Review: Wayward Pines: "Where Paradise is Home" & "Do Not Discuss Your Life Before"

The place beyond the pines

Thanks to the magic of 99p Kindle book sales, this author is well acquainted with the weird world of Wayward Pines. As a result, I wasn't prepared to enjoy the opening two episodes of Fox's television adaptation of Blake Crouch's best-selling novels quite as much as I did. Like Lost and Twin Peaks, much of Wayward Pines appeal comes from its sense of mystery, and if you already have the keys to unlock that mystery, you're missing out on a large part of what makes a series like this so compelling. Still, despite knowing where the rabbit hole leads, I was curious enough to give Pines the benefit of the doubt, and --so far, at least-- I'm glad that I did.

Anyone worried that I'm gonna spill the big one and blow the mystery of Wayward Pines wide open can rest easy: the following review will stick to discussing the content of the show's first two episodes only.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) is having a very bad day. On the trail of two missing federal agents, his investigation leads him to Wayward Pines, an unassuming wee hamlet whose scenic streets and cosy coffee shops hide a dark secret. Before he can get a handle on what is going on and pin down the location of his erstwhile colleagues, Burke is swatted by a truck. He awakes sometime later, lost and confused, in the local hospital. Seeing to his various bumps and bruises is Nurse Pam, a cryptic creature whose smiling malevolence and perky prevarications soon tip Burke off to the fact that something very weird is going on in this cosy little mountain town. Pam, who seems more likely to administer an ass-kicking than an injection, refuses to give Burke the straight dope, and our hero decides to ditch the hospital and seek answers elsewhere. 

Before long Burke finds himself at the bar of a local pub and in the company of bubbly barkeep Beverly (Juliette Lewis), the only other person in town who seems to be alert to the fact that something very fishy is going down. From here on out, we accompany Burke as he bounces all over town, slowly uncovering the mysteries that make this sleepy Idahoan suburb tick. He finds speakers nestled in bushes mimicking the sounds of chirping crickets, a never-ending road that dumps him right back where he started, and an eccentric town sheriff (Terence Howard) who is more interested in the charms of rum raisin ice-cream than he is in the dead body Burke brings to his attention. It all begs the question: just what is everybody trying to hide?

Despite knowing how the whole thing eventually shakes out, I was impressed by how quickly Wayward Pines sunk its hooks into me. The lurid, Twin Peaks-esque atmosphere is a lot more pronounced in the show than it was in the books, endowing the series with a quirkiness and eccentricity that will immediately endear it to devotees of Agent Dale Cooper. There's the proprietorial hotel manager, inordinately pleased with his position as a glorified bellhop, and the sheriff's chilly receptionist who doesn't so much drip sarcasm as she does smear it on with a trowel. Much of the enjoyment in these first two episodes comes from Burke's interactions with the townsfolk, all of whom seem to know a lot more about him than he does about them.

And it's this undercurrent of oddness, the sense that nothing or no one is what they seem, that makes these opening episodes so compelling. This is a show that does a fantastic job of wrong-footing the audience, littering Burke's path to the truth with a steady stream of weird reveals and fresh mysteries. Just when you think you have a handle on what's going on, a new head scratcher will hove into view and pull your attention in a completely new direction.

In these early stages at least, this is enough to distract from the thinly sketched characters that inhabit Wayward Pines, who --outside of their entertaining eccentricities-- fail to make much of an impression. Burke is neither that complex nor particularly interesting, his only concession to character development lingering flashbacks that suggest the town might be nothing more than the product of his broken mind. Luckily, Dillon gives a robust performance, imbuing Burke with enough crumpled charm and dogged determination to keep us invested in his plight.

The rest of the cast fare a little better, with Terence Howard, in particular, seeming to relish his role as the recalcitrant Sheriff Pope. Unlike the character from the novel, who was your usual small-minded, small-town sheriff, this version of Pope seems much slyer and more manipulative, feeding Burke a steady stream of half-truths and veiled threats. Pope soon emerges as the show's primary antagonist, defying Burke at every turn and demonstrating, in grisly fashion, what happens to people who don't follow Wayward Pines' rules at the end of episode two.

