Review: "Glee; Shooting Star" (S. 4/ Ep. 18 2013) "Taking The Wrong Note?"

By: Jeff Lake

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Alright Honest Gleeks, the newest episode of Glee took an unexpected turn for the worst.
Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh, but this episode left a terrible taste in my mouth.


As being a fan of the band of McKinley's musical misfits since the first episode's cover of Journey's “Don't Stop Believing.” Several seasons later, the show's producer Ryan Murphy and its writers have not stopped pulling punches. This is one episode that really needed to have its punch pulled.


The episode begins like almost any other episode. Brittany (Heather Morris) announces that an

“asteroid” she discovered through her “telescope” is going to kill them all, which leads to the somewhat typical lesson of letting your loved ones know how you feel, because you never know what could happen. Newcomer Ryder (Blake Jenner) finds a girl walking the halls that looks exactly like the girl Katie he has been talking too online since revealing his unrequited love problem with fellow newcomer Marley (Melissa Benoist), who is dating Ryder's best friend Jake (Jacob Artist).
In classic Glee fashion, Ryder introduces himself awkwardly to the girl he thinks is Katie and bellows out an awesome cover of Elton John's “Your Song” to her, only to find out that Katie's real name is Marissa. An emotional Ryder finds and accuses the couple of messing with him before running off, like teenage angst does. This is when I should of known something was up with this episode. Ryder did not sing some song about how lonely and stupid he felt.

(If you need one reason to watch this episode other than the fact you think Glee is awesome, Blake's cover of “Your Song” by Elton John is the best part of this episode)
Head Cheerio Becky (Lauren Potter) has an emotional scene with Brittany, about how she is scared about how the world is turning out to be. Brittany attempts to calm her down, which after a few sniffles, I thought was just a nice little scene to show how Brittany is not at all the cliché' blonde she appears to be.


Once the Glee club, lead by Brittany's boyfriend, Sam (Chord Overstreet) sing Brittany's cat a cover of Extreme's “More than Words” in order to make him feel better, Brittany announces that her asteroid was actually a speck at the end of the Pringles' can she was using as a telescope.

Seriously people. Glee plots deserve a facepalm once in awhile. This is one of those time.
Remember how I said this episode takes a turn for the worst? This scene is quickly followed up by two gun shots ringing through the school. The choir room and the rest of the school is sent into a frenzy. The scene has heir teacher (Matthew Morrison) trying to calm down the kids, as they are
barricaded into the choir room. Ryder makes the boneheaded move of calling Katie in case this is their last time alive, only for Katie's phone to go off in the choir room. The scene then has the rest of the kids admitting their deepest thoughts in case they do not make it out of there alive.
Which they did. No one was hurt. But the ending was definitely a bit of a twist. Once a few days have passed and the aftermath is revealed: Sue (Jane Lynch) reveals that it was her gun and it accidentally went off.


Seriously people.

What has Glee done?


Sue is actually revealed to be covering up for Becky, who brought a gun to school. Instead of letting her favorite student get into trouble, Sue takes all the blame and is coincidentally fired for it. Sue and Will have a deep conversation about the gun, and how this was so unlike Sue. Flashbacks of Sue talking to Becky with the gun accidentally going off reveal what truly happened.


The cast breaks into John Mayer's “Say,” as Ryder waits outside the choir room for the reveal of who Katie really is, but she never shows. Leaving the viewers with a cliffhanger to a plot that really needs to end. It started out right, but between the shooting and what not we needed some closure this episode. Which we got nothing of the sort.

(The cast's cover of “Say” was a strong ending for this relatively weak episode)


Our Honest View gives,  Glee; Shooting Star S.4/ Ep.18 a 6.5/10. We watch Glee to take a break from our lives and relate to the High School memories we had to go through. I really understand why they had a shooting episode but everything about it seemed off. I did really enjoy the final scene with everyone saying how much they love and mean to each other. All the scenes that did not involve the shooting were spot on Glee which definitely helped it be worth watching. Luckily, the next episode is coming off a little happier than this episode did, hopefully returning to what makes watching Glee awesome.

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Review: "G.I. Joe Retaliation" (2013) "I've Seen This Before, Did Michael Bay Direct This?"

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Let me start off my review with two sentences. First, I walked in not expecting a great movie at all especially after the first. And second at least it had good previews?

The new G.I Joe sequel was definitely flawed in many many ways but it also had some great points which in my eyes was a huge improvement from the first movie. It's biggest thing that impacted it positive for at least fans was the delay. The movie was delayed nearly a year for two main reasons which happen to be my two favorite things about this movie!

The movie was delayed so it could be post converted into 3D. Which all movies seem to be 3D these days and this was a smart move. The movie looked so crisp and I found myself jumping a few times when Firefly's little firefly bombs flew past me at the Joes. Also the scene (Not a spoiler alert it's in the trailers) of Snakeyes' fighting in the mountains was amazing. The snow, bodies and swords oh my, where flying at us as the villains fell to their deaths.

The other reason for the delay was to build a stronger relationship between The Rock's character Roadblock and Channing Tatum's character Duke. Originally there wasn't going to be much build up between the two but with the rising popularity of Tatum and Rock's never dying stardom this seemed wise to build. Plus there is no mention of Rock's character in the first movie, this helps the audience fill in such gaps through the movies instead of just throwing characters into the fray.

Very wise move because this is where I found myself laughing the most through the movie though it's only for maybe the first 20 minutes. Then sadly the laughter is over and some bad things happen. Not to give anything away but Duke's and Roadblock's relationship is barley important after this point.

