Of course, there will be spoilers... You have been warned! But I seriously doubt that anyone who's old enough to read this blog could have gotten through life without hearing the plot of most of these books anyway... And if you are, by chance, someone who has never read the Chronicles of Narnia? Shame on you!

Let me say right now, before I get into anything else, that you should stop what you're doing and go see this movie right now, and no excuses. I know there's going to be some people out there who are going to balk at the idea of watching a movie steeped with religious overtones, but, Christian doctrine aside, it's a good family-friendly fantasy movie that needs support to encourage more movies like it! Plus, we all want to see if they can get past The Silver Chair like the BBC movies were unable to do. That being said, here's the review:

It is vastly different from the book. I can hear the groans and cries of disappointment already, but hear me out. I'm not usually tolerant of changes, but I realize why they had to do it. Even in the first movie, when Edmund was heading toward the Witch's castle, they had the beavers and the rest of the kids follow him to pretty near the doorstep. That didn't happen in the book, but I could see why they did it: They needed to get the point across that no matter how angry they were with him, they still wanted him safe, and I think they managed that when Peter tried running down the hill and Mister Beaver stopped him.

That being said, the Prince Caspian movie was very nearly completely out of order with a major battle scene inserted that simply wasn't there in the book. It starts off with Caspian being whisked out of his castle with the birth of his uncle's son, not with the kids sitting on the bench at the train station heading back to school. Caspian is chased through the forest and is knocked off his horse. The commotion pulls a couple of dwarves from their tree who are then forced to fight the people chasing Caspian. One dwarf is taken, and Caspian somehow winds up inside the tree. (I'm going on memory from last week, so some details might be sketchy.) He wakes up, he learns he's in a tree with a dwarf (Nikabrik) and a badger... They present him with Susan's horn, leave the tree, and are pursued by more Telmarines who are quickly dispatched by a gang of mice! Somewhere around this time, Caspian blows the horn and then the movie cuts to the kids at the train station. It is worthy to note that Caspian never blew the horn until they were deeply entrenched in Aslan's How and about to be defeated by Miraz's troops. The dwarf, Trumpkin, was NOT captured by Miraz's forces and then taken to the castle... He was sent to find the kids after Caspian blew the horn and was captured only right before he met the kids.

Very neat scene then follows where the train station is torn apart and the kids are left standing in a cave on a beach... Before this, however, Peter was deep in a fight with other guys of his school and were only broken up when some British soldiers showed up. This was also not in the book in the least bit, BUT... I think it provided some... Background? Imagine... They were kings and queens of greatest renown in Narnia and are suddenly thrown back into the real world. There are going to be some problems adjusting to life, and I think Peter's fight and the reasons for the fight helped show that. It gave an ounce of believability.

They learn the beach they showed up on was the beach below their ruined castle Cair Paravel. They find the treasure room... This part is accurate! And it was incredibly chilling how they filmed this part. Very quiet music... A sense of desolation and ruin mixed with the life of overgrown trees and plants. It gave the clear sense that, to them, they'd just left, and now here's their home for 30 years completely destroyed and abandoned. It would be sad and just plain CREEPY, but somehow awesome at the same time. Very nicely handled! But then they meet Trumpkin and are led directly to Caspian who has not yet reached Aslan's How. In the book, they first met Caspian when he was watching them attempt to revive the White Witch. Very departed from the book here... A little disappointing, but I understand the need to inject some excitement into the film. Honestly, in my opinion, Prince Caspian was the least of all seven books. It was sparse, the story was light, and it just felt like a sequel. I don't think it would have been a good movie if WAS accurate and all you did was watch Caspian be beaten repeatedly by Miraz's forces.

Along the way, the movie kept the parts where Lucy kept claiming to see Aslan and nobody would believe her, except Edmund. (Who still didn't believe enough to follow her.) Except they made her dream about the trees, when, in the book, it was real. Also, in the book, the kids found Aslan before they met Caspian. There was a huge party in the forest and the trees woke up and all that... Left out in the movie. Well, not entirely. They met Aslan only after the dual with Miraz when they sent Susan and Lucy to look for him. Entirely wrong, but, eh... It worked, I think.

