Last Friday, a friend of mine called me and said he and a couple of other friends were going to see the new TMNT movie. I am a long time fan of the TMNT series, and I've seen all three movies prior to the release of this one. Naturally, I agreed to go, but I was concerned that since the movie garnered a PG rating, it would cater almost exclusively to a younger audience. Because of this, I also had a few reservations about seeing the film, especially since it was too late to go to my theatre (I work at a movie theatre now) and see the film for free. After seeing the film I thought I'd share my thoughts about the film in a review.
It doesn't suck. Seriously. It was actually pretty good.
Immediately, I must say, the switch from live action to CGI was a great decision. The turtles now have the freedom to do many of the actions that were previously confined to the cartoons and comics. The animation is one of the movie's high points. The great looking New York City serves as a great backdrop for the majority of the film. The turtles themselves look better than ever. No longer big and bulky looking, the turtles look more realistic (well as realistic as a mutant turtle can be), boasting a more animalistic appearance and of course, copious amounts of green. Cinematography is also pretty decent, but at times, the camera can be a bit spastic and dizzying as it seems to switch between different angles a bit too quickly, but thankfully not enough to get in the way of the film's slick visual style.
The plotline however is pretty disappointing. The story itself is highly unoriginal and highly predictable. The story begins 3000 years in the past, in which a tribe of warriors discovers a portal that they believe will grant them immortality. The leader of the tribe gains immortality upon opening the portal, at the expense of his fellow comrades who are turned to stone and 13 monsters are released into our world.
Fast forward to the present day, after the events of the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, the turtles have grown apart as a family. Leonardo has been in Central America for the past year training, Michelangelo has taken up a job as "Cowabunga Carl" performing at children's birthday parties, Donatello has taken a job as a 24 hour IT consultant and Raphael has become a masked vigilante, going by the name of "Night Watcher".
Max Winters, the immortal leader of the ancient tribe enlists the services of the Foot Clan, under the leadership of Karai, to aid him in finding the 13 monsters and send them back to where they came from. Immediately there is a problem. Where have these monsters been in the past 3000 years and why is it that they have all of a sudden become active in New York? This is just one of a few glaring plot holes that I just couldn't ignore.
As Leonardo returns to New York City, he and Raphael begin to engage in an emotional conflict, as Raphael is not willing to welcome his brother back into the family so easily after his departure. The conflict between them is certainly interesting to watch, and makes for a nice subplot as tensions between them grow, culminating into a fight 23 years in the making. The fight between Leonardo and Raphael is simply amazing. The two brothers giving each other everything they have, at the peak of their abilities. From both cinematic and technical perspectives, the battle is an amazing feat, as each animation plays out smoothly blending well from one scene to the next, and is by far the best among the film's several great looking fight scenes.
In a sharp contrast to the other films in the TMNT franchise, this one focuses less on humor, choosing instead to present a much darker look into the TMNT franchise. That's not to say there isn't a good bit of campy humor and comedic value in the flick, as Michelangelo, the series' longtime comic relief character has his share of genuinely funny moments that thankfully don't come off as too cheesy or aimed directly at children. Personally, I like this new style. The turtles are noticeably much more mature as characters than their previous film incarnations.
Overall, it was a pretty good film. Longtime fans of the franchise will leave plenty satisfied by the film (unless they were expecting a rich storyline) and will get the most out of it, as there are a few fanservice bits thrown in every now and then. The fight scenes are a visual triumph, and this film's sense of style is one that puts all previous TMNT films to shame. If you're looking for a fun filled action movie then look no further.
If I had to give it a score, I'd probably give it a 7.5.
That'll do it for my review of the film (which was a bit longer than I expected :P). It's just too bad the games weren't as good as the film, but then again, movie adaptations rarely are. In short, if you're a fan, you'll certainly enjoy this. If not, you'll probably still get a good amount of entertainment from it. I have to say, this is, by far, the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie in the franchise.
Monday, March 26, 2007
TMNT (2007) In Review
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
My Xbox 360 Has Died...and I'm Pissed.
