Singularity

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

In the past I have wondered “Why are there so many games out there that are playable but have such bad storylines?” When I say playable I don’t necessarily mean good gameplay, I just mean gameplay that is enjoyable. Wet was like this. I despise the game, but it was alright to play. Same goes for the 2008 iteration of Prince of Persia. But I can’t actually think of a game that had a good storyline but I hated every second I played it.

Well, that was until Singularity, which has one of the most interesting storylines I’ve played recently yet with gameplay that just pissed me off. See, the story involves time travel. I’m a sucker for time travel. I just find time travel extremely interesting. I love things like Chaos theory, which is exactly what this game deals with.

The main character, Renko, accidently alters time right at the beginning of the game by saving someone in 1955 who turns out to now rule the world in 2010. And it is ALL YOUR FAULT! You spend the rest of the game attempting to right your wrongs whilst everything around you attempts to kill you. If this was a film it would probably be pretty good, and I recommend watching any Let’s Plays that are around on the internet.

I say watch the Let’s Plays because then you wouldn’t have to play the game. At the heart of a game is the gameplay. It’s what sets apart video games from other forms of media: interactivity. But it all feels so lacklustre, so is no fun to play.

The shooting is possibly the least fun part of the game. For an FPS that is just inexcusable. When shooting the enemies it doesn’t feel like your shots are actually connecting. You can unload half a clip into a normal soldier and he will shrug it off. Don’t the developers realise that bullets don’t just tickle. They kill you.

It gets even more annoying when shooting the mutants. Rarely does it looks like the shots are actually having an effect on the enemy. They just keeping running at your to tear your to shreds when they get nearby. And boy do they tear you to shreds!

Forget the size of your life bar. It’s pretty much useless to think that all of those dashes next to each other show you having a lot of health. When any enemy hits you your health will go down fairly quickly. The only ways to get your health back are through stimpacks, which give you health straight away (but are very rare), or health packs, which are everywhere. I admire them for using health packs in an age when it’s all about the regenerative health. However, the animation for using a health pack takes up so much time and within that time you can still keep getting shot, meaning that using one just delays your death.

But nothing takes down your health more than the Phase Ticks. Fuck these things. Seriously. Fuck them. If Phase Ticks ever became real I would devote my entire life to hunting down every single one of the bastards and making them pay. What these things do is run right at you and explode, kind of like the Tickers from Gears of War 2. Unlike the Tickers, though, you have no time to react to them. They are tiny and hard to shoot. And when they come along there is a lot of them, and I mean a LOT! When you first see them you are guaranteed to die over and over until you realise how you are meant to beat them: run, hide, and try to blast them.

On top of all of this terrible gameplay we have something that just slightly bugs me: a lack of subtitles. Now, hear me out on this one. There are some audio issues in this game. There are a few game that have this issue and the issue is that if you turn to face away from the person talking you can barely hear what they are saying. Hell, you have audio logs everywhere which you need to stand right next to, facing the audio log, hoping some evil thing doesn’t come behind you to shank you up. They never do, but you still keep turning around just in case. Subtitles would solve this issue. Also, it’s equal rights: helping the hard of hearing (though I’ll admit I just want them because I like listening to music when gaming).

The TMPis pretty cool, but using it in combat is rare, unless it's against Phase Ticks!

All of this builds up to a surprisingly great finale, which the game really doesn’t deserve. In this section the gameplay doesn’t feel too bad because it is all fast paced, so you are concentrating more on living than the terrible controls. That is, at least, until the actual endings, which all seem pretty rushed, two being more of an epilogue than anything. One of these endings is somewhat fitting, it just didn’t seem like a great conclusion to this game.

So, like I said, go see a Let’s Play of the game. It will probably look good, but that’s because someone else is playing it. Yes, the game is very pretty and the story is very good, but when you sit down and play Singularity it just doesn’t feel fun at all.

Final Verdict: 3/10

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Possibly the clumsiest titled films of 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes has been touted as being one of the better movies of the year. It’s been constantly recommended to me and has been reviewed fairly well, better than some of my favourite films of the year. So I went into this slightly sceptical, not sure if it would be good from the trailers, but still expecting it to be better than I thought it would be.

