Here's a few rapid-fire reviews to keep up the theme.
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour- The ending seemed a little off? But otherwise this was a great conclusion to a fantastic series. It's been a fun journey, you know? O'Malley's really made leaps and bounds as both an artist and a writer. And this volume really helped me work through a personal problem that I was having at the time, so that was cool.
Inception: Easily one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's probably Chris Nolan's best film to date. Fantastic visuals, great cast and an awesome twist on a classic genre of film. One of the few heavily hyped, heavily marketed movies that really lived up to the hype. For me, at least.
______________________________________
And now, for something- Naw, I'm not gonna use that line. But I am considering doing something different from what I've been doing. I'm more than likely going to start posting short stories and terrible poems, straight from the neurotic mind of ZeroBuster. As a writing major, it seems like something to do. Get some feedback from the helpful staff and (Loyal? Small? Nonexistent?) fanbase at Der Panzer.
So yeah. Expect some crummy stuff from a shabby Creative Writing major. Coming soon. Maybe.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
So.... The Last Airbender was pretty terrible...
It is. It's easily Shamyanldingdong's worst movie. It's waaaay worse than Lady in the Water. I mean it. It makes Lady in the Water look like Forrest fucking Gump.
The main thing is the writing. The dialogue is awkward-sounding that it makes even the two good actors in this film (Patel and Toub) look bad. The pacing's pretty crappy too. I mean, the movie is an hour and a half. This needed to be around three. So, as a result of the film's meager length, there's a ton of montages, narration and the removal of all side-characters. Even the really important ones like Suki, Jet and all the dudes who were holed up in the air temple. This movie violated the golden rule of storytelling: Show, don't tell. He does a shitload of telling and not nearly enough showing.
The acting really was just another thing to add to the pile. No one really seemed to be trying, except for Patel and especially Shaun Toub. His Iroh is also the only character that even remotely resembles his counterpart from the series. Not so much in appearance, but how he acts. Seychelle Gabriel also did a fine job as Yue. Also, why was Sokka a badass? He didn't become a badass until Book 3. This movie so desperately needed some kind of comedic relief.
Have you ever seen that episode of Family Guy, where Peter goes to see a really boring and depressing play and he just screams "For God's sake, somebody throw a pie!". That's how I felt watching this. It's so gloomy, angsty and depressing. All the fun that was in the series just isn't here.
Shamwow really can't direct an action scene worth a damn either. Whoever was in charge of fight choreography should've been shot. The movements were so long and drawn out and the bending that said movements brought out was usually pretty dinky compared to how elaborate the motions were. In short, a big windup for a tiny punch.
Ideally, this movie should've been handled by someone who had A. directed a martial arts movie before and B. stuck a little closer to the source material (I.E. No white folks. Except Christopher Lloyd as Bumi). The thing about the "racebending" thing though is that I'd have been cool with the cast if they could act, but they really can't.
The saddest thing is that sometimes, you can see how good of a movie this could have been. It could have been the next big movie franchise. Another trilogy to add to the debate. But now, I don't even see how a sequel could work with this movie. There's so little material from which to draw from in this film. Like I said, there's no side-characters, no Ba Sing Se, no nothing.
That's my two cents.
The main thing is the writing. The dialogue is awkward-sounding that it makes even the two good actors in this film (Patel and Toub) look bad. The pacing's pretty crappy too. I mean, the movie is an hour and a half. This needed to be around three. So, as a result of the film's meager length, there's a ton of montages, narration and the removal of all side-characters. Even the really important ones like Suki, Jet and all the dudes who were holed up in the air temple. This movie violated the golden rule of storytelling: Show, don't tell. He does a shitload of telling and not nearly enough showing.
The acting really was just another thing to add to the pile. No one really seemed to be trying, except for Patel and especially Shaun Toub. His Iroh is also the only character that even remotely resembles his counterpart from the series. Not so much in appearance, but how he acts. Seychelle Gabriel also did a fine job as Yue. Also, why was Sokka a badass? He didn't become a badass until Book 3. This movie so desperately needed some kind of comedic relief.
