Movie Review #5 - The Wolverine

Introduction

Welcome to another awesome review from Review Republic here, and this time I will be reviewing The Wolverine. There has been an origin movie for Wolverine, and a few other movies that included him as well, like the X-Men series, but I won't mention too much about them, since this story takes place after the events in X-Men : The Last Stand, if I'm not mistaken. This time, I'm trying something new to rate the movie, make sure to comment if you guys prefer this method. Spoiler alert, if you didn't already know.

The Wolverine

The plot isn't very complicated, in fact I will describe the whole movie in one word. Bodyguard. That's right, the majority of the film is about Logan protecting this chick who is supposedly very important, and if he doesn't rescue her from the Yakuza, Yashida Industries will fall into the wrong hands. I'm sure Logan wouldn't want that to happen, would he? Now to be fair, the true purpose of the movie was to show the human side of the Wolverine, which is Logan, the vulnerable part which we never get to see. Additionally, the movie is also trying to give him a renewed purpose to live since he was emo because he had to kill his psycho mutant lover. But that still doesn't change the fact that it's still a bodyguard movie.
Instead of dividing the movie to 5 sections like I always do, I am trying something fun which is to briefly introduce each of the main characters and I will try to justify their roles in the movie, and maybe flame some of them as well. It's more informal this way, but I think it's gonna be a lot more entertaining. Enjoy.

Name : Yashida

Real Name : Scumbag Old Man.

Description : This Japanese dude is a straight up classic scumbag. Wolverine saved Yashida's life and endangering Wolverine's own life in the process back in the war, and Yashida decides to repay Wolverine by deceptively trying to steal his regenerative powers. He put his grand-daughter in danger by faking his death, which leads to the Yakuza chasing her, and also ordering his operatives to kill his son. He also spent all his fortune building a purely adamantium-powered armor just so he can fight with Wolverine and take his powers, and almost drive his hugely successful company to bankruptcy. You stay classy, Yashida. 

Name : Shingen

Real Name : Misunderstood Son.

Description : Shingen is also a scumbag since he plotted to have his daughter killed, but he did that because he was misunderstood, and also bitter by the fact the company belongs to Mariko instead of him once Yashida dies. Harada was able to take Mariko away before Shingen can finish the job, and later on he was poisoned by Viper, which made him mentally unstable. He then tried to kill Wolverine, and knowing the fact that Wolverine regained back his regenerative powers, he died for nothing. Sad day for him.

Name : Mariko

Real Name : The Princess

Description : In the movie, it was mentioned that she was one of the top combatant of karate and knife-throwing, having the same skill level as Harada. Then why in the world is she running away and getting kidnapped in almost every enemy encounter?!? Granted, she did fight a bit at Yashida's funeral, but come on. She should be completely wasting everyone that tries to fight her. Instead, she keeps running away with her bodyguard Wolverine. And she fell in love with someone that is potentially more than 70 years older than her. Well, if that person never ages, has killed dozens of people and has social issues, I guess it's alright.

Name : Yukio

Real Name : Most Underrated Ability Mutant.

Description : So she has this ability that can see people's death in the near future. Seems fine to me, but it's  inconsistent and has been proven wrong at least once. She saw Wolverine die when he was trying to take the parasite out from his heart, Wolverine did just that and he survived, albeit barely. She can't see everyone's death as well apparently, because if she can see Yashida and Shingen's death, she would have protected Mariko sooner, or maybe warned Wolverine of her visions. Now hold on a moment, let's try to find a rational explanation for that. What if her visions would change if she tell someone about it? That might be the reason why she deliberately tell her vision to Wolverine about him dying, knowing that her vision would not come true because of that. What if she actually saw Yashida and Shingen's death, and she did not tell anyone about it, even Wolverine, because their deaths WILL happen essentially letting their fate play it out? Mind = Blown.

Name : Harada

Real Name : Useless Bodyguard.

Description : I don't know what to make of this guy. He was the head of the so-called Black Ninja Clan, and he was sworn to protect the Yashida Family, yet did a horrible job at it. When the fight broke out at Yashida's funeral, he was on the roof surveying the crowd. There's like a few dozen Yakuzas in hiding, he can't spot any of them, but Wolverine, the outsider that has only been in Japan for two days, manages to spot them? Come on. When Wolverine and Princess was fighting and running away from Yakuzas, all Harada can do is running around providing air support to them. He should be the one guarding and shielding Princess instead of this outsider that to him was of unknown allegiance. Later on, it seems like he couldn't track where the two went on the train, then Princess got caught by the Yakuza eventually and possibly executed, carried out by Shingen. I don't how the Japanese ninjas carry out their operations, but I think that is a very clear Mission Failure.

Name : Dr.Green

Real Name : Viper

Description : Now this is an interesting character. I heard a lot of people complained that she isn't much of a use in the movie, and her abilities are sub-par or useless compared to other mutants. I think that isn't completely true. What I can gather about her abilities is that she can generate new poison and also the anti-dote at the same time depending on the situation of which type of poison is needed. For example, she managed to implant the parasite on Wolverine, partly I imagined because of one of her neuro-toxins, making him think that it was just a nightmare, but in reality it's not. She killed people using her toxic breath as well, but also able to cure them back using her breath. She also has a regenerative ability, much like Wolverine's one, but at a weaker extent. If you recall back at the facility where Wolverine was fighting with the Silver Samurai, she was shot with an arrow by Harada. She was incapacitated for a while, but she was able to pull the arrow out, heal back the wound, and continue to fight with Mariko. Although she is not the most physically-skilled mutant, I think she accomplished what she was assigned to do, which was to slow down or inhibit the regenerative abilities of Wolverine, therefore giving Yashida the opportunity to take the powers for himself. When the movie shows the scene where Viper was fighting with Mariko, I felt that they did not respect what Viper's ability was, leaving her with a bad reputation. It's like showing a combat scene between a doctor and an assassin, get what I mean? 

