Monday, May 20, 2013

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" First Thoughts (SPOILERS)



---SPOILER WARNING--- 

 So I just got back from seeing Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was looking forward to this because the 2009 Star Trek movie was how I was introduced to Star Trek, and since then I've watched some of the Original Series and of course Wrath of Khan. As well as every episode featuring Q, because he's Q. Anyway when this movie was announced I was hyped, not only because It was a sequel but because the Villain was being played by Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock fame.



However before I get into Cumberbatch's character I will offer one last Spoiler Warning, for now all I'm going to say is Cumberbatch does a great job. Okay if you are still reading this you don't care about spoilers so I'm going to continue. So the character the Cumberbatch play is not-so-shockingly Khan. Now I can see why some people can have problem with this since Benedict Cumberbatch look's absolutely nothing like Ricardo Montalbán however I still think he does a good job. For most of the movie he isn't really the antagonist however he get's there by the end.

Since Khan is in this you can expect some references to "Wrath of Khan," but not the way I was expecting. For example Kirk die's the same way Spock dies in the "Wrath of Khan." Which causes Spock to scream "KHAN!!" like Kirk did. However unlike the "Wrath of Khan" they didn't have the ball's to keep the character dead since they cure death by using Khan's blood. I mean I'm not saying Kirk should of stayed dead but if they were going to do it then do it. It would of been a better dead then the one In Star Trek Generations. Don't have an emotional scene where a character sacrifices themselves for the greater good if your just going to bring them back in the end. I shouldn't have to compare this to Ultima 9. The movie just ends abruptly too Spock knocks out Khan, Kirk wakes up, goes to a memorial, does the "Space. The Final Frontier" thing, and the end.














Despite how I'm sounding I did like the movie The actors did a great job, especially Carl Urban as Doctor McCoy. Seriously he does such a great job that if I had my eyes closed I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between him and DeForest Kelley. The cinematography was good, and the CGI was top notch. It did have a few shots that looked like they were made for 3D though. Overall I really liked it, if your new to Star Trek or a fan I'd say it's a must watch but I still think "Wrath of Khan" or "All Good Things" are better. I would of given this a five but the ending kind of made me change the score. So...

Rating: 4/5

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"Iron Man 3" First Thoughts



---SPOILER WARNING---

So earlier today I went to go see Iron Man 3 with a couple of friends from work. I wasn't really looking forward to this however I was actually really surprised with this movie. This movie was really good. I'm not going to say that it's better then the Avengers or Thor but it's definitely better then Iron Man 1 or 2. The actors do a great job especially Ben Kingsley and Robert Downy Jr as always. All the characters have great chemistry, and it makes the whole movie more enjoyable.



There is a big controversy involving the Mandarin. Now before I say what I have to say I suggest you go see the movie because I can't talk about the twist without giving away massive spoilers. So if your not already aware the Mandarin in this movie isn't real. He's an actor Aldrich Killian hired as a way to blame the explosions caused by Extremis on a terrorist. So he is in fact "a dude playing a dude, disguised as another dude." So alot of fans do not like this, and for good reason. However I think the changes they made fit in the movie and I liked the twist. At the end however Killian says he's the Mandarin, which kinda makes sense but I think fans probably wanted the see the Actual Mandarin. Despite this I still liked the twist and if I didn't already know about it before I went into the theater I probably would of never seen it coming.


This movie was just fun to watch. Watching Tony jump from one Iron Man suit to tanother during the climax was amazing, however it did make the armors look really flimsy. I also kind of wish they at least tried to find a way to reference Norman Osborn since in the comics he is the Iron Patriot. I know the Spider-Man Film's are owned by SONY but I'm sure you guys could of come up with some way to reference him, I mean you referenced the Super Friends in the movie. Which leads me to wonder just what is DC Comics in the Marvel Universe. Anyway before I ramble on some more I thought it was a good movie, and a great way to start the Summer Superhero movies.

Rating: 4/5

(NOTE: The after credits scene is funny but it might not be worth sitting threw the whole credits to see. Unless your a big Hulk fan.)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review




---SPOILER WARNING---

My history with comic based games is pretty bad. Of course there were good ones like Spider-Man on the N64 but there were also bad ones like Superman 64 and Wolverine's Revenge. Once I realized there were much more bad games then good I just decided to quit playing them. To this day I haven't played Batman Arkham Asylum or Arkham City. This game in particular p*$$ed me off when it was announced.


I hated the concept of all the heroes turning bad. I thought it was just an excuses to give them Fatality's since this is made by the creators of Mortal Kombat and back when Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was out a lot of the non-comic fans were complaining about them not having Fatalitys. Issue one of the comic tie-in didn't help with matters. However after looking at some footage I decided to give it a try. Thankfully I was completely wrong about this.

See what they forgot to tell me and everyone else is that the world where every hero turns evil is actually a Parallel world. So like in Grant Morrison's Earth Two and the Justice League episode "A Better World" the heroes from the main DC Universe get called to the evil dimension in order to help stop there evil counterparts. If I knew that from the beginning I probably wouldn't of been so quick to judge this.




















For those of you who are unaware the story of Injustice is that Superman kills the Joker after he tricked him into killing Lois Lane and blowing up Metropolis. Superman then takes over the world in order to force peace, with all the heroes joining him except Batman. In order to put a stop to Superman, Batman brings over several heroes from the main DC Universe as well as the Joker.

The Story mode is actually pretty good, there were times I wish I could just watch what happens next instead of fight. The strongest point of the story mode however is the character interactions which the actors make so much better. Despite this the story did drag on at times and some parts felt like blatant filler. For example the identity of the evil Nightwing(pictured above) came out of nowhere and doesn't really ad much to the overall story.















The gameplay is great. I was worried that it would control like Mortal Kombat, not that Mortal Kombat controls bad I just prefer much more fluent control when playing a fighting game. Thankfully they also got rid of the block button since I find it much easier to control a fighting game when all I have to do to block is hold back on the control stick. I also like that someone finally used Darkstalkers 3's health system since it makes transitions between rounds much quicker.

Overall Injustice is a solid fighting game. I honestly never had this much fun playing a multiplayer game since Super Smash Bros Brawl came out. This is my new favorite comic based video game, and I recommend it to any DC Comics fan. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get around to playing Arkham City, and I'll see you in a couple of days were I'll give my thoughts on Ironman 3.

Rating: 4/5