Resident Evil Degeneration

Since 1996 the Resident Evil franchise has grown to such a degree that now, 12 years later, it becomes very hard for the series to maintain originality and a sense of freshness. Capcom, developer of the series, realized this when creating the game Resident Evil 4, which saw a slight reboot for the franchise replacing moaning zombies with body-snatching parasites. So it is very peculiar that 3 years after this re imagining Capcom decides to make a movie that takes a step back and revisits what has been done so many times before in the Resident Evil franchise, be it games or movies. I talk of the latest Resident Evil movie Degeneration which is a CG (computer generated) movie not unlike Final Fantasy: Advent Children.

The story is pretty much what you have seen before if you have any knowledge about the franchise. The T-virus (which makes infected people into flesh-eating zombies) breaks out, this time at an air port, and the survivors have to try and get out before they are devoured by the walking dead. We are reunited with the 'stars' from the game Resident Evil 2, namely Clair Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy who will lead the group of survivors to safety as best they can.

Degeneration takes place 7 years after Raccoon City was erased from the map and continues the story (slightly) of what happened with BIO-terrorism and the Umbrella Corporation 7 years later. BIO-terrorism has become a worldly known problem and Umbrella has seemingly plummeted into bankruptcy. Sadly this is pretty much everything that this movie brings to the main storyline of the Resident Evil franchise and the rest is more or less a stand alone adventure, which would be good enough if not for some faults along the way.

Even if you ignore that the movie repeats the tired old outbreak story (twice in fact) this movie still stands out with some serious flaws. First of which is its pacing. To put it short: the movie moves too fast for its own good. 7 minutes into the movie we get the first T-virus outbreak which leaves absolutely no room for character introduction or any sense of connection to the characters on screen. here are the players, here is the disaster - now go! To pull off such a sudden jump in a movie is difficult by any standard and sadly this movie is not able to pull it off.

The characters them selves are as you would expect from a CG movie based on a game franchise. The bad guys are either fat politicians or double faced scientists with sinister motives. Clair and Leon also become caricatures of their respected roles with Leon being the mysterious secret agent and Clair the nosy protector who is out to save the innocent. Though the movie is not without its twists (be they obvious or not - up to you), there is nothing in this movie that will ever get you invested, which is the death of any movie.

Lastly I wish to put a question mark with the quality of animation presented in this movie. For me it seemed like I was watching a movie based on a upgraded version of the Resident Evil 2 game engine which means that the characters come off more as puppets being herded around more then they became characters with motives and feelings.

In the end this is a movie for the fans and if you haven't played any Resident Evil game or seen any of the movies then chances are you will probably have gone through life never knowing this movie existed, which frankly you wouldn't need to. Ultimately this is not a good movie by any means of the word, but if you are a fan of either zombies or the Resident Evil saga then it is 1 hour 33 minutes that you probably will enjoy on some level as long as you don't think too much about what you are watching.

If Capcom do wish to produce more movies like these, then by all means let them do so. They have my blessing. But I do hope they try and use this outlet to movie the saga forwards and explore stories we have not played though in games so many times before.

The film geek's Christmas party

Now that Christmas is just around the corner you can't walk very far before stumbling over some type of Christmas festivity, and that is after all what this season is all about. So, as a film enthusiast I came to thinking: if I could invite any movie characters to the best Christmas party ever who would they be. I'm sure you have had the same thought...or not. Nevertheless, here is my guest list for what would prove to be one of the more interesting of Christmas parties...if we where to remember any of it that is.

The most important aspect of any party, be it Christmas, Hanukkah or otherwise is to invite people who will bring life to your part. In other words, people who know how to party. Jabba the Hutt is a...guy who knows how to have a good time. Just by looking at him you can tell this is what he does best (well that and underworld dealings, which may or may not come in handy later on). With him comes plenty of booze, a good band and an armada of dancing alien women. The foundation is set, but we need party people and few can party like Austin Powers. With his 60's style of getting down his mere presence will be enough to make sure this is a party to remember. Go go dancers and strobe lights alone will get things started.