Verdict ( 8.5/10)

Ultimately, this is an entertaining movie to watch. The movie not only shows the human side of Wolverine that has compassion and love, but also the bad-ass side of him where he can slice people apart without hesitation. There are a lot of super-hero movies currently that resemble the same trend of exploring the other side of the subject, like Superman, Iron Man 3, and Dark Knight Rises to name a few, but I think this movie does it right perfectly the most. Just enough of dice and slice action, emo moment, sexy scene (Although cinema version is censored, but I'm sure it isn't bad, how could it be right?), suspense and adrenaline-fuelled fast-paced action. It may not be a must-watch movie for movie-goers, but it does gain considerable respect from the Wolverine fans, at least for me, and also add a great addition to the Wolverine arc in the movie franchises. I would go further to say this is one of the best movies in this super-hero packed year.

Movie Review # 4 - Epic

Introduction

As this is my second movie review, I wanted to do review something different from the first one. I will most likely review a movie which has science fiction or fantasy as its genre, because that is something I am comfortable with reviewing. After some thought, I decided to review an animated movie called Epic. This movie caught my attention when I saw the trailer, which was interesting and, well, epic. Is the movie really epic as the title says? I guess you'll find out. I would also like to point out I did not read the book version, so my knowledge around this movie is limited as well. As in every review, I would rate a movie through five categories; Plot, Graphic, Music, Pace, and Replay Value. And spoiler alert, of course.

Plot (4/10)

In order for a movie to be epic, one must have a good, solid and engaging plot. Not in this movie, or simply not good enough. In fact, it's so predictable and cheesy you would probably guess it's a Disney princess movie. Although I understand this is a romance/science fiction/action genre, it's still not engaging either for the romance, action and science fiction fans. They certainly show a bit of this and that, but not ambitious or creative enough to make any of them shine.

I find the plot generic and non-sensical at times. I shall name a few of those instances. The Queen of the leafmen decided to hand over her pod, which she had transferred all her power into, to the daughter of a man who has been hunting them for years, because the girl just happens to be near her when she is dying, and shrinks her to a tiny size in the process of doing so. Later on, you learned that the Queen is essentially blackmailing the girl to make sure the pod is safe so that her faction wins, in order to revert her back to her original size. Considering the fact that Queen Tara is supposed to represent the leader of the good forces, that's not a very nice thing to do.

Commander Ronin has the worst recon team in the history of the leafmen ever, sends his scouts to recon, not one of them sees a whole legion of Boggans just waiting to ambush the Queen. Ronin, Mary and Nod wanted to disguise themselves to infiltrate Boggan territory, and they went through the totally unnecessary task of retrieving Boggan armor from Mary's father's house when they can pick them up near the scene where Queen Tara died, because I am pretty sure more than three Boggans died over there.

Ronin decided to distract the Boggans while letting Mary and Nod rescue the snails and the pod. The oldest trick in the book, and the leader of the Boggans didn't see it coming. Mary and co. manages to escape, leaving behind Ronin to fend for himself. I'm not sure if Commander Ronin is a genius for knowing Boggan leader Mandrake would fall for it, or Mandrake is just incredibly dumb. The only reason the leafmen won is because Bomba just happens to have bat sounds on his iPod (Apple saves leafmen lives, buy one for $199 today! Additional charges may apply) to chase away the bats from blocking the moonlight. How convenient. While we're at it, why not let Bomba bring a flamethrower and burn each and every one of the damn Boggans? That would certainly give the leafmen a clear victory, wouldn't it? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Ronin not only managed to survive at the Boggan territory, but also finds a way back just in time to face Mandrake protecting the pod back at the leafmen stronghold with no wounds, only a few bruises. That's Commander Mother-f***king Ronin for you, ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Norris style.

The romance part looks fake and is not related to the plot at all. The only reason why they would add that in is to appease the teenage girls, or to simply prolong the movie. Another critical point is that this movie basically resolves around two factions battling each other in a long and bloody war, but no bloodshed has ever occurred throughout the whole movie, because it is rated PG -13. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just feel the movie is sugar-coating an entire war, which isn't realistic and entertaining to watch.

Now for some theory-crafting. Since the humans, leafmen, and the Boggans have the same anatomical shape, it is possible to interbreed with one another. The theory is further strengthened by the fact that Mary and Nod are attracted to each other in a sexual way. This leads to interesting outcomes as to what the offspring might become, or if it's possible at all. Let's put that aside, and say that this is real, and we see the human perspective on the knowledge that these two factions exist. The only reason the humans do not know they exist, is because they move and act at a higher speed than the humans. This problem would be easily rectified, if the government knew about it. The humans already have cameras that can capture high speed movement, all they have to do is locate the central place where these two factions operate, and mass-chloroform the whole area. They won't see it coming, since they have always thought that humans are clumsy creatures. Studies on their behaviour, their culture, and their anatomical structure would be done. Experiments will take place. Why wouldn't they? You see, the leafmen are portraying the humans are the saviours and heroes against the so-called evil forces. Boy, are the leafmen wrong about that.

Graphics (7/10)
The designs of the leafmen and the Boggans were distinctly different enough so that the audience were able to differentiate them from one another. Since the whole movie is computer generated, I would say they did a good job on the environment, or the setting of the movie, but I would like to see more of the places. The slow motion scene of the deer, the highly detailed pod scene, the dreadful Boggan territory, the cheery leafmen castle. Those were cool graphics that were notable.

