Review of Logan

17 years! Nothing shows my age more than the fact that I remember going to the theatres to see the first X-Men movie and seeing Hugh Jackman playing the role that would define his career; Wolverine. 17 years later, we are here; Hugh Jackman playing the Wolverine one last time.

Inspired by the story/character “Old Man Logan”, “Logan” starts in the year 2029. Mutants are on the brink of extinction, with no new mutants having been born in 25 years. With his healing factor, James "Logan" Howlett, formerly known as Wolverine, is still around. Living with the last few mutants left in the world, Caliban and Professor Charles Xavier, Logan works as a chauffeur and hustled for drugs for the benefit of Prof X whose mind is deteriorating due to his old age.

However Logan is approached by a woman, Gabriela, who want to hire him to escort her and an 11-year-old girl named Laura to a place in North Dakota called "Eden". Logan refused but he is soon approached by a man named Donald Pierce who is looking for Gabriela.

After reluctantly accepting the job from Gabriela, Logan discovers that she has been murdered. Logan, Xavier, and Laura escape from Pierce and his cybernetically-enhanced men but Caliban is captured. Looking through a video left behind by Gabriela, Logan and Xavier learn that Laura is a mutant breed by a company called, Transigen.

Transigen has been breeding mutant children using DNA samples from several mutants for the "X-23" project, but as the children got older, the company found the children to be more difficult to control and decided to put them down. The nurses taking care of the children however thought differently and helped the children to escape. Gabriela is one of those nurses and approached Logan because Laura was created using Logan’s DNA. She is, for all intent and purpose, Logan’s daughter. From there, it’s a road trip with the trio trying their best to get away from Pierce and get Laura to safety.

First off, let’s get to the elephant in the room. Yes; not only is “Logan” is not only the swansong of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, it is also the swansong of Patrick Stewart as Prof X. Both actors have indicated that this is the last time they would be portraying the characters and after seeing the movie, I hope both keep their word because this movie is a hell of a way to say goodbye.

“Logan” is great! It is not just a great superhero movie; it is a great movie period! A lot of people have said the movie is like a western and I could see why. Logan and Prof X are like two aging gunslingers going out on one last ride and they went out like heroes! This is a fitting end to the characters and I hope I never see Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart as Wolverine and Prof X ever again because they set the bar high in this movie and it’s just that hard to see how they could top it.

Not only that, “Logan” also set things up nicely at the end for Laura to take over the role as the Wolverine. Considering that X-23 has taken over the name of Wolverine in the comics already, this would exactly be in line with the comics. FOX could even use her and her friends as X-Force.

The only unfortunate thing about the movie is the lack of a good villain. This has been the problem with the Wolverine movies from the start and it continue on with this one. Pierce was never a true threat to Logan and X-24 is just forgettable. Dr. Zander Rice might as well be named Mad Doctor XXX.

Outside that problem, the movie was great. “Logan” is a gritty, violent, but thoughtful superhero movie that in my mind is the best X-Men movie ever. The bittersweet yet uplifting end of the movie reminds me of the ending of La La Land; sad, sweet, and perfect. Watch “Logan”, this movie is great! 

Review of John Wick 2

What is the strangest Hollywood action franchise currently in existence? If your answer is John Wick, then give yourself a clap because you are right.

In 2014, an action film starring former A-lister Keanu Reeves came to the screen and knocked everyone’s socks off with non-stop, stylist, beautifully choreographed action scenes. It was a fun film that was a surprise hit. Come 2017 and we now have John Wick: Chapter 2 and it is still a non-stop, stylist, beautifully choreographed action film!

Director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves doubled down on what made the first film tick and then went on a “world-building” mode as we get to see the world John Wick is set in. Set shortly after the end of the first film, John Wick tracks down his stolen 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 at a chop shop owned by Abram Tarasov, brother of Viggo and uncle of Iosef. He dispatches Tarasov's men in a violent fight that heavily damages his car but spares Tarasov after getting an agreement of "peace" between the two.

After arranging repairs for his car, John is visited by Italian crime lord Santino D'Antonio who called in a “marker” John owned him. An unbreakable promise between the two parties, John had no choice but to agree to kill Santino’s sister, Gianna. After doing the deed, as John expected, Santino send his men to kill John to tie up loose ends.

They failed and Santino put out a $7 million open contract on John's death. John goes after Santino and while he managed to kill his men, Santino himself escape to the Continental. He makes it clear that he intends to seek indefinite refuge there but John shoots and kills D'Antonio, opening himself to retaliation from the whole of the underworld.

As I wrote earlier, John Wick 2 is a doubling down of John Wick so if you like the first movie, you would probably like this one as well. The movie is bigger, with more car chases, more gun-fu, and more locations. The film starts with a bang and the action do not stop.

It is also pretty funny with some comedic moments mixed in. The script and plot is nothing to write home about but the witty dialogue was a pleasant surprise and served the film well. Helping this is the simple fact that few can served up one-liners with a face more stonily than Keanu Reeves.

However don’t hope for any emotional scenes like the one in the first movie where John screamed at Viggo on why he needs to kill his son just for killing his dog. John Wick 2 is a far less emotionally engaging film than the first movie, and there aren’t a lot of people to cheer for in this movie. The movie makes no bones about the fact that almost everyone, including John Wick, is a “bad-guy” and the movie is about bad people killing worse people.

Still, if you are looking for an action thrill ride, you can’t go wrong with John Wick 2. This is one film that’s know it’s an action flick and is unafraid to show it. Watch it!  

Review of La La Land

The movie award season is upon us and this year the hot favourite to sweep the season is the feel-good musicial, La La Land. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, La La Land is director’s Damien Chazell’s follow-up to his 2014 film Whiplash and much like Whiplash, music played a big role in the movie.

Gosling’s Sebastian Wilder is a musical purist in LA who has just spent his last penny trying and failing to open a jazz club in the city. He meets Stone’s Mia Dolan and the movie is about how the duo chased their dreams amidst setback after setback. Back by strong performances from the two leads, smart direction from Chazall, and good songs; La La Land is one of those strange movie that managed to be both a great romantic comedy and a wonderful drama.

In short, it is great!

It is an exceptional film that pays homage to classic musicals while making it’s mark on the genre. Some people are already calling the movie a classic; I won’t go that far but I can see why they would say so. La La Land is an endearing film that you could watch endless times without getting tired of. Director Damien Chazell had a clear vision for the movie and he implemented it beautifully.

In this, he is helped ably by Gosling and Stone who gave it their all in their performances. The two leads are not natural singers or dancers and that, strangely, played well in the movie. Emma Stone was especially good in this movie and I would be shocked if she didn’t win Best Actress at the Oscars. Honestly I never thought much of her as an actress before La La Land. She’s cute and commendable but I never thought of her as a great actress. I do now. 

I also have to give pops to the ending of this movie. All I can say is “WOW”! The bittersweet ending was just perfect. It shows the cost the two leads made to make their fantasies happen, yet at the same time, it was not a downer but a celebration. Yes, there are scenes of what-could-have-been and they were beautiful in themselves, but in the end these two made it and they were not going to give up their success for anything.   

La La Land is nominated for a record-tying fourteen Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards. I’m pretty sure it won’t win that many but after watching the movie I can understand why they got so many nominations. It is just one hell of a movie. Watch it!  

