Tag: Reviews

Review Roundup: Call Of Duty: Ghosts

It is finally here FPS fans. Your yearly crack has arrived. Today sees the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts that is handled by the team at Infinity Ward this year. Now I know this may surprise a lot of you but there is actually a story mode to this game. Who knows if it is good or not? Let’s find out what the reviews are saying about this year’s version.

Will we be reviewing it? Gladly. When someone sends us a copy of it to be reviewed otherwise enjoy these reviews!

IGN– 8.8/10

Single Player- “But like previous CoDs, the story of Ghosts struggles to remain in focus amidst the fray of explosive cinematic moments and relentless firefights. Narrated loading sequences with stylized story animations push the campaign forward, but only last for one or two minutes before launching back into the action. It’s there, on the front lines, that much of the plot progression is presented and oftentimes lost.”

Multiplayer- “Ghosts presents an array of alternative routes, making team play far more effective than traditional run-and-gun strategy – in fact, running around these large maps gets lonely and boring. Traditional lone wolf-style play also throws a wrench in the spawn system, making enemies often appear nearby without warning. Playing in a well-coordinated group is more gratifying than ever, but more casual solo games can be frustrating.”

Kotaku– Not Yet

Single Player- “It’s funny—playing through the initial section of scripted events where you run through your under-attack town, all I could think was, wow. This isn’t nearly as well-paced, or as deliberate as say, the start of The Last of Us—where everything seems so tight and considered that you forget the game is just mostly making you walk forward while stuff (like explosions, crashes, deaths) happen around you.”

Multiplayer- “Playing still feels tense, and this tension is sometimes punctuated by the sudden high of kills. You’ll still live or die by your reflexes. The customization options are still robust (moreso than before, actually), and the number of things you can level and earn experience points for is dizzying.”

Gamespot– 8/10

Single Player- “The whole thing feels like a geopolitical Mad Lib, but a functional and rather harmless one. Ghosts delivers just enough narrative to serve as a catalyst for its whirlwind tour through global warzones, while resisting the urge to club you over the head with plot twists and gratuitous shock-and-awe moments.”

Multiplayer- “A more familiar experience can be found in Ghosts’ competitive multiplayer. The frantic pacing and close-quarters encounters are every bit as enjoyable as they’ve ever been, augmented by contextual lean and running slide abilities that make for more fluid transitions in and out of cover. Infinity Ward has taken a delicate approach to the existing multiplayer progression, though a new perk weighting system promotes better player balance while still giving you plenty of ways to micromanage your loadouts.”

Polygon– 6.5/10

Single Player- “With the end of the Modern Warfare series in 2011 and the dawn of a new console generation on the horizon, Ghosts could start from scratch, with no backstory to hold it back. A new storyline and new characters in a new setting seemed like a great opportunity. That freedom nonetheless results in one of the sloppiest storylines in Call of Duty history.”

Multiplayer- “Call of Duty: Ghosts too often feels like a me-too product, never breaking entirely new ground. Meanwhile, Infinity Ward has stripped out some much-loved features from Black Ops 2, including League Play, replay recording and player-created emblems.”

Destructoid– 5/10

Single Player- “The campaign isn’t exactly bad, but it is a banal shooting gallery without the remarkable setpieces or memorable moments to carry it. Very much a COD-by-numbers affair, players quickly blitz through the usual tasks with dutiful obligation.”

Multiplayer- “While there are some new toys to play with, and you can even customize the look of your character (as well as play as a woman, finally), the core experience feels like business as usual, moreso since we’ve lost the near-future gadgets found in 2012’s installment.”

Game Informer– 8/10

Single Player- “As stupid as the story is, I found myself enjoying it for exactly that reason. This is a big, dumb action game, and it makes no attempt to be more than that. Instead of the convoluted techno-babble of the Modern Warfare series, Ghosts’ campaign is simply about blowing up everything you see in progressively bigger ways. It’s short and wastes no time with character development, opting instead to shuttle you along to the next exploding satellite station or chaotic chase scene.”

Multiplayer- “Grind mixes Halo’s Headhunter mode with Call of Duty’s own Kill Confirmed match type, and it results in some tense moments as you struggle to return dog tags before you’re killed. Blitz is fast-paced and fun, tasking players with sprinting into a designated scoring zone before enemies stop them with a hail of gunfire. Search and Rescue is a smart variant of a series favorite, and gives players hope to return after being eliminated. These new match types can be a lot of fun, but the only thing that feels different is the method of scoring.”

By the look of it some people are hitting the wall when it comes to Call of Duty. It will still sell millions of copies but the reviews are showing a downward trend and will sales be next in the next few years?

November 5, 2013
Review: Gravity

Photo courtesy thestarpress.com

Space is as beautiful as it is frightening. It has enamored man since we were chiseling wheels out of stone. Select few have gotten to fly among the stars and there have been many movies made about those adventures like The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. I am here to say that Alfonso Cuaròn’s Gravity has set a new standard for the genre. It will take you into unimaginable despair, palpable tension and a sense of hope, all set against one of the most beautiful backdrops ever put to film.

And it does so in 90 minutes.

