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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated ICECOOL in Tabletop Games
Jun 25, 2019 (Updated Aug 13, 2020)
Moving components around the board/play area is a staple of most board games. As board games have evolved, that mechanic has maintained an integral role in many games. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well just because it’s not broken, doesn’t mean it can’t use a little innovation….and that’s where ICECOOL comes into play.
You and your Penguin buddies are so hungry that you decide to skip out on class early to go grab some snacks. But you’ve forgotten about the Hall Monitor! Their mission is to catch any unauthorized hall wanderers and send them back to class. Can you outmaneuver the Hall Monitor, or will you be caught and forced to go hungry until the end of class?
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the rulebook in its entirety in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. To read the rules more in-depth, grab a copy of the game from your FLGS! -L
ICECOOL is a dexterity game in which players are trying to amass the most points over a number of rounds. Here’s how a round plays out. Select one player to be the Hall Monitor (called the Catcher) for the first round, and place their Penguin pawn in the kitchen box. All other players, aka the Runners, take their 3 colored fish tokens and attach them to the three corresponding doorways, and begin with their Penguin pawns in the classroom box. As a Runner, your goal is to collect your 3 fish tokens from their doorways. How do you do that? Flick your Penguin through a fish doorway to collect your snack. Yes, you read that right – flick. In this game, all movement is achieved by literally flicking your pieces throughout the boxes. To collect a fish, you must pass through the corresponding doorway completely in one single flick. Each time you collect a fish, draw the top card from the fish deck and keep it hidden from your opponents. Your other goal? Avoid the Catcher. If at any point, your Penguin comes into contact with the Catcher, you must forfeit your Hall Pass to the Catcher.
As the Catcher, your goal is to collect the Hall Pass of every other player. You achieve this goal by flicking your Penguin into any of the Runners. Turn order is as follows: Runners-Catcher, Runners-Catcher, etc., until the end of the round is triggered. The round is over when the Catcher has collected Hall Passes from every other player, or any Runner has collected all 3 of their fish. At the end of the round, each player collects 1 fish card per Hall Pass in their possession. So if you were caught by the Catcher, you’re outta luck! For the next round a new player is selected to be the Catcher, and play continues as above. The game ends once every player has taken a turn as the Catcher. Count up the points from your collected fish cards, and the player with the most points wins!
So a game of flicking Penguins around some boxes – sounds pretty simple, right? Yes and no. ICECOOL admittedly does not really require any serious strategy. Yes, you are trying to collect all 3 of your fish, but you’re mainly playing keep-away from the Catcher. And as the Catcher, you’re “It” in this quasi-game of Tag. So strategic, this is not. On the other hand, mastering the art of flicking your Penguin is a long and arduous process. Ok, it’s not arduous, but it is tricky to master! ICECOOL really puts your dexterity to the test to see if you have the proper form and control to move your Penguin to exactly where you want it to go. Half of the fun of this game is all the whiffed flicks and the comically accidental misdirections. The rulebook offers some flicking techniques to try out before your first game, and they are actually pretty helpful. I’ve not yet been able to achieve the jumping flick, but maybe one day I will rise to that level.
One other super neat thing about ICECOOL is the game setup. You’re playing with boxes of varying sizes. But here’s the kicker: they all nest into each other!!! So for storing, it looks like you just have one box. But in reality, there are 4 other boxes hidden inside. This concept is not one I’ve seen before in any other game, so that just makes ICECOOL a little bit more unique and interesting for me. Since I’m talking about the boxes, let me touch on components. The boxes are all of great quality, and are sturdy enough to hold up to clashing penguins. The Penguins themselves are good solid plastic, and I know they will last forever. Be careful though, flicking too hard might hurt your fingers! The deck of fish cards are a standard card quality. The artwork of the game is cute and thematic, and overall it’s a fun, immersive experience.
ICECOOL is not a game that I pull off the shelf at every game night. But it is one that is light enough, and entertaining enough, that it certainly gets a good amount of gameplay from my collection. Whether you are using it as a nice, short filler game, or you’re playing with some young’uns, it makes for a happy atmosphere full of energy and happiness. And that’s why Purple Phoenix Games gives ICECOOL a brrrrrrrrrilliant 18 / 24.
You and your Penguin buddies are so hungry that you decide to skip out on class early to go grab some snacks. But you’ve forgotten about the Hall Monitor! Their mission is to catch any unauthorized hall wanderers and send them back to class. Can you outmaneuver the Hall Monitor, or will you be caught and forced to go hungry until the end of class?
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the rulebook in its entirety in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. To read the rules more in-depth, grab a copy of the game from your FLGS! -L
ICECOOL is a dexterity game in which players are trying to amass the most points over a number of rounds. Here’s how a round plays out. Select one player to be the Hall Monitor (called the Catcher) for the first round, and place their Penguin pawn in the kitchen box. All other players, aka the Runners, take their 3 colored fish tokens and attach them to the three corresponding doorways, and begin with their Penguin pawns in the classroom box. As a Runner, your goal is to collect your 3 fish tokens from their doorways. How do you do that? Flick your Penguin through a fish doorway to collect your snack. Yes, you read that right – flick. In this game, all movement is achieved by literally flicking your pieces throughout the boxes. To collect a fish, you must pass through the corresponding doorway completely in one single flick. Each time you collect a fish, draw the top card from the fish deck and keep it hidden from your opponents. Your other goal? Avoid the Catcher. If at any point, your Penguin comes into contact with the Catcher, you must forfeit your Hall Pass to the Catcher.
As the Catcher, your goal is to collect the Hall Pass of every other player. You achieve this goal by flicking your Penguin into any of the Runners. Turn order is as follows: Runners-Catcher, Runners-Catcher, etc., until the end of the round is triggered. The round is over when the Catcher has collected Hall Passes from every other player, or any Runner has collected all 3 of their fish. At the end of the round, each player collects 1 fish card per Hall Pass in their possession. So if you were caught by the Catcher, you’re outta luck! For the next round a new player is selected to be the Catcher, and play continues as above. The game ends once every player has taken a turn as the Catcher. Count up the points from your collected fish cards, and the player with the most points wins!
So a game of flicking Penguins around some boxes – sounds pretty simple, right? Yes and no. ICECOOL admittedly does not really require any serious strategy. Yes, you are trying to collect all 3 of your fish, but you’re mainly playing keep-away from the Catcher. And as the Catcher, you’re “It” in this quasi-game of Tag. So strategic, this is not. On the other hand, mastering the art of flicking your Penguin is a long and arduous process. Ok, it’s not arduous, but it is tricky to master! ICECOOL really puts your dexterity to the test to see if you have the proper form and control to move your Penguin to exactly where you want it to go. Half of the fun of this game is all the whiffed flicks and the comically accidental misdirections. The rulebook offers some flicking techniques to try out before your first game, and they are actually pretty helpful. I’ve not yet been able to achieve the jumping flick, but maybe one day I will rise to that level.
One other super neat thing about ICECOOL is the game setup. You’re playing with boxes of varying sizes. But here’s the kicker: they all nest into each other!!! So for storing, it looks like you just have one box. But in reality, there are 4 other boxes hidden inside. This concept is not one I’ve seen before in any other game, so that just makes ICECOOL a little bit more unique and interesting for me. Since I’m talking about the boxes, let me touch on components. The boxes are all of great quality, and are sturdy enough to hold up to clashing penguins. The Penguins themselves are good solid plastic, and I know they will last forever. Be careful though, flicking too hard might hurt your fingers! The deck of fish cards are a standard card quality. The artwork of the game is cute and thematic, and overall it’s a fun, immersive experience.
ICECOOL is not a game that I pull off the shelf at every game night. But it is one that is light enough, and entertaining enough, that it certainly gets a good amount of gameplay from my collection. Whether you are using it as a nice, short filler game, or you’re playing with some young’uns, it makes for a happy atmosphere full of energy and happiness. And that’s why Purple Phoenix Games gives ICECOOL a brrrrrrrrrilliant 18 / 24.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Aquaman (2018) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
Straight out of the blocks I want to say that there's excellent fluffy in the shape of a golden retriever puppy, and we also get some brilliant chompers in the form of an army of sharks... and you know how I feel about sharks.
The other thing I want to say, and I'm sorry in advance for the fact that it might annoy you if you haven't been to see it yet, but every wistful shot of the sky over the ocean seems to look like the Free Willy poster shot. Not even kidding. It was the first thing I thought when I saw it. Right there >>> they might have just photoshopped it in, I really don't know.
But I'm getting away from the reason I'm doing this... Aquaman.
I'm please to say that (as you can see from my rating) I thoroughly enjoyed this film. DC have really managed to pull it back. I was a firm believer that it was DC TV and Marvel films that were the winners, when they went off and tried the other side it wasn't such a success for either of them. DC seem to have found the magic formula though and hot on the trail of Wonder Woman and Justice League this feels like a real winner.
Yes I enjoyed Justice League, we're not going to argue about it now!
The attention to detail in the effects is impressive. You just have to look at all the minute details in the reflections on the glass to see that. We're also treated to a lot of ocean scenery that I'm sure you could comb over for hours and still not spot everything hidden in there.
There are moments where the effects become a little iffy though. The tremendous scene where Aquaman and Mera are being chased over roof tops for example. We get wide shots that leave little room to scrimp on the effort and they look visually stunning. At the same time though one of the bad guys is chasing Mera by running through the buildings below her and the graphics on him just don't hold the same impact at all.