Pace (5/10)
Well, despite the plot being awfully predictable which makes me feel like I want to fast-forward the whole movie, the detailed and colourful visuals made want to slow it down and see more of it. And then the scene passes and I want to fast-forward it again. It's not the actual pace of the movie that makes it seemingly slow, it's the plot, so I won't fault on it too much.

Music (5/10)
There's not much music in the movie, not any that took my attention anyway, but I feel like they could use more of this element in the movie to further enhance the experience and set a stronger emotion for the appropriate scenes.

Replay Value (2/10)
The only thing that kept me on my seat was the action scenes and the visuals, and a chance there might be a plot twist in the end, regardless how small that chance is, a prove that the movie isn't that bad after all. It never came. If you ask me, I would rather watch a 102 minutes documentary about the life of an allegheny mound ant, at least I wouldn't know what would happen next.

Verdict (4/10)
This movie has tons of potential, I really do think so. The fact that the two factions are fighting each other and I don't give a damn who wins speaks in itself. In the end, its one of those movies you feel disappointed in after watching the trailer of the movie. It's not as epic as the movie title suggest after all. If you are indecisive on whether to watch this movie or not, it's best to just watch that documentary I mentioned above. This will be the end of the review, folks. Hope you had a good time reading it. This is Salmon, signing off.

Author : 

SALMON

Food Review #1 : BIG HUG BURGHER

Whatsup people, welcome to the Review Republic! and to our very first food review.
In this post I'm going to review about BIG Hug burger which is in SS15, Subang Jaya.

#Since many people have different taste in food and other factors of a food establishment, I will not give ratings for each section but instead describe and comment only. I will however put a final rating out of 5 stars  (Because 10 stars is way too much to judge for food) of the restaurant on the top before i start talking about the restaurant.

Movie Review #3 - The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Review.... MAGIC!

Introduction

Ever love watching magicians who never fail to astound you with their tricks?

 That feeling when you just smile, laugh or get excited upon seeing an impossible trick?

"What you feeling right now, that sense of awe? That sense of wonderment? That sense that anything in the universe is possible? That's why you became a magician, that's why i became a magician" -Rance Holloway

 Today I'm going to do a review on a Steve Carell comedy movie about MAGIC and Comedy all together!
Featuring stars such as Jim Carrey Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi and Alan Arkin.

In this movie review, I'll be talking about the Plot, Story, Characters, Magic, Re-watch Value and finally the Overall. 

Plot
Burt as a kid ( Played by Mason Cook from the movie "Spy Kids - All the Time in the World") was always bullied and when he got home on his birthday, his mom wasn't around. Only a instruction on how to bake the cake and a "Rance Holloway Magic Kit" and from there was history, or present history...whatever

Seriously, I didn't look this cool when i was kid...

And from there, how he began his long and famous career as a magician. While making friends with his partner Anton Marvelton, together they form the "The Amazing Burt and Anton, a magical friendship" show which they did for a very long time. However down the road, Burt and Anton had a bitch fight because Burt is an asshole with his fame, fortune and sex (I'm not kidding, I'm making this as short as i can say) and now Burt alone must find the reason why he love magic and being a magician in the first place. Without writing too much cliche, urgh, here's a pic to distract you from it.


 
Pigeons Bitches!


REVIEW


STORY (6/10)

As much as i love magic and Steve Carell's magic of comedy in his movies, it is without a doubt the plot is pretty much well....expected. Person gets famous, becomes douche, fall from grace, finds a reason why he got famous in the first place in doing what he loves, yadaa yadaa yadaa. But! regardless of its expected plot, you can't help to like the relax,comedic and for those who has interest in magic can't help to be awed or at least begin an interest in magic tricks.
 And may i remind you, this is not "The Prestige" style movie. Which for those that don't know what i meant, go watch it.
Neither is it a crazy, confusing, mind-banging story.
Its plain and simple. Its light, funny and plenty of cool magic tricks which is suitable for adults and probably teenagers, but not so sure about kids.......skrew them, they ruin everything.
Did i mention Jim Carrey is in it?

Owh boy.......

Characters (7/10)
Now, in the beginning, Burt is introduce as a kid who's often bullied and whimpers when he's sad (he still does it when he's an adult). Upon arriving home on his birthday, he's mom wasn't home but left instructions on how to bake his favorite cake and a magic kit for his birthday. Then he met Anton who always ends up in the nurse office and have to take countless of medication, like testosterone hormones and because "The doctor says I'm dangerously close to being a girl".

"Yeah....almost became a girl...sigh miss those days"

From there, they became best friends and did many magical shows together and design tricks. You cant help but to love Anton who's the calm, nice and emphatic person while Burt became an asshole but turns into a better person. He was rather sexist to Jane ( Olivia Wilde) but ill let you decide on that when you watch the movie. The characters are funny and hard not to like, except Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) who's the bad guy and does ridiculous tricks. It's like Criss Angel who suddenly got sadistic and crazy....if he isn't already. Steve has a show called "Mind Rapist"..let that sink in for a minute and tell me how hard is it not to like a man who calls his show that.



Mind Rapist is 51 years old this year. Let that further sink in.

However, some of the characters story hasn't been properly written i guess? Because what happened to Anton's female hormone problem? Did it stopped? Why is Steve Gray doing his crazy stunts? Are they real? What happened to Burt's mother? Is she dead? Or was a magic trick to trick us viewers? Again this is not INCEPTION and i think some of those parts of the characters didn't matter. Depends on you readers if they were.  Don't think too much though if you did its either





This

OR

This

You decide

Magic (?)

Now I'm no magician so I'm not sure how to rate these magic tricks in the movie, regardless it could be camera tricks or angles or even special effects and editing, but I will comment on how cool these tricks look. After Burt and Anton got their big offer to perform in one of the biggest hotels and casino's in Las Vegas, They always use props like super huge ones. When Burt has Fallen from grace, he found Rance Halloway, his childhood magic hero in a retirement home. From there , they shown a montage of them showing simple tricks such as disappearing balls...(dont giggle you immature lamps), card tricks, clothes instant change tricks and many more.

