion documents written in French. The story makes sense in the context of South Park and it was genuinely a lot of fun to play through.
The aesthetic customisation you can make to your character is really deep. It would be unlikely that you could not make an avatar that does not represent you. You can choose from 4 classes; Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Jew. Each class has it's own special abilities but they all have the same stats and access to equipment. The perks barely have any influence over the game and I feel like I could have played the game to the same effect without them. There are no customisation options for your party members, they level up aside you and get access to new abilities at certain levels but you cannot change their weapons or equipment.
Aside from the 10+ hours of main story there are a load of side missions to complete as well. The quests can vary from finding collectibles to climbing The Tower of Peace and killing all the Mongorians along the way. The rewards for completing the side-quests are usually special equipment or a special summon that you can use once per day to kill all the enemies in a battle, but not bosses, they are too tough.
The aesthetic customisation you can make to your character is really deep. It would be unlikely that you could not make an avatar that does not represent you. You can choose from 4 classes; Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Jew. Each class has it's own special abilities but they all have the same stats and access to equipment. The perks barely have any influence over the game and I feel like I could have played the game to the same effect without them. There are no customisation options for your party members, they level up aside you and get access to new abilities at certain levels but you cannot change their weapons or equipment.
Aside from the 10+ hours of main story there are a load of side missions to complete as well. The quests can vary from finding collectibles to climbing The Tower of Peace and killing all the Mongorians along the way. The rewards for completing the side-quests are usually special equipment or a special summon that you can use once per day to kill all the enemies in a battle, but not bosses, they are too tough.
In the beginning you can only walk around South Park but through the course of the game you gain access to new abilities to access new areas. The battles are turn-based like Final Fantasy or Pokemon but requires some decent timing and button presses to execute attacks, abilities and defending, so the combat closely resembles the Mario & Luigi RPGs battles or even closer to the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood also made by Obsidian. If you have the bard in your party one of his songs takes you into a Guitar Hero/DDR rhythm style minigame, for other attacks you might have to mash certain buttons. I like the battle style because you can't just mash A and still win. You need to combine tactics with precision to come out on top. That said, the battles are not too hard. If you have the right equipment and right abilities anything less than a boss will die easily enough.
The game looks exactly like the show. I don't know what else you could want from an adaptation from screen to game. The graphics in this game are timeless. Once upon a time Final Fantasy VII looked like an amazing game, it had the best graphics you could ask for at the time, if you played it today without mods it feels really dated. In contrast, Final Fantasy VI (or III) used Sprites, and although it doesn't look photorealistic, the style makes it so that you could still play the game today and it would still feel new. South Park the Stick of Truth is 2D and it would never look real, but it is stylish and will stand the test of time.
Though there were issues for me with the sound it was mostly good. You had epic middle-earthern music playing in the town, songs from the television show played in stores, the televisions sounded like they do in the show, with Terrance and Philip playing and Cooking shows. The voice acting was top-notch, and it needed to be. If it was anything less than stellar I believe the style of the game would have been diminished. The major issue I had with the sound was during battle, your partner in battle would hassle you to hurry up. Mate, it has been 4 seconds and I am trying to find a Speed potion, leave me alone. Seriously you would get pestered to hurry up after one second. If no commands were being inputted I would understand, but if you are scrolling through menus you are going to need more than one second.
Though there were issues for me with the sound it was mostly good. You had epic middle-earthern music playing in the town, songs from the television show played in stores, the televisions sounded like they do in the show, with Terrance and Philip playing and Cooking shows. The voice acting was top-notch, and it needed to be. If it was anything less than stellar I believe the style of the game would have been diminished. The major issue I had with the sound was during battle, your partner in battle would hassle you to hurry up. Mate, it has been 4 seconds and I am trying to find a Speed potion, leave me alone. Seriously you would get pestered to hurry up after one second. If no commands were being inputted I would understand, but if you are scrolling through menus you are going to need more than one second.
A major thing that bugged me in this game was the use of censorship. I don't point my blame at Obsidian or Matt Stone and Trey Parker but at the Australian Classifications board. The game is rated R18+, I'm 22 or something, if I want to give Randy Marsh an anal probe I should be allowed to. If I want to perform an abortion, I should be allowed to. Now I'm not saying I want to do those things, but you know, all my friends overseas are doing it and it sounds like it might be good for a laugh. Man, we got images of a crying Koala telling us what we were missing out on. I do appreciate that the game is telling me it is censored, I appreciate that it is telling other people about it being censored, people who would not have given a second thought if there were just blurs or blacked out parts of the game. It gets the message out there, but I do feel like I missed out.
Between collecting everything, completing all the side quests and levelling up this game will take up close to 20 hours to complete. After completion you can start again and play as a different class and on a higher difficulty. I played as a Warrior and at the half-way point I had already decided that I would play through the game as a different class and make different decisions, though I'm not sure how the different decisions affect the rest of the game.
The game is great. It holds up as a good RPG, but more importantly it transported me to a world that I am all too familiar with. I got to spend a couple of days in South Park. The game was hilarious, funnier than Portal 2. The game oozed charm. It did have it's faults but they are mostly forgiveable. This is definitely my favourite licensed game, even moreso than Spider-man 2, maybe. This is definitely my second favourite licensed game. Well this game is definitely in my top 10 licensed games. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves the show and would regularly recommend it to anyone who loves RPGs. Also I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 15, the game goes further with crudeness than any episode does.
All in all I would rate this game an 8 and a half out of 10. It would have got a 9 if not for the censorship.
