Conan (2007) - Fantasy Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

Recently I got Conan for the 360, it only cost me £5 so my review is tainted by this fact. Conan is a 3D brawler with slight platforming sections, obviously based on Conan the Barbarian. Think God of War or Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

The story starts with Conan at an ancient ruin treasure hunting. After fighting past ghosts he gets to the central chamber and to his reward. Instead of gold though he accidentally unleashes a powerful sorcerer who had been imprisoned there. Waking up several days later on a beach he finds all his armour has been stolen, and no clue as to how he got there. He soon teams up with a woman called A'Fanna. She tells him a black plague is sweeping the lands, infecting everyone and turning them into mindless psychotics. He discovers his missing armour is the cause of this spread, and that it has been cursed by the Sorcerer he mistakenly freed. Conan must acquire all the missing armour, and then hunt down the Sorcerer to end the misery.

The Conan books are fantastic works of fantasy. The world of Conan is faithfully recreated here. The locations all take place near the coast, as at the end of each level you sail to the next location on A'Fanna's boat. There are a variety of locations though. Primitive tribal villages, towns, temples, forts are all fought through. Many of the races and locations of Conan's world are mentioned, and Conan himself stays mainly faithful to the character of the book.

There are many different enemies in the game. Mostly these boil down into three different types - weak enemies (who Conan is instantly able to throw around) medium enemies who Conan must stun before being able to do more powerful attacks on, and strong enemies who have unblockable attacks and cannot be thrown. Conan has many many moves, hundreds it seems. Enemies release experience orbs which can be used to purchase new moves from a seemingly never ending list. These include special grappling moves such as tombstones (which pop the poor victims head) as well as instant kill moves such as lopping off an enemies head, or cleaving them in two. Conan can pick up most dead enemies weapons, being able to hold up to two at a time.

Conan also has access to magic. In the books Conan hated magic, and it seems blasphemy that he would use magic. In the game the reason is that his re-acquired armour is now infused with magic. I think this lets the no magic rule off as despite being magical the armour is his, and I think he would be stubborn enough to keep the armour despite it now being magical. There are four types of magic Conan can use each using up more magic. He can turn enemies to stone, rain down a meteor shower on enemies, unleash a horde of hellish crows, and create a mini black hole to swallow up enemies.

The bosses are the games highlight. Each is a joy to fight as they are so different and exciting. There is a mix of human and monster bosses. One boss will see you fighting a snake sorceress at the top of a temple, while another will see you in a running battle against a sand dragon in the ruins of a long dead civilisation; fun to do. The game is also quite gory, as well as plenty of blood, there is more impressive violence such as when you cleave an enemy in half there intestines billow out in slow mo, cool! Dotted throughout the levels are captured women, these are near naked and topless, sure it is sexist but in keeping with the tone of the books. You get a heap of experience as a reward for freeing these, as you do for finding hidden treasure chests.

I really enjoyed this game, it helps I was actually reading a Conan book at the same time. This is most like Golden Axe: Beast Rider but unlike that this never gets boring, and has great checkpoints dotted all through the levels meaning you never get frustrated at having to replay large chunks of the game.

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The Black Cat - Masters of Horror Episode Review

The Black Cat is directed by the main who directed Re-animator; a HP Lovecraft adaption that I have never seen. The Black Cat story is well known and is faithfully recreated.

The main character of this piece is Edgar Allen Poe, he is suffering awful writers block, and his beautiful young wife is slowly being killed by a disease; the white plague which he cannot afford to buy medicine for. To top things off his wife's cat; Pluto is doing his head in, he blames his problems on it, and eventually plucks out its eye, then when his wife dies he hangs it. His dead wife miraculously comes back to life, as does the cat which just wont die and seems to have a grudge against Edgar. Finally he takes an axe to it, but misses and accidentally kills his wife. Traumatised, but not wishing to be jailed he bricks up his wife's corpse in the cellar. The Police visit and are just about to leave when a meowing draws them to the bricked up corpse - the cat had been bricked up also and revealed the crime!

A classic story, when of Poe's best. The twist in this one is that it is Poe himself who is living through the tale, though at the end it is revealed to have been a dream, a dream that inspires him to write the tale.

