Movie: Avengers: Age of Ultron(2015) – My opinion

!!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!!

!!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!!

!!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!! !!!Spoiler Warning!!!

The sequel to the massively successful The Avengers from 2012 is finally here, but does it deliver on all it's hype?

Tony Stark tries to jump-start a peacekeeping program, the Artificial intelligence go crazy and it's up to the Avengers to stop the artificial intelligence from destroying the world.

Director/writer Joss Whedon(known for making Firefly,Buffy(The TV-show), The Avengers) is back to do the second movie of the Avengers. This man have still not disappointed me. Everything he does is very good and this is no exception. This was one of those movies that really sets the tone for the rest of the Marvel movies to come. The first Avengers was more like a finale for the stand alone movies and to start something new, a new chapter if you will, where most of the Marvel universes and characters know of each other. This one is more like there to give us a reason to keep watching the Marvel movies, give us more character-development and laying the foundation for a new round of stand alone movies and it ticked off every box it needed.

Let's talk a little about the character-developments. Iron Man(played by Robert Downey Jr. who is known for his work on Iron Man, Sherlock Holms, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Thor(played by Chris Hemsworth who is known for his work on Home & Away, Thor, Rush) and Captain America(played by Chris Evans who is known for his work on Captain America: The winter soldier, Snowpiercer, push) are the ones that are more or less the same throughout the movie and that is ok when you think about how much they have gotten in their own movies. Finally Bruce Banner/The Hulk(played by Mark Ruffalo who is known for his work on Collateral,Zodiac,13 going on 30) and Black Widow(played by Scarlett Johansson who is known for her work on Lucy, The Island, Don Jon) gets their groove on. Not like all the way but they have feelings that you in the audience understand and it has been a long time coming. Most of us knew from before that they have a thing going and the scenes of them are great. You learn more about Black Widow and her past because of the trust she puts in Banner. You can see and feel what they want and it's great. Hawkeye(played by Jeremy Renner who is known for his work on S.W.A.T., 28 weeks later, The Hurt Locker) has some huge development. When the team needs to lay low for a while Hawkeye takes them to a farm far away from everything. There we get to meet his wife and children. This comes as a bit of a surprise because we didn't know anything about this and it also helps us remember how human some of these characters are. Some have criticized both this and the Black Widow Hulk scenes but I think they are great. They show all these characters that they are more than just superheros. We also get some new characters and the two I want to talk about are the twins, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. First off, Elizabeth Olson(known for her work on Martha Marcy May Marlene, Oldboy and Godzilla) is fantastic as Scarlet Witch. She gives the “powerful and angry” feel that this character really needs. She also messes a lot with our heroes since she can get into their head with her “magic”. She takes the Avengers to some really dark places and it gives us some more character back-stories that doesn't feel tacked on. She is a real force and with her brother they are very dangerous. Quicksilver, who is one of my favorite characters of all time, is really great to see. I was never very impressed by the Quicksilver they had in X-Men: Days of future Past. It was to little of him, he didn't really do to much. In this movie he is great. The better of the two in my opinion and Aaron Taylor-Johnson(known for his work on Kick-ass, Savages, Godzilla) is fantastic as him. You can feel how powerful these two are and they are great on the screen. Ultron as a villain is only ok in my book, mostly because of the fact that the rouge AI story is a little tired in my book. Many love him and I understand that. What makes him good though is the performance of James Spader(known for his work on Stargate, Crash, The Blacklist(TV-Show)). His voice-acting is of the freakin' charts. It's insane. So in my mind I feel that the villain it a little weak but there is so much good character-development in this movie that makes it ok. It's more about the team than anything else I think. Great performances of all.

It's a great movie but it doesn't really do anything special. It is superheros being superheros and that is what is expected of this movie. A lot of cameos from sidekicks from stand-alone films and great action. The story is basically the rouge AI takes over the world via the internet. Not very much new but it works. There are a couple of surprises in there but as stated, nothing really new. It's a little darker then the first one and that's good thing. Very refreshing that it does not take place in America or any other of the “standard movie country”. It makes the whole universe a bigger feeling really. The runtime of the movie is really scary. It's 141 minutes but the movie is so well paced that it feels like an 120 minutes movie. That means they got some real good storytelling. Very good written story, great actors, fantastic special effects, good pacing and fantastic action. Everything you want out of a superhero-movie. They have layered a great foundation for the next phase of Marvel movies. I can't wait. A little disappointed by the mid-credits scene though. It's just Thanos getting the infinity gauntlet, nothing more or less. Was hoping for more. This is one of the strongest movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it elevates what we expect of the Marvel movies in the future.

