Alita: Battle Angel review

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 122 minutes

Until halfway through I was thoroughly engrossed in this movie's characters, story and performances. The combination of the three was all drawing me into the world, but it got to a point where the story and character development hollowed out, resulting in a rather lacklustre ending that never really feels earned.

Set in the year 2563, three hundred years after 'The Fall', a war that ravaged the world, Dr Dyson (Christoph Waltz) discovers a cyborg body that has been dumped in the scrapyards of 'Iron City', from the more prosperous sky city of Zalem which sits above it. Dr Dyson takes the body back home, rebuilds it and names her Alita. It's not long before she falls in love, is introduced to the murky world of a violent sport called Motorball, and learns more about her warrior past.

If like me you've never read the manga the movie's based on, you'll still recognise the themes of futuristic dystopia and inequality that weave into its narrative and look. And to its credit the movie does look good without being visually overbearing. Its setting has a grim, physical presence that feels lived in rather than superficial.

There is a certain uncanny valley in the way Alita looks, but it never really distracted me, and a large part of this is the performance of Rosa Salazar, who really brings the character alive. Alita is naive and innocent, but ruthless when she has to be. While her transition from one to the other is not always convincing, I was always invested in her journey throughout.

The same cannot be said for the love story that becomes the central focus of the second half of the movie. It's believable at face value, but neither the script or the pacing ever give it enough weight to feel emotionally invested in.

The action scenes are imaginative and exciting enough to get some entertainment value, and to its credit the action always drives the plot forward, and they're edited in a way so that you know what's going on. Despite this, there's never any real tension or fear of danger when a character is so incredibly skilled and competent. There is another problem, outside of the Motorball scenes, the action is too precise and lacking in raw physicality to take you out of the fact that you're watching a high budget movie.

I enjoyed Alita for the most part, while the love story is too underdeveloped to care about, the ideas it tried to convey were fascinating, and it doesn't shove them down your throat. While the ending is anti-climatic, the last moments before the credits rolled were quite powerful to me. And I hope I get the chance to see this world again.

3/5

Resident Evil 2 (remake) review

(PS4 version, played on standard difficulty)

It’s hard to believe that the original Resident Evil 2 came out twenty one years ago, but it’s initial release was not my first experience with the game. A demo came with Resident Evil: Directors cut, the first title in the series that I played, the demo ended on a cliffhanger, which made me even more desperate to play the full game on release. Unfortunately I never had a PlayStation of my own, so I had to wait until it was released on the Nintendo 64 two years later to get my own copy.

This is not much of a remake, in truth it is far more of a re-imagining, everything from the locations to the supporting characters have been entirely revamped. It succeeds in making the familiar feel unfamiliar. Like the original, the story focuses on two strangers who end up in zombie ravaged, Raccoon city. First we have Claire Redfield (brother of Chris from the original Resident Evil game), and Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop on the first day of his new job. After their initial introduction to each other they’re separated for the majority of the game.

The fixed camera angles have been replaced with an over the shoulder third person view, allowing the game’s foreboding atmosphere to really grab and not let you go. And believe me, this game is tense as well as scary, the locations are by and large devoid of light outside of the torch you carry. Like its predecessors in the series, the settings are characters within themselves. The city is a burning chaos, and the police station is like a prison with no escape, suffocating you at every moment with its darkness and monsters lurking in your surroundings.

With a limited inventory space you progress through the game by solving environmental puzzles that open up new areas of the map, which then leads you to important items such as files, keys and weapons. Item management is an integral part of the experience, and because of this there is a lot of backtracking, far more than I anticipated. Which is something I don’t usually enjoy in most games, but it works here because the game design is so great, and there’s a genuine satisfaction and reward in the moment to moment story progression. The maps you pick up will help with the backtracking, they’re an essential tool that you’ll be using from beginning to end, with items and locked doors marked down, as well as unexplored rooms which appear in red.

