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I actually meant to comment on this episode earlier but just forgot to do so. So, before I forget again....


The tenth episode of the third season to the popular BBC series Merlin aired on Saturday, November 13, 2010. The episode was titled "Queen of Hearts" . The episode begins with a marriage scene between Arthur and Gwen. Of course, I think all of us Merlin fans were going "What on earth? When did this happen? And where did Uther go? (Not that we really care for him. LOL)" and half of us going "Yay, Arthur and Gwen finally married!". However, the happiness doesn't last for long as we quickly realized that this was only one of Morgana's visions of the future (Sigh, guess we'll just have to wait a bit longer). In order to prevent her vision from coming true, Morgana plans to brand Gwen as a witch. Knowing their love for each other, Morgana tricks Arthur and Gwen into going on a picnic. Meanwhile, she follows with Uther, who finds Arthur and Gwen kissing and becomes angry. Uther gives Arthur two choices: either Arthur agrees to never see Gwen again or Gwen will be banished from Camelot. Arthur, of course, refuses to agree and Uther is at a lost as what to do. Morgana furthers her plan by convincing Uther that Arthur only in love with Gwen because she is  witch and has enchanted him with a love spell. Gwen is thus wrongly accused of witchcraft and ordered to be burnt at the stake. Merlin, now, must figure out a way to save Gwen before it's too late. He uses an aging spell so that he may be caught putting a love spell under Arthur's pillow. He, instead, is accused and ordered to be burnt at the stake while Gwen is declared innocent and freed. Merlin tries to escape but is unable to reverse the effects of the powerful aging spell. Now it's Gaius's turn to figure out an antidote to the spell fast before Merlin is burnt (Of course, being the main character, we all know that nothing will happen to Merlin. After all, there's still three more episodes after this one and the show can't go on without Merlin!). Gaius is able to fix the antidote in time and Merlin is returned to normal. The only damage done was that Arthur thought that Merlin had spent his entire day at the tavern and now Merlin must spend the afternoon cleaning out the stables.

There are two major things that didn't quite make sense to me. We knew in a previous episode (Episode 9: The Eye of the Phoenix) that Gwen saw Morgana casting magic and now distrusts her. She event went to Gaius to confess her doubts about Morgana's intentions! However, at the beginning of the episode, Gwen acts as if nothing of the sort happened. You would think that there would be at least some sort of noticeable change in behavior in Gwen when she's around Morgana. Only after seeing Morgana smile while Gwen is being dragged out to be burnt at the stake that Gwen suspects Morgana again. Hello, you should have suspected her earlier!

Second, Merlin was imprisoned because he was unable to reverse the effects of the aging spell. While his physical self certainly isn't as mobile as he was before, his magical abilities should not have diminished. Why spend your entire day rotting in jail and waiting for you to be burnt at the stake when you could have just blasted the freakin' door open with your magic, run back to Gaius, and figure things out later? But, no, Merlin has to wait until the very last minute to escape.

One of the good things about this episode though was that Merlin had the chance to criticize Uther without fear. After all, Uther wouldn't recognize him and he was going to the dungeons anyhow. I got quite a kick seeing Merlin do that. Someone needed to yell at Uther for all the executions he handed out.                         

Part one to the season finale for the third season of Merlin BBC aired Saturday, November 27, 2010 and is title "The Coming of Arthur - Part One". Arthur and Merlin are on a quest to retrieve the Cup of Life, a magic artifact that will make anyone who drinks from its cup immortal, before the Cup falls into Cenred's hands. Of course, unbeknown to everyone, Morgana overhears this and reports it to Morgause. While on their quest, Arthur and Merlin are captured by the slave trader Jarl. There, they meet up with Gwaine who help them to escape. Arthur and Merlin retrieve the cup from the druids and are just on their way back to Camelot when Cenred finds them. His soldiers wound Arthur and steal the Cup of Life. Cenred's soldiers drink from the Cup of Life and are thus made immortal. They march on Camelot, intending to finally bring down the great citadel. Arthur, Merlin, and Gwaine rush back to Camelot only to find the citadel in ruins. The village has been ransacked, all the Knights of Camelot slaughtered, and King Uther imprisoned. Arthur and company reunite with Elyan and Gaius in the castle. While Gwaine takes Elyan and Gaius out of the castle, Arthur and Merlin approach the throne room. There, they see Morgana crowned as Queen of Camelot and Arthur and Uther are still in disbelief that Morgana had been capable of such evil. The episode ends with a closeup shot of both Arthur and Merlin hiding in the balcony, and we'll just have to wait for part two of the season finale.

