By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

PANDAS are not always seen as funny. They’re just cute, something you’d like to take home as a pet. However, if the panda is Jack Black, then he’s not just funny but extremely hilarious and in the latest computer animation flick from DreamWorks, you’ll wish a panda could actually be your pet.
This writer has tried to keep spoilers to a minimum in this review, but stop reading if you don’t want anything spoiled for you.

The movie uses the tried and tested zero-to-hero formula, which is common in many children’s cartoons so as to teach kids to believe in themselves and conquer all obstacles. The movie’s solid storyline, written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, is predictable but again, this kind of script formula works just fine with younger viewers.

Likewise, there are many elements from Japanese anime and even Hong Kong martial arts movies in terms of story progression, dialogue and most especially the fight scenes. In fact, those familiar with the old Jackie Chan flicks and the new Stephen Chow movies will find some script and comic references. There are also some philosophical ramblings that seem to target children. Some martial arts buffs and anime purists might not like the nearly copycat plot because of the lack of originality. Incidentally, it has almost no reference to pop culture, which is often the staple of computer graphics animation films like the “Shrek” and “Toy Story” movies.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

LET’S see if an Iron Man video game based on the movie-comic book tie-in would save the world from the bad movie-video game curse.

Nope, it won’t.

Our faith in even the most beloved comic book franchises cannot save the poor gamer from having to suffer from the effects of playing video games based on movies. At some point you would ask, “Why do all movie-video game tie-ins suck?” Iron Man the game is a big joke. Which begs the question: why do developers and publishers bother releasing a title that they know will suck? Simple: some of us get suckered into shelling out a few bucks to satisfy our curiosity and at some point, to falsely believe that there’s a future for video game-movie tie-ins until they’re dashed the moment we chuck the game disc into our players.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

AFTER several nostalgic attempts to bring back old actors as the characters that made them superstars (think Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone), here comes Harrison Ford out to reclaim his title as the eponymous Indiana Jones with a new movie, still armed with his trademark bullwhip, revolver and indomitable fedora.

His latest adventure, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” is largely George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s remake of the same good old fashioned 80s-era action-adventure to satisfy the cravings of a nostalgic thirtysomething crowd and see if the same moviemaking formula of the early 80s would work with a new audience.

This review may contain some spoilers, so stop reading if you don’t want the movie spoiled for you.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

LIKE previous movies based on Marvel comic book characters, the first film about a particular Marvel superhero is an origin story. The goal is to come out with a film that mostly stays true to the comic book version to satisfy longtime fans, while also appealing to a new audience unfamiliar with the source material. This is a formula that has been wildly successful for some Marvel films (i.e. “Spider-Man” and “X-Men”), though some have been less than spectacular (i.e. “The Punisher” and “Daredevil”).

“Iron Man,” Marvel Studios’ latest comics-to-Hollywood production and also its first self-financed film, follows the same formula, and thankfully this is a movie that will satisfy fans without melting the brains of the uninitiated. Marvel Studios tapped the directorial services of Jon Favreau, who made sure that the audience will care about the characters even without having read the comic books. It helps that the talented Robert Downey Jr. plays the role of fictional playboy billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his alter ego Iron Man.

This review will of course contain spoilers, so those who would like to watch the movie without knowing anything about the plot should stop reading. The movie starts with Stark, whose company designs state-of-the art weapons for the US military, being kidnapped by a group of terrorists in Afghanistan. In a flashback, we learn that Stark is in Afghanistan to demonstrate his company’s latest weapon, the Jericho missile system. The terrorists now want to force Stark to create a Jericho missile for them, using parts from Stark Industries weapons that they have gathered.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IT certainly is the most absurd mini-cartoon series ever created but it does a lot of good for the heart, because it’ll make you laugh pretty hard. Harvey Birdman is one of the characters in “Adult Swim,” a late-night show that is one of Cartoon Network’s most original comedy animations. It is quite a surprise that a video game was released by Capcom to emulate the show’s off-beat humor. The PlayStation 2 game Harvey Birdman, Attorney-at-Law is largely an interactive video game that takes the player to the world of Harvey Birdman, a retired 1960s superhero-turned-lawyer for a law firm called Sebben and Sebben. The entire series is very short; about four to five hours, depending on your speed of gameplay.

Speaking of which, this game doesn’t have much gameplay. Would-be players of Harvey Birdman may have to be told to watch out for its lack of the normally fast-based gameplay that is expected of a video game. There is barely enough playing around and it’s basically a TV series offshoot squeezed into a DVD game. Its interactive nature is more of pointing and clicking on items on the screen, moving forward and backward and, well, that’s basically it. However, what it lacks in gameplay it makes up for with its utter absurdity to comedic effect. The humor used in this game is just as good as the Adult Swim TV series and it will give players moments of laughter, especially with the dialogue of the characters.

Just as in the TV series, Harvey Birdman will take on court cases that range from finding out who robbed a bank to proving that Harvey’s partner, Peter Potamus (another Hanna-Barbera cartoon character way back in the 60s) is not an arsonist. You play Harvey Birdman to solve these cases. Each case will require Harvey to search for evidence or clues that he can use during the court case. Harvey can interact with witnesses (most of whom are also 60s characters) and police officers to help him out with his cases.

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