Watch_Dogs Review

Alright, so I've  been slacking on my reviews for about two weeks now and I figured I would get back on this by giving my first actual "not very happy with this" review. [Patent Pending]


Watch_Dogs-

I'm going to start by saying I was not very impressed with this game. Ubisoft definitely dropped the ball here and I'm not afraid to admit it. I mean for Gods sake, they promised us that this game would be the "modern Assassin's Creed" we've all been asking for [None more than me] and then they completely changed what had the potential to be just that.

Now let's be clear, I wasn't looking for scaling buildings in this. After all, it wasn't ACTUALLY an AC game, but they promised it would feel like it in certain aspects, and I didn't get that feeling at any point in this joke of a game.

Let's just get the list of things I didn't like out of the way here before I say anything I DID like here. It's not a long list, but considering what they are and how big of a role they play, I feel like they killed the entire experience for me.

The result of a trip around the corner...

First and foremost, the absolutely terrible driving in this game had me frustrated more times than I could count. Sure enough, I did get used to it, but after playing Grand Theft Auto V it was just so hard to control. It was virtually impossible to get to a destination in this game without your car looking like it just went through a freaking blender. I have to say, the Saints Row: The Third driving mechanic was better, and it was virtually impossible NOT to crash in that game. I'll take too easy over too hard on the gameplay side any day.

Next up is the main character. I get it, people like Batman as much as the next guy, but why on Earth did Aiden have to be Batman with a gun? He was such a cookie cutter protagonist it made me sick. Sure, I

get the hacking thing, I really do, but for Aiden to simply get in and hack sophisticated things or things that really can't be hacked is ridiculous, even if it wasn't from a smart phone. [How the hell can you hack a manhole cover to explode? Seriously Ubisoft? Get your act together.]

Even his backstory and struggle was ridiculous to me. I mean come on dude, I get it, your niece died in an accident that was meant to kill you, but lets face it, there was no way you could have even known that it was at all tied to a failed hacking/robbery job. It could have just been a rival hacker out to take out the competition, or your buddy that set up the job you chickened out on, yet you somehow automatically make the connection to the hotel? [I'm losing faith here, Ubisoft.] And then of all things, Aiden gets caught up in a gang war. I mean how? How does this happen? Every single problem in the entire city of Chicago apparently has something to do with Aiden freaking Pierce? I'm not buying it.

To be clear, I would get it a bit more if they had massacred his entire family Punisher style, but his sister and nephew are dealing well with this entire situation. They just want Uncle Aiden to stop doing what he does and settle into a normal life. I mean with his skills he could have been Chicago's Commissioner Gordon instead of murderous Batman. He's trained with firearms, half the game is pursuing other criminals, and that hacking aspect would have helped him catch criminals.
"Oh, you want to escape this building? Well let me just activate the remote locks apart from the ones that lead you to the exact room with no windows or anything for you to hide in so I can catch and cuff you."

But no, we don't get that here. We get "I hate the guy who put a hit out on me that put my niece in danger. So I'm going to hunt down every single gang member and boss in Chicago with the help of my not-at-all-helpful hacker friend with an obvious mental imbalance.


Moving on, I have to give credit where credit is due. Some aspects of this game are actually pretty fun, and I kept coming back for those in particular.

For instance, I loved the supporting characters. Aidens sister was the most realistic family member to a video game character I've seen in a long time. She was concerned, voiced her concern, and after being rejected and not having her concerns taken care of, cut her brother off entirely.

I'm not afraid to admit either that I absolutely adored Clara. She was real, she was fun, and she didn't take things as seriously as Aiden. Even her story made more sense than Aidens, even if we didn't get much of a background on her, how she tied into the story worked. She was more helpful than most people would care to admit after playing this game, and I actually got emotionally invested in her character. I could have given a crap about Aiden, but Clara broke my heart.






T-Bone was equally amazing. I honestly felt bad that he got dragged

into Aidens crap when I went to find him. The creator of the CToS system that controlled Chicago, hunted down after creating it, and living in hiding under an assumed name. Hackers tried finding him to get control over the system and the rumored "Bunker." Authorities hunting him for fear that he would turn the system against them. This man just wanted peace, and Aiden had to take that away. [I'm going to say it again... BATMAN. Seriously, just let Robin have his revenge and then let him go...]

Again, giving credit blah blah, I actually enjoyed the idea of hacking,

and getting profiles on civilians based on the CToS facial recognition software that kept a tab on everyone in the city. It was fun just turning on the software and getting a little insight on the people of Chicago. Some of it was disturbing, some was hilarious. I actually caught video surveillance of someone cutting up human body parts to eat for dinner and more of a kid showing his dad Assassin's Creed. While not exactly an important aspect, it was something I enjoyed and had to compliment. [Not EVERYTHING was terrible. You win here, Ubisoft.]