Have you ever seen that episode of Family Guy, where Peter goes to see a really boring and depressing play and he just screams "For God's sake, somebody throw a pie!". That's how I felt watching this. It's so gloomy, angsty and depressing. All the fun that was in the series just isn't here.
Shamwow really can't direct an action scene worth a damn either. Whoever was in charge of fight choreography should've been shot. The movements were so long and drawn out and the bending that said movements brought out was usually pretty dinky compared to how elaborate the motions were. In short, a big windup for a tiny punch.
Ideally, this movie should've been handled by someone who had A. directed a martial arts movie before and B. stuck a little closer to the source material (I.E. No white folks. Except Christopher Lloyd as Bumi). The thing about the "racebending" thing though is that I'd have been cool with the cast if they could act, but they really can't.
The saddest thing is that sometimes, you can see how good of a movie this could have been. It could have been the next big movie franchise. Another trilogy to add to the debate. But now, I don't even see how a sequel could work with this movie. There's so little material from which to draw from in this film. Like I said, there's no side-characters, no Ba Sing Se, no nothing.
That's my two cents.
Friday, July 2, 2010
This Post is Gonna Be Pretty JLI-Centric.
Have I ever mentioned that my all-time favorite DC comic series is Justice League International and it's assorted sequels? Because it's oh so true. I bring this up because DC launched a new series starring a good portion of the team as part of it's Brightest Day event. Justice League: Generation Lost written by Judd Winick and Keith Giffen with an alternating artist every week. I've only read the first four issues, but so far I can easily say that this and The Flash are the two most interesting books to come out of Brightest Day.
But JSA was pretty funny recently with Obsidian's joke about being "cured".
I'll give a rundown of JL:GL and a brief review of it so far. It starts off with nearly every superhero and every government agency on the lookout for the recently-resurrected Maxwell Lord. Every hero except Booster Gold, who's been kicked off the manhunt due to the fact that most of the community thinks he's still a joke and that he's too close to Max to think effectively.
But Booster manages to find Max before anyone else does. He finds him in NY, hiding out in the old JLI embassy there. Unfortunately, Max quickly incapacitates Booster. Before he blacks out though, he sends out a distress signal on the old JLI band and Skeets picks it up. He alerts Fire, Ice and Captain Atom. They show up and resuscitate Booster just as Lord uses his powers to an extent previously unseen. It causes the group to blackout and when they awake, Lord is gone and Superman has shown up. He asks what the trouble was and when anyone who was present at the event mentions Maxwell Lord, Superman asks who that is. Max has convinced the entire world that he no longer exists.
That's the first issue. The rest of the series, so far, has seen the group dealing with Lord's alterations to the world. He's convinced everyone that Fire is psycho, that Ice is a menace, and made Captain Atom into a military fugitive. All he did to Booster was make everyone think that Ted Kord, the former Blue Beetle, committed suicide. At the end of the third issue, a contingent of OMACs attack the home of Jaime Reyes, the current Blue Beetle.
The team, sans Fire, rushes to the scene and fend them off, only to wind up in Russia in a botched attempt to follow the OMACs. They find themselves in the middle of a battle between the Rocket Red Brigade and a rouge Rocket Red in a homemade armor. Following the battle, the team realizes that Max has been playing them the entire time. He brought the JLI together once again.
Also, Max's powers have changed. His recent attempts at pushing people have killed the victims and turned their corpses into Black Lanterns.
It's a very interesting story. I hope we get an issue with some art by Kevin MacGuire. It's nice to see the team in a very serious story, but I do miss the humor. I'm also curious as to how much of the story is Winick's and how much is Giffen's.
It's still a great read and actually has something happening in the book, unlike the flagship title of the Brightest Day.
