D.M.C. Devil May Cry

When it comes to video games, everyone has their own preferences. Some people prefer the older, more classic games, while other people prefer newer games, and some dismiss video games entirely. I'm not one of those people, though I'm probably one of the weirder people. For example, I tend not to play more of the well known franchise games, like the Metal Gear games, Grand Theft Auto, or any Call of Duty game. The only real big franchise game series I do follow are the Kingdom Hearts games, and the Devil May Cry games. Out of those two, one game has sparked a great deal of controversy with fans, with some people loving it, and other people hating it. That game happens to be D.M.C. Devil May cry.

 

First of all, the title is dreadful. D.M.C. Devil May Cry. It's just the same title repeated twice, not off to a great start. Next thing I feel I should talk about is the trailer, which threw many fans into a screaming roar of BETRAYAL!!!

 

Yeah, many fans of the old Devil May Cry series were pretty upset, though it was all for one reason, Dante's new look. For those wondering, here's what Dante once looked like.

Yeah, not bad huh? A unique look, at first, and he actually looks pretty bad-ass. The new Dante is very lanky, has a stupid haircut, and just looks off. Most people said that the new look was pretty much because of the Twilight craze going on at the time, and I kind of agree with them. The Twilight movies, for better or worse, were popular at the time, and the inspiration is kind of obvious. Some people actually thought, however, that because of Dante's new look, the game would automatically suck the big one. These people were really overreacting though, many things go into a game being bad, not just its' look.

I was part of the crowd that were put off by the look, but were really hoping that the game play would be up to par with previous games. That's the best thing about all the previous games, they're a ton of fun because the action is fast-paced and fluent, with some fantastic combos that could be pulled off. I was sincerely hoping they wouldn't screw it up. Did they? Well let's find out.

Let's start with the story, and, well let's be honest, the story has never been very strong in any of the Devil May Cry games. While none of them have been bad, they've never been anything special. The same is true for this one, though it does have some good points about it.

The story begins with Dante waking up after a night of sex. Well that's a great introduction to our hero, him being naked, drunk, and possibly on drugs. He's woken up by a woman named Kat, who warns him that he's being hunted. Before he really has a chance to say anything, he's dragged into limbo by a hunter demon. The rest of the level is a tutorial on how to play the game, and it works in that respect. At the end of it, Dante kills the hunter demon and goes with Kat to see her boss.

On the way there, she talks about the organization she belongs to, called The Order, a vigilante group that wants to free the world from demon control. Yeah this world is controlled by demons, specifically by the demon king, named Mundus. Mundus controls the world through debt, which isn't a terrible idea. It's also probable for this to happen, repeat a lie over and over and eventually people start seeing it as true. That's not bad, it makes me think of the book 1984.

Anyway, we soon meet the head of the order, Vergil. Hey remember in Devil May Cry 3 when he was voiced by the Quantum Ranger?

Well, here he's again voiced by a former Power Ranger. David de Lautor, who played R.J. in Jungle Fury. Man, that's three games in a row where a character has been voiced by a former ranger. Anyone else find it funny?

Whatever, we get a look at Dante's past. In it we learn that his mother was an angel, while his father was a demon, and Vergil is his brother. This makes the both of them Nephilim, the only beings that have a chance at defeating the demon king, and his mistress Lilith. To accomplish this, they decide to take out two of the most oppressive things Mundus has made. The Verility plant, which creates mankind's favorite soda, and the Raptor News Network. You might as well call them the Slurm factory and Fox news, there's really no difference. Hell, the anchorman for Raptor, Bob Barbas, is an obvious parody of Bill O'Reily, though somehow less entertaining. He also has one of the best boss battles in the game, it's just awesome. 

After destroying the Slurm factory, Dante is sent into the demon world, where his devil side is given more strength so that he can reach his goal. Yep it's the Devil Trigger,an ability that unleashes your full demonic might! Sadly, in this game it's very unimpressive. Just slowing down time, and throwing enemies into the air, which is a bigger hassle than it sounds. Oh and it also gives Dante white hair and a long red coat. Cute.