   

The puzzles aren’t particularly brain scratching, they just require a bit of observation and patience, some can be frustrating and feel like they’re there for the sake of it. But there’s always a great sense of engagement and reward when you’ve figured one out. There was only one puzzle that had me stumped for a while, and it was one of the few that required me to write down notes to help find the solution.

There is of course other obstacles that you will have to confront, and those are the monsters that make this a true survivor horror game. The most frequent of these are the zombies that have been in the series from the beginning. These zombies are not the type that sprint at you, these are the slow, lumbering kind. But don’t let that fool you, if you’re not careful they can be a nightmare. The best strategy is to avoid them as much as possible, save your ammo unless it’s absolutely necessary, but that’s easier said than done because they tend to be located in confined spaces and roam around in numbers. They can lunge at you with both arms if you’re too close, and they stagger forward making it bit tricky to aim for their weak spots. And even if you shoot them in the head, some can take between four to seven hits to kill off completely. Unless you get a lucky, perfect critical hit that blows their brains off.  

Zombies aren’t the only thing you have to worry about, there is an assortment of grotesque but wonderfully designed enemies. From the mutated lickers to the zombie dogs, these enemies might not show up as frequently but they are far harder to kill, and unlike the zombies they are extremely difficult to avoid. Thankfully there’s a good range of weapons that you can attain, these vary from one character to the other. Both start with a basic handgun, but in regards to heavy weapons, Leon gets a shotgun and a magnum, while claire gets a grenade launcher and a submachine gun. Which brings me to another change from the original, is that you can now aim as you move, but this isn’t always an advantage because the onscreen reticle gets bigger as you move, so your aim isn’t as steady, thus making it easier to miss your target. It can cause plenty of irritation and wasted bullets, but it adds an extra layer of challenge that I came to appreciate the more I played.

Which brings me to Mr X, a tall and formidable enemy that will stalk you until you manage to escape from his clutches, but even then you’ll hear the piercing sounds of his heavy footsteps as he looks for you. I can’t think of another game where a sudden rush of dread overwhelmed me as much as the first time I encountered him. For fans of the series, he plays a similar role to that of Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. This won’t be to everyone's taste, and although I think it’s one of the best aspects to the game, even I, after the initial encounter felt that it was too intrusive. But you’ll learn to overcome and appreciate the small doses of terrifying urgency that he brings to the experience. Just make sure you run away from him the second he appears, do not waste ammo trying to kill him off because you can’t.

Not everything I feel about the game is positive, the boss battles which are a staple of the series are unfortunately contrived and quite bad, they are designed and scripted in a way so that you have to get hit to succeed. There is also one other nitpick that I had, and this is more of a personal gripe. I was rather disappointed that the story was a straight up copy of the original game, outside of the additional and expanded locations, the narrative adds nothing to the lore of the series. This is one area even the Resident Evil 1 remake changed with the inclusion of the Trevor family, giving the terrifying mansion extra depth.

Resident Evil 2 is nothing short of astounding, for me it's a must buy, and for £39.99 you get a decent amount of content. Both characters have an A and B story mode, each of which bring a variety of differences to make each campaign feel a little fresh. It all culminates in a brilliantly modern survival horror game that ought to please both old and new fans alike.

9.5/10     

    

Hope House

Hope House

By Kane Gord

Chapter one: New beginnings.

To the far north of Majesty, a world of a thousand kingdoms, lies the ancient city of Krazoa. Home to a tribe of Elves known for their magic and craft of making things out of wood.

It is here that a little elve called Sara has just finished the final touches to a wooden doll.

Our story begins just as this wooden doll opens his eyes for the first time.

“Hello” the elve waved her hand in front of his eyes, “can you hear me?”.

The wooden doll looked at her and nodded.

“That’s good” she replied, she put her hand on her chest and said “my name’s Sara, I am the one who created you”.

She moved to her side so he could see the inside of a large room that looked like a workspace. There were tools and pieces of wood everywhere.

“This is where I work, I am a toy maker, I make all kinds of toys. But you’re the one I am most proud of”.

The doll was confused and curious at the same time.

“If your name is Sara, then what is mine?”.

