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Missing Link Review – Get yeti for a wild ride

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Official movie poster by Laika

It can be difficult to blend in with the crowd for a lot of people…and especially for a Sasquatch.

Stop-motion animation studio Laika released its fifth feature-length film, “Missing Link”, on Friday, April 12.

The film has so far received 90% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $16.2 million in the box office.

Adventurer and mythical-creature-discoverer Sir Lionel Frost meets an intelligent Sasquatch while traveling in Washington State, whom he dubs Mr. Link.

Wanting to no longer live a solitary life, Mr. Link wishes to find his long-lost relatives located in a fabled valley in the Himalayas known as Shangri-La.

All the while, Frost and Mr. Link are being hunted by an assassin named Willard Stenk, hired by Mr. Lemuel Lint.

Throughout their journey, there are plenty of perilous situations and funny moments, and a special lesson to be learned about family and ambitions.

Both Hugh Jackman as Sir Lionel Frost and Zoe Saldana as Adelina Fortnight, Frost’s former girlfriend, play their roles well.

Zach Galifianakis as Mr. Link provides a great comedic touch to a film from a studio that is usually darker in theme, such as “Coraline” and “Paranorman”.

Mr. Link’s physical comedy and overly literal mindset make for a character that’s fun to watch and listen to, and his interactions with the film’s other characters are comedy gold.

The film took quite a few turns that I wasn’t expecting, and there were plenty of expectation-subversion moments that caught me pleasantly off-guard.

The quality of the animation was stellar, as always with Laika. The frames blend together so smoothly that sometimes it’s hard to tell the film was done using stop-motion.

If you look hard enough in certain scenes, you can see the ever-so-slight changes in the textures of the character’s faces in close-up shots, and it really is amazing, especially the amount of detail that goes into every character’s design and figure.

The film is not without a few faults, though.

The main conflict seems somewhat forced in that the antagonists try far too hard to prevent the protagonist from achieving their goals.

There were also a few moments where the characters got caught up in exceedingly ridiculous predicaments, and sometimes the physical comedy was a little too-on-the-nose.

I can’t say that “Missing Link” is as memorable as “Coraline” or as impactful as “Kubo and the Two Strings,” but Laika still put together a good feature film that takes a nice turn from the studio’s Goth-like trend.

I look forward to seeing what Laika does in the future.

A Casual Review – ANNO 1800: A Relaxing and Engaging City Builder

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Official game poster by Ubisoft

After two not so successful Sci-fi themed releases, the Anno series has finally gone back to its roots.

Developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft, Anno 1800 is a real-time strategy city-building game that is taking place during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

In the game, the player assumes the role of a colonial leader of the crown, building up new economies and establishing trades as the game progresses.

What makes Anno unique is perhaps its competitiveness, unlike most city builder games, the player is not alone.

There are other AI or player factions that seek to prosper, and there is only a limited number of islands and resources, which means that the player needs to think and act strategically.

At the beginning of the game, the player starts off in the Old World, which has a similar climate and environment as the majority of Western Europe.

In the Old World, the player needs to expand and industrialize the colony’s economy, as well as managing different classes of people.

Once the colony has developed to a stable economy, the player can then choose to venture into the uncharted seas of the New World.

The New World is vastly different from the Old World, the player will encounter new threats as well as new resources that are needed to fulfill the people’s demands.

The player will be working with the local populations of the New World, exchanging resources in order to become more powerful.

The game has many mechanics that need to be learned by a new player, such as trade routes, naval combat and chain of supplies.

Fortunately enough, the game did provide a campaign mode for new players to learn while having all the fun that the game has to offer.

The overall gameplay experience of Anno 1800 is quite relaxing.

Like most city builders, the players are in control of the pace of the game, even when there are competitive elements present.

A single game session of Anno 1800 can take a very long time to finish.

It will probably remind the players to take a break or get a coffee because they’ve been staring at the screen for too long.

While I believe that the game is very much recommended for people who are looking for a fun and relaxing game to player, I think that Anno 1800 is not a game worth spending $59.99 for.

The game can also be very demanding on the player’s PC and time, which are the things that most college students don’t have at the moment.

Students participate in Earth Day over 4/20 weekend

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Earth Day takes place on Monday, April 22, but students this year began their celebrations early when Easter Sunday and weekend festivities sparked inspiration.

As the semester comes to an end and students approach their finals with projects and studying, procrastinating from academia for the purpose of celebrating not only Easter but Earth Day as well was popular this past weekend.

With weather and climate being a major concern and issue among controversial topics, celebrating Earth Day has become more important as environmental protection calls for more attention.

