Kick-Ass 2 The Movie

Ah, yes. Yet another gold delivery. There was really no doubt that this would turn out great, after the awesomeness of the first movie. That's actually what got me into indie comics in the first place, although it did lose a bit of credibility after I went to read the comic. The ending of the comic was just sooo much better.

The movie opens pretty much like the comic, Dave just monologuing to himself, describing some of his adventures as Kick-Ass, informing the audience about how new heroes have been popping up, blah, blah, blah. Something a little interesting they did though was certain details from the Hit-Girl side-story, where she trained Kick-Ass for a bit. Unfortunately though they didn't manage to get the full story in with her solo adventure, but that definitely would've been a bit much.

The story's actually pretty faithful to the comics, and actually does a better job at it than the first one. Of course certain things had to be cut out, because there was no way it was gonna make it into theaters, (Not even sure how they allowed some of it in the comics.) but there were also some things that had to be added, not only due to the changes in the first movie, but also add to the comedy. Speaking of which, the comedy's pretty excessive, but it's welcome due to some of the tragedies that occur. Overall, I didn't nerd rage too much and annoy my friends. I also really loved all the ads for Mark Millar's other works. (Go read Superior!!!)

If you like the comics, or at least the first movie, you're definitely gonna enjoy this one. If you haven't seen any of, but like super heroes, why not give it a try? That is, unless you're sensitive to gore, profanity, violence, and nudity, theeen you might wanna turn away. I hear Planes is pretty good! Tch, forget that. Just go watch Pacific Rim again!

Pacific Rim

Giant robots! There you go. Review over. Honestly, what more is there to say really? Any science fiction love should appreciate the movie just for that. Admittedly though, I was very reluctant to go see this movie at first. It just looked like it was ripping off some of my favorite anime's and putting an American twist on it. Funny enough, it literally took Hideo Kojima's approval for me to finally decide to go see it.

  The movie starts off pretty quickly, going into detail about how the whole conflict with the monsters got started. Honestly, I just thought it was another preview for another movie. It all goes by pretty quick too, but not so much that you miss the gist of it. Monsters randomly appear out of the ocean one day, Godzilla style and start attacking our cities. The UN funds a project to build giant robots in order to fight against said monsters, but things don't go so well in the beginning, because it turns out the mechs are too much for one person to pilot. That's why they need pilots in the cockpit, unlike what we see in anime's like Gundam and Robotech.

  The visuals in this movie are beyond amazing. I remember seeing Transformers for the first time, and thinking "This is CG at its peak. There's no way things can ever get better." Boy was I wrong. As someone who's studied computer animation, I couldn't help but try to figure out how some of these affects were done. Designing and moving the mechs, sure. You've got a ton of teamsaround who specialize in this stuff, but most of the fights take place in the water. Ask just about any computer animator. CG water is work!  But somehow they had everything down pact. When these monsters rise up from the water, and the mechs are dropped in there and run through it, the water just reacts so well, giving you just a clear idea these things are HUGE!

  The fights are really good as well. Most reviews complain that there's not a good enough balance between the fights and downtime for the story, but these fights are pretty long. You'd think it'd a simple jump in, punch, and there fight's over, but there's a lot that goes into these fights. Things get smashed, arms are ripped off, and bodies go flying. Even after all that, there's still more to come, just cause.

  The story's pretty darn dramatic too, which really isn't something to expect from a summer blockbuster. Seriously. Nothing goes well for the humans, straight from the start.There is still some good humor though, some perfect delivery here and there, while other times a bit forced, but it all blends really well in the end. I've never actually seen any movies with any of these actors before, except for Idris Elba in Thor and Ron Perlman in Blade II, but I found every performance to be great. Often  there's that one actor I'm just anxious to see die, just because their performance is so dull, but everyone did really well.

 Guillermo del Toro is just a genious, and clearly loves the material he's working with. People need to start taking hints from this guy! This is how you make a sci-fi movie. Not only that, but an original one! How many movies do we get nowadays that's not just a remake, adaption, or a sequel? How many of them actually turn out to be good!? Yeah, not that many. We need more! Preferebly some with more giant robots? Well whatever we get, good luck trying to make better than this.

Oh yeah.There's a tie-in videogame, buuuut,  it's not so good.

Interview with Cosplay Model Cin' Von Quinzel

Had a great time shooting with Cin' Von Quinzel, and I figured I'd ask her a few questions. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were going crazy. Not even insects can resist her presence.

