Movie Retrospective - Saw (2004)

Saw is my favorite horror movie franchise of all time, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's true that the franchise is not the scariest and maybe focuses too much on the blood and gore. It's true that the acting is not always the best and some parts of the movies are absolutely ridiculous. With all of these things in mind, I still love the franchise. I may do a retrospective on the entire franchise in the future, but for now I want to focus on the film that started it all.

I was too young to see Saw in theaters, and unfortunately I saw Saw II before seeing the first movie. My brother had seen it and had raved about how good it was, saying it was one of the most clever and well made horror movies in a long time. Being the horror fanatic that I am, I knew that I had to see this movie, and when my brother received Saw on DVD one Christmas, I finally got my chance to see it.

The thing that I love the most about the movie, and what keeps drawing me back to it, is the overall tone. This is not the "torture porn" movies that the sequels have unfortunately granted the franchise. It plays out more as a suspenseful mystery thriller, with only one scene of actual torture in the entire movie. Every scene in the movie, whether it be a flashback or another cut to the two main characters, plays a crucial role in building up the tension leading up to the climax. Not one scene in the movie is filler, and watching a second time makes the double meanings clearer. It was clear that the story was planned carefully to the final detail.

Looking into some of the behind-the-scenes work on the movie, I can't help but give the producers immense props. Saw only had a budget of around $1 million, but it grossed more than $103 million worldwide. That's an incredible feet for a movie, let alone an R-rated horror movie, as R-rated movies have much smaller audiences and therefore have more difficulty making money. On top of that, this wasn't a remake, reboot or sequel/prequel. This was an original, fresh story, and I believe the low budget helped it in the long run, especially after seeing how the quality of the franchise changed due to the increase in budget with each film.

To go along with the low budget, there are only two or three scenes of real gore in Saw. The rest of the film relies on the strength of the characters and plot to deliver the thrills and tension. It's a shame that the sequels veered away from this and placed more emphasis on the traps, because the film's best moments are when the characters are simply talking to each other. With a story like this, you need strong actors to play the roles, and Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell carry their scenes incredibly. I was always so invested in their dialogue between each other and legitimately wondered whether they were going to survive Jigsaw's game. 

On the subject of the characters, every character in Saw was well written. I was easily invested in their stories and whether or not they would live to the end. Also, the characters are intelligent and rarely, if not at all, make any of the typical horror movie victim mistakes tat plagues most horror movies today. Some horror films try to take itself seriously but fail, partially because of the incompetence of the characters, but Saw avoids this problem.

The iconic scene that everybody remembers from Saw is the reverse bear trap, and it remains to this day as one of my favorite scenes in the franchise. The interesting thing is the event was told in a flashback, so you would think the scene would lack tension and suspense. Even with this in mind, when I first saw this scene, I almost forgot that it was a flashback and was instantly terrified for Amanda, whom Shawnee Smith delivered an amazing performance of. There wasn't a lot of gore involved, but the trap still had immense tension, something that future Saw traps would unfortunately lack in favor of extreme gore.

Finally, the twist ending. I won't spoil it, and I've probably already said too much by saying there is a twist ending in the first place, but it is absolutely one of if not the best ending to a film to date. I cannot begin to describe how shocked I was at the ending. Not only did it surprise me, but it tied together everything that had happened in the film. This would become a tradition to have a twist ending in all of the sequels, all with various degrees of shock value, but the ending to Saw will always remain the strongest.

With the recent release of Evil Dead, I started to think back on the quality of horror films in this generation. It's not hard to acknowledge that the Saw franchise has inspired the high amounts of gore in horror films today. Still, I find myself returning back to the first film because of how carefully crafted it was, despite the limited shooting time frame. There are few standouts this generation that do favor the story and atmosphere over the blood and gore, but Saw will always remain my favorite.

Comedy Website to Produce Parody Movie About Late Apple Head

Actor Justin Long, well known for starring in several films as well as "Get a Mac" commercials, will be playing Steve Jobs in an upcoming parody movie from comedy website Funny or Die.

The website is creating a 60 - 75 minute movie named iSteve, which will be released online on April 15. Director Ryan Perez told the New York Times in an interview that the movie will not be based off extensive research and is meant to be very silly while looking at his whole life. Long has had a substantial relationship with Apple as he starred in the Mac-versus-PC TV ads for several years up until the end of the campaign in 2010.