Throughout the week, students from SOSA, the Student Organization for Sustainability Action, set up tents outside of Crawford and helped people walking by learn about proper waste maintenance and sustainability.

Taylor Greene, a junior sustainability major, is the vice president of SOSA and believes that a little effort can go a long way.

“Earth Day is big for spreading awareness,” Greene said. “I think if everyone made a small effort to care more about the environment, there would be huge improvements.”

Becoming environmentally conscious was an overlying theme for the weekend as students openly expressed their love for all plants, trees, grass and even weeds.

Small efforts such as picking weeds from a flower bed, even if only grams at a time, could help the environment and make the world a prettier place.

Residence Life Sustainability Committee began growing a garden in 2017 that provided helpful sustainability practices for students to learn about as a part of campus life.

However, caring about the Earth remains a high priority to this day.

To be blunt, the situation regarding climate change and controversy has been messy.

Climate change scientists have conducted studies since the 1960s when Exxon hired the teams to study the environment.

Due to rising carbon emissions and insufficient waste management, there has been an elevated sense of urgency and people feel more compelled to improve the damages to the planet as awareness spreads.

Joint efforts from the public and corporations are growing, and companies like Patagonia are growing popularity for their efforts made towards conservation and sustainability.

Going into Easter weekend with excitement for Earth Day made Saturday, April 20 feel like a holiday on its own.

Students were blazing with excitement, grinding out their frustrations and unifying their passion, making steps to a better Earth and creating awareness for a sustainable environment.

However, environmental talk without action is just blowing smoke.

The Earth may have a chronic problem, and deciding what is best for the Earth can be difficult when people debate so much about what is best for ourselves.

The definition of “healthy” should not be subjective, and while the Earth has no personal doctor, it is up to us to decide a necessary prescription for the most positive outcome, and create an Earth that people would want to marry.

Women’s golf team drops Title IX complaint

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Florida Tech’s women’s golf team will not be filing a Title IX report after speaking with athletic administration.

With the discontinuation of the women’s golf team but not the men’s team, the women’s team considered filing a Title IX complaint, as Title IX has certain standards that require universities to provide men and women with equal athletic opportunities.

However, they found out the number of men’s and women’s teams met Title IX’s standards and decided to drop the case, according to Alexis

Dizinno, a freshman in environmental science and a member of the women’s golf team. Dizinno said the team wasn’t given a reason as to why they were being discontinued and not the men’s team, even after their discussion with athletic administration.

“When we found out that the women’s team was being cut and not the men’s team, we questioned how that was allowed, and we asked around,” Dizinno said. “I think in the end, one of the athletic administration people had told us that that was the case and that it was legal, so we haven’t done anything to file a complaint so far. I don’t think it is possible.”

Chris Saltmarsh, the women’s golf team coach, was emailed and called for comment but did not respond to the request.

According to Daniel Supraner, the director of athletic communications, the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf has left athletics with nine men’s teams and nine women’s teams.

“With Title IX, they want what you’re giving to men’s and women’s teams to reflect the number of the student body,” Supraner said. “Title IX requires that we match that proportionality.”

Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech’s athletic director, said the decision to cancel women’s golf was based on the current and future success of the program.

When making the decision to cut the women’s golf team, Jurgens said they considered who was currently on the team and who would be on it in the future.

“A number of [the current] athletes will be graduating,” Jurgens said. “It will be very difficult to replace them with the ones we have right now.”

Facilities, the present size of the teams and the number of athletes that would be affected were some of the main components considered when deciding what sports to cut, according to Jurgens.

Jurgens said Athletics decided to cut programs because Florida Tech has a larger athletic program than similar sized universities.

“It was an operational decision to try to downsize our athletic programs to be more compatible with the size of the university that we have,” Jurgens said. “That was pretty much something that the university set in place that they felt was important for us to continue to be competitive in our sports program.”

Before the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf, Florida Tech had 23 varsity teams including the dance team.

In the Sunshine State Conference, seven out of the ten universities have fewer teams.

According to Dizinno, the discontinuation of the women’s golf team came as a surprise to them.

Dizinno said the women’s golf team was called into a meeting with the athletic department a couple of hours before the announcement of their discontinuation was sent out to all of campus.

Prior to the meeting, there had been no warning of discontinuing the team.

“It was super upsetting, especially for me as a freshman,” Dizinno said. “We just recently found out that they’ve been thinking about cutting the team for two years. There are two freshmen and two sophomores on the team who had not been warned about this and had no idea that this was happening, and we just felt neglected and overlooked.”

Dizinno said the athletes on the golf team with scholarships will get to keep their scholarships.

