Book Series Review: Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card

So in anticipation of the upcoming Ender’s Game movie (released December 5 in Australia), I have finished reading the original Ender’s Game series of books (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind). I am planning on finishing the second Ender’s quartet  (Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets) soon. I will try not to put too many spoilers in this review, but consider this a minor spoiler warning.

Ender’s Game is the story of Ender, a small boy drafted into a military academy in the future. At this stage of the book, the human race has fought one war with an alien species and was nearly wiped out. The purpose of the military academy is to find a master strategist to lead humanities forces for the next war with the aliens. I thought that this book was pretty well written and kept the action moving along at a good pace. The actions of the characters, even the “villains” in the military school, also felt very believable. This was because Ender’s thoughts and strategising within the school was used by the writer as the reader’s window into the world and other characters motivations. I felt that this method worked and didn’t make Ender’s Game feel too heavy handed.

Ender’s Game effectively felt like a prequel to the main trilogy that kicked off with Speaker for the Dead. Speaker of the Dead focuses on another world colonised by humans where they discover another alien species. For most of this book, there is a completely different cast of characters than Ender’s Game and the writer does a good job of establishing these characters. I felt that Speaker for the Dead was the best written of the four books and is my personal favourite in the series. Once again, it keeps the action moving and starts to tackle some deeper issues about the human condition. Although it doesn’t have as much action as Ender’s Game, the book does not feel too narrative heavy and most the characters and the world of Speaker for the Dead retains a strong grounding and believability. The grounding and believability came from the actions they take, the believability of the dialogue, and the petty family squabbles and politics at work.

I felt that this strong grounding and believability from Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead begins to be lost in Xenocide and Children of the Mind. In these books, the planet with the humans and aliens is threatened with destruction because they harbour a deadly virus capable of destroying humanity and the also humanities first sentient artificial intelligence. These two books felt like they had allot of filler material in them and they could’ve easily be combined into one (albeit slightly longer) book. Despite going for a grander scope, I felt like the scope was reduced as characters and locations were left by the wayside in order to focus on a handful of characters. The development of these characters also felt like a step backwards I felt they started to represent ideals rather than actual people. I can sort-of understand what the writer was trying to achieve, but several elements in Xenocide and Children of the Mind hindered it’s execution in my mind (i.e. whole worlds that were shaped after just one culture on earth, forced narrative that felt like the Star Wars prequels in some stages rather than what actual people would say, decisions made to serve the plot as opposed to what is believable).

Despite Xenocide and Children of the Mind being the weaker books, I would still recommend reading this trilogy. Although the writer didn’t quite pull-off the landing he was hoping for, I was still drawn into the world enough to finish these books and am looking forward to the Ender’s Shadow trilogy. If nothing else, you should definitely check out Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead .

Note Besides: I should also note that I was well into this series before I found out his views on gay marriage, and probably wouldn’t have bothered reading his books if I had known. There are too many other good books out there by authors whose views I support and not nearly enough time to read them all anyway.

Trash Movie Review - Lesbian Vampire Killers

Lesbian Vampire Killers is an entertaining piece of brain-dead fun found at the bottom of a DVD bargain bin. This is one of those titles that makes you expect the worst, but you have to watch it because it's Lesbian Vampires. The title alone suggests that even if the movie is bad you’ll get to see lesbians and possibly boobies. Plus it has a former Doctor Who in it. So I took some time during a bedridden afternoon to give it a shot. 

The movie starts with a dull Bram Stoker’s Dracula-style prologue. Some 17th-century knight has lost his love to the lesbian vampire queen. He then decides retribution is needed and becomes a vampire hunter, beheading the queen but not before she invokes a curse on his village.From here we cut to the present day where we are introduced to our hapless heroes, Fletch and Jimmy. Fletch has just been sacked from his job as a clown for punching a kid and Jimmy been dumped by his two-timing girlfriend who “needs space” after cheating on him seven times before.

The duo decide to go on holiday to forget their troubles, but lack of money means they end up hiking in the rural village of Cragwich. Naturally they run into a van of Swedish women who happen to be students of folklore and ancient superstition. It doesn't help that collectively they are portrayed as having the intelligence of a bunch of drunk sorority girls. They are really only in this movie to be turned by the ancient curse that transforms all girls in that particular village into the titular bloodsuckers. From there the movie stumbles forward establishing set pieces and apparently a storyline, which I never really noticed.

