Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A Whole Bunch of Reviews:

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Review:
Peter Jackson did not deviate much in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but we did begin to see him shift more to the appendixes and such in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Everything truly changes in The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and I keep on accidentally writing armeis instead of armies. I'm very angry right now while writing this review, I am so, so, so angry and I feel I've only been getting angrier. I liked, this movie, however, and writing this review will hopefully alleviate some of that rage.

The biggest deviation that is in the film... and it took me so long to finish this sentence because I tried to pull my USB out of my tower and half the USB stayed stuck in there. The Five Armies is where it deviates, there never really are five armies. The human army isn't really an army, it's more of a militia. The elven and dwarven and orcish armies are still present, yes. Still that's only three and if we consider the humans as an army, it's four. Where's five? Apparently Azog and Bolg are leading two different orcish armies. There is no army of wargs, Beorn does not kill Bolg and I could list the differences, but I'd rather not. It's very trivial because The Hobbit as a novel does not work as a live action film, an animated film is different, you see, because Tolkien supported this idea. I personally do not like the idea of there being two Orc armies, because, really? It's technically just one army with two large garrisons. I'm willing to abide by it, however, because of how it is executed.

Smaug is vanquished at the very beginning in a fashion different to that in the novel. It works, however, because it establishes Bard the Bowman as a legitimate hero. Smaug is terrifying. He was not that terrifying, more amazing, in the second film, but he is terrifying in this film. Why? It's different seeing dungeons where there are massive dragons than it is seeing the terrible lizards roaming out in open land. Seeing him relative to an actual human civilization was wonderfully crafted and what little dialogue he had was handled well. On to Bard the Bowman, Luke Evans perfectly stole the show. Honestly, I have no doubt that if he does stick with it, The Crow, will be a success just because of him. Fast and Furious 6 established him, but this film has made him prominent. If Dracula Untold had it's release date delayed, it would've gotten better reviews and higher sales no doubt. What makes Bard the Bowman the film's standout character is his portrayal, Evans shows him as a troubled man of self-doubt and unlike Aragorn, the film does not need to explicitly show that for you to believe it. You believe it when you see him choosing peace over war because he does not know if he will be able to lead his people to victory... but he does it anyways when Azog and Bolg arrive.

Now, time to talk about the other performances. Bilbo sort of fades into the background during the final fight sequences, but what we see in Bilbo thrusts him into a Samwise Gamgee role in consideration towards Thorin. Unfortunately, even though Martin Freeman's performance is as strong as ever, Richard Armitage's is what is lacking. It feels like there should be so much more and the problem is not that it's bad, it's that it is too good but after shining two times, he can't use the hammer to strike thunder a third time. Evangeline Lily's character is the one you start to hate, because everybody liked Kili and for him to die for her is just sort of disappointing, based off of her portrayal. The entire crew does do a good job, however:

8/10

inFamous: Second Son Review:

Now this is a game that knows what it's about and tries to make you strive to do it, and it accomplishes that goal, because you as the player want to do it. The game follows a canonical heroic choice actions from both inFamous and inFamous 2. The thing is, that the developers want to push us to do the right thing but with Cole MacGrath, I never wanted to do the right thing. Look at Star Wars, lightning is a seductive power of danger. With Cole I wanted to be the bad guy, the tyrant of New Marias. With Delsin Rowe, I don't. The character of Delsin is a much better character and he makes the game. He is far more fleshed out and it is a joy playing as him, in fact, I feel bad when I make the villainous decisions wit him.

However, that faults the morality system, does it not? Providing us with a character whom first, we wanted to do something bad with and now, a character whom we want to do the right thing with? It is skewed, is it not? Karmic systems, and I hate to call them that because it is not a proper representation of Karma at all, are faulted in video games. The Fallout series does it best, but giving inFamous a blank face would go against the series.

Gameplay is the most important aspect. At first we gain smoke powers, then neon, then video (?) and then concrete. Out of all of those, I hated video. It was poorly handled and seemed to be just thrust in there for sake of having enough powers. Smoke was my favorite, but that may just be because I liked smoking around the place like I was a demon from Supernatural. Neon was handled so well, however, that a video game based off of the Flash could work. Concrete was just badass, did it add anything and sort of ruin the final boss battle? Yes, it did, very much... but I mean, it was fun to play as and after the main storyline finished, was all I'd use. I have two gameplay test videos coming, both which will be different.

7/10

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review:

The second review based off of a property made by Warner Bros off of their The Lord of the Rings license. Imagine Batman: Arkham Asylum being made now, this is what you would get. Honestly, it is. The counter system is sort of flawed, gameplay does get repetitive and despite the open world environment and attempts to make travel faster, you sort of don't always want to go around. Also, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, this game is very, very, very awesome. Combat is amazing and very well done, where repetition is concerned, it's in the sidequests, so complaining about it really should not matter and the open world environment is the most beautiful thing seen so far in a PS4 game so who cares if you have to tame a caragor?

Caragors and Graugs. From what I have done the game so far I have heard of Wargs but no mention of Trolls. I understand Wargs not being in Mordor, they never were if I am right, but Trolls were always in their army, or was that Angmar? Nonetheless, it is probably a licensing issue, if anything. Caragors and Graugs are very well done enemies, as are most of the Orcs. The system given for the Orcs, the Nemesis System is well done and I am sure it will only improve in sequels. I don't want to go into too much depth, but battling different Orcs, each with their own attributes and weaknesses makes for a much more enjoyable game.

This review isn't going to be too long because the game quite frankly is very very amazing and I can't praise it enough. The story is the one thing that gets me. Made entirely of references and mentions in the appendices of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Monolith have made the most in depth story of a video game set in this universe yet. I haven't played The Lord of the Rings: War in the North yet, I do intend to, so take my comment with caution. It is personal and moving, especially Talion's conflict, but we see how that ends up. A key theme of The Lord of the Rings is becoming the enemy. Sauron's Ring, the Ring of Mordor, the One Ring or whatever you call it is the weapon of the enemy. If you brandish the bayonet of the opposing army, you are supporting their weaponry and in a way, supporting the enemy. Talion is using his powers of fear, powers of evil, to try and fight evil? It is possible to fight fire with fire, but evil and good are abstract concepts that have deep meanings; it is not a wise idea. I have not yet recorded any gameplay of this, maybe later.

9/10

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Organic Molecules Found on Mars

No, we did not find aliens or anything on Mars. I just thought it'd be fun to post about the fact that we found the molecules that have the potential to house organic life on Mars. It's molecules like carbon and the methane levels that have scientists intrigued. Look, no life confirmed, but it's the closest we'll be for years, I'm guessing. Y'know, unless a bacterium jumps in front of Opportunity or Curiosity runs over a space rabbit.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

So About Spider-Man

Okay, let me start this story from the top. Spider-Man 3 was released to great commercial success and a degree of critical success, but the fact that the positive feedback wasn't good enough forced late production of Spider-Man 4. This, production issues and the fact that Sam Raimi wasn't confident he could make a film as good as Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 in such short notice, caused him to abandon the fourth outing. This led to them declaring reboot, which I hate. The Amazing Spider-Man was released to average critical reviews and mild commercial success, but nothing was too negative (aside from me, of course). It was a solid start (according to some) and they went ahead with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and halfway through, studio interference destroyed what could have been a decent flick. They announced The Sinister Six and Venom because they saw how successful The Avengers was and realized just how good X-Men: Days of Future Past would be. According to lead star Andrew Garfield, this is what may have caused the film to be less than good.

Now, unfortunately, Sony Pictures was hacked. We now have access to private information and while some people may be mad at their comments, please note, that is their private information, you and I are in no place to judge their opinions. We can, however, judge the facts. The second Amazing flick was less than amazing and it effectively dampened Sony's plans because Venom is cancelled, The Sinister Six is the main priority and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is delayed. Out of all three of those films, the only one I would be excited in is The Sinister Six because it sounds pretty awesome based off of concept, but with The Suicide Squad taking off with Lex Luthor and the Joker, it now sounds pretty less than stellar. In any case, though, despite my feelings about the entire reboot situation, this whole plan, if initiated successfully could have been actually amazing.

