A young reporter in London named Tintin buys a model of a famed ship known as the Unicorn.  He is interrupted by a man who tries to buy it back from him saying, “It’ll get him into a mess of trouble.” Tintin decides to do some research, leading him farther into the mystery of the Unicorn, Sir Francis’ family, and the greatest sunken treasure in the world. This unravels a fantastic adventure for the entire family.

The film itself is certainly amazing within the realms of CGI, creating almost shockingly realistic computer images. The company responsible was the same that did The Polar Express, which received harsh critiques for the visuals being too in-between realistic and non-realistic. The company has obviously improved since then, showing its newfound skill to create the fantastically detailed visuals in Tintin. Not a single hair seems out of place, the water looks great, and the characters look almost real enough to be live action actors. It’s almost surreal just how realistic this movie looks.

The balance of themes from adult to child are also done very well. There is no skipping on violence, but it’s slightly tongue in cheek.  Despite the pure number of people shooting MP40’s at Tintin, he never even gets near a bullet, only firing his gun a total of two times the entire film. Yet there is a lot of featured shooting and violence and obvious going on about Captain Hadock’s (Tintin’s companion) raging alcoholism. So even though the film is marketed towards children, it’s not as if it’s some little kid’s tale; there are some rather mature moments.

All and all the film is a fantastic blend of whimsical storytelling and cinematic moviemaking. Anyone who goes to see this film can have a great time for one reason or another, a fine film with amazing visuals, fun for the whole family.

This tale was set in the 1960s and it portrays the lives of rich white families and the black maids who work for them. There are three main characters: maids Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Miss Skeeter (Emma Stone), the daughter of a cotton plantation owner. Minny Jackson is a tempestuous and outspoken woman who is unafraid to stand up for herself or her beliefs. Her fiery personality often gets her into trouble with her employers and also provides much comic relief. Aibileen is a repressed woman who struggles daily with the grief of her dead son. She looks to fill that hole with the little girl she cares for: Mae Mobley. Miss Skeeter is a recent college graduate who is stuck between the old way of life and her progressive ideals. She sees the Jackson society as an opportunity to analyze that life and advance her writing career.

Miss Skeeter decides to write a book detailing the lives of the black maids in Jackson. Reluctantly, Aibileen and Minny agree to help. Eventually, many more maids join the experiment. Each person involved is concerned about the very real danger they face. None of them want to be subjected to hate crimes or be sent to prison, so they hide their identities.

Writing Miss Skeeter’s book is half the battle. The events that follow its publication are even more challenging.

As a book, The Help was nicely written. It was complex and had a plethora of multidimensional characters. At times, the book tended to ramble and not progress the plot. It also jumped inconsistently from one perspective to the next, which disrupted the flow of the story and caused confusion.

This story was presented much better as a movie than as a book. The plot was streamlined, which solved the inconsistencies and the confusion. The downside to making the plot more understandable was that many lovely scenes and details were cut or arranged in a different order.

In both the book and the movie, an important theme shines through. That theme is that every person is important and that every person has a story to tell. Aibileen sums up that theme perfectly with the saying, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

This story is a wonderful example of how anyone is capable of realizing their true potential in the face of adversity. The strong women of Jackson, Mississippi can be an example for anyone who wishes to stand up for their beliefs and tell the world their story.

Albert Narracott, played by Jeremy Irvine, is a young adult living with his parents on a farm in Devon, England leading up to the First World War. Albert’s father Ted, played by Peter Mullan, much to his wife’s dismay, buys a young colt at an auction in town. He made this rash decision simply to spite his landlord who attempted to outbid him for the horse, which ended in him overpaying for a meaningless thoroughbred because the reason he went to the auction in the first place was to buy a plow horse. The Narracott family was now left with a mounting debt, a worthless plot of land, and a disobedient horse. Albert, upon seeing Joey, immediately agrees to train the horse, and the two quickly become friends. With Albert’s determination and Joey’s strength, the two overcome many difficulties but are eventually torn apart.

The family cannot overcome their mounting debt, so Ted is forced to sell the horse to the English army when World War I breaks out. Albert is heartbroken but is eventually old enough to leave home and enlist in the army. Though the two don’t come into contact throughout the war, they both deal with their own struggles and touch many lives throughout their separate journeys.

