Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom: PS4 Review

Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Developer: Koei Tecmo

Manga series Attack on Titan is phenomenally popular.

Based on the story of a group of fighters taking on monsters who invade their land (a sort of giants vs humans tale), Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom is a re-telling of the first season of the anime which has been made into 2 live action films.

Following the pace and action of the series, Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom: follows fan favourites Eren, Mikasa as they try to defend their town from the rampaging giants who are determined to break down the walls and bite their heads off.

Coming in 3 different sizes and with a couple of different classes, the Titans are a heady and overwhelming bunch to take down initially. Firing Spider-man style metal wires catapults you through the air toward  your prey at speed and then once your focus is on certain areas, a perfectly timed pressing of one button will subjugate them and see you scoring points.

It's quite difficult to master the controls during the tutorial of the game, but once you find the rhythm it becomes second nature as you flit between Eren and Mikasa on the battlefield with the rest of the 104th battalion whose MO is to defend homes and avenge lost loved ones.

Powering up is always recommended as well. Slaying some Titans will see materials dropped and this can help with the upgrades. The Titan-slaying gear; the Omni-Directional Manoeuver Gear, blades, and scabbard can be enhanced at the camp between missions on Single and Multiplayer modes, improving movement speed, blade durability and improved anchors to improve their chances against the Titans.

From there, the game is a repetition of battles in different environments as the gang rush to defend bases or each other in the wake of the Titans' attacks. It's eerily addictive once you're into it, and while the Japanese language and English subtitles unfortunately cause a real distraction on screen while you're in the middle of a battle, most of what transpires is beautifully fluid and compulsively easy when you get a rhythm going.

Precision is the name of the game - one wrong move can see a Titan grab you in conflict and squeeze the life from you. But equally, when there are several Titans in an attack on screen, the focus can be difficult and often saw Eren attacking the wrong one, meaning conflict was unnecessarily longer than it should be.

The campaign levels bring a variety that make Attack on Titan Wings of Freedom worth pursuing and some side expedition missions add a frisson of extra short burst thrills. Flying through the air and being covered in Titan blood may sound gory, but this really does capture some of the excitement of the Manga series and may prove a great jumping in point for newbies.

All in all, Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom is perhaps one of the bigger surprises of the gaming year. It may not be perfect in some ways thanks to occasionally interrupted combat and stilted forced interactions between characters, but when you're soaring through the air in battle, it's thrilling and original.

The Secret Life Of Pets: Film Review

The Secret Life Of Pets: Film Review

Vocal cast: Louis CK, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Kevin Hart, Ellie Kemper
Director: Yarrow Cheney, Chris Renaud

It's the eternal question of every pet owner - what do your animals do during the day while you're out?

While the reality is potentially a tad dull (clever money is on sleeping and eating), animation house Illumination's The Secret Life Of Pets posits the theory that they have great adventures.

Set in New York, it's the story of terrier Max (Louis CK), who believes he's the luckiest dog in the city, thanks to the bond he shares with his owner Katie. But when Katie brings home a new dog in the form of Duke (Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet), Max finds his world upended. Determined to be top dog, Max tries to lose Duke on the streets; however, it goes wrong when the duo lose their collars and end up in the grips of animal control...

Essentially as light and fluffy as the animals within, The Secret Life Of Pets is a fairly safe, solid bet for some family entertainment at the movies.

If you're after deep emotional connection with the furries on display here a la The Incredible Journey, then you're looking in the wrong place.

Packed full of sight gags, some cinematic references and a gratuitous plug for upcoming Illumination flick Sing (seriously, subtle is not the place for Illumination) The Secret Life Of Pets is a singular story stretched a little thin in parts across New York and Brooklyn, but still likely to amuse its core audience.

While the dogs have it ruff (sorry) in the film, and there are elements of Toy Story / only child syndrome at play here, the focus is solely on providing visual gags, some laughs and a degree of insight into pet owners and their pride and joy.

Leading large parts of the laughs is a psycho bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) the leader of the Flushed Pets, a group of abandoned animals. For once Hart's OTT delivery and lunatic edges are perfectly suited to the white ball of fluff on the screen.