 Be sure to check out the full gallery here: Link

And of course, see more of her here: Link

SpringFest 2013

I had no idea what this was until a little while ago. Just a couple of people I knew mentioning it here and there. The name says nothing, so I pretty much just brushed it off. Finally I heard it was an anime convention that was pretty much right next door to me. (A good three mile jog really, but you get the picture.) Now I'm not much of an anime fan anymore, but a convention in that sense could only mean one thing. Cosplay! One problem though. I've got no money... Soo, I was forced to become a volunteer if I wanted to get in, meaning I'd have to work. Sigh...

I got a pretty easy job though, monitoring the top floor, making sure everyone knew where they were going, and not blocking the halls. Little did I know however, was that this floor was the main attraction for a lot of the attendees. Why? Well one room dedicated to cosplay photoshoots, so I guess that was a thing, but another one was reserved for the Hentai Panels. Seriously. Soon as most of the people who made it to that floor, asking for directions wanted to know where it was. Ah, otakus... Can't play innocent myself though, I made sure to check it out a few times myself.

Superman Unbound Trailer

It's no surprise that I'm not much of a DC fan, but man do I love their animations. Really looking forward to this one.

Gantz

By far, the absolute most trippiest thing I've ever read. I'm really not so into manga and anime anymore, last thing I followed was Fullmetal Alchemist, and I watched HSOD as a joke, but a while back I was reading this masterpiece, since it continued on, where the anime left off. I stopped for a good while, after 08, cause they we're going on a hiatus, and kept forgetting to pick it up again. Couple of days ago, I decided to try it again. Where I left off, all the secrets of the Gantz ball were revealed, and it turned out, there were multiple ones all around the world. Now I came back, and the story just blew up into all this craziness, with these super government conspiracies, an alien invasion, and now we've been introduced to some god-like creature, who tells us that humans are nothing but data. Data! Nothing but electrical currents, stored within a rather complex device.... What. The Eff.....? Worst part is, the series is still going. Where the heck's everything supposed to even go from here? Just gotta find out.

If you're looking for something new to read, and you don't mind a ton of gore, boobies, and being mindscrewed, be sure to check it out. The anime was good too, but pulled off a Fullmetal Alchemist, and started making up their own stuff, and ended differently. Animation was top notch though.

Wreck It Ralph Review

Amazing. Simply amazing. I don't even know where to start. I, like many, was pretty skeptical when I heard some of my favorite videogame character was gonna appear in a Disney movie. I haven't seen too many of their stuff recently, but rarely do I hear too much good coming out of Disney. I dare anyone to say something negative about this one though. There's just so much win!

Okay, so of course we all know the basic story. Ralph's a "bad guy", but would really like some more appreciation. He goes out of his way to get it, but things go wrong, and he's gotta go on some adventure to earn his respect, making some friends along the way. Yeah, the story's really nothing original, but what is these days? When is a movie ever gonna pull off a big M Night twist these days? Just put that aside, and lets enjoy  everything else that's going on.

It's REALLY clear that Disney was target the gamer crowd. Old and young. There was literally something there for gamers of all ages.  From the old days of Kubert, to today's Call of Duty crowd. Speaking of COD, there's another original game in there, which basically combines it with Halo and Gears of War. Seriously, the gaming references were just over the top. They even had the Konami code. The cameos were really fun. Sonic, Chun-Li, Ryu, Kano. There was even a nice indirect one from Metal Gear Solid. The only thing I'm dissappointed in was that there was no Megaman.... Come on Capcom! There nothing but a mere sound bite of MMX's buster charging up, but that's it. Do you really hate the guy that bad guys?

Agh. Anyways. So the comedy was really good. Great really. All the ones with, and without the gaming references. Just perfect. Something that just makes me so mad though, is there was a scene that made me nearly cry. How dare they!? There is a scene in there that I actually found sadder than when Ash got turned to stone in the first Pokemon movie. I was overly hyped throughout the entire thing, until that came on. Just why!? I'm sure anyone who finally sees it will know exactly what I'm talking about. Just make sure to bring tissue.

So yeah, that's about it. This is literally the best movie I've seen in a long time. Possibly the best, ever. I joked with my friend, saying I wasn't gonna care at all for it, other than the Sonic The Hedgehog cameos, but  turns out, I was in for a surprise. Kudos to to whoever came up with this crazy idea. 