Keeping with the gameplay features I enjoyed, I have one thing I have

yet to see a failure for from any game I've played, the GPS.
I know it's not important, but I actually appreciate when a game has a decent navigation aspect. What really helped me is that the highlighted path not only shows up on your map, but trails in front of you along the street as well. And to top it off, something most games don't tell you, there were indicators on the map that told you if a certain path went underground or not.

While I didn't keep coming back to Watch_Dogs for the gameplay, I did find the mini games or "Digital Trips" to be pretty fun. My favorites had to be Spider Tank, or Alone.

Spider Tank puts you behind the wheel of the experimental Spider

Seriously, how cool is this thing?

Tank to wreak havoc on the city by climbing the walls of buildings, firing rockets and lasers, and simply smashing things with your giant spider legs. However, it wasn't just a "cause destruction" game, but there were little objectives that got harder and harder to accomplish like doing a certain amount of monetary damage to the police force, destroying so many cars, finding something or a group of somethings and destroying them. Overall not very impressive sounding, but definitely a fun side game.

In Alone, Aiden is the sole survivor of an alien invasion that took the citizens of Chicago as proxies to hold the planet. Aiden must travel through the city, avoiding the deadly gaze of these invaders as he deactivates their homing beacons and frees the city from their control. Honestly, I thought this was a better premise than the rest of the game. While the solitude was depressing, the fact that there was a reason for what you were doing was a beautiful departure from the actual game. I spent hours playing this Digital Trip, and less time actually playing Watch_Dogs. To be perfectly honest, I hope Ubisoft expands on this idea enough to make an actual game out of it.

Alright, despite the fact that this game had some good features and characters, too many big things were wrong for me to want to come back and play it again. It wasn't what was promised at E3 the year before, and it certainly didn't live up to the games it was compared to, those being GTA V, and Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft made a lot of promises with this game, and failed to deliver on too many of them. So I sadly have to give a poor rating to Watch_Dogs with a low 3/10. I just can't bring myself to give it anything higher, and with that rating alone I'm giving them some slack.

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Got something you would like me to review? Contact me on Twitter, Instagram, deviantART, or leave your message here and I'll see what I can do.

Infamous Second Son Review

Alright so I know I skipped another week, but hey, things happen.

So to get back at it, here's Infamous Second Son.

Infamous Second Son-

 

So I have to admit, after playing the first two I wasn't exactly the most excited person on the planet when I heard about this game.

I know i'll probably come under heavy nerd-rage fire for this, but I actually hated Cole as a character. Yeah, he had a love interest, and a friend close at hand, but other than that... He was flat. Boring.

So, knowing how I felt about the previous games, you can understand how surprised I was when the trailers for this one actually got me genuinely excited.

First, the main character, Delsin Rowe. He seemed like a good, relate-able character who DIDN'T sound like the Nolanverse Batman. He was funny, had a real personality, and I mean how can we not love Troy Baker? [Yes, I still love Troy Baker, and I don't see that ending any time soon.]  

And one thing that really hit me was that they were finally playing at the "You don't have to lose your family and friends to be a hero" formula I've been hoping to see for years.

Second, the powers. Smoke? Well I have to say that one didn't get me too excited, because fire-based powers aren't exactly the most original thing I've ever seen, but I'll admit that Karma ability was one of the most beautiful things I've witnessed in quite a while.

No, what got me excited in the previews was Neon. Yes, add another 

name to the Neon Fanboy Checklist. When I saw that ability I knew they were doing something right. The melee, the shots, the running, and that slow-mo sniping action touched me right where my bathing suit goes. [Yes, quoting Crowley. Deal with it.] 

And that Karma ability? All of my yes.

Away from the previews, and having actually played the game, everything I was excited for was spot on, and then Sucker Punch just added to it with powers like Video and Concrete.

The fact that you don't get every power right away and they have their own upgrade systems made me immensely happy. I've seen too many games where the abilities are upgraded as if they're one thing. [I'm looking at you, Fable 3]

Also the fact that you can't just pick one ability and stick to it. You have to figure it out as you go, based on what sources are around you at the time, and what you have available in the immediate area. Sure, I would have loved to just breeze through the game with Neon, but I couldn't. I got stuck a few times with nothing around but Video or Smoke draw-sources. I really appreciate that they made it more challenging that way. It took away the "I'm going to spam upgrade my favorite power and forget the others" mentality of a lot of players.

