Gears of War Judgment REVIEW -SPOILERS-

Well hello everyone!, Sorry I haven't been able to do much apart from the odd trailer. Essays ain't fun!

Anyway, as you can already see, this review is about Gears of War Judgement (4).  On hearing about a sequel to Gears of War 3, I couldn't understand what they would be able to do when the Locust swarms were defeated and human society began rebuilding. However, we start a few weeks after the great war that the COG's fought in the Pendulum War's against other nations and in the aftermath of Emergence Day. Here we follow a younger Lieutenant, Damon Baird and his team 'Kilo Squad'. To set the scene, Kilo squad are dragged into a large complex while being labelled as war criminals, each character the reports to the leader of the Onyx core (Elite soldiers) in a tribunal hearing while Locusts fight the defences outside. As each character explains what happened, we play through their experience leading up to the 'crime' that they committed.

An interesting introduction and plot that managed to keep me involved. Yet that isn't hard when the main campaign took me approximately 6-7 hours of playing - Yes, I'm tired after playing till 2am but it just didn't feel long enough. For a game that costs up to £40 with an even higher RRP, you would expect to get a lot for your money. They even dropped in an extra campaign which is called Aftermath, this only took 1-2 hours. In this we follow Baird and Cole in Gears of war 3 as they go find a ship and some reinforcement for the final assault. This should have been a DLC pack or part of the story for the game it is involved in. It leaves me to think that this game was simply an opportunity of get some extra cash out of fans like myself.

Very little has changed in the world of COG's. Visuals are astonishing, with vast landscapes that need to be on a nice big 1080p screen! With new games, I will always look at their fire effects. This is my indication on whether a game is well made and well funded or vis versa. Gears had this effect which is brilliantly demonstrated with the first few minutes of game play, with a tree engulfed in flames filling the sky with a black fog. All the standard controls are back, no change there. They are still a little fiddly to start and can be a slight annoyance when you want to turn around sharply to smack a dude upside the head with your Lancer-chainsaw combo. Cover based shooting is always good but annoying when you try to switch between cover. I have also never understood how they are still alive when they hulk over any of the cover, but you know, it's only a game.

I've yet to test the online game play for this but seeing I have some time before the release of Bioshock, I should be able to give it a little poke. I know the standard games are back with all new maps. From my previous experience, online games can be really fun and do require a lot of team work between players to win matches like Horde, where you are bum-rushed by tons of the slimy gits.

Overall, the game is great fun. I'm a big fan of Gears and a big fan of excessive violence in games. As much as this is an unnecessary follow up to a game which ended quite clearly, the story was gripping and helped to describe a deeper look into Baird's background before he meet Dom even when it appears to be a way to get some extra cash, but we all know big corporations wouldn't go doing that now...Wink wink, nudge nudge...

 For this game, I will give it 7.5/10
(Because I can!, that's why!)

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters -SPOILERS-

Please be aware, there are spoilers in here!

On release day, I was eager to get to the cinema to watch Hansel and Gretel for a few reasons:

1)      The trailer looked pretty damn cool

2)      Jeremy Renner

3)      Gemma Arteton

4)      Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack

5)      Amazing premise

6)      Action and Violence!

Once exiting the cinema, I spent time looking back at what I just watched. Questions left completely unanswered and some poor decisions by the writers.

Firstly, why on earth was it only in 3D in all of the VUE cinemas in my area! The 3D did nothing to the story, did not create depth and was only used to keep the viewers on their feet when something was thrown towards them which never actually happened to me. It appears to me to be a fad only used to draw in those die hard fans of 3D (which should probably re-evaluate their lives if that is all they want) or to trap others into paying a few extra quid (or bucks to you American readers!). 

On the bright side, Jeremy Renner (Hansel) was brilliant and fitted his role perfectly but had a mysterious illness due to eating part of the candy house as a child, which is never explained properly within the movie apart from a segment saying he got it from eating a bit of candy. After investigating, it turned out to be diabetes which would knock him to the floor within seconds if he didn’t have his injection. Gemma Arteton (Gretel) on the other hand was very bad casting. Personally I hoped she would fit it perfectly, however she was used as a sex object throughout the movie and in the scenes that demanded an aggressive attitude, and you couldn’t take her seriously. She lacked the aggression that Michelle Rodriguez would have brought, being that she typically does action rather than Gemma, which would have been a better choice for the director. Yet she does have some good moments which make up for some of it. On the subject of characters, the costume design was brilliant and make-up for the Black witches was perfect for connoting their evil. While there was little (if any) character development the violence made up for it. Especially in the last few fight scenes that are filled to the brim with action.

The locations for filming were very cramped. It is quite apparent that most of it was filmed in a studio setting while the open woodland shots where full of running, jumping and action which looked to have the main characters on their ass most of the time. With an estimated budget of $50 million, you would suspect they have enough to throw about (I’d like to have $50 million to throw about on a movie like this)

While the story is much the same as the character development, action was one of the movies selling points. With instances of Tarantino’s blood splatters and excessive violence, some appeared quite comical as if the movie was more concerned with being fun and wacky rather than aiming for any Oscar nominations for next year (which is probably best). Yet the killing of Renner’s love interest was criminal. Why kill the woman who saved his life once and could cure his diabetes and end the fairy tale with a fairytale ending! It seems to be as a big F you to the audience, when you expose the best character plot it is hugely damaging to the outcome of the film.

Overall, the movie is average. It isn’t the best movie of 2013, never will be. However, for a night out, it is good fun. As long as you are in for the fun aspect rather than the story, you will enjoy it and is probably worth seeing it in cinema (please avoid the plague of 3D). 

I would be inclined to rate this movie around about 6/10 mainly for all the problems listed above but for some fun it would be a little higher!