If you caught my previous review of the live action Green Lantern movie, you’ll realize I sorely don’t recommend it. This book, Secret origin, is a much more cohesive , better told story of Hal Jordan’s coming of age into being one of the most powerful Green Lanterns of all time. The story begins much like the movie with the story of young Hal Jordan; a young boy who dreams of growing up to be a pilot like his father. After he dies in a tragic plane explosion, his life begins a slow, lonely spiral of trouble making, straying further from his living family until he joined the air force at 18 at which point his mom disowns him until the day she dies because of his choice to follow this father’s footsteps. Hal is a natural flyer but his smart mouth and rebellious nature cause him to hang onto his job for dear life…Light years away, the great Abin Sur- greatest of all Green Lanterns- is transporting the savage Atrcitous of the five Aversions across the galaxy to interrogate him. Abin has been uneasy and paranoid unto the clasps of utter madness over a prophecy the Guardians of the universe and creators of the Green Lantern Corps may have been hiding. He fears the coming of the Blackest Night. Atrcitious breaks free and because of Abin’s fear, he’s weak to the attack and becomes mortally wounded, and there ship crashes to earth. Atrcitous escapes. Abin commands his ring to find a suitable replacement- Hal Jordan. The story after stays fairly close plot-wise with the exception of Parallax. Inside a rookie Jordan and now dubbed greatest Green Lantern Sinestro must put there differences aside to defeat Atrcitous, whose armed with a weapon fueled by the power of their rings, before he murders young William Hand who he believes is the key to Blackest Night.
Between the live action movie and Secret Origin, I’d would say the general plot is 65% similar. The difference comes with Geoff Johns’s fantastic writing. The story is fast paced but were able to get attached and sympathize with Jordan, get to see the beginnings of his stormy but true love for Carol Ferris- his childhood friend, old boss, and future Star Sapphire (pink lantern) and well as his tragic relationship with Thal Sinestro- mentor, partner, and rival that would one day turn his back on willpower’s green light and embrace fear’s golden light as the Corp’s greatest threat. The world is more flushed out and what I enjoy about much of John’s writing is it’s a extremely easy book to follow, even if you never knew anything about Lantern lore or even comics in general.
Final score: 9/ 10
May the gaming gods be with you all and til next time, I’m Torsten V and I’ll be back in a few days with my review for Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War.
Ugh, this one hurts like getting a snapping turtle shoved up my ass. I’m 98% sure this film is the reason Green Lantern won’t appear in the upcoming Justice League (JLA) movie this November even though he’s been in the Justice League since it’s original inception. Green Lantern- Jon Stewart in particular- is my second favorite DC hero. What I love is that unlike most comic book heroes, Green Lantern does not pertain to one singular person but several diverse characters: Hal Jordan, Jon Stewart, Guy Gardener, Kyle Raynor, Simon Baz, Killowog, Arsya, and hundreds of others in a universe full of rich lore. Ideally, Green Lantern could be an amazing film franchise; Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films proved that there is a market for cosmic themed superhero films and can be well done. That being said, this movie has bright spots in my opinion both as a critic and a fan of the comics but what’s terrible murders this movie. The film follows the story of Hal Jordan, ace air force pilot and smart ass who is trying to live up to the memories of his father who died in a flight accident when he was a kid. One night, hes sees what he takes to be as a meteor crash or some kind of aircraft crash nearby him so he goes to investigate. He comes upon a mortally wounded purple alien named Abin-Sur, a great warrior of the Green Lantern Corps; he reveals to Hal that his ring guided him to him, so he can take his place. Hal takes the ring and Abin dies, before handing him his ring and a green lantern, instructing him to “speak the oath”. After he does he’s taken to planet Oa and brought into the Green Lantern Corps. The lanterns are intergalactic peacekeepers given rings forged from the concentrated willpower from throughout the universe with the ability to construct there thoughts into reality, fly, have access to knowledge collected from throughout the known universe, with the ability to travel in deep space. Hal discovers an ancient Entity of fear called Parallax was responsible for Abin’s death and has his sights set to destroy the Corps while being signaled by mad, mutated scientist Hector Hammond. So Hal has to face his fears and fight this seemingly unstoppable force and become the green lantern.