TL;DR

Fantastic movie. Better than the first. Very good character development on some of the characters that don't have their own movies. Beautiful moments between Hulk and Black Widow. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are awesome. Good enough villain. Disappointing mid-credits scene. Great effects, great action, great acting.

My question for you:

What is your favorite Marvel movie?

What would you like to see in the next Marvel movie?

What would you like to see in the next Avengers movie?

Please leave a comment(negative,positive, suggestions or/and answers).

Until next time, stay fresh.

Follow my Twitter to know when a new post goes up.

Twitter: @HarmlessKen

I sometime stream when I game.

Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/harmlessken

Game: Rainbow Six: Siege Closed Alpha – My opinion

I didn't get into the alpha from the start so i only got a couple of days too play it, please remember that. Also remember that what i played was an alpha. That means it is before Beta and far from done and everything i talk about here is up for changes if the developer feel like it.

We got to play one game-mode and that was the rescue the hostage mode. It's the one they showed at E3. Basically you go in to extract an hostage or you stop the other team from extracting the hostage. It's a good game-mode but very safe. Every tactical shooter could have this mode and if you have played any counter-strike map that starts with cs_(like cs_office) you will recognize this mode. We got to play on two maps, one being a plane that looked very much like air force one and the second being the house level from the E3 show. I think both maps are good with House being my personal favorite. I don't know why but i felt that i did better every time i got to play on the House map.

Every round start with a preparation phase where the defending team use their time too fortify window and doors, setting up barbed wire and shields and so on. It's class-based so you will have some different things to put out. One has stronger door barricades and one have jammers and so on. Attackers use their preparation phase to drive little drones/RC-cars with cameras and trying to locate the hostage and too see what they will meet obstacles. Attacker classes give one a sledgehammer for tearing down barricades and one have a grenade-launcher that can blow holes in walls and so on. The class system makes it more balanced so not everyone just blow up everything. This preparation phase is very good. The fact that you don't need to run in blind and can be tactical out of what the situation makes the rounds feel different. Also, if you see one of those drone you can destroy them so they can't get the intel.

At the start you also choose where you want to start. For the defenders they vote where they will start and they all start there with the hostage in that room. That means that the hostage can be different places from round to round. The attackers votes about where everyone will start. I don't really get why they need to start at the same place. If you could start at different position wouldn't that make it more tactical. Maybe it's a balance thing but i don't know, i would really like to choose to not start with the team for more interesting play.

When the round starts you will learn really fast that run and gun do not work well. You die really fast and that's how it's supposed to be. The fact that you can shoot through walls add to the intensity. You must be quiet and careful so they don't realize where you are and just kill you through the wall. If you are defending and don't know where they are coming from you can get real stressed. It's not enough to just watch a door. One explosive charge on a wall and you just might have a room full of attackers but both teams must be careful not to kill the hostage. This happens a lot.

One of my problems with this game is the gun-feel. They feel very light and they sound like BB-guns. It's ok on the silenced weapons but a little more bass on the other guns would be great. Shotguns are kind of weak. I can't remember being killed once by a shotgun. Grenades are good enough but your character can't throw at all.

In the alpha you can't go into a party or group. This will probably come in the game at a later date. I mean, it has too. It's a team-based game. What annoyed me the most is that your mic is always open. You can't shut it of(not that i found anyway) and you can not use push to talk. This is bad, very bad. Some people who stream like to talk to their chat, the team don't care about that. Some people have microphones they bought at a radioshack in the 90's so there is just a lot of noise. Some have microphones that pick up every sound around them, like kids crying, cars going by, the TV and so on. Hopefully we will get an push to talk option at least.