As far as cliffhangers go, episode two's is a doozy. Up until this point, the citizens of Pines have come across as odd, but slightly harmless, so it's a bit of shock when they all take up their pitchforks and watch with a mixture of horror and prurient fascination as one of their own is killed for breaking the rules. The past, it seems is completely off-limits, and the good folk of Wayward Pines would rather commit murder than let it intrude on their lives. It's meant as a warning to Burke: dig too deep and people will get hurt, but, if anything, I'm sure it'll only make him, and us, all the more more desperate to uncover the dark truth beating at Wayward Pines' heart.

The worry with a show like this, of course, is that it will wallow in ambiguity, leaving the audience with more questions than answers. Thankfully, Wayward Pines isn't just being weird for the sake of being weird; there's a good reason for everything that's going on and  --if the show continues to be faithful to the books-- all will become clear in a few episodes' time. Whether or not audiences will be satisfied with these answers remains to be seen, but anyone concerned that there's little more to Wayward Pines than smoke and mirrors can rest assured that this isn't the case.

It may not be the most original show on the airwaves, but with its unsettling atmosphere and escalating sense of mystery and danger, Wayward Pines is an oddly compelling little thriller that fans of shows like The X-Files, Bates Motel and, yes, Twin Peaks, will savour like a damn fine cup of coffee.

Rating: B

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

Furious George

Mad Max: Fury Road shouldn’t work; George Miller’s return to the franchise that made his name takes the conventional three-act film structure, drenches it in guzzoline and lets its burn. Instead of a series of peaks and troughs, Miller’s given his audience what basically amounts to one painstakingly staged, petrol-soaked 120 minute chase sequence that (almost) never takes its foot off the accelerator. It’s the third act of The Road Warrior writ large: blown-up, overcranked and completely out of control. There’s dialogue, but it’s drowned out by the sounds of revving engines, doomy guitars, and deafening explosions. Despite all of this, or perhaps because of it, Fury Road ends up delivering the kind of primal, nerve-jolting experience that’s been missing from mainstream western action movies since Arnie took a very hot bath at the end of Terminator 2.

The film opens with Hardy’s Max, sounding like he swallowed a sub-woofer, recounting his turbulent, tragic past. Haunted by visions of the family he couldn’t save and hunted by his fellow wastelanders, Fury Road’s version of Max isn’t the stoic anti-hero seen in previous instalments, but a fractured man, his mind unravelled after years spent desperately fighting for survival. Cinema-goers expecting the kind of sparkly-eyed action hero who dispatches the bad guys with a swagger and a wink, will be in for surprise: Tony Stark may have flirted with PTSD, but this Max is, for the first time, genuinely mad.

To make matters worse, Max is abducted by a gang of marauders in the film’s opening few minutes. These milk-coloured muties drag their prize back to the Citadel, a natural fortress under the control of respirator-wearing big bad Immortan Joe, a brutal warlord who controls the region's water supply. Max is pressed into service as a kind of mobile blood bag, providing juice for Nux (Nicholas Hoult), a soldier in Joe’s army of bald-headed berserkers, who is called into action when Imperator Furiosa (Theron on savage form) goes rogue and spirits away Joe’s five wives. From there the chase is on, with Furiosa desperately trying to stay ahead of Joe’s war band and get her charges to safety

If that sounds like a simple story, it’s because it is. If you’re looking for grandiloquence, you’re not going to get it here: Fury Road is a lean film, one that knows actions speak louder than words. Film critics are always going on about how filmmakers need to show and not tell, and after watching Mad Max you get the feeling that this will be the film they hold up as an example from now on. It’s exactly this kind of hands-off storytelling that makes Fury Road so refreshing, especially in a world in which every blockbuster is a prequel to a spin-off that devotes half its runtime to setting up the threequel.