The acting is of a very high standard throughout, especially Jeffery Combs who is fantastic as Poe and bears a close resemblance to the real life Poe. There are some truly gruesome effects used, especially the wife when she has an axe embedded in her face and is flailing around with her face split open trying to remove it. The part when the cat is discovered in the wall is especially well done, as the cats meowing really does sound like a woman's scream and is genuinely creepy when they pull down the wall to find the rotting corpse of the wife with the cat on her head screaming.

The whole episode has a real washed out look to it, nearly black and white, with just flames, and blood being vivid to really stand out. A greatly done adaption of a fantastic story!

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Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution - TV Horror Show Episode Review

The Screwfly Solution is directed by Joe Dante (who directed the Howling, and Gremlins). It stars Jason Priestly and is a bleak tale concerning Armageddon of the human species.

It starts off as isolated incidents around the world, men suddenly and brutally killing females for no apparent reason. This increases until it becomes a pandemic; entire towns being sealed off by the military as the male population turn on the females. Two insect population control scientists realise that someone has released an airborne virus that is sweeping the globe, it only affects human males. When human male gets to a state of arousal a psychotic anger sweeps over them, it seems someone is trying to cause the extinction of the entire world. As the virus spreads further and further and females become near extinct the 2 Scientists must protect one of the scientists wife and daughter, who may well be the last females alive in the world.

After that on to my review. For a hour long episode, and a limited budget the premise is very ambitious. The episode takes place all over the USA to show the spread. Seeing as it was all filmed in the one location this illusion is impressive. There are a lot of actors in this episode (a total of 55 different speaking parts). The story is bleak, and the eventual cause of the virus was expected, but well implemented.
Sexism is a big theme of the episode. Alan and Barney (the two scientists) discuss this in an early scene with an uber feminist. The first females killed are those working in the adult entertainment industry, it discusses Sharia law, and the fact that who ever has unleashed this virus it wouldn't have been militants from the middle east (for a change). Child molestation and incest is also briefly looked at during the episode, so bleak subjects.

There is not that much violence in the episode, most of it is spoken about, and occurs off screen. One scene in a strip club sees a stripper brutally bottled, but nothing graphic is shown. A few CGI deaths later on in the episode look pretty lame.

The episode is well made, but the plot falls apart a bit. A key scene seems to just be missing, a woman heads off to a location, next we see her she is in Hospital injured with no explanation how she got her injuries. The last quarter of the episode drags a little as nothing really happens, and it seems they didn't know how to finish the story as it literally just ends without a real end, it just fades to static and the credits roll.

A woman pretends to be a man to avoid being killed in several scenes of this episode, she looks ridiculous, and her 'man' voice she puts on is hilarious. Still this is less preachy than Dante's last episode (the one criticising the American Government and with the Zombie Soldiers). A bleak episode, but unique, and borders more on sci-fi than horror.

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Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr Ned (2009) - Action Videogame DLC Review (X-Box 360)

The Zombie Island of Dr Ned is the first DLC to be released for the excellent hit FPS/RPG Borderlands. It is set in a brand new area; the Zombie Island of Dr Ned unsurprisingly, and is full of fantastic creatures; zombies!

The DLC is accessed via the area selector. The island looks vastly different to the areas of the main game, being set in a spooky wooded island complete with a mansion, secret labs, graveyards and abandoned factories. The island is the home of one of the big gun manufactures of the Borderlands world. Due to unknown circumstances the workers have all turned into the undead.

The game is very tongue in cheek, the more zany style fits the world well, and is very funny. It is just comfortable in it's wackiness. For instance Dr Ned is the same character model as Dr Zed (of the main game) just with a big comedy moustache, the game makes several references to the fact, pointing out 'no way is that Dr Zed just wearing a false moustache', the health machines have Dr Zed's name. but with the Z covered up with a N. 

The missions are quite cool, but no different to the rest of the fetch quests, this is no bad thing. A very funny mission saw you hunting down the voice recorders of a group of young teens investigating the zombie mystery. It quickly becomes apparent these teens are a pastiche of Scooby Doo, seen most obviously with a broken down bus with 'Mystery Mobile' plastered on it, and the voice recordings are by 'the gang'.

There are lots of new enemy types, as well as the many many zombies there are midget zombies, werewolves, crows, and Frankenstein monsters. 

In terms of quality this is up there with the Fallout 3 DLC, and even beats a lot of that, nearly as good as the swamp DLC for that game. An entertaining pastiche of classic horror which doesn't feel out of place in conjunction with the main game (unlike Operation Anchorage for Fallout 3 for example). For 800 MS points this is essential if you love Borderlands (and pretty much everyone does).


