A pair of action movies!
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning
With the world facing a new threat Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, still in good running form) is deployed again to do the impossible... defeat AI? Yep. Decent humor and action scenes (except one sword / knife fight with too much slash grappling instead of stabbing) can be found here, and an alright story to boot. I'm glad they dialed down the "this is what we hope will happen" scenes this time around and all up I do think its a stronger story than the previous one, but while it has all the necessary story arcs it certainly is still a "Part I", as it clearly warns in the title sequence. :P
Captain America: Brave New World
With the world powers in a race to claim the resources (adamantium, said to be better than the Wakandan's vibranium) from the newly risen Celestial Island (from the Eternals), new-ish Captain America Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) becomes tangled in a plot to try keep the peace. Much like the audience he's very self aware that he's not a super soldier, and humorously that Ant-Man kicked his butt that one time. Despite having improved shielding thanks to Wakandan tech his survival in this movie is more dependent on his plot armor and reliance on bad guys missing completely or definitely hitting the center of his shield with bullets. Better than I thought it would be, but still only recommended if you are an Anthony Mackie fan.
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Captain America: Brave New World
Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Avengers: Powerless
[Part of Superhero Stories]
Advanced Idea Mechanics, the same group currently waging war against Wakanda. What were they doing having a hidden outpost right in the middle of the city and why did this information come from digital data pulled from a lone arrow near the crashed Helicarrier? Natasha Romanoff's questions would soon be answered as she casually made her way right past security under the guise of a lowly laborer. Hawkeye had been missing off comms for awhile now, could he be in here somewhere?
A quick side step down an unpatrolled corridor she wasn't meant to be in and a flash of a security card she had lifted from the goon outside was all it took to find her answers. There in an isolated cage was her friend - Hawkeye, beaten and broken. He had a clear line of sight to the tables against the opposite wall atop which were the stripped corpses of the Winter Soldier, Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop and what was left of Captain America. Quickly composing herself, Natasha forced herself forward to unlock his cell as she whispered a reassuring "Let's get you out of here."
"Nat? Is that you?" Barton said weakly. "I failed them Nat. I failed them. I... I told MODOK how to open the Tesseract box." Romanoff looked at him in disbelief as he continued. "Yeah. They pried it from T'challa's cold dead fingers, but they couldn't open it... not until I... I told them how. They used Steve's hand Nat. Only four people could open that box and they... they..."
"Then we'd better go get it back," Natasha said sternly as she offered Clint one of her Glock 26s. With an exchange of silent nods, Hawkeye took the firearm and followed her lead deeper into the facility.
He's always happy to see her.
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Avengers: New Blood
[Part of Superhero Stories]
"Thanks for coming with me Kate," said Kamala over her shoulder as the pair made their way through the wreck of the crashed helicarrier. "Oh please, I'm pretty much an Avenger already," replied Kate, composite bow at the ready just like how her mentor, Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) taught her. All her gusto left as the pair made their way past the next bulkhead to the twisted center of the wreck and came across the corpse of the Winter Soldier. While Kamala instinctively covered her nose, Kate grit her teeth and searched his pockets to find any sort of clue as to why he was here in the first place.
She had just bagged a small phone when she heard Kamala tearfully gasp "Oh my god." She was staring at the shattered shield of Captain America, still connected to his bloody dismembered arm. "Your god can't hear you," laughed a menacing deep voice as the opposite end of the wreck suddenly bent apart - revealing the Abomination as he stepped into their space and addressed Kate directly. "Give me what you took little thief!"
"RUN!" yelled Kate as she bolted back the way they came with Kamala close behind but their monstrous foe was gaining on them. At a T-junction the Abomination had to pause and rub his eyes as he saw two Kate Bishops run in opposite directions so he charged headlong after one of them and cornered her in a dead end... only to then see this Kate transform back into Kamala. "Oh you're good..." he grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do," she replied defiantly.
Outside, Kate fired a special arrow containing the bagged device far away with a tracker for any Avenger or SHIELD agent to recover, then hastily made her way back to find her friend but it was too late. "Give me a real fight!" challenged the Abomination as he casually tossed Kamala's battered and bloody corpse aside. Kate drew her bow and fired... and it did not go well for her either.
Saturday, 5 May 2018
Avengers: Infinity War
Wow. This is a great film, packed with story and every actor brought their "A" game. As expected, the music, CGI and plot are all top notch too - it had to be to get all the heroes together, and while you don't get too much of anyone everyone does get their chance to shine.
