Netflix Reviews #5

The Conspirator

I saw the trailer to this movie a couple of months back but when I watched it I had forgotten about most of it. Just remembered that it was sort of a court room drama that had to do with the assassination of President Abe Lincoln. Director Robert Redford assembled a really talented cast that includes James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, among others. They all do great work together, especially between McAvoy and Wright. You can almost feel the conflict inside of her as she juggles her love for her son to her duties as a mother. The same can be said about McAvoy who plays an ex-military lawyer who has to defend the mother of a traitor as she is accused of conspiracy. The movie is pretty straightforward in its delivery with no real surprises, but we see characters like McAvoy's Frederick Aiken go from one end of the spectrum to sacrificing his own future in order to defend someone who everyone else thinks is guilty. It was a pretty good movie that I'd recommend to anyone who is a history fan or a fan of court room dramas.

7 out of 10

Battle Los Angeles

I wasn't looking forward to watching this that much. From the trailer, it seemed like a lot of special effects and no substance, and that is pretty much what you get from this one. Jonathan Liebesman, who also directed horror movies like Darkness Falls and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, didn't really make me any more confident that this was going to be any good. This movie didn't really feel like a sci-fi movie but it was more like a straight up war movie that just happened to have aliens. The effects throughout the movie were very well done. The emotions in the movie were hokey at best. Truth is, I can't remember anyone other than Aaron Eckhart's character. It was just a war movie with no filling. Nothing to make it memorable at all.

4.5 out of 10

Sucker Punch

Ever since I saw the Dawn of the Dead remake that Zack Snyder made back in 2004, I knew this director would go on to do good stuff. After that, both 300 and Watchmen were two of my favorite graphic novels that he turned into movies, but even better than that, into good movies. Sucker Punch is a strange one. It's a strange movie in the way it is told. It's basically a fantasy within a dream. Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Jamie Chung and Vanessa Hudgens do a good job here, nothing amazing, but good. I would have liked to have seen some more back story given to the girls but as an action movie, it's okay. The really great thing about this movie are the fantasy sequences. Giant stone samurai, zombie nazis, robot guards... it all looks incredibly cool. I have to admit, even thought there's a lot of faults and stuff I could find wrong with this movie, I couldn't help but enjoy the movie.

6.5 out of 10

Biutiful

There are movies that have sad endings, there are movies that have incredibly sad scenes, and then there are movies that make you want to cry yourself to sleep and never ever wake up. This is one of those movies. Javier Bardem plays Uxbal. He lives in the fringes of society doing anything he can to feed and give a nice life to his children. Uxbal has an ability, though, he can communicate with the dead. It isn't long before everything goes haywire and we find out that there is something incredibly wrong with Uxbal. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu is used to making movies with doomed characters just trying to get by but this movie takes the cake. It's a great movie and Javier Bardem does a wonderful job, but this is a really really depressing movie. It reminded me of Never Let Me Go in terms of how depressing it is. I could understand why people wouldn't enjoy this movie, but it's also hard not to be enthralled with it. I sort of wish they would have focused some more on Uxbal's ability. Maricel Alvarez is also pretty good as Bardem's love interest Marambra. The movie doesn't deal with black and whites but with shades of grey, a lot like the real world.

7 out of 10

inFamous 2 electric boogaloo (pun intended)

The first inFamous came around in a much needed time for Sony. It was the only good PS3 exclusive to come out in a while, and it did help a console struggling to find it's footing against the Halo monster. Unfortunately, it wasn't an amazing game. It felt unpolished and repetitive a lot of the time; plus finding the damned blast shards was a total pain in the ass.

The only things I was really expecting with inFamous 2 were improvements on those issues, and looking at it from that perspective they over-delivered. The diversity in powers and abilities help keep the game fresh You won't just unlock everything half-way through a playthrough and get bored. The missions themselves are varied and just not as tedious. Plus, they added a blast shard detector, even if it's the last power you unlock.

Story wise, the second is much improved, probably thanks to how the characters are written and how they interact. For example, a character like Zeke, who is supposed to be your best friend/powerless sidekick, was annoying as a mosquito while driving in the first game. Here he is much more useful and funny. It might help that Cole treats him like shit most of the game, but he deserved it.

Other characters like Quo and Nix liven up the cast, which is a step up from the first game that had very few characters at all. They also add the concept of adding characters to each 'side' of the game, basically picking between your allies depending on the actions you take.

The whole 'good/evil' thing is obviously still there, it's supposed to be the thing that holds the game together, but it seems to fall at the wayside. The only things really affected by this decision are the powers you unlock, like a quarter of the missions and side missions, and the final battle itself, and the ending. The bulk of the game is the same thing no matter how you act, making this system kinda dumb. On top of that, one would think that it would be easier to be evil and not worry about harming bystanders if they got in the way (which they do, a lot) but the powers you unlock on the good side are actually better this time around.

Dick Cheney wants you to pick the red one... He's always watching.

The other problem with this system is that it hinders Cole's character development in the story. Since most of the cutscenes are generic no matter how you're playing he needs to maintain a neutral stance. The only way for this type of thing to work is if there's (at least) two sets of cutscenes. In this game you have a handful of deep and interesting characters (by this genre's standards), except for the protagonist, who is bland and dull all the time because he needs to keep himself close to that middle line of neutrality for the plot to work.

Making matters worse, when you decide to be evil, you don't get to be 'badass evil'... You get to be 'douchebag evil'. What do I mean? Lets put it this way... You would love to be The Joker from The Dark Knight; all awesome and badass, with great lines and blowing up shit with style. But no, you get to be The Riddler from Batman Forever... All cheesy and whiny, kinda cowardly and with horrible one liners. I understand that they're trying to guilt you into being good and stuff, but if you're going to give us the option of being evil you should try to make it mostly enjoyable, not just sickening. It's a game, not a guilt trip.

That said, the endings don't compare. The 'good' ending, while decent has nothing on the 'evil' one. The final sequence on the Dick Cheney playthrough was awesome heart wrenching. Truly the mark of good character development (not Cole's). Even if the blue ending is the canon one, the red one is a definite must, it's quite enjoyable.

All in all, inFamous 2 is truly a vast improvement over an already pretty good first game. With improvements in the obvious areas, plus a much better story, Sucker Punch really upped the ante. The formula works, and I expect a third, no matter how it ended. If they keep improving at this rate, that third game could really be something special. Lets just hope they don't fuck it up.

6/10