Yes, I know what you're thinking. Another Dreamworks movie. But I was intrigued when I saw the theatrical poster, and that many people gave it critical acclaim, and that Kristin Wiig played a minor roll. May I note here that I happen to love Kritin Wiig, so I thought I would check it out.
In an amazing display of picture quality and sound, we are introduced to Hiccup, the odd one out in his village of killing dragons. (Shocker, another outcast!) He manages to shoot down the rarest dragon of all, and in something out of Free Willy, can't bring himself to kill it. 10 seconds later, he frees the beast, it attempts to fly away, but has a broken wing. The rest of the movie is a collaboration between the relationship between himself and this new found dragon, his tomboy crush, his classmates, the rest of the dragons, and his father.
Hiccup then builds the dragon a new wing, but has to control it from the dragon's back. Soon a friendship was built in a pokemon-esque flying montage, all the while keeping it a secret from his village. Hiccup finds that this new found friendship comes with benefits, as when he is training his dragon, called Toothless, he finds that all dragons have the same likes and dislikes, and uses it against the dragons he faces in "Dragon Training": a class he was forced to take on killing dragons.
Phew, If I could say dragon anymore, I would.
Long Story short, Hiccup and friends find out that the dragons are not as heartless as they originally thought, and befriend them. The movie ends on a chipper note with Hiccup being praised for all of his work in the field of Zoology.
Overall, the visuals were stunning, (Like, PS3 cut scene beautiful) and the soundtrack makes the Philadelphia Harmonic sound like the music from Castlevania Legacy of Darkness (*shudder*)
Ah the score. Hm, I give it an 8.2/10 for overall presentation.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Alpha and Omega Review
Dreamworks has had it's share of awful movies in the past, namely titles like "Flushed Away" and
"How to Train Your Dragon" but seeing their newest film, "Alpha and Omega" made me see them in a new light. Is this new image good? Let's find out.
Firstly, the plot. The movie centers around 2 wolves being taken from their pack in order to repopulate the species. As you can guess, the rest of the movie has that cliche romantic comedy feel with the overused "Cross country trip" setting.
Though, might I add, Dreamworks seemed to have ripped bits and pieces of famous movies and added it into their own, down to completely copying the stampede scene from the Lion King. No joke, it's exactly the same.
One theme I sensed from this whole thing was feminine rights. In the movie, a certain female wolf is named the "Alpha" or basically up and coming leader to the throne, and demonstrates her Bruce Lee- like reflexes many times.
Now into the specifics: I should not here that since it is a children's movie, I won't bash on it's horrible jokes and unappealing gags. First and foremost: Hayden Pannetiere's voice acting was horrible, which I don't get at all. She was flawless as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, so why was she so horrible? Oh yeah, because she complained throughout the entire movie.
Some parts were also horribly scripted. We get introduced 2 female vegetarian wolves in the beginning of the movie, and don't see them at all throughout the entire thing. What was the point? Did they serve any purpose? Your guess is as good as mine.
But I shouldn't just state the bad aspects of the movie. Throughout the course of the film, the music was great, Justin Long's voice acting was likable, and there weren't any really slow parts. The Overall character design was great, especially for the supporting cast.
One character I really liked was one of the mothers in the movie. She's a docile, Super Christian mother who turns into Chaos from Final Fantasy whenever someone crosses her.
Overall I give it a 6.3. If you want to see how many sex references Dreamworks can fit in a movie under the radar of the Moms of America, go and see this. (My count was 14)
-Thanks to Vin for all the help
"How to Train Your Dragon" but seeing their newest film, "Alpha and Omega" made me see them in a new light. Is this new image good? Let's find out.
Firstly, the plot. The movie centers around 2 wolves being taken from their pack in order to repopulate the species. As you can guess, the rest of the movie has that cliche romantic comedy feel with the overused "Cross country trip" setting.
Though, might I add, Dreamworks seemed to have ripped bits and pieces of famous movies and added it into their own, down to completely copying the stampede scene from the Lion King. No joke, it's exactly the same.
One theme I sensed from this whole thing was feminine rights. In the movie, a certain female wolf is named the "Alpha" or basically up and coming leader to the throne, and demonstrates her Bruce Lee- like reflexes many times.
Now into the specifics: I should not here that since it is a children's movie, I won't bash on it's horrible jokes and unappealing gags. First and foremost: Hayden Pannetiere's voice acting was horrible, which I don't get at all. She was flawless as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, so why was she so horrible? Oh yeah, because she complained throughout the entire movie.