I know this is something I always talk about, but I feel that it's an important aspect of every game. The characters are actually memorable, and they're not the typical retarded AI that we're used to. [Now I'm looking at YOU Halo: Reach]

Fetch really stood out to me. Her story was one that added that typical superhero aspect to the game. [SPOILER ALERT] It was genuinely sad to hear her story about how she and her brother, Brent, were homeless and hanging around with the wrong people, and how they got into drugs to deal with the issues they were facing. I felt myself choke a little when I heard the crack in her voice as she told Delsin how her brother had been killed by druggies, and now she was taking them out all around Seattle. [Major kudos to voice actress Laura Bailey. I knew there was a reason I used her in Saints Row]

And then there was Eugene, also known as He Who Dwells. He was basically the embodiment of everything the fans are. Like a silent "Thank you" to all of us that have supported the games from the start.           [I know, I wasn't a huge fan, but I still supported Sucker Punch] [SPOILER ALERT] He was a nerd. Plain and simple. He was shunned and bullied by people at school for years and found solace in a video game called Heaven's Hellfire. He was powerful there. He could stop the bullies and the trolls. One day, after having played this game for so long, he got into a fight at school, and suddenly he was surrounded by Angels. He used them as a tool to protect himself and others from bullies, but was eventually captured by the D.U.P.

Now tell me that isn't what every nerd wanted to do when they were in school.

[ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT] And I can't forget Delsins brother. A cop, working on the reservation just outside of Seattle. He followed Delsin into the city in hopes of finding a way to help the people there after they were all hospitalized by the head of the D.U.P., the royal bitch named Augustine. It was nice to see him slowly grow to appreciate the powers his brother had developed, and even help him develop them rather than telling him how "sick" he was or how much he needed help. It broke my heart to see him eventually meet his end by the same woman who doomed his friends and family back home. The emotions in that scene were so perfectly portrayed, having been fully acted by the voice cast. [As was the rest of the game, but this scene in particular displayed it best]

Oh look, Troy Baker!

Apart from the graphic quality of the PS4, which is admittedly amazing, the best part of this game is the gameplay. It wasn't too terribly hard to get the hang of, but the abilities did differ in how easy they were to use. For instance, I was used to being able to use single shots in the right places to take out enemies using Neon and Smoke, but then when I got Video they changed the whole formula by making it shoot like an automatic weapon of awesome, blasting enemies with a barrage of fire.

I really have to give it up to Sucker Punch on this one. It wasn't just fun to play through this story and use the new abilities, but it was also great to be able to run around the streets of Seattle and see the little easter eggs for the first two games, such as Cole McG's Electronics store or the shoutouts to Sly Cooper, like Cooper Savings and Loan.

But honestly my favorite part of the game was the classic video game boss fights. Not another super-powered enemy shooting at you with THEIR ability. Not an enemy that was insanely easy to beat. [Lord Lucien in Fable 2 and the Didact in Halo 4, anyone?] But TWO genuinely difficult GIANT BOSS FIGHTS.

Hell, the first time you meet Eugene, you actually have to fight him as He Who Dwells when he sucks you into his Video Realm. [See what I did there?] All of these rising and falling platforms. The sources for your power spread out over a giant lake of lava. The whole fight was just beautiful.

And the second one being the final confrontation with the royal bitch, Augustine. After taking her Concrete power, you get a chance to use it against her as she summons up a giant concrete beast meant to destroy you. I can't tell you how many times I lost that fight before finally beating her, but seeing the look on her face afterward was well worth the struggle. When you grow to hate a character, it's that much more satisfying to beat them to a pulp.

From the classic video game moments and little easter eggs, to the brilliant story and cast, Infamous Second Son is a great game that I honestly can't wait to pick up again, simply to play the alternate, evil path, and finish the side missions. [For the sake of this review I only played the main story and I just always seem to go with the good route first. Sorry.]

I have to give Infamous Second Son a solid 9/10. It definitely killed all negative expectations that I had for it after the first two games, and honestly could have been a solo game, because you don't need to play the others to get this one.

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As it was pointed out by one of my friends, I do need to do some posts about things I DIDN'T like that much. So next week, I'll be giving everyone a peek at Watch_Dogs from Ubisoft Entertainment. I couldn't get into that one as much.

All suggestions can be posted here, on Twitter, Instagram, and deviantART. Feel free to let me know if there is something you want me to review.

The Last of Us Review

I said that I would be reviewing InFamous Second Son this week, but after binge-playing The Last of Us, I feel like it needs to come first.

I'm also sticking with the style of review I used for Sherlock. It seemed a lot better, so I'm trying it out.

So without further ado, here we go.

The Last of Us-

I'll be honest, when I first heard about this game I wasn't excited.
My first thought was, "Great, another no-so-scary survival horror game."

