Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The first ten minutes or so of the film was somewhat boring, with Luke being trapped outside in the snow and Han coming to rescue him, they could have cut that out and it wouldn't have made a difference.  Then, the battle that follows the Empire's squadron was intense and satisfying.  It was visually spectacular and kept you on your seat.  The continuance of the appearance of new machines kept it interesting.  Then comes the middle of the movie where Luke makes up for the lack of training in the first film.  He goes under Yoda, and the pacing slows right down.  It kinda sucks that there are two distinct parties that the film follows, it would have been more awesome if all the cast were together to get through their problems.  The plot is deeper than you would expect, it doesn't resolve everything by the end and it raises a lot of questions that you would hope to be answered in the future.  I didn't like how they left Han's fate until the next movie, it just didn't seem to close the film's story off properly.  Leia's relationship is also a bit confusing.  Then there's the big bombshell during Luke's and Darth Vader's duel, that was surprising (if you hadn't known it already with all the parodies of it over the years).  It's unbelievable how good the soundtrack is, so iconic and catchy, it suits the theme of the movie well.

Book Review: The Silver Casket

Review:  #396
Title:  The Silver Casket
Series:  Something Wickedly Weird - 3rd book
Author:  Chris Mould
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  Do not read this until you have read the preceding book, as it was hard to know what was happening and why it was happening.  The story wasn’t particularly amazing and it was lacking the humour that made the other books in the series more fun to read.  By the end of the book, you feel as if nothing much has happened though or at least, nothing too important or memorable.

Rating:  5.5/10

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Believe it or not, I have not seen any Star Wars films before and this was my first one (I figured going by the release order was better than the internal chronological order), I was never interested in it before.  I won't say that A New Hope swayed me but it wasn't as boring as I had feared (I always thought the Star Wars movies were boring and couldn't hold my interest).  The plot wasn't too great though since it didn't feel deep enough and felt somewhat loose.  I thought that more focus would be put onto Luke with his Jedi training and use of the force (guess not) or there would be a more compelling reason to forward the plot.  As it is, it felt more like a chase from one point to another.  The draw of the film though, was the special effects.  They were extremely impressive, especially considering that it was released way back in 1977.  They hold up much better than you would expect.  The movie started off slowly but the ending sequence with the space battle and spaceships rushing around was really good.  The many and varied designs of the vehicles used in the film also kept it interesting as you can't wait what they're going to show off next.

Book Review: Dog Tales

Review:  #395
Title:  Dog Tales
Series:  N/A
Author:  Emily Rodda
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  The idea itself is fairly bland; it’s just about the normal life of a group of dogs, from their point of view.  What makes this more interesting that it is, is how the author manages to twist normal happenings and provide plausible explanations on how the dogs view things (such as the dogs persuading their owners to take them for a walk, that the dogs themselves are owners and the humans are pets).  There were a few moments where it feels that the events were random or stupid (no other word for it).  The ending was abrupt; it didn’t feel like a proper closure at all.  It was an interesting read, it felt like you were seeing into the secret life/society of dogs.

Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Animated Optimus Prime Plush

Review:  #163
Name:  Optimus Prime
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Animated
Year of Release:  2010
Size Class:  Plush
Variations:  none

PLUSH:

For those who are unfamiliar, this plush version of Animated Optimus Prime was released in Japan only, and apparently part of those claw machines.  There are supposedly plush version of Bumblebee, Starscream and Megatron as well.

Needless to say, this plush is an extremely cute version of Optimus.  He looks amazing and he has an elastic loop on the top of his head so you can hang it somewhere (doorknob or from a nail for example).

Most of the character's detailing is evident here, he's instantly recognisable for what he is.  The head is proportionally big but this works in his favour.

The quality of fabric used it decent except for the ones used for his gauntlets.  Not only are the colour a lighter blue which looks odd but also feels more flimsy/thin (and feels as if it would be easily torn).

Make no mistake, this is a small plush, approximately the size of a Deluxe figure.

OVERALL:

A very cute plush of Animated Optimus.  Seriously, he looks great and makes for a nice decorative piece (currently have him in my room).  Recommended, especially if you can get him for a cheap price (he isn't too expensive on the secondary market).  It seems that this line of plushes faded away after they were announced.

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For other Transformers reviews (non-plush), refer to this page.

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation seems to have lost the spirit from the previous films, it just doesn't feel like a Terminator film.  Maybe it's because of the absence of Arnold Schwarzenegger or maybe it's because the film doesn't use time travel as a key plot device, but whatever it is, the film feels lacking.  The film's plot wasn't that great, it's not as if it is confusing at times, but it feels as if it had no direction.  Some of the new types of Terminators feels like a major departure from what was depicted before.  A big part of the film has the Resistance having access to planes and helicopters, but considering that these types of vehicles would need a fairly large base, it's a wonder that Skynet hasn't wiped those out already (especially when Skynet was depicted as all powerful).  The climax of the film was disappointing, it wasn't exciting and it didn't make the hour of relative boredom before it worthwhile.  I'm not going to say that there were neat concepts in the film, coz there wasn't, it all feels very generic and for some reason, somewhat reminds me of War of the Worlds.

Book Review: The Wide Window

Review:  #394
Title:  The Wide Window
Series:  A Series of Unfortunate Events - 3rd book
Author:  Lemony Snicket
Read Before:  yes
My Comments:  It can sometimes get tiring with the constant barrage of random explanations/definitions that break up the flow of the story.  For every piece of text that pushes the story along, there’s some other piece of text that goes off on a tangent (a defining feature of this series I suppose).  It’s still an interesting story but sadly, it’s never a happy ending for the Baudelaires.  Aunt Josephine is a fairly annoying character with her many flaws and it can get annoying how no one believes the children when the reader knows that they are right.  It just makes all the other characters in the book seem very stupid.

Rating:  6/10