Dimmu Borgir - Live at Wacken 2007

Just a quick post here. I recently got hold of a real nice video with Dimmu Borgir's entire show at last year's Wacken Open Air, so I decided to spread the word about this awesome gig. Here's my favourite song, Sorgens Kammer Del II, for your viewing pleasure:

I Am Legend

No, I'm not talking about me, although I'm indeed a blogging legend (cof, cof). Joking. Now, seriously, for a gamer's blog it's kind of strange that I end up posting more about movies and music than about games. Now that I think of it, I haven't played much lately, been too busy looking for a job and working on a couple of short stories (I don't write just for blogs).

But I digress. This time around I'm here to talk about I Am Legend, Francis Lawrence's latest movie starring Will Smith as the main character and the 3rd film based on Richard Matheson's book of the same name (the other 2 movies it inspired have different titles, though). This movie intrigued me ever since I heard the title. "I am legend", now that's an interesting name for a movie.

Meanwhile my will to see it turned down a little due to a guy's comments on another forum I visit regularly. The guy's a dickwad, though, and his opinion about the movie just confirms it. "Poor plot", "wasted potential", bah! Fuck him! Now I've watched the movie and I have my own opinion, and guess what, I liked it!

Although it's based on the aforementioned book, it just retains certain key aspects from the original plot, so even if you've already read the novel prepare to be surprised just like everybody else. For the most part the movie follows Neville's (the main character) struggle to survive in a world where almost everybody was turned into mutant freaks due to a virus. Being the last man alive in New York (and possibly the world), he desperately tries to find a cure, while managing to survive in a world where he has to hunt and scavenge for food and supplies. During the day this is somewhat easy, since the "infected" have a vampiric-like aversion to the sun, but when night comes...



Besides the interesting setting there were a couple of things that I really liked. For once there's a lot of references to real-life persons of products, like the movie Shrek or the artists Damian and Bob Marley. Yeah, we already knew the film was set on a contemporary NY (2012, to be precise), but it's little things like this that really gives the idea that the movie's events really happen in our world has we know it, and not in some kind of alternate reality.

Second, (SPOILER) the scene where his dog gets infected and he has to kill her really touched me. I don't know if it's just because I was always pretty attached to my pets and suffered a lot when they all died. Anyway, I almost cried when I watched that scene, and keep in mind I'm that kind of guy that laughs when most people die on movies, usually making fun of the other characters sad faces.(SPOILER end)

On the other way there were a couple of things I didn't like. The Infected, for example, look bad. worse, they don't look credible. The first time we see them, for just a second, they really look scary, but for the rest of the movie they just look like hyperactive monkeys jumping in unrealistic ways and they're faces just don't look credible. Even a child can tell they're CGI instead of guys wearing masks. To make a point, Gollum looks more realistic than these guys.

Also, the ending was not bad (I actually like "sad" endings), but I think I would prefer the ending they originally planned. You can read it here.

Other than that, this is a great movie. If you like the apocalyptic setting, this is a must see, and even if you don't, I dare say that everyone should give this one a try.

Tenacious D - The Metal

Found this yesterday while playing Guitar Hero III (that game rocks, by the way). OMFG, this song is fucking great, just check out the lyrics xD (it tells the truth, though)

You can't kill the metal
The metal will live on
Punk-Rock tried to kill the metal
But they failed, as they were smite to the ground
New-wave tried to kill the metal
But they failed, as they were stricken down to the ground
Grunge tried to kill the metal Ha,hahahahaha
They failed, as they were thrown to the ground
Aargh! yeah! [x2]

[Singing]

No-one can destroy the metal
The metal will strike you down with a vicious blow
We are the vanquished foes of the metal
We tried to win for why we do not know

New-wave tried to destroy the metal, but the metal had its way
Grunge then tried to dethrone the metal, but metal was in the way
Punk-rock tried to destroy the metal, but metal was much too strong
Techno tried to defile the metal, but techno was proven wrong
Yea!

Metal!
It comes from hell!!!

Little Britain

Well, I don't actually have much to say on this one. You probably already know about this awesome series, but in case you've missed it, now's your chance to watch some of the most hilarious sketches I've ever seen.

