Innocence Lost - a review of Let Me In

I need to preface this really hardcore style, I am 100 percent biased against this movie, I went in looking for flaws, looking to be disappointed because I love love love the original. It is one of my favorite films of all time(number four actually as I posted recently). I didn't hate this movie.
That doesn't mean I loved this movie, but I didn't hate it. It is a good movie, but it is a remake which inevitability and in this case immediately draws comparison to its original. The additions and subtractions work the same way the movie works. On the surface level this is the same film. Where the two films differ are the themes and I think that makes all the difference. In the original, the film was truly about Innocence. It really was a love developing there was nothing sinister to Eli, she did what she had to.
Now here is where I start spoiling the changes because in order to properly review this film I have to.

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In Let Me In however, Abby has a very real possibility of being evil. This film brings up the idea of evil over and over again. It specifically asks that question at one point. The way Abby treats others in this film is really curious. She is manipulative. She is slowly corrupting young Owen and her male protector is long since been there. In the film the nameless male protector has been changed to being what Owen would be become one day. The original presented the role as more of a fatherly role so the change is pretty jarring. It is also based out of the book which had more graphic bits than the original movie. And Overall Owens arc differs from Oskars because here Owens story arc is that of accepting evil into his life and into his heart. In fact, this is one of those movies where I could really see them creating a sequel explaining what they do next and things like the first time Owen kills for Abby and an extension of all of these themes. That could never happen with the original. The theme of innocence preserved in the original is the heart of Oskars story. For despite everything that goes on around Oskar, he is still a good person and he is still full of innocence. Everything he does rings of innocence. Let Me In on the other hand, takes Owen and has him fight that innocence. The first thing we see him do his a creation of his bully's torments(something he doesn't really continue with later, it just sort of drops off) but he also puts on a creepy mask, then with the mask still on he looks in on his neighbors including watching a pair start to have sex. This voyeurism puts Owen as older than Oskar. Oskar hadn't really gone through puberty yet. So his relationship with Eli was one of love and not of (potentially Sexuality, a trait often associated with the loss of innocence). Owens is constantly about the question of which is happening. It is less of a pure and innocent love and much more morally questionable especially with consideration to the new Abby. Abby is very lonely. She seems to have a cycle, she doesn't want to be alone so she finds a mate, that mate grows old and is going to die soon so she pursues a possible suitor that has presented himself as opposed to just ignoring the suitor. It is implied she doesn't really(possibly can't) love these men and is using them because she herself does not want to kill but needs the blood to live. She is overall a much more villainous character here than that of Eli who truly loves Oskar, and truly feels bad about the things she has to do. She is just as innocent as Oskar. But instead Writer/Director Matt Revees chose to change Abby into this other.

Some of the other changes that have been added for American audiences is that A) set in America, and that visual changes pulls away the sense of cold the original delivered. The bullies here are more viscous and frightening. They create a real sense of dread that really makes it understandable when they all die. The pool scene is similar but the extreme changes make it a lesser version of the original films. And lastly the violence and the blood are all exaggerated here because Americans love blood and gore. There are also some conversational additives clarifying some ambiguous things from the original. For the most part that's what this movie is doing. For better or worse, it is taking a stance on the ambiguous questions, it is answering them for you as opposed to letting you answer them. The American Way.

I can't fault him on his choices, just that he took a film and changed it so that it has a different meaning for a different culture. A good way to be a remake. I really want to watch him do some original work because his camera work and his script are both really solid.
You'll notice I didn't mention the acting. That's because it is as good as the original, and in quite a few spots better. The only parts that weren't better than the original was Eli/Abby. Don't get me wrong, Chloe Moretz is one of the greatest actresses of our generation and without question she is amazing. But there is something about the dichotomy of her two performances as both Girl and Vampire that just doesn't work for me. but that might be partially do to the terrible part of this movie...
Oh goddess the CGI in this movie is badly placed. It just looks wrong and like it is in the wrong movie. And it is really disappointing because if they hadn't included it, I could have honestly said there is nothing bad in this movie. There are things I disagree with but nothing bad. But yeah, the cgi doesn't work and is a total failure.

So how do I rate this movie? If I'm giving it a letter grade it is a A+-. It is on two levels both an A+ and an A- so it gets to be both. I don't recommend this movie as hard as I do Buried, but it's worth your time. More importantly if you haven't seen Let The Right One In, go see it. You owe it to yourself.

Fall 2010 roundup

Boardwalk Empire
-Perfect. Watch it.

Walking Dead
-Perfect. Watch it.

No Ordinary Family
-great pilot with high chance of being a good ongoing, worth watching.

