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danieltay47
Reviews
The Greatest Showman (2017)
Undoubtedly the Best Musical film I seen from Hollywood
I have to admit, when I first saw the critic's ratings on IMDB and rotten tomatoes, I was put back on watching this film. But what I also realize was the drastic difference between the users and critic's scores which prompted me to watch the film to judge it on my own and I'm glad it did.
The soundtracks in this film is truly amazing and is without a doubt the best musical I seen from Hollywood (in my opinion). And Hugh Jackman was simply astounding in this film. In fact, everyone in this film was truly amazing especially Keala Settle who is playing the 'Bearded Lady'.
The only real con that this film has was the way it was executed. From what I read from some of the critic's review, the most common criticism thrown was the lack of character development which yes it was true, there wasn't much. But it was because the film was done in way where the flow of the story was base on the soundtracks. Simply put, it's like a Broadway musical. Other criticism like people saying this isn't the actual story of P.T. Barnum or some critics diss the movie just because they don't like the real-life character P.T. Barnum is just idiotic.
To sum it up, go and watch the 'The Greatest Showman', you won't regret it. But watch it like a fun loose representation of P.T. Barnum story mad into a musical.
Hitman: Absolution (2012)
Hit-man Absolution lives up to my expectations
First of all, I would like to say that I have played all the 4 Hit-man games before Hit-man Absolution and I have enjoy all the Hit-man games as unlike other games today, you are not restricted in anything you do. That saying, I can't see any reason why any Hit-man fans of this game series are angry of the new Hit-man game, Hit-man Absolution.
In my opinion, Hit-man Absolution is a mixture of both Hit-man: Silent Assassin and Hit-man: Blood Money. In Hit-man: Silent Assassin, there are several missions where you are supposed to reach point A to point B without killing any targets. That saying, there are several so call "Hit-man fans" who says that this is a new thing in Hit-man games which is horrible as it destroy the Hit-man element. Well, to that I say it's nonsense, as in Hit-man: Silent Assassin, there are already such missions. Furthermore, Hit-man Absolution brought back the classic game-play element of Hit-man: Blood Money which is accidental kill, freedom/numerous choices to kill your target and open-ended game-play. So, for what reason are Hit-man fans upset over Hit-man Absolution?
Not to mention, the combat game-play such as the using firearms, melee weopens and hand-to-hand combat have improve tremendously. Now, in whatever way I choose to play the game, I get the satisfaction from it. And this is one core element of the Hit-man games, replaybility. I don't need to play the mutiplayer mode "Contracts" to get that replaybility, I can play back the story campaign and mess around with it as it supports all type of game-play. And to top it off, the AI of the NPC responds nicely to the situation you create especially if you play in Purist mode. Unlike in Hit-man Blood Money, where guards simply stares at the body, move from left to right, bag the body and treat it as if nothing has happen, the AI of the NPC in Hit-man Absolution will respond much realistic to it. They will search for you and their conversation to one another such as fear, anger and arrogance makes it far much more exciting.
Also, the story campaign for Hit-man Absolution is far much more engaging and interesting. But the plot is quite predictable. Even before I play the game, I have already predicted that Victoria could have been another super human like 47 which turns out to be true. But the ending was really unexpected, Diana actually survives. Apart from the plot, the voice acting and motion captures of the actors was nice. But the best one was Keith Carradine voice/motion acting as Blake Dexter, it was far much more better than I have expected from him. Even Powers Boothe acting as Bengamin Travis was nice and David Bateson voice acting for 47 is better. He was able to bring out the personality of 47 when he was angry and still able to maintain that calm and cold calculating voice of 47.
But to me, the best thing of Hit-man Absolution is that there is a challenge. When I got Hit-man Blood Money the first time, I immediately got 10 levels with the 'Silent Assassin' rating, that's excluding the first and the last level. The only level I didn't get Silent Assassin rating on my first play-through was the mission 'Flatline'. But in my second play-through, I got it. Whereas for Hit-man Absolution, getting the rating is not as easy as Blood Money as apart form understanding NPC movements, you have to keep your distance from them as wearing a disguise doesn't mean you are invisible like Blood Money. However, not all are happy about this. Hit-man fans who are too use to the invisible while wearing a costume find this tedious instead and game critics rated the game lower as they say in harder difficulties, remaining undetected is harder. Well, I play in Purist mode, the hardest difficulty and I can bypass all the NPCs and remain undetected for all levels. That is no excuse for Hit-man fans to hate the game and that should be a BIGGER NO reason why game critics rated this game lower because of that. To be honest, most of the critics who criticise this game actually gave a lot of false and inaccurate information on the game.
