The Experiment (2010) Review

Rating: B-
I was recently home sick and got the chance to watch a few movies on my DVR. One of them was 2010's The Experiment starring Adrien Brody and Forrest Whitaker.

This is a remake of a German film "Das Experiment" from 2002 that is a sort of what if scenario to the Stanford Prison Experiments. These experiments were an investigation into the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner and prison guard, and ended abruptly after only 6 days due to the extreme nature at which the subjects adapted to their roles. The film explores what would possibly have happened if the experiment was not aborted.

STORY
The film starts out with Brody's character Travis being portrayed as a person incapable of violence. His knuckles are pristine with no evidence of fighting whatsoever. He is at a political rally and when confronted with some aggression, stands up for himself, but does not resort to violence. I wonder if the soldier who threatened him was allowed to get his hands on him, would he have defended himself or just took a beating. Travis learns about the experiment after being fired from his job as a healthcare worker for the elderly. In need of money ( I think he wants to follow his girlfriend to India) he applies for a position in the experiment to earn the $14k paycheck it offers. We are then introduced to Forrest Whitaker's character Barris, who is a man in his 40's living with his elderly and verbally abusive mother. He takes part in the experiment to help pay for her hip replacement surgery.

When these characters first meet, we are shown just how "nice" and cordial they are to each other. Barris seems like a friendly and caring guy who just has a hard time of life by being cursed with a mother who harshly criticizes him seemingly for being alive. Travis is the ultimate peace-loving human being. I couldn't help but feel the set up that by the end of the film these two would be at odds.

We're next shown how the subjects are psychologically evaluated prior to acceptance to the experiment, supposedly to weed out any people with a propensity for violence, ex-convicts or sociopaths, however I think the evaluators were either the worst ever at the job, or they deliberately put a bunch or volatile and potentially dangerous people in a stressful situation and then yelled "go!". I believe the latter. The evaluation included some questions about each subject's background and a video showing a variety of violent images. I have to note that the video was interesting to me because it showed a lot of footage of wild animals sort of doing what they do and attacking each other, then it switched to humans in some violent confrontations, and I noticed that the animals didn't bother me, but I was really unnerved by the human footage. I guess its because animals are motivated by survival...while humans can do some horrible stuff because they believe its the right thing to do. That scares the crap out of me, especially during a time where I see a ridiculous amount of racially charged political hatred flying around down here in Charlotte, NC. The "wrong" outcome down here could send some people into a killing rage.

Anyway, the subjects are chosen and the experiment begins. Barris is a guard, and Travis is a prisoner. The guards are given only 5 rules for the prisoners (they must eat 3 meals a day and it must all be consumed, there will be 30 minutes of rec daily, prisoners are only allowed in prisoner-designated areas, prisoners may speak only when spoken to, and prisoners must not touch the guards under any circumstances.) They are told that if anyone breaks the rules, they must be punished "commensurately", however no violence is to be used at all or a red light will come on, the experiment will be terminated, and no one will receive the $14k.

Things start out pretty easily without many incidents, however, after one inmate accidentally whallops a guard in the face with a basketball, the tone of oppression is set. Pushups are ordered, and the prisoners grudgingly oblige. Then at mealtime, some nasty poo-looking beans are served and a food fight happens. Later the Guards lament not being able to control the prisoners, and we see Barris suggest that they should embarrass Travis, who is seen as the ringleader to get him to "get with the program". Travis is snatched out of bed, shaved bald and peed on, then sent back to bed. The red light doesn't come on, so Barris believes his punishment was ok.

Travis later discovers his cellmate Benjy is in such bad sweaty shape because he has diabetes and needs insulin. However his medication is in his personal bag, and thus not allowed. Travis asks another guard, Bosch, to get the insulin for Benjy. Bosch agrees, but is seen by Barris via the surveillance cameras. Barris gives Benjy the insulin, but later has Bosch brutally beaten and then added to the prison population. He then forces Travis to clean his toilet in a scene that really shows Whitaker's acting chops. He's great at playing crazy dudes in a really terrifying manner. I keep hearing him rattle off "this guy’s gonna die if he doesn't get his insulin" like a speedy Chicago rapper. That whole scene is testament to his skill. My skin actually crawled.

The next morning during role call Travis demands that the experiment be stopped and all hell breaks loose. Barris is punched on the back of the head by Benjy as he chokes Travis. Barris then strikes Benjy on TOP of his head with his knight stick (this surprised me to the point where I couldn't close my mouth for a few seconds after it happened) and leaves him bleeding and twitching on the floor. They drag all the other inmates to cells and restrain them. Benjy's still twitching and bloody body is handcuffed to the cell where he fell, and Travis is thrown into a big boiler pipe overnight.