Luckily I have friends who have a nasty little habit of changing my opinion. Shortly after The Last of Us was released, my fiancee and I were convinced to come over and check it out by one of those friends.

When he said "Come over and watch The Last of Us" though, I was confused. It all made sense when I noticed just how much this game was like a movie, and that has always been a big deal for me.

The biggest thing I noticed about this game is that the story is the focal point. Most games they try to make the story stick out, but the gameplay is so boring that you end up not caring enough about the characters or the plot and end up not playing it. The flip side of this being that some others make the gameplay great, but drop the story like a bad habit.
[To be perfectly honest, I still don't know what the hell Borderlands is about, but I could play for days.]

The Last of Us was a breath of fresh air for someone like me who values story, but greatly appreciates a decent challenge. The story is captivating, the gameplay is fluid and not too hard to get the hang of. [The bow requires a bit of practice, and you have to get used to the sway of Joels aim, but it's by no means to much to handle.]

What really draws you in, at least in my personal opinion, is the first part of this game. In these first moments you get a taste of the amazing graphic quality of this game. [Greatly enhanced in the Remastered edition for PS4, and something I've come to expect from Naughty Dog] Also notable is the voice-over. I have NEVER played a game or watched an animated film where the voice and the character

Probably helps having the VO do the motion capture too

were so absolutely perfect that I felt like they were real people rather than a fictional creation. The actors gave such amazing performances that they drew you even deeper into the story than if their performances would have been off in any way.

On to the gameplay we notice that the walking alone is very smooth, and that it seems like almost everything is explorable. Walking through the house you hear a TV, and if you go to investigate you can hear a news report of riots in the streets of Austin, just before seeing an explosion out the window and the broadcast cutting off. A moment that sets the tone for the entire game.

Right in the feels.

I have to say that if you're any kind of bleeding heart, don't play this game or watch a playthrough on youtube. You'll have too many feels just within the first few minutes. [If I didn't know any better, I would say Steven Moffat wrote this game, because we all know how much he likes to tear out your heart.]

Cheers to Naughty Dog!

Shoot ahead twenty years into this new world, and we've got a new, ass-kicking, drug-peddling Joel, working with the most badass girl I've seen in any game. I really have to give Naughty Dog credit on this one. I mean, usually the AI in games are useless. They walk into walls, they miss every attack, and half the time they glitch entirely, forcing players to restart their games just to be able to get to the next area. With Tess, the formula has changed. She's actually helpful. Honestly, at the beginning of the game I was still getting a hang of the controls, and if it weren't for Tess I would have died countless times.

[I feel like this review is all over the place already. Damn it.]

I really want to jump ahead and not focus too much on explaining the game to you, because lets face it, these are supposed to be reviews, not summaries.

So moving forward past more heartbreaking moments like Tess
revealing her infection, Joel treating Ellie like some kind of cancerous lump on his back, and meeting Bill and witnessing his painful struggle, we get a taste of something really special.

Here we have it. The Holy Grail of post-apocalyptic survival stories, graphic excellence, and intense gameplay... And what should Naughty Dog throw in but the conflict of fighting both fungus zombies and human enemies alike. It's a definite challenge when you have to change everything about your play style in order to have a hope of making it to the next part of the game. On top of it all, you get into these confrontations in realistic ways and places. You can approach these scenarios in any way you see fit, and the AI will react in a realistic manner to what you do. After seeing multiple people play this game, and after playing it twice myself, I've never seen the same encounter twice.

Another high point to me is the change in characters. This game

doesn't play like a giant escort mission, and Ellie can be played at various points through the game. At one point in the story, Joel is injured and comatose for what seems like months. Ellie has to step up and take care of them both in the dead of winter. It leads to an interesting change for Ellie, helping her mature.

What I've heard a lot of players rave about is the lack of boring characters in this game, and I have to agree. Not a single character is

boring, and I would love to have more background on them. For instance, I would kill for a DLC about Henry and Sam, the two brothers met in Pittsburgh that help Joel and Ellie get out of the city safely. Even though their run in the game was so short lived, I still felt a big tug at the heart-strings when Sam became infected, and Henry had to put his little brother down. Even more tugs when Joel and Ellie left him at his instructions, and as they closed the door there was the sound of a gunshot and another body dropping.


As their journey continues, Joel and Ellie meet up once more with the Fireflies, the organization that hired Joel and Tess to transport Ellie all

this way so she could be examined to find what makes her immune to the infection. They thank Joel for his time and sacrifices he's made, and take Ellie. Soon, however... We find that in order to synthesize the cure they're searching for, Ellie has to die. The part of her that the cure relies on grows on her brain, and has to be removed. Now for Joel to decide whether her life is worth more than the entire human race.