After taking down Fox news, which I admit is pretty satisfying, Dante goes back to help the Order which is being overtaken by troops. Kat is kidnapped by the troops and is held for ransom. Dante comes up with the idea of an exchange. Lilith for Kat. Vergil says that Mundus cares nothing for Lilith, and he only keeps her around because Lilith carries his child. Dante decides to go get her. Dante! Demon slayer, and delivery boy.

After an interesting stage with a very strange boss battle, Dante is able to take Lilith for the exchange. After the exchange, and with Kat back, Vergil executes Lilith, first blowing out her womb, and her baby, then killing her. I'll get into my feelings on that in a little bit.

 With Kat back, the brothers decide to finish Mundus off once and for all. They infiltrate his tower and confront him. Mundus is siphoning power from a Hellgate, a portal to the demon world, to finish off the two brothers. Vergil destroys the gate while Dante distracts Mundus, though that doesn't finish him off. Mundus creates a giant body made out of buildings to destroy the two, but it goes about as well as you'd expect. After Mundus is defeated, the shield, which made demons invisible to humans, dissolves, and the secret is out.

Wait though! It's not over yet! Vergil reveals his true intentions to Dante and Kat. With Mundus gone, Vergil wants to rule over the humans, with a pathetic explanation as to protect them. Dante doesn't buy it, and the two fight. It's probably the best boss fight in the game, very enjoyable and difficult. Dante wins and nearly kills Vergil, but Kat stops him. Vergil leaves, disappointed in Dante's decision to protect humanity. Dante doubts himself after that, but Kat cheers him up, ending the game. There is a DLC for the game that follows Vergil after the game, but I don't want to talk about it, mostly because I haven't played it.

This game, hoo boy, do I have something to say about this game. It has problems, not in the story, that's fine. No. My problem is with the characters. Let's start with Dante.

I hate the new Dante. His appearance doesn't make me hate him, no, it's his attitude. He's a foul-mouthed, arrogant douchebag. The reason, people liked the old Dante was because he was lighthearted, he loved what he did, he enjoyed a good adventure, he would crack jokes, and he would always fight for the humans. This Dante just continually walks around killing demon because he has to, never looking like he's having fun. He cares nothing for humanity until the end, and that really doesn't feel natural the way it's presented. Oh, and that foul mouth of his gets pretty annoying pretty quickly, though there is one scene of it that just cracks me up.

This has to be intentional, because no one could take it seriously.

Now, let's talk about Vergil. Vergil has it even worse than Dante in this game. Yes, even worse. Let me talk about the original games again. In Devil May Cry 3, Vergil was a man who was driven mad in a pursuit to gain power because of his inability to prevent his mother's death. He also behaved very much like a samurai, having a sense of honor, and he didn't use guns. In this game, he looks down on humans because of his parentage and sees them as beneath him. He also has none of the honor that the previous one did. Remember what I said about him shooting Lilith. Yeah, I'm disgusted by that scene. Let me clarify, he shoots an unborn baby, out of its' mother's womb, let's her look at the remains in absolute horror, has her take it in, then kills her. Yes, she's a demon, but I'm still very disgusted and offended. I have a cousin who is pregnant, the very thought that such a thing would happen, to her or anyone else, makes me sick. It also makes me hate him.

But should I? Both he and Dante have a sympathetic back story right? Their family was torn apart by Mundus. Yes, however, a sympathetic back story doesn't automatically make a character sympathetic. You have to like them for one thing, and they actually have to be sympathetic.

Kat is the one I have the least problems with, but that's mostly because she's just dull. She's not very interesting, as a character, or as the person who gets Dante to care about humanity. She is, however, a hell of a lot more likeable than both Dante and Vergil.

Now let's talk about the game play. Story and characters aside, how is it. Honestly it's really good. Fast, tense, and engaging. The combos are easier to pull off than in previous games, and it feels very natural, as natural as demon slaying is. The enemies are varied, and require different strategies for each one. The style system, which shows how good you're doing, seems a little watered down from previous games, but it never bothered me too much. It also has an awesome soundtrack that plays while you're just going around kicking ass. The one problem I have with the combat is the guns. They just don't feel as necessary as they did in previous games, and they don't feel as powerful. It's minor, but kind of drags it down a bit.

