Dear readers of my blog,

Over the past few years, I have talked about many different forms of arts on this blog such as cinema, literature and music but I have rarely mentioned one of the most recent and still most underrated forms that in fact unites several different art forms: video games. They include more and more gripping plots that easily beat many contemporary story lines for movies. Many video games develop more and more diversified universes to discover and include stunning effects and especially graphics that could have been painted or sculptured by some of the very best contemporary artists. Several video games even include ambitious and moving symphonic soundtracks that are as iconic as some of the most memorable movie scores. The boundaries of different genres are slowly disappearing and merging into more and more innovative games. While other forms of art struggle to innovate and cover new grounds, video consoles and games are still developing new and stunning concepts each year. I’ve got to admit that I’m not the biggest gamer in the world but I have played to a lot of enjoyable games that have marked my childhood or young adulthood and I think it’s now time to introduce you to a list of my twenty personal all-time favourites so far.

1.      Tomb Raider II (1997)

The Tomb Raider franchise has marked my childhood. I’ve been a fan since I’ve played the first part of the series in the late nineties when I wasn’t even ten years old. One and a half decades later, I’m still a huge fan and I recently enjoyed playing the revamp of the series in form of the challenging, dynamical and entertaining 2013 version of “Tomb Raider”. I’ve collected statues, soundtracks, shirts, posters and board games of the franchise and I also watched the two movies featuring Angelina Jolie. My favourite part of the franchise is though the second part which is one of the very few games I have played several times in my life. First of all, it’s one of the most challenging games. I remember how I was walking through the sunken shipwreck Andrea Doria for hours looking for an essential item I hadn’t found before. I recall how I was struggling for days to survive in the Buddhist monastery in Tibet with almost no energy left and a dozen armed enemies hunting me down. I have memories of fighting a giant dragon over and over again and not being able to kill it for good until I coincidentally discovered how to do it. I really adored the game’s mixture of action-filled sequences with easy controls, appealing settings with stunning graphics and mysterious enigmas that added an intellectual touch to this adventure game. Many decades later, I still enjoy driving a motorboat in Venice, Italy, swimming through a dark ocean in the middle of nowhere and riding a snowmobile in the Tibetan mountains from time to time.

Atmosphere: 9.5/10

Challenge level: 9.5/10

Controls: 8/10

Game flow: 8/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 9.5/10

Long-term fun factor: 10/10

Sound: 8.5/10

Soundtrack: 7/10

Story: 8/10 

Total score: 85/100

 

2.      Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003)

The Prince of Persia franchise is my second favourite video game series of all times. I even played the first two games of the franchise at my father’s working place when we hadn’t a computer at our home before discovering the Tomb Raider series. I adored every single game of the franchise but if I had to pick one out of these games, I would go for this one. This game convinces with stunning graphics, a mysterious and twisted story line and an incredibly authentic and magical atmosphere. The costumes, the settings and one of the best game soundtracks ever made are essential elements that make this game so special to me. It made me fall in love with Persian culture and history. This game also includes some of the smartest enigmas, traps and physical challenges I have ever experienced. The enemies in the game are quite cunning as well. It’s so intense that the player almost becomes one with this fascinating universe.

Atmosphere: 10/10

Challenge level: 7/10

Controls: 7/10

Game flow: 7.5/10

Graphics: 9/10

Length: 8/10

Long-term fun factor: 10/10

Sound: 8.5/10

Soundtrack: 10/10

Story: 7/10 

Total score: 84/100

 

3.      Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)

The Silent Hill franchise had its hits and misses but this game stands above all the others because it’s as gripping as a vintage horror movie and as twisted as the greatest psycho thrillers. Apart of its intense atmosphere that kicks off right in the beginning and never lets go until the end of the game, its decent subtle shocking moments and its surprising story line, the game convinces with its creeping settings which include forgotten adventure parks, ghost towns, old high schools, strange isolated islands and abandoned shopping malls. Another interesting aspect is that the game has a high number of alternative endings depending on the choices you have made throughout the game. That’s why it makes perfectly sense to play this intense game several times at night with your headphones on if you feel like going on a dark ride.

