Dawn of the planet of the apes! (Short and sweet review)

APE HAS KILLED APE!

I love the planet of the apes movies, ever since I was a little kid. The original movies were brilliant pieces of science fiction. Then they tried to reboot it in the early 2000's, and failed. That movie is terrible.

Lucky in 2011 another reboot by the name of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," succeeded in bringing the greatness of the original movies to the average moviegoers.

 This is the Short and Sweet review to that movies sequel: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."

The movie in the shortest possible manner:

It's been ten years since the Simian flu wiped out most of mankind. Now a small outpost of humans in California is running out of power. Their solution is to activate a dam in the middle muir woods. The only thing that stands in there way is a large group of intelligent apes led by Caesar (Played by Andy Serkis.)

Will they be able to make peace with the Apes, or will they be forced to fight? Maybe prejudice will force them into conflict. But if they do fight, both sides will lose everything.


I love this movie. The stakes are really high, if they fight (which they do,) both sides will really lose everything. The Humans have a great setup in there outpost, and the Apes have created they're own little world in the forest.

The Apes look amazing! This is some of the best motion capture ever put in film.

 Andy Serkis gives a stand out performance in this movie, you see him and you see an ape! Not one moment in this movie did I see him as Andy Serkis, he WAS Caesar.

The action is top notch, guns, explosions, it's all here.

 But there is also a lot of smart questions about family, and what it means to be human.

I won't tell you anything else. Go see this movie.

Dawn of the planet of the Apes gets ten out of ten stars.

You are no Ape!

Shovel Knight First Impressions

So I've been waiting for over a year for this game to come out, and I was stoked to try it out. Unfortunately it hasn't come out on Mac yet so I couldn't play it. But a friend of my was kind enough to let me try it out on his computer, so I am able to now tell you about this game.

Shovel knight is somewhat of a tribute to the 8-bit classics of the 80's. It is easy to notice this because it borrows lots of elements from games like Castlevania and Megaman. But unlike other indie games that are just collections of references, and gameplay copied from the good ol' days of gaming, Shovel knight is it's own game. It stands on it's own instead of relying on the legacy of the games that give us nostalgia. There is enough gameplay here that is original that it doesn't live in the shadow of any other game.

That being said it also looks, and plays like one of those games. Granted it couldn't have some of the graphics that does if it was from that time. But if you sat someone down who had never heard of this game before they might mistake it for one of those games.

The gameplay is solid, I have loved every minute that I have played. I feel that I am in complete control of my character when I am playing. If my finger so much as lifts from one of the controls, Shovel knight will stop what he is doing. This makes dying in this game your fault. If you miscalculated a jump, or used the wrong move on an enemy, your death is all on you.

In each level of Shovel knight you jump, and fight your way to the end, where you will be able to fight one of the games many bosses. All of the levels are themed to the particular boss i.e. so Spector knight's stage is a giant graveyard. Each level also has it's own unique mechanics, and enemies that change up the gameplay. On Mole knight's stage you will bounce of a giant beetle as it makes its way across the screen. And on Propeller knight's stage you will have to deal with the way the wind flings you around.

Each boss is pretty tough, I died several times. The reason they are tough is they don't have attack patterns. In games like Megaman it was always about memorizing the pattern of how the boss attacked, and then exploiting that pattern. In Shovel knight however this is not the case. Each boss has several attacks, and uses them depending on what is happening in the battle, rather then just in a set order. This makes the battles WAY more challenging than in other games. Now you have to learn to recognize an attack, rather than a pattern.

Unlike the other games of it's kind Shovel knight relies a lot on loot. Money is everywhere, and you need it all! Everything costs money, boosts to your health and magic, upgrades, and the relics that are found in chests. But Shovel knight does have many ways of acquiring money on his journey. He can dig in dirt piles, defeat enemies, and find chests. There are secret areas EVERYWHERE in this game, these usually have the most loot. The other thing is that the upgrades you buy are more useful than just boosting your attack damage. One makes it easier to use magic, at the cost of you taking extra damage. And another lets you have a super swing after two successful downstabs.

