Review - Mass Effect 3

The Good
+ It's Mass Effect
+ Best gameplay of the series
+ A startling and powerful conclusion to the series

The Bad
- Lots of controversy around the ending
- Lack of Jack Wall composing the score

Spoiler Danger
Very Little

Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

The Good
+ It's Spider-Man
+ <-- That guy, Andrew Garfield
+ Emma Stone
+ It's freaking Spider-Man!

The Bad
- No Willem Dafoe
- ...
- I fail at "bads" in movies this year

Spoiler Danger
None

The Avengers Review

The Good
+ Characters
+ Amazing writing and directing
+ No super hero felt overdone

The Bad
- Um... it ended...

Spoiler Danger
No spoilers

First Impressions After Beating Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 completes the 5 year, three game journey of Commander Shepard. It completes my favorite video game (franchise) ever. It is my favorite game of all time.

Or at least...

It was supposed to be.

Lulu

Well, I'd call this post a review, but it isn't. I can't bring myself to even listen to most of the songs all the way through. This is just bad.

So, I've long been a Metallica fan. My first album was Reload, then I went back to Load, then was S&M, before I finally dove back into the discography. I'll be frank, I think S&M is Metallica's crowning achievement. I like Load and ReLoad better than any of their older albums. Master of Puppets was my favorite album of the "hair" era. Then Garage, Inc. hit, which had a few neat songs on it (Turn the Page, Whiskey in the Jar), but most of the dual CD outing was trash. Then St. Anger, which, to this day, is the only album I've ever thrown away the same day I bought it. If Garage, Inc. was trash, then St. Anger was the burning pit of talentless hell. I'd equate that CD to listening to a toddler beat on his mommy's pots. Death Magnetic was better than the previous two, but it still couldn't hold a candle to their pre-Garage days.

So, I'm already so-so on this Lulu album, which is Metallica instruments backing the vocals of Lou Reed, whose non-Metallica music I am wholly unfamiliar with. Hit the music.... and if I'd purchased this album, I'd have snapped it over my leg before throwing it away. As it is, I'm considering burning the album to a disc before deleting it so I can break it anyway.

Review - Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

NOTE: This is a post I started many months ago, and am just now getting around to finishing and publishing it. That sorta makes today a bonus day: 2 blogs!!

Good evening. It feels... strange to be blogging here again. It's been a rather long time since I've taken the time to do this. Seriously. Wow.

I'm not sure I even remember how to write.

Nevertheless, I'm in a writing mood, so I figured I'd sit down and write for a bit. Today, I want to tell you about this amazing album that I'm listening to right now. It is about the best damn album I've put money down for in a long, long time.

Review - Inception

Two years ago, I sat down to write the review for a movie that I thought would be the best movie I'd ever see. The surroundings were a little different - I lived in a different place then, had a room mate and a cat. I had central air conditioning then too (something I miss desperately right now). Times have changed a bit, I drive  a different car, hold a different position at work, and none of this has to do with the movie I'm trying to review right now.

In the two years between The Dark Knight and Inception, Christopher Nolan's genius has grown in leaps and bounds. It took me a week from the first time I saw Inception until now, when , after the third time I've seen it, I'm sitting down to write the review. My intention in delaying this long was to prevent myself from rambling about the brilliance of the movie like a fool for a few pages. Well, a week has come and gone. I'm fresh off my third viewing of the movie, and I'm still not past mindless rambling yet.

Review - Mass Effect 2

Platform: Xbox 360
Spoiler Danger: Low

The Good:
+ Great characters
+ Much improved combat
+ No more texture pop in


The Bad:
- Some RPG elements were cut
- Not as much focus on the overarching story

Review - Iron Man 2

I walked into the theater to see Iron Man 2 with mixed feelings – everybody I knew who saw the movie at the Thursday midnight release thought it was OK at best. Some of the comments were substantially more demeaning. On the other hand, I had my own confidence that as long as they stuck to what made the original a great movie, I’d leave the theater happy.

