Book Review: The Dragon's Tooth

Review:  #332
Title:  The Dragon's Tooth
Series:  Ashtown Burials - 1st book
Author:  N.D. Wilson
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  I’ll speak of the flaws first, and that it is too long, and the plot is aimless.  The beginning was dull and stretched for far too long.  It is very likely that you’ll lose interesting in this story before it actually even started.  This slow introduction takes up more than one-fifth of the book.  However, the story never really takes off.  The plot doesn’t seem to have a clear objective, being a mess at times.  You never truly understand anything at any point (and it’s never fully explained either).  It all feels very confusing.  If the author could have streamlined everything, it would have made it a much better read.  The writing was good though, it manages to keep you reading.  It promises that everything will be explained in time, but by the end, still a lot is shrouded in mystery.  Character motives are never explained, they just do their things and that’s that, even if it doesn’t make much sense or have any sort of justification.

Rating:  6/10

Beowulf

Not the classic epic tale that I was expecting, nevertheless, it still retains some feel of those classics.  The animation/motion capture technique they have going on in the film threw me off.  From having quick glimpses at screen caps and the disc case, I thought it was live action.  I was quite impressed with how realistic they had things going... at times.  At other times, the characters feel fake, it was a weird combination.  However, the more fantasy elements such as the dragon and Grendel blended in with the film much better than if it was live action and they had to animate those monsters in.  I did feel in the early parts of the movie, that they went a bit too much on the sexually suggestive things.  Sure, it might have been what it was like during that time, but there was too much of it, which ended up detracting from the movie.  The story told feels right at home with tales from the past... to the point where you can guess the major plot point between the relationships of the monsters with the kings.  The time skip was surprising, and the climax of the film was great.  The battle with the dragon was quite exhilarating.  Some of the scenes were obvious in their styles that it was for the 3D effect (and so the camera positioning was weird when you were watching it in 2D).  The film wasn't as exciting overall as I would have liked, as there were many parts of the film where it was slow paced and boring.

Book Review: How to Be a Pirate

Review:  #331
Title:  How to Be a Pirate
Series:  How to Train Your Dragon - 2nd book
Author:  Cressida Cowell
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  Is it enjoyable?  It’s okay.  Is it funny?  Not really.  So what has this book have that’s going for it?  Not too much I would say.  Hiccup isn’t really a likable character and neither is his dragon, Toothless.  Toothless is selfish and like Hiccup, he’s not really that special.  You keep waiting, waiting until that moment where they truly show their specialness, but they never do.  Hiccup fails in everything until right near the end, but even that victory isn’t worthy of celebration.  The humour can be childish and immature at times, and the plot feels bland and flat.  Repetition occurs throughout the story.

Rating:  5.5/10

Superman Returns

This movie is unnecessarily long and bloated.  I was bored for pretty much the whole way through.  The movie is full of things that are done before, done better elsewhere or just very cliche.  You can guess what is about to happen before it happens, and I just kept rolling my eyes at supposedly tense situations like seeing if the characters are going to survive (when we know that they are or they're not).  They dealt too much on Superman catching up with the past, which made it very boring when it wasn't interesting in the first place.  The plot never really lifted up, it was quite plain and flat the whole way through.  The climax was extremely disappointing, wait... what climax?  I didn't even realize that was it as I was expecting more.  This version of Lex Luthor was a huge let-down, he never felt like a threat or a proper villain, I was waiting and waiting for him to actually do something that will clearly distinguish him.  Many of the events were highly unrealistic to the point where you just think, "they can not be serious with where this is going".  Personally, I think unless you're a dedicated fan of Superman, it's better to watch some other more entertaining movie.

Book Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel

Review:  #330
Title:  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  The Third Wheel
Series:  Diary of a Wimpy Kid - 7th book
Author:  Jeff Kinney
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  It’s quite a funny read, and the illustrations were as charming as ever.  The events weren’t boring and it causes you to keep on reading and reading.  It has the same flaws that’s prevalent in the rest of the series and that’s the plot.  It’s almost non-existent, the book being a collection of events chained together, supposedly like a diary (the diary component has always been weak to me).  Some of the things that happened were over-exaggerated and immature.  Sometimes, you can't help but feel sorry for Greg when nothing goes his way.  Sure, he probably doesn’t deserve whatever he is looking for, but he is the protagonist and narrator, and you want him to succeed.

Rating:  6.5/10

Deep Impact

A comet heading for collision on Earth, with the ability to wipe out all life.  Interesting concept right?  In the end, Deep Impact feels boring and dragged on for far too long.  The movie started out like any other, with the discovery of the comet before skipping to something else, and it slowly (and with that, I mean really slowly) builds up to the revelation of the comet and what is being done to prevent the catastrophe.  The first half hour is a write-off, you can not watch it and still understand what is happening.  It doesn't feel like it adds to the movie too much, at that point, I was just thinking, would they get on with the film already coz I'm sick of watching what is in the end, inconsequential events.  Then the next section we have the first plan put into action, and that is a little bit more interesting.  I feel sorry for the person who was cast out into space though, leaving to die in suffocation.  I didn't like the ensemble cast, there were too many viewpoints and they weren't interacting with each other enough to make it worthwhile.  The could at least cut the Leo Biederman viewpoint (which would mercifully shorten the length of the movie as well).  Even though the impending disaster should cause a lot of urgency and tension, there was a noticeable lack of it.  It's thanks to the slow pacing, and in the end, I just wanted the movie to finish so I can carry on with whatever I was going to do next.