So after they meet Caspian and reach Aslan's How, Peter assumes control of the army and organizes a force to raid Miraz's castle. Here follows a MASSIVE part of the movie that was not at all in the book, period. I would have been incredibly upset, but, again, I think it worked. The mood of the book was that nobody believed in Aslan anymore and only Lucy was the one who could see him at first. I think the whole castle invasion worked in the sense that it showed that nobody was willing to look for Aslan FIRST and that they were going to do things their way, because they didn't want to wait for Aslan's own time. They send an invading force that breaches the perimeter by using griffons (VERY awesome). Of course, it doesn't at all go well and they lose half of their army in the process... They retreat back to Aslan's How and only then decide to try the whole duel approach to solving the problem. In the book, it was really only Susan who didn't believe in Aslan anymore (which becomes a recurring event in later books). Edmund and Peter seemed to acknowledge that Aslan MIGHT be nearby, but weren't ready to trust him, and the dwarf was just plain anti-Aslan to the extreme. I think the movie made it far more clear that nobody (except Lucy) was willing to trust Aslan with their lives without some sort of proof, and decided to take things into their own hands and were dealt some pretty nasty blows.

Things start getting a little more on track from here on out. Duel happens, Miraz is murdered by his own men and they accuse the Narnians and a battle ensues. Aslan and the trees come to the rescue and the army is defeated and Caspian is crowned king in Miraz's old castle. Aslan offers the Telmarines a return to Earth through a portal nobody could see through, and the Telmarines were too afraid to go through, save for a handful, who were promised a good life for being the first to trust Aslan. When none of the others would attempt passage, Peter said it was time for them to go, and they departed through the portal.

As you can see... Major departure from the book's progression, but, as a whole, I think it conveyed the same points as the book while keeping it interesting for the film medium. They kept the important themes of the book, so I have no complaints. They didn't want to wait on Aslan, so they tried to do things themselves and failed. Still no sign of Aslan, they decided to revive the White Witch, because she would give results, but that ended in near disaster, with Edmund coming to the rescue to stop the process. Finally, only when all hope had faded, they sent Lucy to look for Aslan and they came back to finish the war. I think it's obvious that this was the theme of both the book and the movie.

I'm not going to mention a lot of the special effects or the music or anything... That's not really my department of expertise. Story and canon is where I notice differences. While Prince Caspian is only loosely based on the events of the book, it still portrays characters, moods and themes just as well as the book did. I think this movie is less epic than the first, but I think that also holds true for the book. What I can't wait for is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I think it's one of my favorite books, so I'll have high expectations. (I think Magician's Nephew is my top favorite, followed by The Last Battle, then The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, A Horse and His Boy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Silver Chair and finally Prince Caspian.)

Anyway, regardless of the shortcomings, this is definitely a movie worth seeing!

Basic story? The sun is dying. People are dispatched to reignite it. First mission mysteriously fails, so a second mission is sent. The story covers the events of the second mission. During their mission, they come in contact with the first ship. After some very, very unfortunate events resulting from their decision to change course and intercept the failed first mission, their ship is badly damaged and they're forced to intercept the first ship not only to gain a second bomb, but to maybe recover a working ship. They dock, and another series of unfortunate events leads to the discovery that there is a survivor on the first ship who claims he is on a mission from God to let the sun die, because that's what was intended.

Here enter the anti-religion bit. The insane man begins to systematically kill all the members of the second mission to prevent them from saving mankind, because God planned to kill off the human race by extinguishing the sun! Of course, reigniting it would be against God's wishes, so he can't allow them to do it. They, of course, eventually do manage to reignite the sun against all odds... And some people interpret this as a direct stab at religion. Humans decide they're not going to submit to the will of God and they save themselves. Granted, you may think this is reading too much into a science fiction story, because, hey... The guy went insane, maybe killed his own crew, and was stuck on the first ship for seven years, roasting himself with the proximity to the sun, "meditating" on the character of humans and the such. I completely agree that interpreting his ravings as true religion and interpreting the fight against this clearly insane character as a fight against God is stretching it a bit. You have to have a bad guy in these kinds of movies, I mean really. It's psychological horror!