Review - Dragon Age Origins: Awakening

Platform: Xbox 360
Spoiler Danger: Low

The Good
+ Great story
+ Some memorable characters
+ Kicking more ass as a Grey Warden
+ The new mage skill trees are sick

The Bad
- Poor integration with previous DLC
- None of the new features available in Origins

Review - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Platform: PS3
Spoiler Danger Low

The Good
+ Everything, but seriously:
+ Graphics
+ Story
+ Nathan Drake
+ Stealth Kills (ninja strike!)

The Bad
- Nothing
- ...No, really, nothing

Review - Assassin's Creed 2

Platform: Xbox 360
Spoiler Danger Low

The Good
+ Assassin's tombs
+ Truth puzzles
+ One of the best soundtracks in years
+ A slam-bang ending

The Bad
- Ezio is a boring character
- Not enough Desmond parts
- Where are my timed attacks?!

Review - Halo 3: ODST

Platform: Xbox 306
Spoiler Danger Low

The Good
+ The score. Simply amazing, and it does exactly what it needs to do.
+ Best campaign in the history of the franchise.
+ Firefight!!!!
+ Scoped Pistol!
+ Silenced SMG!

The Bad
- No matchmaking in Firefight.
- Short campaign.
- Hands. The hands rendered with the Halo engine look awful.

Review - Modern Warfare 2

Platform: Xbox 360
Spoiler Danger: Low

The Good
  + The last two hours of the campaign
  + Spec-Ops mode is my new crack
  + The final confrontation is epic

The Bad 
  - The campaign's story is mostly ridiculous
  - How many Shock and Awe moments can fit into one game?

Review - Dragon Age: Origins

Platform: Xbox 360

Spoiler Danger Low 

The Good:
  + Deep characters and storyline
  + A world deeply impacted by the choices you make
  + So much to do

The Bad:
  - Graphics
  - Technical glitches that impede progress

Review - Avatar

Spoiler Danger Low

So, on Saturday, I watched Avatar in theaters. I must admit that I wasn't particularly excited about the movie prior to its release. I was put off by the early trailers that spoke highly of the effects but didn't hint at any sort of depth to the story or characters. But, a couple of weeks ago, a real trailer was released, and that's when I started to get excited.

So, anyway, I was supposed to see the movie at the Thursday night/Friday morning midnight showing, but the theater sold out before I had the chance to purchase tickets. Instead, I went on Saturday with my best friend, his girlfriend, and a slew of her friends. Drama ensued as the other group purchased tickets separately, and they ended up purchasing tickets to the 7:30 showing instead of the 7:00 showing they told me we were going to. After much hubbub, we did finally end up in the same showing. And what a show it was.

Avatar, in a phrase, kicks ass.

Review - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Yes, I have finally watched a movie called Perfume.

It started out with a text message conversation. My friend wanted to hang out and watch a movie tonight.
I thought: Cool!

He said he had a movie in mind that he thought I'd like.
I thought: Cool!

He said it was called Perfume.
I thought: ........ummmmmm......

He said it was my type of movie and he is seldom wrong when he says that, so we watched it.

Wow!

I went into this movie with the expectation that it would be only decent enough to warrant the "you'll like it" comment from my friend. I came out utterly blown away with this intensely marvelous movie.

I'll say it again. Wow!

And something else: Brilliant.

The story of this movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before - a boy is born with an unusually strong sense of smell. He smells, it seems, much as a dog would smell, and he sees the world through the vibrant colors of olfactory. The story traces his life as he strives to create the ultimate scent. I take that back, it's not really the creation of the ultimate scent. He is working to capture wonderful scents so they never fade, which leads him down the path that is, for lack of a better term, dark.

I know, I know, it sounds silly. Downright stupid even. I get it. I thought the same thing. But trust me, it is anything but brainless. The story is dark, a little twisted, sometimes downright humorous, and has one hell of an ending. The ending, in fact, struck me as completely strange until I sat down and thought about it for a bit. It suddenly all made sense... It fit with the movie's themes and was a cute little jab at human nature to boot. Brilliant.