It seems that the movie going public and the professional critics have let me down. This film is not, as someone told me, “one of the best films of the year” and in no way stands up to this year’s great films such as X-Men: First Class, Cowboys & Aliens, or Source Code.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes does not actually have a rise in it. The film instead features what can be more closely described as a rebellion or an escape, though that would be far too closely titled to Escape from the Planet of the Apes. The apes in this film are held captive in a sanctuary where Draco Malfoy abuses them to a comical extent, being a hammy and hilariously unlikeable as possible. Obviously, the apes are not pleased with this, so they escape.

The reason they are able to do this is that Caesar (Andy Serkis), who is sent there, is a super intelligent ape as he is the child of an ape who was given an experimental virus that increases a chimpanzee’s intelligence to a human level. Caesar is able to lead them and organise them so that they can escape.

Caesar is actually a very likeable character. You feel for him when he is sad, angry or happy. Sadly, it is quite hard to connect with him as he, and every other ape in this film, is CGI. Noticeable CGI, to be precise. None of the apes have any weight in this world, even if they were brought about through motion capture, so they don’t feel like they are really there or are really interacting with anyone or anything. This does nothing but bug the hell out of me, making me cringe when the CGI is extremely noticeable. However, the details of the apes are really good. Looking at a single eye or a hand is very lifelike, but doesn’t make up for how fake the apes look as a whole.

The film is also very well acted. James Franco does his very best, like in most of the films he is in. John Lithgow plays his character, who has Alzheimer’s, extremely well and Brian Cox does his best Rip Torn for the audience.

Sadly, some of these roles are let down by other actors, such as Malfoy, who is so transparently evil he’s laughable. His accent seems to go from British to American to Irish and he chews scenery like there’s no tomorrow. David Oyelowo also plays a transparently evil character, the head of a pharmaceutical company who wants nothing but to make money, screw the consequences of his actions and all that rubbish! Freida Pinto as Franco’s love interest seems pointless and her acting is very average.

But the major failing of this film is the story. The plot in and of itself should be good, but the way it is handled is horrendous. Few actions seem to have consequences, such as Franco’s character stealing some of the wonder-virus and a baby chimpanzee from his company. Instead of legal issues and being fired he continues his job for the next 8 years and is given the go ahead to continue his research on the virus. No repercussions whatsoever.

The beginning of this film feels rushed but the scenes at the sanctuary go one for far longer than necessary. Some of the changes Caesar makes throughout the years seem to be swept aside, the film not seeming to care for his development at all. The ending of the film seems extremely anti-climactic, with the apes reaching their destination then showing the end credits. Just 5 seconds into the end credits we still have more movie to go, as a few minutes of the film plays showing what will lead to the downfall of the human race.

The film even got unintentionally funny at times. What is supposed to be one of the most dramatic parts of the film is ruined due to the events leading up to it. The silence that followed after that moment was filled with laughter from the audience. Some of the actions of the apes when attacking San Francisco seemed stupid and other dramatic scenes seemed funny due to the length of the shot or merely the visuals on screen.

But the most confusing thing within this film was the apes. For some reason it is told to us that the apes are not intelligent, yet their actions seem far more intelligent than that of normal apes. Yet when they are made smarter they devolve into mob mentality. Furthermore, when some apes are freed from the zoo they act the same as these “smarter” apes, which is confusing. These apes pick up parts of fences and use them as spears, yet the events of the film prior to this do not seem to justify them doing this.

This film had potential, and it is sad that it turned out this way. The CGI was distracting, some of the acting was bad and the plot was contradictory and full of holes. However, you can pick up on the ideas that the film tried to convey and you do get invested in the plot. You care for (some of) the apes and (sometimes) root for them when they are escaping. Sadly, this does not save the film. However, the unintentional hilarity of some of the film does save face a little bit.

To be fair to this film it isn’t exactly bad but there is a lot wrong with it. No way would I call it a good film nor would a rank it as one of the best films of the year. Some do say this is a good film and I don’t disagree with them, I just personally found it to be just below average.

Final Verdict: 4/10

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Western films and science fiction have come together before. We have a great films such as the 1973 Westworld and the 1990 film Back To The Future Part III, but we also have the 1999 flop such as Wild Wild West, showing that this amalgam needs to be worked with tentatively. None of these films have dealt with aliens coming to the world of cowboys, bandits and Indians. So now we have Jon Favreau, director of both Iron Man films as well as the well received Zathura, creating a film based upon such a concept.

