Tom Clancy: The Division: PS4 Review

Tom Clancy: The Division: PS4 Review  

Platform: PS4
Released by Ubisoft

Tom Clancy: The Division is an incredible open world environment.

It opens with a series of distorted cut sequences which basically give you an insight into the end of the world and how Black Friday in New York became the Patient X for a pandemic.

Into this world, you are thrust -  you play an agent in a group known as The Division, which is activated once the devastating pandemic sweeps through NYC on Black Friday and the world starts to collapse. Chaos envelops society and without food or water, it's every man or woman for themselves. And that's where you come in - activated from your apparently sleeper cell status, it's up to you to try and restore some calm and investigate the source of the virus.

The first thing about Tom Clancy's The Division is how wonderfully realised the environment is. From a snow covered New York City that glistens with both wonder and menace, the rendering is nothing short of perfection as you hurtle around trying to achieve main game missions or play side quests which pop up without warning.

Missions initially include setting up a base camp to ensure you have somewhere to call your own, but you're faced with looters determined to take you out at any turn and who, in the desperate throes of survival, will do anything to get by.Combat's a little trickier too, if you're used to simply going hurtling, all guns blazing. The game is predominantly based on cover tactics and requires you to utilise all of this and protect yourself. The problem is that pressing X all the way down will guarantee you go toward a cover-based spot, but removing that halfway through, will see your player stop, stand up and get blasted or beaten. I get that it's a commitment thing, but the lack of being able to commit simply by tapping a button is a frustration, particularly if you're trying to launch directly into an attack after.
Cover shooting is not exactly the easiest either - and a few times, the agent I was in control of got caught off guard by an inability to see around corners and got his head bashed in. 

Loot collection is a little more difficult as well if combat is underway and you have to really clear the enemies away before stopping to snoop, a touch which if you're trying to gear up while in combat is another source of frustration.

Shooting takes some learning too, bizarrely. It's not just point and press - aiming carefully will do more damage than blasting blindly and blazing. That makes sense but when you're overwhelmed with combatants, it makes a showdown a little trickier and needs you to strategise rather than go nuts.

That said, The Division is quite eminently playable.

Wandering around the city proves to be fertile ground with other side missions and jobs needing doing prior to following the main narrative. 

Online the game flourishes too - it's easier to team up with agents and to execute missions within the game - match-making hasn't proved to be too much of a problem for the servers and there's little waiting to get into the action.

Equally, the quarantined Dark Zone which pits players against each other is perhaps the more challenging of the game, given how it relies on other people to play nicely or wreak chaos. It's unexpected and exciting because of it - and it soars when measured up against the rest of the game.

The Division's made great use of the DualShock speaker too, which sounds like an odd thing to say, but given you're doing missions and receiving comms, the almost metallic tones of the messages feel like you have an earpiece in and are in constant contact. It's a nice touch that helps the game reach the immersive level it needs to.

All in all, Tom Clancy: The Division feels like one of the most rounded titles releaseed with the TC moniker; its depth is enjoyable and its scope is impressive. Stay through some of the churn of the story levels at the start and the overwhelming feel of the city, its map and its ideas and you'll find a game that soars the more time you plough into it.

Newstalk ZB Film Review : Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Newstalk ZB Film Review : Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

This week, it was the review of long titled films.

Under the microscope were Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kung Fu Panda 3 and on DVD The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Take a listen below:

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-batman-v-superman-kung-fu-panda-3-the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2/

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-batman-v-superman-kung-fu-panda-3-the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2/

Just Cause 3:DLC: Sky Fortress PS4 Review

Just Cause 3:DLC: Sky Fortress PS4 Review

Released by Square Enix
Platform: PS4

The first DLC pack for Rico Rodriguez is the aptly titled Air expansion pack, the Sky Fortress.

It's fitting because the rebel spends pretty much most of his time zipping through the air, taking on drones and generally wreaking mayhem.

There's a very loose plot; called in by Sheldon (either mid or post game, it's your choice) Rodriguez is gifted a Bavarium powered jet pack boost to his wing suit following a drone attack. Chasing the drone, he discovers it is part of a wider fleet powered by the eDen corporation which is intent on mining Medici's plentiful Bavarium supplies for its own nefarious ends.

Things are further complicated when a massive airship shows, forcing Rodriguez to the skies to bring them down.

