Monthly Archives: June 2016

Superman/Batman Volume 3 Review

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It’s time for a Batman and Superman adventure. Typically these stories are all rather awesome and you’d expect an easy 9/10 or at least an 8 at the very lowest right? Well, for some reason the stories weren’t as great as I thought they’d be. The characters are all a little out of character at times, the writing can be rather bad and the art is really bonkers for some of the stories. It’s still getting a solid seven at least, but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at the result. Perhaps it will grow on me if I read it at some point in the future. Still, with a bunch of plots here, there are comics that are better than others so let’s look at each arc.

The first story involves the first time that Batman and Superman met each other in one of the timelines. This timeline is particularly wonky though as both characters seem a little off. It starts out pretty well with Batman and Superman having some of their usual banter. They are seeing who can find out the other’s identity the quickest. Back to the human plot, both of them are using the same cruiser. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent have been assigned the same room due to a technical malfunction and Clark refuses to be bullied by the Wayne name. Both of them refuse to budge so they’re forced to share the room for the entirety of the cruise. This helps them learn each other’s identity, which is sure to be interesting since they were both being over the top annoying to each other. Granted, I was on Team Superman from the get go. Can’t let the money win!

Things take another odd twist as Owlman and another Superman show up along with Deathstroke and Deadpool. It was all a cosmic game and one that certainly did get on everyone’s nerves. It could have been crazy in a good way I guess, but it just didn’t work out for me and made for a very weak start to this collection. The art was also pretty bad, but this was possibly intentional to show how crazy things were. I do like the big and bold style of this era as it can make for great visuals, but this was not one of those times. At the very least, we did get some action here though.

Next up was a quick story in the far future about Power Girl and Huntress. Batman and Superman were both quickly cursed and trapped in their bodies. If they don’t escape soon, they will be mentally destroyed and unable to ever return. Power Girl and Huntress have a similar skill set so the two heroes get used to this easily enough, but it will still be difficult to find their bodies in time. They aren’t as young as they used to be after all. This was an okay story. There wasn’t a whole lot of action though and while the whole concept of body swapping is classic, it wasn’t really long enough for it to make much of a difference. Also, it should be Batman and Superman swapping bodies as that would make for a great story.

The next story was the first serious one. Batman was minding his own business when Martian Manhunter breaks into the Batcave and beats him up. Batman just barely manages to fend him off. Things get a little stranger as Superman is attacked by a bunch of people, the justice league shows up except they’ve all been mind controlled. Supergirl also arrives, but she’s mind controlled and then Superman is turned evil. Batman manages to fend him off and Lois Lane reminds Superman why he’s a hero. It was a little late for that though as Batman is now evil so we get a nice rematch. Then Superman takes on the Justice League and we find out that Despero and a race of ultra powerful aliens are behind this. The aliens can mind control anyone and they have these rocks that also help take people over. I think they’re confirmed planet busters as well by the way. Luckily, they’re nice guys in the end so they just leave thanks to Superman’s belief in the good that resides in everyone.

That story may have sounded awesome on paper, but it was super convoluted. Instead of being hype and awesome, it was just super confusing and the whole time you were just waiting for more action and fight scenes. Granted, this is another comic that I think would be a lot more enjoyable the second time around. It should have been better the first time, but some things do take time. I didn’t care for vinegar in my tea at first, but now it’s one of the best things to add. Fudge is still the coolest along with sugar though. Seeing more Batman vs Superman fights is always classic though. Not to mention that the art was quite good here as well. It was a huge improvement over the first two.

The collection ends with a final arc involving the Metal Men. They show up to attack a Gotham facility so Batman quickly calls Superman and the two manage to stop them. That being said, it turns out that they were just testing the security of the location. After the misunderstanding is over, this may as well have not been the case. The Metal Men are taken over by Omac and decide to destroy everyone that they can. Batman and Superman are called back into action, but Superman isn’t thrilled about Batman keeping more and more secrets. Not to mention that he also lied to Superman’s face the whole time as well. They’ll get over it though. This was easily the best adventure in the collection. This is a story that I could easily picture happening, not to mention that the art was also very sharp as well. It may not have been great for facial expressions, but the action scenes benefited from it and the characters showed a lot of emotion.

It’s also the little things that can help with a comic like this. I was glad to see Superman show up right away to deal with the Metal Men. Batman may not have done all that well on his own, but with Superman the battle was decided in an instant. The writing was also the best from the adventures and everyone was in character. If all the stories were like this one, I’d say that it really could have reached the elusive 9. There weren’t even any real guest stars here, Batman and Superman were able to hold their own comic with ease.

