movie reviews: first half 2012

Time for another round of movie reviews!!! 3 cinema releases, then some stuff I saw on tv or whatever.

Prometheus
As far as I'm concerned, a flawed masterpiece. Loved the atmosphere, really, really loved Michael Fassbender, the first hour or so is one of the best experiences I had in the cinema in recent years. But then I quite like "slow" sci-fi movies based on a spaceship or abandoned planet or whatever (which reminds me, still need to see Moon).
Towards the end though, it falls apart a bit, and some of the 'mythology' in this makes little sense, and we'll have to wait for the true answers until the sequel, which kind of cheapens the experience I think. But even with that it's a very solid 8/10, almost 9, and I'll definitely want this when it comes out on blu-ray.

Avengers
You've all seen it by now I guess, so I don't have to tell you how good it is. And unlike Prometheus I can talk more in detail about it. So, obviously, the best thing about the film is the Stark-Banner bromance. Or any scene with Hulk in it. I mean, try to imagine this film without Banner/Hulk. It would be pretty boring wouldn't it?
I was also quite upset with some agent dying heh (but is he really dead????) What else...Thor/Iron Man fight was good. Loki's speech on why humans are naturally submissive made me lol (for reasons I won't admit here). The climax of the movie wasn't that great I thought - apart from some Hulk stuff - and it made me think of how useless Wolverine and Spider-man would be in this (yes, great one-on-one fighters, but they would be useless taking on an army). It would've been even better if the real enemy was Galactus, but stupid licensing issues kept that from happening.

Snow-white and the Huntsman
Kristen Stewart is a drowned rat, the Thor-dude is wasted in this role, and Charlize Theron...was quite acceptable . Some familiar faces as the dwarves. Otherwise, forgettable movie really. Well, it's on my mind because some things annoyed me. Like, there's absolutely no way Kirsten Scott will ever be hotter than Charlize Theron. It makes the whole premises of the story unbelievable. Stupid mirror!! I was actually half expecting the mirror to be the true evil in this, but they kept things simple and very stupid.

Australian Open 2012 review

Well, like I said, my predictions were wrong :)

I also have to admit I like the first week of a slam so much more than the second week, especially in the past couple of years, where there's a certain predictabilty, especially in finals and eventual winners of the tournament. The first week is more exciting because there's always going to be a (minor) upset (here: Nishikori over Tsonga), or a youngster/relatively unknown player going on a streak (here: Kukushkin, Tomic), or an "old" guy showing off (here: Hewitt). While the quality of tennis is generally better in the second week, I'd say the first week is more exciting if your love for tennis isn't just player-related.

Australian Open 2012 preview

Due to the time difference, the Australian Open is basically the open that happens while I sleep. So it's probably my least favourite of the four majors, but I know I'm going to spend some nights in front of the tv and only going to bed at 6AM.
Anyway... now for my analysis/predictions/nonsense.

THE MEN

first quarter:
Probably the easiest quarter for the 2 highest seeds. The only one here who could cause an upset is Raonic. A 4th round match against Djokovic is extremely likely. I expect a good match, but Djokovic is going to win eventually.
QF: Ferrer-Djokovic

second quarter:
A much trickier quarter. Murray-Harisson will probably be a good first match, but I still expect Murray to pull through in -at most- 4 sets. I'm also interested in what Nishikori will do here. Still, I don't expect any major surprises here.
QF: Murray-Tsonga

third quarter:
Interesting quarter with Dolgopolov and Del Potro. Verdasco-Tomic is an interesting first round match. I'm going with Tomic here. It's kind of hard to guess where Fish is mentally and physically, but I do expect him to be upset by Del Potro. I'm also expecting a Federer-Dolgopolov 4th round.
QF: Federer-Del Potro

fourth quarter:
This quarter has Baghdatis, Nalbandian and Dimitrov floating around. I'm honestly not expecting them to do any major damage.
QF: Nadal-Berdych

Semifinals:
Djokovic-Tsonga
Federer-Nadal
Tsonga instead of Murray? Yes. If Tsonga can play like he did at the end of last year, he can easily take on Murray - even if it takes him 5 sets. I expect Federer-Del Potro to be a 5-setter as well.

Final:
Tsonga-Nadal
Winner:
Nadal
Surprised? You shouldn't be. The more Nadal complains about "not being ready to win", the more he's actually going to win. It's his "worst" slam, although he did win 100% of the finals he played here!! (he only played one).
I suppose a Djokovic-Federer final (with Djokovic winning, of course) is far more likely, but I like to be surprised. Of course, being a Federer fan, I'd like him to win everything, but I'm not sure about his form right now.