The delay did cause some huge problems for Hasbro though because they had to delay selling the toys for almost a year! But with Hasbro's name on the movie credits I'm sure they'll recoup their losses. 

I lied however there are 3 points of this movie that I greatly enjoyed. Besides the delay to build up the 3D and relationships, I also enjoyed the title of the movie, Retaliation. I thought like the first movie the title would pertain only to the Cobra. 

BUT!

The title however pertains not only to Cobra but the surviving Joe's after a near fatal destruction of them. 

Now that we have the good lets get to the bad.

 

This truly wasn't the worse movie I've ever seen but it was a typical action movie wearing the name of a dynasty. This movie pulls a Spiderman 3 on us, lots of villains, jumping around and of course not much plot development.  

Like I said the beginning of this movie had such potential BUT then bam nothing. We then get to see Cobra again who has changed and now looks like the real Commander Cobra from the comics and show. Corba himself has a VERY minor role. Isn't the point of the movie Commander Corba's revenge? 

 

Barley.

 

It's mostly Zartan's uncanny obsession of being not only president but ruler of the world.

 

Thankful they kept the cast from first movie that were good who still duke out their problems from the first.

I wasn't a huge fan of the fight scenes either. The first part of the movie was hard to follow with the quick moving camera angles and epic 3D. This was something they may have overlooked while doing post conversion which differently hurts the film do to it moving to quickly.

This movie jumps around constantly so I truly stopped paying attention to a point which I then had to ask a friend why they we're doing some of the things they we're doing.

The cast also included Flint and Lady Jaye (D.J. Cotrona  and Adrianna Palicki respectively) she of course being very attractive has more film time than Flint. My major complaint with this is why not utilize them properly. You bring in three new Joes and NO development how do you progress to a sequel this way?

 

The Rock's character in this movie is so bad. Ever see the movie the Marine with John Cena? That's what his character reminded me off, a block of a character with no development hell bent on being a badass. He fights Firefly (Ray Stevenson) in the movie which looks like one of Rock's wrestling matches a train wreck! 

Bruce Willis' character is General Joseph Colton, who like most Willis film adds some humor to the film. I was surprised they used him in the movie but it makes sense because he adds some light to the darkness and cloudiness of the film. Like Tatum he doesn't have much film time which hurts the Joes more than helps them.

 Our Honest View gives, G.I. Joe Retaliation 5.5 / 10. Don't get me wrong my negative comments on the movie don't make it the worse movie on the planet. It's just not a overall good movie, but it does the trick for your run of the mill action movie.  Granted the lack of their biggest assets hurt them, this movie is HUGE improvement from the first movie.

Verdict:

1. If you like corny action movies - SEE THIS MOVIE
2. If you like Michael Bay explosion type movies - SEE THIS MOVIE
3. If your a Rock Fan - SEE THIS MOVIE
4. If you like 3D - SEE THIS MOVIE 
5. If your a G.I. Joe - DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE
6. If you like plot and character development - DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE 
7. If you like Channing Tatum - DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE
8. If you like Fight scenes - DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE

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By: Gabriel Roderick

 

Review: "Aliens: Colonial Marines" (2013) "Sega Leaves This Games Fate To The Die Hard Fans"

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 **This is a special game so we are going to have to review it in a special format!**

This being the first time I get to review anything. It's quite a challenge to write a review about colonial marines. When the game was announced I was very excited, and being a huge fan of the films ( the first two are the only ones that count.) I count wait to fight the stuff off my childhood nightmares so what! Besides every one dreams riding a xenomorph with Fabio hair....what? No one else had that wet dream?...anyway this game lacks the feel of the movies, let me break it down.


Graphics:

Not much to talk about here, actually it looks fairly dated compared to other new releases like dead space 3 for example. They did use a lot of original set designs from the movie so the environment at least gives off an Aliens vibe. But it doesn't help enough to save the poor character modeling. The audio is one thing that is spot on from the motion tracker to chest bursting, that sounds like aliens.

Single player:

 

 **Borrowed from Machinima** (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHORmiLe3I)


The story it self isn't very note worthy, but is has its moments. From defending doors from xenos to crawling though dark sewers. The ladder is the best unarmed, xenos all around you sneaking your way to safety. Welding doors to stop pursuers was actually a lot of fun on coop. However there is just not anything memorable I could not tell one plot point other then some guy kills some other guys and scales from the aliens, again! It felt more like playing Area 51 back in the day. Some green blood here some red blood here and RELOAD.

Multiplayer:


I didn't spend much time with it but I did play all the modes and other then straight death match not really interesting. Which if your the alien it means you get shot all the time, because teamwork is far beyond the random teammates you have. Something noteworthy is the other modes where entertaining for a while, but then again without friends to have your back it is really a wait until your a marine to win. The worst part is the gearbox logo on the box.

I still can't believe after six years of development the guys who gave us borderlands couldn't pull this off. I think it's time to stop treating the Aliens franchise as a shooter and try making it a survival horror game.

Give it to Viseral games I am sure they can at least give kids nightmares about Xenomorphs lurki under their beds. I did t even ducktape two guns together..so unfair!


In the end Our Honest View give "Alien: Colonial Marines" (2013) 2 stars out of 5, worth renting for nostalgia, but not worth adding to the collection. FOR THE FANS!

By: Jared Collings

Replay value: Moderately Low

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