Gather Key Intel for Your Squad at the New Official Website for Valkyria Chronicles 4

Gather Key Intel for Your Squad at the New Official Website for Valkyria Chronicles 4

Gather Key Intel for Your Squad at the New Official Website for Valkyria Chronicles 4

Get briefed on the state of the war, character bios, system overviews, and combat class introductions

Sydney, Australia – 16^th March, 2018 - Valkyria Chronicles 4 won't be ready for action in Australia until this spring, but it's never too early to start preparing for the intense battles and bitter snowstorms deep within the Autocratic Eastern Imperial Alliance's borders. Study informative dossiers to get to know First Lieutenant Claude Wallace and his key allies (and enemies) across the Federation and Imperial armies. Or, you could take in the breath-taking sights of the flower-dotted plains of Western Europa and the frigid tundra of Eastern Europa, presented in gorgeous watercolour detail by the CANVAS Engine. You can even learn about each of the class types available in Valkyria Chronicles 4, including the brand-new siege-based class, Grenadiers! Check out the full site by visiting this link.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 Features:

• A Coming-of-Age Story in a Time of War - Valkyria Chronicles 4 takes place in the same timeframe as the original Valkyria Chronicles, but focuses on a whole new cast of main characters. Players will take command of the eager, young Commander Claude Wallace, engineer/heavy weapons extraordinaire Riley Miller, hotheaded Darcsen Raz, ice-cold ace sniper Kai Schulen, and more. Together, they will experience the painful realities of war--but will the bonds of Squad E's friendships survive the frozen battlefield? 

• The Next Generation "BLiTZ" Battle System - The part overhead turn-based strategy, part RPG, and part real-time 3rd person shooter "BLiTZ" battle system returns to the field. New features include an explosive new class called the Grenadier, numerous offensive/defensive battleship support options, chances for a unit to have a "Last Stand" action before death, and more. Plus, fight the imperial threat with more units on larger-scale maps than ever before.

• CANVAS Aesthetics - The series' signature hand-drawn visual style is back and overhauled for the newest generation. Inspired by watercolour compositions, the CANVAS Graphics Engine blends visual elements of reality and imagination to create an expressive world filled with colourful emotions. Watch the journey of Squad E unfold like an interactive painting!

• The Return of a Legendary Composer - The illustrious Hitoshi Sakimoto, original composer of the Valkyria Chronicles series and countless other emotional epics, returns to provide a sweeping orchestral score for Valkyria Chronicles 4.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 will be available on PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch™ and Xbox One™ platforms in Australia in spring 2018. Please visit the official website for more information: http://valkyria.sega.com/.

Learn about the inspirations behind Valkyria Chronicles 4 and the story in the announcement trailer!

Professor Marston and The Wonder Women: DVD Review

Professor Marston and The Wonder Women: DVD Review

Feeling more like an episode of Masters Of Sex, with some kinkiness thrown in as well, it's no surprise that Professor Marston and The Wonder Women releases the same week as Justice League.

Centring on Evans' Professor William Marston aka the man who created the Wonder Woman comic and his wife Elizabeth (Hall), Professor Marston and The Wonder Women details how the renowned psychologist developed the feminist comic in the 1940s.

While lecturing at Harvard, Bella Heathcote's Olive Byrne catches the eye of William and his wife, and she's invited to join them in an intellectual three-way as he looks to develop the lie detector.

Frustrated at his lack of breakthrough, and with his wife unable to secure a PHD from anywhere, the two find their energy centred and re-focused with the introduction of Olive - not to mention, an attraction as well.

Professor Marston and The Wonder Women is a curious film, one which takes the time to build up the central relationship and dynamic of the trio, but falters at anything else outside of it.

Beginning with Marston facing a 1940s panel chaired by Connie Britton's Josette Frank who's unhappy about the content of the Wonder Woman comic, the film flashes back to the development of the relationship and as a result, the film's raison d'etre seems to slightly suffer in the process.

Perhaps it's due to an expectation of the Wonder Woman side of things garnering attention, but in truth, the germ of the idea that comes late in the piece feels a little rushed and the outrage which sees people collecting and burning the comics feels piecemeal and under-developed.

Far more successful is the examination of the trio, the introduction of bondage and the embracing of the polygamy side of things (even if questions from the children don't appear and a stereotyped neighbourhood brawl feels more perfunctory than anything) serves the film better.

