Savior Gaming

Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home

Star Trek 4, The Voyage Home (1986) is, in my humble opinion, is the best of the original series movies. The plot is pretty simple. A probe comes to Earth with a message that starts boiling the ocean and destroying the world, and as Spock points out only human arrogance would assume the message was for them. As the crew quickly discovers the now extinct humpback whales are the only one that can answer them and save the planet. So Spock does some calculations no human can understand and their stolen Bird Of Prey is flying back in time.

Of course they quickly discover a pair with a pregnant female. Now that is basically the quick version. The movie looks good for its time and the acting is what you would expect from Star Trek. This one while my favorite is by many sort of the black sheep. While most people agree the odd numbered movies suck, this one is greatly argued by many. Usually it comes down to this or Wrath of Kahn and honestly neither answer is wrong. Voyage is a far less series movie and many would prefer while Kahn is an instant classic with one of the best space battle scenes in history. With that being said id recommend watching both. As always thanks for the time, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Books of Blood (vol 1)

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I’m a huge fan of macabre horror writer Clive Barker; the books of blood are a good place to start for any new writer who wants to jump into the genre. Books of blood are collections of very strange and gruesome short stories, most commonly found in volumes 1-3 and 4-6. I have to say I have personally only read through volume 1 so far but I can tell you wow. The stories in volume 1 include The Book of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train, The Yattering and Jack, Pig Blood Blues, Sex, Death and Starshine, and In the Hills, The Cities. Of these stories, I think Pig Blood Blues was my favorite: a haunting story of a home for wayward boys and the farm of evil pigs that is causing them to disappear. Barker is a master of disturbing imagery, whether it’s a subway train of skinned, upside down bodies or giants made of tied up people that come together in the hills and fight each to the death. The only story I’m not to fond of is the titular story Book of blood, in my opinion it felt a little too descriptive and bloated somehow but not obscenely so. The final moments are creepy. If you have a strong stomach and a dark imagination i highly recommend The Books of Blood; the best compliment I can give is the imagery I get from these stories manages to stick with me for months, even years after in the case of his famous Cenobites or the giants from In the Hills, The Cities, and that is the sign of a true master.

The Haunting of Silver Falls

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The Haunting of Silver Falls is a typical horror movie in every sense of the phrase. The basic plot us a girls parents die, moves to a small town with her Aunt and uncle meets a guy goes to a party. Of course the cops come everyone scatters and the girl finds a mysterious object blah blah blah. The ghost are semi creepy looking and the twist ending is nice and actually unexpected. The acting is well done and unlike most movies I have seen lately the pacing isn’t bad. It does a good job setting everything up but moves along fast enough to stay interesting. On the downside there is very little excitement to the movie, but its never really boring either. If anything the movie suffers from being far to standard and basic, I’m talking white chick at a Starbucks wearing Uggs basic. As always thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Shrek

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I know what followers of our blog must be thinking, “Torsten, why are you covering Shrek? Shrek isn’t a horror movie and doesn’t have a superhero in it.”…well, I like other stuff too and it’s a special request by my friend, Hatter, so here you go man.

Shrek is the awesome animated comedy about a scary, ugly, ogre named Shrek who lives in a swamp. He enjoys his solitude and scaring the shit out of trespassers. Well a short, asshole king named Farquad decides to cast out all of the strange fairy tale creatures out of his kingdom in an attempt to have a perfect kingdom for his perfect queen to be, Fiona. Shrek is pissed when a talking donkey ends up on his land; Shrek inadvertently saves Donkey and begrudgingly let’s Donkey stay until like fifty other creatures show up. Shrek finds out about Farquad’s band and goes to get it repealed with Donkey singing alongside of him. They stumble upon a tournament Farquad is holding to find a knight badass enough to save Fiona from a evil dragon keeping her hostage in a epic lava moated castle. Shrek kicks ass. He wins and Farquad tells him if he can bring him Fiona he’ll get rid of Shrek’s squatters. Shrek and Donkey go through the perilous journey, entrap the dragon and save Fiona. The trio journey together, and we get to see Shrek and Fiona bond and as well as see Shrek warm up to having friends. He goes to confess his feelings for Fiona but overhears something she told Donkey about “being a fat, stupid, ugly, ogre.”. Shrek is crushed and gets Farquad to retrieve her and tells Donkey to leave him alone. In the end the two reunite and Shrek has to rescue Fiona and in the end, Shrek finds he wasn’t alone and discovers love’s true form.

