Friday Review: V for Vendetta

I've never read the original comic, so I'm going to assume that it's fairly close to the film. It's a strong film about corrupt government, the human condition, and the fight for freedom. I'll start with the good things about this film and work my way to the few bad things about it, so get ready.

So, what's the plot of all this? The world is turned into an almost Orwellian-like society that's very frightening, yet still familiar to us. It takes place in Europe and introduces us to a world where citizens are watched constantly by the government, which is bent on keeping its citizens under its thumb. Islam is definately banned, the name Christian is used in a way reminiscent to the Inquisition, and homosexuals are shipped off to an undisclosed area. Not to mention that there's a curfew on the citizens, a Bill O'Reilly figure who doesn't even try to hide his arrogance, and patriotic posters around every corner.

V is a mysterious man whose goal is to end government tyranny. He seems to think that this can be accomplished by blowing Parliament off the face of the planet, and I had hoped that this would have been fleshed out a bit, but it wasn't. At any rate, V strives to create chaos, and to wake up the people.

We get to watch his story through the eyes of Evey, who winds up, through an unfortunate series of events, in V's domain, where she must learn to either accept the mantel of being a political activist, or to learn how to live in a world that seems to be becoming more corrupt each day.

First of all, V is a strong, charismatic character. He has the wit and mouth of Cyrano, but a mind that mirrors the likes of Ralph Waldo Emmerson, George Orwell, Eric Blair, and Ayn Rand. His face is concealed by a Guy Fawkes max, not an inch of his flesh showing under his quirky costume, thus is he the very embodiment of an ideal. Since we know so little of V, he appears to be just that - a walking idea of freedom.

Cast as his "sidekick" is Evey, a fairly normal girl who winds up getting chased by the police and turning to V for refuge. She gets the most character development, her head shaved on-screen, and manages to be convincing as the character who is supposed to draw the audience into V's conspiracy-filled world.

The special effects are very crisp and nice, and, most importantly, they don't overpower the story. Think Matrix, except it's a little more than eye candy and a plot that's difficult to follow. They really shined while making this film, and it never manages to look really fake.

As far as political messages go, it's easy to see how so many of my fellow Ron Paul supporters are drawn to this film. It's not because they want to blow up the Capitol Building or anything, but because this movie demonstrates the kind of suffering that can happen when a government gains too much power. It's chilling how close to reality some of the stuff in this movie is, and it's probably as close as I'll ever come to seeing a live-action 1984.

Here's where the movie seems to falter for me. It was originally written (I read) as an attack on conservatism. From an American standpoint, if you look at political conservatism through the eyes of the Founding Fathers, it is a champion for personal freedom, with socialism and communism being the fascist wing. The government's role in V for Vendetta is hardly conservative, particularly since it's reminiscent of 1984, which was Orwell's vision of what a world engulfed by socialism would look like.

In the end, I think it's a powerful film, and it should be watched by everybody. Unfortunately, people seem to think that scenarios such as these are possible only in a Hollywood setting, which is most certainly not the case. It's stories like these that remind us to stand up for ourselves in the face of tyranny, even when that tyranny claims to be protecting us.

Friday Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Time for a quick review for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I'm trying to get all the films reviewed before the debut of Half Blood Prince, so here comes the first one.


You might also notice on my Genki Blog (link on the left) that I've changed the format in which I review animation. I'll be changing the format for video games as well, but not live-action. So don't worry, because I'll have carried this trend over to this blog shortly. Now, without further ado, here comes the actual review.


This was the film that dragged me into the world of Harry Potter. It's all thanks to a very good friend of mine whom I could always find sitting in a corner with his nose stuck in one of the books. I declared once that I would never be a fan of the books, as the hype was too much for me, but I agreed to go to the film with him and shortly after, I bought myself copies of all the books that had been published at that time.

So what about the film was so great? First of all, it's a pretty good book-to-screen adaptation. It's very, very faithful to its source material (whatever was changed, no matter how trivial, was pointed out to me by my friend at the theater), and it manages to capture the atmosphere of Hogwarts well.


The costuming was also great! The school uniforms should have been the biggest Halloween costumes out there, and all of the teachers and faculty looked amazing. They had personalities and quirks we could all relate to, yet they looked like they lived in a different world. McGonagall was great, Dumbledore was amazing, and Hagrid blew me away! The only character I had to get used to was Snape, and that was only because of his hair.


The acting was good as well, particularly the three heroes. I don't have to say much for the veteran actors, because they were all amazing in their respective roles, but the child stars were really good, too. Daniel Radcliffe was exactly as I pictured Harry when I finally read the books, although that could be because I already had movie Harry in my mind while doing so. Rupert Grint as loveable as Harry's best friend, Ron. I also thought that Emma Watson made a strong impression in this film because she had that snooty voice down so well! And the fact that opened her mouth very wide when speaking only made her that much more fun to watch.


The only adult actor I'm really going to mention is Richard Harris as Dumbledore, because he was very good. I've only ever seen him in one thing other than Harry Potter, and that was as King Arthur in the musical Camelot. He had a lot more energy back then, but he managed to bring that wise, safety-net feeling to Dumbledore in a way few other actors could.


The special effects in the first film are probably the least spectacular, and it was easy to tell that Quidditch matches were mostly CG, but that's all right. I don't go to movies for their special effects, and I can't say that this film's were particularly bad. They were all great, save for the Quidditch sequence and Longbottom's flying mishap. I don't know why, but I always cringe when I see it.


I also have to mention the troll scene, because there was another movie coming to theaters at the same time that also featured a troll scene: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. I'm not going to lie, I'm a huge Tolkien fan, and since I had already read the book by the time the first film came out, I was looking forward to seeing how it would stand up against Potter at the box office. I actually wanted poor little Harry to crash and burn, but after I saw the movie, I was very glad it didn't!