*Minor Spoilers Ahead*

When Gravity opens we are greeted with a breathtaking view of Earth. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is having a hard time keeping her lunch down as she works on the Hubble telescope during her first space mission. The counterpoint to Stone is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), who is a veteran astronaut on his final mission into the stars. As Stone upgrades the telescope, Kowalski is having fun testing a new thruster pack while listening to country music and regaling Houston with his many stories of different women who have broken his heart. He begins each story with “Houston, I have a bad feeling about this mission” and as a bit of history embedded in the movie, Cuarón has Ed Harris voicing the Houston end of communication.

As repairs continue Houston warns the team of a Russian anti-satellite test that has gone wrong and has created a debris field that is growing larger as it takes out more satellites (think The Perfect Storm, just with satellite parts). Stone and Kowalski are unable to take cover in time and are separated. As Stone spins out of control, helpless, Kowalski uses his jetpack to reach her and tether them together. Their shuttle being completely rendered useless, Kowalski decides to try and get them to the International Space Station and use an escape pod to reach Earth.

Do not be fooled into thinking this is simply “Cast Away in Space”. There is no space volleyball. Clooney is a prime player and the voice of calm and reason for much longer than you think. But when this becomes Bullock’s film, she absolutely owns every minute of it. I always wondered why she won an Oscar for The Blind Side, but I have to say now that if she is not nominated again and a serious contender to win, there is something wrong in Hollywood. She takes you through a gamut of emotions that can rarely be matched. She runs through the five steps of (space) grief, albeit not in the usual order. I so much want to tell you more about the latter half of the film but can not in good conscience do that, needless to say that Bullock is a marvel to watch.

Photo courtesy 233prime.com

I am not a big fan of 3D movies, especially these days with all the post-produced effects as a money grab. I watched Gravity in IMAX 3D and was infinitely happy I did. It is the best use of the format since Avatar (I am not comparing the movies, mind you, just the use of 3D). More than once my jaw was agape at the immense depth of view when you were surrounded by nothing but stars. I flinched once during one particular scene involving the debris field, which comes along more than once. The use of practical effects and CGI are truly amazing.

Alfonso Cuarón was already one of my favorite directors having done Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and one of my favorite films ever, Children of Men. He has hit new heights with Gravity in ways I never thought possible. For people like me that grew up staring into the stars and wondering what it would be like to float among them, he has given one of the most realistic looks at what it is like. The child in me wants to thank him for the wonder and the adult me wants to praise him for the technical and emotional ride that he has crafted.

Gravity is an achievement that should not be missed. It is my favorite movie of the year, by far.

It is the reason why we go to movies.

NERD RATING- 9.5/10

October 8, 2013
Review: The World’s End

Photo courtesy totalfilm.com

Well, here we are. Nine years after Shaun of the Dead was released and somehow, inexplicably, went from a cult following to required watching for any comedy or zombie buff, we come to the The World’s End. The third film from the trio of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright and while it may not have as many laugh out loud moments as Shaun or 2007’s Hot Fuzz, it is certainly the most heartfelt and emotional of the three films, which is something I was not expecting, but was completely glad I got it.

Simon Pegg leads the way again as Gary King,a man approaching 40 who has never gotten past the good times of drinking and drugs that were the staples of his youth. He decides that he should get his old school mates back together and attempt The Golden Mile, a pub crawl in their hometown of Newton Haven consisting of twelve pubs that they never finished in their youth.

Ready? Here we go: The First Post, The Old Familiar, The Famous Cock, The Cross Hands, The Good Companions, The Trusty Servant, The Two Headed Dog, The Mermaid, The Beehive, The King’s Head, The Hole in the Wall, The World’s End.

That’s a lot of liquor.

Gary sets off to get his old mates back together and finds their lives exactly what he has always tried to avoid. Peter (Eddie Marsan) has never gotten past being bullied in his youth and is a car saleman at his father’s lot, Oliver (Martin Freeman) is a yuppie real estate agent, Steven (Paddy Considine) is an architect and was and still is a rival for Oliver’s sister (Rosamund Pike) and Andrew (Nick Frost) is a lawyer and Gary’s former best friend before a giant falling out.

Through some manipulation and flat out lying, Gary convinces the four friends to return to Newton Haven and take on the pub crawl that bested them. The night starts out simple enough with Gary reliving the best part of his life while imbibing plenty of pints while the four friends wonder why they even agreed to tag along on the journey. When Gary’s lies begin to fall apart and the group decides to leave is where things go haywire in the form of alien robots (not robots) that have taken over the town for some (what the group thinks) nefarious reasons.

Gary’s plan is to stick to the pub crawl sensing that if they act normally the blue-blooded beings will let them leave, but that is not the case. The five friends make their way from pub to pub getting more and more drunk as they fight groups of killer robots while working through all of their problems with each other. That is where The World’s End feels different from Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. It is about life not giving you what you thought you should have and trying to revisit the best times of your life only to realize that it can never happen. We grow up, people change, situations alter our plans and life just…happens.

Where The World’s End may disappoint is that it is not as slapstick funny as the previous films in the trilogy. I am not saying that the movie is not funny, far from it, but you will not be leaving the theater with a host of quotable lines that you will instantly connect with the movie. There are plenty of laughs to be had especially when the action gets frantic and everyone is completely off the wagon, it just takes its time and does not skimp on the emotional center and I applaud Pegg, Frost and Wright for doing that.

