The Last Witch Hunter

Robert Murphy

Fantasy movies are a tricky beast to maneuver around because so many directors just assume you can throw some monsters at the screen and have an epic hero come in and save the day to make the whole thing work. The movies are not taken too seriously most of the time, despite the growing popularity of science fiction, but what is clear is the care that went into the latest fantasy film to garner my attention The Last Witch Hunter.

Now despite following many of the fantasy tropes I just laid out Kaulder (Vin Diesel) is still a charming superhuman style character that graces the movie viewer. He is the last of the original Axe and Cross witch hunting members, cursed with eternal life after he and the rest of his party put an end to the Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht) centuries ago. Now he has spent the years continuing his efforts to prevent any new threats of witches uprising and trying to conquer the world, protecting humanity for all this time and doing with a half cocked smile across his face. Diesel is exactly the type of character you want at the forefront of this style of film as he helps suspend some of the disbelief that viewers have going into it. It is exactly the same thing you want when you're making an action movie, there are unbelievable car chases, explosions and female encounters that would make your eyes role but with a strong lead behind it you just don't care and that's exactly what Diesel does here. 

This isn't to say that the action or the special effects that went into The Last Witch Hunter aren't top notch. Being an obvious fantasy dork means that I love when a movie finds a new way to bring out something I have seen before and believe me I have seen plenty of witch stories before this one. In a modern age however they blend in a more unique way, modern witches can practice magic and are regulated by Kaulder as well as the Axe and Cross to keep them from harming humans. This means that they use magic for things like making mind altering cupcakes or running hookah bars like our female protagonist Chloe (Rose Leslie). She and Kaulder share a bit of a romance throughout the film that is thankfully not overdone, they like each other and everyone knows it so let's leave it at that basically. This style of self explanation transfers over to the magical elements of the story, Kaulder explains a few minor details but everything is presented in a manor in which the audience figures it out quickly on there own so the movie doesn't have to.   

It also helps that Kaulder has been a round the blocks a few times though, actually more than a few as one his lines in the movie indicates just how old he is by calling his Dolan Ellic (Michael Caine), watcher and keeper of Kaulder's exploits, a kid or going off about being around when the first block of the Axe and Cross's hideout was laid. This leads him to be extraordinarily cocky when it comes to life and dealing with witches because nothing can really challenge him. The story will eventually point out though that he has more than a couple weaknesses to exploit as powerful witches plot to bring back their queen. But, until you get to see her again you are left with her lesser underlings which don't fill the time between the queens second coming. 

The man pulling the strings, Belilal (Olafur Darri Olafsson) has some impressive magic at his disposal but his motives remained unclear for the entirety of the story, he showed up to smack Kaulder around and stop him from interrupting his plans and that was it. It's capped off by the fact that he is ultimately dealt with in a simple manner and makes you question why Kaulder couldn't defeat him in the first place. From here the rest of the story gets exceedingly rushed over as it makes it's way to the finish line by pumping out some quick action and adding a weak twist right before the movie ends. It's at this point that you start to realize that the narrative runs a bit too thin when everything is all on the line and this includes adding dialogue that suggest a possible sequel to the story. But, despite this the majority of The Last Witch Hunter's story remains grounded on what it sets out to do and accomplishes it quite well. 

Like so many other fantasy tales The Last Witch Hunter should count it's blessings and be considered just what the title implies "the last." Vin Diesel is set perfectly in his role as a swarthy former viking, living his life as an immortal witch hunter, and he even gets a happy ending out of the deal. The magic and special effects are also brought out in a new and interesting way that is touched on ever so lightly and doesn't not need lengthy exposition to fill in the details. This works well for most relationships the story offers up to Kaulder as well with Michael Caine and Rose Leslie playing well with Kaulder's charms. So, even if it is a tale with a similar tune to others you've seen, it is still one you will enjoyed listening to even now.

Good:

- Vin Diesel as Kaulder

- Secondary character such as Caine and Leslie

- Magic is presented in a unique and simple way

Bad:

- Flat villain for a majority of the film

- Story runs on empty at the very end

Scully Rating: 6.8 out of 10

The Irregular at Magic High School

By: Robert Murphy

Hey guys, let's grab our wands and head back to Hogwarts for another exciting year of magic and mischief. Wait, sorry there are no wands here, no in fact in the world of The Irregular at Magic High School, magic and technology have merged into one concept and is studied and practice all throughout the world. But, things are not the same in the futuristic world that we are placed in, all the nations that exist today are chopped up in various different ways after a long lasting war took place and magicians were on the front lines fighting one another. Things now are a bit more settled but nations still wage wars with one another and the ones with the strongest magicians usually win, hence the grooming and nurturing of young up in coming magicians at the various schools throughout the world. Our story takes place at First High School and we follow Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba, brother and sister, who have just joined the school. The two and the entire student body at First High School will prove to be much more than regular students however as you quickly learn that magic and magicians have serious responsibilities and problems, even at such young ages.   

