Domain Change Announcement and other general info

So, sorry for being so much under the radar lately. I have been busy with keeping up with updates on Ankford Plays as you very well may be aware I update the channel daily and that has not left a lot of time for updates on any of my other stuff, particularly here. That also means that I just simply cannot justify keeping the http://kaisercritics.com domain alive for the asking price and that means by the 27th of September we will be reverting back to the original http://kaisercritics.blogspot.com domain. All in all, I just have not had the opportunity nor the motivation to work on this blog at all - I'm very sorry but it's just me here now, Mike having left the project way back in April of last year. If you guys are at all curious about what's going with me you can subscribe to the previously mentioned Youtube channel or follow my Tumblr. Hopefully I'll go back to having time to update this page sooner rather than later though and I'll be sure to notify you guys there once I do.

- Hans

Editorial: Hating Things Because They're Popular

You ever sat down and muttered to yourself "Oh I hate this thing" when what you actually hate is the people enjoying it? If you answered no to that question then you are probably lying or the only person to be truly level headed about media around the web these days. It's become increasingly apparent that the era of globalization has brought a couple of personality faults with it, or maybe just brought them out into the open.

To illustrate my point, let's look at a popular example: The Halo series, created originally by Bungie and made exclusively for Microsoft systems like the Xbox or Windows. Though the PC version of Halo 1 would later be available to play on Mac systems. In Halo you play as the heroic, somewhat overpowered Master Chief (real identity unknown), together with the super advanced AI Cortana he battles numerous aliens in order to stop them from unleashing an ancient alien weapon known as The Flood and destroying the universe with it as part of their religious dogma. Though I've only played Halo 1-3 without any of the spin-offs I can safely say that it's solid action-science-fiction-first-person-shooter goodness and one of the few shooters that I actually enjoying playing with a controller. I'm not alone in thinking that, Halo is one of the best-selling video game franchises of the last decade or so and really there's nothing wrong with that.

However, then you take a look at youtube comments for any given video that mentions Halo and suddenly the flame war is on. "Damn I hate Halo" "Man, Halo is such an overrated series" - The list goes on. Really, it's not like the Halo series is the only one that encounters this much hate but in this case, as with a lot of other super popular series it seems like the hate is kinda unwarranted. It seems like people hate things because they're popular - or because they're liked by people they don't like. I'm guilty of this myself, I have not and will probably never watch James Cameron's Titanic from 1997 because I simply felt like I was overexposed to it as a kid. Titanic came out when my female cousins were just discovering a liking for "cute boys" and of course Leonardo Di Caprio was a public darling at the time. That meant I heard sighed comments about the film constantly, as well as I saw walls adjournedly filled with pictures of Mr. Di Caprio and of course a poster of the film itself. Honestly, way into my teenage years I barely had any respect for Di Caprio because of this experience. That's probably what happened to Halo, or My Little Pony, or Harry Potter, or Doctor Who, or any such popular series from the last three decades you can name which has just as large a base hating it as it has loving it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you've decided you hate something before even checking out the actual material - you need, nay we all need, to take a step back and examine the reasons for why. If the reason you hate something doesn't seem that levelheaded, give the stuff and actual look - you might actually find something you love.

Editorial: Shifting The Blame

Most people who care about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has by now seen the human-like character designs of the titular characters and as you may have guessed the reaction to the designs and the trailer overall has pretty much amounted to a collective groan of disbelief among fans of both the original source material and movies in general. I for one completely agree, the designs look absolutely hideous and the casting choices are just so big misfires you'd think it was a parody of what a modern trailer for the turtles might have looked like. But no, unfortunately this is very real and it is coming out no later than this upcoming August. People are completely outraged, calling for the head of producer Michael Bay, with their hatred for his Transformers movies still fresh in their minds. The Bay Turtles they're calling it, why must Bay ruin our childhoods they're saying. You'd think I'm overstating here but some of these statements are actually downright seething with hatred. 

No wonder Hollywood don't take them seriously. if you go back a couple of lines you might see the problem right away. They're calling for the head of the movie's producer. Meaning because Mr. Bay's name is attached to the film, the reputations of the people actually working on the damn film are spared. Which is why in this little article we're answering some of the most common fan reactions to the trailer.

