Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Note: This review text was written in September 2014.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, I’ve been a huge fan of the Kingdom Hearts franchise since around the time the original game released in America. If there’s one thing from the franchise I haven’t been a fan of however, it would be the fact that, beginning from Chain of Memories, you have to own multiple systems in order to keep track of the ever-growing kudzu plot the story is infamous for. It was because of this that, after Birth by Sleep, my excitement went somewhat dormant until last year when my review playthrough of the original game rekindled that spark that had nearly gone out. What helped immensely was the release of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, which not only brought a modified Kingdom Hearts Final Mix over to the west, as well as Re:Chain of Memories with better graphics, but also included the cutscenes from 358/2 Days. That last one was a pretty big deal for me, since I never owned a DS to be able to play it, so I missed out on an important bit of the overall story. With the release of HD 2.5 Remix, we not only got Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and a modified Birth by Sleep Final Mix, but also the cutscenes for Re:coded, which gave me another important link in the franchises’ chain of events (because, like Metal Gear, Kingdom Hearts is not a franchise where you can skip a game and be safe). With the Final Mixes released on PS3, I’ve finally been able to experience the entire story on a single system, something I had been hoping for since the Nintendo handheld installments.

However, there is one entry I didn’t include up there: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for the Nintendo 3DS handheld. When this game first came out, and especially after the formal announcement of Kingdom Hearts III at E3 2013, I became frustrated for a couple reasons: 1) I do not own a 3DS handheld of my own, thus preventing me from playing the game, and 2) Dream Drop Distance is supposed to serve as the seventh main installment, as well as connect every game before it together so that it may flow directly into Kingdom Hearts III. Since these two points presented such a large obstacle with being able to understand the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts III (by now I’ve been waiting about ten long years), I was fortunately able to borrow a 3DS and copy of Dream Drop Distance from a friend, Tyler Uslan. So during the five days (29:50 in “man hours”) I had borrowed both the game and system, I decided to play on Proud Mode to more easily unlock the secret ending, though the other rationale was that I had already beaten Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep on that same difficulty level.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into the world of Dream Drop Distance and see whether or not the journey was worth it.

Sometime after the events of Re:coded, Sora and Riku are summoned to Master Yen Sid’s tower for an important meeting. The threat of Master Xehanort’s return is looming near, so the two of them are to take the Mark of Mastery Exam to try and grow strong enough to counter him. As part of the exam, Sora and Riku are sent off to awaken seven sleeping worlds disconnected from the others. These worlds are inhabited by Dream Eaters, creatures born from darkness that seek out the Keyholes of Sleep found there. The duo is encouraged to work alongside the benevolent “Spirit” Dream Eaters while extinguishing the malevolent “Nightmare” Dream Eaters. Should they succeed in their task, they will gain new powers that signify them as true Keyblade Masters. When Sora and Riku begin at Traverse Town, however, they are immediately separated, existing within separate versions of the same world. As they try to figure out what’s going on, a mysterious figure in a black coat enters the equation, leading to revelations that will forever alter the course of Sora and Riku’s lives.

Discussing the story is a little tricky, considering its placement in canon and how mixed I feel about it. Since I have gone the spoiler-free route in my other Kingdom Hearts reviews, I will attempt my discussion along those same lines. However, I feel that I may need to include minor spoilers, so there will be white text where necessary.

The story, at first, is pretty straightforward, since Sora and Riku have to reawaken seven sleeping worlds to complete their Mark of Mastery exam. However, the true mystery begins when the man in the black coat is revealed to be Young Xehanort. As the plot advances, we also see appearances by Xemnas and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, mostly to provide insight on what makes a heart a heart as well as the nature of dreams. Interspersed with the main plot are scenes in Radiant Garden and the Mysterious tower involving Axel, who has mysteriously been restored along with some of his former cohorts from Organization XIII, but he can’t figure out where Braig (Xigbar) and Isa (Saïx) are. As the mysteries pile on each other, we do eventually receive the explanations we seek, though I’m having a hard time with how I feel about it. To put it simply, the answers involve time travel and forward planning that rivals, or even exceeds, Sōsuke Aizen from Bleach or The Joker from The Dark Knight. The number of retcons involved in the full explanation, which even go as far back in time as Birth by Sleep, creates a rush of confusion since it seems impossible for Tetsuya Nomura to have planned that far in advance for the series. On the other hand, possibly due to me understanding Metal Gear Solid 2 after multiple playthroughs, I have to commend Nomura for being able to come up with an explanation, and motivation for the big bad, that manages to not negate previous games and actually works with the entire timeline; after a while the whole thing begins to make a frightening amount of sense. After the ending of course, as well as the secret ending (Another Guardian of Light (which I highly recommend unlocking)), I’m waiting very (im)patiently to see just what Kingdom Hearts III will do with all of the new knowledge presented.

Put simply, this game's story is Xehanort's fault.

