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4 Clackamas Prim ________ ■ ; John Carter travels through theaters universe-wide By Isaac Soper Í A rts & C u ltu re E d ito r packed film about a soldier trying to fin d his way to Earth. A lone C onfederate A rm y captain o f the C^ivil W ar is on th e ru n from the tribes o f the A pache an d the .U nion w hen he .enters' a m ysterious cave and is suddenly .transported to M ars; though he claims to fight for no m an, through the course„of evehts, he will defend, the freedom o f the planet th at the natives Call “Barsoom .’X “Jo h n C a rte r” was w rit ten and directed by A ndrew Stanton, w ho w rote the “Toy Story” films, and w rote and directed a num ber o f other D isney anim ated films, includ ing “W ALL-ji,” and “Finding N em o.”. T h e .film was his first live-action picture to date. T h e titular character, John Carter, is played by ‘ Taylor Kitsch, know n for his roles on the television series “Friday N ight Lights,” and his portrayal o f G am bit/R em y LeBeau in 2009s “X -M en O rigins: W olverine.” T h e film also features the act ing talents o f W illem Dafoe, Lynn C ollins, M a rk S trong and C iarán H inds. A fter seeing “John Carter,”,, m any people will say th at it is a rip-off of. Jam es Ciuneron’s film “Avatar,” w hich it is m ost definitely not. •• “Jo h n C arter” was' released in 3 t) an d 2 D theaters n ation w ide last Frjday, after being form erly w ritte n 100, years prior. T h e original story o f the character Jo h n Carter,- “U nder the M oons o f M ars” was pub- lished'in 1 9 l 2 i n the form o f a serial? It was w ritten by Edgar Rice B urroughs, the creator o f Tarzan, w ho c o ntinued the story o f John .C arter o f M ars u n tiL l9 4 1 . ' ' ; A ’» “Jo h n C a rte r” is d irectly based o ff o f' B urroughs, first novelization o f the John C arter series, know n as “T h e Princes? o f M a rs” . T h e film, th o u g h presented in “Disney. 3D ,” was in fact a very entertaining and captivat ing film . T h o u g h the three- d im ensional effects w eren’t particularly noticeable during m o st o f the film, th e special effects a n d story were very engaging, one in p articular being th e sequences o f C arter learning to walks on the M ars surface. In a recent conference call w ith E>ishey, S tanton explained w hy he was interested in tak ing o n the “Jo h n C arter* story. “I’m a huge fan,” h e said. “I ’ve read the books m y w hole life. A nd [I] w anted to see them , and I ’m probably one o f the m oje rabid fans. So I didn’t w ant it screwed up.” s As w ith theslaying o f orcs in the “Lord o f the Rings” films, i f th e blue-blooded creatures from B arsoom w o u ld have been hu m an , “Jo h n C arter” w ould definitely have an “R ” rating, opposed to J‘PG -13,” due to the a m o u n t o f violence presented in the film. T h e only draw back to “John C a rte r” iS th a t it' seems to be converted in to 3D,S w hich depending on ohe’s preference, m ay or m ay n o t be w orth the few extra dollars.To define the fifth in a genre, it 'would have to be classified as gl w estern sci-fi, one th a t is m uch m ore e n tertain in g th a n last year’s “Cowboys Si Aliens,” and defi nitely w orth seeing m ultiple times. !> > > O © Mass Effect 3 gives new experiences to all sci-fi gamers civilians, are being butchered and harvested and yet you are rarely reminded o f how baa tire'situa- ■ "MOT ô f Eâi*ffr îëSHy' IS'.' AU yd'iF^T; ni mi ymy CriedW olf?’. a boy yglls out to is “Its going well. H it and run villagers that he saw a wolf. They tactics.”'-You are given military don’t believe, him because he has statistics But know nothing o f done this before. H e calls-out what is happening to the pop again and yet they still don’t' ulation. You would think that believe his story. N ow im agine Bioware would Utilize the hum an that the ending was different and factor more, especially after they that the wolf comes to eat the vil ■ had your character witness ;the lagers in their sleep while the boy - death o f a child right in front o f is forced to watch whiìé dragged them. T he writers did show that the to safety. That, is essentially the first ten minutes o f “Mass Effect last few years are finally erod ing Shepard’s m ental health. Your Released