Movies I watched in July 2016

So, I saw a good amount of new movies this month. 8 in total, and I have to say most of them were really good.

Thirteen Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Wow. A Michael Bay movie that did not make me want to smash my head into the wall? I have to admit that I did not have too high of hopes for this, and it turned out to be a good movie. It probably helps that it was based on actual events and he coulud not mess with that. But overall, a story of soldiers that do what it takes to save people in a bad situations. Still a few Bay things about the movie, that made you roll your eyes, but overall pretty good.

Rating 7 out of 10

Room 
Wow, what an amazing movie. I remember Brie Larson as the ex-girlfriend in the Scott Pilgrim movie. But wow, she was amazing in this movie. The movie was so intense as she and her son Jack were in a horrible situation, and the long journey to recovery afterwards. But man the relationship between her and Jack throughout the movie. They had such chemistry and it just told such a great story. This is a move everyone should watch.
Rating 9 out of 10 

Eye in the Sky
Holy shit. What a great movie. What a horrible decision to have to make. You have two suicide bombers about to leave a house, and up to almost possible deaths that could occur. So the brits, and the americans try to determine if they can do a drone strike killing the terrorists. The problem a young girl is right outside there house selling bread and would likely die from the blast.
So, the question is this. Is one child's life worth possibly saving countless others?
This was tense and well done. I don't know the answer to this question, but the movies does a great job of making you feel the tension and pressure of it.
Rating 8.5 out of 10

Ghostbusters
This is a tough on as the original GB is one of my favorite movies ever. Overall, the four Ghostbusters were amazing and did a wonderful job. They were funny and up until the last 30 minutes, the movie was quite enjoyable. Sadly, the last part of the movie was borderine awful, and it brought the movie down. The cameos did not do anything to help the movie and it makes me wonder if this should have ever been remade. Still, an enjoyable movie overall.
Rating 6 out of 10

Midnight Special
This movie was boring as hell. I wanted to like it as I was looking forward to it, but nothing ever really happens in the  movie and they do nothing to really explain why the kid has powers. Not horribe (and the acting was great), just kind of boring. No, really damn boring.
Rating 4 out of 10

The Clone Wars
I cannot believe I have never watched this considering how much of a Star Wars fan I am. But I have heard that it was awful, and that is pretty much true. It felt like a disjoined and boring version of a Clone Wars tv episode. I can see how people would not like liked Ahsoka at first as she was really annoying in this movie. Which is a shame considering she is one of my favorite SW chracters.
Rating 3.5 out of 10

Star Wars Beyond
I am not a Trekkie, but I have always had enjoyed the movies for the most part. This movie was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed all the crazy and unbelievable things that happened. But the crew has a lot of chemistry and the action was on point. It was a bit corny, but so is the rest of Star Trek for the most part. It was really sad seeing all of the crew in the final shot and knowing Anton Yelchin will never be in another movie due to his tragic death.

Rating 8 out of 10

Attack the Block
Wow, was this movie fun. A bunch of street punks in London fighting aliens from another world? Why not? It sounds ridiculous and it kind of is...but in the best way. It has John Boyga (from Star Wars), and it was just a pleasure to watch. The alien creatures were actually kind of terrifying and the movie was a lot more tense than you would think it would be. Overall, a lot of fun..

Rating 8.5 out of 10

Overall: A great month of movies as I watched things outside of my box a bit, and it paid off.

Best movie: Room. This movie was amazing and creepy and I loved it.
Worst movie: The Clone Wars movie. As much as I love Star Wars, this was awful.
Biggest disappointment. Ghostbusters, but only cuz I wanted it to be better. It was ok.
Biggest surprise: 13 Hours. I assumed it was going to be another Michael Bay shitfest.
Best performance: Brie Larson in Room. She was amazing and I can see why she has won an oscar.

Uncharted 4 review (SPOILERS)

I am going to be spoiling the hell out of this game, so be warned. 

Wow, this was a great ending to the Uncharted series. First of all, the game is the best looking game I have ever seen on a console. It is just so gorgeous. I had to stop occasionally to just look around at all of the beauty. Also, with emotions on their faces. Doubt, disbelief, anger, laughter, etc. All were awesome. 

Some people do not like the pacing of this game, but I loved it. There was a lot going on in different timelines of the story, but it made for such an incredible beginning to the game. Slow? Yes, but in the best possible way. 

Whether you enjoy this game may be whether you connect with Nathan and Sam as brothers. They spend a lot of time together and if you don’t like that, the game may not work for you. I loved it. Getting to know how they get together in the game was handled well with a few flashback scenes. Those flashbacks to them when they were children were just so interesting and cool. Along with a few twists along the way, their relationship was handled very well. Yes, there was the expected (at least to me), betrayal, but it was even done with a cool misdirect. 