Gameplay for Dream Drop Distance uses some mechanics previously introduced in the series, though it also adds some new things to the equation. For one thing, combat still heavily involves the command deck from Birth by Sleep, though the ability to meld commands together is now missing. This disappointed me, since trying to find good command combinations or exploiting lists, whichever came first, provided a great source of fun and discovery for me and the bore of grinding was mitigated by how awesome my commands would be when they proved useful (though let’s face it, even then it wasn’t always fun when leveling up lesser versions of commands). Since this time you have to do literally every other possible thing to gain new commands, and some commands are harder to obtain than others and/or require playing as Sora or Riku, it became a chore to try and figure out where the commands came from and I groaned every time it had to come from a Dream Eater (more on them in a bit). The ability to buy multiple copies of the awesome Balloon spell and raise their levels for fusing into a better version, like Balloonra or Balloonga, would have made for a less stressful experience when trying to have a specific deck combination for difficult boss fights or just plain fights in general. Otherwise, the command deck operates the same way as before, down to the most powerful commands taking up more slots, although it’s annoying how even rearranging commands will reset all of the timers for each command, forcing me to play the waiting game.

Balloonga in action.

And that waiting game is something to really worry about going through considering the game’s Drop mechanic, which is somewhat based on your Distance (get it?). As you play through either Sora or Riku’s story, a Drop Gauge will slowly go down no matter what you do, even if you are just standing around. When the gauge is fully depleted, the action immediately stops and you switch over to playing as the other character. From a narrative standpoint, this makes sense, since it allows the player to experience both stories simultaneously. When viewed from a gameplay perspective however, it quickly becomes one of the most annoying mechanics ever. As soon as that Drop Gauge hits zero, you are absolutely done with the current character, even if you’re in the middle of a fight, including bosses. If you want to continue the fight, you have to Drop back, which can be done manually, but as soon as you get back to the fight, you have to start all over again with all enemies, or the boss, at full health. It isn’t quite as bad when you’ve just barely started the fight, but I’ve experienced a scenario plenty of times where my foe is within an inch of their life and, just before the final blow is struck, I Drop to the other character and float helplessly in space, which is incredibly frustrating to watch.

Fortunately, there are some things which can alleviate the problem, though only a little. As you kill “Nightmare” Dream Eaters, you gain Drop Points (DP) that act as a sort of currency once you perform a Drop, allowing you to purchase bonuses for the next character ranging from deceleration of the Drop Gauge to Attack/Defense boosts and even extra items. Naturally, I always went for Drop deceleration, since then I could play as Sora or Riku longer and finish a task in order to trigger access to more worlds. There’s also an item called a Drop-Me-Not, which can be consumed to increase the length of the Drop Gauge while in the field. Unfortunately this is a command that may not always see use, so trying to use it and then switch it out creates the aforementioned hassle of resetting all command timers.

Though the Drop mechanic isn’t completely satisfactory, there’s a new ability called Flowmotion that almost totally makes up for it. When dashing or landing on certain surfaces, which includes some Dream Eaters, Flowmotion is triggered, creating new opportunities for rapid movement between other Flowmotion surfaces or getting off some Flowmotion attacks, which are weaker than most other attacks but are pulled off with incredible speed. The downside to Flowmotion is that you can still take damage while using it, and you aren’t able to activate commands, but the quick maneuverability it provides is the greatest benefit of the system and its use quickly becomes essential during some of the more difficult boss fights.

A Flowmotion command, specifically Kick Dive, in action.

Speaking of the boss fights, if you thought Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts II or the final boss of Birth by Sleep was difficult, the bosses of Dream Drop Distance can make those guys seem like pushovers by comparison. Sure they start out easy enough with Hockomonkey, a Nightmare Dream Eater, but over time the bosses start going from mostly annoying, like Holey Moley, to absurdly difficult. The worst of it for Sora was the Spellican Dream Eater and the “Final Bosses” of his portion of the campaign. By the time you reach the final world of the game though, the Dream Eaters you fight as regular enemies can easily overpower you if you’re not careful and the bosses seriously make any Sephiroth fight feel like a light breeze. What compounds this is when Riku has a section near the end where he has three boss fights in a row with no time to change the command deck, so having the Dark Splicer ability really comes in handy to break their tactics, unless of course there’s an attack that can break right through this technique. But he’s not even done then, since he has two more consecutive boss fights afterwards (fortunately with opportunities to switch commands). I’ll warn you now that going in full throttle won’t work against them, so you’re going to have to simplify everything down to the basics, with very liberal use of Dark Barrier and Counter Aura combined with conservative use of the Balloon series of spells and other long-range magic, as well as two or three Cure spells. I don’t normally give much boss advice in my reviews, but since I beat the game on Proud Mode while a little under-leveled, LV 36 Riku and LV 33 Sora, I figured I’d make someone’s life easier with this knowledge.

Of course, I still need to discuss the primary feature of the game: Dream Eaters of the “Spirit” variety. In combat, these replace Donald and Goofy, and prospective Disney characters, as party members, operating as a purely offensive force combining physical attacks and magic (though thankfully no item usage). You can have up to three Dream Eaters on you at once, though only two are on the field with you at a time, so you can switch between your active Dream Eaters and the one in reserve with the touch screen. As Dream Eaters fight with you, they earn Link Points to fill up a Link Meter. When the meter is full, you can tap their icon to gain new abilities based on which character you are playing as; when playing as Sora, he briefly gains a new attack in tandem with the Dream Eater until the meter empties, but when playing with Riku, his attack style changes based on the Dream Eater(s) he’s linked with. When both active Dream Eaters have full meters, an icon appears between both portraits to allow Dual Linking, combining their strengths to form stronger and often more unique links.

