I opened my Pokemon Black and White review by saying that "Pokemon has grown up." I was in awe at how big the game was. From the story to the design to the Pokemon itself, it all felt bigger and more real than ever. I started seeing those teaser trailers for Black and White 2 and was immediately excited. From rumors that the colors of the numbers were related to Ruby and Sapphire incorporation to it's release earlier this month. This game is Pokemon's biggest release ever.
Like the first games you are welcomed to the world of Pokemon by Professor Juniper. She tells you about what Pokemon are, asks if you're a boy or girl, name and the usual. There's a pull in to your new starting town, Aspertia Town, where you're living with your mother. It's been two years since the events of the first games. She asks if you want a Pokemon, Pokedex and to go on your very own adventure. She proceeds to tell you that Bianca is waiting for you in town to give you your first Pokemon. When you step outside you meet your best friend and rival, and his little sister. We find out that Team Plasma, who is now disbanded, took her Purrloin and he swears to get it back. He sends her sister home and accompanies you to get you first Pokemon from Bianca. He will always have "raised" the opposite type than what you picked. Once Bianca is done giving you your Pokemon and Pokedex she shows you around and explains what the Pokemon Center is. Afterward you meet up with your mother and friends sister one last time before setting off on your grand adventure in the Unova region!
As I said in the intro, that the first installments of these games were huge and expansive. Rightfully so as they were the biggest Pokemon games EVER. Well that was until Black and White 2. Everything is somehow bigger and more grandiose than in their predecessors. The cities and landscapes from the first game are still impressive, but they've managed to find a way to almost fully utilize the DS's power in a Pokemon game for the first time here. The cut scenes are new, more complex and amazing. Also the camera pull backs when you're on a huge bridge or city are still there. Mind you this is not a 3DS game. The Unova region is bigger and filled with five new cities and at least six new caves and areas upon the existing ones in the region. Also every gym has been redone. The gyms in the Black and White blew my mind and these just improved upon them in such a good way. Each gym is different, interactive, imaginative and expansive. There are three new gym leaders in the region as well as a new Pokemon League Champion.
You can also catch non-fifth generation Pokemon almost from the get go. While with Pokemon Black and White I liked that you could only start off with new Pokemon, I'm fine with being able to start with any Pokemon in Black and White 2. My reasoning here is, I've played Black and White, I'm familiar with gen five Pokemon. Don't limit my choices in the second addition to the Unova region, and they didn't. The battling and animations are still spot on, I don't think they changed any sprites or anything. That doesn't bother me as nothing really needed to be done. Everything, including the attack animations in battle look fantastic. Triple and rotation battles are a little more prominent as well, which can be fun or frustrating depending on if you like those types of battles or not.
The story is still great in this second part of the Unova region franchise. There's a familiar face as the "bad guys" in Team Plasma. But it's more like a renegade group of pissed off Team Plasma members still living in the past. The dialogue makes it feel that the RPG game its always been, the character development is still great and bringing back characters from the first game or changing their identities of established ones for this story was a great touch as well. The Pokemon Dream World is still in full force too. You can send your Pokemon to Dream World (on Pokemon-gl.com) where it collects berries, items and makes friends with Pokemon so that you can catch them in-game and put them on your team. The Entralink is still around too and you can still get stat-boosts and other effects for your in-game character after completing multi-player and single player challenges.
One of the first new places you're introduced to in the new Unova region is PokeStar Studios. Owned by Mr. Stu Dee-Oh, it's Unova's premiere destination for anything move related. Think of it as the Hollywood of the Pokemon world. It's a huge area that has a filming studio, theater with multiple screens and an area for hair and make-up. You can become a movie star if you visit this place and make movies, most all of them will be made with former gym leader Brycen. Movies are shot in the form of a battle with the likes of actions in scenes being the Pokemon attacks in a battle. There's different genres and difficulties depending on the movie you choose to do as well. The more movies you do, the more recognized (as an actor) you'll become.
Another great addition to the game is the medals. You complete various tasks in the game such as saving money, or buying a lot of things at the store and get medals for doing things. I think of this as the first time Nintendo has implemented something like an achievement system, like Microsoft and Sony have, and I really like it. As I keep playing it'll force my inner collector to want get all the medals as I already (try to) do on my PS3 and Steam games.
