Jurassic Park III Movie Review

Jurassic Park III was released on July 2001, has an anticipated sequel to the first two movies in the series, despite this being the first to not have Steven Spielberg directing the project, it still was enough to have plenty of people watching the movie in theaters... only to receive an overwhelming "...meh..."

The story takes place in island Sorna, where a couple trick Dr. Alan Grant from the first movie into going there to help them find their missing son... and that´s pretty much it. Honestly, is not terrible in terms of story, is simple and short but consistent... where Lost World tried to bring in the topic of "men hurts nature", here they where very well content in making a simple and short story that gives enough room for people to have excitement out of the movie.

Another positive is the action scenes, there are plenty of entertaining action moments to watch and it rarely slows down, much of it may have to do with the story being weak in a general sense, like the makers knew they could not match the original in anyway and instead decided give the viewer has much action moments has they could.

However there are indeed plenty of negatives; the lackluster story seems like a missed opportunity, the characters should have been the strength of the movie but instead they decided to just... have them there, is hard to explain but basically there is so little room for their development that we just care little about them (specially the parents and the child), they are definitely blank slates for viewers to project themselves in those rolls. The dinos are also not very interesting to watch, the raptors are not the "clever girls" from the first film, they seem more like dogs looking for their ball... the whimsical dinosaur moment that makes us say "wow!" is ruin mostly by their timing in the film; but the worst crime of all was having the iconic T-Rex being killed off by a Spinosaurus out of nowhere and for no reason...

Jurassic Park III is average just not a great movie, is not particularly bad is just not has good has it could have been, unmoving story with uncharismatic characters and uninteresting dinosaurs; however is not a long torture session, is short and has enough action scenes to keep you from being completely bored.

I think that makers of the film knew they couldn't live up to the original theme and elements so they just decided to make a fun flick and on that regard they have succeeded.

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With that we wrap the series of Jurassic Park movies, "Jurassic World" is around the corner when it comes out we´ll see how it holds up.

On a side note, I´ll be completely unavailable next week so you will not be seeing any posts of work progress updates any time soon. The moment I can I´ll make a comeback with maybe a special post... probably not work update but something more fun (I have a few ideas on the ready)

Thank you for tuning in!

The Lost World: Jurassic Park Movie Review

Released in 1997 has a sequel to the successful Jurassic Park, it was directed by the very same Steven Spielberg and judging by the production of the film it seemed like a match made in heaven, this could have been an excellent sequel... but it wasn't really and the audiences reaction can give you a quick general idea.

The story fallows Dr. Ian Malcolm; played by Jeff Goldblum, 4 years after the events of Jurassic Park, he is summoned by John Hammond who wants him to travel to "Isla Sorna" to help the researchers document the dinosaurs on a natural wild environment, he initially declines but later accepts after knowing his girlfriend, Sarah Harding, is already there. More happens after they reach the island, there is a group who wants to capture live dinos to bring them to civilization... blahblahblah... it looses focus very early on and you are just gonna wonder when are people going to be eaten. In the first movie the topic was the dangers of altering nature, but here is just men hunts and hurts animals... this topic is so overused (then and now) that it sticks out like a sour thumb, specially when you know that those "poor animals" in the movie are GENETIC LAB MONSTERS created with zero knowledge of how they might react to the present!

The characters this time are less relatable because the movie doesn't present them like the ones from the first movie, we don´t see their humanity thus we don´t feel attached to their survival struggle; I ain´t gonna act like the original film had the greatest characters ever in a movie but at least they were characters! in Lost World mostly are just filler and is easy to depict that judging by the amount of human characters compared to the first film.

The dinosaurs are really cool to watch however, some are very clearly CGI but others are quite cool to see, including the way they are shot in film, design and animated... I particularly love the T-Rex chase later in the movie, it was well introduced and last long enough to make it fun to watch. In case you haven´t notice, I think the action scenes here are great in almost every way... it lacks slightly compared to the first movie but it still a highlight.

Lost Word is an under watered sequel to the original film, but is still a good kind of sequel, I find hard to hate something that obviously had effort put into it... it lacks the soul of the franchise with a men vs nature topic that just doesn't fit in any way, but it´s still a fun movie thanks to it´s "larger than live" scale, this is one movie I still recommend even if it isn't better than it´s far superior predecessor.

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Thank you for tuning in!

Next time we´ll look at Jurassic Park III has the conclusion of this series of reviews, Stay tuned!

Jurassic Park Movie Review

Jurassic Park was released on 1993 directed by the now well known Steven Spielberg, based on the book of the same name; everybody who saw this movie back in the day was blown away and it was almost a phenomenon for a long time... Jurassic Park has a special place in my heart has is one of the first movies I remember watching at a young age.