All in all I have to say that The World’s End would be in third place when it comes to The Cornetto Trilogy with Hot Fuzz being first and Shaun in the middle. That in no way is a slight against the film because it is funny as hell in places and the cast is, once again, top notch with plenty of bit parts from Cornetto regulars and even Pierce Brosnan. The World’s End is a fitting end for the trilogy and will surprise you with the sentimental depth of the relationships.

Plus, you know, killer robots.

August 29, 2013
Review: We’re The Millers

Photo courtesy washingtonpost.com

We’re the Millers is about transformation. The characters transform both in appearance and attitude and as the film moves forward they begin to adopt the characteristics of their false personalities. Now you would think that from those first two sentences this is a deeper movie than you would expect. It really isn’t. It is a film full of dirty language, ginormous spider-bitten balls and Jennifer Aniston as a stripper. It is also one of the funniest movie of the year so far.

Jason Sudeikis plays David Clark, a drug dealer that is living the perfect lazy life until a group of thugs rob all of his stock and cash. His boss (Ed Helms) is none too pleased with this and makes a deal with David that he will travel to Mexico and pick up some pot and transport it back across the border. After a run-in with a group of New York tourists, David realizes that the easiest way to make it across the border and back is to look like the prototypical all-American family.

He recruits his stripper neighbor (Aniston), who is on her last leg and being evicted from her apartment to play his wife, a homeless gutter-punk (Emma Roberts) to be his daughter and Kenny (Will Poulter), a naive kid in his complex to play his son. Once they make their way to Mexico they find that the “smidge” of pot is, in actuality, 2 tons and has been neatly stacked in every crevice of their RV. The little hitch in the giddy-up is that David’s boss sent him to actually steal drugs out from under a Mexican drug lord and now they are being chased by the kingpin and his rather menacing 7-foot tall henchman. Along the way they meet up with another RV family, the Fitzgeralds. Don (Nick Offerman), Edie (Kathryn Hahn) and their daughter interweave themselves throughout the movie and provide some of the funniest banter along the way. They are a godsend during middle of the film when normally you would expect a lull in pacing or jokes because the back and forth between the families keep things moving until the plot picks back up.

Photo courtesy blackfilm.com

We’re the Millers does fall into a lot of the normal comedy trappings. The shy kid finds a girl he likes and before he can make a move she catches him making out with with his “mom” and “sister”. OK, maybe not the “normal” comedy trappings, but there are more than a few moments in the movie that we have seen in a hundred comedies before. The main characters fall for each other, the punk girl realizes that having a family is what she actually wants, etc. Luckily this does not trip up the movie. When the jokes are perfectly placed and the delivery is spot on it can overcome the normality of the plot.

When it comes down to it, We’re the Millers is funny. It is actually damn funny. It may not change your life like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but you will laugh heartily a lot. Where else will you get to see Eustace from The Chronicles of Narnia show off his giant spider venom filled ball sack, Ron Swanson finger bang someone’s ear and Jennifer Aniston strip to her undies and get wet like the scene in Flashdance?

Exactly.

August 12, 2013
Review: The Mongoliad: Book One

Photo courtesy lawrence.lib.ks.us

At some point in the past year or so, Beth* presented me with a paperback novel called The Mongoliad: Book One. She had gotten in on an Amazon sale for next to nothing; it caught her attention because she recognized Neal Stephenson’s name from other works on my bookshelf. I didn’t actually get around to reading it, largely because I am not a fan of starting trilogies without being able to finish them shortly thereafter.

I kept an eye on the release dates for the next two books, but the series kind of slipped my mind until I was going thru my Amazon wishlists a few months back and came across the fact that all three volumes had been released; there were also numerous Kindle-exclusive short stories that tied in to what was now called the “Foreworld Saga.” Furthermore, special hardcover editions of each Mongoliad book had been released which included an additional short story and illustrations by the amazing [amazon_link id=”1401238629″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Mike Grell[/amazon_link].

A little more digging revealed that the entire series is a kind of experiment in collaboration and multi-media storytelling started by Stephenson; he was displeased with the authenticity of his fight scenes in another series, and so wanted to team with other authors and martial arts enthusiasts to create a series with realistic melee combat and military engagements.

Beth was awesome enough to get me the hardcover editions as an anniversary present, on the condition that I actually start reading them and review them here on the site. I recently wrapped up the first volume, which was comprised of the main novel and a short story called “Sinner” that serves as a kind of prologue.

The story takes place in an alternate-history version of the 13th century, and the authors have done a great job of researching the time period before using it to their own ends: Between the crusades and infighting, most of Europe has been left open to potential invasion by the descendants of Genghis Khan, and dark forces work unseen to bring more chaos to the world. Christendom’s last hopes reside with the Ordo Militum Vindicis Intactae (Knights of the Virgin Defender) a brotherhood of warrior-scholars who embark on a suicide mission to stop the Mongol horde.