Dude, Shrek is a timeless classic, plain and simple. Whether you are a little kid or a grown adult, the humor still sticks either way and has a lot of relate-able deep moments; growing up as a fat weird looking kid as I did, it was cool to have a character that was funny and badass but felt what I did. The characters are all memorable and well developed with great music and animation, Shrek is a must see. May the gaming gods bring you glory and thank you again for the request Hatter, I hope you enjoyed it. If anyone has any requests for Savior or I we’ll do our best to get them out there so leave us a comment below.

Star Trek 3 The Search For Spock

There is an old Star Trek legend that all the odd number movies sucked. I never really thought it was true, but it also isn’t wrong. The search for Spock is basically Star Treks Jesus moment. As many of you know in 2 Spock dies. Well it turns out shooting a dead body onto a Genesis planet brings. A person back to life as a rapidly ageing child. Right before Spock died he did a Vulcan mind meld and essentially passed his soul to McCoy. Which when rapidly ageing baby Spock becomes adult Spock they will go to the Vulcan home world and put his soul back and poof instant return of Spock. I know sounds weird. It was an interesting concept it just doesn’t really fit well into a movie. Only really cool part is them stealing a Klingon Bird Of Prey. Anyway I don’t have much else to say, so as always may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Saw 5

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Why? Why oh why did I have to revisit this particular movie? I promise when we get closer to Halloween I’ll talk about the rest of the Saw series more in depth but for now I’ll go into the movie that derailed me and my friends off of the fan train, a train most people jumped off of for dear life between 4 and 5. First, I’ll get it out of the way, I hate the movie. The traps are blah, the acting sucks, the story is just ridiculous, and the victims are idiots who couldn’t listen to simple instructions. Normally Jigsaw is playfully vague with his victims- it is a game after all- but for once he is as blunt as I am now. he tells these dumbasses precisely what to do and don’t kill each other, work as a team and all will be well. What do they do? try to kill each other right off the bat and wonder why the final trap will probably kill them. It’s a well shot movie…for a Saw movie…I’ll give it that. That’s about it. If you want to keep up with the Saw movies just skip 5 and you’ll be all the happier for it.

Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Kahn

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The Wrath of Kahn from 1982. Say this to most Trek fans and they will tell you it’s the best of the movies. While i disagree it is definitely up there on the list. We follow Admiral Kirk on a training mission with a mostly new crew, tho the usual suspects are present.

Soon after the movie starts some philosophical conversations happen about age, life and death and various other topics. Eventually it is discovered by Chekhov and his captain that the planet Kahn and his crew Kirk exiled them to underwent a massive change about 6 months after and they barely survived the new wasteland like atmosphere of the planet. Using this opportunity to steal the reliant kahn and his crew attempt to steal secret technology known only as genesis as well as attempt revenge on Kirk.

All of this mostly takes the back seat to what many recognise as the greatest space battle in movie history, as Kirk and Kahn attempt to one up each other while both ships are badly damaged and blind. The ending is probably one of the most emotional moments in Star Trek history when Spock is killed saving the Enterprise crew from Kahns last ditch effort to kill Kirk. As always thanks for joining me and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Among Friends

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So I have to be honest, I thought this was going to be a novelty slasher movie. Like Halloween- the Clue version. Bunch of longtime friends get together for a themed murder mystery party and people would probably get knocked off one by one and we gotta find out who’s who’s the killer, sounds corny right? Hulu and the first fifteen minutes of the movie led me to believe this was the cheese I was in for; I was wrong. So we find out quick who the psycho is and that everyone is drugged and paralyzed, two paralyzed and tripping balls on shrooms and coke, being made to play a fairly messed up game while having there ugly truths exposed and in the open. There is some pretty good squirm moments, one of which involves cutting off someone’s eyebrow with a vegetable peeler (somehow that bothered me more than seeing a character getting his balls cut out. Weird.) It’s a really short movie, like 80 minutes long so it doesn’t drag. It’s cheesy in a fun kind of way, especially the tripping scene where Michael Biehn (yes Terminator and Aliens, that Michael Biehn shows up.) and there’s a funny take on the Shining where the are Chippindale looking dudes instead of the two little girls and director and horror celebrity Danielle Harris reprising her bloody clown costume from Halloween 4. If you want a unexpectedly good dark comedy, check this out for the good horror fun.