The downside was that you did not get as much of Sullivan as usual. He was in the game, just not as much and that was a small complaint. 

Then there is Elena, who may be the best character in this series. First the scene where she and Nathan were playing Crash Bandicoot to see who did the dishes was both unexpected and just amazing. Made me tear up as I realize how much I grew to love these two as characters. I enjoyed them in previous games, but it really hit me here. 

I was a little worried playing the game that Elena was not in it enough, and then suddenly she was. Also, the interaction between her and Drake was very sweet, and at times heartbreaking as usual Drake being the bonehead he is, lied to her about the “job”. So, she had no idea what he was doing, that he even had a brothers, and where was. So, that came to a head and she was hurt and angry and you spend time in the game wondering if they lived, if their marriage would last. It was handled so well and even though she did not leave him, for a moment you thought she might. 

Then to the villains. I really liked Rafe and Nadine. He was obviously a bit of a nut job, but the flashbacks did a lot to explain his relationship with the Drake brothers. Nadine was cool too as she spend her limited time in the game just beating the hell out of anything with the last name Drake. The last fight between Nathan and Rafe was pretty awesome as well. 

The voice acting was amazing, all across the board. Just amazing. 

The only real downside to the game was the introduction to vehicles to the game. This was only cuz I sucked at it.  Although driving the crew off a cliff was kind of funny. There was one scene where I was being chased and I kept dying cuz I was not handling the driving well at all. That more on me than the game though. 

The epilogue was amazing. It sets up future games with their daughter Cassie if they so choose. But it was just so damn sweet as she walked around their house and you can see the Nathan and Elena were still out doing the things they loved. I love the symmetry of her coming across the same items that Nathan did early on in the game in the attic. Just a lot of sweet moments and the perfect way to end the game. 

Rating 10 out of 10. One of my favorite games of all time and very slightly under the Last of Us. 

Why letting go of my hatred of the prequels is not easy

I have been a Star Wars fan for almost 40 years as A New Hope came out when I was 6 years old. So, this goes back a LONG time. My love for these movies is immense, and it helped shape a large part of who I am as a person. Which is why I am so damn excited with the Force Awakens that is coming out, as the feel of them reminds me of the originals. Also, if you have not watched Rebels. Do it. Forget that it is on the Disney Channel as there is a lot of awesome there.

Then there are the prequels. There is not a person alive that can convince me that these movies are anything other than awful. That is just me. If you love them? That is awesome. The more people love Star Wars, the better it is. I just really don’t like them at all.

But it is time to let that go. They are a part of canon, and not every part of them were awful. But first a bit as to why they have been such a sore point all these years. 

I was really excited that there were new movies, but it was tempered by the fact they were telling a story I already knew the ending to. To be fair, I don’t really like prequels in much of anything. I ended up seeing the Phantom Menace five times, and it went from thinking it was good to wondering if I liked it at all.

I am also in the minority in the fact that I think the Phantom Menace the least awful of the three. It has two things the others did not Qui Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. Of course, they both died, which to this day I feel like was a huge mistake to have your two most interesting characters die in the first movie.

I honestly felt like the next two movies were worse. Where they tried to push a love story that in the best of times was just creepy as hell. Not to mention diminishing Padme from a good character in 1, and a love struck mess afterwards. As for Revenge of the Sith.  I walked out of that movie on opening night. Really did not like it at all.

It is why I never watched the Clone Wars as they reminded me of everything I hated about them. I am watching it now, and to be fair there still are a few things I don’t like about them that are directly related to them. The top three are: how dumb Grievous is, how inept the battle droids are, and yes, Jar Jar. But those things aside, I am really enjoying it so far. I love how portrait Anakin in the show and you can see his slide into madness. This is handled pretty well. And I love Ahsoka Tano.

But now the new movies are coming out, and with that comes reflection. I am actually kind of embarrassed with how for so many years I got caught up in heated arguments about the merit of the prequels. Instead of just being glad that other people were fans of this series, we would just argue about it. It is something I still see as people are so quick to dismiss the movies (I know this cuz I have done this in the past). Then arguments ensue.

So, as I said above, I am letting it go. Love what you love.

The bottom line is this. For far TOO long there has been two camps of Star Wars fans. Ones that love the original, and ones that love the prequels. There should only be one camp. Those that love Star Wars and who cares about the rest.

