Film Review - Edge of Darkness (2010)

Edge of Darkness is based on the 1986 miniseries of the same name and also directed by the man who does this new version Martin Campbell, this one however stars Mel Gibson as a Boston detective named Tom Kraven who after welcoming his daughter home ends up investigating her death after she is shot with a shotgun at point blank range on his front porch.

Alright I'll be blunt here folks, this film is entirely forgettable and judging from its box office performance, I'm not alone, Gibson's okay but he's getting way too old to be running around killing people, not to mention Ray Winstone who's pretty much unnecessary and not that memorable to begin with, I mean why not Daniel Craig in the Gibson role and Mark Strong in the Winstone role, now that's a partnership that most people would pay attention to.

But on top of that everything happens as you expect it to, I mean at one point Gibson's character is talking to this girl who's fearing for her life and the moment she gets out of the car, BAM she's run over, regular as clockwork.

So in closing, if you must see this rent the original miniseries, that might be better than this last ditch attempt to revive Gibson's career, but it would seem that the days of star vehicles are coming to an end as if this was released 10-15 years ago it would have stormed the charts, so this only gets a .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Inception (2010)

Inception is the latest film from dark knight director Christopher Nolan, the story here is that Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who specialises at mind extraction but his latest assignment is not to steal an idea, but implant one.

When I walked out of this film, I thought of a line said by Lawrence Fishburne in the first Matrix film, the line being "No one can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself." and that applies here, I'm not going to say anything more after this apart from see it for yourself.

4 and a half out of 5, a tie with Toy Story 3 as the best of 2010.

Film Review - Green Zone (2010)

Green Zone stars Matt Damon as Warrant Officer Roy Miller who is in Iraq during the 2003 hunt for WMD's (Weapons of Mass Destruction), but after a raid that goes wrong, he begins to question the accuracy of the intel given to him and searches out whether his entire purpose of being there was based on a lie.

I really enjoyed Green Zone, director Paul Greengrass moves the action along nicely as well as putting with it a compelling story about the existence of WMD's in Iraq, Matt Damon cements his status as the next Harrison Ford with a well rounded performance but like all good leads, he's backed up by some solid support with Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear and Jason Issacs who also sports a top villain moustache.

No complaints here folks, Green Zone delivers, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island stars Leonardo DiCaprio as US Marshal Teddy Daniels who is sent to 'Shutter Island' which is the name for a mental facility located on an island in the sea, but a hurricane makes getting back impossible so Daniels and his Partner Chuck played by Mark Ruffalo will have to investigate longer than they thought.

I really enjoyed Shutter Island, director Martin Scorsese knows when to wind up the music on the soundtrack to give that "Da Dum" sound and when to leave it simmering in the background like violin strings, DiCaprio is okay and does well when needed but someone like Matt Damon would have been a better choice, apart from that everyone else was well cast but one of the crazies couldn't help but make me think of Ralph Wiggum's Leprechaun, without going too much into the film's ending (and trust me, you DON'T want to know anything about it in advance) I must say that how it all resolved was something I never saw coming and on that I had to go "well done."

All in all, check it out, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Hawke (2010)

Hawke is the name of a telemovie based on the political life of the Labor party member Bob Hawke, the story here charts his days in the ACTU right up until his leadership spill in 1991.

Overall, I enjoyed Hawke and those with a keen sense of political history will to, although some younger viewers might have trouble connecting some of the dots as the events played out were a little bit before their time, Richard Roxborough was good as Hawke and having seen only a small amount of video footage of the real man, I thought that at times it was like looking at the real thing.

However, I also would have liked to have seen a little bit more, Hawke is a fascinating character in Australian politics and at times the film feels like it's skipping over a lot of stuff that might have been interesting such as the 1988 Bicentennial and the Australia Card, the other problem was that it made Paul Keating out to be the villain of the piece when it was clear Hawke had lost it by the time Keating stepped up.

All in all, I enjoyed it but I did have some problems, so a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Men who Stare at Goats (2009)

The Men who Stare at Goats is about a small town journalist played by Ewan McGregor who ends up depressed after his wife leaves him, while travelling to Iraq he meets a man named Lyn Cassidy played by George Clooney, a man who claims to have psychic powers.

