User:Vanguard/Blog


 * 1) Blog Archive for Dec. 3 2007 to Dec. 18 2008
 * 2) Blog Archive for Jan. 2 2009 to Dec. 20 2009
 * 3) Blog Archive for Jan. 4 2010 to ?

January 28, 2011
Before the movie review... Let's talk about what I've been doing! For Christmas; I got Fallout: New Vegas. Unlike FO3, it's not a game I can binge on. I almost -have- to take breaks because no matter which faction or concept I choose, the first ten levels are generally identical. Even my Legionnaire. After some research, I found the Legion to be moderately acceptable. (In games or out, I do not like slavery. In fact I usually wiped out Paradise Falls even on my evil characters)... I also feel it's a bit realistic that in all of old Rome's glory... I'm fairly certain there were a scattered few who tried treating their slaves a bit more human. I was one of those, even though I really couldn't mechanic wise. But it gave me the moral minimum to at least playthrough as a Legionnaire.

I mentioned that because the world is pretty much anti-legion and the first ten levels are dedicated to stockpiling cash and money.

I also got Mass Effect 2. Nothing to add, I'm sure I have a blog post about it somewhere, when I was just borrowing it from a friend. Actually bought it this time.

ANYWAY. I also got a level 85 on WoW. A warrior. I suck at her.

Playing Allods recently, relearning the game after -several- patches from my inactivity. I'm on Nezeb, Empire, for anyone who wants to help me out.

Now, to the review!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
It's a shame because almost every movie gets between a 7-8 out of 10 for me (Half-Blood Prince gets a 6.5 because, well, it had little to do with the Half-Blood Prince. Snape had a much bigger role in the book) for it's general accuracy and decent action that was paced well with the general school-time shenanigans.

TDH:Part 1 falls on it's face with this. NOTHING HAPPENS. It's two hours of... very little. They could have taken 20 minutes from this movie and just tack it onto Part 2 and call it one movie.

I've always been opposed to this whole idea of "splitting" the movies, but I at least understood why. Even the book was just one big scavenger hunt. Why devote two extra hours to this nonsense? Well, if they had just automatically found every Magical McGuffin, people would complain about it being too easy. But as it is, we're complaining because it was boring.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm not a director. But from 6 previously decent movies, the director could have done this better.

Here's the general outline of this movie; Intro. Fight scene. Wedding. Fight scene. Escape. Camping. More camping. A fight scene. A chase scene! More camping. Dark Lord gains major magical McGuffin. Movie ends.

Oddly, my favorite scenes weren't the fighting or the camping. I'm a sucker for character development and it was sparse, but present. For example; Harry going to his birthtown. That was a strangely fascinating scene, even in its simplicity.

So, very clever. People are still required to sit through this crap in order to be caught up with part 2. Although, someone can just read reviews and summaries and miss very little. So you have that option.

August 26, 2010
I named a druid on Diablo 2 "Zydrate" approximately three days ago. To date I've had FOUR people ask me if I come in a little glass vial.

July 28, 2010
Before we get to my Movie review, Guild Wars stuff!

I finally did press myself into staring at 5 separate sets of dialog and finally got down to the actual missions. The first one kicked my ass because level 15 prophecies henchmen are useless. I had to hire a player who brought a second MM along, and only one healer. We managed with only one death, at the Seal. However it is nice to see "bow pulling" making a return. Welcome back, Pulling. How I've missed you. (Reminds me of how Crowd Control is making a comeback in WoW's Cataclysm) I also had to switch to a Bow Build. I guess my melee-ranger can't do "everything" anymore. (PvP excluded, obviously)

I'm not going to say the aforementioned "funk" is averted, but it might be soonish.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)
Worse than the first, but not horrible.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Complaints out of the way first.

I understand the concept of 'using what worked' from the success (if a bit underground) of the first, but they seemed to be copying set-pieces entirely too much. There was a very quick replacement of "Rocco", in the form of a loud-mouthed Mexican. They replaced the hilariously gay FBI agent with a southern chick. Now, when I heard about that I was like; okay. Sure. Makes sense. They'd almost have to to keep the original charm.

However, the Mexican always felt unnecessary. They tried establishing he was a bit more combative and competent than the original Rocco, and it becomes true for the most part but quite frankly, the character just becomes annoying.