I honestly felt the best bit of the movie is Fletch. Although he is a chauvinistic male who just wants to have sex, I found myself enjoying Fletch’s observational humour about the situation he was in. Anytime something crazy happened he would make a crass comment and complain. I feel that this is what allot of people would do in his situation. It’s a shame they relegate him to side-kick digging around endlessly in badly-lit graves with former Doctor Who Paul McGann. The movie focuses too much time on his spineless friend Jimmy whose whole performance could have been replaced with a sad face drawn on a potato to save the filmmakers some money.

I embraced the film’s retro-sleaze wholeheartedly. The deliberately cheap sets are obviously filmed on a soundstage with lots of dry ice. At the same time the movie is so slick and over-directed with constant speeding up and slowing down of the action and strange camera angles. 

The whole movie clearly wanted to be Shaun of the Dead but with lesbian vampires. I think this movie could have worked better if the Fletch and Jimmy friendship was better defined. They come across as one-dimensional characters who lack any real depth. The heavy reliance of juvenile humour can only go so far. At the end of the day the movie is a fun if flawed waste of time. 2 out 5 rum and raisin ice-cream covered waffles.

New Trailers- Quick Thoughts

Here are my quick impressions of some of the trailers currently kicking around the internet.

Trailer 1: Movie- Fright Night 2 (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2165418265)

Another year, another sequel. Although this is a DVD release. It doesn’t look too interesting, with it appearing to take the male vampire and replacing it with a female vampire from the recent Fright Night remake. This obviously changes the dynamic so that there is allot more fan-service for male fans, and this is what it looks like it is relying on. It doesn’t appear to be worth the time.

Trailer 2: Movie- Bounty Killer (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi773040409)

A new movie. It looks like allot of fun, but it does kind-of remind me of Priest. I like the female Bounty Killer’s colourful design and the spunk she showed during the trailer. The gypsy’s facepaint also looked cool. It looks like a good action film if it doesn’t end up taking itself too seriously in it’s final product. This is reminding me of Priest for some reason, however.

Trailer 3: PC Game- Rome: Total War 2 (http://au.ign.com/videos/2013/08/01/total-war-rome-ii-find-a-way-trailer)

Although another sequel, I understand this one.  There is only so much medieval warfare to go around, and I loved the first game. “This is nonsense”. No senator, This is SPARTA! Catapults firing from aboard ships wrecking a city is awesome, the now compulsory Medal of Honor beach landing looks cool (see it looking much more boring in the Ryse: Son of Rome trailer today folks), and all the formations look cool. Getting more and more excited about this game, so hopefully it will live up to expectations.

Signing off,

 The Waffle Punches.

 P.S. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.

The World's End- Double Punch

 So recently, The World’s End was released in cinemas. The World’s End is a movie that sees a group of friends trying to complete a pub crawl that they attempted to complete when they finished school. However, they soon discover a conspiracy that threatens the world.

 Seeing as the Waffle Punchers saw it separately, we decided to do completely separate reviews, and then merge them into one. But then, we thought it would be cool if we found some questions every film should answer and then give independent takes on them. So from some random website (http://libraries.delaware.gov/Center_For_The_Book/DE_Reads/Discussion_Questions/Discussion_Questions_for_Any_Film.shtml), here are the questions and answers.

1.    What was the theme of the film?

Waffler A.                You could have called The Worlds Ends the British version of the crappy Adam Sandler movie Grown Ups. That's an insult to The Worlds Ends. Just both movies touch on the idea of growing up. Where Sandler and his band of cohorts just play stupid man-children learning to have fun again. The Worlds Ends explores how people grow up through the important events that impact their life.

Waffler B.                I thought the theme of the movie was growth. Not so much as traditionally growing up as opposed to not being stuck in one place or constantly trying to relive your glory days.

 

2.    What was the filmmaker trying to tell us? Was he/she successful?

Waffler A.                That no matter how much you think you have grown up you're still a man child at heart.

Waffler B.                I thought the filmmaker was trying to tell us that you have to take responsibility and fight for what you believe in. I thought the filmmakers succeeded, although the end conflict bet

 

3.    What did you like best about the film? Why?

Waffler A.                Watching the guys get progressively drunker throughout the movie yet were still able to outsmart the bad guy. Drunken shenanigans that's why.