This is not the first film about Jobs and his life. Jobs is an upcomming independent film starring actor Ashton Kutcher, with the release date being delayed, and Sony Pictures is also working on an adaptation of Walter Isaacson's authorized biography on Jobs. Funny or Die has featured several parody movies about Jobs, including one envisioning if Hollywood made a Jason Statham-style action movie about Jobs' life.

'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter Achieves Massive Fundraising

Fans of the TV show Veronica Mars will be happy to know that the Kickstarter project to bring the show to the big screen as a feature film has become the fastest project to reach the $1 million mark.

The project beats out others such as Pebble watch and the OUYA console along with the role-playing game Torment. Veronica Mars only took a little over four hours to reach $1 million, which is quite impressive for a show that never had that good of ratings and is only available to watch on TheWB.com. The show itself fits perfectly as a Kickstarter campaign, as the show has a cult following that was clearly more than willing to donate money and spread the word of this opportunity. This has obviously been made much easier thanks to Twitter and Facebook, where as before fans of the show relied on discussion forums and fan sites to raise money.

It has been confirmed that the project reached the $2 million goal in under ten hours, with fans still donating money by the minute.

Blade Runner Director Teaming Up With Machinima

Director Ridley Scott, known for hit films Blade Runner and Alien, is teaming up with video entertainment network Machinima to produce 12 science fiction short films.

Scott will not direct these shorts himself; instead he and Machinima will choose directors from RSA, Scott's production company, including Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, Kathryn Bigelow and Neill Blomkamp. The planned outcome of this collaboration is for some of these short films to eventually lead to a new franchise. Scott believes that Machinima is a great partner to collaborate on this "new model of delivering original content to fans" as well as pushing the creative boundaries for both filmmakers and audiences.

After the success with the webseries Mortal Kombat Legacy, which is spawning a second season as well as a feature film based off of it, it will be interesting to see what these short films will feature and how they will be received by viewers.

Movie Retrospective - Scooby Doo (2002)

If you were to ask me what my favorite cartoon of all time, Scooby Doo would probably be my answer. Growing up on Cartoon Network, I would watch the countless reruns of the talking dog and his adventures in solving mysteries every day. It remains to this day as one of the most popular and successful animated series to date, inspiring multiple spinoff shows and movies, so it only seems logical that a live action feature film be produced. When I first saw this film I absolutely loved it. Ten years later, nostalgia convinced me to watch it again to see how it held up after all this time.

In short: this movie is bad, really bad. I still can't wrap my head around why I liked it so much as a kid. There is so much wrong with this film that I almost feel ashamed that I watched it. Then again, I was naive and thought lots of bad movies were good at the time. Is it as horrible as people say it is? It's pretty close, but surprisingly there are some good aspects about.

For starters, Shaggy and Scooby are very well portrayed. Matt Lillard was the perfect choice for Shaggy and Neil Fanning does a great job of getting the voice down for Scooby. The chemistry between the two of them is also handled very well; it's clear that these two are best friends and the movie does a great job of showing that. Velma is also done very well, maintaining her book smart personality paired with a science geek charm, although Linda Cardellini may have sounded a bit too nasal at times. Unfortunately, Fred and Daphne are not so great as they feel completely out of character in moments. Granted, they didn't have that much personality in the original show, so it's understandable to try and make them more interesting, but they come off as egotistical and full of himself in Fred's case and overly annoying in Daphne's.

Even though Fred and Daphne are not entirely too likable, there are some great moments with them as well as the rest of the main cast where they poke fun at their roles in the original show. Bringing up things such as exactly how they always get lured into a spooky location and how Fred always chooses Daphne first when splitting the group up provide some nice nostalgic context for those who grew up with the show. It's a shame that these are not used more often in place of the humor that is used, but it's still nice to see them when they appear.

Finally, the set pieces and location designs are done very well. When the gang goes to the abandoned dark ride castle, it really gives off an ominous, threatening and creepy vibe. That scene alone is in my personal opinion the best scene in the movie because it is at that moment that the movie feels most like the original cartoon. There's also a lot of creativity throughout the island itself, which is a welcome sight to see.