Anyway, deep in the Mines of Moria, it would seem that the Orcs have a Cave Troll to do their intimidating for them. At the same time, wandering aimlessly and haphazardly into a girls' bathroom is Potter's Mountain Troll (see, there's a difference). So, how do these trolls match up?

Both of them were very good, but I do prefer the Cave Troll, if only because it was scarier and seemed more real to me appearance-wise. However, I prefer Harry Potter when it comes to judging how the troll interacts with the characters and environments. The Cave Troll didn't do much except thrash around, throwing people all over, and getting arrows shot at it by a very fake-looking Legolas. The Mountain Troll, however, smashed stalls, broke some sinks, toyed with Harry, and eventually got a wand stuck up its nose and was knocked out by its own club. How awesome is that? He wasn't as much of a threat as the Cave Troll, which looks far scarier, but he was much more entertaining to watch, and he really stole everyone's attention. The Cave Troll would have fared better if we (the audience) wasn't constantly looking out for Orcs as well. That and he didn't smash any bathroom stalls, nor did he wander into a girls' restroom.


Well, that's all for this review. It's late, I'm tired, and I kind of rushed through. I'll look back on it tomorrow and my face will turn white and aghast at all the mistakes I've undoubtedly made.

Friday Review: Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

I typically wait until I’ve either beaten a game or played it for a good long time before I decide to review it, but here’s a first impression review of this travesty of a game. I’ve found very few reviews for it online, so this will be one of the first. Trust me, this is one game to avoid if you can. I got it for Christmas and it just hasn’t been doing it for me. I’ve only played it for around 45 minutes, and that was way too long, so bare with me.

I thought it was going to be something like Endless Ocean, in which most of it would be learning about the sea, except that this would be learning how the ocean was in prehistoric times. It’s actually about you, a sea monster, trying to escape from “these waters”, which already isn’t very specific. It goes downhill from there.

The artwork is probably the best thing this game has going for it. The Discovery Channel has always been good at rendering ancient creatures into 3D, and this time it’s no different. Looking at these creatures reminds me of why the ocean is so darned scary.

There is an art gallery in the game, but it’s hardly impressive. I would have thought the developers would have taken this opportunity to really showcase their stuff, but it’s pretty mediocre. I was quite disappointed.

During the opening sequence (before the menu pops up), the animation is smooth and fluid. It looks a lot like the quality you get from their TV specials, but once the game begins, it’s jerky, rigid, and all around very unappealing. Particularly when you switch the camera to view the creature from the front (called “monster cam” for some reason). The movements are just ugly, and I typically don’t like to use that word, but in this game it’s warranted!

Let’s put it this way: I’ve seen fishing games with better animation than this! It’s unfortunate that you can tell the pride and joy of the developers was not put into this game. It was a quick job that was pushed onto shelves as early as possible to promote their movie.

As far as sound effects go, I really can’t think of any at the top of my head. They pretty much skipped over this, but I do recall that the monster takes a deep breath when you bring it to the surface. Other than that, I really can’t think of anything.

Things are pretty quiet music-wise until you start to fight with something. When that happens some big, epic score starts to play. Don’t hold your breath; it’s not Shadow of the Colossus, but it’s not terrible. The music keeps the battles somewhat afloat.

Do we have to go into gameplay? You run around finding fossils, eating stuff, and fighting with other monsters, and none of this I executed very well. Oh, and you find little glowing things that warp you, contain fossils, etc. You also have to get some oxygen every once in a while.

doesn’t sound fun, does it? Here’s where it gets worse. The controls for this game are awful! I’m not kidding; it’s hard to do anything. Here’s a quick rundown of it all.

Firstly, you unlock more than one monster that you can play as, and each monster is supposed to have a crappy special ability that doesn’t do a whole lot other than make each creature sound unique. These monsters look impressive, but they all basically do the same thing.

To nourish these guys, you have to eat little creatures. This is very aggravating for the first portion of the game because the first monster can’t really do anything. It’s very difficult to find anything you can actually eat (trust me, I spent twenty minutes trying to kill those stupid turtles), and most monsters you encounter will kill you very quickly.

Actually doing these tasks is a royal pain. The controls are very jerky and half the time they don’t work the way you want them to. You basically swim up to a creature and wait for the cursor to change into a “bite” mark, which doesn’t look much like a bite to me. Then, you just hit the B button and the creature attacks. Most of the time it misses. If said monster attacks you back (and their attacks are pretty accurate compared to yours), you have to move the control stick to jerk out of the way. No, swimming out of the way doesn’t work, and the camera is so bad in this game that it’s hard to tell where you’re thrashing to and where the monster is. My butt was royally kicked and rather than see that as a challenge to go back, it just killed any motivation I had left for completing the game.

Let’s move on to that crappy camera. It’s okay for just swimming around, and you actually move about much like you do in Endless Ocean. However, one of the buttons makes your creatures do a 180 degree turn, leaving your half wondering exactly what just happened the first time you accidentally use it. The camera isn’t very flattering when it comes to using those special dodging/fighting moves.

Not to mention, there’s also a thing called the “monster cam”, which I thought meant that the camera would shift to the monster’s point of view, thus eliminating several of the games most annoying quirks. Instead, this simply swings the camera around the front of the monster so we can look at it’s jerky head and neck movements and wonder why this game was even made if they really weren’t going to put effort into it.

I should have known something was wrong when the instruction book offered a mere two pages of game explanation, but alas! my logic failed me!

Do I recommend it? No! This review was put together about as hastily as this game was, but I think I covered pretty much every aspect as to why you shouldn't buy this game. Watch the show, but don't play the game.