Movie Monday: Cast Away

This week for Movie Monday I’m back with a movie most people remember for a certain volleyball. It’s Cast Away!

Plot Synopsis: In December 1995, Chuck Noland is a time-obsessed systems engineer, who travels worldwide resolving productivity problems at FedEx depots. He is in a long-term relationship with Kelly Frears, with whom he lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the couple wants to get married, Chuck’s busy schedule interferes with their relationship. A Christmas with relatives is interrupted when Chuck is summoned to resolve a problem in Malaysia. While flying through a violent storm, his plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Chuck escapes the sinking plane and is saved by an inflatable life raft, but loses the emergency locator transmitter. He clings to the life raft, loses consciousness, and floats all night before washing up on an island…

Plot: The plot of this movie is great, although it’s also rather depressing at the same time as it’s hopeful. I won’t go too into it, in case by some odd reason you’ve never seen this, but it’s definitely one of those movies everyone needs to watch at least once in their life.

Characters: Chuck, portrayed by Tom Hanks, is an awesome main character. Honestly given that he’s pretty much the only character I can’t say much more than that. Although there is Wilson….

Cinematography: This movie is incredibly well done, and while there are no special effects along the lines of something you’d see in a Star Wars film, those that were done were done fairly well.

Musical Score: I honestly don’t remember it much at all, but I do remember thinking that it fit the movie.

Overall: A must see movie, if you’ve never watched it you really ought to at least once.

For those who like: Survival Stories, Tom Hanks, A 1 Character Movie, Depressing Story, A Hopeful Story.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Manga Monday: Dr. Stone by Inagaki Riichiro

This week for Manga Monday I’ve got a Quick Review of a fairly new series. It’s Dr. Stone by Inagaki Riichiro!

Plot Synopsis: This science-fiction adventure series follows what happens when suddenly the world’s biggest-ever “crisis” arrives….

Plot: This series starts off pretty well, and while Senkuu is a really odd character, I like him quite a bit. Eccentricity isn’t a bad thing. I was quickly entranced by the series, but given that it was written by the Mangaka of Eyeshield 21 I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Characters: Senkuu and Taiju are our male lead characters along with Yuzuriha as our female lead. They are all really interesting characters and frankly I’m super intrigued by them. Senkuu is a genius, and Taiju seems to be the brawny guy. So I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Artwork: The artwork is awesome, as one would expect from a Jump series.

Overall: I won’t say it’s a must read, but it’s pretty darn close to being one.

For those who like: Sci-Fi, Drama, Romance, Action, Adventure, Excellent Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Amazing Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Video Game Tuesday: Open Letter to Hello Games

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’ve got a message for the makers of No Man’s Sky. It’s an Open Letter to Hello Games

To Sean Murray and Hello Games,

First things first, congratulations on launching No Man’s Sky. I don’t think anyone can say that it’s not an impressive feat to launch such a game with a huge amount of content with such a small team of developers. Now that the niceties are out of the way, let’s get down to business. Mainly the lack of communication that you have had since the game has launched. I understand that the community had a large backlash towards you and that can be a scary thing. Honestly I truly get it, and I understand the desire to hole up and ignore the world, better than 99% of the world’s population understands frankly. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t have proper communication leading up to the games launch and essentially none after the launch. You guys tweeted that you were super excited about the amount of people playing that first day, which is great.

But you never explained why things you said would be in the game weren’t in it. Why can’t we see other players? I can understand if the feature was cut, I do, but you have to say why in order for people to understand. You haven’t done so, and in fact you haven’t said why to any of the numerous questions sent to you from the community. The No Man’s Sky subreddit is a wasteland full of angry people who wanted nothing more than to love the game you made, but you didn’t give any explanations why it’s so different from the promotional material we saw leading up to the launch. This makes people angry, and frankly they are completely justified with that reaction. Your lack of communication is unacceptable, even Bungie a developer who has been a laughing stock in the community for the last couple of years has a nearly weekly post saying at least something, even if most of the time it’s nothing of substance.

So if you ever want to earn back the respect, you’ll need to break this silence. It’s been months coming and frankly every minute that goes by without anything said from you is going to cause you to become more and more hated. So my advice is to just speak up. Be honest, be frank, we’ll understand, but we can’t do that if you don’t talk to us, the gamers who wanted to love your game.

Michael Blaker

Sensate Saturday: Area D Inou Ryouiki by Nanatsuki Kyouichi

This week for Sensate Saturday I’m covering a less well known series. It’s Area D Inou Ryouiki by Nanatsuki Kyouichi!

Plot Synopsis: The “prison survival action” story is set after the sudden emergence of special powers in certain pockets of humanity. To deal with these so-called “Altered,” a mysterious remote island prison named “Area D” was built.

Plot: The plot is pretty freaking serious and pretty gory as well. It definitely fits the Horror genre in my opinion, although more for shock factor than anything else. I won’t spoil it but I’ll just say that in the first chapter I nearly gagged.

Characters: Jin is the main character, and he’s a pretty bad ass guy. The rest of the cast is great, although Ida is my favorite of the bunch.

Art: The art in this series fits it perfectly. It’s definitely not something for kids.

Overall: If you can stand the gore, it’s pretty good.

For those who like: Action, Violence, Gore, Drama, Excellent Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Great Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Sensate Saturday: Cage of Eden by Yoshinobu Yamada

 

This week on Sensate Saturday I’m covering a series I enjoyed despite it being a horror series. It’s Cage of Eden by Yoshinobu Yamada!

Plot Synopsis: Middle schooler Akira Sengoku and his class are flying back to Japan from their school trip to Guam, along with other classes from their school and various passengers. But their trip takes an unexpected turn when their plane hits unexpected turbulence and crashes on a Pacific island.

Plot: The plot is pretty engrossing, despite it being a pretty scary and disturbing series. I did enjoy it quite a bit, but this is most certainly not a series for kids.

Characters: Akira is a pretty bad ass lead, while Rion is also amazing as the female lead. There are plenty of characters, and lots of them are badasses. I personally like Yarai the most.

Art: The art style is Shonen, but this could’ve easily gotten away with being a Seinen series if the author wanted it. That being said it is very good.

Overall: This is well worth your time to read, even if it starts off slow.

For those who like: Horror, Romance, Action, Badass Characters, Excellent Plot, Fantastic Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.