Overall, despite my hatred of the characters of Dante and Vergil, I actually enjoyed D.M.C. The story was pretty good, as far as these games go, there are good possibilities for future games, and the combat is awesome. I'd say it's worth a rent, but not a full on purchase.

Final Verdict: 6.7 out of 10

Evil Dead (2013)

I have been a fan of horror films for many years, ever since I was around 7 or 8 years old and my father let me watch Army of Darkness with him. Throughout the many years since then I have experienced many different horror films of mixed quality. Some have been very good, while some have been quite bad, while others have been so bad that they're enjoyable. I might get to some of those films down the line, but for now, let us dive into the latest horror film that I have had the experience of watching. This movie is known as, Evil Dead.

 
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For those who don't know, The Evil Dead was a horror film released in 1981 starring Ellen Sandweiss, Hal Delrich, Betsy Baker, Sarah York, Ted Raimi in various parts, and of course, Bruce Campbell, while the film itself was directed by Sam Raimi.

Believe it or not, the film is actually a remake of Sam Raimi's earlier short film, known as Within the Woods, also starring Bruce Campbell. The short film itself is pretty good and I recommend it, but I'm not going to be talking much about it. The plot of The Evil Dead is as follows. Five Michigan State students drive out to an abandoned cabin in the woods to spend their spring break. Why they choose this place in particular is rather up in the air, but hey, that's a small matter. They eventually discover the Naturon Demonto, also known as the Book of the Dead, or the Necronomican if you wish. Of course, things go bad and most of the characters are killed, save for Bruce Campbell's character, Ashley"Ash"Williams, who survives all the way through two sequels, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. I recommend all three films for a great combination of horror and comedy. The first one, in fact, is one of my all time favorite films.

With all that back story out of the way, let's talk about the remake, although it's not really a remake, I'll explain later.

Like every fan of the trilogy, I was all out calling betrayal at the news of a remake. Many remakes are generally inferior to their originals, and I was dead certain that this would be no different. Then, last year I saw the trailer.

I'll admit, I was actually impressed by the trailer. It didn't scare me like it did a lot of other people, but I was impressed. I began looking at it in a different light, and actually hoped it would be better than what I originally thought.

Well today I went out and saw the film, and in my opinion, it actually surpassed my original expectations. I'll try to explain my thoughts on the film, where it succeeds and where it fails. Quick warning though, this will contain massive SPOILERS!!!

The film opens on a woman being chased my mysterious shadowed figures. The scenery doesn't look too bad, and it builds a creepy atmosphere, which the film maintains. The woman is captured by a group of rednecks, one of whom is her father. The woman turns out to be possessed by a demon and the rednecks burn her at the stake. So yes, the rednecks actually got a demon for once, instead of another very drunk redneck.

Que Title Card.

Then the main plot begins. A young man named David and his girlfriend Natalie travel to the abandoned cabin from the first films and meet their friends there. A nurse named Olivia, a schoolteacher named Eric, and David's sister Mia. They're all there to try and help out Mia recover from her drug addiction, since she OD'd on her last hit. Eventually they travel through the basement due to Mia's complaints about the smell. In side they find a room full of dead cats hanging from the ceiling, a burned support beam, a shot gun, and a book wrapped up in a trash bag and barbed wire. Are they sure they're not in the Delta house? Anyway, Eric reads a passage from the book that summons the demonic forces which attack Mia.

This time, the evil is given a face, and it looks like the woman from the beginning, or a deadite version of Mia. Surprisingly, they kept the tree rape scene in this movie, though of course it's much different this time, as instead of the trees penetrating her, the demon woman vomits up a slug thing that travels up her vagina. Are we sure this isn't some Japanese hentai?

Mia starts to go crazy, but the others thinks it's because she's going through withdrawal, at least until she starts to scald herself in the shower. They want to get her to a hospital, but the road is completely flooded thanks to the rain that's been going on throughout most of the film. They decide to sedate her, hoping that the road will clear up later, and they can take her in. Any one genre savvy enough will know that that's not happening.

