The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey review

Another Peter Jackson epic!! Based on The Hobbit, and set before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tis be the perfect way to celebrate Christmas, with 13 dwarves, a hobbit, Gandalf, and a lot of fights.

I just missed the mailman.

I haven’t read The Hobbit, so I can’t make any comments to compare the book and the movie version, nor comment on how well it made the transition to the silverscreen.

Still, I found the movie very enjoyable.

Just like The Fellowship of the Ring, the movie starts off a bit slow, setting the whole scene: we are introduced to a young Bilbo Baggins (excellently portrayed by Martin Freeman) and the company of dwarves; the fall of the Dwarven kingdom, Erebor to Smaug, the mighty dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch).

But, about one-third into the movie, the pace picks up and we are introduced to a whole lot of action.

TROLLS!!

GOBLINS!!

ORCS!!

GOLLUMGOLLUMGOLLUM!!!

And, er, even more ORCS!!!

AZOG SMASH!!

Inevitably, there will be comparisons made to LotR: same director, being a prequel and all that. Personally, I didn't bother with the comparisons and saw it as a different trilogy (yes, it’s another epic trilogy) that explains some things.

For example, there was always a bit of unfriendliness between Legolas and Gimli, due to the fact that the former is an elf and the latter a dwarf. I always thought it was due to cultural conflict and such. But in The Unexpected Journey, there was an explanation for the hostility, though I’m not sure if that is the exact reason for the conflict.

Some might find that the huge cast a bit hard to follow, I won’t blame them. I could barely keep up with the names of the 13 dwarves alone.

So, take a deep breath….

Good luck telling who is who.

Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and last but not least, Thorin II Oakenshield, Son of Thrain, Son of Thror, King Under the Mountain.

Good lord, that was a mouthful.

Still, I particularly enjoyed Thorin as a character. He was my favourite character, after Bilbo.

Special mention goes towards the Great Goblin.

I got me eye on you.

Seriously, the guy looks like a gigantic piece of lard goblin, and I was half expecting him to talk like some rickety old coot, wheezing for breath, or the typical deep and “villainy” monster voice.

Imagine my surprise when he started talking in a smooth voice with a penchant for humor!! By far, the scenes with him were one of my favourite scenes of The Unexpected Journey. In an era where all villains speak with so much serious-ness and the deep booming voice of a blackhole, it is extremely refreshing to see a rather unique portrayal of a villain. Even if he is a minor one.

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Without a doubt, The Hobbit trilogy is set to be the new epic that will define the moments of cinematic history for the 2010s.

Go watch this movie. ‘Nuff said.

And then, I want a giant explosion with helicopters flying overhead.
Yea, I was on the phone with Michael Bay just now.
How did you know?

Movie review: Wreck-it Ralph

I was looking forward to this movie for quite some time: a tribute to old school gaming? With cameos by actual gaming icons?? Sonic, Zangief, M. Bison, Q-bert, Dr. Robotnik??

YES.

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it again: 2012 is the year of the geeks, and the era of the geeks will most likely continue for some time. Hollywood just discovered a huge goldmine.

Wreck-it Ralph is simply great. There are plenty of shoutouts to video games and a lot of love has gone into it. This is by far, one of the best video game themed movies in a long, long time.

Resident Evil can suck it.

Especially her! If you know what I mean...

The marketing for the movie IS a bit misleading, the trailers and ads make it look like the various licensed video game characters get a lot of screen time, but they don’t. Most of them are merely cameos, appearing for a few seconds, or a few minutes at most.

But, even if you are not a gamer, fret not, beneath its video game tribute shell lays a story that has a big heart.

The story is about Ralph, who is a Bad Guy in an old-school arcade game, called Fix-it Felix Jr.

After doing his job for 30 years, he feels unappreciated by the denizens of the game, the Nicelanders. Despite the fact that, without him, the game would not function at all. At least Felix still treats him nice.

Hell, on the 30^th anniversary of the game, the Nicelanders didn’t even bother to invite him. Seriously, they’re fucking dicks.

Those 8-bit assholes.

I mean, come on, Ralph is a fucking saint. As Zangief puts it, “You are a Bad Guy, but you are not a bad guy.”

Ok, that may be a bit confusing, but if you watch the movie, you will get the meaning of the message.

