I am Batman

So, I know this blog is supposed to be about movies. As a rule, during the school semester I do not play video games. I tend to get a little to sucked into them. With the semester at an end, I sort of broke my rule and picked up Batman: Arkham City since A) I work at a video game retailer and everyone kept talking abou it and B) I had to watch my boyfriend play it a month ago and drool secretly to myself. Breaking that rule has led me to want to write about the game, because it really is an interactive movie. (I also fell asleep during movie night this week while watching Paul, it was good for what I saw, I was just exhaaaauuuusted.) So let the review begin!

Things I loved:
1) Arkham city. It's expansive and beautiful. The over all look of this game is absolutely polished down to the T. The architecture is astonding. I'm an Art History minor and gothic architecture is one of my many loves. I walked into the cathedral in the middle of the city and could not believe the amount of detail that went into that building. It was perfect. There are so many places to explore at ground level, building tops, and even underground that you could honestly spend hours just taking a look around (if you weren't being shot at and attacked constantly by the goons)
2) Villan designs. The character models for the villans themselves are perfect. Normally I would say Harley Quinn is my favorite (she is my favorite in Batman and I loved her look in Arkham Asylum) but this time around the Riddler takes the cake. There is something about his character's overall design that just feels so perfect. My second favorite was the Mad Hatter. He's grungy I-just-walked-out-of-the-madhouse-gutter look fits so perfectly into a villanous version of the classic Alice hatter. And the corresponding Batman costume for that scene was amazing as well.
3) The story. The ending in particular leaves you staring at screen going "Is that really the end of the story? Are they going to change this somehow?" (comic book storylines always find that loop hole and it ALWAYS pisses me off) but this time you know it's the end. The main story jumps seamlessly between different villans while keeping Dr. Strange as your main focus and pulls what I will refer to as a Final Fantasy boss move. You think it's one thing and at the last moment *BAM* you were so wrong.
4) Mark Hammill. The man is a vocal genius. I give actors in general credit for what they do. But voice acting is such a refined talent that those who pull it off astound me. He IS the Joker. Done. End of story. I know many people loved Jack Nicholson in the 90s movie or even Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight but you have to admit that hearing Mark Hammill do the voice of Joker is exactly what he should have always been. I'm sad to say that this was his last outting as Joker. He's done so much damage to his vocal cords by voicing him that he announced at the begining of the year that he was stepping away from it. I nearly cried. Mark Hammill may be Luke Skywalker to many, but to me he will always be Joker.

Things I'm still Iffy about (I don't want to say dislike because I'm still torn)
1) The combat. I loved the combat in Arkham Asylum. This time around I don't get that same feel. I think it's because of the gadget set up. I hate fighting with the d-pad to choose things that are NE, NW, SE, or SW on the pad while midfight. As Batman, he's slow and needs to be timed perfectly. You also get to play as Catwoman if you are connected online. She's much faster but she doesn't have as many useful gadgets. I enjoy fighting with her more but Batman definitely wins for getting around.
2) Riddler challanges. Not the fight challenges, the hidden question marks. By the gods, some of these things are so frigin ridiculous to A) find but to B) get to is insane. But, if this were reality, I have a feeling that's exactly what he would have done. It's just cruel and unusual punishment to have to control the remote controlled batarang through electric fields across the map back to where you are and through some small port hole. *YIKES*
3) Villan side missions. Some of the side missions feel kind of pointless. The one for Deadshot. I felt kind of unsatisfied after that one. I enjoy having them there and some are pretty awesome, but not all of them.
4) Catwoman. I enjoy fighting with her and I love her character model but her story is so-so and the end game is actually kind of cheesey from what I have gotten to so far. I want to love her, but I just can't seem to get myself to. Maybe once I complete everything I'll feel better about her.

Overall this game is perfect. Just as the first one was. I love just about anything with Batman (that takes place in his world...Justice League be damned). But video games have always had a hard time recreating superheros as they exist in their comic book realm, or in the movie realm. Rocksteady for the win on this one.

As you can tell, I'm much more of a gamer than a movie person. I chose movies for this blog because I knew I could fit those in, but video games are definitely my expertise. I'm excited to go and catch up on all the games I missed over the semester. This is my final blog but I've been thinking of creating my own gaming webpage. We will see how that goes. Thanks for reading all semester. Hope you guys found some new movies to look into, because I know very few people have seen half of what I reviewed!