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Sunday, 2 March 2014
Too Excited for Guardians of the Galaxy
I know, I know. 2 of the last 2 movies I have been excited for are Marvel movies. But give me some credit, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 look exciting. And what is more exciting than people with ultra powers beating on other people with ultra powers? Monsters and robots fighting each other, but it was rhetoric anyway.
Now I'm a comics guy. I love Spider-Man, X-Men and Daredevil. I know the difference between an Infinite Crisis and an Infinity Gauntlet, but in all honesty, I would not have known what a Guardian of a Galaxy was if it wasn't going to be a movie. Sure I played as Rocket Raccoon in Marvel VS Capcom 3 but I didn't know where he fit into anything. That said, when they announced GotG however long ago I did some research, and this is the movie you want. To watch. At the cinemas. Dish out and buy some expensive popcorn and a peppermint choc top.
Does anyone remember that DC movie that wasn't Superman or Batman? The one with the guy with the ring? I was excited (not too excited) to see it because I thought it would build this universe in space like Trek Wars Episode 1 Wrath of Khan. But it didn't, space was empty, the only powers in the universe were Green Courage and Fear Yellow. Ryan Reynold's character had no flaws, he had a hidden one which was fear but that was actually a strength because if you fear something you can overcome it. Cop-out. There were no mentions of Krypton (unless there was), no other powers that weren't colours and no other heroes. Superman just writing a feature article while a yellow monster thing tries to eat the planet.
In contrast you have the Guardians of the Galaxy. The five lead characters are all different. You have Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation playing Starlord and he is right at home, none of that fish out of water cliche that every other human has in space. You have Drax the Destroyer played by Batista, and he doesn't need a power ring to go on a rampage. You have Rocket Raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, where the hell did a raccoon come from? There must be a raccoon planet, easy, I don't need my hand being held. Vin Diesel plays a tree, the role was made for him, perfect casting. Then you have that hot green chick that is topless in the trailer. Progress! Every character is a character, no one feels tacked on. Even John C. Reilly as a prison guy adds a lot to the movie already in my opinion.
Through end-credit scenes this movie has already been linked to Thor and The Avengers. We already know a lot about the universe, the foundations have been laid. You have Thanos running around with Chitauri somewhere. You have Asgard being ran somewhere else as well as all the realms shown in the Thor movies. There is a planet with heroes running around having adventures all the time. From the trailer we can see there is a prison for space criminals. There is heaps of room to expand, and with the Disney acquisition of Star Wars there could even be links to Star Wars.
This movie has an all-star cast of reliable actors, it shows promise for an expanded universe and it has a Blue Suede song in the trailer. How can anyone not be too excited for this movie?
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Too Excited for The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I've seen trailers before. I've even seen a movie or two. But this year is set to have some of the most exciting movies ever. I'm not normally one to be excited by trailers and heresay and whathaveyou but some of these movies look amazing. Such as...
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Crime has had to adapt to dealing with a superhero. Super villains are beginning to pop up and team up against our Amazing hero. Just look at Electro alone. He shoots lightning bolts, that's what Thor does and Thor doesn't go around fighting Spider-Men in the movies. The odds have ramped up, Spider-Man has to deal with bigger threats. And Electro is just one of them. He also has to deal with a Robot Rhinoceros (AKA The Rhino) and a Super Villain hiding behind the scenes who knows Spider-Man's secret.
Sure, Spider-Man 3 suffered from having too many villains, but hopefully this one will be different.
There is also the mention of Aunt May hiding something about Peter Parker's past. The old thread in the first movie will actually be used. This is amazing, everyone thought the plot thread will just be forgotten, but there you go. We are finally going to learn that Peter Parker's past parents discovered a cure for cancer and then were killed by Carnage. Or not.
We have to all get excited for May to see how this movie turns out.
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Over the next week I am going to blog on upcoming movies that are shaping up well.
Follow me on Twitter and thank you for reading.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Amazing Spider-Man 1 may not have been the best superhero movie, hell, it wasn't even the best Spider-Man movie. It had it's fair share of problems, such as recapping an origin that movie-goers saw a decade ago, aborting plotlines like Peter's super spy parents, and fighting a bigger, stronger version of himself in the Lizard. But the new movies have Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield who are cast perfectly as Gwen Stacey and Peter Parker. The new movies were always being built to be part of a franchise and that would be the excuse for all the dangling threads in the first movie. With all that aside, check out the trailer.
Crime has had to adapt to dealing with a superhero. Super villains are beginning to pop up and team up against our Amazing hero. Just look at Electro alone. He shoots lightning bolts, that's what Thor does and Thor doesn't go around fighting Spider-Men in the movies. The odds have ramped up, Spider-Man has to deal with bigger threats. And Electro is just one of them. He also has to deal with a Robot Rhinoceros (AKA The Rhino) and a Super Villain hiding behind the scenes who knows Spider-Man's secret.
Sure, Spider-Man 3 suffered from having too many villains, but hopefully this one will be different.
There is also the mention of Aunt May hiding something about Peter Parker's past. The old thread in the first movie will actually be used. This is amazing, everyone thought the plot thread will just be forgotten, but there you go. We are finally going to learn that Peter Parker's past parents discovered a cure for cancer and then were killed by Carnage. Or not.
We have to all get excited for May to see how this movie turns out.
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Over the next week I am going to blog on upcoming movies that are shaping up well.
Follow me on Twitter and thank you for reading.
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