Review of Rogue One

When I heard that Rogue One was out, I thought it made sense for Disney to make the movie. After all, The Force Awakens was nothing but a remake of A New Hope so for Disney to go back to the lore of A New Hope makes perfect sense for the gutless wimpy company that created Mickey Mouse.

Rant off; now onto the movie.

Rogue One is the latest of the Star Wars movie and unlike The Force Awakens, it is very different from all the previous instalments of the franchise. More than any of the other Star Wars movies, this one was a war movie and in a way, it’s strange it took them so long to make a war movie of Star War because…well, the whole saga is about the never-ending war between good and evil right?

More importantly, the movie works!

The movie is about the construction of the Death Star and how it affects lives even before it began blowing up planets. The movie starts with Imperial weapons developer Orson Krennic catching up with fugitive research scientist Galen Erso. Krennic need Galen to complete the Death Star and Erso's wife Lyra was killed in the ensuing confrontation. However their daughter Jyn managed to escape and is taken to safety by Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera.

Fast forward 15 years and we now see the adult Jyn in prison. However she was soon busted out by the Rebels. At the Rebels main base on Yavin 4, Rebel leader Mon Mothma informed Jyn that the Rebels broke her out for a reason; a pilot Bodhi Rook had defected from the Empire and he claims he got a message from Galen about the Death Star. However this pilot is being held by Gerrera.

Led by Rebel intelligence captain Cassian Andor and his droid K-2SO, Jyn travelled to Jedha in an attempt to extract Rook. With the aid of blind spiritual warrior Chirrut Îmwe and his mercenary friend Baze Malbus, Jyn makes contact with Gerrera who shows her a message from Galen. Galen had secretly built a weakness into the Death Star and directs them to retrieve the schematics from a high-security Imperial data bank on the planet Scarif to discover it.

However the Imperial knows something is up and Krennic orders a low-powered shot from the Death Star to destroy Jedha's capital, causing the death of Gerrera and his group. Grand Moff Tarkin congratulates Krennic on the success of the Death Star before using Rook's defection and security leak to take control of the superweapon. From there, it becomes a race as the Rebels tries to steal the plans from Scarif while the Imperial try to find out what Galen was hiding from them.

Just looking at the plot of the movie and you could tell that Rogue One is no remake. To me, that by itself makes the movie far superior to the imitative crap called The Force Awakens. Rogue One was also helped by some solid performances. Felicity Jones was solid as the lead, but I was really impressed by Mads Mikkelsen who made the most of a very limited role. His performance as Galen was nothing short of excellent and he even managed to make Galen’s dying speech work for him. Considering how ridiculous the dialog was, that took skill!

There was also some beautiful action in this movie. The battle of Scarif was sprawling and confusing, but that’s the way it usually is in war and the movie didn’t shy away from that. The movie also didn’t shy away from the deaths. I won’t spoil the ending but I must say I’m a little surprised by the final death toll of the movie.

I shall always say director Gareth Edwards, writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, must all be massive Star Wars fans because they successfully made a Star War movie that link neatly into the existing plot of the original Star Wars trilogy. As it has been widely said almost by everyone who had seen the movie, the end of Rogue One goes neatly into the start of A New Hope and that was great to see.

However not everything in the movie worked, especially the middle section of the movie. There was a lot of moving parts as the story jump from planet to planet, and not always for a good reason. It seems that the writers believe more locations equal to the movie being more epic, so prompt have the characters flying all over the place.

The movie also assumed you had watched all the Star Wars movies already. When Jimmy Smits showed up as Bail Organa, the movie assumed you know who and how important he is. Same goes for Mon Mothma, Grand Moff Tarkin, and several others.

Overall however, Rogue One is a fine addition to the Star Wars saga and gives me new hope (pun intended) that Disney is not going to destroy the franchise as I had feared after The Force Awakens. Watch it! 

Review of The Accountant

Much like his good friend Matt Damon, I always found Ben Affleck to be a strange person to be an action star. However much like Matt Damon, Affleck has been a surprising effective action star. “The Town”; “Batman vs Superman”; and now Affleck did it again in “The Accountant”.

The film has Affleck as Christian Wolff, a mathematical genius who works mainly as a forensic accountant for dangerous criminal organizations that are experiencing internal embezzlement. Such work got the attention of the U.S Treasury Department whose director, Raymond King (J. K. Simmons) want to catch Wolff before his retirement.

However all the Treasury Department knows of Wolff is that he is good, and that his alias is "The Accountant”. With little to nothing to go on, King blackmail young Treasury analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to help him identify and arrest the “Accountant”. With the heat on, Wolff was advised by his friend "The Voice" to lay low and take a non-criminal account.

The case is auditing the books of robotics corporation Living Robotics, whose in-house accountant, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), found suspicious financial discrepancies. The company's CEO, Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) willingly cooperates with Wolff's investigation while believing Dana's findings to be a mistake. Wolff discovers that $61 million dollars has been embezzled from the company. From there, Wolff finds his life in danger as an assassin (Jon Bernthal) target him for death and he find that Dana is also targeted by the assassination team.

Now I know the reviews of “The Accountant” have been decidedly mixed but I enjoyed it immensely. Ben Affleck is excellent in this movie, giving a committed performance that brought Wolff to life. Whether he was killing assassins or solving math problems, Wolff was a believable character.

In fact, I say the cast on the whole was excellent. Both Simmons and Bernthal made the most of their limited time on screen and Cynthia Addai-Robinson gave Medina the right mix of intelligence and desperate to make the character work. However the best part of the movie for me was the slightly sweet, off-beat feel of the movie.

This film has several complex things going on at the same time; pained social interactions, brutal intense action scene, complex math accounting problem; yet the movie does works! Director Gavin O'Connor works in the twists well and for an action film, the movie has some surprising emotional depth. I could see the connection between Wolff and his assassin a mile away but when it happened, the scene worked remarkably well. A lot of that has to do with the acting but the direction of the film also helps.

Having said all that, some things in the film did not work. The reviews of the film is mixed and while I don’t agree, I can see why that’s the case. Like I said earlier, the movie has many gears in play and you can argue that there was too much. The movie has a scattershot feel to it and fans who like their action movie to be focused on good guy- bad guy action will be disappointed with this film.

On the whole, I thought the movie to be excellent and I would highly recommend it. Much like “John Wick”, I have a feeling “The Accountant” will be a franchise. If that’s true, then I will be here for the sequel. It’s good. 

Pokémon GO

After getting a new HP last week, I’m finally joining the monster mobile named Pokémon Go. After playing it for a few days, I will say this of the game. It’s fun, it’s addictive, but I doubt it’s going to have a long shelf life.

Using a player’s smartphone camera and GPS signal, the game put players in the shoes of Pokémon trainers. Going around the real world, players now can enjoy their childhood dreams of being Pokémon trainer and to become the next Pokémon Champion.

In many ways, Pokémon Go is great. I know many people worry about going to places to catch the Pokémon but I don’t see as a problem here in Singapore. Everyone know where to go and at certain places, there’s no shortage of the little monsters. I started the game at Vivocity, walked to Sentosa, took the tram to Siloso Beach, walked to Fort Silso, U-turn back, and took the tram back to Vivo. By then I was level 8 and my bags was full.