Waffler B.                I liked the flashback sequences to the earlier attempt at the pub crawl and how they contrasted with what they are doing now. I also liked Jack King (played by Simon Pegg) and the banter he shared with his group of friends.

 

4.    Was there something you did not understand in the film?

Waffler A.                Why would a super smart alien race design humanoid barbie doll people that fall apart after a few hits. Couldn't they afford the better GI JOE models that could deal damage and take it at the same time.

Waffler B.                The final conflict in the film involves Jack King and his friend fighting about him finishing his beer. It seemed like allot of effort for nothing in context.

 

5.    Who was your favorite character? Why?

Waffler A.                Andy Knightley hands down. Why ? Because under his calm British demeanour was a badass alien destroying man-Hulk.

Waffler B.                My favourite character was definitely Jack King (played by Simon Pegg). I liked his unceasing optimism and fast-talking, as well the banter he shared with the other characters.

 

6.    Who was your least favorite character? Why?

Waffler A.                Peter. He was pretty plain. His character had to real depth.

Waffler B.                I don’t know if I have a least favourite character in particular. I thought all the characters served a purpose. I guess the weaker characters in the group (the building foreman and real estate salesman) weren’t treated with the same level of importance as the others and as such were a bit forgettable.

 

7.    Analyze the use of music in the film. Did it enhance the filmmaker's story?

Waffler A.                The music jumped in at all the right time. I enjoyed how the music would spring into action when the fights scene began. It gave the movie some extra energy.

Waffler B.                I didn’t particularly notice the music in the movie too much outside of the action scenes. In the action scenes, I thought it was effective in helping to keep the excitement levels up, and reminded me of Shaun of the Dead in that respect.

 

8.    Select an action that one of the characters performed. Why did the character take that particular action?

Waffler A.                When Andy gave up being a straight lace and proceeded to get pissed face because he came in contact with something crazy.

Waffler B.                Simon Pegg lying to get the group back together for a pub crawl. He took that action because he wanted to relive his glory days. However, he was also convinced that this was a good idea and wasn’t prepared to take no because he fought for his beliefs.

 

9.    Did all of the events in the film ring true? Which scenes did you find especially accurate? Which scenes did not seem to match reality?

Waffler A.                The uncomfortableness of old friends reuniting after a long absence was handled extremely well. The drinking. How quickly the character moved on from losing a friend.

Waffler B.                Considering the twist with the conspiracy, the events from that section on didn’t really match with reality. However, I thought the relationships between the characters rang with an air of being genuine especially with how they changed with age and struggled to reconnect when they talked again.

So there you have it. Two quick punches at our thoughts on The World’s End.

Enjoy.

The Waffle Punchers.

 

Pacific Rim Review

I’ve been waiting for a movie like this since I was a 12 year old obsessed with Evangelion and old Godzilla movies. It didn’t help that I over-hyped myself into a frenzy before Pacific Rim even hit the cinema.

I watched every trailer and featurette. I read the prequel comic and listened to the movie soundtrack on repeat while riding to work imagining I was avoiding Kaiju.

And for the first time in a long time the movie delivered everything I was looking forward to. I even found the myself liking the 3D.

The whole premise of Pacific Rim is about Giant Robots called JAEGERS laying a beatdown on the ugly/beautiful creatures called KAIJU. These are hands downs some on the best action scenes put to film. I sat in that cinema glued to this beautiful ballet of gigantic destruction. At one stage I wanted to physically jump up and start cheering on the JAEGER pilots to beat the KAIJU like some kind of crazed sports fan. You could say I found myself rather invested in this movie.

I know every movie has its flaws. I had to put up with another chemistry-less couple and hear my native accent sound like some kind of munted-Crocodile Dundee. Between each fight we had to sit through the story element of the movie. The story of this movie, while being alright, was nothing new and fairly predictable (although that is not always a bad thing). Still, I found myself enjoy the fight between Charlie from Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia and that guy from Torchwood. Plus Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau put in quite an amusing performance.

But at the end of the day, I was just happy to watch a movie that was actually fun and not some convoluted, boring mess which required million dollar set pieces to justify its existence. Pacific Rim used it’s set pieces to help make it’s story as opposed to using it’s set-pieces to try to inject some interest into a largely forgettable movie.

For me Pacific Rim is the kind of movie that I hope will inspire people to create something that they are interested in and excited about as opposed to making more Star Wars/Spiderman/Star Trek reboots/reimaginings/sequels.