THE WOMEN

first quarter:
Wozniacki, Clijsters, Li Na and Jankovic are in this quarter. Wozniacki will get either Safarova or Jankovic in the 4th round - could be interesting. I expect her to pull through though. I'm also not 100% if Clijsters is fit enough, I guess we'll see it in the first few rounds. Fourth round against Li Na is very likely.
QF: Clijsters-Wozniacki

second quarter:
Some interesting names here (Schiavone, Goerges, Penetta) but I still think the highest ranked players will be in the quarterfinal:
QF: Azerenka-Radwanska

third quarter:
Sharapova, Serena Williams, Kuznetsova, it's like we're in 2004 again! This quarter might have the most interesting matches in the first week. I'm also not sure how fit Serena is right now, but if she's fit enough, she'll get to the quarterfinal for sure.
QF: Williams-Sharapova

fourth quarter:
I don't see any surprises here.
QF: Kvitova-Stosur

SF:
Clijsters-Azerenka
Williams-Kvitova

F:
Clijsters-Kvitova
W: Kvitova
(well unless Kvitova loses in the first round, like she did at the US Open -_-)

Note: nothing ever happens the way I predict it, so if you want to bet on something, try the opposite of everything I said here.

2011: music

Personally, it's been another extremely quiet year on the music front, especially when it came to seeing some bands live. So I'll focus on the album reviews. And you'll get not one, not two, but three top 5's!!! Exciting, no?

2011: videogames

I'll do my top 10 starting with 1, because I know no-one will read to the end anyway. So I better start with the best stuff, right?

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I played this game for about 135 hours. Which is about 15 times more than an average game these days. So yeah, you could say I like it. I don't really know what to say about it, just play it and experience it for yourself. And if you're really in a hurry, just focus on the main quest, the deadric quests and the Dark Brotherhood quests. And visit all the main holds. And take a walk from Riften to Aivarstead, and from Helgen to Rorickstead. And... oh okay, I'll stop now.

2. Portal 2

I have very little to add to my review. In short: it's great. Play it if you haven't already.

3. Mortal Kombat

MORTAAAL KOMBAAAT!!! Doo-doo, doo-doo-doo... etc. I should've done a full review of this since there's plenty to talk about, but really, this is the easily the most complete fighting game ever. Even if the game just had the story mode, it would've still made my list. It's just so good. Online is quite nice as well. I even found a character I could dominate with (Sindel), I suddenly had 13 ranked wins in a row with her. Yes, I'm that awesome. Well, against beginner/intermediate players. Because of my ranking I suddenly started fighting the pros. I lost. A lot.

Anyway, if you loved Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, you really should buy this if you haven't already. I'd recommend this game even if you've never played a fighting game.

4) Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Another game I should've done a proper review of. I picked this up as a sort of in-between game (a few weeks before Skyrim came out), and I felt like playing a stealth/scifi game. I'm very glad I picked it up. It's far from a flawless experience; I had my fair share of frustration with the stealth gameplay, the boss fights are just very out of place, and it has some clumsy gameplay elements, but it's just...special, you know? I particularly loved the music and atmosphere in this game.

You can get the game pretty cheap nowadays, so I'd urge you to pick this up and experience it for yourself. It's not for everyone, but it's a damned good game.

5) Super Mario 3D Land

Together with Deus Ex, pretty much the surprise of the year. I wanted a white 3DS, so I had to pick up a bundle with this game. I disliked New Super Mario Bros, so I really had zero expectations for this one. In fact, I was even thinking of selling it unopened. But I decided to give it a try, and...wooaAAoow. It's possibly the best Mario game since...well I'm not really a fan of platformer games in general so I couldn't say. But, I'm really enjoying it. Yes, it's very easy (I entered world 8 with around 90 lives), but it's brilliant. The 3D is also great. Yes, it's still a gimmick, but it 'works' in this game.

6) Tropico 4

Okay, so it's more like Super Tropico 3 Turbo, with many re-used voice samples and graphics, but the new mini-objectives are a good addition, and why change things when they were great in the first place? There are some minor "downgrades" though: the new radio girl kind of sucks, and the humour is a bit hit-and-miss (mostly hit though).
I've only played the game for about 10 hours, and in that time I've only done 3 story missions and a (long) sandbox game. I'll definitely spend another 30 or 40 hours on this game - when I have the time...

7) Top Spin 4

A tennis game that doesn't play like a more colourful version of Pong (see: Virtua Tennis series)? GIMME. I loved Top Spin 3 but this is definitely the best tennis game of this hardware generation. Yes, it gets repetitive after a while, but so does every sports game. Or any videogame really. Plus, in career mode, Federer is pretty much always number 1 or 2, even in 2014 haha. Biased!

8) Dead Space 2

I didn't enjoy this as much than the first one, but it still has many memorable moments, and my impression is that it's also a longer game (which isn't necessary a good thing, but still). It tries to be bigger and better than the first game, but in doing that it also lost some of the charm, you know what you mean? It's like Alien vs. Aliens. Both are great, but the first one was more creepy and atmospheric, second one was more about the action and shooting and dudebro stuff. Also, as I said earlier this year, I like quiet protagonists. So again, first game > second game.

9) Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Curse Capcom for releasing an upgrade 8 months after this game. I still haven't bought Ultimate by the way. MvC3 isn't as bad as people tell you it is (I didn't have that many online problems), but Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is still my favourite vs. game. My Hulk/Wolverine/Dr. Doom team is pretty awesome. I actually have quite a few teams I'm pretty good with, but I always have Hulk in my team. HULK SMASH etc.

10) Child of Eden

I didn't enjoy it as much as Rez, and it really should've been a downloadable game rather than a retail one, but it's still pretty good. Very uplifting and colourful. I found it to be harder than Rez (I still can't combo to the beat effectively, which makes the achievements really difficult). I plan to go back in and try to master at least part of the game in the near future.

I still have a lot of 2011 games to play, so this is just a temporary list. Still need to go through Zelda: Skyward Sword (although, after 10 hours, I'm definitely not feeling the game), Bastion, From Dust, and a whole lot of pc games I bought on Steam. And then there's the games on everyone's list that I haven't played yet: Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row the Third, Uncharted 3, Xenoblade... I have a lot of catching up to do. There are also some games you might expect on the list that just didn't make it. Like Gears of Wars 3: enjoyed it, but I thought it was inferior to GoW2, and ultimately not as good as the 10 games I mentioned above.

I'll try to do some more videogame reviews in 2012, but I'm not going to promise anything.

Tennis 2011 review & 2012 preview

What can I say about 2011 that hasn't already been said?

Nothing.

Except maybe that Nadal didn't have a bad year at all. Djokovic dominated him, sure. But he still won 4 tournaments and reached 10 finals (3 GS finals - won one). How anyone can call this a bad year... the mind boggles. Maybe he should've won more, yes, but it's obvious Djokovic was just too good, even for Nadal.

At the end of the year, it's also fun to look back on the year, and see the flow of the year. Most of the year it was all Djokovic of course, but at the end, Murray won 3 tournaments in a row in Asia, and then Federer won 3 tournaments in a row (and I'm sure Federer fans will forever remember his 6-3, 6-0 victory over Nadal at the World Tour Finals). So while Djokovic was the dominant force for most of the year, he didn't do much after the US Open, which is why I can't rank his season over Federer's 2006 and 2007 seasons.

As for live tennis, the only thing I saw was one day at the BNP Paribas Open (aka Bercy). It was a bit last minute, so I only got tickets for Friday. The line-up was nice though, especially the Djokovic-Tsonga match.........which then got canceled because Djokovic pulled out. Boo. I was really looking forward to that. Still, I got to see Federer (even though it was probably his worst match in the tournament, or even in the three tournaments he won), Ferrer-Isner (I quite like Isner now, Ferrer was pretty much how I e

xpected, still like him though), and Murray-Berdych. That was maybe the "best" match, not in terms of tennis, but excitement. You had the feeling that either of them could win. They're far from my favourite players really, but it was still...watchable. I now respect Berdych a lot more thanks to this match, he's really not as dumb as people think. And he does deserve a place in the top 10. At number 9 or 10, maybe, but still!

Also, I took some pictures! 653 to be exact...trimmed them down to 160 and put them online, right here. Yes, they're pretty awful, I didn't even tag them properly and stuff. Oh well.

As for next year, I might go to Roland Garros for the first weekend, or fri-sat-sun at Bercy again. Although the World Tour Finals are right after Bercy, which means the top players will probably pull out of Bercy, or lose early so they have a few days off before the WTF. So a weekend of Roland Garros makes more sense I guess.

And now my craaaaazy 2012 predictions:

- at least 2 slams and an olympic medal for Nadal. Nadal ALWAYS bounces back. Even though, like I said, 2011 wasn't that bad at all for him.

- Djokovic is going to drop down to number 2 after Wimbledon. Nadal back to 1.

- Federer might win a slam, but he'll also not make the second week of one (my guess is Roland Garros). He'll not reach number 1 again.

- Someone outside the big 4 will win the WTF.

-Del Potro in the top 5 at the end of the year, will be in the US Open final.

-Tsonga is going to defeat another top 4 player in 5 sets.

-The young dogs (Nishikori, Dolgopolov, Tomic etc.) will upset a few players, but won't make an impact on the top 10.

- Kvitova will be n°1 for most of the year, and will also defend her Wimbledon title.

-Wozniacki won't have a good year. I see her dropping to n°3 or even lower.

I'll stop now, that's enough nonsense already!

2011: films and tv-series

I haven't seen many films in the cinema, so this is going to be fairly short.

