New Movie Review: Pacific Rim

It's been so long since my last review, I nearly don't know where to start, I'm hoping these reviews will be more regular and that I'll be getting to more films as they come out in the cinema, especially since now I live near a cinema again. I guess I should get on with the review.

"Today at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen to believe in each other. Today we face the monsters that are at our door! Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!"

          Pacific Rim is the latest film sci-fi film by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, so if you are familiar with del Toro's work you'll know to expect, a film that's not only visually stunning but one that also has an interesting story that weaves everything together. Pacific Rim takes it inspiration from the Japanese genres of Kaiju movies (i.e. Godzilla) and blends it with another Japanese (mostly anime) staple the mecha genre (think power rangers/transformers except bigger robots) and made them its own.

          The story is set in the not to distant future, when monsters (Kaiju) rise from an inter-dimensional portal in the Pacific ocean, at first they overwhelm our conventional military forces and are barely taken down after days of fighting. As the Kaiju attacks start to become more frequent the worlds leaders come together in order to come up with a solution to fighting these colossal beasts, they're solution are Jaeger's immense robots designed to fight these monsters. The Jaeger's require two pilots working in tandem in order for them to function, as it is too much strain for one individual on their own. For a time the Jaeger's work and seem to stem the advance of the Kaiju, but this is short lived and as the Kaiju keep coming they seem to adapt to the Jaeger's and grow in size, this leads the worlds leaders to instead pursue a giant wall blocking off the pacific ocean. Now I do realise there are a few spoilers in the previous section but this is only the first twenty minutes of the film and are given away in the trailers.

          I'd rather not spoil the rest of the film, but I will say the story is very well thought out and makes you care for the characters and also their struggle to save the world.

          I have to mention the CGI simply put its amazing, the character design's are all unique and extremely different, each Kaiju is unique and so are the Jaeger's seen in the film. The most impressive part of the CGI though is the fact it tricks you into forgetting that these things don't exist, it shows a great understanding of the ability of CGI by del Toro and the amazing things those animators can do when given time to do their job properly, in fact I believe that the CGI sections were all decided in advance of the film even shooting so as to give the animators the time to truly make everything look believable and add in those small details that really help to sell the shots.

          The gamer in me loved the fact the GLaDOS (Ellen McLain from the Portal games) was the voive of Gipsy Danger's (the main Jaeger) AI, even if I did feel a little uneasy trusting her. Acting wise Idris Elba steals the show, I even used his speech as the introduction, Rinko Kikuchi is also good as Mako and Charlie Hunnam is fine as the main character despite what I've heard others say, everyone else do a great job as well with their characters.

          So weighing everything up about the film would I recommend it? Yes its an amazing film, but I cannot say that everyone will like it. If your a fan of summer blockbusters definitely go see it, you'll love it, if your a movie fan who can appreciate a film for what it is and likes to read into things you'll enjoy it too, but if sci-fi's and summer blockbusters aren't your thing I don't think you'll like the film, which isn't the films fault and is your loss but if you don't like these kind of films you don't like them. So score wise I'd give Pacific Rim 9/10, pretty much the perfect summer block buster but won't convert those who don't like the genre.

Game Review: Bioshock Infinite

"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt"        
          This is going to be something a little different; it’s my first review of a video game. The reason’s I wanted to review this one in particular was that I love the Bioshock franchise, it beautiful both story wise and artistically and secondly I rarely buy games on launch day and normally I’m a slow player (I’ll try and do all the side missions/exploration that I can) so while this game is still fresh in people’s minds I thought I’d throw in my two cents.