Aquaman's underwater scenes actually didn't look a lot different than any normal film apart from the fact that everyone tends to be hovering in mid air/water with ballet pose toes. But just for a minute let us talk about the hair and the capes. Both floaty things in water. Both awful to look at on screen. It's bizarrely unnatural and really sticks out like a sore thumb from the first time you see it. At least it's not something that all the characters had, some of them had their hair tied back, and then they've got some kind of underwater hair gel (they could market that really well on land), both of those options gave scenes a little less distraction.
The first action sequence we get with Aquaman in the sub has some amazing camera work in it. We turn and flip with the characters following the motion of the body as it's being tossed around by our hero. It makes for an exciting scene, it's honestly not something I remember seeing in other films. This sequence also had a rather impressive use of a doorway as a lethal weapon.
While Aquaman is definitely a light-hearted superhero movie it does have it's deep moments. (And I'm not just talking about the ocean... no? Fine! No ridiculous jokes.) Manta and his father have a particularly moving moment that I wasn't expecting at all, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Michael Beach work so well together in that scene that it was a real shame it was over so quickly. Jason Momoa also gets some great speeches throughout the film, but in his case they are taken away from him at the last moment. I get it, he's an edgy no nonsense kind of a character that says it like it is. But let him just have one speech where he doesn't ruin it at the end by calling someone a dick.
Now I'll admit that it didn't hurt that this movie had some very attractive people in it that were wet a lot of the time... you know you were thinking it too! I do however want to call them out on their Bond-esque emerging from the water scene... it didn't work, find your own niche.
I'm honestly amazed at how many notes I wrote, I've got so many thing I want to talk about but honestly we'd be here all day so I'm just going to highlight the rest for your free interpretation: superhero landings, power slides, "little baby oceans", drumming octopus, killer narwhals?, bar montage, Ant-Man And The Wasp rip off credits, rip off Bifrost, stop pollution the oceans it's pissing off the Atlantians. Oh, and Julie Andrews was in it!
What you should do
This is a very good superhero movie. There's love, there's action, there's friendship, and more importantly they have a cute dog. You should definitely see it.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I do love the water, so some Atlantian superpowers wouldn't go amiss. There's no way I currently look that graceful in the water.
The other thing I want to say, and I'm sorry in advance for the fact that it might annoy you if you haven't been to see it yet, but every wistful shot of the sky over the ocean seems to look like the Free Willy poster shot. Not even kidding. It was the first thing I thought when I saw it. Right there >>> they might have just photoshopped it in, I really don't know.
But I'm getting away from the reason I'm doing this... Aquaman.
I'm please to say that (as you can see from my rating) I thoroughly enjoyed this film. DC have really managed to pull it back. I was a firm believer that it was DC TV and Marvel films that were the winners, when they went off and tried the other side it wasn't such a success for either of them. DC seem to have found the magic formula though and hot on the trail of Wonder Woman and Justice League this feels like a real winner.
Yes I enjoyed Justice League, we're not going to argue about it now!
The attention to detail in the effects is impressive. You just have to look at all the minute details in the reflections on the glass to see that. We're also treated to a lot of ocean scenery that I'm sure you could comb over for hours and still not spot everything hidden in there.
There are moments where the effects become a little iffy though. The tremendous scene where Aquaman and Mera are being chased over roof tops for example. We get wide shots that leave little room to scrimp on the effort and they look visually stunning. At the same time though one of the bad guys is chasing Mera by running through the buildings below her and the graphics on him just don't hold the same impact at all.
Aquaman's underwater scenes actually didn't look a lot different than any normal film apart from the fact that everyone tends to be hovering in mid air/water with ballet pose toes. But just for a minute let us talk about the hair and the capes. Both floaty things in water. Both awful to look at on screen. It's bizarrely unnatural and really sticks out like a sore thumb from the first time you see it. At least it's not something that all the characters had, some of them had their hair tied back, and then they've got some kind of underwater hair gel (they could market that really well on land), both of those options gave scenes a little less distraction.
The first action sequence we get with Aquaman in the sub has some amazing camera work in it. We turn and flip with the characters following the motion of the body as it's being tossed around by our hero. It makes for an exciting scene, it's honestly not something I remember seeing in other films. This sequence also had a rather impressive use of a doorway as a lethal weapon.
While Aquaman is definitely a light-hearted superhero movie it does have it's deep moments. (And I'm not just talking about the ocean... no? Fine! No ridiculous jokes.) Manta and his father have a particularly moving moment that I wasn't expecting at all, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Michael Beach work so well together in that scene that it was a real shame it was over so quickly. Jason Momoa also gets some great speeches throughout the film, but in his case they are taken away from him at the last moment. I get it, he's an edgy no nonsense kind of a character that says it like it is. But let him just have one speech where he doesn't ruin it at the end by calling someone a dick.
Now I'll admit that it didn't hurt that this movie had some very attractive people in it that were wet a lot of the time... you know you were thinking it too! I do however want to call them out on their Bond-esque emerging from the water scene... it didn't work, find your own niche.
I'm honestly amazed at how many notes I wrote, I've got so many thing I want to talk about but honestly we'd be here all day so I'm just going to highlight the rest for your free interpretation: superhero landings, power slides, "little baby oceans", drumming octopus, killer narwhals?, bar montage, Ant-Man And The Wasp rip off credits, rip off Bifrost, stop pollution the oceans it's pissing off the Atlantians. Oh, and Julie Andrews was in it!
What you should do
This is a very good superhero movie. There's love, there's action, there's friendship, and more importantly they have a cute dog. You should definitely see it.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I do love the water, so some Atlantian superpowers wouldn't go amiss. There's no way I currently look that graceful in the water.
Writing (3 more)
No character development
Too many inconsistencies
Too many chapters
Errin Stowell's new novel series starts with Covet Not which is about a middle-aged lawyer named Sam Sparks - - - who is referred to as Sparks nearly the entire story - - - whose fiancee goes missing and he then becomes the prime suspect. Before everything happens though, readers see that Sparks spends his time trying to defend the elderly from home foreclosures as a small-time lawyer.
If this sounds like a synopsis for a John Grisham novel, you wouldn't be far off because Stowell has the potential to be the next one. This is only the first novel I've read by Stowell, but the one thing I noticed mostly in this story was the amount of inconsistencies and amateur writing mistakes; with better editing and consistency, his books could very well hit mainstream.
Also, Covet Not had so many chapters, so much so that scenes were chopped in half and made into entirely new chapters. The book ended up having 48 chapters within 158 pages. This amount could have easily been shortened and helped with the flow of the story if Stowell had just continued onwards with scenes rather then cutting them short or just skipping parts completely.
The novel starts with a man called Skinny who is enjoying his growing infamy on the dark web (he records himself murdering women then uploads it for his audience to enjoy). Here is how Stowell describes Skinny's thought process:
" Skinny took a black ski mask from the duffel bag and put it on before carrying the bag into the camera's frame and placing it near the woman. He began unpacking other items from the bag. It was slow work, deliberately slow for the camera. Skinny intended to have a before and after view for each tool. It was important to show the proper use of tools. The viewers always appreciated that. "
When we switch over to Sparks, we find him after a long day of work, speaking with a journalist named Gina, his fiancee, who is telling him one of her co-workers stole her story, but no one has heard from her in two days. Yet, they both agree that she's probably holed up with one of the producers, and instead, get into a small argument about Sparks never supporting Gina - - - a constant habit of arguing is almost every interaction between the two throughout the entire novel.
Soon after, Sparks introduces us to his uncle Jimmy, who is being housed at a retirement home: " The old man was seated in a wheelchair; his left leg had been amputated just below the knee a few years before, the result of allowing an ingrown toenail to fester to gangrene. Jimmy's barrel chest and solid upper body contrasted with his wasting legs. "
As Sparks continues to visit his uncle in the retirement home, he keeps running into a cute nurse named Darlene, who quickly sets her sights on him. She goes so far out of her way to get Sparks and Gina to separate that she sends him nude photos of herself from a burner phone. Fortunately, Sparks has bigger fish to fry when he hears over his car radio that Gina's co-worker was now being treated as a missing person case, causing Sparks to quickly jump to the conclusion that Gina possibly was responsible for it.
However, Stowell throws in an expected curveball by making our villain, Skinny, work at the retirement home. When he comes in to take care of a patient while Sparks is present, it's too easy to guess that this patient was going to end up dead soon. Sparks, expectedly, has a bad feeling about this male nurse, but dismisses it and believes that the patient died by natural causes. Life goes on.
Stowell's novel, with a great plot, was just too focused on ending the story, that after page 50, it seemed as if Stowell didn't care what happened to these characters, just as long as he finished the book. At one point, readers are told that Sparks doesn't drink alcohol, but it's never explained why he doesn't which would have given a bite of character development; another scene, Sparks finds a phone, but doesn't want to give it to police, instead he states that he has a 'friend' in the police department who can go through it as a favor, but this 'friend' is completely forgotten, as if Sparks never mentioned him, and the former is left dumbfounded as to how to get into the phone.
There's a story here and characters that could be more well-rounded, but I honestly found myself not caring the least bit about any of the characters' well-being, especially Sparks - - - someone who comes off as inept, someone who has to be told what to do in order for anything to get done - - - he's like a lost child running blindly throughout the book. The story needs to be longer with more emphasis given to mundane scenes that will allow readers to chew on a piece of Sparks' daily life because, by the end of the book, we needed a full picture of every major character, not a Jackson Pollock.
