Godfather

I always have a tough time posting in the summertime. It's seems like there are so many activities to do that blogging becomes secondary.

This weekend, I hit up Docks, saw my cousin Eric there with his gf, played 3 softball games + practiced, checked out Missisauga Ribfest, ate out for dinner twice and had a BBQ with extended family.

I also opened Godfather for Wii, which I had bought 8 months ago. Wow, that game is violent. Maybe I'm not in the right demograph for these type of violent sandbox games, but having it on the Wii makes it even worse. The controls are really well done and you perform violent actions, like beating people up with bats (or my favourite, the flaming 2x4), punching them, grabbing them, throwing them around, choking them, etc. After my initial shock, it became really fun. I still can't bring myself to needlessly kill innocent civilians, but I have no problem with rubbing out rival mobsters. Check out the video to see it in action.



Godfather is my favourite movie, so maybe I was destined to like the game as well. If there is a popular license, the actual content can be subpar and the license can bring it up to make it an enjoyable experience. Like Transformers the movie for example. Maybe I'll like the Transformers game, even though it was rated horribly by all outlets.

A nice touch is that I recognized a lot of the real life NYC locations in the game. I can't wait for a game to recreate Toronto. This is one of the first "sandbox" games that I've played. I've somehow managed to avoid GTA all this time.

EA did a relaly good job with the Godfather license. They've recreated all the characters from the movie and you follow along with the movie plot For example, one of the early missions has you beating up the college preppie who violently raped Bonasera's (Funeral Director in the opening of the movie) daughter. Another one has you accompanying Luca Brasi to befriend Sollozo. Another mission has you helping Micheal Corleone protect the Don at the hospital. I can't wait to play out the rest of the movie. This leads me to believe that I'll give Scarface a try as well, although I didn't like Scarface as much as The Godfather movie.

So far I think this is one of my favourite games for the Wii. Right up there with Zelda for single player games. But now, I can't wait for Smash Brothers Brawl, Mario Galaxy and Mariokart Wii.

Transformers Review

As I try to recall my childhood, Transformers exists more in my imagination than on the TV screen. Much more time was spent using my imagination to play with my Transformers than watching the show itself. My imagination was limitless and satisfied my every desire, and therefore Transformers was the best thing....EVER...as a kid. But twenty years have passed and if I was pessimistic, my imagination is sadly overshadowed by things like sex and money. As a kid, the battle between good and evil was so clearly defined as a fight between Autobots and Decepticons, but real life is never as clear. This loss of innocence is something everyone laments. So how can you objectively evaluate something that puts you in touch with your childhood innocence? You can't.

Perhaps that's why I felt exhilarated coming out of the theatre. Speaking from my gut, it was an AWESOME movie!!!!!!111!!!!one!!!!!!!!!! It was a movie that satisfied my inner child's impulses. And really, that was the kind of mood I was in considering the subject matter. It gave me big explosions, giant robots fighting, cool transformations and ultimately good triumphing over evil. What more can you expect? What more can you want?

At the same time, part of me wishes for more. I have a habit of reading reviews immediately after viewing a movie to get differing opinions. I hadn't even look on Rotten Tomatoes beforehand to get a feel for the rating (bad, 57%). Some of the following ideas were from reviews I read, and they make good points that were perhaps "clouded" by nostalgia.

*** SPOILER AHEAD ***

One common theme was that the plot was very simplistic/juvenile, but in my opinion, this is largely irrelevant for a movie like this. The subplot with Anthony Anderson and the Blonde was largely pointless and wasn't even that funny. And yes, there were plot holes and such, but it was serviceable and that's good enough.

Personally, I thought the majority of the jokes were funny, while some failed miserably. I didn't like any of the scenes with Sector 7, but I really liked the early scenes when the boy is trying to get the girl with Bumblebee's help.

A lot of people complained about the quick cuts in the battle scenes and having too many closeups. I admit some parts were tough to follow, but overall it was well done. The last battle could have been more involving though, because it just seemed like random battles were happening all over the place without much purpose. There wasn't much satifaction when one decepticon was defeated or sadness when an autobot was injured.
    I think they missed a great opportunity to develop the Autobot characters (besides Optimus) further. For example, I struggled to remember which one was Jazz when they said he was destroyed. On the Decepticon side, I wished they played up the Starscream and Megatron conflict. From what I remember, it seemed like the downfall of the Decepticons was usually due to inner squabbling and pettiness and unfortunately the movie didn't reflect this.

