Post E3: Five Games To Look Forward To

1. Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) (360)

It is time to give Master Chief a breather and introduce some fresh storylines and characters into the franchise.



2. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360/PS3)

Here's what you can expect when Hideo Kojima of the Metal Gear series gets involved: great production value, great gameplay, and esoteric plotting.



3. Metroid: Other M (Wii)

Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden) makes Samus move like a master shinobi.



4. God of War III (PS3)

Gameplay mechanics look the same, but the monsters are bigger and more robust.



5. Alan Wake (360/PC)

The guys that did Max Payne try survival horror, about time since the Silent Hill franchise has faded and the Resident Evil franchise

Movie Review - Up (A)

It is hard to think of a film with less initial appeal than WALL-E a movie about a trash gathering robot. That is, until Up, a story about an elderly widower, was announced. It is almost as if Pixar is trying to alienate its audience. By all measures Up appears to be Pixar's least accessible film to date. Yet, not only is Up a well-crafted CGI adventure with cross-generational appeal, it also deftly tackles mature themes such as death and grief.

As a child, Carl Fredrickson and his friend Elie idolized explorer Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer). Carl and Elie grew up, fell in love, and got married. Carl and Elie's marriage transpires in a speechless and montage that is touching and pleasantly free of pretension. They purchase a fixer-upper house and devote their energy into improving it. Unexpected events defer their trip to Paradise Falls until old age. They dream of following Muntz's exploits to Paradise Falls, South America and make plans to visit. Before they can make the trip, however, Elie passes away.

Soon after Elie's passing, an unfortunate sequence of events forces Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) to move to a nursing home, and relinquish his house to urban developers. Carl, however, refuses to accept his fate. Instead, having spent a career as a balloon salesman, Carl attempts to navigate his house to Paradise Falls. The house is lifted from its foundations by a multitude of balloons tied to the chimney. Along for the ride is a chubby boy scout stowaway named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), who gets involved trying to help Carl so that he can get a merit badge for assisting the elderly. Along the way, the odd couple is joined by Dug, a dog who can speak (voice by writer/co-director Bob Peterson) with the assistance of a talking collar. Juxtaposing good-natured innocence and loyalty against a mechanical monosyllabic voice, Dug is funny and lovable. From then, the story takes several turns that is best left for the audience to discover.

Being a Pixar production, it goes without saying that the settings provide plenty of atmosphere. Carl's house looks lived-in and aged, the balloons are colorful and sways realistically. South America, as imagined by Pixar's artists, brims with exoticism that ia alternatingly inviting and menacing. Exciting chases are common, and the film is punctuated by numerous humor and gags.

But there are two significant achievements here. First is in the formation of the relationship between Carl and Russell. Elderly Carl is cranky and stubborn. The young Russell is optimistic and accepting. Though their personalities are in stark contrast, they share a common struggle against loneliness and alienation. As Carl and Russell bond, they find their figurative and literal redemption in each other.

The second achievement is in how the film deals with death and grief. In Up, death makes an immediate appearance: Elie dies without forewarning, and Carl is left with a uncertain future. Ultimately, Carl's decision to move his house to Paradise Falls represents a grieving widower's cathartic tribute to his wife. Although Carl's house is a comforting reminder of Elie, it also becomes an albatross that prevents Carl from starting a new chapter in his life.

Thoughtful and entertaining, Up exemplifies the sentiment that the journey is more important than the destination.

Game Review - StoneLoops! of Jurassica (A-)

StoneLoops! of Jurassic by PlayCreek is an addictive action puzzler for the iphone/ipod touch that is simple, and fun. The game is inspired by predecessors such as Puzzle Bobble, Zuma, and Bejeweled. The gameplay is simple: a chain of colored stones is pushed along a path. You lose the level if the stone chain reaches the skull at the end of the path. You control a cannon at the bottom of the screen that shoots colored stones at the chain. Three or more of the same colored stones will break from the chain. Through this simple mechanic, you can create chain reactions that not only yield you more points, but causes various power-ups to appear. The power-ups vary, but become essential in the later stages to clear large parts of the stone chain.