So, after the Nicelanders, especially the biggest fucking dick of all, Gene, refuse to accept him, Ralph decides to go prove his worth, which sets the whole story in motion.

The top asshole.

Along his journey, Ralph visits Hero’s Duty, which is kinda like a sci-fi-ish Call of Duty/Medal ofHonour/Battlefield as an on-rails light gun arcade game and Sugar Rush, a Japanese Daytonna USA/Super Mario Kart game, where he meets the like of Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun and Vanellope von Schweetz.

The storyline is simple enough, detailing Ralph’s journey to become a hero, despite his label as the Bad Guy. The Aesop of the story is pretty much: Be Yourself, though I felt that it was done as well as it should.

However, what Wreck-it Ralph does well is presenting the characters, especially the brother-sister relationship that Ralph eventually develops with Vanellope, which is honestly freaking adorable. She was annoying at first though, but watching their relationship develop was one of the many great joys of the movie.

Aww....

And I love John C. Reilly’s voice acting and the characterization for Ralph, it’s just so easy to feel for the big guy, who gets outcasted in his own game for doing his damn job, and is still a gentle and nice guy despite all of the shit he is given for over THIRTY years.

Look at that!!! I just wanna give him a big hug.

Seriously, Nicelanders…everyone hates you. Please go die.

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Though I was really looking forward to this movie, I was afraid that this movie would not live up to my expectations.

But, as it turns out, it was a lot better than I thought. Sure, it was a bit slow at first, but it picked up the pace in the 2^nd act, and it was a helluva ride.

And just in time for Christmas too, almost. Definitely a must watch.

Game review: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I actually started this post before I watched Rise of the Guardians >_>.

Took me some time to finish this.

Anyhoo…I was also busy playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which is sorta like an updated game of UFO: Enemy Unknown, also known as XCOM: UFO Defense. Now, I’ve played the first game long, long, loooooooong time ago (back in 1995), and it was fun but punishingly hard at times.

Since I’ve always been a fan of turn-based strategy games, especially if coupled with RPG elements, I thought I would give it a go. 

And, really, it’s awesome. Hell, if Yahtzee loves it, you know its fucking awesome.

When you start the game, you are given a few difficulty options. For newcomers, I suggest either Easy or Normal. Classic difficulty is slightly tougher than the original game, while Impossible really lives up to its name.

There’s also Ironman mode, which saves automatically for you after every single action you take, so whatever mistakes you make…well, you gotta live with it. Definitely not for the light-hearted.

Pic unrelated.

Storyline wise, XCOM does not have anything too spectacular. It basically goes like this: Aliens are attacking Earth, you are given a task force to deal with them, you go from one big bad to the next, and eventually culminating in you defeating the leader and then you win.

Yea, not much points for that.

However, to be fair, the meat of the game lies in the gameplay. WHICH IS FREAKING ADDICTIVE.

Whenever you go on missions, you a team of 4-6 soldiers and shoot the ever living crap out of whatever alien scum that stands in your way.

On the battlefield though, it’s not that simple, you have to take into account cover, flanking, elevation, line of sight, obstacles, your troop’s movement, aim etc etc. It can be quite overwhelming at first, but after a few battles, it was pretty easy to take everything into account within a split second.

At first, your troops are frankly, rubbish. While your alien enemies are packing psionic abilities along with plasma weapons, your troops walk around with bulletproof vests and lead-spewing guns.

Seriously, World Council? You guys are stingy.

Well, fuck.

However, as they level up through kills, your troops will gain powerful abilities and become tougher soldiers.

Each soldier has 8 levels, or ranks, to attain, and each rank gives the soldier a new skill. Most of the ranks have two to choose from, and you can’t retrain soldiers, so make your choice carefully.

Most importantly though, if your soldier dies during a mission, they die permanently, so no reviving with phoenix downs or whatnot. Though, if you’re lucky, instead of dying, they end up in critical condition instead and can be revived within a limited time.

So, what is it that makes XCOM so addictive? There’s just so many things to do.

The combat is certainly fun, the amount of strategy and tactics that go into each battle situation is enough to keep you entertained for hours. Due to the random-ness of each battle, not one battle is the same.

The environments however, are more or less the same few battlefields used over and over. But that does not really make the battles any less fun. As you and your troops become more experienced, the dastardly aliens start fielding more powerful troops as well: the dreaded Sectopod made me shit my pants the first time around.