Hawaii 5-0
-Mediocre pilot. Potentially good series, but as it is, just another run of the mill cop show. But with water. It might as well be called Aqua Cop.

Outlaw
-Lame pilot, but Jimmy Smitts was charming enough to check out the second episode. Which as it turns out is far better than the pilot. This series may have stumbled out the gates but it could easily pick up speed as it makes its way towards the finish line since this show is doomed for failure unfortunately.


Nikita
-Skip it. Run of the mill exploitative porn but without the sex and nudity.

Undercovers
-Way below average considering those involved.

The Event
-Intriguing but ultimately a lost clone.

Outsourced
-Really unfortunate considering the source material. It seriously had a really simple task at what it needed to do and it wasn't successful at all. It drained all of the heart and soul out of the movie and created a series that didn't hold up at all. Skip it.

Brainsss Brainssss? No, this game has no brains - a review of Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2

Crashed twice under no specific circumstances. It really is the weirdest thing, it just sometimes kinda craps out on you. my set up was optimum and I had most of the settings turned down. I've now rearranged it so that I can try it on lowest possible settings. It should be said that on lowest settings the visuals look terrible in the cut scenes, but the game play works fine. The acting in the game is pretty bad, and the story while starting out promising, is ultimately really disappointing. More so that even though this is Dead Rising 2, this is the first one PS3 and PC but it gives no explanation for the zombies. I'm sure that's the story of one, but since DR 1 isn't on PC or Ps3, I question even a data summary of the events.
The rough story is that Chuck is a father whose wife died in the initial outbreak. His daughter was infected but a daily treatment keeps her from changing. Chuck was fighting ina reality tv show that had people fighting zombies, gladiator style, and an accident happens. Chuck then escapes to a shelter and now is out to find medicine for his daughter as he has 3 days left until the military arrives. To make matters worse Chuck is blamed for the accident and he has to clear his name.
There are Zombies, greedy humans, Psycho humans, and all kinds of weapons here. If you are looking for a 3-D beat em up, with zombies, this is it. This is the answer to your question. It is fun, for a spell, but it does get old quick. You can figure out a lot of the story pretty quick and the game is short enough where you'll clear it in a day or two. The important facts are these. There is an rpg style leveling system that slowly makes you a bigger bad ass. You learn new weapon combos as time goes on and you solve new bits. The game is really repetitive, and I can't see this game holding someone who isn't a pure zombie enthusiast entertained for more than 2 weeks. But it isn't a pure loser.
Again, I'm running on the PC version, and I've had the game crash on me twice.
Some neat little features you might not have heard about:
When you die, you have the option to restart story mode but maintain your current level. This is really useful because you can grind through early parts to improve your skills for the harder bits.
There are boss fights, but they don't flat out call themselves boss fights. Many of them are optional and are otherwise like a super annoying enemies.
I believe(but haven't confirmed) that you can play through the whole game and not kill a single zombie.
The customizable weapons are cool.
The story, cut scenes, and acting are all terrible.

Ultimately my experience has been one that says this is at best a 6.1. Don't get me wrong, I want to own a copy on PS3 so that I don't have to worry about crashes but this game really isn't for everyone and really isn't a winner. It is better than the first one, but only marginally.

Passable, but you won't miss much if you choose to pass on playing it.

The funny kind of Formulaic- a review of Easy A

Review goes here.


in short: This is a formulaic movie, but it's pretty solid and funny and not at all a bad experience. Overall a B-.

Reaciton to Fiction: Why popcorn movies are ruining good movies

I hate the phrase "You are taking it too seriously."
Take it out of your lexicon. Because even if something is not meant to be taken seriously(Read: Shoot Em Up, Snakes on a Plane) they are still good and have tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Popcorn movies are crap like Avatar, The Last Airbender, Transformers 2.
So as of this writing, the top box office for the year were:
1 Toy Story 3
2 Alice in Wonderland (2010)
3 Iron Man 2
4 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
5 Inception
6 Despicable Me
7 Shrek Forever After
8 How to Train Your Dragon
9 The Karate Kid
10 Clash of the Titans (2010)
11 Grown Ups
12 The Last Airbender
13 Shutter Island
14 Salt
15 The Other Guys
16 Valentine's Day
17 Robin Hood
18 The Expendables
19 Date Night
20 Sex and the City 2
21 The Book of Eli
22 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
23 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
24 Dear John
25 Eat Pray Love
26 The A-Team
27 Knight & Day
28 Dinner for Schmucks
29 The Bounty Hunter
30 Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Now that's the top 30 movies this year so far.
So lets pull out the movies in there that are original and not critically panned.
5 Inception
6 Despicable Me
8 How to Train Your Dragon
13 Shutter Island
14 Salt
18 The Expendables
21 The Book of Eli