Reports started off with the idea that Sony Pictures was considering a deal with Marvel Entertainment. This would have effectively rebooted Spider-Man once more, but the studios could not come to finalized deals over story, costume, marketing and creative control. It appears they had profits under control, but the entire creative process was the problem. So, even though these talks fell through, Sony Japan executives maintained belief that it could come through and apparently this was because, even though Sonyh hasn't officially fired Andrew Garfield, Sony Japan believes him gone and what Japan says, goes. So, with that said and in mind, Sony Japan believes that The Amazing universe needs to be rebooted one way or another. Sony, if they do go with this reboot in the MCU, want Captain America in The Sinister Six and Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. However, Sony's biggest gripe seems to be what film should they do next. At one point they were considering it being The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and then they changed it to The Sinister Six. Whether or not they reboot again is a moot point, the fact is, they don't know what to do next. Amy Pascal is reportedly going to have another meeting with Kevin Feige but the key thing to note is that if Avi Arad is involved, the whole thing is kaput. That's monumental because it would effectively push Avi Arad out of the Marvel Cinema business, and this is the guy who started the X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four film franchises and effectively started Feige on the path to the MCU. They had their split, but pushing him out, especially when he founded Marvel Studios, is tremendous.

Then comes in another variable: Jeff Robinov. This is the guy who ushered in such films like Batman Begins and Man of Steel but was also the man who claimed Superman Returns didn't gross enough (it did) and pioneered Green Lantern. He has left Warner Bros for Sony Pictures, and he did save WB and probably could save Sony as well. Amy Pascal is a good businesswoman who knows nothing about story, Robinov is a bad businessman who knows everything about story. In between their discussions came the possibility of returning to the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire pairing for another trilogy. It would work, definately, but Pascal is a proud woman. She shut this down claiming Raimi "Schumachered" the franchise, when that was actually because of her and Avi Arad not believing in Raimi enough. If he could come back, he could save the franchise, though. In response to that, Robinov suggested what I believe is a bloody brilliant idea. James Bond the whole thing. You have one set of films with Maguire, you have one set of films with Garfield, have a set of films with other actors and so forth. Given that Sony Pictures makes the James Bond movies, they probably know that this formula could work. Hell, it will work because it'll keep everything fresh, so long as they don't keep telling the origin story.

Out of all this, the one thing to note, though is that at this point, only one thing is for certain. In 2018, we will get The Amazing Spider-Man 3. As much as I don't like this series, it needs to end and have a conclusion. It's the best thing for Sony Pictures at this point, to end their current series. They could pursue placing him in the MCU after that, or they could reboot him once more. They could make spin offs in the Amazing universe while keeping the Spider-Man films on the backshelf for a while. Or they could do the smart thing and bring back Raimi and Maguire. All in all, though, all the discussions seem to point towards The Amazing Spider-Man 3 happening before any reboot or whatever will occur and these discussions point toward it being directed by Miller and Lord instead of Marc Webb. Chances are, if it does happen, and does get produced by the Russos, it will be the final non-MCU Spider-Man film. So there's the census: Spider-Man will get his third Amazing property as soon as Sony figures out what to do with it, and after that you may see him be like the WWE wrestler who was gone for long and join the MCU, or see Tobey Maguire come back.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Shut Up Alex Leadbeater - It's Been Enough

Alex Leadbeater is an editor on WhatCulture. Given that Knight says I have the most pull on this blog, it seems reasonable that I do this before anybody else does. Shut up man! Nobody cares! Okay, that out of the way, let me give some insight. WhatCulture is a website that many sites want to be, it has a plethora of articles all detailing different topics. Alex Leadbeater is a member of WhatCulture's editorial team. He is very good at what he does (almost as good as me). How? Look at all of the articles, he's published, most of them are quite amazing. Then it gets to Man of Steel, he's like the opposite of Knight, who spends most of his posts gushing about the film. Deadbeater, if you can't say something good, right something bad once and don't have the need to do it again. It's like OCD for this guy, I mean write the articles that people want you to write, y'know, the articles of yours that are enjoyable, fun and everything that people want of you.
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BRRAAAGGHHHH LASSZZNERRRRHHH!!!!!

His most recent article, Suicide Squad: 10 Reasons It Will Save the DC Cinematic Universe, is a Man of Steel bash in disguise. I mean, seriously, read it, it's entirely him saying why Suicide Squad will be better than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. He's freaking comparing two movies that haven't even come out yet, one that hasn't even finished it's script. Go further down his list and you get 10 Signs Warner Bros Have No Clue About Batman v. Superman. Now Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is not going to be like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where all of the cinematic decisions were made halfway through the film. All of that was finalized in the first draft of the film, the worst it could honestly end up being is Iron Man 2 (which sucks. It's not a bad movie, it's just a pointless movie. It's actually a fairly enjoyable flick that suffers from reasons I'll promise to detail in an article later). The movie has not finished filming yet, all you know is from what interviews and casting decisions have told you and you are judging it off of leaked set photos? Call it overcrowded sure, but by that same standard, Captain America: Civil War, is also overcrowded and there you are sucking that film's dick. 14 Most Divisive Films Since 2000 once again contains Man of Steel.
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Yo dawg, shut the fuck up!

Funnily enough, Man of Steel isn't even mentioned in his 10 Movies That People Hate Because Their Popular article even though that definition truly does apply to that film. Don't get me wrong, Leadbeater has written articles about Man of Steel that relate to easter eggs and such that are completely unbiased and such... but it's when he decides to write his opinions that it gets too much. I want to go on WhatCulture to read a diverse array of articles, not see Leadbeater's beaten horse opinion on the front page over and over and over again all relating to some seething hate he has for one film, get over it! He's made 9 Reasons Why Batman Begins is Better than Man of Steel (and 1 why it isn't) and 10 Bad Movies (Other than Man of Steel) That Should Put Batman in Their Sequel. I'm sure there are more, but I'm too tired to point it out right now. Shut the fuck up Leadbeater.
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Giant Ass Picture

-
MYK

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Tim Allen Christmas Movies

y = f(x) is a common rationalization in mathematical problems to constitute for a reason to differentiate when an equation is defined explicitly, allowing it to be a function. When it's defined implicitly, things get a little bit more wacky but still solvable. It goes back to what I was saying about Troodons, we can't properly simulate anything about them except theorize on what they were and magnificent is that.

Ah Man of Steel, how great you were. It's just unfortunate the reaction was just as polarizing. If they went ahead and made a direct sequel, I'm sure that the reaction would have been more positive (as in a higher majority of positives than negatives), but they decided to go ahead with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Have no doubt for an equally polarizing reaction.

It didn't take me long as a kid to enjoy Christmas movies, but then I found a common theme in them. Tim Allen was in every freaking one, or at least it seemed that way. I could never find a Superman toy on Christmas or otherwise, I had to settle for a Burger King surprise one. Luckily I had Bionicles... Lego was boss. Here's a Christmas post to say goodbye to November, fuck you November!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Future Gameplay Tests

So, while Destiny remains my main gameplay test feature, I have plenty more episodes of that coming out soon, I will tell you all that I do have some other gameplay tests coming out. The first one that you will probably see is inFamous: Second Son. Now I know what you all are saying, that game came out so long ago! Why now? Well, because I only got a PS4 back in September and it's November and I only had Destiny up until then. I'll also post a review, I'm thinking of also doing a video review of Destiny, it might be interesting. After that, although the order might not be exact, I'll be doing gameplay tests of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and WWE 2K15.

Friday, November 28, 2014

The New Star Wars Trailer

That was confusing. I mean, I was excited for it, I'm glad there was no Adam Driver, but, I mean, y'know. It was weird, just, weird. Check it out yourself, as for that new lightsaber, there is no way the bad guy isn't going to cut his own hand off. Also, it proves a lot of these rumors are true, like the Stormtrooper crashlands on Tatooine with Luke's hand and goes on an adventure to find him. Only thing is, the Force Awakening sort of negates Darth Vader killing Palpatine, doesn't it? Didn't he bring balance to the Force, which meant that with Luke as the last person who knew how to use it, there was no more need of it? So, is there a Chosen One for each generation? Who knows...

Thursday, November 27, 2014

About kittens

Did anybody else see the new Jurassic World trailer? I mean Holy Shit that was awesome! The very premise behind the first movie, what if you try and bring back something that had a chance, lives in this movie's DNA. Same with the second film's central idea, what if they didn't learn their lesson. The third film was going to have an idea like that too, what if the dinosaurs made their way off the island. That would have related too closely to Life Finds a Way and they said fuck it... but holy shit, Colin Trevorrow, whatever apprehensions I had with you are gone.
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It sure does...

I mean, it resonates so well with Life Finds a Way because, what if this D-Rex wasn't mean to live? It's not life, it's a hybrid, made from the DNA of several for entertainment and profit. inGen really didn't give a warning label to the people who bought Isla Nublar. What I'm calling, this movie will have some twists.
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It'll be sad when they remake Jurassic Park...