But really, if you want to go down this path, then I'm going to be there to explain what I see when I look at it like this. I believe, that if you're a Christian, nothing that happens to you is going to be something you can't handle, even if it's a punishment. Now, this isn't to say that he's not going to let bad stuff happen. We're still post-Fall humans, and, as such, we've inherited sin and the curses related to it, so bad things are going to happen to us... If, say, you're driving down the road and you see a car headed for you and that car is in your lane, what are you going to do? You're going to swerve, right? Now, I highly doubt that after you swerve and avoid the collision, you're going to say "wow, God must have wanted me dead, but I sure showed him!" You're probably just going to head to the nearest facilities to change into a fresh pair of pants. I would contend that the fact that you survived the incident attests to the fact that God does not want you dead, and, instead, maybe even protected you by not letting the car spin out of control and plow into someone's house. Needless to say, the incident at least startled you... It got your attention. I believe that everything happens for a reason, though those reasons are rarely immediately apparent.

Let's say, right now, hypothetically, that Sunshine is real. Let's say it happened 50 years ago. (Or 500 or 5, it doesn't matter.) You could say that we survived because God wanted us dead and our collective "power" was strong enough to thwart his judgment, or you could say that He caused the problem in an effort to get our attention for some reason, but knew it wouldn't have the catastrophic effects of wiping out all life on the planet, because, after all, He allowed us to complete the mission and save ourselves, and that the crazy man on the Icarus I was nothing but that! A crazy man who was mentally unstable with his obsession with the Sun. Or it could have simply been the result of the curse of sin and that everything decays... In the Sun's case, it decays unless you give it more fuel! That's not necessarily an act of God that made the Sun die. It was a result of our sin, but we were graced with the knowledge and technology to save the Sun and save mankind! The fact that we survived means that it was God's plan for us to survive. Nothing happens without His knowing. If He didn't want the human race to survive, He would have seen to it that our ships never did the job.

Now, people died on those missions, but people die here in ways we can't comprehend or in ways we don't think should have happened. Personally, I don't think people die without a reason... As in, everything has a purpose that can be used for good. We hear about all these awful things in the news and we wonder how such a "loving God could have let that happen," but we never hear about the aftermaths. The death of a loved one could have affected the family in such a way that it brought them closed to God, or it could have provided a means for someone to do some good... And it's all too possible that the means provided were missed by the person it was intended for, too.

The deaths on the missions were the cause of simple human mistakes and the result of a madman who made the wrong choices based on the wrong desires and it had some nasty consequences. They may seem like useless deaths, and maybe they are! But that's because, somewhere along the line, Pinbacker (the insane guy) made the wrong choices. He became infatuated with the Sun and all its glory, and started to believe some very weird things. He chose to make some immoral decisions that weren't corrected and it led to some very nasty consequences. Which leads me to the fact that God doesn't force us to do anything we don't want. Now, technically, He already knows what choices we're going to choose... After all, He invented the very concepts of Time and Space... But He's not going to intervene and make us do anything. Pinbacker made some choices, be they on the ship or earlier in life, that eventually affected his very perception of reality, and there were consequences. The consequences changed what was supposed to happen, but God already knew that the changes were going to happen. It's funky when we're limited to our linear perception of time...

Let me just put it in a nutshell... The Sun was dying, whether by Divine Intervention or the simple laws of thermodynamics that states that all things decay when left to themselves. Pinbacker, captain of the first mission, by himself, made choices that not only failed his own mission and killed the members of his crew, but seriously adversely affected the members of the second mission. The fact that the second (and last possible) mission succeeded only confirms the fact that God did not intend for the human race to die out completely and allowed the mission to succeed and reignite the sun. The fact that the sunshield was damaged and Captain Kaneda lost his life was due to simple human error on the fact that we're no longer the perfect creations we were intended to be, since we inherited the sin of Adam and Eve who chose to sin.

So there you go... For all of those out there who decided that this movie is a course in atheism and decided to take it upon yourselves to look far too deeply into a science fiction story? Here's my response. I mean, it may very well be that the movie was designed to promote atheism and that God is powerless against the will of united humans, but I think the fact remains that it falls short and is far too subtle to notice unless you're actually looking for it. Still, I don't doubt for a second that it's trying to indoctrinate people with something... It's a sad fact that most movies are looking to prove some sort of point, and it's going to be nothing even remotely related to being pro-religion and Christian. Unless, of course, it is... But... There you go.