First off, I can't believe that there's only one more episode before Season 3 of Merlin ends! Wow, time went by fast. I remember just starting to watch the season in September. I guess that's the problem when all your seasons are only thirteen episodes long. Judging from the previews of the next episode, it seems that there will be a battle, if not final, between the forces of good and evil magic. Arthur will be going up against Morgana for the throne, and Excalibur will finally be revealed by the Lady of the Lake (possibly Freya). The Great Dragon will also be joining in on the fun. I wonder if this means that Merlin will finally reveal to Arthur his long kept secret. After all, you can't really have a final battle for Camelot without anyone wondering why a bunch of magical beings are helping Arthur. But, then again, Merlin has done a good job of protecting Arthur without him knowing his secret. While I really want Merlin to finally reveal his secret and have magic once more allowed in Camelot, I also don't want the series to end. Merlin telling Arthur just might mean the end of the series, but I really think that the creators should continue and detail Arthur's rule on the throne. Whatever the case may be, I'm really hoping for a Season 4. Say aye if you agree, all you Merlin fans!!

But I guess that some of the rumors about the series I mentioned in an earlier post were wrong. Arthur has yet to see things that would change his mind about the true nature of magic, nor did we see any Merlin and Freya time. However, since this season is not yet over, there's still hope that these things will be mentioned in the last episode of the series. But, that is indeed quite a lot to stuff in a mere 40 minutes and those things will have to happen rather suddenly.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first installment in the Professor Layton series for the Nintendo DS. The game is a puzzle/adventure one where the player controls the movements of Professor Layton (voiced by Christopher Miller) and his young assistant Luke (voiced by Lani Minella) around the small village of St. Mystere. The Baron Augustus Reinhold has just passed away and left a puzzle in his will. Whoever can find the Golden Apple will be entitled all of Reinhold's lands. There are a total of 135 puzzles and players will have to solve them in order to advance within the story. Solving puzzles will earn you points called picarats but make a wrong guess and the number of picarats earned will decrease. You can also find Hint Coins hidden around the village in order to spend for hints on puzzles. There are a limited number of these coins around so if you use up all your coins beforehand then you're stuck! Puzzles include brain teasers, sliding puzzles, logic puzzles, and many others.

For one thing, I am quite pleased with the graphics in this game. Viewing the cutscenes feel like you're actually watching an animated movie, and the game introduces you to an impressive cutscene as soon as you start the game. The coloring is very nice and reflects a Victorian time period. The art very much reflects an European-style. After the introduction, the makers back down a bit on the presentation though but even still the presentation is great. Everything is still stupendously detailed and the lighting effects are good. The music is also very nice and the instruments used somewhat remind me of going down the river in a gondola in Venice.

The voice actors is okay and I wished that there was more of it. Unfortunately, they only appear in the cutscenes and I wish that they had given voicing to all of the characters, no matter how small their role is in the game. It's a nice way to be lazy and not have to really read the text. I don't like Luke's character though as I find him to be extremely arrogant. He's all "I'm the assistant to the great Professor Layton. Look at me!"

The town of St. Mystere loves puzzles to the extent that you almost can't strike up a conversation without needing to solve a puzzle. You'll have to go through a number of puzzles while playing this game. Some are required to advance the plot while others are optional. Some are "hidden", meaning that you'll have to poke around in your surroundings to find them. The puzzles range in various degrees of difficulty. The more difficult a puzzle is the more picarats you earn. Some puzzles are extremely obvious while others are just planning to make your brain explode. Some need to be calculated while others are just trick questions. In those types of puzzles, often times the answer is simpler than it seems and you can bet that the game is just throwing out a bunch of numbers in order to confuse you.

When you complete a puzzle, you get this short animation of either Professor Layton or Luke telling whether your answer is correct or not. I actually hate this part because it makes me feel very stressed in fear that I answered the puzzle wrong and lost picarats. I play games in order to relax and I don't want to feel stressed like I'm on a game show and there's only one question separating me from a million dollars.

The one thing that I don't like about the game is its method of inputting answers. The game asks you to write down your answer in a grid one letter/number at a time. The system then recognizes what you just wrote and inputs it in the field above. However, you have to write these in only one stroke otherwise the game will misinterpret your answer. This can be especially annoying as often times the writing style is not your usual. Numbers are okay but when it comes to letters, this is absolutely a disaster. I have yet to figure out how to write a lowercase "I" without the game interpreting it as a lowercase "L" before I dot my "I".

