OPINIONS & REVIEWS 101

Thursday, 13 November 2014

Interstellar Review

The space shuttle Endurance

Coming from the minds of one of the most prestigious directors and writers that the 21^st Century has had the privilege to witness, Christopher Nolan continues to strike gold with his new film Interstellar.

Having grossed over $3.5 billion worldwide from his previous films as director (including The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Memento), Interstellar had quite a reputation to live up to. Starring Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey, Interstellar is a science-fiction adventure that follows a team of space travellers who journey through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet to escape the demise of planet Earth.

Much like other Nolan blockbusters, Interstellar provides the viewer with a special effects masterpiece, this time in the form of an intergalactic visual spectacle. After being consulted by an Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist who was there to ensure the depictions of wormholes and relativity were as accurate as possible, the scenes of a wormhole may not be wholly accurate (as you cannot actually see a what it looks like anyway) but the cosmic scenes within the film are enough to wow the audience, that is, if the cast and storyline hasn’t done so already.

Nolan’s films are mainly rooted in philosophical and sociological concepts and ideals, exploring human morality, the construction of time and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity. Interstellar does this expertly through the experimentation of metafictive elements, solipsistic perspectives, nonlinear storytelling and the relationship between visual language and narrative construction that permeate throughout the entire film.

With an excellent cast supporting McConaughey (Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon), the film really starts to hit home about morality when highlighting the relationship between Cooper and Murph (McConaughey and Chastain respectively).

A trip through time and space

Without giving too much away, Interstellar is a fantastic film to add to the Nolan Collection and a nice alternative to the constant remakes, reboots and adaptations currently plaguing our cinema screens. A highly recommended film, even for people who are not a fan of sci-fi, this is one of the best films of the year… just be prepared for a convoluted storyline that will really only make sense by the end of the film.

10/10

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Destiny Game Review

Destiny has some of the most amazingly ethereal backdrops for a game

When it comes to creating something memorable and enticing, something to blow people out of the water, like a new game, there’s certain standards and protocols that have been set in our media-saturated world and now must be reached by every new release. The standard ranges from the level of graphics, the gameplay and of course the multiplayer platform. A game like Destiny seems to nearly tick every one of those boxes and more.

Destiny may be a brand new game, yet the concept is very similar – an ancient science-fiction mythology-based post-apocalyptic storyline that’s accompanied by heroes and villains… where the villains happen to be these creepy sentient alien-like creatures. Nothing like the Halo, Fallout and Resistance game franchises or films like War of the Worlds, Edge of Tomorrow, Pacific Rim, Oblivion or even I Am Legend. No, haven’t seen *anything* like this before…

Set 700 years in a post-apocalyptic future following an age of exploration, peace and technological advancement, the human race has colonised planets within the solar system and the far reaches of space. An event known as “the Collapse” saw the mysterious dissolution of all these colonies and leaving mankind precariously balanced on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the human race are those living on earth in The Last City, which was saved by “The Traveler”, a giant, white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled mankind to reach the stars and new technological feats.

A Guardian that watches over The Last City. Literally.

The Traveler now hovers above The Last City and its presence allows the Guardians – no, not Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – who are the defenders of the city, to wield an unknown power of skill to fight off the hostile alien races who are encroaching the city. The player, who controls a Guardian of their choosing, has to work on reviving the Traveler, destroying the alien invaders and saving the human race.

Despite the idea of the game being remarkably similar to a lot of other media releases that we’ve seen in the last decade, Destiny has its own distinct take on the genre in terms of gaming. The entirety of the first-person shooter, story missions included, takes place in a constantly evolving online world, dubbed as one of the first “shared-world shooters”. As well as the standard need for online multiplayer that many gamers now look for, the game provides a much more consistent matchmaking entity that differs from other massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and creates a more natural experience in either cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes.

The fact that the entire story takes place in this online world is one of Destiny’s most intriguing aspects. As you play the core story missions, you are accompanied by your very own companion known as The Ghost, a robot AI that is voiced by the celebrated Game of Thrones star and fan favourite Tyrion Lannister, A.K.A Peter Dinklage.

The graphics may not be as up-to-scratch as other recent games – on a Playstation 3 at least – and, while definitely nowhere near as spellbindingly beautiful as The Last of Us or Grand Theft Auto V, it is the vast backdrops that really catch your eye. The futuristic setting of the solar system has allowed the developers to experiment and explore a world of desolated planets in an advanced post-apocalyptic future, leaving you in a sense of awe and wonder about the cosmos.

Guardians in action against some of the enemies of the Darkness

This is accompanied by an ethereal-like soundtrack which, to some, might not be all that enticing yet it fits almost perfectly throughout the game. From travelling between planets to fighting off an army that rose from the deepest depths of the darkness, the soundtrack intertwines nicely between scenarios.

