Newstalk ZB Review - The Accountant, Hacksaw Ridge and The Light Between Oceans

Newstalk ZB Review - The Accountant, Hacksaw Ridge and The Light Between Oceans

This week, while Jack Tame was in the USA getting ready for Trump-ageddon, there was time to look at movie releases and potential relief.

Up for discussion is Ben Affleck in The Accountant, Mel Gibson's war epic Hacksaw Ridge and NZ shot The Light Between Oceans.

Take a listen below:

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-the-accountant-hacksaw-ridge/

Batman: Arkham VR: PS4 Review

Batman: Arkham VR: PS4 Review

Developed by Rocksteady Games
Platform: PS4 VR

Hands down perhaps the closest thing PlayStation's released for the VR that is more than just an experience, Batman Arkham VR is a credit to Rocksteady's dealing with the franchise.

Completely immersive and utterly thrilling, the game puts you in the cowl and boots of the Bat (literally in the case of the cowl) and gets you into the world of Gotham like never before.

Following Bats through one Dark (K)night of the soul, it's a clever spin to get you around Gotham and meeting up with some of the Bat's most famous faces. It all begins with a flashback (which we've all seen time and time again) and a chain of events that put other things in motion.

But the thrill of Batman Arkham VR is the level of immersion that Rocksteady and the VR headset brings to you. From initially putting it on and getting calibrated, the game plunges you into the world of WayneTech and the excitement of transitioning from Bruce Wayne to Batman.

From grabbing a Batarang and hurling it around the Bat-cave with the use of Move controllers (which never gets tiring) to using the Batclaw and a scanning device at the side of your belt, this is a game that literally lets you become the bat.

Using the trigger motions of the Move Controllers, you can move from point to point in scenes and get into the story that way. With a floating hand (the only visual downside to this game) you can fire up the Batcomputer and dig into the story - it's totally immersive in a deeply satisfying way.

Interestingly, the only portion of the Bat world not fully explored is the vehicular side of Batman - there's no hurtling around in the Batmobile early on; everything is done via a cut-scene fade and may be a reaction to nausea hitting parts of the motion games of VR. It's a minor niggle that sort of takes you out of the full experience created by Rocksteady, but it is one that stands out.

Attention to detail is prevalent here - from the detail within the Bat-cave to the grime and grit of Gotham's seedy streets, just looking around gives a real tingle down your neck. The depth of the world is incredible and while it's perhaps a little off-putting that you simply can't fly off into the night, the scenery is well-worth taking in and shows that immersiveness is a real boon to this hybrid of experience and game.

It's perhaps prescient that so much of the VR takes in so much of the tech and deploys it so well, as this is what the headset does completely. In reality, you don a mask to don the virtual mask of the Bat - the synergy is impressive and the final result is nothing short of sensational.

Ultimately, Batman: Arkham VR is a great experience and demonstrator of what the VR simulations can do - it'll add weight greatly to the reveal of the tech and lend credence to the start of the pathway to a totally original and 360 degree gaming experience.

First look: T2 Trainspotting trailer

First look: T2 Trainspotting trailer

Here's your first look at the full T2 Trainspotting trailer which has premiered overnight.

Featuring the return of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie et al, the gang's back in the T2 film which hits cinemas next year!

First Wonder Woman trailer drops

First Wonder Woman trailer drops

Here's your first look at the brand new Wonder Woman trailer.

Featuring Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, the trailer's one of the most hotly anticipated of the year after her very first appearance alongside Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in Batman v Superman

Doctor Who Power of the Daleks hits cinemas

Doctor Who Power of the Daleks hits cinemas

A special cinema event in New Zealand from Saturday 12 November

Featuring Patrick Troughton’s debut as the Doctor BBC Worldwide ANZ and Rialto Cinemas today announced a limited-run theatrical screening of Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks animated series from Saturday 12 November for one week only.

 The cinema event will also feature exclusive bonus content including interviews with members of the original cast. Fans throughout New Zealand will be able to enjoy the event in select Rialto Cinemas.

Tickets for Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks can be purchased by visiting www.rialto.co.nz for further information on participating cinemas, or at the cinema box offices.

