L: Change the WorLd

The third in a series of live action Death Note films, L: Change the WorLd is hardly a Death Note film. That isn’t to say fans won’t enjoy it; it’s just that the Death Notes are burned to ashes by L within the first few minutes of the film.

The Plot

Chronicling the last 23 days of L’s life, L: Change the WorLd is about L’s last big case. A bioterrorist group has engineered a virus with the contagiousness of the influenza virus and the power of Ebola and which has no time delay between contamination and manifestation, which they plan to use to wipe out mankind to save the earth’s ecosystems. It felt like I was watching L in some bizarre X/1999 / Resident Evil crossover movie. The Dragons of Earth are infecting people with the T-virus. Now only one question remains – who is Seishiro? I mean, Matoba has the same bizarre-looking eye and the correct gender but Misawa is closer to the personality. On second thought, two questions. Because could L ever possibly be emo enough to rival Kamui?

The first we see of this terrible virus is in a village in Thailand, where American troops in HAZ-MAT suits walk in, take some blood samples, kick some poor dying folks around a bit, and then leave just in time to miss the MOAB being dropped from the skies. Americans can be such bastards, can’t they?

From there, L gets a call from Near, who in this movie is a very very young boy who came from the village in Thailand – he was the only one to not get the virus and F, an associate of L’s, helped him to escape at the cost of his own life. L has Near brought to him and tests are performed on the boy. After the tests, there is a bizarre scene with L and Near in which L tries to talk Near into letting him see his necklace by bribing him with an L-kabob (which, among other things, consisted of a Belgian waffle and a doughnut – how do the kabob sticks support such weight?). L’s first babysitting experience is off to a bad start but eventually, after Near takes a chip – or several – and eats it, he allows L to see the necklace, which belonged to F and has a MicroSD card containing information on the virus hidden inside it.

A second child joins the team a while later. Maki-chan is the daughter of a doctor who worked at the same labs where K, another associate of Wammy House, developed the virus. Yes, an associate of Wammy House was behind the virus. After witnessing her father injecting himself with the virus and then being electrocuted to death, Maki runs off to a conveniently placed car, where she pops a MicroSD card into her phone and frantically yells at the driver to take her to every one of the addresses on the list contained within the card.

The two children and L develop a clearly dysfunctional but loving relationship as they, with the help of an FBI agent who was obviously thrown in for comic relief and an old associate of Maki-chan’s father, try to develop an antidote for the virus and stop the bad guys. Maki-chan has injected herself with the virus but shows no symptoms at first. Maki-chan suggests that maybe her father was making her immune to it with some mysterious injections he had given her but the doctor reveals that it’s just that the virus feeds on sugar and Maki-chan’s blood sugar is very low, so the virus is dormant. The look on L’s face when he heard the virus liked sugar was absolutely priceless.

Maki-chan decides to give her contamination plot another try. She slips away from L and arranges to meet K alone. She brings a knife to cut herself so she can infect K but of course K didn’t actually come alone. Maki-chan is captured before L finds his way to the meet site.

The climax of the movie comes in an epically dramatic scene on a plane, where all the passengers are infected when K rips an IV out of Maki’s arm, causing her to bleed all over Matoba and the stewardess. K quite pleasantly reveals to a horrified Matoba that they don’t have an antidote and that everyone on the plane will die, and from there the disease will spread.

In the end, L busts in with a bag full of antidote and convinces K to change her ways and keep living, effectively saying that he wants her to be the next L when he dies. After L saves the day like he always does, he leaves for Wammy House, where he hands Near over to Roger and gives him his name. “When someone is sick, you will always be near.”

There is also a gorgeous scene toward the end where Maki-chan wakes up in a hospital with the FBI agent watching over her. He tells her that L left a bear for her. She holds down on the hand and hears her mothers voice, as she has before, welcome her home and ask if she had a good day. She nods and then suddenly hears L’s voice from the bear too, “Welcome home, Maki-chan. Make tomorrow a good day too.” Maki whispers back a, “You too.” It’s a very touching scene to say the least.

