Stephen takes a look back at the third installment of the Mass Effect franchise. Press play to know more.
Ant-Man: A Refreshing Origin Story
Ant-Man: A Refreshing Origin Story
There is nothing more to guarantee Hollywood box office success then Superhero movies. As we have seen in the billions of dollars Marvel studios has made through The Avengers and Age of Ultron on their own, and I’m sure that Warner Brothers will make just as much with next years Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Suicide Squad, it has been a while that a superhero film has really grasped a fresh take on the standard origin story.
This is where Ant-Man comes in.
Ant-Man had the set up for the film to be a complete failure. It was in development for almost ten years, originally with Edgar Wright as director. However, late last year, the film lost its director due to Wright’s creative differences with Marvel studios. This left Peyton Reed, now as director, to quickly rush the film into production in order for a final product to be ready for its release date, the following year. The film wrapped in December, leaving only 7 months until the film’s release for editing, and for a film with major special effects seemed doomed.
However, the film is deeming to be a success. Resounding well with critics and keeping the top spot of the box office in the past two weeks of its release. The main reason critics are enjoying this film is that it is a breath of fresh air on the idea of the superhero origin story and how Ant-Man can stand alone within the high calibre of Marvel films.
While on paper, the premise of an Ant-Man that can shrink to the size of an ant seems a little dull and odd to the wider audience, it was able to create a fun new take on the origins of a superhero through the means of a heist film. This take of an origin story took everything on a smaller scale, which altogether made the stakes feel much larger then the stereotypical ‘the world is in danger’ problems in every other film we have seen in both Marvel and DC’s cinematic Universes, allowing you to take the somewhat odd premise seriously.
In the film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a divorced man with a daughter he cares about, and in order to be able to see his daughter, he must find a way to pay the child support. This is difficult for a man straight out prison, obviously unable to find a job. This changes the way one sees the film. Rather then it being just another superhero movie, there was something real at stake. It felt more personal. This allowed us, as the audience, to become instantly more invested into the character, wanting him to succeed at an illegal task in order for his daughter’s happiness. It is the innocence of her character that really keeps us rooting for Lang, along with Paul Rudd’s likeable persona on screen. There has been no relationship of such in the MCU so far and as long as his motivation was for his daughter, we as an audience were going to remain invested.
Ant-Man, to date, is the only movie in the Marvel cinematic universe to have a predecessor of the suit or powers in the film. The addition to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in the film was able to add a new element to the genre and the coherence of the universe. Having a character who is aware of the consequences of a superheroes’ power and what can happen if that power falls into the wrong hands creates a new dynamic between Hank Pym and Scott Lang, unlike we’ve seen in any Marvel movie before. This ties in to the relationship Pym has with his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lily), not allowing her to be the one to use the suit in the heist, due to these consequences it could entail. This is heavily due to Pym not wanting history to repeat itself through her mother and how you can’t change events in the past. This is able to mirror the relationship that Scott has with his daughter, keeping the audience on the side of Lang, wanting everything to succeed.
This dynamic is also able to create the sense of a mentor towards the new superhero. Someone guiding Scott and teaching him how to work the suit and communicate with the ants in order to make them follow and answer to him. Although the mentor image is all for an ulterior motive, we eventually see a family aspect between these two characters through the trust and respect they gain for one another.
This strength of relationships within the film helps to really develop the characters and add to the feel of the film, which definitely is ‘smaller feels bigger’. There aren’t much of family relationships at stake in previous Marvel films, they have primarily been more romantically linked and there is something different to the viewer when the life and happiness of a child is at stake. Superhero films usually follow the same formula of the entire world being destroyed rather then something small and personal. By changing the basic conventions of the formulaic standards these films follow, allows the dynamic to feel more real and terrifying for the audience instead of the same formula, which at this point has become to numb to viewers at this point and they don’t actually become invested in the characters.