But there’s more to Dream Eaters than just their combat prowess. In order to add more to your party, or just have more options, you’ll need to create them in one of a couple ways. The first, and most common, method is to combine Dream Pieces obtained from defeated Nightmares and follow a recipe or experiment from scratch. Right off the bat the game will give you the resources for a Meow Wow (as Sora) or Komory Bat (as Riku), but it’s good to experiment to find out which Dream Eaters suit your play style (and you don’t know it yet, but you want to have a Tyranto Rex as soon as possible). The other method is to scan AR Cards with the 3DS’ rear cameras, which is useful for obtaining specific rare Dream Eaters. Three AR Cards can be found with the main game, but an additional two can be found in the Mark of Mastery Edition for a total of five of these special cards. While borrowing the game, I was unable to use any physical cards, but I was able to trick the 3DS into accepting my Smartphone as an AR card by finding scanned pictures online and blowing them up on the screen; alternatively you can use full-color print-outs of the cards.

A Tyranto Rex Dream Eater.

Dream Eaters provide more than one gameplay twist though, in that they become your primary source for obtaining new abilities and commands outside of chests or story events. To do so, you spend Link Points earned by any given Dream Eater on their Link Board, with each space on the board costing a different number of Link Points. It doesn’t sound too bad at first, but a few annoyances with the system quickly pop up. For one thing, all Nightmares that you defeat will only grant one Link Point no matter how strong they were, so you end up having to devote your time to your Dream Eaters if you hope to get anywhere fast. The game does provide a way to do so, but in the form of a full-blown virtual pet simulator, where you can stroke/pet your Dream Eaters for more EXP, Affection and Link Points, or you can use a number of training toys, which usually cost Munny, to speed up the process. Due to my time constraints with borrowing the game, I became frustrated after a while from having to do this to get the most out of my Dream Eaters, not helped by how the aforementioned petting/stroking with the stylus for a while is the only way to change their disposition, and changing a Dream Eater to all four of their dispositions is the only way to unlock more spaces on the Link Board. When you’re strapped for time or simply don’t care about virtual pet simulators, the process is a pretty tedious one to go through for the chance at the most useful commands/abilities (Protip: use the Water Barrel training toy). However, I’m aware that there are those who would buy this game specifically because of the virtual pet elements, as well as those who would enjoy this aspect regardless, so this is really more of a selling point if you’re in that camp (and there’s nothing wrong with that).

Beyond the combat, there are a couple of things which provide extra gameplay, those being the Link Portals and Flick Rush mini-game. Link Portals are like a sort of challenge mode, where you complete certain objectives with specific conditions for the chance to get Dream Pieces. Due to my time constraints, I ended up not using any of these (my apologies), although I know that people have used Link Portals to farm some particularly hard to get Dream Pieces, as well as the fact that certain portals are next to impossible to complete, so go at your own risk. Flick Rush is a bit different though, kind of like the Mirage Arena from Birth by Sleep with some major differences. In Flick Rush, you use cards like in Chain of Memories to have your three Dream Eaters fight against other teams of Dream Eaters to complete Flick Rush Cups. Each victory grants Medal Points, which you can spend at the Medal Shop for new commands and items. Flick Rush is actually a little fun, with a system that is easily addicting and is a good gateway to obtaining more Balloon spells. Plus, you can play Flick Rush with other people via the 3DS’ StreetPass functionality. Also notable is that, as far as I’m aware, this is the first Kingdom Hearts game with post-game play, meaning you can continue even after the credits roll, so the game now has further replay value, including a New Game+ feature where you can carry your Dream Eaters and abilities over to the next playthrough; always a good inclusion.

Before I really move on, I’d like to mention one great feature: Mementos. Due to the placement of Dream Drop Distance within the chronology of the franchise, there’s quite a bit of continuity lockout involved in the story (ie. starting with this game is like starting Metal Gear with Guns of the Patriots or Ground Zeroes). Thankfully, whenever something revolving around a previous plot point comes up, the game will automatically unlock a Memento summarizing a previous game. This is a really good idea for helping people that really are starting with this game, although as a veteran I find that there’s a downside. Yes the summaries are pretty comprehensive, but the way they are written is such that the information given is most important to the part of the story where it was unlocked, so you’re not really getting the full story or the entire context for certain scenes. For the purposes of Dream Drop Distance it works reasonably well, but to truly understand what’s going on, it’s best to experience the story through HD 1.5 and HD 2.5 Remix beforehand.

Or just get this.

For a 3DS game, Dream Drop Distance has some very impressive graphics. While obviously not quite as good as the HD Remixes, it does rival or even exceed the capabilities of Birth by Sleep or the PS2 entries (I’d chalk this up to more advanced technology). Everything is very clear thanks to the bright color palette and I like the designs of the Dream Eaters as well as Sora and Riku. The Disney-based worlds also maintain their unique visual style very well, although The Grid, based on Tron: Legacy, has the same problem as Port Royal from Kingdom Hearts II whenever the human characters share the screen with Sora or Riku, creating an unsettling contrast in styles. In know that characters from The World Ends With You are also included in the game, but since I have no prior experience with the game, I can’t really say how faithful they are represented visually or vocally.

