Humans Series Premiere Preview

After seeing the excellent Ex Machina, AMC's new show looks intriguing! This one's going in my DVR.
Maybe AMC will give this show time to find it's stride unlike Fox's Almost Human....
Human's Premier is tonight 6/28/15 @ 9 pm EST on AMC.
For more info about the show head over to amc.com

Movie Review: Jurassic World

I had serious doubts about this movie, but I will admit I enjoyed it...and all the homages it paid to the original Jurassic Park.
This movie could've failed miserably, funny thing the movie actually addresses how to boost park attendance and in reality it's also speaking to us, what's going to attract us to return to see another Jurassic Park movie? Clearly it is no longer the wonderment of seeing Brachiosaurus, Pterodactyls,  Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus Rex....lets create something that can't be found in books and museums and lets give it a cool name Indominus Rex! Let's up that wow factor....
Well it worked in the movie and at the box office!
Ok enough about the dinosaurs for now, Chris Pratt (Owen Grady) knocked the role out of the park...Perfect casting! He absolutely had me convinced he was the Steve Irwin of Velociraptors.
Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing) did not convince me her character was the Operations Manager of Mega Million dollar theme park that's claim to fame was real living dinosaurs. Her voice and mannerisms kinda betrayed the seriousness and magnitude of responsibility that goes with being Operations Manager of Jurassic World.
Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins played Claire's nephews, Zack and Grey. The two do a great job, Ty really impressed me with his range of emotions, his fear was palpable for both situations he was dealing with in JW.

Years before the first trailer came out for Jurassic World I read about a proposed script that had weaponized dinosaurs....I laughed my ass off, but JW did something pretty smart... they ever so slightly planted the seed that will keep the franchise alive.
Weyland Yutani has been after a Xenomorph for how many decades????

As I mentioned at the beginning JW pays alot of homage to JP, I wasn't really bothered by it as some were. And the final showdown was amazing and dare I say better than Godzilla Vs Muto.
Oh and the scene where Starlord is driving his motorcyle thru the woods while following Raptor team 6 isn't as ridiculous as it originally seemed.
My only gripes were the glaring lack of closure to the reason Nick and Ty went to JW in the first place and how Claire didn't break a heel while trying to rescue the boys with Owen!

B+

Blue you're my boy!

Happy Fathers Day

We are not Steve Rogers or Michael Jordan, we're not Neil Armstrong or Bruce Wayne. What we are, are the men who work crazy hours and multiple jobs and still find the time to make our children a DIY Captain America shield or a doll house, we take our children to T-ball or soccer or swim class and encourage them to give it their best shot and have fun doing it! We explain why the moon glows and why some times we can only see half of it, we teach them to get back up after falling off their bicycle, that falling is ok because they'll learn from their falls,  we instill values and the importance of treating others the way you want to be treated.
To our children we are Super Heroes, we are responsible for the mold that will shape the people they become,
I love being a father!
So revel in your awesomeness Fathers everywhere!

Sony's E3 Press Conference

 Well the Sony E3 press conference just concluded and interestingly no mention of PSNow, PSVita and PS3. The conference really focused on the games and holy crap there were some amazing reveals!














The Last Guardian



Horizon Zero Dawn: Robot Monster Hunter



Hitman: This was a very cool trailer that had an almost Jason Borne vibe to it!



 Street Fighter V: Birdie and Cammy revealed...but we knew that already...thanks Ono



No Man's Sky: Underwhelming demo, not a very enthusiastic demo IMO.

Dreams: Media Molecule What the front door was that?


Firewatch: Park Ranger Adventure



World of Final Fantasy: Super Moe Fantasy




 Final Fantasy VII REMAKE: HOLY SHIT IT'S REAL!!!!!!



Battle Front III: This didn't look real

Uncharted 4: A Theif's End: Naughty Dog closes out Sony's presser in high fashion!



Some other games that weren't shown at Sony's E3 presser that I'm excited about are

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain



Mirror's Edge Catalyst



Mass Effect: Andromeda



Fallout4

Street Fighter V: Clues to the roster

And as the hype train begins to build momentum Ono continues his tradition of tweeting hints regarding the new game.













Last night he tweeted this:

Any fan of the franchise spotted the clue immediately...day before yesterday when they showed off the new stage in London I thought of Ono's hint about the new character reveal for E3 being someone we haven't seen in awhile and thought Eagle but with Ono's Tweet it's 99% confirmed Birdie is returning!

