Review: Linkin Park: A Thousand Suns

Having been a Linkin Park fan for years, I had to give this one a go. Forgive me readers, this will be my first music review.

I feel it's almost necessary for a band to grow and mature if they want to stay relevant. Or at least experiment with different styles if they want to have new fans, even at the risk of alienating their old ones. Sure, there are those bands that find a comfort zone and stick to it.

Sure, L.P. COULD do that,
but they haven't.

Instead of giving us a "normal album", they are giving you a 49 minute surreal journey. Is there an overarching plot? Maybe. Maybe not. It's up to you to judge that, should you take the risk and allow them to guide you though. The one thing I have to say if you're going to take this on is:

Take the entire album as an experience.

I believe this concept album (as they have called it) is not meant to be experienced in a song by song manner. Sure a couple sections can stand alone, but some parts can't and aren't meant to. A lot of it is surreal sounds warped and shaped into something else, some are made purely as transitions for other songs. It's experimental, something L.P. has done but not this extensively.

Below I will try to rate each track and describe it., For reference I bought the Itunes Deluxe edition, which had not only the tracks alone, but the entire "experience" in a single 49 minute track with no breaks. Also has a song for their 8-bit video game they produced (which I Won't review).

1. The Requiem: A creepy surreal start with a high pitched chime and a young girl singing the chorus. It sets the mood for the album.
2. The Radiance: Robert Oppenheimer voice clip in here with some more surreal shifting that kinda jarrs the flow they have just set. There's a machine-like rift in the b.g. that changes the pace.
3. Burning In The Skies: Melodramatic L.P. song
4. Empty Spaces: an 18 second clip where harmonious crickets is downed out by the sound of artillery fire. A transition piece.

5. When They Come For Me: Mike Shinoda rapping about not being a run of the mill artist, which has been a theme in his works since the band was almost written of as being "made" when the first started, and saying he's saying instead of staying stuck on the band's past, to catch up to where they are now. Not the strongest we've seen from the rapper, but it's different enough to be noted. Also having M******F***** as the chorus is hard to ignore. A little danceable too, at least that's how I visualize it in my head.

6. Robot Boy: Dramatic Chester only song singing, almost contradict-ally, about the passive attitudes of people in pain for a long period of time. A echo-ic beat and one of the better songs of the album. Orchestral even.

7. Jornada Del Muerto: More experimental sound shifting.

8. Waiting For The End: Sounds like the whole band here, a little more on the rap with some mellow drama, but is a bit of the familiar with a bit of the experimental. It's kinda tribal with the cow bells and high pitched notes you hear repeatedly. The song itself is a journey, loss, how to move on, getting through, and starting over.

9. Blackout: a very slow build into an almost 80s experimental track with Chester and some turn table techniques. probably the weakest "song" in the batch for me. Mike does come in near the end, but I just can't seem to get through the song by itself, and most of the time I block it out.

10. Wretches And Kings: This sounds the most like the L.P. we knew back with Meteora then but still isn't quite "old school" with a sound clip from Mario Savio integrated with it. Cheser and Mike duel with their various styles with distinctive parts for each instrument giving and taking with one another to complete the track.

11. Wisdom, Justice, And Love: A clip of Martin Luther King speaking, slowly transformed to something someone might say as Godly, or unearthly - might be better. I think it's one of the few clips I've heard of the man that hasn't been the I Have a Dream speech, and I think it's pretty powerful, though it serves only as a transition for the most part.

12. Iridescent: Mike Shinoda singing. more mellow dramatic and a bit weak. Almost sounds more like a church hymn.

13. Fallout: some more refrain heavily warped and changed into Mike Shinoda.

14. The Catalyst: The single for the album, pretty L.P., mellow yet cutting edge. Catchy and had to grow on me. I heard a lot of it before making an entry into a contest to have a remix featured on their Myspace page, so it took me awhile to come back around to the song since I became sick of it before it was even released.

15. The Messenger: Chester rounding out the end with an instrumental. It's different because though msot of the album seems doom and gloom, though this song starts that way, there is a glimmer of hope in love, that love will heal, and make you see, whereas life makes you blind.

I wasn't sure I was going to like it. Honestly I sampled some of the songs and thought "what the hell is this?" like most longstanding L.P. fans might have done. But being a fan of ambient/instrumental works, and trusting the band wouldn't go completely off the deep end, I bought it.

The overall roller coaster of such a downward spiral of the human condition.