Every part of this game, from the first scene to the end credits, is an amazing experience that everyone with a PS3 or PS4 needs to

experience in some way before it's too late. Everything about this game touches you in ways that no other game has ever been able to. Your favorite game series will not fill you with so much fear and sadness, even in the darkest of moments.

This is without a doubt the first game I've ever believed deserved a full 10/10 rating from anyone, let alone me.

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Got something you would like me to review? Contact me on Twitter, Instagram, deviantART, or leave your message here and I'll see what I can do.

Sherlock TV Review

Alright, I know I missed a week but someone important showed up and I got caught up in that, so we'll pick things back up a week later with a television review.
[Also, sorry if this seems less thought out than my other reviews, I haven't been working on this one all week after all]

Now to get this going, I have to say this is going to be a bit shorter than my reviews of video game or movie series, as I'm reviewing the show as a whole rather than season-by-season. Also, I've had about four hours of sleep, so I have this sinking feeling that half way through this I'm going to start checking out completely so there's that.


Ladies and Gentlemen, I present...

Sherlock-

I have to admit, even as a long-time Whovian [Fan of Doctor Who, for those who don't know] and fan of Sherlock Holmes, I was a bit nervous to check out Sherlock. The BBC hadn't had a great track-record of keeping my interest with the exception of Doctor Who, and even though he is doing an amazing job running THAT show, I wasn't sure how Steven Moffat would do here.

I have to say though, I was pleasantly surprised.

The show is honestly one you have to watch a great majority of the first episode for it to peak your interest properly, but when it does, get ready for something you'll undoubtedly be drawn to time and time again.

As for the acting.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson...

Season 3, episode 2

Just amazing. You can feel the chemistry between the two. You can see that friendship that borders on addiction that was ever-present in the stories and the movies. These two men have created the dynamic duo of British television, and believe me, I haven't a single complaint.

"Honey, you should see me in a crown."

But it's not just them. I even grew to love, or more accurately, love to hate, James Moriarty. [A.K.A Jim] Played by someone I have honestly never heard of before, Andrew Scott, and I have to say, he completely blew this out of the water. It was a version of Moriarty that I had never seen before, and now sort of wish I had. He's amazingly clever, infinitely cunning, and insanely [and hilariously] evil.

Honestly just look at this guy.

Even Mycroft [as big a douche as he is] is a character I have come to love in some... Strange way. He seems to be the only person other than Moriarty who can get under Sherlocks skin. The only person who can outsmart Sherlock [well, match Sherlock on some level], and their banter throughout the series is so annoyingly brilliant.

And last I have to bring up my personal favorite incarnation of an iconic character, Irene Adler [A.K.A "The Woman"] played by the ever-lovely Lara Pulver. Just the way we are introduced to her is beautiful in itself. Fully nude [Albeit not showing anything to the viewers. I mean this is television people] and sporting the biggest "deduce me, Sherlock" grin you could imagine. And even though Watson is caught of guard by her appearance, Sherlock remains brilliantly unphased.

Now, I'm moving on to reviewing the show itself and I'm going to try something new that I feel will help me avoid the "I'm just summarizing" thing I've been doing so bear with me here.

As for the show itself, I've never seen such brilliant writing and acting in all of television. I mean honestly, Benedict Cumberbatch is typically a great person who actually cares about people. So seeing him as Sherlock Holmes, a "high-functioning sociopath" [Do your research] with little-to-no skills in human interaction and a complete disregard for people and their emotions.

The way things happen, and how we're kept on our toes through the episodes pleases me to no end. As a modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, an idea that seems like a "crash-and-burn" scenario, I must admit that this show has been successful in sticking to the source material, as well as providing a new spin on classic literary characters.

We're kept wanting more, from the entertainment of watching Sherlock deduce what happened to a murder victim by studying the most minor of details in their appearance and the environment around them, even managing to tear apart their entire life story in an instant and effectively performing the autopsy and providing a list of suspects in seconds...

I mean, how can he tell this guy is a reader?

To figuring out everything about someone he's just met, just by small details in their clothing and overall appearance. Hell, just by looking at you, he could tell if your wife was cheating on you by a speck of dust on your left boot. That's just how the guy works.



Honestly though, I have to say that one of my favorite parts of this show is how we can become so invested in background characters and faces we'll never see again. How their story can catch our interest, and even after their issue has been resolved, even after the episode is over, and even though we know we'll never see them again... We still want to know what happens to them after the show. That, to me, is a very important aspect in a TV show. I don't want just nameless faces, I want someone who brings something to the program and progresses the story, while not being the focus of the show. Sherlock has accomplished this more times than I can count.

