Change Your Image
dinogrrl86
Reviews
The Legend of Dragoon (1999)
Could have been better, but still very good.
Legend of Dragoon is one of those little-known games that people either love or hate. Some people claim it's far too similar to other games, namely the Final Fantasy series--which is understandable, since it was originally intended to be Sony's equivalent of Final Fantasy. Honestly I can't comment on the similarities beyond that, as I'm not very familiar with the FF games.
I think my favorite aspect of the game is the battle system. Not only do you have the ability to change into a more powerful dragoon form, but every time you attack, you have to pay attention in order to complete the attack by pressing buttons at the correct time. Not only that, sometimes enemies will attack you back right in the middle of a sequence, which means you have to press different buttons in order to avoid taking damage. Even the use of certain attack items requires a bit of button-mashing. If you don't want to attack, you can always guard, which not only cuts any damage taken in half, but raises your hit points without the use of healing potions.
The FMVs are quite well-done, about the same quality as Final Fantasy 8's. However, the graphics during game play aren't quite up to that standard. They're nice, but they could have been--and honestly, should have been--better. The translation as well leaves something to be desired. Not only does it raise interesting character relationship questions, but there are also some grammatical mistakes that simply shouldn't have been allowed to pass.
Another thing I found interesting was that you lose main party characters--one dies, and the other basically becomes useless to the party and leaves. While the death of the one character is often said to have no point, it makes you realize early on that the characters, while heroes, are still just as mortal as the next person. The people who replace the lost characters simply gain all their stats, so the transition game play-wise is fairly smooth. Perhaps my one complaint about the characters is the main character's love interest, Shana. She is the epitome of the helpless female in need of rescuing, pathetic to the point of driving a player to screaming with frustration. While you can use her in your party, she is insanely weak--I don't even know what her dragoon powers are like, as I disliked her so much I never used her. The character Rose, by contrast, is probably my favorite female character in any game ever. She's no wimp, and some of her dragoon magic is extremely useful. Meru is quite strong as well, while sometimes being an annoying talkative brat.
The character designers were, as most are, inclined to make the female characters appear pretty or whatever, and didn't give much thought to the actual usefulness of the outfits. Seriously, no armor and having most of your skin exposed is not helpful when fighting monsters. But I will give them props, as they do have females serving as knights in the various countries.
I can't comment much on the plot, as honestly I didn't pay much attention to it beyond where I needed to go to next. I'm not sure if this says something about the plot itself, or my gaming style.
All in all, it's a very enjoyable game. It has its flaws, but for me it struck just the right balance of having to think and just pressing buttons and killing monsters.
Rottweiler (2004)
...what just happened?
I have seen this movie twice on the Sci-Fi Channel (meaning I didn't have to deal with the nudity bits, thank goodness), and I STILL can't make heads or tails of it. While some B-movies are actually entertaining in their lack of coherent plot, this one drags 'pointlessness' down into the realm of painful.
The director attempts to try a sort of mixed-up flow of time in order to save the climax of the plot for the end of the movie (as it really happens in the beginning of the story)...but fails miserably. All the jumping around from beginning of story to the present time is done in a very choppy fashion, and the climax of the movie? I still don't really understand what it is--the main character, Dante, is looking for his girlfriend Ula, beats up a Rottweiler, gets chased around by the newly-enhanced now-cybernetic Rottweiler, gets raped, and eventually remembers that Ula is dead and kills the Rottweiler? It sounds like a relatively straight-forward, simple plot, your average B-movie, right? Well, like I said, it's done in the most painful way possible to the point where I have no idea what the climax of the movie is supposed to be. Maybe there is no point, I don't know any more.
I'll admit that I'm not the best at critiquing directing, but even I can see that there really was no attempt to make a passable movie here. Badly-framed shots, glaring light even in night scenes and interiors that should be rather dim...the movie is confusing from even a visual standpoint. Even the title character, the cyborg Rottweiler, seems to be three different dogs--the live animal, the stiff, unrealistic puppet, and the relatively smooth-textured CGI version. Most movies will pick just one or two of those to use for their monsters and stick with it, but this one has all three and they each look different.
So in conclusion, even if you like B-movies you'll probably want to avoid this one. Each time I've seen it on the Sci-Fi Channel, it makes me sad that I just wasted hours of my time with it...even when I just had it on for background noise.
Fantasia (1940)
Still Unique
Blue lights on a backdrop curtain. Shadows of musicians walking to their seats onstage cross the screen. The sounds of the orchestra warming up grow louder...then fall silent. The narrator walks on. And so "Fantasia" begins.
Having two musicians for parents, I grew up watching this movie. It's hard to remember that this is actually quite an old Disney film--my grandmother remembers its debut. She and I are both of the opinion that "Fantasia" is a movie unlike any other, and still far ahead of its time, even generations after its release. I feel that perhaps the greatest asset of this film is introducing classical music to the public in a form that young children and adults alike can enjoy and get involved in.
"Fantasia" involves eight very famous pieces of music, each one set to a backdrop of differing and engaging animations. Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' is an excellent opening: it is the oldest piece of music in the film, and the animation consists of abstract visions that coincide with the music beautifully. This is the only purely abstract animation of the entire film, with the exception of the modest Soundtrack character that appears later, which introduces various instruments in the orchestra.
The orchestra itself is often seen during the film, the musicians backlit with various colored lights, or their instruments spotlighted. The musicians themselves remain in the dark; even their conductor, the great Stokowski, is never seen in the light. We are forced to sit still and concentrate on the sounds that are made--a skill which many people today have not developed. However, even these people are riveted to the simplicity of the orchestra scenes, and even moreso to the animated sequences.
The show continues with Tchaikovsky's famous (or infamous) 'Nutcracker Suite', where each dance is represented by different figures ranging from fancy goldfish to fairies to walking flowers. Then comes perhaps the most well-known part of the film: Dukas' 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. This is the only section of the film where a Disney character (Mickey Mouse) appears, as the title character. He learns the folly in pride when a magical spell goes horribly wrong and floods his master's castle.
Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' is a tale of the origin of life, and the epic battles of dinosaurs. It begins alone in space, with only a few stars and a bassoon's tune for company. It quickly moves to scenes of early earth, and simple ocean-dwelling creatures. Later, the dinosaurs take over, finally dying out when the earth's water supply disappears. While some of the science may be outdated by today's standards, it is still a spectacular piece of work that includes fairly realistic dinosaurs--a step away from Disney's habit of 'cutesy'ing animals.
This solemn music is followed by the rambunctious ballet 'Dance of the Hours' by Ponchielli, where ostriches, elephants, and hippos dance, and are courted by excitable alligators. This one scene elicits the most smiles from its viewers out of the whole movie. The whole setting is like that of a real, staged ballet...the only difference being that unexpected animals perform the roles.
The last animation of the film is actually a melding of two very different pieces: the nearly demonic 'A Night on Bald Mountain', by Mussourgsky, and the sacred piece by Schubert, 'Ave Maria'. While Chernobog, the demon from Bald Mountain, can be scary to young children, 'Ave Maria' offers relief with its soothing scenes of mountains and forests, and worshipers walking calmly through the early-morning light.
"Fantasia" remains one of my favorite films, and a testament to the amazing skills of the Disney animators who worked on it over 60 years ago. While modern copies of the movie tend to warp the sound, it is not to the extent that the overall experience is lessened. I DEFINITELY recommend this movie for everyone--especially those who think that classical music is boring and stodgy.