Now the next hint was spotted in the Nash artwork below, look at the statue behind to the right of Nash...

Now check out Gill's stage from SFIII (S.I. I think)....see that statue in the center of the stage???

It's another clue that the Illuminati is in SFV aside from the gem in Nash's forehead, but will it be Gill or Urien or a new member I can't say for certain.

I'm very excited, it looks like a Illuminati- Shadaloo showdown!!!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter

Remember how amazing CastleVania: Symphony of the Night was? I do and it was hands down the pinicle of the series in my opinion.
This franchise was born from the blood sweat and tears of Koji Igarashi and his talented teams at Konami....but times have changed and much like Keiji Inafune and Mighty #9 Koji has turned to Kickstarter to continue to create masterful games like we enjoyed in the past! As of this writing Bloodstained has surpassed it's goal of $500,000 with $5,100,700!!!!
Holy shit!
If your interested in backing Koji Igarashi's project join Kickstarter here: bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night

Street Fighter V New Gameplay Trailer and Battle System Trailer!

Well E3 is still a ways off but Capcom seems to be departing the hype train early for Street Fighter V....and you know where it's leaving from? London! Yep we get a sweet game play trailer between Ryu and Bison in the stage in London.

And a new trailer that explains the new battle system of Street Fighter V!
V-Skill: Unique per character.
V-Reversal: Unique counter per character, uses 1 block of V-meter.
V-Trigger: Unique ability per character, uses whole V-meter (super moves)
Critical Arts= Ultra



Anyone notice Nash's vertical Sonic Hurricane!!!

Here's Polygon's Gameplay video for Street Fighter V



And Polygons's Critical Arts for the 4 revealed characters so far (1 per character)



More Gamespot trailers



And Gamespot's discussion on wether SFV is a worthy sucessor to SFIV..

Anime Review: Rakuan Tsuiho Expelled from Paradise

Heaven (Paradise)....it's not a place on Erf....that nasty dirty place we ruined years ago! Utopia is in The Matrix DEVA...a satellite that orbits Erf and is home to the digitized humans who opted out of a physical existence. So when Deva gets hacked by someone known as Frontier Setter DEVA sends Agent Angela Balzac (really O.o) to track down Frontier Setter on Erf. Angela's contact on Erf is a man named Dingo....

OK the names for the characters are so awful, I admit it, but lets get past that....

The first half of Expelled from Paradise is fairly routine, and feels a bit too similar to GitS....we're looking for a wizard class hacker but instead of a cyber brain in a prosthetic body Angela's conscience is "downloaded" into a flesh and blood body made from stored DNA.
Obviously Angela was inspired to some degree by Sega's virtual Idol Hatsune Miku...

The fan service in this movie is in no short supply and up until the 60 min mark I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary from this movie but thankfully I was wrong and when we finally track down Frontier Setter the intelligence level of this movie escalates surprisingly! The movie actually changes up the order of character relevancy and positions Frontier Setter as the primary protagonist and relegates Angela to an observer as Dingo and the criminal hacker bond in ways that the "superior being" (Angela) can not relate to.

Another aspect of Rakuan Tsuiho that I appreciated was that it took the ol' trope of machines destroying or enslaving humanity and turned it on it's head, we enslaved our selves without realizing it. 

And one of the most interesting conversations in the movie occurs between Angela and Dingo after Dingo finds he may have more in common with a self aware AI then a flesh and blood Human that's lived her entire existence in a digital world.  The conversation is actually surprisingly deep and actually involves the values and detriments of a capitalist society.  

The production value of Rakuan Tsuiho is very impressive, The characters and animations are beautiful, the Mecha design didn't impress me but the battle at the end was extremely cool, the sound track fit well.
I enjoyed the movie and the twist in the plot was a welcome change, but all the fan service and Angela's last name made it kinda difficult to take the movie seriously...not that I minded this....
B+

iZombie Season 1 my verdict

So the first season of iZombie concluded last night and it finished strong, in fact I enjoyed the entire 13 episode season very much! My wife who initially wrote off the series also found the show very entertaining. Like I mentioned in an earlier post I love the irony of the show and as others have stated iZombie balances the drama and comedy very well.
A perfect example of this would be in last nights episode when Major goes all Rick Grimes on Meat Cute then gets stabbed by Blaine and he reveals the truth about Liv when she arrives to rescue him.
The show leaves enough to ponder until season 2 begins, will Liv's brother live? How will she explain why she can't give him the blood transfusion? What will happens to people when they drink Super Max Rager? Will Blaine try to become a Zombie again? Will Ravi's cure work permanently? How will he be able replicate the cure now that he's used all the tainted utopian? How the hell does Det, Babineaux not have a clue!?Will Major continue his life as a zombie hunter? What about Peyton...where is she?
The episode where Ravi was bit by the zombie rat was when I realized I cared about the characters in the show.
Like I said before iZombie's fresh light-hearted take on the genre is a refreshing change from the more serious approach of TWD....which I'm also a fan of since the first season. So if you passed on this show because it didn't look serious enough for you, watch a few episodes....you might be surprised!
You can check out some recent episodes on the CW's website HERE .