Sir? HQ? We need some new pants.

Another thing I loved about XCOM is the dedication to environmental damage: you can take out any cover your enemy is hiding behind and force them out into the open instead. Of course they can do the same, so watch out. Enough firepower will blow a hole open in any wall, enabling you even more tactical options to give the aliens a taste of hot lead/laser/plasma.

And exploding cars. Seriously, don’t stand next to a burning car, or your soldier will get a face full of burning metal chunks.

This job does NOT come with car insurance.

Then, there’s the research and base-building aspect whenever you are not in combat. To make your troops more effective in battle, you need to gather resources from combat (the best resources come from downed aliencrafts), then research new tech to arm your soldiers, such as psionic training, new weapons, new armours, upgrading your weapons and armours,

You also have to build infrastructures in your base, some are plot-important, but most of them are up to you to place. Putting similar type of buildings next to each other confers bonuses, so that’s another level of strategy you must think of. Thankfully, unlike the original games, you only need to worry about building one base, and not take care of multiple bases.

To pass the time while research/building is underway, you go to Mission Control and scan for alien activity. And this is probably where the addiction starts.

Goodbye social life.

Scan.

Oooo…Terror mission, I must save Paris!!

*Saves Paris from alien scum and zombies*

Whee!! Oooo…two more days till the Laser Sniper Rifle research is done. I should probably finish that off first.

Scan.

Laser Sniper Rifle research done!! Just in time for my planes to shoot down this alien patrol craft!!!

*Interceptors goes pew-pew against alien UFO*

The UFO crash landed in Russia!! Time to launch the team!!

Wait, what do you mean it’s now 4am? Ah crud…

Be prepared, that actually happened a few times. It’s like Civilization, where you just want to go for one. More. Turn.

Not surprising, since it’s made by the same studio…

Alien abductions in Mexico, Brazil AND South Africa!! Oh sh….

One of the hardest decisions in the game: who to save, and who to ignore"?

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To summarize XCOM: Enemy Unknown

The good:

• Excellent, addictive gameplay
• Graphics are pretty good on the getting-old Unreal engine
• A rare occurrence where the developers took out the bad aspects of the original and enhanced what was good. Seriously, damn rare to see something like that.

The bad:

• Well, mostly that the campaign is a bit too short, and there’s not much weight to the storyline. A better, less generic storyline would’ve made this game perfect.
• Difficulty, especially at higher settings, can be a bit of a turn off.

Truth be told, I didn’t expect this game to be as good as it is. This comes as a pleasant surprise for this year, especially after Diablo III disappointed the crap out of a few million players and Mass Effect 3’s stupid ass (original) endings.

This should be a contender for Game of the Year.

GREAT. As if I was not paranoid enough.

Film review: Rise of the Guardians

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, been busy with work, and I was out on holiday for a while.

Wow, my last update was almost a month ago.

Anyways, I managed to watch this last night, and I have to say…

Not bad at all.

AVENGE...I mean...GUARDIANS!! ASSEMBLE!!

Rise of the Guardians sees Santa Claus, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny coming together again as the titular Guardians when their old foe, Pitch Black aka the Boogeyman, comes back to threaten the children of the world.

Nighty night....

But this time, the Man on the Moon seems to think that they need help, and appoints a new member: Jack Frost.

It’s like the Avengers but with popular folk mascots.

The cast and characters is quite the ensemble too.

Look at that face...
Just a matter of time before all the fangirls start creating yaoi doujin of him with the other characters.

The main character, Jack Frost is voiced by Chris Pine, and he’s sort of like the surrogate character for the audience, where everything is explained to him. His character has potential, but not fully realised here. Jack Frost wishes to know the purpose of his existence, but has yet to find it after 300 years. 

Hell, he wasn’t too keen on being appointed a Guardian at first, but he soon comes around to it.

Look at those awesome tattoos.

Nicholas St. North aka Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin) is played up to be a tattooed Russian giant with an army of Yetis and silly elves and a sweet sleigh ride.

And it is glorious.

You can practically feel Alec Baldwin having the time of his life voice acting the character.

FAIRY POWAHHHHH

Toothiana aka The Tooth Fairy (Isla Fischer) is a weird half-human, half-hummingbird hybrid who collects teeth from children and leaves behind a quarter. She also commands an army of smaller fairies.