Some parts were also horribly scripted. We get introduced 2 female vegetarian wolves in the beginning of the movie, and don't see them at all throughout the entire thing. What was the point? Did they serve any purpose? Your guess is as good as mine.
But I shouldn't just state the bad aspects of the movie. Throughout the course of the film, the music was great, Justin Long's voice acting was likable, and there weren't any really slow parts. The Overall character design was great, especially for the supporting cast.
One character I really liked was one of the mothers in the movie. She's a docile, Super Christian mother who turns into Chaos from Final Fantasy whenever someone crosses her.
Overall I give it a 6.3. If you want to see how many sex references Dreamworks can fit in a movie under the radar of the Moms of America, go and see this. (My count was 14)
-Thanks to Vin for all the help
Monday, September 13, 2010
Dante's Inferno Review
I recently had the extreme displeasure of reviewing what might be the biggest rip-off of a great game ever. Of course I'm talking about EA's Dante's Inferno. From front to back this game took Sony's God of War and butchered it to a fraction of what it once was.
The plot isn't bad, it tells the story of Dante, a knight with a shady past, who fights mythical beasts in an attempt to save his girlfriend. (Where have we heard this before? *cough*godofwar*cough*)
For a psp game, it isn't bad. Actually compared to most psp games I've come across, it's pretty well designed. But the only thing that kills the game is the complete and utter copying EA did off of Sony's masterpiece.
I did a side by side comparison and found that not only are details and plot points almost identical, but the button layout is, not kidding, exactly the same. That's right.
Also, just a minor complaint, but the enemy selection in this game was pretty horrid. I get it that the game is about Christianity, and not the Greek Gods, but seriuosly, you have to fight basicly regular people. And babies. You heard me. Babies.
Although I shouldn't give it the complete shoop-da-wooping of a lifetime. It did have some impressive animation, and you do get Death's scythe to smack around demon's with.
If it wasn't a rip-off of God of War, I may have given it a higher rating. Overall I give it a 5/10. It's kind of enternaining, but it just makes you want to play as Kratos.
The plot isn't bad, it tells the story of Dante, a knight with a shady past, who fights mythical beasts in an attempt to save his girlfriend. (Where have we heard this before? *cough*godofwar*cough*)
For a psp game, it isn't bad. Actually compared to most psp games I've come across, it's pretty well designed. But the only thing that kills the game is the complete and utter copying EA did off of Sony's masterpiece.
I did a side by side comparison and found that not only are details and plot points almost identical, but the button layout is, not kidding, exactly the same. That's right.
Also, just a minor complaint, but the enemy selection in this game was pretty horrid. I get it that the game is about Christianity, and not the Greek Gods, but seriuosly, you have to fight basicly regular people. And babies. You heard me. Babies.
Although I shouldn't give it the complete shoop-da-wooping of a lifetime. It did have some impressive animation, and you do get Death's scythe to smack around demon's with.
If it wasn't a rip-off of God of War, I may have given it a higher rating. Overall I give it a 5/10. It's kind of enternaining, but it just makes you want to play as Kratos.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Review
Many of us nerds have longed for the fabled, "Good Video Game Movie." After many catastrophic failures such as the Super Mario Bros. Movie, or any non-animated Street Fighter movie, the movie industry finally came to a conclusion that you cant make a good video game movie without CG or some kind of animation. Final Fantasy: Advent Children is a prime example of this, (though I did think that film was a little too realistic, and extremely confusing, to say the least.) After all, How can you condense 40 hours of Awesomeness into a 2 hour movie?
Scott Pilgrim did just that. Based off of the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" tells the story of Scott, played by Micheal Cera (Shocker, Micheal Cera in another indie movie!) who must fight love of his life's evil ex's to win her heart.
Micheal does a great job at portraying the awkward, lost, video game fanatic, and the the supporting cast did an awesome job too.
The effects personally blew my mind. From the climactic battle scenes, to even the small bits, the effects stayed true all the way through.
Many of these effects included music and sound effects from real video games, making this, a true "Video Game Movie"
My personal favorite part of the film is Scott's second encounter with Roxy, one of the Evil Ex's. Some of the lines are a little corny, but the efffects are amazing. Shattered glass makes for a cool reflection effect, and Roxy's weapon, some kind of potinted belt thing, reminiscent of Gogo Yaburi from Kill Bill with her meteor hammer.