Easily the best thing about the movie was Ben Whishaw. I'm not familiar with him from any of his other work, though a quick IMDB search reveals that he seems to stick mostly to period pieces (this movie takes place in France in the 18th century). I wish he was in more, as we can definitely add him to the list of actors and actresses that I'd pay to see in a movie. Whishaw plays the central character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Let me take a moment to say that I don't think even more well-known character actors like Johnny Depp or Russell Crowe could create a more believable, richer, or deeper character than Whishaw portrayed with Grenouille. Grenouille has twitches and ticks and mannerisms, a distinctive speech pattern, quirks in the way he moves, and a vast array of subtle facial expressions. Not one expression or movement is out of character, not one word or breath. The movie gave me plenty of time to find fault, as there were many, many moments in the movie where the camera would just sit on Grenouille, and I got to watch his reaction to other things that were happening or being said off screen. Whishaw pulls each moment off fantastically.

Also of note, both Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman are in the movie, and both are superb as well. I should say that Hoffman's accent grated on me a little, but that is a trifling concern when held up against everything else in the movie.

The score felt overdone in some places, but on the whole, it was a pleasure to listen to.

I wish I could say more, but I don't want to risk spoiling anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet and may want to. If you haven't seen it yet, I implore you to go rent it and give it a shot. It's 2.5 hours very well spent.

Oh, one final thing that really stuck out to me in this movie was the camera work. The crew had the unenviable task of taking a story that is all about smell and making audiences feel that with only video. The camera does a wonderful job of visually connecting us to what Grenouille is smelling. The shots are up close and personal, you can see the little details, the textures, and the colors explode off the screen. Throughout I was thinking to myself that this must be how he sees the world, all the detail. It was pleasantly surprising.

Anyway, enough rambling before I start to give things away. Go watch this movie... NOW!

Score: 9.8/10.0

Review - 9 The Movie

I must admit, the primary reason I wanted to see 9 was to see how good a movie could be that used Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home" for their trailer music. The trailers for the movie gave me some chills, as the use of Coheed's amazing music was top notch.

So, what then, of the movie?

First and foremost, I was sitting near somebody who smelled obnoxiously bad... atrocious really. So, some of my enjoyment of the movie was leached as I tried to find something better-smelling to put in front of my nose... my ticket stub, the inside of my shirt, my finger....

Anyway, stinky people gripes aside, the movie was quite a treat. The standout feature of the film was easily its visual appeal. The animation is superb; the attention to detail borders on perfectionism. The characters, visually, are fully realized and smoothly animated. In fact, most of the care I felt for the characters was driven by their animations, their facial expressions (so poignant for creatures made of potato sacks), and their body language. There is so much to absorb on the screen, it is sometimes a challenge to take it all in.

Also of note, the voice acting is great. Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, and company were spot on in almost every scene in the movie. Make no mistake, it's the animation that truly brings the characters to life, but the voice acting certainly doesn't hurt either.

The story, while a tad cliche, is interesting and exceptionally dark. I've heard many a tale of folks who saw that movie with their kids and ended up leaving because of how disturbing some of the scenes are. Yes, things die, yes there are some very dark visuals, but it is rated PG-13 after all.

The movie is certainly part cautionary tale - of the "artificial intelligence is bad" variety - and in that aspect, the story fails, as other movies (I, Robot; Eagle Eye) have done it previously and better. Yet, its achievement is its interesting little quirks and its entertainment value.

This is certainly not to say the movie is without fault, as it's got its fair share of them. First and foremost, the character development is utterly lacking in numerous areas. Take, for example, the character 2. Much of the story revolves around this character, indirectly, but we have so little chance to get to know him, it's hard to care how his large piece of the story ends up. Give me characters that are more fully realized, like 5, 7, 9, and 1, and I'm quite happy. The rest of the characters, no matter how central a role they play, never feel like anything more than husks, like potato sacks with eyes. The movie clocks in at a stumpy 79 minutes. I really would have enjoyed the movie more thoroughly had they added an extra 10 minutes even and devoted it to more fully fleshing out the characters.

Ordinarily, I'd come out of a movie like this a little upset that I'd wasted time and money watching it. There was something enchanting about 9, however, something that took what could have been a waste of time and turned it into a thoroughly enjoyable movie. By the end of the movie, even through the nauseating smell, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and the characters, I cared about what happened and wanted the good guys to come out on top. For that alone it was well worth the time and money.