The air expansion pack is a reasonable add on but it lacks a degree of the fluidity of the main game.

The wing suit now becomes slightly defunct as the jet propulsion replaces the element of skill - and even packs in a rocket and shoulder mounted machine gun. It's somewhat tricky to fly properly too and a lot of the sky bound activity saw me grappling for spatial awareness rather than a smooth flight.

Drones line the skies and with drone factories being part of the Sky Fortress it's sensible to try and take them out. Equally, stronger Extractor Drones lurk around, and need despatching with a few well placed shots here and there.

The Fortress is there to be liberated and each section comes with its own challenges once freed, giving you a chance to upgrade the tech you have; and smartly the game's hidden away a few of its chaos objects, so it's not as easy to simply come in, shoot the breeze and head out as it all explodes behind you.

That said it is thrilling to swoop up and down in any degree of situation - if the game hasn't already been completed, one could imagine the edge it would bring.

It's good that this, an unlocked personal drone and a Bavarium tipped gun all carry through to the main game - though even with these advantages, combat on the airship was still a lot trickier than dealing with the general's ground idiots thanks to increased fire power.

Cut scenes are static, echoing the Just Cause comic but removing some of the charm and free wheeling lunacy of the main game. There's a sense of repetition in the tasks on the missions too - essentially clear two halves of the ship of baddies - but there are moments of lunacy too such as when you kick enemies from the sky and tack up impressive distance falls as they plummet to below.

Overall, the first DLC for Just Cause 3 is solid rather than spectacular. Niggly control issues blight the jet pack and make the game's fluidity suffer from sluggishness. There's no denying its fun, but by stripping out some of the more chaotic elements of the main game, the air expansion feels a little tied to the ground ironically rather than something that lives up to its title and soars through the air.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2: Blu Ray Review

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2: Blu Ray Review

Rating:M 
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

The end is nigh for Katniss Everdeen in the final part of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games franchise.

At the end of Mockingjay Part 1, the effects of the revolt were starting to be felt and Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) had found herself an initially unwilling pawn in the face of the Revolution between Panem and the Capitol.

But with President Snow (Sutherland) severely upping the ante in the fight to crush her and with Peeta traumatised, the odds weren't in her favour....

So, deciding once and for all to seize her own destiny and stop being a pawn in a propaganda war, Everdeen sets off to kill Snow and end the conflict.

It gets dark in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.

There's the endless atmosphere of solemnity that hangs over the finale and makes part of it feel like dystopia's been washed over with a relentless grey tone. And it certainly wins the prize for some of the darkest material in a YA series that's been committed to screen; one sequence that demonstrates the horror of war and the lengths rulers will go to to achieve victory stands alone as the blackest witnessed on a screen. (Particularly at a time that terrorism's hit the headlines, viewing this through the prism of Paris is an odd experience)

As ever, Lawrence gives a great turn as the wounded veteran of The Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell  and the ongoing battle to make her the martyr the cause needs; but even she can't sell some of the moments of the story with a surprising emotional scene failing to hit the mark it needed to. There's a grit and determination to Lawrence that's seen her Katniss' resolve evolve through the run of films and there's definitely a feeling of an arc that's been undergone.

Learning from the relative lag of part 1 where there was much talking about a revolution, director Francis Lawrence delivers some great action sequences, chiefly during a Call of Duty: Panem: The Hunger Games version which sees Everdeen and a squadron of troops trying to make their way through a massive minefield. Equally, a tunnel chase section crackles with a kind of claustrophobic horror seen in Aliens and the Resident Evil game and a trap is brilliantly executed earlier on, there are moments that transcend the ongoing debate and ruminations of the effects of war, which are starting to grow weary as the series ends.

Unfortunately, it's not all gold in this Hunger Games film.

Inconsistencies with Josh Hutcherson's Peeta and his post-war behaviour mar parts of the film, and the love triangle that's grown with Liam Hemsworth's Gale and Peeta simply melts away, making your investment in it over the course of four films simply feel limp.

Also, supporting characters get very short shrift as the series wraps up - and at least one death which is supposed to resonate more, fails to generate the required emotive response. Equally, the denouement of the film with its multi-endings feels too quick leaving the conflict way too swiftly given how events have transpired.