As for replay, the game doesn't quite stand up to playing over and over again. Some puzzles will present to you different numbers but most puzzles only have one solution. You can share these puzzles with your friends over the Nintendo WiFi connection but that isn't as fun as playing them in context with the story and adventure.

Overall, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is quite a fun game and a must have for those who enjoy solving puzzles. The European influence in the art is a breath of fresh air from all those games with anime/manga-styled art. The cutscene animations are awesome and the graphics are really nice. You've seen a lot of these puzzles before but many are still very tough. I like how the makers make sure that you know how to control the puzzle elements before letting you start, even giving you an experimentation so that you know what you're doing. My only complaints are the replay appeal as once you've finished the game it seems silly to replay the one-answer puzzles, and the method of inputting answers for some puzzles (Either insert a keypad or have a better recognition system but I'm opting for the keypad).

Here comes another installment for the console version of Sims. Apartment Pets is a game where you get to take care of animals in your apartment and greet customers in your pet spa downstairs. Generally apartments and pets are not a good combination as most apartments either restrict or disallow pets, but in this game it's possible. However, the game experiences a large variety of problems and none of them have to deal with your pet.

When you hear someone say "Sims", you expect a game where you'll be able to control a customizable human avatar and guide them through life. However, these elements are rather cursory when it comes to this game. They appear to be here in order to make it look like a Sims game, but they're not the real focus. For one thing, the Needs bar have been reduced down to only four Needs: Hunger, Comfort, Social, and Bladder. These Needs can take days before being fully depleted though so why waste time on them? The entire apartment seems to be equipped to accommodate all the Needs in the regular Sims games but you don't need them. There's no Hygiene Need or a Fun Need so why waste time showering or playing on the computer?

One particular appeal of the Sims game is the ability to create your own houses. Unfortunately, this is something that is lacking in Apartment Pets. You get an apartment but it's not yours (nor is anything else in the apartment). Instead, the apartment belongs to your Uncle  Bill. However, Uncle Bill has noted that you are free to change the apartment to your liking, that means being able to switch all the furniture (Gosh, Uncle Bill, does that mean that I can replace all your geometric furniture into Princess furniture?? :heart:) The choices are extremely limited though and upgrading furniture does not at all affect gameplay. Why buy a better (and more expensive) fridge when doing so won't give fill your Hunger meter faster? Buying better versions of the other furniture also seem useless. Why buy a larger TV when I can't even see the screen in the first place? Or buying a computer when nothing I do with it will fill up a Need meter?

You don't get to really customize your Sims either as in the PC version of The Sims 2. Instead, you are forced to choose from templates and all of the facial features are super ugly. You can't customize the Sims Turn Ons/Turn Offs, Aspirations, or Personalities. The only way you can get more customizations is to buy from the shop and changing these characteristics end up seeming pointless when you can barely see your Sims in the first place.

It's quite clear the game makers wanted the focus of the game to be on the pets. However, you don't get to go out and adopt your own pet. Instead, the "pets" you'll ever have is when your neighbors or the janitor ask for you to look after a pet, which will soon be taken away just when you have grown attached to the pet. That will sure to please the kids and work out in real life! Not. Any other interaction with animals will be when you take care of animals in your spa. This basically means giving the animals a quick shower, brush, or spray perfume in order to cover up a smell. While this might seem fun and compelling at first, this soon becomes very boring and repetitive. Get used to it though, as you'll be spending most of the game in the spa doing this. Not every much attention is given to the other pets you have to take care of in your apartment.

Customers will be coming into the spa, which is just below your apartment. When they do, you have the option of either greeting them or going directly to take care of the pet. There's really no social aspect of maintaining good relationships as needed in the other Sims games. When dealing with the pets, you are taken to a 3D animation of the pet. Over time all the cats and the dogs begin to look the same and the animation itself is at best choppy. All the animals react the same and it would have been nice to have some differentiations. We all know that pets react differently to baths or brushing. There are a few minigames you can play with the pets but the minigames for the cats and the dogs are the same. You'll be playing Fetch and going around unearthing buried shoes. You can also dress up your pets with various accessories, but these you'll have to buy after earning money by either playing minigames or working all day in the spa.

In the end, the appeal of The Sims 2: Apartment Pets wears off very quickly. All the minigames are the same and there is no offer of changes in difficulty. The animation and graphics are poor and the choices are all very limited. The only appeal in the game is the inclusion of "The Sims" in the title. Other than that, it's an extremely boring and underdeveloped game. Stay away because you will soon regret purchasing this game.