If this sounds like a synopsis for a John Grisham novel, you wouldn't be far off because Stowell has the potential to be the next one. This is only the first novel I've read by Stowell, but the one thing I noticed mostly in this story was the amount of inconsistencies and amateur writing mistakes; with better editing and consistency, his books could very well hit mainstream.
Also, Covet Not had so many chapters, so much so that scenes were chopped in half and made into entirely new chapters. The book ended up having 48 chapters within 158 pages. This amount could have easily been shortened and helped with the flow of the story if Stowell had just continued onwards with scenes rather then cutting them short or just skipping parts completely.
The novel starts with a man called Skinny who is enjoying his growing infamy on the dark web (he records himself murdering women then uploads it for his audience to enjoy). Here is how Stowell describes Skinny's thought process:
" Skinny took a black ski mask from the duffel bag and put it on before carrying the bag into the camera's frame and placing it near the woman. He began unpacking other items from the bag. It was slow work, deliberately slow for the camera. Skinny intended to have a before and after view for each tool. It was important to show the proper use of tools. The viewers always appreciated that. "
When we switch over to Sparks, we find him after a long day of work, speaking with a journalist named Gina, his fiancee, who is telling him one of her co-workers stole her story, but no one has heard from her in two days. Yet, they both agree that she's probably holed up with one of the producers, and instead, get into a small argument about Sparks never supporting Gina - - - a constant habit of arguing is almost every interaction between the two throughout the entire novel.
Soon after, Sparks introduces us to his uncle Jimmy, who is being housed at a retirement home: " The old man was seated in a wheelchair; his left leg had been amputated just below the knee a few years before, the result of allowing an ingrown toenail to fester to gangrene. Jimmy's barrel chest and solid upper body contrasted with his wasting legs. "
As Sparks continues to visit his uncle in the retirement home, he keeps running into a cute nurse named Darlene, who quickly sets her sights on him. She goes so far out of her way to get Sparks and Gina to separate that she sends him nude photos of herself from a burner phone. Fortunately, Sparks has bigger fish to fry when he hears over his car radio that Gina's co-worker was now being treated as a missing person case, causing Sparks to quickly jump to the conclusion that Gina possibly was responsible for it.
However, Stowell throws in an expected curveball by making our villain, Skinny, work at the retirement home. When he comes in to take care of a patient while Sparks is present, it's too easy to guess that this patient was going to end up dead soon. Sparks, expectedly, has a bad feeling about this male nurse, but dismisses it and believes that the patient died by natural causes. Life goes on.
Stowell's novel, with a great plot, was just too focused on ending the story, that after page 50, it seemed as if Stowell didn't care what happened to these characters, just as long as he finished the book. At one point, readers are told that Sparks doesn't drink alcohol, but it's never explained why he doesn't which would have given a bite of character development; another scene, Sparks finds a phone, but doesn't want to give it to police, instead he states that he has a 'friend' in the police department who can go through it as a favor, but this 'friend' is completely forgotten, as if Sparks never mentioned him, and the former is left dumbfounded as to how to get into the phone.
There's a story here and characters that could be more well-rounded, but I honestly found myself not caring the least bit about any of the characters' well-being, especially Sparks - - - someone who comes off as inept, someone who has to be told what to do in order for anything to get done - - - he's like a lost child running blindly throughout the book. The story needs to be longer with more emphasis given to mundane scenes that will allow readers to chew on a piece of Sparks' daily life because, by the end of the book, we needed a full picture of every major character, not a Jackson Pollock.
Jamie (131 KP) rated When Dimple Met Rishi in Books
Aug 15, 2017
Sweet romance (1 more)
Great commentary about cultural identity
Underdeveloped plot (2 more)
Unconvincing setting
Frustrating main character
A sweet summer romance with potential that just didn't work for me
Sigh. It’s hard for me to decide how to start this review because I found myself confused and disappointed when I finished. I think I suffered a little bit from overhype about this book since it was recommended so highly and talked about like mad over the summer. I wanted to love this book because everything just sounded so perfect: a strong willed STEM girl heroine, a clash between cultures, a sweet summer romance with lots of laughs, and one of the cutest book covers I’ve seen in a long time–I was all over it!
I absolutely adored the first half of this book. I could sympathize with both of the main characters, especially Dimple, whose mother reminded me of my own. I too was that nerdy awkward girl that felt uncomfortable wearing makeup and dresses and found happiness in front of a computer screen grinding out code to make websites and browser games. Like my mom, Dimple’s mother pushes her to be more feminine and doesn’t fully understand modern western culture. Dimple struggles with feeling like an outsider in both of her worlds, an experience shared by many American children with immigrant parents. It made me happy that this duality is explored in the novel as I think it’s important for children and teens that, like me, had difficulties with their cultural identity.
On the other hand there’s Rishi, who embraces his cultural heritage and doesn’t care whether or not he “fits in” with either group. He is still a modern young man adapted to western culture that also values tradition and believes with all of his heart in the fairy tale romance of his parents. He is exceptionally sweet and witty and is pretty much the ideal cute nerd boyfriend. The romance between Dimple and Rishi is swoon-worthy and made my heart melt.. Which was great for exactly half of the book.
With the Insomnia Con setting what I expected was a summer “coding camp” similar to ones like the Make School Summer Academy and others held on college campuses around the country every year. Many of these camps usually offer workshops to practice making programs, opportunities to make professional connections and to meet industry leaders, and very often have competitions where they can create and submit their own apps for a cool cash prize. I guess my expectations were misplaced because What I got, sadly, was high school drama with hook ups and a talent show that turned more into a dance competition? Dance? In a coding camp??
This was the start of when the book stopped working for me.
A large part of Dimple’s story revolves around her desire to develop her own app to catapult her into a successful tech career. The book talks at length about how much this matters to her, how she’s dying to make connections to help her on her way, and how she’s so different from other girls by being interested in coding. The book tells the reader all of these things but fails to actually show the reader these things. It’s easy to forget that the main characters are even at a coding camp because so little time is spent on it. The plot just gets plain weird and doesn’t seem to have any sort of focus, even the romance felt rushed.
Also I’m sorry, the dance competition was exceedingly boring to read. That and, well, the love story has already happened by then so the build up for that is finished as well. So what else was there? I thought heavily about skimming or just putting the book down at that point but I honestly wanted to know if Dimple would win the competition (the app one, not the dance one) and achieve her dream of becoming a high powered STEM girl. I was still optimistic that the book would get back to the code camp, but it never does. In fact, three weeks out of the six week camp is skipped completely as the story fast forwards to the result of the app completion. The more I read the more disappointed I was as the plot became more and more juvenile.
By the 3/4 mark it seemed like there was no story left to tell and was starting to seriously drag. So of course there had to be some drama to keep it going. I hated this part. Dimple’s actions in the later portion of the book quite frankly left me feeling confused because they didn’t make any sense whatsoever. It was frustrating and I quite frankly got a little mad at how Dimple treated Rishi in the latter half of the novel. Such a shame considering how amazing the story set up was and how strong the early chapters were.
The characters drift from dinners, parties, and dance practices with next to no time actually coding and it made for a surprisingly boring and mediocre read for me personally. Even despite my criticisms, When Dimple Met Rishi is still a sweet summer romance that shined in the first half of the book. Just because it didn’t work out so well for me doesn’t mean that it won’t work out for others, in fact I seem to be in quite the minority for this book. This book definitely had a lot of potential and I honestly wish that the tech girl part of the story could have been developed better and for the setting to be a little more convincing.
I absolutely adored the first half of this book. I could sympathize with both of the main characters, especially Dimple, whose mother reminded me of my own. I too was that nerdy awkward girl that felt uncomfortable wearing makeup and dresses and found happiness in front of a computer screen grinding out code to make websites and browser games. Like my mom, Dimple’s mother pushes her to be more feminine and doesn’t fully understand modern western culture. Dimple struggles with feeling like an outsider in both of her worlds, an experience shared by many American children with immigrant parents. It made me happy that this duality is explored in the novel as I think it’s important for children and teens that, like me, had difficulties with their cultural identity.
On the other hand there’s Rishi, who embraces his cultural heritage and doesn’t care whether or not he “fits in” with either group. He is still a modern young man adapted to western culture that also values tradition and believes with all of his heart in the fairy tale romance of his parents. He is exceptionally sweet and witty and is pretty much the ideal cute nerd boyfriend. The romance between Dimple and Rishi is swoon-worthy and made my heart melt.. Which was great for exactly half of the book.
With the Insomnia Con setting what I expected was a summer “coding camp” similar to ones like the Make School Summer Academy and others held on college campuses around the country every year. Many of these camps usually offer workshops to practice making programs, opportunities to make professional connections and to meet industry leaders, and very often have competitions where they can create and submit their own apps for a cool cash prize. I guess my expectations were misplaced because What I got, sadly, was high school drama with hook ups and a talent show that turned more into a dance competition? Dance? In a coding camp??
This was the start of when the book stopped working for me.
