filmfreak-ochoa23 Reviews

Speed (1994)

One of the Definitive Action Movies!!

[9/10 · 11 September 2011]

Speed 1994 Movie Review

The introductory score of Mark Mancini opens up the film to entice the viewer into a roller-coaster ride that will not let go from the very beginning. The villain here is not your typical terrorist who is out for revenge but simply a cop who does not accept retirement life and simply wants his due, in this case pure simple money. The hero is the cop who will stop at nothing to save innocent civilians because it is the right thing, regardless of what his superiors tell him to do or not do. This film is the template for such classics as the Metal Gear Solid franchise with Mancini's score clearly being an inspiration for Harry Gregson Williams's MGS Saga Theme. 24 also took the rogue agent that plays against the rules to justify the means from Speed in the similarities of Jack Traver to Jack Bauer. Sandra Bullock playing Annie is also very fun to watch as a quirky but lovable character, also very beautiful and it reminds me why I like Sandra Bullock. The explosions, especially the one on the bus that is built up in the first quarter of the film, once it pays off it is one of the most spectacular explosions in film that I have seen in quite a while and it is comparable to the hospital explosion in The Dark Knight! (In terms of quality, not size). To close, this movie is one of the best action movies of all time and is a definitive purchase!

Rango (2011)

An Underrated Masterpiece!!!

[10/10 · 10 August 2011]

Rango- 2011 Wow. Just pure love was poured into the western genre with this film! From the opening credits resembling Ennio Morricone's score from the classic Spaghetti Westerns to the intro with the singing Mariachis doing the Corrido about Rango the western legend, this movie was one of the most fun moments I ever had! The plot even centers on the fact that the western legends are forgotten and replaced with modernization, but the fact is that legends never die. The references to Fear and Loathing with even Depp resembling his fast talking performance of Duke, which in my opinion was his best performance so I'm not complaining and is a breath of fresh air from seeing his Sparrow impersonations in Alice and Tourist, and a couple of endless references to classic westerns that I probably missed. The ones I caught were the Tuco reference with the Toad yelling like Tuco yelled at Blondie at the end of Good Bad and Ugly, the little girl resembling the girl from True Grit, the man with no name being the Spirit of the West was beyond priceless, score resembling Ennio Morricone's score from the Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, and the snake resembling Lee Van Cleef to name a few, I'm pretty sure there are more!! The movie had hilarious moments that resembled Chuck Jones cartoons without resorting to pop culture references, looking at you Shrek, like the scene where Rango eats the cigarette and then blows fire to the lizard's face, animated in a way that resembled classic slapstick cartoon humor that I missed from animated features. It reminded me of An American Tail for today with the same type of love and effort that was probably put into this film. A must buy for Western fans and animation fans!!

Alice in Wonderland (I) (2010)

Another take, more Narnian than Alice

[8/10 · 7 August 2011]

Alice in Wonderland- 2010 Tim Burton's live-action take and pseudo-sequel to the classic 1951 Disney adaptation of the same name, it succeeds in bringing the animated characters to life in a live-action format full of imaginative imagery which is the film's undeniable greatest feat. The film has a slightly different flashback sequence, which would be the 1951 film since it has the same structure according to Alice's description of her dream, by making Alice closer to her Father rather than her sister, now named Margaret rather than Lorine and making the effects of Wonderland more important than in the original source or other adaptations. In this version, both Alice and her father are deemed insane for thinking about trading with other countries and Alice's journey into Wonderland, a land full of impossibilities, helps her stand up for what she believes and what her father believed and take a chance when everybody thinks they are insane, and make a good moral. Instead of being Alice's imagination, Wonderland is a real place more in the likes of Narnia where they are oppressed and find a savior in Alice who is pre-ordained to save them from the Queen and her Jabberwock. I like this fact since it resembles the chess environment that the second novel had more than any other adaptation with the liberty of making this land real. Characters such as the White Rabbit and the Dorm Mouse are now fleshed out and even given names, Mally the Mouse and McTwisp the Rabbit. But at a larger sacrifice, my favorite character, the March Hare, and subsequently the Cheshire Cat are now reduced to mere cameos, which is a shame because I love their character designs with making the Hare twitchy and the Cat freakier with his smile, not exactly a Glasgow smile, but it kind of resembles it. The Mad Hatter… is the biggest flaw in the movie. I can accept the more realistic, kind of Narnian tone that Burton was making but the look of the Hatter is not mad enough, he looks like a depressed clown, especially during the White raid flashback scene when he was working for the White Queen as her hatter. He's not mad and random as the Hare is, which they are supposed to be equally mad or make the Hatter madder. The repeated riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk" gets very old trying to make it serious, which the whole point of the riddle was to point out the non-sensical which the 1951 version pulled superbly and I still think the Futterwacken was not mad but just plain retarded. Very good imagery and it's nice to see a live action version of the animated classic come to life, with a different tone since Wonderland is not a dream but a Narnian real place with consequences and larger lessons in the end for Alice, but the Hatter is more like Sweeney Todd minus the singing with Jack Sparrow combined which hurts the film, giving it a 7 out 10.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