One of the criticisms that Marvel has had in its films since the release of the first Avengers in 2012, is ‘Why can’t they just call the Avengers?’ Ant-Man was able to address this beautifully. The flashback at the beginning of the film, besides the wonder of how they made Michael Douglas look 30 years younger, was able to establish a relationship between Hank Pym and primarily Howard Stark, as well as Peggy Carter, linking the film and its history among the canon of the cinematic universe. The reasoning for Hank Pym not wanting Scott Lang to involve the Avengers into the film is based on his hatred of the Stark family.
This idea really brings the idea that not all films produced by Marvel need to have a plot that is world threatening. They don’t always need the Avengers. They need to focus on the larger scale action; when aliens are taking over New York City or when an Artificial Intelligence taking over the world cannot be destroyed. It really was able to create a different viewing for the audience, where we weren’t really expecting the giant scale and spectacle that we saw previously this year with Age Of Ultron.
Keeping it on the small scale allows more creativity and originality to flow through. This is incredibly important due to the line-up that Marvel has planned over the next five years, with ten new films, many of which are stand alones and possibly origin stories. If they continue to find new ways to introduce characters and add new stakes and focus on relationships, they could in fact continue to be one of the most fleshed out and more coherent universes in film.
Oz Comic-Con Is Coming BACK!
After the huge success of the inaugural Oz Comic-Con Brisbane and Sydney events in 2014, and a recent sell-out show for Oz Comic-Con Melbourne, Australia’s best-loved pop culture extravaganza jets back to Brisbane and Sydney this September.
Taking over the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on 19th and 20th September and the Sydney Exhibition Centre @ Glebe Island on 26th and 27th September, Oz Comic-Con Brisbane and Sydney will feature a huge variety of celebrity guests, comic artists, interactive features and awesome exhibitors.
Guests currently include Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver, Stargate SG-1), Tim Rose (Star Wars), Daniel Portman (Game of Thrones), Dante Basco (Hook) and Mike McFarland (Dragon Ball-Z) amongst many others. Over the coming weeks, many more amazing names will be added to this stellar line-up. Guests will be available over the weekend for autograph and photograph opportunities, as well as taking part in exclusive Q&A panels.
Cosplay and costume lovers, take note! Oz Comic-Con Brisbane and Sydney are also hosting their respective state finals of the Australian Championships of Cosplay, with Sydney also the venue for the national finals. The lucky winner will score the opportunity to compete in the 2016 Crown Championships of Cosplay at C2E2 in Chicago. The events will also host both a kids and adult cosplay parade, for cosplayers of all ages and abilities to showcase their fabulous costume creations.
Taking place during the September school holidays, Oz Comic-Con Brisbane and Sydney are also a perfect way to keep the whole family entertained. From the Family Activity Room, where kids can take a break from the main show floor to play, to the Berocca Boost Gaming Zone where gamers of all ages can showcase their skills, there’s something at Oz Comic-Con for family members of all ages to enjoy.
“It’s been a huge year for Oz Comic-Con, and we’re looking forward to bringing the final two shows for 2015 to Brisbane and Sydney,” said Paul Baker, Director at ReedPOP. “It really is the ultimate show…no matter how old you are, or what you love, Oz Comic-Con is Australia’s favourite pop culture extravaganza.”
Stay tuned to Novastream for the latest in Oz Comic Con updates and we will be there LIVE on the floor bringing you the updates on the day!
Review : Insidious Chapter 3
The Insidious series is back with Chapter 3, a prequel taking place “years before the Lambert haunting”. It was a smart move to go with a prequel rather than a laboured continuation (much like Chapter 2). This instalment is an excellent stand-alone film in the series. Although it does follow a different family (the Brenners), there are many references to the Lambert storyline. However, these references don’t subtract or derail the main focus but rather work quite well to create an Insidious triptych.
Written and directed by Leigh Whannell (who also co-stars), Insidious Chapter 3 shines a spotlight on veteran psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) as she helps take down an evil entity that has targetted teenager Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott). What makes this chapter different from its predecessors is that there is more emphasis on the emotional journey of these characters rather than just upping the creepy factor one more notch. This is where Lin Shaye really carries the film. We know from the other films that she is fearless and geniunely wants to help people who are being hurt by these entities. That was not always the case as we see in Chapter 3.