Well as of yesterday, my Xbox 360 is officially dead. I turned it on yesterday afternoon with the intention of playing some Rainbow Six: Vegas and the “three red lights of death” flashed within its ring of light. Seeing this means your Xbox 360 has suffered a major hardware malfunction and thus will not work properly. Those red lights flashed on and off, taunting me, as if to say, “Ha, ha! You’re fucked now, sucker!” As you can ascertain from the title and my general tone, I’m pissed.
As soon as I saw the three red lights, well, after my heart sank, I immediately turned the system off and tried a number of home remedies to fix the problem. I unplugged it and set it aside. I disconnected the hard drive. I even took it to a relatively cold area of my home to let it cool off (even though it wasn’t hot). Nothing so far has worked and my frustrations continue to mount…
Since the Xbox 360’s launch in November of 2005, reports of malfunctioning and dying units have been running rampant in the news, websites and internet forums as gamers everywhere experienced the same thing that I did yesterday. For a long time now I have been defending Microsoft and their failure to diagnose and fix the problems plaguing Xbox 360 but now, I’m through with that. Microsoft can defend themselves.
I guess things like this take on a whole new meaning when they hit close to home…
Seriously, why can’t they get their act together and fix these problems? I know I got mine early, and early adopters usually get screwed, but these problems are still occurring today. Not to mention the fact that my Xbox, which was also purchased early on, is still working fine. So what the hell happened between generations Microsoft?
Another thing that irks me about the widespread Xbox 360 problems at launch and beyond is the fact that this isn’t happening to Sony and Nintendo. While Nintendo has been known for their well crafted consoles and quality of workmanship overall, Sony suffered massive problems with their Playstation 2 at launch and well on into the future. Many even expected similar problems to plague the PS3’s launch. Well, here we are, nearly five months after the launch of the Playstation 3 and I have yet to hear reports of faulty units breaking down on consumers. So it appears that after being the worst in terms of quality hardware last generation, Sony has learned from their mistakes and gotten their act together. It appears the only company left to clean up their act is you, Microsoft. So I guess the real question here is, what are you going to do about it?
It was inevitable I suppose, considering how many Xbox 360’s manufactured during that time period are slowly but surely crapping out. I bought the Xbox 360 that cold January morning thinking I would be one of the lucky few that wouldn’t have a problem with the console and that it would provide me with years of gaming bliss and satisfaction. Well I got one year of gaming bliss, does that count? When you consider that the item in question cost me $400, it doesn’t count for much. It also doesn't sit well with me that with all the reports of 360's dying, I secretly knew in the back of my mind that one day, my 360 would suffer the same fate. All this time I thought I was just being paranoid. Turns out my suspicions were correct.
Perhaps I’m making too much of this. My Xbox 360 was manufactured in 2005, meaning it carries a lifetime warranty and I can get it fixed for free. At least I can give credit to Microsoft for that one. I just wish they would take more time to diagnose the problems in either manufacturing or the hardware itself and take care of it, and I wish they were more like Nintendo when it comes to the quality of work they put into making their hardware. Well, the Xbox 360 has been my favorite of the three new consoles for some time now and I hate to see it go. If Microsoft turns out to be a bitch to work with, or if they end up sending me another Xbox 360 unit that doesn’t work then that may change to the Playstation 3 or Wii. One thing’s for sure though…I’ve certainly lost a lot of respect for the company as a whole and will not likely buy another of their products until all the kinks are worked out. The problem is, if I had waited that long this time, I still wouldn’t have one…
Oh well, time to call Microsoft up and have them send the “coffin”…
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Okay, I'm Finally Back (Did you miss me?)
Well, it’s been a while since my last blog post and I’ve finally decided to stop being lazy and write something.