          So the story of Bioshock Infinite takes place in an alternate 1920’s where Booker DeWitt (you), is trying to find a girl and bring her to New York to clear away his debt, what that debt is we don’t know but the girl is Elizabeth. Booker’s search for Elizabeth leads him to Columbia a floating city in the sky, controlled by Zachary Comstock the leader of The Founders a religious/cult like political party (they model their ideals after the founding fathers of the United States), that rules Columbia with an iron fist. Booker manages to free Elizabeth he helps him free her from her tower where she’s been locked up. While in Columbia, Booker learns that the city is in the midst of a war between The Founders, a faction of the white and rich supremacists led by Comstock, and the Vox Populi, a multi-racial and multi-nationality group of the poor and the working class. Both factions desire Elizabeth and her powers, believing they can use her to turn the tide of the war in their favor. While searching for the First Lady's zeppelin, Booker witnesses Elizabeth's ability first hand; the city is riddled with shimmering rips in the air known as Tears, which are windows or doors to other universes and other times. Elizabeth has the ability to widen these Tears and manipulate them by transporting objects from other realities to the reality she is in.

          To talk anymore about the story would spoil it on people but Booker and Elizabeth fight together and eventually escape the city, how exactly you’ll have to play the game to find out, or I’ll attach a link to the games wiki if you’d like to read the story there (click here). While the story is great, it the amazing visuals that set this game apart. The first two Bioshock games were known for their beautiful artwork and the city of Rapture became a character in and of itself to the people who played either game. The biggest differences between Columbia and Rapture are firstly Columbia is a live city, its teeming with life and people going about their daily business and they won’t pay any attention to you, this contrasts with Raptures citizens who are genetically modified mutants who’ll attack you on sight. The second biggest difference is that Rapture is a city under the ocean and is very dank and dark where as Rapture is so light and airy it even has humming birds flying to and fro from flower to flower, much of my initial hours of playing the game were simply me just moving slowly through the city and admiring all the little small details and getting lost in the beauty of it all.

At this stage I should talk about the games mechanics, the game is technically a First person shooter (FPS), for nongaming people that means you see through the eyes of the character you control and look down the barrel of their gun, and as a FPS it’s very easy the play and because of the genre it puts you directly in the action. The previous Bioshock games were well known for their moral choices which affected how the games ended and while there are choices in this game they have no impact of the overall game, which once you’ve finished the game makes sense, but it is a pity to of lost that aspect of the game. I would love to talk about the ending and my thoughts of what I means and what I think could happen but I won’t do that here if people want that let me know and I’ll make another post dedicated to the ending.

          I nearly forgot to talk about the music in the game, I keep meaning to mention music in my movie reviews but often times its just there as background noise. Well that’s not the case here, the music in Bioshock Infinite is as much a character and narrator as anyone else in the game, each song feels like its been specifically picked and placed for how it relates to different struggles/revelations in the games, the best way I have to describe it is the same way the music is used in the movie Drive (one of my favourite movies by the way), so go watch Drive and you’ll see what I mean.

         Now, to wrap this review up and give it a mark out of ten. I want to say a few final words before I give this score, this is not a perfect game for example there is one boss you will fight three times and at times the game can feel a little easy and then suddenly jump massively in difficulty, but as an overall package and an experience I have to give Bioshock Infinite 10/10. No other game has had me pondering the meaning of its ending nine days after I’ve completed it and very few games have sucked me in as completely as this. Hope you’ve enjoyed this review and if you’d like to see more game reviews let me know and if you got the urge to pick up this game I encourage you to go out and pick it up immediately.

Movie News: The Wolverine, Kick-Ass 2 and Veronica Mars

          I’m back blogging, I know its been awhile since my last review and I know I’ve missed a lot since then so I’d like to try something new a bit of movie news and just general talking about movies.

The first thing I’d like to talk about is all the great trailers that have come out recently specifically trailers for The Wolverine and both Kick-Ass 2 trailers (the domestic(American) and international versions), both these movies look amazing, I’m a huge comic book movie fan and have been following both these films since I heard about them. And I'll be talking about the Veronica Mars movie.