That’s not to say the film is lacking in the storytelling department: Miller and fellow scribes Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris have crafted a film of surprising depth. Almost every snatch of dialogue, every brief exchange and weather-worn prop, adds another splash of colour to this dust-caked, depraved world. Refresingly, Miller never feels the need to lecture his audience, communicating ideas with a subtlety and assurance that’s all too rare in the realm of science fiction.

Unlike some in its genre, Fury Road is a film that lives in the moment, challenging audiences to pay attention and put together the pieces of the puzzle themselves. On the surface, Max’s return to the multiplexes may be a simple chase movie, a kinetic, ultra-violent sprint from point A to point B, but there are so many little hints, allusions and visual details crammed into its 120 minutes that it’s impressive just how alive, organic and fleshed out the finished film feels.

It also succeeds in bringing to life one of the best female characters to hit the big screen in years in the form of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa. From the Bride in Kill Bill to Ripley in Alien, genre movies have always had a place for capable leading ladies, and Furiosa is a welcome addition to this (sadly) limited pantheon of kick ass lady characters. Miller has gone on record as saying that Fury Road wasn’t intended as a feminist film, and I think that shows. What I mean is, the movie never comes across as a specious attempt to appeal to feminists, but rather an honest crack at creating the kind of gritty, driven character audiences root for, one who just happens to be a woman. And that, right there, is real equality.

The freshest, most invigorating action movie to roar onto our screens in quite some time, Fury Road is a post-apocalyptic powerhouse with a surprising amount of smarts and heart. Eccentric, bold and frequently breathtaking, it’s a timely reminder of just how electrifying an honest-to-goodness, no holds barred action movie can be.

Rating: A+

Doomsday coming to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Countdown to Doomsday

DC and Warner Bros. upcoming superhero smackdown may be called Batman v Superman, but everyone who has read a comic knows that at some point during the movie Supes and the Caped Crusader will have to put aside their differences and unite against the film's true arch villain, Lex Luthor. Up until now, I always thought Lex, known for his engineering smarts, would go toe-to-toe with his superpowered nemeses in some kind of robotic suit, but it's looking like that won't be the case after all, at least according to movie blogger Umberto Gonzalez, a.k.a. El Mayimbe.

El Mayimbe recently appeared on The Shanlian on Batman podcast where he confirmed that Lex Luthor would have an ace up his sleeve in the fight against Batman and Superman in the form of Doomsday. Comic book fans of a certain age will remember Doomsday as the character who (sort of) killed Superman back in the early nineties. Gonzalez claimed that Doomsday would be Lex's catspaw, likening his role to that of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.  So, while Lex will still be the film's main source of villainy, it'll be Doomsday who blunts his fists against Superman's chiselled mug, leaving Luthor plenty of time to cackle evilly and indulge in the occasional monologue.

Sources close to the film, described Doomsday's look as "incredible." The film's director, Zack Snyder, seems quite keen on making his characters looks as true to their comic book counterparts as possible (Batman, in particular, looks like he was ripped straight from the pages of The Dark Knight Returns), so presumably this will be the Doomsday we all know and love, jagged bones, grey skin and all. 

On the page, Doomsday was the result of an alien scientist's attempts to create the ultimate killing machine. Consigned to live out a brutal existence on the surface of a prehistoric Krypton, Doomsday slowly evolved into a weapon without equal, killing his captors before embarking on a bloody rampage across the galaxy. Eventually, he arrived on earth, and earned comic book infamy by becoming the first super villain to ever kill Superman. 

Presumably, it'll be Lex who is responsible for Doomsday's creation in the film. We daresay the big grey lug won't get to kill Superman either, especially as DC and Warner Bros. are priming the pumps for their all-star Justice League movie.

Frederator Studios begin work on Costume Quest cartoon

Halloween comes early

Of all the holidays of the year, Halloween is my favourite. It's the one time of the year when it is totally acceptable to hit the couch along with a group of friends, a handful of horror movies, and enough candy to give the British Dental Association nightmares. All while dressed as your favourite ghoul/ghost/grumkin/movie maniac, of course.