March 6, Bioware character avoids sleep, has con hopes that “M E3” will provide stant nightmares that flash back closure and success to the story of to jthe invasion o f Earth and Com mander Shepard, and finally 1 always sees the face'of the child bring multiplayer to fens - that they failed to save. You would have been asking for it since the think that Shepard would have beginning. “M E 3” ,is yery enjoy already had a mental breakdown able and it seems that Bioware after assimilating .ancient tech has listened to and embraced nology, hunting down a power many fan complaints, tweaking ful secret agent, killing a.Reàper? features such as planetary scan-, killing off thé remnants o f an n in g a n d bringing back weap ancient race, charging into doz- on modifications, and grenades.; *’ens. o f suicide missions and, oh Difficulty has been tweaked as yeah, dying. 'Your smaller choices also have well, ranging" from “pip-squeak” to “why did you throw your con a lot more impact if you are a careful observer. Ih one instance troller through the TV?” At the start o f the game the I came across when I reconnect Reapers, the game’s m ain antago- ed with a former- crew member. nisr, start fending on Earth to Traumatized ;by her experiences obliterate everything i n . their at the end o f “M E2,” she is help path. You are forced to aban ing refugees deal with the stresses don Earth to fend for itself and they have. You have the. choice of rally other faces in th e, galaxy ; complimenting Mie work, she is to defend the planet, which is . doing-*or suggest that she change, the site o f the Jargest invasion. hèr name. I chose to. com plim ent Depending on how many allies her and after a critical event on' you gain throughout the game the station she was at, I-overhead background conversation that and the- “gafexy readiness” you gain through multiplayer match-’ metitioned she had been singled es you will stand a better chance- out and executed by the enemy. at beating the Reapers, or become Bioware changed some, o f the interactive features that fans had a smoldering corpse. However, the first half o f the Issues with. In ' “M E 2” you had story o f Mass Effect fails at tug to go, across, the entire .galaxy ging at the heartstrings ò f ,the and scan for minerals to upgrade player. Earth -has been invaded, your weapons, armor and ship. By Brian Baldwin Editor-in-Chief It was rediftus, consumed hours„ and the scanning had no concept , o f pfenet Instead scanning'’ Jyas©e'en'repurposed for finding“ and collecting war assets.-that are' scattered across star systems. - ' T he new “galaxy at, war” sys- . tem in “M E3” finally allows play ers to experience what they-have been asking for since the launch o f th e first game. Based around the popular form oft “defend against X num ber o f waves,” fans can choose j o play a combination I o f their favorite class and race that is provided. Each victory, o r defeat, changes the ■ “galaxy readiness” that wfll benefit the endgame result- o f th e storyline. However this style o f game pfey is repetitive and gets old fast. “M E3” is worth the money only if you are the type o f per son that loves immense game , universes that have a -lot o f back story. T he side, missions, trying to explore every nook and cranny and all o f the crew.dlalogue will easily surpass more than 2 0 hours o f game play. If you are new to “Mass Effect” I would, strongly recommend starting with a t least the second game, as the story o f “M E3” is not friendly to new players. " T his series grabbed m y heart at the'.first game. “Blade Runner in space meets ‘H eart o f Darkness’” I JjelJeve, were m y words. However, the end ing failed to give m e a satisfac tory end to the iconic story o f Com m ander Shepard and didn’t involve the Reapers in the final showdown as m uch as it did in the previous two games. It lives up to the hype that fens expect ed, except for the plot needed to tug on our heartstrings concern ing Earth,-W ith the promise o f upcoming downloadable content it will be interesting to see how Bioware will salvage the ending. Female Shepard holds her weapons in. front ofthe special effectsbackground. In this game you fiatile all types o f science-fiction characters to achieve the goal o f beating the Reapers.