The story is told from the perspective of numerous dialogue characters, each one written by a different author, and spanning several sides of the conflict. In addition to members of the Order, there is the mysterious young woman serving as their guide; a Mongol warrior sent into the fray of the khans’ courts; the Chinese slave woman who has been assigned to teaching him politics; and two warriors assigned to fight against the Order in a tournament for one of the khans.

The story being told is not groundbreaking, but is full of enough adventure and intrigue to keep things rolling along. I wouldn’t say that I disliked any of the dialogue characters, but I definitely had my favorites, such as Gansukh, the “Mongol of the Steppes in a Khan’s Court.” The initial sense of frustration he feels at his situation results in a genuine payoff as he learns how to play the political games of the palace regulars. Unfortunately, my favorite character isn’t introduced until the third act, and only gets two dialogue sections before the book ends.

That storyline, like almost every major plot point, goes unresolved when the book just kind of ends before anything gets wrapped up. While I understand that this is a trilogy, it started as a serialized set of stories, and the ending is the only time that really created an issue for me. The final dialogue segments for most characters don’t even have the panache of a good cliffhanger; it just feels like the collaborators went “Well that’s a good spot to leave off at before the next book.” While I certainly understand not wanting to make the first volume too long just to wrap up a few loose ends, the third volume is massive compared to the first two; I can’t help but wonder if a better balance of material could have been struck.

I’d also like to point out that my genuine interest in all of the characters does not extend to all of the authors involved in creating them; none of the collaborators are bad writers, but there is a distinct lack of polish to some of the sections. There is also the issue of multiple writers presenting their own version of the same characters, and the resulting viewpoints don’t always match up. Fans of any franchise that has an “expanded universe” involving novels written by multiple authors will be in familiar territory. The novel doesn’t suffer too much overall, but it was annoying to see an interesting character from one section be presented blandly in another.

Characters and plot aside, no good crusade-era adventure story would be worth it without some action scenes, especially when the entire project was started out of one author’s desire to write better combat. I can confirm that the Mongoliad serves up plenty of sword, shield and spear action, but there’s a reason Bruce Lee’s movies had a bigger audience than his technical demonstrations. To the right reader, I’m sure the novel’s action scenes read fluidly and evoke a sense of appreciation; for me, the amount of time spent trying to figure out the descriptions destroyed any sense of tension or urgency in the fights. In many cases, the dialogue between characters is sharper than any of the swords they’re wielding, and often has higher stakes.

The last thing I’d like to address is the short story “Sinner” that takes place before the novel, which introduces us to the Order and sets the tone of the Foreworld universe for new readers. I have a strange complaint, in that I found this story to be more compelling than the rest of the book. Perhaps it benefits from being a shorter, more concise piece that was written by a single author; that doesn’t change the fact that I would have rather read an extended version of this than the novel I ended up with.

The short still involves the Order – two knights named Andreas and Raphael, who are characters that appear in the larger work – but it also contains a fair amount of supernatural elements as well. I was therefore surprised when the novel itself only hinted at fantastical happenings; perhaps the next two books will shed more light on the subject. We also get a better grasp of the characters involved than we do in the larger work, with the exception of possibly Gansukh. Until I read the next novel, “Sinner” remains the best part of this work, in my opinion.

*= the significant other

[amazon_link id=”1612182364″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Mongoliad: Book One can be purchased on Amazon for only $7.99[/amazon_link]

July 9, 2013
Review: State of Decay

Photo courtesy relyonhorror.com

I have been looking forward to State of Decay since last summer when Undead Labs announced the project for the Xbox Live Arcade. An open-world zombie survival game that lets me live out my dreams of a zombie apocalypse without all the…you know…death, destruction and general end of the world stuff? You could not sign me up quicker. But still, some hesitation remained. This was a twenty dollar XBLA title after all. There was a good chance that expectations could be run head first into a brick wall, but I am happy to say that State of Decay is easily one of the best deals you will ever find and one of the most fun times you can ever have with zombies…you know, if you’re looking for that kind of stuff.

The best way to describe State of Decay is “open-world zombie survival”. You will begin the game as a man called Marcus, but this is not a singular story. You will quickly learn that this is not a game with one protagonist. You will meet new characters throughout and have the ability to swap to them anytime during the game. As you and your rag tag band of survivors make shelter in a church you will learn that killing zombies is only a (fun as hell) portion. State of Decay is about as close as you will get to dealing with the minutia of day to day life in the zombie apocalypse. You need food, medicine, gas, weapons and so much more to survive and these items do not magically appear like manna from heaven. You must go out into the world and search.

You must go out and search through houses, gas stations, fast food restaurants, backwoods hillbilly homes and too much more to name to keep your group going. Each of your characters only have a finite amount of inventory space depending on what you left on your run with. Did you take two melee weapons in case one breaks while fighting off zombies? Did you remember some aspirin or morphine for a health boost? There will be times where you simply can not carry back what you need so you will have to make multiple trips or leave supplies behind. That is the beautiful thing about State of Decay. Like The Walking Dead (the comic or the show), there is a risk reward whenever you go outside the confines of your home base. You have to get supplies back to your group to keep the morale level up and help with your influence (of which both have actual value in the game) and all without trying to get eaten because if that happens….

Permadeath.

