Book Review: La Belle Sauvage

Review:  #811
Title:  La Belle Sauvage
Series:  The Book of Dust - 1st book
Author:  Philip Pullman
Comments:  Set as a distant prequel to His Dark Materials trilogy, it follows the young boy Malcolm, who works at the inn his family owns, the Trout.  At the nearby priory, a young baby is left in the nuns’ care and Malcom develops a fascination for her, Lyra.  The novel is split into two parts and the first is a slow build up introducing and developing Malcolm’s relationships with all the characters, as well as how the world functions as it currently is.  Knowledge of His Dark Materials is not essential but it would give you a better idea and understand the significance of various events.  The second part is a lot more tense as catastrophe strikes and Malcolm is on the run with a dangerous man chasing him.  The second half is also when it starts to peter off to a more fantastical setting that seems at odds with the rest of the novel.  Malcolm encounters unusual beings that strongly hint of the supernatural or the dead.  Nevertheless, the storytelling is excellent and throughout the whole novel, it tells an engrossing story even though there isn’t much action.  It is the fact that you can seeing the political effects from Malcolm’s eyes that drives the plot forward.  The anti-religious theme is stronger than even the previous series and can become overbearing a lot of the time.  You can tell that this is the first book in the new trilogy because there is so much world building and also a fairly hollow ending considering how much has happened up until that point.  It felt like the destination didn’t make up for all the things that occurred in the journey.  At its core, this is a journey about Malcolm and how his fate intertwines with Lyra’s and while the beginning and end felt dragged out, the middle was breathtaking in its suspenseful atmosphere and a twinge of horror.
Rating:  7.5/10

Death Note (2006-2007)

Death Note is a 37 episode anime based upon the manga series.  The series has since spawned several live-action movies, games and novels.  It follows Light Yagami, where he noticed a black notebook fall from the sky while looking out the window bored at school.  He picks it up and has the words "Death Note" on the cover.  Inside was a list of rules, which are slowly revealed over the course of the series.  The special thing about the Death Note is that any name written int he book will die.  You can specify various conditions such as time and the cause of death.  If only the name is written down, the person will die of a heart attack.  Throwing a spanner into the effects of the ownership of a Death Note is that you see the Shinigami (Death God) who owned it.  In Light's case, that would be the horrific and nightmare-inducing design of Ryuk.

Ryuk was bored and that was the reason why he allowed the Death Note to fall onto Earth and be claimed by a human.  He wanted to see the events arising from this and Light is the perfect person to have picked it up.  This is because Light quickly develops the mentality that he can use the Note in his righteous quest to kill all the criminals in the world.  Light will be the judge, jury and executioner and eventually become God.  You see that Light originally had a righteous ideal but due to events later on, he is twisted into the obsessive maniac that he will eventually become.  The best part of Death Note is the cat and mouse chase that is quickly set up by the second episode.  The authorities of the world have noticed the coincidental deaths of criminals in quick succession from heart attacks.  A task force is formed with the talented and mysterious L as the head.

Through some simple but ingenious maneuvers, L narrows down the suspect to someone in the Kanto region of Japan.  Thus it becomes a race between Light and L to see who can uncover the other first:  L to capture Light, and Light to kill L by learning his real name.  Death Note touches upon some heavy themes.  You can easily be swayed by the ideals of Light.  Yes, he is committing murder but he is killing convicted criminals that has escaped justice and through the fear of being judged from a divine being, the population is more wary and crime rates has drastically reduced.  On the other hand, Light is human and what gives him the right to judge someone?  The population of the world is split between those who support Light, nicknamed Kira, and those who do not approve of his actions.

Death Note has excellent pacing and there is nary an episode where the plot isn't moving forward at a brisk pace.  Furthermore, the dramatic music and scenes make even the most mundane of events (such as writing a name, or eating a potato chip) exciting.  At some point, you will wonder how the story can keep itself going when Kira's methods are undetectable.  This is answered when Light likes a challenge, takes risks and deliberately leaves crumbs for L until they clash.  Light himself loves to put forward swatches of exposition and Ryuk, as a cheeky bystander yet not completely impartial self, will often reveal something new about the Death Note at the worst possible time to Light.  Light will then have to think up of a plan on the fly to accommodate this.  The risks escalate ever higher and no party can afford to lose the gamble.

Pretty soon, the clashes between Light and L escalates to the point where it becomes a massive case of "I know that you know that I know..." and each act accordingly.  They deduce so many steps ahead it is ridiculous.  Before you can even recover though, the plot throws in several new characters that completely change the landscape of things up until that point.  It is also interesting to see the "friendly" rivalry between Light and L, something that may order on friendship and respect.  It gets to the point that when it gets near the end and either one will have to lose, it feels surreal.

