Speaker for the Dead Book Review

Guess what?  A giant tower is
never mention anywhere.

Warning:  This review contains spoilers from the book Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead is the sequel to Ender's Game, and while it still has a focus on ethical issues just like the first book, it feels very different for several reasons.  First of all there is a major time gap between this book and Ender's Game.  Ender is now thirty years older and apparently three thousand Earth years have passed since the last book thanks to Ender's traveling among the colonized planets at lightspeed.  Don't ask me how that works, the book claims its due to the theory of reletivity and all that, but it's all Greek to me. Anyways, Ender is searching among the colonies for a suitable home for the hive queen, the last member of the buggers species which Ender wiped out in the last book.  Ender has also taken on the title of Speaker for the Dead, and is asked to speak for the death of a biologist on the planet Lusitania, who was killed by a newly discovered sentient species known by the colonists as the "pequeninos" or the "piggies."  Ender heads there to not only figure out if the planet is a good place for the hive queen to live but also heal the damaged family of the dead biologist's adopted daughter, and the relationship between the humans and the piggies.  It's a fairly complicated setup, but it results in a much deeper story than the first one.
       Speaker for the Dead has two main plot arcs; Ender helping out the family out while also trying to figure out whether or not the piggies are truly hostile.  The part of the book focusing on the family is where we get to see most of Ender's character come out.  Since he is much older it isn't surprising that there is a radical shift in his attitude and character.  No longer is he a little boy trying to calculate a method for destroying an entire alien race, but a thirty year old with an almost spiritual view of the universe as he tries to piece the lives of the family members together by understanding their point of view.  There's also a mystery surrounding the family, and it's interesting to see all of the pieces come together at the end of the book.
     The mystery surrounding the family is of course intertwined with the deeper mystery surrounding the pequeninos.  This is the part of the book that is much more scientific and poses all of the ethical problems.  On one hand the colonists are in danger from the piggies, while on the other they don't want to commit the horrible crime of xenocide against them, the only other sentient species that humanity has discovered other than the buggers.  I thought Orson Scott Card did a great job portraying the limitations of the human scientists, posed both by themselves and the government, and how their limitations lead to more problems.
Conclusion:  Both of these story arcs are done very well, and they intertwine seamlessly to create a very rich and emotionally engaging book.  That said, the end product feels very different from Ender's Game in almost every way imaginable, with the exception of the underlying issue of how humanity can live with a radically different species of intelligent beings.  Fortunately, these differences never detract from the story.
Rating:  9/10 "Awesome"
Favorite Moment:  Each of the mysteries has its own "aha!" moment in which everything comes together.  Between the two, the one with the family is my favorite, as it is a much more human moment than the scene with the pequeninos, although that one is great too.

Megamind Movie Review

Insert Pun Here

Here's another movie that on the outside looks like another cliche for the genre but in the end turns out to be a lot deeper than it appears to be.  Megamind features the exploits of a supervillain of the same name as he tries to defeat his archnemesis Metro Man.  From the moment the movie starts its not too difficult to see how heavily it borrows from other superhero movies, especially Superman.  Both Megamind and Metro Man come from planets that are on the verge of extinction and both are sent to Earth as its protectors, with Megamind of course choosing to go down the villain route.  This entire setup echoes the opening of the original Superman movie.  Another thing that the movie borrows from the Man of Steel is Metro Man himself, who has all of Superman's iconic powers: flight, super strength, laser vision, and super speed.
     Despite what appears to be a shameless ripoff, Megamind succeeds for several reasons.  First of all, Megamind himself isn't a jokey villain, despite what the trailers lead you to believe.  He actually comes up with legit plans and gadgets, and turns out to be a (somewhat) even match for Metro Man.  Sure, there are throwaway gags where he mispronounces words and pulls out a stereotypical death ray, but because they happen with less frequency they become more funny. 
     The second reason why the movie works is because it brings up some questions that haven't really been explored in the superhero genre before, at least, in the movies.  It questions what it means to be a hero and what it means to be a villain, and also what the point is to be a villain without your rival, a question that echoes the Joker's refusal to outright kill Batman in the Dark Knight.
     I also liked how the characters evolved over time.  Because Megamind isn't a jokey villain he's able to grow into a much more likeable character, and it isn't too hard to wonder whether he's such a bad guy after all.  Fortunately the rest of the main characters have just as much depth, and they all work off each other to create an emotionally engaging film.  Sure, it's by no means a tear jerking soap opera, but hey, who wanted it to be anyways?
Conclusion:  Megamind could be the signaling of a new era for Dreamworks, as it is their second movie in a row that has not been mindless melting pot of exaggerated gags and pointless plot points (e.i., Over the Hedge.)  The result is an animated film that could easily have been made by the geniuses at Pixar.  Hopefully this trend will carry over into their next movie, one that I'm really looking forward to, Kung Fu Panda 2.
Rating:  9/10 "Awesome"
Favorite Moment:  The final battle is pretty epic, and a great show case of the powerful animation.  Obviously I can't spoil everything, but for parents who are worried about a kids movie with a villain as the main character, never fear, he does redeem himself.

