Reviews by Robin Drew

One of the very few horror movies I own, Aliens was one of the few sequels that actually improved on the original movie. Its interesting to note that the director's cut, which often is worse than the original, to my mind is essential viewing. It adds a scene giving us a glimpse of the colonists just before they discover the aliens, explains why Ripley is so obsessed with Newt, and the sentry guns show the marines do have some other tricks up their sleeves.

The characters in this film really do stand out, from the backstabbing company man Burke, to the marines Hudson and Vasquez, and of course Riply herself.

Although fairly old now, it still stands the test of time fairly well in most scenes, although as with so many older Sci-Fi films you have to turn a blind eye to the dated monitor screens and graphics.

Overall a great movie, marking the high point in a franchise that crashed after this movie.

Having enjoyed Alias, even though I am not particularly a fan of Jennifer Garner, I was interested to watch Nikita and see what it had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to find it very engaging and enjoyable. Although it has its tense moments it is not a dark series. It contains lots for the guys, action and death every episode, and of course two sexy strong female leads.

I have read criticism based on the fact it is not true to the original Nikita series/film. Having not seen either I can judge the series on its merits as a stand alone production, and its very well put together.

This game is essentially TA2, anyone who played the original can confirm this and will find the game very accessible because of it. It has a lot of really good features that make it a worthy successor to TA.

The zooming map is impressive and although it takes some getting used to, and does have the downside of not giving you a mini-map, it really does function well.

Unlike some games that go resource crazy, the whole resource system is tied in tightly to only two resources Mass & Energy. Mass is the limiting factor as its sources are are few and far between, although it can be converted from Energy giving an ultimately limitless supply.

The super-units are very impressive to use although building even one takes a huge amount of resources and time. Once one is walking across the map however, you can see its effectiveness as it wipes out entire armies!

The only failing I have noted during recent online games is that it is possible to rush and overpower an enemy at the start as defences are so slow to build. I am sure they will solve this in future updates and overall it does not stop this game from being an instant classic.

The best RTS for years, if you love RTS it is an essential purchase!

Based around the characters from and drawing heavily on imagery from the original Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes 4/5/6), is quite possibly what helped make these books so successful. I have noticed that the characters are often placed in similar situations to those faced in the movies, but with sufficiently different circumstances to make it easy to visualise and yet still a great read at the same time.

The original characters are developed well, with Luke struggling to find his way as the last Jedi in the universe and Han & Leia trying to protect their unborn twins from repeated kidnap attempts. All the other characters we love are all there and Lando is brought in early on and gets tangled up in it with them.

Of the new characters, Mara Jade keeps you wondering with a mysterious past, some limited ability to use the force and deep hatred for Luke. Also the insane Jedi Master, who is obsessed with making Luke his apprentice and taking the unborn twins from Leia, tests Luke to the limits.

However what really made this story excellent for me was the addition of Thrawn, the awe-inspiring Grand Admiral who has taken hold of the Imperial Fleet and begins running rings around the fledgling New Republic with his military genius. While at the same time you know he is the bad guy, I could not help but find myself rooting for him half the time!

If you let yourself get immersed in it and try to ignore one or two minor inconsistencies and perhaps the over-reliance on situations from the films, it feels like the perfect continuation. Quite frankly I am not sure anyone could have done better even Lukas himself.

A brilliant movie, there is little i can add to the main review other than to say WATCH THIS! The violence is fast & brutal while managing to stay short of becoming too gorey or stomach twisting. The black and white with a splash of colour really adds to it, and i didn't even realise that virtually all the backgrounds were 100% CG.

I only hope the next movie is as good as this.

Excellent closing chapter to the Matrix Trilogy. This is more the movie the second one should have been. It draws us into Zion and the fierce and futile struggle the defenders put up against the unstoppable machine horde, and leave us wondering how Neo's journey to the machine city will ever win the war...

The first Movie is clearly the best, the second is the worst and this the third and final movie is a spectacular if not entirely original ending. I have heard many mixed reviews, but if you settle without the huge expectations generated by the first movie, i feel you will enjoy it!