A large part of Dimple’s story revolves around her desire to develop her own app to catapult her into a successful tech career. The book talks at length about how much this matters to her, how she’s dying to make connections to help her on her way, and how she’s so different from other girls by being interested in coding. The book tells the reader all of these things but fails to actually show the reader these things. It’s easy to forget that the main characters are even at a coding camp because so little time is spent on it. The plot just gets plain weird and doesn’t seem to have any sort of focus, even the romance felt rushed.
Also I’m sorry, the dance competition was exceedingly boring to read. That and, well, the love story has already happened by then so the build up for that is finished as well. So what else was there? I thought heavily about skimming or just putting the book down at that point but I honestly wanted to know if Dimple would win the competition (the app one, not the dance one) and achieve her dream of becoming a high powered STEM girl. I was still optimistic that the book would get back to the code camp, but it never does. In fact, three weeks out of the six week camp is skipped completely as the story fast forwards to the result of the app completion. The more I read the more disappointed I was as the plot became more and more juvenile.
By the 3/4 mark it seemed like there was no story left to tell and was starting to seriously drag. So of course there had to be some drama to keep it going. I hated this part. Dimple’s actions in the later portion of the book quite frankly left me feeling confused because they didn’t make any sense whatsoever. It was frustrating and I quite frankly got a little mad at how Dimple treated Rishi in the latter half of the novel. Such a shame considering how amazing the story set up was and how strong the early chapters were.
The characters drift from dinners, parties, and dance practices with next to no time actually coding and it made for a surprisingly boring and mediocre read for me personally. Even despite my criticisms, When Dimple Met Rishi is still a sweet summer romance that shined in the first half of the book. Just because it didn’t work out so well for me doesn’t mean that it won’t work out for others, in fact I seem to be in quite the minority for this book. This book definitely had a lot of potential and I honestly wish that the tech girl part of the story could have been developed better and for the setting to be a little more convincing.
Mothergamer (1546 KP) rated Okami HD in Video Games
Apr 3, 2019
Okami is one of my personal favorite games. When it came out on the PS2 I played it often. When I saw that Okami HD was available for PS4, I got it immediately. I was thrilled to play one of my favorite games again. This was also a game I chose to stream on my Twitch channel. The things I loved about Okami were still here in the HD remastered version. The art style was as beautiful as ever and the music was great. The story and the characters that I remembered brought a smile to my face. Playing as the white wolf god Amaterasu with her little Poncle pal Issun was so much fun. Exploring everywhere is half the fun because each area is so different from the next.
Amaterasu exploring.
The story is very much about helping nature as Amaterasu is a god and referred to as the mother of all. The goal is to find her celestial brush techniques and use them on your adventure as needed. For example a technique called Bloom, has you putting the celestial brush on a dead tree and when you do it, there is a beautiful cutscene that shows the tree blooming with cherry blossoms. When you do it with the guardian trees, an even prettier cutscene happens that rids the land of the curse and everything blooms and there are cute animals too.
Using the celestial brush to use the bloom technique.
Since Amaterasu is a god, she needs praise in order to level up her skills and health. There are several ways to do this. One way is by feeding the animals throughout the lands. You can buy food for the animals from the merchants in the towns. When you feed the animals the food they like you earn praise. The biggest one of course is healing all the guardian trees and healing the trees throughout the different areas. You can also do all the side quests and help the people you meet and you earn praise from helping them. When you have enough praise for various things such as increasing your ink pots or your health, you can upgrade them with all the praise you have earned.
There are also digging mini games where Amaterasu uses her digging abilities and celestial brush skills to help people find things. The digging mini game can be a little frustrating because it does not give you a lot of time and you have to look for blossoms with timer orbs and use bloom on them to add extra time. When you use your brush skills, the timer is still counting down so you have to be as fast as you can. If you run out of time, you have to start over again. This is why it can be a little frustrating, but the game is still fun.
The digging mini game in action. Be fast!
There are all kinds of demons to fight and you earn experience points, yen, and extra ink when you beat them. For the story there are several boss demons you need to fight. There are different strategies for each boss and you need to use your celestial brush skills in order to defeat them. This is where the art style of Okami really shines as no two bosses are alike and using the skills is a creative way to handle them. However, I did have a huge issue with the final boss fight. It was over the top and ridiculous. While I understand that it was meant to be a challenge, this fight had everything but the kitchen sink. There were at least five different things I had to avoid, dodge, or not get crushed under. This also caused frustration with my streaming because from the beginning Okami had been very stream friendly and everyone was enjoying it. When I got to the final boss however, it blocked the scenes. If it was just the cutscenes I could understand that, but it blocked the entire final boss fight and the closing credits. I get that they want to avoid spoilers too, but at this point if a person is watching the streaming and people have been watching since the beginning, there is no point in blocking the final scenes. I know I am fairly new to streaming and currently I am streaming from my PS4 until I get the equipment I need, but this was definitely incredibly infuriating. I did finish the game, but I felt I had to apologize to my viewers for this happening and I did. Luckily, they were all very supportive and understanding about the whole thing.
One of the boss battles in Okami.
In spite of that frustration I did enjoy the game. Okami is still a game that is dear to my heart because of the story, the art style, the characters, and wonderful music. It is fun to play and overall I did enjoy streaming it because I got to share a game I loved with everyone. It is a game that celebrates friendship, love, and doing your best to be kind and help others which is something I talk about often. A game that is not only fun to play, but offers such a wonderful story with those ideals is a pretty fantastic thing. After the game is done, you can play a new game plus with all the items and upgrades you have earned. You can also get any side quests you missed. Okami was so much fun to play again and I'm happy that we got to go on that adventure together. Thanks for reading, everyone. See you at the next adventure!
Amaterasu exploring.
The story is very much about helping nature as Amaterasu is a god and referred to as the mother of all. The goal is to find her celestial brush techniques and use them on your adventure as needed. For example a technique called Bloom, has you putting the celestial brush on a dead tree and when you do it, there is a beautiful cutscene that shows the tree blooming with cherry blossoms. When you do it with the guardian trees, an even prettier cutscene happens that rids the land of the curse and everything blooms and there are cute animals too.
Using the celestial brush to use the bloom technique.
Since Amaterasu is a god, she needs praise in order to level up her skills and health. There are several ways to do this. One way is by feeding the animals throughout the lands. You can buy food for the animals from the merchants in the towns. When you feed the animals the food they like you earn praise. The biggest one of course is healing all the guardian trees and healing the trees throughout the different areas. You can also do all the side quests and help the people you meet and you earn praise from helping them. When you have enough praise for various things such as increasing your ink pots or your health, you can upgrade them with all the praise you have earned.
There are also digging mini games where Amaterasu uses her digging abilities and celestial brush skills to help people find things. The digging mini game can be a little frustrating because it does not give you a lot of time and you have to look for blossoms with timer orbs and use bloom on them to add extra time. When you use your brush skills, the timer is still counting down so you have to be as fast as you can. If you run out of time, you have to start over again. This is why it can be a little frustrating, but the game is still fun.
The digging mini game in action. Be fast!
There are all kinds of demons to fight and you earn experience points, yen, and extra ink when you beat them. For the story there are several boss demons you need to fight. There are different strategies for each boss and you need to use your celestial brush skills in order to defeat them. This is where the art style of Okami really shines as no two bosses are alike and using the skills is a creative way to handle them. However, I did have a huge issue with the final boss fight. It was over the top and ridiculous. While I understand that it was meant to be a challenge, this fight had everything but the kitchen sink. There were at least five different things I had to avoid, dodge, or not get crushed under. This also caused frustration with my streaming because from the beginning Okami had been very stream friendly and everyone was enjoying it. When I got to the final boss however, it blocked the scenes. If it was just the cutscenes I could understand that, but it blocked the entire final boss fight and the closing credits. I get that they want to avoid spoilers too, but at this point if a person is watching the streaming and people have been watching since the beginning, there is no point in blocking the final scenes. I know I am fairly new to streaming and currently I am streaming from my PS4 until I get the equipment I need, but this was definitely incredibly infuriating. I did finish the game, but I felt I had to apologize to my viewers for this happening and I did. Luckily, they were all very supportive and understanding about the whole thing.
One of the boss battles in Okami.
In spite of that frustration I did enjoy the game. Okami is still a game that is dear to my heart because of the story, the art style, the characters, and wonderful music. It is fun to play and overall I did enjoy streaming it because I got to share a game I loved with everyone. It is a game that celebrates friendship, love, and doing your best to be kind and help others which is something I talk about often. A game that is not only fun to play, but offers such a wonderful story with those ideals is a pretty fantastic thing. After the game is done, you can play a new game plus with all the items and upgrades you have earned. You can also get any side quests you missed. Okami was so much fun to play again and I'm happy that we got to go on that adventure together. Thanks for reading, everyone. See you at the next adventure!
Mothergamer (1546 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Kingdom Hearts III in Video Games
Apr 3, 2019
It took so long to get here, but once Kingdom Hearts III was here I was ready to play and explore all the worlds. It felt incredible to be traveling with Sora, Goofy, and Donald again. The opening song was incredible and the introduction to the game starts off well, hooking you in immediately. There are a couple of familiar worlds such as Olympus and Twilight Town which act as tutorials for the battle controls and exploration aspects of the game.
Sora hangs out with Hercules.
The battle system for Kingdom Hearts III is great. Combat is fluid, easy to follow, and fun. You can easily swap between keyblades, use your magic abilities, and use your items. Level grinding is not a chore because the battles are so much fun and the worlds that you explore make them even more so. My personal favorite was Toy Story because Sora fit so well in that world and there some pretty fun battles there.