          Let’s talk about The Wolverine first this is the kind of sequel to X Men (3) The Last Stand and X Men Origins Wolverine and potentially ties into X Men First Class, so yeah the fan boys will love trying to figure out the timeline and what’s canon and not, but for people who haven’t seen all the X Men films (read all the comics) it should be easy to follow and figure out on its own as a movie. It follows Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) after the events of The Last Stand as he comes to terms with everything that’s happened and trying to figure himself out in Japan, where he meets an old friend who’s live he’s saved and wishes to pay off him debt and offers to make Logan mortal. Now there are two versions of this trailer as well, a domestic and international version, the main difference is that the international version is more action orientated and that it ends with the tagline “When he’s at his most vulnerable, he’s at his most dangerous”, which sums up Wolverine brilliantly. At this point I should also mention that as of this film 20^th Century Fox will be tying their Marvel films (X Men and The Fantastic 4) together in a cinematic (shared) universe, in the same vain as Marvel has done with their Avengers films (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America) and this will be headed up by comic book writer Mark Millar. So what that means to both franchises is they could overlap and interact with one another and who knows potentially the Fox and Marvel universes could cross paths in upcoming films, who knows and just a quick mention that Sony own the rights to Spider Man so if all three companies interact with one another who knows what could happen. Ok you’ve either loved reading that or found it very boring but either way here’s a link to the trailer for The Wolverine The Wolverine International Trailer

Next up it’s the trailers for Kick-Ass 2, the domestic trailer focuses more of Kick-Ass

(Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Mortez) joining together with a group of other superhero’s (inspired by Kick-Ass himself) including Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) to face a bigger and badder enemy, an evil super villain team lead by Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin)’s character The Mother Fucker (the villain Red Mist from the first Kick-Ass). While the international trailer follows more Hit-Girls story and her adjusting to a normal life and the death of her father and then her becoming Hit-Girl again. Both versions however make it clear that this is going to be a great movie, if you haven’t seen the original I urge you to go out and get a copy if you can, be warned though it’s a violent film full of strong language throughout, but it’s also one of the funniest and most original Super hero films I’ve ever seen (or read). Here’s the links to both trailers, enjoy. Kick-Ass 2 International Trailer & Kick-Ass 2 Domestic Trailer

And lastly I’d like to mention The Veronica Mars movie. For those of you that don’t know Veronica Mars was a 2004 teen drama series revolving around the titular character initially in high school and then college moonlighting as a Private Investigator and is best known for being Kristen Bell’s break through role and is also somewhat of a cult classic. Unfortunately the series only lasted three seasons and was then cancelled, the series creator (Rob Thomas) then approached Warner Bros. with a script for a feature film which the opted not to produce, but they gave permission for Thomas to seek finance for the film himself. Now to the main point of this article, Thomas and Bell and the rest of the cast of the show took to KickStarter to raise the money for the film, the main reason I’d suspect that Warner Bros. passed on the film was because of the Niche cult following appeal of the series but that’s exactly what has successfully financed their film. So what I want to ask you is what cancelled TV show would you resurrect if you could in either a movie or follow up series, assuming money and studio cooperation were not an issue? Here’s the trailer for the KickStarter campaign if you want to check it out. Veronica Mars Movie

Trailer Review: Oblivion (2013) - Joseph Kosinski

I'm kind of lost for words, this trailer looks like this will be a great Sci-Fi movie. Just from the trailer you can see that this it not the kind of world you want to live in, and that our main character (Tom Cruise) hasn't been told everything that happened. I'll put the trailer below please check it out and let me know what you think.

Here's a link to the trailer in case you can't see the video below Oblivion Trailer 2

Trailer Review: The Host (2013) - Andrew Niccol

          If you knew nothing about the story of this film, except what you see in the trailer, that it’s an alien invasion Sci-Fi movie with a love story mixed in and plenty of action scenes thrown in the mix too, you’d be excited too right? But when you know the story’s from the writer of the Twilight books, it kind of ruins it right?

          I’m going to say I’m excited for this film, the trailer sets it up beautifully and I’m hoping the writer took the core of the story from the book and built a great Sci-Fi movie around it. But I’m also concerned that I’ve been duped by the trailer and it’s going to be a straight up love story and the trailer is like the first 5 minutes of the movie. So I’m going to say wait till you hear what reviewers say about this film before you go see it, fingers crossed its good though.