Seriously though, she and her army are just adorable. And will punch out your tooth if you threaten the children of the world.

I was half expecting him to go "Bub" or just "Snikt!"

E. Aster Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman) is a badass Australian bunny. He kicks ass with boomerangs and martial arts while painting eggs. And, somehow, he’s still on the receiving end of many jokes. Don't call him cute.

Whiplash would be proud.

Last, but not least, the Sandman, who does not speak. Rather, he portrays his thoughts with sand sculptures above his head.

Got to give this guy credit, the Sandman kicks ass with his dual sand whips.

One thing that definitely caught my eye about this movie, is how breathtakingly beautiful the graphics are. Especially with Jack Frost’s ice and frost animations, it’s simply beautiful. Even the model has a certain appeal to it, despite the simplicity of it.

If anything, I kinda regret not watching this in 3D.

Hell, I would watch it again just for the Christmas elves.

Now, truth be told, the story…isn’t much. It’s a rather generic story that plays out just a little over one and a half hour: the good guys find a new powerful threat, recruit a new player into their team, find themselves losing, the new guy discovers a new power within himself, the good guys unite and fight back and win the day.

The Yetis are pretty awesome as well.

And yet…

Everyone loves this movie, including me of course. Though the critics obviously are not as impressed.

Why is that?

Maybe it’s just the marketing and good timing, a feel good movie coming out near the X-mas period? Yea, no one has done that before.

But, I think it may be something more.

Let’s face it, we are living through trying times, it’s hard to be hopeful and be optimistic at times like this.

And then, you watch this movie, and it sends out a message of hope, dreams, wonder, fun and memories. 

Perhaps, that is why it struck a deep chord with a lot of people.

Just like children, or perhaps even more so than children, adults, weary of life and its many complications, can feel that there is always hope, for a better tomorrow.

Congratulations, Dreamworks Animations, if people were not convinced that you guys could make great movies after Kung Fu Panda 2 and How to Train a Dragon, perhaps this would.

Watch out, Pixar.

Taken 2 review

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills in Taken 2, this time set in Istanbul. Is it worth a watch? Well…

Man...even the tagline sounds cheesy.

I suppose if you liked the first movie, Taken, then you would probably like this as well. Can’t say I was much of a fan of Taken, but it was quite exciting watch Liam Neeson taking on the role of a retired badass CIA field operative and kicking glorious amounts of ass all around Paris.

What do you mean we have no bacon...?
It can't be true...

This time, the story is set in Istanbul, where the father of Marko, one of the men Bryan Mills killed in Taken, and vows revenge on him. Of course, the stakes are now higher, as this time Bryan’s ex-wife, Lenore is there as well.

As you can see, the story is not going to win any awards, it’s simple enough to follow, and frankly, most people are not going to be watching it for the story anyways.

Some parts of the story are a bit…weird though.

Why would the Albanian mafia speak English with each other? Especially in the opening, where the main baddie Murad speaks to the entire village in Tropojë, Albania IN ENGLISH. That seemed a bit…jarring. Why couldn’t they have spoken in Albanian with subtitles?

There’s also the fact that Bryan actually instructed his daughter, Kim, to start tossing grenades around Istanbul so that he can figure out where his location is in relation to hers. That seems a bit extreme.

And irresponsible.

Then, there’s also Murad’s sense of so-called Justice. I totally understand if he just wanted revenge on Bryan for his son’s death, but he kept saying something about justice and some bullshit like that.

My epic beard hides my epic sorrow

Erm…yea. Your son was part of a fucking human trafficking ring. That really does not fit in at all. Of course, it’s very likely he’s just saying it to justify the actions he is about to put Bryan and his family through. Or he is plain crazy.

I think it’s the latter though.

I mean, you have got to be a bit cuckoo, to try to take revenge on a guy that took out an entire crime cartel, almost singlehandedly. This time, he fares no better, and loses his ENTIRE gang to Bryan.

Man, you suck.

Then again, he is also Qui-Gon Jinn, Zeus, Ras al Ghul, Jesus Christ,
Aslan, John Hannibal Smith and Admiral Shane (Battleship).

One thing though, I like the family dynamics in the story. It’s rather heartwarming and interesting to watch the three of them interact as a family. That sidestory is mostly concentrated during the first act of the movie, where Bryan brings Kim out for driving lessons, talks about her boyfriend, comforts his ex-wife about the state of her marriage, his barbeque outing with his buddies etc.