Impressions of the Characters

L

In L: Change the WorLd, L suddenly becomes a much more active – and human – character. Now, at first, I had my doubts… but seeing a more human side of L has just made me love him even more.

Near

Near is still a genius… but he comes off looking a bit retarded. I don’t remember him speaking much, aside from a few random screams and shouting out numbers over and over until someone got their significance. I thought he was quite cute and I liked him much better than the anime Near.

Maki

Maki-chan is hardly a standard 12-year-old girl. Her character was wonderfully developed as a strong intelligent individual, although perhaps a bit naïve. I was really impressed – not just with the way the character was developed but also with Mayuko Fukuda’s acting abilities.

K

I find it odd that a woman like this was produced by Wammy House. Wammy House clearly emphasizes using human intellect to better the world, so I think it’s strange that K came to the conclusion that Watari would be supportive of her idea to destroy all of mankind. However, she is still an interesting character. She seems to feel a bit conflicted at times, especially when she watches Maki’s father inject himself with the virus, which perhaps means that she isn’t as confident as she seems.

K’s Peeps

Not much character development here. Matoba is a selfish greedy ass who actually wants to sell the virus and the antidote to make millions. Misawa is a whack job. The others barely have names much less personalities but they aren’t all that important to the plot so it’s forgivable.

Extra Special Things

There were some extra special things in the movie that I really loved. Here are just a few:

- The movie actually starts with L working a case with Naomi Misora just before he leaves for Japan to start working the Kira case (from which it then skips straight to when L writes his own name in the Death Note.)

- The movie references the BB Murders. I loved that novel. (Unfortunately, though, they didn’t go far enough as to have B listed in L’s address book when he went to send the e-mail about Watari’s death. (Before you question why a dead man would be in his address book, there were several deceased people in there. They were just unable to be selected.)

- L spoke Spanish. This was a huge thing for me as a Spanish major.

- There’s a maid café scene. Enough said.

The Experience

Now there was only one bad part of seeing L: Change the WorLd – the subtitles. This was the first time VIZ did one subtitled night and one dubbed night and I had to the theater on the subtitled night. Nearly no one was there, which made me happy, because it meant I wouldn’t have heads in my way when I tried to read the subtitles. However, nearly half the movie was in Engrish, which they didn’t subtitle but they really should have with how bad some of the actors were at speaking English. The subtitles, when present, also seemed to be off at times and some of the translations made no sense at all. Not surprising, considering only one person was listed in the credits for doing subtitles from what I saw. It was so bad that I was joking about how they hired out a fansub group from Singapore.

Game Night: Left 4 Dead

Four survivors, thousands of zombies... They must fight to survive as they make their way to an evacuation point. Along the way they will meet new foes, the Hunter (A zombie in a hoodie that jumps on you and beats the crap out of you), the Smoker (A zombie that uses an incredibly long tongue to grab you and bring you to your demise), the Boomer (a fat zombie that vomits on you, the boomer's bile calls forth a horde of zombies on whoever has been vomited on), the Tank (a large muscled zombie that beats its foes into submission in a few hits, can also throw large rocks and hit items at you, including cars), and the Witch (a woman crying, if startled by you she will put you down instantly and then continue to rip you apart).

There, thats it. Thats the plot for the entire game. Theres nothing else, its a bit of a disappointment really if you're looking for a plot. Me, I was just looking to kill a crap load of zombies. And I did, thousands have fallen to my shotgun in the streets and woods of Pennsylvania.

Visually the graphics are exactly what we've come to expect out of the Source engine. It looks very similar to Half life 2, which is a good thing. Theres very few complaints to be made here except that theres nothing truly new or astounding about it.

The sounds are fantastic, they used a perfect mix of music and natural noises that will help scare the crap out of you while playing this game. Everytime theres a witch around, the music changes and I feel a bit of fear creep into myself. This is when you let your dumber teammates run forward into the battle.

Overall a good rental. The multiplayer is by far the most fun part of this game, playing with three friends as zombies trying to kill the four survivors can be a heck of alot of fun. Though sometimes the AI can be pretty dumb and other times incredibly smart. Without a storyline though, the game grows old pretty fast. I played it a heck of alot in the short time I had it and I feel as though I am completely finished, theres nothing left for me in it. Ah well, till next time.