That’s right. The dreaded word only uttered in certain games. Now do not think that this means the end of the game. No, this simply means you will swap to another survivor in your group to continue on and fight, but I will tell you that nothing hurts worse than having a character that you have played with for hours on end and leveled up through multiple missions and close calls fall while trying to secure some meds for the group. Then you swap to another character that is still lingering around at level one that you don’t particularly like, but oh well, you gotta keep on going or the zombies win.

When you begin to get deep into State of Decay it can almost seem overwhelming and that is what the people at Undead Labs wanted you to feel. Not only do you have whatever character you are controlling at the time to worry about, but everyone in the group will have their own set of problems that you need to help out on. Members will go missing (to an annoying extent) and you will have to go and search for them. Leaving them out there means certain death and even though they were a dumbass for leaving you can not afford to lose anyone. You also have the ability to go out into the world and forge relationships with other groups of survivors and trade goods and services with them. At random times you will receive news that someone needs your assistance, but you may be already in the middle of a mission and must decide on the greater good. State of Decay will make you make choices. Get used to it.

Now sometimes it can’t all be doom and gloom. You need to let off some steam every now and then and I will tell you how I accomplish this. I take someone from my group that is a level one and don’t have any particular attachment to. Backpack them up with multiple melee weapons (lead pipe, machete, etc.) a host of molotovs and some health. Get in the truck and drive out for some “me” time. Just let loose and keep hacking at zombies until your weapons are depleted and no more health is left then get back to base mowing down every zombie I can find in my F-150 lookalike.

Side note: you can open your driver side door while driving and whack zombies at full speed. This can not be more satisfying and may end up being my top guilty pleasure moment this year in gaming.

Photo courtesy undeadlabs.com

State of Decay is not without some issues. This is not a triple-A beautiful game obviously. There is a ton of pop-up and clipping and general wonkiness when it comes to the graphics. When you weigh this against how much fun you are having for a twenty dollar game it is easily forgiven. Camera issues are prevalent especially inside houses when the action gets heavy and will lead to many “oh shit, jump out a window!” moments. Driving is serviceable at best. You can get where you need to go with ease, but don’t expect any kind of hairpin turning like you would get from Sleeping Dogs. The problems are really negligible and only are posted here for full disclosure. Nothing that I found lacking in the game took away from the huge amount of fun I was having trying to decide if I should let an infected group member stay in my camp or just invite them to “go for a walk” which in my world means “I will be lopping your head off with a giant knife”.

Don’t be fooled. For twenty bucks State of Decay is giving you all of your hopes and dreams of seeing if you could survive in the zombie apocalypse in one package. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get down the fact that you will have to make choices and can not complete every task put before you, there is an insane amount of entertainment to be derived from this game. Whether it is micro-managing the day to day activities of your base, to fortifying your defenses, making supply runs, gaining new allies or even just having a blast running over every zombie horde you see in the streets, State of Decay is easily the best value you will find on Xbox Live this year.

At the very least it will occupy your time until The Walking Dead returns.

NERD RATING- 8.5/10

June 28, 2013
Review: World War Z

Photo courtesy ew.com

If you keep up with any kind of movie news on a regular basis then you have at least heard some horror stories about the filming of World War Z. Brad Pitt’s production company gained the rights to the Max Brooks book in 2007 and quickly hired J. Michael Straczynski to bring the zombie apocalypse to the big screen. To make a long story short, Straczynski’s script was re-written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and filming began in 2011. The budget blew up way beyond the $125 million the studio handed out and production even ceased at one point. Damon Lindelof was brought on to rewrite the last third of the script, but due to scheduling conflicts could not, so his Lost co-scribe Drew Goddard finished it up and Brad Pitt and company went back in the fall of 2012 for seven weeks of reshoots.

With the film’s budget creeping near $200 million and press for the zombie flick not exactly on the positive side, one would easily write this off as another big budget disaster that a star could not escape, but a weird thing has occurred.

World War Z is actually entertaining.

Now I have not read Max Brooks’ novel, but I am dating a certified zombie lover and fan of his work so I did not go into this movie blind. The way World War Z is written does not lend itself to a movie narrative well so we get a singular story starring Pitt as former U.N. worker Gerry Lane. He has been out of work for three years and is a stay at home dad with a working wife. One day as they are stuck in Philadelphia traffic on the way to school all hell breaks loose. They narrowly escape the city and, using Gerry’s connections in the U.N., secure themselves a spot on an aircraft carrier.

Gerry is recruited to go out with a SEAL team to try and track down the genesis of the disease and by “recruited” I mean the government tells him he has to go or his family gets a one-way ticket back to the mainland. A dick move, for sure, but when you think about it, not that far-fetched for a government fighting against the end of the world. Gerry then begins a jet-setting adventure all over the world trying to discover what was the cause of the outbreak.

During these sections to South Korea and Israel, World War Z moves along at a brisk pace. It will feel a little “by the numbers”, but it did not distract me from the overall scope of the movie. Pitt is believable as the reformed family man who is trying to do his best to get back to his wife and kids while having the weight of the world on his shoulders. It won’t win any Oscars, but it is good for the material presented.

