Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance review

Before I begin, let me tell you about myself.  I ten to be a terrible judge went it comes to movies.  I don't watch movies too often, and when I do, I try to enjoy them as much as possible, good or bad (I'm one of the few people who actually likes Spider-man 3).  So when a movie comes around that I can tell is bad, you are doing something WRONG... not Spirit of Vengeance, that movie is nothing but awesome, but before I get to that, I need to talk about the first Ghost Rider.  What do I think of it?  It sucks.

The production was it's first red flag for me.  It just felt cheap, like it was made for TV but got some extra money to give it a theatrical release.  Despite it's 110 million dollar budget, everything just felt low budget, the effects especially.  Nick Cage was the only person I was interested in and everyone else just seemed there and not really important or interested in being in the movie.  The villains were non treating.  They were all pretty much beat in one move and added nothing to the movie except lame fight scenes.  On top of that, the movie just felt clean, like if a few scenes were edited here and there, it would of been a PG rating.  And when your hero has a FLAMING SKULL for a head and he's battling the son of the DEVIL, that shouldn't happen.

Why Dormammu is in MvC3 instead of Blackheart

There are some positives.  I liked Nick Cage in the movie, and it followed Ghost Rider's origin story from the comics to a tee, but everything else was a mess.  Like I said, when I can tell that a movie is really bad, there's something wrong here, and I'm one of the few people who liked Ang Lee's Hulk.  That should say something.

So five years later almost to the day (I looked it up, the first one come out on February 16, this one came out on the 17th) what could Marvel possibly give us?  Nothing short of Ghost Rider eating a clip of bullets, and puking it out in flames on someones face level of awesome.  I know it came out a week ago so I'm a little late to the party, but screw it, I'm writing the review anyway.

The first thing I noticed about this movie right from the get go was the feel of it.  It was darker, dirtier, grittier.  It was a total tone shift from the first.  When Ghost Rider appears on scene for the first time, you can feel the bad guys crapping there pants... okay, maybe you don't want feel that, but that's not the point.  Were as the first Ghost Rider was tame, SoV's Rider shows no mercy, slicing lackies in half left and right and taking no prisoners.  He felt like an anti-hero, like he was going to turn the bad guys into ash the moment he got his hands on them, literally.  SoV makes the first one look like the guy your parents would want your sister to marry by comparison.

Do you see a difference?

The overall cast is okay.  No one does anything that blew me away in terms of a performance, but Nicolas Cage is good, Ciaran Hinds is a decent Mephisto (He's called Roarke in the movie), Johnny Whitworth makes a good secondary villain, Violante Placido and Fergus Riordan are a good Mother/Son pair and Idris Elda, while having a smaller role, I ended up liking a lot with him and Nick as my favorites in the film.  Like I said, nothing great but they aren't bad ether... not as bad as Eva Mendes anyway.

The movie is around 90 minutes, and it makes very minute count.  It's a fast paced movie but I never got confused between scenes and Neveldine and Taylor do a good job making sure edits didn't fly by too fast and they spaced out action scenes with story pretty well despite a short run time.  Even though the action wasn't always there, with about, I'd say, three big ones, they make them count and were great watches.  The rock quarry scene in-particular was a highlight of the movie for me, with Cage riding a giant digger (I have no clue what it's actually called) and setting it a blaze.  The characters were developed enough to like and care about them by stories end.  As a whole there was a nice balance between action and story.

So, is there any thing wrong with the movie?  Well, it completely ignores the first movie, so continuity is out the window.  That's not a big deal for me, cause I liked this movie unlike the first one.  It doesn't follow the comics all that much, so if your a big fan of the comics that might bother you.  The villains aren't that great and mostly get there butts handed to them through out the movie.  They're still a step up from the villains in the first one.  There was one scene were it was just Cage screaming in front of the camera while he was turning into the Rider that was kinda annoying.

Said scene

I guess the real question is whether or not you liked the first movie.  I keep going back to that because I really didn't like the first one at all and SoV just about out does it in every way.  This movie was what the first one should have been.  Everything is in this is better.  The action, better.  The effects, better.  I completely forgot to mention some of the funnier parts in it.  Nicolas Cage is great in this.  I for one was glad to pay five bucks for my ticket and it was a fun ride.  I never felt bored watching the movie and at the end of the day that's what counts.  I was entertained from beginning to end and I'm glad I saw it.