Thanks for saving this year’s blockbuster movie releases from more disappointments,  Pacific Rim.

Superman Unbound- The Animated Movie

Brainiac: To think that two Kryptonians chose to call this planet home, sickens me. What could Earth have possible offered you?

Superman: Something you wouldn't know anything about. It's my home. My heart. It gives me strength.

I really enjoyed the Superman Unbound movie. For me, this movie did allot right that The Man of Steel did so very, very wrong. This movie portrayed Superman as a hero against a worthy foe and had a great cast of supporting characters. As always, this review will contain spoilers.

Superman Unbound is the story of Brainiac finding Earth. Brainiac is robotic-type creature who is obsessed with cataloguing all life forms by getting a miniaturised city of that species. However, he also cannot deal with change and therefore destroys the planet after he takes the city. He did this to Krypton where Supergirl was there to witness it and he then discovers Earth partly through his interactions with Superman.

Superman is represented in this story as a hero. He is shown as strong, but apart from this Superman Unbound shows why he is more than just his strength. It shows his moral character in guiding Supergirl as well as him using his mind to think his way out of situations as often as he just punches his way out of situations. It also shows his struggles with living a normal life through his interactions with the supporting characters, particularly Lois.

The supporting characters are also good. Lois Lane, apart from the opening scene, is shown as a strong and capable woman without being shoehorned into everything. One of my favourite parts of the movie is a certain hand gesture Miss Lane gives to Brainiac while miniaturised. Supergirl is represented as, despite having all the power, being immature and lacking the willpower of Superman. This is particularly evident when she starts avoiding Metropolis out of fear of Brainiac.

Brainiac as a villain was also well handled. They didn’t hold him back as some big reveal but it still felt like an event when he and Superman finally came face-to-face. Brainiac always had that aura of menace about him. The introduction of his first minion-robot and its fight with Superman I felt was done well.

All the major characters throughout this movie undergo growth. The motivations of each of the characters is made clear. They all have a character arc, from Superman’s fear for Lois to Supergirl learning to be a hero. I felt that the decisions that they made towards the end of the movie came from characters who showed growth during the movie. Although this sounds simple, allot of major movies, although fun, don't really do this (The Wolverine and Fast and Furious 6 are the most recent examples for me).

My only criticism is the inconsistency of the Brainiac robot-minions power. At the start they were shown to be able to hang with Superman in a fight and shrug off the Krypton army. By the end, they suffer from the minions curse with them being easily taken down by things such as Lois running a chair into them.

Overall, I recommend Superman Unbound as a very good Superman story. It manages to do Superman as a hero very well as being an intelligent hero with a infallible moral compass and willpower, as well as being able to punch stuff and burn things with heat vision. All the characters show growth and it is a very satisfying movie.

 

 

Bacon and Life

 I had a delicious Bacon and Egg Sandwich today at lunch, so I can relate to this Meme.

 

 

GHOSTED REVIEW

GHOSTED #1 is a promising new comic series from Image Comics.It's a fun take on the old heist story. This comic is best described as Ocean's Eleven meets ghost hunting.We meet our Danny Ocean stand-in Jackson T. Winters in prison. Here, we are given a look at how Jackson livies day-to-day as an inmate in prison. As soon as we get comfortable with our surroundings, however, writer Joshua Williamson jumps the reader right into the plot. Jackson’s prison term ends when he is being broken out by a gun-toting blonde bombshell but, of course, there is a catch.

 In return for his rescue, Jackson has to help eccentric moneybags Markus Schrecken add something to his ever-growing collection of oddities: a ghost.Jackson is initially sceptical of this task but, after a bitch slap by Schrecken, he heads off to assemble his team of skilled misfits. True to the old heist stories, each member of his team have a specific skill set, which will no doubt come in handy later. Then it’s off to the haunted house, in this case Trask Mansion, where hundreds of people have died in the past, with the hopes of finding one of the elusive spirits. The back story behind the Trask family was interesting and I hope it's something that gets explored more fully as the series continues.I like this mash-up horror/heist concept of a group of thieves teaming up to try and catch a ghost in a mansion where hundreds of people have died. I’m a little hesitant that as the series continues it will move more towards horror. I hope that the creative team can keep the two themes of horror and heist together without leaning on one more than the other. 

