Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Since Summer is almost over, so is the season of big block buster flicks. What better way to end these hot couple of months with a non-stop, action packed, adrenaline fueled movie like Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation? Well, let me tell you now that if you're a fan of the franchise you'll have plenty to love in Rogue Nation.

Rogue Nation continues with the adventures of Ethan Hunt, super  spy of the IMF as he squares off with a rogue faction known as The Syndicate. The gang is basically all back together, save for the female cast who always seems to have to be replaced after every movie. We have Jeremy Renner reprising his role as William Brandt from Mission Impossible 4, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn. New to the franchise is Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley (director of the CIA), Rebeccsa Ferguson as Ilsa Faust (New female good guy) and  Sean Harris as Solomon Lane (Rogue Nations bad guy). With veterans and new comers alike, Rogue Nation showcases a strong cast that deliver entertaining performances and fantastic on-screen chemistry. 

Movie Review: Ant-Man

Marvel movies continue to deliver some fantastic blockbuster films for all ages to enjoy. Whether you're a die hard fan of the comics or a new-comer for the films, there's no denying that Marvel throws out entertaining movies left, right and center. From big action, group movies like Avengers to character driven espionage like Captain America 2, Marvel pretty much has everything going on for them. So what about something on a smaller scale? Say...ant-sized perhaps?

Well, Ant-Man basically covers even more ground for Marvel in that it takes one of it's hardest to market character ever and puts him right on the big-screen. How can someone named Ant-Man be a cool super hero? Well, as it turns out, quite easily.

After watching Ant-Man, it has easily sky rocketed up my list of favorite Marvel movies, a feat that I was sure it couldn't do. I mean as much as I really like Ant-Man in the comics, I had a feeling they wouldn't be able to do him justice in the film. Fortunately, I was wrong and what I got was an incredibly funny, action packed adventure that goes to show that Marvel can still deliver a great flick even when the scale has been brought down a peg. 

God damn do I like Paul Rudd...oh and the Ant-Man costume is pretty fantastic too

Movie Review: Terminator Genisys

Let me start off by saying how incredibly skeptical I was about Terminator Genisys. I went into this movie thinking that it was going to be an absolute train wreck of a film, especially considering how T3 and Terminator: Salvation essentially took a massive dump on some childhood classics. But then again, I also thought Jurassic World would be a massive disappointment too, so Genisys should have a decent chance at being good, dumb, entertainment right?

Actually yeah, Terminator Genisys was actually pretty damn good for what it is.

Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a perfect film what so ever. In fact, if you haven't seen the original Terminator or Terminator 2: Judgement Day (either in a while or ever) then I whole heartedly suggest you go watch those two films before heading into Genisys. Genisys, to me, hit all the right marks that made it a worthy sequel to the first two Terminators, just like how Jurassic World is a worthy sequel to the original Jurassic Park.

Movie Review: Inside Out

Whoever says that Pixar are losing their edge when it comes to imagination and creative film concepts, they have not seen their latest masterpiece Inside Out.

Inside Out plays with the concept of emotions and how they control us. Literally controlling us. As in using a control board in your head to make sure you feel the right kind of emotion for the relevant situation. It's a generally old concept but Pixar manages to make it feel fresh and brilliant with their stellar writing and characterization.

Prepare to feel feelings!

Movie Review: Jurassic World

They definitely spared no expense this time around

As a kid, I loved the original Jurassic Park. I've been told by my parents that I would watch that movie hundreds of times. I remember having tons of Jurassic Park themed toys and dinosaur related objects just because the original movie managed to create an unfathomable magic about those giant extinct lizards.

Unfortunately for the Jurassic Park franchise, the movies got worse and worse, failing to reignite the majesty and wonder that the original had. In a sense, my childhood took a hard beating and it didn't look to recover itself. So with the news that another Jurassic Park movie would be coming out, skepticism was at an all time high. There's no way this new movie could be better than the original, in fact there's no possible way this could even be any good whatsoever.

I was right though, it wasn't as good as the original. However I was wrong...incredibly wrong when I thought that this movie might end up being a train wreck. Jurassic World managed to be an incredible adventure that successfully reignited my love for the original. In short, I was blown away.

Movie Review: Tomorrowland

It's been a while but I finally have some time to sit down and write my review of Tomorrowland, the new film by Disney and director Brad Bird.

Well, 'new' might be a little bit of an overstatement, the movie came out a while ago. Nontheless, I believe it deserves to be reviewed like any other film despite the period of time between me watching it and finally sitting down and writing about it.

Long story short, Tomorrowland is pretty mediocre. It starts off as a story about adventure and quickly folds into itself as a very preachy kind of movie that tries to teach it's audience a lesson, but doesn't do so in a successful manner.