One of the best adaptations

[9/10 · 6 August 2011]

Alice in Wonderland- 1951 An adaptation, if not the most famous one, of the 1867 Alice's Adventures of Wonderland and a bit of the sequel Through the Looking Glass, the movie starts with a narration of Alice's Wonderland and her exploits with a song. The movie acts like a musical, but at the same time has that random structure that a classic Chuck Jones cartoon would have with more play on words than slapstick. If the movie would be summarized it would be Alice goes through the rabbit hole, she cries because she can't get home once she grows, meets the sailing Dodo, follows the white rabbit again, meets Dee and Dumb which tell her the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter and other random stories such as Old William who stood on his head. Then Alice finds the rabbit once again in his house who he confuses for his wife Mary Ann to fetch his gloves, Alice being curious again, eats unknown food because it's labeled "eat me" which causes her to grow and be perceived as a monster to the Dodo, Bill the Lizard, and the Rabbit. She eats a carrot and grows 3 inches high to meet the flowers and the Caterpillar. To summarize the rest of the film, she meets more mad denizens of Wonderland in curiosity of the White Rabbit's destination and then changes her goal to returning home once the inhabitants of Wonderland are becoming more hostile to her after the Mad Tea Party, which sympathize with her when she breaks down crying about how she seldom listens to good advice due to her curious nature. The Red Queen is supposed to lead her to a way out, since the Cat lead her there and she is the ruler of Wonderland, but instead she is a selfish, mad, random cartoon who is as nonsensical as all of the other creatures like the Hare or the Hatter and decapitating anyone who displeases her in the slightest. This is not by any means a complaint, but a compliment to the film, since the madness, especially the randomness of my favorite scenes, the Tea Party scene and the verdict of Alice which has even a child like Alice rolling her eyes with the madness of the Queen and her subjects. More similar to Fantasia at times and adapting very little of the second novel focusing more on the first one with spectacular but random animation, this is a treasure to behold and I give it a 9 out of 10. The only reason it lost a point is because as you saw from my summary, the movie is too short just running at 75 minutes long and if it incorporated Through the Looking Glass, it would have been nice to include the Chess elements and the White Queen. The Jabberwock monster would have been a nice addition, I understand they put excerpts of the poem in the movie like Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat and How Doth the Little Crocodile but the monster would have been nice. The Duchess deleted scene is available in the 60th Un-Anniversary Edition DVD release which is worth watching since it adds another mad character and random situation which adds to the insanity of Wonderland!

Final Fantasy XIII (2009 Video Game)

Addicting Combat Mechanic and Party building

[9/10 · 27 July 2011]

Final Fantasy XIII - 2010 The true example of how the real game starts when you give the game a chance and how the story is not the centerpiece but the gameplay excels. The combat system is the one that truly shines in this game with the active combat system and its paradigm shift system. The combinations that are available are very customizable depending on the player, you could put 2 people ready to stagger or stun your opponent while 1 heals your 2 people or just go nuts for a while and have all of them attack the opponent with Commando if your opponent is staggered! Choose your leader with 2 companions out of 6 characters with specific armor and upgraded weapons that you can transform when you level it up to the max or just keep your current weapon on the max if you prefer that weapon. The characters themselves are Anime stereotypes, always overacting, and a cheesy love story between one of the main characters is annoyingly corny and bad. Lighting, the main character, is a complete bad-ass, the only likable character, Sahz has an interesting backstory with his son, but is completely wasted since the game makes him a clown, Hope has potential of being an interesting character with a revenge scheme against Snow, one of the characters in his own party but then completely wimps and chickens out. The most annoying characters are Vanille and Snow, the very definition of annoying and a self appointed hero-douche stating lines like "Heroes don't need plans" and calling himself hero every 5 minutes, in case you forgot. Fang is the poor, she comes from the underworld of Gran Pulse, complaining about the rich people of Cocoon, but all is forgiven with her because she is an excellent Saboteur and Sentinel. Remember that combat mechanic which was praised? That happens 20 hours into the game, until then is almost all cutscenes and really basic combat getting you into the game, and the team building a tad bit longer. The high score is given because the combat mechanic is really worth the time invested and team building along with the game being visually amazing.