So what do i think of the game. I think it has potential. Alpha doesn't really show what the game is going to be since it's far from finished but we didn't get things they showed us on E3. You can't deploy on the roof of House, you don't get the same effect when shooting a wall and the door-barricades are different. They may have changed it for good reason, they may have it but not implemented in the alpha. There can be many reasons that things we saw at E3 are missing. I had a lot of fun, and i think this might be a great competitive shooter. They got a lot of feedback on the forums, so the Beta will probably feel different. The thing that really made me keep going was the intensity. It gave me a really good feeling. Good alpha, might become a great game. I am very hopeful and i believe they will do great work on this. Can't wait for the Beta, hope i get into that.

If you ask me if you should preorder it now i would say that you should never preorder anything in alpha since it so far from completion. Wait at least for the Beta to know what work they have done on it.

TL;DR

Good alpha. Some thing are missing but that is expected in an alpha. Good maps, hostage mode work good. Guns feel to weak. Preparation phase is a very good idea. The game has potential. I would say that you shouldn't buy it since this is only an alpha, wait to see how the beta work. Intensity is great.

My question for you:

Do you think alpha is a good thing to let players play?

Should developers just wait until they are ready to go for beta and don't do an alpha?

Do you think preordering after seeing alpha footage is justifiable?

Please leave a comment(negative,positive, suggestions or/and answers).

Until next time, stay fresh.

Follow my Twitter to know when a new post goes up.

Twitter: @HarmlessKen

Movie: Fast & Furious 7(2015) – My opinion

!!!Spoiler Warning!!!

We have now come to the seventh installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. There are two thing we are wondering going into this. Is the franchise still good and what will they do with Paul Walkers character? Let's find out.

The brother of Owen Shaw from Fast & Furious 6 is coming for revenge against the crew that left his brother in a coma.

The first thing i learned about this movie when the news started coming out was who they had hired to direct when Justin Lin said he would not direct the 7^th installment. They hired James Wan who is mostly known for his work in the horror-genre. He made the first Saw movie(that is still the best one), Insidious and The Conjuring. These are good movies so was excited to see what he would do in another genre, and he did great. We are still moving away from the street racing setting, as the first movie was set in, and it's more hunting criminals and some people don't like this. I mean it was a smart move to change what the movies was, or else they wouldn't get as far as seven movies. To keep the franchise going the movie needs to change with the times and the fact that this is number seven in the franchise means that they succeeded at that. You still get all the sweet cars and action, just less of the organized street racing(as in the last couple of movies).

The cast in this one is huge, you got Vin Diesel(known for his work on Pitch Black, xXx, Guardians of the Galaxy) returning for his role as Dominic Toretto. He's still big, he's still hard-hitting and he's still means that family is everything. Dwayne Johnson(known for his work on Faster, Doom, Be Cool and his work as a wrestler for the WWE) is playing Luke Hobbs. He's still bigger and he's a total bad-ass, but we see a little too little of him in the movie in my opinion, but that might be because i love watching him do his thing. Michelle Rodriguez(known for his work on Girlfight, S.W.A.T, Avatar) is back as Letty Ortiz. Her character is a little interesting because of her amnesia that we got to know about in the last movie. I'm on the fence if i think this is a good or bad thing. It gives Dominic Toretto something more to do then just drive around and hitting people but then again it's amnesia. One of the most overused things in movies ever. They could probably give her back her memory earlier or something. Having said that i must point out that Michelle Rodriguez still looks fantastic. Tyrese Gibson(known for his work on Four Brothers, Transformers) is playing Roman Pearce who as just become the comic relief of the movie. He wasn't that much of a character before and he is still not much of a character(not because of Tyrese playing him necessarily, but probably because of how his character is written). Ludacris(known for his work on Max Payne, Gamer) plays Tej Parker, who i just call the tech-guy(i think that is mentioned in the movie too). He is there to make fun of Roman and to do all the tech-stuff no one else can have as their skill. The bad-guy this time around is Deckard Shaw, the brother of the bad-guy from the last movie. Jason Statham(known for his work on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The Transporter, Crank, The Expendables) plays a great bad-guy, my biggest problem is that the bad-guy is a trained super-soldier. He is a super-soldier-dude and is going up against a bunch of street-racers. How the hell can he lose?