• "The plot for Bay's Ninja Turtles is just downright stupid compared to the source material", okay so the actual screenwriters Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Evan Daughtery had absolutely no creative impact on the production whatsoever? By the way how would you know the fine details of the plot if the film isn't slated for release until August?
   
• "Bay is killing our childhoods with these ugly Ninja Turtles" Setting aside the fact that the words "You killed my childhood" should only belong to the child soldiers of the world.. I'm sure if you asked Mr. Bay himself, he'd tell you that he does in fact not have training in art direction nor actual CGI animation, that credit goes to concept illustrator I. Javier Ameijeiras and the rest of his (I'm sure) talented crew. Nevermind the animators and visual effects artists attached to the production.
  
•  "Megan Fox ruining yet another childhood favorite with her presence" Nevermind the 9 different people that makes up the casting crew of the picture or her need for a paycheck to pay for bills and sustenance.

I get the need for a face to attach to something you hate, abstract concepts based on modern tendencies are pretty hard to lash out at however if you're going to lash out - don't just attack a guy with the title "producer" attached to the film. Turtles is, as I said, not due till August and while I'm not looking particularly forward to it given Hollywood's track record regarding remakes of 80's properties - don't act like spoiled children. The 2014 Turtles will probably suck, it will probably make you feel you wasted money on your ticket. However making such a big public outcry over a mere trailer is why the "geek community" isn't taken seriously by most bigwigs. Because most of them as understandably adopted the attitude that the public doesn't know what it wants. Even if you disagree that there is such a thing as a "geek community", that's how the casual viewer sees us, just like the casual viewer wouldn't be able to tell you the differences between Goths, Emo's, Punks, Vamps, Romantic Goths and so on. They just see a bunch of kids dressed in black.

News: Something different!

So normally our approach to video games have been a review of the story lines and not much else, that's a bit of an incomplete experience when you consider the medium which is why I've started a Let's Play channel! Come see and judge for yourself this time around. Our first subject? Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, however the next game is already planned and on its way! Two episodes are posted daily at around 7 and 8 PM (GMT+1) and I hope you'll take a look!

Go to this link to visit and subscribe to my channel

or just start the playlist of the first series right here (currently at episode 8)

Editorial: Top 5 Stories of 2013

Happy Holidays everybody! Here at Kaiser Critics we hope everybody is having a good one as people around the world celebrate (or don't! In which case we hope you have a nice day) the holiday of their religious choice. Around here it's become time to find out just what stories held it together the best this year. Why stories you ask? Well as you may very well be aware here at Kaiser Critics we review both movies and games, so instead of making two separate lists (which we arguably don't have enough material for) I've decided to just judge both things interchangeably on their stories. Ground rule for this one? It has to be from something that's been reviewed on the site, meaning if your favorite from this year isn't on the list it just might be because it hasn't been done on here. Here we go!

#5: The Wolverine

link to the original review here

The 20th Century Fox X-Men movies helped bring back superheroes as a genre when the original film was released in it's hayday. Following the deteriorating releases of X3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine a lot of people had sentenced the Fox X-Men series dead until the release of X-Men: First Class which despite some minor flaws managed to bring back the notion of a genuinely good X-Men movie. Many were still vary however when Hugh Jackman once again returned as the most popular X-Man Logan, whose previous solo-effort has been dubbed one of the worst superhero flicks ever by fans and professional critics alike. However The Wolverine managed to not only pull through, but become one of the better Superhero movies featuring a solo-hero to date. The story takes place following the events of X-Men 3, Wolverine had been forced to take out his beloved Jean Grey in a last ditch effort to save the world from the crazed homicidal force of The Phoenix and is now living in seclusion in the wild. This is where his past once again comes back to haunt him, as an elderly Japanese man he saved from the Nagasaki bombing by shielding him with his regenerative body sends for him to thank him one last time before he dies. However things go terribly wrong as Wolverine is cast into a succession drama surrounding the large company owned by his old friend and loses his power to regenerate in the process. Ultimately not wanting the attention of any such action at all, he reluctantly becomes the bodyguard of the mans granddaughter and must fight a large army of highly trained professionals with the very real possibility of death looming over his head all the while being haunted by hallucinations of his deceased beloved. Wolverine has a real danger of being written a little cheesy, even portrayed by his most iconic actor as was the case in X-Men Origins. However he's here written very sympathetically and as a very 80's type action heroes in a classic kung fu movie type story. It's not often that western movies get this genre right, and throwing in as well-known a character as Wolverine would have made the movie almost seem impossible to do. However there is a lot of visible heart and dedication in this film that could just as easily have been another quick paycheck in the box office from one of Fox's most popular cinematic franchises something that was sadly lacking in some of the former outings. There also seems to be less of a snark about the source material, keeping in some of the cheesy fun that most previous X-Men movies has tried to leave behind completely.