Central to proceedings is Heathcote's mix of innocence and desire. Her Olive, even if she does appear to be channeling a younger Heather Graham in looks, adds much to the yearning among the learning atmosphere that writer / director Robinson seeks to build.

The societal clashes rear their head late in the piece, and as the comic house of cards begins to collapse and the relationship falters, you genuinely feel for the trio and feel the accusations sting that others hurl at them.

Ultimately, Professor Marston and The Wonder Women is beautifully shot and offers up some stellar performances from the central trio, but its lasso of truth tends to loosen when it casts itself wider and tries to latch on to anything else which isn't related to them.

Society may have the ties that bind in Professor Marston and The Wonder Women, but the way the stories loosens itself from the shackles of Hollywood's more traditional trysts and tropes gives it a sensitivity that's hard to ignore, an eroticism which is occasionally contagious and a narrative that intrigues deeply. 

Tomb Raider: Film Review

Tomb Raider: Film Review

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Kristen Scott Thomas, Daniel Wu
Director: Roar Uthaug

Tomb Raider has two things going for it.

Thankfully, it's not the pendulous breasts bestowed on the first iteration of one of gaming's earliest icons that gave the character the notoriety and various lads' mags covers in the UK.

Its two things of note are Academy award winning actress Alicia Vikander's committed performance and the fact some of its action scenes are drawn from the gritty and immersive game reboot from 2013.

But, sadly it's what lies in between that saddles Tomb Raider with problems and ends up leaving you feeling that this film may be the Tomb Raider's flash in the pan (even though, Vikander's signed up for a sequel).

Rejigging plot from the 2013 game, Vikander is Lara Croft, heir to a fortune, but who's denying that because it means admitting her father (Dominic West) is dead, after he went missing seven years ago.

When she stumbles across a series of clues that apparently lead to his last whereabouts, Lara charters a boat, along with its captain Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) who was the last man to see him.

But the pair stumble onto an island, barely surviving a storm and treacherous seas, where a deeper conspiracy begins to unfurl...one which has the Crofts squarely in the middle of it.

The problem with the 2018 reboot of Tomb Raider is that it largely feels like it's trying to set up a franchise, rather than concentrating fully on doing its job properly.

Lara Croft herself benefits from the reboot, with Vikander nailing both the vulnerability and relatability that the game's reboot endowed her with, and that was so lacking in Angelina Jolie's performance.

An animated Vikander commits fully to the role; whether it's the action sequences (ripped faithfully and reverentially from the game) or the lacklustre dialogue and plot she's saddled with.

The film's lack of engaging success is not down to her - she's the best thing about this female-led blockbuster, that lacks a romantic interest or bizarrely, any other women. She has degrees of depth (especially when she makes her first hand-to-hand kill), and a frailty that the game's Croft had. Coupled with a sense of her finding herself and her place in the world, Vikander can hold her head up high and bat away the oncoming criticism.

However, it's in the other elements that Tomb Raider feels as hoary as a ripped off Indiana Jones film ever could.

Uthaug launches the film with energy and gusto until the island chases and fights rear their head, with the wind going out of the sails the moment the adventure's supposed to start.

From clunky narrative coincidences to an over-reliance on flashbacks between Croft and her dad, from an overuse of voiceover as exposition to barely enough plot to fill the two hour run time, the film squanders some of its chances.


It's not helped by one dimensional henchmen and a weak overall villain (Walton Goggins) who's never really given the chance to cut loose as much as he could.

The conclusion of the film feels anti-climactic, a rote redoing of all the usual tropes of the genre, meshing up The Mummy, zombies, and fights that leaves you feeling as much deja vu as wishing there had been some buried treasure unearthed in the plot department rather than relying on what's been buried in a tomb.

The visceral edges which channel the very best of the game's reboot, coupled with the fact it's a female-led film with an Asian sidekick means that Tomb Raider is doing some things right as it launches in an ever-changing media landscape.

But underneath the spit and polish of the regeneration, there's a nagging feeling that what passes in Tomb Raider is all too familiar - and as a conclusion cliffhanger dangles perilously in front of your very eyes, there's a worry that the bloodless, lacking-real-edge Tomb Raider reboot may be consigned to history, rather than launching a series of ever-more impressive sequels.

Blade of The Immortal: DVD Review

Blade of The Immortal: DVD Review

For his 100th feature, director Miike Takeshi has reached for the epic, and ended up in the cartoonish.