These aren't mine you know......

 As a person who doesn't know batshit about magic, its pretty interesting to see simple yet cool and amazing tricks performed by the characters. It's cool alright? and I'm a sucker when it comes to magic tricks.

I wanted to insert a penis joke caption but it was HARD to think of one.




RE-WATCH VALUE (7/10)
This movie is beyond boring i assure you. And I've watched in many times just to laugh and admire the magical thingies Steve Carell has brought from his magic nose hole. But seriously this movie is great to watch for comedic relief and can be easily enjoyed by people who has some fucking sense of humor........meh. Not much to say on why you should re-watch it, because its MAGIC!.... I'm losing energy to write this post i swear.



No Pigeons! CARDS BITCHES!







OVERALL (7 N HALF /10)

Now this isn't the highly GOLDEN GLOBE OR NOMINATED FOR OSCARS kind of movie but shit people, but its good enough to have a nice laugh. There are some plot holes as mentioned in the Character category but its still easy to enjoy. Having the one of the greatest master of comedy Jim Carrey in the movie is a big bonus for its overall great cast. It's better than Bruce Willis sudden appearance in G.I JOE: Retaliation. It's like they don't give a damn anymore......ahem

Anyways its good movie.

"Happy Birthday Judah" is burnt into his flesh by the devil's dick
I hope you ain't name Judah people.





Written By

Saber

Game Review #2 - Fallout 3

http://www.wallgc.com/fallout-fallout-3-2-83052/

Introduction

It's a good day, fellow viewers, and all good days come with a game review from the Review Republic! This time around, I will be reviewing a game called Fallout 3. Unfortunately, I did not play the previous series which is the original Fallout and Fallout 2, so I will play this game as if I've not heard of the previous series. Still, this game alone is worth reviewing because it's game-breaking in itself. As said before, I will be reviewing the game based on five basis; Plot, Gameplay, Tone, Graphic and Replay Value. I must emphasize that this is not a full review, as I'll skip all the explaining and introduction and all that cheese, so if you want a full one, there's plenty of reviews out there already. If you haven't played the game, stop reading this and go play the damn game, then read this. And if you haven't figured it out already, there will be spoilers in this review.

http://www.wallpapervortex.com/wallpaper-15908_fallout_fallout_3.html

Plot (9/10)

Let's start with the genre before the actual plot, because it's significantly related in this case. This is a RPG style sandbox game, and one of the few which is not only a legit sandbox game, but an awesome one as well. With that out of the way, lets head to the plot itself. The main plot is unfolded through the completion of the main quests the main character does throughout the map. There are no cutscenes, which I approve because they are trying to make the game as realistic as possible. The main quests are well developed as they will lead you through all the biggest towns in the whole map. If you're rushing the game and just finish the game as fast as you possibly can, you're doing it wrong, but at least you go to all the main places.

What I like about the plot is you can finish it however you like. This means that there are multiple ways to play a quest, whether the main one, or the side quest. Thats the thing. You're not waiting for the next plot point to unfold, you create your own plot as you go along. You can decide whether to save a whole village full of farmers, or help the bandits take over the village. You are essentially playing God. ( A shotgun wielding mohawk full armor power Goddess, if you want). The main goal of finding your lost father will not change, but you are still creating your own plot as you go along.You can also customize almost everything, from your race, gender, your clothes, weapons, bullets, and even your Pip Boy screen colour, just for the sake of choices.

As you go further into the plot, you will realise why your dad has abandoned you and the shelter, and for a good reason too. You will also realise that the world around you has gone to hell, and crazy shit will happen anytime you go wandering into some place else. The subways are infected with feral ghouls, half of the city is overrun by mutants, and the other half is by the military faction Brotherhood of Steel. So many things to see, so many quests to complete, so many places to explore. Oh yeah, you will die a lot too, coz almost eveything can kill you.

http://wallpapertube.com/games/fallout-fallout-3-wallpaper-24

Gameplay (8/10)
In most of the game, you are either talking to someone, or shooting something in the face, so it's a fair assumption that you'll do a lot of killing. There's a system called V.A.T.S where you pause the game when you engage in it, and the screen will display the percentage of successful hits on an enemy's limbs. You can't do it all the time, as it depletes your energy bar, but its still bad-ass. After that, a slow motion sequence will  happen when you select the area you want to shoot, and you'll see the limb fly out of the enemy, or they burst into bloody bits. Ingenious, I say. Only thing disappointing is once you're out of Vats and you're shooting things manually, you're screwed, because the iron sights in this game sucks.

There's a currency system in this game, but you can abuse the fact that you can be ridiculously rich by just selling the stuff you looted around, although money is supposed to be scarce in the game. There's also special points, called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points ( Believe me, I'm funny that way) where you put your points to categories that determine the character you want it to be at the beginning. Then there's the attribute points where you get it after each level up, which will increase a particular skill after you put a point in it. And then there's perks as well when you level up every two times, which will give you special abilities. One more thing, you can choose a partner to follow you around that will also grant you additional unique perks. (Not enough choices, you say? There you go, son.)