What happens when someone tries to play god and screws with nature? How do you control something you cannot begin to understand? These are the topics within the context of the movie (and the novel of course). Scientist and experts in the study of dinosaurs are invited to an island called "Nublar" by the billionaire CEO of InGen, John Hammond, who has just recently started a park on the island with exotic dinosaur creatures cloned from fresh DNA extracted from fossilized mosquitos... has the story progresses everything in the park begins to fall apart and is now a fight for survival on an island filled with dangerous dinosaur critters ready to eat human flash. The story manages to let you feel every emotion that is going for at every turn from marveled to shocked or scared at a moments notice and that is the very strength of the film, it knows how to make you feel in every moment.

The special effect of the movie are also specially interesting to look at; this was at the time when CGI was beginning to catch on the filmmaking production but wasn't being exploited yet where you can notice when something is clearly computer generated, the best are when we can see the animatronic is working in conjunction with the CG department to create an spectacular dinosaur movement like that of the T-Rex or even the raptors in the kitchen scene... they look real on screen because they are actually in front of the screen, that is the one perk that animatronics or puppets have above CG in film and Jurassic Park is a testimony of that.

While slow at the start for does wanting to get to the action, it works great to depict some of the character that we are seeing and we are going to be with through the rest of the film; when the survival moment come is easy to feel the thrill of each scene with tension added with the kids hanging being in danger has well (sometimes alone) makes it for an even more tense scene, all thanks to the actors performance including the kids.

Jurassic Park is a great survival flick, it even manages to be somehow a family adventure, I know it sounds crazy but it is a fun movie to watch... there is plenty of death, but not enough blood to traumatize your kid IMO. If you haven´t seen this movie yet then go right ahead and check it out for yourself! I think Ive talked enough about this movie and I really think is one people should look for themselves and arrive to their own conclusions...

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The Lost World is the next movie we´ll be looking at; stay tuned.

I will be making a post about my progress sometime after looking at all the Jurassic Park movies

Dragon Ball Xenoverse Game Review

The last Dragon Ball game I owned was "Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout" for the Play Station 1 that was released on 1997, and it was a gift from a friend back in the days of the PS1... after that the last DBZ game I played was "Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2" for the PS3; and I never bought it actually... it was a friend who brought it over one night; but I have never really been big on DBZ games despite being a fan of the franchise.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the very first DBZ game I was legitimately interested in picking up;  something about what I saw got my attention... not only the character creation and gameplay aspects, but also the story line seem to be finally attempting something different than all the other DBZ games before it (they all retell the same sagas over and over again); I pre-ordered the game and bought it has soon has it was released for my country.

The story is set in the age 850 (60 years after the ending of Dragon Ball GT), somebody is making changes in history, making alteration to the course of time in the universe, Trunks (the one who traveled back in time during the Cell Saga) is now leader of the time patrol and asks Shenron for a strong warrior to defend time, that is your avatar... very early it is reveled that the once behind all the distortions in time are the time breakers, Towa and Mira... is up to you and Trunks to take back the dragon ball history. Even though the story is not oscar worthy, I wasn't expecting it to be great, it is however a good story that mends well with the series in the way of how it unfolds; it´s also great to see your character interact with legends of the dragon ball universe.

The new warrior is the character you create right at the beginning of the game, you can be a saiyan, earthling, majin, namekian or the unnamed frieza race; the main campaign takes you through the main Dragon Ball Z sagas starting from Raditz´s arrival to earth. each saga has only a handful of mission with simple objectives to accomplish with conditions that can make you fail, the game indeed does get harder has you progress through the story, so leveling up is important before moving forward in the story, only to simplify some of the difficulty spikes you will find, this process can be annoying even though to me it wasn't a problem has I am the kind of player that likes to play side quests has I play the main story.

The game is not so much a fighting game has it is an RPG... you will be doing parallel quest while playing the main campaign, only because you will need to level up, not only does the player win exp, but also zeni (the games currency), special loot items and even have your character learn a particular skill that can´t be learned another way, this encourages replaying missions if you desire to get the best goodies in the game or just a particular item but the absolute best part of it is the fact that you can play it in coop with other players. Has I said before the games mainly feels like an RPG game, creating your character and leveling him/her up, but is also a fighting game that it´s simple enough for people to pick it up and play... in time I personally started to discover my own combos by experimenting with super moves I had acquired and see witch combination worked best, I like this element of experimentation and finding new skills is awesome; it doesn't feel like their system has rigid mechanics where you have to fight specific commands or combinations. There is also the inclusion of PvP mode where you can pit your costume character against other players costume characters and test your skills against player controlled opponents from 1vs1 to 3vs3 matches.

It´s not all good however, the server is terrible... you will be waiting for a while to connect online, and when it does it usually kicks you immediately out of the session and you have to wait again for it to connect... and that is if it does! because otherwise you will wish for an error connecting only to finally be able to play the game. Another thing is the Tokitoki City itself, everything is administered through the city, you want to play with a friend local match? you gotta select your character, wait for it to connect to the server, load the game and walk all the way to the dude that allows you to play local 2 player. It´s the same with the stores, the online battles, parallel quests having both for online and offline on separate positions... etc. Online battle against other players are also problematic, not only is it troublesome to find good sessions but while in an online fight there sometimes are punches connecting after you hit the opponent or vice versa.

