Coming Soon: Part 2

Oh yeah, there’s more!

Star Trek

I’ve never seen a Star Trek movie or episode ever in my life, that’s a sad sad fact. However, I am a big fan of  director J.J. Abrams, who is also the genius behind Lost, Cloverfield, and Mission Impossible 3.

This movie seems to be full of great special effects, and it had a big budget and a lot to work with. There’s really no excuse for it to bad, though it could be seen as a bad movie through the eyes of true Trek fans thinking it can’t live up to the original movies.  Oh, and it has no William Shatner. Dang.

Angels & Demons

Here it is, the sequel to the Da-Vinci Code movie, and based on the sequel to the hugely successful Da-Vinci Code book. I have yet to read the book completely, but I have seen the movie, and, honestly, I thought it was a little boring.

I can’t think of anything to say about Angels & Demons besides I ‘m not going to see it. Maybe I’ll catch it when it starts airing on TV, but I just can’t be bothered to go see it in theaters.

Up

Hooray! Another Pixar movie! Just what the world needs to cheer up (the title makes sense) as we all plummet into chaos, what with the economy, Pig Flus, and big planes flying over New York and scaring thousands of people.

I believe Pixar is virtually unable to make a bad movie, probably even if they tried. From Toy Story to Wall-E  there has been zero amounts of suck coming out of their studio. And they don’t just focus on talking animals like other animated movies; though their talking animal movies (Finding Nemo, Bugs Life, Ratatouille) are awesome. In Up, an old man, who is incredibly short, ties a bunch of balloons to his house and floats on up to the sky. He is apparently accompanied by an equally short, and fat little boy scout, who will most likely be the source of all the comedy in the film.

I can guarantee that this movie won’t disappoint anyone, except maybe a few physicists.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I think simply calling it Transformers 2 would’ve sufficed, but it seems they went with the whole colon approach that’s so popular these days.

As the first one was a major blockbuster, this movie was inevitable. Hopefully it can surpass the first one in all ways possible, such as computer graphics, acting, and action sequences. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are returning. (YAY for Fox, meh for LaBeouf) Like many others, I am just tired of seeing Shia LaBeouf everywhere. He was good for Disturbia, and maybe even Eagle Eye, but putting him in Transformers is too much.

 

The following robots will make an appearance in the film: Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Arcee, Sideswipe, Skid, Mudflap, Jetfire, Jolt, Starscream, Scorponok, Sideways, Soundwave, Ravage, Wheelie, The Doctor, Demolisher, and Devastator.

Well that’s it for today. Check back some day that’s after today for more movies!

Coming Soon: Part 1

Summer’s swiftly approaching, and of course with summer comes a ton of movies that everyone’s itching to see. Whether it be drama, horror, action, adventure, musical, or comedy, there’s bound to be quite a few incredible movies hitting theaters this year. A noticeable few are already gathering lots of attention and hype, meaning they have a lot to live up to. Hopefully they don’t disappoint us loyal fans.

Let’s take a look at the blockbuster-to-bes.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

 

Well since quite a few important characters were killed in X-Men: The Last Stand, I guess they had no other option but to continue the franchise with prequels, thus giving us the idea of X-Men Origins. Judging by the fact that there is a colon and then the word Wolverine in the title, we can expect that they will be doing this again, replacing “Wolverine” with other notable X-Men, such as Cyclops, Storm, Magneto, and Jean Grey.

The preview for Wolverine looks like it’s a nice action-packed movie. Though the past three X-Men movies failed to exceed my expectations (and even hopes), Wolverine looks like it will surely surpass the second movie as the best of them.

To be honest, I was never a big fan of X-Men, but it does make for a good movie plot. A bunch of people with laser vision, power over the weather, power over metal, telepathy, and claws! Good stuff.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins

With the success of The Dark Knight, Christian Bale has now skyrocketed to fame. Now he plays John Connor, the man destined to save the Earth and all humans from the evil machines we created. In my opinion, Terminator is one of the greatest sci-fi series-es-es ever made. Now, many people have been dissin’ the third film, and I don’t see what’s so bad about it. Sure it had kinda lame CGI, but this was 2003 people. Now it’s 2009, which means waaay better graphical enhancements!

My favorite of the three Terminator  movies is definitely part 2. It still stands as one of the best actionmovies ever made, with the best action scenes I’ve ever seen. T4 definitely will not disappoint, and if it somehow is awful, I’ll still find a way to love it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 Yes, I am a huge dork, and have read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the movies, so I am looking forward to this one. I was saddened to hear the news that it would not hit theaters in November of last year like originally planned. Oh the anticipation!

I know what exactly is gonna happen in the movie, having read the book, but I wanna see what it’s gonna look like. Can’t wait to see Dumbledore die.

Oh yeah. SPOILER ALERT!