It took me about 2 and a half hours but it’s not that difficult. It’s just a walk. The walking aspect is really the highlight of the game. The world aspect of the game is superb. On Sentosa, I was walking to the tram when I saw 2 girls running across me with HPs in hand. I then checked and noticed a Lapras in the area. I followed the girls to the waterfront and 8-10 Pokéballs later, I got my Lapras. Without those girls, I would probably still be missing the Pokémon.

In many ways, Pokémon Go is the first true mobile MMO where many players play together. No one playing alone in your room. This is a true MMO where you will see players of all ages playing. However after a few days of the game, I could see some problems with the game.

Simply put; there’s not much to do. Take away the walking and catching, there’s really nothing more to the game. The Gym battles is simple and, if you are the attacker, easy. The catching of the Pokémons isn’t that difficult, and well, that’s all there is to the game.

Even for a mobile game, the gameplay is really very sparse. I think the game need a lot more to hold on to the players it currently has. If the game can do that, then the future looks bright. If not, then it will get into problems very quickly. In all, what Pokemon Go lacks in polish and depth, it makes up for with a fascinating social experience. It’s a fun game. Let’s all of us see if it has legs. 

Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen by Richard Roberts

Anyone who has been reading my blog knows I’m a big fan of Richard Roberts’ “Please Don't Tell My Parents” books. “Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen” is the third book of the series and after reading it, I must say I like the new direction Roberts is taking the series.

At the end of the second book (“Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon”), Penny Akk (still determined to be a superhero) decided that the best way to be recognized as a superhero was to have a second super identity outside supervillain Bad Penny. A challenge from a schoolmate gave her that chance but after a public fight at a school football match, Penny’s parents shut down her superhero career before it could begin.

However all is not lost because the public superpowered fight encouraged more of her schoolmates to come out in the open with their powers. As it had been hinted before, a lot of kids at the school have powers and as they joined Penny’s official superpower school club, Penny became de facto leader of them. The school even roped in retired supervillain, Bull, as an advisor.

Unlike the first two books, “Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen” is more of a coming-of-age story and you know what; I dig it. The members of The Inscrutable Machine are growing up and Roberts isn’t afraid to show it in this book. Ray is thinking of leaving L.A; Claire is thinking of a solo career as a cat burglar; Penny actually starts the book as a solo superhero. Kids grow up and when they do, they drifted apart. It would have been easy for Roberts to just continue their adventures as a group, but credit to him for not taking the easy way out.

The story has morphed from the misadventures of a trio of 13 year old kids to a story of these same kids grappling with the future, sometimes to their own surprise. Penny found out she don’t really like being a leader with underlings. She could do the job but would much rather spent the time she has toying with her inventions and hanging out with her friends. Claire understood her best friend would rather be a hero, so she’s considering how she could make it as a solo villain (I don’t see why she can’t hire henchmen. With her money and powers, controlling henchmen should be a breeze).

Ray even has two potential careers outside the normal superhero/supervillain routes lined up once school is done. This is a bit of world-building from the writer who built a world where superpowers are if not normal, at least not rare, so it make sense there are careers out there for superpowered people who do not want to fight.

Character growth seems to be the name of the game in this book, and not just for the main characters. The side characters also got their moment in the sun. Claudia reconciled with her father, Bull, and is seriously considering ending her superhero career as Generic Girl. Marcia actually stole items from both heroes and villains to gain superpowers, and became friendlier with Penny because of it. Bull retired and became a superpower mentor at school. Several new side characters were introduced in this book and most of them also grew in personality and power throughout the course of the book. At the start of the book, Beaddown was certain her powers were useless for combat but at the end, she was one of the most powerful kids with a versatile power setup. My personal favourite was Charlie who went from joke of the school to someone who could make it.

I also like the fact that sometimes the superpowers give as much problems as benefits.  Gathering Shadows has superhero parents that believe her power set are not suitable to being a hero and Marcia’s new powers makes her crazy. It’s not always roses when you have a superpower and that’s how it should be.

Having said all that, I can understand why some fans did not like this book. It’s honestly a different kind of book from the first two. “Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen” is more sedate and lack the energy of the first two books. In some ways, this is understandable. Put together, the first two book took place within 2 months. The timeline of this book is about half a year. It’s much slower paced than the earlier two books.

Also, there’s not much of The Inscrutable Machine being together. Again, this is due to the structure of the book which has Penny, Claire and Ray doing their own thing most of the time. Sure, they are together in school; Penelope and Ray get on with their relationship on; and Penny and Claire went on a heist; but there’s little action with all 3 of them together. Like I said earlier, sometimes growing up means drifting apart.

Overall, I have to say this was an excellent book. It doesn’t clear the high bar set by “Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain”, but I have to rate it as better than “Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon”. Just be warned; it’s not the same book as the first two. “Please Don't Tell My Parents” is a coming-of-age story, not an action-adventure story. Personally, I liked it. A lot! Bring on Book 4, “Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have a Nemesis”.

Overwatch

I generally do not play shooters. Yes, I had played some of them before. I have the first 2 Borderlands; I have Spec Ops: The Line; I had played some Counter-Strike, but that’s about it. I’m generally a RPG gamer.

However Overwatch isn’t so much a game but an event. Blizzard had delivered the PR campaign of the year to hype up the game and yes, I had been sucked into it. I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all. I don’t mind because Overwatch is a great game. Not just a great first-person shooter, but a great game period!

On the surface, Overwatch seems pretty much like any other shooter out there. It has a simple formula of two teams of six each trying to win a match. Victory conditions change according to the map; escort missions, control of objective points, or capture of positions. However what make Overwatch different are the heroes.

Overwatch has 21 characters called heroes and they are the heart and soul of the game. They are very different from each other. There is the giant gorilla Winston who has high hit points and can put up a circular shield to defend an area. There’s the dwarf engineer Torbjörn who can build an upgradeable defensive turret that shoot any enemy that comes into range. There's Hanzo who is a sniper and has an ultimate basically kill everyone in its path. There's Tracer who can blink from place to place and even reverse her actions to correct mistakes she made seconds earlier.

Now all the 21 heroes are categorized into 4 different areas; attack, defense, tank and support, the trick Blizzard pulls is this; several of the heroes overlap into different areas. Mercy is a strict support character, a healer who can resurrect fallen allies. Zenyatta is also a support character. He can heal but his main ability is actually a debuff that lowers the defense of enemies. He also has long range attacks to take advantage of the debuffs he put on enemies. So you have 2 supports with 2 very different play-styles. Now times that by 21 and you can imagine the sheer number of combinations this game supports.

Not only that, the game is also very charming. The world Overwatch is set in is filled with load of background info and trying to find these Easter Eggs is part of the fun for a lot of fans. The game's highly detailed character design is nothing short of superb. No two characters look alike and many times you can see the intended role of the character just by looking at it.

The gameplay of Overwatch is a hydra that is very impressive. In fact calling it “very impressive” is an understatement as the way the characters, maps and gameplay interact with each other is a lot more than that. No two matches of Overwatch are the same as players can switch characters mid-match according to the ebb and flow of the match. In fact, switching characters is almost necessary, especially in Competitive Mode, to be successful. This actually helps keep the game fresh as players faced situations that can change in a hurry. Simply put; there’s no one single way to play Overwatch. There are many ways to play the game, sometimes even in a single match.

Overwatch is also a very fast-paced game. When I first saw the demo, I was surprised by just how fast it is. I was a little worried at the pace at first but after playing awhile I think the pace might be a good thing for the game. Matches can be quite fast and it is a game I can see players logging in for 30 minutes of fun before logging out. Also Overwatch has been such a phenomenon there will be no shortage of players in the foreseeable future so no problems on that front.

