Man of Steel Reborn

After years of being overshadowed by their competitors, it seemed as though DC was ready to throw in the towel.  With Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy the only real success and response to Marvel's string of films culminating into The Avengers, it looked like DC was being overwhelmed by Marvel's onslaught.  Luckily for DC, they had an ace in the hole.  As he is a shining beacon of hope within his own comics, the Man of Steel was DC's last hope.  If this film were to fail as the 2006 Superman Returns film did, DC would lose their foundation and crumble underneath Marvel's might.  With the team that brought us The Dark Knight Trilogy, an equally amazing cast led by Henry Cavil, Russel Crowe and Michael Shannon, and Zack Snyder in the director's seat, this was shaping up to be the Superman movie we had always been hoping for.  A lot rested on the shoulders of this movie and the question is, did it deliver?  You bet your ass it did.

The film starts off on the planet Krypton, which is on the verge of being destroyed by its unstable core as a result of years of Kyrpton's natural resources being depleted.  Kryptonian scientist Jor-El, played by Russel Crowe, goes to the governing counsel in an effort to warn them of the planets destruction and pleads with them to begin evacuation.  As the counsel refuses the planet's military commander General Zod, played by Michael Shannon, arrives and with the aid of his followers, overthrows the counsel in an effort to save Krypton.  Upon seeing this, Jor-El flees.  After infusing his newborn son Kal-el with a genetic codex of the entire Kryptonian race, Jor-El and his wife Lara launch their son in a spacecraft to Earth.  General Zod then murders Jor-El and tries to figure out where they sent the baby.  However, he is soon arrested and sent to the Phantom Zone, a prison dimension.  After some time, Krypton explodes, killing all that were on the planet, including Kal-el's mother.  Zod watches as his planet is destroyed, now free to seek out Ka-El.

After that, we get our Superman movie.  Even though this is an origin story, the plot moves along at an alarmingly fast pace.  Upon landing on Earth, the film quickly cuts to Kal-El as an adult.  The film shows him wandering the Earth, trying to find out where he belongs.  He works different jobs across the country, always disappearing once someone catches a glimpse of his powers.  His childhood is shown through means of flashbacks.  They show his adoptive Earth parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, struggling to raise young Kal-El, now named Clark Kent, as his powers begin to manifest themselves.  Meanwhile Lois Lane, a journalist from the Daily Planet played by Amy Adams, begins researching this "superhuman rescuer" and, after Clark rescues her, she finds him but chooses not to reveal his secret.  General Zod then arrives to Earth, claiming that he is looking for one of his own, and threatens the planet if Clark does not come forward.  What follows after is some of the greatest action sequences on the big screen.

As a stepping stone for the Justice League movie to come, or any other superhero movies to follow, this was a superb attempt to ground Superman, to make him human.  Henry Cavil did a fantastic job portraying Superman, embodying him both physically and mentally.  I was slightly disappointed in Amy Adams.  She came across as just a nosy journalist.  At times I felt as though she was just there to create some sort of connection with Superman, not really needed for the story.  However, the stand-out performances go to Russel Crowe, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, and Antje Traue as Faora, Zod's second-in-command.  Both Shannon and Traue are menacing and intense, owning any screen time they have apart and together.  Russel Crowe and Kevin Costner were the two actors I was unsure of going into the movie, but both shined as loving fathers trying to give their son the life they believe deserves.  I thought the flashbacks would be the slow points in the movie and while that may be true in the sense of pacing, these moments were equally captivating.  These short moments were crucial in explaining who is Superman and what will he stand for.


And finally, the actions scenes.  Holy shit, they were awesome!  Although Snyder should have cut back on a few scenes ("less is more") so that the viewers could catch their breath, this....this is what I have always been waiting for.  This is where all other Superman movies failed.  Christopher Reeves was fantastic as Superman, and will forever be remember as the original Man of Steel but those movies failed to show us just what Superman is really capable of.  Superman is a beacon of hope, a shining light for humanity, but he is also one of the most powerful superheros to ever exist and in this movie, you get to see that Superman. Snyder, who directed 300, Watchman and Sucker Punch, gave us some amazing action sequences that put all those movies to shame.  The final fight between Superman and Zod is simply amazing.  After The Avengers defeated Loki and the Chitauri, New York was left in pretty bad shape.  Metropolis, on the other hand, got leveled.  You really got the feeling that Zod was there for the complete destruction of Earth.  There is a scene at the end which is extremely significant as to where they are taking this Superman.  I will not spoil it but if that is direction they are going to go, then brace yourselves for Man of Steel 2.

Overall, Man of Steel is a great film, easily one of the best of the year so far.  My only gripe is that the action scenes were a bit too long, to the point where you begin to worry that it may become just another mindless action film.  Thankfully, it does not.  Solid performances, directing, and writing make for the Superman movie we have all been waiting for.  It is a much darker story than we are use to in the Superman world but that is exactly what it needed.  The biggest problem with Superman is that he is essentially a God, so it is difficult making him relatable to the audience.  Henry Cavil did a great job showing us the "man" side of Superman.  My biggest worry now is that I could not see how they were going to incorporate the Justice League into this world, despite the Easter Eggs in Man of Steel.  Thankfully, my worries were put to rest with the recent announcement at Comic-Con.  With this film, it seems as though DC is back and ready to bring the fight to Marvel.

Rating: 8.5/10
      
          

A Movie Review of Rollerball (2002)

Hello again! I took a break off the reviews because the Subculture Crew went to Anime Expo. You haven't seen the video? Well look here, I have a handy link to it! And feel free to watch all our other videos. But I'm back to weekly reviews of horrible movies I find on Netflix, so lets go!