The winter drought, one of the hardest times of the year to be a gamer, is upon us. This is the time right after the steady stream of great games has finally run dry after the holiday season, leaving gamers out in the cold, and wanting more. This time is especially difficult if you have just purchased one of the recently launched consoles (PS3 or Wii). After the launch hysteria wears off, you begin to realize that there’s very few really worthwhile games coming out in the next couple of months
I am personally feeling the chill of the winter drought since I purchased a Wii at launch. After you finish the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, you begin to realize just how shallow the rest of the Wii’s launch lineup really was. I’m not saying the games were bad at all; it’s just that they don’t have much depth. Many games were just minigame collections designed to show off the Wii remote’s many motion based functions. January was met with WarioWare Smooth Moves, which was by far the best of the minigame collections, but it lacks staying power, and loses a bit of its novelty after a few hours and besides Sonic and the Secret Rings (which isn’t faring too well) February looks pretty bleak.
I’m not regretting my purchase (I’m sure things will heat up again soon) but I am thinking I should’ve waited a bit until a few more worthwhile games were released before buying it. But then again, I do have the Virtual Console to keep me entertained until the next big Wii game comes out.
The Playstation 3 is doing a bit better than the Wii after its rather weak launch lineup in which Resistance was the only game truly worth buying a PS3 for. January was bleak, but the excellent Virtua Fighter 5 has arrived to end the gaming drought for the PS3. In March, PS3 owners will see the release of the highly anticipated MotorStorm, which will likely be one of the first exclusive titles since Resistance really worth buying a PS3 for. Add to that some great multiplatform games (Rainbow Six Vegas, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and NBA Street Homecourt) and PS3 owners are just about finished with their gaming drought.
The Xbox 360 on the other hand has been keeping me very entertained during the winter drought. There have been some really great demos of Crackdown (which convinced me to purchase the final game) and NBA Street Homecourt released on the Xbox Live Marketplace to keep me entertained and I’ve still got the spillover from the holidays (Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War in particular) is keeping me very entertained. Lost Planet has kept many 360 gamers happy in January and Crackdown has arrived to save February.
On the subject of Crackdown, this game is great. It’s got an extremely fun single player campaign and the addition of drop in any time co op makes the whole experience so much better. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop as a super-powered agent never gets old even after doing it for hours in the demo, as well as crushing thugs with cars, sending them flying over balconies, blowing them sky high with a well placed grenade and blasting them up close with a shotgun. Oh, and did I mention there’s co op? Well, allow me to mention it again. Doing all of the above activities is twice as fun with a fellow supercop right alongside you. Oh yeah, and there’s the Halo 3 beta just sitting there, waiting to be played when it finally releases.
At the moment, the Xbox 360 is seeing the most of my play time, but that may change once I buy the Wii points needed to purchase Super Mario 64 and a classic controller (must…collect…stars…). But I rest assured that the Wii’s gaming drought will be over soon enough and I’ll have reason to strap my Wii remote onto my wrist and begin flailing my arms around like an idiot (I mean that in the best possible way…seriously) in the near future. And since I finally landed a decent job :D I might have the cash to drop on a PS3 sooner than I expected.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Final Blog Post of the Year
The runaway hit Playstation 2 also had another exceptional year, and with the release of its big brother the PS3 looming on the horizon that was no easy feat. But the six year old PS2 showed everyone it still had some legs and stood strong once again with a killer lineup of exclusive games proving that you don’t have to upgrade to the next generation of consoles to have great gaming experiences. Throughout the year there were a ton of stellar releases including the much hyped Okami, Final Fantasy XII, Guitar Hero II, Singstar Rocks! (which I really want to play), and Bully.
The Playstation 3 on the other hand didn’t have such a year leading up to its release this past November 17th. E3 2006 was not too kind to the Playstation 3 (I’m pretty sure everyone remembers the “Giant Enemy Crab” and “Ridge Racer” debacles during the pre-show press conference) and for some time afterwards it had its fair share of bad press in the months that followed. Even after launch, it still had bad press coming from all angles, including Time Magazine and the New York Times. Still though, the launch of the Playstation 3 was pretty smooth, despite missing intended shipment marks (an estimated 200,000 consoles reached North America on launch day instead of the promised 400,000). There were very few of hardware malfunctions that plagued the Xbox 360’s launch (and quite frankly, even now) and despite missing their original shipment targets, they have kept up a steady stream of PS3’s coming to keep retailers relatively well stocked (I recently called a local Best Buy store and they told me they had some PS3’s in stock). The actual launch titles fared about as well as 360 titles did the previous year with a few highlights (Resistance: Fall of Man) and a few flops (Genji: Days of the Blade, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom). All in all, the PS3 was a bit on the disappointing side this year but, to its credit, almost all consoles have a shaky start (as did the PS2, and we all see what happened there) and its first full year on the market and some of its biggest blockbuster titles are coming up in 2007.