I’m not a huge Shyamalan fan; he reigned supreme at a time when gore, boobs, and bad language made a great movie to me…cut me some slack, I was 10. Like most, I’ve watched his descent into crap with The Happening and his awful adaptation of The Last Airbender and thought his time was over. From youtube, I heard a lot positive feedback on the movie he did prior to Split, The Visit, but still didn’t think much about it. When the trailers for Split started to drop, I became intrigued at the concept alone: three young women being held captive by Kevin, a man suffering from Split-Personality Disorder. Kevin’s mind is split into 23 personalities ranging from Hedwig- a playful 9 year old boy, Dennis- the rigid, disciplined captor repressing his sexual urges, Barry- the fashion loving face he shows his Psychiatrist, and Patricia- a stern companion to Dennis and fellow believer in “The Beast” that all 23 parts of Kevin fear, and soon will his captives. First, I command the astounding performance by James Mcavoy who plays Kevin. Each character he plays is unique and realistic; easily he’s a great villain but a sympathetic supporting character all at once. As for his doctor, who treats Kevin with the intent of proving people with his condition can potentially lead to greater abilities, and Casey, the quiet of his captives with her own dark backstory. I didn’t find her friends memorable but not annoying; each tries to break free of Kevin’s grasp, proving Dennis and Patricia’s cunning and devotion to bringing forth the Beast. I don’t want to get deep into spoilers with this, it’s a movie that needs to seen and heard but I will say it has some thrilling moments, a great main character and a pretty epic post credit scene that links it to another Shyamalan classic.
Damn. Just damn. Much has been said about the Dark Souls trilogy from From Software- some say invigorating challenge, other say total bullshit; I say a little bit of both. Dark Souls I cannot say much about but I got my ass kicked all the way to level 160 in the sequel so let’s go with it. Graphically, it’s beautiful. The scenery is breathtaking and easily sunken into with all of it’s hidden nooks and crannies. Speaking of nooks and crannies, every souls player knows that there’s a threat behind every twist and turn; sometimes you can overcome the evils that can spring forth, but unless you dodge, dodge some more, keep a ass load of Estus Flasks at hand and can hit like a locomotive, you will probably die. In fact, you will die anyway. Many, many, times. My advice to most newbs- choose the sorcery class for your character because its a hard start but damn it becomes epic later on. I do have one major issue with this game, regardless of the difficulty. If you played the other 2 games in the trilogy or Bloodborne, you came to love, hate and respect the bosses. Many of the bosses of Dark Souls 2 feel dull or simply mob bosses that aren’t so much a challenge but a royal rat vanguard pain in the ass! Another complaint I’ve heard is many of the bosses bare a striking resemblance to those in the previous game. Overall, it’s a decently fun game and well, it’s dark souls, but its not the best of the series.
I’m bored to shit with possession films and even more fed up with found footage movies. What the hell is it with this decade and found footage ghost stories? BUT, though Sinister has the seeds of both of these genres, it fuses both of them into one creepy ass final product. From the opening credits were introduced to the messed up imagery of a family being hung from a tree, kicking away there last breaths while we hear the old Super 8 projector rolling. I immediately dropped the F bomb. And oh this is just he beginning. Some of these later Super 8 reels are alarming as hell, but refreshingly not too gory. I ODed on pointless gore somewhere between Saw 5 an 6.
It’s summer in Scranton so what better to keep me cool than to bundle up with my trusty box fan, pour myself a cold drink, and thank the gaming gods I’m not being attacked by pissed off vampires of the non-sparkly persuasion with a great graphic novel. By the title and pics you can tell I mean 30 Days of Night.
For the past few months I’ve found myself riding a hardcore DC kick, reading dozens of there comics, trying to duck into the break room at work to catch the latest episode of Flash or Arrow, and drooling over the utter epicness of Conroy as Batman and Hamill’s Joker in Batman the Animated Series. As far as fighting games go, I was a cool fan of the first Injustice game, neither loving nor hating it. The roster was fairly predictable but understandably so; the story was bleak but fitting given Superman’s descent into tyrannical madness after the death of Lois Lane at the hands of the Joker; and gameplay was fine- fun as hell for some characters but DAMN playing as others made your teeth grind, especially the bulky fighters. So what about the sequel? I’m happy to say Injustice 2 drastically improves on the gameplay and brings a much wider variety to the character roster. Combos are more fluid to the touch as well as the characters themselves. Fighters like Bane and Atricitous have there own kind of heavy grace, while Swamp Thing has a longer range to his attacks. Every character has there feeling of individuality which was one of my favorite aspects of the game. The scenery and character designs are stunning and the voice acting and sound is solid. I’m sorry to say I haven’t actually been able to play the game’s story because I don’t own the game (special thanks to my friend Autobot who let me play this much at his house.) but the plot revolves around both dimensions coming under attack by Brainiac and having to come together. The games only flaw I’ve found so far is the new gear system. I haven’t used it personally but I saw glimpses of where it could go wrong with the premier skins that turn characters aesthetically into others without changing there move sets: like Captain Cold can be become Mr. Freeze, and the Flash can be Reverse-Flash. I saw micro transactions for some of the gear available and that bummed me out a lot…In the end, I highly recommend Injustice 2 to any Dc fan and I will post again after each dlc pack. So until next time, may the gaming gods be with you.
Savior Gaming 