Cowboys & Aliens is not necessarily based upon a comic but rather the cover art of a comic with the same name. By the sounds of the plot of the comic, Cowboys & Aliens pulls a RED and decides to have nothing to do with the original story and instead create a unique story. And, just like RED, Favreau pulls it off spectacularly.

Set in 1873, a man with amnesia (Daniel Craig) finds himself in a desert where he comes across the town of Absolution, a mining town which is suffering from a dried up gold supply. The only way the town stays afloat is by tough cattle rancher Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Absolution is attacked by aircraft who destroy most of the town and abduct many of the townsfolk. The remaining men of the town, alongside the amnesiac follow the aircraft in order to free the abducted townsfolk. The party is joined by Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) who appears to know something about the amnesiac. The journey leads to revelations about the characters, especially Craig’s and Wilde’s, as well as several action sequences and encounters with bandits and Apache tribesmen.

The plot may sound ridiculous, and it is to an extent, yet the science fiction and Western elements are both played superbly. The first 15 minutes of the film feel like a great Western film and when the aliens begin to play a part it doesn’t feel out of place, instead giving insight into what would happen in such a situation. The plot has several entertaining and heart-pumping moments, as well as some honestly upsetting scenes, all played with complete seriousness that, surprisingly, works.

All of the characters are interesting and are developed as the film goes on. Dolarhyde is initially shown as somewhat villain-like, but as the movie continues he becomes more likeable and his tough and brash exterior is shown to be justified due to his past in the army, yet his heart is always in the right place. Craig’s character is believable in his actions as an amnesiac and is fully developed, showing a hard past to contend with as he remembers it or it is shoved into his path to rescue the civilians.

Thankfully, the movie never calls the aliens “aliens”. Instead they are called demons, in fitting with the time period. The aliens in the film seem to have taken some inspiration from Alien, where they have a hard exo-skeleton and extendable parts of their bodies. They are truly terrifying and expertly designed. Also, the aliens feel as if they have weight in the movie, actually affecting their surrounding and the people around them, as well as feeling as if they actually exist in this world. This is most likely thanks to the amazing CGI as well as the use of practical puppets.

In fact, the effects in the entire film were great. The CGI very rarely makes itself noticed, making the ships look real and blasts feel like they have effects on the world. The use of practical effects makes this film have a bit more power compared to the overly CGI-dependent films of today. And I praise Favreau for denying requests for 3D, as this would have had absolutely no benefit from the use of 3D and would have just brought hate for the useless conversion.

Yet, with this film I perceive as being a masterpiece, it is not reviewed so highly by others. As I am writing this it is currently at 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, from 206 reviews, and 50/100 on Metacritic, from 41 reviews. This honestly baffles me and find it hard to see why this is. The acting in the film is amazing, the plot is great and the two genres of science fiction and Western blend seamlessly. But each to their own.

Personally, I really recommend this film. All of the reasons above should tell you this. If you get a chance then go see this film. It is really worth it, and if you are a Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford fan you should love it!

Final Verdict: 9/10

Skyline (2010)

If I were a real critic, a man who was praised by the masses for his critical work, then I would probably have fallen ill of many people for my review of Unstoppable. So far as I have seen I have been outweighed by a majority of people. Its current rating on Rotten Tomatoes is “fresh” at 85%. Due Date I was also wrong, it may have seemed: having loved the film and rating it so highly I am told I am an idiot by the “rotten” rating of 38% on RT. And yet again with Paranormal Activity 2 we see my 3/10 rating being spurned as the critical approval is at 60%, “fresh”.  And I’d like to put a side note here that almost all of my feelings towards films are not reciprocated by one Roger Ebert, a highly respected critic and one whom I do, indeed, consider the opinion of.

Why am I saying this? Because I want you to realise that what I review is based upon my own biased opinion. That how I see the film is personal to me. Even with this being said I look into the film with as much depth as I can, focusing on all elements from directing to soundtrack to acting.

The reason I say this is because no one likes Skyline. It's currently on 14% on RT.

But I loved the film.