Of course, there are some problems with Overwatch. For the life of me, I can’t understand why there’s no story mode. I can understand no one play a shooter for the story (look at the lack of success of Spec Ops: The Line if you disagree), but the characters and world are just begging for a story mode. The game is literally filled with them, and Blizzard clearly put a lot of effort in the lore of the world, so why not a story mode? That makes no sense to me.

Also, how much you enjoy the game will depend a lot on the players that are on your team. I lost count of the number of matches I lost because certain players on my team went chasing after the enemy for a kill instead of playing the objective. Defending a control point is especially bad when you have such players on your team. They will chase the enemy outnumbered 2vs6, get killed, and then the enemy will roll over the rest of the team 6 on 4. It just pissed me off sometimes.

On the whole however, this is one game I have to recommend. I mean I’m not a shooter guy and I can get into the game so you can just imagine how fun it is. Buy Overwatch; you own it to yourself to play this game! 

Review of Captain America: Civil War

After Captain America: Winter Soldier (which I liked a lot), Captain America seem to have taken over the mantle of the main Marvel franchise from Iron Man. For most of Captain America: Civil War; that view holds up.

Taking place about a year after Avengers: Age of Ultron, the movie starts with the Avengers laying in wait for Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo in a cameo). In the ensuring fight, Rumlow blows himself up, hoping to kill Captain America (Chris Evans). Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) saves the Captain by moving the blast into the sky with telekinesis.

Unfortunately, the blast destroys a nearby building, killing several humanitarian workers from the kingdom of Wakanda. The situation becomes a political hot potato and U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) informs the Avengers of the Sokovia Accords. The Accords will establish a UN panel to oversee and control The Avengers.

The team is divided on this with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) supporting the accords and Rogers wanting the team to remind independent of any government. At the UN conference in Vienna where the accords are to be ratified, a bomb kills the king of Wakanda. Security footage shows the bomber being Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier. The new king of Wakanda, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), vows vengeance.

Informed of the government's intentions to kill him, Rogers decides to bring in Barnes, his childhood friend and war comrade, alive. The situation escalates and The Avengers are spilt into two, with members either with Iron Man or Captain America.

Now, as a movie, I thought Captain America: Civil War was excellent. Much like the recent Batman vs Superman, it asked serious questions about violence and vigilantism only this time, the movie has guys on both sides of the equation. This gave Captain America: Civil War an advantage as the movie is able to switch views convincingly.

Credit must also be given to directors Anthony and Joe Russo who managed to successfully juggle all the characters in the movie. Everyone got a chance to shine, even long mostly forgotten heroes like War Machine (Don Cheadle). However the best lines go to new heroes like Spiderman (Tom Holland), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) so it’s not like the directors don’t know where the current Marvel movie is going.

The action was mostly solid and with a strong story, everything looks great…until the end of the movie.

Say what you want about Batman vs Superman, but one thing almost everyone agrees on is that BvS landed the ending. The ending of that movie was great. It was wonderful. The ending of Captain America: Civil War unfortunately sucks!

I won’t spoilt the ending here but after all the fights, the arguments, and the big reveal near the end; Stark and Rogers came to an “understanding”. The unfortunate thing is I can’t understand how that understanding came about after just a letter and a promise of future help?

I’m sorry but even for a superhero movie, that’s ridiculous. I can understand Marvel felt a need to have both Iron Man and Captain America staying friendly with each other for the movies going forward but this ending looks like something from another movie. It just doesn’t make sense.

That in essence was the movie. A good, almost great, movie that was utterly destroyed by an ending that came from another movie. Good movie…pity about the ending though. 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I heard a lot about this book but never got around to reading it. However there are many people who love the book, including Steven Spielberg who is making a movie based on the book. After reading it; I must say I get it. I understand why so many love this book because I felt in love with it too!

Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction and dystopian novel by Ernest Cline. Taking place in the not-so-distant future of 2044, the world is in the midst of an energy crisis with no solution in sight. Luckily for the people of the world, there is OASIS.

A worldwide virtual reality system that operates like an online utopia, OASIS is a place where anyone can plug into to play, work, study, and meet up. For protagonist Wade Watts, it is heaven. A heaven that got rocked when OASIS creator James Halliday died and left a will that would leave his entire fortune to the person who finds his Easter egg.

The richest man in history, an erratic and dying Halliday created a game in OASIS that requires people to find 3 hidden keys in OASIS that would open 3 hidden gates also found in OASIS. A great scavenger hunt in the vast OASIS where everyone can play and anyone can win; Halliday’s game caught the imagination of millions including Wade. 5 years after Halliday’s game came into being, Wade (or his online avatar) became world famous for being the first person to find the first key and open the first gate. With billions on the line however, Wade soon find that he has to dodge danger both online and in real life to win the game.

Now reading the synopsis of the book, one would think this was just another novel with a virtual reality angle to it. That is both right and wrong. It is true that this is a novel with a heavy dose of VR but Cline changed things up beautifully by filling the novel with pop culture trivia. In the book, James Halliday is a reclusive nut who never quite outgrown the 80s. So every devilishly complex clue on his treasure hunt is rooted in the 80s and to complete the game you need to have an intimate knowledge of 1980s pop culture.

That’s what the gunters like Wade do. They filled themselves with 80s pop trivia and we readers got taken along with the ride. What comes out is a ridiculously fun novel celebrating the 80s. There are times where Cline even offers a detailed explanation of 80s pop culture. Want to know how to get the highest score in Pacman? The details of how to do it are here and I am certain there are many people who read this book and either discover or rediscover a joy of the 80s.

Another thing about this novel is how fun it was. Yes, at its heart, this is a book for anyone who has felt like an outsider, a geek, or has grown up in the 80s; but it is also far more than that. This is a novel with heart, with characters that have flaws and made mistakes but never stopping despite the huge odds in front of them.

Despite how fun this novel is, I have to admit there are some glaring flaws in this novel. For one, the brisk pace can be too fast. Outside Wade, you know really know the other characters outside their assigned stereotype. Even Wade suffers from this, being a generic loner for most of the novel. There’re also a lot of coincidences in this novel. I won’t spoil it but the ending of the novel requires several coincidences to come together for it to work and suspension of disbelief is a requirement to accept it.

However I find Ready Player One to be a delightful novel that is a must-read. I disagree with people who say the novel has nothing going for it but nostalgia. It has a lot more than that. Read it and find out for yourself. 

Review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

If you need me to tell you what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, then you are obviously a guy I don’t know and someone I have no interest in knowing.

The first feature film to show both Batman and Superman together has been promoted like crazy by Warner Bros. Pictures. The backlash by critics and Marvel fanboys has been just as intense. So in the end, who is right?

I fall strictly on the side that says Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a kick-ass movie that do not deserve half the criticism it has been receiving. Luckily, I’m not alone because fans throughout the world has been flocking to see the movie. At last count, the movie earned over US$750 million and still counting. No matter what they say, this movie is a hit and a richly deserved one.

Directed by Zack Snyder, starring Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, the movie begins 18 months after Man of Steel. The destructive attack by General Zod in Metropolis has made Superman a controversial figure. Half the world fear him and the other half worship him. On his part, billionaire Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a potential threat to humanity and aims to find a way to stop him. Superman also has the same view on Batman, seeing the Bat of Gotham as a threat who do more harm than good.