This film has a fantastic storyline throughout and ever disappoints. The journeys of both Albert and Joey kept me engaged for the two hour and twenty six minute running time. As Joey touched the lives of many, including a young French girl and a German horse named Topthorn, I couldn’t help but feeling like I was part of the storyline and traveling throughout the devastation in Europe. It is a rarity to find a story that captures the true essence of friendship and love, but War Horse accomplishes both with an unprecedented combination of overcoming hardships and living in the moment.  

Spielberg, known for his excellent filming locations in previous movies including “Saving Private Ryan” and the Indiana Jones series, spent 64 days traveling throughout England filming the movie. The scenery and location of all of the shots were fantastic. The Narracott home all the way to the battle scenes in war torn Europe; every shot was top notch and covered every angle.

The film had very few flaws, if any. Spielberg recaptures the magic of cinematography in this emotional triumph. War Horse is sure to capture the heart of the audience long before the credits roll.

That is, until Professor James Moriarty, played by Jared Harris, a man as devious, cunning, and smart as Holmes himself, happens to change that. The only difference between Holmes and Moriarty is that Moriarty no problem killing people to achieve what he wants. What that is, we don’t know, and what Holmes hopes to find out. Moriarty sends Watson and his beloved a wedding present, and soon after that the chase to stop Moriarty is on.

I liked this movie for a many reasons. The technology and weapons were more up to date than in the first one. There were a lot of weapons used in WWI used in this movie, like the German bolt action rifle, the Kar98k. Holmes also switches from a revolver to a Mauser 1896 machine pistol. He also has a car, not a modern one, but the kind that looks like it was put together like a kid. It was very cool to see how far cars have come, since some did look like that. Also, there was an apparatus that made oxygen, which Holmes’s brother had for some reason. They also show Holmes’s brother, Mycroft Holmes, played by Stephen Fry. He is a funny character and brings a new air to the movies. I mean, there shouldn’t be just one Holmes, should there?

The main thing I didn’t like about the movie was the action, well, I liked it, but was annoyed by parts of it. It was good when Holmes goes into the mode where he sees the fight, plans out what he’s going to do, and then does it. That’s the only good slow motion part. The other action was slow motion. When they are running in the forest, it’s all slow! It’s annoying because none of the action really surprises you, because you can see it before it happens. Honestly, it makes it even more unrealistic. It should have been regular speed and more of Watson fighting like the soldier he is. He didn’t once use his cane sword (at least, I don’t remember him, using it, and he used it all the time in the first). Secondly, the movie was pretty easy to second guess. I kind of saw the end coming. It wasn’t as complex as the first movie, which really had me going, because it was hard for me to piece it together.

The film was good, but the action was too slow. I recommend not making any plans or make plans for the movies, because you should see Sherlock Holmes 2. That is, unless you don’t like watching a movie with some romance, explosions, action, slow motion action, guns, weird objects, and witty sayings. Honestly, who doesn’t?

Infamous: Festival of Blood is the downloadable follow up to Sucker Punch’s open world game Infamous 2.  Festival of Blood was released on October 25, just in time for Halloween and is a PS3 exclusive (just like the other Infamous titles).

At the beginning of the game, Cole Macgrath is rushing through the catacombs of a cathedral.  He heard screaming, so he decided to help whoever was in trouble.  Various people were injured after being trapped behind debris blocking their way out.  One of the women that Cole tries to help though turns out to be a vampire, who thusly knocks him out.  When he comes to, he is on top of the shriveled corpse of Bloody Mary, a female vampire.  He is then restrained by a few other vampires as one of them opens a vein on his neck.  This allows blood to drip into Bloody Mary’s mouth, causing her to come back to life.  Since he was bitten, Cole is now a vampire.  He must defeat Bloody Mary by the next day or else she will gain complete control over him and then the other citizens of New Marais.

Similar to Infamous 2, Festival of Blood takes place in the southern Louisiana city of New Marais.  This time around though, we have a date (kind of).  In New Marais it is Pyre Night, a festival where hordes of people, drunk or not, roam the streets dressed as monsters.  The city is decorated accordingly too, with straw “monsters” burning at the stake.  One of the major differences regarding the setting is the fact that you only get to run around the first area from Infamous 2.  This means that you only have about a third of the original map to explore.  It’s okay though, since Festival of Blood is much shorter than its predecessor. 