With plenty of choreographed samurai mayhem and blood and slicing a-plenty, it's the story of Kimura Takuya's Manji. Manji's cursed to live as an immortal after being healed by a witch following a fight to take down those who killed his sister in front of him.

Opening with a 11 minute pre-titles sequence that sets the stall out with gusto (fights and humour, including a line about how something's not a rice ball, but a horse turd), give you an indication of what lies ahead in this 141 minute film. Though, as the film goes on, it does feel like it needs more of this.

Hired years later as a bodyguard to someone called Rin who looks uncannily like his sister, Manji has to slice and dice his way through retribution, conspiracy, revenge and superstition.

Based on a Manga series and with an ethos that's more crowd-pleasing than arthouse fare, Blade of The Immortal is a film to wallow in rather than to over-analyse.

In many ways, Miike's 100th film is a traditional film; one with minimal dialogue that concentrates on the action and gives those who love the genre exactly what they'd want - and more.

A little long in the tooth in parts and with perhaps one too many slow narrative bits to balance out the action, it's more a film of atmospherics that genre fans will lap up and adore, rather than attracting new admirers to the cause.

But its ethos of revenge and vengeance is a universal one to savour and Miike's desire to expertly capture everything as it unfolds means that it's certainly going to have a cult appeal and be adored by those who already love the genre. 

Red Sparrow: Film Review

Red Sparrow: Film Review

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, Joely Richardson
Director: Francis Lawrence

Based on the first of Jason Matthews' trilogy of books, Red Sparrow unfortunately struggles to make a real case for further escapades to be filmed.

Lawrence stars as ballet star Dominika Egrova, whose career is cut short by a tragic accident - though it seems suspicious, the first of Red Sparrow's weaker attempts to set up ongoing mystery and subterfuge.

When her shady uncle (Schoenaerts, surely no coincidence that he looks like Putin with his pushed down hair and pallid complex) approaches her offering a chance of money, she's thrust into the world of espionage, via way of training in Sparrow school.

Headed by Rampling's icy matron, Sparrow school dehumanises its subjects and teaches them to use themselves as weapons in the fight for the motherland and against the invaders.

Soon, Dominika is assigned her first task - to infiltrate Joel Edgerton's CIA Agent Nate Nash's world as part of an international sting.

Extraordinarily stretched out into an over-long 135 minutes, Red Sparrow struggles to engage from the get go.

When viewed through the current prism of social concerns, it's a queasy watch with Lawrence's character feeling manipulated throughout, even though there's talk of her having free will to decide what to do.

It's never the case though, and with men who are varying degrees of creeps pulling the strings and sexually manipulating her, it's an odd feeling to sit through. It helps little that Lawrence delivers a cool, fierce and detached turn, with her aloofness proving as hard to thaw as the Russian snow which peppers some of the shots.

There's a steely feel to Lawrence's performance throughout, and in some ways, it's about a woman learning about control and growing, but it doesn't stop it feel less uncomfortable as time goes on. And while the end twists hint at more, the barbed treatment throughout makes it a difficult watch.

Edgerton has a grounded humanity to his role, but he and Lawrence fail to fire up the screen and consequently, parts of Red Sparrow feel robbed of the push and pull and tension that a good, gritty complex spy thriller should impart.

There are moments of good characters which shine through - Rampling's stoic turn in particular stands out, and there's a feeling of nuance and backstory which could easily lead to more.

Ultimately, the anti-climactic end of the Red Sparrow throws a shed-load of plot at frustrated and numbed viewers. While it doesn't pander to basil exposition to engage its audience, and tries for complex, what evolves is more muddled and muddied than anything.

My Life as a Zucchini: Blu Ray Review

My Life as a Zucchini: Blu Ray Review

Released by Madman Home Ent

Blessed with both poignancy and occasional humour,Claude Barras’s layered stop-motion drama My Life As A Zucchini is the sadly, nuanced and yet optimistic animated treat that you'd expect from the festival.

It's the story of Icare, or Courgette, as he'd rather be known. Living in his attic and collecting his bitter single mother's beer cans, tragedy befalls Courgette and he's sent to the local orphanage.

Befriended by the local policeman Raymond, Courgette tries to fit in with the other kids there. But it's not until the arrival of Camille that he starts to come to life.

Bathed in tragedy and with more darkness than you'd expect (murder suicide, abandonment, jailed parents, refugees, neglect) the gorgeously animated claymation film is a bittersweet treat.