Just as important is it to have people who know how to drink and can hold their own and make sure the party goes on until the wee hours of the morning and you just can't go wrong with a Scotsman. William Wallace (Braveheart) is on the top of my list, just be careful later on as he might want to pick a fight in the name of freedom. We can of course not forget Wiliam's southern neighbors the British so Shaun (Shaun of the dead) is invited. A fun drinking mate to be sure and should some of the more drunken people (stumbling and moaning along) get out of hand he and his trusty cricket bat will deal with them. When we are talking about drinking and good times I would be hard pressed to miss the Hobbit foursome Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin who are no strangers to ail and much merriment. I would invite John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey (Wedding Crashers), but...well, they don't need one.

Any party is always greatly improved with some class. A certain thing the French call...I don't know what. First names that springs to mind is a certain Mr. Bond, Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) and The Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded). With these names on the guest list the party will greatly improve. But that's not enough, we need a celebrity to really have the party to end all parties and that can only mean one thing: Derek Zoolander. Not only is he a world famous male model but he is also really, really ridiculously good looking. And if we are lucky, I mean very very lucky he might bring his friend Billy Zane; he's a cool dude.

Now lets look at entertainment. Sure Jabba and his band is here, but its always good to have several kinds of music is alien baroque music isn't for everyone. Luckily The Blues Brothers are in town and should be more then happy to play at the party. It's also good to have someone who can tell a good story and who better then Forrest Gump. Now, later on some of the guests may start to get a little rowdy (I'm looking your way Hobbits) so best to find a way to take that aggression and focus it into something we can all enjoy. I talk of course about a Fight club. Now, I'm not sure who to invite Jack or Tyler Durden so I'll send one to both.

With alcohol comes the munchies and every good party need a good source of food. Pizza is all good and well, but I was thinking about something a little more elegance. Hannibal Lecter knows all about fine foods and if we ask politely. He always have the most exotic of ingredients.

These are dangerous times however and you never know when something bad is going to happen and a high end Christmas party is no exception. Enter security. Top of the list is of course John McClain who is no stranger to terrorism or a good Christmas party. Backing him up we were able to pick up a T-800 (Terminator) from the future and reprogram him for good instead of evil...or so I was told anyway.

This is a party that needs to be well documented and therefore Raoul Duke (Fear and loathing in Las Vegas. My interest here of course strictly in his journalism skills and in no way connected to the various drugs and acids he could bring to the table *cough*

A good party is also a party that has the various problems that can arise well in hand. Should we run out of alcohol then Frank Martin (The Transporter) to make beer runs and Ice Man (X-men) is of course invited should we ever run out of cheese flavored corn chips.

But this is turning into a real sausage fest, if you will pardon the term, so we need women. Like dad used to say: it's always good to have a tomb raider around should anyone lose their keys. I never really understood that, so I just invited Lara Croft instead. She purdy. Sue Storm (Fantastic 4) is invited for two good reasons and should Hannibal's cuisine not sit well with you Leeloo (The Fifth Element) said she would bring chicken. Alice (Closer) will provide some of the more adult entertainment with her years of stripping experience and Thelma and Louise will provide overall good times (just don't piss them off). Lastly I thought it would be wise to have someone with medical experience at the party should anything go wrong, so nurse Ratched (one flew over the Cuckoo's nest) will be present.

At the end of the night John Nash (A beautiful mind) will be there to figure out how much I owe the landlord in damages and Mario and Luigi (Super Mario Brothers) have been contracted for some much needed after party plumbing.

Yes sir this shapes up to be one heck of a party, but if that Harry Potter kid comes around tell him we're all full. Jack Torrance (The Shining) was invited, but he had to work. Maybe next year.

Earth: population 0.