Army of Two (2008 Video Game)

The equivalent of a fun dumb action movie- Fun but no Substance

[8/10 · 27 July 2011]

Army of Two - 2007 Take the concept of Metal Gear Solid 4 regarding privatized military companies, make a cliff notes version of it, package it and you get Army of Two. Army of Two has the generic third person shooter formula, the Agro co-op function (which is pretty much one acts like bait and the other shoots in a very simple degree), and some co-op engines such as "I'll help you up the ledge", slo-mo back to back (which is pretty awesome the 1st time), one shoots-one steers, and the human shield with a car door. They are fun mechanics, but the game over-uses them to a degree that they all become old, especially the back to back mechanic since you realize you have unlimited ammo and you are almost invincible during this eliminating the tension. The story is like MGS4, but in the simplest of forms. The bad guy here wants to control the PMCs, in this case people like Rios and Salem who are just basic mercs to rule the world and the crazy double agent is going to help him. Rios and Salem, although their dialogue is hilarious (there's a point where Salem asks Rios who his favorite Wu-Tang member is out of nowhere and Rios gets mad), are in themselves the buddy cop movie stereotypes. Salem is the wise and funny guy while Rios is the noble giant who'd always do the right thing, think the Timon and Pumba of video games. The game is stupidly fun though with mindless shooting, hilarious bantering between the 2 leads, and one of the coolest sub-villains. Phillip Clyde, the double agent, is very fun to watch since he is an incredible douche and even gets a Glasgow Dark Knight Joker Smile out of nowhere near the end just because he is crazy! The game is worth borrowing or renting, not buying.

Assassin's Creed II (2009 Video Game)

The Tombs are the selling point of this game!

[9/10 · 27 July 2011]

Assassin's Creed II- 2009 Not having played the first entry, the game picks up immediately after the first one but this does not matter. The game features a new protagonist, who Desmond controls through the Animus, a matrix-type machine. Ezio is your typical swashbuckling ladies-man, starting trouble with a rich rival who is a jerk just because he is the protagonist's rival. Ezio's family is portrayed as poor, or middle-class, of course but noble in heart and spirit. So, off the bat, Ezio is an unlikeable douche who gets everything his way, the villains have no real personality other to be evil and slimy, and the dialogue is sometimes funny mostly from Uncle Mario or when Ezio is talking to DaVinci and his "crazy" inventions. The game makes up in superior gameplay though, with new weapons such as dual blades, pistol, throwing knives, countering system, hiring system, and faster free-running with on-the-spot camouflaging within crowds. Even if Ezio himself is an unlikeable character, the story is interesting to follow from his perspective rather than Lucy and her team or from Mario and his Assassins. From everyone, the plot is this long time war between the Templars and the "holy" assassins who "liberate" the people, it is clichéd writing and is very black & white. From Ezio's perspective; however, it's a basic revenge story because Rodrigo, the leader of the Borgias, killed his family and Ezio seeks revenge. The game flows better in this fashion, since it accommodates the assassin's life better than some savior. The true jewel of the game are the Templar Temples which are free-running timed puzzles a la Prince of Persia to acquire parts of the armor of Altair, which the armor itself doesn't do anything special is just a Macguffin, the temples are the true treasure. A disfavor is done skipping any of these because they are the most awesome part of the game, truly utilizing the free-running mechanic to its fullest potential. The final boss is not challenging, at all but who you get to fight is pretty awesome, normally my reviews contain spoilers but this one you have to find out on your own!! This is a game worth buying, most definitely.

Resident Evil 5 (2009 Video Game)

Great Co-Op Game

[9/10 · 27 July 2011]

Resident Evil 5- 2009 The sequel to the 2nd greatest game of all time only surpassed by MGS4, is…Resident Evil 5. Is not a bad game by any means, but is not the behemoth that was Re4 in terms of what that game accomplished, mainly because it repeats the formula a tad too closely falling into the Terminator 3 syndrome. Although, this is a video game, it adds co-op into the mix, and is done on a more powerful console than its predecessor so it does not suck like Terminator 3. The story starts out as an investigation of who is peddling the new Las Plagas in the black market, which is interesting, into Wesker is behind everything and he wants to use this to rule the world!!! Special agents work in Africa mixed with Resident Evil turns into Looney Tunes cartoon villain Wesker was behind everything because he was involved in the original continuity prior to Re4. But the story here can be overlooked, once you get into the positive sides of the gameplay. The pause-to-switch-your-weapon is now replaced with a faster D-Pad mechanic. You want to switch your handgun to a shotgun? Just press up, grenade, press down, very convenient and does not distract you from the action. Co-op is better since the second player is not used as a storage device, but you actually trade items in real time instead of having to manage a cache of weapons like it was done before. The bosses are pretty epic, not God of War epic, but epic enough. My favorites being Irvin, he looks like the Sea Serpent from Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader with a fetus as a weak spot and Wesker with Uroboros, the new Plagas. His over the top lines of cartoon villain are very fun to hear and the way to finish him is sick! The main theme of the game is co-operation and the importance of having a partner on the mission, you might feel this in the solo mission if you get attached to the AI or Sheva, but the true game lies playing co-op, preferably online to get a full screen per character and not having to share the money. If you play offline, it's not an even split-screen, but 2 squares diagonal to each other and you have to share money. It's worth buying, since this is one of the best co-op games out there.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008 Video Game)