It is hardly a sell out album of any kind considering most people into "mainstream" music don't get into stuff like this. It's different and it's a change from what people know, a much more dramatic change from Minutes to Midnight. I would be more weary if they were still producing exactly the same music they were when they came out.

This isn't the same band that made 'Hybrid Theory' all those years ago, and I'm glad.

But this is also an album that you will either like, or not, for your own reasons. You'll be able to take away a couple of the songs that are actually songs, but I think you're losing out if you don't at least attempt to take the entire album as one experience as it was designed.

I won't give a rating this time. This should just serve as as the brochure for the trip you are about to take.

Assassins Creed 2 Review

I had no interest in the series at first. I wasn't into historical pieces, though assassins were cool. Then a co-worker told me about an RPG element instilled in this second one. For that, and being able to pawn off a copy from him, I gave it a try.

Assassin's Creed II follows Desmond as he searched for answers along his DNA code, learning his heritage as an assassin to fight against the Templar's as the fight for the piece of Eden rages on. I was hooked by promise of Sci-Fi in my historical narrative, but did it deliver?

The Good:

Premise: I have to single out the premise of the game, because somehow I completely missed this. It wasn't promoted sci-fi at all, and I almost thought I had gotten the wrong game. But I was presently surprised and found it engaging. Sci-Fi in my historical Narrative? Alright!

Graphics: Venice, Florence, and the other maps are beautifully detailed. The scope fully realized. Character models are excellent and detailed.

Game Design: Though I thought the Assassin tombs were a little ridiculous at times, I like them and found them a fun challenge. the integration of free running (or par-kur) and the combat system was fantastic. Controls were good though sometimes it seems the computer got dumb with it's movement, but maybe it was just me.

AI: For the most party I thought it was good. Guards fought in groups, or ran if they were overpowered. Though this is where the fight system showed it's weakest point, waiting to attack allowed me to counter attack a lot, which I loved, but it slowed the pace a lot. Which I think works for an assassin so I didn't mind.

Story: There's two stories going on simultaneously. One as Desmond, the "player" character, and Ezio, the "avatar". You're playing through Desmond, experiencing Ezio's life as he trains to be a master assassin. Time leaps forward, but realistically when you think about it, events move slowly, the whole story unfolding over ten years.

Side missions: Some, like races or assassin hits are normal. Then you'd have thieves with money pop up at random, which made me chasing them down and taking it back a pleasure. I didn't do a whole lot with it. There are glyphs that leads to a huge spoiler, but I halfway figured it out as I collected it, and once I beat the game, there;s no use really getting them when I can look online for the video. But they were in line with the game, so I'll give them props.

Characters: Ezio, Uncle Mario, Leonardo Da'Vinci, it's a interesting cast each with their own shinning moments as characters.

Overall: Play it. There's a reason it's around and remain in the minds of active gamers today. I might pick up the first one and play that as well, though I heard it had some issues. I'm hooked on the story now. I'll be playing the next one for sure.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Review

The first two games based off the Transformers movies were disasters, so I'm told. Truth is I never played them but I saw the vids, read the reviews and they just didn't seem worth my time.

Then someone obviously took note of those shortcomings, knew what it took to make THE Transformers game, and did it for this interpretation.

Transformers: War for Cybertron takes place during the war, before anything on Earth started. It's a part of the story we've only seen fleeting moments of, or heard about in the past tense through the various series incarnations from the bots. It's a dash of everything transformers while trying not to be confined to one continuity. Instead it took something never touched and made it its own, so it could apart of nearly any incarnation's interpretation. Hasbro had control over this, and it showed.

Was it more than Meets the Eye? Let's find out...

The Good:

Characters: Your major Iconic characters from the show (minus a couple you can pick up as downloadable content by now) are playable. For the most part the character resemble their G-1 counterparts although there are some variances, these aren't the Michael Bay Transformers, and that's a VERY good thing. They are voiced really well and again, for the most part, resemble the G-1 counterparts. Peter Cullan is Prime, whom we all love, but he's the only one who's consistently come back, sadly Frank Welker (who voiced Megatron in the original) is not back, but it seems over time we've gotten used to the kind of voice the current Megatron has, which is more like the voice from Beast Wars, deep, dark, handsome. The only other voice actor to note is Johnny Yong Bosch whom you'll recognize if you're either a fan of anime, who's done many well known and not-so well known voice work, and was on MMPR.