So, there are less than two weeks until the Force Awakens comes out. Let’s come together as fans and just enjoy this amazing thing we all love so much. 

My thoughts on the new Star Wars novels

Here is my ranking of the new Star Wars novels, from worst to best.

Heir to the Jedi  (between A New Hope and Empire)

By far the worst book in the series. Set in between A New Hope and Empire, it was a cool premise as it is Luke trying to figure out how to be a Jedi. The problem is that it never felt anything like Star Wars. It also took a chance in being from Luke’s first person perspective, and even though I was excited by that, it did not bring anything to the story. The sad thing is if you did not tell me it was a Star Wars story, you could have just placed this in any other universe. Also, did not like the way it was written at all. 

Rating 2.5 out of 10

A New Dawn (before A New Hope)       

I was really excited by this one as I am a HUGE Rebels fan. What a disappointment as the author of this story did a few things that just makes my brain hurt. 1. Made Kanan sound like Han Solo with jedi abilities. Even to the point where he kept calling people sweetheart. 2. Why do authors feel the need to end so many sentences with a exclamation mark?  I mean it happened. A LOT. Even having both Kanan and Hera did not help this story as I could never get past how it was written. It never worked for me at all. But it did at least have Kanan and Hera.

Rating 3.5 out of 10

Tarkin

I really wanted to like this more than I did. It isn’t even that I did not enjoy it as the back story for Tarkin was really interesting at times. But at other times it was just kind of boring. Now, I read this a while back and it is one of the ones I plan on reading again. But the interplay with Vader was really cool and any time Vader comes into a story and is written well, that is a plus. I just wish it held my interest throughout the entire story, but I was never that interested in Tarkin in the first place. BUt i wonder how much I went into it not wanting to like it? Which is why I need to just ignore that and try reading it again.

Rating 6.0 out of 10.

Aftermath (after Jedi)

Was really excited about this one as it is the story that takes place after Jedi. I do not think it was nearly as bad as people said it was. A LOT of people were not happy with it. I liked it overall, as I have read Wendig before and his writing style doesn’t really bother me. Saying that, the interludes that showed the rest of the universe were interesting at times, but also really stopped the flow of the story and it suffered because of that. Rae Sloan and Norra were awesome. How they used Wedge Antilles and Mister Bones was not.

Rating 6.5 out of 10

Smugglers Run (between a New Hope and Empire)

The image of an older Han Solo in a bar was really cool. Him being sent on a rescues mission by Leia (although relutctantly) was cooler. I also really liked Alecia Beck, the ISB officer that was trying to thwart them. Throw in a few bounty hunters chasing solo because he owed Jabba money? It was a fun read and it is also nice to see Han and Chewie at their best.

Rating 7.0 out of 10

Moving Target (between Empire and Jedi)

Leia being awesome. The addition of old characters like Mon Mothma, Ackbar, and Nien Numb was really cool.  Also, the fact that she is called General Leia? Nice. It was the first time I had heard that. Add to that the mention of Poe Dameron, it was just a nice touch to the movies that are coming out. Her ragtag group that she takes to try to trick the empire? I just really enjoyed this quite a bit and there were a lot of cool hints within.

Rating 7.5 out of 10

Lords of the Sith (After revenge of the Sith)

Vader is bad ass in case you missed it. Since this is taking place not long after Sith, there is  a lot of how Vader is becoming Vader. Struggling with what he has lost and destroyed, his relationship with Palpatine in this book is amazing. Also, Vader jumped out of his Tie Fighter into space, and single handedly killed everyone in a freighter. This is the Vader you always knew was there, but wow what an awesome scene that was. You also get the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance with Hera from Rebels father trying to assassinate the two Sith. Was a fun read.

Rating 8.0 out of 10

Weapon of the Jedi (between A New Hope and Empire)

This is the book that Heir to the Jedi failed to be. Luke trying to figure out how to be a Jedi. Luke flying with Red Squadron with Wedge Antililes. Him training with multiple training remotes and finding the Lost Temple. This books was just pure joy as it reminded me why I love Luke so much. Letting go of everything and using the force in his fight with Sarco? Also, Jessika Pave, female x-wing pilot made my day. I think it was said she was also the female x-wing pilot in the last tv promo. That is awesome.