The Greatest Game Ever Made

[10/10 · 27 July 2011]

Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots- 2008 A proper sendoff to a legendary hero, Solid Snake you receive…. the greatest game of all time! It starts out as a simple assassination mission from Campbell to kill Liquid Ocelot bringing Snake out of retirement, but then it evolves to PMCs (Private Military Companies) controlling the economy and since Liquid owns the Son of the Patriots program which controls the soldiers making them more efficient, he has complete control and power. He is not a one-dimensional villain, since he is looking to revive his old friend's dream of a non-oppressive haven for soldiers against their own government, and this is just skimming the surface, the story is more detailed and intricate than this, but in a good way. Every character is completely fleshed out, looking into his or her motivations and although I have not played MGS2 or 3, this is the true sequel to the first game bringing Hal into a larger role like he had in the first game and Mei Ling with Naomi Hunter who have not been present since the first mission in Shadow Moses. Enough back story regarding MGS2 and 3 is told so the viewer would have everything necessary to put the pieces together regarding this final legendary chapter. The score by James Newton Howard is legendary as always with a special treat at the end initially composed by the legend himself, Ennio Morricone. Granted he composed for another movie before his death, but Kojima knowing the musical genius of Morricone, incorporated as the final song fitting perfectly to the end of this saga. Gameplay is now changed from the over top perspective to an over the shoulder perspective that allows the player the option to play as he or she seems fit, which is a welcome change! This is a type of revolutionary change in gameplay to a franchise since Resident Evil 4 introduced a better gameplay mechanic to their franchise. With the new over the shoulder view, the player can now choose to sneak with the OctoCamo Suit, like a chameleon, or go full out commando with fully customizable weapons if sneaking is not your thing. The excuse of "I don't play Metal Gear because I don't like sneaking" is over! Personally, I sometimes sneak, but only to snipe the enemies and if I get spotted, COMMANDO TIME!! The game even rewards you, for whichever gameplay you use, if you sneak, you can get past the enemy effectively, keeping your stress low. If you go commando, your stress will increase but then a combat high to help you out in your crazy situation. The game has an in-game iPod, an actual game commentary to help you find hidden easter eggs and it also functions like a movie commentary talking about certain areas of the game in terms of production and history and so much more. The greatest game ever made needs to be bought, especially if it's on the Greatest Hits Collection!!!!

Aliens vs. Predator (2010 Video Game)

For Aliens Fans, Not Predator or AVP Fans

[8/10 · 27 July 2011]

Aliens vs Predator- 2010 From the eerily opening of the Colonial Marines landing on BG-386, the game sets the correct mood of the classic '79 and '86 Alien movies! The iconic pinging of your motion detector, the classic Pulse Rifle and awesome Smart Gun, and the horror atmosphere which resembles Doom 3 and is a perfect fitting for this outing is what makes this game special. I love the fact that the weapons had secondary functions a la Perfect Dark like the Pulse Rifle having a grenade launcher and the Pistol having the 3-burst shot, but my favorite aspect was the ability to block out the Xenomorphs, hitting them, and then shooting them in the face for surprising me in the dark hearing that glorifying screech that is very nostalgic. The Marine campaign is not without its flaws, I would of love to see a more satisfying final boss to end this campaign instead of the lackluster Weyland android. I was thinking more along the line of 4 Preatorians or an Elite Predator and a Preatorian or better yet a new Alien species. For me the real boss battle came when battling all of the Drone Xenomorphs with the 2 Preatorians in the bridge scene while yelling "Get Some!!!" with my Pulse Rifle! Now to talk about the other 2 campaigns which were not that memorable as the Marine one, the Predator campaign did succeed in giving you the awesome weaponry and heat vision/night vision to make you feel like a Predator. The problem was that both the Plasma Cannon and the Proximity Mines had to be recharged in a station which made it unworthy of using them, since you were prone to attacks and you are reduced to using the spear and the discs. Then you are reduced to 2 weapons throughout the whole game. The Xenomorph campaign showed promise at the beginning with the interesting storyline about Subject 6, but is the weakest one since the controls are non-responsive ( I found myself climbing up walls when I did not want to in moments where 5 marines were shooting at me) and the story felt forced in the middle with the queen barking orders to kill anything that moved without any purpose, just because the plot needed to move. Overall, if you are a fan of the Alien franchise, (which I am more so than Predator) this is a buy. For Predator or AvP fans, there isn't much here since much of the AvP material is from the movies and not from the comic books and for the Predator fans, they are going to be disappointed of the lacking in weaponry (Plasma Cannon and Proxy Mines don't count since they run out to quickly and they are not worth looking for the charging station) and the cloaking has a timer and the Predator comes back to normal if you attack.

