Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Source: dodelaumi.blogpot.com

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

One of the arguably best games ever made Final Fantasy VII (seven) has a movie adaptation that takes us back to the world of Cloud Strife and his friends. If you played the old game on playstation, or the spin-off on playstation 2, or one of the newer ones on psp, or . . . I think you get the point if you liked anything made because of this game, you'll enjoy this movie! If for nothing else but the action, you'll love it! You've got familiar characters in a memorable environment fighting the ultimate evil: what's not to love?

The Plot

The movie stars out with Red XIII, a orange-ish colored, male, tiger like animal, with a flame on the end of his tail, who can talk and is the last survivor of his race, running through some dusty hills with oddly enough smaller versions of him. This is about 500 years after the events of the first game and this opening was the "good" ending to the FFVII game. You defeat the bad guy some bad stuff happens and the game ends. You don't even know if the character's survived. Well this movie answered that question!

We get a voice over that briefly explains the plot of the first game. Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet because of the evil that Shinra, a corrupt, world dominating minded organization, had done to him. They made him into the perfect solider and that's what drove him crazy. Cloud, with the help of his friends, attempted to stop him and eventually they do, sort of.

The movie shows us that the earth is still fighting back and this time the earth has attacked with a disease. As the story progresses you meet all the other characters from the game and they join cloud in fighting against this group of brother's who eventually combine together and become Sephiroth!

Good Little Quirks

There's plenty of funny scenes in this movie because we get to see the comic relief characters, get beat up and the movie plays on some of the characters traits from the game. For instance, early in the movie you have Barret call cloud on his celly (cell phone) and left him a voice message that started off as "What up fool!"

You also get to see the bad guys fight using materia. Materia is used in the game to heal, cure, shoot fire balls and lighting, and summon monsters. The bad guys have full control over these crystallized balls of energy and they summon the king of monsters Bahamut! Cloud then, with a little assistance from his friends, has to take the monster down!

Source: dfsm.org

Bad Little Quirks

Unfortunately, you don't get to understand all of the characters. The movie explains enough so a new viewer understands the gist of what's going on, but doesn't explain who's who. Plus, most of the fighting is done by Cloud. This is not to say the characters don't fight because they do. It just that Cloud gets all the good stuff. It would have been nice to see the shape shifting vampire, the well trained ninja, or the orange tiger fight (Red XIII).

I also felt a little cheated that the materia was in the hands of the bad guys. I waited for the moment that the main characters would get it and go to work on their enemies, but that never happened. : ( Cloud and his friends did eventually get the materia, but they didn't use it. There was a reason, but as a chance to evoke some strong nostalgic feelings, reminiscing of that one time you were playing the game and . . . it was totally like that, is impossible to completely feel without materia. At least, that is, it was for me.

Graphics

I have to say the graphics in this movie were fantastic! You get scenes of immaculate beauty, the people show expressions, and the battles pull you in. For instance, Tifa, the hand-to-hand combat girl of the group battles the enemy where she barrages them with punch-kick combinations and slams them into the ground. She, however is completely powerless against them and gets thrown against the wall. Instead of falling against the wall in defeat she flips in mid air, lands on the wall feet first with such a force that the flowers around her blow away.

Source: colsplay.com

The above photo is an adaptation of what happened. The funny thing is this is just one of the battles in the movie and the the most action packed one but that's not the focus. The focus is how real these computer animated people seem fighting in a fantasy like fight! Although, I must say this was one of the best scenes because it was fought with fist and was more realistic than any other scene. If you have time, take a look at a video adaptation of this battle (takes about two mins) to some techno music (the part I'm referring to happens around 1.35):





Conclusion

Overall this is a decent action packed movie. If you're looking for a strong storyline with dynamic characters, this isn't the movie for you. If were weren't a fan and never heard of Final Fantasy, the action will keep you interested because there's a lot of it. If you are a fan, then you'll enjoy this quick trip into the past.