Mia comes in, shoots her brother's arm, and then pukes blood all over Olivia's face before falling into the cellar. After talking about whether she's gone crazy or not, Olivia goes into the bathroom to clean up. Naturally she's been possessed, but in this version, they each get some kind of horror afflicted on them instead of a creepy zombie look. For Olivia, she's forced to tear her own face off. Not completely though, as Eric comes in to check up on her. Then she attacks him, stabbing him repeatedly with a broken mirror shard, and jabbing a needle under his eye. He's able to fight her off, and kills her with a piece of the sink that broke off during the struggle.

While David treats his wounds, Natalie goes to get sugar and water due to Eric losing a lot of blood. Mia lures her down to the cellar, bites her hand, cuts her own tongue, then pukes into her mouth. Eww. David's able to get her out, but it's too late for Natalie. Couldn't say I missed Natalie much, she didn't really do much in this film. David chains the cellar door shut, while Natalie tries to fight off her possession, which starts at her hand. Using an electric knife she cuts off her own arm in a really good use of practical effects. That's one of the better parts of this movie I haven't mentioned yet, this film mostly uses practical effects instead of CG, and it is a godsend! There are just too many movies that use CG nowadays, and it just looks lazy. I know that a lot of hard work goes into it, but things just look better if they're actually there.

Anyways, Eric comes up with the idea that, "Hey the book is what caused this, why don't I destroy it" and sets it ablaze. Much to his horror it doesn't burn. He and David open it up again and discover how to stop the possessed people, burying them alive, chopping them to pieces, or purification by fire. I don't know why burying them alive would work, since they're demons, but hey why not. They also discover that if five souls are captured, another demon, known as the Abomination...
 ...no not that one, will be released from the Earth. In order to make it work, it has attached itself to Mia, hoping to bring itself into our world. Then the possessed Natalie comes in, and attacks them with a nail-gun. This is one of the dumber scenes of the movie for one reason. Nail-guns don't work that way. They are not projectile weapons, at least not at long range. They do not have the power to shoot 30 feet across a room, they run on compressed air and have to be plugged in to work. That nail-gun was not plugged in. She then attacks them with a crowbar until Eric finally kills her, though he's pretty badly injured.

Eric than comes up with the idea of burning down the house, though David is rather against the idea because he doesn't want to kill his sister. After the attack by Natalie though he decides to go through with it. He pours gasoline all over the house and gets ready to burn it, but Mia starts singing a song their mother use to sing for them. With that done, David decides to save Mia instead of killing her. So he gears up with tranquilizers and a flashlight! Really David? You're not gonna take something else, like a bat in case you need to defend yourself? Moron. Anyways, he goes down into the cellar and gets his ass kicked by Mia. Are you surprised? Eric saves him by smashing Mia over the head with a blunt object. Finally a smart decision! Sadly, Eric is stabbed to death during the struggle, though he is able to knock Mia out.

David goes to bury Mia alive, but while he's doing it, the Abomination decides to taunt him by saying he doesn't care about her, bringing up several conversations said in the film about him, Mia, and their mother, who was diagnosed as cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and David never went to see her, while Mia stayed with her until her death. David wisely ignores the Abomination and finishes burying it. After several seconds of crying over what he did, digs her back up and tries to resuscitate her by using a defibrillator he made while gearing up in order to revive her. I'm not really sure how to feel about this scene. Sure it pays off what was said earlier about Mia's overdosing on drugs, actually being dead, then being revived by an actual defibrillator, but I'm not sure if that would really work, especially since it's hooked up to what looks like an old car battery. It works though, and Mia is brought back now free of the possession. Truth be told, I fully expected her to actually still be possessed and then try to kill David, but with what we actually get isn't too bad, and it's pretty touching.

It's stopped raining by this point and David an Mia get ready to leave, when David is attacked by a possessed Eric, getting stabbed fatally in the neck. He locks Mia out of the cabin, then uses the shotgun to shoot another canister of gas, blowing up the entire cabin, much to Mia's horror. Afterwards, the final stage of the earlier prophecy begin to happen as it begins to rain blood. The Abomination rises from the dirt and... WAIT A MINUTE!!! Mia's alive, they didn't get a fifth soul, so how is the Abomination showing up? Oh whatever. The Abomination rises up and...it's the same zombie Mia woman from earlier. What the hell movie? You promised a great demon Abomination. I expected something to look better than this.

