Blackfish Movie Review + Update

This documentary is quite interesting more because of esthetic reasons thus boosting the information it provides.

When it comes to a documentary I try to think about what the director wants to tell us and picture the story they are telling has if it was a fictional work how it would measure up, I gotta say that it manages to fulfill the number one but not so much the number two but I can't blame the film for it. Seaworld is a big park with plenty of tourists from all over the world coming over to see the great Killer Wheals in their glorious trained spectacle, the movie basically tries to shawn light into the behind the scenes of the spectacle, the history behind the park, the animals and some of their ex-trainers.

I think is very smart how the movie decides to pick a moment so powerful and very serious moment like the death of one trainer by Tilikum (one big male killer whale), the entire movie is centered on not only on the whales's nature, habitant, behavior towards humans (both in the wild and in confinement) but also of their trainers, how they work with the whales, what is it like, explaining the bond they share, etc... Blackfish is indeed a highly informative documentary about the nature of these mammals and also how humanities own desires can drive to the destruction of nature; all learned by the story of Tilikum.

The editing in this movie is extraordinary, the clips the filmmakers putted to make their points are spot on thus conveying exactly the kind of information us has viewers should get out of the movie to understand what the creators are trying to tell us... however the problem with the movie is it's the lack of unity in the information conveyed; I know that not everybody is going to get what is going on in a movie the same way has somebody else, but the point I am trying to bring is that because of it's unbalanced way of conveying information it leaves plenty in the air for a long time leaving a lingering question with no answer until much later and by the time it comes it may have slipped the mind of some people... for me it was quite distracting, is almost like the movie has so much to say but is not organized in how it conveys that information.

Blackfish is a very well polished documentary with very well focused directing, interesting information delivered and great editing making it one of the most informative documentaries about man and nature, I highly recommend checking it out if you can.

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Few... with summer finally over I can get to work in peace jeje... it's been quite relaxing I'll admit but it's time to get things back in working order has well has get back into drawing to get my skills back into shape.

Next on the blog will probably be that long over do Photoshop post, if not I'll probably be making another series review...

Thank you again guys for reading, I know the contend has been coming in slow but I hope to be able to bring more reviews and have more updates coming

Stay tuned!

Fantastic 4 (2015) Movie Review

The best way for me to talk about this movie is by talking about my experience in the theater with friends, so just chill and read this story:

So this friend of mine says "Hey I wanna go to the theater to watch Fantastic 4", I was aware of the films reception but I still wanted to check it out not because I was in anyway interested but because I just wanted to see how my friends would react to it... I did coddled them into watching it before but not forcing them at all.

So we go to check it out later that day at like 10 pm to see the movie, I get there early to buy the tickets, we go in and the first thing I notice was how perplexity empty the place was... I knew that could´t be a good thing but I wasn't quite ready to laugh at the absurdity of it just yet; has you probably guessed the company I brought there wasn't quite that into movies like I am, the main reason we were there was because THEY wanted to see it... If it was up to me I probably would have watched it alone later or wait for a DVD release.

Anyway we sit there and the movie begins, I yawned... a lot... the movie was painfully boring, with drawn-out scenes that lead nowhere, the action scenes were a joke, bad acting and unfocused directing made this movie a total chore to watch... is almost like nobody involved cared about making a good movie at all, what happened here? Well I guess with just saying that nobody in my group liked the film is enough to say it wasn't very good, the moment it ended I felt a simultaneous face palm by everybody around me and all I could do was laugh... everybody started to complaint about everything wrong with the movie, so much that the moment they asked for my opinion I had nothing left to say at all.

Fantastic 4 was not good, I can say I liked the final battle against Doom for the little it lasted has for the movie itself was completely devoted of any kind of fun action to distract from the unfocused writing, I can´t believe that the movie went on for so long and having so little happening... I mean with that amount of run time it should have been enough to have the characters developed (well developed) and then having them discover their powers by doing heroic things, saving people and stuff... and if you want to have them working for the government when they are learning, fine do that but show us their struggle, what they are going through not jump cutting events out... save that for stupid things not for relatable moments.

I cannot recommend Fantastic 4 to anybody... if you want to watch it than I salute you my friend, you are very brave I suggest bringing friends or family along, I bet it´ll make your movie experience better!