At the moment, Ghosted’s writing and art has a very slick Ocean's Eleven vibe to it.Goran Sudzuka was an excellent choice for the artist. I loved what he did in one of my favourite series of all time Y: THE LAST MAN. His art is simple, yet he providing his skills to convey allot of information through facial expressions, body language and pacing. I really appreciate that each character has a distinctive look to them. This helps to give the reader a sense of the characters in Jackson’s team that will be involved throughout the series. Our first glimpse of the ghost is damn creepy as it is drawn looking like a mixture of the traditional ghost and demon archtypes.Ghosted #1 is comic series with allot of potential which has slick writing and is well drawn. I found myself drawn into its crazy world of slick, smooth talking, well dressed, eccentric ghost hunters. I am looking forward to seeing how the story and the characters develop in the subsequent issues. I highly recommend picking the first issue up if you're a fan of slick intrigue and supernatural shenanigans.

Man Of Steel: Good and Bad Points

 

So, after watching Man of Steel (twice, just so my expectations weren’t affecting my enjoyment), I have come up with a short list of the things in the movie I did and didn’t like.

 

GOOD:
– I liked that when the Kryptonians were fighting, it really felt like awesome powered beings were fighting.
– Just because Superman got mad didn’t mean he could suddenly beat up a whole army.
– The guy acting for Zod.
– No end scene. Therefore, could get out of uncomfortable seating after 2 hours without the need to wait an extra 10 minutes.
– The S stands for hope. The hope that the inevitable sequel will be better.
– The Man of Steel trailers were very well put together.
– Pacific Rim trailer was AWESOME in 3D … as per the last 4 times I saw it in 3D.

- Watching the movie allowed me to appreciate this article:  http://io9.com/the-most-important-scenes-from-man-of-steel-as-i-remem-516405346 as well as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjSNLmb0Ndw.

 

 

 

BAD:
– The terraforming plot was beyond stupid. Choose another planet, idiots.
– How Clarks dad died. Twister out of nowhere.
– The fight between Clark and his human dad fought before the father died. HE ISN’T SPIDERMAN. Especially considering it was about Clark being a farmer. So much for the rest of the movie and him being destined for greatness.
– No chemistry between Lois and Clark, and I normally don’t even notice.
– Not one flashback where he wasn’t an outsider. We get it after one.
– Superman stating the obvious continually. We get the handcuffs are pointless. We get you are upset about your mum. It takes away from the scene with some forced exposition.
– The lack of regard for collateral lives. He flew him into an occupied gas station being used on purpose.
– The Kryptonians not leaving there planet, despite knowing there are other habitable planets and they had instant transport technology.
– Pa Kent telling Clark to let a busfull of school children die. Great moral compassing.
– Isn’t putting trees through a truck suspicious?
– Overall, BORING. Action scenes had no emotional connection and lost all meaning by the end of it.

– He killed the rest of the Kryptonian race. Superman Unbound showed how Superman should have handled it.

 http://www.avclub.com/articles/science-estimates-that-the-damage-done-by-man-of-s,99165/

 

By now, as you can no doubt tell, I didn’t like most of the movie. It was often contradictory in terms of characters and it was just boring. I could probably list negatives for every scene

 

I know I bagged on Superman, but maybe the sequel can be a bit like this:

http://www.screwattack.com/shows/originals/death-battle/death-battle-goku-vs-superman

 

Signing off,

The Waffle Punchers.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Super Hyper Waffle Punch

 Hello.
 Welcome to Super Hyper Waffle Punch. This is where two friends decide that we waste too much time reading other peoples musings on geek culture and the world. Thus we have decided to send our own blog on movies, comics, games, and various other topics into the ether of the internet.

 Of course, as any true cultural connoisseur knows, everything goes better with Waffles. So it is only logical that a Super Hyper Waffle would be better. And of course, when you have levelled up enough to master the Super Hyper Waffles, you gain the awesome skill of the Super Hyper Waffle Punch. This skill is especially useful when you are challenged to a duel.

 This is a disclaimer: We don't always know what we are talking about, so we tend to maybe just waffle on allot. Also, waffle making is a skill in progress for us.

 ....

 We are disappointed our future selves didn't magically appear and tell us this was going to be a worldwide success. Now we are sad.

 We look forward to your company for our journey through this world.



 Regards,

 The Wafflers.