You also got Jordana Brewster, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey and Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell is what i call an auto-win. I just think he is great to watch, and he has some of the best cult movies ever. Tony Jaa is always great to watch because of his insane martial arts moves. Ronda Rousey is there to fight Michelle Rodriguez in something that turned out to be a pretty good fight.

Lastly we got Paul Walker(known for his work on She's All That, The Skulls, Running Scared) playing Brian O'Connor. His character had to change because we learned that his girlfriend was pregnant in the last movie so now he is a dad. This makes him a little more relatable since many people have to change their lifestyle when they become a parent. Sadly we lost Paul Walker in a car accident in November in 2013. Paul Walker was done with about half of the movie. There was talks of scrapping the movie but they decided to finish the movie and give him a proper send-off. They used body doubles(among them were the brothers of Paul Walker), stunt doubles and CGI. The send-off is great. I think people thought of it as a good send-off. Some people even cry, that's how well done it is. Thank you Paul Walker for all you gave.

The movie as a whole is better then i expected. I felt like there wasn't much more they could do with this franchise. Too be fair there isn't much new here but it is very well done though. Very few boring parts. Even though it is 137 minutes long it doesn't feel like it's over 2 hours long which is a sign of good storytelling. A lot of great stunts, good fights and beautiful cars. Right now this is tied for the best in the franchise for me with the first one. The story is good enough to keep you interested and when everything goes down you are exited to see what the next crazy thing they will do is. The story gives no surprises but that is ok. They go to some really great locations and use theme for more then their looks and there is some great callbacks to earlier movies in the franchise, like the place where Brian O'Connor tests his car in the first movie and when we meet Hector from the first movie. Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson are great on the screen and Jason Statham plays a great bad-guy. I was very entertained and will say you should go watch this if you like macho action or amazing cars. Just don't expect something you have never seen before.

TL;DR

Good movie. One of the best in the franchise. Great action, great cars, good fights. Paul Walkers send-off is beautifully done. Not many surprises. Very entertaining.

My question for you:

What did you think of the Paul Walker send-off?

Do you want an Fast & Furious 8?

Please leave a comment(negative,positive, suggestions or/and answers).

Until next time, stay fresh.

Follow my Twitter to know when a new post goes up.

Twitter: @HarmlessKen

Movie: Commando(1985) – My opinion

Let's continue looking on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is one of my biggest guilty pleasures, so get your rocket-launchers ready and let's go commando.

A retired Black Ops Commando goes on a one man war against the criminals that have kidnapped his daughter.

This is very much what it sounds like. It's Arnold Schwarzenegger(known for his work on Eraser, True Lies, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) playing John Matrix, a Commando who lives with his daughter(played by a young Alyssa Milano who is known for her work on Double Dragon, Fear and the TV-show Charmed)in the mountains(or away from civilization if you want). The bad-guys wants to blackmail John Matrix to do an political assassination so a dictator can get back in power. So they kidnap his daughter to blackmail him. Yeah, they kidnap Schwarzenegger's daughter. Bad move dudes. As you might have guessed John Matrix does not like this and is going to war against the criminals. This movie is what you think about when you hear the name Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's straight forward, it's kill everything and blow up what's left.

Arnold Schwarzenegger does his job great, too be fair it doesn't ask much of him in this movie. His character is a killingmachin. He loves his daughter, that much is obvious, but other than that he is just a killingmachin. This movie also have some of the greatest one-liners ever put to film and no one delivers one-liners like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I can't state this enough, Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Commando is a great idea. He's not very stealthie of course but damn can he shoot. The worst thing with this movie is the female character that helps Arnold Schwarzenegger's character. She is one of the most annoying character ever put too film, I'm sure about it. She is whiny, she is annoying and she has one of those voices that makes it feel like your head is going to explode. Luckily you will get over her and forget her as soon Arnold keeps doing his thing.

There is not much more to say about it. It is really just Arnold Schwarzenegger shooting every bad-guy he can see. This is great for the days when you really don't want a heavy movie to watch. It's 90 minutes of mindless shooting, fantastic one-liners and Arnold making Arnold sounds. It's my ultimate guilty pleasure movie with my ultimate guilty pleasure actor and i recommend it for the fun cheesy 80's action movie it is.