When the around the world trip stops is when you can tell Drew Goddard came on to help with the rewrites. If you did not know about all the production problems going into this then you will not pay this a second thought, but knowing made me get a distinctly different feel from the movie and the weird part is that it actually kind of works. World War Z goes from a quick pace to a tense, slow moving corridor explorer like Resident Evil (the game, not the movie). That is just one of the many things that confounds about this flick. This should not work! To completely change directions and stick the main star in a zombie filled lab instead of using the $12 million big battle in Moscow that was thrown away? Let’s just call it one of Hollywood’s great mysteries like, “why do people complain about Bane’s voice not knowing what an idiot he would have sounded like Mexican?” or “why were all the characters in The Last Airbender the wrong race?”.

I do wish World War Z would have upped the jump scare quotient and been a bit more gory. I will admit to having a small jump to begin the movie, but there were none to speak of after. Maybe that was because of the giant scope of the movie where zombies are seen in such great numbers that they do not hold the same scare as a one on one (or two or three) encounter in a confined space, which does happen in the final act of the movie as I said. As for the gore, don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for Saw levels of blood spillage here, or hell, even The Walking Dead but even for a PG-13 movie this is an almost bloodless affair.

When all is said and done, World War Z is a tale of everything going wrong in every way and ending up with the best possible results. This was a passion project for Pitt and while it may not be on par with a lot of the zombie fare that is saturating the market, it does have a big movie feel and is the very definition of a “popcorn flick”. Just go and have some fun with it…even though the world is ending.

NERD RATING- 7.5/ 10

June 24, 2013
“It was Only a Duck Pond”: The Ocean at the End of the Lane Review

Friday night, I picked up my copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, after which I was fortunate enough to be entertained by the author, Neil Gaiman, and then get my copy autographed. After getting off work yesterday afternoon, I sat down with nothing on my agenda except to enjoy this tale at my own pace. Even still, the reading didn’t take very long, partially because it’s not a very long book, and partially because it flows so well. Length notwithstanding, it left enough of an impact that I didn’t want to dive directly into my review; I wanted to spend a little more time letting my mind wander around the novel’s world, and get a better sense of it all.

According to Mr. Gaiman, this novel originated as a short story for his wife, who usually doesn’t go in for “all that fantasy stuff.” It was intended to be a story about the world as he saw it when he was a small child, and that still remains; most of the story is told from the perspective of our unnamed narrator when he was a seven-year-old. The more the author worked on the piece though, the longer it became; he writes everything by hand, and was still convinced it was just at “novella” status until he typed it up. Then, in his own words: “I sent a very surprised email to my editor with the subject line, ‘I appear to have written a novel’.”

The end result was a work that is chock-full of “that fantasy stuff,” but deals with it from the perspective of a young boy who is dealing with the struggles of growing up (his parents’ financial woes, a few untimely deaths, bookworm loneliness, etc) every bit as much as he is dealing with strange creatures from other worlds. More than once was I reminded of my own childhood, which was lived as much inside books (any I could get my hands on) and within my own version of the world (complete with talking orcas and velociraptors) as it was in what adults like to call the “real world.”

The main thrust of the novel begins with our narrator meeting a young girl named Lettie Hempstock, who lives on a farm down the lane form his house with her mother (Mrs. Hempstock) and grandmother (Old Mrs. Hempstock); think the three fates (youth, adulthood, and old age) but with a fair amount of old European witchcraft and nature worship thrown into the mix. The three of them are concerned by strange happenings in the area, and this only deepens when our narrator receives a silver shilling from within a dream in “a most uncomfortable fashion,” as Neil put it during the reading.

Lettie sets out to find the cause of the disturbance and takes our protagonist with her, and what follows is an adventure that any imaginative child would be very familiar with: strange plants grow deep within forests; rows of tails like corn line fields where the Hempstocks “get cats the normal way”; children’s songs and nursery rhymes hold great power; and ancient things without form lurk under dark skies. The sense of childlike wonder is very real, as is the fear and frustration of knowing something vitally important and being worried that adults won’t believe you; or worse, that they’ll be angry and somehow think the bad things are your fault. It also deals with the inevitable transience of childhood loves and friendships, such as the sting of saying goodbye to a friend met at camp in an era before cell phones and social media.

The novel is book-ended by narration from the protagonist on a return trip to his home town, which is why these old thoughts and memories are stirring. I found these parts of the novel especially difficult, mainly because they evoke a sense of change that grows in my adult heart and mind with each passing year. When the narrator finally returns to the “ocean” – a duck pond at the rear of the Hempstock property – his adult self finds little more than a muddy pond. I can’t help but remember how huge and full of adventure my grandparent’s backyard seemed when I was a child; the last time I saw it, while helping my grandmother move out just a few years ago, it seemed heart-breakingly small and ephemeral.

I’m not going to give this novel a “score,” nor do I know that I will ever be able to do so with any book review I write. I dislike it enough with games and movies, but I can still dredge up a number; that just feels wrong with books. What I will say is that if you ever lost yourself in an afternoon of imagination as a child, [amazon_link id=”B009NFHF0Q” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Ocean at the End of the Lane[/amazon_link] is probably the closest you’ll come to getting to do it as a “grown-up.” Just remember that some things, once they are opened, can’t ever be closed again; and some things, once lost, may never be found in this life.