Speaking of vocals, the voice acting is great as usual, with all of the Disney characters sounding how you’d expect them to sound, though I think Jiminy Cricket was a little different in his voice this time around from what I remember (well, it is a different voice actor after all). Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher both continue to do a great job respectively as Sora and Riku, although they are, for some reason, in younger bodies through most of the game, so it sounds weird to hear the adult voices coming out of them in this case. The original characters also continue to have great voices, though it’s understandable if some players are getting tired of Axel due to his increasing plot presence and screen time.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is a rather interesting game. The combat remains fun, but the problem with command timers and the need to take care of Dream Eaters to get the most out of them is a bit of a drag (for me due to the conditions I was under). But despite its flaws, the game is very fun to play and if I had my own 3DS and copy of the game, I would totally play it again. The story, though confusing, makes a lot of sense when you sit and think about it and there was a surprising thrill from getting past the difficult bosses while a little under-leveled, with a huge adrenaline rush after defeating them. All Kingdom Hearts fans should play this, no matter how much of the legendary hype they got sucked into, and new fans could theoretically start with this game, but as I said before, it’s really for the best to go through the HD Remixes on PS3 first.

And with all of that said, just remember: this leads to Kingdom Hearts III.

But first...

Hidden Figures (2016)

Hidden Figures (2016) Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner,  Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons. Directed by Theodore Melfi. Screenplay by Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi. Based on the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams, Theodore Melfi. Run Time: 127 minutes. USA Biography, History

It is not often that a film can be as effective as Hidden Figures is. Telling the real-life stories of Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) and her close friends, Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer). Despite their intelligence, these women are held back by the times they lived in. Not only are they working in a male-dominant industry, aerospace, but they are also Black in a time of racial segregation in the South. They work at NASA, which at the time was based in Langley, Virginia.

The three actresses and the women they depict from left to right: Taraji P. Henson plays  Katherine
Goble Johnson; Janelle Monáe plays Mary Jackson; and Octavia Spencer plays Dorothy Vaughan.

But despite the cards being stacked against them, these women rise through the ranks at NASA, where they become not only barrier breakers, but they also become valued members of the team that would send the first seven American astronauts into space and eventually send a man to the moon. These were definitely both exciting and turbulent times in America, both of which are addressed in the film.

While the film shows these women as victims of prejudice, they don’t stay victims for too long. Not only does Katherine show her worth to Al Harrison, director of the Space Task Group (Kevin Costner), and his assistant, Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons), but with the encouragement of NASA engineer Karl Zielinski (Olek Krupa) and her own gumption, Jackson gets into classes she needs at an all-White school to get an Engineering degree.

Meanwhile, Vaughan, who is under-appreciated by her own supervisor Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst), manages to save the women in her group by getting in on the ground floor of computer programming. These are very inspiring stories of women who are finally getting the recognition they deserve for their duty to country.

While their work is important, the film gives about equal time to their personal lives with church and family playing large roles. Additionally, Katherine, a widow with three children, meets and marries Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali), a former National Guardsman.

The women rely on each other as well as their families to get through the hard times at work.

Everyone in the cast is excellent and the film does a very good job of capturing the moment in time. Things were changing, but too slowly. The women’s contributions and importance led to the breaking of barriers at NASA. It was eye-opening to see how segregated the operation was, not only by color but also by sex. More than once, Stafford tells Katherine that it is not the color barrier she’s breaking, but that women are not allowed in some of the meetings she wants to attend.

Katherine Johnson stands out in more ways than one surrounded by her co-workers at NASA.

With the earliest Mercury launches as the backdrop, it was nice to see the depiction of John Glenn (Glen Powell). The last time I’d seen him depicted as part of the story of America in space, The Right Stuff (1983), I think he was depicted as a bit of a goody-two-shoes. Here he gets depicted more as someone who goes out of his way to not only acknowledge these women’s contributions but also relies on Katherine’s calculations before he will let the launch of Friendship Seven go forward.

John Glenn (Glen Powell) is depicted as more than a goody-two-shoes in Hidden Figures.

This is really a very involving film. The audience can get caught up with the uncertainty of space travel, even though we know how the Mercury story ultimately ends. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but at the end of the screening, the audience broke out in applause. If you don’t find yourself drawn into the movie, then there is really something wrong with you.

Stubs - The Endless Summer

The Endless Summer (1966) Starring: Mike Hynson, Robert August. Narrated by Bruce Brown. Directed by Bruce Brown. Written by Bruce Brown. Produced by Bruce Brown.  Run Time: 95 minutes. United States. Color. Documentary

If you have ever eaten at an Island’s Restaurant, no doubt you’ve seen footage of snow skiers and surf riders that they used to show on an almost endless loop. They can be fascinating to watch. If you’re expecting The Endless Summer, Bruce Brown’s ode to traveling the globe looking for the perfect wave, to be more of the same, then you will be sadly mistaken. There is much more to The Endless Summer than simply footage of surfers and waves, though there is plenty of both.

Bruce Brown was no novice to filmmaking, having begun in 1957 after his discharge from the Navy with the film Slippery When Wet, a film he was paid $5000 to make to promote the Velzy surf team, sponsored by Dale Velzy, then the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Manufacturer” of Surfboards. An avid surfer himself, Brown would document the rise of what was then a cult sport, as he continued to make movies: Surf Crazy (1959), Barefoot Adventure (1960) and Surfing Hollow Days (1961).

For five years, the pattern had been pretty much the same. Brown would shoot a film during the fall and winter months, edit during the spring and take the film on a four-wall tour during the summer. By 1962, he was thinking if he could spend longer making a film, but he knew he would need more money. To raise the $50,000 he figured he would need, he had made Water-Logged (1962) from what he thought was the best footage from his previous films.