Unfortunately, that's just about it for the good in this movie, and it's not enough to overshadow what is wrong with the film. The humor contains pop culture references and flatulence jokes used to please today's generation of kids. I have nothing wrong with this convention if used in an original film, but to put in a scene where Shaggy and Scooby have a belching and farting contest, a scene I absolutely detested, just seems wrong. Also, do most kids even know who Pamela Anderson is? I found her cameo in the beginning particularly confusing. Most of the bad humor can be credited to the poor writing. The dialogue is absolutely terrible. I can only imagine how idiotic Freddie Prinze Jr. must have felt when he said "dorky chicks like you turn me on" to Velma. It seems scary, but you could probably find better written dialogue in a Scooby Doo fan fiction.

The plot itself is kind of interesting, but it's not executed well at all. The gang, minus Shaggy and Scooby, doesn't have any many legitimate reasoning for separating, save for Daphne hating the damsel in distress routine, and this even gets pushed aside because they reunite literally ten minutes after. Then they claim they're going to solve the mystery individual only to reunite again ten minutes later to work together. It would have made more sense for them to remain separated for a longer period of time only to then realize how much they need each other and reconcile towards the end. The film tries that but it doesn't come through in the end.

Ultimately, the main thing wrong with the film is that it doesn't really feel like a Scooby Doo film. The tone is all over the place, going for overly comedic with only having few genuinely creepy moments. The original show blended the comedic and spooky aspects perfectly, but the film is so concerned with being "hip and cool" that anything genuinely creepy is lost. The interactions between some of the characters doesn't feel natural and the mystery itself doesn't seem so compelling. The Mystery Machine only appears twice for maybe a total of ten minutes, which is understandable because of where the story takes place but still really disappointing. On top of that, without spoiling anything, the main villain is laughably terrible, as if the writers just got really lazy and decided to throw it in out of nowhere.

There are so many other things that are wrong with this film, in which case I might make a video to better portray my opinion of it, but overall the film just doesn't work. There are so many good ideas here that are just executed poorly, and the film suffers for the need to modernize a timeless character. If you are looking to feed your nostalgia for Scooby Doo, just watch the cartoon and avoid this film at all costs.

Video Game Classics to be Honored at MoMA Exhibit

New York's Museum of Modern Art is opening a new exhibit, starting this Friday, honoring video game classics, tailoring to the growing nostalgia for these classic games and the arcades gamers used to spend countless quarters playing at. The following fourteen games will be installed in the museum's Philip Johnson Galleries: Pac-Man (1980), Tetris (1984), Another World (1991), Myst (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), The Sims (2000), Katamari Damacy (2004), EVE Online (2003), Dwarf Fortress (2006), Portal (2007), flOw (2006), Passage (2008) and Canabalt (2009).

These games were chosen based off a variety of criteria including visual quality, elegance of the code and design of playing behavior. Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of the MoMA's department of architecture and design, explains that the games will be displayed on screens fixed to the gallery walls, with most of them being playable on the spot. There is the concern that traffic flow will cause some problems, in particular with games such as Pac-Man, but Antonelli has addressed those concerns and is confident that the exhibit will run smoothly as planned.

The MoMA intends to acquire more games for the exhibit in the future, bringing the total number planned to 40, and the exhibit will run until January of next year.

Movie Review - Die Hard 5

"Die Hard" remains to this day as one of my top ten favorite action films, and it's no surprise why. The story is compelling, the characters are memorable and the action and suspense are top notch. The franchise has solidified Bruce Willis as one of cinema's best action stars along with creating the iconic character John McClane, the New York City cop that always seems to find trouble in the wrong places.  After twenty five years, a fifth entry in the franchise titled "A Good Day to Die Hard," or "Die Hard 5" as many refer it as, has been released in a time where previous action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are looking to make a comeback. Does this film deliver the high-octane action and suspense the franchise is well known for, or does it reek of age and beg for the franchise to end.

After viewing the film, I can say that while "Die Hard 5" is a great action film, it is unfortunately a very underwhelming "Die Hard" film. What do I mean by this? The film is a great action film without a doubt, but it lacks the charm that is present in the previous films.

One factor that contributes to this charm is the villains. All of the villains in the franchise have so far been memorable in both their ultimate goals and their personalities. In every film, I could pick them out as individuals rather than another nameless enemy. Unfortunately, the villains in "Die Hard 5" are not that memorable. Their end goals are not entirely original and they have no personality to them at all. Now some will argue that Thomas Gabriel had this problem in the previous film, but I argue that he had the most original end goal. He wasn't trying to destroy the world or steal money or anything. He was simply trying to make a point, his point, and he would stop at nothing to see it done. I just didn't get that from this film.