It is not often that I will find a documentary that truly captivates me the way History channel's 'Life after people' has. To surmise it shortly it is a documentary about how life on Earth would develop if we humans should all of a sudden vanish from the face of the Earth and the results are staggering. You might think that if we as a species would die tomorrow there would be plenty of evidence that we existed for whomever would come after us. But as the documentary exposes this is not so certain.
The documentary goes from 1 day after people to 10 thousand years after people and it is staggering how fast, in cosmic terms at least, any trace of us as a species would vanish from the face of the earth. First things to go is electricity which would, with exception of whatever parts of the USA Hoover dam keeps lit, would go away withing 36 hours. Our pets would become feral and withing a couple of years buildings would begin to crumble and nature start taking back its territories. I guess spoilers are in order, but according to this documentary all signs of life on Earth would vanish within ten thousand years, which might seem allot to you and me is an insignificant number in the cosmic whole.

This becomes a rather short post, but if what I have told you here intrigues you then either pick up the book "the world without us" or check out the documentary *Life after people."

Halloweek

In case you didn't know, Halloween is just 5 days away and I am already celebrating what I have dubbed Halloweek (yes, clever). So in this light I come to you with my top 5 Halloween films that should get you in the mood for a night of ghoulish affairs.

5) A Nightmare on Elm Street



Let's start off with a classic. When young Tina is brutally murdered in her sleep, her best friend Tina starts suspecting that a supernatural force is at work. This turns out to be Freddy Kruger who lives in our dreams and slaughters those unfortunate enough to fall asleep. This movie came out in 1984 (allot of good things came out of that year it would seem) and was directed by renowned horror/thriller director Wes Craven. When released it became an instant pop-culture phenomenon and Freddy Kruger has become the poster-boy of the horror genre ever since.
When it comes down to the film it self you have to take into account that this movie was made over twenty years ago, so some of the effects don't hold up but therein lies much of the films charms. Despite some pretty horrific acting, Freddy (Robert Englund) is as menacing as anything you have ever seen and you are introduced to a young Johnny Depp in his first on-screen role. Besides, the film that made New Line Cinema what it is today deserves our respect and is a good start to your Halloweek.

4) Ring


Forget the American remake (all though the U.S. The Ring is a pretty good adaptation), but the original Japanese Ring becomes even more spine-tingling when set against a foreign backdrop. We all know the story: After a group of teenagers all die at the same day at the exact same time after having watched a supposed cursed videotape, reporter Reiko starts digging into the modern myth and soon finds herself face to face with an avenging spirit of a wronged little girl.
What really make this film scary is that it never goes for the quick, make-you-jump kind of scare, but rather builds up an unsettling vibe that never lets up and never truly lets you relax. Complete it all with a surprise ending and you have yourself a Halloween movie that you won't soon forget.


3) SAW

Sure Halloween is all about ghosts and ghouls (or at least it used to be), but when prepping up for Halloween you can't ignore what has for five years now been a Halloween tradition, namely the Saw franchise. Nothing supernatural here, just good old human malice.
With a dead body laying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw" by the police because of his unusual calling card (IMDB.com). If you can escape his traps you get to live, but not without some sacrifice. Your life is in your hand.
What made Saw such a big deal back in 2005 was that it for the first time in a very long while was a film that brought something new and original to the horror genre. Since then we have gotten a Saw movie for each Halloween with number five just being released in cinemas as we speak. People being killed in all manner of horrible ways is just the thing to get you in the Halloween mood (and if you have the time check out Saw 2 and 3 which both offer more of the same gory goodness. Nr. 4 not so much).


2) Bram Stoker's Dracula

When Francis Ford Coppola adapts one of the best Vampire novels of all time you know you are in for a good ride and a Halloween celebration is not complete without visiting one of the classic monsters. You get a stellar cast here: Gary Oldman as Dracula, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves (with an unfortunate British accent) and even with a running time of 123 minutes you never start looking at the clock. This is the hypnotic, Gothic and slightly erotic tale of the father of all vampires: Vlad the Impaler himself and you will be hard pressed not to find yourself drawn in by the lure and blood-lust this movie offers.