June 23, 2013
Review: Man Of Steel

Photo courtesy tcdailyplanet.net

If Batman is considered a comics legend then the only way to describe Superman is iconic. The Dark Knight is the most popular hero character going today, but for 75 years the Man of Steel has been the most recognizable superhero in the world, even if his movies have let him down more often than not.

Warner Bros. recognized this after Bryan Singer’s valiant, but boring, effort in the form of 2006’s Superman Returns. They called upon the master of Batman reboots Christopher Nolan to begin crafting Superman’s next cinematic adventure. He first got friend and Dark Knight Trilogy story head David S. Goyer to come on board as screenwriter and then to some people’s dismay (and my excitement), Nolan decided on Zack Snyder, who expertly brought Watchmen to life, to direct this new vision of the big, blue boyscout.

Would this gamble pay off? Could Warner entrust the return of Superman to the man that brought Batman back to the forefront of movie pop culture?

The answer is a resounding YES.

Like Richard Donner’s classic, Superman: The Movie, Man of Steel begins on Krypton and instead of a white-haired, scene-chewing Marlon Brando, we get a soft-voiced and poignant Russell Crowe portraying Jor-El. As Krypton’s foremost mind of science he is trying to warn others of the planets ultimate destruction. Yes, this is old hat, but new to the equation is General Zod (Michael Shannon) attempting a takeover of the Kryptonian government. As the planet erupts around them Jor-El and Lara send their child to Earth.

“This sounds like the beginning to Superman: The Movie!”

I hear you, I hear you, but where Snyder and Goyer have gone so completely right is how fully fleshed out Krypton is as a world. No one, outside of comic readers, have truly seen any type of Kryptonian environment represented on the big screen. Full of mountains and flying creatures, it was great getting to see a true eco-system that makes you feel more connected to this doomed world, and therefore, feel more of a connection when the inevitable happens.

*Minor Spoilers Ahead*

Going into Man of Steel I can sense some of you feeling some trepidation that you will have to sit through an entire origin story that you already, for the most part, know backwards and forwards. I am hear to tell you to have no fear because one of the best aspects of this movie is the way Goyer has interweaved Clark’s early years into the story of Man of Steel. You will not be sitting through 45 minutes of young Kent exposition to bring about the birth of Superman. Rather you will be getting adult Clark looking back on his life as moments remind him of his childhood years. Such a simple and completely satisfying way to watch an origin story, even one you already know all too well.

The wonderful thing that Man of Steel does is show Clark’s need to be more. His want to help, even in the face of people learning his secret. This is the essence of a hero and the biggest reason why Superman is who he is. He is learning the hero thing as we watch. The lessons that both of his fathers instill in him are the bedrock of the film. Will the world reject a savior? Even if they do, is it still his responsibility to use his gifts for the good of mankind?

As adult Clark drifts through life from job to job trying to figure out what his role is on this planet, he has reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) hot on his heels after meeting in an earlier encounter. Now she is trying to find out who this mysterious helper is. Yes, Lois finds out who Clark is before anyone else and even before he begins to work at The Daily Planet. Get over it. One of the wonderful things about Superman canon is that there is no real set canon. Pa Kent is alive in some universes, he is dead in others. Lois knows Clark’s secret in some, in others she is oblivious. I am glad that she finds out this early because I have always thought it was insulting to the character of Lois, who is supposed to be one of the world’s premier investigative journalists, that she could not determine that Clark was Superman. Man of Steel deals with this in a realistic manner and proves Lois to be worth her weight in smarts.

Zod comes to Earth after a thirty year search for the son of Jor-El that has sent him across the stars. He and his defectors were freed from their prison (you know what it is called) when Krypton went ka-boom and he needs Superman for more than just revenge. He has given the planet 24 hours to turn over the Man of Steel or suffer the consequences. From here on out it begins to be apparent that this is a tale of two minds. While Man of Steel has one screenwriter (Goyer), it very much feels like the first half was a Christopher Nolan exploration of the character of Superman. Who am I? Why am I here? What do I do to make things better? It is very introspective and thought provoking.

When Zod comes to town and Supes realizes it is time for fight AND flight, this is where Zack Snyder shines through. No matter what haters have to say about the director he knows his way around filming action scenes. Man of Steel has heard your cries of “we want to see Superman punch things!”. Get ready for the thunder because you have seen nothing like this outside of the comics. I love Superman 2 as much as the next guy (even though the foil “S” symbol was just…the worst), and when I was a kid, the fight between Zod, Ursa, Non and Superman wowed my undeveloped brain, but this is how Superman should throw down in every single movie from here on out. Punches thunder through the air, skyscrapers fall over and no IHOP is safe.

When all is said and done is Man of Steel the greatest comic book movie ever? No, but it is way up there. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt on par with Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie for the best Superman movie. It is hard for me to put one ahead of the other for different reasons. Man of Steel is this generation’s definitive Superman flick the same way Donner’s was back in 1978.