One of my favorite parts of the game is the way the balanced the game for newbs, and experts alike. Each level has several checkpoints making the game easier for losers. But if you are pro, (or an idiot) you can destroy the checkpoint for money. If you do that checkpoint is gone for the rest of the time playing the level. And if you die you start back farther back in the level. You also lose money when you die, which you can get back as long as you don't die again. This adds this extra dilemma to the game: more money, or restart further back.

I haven't even finished playing the game and I already know what I am going to rate it. This game is by far the best game to come out this year. You guys can't stop me, I'm giving Shovel knight ten out of ten stars. Shovel knight is a "Masterpiece."

Shovel for Justice!

So there's three villains, but one of them is only onscreen for about 5 minutes. (Amazing Spiderman 2 review)

Here is my full length review of Amazing Spiderman 2. If you want less info but still want to see what I thought of the movie, please check out my short and sweet review below this one.

Anyway let's do this thing.

The Story:

Peter Parker aka Spiderman, misses the graduation of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy because he was out fighting crime. Max Dillon an employee at Oscorp, his saved by Spiderman when he is nearly run over by a large truck that the "Web head" was chasing. After Peter tells Max that he is Peter's eyes and hears, Max becomes obsessed with Spiderman. On his birthday Max has to stay after hours, to fix a electrical issue. But he gets electrocuted, and falls into a vat of genetically engineered electric eels. When he wakes up, he finds that he now has blue skin an electricity flowing through him. Spiderman confronts him after he attacks several cops. Max now using the name Electro discovers that Spiderman doesn't recognize him, and they become enemies.

The Movie:

So yeah Spiderman 2 is awesome, go see it. I'm not kidding, stop what you're doing and go see this movie. I'll wait until you come back.

...

What are you still doing here? I told you to go see it! Fine I'll finish reviewing the dang thing.


So I guess I'll start out by saying that Amazing Spiderman 2 is vastly superior to the original. And The Amazing Spiderman was phenomenal film. I think though that this one is also much darker than the first movie. There is literally a scene in this movie where a guy is killed, only to be brought back 3 seconds later so that he can be killed again, well sort of. The villain's need the guy to get something they want.

And while I'm on the subject the villains are awesome! Well all except Paul Giamatti as the Rhino. It's not that he is a bad actor, and it's not that he is bad at the role. He's only on the screen for about all of 5 minutes in this movie. There just isn't enough of him in this movie! You get the feeling that the only reason he's on screen at all is because they're setting up for the next movie.

Jamie Foxx as Electro is great. You really feel for this guy. He has a crappy job, with a boss that treats him like dirt. And to top it all off they don't acknowledge him for designing a giant set of power generating poles which powers the whole city. No wonder Max turned evil, everyone treated him like crap when he was good.

But hands down my favorite of the villains is Dean DeHaan as Harry Osborne/The Green Goblin. He wants a sample of Spiderman's blood, because he thinks that it will save him from a disease he inherited from his father. Oscorp is also taken from him, leaving him with none of his fathers research into the disease. Dean makes Harry into a very tragic character who is grasping onto what little time he has left. And when he turns into the Goblin, he got the evil smile and laugh down.

Blurred because I don't want to spoil how evil he looks.  

Oh and before you ask the villains are handled better then in Spiderman 3.

Oh man it's so STUPID.

Emma Stone is still great, and she has great chemistry with Andrew Garfield. And its pretty much because they are dating in real life.

Andrew Garfield is still really awesome in his role. He's got the role of Spiderman down to a science. And he's got the humor down as well. He is Spiderman. Forget Tobey Maguire that never happened, because Andrew Garfield is the only person I want to play Spiderman now. He's that good.

(Smaller because Andrew is Superior to Tobey.)

Btw the secret scene in this movie is just a trailer for Xmen: Days of futures past, so you can just skip the credits because it was kinda underwhelming and stupid.