1) Halloween

Not a big surprise here as the best film to watch on Halloween is, in fact, Halloween. We started off with a horror icon and now we end with one, all though maybe a little less known. This is of course the man behind the mask Michael Myers. The IMDB.com's synopsis says it best: "A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets." Enough said.
Made in 1978 by the legendary John Carpenter this movie quickly became another American horror film phenomenon that will remain a staple of not only Halloween, but U.S. horror for generations to come. If you can only see one film for Halloween this year, see Halloween.

So there you have it, my 5 choices for one week of Halloween. Of course there are countless horror films you can chose from that will do the job and I am sure you will have your own personal top 5 Halloween movies that puts you in the mood for a night of fright. So please, leave a comment and let me know what five films you would chose for your own personal Halloweek. Until next time remember: lock your door and close the window. You never know who or what is stalking you in the night.

Where is....Half-Life the movie?

Everyone that play games at a more then casual level have one or more franchises they wish to see make the transfer to the silver screen. I have quite a few game to film adaptations I wish to see (or write and make), so I have decided to create this segment in the blog simply named "Where is..."

Feel free to suggest something to out in this segment if there is something you would be curious to see make the transfer from game, book, what have you, to film.


For this firs installment of Where is... I wish to look at what is possibly the greatest First Person Shooter (FPS) in modern gaming. Since its release in 1998 the Half-Life series has set the standard for the FPS that followed, with a strong focus on story and puzzle solving mixed with great action sequences.

The game:

The story of Half-Life is simple, but engaging. You play as Gordon Freeman, a a recent graduate theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of a secret underground research facility (Black Mesa) who experiments with teleportation technology. After a test went horribly wrong, several alien life forms were teleported from another world to the facility. As aliens trying to kill you wasn't enough, U.S. marines are tasked with infiltrating the base and kill any survivors to cover the incident up, and that includes you.

The film:

For a feature film I would keep the general outline of the game and build from there. We are introduced to Gordon Freeman as he enters the Black Mesa underground complex and follow as he is going through the motions of day to day work. But of course everything goes horribly wrong during a test and the facility is overrun by vicious alien creatures of various kinds. Now Gordon, with the help of security guard Barney and surviving scientist Kleiner, have to make their way through the facility and escape aliens and marines alike.

In the terms of storytelling it doesn't get much simpler then this, so if the movie is to be any good and engaging we will need more meat to put on the bone here.

First would of course be to flesh out Gordon Freeman as an actual character. In the game he is a blank slate that you never see nor does he ever speak. He is you in the game, but in the movie he needs to be a man of his own so to speak.
In the game Gordon also travels alone for the most part, only occasionally paring up with either scientists or security personnel. But for a better story dynamic the film would see Gordon team up with Barney and Dr. Kleiner, both of which are featured as key characters in Half-Life 2 (game), so it makes sense to have them playing key roles in the first film.

Since we are already borrowing story dynamics from Half-Life 2 why not go full throttle. I would want to see all the dynamics we see in Half-Life 2 having their origins in the first move. This would include seeing a very young Alyx Vance following her dad, Eli, around at work. Throw in Judith Mossman and Breen in there and you have a pretty good cast of characters. Seeing were all these characters start out will enforce where they are in the Half-Life 2 movie a great deal and making the movies fit together better.

That being said, I would not have the narrative of the movie go away from Gordon at any time. Just like the game, which never have cut-scenes or ever move away from Gordon in any way. the movie would always follow Gordon as he makes his way through the facility. So, like the game, whenever we want exposition from other characters Gordon will have to be in the scene. This would create a rather unique narrative (again like the game) where background information and story details are overheard from conversations between characters surrounding Gordon, avoiding scenes designed purely for narrative exposition which more often then not comes across rather clumsy.