In Festival of Blood, the upgrade system for powers has been majorly downsized.  Instead of unlocking powers by performing a specific stunt multiple times and then having to buy them with experience points, you are just given the upgrades directly.  Upgrades are obtained when you kill a certain number of vampires.  Also, since the game isn’t as large as Infamous 2, there are not as many upgrades and you cannot switch between them.

Even though there are fewer upgrades for Cole’s electrical abilities, he still gains new powers in Festival of Blood.  Being a vampire actually has some perks.  One of the vampire powers that Cole gains is called Shadow Swarm.  This power allows you to transform into a group of bats to fly long distance across New Marais.  Shadow Swarm basically makes Cole’s parkour skills and Static Thruster power irrelevant.  The only downside to the vampire powers is that to use them, you have to drink the blood of civilians. 

One of my favorite improvements in Infamous 2 was the melee.  Festival of Blood keeps the improved melee virtually the same.  There are only minor aesthetic differences this time around.  Near the beginning of the game Cole loses the Amp, which was a weapon that harnessed his electric powers into a deadly, brute force.  He replaces it with a metal cross he finds right after losing the Amp.  The cross can effectively conduct electricity and it has a spiked, wooden tip so that Cole can kill vampires by staking them through the heart.

One of the features that makes the Infamous series unique is its karma system.  In Festival of Blood, the karma system is left out.  At first, this seems wrong, since the karma system was what set the Infamous series apart from other games.  When you think about it though, Cole needs to drink the blood of civilians, so he would always be getting bad karma.  Even though it makes sense that they would leave it out, it still feels like Festival of Blood is missing something.

Overall, the game is pretty good.  While Festival of Blood doesn’t have the same variety of upgrades that Infamous 2 had, it adds completely new vampire powers that sort of fill the upgrade gap.  The melee is still great, but it’s lame how using an ultra combo doesn’t kill vampires.  You just can’t get as immersed into the game like how you could in Infamous 2.

If you played Infamous 2, you should definitely download Festival of Blood.  If you are a newcomer to the Infamous series though, you should play the first two games before getting into Cole’s latest adventure.

It all begins when the Burpo family takes a vacation and Colton (the three-year old boy) complains of having stomach problems that keep getting progressively worse. The doctors give the family a misleading diagnosis and say it was just the flu. After days of the “flu” and multiple trips to the hospital, the family gets a rude awakening that their son has a ruptured appendix.

Colton has to undergo a near death surgery and was seconds from death. Although his heart kept beating, it was a close call to say. The doctors and nurses all thought that this little boy would not make it through alive of his surgery. He did survive the surgery and lived to tell his story.

Over the course of months, even years, Colton tells bits and pieces to his father Todd and mother Sonja about how he visited Heaven and how he even sat on Jesus lap himself.  His parents were amazed by his story and waited to tell the press on what their little boy experience until they got the whole story figured out.

I thought this book was very inspirational. It gave me a good perspective on what Heaven is like and what I should look forward to. It also gave me encouragement that if this little three-year boy could conquer this near death surgery, I can just about conquer anything.

Even if you are not a devoted Christian worshipper, this book is still entertaining. It has a good plot and is a happy story.

It was a very interesting book and has a good twist at the ending. I recommend reading this book if you want a sneak preview on what Heaven just might look like.

John continues to move around, but with a different goal other than hiding. He wants to unite the other five. He continues to grow stronger, but no other powers have started appearing. He travels with Number Six, who found him in Ohio, and his best friend, Sam Goode. They unravel some secrets, but not anything that could tip the scales for the Loriens yet.

For those of you who have not read I am Number Four, or my book review on it, John Smith came from a planet called Lorien with eight other Loric children. They were part of the Garde, a special group who had amazing powers that were used to protect Lorien. Their guardians, the Cepan, helped the Garde run the planet. They went with one Cepan each to Earth, and were trailed by the Mogadorians. The Mogadorians ravaged Lorien, and are headed for Earth and the Loric nine, who are now six, as three have died.

This story was structured a lot better than the last book. It is from the view of John and Marina. This is different because one is a boy, one is a girl. John is always traveling, but Marina stays in one spot. It gives you different insights on what each person goes through, how they handle it, and how they use their powers and surrounding environment. It adds to the suspense by switching constantly, so it is kind of cliché where a Mogadorian is standing above John with a sword or whatnot, and the chapter changes.

