The Avengers

Who couldn't get excited with this combination of some of the best superheroes acting as a team in the same movie?  I mean, we've watched films where they were the star for a while now, so The Avengers has a lot of promise to fill.  The resulting movie is still good but not perfect.  While it's understandable that they didn't ask to be in a team and thus there would be some issues to iron out, it was a bit boring when they take more than half the movie to sort it all out.  I don't think many people would enjoy watching the team of superheroes at odds with each other.  I think you could have guessed beforehand that this would happen, so there were no surprises there.  I guess the climax of the film makes it up when you get to see them in action and it doesn't disappointing.  While the special effects and battles were great, the plot was a bit weak.  The way it was presented was a mess, since most of the screen time was focused on how the superheroes were fighting each other.  It just felt as if the plot did not advance along.  Some of the humor felt weird, particularly the ones involving the Hulk in the final battle.  It would be all serious and then suddenly the Hulk would do something that's supposed to be funny but seemed out of place.  Still, all in all, a really good film to watch.

Toy Review: Transformers BotCon 2013 Rainmakers Sunstorm

Review:  #136
Name:  Sunstorm
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  BotCon 2013 - Souvenir Set
Year of Release:  2013
Size Class:  Deluxe
Variations:  too many to list, the notable ones:  repaint of the original Classics Starscream (which was subsequently repainted into the rest of the Seekers and Coneheads), BotCon Thundercracker, G2 Ramjet, Universe Acid Storm and the Japanese counterparts of the same characters.

BIO CARD:

Just a quick section showing the bio card that was provided with the set.  The BotCon theme for 2013 was Machine Wars (which I personally thought was the least interesting theme over the past few years), but I think the Rainmakers set that Sunstorm was part of was based upon the Decepticon jets from a G1 episode (and nothing to do with the actual Rainmakers?).

JET MODE:

Sunstorm is an obvious repaint of the Classics Starscream mold which has been used to death already.  He's in a yellowy orange color scheme which looks great here.

There are some nice sculpting and details as well as lots of subtle paint applications.  Some of the nicer paint applications include his air intakes (especially where the sides are painted to match the body) and the black paint on the tips of his wings and tail fins.

I think we're all familiar with this mold by now, it's at a decent size and heft.  The two guns underneath each wing (the guns are removable) are spring-loaded missile launchers.

There's still the gap underneath the fuselage.  He has two molded wheels which flip out at the front and two molded ones at the back.  The black bit  in the middle of the nose is his head (his whole helmet was painted black, which looks good in robot mode, but with the side effect of clashing in jet mode), and the nose tip is made of a soft rubber (but still pretty pointy and hard).

While not impressive on his own, Sunstorm looks great with his fellow Rainmakers as set.  Even better if you're going to display him with the numerous repaints of the mold.

TRANSFORMATION:

The transformation is super simple and it's at this point that the mold really shows it's age (around 7 years since it was first released at this point).  It's not clever by today's standards but this does mean that he's easy and fun to get between the modes.  I still like how his nose folds into his chest, it's not what you could expect since it rotates first instead of flipping straight forward.  There are also traces of mold degradation such as some loose joints (particularly the wings) and pieces not fitting into each other perfectly.  This doesn't present a problem, it's just some nitpicking.  While there's some loose joints, there's also some really tight joints which is a pain.

ROBOT MODE:

Sunstorm in robot mode is probably where you're going to leave him.  He looks great here, but I wish that the yellow plastic used was a shade darker.

Nothing much to say here, the robot mode is fairly kibble free, looks clean and blocky like everyone's favorite G1 toys.

The head sculpting is great and looks just like Starscream... which is should.  Too bad the head is on a swivel joint, with the range hampered by the piece hanging off the back of the head.  I love the painted eyes and face.

A quick comparison with the Universe Starscream toy which really shows the paint applications shining here.  There's silver paint detailing here and shoulder paints there.  The only part that looks a bit bland is the solid color of his torso (but it's character accurate).

As mentioned earlier, his null-rays are spring-loaded missile launchers.  What I've noticed in this release (or at least on mine) is that the springs are really powerful, which means the missiles launches really far.

Here's a comparison with the other two in the set.  You'd notice that they all share the same paint applications/layout.

Poseability is also where the mold shows it's age.  While Sunstorm's articulation is by no means bad, you can instantly suggest a few areas of improvement.  In particular, his elbows lacks a swivel and the range of some of his limbs can be better.

Posing him is also hindered by his heelspurs, or to be more accurate, how they could be much better.  A lot of times you'll find Sunstorm falling on his back.  His wings needs to be adjusted each time you pose the arms since the his null-rays knocks into them.