But the film would be nothing without the G-man, who in the games are a mysterious man in a suit that follows Gordon around and simply observes the events taking place. He ends up giving Gordon an ultimatum at the end of the game: join hi and whoever it is he is representing (which to this day is a mystery) or die basically. This is a character made for a film adaptation and for those of you familiar with the franchise the G-man I see playing more or less the same role in the movie as he does in the game.

All in all I see Half-Life being a mix between balls out action with Gordon, Barney and Kleiner working together battling aliens and U.S. Marines and horror moments filled with suspense.

Towards the end I would see Gordon, Barney and Kleiner trying to close the dimensional rift that allows the aliens to come through to our world, but in doing so sees Gordon being transported to Xen, the alien homeworld. Here he would be confronted by the G-man who informs him that the rift will never close as long as the alien mastermind (the final boss so to speak) is defeated. Gordon agrees to take him out and in doing so closes the rift between the worlds. But by defeating the alien Gordon also handed control over Xen to G-man and the people he represent (which could be suggested being the government). Now Gordon is faced with the ultimatum he faces in the game: Start working for the G-man or face a battle he can't possibly win.

The movie ends with Gordon agreeing to work for G-man, entering a bright white light to god knows what. FADE TO WHITE, THE END.

I won't go too much into what a sequel or trilogy would offer, but if you have played Half-Life 2 you would get a good sense of where the film series could go.

Hopefully all of that made sense, but if it didn't please let me know.

Heroes season 3 - First impressions

***SPOILER ALERT***

Its been a while since the rather lackluster season 2 of Heroes ended leaving most viewers rather skeptical about the show's future, save the hardcore fan-base the show seems to have contracted.
To say that season 3 starts off were season 2 left off is somewhat irrelevant because very little about what has happened in the two previous seasons have any relevance this time around (it would seem). You basically need to know the basic setup and you are good to go. Not that there is anywhere special to go mind you. The two hour premiere confirms what you may have suspected all along if you have been watching: Heroes is a poorly written show with a very contrived overall flow. The notion that the show is written and directed by the seat of the creators and writers pants is not hard to imagine when staggering plot-holes appear frequently, most of which are due to the heroes being so overpowered writers need to ignore what they can do in order to patch together anything resembling a story. For example: the season 2 cliffhanger shows Nathan being shot as he was about to announce to the world that he has the ability to fly. Now in season 3 we learn that it was Peter, his brother, from the future (4 years in the future, he can time travel) that did it because the future turned out pretty darn depressing when the public learned of the super powered people. An interesting concept to be sure, but when you have Peter, a demigod he is that overpowered, shooting his brother to stop him from revealing everything, you can't help but wonder why. Why not simply go back a little further and explain the situation? Present Peter is of course very upset about all of this, but does he go back in time to stop the shooting from ever taking place? No...why not, you can TIME TRAVEL?
The show suffers on like this throughout the two hours giving us scenes like Claire hiding from Sylar, another overpowered demigod in all respects, in a closet and heroes shooting at each other with guns which has proven over and over and over again does not work. End it all with a pointless twist that will have very little baring on the overall stories and you are left with a mess of a show that needs a miracle to get back on its feet.

As you may have guessed by now, if you haven't seen it for yourself, there is so much more bad here then there is good. There are some bright spots however that, if handled correctly, could bring the show up a notch. The second episode sees a group of some pretty evil and twisted super powered bad guys that make Sylar look rather mediocre (one of them can generate fire and uses the ability to burn a woman alive for the hell of it). Claire's story (she can heal herself, but now she stops feeling pain) and how she deals with her new found "lack of humanity" could be very interesting to watch as well as Mohinder injecting himself with a serum that give powers to anyone only to discover some pretty nasty side effects.

But overall season 3 of Heroes seem to continue indeed were season 2 left off: with steadily declining quality.

Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class loves Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner.