The Hunger Games franchise has always worked by way of its dystopian background, its discussion of war propaganda and its examination of people as pawns. There's been plenty of debate throughout the previous films that have coursed richly through this series' veins giving it a more adult feel than simply its love triangle.

That said, it's a shame that despite the darkness, grittiness and endless talk of how war damages our young and the dissection of post traumatic stress syndrome, there is an awfully out of place pat happy ending that feels like Suzanne Collins short-changed her characters' more mournful journey towards salvation.

While the film's to be commended for never sanitising its message and staying true to its series, the overlong The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 certainly lacks the emotional heft a finale should have.

Rating:

Sherpa: Film Review

Sherpa: Film Review

Jennifer Peedom's documentary on the Sherpas and Nepal is inevitably infused with a bittersweet touch, and is a scathing look at the unfolding industrial dispute on Everest.

Armed with a camera crew and with the intention of giving the Sherpas the moment to shine she felt they had been missing all these years, she couldn't have foreseen the tragic events that would brutally interrupt the 2014 climbing season - and after completing editing, the earthquake that struck almost exactly one year on.

However, before the tragedy comes the majesty of the mountain, thanks to opening shots that are pristine and clear and which cauterize the eyes with white. As the wind blows against the Everest that we are so accustomed to, which reaches out into the heavens, it soon becomes clear that the serenity is only in the sky.

In 2013 the discord on the ground threatened to boil over with a fight brewing between the Sherpas and those climbing the mountain being the final straw. It was this in mind, and Peedom's perception that the Sherpa race has been ignored despite doing the majority of the work that set the documentary in motion.

But what emerges from Peedom's utterly thrilling and yet equally sickening piece is the bitter curelty of timing. Against a backdrop of whether the Sherpa are working too hard to capitalise on a season that grants them ten times the average wage and ensures their families have food, nature intervened on 18th April 2014, bringing an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa and setting the debate into a chain of urgency that's as fragile as the snow hanging on the side.

Wisely choosing to follow Phurba Tashi, a Sherpa whose next climb up Everest will mark his 22nd and a world record, as well as Himalayan veteran Russell Brice who carries out commercial ventures with his crew in mind, Peedom's created a documentary that soars as high as Everest itself and scales the heights of cinematic greatness.

It may be concerned with matters thousands of metres above ground, but Peedom's non-intrusive eye keeps our feet squarely on terra firma and deals us with the cold hard facts of the inequality of the sherpas; namely, that they have to travel 30 times a season through a moving ice-fall to ensure that those who've paid the big bucks can make one simple trip to the base camp and summit the top.

Sherpa is never anything less than shocking as it exposes the widening gap between commercial venture and human life and there won't be many who don't fall squarely into the Sherpas' camp after the tragedy unfolds (that an American client claims terrorists have pushed them off the mountain when the Sherpa essentially strike fearing for their lives speaks volumes to their plight and the Western perception of entitlement).

Granted, Peedom's firmly in the Sherpa camp, but even she could have never predicted the sickening urgency that the doco takes when the wall of white comes down (and in its most harrowing moment, covers a camera clearly from the Sherpa team walking the crevices).

Her seamless weaving of the now and then of the Himalayas creates a rich timeline, but never loses its focus on the human faces of what is essentially commercial law. Even the Nepali government gets a serve over their apathy in the face of tourism woes, something this polemic subtly plants in your mind.

The inequality may be a slap in the face to those who remember Tenzing Norgay's smiling face, but by revealing the years that have been cruel to the race after this, Peedom's created something that's sickeningly gripping and viscerally raw from beginning to end - and which captures an unfolding tragedy in an entirely riveting way but which never loses sight of the human cost or gets caught up in the post-tragedy hysteria.

Sherpa is formidable film-making, one whose ending will be changed in light of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake but one whose ethical and moral issues will resonate with many for years to come thanks to Peedom's unswerving eye and concise skill.

It's jaw-dropping stuff, and not always for the reason you'd expect. Unmissable.

Autumn Events Q&A with Bill Gosden

2016 Autumn Events Q&A with Bill Gosden

The Autumn Events kicks off in April; a chance to revel in some of New Zealand's best cinemas and some classics as well as some incredible premieres.
Film Festival director Bill Gosden fronted up ahead of the event.