Outside the two, other players are also in the action. LexCorp's mogul Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) tries to convince Senator June Finch (Holly Hunter) to allow him to import Kryptonite retrieved from the Indian Ocean as a "deterrent" against Kryptonians. He also wants access to Zod's body and the Kryptonian scout ship. Gal Gadot appears as a woman named Prince who also has an agenda of her own.

In the end, Lex orchestrates events that force Batman and Superman into conflict and unleashes a monstrous creature called Doomsday. A monster so powerful, it require Superman, Batman and Prince to join forces to defeat it.

Now considering all the criticism the movie has been getting, you must be wondering what I like about the movie. Simply put, I like the fact director Zack Snyder takes so much risk with the movie.

Unlike the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this is a movie that has a vision and is bold enough to implant it. In some way, I think that’s one of the reason why so many people dislike it. This is a movie with its’ own vision of the superheroes and does not care about the previous visions in other movies. Case in point; Batman.

Ben Affleck’s Batman is one that has been operating in Gotham for over 20 years and is jaded by his fight. Forget the vision by Christian Bale, Michael Keaton or Val Kilmer; this is a brand new Batman that has never been seen before in film and that was great.

I also like how the movie refuse to hold your hand. Gal Gadot’s character is clearly Wonder Woman but the name “Wonder Woman” was never mention once in the movie. Ditto for the only characters. Aquaman; Cyborg; The Flash? You don’t know who they are? Too bad. Go Google it. This movie do not serve things up on a plate and I love it!

The ending fight was also very good. When Wonder Woman show up and you could see the Trinity together for the first time; Wow! (You don’t know who are the Trinity? Go Google it).  The performances of the main actors were also very good. Ben Affleck's performance as Batman was excellent and Gal Gadot made good use of her character’s limited screen time.

However, I’m less of a fan with the performances of some of the other characters. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor was strange. So much so that I just can’t take him seriously as a threat to Batman or Superman, much less both of them together.

The movie was also a movie of 2 halves. The first half was a mystery with Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and Prince moving quietly to get an advantage on each other. The second part of the movie was more like a regular superhero movie with fights and destruction the order of the day. The two halves perhaps does not gel as well as they should.

On the whole however, I thought there were way more pluses than minuses in the movie. The critics are wrong about this one, this is a very good movie. See it and judge for yourself. 

Review of Deadpool

Like its comic book character, the movie version of Deadpool is like a cockroach that just refused to die.  The movie version of Deadpool first showed up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine where the character ended up with it’s mouth sewn shut and it’s head chopped off.

However using the Days of Future Past reset, director Tim Miller with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick totally ignore the version in X-Men Origins and created a version far similar to the character’s comic book origin. As the box office shows, it worked! With a total gross of over US$600 million worldwide, Deadpool is a huge gamble that had paid off handsomely for 20^th Century Fox.

Reprising his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, actor Ryan Reynolds is Wade Wilson. A former Special Forces operator who now works as a mercenary in New York City, Wade meets escort Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) at a local bar and they become romantically attached. One year later, Wade proposes to her and she accepts. However Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer and though Vanessa chose remains by his side, he does not want her to watch him die and enter a secret program that offers a possible cure for his cancer.

At a laboratory, Wade met Ajax (Ed Skrein) and Angel Dust (Gina Carano) and discover the program he signed up for was an experimental one where they try to awaken the latent mutant genes within the subjects. To do this, the subjects are subjected to days of torture to induce stress and to trigger the mutation. Ajax also reveals to Wade their true purpose: to make super-powered slaves to be sold to wealthy customers.

After horrendous torture, Wade develops a healing factor that cures his cancer but also leaves him severely disfigured as a side-effect. He escapes and attacks Ajax but hesitated when told that his disfigurement can be cured. Using the moment of hesitation, Ajax manages to defeat Wade and impales him with a bar. He then leaves Wade for dead in the burning laboratory.

Of course, Wade survived and after consulting his best friend Weasel (T.J. Millar), Wade decides to hunt down Ajax and have his disfigurement cured. He becomes a masked vigilante and takes the name of (you guess it) "Deadpool". His confrontation with Ajax leads to a huge battle along an expressway which got the attention of two X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Ajax escape from Deadpool and goes on the counterattack. He goes to Weasel's bar with Angel and learns about Vanessa. In response, Weasel calls Wade and tells him Vanessa is in danger but they were too late. Ajax and Angel kidnapped Vanessa and Deadpool is forced to enlist Colossus and Negasonic to help him rescue her.

As I said earlier, Deadpool was a huge gamble. One of the reasons it was considered a gamble was the simple fact that it was an R-rated superhero comic book adaption. There’s just not many of those around. Luckily the brutal combat and foul-mouth antics gives the film a crazy energy that fits the character to a T and film-goers are lapping it up.

A lot of the credit has to go to Ryan Reynolds. I will admit I’m not a big fan of the actor. His CV has far more misses than hits and I never understood why he’s considered a big movie star. Deadpool makes me “get it”. I finally understand why people in Hollywood like him so much. His performance here proves to me he can be great if given the right role and this, Deadpool, was a role he was born to do. His winking while breaking the fourth wall was especially effective.

The movie was also gleefully irrelevant. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it more interested in creating a fun movie. That it does manage. Deadpool is fast, funny, and mercilessly not family-friendly. The encouragement Deadpool gave his Indian taxi-driver was hilarious, totally unkid-friendly and has some of the best scenes in the movie.

Of course, the movie is not perfect. For a movie that’s so wonderfully non-standard, the ending was very much so. A damsel-in-distress, a tortured hero, and a happy ending; been there and done that. It just doesn’t gel with the rest of the movie.

Also, I never felt there was any danger to Deadpool. Ajax and Angel were just not creditable threats to a guy who can regenerate a hand that’s been chopped off. This is one movie that required a bigger badder villain than what was on offer. On the power meter, Ajax and Angel just weren’t on the level of Deadpool and that was a problem.

However, I would still recommend the movie. The movie is a breath of fresh air much like Guardians of the Galaxy, and I think that’s a good thing for the superhero genre. Deadpool is very much a black comedy and one that works. Come on Cable!

Valkyria Chronicles

First developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 in 2008, Valkyria Chronicles made the jump to the PC last year (Nov 2014 to be exact) and after playing it, I have to say it is every bit as good as critics says. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy game that’s set in an alternate-reality World War II. However calling it just a turn-based strategy game is to do it a disservice. Valkyria Chronicles also incorporate JRPG and third-person real-time shooter in it.

The campaign is presented in a book format with each new chapter showing a significant moment of the war, and each chapter (bar one) has at least one battle you need to fight through. At the start of the battle, you see a top-down map and you need to deploy your forces. After the deployment phase, the game starts and you are given a fixed number of command points per turn from the perspective of the map. You use a command point to select a unit, and the camera will zoom you in over the shoulder of the unit you selected. You move the unit and there’s a bar at the bottom of the scene showing your movement points. You can’t move once the bar reached zero and enemies will also shoot at you if you get too close. When you aim, enemies stop attacking and you are shown a circle cross-hair to line up. Once the shot is done, you can move if the unit still has some movement points left. Then you use another command point to select another unit. Once out of command points the enemy takes their turn.