“They stopped giving scholarships two years ago, so this freshman class is the first one without scholarships even though they cancelled them a couple years back,” Dizinno said.

While some team members such as Dizinno are planning to transfer universities due to the team’s discontinuation, the women’s golf team has been told they can play with the men’s golf team.

“Us” Movie Review

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After 2017’s “Get Out,” Jordan Peele came out with another twisted, bizarre splash of comedy and thriller in his latest movie “Us.”

Official movie poster by Universal Pictures.

There are several ways to interpret this movie due to all the clues you may see.

The movie starts off pretty interesting with a young girl finding her doppelganger in the woods.

Only to find out that young girl was the main character battling against her doppelganger at an older age throughout the film.

You may recognize the actors of Adelaide and Gabe Wilson as they were also actors in the Marvel Studios film “Black Panther.”

It was very interesting to see how they went from acting in an action-packed movie like “Black Panther” then coming back acting in a thriller movie.

One thing was for sure, they really surprised me in how diverse their acting skills are.

Throughout the film, the Bible verse Jeremiah 11:11 is seen.

The verse says “Therefore this what the Lord says: I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.”

With that being said, that verse should help give clues on certain things you may see within the movie.

Jordan Peele did a great job in selecting the cast he chooses because they had to take on two roles within the movie and did a great job.

The regular family is what looked to be a middle-class African American family with college-educated parents.

So you can see them speak as they are a well-educated family. Then having to play a role as a doppelganger who is completely opposite.

The ability to display both normalities in the Wilsons and pure evil in the doppelgangers was astonishing.

However, the person who deserves much recognition and an award for their acting is none other than Lupita Nyong’O herself. You’ll see why once you watch the movie.

Jordan Peele’s uprise as a director and writer is beginning to blossom.

I’m sure you all have seen his comedy skits in the Key and Peele series.

With how the skits are made, you can see very brilliant stories, but never would I have thought that it could transition into great movies as well.

Peele incorporates horror, comedy and special twists in his movies.

He gives the audiences a chance to look back and think about the movie.

To think of things that do pertain to the real world. Not many directors do that with theirs.

“Us” is definitely a movie that needs to be watched more than once to get a full understanding of the film.

A Casual Review – Grim Dawn: The Perfect Game for ARPG Fans

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With the confirmed release of Diablo Immortal later this year, I figured it would be a good time to talk about Grim Dawn, a game that is closer to the classic actionRPG experience.

Official game poster by Crate Entertainment.

Before I get into the gameplay, I think it is a good idea to look at some data and make some comparisons so that I can explain why I think it is “a good ARPG game.”

Developed and published by a rather small independent developer named Crate Entertainment, Grim Dawn is an ARPG game that focuses on loot gathering and character building.

Grim Dawn is often described as a “spiritual successor” of Diablo 2 by many members of its community and critics, which says a lot about the game.

Diablo 3 is a sequel to Diablo 2 developed by Blizzard Entertainment, the company that is known for making highly praised games such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft.

The development of Diablo 3 took the company around 11 years to finish, and only one major and one minor expansion pack have been released ever since it’s initial launch.

The last expansion pack of Diablo 3 was released five years after the initial release, and it bearly had any content.

Crate Entertainment, on the other hand, announced the development of Grim Dawn in 2010 and later revealed that there were only two full-time employees in the company on their kickstart page.

Grim Dawn was eventually released in 2016.

Crate Entertainment has released two major and one minor expansion packs for the game in just three years.

While Diablo 3 is not necessarily a bad game, it is hard to think of a reason why a small company with 13 employees and mostly crowdfunded budget can spend almost half as much time to make a similar, if not better, game than a multi-million dollar company with a huge amount of resources.

There is definitely more information that needs to be looked at when it comes to comparing two similar things.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the gameplay.

Grim Dawn has its own unique style of world design and choice of music.

Like the title suggests, the visuals and soundtracks of the game are grim and often gives the player a sense of dread.

The world is falling apart and people are turning against each other, but there are still exotic locations to visit and cool gears to find.

While elements such as storytelling and character designs are important to a game, I think what makes this type of ARPG fun is the character and class customizations, and Grim Dawn is a very good example of this.

From a gunslinging necromancer to a greatswordwielding mage, Grim Dawn offers its players a huge variety of choices.

In Grim Dawn, the player gets to choose from one of the six bases plus three DLC classes once they reach to level two.

Each class has many different skills for a player to choose from, and the play style within a single class can even vary from the player’s choice.

In addition, the player will get to choose a second class specialization once they reach level 10, and the chosen class will be combined with the first class to become a completely new class.

This means that there are a total of 72 classes for the players to discover and experiment with.