Another problem I had with the film is, sadly, McClane doesn't feel like McClane. That's not to say that Willis pulls a poor performance, as he easily shines in his iconic role, I almost didn't recognize him as the "policeman hero who saved the Nakatomi hostages." This McClane seems more focused on mending his broken relationship with his son, which takes up the majority of the film and even hurts scenes that were otherwise intense action moments. Even more disappointing, McClane doesn't try to foil the villain's plans by calling them and cursing them out, a scene I always loved in the previous films, especially in the first film. This could be because for the first time, he doesn't have as much information about this villain or a means to communicate with them, where in the past films he always had radio communication with them.

Finally, there is the iconic catchphrase, "Yippe-ki-yay, mother******." Thankfully, the line is not edited out like in the previous film (although the full line is present in the unrated version of the film). The problem though is the delivery felt really off. In the past movies, the line is spoken directly before McClane dramatically kills the villain, or in the case of "Die Hard with a Vengeance directly after. However, in "Die Hard 5," McClane says the line in the middle of the last fight rather than before the final kill. This may be more of a nitpick, but it didn't have the same badass feel that it had in the previous films, and in the end it only felt mildly satisfying to hear it.

All of that aside, there are still things to like about the film. As said before, Willis proves he is still worthy of his action icon status. The film delivers enough eye popping explosions, shootouts and car chases to please any action fan, although there is a surprising lack of hand-to-hand combat. There are also some welcome nods to the first film, and newcomers don't have to have seen all of the previous films to follow the plot. While the writing is very cheesy, there are moments in the dialogue that do bring out the McClane fans have grown to know and love, despite there being so few.

In the end, while this is not a great entry in the "Die Hard" franchise, I was still satisfied when I left the theater. Fans of the previous films may be disappointed with this latest installment, but there is enough for any fan of action films or Bruce Willis to warrant a theatrical viewing. Also, it was a great way for a single guy to spend Valentine's Day.

Budokai HD Collection Flawed But Satisfying

I was first introduced to Dragon Ball Z: Budokai during middle school by a friend, and ever since that day I was hooked on to it. We played countless hours, fighting each other with our favorite characters over and over again. During a time when I should have grown out of the anime, this game solidified my  passion for it. Then a few years later Budokai 3 was released. I can't really say anything about the game that hasn't been said already, but to this day it still remains one of my top favorite fighting games of all time.

When I first saw the announcement for Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection, I wasn't sure what to think. Part of me was very excited to see two games that I played all the time be ported over to next gen consoles. At the same time, part of me wondered whether or not these two games would be enough to make up for the huge disappointment that was Ultimate Tenkaichi. After playing the collection, I can safely say that it still retains that same satisfaction, but it is now without its flaws.

For starters, the collection only has two games from the entire franchise: Budokai 1 and 3. There is no Budokai 2, Shin Budokai/Another Road or Infinite World, and none of the Tenkaichi series. This will ultimately serve as a deal breaker to the collector who wants every single game in the franchise. Personally, these were the two I played the most, so I didn't see much of a problem with it. In fact, most fans will probably still buy the collection for the sole reason of playing Budokai 3 on a next gen console, especially those who didn't have the PS2 original. On top of that, I wouldn't be surprised if another HD collection of the Tenkaichi games is released in the future, which could potentially explain their absence in this collection to begin with, but it does seem strange not to include the others, in particular Budokai 2.

Another point that has caused massive backlash from fans is the replacement of the original music. All of the music in both Budokai 1 and 3, save for "Rock the Dragon," has been replaced with music from the Tenkaichi games. The reasoning behind this is Kenji Yamamoto, the composer of the music used in the games as well as Dragon Ball Z Kai, was fired from Toei Animation for suspected infringement of rights of possible third parties, leading Toei to replace all of his compositions. This leads to some awkward music scores in certain scenes throughout the story mode and in the end loses that extra spark the originals had. While not all of the music is terrible, it is still disappointing to play the game without the great music tracks, in particular the original theme to Budokai 3.

Finally, there is the issue of the lack of online multiplayer. In an age where fighting games essentially need to include online play, it is a shame to see it missing here. Does it need online play? Not really, but I honestly can't see it being very difficult to add, as evident with the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection supporting online play for all three games. While offline versus is still available, it would have been amazing to play what many gamers still consider to be one of the best fighting games made on Xbox Live or PSN.