There are action pieces a plenty mixed with strong story moments and Thanos himself (the villain) is surprisingly charismatic, which is great as the movie is basically about him. As far as I'm concerned, it was a perfect 5 infinity stones out of 5. I do suggest that you watch a few of the lead up movies though (at least anything with the word Avenger in it, as well as Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok) or you will be very lost.
Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Old TV Reviews: Seeker of Shannara, the Carter Chronicles
Agent Carter (Cancelled)
AKA. The adventures of Captain America's girlfriend, this was a strange one to get into. Hayley Atwell did a good job portraying Peggy, but the episodes were very hit and miss for me. It was in the "not that bad" category when it got cancelled, and I think the events in Captain America: Winter Soldier nailed the coffin so to speak. A show for completionists, but not one I would recommend to anyone else.
Legend of the Seeker (Cancelled)
Based off the Sword of Truth books, this series did the cardinal sin of going in a completely different direction. Sure, it can work if you veer off into tangents but not that far off the rails. I still found it interesting, and quite enjoyed Bridget Regan's Kahlan, Tabrett Bethell's Cara and Bruce Spence's Zedd - reason enough for me to want a 3rd season. They also had cool costumes, decent fight choreography and all that slow motion running. I can still picture it in my head. :P
The Shannara Chronicles (Cancelled)
Another fantasy story based on books, this one set interestingly on a future Earth. The story is decent, travels better than Legend of the Seeker and isn't shy in killing characters, while the sets and effects are good but not as good as Seeker. It also does suffer a little in pacing and in the acting department for the main cast outside Allanon (because Manu Bennet is awesome). It's a tough call for me to decide if it's better than Seeker, so I'll leave it up to you to watch both and decide for yourselves.
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Spiderman: Homecoming
This movie follows a very excitable and young Peter Parker (played by Tom Holland) right after his appearance in Captain America: Civil War and how he keeps sacrificing his personal life on the chance of working with the Avengers again, despite regularly getting ignored by his handler. When his patrols come across some thugs in possession with alien tech, he decides to take them on solo to prove himself.
While I wasn't looking forward to another reboot of the Spidey franchise, I must admit this did a very good job of doing just that and linking it to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland also fits the character well as does Michael Keaton who plays a likeable and memorable adversary. I question some of the other casting choices but overall they do their jobs well and the story is both visually stunning and highly entertaining. Definitely one I would like to see again, I give it 4.5 suit ladies out of 5.
Saturday, 7 January 2017
Captain America: Civil War
Thanks to more collateral damage while the Avengers are out doing their thing, the world has decided to reign in all these enhanced individuals to make them work for the UN. This divides the team on the accountability vs freedom front and one very lucky bad guy manages to leverage this into a more violent and entertaining conflict where heroes fight each other.
What's good? Marvel characters galore with quality acting, humorous segments that made me laugh along, nice action choreography and high budget CGI. Introducing even more characters in an already large line up seemed like a bad idea to me but they pulled it off just fine. I also quite like the idea they had behind the bad guy, who really is nothing special - a good contrast to all the powered folk of the Avengers.
On the negative side the biggest issue for me is that said bad guy was extremely lucky that so many things went his way for as long as they did. There's one bit where he would have had to get past a number of security check points AND somehow kill backup generators in what I'm guessing is a high level building, unless of course there are no backup generators in a world where they have underwater prisons and guys that fly in suits of armor?
It's not explained how he manages to do all of this, he just does, which is a bit annoying. The other problem will be for anyone who hasn't watched the Avengers or the previous Marvel films - you could get lost really quickly with "who is that again" even with the 3 minute intros. All up I enjoyed the film and give it 4 Vision lasers out of 5, even if it is a "moving pawns across the board for the next movie" sort of thing.
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
MMO Agenda: Do you quit at max level?
Simple question today, and one that most MMO devs assume the answer is "Yes" hence the hamster wheel for experience or items. I just want to see if they are correct. After working hard to level up your character to become the most powerful he or she can be, do you then quit the game or would having a god like character actually keep you playing?
I don't know, I think absolute strength would be fricking amazing. At least I'd get my dailies done faster, and maybe I'd even try the other content I'd usually avoid due to it being too long or too annoying. If I had a character that can one hit Tiamat, I'd definitely play Neverwinter Online a lot more, not a lot less - especially if more updates kept coming in, without any more hamster wheels to run.
What about you? Do you end or reset the experience as soon as the game no longer poses a challenge?