Mortal Kombat (2011 Video Game)

The Best Fighting Game of All Time

[10/10 · 27 July 2011]

Mortal Kombat- 2011 The best fighting game ever made surpassing the previous owner of this title, Soul Calibur IV. Improving on any mistake that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe had regarding tired gameplay mechanics such as the Rage system or the toned down Fatalities. In this iteration, the blood and the gore are back in full glory for the sadist in all of us and the gameplay is superb when it comes to adding enhanced moves or X-Ray moves or even Combo Breakers making any match different even if someone is playing with Scorpion against Scorpion. In terms of story, this game takes the entire Mortal Kombat trilogy, throws the what if? with Raiden knowing the events of the future and trying to alter it according to his Elder God medallion. The story is very cinematic explaining everything that happened within the 3 games even for newcomers of the series. Johnny Cage is hilariously arrogant, Liu Kang is the self proclaimed hero, Kung Lao is envious of Kang's role, and Raiden is the true protector of Earthrealm just to name a few. Every character has a very different story and an arc to follow, making each character unique to this world. The only notable exception is the guest character, Kratos who is not included in the Story Mode, understandably so and in his Arcade ending has the same story as Vader or Yoda from Soul Calibur IV except with Kratos it was done against his will. He got transported to another dimension, and as opposed to Yoda or Vader who were looking for an ancient power in the other dimension, Kratos was just angry that he was put in the MK world and started killing everything. Since the guest characters are a similarity, a comparison is inevitable with Soul Calibur IV. Kratos is in the vein of Vader in terms of gameplay, they are both slow to play as, but very fun to play regarding their special move variety. Yoda, on the other hand, let's just say it's a good thing Mortal Kombat didn't have one of those cheap characters. New characters Skarlet, Kenshi, and Rain look decent and Freddy Kruger and Mortal Kombat is a match made in heaven! This game deserves to be bought because is the best fighting game out there!

Heavenly Sword (2007 Video Game)

Basic Storyline but excellent gameplay mechanics and THE BEST BOSS BATTLE

[9/10 · 26 July 2011]

Heavenly Sword- 2007 The tale of Nariko is one of tragedy at the beginning of this story where you see our heroine defeated by the evil sword but empowered to a goddess level where she can defeat thousands of evil goons, so you start very overpowered at the beginning, kind of like Final Fantasy 13 where is so easy you start to wonder why you are playing the game. These games are why you must give them a chance beyond the beginning; it starts from mind numbingly easy to excruciatingly difficult! I admit is not a good strategy, since most people judge the game at a first impression, but I can also see why they do this. By giving the person some power at first, it makes the player comfortable with the character and by letting loose the reigns, all chaos ensues with some really challenging boss fights. It also makes sense in the overall story, at first the player has to sense that Nariko has extraordinary powers from the Heavenly Sword when she is fighting a horde of minions and even at the end of the game from which this scene is re-played since it starts like Memento, in the end, they are extremely easy since they are minions. The bosses are fun to play against, teaching you countering moves, albeit not necessary to beat them, but essential to practice on. The final boss, however, is ridiculously hard, but in a good way. The game assumes that you practiced the necessary dodging and countering techniques with the previous bosses so it is essential that you know these to defeat the final boss. Think Ocarina of Time Ganondorf with the countering but stricter, meaning you miss the timing by a millisecond and you are hit, you have to time it right when your character is hit by the beam blast, it is the best boss battle ever in my opinion, in video game history, so far. Challenging and frustrating but in a good way, in a way that when you beat him, you feel proud, not like Shao-Khan, which when you beat him in MK9, you think, "FINALLY!!" after spamming him in some way for being cheap. In terms of story, it's nothing special, the whole point is that this sword is killing Nariko but providing her with extraordinary power, some evil bad guy, who is hilariously portrayed by Andy Serkis and steals the show, wants the sword to rule the world (he's the final boss by the way) and her father has a secret that will backfire on him regarding Nariko.. the plot was your basic good vs evil storyline with a mystical artifact but the gameplay was very excellent and the over the top acting from Serkis is hilarious. I would say to buy the game to experience the best boss battle ever, really good use of the SIXAXIS controller when controlling Nariko's friend (she shoots arrows and the arrows are controlled with the SIXAXIS), and a great cast of villains especially King Bohan who is Serkis.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008 Video Game)