So after these three major flaws, you are probably wondering why I said the collection was still satisfying. Even with these flaws, both games are still as much fun to play as before. All of the modes from both games return, including Legend of Hercule in Budokai 1 and the Dragon Arena in Budokai 3. Even with the change in music, I still felt like I was playing the Budokai games I knew and loved. I was even willing to overlook the fact that the fighting in Budokai 1 had not aged as well because I still received that sense of nostalgia from when I first played it. Even more rewarding is playing Budokai 3. It is still fast paced, hectic, brutal fun, and that is why I wanted to come back to these games in the first place.

Along with the great gameplay, both games look beautiful in HD. The difference between this version and the original is staggering. Even Budokai 1 looks incredible in HD. The only downside to the presentation is that for some reason, cutscenes and menus still display in the original 4:3 aspect ration and then switches to 16:9 for the fighting. It's a minor annoyance that I didn't find too much issue with, but it still would have been nice for the entire game to be in full HD.

To sum it up, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection has some glaring flaws that will alienate fans of the original. The lack of online multiplayer, original music, and full games will likely turn away those who were hoping for a definitive collection that would be perfect for next gen consoles. At the same time, those who are willing to overlook these flaws will find extremely fun gameplay done in beautiful HD remastering. If you have been disappointed with the recent batch of games and want to return to gameplay that was truly worthy of the Dragon Ball Z name, this is the collection for you. Just be prepared for some changes.

Hansel and Gretel Top Box Office

Paramount's most recent film, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, staring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, took the number one spot at the box office this past weekend, dethroning Universal's Mama. FilmDistrict's Parker, staring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez came in fifth place while Relativity's Movie 43, boasting one of the biggest ensemble casts ever in film, came in seventh. Kicked out of the top ten were A Haunted House, The Last Stand and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The full box office results are listed below.

1. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Paramount) - $19,690,956

2. Mama (Universal) - $13,088,145

3. Zero Dark Thirty (Sony) - $9,700,132

4. Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein Company) - $9,444,039

5. Parker (FilmDistrict) - $7,008,222

6. Django Unchained (Weinstein Company) - $4,946,932

7. Movie 43 (Relativity) - $4,805,878

8. Gangster Squad (Warner Bros.) - $4,278,235

9. Les Miserables (Universal) - $4,221,055

10. Broken City (Fox) - $4,019,558

Movie Trailers to Air During Super Bowl 2013

Each year the Super Bowl is arguably the most watched event on television. On average, 80 to 90 million people tune in to the game at any point, regardless of whether or not they watch the entire game. Whether it be the halftime entertainment or the highly popular advertisements, there is always something for any viewer, whether one is a fan of football or not. One aspect of the Super Bowl that did not really take off until the 1990's was the advertisement of movies. What started with TV spots for movies such as "Armageddon," "Lost in Space," and "The Mask of Zorro" has now become an iconic moment for upcoming blockbusters to make their first mark on audiences. Last year we saw hits such as "The Avengers" and "The Hunger Games" receive widespread attention thanks to the advertisements at the Super Bowl, and now the movies to premiere this year have been officially announced.

As of now, the following movies have been confirmed to air trailers for during the Super Bowl:

Iron Man 3

The Lone Ranger

Oz The Great and Powerful

The Fast and the Furious 6

World War Z

Star Trek Into Darkness

Tom Cruise's upcoming sci-fi film "Oblivion" was originally confirmed to run a preview, but now it is unclear as to whether or not it will. It is interesting to see that "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" has not been announced to premiere considering it releases in November. Another highly anticipated film that is rumored to premiere is "The Wolverine," after the trailer was pulled from the selection before "The Hobbit." It is possible that there are more movies that were not announced but will premiere as a surprise. Whatever the case may be, audiences everywhere will tune in to the Super Bowl for more than just football.

DmC Causes Controversy - Capcom Responds

"DmC" is the highly anticipated reboot of the action franchise, but ever since the initial announcement in 2010 it has stirred up controversy over one key element: Dante's look. In the franchise, Dante has always retained a certain look: white hair, long red coat and a highly sarcastic, witty attitude. This has made him one of Capcom's most famous characters as well as one of the most iconic heroes in gaming. So when the new Dante was shown with short black hair and a black coat, sporting what most labeled "Emo Dante," fans strongly panned the change. At the same time, the game continued to be highly anticipated because of the highly detailed presentation and fast-paced combat.