The tamed velociraptors will start to regress. The D-Rex escapes and starts some havoc, but nothing serious. They don't listen to Pratt when he tells them to evacuate because the D-Rex isn't programmed to eat humans. Yeah, well life wants to find a way and it can't decide which DNA to listen to. It frees the motherfucking Tyrannosaurus Rex. Eventually they re-establish communication with Costa Rica, but they need to diver the attention of the Tyrannosaurus and Pratt sacrifices himself. Literally, I will give Trevorrow props if Pratt dies.
It's awesome how many women are jealous of her.

-
MYK

(Also, more Destiny videos were uploaded today:

)

Saturday, November 22, 2014

All Said and Done

I don't know why I'm making this post. I have no reason to make this post, literally no reason at all... but I need something to do so I feel that making this post will make up for it... I don't know. Feels weird, I was looking at my tablet for ten minutes in the morning wondering what to do. There is nothing right now for me to do. I guess...

Monday, November 10, 2014

Man of Steel and Samarkand

Troodons were special in that much like other dinosaurs they probably had feathers, probably the smartest out of all the dinosaurs, aside from some unsaid others, scientists claim it could be as smart as modern birds. How do we judge that, however? We have it's bones but not it's marrow, we have drawings of skin and feathers but no samples. No, I believe it may have been much, much smarter.

Timur made his capital in Samarkand. What does this post have to do with Man of Steel? Well, this time around, in my several posts lately focusing on the film, I am going to analyze the character of General Zod. What is Zod, he is a man, bound by his own programming and fueled by an insatiable desire to do what is best for his people. He wants to make sure that he is able to continue the race of his people, the Kryptonians. Searching in space the outposts of Krypton for thirty years, most people would relent and he wants to as well... but he can't. It is impossible for him to relent because it is written in his blood that he is to protect and give the Kryptonian people hope. He has his own feelings and emotions and intentions, but he takes the values of what Krypton holds dear and uses them as loopholes. He is the protector of Krypton, he will not tolerate any insurgencies and the insurgency that is started by him in the beginning of the film is not a revolt, in fact it is his method of suppressing the revolt he believes the council to have started. Much like Timur had his lame leg, Zod has his DNA. Earth is Zod's Samarkand, the capital he claims but unlike Timur, Zod can never truly take Earth, but he will die trying.

Why am I analyzing this character? Well, keeping up with my recent string of posts focusing on Man of Steel, I felt that before Remembrance Day, it might be good to analyze a character from the film. The only military character given enough depth to do so is General Zod. He is a patriot, but not by choice. He is a patriot because he was programmed to be one. His inferiors respect and obey him. They were programmed to do so, but their fear of him is genuine. He gives Kal-El, a person who's very existence to Zod screams blasphemy, a chance to do his people right and bring back Krypton. When Superman refuses, Zod does what he wants and tries to take what he believes is his by force. Then when all of the Kryptonians are sucked into the Phantom Zone, Superman and General Zod are the only two Kryptonians left alive. With all chances of saving Krypton now gone, Zod has failed his programming, he has literally failed his own blood. For the first time in his life is he given the chance of choice... but he doesn't want it and he is consumed by rage and thinks of the today, not the tomorrow. It is that thought that brings his downfall. This is my design.

Also, I'll upload my YouTube videos whenever possible.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

What Exactly Made Man of Steel Great?

Another thing about Troodons is that their eyes were actually not on the sides, they were coming more inwards. So the idea is that had evolution been allowed to take it's course, the troodons with greater depth perception would survive. These troodons of course would eventually have eyes that look like ours, so, isn't it fantastic how different history could have become? Of course, say we all went extinct, there would be hardly any of our remains (as is with dinosaurs) left. So for all we know, the deinonychus' were intelligent and working on nanotechnology when the asteroid hit the Yucatan.

You see, I've explained quite a few, no several, times that Man of Steel, is a great movie. Last time I sort of surmised why it's greatness would make the sequel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, a great movie. However, considering that whole post was an excuse to talk about the new Star Wars flick and how it would take over the market soon, I feel I should give you guys why exactly I think that Man of Steel is great. It is a polarizing film, if you look at the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the amount of negative reviews are literally almost as many positives, so when you try to even that out you get over fifty percent. That falls into the rotten category in Rotten Tomatoes, but that system is skewed, basing a movie being rotten on percent instead of actually looking at the fraction. When you look at user reviews, they usually total up in the 7/10 area. In comparison, Spider-Man usually gets 6/10 and Tim Burton's Batman gets 8/10. So given the fact that those two movies are great and for the most part tend to hold up, most people enjoy Man of Steel. So with it established that Man of Steel is an enjoyable film, let me explain why it is a great film. I'm putting this into one sentence here: if you did not like Man of Steel, the Superman movie for you was already made and it was called Superman Returns, go watch that instead.

Impressionism:  I'm going to use my original review of the film several times here. One of the first comments I made was that the movie is not intentionally dark or realistic like The Dark Knight was. It is dark in the sense that the original Crash Bandicoot is dark and realistic in the sense that Tim Burton's Batman was realistic (as in fathomable, but still out there). I used the words "impressionable method", then and let me clarify on that now. What I mean by impressionable method is that it reminds me of impressionism. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the movement that went around in the painterly world regarding the shift in light and colour and how they are used. Sunset and silhouettes and dark corridors that are at times unnerving make up a lot of Crash Bandicoot and while clearly a kids game, the fact that it evokes such an impressionistic feeling makes it seem like so much more. As such, Man of Steel uses lighting in a different way than most films do. It may remind one of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, and that's fair, given that Superman and Batman are the same story in different ways, but Snyder manages to capture the feeling perfectly. He uses the score (more later) to truly bring it out. If you notice, Krypton is all colourful and unique as an alien world, but there is a sense of glumness and decaying Victorianism about it. When we shift to Earth (horrible transitions, I'll admit), the tone only sinks in deeper, the lighting gets more blue and morbid and at times, Henry Cavill's skin seems pale.... but as we move on, slowly by slowly everything gets brighter. By the end of the movie, we have maintained that dimmer approach, but through it can show a brighter world. The impression makes the theme, and the theme is hope.

Music: The impressionism is matched by the music. Krypton's scores tend to have a sense of rushed energy about them and by the end, they all resign in defeat. Scores that go out against Zod or early in the move are dank, but still filled with the hope that things could get better, but they match the impression left by the lighting. As the battle with Zod gets more and more intense, the music gets deadly and when Superman kills him, Snyder makes the snap as such that it's all you can hear and think about. Done with magnificence, the thud when Zod hits the ground, the emotion on Cavill's face and the fact is that it was symbolic matches the audio. When all is said and done, the inspiring music finally comes full circle and rises above the dimness.

Symbolism: The movie, as I pointed out in my original review, has a GATTACA-esque approach to Krypton. Zod and everyone on Krypton but Kal-El are the products of genetic engineering and Zod respects this, he worships it. The removal of choice means the removal rebellion and even his own revolt, was done in the name of his engineering against those whose engineering didn't agree. The point is that Krypton robbed itself of it's own opportunity to have a choice. Zod didn't have a choice when it came to killing the humans, to save Krypton, he was programmed to take them out. Superman had a choice and when he snaps Zod's neck to save the family (who symbolized humanity in general), it showed that he rejected the idea of removing choice for happiness. It meant that he would be willing to give up Krypton, in order to make sure that humans get to choose their own destiny, not some alien invader. The symbolism is so subtle, so in the background that it's sometimes hard to notice and we need to think about it.

