unbreakable16 Reviews

Cars 2 (2011)

Pixar's first bad film

[3/10 · 24 June 2011]

I added the spoiler tag although I'm not sure if the super mild thing I say counts...it's of course revealed in trailers, and is literally shown in the opening minutes of the film, but if you want to know NOTHING about it...

Just saw Cars 2...IMO it's the first bad Pixar film. I don't have a particular interest in cars, but the first Cars still had a heart, and a point to it...this felt like what I was expecting from Pixar after Disney bought them...and I hope it's not the start of a trend.

It's just a joke next to Monsters, Inc, or The Incredible, or Ratatouille (which I can't spell), or Wall*e, or even Toy Story 3 (which surprisingly not only justified its existence, but was the best in the series, I thought).

There's just nothing here...Paul Newman of course is gone. Lightning is almost a bit character. It's just all Mater tied up in a brain dead cheesy G rated spy plot.

It's not TERRIBLE, but it's the worst film I've seen all year, including ones that I liked that got trashed like I Am Number Four. I'd give it a 2 on the Netflix scale...probably a 3 for Cars 1, which I liked about 10x more.

Invasion (2005–2006)

It's watchable, but not much more

[5/10 · 15 May 2006]

(I'm not sure anything I've written could be considered a "spoiler", but just in case I marked that)

I'm absolutely amazed by the support on here for this. Of the three "alien invasion" shows this season, the only good one was Threshold, and that got canned first. Figures.

For all the incredible hype behind Invasion, and the great lead-in from Lost, it just wasn't a very good show. Virtually nothing happened for 3/4 of the show's run. The entire season wouldn't have enough material for a single episode of Buffy or Lost. It isn't a "mind game". It isn't a matter of "not being able to follow along". It just isn't very well written, and there isn't much content. They're trying to string a single concept out into an entire season-think about it; this could have been done (better) as a single episode of the X-Files.

Also, the characters don't work. Most of them are still one dimensional. Sheriff Underlay has been a huge problem from the start. He's been one of the "good guys" here at the end of the season, and they've been playing him that way most of the time…yet from the very start he's clearly a TERRIBLE person. We're supposed to relate to a monster? We're supposed to forget everything he's done all season long? They keep brining up threads, entire characters, only to dump them without going anywhere with them. They arbitrarily turn Tom from monster to "good guy" and back again, etc. and we're supposed to shut off our brains and pretend it's okay? It just…doesn't work.

While I agree that there's a LOT of potential to deal with hybrids, their dealing with what they are, etc., we're not seeing it (outside of some occasional stuff with Mariel).

I for one would MUCH rather take a chance on a new sci-fiy show than support one we already know isn't very good.

EDIT: Just watched the season/series finale, and it was really quite good. Glad it got to go out on a high note. They cheated with Underlay's character-completely changed him, but he was pretty interesting in the last few episodes.

Tomb Raider: Legend (2006 Video Game)

This is what Tomb Raider 2 should have been

[9/10 · 11 May 2006]

I feel compelled to write something here to counter that ridiculous bad review. Yes, the control is different. That's a GOOD thing. The control in the earlier games was TERRIBLE. I can't believe someone would actually want to go back to controlling Lara like a truck. Yes, you would need a gamepad for the PC version also (just get a 360 pad and plug it in)-but again, this is a GOOD thing. Most ANY game with this type of viewpoint and control will function better with a control pad-so use one! And how many games of ANY type use the keyboard exclusively now? I played the original Tomb Raider DESPITE the control, not BECAUSE of the control… The original Tomb Raider had a great atmosphere and theme, and an interesting character. But it also had a lot of flaws. The control was terrible and unforgiving. The puzzles were frequently arbitrary and too difficult. It was easy to overlook the problems in that first game though, because for one thing it was one of the very first 3D adventure games, and was doing so much new. The problem came when Toby Gard (and I forget the other guy's name) were ousted from Core, and Core then proceeded to remake that same exact game over and over again. The sequels were basically level packs released year after year, without addressing any of the huge flaws the very first game had.

Well Legend gets a new developer (Crystal Dynamics), with a team headed up by Toby Gard-the guy who created the first game to begin with-and it FINALLY fixes everything that was wrong. The control has gone from being a chore, to actually being FUN on a "moment to moment basis". In other words, the act of just moving Lara around and interacting with the environments is fun now. The game has a solid physics engine, which many puzzles use to great effect. The puzzles seem more "organic" now-more "realistic" to the environments, rather than seeming arbitrary. As a result they're also much easier to figure out (which is a good thing, I think). Between that, the vastly better control, and the frequent restart points (at least on the X-Box 360 version), the game has almost completely eliminated the frustrating aspects of the original.

On top of that the dialog is excellent. Lara's banter with her team is quite frequently funny and well acted. (Lara's voiced perfectly by Keeley Hawes from Spooks.) And Lara comes off like she did in the first game (but better)-she has the same feel, and seems smart, competent, interesting…but with a bit of a crazy drive to her. She's once again a more compelling character than Indiana Jones (at least to me she is).

The plot even rises above the minimum. The title, "Legend" makes sense in more ways than one, and the plot is perfect for relaunching the series.

Lastly, both the graphics and music are very well done. As mentioned, I'm playing the X-Box 360 version (which I believe looks the same as the PC version if you turn on that version's "advanced" content on a high-end GPU). It has tons of gratuitous graphical effects. Most aren't strictly necessary, but add to the atmosphere. The soundtrack is similarly excellent. Almost verging on Celtic-ish at times, it always blends in with the environments well.

In short, this is a 100% successful relaunch of the series, and what Tomb Raider 2 SHOULD have been.