Now of those, Salt, Expendables, and book of Eli I thought were crap. But overall critics were divided on them, so I'll give them for this purpose.
That's umm.... well...That's really disappointing. In total, in the top 100 films thus far this year I counted 8 films that were original, I considered good.
In whole, of the top 100 films this year, include ones based on previous work(remake, adaptation, sequel, prequel) I found 20 movies to be good or watchable. 20. 1 in 5 movies that made more than a million dollars are worth watching. Why?
Because studios know you do the same thing they are doing. Your budget is tight, like everyone else, so you only put money into things you think are worth your time. Remakes, Sequels, adaptations. These are the things you want to see, so you see them. You don't risk yourself on original work. And if you do it's because its from someone acclaimed and known to be good.
We cause this to happen.
That's not true.
The economy caused this to happen.
But it's still an issue. We need to not do this. This is a problem.
Movies like Buried, Cyrus, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass. the true gems of the year, get otherwise ignored because they aren't appealing to a wide audience. And this isn't new. Look at 2005. Serenity was easily the best movie that year. It came to much critical acclaim and many who had never seen the work it was based on thought it was great. I've never shown it to someone and NOT had them think it's great, including some very non geeks.But how much did this movie make? 10 million dollars. It crashed, and it crashed hard. I know because I saw it six times. five of those times was opening weekend. I've seen Scott Pilgrim twice. And it wasn't enough, Scott fell to the same problem. Scott Pilgrim is this year's Serenity. But it's falling has already been shown. Now what really hurts is that a great film like Buried will get ignored because people don't think it will be good. We get so much bad to mediocre films 4 out of 5, that we don't want to take a risk against something that doesn't look like it will be good. This isn't the good ol' days where I went to go see a terrible movie called Awake simply because there was nothing else to see that week. We don't live in a time of Seeing things because we can anymore. But back to point, studios see that you only go to 2 out of 5 films, maybe less. you only see on average, 5 films in theaters a year. They want to grab one of those five slots with their big movie. So I urge you that you, before going to the movies, consult either my site or a site like Rotten Tomatoes(better, both). I want you to see what the critics say. I want you to look at critics and find one you keep agreeing with. And then look for when the recommend a movie you thought didn't look like your style or you haven't heard of that they rave about. Like I am with Buried. I want you to do this and use one of your 5 movies on something outside of the box. To be honest, I'd prefer you wait on some of the bigger things like the remake of Nightmare on Elm street for hte home video release. That movie is already going to make money and there is no imperative to see it in theaters. But something like Buried demands to be seen in theaters and could use the support. Go out of your way for the next year, and only pay to see good movies. Help send a message to movie makers that we don't want recycled trash. We want this years District 9. We want this years Buried. We want amazing adaptions like The Dark Knight and Scott Pilgrim. Tell them with your dollar. Don't let the advertising trick you into seeing something. Let the critics, who've seen the film, tell you how it is. I thought Wall Street 2 looked like it could have been good, I was wrong. You need to just let it happen.
So see Buried, see Let Me in, see Red(well those last two after I've reviewed them and can say if they are good). Catch films like Drag Me to Hell and Let the Right One In. Films that do something for their genre. Look at Zombieland, now I am wail on it from time to time, but consider this: The movie was called a success.
So if I leave you with something it's this, just because its popular doesn't make it good. Too often what is considered financially successful is often watered down, lowest common denominator film and isn't worth your time and effort.

Wallstreet 2: We need more money - a review of WallStreet Money Never Sleeps

To call this movie a cash in is an insult to cash in's. There's no love here. No heart. It's like those involved just phoned in their performances. When your guest cameo is better than most of the acting in your movie, you have issues. Michael Douglas plays Michael Douglas, I mean Gordon Gecko a former wallstreet tycoon who to jail for insider trading. He got out in 2001 and then 7 years later He has a new book coming out. Also in 2008? Shia Lesuck's character has become an stock trader(or something more sophisticated than that, the movie is never really clear), and his girlfriend, Gecko's Daughter, is cranky all the time because while Gecko was in prison her mother went crazy(never clear), and her brother suicided(maybe?). Now early on I realized this movie was passing up all of the best opportunities for story. This movie plays it safe and only follows cliches. It never tries to be more, it never dares to be greater. This is why this movie is mediocre. It just wants to pretend. It doesn't even manage to live up to the first film. In fact, the overall message of this film is pure 180 of the first film's message. In the first film, greed is declared good but ultimately proves to be bad. In this film, everyone admits that greed is bad(and when they don't we are obviously meant to believe they are the villain) but ultimately greed and lying prosper. This movie is pretty bad. It is full of missed opportunities and great moments that make you wish this movie was the movie those scenes were from. It feels like someone created a movie about the modern WallStreet and some idiot executive got the script and went, we could cannibalize this script into a sequel and make sure thing money! There are signs of a good movie but this is not one. The ending is also not very oliver stone, instead its pure hollywood.
The few good moments, and the fact that this movie is only mediocre means this movie is a C-. But in all honestly, don't see it. They keep making sequels, remakes and more sequels because you go to see them. Your curiosity makes them happen, you stop going, they stop happening. See original works, see movies that get good reviews. Rent the ones you want to see that get bad reviews, be patient.