If this sounds a little confusing, that’s because it is. It took me awhile to get used to it but once I did, I found the gameplay to have a lot of depth. The unique combat system forces me to learn strategies on a few different levels. The map view makes me a commander, having to constantly think of the movement and positioning of my units. Zooming into a soldier offered a different perspective, a more personal one that shows the danger the unit is it.

The gameplay does not only involve the battles. Outside the battles, you can train and equip your squad members at your Headquarters. You will also need to select the members of your squad. There are about 50 to choose from and each member has his/her personality, including which characters they prefer to work along. Each of them also has a full page of back story that is only revealed as they fight.

However what made the squad system works is the threat of permadeath. If a downed character can’t be evacuated in three turns, they are gone for good. So as the battles piled up, the thoughts of keeping the members of your squad alive becomes paramount. You become attached to them. The developers obviously know this because one of the achievements available is for the permadeath of one of your experienced squad member. Those bastards!

The game is also pretty long (coming in at around 40 hours) and difficult. More than a few of the battles require smart deployment of your squad and smooth movement of them. It is challenging and very satisfying when you beat it.

The story is also very good. The entire game is contained within a fictitious book entitled "On the Gallian Front" by Irene Koller and revolves around Welkin Gunther, son of a war hero. Upon returning to his home town of Bruhl, Welkin's life was soon swept away by the invasion of Gallia from its’ eastern neighbor. Gallia has a policy of Universal Conscription and partly due to his father’s past war heroics, Welkin was drafted and given command of Squad 7 of the Gallian Militia. Serving as a tank commander, Welkin and Squad 7 began their campaign to fight the Imperial advance into Gallia.

It’s a story of war and all the heroics and ugliness that comes with it. You see story characters die in the midst of war, fighting the good fight. Characters who comprised their principals in the name of the greater good. Characters who managed to find love and become better people in the ugliness that surrounds them. I will admit the story is melodramatic and heavy-handed at times, but it does works.

Of course no game is perfect but I can only think of one for Valkyria Chronicles. The control for tanks can be a little twitchy at times.  Moving the camera around sometimes means the tank would turn as well and I could never understand why. However outside that, I can’t really think of anything to complain about.

So don’t wait and get this game. With its’ unique gameplay, strong story and good art, Valkyria Chronicles is a game you need to try. Who knows? If sales are good, then maybe Sega will port Valkyria Chronicles II & III to the PC as well. Buy it! 

Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

No need for me to tell you what Star Wars: The Force Awakens is because you have to be living under a rock not to know about it. Breaking box office records left, right, and centre, the latest Star War movie is also the first from Disney after they bought out the franchise from George Lucas.

The hype for this movie is such that even non-fans of Star Wars had to see the film just to see what it was about. Kudos to the marketing team at Disney; they deserved a raise for the promotion of the film. That is especially the case now because after seeing the movie…I have to unfortunately say I didn’t like it.

Now I know the movie has been a hit with audiences and it is already one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, but I’m afraid that has more to do with the Star Wars brand than the movie itself. Now I won’t say Star Wars: The Force Awakens has no redeeming features or that it’s worse than the Star Wars prequels, but it’s nowhere near as good as fans say it is.

On the plus side, the actors in the movie gave strong performances and it was especially great to see Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford back as General (no more Princess or golden bikini) Leia and Han Solo. Ford especially seems to be having a great time and stole every scene he was in. The newcomers fared less well but there’s no Jar Jar in this one.

The movie also boasts many action sequences that were very good. The air battle at Takodana between the Resistance and The First order comes to mind, but there were others like Rey's and Finn's escape from Jakku in the Millennium Falcon.

However for me, the minuses far outset the pluses.

The main problem I have with the movie is the simple fact that it's not a "new" Star Wars movie. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a remake of Star Wars: A New Hope!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens’s chief protagonist, Rey (Daisy Ridley), is basically Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. The relationship between Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) is similar to what Luke and Han had in A New Hope. BB-8 is R2-D2 (with a secret map/message included). Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is Darth Vader and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo is Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi (in more ways than one). Now having characters that are similar to the characters in A New Hope is one thing, but having the same plot as in A New Hope?

The opening scene has The First Order arriving on Jakku, a desert planet like Tatooine. We have Rey and Finn escaping The First Order guided by a smuggler, Han Solo. We have a superweapon, The Sunkiller, that’s capable of destroying planets which the heroes need to destroy by attacking a small weakness in it. Hell, the final X-Wing assault on The Sunkiller is almost a carbon copy of the attack on the Death Star!

Halfway through this movie I thought I was watching a remake of A New Hope. When the credits started rolling, I knew for a fact that I was watching a remake. I mean the prequels sucked, but at least Lucas was trying something different. This one is more like director J. J. Abrams wanted to remake A New Hope but decided to call it Episode VII instead.

I know Abrams is a great Star Wars fan but there’s a difference between paying homage to something and…well, rehashing everything. There’s not a shred of originality in this movie, almost everything was recycled from the other Star Wars movies. That is just ridiculous.

As a rule, I don’t write review of movies I don’t like but I have to make an exception for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I wanted to like the movie so much and I think I would have…if someone had told me beforehand that I would be watching a remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. 

I mean it's not even A New Hope version 2.0. It was simply "Star Wars: A New Hope (The Remake)"!

Tomb Raider

I’m not a fan of Tomb Raider. In the long history of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, I think I had played only 1 of the games (forgotten which one) and seen 1 of the movies (mainly due to the then young and still hot Angelina Jolie). So it’s fair to say I’m not a fan.

This game changed that.  

Tomb Raider is a 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise showing a young, green and inexperienced Lara Croft in her first adventure. For that reason, it has been dubbed Tomb Raider: Year 1 by many fans. In many ways, Tomb Raider: Year 1 is correct.

The game begins with Lara setting out on her first expedition aboard the ship Endurance, with the intention of finding the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Against the advice of others, she ordered the expedition to venture into the Dragon's Triangle, an area east of Japan known for its violent storms. The ship was struck by a violent storm and shipwrecked, leaving the survivors stranded on an isolated island.

Lara was one of the survivors and as she tried to locate the other survivors of her ship, she found evidence that the island was inhabited. Strange carvings, dead bodies, animal sacrifices, cultists all proved to her that the island had been inhabited for a long time and that the island she washed up on was the legendary island of Yamatai. Not only that, she became convinced that there was something mystical about the island.

However the story of Tomb Raider takes a backseat to the gameplay and the characterization of Lara. The game emphasized the origins of Lara, showing her development to become the character everyone knows and love. Many people say this was the highlight of the game and I fully agree on that. After playing the game, I finally get it. I finally understand why so many people love Lara Croft so much. Like I said earlier, this game made me a fan.

I especially liked the fact that this Lara Croft was one who bleeds and gets dirty. Good use of cut-scenes shows Lara hurt, injured and desperate. Even when you were in-game playing Lara, you could see the dirt on her and that by itself makes this game better than previous Tomb Raider games.  The game also made sure to show that Lara is no saint. She makes mistakes and has a tendency to believe she knows better than everyone, even when she acknowledges that others were more experience than she was.

Not only that, the gameplay was excellent. The visual of Yamatai was great and the game itself was exciting. Many times during combat, I found myself holding my breath. Some of the puzzles and hidden tomb locations were also very well done.

Of course the game was not perfect. The multiplayer was non-existent because…well, no one’s there. A lot of the achievements in the game are in the multiplayer so if you are one of those who aims for 100% completion; sorry but you’re out of luck.

