The Dark Knight Rises - A Review

4 Stars - Good

So the final film in Chris Nolan's Batman series is here, and sad to say it's probably the weakest of the three.

I do like this film and felt it had a lot of good stuff going for it, but I also had a few issues with it. It wasn't very exciting, some things felt a little superfluous and there wasn't an awful lot of Batman in this Batman film...

That said the performances are very strong, especially Tom Hardy as Bane, who returns the dignity to the character that he lost back in Batman and Robin much as he sounds a bit like Sean Connery, and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, who steals the film and is quite possibly the best Catwoman outside of the comics ever.

I felt there was little too much time spent on Joseph Gordon Levitt's character, which meant there wasn't enough time for Batman. Also there is a moment with Levitt that will make you cringe, I won't say what it is, but you'll know it.

The name'sh Bane

To sum up, I do recommend this film, but at the same time I feel slightly let down. But only slightly.

Prince Of Persia Retrospective: Prince Of Persia

At the conclusion of the sands of time trilogy, Ubisoft had a brave idea: to reboot the series again, keeping the parkour elements of the previous games, but changing just about everything else. The result is Prince Of Persia, a game that is given far too much of a bad reputation.

You play as a character called The Prince, though it is unknown if he actually is a prince or just someone else, as he never refers to himself as such during the game. The Prince is out in the desert looking for his donkey, amusingly named Farah, when he is run into by a woman named Elika who is running from soldiers. The Prince decides to help her get to a nearby temple. Along the way she discovers that she has some limited magic powers, such as recovering The Prince from falls. Arriving at the temple they are too late to stop Elika's father from cutting down the magical tree inside, which begins the process of unleashing Ahriman, and ancient evil god. The Prince and Elika set off to heal the lands from corruption by making it to several 'fertile grounds' and using Elika's magic to remove the land of Ahriman's evil. Along the way they must fight four of Ahriman's most loyal soldiers, these being The Concubine, a trickster who relies on illusions; The Hunter, who uses vicious blades and traps; The Alchemist, who controls large amounts of corruption and The Warrior who is too powerful to fight head on. Along the way Elika gains several new powers and learns that she died and her father released Ahriman to bring her back to life. Upon healing all the lands they journey back to the temple, where they must fight Elika's father, who is now overcome by corruption and through Elika's magic they manage to seal Ahriman away once more. However victory comes at the price of Elika's life. The Prince carries her out of the temple and then, almost without thinking cuts down the magical trees and releases Ahriman once more so that Elika could live.

The story was very strong, with the new characters having good emotional development over the course of their adventure. And even Elika's father was a very understandable villain and was made quite sympathetic.

The gameplay is interesting, there was an open world set up where you could choose your own path of the story, and while this gave a certain freedom to the player, it caused the biggest problem, there was no difficulty curve so it was all too easy. The combat was also less than great, with the previous fluid style of the old games pushed aside for a blocky uninteresting style. That said the real joy of this game came from exploring the world after you'd healed the lands and there were no enemies to fight and the parkour was just as fluid as ever and the cell shaded look of the world is absolutely gorgeous.

To sum up, this is a good game, with clear flaws that Ubisoft should have stuck with and tried to improve with sequels. It is truly a horse of a different colour and should be treated as such, and just enjoyed for what it is, not criticised for its lack of similarities to the previous series.

Prince Of Persia Retrospective: The Two Thrones

Following the canonical ending of Warrior Within, where the Prince kills the Dahaka and leaves the island of time with Kaileena and the two become lovers on the return voyage to Babylon. However, their arrival is greeted by attack and Kaileena is captured. The Prince rushes to action to save her, journeying through the emptied streets of Babylon and wondering how such a thing could have happened. When he finds Kaileena, he also finds The Vizier from the first game, who is alive; since The Prince stopped the sands from ever being created, he never released the sands, which means he never reversed time to before he released the sands, and therefore never killed The Vizier. The Vizier has overrun Babylon after also having conquered The Maharaja's kingdom. He ritually sacrifices Kaileena with the dagger of time, releasing the sands; in the process The Prince is infected through a wound by the sands, but manages to grab the dagger of time and as such is protected from being completely turned into a sand monster. He must now set out to kill The Vizier, starting his most personal adventure yet, because this time it is his people and his kingdom that are in danger. Whilst journeying, The Prince learns that the infection is turning him into sand monster, called The Dark Prince, at times of stress and that the Dark Prince is talking to him in his mind, The Dark Prince is more vicious than The Prince and is pushing him to his murderous goal. Along the way The Prince is reunited with Farah, who has been captured by The Vizier when he conquered the Maharaja's kingdom. Farah of course does not remember The Prince as their adventure in Ahzad never happened, but The Prince remembers it all, giving him deep conflicted feelings for Farah. The two journey and defeat The Vizier who has become a sand monster with godlike powers, winning the hearts and minds of the people of Babylon along the way. But then the Prince must overcome the Darkness within himself and stop The Dark Prince from conquering his mind. He then takes charge of his kingdom and tells Farah the story of their first adventure. Ending his story for good.

