Film update

My love for the cinema has been brutally savaged by the utter dissapointing messes that were the, completely unfunny and therefore faliures, Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express. And now I hear (HtLFa) Alienate People is crap also.

Why does the universe deny me the pleasure of being able to see a truly great comedy at the cinema?

Holdiay

Off on my holiday, so no time for a review. Have just seen Dark Knight and Wall.E and they are two films that have redetermined my love of cinema. They really are very, very good.

Hancock - Review

I attempted to see this film with no idea of the reviews, so that I could form my own opinion. Sadly this was not too be, and I am aware of the kicking this film has received from critics. They hated it. At first I argued with them. But they were right.

This movie is made up of two short films. Not literally, but that is the way it plays out. The first arc, the one shown in the trailers, lasts about 40 minutes, and I should say now that it is amazing. The opening half of this film is exactly what I wanted to see. Will Smith played the character perfectly, his abilities were powerful but not overly so, and his personal problems made him an endearing character. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Then that plot ends. Will Smith has superpowers, but he is a drunk. He is not a traditional superhero. Everyone hates him, and he goes to prison to reform himself. He goes through personal changes, and comes out a hero. This takes half an hour. This is great. This, if fleshed out a bit and with a strong ending, is the film I wanted to see.

But this is not Hancock. Everything after this point goes downhill. And amazingly so. There is a twist that creates a bull-shit mythology, and destroys almost all of the character relations. I felt my enjoyment slip, as Hancock, as a movie, fell apart. And then it end, for this is a very short film. A very short film, that booth looses it message and any resemblance of entertainment.

The humour was quite funny, but not enough to make this a comedy. The action was brilliant, but based upon the same premise. Super-Will Smith beats up idiotic criminals.. The plot holes are immense, and just get bigger. There are no real bad guys, and way they act defies all logic.

I cannot stress how much fun I had at the beginning of this film. I had avoided reviews, and I loved it. Then it skipped everything I wanted to see in one montage, and destroyed all enjoyment I had. The dénouement came after a half-hour, and the film that emerged after that was cringingly bad.

But I will watch this again. No matter what comes after, the opening of this film is wroth going to see. When it is cheap on DVD, or shown on T, I will tune in. But I will only watch the first half. This could have been amazing, but the film they chose to make was not the one I wanted to see. What I wanted, they skipped. So much promise. Shame.

SiN Emergence review

I recently picked up the first episode of the videgame series SiN, at a bragain price on Steam. Sadly, SiN was cancelled for unnconeccted reasons and only the first episdoes exists. Once I had finished playing, the urge to review what I had bought struck me.

Not that long ago, everyone was abuzz about episodic gaming. About how this was the future. The first big attempt at this was SiN: Emergence, the first episode in a new series. Sadly, the developers, Ritual, were bought out and SiN appears to be dead. Only the first glimpse into this series is available for the world.

SiN is a FPS that draws immediate parallels with the Half Life Series; episodic, on Steam, all first person with no cutscenes. It even has a similar loading bar. But the difference is that while Half Life is perfectly crafted, SiN is pure entertainment. The enemies and weapons are few, and can become repetitive. This is not a flawless game. Nonetheless, its weapons feel meaty, and it is well paced. You will be entertained, through well chosen humour, diversity and tougher sections. Difficulty is something targeted by the game, dynamically shifting throughout, to maximise fun. Hardly noticeable, but that is the point. The game does not break your immersion. Music, speech and sound effects all play a role in this, keeping you involved in this sort game. You sit down, and you play, a pleasure until the end.

The problem with SiN is that it has no end. The final boss is finished with a teaser for the next episode, giving more questions. Who will survive? What is really going on? The potential for the rest of the series leaves me eager for more.

And so all that can be done is to enjoy. Enjoy an underrated great. Don’t be put off because there is no sequel, but enjoy it because it is fun. And hope, that one day, the essence of SiN is continued.

Doctor Horrible

This looks awesome.

I know nothing about this. It is new from Director Joss Whedon, he of Buffy and Firefly fame. It is a musical about a failing supervillain and his attempts to win the girl, and is coming soon.

The first trailer just appeared and looks awesome, so here I am to share it with you.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

TF2 - Pyro update

This will be one of the most useless posts ever, because I have not yet played the update, and I do not in the slightest feel excited by it.

Two new custom maps and a change to the (hateful) CTF_Well. Those are nice touches. Changes to a class I have little intrest in playing, but will be swarming around the servers for the next week or so. That is the huge "meh".

On the plus, Meet the Sniper was one of the best things I have ever seen.

J-Film #14- 'The Incredible Hulk (Audio)'

still haven't found out about embedding, please go the the JXM forums and the reviews section for the download link as it wont work here, I will be writing a special film report for the bloghammer soon, so don't worry about that