Goldeneye 007 Game Review

I See the Light!!!

For those who don't know, Goldeneye 007 was originally a game for the N64, and apparantly it was so popular that they decided to remake it like 15 years laters.  My only memory of the original was when I was a little kid and was playing over at my friends' house.  I just remember being killed over and over again and not being able to aim at all with the C-buttons.  Now that they've remade it, I got the chance to give the game another go.  Let me first mention that this game could be split into three different parts:  single player, splitscreen multiplayer, and online multiplayer
     Let's start with the single player campaign.  You play as James Bond (big surprise) as you try to stop a satellite weapon called the Goldeneye from going off and raining damage below, all the while sneaking around, shooting enemies, and playing around with your smartphone.  With very few exceptions all of the levels are extremely polished, with some great set pieces and cinematic cutscenes.  There's also quite a bit of variety in the level design; the game has you do everything from scale a snowy summit to drive a tank of awesometacular destruction!  There are even some boss battles thrown into the mix.  The game controls very much like a Call of Duty game, where there are buttons for sprinting and aiming down the sights of your weapon.
     The splitscreen multiplayer is also great.  There are 10 maps to fight on, around 30 characters to play as, and a dozen modifiers to play around with.  The modifiers include paintball mode, invisibility, and the funniest: melee only, where everybody has gigantic hands. 
     While the online portion of the game is still a lot of fun, it's by far the weakest area of the Goldeneye experience.  Half of the time the game lags, and a couple times it even froze, forcing me to unplug my Wii and restart the whole thing.  That said, when it does work it can be lots of fun, with a bunch of game modes not found in splitscreen, such as Black Box (where one team has to capture a briefcase while the other has to destroy it), Hero Mode (where each team has a hero with special weapons and perks), and Goldeneye (where the teams fight for control over the Goldeneye satellite by capturing computer consoles).  Just like Call of Duty you gain XP and level up to unlock new weapons, modes, and perks.
Conclusion:  The single player is definately the strongest point of the game, but that doesn't mean that multiplayer isn't just as much fun, both on and offline.  In the end Goldeneye 007 is the best first person shooter on the Wii, letting players feel like they are the greatest spy ever, James Bond.
Rating:  9/10 "Awesome"
Favorite Moment:  My favorite level is where you get to drive a tank around, creating chaos on the highway.  Everything about this level, from the controls to the enemies to the weapons, was made with the destructive power of the tank in mind, and it was a great diversion from the standard run and gun sequences.

skip to 1:30 to get to the gameplay

Clone Wars Goodness

Sorry, I won't be able to post a review today, so instead I'm taking the easy way out and posting a bunch of videos about my favorite T.V. Show of all time, Star Wars the Clone Wars!
Here's the epic trailer for Season 3:

Here's a trailer for a new villian, Savaage Opress

And here's the final trailer for the second half of season 3, which looks pretty dark

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Trailer

Check out the first trailer in the fourth installment of Jack Sparrow's adventures.  To me it looks like a cheap cash-in; the story ended with At World's End, why are they adding what is probably doomed to be known as the "Missing Adventures of Jack Sparrow?"  This is almost as bad as DreamWorks making a fourth Shrek movie.  Then again, who knows, right?

Ender's Game Book Review

Second Introductory Nature Shot....