Small note: The best part of the game is hearing Jen Taylor, the voice of Cortana.

Internet Sensation Night: Lolcat

Thanks to youtube and many other sites that are populated by millions of people who have nothing to do, we have had our fare share of internet stars and fads. These fads can range from small amusing things, such as lolcats, or they can grow into larger things such as All Your Base.
lolcats are so amusing that we find that even people who don't have the internet know about them. They really are just that popular. Basically, all they are is a picture of a cat with a caption on it with horrible spelling and grammar. Somehow this is actually pretty cute and or funny. I find myself loving them just as much as most other people. Recently the fad has spread to other animals, which in itself can be pretty good too. Tonight I will post a few just as an example.

Movie Night: Night of the Living Dead

When someone mentions Zombies, many things come to mind. Some things that come to my own mind are Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Zombies Ate my Neighbors, and from now on I will always think of Night of the Living Dead.
Released in 1968 by George Romero, this movie was the first to bring on the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse that would show up in hundreds of films and games throughout the years. This film deserves its place as the definition of Zombie Apocalypse. These Zombies are not your average stupid, lumbering, groaning meat bags walking around like the Frankenstein monster that we generally expect. These zombies are smart enough to pick up objects such as rocks to break windows and doors, and they're also smart enough to pick up sharp objects to kill people as well. They're nowhere near as dumb as what we've come to expect from zombies these days. The movie itself is in black and white, which only seems to enhance the experience by a great amount. I found that watching this was very much like watching an old Twilight Zone episode, though in full feature length film quality.The overall plot is a bit odd when I think about it, we sent a satellite to Venus, it comes back with an enormous amount of radiation, so we destroy it, it releases the radiation, and then the dead come back to life. It is odd, and a bit hokey, but it was also the 60's. It really should just be expected. Despite that odd plot, the movie plays out more like a modern day M. Night Shyamalan suspense film. There are several moments in the film that I felt my stomach churning, one of these moments was the grotesque feasting on a young couple as they attempted to escape from the building that the cast is trapped in for the majority of the film. Another moment that made my stomach churn was the ending, after the hell that the protagonist went through during the film, I was not expecting this ending at all. It was a good plot twist and for those that haven't seen it, I won't give it away.
Good times.

Mazinger Day: Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z hen 02

Wow. That word alone pretty much sums up my feelings for this episode. It is the first real episode, unlike the chronological first episode which was a clip show that shows events in the series.

From the very first moment in the episode till the last I found myself enthralled with the show. The music done by JAM project at the start alone was enough to catch my attention and make me wish that I had the soundtrack. As usual, any opening done by JAM instantly goes to the top of my list of favorite openings. The opening video itself is done well too of course.

The actual show starts off showing a heavily battle damaged Mazinger Z and Kabuto Kouji, this is of course the ending of the series, which is major foreshadowing done here. It really makes me wonder what happens to reach this point, which is most likely why it was done like this. After that, we learn about photon power and get an introduction of Baron Ashura and Dr. Hell. This is the first part of the series that we see that actually belongs in the begining.

Dr. Hell wants to take over the world and is sending Baron Ashura and his Ashura Corps. out to take the photon power labs in Japan, which will give him a major advantage over the rest of the planet. From here we cut to an experiment done with photon power to run a city, which it does wonderfully.

I'll try to cut down here and not spoil too much of the actual details for the episode. Most of the episode is fairly lighthearted when it involves Kouji and his family, though we do see a darker side as a mysterious man with a sword kills people spying on the household and even police that are in the area. There is also a detective that is following Kouji's grandfather, a world renowned scientist to defend him from this serial killer. It is later revealed that the man with the sword is defending the doctor from Ashura's spies. We also get a look at Sayaka who is also spying on Kouji, as well as Boss and his goon squad.

Boss challenges Kouji to a fight and this is when the real action starts. Giant robots attack the city as well as foot soldiers storming the Kabuto manor. This is our first sighting of Aphrodai A and the Pilder. This is also where the episode ends after Kouji gets in the Pilder and prepares to get in Mazinger Z. Simply put, this episode was really good and it makes me want more already. Cliffhangers like this tend to do that.