Tone (7/10)
The tone of the game is very bleak and violent, but the radio podcasts you listen to are of the '50s oldies. There's not much to say about the tone, but I like it that they did not try anything weird like rock music playing, or even techno songs blazing throughout the game, although I love techno music. Because there is generally no music, you can hear the surroundings. The fire crackling, people talking and shouting, shots fired somewhere, something of that sort. Bonus points for an amazing theme song that perfectly suits the style of the Fallout universe.
Link is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5CQSp6Sros

Graphics (6/10)
The graphics are not top-notch, but considering this game is five years old to date, and has a gigantic map, you don't need top-notch graphics to pull the game through. The environment design is decent, with the main places having varying differences. The NPCs look a bit same though, and the attire of the different factions could be made a little more unique to better distinguish themselves more. I wouldn't say this will break the game, but there's one more other thing that almost brought the whole game down.

http://hdwp.net/walls/fallout_3_screenshot__jpeg-HD.jpg

Replay Value (9/10)
Need I say more? The amount of choices you can make in this game is actually endless. I should give it a perfect score for this but there's a catch. It's called glitches. There's so many glitches in this games that it's not even funny anymore. I think it's safe to say this is the only game that gets the most choices and glitches in the smae game.

http://patrickbrown.deviantart.com/art/Fallout-3-Virtue-to-Vice-143133982

Verdict (8/10)
Overall, this is the perfect game if you're looking for a fun, violent, addictive,  RPG style, realistic sandbox game. If you don't want realistic, go play Saints Row.

http://doomed-dreamer.deviantart.com/art/Fallout-3-Followers-135045842

Top 20 ways you can die in Fallout 3
Ah, the bonus section! As you know, almost anything can kill you in Fallout 3, so I made a top 20 list in no particular order of creative ways you can die gloriously in the game. Enjoy!

1. Clobbered by Mutants.
2. Shot by Enclave operatives.
3. Shot by raiders.
4. Shot by Brotherhood of Steel soldiers.
5. Shot by villagers.
6. Shot by Caravan guards.
7. Shot by ghouls.
8. Mauled by feral ghouls.
9. Burned by Fire ants.
10. Chased down by Yao Guai.
11. Sting to death by Giant Radscorpion.
11. Chopped down by Mirelurks.
12. Sliced in half by Deathclaws.
13. Blown up by mines.
14. Radiation poisoning.
15. Fell from a cliff.
16. Drowned in a river.
17. Gunned down by sentry bots.
18. Hunted down by Talon Company Mercs.
19. Smashed by Super Mutant Behemoth.
20. Glitch of stuck in terrain. Game Over, unless you save.


Author : 

SALMON













  

Movie Review #2 - Looper

http://www.wallgc.com

Introduction

Hello my fellow viewers, as you guys might have already expected this, this post will be my first ever post on the movie review section, with loads of reviews to come in the near future. I have chosen Looper as my first movie review, partly because it's science fiction, partly because it has also received a lot of attention. Again, as the same for my game reviews, I have five basis which I rely on to determine how successive a movie is; Plot, Music, Graphic, Pace, and Replay Value. A friendly reminder that there will be spoilers in this review. Let the theory-crafting begin.

Plot
( 8/10 )

Of all the things I want to say, I can sum it all up in one word, confusing. Messing around with time travel tends to have that effect. First off, we were introduced to a guy named Joe, and his job is a looper. What he does is he shoots victims and disposes of them when the people from the future sends the victims to the past through a portal in front of him. Now, this is already confusing enough as it is. Even more confusing, is that the people from the future would send the future self of the looper, so that the looper will unknowingly shoot himself, essentially 'ending' their contract.

This is one hell of a concept, but it has it's flaws. In fact, a lot more flaws than you care to think about. First off, the time travel itself. The story showed that the time travel machine was invented, and the mobs used it to send their victims back in time to be executed. That didn't make a lot of sense to me. You could kill the victim at the present time, sending him or her back to the past doesn't change the fact that the victim will die in 30 years time, as shown in the movie itself, so I don't think there is a point in sending them back to the past.

Secondly, the time machine is owned by the mob, and only by the mob presumably, since time travel is illegal. Well, that didn't stop the mob from doing what they were doing. The story itself did not really expand on the implications of time travel on that universe. What I mean is, the only thing I know is that the mob rules everything in the future. They did not talk about the government, the police, the people who had to live with it when time travel becomes a part of their lives, from both present and future.

Thirdly, the mob has a f**king time travel machine, and all they ever did with it was sending victims back to the past to get executed. I have to say, this is the most naive and short-sighted mob I have ever seen. If I were the mob boss, I would have sent all my people to the past, equipped with advanced weaponry and armor, and no one would be able to stop me from taking what I want. Based on the movie, there were more than one time machine too, either that or the objects could be teleported to different locations. I would be able to change everything, the future is in my hands, but nope, let's just use it to send victims back because my own cronies here are too cowardly to pull the trigger themselves. So much potential, all wasted.

Next, they did not also elaborate more on the telekinetics in the movie. 10% of the population has the ability to move things with their mind, and it is somehow related to time travel, or not. Telekinetics can also be interpreted as bending time and space to your will. Is it necessary to include telekinetics in the movie? Yes, because we learned that the boy Joe was trying to rescue from old Joe was a powerful telekinetic, and thus is essential to the plot. At the same time, if the boy does not have any telekinetic powers, does it change the overall main plot of the story? Not really. Joe would still protect the boy, and old Joe would still hunt the boy down, because that boy will become the Rainmaker. Do you get it? Old Joe wanted to kill the boy not because he was a telekinetic, but because he will become the Rainmaker. Maybe part of becoming the Rainmaker is the telekinetic powers, maybe because of his powers, he managed to create time machines then. So, let me ask this simple question, is telekinetics connected to time travel? We will never know.

And now we reached the ending of the movie, and I was genuinely surprised it ended that way. Although it could definitely happen, I never thought of it somehow, and I certainly did not expect it to turn out that way. I am talking about Joe killing himself to save the boy and the mother. I'm not sure if Joe was confident that his older self will disappear into thin air once he killed himself, but he certainly doesn't have the time to think it through. Old Joe even had some time to wonder what happened to him and looked back before he was... gone. Gone, just like that. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this scene made the most sense. If they do it any other way, like him exploding, or burst into flames, get sucked into a time portal, it would have been too cheesy. Actually come to think of it, it's not that surprising at all why Joe would kill himself. If I knew one day I would grow up to become Bruce Willis, I would have killed myself too.