Ender's Game is probably the first particularly deep science fiction that I've ever read, and the funny thing is, on the outside it seems like just another cliche of the genre.  Basically the book is about a boy genius who is humanity's only hope for survival in an upcoming war with an alien race called the "buggers."  And yes, they are supposed to look like, ehem, bugs.  So yeah, insect aliens, space travel, kid genius, all sounds like the norm for sci-fi, right?  However, that's not the case at all.  Orson Scott Card's book turns out to be one of those few sci-fi novels that doesn't focus on lizard men and lazer guns, and instead talks about human issues that are very relevent today.
     The book follows a kid named Ender, who is singled out by Earth's military as the one person who has a chance at being able to strategize and think his way through how to beat the buggers.  A lot to place on a six year old, right?  So, they unceremoniusly whisk him up to space where he has to endure several long years in Battle School.
     One of the big issues that the book explores is government manipulation and whether it is necessarily right or wrong.  Because on one hand Ender is the world's last hope of survival against the alien threat, so the government has no choice but to push the kid to his limits and turn him into the perfect soldier as fast as they can.  But as you can imagine, the whole ordeal is very taxing on Ender, and its hard not to feel his hostility towards those who are manipulating him.  The book does a great job at showing how the constant training in the Battle Room is wearing Ender down both psychologically and physically, as the officials keep finding ways to make the simulated battles more and more difficult.
     With the focus on Ender and the buggers, it feels a bit strange when the book breaks off and throws in clips from the lives Ender's siblings. Valentine and Peter.  It does give the book a broader view of what's happening down on Earth, but it really doesn't seem that necessary.  Valentine and Peter pretend to be adults on the internet and thus publish their own political views of what this country and that country should be doing.  Interesting?  Sort of.  Relevent to Ender's training?  Not really.  Yes, I know that there are some parts where is does vaguely connect with Ender's psych and all that, where the computers use his siblings as a sort of psychological test, but it still doesn't seem enough to justify the time spent with them.
     Of course, one argument for all of this background information is that this is just the first book in the series, and that what happens in this book is refered to later on; the exploits of Valentine and Peter seem to serve better in the long term of the series then in the short term of this one book.
Conclusion:  Ender's Game is not just a look at mankind's struggle to survive, but also how high a price that we're willing to pay in the name of self-preservation.  The book does leave some loose ends and moral dilemns, so in this case I strongly recommend staying with the series from start to finish in order to truly grasp why Orson Scott Card included everything that he did.
Rating:  8/10 "Great"
Favorite Moment:  It's interesting to see how Ender's training all comes together in his final exam, and then of course there's the big reveal at the end which I can't tell because of my No Spoiler Policy.  Just let me say that there's more manipulation involved, and that at the ending it also brings up the important question of whether or not killing off the buggers is a good idea.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Movie Review

Run Harry Run!!