Actually, they could have turned it into a romantic comedy action flick. Which would turn out well.

Hmm…

As for the acting, to put it simply: Liam Neeson is pretty ass-kicking awesome; Maggie Grace (plays his daughter, Kim) is pretty hot while she runs around in a bikini; Famke Janssen (plays his wife, Lenore) is pretty damn hot too; Rade Serbedzija (the baddie) is erm…underwhelming.

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Still, it’s not to say a bad movie, but it’s not a great one either. If you’re a fan of Liam Neeson, like I am, then watch it for the sake of seeing Liam Neeson kicking ass.

Hmm…retired former CIA field operative kicking ass?? Why isn’t he in RED 2???

Yes, they're making a sequel. You may now cry tears of joy.

Gundam AGE review

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE finally finished its run recently at 49 episodes. It has a unique storyline, which spans through three generations over 100 years.

So, what do I think of it after one year?

Well…meh. So many great ideas, but completely wasted.

BIG STOMPING ROBOTS!!

Story/Characters (Major spoilers ahead)

The basic storyline is that the Earth Federation is at war with the UE (Unknown Enemy, seriously? Couldn’t find a better name?), who were at first thought to be aliens or something.

And…surprise!! They are not aliens, but rather humans who were abandoned after the Mars Colonization project ran into too much trouble, so now the Vagans (as they call themselves) want revenge on the federation and take back Earth as their Eden.

Now, truthfully, the progression of the storyline is alright, that is to say that they didn’t really do anything really creative with the story. Most of the faults of the story come from the character portrayal themselves.

Though one thing does bug me is the fact that it took them about…37 episodes to humanize the UE. OH, COME ON REALLY??

Up to that point, we really do not have much of a reason to support the Vagan: they indiscriminately attack civilians; merciless and heartless characters fill their ranks (though they have some heartbreaking characters moments, it was too little, too late); even their mobile suits spell villain/evil all over.

Look at that soulless evil stare.

Hell, up to that point, we weren’t even sure if they even HAD civilians within their ranks, they could have been a completely militarized society for all we know.

It does not help that most of the sympathetic characters that die tear-jerking deaths are usually on the Federation’s side which only serves to demonize the Vagans. By the time we are shown the truly horrendous plight that the Vagans go through, it was too late and comes off as very heavy handed and forced.

So it just gives us the impression that the Federation are always the good guys no mater what.

Another horrendous episode is Episode 42, where we are introduced to Girard Spriggan (or however you spell it), a soldier who defected to the Vagans from the Federation, which provided a valid reason actually. The episode shows why she defected and joined the enemy and….

Yes, that's a girl.

What was the fucking point of it?

At least her mobile suit looks pretty awesome.

It’s not like she joined the main cast, she dies in the very next episode anyways. Nor would it have made sense to make join the main cast, when you only have 7 episodes left to the series.

So why was she there? Was it to show that the Federation was not that clean and shiny? That is pointless because by that point, we knew that the Federation was not exactly innocent since the First generation arc anyways. They did abandon the entire Mars colony to die after all.

Was it to help emphasize how stupid Zeheart was? He knew that there was a chance Girard might go out of control, and he still let her out to battle in a powerful mobile suit. Goddam idiot.

But just to make things fair, I'll bring a psycho, IE you, in case
I am in any danger of accidentally defeating him.

After she died, she was forgotten, and all that talk about her lover died because of the Federation and covered up amounts to nothing. No one was held responsible, and everyone moved on like normal.

Well, that was a waste of time.

So, storyline was so-so, what about the characters?

Before Gundam AGE was officially shown, I was intrigued by the fact that the story was going to cover three generations: from Flit Asuno to his son, Asemu Asuno, then to Flit’s grandson, Kio Asuno. But, I was also sceptical, how would they manage to flesh out the characters at all? Because remember, not only do they have to characterize the main characters without being carbon copies of each other, they ALSO have to do the same to the supporting cast as well.

After watching about halfway through, I realised how they dealt with the problem of characterization.

They didn’t bother with it. Or rather they did a terrible job of it.

What we basically have is an almost complete lack of character development for anyone except for the three protagonists, which is saying something, because they only get about a dozen episodes each to develop before getting into the final arc.