The start of a very...mediocre adventure

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

What a lovely day indeed

John Wick, Dredd and Mad Max: Fury Road all have one thing in common, and it's that these three movies have managed to bring about a renaissance of what I like to call the 'one sequence' action flick. Going into Mad Max, I wasn't expecting to be as blown as away as I was. I was looking forward to seeing a balls to the wall crazy action flick about a bunch of crazy people fighting with frankenstein cars. Well, I basically got that, but with 100 times more insanity and I loved it.

Movie Review: Ex Machina

Recently I've had a fantastic streak of good movies and it actually feels refreshing.

Usually after watching something amazing, I'm left with a feeling of mediocrity or disappointment with the next movie I decide to watch, whether it's at home or in the theatre.
Luckily, Ex Machina continued my little streak of films and does so in a fantastic fashion.

Ex Machina is an indie film that focuses on the social consequences of Artificial Intelligence. It features a small cast with a very (for the lack of a better term) 'real' scenario. On top of that, Ex Machina wasn't released world wide simultaneously, slowly coming out to select areas over the course of two months. Movies like this don't tend to do well in the box office, at least initially, but word of mouth will carry it to success. But you know what, that's ok. Unlike big box office smash hits like Avengers, Ex Machina isn't looking to simply entertain or make the big bucks, it's offering a very in depth look at an important  issue. In a sense, Ex Machina is attempting to be art and provoke conversation.

Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

I finally got to watch Age of Ultron and man was it ever worth the wait.

Over a year of hype later and it was all worth it. But that's not saying that the movie is without it's flaws of course and we'll go through them soon. Don't fret though, this movie continues to show just how on point Marvel Studios has been with their productions as of late, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Age of Ultron is the second ensemble film from Marvel Studios that continues the adventures of our beloved Avengers. We have Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye all on the big screen once again to kick ass and save the world. Only this time, instead of fending off invading alien forces in New York City, the team is trying to stop a psychotic, sentient A.I. named Ultron from wiping humanity off the face of the Earth.

Taken from the comic book story of the same name, Age of Ultron promised to bring over the top action, comic book humor and good old fashioned fan service for long time comic fans and newcomers alike.

You could put this on a two-page spread in a comic book and it would work flawlessly

Movie Review: Furious 7

Not as Fast, but god damn is it Furious

I was never a follower of the Fast and Furious movies. I always saw them as dumb, testosterone filled, adrenaline pumping action movies that was all flash and no substance.

I was right to an extent of course, the first couple of films was just that. Fast cars, high speed action, scantly clad women, big muscly men, etc. It wasn't recently that I decided to hunker down with some friends and do a Fast and Furious marathon that would stretch from Fast Five up to the newly released Furious 7. I gotta say, Furious 7 is definitely a movie worth watching.

Fast Five and Furious 6 were pretty solid movies that actually had an enjoyable cast, solid story and high octane action. I applaud the ability to retroactively insert plot points into these movies that would link the entire franchise together, like how Han goes to Tokyo for the events of Tokyo Drift. It was really impressive and cleverly done. Furious 7 is like the third movie in this supposed trilogy. Everything eventually comes full circle and you’ll find yourself enjoying the continuing adventures of Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) and Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel).

Movie Review: Chappie

The topic of Artificial Intelligence seems to be a major selling point in movies nowadays. Before, we had the excellent Her which explored the possibilities of a computer becoming very much like a human, so much so that a human could actually fall in love with it. Soon we'll have Ex Machina and Avengers: Age of Ultron that will continue to explore the possibilities and consequences of having AI. 

From Neil Blomkamp, the director of District 9 and (unfortunately) Elysium comes Chappie. Chappie is a film about a robot who is given consciousness equivalent to a a humans. Chappie (Sharlto Copley), the titular AI, is able to learn, love, and live. In some cases, it's almost like a futuristic version of Pinocchio in that Chappie is just trying to be a regular human. As with all of Blomkamp's films, Chappie takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa and explores the idea of having a robotic police force being used to combat the rampant crime in the city. This robotic police force, also known as the SCOUTS, are incredibly efficient and effective at apprehending criminals, whether it be through force or not. 

Movie Review: The Babadook

When it comes to horror movies, I tend to be very particular about the genre. I can understand how something like the Saw movies are, in fact, horror, just a different kind of horror when compared to something like The Grudge or Friday the 13th. Horror movies comes in all sorts of flavors and it's important to take this into account when you watch them. Perhaps what isn't horrifying to you may be horrifying to others. In the end, it's always going to be about the terror that the film invokes on it's viewers, for better or for worse.

