Kill La Kill

This is one of the more bizarre anime series I've ever seen, but it was also refreshingly unique!
Where do I begin??? Kill la Kill is an insanely ULTRA Hyper paced Mega powered battle royale between Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin leader of the Student Counsel and heir to the at Honnouji Academy and her elite 4 student counsel leaders.
Armed with a scissor blade...literally half of a giant scissor Ryuko travels to Honnouji Academy to find the person who killed her father and avenge him.
This series starts off in 4th gear and just gets crazier and crazier, After her initial run in and defeat with the boxing club president, Takaharu Fukuroda and his 2 star Goku uniform she is introduced to Senketsu a sentient Sailor Fuku that drinks Ryuko's blood and in turn grants her super human abilities and when Ryuko and Senketsu sync Senketsu transforms into.....well here see for yourself!



Ok so there's plenty of ridiculous fan service but there's also Aikuro, Ryuko's homeroom teacher, who's actually a member of Nudist Beach an anti REVOKS organization.
Guys be warned...



Kill la Kill is not for the feint hearted but the show never takes itself seriously and that is how I made it through the wierdest 24 episodes I've ever seen....seriously, it makes Shin Chan and FLCL seem normal!
Three quarters of the way thru the show, just when the show has hit a crescendo of perversion, nudity and over dramatic violence it switches gears and offers one of the most hilariously outlandish theories on human evolution ever! Ya know the saying clothes make the man......


Anyway we are treated to a twist even M Night Shamayalan would be proud of! Satsuki reveals her plan of defeating her mother, Ragyo, and the REVOKS's Company thus freeing humanity from the COVERS, the aliens who are responsible for human evolution!
Like I said Kill la Kill is absolutely 1000% insane but it's insanity is refreshing and funny at times and if you choose to watch this please wear some pants!

Movie Review: Batman Assault on Arkham

I've finally got around to seeing Assault on Arkham and if the upcoming  live action Suicide Squad movie is as good as this was we're in for a great time!

So in this movie Task Force X consists of Dead Shot, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, Black Spider, Killer Frost, and King Shark and if you thought The Avengers had a difficult time working together wait till you get a load of these guys!
So Amanda Waller sends the Suicide Squad to infiltrate Arkham Asylum and retrieve a thumb drive that contains the personal data of all task force X members....this doesn't really seem like a mission with .001% chance of success but what ever, I justified it that Waller didn't want to involve Batman because the shit on the drive could implicate her.

I've yet to be disappointed with an animated Batman movie by Warner Bros, and this was by far my favorite! The action scenes are spectacular, the confrontation between Batman and the Suicide Squad in Arkham's warehouse was awesome, the animosity among the members of the Suicide Squad is farcical, especially between Deadshot and Captain Boomerang!

Harley Quinn was extremely entertaining as a borderline deranged lunatic slut....the Brooklyn accent needed some work but Harley definitely brought the comic relief but also played a key role in getting the Squad into Arkham.
Assault on Arkham did a commendable job balancing the action, drama and humor.

And once the Joker enters the mix  the movie gets a tad darker....this Joker will scare younger viewers. I thought he was spot on, a perfect mix of heath Ledgers Joker and Jack Nicholson's.







Killer Frost the other female in the Squad had her moments, her and Sharky made an odd couple but it worked, her and Harley definitely used their feminine wilds to their advantage....the sexuality is another aspect that make AoA NSFC. I thought there would've been more catiness between them but there was little to no interaction between Harley and Frost.

Previous to AoA I never heard of King Shark...Killer Croc yes, but Shark is new to me. He kinda reminds me of Birdie from Street Fighter. He's obviously the tank of the group, I didn't expect him to make me laugh but he got me with the line about Maxi Zeus and the other "tools"

And then there's Black Spider....he's a vigilante....just like Batman that hunts down criminals.....just like Batman. Buuuuut he kills the criminals....which makes him....not just like Batman and lands him a spot on the Suicide Squad. Tough break dude!


I really enjoyed Assault on Arkham, aside from Task Force X we get an outstanding assemblage of Gotham's A list criminals such as The Penguin, The Riddler, Victor Zasz, Scarecrow, Bane, Poison Ivy, The Riddler and The Joker!
This more than any previous Bat flick (which this really isn't) is not for kids. I'm not familiar with the Task Force X comics but I love the idea, my only gripe is that aside from the quick intro of the team to clue you in that these are more than your average street thugs they just come across as an unorganized rag tag team of misfits...but it's this haphazard team that makes this movie so entertaining.
B

PS3 Godzilla Teaser Trailer

 Bandai Namco is making a Godzilla game....check out the thrilling trailer below. So much Kaiju action!
Just give me War of the Monsters 2 for PS4....