However, there is one major shortcoming of Hit-man Absolution which I didn't like a lot. And that is each level are broken into different parts. I would have prefer if they make one level as one whole thing as it is more fitting for a Hit-man game. In fact, this one of the major reason why Hit-man fans and critics dislike this game which I won't disagree as I too didn't like it. But, then again, critics exaggerated this particular part as well. Using this reason about the levels broken down into different parts making the game more linear and removing the open-ended gameplay is again nonsense. You still have to figure your way out from the situation which in some parts are extremely difficult. But in a way, it does break that open-ended gameplay, but on the linear part, nonsense as always.
All in short, Hit-man Absolution is a worthy title of a Hit-man game and is definitely worth your money and time especially if you are hardcore Hit-man fan who wants a real challenge unlike the previous Hit-man Blood Money which is far much more linear and easier. Do not be dishearten to buy the game because of critics reviews and Hit-man fans. If you know the Hit-man franchise and it's roots very well, you will know that Hit-man Absolution has indeed maintain MOST(apart from the breaking down level into parts) of it's CORE elements. To me, most Hit-man fans hated this game only because they are too comfortable with the old Hit-man Blood Money playstyle. So their reviews are extremely bias.
Assassin's Creed III (2012)
Most disappointing game of the year.
Believe it or not, I'm actually a hardcore AC fan since the first one. But as the game progresses to Assassin Creed: Brotherhood, it starts to go down. With the release of AC3, it confirms that AC has indeed lose it's value.
First of all, there isn't any new or distinct new features to AC3. True, they added extra game features such as the combat, but it clearly didn't stand out at all. And so what if they added more cinematic deaths with the weapons, it doesn't add value at all. To put it in score: 1/10
Secondly, the game-play is far much more linear and boring than the rest of the AC games. From the first AC game to AC:Revelations, the game-play has always been consistently repetitive. So, the game director decided to change it by making it more linear. And you know what I say? IT'S HORRIBLE!!!!!! The game guides you through and it doesn't even encourage players to use their own creativity to think and solve the situation. No doubt, you still can free roam when you are not doing the story, but the game-play is just a letdown. In score: 2/10
Thirdly, the AI of the NPCs are still as clueless as the rest of the AC games. I'm not trying to insult the AC developers but seriously, can't they build a program where the NPCs can at least recognize and remember the character? For example, if the guards spots you and you managed to hide from them and the alert level settle down. Instead of the guards miraculously forgetting the character all of a sudden, can't they build a program where guards who have just been alerted from you presence previously can recognize you on the spot when they see you? I mean this is not a new program, other games already have it. This clearly shows that the AC game developers are just seriously lazy to add such realistic features. In score: 1/10
Fourth, the game has tons of glitches and bugs. Sometimes the game characters can just hank at one spot which result in needing to restart the entire mission just because of this. Other bugs include combat mode. Sometimes the guards will froze for no reason and other case(if you fighting them near the water), they will suddenly just jump into the water. And believe me, there's more bugs than that but I can't fill it all in in the review. There's a word limit. In score: 1/10 Lastly,the overall story is not as interesting or engaging as the rest of the AC games. Not to add any spoilers but I can tell you, the ending of AC3 is just horrible. Go and play and see it for yourself and you will know why I said it. Score: 4/10
In overall, AC3 only score 18/100 in my honest opinion. And please, to all those hardcore AC fans, I know you guys will definitely try to disagree with me when you read this, but you yourself know better that AC is seriously going down the drains. I have seen it already. I can guarantee say that I won't be interested in the next AC game or any other following AC games anymore. AC series has lose it's value for good.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The Dark Knight Rises has make it's mark
There are many superhero movies that are produce throughout the years and most of the time, it's either still or if not horrible. Just like the Avengers, a show whose plot is so predictable and boring as they just copy and paste most of the scenes from the comic book. Thus, it become pointless to watch. For that, I have to give credit to Christophor Nolan as for all the 3 Batman movies he directed, he has always manage to keep reality in touch with the show and he dares to take the risk of coming out with a complete new creative story rather than just copying from the comic books which is what "The Avengers" and "The Amazing Spider Man" did. And let me safely say that Christophor Nolan risk taking has truly paid off with this epic conclusion of the Batman series.
No doubt I have to admit that I was rather worried whether the show will be as good as the predecessor, The Dark Knight. But looks like I was worried for no reason at all. One good thing I should note about this show is that it's not always what it seem to be. Just like it's predecessor, the plot has a very interesting twist at the end. Well let me tell you this, so does The Dark Knight Rises.
Also, Christophor Nolan idea on combining emotion and suspense to this show was indeed a brilliant move to me. Best of all, the actors were able to act that emotional scene very well.