Transform!: One of the best things about this game is (as it should have been) was that you can freely transform at any time during the game. The transition is so smooth and you're not useless in your vehicle mode, in fact sometimes it's advantages to be the vehicle depending on the situation. And they look as good as their "human" forms. It's even got the fudgy 80's transformation look and sound, although no one is turning into the size of a handgun.

Controls: It plays like a standard FSP for the most part, pretty Gears of Wars is but there's no cover system, with took a little getting used too. It also took some getting used to when you transformed into your vehicle modes (more if you were a plane, not a car in my experience). But they were solid and straightforward. Transforming was easy, switching weapons too.

Details: Just for me, or any other longtime fan, there are those quips in there that if you're familiar with the 80s movie, or other incarnations, you'll just smile. IT were details like this that makes me believe it's closer to the G-1 Universe than anything else.

Multi-Player: For once I didn't feel like I was getting cheated out of my wins here. I played the GoW multiplayer a lot and after a while just stopped cause it was no fun to play. But here it was hella fun, and I kept playing a while and is one of the features that actually would make me want to keep the game, and the campaign mode is multi-player as well. Although the "customization" is not all fantastic, were they to do another one, they at least have a area they could improve on.

On the Fence:

Story: For as long as it took me to get through this game, I don't think a lot happened. It shows the rise of Prime, more or less, but it's also showing the "rise" of Megatron as a real force, but it could also be taken as a "fall" as he just goes kinda crazy thanks to the longstanding war (you could argue he's been crazy all along, but that's a discussion for another time.) I was kinda disappointed by the end, not by the battle itself, but just how I thought it should have turned, out, then again I guess I shouldn't have expected a rehash of a familiar battle (containing possible spoilers here). Overall it's handled well but it could have been shorter, but thankfully it wasn't.

A.I./Level design: Overall the A.I. was decent, although there were spikes of either extreme overpower-ment or under power-ment. My biggest issue here is that some of the bigger fights that included some of the larger transformers felt to be really hard to no reason, and sometimes your allies might not have been much help. I think it was THE LAST scene that I played that I felt this the most, that the level design just seemed a bit lacking and made it hard for no reason. Another passing note, as grand as the environments are, they do get a bit repetitive sometimes, but this is a minor issue.

Verdict:
This game is definitely a diamond in the rough despite some of its minor shortcomings, the score is now 2-1 against good transformer games. It's got the nostalgia factor but it's also got the touch; the gaming meat that makes it more than just a pretty package to look at. I feel the same as with the Ghostbusters game from awhile back, if you are a fan, you should pick this up. Even if you aren't a fan, heavily consider it, I think it'd be a good companion game if you want something to play with a friend (you should be able to do side by side playing if I remember right). If you just want the experience, it's definitely worth your rental price.

Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

I started playing this line of games back when it was only X-Men Legends, and ever since Legends 2 they have never been quite the same, and that goes in a bad way. After waiting a few years after the disappointing Ultimate Alliance, I found 2 to rent and gave it a try.

The Good:

Character Selection: It's got a good variety, although you have seen most of them before in the previous game. They're well voice over and when they actually have their own original dialogue, it's pretty good.

On the Fence

Action: It's still the beat'em up rpg we know, but the environment is only destructible enough to get extras experience point, unlike Legends Two, I can't throw people through walls, in fact for some reasons I can only throw them forward. Lame. Of top of that the fusion combos, although cool, are similar animations reused to look different, but I'll get into that nugget in a moment.

Animation: Right from the first cinematic, it's lazy, it may look good but it moves clumsily and just looked half attempted. It does get better as the game goes on, but there wasn't a good first impression. Apart from the cinematic, the Fusion power animations are rehashed as well with slightly different elements depending on the characters used. I would rather have fewer character with unique animates than 20 something characters with reused parts.

The Bad:

Story: It pulls from the comics, but even with my varied knowledge of that storyline, I know already there are changes, and a lot was either altered or left out. I'm a big stickler for such details and warping a story to make a cheap video game kinda sucks. On top of that it takes way too long to get through for what little substance there was, which leads me too,

Recycling: After the first couple of hours its apparent they are recycling bad guys, animations for characters, and it just become boring, and almost a chore, to get through. The story might be the only thing pulling you through, and some last minute additions to the roster might come through might keep your interest to keep the game.

Characters: Okay, yeah I covered this, but when you assigned practically the same moves to four different characters, it's obvious, the RPG elements are stripped down, and I don't really connect with any of them since I have to go through the dossier's to get info on why they chose their side of the Civil war.