The female FBI agent CLAIMS she's "so f***cking smart, I make smart people look retarded". Which was a cool line, but she never actually PROVED it. Y'see, in the first film you actually saw the agent walk through the scene, looking at particular points of interest. The new girl did none of that. She put on some headphones, then five seconds later she takes them off and explains everything, complete with "cut-to-4 hours ago-montages". Normally this would have been okay, if she actually solved the scene instead of sounding like she was handed a script (ha. ha.)

The three cops were a bit too 'animated' from the first film. I sort of excuse this because of their predicament they were in, but in the first one the two cops were a lot more cool and collected. And the third incompetent was just there for comic relief as he always was so I excused his behavior.

That's the main problem I had. It copied too much and the characters were needlessly over the top.

But I liked it anyway. I liked seeing II Duce's past, and I really loved the 'end-boss' Italian. Very well acted. And before that, the scene with II Duce and the short Italian assassin playing Russian roulette with each other also seemed like a very well done scene, and thus was my favorite of the movie.

Fans of the original will like it. Those who haven't seen the first one, watching this one, definitely won't sell them on the series. Watch the first, have it gain your respect, then try again.

July 27, 2010
Entering the 'funk', as I call it, for Guild Wars. For newcomers, it's the phase I go through after coming back to Guild Wars after a month or more of inactivity and realizing, every time... That there's really not a lot in Guild Wars. Compared to many other games I play, of course. Once you get to 20, a proper rune set and any kind of cheapass green weapon that have identical statistics as any Destroyer weapon... the game is practically over for that character. I mean sure, I've done a lot (My ranger for example) but eventually, there's a cap to the experience.

I need to figure out this War of Kryta thing. Everyone I talk to are useless. They might be giving me good information, but due to my activity, they can't explain it like someone who's JUST coming into Guild Wars. So now that I write it out that way, it's not really their faults. They just need to word their "walkthrough" better. The respective wiki pages don't seem to help, though. I have the impression I basically have to revisit the same spot SEVERAL different times so I can witness the proper dialog to activate the actual quests. Or something. I visited this spot once and ALREADY lost interest in it. Unless I'm wrong in this theory, it'll take some mental pushing to even bother with this 'expansion'.

July 24, 2010
As a followup to my last post, Activision/Blizzard recalled their plan to show real names on their forums. Good for them.

In other news, running out of WoW money on the 26th. I've already 'mentally' been done with it for over a week. I'll get it back in September or something.

So I'll be back on Guild Wars. Maybe.

I've also been playing Borderlands, especially over Xbox Live. I got a 50 soldier, a 50 hunter, and a ~19 Siren I still want to get powerleveled. Cheating? Maybe. But after ~6 separate playthroughs, I've earned the right. Not fond of the berserker. Might make one just to be a mule for epic lewtz. Not that I can do much transfers, seeing as how I'll -also- run out of Xbox Live in ~19th of August.

Money be tight, yo. Working on that.

In Guild Wars News, my guild is almost turning 2 years old. Too bad absolutely nothing of note has actually happened since nobody roleplays. Bastards.

July 8, 2010. Another game shoots itself in the foot
WoW is "love it/hate it" among most gamers, especially at this particular community. Those who don't like it can't deny that it took what early-day MMo's did and did everything a little better. Though, most people cling onto one game they really really like despite there being no real progress once you hit level 20 (Which you can do in a day now). That's not precisely a mean-spirited slam on Guild Wars. Sticking to one game is all well and good.

Which I have done for WoW for ~4 years now.

And yet...

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2010/07/08/blizzard-real-names-real-risks.htm

WoW just introduced a RealID thing. At first, it was simply trading account emails to friends in-game. People you trusted, and in turn they would see your real name and account. At first I was like, sure. Okay. I get it. So I added two real life friends and one person I knew in-game. But now they announced that soon, on their forums, EVERYONE will have their real name displayed on their posts.

The main announcement is here;  http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1&pageNo=1

That thread has tens of thousands of replies. Over 1900 pages of naysaying, complaints, and thousands of people are canceling their subscriptions.

Sure, 40,000 may sound like a "minority" to the millions who play. But how many of those are ignorant of these upcoming changes? Who simply doesn't care, or are also ignorant to the general risks?

The first link covers what I mean by risks. There are many real life ramifications to this.

It's not as simple as "don't post on the forums", either. Those seeking tech support have to sometimes. And check this out: Some people LIKE forums. Some people like bantering, debating, or simply talking with their community when they're not online. The simple fix is to just let people have a 'username' or 'handle'.

However, this is the facebookization of WoW. The money their losing from tens of thousands of subscribers, they're getting back from sponsors who are paying Activision to start tossing us in-game advertisements.