 The Power of the Daleks is one of the most celebrated Doctor Who adventures, and yet no complete film recordings are known to have survived. The master negatives were destroyed in an archive purge in 1974. This brand new animation, being released 50 years after its only UK broadcast, is based on the programme’s original audio recordings, surviving photographs, and film clips. 

The six- part adventure features the regeneration - or as it was then called “renewal” - of First Doctor, William Hartnell, into Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and follows the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) as they do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

“This is a great opportunity for Doctor Who fans to see all six-parts of Power of the Daleks brought to life using modern animation techniques, and to experience this as a shared event,” said Louise Hill, Live Entertainment Executive for BBC Worldwide ANZ. Kevin Gordon, Rialto Distribution Sales Manager, said: “This will be a landmark event in the world of Doctor Who, and we are hugely excited for Kiwi fans to discover the iconic lost episodes on the big screen.” Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks is produced and directed by Charles Norton, with character designs from acclaimed comic book artists Martin Geraghty and Adrian Salmon.

Arrival: Film Review

Arrival: Film Review

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Director: Denis Villeneuve

Director Denis Villeneuve returns with a masterfully heady mystery puzzle box film that's simultaneously a slice of sci-fi but also a meditation on love and communication.

Amy Adams is linguistics Professor Louise Banks, who's called in to help the army when a series of giant objects (12 in total) touch down around the world in a first contact situation. As various superpowers scramble both their weaponry and experts to work out what's wanted, Banks and a team work with their alien visitors to try and crack the code.

But with escalating tension and paranoia, is the world about to be pushed to the limit and react in a way that's apocalyptic?

As usual, Villeneuve brings his eye for suspense and teetering edge of your seat moments with measured and controlled story-telling that appears to be in no rush to reveal its hand.

Eloquently and elegantly shot with some impressive cinematography and an atmosphere of brooding, Arrival is both reverent of its genres and simultaneously new as well. With the language of the heptapod visitors expressed in inky black circles, the film exudes a rudimentary look that's compelling as it plays out. Equally, the soundscape created in the creatures' inner sanctum is audacious and embracing, giving a feeling of the other-worldly as well.

But Incendies, Enemy, Sicario and Prisoners director Villeneuve is never in any rush to hurry along the proceedings, preferring to use long slow shots to build elements of uncertainty and foreboding - it's easy to see why the anticipation is so delicious throughout. It may be based on the short story "Story of Your Life" and straddled with sci fi tropes (mysterious obelisks et al), but it becomes its own beast. (Though a visual nod to another of Villeneuve's films' ending Enemy is perhaps a moment and an Easter Egg only connoisseurs of his films will appreciate)

Stripped of its sci-fi elements and the rather cliched Chinese super-power meltdown / human panic, Arrival is at its heart a meditation on love and language, as well as communication, that's difficult to discuss without spoilers.

Anchored by an impressive Adams who imbues the film with an earthiness that's needed and a fragility that's obvious as her story plays out, it's a trip that's masterful in its execution and gripping in equal measure.

The star of the piece though is once again Villeneuve. As with previous ventures (Sicario, Incendies, Enemy and Prisoners), he demonstrates great flair in adapting the short Story of Your Life novella and turning it into an exercise in anticipation that never manages to over-stay its welcome, and imbues the genre with a freshness that's both reverential and feeling new. Whether it's stretching out Banks' first meeting with the heptapod aliens in an audacious sequence that grips and gives you a sense of the fear, excitement and trepidation that Banks must be feeling.

Ultimately, Arrival does concern itself with aliens and their appearance, but its themes are predominantly more human as it loops around its timelines in its Ouroboros way; love, language, connection, fate and the propensity to take a chance on what's potentially ahead. They're not new themes in the sci-fi world, but they're certainly given a fresh inventiveness and a polish that renders them compelling, intriguing and palpably exciting.

Driveclub VR: PS4 Review

Driveclub VR: PS4 Review

Platform: PSVR

I'd love to be able to review Driveclub VR for you.

But, after 2 laps of the game, with its usual super visuals and incredible detailed sense of the cars and the world around, the arcade nature of the game actually induced horrific nausea as the motion sickness kicked in.

It's a shame, as the visuals of the game are mightily impressive - before you've even started the racing, the fact you can look all around your car shows how much scope there is here.

But ultimately, I couldn't help but nearly blow chunks as I stopped the game midway through its first race.