Inside Out Movie Review (Retackled)

This is going to be an extended look at the story of the film Inside Out; unlike my first review I will give full spoilers for the entire film, so if at this point you haven´t seen the movie yet, I suggest you do before reading, If you want a spoiler free review feel free to check my previous review of the movie:

In my first review of the film Inside Out I seemed negative with the majority of the issues that for the most part are just annoying and takes away from my immersion in the story; I still feel like according to the movie itself, Riley is a robot and all the other humans are robots... however I can´t take it out on the whole movie because of that fact has the movie has a whole has plenty of effort, creativity and care to make something good.

The beginning of the movie is well thought but not well executed, allow me to explain: the film´s start is the birth of Riley with Joy being the first emotion she "gets", I guess the movie had to start at some point in the story but I feel like the only reason why it did was to establish that Joy does not like Sadness... is so bold that it pretty much left no room for the imagination; it basically stablished very early on "this characters are gonna get along by the end" (I think Pixar does very often in it's films), I may be in the minority by saying this but it's how I feel about Pixar's formula witch they have abused since "Up".

Joy is pretty much the only character with any kind of depth to lash on to has she is the only one with an arc (and a good one to be fair), the rest of the emotions particularly the ones who stay in HQ (Disgust, Fear and Anger to be more specific) don´t, witch is a shame because the characters and their personalities are actually kinda cool... I can't think of any characters who weren't unlikable (except for maybe Riley's "imaginary friend" character), the problem lies in their lack of focus by the writers side where they pretty much give no focus to this characters aside from their stablished personalities.

The point of the story is to talk about growing up and how this affects people particularly when moving to a brand new place... and has someone who has had to move and live in different countries I know all to well how difficult this can be, having to adapt to a new place with new people and in some cases a brand new way of thinking and culture... that the movie shows well from Riley's POV, is not so visible from the emotion's though, it would have helped if in the movie Disgust and the other's who remained at HQ did the best they could but the writers one dimensional interpretation of the characters forbid such a think; example? take a look at the scene where Riley is having dinner with her parents, Disgust is supposed to try and make Riley act like Joy would, but instead her response is bunkered with a brats answer, I am not trying to say that Riley should act exactly like joy would, but there are many ways around it and this would have also been a great opportunity to give Disgust more character development; is almost like the writers didn't saw the potential they had.

I am sounding way to negative again I know, but why am I you ask? well because the movie is already being praised everywhere by everybody... and I think that looking at the flaws of something helps us see all the right angles instead of just remaining comfortable with what we saw and keep in mind that I did liked this movie and if for some reason you decided to read this without seeing the film I suggest you do, who knows? you may notice something I didn't.

After so much negativity I want to end on a high note... Inside Out is one of Pixar's best work since Up, the creativity and imagination put into this movie is a testament to the work this guys put into their projects, the characters are great, the management of the idea is very good is a soft look into the complexity of human thought in a way many of us can somehow relate; and for this reasons and more Inside Out is worth the watch, even with all of it's problems.

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Sorry for the long delay on content people... but this summer in particular has left me with very little room to work on anything. I hope you like this review, I think I have manage to cover the essential issues I particularly have with the movie.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back on perfect track with the content on the blog.

Stay tuned!

Gravity Rush Game Review

I guess more than a simple review; look at this has more of a "look back at" but because I technically speaking am going to review this game in mechanics, graphics and what not... but the story behind this game is actually quite interesting if you can believe it.

Keiichiro Toyama is a remarked game creator in Japan, although must of his work is related to horror games like the original Silent Hill game and the Siren series (excellent games in their own regard), Toyama didn´t quite started has a programmer but has a graphics artist, working for Konami... His directing debut came to fruition with Silent Hill where not only did he directed but wrote the project, eventually he moved on to work on the Siren series where in my opinion he started a more original writing style mostly based on the fact that Siren itself is quite simple in concept but complex in execution, most of the characters resemble the original Silent Hill cast if you ask me, of course the writing makes that much less obvious.