The downside to this story is it is fast paced. I enjoy reading, and I am a fast reader, but this was really fast. It took a couple of hours to read and took away from the suspense of what was going to happen. This could be because the text is pretty simple, unlike Harry Potter, where you have to delve into the text, which is more filling, but just as entertaining. It is 406 pages long, as long as a typical Harry Potter, but moved much faster.

Overall, this book was Legacy packed, ash creating, Mogadorian killing awesomeness. It should definitely be turned into a movie, but first read the book. I recommend you stop whatever you are doing, go to the store, and buy the book. You know, after you read I am Number Four.

Sorry, I have to go because these guys with swords are coming down the hall, and they look angry.

Mark Ingram, a former All-American and Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Alabama, was named as the cover athlete, and was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the 1^st round of last spring’s NFL Draft.

What’s not commonly known is that the cover athlete of the NCAA Football games is never a player that is available in the game itself. The creators of the game choose a player, often times the Heisman winner, that has already been drafted into the NFL because the game is made months in advance.

EA Sports, the company that puts out the game every year, decided to bring back one of the most popular features in the series; Road to Glory. In this game mode, you are able to create a player and edit him anyway you want, whether you want him to be a 6’5” wide receiver, or a 5’7” offensive lineman. The possibilities are endless. The fun part is that you are not able to edit any of the attributes. So no, to all you cheaters out there, you cannot make the players speed and catching both 99’s. You are not allowed to edit any of the player’s attributes.

After you’re doing editing your player, your career starts as a high school senior, beginning with the state playoffs. From here, you play roughly 4-5 games, as long as you win, and try to play as good as possible to try and impress college scouts and earn a scholarship to some of the top programs in the country. Once you sign with a school, everything is up to you. You fight to get a starting job, and then perform on the field to keep it, all en route to the Heisman trophy.

What makes college football better in real life and in the game, are the authentic gameday traditions that make every University experience unique. For example, when playing as Florida State, as the Seminoles take the field, the gamer is able to experience a real treat.

You are able to watch Chief Osceola ride his horse to midfield and plant a spear in the ground, a tradition that dates back to 1977. Some other cool traditions include the Notre Dame players touching the “Play like a Champion Today” sign, Tommy Trojan from USC, and Boomer Sooner riding out of the tunnel at the University of Oklahoma.

My favorite feature, Dynasty mode, is by far my favorite, and for good reason. It hasn’t really changed much in the past few years, but to me, that’s ok. The gameplay is fantastic, and the recruiting process continues to get more detailed. I find it fun to recruit players from high school, and watch them progress throughout their career; maybe you do too.

Many people are a fan of playing games online against other gamers, which is completely ok, but I guess I’ve never really been a huge fan of it. I’ve always loved playing Dynasty mode, and I recommend you give it a shot.

There are a few negatives to this game, though minor, they can impact the game in a big way. When running with the ball on offense or special teams, if the player you are controlling a player who’s speed rating is 95 or above, it is often very unrealistic. These players are able to make cuts or perform spin moves that are, well, impossible. It probably sounds silly, but it’s true.

Another negative within the game is the extreme amount of injuries that happen over the course of a game. If you run the ball a lot, especially with your quarterback, you can count on at least 5-6 injuries throughout the course of the game. You might say, well, its football, injuries happen. I understand that completely, but the injuries in this game are a bit extreme. It seems like my running back has a “bruised shoulder” every other play, but don’t worry, he’ll “return soon”.

All in all, this was one of the best video games I’ve ever played. If they could fix those small problems, this game would be perfect.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Many know the name Percy Jackson from his first series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Now, they can continue his story with new characters in this second book of Riordan’s new series, The Heroes of Olympus.

The Son of Neptune tells the story of Percy as he finds himself led to the Roman demigod camp by the goddess Juno, where he quickly becomes friends with Hazel, the daughter of Pluto, and Frank, who has not been claimed. Shortly after his arrival, people start noticing that death does not have a hold anymore, and that it is getting hard to kill monsters, and even people. That is when the God Mars appears at camp and gives Frank, Percy, and Hazel, a quest to free Death and defeat Gaia’s giant Alcyoneus. Meanwhile the camp prepares for an army of monsters that is coming to destroy their camp while death is captured which stops the monsters from dying. So Percy, Frank, and Hazel rush against time to free Death, before the army reaches the camp, and destroy everything.

The Son of Neptune was a really good book. It takes place somewhere else, and with the new people, it kept me interested, learning about the background of the camp, and learning about the histories of the new people. Also there is some history in the book that made me like the book more.