The verdict: I felt very detached from this game and was unsurprisingly disappointed. If you're a hardcore Marvel fan then of course you'll play it, but if you're hardcore comics, then you might cringe from the changes and lackluster polish the title. It feels like they re-skined and reduced from the first U.A., it was dull enough that by the time I finally got through it i didn't want to go through the other side of the story. Rent it if you must, but don't waste your money buying this for more than 10 bucks or so.

Review - Red Faction: Guerilla

I discovered this little gem while downloading random demos from the PS3 home, and liked how destructive the environments were alone that I decided to pick it up, then immediately returned it after beating it within a week. Yes, a week, I know, I had tons of other stuff too do that's why. Anyway, here is the review:

The Good:

Graphics = Destruction!: The main sell of the game is that you can virtually demolish everything you see and can interact with, with the variety of awesome weapons or vehicles. This also helps in situations and when I got into a tight spot. I would often find myself, if pinned down by enemy troops, breaking through the unoccupied wall, escaping to safety. Or if a building needs to be taking down, ramming the vehicle into the bottom floor, using the jet-pack (oh yes, there is a jet-pack) to get up to the second and third floors, and blow up the building form the inside with carefully places mines. Or find a sniper, and break the floor from under them - these are only a couple of scenarios I used in my experience of the game. Despite the building and character models being a tad lackluster in overall detail (i.e. looked a little fuzzy or bland) you have to look at the whole picture, which means you are able to use a couple vehicles with carefully placed mines or rockets to blow up an ENTIRE BRIDGE.

Controls - Familiar and simple, very good. Although sometimes I hit the wrong button, they seem to take from the MGS setup, which I am very familiar with, so I have little learning curve.

On the Fence:

A.I. - Sometimes they would be dumb as rocks, and other times they would just kill you five times over. Their intelligence, and numbers, can very and for the most part can be overwhelming, giving the game a reputation of being very hard. I think I died 25 times because of this.

Side Missions: I like side missions even though I tend to bash them, and there are a good variety, but I think it falls in line with the A.I., sometimes just picking up and dropping off a couple guys on house arrest can be a chore.

The Bad:

Story: The major drawback is that not a lot happens. It's about a revolution on Mars, and you're leading it. Oh, and there are these marauders or something who the game hints are from the previous game that pick on you too, who get thrown in, who seem utterly paranormal and mysterious who are really only just off kilter enough to be dangerous and yet beautiful.

Verdict: If you like destructive 3rd person shooter action games, get it! Don't don't expect something deep from this game though. Enjoy the experience, not necessarily getting to the end.

Red Dead Redemption Review

So I've become more picky with my new game choices recently. I bought this because 1. it was from Rockstar who's claim to fame is the GTA series, which I never did finished cause I got bored with the character. 2. it looked unique enough to hold my interest. I'll leave it at that as we dive into Red Dead Redemption.

You play as John Marston, it's 1901 as the Wild West is slowly succumbing to "civilization", as a man on a mission for the U.S. government you must travel throughout New Austin and Mexico to take out the people from your old gang so you can be free to live your life.

The Good:

Story: If there's no interesting story or characters I find worth investing my time in there's a good chance I won't even finish the game. Not so here, although the story was very simple, John and the rest of the cast are so memorable you're just hoping to get to interact with them again and again, whether you love'em or hate'em. The story can be seen as a tragedy overall, but I'll keep my lid on that.

Voice acting: Thanks to the top notice vocals supplied by the actors, It's what makes it engaging and worth watching it's long in game cut scenes and dialogue sequences even if some of those while riding with a posse feel a little forced.

Action: No doubt we've come to expect shoot'em up actiony titles from Rockstar and Red Dead Redemption is no different. You could say that Red Dead and GTA are pretty similar in concept and design, but there are tweaks here and there that separate them from one another, and having a leading character that is likable was a very good move. The Dead Eye, essentially bullet time, helps to counter some of the real times targeting issues and is executed well. With the variety of missions and weapons at your disposal it makes it great fun.

On The Fence:

Control Scheme: It took a little while to get used to the firing and weapon switching mechanics before I could switch into them with relative ease. It felt like a awkward MGS set up with several buttons reversed. Overall it handles very well right down to the Dead Eye which give how fast paced the action can get, while trying to have a gun fight on a horse, you'll come to rely on. My only complaint is that the duel system is a little jaded. Once you're Dead Eye is fully upgraded, I started losing all my duels, so it got the point I avoided all duels that I could.

