Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Announcement Trailer Thoughts

            Hey everyone!  They just released an announcement trailer for a sequel to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor!  Let’s take a look!

            Well that looked like…a prerendered trailer that tells us nothing about the gameplay and only vaguely hints as to what the plot is about.  And that’s because it is a prerendered trailer that tells us nothing about the gameplay and only vaguely hints as to what the plot is about!  Now, to be fair, they say in the trailer that there will be a gameplay reveal released on March 8^th and I fully expect myself to revisit this subject then.  But until then the only emotion that I can conjure up for this reveal trailer is “meh”.

            For those of you who don’t know, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the 2014 game, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.  It was a game that actually surprised everyone at the time with just how good it turned out to be, especially given the questionable behavior Warner Brothers had displayed regarding the game’s promotion and the release of press copies to gaming critics.  For me, however, the game was just decent.  The Nemesis System was pretty cool and I did like how the developers gave the orcs distinct personalities as well as different weaknesses and fears to exploit.  It also happened to be one of the few instances where the game actually acknowledged the death of the player in a mechanical way which I thought was kind of nifty at the time. 

            Unfortunately, the game had no multiplayer to speak of, was populated by mostly boring supporting characters and had a plot that mostly consisted of taking control of orcs, making them war chief so you can move on to the big bad of the area only to find out you had to do it all over again.  Because of this I generally find myself discussing the odd continuity hiccups the game has in relation to the rest of The Lord of the Rings lore with my peers more so then the actual game itself.  And from the looks of this trailer, it looks as if it might be more of the same in this regard.

            All that this trailer seems to tell us is that the Gondor captain, Talion and the elf wraith Celebrimbor succeed in forging a new ring to challenge Sauron and the forces he still has in Mordor.  Not long after he apparently loses Celebrimbor and Sauron has gathered his forces to wage war on Middle-Earth and has somehow regained his physical form despite not having The One Ring.  And apparently, beta versions of the Ring Wraiths are flying around for some reason destroying stuff.  And he has a Balrog.  I have no idea how he got control of one of those.  And apparently Talion thinks he can stop all of this with his new magic ring.  Okay.  Again, just “meh”.

            Now to be fair, this is just an announcement trailer so maybe some of this stuff will be better explained in game.  Once again, we haven’t seen any gameplay footage of the new title so we should wait until we see some of that before we swing our expectations either way and I’ll be sure to revisit this subject once that happens.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that the gameplay footage proves to be more promising.

John Wick Chapter 2

            Go see it.  Seriously, go see it.  Why are you still reading this article?  Why aren’t you going to see it right now?!?!?!  If you’ve already seen it, why aren’t you seeing it again?!?!  GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!  In all seriousness though, 2017 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year, entertainment wise.  Resident Evil 7 was a pretty solid game, For Honor already has a very loyal fan base and films like Split and The Lego Batman movie turned out far better than anyone expected them to be.  The year has started out on a pretty positive note and, as of the writing this article, John Wick Chapter 2 has been the best note of the year so far.

            For those who don’t know, the film is a sequel to the 2014 action sleeper hit, John Wick which followed a retired hitman’s rampage across New York to find the mobster scumbags who stole his car and killed his dog.  The film was basically a perfect version of what it was trying to be; a 90s-style unstoppable badass action movie that should be experienced rather than talked about.  The action used continuous shots with incredible gunplay and hand to hand combat that never looked staged and always felt realistic.  On top that, the film had a surprisingly amount going on under its surface.  Most of the world building and character history was conveyed through actions as well as subtle dialog that consisted mostly of casual conversation between the characters as opposed to overly long exposition.  All of which transfers over to the sequel with bigger stakes, more deadly fighting and an actual pretty satisfying character arc for the titular hero.

            The plot begins in the immediate aftermath of the first film with John achieving a truce with the remaining family members of the antagonists of the last film and is ready to go back into retirement.  Unfortunately, not long after a crime lord acquaintance of John’s by the name of Santino D’Antonio arrives, calling in a blood oath favor that Wick owes him that allowed him to get out of the life in the first place.  Once completing the task, however, D’Antonio puts a seven million dollar bounty on his head in order to cover his tracks.  Realizing that his only chance for survival is to kill D’Antonio, John must battle a gauntlet of assassins and bodyguards all across New York before he can get to the man himself.

            As mentioned before, everything that made the first film work so well is back for the sequel but this time turned up to eleven.  The action scenes are more creative and make for some pretty intense fights that put a lot of modern action movies to shame.  Be it the initial rush of assassins that John has to face midway through the film or an incredibly tense chase through a hall of mirrors art exhibit, it’s hands down some of the best stuff that I’ve seen in a while.  It helps that the film actually has legitimate tension.  Wick may be every bit the unstoppable badass action hero that he appears to be but what both the creative team and Keanu Reeves make apparent is that the character is actually human.  The constant running and fighting the character does is something that clearly winds him and beats down on his stamina.  Getting stabled, shot, or bludgeoned does actually hurt him and by the time the film ends you legitimately wonder just how he is still standing.

            Another layer of tension is added to the fight with what appears to be a relatively realistic ammo count.  It might seem like a trivial thing but when compared to other films but Wick seems to be constantly reloading his gun or switching out weapons in order to compensate for just how many enemies are coming after him.  In one instance, for example, he is forced to go after the main antagonist in a room full of body guards with just one gun with seven rounds.  After burning through the rounds relatively quickly, he is forced to go after the various bodyguards and taking their weapons by hand which also have limited amounts of ammo, forcing him to quickly reload or change weapons.  It’s a very refreshing take on gun battles when most action movies just have the main character run out of ammo the moment the plot says so.

            Character interactions are just as good as they were in the last film.  The initial conversations between Wick and D’Antonio, for example, tell us everything we need to know about their relationship through subtle acting, character action and lines of throwaway dialog.  We’re never told what exactly it was D’Antonio did for John but given how seriously everyone in the film takes the blood oath, we can infer that it must have been something pretty extreme.  We can also tell from the get-go that these two clearly do not like each other.  It doesn’t evolve into pure hatred until later in the film but thanks to the acting you can clearly tell that there is some animosity between the two even before D’Antonio puts the hit on him.  Something similar happens between Wick and the character Cassian played by Common.  We don’t know how it is the two know each other but it’s pretty clear that they respect and know each other pretty well, even knowing what the other’s preferred drink is.  Because of this we get a pretty good feel for the relationship between the two, once again with subtle acting and a few key lines of dialog that feel more like natural conversation than anything else.  Likewise, the world building elements are done in similar ways.  While there isn’t nearly as much of it as there was in the previous film, what we do have is done in the exact same manner; through character actions, subtle dialog, and the creative team trusting the audience to be smart enough to figure out what certain things are on their own.

            If there is one major weak point in the film, it’s the first act as it takes a painfully long time for it to get to the main plot.  Up until then we have a lot of characters walking from place to place and talking about how serious certain plot elements are without a whole lot happening.  Granted a good chunk of this revolves around John preparing for the job that he is about to do but it drags on for far too long and ends up feeling boring, especially when compared to the rest of the film that seems to be firing all cylinders all the time.  You also see things that can’t help but draw attention to themselves as franchise management on camera.  Certain characters that you expect to be added to the body count simply aren’t and other characters are introduced out of nowhere seemingly because the studio wants them for the sequels. 

            In the end, though, John Wick Chapter 2 is just a kickass movie.  Everything that worked in the first film is back and turned up to 11 and is everything that you would want out of an action movie sequel.  Be sure to check it out.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that 2017 can keep the ball rolling.