Check out the video below or at the link here The Host Trailer 3

Review: The Adjustment Bureau (2011) - George Nolfi

"I can go through this door alone. You'll never see me or the people chasing us again, or you can come with me, and I don't know what's on the other side, but you'd be next to me and that's all I've wanted since the minute I met you."

          Another film I really wanted to see but never got around toseeing at the time. I only knew the basic plot outline, that Matt Damon’scharacter (David Norris) and Emily Blunt’s character (Elise Sellas) were on therun from some sort of group (the Adjustment Bureau) and that was all I knewgoing into this film. My biggest regret with this film is that I haven’t see itsooner, as I thought it was amazing, it was only once I had finished watchingit and researching it for this review that I found it was based on a Philip K.Dick short story, which makes sense once you watch the film, but also explains alot of the themes present in the film.

          The story starts with David and Elise meeting and kissingand then falling in love, but David doesn’t get her name, but she inspires himto give a very honest and frank speech following his unsuccessful run for USSenate. The film flashes forward to the next month where Harry Mitchell(Anthony Mackie) is given an assignment by his boss Richardson (John Slattery)to ensure Daivd spills coffee on his shirt making him late to a meeting. Harryfalls asleep and David get doesn’t spill his coffee and makes it on to his bus,where he meets Elise again and this time gets her number, however  when David arrives at work he find his friendCharlie frozen in time and being examined by unfamiliar men in suits, he triedto run away but is caught by them and is taken to a warehouse. At the warehouseRichardson explains to him that the men are from The Adjustment Bureau and thatthe alter peoples paths and in the case of David’s friends their decisionmaking process to make sure that their life follow “The Plan” a documents setout by “the Chairman”. The Bureau then take Elise’s number from David and tellhim that he was not meant to ever meet Elise again; they also warn him that ifhe ever reveals the Bureau to anyone else he will be "reset"(basicallyhave his mind wiped), he agrees to keep the Bureau and their activities secretand is allowed to leave.

          For the next three years David rides the same bus in thehopes of meeting Elise and he finally does when he sees her walking beside thebus, she is initially dismissive of him and had assumed that he was alreadyseeing someone when he asked for her number, he tells he that his wallet wasstolen and that he lost her number and that why he couldn’t call her, he learnsthat she dances for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and plans on says he’llattend her performance later that evening. The Bureau tries to stop him frombuilding their relationship by causing their schedules to separate them. Davidraces across town, fighting the Bureau's abilities to "control hischoices" to ensure he will meet Elise. During the chase the Bureau usesordinary doorways to travel instantly to locations many blocks away. Seniorofficial Thompson takes over David's adjustment and takes him to the warehouse,where David argues he has the right to choose his own path, here Thompsonexplains how humanity has previously had free will, but each time it has gonewrong and reveals how the Bureau were behind mankind’s greatest achievements. Thompsonimplies that without Elise's influence David might become President of theUnited States and benefit the world, and warns that if he stays with her, hewill ruin both of their futures. Thompson causes Elise to sprain her ankle at aperformance to demonstrate his power, and David abandons her at the hospital tosave them from the fate Thompson described.

          Eleven months later, Charlie tells David of Elise's upcoming wedding as he campaigns again. Harry contacts David via secret meetings in therain and near water, which prevents the Bureau from tracking them. Harryreveals that Thompson exaggerated the negative consequences of David andElise's relationship, and teaches David how to use doors to teleport, and evadethe Bureau's adjustments. David reached Elise just before her wedding and revealsthe Bureau's existence to her, and shows her how he travels through doors. TheBureau pursues them across New York City. David decides to find the Chairman toend the chase; Elise isn’t sure, but agrees to go with David. They enter theBureau's offices and eventually find themselves trapped and surrounded on theobservation deck of the GE Building. They declare their love for each other andkiss before David can be reset. When they let go of each other, the Bureaumembers have gone. Thompson appears but is interrupted by Harry, who shows hima revised plan from the Chairman that allows David and Elise to stay together.After commending them for showing such devotion to each other, Harry tells thecouple they are free to leave. The film concludes with David and Elise walkingthrough the streets, as Harry speculates that the Chairman's plan may be toprepare humanity so it can write its own plans.