Having fun with battles in Toy Story.
Another fun aspect to battles that was added in the game are the attraction flow attacks. These are not just stylish and fun, they are also pretty powerful special attacks. You can take out many enemies with these attacks so there is no downside to using them at all. My personal favorite was the pirate ship because it was a blast spinning around taking out tons of Heartless.
Use attraction flow attacks to take out your enemies.
The user menu is easy to navigate and is quite user friendly. You can easily equip keyblades, items, and accessories as well as organize everything easily. The moogle shop is back too and you can synthesize and craft items that you need as well as upgrade your keyblades.
The inventory menu is nice and neat.
Another new addition to the game is the gummiphone. This is a cute little nod to social media things like Instagram. You can take photos with the gummiphone and there are even some photo quests where you need to take pictures of specific things in order to get various rewards such as items and munny. In between loading screens you get to see Instagram style posts from the gummiphone that reference the characters, story, and events. It's a nice touch to the game.
Instagram style posts from the gummiphone.
There are also mini games that you can play on your gummiphone. You have to find the code for them which are hidden in various worlds. When you do, you can play a variety of mini games that look like old school Nintendo gameboy games. They all feature Mickey and Sora with games like catching eggs or flying a plane to grab mail. They're silly fun and add that extra bit of whimsy to Kingdom Hearts III.
You can play all these mini games on your gummiphone.
If you're not in the mood for gummiphone games, there is also a cooking mini game that you can play. In order to play, you need to have ingredients for all the recipes. These are easily found in all the worlds you visit during your adventure. Once you have some ingredients you can bring them to Remy (the rat from the movie Rattatouille) and try your skills at the cooking mini game. The cooking mini game is fun, but there is definitely a learning curve to it. If you go too fast or too slow, you fail and you can lose all the ingredients you found. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can make a ton of great dishes and Sora and friends can use them to up their stats.
Practice makes perfect with the cooking mini game.
The world map is pretty easy to see and you can swap between the maps fairly easily. Once you discover a location you can fast travel there which makes things easier. I do wish there had been a few more worlds, but I was pretty happy with the worlds the game had. Everything looked amazing and it was clear that they really wanted things to be done right.
The world map in Kingdom Hearts III.
There is one thing that I absolutely detested in the game however and that thing is the gummi ship. I have never liked the gummi ship in any of the Kingdom Hearts games. The controls for them in my opinion have always been terrible and I always dreaded gummi ship battles. That has not changed for me with Kingdom Hearts III. While the controls have improved quite a bit, I still found myself struggling with them. Having to fight the controls to fly the gummi ship is not a good time. I also didn't like the fact that I would be forced into gummi ship battles before I could land on worlds. I truly feel that the gummi ship should have been optional. This is the only thing I did not like about the game.
I am not a fan of the gummi ship.
I blazed through Kingdom Hearts III because the game itself was an amazing adventure and I couldn't wait to save the world with friendship. The story was great, the worlds were so much fun to explore, and there were so many heartbreaking and heartwarming emotions throughout this adventure. Kingdom Hearts III did a fantastic job of making me care about all of these characters and I was a little sad to say goodbye at the end. Having one thing I didn't like about the game and loving the rest of it speaks volumes about how fantastic I think the game is. It was definitely worth the wait. See you at the next adventure!
Sora hangs out with Hercules.
The battle system for Kingdom Hearts III is great. Combat is fluid, easy to follow, and fun. You can easily swap between keyblades, use your magic abilities, and use your items. Level grinding is not a chore because the battles are so much fun and the worlds that you explore make them even more so. My personal favorite was Toy Story because Sora fit so well in that world and there some pretty fun battles there.
Having fun with battles in Toy Story.
Another fun aspect to battles that was added in the game are the attraction flow attacks. These are not just stylish and fun, they are also pretty powerful special attacks. You can take out many enemies with these attacks so there is no downside to using them at all. My personal favorite was the pirate ship because it was a blast spinning around taking out tons of Heartless.
Use attraction flow attacks to take out your enemies.
The user menu is easy to navigate and is quite user friendly. You can easily equip keyblades, items, and accessories as well as organize everything easily. The moogle shop is back too and you can synthesize and craft items that you need as well as upgrade your keyblades.
The inventory menu is nice and neat.
Another new addition to the game is the gummiphone. This is a cute little nod to social media things like Instagram. You can take photos with the gummiphone and there are even some photo quests where you need to take pictures of specific things in order to get various rewards such as items and munny. In between loading screens you get to see Instagram style posts from the gummiphone that reference the characters, story, and events. It's a nice touch to the game.
Instagram style posts from the gummiphone.
There are also mini games that you can play on your gummiphone. You have to find the code for them which are hidden in various worlds. When you do, you can play a variety of mini games that look like old school Nintendo gameboy games. They all feature Mickey and Sora with games like catching eggs or flying a plane to grab mail. They're silly fun and add that extra bit of whimsy to Kingdom Hearts III.
You can play all these mini games on your gummiphone.
If you're not in the mood for gummiphone games, there is also a cooking mini game that you can play. In order to play, you need to have ingredients for all the recipes. These are easily found in all the worlds you visit during your adventure. Once you have some ingredients you can bring them to Remy (the rat from the movie Rattatouille) and try your skills at the cooking mini game. The cooking mini game is fun, but there is definitely a learning curve to it. If you go too fast or too slow, you fail and you can lose all the ingredients you found. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can make a ton of great dishes and Sora and friends can use them to up their stats.
Practice makes perfect with the cooking mini game.
The world map is pretty easy to see and you can swap between the maps fairly easily. Once you discover a location you can fast travel there which makes things easier. I do wish there had been a few more worlds, but I was pretty happy with the worlds the game had. Everything looked amazing and it was clear that they really wanted things to be done right.
The world map in Kingdom Hearts III.
There is one thing that I absolutely detested in the game however and that thing is the gummi ship. I have never liked the gummi ship in any of the Kingdom Hearts games. The controls for them in my opinion have always been terrible and I always dreaded gummi ship battles. That has not changed for me with Kingdom Hearts III. While the controls have improved quite a bit, I still found myself struggling with them. Having to fight the controls to fly the gummi ship is not a good time. I also didn't like the fact that I would be forced into gummi ship battles before I could land on worlds. I truly feel that the gummi ship should have been optional. This is the only thing I did not like about the game.
I am not a fan of the gummi ship.
I blazed through Kingdom Hearts III because the game itself was an amazing adventure and I couldn't wait to save the world with friendship. The story was great, the worlds were so much fun to explore, and there were so many heartbreaking and heartwarming emotions throughout this adventure. Kingdom Hearts III did a fantastic job of making me care about all of these characters and I was a little sad to say goodbye at the end. Having one thing I didn't like about the game and loving the rest of it speaks volumes about how fantastic I think the game is. It was definitely worth the wait. See you at the next adventure!
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Faded (The Faded Trilogy, #1) in Books
Jan 23, 2020
Faded, was, well, a tad bit boring. The concept's interesting 4 teens are killed and are then bought back to life to help some spirits who are like guardian angels and have been around for almost a hundred years defeat a trio of peeps called The Forces who have been around since 1989. Oh, and it most certainly puts out a new definition of feeling as though someone's watching you.
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gswVIYSfcvM/U4ekIGUabqI/AAAAAAAADWE/McEZ8jexlHQ/s1600/giphy+(3).gif"; height="179" width="320">
I promise you I really don't
The world to me before that time seemed like a utopian society, hence "perfect little town of Fort Everwick." In fact, the story started out boring in the prologue, even though I and possibly many others appreciated the set up so I wasn't confused later. Plus, there wouldn't be any need of a long novella or prequel to everything. Which may or may not result in me wishing to stick my hand through the screen, pull out the book, and throw it at the wall.
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nEbLJxU6kIw/U4ekYLUnVhI/AAAAAAAADWM/INy-VFIulSg/s1600/throwing-book.gif"; height="179" width="320">
The story really didn't catch my attention until the accident happened each scene just seems to enter with a boring start and Faded just didn't click too much with me on the writing. However, after the accident happened, I found the attacks becoming more old each time after the first. It just seemed to be a repeat of the others doors slam shut of their own accord, doors and windows can't be opened, windows shatter, lights flicker on and off before plunging everyone into darkness really, I actually thought Chloe would keep using the same tactic throughout the entire story and then just let it end. Hope was nearly lost until knives decided to start flying. I'm pretty I did a happy dance as well. I know that sounds really weird for me to have hope and start dancing when there are flying knives involved, but that's beside the point.
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mA0fuCk0cxI/U4elybjJ9EI/AAAAAAAADWc/sBKoSXUqc0g/s1600/im-bored-so-bored.gif"; height="151" width="320">
What I also didn't like were the point of views just switching randomly not many signals whatsoever. Perhaps that's just the nature of third person and I'm just so used to seeing first person (has anyone noticed that?). Either way, it was confusing how the author would go from Savannah to Abigail, Logan to Jackson, or anyone else.