________________
Also, Kamen Rider OOO looks kind of neat. That's really all I have to say about that at the moment, because I've only seen around 8 seconds of footage and two pictures of the series.
________________
Next week, there's gonna be a totally sweet (And probably mean) review of The Last Airbender. It's gonna be fun on a bun.
But JSA was pretty funny recently with Obsidian's joke about being "cured".
I'll give a rundown of JL:GL and a brief review of it so far. It starts off with nearly every superhero and every government agency on the lookout for the recently-resurrected Maxwell Lord. Every hero except Booster Gold, who's been kicked off the manhunt due to the fact that most of the community thinks he's still a joke and that he's too close to Max to think effectively.
But Booster manages to find Max before anyone else does. He finds him in NY, hiding out in the old JLI embassy there. Unfortunately, Max quickly incapacitates Booster. Before he blacks out though, he sends out a distress signal on the old JLI band and Skeets picks it up. He alerts Fire, Ice and Captain Atom. They show up and resuscitate Booster just as Lord uses his powers to an extent previously unseen. It causes the group to blackout and when they awake, Lord is gone and Superman has shown up. He asks what the trouble was and when anyone who was present at the event mentions Maxwell Lord, Superman asks who that is. Max has convinced the entire world that he no longer exists.
That's the first issue. The rest of the series, so far, has seen the group dealing with Lord's alterations to the world. He's convinced everyone that Fire is psycho, that Ice is a menace, and made Captain Atom into a military fugitive. All he did to Booster was make everyone think that Ted Kord, the former Blue Beetle, committed suicide. At the end of the third issue, a contingent of OMACs attack the home of Jaime Reyes, the current Blue Beetle.
The team, sans Fire, rushes to the scene and fend them off, only to wind up in Russia in a botched attempt to follow the OMACs. They find themselves in the middle of a battle between the Rocket Red Brigade and a rouge Rocket Red in a homemade armor. Following the battle, the team realizes that Max has been playing them the entire time. He brought the JLI together once again.
Also, Max's powers have changed. His recent attempts at pushing people have killed the victims and turned their corpses into Black Lanterns.
It's a very interesting story. I hope we get an issue with some art by Kevin MacGuire. It's nice to see the team in a very serious story, but I do miss the humor. I'm also curious as to how much of the story is Winick's and how much is Giffen's.
It's still a great read and actually has something happening in the book, unlike the flagship title of the Brightest Day.
________________
Also, Kamen Rider OOO looks kind of neat. That's really all I have to say about that at the moment, because I've only seen around 8 seconds of footage and two pictures of the series.
________________
Next week, there's gonna be a totally sweet (And probably mean) review of The Last Airbender. It's gonna be fun on a bun.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Does Trauma Team Make the Cut?! We'll Find Out! HOHOHOHOHO!!
Trauma Team is the latest entry in Atlus' Trauma Center series. Though this time, the focus is a bit different. Instead of simply doing surgery with the few odd puzzle missions thrown in, in Trauma Team you can play as a wide variety of medical professionals. Such as:
Surgery: CR-S01, a doctor with no memories who is implicated in a bioterrorism attack
Diagnostician: Gabriel Cunningham. He's kinda like house with bigger hair.
First Response: Maria Torres. Remember Liz from IGPX? Kinda like her, but with an ambulance.
Endoscopy: Tomoe Tachibana. She's a ninja too.
Orthopedics: Hank Freebird. He's also Kamen Rider.
Forensics: Naomi Kimishima. One of the only three returning characters from the previous Trauma Center games (And one of them is just a cameo).
Forensics and and Diagnostician play a bit like a point-and-click adventure game. They're the most different as far as gameplay is concerned. Surgery is pretty much the same as always. First response is also very similar to surgery, just with multiple patients at the same time and less tools. Endoscopy is a neat idea, but I think it handles a bit weird. Orthopedics is usually easy, but it can take a while to do one operation.