New York Comic Con 2012

So finally, the biggest event of the year for me arrived, and I must say, I am disappoint. Not that I didn't have fun, but it's all that went down in between the fun. First off, it was actually a hassle, just to get tickets for the convention itself. These ticket prices are too damn high! My first time going to NYCC was back in 2010, and three day tickets were just a measly 50 bucks. Shouldn't be too hard to save up that much. The year right after, the price spikes up to $65. Of course you may thing, well what's an extra fiteen bucks? Everything! That extra $15 should be going to metrocards to you can actually get to the blasted place. New York's not cheap to travel around in you know.

Luckily though, I won a raffle and got a free three day pass. After three tries mind you. I would've  tried going for press passes, but that was another hassle in itself. You had to sign up for an account on their website and give all your info, only for them to send you some form you had to print and give in the SAME EXACT INFORMATION!!! They apparently don't even like independent producers like me, cause they ask for an assignment letter from your boss. Who the heck am I gonna get a letter from? Eric Schmidt!? So I said screw it, and decided to look into other methods. So all that's out of the way, now it's just time to prepare for the day of.

Nintendo's Wii U Press Event 9/13/2012

So FINALLY we got some details on  Wii U today. Release date, price, and new added features. Bout bloody Time.

Price: There are two versions. Basic will be $300, comes in white, with 8GB internal storage, and comes with all your essentials. Premium will be $350, and comes in black, with 32GB, Nintendo Land, charging stand, and two year subscription to Nintendo Network Premium.

U.S. Release Date: November 18th, just in time for Black Friday. Ironically, that's before the Japanese release date, which will be Dec 3rd.

Nintendo TVii: Basically an app that turns your system into a cable box, much like what Microsoft's been doing with the 360. "Yawn..."

New Super Mario Bros U: Just some added modes, like Rush mode, which is pretty much a co-op speed-run mode, where everything speeds up, depending on how many coins you collect.

Platiunum Games: We already new about "Project P-100"from Platinum Games, which doesn't look like much at first glance, but once you see the gameplay, it's pure epicness. Now it's got a new name, "The Wonderful 100" and new trailer, but there was also another surprise. "Bayonetta 2"! It's an exclusive! Win!!!!

Some Activision Games...: Yeah, I really don't care. Skylanders Giants, 007 Legends, Transformers Prime, Wipeout, and Blops 2. Yay....

So there you have it. Can't say I'm too fond of the pricing, but considering all it can do, I'm surprised it doesn't cost more. Who can even complain anyways, when everybody's already lining up to get their new $500 dollar Apple products right now. The Basic edition seems pointless, since with the Premium, you're not only paying for more memory, but a full $50 game, and added accessories. I'd definitely be willing to get it at launch, if I actually have some cash at the time. How bout you guys? Worth it? Overglamorized? Or should Nintendo just quit? (Hint: Never!)

Yatagarasu: An Indie Fight Game, Coming to 3DS

Game Logo

When the 3DS came out last year, there was a quite an oversaturation of fighting games coming to the handheld. From Street Fighter, to Tekken. Seemed like pretty much everyone wanted to get there fighter on the device. Why not? It's was the perfect system for it at the time, considering you can walk around without and just challenge people you meet, without having to worry about internet lag, or some thirteen hiding behind their screen, trying to trash talk you.

All that died down though, when the Vita was getting ready to release, allowing for higher quality visuals, and probably better online support. Sucks, cause we're missing out on Street Fighter X Tekken. Flawed as the game's been upon release, I really enjoy, and would've loved to see it on 3DS. No Skullgirls, or Persona 4 Arena either. Biggest dump was the announcenment of Marvel VS Capcom Origins, with absolutely no Nintendo support whatsoever. Totally unfair, no matter how I look at it, cause MVC 1 is my favorite in the vs series.

But Yeah. Finally, the 3DS is getting a new fighting game, from an indie developer, Edge Circle, and produced by Cave Story developer, Nicalis. Best part is, they're comprised of three EX-SNK members, and is based on the Street Fighter 3 Third Strike engine, so you'll have parry's, ex's, and multi-level supers. Sounds very promising to me.  The character designs look pretty awesome too. Still has that anime look that nobody can seem to get out of, but still good none-the-less.

I wonder if it'll have have shortcut options, like in SSF4 3D. A little cheap to some people, I know, but some of those moves are pretty difficult to pull off with the circle pad. It's a four button fighter though, so maybe that'll help in some way. Definitely be on the lookout for this one when it hits the eShop sometime later this year. For more details, check out Nicalis' Blog.

Here's an interview with one of the developers.



