MOVIE REVIEW: RAID 2 BERANDAL (2014)

The sequel to the awesome Raid movie, the question was how do you top the original movie. Similar to Dredd, the Raid was about a bunch of police officers who went to raid a crimelords building. Of course, the crime lord found out they were coming and subsequently slaughtered most of them.

The original Raid movie was awesome because of the tight action sequences set in densely packed corridors. It felt like an action game brought to life well, which is no small compliment to the movie. And it managed to do this with a minimalist storyline. Minimalist doesn’t mean bad, however, as the storyline, like the action movie, was a tightly woven story of betrayal and justice as a rookie cop finally succeeds in his mission.

The Raid 2 begins where the Raid leaves off, with the main character, Rama, being recruited to go undercover to root out more crooked cops. Starting off in a prison, we are once again treated to some slick action sequences before the movie turns into a suspenseful crime drama of betrayal and corruption. This story is surprisingly engaging, and it still works on a minimalistic style. There isn’t a wasted detail or scene.

And then there is the finale. The set-up all leads to a showdown as a one-man army of Rama goes through a bunch of gangsters. Every action sequence is unique and brings something new to the table, from introducing cool new characters (such as hammer-girl) or, my favourite, when Rama is escaping from a car.

In short, The Raid 2 lives up and even surpasses the original in several areas. It runs at 150 minutes, but it feels like every line and scene achieved a point. The storyline was more involved without ever feeling bloated, and the action sequences were just as good, or even better than the original as they had allot more freedom in terms of locations and props.

5 out of 5 machete cut waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: HERCULES (2014)

Hercules is the latest movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Based on the legend of Hercules, Son of Zeus, it feels like there was a much more interesting movie hidden away in the story of this movie. Unfortunately, Hercules feels like it is rushed, with several big reveals coming across as formulaic rather than shocking.

The big hook of this movie is that Hercules and his 12 labours are all propaganda for a bunch of mercenaries that Hercules leads. Hercules was once part of the Athenian army and all the labours he accomplished were actually hoaxes (or the like). Hercules than uses his reputation that he gained from these deeds to help him get work until he retires. Added to this is that everyone believes he murdered his family in a “battle-rage”.

And so then we are onto his last job, where he will earn his last amount of gold before he retires to the beach. Of course, things go wrong, he ends up being double-crossed, and he has to prove he is really the legend that the myths make him out to be. Add in a rushed reveal proving his innocence in killing his family, and the movie feels like it has just been going through the motions.

Hercules is a decent action movie. However, I feel like there was a more interesting movie in how Hercules built up the myth of himself. Instead, the movie seems to be trying to be as generic as possible. The twist, the proving of innocence and the big heroic moments all feel like they are being acted off Action-Script 101. It doesn’t do anything special, and all the cool parts in the trailer (Hercules fighting the Hydra and the Boar) are fully shown in the trailer.

At the end of the day, Hercules is a competent action movie. The more fantastical elements or interesting parts of the movie are left by the wayside to produce a generic movie. Hercules could have been so much more special than it was if it was a little less grounded in realism.

2 out of 5 demi-god Waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: JUPITER ASCENDING (2015)

Jupiter Ascending came after a last minute delay to its release schedule. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, this movie is a mixture of space-opera and sci-fi. It has the general story about a chosen one just living a pretty underwhelming life in a world full of wonders.

Mila Kunis stars as the titular Jupiter, a Russian immigrant cleaner. However, she is also the exact genetic reproduction (and this believed to be reincarnation) of the former queen of the universe. He (former) children are each trying to find her so that they can trick her to signing away her inheritance. Channing Tatum is a wolf-soldier tasked with tracking her down. However, once he realises he was tricked, he turns into her superhuman protector and general bad-ass.

And that really is the meat of the story. Jupiter is kidnapped a few times, shows increasing agency in not throwing her inheritance away (which would mean the death of the earth as it is harvested for genetic material), and having Channing Tatum do cool stuff with his futuristic technology (such as rocket boots and temporary doorways) to save her. Which isn’t to say it is all bad.

Jupiter Ascending does an admirable job of keeping the movie pace up and not being caught up to much in world-building. It would have been easy for the movie to get stuck on some part of the lore it is building up. However, a couple of action scenes do overstay their welcome and seem to drag out a bit just to show some cool set-piece instead of letting it develop organically.

Overall there is not much to say about this movie. The lore they build up behind the worlds is quite good, the action scenes are also quite good and the character development of Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum is also good. It was entertaining for its 2+ hour run-time, but not too much stuck with me following the end credits. In the past, it is the very definition of an average movie. Today, however, it is a refreshing movie that is not a sequel/reboot/remake and not a superhero movie.

3.5 out of 5 wolf-spliced waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: MAZE RUNNER (2014)

Sometimes, you wish that a movie was just made as a stand-alone movie. That is what hamstrings Maze Runner the most. Just when it seems like it has established its world and starts setting up the main story, it suddenly ends. Just when it starts to get really good, they try to leave it open for a sequel which undermines its main story.

Maze Runner is about a group of boys trapped in the centre of a moveable maze, who have had there memories wiped. In the maze, techno-organic reavers roam hunting any kids left there at night. When our main character arrives, Tomas, things begin to change. The reavers start attacking in daylight, the maze doesn’t shut the gate at night to protect the boys and a girl arrives. What follows is part lord-of-the-flies, as the boys fight for trying to escape vs staying put, and then the attempt to find an exit.