Not for the claustraphobic, totally for those who love good movies- a review of buried

(warning this article is without spellcheck as I'm writing away from my normal typing machine, so in a day or so I'll upgrade it.)

I saw this movie, and it was one of two movies this year(that weren't bad) that screamed to me they needed to be talked about. The other, I sadly didn't talk about, but will, this film is called Buried.

The entire movie features only one actor on screen for 90 minutes. In a pine box. Yes, a coffin.

Our hero, played by Ryan Reynolds, was been buried alive and has no idea why.

Stop here if you have any respect for films. Just go see it based on this infomation. It is worth it, trust me.

So here's the review for those unwilling to trust me or who already saw it.

The movie consists of Ryan digging through his pockets, finding what he has with him, including a cell phone, and then proceeds to call people on his limited batery life trying to find help. There is some comedy in this coming from the fact that no one really believes him, especially when he's able to get international calls from inside his pine box. But that's the plot and yes it is good in film, but it isn't what's important. What's important is things like the directing. Our man Rodrigo Cortes just became one of the best directors I've seen, enough that I want to track down his films and see what he can do. The directing here is flawless. It is what good directing should be, equal parts working with his crew and collaboration. I adored it. Trust me, I know it sounds like 90 minutes in a box would get really boring, but it never does. He is a smart director and he keeps the camera angles varied enough that there is a lot of angles. This film needs to be studied. It absolutely needs to be studied and talked about.
The acting, by both our on the phone voices and our cast is fantastic. And by Cast I mean Ryan. He is going to suprise you more than you can imagine. Enough so that you will give him the slack to perform any role he takes. At least until y ou see it.

This movie is an A+. Absolute Mastery of the craft and the storytelling medium.

An Open Ad: Writer Seeks Artist

Hi there.
I'm a writer.
I'm looking to get my comic project off the ground. Problem is, I need someone who can draw. I can't draw. My drawings come out looking like something out of Cyanide and Happiness, or xkcd. Not so bueno when I want to do something of merit.

So the project? Well aesthetically I want to do something along the lines of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead. (Gray scale)

It will involve an Alien invasion.

So I am looking for artists.

If you are interested, please email me a sketch of what you think our Alien Invaders would look like.
I haven't written the script. I actually want the project to be a collaborative effort. So I'd want to have someone who has some knowledge of story(and what alien stories have been done) so that we can craft something unique.

Still interested?

Email me at titanmatrix@gmail.com
use the subject Invasion
and a second email, with the same contents, with the subject Artist
The redundancy is so that Gmail doesn't screw up.

Thanks folk!
Look forward to working with someone!

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 10

1. Serenity
2. Batman Begins/ /The Dark Knight
3.Garden State
4. Let The Right One In
5.Donnie Darko
6. Rocky
7. Cool hand Luke
8. Godfather
9. Scott Pilgrim vs The World
10. The Fall

My top 100 favorite video games

And here is the list.subject to evolve


Heavy Rain
Red Dead Redemption
Metal Gear Solid
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Fallout 3
Tales of Symphonia
Indigo Prophecy
Final Fantasy V
silent Hill Shattered memories
Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion
Resident evil 4
Guitar Hero Metallica
Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem
Silent Hill Origins
Grim Fandango
Metal Gear Solid 4
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger
Resident Evil 2
Super Metroid
Super Mario Brothers
Grand Theft Auto 4
SW:Knights of the Old REpublic

Gex:Enter the Gekko
Super Mario Sunshine
Silent Hill
Resident Evil Remake
Goldeneye
ICO
o More Heroes
Resident Evil 3
Dragon Ball Budokai 3
River City Ransom
Shenmue
Resident Evil 5
Metal Gera Solid 3
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2
Rock Band Ac/DC
Super Mario World
Castlevania Symphony of the Night
Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Tetris
Counterstrike Source
Pokemon Red/Blue
Fallout
Burnout Paradise
Star Fox 64
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid 2
Final Fantasy VII:Crisis Core
Warhammer 40,000:Dawn of war
Burnout 2
Godfather:Blackhand edition
Yoshi's Story
Luigi's Mansion
Guitar Hero Van Halen
Resident Evil 0
Silent Hill 4
Silent hill homecoming
Bradon Ball Budokai Tenkaiichi 3
Mass Effect
Red Steel