E3 Mirrors Edge Catlyst

So I got an email yesterday from Sara Jannson, the Senior Producer of Mirrors Edge Catalyst at DICE regarding the new game. Based on the email I have a feeling ME:C will have the basic DNA as the original ME but it will differ much like last gen's SSX did from it's predecessors.
Things like, "the first game had a lot of promise", "it could be more" "introduce to a new generation",  "we've landed on a vision",   "new, interesting gameplay and features".
She drives home the fact that this isn't a sequel, it's not ME2, but could it be a prequel the word catalyst kinda implies it....could we be looking at the impetus that made Faith a runner?
I guess we'll get a better idea 4PM EST Monday June 15th at EA's presser.

Movie Review: The Man with the Iron Fists 2

The first movie was enjoyable I think it helped tremendously that the first movie had such a great cast, Russel Crow, Dave Bautista, Jamie Chung, Rick Yune, and Lucy Liu.
Iron Fists 2....not so much, and I'm being nice!
So at the end of the first movie Thaddeus whooped Brass Body's ass but at the beginning of IF2 Thaddeus is on a quest for inner peace and is on a journey to the Wu Chi Temple but gets jumped by some punks from the Lion Clan and loses. Da Fuq?!
Thaddeus your power was over 9000 last time we saw you now you wanna be a vagabond like Jubei Yagyu????
So we leave Thaddeus drifting down the river and pick up our story in Tsai Fu village where the men of the village work like slaves in the nearby silver mines for Master Ho and his Beetle clan in exchange for protection from the evil spirit of Lord Pi.
A long time ago Lord Pi tried to steal the Golden Nectar (I know....I know) from the monks at the Wu Chi temple. Take a guess where Thaddeus washes up?
Master Ho is actually a very apropos name considering he's collected all the young ladies of Tsai Fu and made himself quite a harem.
There isn't anything spectacular about the beetle clan compared to the characters seen in IF1, Even Master Ho and his beetle gang are nothing more than pawns for the real phantom menace...
And then there's the daughter of Li Kung, the man who resuscitates Thaddeus......her name.......is.......Innocence.....................

Oh and then there's that scene where Thaddeus actually steal's M. Bison's Psycho Crusher special Move....it looks utterly ridiculous! Almost as ridiculous as this...

The Man with the Iron Fists 2 is a straight to video release and it's glaringly obvious why, I saw it on Netflix....it's not worth paying to see....the two fight scenes aren't even that great, the story is uninspired, the acting is dialed in and some of the dialog is on par with AotC.

D+

Interwebs Movie Review: Kung Fury

When a bad movie tries to deceive us into thinking it's good that's uhhh bad...
But when a bad movie embraces it's badness that movie becomes something uhhhh better than bad, it becomes LEGENDARY!!!!!!
God Bless the 80's Kung Fury revels in all the majesty of that decade from the music to the video games to the motion pictures.
Self aware arcade cabinets, Nintendo Power Glove, Time Hacking, the Kung Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, hot Viking chicks that ride T-Rex's Mighty Thor saying Hammer Time....doing an Ollie while riding a nazi like a skate board, a golden robotic eagle vs T Rex, the Hof9000....

I'm actually happy Kung Fury made it's Kick Starter Goal and came to fruition!
Kung Fury is the best 80's movie of 2015!
A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Fallout 4 Trailer

E3 has begun early thanks to Bethesda!
Rejoice the end is nigh...
It's time to dust off your pipboy...




















 Say good bye to your friends from Vault 101

Notice the sail boat? A hint of the location 

 Beautiful Fall Foliage....










Nice colonial ship...makes me think of the BOSTON tea party....










Ohhh moody atmoshere, nice fedora!

What the Fock is that?!










Nuke town in Fenway?












That's my guess take a look at the pic of Fenway from Google Street View.












I spy with my little eye a collectible pip boy.