While some may cry there could have been a touch more innovation in the story (it's a tried and tested formula complete with tragic back-story for the abandoned animals) and that the film wears its influences on its sleeve (an Alien gag, a Lost World cracking windscreen, Puss in Boots cute eyes, some Looney Tunes moments), The Secret Life Of Pets proffers up as fun and fluffy a piece of entertainment as the cast of critters within.

Granted, it's instantly forgettable as it races through its zany pace and some of the best gags were spooled out in the trailer that showed the animals kicking back when the owners leave, but The Secret Life Of Pets is a furry family sized piece of entertainment that won't melt your heart with its emotional journey, but will see you leaving the cinema with a renewed fervour for your own animals.

Ride Along 2: DVD Review

Ride Along 2: DVD Review

Released by Universal Home Ent

Following the massive success of 2014's Ride Along, it was inevitable the sequel would show.

In the latest to toy with the mismatched buddy cop dynamic, Hart's Ben Barber remains a cop on probation, despite his dream to make detective. When Ice Cube's James is asked by his sister, Ben's fiancee, to take him to Miami ahead of his wedding on a lead in a drug-ring case, James begrudgingly accepts.

Following leads in the party town brings the less-than-dynamic-duo to computer hacker AJ (Community and The Hangover star Ken Jeong) who reveals that a local businessman is behind the ring and corruption is rife.

Tagging along with Olivia Munn's no time-wasting homicide cop Maya, Ben and James soon find themselves knee deep in trouble...

Flat and lifeless (with a bizarrely suspense and action-free pre-credits sequence), Ride Along 2's script is muted; an almost bizarre juxtaposition to the flashy, trashy exterior shots in Miami that pepper most of the film. (Complete with writhing bikini bods for the more puerile members of the audience).

From banal bickering between the pair to banter so inane from the "comedy" motormouth Kevin Hart it makes you want to pull your brain out through your nose (in case you forgot to check it at the door), Ride Along 2 simply grates.

Trying to replicate the buddy cop genre and ripping off parts of a Lethal Weapon film with its protect the rat storyline, this tired film lacks any pizzazz thanks to its over-scripted dialogue.
Ice Cube strives for straight arrow to Hart's incessantly chatting; with all his scowling and talk of the Po-lease, the script fails to hit any beat, even when Hart's Ben is proved right and the incompetent foolish Ben is given a few moments here and there to shine.

The one time the film has some natural charm is toward the end during a wedding sequence that showcases the brother-in-law family vibe to better effect rather than the film's detriment and proves that a less strictly enforced script and looser attitude would have benefited it greatly.

Olivia Munn's fairly wasted as a ball-breaker cop whose pristine business veneer shatters when Cube's cop asks her to the wedding (cos you know, women just go weak for lurve stuff) and Bratt musters enough slime as the suave corrupt rat. But it's Jeong who shows a bit more range in the Joe Pesci role going for more dramatic before resorting to his trademark shrieking.

Story keeps proceedings on the straight and narrow with only one sign of directorial flair - the chase sequence in Miami, which is brought to life through Ben's Grand Theft Auto game obsession and becomes a race of pixels rather than the tired usual tropes of cars thudding into each other.

In one sequence, Ice Cube's James intones to Hart's Ben "Do you even listen to some of the sh*t that comes out of your mouth?" and somehow manages to encapsulate how the audience will feel as this tired unoriginal sequel plays out. Equally, when AJ forces Ben to eat food from a trashcan, again there's a feeling that the audience will associate with this regurgitated fare that sticks in your craw.

Sure, Ride Along 2 ain't exactly striving for Shakespearean heights, but in its quest to provide something formulaic, it ends up unlikely to stand out from the masses. Depressingly, this is the film which beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the US Box office, so a third outing seems more than likely - but frankly, this is one ride that deserves stopping so we can all get off.

Newstalk ZB Review: Sully, Sausage Party and Captain America: Civil War

Newstalk ZB Review: Sully, Sausage Party and Captain America: Civil War

This week on ZB, Kerre McIvor stepped in and we had a chat about Sully, Sausage Party and Captain America.