Jurassic Park Opperation Genesis
Buffy the vampire slayer:Chaos Bleeds
halo 2
Metroid Prime
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Dead Rising
Prince of Persia: Two Thrones
Soul Caliber 2
Mario Kart 64
God Of War
Wave Racer 64
Sim city classic/2000
Super Mario brothers 3
Metal Gear Solid 3
Street Fighter 2
Mortal Kombat trilogy
Oregon Trail
SW:Knights of the old Republic 2
Rougue Squadron 2
Perfect Dark
Space Invaders
Pong
Lemmings
Tie Fighter
Mega Man x4
Plants Vs Zombies.
Spy Hunter
Shadow of the Colossus
Mario RPG
Paper Mario
Batman Arkham Asylum
Killer 7
Comic Zone
Echo The Dolphin
Pikmin
Ridick: Escape from Butcher Bay

PAX 2010 - a Retrospective

As you may have noticed, the site has been on autopilot for about a week now. I've been busy. It happens.
So here is my coverage of PAX games, similar to how I structured last years events:

Games that I recall straight off the top of my head:

Old Republic: For how long I waited in line, it wasn't really that impressive. I love the way things handle but the machines they were demoing it on didn't feel right. The keyboard mouse set up they had didn't work right and it just didn't work for me. I tried out the Smuggler class and maybe it just wasn't my style, but hte cover system didn't feel solid enough. To the games credit, they had around 20 players going, at least half of which were on one server, and actually one level. And with this set up, I experienced no Lag, no slow down in frame rates. The game LOOKS great, but the game play felt pretty poor. The story portion also felt really rushed. Now it's possible that the actual game will fix itself by not being so combat focused. But when I played the run through I had about 30 seconds of story, and 14 minutes of combat and then another 30 seconds of story. It might be a demo, but I'm pretty sure we were seeing the beginning of the game. The HUD is the one from WoW. It works. But my enthusiasm for this game went down.


Fallout New Vegas: Did you like Fallout 3? Do you want more of that style but ina new location, new weapons, improved visuals, and an all new story? This is that. The upgrades are just enough to justify not calling it 3 but still calling it a full game. I'm excited for it. I'm buying it.


God of War Ghosts of Sparta(Or something like that)
Okay, So I've never played a God Of War before this, but I really enjoyed this. It is certainly on my psp wish list. If it has 8-14 hours of game play it will be well worth its cost.


Heavy Rain on play station move
It's new move controls. I being the biggest Heavy Rain fanboy on the planet so I'm excited.

Resident Evil 5 on move.
Um, so it's only for RE Gold edition. and it wasn't that good. So don't get pissy.

PS Move overall:
I checked out every game they had available for move. All of them. I'm sold on move. This has the reactions that are impressive. It has the tech to work. I'm really glad for it because its only required for some games, and many games are just going to have the move option, and more options are never a bad thing. I point to the hottest wii titles(Mario Kart, Smash) that have 3+ controler options, and as such everyone has their own choice. I'm really excited for Move, and as soon as I have the free cash, I am totally buying it.

Killzone 3
I got to try this game out in 3D single player. I've never played any Killzone before but I want to now. It felt stronger than Halo ever has and I felt like I really needed to use the cover system, but that certain weapons can be used to explode tanks. It was fun, and when it comes out in February, I'll be in line to pick this up.

Mortal Kombat: a return to the basics of the arcade games. If you liked Mortal Kombat in the 90's, you'll like this.

Rock Band 3: Its a natural evolution of the genre, but it didn't really break any new barriers.

Blink: its a bethesda game. Looked good, didn't play it.

Grind(A table top game): I wanted to check this out, apparently the set up Privateer press had for this game isn't the real board so I'm intrigued but we shall see.

Portal 2: No playable demo, but the video was cool and it looks like a true sequel.

Duke Nukem Forever:I'ma make this quick. Did you play DN3D? You did? This is that. But with better graphics. Ever underwhelming.

Epic Mickey: Mario Sunshine(my favorite mario game) plus Mikey. It'll be fun for at least an hour, but after that it's going to come down to how much innovation it grows throughout the game and how long the game is. The presentation was strong. I'd keep my eye on this game.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep: It looked like psp game. But they had the unforunate choice of blowing up the image onto bigger tvs and it looked terrible. We'll see. I still need to embrace this system so we will see what happens.