I was honestly expecting World of Warcraft to go on for decades. I really was. And I'm not going to stop playing just yet. I might, I just might... But not yet.

I hope we have a voice.

June 6, 2010
Random thought. I didn't think Battlefield: Earth was that bad. Certainly not the -best- movie I've seen, acting was a little dodgy and I've seen worse in terms of effects. I'm not sure what it did to earn itself on mostly everyone's "Worst Movie of All Time" list.

May 6, 2010
Still alive, just playing WoW. I have a new review for you all.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
 *** This review may contain spoilers *** 

Yes, spoilers. But I usually write reviews in the assumption that any readers I get may have seen the movie already.

So I'll start with the very first thing I didn't like - The ending. This whole movie, I was believing the "fantasy" portion was "real" in this movie's particular reality. I thought the girl was in sufficient danger with the child-eating demon. I even thought the Faun was more sinister than he let on. And I would have been fine with any "sad" ending. What I did not like is the movie treating me like a moron. At the very end, the girl's death puts her in her Princess-like station with a father and a mother who looks amazingly like her previously dead real-life mother.

As in: It's basically her "Heaven".

As an atheist, I'm not prudish. I don't get angry when people say "God Bless You" when I sneeze, and sometimes I even visit my friend's church to socialize. But somehow this movie succeeded in offending me. It tricked me. It all turned out to be the imaginings of a girl.

Or was it?

How did she get the chalk? How did she escape a locked door? How did the "Mandrake root" actually seem to work, and it's effects immediately diminished as it was burned? Was all of it real, or imagination?

I don't mind multiple interpretations to things but It would have been nice to be directed to one or the other.

...But I digress.

I read a lot of the reviews under "Hated" (as I often do, because I already know what I liked in a film so I don't need to read a dozen reviews of "this was amazing"), and I don't believe the movie was completely awful.

The acting was fine, especially that of the Captain. They did a good job making you hate him, but his acting was superb. His facial emotions, his movements were all fluid and believable for a man with that personality. He stole every scene he was in, and despite his cruel bludgeoning at the beginning, I couldn't wait to see him in the next scene.

Everyone else was mediocre, which was fine in this semi-realistic portrayal of War-life. I liked the girl, but the split War-Drama/Fantasy was jarring, but I ran with it.

And one final, minor complaint; Wasn't this advertised as a children's fantasy? Goodness me, I can't imagine what people thought after seeing it in a theater.

Other reviews of mine

February 20, 2010
Been off playing Mass Effect 2. Good game, but after two playthroughs, trying it again, even with another class, feels like a chore. Though I might have played it too much, I just need a break.<BR> Anyway, enough on that.

I have a review for you.

But it's not a movie. It's a television show. I've "reviewed" a couple shows before already, but they were more or less rants. I made fun of "Ghost Whisperer" and talked about how I liked "Burn Notice", but never actually "reviewed" them.

All the same, before I post it I should explain what "Spartacus; Blood and Sand" is so you all get a vague idea of what the hell this is.

It's a show that popped up on Starz (Starz is a much lesser HBO-type station), it's a mix between Gladiator and 300. Combine sex and violence with slow-motion, and you basically have Spartacus. It's an Arena-based show and they do keep it more interesting then just 1 on 1 fights, which would get boring. Simple concept, so-so execution, everything it does is too much.

But onto the real review.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010)
Summary: Enjoyable with the potential to be annoying

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Since I get Starz on Demand for free due to some tiny extra payment on my cable plan, it's generally my biggest source of movies and other time-wasters while I'm waiting for something else better to do. No offense to Starz in particular, because that's all TV is to me these days. Filler-time until something else comes up.

I started seeing previews for Spartacus in front of my movies and was instantly intrigues and slightly troubled that they seemed to be taking notes from 300 a bit too much. A lot of people add "Gladiator" to the mix, but Spartacus has enough differences in story... so I disagree. However, the "300" inspiration is painfully obvious.

Now, I liked 300 for the most part, minus that borderline pornographic sex scene... And now Spartacus is trying to take too many notes and try to fit in at least one sex scene, one set of breasts and maybe one bare penis for good measure at least in every single episode. I'll never understand this. Yes, sex happens from time to time, we get it. I'm not going to sit here and type "Think of the children!" because I'm a 21 year old who STILL thinks there's no room for it in this.