Although there have been a lot of horror-themed videogames, you can count the number of titles centred around Samhain on one clawed hand. The most well known game to take its inspiration from the pagan Feast of the Dead is undoubtedly Double Fine Production's Costume Quest. This sugary-sweet, turn-based RPG may not have been the deepest role-player to ever be released, but it was brimming with charm, perfectly capturing the fun and the fear of Halloween night. 

I've always thought the series would lend itself well to the world of animation, and it seems I wasn't alone. Frederator, the studio behind Adventure Time, has just let it slip that they are hard at work on a Costume Quest cartoon. Recording sessions for the show have just begun, and artist Zac Gorman (who actually lent his scribbling skills to the second Costume Quest game) is handling character designs. 

Whether or not the series will be entirely Halloween-themed remains to be seen, but as soon as the good folk over at Frederator spill the beans we'll be here to fill you in. 

True Detective season 2 gets a new trailer

Veni, vidi, Vinci

There's been a steady trickle of teasers for the second season of True Detective, but this latest trailer from HBO gives us a much better idea of what to expect from this hotly anticipated crime drama when it lands late next month. 

Unlike the first series, which was a backwoods genre-bender that featured trippy detours into the world of weird fiction, series 2 of True Detective is playing the corruption game, placing its focus squarely on callous copper Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) and Vince Vaughn's Frank Semyon, an entrepreneur whose business dealings, we suspect, may not fall entirely within the bounds of the law.

Rounding out the cast is Rachel McAdams, seen in the trailer getting all stab-happy with a block of wood, as disillusioned Ventura County sheriff Ani Bezzerides , and Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), a former solider turned highway patrol man.

It is Woodrugh who gets the ball rolling, stumbling across a major crime scene and cracking open a case that brings various parties from both sides of the law down on the Californian city of Vinci.

Although it's too early to tell if the second series of True Detective will throw as many curve balls as the first, this trailer gives us faith that the grimy, unflinching tone that made Cohle and Hart's trawl through the underbelly of Americana so memorable, has made the transition to the big city intact. We'll find out for sure when the series hits the small screen on June 21.

Anne Hathaway to star in ambitious kaiju flick Colossal

New movie Colossal gives whole new meaning to the term 'lizard-brain'

What do you get if you mix Godzilla and Lost in Translation together? No, not a film in which a giant Bill Murray tussles with the King of the Monsters for the honour of starring in a Japanese whisky commercial, but the latest movie from Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo.

The movie, described by Vigalondo as his most ambitious and personal script to date, centres on Gloria (set to be played by Anne Hathaway), who decides to put New York city in her rear view mirror and return to her hometown after losing both her job and her fiancé. If that wasn't enough, Gloria also begins to suspect she may have a psychic connection to a giant monster lizard that is reducing Tokyo to rubble.

Instead of seeing a psychiatrist, Gloria decides that it is up to her to stop the monster's rampage, embarking on a journey to the Far East that she hopes will shed some light on her connection to this massive, cataclysmic event. It's certainly an attention-grabbing idea, and we're curious to see how Vigalondo balances Gloria's tale of anguish and self-discovery with scenes of monster-fuelled destruction.

Of course, this will all sound familiar to fans of Godzilla's heisei-era film outings, which also featured a psychic female character called Miki Saegusa, who shared a telepathic connection with the Big G. Still, more kaiju movies are always a good thing, and with new Godzilla films from Toho and Legendary in the pipeline, as well as Gamera's upcoming anniversary film, there's never been a better time to be a giant monster movie fan.

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt review round-up

RPG revolution or monster flop - witch is it?

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red clearly has a lot of faith in their new open world role-playing game, opting to lift the review embargo for Geralt's latest adventure a week before release. This kind of behaviour used to be the norm back when games were released on little plastic carts and the pixel was still king, but is increasingly rare in the digital day and age.