TL;DR

The movie you think of when you hear the name Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fantastic action. Fantastic one-liners. Very annoying female lead character. Great 90 minutes of mindless action.

My question for you:

Are there room for mindless action-movies in this day and age?

What is your favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liner?

Please leave a comment(negative,positive, suggestions or/and answers).

Until next time, stay fresh.

Follow my Twitter to know when a new post goes up.

Twitter: @HarmlessKen

Movie: True Lies(1994) – My opinion

A spy movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by James Cameron, this is going to be great. Why you ask. Because the last time James Cameron put Arnold Schwarzenegger in something we got the fantastic Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

A fearless secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair.

I promise there is more too the movie than just that plot-line. It's so good, probably because of the director. If you don't know who James Cameron(known for directing The Terminator,Terminator 2, Titanic, Aliens, Avatar) is he make really expensive movies and is really hardcore on pushing the effects in movies like he did in Avatar. After he did action-movies like The Terminator and Aliens you kinda know that it's going to have great action in it. So let's think of Arnold Schwarzenegger(known for his work on Total Recall, Predator, Eraser, The Running Man) as a secret spy. Obviously he's not going to be as smooth as James Bond but he is really good at killing bad guys as seen in some of his earlier movies. Let's get it out there, Arnold Schwarzenegger is great in this. He's in his right element in this movie with one-liners and all. What i didn't expect of this movie was the humor it had. It's actually really rally funny. Some has said that they don't know if it's a good comedy-movie or a good action-movie. I will say it's a fantastic action movie with very good comedic elements. Some people get turned off in the story because the secret agent movie takes a backseat to some comedy but i think it helps the character of Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife.

So we got our secret agent, Harry Tasker(Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is a great character. He does some questionable things when he finds out that his wife may be having an affair but it's nothing to dangerous. Yes you would never do that in real life but this is a movie. If all movies would be as real life i don't think i would be watching movies anymore. Anyway, he's a secret agent, saving the world and stuff, as you would as a secret agent. We also meet Albert Gibson(played by Tom Arnold who is known for his work on Cradle 2 the Grave) who is for all of us who have never been «the guy». He's Harry's backup. The guy in the van and he's damn good at it. He's funny and a good partner to Harry. Harry's wife, Helen Tasker(played by Jamie Lee Curtis known for her work on Halloween, Freaky Friday), doesn't know anything about Harry's life as a secret agent. Some people say that Jamie Lee Curtis doesn't have the look of a secret agents girl, like in James Bond movies i guess. But she is meant to be a regular woman who thinks she is married to a regular man. I will also state that Jamie Lee Curtis is a great actor. The character is good. Too round off the family of the Taskers we got Dana Tasker(played by Eliza Dushku who is known for her work on Bring it on, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and a couple of episodes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the daughter of Harry and Helen. This may be the weakest of the characters in this movie. She is really unlikable from the start and i really don't know why they made her that way. She is written like she doesn't care about things the parents says and at one point she steals money from Albert Gibson. I just don't understand why. If they wanted her too be unlikable I'm pretty sure they could have done it in a better way. You also get your bad-guys but they are more of the stereotypical kind than anything special.

This movie is great. If you like action-movies this is a must-watch in my opinion. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a beast in the best way and he has great comedic timing. The action-scenes are great, the movie takes some turns you don't expect(not twists, it just goes places you maybe didn't think about) and Arnold flies a jet. Can you really ask for more then that? And they do the thing in this movie where they put you right in the action. I love when they do that. Showing us that he is really good at his job before anything else. Works great. I am one of those that says that if your movie is 2 hours it needs to be damn good. I really enjoy movies that are around 90 minutes. This movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes and i don't care. It's that good. The time just flew by. I enjoyed every minute of it. My advice for you, go watch it, go watch it now.

TL;DR

Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron does everything right again. Arnold is a beast, a true BAMF. Great humor. Great action. A little long run-time but it's so good that time just flies by. I highly recommend to watch this. Arnold Schwarzenegger best work with the exception of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

My question for you:

What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies?

Should they make a sequel(it has been rumored for a long time)?

Please leave a comment(negative,positive, suggestions or/and answers).

Until next time, stay fresh.

Follow my Twitter to know when a new post goes up.

Twitter: @HarmlessKen