I'd go on about the actors, but I think you guys get the point of the post. So here's my makeup for yesterday's post, good morning guys. Oh, and for my Canadian readers, no post on Remembrance Day.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Why Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Will Be Amazing

Troodons are pretty cool dinosaurs. I mean, just hearing that they have certain opposable fingers and other early human characteristics means this tiny velociraptor could have actually used blunt tools to a degree, I mean damn! What exactly do they remind me of, though? J.J. Abrams' Super 8, now just wait, you may be thinking, what kind of an allegory is this? Make more YouTube videos you loser. I have, I'm just too lazy to drag and drop them into the upload bin. How are they alike, it's the nostalgia quality. Troodons represent the land of the lost, something from the sixties that exists in another dimension that we want to reach out to but just can't. Super 8 represents are way of coping with that.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is the now official and confirmed title. It's going to be strange, you know. Watch them in order, starting with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and slowly by slowly you'll see an increase in quality, maxing at Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Then, however, when you finally watch Star Wars you'll be confounded at the drop in quality, you'll hit The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and see a slow rise in effects and then all of a sudden, with J.J. Abrams new installment, the quality will be leaps and bounds ahead of anything we've seen. Perhaps it's fitting, though, as The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies comes out and finally wraps up our time spent in Middle-Earth, we can harken back once more to the rebirth of a galaxy far far away, a long time ago. Let's talk Hobbit, that trailer was amazing and I have high hopes that the trilogy will conclude in a way that once we can finally watch all twenty-four hours of the Middle-Earth franchise in order, we'll love it. Short reprieve - done. Whenever the new Star Wars trailer comes out, my only hope is this, Adam Driver is not a human because I don't want to look at that Justin Longish face. If he is a human, I hope he dies a death befitting Jar Jar Binks. Anyways, I personally do like the rumor that like a month or even two weeks after cremating Darth Vader, Luke disappeared and because Boyega finds his hand, Sydow sics the Inquisitor Order (made by Vader) after them. It seems cool, but we don't know enough about the film yet. No matter what, I'm calling one thing, the superhero genre is about to implode and Star Wars with it's Josh Trank and Gareth Edwards (Rancor in Hawaii) spinoffs will thrive. What do I mean by implode? By 2022, Marvel and WB will have a huge amount of successful projects but by then, they'll see that no matter the critical success, unless it's a big film like Superman or Captain America, Batman or Iron Man, Justice League of Avengers, it won't make as much money. Shazam will do good because of the presence of Dwayne Johnson and overall separation from the mainstream genre... but Captain Marvel, Aquaman, Cyborg and Inhumans (which I feel, unfortunately, many will see as an Avengers-filler movie) will all do RoboCop business at the box office, enough to make a profit, but not enough for a sequel. So in the 2020s, the Star Wars franchise will be dominant and the superhero genre will be more quiet for at least three years and at most, the time between Superman IV: Quest for Peace and Tim Burton's Batman. How does this lead into my topic? Like this:

Man of Steel: As I have said and maintained over this blog, Man of Steel was an amazing movie, sure some dull parts, but what do you expect. For the first time we got a Superman movie with stunning visual effects, amazing fight scenes and such an advance in technology that CGI literally evolved. Once again, we got a heartfelt story whose realism was defined by the thematic morals of hope and an uplifting score by Hans Zimmer which allowed us to fully be immersed in what being a superhero means. Go on Rotten Tomatoes, 76 % of the audience liked it, 159 fresh reviews as opposed to 129 rotten ones. Critically, it's in the positive side (but, as history and psychology prove, negative sides tend to be smaller but louder). Now go on IMDb, 7.3/10, people loved it. With such a good critical, and don't forget financial, background, how will the sequel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, not do good?

What Comes After: Last paragraph I described what came before, now what comes after and I tie back to the big long paragraph before that. People don't know that they will pretty soon experience Chemistry 12 in cinema by way of oversaturation. They are excited at a Wonder Woman movie and want to know how this movie will link into it. They are going to watch this movie, even casual cinemagoers will watch more than once to see how it connects to future installments (I won't, I'll only watch it once in theaters, once on DVD and then wait for a long time). With such a strong foundation built around it, people will love it. What they won't love is how many films DC is going to expect them to watch afterwards, especially since Vertigo will have it's own upcoming film slate. Add in the fact that Image probably wants movies too, I hate to say this, but the ball is in Marvel's court. They have proved trustworthy and while DC's big films like Justice League may outgross The Avengers: Infinity War and even though Wonder Woman will annihilate Captain Marvel, Cyborg will not hold form against Black Panther. People will be picking and chosing. It's unfortunate and that is where Star Wars comes into play, because it's similar, but different enough it'll provide a reprieve for the audience. DC for big meaningful movies, Marvel for long stretched entertainment fables.

The Cast: Henry Cavill is amazing as Superman and only gets better with each scene. Amy Adams was a bit dry as Lois Lane, but she's not a horrible actor. Laurence Fishburne, Scoot Mcsomething and Tao Okamato, that is the caliber of talent associated with this film. We have Gal Gadot, a good actress who'll be able to show her daughter as the first on screen superheroine (Batman is a superhero, but Black Widow and Hawkeye sure as hell ain't). Then Ben Affleck, who directed Argo, a movie that won an Academy Award and wrote some movie that I don't care for and won an Academy Award. Jesse Eisenberg is the only wildcard and I'm calling it right now, he'll prove me wrong and may as well make the movie.

The Script: David Goyer is that guy whose ideas you want to steal, but not help materialize. If he materializes his own ideas, they'll probably suck, I mean there's the off chance that it'll end up really good, but probably won't. That's why they have Chris Terrio, you know, an Academy Award winning screenwriter, who'll probably be able to make the script very smart with lots of symbolism and continually evolving the theme of Man of Steel.

So there you have it, an excuse of a post focusing on Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, when I actually wanted to talk about Star Wars.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Destiny Review [Yafisz's]

Did you see what I did there? I put up my name in closed brackets to indicate that it's my review but am still going to give my classic - MYK at the bottom because that's my schtick. Destiny is like that Daffy Duck cartoon you watch when your little, your excited, you love it, you play it and you wonder what he's going to do to Porky next week but then you don't care because it's going to be Bugs Bunny and Porky (Shadow of Mordor) next week. That's what Destiny is, a perfectly enjoyable game that has so many flaws you realize when you look at the internet.
If I cared enough to use Photoshop I'd add another TV Screen.

Where to start? Gameplay, as Knight mentioned, is top notch. There is no FPS out there with better gameplay, a testament really because while it's good, your wondering how it got wasted on something like this. It's only really as enjoyable as it's environments are. That I guess is the biggest flaw of Destiny, not it's tower-defense based gameplay, but the environments. It makes everything feel either as if it's out of High Voltage Software's Conduit 2 or Anna's posts. Also, I've been going on the CBR forums using Anna's name because they banned me when I was myself and when I was Knight, so fuck you CBR! Back to the review, the environment ruined this game for me. It doesn't make sense half of the time and unless it's Earth, it feels like their trying to make something solar system local (not local) feel like it's from Earth. Everything is distant, feels wrong and I wonder if I stepped backwards in time.
They can't mean that kind of infection, can they?

How does this affect major gameplay aspects? Characters don't look lively and in online, if an Exo teleports behind me, I don't care enough to look back to use my shotgun. It's as simple as that, the gampelay is not inspring. Not like that Tower map from Halo 3 where my friends and I spent hours upon hours upon hours playing. Damn that was intense. Yeah, I'm comparing it to Halo because that is what Bungie should've based it upon. Good graphics don't matter if you don't make something grapically appealing. That's the lesson. Graphics do matter. If you make something with amazing gameplay but horrible graphics that just leave a bad taste, nothing feels right, especially with Peter Dinklage's ghost spending half his time up your player's ass.
Just putting this out there, rape is not a joke.

Biggest thing to worry about, the game shouldn't be bad. It's got intense online and does get a little better with each update. Here is the thing, though, just like Call of Duty: Black Ops, this game was released unfinished. Strong sales be damned, the game is worth it when it gets a price cut. Not bad, just not amazing.
I'd add a meme, but let's just look at the hot girl.

-
MYK (you motherfucker!)

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Destiny Review (Knight's)

Yafisz is going to have his own review of this up later, but seeing as how I'm the one who uploads gameplay of this to YouTube, I feel that I should have my own review up first. Destiny is the latest game by Bungie and their first big major thing since they announced the Bungie Aerospace Project. Destiny has been a huge success, it is perhaps the most successful single original video game project of all time that is not a legacy product. Some may say it is, something that Bungie, based off of the success of Aerospace, went the easy road on and made too similar to old games. Aerospace was successful and Yafisz is working on a post for that as well, that's my intro.

The thing about Destiny that I really like is that it defines and has legitimized first person shooters. Half Life 2, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3 and the original Battlefield. Those games are the ones that are synonymous with first person shooters. They each present a different and unique approach. Half-Life 2 gives intense, but relaxed and linear gameplay (although I cannot play it without my stomach hurting). Call of Duty 4 gives fast paced and intense gameplay where the goal is to go as fast as possible. Halo 3 gave fast paced gameplay and intensity while giving an intrinsic story. Battlefield gave emphasis on other elements of warfare while being relaxed but intense. Destiny takes all of those and what I really like is that it almost seamlessly meshes them into one.