Here we go.  The beginning of the end.  The first half of the finale.  The Penultimate Peril (yes, that's a Lemony Snicket reference).
     As the movies have progressed they have each gotten bigger and better then the previous ones, with the exception of the sixth.  So, the obvious question is whether or not Deathly Hallows Part 1 follows this trend.  However, comparing this movie with the previous ones is difficult, as it is just so darn different from any other adventure that Harry's been on.  Not only is it darker and grittier than any other installment in the series, but it is also the first movie that never shows us Hogwarts at all.  Hogwarts has been almost the Narnia of the series-sure we get to see bits and pieces outside, but the majority of the action takes place inside the halls and along the grounds of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  To make a film in which the school is barely even mentioned makes for a jolting and altogether different experience.
     For those who haven't read the books (shame on you), part one of the Deathly Hallows finds Harry, Ron and Hermione on the run from the Ministry of Magic, which has been usurped by Voldemort, all the while trying to hunt down the Horcruxes which are the secret to killing the Dark Lord.  Thus there is no fixed locale to take the place of Hogwarts, as they are constantly moving from one place to the next, and I thought that the directors did a great job at portraying just how isolated they are.
     A potential flaw for this movie was the fact that a lot of it is taken up by Harry and friends camping out in their tent.  Sounds boring, right?  Unexpectedly, this is time well spent on developing the relationship between the friends, in particular that of the perspective of Ron.  While this isn't the first time that he gets green with envy at the Boy Who Lived (Goblet of Fire), this time we get to see it much more intensely, with a particularly nasty scene which I won't spoil here, in the which you can't help but feel sorry for Ron-after all, can anybody really remember a single heroic thing he's ever done?
     Now on to the not so good.  Deathly Hallows sees the return of Dobby, whom we haven't seen since the second movie.  The problem is that the writers wrote themselves into a corner: Dobby plays an important role in this movie, but any emotional attachment that the audience has had with the little elf has been gone for several years.  You see, everything that Dobby did in the books in between now and book 2 has been left out by the movies.  When Neville gave Harry the gilly weed?  That was originally Dobby.  When Neville found the Room of Requirment?  Dobby again.  Geeze, Neville's been stealing Dobby's thunder this whole time!
     Okay, time to put the Dobby argument aside.  One more gripe I have is the lack of any explosive finale.  When the ending comes, it feels like there could have been a little more punch to it.  That said, it still left the characters in a dark, uncertain situation, all ready for part two.
Conclusion:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a turning point for the series, leaving the comforts of Hogwarts behind and going for a much more gritty atmosphere.  While it does suffer from a few oversights and the fact that the directors unceremoniously ripped the book in two, it is still Harry Potter at its core, and has done a terrific job at getting me excited for the final chapter in this truly epic saga.
Rating:  8/10 "Great"
Favorite Moment:  The Horcrux scene is pretty cool, but what I really liked was when they did a montage of the gang's travels with a voice over of a guy on the radio reading of a list of missing people.  It was a terrific way of showing how isolated they are, and also the fear spreading throughout the wizarding world.

Inception Movie Review

New York: The New Venice!

How can I jump-start my blog in the coolest way ever?  By reviewing one of the best movies of all time, of course!
     Inception was directed by Christopher Nolan, the genius behind Batman Begins and the awesometacular Dark Knight.  However, Inception is quite different from those two movies, so just because you like seeing the Joker run rampant through the streets of Gotham doesn't necessarily mean that you'll like this one.  While Inception does have tense moments throughout, it has a slower pace than the Dark Knight in that it makes the audience think.  That's right, think.  If the idea of thinking through your movies doesn't appeal to you in any way shape or form, then this probably isn't the movie for you.  This is why Inception will probably be better received amongst the geeks and nerds of the world instead of the action junkies.
     So, what is Inception all about?  The main concept of the film is that technology exists that allows people to experience what is called "shared dreaming."  The main characters of the film use this technology as a method of mind reading, or "extraction," by entering the dream of their target and searching their subconcious for the information they want.  "Inception" is the exact opposite.  Instead of extracting information from somebody's mind, the main characters must plant one.
     As you can probably tell from that description, this movie can be described as a psychological thriller, with lots of mind bending plot twists.  If you like movies such as Shutter Island then this movie will be right up your alley.  I really liked how the concepts of the film were layed out; as long as you were paying attention it felt cool and engaging.  I also liked the atmosphere of the dreams, with the slow motion sequences that gave it an almost claustrophobic feel, like you were really dreaming, completely shut out from the outside world.
     While the braininess of the film is great, its the character development that makes the experience.  This is one of the few movies where all of the actors do a fantastic job at making you actually care about what happens to them.  I remember halfway through the movie thinking geez, I sure hope nobody dies.  I also liked how the movie never loses sight of what emotions the main character is going through, and how his story is tied in throughout the entire movie.
Conclusion:  Inception is one of those rare movies that not only gives you a new perspective on the real world, but is also rich with character development and a fantastic story.  In a world full of movies that have no other purpose than to whack the audience over the head with bullets, explosions, and cheesey dialog, Inception is a breath of fresh air.  Without a doubt the best movie I've ever seen.
Rating:  10/10  "Spectacular"
Favorite Moment:  Like, the entire movie.  Seriously, it's hard to pick just one scene, but if I had to I'd choose the ending sequence, which I won't go into detail in order to avoid spoilers.  All I will say is that it tied the movie up perfectly, and made me feel like I had been a part of the characters' amazing, almost spiritual journey.