Dead Space 2

Dead Rising 2: Mmmm, Zombies. Okay, this may have been my best in show. As a X-box 360 hater, I never played DR 1 and so getting to play this on the ps3 was a dream. Now, the ps3 can actually process more than the 360 and while it is about the same, the ps3 build could obviously end up with more undead on screen. The demo was just a generic level where you had to do a challenge of kill 250 zombies. It really demonstrated the zombie killing. It focused on the customizing weapons. Oar+Chainsaw= fun. It was, very simplistic, and I must be a pure hypocrite for saying this but this was pure fun. Even though there is likely no story.



Final Fantasy XIV: okay this game is pretty, but really, what next gen game isn't? Nothing about this game is good. It's at best average. Everything else is terrible by the way. The combat was atrocious. The character builder bored me(and I love good character builders). Everything felt lifeless, and even the booth leaders bored me. They couldn't answer a single hard question I threw at them. This is Final Fantasy XI. Don't fool yourself. It's the EXACT SAME GAME. There is no redemption for this game, its time to just give up on this franchise. But because its on 14, this is a series that will just self perpetuate.


Kinect: Didn't work. the controls misfired more times than I tried to use it.

Assassin Creed Brotherhood: Didn't see anything new that impressed me.

Metroid Other M: Controls suck. Character is whiney. Skip it.


Guild Wars 2: There are alot of computers,anda 30 minute demo. And then Oh my goddess. It's like these people knew what I asked them to fix back with Guild Wars 1. Seriously. Almost every problem I had problem has been solved. This might be the best MMO to come out in the next year. This was impressive. I can't give this a good enough opinion. Check out spoonyexperiment.com for Noah Antwiler's coverage of this game and everything said in his video is accurate. I can't give you any new info that he didn't. We only differ on it being best in show. Top tier, certainly. But not best in show for me. No online fee just like GW1. :D




games I had to look up because I forgot they existed:

Dragon Age 2:I didn't personally play it,because I still haven't played Dragon Age Origins. But I'm told it is what you'd expect from a sequel one year later. It isn't an advancement but if you liked the first game, this game fixes some small bugs comparatively.

Tron(that parkour game, and that mini game one)

SW:Force unleashed 2: Super Smash bros but with star wars. The multiplayer rocked, and if you liked the first one, you'll like this one.

Fear 3: I didn't even know this was here.

Super Scribblenauts: MORE SCIRBBLENAUTS :D~~~~~~~~~~

Infamous 2: a big enough upgrade that it's a worthy sequel.

Halo Reach: already out at time of this posting, Kinda meh.

Fable III: didn't know it was there.


Sadly, there was nothing new for MONPOC this year, but there was a fun tournament where we played in the most outrageous game possible after.

I'll try to post my pictures up soon, but Its mostly just a vlog of my Monpoc day. So I think you are better off just checking Gamespot, IGN, and other news outlets for screens and video if that's what you need.

As a convention as a whole, I have to say...I was underwhelmed this year. There were entirely too many people there. It was worth it to have the two largest theaters off site because it kept down expohall space, but that isn't a huge detail. The problems that persisted was that media guests got place in front of the gamers. That is a fundamental butchering of what PAX is supposed to represent. The media shouldn't get to bypass lines. They shouldn't get special privilege. Not at PAX. PAX is for the gamers, not the guests. And it was such a determent to the expohall that it often resulted in that guy who waited for four hours, the expohall is closing and they send this guy home, who has been waiting four hours to play Portal 2 because he loves portal more than anything and its because they and to let a media member in. True story as I was leaving the expo hall on friday. Saw the whole thing go down. And it's terrible.
Think about this. Assuming that any given company can get about 8 players in per 15 minute period. So when there are 80 players in line for one game, you are going to be waiting a while. The big games like Duke Nukem, Portal, Dragon Age, Kill Zone, Old Republic, Assassin's Creed end up with lines of 200ish people by noon. This leads to the other problem, first 15 minute game play is too much time. The demo should last about 10 minutes. And then moreso there should be about twice as much space per game.