Fast forward to January 15, the release of "DmC," and reception has been incredibly mixed. Unfortunately, the significant criticism amongst fans is the new look of Dante, even so much as to prevent gamers from playing the game. Even worse, a poorly written petition was created on WhiteHouse.gov requesting President Barack Obama to remove the game from the shelves. The petition claims that the game actually violates gamers' rights as consumers, forcing them to choose between the original or the reboot.  Furthermore, it calls out the game for "insulting the consumers in-game," referring to several callback to Dante's original look in the game, where Dante remarks he would never wear his hair white and longer. The petition has since been removed, but whether or not it was intended as a joke or a serious request remains to be determined.

In an attempt to end the outrage, Capcom has announced the release of a "Classic Dante Costume Pack" as DLC for the game. Due to be released on January 29th on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC at $4.00 or 320 Microsoft Points, the costume pack will include the original look of Dante from the previous games. This is not the first time a game company has released extra content for a game on the heels of negative reception, as EA Games and Bioware followed the same path after the controversy "Mass Effect 3" generated.

I find the entire situation extremely juvenile and just plain sad. I myself do not love Dante's new look, but I do not hate it either. The point of a reboot is to experiment with an already established franchise to try something new. In this case, the developers wanted to try a different spin on the main character. I am not saying people are not allowed to not like the new look, but to go as far as to post a petition on WhiteHouse.gov requesting that President Obama drops everything that he is doing to answer the complaints of a small fraction of the gaming fan base is absolutely ridiculous. Whatever the case may be, this is certainly a new low for gaming fanboys.

Movie Retrospective - Mortal Kombat (1995)

I'm not ashamed to say it, but I love the Mortal Kombat franchise. I have loved it ever since I was a kid, and it played a major part as my inspiration for wanting to learn martial arts. Of course, at the age of five my obsession came from how cool the characters looked, in particular the ninjas Scorpion (shown above) and Sub-Zero. Even though technically I should not have been allowed to view what many consider to be one of the most violent franchises in gaming, I still could not get enough of it. So you can imagine my uncontrollable excitement when I first learned that a film adaptation of Mortal Kombat was produced. Granted, I did not learn of the existence of the film until I was nine, but regardless I could not wait to see it.

I first saw it on TV one New Year's Eve, and it was at the time my favorite movie. Everything fit my at the time naive perceptions of the game. The action was great, the characters all looked cool and the story was fun. When I eventually received the movie on VHS one Christmas, I could not stop watching it, losing count all together at around sixty. Then, as time passed, I stopped watching it and moved on to bigger and better action films, and for a long time I left the VHS sitting in the closet until it was put in a box with all the other VHS tapes and stored in the attic.

It wasn't until 2011, the release of the latest game Mortal Kombat, that peaked my interest back in the franchise. After playing the game, I realized that I had not seen the movie in so long and decided it would be nice to indulge my nostalgia. Fast forward to March of 2012 and I found a copy of the film on Blu-Ray and purchased it without hesitation. As I inserted the disc into my PlayStation 3, the first question I asked myself was what I would think of it. Would I still find that feeling of excitement and joy I experienced watching it over and over again as a kid? Would I look at it with complete disgust that something so ridiculous actually entertained me?

The answer to this question: a little bit of both. When I watched it again after a long period of time, I found myself noticing a lot of things that I never thought of in the first place because I was too young to even care. For starters, some of the special effects are plain awful. Two in particular come to mind: Scorpion's "spear" and Reptile's reptilian form. I'm sure at the time these were incredible for early CGI animation, but in today's standards it's painfully obvious how terrible they look. Are they as bad as in Mortal Kombat Annihilation? Not really, but that's for another entry. At the same time, the some of the other effects are not that bad. I found Sub-Zero's ice attacks generally good and Raiden's electricity still looked cool too. The best effect of the movie in my opinion is Goro. In an age where such a character would be depicted in CGI, it is nice to see animatronics done relatively well. Overall, aside from a couple noticeable standouts, the movie is still appealing to look at.