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E58aKHQnzK4/U4emA3lXoMI/AAAAAAAADWk/520TrVGPGXE/s1600/giphy+(4).gif"; height="140" width="320">
That said, characters! I thought Hattie was really cute and perky. She was just the sunshine of the entire story and so optimistic while everyone else was either a) serious, b) running for their lives (kidding) or c) oblivious (the majority of the townspeople). Savannah seemed to be a great heroine, but I really can't promise that entirely due to the repeats of the attacks from the Forces. She seems like a really strong heroine with her determination and loyalty especially to her little sister (their relationship is so amazing; most siblings fight in books!) but like I said earlier... not so original attacks.
<blockquote>I was there the day she was born. I was there when she started school. I was there the first time she fell off her bike, and I was the one who picked her up and helped her get back on it. You know why? Because Im her sister. Thats what Im supposed to do. Im supposed to protect her. Its an unwritten rule.</blockquote>
I loved Hunter's charm and the way he used words in front of Savannah. It's as though he's doing a creative *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* towards Savannah.
<blockquote>Hunter: So, how about a date?
Savannah: What?
Hunter: How about a date that is actually in the eighties? I can only find dates that are in the seventies. How about you?
Savannah: You mean the article dates?
Hunter: What did you think I meant?</blockquote>
Perhaps what I really loved the most are the failures after the accident, when Madison, Abigail, Jackson and Savannah have no control over their powers. I actually found those scenes funny I mean, everyone's literally oblivious for the most part especially Operation Scare Keira. ;)
<blockquote>Jackson: But I thought I was invisible.
Madison: Well, you thought wrong because youre clearly not.
Jackson: But Coach Ford didnt yell at me once during practice, so I figured I must be invisible today.
Madison: So the first place you think to test out that theory is in the girls locker room?</blockquote>
That's not the operation, but I did find that pretty funny... :3
While Faded isn't the greatest start in the entire world or made a dent into my favorites, it's certainly memorable with the characters and its uniqueness (ooo, random thought: girl falls in love with a ghost... Phantom of the Opera anyone?). I'm really curious as to how Miles will play out the second book in the trilogy, and hopefully it'll be much different in any attacks there compared to Faded.
-----------------------------
Review copy provided by the author
This review and more posted over at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/review-faded-by-chloe-miles.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
Formatting may be lost due to copy and paste
<a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gi5Rk5yLloA/UtliaUbdL3I/AAAAAAAACbE/J27z92_qrYU/s1600/Official+Banner.png"; /></a>
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gswVIYSfcvM/U4ekIGUabqI/AAAAAAAADWE/McEZ8jexlHQ/s1600/giphy+(3).gif"; height="179" width="320">
I promise you I really don't
The world to me before that time seemed like a utopian society, hence "perfect little town of Fort Everwick." In fact, the story started out boring in the prologue, even though I and possibly many others appreciated the set up so I wasn't confused later. Plus, there wouldn't be any need of a long novella or prequel to everything. Which may or may not result in me wishing to stick my hand through the screen, pull out the book, and throw it at the wall.
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nEbLJxU6kIw/U4ekYLUnVhI/AAAAAAAADWM/INy-VFIulSg/s1600/throwing-book.gif"; height="179" width="320">
The story really didn't catch my attention until the accident happened each scene just seems to enter with a boring start and Faded just didn't click too much with me on the writing. However, after the accident happened, I found the attacks becoming more old each time after the first. It just seemed to be a repeat of the others doors slam shut of their own accord, doors and windows can't be opened, windows shatter, lights flicker on and off before plunging everyone into darkness really, I actually thought Chloe would keep using the same tactic throughout the entire story and then just let it end. Hope was nearly lost until knives decided to start flying. I'm pretty I did a happy dance as well. I know that sounds really weird for me to have hope and start dancing when there are flying knives involved, but that's beside the point.
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mA0fuCk0cxI/U4elybjJ9EI/AAAAAAAADWc/sBKoSXUqc0g/s1600/im-bored-so-bored.gif"; height="151" width="320">
What I also didn't like were the point of views just switching randomly not many signals whatsoever. Perhaps that's just the nature of third person and I'm just so used to seeing first person (has anyone noticed that?). Either way, it was confusing how the author would go from Savannah to Abigail, Logan to Jackson, or anyone else.
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E58aKHQnzK4/U4emA3lXoMI/AAAAAAAADWk/520TrVGPGXE/s1600/giphy+(4).gif"; height="140" width="320">
That said, characters! I thought Hattie was really cute and perky. She was just the sunshine of the entire story and so optimistic while everyone else was either a) serious, b) running for their lives (kidding) or c) oblivious (the majority of the townspeople). Savannah seemed to be a great heroine, but I really can't promise that entirely due to the repeats of the attacks from the Forces. She seems like a really strong heroine with her determination and loyalty especially to her little sister (their relationship is so amazing; most siblings fight in books!) but like I said earlier... not so original attacks.
<blockquote>I was there the day she was born. I was there when she started school. I was there the first time she fell off her bike, and I was the one who picked her up and helped her get back on it. You know why? Because Im her sister. Thats what Im supposed to do. Im supposed to protect her. Its an unwritten rule.</blockquote>
I loved Hunter's charm and the way he used words in front of Savannah. It's as though he's doing a creative *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* towards Savannah.
<blockquote>Hunter: So, how about a date?
Savannah: What?
Hunter: How about a date that is actually in the eighties? I can only find dates that are in the seventies. How about you?
Savannah: You mean the article dates?
Hunter: What did you think I meant?</blockquote>
Perhaps what I really loved the most are the failures after the accident, when Madison, Abigail, Jackson and Savannah have no control over their powers. I actually found those scenes funny I mean, everyone's literally oblivious for the most part especially Operation Scare Keira. ;)
<blockquote>Jackson: But I thought I was invisible.
Madison: Well, you thought wrong because youre clearly not.
Jackson: But Coach Ford didnt yell at me once during practice, so I figured I must be invisible today.
Madison: So the first place you think to test out that theory is in the girls locker room?</blockquote>
That's not the operation, but I did find that pretty funny... :3
While Faded isn't the greatest start in the entire world or made a dent into my favorites, it's certainly memorable with the characters and its uniqueness (ooo, random thought: girl falls in love with a ghost... Phantom of the Opera anyone?). I'm really curious as to how Miles will play out the second book in the trilogy, and hopefully it'll be much different in any attacks there compared to Faded.
-----------------------------
Review copy provided by the author
This review and more posted over at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/review-faded-by-chloe-miles.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
Formatting may be lost due to copy and paste
<a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gi5Rk5yLloA/UtliaUbdL3I/AAAAAAAACbE/J27z92_qrYU/s1600/Official+Banner.png"; /></a>
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Yes! Broccoli! in Tabletop Games
Mar 25, 2020
I’m sure you saw the title of this review and thought I had lost my mind. Well, I thought I had lost my mind when I saw the description of this one and immediately was excited to play it. Not that broccoli is my favorite food, but I do love it. My son, however, loves broccoli. Wait, he LOVES broccoli. Hopefully now you can understand why I would be excited to play a card game about health food geared toward children to teach them about good vs bad food items. I love my kids, and I love games. When I can combine those, I am a happy guy.
Yes! Broccoli! is a card game for 2-5 players that incorporates blind bidding, special player powers (in advanced games), and drafting elements. The hidden benefit from this game is that healthy food cards are worth more points while the junk food cards are worth negative points (boo and hiss).
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online from the publisher directly, or from your FLGS if stocked. -T
To setup a basic game, each player will take a personal deck of cards numbered 1-8 of the same color border (I choose orange or purple). These are the cards that will be used during the game. Shuffle the large stack of food cards as a draw deck. Draw a number of cards equal to the number of players, determine the starting player and the game is ready to be consumed!
The players will all choose one of their bid cards from their hand and place them face-down in front of them. Once all have chosen, all bid cards will be revealed simultaneously. The highest-bid card’s player will then choose one of the drawn food cards to take into their score pile. That winning player now acts as the dealer and will draw and reveal the next set of cards upon which the players will bid. As the players play all their numbered cards, they may win food cards worth many points, or they may be saddled with negative values as well. These are the junk food cards that nobody wants. Except my son, who wanted all the Candy T-Rex cards, even knowing that it will affect his score. Some people play to win. Others play to have a good time. I admire that about him. Play continues in this fashion until all bid cards have been played. Count up the points won/gathered and determine a winner! This is the basic game to be played with new players or young children.
To play a more advanced game, setup will be the same, except each player will also be dealt two special ability cards to be used during the game. These cards are very powerful, and can only be used once during the game. As this adds a new and thinky layer to the basic game, it is only recommended for older children or adult play. Examples of these special abilities are having the lowest-bid card win instead of highest card, or doubling a bid amount, or adding/subtracting three to/from a current bid.
Components. This game is a big stack of cards in a small (but appropriately-sized) box. The cards are great, and while I would prefer plastic cards for my young kids, children who can respect game components will be just fine. The art on these cards is super cute and I found myself just smiling while I was playing because not only is this game educational for youngsters, but it’s fun to look at while playing too. I made a parenthetical comment about the box being appropriately-sized, and I mean it. I appreciate when a game doesn’t try to be bigger on the shelf for that extra “presence” at the game store. When I open a box and more than 50% is air, it is very irksome to me. How wasteful. Well, not here. We have nothing bad to say about these components at all.