Score: 7.5/10.0

Review - Sci-Fi Crimes by Chevelle

At last, I breach into reviewing music! It's a little tough, seeing as I have only a little love for modern music that doesn't qualify as "classical." That makes writing regular reviews of music a little difficult!

Back in the day (I feel old for even thinking about writing that), I used to be into rock. Rock everything. Metallica, Korn, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Offspring, Pantera... I like classic rock like Boston, Eagles, Journey, and so on as well as the more (at the time) modern heavy rock stylings of bands like Disturbed, Tool, Coheed and Cambria, Chevelle, Three Days Grace, and such.Over the years, much of that had pretty much fallen off. I still enjoy listening to classic rock, can still sing along to most of the songs, but I don't find myself listening to it very often. I dumped my liking of most modern rock like so much refuse soon after I started working at Burger King. Even more fell off when Randy introduced me to European metal, which puts most rock that comes out of this country to absolute shame.

So, it's a pretty big deal when there's a rock outfit that comes out with a new CD and it's actually good. I haven't heard a new band that I have been any bit impressed with since I met Chris Townsend on MySpace, and he's from England anyway, and he sings what would most likely be classified as adult alternative rather than rock. There were a few holdouts from the BK years, and it's really these bands that keep me coming back to rock from time to time.

One of the most consistent of these bands is Chevelle. I fell in love with Chevelle when The Red off Wonder What's Next started seeing a lot of airtime on my local radio station (94.3 KILO, baby!!!). The song so thoroughly captured what I felt most of the time I was working there, it was truly remarkable. I've been a devoted fan ever since - I once saw them in concert twice in the span of a week. Once at a place in Denver called Cervantes where I got to meet the band (back when Joe was the bassist) and where my car was broken into at some point during the show. The second show was at the World Arena in the Springs where they were "co-headlining" with Korn. Co-headlining really meant everybody was there to see the decidedly inferior Korn. Colorado doesn't have the strongest Chevelle fan base....

Once every 2 years-ish, they come out with a new album, and there are few bits of news that can get me quite as pumped up than hearing "New Chevelle album out xx/xx!" I generally get more excited about hearing about a new Tool album, but that's only because it takes forever for them to release new stuff.

Anyway, Sci-Fi-Crimes. I downloaded the album on Friday (thanks to the spiffy early digital release for folks who pre-ordered) and have been listening to it regularly since then. The album is... different for them. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Chevelle is constantly evolving their sound. Wonder What's Next doesn't sound anything like Point #1, neither sound like This Type of Thinking, and so on. And I love that about them. Rather than pulling, say, an Offspring and just writing the same music over and over and attaching new lyrics, these guys are always pushing their sound.

But this was... way different.

Like I said, I love that they evolve constantly, but there are certain expectations that I have for any Chevelle album. Mostly, all their albums up until this point have 2 things in common. Polish, and a heavy sound.

With the exception of Point #1, every Chevelle album has come through with this extremely polished sound. With Sci-Fi Crimes, that polish has been stripped away, leaving this more weathered, rough sound. It took some getting used to, if only because it defied the expectation I had that it would be polished to a nice shine. This new, not-so-shiny Chevelle is actually really great once I got past the initial "not what I was expecting" shock. Make no mistake, it is still Chevelle, but it is obviously not the same thing that we've heard on their previous albums.

This album s also a lot less heavy than their previous outings, as certain iTunes and Amazon reviewers have decried. Lyrics aside, one of the things that attracted me to Chevelle was Pete Loeffler's voice. The man has one of the most amazing and versatile voice in rock history. It was that contrasted with the heavy, driving guitars and in-your-face beats that really set Chevelle apart from everything else that was coming out at the time and what has continued to set them apart from most of the crap that rolls out of studios to this day. With Sci-Fi Crimes' less hardcore approach to the music, it seemed some of that dynamic contrast was gone. But, I quickly discovered that that doesn't really matter. Loeffler still has an amazing voice, like I said before, versatile, and there are many new ways to appreciate how well it works with their new musical tones. Besides, lighter isn't necessarily a bad thing. This album feels more rhythmical than their previous outings, and that suits me just fine.