As I said earlier, magic is not so mystical anymore and has become more of a science in this day and age. Devices such as CAD's and other tools have been developed so people can "cast spells" and use magic for various things but it is most prominently been used in a military capacity, even with major wars now on a stand still. Having powerful magicians in your nation means a lot and keeps others from getting to uppity with you and attacking you to gain your secrets. What is the most peculiar part though is how often attempts to gain secrets happen at First High School, it is a very prestigious school and is top of the line in researchers and engineers but it is just a school. Well, from the first minute you hear the Student Council speak you will understand that some of these kids come from important families and take to their duties with great diligence. The youth here really are not just a bunch of kids learning but they're serious and are being trained for their futures. The whole situation is quite interesting, even outside of Tatsuya and Miyuki, you can see the students all have their roles to play or some skills to them and it becomes an engaging experience. 

Tatsuya and Miyuki themselves have a past that is mostly shrouded in mystery, parts of which proved to frustrate me every now and again but as I slowly learned more it got easier to deal with. Tatsuya is a cold and calculating type, I could tell that he has something going on about him but not knowing what was a struggle for me, even by the end of the show you don't get a clear cut reason to why he acts the way he does. He and his sister also have an odd sort of relationship that every one around them picks up on, nothing ever develops on it but it will give you chills in those moments where it comes close. 

What makes their dynamic better though is the people that surround the two of them, Tatsuya is incredibly cool when he is action and that's his strong suit, fighting and using his great mind for his friends and people who need him, even though he didn't set out to make any in the first place. The two of them have friends who are all great characters, Erika Chiba and Leonhard (Leo) Saijo are two of my personal favorites. Erika is a mischievous and red headed devil of a girl who is always making insinuations about someone or somebody and getting herself into trouble. Normally this type of character is a problem for me but she is spunky and so impossible not to love. Leo is a strong and knuckle headed type of character who almost feels at home with Tatsuya as the guy who knows his friend is a little off but he is too. 

The diaolgue about magic and magic skills is something that is constantly going on in The Irregular at Magic High School. When something new comes into the picture such as someone using their signature spell or their families skills that they themselves have honed for generations, you get introduced to a lot of information. It may be a bit jarring to some but I personally liked the aspect for the show, some of the magic used is quite incredible when it is used especially in the fight scenes and Tatsuya usually is up to the task of giving you the rundown on how it works. More than anything though I enjoyed the technology as well as the magic itself is what impressed me the most out of it all. The show introduces you to a rich background of information on things and how they're used, flying magic, disintegration spells and ancient magic, there is just so much to get wrapped up in with this show. 

The Irregular at Magic High School tells a fantastic story with three different arcs to it. I would have enjoyed learning more about Tatsuya's past by the end of the show as there is clearly a lot of back story to go along with why he is the person he is during the show. This aside, he is still an impressive main character in my mind, his cool and calculating manor is something I love in main characters (i.e. LeLouche Lamperouge from Code Geass). The futuristic Japan that the show is set in is also great, CAD's and magic and the way that is viewed in this world is all very enjoyable to watch and get wrapped up in. If you can get around the odd brother and sister moments that the show has then I can't see anyone not enjoying The Irregular at Magic High School. 

Good:

- Tatsuya is a calculating and hard hitting main character that I loved

- The futuristic world of magic and technology is all around entertaining

- Tatsuya's friends all have unique skills and add to the shows appeal

Bad:

- Some mysterys still aren't revealed about Tatsuya and Miyuki's past that needed to be told

- The odd brother and sister relationship between Tatsuya and Miyuki raises some eyebrows

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10 

Magicka

 By: Robert Murphy

Hey everybody, while searching through the Steam online store the other day I was introduced to a fun little game called Magicka. It is a role play style game where you play an already aspired magician in his/hers kingdom but now is needed to defend the land from creatures attacking everyone. Players have a mastery of a number of different elemental magic such water, fire, lighting and earth but casting these basic spells is only half the fun. Magicka allows players to combine and chain magic in a vast number of different ways leaving you to do guess work in creating powerful moves and abilities that explode enemies all over the walls.

Much of what makes the game so fun is the mountain of experimentation that comes along with the spell casting and it’s really quite easy to chain and use different abilities too. Each element is assigned to a key such as (F) is Fire and (Q) is Water and you can chain the same or different elements up to five and obviously having the same element queued will be a stronger attack but its more fun to try chaining different elements rather than just one. Once you have your spells queued up you can choose whether or not to self cast, area cast or forward cast your spell and they’re all pretty self explanatory on what they do. Self cast allows you to cast the ability on yourself such as to heal yourself, Area cast is best used if you’re surrounded or if you want to do a cause an area of damage around you and then Forward cast sends your attack forward in the direction you’re facing which is probably best on just one or two enemies. It will take some getting use to like any game with different controls but once you start playing you’ll be throwing ice spikes and causing lighting storms in no time.