The game is fair in gradually amping up the difficulty. As players progress, the stone chain becomes quicker, the stone chain paths becomes more complicated, and new stone colors get introduced. The presentation is impressive, with vibrant colors and different stage themes. Though the music is a little repetitive, the sound effects are lively. There are also additional flourishes such as achievement trophies, bonus stages, and an alternate game mode. It is currently an absolute bargain for 99 cents in the app store. All said, great fun and even better value.

Retrospective - Terminator 2

After watching the entertaining, but incoherent Terminator Salvation, I decided to revisit Terminator 2 Judgment Day, the undisputed best entry in the series.  T2 is the one instance where James Cameron capitalized on his interest in science, and successfully avoided being outlandishly silly (Remember True Lies? You would be hard pressed to find a movie villain named Crimson Jihad now) or overbearingly pretentious (the Oscars/Leo/Kate/Celine Dion superbloat known as Titanic that spawned two meaningless well-meaning documentaries). 

In Terminator Salvation, director McG used the established Terminator concept and timeline to entertain the audience.  Unfortunately, it had the intellectual depth of a carnival ride.  By contrast, Cameron was successful in expanding the Terminator concept.  In both subtle and bombastic ways, Cameron explored the boundaries of artificial intelligence and the qualities that separate man from machine.  When Cameron stated that there was nothing more to explore in the Terminator universe after T2, he was speaking the truth.  The beauty of T2 was that it left the future of mankind wide open.  Though the two subsequent sequels were not cinematic disasters – it was ultimately disappointing to have other people’s vision of the Terminator universe spoon-fed to the audience. 

The special effects in T2 have aged but remains impressive, considering that the film was made prior to the Internet age.  T2 successfully mixes of science, action and humor – something that his later contemporaries are still struggling to master.  (see, i.e., Michael Bay, Rob Cohen)  By the way Rob, you still own me $12.50 for the celluloid as toilet paper known as Stealth.

The movie introduced Edward Furlong as John Connor and many considered Furlong’s performance to be a breakthrough performance.  In a recent viewing though, the Cameron/Furlong interpretation of John Connor does not hold up as well.  John comes off as whiny, and looks he just got out of a emo concert after not showering for a week.  And seriously, the future leader of mankind should avoid friends sporting one of the fiercest mullets in cinematic history.

Do you have license for the mullet?

A look on IMDB reveals that T2 is probably still the pinnacle of Furlong’s rocky acting career.  After T2, Furlong’s appeared in memorable films such as Little Odessa and American History X.   However, the new millennium has not been kind to Furlong, and here’s to hoping that there was a nice paycheck involved somewhere for starring in the lead role in The Crow: Wicked Prayer with Tara Reid, MMA star Tito Ortiz, and David Boreanaz as Luc Crash/Death/Satan . . . Yikes.

Normally, it would be a backhanded compliment to say an actor’s greatest role was a portrayal of robot.  But T2 was definitely Arnold at his best.  Cameron again utilized his star’s natural stiffness and bulk to suggest something synthetic beneath the skin.  You can feel it in his slow gait, in his mechanical and deliberate head turns, and the pace of his speech.  Arnold’s performance was affecting in the ways humanity seeps through the machine: humor in the smirks and one-liners, curiosity in the ability to learn from others, mercy in refusal to kill, and nobility in being mankind’s protector.  When Arnold lowers himself into the molten steel, it was the ship that launched thousands of man-crushes.

I need your clothes, shoes, and a proposed budget. NOW!

In addition to Arnold, the strength of T2 is in the supporting cast.  A determined, sinewy, and haggard Linda Hamilton is a revelation as Sarah Connor.  Emotionally scared and lonely, Sarah’s only reason for living is John.  The sarcastic and confident Robert Patrick is menacing the T-1000.  Joe Morton is also great as Miles Dyson, the engineer of Cyberdine systems who is blinded by the potential of technology.  And Earl Boen returns as the to torment Sarah Connor as Dr. Silberman.  The action set pieces build tension to the point of being unbearable, and there are several memorable ones.  The chase to find John Connor, Sarah Connor’s escape from the mental institution, and the assault and escape from Cyberdine. 

Years later, when Hollywood studios finally open an action movie institute for music video directors looking to make their film debut, all students should be required to successfully remake T2 before graduating