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Resident Evil: Gun Survivor - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (Playstation)

First off, I am writing this from memory as it has been many many years since I played this game as I unwisely sold it. I am constantly looking for it cheap on E-bay, but alas. I do realise when ever I have nothing to write about I seem to always fall back on Resident Evil games, but they are the best zombie videogame series around! (UPDATE: I once again own this game)

Resident Evil: Gun Survivor is a light gun game, and a first person shooter. It was intended for use with the G-Con 45, due to not having a D-pad (unlike the G-Con 45 2) movement was near impossible, so I only ever used a control pad to play it, which makes it into more of a First Person Shooter.

The game starts with you having a fight with a man on a helicopter. It crashes and the man you were fighting lies dead, while you suffer amnesia. The rest of the game sees you avoiding the zombies and monsters of Sheena Island (where the games set) while finding out exactly who you are, and the cause of the monsters on the island. The story is really good, and is the best thing about the game. It rapidly becomes apparent that you yourself may be the cause of the outbreak, and that you may not have been such a good person pre-amnesia. There are several characters who appear throughout the game. These include the SWAT team leader of a group of SWAT Monkeys (!) and 2 young frightened children as well as a few others.

The game is quite short, just over an hour long. Unfortunately there are no save points in the entire game, so it is quite an undertaking to play the game! There are many alternate routes through the game which take you to a wide variety of locations which even feature different enemies and bosses depending on the path you take. Locations include a Prison, a Nightclub, Office blocks, sewers, and a Mr X production factory (full of literally hundreds of Mr X's!). There are 3 major alternate routes through the game which vastly effect your characters antagonist through the game (you never see the antagonist during most the game, so 1 of 3 possible characters will reveal themselves at the games end).

As stated before story is key to this, and the game despite being a spin off from the main series is actually canon (for instance there is a post Resident Evil 3 report from Nikoli). That is about the only reason to play the game. The graphics being a Playstation one first person perspective game looks terrible, dreadful, and very very dated now. The controls are odd as they are quite tank like being designed with the G-Con in mind.

I really can't recommend this to non-fans of Resident Evil, it will offer nothing apart from a cool story, for fans of the lore though it is essential and features all the enemies expected (Tyrants, Zombies, dogs, crows, crocodiles etc).

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Terminator: Salvation - Sci-fi Action Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

This game got pretty slated on it's release last year, mostly on the fact it is just too expensive for what it is. I brought the game for £5, that is why my review is going to be much more lenient on it.

Terminator: Salvation the game is a side story to the film of the same name. It is set before the events of the film. The plot involves John Conner who ignores a direct order from the Resistance to return to base after a botched operation and instead goes rogue, heading off into the depths of LA to rescue a friend of his called David on what is essentially a suicide mission. Along the way others join him, drawn to him by his determination that every human life is worth saving.

The game is a 3rd person shooter with on rail shooting sections mixed in. The enemies you fight include the iconic Terminator, and H-K, as well as new enemies made for the game (such as the main enemy type the Spider, and fast moving flying enemies called Wasps) Also the Harvester giant (featured in the film) makes a guest appearance. Each enemy type needs different tactics to take out, the Spiders for instance are impervious to damage from the front and must be flanked to attack from behind. The enemies in general are super tough with the exception of the Wasps, and for this reason there are not as many enemies as in other games of this type.

There is a cover system similar to Gears of War which is functional but not fantastic. The weapons sound fantastic, and have satisfying weight behind them. The on rail sections occur about 4 or 5 times, and are easy, but really fun, towards the end you get to pilot an enemy vehicle and get the iconic red screen with reams of text scrolling down the side; very cool. The music also is of note, the main Terminator theme tune is mixed into the games score and injects excitement into the levels, also the scary droning music appears when ever Terminators turn up which creates fear of them.

The game is only around 4 or 5 hours long (on hard mode), but it feels like a good length, unlike other short games such as Turning Point. The plot is nothing special, but is quite well done. It is a shame that the cut scenes are full of terrible screen tearing, and the John Conner character doesn't look like the Christian Bale version, but nevermind. Also the achievements are ultra easy to get, without trying I got 1000 points on my first playthrough (I finished the game in one sitting also!)

If you see it at £5 then there really is no reason not to get the game, it is fun, and exciting while it lasts.