EVO 2014

This years EVO is less than a month away! July 11-13 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
This years game line up includes:
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
Killer Instinct
Injustice: Gods Among Us
King of the Fighters XIII
Super Smash Bros: Mele
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
BlazBlue: ChronoPhantasma
This year the company's are throwing their support behind their games with some extra dead presidents, Capcom (now up for hostile takeover) has provided $10k bonus to the USFIV prize pool, Bandai Namco has added $5k to the TTT2 prize pool and Arc System Works / Aksys Games has provided a combined total of $30k to the BB:C prize pool!



Here are some of the highlights from last years EVO tournament...

Final Fantasy Agito Announcement Trailer

OK call me confused but I thought Square Enix scrapped FF Agito and renamed it FF Type 0 a few years back.
So FF Agito is a Free to Play (Fee to Win) game for IOS and Android.
The most interesting part of the whole trailer is at 2:49...
"We are pleased to announce that, due to the incredible outpouring of fan support, the localization of Final Fantasy Type-0 is officially underway.
Stay tuned for more details in the future, and in the meantime hang on tight to your PS4 or Xbox One!"

I would love to get FF Type-0 on the PS4!
Now if we could please get an update on Final Fantasy XV!!

Movie Review: Edge of Tommorrow

Based on the manga All You Need is Kill EoT stars Tom Cruise as Major William Cage aka Keiji Kiriya and Emily Blunt as Rita Vrataski (Full Metal Bitch).
The movie follows the basic premise of the manga but definitely deviates heavily in certain area's....especially the ending!
The editing was well done, it clearly explains the looping without alot of exposition and adds some levity to an other wise nightmarish situation that is meant to emulate D-Day and the Normandy Landings.
The idea of Live, Die, Repeat is all to familiar to any gamer and watching Cruise map out step by step the way off the beach reminded me of the good ol days when the only save point was at the END of the level....ah Mega Man....good times, good times.
The mimics were a bit tricky to make out due in part to their speed but also because of the frenetic pace of the action in the battle scenes. They did remind me quite a bit of the squidies from the matrix trilogy.
EoT was entertaining and Cruise did his thing, he seems to have found his niche with these action/sci fi lite movies. I think if they had cast an unknown actor that resembled the main protagonist from the manga it would've been just as good. Emily Blunt, lets just say if they ever make a live action Appleseed movie she is the perfect choice to play Deunan Knute!
I loved watching Bill Paxton, he was totally channeling Private Hudson....had he survived LV 426.
If you get the opportunity read the manga....
B-

Sony's 2014 E3 Press Conference Impressions

I can't believe it's been 1 year already since last years epic E3! E3 kicked off yesterday with Microsoft's Press conference, then Ubisoft's, EA's and Sony closed the first day with there's. I was only able to watch Sony's so without further ado here's my thoughts on Sony's 2014 E3 Press conference.
Holy crap they didn't begin with a sizzle reel! They closed with it!
I was really hoping for a PS3 price cut announcement as I need a new one and I really don't want to drop $200 now and then $400 in Feb for a PS4 , but No PS3 price cut was announced!
It's already been revealed in Europe but there was no mention of the PS4/Vita bundle :/
The new Destiny Trailer was a pretty sweet, mostly because of the impressive voice over. 



Destiny launches in 3 months and for all the cool trailers and behind the scenes video's I still have questions...like how can this game not have a subscription? Will there be an in-game economy? If so will there be crafting? They also revealed the Destiny PS4 bundle with a white PS4 which looks very nice. and they announced the Beta begins July 17th and a special Alpha sneak peek this Thursday.



 The team from Media Molecule arrived and we got to see LBP3...I played a bit of the original LBP but I just couldn't get into the game, so watching them play LBP3 and introducing the new characters just was meh to me.

 

Shuhei Yoshida took the stage and introduced From Software's Bloodborne, this game should come with instructions that it can only be played late at night!



The Farcry 4 demo was enjoyable to watch and the environment was gorgeous!



Next on stage was Adam Boyas who kicked it off with a hilarious trailer for Dead Island 2! Catchy song...



He went on to reveal Grim Fandango coming to PS4 then read some " fan mail letters" and then showed the trailer for Suda 51's game Let it Die, the trailer hints at a beat em up with RPG elements. But I was really hoping to see an update on Lily Bergamo dammit!