Toy Review: Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Optimus Prime (Voyager)

Review:  #132

Name:  Optimus Prime

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Prime - Beast Hunters

Year of Release:  2013

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 1)

Variations:  the Japanese version has some color changes (notably the transparent green changed to transparent blue)

VEHICLE MODE:

Optimus transforms into a short-nosed truck (unlike his previous model) that  for some reason, reminds me of Star Convoy (it's the cab).

I'm going to make this clear right off the bat, this is a TERRIBLE truck mode.  It's basically the robot lying down with minimal effort done to hide the legs (that's his feet at the back and there's no attempt to make it even look like a proper truck's back).  The only dedicated truck parts here are the wheels and cab, everything else is folded up robot pieces (that doesn't even do a great job at hiding).

What's more, Optimus is really short.  He's the length of a Deluxe figure, although he is taller, that just makes him feel stumpy.  Plus, he's fairly light for the supposed bulk.

Optimus has got a 'visible head' syndrome.  When I first transformed him, I thought I did something wrong since you can still quite obviously see his head, but nup, that's the way it's supposed to be.  It really puzzles me since there's nothing in the cab that's preventing the designer from letting his head flip further in.

His fists are also visible at the back, with only the Star Saber to slightly detract you from it (and it's not as if the Star Saber is realistic there either).

Optimus is quite armed in this mode, with a missile launcher on either side of the truck.  The yellow painted side windows look tacky (actually, most of the yellow paint applications are tacky).

If you take off the missiles and sword, you're left with a truck that looks even worse.  The robot wings form the sides with a cage like structure on the top.  All six wheels roll though.

A fairly disappointing truck mode (especially when compared to the First Edition or even the RiD mold), this is pretty much a folded up robot.

TRANSFORMATION:

Extremely simple.  It all boils down to flip down the legs and flip around the arms.  While it may be disappointing from an engineering's perspective, the simple transformation does allow for some quick conversion between molds, such that you may find yourself transforming Optimus more than you'd expect.  The way the wheels form his back is neat, although it may be tricky at first to find the correct way as it's not entirely clear how it is supposed to go (if you do it wrong, then the wing-pack won't sit flush).

ROBOT MODE:

This is where Optimus shines through and makes up for the disappointing truck mode and transformation.  He's big and bulky here, his design being completely revamped.  He's very imposing and the sculpting is good.

He sports integrated wings, so you can expect that he can fly.  There aren't too much kibble, only the wheels that are on his back (since there aren't many truck-specific parts to begin with).

The head sculpt is interesting, it's faceplate-less.  If they painted the two sides of his face silver then I think it would have made it much better.  The eyes are lightpiped with that ugly transparent green, and it works fairly well.  The head is on a swivel joint but he can still look up thanks to a transformation joint.

While compact in vehicle mode, the transformation unfolds a lot.  He's the regular height for a Voyager classed figure.  Personally, I think he bears next-to-zero resemblance to the original Prime design, Beast Hunters Prime looks more like a completely new Optimus character from another continuity.

In terms of weapons, he has both his missile launchers, the sides of which can fold out to form a bow-type weapon.  He also has the Star Saber, sadly, it's in green, I would have preferred blue like the Japanese version or even just silver like in the show.

His wheels have holes in them to plug in the missile launchers to look like jetpacks.  I haven't taken any photos of this since it's a tight fit and there has been too many reports of this configuration leaving stress marks.

Obviously, Optimus can hold his missile launchers on either hand, and they look pretty good there.

Same can also be said for the Star Saber, it's not as big as how it was depicted in the show, but it's still a considerable size.  There's a peg on right side of the hilt so that may change your preference on whether Optimus wields the sword left or right handed.

If you don't want him to hold his weapons, or you don't want the launchers at jetpacks, then you can place them on the wingpack, they just plug in the same places as in truck mode.

Optimus has the ability to hold all his weapons at once, you'll just have to place two launchers in one hand, it looks okay.

The large feet allows Optimus to be stable in a variety of poses, yet they can be limited since the feet can't fold forward (only backwards which has limited uses).

Despite his bulky look, cost-cutting is evident here.  Wherever possible, the pieces are hollow, but what makes this more acceptable is the fact that they've covered the hollow parts up.  Instead of being glaringly obvious, the hollow pieces are fully covered (instead of previously where you can see the hollowness when viewing from the back).

If you don't like his wings you can always fold it down his back and get it out of the way.

This guy has a surprising number of ratcheting joints, his shoulders and knees.  Articulation is pretty good, except for the fact that his wings will get in the way of his large shoulder pads when you're trying to pose his arms.

Paint apps are decent, with silver detailing on a few areas.  The transparent green for his windshield seems tacky here.  This shade of green is not a good choice.

 He's a lot of fun to play around and pose.  The legs are particularly well sculpted.  The plastic doesn't feel too cheap and he doesn't feel fragile.

A fun robot mode that displays well and isn't ruined by forced gimmicks.

OVERALL:

An extremely weak truck mode is balanced by a strong robot mode.  The design will still take some getting used to but this is one of the most intimidating Optimus toy in a while.  He's stable in both modes and the lack of any balljoints mean that he won't become a floppy mess in the future.  Recommended if you like the robot design.

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