If the early reviews spilling on to the web are any indication, though, that faith has been well rewarded, as it looks like The Wild Hunt is on track to become one of the highest-rated games of the current console generation.

Gamespot's Kevin VanOrd gave the game a perfect score, calling it "one of the best role-playing games ever crafted, a titan among giants and the standard-setter for all such games going forward. "

He wasn't the only one to award The Witcher 3 full marks. The Telegraph, Eurogamer's Polish branch, Impulsegamer, AusGamers, and movie mag Empire also found the game worthy of the title, praising the RPG for its personal, epic story, thoughtful game design and "unrelentingly beautiful world."

Out of the 26 reviews posted to review aggregate site Metacritic so far, only five have given the game less than a 9 out of 10. The most critical review comes from the folks over at Gamesradar who took issue with what they called "sloppy combat" and ongoing optimisation issues. Despite these grumbles, they still saw fit to award the game a more-than-respectable score of 4 stars out of 5. 

It is worth keeping in mind, however, that all these reviews are from the PS4 version of the game, so if you're a PC or Xbox owner it might be worth holding off for more detailed impressions from those versions of the game, especially if you're worried about any technical or performance issues they may or may not have.

Still, technical differences notwithstanding, the actual content of the game will be identical across all platforms, and, by the sounds of it, that content has enough richness, depth and variety to appeal to any gamer starved for a decent current-gen RPG. Our own review is on the way, but considering the sheer size and scale of the game, it might be a while before we render our verdict.

Thirsty Castlevania fans propel Koji Igarishi's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Knight project to Kickstarter success

"Well met, my son! It's been a long time."

If you needed any proof that gamers have been desperately clamouring for a new Castlevania in the vein of 2D classics such as Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia, look no further than the Kickstarter page for Koji Igarashi's new project Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The project blew past its $500,000 funding goal mere hours after going live and, at time of writing, is sitting on a pile of pledges worth a whopping $1,241,209.

A spiritual successor to the sprite-based Castlevania games of yore, Bloodstained will be a sprawling, exploration heavy action game with a smattering of RPG and crafting elements. As yet, no actual in-game footage has been shown, but there are a few pieces of concept art on the game's Kickstarter page that give backers a taste of what to expect. Unlike the artwork, the finished game will not be 2D, opting instead for a 2.5D aesthetic similar to recent retro remakes like Strider and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. 

The game's storyline revolves around Miriam, a woman labouring under a curse that is slowly turning the blood in her veins to crystal. Seeking a cure for her affliction, Miriam journeys into a creature-filled castle that might just hold the key to her salvation. If you don't fancy braving the perils of the castle alone, you're in luck, as Bloodstained allows players to explore with a buddy by their side in co-op mode. If teamwork isn't their thing, players can also test their skills against one another in PvP.

All of the game's current stretch goals, which include a hardcover artbook, access to a second playable monster-slayer, Nightmare difficulty mode, cheat codes, local co-op, and voice acting by David 'Guyver: Dark Hero' Hayter, have been funded. Inti Creates, the studio behind the Mega Man Zero games, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and fellow Kickstarter project Mighty No. 9 , is handling development duties while Skullgirls and Super Smash Bros. composer Michiru Yamane will be responsible for the game's soundtrack. 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Understandably, Wii U owners are a little upset at being left out in the cold, but if the following quote from producer Iga is to be believed, there's still hope: "Our budget left us with two options: Build the biggest, most beautiful game we can, or make sure it runs everywhere from the start. As things stand today, we can't afford to create the two separate versions of this game that would be necessary to make it run on every console. That said, we've heard legends about a remarkable treasure hidden in the castle basement..."

Seeing as all of its stretch goals have been funded, all that's left to do now is wait for the game's Kickstarter page to get updated so we can find out just exactly what the basement holds. As soon as we find out, we'll update this page. 

