Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

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I found myself taken by storm after Rise of the Planet of the Apes and in 2014 I was eagerly awaiting the sequel. Once again, I found myself blown away by one of my all time favorite sequels…

A decade has passed since Caesar and his fellow apes fled into the woods and the mutagen that made them smart spread, decimating a huge portion of man kind. Caesar is now the lead of a village of apes, content with there peaceful life in the woods. Tensions rise when a group of surviving human is spotted by the apes trespassing into there territory. They mean to restart power from a nearby damn, but the apes don’t want them near them near. While Malcolm, head of this human group insist they mean the apes no harm, Dreyfus believes the apes caused man’s near destruction. Caesar tries to be fair with the humans but Koba, one of his best friends and former test subject, refuses to see peace and sees an end to the cruel animals who scarred him in sight. With both sides in turmoil and prejudices ablaze, can Caesar and Malcolm find peace when war is so close?

I can’t tell you what impressed me more about this movie, the depth of the story or the effort to bring the apes to life. The story brilliantly  carries over the emotional depth and characterization from the previous movie and takes off with it. Once again I found it hard to believe the apes weren’t real and the actors deserve to be commended. Serkis again is great as Caesar but I have to also give it to Toby Kebbell as Koba, who is a great, sympathetic villain. The humans are solid in there roles as well. The climax is really satisfying and pretty epic. In the end, I highly recommend Dawn as one of the best sequels I’ve seen since The Dark Knight and it’s well worth a watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

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Dave Bautista Confirms he is in Dune Reboot as Rabban Harkonnen

It has been known since about January that Bautista would be in the Dune reboot, it was always speculated as to what part he would actually be playing. That speculation has ended now that the man himself confirms he will be playing Rabban Harkonnen. In the Dune universe, the character is known for being pretty sadistic and cruel but not very cunning or smart really. and even killed his own father at one point. How this will be portrayed in the movie will be interesting, but it is definitely a part Dave is capable of playing. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Warframe Duviri Paradox Reveal Trailer

 

It is that time of year again for Warframe fans Tennocon. I personally have only casually played the game with some friends and have never watched Tennocon, but this seemed quite interesting. By interesting, I mean possibly drug-induced concept for the game. It is, however, a new open world zone that will be adding a new enemy type and ages your operators to adulthood. I am sure there is more info out there, but I don’t want to give to much away before release. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Daymare 1998 gameplay demo

This game was brought to my attention by my good friend Autobot when we watched a smaller version of this demo together. This game was announced about 3 years ago and here we have a damn good look at the gameplay. While the graphics are pretty nice, I can’t help but feel a huge inspiration pool from Resident Evil, perhaps a bit too much. Still, it looks like a alright horror game that has some tense atmosphere. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse

Now I know I am supposed to love this movie and think it is one of the all-time best Spider-Man movies if not the best. The truth is while I enjoyed it, I don’t think it was one of the best at all. It was simply an average movie that spent way to much time explaining how every Spider-man (and Spider-Gwen and pig) thought they were the only one.

The story of cross dimensions due to a collider while done well has also been done pretty much to death at this point within comics and science fiction, and it wasn’t even done in some new or inventive way. Everything about this movie is as basic and cliche as it could ever be.

The saving grace in all this, however, is that the animation is without a doubt top notch, and at no point was it a chore to watch. The characters are well written and funny, and Miles Morales is a great character in his own right and I am happy to see he isn’t just an attempt at continuing Peter Parker. He has his own abilities and powers along with his own issues and faults to contend with.

The different iterations of Spider-Man from the other dimensions were also fun to see such as Spider-Man Noir being essentially a black and white comic book character that loves a Rubix cube he found and is determined to understand it despite not knowing what the colors even are. Spider-Ham is basically a Looney Tunes character in a suit which was quite hilarious and Peni Parker is a futuristic Japanese girl with a psychic connection to the spider that lives in a sort of mech suit. I feel she doesn’t get the love she deserves by the way.