The X-files I Want To Believe

X-files is one of those shows I wanted to get into as a kid and never did. So last year I sat down and watched it. Wasn’t disappointed, but how does the movie stack up? Well fairly well actually.

The movie starts off with our team gone from the FBI and asked for assistance from a female agent that has been working with a psychic. In true X-files fashion our good doctor Skully is skeptic and Mulder dives all in after being convinced to leave his home since he rightfully now pretty much hates the FBI. A series of weird disappearances and murders lead them in a typical chase to discover the truth. I won’t say much more about the plot as to avoid spoilers, but if you were a fan of the T.V. show you will love this movie. As always thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory

Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass

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When reading the series on your own if you choose to, keep three and four close by because they are literally one huge story, Wizard and Glass picks up where the Wastelands cliffhanger ended. Also keep in mind, this is two stories in one, a continuation of our story forward and a another tragic piece in Roland’s enigmatic and tragic history. Let’s dive into the halfway mark of this epic:

The riddle contest kicks off between our Ka-Tet and Blaine the Mono as he takes them to Topeka. They all take turns trying to stump Blaine but nothing phases him, but he makes a mistake in a comment which gives them all hope he isn’t all knowing. Eddie,having a breakthrough, rationalizes that jokes are a form of riddle in there own right and that’s Blaine’s weakness. They defeat Blaine and land in Topeka…after Captain Trips has hit. They find it a wasteland of wilted corpses and graffiti reading “Beware the Walkin Dude” and “All hail the Crimson King!”. Taveling down the turnpike they come across a huge emerald tower beckoning out to them with a pink light emulating from it. Everyone but Roland finds it’s beautiful, thinking of the Emerald City from Wizard of Oz; Roland tells them the story of the Wizard’s Rainbow and his first mission as aa young Gunslinger and the pain in his heart of Susan Delgado…Roland was sent to the small barony of Mejis with two of his closest friends, Cuthbert and Alian after earning his guns on assignment to make sure the devious Good Man hadn’t taken refuge there (The Good Man would eventually cause the destruction of Roland’s home and many others). On a lonely night he meets a beautiful young maiden named Susan Delgado. Both kids have a secret. Roland and his friends have kept there identities secret; Susan is being given off to the mayor of Mejis as his arranged gilly (pretty much arranged wife/ sex slave) by her bitch of an aunt. The mayor unknowingly hired a group of disgraced Gunslingers called the Big Coffin Hunters to act as his security. Roland’s group and the Hunters come into conflict with them as a plot unravels to bring chaos to the barony. Susan and Roland fall deeply in love, only to end in utter tragedy as she is burned alive while Roland is powerless to watch in the pink ball of the Wizard’s Rainbow, instruments of great magic and great evil. ..Roland and his friends follow the light to find the true Ageless Stranger- Walter in essence. We discover his other names he has used, Randall Flagg, Richard Fannin, Richard Frye, Maerlyn, and Marten Broadcloak to the Gunslinger. They try to shoot him but all of there guns magically jam at the same time. He leaves them with the resurrected Tick Tock Man and a warning to turn around and abandon there pursuit of the Dark Tower. They vote no and keep moving on…

So out of the series this may be my least favorite for one particular reason. The pacing feels off to me. The present parts feel quick as the rest of the general narrative but The past parts are slower, full of plotting and meticulous detail. As a love story it is solid but the tragedy is this book’s winning point. It’s a tragic story on more than one base as we get to see a Roland that wasn’t so worn and besides the death of his love, we see the death of his innocence as well the means to an end for his home and his family. Definitely check this book out but don’t go into it expecting as a quick read like the first three books. May the gaming gods bring you glory and come reap.