“I thought I’d call you Breezy, it’s unusual but I like it.” She held out her hand and asked him to take it.

“Follow me” she whispered as he grasped her hand. They left and made their way out of the small hut.

The bright daylight left Breezy blind for a moment. But after a few seconds, in all directions he could see hundreds of gigantic trees rising up from the clear, blue sea beneath them.

A pathway linked the small huts that stuck out from the tree trunks, while each of the giant trees were linked together by long bridge paths at the top of them.

He looked up to the sky to see the top of the giant tree, he was immediately light headed. It was so high up that it made him feel like an ant staring up at the tallest tree in a rainforest.

“This is Krazoa, home of the forest elves, It’s a beautiful place to live. Come with me and I’ll show you a better view”.

They made their way to the top of the tree trunk where there was a courtyard, and a view of the entire city.

There was a slight gust in the air that brushed against the treetops above them. Creating strange shadows on the rippled sea water, that was otherwise reflecting like silver diamonds in the sunlight.

They sat down and stared out into the distance.

“Do you want to know why you have come into this world?” Sara asked, but without letting him speak, she carried on talking.

“I created you as a gift, in a kingdom far away there is a human princess called Alex. Today it is her seventh birthday, and we are going to give you to her”.

“What am I supposed to do for this princess?” he asked.

“You are a singing doll, you are something to play with, to make her happy”.

She took his hand and said “you are not like any other doll I have created before, you are special”. She then put her hand behind his back and turned a small key.

At once Breezy began to sing about the giant trees and the sounds of the wind.

When the song was finished, he turned to her and asked “how did that happen?”.

“Magic” Sara replied in an enthusiastic voice, “inside of you is a magic stone filled with songs that are only activated when the key on your back is turned”.

“How many songs are there?”.

“There are over a hundred, but you’ll only sing certain songs that speak to the way others around you feel, so that the music makes them happier”.

“For example, if the princess is unhappy you might sing a happy song about rainbows”.

For the first time Breezy looked at his body up and down. Although he was made from the finest wood, his body was joined together piece by piece.

A horrible thought came into his head for the first time, would he feel any pain if he was broken apart?

“Don’t be afraid” Sara held his hand again and tried to assure him, “you’re going to a lovely home. You’re very lucky indeed, because you’re going to live in a palace”.

“A palace?” Breezy said with a puzzled look on his face.

“A palace is the best kind of house that only kings and queens live in, as well as princesses”.

“And what if they don’t want me?” he asked in distant, lonely voice.

“You will always be wanted, you are special, and I’m sure you’ll be the best gift that she’ll ever get”.

The two smiled at one another, “there is something else that I need to give you” Sara said.

She pulled out a necklace from her pocket. Dangling from the string was a leaf and a tiny piece of tree bark.

She placed it round his neck and said “this is so you’re always reminded of where you came from. The ancient city of Krazoa”.

Breezy smiled once again, for the first time he had something that he knew he would cherish for the rest of his life.

He would carry it everywhere and never let go of it. “I’ll never lose it” he declared as he held it tight in the palm of his hand.

“And I’ll never forget giving it to you”, she gently poked him on the nose with the tip of her finger.

It was quiet for a moment as they both gazed into the distance, watching as the colourful birds flew through around the treetops.

Chapter two: Saying goodbye

Sara showed him her flute, “this is a musical instrument, I can create melodies with this”.

“Melodies, what are they?” Breezy asked

“Music, it’s sounds that make you feel something, it can be anything from happiness to sadness. In some cases it can be used for magic, and as I am about to show you, it can also be used to communicate”.

The elve put the flute to her mouth and began to move her fingers along the instrument.

Breezy looked on in awe as the soulful music tingled up into the air above them.

His eyes could have been playing tricks on him, but the leaves seemed to dance with the sounds.

But it was the sudden and thunderous, whooshing noise that caught his attention.

A few seconds passed before a bird the size of a small dragon appeared from the sky, he was carrying a wooden box under his claws.

Breezy was scared when it landed next to them, he could feel his body trembling.