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Right to Die - Masters of Horror Review

Another day, another Masters of Horror episode review. Right to Die is Rob Schimdts directed effort. He isn't exactly a Master of Horror having only made Wrong Turn previously.

A Dentist and his wife are travelling on a mountain road when a felled tree causes the car they are in to crash. The Dentist; Cliff Addison (played by Martin Donovan) is unhurt, his wife Abby however is torched, suffering over 90% burns to her body. Cliff is told that unless a total skin graft is done to his wife she will not survive. As it is she is in a coma, and burned to a crisp, covered head to toe in bandages. He decides he will let her die. While at home Cliff is visited by a ghost of his wife who rapidly burns up to become a charred husk. He soon realises that though his wife is in a coma she is able to leave her body. Not a good thing to have a powerful ghost as a wife when your not exactly a fantastic husband...

The effects in this episode are fantastic, especially the charred thing that is Abby, she is covered in red and black goo, and really does look like she is burnt up, every scene she is in is fantastic, she is a really repulsive grim monster. There is a scene in which a character is skinned alive, very gross, and very well done, fantastic insert shots, and really good special effects.

None of the characters in this short film are likable, all are deeply flawed. The husband Cliff has secrets which make him pathetic, his best friend a lawyer is money hungry, while his assistant at the Dentists is a slut. It does hinder the story a bit that there is no one to root for. The female characters of Abby and the Dentists Assistant are very attractive though, and yes there is quite a bit of nudity with them which is appreciated!

It seems if you boil a Masters of Horror episode down to its base components there will nearly always be lots of blood and violence, and lots of nudity. This is a good episode, would have been great if it had seen fit to insert a likable character into the plot.

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Family - Masters of Horror Episode Review (DVD)

Family is the third episode of Season 2 of Masters of Horror. It is directed by John Landis and is quite a fun episode.

Harold appears to be a mild mannered middle class suburbanite. He lives in a nice friendly neighbourhood, and has a beautifully kept house. Harold is also insane, he kills people, then dissolves them in acid and ties their bones together to make new members for his 'family' a collection of skeletons in clothes who he converses with and spends most his time with. In his head these skeletons are human, and act like any other family. A young couple move in next door to him, and Harold rapidly falls for the young wife. He decides he would like her to 'join' his family...

This is a really light-hearted fun bright episode. Most the episode is filmed from Harold's perspective, so the reason everything is so bright and jaunty is because that is how he sees the world, all perfect. Sometimes his family are shown as what they are; skeletons in clothes, other times they are shown as real people, and you can hear the conversations Harold has with them. The episode pretty much centres on the 3 characters; Harold (played by George Wendt of Cheers fame), and his new neighbours (played by Meredith Monroe and Matt Keeslar). All three actors are fantastic and perfectly suited to their roles, especially Wendt who seems to have had real fun playing the friendly suburban serial killer.

There is not much violence or gore of any kind shown in the episode, most of the gore centres on already dead bodies. The writer for the script likens Family to his take on Psycho which in subject matter is kind of similar. The ending features a neat little twist which I kinda saw coming, but not completely. The twist sort of changes the nature of the whole episode, so watching it again would give me fresh perspective.
A nice fresh feeling episode, well worth a watch!

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Xtro 3 - Film Review

Xtro 3 is a sequel in name only to the previous 2 films in the series. It is a sci-fi horror set on a deserted jungle island.

A small squad of idiot soldiers are dispatched to an army owned island to do recon as part of a training excercise (or so they are led to believe). The island appears deserted, having been unoccupied since the 1950's. A laboratory the soldiers find is encased in concrete. Blowing it open they unwittingly unleash a couple of lethal insane Aliens who start to slaughter the soldiers one by one. The survivors must try to escape the island, though it seems the Army does not want that to happen...

I quite enjoyed this film, enjoyed it enough to track it down on DVD. The film takes place in the recent past, bookended at the start and end by a survivor of the incident who is relating the tale to a skeptical journalist. The plot is simple, yet effective, the motivations for the Aliens are quite interesting.

The Aliens resemble half spider half Grey (traditional 'real' Alien). They spin sticky, acidic webs. Thier victims are operated on in the same way the Aliens originally were (footage is discovered on the island which shows the Aliens backstory). They look good, and are genuinly creepy, as they just seem so unconcerned about the violence they inflict as if the humans mean absolutly nothing to them. The humans are mostly irritating, they are supposed to be, being the Armies rejects, and gradually some of the soldiers do develop into more likeable characters as the events unfold.