Rating 8.5 out of 10

Lost Stars (taking place from before A New Hope to way after Jedi with the battle of Jakku)

This book is amazing. Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell are kids that all they want is to join the Empire and get off their backwater planet. Once they finally get there it is a love story that is sort of reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. Ciena loves order and that is what the Empire gives her. Thane? Just wants to fly and that is what the Empire gives him. But actions done by the empire forces Thane to leave the empire and eventually join the rebels. The story takes you through all of the original trilogy and gives you glimpses of the major happenings of those stories from a different perspective. It was amazing as you can feel for both of them as they struggle with how they feel for each other, but being on the opposite side of a galactic war. That is all that I will say about the story, other than it was written SO WELL and just was everything I wanted in a Star Wars novel, even leading up to showing how the Star Destroyer you see in the trailer actually crashed into Jakku. That in itself was such an amazing thing.

Rating 9.5 out of 10

More in depth review/ Lost Stars Review

I have not read Twilight Company or Dark Disciple as of yet. When I do, I will add them to the list. 

Review of Star Wars Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

Star Wars: The Journey to the Force Awakens

Lost Star by Claudia Gray

This is the second Star Wars novel I have read this week that leads up to the Force Awakens this December. The first was Aftermath, I and really need to read that one a second time to see how I feel about it.

The good. The story of what happened in movies A New Hope through Jedi being told from a different perspective. Seeing how two people can view things completely different, even with how much they love each other. Ciena holding onto her need for order, even after seeing what the Empire was capable of (especially with the destruction off Alderaan. Her struggle with this was so damn good. She wanted so badly to believe that they Empire could bring order to the galaxy. Even at the end where she was wanting to end her life because she saw it as the only way she could have her honor. Holy shit! Her struggle to try to be a part of a the Empire while watching them do the horrible things they did was painful at times. She really wanted them to be something more, but in the end she found herself only losing everything she cared for in a cause she no longer believed in. 

Then there is Thane. He wants to believe in the Empire as well, or at least be able to fly cool ships. But after Alderaan, he cannot stay with them anymore. It isn’t that he even wanted to be a part of the Rebels, he just could not be a part of the Empire. It wasn’t until latter that the realized that he could do more and was recruited by my favorite Star Wars person, Wedge Antilles. Then he really saw the things the Empire did, such as terror through intimidation and even slavery. He eventually came to believe in the cause they fought for, but all the while still loving Ciena and wishing they could be together. 

Seeing the events unfold was really cool. Ciena and Thane both loved each other, but were on the opposite’s side of a horrible war. It did feel a bit forced at times that these two characters were always involved in major moments, but it was still cool to see things from their view. Things like The Death Star being destroyed, and the battles at Hoth and Endor. But overall, it was just sad to watch these two people that loved each other, but would likely never be together. Painful. But well done. 

It is a slow burn as the first third of the book is setting up the eventual defection of Thane and how that would affect the two friends/lovers. But it is worth is as just the behind the scenes look at the Empire was awesome, even when Thane got to dance with Princess Leia.

The last three chapters really were emotional as it looked like Ciena would do the only thing she could think of to be able to hold on to her honor. Crash the star destroyer into Jakku. That is intense as she felt as she had lost everything and this was all that was left. The fact that Thane saved her from that and into custody of the New Republic was crazy. What a bittersweet ending to a great book. Very emotional and very well done.

The bad. I really have to nitpick here as there wasn’t TOO much bad about it.

But does every star wars anything have to used “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”, and “rebel scum”, so much? Aftermath did this as well. I don’t think we need such ham-fisted reminders of the movies. Paying homage to the movies is good, but I feel it is being done too much in the new canon.

It was a bit forced how they were there for ALL of the famous events from the movies. There is an entire galaxy after all. Also, always just happened to be in the same area? As I said earlier, it was cool, but it did feel a bit forced.

Both of those things are very minor as the book was amazing. 

Review of the original Final Fantasy

The first game of the Final Fantasy Challenge to rate all of the games and finally answer the question which is best. 

Final Fantasy

Time played: 32 hours

Everything will be rated on a 1-10 scale (1 being the worst and 10 being the best).

Total Rating 3.4 out of 10

Story-I guess there was a story in there somewhere. Your goal is to just rid the world of evil!  Oooook. It is pretty standard stuff, you are going to fight the fiends that got together and tried to take over the world? Or something? With all the grinding that went into the game, I forgot about the story most of the time…which is ok since it was not that interesting anyways.

The big twist where you find out that Garland (the first sort of boss in the game) is behind it was ok. I mean since you never really knew what was going on in the first place, him coming back was kind of surprising. Also, the game did not give you ANY direction sometimes. That is the problem when there weren’t any notable npc’s to interact with. Yes, you could wander around exploring, but the crappy gameplay made that not enjoyable. I had to go online and look up where to go sometimes because otherwise I would have thrown my ps3 out the damn window.