I can't believe it, after a hard summer's worth of waiting, Season 3 to the popular Merlin BBC series has finally come out! The first episode came out on Saturday, September 11, 2010,. and will be part one to a two part story (The Tears of Uther Pendragon). The second part will air on Saturday, September 18, 2010.



The series starts off with Uther on a desperate search for Morgana after she was taken away by Morgause at the end of Season 2. At the beginning of the first episode, Arthur and Merlin discover Morgana in the forest and take her back to the castle. Morgana seems to have changed since, now holding a hatred for magic. She forgives Merlin for trying to poison her but Merlin is still wary about her motives. Merlin's worries come true when he discovers that Morgana has took a trip to the dark side. Joined with Morgause, she will try anything to kill Uther. No longer is she the gentle and righteous Morgana we once knew. Katie McGrath plays a very frightening Morgana as she pits herself against Camelot, and it's all up to poor Merlin to stop her before something goes wrong. Of course, Uther, is still blinded by his love for his ward and his hatred of magic to see anything straight. Sometimes you have to wonder if Morgana really is the bad guy here....

I find that the series has taken a much darker turn. While it's still comical, the overall story seems to have grown to be much more mature and serious. Also, the series seems to have started off on a fast footing. It's only the second episode and already we have witnessed a major battle.

It's rumored that Arthur will slowly come to see some of the good in magic along the way and that this will lead to him having an estrangement with his father. I'm still waiting for the episode where Merlin finally tells Arthur of his magical history and hopefully that won't mean the end of the series. I'm quite looking forward to see another season of where Arthur reigns as king and that magic has been restored to the land.

Rumors also speculate the Freya, Merlin's deceased love, will return as a Lady of the Lake figure and help Merlin again, thus also deepening their love for each other. Aww...

All the other actors are there. So far the only new actor we see is Tom Ellis who plays Cenred. I'm hoping to see a few new faces pop up here and there along the way.

How to Train Your Dragon is a 98 minute film rated PG. The movie is loosely based off the book of the same name by Cressida Cowell. It is a DreamWorks film directed by Chris Sanders. The story takes place in a fictional Viking village called Berk. All the Vikings here must constantly defend themselves against hungry dragons and it is an honor for a Viking to grow up and be able to kill a dragon. Enter Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a teenage Viking who is the son of the village leader Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). Hiccup is everything not what Stoick wanted. He is clumsy, cannot kill a dragon, and is always getting himself into a pile of danger. In an attempt to prove himself, Hiccup takes down a Night Fury, one of the most dangerous dragons around. However, when it comes time to actually kill the dragon, Hiccup finds that he no longer has the desire to kill dragons. Instead, he befriends the Night Fury, which he names Toothless for his retractable teeth.

The movie is amazing on all levels. Some might view the plot to be typical, but viewers can really feel the strength of the bond between Hiccup and Toothless. It is very touching to see either Toothless or Hiccup go to the other's aid.

The animators have certainly outdone themselves on this movie. All things part of the natural world look realistic, from the small pebbles, to trees, to the vast oceans, to the stone pillars. The lighting itself is also very natural. Sometimes, I forget that this is an animated film and instead think that it's a live-action movie instead. Toothless's emotions are also clearly shown with subtle movements, such as a narrowing of the eyes or a tilt of the ears.

My slight annoyance is with the pace of the plot.  The villagers of Berk seem too readily to accept dragons into their lifestyle. For generations it has been pounded into their heads that dragons are dangerous and must be killed on sight. It seems highly unlikely that they will start being friendly with dragons in a matter of minutes just because Toothless and Hiccup are there. This is something that will not readily be changed and takes a lot more time. It might take weeks, months, or even years, but this is something that cannot be changed in a matter of seconds or minutes. Other than that, everything else seemed good.

The music in this movie is also amazing. There's just so much excitement in the music to go with the movie. My favorite is "Test Drive", which I think really emphasizes the majesty of Toothless and Hiccup soaring through open skies. It really gives the listener a feeling of flying as well. John Powell is an excellent composer and I look forward to listening to more of his future compositions. He is not afraid to make things bold and leave an invincible sensation behind in the listeners. The soundtrack for How to Train Your Dragon is perhaps one of the best movie instrumental soundtracks I have ever heard.