Next time, we don't date the girl with eleven evil ex-boyfriends

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in theaters at midnight when it released. I knew absolutely nothing about it. My boyfriend's friend wanted to see it so badly that we decided we would go to. I saw the people standing in line (even ran into people I went to High school with, for me that's a lot longer than most of you) and knew I would probably enjoy this movie. Lo and behold, I loved it.

We watched it for movie night last week, after a lenghty voting process, and it was the first time I had seen it since the midnight for it's release.

Things I love:
1. Video game references! Gaming is a language in it's own. I'm such a huge gamer, I work with video games, and it makes me happy when there are references to obscure, and popular video games in just about anything. The movie did a brilliant job at adding in "life" bars, sound effects, and hidden references all over the place.
2. Culkins!!! I've said it once (Scream 4 review) and I will say it again...I love them!! I love Keiran Culkin in this movie. He's so dry in his witty delivery of his lines! He's probably my favorite actor in this movie followed by Alison Pill (Kim, the drummer) and Michael Cera (Scott).
3. The Music. I'm glad that they put effort into the music. Since this was based on a comic series it's very hit or miss to whether or not they would really concentrate on the music as much as everything else. I really enjoy all the music in the movie.
4. Details! Every piece in that movie was placed specifically for the purpose of referencing. There is so much going on in this movie and every last bit of it is intentional. I love when a director cares enough to make sure things are done right.

Things I was not a fan of:
1. The final fight scene. Sorry if this ruins it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet, but all the other fights are amazingly done. They are super creative and paced beautifully. The last fight flies by (both times) and I think the fact that there are two fights going on at once is what really makes it suck. I think the movie could have ended on a better note.


Really the only problem I have with the movie is that fight scene. I love just about everything else about the movie. This is another one of those "geek" movies. The script is well written, the acting is quirky, the style is beautiful. I find that most people enjoy this movie for one reason or another and I think that it's a movie that everyone who is a gamer, a comic geek, or a music geek should check out at least once!

No Movie Review This Week

With Thanksgiving and Black Friday (I work in retail), I haven't had more than a few moments to myself. So I sadly did not have time to watch movies this week to review. So sadly, no review this week. This coming week, though, I should have something interesting. I'm hoping to find time to go see Happy Feet 2. That will fit riiiight in with the movies I've reviewed so far!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and that none of you are suffering from the end of semester crunch!

Great Lessons are Often Found in Defeat

http://www.onlinewatchfree.net/

One of my many obsessions is Japenese music. I watch a lot of Anime's and Japenese movies and seem to fall in love with the music as much as the twisted and often bizarre ideas found in the plots. My biggest Japanese obessions is an artist named Gackt. The most beautiful man in Japan. Seriously, look him up...he's too damn pretty for his own good. *Drool* So when I saw he was going to costar in a movie with a list of relatively big name American actors (Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Josh Hartnett, and Ron Pearlman), intrigued could not begin to name the emotions stirring within me. It was said to release in theaterS back in September...lies. One theater...in NY...for like a week. Luckily a month later it released on Amazon.com and I preordered it, because again, I'm that big of a geek.

Bunraku. An American film, created by a guy who only had two other movies under his belt. How the HELL did he get such a big name cast??? His other two movies? "Holly" and "?!"...seriously, that's the name..."?!" I've never heard of them. But apparently Demi and Woody had, and enjoyed "Holly" enough to sign on. Anyway, the plot: A drifter, a "samurai", and a bartender all have different motives, but join together to fight a common enemy.

Things I liked:
1. Gackt. Love him. He's quite the amazing fighter and a decent actor. I was pleasantly suprised.
2. Art Style. The entire movie is a cross between a pop-up book, a stage production, and a comic book. It's beautifully done, super creative, and I couldn't keep my gasps of "Oooo"s and "Aaaah"s to myself.
3. Fight Scenes. The fight scenes and the Art makes this movie. I'm extremely impressed by the choreography. The one henchman, Killer 2, practically dances as he slides in between guys, bashing their heads in. So many American movies lack that grace in the fight scenes, this one does it so beautifully.

Things I didnt like:
1. The story. It was cliche and not fleshed out enough. There was a lot of potential there but for a 2 hour movie I feel like the story was the least of my concerns.
2. The woodsman. It's upsetting to say because I love Ron Pearlman, but everytime the woodsman was on screen, I started falling asleep. I don't know if it's just because his voice was so soothing or if because his monologues were waaaaaaay too long, but I definitely almost nodded off.
3. Demi Moore's character. I could call her by her name, but I doubt anyone would care enough to remember the characters name outside of "woodsman's whore". Her character added nothing except motive for another character. We didn't physically need her in the movie for that.