There's an underlying sadness running through its veins that makes My Life As A Courgette the story of an orphan that has more in it than Oliver.

Odd lines here and there offer more than hints of the uncertain life faced by the older orphans (one opines that no one looks at the older children) and the hope they all have each time someone visits - it's heartbreaking stuff writ large on a wider canvas and yet, for family viewing, it's a sign that not every animation is rosy.

And yet in among the darkness, there's a playfulness at work too with the happier moments feeling like small victories in the day-to-day loneliness. Plus, it helps that Barras has made sure the adults in charge at the orphanage are actually normal, rather than the usual caricatures of nastiness.

There are plenty of adult touches and less rose-tinted glasses throughout, but the film never loses sight of the fact it's there to entertain as well.

A detour to the snow brings joy and frivolity to proceedings, and the sense of camaraderie is evident. With a luscious colour palette, the film looks great and yet also different with hues and animation feeling a little different from the norm.

Ultimately, My Life As A Courgette is a Euro treat that hints at much more adult and tragedy than you'd expect. But it does it in a way that never rams home the message but delivers it in the most powerful way it could. 

The Death of Stalin: Film Review

The Death of Stalin: Film Review

Cast: Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Adrian McLoughlin, Jason Isaacs, Paddy Considine, Olga Kurylenko, Paul Whitehouse
Director: Armando Iannucci

Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Veep and The Thick Of It writer Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin is very much of the ilk of the TV series you'll be familiar with.

With Stalin's dictatorship in full force with hitlists being undertaken, fear rules Moscow in 1953.

No more so than in the echelons of power and the cabal that surrounds Stalin himself, thanks to his push of the Great Terror.

But when Stalin collapses and dies after receiving a recording of a symphony, the power vacuum that opens up sees years of fear and repression bubble over as his deputy Malenkov (Transparent former star Tambor) readies himself to take over.

However, he's not alone with NKVD head Beria (Beale) and Nikita Khruschev (Buscemi) scheming for the top job.

There's a level of absurdity obvious from the start in The Death of Stalin - and one which will feel very familiar to anyone who's sat through any of Iannucci's other satires, as those with inflated senses of power try to manipulate the deck chairs to their own benefit, and end up being hoist on their own petard.

However, as the madness and meanness grows in The Death of Stalin, Iannucci makes it difficult to empathise with any of those on screen, as the argument over which regime is better to follow comes to the fore. Which is no bad thing, as tragedy mixes along with some darkness.

At some point in The Death of Stalin, the jokes, such as they are, run dry and what you're left with is the horrible realisation that all of these people are monsters, desperate and determined to vault over each other via the knives recently supplanted in others' backs.

Farce takes place amid the backdrop of people being shot in the head, children raped - it all leaves a tartly depressing taste in your mouth.

This is gallows humour where actual gallows are more likely to be employed throughout, leading to a feeling of bleakness among the mirth, and one which at times, threatens to overwhelm the screen and your gut reaction to it.

Threaded through are the kind of intellectual superiority games which swirled in Yes Minister and the incessant political squawking and squabbling that Iannucci employs in The Thick of It, with Beale feeling very much like the manipulative Malcolm Tuicker in a historical role.

Allowing the actors to use their own accents and playing skewed versions of their characters (Isaacs in particular appears to have a ball playing Zhukov as a northern rough and tumble thug via a Sean Bean prism) proves to give the film a humanity that it needs.

It's not as gut-bustingly laugh-out-loud funny as you'd expect, but the underplaying covers the whole thing in a leering menace that's hard to shake.
Iannucci delights in the fleeting moments such as when a son is reunited with the father he sold to their authorities or the throwaway moment when conductor says you won't get shot but his uncertainty in his face tells more than it ever could.

Simon Russell Beale is particularly venal as Beria, and the darkness that he displays is as sickening in parts as the humour will allow and that the quick rapid-fire dialogue will give pace to. His is the character to watch from beginning to end, and it's to his credit that his ultimate end feels as discordant and unsettling as ever you'd feel for a monster.

The Death of Stalin is not exactly an omnishambles in any stretch of the imagination.

It is, instead, darkly sickening viewing as the life goes out of the political vacuum which emerges - its satire is a little more scattershot and harder to find among the bleakness, but Iannucci is to be complimented for the intelligent edges he's brought to the visualisation of the film - rather than allowing the farce to make light of the true terrors which blighted Russia.