In 700 years time Earth will be so filled with garbage that we will have no choice but to leave it behind in favor of life on a space cruiser. On leaving our once great planet however we forgot one little thing: to shut down the last operating Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, or WALL-E for short. For 700 years he has been alone on Earth cleaning up the garbage while collecting various trinkets (hubcaps, light bulbs, etc.). But WALL-E is extremely lonely and wants nothing more then to have someone in his life to hold his hand. Then when a automated spaceship deposits a Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner (EVE), WALL-E's adventure that will change the course of human history begins.

What makes Wall-E, the latest Disney/Pixar animated movie, such an interesting film is the fact that you follow robots who, instead of speaking, communicate with various beeps, gasps and electronic noises. This has been somewhat of a double-edged sword when it comes to attracting an audience as some relish the idea of this unconventional approach to storytelling while others feel alienated by it.

But let me assure you now that it works brilliantly. You quickly realize that WALL-E and EVE (as well as the other robots that show up later on) probably say more then the humans in the movie do. Because when you take away conventional language you are stuck with raw emotion being conveyed in the simplest form possible, making Wall-E the most believable love story I can remember having seen in a long time. You truly believe that robots can fall in love and it doesn't take long before you no longer see two robots, but two individuals.

The world Wall-E takes place in is a bleak and distopian future that, even though exaggerated, can gives you pause about where we are going as an ever technological evolving society. This is the other side of Wall-E that is the reason it works as well as it does. The world is not that far of a stretch to imagine and therefore becomes realistic in a terrifying kind of way.

When it comes to the humans in the film, people who have evolved into almost boneless blobs due to living in space for so long, the voice-acting reaches the level of excellence we have come to expect from any Disney or (even more so in the resent years) Pixar movie. We get Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the Space Cruiser's main computer and it feels a little out of place having such a recognizable voice in a movie were every human voice is, and should be, unrecognizable and new.

Wall-E is a movie that is either very easy or extremely hard to criticize depending on were you stand on following main characters that don't speak in any conventional way. If you think it worked perfectly and it is a better movie for it (and you should) then you will find very little in Wall-E that is negative. There are some plot holes that don't really stand out in a large way, but if you think about it they do become clear. The Earth being covered in garbage is maybe the largest one and in a future were we can fly though space and invent artificial intelligence, dealing with garbage shouldn't be a major concern.

Visually Wall-E stands out by reaching a new level of CGI excellence were at times you forget you are watching an animated movie. This is backed up by having images of real life humans popping up here and there that, all though standing out next to the CGI human blobs in the movie hold up perfectly next to the robots in the movie.

But overall Wall-E is a special kind of movie that works for kids of all ages while still offering enough for adults and teens, asking some very philosophical questions lost on the younger crowd. Simply said this is a must see, so stop reading and do so now.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) are once again forced into a battle against the undead as their son Alex (Luke Ford) discovers the tomb of emperor Han (Jet Lee). Long ago Han was betrayed by the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) who cursed Han and his army turning them into stone statues. But when Han is reawakened by a Chinese general who wants Han to bring China back to its former glory all hell breaks loose.

When it comes to the use of CGI in movies these days, the Indiana Jones style adventure movies may perhaps be the one type of film that suffers the most. Maybe it is because we are used to practical effects contra digital in this genre and when looking at movies like the Mummy series the CGI really stands out from the rest of the world. This is not to say that CGI in adventure movies are always bad as Lord of the rings certainly pulled it off brilliantly. But Lord of the rings had the advantage of a budget that most adventure movies don't get and it is a lack of such a budget that really sticks out in Tomb of the dragon emperor (which will be from now on be referred to as Mummy 3).

Mummy 3 is at its core a fast paced action adventure that is not meant to stand up to strong scrutiny and is generally designed for an audience that want to sit back with their popcorn and see something cool in screen. And in this fashion Mummy 3 delivers on all cylinders. It never goes for too long without an action set piece and always delivers everything from Yetis in the Himalayas to armies of the undead battling it out at the base of the Great Wall of China.