The standout film for me this year was La piel que habito (the skin I live in), a film by Pedro Almodovar. Almodovar is a bit hit-and-miss for me, while Todo sobre mi madre is one of my favourite films ever, I wasn't a fan of La mala education - which was also the last time I saw an Almodovar in the cinema. But I decided to take my chance on this one, and I'm very glad I did.

It's a typical Almodovar in many ways, but also a very 'modern' film, it starts a bit slow but there really aren't any superfluous scenes. Almodovar slowly unraps the film, with 2 surprises - one surprise basically turning the entire film on its head. It makes you think, but it's also silly, unbelievable, disgusting, horrible, laughable... I didn't know how to react.

And when the film forces you to think about sexuality and morality, there's no way you won't be confused. But that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, it's certainly better than handing you everything on a platter. And like with most things, the less you know about the story, the better, so if you still need to see it, avoid trailers and such.

The only bad thing I can say is that the ending is very cliché, and almost makes it feel like a comedy. There is humour here, sure, and some parts are ridiculous, but I thought it didn't really fit an, in essense, very dark film.

But still, it's not like anything I've seen this year, so La piel que habito is my favourite film of 2011.

As for the rest: I very much enjoyed the Marvel films. Thor was great, very entertaining, and X-men: First Class had such a great Xavier-Eric dynamic. And I personally would've chosen Eric at the end, even though I always like the "good" guys more. I also felt there was a certain sadness to the film, like the sadness of lost innocence, which I quite enjoyed. Captain America was far better than I thought it would be, the weakest of the three maybe, but still good fun.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was also very good, I thought it would be another dumb action film, but the pace of the film surprised me. Of course there was also Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, probably the best HP film.

I should also mention The Eagle , not really a great film but I enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters. And it combines two things I like: Scotland and Ancient Rome!

The last film I've seen in 2011 was Tintin. I enjoyed it, but for me, some scenes almost made me facepalm because of completely unbelievable cartoony sillyness. They try to be super-realistic for most of the film, but then suddenly there's a stupidly silly chase scene with Snowy being a sort of superhero dog. Maybe I've become too cynical, I don't know. They probably put in scenes like that so the under-fives don't fall asleep.

As for tv-series, um...let's see...well, having the memory of a goldfish certainly doesn't help. I saw season 4 of The Big Bang Theory, and I enjoyed most of it. The episode with Levar Burton is definitely a classic. And the one where they go to a science conference. And the one where they dress up as the Justice League. And... well, plenty of good eps really. And I must say I love Amy Farrah Fowler.

I gave up on House MD around the 5th season, but somehow I ended up watching season 7 when it was on TV. And I enjoyed it. I don't really have much else to say about it... I liked Masters, but I was also very happy when 13 came back. Although that ep with her prison friend is probably my least favourite. I'm in no rush to start season 8, I'll probably wait until it's on tv.

I saw season 5 of Dexter at the start of the year, but it was easily my least favourite season. I'll probably watch season 6 when it's on tv, but I'm not excited about it at all.

I also finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I saw the first half last year, but only saw the second part last month. To be fair, there's a huge difference between the two parts. First part is mostly about Spartacus killing people, second part is more about Batiatus backstabbing other people, and politics and treason in general. First part was cool, yeah, but the second part is so good it almost rivals Rome. I always enjoy seeing Lucy Lawless, and John Hannah is brilliant in this, he has all the good lines. Like the time he sends Spartacus to please a woman. "Bring her to satisfaction, and see our fortunes rise along with your cock!" Good stuff, good stuff.

I'm sad that the guy who played Spartacus, Andy Whitfield, died of cancer a couple of months ago. They're doing season 2 with another guy, it's probably going to be weird...

Not a 2011 series or season, but I finished season 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. DS9 is the true connaisseurs choice of Star Trek series, of course, with the infamous In the pale moonlight episode as a highlight of how un-Star Trek the series really is (ie. the Good Guys do Bad Things, humans are -how shocking- not perfect). It also has the best Star Trek character ever, Garak (I even bought Robinson's book about Garak, A Stitch in Time, and it's great). I don't know if DS9 is my favourite Star Trek series, but it probably has the highest great/rubbish ratio of all the series. It has its share of weak episodes, but never as bad as early TNG/Enterprise and Voyager (in general). And let's be honest here, 99% of TOS is pretty laughable when you watch it now. 1930s gangster planet? Oh-kay...

Speaking of Enterprise, Season 3 and 4 are pretty good. Season 3's Xindi eps are good and have a great conclusion, and season 4 has several great mini-arcs. The Andorian arc is probably my favourite, especially since it gave me several nerdgasms (come on guys, it was the very beginning of the United Federation of Planets! A Human-Vulcan-Andorian-Tellarite alliance! Four races that mistrust each other unite against a common enemy! It doesn't get any better than this!)

Yes. I better stop here. Coming up: music, videogame and tennis entries.

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