Minesweeper: The Movie

Minesweeper

That's right you heard me Minesweeper. For those of you who ever been bored on your computer and you had no Internet access, you know what minesweeper is. You might be saying to yourself, "No, he can't mean. . ." but I'm here to tell you yes I do mean. . . The game from the PC startmenu-programs-games-MINESWEEPER has been turned into a movie trailer! You might think who in their right mind would make a game about that? From the same people who bought us Street Fighter: The Later Years and GummiBears: The Movie, our friends from CollegeHumor, that's who!

Never Heard of Minesweeper?

Minesweeper is a computer game requiring the player to locate mines in a minefield without being blown up. The game screen is made up of gray squares. If you click on a square with nothing there, it will clear out any area where their aren't any mines. This will reveal the numbers around the game area showing you where the mines could possibly be. If you click on a mine, the game is over. You can use the right mouse button to click to where you believe the mines are. If you find them all, you win This is how I understand the game to be played; however, you can see a more detailed and clear explanation of the game at Wikipedia. I warn you though, it's kind of long.

Here's a way to try and solve the puzzle, also found on Wikipedia:

Single-Square analysis

There are two special cases that are of extra interest when solving a board that can be solved using analysis of only one square and its surrounding squares^[2]

• If the amount of unopened squares surrounding a number is equal to that number, those unopened squares must all be mines.

If, for a number on the board, the amount of mines adjacent represented by that number can all be found, then every other square that is not known to be a mine must be safe


Plot


The movie is about a particular troupe of soldiers who are, as you may have already guessed, minesweepers. It starts of showing the commanding officer addressing the unit in preparation for their mission. The soldiers are equipped with Shovels and red flags. If they think there's a bomb in an area, then they stand and wave their red flag. We get a scene with the minesweepers working around the numbers (two's and three's) trying to find a bomb. A voice over gives a brief explanation on how to play minesweeper (find a bomb) depending on what number you see, and someone asks what to do if they see the number eight. The response was: Then GOD help us all.


Criticisms


This is spoof trailer is a fun little escape from reality. They offer the promise of a good plot, dynamic characters, and an excellent setting all the things you need for a good movie. However, this trailer is truly worthy of minesweeper because it pokes fun at itself and those who play that game and realize it's just a way to pass the time. The video is less than two long but it provides hours of entertainment. Take a look and see for yourself:

Dora the Explorer and her "Maraka"

Maraka and Mittens, Dora and Boots

Intro
Oddly enough I still remember some of the old shows I used to watch as a kid that I really enjoy and everyone once in a while I take a look at some current shows for kids they have out there. One of those shows is called Dora the Explorer. The general idea is there is a little girl by the name of Dora who goes exploring. (I'm seriously joking of course!)

The Show
Dora goes with boots to save animals and discover treasure and stuff like that but the joy of the show is the watchers get to participate. For instance, you pick things out of her magical backpack, you tell a foxy thief "Swiper no swiping" to keep his pilfering hands from Dora's goods, and you learn a little Spanish along the way.

The Spoof
This spoof of the show, however, is pretty degrading, but it was made to please adults not children. Like the show Maraka introduces you to her talking animal friend Mittens. They throw in a little Spanish too! "Soy Mittens!" And joking about the show Maraka's talking to you about her friend one minute and Penguins the next and promptly waits for a response.

Then scattered throughout Maraka ask random questions like "Can you break a fifty?", "Can you tell me how to check for a hernia?", "Can you help me decide if Robert Blake is innocent?", and "If Mittens choose to save baby Penguin based on Mitten's beliefs and Mitten's beliefs are not in direct control, does Mitten's really have free will?"

And even if you don't pay attention you notice that Maraka says somethings in Spanish and others in various languages which I presume to be German, Koren, and some type of African language. I do however, believe it's all gibberish created by the creators but who knows, maybe there's some hidden message!

The End
This little video will keep you laughing for a good four minutes and forty-eight seconds, but you can watch it as many times as you like and find yourself rolling on the floor.

http://www.clipstr.com/videos/SNLTVFunhouseMaraka/