Overall the movie doesn't immerse itself in the Chinese culture or history as much as the previous two did with Egypt. Maybe this is because Egypt has more of a mystic quality to it then China for most people or simply because Chinese culture and mythology is less known in general. If any of those two are correct I don't know, but Mummy 3 doesn't have the same cultural weight to it that the others did. Jet Lee as the new mummy works great for the franchise, but he never seems as threatening as Imhotep did in Mummy and The mummy returns. This is curious seeing how the dragon emperor has allot more power at his disposal then Imhotep ever did, but then again Imhotep could suck the very life out of you if you got close where as emperor Han is depended on fireballs and spikes of ice. But an overall good performance by Jet Lee and the new mummy works fine for the story.

Mummy 3 also sees a recast of the Evelyn O’Connell character previously played by Rachel Weisz and now taken over by Maria Bello. This is a major contributor to why the film will never rank as good as its two predecessors as there is little if no chemistry between Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello. After having watched two films where Evelyn and Rick are a believable couple head over heels in love, its hard to have to sit and see someone impersonating the Evelyn character in a way that can only remind you who she isn’t rather then who she is.

Lastly we come to the use of CGI in the film and it is the reason why this is a second rate adventure film. Whenever CGI is used (and it is used just in about every scene) it stands out and is never truly able to blend in with the real surroundings. The only thing that really works is emperor Han himself as he walks around as a living statue. It would seem most of the budget went into making the mummy work, but when it comes to everything else it simply falls short.
Emperor Han can transform into a variety of mythical creatures, but whenever he does we are treated to second rate CGI work that really draws attention to it self and not the movie and in 2008 that is should be unforgivable.

So there you have it. The mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor works as a second rate action adventure that flows along well enough to get you into the story if you are able to ignore some bad CGI work and static romances, but you would ultimately be better off revisiting the previous two mummy films on DVD.

Return of the machines

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2 premiered this week on FOX. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Terminator: tSCC is a TV series based on the Terminator franchise picking up where Terminator 2: Judgment Day left off. A new Terminator named Cameron (Summer Glau) is sent back in time to protect young John Connor (Thomas Dekker) from Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt), a second Terminator sent through time to kill John, the future leader of mankind in the war against the machines. John is acompanied by his mother Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) - John's uncle from the future. Together they do what they can to survive and take down Skynet, the computer system that destroys the world, before it is created and stop judgement day.

When the series premiered earlier this year allot of people, myself included, were sceptical as to how the Terminator franchise would be strong and rich enough to support a TV series. The premise of the saga is rather thin, but now that season 1 (cut short by the writers strike) is over and season 2 is at our doorstep one thing is certain: creator David Nutte knows what he is doing and that the Terminator saga has allot more to offer.

The season 2 premiere goes deeper into the Terminator saga by introducing Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), the CEO of ZeiraCorp, a company that deals in advanced technology projects. She is a cold and calculated woman who seems to have an almost romatic view of machines and the orderly structure they represent. But Catherine Weaver hides a secret that is by far the best twist the series has given us so far. It would seem that the first seeds of Skynet is about to be planted and time is running out.

The episodes main focus however is Cameron gone bad as, after being caught in a car bomb, "her" main processing chip has been damaged. Now she has reverted back to her original programming: eliminate John Connor. Now John and Sarah need to escape a Terminator that knows everything about them and can forsee their every move and John needs to bring him self to try and kill the one person, no matter how arteficial, he could call a friend.

The series seems to look closely at the relationship between man and machine (something explored in T2 as well) as John obviously seem to have strong emotions towards Cameron and this territory is well explored in this episode. As friend becomes foe John clearly struggles with being able to kill cameron and in the end does something that puts both him and Sarah in great jeopardy.

Terminator season 2 premiere marks, in my opinion, the best episode of the series so far. It examines some very complicated issues (like what it means to be a machine and the relationship between man and machine for better and for worse) as well as bringing us great action and some twist and turns that will set the course for the future of the series.


Lastly I just want to let you know that the second Quantum of Solace (Bond 22) trailer is out and is looking fantastic. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQW2MtibAmk