How does it do this? Well, if one is looking for the greatest design of gameplay ever seen so far into an FPS, they should have Destiny. Everything plays out so smoothly, that this is almost a third person shooter for me. I love TPS' and feel that they are more enjoyable than an FPS. So if an FPS plays like a TPS for me, it is amazing. That said, translating into PlayStation Plus, exclusive content missions and online gameplay are very fun. Exclusive content I'll deal with in the next paragraph and let's talk online. Why? Online is what defines first person shooters nowadays and I have to say, compared to Titanfall or Call of Duty or any other FPS, Destiny does this best. Perhaps it's because back when Half-Life 2 was king, only Halo rivaled in it's glory? Online modes are all fun, intense and fast paced. Like I mentioned, though, it is all relaxed. Even when players rage like they do in Call of Duty, it just seems so much more smooth. As one can see in my YouTube videos, I kind of suck at the online but even though I do I feel comfortable playing on and on because that is how good it is.

Moving on, let's talk exclusive content. If there is exclusive content worth for the PlayStation Plus membership, it should be worth that right? Instead, it's hum-ho and I didn't even know it was Peter Dinklage. Yeah, I didn't know it was Peter Dinklage and until we went and confronted the people to bargain for the key for the Black Garden, I didn't even know my main character spoke. That's how dull the story was. Being a fan of tower defense games, I thought it was kind of refreshing to wipe out waves of enemies. It's not survival based, though, it's the presentation that makes this seem repetitive. If presented better and more uniquely, like say in the flair of the Dr. Freeze boss fight in Arkham City, this could be very good. Instead, it's like the Tower hub, so boring. It should have been like Mass Effect, where we can talk to people and get their backstories. As we progress, things get worse and better and worse and better. Yeah, the entire campaign portion of the game is decent.

Now Yafisz doesn't give scores, but I do, so Destiny gets a 7/10.

Monday, October 20, 2014

What Just Happened?

Okay, on my computer, the blog is showing encircled minus signs everywhere? I have no clue what the hell just happened, weird. Anyways, I thought I'd just post what videos are coming out soon. I plan on having some more gameplay tests of Destiny, but I am also working on remixes of Numb Encore and Gangster Luv. I said that in my previous post. The Gangster Luv video will have videos of Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester the Cat with them. The Numb Encore will be a tribute of the X-Men Film Series. That's all for now, I'll post when I have something to post of.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

So Dang!

Okay, Yafisz convinced me to put the blog on lockdown, which means that you guys won't hear of the fourth writer for a while now. Why? I'm working on a slew of new videos at this very moment right now. I forgot to post when I uploaded a new Destiny Gameplay Test, and I'm uploaded another new one right now. Both of those feature commentary and start off with raps under my rap name Big Will (hey, Will Smith ain't using it anymore, who says I can't?). Anyways, to a sequel to The Bourne Ultimatum to the announcement of a film as obscure as Cyborg by Warner Bros to the horrific casting of Ezra Miller as Flash in that new film, there was a bunch of new news. I just needed to break commentary to tell you all. The only real bad part of this news, however, was that Shazam will be coming out in 2019. Dwayne Johnson will be 47 by then, sure it'll probably film when he's like 45 and he'll still be jacked until he's at least in his sixties, but it doesn't leave much franchise room. From the instantaneous rumors that have popped up, it's actually very good news when the least exciting film announced is Suicide Squad.

In other news. I have a bunch of remixes coming out. Some of them would be up here already but I cannot figure out what video to do to any of them. So, if you guys want to know, the first remix is of Gangster Luv, I've just added in Jamie Foxx and Ludacris. The next one is of Numb Encore. Remember the Numb Encore remix including 50 Cent and Eminem, yeah, I'm actually remixing a remix. Then, it's kind of strange, because I'm taking a Mozart symphony and adding in some form of acapella in the background. Then, well, the project after that will harken back to the very beginning of 2BINProductions and Knight12ify and Cutlock and will prove that I have come a long way from slideshows and have mastered the craft. Upon doing that project, I will be content to focus on Destiny gameplay videos (although I'll have other games up by then, hopefully). Anyways, Anna has a post below, read it, I'm officially taking the blog off lockdown, so you'll get Yafisz and our fourth writer posting whenever they get off their lazy asses (Yafisz isn't lazy, he posts a lot, it's just me).

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

What The BC Teachers Strike Truly Entails

Now this is a bit of a local post, for British Columbia, Canada only but I hope that a lot of you who see and read this will Facebook and retweet it or reddit it because this needs to be seen. We all know that British Columbia has not had school so far because of a Teacher's Strike between the BCTF and the Employer's Association. Why am I making this post when it is all but confirmed that the strike is over and that children will be back to school? Well, quite simply, even though kids do deserve to be back to school, the fact of the matter is if they are truly the future then they deserve better means to do so.
http://memecrunch.com/meme/3QMOI/be-a-teacher-work-for-free/image.jpg
Oooh, appealing.

Now I just love the plan the Employers Association and the BCTF have come up with. It is such a move that I would probably try myself if I wanted to get people back to work quickly. Reach a "tentative" deal. Teachers are smart, they know tentative means it is not in place yet, but if the ratify the deal, everything is a lock! So, 24 hours to vote, sure! But, since the full details will be released tomorrow (day of the vote, I believe) and Iker has only sent out in his email to the teachers what they will be getting, not losing, I doubt teachers are truly going to analyze the full deal and thus the majority will vote yes to end the strike.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwTULuLAb3vQkWnkh4y-dp93GWJJp26XyF9lkc7t1WbPEX-PyVPHbH_hIRnPqjsicoQzdxfPs93_AxF7dvfKkwb0PcAy6KjVm0NuvJ4ihzxXzRZQvO5GCc8qS6-RMD9voCwwyKT8Q_L38/s1600/peace.PNG
Har har.

So lets have a look at what the 'benefits' entail: release the details that teachers may like, this includes the 7.5% pay increase per six years, a special fund for public education and what was it? Oh yes, $400 000 000 approximately in that education fund which will primarily be spent on creating new jobs! What was it again? People who aren't teachers yet are not the ones who are on the picket lines and are not enduring financial stress? Well, why would that even be a part of the deal? Because big money sounds appealing. Now, lets go back to the 7.5% pay increase. If the deal is ratified, then teachers will have gotten a 2 % pay increase as of September. But that is part for the second year, because the first year supposedly starts in 2013 and they get no increase for that. So, don't call it a sex year deal, call it five. So for this five year deal, teachers will get 1.25% in January next year, so about 3.25% pay increase in about five months. Good deal, right? Well, given that they don't get another increase for an entire year and a half at which they only get it up by 1% after which it will fluctuate per year by 1 % or by 0.5 % up 2019 the deal really isn't as good as it should've been. Equal proportions over an equal five year radius starting from when the deal ended which would amount to an equal rate of 8 % would be much more favorable and in line with the 10 % teachers were demanding. Everyone knows that 7.5 % is just fancy for 7 % as $09.99 is fancy for $10.00. Then there is the fact that teachers want bigger class sizes and such. Nothing was given on that front, just that teachers get more time to prepare, and elementary teachers at that get the most time. In case I recall correctly, was it not secondary teachers who demanded this more than any others, why is it that it is them who are getting the least?
http://radiofreethinker.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/clark2.jpg
I wanted to point this out and say, if she truly cared and was appreciative about this visit, then she would not have posed for a picture. That is disrespectful in it's own. What this is up here is an attempts to gain the votes of the Indo-Canadian community. All that would have sufficed is simply saying that she visited, but to pose for an actual picture while looking away from Darbar Sahib is very disrespectful, using religion to gain votes. A shrewd tactic yes, but on this scale, you can tell that she cares only for her job and the money that it brings her. - Knight (as in, not the writer of this article)

 I haven't even hit the best part yet but let us hit this first: $105 000 000 sounds like a lot, right? That's going to be given out in grievances to the teachers. Lets assume 2 teachers per grade, that gives us 26 teachers from K-12. Lets assume 20 schools per district and six districts. That means 2600 teachers. No doubt that is far less than the actual amount of teachers in British Columbia down to school itself, but I am giving you the lowest possible number to give you this analysis. Some teachers have lost $10 000 and some even more but we'll use that number because it makes sense. Assume from the 26 teachers per school, that only a quarter of them have lost approximately that much. So that rounds us to 7 teachers. 7 teachers to whom $70 000 is owed. Lets go up the districts, for 20 schools of 520 teachers, 140 teachers are owed $1400000. How about my min district set at six districts. Well, that gives us 840 teachers out of 2600 to whom a hefty $8.4 Million is owed. No doubt because some teachers have likely lost more, the numbers owed for my said populace of 2600 should be higher and ultimately if we account this for the whole province, $105 000 000 just is not going to cut it. Do you want to know how I know that? Education. This means that because of what I have learned from education I can guarantee that the educators will only be getting a few thousand, maybe less, each and that will be much less for even those who aren't owed too much. That number is not big enough and maybe if you switched it around with the number which will be put into making new teachers, it would be acceptable (no, it probably WOULD be acceptable). Wait, given that there are actually approximately 41 000 teachers in BC, extrapolation of my data means that the $105 000 000 is definitely not acceptable because my data only accounts for 6.3 % of teachers in BC. Going into court for more money is the only way teachers will actually make back what they are owed, but we'll get into that next paragraph.
http://www.railforthevalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Christy-cartoon-257x300.jpg
Except if I remember, she didn't win. She lost and then she had to gain a seat in like Kelowna or something. People like the Liberal Party, not it's leader.