Good but completely overshadowed by MK9

[8/10 · 26 July 2011]

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe- 2008 At least they tried to incorporate some cinematic exchanges between the 2 universes, where as Marvel vs Capcom never did, albeit a poor story. The story is that both Superman and Raiden messed up with their following villains and these 2 merged creating a new creature that merged the realms. The merging of the realms creates the new gaming mechanic, Rage, which is a plot device for characters to start fighting and gives the excuse for the Rage meter. The gameplay is classic Mortal Kombat with some sidestepping, but unlike Soul Calibur the sidestepping in MK vs DC is slow, so almost no one uses it. The fatalities are more like special moves, nothing really special, but do not hurt the game since the main attraction is the fighting mechanics. More characters could have been welcome, especially since some DLC was planned for this game before Midway got absorbed by WB Games and Netherrealm Studios took over Mortal Kombat. DLC characters such as Quan-Chi and Harley Quinn were prospects but later discarded. The game overall is OK, and was the Mortal Kombat that you wanted to play before MK9, but now compared to that game you are better off playing the best fighting game ever made, MK9! Touching upon the Free Fall, Klose Kombat, and Rage Meter gameplay mechanics, the previous 2 get old real fast since it's just guess work, although Klose Kombat is kind of fun to guess but is countered too easily before it starts and the Rage is too easily avoided since the opponent only needs to block downward like a coward or keep jumping away like a grasshopper until the Rage wears down. I'd say buy only if you are a hardcore Mortal Kombat fan for your collection and can look past the Fatalities, since there are none here is rated T, or give it a rent. As a side note, the Fatalities are present, but they are so toned town they come off as special moves instead and some are even censored (Deathstroke and Joker). The UK uncensored versions are not that great either by the way.

Soulcalibur IV (2008 Video Game)

One of the Best Fighting Games of All Time

[10/10 · 26 July 2011]

Soul Calibur IV- 2008 In terms of story, the main focus here is redemption for almost all of the characters, some seek revenge, and others seek retribution or pure power by obtaining Soul Edge or by destroying it. Overall, the stories are purely individual; the majority of the time they do not link or in the case of Raphael and Amy is just lazy to repeat the same ending. I would have liked to see more character interactions besides everyone interacting with just 3 characters. The characters were Algol, Nightmare, and Siegfried, the latter who used to be 1 character in previous installments and is mainly Algol and Nightmare. In terms of my favorite ending, that has to be Nightmare's, not because of his simple dark motivation, but because of the epic choir that accompanies Siegfried's death by Nightmare, is just pure epic! Now, in terms of gameplay, the game is flawless, and it would be the best fighting game ever made, if not for Mortal Kombat- 2011. The fighting mechanic is balanced in a way that any novice can pick it up and have a chance, if at least a slim chance, against an expert with the different weapons available for each character, their different throws, the possibilities of Ring-Outs, or Soul Breaks if a character blocks too much. The music is orchestrated beautifully, the character creator is very detailed in customizations, even equipped with endings for the custom characters, too bad those aren't customizable, and there are only 3. Those are for Good character, Evil Character, or Neutral Character, but the fact that they get a cinematic was a welcome surprise. My best characters, I always have at least 2 in fighting games are Vader and Siegfried, the latter being my best. Challenges are always welcome, my PSN name is super4537 and my overall review is that this game is definitely worth buying.

BioShock (2007 Video Game)

Welcome to Rapture

[10/10 · 26 July 2011]

Bioshock- 2007 From the first time the player, Jack, lays eyes on the lost city of Rapture, immersion occurs and a longing to survive from the crazy Splicers that inhabit the place. At first, only armed with an adjustable wrench is underwhelming and the plasmids help a bit but run out too quickly. Once you get the pistol, then semi, then shotgun, especially the shotgun, you are ready to kill anyone who gets in your way! The plasmids lasts longer once you get some physical tonics to help you waste less Eve and the game never ceases to challenge you with a barrage of different Splicers coming at you or Spider Splicers. Big Daddies are fun to hunt for to gather the Little Sisters. Hacking is very useful and it is gratifying to see your hacked bots and cameras; however, it does become very tedious to have to do that tube mini game to accomplish the hacking, which is corrected in the sequel with the fast paced needle game and in real time, making it tense. Now, in terms of story, the main character is pretty much a nobody, which is addressed near the end as the villain berates him for being a puppet, meaning that he did everything that was asked of him, which is a wonderful way of breaking the 4th wall, addressing the player for following his instructions. Now the player can redeem him or herself by going on a revenge spree whether they were good to the Little Sisters or not, is now a personal story. Overall, I love the Dystopian-Steampunk late 40s setting, since this combines the happiest time in America with a very grim setting. It's a very nice juxtaposition; try shooting some very angry Splicers to the tune of Beyond the Sea, pure genius! This game is definitely worth buying and its sequel which is severely underrated, long live Rapture and soon Columbia!