Conclusion: How to Train Your Dragon is an excellent family film that every family should have. You will want to watch this movie time and time again, especially the part where Hiccup and Toothless are flying. The dragons are cute, though some of them scary are angry, and the Hiccup and Toothless duo is something that will not be easily broken. So definitely go and get How to Train Your Dragon and if you have some money left over, go and buy the soundtrack too. This is one movie you surely will not want to miss!

From director Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator, comes an all new take on the famous Robin Hood legend. Instead of the usual story of Robin the Outlaw, we now see a story about Robin's story before his exile. Richard the Lion Heart has just been killed in an invasion of a French castle in the Crusade and Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) and his gang want out of the war. They use the chance to deliver the crown to the new king of England to their advantage in securing a trip back home. However, in order to do this, Robin must pretend to be Robert Loxley of  Nottingham. In order to protect their lands, Robert's father Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow) asks Robin to pretend to be his son and this, of course, means also pretending to be Lady Marion Loxley's (Cate Blanchett) husband. The newly ascended King John (Oscar Isaac) is hardly kind to his people as he calls for a means of taxation already and asks Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong) to make sure that the taxes get paid. Unbeknown to him, Godfrey is actually an agent of the French. He is trying to stir up troubles in order to divide England so that the French may make their assault. Will Robin be able to unite the people against the incoming French before it's too late?

My opinion on this movie is somewhat mixed. I'm a little disappointed in not seeing the Robin Hood legend we all know and love as the plot but, again, this version is morel like the prequel to that story. Besides, the Robin Hood legend is, again, just a legend, that can be open to variations, so I'm not complaining too much about that. Perhaps, if Scott decides to make a sequel, we will be able to see the known Robin Hood legend then. In a sense, the film is very much like the Robin Hood version of Batman Begins.

The characters and actors in this film are quite strong. Oscar Isaac is able to portray a very slippery king, and Max von Sydow portrays a fabulous a blind Sir Walter Loxley. You can tell that all the actors are very mature in their acting. Perhaps my only complaint here is Mark Addy who plays Friar Tuck. I find his character to be a little too comical for a serious film such as this. Cate Blanchett portrays a mature and serious Marion though her end battle was actually quite silly. Her portrayal of Marion was different from what I had expected, as I envision Marion to be a more gentle lady but is also someone who can readily defend herself and her people when needed. I was also expecting her costume to be somewhat more grand instead of the more common-people attire she wore in the film. Matthew Macfadyen plays a comical Sheriff of Nottingham though I admit that I was expecting a someone a little more serious.

Many applaud Robin Hood for the battle scene at the end, but I actually find this scene to not be well staged. For one thing, there are several anachronisms here, such as the type of boats the French use to land. The boats used had not been invented until a few centuries later! King John's inexperience in battle is shown very clearly and well portrayed here but I find the battle scene to be rather staged. Things move slowly and are not quite as chaotic or organized as I would have liked. In keeping with its PG-13 rating, the amount of gore has also been cut down to a PG rating instead of a R rating. I wasn't much of a fan for gore in the first place, so that rating really doesn't quite bother, though I was hoping that the battle scene could have been a little more epic.

I'm not too pleased with the soundtrack either and, for me, the soundtrack plays a big role in a film. When the English are riding into battle across an open meadow, the music is missing a certain sense of excitement or epic. Instead, the film focuses on a more somber tone. There's nothing wrong with a somber tone but the music lacks the deep evocation of music usually associated with many other good movie soundtracks. The tune for Merry Men was quite good though. It's the song playing at the start of the DVD menu if you're looking for it. There's certainly potential in the composition but the soundtrack of Robin Hood needs to step one up!

There's also a few questionable choices of narrative here. I don't know about you but I like my heroes to be...well...heroic. As you can guess, I wasn't too pleased with the way Robin killed Godfrey by shooting him in the back with an arrow. And also, shouldn't he have checked to see if Marion was alright before going after Godfrey? Don't just leave her lying there in the water! Also, there is the matter concerning the "wild" children in the forest. In the film, they seem to be more of on the outskirts of the plot. There really was any devotion of the film to their story and this leaves me wondering what their purpose in the story was in the first place.

As for the filming, how should I say this? The filming itself was just incredible! The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the aerial takes just stunning. Everything is just done on a very large scale and the image of hundred of horses galloping across an open field is simply majestic. If not for the plot, the music, or the acting, certainly watch Robin Hood for its scenic locations!

Overall, the film is average for me. There's really nothing distinguishing it apart from the beautiful scenery and the mature acting, but it's not a horrible movie either. Go watch Robin Hood nevertheless as you certainly won't lose anything from watching it.