The original intention may have been to make a film about surfing in South Africa, but during the planning stages that idea changed. When he approached a travel agent about tickets, Brown was informed that the price of a round-trip between Los Angeles and Cape Town would cost $50 more than just circumnavigating the globe. Suddenly, the film was expanded to the idea of following summer around the planet.

To make this film, Brown decided to take the first two surfers who could afford to pay their own ways. Those two, Mike Hynson and Robert August, portrayed as wholesome friends in the films, were anything but. Neither man knew the other before the filming.

August, the brown-haired one, was a recent high school graduate who put off going to college for a year at the suggestion of his parents and counselors to take advantage of this once in a lifetime adventure. Hynson, the blonde, was older and was already becoming a part of the “counter-culture” that was beginning to take hold in America at the time. He had also been arrested for stealing surf boards from Hobie Alter. Alter not only forgave Hynson, but lent him the money to make the trip. Hynson was also interested in getting out of the states to avoid the draft and a free ticket to Vietnam.

Robert August and Mike Hynson make their way to their plane at LAX.

At the beginning of the film, the two are seen dressed in business suits carrying their surfboards as they get on a plane headed to Senegal. There they not only have to stay at an expensive $30 a night government-run hotel, but they were the first to surf the waters off that country. Their next stop was Ghana, where they introduced surfing to several villagers by the sea. They were also taken on a guided-tour by a wily taxi-driver who did it for gas money. Gasoline at the time sold in Ghana for $1 a gallon, considered a gyp to the travelers, but would now be considered a bargain price.

Scenes of the first surfing off the coast of Ghana.

The surfing gets better when the boys reach South Africa, where there is a small but devoted group of surfers in Cape Town. On a surfing safari, they are taken to the beach where the local surfers crowd on the waves. Seeking more open spaces, the boys, including Brown, hitch a ride with Terence Bullen and his son, who were driving across the country to Durban off the Indian Ocean. It was at Cape St. Francis that Brown took some of his best footage and, rather than sending it back to the states to be processed and edited, he carried it with him for the rest of the trip.

On their way to the perfect waves at Cape St. Francis in South Africa, the boys and their guide surfed down the sand dunes.

Their trip took them to Bombay, India, where there was a layover. While not part of the film, they did have their own adventure. They had heard Indian customs was confiscating cameras to avoid filming at holy sites by tourists. To avoid detection, Hynson went through his screening with several 16mm film canisters strapped to him under his suit.

From there it was on to Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii, where Hynson and August continued to surf the waters, but they were no longer the oddities they had been in Africa.

There are the occasional shots of beach bunnies and women surfers in The Endless Summer.

When they returned to the states, Brown completed editing the footage and began showing it at some small venues like he had with his other films in 1964. But this time it was clear to him that he had a hit. The film showed for a week at the Santa Monica Auditorium. While August went off to college, Brown, Hynson and some other surfers took the film on a tour around the country.

Despite their success on the road, Brown still had not found a Hollywood distributor by 1966. When he was told that it wouldn’t play 10 minutes away from the beach, Brown rented out a theater in Wichita, Kansas for two weeks starting on February 9, 1966. With some good marketing, the film played to sold out crowds.

Next, Brown blew up the film from 16mm to 35mm and rented a theater in New York, Kips Bay Theater. There he received positive reviews and the film had a successful run. Finally, there was interest from the big distributors, but most wanted to change the poster, by adding bikini clad girls to it or change the movie by adding a love-interest. The only one who didn’t want to change anything was Don Rugoff of Cinema 5 distribution.

The film turned out to be a big success, eventually making about $30 million total, making Brown very wealthy. Hynson and August thought they were owed something for the success of the film and went to see Brown, then living in Santa Barbara. Brown tried to placate them with $5,000 cash, a new car and help with starting a business. While August took him up on the offer, Hynson didn’t. A drug dealer by then, Hynson didn’t need the money, having $15,000 in his trunk, but he would later try to sue Brown and August.

In 1994, Brown would release a sequel, The Endless Summer II, in which two younger surfers, Pat O'Connell and Robert "Wingnut" Weaver, retrace Hynson’s and August’s trip. Nine years later, Bruce’s son Dana would release his own surfing film, Step Into Liquid (2003), which follows the evolution of the sport.

Not only did this film inspire many to take up wave riding and for surfers to travel, but it also had an influence, good or bad, on Hollywood. The search for the endless summer, and affording it, drives surfers into bank robbery in Point Break (1991), a film starring Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey and Lori Petty.

Watching The Endless Summer is a bit of a nostalgic ride back into a much simpler time. The film avoids the politics of the day, from the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, which happened while they were on the road, nor does it mention the Vietnam War, which was ramping up at the time.

The Endless Summer is not the stodgy documentary that we may think of when hear the word. The film was as much about entertainment as it was about education. Not only is Brown’s narration oftentimes comical, but he sort of fudges some of the details. The most extreme example is one scene that was shot later in Orange County, that makes it look like August and Hynson were surprised in the bush by a local chieftain, who was actually promoter R. Paul Allen in blackface.

Visual joke from the film shows the name of the gas station in Ghana with the high-priced petrol.

Rather than just being a linear tale of Hynson and August, which could get sometimes tedious, Brown intersperses footage from Hawaii and Malibu involving other surfers. While it breaks up the flow of the story, it does illustrate the informal approach Brown has towards the genre.