Has I said before if you just want the campaign experience, you will eventually have to do the parallel quests weather you want to or not; the difficulty spikes get very high if you are at low level to face the missions at hand and you will be frustrated guaranteed... parallel quests seem optional but they are more obligated than you think.

I believe the question everybody asks themselves is the fallowing:" Is Xenoverse the best DBZ game ever?"... to that I cannot say because unlike some people I am not familiar with the Budokai or Tenkaishi games (the best DBZ games according to fans), but I can say that is not a masterpiece; it has too many problems and lack of core components that it´s hard to call it a great game in any regard... if anything, Xenoverse is above average.

If I had to give this game a score it would be a 6 or a 7 out of 10, and I say it with kindness because if anything the developer "Dimps" has shown love and care for the DBZ license by writing a story mode instead of replaying the DBZ sagas again (there is only so many times you can kill Cell); the gameplay is simple to understand after a while, creating your own avatar and having him/her play a major role in DBZ history is a great feeling has a fan of the franchise... but the online management is bad, grinding can be tiresome after a while, visuals are more at home with PS3 than PS4 and there  are too many hours to be invested to unlock every fighter, yet I am glad I bought it and I have been having fun playing it witch is why it hurts to talk about the flaws Xenoverse has, but I can´t turn a blind eye to them.

Should you buy Dragon Ball Xenoverse? Yes IF you are a DBZ fan and can put up with the flaws of the game... but I see potential; a ground work has been set for a sequel that if done right it can improve upon everything this game has done, even add more customization options, improve the RPG elements with higher stats increase and make it the best game it can be... but until then I am fine playing this game.

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I promise next post will be the Jurassic Park movie review; I just had to get my thoughts of Xenoverse off my chest! Aside from finishing the first chapter of the comic.

Stay tuned!

Resident Evil 4 Game Review

Resident Evil 4 was released in 2005 for the nintendo Game Cube, directed by the very same Shinji Mikami who also wrote the story with Haruo Murata, it was a huge hit world wide revolutionizing with it the 3rd person shooter genera introducing the then new "over the shoulder" perspective... and with it´s fame, controversy from long time fans of the franchise.

The story fallows Leon Scott Kennedy, (survivor of the raccoon city tragedy, one of the main characters of RE2) now an agent working for the US government on a mission to rescue the president´s daughter in some rural region of Spain, he runs into some villagers that are extremely violent trying to kill Leon... now it´s all a race against time to save the girl and get away. Has the story moves forward it´s reveled the truth about what is going on but  the details about how it works is in documents you find through the game.

How the game plays is where the people pretty much falls in love with the game, unlike other RE games before this one, the games takes things from the point of view of Leon with the camera being set behind the main character instead of fixed angles with the propose of allowing the player to see what leon sees. The fear factor this time doesn't come from jump scares or not knowing whats in front of you, but of your reaction time to daunting problems; is about knowing what to do when you have a chainsaw maniac coming fast towards you and having your back against the wall, is about knowing what item to use to get away of a swarm of enemies surrounding you from all sides, its about knowing what weapon is effective against what enemy and about carefully managing your inventory.

The survival horror element of RE4 were more about discovering what is the best way to solve a situation rather than fighting camera angles or controls (although RE4 has tank like controls), the puzzles are even far more easy to solve making the tricky ones optional to not stop player´s progression if they desired to get the best goodies. There is also an economy system where you earn cash though the game and use to buy more weapon and improve your arsenal... all of this mechanics are well tightly added to the game, thus feeling like a full package, that without mentioning the Wii version that not only counts with the excellent pointer controls of the wii mote, but also includes the campaign of Ada Wong (the sexiest RE girl IMO) in the game upon completing Leon´s campaign and the mercenaries mode.

The game isn´t without it´s fair share of issues however, the tank like controls is sure to feel dated for some, considering the amount of TPS that we have seen through this last generation of games; I don´t blame anybody who might feel like this game hasn't aged well thus they find it dull to play now days, I still think is not only one of the best games of it´s time but also one that marked a beginning of things to come for the gaming industry.

Has a Resident Evil game I can understand the statement of some people regarding the state of the franchise because of this game... but in Capom and Mikami´s defense, the state of the franchise back then was dwindled (sales were low, there wasn't enough public interest, etc...); it was a drastic move that was necessary to keep the franchise alive.

Resident Evil 4 is a great action game, one that not only saved a franchise from the "void of forgotten ones" but also a game that shake the industry in a way few games ever have... it has intense replay ability, enough after modes to keep you distracted and is just one heck of a fun experience! I suggest getting the Wii version, is the definitive version of this game without a doubt.

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I want to announce I am about to finish the first chapter of the comic, the finishing touches are coming, I just have to finish a few more pages!

Also, coming up a new movie marathon, Jurassic Park!

Stay tuned!