A year after her husband’s suicide, Elise has retired from her psychic duties out of fear. Whenever she tries to go into The Further (the film’s name for the other side), there is an evil female entity who is hellbent on killing Elise (this entity is the old woman that haunts the Lamberts in the previous chapters). But when Quinn and her family experience violent events (beginning with Quinn getting hit by a car), Elise understands it is her job to help because she’s the only one who can. This triumph over one’s internal struggle is commonplace in movies but it is not always shown as effectively in horror as we see here. Again, this is greatly due to the fact Lin Shaye has obviously committed to her role.
Overall, the acting was quite good throughout the film. Stefanie Scott does well in holding her own. She doesn’t let her character become the standard teenage girl in distress; she is more fully developed. Her fear and anxiety of the supernatural events in the film are believable, and her frustration and loneliness as a result of her mother’s death are understandable, which makes her demonic possession all the more powerful at the climax of the film. It’s a loss of innocence and loss of self.
Mr Brenner (Dermot Mulroney) does a decent job of the father not only internalising the death of his wife but also being overwhelmed with life as a single parent. Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson (Specs and Tucker respectively) bring some comedy relief without going overboard and ruining the mood. As for the others, Quinn’s friends Maggie (Hayley Kiyoko) and Hector (Ashton Moio), and even her brother Alex (Tate Berney) should have had more impact but overall weren’t exactly memorable, mostly because their screen times were very limited.
Although the film has a number of jump scares, it’s not solely reliant on them to frighten the audience. The sound editing creates a great atmosphere and the cinematography uses shadows and darkness well. The first half of the film can feel a bit slow in places and there’s a slight deus-ex-machina resolution at the end (there were strong hints that it was coming but still felt too contrived). It’s not groundbreaking in any way but it is effective and, most importantly, it’s entertaining.
Some of the imagery and special effects used were excellent. For example, the evil entity referred to as The Man Who Can’t Breathe takes on the form of a old man wearing an oxygen mask as if on life support. His movements are slow and heavy as if it’s a huge effort for him will his body to move. Of course this is just for show as he’s an extremely powerful entity who likes to play with his victims.
(Minor Spoilers below)
Some stand out moments include:
This half-human abomination with no face or hands or feet, slowly making its way towards Quinn.
The Man Who Can’t Breathe making an appearance inside Quinn’s throat.
A tender moment between the demonic entity and the soul of the innocent girl he won’t let go.
And this familiar face.
If the Insidious series ended here (and it really should) then Chapter 3 would be a strong closer. Chapter 2 tried too hard to be scary and fast paced and it just didn’t work. But this final instalment has redeemed the series and brought back exactly what was needed: good writing and the right amount of fear. It is not the best horror film ever made but it is solid and will surely satisfy its fans.
WATCH – Heroes: Reborn Online Prequels
Heroes: Reborn isn’t due to debut til September 24 but the folks at NBC decided we shouldn’t have to wait that long. They’ve developed a found footage online series featuring a young woman coming out to her brother as an Evo. In Heroes: Reborn it looks like Evo will be the term for folks with powers, similar to Flash‘s metahumans and X-Men’s mutants.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Mobile Review : The Simpsons Tapped Out
There are some things that make a great freemium mobile game, it needs to be entertaining, adapted for the small screen size and with content that enables you to play without purchase (but it’s there if you want to)! The Simpsons Tapped Out comes pretty damn close to hitting all those marks.
If you’ve been living under a rock for last twenty five years, The Simpsons is everyone’s favourite animated TV family. Their kooky escapades in the town of Springfield continue to keep me entertained even years after I first saw them. The things that make the Simpsons a great show also make it a great game. The premise of Tapped Out is simple, Homer destroys Springfield via nuclear meltdown while distracted on his MyPad and its your job to rebuild. You start with Homer and Lisa, begin to clean up the town and perform their hobbies in order to earn money to expand even further.