Also what the heck happened to some of these scenes that are in the trailer? You know the Part where Harry says "Oscorp had you under surveillance." That scene isn't in the movie. I mean what the heck? They did the same thing in the trailers for the first movie. Its a marketing ploy, and I want them to stop doing this in the future.

The Music and Presentation:

The Music in this movie is good as usual. I don't know what it is about new movies but I feel like the music is good, but not really noteworthy. I guess it sets the mood? Yeah thats what it does. Theres also this song that plays whenever Electro on screen thats pretty cool.

There is a lot of slow motion in this movie, and I don't mind it that much. Probably because the fights move really fast that some of the time it can be hard to tell whats going on. Neither it going too fast or too slow is that big of a problem though.

The action was pretty cool, but that's a given.

I really like the way that Electro, and Green Goblin look; I think the studio did a lot of work on them.

Rhino not so much, but he's only there for 5 minutes anyway, so whatever.

The Verdict and Final Thoughts:

The Amazing Spiderman 2 has taken the place of Capt. America 2 as my favorite Marvel movie. The acting is great, the action phenomenal, and the Villains just plain awesome. They are definitely setting up a Sinister Six movie, and I'm excited about that. The only thing I didn't really like about the film was the marketing campaign. So with all this in mind I give Amazing Spiderman 2 nine out of ten stars. It's a "Must see" movie.

Seriously what was with that secret scene?

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (Short and Sweet review.)

I saw The Amazing Spiderman 2 today. So I'm going to review it.

The Movie short and sweet style:

Spiderman is back kicking butt, when he bumps into an Oscorp employee named Max. After Max talks to Spiderman he becomes obsessed with our hero. After getting into a lab accident Max becomes Electro, and fights Spiderman. Meanwhile Peter finds his old friend Harry Osborne, who is slowly dying of a genetic disease he inherited from his father. Harry thinks that if Spiderman gives him some of his blood then he can be cured.

There is a lot of slow motion in this film, and I actually like it because the action can go really fast at times.

Andrew Garfield does a spectacular job as playing Spiderman, I mean he IS Spiderman in this movie. Emma Stone is great as well, and she has great chemistry with Garfield.

I have to say though that the villains in this movie are the standouts. Jamie fox does a wonderful job at playing Electro, and making him be a very sympathetic villain. And Dean Dehaan is proving to be one of my new favorite actors, he does a great job playing Harry Osborne.

Overall a great movie. It's in my opinion much darker than The Amazing Spiderman. I give Spiderman 9 out of 10 stars.

Time to go see it again.

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier. (Short and Sweet review.)

Its come to my attention that some readers of my blog don't want to read my reviews for movies they haven't seen that are new. This is when I say, "Isn't the point of reviewers to review things that you haven't seen, to say if you should see them or not?" They sort of gives me these mixed answers about how they don't want me to spoil things, (Even though I keep my reviews relatively spoiler free, excluding my Grave of the Fireflies review of course.) So in order to make my life easier, as well as not reveal to much to people, I will introduce: Short and Sweet reviews!

In these reviews I will limit myself to only 2-3 short paragraphs, keeping that review short and spoiler free. This doesn't mean that I won't make a normal review later. I'm doing this just so that people who don't want a long review that reveals too much, can still hear my opinion. So expect a normal length review of the movie soon after.

With all that said lets review Captain America 2!


The Movie short and sweet style:

Captain America is back, and he is getting used to his new life in modern times. But when he begins to uncover a plot within shield, he becomes a fugitive. And theres this creepy guy called The Winter Solider that starts killing people. Only with the help of Black widow, and is new friend The Falcon, can Captain America stop the bad guys and stuff.

The Action is awesome in this movie. Every scene with fighting gets your blood pumping.

I also really like the acting in the movie as well. Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson reprise their roles as Cap. and Black widow, and they do a great job. Anthony Mackie as Falcon is also really awesome. Robert Redford is in this movie and he is awesome too. The Winter Solider is by far one of the coolest characters in the movie. Every time he is in the scene you know something is up, and that awesome stuff is about to happen. Love the way he looks too.

Overall Captain America is really awesome, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.