Rating 2 out of 10

Characters-I believe this is the only game in the series that doesn’t have named characters. It showed as you just chose four different classes and named them. I chose Warrior, monk, red mage, and white mage. At first I had thief and black mage, but the thief in the game is the worst of any game I had ever played. He was USELESS. Yes, he could have eventually become a ninja later on, but he could not hit anything and almost died constantly. Eventually you could upgrade to a better version of your class, but it took so long to happen that it really did not help much in ways of gameplay.

Also it was crazy how much loot there were for the warrior, but not really anyone else. Everyone else barely had any armor and just got their asses handed to them. But the fighter would find new armor, and swords, and shields. Meanwhile, my monk and red mage were barely living in most fights. Thank goodness you could buy potions, cuz you used them often.

There was nothing to connect you to them. They were just four heroes that went around trying to save the world. There were no npc’s in the game worth mentioning as you rarely interacted with anyone.

Rating 2 out of 10

Villains-Nothing too interesting as the story is just telling you go to defeat the fiends. The twist was kind of wasted as you find out that Gordon is behind all of it and you thought you had killed him. Marilith at least looked cool.

Rating 2 out of 10

Setting/theme-Other than the end of the world there was not much of a setting. It could be at this point in rpg’s that it was not that important? Hell I don’t know. But the world was not flushed out at all. There were villages with dwarves and elves, but they added nothing at all to the world.

There was also no real theme to the game, other than just “go destroy evil”. I keep using the same words as there was nothing to really get to connect with the game at all.

Rating 1 out of 10

Battle System-I know this was the first game in the series, but was not enamored with the battle system. Well, that isn’t true, the system itself was ok, but what was NOT ok was how much you had to fight. It was ridiculous. I mean you could take five steps and have five different fights. What made that even worse was the fact that the monsters in the game constantly ambush you. I mean A LOT. There was a time when I got to the Terra Cavern to fight the Vampire there, and I was ambushed 8 straight times. Then I one shot the vampire. Really? He was a boss.

The slots for the magic was also annoying. That doesn’t even get into how expensive it was just to buy the magic. I have always preferred a mp method (like they use in like every other one). At most times you would only have one or two really helpful spells, and when you are stuck in a dungeons fighting every step…it wasn’t good.

Rating 2 out of 10

Difficulty

The game itself was not that hard. The bosses were easy to the point of pathetic in most cases. In defense of the game that is likely do to all of the grinding you had to do. So by the time you came to bosses, you were fairly powerful.

Everything poisons you. I mean it was ridiculous how much I had to back and keep buying antidotes at first. Later on you just bought a bunch.  As I mentioned above, the ambushes made the game hard at times. You would get attacked and before you knew it they had killed both the red mage and white mage. Game over since there were not phoenix downs yet. I died a few times this way.

Also, taking a canoe on the water? WTF. The enemies on water are maybe the hardest in the game for where you are level wise. I mean they were brutal, and you had to take a few paths that could only be taken this way and wow they were hard. Ambush meant death in those fights a lot of times.

Score 7 out of 10

Fun factor-There was not really any point where I enjoyed playing this. Maybe the first time, for a few minutes, before all of the fighting got me frustrated. The biggest thing I could say about this game is that I would not tell anyone to play it. It isn’t worth the 30 hours I put into it.

Rating 1 out of 10

Overall 3.4 out of 10. The game just doesn't hold up. Yes, it was the first in the series and there is something to say about that, but overall it was not a real enjoyable experience. This doesn't take away from how much I love Final Fantasy, but this specific game is one I would not play again. 

I love open world rpgs but I am an idiot

So, I am a dumbass.

There are so many great games out there and lord knows I love good open world rpg’s such as Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher: Wild Hunt. These games are freaking awesome, but I go about playing them in the dumbest way possible.

Both of these games are awesome, and Witcher could eventually be my favorite RPG of all time. It is that good. But the dumb I do is I keep starting over.

I know, right?

So, I start the game I and love it. But you can tinker around with that kind of player you want to play. With DAO you can try different classes, and with Witcher you get to figure out which of the gameplay types you want. Do you want use magic? Or go all in on fast attack?

So, I do that for a while and then I start over AGAIN. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I do love the beginnings of games and both of these games are great at starting a story.  

So, the end result is that I have played DAO multiple times for over 75 hours. I have played Witcher about the same and recently started over. The problem is that I got burned out on both of them. So I am taking a break from them and playing old school final fantasy.

It is so stupid.

But now freking Fallout 4 is coming out and I really have to make myself just play the damn game and stop obsessing over tinkering around with the kind of character I can be.

One can only hope.

Does anyone else do this?