Is it just me or has the Marvel cinematic universe become a tad oversaturated? Ignoring the 26 movies either released or in development, its video games have gone from bad to nonexistent. The first big-screen wave was accompanied by terribly inept third-person console adventures, the second phase a series of crappy smartphone games, and the upcoming third, seemingly nothing – unless you count Lego Marvel Avengers. Like its increasingly regulated and ultimately bland slate of films, the game isn’t bad in any sense. It just isn’t particularly great. Available for nearly every system – PC, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U – it’s a set of Lego tropes executed with little innovation and encumbered by the universe’s already-bloated history. Unless you’re fairly well versed in Marvel’s entire cinematic output (and we doubt that its young audience members are) you’ll immediately be at a loss. The game jumps backwards and forwards between last summer’s Age of Ultron the first Captain America movie, to Iron Man 3, through to Captain America 2, across Thor 2, and back to where we completely lost track.
The strange thing about all that cut-scene world building though, is that this is a Lego game and the plot is far from essential compared to the gameplay’s formulaic dynamics. All the standards are here – button mashing beat-’em-up combat, simplistic switch flipping puzzles – and couple of new minor fighting inclusions. Avengers particularly stands out in Marvel’s breadth of history. More than 200 characters are playable, ranging from geek favourites such as Quicksilver and Hawkeye, to the more obscure Squirrelbuster. More impressive, is the range of realistic environments, featuring a series of minor open worlds that creatively span reality (Manhattan, Washington) and comic-book (Asgard). They’re key components without a doubt, but really, only in the context of a thoroughly bland blend of two coasting series. When it comes down to it, Avengers is a case of way, way too much – a mashed-up mess that crams together a dozen movies, at least 30 Lego video games and hundreds of comic-book characters into a paradoxical place of near-zero creativity.
But hey, at least the kids will dig it – maybe. The Deadly Tower of Monsters Cinematic influences and video game interactivity go hand-in-hand – nearly every major modern game is forced to tap into our narrative need for movie-style thrills – but inspiration is often only found in cult classics. Grimy horror (Resident Evil), adventuring heroes (Tomb Raider), bombastic action (nearly every first-person shooter) – rare is the game that strays from geek-favourite territory. The Deadly Tower of Monsters follows the formula in a sense, but takes it slice of inspiration from a smaller source of cult: campy, low-budget B-movies, the kind parodied with aplomb in TV show Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Available for the PS4 and PC, the game initially follows a well-worn Flash Gordon-esque plotline, chock-full of its era’s cheesy clichés – square-jawed hero, sidekick robot and bad guy’s beautiful daughter must topple evil emperor to save alien planet – but it’s the framing device that’s decidedly brilliant.
Gamers don’t play through just the movie itself, but the modern DVD re-release, complete with a directory’s commentary track that pays glorious tribute and simultaneously harangues all the terrible tropes on screen. Men in crappy monster suits, flying plastic dinosaurs where strings can be seen, robots that are just repurposed hoovers – the dreadfully glorious visual design here is without parallel, jumping from grainy VHS to black-and-white, and alongside the pompous orchestral score and overdone acting, all perfectly recreate that long-gone era of cinema. It’s just too damn bad the gameplay here, the sole crux behind its real relevance, isn’t very inspired. “Kill everything” seems to be the ethos of this hammy, ham-fisted adventure, with nothing more than melee combat and twin-stick shooting to keep you entertained. It’s fun in small doses and takes thankfully no more than six hours to complete, but all that clever inspiration sadly dies out as you realise it’s all just shallow fodder for just another shoot-em-up.
Deadly Tower of Monsters wears its obvious influences well, it’s a magnificent love-letter to a so-bad-it’s-good movie age, with every little horrid detail fondly recreated. It might fall slightly short in the gameplay front, but with its HK$100 price tag, it’s worth the download just to smell all that wonderful cheese.'A Lego Brickumentary': Jason Bateman explains Lego-mania in fun flick (Review) on July 29, 2015 at 3:00 PM, updated CLEVELAND, Ohio - The animated "The Lego Movie" was such a commercial and critical success, you knew there would be a sequel. "A Lego Brickumentary" is a documentary narrated by Jason Bateman. It charts the history, popularity and, dare I say, relevancy, of the Lego building block toys. I'm sure there are many folks (including me) asking, "Hey, wait a second, doesn't his amount to a 90-minute ad for Legos?"But it's also a fun, breezy little movie, and the rare G-rated offering -- though your youngest children would probably prefer to be playing with Legos rather than watching other people talking about playing with Legos.
Directed by Kief Davidson and Daniel Junge, "A Lego Brickumentary" opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights. It is mostly live-action, but also features some nifty animated moments. The film takes us back to the bricks' origins in Denmark in 1916. Following various starts and stops, and a rash of burned-down factories, the toys took off in a big way in the 1950s. We meet Lego enthusiasts, such as "South Park" funnyman Trey Parker, pop sensation Ed Sheeran and NBA star Dwight Howard. We hear from Lego designers, drop in on Lego-building competitions, see a Lego art exhibit, learn the Lego-lingo (AFOL stands for Adult Fan of Lego), and watch as an enormous X-Wing fighter from "Star Wars" is constructed using eight tons of toy bricks. We also witness more practical and substantive applications, as Legos are used by the geniuses at the MIT Media Lab, and as a form of therapy for children with autism. Bateman brings the perfect mix of enthusiasm and humor as our guide through Lego land, where, you may recall, "everything is awesome!"