Overall it's a visually appealing movie. The story was lacking but if you are a fan of movies that are simply enjoying to just watch, you should check this out. Just don't expect shakespearan writing going on here.

Worst Movies Ever

I had my cousin's wedding this past Friday night, so we didn't have movie night. But early in the week my boyfriend and I watched a movie that I was going to use. Then I decided to switch it up a bit. The movie was so bad I decided to lump it with two other movies and make this my top three list of worst movies ever.



First I'll start with "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959) by Ed Wood. It's so cheesey it's amusing. Ifyou've never seen it, don't worry about it. Watch "Ed Wood" by Tim Burton instead. It explains everything and is spot on with the pokes and prods at the original movie.

Things that make this movie bad:
1. Strings. You can see the strings on everything. It's amazing.
2. Acting. Soooo cheesey.
3. Pacing. I dare say this is even slower than Alien and The Thing rolled into one.



Secondly we have "Bloodrayne: The Third Reich" (2010) from Uwe Boll. We randomly decided to turn on it on this past week (giving me the idea for this blog). Let me just say, it was the worst idea I think we have ever had. The other two movies discussed here I was warned about prior so I went in expecting something bad. This just angered me, as you will soon see.

Things that made me want to cry:
1. Acting. If you can call it that. Woooooorst acting I have ever seen in a movie. That is saying a lot. I've seen a lot of movies. I've seen a lot of bad movies. This tops them all. This movie takes place in Germany, though you wouldn't know it if they hadn't had a very tedious opening scene to show the Nazi's running rampant. No one has an accent, well one guy did ATTEMPT to do an accent but he slips in and out of it and it doesn't have any real origin. I know I say "acting" as a problem with all the movies but what made this bad was they were TRYING.
3. Lesbian sex scene. No, I'm not appalled because I'm female and blah blah blah, a hot naked girl is a hot naked girl. None here...well, she's mildly attractive but something about these scene is just cringe worthy. Seriously, it was almost painful to watch. It was a full on sex scene with full on naked women going at it. It's bad when my boyfriend was even cringing.
4. Costuming. The vampires look like a bunch of 12 year old wannabe goth mallrats that should be hanging out in an arcade. Such a mess.
5. Fight Scenes. Remember when you were a kid and you would pick up sticks and start "sword fighting" with your friends? Remember how you would aim to hit each others stick instead of actually trying to hit each other? Well apparently that's how Rayne fights. As a kid, you probably could have choreographed and performed better fight scenes.
6. Natassia Malthe. This actress has such an irritating and childish sounding voice. She moves soooo akwardly. She can't act. She's got nothing going for her.

If I don't stop myself now I will just keep on going. For those of you who don't know, Bloodrayne is a video game. I, more than most, understand that ALL VIDEO GAME BASED MOVIES ARE TERRIBLE IN THEIR OWN WAY, but this was the third movie in the series and why do people keep giving this man movie to make more terrible movies??



Lastly, every so often we decide to watch a bad movie for movie night and we take suggestions. Someone told us to watch "The Room" (2003). After sitting through it three times now, I understand why they did. Not to say I didn't get that it was hands down the worst movie ever, but I now realize why they would inflict such pain upon another person. The only good thing to come out of that movie: watching everyone elses reaction to the movie as they realize that this was a serious attempt at making a movie!!

Things that make this one my number one terrible movie of all time:
1. Hello, Goodbye? Does no one in this movie know how to enter into a room or leave a room in a coherent manner? No? Didn't think so. People just come and go as they please and it makes no sense at all.
2. Sex Scene(s?). The (s?) is because there were two sex scenes...that were the same scene. And it was traumatizing both times. The Tommy Wiseau (who is the lead actor, director, producer, and all around idiot) is not an attractive man. NOTHING about him is attractive (see above). That includes his naked body. *gag* Even thinking back on it now I think I'm going to be sick. And you are forced to watch it TWICE.
3. The football. If you ever watch this movie, you have to do it on dvd and watch the extras. Tommy Wiseau has an interview where he addresses the need for a football in just about every scene. The use of the football makes no sense at all, and his explination makes even less sense. Watch it and you will understand. You don't even need to watch the movie, just watch the interview.
4. Story? I want to believe that there was supposed to be one, but I can't figure it out. Watch the movie. Then go to newgrounds.com and play the game. Whoever made the game found a way to make the moviemake sense. Movie = garbage, game = pure genius.
5. Acting? Nope, none here.