Spoiler alert!

I have nothing but good things to say about this show. It's perfection in television and I have no shame in saying this. The twists and turns the show takes, and the surprises you'll never see coming...[But I have to say, I hate this "3 episodes per season" formula]

And the season finales that leave you begging for more, leaving you to make your own guesses at what happens, talk amongst your fellow fans as you try to figure it out, and then be blown away when the next season comes along and tells you that everything you know [or think you know] is wrong.

As much as I hate to say how much I adore another creation of the monster of a man that is Steven Moffat... I have to give Sherlock a completely solid, and well-deserved 10/10, for solid writing, impressive casting, and leaving me begging for more as I finish season 3.

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So hopefully I haven't kept to the summary format I've been using in my past reviews. And I hope this gives people who've never watched the show a reason to at least add it to their Netflix list without spoiling anything.

Let me know in the comments below,
on Twitter [@JeffSanchezVA],
Instagram [@jeffsanchez.va],
or Facebook [If you're already my friend there] what I should review next.
At the moment, I'm thinking Guardians of the Galaxy. I saw it last night and it was fantastic.

Seriously though... Steven Moffat... He'll take every character you've ever loved, stab them directly in the face, and make you watch with your eyes taped open and your body strapped to a chair... And you'll keep coming back for more...

The Amazing Spiderman Series Review

Again, this will be a joined review. However, for a different company and medium.

I present to you [cue drum-roll]

The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

[obviously we'll start with the first movie]



The Amazing Spider-Man-

First I would like to point out that I know this movie got mixed reviews. Some people loved it, some people hated it, and some people [and I can't believe someone would actually say this...] thought it was a rip-off of the Sam Raimi movies.
[Seriously? They're based on the same damn source material...]


Now for the actual review.

First thing's first. The actors.

Andrew Garfield IS Peter Parker in my personal opinion. He's got the awkward thing down to a science as well as the look I wanted Peter to have since childhood. I mean lets face it, a hero like Spider-Man can't work the way he does if he's a beefed up 6'5" monster of a man. This was a breath of fresh air to the hardcore Spidey fans. His mannerisms, and his snappy come-backs and quips made this the Spider-Man we all wanted to begin with.
[Sorry Toby fans]

I have to admit, even though I would have preferred her as Mary Jane Watson, Emma Stone did a phenomenal job portraying Gwen Stacy. Her no-bull attitude and overall confidence was a break away from the "damsel in distress" we all expect from a superhero movie and was absolutely impressive. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better Gwen.


Then there's Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Both done well, and much more well developed that the previous films. We actually had a chance to get to know Martin Sheen Uncle Ben before he died, and Sally Field actually helps give Aunt May a chance to develop and grow along with Peter throughout the film.

Now for the actual movie.

After Spider-Man 3 I was skeptical about a new Spidey film. But considering this was a reboot I gave it a shot to prove itself.

From the start I was pleased to see that the comic book feel to the movies was gone. Instead we get a more realistic feeling of what it would be like for a kid in new york to suddenly develop superhuman abilities. But not just a kid, a relatable character.

Unlike the development of Peter in the Raimi franchise, this new Peter is just a kid trying to get through high school. He rides a skateboard to get around, is smart but not a walking encyclopedia, has his trouble with bullies [that aren't your cookie cutter bullies, and actually take opportunities to be nice sometimes, you know, like real people?], has a crush on a girl with similar interests rather than a busty redhead, and has a healthy relationship with his aunt and uncle. He's a real guy.


One of the big things for me is the way they did his transformation. It wasn't the "oh my, I've been bitten by a spider and I'm faint" but rather a series of confusing happenings that catch Peter off guard. He didn't suddenly wake up at home and find himself oddly muscular. Rather, he woke up the same, but noticed something was wrong when he got stuck to the ceiling and well... Everything else.

In fact, his strength didn't really manifest until the next day, giving a strong indication that it was a steady going process rather than an instant transformation. [And even possibly paving the way for the Man-Spider story line later on]



 My favorite part of this movie actually has to be the mechanical web shooters. While the organic shooters were convenient in the previous movies, they were TOO convenient. Nothing could happen to stop the organic shooters to disable them. They were always there. Now we have the problems of "what if Peter runs out of fluid?" or "what if they get smashed?" and it creates more possible issues to overcome later on.

[I'll clarify that this is only such a big deal to me since i've always been a fan of the mechanical shooters and the development of them]

Now, things escalate from Peter having fun with his new abilities to needing to do something with them rather quickly after the death of his Uncle. They really tap into how he should feel in this situation instead of Peter just becoming Spider-Man and fighting for the people of the city, but rather blaming himself for letting the thief go and not going home or answering Ben's calls.