On top of that, when the player get their first devotion point, they will meet the devotion menu, a passive skill system that allows the player to gain additional modifiers and abilities to further customize their character.

It is also worth mentioning that Grim Dawn features replayable content such as endless dungeons, harder difficulties and online co-op up to four players.

To conclude, Grim Dawn is an ARPG game with classic gameplay of the genre and a huge variety of customizations, and it is frequently being updated by the developers.

The game is currently available on PC and Xbox One.

Organization presidents attempt to schedule riot

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“We’ve finally had enough,” Veri Upsette posted in the “Presidents for Change” forum March 24.

As the third president in the past year for the student organization Un-Adulting, Upsette said she “can’t even with this school anymore.”

“It’s like we shout and they don’t listen, you know?” Upsette said.

Upsette said organizations have been “shouting from the rooftops” about change, but their cries have gone unheard by administration.

Upsette said once she realized the administration wasn’t listening to their metaphorical cries, she decided to create the “Presidents for Change” forum, a website dedicated to posting ideas for change and complaints about the school, in the fall 2018 semester.

“I hadn’t heard about the Presidents for Change until last week, when they tried to organize a riot,” Hahn Deman, a junior in construction management, said. “Campus security was freaking out about it and sent out emails with screenshots.”

Deman said the only reason he saw the email was because he had accidentally sent his Domino’s verification email to his school gmail account.

Deman said that while he “believes the intentions were good,” somebody should have pointed out that “riot” was not the proper word to use.

“It was supposed to be ‘protest’,” Bill Fates, president of Future Business Billionaires, said. “Veri likes to make a hype around things and I guess her exec board said riot would get more attention.”

Fates joined “Presidents for Change” in February, despite knowing about the forum since the beginning of last semester.

“Veri is the longest president Un-Adulting has had, so I wanted to make sure that she was legit before joining,” Fates said.

The first president of Un-Adulting didn’t show up for the first two meetings; the second president said it was “too much for comfort” on Facebook and tagged Upsette as the new president.

Kale Ships, president of Food Fighters, said this isn’t the first problem Un-Adulting has caused for the presidents.

“They make a lot of noise online and tag other presidents so administration will think it’s a group effort,” Ships said. “I never said I wanted a live panther for the mascot. That was a lot to unpack when it came out.”

Ships and Fates said the riot scheduling has caused grief for their organizations and they won’t be signing up for any other Un-Adulting initiatives.

The post they had signed up for said “in order to help raise awareness of issues our organizations have on campus, sign up to volunteer.”

“It was short and simple so all of us thought it would be like a meeting or something with the administration,” Fates said. “Even SGA signed it. We were all put on the posters that Veri sent out saying “Presidents for Change is organizing a riot for April 1st.” Yeah, we thought it was a joke too.”

SGA declined to comment on their participation in the event but an emailed statement on their latest Panther Release addressed the issue.

“SGA stands behind organizations and their issues. However, we do not condone organization. We will not be attending the riot Presidents for Change is scheduling.”

Security also released an email stating “Organized riots will not be tolerated on campus,” along with the guidelines of unorganized chaos on campus and the procedures for these events.

If any student or organization has future plans for protests, riots or organization, they can refer to the guidelines on handybook.fit.edu.

Professors suspected in Crawford’s hamster infestation

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Recently, students, staff and faculty have noticed an infestation of hamsters in Crawford, cause of which is still under investigation.

While facilities claimed the hamsters were likely coming from the atomic toilet, some students have the suspicion their professors are smuggling them into class.

A hamster peeks out of a professor’s pocket during a lecture. Picture by a traumatized student.

“My professor proudly shows off his hamster,” one student said.

The student added that her professor keeps his hamster in his pocket and feeds it nuts throughout class.

Another student said the hamsters may be there for emotional support.

“Before, my professor seemed so lonely,” she said. “Having a hamster really seems to help him. Whenever we’re doing work and he’s at his desk, his hamster is there for him to pet.”

While many find the furry creatures adorable, some students said they’ve become a distraction.

A graduate student said it wouldn’t be a big deal if professors were better at controlling their hamsters.

“Lots of people have hamsters, and that’s fine,” he said. “But I don’t want them out and about in class. Keep them in their cages.”

It isn’t just students that have a problem with the hamsters. Some professors are bothered by their presence as well.

One professor in communications said the daily sight of her coworkers’ hamsters is upsetting. “It’s disgusting,” she said. “I can’t have a hamster, and to see them flaunting theirs around the school? I’m ready to quit.”

Another professor said seeing the hamsters everyday is a sad reminder that she can’t have one.