So I would like to let you know I used IMDB to keep my names and dates straight and whatnut. All three of these movies average about a 3.1 out of 10. Just proves I'm not lying about how bad these movies are! If you ever want to make your friends cringe check out "The Room". But be forwarned, it is hands down the worst movie ever, but it makes for great conversation!

One Roll to Rule Them All

http://www.examiner.com/

This week we watched "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising". About a year ago, my boyfriend and I decided to listen to Netflix's suggestion and gave this movie a shot. This was one of the very few times that Netflix was spot on. In this movie, a group of gamers (Dungeons and Dragons) are trying to get through a new campaign written by their Dungeon Master. But with the gamers being slightly too distracted and unable to think outside the box, they are getting nowhere fast and need to add a new player (*gasp* a female!) and learn to approach things differently. Sounds geeky to the max, right? Oh it is.

Things I like:
1) The humor. It pokes fun at itself while showing you why people find tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons appealing. I know I'm a geek, but even I thought this was going to be too much geek for me to handle. I was pleasantly suprised when I spent the entire movie cracking up.
2) Spoof reel in the credits. While the credits roll, they have all of the noteable spoofs running through. As funny as the movie is, the spoofs are amaaazing.They also have little things hidden in the credits for those who pay attention.
3) The story. What can I say? I just really enjoy this movie.


Things I didn't like:
1) Costuming. I actually think the only costume I had a problem with was on the Sorceress. Jennifer Page is pretty attractive, but that outfit made her look terrible. I know in the concept art (they kind of show you the concept art mid movie) it looked like a brilliant idea. But I figure I needed to note the only annoyance in the movie.

This is one of those movies that I just simply enjoyed. I've been wracking my brain to figure out exactly what it is I like, and I've been coming up short. Sometimes you are just drawn to things. If you are a fan of all things geeky, then this movie is a must watch.

Fear Is A Place

Instead of movie night this week, we had our annual Halloween party. So I've been trying to find time all weekend to watch a movie to review. I forgot how hard it is for me to find free time if it isn't previous designated. Luckily for the sake of this blog, I got sick...on Halloween (as I seem to do every year), and found some time to watch a movie I've had on my que for Netflix for nearly a year: Session 9. I figure, A) it's Halloween B) I need to get this movie off my que!

This one is going to involve a little bit of background. As I've stated in the past, I'm weird. To further solidify this, I LOVE abandoned mental institutions. I haven't figured out quite what draws me to them, but I love them. Furthermore, I love Batman and H.P. Lovecraft. So H.P. Lovecraft wrote about Arkham Sanitarium which is believed to be based on Danvers Asylum, the setting for Session 9. The Batman Arkham asylum is based on the Arkham Sanitarium. This was my one and only draw to this movie. I wanted to see the institution, especially since a few years ago (2005) they tore down Danvers and built apartments on the lot. And, in creepy story telling fashion, they had "mysterious" fires that burned down a good bit of the apartments.

The plot is a little less interesting. Some guys who do asbestos removal are hired to do a job in the abondoned asylum.  The institution starts to do it's damage, big suprise.

Things I Liked:
1. The Hospital. They actually filmed in the Danvers asylum. Apparently it was only a very small portion of it, but all the same, I like it!
2. Story. It was actually a very intersting story, it just wasn't done quite as well as I would have liked.
3. Jurian Hughes. The voice of Mary Hobbes. She does a great job switching between voices. For some reason, some adults are able to do creepy children very well.

Things I Disliked: 
1.Suspense. Fail. You think I would learn. Read movie description. If it says "suspense" in any form...do not watch it. Nope, not me. I never learn.
2.Confusion. I understand wanting to unsettle or leave your audience slightly in the dark but this movie was a little too confusing for me. It was all over the place. This movie couldn't seem to figure out what direction it wanted to go in and stay that way.
3. Music. At the end there is this random twinkling of very kiddy sounding music that does not fit anything in this movie at all. It was only a few seconds, but it was enough to seriously bother me.

Overall this movie was okay. Nothing I would ever look to watch again. It has it's good ideas, I just don't care for the execution. There was nothing scary about it. It was even slower than Alien and The Thing. The story was splotchy but I enjoyed the general idea. Characters were mostly two dimensional and the only one with any real depth has some vague references to something we never find out what ACTUALLY happened.

On IMDB this movie got a 6.7, and I agree with that. Though, I'm not even sure who exactly this movie would cater to. *Sigh*