However I felt that near the end of the book the author was rushing, and that he rushed through the major fight scenes. I think that the fights were too easy and idealistic, with the amount of casualties for both sides being too high or too low to be believable.

In the end, though, I really liked the book, and can’t wait for its sequel to come out.

All the promotion built up to April 12^th, when the band released their seventh album “Wasting Light” worldwide. The album was the first to feature the new five person lineup for the band, as former lead guitarist and longtime touring guitarist Pat Smear was added to the band as the second main guitarist splitting parts with current lead guitarist Chris Shiftlett. With Dave Grohl still playing rhythm guitar this presented the band with an opportunity to blend three distinctive guitar styles together to make one solid sound that “sounds like the Foo Fighters” according to Grohl. It works really well on the album as it adds heaviness and complexity to the sound.

Besides for adding Pat Smear to the band the Foo Fighters also recorded the album in a different spot than they usually do. A couple of years ago the Foo Fighters built a recording studio that they’ve used to record the two previous albums “In Your Honor” and “Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace”. But Grohl felt the band was too concerned with being musical and wasn’t playing like a rock band. So for “Wasting Light” the band decided to record in Grohl’s garage. It made the recording process more enjoyable as they were able to bring their families to hang out at the Grohl house while they recorded in the garage. Another interesting change with the recording process was the equipment the producer Butch Vig, who is reuniting with Grohl for the first time since 1991 when Nirvana made “Nevermind”, used to achieve the sound Grohl was looking for. Instead of recording digitally and editing it and making it perfect the band decided to record on analogue tape equipment and convert it digitally in post-mastering. This presented the band with the challenge of playing well enough where they didn’t have to edit certain parts of the songs, but between the garage and analogue equipment they were rewarded with a raw heavy sound unlike anything the Foo Fighters have ever done.

From front to finish “Wasting Light” is phenomenal. It starts with the high energy “Bridge Burning”, where the first vocals we hear from Grohl is him screaming “These are my famous last words”. Grohl uses his patented scream more frequently in “Wasting Light” to really committ to that garage rock band sound he was aiming for. The lead single of the album, “Rope”, is the best example of how great the Foo Fighters sound with three guitars. They are all playing different parts at the same time, and blended together it sounds really good.

Making so much music with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has finally influenced Grohl in a Foo Fighters album, with the song “White Limo” being the best example. It’s unlike anything the Foo Fighters have ever done, but the high velocity vocals from Grohl work with the Queens of the Stone Age gritty guitar style and results in a raw rock sound.

Some songs sound like the normal Foos, but the quality of the songs is at its highest since 1997’s “The Colour and The Shape”. “Alandria” brings back memories of “The Pretender” from their last album, but with a better melody and less intensity. Even the filler of the album is great for the most part, with “A Matter of Time” and “These Days” being the standout of the bunch.

The second to last track is the eerie “I Should Have Known”, which shows Grohl singing with torment and guilt in the beginning and slowly building into a rage he unleashes at the end of the song. The song was written about Grohl’s longtime friend Jimmy Swanson who died of a drug overdose a few years ago, but it can just as easily be interpreted as being about Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain. Throughout the song, Grohl’s emotional charge comes from his knowledge that he could have gone down the same road as his close friend had he not been given a different fate. The building suspense of the song ends with him sounding somewhat psychotic and it’s hard not to feel his pain.

After the tormented “I Should Have Known” the band closes the album with the comeback tale “Walk”. The song talks about a man who overcomes his demons and starts over one step at a time. The highlight of the track is when Grohl takes what seems to be just another line in the verse and turns it into the refrain by chanting it over and over and continuing on with the momentum. It’s one of the highlights of the album and is the perfect way to end it. Its ability to counter “I Should Have Known” makes it the best album closer since “New Way Home” from their prime effort “The Colour and The Shape”.

“Wasting Light” is a very good album that goes harder than anything they’ve ever done and is a collection of well written songs by Dave Grohl. Their previous album “Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace” was really good as well, but it didn’t have that album feel and seemed more like an album of singles. The songs were good for the most part and some were great, but nothing compared to “Wasting Light”, their most focused album since 1997, and something for Grohl to be proud of and move forward on.

This album could be the beginning of a new era of the Foo Fighters if they can build on this momentum. And with a headlining gig at this year’s Lollapalooza already confirmed, it looks like this could be the Foo Fighters’ year…again.