Movie Night: Street Fighter; Street Fighter: The legend of Chun-li

Quick, change the channel!

Street Fighter the movie was released in December of 1994, just in time for Christmas. As I remember it, at the time the movie was fairly well received. We young fans were overjoyed to see our favorite Street Fighter characters on the big screen. Rewatching this movie brought up a large amount of nostalgia; but it goes beyond that. To this day I still find this movie to be enjoyable.

Overall the movie isn't bad from a neutral standpoint. While it does go against quite a bit from the official storyline made by Capcom over the years, its not made by Capcom so we really shouldn't expect it to be canon.

The theme of the movie is a mix of action and comedy. It has the typical action elements of any movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme, which in itself is a good amount of martial arts. The comedy elements are something all new though and makes the movie a must see film. The quotes from Zangief and the parody of Good Morning Vietnam make everything worth it alone.


Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li



Unlike the previous title, I have only had the time to watch this movie a single time so far. It is pretty enjoyable in its own right, even though it takes things away from the original game series, much like the last movie. The movie was released in February of 2009 in the states and was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak . (Romeo Must Die, Doom, The Devil's Advocate).

From a neutral point, the movie is a fairly well put together revenge film. Overall its not bad, but it could have been improved upon. I would definitely suggest at least a rental of the film before commitment to buy.

Unlike it's predecessor, the movie is simply action. The movie is more of a typical summer blockbuster; full of action and cute girls. Pretty damn good for this purpose.

Heres a little comparison of the two different Chun-Li's though.

As you can see, the two Chun-Li's look pretty different. In fact, all of the characters that have managed to be in both movies are very different from each other. The biggest difference is that while perhaps not the biggest or best budget were used for the older movie, it was closer to keeping the characters close to how they were in the games.

Mazinger Day: Mazinger Z SNES

Push start to beginning.

Now thats how you know a game is going to be good, thats the first line that I had read. Simple awesome. In this game you're actually going along with the story for Mazinger Z a bit better, which is a good thing, though I tend to just skip the little bit of story and get right into the action for a game like this. The controls work well and so do your attacks, though I can't seem to manage to do any special attacks other than what happens if you keep a combo of punches and kicks going.

Mazinger Z is an SNES game and while it looks a little less pleasing graphically than Mazin Saga, I find this game to be a bit more fun. The difficulty is still incredibly high, but its not quite at the legendary level of Mazin Saga. The game also doesn't seem to have any of the problems featured in its cousin over on the Genesis. Overall this appears to be a better game and much more fun, I would suggest that if anyone ever gets the chance, they should play this game if they like Giant Robots or sidescroller-beat 'em ups.

Mazinger Day: Mazin Saga Genesis

Figured today would be a good day to post about this game, so here it goes. Its a pretty old game seeing as how it was made for the Sega Genesis way back when that was popular, this game manages to stand the test of time. For its time the graphics were pretty good, and even today the game looks fantastic.

Mazin Saga is a pretty straightforward sidescroller for the most part, its very reminiscent of Captain America and the Avengers, though you only control one character and it doesn't appear to have any co-op mode for it. The game's difficulty would be rated at Legendary, its incredibly difficult but like most of those old retro games, it makes you feel like you've put a lot of hard work into winning, so you feel like you did something at the end of the game. I can't manage to get that far though, but I have had fun going as far as I could in the mean time. Its very solid and its more fun than I ever imagined it would be, if you can get your hands on this, you really should.

The only problems that I find with this game is the lack of enemies that I can actually remember being in a Mazinger series and the fact that if you use your special you use a large chunk of your own life bar. The enemies look alot like the random enemies you encounter in Captain America and the avengers. As for using your special, theres no point since it just helps you die faster and it also seems to do less damage than just punching a few times. Despite these problems, I still found the game to be fun and exciting though.

Mazinger Day: Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z hen 01

The first episode of one of the newest incarnation of one of the most iconic Giant Robot series ever created is actually a clip show. Normally I hate clip shows, most people seem to agree with me. But this time its actually pretty good despite that.