So what does this mean for the Indie horror film The Babadook? Well for one, it's not a traditional kind of horror movie in that the titular creature is the main focus of the movie. The Babadook does something that I haven't seen in a horror movie in a while, and that's tackling the concept of stress, insomnia, and built up tension within an individual. The results of these negative traits is the Babadook itself, but that can be explained later.

Like the movie, this image gives a sense of constant dread

Movie Review: Dracula Untold

Long before Twilight became a thing, Vampires were some of the coolest monsters that entertainment media could work with. What's not to like about a noble, bloodthirsty, undead creature of the night? On top of that, aren't their powers and abilities cool? Turning into bats at will, having super reflexes and senses, super strength, etc etc. Vampires were cool. Without a doubt though, the greatest vampire of them all is Dracula himself.

What makes Dracula so enduring is that he's appeared in tons and tons of different kinds of vampire related media. From Brahm Stokers Dracula, to Castlevania, to the Underworld series, Dracula has managed to best the test of time and remained a relevant character in entertainment. So with that in mind, what could you possibly add to a character that's been around for so many years? Universal Studios and Legendary Pictures believe that it's time to tell the origins story of this famed vampire with, of course, some creative twists.

For those not in the know, Dracula was inspired by the real life historical figure Vlad the Impaler, an actual prince of Transylvania who gained notoriety for using extremely vicious methods of torture on his enemies. Most famous of his methods, as his name implies, is impaling them on spikes around his territory. Of course, all of this was meant to be used as a brutal method of keeping invaders and foreigners out of his country. As such, Vlad the Impaler went down in history (to the Romanian people) as a hero and a beloved figure. To the others, he became a monster of the cruelest intentions. Perhaps that's why Dracula was birthed, to reflect the outside look of Vlad the Impaler, from the foreigners perspective.

Well, enough history for now, how did the film fare?

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

If you're a fan of spy flicks, James Bond, undercover espionage, and crazy cool technology, Kingsman: The Secret Service might just be up your alley.

No? Well how about amazingly choreographed action sequences, tongue in cheek humour, and heart pumping soundtracks? Surely any one would enjoy watching a movie with these aspects.

Luckily for everyone, Kingsman: The Secret Service has something for everybody and boy does it deliver when it comes to pure entertainment.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a film based on a graphic novel series of the same name. The story revolves around a troubled youth in London named Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and his acceptance into a training program to become a part of the Kingsman, a super secret association that's been working behind the scenes of history for over 200 years.

The Kingsman operate under code names inspired from the King Arthur legend, as such, we have Arthur sitting at the head (Michael Caine) with Merlin overseeing training and information (Mark Strong) with the incredibly suave, capable, super agents under names like Perciville, Lancelot, and Galahad (Colin Firth).

Comic Book Movies 101: The Marvel Civil War and Spiderman

Wow, what a time to be alive. We're finally going to get Star Wars Battlefront 3, Final Fantasy XV,  new Star Wars Trilogy, a Justice League film, and much more. And now the news has broken about Sony Pictures and Marvel working together to bring Spiderman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe! It's never been a better time to be a nerd ladies and gentlemen.

Now some of you may ask why this is a big deal. Wasn't Spiderman always a Marvel character? Why be excited for Spiderman being possibly rebooted? What role would he play in the MCU?
Luckily, I'm here to give you a quick run down of these questions to inform you of the inevitable, to educate you over the extraordinary and to accustom you to the amazing.

Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending

More like Jupiter ASScending. Ha-ha I'm so clever.

Every time I visit Malaysia, I always go out of my way to try and watch as many movies as I can, whether or not they're good or bad. Why? Movie tickets are extremely cheap in Malaysia and there are plenty of options to choose from!

At any rate, I figured 'Hey, why not check out that new sci-fi flick by the Wachowski brothers? Jupiter Ascending was it? Oh boy, I bet it'll be TERRIBLE'.

Eddie Redmayne (WHO?) plays as the "villainous" Balem Abrasax. The only thing scary about him is his terrible acting. Well, that and his 'menacing' voice.

I mean, remember the Wachowski brothers? They brought us The Matrix trilogy. Not the best trilogy, but the first movie was pretty fantastic, so how bad can a new sci-fi movie from them be?

Well dear reader, it can be PAINFULLY mediocre. Now there's not a lot of hype behind this movie, and that's understandable, the only trailer I saw made it seem like a pretty decent sci-fi movie with great spaceship designs and space spectacles to behold...but as soon as the dialogue was shown off, dear god, I wanted to cut my ears off. With that being said, I don't expect many people to actually read this review, but hey, it doesn't hurt to try right?

Anyway, enough rambling, let's get onto the movie.

My 10 most hyped games of 2015

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

A new year has already been ushered into our lives and you know what that means!

YES! MORE GAMES!