#4: Monsters University

link to the original review here

2013 has been a busy year for Disney animation, and this latest outing from their masterpiece-littered studio Pixar has surprisingly ended up not being the most popular animated release this year. Monsters University gives us the backstory of the superstar scaring team of Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan, inhabitants of a monster world which is entirely powered by the frightened screams of little children. The original movie, while not the most popular Pixar movie had gathered a following it was interesting to see how they were gonna justify a sequel to a movie where the problems of the universe were all solved in it's first installation. That's why I'm guessing they decided to do a prequel instead, and what a prequel it was, the previously in the background character of Mike Wazowski takes top billing in this college-comedy with a surprisingly sobering message behind it. Between a new fun supporting cast, and three pretty cool origin stories, Monsters University may not be the best Pixar movie out there, but I actually think it might be one of the better stories from the studio as it for once doesn't explore the parent/child relationship that dominates a lot of it's other movies.

#3: Pacific Rim

link to the original review here

Bringing us a western take on the Kaiju formula, Pacific Rim ended up being a movie meant for fun and games but also one hiding just a little bit more. The premise is very basic, a rift in time and space has opened somewhere in the pacific ocean in the near future and giant monsters dubbed "Kaiju" by humanity are unleashed from the depths wrecking havoc all other planet Earth. To combat these abominable creatures the governments of the world has banded together and created giant robots named Jaegers that are powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the monsters. The catch? Only certain individuals are able to actually pilot the things and they have to do so via a psychic link, only possible to obtain between two people who have aligned personalities meaning almost only family members pilot them. However one young man who used to be an ace-team with his brother suddenly has to be teamed up with a woman he's never met when his brother unfortunately passes away and it's a race against the clock to get all the jaeger pilots up and about in time for what seems to be the biggest Kaiju attack yet and before the program is scrapped in favor of another experiments. What could've been a very sappy spectacle-fest actually turns everything on it's head when it presents us with one of the better female characters in years, and a mostly unknown cast that even beats the performances of this years outings from some of the bigger names. Guillermo Del Toro has proven with Pacific Rim that the Kaiju genre doesn't have to be obscure to a western audience that's mostly been fed with poor westernizations of Japanese series up to this point. With it's great blend of spectacle and honest to goodness well-written drama it breaks tradition from roots of the genre and the previous American imitations.

#2: Thor: The Dark World

link to the original review here

Picking up after the bestseller of The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World had the burden of not only living up to the expectations following that, but also raising the popularity of Thor as a cinematic character. The original Thor, while a fun movie in it's own right was not a very popular one compared to the other releases in the aptly dubbed "Marvel Cinematic Universe" series. However whereas Thor was very much a dramatic comedy, Thor: The Dark World decides to go full on Space Opera as we leave Earth behind in favor of more exciting adventures in the world of Asgard. The story picks up where the previous title left off, Jane Porter has now not heard from Thor in 2 years after he had promised to come back for her once he had dealt with the immediate threat of the previous movie. Now trying to move on, she is cast into a conflict several millennia old as her actions awake a dormant race from the beginning of the known universe called The Dark Elves. Their leader is the hard-hearted Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston who has the gigantic burden of being in the shadow of fan favorite Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. Eccleston unfortunately doesn't pull through as much as he would seem to as the writers doesn't give the character a lot of nuance for him to work with. However, what makes the movie good is the absolute spectacle of the space opera genre, gone are the shifty eyed jokes of the New Mexico desert from the previous movie and instead we have Thor fighting against armies and directly fighting against the will of his own father as he does everything in his power to stop the threat with as little casualties as possible. Hemsworth does a great job as he shows us just how far Thor has come from his role as a hearty frat-boy like character in the beginning of the first movie. He has learned to judge every situation on it's own merit and doesn't just barge into a fight trying to take every problem out with the power of his hammer. We are also given a more in-depth look at Asgard, a world that was left mostly in the background in the previous story. Supporting cast members are likewise no longer just standing idly in the background as some of them each get their own respective crowning moment in the movie to justify them being there instead of just being there for the sake of keeping true to the source material. Loki also returns and he is given more depths as well, as we see just how much his journey mirrors that of his brother's, him becoming more blunt and rash in his decision making as a result. Thor: The Dark World takes us on a breath-taking adventure with great fight scenes and some really cool imagery.