The movie is good, and if you have Netflix it deserves to be experienced. It is however far from being an all-time great movie. There isn’t anything original about the story and the only thing that makes it interesting is the characters themselves, and they could have been placed in any story with the same results. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Lee Daniels Promises Fans ‘Star’ TV Movie After Series Cancellation — Variety

Canceled Fox musical drama “Star” appears to be making a comeback – as a televised movie, according to co-creator Lee Daniels. “The bad news is that ‘Star’ is not getting picked up for series,” said Daniels in a video post on Instagram, calling the explanation “too long of a story to cry about.” “The good…

via Lee Daniels Promises Fans ‘Star’ TV Movie After Series Cancellation — Variety

Christine

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It’s been a long time since I did a dual layered book/ movie review. My earliest ones such as A Clockwork Orange , The Hellbound Heart , and Cujo were pretty popular. Since King’s adaptations are awesome once again, let’s look at a different kind of love story from the master of horror…

Arnie Cunningham is a typical nerdy teenager. He works his ass off to save money for college, is packed with extracurricular activities, and gets bossed around by his parents. His best friend Dennis is your typical good looking high school football player. One day while driving home, they stumble upon a peculiar piece of scrap- a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury. Arnie immediately falls in love with the hunk of junk. Arnie goes out of his way to get the car from the old man who owned it and essentially he gives away most of his money for it. Dennis ,Arnie’s overbearing parents, and not even Leah, Arnie’s pretty new girlfriend seem to like his new car named Christine. Arnie puts every bit of his energy into the car, restoring her to her prime until the asshole bullies that plague him destroy Christine. Leveled, Arnie’s heart breaks because the car meant freedom, opportunity and in the weeks that lead there, Arnie grew a pair. But that was all gone, or was it? Christine rebuilds herself right before his eyes, and Christine wants to take Arnie for a bloody ride…

I love the book and the movie pretty equally but for different reasons. The book doesn’t really feel much like a horror story, more like a relate-able teen drama until the first death scene in the second act. The book goes into some way darker territory towards the end and I prefer that ending to the more “Hollywood” ending of the movie. Also the dude who sells Christine to has way more to do with the plot than the movie would have you believe as well as a pretty messed up backstory which helps Arnie feel more in danger later. The only drawback is that the book is much more of a slow burn which will turn some off but the payoff is well worth it.

The movie is one of Carpenter’s best in my opinion. Keith Gordon does an amazing job playing Arnie as a lovable but frustrated geek while the rest of the cast is solid. The effects are pretty badass, especially for the early 80’s, and Carpenter’s eerie electronic score is iconic. The scene where Christine rebuilds herself is my favorite. There are some haunting moments with the car that genuinely freaked me out and Carpenter is great at making her feel unstoppable. The only drawback I have with the movie is it feels rather short and bare bones compared to the book and I would’ve liked a grittier ending like the book had.

Regardless it’s a awesome story from book a legendary author as well as a legendary director and either way I can highly recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory and on Christine’s good side.

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Soul To Keep (2019)

Soul to keep is the story of a twin brother and sister that inherit a house in the woods. They invite some friends to come up and party for a bit. You know the horror movie deal, alcohol, sex, and drugs. Their grandfather that left them the house tho was a bit odd and for all their lives had a locked door that leads to the basement. Of course, it wouldn’t be all that long until they ended up down there.

In true horror movie fashion, there is a book that lets them summon a demon. Beelzebub to be specific.  They will, of course, try to do it and it won’t work. Until it does work and people start dying. Go figure right? Anyway, the movie isn’t bad up until this point, just a bit cliche. But things are usually cliche because they work. The movie is passable until you get to the final act where stuff starts happening in an  M Night style twist ending that makes no real damn sense. I won’t spoil it for you in case you decide to check it out but everything that happens is just ridiculous. Usually, with a twist ending you can go back and see the signs of these things coming and think well damn, why didn’t I notice that. That is actually the key to a good twist ending. That isn’t here tho. It just feels there for the sake of being there, and it killed what should have been a decent movie for me.

Not to be outdone, they ended it after the twist ending with another standard horror movie twist further cementing it as dead for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mulan trailer

I’m going to be honest, I never watched Mulan as a kid but a vast majority of my friends have. I don’t think the trailer looks bad by any means, it’s filmed nicely and I like that it seems to have a darker tone but I’m likely not going to watch it the same as I haven’t watched the other remade live action Disney classics because I don’t see the point in them. The classics were classic for a reason after all. It still looks promising regardless, and may gaming gods bring you glory.

Anima (2019 short film)

I am going to make this pretty short and sweet. Anima is a short film that lasts about 15 minutes and I refuse to make you guys read a review that lasts longer than it would take you guys to hop on Netflix and watch it.

Anima is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Thom York (Radiohead) and Dajana Rocione. The whole thing is getting amazing reviews, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing and 8/10 on IMDb.

There are 2 ways to view this. From a technical standpoint, it is amazingly done. The music is fitting, the dancing is well done and the imagery is fantastic. On the flip side, if you don’t like stuff like that, the movie is boring as hell. That is really all you have to ask yourself. If you like musicals and interpretive dance and or very artsy stuff., you will really enjoy this movie. If not, you probably won’t. That being said, it is only 15 minutes. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.