It feels like there are several different, interconnected movies stuck together in Maze Runner. There is the lord-of-the-flies type infighting amongst the boys. Add to this the mystery of the maze and the attempts to escape the maze. Both of these movies mesh together quite well. However, towards the end of the movie, it tries to throw in a big twist which doesn’t provide a satisfying conclusion. It tries to set-up a sequel and leave unanswered questions, but instead it feels like it is only sequel-bait as it tries to set-up a franchise.

I have to mention I really liked the design of the maze and the reavers. The maze looks like an imposing structure of metal and stone, having that low-tech feel to it. The reavers also feel menacing as they crawl around, arachnid-like, picking off children. It helps that the movie shows restraint in its first half in neglecting to show them too much, instead relying on the boys speaking about them in awe and fear.

Overall, Maze Runner does allot of things well. I am not sure if they could have fit the whole self-contained story in one movie, but the ending leaves the whole movie down. Instead of feeling like a self-contained story with a satisfying conclusion, the movie instead feels like sequel bait with too many unresolved plot-points to make the journey worthwhile.

2 out of 5 lost-in-space Waffles.

BOARD GAME REVIEW: ZOMBIE 15"

Zombie 15" is a really good Zombie game. My view of it might just be colored by the fact that this is the first time-based game I have played, I am a sucker for a well-themed game or I really like co-operative games, but Zombie 15" has been the stand-out game that I have played in 2014. And there were allot of new games that I have played over 2014.

Zombie 15" is a co-operative game for 2-4 players. It is played on a modular board, with tiles set-up that can be changed to create different scenarios. Each player takes the role of a teenager with some different powers as they try to survive and outrun the main zombie horde. In each game, you have a goal to achieve in 15", often involving cutting a path through some zombies to a finishing tile.

The main strength of this game is right there in the title. Zombie 15" is played over 15 minutes. At certain times (depending on the scenario, every minute or 40 seconds), more zombies appear on whoever's turn it is. There are no traditional turn limits- just however many action you can fit into 15". This encourages the game to keep moving fast and analysis-paralysis is severely punished. It also means that no games ever drag, as you know that each game will last 15 minutes. The set-up time is also only approximately 10-15 minutes.

The artwork and plastic figures for the game are great and really match the exciting, upbeat tone of the game. They are colourful and never take themselves too seriously. The only complaint is some of the Zombie figures seem quite flimsy, but this is a minor complaint. The board, character cards and item cards all look fantastic and are of god quality.

One thing the game could improve upon is the co-operative aspects of the game. Most the scenarios just degenerate into each player leap-frogging the previous player and trying to kill zombies to clear a path. However, with a modular board and custom scenarios, I anticipate that the replay value of this game will go up. I have already been thinking of rules to put the Left 4 Dead Zombies in the game (especially the Witch and Tank) or to modify some of the tower defence-based scenarios, and the game encourages you to make up your own custom scenarios. There is a website where they will post them, although how flexible the core game is to allow custom scenarios remains to be seen.

Overall, Zombie 15" is my stand-out board game of 2014. Although I have played more serious games and games that ran longer, Zombie 15" has a strong, colourful theme to make it stand-out and is always allot of fun whenever we break it out for a game or 4.

4 out of 5 hordes of waffles.

Movie Review: Street Fighter- The Legend of Chun-Li

After the original street fighter movie was generally regarded as a flop and overall horrible movie, there was an attempt a few years back to try to reboot the Street Fighter name with The Legend of Chun-Li. This movie effectively answers the question of what happens when you take a campy-fun movie and remove the camp from it.

This movie is effectively an origin story about Chun-Li. It stars the usual suspects as the villains of Balrog, Vega and M. Bison. Zangief was conspicuously absent as his performance in the original Street Fighter provided ample entertainment. Some other characters are also introduced and I wasn’t sure whether they were from the expanded Street Fighter universe, such as Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer.

The story, however, seems to be very ashamed of the silly-fun that the original movie had and tries to take it too far the other way. There are very few moments of fun and levity in the movie and most the characters don’t seem to be enjoying themselves. The exception to this is Balrog as he seems to be having allot of fun in his role as big, strong guy.

Outside of Balrog and possibly Chun-Li, most of the actors seem to be miscast. Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer looks far too young to invoke the Karate Kid type training vibe they tried to go with. Vega looks menacing but is never really given much to do. Bison doesn’t really have the air of menace or gravity that he is meant to, no matter how many sound effects they play when he is on screen. The worst acting is by far the actor and actresses that played the police inspectors tracking down Bison.

Maybe most of the miscast actors would have been passable if the story was more compelling. They turned a villain who was meant to be insane into a property mogul to try to ground him in reality. Bison also only has one weakness: The White Rose. The White Rose ends up being the good part of Bison’s soul but it is never explained why this is a weakness. When Chun-Li and friends get the White Rose, they don’t even use it to defeat Bison. There is an element of mysticism in what Gen, Chun-Li and Bison can do (i.e. fireballs and super strength) but it is often ignored until it is convenient. In short, the story is a mess that tries to have it both ways (i.e. a grounded story and mysticism) and ends up failing in both departments.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a bad movie. It is, in effect the worst of both worlds, with none of the silly fun from the original Street Fighter and a poor story that makes no sense. Most of the acting is bad and the actors and actresses are miscast, for the most part. The attempt to reboot the series into a grounded movie feels like they attempted to make it like Batman, and they failed horribly. It’s only saving graces are Balrog and that it is only 90 minutes long.

1 out of 5 Waffle Hadoukens

PODCAST : SERIAL

Serial is an engrossing real world who did mystery. 4 out of 5 waffle detectives