Testament of Youth Review

Testament of youth is a coming of age story set on the memoirs of Vera Brittain’s First World War experience. This adaptation of the classic book is directed by James Kent and written for screen by Juliette Towhidi.

The story covers a young Vera Brattain as she changes from innocent, if rebellious young girl. To a more grown up and changed character who is more world weary and broken morally inside thanks to the events that transpire within the film. The Character of Vera is played by Alicia Vikander who is well suited for the role, as she has a good knack for displaying a wide variety of emotions without having to speak. The other characters come across with varying degrees of success when it comes to their acting prowess. Another notable performance is that of Kit Harrington, despite not appearing in the film for all that long he delivers a strong a believable performance that complements well with Vera.

In many ways it would be hard for the film to go that horribly wrong, based on its foundations of a strong and much beloved book it would make it difficult to butcher it too bad. Thank fully this adaptation works well, director James Kent Cleverly switches between shots to help you immerse yourself within the story. The director uses a lot of Extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots and relies a lot on the characters, to convey emotion only using their face. Despite the overall proficiency of the actors I felt that some scenes were a little unbelievable, the Director did take a few liberties when it comes to the certain scenes he chose to convey. In a few of them there was very clear “Hero Syndrome” where despite the fact that any other character would have died from that situation one of the main characters would survive it based solely on the fact that they are indeed, one of the main cast.

In conclusion, this adaptation does a proficient job and lives up to the works of Vera Brattain, though in my opinion it didn’t do enough to cement itself as a quality film. It kept my attention for the run time but it was not an experience I would come back too in a heartbeat. I don’t believe I am the target audience for this film but it was well directed, if not risky enough in its aims.

Magazine Article One Evaluation

My article was a game review about a recent release called shadow of Mordor. I covered the three main aspects of the game but I wish I could have gone into some more detail on the certain features. I felt that I waffled a bit and I could have been more direct. Another aspect I could improve on is its length I felt that it was too long for a magazine article; I needed to condense my writing so that I still had relevant information but shorten its length. Another aspect I could have improved on was its presentation, for a magazine article it was limited aesthetically and was not overall an appealing piece to look at.

Overall I felt like it was a good first try but in the future I need to make my articles somewhat shorter and to the point whilst making them more aesthetically pleasing by adding pictures and also laying out the text better rather than the traditional essay format.  

Shadow of Mordor Review

You would be forgiven for mistaking this game for another mediocre Lord of the Rings game, which seek to leach off the well-established and much loved books and films. But no, instead this game does the franchise justice as it strikes out on its own path instead of putting together another half arsed retelling of the stories presented in the books. This is a fresh perspective for Tolkien fans as it is a much needed divergence from the already told stories and instead sets itself right in the middle of the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The game does a good job of using the vast written lore and already established principle set forth by Tolkien, but yet manages to add its own flavour to the mix and bring it into the 21^st century.

Story

The story follows Talion, a fallen ranger of Gondor and a Guardian of the black gates, murdered along with everyone he’s ever loved by Sauron’s black Captains. A mysterious Elven wraith has brought you back from death to exact your revenge on those who took your family from you.

The premise for the story is certainly an interesting one, but unfortunately it is a little short on delivery, despite the voice acting being good across the board I felt it hard to feel for Talion and his plight, whilst he was on his way to murder another village of Uruks. The story seemed to be  gently pushing  you in the direction of something for you to stick your sword into, with very few missions that stood out from the status quo of track, kill, collect. Don’t get me wrong it retained my interest for the ten plus hours it took to complete. But there was little variance on the formula, and when it was it would inevitably be a boss battle or a short break to ride on the back of a giant scaly cat creature.

Combat  

Thankfully despite this short sightedness in the story telling department it turns out okay in large part due to the stellar combat system in place that makes it a lot easier to slay a slew of orcs when you enjoy doing so. It is responsive and simple yet through unlocks and practice you can improve considerably and this makes you feel accomplished and powerful. There is a real sense of progression within the system; you may begin the game timidly taking on three Uruks with some difficulty but once you get the hang of it and upgraded to a few of Talion’s more flashier moves,  you’ll be set to slay a garrison single handed.

You have three weapons to choose from for three different approaches to a fight; you have your sword, which is your standard tool within the melee, though with the inclusion of your otherworldly wraith powers, it becomes a terrifying weapon of destruction which makes the toughest of Uruks seem no more of a feat than stepping on the large spiders that seem to slowly trundle around the barren landscape of Mordor. You would think this sense of god like destruction would make the game too easy; but thankfully the developers have paced it well so you’ll only attain such abilities nearing the end of the game. Your other weapons are your bow and your dagger. Although the stealth gameplay is simple it is useful for thinning out the mass of Uruks before announcing your presence to the rest of them with a sword strike towards an Uruks head. Your magical bow has time slowing powers which are useful when attempting to dispatch from range, making it easier to land a couple of headshots before the bulk of screaming, slavering Uruks are upon you.