The worst part is, they seem to be trying to hard. It's like all the sex was filmed after the REAL episode and everyone thought "Let's just plug this in anywhere". 90% of the sex in this has no place. Scenes like that should be used sparingly, and it's not.

Pointless sex aside, the rest is admirable. Good actors, they all seem to fit in the role they're in. I don't mind the liberal use of slow-motion, but can understand how it might be annoying for some people. Like the sex, the slow-motion should get some more careful use. Still, I find it neat.

The actual character development could use improvement but the story seems to be going forward rather well. I don't expect this to last more than a season or two, but it'll be a fun ride.

Janurary 8, 2010
I just got finished watching the most badass, balls-to-the-wall insane heavy metal opera that my eyes have ever had the pleasure of being completely owned by.

I am of course, talking about Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Epic.

Might review it later.

January 5, 2010
New movie review. Babylon AD, hard to get into, harder to follow.

Babylon A.D. (2008)
 *** This review may contain spoilers ***

My 6/10 might be harsh but I did like the movie. The problem was I didn't even start liking it until thirty minutes in or whatever, and that's not a sign of good storytelling. I'll explain.

The movie begins with a neat concept, if unexplained. You see Vin's character (Toorop) march with a mission to a hip-hop beat. It's rainy, it's gloomy, and he's surrounded with guards and civilians, all trying to buy or sell different types of weapons. Casually. Like they were selling oranges on the street corner or something. I can only assume so much. The movie implies it's in the future but this could just be how harsh other countries are. Some drama later, Vin punches a guy, he goes back to his crappy apartment.

This is where the red flags began. The story didn't explain itself, it almost never explains itself. Now, I can excuse this because that's "just the style", but I still can't find myself to forgive it. It just progresses with Toorop getting some job to protect a girl and head on over to America, where he's actually a wanted terrorist (He's actually a mercenary).

Very little is explained, and you only get little hints here and there. The girl he's escorting mentions that Siberian Tigers went extinct in 2017. And... that's all you get. That's a fair clue to a time-line but where are THEY? Year 2020? 2050? 2200? No idea. Shortly after that dialog, you see a long shut-down Nuclear plant with a giant crater right beside it. It's unexplained and we are left to assume Nuclear War, but even that might be inaccurate. (I've read some other reviews but I haven't actually researched the movie and it's background Lore).

And that's all you get for a while, after some minor plot twists (The escort has a father, America is being led by some religious leader) and some action.

And the action IS fine, along with the acting.

But my major problem with this movie is there was no context. No explanation. I vaguely liked some of the characters but I feel like I was trying to catch up on a TV series I never watched. (Go ahead, I dare you to even attempt to start watching, say, Heroes from season 3 onward. You won't know what the hell is going on). As a result, the characters went about their merry way without explaining themselves to the audience. So most of the time I felt nothing for them.

Without context, without background, I have nothing to compare the story to, nothing to base it on. Nothing to work with. And I'm someone who LOVES background lore and history. If they had just done some cheesy beginning scroll-text like Star Wars or what Underworld did. I don't like those as much but at least it would have helped.

That brings me to the final problem. By the time we GET anything resembling the explanation, it's spouted by a cyborg'd doctor who explains EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING within two sentences. Just like that. One fell swoop and now I feel like the first whole of the movie was practically wasted.

How could they have improved that? Drop us more hints and explanation THROUGHOUT the movie, not in a single line on the script sheet.

Yet, the movie isn't a complete waste of time. It'll just take a long time and you'll need to force yourself to stick with it. It just needs something like a "prequel", that would help immensely.

Again, it was well acted and directed, it was just in pieces. It needs context, background, and gradual explanation.

Other Reviews of mine

January 4, 2010
So for Christmas, I mostly just got money. With that money I bought several of those new Mega Blocks Halo sets, because pose-able legoes are badass.<BR> I also got some socks and a pair of pants.

I also got a month of WoW so I'm back on that for some time. I'm trying really hard to level my shaman some. And I got from 34-37 so, some progress is being made. I want Dual Wielding, damnit.

Had to return the 360 to my friend when he came back from his holiday vacation. Damn shame, too. I had just created a neat hunter-concept character.<BR> I had also found ODST but only got to play it for an hour. As expected, I like single player more than playing with other people. But man, I eat through ammo like candy. It's nuts. It's like modern-day war games, all our American guns suck ass so we just pick up the enemies and use them for the rest of the game. That's essentially what happens on Halo.

I also saw two movies: Babylon AD and the Spirit. Both movies were pretty damn weird. I might review them later.