My main complaint with this game is a lack of difficulty. I mean, some of Naomi's stages are pretty difficult, but I want some difficult SURGERIES. The other games made me scream in frustration at times, whereas this one (Even on the hardest mode) haven't really presented much of a challenge. In large part, that's due to a lack of "alien parasites" like GUILT, Neo-GUILT or STIGMA.
I sincerely hope this game gets a sequel though. The story was excellent. There were a few unexplained things and dropped plotlines, but I can only hope that's because Atlus is gonna give us a Trauma Team 2.
I'm giving this game an eight. The only thing stopping me from giving it a ten and yelling GO BUY IT NOW, is a serious lack of difficulty.
Oh, and Atlus should really consider making a BlackJack game. Playing as my favorite fictional surgeon and doing insane surgeries (Like removing a woman's entire reproductive system) would be the best possible surgery game.
Surgery: CR-S01, a doctor with no memories who is implicated in a bioterrorism attack
Diagnostician: Gabriel Cunningham. He's kinda like house with bigger hair.
First Response: Maria Torres. Remember Liz from IGPX? Kinda like her, but with an ambulance.
Endoscopy: Tomoe Tachibana. She's a ninja too.
Orthopedics: Hank Freebird. He's also Kamen Rider.
Forensics: Naomi Kimishima. One of the only three returning characters from the previous Trauma Center games (And one of them is just a cameo).
Forensics and and Diagnostician play a bit like a point-and-click adventure game. They're the most different as far as gameplay is concerned. Surgery is pretty much the same as always. First response is also very similar to surgery, just with multiple patients at the same time and less tools. Endoscopy is a neat idea, but I think it handles a bit weird. Orthopedics is usually easy, but it can take a while to do one operation.
My main complaint with this game is a lack of difficulty. I mean, some of Naomi's stages are pretty difficult, but I want some difficult SURGERIES. The other games made me scream in frustration at times, whereas this one (Even on the hardest mode) haven't really presented much of a challenge. In large part, that's due to a lack of "alien parasites" like GUILT, Neo-GUILT or STIGMA.
I sincerely hope this game gets a sequel though. The story was excellent. There were a few unexplained things and dropped plotlines, but I can only hope that's because Atlus is gonna give us a Trauma Team 2.
I'm giving this game an eight. The only thing stopping me from giving it a ten and yelling GO BUY IT NOW, is a serious lack of difficulty.
Oh, and Atlus should really consider making a BlackJack game. Playing as my favorite fictional surgeon and doing insane surgeries (Like removing a woman's entire reproductive system) would be the best possible surgery game.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
An Overdue Overestimation
Good God, it’s been far too long since my last blog post, and I now feel both ashamed and a little bit slothful. I suppose my actions were in… BAD TASTE?!?!?!?!?!
Yes, here we have the as-of-2004 definitive Xabungle Chronicle, Bad Taste (I don’t get it either. Does Tomino hate Xabungle now?) in all its’ eight colour-page glory, most of which are spent on an interview with Tomino.
I won’t go through all the pages, and I really don’t want to break the back and scan it (sorry, guys), but it’s pretty standard stuff. Character designs, episode guides, some nice mechanical sketches:
Again, nothing special, and sadly mostly in black and white. I do dig the Xabungle designs, though, so it’s pretty cool. There are a couple of odd/interesting things, including full firearm designs throughout the show (I though they mostly just made ‘em up as they went along):
And there’s also a guide to their travels across Zola, with each point also referring to the episodes it featured in. Fun stuff if you can read moonrunes:
If you have any requests, I’ll see if I can get them from the book, if you don’t mind these kinds of Dutch angles. All in all, an okay buy for someone who can’t read a word in here, but it’s the price that made this brilliant for me:
Less than a quid for this? How could I even think of passing this up? And, in case you do want to search one of these out for yourself, take note that it is Xabungle and Galliar approved.
Funnily enough, these Soul of Chogokin figures came out after the book, so no mention of them. Other things Xabungle likes?