Overall, i thought it was an amazing film.
My rating: 9/10
Scott Pilgrim did just that. Based off of the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" tells the story of Scott, played by Micheal Cera (Shocker, Micheal Cera in another indie movie!) who must fight love of his life's evil ex's to win her heart.
Micheal does a great job at portraying the awkward, lost, video game fanatic, and the the supporting cast did an awesome job too.
The effects personally blew my mind. From the climactic battle scenes, to even the small bits, the effects stayed true all the way through.
Many of these effects included music and sound effects from real video games, making this, a true "Video Game Movie"
My personal favorite part of the film is Scott's second encounter with Roxy, one of the Evil Ex's. Some of the lines are a little corny, but the efffects are amazing. Shattered glass makes for a cool reflection effect, and Roxy's weapon, some kind of potinted belt thing, reminiscent of Gogo Yaburi from Kill Bill with her meteor hammer.
Overall, i thought it was an amazing film.
My rating: 9/10
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Dispicable Me Review
Recently I watched, Despicable Me, an animated movie. If you're not familiar with it, (but who isn't: there were about a million commercials for it) Steve Carrell voices a stereotypical villian with henchmen, a scientist, and a horrible accent to boot. The plot surrounds his scheme to use 3 little girls, (yes i said use) from an orphanage, to steal a weapon from one of the most disappointing arch-enemies I've ever seen. Yes, I know this is a family flick, supposedly ripe with comedy, but let me tell you, I smiled twice throughout the entire movie.
Most of the comedy was slapstick (which I appreciate when it's good) and stupid humor. I know I'm acting like a jerk about a kid's movie, but since when are hip- thrusts, so bloody hilarious?
I may note here, that the orphanage caretaker is an EXACT COPY of the main antagonist from Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, right down to the pink sweater.
My rating? 3/10
If you have kids, go ahead, but it's like watching a rock for 2 hours.
Most of the comedy was slapstick (which I appreciate when it's good) and stupid humor. I know I'm acting like a jerk about a kid's movie, but since when are hip- thrusts, so bloody hilarious?
I may note here, that the orphanage caretaker is an EXACT COPY of the main antagonist from Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, right down to the pink sweater.
My rating? 3/10
If you have kids, go ahead, but it's like watching a rock for 2 hours.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Unanswered Pokemon Questions
Me, listing many of the unanswered questions in Pokemon. And yes, i did rip this idea off of Jeff Ruben of Collegehumor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-98Yb9iec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-98Yb9iec
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Left 4 Awesome
I know I'm horribly late on this, but I finally started playing Left 4 Dead. And its so amazingly rad, that only Lucas from The Wizard can tell you how awesome it is.
Usually I'm absolutely abysmal at first person shooters, but it turns out that's because I couldn't care less what happened during WW2 . This game has to be one of Valve's best work.
The architecture and even the small details are stunning. Each level is chilling in it's own way, and the zombie placement is genius. The voice actors did an excellent job of mixing fear with intensity. The range of characters are great too, but I'm pretty sure Valve wanted Zoey to be a guy, but didn't want people calling the politically incorrect card.
The music is pretty great too, and the range of enemies just tie the game together.
I only have 3 complaints:
1. The game is too short. This seems to be a recurring theme in Valve's games, like for example Portal.
2. One odd thing that struck me was that every level is set as a movie. I didn't see the purpose, other than the cinematic ending sequence.
3.The online is pretty spotty with a lot of lag, but you can expect that with any online game.
Overall I give it a 9/10, and if you haven't checked out this amazing game, then you should.
Usually I'm absolutely abysmal at first person shooters, but it turns out that's because I couldn't care less what happened during WW2 . This game has to be one of Valve's best work.
The architecture and even the small details are stunning. Each level is chilling in it's own way, and the zombie placement is genius. The voice actors did an excellent job of mixing fear with intensity. The range of characters are great too, but I'm pretty sure Valve wanted Zoey to be a guy, but didn't want people calling the politically incorrect card.
The music is pretty great too, and the range of enemies just tie the game together.
I only have 3 complaints:
1. The game is too short. This seems to be a recurring theme in Valve's games, like for example Portal.
2. One odd thing that struck me was that every level is set as a movie. I didn't see the purpose, other than the cinematic ending sequence.
3.The online is pretty spotty with a lot of lag, but you can expect that with any online game.
Overall I give it a 9/10, and if you haven't checked out this amazing game, then you should.
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