Worse still, is the way Gundam AGE treat their female characters, which is to say that they get nothing at all, or if you’re lucky enough to be the love interest of any of the Asunos, you either die for the purpose of plot advancement or get shallow development. What abysmal treatment…

Take for example, in the first generation, Flit’s love interest is Emily, and she does jackshit the whole time. She’s just holding on to Haro, wishing that Flit would not involve himself in the war and leave with her to settle in another colony, away from the war. THAT is literally her basic characterization, and pretty much all she does the whole time we see her.

The other love interest, Yurin, was basically set up so that she will die sacrificing herself heroically for Flit. Okay, granted that she was designed to tug at the viewer’s heartstrings in mind, which also sets up Flit’s bitter and vengeful-driven nature in his later life.

But she is adorable. LOOK AT THAT.

But, still you have to wonder that Yurin, who has half the screentime (or less) of Emily, gets better received than Emily, your characterization is pretty screwed up.

Hell, we don’t know anything about Unoa Asuno, who is Flit’s daughter. All we know is that she’s a medic and part of the Asuno family and….that’s about it.

I had to Google "Flit's daughter" to find out her name, she was THAT plot-insignificant

Ugh…

The protagonists fare slightly better. Slightly.

Out of the three though, Flit is probably the most fleshed out, but only because he was there from episode one. He goes from naïve and idealistic kid (who also happens to be the architect of a mass murder military weapon), to becoming a bitter and vengeful driven anti-hero, to finally fulfilling his role of a true hero.

It does not help that his whole life pretty much consists of people he knows dead at the hands of the Vagan, one way or the other.

Hard not to feel for him in this scene. Look at young Flit's face.

Personally, I found his role as an anti-hero very interesting to watch, due to the fact that for once, we can really see the effects a really prolonged war has on a character (as compared to the usual couple of years in the previous Gundam series). But his change from anti-hero to hero happens too quickly. It would have been more effective, in my opinion, if he was allowed to see the plight of the Vagan civilians and have a gradual change of heart. But, still, if anything, Flit Asuno was an interesting character to watch.

Asemu from the second generation onwards starts off idolizing his father and wants to live up to his name. He becomes best friends with Zeheart Galette who turns out to be a Vagan spy. So the two end up fighting against each other on opposite sides of the war.

CHAR CLONE ALERT

Asemu’s character revolves around his inferiority complex against his father and Zeheart. It does not help that he is not an X-rounder (this series’ version of Newtype pilots) thus making him a less effective pilot. At first.

Under the tutelage of Commander Woolf, Asemu learns to be himself (finally) and be a badass. He also gets a wicked sick pirate-themed Gundam in Kio's arc.

SUPA PIRATE PAILOTTTOOOO~~!!

However, this is a love-or-hate arc, as his attitude can get a bit annoying at times as he seems to be only concerned with topping his father and Zeheart, it takes the death of his mentor, Woolf to finally bring him around. That happens in the last two episodes of his arc, and then it moves to his son’s arc.

Um, yea. Great pacing guys.

I feel this arc is rather weak, the only noteworthy thing is that it shows Zeheart who remains the villain for the rest of the series (although he is not a great antagonist), and it shows Flit Asuno’s change into a man driven to exterminate all of the Vagans.

The third arc is Kio Asuno and…well, frankly, he is the least likeable in my opinion. I mean, there’s nothing really wrong with him: he’s a very kindhearted kid, but unrealistically idealistic, sometimes bordering on what-the-hell idiocy. Granted, he’s a kid, but still…

Grandpa Flit: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!

Some moments of idiocy includes: Grandpa Flit comes to save his ass so that they can’t capture Kio’s Gundam AGE-3, Flit distracts them and stays to fight (in an ancient Gundam AGE-1 which makes it pretty damn awesome!), Kio ignores orders to return, goes back and gets himself captured, rendering Flit’s efforts moot and almost getting him killed.

Another one was during his capture, the Vagans’ leader Lord Ezelcant wants to investigate the hardware of the Gundam AGE-3, obviously so that they can reverse-engineer the powerful technology behind it, but it’s protected by failsafe mechanisms. Only Kio can override it.

What does Kio do? Kio gives his override in exchange for some medicine in order to extend his love interest, Lu Anon's life by a few days. It was kind of him, but it was FUCKING STUPID. What did he think the Vagans were going to do with the Gundam’s technology??

Ok, she is REAAALLLLYYYYYY adorable though.