The effect were undoubtly top notch, but I do have a small bone to pick. I thought the robots were too complicated. You couldn't really tell how they transformed from robot to vehicle. It's so much more obvious in this video.

It was great that they paid homage to the original transformers by saying things like, "Autobots, roll out", "One shall stand, one shall fall", "Lord Megatron" from Starscream, "More than meets the eye", and seeing a sword arm on Optimus. On the other hand, Optimus also says "My bad" - wtf?

*** END SPOILERS ***

Then there is the matter of Michael Bay directing the movie. Everytime there was a cheesy needless slow motion shot, I sighed. Speilberg got heavy billing as the executive producer and I think his influence is really felt for the first half of the movie. But it's all Bay for the second half.

Choosing Micheal Bay as director was controversial, but I would argue it's appropriate since the source material is for young kids and you can't expect that much more from it. It delivers exactly what a young boy would want out of a movie and Bay is a person that can deliver exactly that. By the end, the boy has the girl, car AND Transformers buddies. What more could you want?

Nothing.

Transformers

When I was a kid, I was a HUGE fan of Transformers. I hated going to chinese school because I would miss the show. I loved getting Transformers as toys and figuring out how to transform them. I must have had over 50 Transformers...I even had an original Optimus Prime from Japan!

So far this summer I haven't watched any movies yet, but I will break that streak for Transformers. It is with apprehension that I approach the newly released movie. There is no way they can live up to my expectations....especially with Michael Bay directing the movie. I avoided all previews and trailers so far and have set very low expectations.

I tried to go today, but unfortunately they were sold out. :( The movie was actually released on July 2nd, a full two days ahead of the date I thought it would be released, July 4th. Maybe it's a different day in Canada to take advantage of the holiday. Anyway, I'm going to try again, maybe this Friday, or after my softball game this week.

TRANSFORMERS, MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!

Heroes/The Departed

Does anyone watch Heroes? I started watching the show a few weeks ago and so far it's been a really good series. I just hope they are able to keep up the momentum. The last episode, which aired on Sunday for some strange reason was especially good with some emotional impact.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
I think the easiest solution to concealing Claire's ability is for the Haitian to just erase the memory of Claire's father's boss. And if necessary erase Parkman's and Ted as well as needed. Also, Hiro and Ando's side quest with Hope seems completely pointless, doesn't it? I also think they are setting up a showdown between Peter Petrelli and Sylar, their abilities are about equal, so that'll be interesting.
END SPOILERS.

Has anyone noticed a recent influx of users in Facebook? Recently, people that I didn't expect have been popping up on Facebook. Perhaps it's really expanding now. SO if you're not on, join now!

Oscar's was this past Sunday. I usually organize a pool and this year I didn't realize it was approaching so quickly! I'll try to catch it next year. I only caught a tiny bit of it on TV at work, where I happened to catch a bit of the Heroes episode and therefore knew it aired on Sunday. I haven't watched many of the Oscar movies this year, but I have watched the Departed. What ticked me off during the 5 minutes of the Oscar's I watched was that it was introduced as a movie from Japan.

I really liked The Departed, but I'm not sure if it is deserving a Best Picture. It's a very entertaining movie, with well developed characters and very polished, but is that enough for Best Picture? It seemed like a very commercial movie without enough depth for Best Picture.

I watched the HK version and I liked both, but I prefer the Scorsese one. So many (chinese) people say the HK version is far superior, but I think it has something to with which one you experience first. They also say they stole everything from Infernal Affairs, but it's suppose to since it was based on it and had bought the rights to it. It's a remake, so it's good that it doesn't drift too far away from the source material. So what if they copy scenes/lines, I don't see any reason to not copy scenes when it worked well in the HK version - I see it more of paying homage to the original.

I found the HK one too hurried and the characters were a little underdeveloped. The Scorsese one took more time to develop the characters and setup the story which made it better. I like how they combined the gf in one person as well. Plus, it was enjoyable to watch so many superstar actors go at it. Actually, the same could be said of the HK version, which I also thought was superbly acted as well. My only complaint in the Scorsese movie was that the Chinese mainlanders were speaking Cantonese...a gross oversight. And Jack Nicholson overacted just a tad.

Tim's favourite Director, Scorsese finally won for Best Director, which perhaps not his greatest work, but good enough. Anyway, I'll probably pick up the DVD since I liked it, even though I downloaded it this weekend and watched it again on sunday :)