Adam spoke about the indie dev scene on PlayStation, he showed a trailer for ABZU, which came across as Journey underwater. One indie game  that caught my eye was No Man's Sky from Hello Games! The concept sounds intriguing... to boldly go where no one has gone before...to explore strange new worlds...to seek out new life and new civilizations...
for more info on the game check out TOS @ www.no mans sky.com  



After the No Man's Sky trailer we were introduced to Shawn Laydon who spoke quite elegantly and had mannerisms like a politician, this poor fellow had the pleasure of dropping stats on us about the PSN and somehow managed to segway into announcing You Tube integration into the share system and the Free to Play games available on PSN. First of all I'm no fan of free to play (fee to win). I've played my share of IOS F2P games and it's always the same thing...enjoyable at first then you hit a brick wall when only the most devoted will play on without paying for content that will make the game as enjoyable as it was in the beginning.  Other wise you quit or pay and from my estimation the cost's for this content  far outweigh what the game is worth.
Then Shawn talked a bit about PlayStation TV...and by the time we got to this all I heard was 



But I fought off the ZZZZZzzzzZZZZzzz's and Mr LAydon went out with a bang...and a few crunch's...I prefer Street Fighter over MK but the stages in MKX are fantastic!



Next up Andrew House talks about all the wonderous things available on the PSN besides the games and we get to meet Brian Michael Bendis as he introduces the first original series for PS+ called Powers. 
Afterwards Andrew continues the show by showing the trailer for the Ratchet and Clank movie!


But where was the Sly Cooper!?
Then we got the trailer for The Last of Us remastered for PS4...I'm a bit surprised at the amount of spoilers the trailer had but I've played thru the games twice but those who defected from Microsoft's camp may have seen more than than they wanted to....
After revisiting Ellie and Joel we got quite a doosie of a trailer for MGS V The Phantom Pain! There's alot to review in this trailer but one thing I noticed was Miller seems to be missing an appendage...
  



And from one AAA franchise to another.... GTA V looks gorgeous on PS4! But I already have the game on PS3. Interestingly Andrew mentions that players on BOTH PS3 AND xbox 360 can transfer their online game data to the PS4....and the same probably holds true for Xbone.



From MSF to Los Santos to Gotham! Arkham Knight trailer!!!
Holy crap Gotham is fucking HUGE! And that Bat mobile....



Ohh and one last thing before we go....


Not a bad conference, a little dull in the middle, but there was enough to keep us excited for the future!
I wish Capcom and Square had something to show I really want to hear  how FFXV is progressing!

Movie Review: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

I was not prepared for this movie, it is equally beautiful and disgusting. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance will hit anyone with children like a ton of bricks much the same way The Lovely Bones did for me. I hated what I saw and more to the point what I heard but I couldn't turn away. 

The movie starts off a bit slow but by the middle you have a clear understanding of who Lee Geum-ja is and what her motives are.

Choi Min-sik yet again portrays a vile. character that I absolutely detested, which proves what an accomplished actor he is, the characters he plays most Hollywood actors would avoid like the plague! 

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is an extremely powerful film that is very tough to watch!

A+

Movie Review: New World

I've been on a South Korean movie binge lately, after really enjoying Old Boy, then Snow Piercer, I Saw the Devil, and now New World.
Choi Min-sik (Lt Kang) stars along side Lee Jung-jae (LEE Ja-sung) and Hwang Jung-min (Jung Chung) in this cops and mobsters movie, where the "CEO" of Goldmoon a triumvirate of 3 united gangs, Jaebum/Jeil/Northmoon dies and a new "CEO" must be elected.
Chief Kang sees this as the opportunity to put one of their own in position to take the chair! Enter Operation New World
JUNG Chung, LEE Joong-gu, JANG Su-ki are all candidates to take over Goldmoon.
LEE Ja Sung is an undercover cop who has successfully infiltrated Goldmoon, he works for JUNG Chung who is first in line to succeed SEOK as CEO of Goldmoon, but JUNG Chung must also deal with his rival LEE Joong-gu. But who can he trust as rats seem to be rampant in Goldmoon.
The performances were solid, Lee Jung jae, Hwang Jung-min and Park sung woong did a great job with there scenes with Choi Min-sik, I never felt like Choi Min-sik stole any of the scenes they shared, unlike I saw the Devil.
There were some very memorable scene's in New World, including the confrontation between Jung Chung and his "bro" Lee Ja sung, and the parking lot/elevator brawl!
The fact that we know Lee Ja Sung is an undercover cop doesn't detract from the film, it actually makes it more tense as other undercover agents are found will he ever be free from his duty and obligations from both sides?
Most Americans have no idea who Choi Min-sik, but they will soon as he's in the upcoming movie Lucy starring Scarlet Johanssen and Morgan Freeman.
If you get the opportunity this is worth checking out, and remember subs > dubs!
B+