The more you tap the more you’ll earn, the further you expand and more characters you unlock and the more delightful people you have wandering your town. Tapped Out pulls together the fun of building your own little world with characters we know and love and the animation and humour that the Simpsons is known for. I have to admit that sometimes I would find myself watching my Springfielders go about their day, watch Mr Burns hide nuclear waste or Homer play on his MyPad. The experience of tapping and manipulating the town on your iPad for the most part is seamless and easy – this game is truly built for the handheld device. 
Pretty soon you’ll find yourself with a thriving Springfield and are probably well on your way to being addicted. Tapped Out rewards you the more you play, both in cash and in the premium currency, you guessed it, donuts! You can choose to speed up tasks with donuts or use them to purchase exclusive content. The call of premium characters like Barney, Frink or even Booberella is hard to resist and the reality of the game is that you won’t be able to save enough donuts to get them without spending a bit of money. This is something they worked hard to correct, and they’ve given us more ways to win or earn donuts but it’s a source of frustration that you have to pull out the wallet. The very best freemium games are those that give you a chance to get everything you want if you put in enough time (think breeding dragons in Dragonvale) but in Tapped Out this just isn’t achievable. I’m one of those people that don’t mind putting a little money towards something I enjoy enough, and it didn’t really bother me, but if you don’t want to spend a cent you will find it infinitely frustrating that all those premium characters (and there’s a lot, the Simpsons has a huge universe of secondary characters) are completely unachievable.
What this game really shines at is keeping it interesting. There is just so much content. It goes on and on and on, every time you finish it all and have your perfect Springfield more content is released, there’s extra characters or levels or a new event. Events are pretty frequent, to do them property you need to check back regularly and will find yourself amply rewarded. My favourite so far has been the superhero content, Springfield turned into a den of criminals and masked crusaders and I acquired a host of new buildings and characters to enjoy. Like the usual gameplay you can purchase things to make it easier, but there’s no need to do it if you don’t want to and plenty of potential loot even without it. The events even out the balance by giving you an opportunity to get unique characters and buildings for your patience and time – often the same characters available for a buttload of donuts the following year. If you’re over the game and want a break you can just sit out that event or put in minimal effort and return to the game when you’re ready, it’s kept me coming back, even when I think I’ve finally had enough.
Tapped Out also host sub-towns with their own currency, like Krustyland and most recently Springfield Heights, a high rise real estate development with new adventures and resources for your Springfielders.
Tapped Out really is a game you can get completely and utterly addicted to, give it up for a while and return and get addicted all over again because there’s so much more to excite. If you’re looking for an iOS game, and especially if you’re a Simpsons fan you cannot go past Tapped Out for some animated fun!
4.5/5
You can download The Simpsons Tapped Out free via the links below
True Detective, Season 2, Episode 6 Review
Church In Ruins
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
You want milk, sugar? I know that’s a weird way to start a review but it’s also a weird way to return to the most gripping cliffhanger this season of True Detective. This entire season I think I have been very generous in my reviews, considering how much I didn’t like the last season I have been giving True Detective the benefit of the doubt. Now that six episodes have gone by and I have only really enjoyed the third, I think my generosity has come to an end.
At the end of episode five, Velcoro and Semyon were ready to have a very interesting talk and instead they essentially had a brunch meeting. Semyon, either didn’t know he had given Velcoro the wrong name or he talked his way out of it. If he genuinely didn’t know then that entire plot point was a giant waste of time and True Detective has just been cock teasing it’s audience for fifteen minutes. Where as, if he did talk his way out of it, that was a very disappointing chat because Semyon has been proven to have the gift of the gab this entire season and that would have been the most obvious outcome. Either way, I don’t care anymore.