The Abomination chases Mia into the tool shed, where Mia, I'm not even kidding, passes up on a big knife, and instead grabs the chainsaw. Why? I get that a chainsaw connects it more with the earlier films, and would make a better killing weapon than a knife, but it's old, probably without any gas, and guess what I was right. It has no gas, so Mia finds some and fills it, though not before the Abomination follows her. She backs into what appears to be a crawl space, and the Abomination, showing more sense than Mia, starts stabbing the knife through the wall, actually stabbing her a few times. She's able to get out by breaking through the wall, but she can't really run away by this point. She hides under her brother's jeep and is finally able to start the chainsaw. She cuts off one of the Abomination's feet, and gets out from under the jeep, which the Abomination then pushes, trying to squash her. She's able to get out of the way, mostly, getting her hand stuck under the jeep. Ouch.

During an actually pretty tense scene, Mia is able to get her hand out, how, by tearing it off by the wrist. Again, OUCH!!! She then takes the chainsaw and kills the Abomination, cutting it in half, ending the blood rain. As the morning light breaks through, she stares at the still burning cabin and picks up a necklace her brother tried to give her earlier. She then walks into the sunrise. During the closing credits sequence though, we start hearing the voice of Professor Knowby from the first film talking about his finding of the evil book. I really got excited when I heard this, since I was hoping to see a certain someone, and after the credits, I did.

Sorry, it was the best I could find.

Yep it's Ash himself! This does actually make sense. This movie is now a continuation of the previous films. It's not too much of a stretch to believe that other people found the cabin since then and spruced it up a bit, though it is a a stretch to believe that they never discovered the demonic book of evil in there.

And yes, I have heard of the upcoming sequel to this film, and the new Army of Darkness film. I also know that after that, there will be a new film that ties both film series together. Awesome!

Now that the synopsis, and what a long one, is out of the way, let's grade this movie. I've already mentioned the special effects in this movie, and how good they are, though I was hoping for better makeup for the possessed. The music is pretty decent and chilling at times, and thankfully, none of the characters are unlikeable douchebags, though Olivia kind of comes close at times. The atmosphere remains constant throughout, very isolating and terrifying. The story isn't too bad, except in some parts that I've mentioned already, not completely copying the original film. That was the good, now let's get too the bad.

Thankfully there's not too much bad in this movie. Most of it comes through the acting, which is rather poor at times, though it does get better later. There are a few jump scares that aren't really that scary, and there's the big problem, it's really not that scary. Granted, the other films aren't that scary either, but this film takes itself pretty seriously, so I expect some actual scares. Also one of the scenes from the trailer was cut out. The whole, we're gonna get you scene happens nowhere in the movie which is rather head scratching. That scene would've added a little more to the film and probably would've made it scarier. Sadly it's not and it hurts the film.

All in all the film was honestly not too bad in my own honest opinion. There are some hiccups along the way, but the film is solid, and I would recommend seeing it at least once.

Final Verdict: 7.2 out of 10

I hope you've enjoyed my first review, and I hope that I'll be able to bring you more in the future. Have a nice day, everyone. Take care.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Just A Simple Point of View. In this blog, I will post my opinions on multiple subjects, such as movies, television shows, video games, and other such stuff.

Yes, I'm basically following every other kind of reviewer out there, but I feel as though there's more than enough room on the internet for some other schmuck to post their opinions right?

(cricket noises)

Oh well. I'll still do it anyways.  There's no kind of schedule for reviews since, really there's only so many movies and video games out there, and I probably won't feel like reviewing everything under the sun, but I'll definitely try and get some out whenever I can. Also I will warn you, these probably won't be very funny since I am not a comedian, but if I think of something amusing, I'll definitely try and get a chuckle.

With all that out of the way, I once again welcome you to Just A Simple Point of View. First review coming soon.