Sunstorm looks impressive with his fellow Rainmakers.  Since he's the most well-known character out of the three, I would consider him to be the unofficial leader...

The robot mode looks great and displays well, only lacking in some articulation.

OVERALL:

For an exclusive toy, Sunstorm is neat.  However, the price doesn't come cheap, initially selling for $100 (plus tax) for three Deluxe toys, he was already at three times the normal price.  Now, after selling out and secondary prices skyrocketing to around $170 to $200 before shipping, it's hard to recommend these guys when you're shelling out nearly $70 for one Deluxe toy.  While the Rainmakers set is easily the most interesting and popular set at BotCon 2013, only get it if you really, truly, cannot live without them.

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For other Transformers reviews, including the other two in the Rainmakers set, check out this page here.

Book Review: Angry Aztecs

Review:  #349
Title:  Angry Aztecs
Series:  Horrible Histories
Author:  Terry Deary
Read Before:  yes
My Comments:  The Aztecs as a race is already interesting; the Horrible Histories treatment just makes it even better.  You get to read the start of the Aztecs (including some information about the Mayans and Olmecs), and you get to see how cruel they are.  Yet, you also get to see how cruel the Spanish were when they conquered the Aztecs (they do all their deeds in the name of Christianity, and also plunder and steal the Aztecs’ gold).  It’s hard to say who was in the right.  A lot of the facts were presented in exactly the right way, which made it fun and makes you want to know more.

Rating:  6/10

Battlefield Earth

A great concept... but lacking in execution (once again).  The idea was that aliens had taken over the Earth for 1000 years already (year is 3000AD) but they've brainwashed the humans so that they've forgotten their past.  The movie we ended up with doesn't explain this clearly enough, and it's completely different to what you'll expect.  You expect a great deal of planning and an ingenious plot to overthrow these aliens but what you get is much more 'local' and disappointing.  I find it hard to believe that during this whole time, having the humans in captivity, the aliens did not bother learning or at least finding some way to communicate with them, instead thinking they were just savages or animals with no real intelligence.  Furthermore, in the human's revolution, somehow, they managed to learn how to control advanced technology (considering how degraded they are supposed to be) such as flying jets in a short period of time.  Apparently, they've learnt how to fly them in a flight simulator, but you have to wonder, how the hell is it supplied with electricity?  How the hell does the main character learn how to work the nuclear bomb?  Even considering that he's got alien information, alien technology is supposed to be way more advanced so they won't cover it anyway.

Speaking of advance, if they are so advanced, how come 1000 year old planes (which somehow still functions perfectly, with the humans able to do complex aerial feats) managed to destroy those alien vessels??  And consider that the alien vessels had that 1000 years to advance even further, it boggles the mind.  I found the acting to be terrible too, especially Barry Pepper's performance as the main character, for some reason, I just can't stand that character, he's annoying, rash and doesn't seem like the intelligent type to pull what he does off.  I also have to say that the one bomb that destroys a whole planet to be poorly explained and harder to comprehend.  The whole movie was boring, and it was a chore just sitting through it.  None of the scenes were truly exciting or worthy of the mind.  Seeing the cities in half ruins, you'd think that in 1000 years, it would have eroded way more, but nup, most of the structures are still perfect.  It's these little (well, maybe not so little) things that ruin the movie a lot.  If the characters of the movie had any sense, the so called 'revolution' could have been stopped ages ago.  Put simply, this is a pretty bad movie.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

It's a fact that most, if not all, of Transformers video games (at least ones that have a decent budget) have to be shooters.  Never played War for Cybertron myself, I dived straight into Fall of Cybertron and the story is easy enough to follow.  The game starts out with a bang, with a great opening level/tutorial.  It was exciting, engaging and simply put, quite epic.  The tutorial aspects aren't in your face and they felt quite natural.  Granted, the first chapter is still a write-off because nothing much in terms of gameplay happen in it.  It sets up the scene but surprisingly, the story takes place a few days before this opening cinematic and slowly, through the course of the game, builds up to this moment.  The first few chapter's worth of story telling doesn't truly grab you, it's only when you near the last few chapters that does the story suck you in and you find yourself wanting to know more and more.  Of course, this all leads up to the final climatic battle which, suffice to say, makes the whole game worth it.  The graphics are very nice, although the mechanical aspects, shading and lighting used can get overwhelming at times and start to blend into each other.  This means that it's harder to make out the details.  Fall of Cybertron also has a fairly unique aesthetics to it, things taking on a surreal nature.