Having said all this... I still say that it's a great, artistic movie, and it ranks very highly on my list of greatest movies of all time. I think that it's even in the top 5, along with The Black Hole and Chronicles of Narnia. I would still recommend seeing it, if you can stand the blatant, sometimes icky violence and frequent F-bombs and all manner of bad language.

So I've just finished the fourth season of Earth: Final Conflict... I think it's safe to say that each progressing season has just gotten better and better. As the series goes on, the Taelons start becoming more and more overt in their plots, and the plots become more devious, desperate, violent and careless. Zo'or, the leader of the Taelons, becomes more and more insane and crazed by the fact that the Taelons are going to die out in his lifetime, and Da'an, Taelon ambassador to North America, becomes more and more torn between his race, who are bent on surviving at all costs, and the humans, who are the cost. You have to feel sorry for him when he tries what little he can do to alleviate the suffering, only to have his efforts thrown back in his face because he's a Taelon. Of course, he isn't completely innocent, but it was still a little sad.

Most of the primary characters are gone, and it's really sad to know that you won't ever see them again, but there are a few main characters left who got stuck with the culmination of the Taelon's plans gone more awry than anyone could've ever guessed. The Taelons are gone, their organic mothership is dying in orbit, and all their embassies and buildings are empty and lifeless. The show's top-notch sinister character, FBI Agent Ronald Sandoval, is, of course, still alive and more bitter and eccentric than ever, with new allies and the full intent of ruling Earth instead of merely saving himself at all costs.

I'll have to watch season 5 completely, of course. I always was a little skeptical with the changes made throughout the seasons, but they've always been better than the last... But with such a season finale, it almost feels like Stargate SG-1's season 8, where everything has this nearly perfect ending before jumping into the next crisis. (Except, this finale was nowhere near peaceful, but it was somehow fulfilling and had a sense of finality. Sort of like Surface, if you ever saw that, where it ended in the midst of absolute chaos, but somehow felt like a good ending.) I guess the most accurate description would be that this is a sort of epilogue to the Taelon story. The aftermath of their final plan is going to wreak havoc on the humans as much as, if not more than, their plans did while they were still alive.

Even with this weird season 5 opener, my report remains the same! Earth: Final Conflict is one of the most under-rated science fiction shows there are, and it's probably one of the best I've seen... Perhaps even better than Stargate. And, speaking of which, let's just say that the whole aliens eating sentient life force? Not Stargate's idea... (Once again, I find that their once-thought original idea isn't so original after all, bleh.) Indeed, the Taelon's final plan went very, very wrong.

Quite possibly one of the most under-rated shows I've ever watched. I say this because in all my internet escapades, I have never once seen a mention of this show without specifically looking for it. New(crappy)BSG and other pop-culture shows are plastered all over the place. Clearly they are (somehow) popular. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but the lack of a Wiki for Earth: Final Conflict seems to only help prove my point. It's not a show people currently watch and it wasn't memorable enough for them, either.

STORY:

Basically, the story of the series is the arrival of an alien race that carries the promise of helping human kind with any and every problem they have, in exchange for nothing. The aliens, called the Taelons, help humanity out of the goodness of their collective hearts... Or so they want Earth to believe.

The pilot episode drops you in the middle of everything, which I've always enjoyed more than having a story unfold from its very boring beginnings. The energy-based Taelons have been on Earth for around 3 years and have cured all manner of diseases, converted deserts into farmland and by their mere presence, stopped all war. Pretty much, the Taelons are perfect and everyone is enthralled.

I won't spoil anything, but the series begins with the assassination of Jonathon Doors, a human who was about to announce a major corporate alliance with the Taelons, with the plan to help facilitate the spread of Taelon technology to aid Earth. The assassination is pinned on an anti-Taelon movement called "The Resistance", and, in the wake of Doors' death, the Taelon Companion of the United States seeks to increase its security by enlisting the aid of William Boone, who was partly in charge of security at the assassination. (Apparently, the security plan Boone suggested was far better than the one actually put in place, and the Companion wanted to give him more authority to get things done properly.)