There's other things such as after story events, the new Dream Radar, the Battle subway being brought back, the new legendary Pokemon you can see (and form). As well as little things like keys to unlock different game modes, but I want to leave you with some things to discover on your own. I do want to highlight one more thing. That's the Pokemon World Tournament aka the PWT. Clay made this massive facility in Driftveil City where the Cold Stoage used to be. Here you can participate in various tournaments (single, double, triple battles, etc) to obtain battle points or BP to exchange for items, or get on win streaks to get medals. The cool thing about these tourney's though is that no one is off-limits once they're unlocked. You could run into Lance the Dragon Master, maybe some one like Cynthia, or any one of the gym leaders, world leaders, or champions from the previous games and regions. With so many fights and awesome leaders and champions to face this tournament is the most expansive ever in a Pokemon game.
After Pokemon Black and White I wasn't sure what was left for Pokemon to do. I had assumed that nothing more could be done or added without it feeling forced or out of place. Boy was I wrong and I can't find a single bad thing to say about Pokemon Black and White 2. Maybe this is my Pokemon fan boy talking, but these games are the best Pokemon games EVER released. From the updated graphics, the "big feel" of new Unova, the shiny new cut scenes (we've come a long way from SS Anne undocking in Vermilion), the brand new story, the extra bells and whistles added to the Pokemon and battling, these games are immense. I stated at the end of my Pokemon Black and White review that the game felt "complete." I'm not going to say that about this game, but not because it isn't. With the next installment they're going to find a way to either one up these two games or take a step back in production. This is the peak of Pokemon on the DS and handhelds in general. For now I'm just going to enjoy what is already hands down the best Pokemon game ever.
This is what I feel like everything in my life has boiled down to. Whether it's me doing it to others or them doing it to me. Whether it's all in my mind or really happening. I love Foo Fighters and I love this song. "Why'd you have to go and let it die?"
Foo Fighters- "Let It Die" from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Like you probably just read in my Paranormal Activity 2, I do like the series. So when I heard Paranormal Activity 4 was coming out and saw the trailer for the first timeI was kinda excited because it really intrigued me ever since the end of the third movie. Like with Sinister I basically just up and went to see this and I kinda liked it..sort-of.
We open Paranormal Activity 4 by learning that it is now November of 2011 and Katie and Hunter are still missing after the events of the first two movies. Alex (Kathryn Newton) is filming her younger brother's, Wyatt's (Aiden Lovekamp), soccer game. Back at their house Alex shows her boyfriend, Ben (Matt Shively), her treehouse in the backyard. They discover the neighbor boy, Robbie (Brady Allen) in there for no apparent reason. They both think this is creepy as hell. Alex takes him back home and then later that night she sees and ambulance across the street. The next day Alex finds out from her mother, Holly (Alexondra Lee), that Robbie will be staying with them for a few days as his mother had to go to the hospital. Later that night, Ben and Alex find the two boys playing with the Kinect on their Xbox 360. Wyatt is sitting on the couch while Robbie plays with his imaginary friend. Ben turns off the lights and uses the night-vision to show them the tracking balls emitted by the Kinect. The camera picks up what looks like a figure sitting next to Robbie. At this point Alex becomes concerned and asks Ben to enable all the cameras on the computers in the house to record what is going on 24/7. With each day Robbie is over the cameras pick up strange things happening to the people in the house. Things happening to Alex, Wyatt becoming distant with everyone but Robbie and an increasing sense of tension between the family members. Robbie's mother returns home from the hospital and Robbie goes home, all while the strange things are still happening to the family. Can they be saved from what is now lurking in their house or they doomed to repeat the fate befell the others at the hands of Toby.
This movie is nice because it's different. Well not that different, but a family not related to to the one that's been terrorized for three movies is nice. The story is pretty nice compared to the rest of the series and the way everything plays out in a different manner is good to see they're not out of subtle nuances for the plot. I liked Kathryn Newton and Matt Shively as the two main people, as it the first time a younger duo is the lead in the series. With the younger kids playing their parts extremely well. As well as them [SPOILER] bringing back in Katie as the "hurt" mother [SPOILER] it was a nice twist in a series that doesn't have to many of them. The scares were, to no surprise, like the rest of the series all based on jump scares. Some were done well, with some being predictable. Though some of the people in the theater are less than antiquated with horror and still jumped and yelled. The innovation of using computers, coupled with the now infamous camera and the great use of the Kinect tracking balls, made some nice changes to the kinda stagnant filming style. Also like with the rest of the series it really starts to pick up at the end of the movie. Shit hits the fan and everything goes south in a very innovative-ish way. There are a few problems, you can tell the kids aren't well versed in acting, it felt a bit longer than the others (this was not even a director's or extended cut) and the ending was so sudden it left me saying "Whaaa"?