As for the crow master’s creepy cabin in the woods, it turns out to have been nothing but Nic Pizzolatto and Scott Lasser’s sneaky way to give Bezzerides her invitation to a filthy old men’s’ sex party later on in the episode. Notice that this episode, Pizzolatto needed some help writing which I find a rather odd fact. Lasser has also helped write the fourth episode, Down Will Come, which up until the shoot out was another dud. Considering Pizzolatto has had no trouble writing the other six episodes and the entire first season on his own it makes me wonder whether he has been struggling this season or whether HBO has had a hand in fiddling with the show’s nether regions. My money is on the former, since HBO generally has a reputation for staying out of the creative teams way.
Back to the episode and Velcoro’s out for revenge on what has been revealed as the man who really raped his wife in True Detective Personal Struggles Street. Episode six has finally helped me realise what’s going wrong in season two of the show, there are too many threads of story going on at the same time, each one overlaps the last and as more add up, the show gets more and more tangled and convoluted. It’s quite a shame because I really did think this season’s characters and plot had more potential than the first but each episode has me going to Wikipedia to read over the recap as soon as I’ve finished just to make sure I haven’t missed anything and not in a fun way like Bioshock Infinite. At least with the first season, I could watch the episode, hate it and move on with my life. This problem, I think is the reason people who enjoyed the first season are disappointed as well.
Now we can move over to Woodrugh, who pretty much does nothing the entire episode. He is relegated to generic cop work and his shallow sexuality storyline is even put on hold. It’s the same for the Semyon’s child talk, which is both a relief and proof that neither of these storylines were ever any good. Only Velcoro and Bezzerides have demons that come out to play. Velcoro has come to terms with the fact that he’s not going to win the right to see his son and even if he does, maybe his son doesn’t necessarily want that to happen. This doesn’t feel like the end of it and I can imagine another bollocks, faux happy ending in a similar vein to the first season. When Bezzerides is not having weird knife fights with the wooden man, it turns out she may have been sexually assaulted as a child. COME ON!!! True Detective, again proving that women are nothing but victims of poor writing and that they can’t be strong characters unless they have a dark past, Mrs Semyon is the last hope.
Both Semyons are still hard at work and they go to talk to Stan’s surviving widow and son, two month’s after he was killed, two months! What? Surely this is far too late, I had even forgotten who they were talking about. Mr Semyon does some other stuff but I’m at the end of my tether here. I’ll just mention the weird orchestral score that was playing under the sex party and get out of your way. As far as I’m concerned, True Detective can either go two ways. There is enough meat left on the bone for Pizzolatto to present two last episodes of enthralling police drama, mob crimes and murder plots, here’s hoping. Or much more likely, the dull personal dramas will get in the way, along with every other boring thread of plot and we will all be disappointed.
Review – J-Stars Victory Vs.+ – Missed Opportunity
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am a lover of all things Anime and Manga. I read and watch anything that takes my fancy and follow them religiously, contacting friends to fanboy over each weekly update of a particular series (I’m looking at you Naruto). When news came that a Shonen Jump crossover game was being localised and released globally, I went nuts. It would be nice to not have to import a game and then pray someone had translated the script online so I could actually play the game and finish it 100%.
For those not as well versed in the world of Manga, Shonen Jump is a pair of magazines (one weekly and one monthly) in which chapters to manga series (japanese comics) get their release prior to being published as a graphic novel and sold on shelf or animated by a production studio. While there are several titles published in this magazine that have ludicrous and long winded names that you would only relate to if you know the anime scene, many household names and “children’s shows” saw their beginning and end in this Magazine. This would Include Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach and One Piece just to name a few.
So a game that could access and combine all of their properties into 4 player brawler gives you goosebumps, like the first time you heard what Super Smash Bros was. And funnily enough, some of their first cross over iterations were just that to those who played them; Jump Ultimate Stars on the Nintendo DS was essentially Super Smash Bros. with anime characters. I played this game. I loved this game. Hence my excitement when Jump Victory Vs.+ was announced for Playstation 4, a port of a Playstation 3 game that had released in japan a year prior.