Now moving on to the campaign which consists of traveling through chapters and fighting through a variety of different monsters and creatures by yourself or with your friends but this is about it. The story really isn’t much of anything to write home about but there is a high level of nerdy dialogue from things like Star Wars, Star Trek and more which I thought was a funny little perk to the game. But these funny moments are often broken and fractured with frame rate issues, I cant tell you how many times a conversation would end but id be stuck on the screen while an A.I.’s lips stopped moving. This wasn’t the only problem though, enemies sometimes had the nasty habit of getting stuck in the environments or you yourself might glitch into them as well. If you could get through a long enough session without any problems it would be a miracle and would have made Magicka so much better.

The game does come with an online experience for you to try out for the story mode and an arena mode where you can fight and test your skill and power of the spells you learned, if you can get into a match that is. Unfortunately online suffers from more issues than the regular game does with issue in finding and getting into matches and monstrous levels of lag to contend with as well. Another issue is communication in the game which is almost impossible especially seeing as friendly fire is on and you can easily end up killing a teammate. Bottom line is that it’s probably best to avoid online for the game all together.

 Magicka was an extremely fun concept and when I didn’t have any problems to deal with while I was playing it proved to be very enjoyable. It takes some time for you to get the scheme of things when you’re playing because the game involves some reflex work and maneuvering while you fight against harder and harder enemies and bosses. Also the vast experimentation of using your magic and combining to make even more powerful ones is very enjoyable to do. The game though needs a lot of patch work if it wants any hope of improvement and not causing players to get fed up with the issue that can come up while you play. It’s also horribly maddening and fun in the best way to get your friends together (on a local grouping obviously) and see the pure chaos of lighting bolts and aura shots flying all over the place.

Good:

- A fun magic casting system

- A vast array of ways to cast magic and magic spells to figure out and unleash

- Fun cartoony world that fits the nerdy humor and maddening game play

- If you can get your friends in on the action you’ll be sure to have a great time

Bad:

- Needs some more patch work to fix its issues

- Online is broken and is best to be avoided

- Forgettable campaign

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10 

Fallen Enchantress

Zach Goodier

Fallen Enchantress is a PC strategy empire builder RPG that puts the play in control of a faction.  You must then settle your initial city, building outposts and trying to control resources on the map in order to secure yourself while conducting research, training troops, and sending your heroes on quests to acquire items and gain experience to level up.  These heroes can also be used to lead your armies or form adventure parties to clear the map of hostile creatures or rival empires. 

I do love the pride in building a successful civilization.

Gameplay is turn-based, with a map view that contains all of your empire/unit management interfaces.  There are local maps that appear when armies engage in combat, with initiative determining what units move in what turn.  This further adds some RPG elements to the game, and heroes can become very dangerous when they level up.  While playing, I enjoyed taking on larger armies, and still winning just because I had a hero or two mixed in, which really made a difference in combat that the calculator won’t give you in the estimates or auto-resolve, so fighting your own battles can be very rewarding if done right.

Customizing your heroes with looted gear has a very strong, yet traditional RPG feel to it.

The story is fairly flimsy, with each leader (which you can make on your own, if the presets don’t appeal to you) taking command of a race, and then seeking to become dominant in whatever area you wish, whether you research, trade, or conquer (I prefer the last one).  You can set up the win conditions as you see fit when you start a game, if you only want to play one type of campaign.  Maps include presets or randomly-generated maps, each with different regions with various characteristics and native monsters, whether they include bears, giant spiders, or various, much more lethal foes.  You can even take control of certain beasts if you are lucky/resourceful enough, which adds a new element of strategy when approaching enemies, and can really tip the scales if done right.  This game is about the struggle to dominate, and you are more or less free to choose the means.

Battles will start out small, but grow into big encounters as the stakes are raised.

While the foundation of this game feels solid, neither the graphics nor the gameplay feels all as polished as it could have been.  Character customization is nice when making a leader, but it lacks the depth and variation that the option implies.  You have some variety, but not much.  You can select gear and such for training units to truly make the armies feel your own, but they also lack the variety and depth beyond simple upgrades.  It would have been neat to see more options geared towards unit specialization and the like.  You can find and recruit randomly spawning heroes, and they do add some neat mechanics towards army management and questing, but they never feel like more than just a different type of unit, aside from the ability to gain traits as they level. 

Maps aren't really all that huge for a game of this genre, but random generation keeps the replay value somewhat high if you enjoy the game.