Like the Scottish hotel:



It's not yes...it's yeeeeeeeeees!

Even more Scottish hotel:



Andy and Lou:



Or even Boris, the babysitter:

More music to the collection

It was some time since I last talked about music here. I thought of making a "top 3 albums of 2007" post but ended up forgetting about it. Well, now that I'm listening to not one but 2 new cd's I think it's a good time to talk about them. The first is The End of Heartache, by Killswitch Engage.

It's my first KsE album so I didn't really know what to expect. Fortunately it ended up being a good cd. At first all the songs sounded like the same, but after repeated plays some started to stand out. My favourite is probably the first single, The End of Heartache.



Other favourites are the other single, Rose of Sharyn, and the first track, A Bid Farewell. I don't really know how to explain how they sound like, other than mentioning they're a Metalcore band (so it's moderately heavy), so be sure to check out the links for their videos and see for yourself.

Next is Paradise Lost with the album In Requiem.


Once again it's my first PL album, but this time I already knew one song, the single The Enemy. It's actually a pretty cool video, showing the band being executed by what I believe is a Russian platoon from WWII, just to rise once again shortly after. The rest of the album is not as good in my opinion, but there's one song that I just loved since I first listened to it. It's called Prelude to Descent, and I fucking love it!



I really don't know why, but there's something on the music that plays during the chorus that I simply love. Too bad it's such a depressing song... Anyway, although not great, this album is another worthy addition to my collection. One again check out the links for the videos, maybe you'll get addicted to Prelude to Descent like me.

Aliens and Predators clash again

Since I always try to keep my promises, I said that I was going to watch AVP 2 (Requiem in the original, but in Portugal they just labelled it AVP2) and so I did. So, is it any good?

Well, it has Aliens, Predators and humans tearing each others apart, so I don't think it's even humanly possible to fuck up a movie like that. Of course it has its flaws, though.

As a Predator fan I was kind of disappointed that they didn't receive has much attention as they deserve. Yeah, I know, this is AVP, not Predator 3, but since this is above all the story of a lone-wolf Predator (eheh, it's name is actually Wolf) vaporizing every single Alien he finds, I was expecting to see more about their hunting tactics. At least this is a real hunter, unlike the more soldier-like Predators of the first AVP.

On the good side, there are a lot of good things on this movie for Predator fans. For the first time ever we get to see a glimpse of a Predator city, probably situated in the Predator home world itself! We also learn that apparently they (or veteran hunters, at least) have more than one mask, judging by the wall full of them that we see in Wolf's chambers. Also we get to see new weaponry, like a deadly whip that cuts Aliens into pieces, and the return of old favourites, like the good ol' discs that were replaced by a new shuriken-type disc in the first AVP. That one also returns, causing a rather gruesome death near the end.


Talking about gruesome, this is so much more violent than the first. Not only there's lots of blood (mostly Alien, though) but there's also some pretty horrible deaths, like a guy that gets his face eaten away by Alien blood (it's acid, in case you didn't know), a kid with a chest-buster, and so on...

Talking about the Aliens, finally we get to see a Predalien on the big screen! And what a though fucker he is! He and Wolf have a showdown at the end, not of epic proportions like the fight with the queen in the first movie, but still a pretty good action scene. It's just too bad that the 2nd half of the game, where most of the fighting scenes occur, happens during night and for the most part we can barely seen what the fuck is happening. It's a shame, really, since these scenes are made to be appreciated.

Anyway, overall this is a good movie, better than the first. Of course, once again, don't mind the critics, those stupid fucks are too blind to see the entertainment this movie has to offer. If you like brainless action movies and, specially, if you're a fan of either Aliens or Predators, this is a great movie.

Nothing's perfect

Forget to mention something on my last post about Mass Effect. Although the dialog system is really great, it has one major flaw: you can't just suddenly be British any time you feel like it!

(click the pictures for original size)
Also, the elevators are a major pain in the ass:

By the way, my beautiful limited tin/steelbook (whatever you want to call it) edition of Bioshock finally arrived! Been exploring the most interesting city of Rapture for some time and the game is just fucking great. More on that when later.