And by the Indianapolis Colts helmet on Boone's desk, you can clearly see that he's the perfect candidate for a series starring character, since has an awesome taste in football teams!

Hmm, let's see... How can I put the story in a nutshell without spoiling a whole lot? Let's say that the Taelons aren't all about helping humanity just because they feel like it. As the series plays on, you start getting the idea that they have a plan... You don't know what it is, but you know there's something going on. At one minute, you think the Taelons are amazing, with their technology and aid without asking for anything in return... But then the next minute, they do something so ghastly that you can't understand why people still support them... That is, you can't understand until they turn around and do something really incredible again.

The show is very... Political. The core of each episode always somehow revolves around the Taelons manipulating humans for some sort of personal gain, and the characters will discuss the best methods for doing such a thing. Some characters just want the Taelons to leave, some want to profit off of them, some want to ally themselves with them... There's always some scheme going on that you're never sure what to think or who to trust, and none of the characters do, either. I guess some people could find that boring, but I think it's interesting. And while all this is going on, the majority of humans are willingly blinding themselves to the obvious.

I could almost see how this show might not be as huge a hit as it could be... It's deep and it makes you think, and a lot of things aren't answered for a very long time, if at all. I would have to say that the majority of people watching TV don't want to watch something that makes them think... I guess that's why the trillion reality shows and million sit-coms are regurgitating the same things over and over. So brainless...

SPECIAL EFFECTS:

To me, the story is far more important than visuals, but sometimes visuals can be distracting from the story. I would have to say that E:FC has a stellar story and nominal special effects, with nothing really exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. It's just good ol' run of the mill. Especially in the first season. If you can get through the early 90s looking visual effects of the first season, the second season clearly got a higher budget to work with and they almost completely redesigned all the visuals. Taelon mothership, the Taelons themselves... The first season was passable, but the second season seals the deal... Especially for TV shows.

There really wasn't much to say about the visuals except that. I've had some people comment about the old look the pilot episode had. Trust me, it gets a lot better. (Not that visuals are supposed to be that important, mind you!) But come on, there's something cool about seeing the organic Taelon Embassy built almost in the backyard of the White House:

CHARACTERS AND ACTING:

The acting is amazing. Well, for the most part. The Taelons are awesome. I really can't explain it... They're supposed to be these serene, spritual, energy-based beings who think they know everything and they pull it off perfectly.

I would have to say the strongest point of E:FC would be the character development. Sure, there's an over-arching storyline, but they take every chance to develop characters along the way... Some more than others, but the main characters are definitely propelled along quite nicely. Da'an, the American Taelon Companion is probably the clear example here. His character matures so much through the episodes that by the third season, he's a far different character than he was in the first season.

I would have to say, though, that my favorite character is a computer entrepreneur/hacker/millionaire who goes by the name of Augur. I don't think E:FC would quite be as good as it is without him. I really can't explain him... You'll just have to watch him. His character goes up and down so much that, while you can't help but love him, you sometimes have to wonder what he's ultimately up to... Actually, that goes for just about everyone. Even the showcase "bad guy", Agent Sandoval. He's one of those baddies who is somehow really awesome, while, at the same time, is really evil. Or maybe he just lacks emotion and knows what has to be done... I haven't quite figured that out yet. So far, though, I have to pin him as a bad guy.

Also, according to Wikipedia, E:FC was plagued by regular contract disagreements... Which means that actors didn't like how much they were getting paid, more or less, and decided to quit. Which means... People die. A lot. Or they go off and don't quite die, but also aren't seen again for a long time, if at all. That being said, one of the things that keeps making this series so good is the fact that you are never quite sure who's going to die and when, simply because you know E:FC had tons of contract problems. On the up side, this adds an element of unpredictability that's had me on the edge of my seat many a time, sometimes cheering at the outcome, or having a "OH MY GOSH this can't be happening!!" moment. On the down side, this means that NEW characters are constantly popping up! While, so far, this hasn't been a real issue, I have finally met a character I don't think I like... She just doesn't seem to fit in with the mood of the entire series. I think she's getting a little better, though... It might have even been the character profile... A sort of haughty "I know exactly what I'm doing so buzz off" character. She's been blasted into her place a few times lately, and she seems to be fitting into the mood of the series a little better now.

