'Ello, Poppet! It's My PotC3 Review Spectacular!

Hey, there fellow Nerfherders,

and welcome back to my Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Pirates 3) review. I'm posting it a lot later than I anticipated because I had to study for my driving test on Monday. Then I decided to catch up on some FFV Advance yesterday. Got to the Library of Ancients if anyone's interested! Then there's that thing people are already calling "work"...(^_^;



*Ahem* So, Pirates 3. First of all, I have to admit finding both Pirates 1, a bit meh and Pirates 2 very disappointing respectively when I first saw them at the cinema. But later, my friend therealpidge's enthusiasm for Pirates 1 rubbed off on me and I came to like the first one a lot. So much so I was pretty excited when I heard they were turning the franchise into a trilogy, filming the next two back to back, The Matrix-style. You know The Matrix. That trilogy of techno-kung fu movies that should have been awesome.





From Kung-Fu Coolness... to Major Assness (^_^)









So just like The Matrix, I should have realised there would be disappointment, but I didn't, so I went into Pirates 2 hyped up and came out quite disappointed. Why was Jack Sparrow suddenly such a massive dick to everyone, even the good guys? What the hell was he planning? Why were the "good guys" stabbing each other in the back? OK, maybe I'm overstating how bad The Matrix and the Pirates series are. I can happily sit down and watch the great one liners and special FX. But to come down from such high standards... I really feel it.

So this time, I was prepared for meh-ness of the finest summer blockbuster vintage. While it's no Matrix Revolutions, it's not suck-my-blue-balls-dry-baby amazing, either. But seeing as I was prepared for the worst, Pirates 3 was pretty good, actually.


Sparrow, you're coming to the Prom with me whether you like my Fu Manchu 'tache or not!

Of course the movie looked fantastic from beginning to end, although because there's lots more scenes that occur while the characters are sailing across the world, there's not a lot of variety, unlike the first two. I didn't think it was such a big deal. They are pirates after all, and pirates do a lot of sailing, right? (^_^) But my wife thought it was a little boring to look at. While I suppose that's true, I wasn't bothered by the lack of variety, if indeed, there was any.

My main beef is that keeping track of the plot felt like I was just about managing to tread water. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, Jack/Will/Barbossa/Elizabeth's scheming would throw me for a loop and I'd go under the proverbial water for a few seconds... again. Glub-glub!


ZZ Top facial hair was started by 18th Century Singapore pirates... fact

There were lots of fun moments, however. I especially like Jack Sparrow's er... "introspective" moments (I'm trying not to be spoilerific here), and the "nose" bit. The final kerfuffle across a whirlpool was excellent to watch, even though I couldn't make out some of the dialogue over the sound effects and booming music. Will seems to get less to do in this film except marry Liz and you know what at the end. But! Geoffrey Rush's Mad Bastard Acting Method(TM) as Captain Barbossa was hilarious! He stole every moment he was on screen. His confidence steering the Black Pearl off the end of the world was one of my favourite "Yarr! I be a poirate(sic)!" moments, much like when he shouted "Yarrrrr!" and chased after Johnny Depp whilst swinging his cutlass around in Pirates 1(^_^).


Yaaarrrr! You wouldn't happen to be having a Polo on your person, would ye now?

Maybe my opinion of Pirates 3 and especially 2 will improve when I see them at home, where I can absorb everyone's scheming in the comfort of my butt-creviced sofa(^_^). Overall, Pirates 3 was fairly fun to watch. So what did you guys think?

Wha? *Nine* pieces of eight!!?? How droll.

I'll make this short, as it's been a long day and it's 2:30 in the a.m. Just came back from watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, or as it's misleadlingly titled here in Japan, "World End". Yeah, that's right, Japan gets the armageddon edit!!(^_^)

It was OK, but not particularly great. I'll probably update this post with a longer review so I can properly rant later. I did have some fun watching POTC3, especially the Big Jeff Mahoolah fight at the end.

And to answer a question my brother asked me recently, here's the secret scene after the looooong credits sequence:

Energy Low...

Hey there!

Haven't been feeling too well recently. Just generally run down for some reason and I have this annoying cough/sore throat team-up that I got from shouting at little ickle Japanese kids in class all last week.

It's stupid hot here - well, it's only about 27-29 degrees C, but the humidity in Japan is killer. Time to break out the shorts!

I finally finished Blue Dragon a couple of weekends ago but haven't had the energy to do a proper review or any real blogging for that matter. I'll write something about my opinions on BD soon, though, and finish up a translation from Weekly Famitsu that I've been sitting on for a few weeks.

Haven't had much time or energy after work to play anything really, though I have managed to squeeze a few hours into...



I almost finished the Playstation version of FFV last year, but I lost my save data in a freak gamma ray accident. Don't get my memory card angry. You wouldn't like it when he's angry...



The reason I chose to play the GBA version is because it supposedly has better graphics and a better translation. While I suppose that's true, the graphics don't look that much better. Bizarrely, the graphics in my FFV Advance clock that I use on my mobile phone look much better than the GBA game itself! I don't know about phones in the west, but you gotta love the stuff you can download for phones here in Japan!(^_^)

As for the translation, well, yeah, it is better, but I enjoyed Faris' cheesy-shit pirate-y dialogue from the Playstation version. Made me laugh every time! Faris' dialogue is at times just as nonsensical in the GBA version, though. "Quit your lollygagging", anyone? It's still a fun game, the job system is great, although it feels a little nerfed compared to Blue Dragon's more versatile job system.