Also, Lara Croft was emphasized so much in the game the rest of the cast became pretty forgettable. Most of them could be easily be put into generic tropes like dead mentor, insane bad-guy, lovelorn potential boyfriend etc. Tomb Raider was about Lara Croft, Lara is the Tomb Raider. Everyone else was a secondary character that weren't worth remembering.

Overall, Tomb Raider is a game I would highly recommend. It’s an exciting action-adventure game that would not only please old fans of Lara Croft but also bring new fans to the franchise. Bring forth the sequel; Rise of the Tomb Raider!

Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon by Richard Roberts

I loved "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain". That book was great fun so I didn’t waste much time in getting the sequel. "Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon" is that sequel and once again author Richard Roberts had gave us a fun delightful read.

The story picks up one month after the end of “Supervillain”. Our three protagonists; Penelope Akk, Ray Viles, and Claire Lutre, are now card-carrying supervillains. However even 13 year-old supervillains need to attend school but as you would expect, the trio are bored out of their minds.

After the high of taking on and defeating adult superheroes, school is just boring. Penny, Ray and Claire are just itching to do some villainary so when criminal mastermind, Spider, offered them a job to go into space, the trio literally jumped at the opportunity.

Before you can say “Kids going to space”, Penny had built a bio-spaceship called the Red Herring and off they go towards Jupiter. Once there, they discovered that they weren’t the first humans to go so far from Earth and that human colonists from Earth has been there for decades. Not only that, the colonists are spilt into several groups that don’t like each other very much and they are all at war against aliens from beyond the solar system.

She may be a supervillain, but Penny still thinks of herself as a good person so she tries her best to help out the colonists. She even thinks she could forge a superhero identity in Jupiter, far from the villainous reputation she built on Earth. However after some initial success, her inventions made things decidedly worse and Penny has to go back to what she do best; be the supervillain that saves the day!

Now one of the things I love about "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain" was how fun it was. Like they say, don’t spoil a good thing and "Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon" followed that advice to a T. The wild fun hijinks are all here with The Inscrutable Machine (T.I.M) trio facing their problems with villainous panache.

Richard Roberts also got a lot of world-building done in this book. Not only did he make “History” Penny’s favorite subject in school, he also went into the history of the space colonists. We basically got the general details of what happen in WW 2, the discovery of America, all the way to the story of Achilles and Troy. Achilles as a bulletproof superhuman? Yes, more of that please. If Roberts ever get tired of T.I.M, I would suggest he try his hand at writing a novel featuring historical figures as people with superpowers. That would be fun.  

“Blew Up the Moon” is also a much more serious book than “Supervillain”. Unlike the first book where the heroes and villains walked away from conflicts relatively unscathed, many characters in this book got severely injured due to all the fighting. There's even terrible genetic horrors which were created by mad scientists but are now went out of control and intend to eat humans.

The ending of the book is also something I enjoy. The colonists dislike each other with a passion but they know they have to work together at times to face off against outside forces like the aliens. Having failed to help them as a hero, Penny went to what works best; be the villain. She became the “Big Bad” that the colonists have to unite against and even managed to inspire the colonists’ every first superhero “The Kluge”. Now that’s not something you read about often.

As fun as “Blew Up the Moon” is, I have to agree with the people that say it does not match up to the quality of “Supervillain”. The main problem I have is the fact that the space adventure brought T.I.M so far from Earth. Most of the side characters in the first book did not show up in “Blew Up the Moon” and that is a big minus in my mind. Instead of Bull and Master Scorpion, we got Chief, Fabulous and Remmy. Sorry but the Fawkes siblings just aren’t as interesting.

I also can’t help but feel the book was rushed. I read somewhere that the writer sped up the writing of this book due to the success of “Supervillain” and I think it shows. There were parts of the book where I had to go back to figure out what happened; when did that character showed up; where did that invention came from? Perhaps more time with the editors would have served the book better.

Overall, "Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon" is still a book I would recommend. It’s not as good as "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain", but that is a high bar to clear. Take it on its’ own, and you will find that this book is great fun. I can’t wait for Book 3.

Review of Inside Out

The race for this year's Oscar of Best Animated Feature Film is over. Pixar has won the award many times before with films like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E and several others; they are going to get another one this year with Inside Out.

Inside Out is set in the mind of 11 year old, Riley Andersen (Kaitlyn Dias). Five emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), lead Riley through life as they influence Riley's actions and memories. Joy is the chief and this cause Riley to be a bubbly happy young girl.

Things change when Riley's parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) moved to San Francisco and this caused changes in Riley's personality. As Joy tries to maintain Riley's bubbly outlook, Sadness began to grow more powerful, changing Riley's outlook in life.

Now growing up can be a bumpy road and in Inside Out, we have one of the best film ever made showing the joy and sadness of growing pains. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, viewers get a front row seat on the turmoil that goes on inside her mind.

This film is without question close to the heart of director Pete Docter who has publicly said that he too faced problems when his family relocated to Denmark when he was young. The experience must have been a great help to the director because the heart of this film shines brightly. The story may be simple but it was touching as hell with adults more than likely to shed a tear or two as the film progresses.

I loved the way the film didn't try to dumb things down. Inside Out is smart and pull no punches as it shows the innocence that is lost as one grows up. What's more, the film wasn't shy about it's message that even "bad" emotions like anger and sadness are needed for a child to grow up to be a well-adjusted person. Now that's takes courage, especially for a animated movie.

Yes, I will admit that the kids may have some problem understanding this film. The film also takes a little while to get going but that's about it. Outside those minor details, the rest of the film is just pure gold.

Hell, forget about the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Inside Out is bold, sweet, funny, sad, and heartbreaking. Even the accompany short animated film, titled Lava, was great. Forget about the Animated Oscar, this film deserves at least a nomination for Best Picture. It is that good!

Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts

Penelope Akk is a 13 year-old with unusual problems. She is the daughter of two retired superheroes whose identity aren't secret. Her dad, Brainy Akk, is a super-genius scientist and her mom is known as "The Audit" (she solved crime using maths and calculating the odds).

So Penelope (Penny for short) set very high standards for herself. The daughter of two of the most brilliant and intelligent superheroes in the world, Penny is the kind of girl who gets disappointed with a B. Not only that, she "needs" her superpower to kick in yesterday.

One day in middle school, it did. Her superpower is here, and she's more than a little excited about it. Problem is Penny wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents, so she "needs" to be a superhero. Unfortunately she's got the ultimate mad science power, letting/making her invent crazy gadgets she doesn't even remember making . Fortunately she got two super powered best friends and the trio look out for each other.

Even when one of them, Ray, decide to destroy the science fair of their middle school. However a superhero's sidekick was laying in wait and when the fight begins, Penny and her friend, Claire, join in alongside Ray. Thus was born "The Inscrutable Machine", the  youngest supervillain group in the world's long superpower history.

After getting labeled as supervillains, Penny and her friends discovered one important thing; they enjoyed being villains. More importantly, Penny learns that she's very good at it. Thus begins the legend of the supervillain "Bad Penny"!

First off, do not let the cover or age of the main character fool you. Author Richard Roberts has managed to create a book about superheroes in a way that's quirky, fun, and fascinating. Usually YA (young adult) books appeal strictly to the young but "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain" present interesting characters and a fascinating plot that will appeal to older people as well.