Take a listen below

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-sully-sausage-party-and-captain-america-civil-war/

A Bigger Splash: DVD Review

A Bigger Splash: DVD Review

There's nothing worse than a gatecrasher.

And in I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino's latest, a remake of the French 1969 thriller La Piscine, even though the gate-crasher is a tremendous Ralph Fiennes, the after effects of this arrival fail to really lift the so-called sexual thriller.

Swinton is Marianne Lane, a Bowie-esque rock singer, who's recuperating from throat surgery that's rendered her all but mute. While she's factored in some serious R&R with her current beau, Paul (a wearied and disconnected Schoenaerts), the peace is rudely shattered by the arrival of Lane's former manager and one time lover Harry (Fiennes), who shows with his newly-discovered daughter Penny (50 Shades of Grey's Dakota Johnson) in tow.

And it's not just the fragile peace that's ripped asunder with this visit, as old feelings between Lane and Harry simmer away; coupled with the Lolita-esque trappings of Penny as she eyes up Paul, nothing will ever be the same again.

It may be beautifully shot and evocatively dressed in the Italian countryside but Gaudagnino's latest is nothing more than an arthouse snooze-fest that does little to indulge the brain as much as it does to indulge the senses.

It's fair to say that were it not for Fiennes' overly boisterous and frequently hilarious (not to mention constantly naked) performance, A Bigger Splash would fall considerably flatter than it does.

Fiennes breathes life into the relative caricature of the man whose dancing to the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue proves that he does indeed have the moves like Jagger - albeit on the dad front. But Fiennes brings a positively lustrous and infectious energy to the screen that's missing when he's not there.

Swinton's a degree of class, giving her relatively mute songstress a sophistication that's needed and she manages to do so much with so little; equally, Johnson proves to have some cinematic balls giving her Penny the dangerous edge of flirtation that comes so often on holiday.

Unfortunately, Schoenaerts has neither the lustre or life to bring anything to the table as the damaged Paul - even in flashbacks, where Swinton's character comes alive, he brings hardly anything to the table, which ensures the denouement of this so called Dangerous Liaisons piece is lacking the emotional intensity which is required to ignite the powderkeg that's supposed to have been smouldering.

Instead, it's a damp fizzer of a film, that wallows wilfully and indulgently in its arthouse trappings and rarely rises above its jealousy soaked aspirations.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: PS4 Review

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: PS4 Review

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Platform: PS4

Mixing Metal Gear Solid with cybernetics seems a good and heady combination for Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

Tapping into a healthy mistrust of the machines and their augmented place in society, the follow up to Deus Ex Human Revolution is a thrilling trip into the day after tomorrow world ethos with Adam Jensen.

Set in the year 2029, Jensen's part of an anti-terrorist group deployed to deal with a clutch of augmented terrorists threatening the fragile peace. But Jensen also has a side mission to crack the conspiracy rippling through the augmented world and the shadowy cabal controlling things.

With a series of others to negotiate a way through and no-one seeming exactly who they are, the world set up is a perfect one. And it's well complemented by the levels of enhancement that Jensen goes through and the weaponry he can use to help instigate a stealthy takedown here and there.

From augmented vision to powerful deployment of a cybernetic arm, there are plenty of skills to master as the game plays out and these can be used in ways that may surprise. Plus, combined with the fact that missions don't have to be done a certain way adds to the clever touches of the game - and it's certainly enough to push re-playability as you power through the narrative.

Deploying cover moves, working sensibly to take down enemies and generally having to think a little ahead is fairly de rigeur for games of this ilk, but Deus Ex: Mankind Divided makes it simple to execute and rewarding when it pays off.

Ultimately Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an exciting addition to the Deus Ex series and one that works well with its Prague set storyline of oppression and mechanical apartheid. Equally, its crisp visuals and eye-popping worlds make it visually worthwhile to wile away the hours - there's a real Blade Runner-esque quality to parts of this game.

Simply put, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is well worth investing your time in; along with an online competitive mode Breach, there's more than enough to capture your attention and more than enough proof this series still has much further to go.

Sherpa: DVD Review

Sherpa: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Transmission Home Ent

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.