But what about the actual gameplay? You start off with having the choice of three different advanced races, all Guardians: Titans, Warlocks and Hunters; each with their own set of advantages. From there on, you are born from “the light” where you spend the entirety fighting off the armies of The Darkness. Yes. It is that literal. The game acts like any other online shooter; the higher level you are the more weapons armour and perks will become available to you, rewarding the countless hours you will no doubt be clocking over the next few months.

The three different types of Guardians you can play as

With some nice added play features and an upgrade system, the game runs smoothly in an online world. Along with the standard PvP matches and story missions, there are Strike missions which team you up with other players of a similar ability (or level) to take down a specific target… and the countless respawning of their minions. These side-missions, along with a number of bounties – yes, so you can finally take the mantle of Boba Fett, hunting enemies across the galaxy for prizes (…Star Wars? No?) – are just another of extremely handy ways to level up quickly.

These will be a welcomed aspect to take on as you progress mainly because of the repetitive nature of the story missions. While they are still enjoyable, they become rather predictable very early on with the only difference being a new location and a different enemy.

Despite the price of Destiny being in excess of £50 and the obvious flaws you will find throughout the game there is no stopping it from being enjoyable and somewhat beautiful to play. The Shared-World Shooter provides endless hours of entertainment and a constant online-mode that will relight that competitive spark within you if the lethargic missions start to take their toll, that is.

So is it worth getting? If you love games like Halo and live for online modes then you should really have this game by now but it really isn’t as much of a defining game as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or The Last of Us. While it shouldn’t really be categorised in that “best games ever” league, Destiny has starting something incredible and should be recognised for that along with its endless entertaining hours of gameplay. It’s a great game… but far from perfect.

8/10.

Thursday, 7 August 2014

The Age of Cinematic Superheroes

Back in 2008, when Marvel Studios released their first film Iron Man with their first post-credit scene, it spawned the dawn of a new era in cinematic history; the Age of Superheroes & cinematic universes never before seen (an argument can be made for the first X-Men Trilogy back in the early 2000s, but I digress). This year, after nearly two decades of having our pallets gradually taste the coming epoch, we have finally reached a level of comic book stardom that everyone wants a piece of.

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a piece about the emerging Shared Universe Syndrome sweeping across Hollywood, pinpointing specifically the comic-book genre as well as others.

Marvel have undoubtedly set the bar extremely high with their current shared and established line-up (of ten films!) within their shared cinematic universe, most recently with their cosmic Avengers the Guardians of the Galaxy receiving their first outing and origin; a review for which you can find here. Now FOX, Sony and Warner Bros. are all slowly piecing together their attempts at creating a cleverly intertwined cinematic network of films established in their own particular universe.

It’s all becoming a little complicated and over-saturated to follow with so many recent announcements, no? So how about I expand and explain the individual universes, their slate of films and “un-complicate” it a little:

[SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE FOR THE FULL LIST OF COMIC BOOK FILMS BETWEEN NOW AND 2020]

Marvel Studios

Before the start of the San Diego Comic-Con this year, something where you can find highlights for here, Marvel stunned fans and studios alike by releasing a slate of nine unannounced films up to 2020, after the official Ant-Man property:

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1, 2015

Ant-Man – July 17, 2015

Captain America 3 – May 6, 2016

Unannounced film – July 8, 2016

Unannounced film – May 5, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – July 28, 2017

Unannounced film – November 3, 2017

Unannounced film – May 4, 2018

Unannounced film – July 6, 2018

Unannounced film – November 2, 2018

Unannounced film – May 3, 2019

Without any official announcements yet regarding what the other films could be, it is purely speculation of what the upcoming slate of films might be, something that I have also looked into with my Marvel Phases 3-5 theories and possible routes the conglomerate Marvel Studios might take.

The Avengers reunite again in 2015

Sony

Sony has no doubt had an unprecedented uphill battle to contend with against fans and critics alike. Coming off only a few years after Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy, Sony decided to reboot the classic webslinger in the form of The Amazing Spiderman, taking an alternate origin and route to the character.

This year saw the release of The Amazing Spiderman 2, which while being enjoyable and frankly welcoming to see Andrew Garfield on screen with Emma Stone again, was almost butchered by critics (even with its flaws, I personally enjoyed it). Said to be the Iron Man 2 of the Spidey-verse – as in, it sacrificed a well thought out story/characters for world building – TAS2 at least opened the door for other Spiderman films and spinoffs.

Trying to stand apart from the competition at hand (as frankly, with a rather limited scope to go into they really have no choice) Sony is now plotting the release of a full villain team up, in the form of the Sinister Six, as well as a female lead movie (still unannounced) set to reach our screens by 2017. Not to mention a Venom movie planned at some point down the line accompanied with other instalments of TAS story line.