The Nintendo Wii on the other hand has seen its share of good press. At E3 2006, members of the gaming press got their chance to play the Nintendo Wii (some for the first time) and see how their new fangled motion sensing controller affected the way games would be played on the system. Since then, very little bad press has come Nintendo’s way, as those who had the chance to play it often left with great first impressions. Nintendo also decided to give gamers across the United States the chance to try the Wii out for themselves before it released at the Nintendo Fusion Tour this past fall. After my first time at the controls, I was very satisfied as were many others who had the chance to experience it. The launch went very smoothly, and although Nintendo didn’t meet their goals of shipping 1 million Wii consoles to North America on launch day, they still managed to get 600,000 units stateside. The launch titles were as expected, with one really huge game (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and a bunch of other great titles (Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Rayman: Raving Rabbids) to round out the collection. Surprisingly, there was a pretty big flop in the form of Red Steel, but other than that, there wasn’t much to lose sleep over. 2007 looks to be a good year for the Wii with three big name titles (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl) on the way.
All that said, this was a very good year for gaming. I plan on expanding this short feature in the next week so look for it when it’s finished.
Well, that’ll do it for my last blog post of the year. I’ll be back next year in full force so be on the lookout! :D. I hope everyone here has a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
First impressions of the Wii
On November 19, 2006, the Nintendo Wii console was officially made available to the public. I had my console preordered at my local GameStop, so I didn’t make a fuss about rushing out to pick mine up when the store opened. At around 2 PM that day, I made my way up to the store and finally picked up my Wii console. Excitement rushed through me as the clerk went into the back room and brought out the small white box containing the object at the root of much excitement and anticipation over the past few months.
The Wii remote itself is everything I remember from my experiences with it before. In hand, it’s one of the most comfortable controllers I’ve ever used. It’s got a good feel to it in terms of balance and weight, and it fits naturally in your hand. The nunchuck attachment is incredibly light (almost to the point of feeling a bit cheap) but is well designed, and is comfortable for long playing sessions. I also noticed the analog stick is a bit smaller than the one found on the Gamecube’s controller, but that’s neither here nor there. The only gripe I have regarding the Wii remote is the speaker. The sound quality just isn’t that good. The sounds are tinny and lack the clarity you’d find from most good quality headphones or speakers you’d find today.
The Wii console’s interface is well designed and is easy to work around. Flipping through the Wii “channels” is oddly reminiscent (in a good way) of flipping through channels on a television. Due to the similarities (at least in a physical sense) between the Wii remote and a traditional television remote, the channel interface was probably intentional. It’s simple, it’s easy, and very intuitive.
After playing my share of Wii Sports (the only game I have at the moment), I have to say that I am very pleased with how this game turned out. It’s pretty much every thing I expected and more. If you recall, I had a chance to play it last September at the Nintendo Fusion Tour event. After that small taste of Wii Sports, I was itching to play more. Wii boxing and Wii bowling are easily my two favorite modes, and boxing is great fun with a friend (but then again, all these games are great with a friend).
So far, the Wii has lived up to my expectations. I’ve had a ton of fun with it so far, and the only way I can go is up. I’ll be picking up some additional games soon and I’ll post my impressions on those as I get them. Has the novelty of actually swinging my arm (or flicking my wrist) to control my games worn off yet? No, not yet. In time, it probably will. It’s up to developers to come up with innovative and exciting ways to use the Wii remote’s motion sensing capabilities to keep the gameplay fresh and keep gamers and non gamers alike coming back for more. It’s certainly got me intrigued.