Atmosphere: 10/10

Challenge level: 7/10

Controls: 7/10

Game flow: 7/10

Graphics: 8/10

Length: 7/10

Long-term fun factor: 9/10

Sound: 9/10

Soundtrack: 8/10

Story: 10/10 

Total score: 82/100

 

4.      Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (2003)

The Indiana Jones franchise had its great but also some rather disappointing parts but this is easily the series’ greatest moment. This is not only one of the longest games I have ever played that really offers value for money, it also includes a multitude of fascinating setting all around the world and a story that is more gripping and original than many movies of the franchise. Once again, the mixture of physically challenging parts, smart enigmas and diversified enemies makes this game extremely addicting. On the negative side, the controls of the game are quite tough to handle and the final surreal parts of the game didn’t please me and didn’t really fit to the rest of this otherwise pretty much flawless video game either.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Challenge level: 9/10

Controls: 5/10

Game flow: 7/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 10/10

Long-term fun factor: 9/10

Sound: 8/10

Soundtrack: 8/10

Story: 8/10 

Total score: 79/100

 

5.      Penumbra Trilogy: Overture, Black Plague & Requiem (2007-2008)

The Penumbra franchise is basically one story separated in three parts and that’s why one can’t pick just one of these even though the more experimental last part is just about enigmas and puzzles and a little letdown. The first two parts are though some of the best atmospheric horror video games ever made. This game kicks off slowly and gives the player a lot of occasions to uncover the background of the mysterious story. As the game goes on, it gets a lot more addicting and mysterious as the horror slowly unfolds when the player is hunted down by invisible monsters. Later on, the player even has to face scary creatures before getting to the core and conclusion of the story which turns out to be quite surprising and more twisted than expected as it has even a philosophical touch to it.

Atmosphere: 10/10

Challenge level: 7/10

Controls: 6/10

Game flow: 7/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 9/10

Long-term fun factor: 7/10

Sound: 9/10

Soundtrack: 8/10

Story: 8/10 

Total score: 78/100

 

6.      Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002)

The best game about the organized crime is the first game of the Mafia franchise. The game set new landmarks concerning its detailed and wide-spread universe that the player can discover as much as he or she wants, the use of different tools with an easy control throughout the game and its challenging and detailed story line that even beats the best genre movies. The game follows the story of an innocent cab driver who gets into the organized crime by an unlucky coincident and soon gets more powerful as he gets himself a solid reputation within the organization. In the different missions of the game, the main character must for example assassinate enemies, face greedy concurrence within his own organization, menace ambitious business partners and innocent store owners and rob out banks. The high diversity of the different chapters keep the tension high as this video game never ever gets boring.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Challenge level: 7/10

Controls: 7/10

Game flow: 7/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 8/10

Long-term fun factor: 9/10

Sound: 8/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Story: 7/10 

Total score: 77/100

 

7.      Assassin’s Creed (2007)

Assassin’s Creed has become one of the most popular franchises over the past few years for a good reason and everything players from all around the world like about these video games is already present in the first part. It’s extremely fun to discover and crawl, jump, walk, ride and run through a wide-spread universe. The different missions of the game are challenging and diversified. The settings are colourful and drag you into a fascinating universe. The game includes a high number of interesting tools and weapons you have to deal with. The controls are rather easy to handle on consoles and guarantee a long-time playing pleasure.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Challenge level: 6/10

Controls: 7/10

Game flow: 8/10

Graphics: 8/10

Length: 8/10

Long-term fun factor: 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Soundtrack: 8/10

Story: 7/10 

Total score: 76/100

 

8.      No One Lives Forever II: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way (2002)

This spy game brings the early years of the Cold War back to life in a charming, colourful and decently humorist manner. This game is less about running around and battling enemies but about using your brain when you infiltrate highly secured areas and spy out your enemies to get some important information. This second part of the short-lived franchise requests a lot of patience to face the challenging missions but if you adore spy games and movies, this will easily become one of your very favourite games. The graphics are stunning, the soundtrack adds a lot of atmosphere and the diversified settings from all around the world are really beautiful. The controls are sometimes a little bit challenging to handle but this may only be a minor inconvenience.

Atmosphere: 9/10

Challenge level: 8/10

Controls: 5/10

Game flow: 6/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 9/10

Long-term fun factor: 8/10

Sound: 7/10

Soundtrack: 8/10

Story: 7/10 

Total score: 72/100

 

9.      Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (2002)

The most popular spy game franchise is based on some truly interesting novels. While the last few games seemed to have interesting story lines but were ultimately rather disappointing, the first few games had less interesting plots but were really fun to play. The mixture of subtle spying in different settings and adrenaline-driven action sequences with a high number of intriguing weapons made the first part of the franchise something new and unique. This tension-filled game revolutionized a whole genre and changed the world of many gamers from all around the world.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Challenge level: 8/10

Controls: 6/10

Game flow: 8/10

Graphics: 7/10

Length: 7/10

Long-term fun factor: 7/10

Sound: 7/10

Soundtrack: 6/10

Story: 7/10 

Total score: 71/100

 

10.  Muramasa: The Demon Blade (2009)

This mythological action game for Wii consoles brings the player back to traditional Japan. Even though the story line of the game is rather simplistic and the fighting sequences rather repetitive after a certain time, the game has really stunning graphics, an absolutely amazing soundtrack and many atmospheric and authentic settings. If you care for Japanese culture, you simply can’t get around this game.