So while most kids may not appreciate the backstabbiness of the special abilities, adults certainly will. That said, when playing with the intended audience of children, we found that Yes! Broccoli! was a huge hit! We are still working on the younger kids and breaking them of the, “yes, the cake princess is very pretty, but you really don’t want to take her into your score pile.” Winning and losing really doesn’t matter much in the Lopez household, but gaming experiences do, and though my son doesn’t win this one ever, he loves it, and I love playing it with him. So I consider this a win, and though our official Purple Phoenix Games rating has a caloric value of 8 / 12, I do believe you will enjoy this little card game – ESPECIALLY if there are little ones in your life. Purchase it directly from the publisher at Gangway Games. You can use it as a precursor to Munchkin and Cutthroat Cavern, or as a stepstone to bidding games like Biblios and No Thanks!
Yes! Broccoli! is a card game for 2-5 players that incorporates blind bidding, special player powers (in advanced games), and drafting elements. The hidden benefit from this game is that healthy food cards are worth more points while the junk food cards are worth negative points (boo and hiss).
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online from the publisher directly, or from your FLGS if stocked. -T
To setup a basic game, each player will take a personal deck of cards numbered 1-8 of the same color border (I choose orange or purple). These are the cards that will be used during the game. Shuffle the large stack of food cards as a draw deck. Draw a number of cards equal to the number of players, determine the starting player and the game is ready to be consumed!
The players will all choose one of their bid cards from their hand and place them face-down in front of them. Once all have chosen, all bid cards will be revealed simultaneously. The highest-bid card’s player will then choose one of the drawn food cards to take into their score pile. That winning player now acts as the dealer and will draw and reveal the next set of cards upon which the players will bid. As the players play all their numbered cards, they may win food cards worth many points, or they may be saddled with negative values as well. These are the junk food cards that nobody wants. Except my son, who wanted all the Candy T-Rex cards, even knowing that it will affect his score. Some people play to win. Others play to have a good time. I admire that about him. Play continues in this fashion until all bid cards have been played. Count up the points won/gathered and determine a winner! This is the basic game to be played with new players or young children.
To play a more advanced game, setup will be the same, except each player will also be dealt two special ability cards to be used during the game. These cards are very powerful, and can only be used once during the game. As this adds a new and thinky layer to the basic game, it is only recommended for older children or adult play. Examples of these special abilities are having the lowest-bid card win instead of highest card, or doubling a bid amount, or adding/subtracting three to/from a current bid.
Components. This game is a big stack of cards in a small (but appropriately-sized) box. The cards are great, and while I would prefer plastic cards for my young kids, children who can respect game components will be just fine. The art on these cards is super cute and I found myself just smiling while I was playing because not only is this game educational for youngsters, but it’s fun to look at while playing too. I made a parenthetical comment about the box being appropriately-sized, and I mean it. I appreciate when a game doesn’t try to be bigger on the shelf for that extra “presence” at the game store. When I open a box and more than 50% is air, it is very irksome to me. How wasteful. Well, not here. We have nothing bad to say about these components at all.
So while most kids may not appreciate the backstabbiness of the special abilities, adults certainly will. That said, when playing with the intended audience of children, we found that Yes! Broccoli! was a huge hit! We are still working on the younger kids and breaking them of the, “yes, the cake princess is very pretty, but you really don’t want to take her into your score pile.” Winning and losing really doesn’t matter much in the Lopez household, but gaming experiences do, and though my son doesn’t win this one ever, he loves it, and I love playing it with him. So I consider this a win, and though our official Purple Phoenix Games rating has a caloric value of 8 / 12, I do believe you will enjoy this little card game – ESPECIALLY if there are little ones in your life. Purchase it directly from the publisher at Gangway Games. You can use it as a precursor to Munchkin and Cutthroat Cavern, or as a stepstone to bidding games like Biblios and No Thanks!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Cloud Control in Tabletop Games
Dec 31, 2020
We see so often on TV and movies characters looking up at the sky and picking out figures in the clouds. Maybe they see elephants, or airplanes, or ice cream cones. Usually when I look up into the clouds I see impending rain showers, or snowflakes pelting my face, or merely barricades to the sun. I almost never get the fun shapes that I expect, sadly. But now, with Cloud Control in my arsenal, I can make any shape I wish. For victory points!
Cloud Control is a 3-10 player party game of building unique cloud shapes from cues on cards. By manipulating basic cloud shapes players must get their opponents to guess what they are building to score VP kites.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup shuffle the cards into one gigantic pile or into smaller stacks, as shown below. Separate the square cloud shape cards by shape and place them into stacks by shape. Place the VP kites and sand timer nearby and determine the starting player. The game may now begin with the first cloud artist!
On a turn the active player will draw a Shape Card, choose one of the shapes and then have someone start the timer. Within the 90 seconds provided the player will need to grab Cloud Cards from the stacks to create their versions of the shapes prompted. Once the timer runs out, or other players correctly guesses what is being built, both the artist and guessers will receive point kites equal to the difficulty of the shapes identified. Easier creations will score 1VP while more difficult ones will score 3VP. Play then proceeds to the next player in table order to take their turn.
Once every player has had a turn to build, a lightning round will commence. The starting player will choose a Shape Card and then announce to all players the shape to be built. The players will have 90 seconds to each build the shape announced by taking only ONE Cloud Card at a time to add to their creation. Once the timer is out of sand, it is flipped once again for players to explain their creations. At the end of this arguing period all players will vote and the shape with the most votes will earn 5VP.
Players will each have one more turn to earn points for Shape Cards, and the winner is the player with the most VPs.
Components. This game is a bunch of Cloud Cards, 300 Shape Cards (plus extra blanks if you received the promos), VP kites, and a sand timer. The timer is normal sand timer quality, the cards used throughout the game are all fine quality, and the kites are cute red and gold tokens. The art style in the game is very light and airy and fits very well with the theme. Again, I have no problems with the components from 25th Century Games.
The gameplay is really fun, and turns (though 90 seconds long) seem like they go by so quickly that one could easily lose track of time playing. Having to work super fast because you are trying to score all the shapes on the card is harrying and stressful, or just a little less so if you decide to go big and detailed for just 3VP on one shape. Finding interesting uses for the basic shapes keeps all players active and on the edge of their seats. This truly is a wonderful party game (for when you can have game nights again).
Why didn’t I rate it higher then if I seem to like it so much? Well, for my typical game group, we tend to gravitate toward games with more meat on their bones. So I really do not see this getting played a ton on a regular rotation. That said, I am basing this on our game nights we had pre-COVID so things may certainly change once we are able to get together as a large group again. While I have played this with different player counts, I haven’t been able to get more than four to play. So I am keeping my rating open for now. I could see it improving down the road when I am able to play this with more people. I just really want to test its limit of 10 players and see how it goes. If it can handle 8+ and still be just as fun as with three or four, I will update this review and the graphic up top.
For now, Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a floaty 8 / 12. I do love being able to bust out my creative side and think more in geometric shapes. Every player I have played with seems to also enjoy it quite a bit. It is simple to teach and learn, plays quickly, and offers so many opportunities to laugh hysterically as players attempt to create common items or concepts from uncommon basic cloud shapes. If you are looking for something a little different to bring to game night or offer your friends and family, check out Cloud Control. And post some photos of your better creations. I want to see them!
Cloud Control is a 3-10 player party game of building unique cloud shapes from cues on cards. By manipulating basic cloud shapes players must get their opponents to guess what they are building to score VP kites.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup shuffle the cards into one gigantic pile or into smaller stacks, as shown below. Separate the square cloud shape cards by shape and place them into stacks by shape. Place the VP kites and sand timer nearby and determine the starting player. The game may now begin with the first cloud artist!
On a turn the active player will draw a Shape Card, choose one of the shapes and then have someone start the timer. Within the 90 seconds provided the player will need to grab Cloud Cards from the stacks to create their versions of the shapes prompted. Once the timer runs out, or other players correctly guesses what is being built, both the artist and guessers will receive point kites equal to the difficulty of the shapes identified. Easier creations will score 1VP while more difficult ones will score 3VP. Play then proceeds to the next player in table order to take their turn.
Once every player has had a turn to build, a lightning round will commence. The starting player will choose a Shape Card and then announce to all players the shape to be built. The players will have 90 seconds to each build the shape announced by taking only ONE Cloud Card at a time to add to their creation. Once the timer is out of sand, it is flipped once again for players to explain their creations. At the end of this arguing period all players will vote and the shape with the most votes will earn 5VP.
Players will each have one more turn to earn points for Shape Cards, and the winner is the player with the most VPs.
Components. This game is a bunch of Cloud Cards, 300 Shape Cards (plus extra blanks if you received the promos), VP kites, and a sand timer. The timer is normal sand timer quality, the cards used throughout the game are all fine quality, and the kites are cute red and gold tokens. The art style in the game is very light and airy and fits very well with the theme. Again, I have no problems with the components from 25th Century Games.
The gameplay is really fun, and turns (though 90 seconds long) seem like they go by so quickly that one could easily lose track of time playing. Having to work super fast because you are trying to score all the shapes on the card is harrying and stressful, or just a little less so if you decide to go big and detailed for just 3VP on one shape. Finding interesting uses for the basic shapes keeps all players active and on the edge of their seats. This truly is a wonderful party game (for when you can have game nights again).
Why didn’t I rate it higher then if I seem to like it so much? Well, for my typical game group, we tend to gravitate toward games with more meat on their bones. So I really do not see this getting played a ton on a regular rotation. That said, I am basing this on our game nights we had pre-COVID so things may certainly change once we are able to get together as a large group again. While I have played this with different player counts, I haven’t been able to get more than four to play. So I am keeping my rating open for now. I could see it improving down the road when I am able to play this with more people. I just really want to test its limit of 10 players and see how it goes. If it can handle 8+ and still be just as fun as with three or four, I will update this review and the graphic up top.
