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Managing Packaging Design for Sustainable Development: A Compass for Strategic Directions
Daniel Hellstrom and Annika Olsson
Book
Packaging design is a powerful vehicle for making our lives friendlier, our planet greener and our...
Mothergamer (1565 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Trials of Mana in Video Games
Jul 13, 2020
I remember playing the original Trials Of Mana and enjoying it for the story and gameplay. This Trials Of Mana is a remake and instead of a 2D topdown, it is now fully 3D with updated graphics and modernized gameplay. The story while simple is good and the game itself is charming because of the characters, music, and combat system. Battles are fun and grinding doesn't feel like a chore at all because of the more modern feel. You have 6 different characters to choose from for your main character and can choose 2 characters to be your companions to round out your party. This gives you different story chapters showing you different origin stories for each character as well as different villains. The world in the game is fairly linear with just the main quest and no real side quests, but that doesn't detract from the game too much because there is a lot of replay value with new game plus and the chance to play the game with new characters. The game is about 30 hours and for me personally it was fun and had a nice fairytale feel to it and it appealed to my nostalgia of the original and introduced my daughters to a new JRPG that they really liked. Full Mothergamer review is here: http://lorrie28-mothergamer.blogspot.com/2020/07/mothergamer-plays-trials-of-mana.html
Ryan Hill (152 KP) rated Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in Movies
Jun 29, 2019
"We opened Pandora's box. And there's no closing it now."
With Godzilla (2014) Legendary Pictures was the first American studio to get it right. No idiotic US edits of the latest Japanese films. No remakes that went out of it's way to be anything but Godzilla. It was GODZILLA! Now from what I understand from an interview with Shinji Higuchi is that Legendary only has the rights to Godzilla until 2020. So what do you do in that case? Well since you only have time to make one more Godzilla film before Godzilla vs. Kong, you do the obvious; You remake Destroy All Monsters!
There is some Michael Bay level stupidity going on in some moments of this film, but I don't care. I loved it. Some of the great Toho Godzilla films have goofy science combined with forgettable human characters. This one isn't even close to being the greatest offender of this in the franchise. Besides, when it comes to Vera Farmiga and Kyle Chandler I'm going to care about their characters at least a little no matter how they're written.
The film makers really went out of their way with tons of references from Godzilla's history. They even find a way to do a subtle nod to the Shobijin which I didn't think they'd ever touch with a 10 foot pole. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's just things that are used in the film that aren't part of American pop culture like the character itself of Godzilla. There's a lot of shit that only people who have seen the original films will pick up on.
The score is great, but even greater is that they actually used Gozilla's theme which is god damn iconic and shockingly even Mothra's theme. How can you not love that? I dunno. Maybe I'm just a geek, but seeing Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan and Godzilla in a big budget Hollywood movie just blows my mind. I loved it. It's basically the American remake of Destroy All Monsters. Don't bother telling me how dumb the movie is either. I fully realize how dumb it is.
There is some Michael Bay level stupidity going on in some moments of this film, but I don't care. I loved it. Some of the great Toho Godzilla films have goofy science combined with forgettable human characters. This one isn't even close to being the greatest offender of this in the franchise. Besides, when it comes to Vera Farmiga and Kyle Chandler I'm going to care about their characters at least a little no matter how they're written.
The film makers really went out of their way with tons of references from Godzilla's history. They even find a way to do a subtle nod to the Shobijin which I didn't think they'd ever touch with a 10 foot pole. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's just things that are used in the film that aren't part of American pop culture like the character itself of Godzilla. There's a lot of shit that only people who have seen the original films will pick up on.
The score is great, but even greater is that they actually used Gozilla's theme which is god damn iconic and shockingly even Mothra's theme. How can you not love that? I dunno. Maybe I'm just a geek, but seeing Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan and Godzilla in a big budget Hollywood movie just blows my mind. I loved it. It's basically the American remake of Destroy All Monsters. Don't bother telling me how dumb the movie is either. I fully realize how dumb it is.
Waste Away: Working and Living with a North American Landfill
Book
Though we are the most wasteful people in the history of the world, very few of us know what becomes...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Village of the Damned (1995) in Movies
Nov 16, 2019
Thumpingly unsubtle SF remake turns up the horror dial but doesn't seem aware that sometimes less is more. After a strange town-wide blackout, the citizens of Midwich (do they really have 'villages' in Northern California, anyway?) discover ten women have simultaneously become pregnant. They give birth to eerily similar children who seem to have psychic powers.
Released in 1995, this is very much The Midwich Cuckoos for the X Files generation, but ends up just another signpost marking the decline of John Carpenter as a film-maker worth paying attention to. The sad thing is that he really does seem familiar with both the original British film and the source novel (elements of the book missing from the 1960 film reappear here) and is obviously trying to do his best to honour them, but where John Wyndham is chillingly subtle and understated, John Carpenter is just walloping the audience with a succession of predictable set-piece 'shocks'. Reasonable CGI but overall it looks cheap and unconvincing; some reasonable performances from an interesting cast, but there's a limit to what they can do with such a duff script.