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

I'm The Juggernaut Bitch!

[8 June 2011]

X-Men The Last Stand- 2006 The movie picks up with a Xavier and Magneto visiting a young Jean Grey which contradicts not only First Class which I can understand, but its own movie as well. Magneto states that he hopes that they don't have to visit every mutant to which Xavier replies that Jean is the exception. Later in the movie when everyone is mourning him, Kitty tells Iceman that she got visited by Xavier to which he replies that they all did contradicting the opening scene! Then we move on to a mourning Cyclops after a very lackluster training simulation to which even Wolverine seems bored where he is literally walking. Magneto, Pyro now third in command next to Mystique, and Mystique rescue some mutants to invade Alcatraz to stop the mutant who takes away the powers. This scene and the recruiting scene have some wannabe unlikeable mutants, except Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut who we'll touch upon later, so the recruiting scenes are only fun because of Pyro and Magneto who barely get enough screen time, it's mostly Magneto trying to find the Phoenix. The Phoenix is pretty epic and also Xavier's death is very emotional thanks to a very great score to accompany this scene and the initial reaction of Magneto and the later reaction of Storm and Wolverine. Reason I say initial reaction is because after Xavier's death, Magneto pretty much goes out of character and pulls a "Oh, well, Xavier's dead, let's go my darling" not verbatim, but he might as well said that. The scenes with Phoenix were very pointless and although they looked cool when she was getting angry, that's all it was; a cool visual that would be better suited for a tech reel demo or a painting, if you pause these scenes you appreciate them more. Now to touch on the elephant on the room for this movie, I'm sorry but after "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch" how can the Rattner expect us to take this movie seriously when all I'm thinking during the final scene that follows are stupid dubs that will go over everyone since he included that line, he might as well put "Pimp Smack, Bitch" when Wolverine was getting torn apart by Phoenix. Also, the Pyro and Iceman battle was extremely anti-climactic when you expect a long awaited battle, the audience gets a Dragon Ball Z battle of the Kame-Hame-Has with Iceman ending with a pun about staying in school, very lame indeed. Overall, seriously after I'm The Juggernaut Bitch, this movie is a disaster, maybe rent it for the nice looking effects, Storm is bad-ass in this movie so that's good, and perfect casting when it came to Beast, too bad he was barely in the movie.

X2 (2003)

Good Sequel but Missed Opportunities

[8 June 2011]

X2 X-Men United- 2003 Opening with one of the best introduction to X-Men universe of any movie, this movie starts out with a bang. The Nightcrawler invasion itself could be a short movie on its own, accompanied by Mozart's Requiem and the best interpretation of the character in all of his glory. The movie starts out by locating this mutant to isolate the human's retribution towards the attack, but it turns out to be a greater scheme regarding Wolverine's past and Magneto's true mirror in terms of intentions. This allows the movie to have 2 villains with different motives and not necessarily aligned with one another, making the film more interesting. Magneto and Xavier are not as prominent as the previous film, but just as powerful such as the scene where Xavier can notice that something is wrong with his friend just by looking at him. Nightcrawler has a romantic angle with Storm that is somewhat believable; Mystique has more action-spy scenes but missed opportunities with the relationships they could have played with Mystique and Nightcrawler. Lady Deathstrike serves as a good action scene where she fights Wolverine, but again she has zero character development, since she is under Jason's mind control and you truly feel sorry for her when she gets the Adamantium overdose. Pyro is a great character but severely underused and instead we have to endure the dull Rogue and Iceman who are even more boring and useless than the previous movie, especially Rogue since she no longer has that relationship with Wolverine that she had in the previous film. In the film's greatest defense; however, the overall story with Jason, Striker's mutant son who is an illusionist, to use Xavier to kill all of the mutants is downright genius, especially when Magneto uses it to his own advantage. Wolverine's berserker mode is also a treat in the movie during the mansion invasion. Looking back at these movies, X-Men and this sequel along with First Class, X2 has the bigger and more interesting scheme and more interesting villains but it also has too many missed opportunities regarding Mystique, Lady Deathstrike, Pyro, and Cyclops who are completely shafted in the film. In the case of Mystique, I refer to the opportunities the filmmakers could have included with Nightcrawler. The film also has one of the dumbest lines along with the toad electrocuted line from the first one and that is "Have you tried not being a mutant?" This is the equivalent of asking a dog "Have you tried not being a dog?" is the same logic and it comes off as silly in what is supposed to be a dramatic scene. Overall, the movie is better than its predecessor besides its missed opportunities since the villains are so enthralling and the plot is more dangerous and bigger in scope.