Read that meme? I hope you enjoyed it because now we are at the court cases. This strike was bound to end after October 6th if nothing happened earlier. That was the fact. The fact also was that as that date neared  Fassbender probably started getting more scared because how much teachers were owed would also be brought up in court. No jury in their right mind would give the government the win if this was brought up, no matter their political affiliation. If this deal is signed, all of that is off and the government has much more leverage. Let us say that only 30 % of possible people who will be selected for the jury are with Christy Clark and Peter Fassbender. That number will not matter, what will matter is what percent of that 30 make sup the jury. People are biased and some of those biases will affect the overall outcome of the court result. Now want to hear the real juicy facts, they said E80 was taken out of the contract because let court be dealt in court. Another great tactic to try and get teachers to vote yes! I hear there are a few devils in the contract, one of those which I have heard is that if the government does win the court case they will be allowed to change parts of this contract to their own will. Did I get you there? So does that mean, that if the government wants (the pay increase will probably be the only thing unaffected if the government wins) they'll be able to take away that four hundred million for new teachers or y'know, just take bits and pieces away and put them back as they please. Just good for business, y'see. Unfortunately, due to the way that this vote is being set up, a thorough analysis will not be given and teachers will likely vote yes on a, I'll say 60 to 40 % scale because we all know teachers aren't stupid, well, some of them are.
-
MYK

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Didn't I Tell You Annie Would Be Terrible?

I reiterate, didn't I tell you that Annie would be shit? Yeah, it's a hard knock life for sure when you realize that people are just remaking random crap for crap. I mean, I liked the Total Recall remake, it would have made a lot of money but some dumbass decided to release it next to The Dark Knight Rises. I mean, have you people seen the trailer for Annie? It's more shit than Like Mike.

It's me again, your resident black man from Saskatchewan: Muhammad Yafisz Khan. Now, try and watch that video up there. I mean, Cameron Diaz was just in a movie called Sex Tape, and then one before it which was also about sex with Leslie Mann and I'm pretty sure Bad Teacher was also about sex or at least featured it. Now, what the hell is the story of this? Cameron Diaz tries to persuade that actress who has an unpronounceable name not to become the adopted daughter of a billionaire who is at first using her but grows to be a father? Dang, y'know, I'd have sworn that the Muppets did a better job of this! Yeah, Sesame Street's Hard Knock Life is much better than this version and Jay Z's version.
The guy whose directing this had a Mila Kunis movie titled Friends with benefits. Also known as the movie where you saw Mila Kunis nude. Ha ha. Why the fuck would they choose him?

Now let me expand, Annie was a fun cartoon strip and a very enjoyable movie because it had purpose. I mean, this is just Will Smith pissing his pants because he can't get good numbers as an actor anymore. So he takes his cousin Jamie whose had success with Django Unchained and tries to get him to team up with his daughter. His daughter realizes that she can't act and nobody likes her so she drops out and they put in the girl with the unpronounceable name. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but did they just give the whole fucking plot away in that trailer?
You Think you're Funny? We Can Fix that  Prognosis Man
As in, what the public should be asking the director.

I mean seriously. What the hell is up with this? Some remakes are unnecessary, like this one and the Mad Max one. But unlike the Mad Max one, which we know will be entertaining, this one is just stupid. I'll be damned if kids like this and given that Jada Pinkett's probably boning the reviewers it's going tos eem like they will. It's a stupid idea of a movie. I mean Benjamin Stacks, har har. He's got stacks of benjamins. Are they even going to call him Daddy Warbucks? No, they're going the grim'n'gritty Batman Begins style with this one.
Has two idiot kids.

SO, here's some more memes and a hot girl and peace out:
http://www.troll.me/images/keanu-reeves/what-if-apple-created-irobot-in-the-future-and-will-smith-is-just-an-advertiser.jpg
Maybe he'll be cool again.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0xi-_Tx_bZMwZeqaHHHhvZJEMD7Q94MTx0sWA67DD5Kt4Qxzb9PwVTJE43noOtYoMi-RsvM4EMj6XT9vALvCMk5nLvQjw7SgszCDIMKOP7Hfj4u9uYmWh9OLNqCwEFsHjfaQ2a51JH6h/s640/leslie_mann_the_change_up_720p_5mSpS0y.jpg
Her husband gives her all her movie roles.

-
MYK

Monday, September 8, 2014

Man of Steel is a Smarter Movie Than You Remember

So I just finished playing BioShock Infinite today and began BioShock right after. Try it, the experience that that will provide will be much different than trying it the other way around. You see, Booker, Comstock, Elizabeth and Daisy are all just ideas. Yes, there are infinite number of Booker DeWitts born in 1872 in this video game universe at an infinite number of Comstocks born the day he either accepts or denies the baptism. Now people might think of the baptism, Anna and such as being constants. No, those are just events in history which may or may not repeat each other. Play BioShock first and then Infinite and the original story is viewed as a prelude, giving a glimpse into a world that is broadened by Infinite. Now play it the other way around. BioShock Infinite is still grand but this time BioShock does not whimper in comparison, but rather it becomes a different beast. You see the thing about it is this: the idea of Booker as the man who gets involved with the lighthouse is the constant, the idea that somehow he will come into contact with a version of himself that is not actually himself is the constant and the idea that he will encounter a girl is a constant as is the idea that there is some being involved with the girl, that too is a grand constant. So, Comstock can exist in the same world as Andrew Ryan, as seen by Burial at Sea, but only one of them is the constant and that is Andrew Ryan... but in the universe of Columbia, no, I'd say it's Comstock's presence as the constant there. So, when Elizabeth hunts the Multiverse for Comstocks, she is taking away her own personal demons but the constants will always remain constant.

So, what about Superman remains constant? His suit has changed. But he still has a suit. The S symbol is stranger and meshy. But it is still the S symbol. He doesn't fight for truth, justice and the American way. But he is still fighting for the human way. He inspires hope differently. But he still inspires hope. "Krypton had it's chance" and it lost that chance because it took away the element of chance. There is the one resounding word throughout all of Man of Steel, dare I say it, the one constant word? When he was a boy and bullied for being different, it was not because he looked different or acted different, there was just something about him that felt off. Like that one guy in my Grade 10 year who was trying to be a bully in a school full of people trying to be thugs. He moved to Prince George. He felt off. We did not give him a chance because we could not afford to. Look I love Man of Steel and I'm not trying to be philosophical right here or anything. All I really want is for you to watch this video:

But the fact remains is that people bash Man of Steel for being too much like Transformers: Age of Extinction. They are trying to say it is stupid. So I'm not here to defend the film, I'm here to tell you WhatCulture, that if your going to try and bash a movie because it's 'stupid', try and make sure it is first. Now I could talk about how even minor characters like Faora or Jenny have enough character development to make them important. Sorry WhatCulture, I guess this article is actually being sent to the Nostalgia Critic. Well, I mean, I'm guessing everybody realized he was full of bullshit after he said the new Spider-Man films were better than the old ones. But hey, everybody deserves a chance, right? So lets get started. What exactly defines a stupid movie? Well, dumb dialogue, more uninteresting characters than interesting ones, horrible direction, a load of Jack Black and an incoherent story dictation that makes much of what you've seen nonsense and yourself looking back at the years wondering if it was all worth it? Man of Steel does not have any of that in large degrees. A lot of dumb dialogue, check. I mean it's written by David Goyer, which is why I can expect Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, written by Chris Terrio to be a much more intelligent film in that regard. But the reason most of the dialogue appears dull and bland is because Goyer was trying to make inspirational quotes that people would put on kitty posters and try and have people quote them like they do Gandalf or yeah, Batman. Why do people quote The Dark Knight Rises? Well, it's because the quotes that were meant to be intentional were far and few and stuck and those that weren't did because they didn't come off as forward as: "That's what the symbol means... hope". So, the dialogue isn't bad, it's just that when it tries to be smart it ends up not being that. Just because of a few choppy quotes though, the movie is not stupid.What is stupid is that the idiocy of some of these quotes remains quite constant throughout.

