Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens
 

Movie Review Written By Adolph Vega

3D

 

Recently I posted an article about stereoscopic 3D visuals and how emotions can be more easily conveyed via 3D visuals than 2D visuals. This movie is a great example of this because so many scenes have characters faces zoomed in and the emotion is more easily conveyed because of the 3D element. The movie looks gorgeous in 3D and is sharp and vivid with many scenes having clear foreground and background and many space crafts or objects flying between the planes of 3D. I felt the 3D visuals brought me more into action scenes, more emotion to the characters and story and just added a great deal to the movie. One scene specifically with a star destroyer was popping out looked so gorgeous and ready to pop my eye out. I really enjoyed how the stereoscopic 3D visuals looked. The 3D is expertly done and is something I can easily recommend. 

Final Verdict: Great 3D

 

Movie

Star Wars is one of the most difficult film franchises to review.
Few other movies have transcended the medium and become such an iconic
and fundamental part of popular culture as Star Wars.  Star Wars
Episode 7 the Force Awakens is both the seventh release and seventh
sequential movie in the series that was created by George Lucas in
1977. Episode 7 takes place roughly 30 years after the 6th movie
“Return of the Jedi”.  Many of the characters from the original Star
Wars Trilogy (episodes 4-6) return such as Han Solo and Princess Leia
to name a few.


 The movie begins when the characters Rey and Finn find a droid named
BB8 (who is adorable) who knows the secret whereabouts of Luke
Skywalker.  A new villain named Kylo Ren is also searching for Luke
Skywalker.  Kylo Ren is part of the organization The First Order, who
rose from the ashes of the evil Empire.  I won't go into any other
details of the story within this review.


 This movie does a terrific job of feeling both familiar and new at
the same time.  A few plot points and scenarios seem to be very
familiar to the 4th Star Wars movie (first released) “A New Hope“, but
to call this a reboot or rehash would be an unfair critique and a
gross oversimplification.  Episode 7 has the traditional hero story
and the journey of self-discovery.  The hero's journey is a classic
story framing element and makes it easier to set up new characters and
scenarios in a familiar fashion.  This familiar story element only
helps to draw the viewer into the adventure.


 Episode 7 does the impossible and feels like the old classic trilogy
(New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) but also feels
fresh and current for the new generation of movie fans.  The
characters are all likable and given enough time to develop except for
Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma.  I hope that Episodes 8 and 9 give
them more screen time, because I found both characters interesting.
The acting and dialog are well done and feel natural.  The character
motivations all make sense and are well written and portrayed on
screen.  I really enjoyed the returning cast from the previous films
and they worked very well as older versions of the characters they
previously played.  The movie has a fast pace but knows how to stop
and allow the viewer to catch up and enjoy the story and characters.


 The action sequences in episode 7 are thrilling, fun and have
wonderful special effects.   The decision to use practical special
effects and only occasional computer graphics gives the movie a more
lived in, authentic feel and brings you into the story.   One element
of the movie that I didn't enjoy was the fact that everything was so
convenient.  The movie has many plot holes that are unresolved or left
open for a potential sequel or comic book or whatever to fill in.  So
many times events in the movie happen in a fashion to make it easier
for the characters or the story to progress that don't seem earned. I
can't talk specifics without spoiling aspects of the story, but things
keep falling into place so perfectly that it becomes a distraction.
This aspect of the movie is only a minor annoyance and overall I
enjoyed this movie.


 Overall Star Wars Episode 7 The Force Awakens is an incredible
accomplishment in cinema.  Simply put, it feels right to watch this
movie and it satisfies the extremely high expectations this film has
set for itself.  Not only is episode 7 a great movie on its own right,
it's a great sequel, and also washes away the bad aftertaste of the
prequel trilogy. Star Wars episode 7 is well crafted and pure fun and
is truly spectacular and is well worthy of your time.