One guard, Chase, who was struggling with a sex addiction, corners and tries to rape one of the prisoners. Angered upon discovering there is even a camera in the boiler he's trapped in, Travis escapes and runs to where Benjy's body lies. Enraged by the fact that he was just chained up there and left to die rather than getting medical attention, he runs off and, hearing the other inmate plead for help, saves him from the rape. He then sets all the prisoners free, and they rush the guards, breaking into their quarters and then chasing them through the compound. A brutal (and satisfying) battle happens and ends with Travis punching Barris in the face so much I thought he should have looked a lot worse after the red light and siren finally put it all to an end.

The weirdest aspect of the whole movie is the end. The doors open, and everyone steps out into the yard. The realization that it was all "pretend" really smacks you in the face as they show the subjects sitting in the grass silently waiting to see what happens next. Never mind the fact that they were all trying to kill each other a few minutes ago. A bus pulls into the yard, they all get on, and we're surprised by the fact that Barris holds a check for $14k.

CONCLUSION
I think the experiment was intended to see what would happen if the measure of the subject's morality (the red light) never activated. How far would they go before their conscience would kick in, or would that ever happen at all? The experiment was not about it ending IF they broke the rules; it was about seeing what would happen WHEN the rules were broken.

I really enjoyed watching Whitaker's performance. He is truly underrated, and one of the best at playing unhinged, dangerous, yet vulnerable characters. All in all I enjoyed the movie; however I took off a couple grade points after I was able to let it soak in. I know for a fact that the premise is real and that it could actually happen, I think I was just turned off by the Hollywood treatment it received, especially the epilogue where Travis and his girlfriend meet in India with all the soothing music and she looks at his now bruised-up knuckles. The brutality was done in a really visceral way, and little touches like how nasty that toilet was were really effective. The film was just a bit too polished, and I would really like to see the original German version of the film and how it treated the ending events. Once I do that I may adjust my rating of this one a bit. All in all I feel alright recommending this one.

Darksiders II & Other Stuff

More Fun Times Ahead with Art and Games

My wonderful husband got me a surprise 9th anniversary gift of Darksiders 2. I can't wait to dive back into this fantasy world and enjoy the artwork of Joe Maduiera.

I'm still trying to finish Prototype 2, and I'll have a review up for that soon. I also found out that there is a patch available for Darksiders 2 for consoles that fixes some pretty annoying bugs. I'm glad I found out about it before I got into it and got frustrated. (No flail kicks for that reason, yay!)

There is also a draw Death Contest available on the Darkhorse website http://www.darkhorse.com/. I may not get to enter on time, but I might do a piece that's inspired by it just for kicks.

I'll post the final on my website http://giannaseye.com/ while I'm working on it.

'Til next time!

G

God Of War Origins Collection Review

Rating: A+

I recently finished the story modes for the God of War Origins Collection, Two games that originally came out for the Sony PSP. I played the first of the two games -- Chains of Olympus -- on my PSP and enjoyed it immensely, even though the controls were a bit wonky for dodging attacks. There was nothing like having a GOW game I could take with me wherever I went. It looked great, had great control response time, and the story was just as epic as all the preceding GOW titles.

I hadn't purchased Ghost of Sparta on my PSP, so when the Origins Collection came out I was excited that I could play this title and also play it in HD on my PS3. The game did not disappoint. The story had the same rage-fueled highs and lows the franchise is well known for, and just like Chains of Olympus, is a satisfying length. This collection is a great value for fans of the action genre including 2 games with about 15-20 hours of content.

Chains of Olympus-Story
This game precedes the original God of War title that came out on the PS2, and comes after the upcoming God of War:Ascension title coming in March of 2013. It follows Kratos during his 10 years of service to the Greek gods. During his task to kill a basilisk that is destroying the city of Attica, the sun falls from the sky. Morpheus, the god of Dreams uses this as an opportunity to send the gods into a deep slumber and sends a black fog over the earth, controlling it with his dark minions. Athena sends Kratos to rescue Helios so that his light can be returned and the gods can wake up and banish Morpheus. On his quest, Kratos learns that Helios has been abducted by the titan Atlas in a plan for revenge by Persephone.

She tricks Kratos into giving up his powers to spend his life with his daughter Calliope in Elysium. Once Persephone sees that Kratos has weakened himself, she reveals her plan to destroy the earth by commanding Atlas to destroy the pillar that holds it in place. Kratos must then leave his daughter forever and get his powers back to save the world as his duty to the gods. In the final battle, Kratos chains Atlas to the top of the Underworld. Once he kills Persephone the explosion caused by her demise cracks the great pillar, leaving Atlas to hold up the earth forever.