Sara walked over to the bird and the animal licked her face, for a moment she hugged its beak and stroked the nape of its neck.

“Don’t worry” she said “I have known Edrick for years, he is a very friendly bird. Unless you provoke him he would never hurt anyone”.

She turned away and looked Breezy in the eyes, “this is where we depart. If you get inside of the box, Edrick will deliver you to the princess”.

Breezy did as he was told and made his way inside of the wooden box and sat down.

There was a small hole on one side so he was able to see the outside.

Before closing the box she handed him an envelope, “make sure this is in your pocket when you arrive at the palace”.

“Remember to be a good doll to your new owner, cherish every moment with her because it won’t last forever”.

Before she could say goodbye, he swiftly asked her “will I ever see you again?”.

There was a short pause, her green eyes got smaller, and he felt swallowed up by them.

“No, we won’t, we part ways here, and we will never meet again. But you have the necklace to remember me with.”.

She said goodbye and leaned into the box to kiss him on the forehead.

As he waved her farewell, she closed the lid and Breezy found himself sitting in the darkness all by himself.

Chapter three: The white palace

After a moment or two he felt the box fly high into the sky, and he could hear the flapping of the bird’s wings through the air.

He placed his eye in the hole and watched as they flew past the evergreen wonder below.

In the middle of Krazoa was the tallest tree, it towered over all of the others.

There was countless amounts of small windows that were dotted on every inch of it.

He assumed and he was indeed right that this tree was where all of the homes to the elves were.

As he looked on, he wondered which window belonged to Sara’s home.

At the top of the tree trunk was a small castle. It sat between the tree branches that reached high into the sky, where the green and red leaves bloomed against the sunlight, like fire burning at nightfall.

They flew away from the city and for some time they passed endless amounts of green mountains, with a few towns here and there.

Hours passed before they reached the great Tiber sea, from there they came to a land with nothing but the white sands of snow.

The sunlight beamed down like a golden marble, its reflection pierced the snow like ancient gold discovered in a tomb.

It was simply breathtaking.

The land was empty for miles and miles, as though it had never once felt the touch of a living being.

The bird flew further inland until they reached a circle shaped city called Iso. In the centre of the city was a palace made from white stone.

There were all kinds of buildings in the city below, both Small and big, round and square. One thing was for sure, it was certainly more chaotic than Krazoa.  

The bird swooped down and made its way to the large, steel gates at the front of the palace.

Edrick screeched into the air, the sound was so loud the inside of the Breezy’s ears rattled and shivered.

And then the bird rose back into the sky to fly away, leaving him all alone. He was scared and lonely for the first time.

It was quiet until he heard the sound of a horse heading in his direction. When it stopped, the gate opened and a pair of heavy footsteps approached the box.

“What in the world is this?” one voice asked.

“It must be a gift for the Princess” the other replied. A few seconds passed before the lid opened and the darkness faded away.

Two soldiers with big helmets and heavy armour stared down at him as he lay on his back.

One of them took the envelope out from Breezy’s pocket, “this writing belongs to the forest elves, and this toy, or whatever it is, must be a birthday gift”.

The other soldier didn’t reply, he just closed the box and picked it up from the ground. They made their way through the opened gates and placed it at the back of a horse cart.

When they entered the palace they seemed to be taking him up a lot of stairs. They eventually stopped when the soldier knocked at a door.

“Delivery for the Princess” the soldier shouted through.

“Leave it by the door” an old man shouted from the other side.

So the soldier did as he was told and placed the box by the door. Breezy had to wait a little longer before the door opened and the box was picked up.

The box was taken inside and opened by the king, who was old and had a long, grey beard. He opened the letter before folding it in two and ripping it up.

“Alex, come here, there’s a present from the elves of Krazoa”. A little girl with light, red hair came over and peeked into the box.

For the briefest of moments her eyes were ablaze with excitement. But that changed when she caught sight of him.

“I don’t like it” the Princess said with a dismissive voice, and the tone of a spoilt, rich brat.