What really stood out to me was the acting, and it really shows how campy this film is meant to be. I appreciate that the actors all seemed like they were having fun with their roles, in particular Christopher Lambart as Raiden and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, because it made the film more enjoyable to watch. Granted, the writing is pretty bad here, with a lot of failed punchlines delivered by Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage, but it did not really matter so much because you knew none of the actors were really taking this film too seriously (at least that was how I saw it). Interesting to note that originally Cameron Diaz was cast to play Sonya Blade, but after she injured herself while training Bridgette Wilson took her place. I do not know if this ended up being for the better or worse, but after seeing Diaz handle action relatively well in Charlie's Angels, it always makes me wonder how it would have turned out. I was also very interested to find out that Trevor Goddard's portrayal of Kano was well received by the Ed Boon, the creator of the franchise, that he changed Kano's nationality to match that of the film's.

Of course, I was not watching Mortal Kombat for the acting or special effects. I was watching for what inspired me to take martial arts in the first place, the fighting. Almost twenty years has passed since the release of the film, and I have to say it still delivers on the action. The fights are well choreographed and fast paced. The best part of these fights was you could clearly see everything that was happening because there was no shaky camera editing that has plagued action films these days. They are not by any means the best fights, but they are still very entertaining.

Apart from the action, Mortal Kombat accomplishes what many adaptations off of games fail to do: it stays true to the source material. Some may argue against that due to the inclusion of Kitana and Reptile, two characters who did not enter the franchise until the second game, but the story itself follows exactly how the first game plays out. Every character also looks and acts just like how their respective character would in the game. The back stories were also the way they should be, minus a couple minor changes, which is important because if the characters are not faithful to the source material, then the film has already failed.

Unfortunately, as most people have rightfully pointed out, the film lacked the one thing that really put the franchise on the map: the blood and gore. I knew the violence was going to be toned down a bit because of the PG-13 rating, but to have no blood or gore at all was highly disappointing (and I do not count the incredibly fake looking blood when Scorpion was killed). On top of that, fatalities, a feature that I particularly enjoy about the franchise, were almost nonexistent. I was very surprised that I did not pick that out when I first watched the film as a kid, but now it is the one thing holding it back from being great.

In the end, Mortal Kombat is not exactly the same film that I enjoyed watching over and over again as a kid. The sub-par special effects, lazy writing and lack of genuine blood and gore keep the film from being the perfect adaptation. At the same time, the fun, campy acting, nearly spot on connection to the original game and the fast paced action make this a very enjoyable film and in my opinion the best film adapted off a video game. If you are a fan of the franchise and have not seen it yet, I highly recommend checking this one out. Do yourself a favor though and skip Annihilation.

Halo 2 PC Servers Shutting Down Next Month

Halo 2, one of the best selling games on the original Xbox and a pioneer in multiplayer gaming, both online and offline, will finally be closing it's doors on February 15, as 343 Studios announced it will be closing the PC servers for good, effectively ending online multiplayer for the game.

A post by 343 Studios on Halo Waypoint explains that the cause of the shutdown is related to the lack of players on the servers. "We've been monitoring the population for months, and it's been peaking consistently at approximately 20 players or less." 343 Studios assures those that still own the game that they will be able to continue playing multiplayer over LAN, but as of February 15 the networking services will be shut off. The announcement concluded with a heartfelt goodbye to Halo 2. "We love you, Halo 2 PC, and you will live forever in out hearts."

Many gamers were shocked when Bungie first announced the closure of Halo 2's Xbox Live servers in April 2010. Bungie revealed that as of the shutdown of the servers, more than 5.4 billion games of Halo 2 were played online. Although the Xbox Live servers were shutdown, the PC servers were left open.

The Halo franchise is considered by many to be the among the best first-person shooters in gaming. For many people, it is the main reason why they buy an Xbox and subscribe to Xbox Live in the first place. Ever since the release of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, the franchise has remained one of the leaders in the shooter genre with its combination of rich world and mythology, deep storyline, and fast, hectic multiplayer. 

For gamers, Halo 2 is what defines their gaming passion, and for critics it built the foundation for future games to follow in. Without it, games like Call of Duty and Battlefield would more than likely not be nearly as enjoyable to play. With rumors circulating that Halo 3 is next in line for its servers to shutdown, we can only look back now at all the memories Halo 2 brought us and how it defined multiplayer gaming. 

In the words of Noble 1: Commander Carter - A259, "Spartans never die..." and to those that took part in over 5 billion games online, Halo 2 will always live on.

Welcome to Entertainment13!

This is the hopeful revival of my entertainment blog. I will be posting entries such as reviews, previews and analyses on film, television and gaming. I hope you find something here that you enjoy as I attempt to share my knowledge and passion on entertainment.