Furthering that, sometimes it's hard to tell where the enemy is, and in the earlier chapters, who the enemy is.  You'd end up taking shots at friendlies thinking that they were your enemies.  Being a third-person shooter, needless to say, the game focuses upon shooting.  This can make the game feel just like another typical third-person shooter.  If they could somehow incorporate more melee based attacks, it would differentiate the game from it's competition a lot more.  Although later in the game, the variety does kick in (but it's still very much focused upon shooting and killing) which makes it much more interesting and fun.  There were a few annoying missions (although it could be that I just suck), Cliffjumper's stealth mission was a pain but if you kept persisting, it was actually quite fun.  Getting used to the controls took a few chapters, although with the L3 button being used for transformation, it meant that I kept accidentally transforming in the middle of gunfire (even with the delay function turned on).  I got bored by just the shooting and then heading off to the next objective marker after the first two or three chapters, yet after that, the game picked up and I started to find myself enjoying it more and more.  There are a few nice touches to the game, lacking a cover system, the game instead lets you switch your gun arm so you can shoot from behind cover.

The robot character models are detailed, even when you're standing still, you'd notice small mechanical parts of the robot constantly moving.  More nice touches include easter eggs like Megatron petting Laserbeak and all the named characters that make an appearance.  Something that happened more often than you would like would be that the game pauses as it loads the next part of the level.  This shouldn't happen as it's quite annoying.  The gameplay also involves way too many lever pulling (at one point, even the character you're controlling remarks why they couldn't have make it a button instead).  Gates also seal behind you as you reach a checkpoint, meaning that you can't backtrack to explore the whole level, needless to say, that kinda sucks.  Even though I kept dying though (on normal, no less), I found the game world immersive and I didn't get too frustrated even though I had to keep trying again and again.  A lot of the light weapons you get are fairly useless and extremely weak, once you get the riot cannon, there's no need to try any other weapons, that one is enough to obliterated all enemies.  Speaking of enemies, the bots you ever get to destroy are nameless generic bots, at no point (until the final battle between Optimus and Megatron, that is) do you get to fight another named character (like in a boss fight).

Some chapters are surprisingly long while others are just really short, this isn't really a issue, just something weird that you'd pick up as you're playing.  The story, in the end, wasn't too bad and the final battle is really quite epic.  However, the choice that you get to pick between Megatron and Optimus feels artificial since there isn't enough difference between the two to be worthwhile.  The Dinobot subplot was interesting, since when the Dinobots were revealed, everyone was like, what are there Earthen dinosaur modes?!  Well, the game explains that and the explanation is plausible and quite clever.  I found the audio logs, a collectible in the game, to be a great and unobtrusive way to tell more of the story's background, while not forcing it upon the player.  It also gives more reason to find all these collectibles (instead of them being there just for being there, like so many other games).  The music is epic and suits the game really well, it gives off a solemn feeling at times.  I didn't really get into the multiplayer but the modes there are okay.  Rating it as a single player experience, it's a solid game and well worth playing, especially if you're a fan of the Transformers, since there are just so many nods here and there throughout the game that'll make you smile.

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Other game reviews can be found on this page.

Book Review: Awesome Egyptians

Review:  #348
Title:  Awesome Egyptians
Series:  Horrible Histories
Author:  Terry Deary and Peter Hepplewhite
Read Before:  yes
My Comments:  It’s written in such a way that it’s interesting; it makes you want to read more.  I loved the way the author used different styles in order to present the information.  My favorite would be him writing it as a short story.  They’ve packed in a lot of things, rousing your interests.  The illustrations were good, and the humor was fine.  One of the better books in the series but due to the nature of the length, there were many things where you wanted them to go in deeper, but they didn’t.

Rating:  6/10

The Fifth Element

The film starts off quite well and intriguing, as you're presented with the Earth's impending doom (in 300 years time) and how it can be saved.  It provides some food for thought as these were presented by aliens who seemed have come to Earth millennia before.  However, the film then kinda went to a low point as it never lives up to it's promise.  The take on the plot is much different to what you can expect.  There were some humorous scenes due to some unfortunate circumstances (I loved the part where Dallas hides everyone that just happens to come to his house at the same time, and when various parties thought they got rid of Dallas so they can take his place on a plane).  Still, there were also some scenes that didn't make much sense (or you wonder why it was put in at all).  Chris Tucker's character as Ruby was weird, but some of his actions were quite funny (doesn't completely justify the character though).  I wished they could explain more about the impending doom, all we saw was a ball of fire and intelligence as it made a call to the antagonist Zorg.  It's an entertaining movie, and all the futuristic technology it shows off is pretty cool.