What this gave Toyama is his experience to develop Gravity Rush, a game that according to him started almost 10 years before it´s actual development, that is pre-dating the development of his other projects including Silent Hill. Keiichiro Toyama said he was inspired by the french comics of Jean Giraud in his youth to create the world of Gravity Rush... At one point in development the game was going to feature photorealistic graphics, but after looking at the market being over saturated by realistic graphics Toyama saw fitting to instead create an anime look with cell-shaded graphics... all before finally moving the project to the PS Vita.

So what about the game itself? Is it any good? Well my answer is yes.

The plot is set in the floating city of Haksevile and the player takes control of Kat, a girl who lost her memory and has the power to shift gravity at will with the help of her pet cat Dusty, so unlike flying like Superman, has it seems from videos and other footage Kat is more like falling to the direction witch she is shifting gravity to, thinking about it is an interesting fair:

The gameplay of Gravity Rush is a mixture of open world, platforming, combat and exploration with many different mini-games to partake in to level up aside from the main story missions. For the most part the story has more the feel of a 24 episode anime than anything else, although Toyama stated he wrote the story with more american influences in order to appeal to a wider audience, the story itself has the heart of normal anime (and a good one at that if I may add), the characters are likable; Kat herself is lovely in her innocence, the universe and lore is actually kinda cool... unfortunately is not explored has much has I would have preferred considering that the game centers more on the plot than the lore witch is good, but I think this game deserved a better balance between the two.

Gravity Rush has it´s heart in the right place and because of that is hard to look at this game has anything less than a work of love, passion and shirr creative will to make something you want...

I think the game deserves to be played, unfortunately is only available in PS Vita (A system that in and of itself isn´t exactly popular or selling very well) but if you own a Vita or are planning on getting one Gravity Rush is a must own for it´s library.

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Hello guys!

I am very sorry for the long disappearance, it wasn't my intention to be honest I have been having plenty of social compromises this past weeks, believe me that I want to continue doing this game and movie reviews.

I want to retackle Inside Out again has there are somethings I have been feeling about the movie after watching it again with my brothers, has well has other games and series (I want to review the web series RWBY).

Thank you guys I know the wait must have been hard but I promise to extend the content of the blog in time.

Terminator Genesis Movie Review

I finally got around to watch Terminator Genesis the other day and my thoughts are just... *sigh* I think is not very good

I will admit that my expectations for this movie weren't particularly high, in fact much of my uncertainties for this movie manifested themselves from the trailers I watched. Now if you have read my thoughts on the previous Terminator films you are probably aware that I really enjoyed the first two has they are just classic movies at this point and tolerated T3 and Salvation for what they were... I can't say I like Genesis though has there are too many elements that are just stretched and forced far too much here.

The theme of genesis is that the timeline has been reseted... so now the events of T1 are completely different to the point that they pretty much didn't happen at all, John Connor is a terminator (it was in the trailers so is not a spoiler technically) and Sarah Connor is a badass from the start. Let me state that my first problem with the film comes from the time placement they choose for this movie: Why reset the terminator timeline? Why not continue from where Salvation left off? Why start at the point of T1?

One idea the movie had I really liked was the point that Sarah was saved when she was a child by a terminator, I would have rather had that explored more in a full movie instead of "reseting the timeline". Terminator Genesis is not really a good integration into the franchise, maybe has a stand alone movie is fine but has a terminator movie it just tried to hard on so many levels and forced too much for me to really "like" it... I say i like the action but I doubt I would watch it again.

Is hard for me to form gathering thoughts about this particular movie has I just have little to really say... I hated the "reboot" element, the story wasn't that interesting and the unexpanded ideas makes for a pretty forgettable experience overall.

Remembering Satoru Iwata

When the news that Mr. Iwata passed away the gaming industry let it be known how much it had lost... many have voices their thoughts via you tube videos, tweets, Facebook, etc... there is no doubt that Mr. Iwata has left a big hole in the gaming world.

In case you are unaware about who is Satoru Iwata, he was the CEO and president of nintendo but that is not the reason why people mourn his passing; Iwata was involved in the development of many games that marked the gaming experience of millions around the world like Ballon Fight on the NES, Super Smash Brothers Melee on the Game Cube and even Pokemon Gold and Silver for the GBC back when they thought the game was impossible to code on a cartridge, Iwata found a way.