Oh, and even better? Majel Roddenberry is a recurring character throughout the season, but predominantly in the first. I haven't seen her in the third season, though. But she's there! I think it's cool how she plays even a small part in Gene Roddenberry created stuff. I didn't even recognize her until I heard her voice. (After watching the entire series of Star Trek: Voyager, it wasn't difficult to go "hey, that's the Voyager's computer voice... HEY, THAT'S GENE'S WIFE!") Also, Marina Sirtis (otherwise known as Deanna Troi in Star Trek) guest starred in an episode in season three. That was also really neat.

MUSIC:

I have to mention the music! Man, the music is great... I managed to get the soundtrack and I listened to it for a few days. The theme and credits music are, by far, the best. The theme is so distinctive and simple, but somehow really nice. The music definitely helps set the mood of the series as being a kind of... sad, yet exciting story. Not many times do I say music stands out in a movie or show, but I think it does in this. Like, say, when you can watch a movie and it impacts you so much that you buy the soundtrack to relive the experience. That's what it's like with Earth: Final Conflict.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, this is definitely high on my list of favorite TV shows. The story is amazing, the depth and complexity of the plot... The characters and everything. Yeah... This is definitely a personal favorite and I honestly can't understand why there isn't more information out there. Even Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica have their own high-profile sites for harvesting information! Stargate SG-1 is like... DUH, of course there's going to be a site. I'm almost tempted to go back and watch each episode of E:FC and make a note of EVERYTHING to put on a Wiki I've set up. You know, dumb things like Da'an's family ties and the Taelon interdimensional technology concepts.

I haven't even scratched the surface of the storyline, either, by the way. I can't tell you much because each episode is tied together and it's extremely easy to spoil a lot of episodes. It is definitely something you don't want to jump into random re-runs with... You should start at the beginning and watch it IN ORDER. It is imperative that you watch it in order or you'll either be very, very confused, or very, very spoiled.

And last, but not least, they even had a story about a town the Taelons recovered from a nuclear incident! Originally named "Silent Falls", the citizens renamed the town "Taelonville" after Da'an led a project to clean up the radioactive fallout. Can you guess which state the town's in?

Indianapolis Colts on the desk of William Boone, and now Taelonville, Indiana? Someone on the writing team has got some pretty good taste, if you ask me!

So, in a nutshell: You need to watch Earth: Final Conflict.

However, I still can't help but feel it's a stereotypical movie. In just about every wolf-centric story, the wolves are either giant evil monsters bent on devouring all of mankind and must be stopped at all costs, or they're misunderstood creatures who everyone is afraid of for the wrong reasons and must be stopped at all costs and they kill humans in self-defense... In either case, wolves are hunted and they kill humans. Doesn't seem to matter how glorified they get or how monstrous they get. So I again ask, can there be a GOOD, original werewolf movie? One that doesn't just rehash everything ever done before? It's like the fantasy genre! It's so stagnant... Everything that's been done is going to be redone over and over. You might have a few stand-outs like Blood and Chocolate or the Doctor Who episode, but not usually!

What I would like to see is a flip-side to the generic werewolf blah-ness... Like, I don't know, has anyone ever thought that it would be a PRIVILEGE to see one? Hey, if I somehow learned that you could willingly change back and forth between human and wolf form, I'm going to be the last person to ever freak out. In fact, I'd probably give you a big hug. Barring, of course, you didn't turn out to be a "disease" werewolf that goes insane every full moon and wreaks havoc all night. (Which, I might add, I would prefer NOT to be the werewolf theory... I'd hope for sane wolf shifters who could pass on their powers.)

But back to the movie, I would suggest you at least check it out, especially if you're a wolf/werewolf buff like me. I thought it was rated R, but it's only PG-13... For violence (which wasn't really so bad compared to other PG-13 movies), sexuality (of which I didn't notice any... I mean, there was a bar scene, but never any... James Bond flagship scenes), and substance abuse...