Side Missions: I got annoyed pretty quickly gathering herbs and running all over the place looking for this little thing or that, so for the most part I skipped those. I suppose if you're looking to unlock all the outfits and such then this was a plus, but I found what I did unlock weren't overly special enough for me to care about anyway.

Difficulty and Realism: Don't expect to take a massive amount of hits. There's no body armor and you can dye easily from being shot or attacked by animals, which happened to me a number of times. This is good for a realistic western setting, but it's a learning curve for those used to body armor. And sometimes I felt cheated by the AI's accuracy.

Mutli-player: It wasn't the biggest sell or me, but when I do go on I hardly find anyone on there. It plays better than other similar set ups I've been involved with, but without having people you know to play with, or people to play with in general it makes it a bit boring.

The Bad:

Graphic Issues: Now don't get me wrong, the game looks amazing, but right from the start there were issues with objects intersection other objects. Animations weren't working sometimes, NPCs would sit in the spot of narrative character while a cut scene was happening. the occasional invisible soldier carrying dynamite, the scenery and NPCs sometimes took a moment to load, so I was talking to a MGS 1 character for a few seconds before the full body loaded - sadly I could list a few other issues that continuously cropped up. In fact I was so disturbed by the number of errors going on that the only things that saved the game for me was the characters/actor performances and the quality of the action. Thankfully there were no game ending glitches that I came across so I was able to finish.

The Verdict: If you are a fan of open world games, then you should check this out. I beat in in fives days, which is not common for me when I get into a game, bout 24 hrs game time it took, but I'm glad to have enjoyed it as much as I did. If you can look past the graphical issues, and learn the control scheme, then I think you will find an enjoyable game.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

So a few things over the last couple of weeks have been making this movie pop into my head this week, aside from a pizza craving, and a crazy kids show I have to watch at work all the time, I never don't enjoy this movie. So in light of not being able to see Iron Man 2 this week, I poped in this little baby and I'll post a small review.

Late 80's to early 1990s, Turtle Mania had swept the nation with kids. So someone decided to produce a movie. What they produced was an overall well done piece harking to both the kids audience but somehow threw in a few bits of the dark gritty stuff from the adult comics.

The Good:

Characters: No doubt the performances was well done and appealed to both kids and adults. It was easy enough for a kid understand or just enjoy the action, and for adults to get a laugh.

Costumes: hands down for the time you thought the turtles were real, either as a kid or an adult taken in by the movie magic. Jim Henson's creature shop excelled, and Jim Henson stated they were the most advanced at the time.

Story: Simple as it was it was well told. The classic struggle between the Foot and the Turtles. Elements borrowed from both the books and the cartoon.

Production Values: They didn't scrimp here either. At least half of it was shot on well constructed sound stages, while others were on location in North Carolina and New York.

The Bad:

Logic Holes: Considering this is for family, you have to at least try to excuse the logic holes, as in Why Raph didn't take better care not to be followed by the foot, how Casey happened to be in the area, things like that. Small, but noticeable.

The Verdict: The film still holds up after all these years and I think people will agree is it still an enjoyable movie and arguable the best of what;s come out for the TMNT franchise.

Movie Review: Kick-Ass: The Movie

Going into this I had a general idea of what it was about; a dude decides to try to be a superhero in the real world, and inspires others to do it too, while getting in trouble with the Mafia, and chaos and superhero-esqe things ensue.

I'd been putting it off because of the vastly mixed reviews and my sad lack of interest, until the night I saw the movie I happend to pick up the first volume of the comic and read random bits out of it, and seeing how that was I decided to finally give the movie a try.

Story: It's a bare bones origin story that's brutal and has a quirky sense of humor. It's pretty straightforward if you pay attention and the telling of it is pretty good. But somewhere in the gut it feels a little chaotic, maybe it was the way it was edited, or there's the occasional loophole in logic (sublte but still there), or sometimes I feel the motivations of the characters are really shallow, that is until it becomes something more than getting the bad guy, and that's when it gets really good.

Production Values: This movie was well cared for from costumes, to setting, props, the works. It showed a love for the type of movie that was being produced. Although some of Hit Girl's fight scenes were a tad matrix-y, they wren't nearly as bad as I first thought, so I was pleased.

Acting: The quality of the acting was top notce, and I think my sentiment is the same when I say that Hit Girl just about, if had not, stolen the show from the main protagonist, Kick-Ass, and I look forward to seeing her do other things. Nick Cage was oddly charming but yet had this deep layer of hatred and insanity underneith that fatherly face.