While the love interest introduced is not your standard stereotype, their personality feels contrived.  The love interest is so naive and acts like such a child that it is a far cry from the other characters.  From this point on, it feels like Light relies too much on luck and things going exactly as planned, when there are way too many variables that you cannot predict.  It is unbelievable that anyone could so easily be convinced to give up their life based on someone they don't know.

If it is even possible, Death Note picks up the pacing even more during the middle as Light proceeds to put his biggest and boldest plan to date into motion.  It does feel like it takes a different direction and you won't understand why Light is doing it until the very end.  Even then, it's kind of forced when so many things could have gone wrong and Light be found out.  Death Note takes a risk after two-thirds of the way and seemingly resolves a major conflict point between Light and L.  It is a risky move and one where everything that comes after it... doesn't quite work as well as before.  Sure it is unexpected but the events that happen after just doesn't feel quite right.  The plans from the characters feel very cheap too, as they break the rules or use underhanded tactics.  Generally, most of the characters in the final third become either unlikable or cheap knockoffs of earlier ones.

There are some really overly exaggerated scenes involving Light and L, to the point where their reactions are extremely cringe-worthy.  You can see Light straying from his ideals from the second half, as he is more willing to kill anyone that gets in his way.  He doesn't see himself becoming more and more twisted as he still thinks he is righteous and as the god of the new world, his word is law.  This leads to some tragic scenes as Light becomes ruthless and having no morals in who he betrays, kills and take advantage of.

As the final clash between Light and his enemy approaches, both sides are confident that they know the other's plans.  It gets really tense and no matter who wins, you know that the other will die as a result and that is painful.  You don't know whether to back Light or the people trying to catch Light.

However, the ending is a bit disappointing, especially when the loser becomes pathetic and painful to look at.  Furthermore, the way they lost felt a bit cheap since it was from an accident by an underling and not truly outsmarting the other.  There were a fair few overlooked areas too with both sides' plans.  If they were truly going to cover themselves all the way, then they shouldn't have left so many things that were easy to unravel everything.

Overall, Death Note, no matter what you think of the last third, is still an amazing anime.  It has a fantastic story with a cat and mouse game that's unparalleled with anything else out there.  The animations can be wonky at times but is still quite decent, the music used was haunting and despite Light being an anti-hero, you can't help but smile when things go according to his plans.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Power of the Primes Sinnertwin (Deluxe)

Review:  #482
Name:  Sinnertwin
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations - Power of the Primes
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 3)
Mold Status:  heavy retool of POTP Snarl

ALTERNATE MODE:

Sinnertwin transforms into a two-headed beast and you can't really tell but he is an extremely heavy retool of POTP Snarl.

This mode is okay.  He has two tails (not articulated) and his front legs have knee joints while the hind legs are all molded as one.

As part of the Power of the Primes line, he comes with a collector card.
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It is hard to tell in the photo above but Sinnertwin is actually a fairly small Deluxe.  He is noticeably smaller when held in hand.  Above is a comparison against Titans Return Quake.

The robot gun normally pegs on his back but the combiner piece can peg on his sides but looks really awkward.

Perhaps most disappointing is how the neck joints only allows up and down movement, not side to side.  This severely restricts his potential for various attack poses.

It is not a bad beast mode but is more static than you'd expect, and for no good reason.

TRANSFORMATION:

This is where Sinnertwin is most obvious as a figure that shares engineering with another toy.  The transformation is generic and boring, resulting in what you can describe as functional and practical but lacks ingenuity.  The twin heads folds onto the robot's back, the rear of the beast unfolds for the legs and the front legs become the robot's arms.

ROBOT MODE:

Sinnertwin's robot mode has slight proportion issues with long arms, big chest and relatively skinny legs.

He has both heads on his back as kibble and the beast's hind legs sticking out on the sides of his legs.

The headsculpt is square, reminiscent of the original toy.

He is average height for a Deluxe but a lot more hollow.

Articulation is pretty decent.  He has joints for his shoulders, neck, elbows, hips, waist and knees.

He comes with two weapons, a small gun and the combiner piece.

The shoulders are balljointed and thanks to transformation, there's also a rotating piece it is attached to.  Unfortunately, trying to move the shoulders will sometimes move the hinged piece instead.

The combiner piece can be pegged onto his shoulders as a sort of guard, which looks better than trying to hold it like a gun.

There is a small piece that you can detach from the combiner piece that is sculpted to be a gun.