Substance abuse? Okay... I didn't see any drugs. At all. The only thing I could EVER think they would be referring to? Probably the drinking of alcoholic beverages. But when has THAT ever been considered substance abuse? Okay, not that... Hmm. Well, there's the whole silver-thing... Silver is deadly to werewolves! (I think that's something that should remain stereotypical. Just seems... Somehow... Well, I wouldn't say NICE, but it seems... Normal.) So some guy threw silver dust in a human-form werewolf's face. Yep... Substance abuse. Werewolves getting high off silver dust. Then there's the silver-poisoning antidote... Is THAT substance abuse? If it is, you should stop taking your vitamins. That's substance abuse.

Needless to say, I think it deserves the PG-13 rating for violence and overall themes, but everything listed is a BIT of a reach... There might have been suggestive themes I didn't pick up on, but nothing explicit like that sort of description usually defines.

Man, I just don't know where to start on this review... I lie to you not when I say it's the best game I've ever played in my life. The story was amazing... the characters, the plot, the gameplay, the music... it was all spectacular. I bought a PlayStation 2 specifically for this game, and I had extremely high expectations, and it totally blew me away. (In other words, I like this game.) This is definately, without the shadow of a doubt, my new all-time favorite game ever.

Let's see... well, you probably know that, in the game, you play a wolf. (Which is what caught my eye to begin with, heh.) The wolf is a personification of the sun goddess Amaterasu, who is called back to the mortal world after a mysterious being inadvertantly reawakened an eight-headed dragon named Orochi, who, incidentally, Amaterasu originally helped to get rid of the first time, but was "killed" in the end and slept for 100 years, letting things become neglected in the meantime.

So Orochi is reawakened and he decides to wreck as much of the mortal world as possible, Amaterasu is reawakened to help defeat him again, once and for all, and clean up the mortal world in the process. At the beginning of your journey, you're joined by a tiny bug-sized guy named Issun, who acts as a sort of guide (and the comic relief), since he's been travelling the world for some time. He also takes it upon himself to talk to people for you since... well, wolves can't talk. Which they actually play on a few times, when you have to try to talk to people without him there. Personally, I thought he was very much like me, at least as far as his reactions to things go. I would see something that completely took me off guard, and then Issun pipes up with exactly what I was thinking... and then people in the game would answer him, which would essentially answer me, since I was thinking the same thing! (If you follow.)

So when Amaterasu (or... "Ammy", as Issun affectionately refers to you as) reawakens, she's pretty much without any of her former power, since she's been gone for 100 years. Her power is displayed through the use of what Issun terms the "Celestial Brush". You directly interact with the world using certain brush strokes that affect different things. There are 13 brush techniques that Ammy used to know, but when she "died", the powers were scattered and you have to track them down before you confront Orochi.

So (third paragraph to start with "so", just to point that out), Ammy and Issun embark on a quest to track down the brush techniques and regain her original strength. Of course, along the way, you have many, many, many side quests and an ever thickening main quest. (So many quests, in fact, that I completely missed several of them, and am currently replaying the game at a slower pace so as to find and finish each one!) As you finish these quests, you'll earn "Praise" from whoever you were doing the quest for, which you can then use to upgrade your stats, like health and ink and a few other things. It's interesting to note, however, that nobody knows you're a god. They only see you as a plain white wolf wandering around. (If you run out of ink during insane usage of your Brush, your power will temporarily disappear and you'll see yourself as everyone else sees you.)

The story is incredibly huge and complex with so many twists and surprises that it constantly kept screwing up my predictions, which was awesome. After hanging around the characters so long, you start getting attached to them. I mean, hey... look at my internet name. I had absolutely no problem getting into the role of playing a canine. Ammy was me, pure and simple. I got very attached to Issun, because he was always helpful and knew when to make jokes and was just an all around awesome character, and Amaterasu got attached to him, also, which made for some pretty emotional moments. I can't really go into that, though... unless you want spoilers!

