Don’t even think of messing with him. Well, not him, but his character, Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who’s daughter is being kidnapped by some bad guys dealing in the sex trade.

The movie is extremely awesome to the core. I don’t say this often for a lot of movies. This one ranks among the top movies. And I’m saying this pretty close after watching Quantum of Solace, which I find very cool.

I don’t know why its not being shown in Singapore cinemas. But its a great miss if they don’t show it here. I’ve got nothing but praises for this film. One thing people MIGHT complain is the rather slow start. But I find it ok. If you come in to an action film which jumpstarts with all action and no buildup, you know the story’s gonna be averageish.

Liam Neeson in Taken. Very spy-movie poster.

And this movie is a great example that shows that shaky camwork does NOT make an action sequence more … action-packed. It’s stupid. Shaky cam done on purpose thinking the audience will feel like they’re a part of the action, is stupid. Luc Besson is a director who’s got things right when it comes to action. I think he did The Professional and La Femme Nikita. Both great French action films. Great.

Anyway, first you get to watch the solid build up of characters, introducing Bryan Mills as a retired agent and his failed marriage and his attempts to get closer to his teenage daughter. Then his daughter gets kidnapped and you see a whole new side to him which kicks so much ass so painfully that bad guys having intentions of going into the sex trade is gonna feel it.

Speaking about ass kicking, the fight scenes were exceptionally well shot and fully immersive. And its not one of those Steven Seagal style shits. His methods were really brutal. Or at least, it looks damn hard core.

The story is simple yet powerful. And then Holly Valance is in it. Man, this review’s all over the place. The movie is a fine piece of work and I’m still in awe at how damn cool he is. Oh and I think the Bogaman is the one who told me about this movie. Finally watched it dude, it’s bloody awesome.

He takes no shit from no one. Seriously. Watch the movie!

update: I forgot about Bogaman’s review on his site. So I actually watched the movie forgetting who recommended me. That was my unbiased review. Read his here. And yeah, I’d agree with Taken ranking right up there with THE DARK KNIGHT. Yeah. That GOOD.

After watching this video, I knew I had to write a quick post on this movie which I caught few days ago. WATCH THIS!

QoS is, to me, a good movie. I’m not really a Bond fan. I never watched the earlier films fully. I’ve never read a single Ian Fleming book. And I’ve only known about James Bond properly since its reintroduction by Pierce Brosnan.

But the latest reboot, with Daniel Craig, is simply the best. The first movie, Casino Royale, proves that Craig’s Bond is up there with the best of the Bond actors, and QoS just confirms that his depiction of James Bond IS the best.

The action is way more intense than the first, in that Bond finds himself caught in chase scene after chase scene. The fight scenes were really raw, sort of unrehearsed. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing. Good, because it looks really brutal and fierce. Bad, because the shaky camerawork makes you dizzy.

James Bond is the first of its kind. Spy movies. Its been around since the early 60s with Sean Connery playing the role, if I’m not wrong. After that, so many spy movie/series came about. Some are really good, like Mission Impossible ONE, and Bourne Identity, but nothing beats the original. Although its been rebooted more times than any other movie character, the personality of James Bond is still unique.

In Quantum of Solace, you’ll see Bond to be one of the coolest badass characters EVER. All the moves he makes, all the lines he said, all freakin’ cool. Gives you the wow effect on every single thing he did on the movie. From his awesome fights, down to the hard cold stare he gives. All cool.

The only thing I couldn’t really follow is the storyline. Yes, it IS the most important thing in the movie, but, I realise that not fully understanding the story does not make the movie a shitty one. Sometimes the audience couldn’t catch it the first time round. Take Mission Impossible ONE for example. I had to watch it twice to fully understand it. First time round, I only took in the awesomeness. I know all sorts of shit and backstabbing is going on but I dunno what or who is doing them. Only after watching the second time, do I fully realise the awesomeness of the movie. Likewise with Quantum of Solace. I basically follow the story, but I have questions about a lot of the details.

Then there’s Olga Kurylenko! Yay for her for keeping her clothes on this time. Yup, she took em down in Hitman, and almost every movie before that, I think. Even did it in Max Payne, except you don’t see anything. The role is pretty similar to Hitman, except she’s of some use in this movie.

Whoever says the movie sucks because the story isn’t clear, maybe its you who can’t grasp a slightly more complicated movie plot. You can go back to watching super simple storyline movies like umm… Max Payne.

I’m gonna watch it again. Most probably not in the theaters though.

With no immediate projects to keep me busy, I thought I’d wire up the playstation 2, which I bought almost half a year ago, and give the games a try.

Kratos vs the World

I’ve been hearing friends talking about God of War and God of War 2 being super awesome. So I tried GoW 1 first. I got stuck many times. And I have no patience at it. So I went looking for cheats. Having found none, I had to resort to the walkthrough. I did complete the game, under easy, and after a lot of frustration.

I play games under easy because I wanna get through it and see what its all about. I know, people say games are meant to be played under normal difficulty, at least. But when I bought the ps2, the deal includes getting over 100 titles. Thus, naturally, I have a desire to play them all… quickly.

Anyway, God of War is awesome. Gameplay wise and also storyline wise. I dislike all the irritating reattempts at puzzle-like, platform-style elements of the game. But that’s just me. People seem to like those parts too.

I wanted to know the rest of the story of Kratos, so I played GoW 2 right after I completed GoW 1. And guess what? I got impatient too. I started looking for cheats and walkthroughs again. Then I found this awesome cool idea on youtube.

Someone actually recorded the game as he played it. He then uploaded it to youtube as ‘walkthroughs’. It’s damn useful man! Not just to use it as walkthrough, but to just watch, fast forward, and skip to parts that you wanna see in the game, without having to go through the game itself. At first I used it as a guide, but later, I stopped playing entirely and skipped through the videos to check out the storyline.

Real gamers would be really disgusted by now if they’re reading this post.

So why oh why did I study in the game development and multimedia course?

One reason is because I THOUGHT I liked playing games. Apparently, I’m more of a story guy. Games need an awesome story for it to succeed. That’s one of the criterias for a successful game. For me, I just want to have a taste of the gameplay and move on to the story. I just wanna sample the gameplay and then get the whole idea of the story.

But one thing I do realise now, after the course, is that it’s super difficult to make games. I really appreciate every single thing I see in God of War. The smooth combat controls, the camera following, the level designs, the in game animations, the AI, and so many others.

And once I completed the game, there’s a making of video that was unlocked. I really respect those guys man… It takes 3 years to complete the game. And to see how it develops… brings back memories back when me and my group made Rift, my first ever game.

However, there is one genre which I like above others. Real Time Strategy. I don’t mean I like this genre only, sometimes I get sick of it too. When that happens, platform or fighting games would be refreshing. But otherwise, I think I’m more of a PC gamer, playing on my mouse and using hotkeys. Even so, I hated Warcraft 3, which so many people loved. But I do love titles like Company of Heroes (best!) and Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, Starcraft (classic!), Command and Conquer (classic), Red Alert (classic!). C&C Generals too.

I also like SIM games or games with micro management. Well, to a certain extent.

Oh man, hands hurting from typing and holding the controller. I’m done.