Taking this information we get a chance to see that in this situation, any normal person would take the selfish revenge route rather than the superhero route. The "with great power comes great responsibility" bit doesn't quite sink in at first, but does come later.

The Lizard, I have to say, seemed a bit under-developed. There was no humanity to him while in the monstrous form and led to a feeling that he just had to be stopped rather than saved. He had too much of a singular goal in mind and that just lacked something to me. The distinction between Connors and the Lizard was too extreme. I didn't like that Connors was happy about his discovery and then suddenly angry at the guy who was going to start his product in human trials in a split second leading him on a rampage across the Brooklyn Bridge.




[SPOILER ALERT] We finally see the rest of Peters development at the end of the movie after the Lizard goes on a city wide rampage and the death of Cpt. Stacy, Gwens father. He finally realizes that there are always consequences to his actions and he has to be careful. But it also finally clicks that he has the ability to help this city and not just pursue his own selfish goals.

I have to appreciate the humor throughout the film. Spideys taunts and jokes, the humorous situations he catches himself in, and then the jab at the Raimi Spider-Man game.
[the cranes that led to OsCorp at the climax referencing the convenient crane that follows Spider-Man around New York in the game, which I can't find a picture of to save my life, but I promise, it's there]

The movie paces itself well, develops the characters and their relationships well, and makes sure the viewer can relate to everything. You feel Peters loss as if it were your own, and get a real feeling for what it would be like to gain strange abilities.

I even love the new costume design. It looks like something that would get put together by a high school student using pieces of other bits of clothing. [granted as long as they knew how to sew or print images on fabric] It was also a great way to change up the design without it looking like something drastically different from the Spider-Man we know and love.

Overall I give The Amazing Spider-Man an 8/10. I only docked points for not developing the Lizard more than they should have. Other than that it was an amazing film.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2-

To say that this was an amazing sequel is an understatement, BUT it's sadly not perfect.




We start with a flashback sequence, just not to the first movie like you would expect. No, instead we're given a look back at the night Richard and Mary Parker dropped Peter off with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, followed by the details of what happened to them afterward.

In this scene we learn that there was more to Richard Parker's research than we previously believed, and apparently it was worth his life, his wife, and the lives of the pilots of the plane they were on.

Finally back to the Spider-Man side of the story we meet up with an older [albeit not very much older] Peter who's had a little while to be the superhero version of Spidey that we didn't get to see in the previous film. He's helping the police, stopping criminals, the whole nine. We even get to see the makings of a new villain, the Rhino.

Tell me he's not Calendar Man

[Let's be honest for a moment about the Rhino. Paul Giamatti, while I love his work, was the wrong choice. I did not like his portrayal of the Rhino. He was basically the stereotypical angry Russian. I didn't mind the mech suit that they made, but it seemed like they just wanted to force a villain into the movie that didn't need to be there. It made for a good opening and ending scene, but other than that it just seemed unnecessary.]

Moving on, we find out some things that have been going on since we last saw Peter and Gwen. For instance, they've had a rocky relationship [cus you know, being a superhero probably cuts into your social life A BIT], Peter and Gwen are graduating, and Spidey has helped lower the overall crime rate in New York, albeit not by that much, but enough to be significant for one person.

Hell, Spider-Man has even developed a fan following amongst the citizens of the city, most notably being Max Dillon, a strange and awkward man who feels like he finally has a friend after an encounter with Spider-Man in the streets and Spidey tells Max that he needs him.


Finally breaking into the story we also have Harry Osborn, [played by the insanely talented Dane Deehan known for the film Chronicle] an old friend of Peters who was sent away by his father years ago. Now he comes back at the request of his father, Norman, to take over the company after his death. A request that Harry is reluctant to fulfill.

We get a chance to get to know Harry rather well through his interactions with Peter and his board members at OsCorp, and even get a taste of his internal struggle as he deals with the effects of the genetic disease he inherited from his father.

Back to Max Dillon, the obsessive fan of Spider-Man. We find that he works on the electrical grid at OsCorp, and ends up being forced to fix an issue and stay after work by himself, even on his birthday. Sad right? I agree. Because this poor guy, who just wants a damn friend in his life, just gets stepped on by others. So when he has his accident that inevitably turns him into the pure energy being known as Electro, we actually feel sadness for him. It's a nice change from the usual "normal thug gains superhuman abilities and becomes a super-villain for monetary gain" formula. We get a misunderstood guy that doesn't want to hurt anyone [in fact, he wanted to be a hero and fight alongside Spider-Man] who gets pushed into hurting others.