The game arrived at my door, was inserted into my Playstation 4 and when it had installed and launched I was greeted with an opening cinematic of fast paced action and over the top, anime stylised humor from characters both easily recognised and easily unrecognised. The stars were aligning, the cogs were turning I was in heaven. This was the game I had waited for.
But then…I played the game. And everything changed.
Now I know what you’re thinking, I had built up too high an expectation in my head for this to be able to live up to. But after Namco Bandai published so many great anime games on Naruto and One Piece franchise, this game had every chance to succeed but stumbles at almost every hurdle.
Let’s start with the campaign, which is split into four. The reasoning behind this is non-existent as all four contain the monotonous task of sailing around the overworld and challenging different fighters which get increasingly more difficult and complete meaningless fetch quests. In between locations, you are presented with cutscenes progressing the “story” (and I use that term very loosely) forward. These cutscenes are your typical jrpg portrait, static text style conversations between characters with very little voice acting to be seen. Combine this with the very blatant and at times cheesy and out of context dropping of references from each character’s respective series and you are in for quite the lackluster experience. But don’t worry, give it a few hours and you can start it all again in the next campaign, in which you do the same thing just with different characters. Isn’t that great!? (yay sarcasm).
What I see is a missed opportunity for a different spin on classic anime storylines and a chance to see who’s stronger or what-if scenarios unfold. Instead you get this boring back and forth that has no real payoff and gets old really quick. The boredom factor spreads beyond the stretch of the story campaigns, as the additional game modes are the staple 2 player and arcade style found in all fighters and the battlegrounds are all really bland and Identical and there is little variation to any of them. Sometimes it feels like its the same arena just slightly retextured, leading to this “same-y” feeling in each fight. What’s sad is that after a few fights with the same character, this feeling spreads to the large character roster as well.
All the character models shine on the ps4, but in terms of gameplay, after a while they all start to feel the same. Hidden underneath the shiny exterior is a brawling mechanism that is both clunky and too simplistic, captivated with a camera that just falls over itself. Every so often, the music will pump up and your characters get to transform and blast each other with super moves that flourish in true anime style. These moments are awesome but are short lived once you realise that it’s the same simplistic system driving you and the same camera angles working against you.
The music sets the scene nicely, although it’s worth noting that there is an absence of licensed soundtracks from different series. Most of the Background music is just generic oriental or rocky sort of battle music, but this will be nothing new to anyone who has played previous anime inspired fighting games. That said, it would have been nice to hear some sweet Naruto or Dragon Ball pump-up music when you do a special move or transformation. All characters are voiced by their respective japanese voice actors and for the most part this is done well. However due to the lack of voice acting pertaining to the story or cutscenes, it feels as though this voice work may have even just been carbon copied from the animated works of each franchise wherever possible.
I cannot speak much for the multiplayer, except for maybe the word “don’t”. As with most of the game, the multiplayer aspects are a carbon copy of the genre, offering both split screen (in the vein and feel of the Dragonball Tenkaichi franchise) for local play and tournaments for online play, supporting 2 player in the former and 4 player in the latter. Unless you like squinting to read text or have a really big TV, steer clear of local multiplayer. The game becomes near impossible to follow with players who know what they are doing and even on the PS4, there are very noticeable frame rate dips. As for online multiplayer, I know Australian internet (at least at the time of writing) is horrible but for me this game was near unplayable online. I can only speak for my personal experience but my Cable internet connection holds up well in most situations gaming wise, so I feel like this may be an issue with their matchmaking or server loads. All of which are fairly common problems in bad ports of year old games.
In summation, this is the same game that released a year ago in japan with an arcade mode attached to it. The only change to the boxart was a ‘+’ in the game title. And while some of these issues can be forgiven for a last-gen game from a year ago, much of it could have been fixed prior to its re-release on PS4. It’s a pity really, this game had me excited and had so much potential, but in the end pretty character models and cool special attacks cannot compensate for a mediocre gameplay experience.
Reviewed by Pat ‘Zael’ Braithwaite
Reviewed on Sony Playstation 4