Better late than never: Sunset Overdrive

Pretty vacant

Sunset Overdrive is a game that takes traversal -that simple act of making one's way from point A to B- and turns it into a balletic, frenetic roller-coaster ride. Insomniac Games, best known for their Ratchet and Clanks series) has created a Frankenstein's monster of a video game, sewing together Tony Hawk's gameplay, Jet Set Radio's primary-coloured cool, and a smidgen of Dead Rising's off-the-cuff mayhem, to create a sugary shooter-cum-open world game that is great fun - in small doses.

With a narrative aimed squarely at the slacker generation, Sunset Overdrive casts you in the role of a dysfunctional do-nothing whose life gets turned upside when a new energy drink, the titular Overdrive, turns the population of Sunset City into slavering monsters. With this dayglo apocalypse underway, our hero decides to take matters into their own hands and escape Sunset City by grinding, shooting and bouncing their way to freedom.

The focus in Sunset Overdrive is on having fun, and as such the game's storyline is played largely for laughs. Sure, you're surrounded by bombed out cars, broken bodies and legions of deadly monsters, but the aesthetic is more Saturday morning cartoon that dead-serious dystopia. The whole thing looks like a thrash metal album cover come to life, the kind of game Municipal Waste would make with a few million dollars and an army of coders at their disposal. As far as settings go, it is a refreshing change of pace, one that immediately begs to explored.

Sadly, it quickly becomes apparent that there isn't all that much to see in Sunset City; despite the game's strong visual identity it feels indistinct, one district looks much like any other and, as a result, exploration feels unrewarding. For most open world games such a transgression would sour the experience completely, but here it feels like less of an issue, especially as world is intended to feel more like one giant, interconnected skate park than a place where normal human beings would actually live.

In this respect, Insomniac have done a commendable job, littering Sunset City's concrete canyons with a mind boggling number of bouncy objects for players to fling themselves from and rails to grind upon. The team have taken great pains to ensure that players never have to touch the ground if they don't want to, and zipping from one end of the city in an unbroken chain of superhuman jumps, grinds and air-dashes without ever touching terra firma is an unalloyed pleasure.

The controls strike a perfect middle-ground between floatiness and precision; forgiving enough for casual gamers to get to grips with, but with enough depth and scope for experimentation to keep hardcore gamers coming back for more. It's a shame then, that this creativity doesn't extend to the game's generous smattering of story missions, which feel disappointingly generic in comparison. There are fleeting moments of brilliance - one mission has you weaving through obstacles in pursuit of a runaway train -  but Insomniac lean a little too heavily on missions that involve fetching items back and forth, or killing wave after wave of enemies.

The game's almost complete lack of difficulty doesn't help matters, either, and many of the weapons in your arsenal (as delightfully unhinged and creative as they are) lack impact, which makes the combat feel curiously flat and unsatisfying. A fatal flaw in a game that calls upon players to shoot their way out of almost every situation.

Ultimately, Sunset Overdrive's preponderance for outdated mission design holds it back from true greatness. As fun as the game's traversal mechanics are, they can't quite disguise the fact underneath all that punk rock swagger, Sunset Overdrive is a little too safe and predictable - more Coldplay than Slayer. Taken what is -an acid-washed open world game with a dash high-flying acrobatics on the side- Sunset Overdrive is a fun enough, at times, great, game, just not quite the revolution we were hoping for.

Godzilla hotel in Tokyo finally opens its doors

Room with a kaiju

What's that outside my window? Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a 12-ft high recreation of Godzilla's great scaly bonce.

It is no secret the people of Japan love the Big G, erecting monuments to the King of the Monsters up and down the country, like this one which invaded a park in Tokyo last year.  Not wanting to be outdone, the Hotel Gracery Shinjuku in Tokyo has just thrown open the doors to its Godzilla hotel. Containing six kaiju-themed rooms, it has immediately shot to the top of every Godzilla-fanatic's list of places to visit.

All six rooms come with a view of the lovingly rendered replica, because, clearly, there aren't many people out there who haven't dreamt of drifting off to sleep with Godzilla eye-balling them malevolently through a flimsy pane of glass. If that wasn't enough, £200 a night (£300 on weekends) will get you the full-fat kaiju experience, securing you entry to a room chocked full of Godzilla goodies. There is even a sculpture of  the Big G's foot crashing through the wall. Classy.