Atmosphere: 8/10

Challenge level: 6/10

Controls: 6/10

Game flow: 8/10

Graphics: 9/10

Length: 7/10

Long-term fun factor: 7/10

Sound: 5/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Story: 5/10 

Total score: 70/100

 

Other great video games you should try out are:

11.  Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (1991)

12.  Mario Strikers Charged (2007)

13.  L.A. Noire (2011)

14.  Wario Land: Super Mario Land III (1994)

15.  Hitman: Contracts (2004)

16.  Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992)

17.  The Smurfs Travel the World (1994)

18.  Epic Mickey (2010)

19.  Redline Racer (1998)

20.  Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

 

To be continued…

''The Suspect'' is a South Korean action-thriller in the vein of several contemporary spy movies like ''The Berlin File''. The movie tells the story of a North Korean defector who has once been a top special forces agent. After years of loyal service to his country, he became the victim of a conspiracy and purge. While the defector was able to make it to South Korea, his wife and young daughter were killed. Filled with grief and anger, the defector is now working as a chauffeur for a warm-hearted chairman who wants to help the North Korean people by developing a chemical product that could improve agriculture and prevent future famines. One day before a crucial meeting in North Korea, the chairman gets assassinated by some obscure members of the South Korean intelligence service. The defector witnesses the crime and fights the assassins but he can't save his boss. The dying chairman though gives him his glasses which hide the formula for the chemical product. The defector gets now hunted by the South Korean intelligence service who accuse him for the murder of the chairman and want to get the formula. The manhunt is led by a tough colonel who wants to eliminate the defector at all costs but who soon realizes that his boss is hiding a sinister secret and that things are more complicated than they appear. With the help of an ambitious journalist, the defector wants to uncover the secret of the chairman's glasses, clear his name and fight the true murderers and also find the man who killed his family.

On the positive side of the movie, one gets a twisted and tension-filled story line. The movie is gripping and entertaining and never gets boring despite a running time of almost two hours and a half. The acting is solid and especially the defector, the colonel and the main villain are portrayed in authentic ways. The movie has some character development and spends enough time to add some depth by telling a few side-stories in form of flashbacks. The action scenes in the movie are of the highest quality and at least as good as similar contemporary Hollywood movies. One gets to see agile and yet brutal martial arts fighting scenes, brutal shootings and breathtaking car chases. Some of these scenes are unrealistic and over the top but they are definitely fun to watch. Despite all the action and brutality, the movies manages to keep a human core and comes around with a moving ending.

On the negative side, I must admit that this movie obviously picks up several ideas from past South Korean but also international spy flicks. The story line of the movie is not really original and several parts of the film are in fact quite predictable for genre fans. The script could have been more innovative in my opinion.

 

Despite this obvious flaw, genre fans should still watch this movie as it's among the better South Korean spy movies of the last years. It easily beats ''The Berlin File'' and is probably on one level with movies like ''New World'' but obviously less groundbreaking than ''Shiri''. For international fans, you will probably appreciate this movie if you liked the films of the Bourne franchise.

"John Wick" is another fast-paced and graphic revenge movie with some entertaining action and black humour, a fitting soundtrack and the usual stereotypical characters from the Russian mafia. When it comes to gripping revenge flicks, you should rather watch South Korean movies like the intense "The Man from Nowhere" which is twice as good as this film, "I Saw the Devil" which is probably one of the most brutal movies ever made, the emotionally heart-breaking "Blood Island", as well as the philosophical trilogy around "Sympathy for Mister Vengeance", "Oldboy" and "Lady Vengeance" if you are looking for some originality, depth and character development. "John Wick" is only a hollow entertainment for genre fans. If I wasn't a fan of this kind of movies, my rating would be much lower than it is.

The story is simple. John Wick was a hit-man working for the organized crime in New York City. He retired from his job and started a new life when he met the love of his life. Roughly four years later, John Wick loses his wife to cancer. He receives a posthumous gift from her in form of a puppy with a letter from his wife saying that she is gone and that John Wick should cope with her demise by loving the dog. Coincidentally, he encounters the son of his old boss who doesn't know him. The young Russian mafioso wants to purchase John Wick's vintage '69 Mustang but the grieving man refuses. A few hours later, the Russian mafioso breaks into John Wick's house without any problems as there seems to be no alarm system at all. With a few friends, the young criminal kills John Wick's beloved puppy, steals his car and is bright enough to take off his hood to show his face so John Wick surely knows who he is. The victim survives and goes on to kill around eighty criminals in the next ninety minutes of the movie. Of course, killing the naive culprit is not enough, he also kills his partners, colleagues, bodyguards, his old boss and a few guys in a church. In the end, everybody but John Wick is dead and he goes to the next veterinary hospital, walks off with a new dog and goes home as if nothing ever happened.