Okay, maybe saying that I loved the film is taking it a bit too far. The film was immensely enjoyable. All of the naysayers out there seem to think that this film has a terrible plot, terrible script and terrible acting from actors who have the gall to not be Tom Cruise, Jennifer Aniston or whoever they feel should be in this movie as they are considered an A-list celebrity.

The fame of a celebrity does not make the film. In fact, it sometimes ruins it as you constantly feel you should compare this role to all their other roles. So was the problem with Donald Faison, who I shall refer to as Turk (anyone who doesn’t know why should stop reading as they are not worthy to be reading this). The fact that we know him as Turk takes away from anything that he may have to offer with his character. I detached myself from remembering him as Turk, but I still could only think of him as Turk, not Terry.  Through the brief moments of non-Scrubs related thinking I was able to see he wasn’t too bad at portraying his character. In fact, he was good.

And so was everyone else. They all were. Everyone made their roles extremely convincing. I believed that this is exactly how people may react to this form of invasion. This wasn’t just due to their acting, though, but also due to the script, which, believe it or not from what everyone seems to be saying, was good.

Seriously. You look at it. Okay, maybe it is very derivative of a lot of alien invasion films, War of the Worlds being the obvious one. But it still took a new angle on the genre. In no film involving an alien invasion have I seen such a wide-scale abduction. War of the Worlds faltered in this sense, just showing us pretty SFX instead of delivering a solid narrative. The aliens in that seemed to sporadically choose to do something new with the humans every now and then, throwing them around, then zapping them, then harvesting them. But we don’t find out what they are doing these things for.

Skyline shows us what they do, but it’s through slow build-up and pacing that we find these things out. The film constantly has us asking “Why?” and it delivers. It may not be the full answer, but we make up the answer in our minds, leaving it open to interpretation. We are given enough information to attempt to make a judgement, but we are not force fed the answers.

The effects in this film are fantastic and compliment the plot amazingly. There are a couple of times where the SFX falter, but overall they are astounding. It is only through these SFX that we can also be shown the aliens (what they look like and their ships). The designs for the aliens appear to be somewhat like that Sentinels from the Matrix trilogy, being a strange combination of what I took to be organic matter and flesh.

Sadly, at times the film can be somewhat laughable. The way in which the humans are sucked into the UFOs are a little bit comedic, with the bodies of the people just floating about as if being brought into the land of Oz. Not only this, but at times there are some pretty silly looking slow motion sequences that are just far too slow.

This film is also extremely bleak. If you do go see it you will understand what I mean. Most invasion films seem very triumphant at the end (I’m looking at you, War of the Worlds) and seems to suggest that HUMANS ARE AWESOME! But, when it comes to technological and evolutionary terms, the aliens are far superior to us. Yes we have nukes and guns and all the business but they have great big aggressive beasts, the ability to fly, a form of rejuvenating factor and technology far superior to our own. In all terms of the words: we are screwed.

Some people complain that this film is too centralised on the people living in the flat. That it doesn’t show the true scope of the invasion, that the effects of the invasion aren’t shown within the city. I have to bring up a few points concerning this:

1. There are scenes showing people fighting back, if only one or two scenes.


2. The whole point of the film is to focus on how this small group of people try to survive, somewhat reminiscent of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.


3.  Almost every single person in the city is sucked into the spaceships. How can there be widespread fear and panic in the city when there is no one to cause the panic?

I will be completely honest, though: this film isn’t great. To be honest it’s probably just above average in my books. It had the feel from the very start of a SyFy original movie. The CGI isn’t as bad, but the cast and the actual feel of the movie make it seem so (I know I said the cast didn’t matter, but when a film already feels like it could easily be a made-for-TV film you can’t help but notice these things).

However, Skyline is extremely enjoyable. If you like B-Movies involving aliens or the likes then you should love this film. It isn’t a B-Movie in itself (maybe a B+/A- movie) but it feels slightly reminiscent of one. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gained some sort of cult following in years to come, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it just fell off the radar and no one ever talked about it ever again.

Go see this film. If the critics are to go by then you will hate it. However, if you go into the film with an open mind and let the drama take you in, notice that this is not about the alien invasion per se but more so about the interactions between the survivors, then you should have a fun time. 

Whether you find it funny, horrific or you are actually enjoying the film for what it is, Skyline is a wonderful looking flick that may actually entertain you.

Final Verdict: 6/10