One other expectation I always have of Chevelle albums but neglected to mention earlier is deep lyrics. This album delivers in spades. Nothing new there, Pete Loeffler writes wonderful, deep, thought-provoking lyrics, and that's all there is to that.

So, after first listen, I was on the fence about the goodness of the album. However, after each additional listen, I kept finding more and more things that just worked on the album. So, here's the song-by-song.

Sleep Apnea - I think I must have missed this song on my first run-through, because the song caught my attention as soon as I started my second listen. Chevelle really as a knack for writing powerful and harmonious choruses for their songs, and that talent is on full display here.

Mexican Sun - The rising and falling guitars are awesome.

Shameful Metaphors - Yet again, the chorus is what really shines in this song. Top to bottom, though, it's one of my favorites on the album.

Jars - This was the first single released for the album, one that I wrote about on this very blog a couple of times. The song is just wonderful, and the video for it lives up to Chevelle's knack for creating very awesome music videos!

Fell Into Your Shoes - I like this song, a lot. The guitar work here is not like what I'm used to hearing from Chevelle, and the change is a welcome surprise.

Letter From a Thief - This was the first song I really started digging into the lyrics.

Highlands Apparition - This was the surprise sleeper song on the album. On my first listen, I was pretty ho-hum about this song, but the more I listened, the more I really, really started to like the song. One of the best on the album easily.

Roswell's Spell - This is a much slower song, and it very much reminds me of some songs off Point #1. I like the song a bunch, but if I had to pick a "least favorite" song on the album, this would be it.

Interlewd - One and a half minutes of some guitar stuff. Cool, but far too short. I wish, just once, that Chevelle would whip out a long instrumental piece. I know they've got the talent. Pete is a rocking guitar soloist (check out Point #1 if you have any doubts), Sam can kick some serious behind on the drums, and I'd love to hear Dean get a bass solo.

A New Momentum - What else can I say? I'm running out of adjectives! :) Another great one with a particularly interesting chorus.

This Circus - This song came as an instant download when I preordered the album. At first, I severely disliked it. Yet, as was the story of the album as a whole, I came to love it the more I listened. Now, it gives me chills and ranks as one of my most played songs on the whole disc.

All told, I couldn't be much happier with this album. It defied my expectations, and it succeeded brilliantly while doing so. It is very different from what they've put out before, but I continue to insist that in this case, different is a very good thing.

Score: 9.5/10.0

On an aside, my favorite Chevelle song has long been The Clincher off the This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In album. While I think that Sci-Fi Crimes is better on the whole than TTOT, The Clincher remains their best song.

Review - District 9

I'll be up front with you, this one's gonna be short. No, no, I'm not being lazy - There actually is good reason for it. Allow me to 'splain.

I knew very little about the movie going into the film. I had seen the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer, but neither of those gave much away. Thankfully, we had marketing that allowed the audience to discover the movie as it was meant to be discovered, unlike certain other summer blockbusters (*cough* Terminator).

Most of the joy of the movie was in the discovery. I had few expectations as to what the story would hold, and I was richly rewarded for it as this dark world revealed itself. Make no mistake, many, many things in this movie were done correctly, but the true pleasure of the movie is watching as it defies what we have come to expect from our sci-fi movies. This is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi. No. This breaks the barrier of brainless sci-fi movies and enters the realm of Science Fiction - it is intelligent, it requires you to think, and it's got something to say.

This is why, dear readers, I cannot write a full, detailed review - the fear of spoiling something. The less you have heard about this movie going in, the more you will enjoy it.

I will say that Sharlto Copley turns in an absolutely stellar performace as a naive but intelligent lead who is just brimming with character. The score is sparse, but spot on. Most importantly, though, Neill Blomkamp does a truly excellent job of creating this alien species with whom you can't help but sympathize. Not only that, but they completely steal the show. The sheer amount of chacter the "Prawns" have is awe-inspiring, and it will be hard to pay attention to anything else any time they're on the screen.

District 9 is a remarkable, groundbreaking achievement in modern film. It will surely go down as a classic, one that taught the modern movie-going audience that movies need not spoon feed us to grab our attention, and they can defy even the most concrete genre expectations to make something completely original and utterly brilliant.

Score: 9.8/10.0