Night At The Museum 2

Night at the Museum was a great surprise when I first saw it on DVD in…well whatever year it came out on DVD. Ben Stiller has been making some stinkers lately, but this one was a bit better than the rest. It was funny, it had heart, and it had Robin Williams. Three ingredients for a good movie right there.

I have yet to see the trailer for it (I could just click over to YouTube and see it I guess) but it I think of a few things they’re probably gonna do with it. Or not.

Review: Resident Evil 5

Wow, it’s been awhile since I last posted, and honestly, I don’t know why. God knows I’ve had plenty of time to write, but I just didn’t want to for some reason. Maybe because I’m lazy. Maybe because I’m a fool. Maybe both.

Alright, Resident Evil 5. It is the 5th installment in the popular Resident Evil franchise (like you haven’t read that on the internet already) and is set in Africa. You play as Chris Redfield, a man so stupidly muscular it’s hard to even imagine how his legs can support his body. Chris’s partner, there for co-op play with a friend online or off, is a woman named Sheva, who single-handedly took away Capcom’schance of putting Leon Kennedy, from previous RE games, into the game and increasing sales by about 4,000 copies, I’m sure. It’s so obvious that Sheva was simply thrown into the game as a pathetic attempt to boost sales with her sex appeal. I mean c’mon, the first thing we see of her in the entire game is a close-up of her ass. Shame on you Capcom for taking advantage of little boys and puberty like that.

You’ll have to excuse me if this review is somewhat lacking as I only played the first few levels on co-op with my friend, saving me from experiencing the pure uselessness that the computer-controlled Sheva apparentlybrings. Yes, I’ve read many a review claiming playing solo is a bad idea, what with Sheva being a complete idiot without someone controlling her and all.

Tee-Hee! Hope I don't miss! Tee-Hee!

Many people have claimed that RE5 is a game filled with racism, mostly because almost all the main characters (Chris, the main villain, the semi-villain, the villainess, the past character who was thought to be dead but actually isn’t) are all white, while most of the zombies(or whatever they are) are mostly black, with a few whities thrown in a couple of hordes. I actually don’t really understand why people are complaining about this aspect of the game. I mean the game is set in Africa. What did you expect?

RE5 brings back the third-person point of view and laser aimer aspects of gameplay that were in RE4. It also brings back the inventory space box thing, only this time you are limited to only carrying nine items, and they all take up the same amount of space, unlike in Re4 where an herb or ammo took up a certain amount of space, while a weapon took up relatively more space because it’s bigger. In RE5, a ammo box takes up as much space as a sniper rifle, which kinda takes away the realism. Though I shouldn’t be complaining about realism, since the game some of the most incredible graphics I’ve ever seen in a game. Just looking at a shadow, or a bloody mess of a dead body, just makes you think, “Wow.”

The gameplay works well, but could be better. For instance, everytime you shoot a zombie in the head, they do almost the exact same thing every time. They kind of jerk back and grab their faces, and then they swing back up and kinda growl at you like a cat would. Either that, or their head explodes in a shower of blood and gore. I just would’ve liked to see a bit more reactions with each area that can be shot, like the chest, back, head, and legs and arms. Is that too much to ask?

One thing you’ll notice when you first begin to play is the controls. The button mapping has changed a little since RE4. For example, in Re4, you shot with the X button (on PS2 that is), and now in RE5, you shoot with R1, or RT on 360. The changes actually make the game easier to play, and it hardly takes anytime to get used to. Aiming is with L1, reloading is with X while holding L1, and square allows you to make your character talk, for co-op purposes. They say things like “c’mon,” or ”hurry up,” which I imagine really helps when playing online without a headset.

One of the biggest pluses in RE5 for me is the cutscenes. Y’know how in some games, the cutscenes are so long (Metal Gear solid 4, I’m looking at you) and sometimes boring? Well RE5 solves that problem, because in some of the cutscenes in the game, there are reaction commands, where a icon will appear on the screen indicating which button to press to avoid something in the cutscene, mostly causing your character to duck, or dodge something. This ensures that the game keeps you on your toes, which is important in a horror game.

Of course zombies can drive motorcycles

In the game, you’ll encounter quite a few boss battles, mostly against some type of giant creature or another, so be prepared. Some beasts from RE4 appear in RE5, such as this big guy and of course the chainsaw guy, both of which are very similar to the ones in RE4, only graphically enhanced. The boss battles are relatively simple, once you figure out what you need to do to kill the monster. You may have to shoot the crap out of it with a turret; you may have to hit it in its weak spot; you may have to lure it into a furnace, escape before the door closes, and burn the crap out of it by pressing a button . Who knows?

All in all, it’s a great game to play, but it could’ve been longer. Playing the same levels over and over can get kind of boring after a while, and there’s not that many of them. And with no online competive mode, it loses lots of replay value. Thank God for co-op right?

Score: 9.2