Now lets go to uninteresting characters. Unfortunately Man of Steel had a major character who was boring: Lois Lane. Others were minor and forgivable, but Lois Lane was just so unfortunate that I find myself wondering, maybe it's better if they go the comic route and have Superman end up with Wonder Woman. Just one main uninteresting character, though. Many comic fans will punch you if you called Faora uninteresting. Superman himself, people said had no character development and was bland. An unfortunate lie, but I can't change those peoples minds and if I delve further into the topic, the worse it will be for the internet. Jor-El was cool enough and Michael Shannon ripped it up as General Zod and even though we never learned about his past, the fact is, I want to. That's how interesting he was. So, one bland character makes a movie stupid? Saying that like you mean it makes you seem stupid, whether you are or not is a different matter. It just makes you seems stupid.

No Jack Black. CHECK!

As for story coherence. The story was well done, intricate enough that it did not get labyrinthine. The only thing that might have confused people were the people who were told by their parents that genetic modification is just a myth. It was straightforward, Clark hears something that might relate to his past, checks it out. This draws Zod and his crew who give him a choice, finally belong and be a part of his own people, or choose those who will always shun him, despite their overall innocence. That seems like a very well done story to me.

So, if you want to bash the movie, don't just say it's stupid. Take one of the points I have placed in a paragraph and explain why you think one of those points makes the movie wrong for cinema.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Woah! Black Adam and the Justice League

Dang, here I was thanking people for my MCU video and then my new video, in spite of quality issues, racks up almost 120 views in almost three days? That is a new record for me. So, to keep the loving flowing, here is the video again, lets get twice that amount now!:


But, in all honesty, I should've made a post when Dwayne Johnson was confirmed to be Black Adam. They've got a screenwriter and I'm sure they've got a director as well. I'm getting a Thor vibe from this movie and since it's basically confirmed to be set in the Man of Steel universe, though it could do well if it weren't, people have been speculating Black Adam is DC's Loki. I mean, who else has as much charisma, passion and electricity as Dwayne Johnson? Everything he does, he excels at and like Hercules, this is one of his passion projects. So, if the new Captain Marvel film is a success, don't doubt Black Adam as being the villain of the Justice League movie.

Short post, but, Anna's posted her first post, check that out. I have no clue what it's about or if she even knows I exist, but I'm sure she'll appeal somewhere.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Yafisz Returning and New Writer

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that while I will continue to post on Cutlock, it will be more personal pieces that I post here sporadically. I'm shopping out to a bunch of other websites but have yet to accept which website I will write for. I trust you this will not interfere with 2BINProductions because come October I will resume my YouTube videos and will continue posting on here. Many of you came on when Yafisz started writing, I am glad to tell you that after his brief hiatus he will be returning. His posts will be much more censored than before because I'm telling you, I couldn't handle it with that shit. The new writer who will be joining this cadre is a girl from Surrey BC, Anna Sandhu. I have no clue when the hell she will post so bug Yafisz about that. Anyways, I'll see you guys with memories back then.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

An Obscure DC Movie?

Okay, now, if you know DC's movies then you should know that most of DC's successes have been on their obscure properties. Watchmen, V for Vendetta, A History of Violence and The Road to Perdition. Here is the thing, though, only two of those films have comics that people bother reading and here is the thing, despite the greatness of those films, they immediately become a disservice after reading the comics. Why? I don't know because I don't feel that way, it's just that the majority does. Guardians of the Galaxy has been what people are calling a success for Marvel Studios because it capitalizes on an obscure property that was not that well known that now has renown. Well, the same could apply for Iron Man before 2008, not that many people knew about him. The fact is, the Guardians were a replacement for the Fantastic Four and would have had no movie had Fox not owned the rights to that film.

So, lets talk about a property from DC that is "obscure" in that sense that could not be that well known. I'd prefer to see a live screen version of Static Shock, for kids who grew up watching his TV show, who are also the ideal age that the movie would target in the majority, they would love it. Also, if they advertised it in such a way that is similar to the new TMNT film, I have no doubt that the kids would love it as well. Metamorpho is a similar character who has a surprising roundness to him despite honestly, being very weird and generic. He'd work better in a team film, sure, but what team? The Outsiders, it could be a nice little spin-off that doesn't need to be connected to Batman. It would be nice if it was, but that would make it little more than a petty spin-off, which is really what they wouldn't need. A team leader in Black Lighting, field commander in Katana and DC's got themselves a nice little property. Black Lightning and Blue Devil could probably carry their own film. Oh, and I forgot Grifter and Deathstroke in Team 7. Not too obscure yet? How about a film on Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld... yeah, not going to happen with a Wonder Woman film announcement looming. That is honestly all I can think of as of now.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Something Good

Imagine, if in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice we are greeted to Batman and Wonder Woman, shown Victor Stone playing football and Lexcorp security footage of the Flash and Aquaman. That was the plan all along, not shoehorned in like Venom for Spider-Man 3, everything in Iron Man II and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now, imagine that we get the rest of the Justice League in the Justice League film. Now, imagine the bad guy is a parallel to Loki, mischievous badass that you love to want to win: Black Adam played by Dwayne Johnson. Now imagine that Captain Marvel is also played by Dwayne Johnson, double role: WINNING. Then there is the Dark Universe series of films, set in another universe that lets us finally have a Swamp Thing film that is either horror or action, not the goofy mix of both. Then there is the TV universe, Arrow, Flash and Arrow's upcoming second spin-off (Atom, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter?). That last one has hinted towards Crisis on Infinite Earths. Think about it, all of those universes converge for one big film against the Anti-Monitor, then diverge back into rebooted universes. Kind of seems different to what Marvel has been giving and slightly true to the comics.

I don't have much to post today, but I felt like posting anyways. You know what has been going along really good, Jurassic World. That movie seems like it will kick ass, want to know why? No, not Chris Pratt or any of the other actors and definitely not because of the director. It is asking, what if the park went successful before it went to shit? I would want to see that, it's a reboot, a remake and a sequel all in one. People who want the series to lay lie can go fuck off but this seems like it is going to be a very enjoyable ride, do you want to know why? Isla Nublar Roller Coaster rides that is why, Hulk Hogan guest appearances that is why, oh and the random protest group that gets deinonychus' thrown at them! Anyways, it might not have any of the really big dinosaurs that made number three worth it like the Spinosaurus and probably won't feature the T-Rex's crocodile swimming, but I'm still certain that it will be an enjoyable romp with mind bending and heart stopping moments that gets us thinking about the moral ethics of cloning. And then we forget about it until somebody clones Homer Simpson into real life and then he dies of being fat.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Something Bad

There were some things about Guardians of the Galaxy that were a tad bit frustrating. The first one was, what the hell happened to the Aether? When the Orb went all ka-blooey did it get free? Did the Orb have such a volatile reaction because the Aether was present? Is the Aether still contained? Given the power and magnitude of the Aether, something like that should really have been explained and been given depth. The second major thing was when Star Lord went out to save Gamora and gave her his mask, he should have died in milliseconds due to the lack of pressure. He is a human, Gamora maybe has some evolutionary advantage, but Star Lord is a human and no alien daddy of his is going to change that (because from what we've seen, his alien parentage has hardly changed his physiology or anything, it's just made him more immune to Infinity Stone withdrawal, so essentially he still is human). The third is that the movie totally underwhelmed Thanos, they had him all prepped up and big and all and then when Ronan uses the Infinity Stone for his own power he says he'll kill Thanos and the Mad Titan cuts the comm link. Boom, that really made him look tough, he hung up on Ronan. Maybe a statement of how much he would make Ronan suffer would suffice.