Due to the fact that the episode was a clip show there really isn't much to say. In this episode we see many people that appeared throughout the Mazinger series before. We see Gorgon, Baron Ashura, the Mazinger Corps, Boss Borot, and even a guy who looks pretty much just like Tetsuya with Great Mazinger. At least thats what I got out of it. The series looks like it will be pretty interesting, though it is a little disheartening to know that the Mazinger Corps will once again be pretty much wiped out. I don't belive they needed to show that.

Now for some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Baron Ashura looking better than ever.

Sayaka-san and her father.

Kouji and the crew.

Comic Night: Watchmen The Complete Motion Comic

Who watches the Watchmen?

Not the live-action recent Watchmen movie. I have a few notes before I begin this review that I feel the need to write down.

Note 1: I have not seen this series before, this will be my first impression of the comic and will be written a short time after I have finished the series and reflected upon it.

Note 2: This series keeps true to it's title. It is the complete motion comic, it is moving parts of the comic strip by the looks of it. They're not animated in the traditional ways that we find in most American cartoons or in Japanese anime, it is quite unique.

Note 3: I go into this series with little prior knowledge to the plot. I have not seen the Live-action movie that has recently appeared in theaters nor have I read the comic. The only knowledge that I have beforehand is this taken straight from wikipedia:

Watchmen is set in an alternate reality which closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The primary point of divergence is the presence of superheroes. Their existence in this iteration of America is shown to have dramatically affected and altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon.^[16] In keeping with the realism of the series, although the costumed crime fighters of Watchmen are commonly called "superheroes", the only character who possesses obvious superhuman powers is Doctor Manhattan.^[17] The existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations. Additionally, superheroes have become unpopular among the public, which has led to the passage of legislation in 1977 to outlaw them. While many of the heroes retired, Doctor Manhattan and The Comedian operate as government-sanctioned agents, and Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.^[18]

And now for my review.
I found that the comic was quite enjoyable. Its gritty and violent, but it does so in a way that reminds me of Full Metal Jacket. It reminds me of reading The Punisher comics due to this, but its very unique. I'll keep this review short so that I can have more to say about the Motion Picture that recently came out when I have my hands on it.

Overall I found it to be enjoyable and it made me take another look at society, there are some very powerful themes and quotes in this movie that I felt make quite an impact. Sorry for cutting the review short, I am really looking forward to the Watchmen movie now and will be making a more in depth review on that later on.

Musical Interlude: Fly me to the moon

It is rare, but there are times when a song will be made that will go far beyond a single age. These songs are what we all come to know as classics. These few great songs transcend the limits of generation.

Fly me to the moon was originally recorded by Kaye Ballard in 1954, since then we have seen hundreds of performers sing and dance to this song. These performers range from artists such as Nat King Cole in 1961 to Connie Francis in 1962 who made the song an international hit by singing it in Italian. Of all the famous artists that have performed this song, none have stuck out nearly as much as Frank Sinatra. Frank first performed the song in 1964, this version was slightly different than previous versions so that it would fit his singing style of Swing.

Personally I have always enjoyed this song and have heard many different versions by many different artists over the years. Classics like this don't just get made every day.

Link to Frank Sinatra singing in 1965

Fly me to the moon
Let me sing among those stars
Let me see what spring is like
On jupiter and mars

In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby kiss me

Fill my heart with song
Let me sing for ever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you

Movie Night: Dune

He who controls the spice controls the Universe.

Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, this 1984 movie was directed by David Lynch. Though the movie apparently did not go over well in American box offices in 1984, this film remains a cult favorite by many Science Fiction buffs all over the world.

The film itself features many famous actors and actresses ranging from Freddie Jones (Krull 1983, Young Sherlock Holmes 1985, Count of Monte Cristo 2002), Kyle Maclachlan ( The Flintstones 1994, Desperate Housewives 2006 to current), Patrick Stewart (So many amazing roles that I won't even bother picking out a few.), and even Sting the musician that many people know. With a great cast such as this, you would think that this movie would have been a hit, sadly it was not at the time.