All in all this was a decent enough edition to the series while opening the possibility of a fifth installment. The acting, scares and plot were alright. While the innovative way of filming and the nice story kept things a bit fresh. If you don't like or haven't seen the series this isn't gonna make you a fan or open your eyes to the series. But if you are a fan this is a decent addition and reintroduces I'd say the favorite starlet of the series so far.
So I'll admit it, I enjoy the Paranormal Activity series for whatever reason. The fourth movie which I got home from earlier will be posted after this is. I watched this earlier today partly to be familiar with the events leading up to the fourth, but also to review it as I've done one and three. I thought maybe I'd finally come around to liking it more than seeing Katie in her bikini.
Paranormal Activity 2 is a sequel set before the events of the first movie. In 2006 the Ray's home is "burglarized" where the only thing taken is Kristi's (Sprague Grayden), who just had a baby, necklace that was given to her by her sister Katie (Katie Featherston). Dan (Brian Boland) installs cameras around the house to make the family feel safer. Their maid, Martinez (Vivis Cortez), who now thinks the house has an evil spirit in it burns sage while the parents are out on a date, they come home and Dan is uncomfortable with what she is doing and fires her. Their daughter, Ali (Molly Ephriam), begins to investigate strange goings on in the house and gets locked out one night investigating a loud bump she heard. Ali also learns that demons can make deals with humans by sacrificing their first-born son and realizes Hunter, the newborn, is the first newborn male in the family. These paranormal acts begin to increase in severity and the Ray family is tormented by an unseen force that seemingly wants them.
This movie is still the weak-link for me for whatever reason. It improves upon the story and lore of the PA universe. Te acting is solid enough, the characters are relateable, and the scares work like with the rest of the movies. I can just never get into it. I will agree though that the end of the movie is good. Like with the rest of the series, everything fires up near the end in the movie and its well worth trudging through the slow pace of it all.
This is a short review cause I don't have much to say about this. If you like the series you're gonna watch this. As I said it improved upon everything established in one, even if I can never get into it. The series, even at this point, is in a groove and really doesn't break new ground. It's a solid sequel to a good modern horror movie. Plus you know, Katie in a bikini.
Halloween Movie Month 2! TV Shows #15: Community
Halloween Movie Month 2! Movie #16: Scream 3
Halloween Movie Month 2! Movie #17: Sinister
Halloween Movie Month 2! TV Show #18: American Horror Story
Just from the opening credits of American Horror Story you know this is going to be a creepy show. Last year I did a review of the first episode of this show. I liked the concept and I hoped it would have a good season. I don't think there's ever been a "horror" themed show to ever get my attention. I fell off watching it weekly after episode three-ish. Not that I thought it was bad at all, it was just one of those shows that fell to the wayside at that particular part of my life. With the season premiere of American Horror Story: Asylum, I figure this would be as good a week as any to catch up. Now I really wish I hadn't stopped watching.
American Horror Story (season one) revolves around the lives of the Harmon family, Ben, Vivien and Violet. Ben (Dylan McDermott) is a psychiatrist, who after moving his family to a old Victorian home built in the 1920s, is now able to work out of it. His wife Vivien (Connie Britton) is now a housewife and a former cellist who is dealing with a recent miscarriage she had and marital problems with Ben. Violet (Taissa Farmiga) is their teenage daughter, who did not want to move to LA in the first place and knows what's going on with her parents marital (and life in general) problems. She befriends one of Ben's patients, Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), who lives with his mother Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) next door. From his therapy sessions with Ben he reveals he has ongoing dreams of killing others kids at his high school. Ben becomes concerned and must stop seeing Tate once he finds out him and his daughter have become more than friendly with each other. This sets into motion figures, past relationships, beings, murders and ghosts trying to take over the lives of the Harmon family and bringing them closer to the paranormal than they ever thought imaginable. This house, dubbed at "The Murder House", holds terrors that you could only dream of.
This area will have spoilers, but nothing I think that will ruin your viewing experience. A TV series can fix the problems of a movie franchise simply because you have more time and resources to work with. With a movie, horror in this case, you only have so much time, usually an hour and a half to two hours, to set-up the scares, lore, killers, whatever. Same with the characters in said film. But with a TV series, you can get that character development without having to make it feel rushed or non-existent. This is why I was drawn to this series. On top of the Harmons and the Langdons, which we follow throughout the whole season, we have people who have died in the house before, introduced early in the season, while continuing to appear after they are first introduced. You grow to know the bloody and gruesome past of the house itself and it's inhabitants as well. I like it when a show or movie can give life to something that is considered inanimate. Every episode starts off with an introduction on how any given people are killed in the house and it usually turns out that they will be involved in the episode or seen again throughout the season. It gives everything great continuity, as well as providing the scares, blood, and gore as this is a horror-themed show.