I should also mention the 3D.  I didn't go see a 3D showing.  I don't like 3D, I think it's gimmicky, blah, blah, blah, moving on.

If you hated the first one like me, this one might make you happy.  If you haven't seen the first one, go see this anyway, it's awesome.  It may not be the best film you'll see all year, but you'll be entertained and to me that's all that matters.  I give it a B, go see it, enjoy.  I hope you found this informative, see ya later.

This is what I think of your 14% Rotten Tomatoes!

Asura's Wrath Review

Hello, anyone reading this.  This is my first blog post/review/attempt at being an internet critic, so if my writing is a little, for lack of a better word, bad, this is my first time doing something like this so if you don't like me, whatever.  Anyway on to the review.

Asura's Wrath, developed by CyberConnect2, produced by Capcom, is an action game for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.  You play as Asura, a demigod and a member of the eight Guardian Generals who defend the earth from the Gohma, monsters who spawn from the corrupted earth who threaten all of mankind.  After a fierce battle with the Gohma, Asura is framed for murder of the Emperor and betrayed by his fellow guardians.  12,000 year later, no that's not a typo, he seeks his vengeance and to rescue his daughter who was kidnapped by his former comrades.

If that synopsis up top sounds like the plot to a really over the top anime, it might as well be. CyberConnect2 other works include the .hack// series on the PS2 and the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series of fighting games.  There is a really strong anime influence in this game and it wouln't shock me if this was meant to be a tribute to anime like Dragon Ball.  Having characters based on Buddhism and a sci-fi setting give the game a unique look and the characters are interesting to look at.  I'll put it to you this way, watching Asura take on a guy the size of a mountain, how can you not think to yourself "am I watching Dragon Ball Z"?  The games ridiculous setting and story is it's biggest draw.

Said guy who is the size of a mountain

Now don't get me wrong when I say it's over the top and ridiculous, those are really big positives for this game.  Asura's Wrath is a very story driven game, and the plot and characters are really interesting and you end up liking the characters.  Despite how mean Asura comes off and how often he screams out "I WILL DESTROY YOU!" he does make friend with a village girl and flash backs show him as an overall good guy.  Okay, he has anger issues, but he isn't Kratos level of RAGE!  Though considering what he can do in this game, that's debatable.

Some of villains have motivations other then taking over the world, and feel more complicated then the your average villain.  There isn't much, but what's there is enough to put them a step above other villains.

The presentation overall is like a TV show.  Each "episode" is about 20 minutes long, more or less, and each one ends with a preview for the next episode.  There are even bumpers in the middle of episode like it was about to go to commercial.  While I'm at it, in between cut scenes there are interludes, illustrated scenes that give some back stories to the characters.  They're well draw and nice to look at, but I have one minor nib pick.  The sub titles I found hard to read sometimes because they put white letters on bright colors.  Something I want to mention but not a big deal.

The graphics and art style are, well, really good.  The art style is a more serious looking sketch style that was used in Street Fighter 4, and gives the game a unique look.  The graphics are nice and colorful, characters and environments are very detailed, animation looks nice, and just a really good looking game overall.  The game also feels big, from fighting giant enemies (as stated above) to flying through space, the game as a whole feels... epic.  Though sometimes the textures and backgrounds takes some time to load, it's a minor complaint that doesn't detracts from an other wise beautiful game.

No, that's not what I mean.

The music is also good, with a big epic score.  It's mostly an orchestral score with some rock bits here and there.  Nothing much to say other then good, and matches that big, epic feel that the game goes for.  Yasha's theme I particularly liked and was the highlight of the sound track for me.

The acting took awhile for me to get used to, but overall it was good if a little bit over acted in places.  Liam O'Brien is decent as Asura and the rest of the cast is good.  Also, 20 bucks to the anyone who can spot Steve Blum before his name comes up in the credits in your first play through.

Like I said before, the story is a major focus of the game, so if I haven't mention the game play yet, that's why.  The games story really did come first in development and it's the games selling point.  The characters are fleshed out and interesting, the plot is really good, and it has really awesome moments like Asura taking down giant squid  monsters.  The art, graphics and music are also top notch, and the games presentation is just simply good.  So now I'll finally get to the game play.  So what's it like?

...yeah...

