Spectre Movie Review

James Bond 007

This is one of the biggest franchise in entertainment, not to mention that Mr. Bond himself is a well renowned action hero... Daniel Craig has played a unique kind of Bond that many something tells me will become quite the stereotype of Bond character.

Spectre is the direct sequel of the hit Bond film, Skyfall and admiringly it was a very good movie with competent writing and characters to go along and unfortunately Spectre tried to fallow the same footsteps with "varying" degrees of success. After the events of Skyfall, Craig's Bond is trying to track down a men requested by the old M has her dying wish and it all leads to a big reveal about the timeline of this generation's 007... here is my main problem with the movie, it's so desperately trying to be like Skyfall that it has no identity of it's own and it's story contexts are completely lost in translation: I don't want to spoil the story too much but let me just say that the reveal of the identity of this films Bond is so bland that chances are you will feel has empty has I did.

The action sequences where another step down not to Skyfall but the 007 franchise in general... the actions scenes are so underwhelming that I was baffled, 007 is know for facing odds no normal human being could possibly survive and this movie still does that but there just wasn't enough over the top action scenes like I would have wanted there to be... but you want to know what is the real icing on this cake? Sam Mendes was the same director on Skyfall and Spetre so what happened?

Spectre is not a terrible movie by any means, it has it's moments... but it is an underwhelming Bond film, if you are a hardcore 007 fan you probably already watched it but if you are not i would suggest you watch this one on DVD, it's worth watching at least once... but that's about it.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Game Critique

It´s been almost two months since the lunch of Kojima´s last entry in the MGS saga... and at the time I felt giving my opinion was not the best because my take on this game isn´t really "nice" and I refuse to sugar coat my analysis.

Before I proceed with the topic in this post allow me to say that I like this game; I´ve spent hours on the experience and it´s been a fun time without a doubt... it´s worth buying even if you are not a fan of the franchise just because of the refined stealth gameplay. The way you can approach each situation is almost limitless and just because of this reason the player can decide their favorite way to deal with their objectives.

The level of polish in MGS5´s gameplay is so good that I doubt anything that Ubisoft comes up with will ever come close... but with this I am done with the praises.

Phantom Pain´s marketing envolved many different approaches, it brought topics that somehow spoke to many people making clear that Konami (and maybe Kojima himself) wanted has many people has possible to play the game... I am sure fans got exited about the story, some players were intrigued by the commentaries the game might present and some just wanted to play an action game out of the typical CoD/AC spectrum.

I particularly am not a huge fan of the franchise but I respect it for what it has done for the industry, inspiring many other trends, by it´s release MGS5 has gotten critical acclaim all across the board by many major outlets... but after it´s official release common players started to take on forums and other social media showing discontent towards certain aspects of the game (particularly the story).

If I had to give the game a score it would probably around 6 or 7/10 but why? Well for starters the open world is not that interesting; when we take in consideration other games that do open worlds better is easy to see why, the world of MGS5 is empty... there is nobody to meet or to discover out in the open world so why bothered at all to "explore"? no amount of little easter eggs is gonna make it justifiable there is just no point to it all. The side ops are a joke... too many of them repeat and are mundane tasks that add nothing to the story or have a meaningful reason behind their propose of allowing you to produce GMP faster or earning a new blueprint for a weapon so why really bother? Both Afghanistan and Africa are just enmity barren wastelands with nothing to really find in them.

MGS5 didn´t needed to be open world, the previous games never were nor intended to be so what was the creative reason for Kojima and his team to have an open world format? is it because every other major game was doing it? is it because the linear structure of a video game is seen has "bad" now days? Maybe Kojima´s team inexperience with open world formats took a beating in the game has a whole. The story mission themselves have an "open world" format attached to them, why? because of the tasks: this task are like side objectives to accomplish within your main mission and even though some fan may defend these because of their added context to the main story it accomplishes not his to do them... some reward you with emblems or better yet, a new weapon blue print but they are so far fetched that I find it unnecessary at almost every level because most of the time I just did the main objective and if I managed to catch a side obj. along the way than fine.

The FOB are ok I guess but still unnecessary since you can manage your base without the need to be creating another FOB... not to mention you can be invaded by other players and have materials and personal stollen or killed so I find it a little annoying more than fun.

I don't want to end on a sour note... I enjoyed this game and have put plenty of hours into it but the fact that it's gotten such high recognition because of the Kojima vs Konami situation may have stored reviewers and fans hearts towards the wrong angle of the spectrum; I am not trying to convince you guys of hating or liking this game... I just want to get across why I think these critical acclaims are unwarranted just because of the production issues it had before release.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is worth buying... but don't expect a "fascinating story" or a satisfying resolution... if you think you can tolerate the repetitive nature of the game's side ops then just be prepared to do it many times.

The Last Witch Hunter Movie Review

It´s the most average movie I´ve seen in a while...