 

Final Verdict: 9/10

Update: January 10th 2015

After a second viewing I decided add an Editor's Choice Award to this movie. I enjoyed the movie even more on a second viewing and decided it was worthy of this award. 

™ & © Lucasfilm Ltd. & 2015 Disney All rights reserved.

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The Good Dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur

Movie Review Written By Adolph Vega

 

3D

Finally, a Pixar digital animated movie that uses stereoscopic 3D in
interesting ways!  The Good Dinosaur looks sharp and vivid in 3D.
Many times the characters body parts will be popping out of the screen
and so will the scenery.  The movie also has an impressive 3D diorama effect, which makes you feel like you're in the movie with the characters.  One scene toward the end has some great particle effects that pop out and are impressive.  Sadly, many times during this movie the 3D visuals are muted and are very subtle.  The 3D might be inconsistent, but overall I enjoyed how it was implemented within this movie.

 

Final Verdict: Good 3D

 

 

Movie

This movie has a very simple and satisfying storyline that showcases a world in which dinosaurs and humans live together.  The story follows Arlo, a green brontosaurus, which is the runt of the family.  Arlo is accidentally separated from his family and the movie revolves around him trying to reunite with them.  A human child, whom Arlo names spot, tags along with Arlo on his adventure to get back home. The movie has a gorgeous art style and balances photo realistic environments with cartoony dinosaur characters and looks very impressive.

The cast of this movie is limited to only a few characters, which keeps things simple.  I enjoyed and appreciated the story being only about the essentials and not being loaded with multiple subplots or excessive cast of characters.  This movie has a major weakness, the voice acting, which is a big deal for an animated movie.  Sadly, the quality of the voice acting for the characters can only be described as adequate.  The only voice actor I enjoyed was for the character
Butch, who was an older tyrannosaurus played by actor Sam Elliott. Unfortunately, many of the characters within the movie have accents that feel out of place and take you out of the movie.  The human element of this movie is sadly totally undeveloped and they are just another species on earth.  Regrettably, the movie's ending is lacking and feels like the writers ran out of gas and just wanted to wrap things up nicely and quickly.  Overall I was satisfied with the simplicity of this movie and found it very entertaining, even if it had some problems.
 

Final Verdict: 8/10

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Gun Slugs 2

GunSlugs 2

3DS game Review

Written by Adolph Vega

3D

The 3D stereoscopic visuals of this game look very sharp, nice and are well implemented. The graphics engine used in this game uses a few different layers of 3D with text and basic game info popping out toward the player. Popping out the text of the game makes it very easy to distinguish from the backgrounds and works well for this type of game.  The various environmental backgrounds recess backward and give a decent job of showcasing depth of field.  The pixels and shapes are big, vibrant, and the overall look very sharp.  The 3D element looks nice but it never had any moments that wowed me.  Playing in 3D does not impact the frame rate or smoothness of the game.  All things considered, I liked how the game handles the stereoscopic 3D element, but don’t love it.

Final Verdict: Good 3D

 

Game:

I have never played the original Gun Slugs game, so this is my first experience with this series.  That being said, the game is pretty self-contained and strait forward, so I have no problem enjoying it without knowledge of the context of the previous game.

Sadly, the story of this game is not explained at all during regular game play.  You can find a paragraph explaining the basics within the digital manual.  In Gun Slugs 2, the Black Duck Army wants to dominate the galaxy and the Gun Slugs refuse to allow this to happen. Obviously, the story is not that important to the game play, as it's all basically about killing everyone in your way and saving your comrades. The only aspect of the story that I cared about was how the game ended, which was totally anticlimactic.  Seriously the finale without giving it away is not at all satisfying and assumes a sequel will be made to explain what happened.  Who knows if a Gun Slugs 3 will ever release so having cliff hanger endings is not ok unless a sequel has already been green lighted and with indie developer’s sequels are never a guarantee. I usually wouldn’t comment on the ending of a game or movie in a review, but this time it really upset me.