“I’ve always liked them,” she said. “I wish I had one, and seeing them every day just reminds me I’ll never have one.”

Facilities is working to get to the bottom of the infestation and stop it from spreading further.

“Our biggest concern is containment, both of the hamsters and professors,” one staff member said. “If it is professors bringing the hamsters in, we have a bigger issue than we thought. Everyone will want to try it. As they say, monkey see, monkey do.”

While there are several courses of action being considered, the staff member said they’re leaning toward shutting down Crawford for several days.

“There are a couple reasons to shut it down,” the staff member said. “We’d like to exterminate any remaining hamsters in the building. But the biggest issue is that most of our professors probably need a break. If they had some time off, they might not feel the need to bring their hamsters onto school property.”

One professor, who wished to remain anonymous, is horrified at the idea of not being able to bring his hamster to class any longer.

“He’s my best friend,” he said. “He’s basically a part of me.”

The professor added that his hamster is like a security blanket, and when he has to spend the entire day without his pet, he feels tense, agitated and unfulfilled in life.

Some of the program chairs in Crawford are also looking into the problem.

They want to keep the building clean while also keeping their professors happy.

They’re considering adding rules about allowing certain pets, as long as professors follow specific protocol for cleaning up after their furry friends.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I do know it’s something a lot of students have complained about,” one program chair said. “No one wants to see a hamster sticking out of their professor’s pocket at eight in the morning.”

Skate Fast Eat Gas gang targeting car owners

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An electric skateboard gang has recently been terrorizing the student body.

Security reports have said that the gang is robbing and stealing students of their skateboards, bicycles and longboards.

These crimes are done with the intent to remove the campus of all inferior modes of transportation.

Their new attack has involved stealing all the mirrors off of cars.

A victim who preferred to remain anonymous said that she was heading to Panther Dining Hall when three individuals wearing body protection with LED lights stopped her.

They broke her car’s mirrors and said, “It’s all electric now. You and your petrol-powered friends need to learn who’s the boss.”

This has not been the only incident involving the “Skate Fast Eat Gas” gang, as they have spray painted on their victims’ cars.

Other individuals have found album posters from 80’s bands such as Duran Duran, U2, Pet Shop Boys and The Cars taped to their cars’ windshields.

The new director of Security made “Skate Fast Eat Gas” his first priority in his tenure.

He assumes his position on April 1.

In a general meeting discussing the director’s new initiatives, a security officer advised that they pinpoint the exact dorms where the gang members are located and cut the power of each dorm room.

While this was met with criticism, the director said he believes it’s a step in the right direction.

A gang member makers off with longboard. Photo by Emily Walker.

While they work on reducing the effects the gang has had on the campus, Security has advised students what necessary measures to take if are encountered by the “Skate Fast Eat Gas” gang in an emailed statement.

They told students to help stop the gang “by any means necessary”

Staff member exploring motorcycle leasing possibility

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Faculty members at Florida Tech have recently looked into motorcycle dealerships around town that offer leases for students in need of transportation.

The main vehicles they looked into were electronic and gas-powered scooters, as well as motorcycles.

The discussion occurred about a month back according to David Beavers, an electronic lab manager.

Beavers wanted to find an affordable solution for students without personal transportation on campus.

“There are at least five companies in town that offer gas and electric scooters and bikes at relatively low cost to students,” Beavers said. “This is something the sustainability folks would be interested in, especially the electronic motorcycles.”

However, since this would not be a program run by the school, students would still be responsible for getting their own motorcycle’s license and corresponding insurance.

Students around campus such as Diego Gonzalez, a junior in mechanical engineering, agrees on this idea being brought to light.

“If I knew about this when I was a freshman, I could’ve saved a lot of money by not having to buy a car,” Gonzalez said. “I definitely recommend any incoming freshman or student without a vehicle to make the investment if they have the money to do so.”

Gonzalez also mentioned how motorcycles are much better on gas, as the insurance is usually lower.

Additionally, it is easier to find parking spots around campus.

However, students such as Jake Gaier, a senior in business, said this could potentially turn into a bad idea for an inexperienced motorist.

“I’ve been riding dirt bikes and motorcycles for most of my life, and in my experience, I’ve met unlicensed motorist who ride better than people with motorcycle licenses,” Gaier said. “I think if students who have little to no experience on these bikes start leasing them to use, it could result in a lot of accidents around campus if they’re not careful.”

Gaier suggests that students who don’t have the experience of riding motorcycles should first start out on scooters, due to them being cheaper, having less power and being a little safer.

If you’re interested in leasing a motorcycle or scooter, places such as Space Coast Harley Davidson, Suzuki Motors and Honda of Melbourne are a few places to start.