This film was literally laugh out loud funny right from the first shot, which is of Avatar's Stephen Lang staring into space and attempting to run through a wall, a scene of many that had me howling, others having to do with the various and many Star Wars references littered throughout the film, in the end despite some saggy spots I was caught up in the film's strange story and enjoyed myself thoroughly, though I must advise that this film won't be for everyone and in order to get the film, you have to understand the joke behind it.

Although there are many technological terrors constructed by Hollywood these days, the ability to destroy a city is insignificant next to the power of the force, and the storytelling force is strong with this film, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Red Dwarf: Back to Earth (2009)

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is a special miniseries based from the hit UK sci-fi sitcom called Red Dwarf and the story here is that Dave Lister played by Craig Charles and the crew find themselves in another dimension where they discover they are only characters in a hit TV series due to be killed off, as a result they go finding their creator.

As some of you may be aware, I am a huge fan of Red Dwarf but after series 6, Rob Grant who co created the series with Doug Naylor left, as a result the show lost a lot of the humour and characterization that helped make the show a success, leaving only Sci-Fi heavy episodes that were thin on the characters and comedy.

But does that also extend to this new special you ask, well to answer you yes it does, there are very few genuine laughs in this special and the characters don't feel right, mainly because the actors playing them have aged big time and with the exception of Kryten played by Robert Llewelyn, it shows in several scenes.

But on top of those problems, the reference's to Ridley Scott's 1982 movie Blade Runner are very obvious to fans of that film like myself and the storyline here is very confusing, which is normally not the case with a Red Dwarf episode but this time around it left me going "what on earth" on a number of occasions plus the fact that it ties into arguably one of the top two episodes of the series again just doesn't feel right.

So in closing, if you are a newcomer to Red Dwarf, watch only the first 6 seasons as the final episode of season 6 is enough to be a fitting send off for a once brilliant and unique series, It saddens me to say this but the boys from the Dwarf have lost their lustre and the franchise needs to be retired as the actors aren't young enough anymore to get away with playing these characters and without Rob Grant who I mentioned before, a lot of what made the show a success is gone so a 0 out of 5 for this special.

Editorial - New Jack Ryan to Start Shooting Soon, Maybe?

A while back I had read that Star Trek actor Chris Pine (He played Kirk for those wanting to know) would be taking the reins as CIA Agent Jack Ryan in a new instalment of the franchise that began so very very well with 1990's The Hunt for Red October and ended with 2002's The Sum of All Fears which to date I have yet to see but have not heard very good things about.

But according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, shooting could commence sometime next year.

Now I must say that a new Jack Ryan is in a way a lot like the new Mad Max movie which George Miller is getting ready to shoot in that it will be tough to please me as like the first two Mad Max movies, The Hunt for Red October is one of my all time favourite movies mainly due it's intelligence, maturity in its storytelling, casting, thrills and nail biting tension, all handled expertly by John McTiernan, fresh off his success with the first Die Hard film two years before, the film is also my demo for how you take a book and translate it to film in a way hat satisfies fans but also brings in newcomers wanting a great thrill ride that won't leave them shortchanged.

But hey, I think that Pine is actually a good choice, reminding me somewhat of when Alec Baldwin played the part in Red October (he would only do it for this film, Harrison Ford took over for 1992's Patriot Games and 1994's The Sum of All Fears and Affleck for 02's Sum of All Fears.) hopefully the film will also deliver as well as like the new Mad Max movie, I'll be queuing up first chance I get to see it.

Link to the Empire story: http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=28323

Game Review - Transformers: War for Cybertron (PS3)

Story:

The Story of Transformers: War for Cybertron which is available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 takes place on the planet Cybertron, home world of the autobots and decepticons who have been fighting a civil war for millions of years, but Megatron who leads the decepticons has journeyed to a station believing it to hold a legendary power source called "Dark Energon" which he believes will tip the balance in his favour, meanwhile the Autobots are in disarray and need a new leader to help them fight the Decepticons, and the one called Optimus may be the only one to do it.