This week I watched Rollerball. What is Rollerball you ask?  Rollerball is a crazy sport that involves metal balls, motorcycles and rollerblades, thats right, rollerblades. Its only the most popular and extreme sport in the world! The movie is about a pro-rollerball player that realizes that the games are being rigged to get more views. 

The movie is not great, and after doing a quick IMDb search I found out this was a remake. Well I hope the original was not as bad as this one. The movie starts of with a scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film, if only just to say "Hey come play rollerball".
Our main man Jonathan decides to go to Russia to play in this "circus" as he calls it, and what a circus it is.

The teams wear leather uniforms with mask that have spikes or skulls and the like. There are two players on each team that ride around on motorcycles while the rest skate around at high speeds. The sport itself is pretty boring actually, and most of the time you won't know whats going on until someone scores. Well, we see a couple matches and then they realize it's rigged, so the try to escape, and that chase scene is what made me decide this was a bad movie. It has a green filter on it! Like they had a night vision camera or something. It was bad. If you where even a little bit into the film, this takes you out of it for good. I have no idea what they where going for, but it did not work. To top it off, the acting is bland and generic.

I felt that this movie was made specifically for middle school kids in 2002. It has motorcycles, and fast cars and explosions, it has random nudity, and music that is "metal". Slipknot makes a cameo appearance. So with that said, unless you are really into rollerblades, or a middle school kid, you will not enjoy Rollerball.

Movie Score:

• 2/10
• T (O.W.L.) 

Gears of War Judgement: A Review & Why You Should Play It (or not)

After a good run of the main trilogy of the Gears of War franchise, Gears of War Judgement is released to offer a new take on the story from Baird's point of view. Serving as a prequel, this game takes us to the first days of the Locust War after E-Day (emergence for those unfamiliar with the term).

The game starts off with Baird and his members of Kilo Squad being brought in for a COG military tribunal, where Colonel Ezra Loomis is the judge, jury, and possible executioner. The story proceeds by having each member of Kilo Squad recall the events that led them to use a Lightmass Missile without authorization. Through this narrative, the player is put in control of Baird, Gears veteran Augustus Cole AKA the Cole Train, Onyx Guard cadet Sofia Hendrick, and UIR ex Major Garron Paduk. Each character tells a bit of their back story as you progress through the level, and offers some side narrative on the war.

 Unlike the larger, open levels of the previous Gears entries, Judgement has a tight and fairly linear map design for its campaign. Also new to the campaign, Judgement includes a scoring system based on stars, you get more stars by clearing the level faster, getting more kills and executions, as well as not going into a downed state. As an extra incentive to getting stars, you can get more unlockable content like weapon and character skins for multiplayer. As a way to get more stars, the player is given the choice to go on a declassified mission, which adds more of a challenge to the campaign by adding extra objectives. These objectives range from clearing a section within a time limit, only using specific weapons, and conditional modifiers like low visibility. This adds a bit of replay value to the campaign, although the declassified missions can be skipped and add little to the story. 

Also new to Judgement is the new game mechanics, such as a new control scheme which is reminiscent of first-person shooters like the Call of Duty franchise. Although an awkward fit at first, the new controls allow for an increase in speed, leading into a much more fast paced action that remains fluid throughout. Another change to the old system, you can now roll down from any open space in the map. Although this does not seem like a big change, it completely changes engages by not hindering player movement as much. In previous Gears games, you had to stop your fast roadie run/roll, and walk to hop down from any small ledge. This tended to disrupt the flow of battle and often resulted in a death or two, as well as some players using the ledge hop to camp out their opponents. These changes do not really affect the campaign, but instead brings some wanted changes to the aging multiplayer portion.

Multiplayer in Gears of War Judgement is a new beast to for those veteran Gears players, with some new modes and variations of classics, as well as making the multiplayer COG vs COG teams instead of Locust enemies. Starting out, some players may want to visit the single player of this game to get used to the new controls, as hopping straight into the battlefield may result in some humiliating deaths. The new modes, like Free For All, add a bit of strategy as some modes only let you use one main weapon, a pistol, and 2 grenades. With this change, the player is made to choose if they want the safety of the Gnasher and Sawed-Off shotguns for those close encounters, or if they want to be more of a ranged attacker with the Lancer, Hammerburst, Retro Lancer, and the new semi-automatic rifle, the UIR Markza. Other modes like Team Deathmatch or Domination still have the standard rifle+shotgun loadout. This run of the Gears multiplayer also got rid of Horde and Beast mode, and instead combined them into Over Run. Over Run is the new Horde/Beast mode in which teams of 4 COG players defend 3 objectives and 4 Locust players try to take them. COG players can still set up defenses like in Horde mode, while Locust members can set up their attack with different combinations of Locust creatures like the Mauler, Ticker, Grenadier, and Kantus.

Overall I enjoyed the multiplayer much more than the campaign, which is saying a lot since I equally enjoyed the Single/Multiplayer of Gears of War 1, 2, & 3. The campaign really made the entire game seem like it could have been a single disk expansion or upgrade, although the graphics were improved over Gears 3. For full price, this game is definitely not worth the money, as I actually borrowed this game after careful consideration of buying. The multiplayer is pretty fun, but at the same time it feels like it needed more maps, since the standard rotation gets boring quickly. I would say borrow the game, rent, or get it a cheap price if you must play the newest Gears entry, otherwise, this game can be easily overlooked. 

Final Score: 2.5/5