This game felt like a solid conclusion to a great series. The story had a fair bit of the dark edge of the previous game toned back, but still had some similar elements to that, for example The Dark Prince felt similar in many ways to The Sand Wraith in terms of tone.

The characters had good arcs, with The Prince feeling extreme guilt as his actions caused the attack on his home, albeit indirectly, and if he had simply allowed the Dahaka to take him then many more lives would have been spared. However his guilt is not enough to stop him from setting it right.

The gameplay is as strong as ever, with platforming containing new elements and combat being incredibly fluid. Though now a focus was put onto stealth, which felt fairly organic to The Prince's athleticism. The only slightly bad bits were a couple of Chariot race sequences which didn't quite feel like a Prince of Persia game, but by no means ruined anything.

To sum up, this was a good game to end the series on, probably second best out of the original trilogy and I would highly recommend playing it.

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World - A Review

4  Stars - good

A romantic comedy at the end of the world. Hijinks ensue...

Dodge (Steve Carell) is a boring guy, who when it is announced the world will end, doesn't know what to do. He meets Penny (Keira Knightly) and they set out to find his long lost love and return her to her family, and along the way the two fall for each other.

This film has a lot of good laughs and some real emotional weight to it. All the characters, except for one annoying guy who's only in it briefly, are funny, clever and seem very real. A particular noteworthy performance is Mark Moses as a news anchor, who had a really powerfully emotional scene near the end, and got some great lines throughout.

The romance portion is believable, if a bit predictable, but Carell and Knightly do a really good job and make you give a damn about the characters.

I will break your heart

To sum up, this is a good film, and should be seen.

Prince of Persia Retrospective: Warrior Within

Seven years after the events of Sands of Time The Prince finds himself being chased by a demonic entity known as The Dahaka, the guardian of the timeline, which is out to kill The Prince for unleashing the sands of time, even though he set it right. The Prince journeys to the island of time so he can travel back through time and convince the empress of time to not make the sands. On the way there his ship is attacked by a mysterious woman in black and an army of sand creatures. Shipwrecked and stranded on the island of time he follows the woman, Shahdee, through a portal in time; he finds her trying to kill another woman, Kaileena, so he decides that the enemy of his enemy is his friend, so he fights Shahdee to save her. Kaileena reveals that the empress is locked in her throne room and the only way to open the door is two incredibly difficult to get to and activate levers. The Prince achieves this task by going through both the present and the past to open the throne room door, at many points being chased by The Dahaka, which has followed The Prince to the island. Upon entering the throne room Kaileena reveals that she is, in fact, The Empress; The Prince fights and kills her, preventing her from creating the sands, which means The Dahaka should have no quarrel with him. Upon returning to the present The Prince discovers that The Dahaka is still chasing him, and realises that killing Kaileena is what created the sands, dejected he slumps down in a dungeon of the island, where he discovers an inscription telling about The Mask of the Wraith, which allows the wearer to go further back in time than before to have another chance. The Prince journeys to the mask, which turns him into a monster called the Sand Wraith so he can bring Kaileena to the present and kill her there so that he could never have released the sands. Then depending on whether or not you got all the life upgrades during the game you fight either Kaileena or The Dahaka. Then return home your task complete.

This game is often criticised for being too dark and angsty, trying to fit in with the emo generation. I personally love the darker elements and think the story is a wonderfully twisting and clever time travelling epic. The Prince has reason to be angst ridden what with the horrors he is facing and it seems to fit the story.

The platforming is as strong as ever, with several new elements added to make it more fun and flowing, leading to some truly spectacular sequences. Especially when The Dahaka gives chase and the tension is just dripping off the screen every time you slightly miscalculate a jump.

The combat went through a massive change here, becoming far more flowing and suited to the fast and furious parkour movements of the prince. A Big step up from the previous games clunky repetitive nature. Also added was the ability to pick up weapons from the enemies and use them in combat.

To sum up, this is my favourite game of the series, and absolute masterpiece that is a strong contender for my favourite game ever.

Prince of Persia Retrospective: The Sands of Time

Before I start this retrospective, I should mention that I am not including the original two games or Prince of Persia 3D as I've never played them...

Nearly ten years ago now, way back in 2003, my family's PS2 broke, as such we ordered another one, and that came with a copy of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. A game I was not familiar with and didn't know what to expect when I thought I'd give it a go. I soon fell in love with it and it became the start of my favourite series of games to date.