#1: The Last of Us

link to the original review here

Stealth titles has seen a great resurgence in recent years, given new popularity with Rocksteady's Arkham series. Sony's in-house studio Naughty Dog previously well-known for titles like the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy and the Uncharted series gives us a taste of just how much juice can be pressed out of the aging Playstation 3 even in the same year as the launch of it's much more powerful successor. Bringing us not only some fun gameplay mechanics but beautiful environments, nerve wracking situations and a great cast of characters. The Last of Us takes place 20 years after the fall of mankind, a weird fungus-like plague that takes control of the dead has made most of the planet completely uninhabited, humanity instead gathering in small closed up societies controlled by the military. The player takes control of Joel, a man who makes his living smuggling supplies and humans in and out of the otherwise completely exclusionists cities with his partner the tough-as-nails Tess. Joel, like so many others has become disillusioned with the world and he will seemingly do just about anything to survive till the next day. When he and Tess are given the task of smuggling a young girl named Ellie who's around the age of his now deceased daughter, he very reluctantly abides and through their many adventures the two of them form a special bond of mutual dependency in a world that has gone completely crazy. It's a very basic concept when you think it through, and you can tell where the story is going a times but what makes it so great is how well written the characters are. Ellie could just as well had become a damsel in distress, a girl who'd constantly need saving by the sheer masculine musk of the very capable Joel. Joel could just as well have been your very basic "badass" hero, but both of them along with the supporting cast turns out to have so many more nuances in their characters than what would normally be the case in this kind of story. Zombie survival tales are easily the most drama driven horror genre, however a lot of writers depend a lot on archetypes to make it work out so it's a real treat to see what has been done with the characters this time. A lot can also be said for the great use of juxtaposition, throughout the game you will be fighting cannibals and gangsters and horrible abominations but that has next to no effect on the environments. All of these cities has been left to their devices for 20 years, meaning they're completely overgrown by trees and grass. As such you will see all that the PS3's graphics engine has to offer as you will be treated to some absolutely spectacular sights throughout.  

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News Editorial: Doctor! Doctor!

As a new feature on the site, we're doing editorials of news from the entertainment industry from time to time when we feel we have something to say on the matter. Please note that this is the writer's personal opinion only, not facts. We encourage healthy discussion in the comments!

Doctor! Doctor!

editorial by Hans

Doctor Who, the long running monster of a series from BBC is once again getting a new face. This time, we're getting seasoned actor Peter Capaldi to play the friendly time-travelling alien from the planet Gallifrey. Now for those not in the know, Doctor Who is a science fiction series that has been running on and off since the 60's. One of the more brilliant ideas from the show creators is that of regeneration. Whenever the character of The Doctor dies, he regenerates into an entirely new body. Complete with a different face and often different quirky personality traits. This makes the team behind the series able to continue even if the star of the show should choose to leave for other career exploits. After the series died out in 1989, only surviving in the form of comic books and a failed attempt at a revival in the 90's the series returned in full force in 2005. Since then becoming the host of several spin-off series, and one of the most popular series currently running on TV.

Doctor Who is a fairly personal experience to each member of the audience, every fan has their first incarnation, favorite incarnation and favorite companion. Everyone has their own idea of "who" exactly The Doctor is. Lately, the character has been played by fairly young actors. Starting with David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, the character has been a very adventurous character and thus the series has been more action oriented than it's science fiction roots. Now we have Peter Capaldi, taking over for the youngest Doctor thus far - Matt Smith.