This story is so bad that it could have been written by a twelve-year old. First of all, there are too many coincidences concerning the encounter with the Russian criminals who want to steel John Wick's car. In the entire movie, everybody is talking about John Wick's incredible reputation and everybody knows him wherever he goes but the son of the most influent criminal is the only one who has never heard of him. It's not credible that a smart hit-man doesn't have any alarm system to protect his home. One can understand that the killing of the puppy his wife gave to him really hurts John Wick but taking this event to justify eighty or more murders is not credible at all. In the entire movie, there is no police or anything despite all the shootings in downtown New York City. All of John Wick's enemies are extremely stupid, unexperienced and wooden. Even thirty men in one building can't manage to fight him. I could go on for hours as this movie is filled with so many coincidences, plot holes and unrealistic scenes that it's amusing. If you tell me know that the story doesn't matter in a revenge action movie, just watch any of the movies mentioned in the introduction that prove that even the grisliest revenge thriller can have some depth. Even "The Raid" franchise is more realistic and has better plots. "John Wick" rather feels like a simplistic ego-shooter for video game consoles than an actual movie. I must though admit that the last Splinter Cell games had better story lines than this film.

Another thing that feels out of place is the fact that fifty-year old Keanu Reeves is playing the unbeatable hit-man. The fighting scenes are somewhat wooden but he still manages to fight off his enemies because their acting is even slower. On the other side, Keanu Reeves also has a certain charisma to fit this role. Fifty-nine year old Willem Dafoe as veteran hit-man who has to kill John Wick is also a questionable choice in my opinion. Still, he is a respectable actor and has charisma. The most annoying thing is the fact that the evil guys are Russians again but that they are portrayed by actors from all around the world like England, Sweden and even Switzerland - except Russia. One can feel that these are wannabe Hollywood Russians and not real Russians.

You may now ask yourself why I still gave a favourable rating to this flick. It's actually simple. This movie never gets boring. The action scenes are sometimes wooden but most of them are just shootings so it doesn't really matter. These scenes are well directed and include no annoying shaky cameras or overloaded special effects. The settings of the movie are well chosen and vary from dirty chop shops over elegant bath houses to Orthodox churches. There are a few memorable lines in this film as in many other action movies. Some graphic content is related to some dark and dry humour which made the whole thing easier to digest. I actually liked this combination of contradictory extremes and had to laugh quite a few times during the movie. The soundtrack of the movie is also enjoyable and fitting. For genre fans, there are enough entertaining and well-executed elements to enjoy this movie despite its obvious flaws.

 

If you are looking for some fast-paced and superficial entertainment to switch your brains off, you will like "John Wick". If you are actually looking for a good movie that has more to offer than stylish violence, go for the movies mentioned in the introduction.

Power Of Mirantic – The Conscience

October 31, 2014 in Reviews by Sebastian Kluth

 

"Annabelle" certainly doesn't reinvent the horror genre but it's still an atmospheric, diversified and gripping movie that quickly grabs your attention and will haunt you until the very end. This movie has a better pace and no dull moments compared to "The Conjuring" but it's not as intense and scary as "Insidious" for example.

I like the fact that the movie includes a little bit more than the usual supernatural elements. When the satanic cult members assassinate an old couple and attack the two main actors, the movie quickly starts to be really gripping. When a fire breaks out and menaces the pregnant main actress, most viewers were also on the edges of their seats. The haunting scene leading to and involving a stroller smashed by a truck is also very intense. It's a good thing that the entire movie doesn't only play at one location and only involves supernatural phenomenons.

"Annabelle" convinces with its steadily growing sinister atmosphere, a credible acting performance, a solid camera work without any unnecessary shaking, fitting sound effects and an atmospheric soundtrack. This movie includes almost no blood and gore effects and no obvious special effects. These elements make the scenario feel closer to some classic pioneer movies of the seventies. The realistic tone of the film also makes the movie more intense and easier to get into for most people. 

Even though the movie avoided a few stereotypes such as an exorcism, some parts were still highly predictable: the scared housewife nobody believes in, the wicked demon trying to take possession of a child's innocent soul and the heroic actions of an old pastor attempting to save a young family and community members are elements that horror movie fans have seen numerous times before. That's why the movie lacked some originality and ultimately tension towards the end as the ending was also quite predictable.

Fans of traditional horror movies or more recent outputs by James Wan and his colleagues should watch this movie at the cinema as they are likely to enjoy this film. This movie isn't the best of the year but still a professionally executed and highly above average horror flick. I still hope that the next movies made by the makers of the last few horror blockbusters are going to write a more courageous script for their next project.