Welcome back - it feels like we've only just bid farewell to the NZIFF for 2015 - are you excited to be back on the scene and the screen?
You bet. Programming the Embassy, Civic and Regent: what’s not to like?

With bad weather coming, there's no better time to be back in the cinema and some of the main centres' iconic venues - what's been the best film you've ever seen at these venues and why?
Ever is too big a word, but here are three that leap to mind: Elvis, That’s The Way It Is at the Civic; Only Lovers Left Alive at the Embassy; Housebound at The Regent.

It's a great line up again - and you've come with perhaps one of the most anticipated NZ Films of the year in the form of Tickled to open the festival - how does it feel to open with one of your own countrymen's efforts?
Super happy.  Dylan Reeve and David Farrier can be my countrymen any day. There’s something indelibly Kiwi about their refusal to be dazzled by the legal threats flying their way as they press on undaunted to expose “bullies with too much money”.

The premieres proved to be fertile ground in the past - what can you tell us about Where to Invade Next and one of my most anticipated films, The Witch?
The first is Michael Moore’s smartest film ever imho, a feel-good parade of governmental social welfare programmes, represented by some very funny and articulate beneficiaries and proponents. It’s a much saner promotion of democratic principles than beating up corporate flunkies. The Witch is a truly remarkable horror film. It takes its own good time to work its antique black magic, but leaves us drenched in Puritan dread of the devil and his minions.

And it's great to see Amy Berg back after the amazing reception of West of Memphis with Janis: Little Girl Blue...
I understand that Amy has been working on the Joplin documentary for a long time. (It must have provided welcome respite from paedophiles and redneck prosecutors.) She has accumulated a wealth of material, not just the performance footage which remains as thrilling as ever, but the memories of many of those closest to Joplin, and a trove of her personal correspondence.

Animation is always amazing on the big screen; there's something magical about it being at the Civic - tell us why you chose the wonderful Iron Giant to return?
Because, as you said, it’s wonderful!  Sneaking off to see this new, slightly extended cut at Toronto last year was a pleasure I denied myself in deference to the new films on offer, so I am making up for it now. Besides, how many American ‘family’ movies have hipster-artist heroes and dare to say that guns are bad for you?

Is it hard to select the classics? We've got the sumptuous The King and I, Ran, The Philadelphia Story to enjoy on the big screen - do they still give you tingles?
Every one of them.  Watching the restoration of Ran  on a suitably giant screen I wondered why so few filmmakers working on such an epic scale had learnt from Kurosawa’s minimalist use of music and effects.  The chaos unleashed on screen is all the more disturbing for the pin-pointing of particular details in the soundscape and Toru Takemitsu’s  equally Spartan score.

The way that The King and I induces shivers could hardly be more opposite: music to the max. Maybe I’m just looking for a key to unlock the highly misleading intimation of intoxicating grown-up romance provided to my infant self by the cover of the soundtrack LP. It features the iconic moment when the barefoot Yul Brynner and satin-gowned Deborah Kerr begin to dance. Richard Rogers’ score draws a breath then breaks into a gallop, the camera cranes to take in the joyous swirl of movement: I still haven’t figured out if it’s even possible not to swoon.

And Fargo too - it's the film that's made 2 TV Series and is really ultimate Coens - is it still kind of funny looking? 
It should be looking better than ever in the 4K digital restoration. My own favourite Coen Bros movie by far – because Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson  lends it such  generosity.  Only Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski gets close.

Putuparri and the Rainmakers seems like it could be an intriguing journey into a nation's psyche?
And a privileged one.  We see the elders of Putuparri’s tribe discover their ancestral spring in the vastness of Australia’s  Great Sandy Desert, then enact a ritual rainmaking. Putuparri shot this footage 20 years ago, but it’s like seeing something that could have been shot tens of thousands of years earlier. The footage itself became vital evidence in a land rights claim, and the film traces the fortunes of that claim and its impact on three generations of Putuparri’s people.

Stop Making Sense is Talking Heads and a rather classy choice...
Just like an Arts Festival gig: you’ll want to dance but there are seats in the way. Byrne was always such a visual performer and this collaboration between Talking Heads and a little known director by the name of Jonathan Demme upholds its reputation as the perfect concert movie.

The Bolshoi Ballet looks intriguing too - beauty from quite a dark place with the attack on the director?
Now that the Bolshoi Ballet has entered the league of world famous cultural institutions beaming HD performances onto the arthouse screens of the word, this may be the perfect backgrounder. It is as much for Russia watchers as ballet watchers.