However, it's rather amusing though. I read several critics and user reviews and I have to say, their argument on why the show is bad is because the plot is reveal very late and that they find it tiresome to wait for the show to fill in the gaps. Some examples of the gaps are what was Bane's background or who is this or that character's background. Well honestly, I think that argument is nonsense. If the plot of the show is reveal right at the spot, what's the point of watching already? It's the suspense that made the show exciting and keep viewers at the edge of their seat which is what The Dark Knight Rises did. I don't see the logic of that argument which those critics or user made. Either way, if they are impatient, that's their loss.
All in short, a MUST WATCH movie and a guarantee MUST BUY DVD when it comes out.
Rock of Ages (2012)
Adam Shankman, what sort of NONSENSE Piece OF GARBAGE is this???????
I don't usually hate musical shows as most of the time, they just tend to be stagnate in ratings or reviews, and I would prefer to sit on the fence on this. But for this show, no doubt it was the worst musical show I have ever seen, but it is not as horrible or disgusting as "High School Musical 3: Senior Year". That by far is the only plus side I can give to this show. I think the biggest flaw of this show is the MAGOR CRAP plot. I don't know how the director thought of this show or even come out with this idea but watching it just make me want to puke. Even the musics are horrible and lack material. i rather watch some of the old Disney movies like "Lion King or "Princess and the Frog", even those old cartoon movies have better songs than this crap. All in short, one of the worst movies of 2012 and I won't even recommend any of my friends or family members to watch this piece of garbage.
Battleship (2012)
Looks are EXTREMELY deceiving
The graphic looks good, it has good trailers and actors on board, but the movie itself was a piece of crap. I think it's no doubt that this movie focus a lot on action as seen by it's title. But the plot of the movie was extremely poor, boring and of course, predictable. It's nothing but a dumb down action movie which only main focus is to arouse the public with it's battle scenes and graphical contents. Does the directors this day take us public viewers as fools who will be arouse by just some graphical battle scenes? From the looks of this show, this director seems to be mocking us viewers this way. It's damn insulting how this director think he could gain public viewers support with such cheap entertainment. To put it short, this show is horrible and a cheap piece of entertainment. Seriously, don't waste your time or money watching it.
Prometheus (2012)
Not as good as it seems
This show have it's good point, but mostly, it's all bad. The starting of the show seems rather alright as it was flowing rather smoothly. However, already at the beginning of the show, it was extremely boring. I find myself nearly dozing off at the front part of the show as all that talking without the suspense which it was suppose to have just makes it dreadful to watch. At least at the later part of the show begins to get more interesting and the suspense was starting to build up. But the ironic thing is that the story wasn't flowing properly as it progresses deeper. In fact, the plot seems to be mixing up at the last few part and it felt more like the director was vomiting out whatever he could to end the show, something to me which makes it extremely horrible. But the only plus side to the story is that it is not predictable as I thought it would. To conclude, it's not really worth the time to watch or let alone buy the DVD. If you are really interested to watch the movie, I recommend you wait for HBO or FOXMovies Premium to play it on TV.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)
Best Comedy show of 2012 and best of the whole Madagascar series
It's been 7 years since the first Madagascar show and without doubt, the show has constantly improve without fail. One thing which I am truly amaze is that this series could actually keep in touch with it's comedy without losing it especially since most comedy series tends to die down as it continues. A good example to give is "Shrek". It started all funny and nice, but as it progresses to "Shrek 2", comedy starts to die down and it hit rock bottom with "Shrek the Third". No doubt "Shrek Forever After" did better than "Shrek The Third" but overall, the whole series lose it's roots. Which is why to me, this show deserves this 10 out of 10 rating as not only did it keep to its roots, but it improves it tremendously from the first to the second one. One thing I like most about this show is the balance of both child like comedy with adult humor and also, with some dirty jokes here and there. With all this elements together, it makes the show prefect. And the romance of Gia and Alex or King Julien with the grizzly bear was indeed hilarious and interesting. To sum it all, a MUST SEE comedy show and it will definitely be worth the money to buy the DVD when it comes out.
The Avengers (2012)
Most DISAPPOINTING Superhero show in 2012
At first when I heard of this show, I was kinda excited about it. But when I went to the cinemas yesterday to watch it, I was tempted to leave my seat already at the early part of the show. It's not the characters or actors that is horrible, it's the director to be honest. I don't know how the script writers come what with this or even how the director approve it, but the lines and conversation were so fake, blunt and seriously horrible. It lakes emotions, feelings or even creativeness. Let alone, the whole plot is too predictable and boring. No doubt the action scenes is good and the graphic is awesome, but the plot and horrible lines just make this show right at the bottom of my list for shows in 2012. I rather watch "The Dark Knight" anytime rather than this horrible show. Even friends of mine who are crazy about DC and Marvel comics were absolutely disappointed in this show. In fact, they leave the theatres during halfway of the show. This is just an example to show how horrible it is. All in short, this show to me is not worth watching or buying and was a waste of 143 minutes of my time.