While we have come to an almost invasive approach to sports camera work, most of the film is shot from the vantage point of the beach. Instead of a microscopic view, we see full rides, even if they might have been two edited into one, which Brown has admitted to doing.

If you look at The Endless Summer as a documentary of surfing around the world in the early 1960s, you are going to be partially disappointed. While there is some of that, especially when it comes to Africa, that really isn’t the focus of the film. If you think of it as documenting two friends on an epic voyage searching for the best waves, then you’ll be disappointed there as well. Hynson and August were not only strangers thrown together, but they didn’t, as the film suggests, actually plan their trip; Brown did. The two boys were really just players in Brown’s film. In some ways, this is a precursor to "reality" shows on television, in which players react to situations they are put in and any drama is created through editing.

The Endless Summer may not be a great documentary, but it is a great surf film. A lot of fun to watch, The Endless Summer is a nostalgic look back on an era that never really existed through the eyes of two total strangers pretending to be friends. But bottom line, it is really quite enjoyable to watch, even for those of us that have never been on a longboard.

One Piece Film: Gold

In case you’re unfamiliar with One Piece, it’s a long-running series about a boy named Monkey D. Luffy who assembles a motley crew of pirates who wish to fulfill their dreams as he sets sail across the ocean to find the legendary One Piece and become King of the Pirates. The lasting popularity of One Piece has spawned a large amount of tie-in material, including merchandise, video games and movies. The thirteenth movie, One Piece Film: Gold, is the latest of these movies and the English dub received a limited theatrical run in America. While I haven’t kept up on much of anything outside of the main series, I decided to take this unique chance to see One Piece on the big screen.

Following the events of the Dressrosa Arc, the Straw Hat Pirates are flat broke. In the hopes of making some money, the crew arrive on Gran Tesoro, a floating island and independent country resembling Las Vegas. As the crew indulges in a huge winning streak, the country’s ruler and main entertainer, Gild Tesoro (Keith Silverstein), shows his true colors after he forces Luffy (Colleen Clinkenbeard) to lose all of their money in an all-or-nothing gamble and imprisons the Straw Hat crew member Roronoa Zoro (Chris Sabat) within pure gold. To prevent Zoro’s execution, the crew must now figure out how to repay their debt before 12:00 the next night.

Gild Tesoro (Keith Silverstein) rules Gran Tesoro with the power of the Gold-Gold Fruit.

Although the story is non-canon, it does a good job keeping One Piece fans entertained throughout. The story is pretty straightforward, although the third act muddies itself a little amidst several reveals of double- and triple-crosses and outright deception (managing to make plans before someone else’s plans). Certain elements also echo previous One Piece arcs, though this doesn’t detract from the enjoyability as the movie is able to weave these ideas together into an engaging whole. However, viewers who aren’t One Piece fans may easily find themselves lost in places without some sort of primer, as the main characters aren’t explained in any form apart from their names and bounties. This extends to Gild Tesoro, who has a simultaneously simple and complex motivation, although a bit of iconography present in his backstory would only make sense to longtime fans.

That said, the animation is very smooth and visually impressive in its blending of traditional and minimal CG elements. The character models all look more impressive than their television counterparts, likely due to the movie having a higher budget, and the abundant amounts of gold are all very well-rendered, which certainly helps with illustrating Gild Tesoro’s power to manipulate gold. By extension, the impressive animation also makes the climactic battles a visual spectacle. The generally bright color palette of the series is also complimented by lighting which helps with balancing and highlighting the serious and comedic aspects of the story. Particularly observant One Piece fans may also notice Easter eggs in the form of cameo appearances by characters from previous arcs.

One Piece Film: Gold is easy to recommend to One Piece fans, as it is a very entertaining filler movie with an engaging story and a one-off villain with a surprising amount of backstory. The animation and fight scenes are also impressive and the humor is a good contrast to the relatively serious tone. Viewers who weren’t fans to begin with may not enjoy it as deeply, but with the right primer from a fan, they might have an easier time swallowing the main concepts and following along with the plot, though they may still get lost in places.

Arrival

Arrival (2016) Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg. Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Screenplay by: Eric Heisserer. Based on Short Story: "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, David Linde Run Time: 116 min. U.S.A. Science Fiction, Fantasy

Films about encounters with aliens from space are nothing new; Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., The Thing From Another World, Galaxy Quest, This Island Earth, It Came From Outer Space, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Independence Day and 20 Million Miles to Earth come to mind, to name a few. What sets one apart from another is taking a different approach to the topic. Arrival, which arrived in theaters back in November, does that, examining the encounter as a linguistics challenge.

When 12 monolithic spaceships show up at different locations around the globe, the U.S. military, in the form of Colonel GT Weber (Forest Whitaker), come to Louise Banks (Amy Adams) for help. They’ve had some brief encounters with the aliens, but they don’t understand what they’re saying, so they come back to Banks, who had helped translate some Farsi for the military earlier, to see what she can make of their language.

The aliens' language is pretty hard to decipher in Arrival.

Joining Banks on the encounters is Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist, also recruited by Weber. Over a period of months, Banks is able to decipher the aliens' language, but she is not the only one working on the project. There are eleven other groups around the world working on the same issue, but with different interpretations of the aliens' language and that spells trouble.

Since the film is still in theaters, I won’t go any further into the plot than that, except to say there’s more to the story than the alien encounter and its aftermath. Louise has a painful past that also impacts her and how she works through the problems presented by the encounter.

Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, a renowned linguist called into help with an Alien language in Arrival.

While that might be intriguing enough, the film takes things a step further, and maybe a step too far, as it makes an obvious effort to play with the concept of time; making it seem non-linear. Is that a memory from the past or the remembrance of a future event? That makes things extra and overly complicated.

Jeremy Renner plays Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist also brought in on the encounter.

The acting is pretty good. All three of the leads do good work here. It is well-known by now that Adams is being considered for the Golden Globes and there is buzz about the Academy Awards, you know because NBC wants us to think the Golden Globes are pre-cursors to the Oscars. Jeremy Renner, who is perhaps best known as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, proves that he is a good actor as well. Whitaker hardly ever disappoints and that’s true again in Arrival. I don't think the man gets enough of the accolades he deserves. The minor characters are good as well with Michael Stuhlbarg making the most of his somewhat stereotypical role as a CIA agent.

Forest Whitaker as Colonel Webber in charge of the U.S. encounter.

Any film with aliens requires a certain amount of special effects, but this film seems to keep them reined in. Arrival is not as dependent on them as say Close Encounters or Independence Day. Instead, the film is more introspective than those, making it less dependent on really wowing you into submission. The aliens, who for the most part are never seen in detail, reminded me of Octopuses. This is reinforced as they appear to communicate with humans through an inky substance they excrete.

But the film fails on several fronts. To begin with, the film never really explains how Louise does what she does. I know, linguistics sounds about as exciting as dishwater, but when that is the main focus of a film, a cursory explanation, even if it’s made up, might have helped me connect with her better. I see that she gets it done, but I’m not sure how. All I know is that if you spend enough time at something the code will get broken. Now Ian does help with the breakthrough, but his explanation is more math than anything else, which frankly makes it more confusing than ever. I don’t like it when films try to bowl you over with a lot of $13.99-sounding words to hide the fact that it can’t explain what is really happening in the story.

The film sort of ends without really resolving its two main issues. The aliens just disappear all at once, so that problem resolves itself. There are vague reasons why they came in the first place, but nothing concrete, though one gets the idea they’ll definitely be back. The film likes to credit them with bringing the world together, but we have that, it’s called the United Nations and it doesn’t work as well as it should. Aliens are not going to change that.

The time issue that the film sets up is sort of left dangling as well. One of the benefits of being able to look ahead, one would think, would be to know what pitfalls lie ahead and to avoid them, but that’s definitely not what Louise does. Even knowing what is going to happen in her life, because it has already happened, does not prevent Louise from making the same mistakes again. She seems to have figured out some things, we hear cryptic utterings, but we don’t know if that new knowledge will have any effect on her choices.

While I wanted to like Arrival, the film didn’t live up to my expectations. Louise is a likable character, but she goes on this great journey and ends up right back where she started, no better off than she was at the start. We as the audience unconsciously expect that our heroes and heroines will somehow grow or be changed by their experiences, but in this case Arrival does not meet that expectation.

I’ll give Arrival style points, but I could not recommend it to others.

Moana

I will admit I first had some hesitation to see Moana, if only because of the bits that the trailers decided to focus on, which gave me the impression it would be extremely silly. However, after attending a seminar about the movie featuring animation legend Eric Goldberg, who had a hand in the movie’s production, my opinion changed and I became very interested in seeing it. Though I wasn’t able to actually see it until the very end of 2016 due to the high number of movies I had seen that year, I still didn’t expect a perfect movie going in, however I came out having seen what turned out to be a very well-executed musical about Pacific Island mythology.

From a young age, Moana Waialiki (Louise Bush) has been attracted to the sea, wishing to explore the ocean beyond the island shores of Motunui in spite of constant warnings from her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison). Years later, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) makes the discovery that her tribe once explored the ocean, however that changed once the heart of island goddess Te Fiti was stolen by the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), causing darkness to fall upon the ocean and slowly destroy all life. After having received the heart of Te Fiti, a magical stone, from her grandmother Tala (Rahcel House), Moana makes it her mission to find Maui so he can return the heart to its rightful place and restore balance to the world.

The story itself is told at a good pace and there’s some pretty clever humor throughout, although it does only once briefly resort to a bladder joke for a quick laugh. A lot of the humor is otherwise found involving the actions of Heihei, an idiot rooster that ends up as a stowaway on Moana’s journey. While I’m not an expert on Pacific Island culture, I can say that, from whatever I do know, the story is an interesting take on Pacific Island mythos while still having its own identity as a well-written plot.

The animation of Moana is really amazing, particularly in the animation of hair and water (especially the latter). During a section of the story involving a fight against a giant coconut crab, there is a really interesting display of shining and glow-in-the-dark effects, fitting in with the mood set by that segment’s song (more on that later). Even more impressive is the animation for Mini Maui, a smaller figure within Maui’s body tattoos that acts as Maui’s conscience, considering that all of its actions are actually traditional animation. Having gone in with that knowledge, I was amazed by how Mini Maui was able to interact with not only Maui’s other tattoos in what presumably a combination of a traditional and CG space, but also Maui himself, who is animated in CG, and so it made me appreciate the effort that must have gone into making these seamless interactions possible.

Maui (Dwayne Johnson), animated in CG, with the tattooed Mini Maui,
animated traditionally.