The plot itself is pretty unique though many people have linked its plot to the bible, much like many other Science Fiction movies. The spice that is brought up throughout the entire movie has properties that allows it to extend the life of man and to grant people abilities that were not previously possible. There are a few factions throughout the movie that use these powers in different ways. We find the Noble House of Atreides, the high-tech and industrial but evil House of Harkonnen, the Bene Gesserit nuns who use powers similar to that of psychics, and then you have a the Spacing Guild, a group that uses the spice form the planet Arrakis to fold space itself to navigate tremendous distances in an instant. At the start of the film one of the Guild Navigators (which looks very similar to one of the Combine leaders in Half Life 2.) approaches the Emperor and tells him that he needs to kill Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto of House Atreides. The Emperor then uses House Harkonnen to attack House Atreides as Atreides takes control of the planet Arrakis due to a prior agreement before the movie. They succeed in taking over the planet but fail to kill Paul and his mother. Together they are saved by Fremen, the natives to the planet. I can't give out much more without spoiling too much of the movie, but I will say that it has a few turns here and there. Overall I find the movie to be a fun watch despite the fact that I have never gotten around to reading the books. The music during the movie is very good and even though the movie is over twenty years old I find that it only enhances the visuals of it since there is no CGI used during the film. It feels much more organic than a large number of films that come out these days. I'd go on ahead and say buy this movie, the special edition dvd comes in a nice little tin and is well worth the money.

One last note, please do not confuse this movie with the year 2000 miniseries Dune which was directed by John Harrison. That miniseries is very different from this movie though they are based on the same book.

Game Night: Tom Clancy's HAWX X-box 360

Have you ever played Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter and wondered what the heck your support is doing while you take on hoards of enemies on the ground? This game reveals exactly what your support has been doing up there in the skies. In this game you play as the lead fighter pilot of HAWX, an elite fighter unit set during some of the same years that Scott Mitchell is leader of the Ghosts.

Story: The story is pretty basic. You and your teammates from HAWX are leaving the Unites States Airforce and are joining with Artemis, a Private Military Contractor. You do several missions for Artemis and then they turn on America and begin a pretty massive invasion. You then switch sides and work for America again and fight them off. Its not the best plot that I have seen from a game with the Clancy name on it, but its not the worst game that I have played so far. I could reall go either way with this, the plot doesn't seem to really have any effect on you during your campaign at all.

Gameplay: I've been a fan of flight games since I was a child and the controls aren't really any different than they have been for the past few years for most flight games. They work well with systems like the Xbox 360 so most companies don't bother to change the controls up very much since there isn't any real reason to.

The campaign is 19 missions long and some of the missions are pretty easy and can be done with little to no trouble at all on all the difficulties. There are several levels though that are much harder than any of the other levels in the game, one such example is in level 18 when you have to fly at a low altitude in a city to destroy a van that has a nuclear bomb inside of it. Overall I had alot of fun in the campaign, especially because when you're playing the campaign you can play with up to three friends of yours all at once.

The Multiplayer is pretty straightforward and easy to get the hang of. You can play it in a few different modes but there isn't any real variety to it. It can get boring after only a short while. Though there are many airplanes in the game, numbering at around fifty I believe, you will see very few different types of planes while playing against others online. The F-22 Raptor is a great dogfighting plane and a few other planes have some absolutely insane stats compared to the majority of planes in the game.

Artistic Elements: Visually the game is very good. It is also very accurate in the level design thanks to satellite pictures that were taken of the areas that the game puts you in. Everything from the plane you fly to the ground you crash into looks absolutely fantastic.

As for the music in the game, its pretty good, but its not worth buying a soundtrack for. There are many times where you barely even notice the music and it doesn't have a tendency to really help your emotions in the gameplay.

The voice acting for the game was good. There weren't any problems where the lips weren't flapping correctly or the voices not matching very well with the people that they portrayed. It was done very well for the very few characters that you see faces for in the game.

Personal Opinion: As a flight game I thought this game was good. I had more fun in this game than I did in Ace Combat 6. As a general game, I thought it was fun, but not worth buying. It is a fun rental but I doubt that it has all that much lasting power behind it. Its been fun though.