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 9

11.Say Anything(1989)
12.Aliens(1986)
13.Kick-Ass(2010)
14.For a Few Dollars More(1965)
15.Drag me To Hell(2009)
16.The Empire Strikes Back(1980)
17. Dirty Harry(1971)
18. Kiki’s Delivery Service(1989)
19.Mi Familia(1995)
20.A fistful of dollars(1964)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 8

21.Terminator 2:Judgement Day(1991)
22.Spirited Away(2001)
23.Alien(1979)
24.District 9(2009)
25.Princess Monanoke(1997)
26.Gran Torino(2008)
27. Up(2009)
28.Casablanca(1942)
29.Princess Bride(1987)
30.Seven Samurai(1954)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 7

31.Inception(2010)
32.Ferris Bueller's Day off(1986)
33.Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind(2004)
34.Sunshine Cleaning(2008)
35.Guess Who's Coming to Dinner(1967)
36.Terminator(1984)
37.Meet the Robinsons(2007)
38.The Lost World(1997)
39.the Prestige(2006)
40.Unbreakable(2000)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 6

41.Toy Story 3(2010)
42. Repo:The Genetic Opera(2008)
43.Howl's Moving Castle(2004)
44.Southland Tales(2007)
45.Memento(2000)
46.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang(2005)
47.Shaun of the Dead(2004)
48.Monty Python And the Holy Grail(1975)
49.Lion King(1994)
50.Psycho(1960)

I'd rather fight Rocky Balboa for twelve rounds than let someone see Resident Evil:Afterlife

I feel like I need to open this review up with the top ten worst headlines I considered for this movie(in no order). Also Not Safe For Children.

I'd rather fight Rocky Balboa for twelve rounds than let someone see Resident Evil:Afterlife

Resident Evil Afterlife, where the title refers to the contents but without the pitchfork

Resident Evil Afterlife would make Darth Vader cry tears of Blood

Resident Evil Afterlife is like getting a root canal

Resident Evil afterlife does for Zombie movies what Super Mario Brothers did for physics

Resident Evil Afterlife in 3D will make a sober man turn to the 3D's: Drinking, Drugs, and Dromine

Resident Evil Afterlife takes your child hood and sells it for parts

Me, windows movie maker, and clips of the CGI from Resident Evil 5 could make a better movie than Resident evil afterlife, and I'd be the one being edited

Getting Syphalis is a better diagnosis than being told that you have to see Resident Evil Afterlife

Everytime someone sees Resident Evil Afterlife its like they were raped by the CareBearStare



This movie is terrible. The acting is sad and pathetic. No one in this movie can act for even a short time. They act like THTR 101 students. The characters that they portray are poor, shallow facsimiles of characters that once existed in the games. The movies want the audience to be distracted from the lack of characterization by using jump scares and bad fight scenes. They reduce Chris to a generic soldier who is borderline greeseball willing to flirt with anything with a skirt that isn't blood related. By the way, I never once buy that Chris and Claire are siblings here. It's rather boring. I'm glad Chris was finally introduced, but in reallity a good Resident Evil movie needs to be a pure reboot of Chris and Jill teaming up in the mansion. That is the secret. It's really simple, and yet this movie fails. It uses a really cool concept, barricading ones self in a prison, and for most of the movie it ignores its primary villain, Wesker. Wesker is the real treat here. The only one. He is so 2D that he makes M Bison in Street Fighter look like a deep character. But the way he tears up the scenery and the way they translate how he moves and speaks in the games is perfect. It just does not translate the context. Almost every fight features slow motion or the matrix trick of stopping of the combat to pan around and then resume. It is poor by any standard and this review likely fell apart because I couldn't write this review fast enough.
Don't see this movie. this is a terrible movie. I saw it for free and I didn't think it was worth it. Resident Evil Afterlife will never be worth your time. The action sucks, the acting sucks, the story sucks, wesker is cool but in the same way Bison was in Street Fighter, this movie sucks.

Here are so things you can get at amazon that are more worth your time:

Tornadus - An explanation

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Re: Tornadus

Postby titanmatrix on Sat Sep 11, 2010 6:37 pm
Her being limited makes her no more powerful than several other units. Is she part of the T1 of units? Absolutely. Is she the best unit in the game? Not a chance.


So a quick break down:

Speed and defense of the Katana

2 boost dice on types of attack, Short range.

Flight, Red Hoist, fling blast

This means she has about a 15-17 square range(up to 19 with diagonals) against a secondary target.

Now this fact alone, interesting. Why do I, personally, think she isn't BETTER than other units?
Amongst GUARD, I don't consider this fact that to be impressive. It's only impressive if you otherwise don't field a large number of GUARD bases. I don't think I've played a game against GUARD and not had a G1 right up against my power base on turn one, every, single game that I go first. Teleport is really powerful and fiercely underused.

So while that is useful, I don't consider anymore strong than anything else that has Fling.
What is strong is the 2 boost on both attacks(and stats of 2 on both). and red hoist. He is a strong deterrent, in the same way that a well placed chomper and a destroyer with lightning attack is a threat and deters certain positioning. useful, but not overpowered.

I also compare it to Cthulubite as has been done before, C-bites have Weaken and Distract. They are a 1-2 punch of both protecting you from as much dice and making the opposition more vulnerable.