Being a musical, you’d expect the music to be good, and in this case that is correct. While there seemed to only be a handful of songs, each of them is well-done and help explain things about the characters without interfering with the plot; a particular favorite of mine is “You’re Welcome,” a song about Maui that explains his view on the world and reveals Dwayne Johnson’s singing talents (plus, in context, it shows another impressive blend of traditional and CG animation). While also pretty okay, “Shiny,” sung by the coconut crab, Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), seems to drag a little (it overall lasts about 3+ minutes), though it still doesn’t do any major harm to the narrative flow. The voice acting itself is also well-casted, especially since most of the voice actors they did cast could also sing in scenes that required it (the exception being Chief Tui, as Christopher Jackson provides his singing voice). One interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit is that actual Pacific Islanders were among at least a majority of the voice cast for authenticity (I only found out through hearing this that Dwayne Johnson is himself a Pacific Islander, specifically Samoan).

Preceding the main feature is a new, Inside Out-esque short titled Inner Workings, about the goings-on of a man’s body as he prepares for a normal working day while simultaneously wishing to indulge in outside pleasures along the way. The short itself is actually pretty good animation-wise, as it tells the entire story without any dialogue, and it manages to be pretty funny throughout. My only issue is with the presence of a couple bladder jokes, including one similar to the one present in Moana, though this didn’t take much away from my overall opinion.

Overall, Moana is a very enjoyable Disney movie. It’s truly amazing to see what can be done with CG in terms of water physics, plus it’s nice to see the integration of traditional animation in an interesting way. The songs in the movie are also well-written and largely memorable, making for one of Disney’s better musical features and one of their better movies in recent years. There is also an after-credits scene in this one, so be sure to stay until the end.

Passengers

Passengers (2016) Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy García. Directed by Morten Tyldum. Screenplay by Jon Spaihts. Produced by Neal H. Moritz. Stephen Hamel, Michael Maher, Ori Marmur Run Time: 116 minutes.U.S.A. Color. Science Fiction, Fantasy

While Hollywood loves to rely on sequels and prequels and whatever you want to call the MCU, there are occasionally original stories that make it to the screen. Passengers appears to be one of those movies. There is no book it's based on, nor a previous film in a series.

That sadly does not mean it's entirely original nor that it is really good.

Without giving too much away, the story revolves around two people on a 120-year-long voyage from Earth to Homestead II, a planet that has been settled by the Homestead Corporation, yes even space will eventually get commercialized if you believe this film. Passengers aboard the ship spend all but the last four months of the voyage in suspended animation with the crew getting one month less sleep before landing.

But that's not what happens. Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanic hoping to go to a world where he can build things, is awoken 90 years too early, an error he doesn't become aware of until the next day. All the systems that are available to passengers are working and Jim is moved along as if nothing is the matter. It is when he goes to orientation that he realizes he is alone.

His only companion is Arthur (Michael Sheen), a robot bartender. That is until Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) is awoken. The how and whys are a secret to her. Needless to say, that will remain mum here as well so as not to give away too much of the plot. But when she finds out, things change rapidly.

The writer, Jon Spaihts, must have found himself in a corner, because he needed a Deus Ex Machina to get him out. Enter Chief Gus Mancuso (Laurence Fishburne), the chief deck officer, who suddenly is brought out of his suspended animated state. Mancuso also neatly exits once he is no longer needed to the plot. While you have to give Spaihts credit for finding a way out, it does point to a flaw in the film. The story comes to a point of no return with about an hour to go. It needs the introduction of a third character to get it back on track.

With their short term predicament resolved, but their long term one impossible to fix, Aurora and Jim, we're told, make the best of the years they spend alone in space.

Now, there are moments of high drama and personal introspection to go along with the space travel, which is dangerous enough.

There are other problems which the movie doesn't address, which means the viewer really has to suspend their disbelief to get past. One of them is the premise of the story; not that a corporation would own a planet, but that you could do commerce with a 120 year lag time. Once you get past that, there is the issue of how they could have colonized a planet such a great distance from Earth. If it took 120 years to get to and you were missing a part, it would take 240 years to get one. They establish that communication with Earth would take years if not decades. That doesn't seem to work well with decision-making or emergencies. By the time supplies would get back and forth, they would be outdated at best, as technology doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Not only would have transportation bypassed the current means, but just think about how many versions of the iPhone a Homesteader would be behind.

There are some really good special effects and ones that are very imaginative, but that's not enough to save the film.

Neither are the stars. This seems to be a match made in Hollywood heaven. Neither Jennifer Lawrence or Chris Pratt ever seem to be in bad movies or box office duds, They are a very likable pair individually and they make a somewhat believable chemistry; don't all beautiful people?

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence make a good-looking couple.

While Fishburne may have a small role, he is a welcomed relief in some ways, though we almost know from the beginning that he won't last. Michael Sheen is an enjoyable robot for both Jim and Aurora to bounce ideas off of. Sheen seems to be making a career out of playing barkeeps in science fiction films; remember Tron: Legacy?

Michael Sheen plays a robot barkeep in Passengers.

And if you're going because Andy Garcia is in it, don't. He might have the biggest credit in a film for doing so little. I don't even think he speaks a word of dialogue in his seconds of screentime. Now, there is a role just about anyone could have played. One suspects his scenes were cut, since no one of his stature was needed for the part.

Overall, I'm happy I went, but I would not recommend Passengers. There are too many other films out that are probably better. Unless you're just crazy for sci-fi space films, then you might want to look elsewhere to spend your entertainment dollar.