Lastly, the combiner piece can peg onto his chest as Prime Armor.

This is an average robot mode since nothing really sticks out that captures your eyes.

OVERALL:

Sinnertwin can only be best described as a toy that doesn't excel any anything but is very solid in other areas.  We've seen his transformation before, and both modes don't have any flaws but are not terribly exciting either.

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As a Deluxe in the Power of the Primes line, Sinnertwin is able to transform into either an arm or leg to combine with a Voyager.

As an arm Sinnertwin officially has the heads of the beast mode sticking out oddly and the legs don't really peg in anywhere.  They rely on friction to hold it in place.

Leg mode is basically an undefined yellow lump.  It still works though.

Book Review: Storm Chaser

Review:  #810
Title:  Storm Chaser
Series:  Sun Catcher Trilogy - 2nd book
Author:  Sheila Rance
Comments:  Maia is the Sun-Catcher, able to catch the sun and wield its powers of fire.  She is surrounded by her friends but also her enemies who want her power.  While it sounds like a great concept, the execution is quite lacking.  The novel overall doesn’t feel like it has a destination it is aiming towards.  The constant shifting of character viewpoints makes it confusing and difficult to keep up with.  This is made worse by the short chapters so you feel like you are frequently jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint without rest.  Once it finally settles mostly on Maia’s viewpoint towards the end, you feel like she lacks motivation.  The lack of a proper climax and the feeling of such discrete storytelling, makes it easy to lose track of the story Storm Chaser is trying to tell.
Rating:  5.5/10

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

The Good Dinosaur is an animation by Disney Pixar and the animation is simply stunning with beautiful scenery.  It takes place in a world where the asteroid that had wiped out the dinosaur missed Earth.  It follows Arlo, the smallest and wimpiest out of his siblings and thus struggles to find his place in the family.  He has never been out from where they lived until he is swept away one day.  He meets a human boy, Spot, whom he was scared of at first but they soon work together and become friends as Arlo tries to find his way back home.  Liberties were taken with how the dinosaurs and world was depicted, such as them partaking in agriculture and being herders, and in a twist, Spot being the token animal companion with all the characters of a dog.  It is a moving story in how their bond forms although it felt like the plot never built towards anything.  There never felt like there was a proper main villain, sure we get the various "evil" dinosaurs who are carnivores but it didn't feel like there was one main threat to Arlo.  The plot is also very predictable in what would occur and what Arlo experience, however, The Good Dinosaur is still a good film.

Ratchet & Clank (PS4)

Ratchet & Clank is a re-imagining of the first game in the series, which was originally for the PS2.  Its release was timed to coincide with the animated film of the same name, and is the first game in the series for the PS4.  First off, Ratchet & Clank looks absolutely astonishing.  The games on the PS3 already looked fantastic but this PS4 game notches it up even more.  The vibrant colors and details in its deceptively simple design truly surprise you.  If you have a HDR TV, then be sure to check out the HDR because it makes the game look even better.

The game is a third-person shooter / platformer hybrid and like the previous games, it is a blast to play.  Smashing all the crates in order to gain bolts is so addictive and satisfying.  Ratchet can strafe with a weapon and with the target lock-on (which you can turn off), it perfectly complements the fast paced crazy action.  The core of the game is the various zany weapons.  Ratchet starts off with his trusty wrench but will quickly gain access to various weapons including the hilarious Groovitron which makes enemies dance and Mr Zurkon who laughs maniacally as he strikes enemies, to more conventional weapons like the flamethrower and blaster.

Tied to each weapon is a level, which increases the more you use it.  Leveling up will increase its abilities, making it more powerful.  You will also gain Raritanium during gameplay which is used to upgrade your weapons further, improving various attributes like rate of fire, ammo capacity and range.  Swapping weapons is as simple as holding down a button and then selecting your weapon using a radial menu.  Opening up the weapon selection menu pauses the onscreen action so you are never pressured to pick your options quickly.  You'll have to run, jump, aim and shoot all at the same time and the game plays smoothly without any interruptions.  Ratchet just feels so good to control.

The other aspect is the platforming.  Initially, Ratchet is only able to double jump but with the help of Clank, he'll eventually gain additional abilities like hovering, grabbing onto ledges and swinging from grappling points.  If you have played the first game, then most of the levels will be very familiar, right down to the layouts and enemies.  Thanks to the significantly improved graphics and modernization of gameplay elements from later games, the game still feels fresh and not a simple like-for-like retread.