Game Play
I originally played this game on the PSP. While it was enjoyable, I suffered quite a bit because there is no second analog stick. The evade controls are mapped in a way that makes you hold both shoulder buttons and then nudge the analog stick in the direction of the evade. This works, but is not comfortable. The traditional controls return for the PS3 version, and I was extremely thankful for that. I played the game on the hard setting, and I blew through it save for a few spots where I got stuck dying over and over again because I saved with low health and no green orb chests around. I also noticed an annoyingly large collision box around Kratos and the enemies. This was a blessing and a curse. Some things that shouldn't have hit Kratos were able to damage him causing me to SWEAR and flail (i.e. have a kicking the air fit) when I was low on health but one enemy away from moving past a hard fight only to die from a suspect hit. Fortunately the big hit box made it really easy to grab lesser enemies and open chests. I would say that was an even trade, especially when considering the joy I felt when Kratos would slide halfway across the screen into place to open a chest. However those moments when I swore and flailed were NOT happy ones. That being said I enjoyed the challenge. It was just hard enough to get me thinking about how to beat certain arena parts. I even had to employ my husband's coaching abilities to help me past the gauntlet room with the 3 minotaurs and satyrs. I also really enjoyed the game and the story. The scene with Calliope is heart wrenching.

Graphics
The graphics looked great. I think that is considerable when you think about the game being ported from the PSP's 4 inch display. I did also notice that the animations, while fluid, didn't seem to be as detailed as the other games, but that was a minor annoyance.

Overall I highly recommend this game if you are GOW fan. I really thought that I would be tired of Kratos's unending rage and the quick time events, but I noticed a consistant feeling of relief when that big orange "O" pops up over the last enemy.

Ghost of Sparta--Story
This game takes place between God of War and God of War 2
Prologue: A family affair. As children, Kratos and his brother Deimos are interrupted one day while training in Sparta. Ares and Athena abduct Deimos and send him to the underworld to be tortured by Thanatos, the god of death. Ares and Athena believe Deimos' strange birthmarks identify him as the "marked" warrior what will bring the destruction of Olympus as foretold by an oracle.

Now that Kratos has taken the place of Ares as the God of War, he decides to investigate his past to find out why he is still plagued by nightmares of his past as a mortal. He travels to the Temple of Atlantis and finds his mother, who is transformed into a horrible beast. She attacks him and he ends up killing her. Before she dies, she tells him to find his brother back in Sparta. There are a bunch of flashbacks and fighting and Kratos eventually finds out that he must go back to Atlantis to free Deimos from Thanatos. Once Kratos locates Deimos and frees him, Deimos attacks him, angry that Kratos didn't save him earlier. Thanatos interrupts their fight and almost throws Deimos off a cliff, but not before Kratos saves him. The two fight together to kill Thanatos, however in the battle, Thanatos manages to kill Deimos, causing Kratos to get REALLY REALLY mad. He demolishes Thanatos and carries Deimos' body up to a burial point. Kratos sees the Grave Digger from the first God of War who tells him that he's become "death, bringer of chaos". Kratos then sees Athena who begs forgiveness for not being truthful about her involvement in Deimos's abduction. He ignores her, and goes to his throne where he begins to plot his revenge against all the gods. God of War 2 begins shortly after this point.

Game Play
This game had a lot more mechanics involved than GOW:COO. There are commands mapped all over the place and even an extra weapon set. In a twist, magic is mapped to the directional buttons, you only need to press them to activate your magic. In other games you would select the magic with the directional buttons, then use a shoulder/face button combo to activate. I have to say I like this set up better. There is a noticeable delay for the magic to activate though, and this was frustrating for me because I decided again to play through this game on the hard difficulty. In some of the very intense battles, that delay led to Kratos getting his ass handed to him...and more swear/flails from me. All in all this was a satisfying game to play through. the battles were truly epic and satisfying. All the different options and moves Kratos has made the fighting a ton of fun. Even the maddening wraith woman enemies were not so horrible once I learned how to beat them. I got stuck a few times, and again had to ask for coaching help from my hubby. Its amazing how much he helps, too bad he likes sleeping more than watching me play games late into the night.

Graphics
Pretty much the same notes as above. I do wish I had a 3D display as I've heard that the 3D in this game is unbelievable. I did notice that this game was a bit more polished and Kratos and the enemies looked bigger and more detailed on screen than in COO.