The best connection between the 1978 original and this year’s reboot are the quality of the Supermen. Henry Cavill is built from the ground up to be Superman. Like seriously, the dude is jacked. When he simply walks in the costume it is not like watching a man playing dress up, but your imaginations of Superman brought out for all to see (a lot like Christopher Reeve in my childhood years). This is a very human tale about a not so human person and Cavill brings the force of will, and oddly enough, fragility to the most powerful being on Earth.

For seven years we were spoiled with The Dark Knight Trilogy as Superman waited in the wings for his return (and not in 2006). Now in 2013 it is the Man of Steel’s time to shine and Zack Snyder, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer have taken the proper care and taken the right steps to make sure that Man of Steel is more than just a single Superman story. This is just the beginning of something larger and the re-establishment of DC’s greatest hero has set things on the right course.

June 17, 2013
Review: Iron Man 3

Photo courtesy usatoday.com

Iron Man 3 is the first Marvel movie in their self-titled “Phase 2” and if it is any indication of what to expect from the rest of the movies including Thor: The Dark World and Joss Whedon’s follow-up to The Avengers then we are in for a fun couple of years.

Iron Man 3 plays more as a sequel to last year’s The Avengers than 2010’s disappointing Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 suffered from the writer’s strike and lack of cohesiveness and all of that has been corrected here. Director Shane Black, who also directed Robert Downey, Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, delivers a de-construction of the Tony Stark character and shows that more so that any other comic movie, the man behind the mask is much more fascinating and fun to watch than the hero.

Iron Man’s main big bad from the comics, The Mandarin has declared a personal war against America and is somehow responsible for mysterious bombings. When one of these bombings seriously injures someone close to Tony he makes finding The Mandarin his priority. At the same time Aldrich Killian, a man scorned by Tony in the past, has returned and is interested in showing off his new ground breaking Extremis regeneration program to Pepper while wanting more than meets the eye with her.

The script is loosely based off of Warren Ellis’ Extremis story then interweaves The Mandarin into it. As a whole it works and the parts that make you second guess them are mostly forgotten by the movie third act which is where having Shane Black at the helm really pays off. The final action sequence is huge. Sorry, I meant HUGE. You can see why Joss Whedon asked how he was supposed to top it with his Avengers sequel.

The dialogue is quick and snappy and some lines are quite cheesy in the hands of any other actor, but in the hands of RDJ you avoid the eye rolling moments that would normally cause a snicker or two in the theater.

The biggest plus Iron Man 3 has going for it is the character development. In the second film it seemed like everyone was going through the paces and the movie always seemed a bit off to me. Here we have true forward movement. Tony is having trouble dealing with the events in The Avengers and as he so eloquently puts it, “there are gods and aliens and I’m just a man in a can”. He buries himself in work as he and Pepper grow distant. You witness his first anxiety attack and see the confusion on his face as the man who has never been lacking in confidence for anything suddenly has it all stripped away.

Pepper Potts and Rhodes are much more than just secondary joke material here. Pepper’s relationship with Tony is in question and more so when Aldrich Killian reappears on the scene. Any movie where we get plenty of Don Cheadle is a good thing and IM3 makes sure we know that Rhodes is there for much more than Tony’s drunken ass-kicker like in 2.

Photo courtesy ew.com

Now I will keep this review spoiler free, but I would be remiss if I did not at least mention what I like to refer to as “the swerve”. First off, I would like to congratulate Marvel on keeping it on the down low for this long. In a world where every bit of news and information is broken weeks or months in advance, I think a lot of people are going to be taken aback by it, but mostly comic fans. When it plays out I instantly thought, this is either going to be loved or hated by most people. No grey area. I am on the love side because it did get me. I am sure I could have gone searching the web and found out before, but it is nice to be gotten every now and then. If you are on the hate side of “the swerve”, don’t worry, I can completely see why. I just hope you didn’t let it ruin the rest of the movie for you.

In the end, did Iron Man 3 deliver? Yes. Yes it did. Is it better than Iron Man 2? God yes. Is it better than Iron Man? I would not go that far. I am still putting it in the upper echelon of Marvel movies. If you want it broken down easily I guess we will do this:

1. The Avengers

2. Captain America

3. Iron Man

4 Iron Man 3

and so on….

If you want to know the rest of the list ask away!

Photo courtesy screencrush.com

Marvel did themselves a favor by going outside the box and getting Shane Black to direct this. The man who wrote Lethal Weapon and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang knows how to handle his action sequences, of which there are numerous, satisfying ones even when it is just Tony sans armor. The real surprise is the emotional weight that are put on the characters. Tony’s near death in The Avengers is a focal point of Iron Man 3 as it needed to be because if it was simply ignored, it would have lessened exactly what The Avengers meant in the Marvel cinematic universe.

I hope Iron Man 3 is a good sign as to what we can expect from the Phase 2 movies with new directors (Thor, Captain America). It feels new and different and that is exactly what is needed now that we are six years into these Marvel movies. Staying stagnant can kill a franchise and I am hard pressed to say that Iron Man 3 is stagnant. From it’s bizarre opening sequence involving Eiffel 65 (really) to it’s 70’s inspired closing credits (which is completely Shane Black), Iron Man 3 shows that even though we may be entering the second phase of this cinematic juggernaut, its inaugural character is still its strongest.

May 6, 2013