X-Men (2000)

Good movie especially after seeing First Class

[8 June 2011]

X-Men- 2000 The movie that treated the comic book properties seriously still stands the test of time and it is comparable and matches perfectly with the recent X-Men First Class. Starting with the powerful introductory scene with Erik Lensher being forcefully introduced to his power in the form of anguish and pain that is comparable to any emotional scene from The Pianist or Schindler's List, this is a very good start. Logan and Rogue's relationship carries the movie because of their similarities of being outcasts and very good performance on both of their part when they are together. However, Paquin does come off a little dry when she is without her co-star Jackman though, but this is just nitpicking. The score is excellent and dramatic when it needs to be, especially at Magneto's defeat, pure epicness. Logan and Scott's bantering is hilarious with humor that is subtle but always hilarious. I personally criticized the film by stating that powerful characters such as Storm or Jean should never be intimidated by a weak mutant like Toad, but seeing it with closer examination, it makes sense how he caught them by surprise and Storm looks completely bad-ass when she rises out of the elevator, granted she does state one of the worst lines in movie history to Toad being "What happens to a toad when he gets struck by lightning"? "The same thing that happens to everything else" Ridiculous and unnecessary, also it kills off the climax of seeing Storm at her peak. Charles and Erik feel like they have been friends for a long time and have genuine respect for one another and the scene at the end in the plastic prison summarizes their rivalry by comparing their battles to a chess match between old friends. This is especially resonant if you have seen X-Men First Class, as this film perfectly matches the friendship between the two as McAvoy and Fassbender were as powerful as Stewart and McKellen. Overall, the movie is definitely worth buying and is a nice companion to First Class to which they tied it nicely to this movie. Another flaw that has to be pointed out is the fact that Magneto does not seem to have that powerful essence when he used his power since he was not being as menacing when he controlled the guns for instance, he just stood there and bantered with Xavier for a while. Probably because I could not help but compare him to Fassbender in X-Men First Class who completely dominated that movie as Magneto, so I'm going to have to say that McKellen makes a better Magneto when he is planning or more of a behind the scenes villain, especially when he is with Xavier and they feel as if they have a history.

X: First Class (2011)

The Definitive X-Men Movie

[9/10 · 6 June 2011]

X-Men First Class- 2011 Review

This is the definitive X-Men movie without a doubt, somehow resembling the action of the animated feature Hulk VS Wolverine in a live action form, which only X2 came close before but not as close as this one. By adding the Cuba Missile Crisis into the plot and radiation which eradicates humans but will increase mutation is a most excellent idea that makes perfect sense within this universe. The revenge scheme of Magneto throughout the movie is handled very personally along with Xavier caring about other mutants, and very creative ways of showing off the powers of every single one of the characters especially Magneto and Xavier. The humor gives the characters to interact with one another and the audience to catch up on the uniqueness of the different powers and the origins of the mutant names is an excellent addition. Many reviewers have agreed that this is the Vader path to the dark side story and I agree, this is how Lucas should have handled the prequel story with Anakin. By the end of the movie, even if the audience knew that Erik was Magneto and the bad guy of the Brotherhood, emotion was felt when he turned to the dark side and you felt the grief that Xavier went through by losing his friend. Every single character's motivations were understandable and the audience could literally side with anyone in the film, be it the Hellfire Club led by Shaw with intentions very similar to Magneto, Magneto's revenge scheme, Xavier's interest in other mutants, the new recruits and Mystique's longing for acceptance and how they go about it, either eradicating all humans with extreme prejudice or longing to achieve a peace with them. This is where the friendship between Erik and Xavier splits and the movie has a villain which very easily could be the protagonist if told from his point of view and that is how it is done! By eliminating the black and white dynamic and making it more gray to a point where the hero could be the villain or the villain could be the hero, depending on the point of view from which is seen. Not to mention, the humans went insane at the end and truly showed the destructive capabilities and for lack of a better word, bad-assness of the humans when they are to the brink of pure fear with facing something unknown and powerful. The cameos from the first movie were a nice touch as well, on another subject and finishing this review, this movie is a masterpiece and the perfect X-Men movie.