So that's it. I highly recommend these games if you are a fan of the series. You get an unbelievable amount of content for a great price (retail was $29, but I'm sure you can find it cheaper online now new or used via brick & mortar stores). My concern that I would get tired of the quick time events was unfounded, especially since I decided to play through on the hard level. Doing that made me look forward to seeing the final prompt appear over an enemy's head, and finishing a particularly hard battle was that much more satisfying because of the mostly responsive controls (hit box issues notwithstanding). I've played through the story modes of both games, and I plan to revisit to play through the challenge modes and arena modes as well. Once GOW:Ascension comes out I do plan to play through all six titles again to revisit the story in chronological order.

Check out the incredible God of War Wiki HERE

Insanity Workout

I've been doing the Insanity workout since July 7. I recently had to stop because of a terrible summer cold that took me out for over a week. I'm happy to say that I've restarted again and I wanted to briefly post a short review of the benefits I've noticed since starting the workout.

I used to be a fitness instructor, and was pretty good at it too. At one point I taught 6 days a week 2-3 hours a day and I had the figure to match. I've since lost that figure and I'm determined at 35 years of age to get it back. Insanity is the best way for me to go about it since I know that my body only truly responds to serious, hard-core training. I'll probably need to do the full program more than once, but I don't see that as an issue, especially since I've noticed a HUGE change in the way I feel everyday.

I've immediately noticed the following things since starting the program:

1. My balance has greatly improved. I had a hard time standing on one leg and stretching my quadriceps without completely falling over. Now I can pull my leg back (very slowly) while still standing up.

2. My flexibility has increased. I used to feel pain when doing the stretches, but I kept at it and now I feel the benefit of the stretches as I do them.

3. My energy has increased. Even though I have to get up at 4 am to do the workouts, I feel so much more energized throughout the day.

4. Probably the most important thing is that I feel like my cardiovascular system has strengthened considerably. There is a 7 minute walk from the parking lot to my cubicle at work and before I started the program I noticed that I would feel short of breath as I made my way between my car and office. Now I don't feel that at all.

I've lost a few inches, and have trimmed down a bit in my stomach and thighs, but I haven't lost much weight (about 3 lbs since I started). I figure this is normal since I'm trying to build muscle. I really just want to lose inches and tighten up all the shaky parts. I'll keep posting updates as I work through the program. I'm just excited that its actually working for me!

Darksiders Review

Rating: A-
Premise:
Darksiders is an action adventure game that follows the story of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as he tries to clear his name from being framed for destroying the human race and throwing heaven and hell out of balance.

Gameplay:
Many have compared this game to Nintendo's Zelda games, however, since I have never played any of those games (yup, its true) I cannot speak intelligently on any comparisons between the two. I can say that there are some slight similarities between this game, God of War and Devil May Cry, but in my opinion, this game really stands on it's own as something completely different.

There are branching attack combos which can be upgraded using souls (the games currency). As you play through the game, War becomes more and more versatile and powerful, almost overly so in that I felt it was a bit easy to beat most of the game's bosses. War has access to a sword, a scythe, and a tremor gauntlet as his main weapons. He also has several secondary weapons and gadgets that allow him to solve various puzzles throughout the game world--oh and he also has a horse. I have never played a game that had this many attributes applied to a character, and though it got a bit cumbersome to map and remember what items I had at my disposal, it was never overwhelming to the point where the game was not fun to play.

The combat didn't feel as tight and responsive as either of the aforementioned games, however it is much more forgiving, if a bit more repetitive, and was never clunky enough to become frustrating. I felt that the game focused a lot more on the exploration and puzzle solving than hacking and slashing, which while satisfying, was a bit weird considering War's hulking size. Once I finished the game I felt like it would have been nice to have an arena mode where I could go in and spend time chopping up baddies.

Story:
I'm not going to spend much time here, only because the story was a bit hard for me to follow. This is not because it wasn't well written, but  it took me over a year to find the time to finish this game and I can't remember the details well enough to comment on it. I can say that the atmosphere created in this game was spectacular. The characters and environments were beautifully designed, and I can say it was once of the richest experiences in terms of character design I have ever seen. Joe Madureira is one of my favorite Comic artists, and his style is beautifully rendered here in 3-D. I also should mention that this game is really long, I would have to estimate 15-20 hours of content. Not bad in an era where games are getting a bit shorter and focus more on multiplayer.