Noriko.
But what he learnt too late was that you can look…
But you can’t touch.
SASURAIGER
SASURAIGER YEAH
SASURAIGER
GOOD LUCK
Next Time (whenever the hell that is) on Ranking Panzer:
ANATA WA GANDAMU
Yes, here we have the as-of-2004 definitive Xabungle Chronicle, Bad Taste (I don’t get it either. Does Tomino hate Xabungle now?) in all its’ eight colour-page glory, most of which are spent on an interview with Tomino.
I won’t go through all the pages, and I really don’t want to break the back and scan it (sorry, guys), but it’s pretty standard stuff. Character designs, episode guides, some nice mechanical sketches:
Again, nothing special, and sadly mostly in black and white. I do dig the Xabungle designs, though, so it’s pretty cool. There are a couple of odd/interesting things, including full firearm designs throughout the show (I though they mostly just made ‘em up as they went along):
And there’s also a guide to their travels across Zola, with each point also referring to the episodes it featured in. Fun stuff if you can read moonrunes:
If you have any requests, I’ll see if I can get them from the book, if you don’t mind these kinds of Dutch angles. All in all, an okay buy for someone who can’t read a word in here, but it’s the price that made this brilliant for me:
Less than a quid for this? How could I even think of passing this up? And, in case you do want to search one of these out for yourself, take note that it is Xabungle and Galliar approved.
Funnily enough, these Soul of Chogokin figures came out after the book, so no mention of them. Other things Xabungle likes?
Noriko.
But what he learnt too late was that you can look…
But you can’t touch.
SASURAIGER
SASURAIGER YEAH
SASURAIGER
GOOD LUCK
Next Time (whenever the hell that is) on Ranking Panzer:
ANATA WA GANDAMU
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Der Panzer Is Marching to a Con!
That's right folks, there's gonna be some kind of anime convention up in Ft. Wayne, and good ol' Zero, who lives very near there, will be attending.
I've never been to an anime convention before. I've been told what to expect though.... Here's hoping that there's no real creepers there!
That's all for today.
I've never been to an anime convention before. I've been told what to expect though.... Here's hoping that there's no real creepers there!
That's all for today.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Let's Filming: Iron Man 2 Rocked My Socks.
Iron Man 2 is my favorite movie so far this year. Amazing special effects, wonderful cast and it was based on one of my favorite superheroes.
The plot: Some say it was too slow in the middle. I didn't think so. All the little nods to the comic were very appreciated (Cap's shield, Thor's hammer, scenes from The Incredible Hulk, the map full of locations of comic characters). The story itself is a mishmash of different plot-lines. Little bit of Ultimates, little bit of Demon in a Bottle. Plus some other stuff.
The cast: Sam Rockwell was a show-stealer. I'm indifferent to Rourke because, as #21 put it, "He looks like a cobbler put him together." Great actor, very strange appearance ever since The Wrestler. Johansson didn't have enough screen-time to make an impression on me. Downey was still Downey (AKA: awesome)
Honestly, I loved this movie. Better sequel than The Dark Knight and not as slow as Spider-Man 2. Not quite as over-the-top as Superman II though.
The plot: Some say it was too slow in the middle. I didn't think so. All the little nods to the comic were very appreciated (Cap's shield, Thor's hammer, scenes from The Incredible Hulk, the map full of locations of comic characters). The story itself is a mishmash of different plot-lines. Little bit of Ultimates, little bit of Demon in a Bottle. Plus some other stuff.
The cast: Sam Rockwell was a show-stealer. I'm indifferent to Rourke because, as #21 put it, "He looks like a cobbler put him together." Great actor, very strange appearance ever since The Wrestler. Johansson didn't have enough screen-time to make an impression on me. Downey was still Downey (AKA: awesome)
Honestly, I loved this movie. Better sequel than The Dark Knight and not as slow as Spider-Man 2. Not quite as over-the-top as Superman II though.
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