During certain sections, you'll be able to control Clank.  In Clank's sections, the emphasis is not on combat but rather on puzzle platform play.  It's never too hard and can be a nice break between the more intense gunfights.  In addition to the mainstay Gold Bolts that are hidden in environments for Ratchet to collect, there is the addition of Holocards.  These Holocards are scattered in other hidden areas and also randomly from defeated enemies.

The story is an origin story of how Ratchet meets Clank.  They team up and join the Galactic Rangers as they aim to stop President Drek from invading other planets.  Ratchet and Clank travel from planet to planet, along with other supporting characters such as Captain Quark.  Notably, this re-imagining improves upon the dynamic between Ratchet and Clank.  No longer is Ratchet giving Clank a hard time and this is a lot for the better and makes both characters much more likable.  As all the voice actors used are returning ones from previous games, the re-imagining works quite well.  However, at the end of the day, the game doesn't bring anything new to the series apart from better graphics.  All the gadgets that Ratchet has we have seen before.  All his weapons, even the new ones, aren't that different.

While there are plenty of in-game cutscenes, the game does use some scenes from the movie.  The in-game cutscenes tries its hardest to match the fluid and smooth animations but you can still tell the difference.  It doesn't detract too much though.  However, like the film, it kind of lacks the soul and charm of the previous games.  There just isn't that much of the clever humor you've come to expect from the series.

The graphics are fantastic and the environments are amazing.  While framerate is now locked at 30 FPS (compared to previous games at 60 FPS), it is still smooth and fun.  The earlier levels are short and just when you are getting into the thick of it, it's the end of the level.  Thankfully, the later ones are much longer and more involved, although still very linear and fairly minimal in secret areas.  Overall, Ratchet & Clank is a really fun game.  It's a bright colorful platformer that we don't see much of nowadays.  It polishes all the elements that make Ratchet & Clank games fun, instead of trying to reinvent anything and for that, it succeeds extremely well.

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Stranger Things - Season 2 (2017)

The second season of Stranger Things clocks in at 9 episodes long.  It is set in the 1980s and follows four boys:  Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will.  In the first season, Will disappeared and we learnt of a strange world called the Upside Down.  It is a replica of the real world but more decayed and where monsters lurk.  Much about it is left in the dark so one would hope that the second season would shed more light into this.

The other main character is Eleven who was a strange girl.  Eleven seemed connected to Upside Down, with supernatural powers and being part of an experiment.  She meets Mike and they become friends, with Eleven helping in rescuing Will.  Season 2 begins with a tense chase scene and a revelation that feels like it will set the tone for the rest of the season.  Then the first episode begins proper and introduces a few new characters, but you are not sure whether they will be important or not.  The most significant new character is Max, who is portrayed as a potential love interest early on.

The large cast of characters return, including Chief Hopper from the police force, and Mike's older sister, Nancy.  Characters still feel the effects from the events of the first season.  The other world Upside Down is still haunting Will, and scientists are still experimenting with it, while Hopper is instantly wary when odd things are happening in the small town and Nancy still feels guilty about her friend, Barb.  This is kind of spoiler-ish, but expected nonetheless, being that Eleven marks a return.  Her powers seem to have amplified and we're shown that she is experimenting and stretching her powers.

Will lapses into what they call are flashbacks, but it looks like it is really transporting Will back to the other world without warning.  He seems to disappear and people can't find him until for some unknown reason, he reappears (most likely just as he is about to get hurt).  A big part of the season is the huge shadowy monster that Will sees whenever he sees the Upside Down.  Its design inspires horror and fear, being undefined yet still has enough shape to imagine what it can do.  Will's connection with it makes up the biggest plot point in the season and serves as the most tantalizing aspect.  The second season does a great job of keeping you interested in its events.

Despite the positives, some of the actions of the characters can be frustrating.  The characters either act selfish or spoiled, especially when it is so obvious that what they are doing will cause them harm in the long run.  Conversely, a few of the annoying characters from the first season redeems themselves and are much more likable here.  The visual effects used for the world of Upside Down, the monsters and various other things are really well done.  The music itself lend to some chilling and thrilling scenes.  At times, the episodes do tend to stray into predictable territory but it manages not cross the line too far.  There are tinges of horror within the show but it never gets too intense.

As the season goes towards its finale, the various plot threads start to converge and it leads to a satisfying ending where all the characters join together and defeat the monsters from the Upside Down.  The final scenes were great and no matter what you thought of the romances before, their resolutions are satisfying.  Overall, the second season of Stranger Things is pretty fantastic.  It has better pacing and a better plot compared to the first season.  More importantly, it starts to answer some (but not all) of the questions that were raised in the first season but were left hanging.

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