Graphics & Effects:
Absolutely beautiful. The character design in this game is nothing short of amazing. Once of my favorite effects was the way the  massive Tormented Gates would  be visible moving off into the distance long after they allowed War access into a new area. I also really enjoyed the use of color in this game, though it is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic setting, the colors are nice and vibrant. There were a lot of nice environmental touches throughout the game that made the experience feel quite polished, like the sky and fire effects. It was also really satisfying to break glass and destroy the many burned-out cars all over the game world. One particularly nice experience I had with the game was how sneaky some of the enemies were. I can't remember the last time I played a game and was startled by an enemy who had hidden behind a pillar or was lurking just out of sight. It was a common and welcome occurrence in Darksiders and it was due to the game design and not to errors in code. It was also satisfying to see how far away enemies would notice War's presence and start running toward him for a fight.

Sound:
The sound in the game is really well done. The sounds of environmental destruction are all convincing and visceral. The weapons all sound like you would imagine (if you could imagine the way a 100lb sword would sound swinging through the air). The voice acting was also noteworthy. Mark Hamill did his customary best as The Watcher, and the other characters performed well enough that I was always interested in what was being said, and at no time was I unable to hear what was going on. Vulgrim was a surprise favorite, as I always found myself smiling when I visited his locations.

Overall:
I really enjoyed this game & give it an A-. I was actually a little sad that I reached the end of my time with it, and I would play through another time just to experience the atmosphere and artwork again. I felt there could have been more time spent on combat, and some sequences felt a bit clunky, but it was never frustrating if a bit too easy. The amount of content and variety in the gameplay was impressive and executed in a manner I felt was balanced and easy to use. Even though there were instances where I would put the game down for months I could return and easily recall the controls. All in all I look forward to the upcoming sequel and the opportunity to explore more of the Darksiders universe.

My First Heroes Con

Today I attended my first Heroes convention! It's a great way to meet a ton of really talented comic artists and talk to them about how they got into doing what they do. I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of local artists through Google+, and today I finally got to meet two of them face to face. Links to their sites are available HERE and HERE.
I also got to meet an extremely talented lady by the name of Afua Richardson. View her art HERE. She has such a warm spirit and I can't say enough how truly TALENTED she is. She and the other people I spoke with today inspired me to get the story idea for a graphic novel I've had rolling around in my head down on paper finally. Never has publishing a comic been easier, so I really have no excuse. Here's to me publishing that book and being a guest at next year's convention!

Fist Of the North Star--Review

I recently watched this movie after many many years of thinking I had seen it already, and I can say now that I was mistaken. This movie is one of the classic films that many fans of Anime can say they have seen and likely enjoyed. I can now join that group.

This movie was released in 1986, and is traditional animation with no CGI whatsoever. That being said the quality of the animation is not as good as what some come to expect from Japanese feature length animated films. It has more in common with the style of the GI Joe television series. That makes sense since the same production team is responsible for the animated TV series of the same name. Saying that it's not high quality is not meant to discredit this film in any way, in fact it seems as if more time, care and effort was spent on the many visceral fighting scenes. Heads explode, arms are detached and enemies are dispatched with disturbing fluidity in a creative number of ways. If you don't mind extreme violence by all means give this film a shot.

The story is a lot easier to follow than many other Anime films I've seen. (I had to watch Akira and Cowboy Bebop a few times, though I think I was distracted by the beauty of the animation in both cases). Basically the main character Kenshiro and his girlfriend Yuria are searching for a place to plant seeds to help the earth recover from a devastating nuclear war that has wiped most living things from the planet. During their search, they are accosted by Shin and his thugs. Shin wounds Kenshiro and forces Yuria to come with him, thinking only he should possess a woman with her beauty. The rest of the movie shows Kenshiro's bloody quest to rescue her, avenge his betrayal, and do battle with his Bother Raoh who feel's the power of the Fist of the North Star is rightfully his.

This is an extremely violent film. Kenshiro possesses a fighting style that causes his enemies to swell and explode. He meets a man who is able to slice people into fragments with his fingers, and there is an unforgettable battle scene where hundreds of ninja are crushed underfoot by a giant man who can change himself into metal. Blood, guts, and dismembered limbs fly everywhere with extra smooth animation. Just because this is animation does not make it for kids, show it to them only if you want to scar them for life. Sound problems are also evident. Footsteps never seemed to match the action on screen, and the music seemed to be disproportionately loud during some fighting scenes. I have to note that my DVD offered a few nice extras such as character art and original theatrical trailers. I watched the dubbed English version because I wanted to enjoy the animation as much as possible without having to read  sub-titles. My next viewing will be in the original Japanese format so I can hear the original voice actors and look out for any differences in translation.

If you are a fan of animation and can stomach some over-the-top violence I definitely recommend this film. Though the animation quality was sporadic and the sound seemed not to sync up at times, this is a classic that I'm glad to own and  I will definitely enjoy watching it again.