Capaldi has been connected to the series before, playing a part in the episode Pompejii during Tennants run and having a role in a four part story on the spin-off series Torchwood. Capaldi is 55, making him quite a bit older than his two predecessors. The announcement of this cast choice has been met with luke warm reactions from the fanbase. It seems that a lot of people have gotten used to the younger, more spry version of The Doctor. Some calling him "way too old" to play the part. This is of course ignoring the fact that the actor who originally portrayed the character was William Hartnell, who was well up in the years and silver haired by the time he took the role.

What I'm getting at is, Doctor Who has become very much an adventure show with a lot of romantic subplots. Not that Doctors before Tennant weren't romantically involved with any of their companions but I feel that with Tennant (being as young and spry as he was) came a lot more focus on romance. Smith's Doctor came closer to being an imaginary friend type character, yet he still had a romantic subplot almost shoehorned into his story. Well not shoehorned exactly, they did dedicate most of his run to his significant other's origin story but I digress.

After a few years of thinking "Will the next Doctor be someone even younger than Smith?" it's refreshing to me to see them go back to having a bit older actors cast in the role. Of course, The character himself can look like anything or anyone but it's still nice to see something else. My hopes is that the series will now focus more on writing better mysteries and dialogue rather than action sequences and the sonic screwdriver being used as a Deus Ex Machina magic wand. As fun as Tennant and Smith has been, they were more fantasy-like than science fiction.

The Facts:

• Peter Capaldi has been cast as the twelth incarnation of the BBC character "The Doctor".
• Doctor Who is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this November
• Matt Smith, the 11th incarnation will take his leave of the series in the Christmas special this year
• The supporting cast members will stay on the show; Jenny, Drax, Lady Vashtra and the current companion Clara

The slowing down of updates

Due to various personal matters, as you may have noticed, the updates have slowed down significantly. As such I'm making this update to make you know that yes, the site is still very much alive. Tons of stuff is going on behind the scenes and we may have some new kinds of content coming your way in the future. That's still in the future though and therefore all I can ask you to do is keep checking back, if you want to know about new stuff right away, I urge you to click the handy dandy Facebook button on the left of this article and liking our page. There, we will post a link to the new articles as soon as they're up. For now, I can only say enjoy what's left of your summer and we'll be sure to bring you new content as soon as possible.

Introduction: Hans

So I've been thinking that introductions are in order for each of us, so consider this short post a description of me and my tastes.

As you may have noticed, my name is Hans. I'm a opinionated guy from the outskirts of Copenhagen - the capitol of Denmark. My interests lay firmly in entertainment; mostly comic books and video games but I also hold movies in very high regard. At the time of writing I am in my early twenties and the flatmate of Miki, the other guy on this site and my best friend. We also live with my cat, Kaiser Vilheilm, he's black and we named this site after him. When I'm not going on about movies here, I'm being sarcastic about almost anything else on my blog and in my webcomic.

The cat we named the site after

Right, my tastes. I am very big on animation in general but especially Japanese. I really feel that while America used to be the crème de la crème when it comes to TV animation, lately it has come down to a few but strong shows that drowns in a very big pit of garbage. There, Japan just have a clear advantage: Of course they have their fair share of garbage too though. When it comes to live-action I have a love for the period piece/crime genre, stuff like The Godfather or The Untouchables. I also watch every comic book adaptation I can get my hands on, seeing as the quality has risen exponentially in recent years; I am still looking for a video game movie on those levels though. My favorite trilogy of all time is the Back to the Future trilogy - time travel is a subject manner that really intrigues me which is also why Doctor Who has become one of my favorite television shows.

Overall, I usually look for a mixture of jokes and action. I can get tired of watching straight up dramas or straight up comedies really quickly. That said, my favourite comedy is Who Framed Roger Rabbit and my favourite drama is Eyes Wide Shut.

So how about my credentials? Why should you listen to me? Well. I've been a critic in radio, working there for about a year in connection with educational purposes. I've also been an intern on a mainstream movieset, working as a runner for one and a half month. Other than that I have dabbled in movie making, especially animation, since I was 12. I am also well-versed in the historical knowledge aspect of my love for medium. I would also wager that I have seen a wider array of movies from all eras than most people. I am far more than casually aqainted with movies.

I hope this article has shed some light on who I am, and that you will read our movie reviews.