The acting in this series is superb, you get the shaky start feeling with everyone in the first couple of episodes. But I think everyone really fall into their own. Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are fun to watch as a troubled couple, Taissa Farmiga is adorable and you love to hate Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. I love drama elements in stories cause you can really sink into the characters. You feel with the bad things that happen to Vivien, you get angry or preachy when Ben starts lying, you feel the romance budding between Tate and Violet, and you can taste the disdain for everyone coming from the lips of Constance. You get entrenched in the lives of both the living in the house as well as those have passed away. I love development in a series, and this has it. The story is wholly original too. I don't think there's ever been another show like this or a movie that dealt with this kind of subject matter. I love getting into new things. I can usually pick-up on story elements if I've seen them before, this season doesn't have any of those problems. Not only does the season finale wrap up everything, but there is a ton of plot twists and shocker moments throughout the twelve episodes. The scares are great too, sure there's a couple of jump scares, but this series relies on psychological horror to get into your heard, make you think and then get you shuddering. The kills are innovative, bloody and just plain brutal. There's also an episode dealing with The Black Dahlia twisted to fit the season. I love everything about the way kills and the way the look afterward so far.
All in all there's was really nothing for me to complain about in this inaugural season. FX did a really good job with how they wanted to film and air episodes. The season isn't short or long at all. It really felt like like a movie turned into a TV series and it was done well. The scares, story and kills are all here. The acting by all involved is done really well too. If you like horror and want to watch a series, then I would say that American Horror Story is right for you.
A little back story if you will. I had seen a couple of commercial spots for this movie and thought it looked, different that other horror movies coming out this month. Movies like Silent Hill Revelation and Paranormal Activity 4. Both of which I plan on seeing, at the very least PA4. On a whim earlier today I was bored as hell and went to go see this. Oh man, I was not disappointed.
Sinister opens with super 8 footage of a family with bags over their heads being hanged by a unknown force. Nine months later a true-crime novelist, Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), and his wife Tracey (Juliet Rylance) with their two children Ashley and Trevor (Clare Foley and Michael Hall D'Addario), move into the house where the hangings occurred Only Ellison knows about the murders as he is using them for the basis of his new book. Ellison's trying to hit it big once again as ten years earlier he became "famous" for his #1 bestseller called 'Kentucky Blood'. Most of the town is not happy about the way he portrayed them in his book and gives the family a hard time. As they are moving in Ellison finds a box in the attic marked "Home Movies" which contained a projector and several super 8 reels. With names like "Family Hanging Out '11" and "BBQ '79", Ellison begins to watch the reels and discovers that they all depict a family being murdered. In all of the reels he sees a common cult-like symbol and in one of them he even sees a figure with a demonic face. Strange things begin to happen to Ellison and the rest of the family after he discovers the face on a reel. It becomes a mad search for any clues, facts or help that can be found to rid the Oswalt's of this paranormal entity now haunting them.
Let me start off by saying that I'm glad I saw this in the theaters cause the dark atmosphere with the blasting surround sound and giant screen was perfect for this type of horror film. I also love the thriller-detective aspect that was thrown in throughout the movie as well. Gave me some guess-work to what the twist of the movie would be. First off the acting, I'm not a huge Ethan Hawke fan, but he made this movie. His reactions to the reels of film and general apprehension going forward from that point in the movie was fun to watch. Wife, kids, detective, etc. Take them or leave them, Hawke was the focal point. But not for lack of trying, the character development in this is leagues beyond most horror films. The music was very limited and I note this because it only really fired up when a scare or big moment happens. Gave it that old school horror moive feel. Speaking of the scary moments, there were a lot of loud "BOO Gotcha" moments in this. It didn't detract, but sometimes a horror movie should rely on those. The kills on the other hand are shown, in full and they are cringe-worthy. Mostly because they are real, I got the "these could happen to you" feeling. Hanging, burning alive, drowning, etc, the way they were depicted on the reels and in full was a bit unsettling. The plot was pretty original as well I'd say and the way it was written was really nice. I like when something obscure in the paranormal field I haven't seen or heard of is used and it gets me entrenched into the story.
I really like this film and it's already giving The Cabin in the Woods a run for it's money for best horror flick of 2012 in my mind. There were some dragging scenes sure, but in a movie with this much character and story development, I can look past it. The acting, especially by Hawke, was great and for the most part the story and scares were too. The kills were done phenomenally and didn't hold back. This is a horror movie that will have you hooked in if you watch it. I'm glad I got hooked.