There's so many amazing titles set to release in 2015 that I have no idea where to start. Seriously, there's just SO many across all platforms! But I've given it plenty of thought over the past month and have come up with a list of games that I am most excited about.

Below will be my list in order of hype levels. I'll post some images and trailers to help you folks with short attention spans just glide through this article.

And for funsies, I'm going to rate my hype levels for each game from 1 to 10. 10 being my hype levels when I first watched the entirety of Gurren Lagann (spoilers: it was pretty fucking hype).

Without further adieu, here is my top 10 most hyped video games for 2015!

HERE WE GOOOOOO!!!!

Linearity and Open World Mechanics: The Good and The Bad

Video games are great, no question about it. In this single medium, millions have found entertainment in all sorts of genres with a variety of different types of game play, rewards, modes, worlds, and so much more. It's no hyperbole when I say that video games is my all time favourite form of entertainment.

As such, I've been following gaming for years and years. I started gaming around the Playstation/Nintendo 64 era. Having my hands on the my very first console was an exhilarating experience that would eventually shape me into the person I am today;

A giant fucking nerd.

However, while I've only started my gaming relatively late in comparison to others who may have had the chance to play on the NES, Commodore 64 or even the Atari consoles, I believe I have just as much say in the topic as anyone else who enjoys the medium.

Video games are (at least I find) to be a touchy subject to some people, where friendly discussions about your favourite game may lead to an angry debate over fanboyish claims, unfounded criticisms and generally ignorant opinions. 

One of these topics that I see get thrown around on the internet, or otherwise, is the debate over linear games and open world games. Many times when a game is being previewed, you see people spitting at it for being 'too linear' with no sense of exploration. For some reason, to many people, an open world game is better by far, and I can't see why that may be. 

Over the years, I've had plenty of time with games that were linear, and most of them are arguably some of my favourites of all time, such as Persona 4 and Metal Gear Solid 3. I've also put plenty of time into open world games such as those in the Grand Theft Auto franchise and the Elder Scrolls series. While I can see why people seem to see linearity as a negative for gaming, I don't think that it's a very well thought out point of view, nor is it a legitimate criticism of a game at all. 

I mean, really, when a game is linear and when a game is open world....does it really matter at all? 

Movie Review: Tusk

WOW, What in the FUCK did I just watch?

So out of nowhere I was told to watch a movie called 'Tusk'. What is 'Tusk'? Well, it's a horror, black comedy movie directed by Kevin Smith. Yes, the same Kevin Smith that brought us Clerks and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Both hilarious movies! So what is Kevin Smith doing making a horror movie about a man who's surgically turned into a walrus by a psycho?

Yeah, I don't know either. It was a weird fucking movie, but at the same time, I'm sort of glad I watched it.

As mentioned before, The plot of Tusk is quite basic, almost like a parody of the horror genre or even the sub genre of 'Creature Feature'. It's about a psycho who's obsessed with Walruses, so much so that he creates a Walrus suit out of human skin and tries to turn a human INTO a Walrus. 

Yes, you read that right. I kind of want to see the shit that Kevin Smith was smoking for this movie, because no one with a sober mind would be able to think about this kind of plot. 

Hell, I'm even having trouble trying to think of a way to critique this film. It's definitely different to what I'm used to. In a world where Hollywood films are very generic, formulaic, and ultimately safe, 'Tusk' comes out of nowhere and hit me in the face like a wet fish.

Seriously though...what....the fuck

Comic Book Movies 101: Ultron and Ant-Man

Wow, it's been a while. But considering I now have a bunch of spare time to write, I figured I'll start of with a bang! Welcome to Comic Book Movies 101, where I'll try to educate casual comic movie watchers on characters, stories and much more!

As most people know, Marvel is on the roll with their films lately. 2014's Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy proved to be some of their best films to date, and for good reason. Cap 2 showed that Marvel still has what it takes to up the ante for sequels to their previous films, improving on them greatly in both spectacle and plot. Guardians of the Galaxy showed that Marvel isn't afraid of using some of their more obscure IP's and delivering incredible adventures that don't have to include the main Avengers characters.

So what's on the horizon for 2015? Well, based on the very basis that you're reading this, I'm sure you've heard of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man, both of which are set to release in 2015. I'm also sure you must have caught the trailers for each film that have been released, all of which are super hype!

awwwww yeeeah

AWWWWW YEEEEEAH

But of course, just like Guardians of the Galaxy, there are going to be some super obscure characters and plot devices that need to be answered so you can go into these movies fully appreciating them. 

Just what is Ultron? Who is The Vision? Why is there a character named Ant-Man? I'll attempt to answer as much of this as possible in this one post. So get ready true believers, here I go!