Web Review – Dragon Age: Redemption – Cairn

October 18, 2011 by Al

‘Dragon Age: Redemption is a six-part web series set in the world of the EA/Bioware RPG Dragon Age. The series tells the story of Tallis, an Elvish assassin, who gets a last chance at redemption when she’s sent to capture a rogue Qunari mage intent on wreaking havoc in the world.‘

With Bioware’s Mark of the Assassin receiving generally positive reviews, their multi-platform strategy with Felicia Day seems to be working fairly well. But will Redemption live up to fans expectations, or be remembered as a failed experiment?

The second episode of the series opens moments Continue reading →

Boardwalk Empire – Ourselves Alone Review

October 13, 2011 by Al

‘When realizing that he might be losing control over Atlantic City, Nucky tries to figure out which one of his men betrayed him. When agents search the Treasurer’s Office for evidence, Margaret tries to dig into her past to help Nucky in the present.‘

Boardwalk Empire continues to go from strength to strength. With the season premiere ending on such a cliffhanger, I knew that this episode was going to be interesting, but it still managed to exceed my expectations. The power struggles are certainly heating up in Atlantic City, and who knows which players will still be standing at the end of the season.

Ourselves Alone never lets up on the tension. Just as things seem Continue reading →

Web Review – Dragon Age: Redemption – Tallis

October 12, 2011 by Al

I’ve always been a big fan of Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise, and when I heard that they had approached Felicia Day to make a web series set in the game’s universe, I knew that we’d be getting something special. Day is a vocal fan of the series, and as the brains behind one of the Internet’s most popular web series (The Guild) she is definitely the right person for the job.

Day’s experience with the medium Continue reading →

Get ready for 8 months of hype

October 12, 2011 by Al

Marvel’s experiment with bringing the Avengers universe to life through several different franchises has been a very interesting one to watch. When they started, nearly everybody scoffed at the idea that the classic comic tradition of crossovers would work when transferred to the cinema. Given that almost every single film thus far has been hugely successful for Marvel, most of those doubters are now silent. Continue reading →

Real Steel Review

October 8, 2011 by Al

‘Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.‘

It seems like an odd premise; take a story by Richard Matheson, strip out everything but the overarching sci-fi concept and shove in a father/son bonding plot together with a classic underdog story. On the surface, it shouldn’t work. But Real Steel is one of the big surprises of the year.

I went into this movie with very low expectations. I was hoping that Continue reading →

What’s been going on?

October 8, 2011 by Al

Hi All,

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t posted any new reviews for a little over a week, and they had been a little irregular for a couple of weeks before that. Things had been a little busy lately which had cut down on my viewing time, but my schedule seemed to be getting back on track until last Thursday when the universe threw me a curveball.

To put it simply, my father passed away unexpectedly after a massive stroke on Thursday night. He was only 54. Needless to say, I haven’t exactly been at my best for the last week, and most of my time has been devoted to sorting out the remnants of his life.

But life goes on and hopefully things will settle down a bit now, giving me time to once again post up my regular reviews. I have a review of Real Steel which should be going up shortly, and I plan to continue my weekly reviews of Boardwalk Empire and Terra Nova. Lindz and I are also planning to do a collaborative play-through of the MMO DC Universe Online (which will be going Free to Play in a couple of weeks) posting our daily impressions up on the site. There are some other collaborative reviews that we are looking at over the coming months.

Things will still be a little hectic here, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get back to the daily schedule straight away, but hopefully things will get back to normal by November. If there is anything you’d particularly like to see reviewed, please post a comment below.

Cheers,

At Home With Julia – Citizens’ Assembly Review

September 29, 2011 by Al

‘It’s like any relationship. Who walks the dog? Who puts the bins out? Who sends the troops to Afghanistan? These are just some of the questions facing PM Julia Gillard and boyfriend Tim Mathieson.‘

At Home With Julia has been rating fairly well for the ABC, and has certainly sparked some discussion, but as a show it never really worked. The controversy created by the show’s marketing team has been the main selling point, and it is debatable whether anyone will remember in a year that it was anything more than the first satire of a Prime Minister at home on Australian TV.

After last week’s improvement with the show’s political one-liners, it seemed odd Continue reading →

Terra Nova – Genesis Review

September 28, 2011 by Al

‘In the year 2149, the planet Earth is a disaster, and most of the plant and animal life has become extinct. Scientists can’t reverse the damage, but have found a way to travel back to prehistoric times to save the human race.‘

There’s been a lot of buzz building about Fox’s new sci-fi show Terra Nova. Take Steven Spielberg and several other sci-fi veterans, add time travel and dinosaurs, and you seem to have the recipe for a sure-fire hit. Unfortunately, after the disappointment of Falling Skies earlier this year, Spielberg’s name in the EP slot doesn’t do that much for me anymore. There’s a whole bunch of things that need to come together to make a compelling series; dinosaurs aren’t going to keep people around forever.

Thankfully, the team behind Terra Nova seem to have made Continue reading →

Boardwalk Empire – 21 Review

September 27, 2011 by Al

‘Nucky faces a lot of insurrection among some of his most trusted people. Chalky’s own life is threatened when the Ku Klux Klan launch an attack too close to home. Margaret must deal with her son’s disciplinary behavior. Angela asks Gillian’s advice over Jimmy’s affections at home. And Van Alden decides to show his wife, Rose, around the town for her anniversary.‘

Boardwalk Empire was one of my favourite shows from 2010. It was great to see a period drama that was willing to take its time setting up all the various plot threads, and allow the show to rest entirely on its characters without relying on gratuitous nudity to keep audiences interested (not that there wasn’t plenty of skin on show, it just wasn’t the focus of the show). Now, nearly a year later, it’s time to dive back in to the seedy underworld of prohibition era Atlantic City.

We left the first season with a montage of our characters reflecting on Continue reading →

At Home With Julia – The Leaker Review

September 22, 2011 by Al

The controversy that has been brewing about this week’s episode of At Home With Julia gave me some hope that the show would lift itself out of the hole it’s been digging and deliver some of the outrageous comedy that you generally only see on the ABC. Unfortunately, the supposedly offensive scene was merely a throwaway gag in the middle of an episode that while better than Code Ranga, was completely mediocre.

One improvement over last week is with the political Continue reading →