          The first thing that stuck me about this film was that itwas a love story, I really wasn't expecting that from the trailers or movieposters, also its impossible not to mention the religious symbolism in this film.The Bureau play the part of angels and the Chairman is God, these behind thelooking glass style movies where it’s revealed that mankind is being guided bysomeone else’s plan is in some ways is a nice thought, as in everything reallydoes happen for a reason, but it’s just as equally disconcerting that thechoices you make are an illusion and could have been made for you already by someoneelse. The love story is actually really believable and the chemistry betweenDamon and Blunt is very believable and doesn't ever feel forced.

I loved this movie, it really gripped me and had methinking. As a Philip K. Dick inspired story it can join a great collection ofmovies such as Minority Report, Total Recall and Blade Runner. I encourage youstrongly to check out this film if you haven’t seen it already, I’m going togive this film a 9/10 it’s nearly perfect to me.

Review: Source Code (2011) - Duncan Jones

"Source Code is not time travel. Rather, Source Code is time re-assignment. It gives us access to a parallel reality."

          This was a film I’d heard a lot about when it came out in the cinema, and really wanted to check it out unfortunately I never got around to it, so I thought I’d rectify that. The premise of this movie is really interesting and is full of the kind of twists that M. Night Shyamalan is best known for having in his films, but that’s getting a bit ahead of myself. So the basic plot of the movie is, a US soldier (Captain Colter Stevens played by Jake Gyllenhaal) using an experimental device called the “Source Code” is able to relive the last eight minutes of someone’s life, in this case the man in question is Sean Fentress, a school teacher who died on a train bombing that took place before the films story starts. The majority of the film takes place during those eight minutes before the train explodes, with Stevens  trying to find out who and what caused the explosion as the man responsible claims that the train bombing was a precursor to a larger dirty bomb that he will detonated in downtown Chicago.

          It was really interesting to see Stevens try a variety of different methods to identify the bomber and locate the bomb to identify characteristics which may help identify the bomber; it’s also funny to see him avoid pitfalls he previously encountered and solve problems from experience. The whole movie on the train feels like a puzzle and you feel invested in the solving the problems and feel invested when it’s solved. However not all of the film takes place on the train. Stevens is supported by a team of scientists and army personal; it’s in these scenes we feel unease and that there might be something more going on that they’re not telling both us the audience and Stevens, as they are very unwilling to answer his questions each time he returns to his cockpit after each eight minute segment. Eventually Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) explains to Stevens that his body is on life support and that his mind is connected to the Source Code machine and that the cockpit he’s been returning to after each mission is just a figment of his imagination, this angers Stevens and he demands that he be allowed to die. They deny his request and send him back into the Source Code, where eventually Stevens’s identity’s the bomber as Derek Frost (Michael Arden), who the army track down and arrest.

          Stevens then asks if he can be returned to the Source Code one last time to try and save the people on the train and then have his life support switched off, which Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), the boss of Source Code initially agrees to, but reveals he was only lying to Stevens and orders Goodwin to wipe his memory and prepare him for the next mission. Goodwin instead decided to honour Stevens wishes and sends him back into the Source Code where he successfully catches the bomber and emails Goodwin thanking her for what she did for him, he then disarms the bomb and even has the whole train carriage he was on laughing as he kisses Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) the pretty girl who was sitting opposite him on the train as the timer runs out on the eight minutes. Goodwin then pulls Stevens life support and we see him die.

          The movie then flashes to the earlier that morning where Goodwin receives an email from Stevens thanking her for what she has done and telling her that the Source Code works better that they could ever have expected, the date is then revealed to be that of the day of the train bombing, which now never took place. The next scene is of Stevens now permanently in Sean Fentress body going on a date with Christina Warren.

          I really had no idea what to expect from this film when I watch it, other that knowing the basic plot. I was blown away by how engaging the story was and how little the eight minute train segments over lapped and in no way were boring or repetitive. I would highly recommend this film and I’d give it a 8/10. Well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already.