Sands of Time is a reboot of the classic Prince of Persia series, and as such is a platform based game with numerous vicious death traps and puzzles. Since the nature of the game caused several instances of unavoidable death to try and figure out how to traverse areas, Ubisoft Montreal came up with the idea of giving the Prince the power to rewind time, therefore giving you several chances to try each area before dying for real.

The story is as follows. You are the Prince of Persia, the arrogant, hard headed son of Sharaman. Sharaman's army attack the palace of a Maharajah with the help of a treacherous Vizier. The Prince finds his way into the treasure vault and takes the mysterious dagger of time as his prize, this is what grants him the power to rewind time. Upon arriving in Ahzad, Sharaman presents the Sultan with the hourglass of time, also taken from the vaults; The Vizier then tells the Prince that he can unlock the Hourglass' full potential with the dagger. The Prince does what the Vizier says, but this unleashes the sands of time, which engulf the palace, turning all but The Prince, The Vizier and Princess Farah, daughter of the Maharajah to sand monsters. From here The Prince and Farah must navigate their way through the death traps of the palace and return to the Hourglass so they can set right what he did wrong. On the way they must solve puzzles, kill the Prince's father and climb through various difficult puzzles. However once they arrive, The Prince hesitates and they fall to a mysterious chamber where they possibly have sex, however it may well be a dream. The Prince wakes to find Farah has taken his sword and dagger, he manages to make his way back up to the hourglass, but is too late to save Farah, who falls to her death. The Prince, in his distress over the death of Farah, leaps to the hourglass and rewinds to before it all started, he then tells Farah his story, which acts as a framing device for the whole game. He then kills the Vizier and leaves, with Farah not knowing if his story is true or not.

The story is very well played out with both main characters going through a lot of development, which admittedly is erased for Farah by the end of the game, but still is is very good and holds up to multiple playings.

The gameplay is the best feature of this game, with the most unique and fun platforming abilities in any game series ever. Wall running, pole swinging, column climbing and a host of others make just getting through every room a great joy to figure out. However the combat at this stage was a little blocky and repetitive, and needed clear improvement.

In short, a fantastic game and a start to a brilliant series. A must play.

The Amazing Spider-Man - A Review

4 Stars - Good

Amazing Spider-Man is another telling of the Spider-Man origin story, just with better actors, better writing and better action.

The cast are great, all of them being characters you can relate to and take seriously. Andrew Garfield is clearly having the time of his life playing Spider-Man and he brings a lot more emotional weight to the role than Toby Maguire ever did. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy is wonderful, and the chemistry between her and Garfield is very strong and believable. Rhys Ifans makes a great villain as the Lizard, who is actually somewhat sympathetic. Also Martin Sheen is a magnificent Uncle Ben, really giving  a good relationship with Peter so you feel the pain when he is killed.

The action is creative and intense, making full use of Spider-Man's powers to have the fights sprawl across walls, rooftops and through the air. The camera work on these is a little iffy in places, but not completely film destroying.

They're doing the Lizard? Oh come on...

In short, a good Spider-Man film, and a much better telling of the origin than the one ten years ago.

Beginners - A Review

4 Stars - Nice

Beginners tells the story of Ewan McGregor starting a relationship with Mélanie Laurent whilst also coming to terms with the death of his recently out of the closet father Christopher Plummer.

The story is simple and told well, the acting is downright spectacular. Earning Christopher Plummer his long overdue Oscar.

If I had to pick a fault I'd say that at times it tries a little too hard to be quirky, like its trying to capture the feel of a lot of films of recent years, and whilst it often doesn't have to try to hard, the prime example being dog subtitles, at times it can get a little grating for it.

About time, too...

In short, this film is nice and I'd say worth a watch

Killer Joe - A Review

5 Stars - Disturbingly good

A family of trailer trash Texans hire Killer Joe to kill their mother for the life insurance policy on her. As they can't pay in advance Joe demands the young daughter as a retainer.

This film is disturbing on many levels, and it is excellent. Matthew McConaughey gives one of the best performances of his career as Killer Joe, he was utterly terrifying and weirdly charismatic capturing everything the character should have been and more.

The ensemble cast is equally brilliant, all of them working to make one of the best films of the year.

I don't want to give anything about this film away, but I will just say you'll never forget the KFC scene... no matter how hard you try.

Your face is all messed up...

In short, an absolute must see if you can stomach being properly disturbed.

Storage 24 - A Review

4.5 Stars - A hell of a lot of fun

A group of people get trapped in a 24 hour storage unit with a killer alien. Simple enough plot to make for plenty of good scares and plenty of good laughs.

This film succeeded in a way that a lot of survival horror films don't, the characters were really good. At one point a character showed up and my first thought was, wow I hope he survives, which almost never happens.

Another way they succeed where lesser films fail is that they show the cool looking alien, just a general rule, if your monster looks good, show it, the rule of Jaws only applies to monsters that don't look effective.

Man I rule

In short if you want a hell of a good time, go see it