Comic to Movie: This is where things greatly differ, and probabily center around where the film gets the most critizism. The book, oddly enough, was being written as the movie was being produced, and to keep a simple narrative had to cut out and change a lot of things from the book (i know some of these thigns because I glanced at the book before seeing the movie). Here's the kicker, take each medium by itself and you're fine - trying to compaire them is like compairing apples and oranges in most ways - the same skeletal story exists but is told in a different way.

Final Verdict: Kick-Ass was a fun action pack movie, and although most find the tender moments to be a little out of synic with the rest of the film, you have to do some critical thinking and look beyond the moment to pull in the seriousness of what's been going on in thse peoples lives, and once you do that, you get the emotional core I think they were going for. It's not Oscar winning script material, but I think the performances and production values make it a worthwhile flick in a sea of flicks that takes themselves too seriously.

Movie Review: The Book of Eli

Hello all. Sorry for my lack of posts but my computers internet has been temporarily suspended pending a new way of funds. This makes blogging a little tougher so that I have to go to a B-n-N to get the internet and have access to my stuff. In any case, I saw Book of Eli a while ago, I think about a week after its release in December or January, at one of the late showings where no one was in the theater, which is what I prefer if I'm going by myself anyway, and trying to trudge that up now, I will do my best to sum up what I thought.

Plot Summary: The Book of Eli is a post apocalyptic story where Denzel (the Stranger) is traveling to the West, protecting the last known James King Bible that he carries with him. Along the way he meets cannibals, lunatics, and has to survive the harsh wasteland to continue on his path.

Like - - - - -
Overall direction: Although this is not one of Denzels best films, it was not one of his worst - in fact I think between good writing, acting, and direction, the movie holds up as a decent film. There are a lot of similar themes going on that you see in past films, but there is enough unique stuff to keep things fresh, at least a little bit.

Production values: This film had a good budget and the world believable. If you can do that you're on the right track.

Characters: Although you can categorize most of the characters in the film in typical categories, there's enough of a variation there to have their own touch, and the performances by the principles was top notch. Even some of the minor characters are well done. It was nice to see Denzel as a badass at times but at other times he was vulnerable as well.

The Twist - I can't say what it is, but the moment it was revealed, it slapped me across the face and just made me realize how blind I was to it, and how I should have picked up on it from moment one. Maybe I was a bit too distracted by the FallOut feel of the world.

Religion: Like this isn't a given, but it's more or less a religious story about a mans' pilgrimage and his devotion to that and how he won't be stopped. Also, the bible is seen as the new "weapon of mass destruction" which is an interesting but valid take on it.

The Title: I have to point out the title because of it's ambiguity and how it fits the movie so well. Are they talking about the Book or The Person? In my research a person named Eli is mentioned in the Bible. so there is relevance up front if you know your bible. Of course, when you watch the movie, you'll agree that the title will fit even more with the film. Just go see it.

Didn't Like - - - - - -
I can't think of a whole like that I particularly did not like about the film. Maybe the only thing that made me think twice was the crazy cannibal lady showing up multiple times, and oh boy, ther are beastly cannibal men around the corner. Oh, did I mention there were cannibals in this movie?
Oh, some of the acting was a bit weak at times, and there were some actors (at least I think so) who were typecast. Did I say character typecast? Okay, check.

Indifferent about - - - - -
Fallout: From minute one, all I could think about was how similar this was to Fallout (a video game), or Mad Max, or any of those films that do a similar type of story (I felt REALLY strong about FallOut, cause I'm a freak like that). For me this wasn't necessarily a bad thing since the Brotherhood wasn't walking around or anything like that. But the constant threat of cannibals was a little much, but realistic I suppose.

Nuclear war - it's obvious that the war that happened 30 years before this story was a nuclear war, and honestly, it's on the cusp of it being overdone now. I'm personally getting a little burnt out on the idea. Yes it's still relevent to todays global community, but how bout we bring back the Aliens from Mars or something? Nothing like old school to school the new school.

Final Verdict: Because of its genre a lot of people won't see it I'm sure, but I think it's got a bit of the old with enough new that it's an interesting view, rather you go to the theater or watch it at home. This is one of the those films you can do either in and not sacrifice the movie's 'bang' potential. Although I'm not shouting to the heavens to go see it, I think you should see it sometime. See it when it suits you, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what's in store.