Sure enough, the Vagans make their own Gundam, Gundam Legilis, which beats the total snot out of the Gundam AGE-3.

Crotch shot!

Furthermore, Kio does not actually show his great piloting skills, the most powerful Gundam in the series is handed to him on a silver platter, because he is an Asuno, not because he is an incredible pilot. Granted, he has extremely powerful X-Rounder abilities, but his piloting skills are not that great. Hell, some of the side characters are much more badass NORMAL pilots, who for all intents and purposes, completely overshadow and outskill Kio, such as Seric Abbis and Obright, who took down much more powerful mobile suits in their own mass produced, albeit customized, mobile suits.

Obright: Remi, I'm finally going to see you again...
Manly-fucking-tears were shed.

It does not help that Kio basically goes around telling people to stop fighting, IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING BATTLE. For some unfathomable reason, he only does this to the Vagan pilots, and disables their mobile suits. Nevermind the fact that the Vagan pilots are beating the crap out of your own forces.

This gives the illusion that Kio cares more about the Vagan casualties than his own Federation team. What the hell is up with that?

At least Kira Yamato was fair to both sides; he disabled mobile suits from both sides to stop them from killing each other.

The final arc consists of 10 episodes of all three generations working together to stop the war, and you know what? It sucks. It really does, I honestly did not feel anything for the finale. It was so lacklustre and uninspired that I wonder if the writer team only had the triple generation gimmick in mind and just got stuck there.

Just throw everything we got and shoot them all to hell.

Zeheart is a piss poor main villain who dies in the second last episode, his motivations basically goes along the line of “I must fulfil the dream of Ezelcant-sama, for the sake of the Vagans because I have no idea what the fuck to do without any orders.” Ok, fine, he’s a soldier who unfortunately does not or is unable to think long term plans for the sake of the Vagans. I can sort of accept that.

But Lord Ezelcant’s plan is…sheer what-the-fuck-ness.

He has a hot wife, you know why?
Corkscrew hair is a sign of a large manhood.

So his main plan of capturing Earth for the Vagans is false. Okay, that was unexpectedly fresh actually. What is his real plan? He wants to create a race of peaceful humans (okay), by killing off people with warlike/aggressive tendencies (wait, what?) by starting a war with the Federation (WHAT). I don’t know about you but won’t the survivors of the war be even more aggressive??

Survival of the fittest? Ever heard of that??

Well fuck.

I would like to put in some noteworthy supporting casts, but frankly, there are just way too many supporting casts and almost all of them are not even worth the time spent to write them down. They’re just very poorly represented.

So, exactly what is wrong with Gundam AGE? I personally believe that the three-generation gimmick is just badly implemented. Each of the generation has its shining moments, but 49 episodes is just not enough, if each arc had 26 episodes, then it would be enough to flesh out everyone and give them a chance to shine. 

But as it is, with all that cramped into such a small time frame, everything is a compressed, convoluted mess.

The short time frame also knocks the pacing out cold. Things simply move too fast, yet they still pointlessly dedicate precious amounts of time to characters that does not add jackshit to the storyline like Girard Spriggan, those two dumbass factions in Fardain colony, the Magicians Eight and the Phantom Three.

Yea, seriously.

Bizarrely, characters that should be integral to the plot seem to come and go, and their absence sometimes is completely ignored: Emily has nothing to add beyond Flit’s arc; Romary has none either after Asemu’s arc; Wendy adds NOTHING, she’s only implied to be Kio’s love interest, but nothing more and she has the least screentime out of all of them; Millais Alloy, the captain of the Diva battleship (a plot-centric battleship), disappears completely in Kio’s act onwards but no one says a damn thing; Largan Drace, a pilot from Flit’s arc completely disappears by Asemu’s arc; Asemu’s fellow rookie teammates in his arc mysteriously disappears without a word.

Graphics

For the most part, the graphics are fine. Or at least it averages out to fine.

I love the design of the girls, which is ironic considering how they treat them storyline-wise.

However, the character design can be erm, weird at times. How the hell does Dique Gunhale’s design (and by extension, his grandson Wootbit Gunhale) fit in with the rest of the world??

Seriously, how?

At least Dique's daughter, Arisa Gunhale is pretty hot.

It’s ridiculously jarring.