Well, that's it for now fellow Nerfherders, come back again soon, y'hear? (^_^)

SoloNerfherder is feeling...

I've been real busy with work and studying for/trying to go through all my lessons and qualify for my practical driving test (still have to do my written exam, though, ugh). So I haven't had time, Red Bull or health powerups to blog. I'll be back tomorrow or Wednesday with more...

Nice to see therealpidge come back to civilisation, and hello Alexandra, welcome to my friends list! (^_^)

Blue Dragon, Thanks for Nothing! (-_-#)

3:30am. The first time I've had a late night gaming sesh in many moons. With my wife asleep, I am alone, my wireless headphones enveloping me in Blue Dragon's world. I'm having fun (^_^). Running through the Ancient Factory on Disc 2, about half an hour of hard grinding from the last save point, and this happens:



Game crash as a battle fades out to the field again. Blue Dragon, you total bar steward.

"Your friendly neighbourhood... aww, you know!"

Ho-lee crap,
Japan Gets Movie Before the US Shocker!

Whilst Japan usually gets movies dead last in the international release schedule, yesterday saw an early release of Spider-Man 3, presumably to coincide with the annual Golden Week holiday here.

Seeing as I virtually live at the local cinema (i.e. I go there quite a lot - I'm not a homeless dude living in the cinema doorway!), I rushed down to my local multiplex to see Spidey's newest adventure (Sorry therealpidge, looks like they stopped showing the Gegege no Kitarou ads now that the movie has been released, so I couldn't sneak a recording of them for you!).

I gotta say that I freakin' loved it. Screw the haters. Going in, I was expecting to be disappointed because there were going to be so many characters in it - the established guys, plus Venom/Eddie Brock, Sandman, Gwen Stacy... it could have been a recipe for disaster. Right Batman and Robin? (^_^)

But somehow, it pulls it off! I loved how they managed to balance the movie and pack so much story in. If there's one caveat, it's that Venom doesn't get enough time onscreen, and when he does, it's more Brock's face poking out of the Venom suit than Venom itself. Venom's also a lot less 'roided up than the comics and cartoons. Sandman's scenes are excellently played, although you have to wonder should he really get away with so much in the name of saving his daughter? The part where Sandman comes out of the sand for the first time was great. I felt like I was watching the birth of a new creature, as he tried to find his feet... and arms, hands, face, etc. (^_^)


For the first time, Spidey is the one who gets tied up


It is a long movie (139 mins., I believe), but I didn't get bored for a second. There are some surreal moments of humour that I bet will take a lot of flak, mainly involving Venom symbiote-influenced Emo-Parker, but I was laughing like a drain when I saw them! Even some of the audience were laughing out loud, which is a little unusual in a Japanese cinema. Usually I'm the only one laughing with my (Japanese) wife telling me to shut up because I'm embarrassing her! The now customary Bruce Campbell cameo got a good reaction from everyone, too.


Dig that black Hitler hair!

There are a lot of holes that critics have mentioned already, but I was sucked in from the "Story So Far" opening titles, and the first flight'n'fight through the streets of New York was the spray cream on the cake for me. If you're going to get bent out of shape about why an alien symbiote just happens to land by Peter Parker, then why are you watching a movie about a dude who gets superpowers from a radioactive spider bite? Just enjoy this wonderful Hollywood event movie - with some of the key crew and stars expressing doubts about wanting to make another - it may be the last we'll see.


Spidey realises the Axe Effect just wore off


She must have been hit with the hawt stick since Lady in the Water!


Sweep yer chim-a-neys for yer?

Ge, Ge, Ge, Ge-Ge, Ge-Ge...

Today is my first quiet day in a while where I get time to think and do my own thing. Which is why I haven't posted in a week. This last week or so has been pretty hectic with crunch time coming on my driving lessons and me actually having work to do at school for a change! Great, but bad timing to have everything come at me at the same time!



This post is really for you, therealpidge, seeing as you watched a whole load (the entire run?) of the original anime GeGeGe no Kitarou when you were here in Japan.

As you can see from the pic above, a live action movie based on the anime was released in cinemas here on Saturday. It's not top on my list, but I'd like to see it soon. The main reason I'm posting about this is just to mention the hilarious adverts they've been running in the local Warner Mycal cinema. As far as I can tell they were made exclusively for Warner Mycal. You know those ads they have where they ask you to shut yer damn pie hole and turn your phone off during the movie? Well, they get the yokai (Japanese supernatural) creatures from the movie to demonstrate how not to behave in a cinema - with amusing results. I tried searching for them on the web to no avail. Maybe I can sneak a recording home with my mobile phone and post them on Youtube or something when I go see Spider-Man 3 on Tuesday.

For anyone who's interested, here's some info on the movie in English and the movie's official website in Japanese.

You've got the GeGeGe game for the Famicom, haven't you?


What surprised me was finding out today that it got released in English as Ninja Kid! Especially as he's not a ninja... (^_^;

Well, I'll be back in the next couple of days with more info!