Then there is something I've wanted to talk about, Mass Effect. It was a video game series that for a lot of time, primarily because it started out as Xbox exclusive, that I didn't know what to think. I was at a mindset where I didn't really believe that sci fi could be melded into RPGs in such a way. Then there came in sex scenes. I really thought this was just a Song of Ice and Fire sci fi video game (I don't know if the show was out yet). The collection, which contained all the DLC, was out for about thirty dollars and so I thought what the hell, might as well. I made my own custom Shepard, made him an engineer and an Akuze background. The first game was gripping, it was very fun and amusing to play with, although I didn't like how I had to use the Mako to get resources. Then in Mass Effect 2, the stakes were high, unbelievably high (I wanted Jack to die but Legion died instead, which ultimately screwed up Mass Effect 3. Also, Kolyat and Mordin died as well). It was amazing, especially the scanning system. Then came Mass Effect 3, which did a lot of things wrong. The first, it took out a holster option. That's just a slight annoyance. The second it couldn't up it's mind thematically. The third, it changed the scanning system into something really odd, awkward and annoying. It did one thing so right though that was really good. It made Shepard such a humanlike character that you actually for the first time, felt for him. In the earlier games, Shepard was there, sure, but I never really cared what happened to him or his crew. When Samara commit suicide, when Tali commit suicide and when Tiks commit suicide I felt for Shepard. Those characters I never really felt for when they were companions, not like I did for Garrus and Kaiden or Miranda and Liara. But the game had a human aspect to the story, so it worked.

The third thing in this post is the WWE 2K series. Hopefully, since this is the game where Visual Concepts takes more control, we have the don't remove, but add and make better policy. Sometimes in WWE games, features that were there for a while would just disappear for no apparent reason. I believe that what should be happening is they give us 2K Showcase which is a nice historical mode and just kick out all the tweaks that existed in the Attitude Era mode and the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode. Then this My Career, make it like the old career modes of SvR 2008 or Here Comes the Pain. Then Universe Mode, make like GM Mode and add cutscenes, have your player run the show, have a rivalry progress based on wins and losses, oh and add all the features the people want. Things like Creative Suit should be upped for next gen graphics and well, that is all.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

A Bit of Both

Hey, there were many times in June and July that I wanted to post but didn't because I was way too lazy. Sorry about that, but, I'm here to give you guys a really big post because you all deserve it. I've going to start it off with a bang. Let's talk Ted DiBiase Senior, you know, the famed technician who often battled with Hulk Hogan. The Million Dollar Man who was, you know, one of the greatest villains of the age of theatrics. What an a-hole. Yeah, I met him the other day with a friend. Town fair is always fun to go to, there are rides, displays, rodeos for people, animals, acrobats, bike stars and even amateur wrestling. Last year there was the Honky Tonk Man (who knows why) and this year there was the Million Dollar Man, and up until this year I didn't know he was a Christian Minister. Yeah, town fair was evangelized this year. What should have been a multicultural event was overtaken by religion and heading it was Trillionaire Ted. I had never seen such a lack of colour. Ted was out there giving his sermons, then there was Elvis-Jesus doing it as well. Cool, I don't have a problem with that, but when you overtake the fair and make it a Calgary kind of thing, I don't like it. So I meet Ted DiBiase, he jokes about how he liked working with Hulk Hogan because he made money. His gimmick was money so we ask him to sign our money, he looks at us like we're retarded and signs the bills. I ask about Randy Savage. Old idiot must be going senile because he starts acting like I don't know wrestling is a scripted live stunt tv show and starts educating me on heels and babyfaces and how it's fake. I asked one simple question. Oh, he signed that bill all right and guess what, he put some Bible verse on it as well. I'm not Christian, he should've been able to tell by looking at me. I get it, you're a minister and you love your religion but why are shoving it at my face?

Next, I have to tell all of you about Hercules. It's directed by Brett Ratner and so it should've sucked, it should've sucked as much as that Kellan Lutz movie, but it stars Dwayne Johnson. As long as Dwayne Johnson is involved, so is charisma and guess what, the movie kicks ass. So what if all of the magical components and properties are involved only in the beginning? It has Ian McShane in it, who does his best performance since Blackbeard, and John Hurt who shows that he is the profound actor. It's got Reece Ritchie in it as well, for good measure if you like that sort of thing. All in all, I was disappointed by length and lack of magic, but was impressed. Several characters were rounded out even though they remained flat, Hercules had a full character arc and so did his nephew. It was left ambiguous as to whether or not the Graeco-Roman Gods were real or not (and why he's Hercules instead of Heracles in Greece), but I'd rather lean towards them being real. Honestly, this movie might've had a moderate box office opening in domestic territories, but for domestic, it's halved it's budget and when you combine it with foreign has already beat it's budget. We won't be getting a Robocop 2 because all the bitches who loved the first movie (and cannot see that this remake was an infinitely better and more humanly intimate job) made sure that even though it beat it's budget by over $100,000,00 it received mixed reception. However, Hercules has a lower budget than that, has beat it's budget and will likely end it's domestic run evening said budget and foreign run by beating it. I would love to see a sequel, with a longer run time and more ass kicking by Dwayne Johnson. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Hercules and his mercenaries popping up in a possible Jason and the Argonauts remake as a part of Jason's crew.

Now, lastly, the titular post title topic is Guardians of the Galaxy, I know this movie, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming out, is not going to be a box office hit of Thor: The Dark World proportions for Marvel. It's sequel on the other hand, will be that and more. It was an amazing movie, but I still can't get over why Bradley Cooper (heart crusher) did not play Star Lord and why Chris Pratt (y'know Emmett from the animated Lego Movie) did not voice the animated Rocket Raccoon. I can't say which one of them stole the show, although with Gamora (isn't that the place in New Vegas with the hoes?) glowing neon green made me want to poke her arm. Batista was surprisingly good as Drax, although I hope this doesn't get him thinking he's an actor as good a draw as Dwayne Johnson. The best part of this movie, however, were the designs, mainly Star Lord's ship. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of work I have seen from Marvel in a while mostly because of it's simplicity and you know what, simplicity works a lot. I put a lot praise towards that. I'm not going to talk about what the movie means in terms of the MCU's future and all that crap, but it's darker than you would expect. Trailers sugarcoat it with humour and violence and sex (Gamora's nude scene which wasn't in the film), but it is not the comedy that you would think it is. Yes, there is a joke around almost every turn, but that is all theater comedy. That is comedy that you laugh it if you are in a large group. The movie takes itself very seriously and that is what makes those "jokes" work. When it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD, watch it a few friends or your family, the jokes you'll laugh at then are the real jokes of the movie. The film is very good and the worst part, James Gunn's directing. He was the worst possible candidate for the role and the fact that he pulled it off so perfectly makes me wonder about how well somebody else could have done it (Jose Padillha perhaps?). All in all, watch Hercules and watch Guardians of the Galaxy. I'll try to post more consistently, my next post will be about video games, Mass Effect and the WWE series, so next time.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Surprises

Well, Days of Future Past was very good. Looks like it'll have a 600 mill to 700 mill box office at most. If Maleficent tanks, I could see it going higher, but that really appears to be the max. Honestly, though, the best part about it being very good is that Hugh Jackman could appear in future X-Men and Wolverine movies.

Then there was the Supernatural season finale. Boom, that revelation was shocking. I thought it might happen, but Crowley's dialogue about Dean not being a demon threw me off course and then they veered right back. Black eyes. It would've been cool to see them yellow, but that could potentially confuse some of the newer audience members.

Anyways, X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. No film in in 2015, but I do have Supernatural to look forward to. I'll see you guys next time.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Supernatural: Bloodlines Not Picked Up

Supernatural: Bloodlines has not been picked up. I had no worries about it being picked up prior to the airing of the pilot, but after reading fan reactions, you can tell: I was pretty worried. It was such a good and unique idea as well and now chances are we won't be getting it. Yes, the CW is still open to another spin-off idea, but I have a feeling we won't be seeing it Season 10. Season 11 has not been confirmed yet, but I have a feeling Supernatural will hit that season so maybe then? Supernatural: Bloodlines, passed up in favor of what? Jane the Virgin. Adapted from a Brazilian telanovela about a Catholic girl who is artificially insemnated. Who cares? If I want to watch pregnant ladies I'll hit the maternity ward. This is not typical CW bullshit, this is TMZ bullshit. You know, if CW passed up Bloodlines in favour of a teen romance drama (which it had elements of), I wouldn't be as pissed because I would expect them to do that. Passing it up in favour of this? Come on. I was looking forward to seeing more of Lucien Laviscount. Hopefully they'll wrap this up in an episode or two of Season 10, it's not like the writers to leave loose ends.

In other news, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Godzilla both sound really good judging from reactions so far. So, when they come out, pack up to your theater and watch them. I'll have a new video up on my YouTube channel, Knight12ify, later today so watch it. It's a tribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I have meshed the instrumental from Linkin Park's In the End with the Prologue score from Ang Lee's Hulk. Random pairings which went together surprisingly well. I want to start on my next video tomorrow, which is going to be about the Bourne Trilogy and maybe include the Bourne Legacy.