This is a neat little sci-fi horror, recommended viewing even if at times it does feel a little too cheaply made.

Resident Evil 2 - Zombie Videogame Review (Playstation)

Resident Evil 2 is still a fantastic game. One of the best game sequels, and with the exception of Silent Hill 2 one of the best Survival Horror sequels.

Leon Kennedy a rookie cop, and Claire Redfield both arrive in Raccoon City at the same time. They discover too late the City has been the centre of a zombie outbreak. Thinking the Police Station would be the most safe place they head there. The rest of the game sees them try to escape the City, learning on their journey the origin of the outbreak.

The game is novel in that the choice of character you play as determines the route through the game you take. Completing the game once opens up B mission which takes place the same time as the original playthough, but from the 2nd characters perspective. Items are in different places, there are new enemies, and the real ending is revealed.

A lot of the same enemies from the Resident Evil reappear as well as a lot more. Zombies obviously, as well as Zombie Dogs, and crows return while the fantastic Hunter enemy is sadly missing. In it's place is the iconic Licker enemy which was a brilliant addition to the series. Boss enemies are less numerous this time around, most centring around William Birkin; a scientist key to the plot of the game who had turned into a ever changing monster. Each encounter with him is different due to his morphing, both A and B missions feature him in various different forms. B mission sees you pursued by a giant trench coated humanoid at various points, the basis for the Nemesis character in Resident Evil 3. The humanoid 'Mr X' is truly scary, with him bursting through walls in his pursuit to get you, and has a suitably epic final encounter.

Weapons are more varied this time around, and can be upgraded, the upgraded Colt Magnum in particular is awesome, so powerful the recoil makes your character fly backwards. The files you find (which provide story) are probably the best in the series, especially the ones detailing the losing battle the Police have as their positions are gradually over run by the attacking hordes. The story as a whole is more interesting, and there are a lot more characters you meet, and even get to control for small portions of the game (such as the mysterious Ada Wong, and the little girl Cheyl Birkin). The locations are cool, and each one follows logically on from the last, giving a feel of accomplishment as you get nearer to your goal of fleeing the City.

The violence is at it's best in this game. Zombies can be blown in half both vertically and horizontally, the character you play as shows damage when injured, limping when nearer death, and the cutscenes are fantastic, and well worth repeated watching. The CGI cutscenes in Resident Evil were near non existent, while here there around 3 or 4 quite lengthy ones throughout the course of the 3 hour game. 3 hours may not seem a lot, but the game has to be completed twice to get the proper ending, and also there are lots of unlockables. These include costumes and weapons for the playable characters, as well as 2 mini games where you have a set time limit to escape the Police Station (one mode sees you play as Hunk; a special Umbrella Swat team member, while the other sees you play as a giant lump of Tofu armed with just a knife!).

This is one fantastic game, I really want to play it again to see if it is still as good as I remember it being!

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Update 26/01/2019: I recently played through this again in anticipation of the Resident Evil 2 remake. The game still holds up today with it looking just as good as I remember. However nowadays I am spoilt, so things like the tank controls in particular quite grated on me. This is a damn good game though, while not as good as Resident Evil it is one of the better sequels in the series.

Pro-life by John Carpenter (Master of Horror Review)

Pro Life is John Carpenters 2nd Master of Horror episode. It is a siege style film with monster elements. It is not that great.

A God obsessed and anti-abortionist man (played by Ron Perlman) with his 3 sons lay siege to a Abortion Clinic where his heavily pregnant 15 year old daughter has seeked sanctuary. The man believes he is on a mission from God to protect his daughters unborn child, and so sees it fine to kill anyone who gets in his way. Meanwhile the daughter is trying to convince the Dr's in the clinic that she was raped by a Demon, and that her child is evil and needs to be killed. A silly story which doesn't get any better when she gives birth to a half human half crab thing.

The problem with this is that it all feels very cheap. Everything from the music and sound effects to the effects looks very budgety. Ron Perlman (most famous for playing Hellboy) looks lost in his role and admits as much on the extras when he says he didn't understand his character. He is about as scary as a wet blanket, and his sons are no better either, being skinny runts. It is hard to find anything about it suspenseful or thrilling when the bad guys are just not remotely threatening.