Gun Slugs 2 plays in a similar style of Contra or Metal Slugs, where you move to the right and the player kills everything in your way with some light platforming elements.  The game is broken down into individual levels within specifically themed worlds, with a final boss at the end.  Each level in the world has bunkers that you must enter, which has a captured comrade that you must save.  This process is fairly basic and actually fun because these bunker areas seem to be randomly generated and you never know what to expect in these sub-levels.  The player must complete the bunker areas in each level before you can progress to the next level. After you save a comrade, you regain health and automatically change into them, so whatever weapon they have, you now poses.

Each level is Gun Slugs 2 short in length and in theory can be completed within a few minutes, if you can survive.  The game has a very nice difficulty level; where it never feels too difficult but isn't a total breeze either. Ammo and life are an issue within this game and you need to watch both aspects as you play.  Ammo and health pack drops from enemies you defeat and are common, but if you don't pay attention you may find yourself in peril with very little ammo or life to complete the area.

Gun Slugs 2 sadly has some issues with slowdown and a few random glitches. The slowdown does not appear to have a connection to the stereoscopic 3D graphics but is simply annoying. The game play slows down so that the graphics engine can process everything and within seconds it returns to the normal pace. This slowdown isn't a major issue, since it can give you a chance to catch your breath and resembles old school games from the 1980’s and 90’s. The glitches, however, are more of an issue, as twice the game crashed and caused my NEW 3DS to restart. The levels are very short; so losing my progress was not an issue, and the incidents seem to be random isolated events.

One glitch seemed to happen during boss battles. Each boss has a weak point that you must take advantage of to defeat them, which is standard fair for an action game. However at times the game glitches and gives the player access to the boss’s weak point earlier than you're supposed to.  So the glitches can be in the players favor and help you defeat the bosses simply because the boss was positioned in a different way than it should. It is unclear of these are glitches or just a random element which gives the player more luck during these encounters. Regardless, I found it worth noting as it happened during my play through several times. On a related note the game’s various boss battles were interesting spectacles, which were tough but fair.

The game does a decent job of keeping things fresh with several different guns and the randomly generated bunkers. Gun Slugs 2 has a nice sense of humor, often it pokes fun at popular nerd culture and is a love letter to action movies from the 1980's. These jokes are represented by text that quickly appears on screen.

One element of the game that I mentioned earlier and was impressed by is the graphics. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much, but the larger pixels and character models look sharp and very impressive on the 3DS screen. I found the controls within this game to be flawless for this type, with the button layout being strait forward and precise. One odd element of the controls is the pause screen, which might cause confusion for the player. Hitting the start button will pause the game, but pressing start button again will kick the player out of the level and back to the menu.  The game’s menus do have the correct button prompts on screen, but this element is strange and jarring. This issue is jarring because a vast majority of video games that I have played in the last 30 years use the same button to pause and resume gameplay, so this is against my muscle memory and annoying. This issue is not significant, but it was worth noting since it was a minor issue.

The musical element of the game is the biggest weakness and is totally forgettable. The game has two additional modes outside of the main story. The two extra modes are the “ arcade mode “ and the “ daily challenge”. The arcade mode is basically playing the entire game on a single life in one sitting, while the daily challenge lets you play in a randomly generated base level with a single life. The daily challenge uses the 3DS’s inboard clock and won’t allow you to complete this mode more than once within a day.  I didn't find the arcade mode fun because the difficulty was too high, but some people may find enjoyment in this. I did find the daily challenge to fun and addicting way to continue to play the game after the main story mode was completed.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Gun Slugs 2 and had tons of fun. Gun Slugs 2 is a very simplistic game but kept me entertained from beginning to end with varied enemies, weapons and environments.  The glitches are minor, but at its core, it's a very fun action game that I can recommend you download from the Nintendo’s 3DS e-shop.

Final Verdict: 7/10

™ & © 2015 2015 Orange Pixel games All rights reserved.

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