And just finally, every year, this question - what's ahead for the NZIFF for 2016? Any chance you're willing to tease some themes of what lies ahead?
We may be close to signing up the year’s most fearless performance by a dog.

Get more info and ticket details at the NZIFF site 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Film Review

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Film Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Diane Lane, Holly Hunter
Director: Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder is not the kind of director who is going to deliver subtly.

And given that, the revelation that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an exercise in wilfull bombast turned up to 11, will come as no surprise to anyone.

In this iconic showdown, served up with hints of foreshadowing and set up, Snyder has served up a film that's indifferent to the cries that haunted Man Of Steel and carried on the idea of spectacle over story, of destruction triumphing once again over coherency.

And yet, as the film begins, delivering, once again, a re-view of how the Bat came to be, the indifference is tempered by the 9/11 allegories, contemporary bombings and allusions that span off from the massive fight with General Zod at the end of Man Of Steel. The ground level view of the fracas is impressive and sets out the film's stall and MO with ease -it is a film of consequence as it starts both Batman and Superman on a collision course with each other.

But this is also a story of guilt, of seething indignation and of cunning, all lassoed together with an all too brief appearance from Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, all lithe kicks and guitar licks when she finally shows.

Affleck surprises as Bruce Wayne, a greyed, chiseled and buffed up Bats, who's wearied by the continuing injustice around him and whose bubbling anger is borne of a desire to protect. Equally, Cavill conveys the gravitas needed as the bell tolls for him in light of his previous actions and the raging public suspicion and debate that this Messiah may just be a naughty boy whose intentions are less than good.

Snyder makes an excellent fist of setting up these character conflicts and uses a nervy wiry Jesse Eisenberg as the puppet master / Joker-esque Lex Luthor to tug at the strings for his own nefarious means. (Even if Eisenberg's twitchy Zuckerberg-lite character is polarising, switching between manic and overly chatty bordering on the intellectual camp of a 60s Bat-villain a la Riddler).

But despite these, Snyder then manages to throw away some of the good intentions by delivering a third act that is just wall to wall OTT extremely loud action sequences that continue to hurtle your way with little coherence, some questionable Uruk Hai CGI and some rote formulaic destruction all thrown in for good measure. Equally, most of the pieces of the film don't fully hang together for non-comic book lovers; sequences that hint at other future events will be lost on those who don't know their comic book lore or casual viewers here for the eye-bruising and unrelentingspectacle.

The film can't also escape some of the weaker trappings of its writing too - conflicts are set up and resolved in the most emotionally unsatisfying of manners (the enmity between Batman and Superman being a major casualty of this) as the wider confines of the DC Universe converge on the bigger screen. The set up is well done and the hints of a greater foundation for the film are laid earlier on but the build up to the main event does well to paper over the disappointment of the ultimate showdown.

All of that taken into consideration, in among all the posturing and the incessant gloom of Metropolis and Gotham, some light emerges.

Jeremy Irons' sardonic Alfred is a highlight - a dismissive and wry sarcasm drips from his every delivery. Laurence Fishburne's Daily Planet editor Perry is a delight, delivering humour where necessary and gravitas when needed - and Amy Adams' Lois Lane is ballsy for the most part, even if she teeters dangerously into damsel-in-distress toward the end. The human elements work well and simply stand to point out the absurdity of the gods-among-us storylines and behaviours.

While there's no doubting that Snyder delivers on spectacle (and certainly with some specially shot IMAX pieces effectively utilising all of the screen) and on bombast (a great soundtrack is blasted into overdrive), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice simply becomes another one of those dour superhero films that relies on a formulaic end to service all but its fans. And it's a crippling shame there's no more of Diana Price - her appearance both in and out of costume gives the film a sparkle it needs to take it away from the pomposity it borders on.

It's a sprawling story that somehow manages to feel both over-stuffed and under-explored, and a film which has great ambitions but ends up feeling too long and with sections that struggle with incoherence to the casual viewer. There's no doubting fans will enjoy the spectacle and there are plenty of moments if you're a comic book fan, but all in all, while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is perfectly serviceable, it probably will stand better on re-appraisal after the other films in the imminent franchise have launched.