The plot is very basic, and has some big holes. At least 5 characters wander off screen never to be seen or referenced to again (including rather bizarrely Ron himself, supposedly the main bad guy) It feels like scenes are missing and incomplete. This a poor episode.

Some plus points then. The crab/baby looks kinda cool, though a bit too much like a face hugger. I guess Abortion is a touchy subject, and it doesn't preach either way on the subject. Sure Ron's character is wrong, but his pro-life views on abortion hold up. Likewise pro-choice is also not dismissed, with the Dr's not being portrayed as evil. Cigarette Burns; John Carpenters other Master of Horror episode is much better, this is silly, but still I wouldn't say dismiss it entirely, just don't expect anything amazing.

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Pelts by Dario Argento - Master of Horror Episode

Pelts is the first episode of Season 2 of the excellent Master of Horror; the series where each episode is directed by a different Master of Horror (hence the title). Pelts is Dario Argento's 2nd episode he has done, the first being the great Jenifer in the 1st season. Pelts is very bloody, and disgusting! I nearly had to look away at some scenes!

Meatloaf plays a Boss of a fur factory, when not at work bullying his employees he is at the nearby strip club obsessing over one of the strippers. They know each other well enough due to him repeatedly buying private lap dances off her. She dislikes him and repeatedly lets him know that no matter how much money he throws at her, he has no chance (what with him being a sleazy, fat, unpleasant man). One of his contacts; a hillbilly trapper informs him that he has gotten hold of some absolutely beautiful Raccoon pelts which the Boss uses to create a wondrous fur coat in order to win the stripper he is obsessed with. Unfortunately the Raccoons were captured in the ruins of a creepy ancient civilisation. It seems the pelts are now cursed, as all who come into contact with them end up dead in the most bloody ways imaginable...

As with Dario's other episode this is full of violence and nudity. The violence is all self inflicted, the victims of the pelt possession are induced to kill themselves in gruesome ways. One person sticks his head in a bear trap, another sews there eyes, nose and mouth shut causing them to suffocate to death, then there is the fantastic final sequence in which madness takes place in an apartment block.

None of the characters are likable, all are shown as being shallow, greedy, and weak. I think this was intended for definite, everyone gets what they deserve. The plot is a classic one, but done in an interesting way. The music is fantastic, as are the special effects which are grim to watch.

I really want to see some of Dario's classic films, as going by the episodes I have seen he is a fantastic director. A shocking first episode of the 2nd season. Here's hoping the rest of the episodes are as memorable!

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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - Fantasy Film Review

Yay, my 200th post! I watched this on my Sisters recommendation. The trailers made it seem like a virtual clone of the Harry Potter story. I was expecting a copy, but this film is so much better than any of the Harry Potters!

Basically the God Zeus has had his Thunderbolt stolen. He blames it on Poseidon's Son and says unless he gets his Thunderbolt back by 10 days time then there will be a war between the Gods (basically Armageddon). Poseidon's Son however has no idea of any of this, as far as he's concerned he is just a High School Student. He soon gets dragged into events as a Fury attacks him, his best friend reveals himself to actually be a Satyr Protector, and himself to be a Demi-god. He heads off to a place of safety a special Camp for Half bloods. Along the way however his Mother is kidnapped by Hades. Teaming up with Grover his Satyr friend, and a girl Annabeth (the daughter of Goddess Athena) they must travel across America to get 3 magic Pearls, and then head to Hell to rescue Percy's mother using the Pearls to escape Hell.

The film is only a PG, but is full of Monsters, fantastic looking scary monsters at that! This is an action packed film. Monsters featured include a Minotaur, a Hydra, Medusa, Hell Hounds among others. The film has a slight feel of a road trip and takes in such locations as Hollywood, New York, and Las Vegas. The acting is of a high standard, something I was surprised at as had expected Harry Potter style dreadful acting. Quite a few famous actors also show up in the film. Zeus is played by Sean Bean, Percy's History teacher is played by Pierce Brosnan, Medusa is played by Uma Thurman, and Steve Coogan plays Hades.

The plot is exciting, and while slightly basic, does rollick along at a fast pace. The characters are well cast, at times Grover does become a comic relief which grated a bit, but least his character isn't completely useless like most comic relief characters. It is quite a dark film in places as well and doesn't shy away from death, I'm sure if I had seen this as a kid it would have frightened me! The special effects are ace, and the film as a whole looks really good. Let's hope they do a sequel!

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