The standoff in Times Square with Electro actually gave a chance to see how torn Peter is between his love life and his life as a superhero, when on a date with Gwen he notices the sirens and power surges coming from across the city. Now, this is where things get interesting because he gets a chance to interact with this man he saved, but barely remembers. Stumbling around his words to save the people on the street, he barely manages to calm Max down enough to subdue him, before the police around the scene slip up and shoot Max. Now convinced that Spider-Man tricked him so they could take him out, Max feels betrayed, and takes this chance to exact his revenge on the police and the Spider for humiliating him in front of everyone in the city.

Spider-Man still manages to stop Electro from hurting anyone, but he has to reflect on the impact he has on the city and the people who live there.

Sadly, there are some issues I would like to address...

Now, what makes this movie less AMAZING than the previous film is the feeling of being overcrowded. Not like Spider-Man 3 was, with multiple villains, but rather with too many story arcs.

There's the "Harry Osborn and his daddys company" side of the story that actually manages to set up for Felicia Hardy to come into the story later on. [somehow] in which we get to see more revelations about Peters parents, one of which being that the reason Peter has the reaction to the spider venom after being bitten is because his father, during his time at OsCorp, treated them to only react properly to his blood, and thus Peters.
[great, right? makes sense. After all, OsCorp = Bad]
Also that this comes into play when Harry contacts Spider-Man hoping that his blood would help synthesize a cure for his fatal disease [which by the way, he has no way of knowing that his blood would help], which Spidey says no to for fear of creating an army of Spider-Men
[I GUESS that makes sense?], which actually leads to Harry basically... Hiring Electro to get him into the OsCorp labs [after being locked out of the company by the board of directors for being an annoying brat] so he can find the leftover venom from the spiders [seen in the previous film] after they were incinerated, hoping for a cure.

We also get the Peter and Gwen love issues of "will they, won't they" and that takes up entirely too much time in the overall film.

On top of all of that, we get the fact that [as I said previously] Rhino is basically cut out of this film.
Sure he got some screen time and it was a great "oh wow, Rhino!" moment, but kind of disappointing for the most part.

Then, even though it's actually a big point in this movie, the Goblin

gets almost no screen time either. He basically swoops in and causes trouble for Spider-Man in the last twenty minutes of the movie, and his damage only really lasts for fifteen of those twenty.

"A God named Sparkles?"

[But I have to say, the scientific way they attempt to destroy Electro actually made me remember just how much of a science nerd Peter was, and even happier when he succeeded]

[SPOILER ALERT]

Seriously, what is this place?

Now, although his role is shorter than expected, the Goblin has a lasting effect on Spider-Man himself. Not only realizing that Peter is Spider-Man, he takes it upon himself to hurt Peter the way he feels he deserves, by trying to get rid of Gwen. We see an admittedly epic struggle in the clock tower [or whatever the hell that place was. I have no idea. I just know there were giant gears and shit] that could be the end of Peter, Gwen, or Harry.

Sadly though, we see it as the end of Gwen, as the chaos destroys the tower, sending Gwen plummeting to her death at the base of the tower, with Peter just barely able to catch her... But not before her body hits the ground below.

I have to say, I normally don't get overly emotional at movies [with the exception of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows], but I found myself choking up as my fiancee bawled next to me.

At the next few scenes, I'm reminded of something Peter said to Gwen previously in the film.

"I'll follow you forever."


This comes into play as we see a montage of Peter standing at her grave over the months following her death.

Once again though, Aunt May comes to the rescue with her words of wisdom. She tells Peter that eventually, no matter how much we love someone, they would want us to move on, and that if we don't, we'll never be ourselves again.

"There really is no place like home"

As a sign of him coming back into his own, Peter responds to a police call that a man in a mechanized suit is terrorizing the city in Spider-Man's absence. As a small child in a Spider-Man costume steps up to face Rhino, Peter swoops in and pulls him aside before launching the attack.

Now sadly I have to give this movie a lower rating than the first.
Due to the issues I had with it I'm giving The Amazing Spider-man 2 a 7/10, for being overly crowded with story.
It was a fun ride and full of emotions and laughter, but honestly it lacked something that the first movie had, and that was a clear and singular storyline.

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Now, as I said in my Arkham reviews, I'm still getting the hang of this so hold on and don't lose faith, because I still have a lot of room to improve.
I feel as though most of what I'm doing is just explaining the movie to you guys and I need to stop doing that. So give me some time and I promise you'll have some proper reviews and I can really take off with this whole thing.

Comments, questions, concerns? Use the comments section below or contact me on Facebook if you're a friend, or twitter if you're not [@JeffSanchezVA]

Thanks for reading and supporting me on this, and we'll continue to see where this goes.