For now, Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a floaty 8 / 12. I do love being able to bust out my creative side and think more in geometric shapes. Every player I have played with seems to also enjoy it quite a bit. It is simple to teach and learn, plays quickly, and offers so many opportunities to laugh hysterically as players attempt to create common items or concepts from uncommon basic cloud shapes. If you are looking for something a little different to bring to game night or offer your friends and family, check out Cloud Control. And post some photos of your better creations. I want to see them!
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Great Wall (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Exercising your Damons.
Millions of people watching the Oscars would have seen Jimmy Kimmel roasting poor Matt Damon as a part of their long running ‘feud’. At one point he points out that Matt gave up the leading role in “Manchester by the Sea” to star in a “Chinese ponytail movie” that “went on to lose $80 million at the box office”. “The Great Wall” is that movie!
So is it really that bad?
Well, it’s no “Manchester by the Sea” for sure. But I don’t think it’s quite the total turkey that critics have been labelling it as either. I went to see it on a Sunday afternoon, and approaching it as a matinee bit of frothy action is a good mental state to be in.
Matt Damon plays the ponytailed-wonder William, a European mercenary travelling in 11th Century China with his colleague Tovar (Pedro Pascal) in an attempt to determine the secrets of black powder – a secret well-guarded by the Chinese. Captured by the ‘New Order’ at the Great Wall and imprisoned there by General Shao (Hanyu Zhang), William earns the respect of Shao and his beautiful warrior second-in-command Lin Mae (Tian Jing) with his bowmanship. This is almost immediately put to use by the arrival (after 60 year’s absence – a funny thing, timing, isn’t it?) of hoards of vicious creatures called Taoties. (I thought they said Tauntauns initially, so was expecting some sort of Chinese/Star Wars crossover! But no.)
Taoties who scale the wall are defeated by William who poleaxes them. (This is an attempt at brilliant humour to anyone who has already seen the film – poleaxe…. get it? POLEaxe. Oh, never mind!) Despite being a mercenary at heart, William is torn between staying and helping Lin Mae fight the beasts and fleeing with Tovar, their new chum Ballard (Willem Dafoe) and their black powder loot. (I’m sure something about Lin Mae’s tight-fitting blue armour was influential in his decision).
This is an historic film in that although in recent years there has been cross-fertilization of Chinese actors into Western films for box-office reasons (for example, in the appalling “Independence Day: Resurgence” and the much better Damon vehicle “The Martian“) this was the first truly co-produced Chinese/Hollywood feature filmed entirely in China. It might also be the last given the film’s $150 million budget and the dismal box-office!
To start with some positives, you can rely on a Chinese-set film (the film location was Qingdao) to allow the use of an army of extras and – although a whole bunch of CGI was also no doubt used – some of the battles scenes are impressive. There is a stirring choral theme by Ramin Djawadi (best known for his TV themes for “Game of Thrones” and the brilliant “Westworld”) played over silk-screen painted end titles that just make for a beautiful combination. And Tian Jing as the heroine Lin Mae is not only stunningly good-looking but also injects some much needed acting talent into the cast, where most of those involved (including Damon himself) look like they would rather be somewhere else.
And some of the action scenes are rather fun in a ‘park your brain by the door’ sort of way, including (nonsensically) cute warrior girls high-diving off the wall on bungey ropes to near certain death. While the CGI monsters are of the (yawn) over-the-top LoTR variety, their ability to swarm like locusts at the Queen’s command is also quite entertainingly rendered.
Where the movie balloon comes crashing down to earth in flames though is with the story and the screenplay – all done by three different people each, which is NEVER a good sign.
The story (by Max Brooks (“World War Z”), Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (both on “The Last Samurai”) is plain nonsensical at times. No spoilers here, but the transition from “wall under siege” to “wall not under siege” gives the word ‘clunky’ a bad name. As another absurdity, the “New Order” seem amazed how William was able to slay one of the creatures (thanks to the poleaxing ‘McGuffin’ previously referenced) but then throughout the rest of the film he slays creatures left right and centre (McGuffin-less) through just the use of a spear or an arrow! Bonkers.
Things get worse when you add words to the actions. The screenplay by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro (both “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”) and Tony Gilroy (Tony Gilroy? Surely not he of all the “Bourne” films and “Rogue One” fame? The very same!) has a reading age of about an 8 year old. It feels like it has been translated into Chinese and then back again to English with Google Translate. “Is that the best you can do?” asks Tovar to William at one point. I was thinking exactly the same thing.
The combination of the cinematography and the special effects have the unfortunate effect of giving the film the veneer of a video game, but this is one where your kid-brother has stolen the controls and refuses to give them back to you.
Having had the great thrill of visiting a section of The Great Wall near Beijing, I can confirm that it is an astonishing engineering masterpiece that has to be seen to be truly believed. It ranks as one of the genuine wonders of the world. The same can not be said of this movie. Early teens might enjoy it as a mindless action flick. But otherwise best avoided until it emerges on a raining Sunday afternoon on the TV.
So is it really that bad?
Well, it’s no “Manchester by the Sea” for sure. But I don’t think it’s quite the total turkey that critics have been labelling it as either. I went to see it on a Sunday afternoon, and approaching it as a matinee bit of frothy action is a good mental state to be in.
Matt Damon plays the ponytailed-wonder William, a European mercenary travelling in 11th Century China with his colleague Tovar (Pedro Pascal) in an attempt to determine the secrets of black powder – a secret well-guarded by the Chinese. Captured by the ‘New Order’ at the Great Wall and imprisoned there by General Shao (Hanyu Zhang), William earns the respect of Shao and his beautiful warrior second-in-command Lin Mae (Tian Jing) with his bowmanship. This is almost immediately put to use by the arrival (after 60 year’s absence – a funny thing, timing, isn’t it?) of hoards of vicious creatures called Taoties. (I thought they said Tauntauns initially, so was expecting some sort of Chinese/Star Wars crossover! But no.)
Taoties who scale the wall are defeated by William who poleaxes them. (This is an attempt at brilliant humour to anyone who has already seen the film – poleaxe…. get it? POLEaxe. Oh, never mind!) Despite being a mercenary at heart, William is torn between staying and helping Lin Mae fight the beasts and fleeing with Tovar, their new chum Ballard (Willem Dafoe) and their black powder loot. (I’m sure something about Lin Mae’s tight-fitting blue armour was influential in his decision).
This is an historic film in that although in recent years there has been cross-fertilization of Chinese actors into Western films for box-office reasons (for example, in the appalling “Independence Day: Resurgence” and the much better Damon vehicle “The Martian“) this was the first truly co-produced Chinese/Hollywood feature filmed entirely in China. It might also be the last given the film’s $150 million budget and the dismal box-office!
To start with some positives, you can rely on a Chinese-set film (the film location was Qingdao) to allow the use of an army of extras and – although a whole bunch of CGI was also no doubt used – some of the battles scenes are impressive. There is a stirring choral theme by Ramin Djawadi (best known for his TV themes for “Game of Thrones” and the brilliant “Westworld”) played over silk-screen painted end titles that just make for a beautiful combination. And Tian Jing as the heroine Lin Mae is not only stunningly good-looking but also injects some much needed acting talent into the cast, where most of those involved (including Damon himself) look like they would rather be somewhere else.
And some of the action scenes are rather fun in a ‘park your brain by the door’ sort of way, including (nonsensically) cute warrior girls high-diving off the wall on bungey ropes to near certain death. While the CGI monsters are of the (yawn) over-the-top LoTR variety, their ability to swarm like locusts at the Queen’s command is also quite entertainingly rendered.
Where the movie balloon comes crashing down to earth in flames though is with the story and the screenplay – all done by three different people each, which is NEVER a good sign.
The story (by Max Brooks (“World War Z”), Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (both on “The Last Samurai”) is plain nonsensical at times. No spoilers here, but the transition from “wall under siege” to “wall not under siege” gives the word ‘clunky’ a bad name. As another absurdity, the “New Order” seem amazed how William was able to slay one of the creatures (thanks to the poleaxing ‘McGuffin’ previously referenced) but then throughout the rest of the film he slays creatures left right and centre (McGuffin-less) through just the use of a spear or an arrow! Bonkers.
Things get worse when you add words to the actions. The screenplay by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro (both “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”) and Tony Gilroy (Tony Gilroy? Surely not he of all the “Bourne” films and “Rogue One” fame? The very same!) has a reading age of about an 8 year old. It feels like it has been translated into Chinese and then back again to English with Google Translate. “Is that the best you can do?” asks Tovar to William at one point. I was thinking exactly the same thing.
The combination of the cinematography and the special effects have the unfortunate effect of giving the film the veneer of a video game, but this is one where your kid-brother has stolen the controls and refuses to give them back to you.
Having had the great thrill of visiting a section of The Great Wall near Beijing, I can confirm that it is an astonishing engineering masterpiece that has to be seen to be truly believed. It ranks as one of the genuine wonders of the world. The same can not be said of this movie. Early teens might enjoy it as a mindless action flick. But otherwise best avoided until it emerges on a raining Sunday afternoon on the TV.