Overall, I think it's a good plot. Fair amount of suspense, a lot of fast-paced action scenes, and a good ending. It's not a mindf**k ending as a lot of science fiction movies tend to do, but it's more of an ending that lets the audience feel satisfied.

Music
( 6/10 )
I don't think the music was particulary impressive in this movie, although it doesn't need to. All it has to do is to compliment the plot with matching tunes, and it did. But some awesome music wouldn't be bad either, especially a theme song for the movie. I'll let this one slide.

Graphic
( 4/10 )
The graphics in this case would be the futuristic designs shown in the movie. The blunderbuss, basically a shotgun, was not really advanced looking, it just looks different. The time machine itself doesn't look impressive either. The whole movie was set in two locations, the city that Joe lives in, and the corn farm, so not much to talk about there. Nothing special about the costumes either, except maybe the old man whom the mob sent from the future to take charge of the current mob. That dude always wears a red velvet robe wherever he goes, nobody wears red velvet robes nowadays. Except ladies who want to be sexy, but that is not the point. Nope.

They should have more designs or concept art that are futuristic, or at the least eye-catching since this is a science fiction movie. Instead, its just the same old world, except with eye drops and time machines. Not impressed.

Pace
( 6/10 )
The pace was slow to build up in the movie. Before Joe met his older self, the story was showing Joe being addicted to eye drops, partying all night every night, and sleeping with hookers. I understand that the story needs to build up before the suspense sets in, but all I felt was it doesn't concern the plot, so I shouldn't be concerned as well. The action was fast paced and exciting in this movie, the scene where the boy freezes time and rips people to shreds from his mind was cool as well. I think the weak point will be on the suspense itself, it almost seems non-existent to me. Yeah, that's how it felt like. The whole movie feels like a video documentary about Joe rather than a thrilling science fiction movie.

Replay Value
( 6/10 )
This movie would get even more boring after you found out about the ending, but with that being said, this is sort of a light movie that everyone can enjoy once in a while. No need to watch previous episodes to understand it, no need to think too much about the concept, no need to go Google after watching the ending, just relax and enjoy watching the movie itself.

Verdict
( 6/10 )
I was expecting a higher grade myself since the movie did receive generally good reception from the general audience. I appreciate that the director made a science fiction movie with time travel mixed in, but to me it was fine. Not great, not awful, just fine. Watch it if you're a science fiction fan.

Author :

SALMON

Movie Review #1 - Fast and Furious 6

FAST AND FURIOUS 6 REVIEW

http://www.mustangdriveinguelph.ca/images/posters/The-Fast-and-the-Furious-6-Poster11.jpg


Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Review Republic and for this post we're going to talk about the highly anticipated , car chasing, fast speed driving and a heck load of beautiful cars. If you do not like seeing cars that is so beautiful it can cause you to orgasm, get destroyed like its not worth a penny, then please do not watch this, you would die of a heart attack.

PLOT

Dominic and his crew are all enjoying themselves after their last robbery heist back in Rio, Brazil. Each person is a millionaire and Brian is enjoying his life with his wife Mia, Dominic's sister. They have a kid by the way. But the peace is broken when Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) comes and offer Dominic a job, saying there's another group of professional robbers who's stealing military equipment and disappears without a trace, so who better to catch fast driving criminals by asking fast driving criminals themselves. 

He did not approach them in this manner i assure you.

A military background based robbers led by one Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) is not your average drug cartel. Dominic could easily reject the offer but there's a twist. A ghost has returned.

http://images.hitfix.com/photos/3147346/Luke-Evans-plays-bad-guy-Owen-Shaw.jpg

Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez)  has returned as is alive! And this gives Dominic a chance to save his lover  and a chance to make his family whole again.

http://i2.cdnds.net/13/06/618x434/movies-fast-and-furious-6-1.jpg

By the way she's super hot

Review

STORY (6/10)

From Fast and Furious 5 at the end scene (If you haven't watched Fast 5 i suggest you do) here's the link for the scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCa5-hFFfk

"You believe in ghost", apparently Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) didn't die, she's still alive! and that's the anchor of the whole movie, the only reason we would watch till the end is to see Dominic get back together with Letty or how in the hell is she still alive.

The fact that there's a bad guy, and Hobbs need their help is very predictable as to the whole story line. We has bad guy, you is good guy, you help us fight bad guy. But the deal is that if they manage to stop Shaw, they get pardoned and are no longer wanted convicts. The story is predictable but the fact that Letty is involved just bring this whole movie into something worth watching till the end. So to fight this new enemy, they've been given new set of toys (cars), guns...loads of guns.

HAN GUN...get it? get it? *pun*

The story can get pretty bland as there isn't anything new about the Fast and Furious franchise starting with Fast 6, instead of focusing on the drivers skills and super awesome car.

They made it into a GTA (grand theft auto) setting where you get a car, chase the bad guys, ram his car with your very expensive car and hope he stops isn't something Dominic's crew of professional thieves are meant to do especially facing people who ARE military trained. And a Tank is invovled. Just like XXX the next level with ice cube.

Probably should have stick with robbing rich drug lords.

ACTION (8/10)

Despite the fact that the movie carelessly crash, destroy and launch all those beautiful cars into walls, ditches, cliffs and into other cars. (Even if the cars are fake), There is tons and tons of action and epic moments in this movie. A new go kart-style car that literally flips cars over the ramp is really one of the most creative bad boys of cars seen in sometime.