What makes the passing of Mr. Satoru Iwata all the more tragic is the fact that he left this world way to young at the age of 55, that is still at a time where life continues; the tumor that Iwata fought was present since the year 2014, in fact he was absent of E3 at the time because of that very reason...

I have never really gave my full thoughts on the state of nintendo has how they are, however I will admit that I personally disagreed with the business choices that Mr. Iwata had made, I often thought that he should have stepped down has CEO and let someone else takeover... but I never wished death to the men, what makes his passing specially tragic for me is the fact that I grew up with nintendo consoles in my childhood and like many who grew up playing games, nintendo has meant a lot to me... to know now that Iwata had a hand on some of does games like SMB Melee and Kirby 64 makes me fell specially sad for never knowing this before his passing.

It breaks my heart to know that someone so young has passed away, I know what is like to loose a family member so my condolences to his family and friends... The gaming industry has lost a visionary men, even if I didn´t agree with his decisions has CEO of nintendo, I admire his work has game designer and his "Iwata Asks" sessions of nintendo direct; he was indeed a great person who always wanted what was best for his workers, friends and the fans.

RIP Satoru Iwata

Thoughts on the Batman Arkham series

So Arkham Knight is out... and I don´t care...

I don´t have exactly nice things to say about the Arkham games, so if you are a fan keep in my that this is just my personal thoughts that I want to transcribe into this post because I have been hearing plenty about Batman Arkham Knight recently and how "amazing" it is (If you discount the PC version).

I need to start with a preemptive defense here because my thoughts are sure to anger some of the fans of this series of games... What I am about to express is not hatred for the Batman character or Arkham games, I just want to transcribe in a short way why I am not fascinated by this franchise and what it does wrong... with that out of my chest let´s begin:

So the Batman Arkham games are set in the Batman universe (duh) with the first entry being Arkham Asylum where the Batman faces a riot started by his arch nemesis the Joker pretty much by himself with no backup from the police... in a general perspective the game is not bad by any means, I can´t hate it for that but I wasn't blown by it either. At the time, super hero games were limited to being movie license titles or the likes with a clear level of mediocrity and Arkham Asylum came in to break that mold and in that regard I can respect the title, it settled a standard for super hero games to live up to. Asylum in general is average, What do I mean? Well the stealth and combat are very bear bones unlike what many people have said, when in combat tap a single button to dodge and you´ll be fine... is not really "refined" has many reviewers have said if anything is extremely simplistic, same with stealth, just taking down the guys being from the top of this gargoyle statues "arbitrarily" in every stealth section.

Asylum is an ok game in general that created a new and brighter standard for superhero games, one that many devs have to live to when they attempt to make a superhero game now. With the success of Arkham Asylum a sequel had to be made no?

Arkham City is the sequel to the "hit" game of Asylum and while it retains the same mechanics and gameplay features now it is open world... yay? this only means you do the same thing only for much longer, the main problem I have with this game is that despite having a bigger budget and more development time they only translated the mechanics of Asylum into a bigger map that´s really all they did. You are probably thinking "Well if it ain´t broke don´t fix it!" but I never said Asylum was broken I said they needed to add depth to the core elements of combat and stealth.

I know that City is more beloved than Asylum, but put into perspective there is literally no difference, I can´t think of any new mechanics except perhaps the stealth, witch I admit is slightly better than in Asylum, but still very similar. The exploration is ok and in all fairness it does check the boxes when it comes to open world content needed, there are side quests, challenges, places to explore, etc...

I believe in giving credit where credit is due however, these games in general are polished and I don´t doubt that the devs put a lot of love and care into the making of this games... has of Arkham Knight, don´t really care enough to give it a shot, judging by looks AND looks alone, it´s Arkham City with a new code of paint...

Keep in mind my intention with this comments is not to keep you batman fans away from these games, I am just giving my take on to why i don´t care... I say this because I just want to  provide closure to does asking me to review Arkham Knight; there are plenty of reviewers out there that have tackled this title and provide very well balanced thoughts about it.

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Still working on the tutorial guys, sorry for the wait it´s taking me longer than I thought... If not out by this weekend maybe by the beginning of the next.