Some people were a bit critical of the hairstyles that were shown in the series, but personally, I’m okay with it. After all, you can’t have them in real life, so where else can you have them?

It's a hedgehog mullet with a fringe, with a ponytail...thingie.

The mobile suit designs were quite nice too.

Gundam AGE-1 is an obvious shout out to the RX-78, and I really liked the alternate modes that they featured in the story, with the special Titus and Spallow modes. It made a return in the last arc as a heavily armored badass form known as AGE-1 Glanza. Looks a bit like the Armored Mk-II in the UC timeline.

Looks pretty badass actually.

Gundam AGE-2 is a shoutout to Zeta Gundam, with a fighter craft mode. It was later upgraded to the Gundam AGE-2 Double Bullet with shoulder mounted cannons. When Asemu became Captain Ash of the Bisidian Pirates, he got a version of the Gundam AGE-2 painted in PIRATE colors, with a grappling hook, a chest mounted floodlight, a skull head crest and an eye patch!! This is my favourite design thus far. It’s freaking awesome.

LOOK AT THAT!!!

Gundam AGE-3 is by far my 2^nd favourite design, piloted by Kio, most likely inspired by the ZZ Gundam. It’s a giant mobile suit formed by the Core Fighter and the G-Ceptor, a transformable unit that becomes the Gundam’s legs and arms. Like the AGE-1, this allows the mobile suit to be able to change forms. It had two other forms: Fortress which turned the mobile suit into a hovering weapon of mass destruction, armed with four powerful beam cannons which can wipe out anything in its path; and the Orbital mode, which turns the humongous AGE-3 into a speedy, space unit with tracking beam weaponry.

That beam rifle can punch through several mobile suits and keep going.

Finally we got the Gundam AGE-FX, to replace the heavily damaged AGE-3 for Kio. For me though, the AGE-FX’s design does not capture my imagination. It’s not very inspiring for some reason, not in the way the other End-of-the-series-Gundam does like the Wing Zero, Freedom, or 00-Raiser. Still, at least it’s better than Strike Freedom.

Fabulous!

The Mobile suit designs for the Vagans are better though, with interesting dragon designs, which is a departure from a lot of other series. The Vagan Gundam Legilis is well, a mixed bag,

The Federation mobile suits are fine as well, nothing too interesting, with the exception of Woolf’s white custom mobile suit, which looks pretty damn awesome.

One thing that does bug me though, is that the way the mobile suits move during the final arc: they seem to be getting flashier and more ridiculous, why would the Gundam AGE-FX moves its hands to use the funnels?? Why would the Fawn Farsia, piloted by Fram, need to swing its sceptre around to direct the energy whip or its flower shaped funnels?? Why does it need a sceptre in the first place??

Flower Powaaahhhh

Ugh.

Music

The music for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is pretty good actually, only the first opening does not appeal to me. In fact, I feel that with each new opening song, it actually gets better.

It helps that the openings are beautifully animated with pretty awesome action scenes thrown in and good timing thrown in to the beat of the music. Special mention goes towards the 4^th opening, it’s a very addictive opening to watch.

(Artist – Name of Song)

Openings

• Asu E (To Tomorrow) – Galileo Galilei
• sharp# - Negoto
• Real – Vivid (this one is my favorite)
• Aurora – Aoi Eir

Ending

• Kimi no Naka No Eiyu (Hero in You) – Minami Kuribayashi
• My World – SPYAIR
• White Justice – Faylan
• Forget-me-not ~Wasurenagusa~ - FLOWER

Insert

• Memorial Days – KOKIA
• Kimi to Boku wa Soko ni Ita – AiRi

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, what can I say about Mobile Suit Gundam AGE? Frankly, it’s a disappointment.

It starts off slow in Flit’s arc, goes through some meaningless bullshit, then has a few great moments and fizzles out. Repeat for next few arcs.

Perhaps the story can be fixed in SRW? Though how it will fit in is another issue.

The thing is, if somehow the final arc to bring all three main characters together in some epic fashion, it could still be a great anime. Somehow, the final arc just kinda went the meh way, and is extremely unsatisfying. After almost 100 years of war, everything is all sunshines and rainbow with one battle?

Nuh uh.

I’m sorry but Mobile Suit Gundam AGE just does not cut it for me. It’s just plain unsatisfactory.

Plenty of great ideas, but all wasted.

Big whoop, Flit was dipped in gold.