The upcoming Spidey-verse movie dates are:

The Sinister Six – November 11, 2016

Unannounced Female Lead Spiderman film – TBA, 2017

The Amazing Spiderman 3 – TBA, 2018

Unannounced Venom film – TBA, 2018

FOX

FOX on the other hand, used to hold the monopoly on Marvel superhero films back in the early noughties with their X-Men trilogy and their Fantastic Four films. While rather quickly falling behind with few releases few and far between (A few Wolverine films as well as the X-Men: First Class) it seems they played their biggest hand yet this summer with the release of the epic X-Men: Days of Future Past.

As well as filling in some of the gaps, DOFP also raised further questions

Undoubtedly their biggest film to date (and the superhero film to have the largest budget to date) FOX reunited most of the cast of the original X-Men films with the semi-reboot/remake of the First Class film, threw them altogether into one big pot, and added a dash of time travel to make a film of epic proportions, Days of Future Past.

The scale and scope of this film was so large and a rather complicated concept, FOX, Singer and Co. managed to make it a success as well as coherent enough to tie up the loose ends left from the original trilogy and connect it together with the reboot.

With the big bad villain Apocalypse teased at the post-credits scene of DOFP, FOX are clearly on their way to creating a cinematic universe to rival that of Marvel’s. As well as this, Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot has recently finished filming, ready for a summer 2015 release date. With a younger cast and a different take on the FF team, perhaps a crossover between the Fantastic Four and the X-Men is in the at some point down the line…

Fantastic Four – June 19, 2015

X-Men: Apocalypse – May 27, 2016

The Wolverine 2 – March 3, 2017

Fantastic Four 2 – July 14, 2017

Unannounced FOX superhero film – July 7, 2018

Let’s just hope that FOX announce another date in order to make a long awaited Deadpool movie, especially since test footage of the character from a few years ago leaked online last week to such a positive response from fans of the comic.

http://images6.alphacoders.com/417/417300.jpg

Deadpool approves of this post!

The only way for Comic book movies to stand out nowadays is that they have to be different. Take The Guardians of The Galaxy; that team up brought a new and interesting twist on superhero films (showing that comedy can work) and with Sony planning to change the game a little as well, perhaps a Deadpool film could happen. The Merc with a Mouth could be a real game changer if it was an R-Rated movie with lots of violence. It has technically worked with Karl Urban’s Judge Dredd film, Dredd, which has gathered a massive cult following. The fans are there and would no doubt pay for a true Deadpool film, but this might just be one crazy fan who wants it to happen…

Warner Bros.

After Comic-Con, where WB revealed the official look of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman for the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice film, last night they also released NINE extra dates up to 2020, as well as bumping up the release of BVS in order to avoid a Box Office clash with Marvel’s Captain America 3.

The release of these dates has place WB squarely into the middle of the fight for supremacy at the Box Office and to show that they’re not messing around anymore. Unfortunately, we still have to wait until 2016 till we get our next fill of DC heroes.

That being said, it doesn’t mean that we can’t speculate. With actors like Jason Mamoa and Dwayne Johnson teasing to fans that they might be playing the roles of Aquaman and Shazam respectively, it almost throws the upcoming dates into a well of confusion.

There are countless rumours that BVS and the long awaited Justice League movie are planning to shoot back-to-back, meaning that the other slot in 2016 could be Justice League movie. As well as this, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has made it clear that he wants to direct/write and perhaps star in a Sandman film only adds fuel to the fire of what WB have up their sleeves for their expanding universe.

Moreover, WB have more or less indicated that their film universe and their TV universe (The Flash & Arrow, The CW’s big hitters with Arrow having a huge following) will in fact be separate. This comes as a bit of a disappointment seeing as the TV shows fit in nicely with the current DC themes within their films and would work as an excellent platform to bring the two into the Justice League film without having to release an origin story for both.

Never rule it out however; as we’ve found out in the past, it could just be smokescreens to throw people off their scent.

The list of titles that WB released last night are:

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – March 25, 2016

Unannounced DC film – August 5, 2016

Unannounced DC film – June 23, 2017

Unannounced DC film – November 17, 2017

Unannounced DC film – March 23, 2018

Unannounced FOX superhero film – July 7, 2018

Unannounced DC film – July 27, 2018

Unannounced DC film – April 5, 2019

Unannounced DC film – June 14, 2019

Unannounced DC film – April 3, 2020

Unannounced DC film – June 19, 2020

This means that by the end of 2020 we will be getting AT LEAST 29 different superhero movies from all four studios combined, with perhaps more unannounced dates from Sony and FOX to bring that number up even higher. But altogether, the films look like this:

When an unstoppable force meets and immovable object...