The fun doesn't stop there, however, as visitors will also be able to do their necessaries in a cutting-edge Godzilla-themed toilet. Nope, we're not quite sure what this means either, and we're almost too afraid to ask.

What we really want to know is if guest's pillows contain special atomic breath-mints...

Captain America: Civil War gets the cast list to end all cast lists

Civil War Machine

Captain America; Civil War's cast list is jam-packed with big names, looking more like a roll call for the next big Avenger's flick than a solo superhero outing. Cap's third crack at the big screen will focus on a brewing war between our favourite superfriends, who are forced to pick sides after a superpowered disaster fractures the hero community.

In the comics, Tony Stark tussles with the First Avenger over the Superhero Registration Act, a piece of legislation that forces superheroes to unveil their true identities and put their powers to use for the good ol' American government. This puts the Captain firmly at odds with the country he calls home, which is, after all, denying his cape wearing cousins the liberty and freedom he has spent spent decades trying to uphold.

From what we can glean, the film version of Civil War will make some sweeping changes to the comic book storyline; whereas on the page the battle was an ideological one, the film will introduce a more traditional villain, one who is presumably using the Superhero Registration act to pit Cap and Iron Man against each other and push their own evil agenda.

As expected, the cast list is huge, including a staggering collection of MCU vets. So far, Chris Evans (Captain America), Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Paul Bettany (The Vision), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) Don Cheadle (War Machine), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter), Daniel Brühl (Baron Zemo), Frank Grillo (Crossbones), William Hurt (General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross), and Martin Freeman in an as-yet-unknown role, have all been confirmed to appear. 

Juggling a cast this extensive will be a herculean task, but Marvel clearly has faith in the film's directorial duo, the Russo Bros., as the comic giant has already confirmed the pair will be at the helm of next big Avenger's flick, Infinity War. We're more interested in how much this is going to cost Marvel; surely, assembling a cast list this star-spangled is going to cost a bob or two. Still, it's not like they cant afford it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest grossing film franchise of all-time, after all. 

Latest Godzilla: The Game trailer is a real monster mash

Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Godzilla: The Game is shaping up to be a Kaiju fanatic's dream, especially if this latest trailer, which shows off the game's dizzying roster of city-stomping giant beasties, is anything to go by. 

During his film career, Godzilla has tangled with a huge number of rubbery rivals, many of whom have been given a polygonal makeover and squeezed into Godzilla: The Game. Players will be able to get to grips with a cast of playable Kaiju that include: King Ghidorah, Gigan, Mechagodzilla (in classic and Kiryu flavours) Hedorah, Biollante, Jet Jaguar, Destoroyah, Space Godzilla, Mecha King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Gareth Edwards' Godzilla 2014.

Although the game is a single-player affair, a two-player online mode lets a friend join in one the city-smashing action, allowing you and a buddy to recreate iconic scenes from the Big G's back catalogue.

Godzilla: The Game is currently scheduled for a summer release on PS3 and PS4 in Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Advance reviews from importers claim the game is a bit of a mixed bag, but as die-hard fans of ol' atomic breath we're still itching to get our scaly paws on the finished article. Hopefully, the PS4 version includes enough tweaks, updates and content to make it worth our while. 

Book review: Prince of Fools (Red Queen's War, Book 1)

Former (possibly mad) scientist Mark Lawrence first came to the world's attention with his Broken Empire trilogy, an insalubrious fantasy series (with a sliver of sci-fi) which explored the less-than-heroic exploits of Prince Jorg Ancrath. What set Lawrence's novels apart form the reams of dark and gritty low-fantasy lining the shelves (apart from his exquisitely wrought prose) was just how amoral his leading man was. Sure, you can't throw a wizard's staff these days without hitting an anti-hero, but Jorg was different, there was a venom in his veins and a darkness upon his soul that spoke of true villainy.