This is called the flipper
There is plenty of fast chases, martial arts fighting, and not to mention BIG MUSCULAR BALD GUYS KICKING ASS.

I assure you, this man kicks ass. 

And to increase the action they bring in

Joe Taslim from the famous Indonesian action packed movie "Raid Redemption" which i highly recommend for martial art fans. He's Shaw's asian can of "Whoop your sorry ass with kung fu, bitch" character. But unfortunately he's only in  for a few scenes.

And they add in a even bigger more muscular man to counter Vin Diesel and The rock. Yup, thats him, MR.KIM KOLD or "Mr holy shit he's huge". So imagine him fighting with the two big bald muscular guys. Not action enough? Maybe the big bad guy isn't bald enough.

Still scary and that's mini me. (No racist joke added)

ACTORS (5/10)

Now a movie is only as good as the story and actors. In Fast 6, you have all your favorite characters such as  Roman, Han, Tej, Giselle, Brian, Dominic. God knows what happened to Rico and Tego according to the movie "They were last seen in a casino in Monte Carlo" so that means these guys are busy boning girls and gambling money then help out the gang...SCUMBAGS.

Orange is the new trend co 

Unlike Fast 5, Fast 6 tries to create a story where you're attach to the characters such as Dominic tries to get Letty back to complete his family and Brian has a kid now with Mia, but the movie just fails with that approach. The characters just feel bland and sadly boring. Even the bad guys like Shaw just doesn't seem to catch my attention or that he shows any obvious threat.

STAR OF THE SHOW

In this part of my review, a actor or actress will be chosen from the limelight which catches the attention of the viewers throughout the entire movie. And drum rolls please!

Tadaaaa! owh wait, ill put a better picture.

Mr. Tyrese Gibson or known as Roman just really shines in this movie. Not that his acting skills is dramatically awesome or anything. It's just the comedic part of him. In this movie though, he's more of the clumsy, little millionaire kid that doesn't really do much during the movie. However his funny and childish antiques and comedic style of acting just makes the movie more bearable when you're not busy wincing at those beautiful cars getting trashed.

RE WATCH VALUE 5/10
This movie might not be the best movie of the year but the action of fast car, beautiful ladies (only 3 i think) and plenty of action can keep you watching again and again but not too much. As spoken earlier the story and characters just doesn't make it worth re watching again and again. But you'll be the judge of that, most probably bald muscular huge guys are your thing (not gay). 

OVERALL (6/10)

It could be the fact that this movie was highly anticipated and that could bring a very bad effect if it falls short of mark. With countless actions, suspense and cars (its always cars..OWH and a tank), it befits the Fast and Furious franchise however there were many problems with the movie such as lack of character building, plot holes and the really really really non threatening antagonist. The antagonist just doesn't feel any scary or dangerous. It's like having your driver hold a tech that could destroy the world. And you're like "whut? and then meh".  There is also the fact that in the scene with the cargo plane which of course you'll know sooner or later. The runway is ridiculously long. It's not really a spoiler, merely something you should observe with the movie.

HAVE FUN

Written by :

SABER

Game Review #1 - Bioshock

Introduction

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to my first ever post of this spanking new awesome blog! The name's Salmon, I will be the guy who does game and movie reviews here, and I will also occasionally help my fellow authors on their respective posts. Well, what are we waiting for?

As this will be my first post of the game review section, let me briefly introduce this particular section on what the readers would be expecting. Game review is a section where me and my fellow authors review games on various gaming platforms that I think are worth making a review on. For my first game review, I have chosen Bioshock 1 to be in the spot-light here. With that out of the way, lets get down to business. There are five basis which I deem important that a game must master in order to be a successful game; Plot, Gameplay, Graphic, Tone, and Replay Value. The final verdict will be based on these five basis, and of course, my mood as well. A friendly reminder that there will be spoilers everywhere in this review, but I try not to spoil anything big or game-changing.

Plot 

( 10/10 )

Before I get into the plot itself, I would like to remind you guys that this game is marketed as a horror/action game, so what the game needs to do is to balance the horror aspect and the action aspect with a good plot. Not an easy thing to do at all, considering many games have tried to do that and failed to do so successfully. *cough* Resident Evil 6 *cough*. 

In the beginning, it's simple enough, right until you go down on a bathysphere, down to Rapture. That's when everything went to shit, real fast. I won't say too much about the actual plot itself, but what I will say is the chapters of this game are divided to different sections of the city you travel as the game progresses. These sections are associated with a certain individual or NPC, and you have to help them in order to proceed. How do you help them, you say? In most cases, you kill them, because they are all mentally ill and insane. However, all of them does not only provide memorable, important and relevant keypoints in the game, they also contribute to the overall main plot in the game. Not one part of the game did I feel like they are just fillers and they are there just to prolong the game.

I must say that this is one of the games that has shocked me with the kind of plot they have invested in, partly because I had low expectations for the game. The part where I meet Andrew Ryan at his office left me so shocked and speechless that I was thinking what the hell actually just happened. I genuinely thought the game was gonna end right there and then, but it was clearly not the case. Definitely a top tier twist plot that I would have never seen it coming. Hell, I still remembered it as clear as day.

Big Daddy, http://www.2kgames.com

Gameplay

( 8/10 )

As most of the time you are supposed to blow splicers up in the game, it is important to have a strong mechanics in the gamplay section, and Bioshock 1 delivers. Players have two bars they need to take care of, a health bar which shows you your hit points, and an Adam bar, which is basically shows you your mana. In the combat department, players have a physical weapon on one hand, examples would be wrench, machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher and crossbow. The weapons stay with you as you go along, but you can only use one at a time. On the other hand (pun of the day), you are able to use plasmids, basically spells. You can equip a limited amount of plasmids you can carry, and you can only use one at a time.