When I went into this movie I had low expectations and it wasn´t that hard to be not exited... so why did I watch this movie? I had lunch with my brother one day and he wanted to go to the movies, he choose to see this one... that´s it.

Story goes that Vin Dessel is an immortal witch hunter and he is doomed by not being able to reunite with his dead wife and daughter in the after life, more happens but that is the just of it really... is not a bad story is just not has great has it should be, is made even less powerful by the fact that Dessel is not allowed to die; I get he wants to be reunited with his wife and child but why the immortality theme? it just takes away too much of the suspense.

I can say that the world and lore is kind of interesting... I like how the witchcraft is presented and how magic works by social and political restrictions, it´s actually kinda cool! Vin Dessel serves has our walking bible of the universe since he is constantly throwing exposition at us (granted, he is wise for living for centuries), but to the films credit it dozen´t go all the way with this and really leaving some amount to the imagination of the audience to interpret.

I can understand the need to introduce your audience to every little nook and cranny of your universe but is always better to have it written into context of the story instead of force feeding it, I really get it has a writer myself but this is why we must try hard to control this hunger and trust our audiences. The Last Witch Hunter is not bad,  is just average has average can get but I still have some respect for this movie since the talented cast really gives a lot to the movie has a whole and there was legit effort put into this movie, from the writing to the cinematography... unfortunately it doesn't fully pay off...

Fallout 4 - First Impressions

It´s been great so far.

Playing on the PS4 it´s been a great experience being one of the few games I have been more than happy to spent more than 100 euros on (yes I got the Pip-Boy Edition) and at the time of this post I have been having a blast since yesterday.

I did stated on a previous post that Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games of all time and while it might be too soon to say I love Fallout 4 more than 3, It comes very close to being my favorite game ever... but I am aware I am talking from a single day of gameplay so I am not going to set anything in stone at this point, besides stating what I am saying now has fact would be the equivalent of saying I love New Vegas more than 3 because of the little improvements.

Fallout 4 not only feels like an RPG but it also plays like an FPS right down to melee close range attacks, the combat in the game feels great but I would´t say is better than in other games where shooting is the sole focus but I would be laying if I say that what Bethesda has done with gameplay is nothing short of amazing, it´s exactly what I (and I am sure many other fans) wanted from a rightful sequel to the legendary Fallout 3.

For the sake of spoilers I won't dwell on the story, but for this post just know that it really feels like bethesda has really given a special care to the story line this time around; while Fallout 3 does have a strong motivator to head into the wasteland it lacked the writing and dialog to make it organic and even though it still a memorable story the fact that rather it reaches it´s audience might be a matter of hit or miss depending on the player. Fallout 4 on the other hand doesn't spend all it´s time on a single setting abusing of cinematic timing but rather spending has much time has it must to deliver on the impact, of course I haven´t finished the story at this point but it does just enough at the beginning to make you care for what you are fighting for in the wastes (I can´t say much for the secondary quests at this point until I experience a few more).

The voice acting so far has been very serviceable, the delivery from the protagonist makes me see not a vessel the character I am playing has, Courtney Taylor is nothing short of a great actress, she has proven her worth in Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age Origins... she delivers a convincing performance making me look at the character we create not has a vessel for the player but has a character of her own, witch is both a good and a bad thing since it´s easy to notice the voice coming out of the character´s mouth being nothing what the player expected witch is a dangerous line to walk and can conflict with the player´s idea to interpret a character, this isn´t a problem for me particularly but because of my nature in roll playing games of not playing has a character that I "embody" I play has the character I see I want to be the protagonist, granted it could have also gone south for me since I was more in favor of a silent protagonist but this game works just fine with a voices player character...

It´s still too soon to pass a final verdict on the game since I doubt I´ll be done with it until weeks later... so far know that it´s been great and something tells me is going to keep up like that for a long time.

Hotel Transilvanya 2 Movie Review

Fun

The best word to describe this movie is fun.

Hotel Transilvanya 2 is made by the same people who did the original and is even directed by the very same Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of shows like Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack); witch is good because it keeps the same vision of the previous one and it helps with the style of energetic fast passed animation.

In terms of story, is nothing really that i could say outstanding but i did enjoy the characters specially in the way they were animated, their movements translated well into the humor; they overall jokes were very fun indeed, just by noticing audiences laughing at the theater I can tell the movie was doing it right... it's not all perfect however; there were resist jokes like the ones found in bad Adam Sandler films, does just didn't stick at all and if you would have been in the theater where I was nobody laugh at does... and wouldn't you know, Adam co-wrote the movie so you know who to blame.

The biggest negative I have towards this movie was the ending with I didn't like because of how "Deus Ex Machina" it was... it just didn't work one bit (at least not for me)

Hotel Transilvanya 2 is a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it, it has it's wrongs here and there but it is overall a fun movie, not great but indeed very fun and entertaining... witch is the ultimate goal of any normal film to be regardless of genera.