Although, speaking of emotional moments, there was a certain dungeon you had to work yourself through to get to the boss at the top. Of course, dungeons are never particularly easy, and this one was no exception. However, they mixed things up a bit for this one. This dungeon had a gate keeper... a little floating piece of paper that watched over the gates to each dungeon level. To pass to another level, you had to race this paper guy through some pretty rough obstacle courses. This paper was sentient, and was very polite and to the point, actually, calling me Sir even (even though I was a goddess, sheesh, mister blind-paper). Issun and I were getting pretty ticked off at Mr Paper, since, all this time, Mr Paper was actually having FUN racing us through this deadly dungeon

Eventually, it got to a point where he just wanted to race to play, and he didn't care if we won and got to the next level or not... he just wanted to see our amazing abilities in action. (His words, not mine!) At the final gate we passed, Issun and I started gloating over the fact that we won against all odds and that we were going to head up to his leader and teach them a lesson. Rude, I know... but... yeah... we learned our lesson. The paper started talking about how wonderful it was to have known us, and that he was so happy to have seen such a competitive spirit in his life. Issun and I both came to the sudden realization that he was going to die, and I'm serious when I say we both went "What?!" at the same time, heheh. (I'm not joking when I claim Issun said what I was thinking.) But, yes... the floating piece of paper told us that having willingly failed his duty as gatekeeper, he had to forfeit his life, but he told us not to worry about him, since he didn't regret what he'd done... and then he fluttered to the ground and disappeared in a flash of flowers.

I don't know exactly WHY... but I was pretty choked up at that. Edrick laughed at me when I told him... but hey! Papers have feelings, too! But, yeah... that totally took the wind out of my sails and I didn't quite have the energy I had to go and get rid of the boss. I'm telling you... Okami is an awesome game to make me mourn the death of a PIECE OF PAPER!!

Okay... I think I've got the point across that the story was really, really good. Especially the end... man... so good. Better than most books or movies. It was perfect. Music, too, was phenomenal. I'm contemplating buying the soundtrack. I don't do that for most games, but... wow. You can listen to each track and it will flawlessly recreate the emotions from the game. I'll let someone hear a track because it's just plain good music, but they don't get that whole emotional inflection with it.

The graphics are what's called cel-shading. Nowhere near realistic, but incredibly awesome. The little banner up at the top is what the game looks like. It's designed to look like something painted on old Japanese scrolls. You can even see the grain of the "paper". That's not a compression problem... that's what it looks like in the game. It's crazily stylized and... it's amazing. It's the kind of game that will make you look at 3D photorealistic games with no story and just laugh at them. Okami proves you don't need real looking graphics when you have a knock-your-socks-off storyline.

The gameplay style is a lot like Zelda (no, I'm not going to compare the game TO Zelda... but it DOES play LIKE Zelda). Realtime battles with a small amount of moves, but never boring. You can actually skip battles (that aren't required, like... say, a boss battle) really easily and just go adventuring. Although fighting enemies is your primary way or making money, so while you CAN skip fighting, it's probably not the best thing to do.

There's even a button for digging and barking! Both of which are incredibly fun to use. I like to run around and just bark... because it's fun... I don't know... shut up... Digging, though, actually has a use in some quests, and for digging up treasure chests.

You know... I guess this isn't really a review... or... maybe it is. I've covered story, music, and gameplay. Oh! I didn't talk about the Celestial Brush, duhhh... You hold down one of the trigger buttons anytime, anywhere, and the game world turns into a sheet of paper that you can actually draw on. There are so many things you can do with that Brush it ain't funny. Especially during fights. You can use weapons in the fights, yes, but I guarantee you'll be using the Brush, too. Hold the trigger, and draw a simple pattern on the paper and then let off the trigger and voila! The brush stroke goes off and does whatever it was you wanted it to do! Sometimes it gets confused with a couple of similar stroke patterns, but nothing really serious.

If I had to score this... it'd be a perfect 10. There's absolutely no reason NOT to play this. Well, unless you don't have a PlayStation... or can't afford it... But I would even say that you should get a cheap used PS2 JUST for this game. It's so goooood... and I've been blabbing about it for days now... and it's getting late here, so I'm gonna end this.

In closing... get Okami!

(Oh, by the way... I forgot to say that this game is probably around 30 hours standard gameplay time, but you can easily have more time spent on it by hunting and completing all the side quests. I was expecting maybe 15 hours of gameplay time. So I actually reached a boss battle at around 15 hours and thought the game would end there. Silly me, I should have known since I only had about 6 of the 13 brush techniques... but the game was over twice as long as I expected it to be, and I would have been plenty happy if it had ended there. But it didn't... I think I have 35 clocked hours on my first time through, and I missed lots of quests.)