War for Cybertron has a very compelling story that unlike the two recent live action movies is consistent and holds your interest, although there are some complaining about how the story progresses, there is only one way this could end and I won't give that away but you may already know what that is but with that out of the way, let's see how the game feels as a whole:

Visuals:

Visuals range from very good to average, the look of the game is slightly reminiscent of last year's Borderlands in that it has a slightly animated feel to the main game play but the cut scenes are well done and nicely rendered when it comes to the main characters, but where the graphics fail is the environment, Cybertron's interiors don't have that much difference to them and will grate some players, but the exteriors are nicely particularly in the flying levels which reminded me very much of Return of the Jedi's into the death star sequence and that was a cool feeling indeed.

Gameplay:

Now here is where this game really shines and that is the mechanics, in pre release interviews Matt Tieger (the game director) and his team at High Moon Studios pressed on to no end about making the game feel right when you're playing it and if they have sacrificed graphic beauty for that then good on them, I've played a number of games that looked good, very good even but didn't play right, much like how I can dismiss a movie for having good effects work but fumbling the ball on the fundamentals of story and characters.

But any who getting back on track, the single player here is a lot of fun, and I mean a lot, the controls here are very fluid and unlike last year's Transformers game Revenge of the Fallen (yes it was one of those movie tie-in games) which not only had bland graphics but terrible controls, this one gets that right especially when it comes to your vehicle mode, again going back to ROTF the vehicle mode in that game was horrible, so much so that you didn't want to use it as you had to hold the button down to stay as your vehicle as well as aim and use your weapons and abilities.

Here all you have to do is press down on L3 and kablam, you're in vehicle mode and all the controls of your robot form are exactly the same, at times in this game it is crucial to your experience whereas in ROTF, it was an afterthought and nothing more.

But I can't mention the single player and not talk about the levels themselves, one could easily spend up to 2 hours or more on them (there are 10 stages in all, 5 a piece with the first of each available right from when you first load the game and you can also join up with some buddies and do them in a 3 player online co-op mode) and they will put you through your paces but also be fun as well, another great addition is the dialogue, High Moon have nailed like a projectile the characterization such as the banter between Megatron and Starscream as well as the individual characters like those aforementioned but also Soundwave, Warpath and Optimus just to name a few.

I know I should also mention the very deep multi-player modes of which there is Escalation, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Countdown to Extinction, Conquest, Power Struggle and Code of Power, now I must admit that I have not played the multiplayer modes (the game wanted me to download a patch before doing so which I didn't want to do) but felt I should mention them to avoid some chopping off my head (though they may do so anyway for mentioning something I haven't played.)

Any Further Objections:

Well there is one and for all of the good this game does (and boy oh boy does it ever) I did lament the absence of Frank Welker as the voice of Megatron, although Peter Cullen is great as Optimus both him and Welker's voices for those respective characters have come to define them, that's not to say that the new voice is bad, it's miles ahead of Hugo Weaving's voice from the live action films which was just his Agent Smith voice put through a modulator, it's that the Megatron voice in this game gets a bit generic if you're playing the game for long stretches of time, if you're only doing short bursts of game play then it isn't too bad.

But I do wish that Welker could have done it and really put the icing on the cake (my guess is that the developers couldn't get him), I mean last year's Batman game Arkham Asylum had both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles and Hamill stole the show, here well not having Cullen and Welker face off is a bit of a shame but despite that I can't complain.

However, there is one big thing about this game that I must complain about and that is the glitches, I have never seen a major game to have so many bugs in it, and that range from your A.I. buddies being stuck in one place until you pull a switch to activate a door or a lift to hovering in one place, but that is nothing compared to the freezing of your console after a lengthy period of play, which happened to not only yours truly but others, a pity High Moon couldn't petition for a later release to fix these problems as they do dent what is otherwise a great game.

In Closing:

To wrap this all up, Transformers War for Cybertron should go down as one of 2010's best games, with a great campaign mode and a deep multi player section plus the ability to do online co-op for the levels, there should be a lot here to satisfy gamers until the end of year onslaught, not since the double punch of Fallout 3 and Resistance 2 in 2008 have I enjoyed a game so much, if you're unsure do give it a rental but if you're a Transformers fan well chances are you already have it but this is definitely worth a purchase.