By far the best feature of Shadow of Mordor is the nemesis system. This is the first time I have played a game whereby getting killed by an enemy means more than just respawning half a second later and getting another whack at it. No, instead once you’re killed by an Uruk he may get promoted within the army and get some fancy new armour and maybe a scar that you inflicted upon him in your previous encounter; and he’ll remember it so that the next time you meet he might make a comment on how you burned him last time and through learning his weaknesses you might learn he has a developed a fear of fire because of it and can exploit said weakness in this encounter. The system works and by the end of it you might find yourself with a rival whom you’ve been battling all throughout the game yet can’t seem to quite finish him off.  The majority of the side quests, which are an add-on to the main campaign, follows this. You are able to leisurely skulk across the map interrupting various captains’ feasts and hunting expeditions with a sword through their chest, or if you’re not up to scratch, your chest. There is a level of customisation with the weapons as once you kill an orc captain he will drop a ruin which may add a certain modifier to your weapons to make them more personal to you. Later on in the game you get a branding ability,  instead of killing these captains, you’re able to mind control them and put them under your command and send them on missions to disrupt other captains progress and create power struggles within the Uruk hierarchy. The branding system is satisfying and it is gratifying when you’ve done some preparation and turned a warchief’s bodyguard against them and they do all the work for you in hastening his dispatch. 

Setting

The setting of the game takes place within two distinct areas of Mordor; you begin in a barren wasteland much like the Mordor described within the Tolkien books the ground is coloured with different hues of brown and grey. And you end it in the Sea of Nurnan a lush and verdant area. This is a welcome change because the standard perspective upon Mordor is that of Barren wasteland and it is nice for a little variety in the locations. Unfortunately ‘Barren’ can be used to describe the open world as a whole, while it is rather big there is little to do other than the main story missions as the side quests are some variance on ‘Kill this’ or ‘Get this’ and have little imagination or plot development added to them. It would have been nice to see a few more well-crafted side quests which would fill you in on some of the lesser known lore of the areas and perhaps acquaint yourself with some new and interesting characters.

Conclusion:

Positive                                                              Negative

- Good fun combat	- Little to do In the open world
- Faithful to lore	- Fairly weak story
-Graphically appealing	- Short
- Nemesis system

   

Breaking Bad Review

Breaking bad is a Crime Drama show about a the white family, but primarily Walter White who is played by Bryan Cranston, an under achieving chemistry genius turned high school teacher, during the course of the first season whilst working his second job to support his family he collapses and finds out he has developed cancer. The first season mostly follows the events that transpire after Walt develops cancer, once he realises his situation he is immediately concerned for his family who, without out him would struggle further as they are expecting a daughter as well as having a son already who has Cerebral palsy. He then decides that If he should die that he would like to some money. From there the show follows his unravelling once he hooks up with former wayward student Jesse Pinkman, who is played by Aaron Paul. From there it highlights his metamorphosis from normal suburban father into villainous drug lord when he begins cooking crystal meth using his adept chemistry skills and Jesse’s connections into the criminal underworld, throughout the first few series he progresses from a normal if misguided man who just seeks to leave his family some security once he passes, to moral depravity as he commits once criminal act after another in the act of producing his crystal meth. Breaking bad is darkly gripping and features a strong sympathetic lead, the evolution throughout the series is clever as each event unfolds, in all it is a clever show that is aimed at people from their twenty’s through to their thirties.

Love does Grow on Trees: Evaluation

Love does grow on trees is a short film directed by Bevan Walsh, and follows a teenage boy’s journey into adulthood. It is a coming of age story and is centred around the boy’s first experiences with adult magazines. It is called ‘Love does grow on trees’ because when chasing a piece of a magazine he comes across a tree full of floating pieces of pornography. He collects them all and makes his way home. At the bus stop he is met by a girl who seems to take an interest in him, but due to his embarrassment due to the fact he is hiding porn under his jacket he does not interact with her much. This is where the true meaning of the story lies as he is so caught up with the use of these magazines that he becomes short sited to the fact that a real girl is interested in him. He comes to this realization nearing the end when he goes back to the tree with the porn and has an encounter with ‘Saint Porn’ who convinces him to seek out this girl. I think the film is clever and defiantly has a deeper meaning than is shown on the surface, although this sort of film is not for me I can appreciate it from an artistic standpoint as it certainly brings up a few question’s.