For me personally, I have a bit of an issue with the way you can keep all the weapons. I believe the player's reflex timing should be tested as this is one of the features that make action games so exciting, and rewarding too. I think a better alternative is to let players keep only four weapons, and let their preference, experience and intellect to figure out which ones to keep and swap for the appropriate situation. In this case, its like Oh I see a group of splicers charging at me? No problem guys. Instead of letting my reflex come in and instantly select the weapon I wanted, let me just open up my weapon radial, which pauses the game conveniently for you, then slowly decide which weapon best suits my need, selects it which unpauses back the game, and blow them away.

There is currency in this game, and it is used to buy almost anything you would need, from health and mana items, ammunition, upgrade/purchase plasmids or upgrade/purchase tonics . Currency is obtained mostly from dead splicers and hacked safes. It's a straight-forward way of utilizing the currency, and as I progress through the games, I could get money quite easily. When I am rich, I could buy whatever I wanted, and this will relieve a big chunk of the pressure and tension from the gamplay as I don't have to worry about running out of supplies or dying, something you don't want to do in an action horror game, although indirectly so. But it's not that big of a deal, just put extreme difficulty if you feel the game gets too easy, and you should have a hell of a time.

Another thing worth talking about is the interaction of Big Daddy - Little Sister. The game encourages you to defeat the mighty Big Daddies wandering around the area, rewarding you with huge sums of money, rare ammunition and occasionally new plasmids. Additionally, you get to either free the little sister, or harvest her after you defeat her guardian. However, fighting with Big Daddies are optional with a few exceptions, being when the activity is tied directly to the main plot. You might ask, why is it optional, and why wouldn't I want to kill them if I get rewarded for killing them? Because they are f**king difficult to kill with a ridiculously long health bar. And they deal massive amounts of PAIN. You actually need a good plan to take down just one of these f**kers. Sure, you have grenade and rocket launchers to blast them at the later stages of the game, but god damn, you WILL die a lot before you reach that stage.

Little sister, http://www.2kgames.com

Graphic
( 9/10 )
The design of the whole game was fantastic. You could see that they focus a lot of their time and energy in trying to make a fitting environment for the game, and they succeeded. They managed to blend a 20th-century style environment with an underwater city theme, added with a creepy aspect to it. I call that ingenious.  Every part of the chapters have a totally unique environment with the same amount of high quality details added into them.

The designs of the splicers were great. Their horribly disfigured face, pale skin, thin limbs. If you just listen to them talking for a minute before blowing them to pieces, you could actually feel the sadness from their voice. In the end, they are just humans, humans that had a mental disorder that could not be cured, humans who had lost all purpose of life, just waiting for someone to end their miserable life. The Big Daddies were great too. The  metal suits are fitting, so does the whale-like sound they make. It was weird at first, but it does give the impression that the thing inside the suit isn't human anymore. The Little Sisters were creepy, with their pink dresses, their bright eyes, their unnaturally pale skin, and the giant syringe they always carry around. They also sound oblivious to the fact that the world they live in has turn to shit, and that they are stealing adam from dead corpses. The physical appearances of the NPCs in the game aren't particularly impressive, but the sound acting makes up for it. Convincing enough to make the characters stick out and create a sense of importance around them.

Big Daddy defending little sister, http://www.wallseemly.com

Tone
( 7/10 )
Bioshock was able to set a tone where you can feel both the tension and creepiness as you go around Rapture. They also managed to pitch in some oldies and jazz when you walk past a PA system or a radio. It doesn't seem much, but the songs do somewhat give a creepiness factor to it too. Another thing to add is sometimes you could hear violins playing a melodic tune, and you just feel sad for Rapture. Not angry at what they did to the orphan girls, not scared at the splicers trying to kill you, just sad, at Rapture itself. The feels, man. Other than that, not too much to say here, except they did a good job on hyping up the tension and tone of the game, although I do hope that they had more variety of tunes to further impact the game more. I'm confident enough to say you won't be buying a Bioshock OST album anytime soon, but the theme song is still very memorable.

Andrew Ryan, http://www.blisteredthumbs.net

Replay Value
( 7/10 )
You can say there's a touch of RPG elements to the game, so it will naturally boost up the replay value. The various plasmids that you can purchase or upgrade makes every fight different. Same can be said for the tonics. Bored with your shotgun and grenade launcher combo? Upgrade your machine gun and crossbow next game! Another point of replay value is the choice of harvesting or curing the little sisters. That choice will directly determine the ending of the game, so choose wisely.

With that being said about the game having RPG elements, it's still a scripted game at the core. Once you have completed the game, the suspense won't be as much anymore, because you roughly know what's going to happen. The area you roam around is also limited since you need to complete that chapter in order to proceed to a new area.

Big Daddy helping little sister, http://www.gen3x.net


Verdict
( 8/10 )
If you're looking for a game that is original, has a mindf**k plot, exciting combat, beautiful and at the same time creepy environment, lots of choices for weapons and plasmids, and has different endings? This game is for you then. I strongly do not recommend this for people with symptoms of heart attack or is claustrophobic, you will mostly likely die before finishing the game. I also do not recommend this for people who tends to rush games, the beauty of Bioshock is not on the action of the game, but rather on the intricate details itself. No one expected this game to be good, much less a contender for game of the year. Definitely one of the best games I have ever played. So that's it for my game review for the first installment of Bioshock. Please give some feedback and also share this out to your friends, would you kindly.


Some awesome Bioshock fan arts for you guys to see, go support the artists by visiting their gallery at the link below the pictures :

http://atomicsummeroo1.deviantart.com

http://gyptianqueen.deviantart.com

http://jugum.deviantart.com

Author : 

SALMON