I think it is just easy for players to jump and say Tornadus is the most powerful because she is the most obviously strong. but she doesn't do anything that changes the way I play the game as a whole, seh simply has me react the same way most things with Hoist do.

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 5

51.Finding Nemo(2003)
52.Sin City(2005)
53.Charlie Bartlett(2007)
54.Chinatown(1974)
55.Blade Runner(2007,1982,1992)
56.Cabinent of Doctor Cagliari(1920)
57.The Third Man(1949)
58.Rambo(2008)
59.Grave of the Fireflies(1988)
60Jurassic Park(1993)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 4

61.Back to the Future(1985)
62.Fight Club(1999)
63.Toy Story(1995)
64.Citizen Kane(1941)
65.Dedication(2007)
66.12 monkeys(1995)
67.Apocolypse Now(1979)
68.V for Vendetta(2005)
69.Beauty and the Beast(1991)
70.Godfather Part 2(1974)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 3

71.Iron Man(2008)
72.Touch Of Evil(1958)
73.Fantasia(1940)
74.Shawshank Redemption(1994)
75.Die Hard(1988)
76.Rear Window(1954)
77.Nightmare Before Christmas(1993)
78.Stand By Me(1986)
79.The Matrix(1999)/Matrix Reloaded(2002)/Matrix Revolution(2003)/Animatrix(2002)
80.Star trek Wrath of Khan(1982)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 2

81.Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981)
82.In Bruges(2008)
83.Ghostbusters(1984)
84.Casino Royale(Bond)(2006)
85.Maltese Falcon(1941)
86.Toy Story 2(1999)
87.Juno(2007)
88.Gladiator(2000)
89.Double Indemnity(1944)
90.Hercules(1997)

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 1

91.Cars(2006)
92.The Signal(2007)
93.Halloween(1978)
94.First Blood(1982)
95.Pirates of the Caribbean(2003)
96.Dead Poet's Society(1989)
97.Spider-Man 2(2004)
98. The Rocky Horror Picture Show(live)
99. There will be blood(2007)
100. The Graduate(1967)

Machette will Return in Machete Kills! - a review of Machete

Machete.
It's a blade.
Not unlike a sword, but with a wider sheet of metal designed for slicing, hacking, and destroying.

Machete.
He's a man.
Not unlike an action hero, but with a wider sheet of metal designed for slicing, hacking, and destroying.


This is the movie I wanted Expendables to be.
I can't say that fact clearer.
This is of course a movie that never tries to be more than what it is. In fact, it knows just how much of a movie, a grindhouse film, that it falls under a new category of film. This is one that has been slowly developing for a few years. Films like the grindhouse movies, Snakes on a Plane, and Shoot Em Up. I want to call this new Genre grindhouse. And likely it will stay with that. The common factor of these films, for those few poor souls who this type of thing isn't theirs, are tributes to the B-movie films of the 70's. The type of film that would be attached to a double picture. Today these kind of films are far inferior and often just direct to DVD. These movies however, being tributes, are acutely aware of their absurdity. And they have fun with it. It is the process of having fun that leads to these films being fun themselves.
And that is exactly what Machete is. It defies expectations because the acting is over the top and hilarious. I don't want to use the phrase intentionally bad, but it is. Except it isn't. Let me explain. There are an overuse of jump cuts. a jump cut is where you watch a shot and suddenly it jumps because its missing frames or it was edited in a way that feels unnatural. You may not understand my description but if you saw it, and you've spent time watching movies in any capacity, you would notice. You might not label it, but you'd notice. This has those jump cuts, but they are intentional. They are a loving tribute to those great grand balls of fun. The movie is the type where it is so absurd its fun.

I know, this is a sucky review because I can't tell you if things are good or bad. But I can say that the movie succeeds at it's goal. That goal is to remind you why we love these kind of films. It is the kind of film that goes over the top, but knows just how far to go over the top so as to still remain enjoyable. And then on top of that, this has fantastic action. Every scene, almost always, turns into some kind of action sequence. Machete and some girl(because Machete gets the women) are about to go at it and bam! A fight ensues. Machete, as played by Danny Trejo is a great character because he has a good backstory, and he never breaks character. And I think that in a nutshell describes why I can give the acting a good rating is because the characters never break or do something they wouldn't
Also be prepared for over the top gore ala the first two grindhouse films.
I don't think it needs to be said, but i'll do it anyway, that Robert Rodriguez is on his game here. This, the over the top action movie, is his bread and butter and I could see this movie selling like hotcakes once it's on dvd. Do yourself a favor though, see it with a crowd. It is a lot more fun that way.

So overall? I give it an A. My second highest possible grade.