3DS trailer

Artist Spotlight: Hylajaponica

So I happened to stumble upon this artist yesterday, while browsing Da. Looked at just one of his pics, and it was an instant follow. He specializes in vehicle art, mainly aircrafts, and they are all just stunning. So naturally when I saw his underwhelming view-counts, I was disappointed. Then I got pretty upset as I went on, and checked out the rest of his amazing work.

He's been on DA, for about 4 years now, and the first piece in his gallery, has only 761 views. Excuse me. What!? Why are people paying this guy no mind? I understand he doesn't take advantage of the groups feature, which is to help show your work to a specific audience, but still. Why in the world does this: Link, a simple screenshot, get more veiws than this: Link!? I just don't understand.

I've had my rants with the DA community in the past, with some friends, but looking at this situation, makes realize it's even more out of hand. Apparently, unless you're doing some pop culture fan-art, or taking pics of tits and vagina's, you're not getting anywhere on the site. It's been the case with me, but I always figure that I'm not that good, though some would argue otherwise.  This really should not be.

Anyways, back to the artist. Well, what more can I say about him? The work's amazing, and really needs more recognition. Check out the rest of his gallery.

Lostintheecho.com

So the other day, I believe Sunday it was, Linkin Park fans got word that the music video for Lost In the Echo, was set to debut the following Wednsday, August 29th. I already spoke of the awesomeness that was that song in my album review, so of course I was pretty interested. I didn't expect much though, considering, I never really cared for the bands last few videos, starting from Burning in the Skies. Seems like Joe Hahn just lost his touch, or something, but I still show my support.

Annoyingly, you have to add an app to your face to get the video to work, so first I tried looking on youtube to see if someone else uploaded it, but apprently not, so I wound up using my facebook. Naturally, I still wound up disappointed. This is a heavy and uptempo song, so I figured there should be a lot of crazineess going on. Maybe war, riots, people running... Nope, just some guy walking into a building. So I was like, "eh, alright, maybe it picks up during the chorus or something." Nope. Just people gathering around the guy, grabbing pictures... Now they're looking at the pictures... "Holy crap, that's me!"

Yes, completely out of nowhere, a picture of me and some friends show up in one of the pictures that the people in the video are holding up. They literally took pics of me and my "friends" from off my facebook, and automatically edit them into the video. I was wondering what was up with that random picture of food. Apparently something a "friend" has. I made sure to watch a second time, to make sure it wasn't a one time deal, and indeed the pictures were different. No wonder they said "interactive video."

As for the rest of the video though, it was still a disappointment. I guess what's happening is that the pictures reveal some hidden truth about the person that's standing across from the holder, and they're totally distraught, and just "shatter", but for the pace of the song, I really don'd feel it works.  In any case, it's still worth a look, at least for the effects.

She-Hulk v.s. Wonder Woman

Power of the gods, versus the power of gamma radiation. Which would win?

Final Fight X Resident Evil

Sprite by Steamboy33

So this totally came out of Nowhere, but think about it. A Final Fight style beat-em-up, where in all the civilians and Mad Gear gang members have been infected with the T-Virus. It'll take place right after the Raccoon city incident, which isn't so far away from Metro, so possible a few infected animals, or humans escaped there, before the place got nuked.

The story would start off with an Outbreak in Metro City, and all things to to hell. Cody, while in Jail, see's the chaos going on outside, and figures it looks like "some fun" and breaks out of his cell. Naturally, he runs into Guy, and they team up.

Chris and Jill, on their journey to expose Umbrella for their crimes, find their way to the city, and find themselves caught within the outbreak. They run into Poison and Hugo, who are deathly terrified of the zombies, and are unable to do a thing. They're saved by the pair, and agree to act as guides, who can possibly lead them to a hidden umbrella facility.

Both teams would later on meet up, Guy and Cody not too willing to trust Poison and Hugo, but agree to help out anyways. They later run into Rolento, who sees the outbreak as the perfect oppurtunity to create his "Utopia". He tries fighting the team at first, but realizing he has no way to control the zombies, joins them, stating they will need a "good tactical leader" if they want to survive, and that if they do "well enough" he may recruit them into his army. Figuring they'll need all the help they can get, and not wanting to leave any survivor behind, they agree to let him tag along.

So these are just a few ideas from off the top of my head. Things can be improved, but tell me this concept wouldn't work. Things in Capcom games don't really get to far-fetched for this to not be impossible. Come on guys, lets get this story out into the wild! Final Fight needs to be revived, and Resident Evil's possibly about to finish soon, and fans are gonna be dying for more, so why not!?