It's a trick Lawrence repeats in his latest outing, Prince of Fools, which puts us once more in the shoes of another less-than-savoury leading man. This time round, it is the vainglorious, puffed-up princeling Jalan Andreth. Unlike Jorg, who set his slippery sights on conquering the entire Broken Empire, Jalan is cozened coward whose ambition extends only to the conquering of high-born ladies' bedchambers. Refreshingly, Jalan doesn't rue his lack of bravery or skill - he revels in it. This is a man that is comfortable in his own skin, stained with sin and debauch though it may be.

Of course, we wouldn't have much of a novel if all Jal did was wench and gamble his way through the book's 500-odd pages, which is where Snorri ver Snagason comes in. Perhaps the most wholesome character Lawrence has ever written, Snorri is everything Jalan isn't: guileless, brave, optimistic and heartfelt. On a quest to rescue his family from a traitorous warlord named Broke Oar, the Viking's fate becomes entangled with Jalan's after a magic spell turns their world upside down. Snared by this enchantment, the two are unable to get too far away from one another, and Snorri - being the bigger, meaner and braver of the two - forces Jalan to become an unwilling ally on his quest for vengeance.

A lot of your enjoyment of Prince of Fools, like the Broken Empire trilogy before it, will depend on whether or not you can stomach the book's main character, Jalan. The Prince of the Red Marches is a complex creation, one that eschews a lot of tired fantasy tropes; he is waspish, cowardly, vain and selfish, interested only in saving his own skin and seeing ladyfolk in nothing but theirs. Luckily, Lawrence colours Jalan's character with just enough wit and warmth to keep him from becoming completely unlikeable, and he never quite plumbs the same depths of depravity Jorg Ancrath wallowed in. The author does, however, like to beat readers over the head with tales of Jalan's amorous exploits, something that does begin to wear thin quite quickly.

This is symptomatic of  a larger problem with the book; namely, its almost complete lack of strong female characters. Sure, the Red Queen and her Silent Sister loom large in the book's opening chapters, but they quickly fall by the wayside, replaced by a faceless parade of females whose only purpose is to be pawed over by our protagonist. We are in no way accusing Lawrence of sexism - he has already shown a knack for writing strong female characters in his Broken Empire books - but we do hope the next book in the Fools series addresses this to some degree.

Plot-wise, this is a novel that fairly rattles along, with a rare sense of pace and an almost swashbuckling sense of adventure. Lawrence is deft at balancing bloody, breathless action sequences with quieter, more character driven moments, and his searing wit gives the book a subversive, almost satirical, air. There is little in the way of politics, and he wisely avoid ramming reams of exposition down readers throats; this is definitely a book for those who like their fantasy to be a bit more down and dirty than majestic and operatic. If we had to nit-pick, a little bit more world-building wouldn't have gone amiss, and the threat facing our heroes from the Dead King feels a little too vague to be truly threatening, but, on the whole, this is strong entry in a series we can't wait to explore further.

Mayor in Turkey comes under fire after erecting massive 'Transformer' monument

Mobile Sued Gundam

Proving once again that life is stranger than fiction, the Mayor of Ankara in Turkey is being taken to court over his bizarre ( but also kind of awesome) decision to use public funds to build a statue of a giant robot.

Unfortunately for him, Turkey's Chamber of Architects and Engineers did not share his taste for all things mecha, and are now suing Mayor Melih Gökçek for his misappropriation of public funds.

According to The Independent, bemused onlookers thought the statue was part of a practical joke, but their laughter quickly turned to tears when it was revealed the statue would be a permanent installation, one that they were unwittingly paying for.

Many reports are saying the statue is modelled after a Transformer, but as any mecha fan worth their salt can tell you, this six foot "monstrosity" looks more like a Zaku from Mobile Suit Gundam than a robot in disguise. 

Despite the outpouring of hatred from his constituents, Gökçek stands by his decision, saying: "Respect the Robot."