Released in 1995, this is very much The Midwich Cuckoos for the X Files generation, but ends up just another signpost marking the decline of John Carpenter as a film-maker worth paying attention to. The sad thing is that he really does seem familiar with both the original British film and the source novel (elements of the book missing from the 1960 film reappear here) and is obviously trying to do his best to honour them, but where John Wyndham is chillingly subtle and understated, John Carpenter is just walloping the audience with a succession of predictable set-piece 'shocks'. Reasonable CGI but overall it looks cheap and unconvincing; some reasonable performances from an interesting cast, but there's a limit to what they can do with such a duff script.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The White Crow (2018) in Movies
Mar 28, 2019 (Updated Mar 28, 2019)
Left-field remake focuses less on vengeful undead Goths and more on cold war politics and ballet dancing. Talented, driven, arrogant dancer Rudolf Nureyev chafes against the Soviet system seeking to exploit and control him; a visit to Paris offers him the hope of freedom. (You know, the more I think about it, the more I suspect this doesn't actually have anything to do with that Brandon Lee movie...)
Solid, typically measured stuff from Ralph 'Little Sunbeam' Fiennes; strong performances and good photography, together with a thoughtful script, make this engaging even if you're not that into people bounding around doing plies and what-have-you. Sags a bit in the middle, but the scenes depicting Nureyev's defection are gripping. Oleg Ivenko isn't quite the full Rudolf, but he gets near enough (thanks everyone, I'm here all week).
Solid, typically measured stuff from Ralph 'Little Sunbeam' Fiennes; strong performances and good photography, together with a thoughtful script, make this engaging even if you're not that into people bounding around doing plies and what-have-you. Sags a bit in the middle, but the scenes depicting Nureyev's defection are gripping. Oleg Ivenko isn't quite the full Rudolf, but he gets near enough (thanks everyone, I'm here all week).
Joe Dante recommended The Old Dark House (1932) in Movies (curated)
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated It (2017) in Movies
Jan 16, 2018 (Updated Jan 16, 2018)
Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise (1 more)
Child actors
Unlike the original, scares a little overhyped
I had a lot of expectations going in to watch this remake of a classic. But I'm a little disappointed to be honest.
Unlike the original, this film solely concentrates on the cast as they were children, and there are no scenes of them as adults replaying their pasts. However, it is apparent that there will be a second part, as the kids mention their pact to reunite if the clown ever makes another appearance. In this way, they have changed Stephen King's book, but I'm not sure if it's for the better. One of the gifts of King horrors are the actual plots and storylines that run through them. Here, it actually felt like a slightly scarier version of @Stranger Things with even an actor from the series landing one of the main roles in this film.
On the upside, there were plenty of nods to the original movie, with Tim Curry's clown making a cameo in one of the scenes. Bill Skarsgard's version was just as good as Curry's but the downside was that there was too many scenes with him making an appearance losing the scare factor. Sometimes less is more. The child actors were fantastic, and the back stories were far darker, exposing abuse in its many forms. Overall, it was an interesting watch, but it may have been overhyped.
Unlike the original, this film solely concentrates on the cast as they were children, and there are no scenes of them as adults replaying their pasts. However, it is apparent that there will be a second part, as the kids mention their pact to reunite if the clown ever makes another appearance. In this way, they have changed Stephen King's book, but I'm not sure if it's for the better. One of the gifts of King horrors are the actual plots and storylines that run through them. Here, it actually felt like a slightly scarier version of @Stranger Things with even an actor from the series landing one of the main roles in this film.
On the upside, there were plenty of nods to the original movie, with Tim Curry's clown making a cameo in one of the scenes. Bill Skarsgard's version was just as good as Curry's but the downside was that there was too many scenes with him making an appearance losing the scare factor. Sometimes less is more. The child actors were fantastic, and the back stories were far darker, exposing abuse in its many forms. Overall, it was an interesting watch, but it may have been overhyped.
Erika (17789 KP) rated The Grinch (2018) in Movies
Nov 9, 2018 (Updated Nov 9, 2018)
As expected, there was nothing new to see here. The Grinch is one of my favorite Christmas stories, so I had to see this one.
This film reverted back to the original story, in contrast to the film in the early 2000s, where the commercialism was downplayed. There were some unnecessary plot points, and the Grinch was more mildly annoyed with Christmas. Benedict Cumberbatch was kind of perfect for the voice part and he was, by far, the most entertaining. I could have lived without the whole Cindy-Lou Who plot line, but I guess it had to be in there to stretch the story out to nearly 90 minutes. Again , another unnecessary remake, but I still enjoyed it.
This film reverted back to the original story, in contrast to the film in the early 2000s, where the commercialism was downplayed. There were some unnecessary plot points, and the Grinch was more mildly annoyed with Christmas. Benedict Cumberbatch was kind of perfect for the voice part and he was, by far, the most entertaining. I could have lived without the whole Cindy-Lou Who plot line, but I guess it had to be in there to stretch the story out to nearly 90 minutes. Again , another unnecessary remake, but I still enjoyed it.