Medium Mashup

Author: Ross Miller

  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Review

    mockingjay
    SS_D74-23611.dng

    (This review covers both parts of the Mockingjay film adaptation. It does contain spoilers)

    The Hunger Games series proves that the book isn’t always better. By removing all of the inner-monologues and allowing Jennifer Lawrence to imbue Katniss with a sense of gravity and maturity that her written character lacks, the films present a more consistent portrayal of their world. As they continue, they become more confident in changing details and expanding on the universe. While Catching Fire gives us some glimpses behind the curtains to see what the Capitol is up to, Mockingjay Part 1 benefits the most from this change-of-perspective.

    Mockingjay was by far my least favorite of the books. If I were to choose one reason, it’s that it’s a story about a wide-scale conflict told entirely from the perspective of a character who is not especially involved. Because Katniss is relegated to creating propaganda for the war and rarely in the field actually fighting, most of the successes and failures of the war effort are relayed to her by other characters, bypassing the most significant drama of the series. Instead, we’re left with Katniss constantly mulling over her feelings for Gale and Peeta while the actual culmination of the series occurs off-page.

    (more…)

  • Rise of the Tomb Raider Review

    rise-of-the-tomb-raider

    2013’s reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise was much stronger than just about anybody would have expected. After Tomb Raider had faded into many gamers’ memories as a relic of the past, Crystal Dynamics decided to start fresh by creating an origin story for Lara Croft and rethinking many of the game’s mechanics. Borrowing liberally from the Uncharted series (which, in truth, borrowed significantly from Tomb Raider in the first place), they managed to create a very solid platformer-shooter with a more open-world feel to it. Combined with a strong arc that saw Lara grow from a scared girl with potential into an army-decimating badass, Tomb Raider really stood out from the crowd and even got “Game of the Year” consideration from a number of publications.

    So if 2013’s Tomb Raider was a risky and innovative renovation of the brand, then 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider is the “victory lap” game. It’s still engaging, and the combat and traversal mechanics are generally solid. But it’s also a pretty safe entry into the series, with few innovations and little to truly get excited about. There’s a feeling that Crystal Dynamics created it as something of a stop-gap release while they really think about how to elevate the series in the future.

    (more…)

  • SPECTRE Review

    spectre

    (This review is split into two halves. The first section is spoiler-free. Then, below, I will delve into some specifics for those who have seen the film)

    SPECTRE is a continuation of the look, feel, and character-centric storytelling present in Skyfall, and on that level, it is a roaring success. Everything from the stunts to the cinematography to the editing to the set pieces are terrific, some of the very best in the series. Despite its 2 hour and 30 minute runtime (long even for a franchise that is notorious for 2-hour-plus entries), SPECTRE flies by, never feeling like it’s wasting your time.

    But before we start talking in-depth about all that SPECTRE does right, the elephant in the room needs to be acknowledged: yes, SPECTRE has some narrative issues. As I’ll go into further below in my “Spoiler” section, quite a number of story elements don’t hold up to scrutiny. It’s not difficult to pick SPECTRE apart, as one plot hole or illogical plot string just leads to another, and soon the whole thing is unraveling like a ball of yarn. It can really make you wonder if the screenwriters were paying any attention to these issues at all.

    (more…)

  • James Bond Fridays: The Archive

    bonds

    Over the past year, I have occasionally participated in an event of my own making called James Bond Friday. It’s pretty much what you’d expect: I would watch a James Bond movie, slowly working my way through the entire series, and I would tweet about it.

    While going back over my tweets to refresh my memory on certain films in the franchise, I decided that some of these were pretty funny (possibly funnier out of context), and figured I’d share them all with you here!

    A couple notes. First of all, I didn’t livetweet EVERY movie in the franchise, but I did at least tweet SOMETHING for 16 of them. That’s a whole lot of tweets. Also, I’m copy/pasting these EXACTLY  how they were, typos, mistakes, and all. Given how quickly I was rattling these off, this means that there are a few things that are inaccurate (most of which I correct myself in future tweets), and lots of spelling and typing errors that I would normally be ashamed of on this site. But take this as it is: a glimpse into my mind as I watched 16 movies of varying degrees of insanity. (more…)

  • The James Bond Retrospective

    bond

    Just last week, the latest movie in the Bond franchise, SPECTRE, was released. I’ll be reviewing that later this week, but one thing that really struck me about it was how the history of the franchise colors your feelings and expectations of the film. I love the Daniel Craig Bond films to death, but having recently watched through the entire Bond franchise, from Dr. No to Spectre, I now have an even deeper appreciation for what the more recent films have set out to do.

    This particular piece will set out to define what, exactly, makes a Bond movie a Bond movie by tracing the origins and evolution of the franchise. (more…)