Overall, this is a game that entertains, but doesn’t really impress.  I found myself coming back, but not because the game itself was that impressive, just because I didn’t have anything else I felt like doing at the time.  So in that sense, it does a decent job of helping keep you entertained, but it certainly lacks the depth and polish that you find in other strategy games, and it doesn’t delve as deep into role-playing as other RPG games.  It ends up feeling like an interesting attempt to meld the two, which might have been more successful with more time and polish, as well as some variety and originality in how both the strategy and RPG elements were implemented in this game.  Fallen Enchantress is an interesting game at first glance, but starts to lose its sense of intrigue and wonder as you delve further into its world.

Good:

-Nice combination of Strategy and RPG elements, melding empire management and strategy with questing.

-Randomly-generated maps make replay value relatively high.

Bad:

-Attempts at variety are shallow in both character and unit customization.

-Doesn’t really do much with the strategy/RPG combo to really make it feel at home in this game.

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Strike the Blood

Zach Goodier

Strike the Blood is a show much like what we’ve seen before in the supernatural genre in anime.  Supernatural creatures inhabit a man-made island in the center of the Pacific after revealing their existence to the world.  Akatusuki Kojo is a seemingly normal guy attending high school, except for the fact that he’s a vampire, and the “Fourth Progenitor” none the less (The most powerful vampire in existence).  Fearful of what it might mean to have this dangerously powerful vampire running free, Yukina Himeragi is sent to observe Kojo, and deal with him if necessary.  This supernatural action show jumps right into it with action, magic, and some good old fashioned fan-service for the 13 episodes I’ve seen thus far.

These are the main characters in the first mini-arc, others are introduced as the series progresses.

For starters, Akatusuki is a cool, laid back dude for the most part, he has a sister that he lives with, and they both attend school.  This really helps anchor the feeling that despite all of the magic, vampires, demons, and what-not, the world really hasn’t changed all the much.  The city looks just like any other city at first glance, but on closer look a lot of the city is driven by magic of some kind.  It’s an interesting setting, and it all makes sense for the characters to be there.

Floating city? Sounds like a home just waiting to sink.

Yukina, while fairly well performed and portrayed in the story, serves as the generic fan-service device in the show, with her skirt being blown up in a gust of wind almost right after we meet her.  The rest of the show has a similar feeling, with her school uniform only being shed for either partial nudity or other showy outfits.  This can be a little overdone, at times, but there is still some substance to her character, just not much beyond what you’d expect from a typical show of this genre.  She tends to be overly aggressive towards Kojo whenever he winds up in a suggestive/indecent situation, even if it wasn't his fault.  While this provides some comic relief, the dead horse is beaten just about every episode, so it does get old eventually.

Sights like this are common.  While I don't mind it, it just feels like a one-note song after a while, as fan-service usually does.

A real hook for me was the story surrounding the “Fourth Progenitor.”  This, at first, is a mysterious, ominous-sounding title that hints at some dark power.  The reality, at least thus far, hasn’t been scary in the sense of it feeling dark, but Kojo’s power is very real, he just has no means of controlling it.  The fan-service kicks back into full-swing by requiring Kojo to drink blood from different girls to awaken his powers.  This just reeks of lame-fan-service, but you can roll with it, I guess.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of the story surrounding what happened to Kojo, as it has been hinted that there was a tragic event, but details are still sketchy.

Familiars and magic provide a lot of exciting action, and show off some great animation on the part of the studio.

Other characters include Asagi Aiba, Motoki Yaze, Nagisa Akatsuki, Sayaka Kirasaka, who are more important as the series moves forward, and many of them help Kojo to awaken his familiars, the agents he summons that embody his power.  While there are several magical races, each with different abilities, much of it has been done before, but there are a few interesting surprises to be enjoyed if you stick with it.

Regulus Arm, one of Kojo's familiars.  I just called him the "Energizer Lion" until I remembered his name.

So far, this show is a decent watch.  It hasn’t really broken any new ground, but then again, coming off of Future Diary would make just about anything look mediocre.  However, this is definitely a solid series.  The concept feels a little like Dance in a Vampire Bund, but the characters don’t look or feel pre-adolescent.  In all, I would recommend at least giving this show a shot, the series is well-animated, with a feeling of fast-paced, intense action when fights erupt, and the fan-service can be considered a decent little bonus, even if it somewhat cheapens the experience, in a way.

Good:

-Interesting, mysterious male lead.

-Cool premise, with magic, familiars, and lots of action.

-Bit of mystery to carry the plot forward.

-Sweet music.

Bad:

-Fan-service, as it usually does, cheapens the experience.

-Doesn't really break any new ground in the genre in terms of concept or story.

Scully Rating: 8 out of 10