Penny and her friends are complex, realistic people that are complex, realistic 13 year-olds! Growing up around famous (if retired) superheroes, the trio are amazingly competent but at their age, they do still make silly decisions. However they learned from their mistakes and take advice from older, more experienced heroes/villains like they are supposed to.

Like most 13 year-olds, they also get carried away sometimes. When they meet up with a famous superhero during a fight, one of the first thing they want to do is to get his autograph! When they meet up with their first real supervillain group, one of their regrets was forgetting to get the villains' autograph. Also they could have stop their mischief at any time, but were having too much fun to truly consider it. Something even Penny, who actually wants to be a hero, privately admits to.

I also love the relationship between the trio. Penny may be the leader of the team but the trio are friends first and they listened to each other, sometimes to their deterrent. However they get into trouble together and they get out of it together. Their team is smaller and weaker than others so they rely on teamwork (and the fact most heroes don't take them seriously).

One thing about the book I really like was Penny's power. I loved the way Roberts wrote it. When her super-invention powers kicks in, they are called "episodes" and Roberts wrote them in a way that I have never read before. When the "episodes" happened, Penny could direct her powers in the direction she wants but she doesn't have control of it. In a way, the power controlled her and at first she can't even remember what she built. As the book goes on, Penny could direct her powers to build something she wants, but the process of building the gadget is a total blur to her. It is so perfectly mad-scientist that I can't believe no one had tried it before.

Of course the book is not perfect. I found it to be pretty unrealistic that the trio prevailed every time. I'm willing to stomach a little of it, this is a superhero book after all, but outside one battle against a young superheroine called Generic Girl, the trio came out on top every time. The last battle in the library was especially unrealistic. The other group was bigger, more experienced, and actually took the kids seriously. Sorry but I just can't accept The Inscrutable Machine winning against those odds.

Also there are many characters that just disappeared after showing up. Master Scorpion and Bull are characters I want to read more of but both disappeared after showing up for their one brief scene. I especially hope Bull will show up in the sequel.

Now, I know books about superheroes has a checkered history but if you need to read one superhero book in your life; pick up "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain". This book is great and I highly recommend it. It was vibrant fun and I look forward to the sequel.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Bioware had a lot riding on Dragon Age: Inquisition. The third installment of the Dragon Age series, Inquisition had to make up the lost sales of Dragon Age 2 and get the franchise back on track. It mostly succeeded.

Personally, I never had been a great fan of the series. I thought Dragon Age: Origins was a good game but was overrated. It wasn’t anywhere near as great as many would have you believe. Dragon Age 2 had a great story, but the gameplay wasn’t as good and it didn’t allow you to have as many choices as Origins. Bioware obviously took into account fans’ complaints during the production of Inquisition and the result was a game that’s the sum of its predecessors. 

The story takes place after the events of Dragon Age 2 with the Mages and Templers in all-out war. The Chantry is trying to de-escalate the situation and holds a peace summit. You took part in the summit when things go badly wrong.

Once you recovered, you discovered that a big blast killed everyone at the summit except you. Not only that, there’s now a big hole in the sky and demons from the Fade are using it to enter your world. Your job is to stop the demons, closed the hole in the sky, and find out who targeted the summit.

At its heart, Dragon Age: Inquisition is an action role-playing game and in many ways it is superior to its predecessors. The behind-the-back combat view took a little time for me to get use to but once I did, the action flows. I also like the fact that the Qunari race is playable for the first time, and considering the number of Youtube videos out there showing Qunaris in-game, I’m not the only one.

The idea that you’re not just the leader of a bunch of adventurers, but the leader of a movement that aims to reform the world and bring order to it was very well executed. Your inquisition will sent followers to scout regions, undertake missions, require power, play politics, do investigations; and all these actions are tied, some loosely I admit, to the story. This allows you to have a sense of epicness; that you are truly playing for the world.

However in many ways, it is the little things that Dragon Age: Inquisition really shines. The small pieces of lore scattered all over the place, the small details in the elf temple, the decisions you make in the throne room; these are what ultimately set this game apart from the first two.

Of course the game is not perfect. I found the tactical view to be terrible. It is almost useless especially when you encounter multiple enemies standing close to each other. Some of the specialization classes are also overpowered, some even say the Knight-Enchanter class is unkillable. It’s an exaggeration, but only just.  

I also find the Dragon Age Keep to be a stupid. In theory, Dragon Age Keep allows players to have an ability to import their save files from the first two games into Dragon Age: Inquisition. If players of the previous games do not have access to their save files, they can go to a website, Dragon Age Keep, in which they can detail the major plots of the previous two Dragon Age games. In theory, this allows players to customize their games without having to replay of the initial games.

In practice however, Dragon Age Keep can mess up because it does not save the files onto the game. Everytime you enter Inquistion, the game will go to Dragon Age Keep to get the files. I actually went and change the info on my Dragon Age Keep because I wanted to start a second game. Once I done that however, the info on my first game got change so I got a game whose world history was changed halfway into the game. Talk about breaking world immersion

On the whole however, Dragon Age: Inquisition is a good game. An epic story (that admitting loses steam halfway), detailed environments, excellent combat, good voice acting, makes Dragon Age: Inquisition the best game of the Dragon Age series. 

Review of Jurassic World

I went into the theatre with very low expectations, but left thinking that this movie was much better than it had any right to be. That in short is Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park film series.

Jurassic World starts 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, with the dream of billionaire John Hammond now realized. Jurassic World is a fully-operational theme park island, full of dinosaurs for kids and adults. However operating a theme park with living dinosaurs is very expensive and the park’s team of scientists led by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) engineer a new species of dinosaur in an effort to attract lucrative sponsors and increase attendances. As expected, it is a terrible idea with the new dino, Indominus Rex, soon breaking free of its enclosure and heading off on a homicidal rampage across the island.

As I said earlier, this movie is much better than I expected. I think director Colin Trevorrow must be a fan of the series because he knew just what to do. He paced the movie well and managed to film a summer blockbuster that’s also a character-driven movie. Sure there are scenes of carnage but it’s never mindless and it always works in the context of the movie.

The film is also ridiculously funny in parts. Look out for a scene when Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) turned back to help Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), only to have Claire running right past him without a care. It had the whole theatre laughing. The chemistry between the two leads is also the reason why the romance between Owen and Claire works. You can see quite clearly why these two very different people may fall in love despite been chased by man-eating dinosaurs.

I also love the way the movie paid homage to the original film, part of the movie even took place at the original headquarters of Jurassic Park. Outside that, the story is also very close to that of the original. Man’s ambition creates great things but with greed, arrogance and hubris, our ambition also creates chaos and death. That’s just the way we are.

Of course, the film is not perfect. The main villain Vic Hoskins’ (Vincent D’Onofrio) idea of using raptors as weapons in the U.S Army is stupid. I understand that suspension of disbelief is needed for a movie about dinosaurs but the idea is so out there, there’s almost no redeeming quality to it. I mean the army doesn’t even use lions or tigers and this character wants them to use raptors? That’s not crazy, just stupid.

On the whole however, Jurassic World is a very good movie. The deft hand of director Colin Trevorrow gave us a wonderful adventure film that’s accessible to all and it’s a worthy sequel to the original Jurassic Park. I was never a huge fan of the Jurassic series, but this movie made me look forward to the next movie in the series.

That’s just how good Jurassic World is.