"sigh"... The game play of Asura's Wrath is its biggest weakness.  The game pretty much boils down to: 1. mash O/B, 2. evade, 3. repeat step 1.  For the most part that's basically true.  Your goal is to fill a "Burst" meter.  Once that's filled, the game goes into a quick time event sequence to advice the story along.  It gets old very quickly.  mixed in between those are on the rail shooter sequence, where you try and fill your meter before you get killed by the enemy.  That's pretty much it.  The only other thing to note game play wise is at one point in the game you play as someone else other then Asura.  Outside of his fighting style, he's pretty much the same character in terms of game play.

Not to say there isn't any strategy to the game.  Asura has a heavy attack, which does more damage then mashing O/B, and it can stun enemies, but he then has to cool down after using it, unless he's in unlimited mode.  But... yeah that's it.  The game is pretty much a button masher, with QTE's.  It's not even like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta where has the game progresses you unlock weapons and moves you can use, you're stuck with the same punches and kicks through out the game.

The back of the game is also miss leading.  It says the game provides "near impossible challenges".  I played the game on normal difficulty, and got the Demigod trophy, which is to beat all episodes with an A rank or higher on normal or higher.  Out of 18 total episodes, I got nothing lower then an A, and got four S in my first play though, going back to get a 5th one to unlock the secret episode, I'll get to that in a bit, and only died 3 times total, and the two of those where at the 18th episode.  On top of that, there isn't much of a penalty for failing QTE's, so most of them are, for lack of a better term, pointless.

The other big negative?  It's about 6-7 hours longs.  I pretty much beat the game in one setting, outside of the secret episode, only taking a brake to eat.  Because of the story driven nature, te game play is very limited.  Out of those 6 hours, you'll only have real game play for about 3.  In a world were you can buy a game for 60 dollars, that money is normally going to a game with multi-player that you will play with friends for months (Call of Duty) or one that takes hundreds of hours to complete (Skyrim) a game that as only 6 hours of game play with no challege mode, a few unlockables isn't going to fly in 2012.

6 hours of headbutting Buddha's.

There are two other things that I feel are negatives.  First, remember how I said that the game was big and epic?  Well, that's not really all that true for the bosses.  That guy I keep pointing to at the top of the review, he's one of only a few.  There's him, the planet itself in the beginning of the game, yes that happens, and a few mini bosses here and there.  For a game as epic as it's trying to be, it's kinda disappointing.  The game I feel also missed out on what could have been an awesome fight.  At the end of one of the episodes, Asura goes to fight one of the Dohma, the Dohma Striker, a Godzilla sized turtle with a cobra for a head.  You never fight him.  I can't tell you how disappointed I was when saw that huge monstrosity thinking I was going to fight that thing, then the game went to the next episode never even seeing a second of the fight between them.

.  

This next one is my biggest complaint with the game.  The ending.  I'm not going to spoil anything, but only this: the game ends on a cliff hanger.  One of the minor characters reveals them self to be the master mind behind the whole thing, they tells Asura their plan, and that's it.  You can only get this by getting 5 S ranks on any difficulty.  What's worst?  The "secret" episode is basically episode 18 with a slightly longer ending.  You fight the same enemies, do the same QTE's, and the only thing that's different is that the ending is a little longer and sets up a sequel.  There isn't even a super awesome final FINAL boss that you fight at the end for getting the secret episode.  If you still for whatever reason can't tell, I'm not happy about it.

Overall, with all my complaints, do I think Asura's Wrath is a bad game?  Quite the contrary.  I liked Asura's Wrath.  I like it's story, the characters, the TV show style presentation.  It had its moments and while only running at 6 hours long, it was a fun and enjoyable 6 six.  I'm still bumed at the games true ending, but there is a DLC option in the main menu, so who knows maybe there will be a reason to go back to it.  I don't recommend buying it, but I will say it's worth a play through, so rent it or if you find it somewhere down the road for 20 bucks, give it a go, you might like it.

Before I give my score, I want to first say that I don't do numbers.  To me, doing a numbers score is subjective.  Some people will say a that 5 out of 10 is an average score, while others will say 5 is a terrible score.  So instead I'll be doing grades.  Why?  Because you know what an A is, what an F is and everything in between.

I give Asura's Wrath... a C.  Really good, entertaining story, but too short lived for 60 bucks.

AH!  OK, C+!

Thanks for reading and I hope you you found it informative.  I don't have a set schedule for when I be doing this, but I promise it won't always be video game related, and I hope to do this some what regularly.  See you later, whoever reads this.