I’d say that the main problem with this collection was that it relied too much on gimmicks. Super powerful beings from other universes who were just messing with the heroes. I like having a villain that the heroes can punch. The writing was also an issue as good writing can make everything a lot more exciting. I’m just going to assume that this is an outlier and the rest of the comics will likely be a lot more fun. Batman and Superman still are the two best comic book characters in all of media and I don’t see that changing for me anytime soon. As the last story showed, they’ve still got it. As Bruce Wayne, Batman was annoying in the first saga, but aside from that both characters were great in the rest of the book. Superman being mind controlled has been done to death though and I still believe that he should be immune to it. Likewise for Batman. I wasn’t surprised about the Martian Manhunter being taken over though. He had a really poor showing the entire time although I did love his big twist. It helped to up the stakes.

Overall, This volume may not have been as good as expected, but it was still a solid comic in the end. I’d still easily recommend this to any Batman and Superman fans out there. There is a lot of action to be found and the banter between Batman and Superman is always classic. I do think that this collection is more fun the second time around so just enter this collection with that frame of mind. Once you know how it’s going to end, the stories should make a little more sense and not feel so random. It doesn’t completely excuse them, but at least it can possibly make them more entertaining. The stories can be fun, but the big alien takeover just felt like a huge missed opportunity considering how grand and large scale it was. It’s rare that a story is better the second time around, but just look at the Megaman NT Warrior manga series. I’ve read it dozens of times and it was only during my second last reading that I truly got to appreciate just how amazing the series was. Sometimes, things just get better with age and time. Another comic review with Batman and Superman is on its way so prepare yourself for that!

Overall 7/10

Batman’66 Volume 4 Review

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It’s time to check out another Batman’66 volume! We are approaching the end of the series as volume 5 is the last one to have come out before the series ended. It’s been a good run and these stories have definitely been a blast. It’s no exaggeration to say that volume 4 is the best one yet and elevates the series to the next level. Seriously, the 5 star writing is pretty rare to find nowadays and the comic is handled just about perfectly.

There are 8 stories here so lets take a look at them. The first story may very well be the weakest. The main villain believes that he is actually a pharaoh so he decides to start robbing people. Batman and Robin make quick work of this guy while proving to the world that you can never count a hero out. They will always be watching and waiting! It’s a fun enough story, but there really isn’t a whole lot to it. You could substitute the villain in for anyone and the comic wouldn’t change at all. It’s like watching Batman and Robin stop a nameless gangster.

The next story was a little better. A guy with good flute skills decided to test his wits against the likes of Batman and Robin. That would prove to be his final mistake and as Batman pointed out, the good guys will always win in the end. This villain just didn’t think things through. The art was better in this issue than in the first one and while the villain was no threat either, the story was just more interesting. It’s a start and the catchy dialogue is what will keep you intrigued regardless.

The next adventure starred Batgirl as Batman and Robin actually didn’t need to appear this time. A guy who likes books a lot decided to enter a library. Unfortunately, he let two monsters loose by mistake since he forgot to heed the library’s warnings. Luckily, Batgirl realizes that every problem has an easy solution and she quickly learns how to seal the monsters while also ensuring that the bookworm will never return. It’s a rather tragic ending for him although Batgirl is very quick to justify her actions. Batman wasn’t around to state the moral of the day so I suppose she’ll get away with it this time. This was definitely a very quick story and I did miss Batman, but it was solid.

Things got more serious in the next story as Ffog made his debut. Yes, that is no typo, his name just happens to have a silent f. With his troop of girl scouts supporting the villain, Batman and Robin were quickly overwhelmed in round 1. After all, Robin refuses to hit a lady. Batman doesn’t abide by the same principles as he always states that justice does not discern by gender, unfortunately he was quickly taken down as well. Regardless, this story probably had the best art by this point in the collection and Batman had a lot of good one liners as always. Ffog made for a decent villain as well.

Next up saw the return of the Joker. This was probably hyped as a big story since such a legendary villain was involved. It was fun as the story used the classic trope of Joker pretending to be a good guy and fooling everyone aside from Batman. Batman even lost his cool at one point which is incredibly rare for him, but he apologized in the same panel and went on to remind Robin why justice is so good. Batman really loves to rub the morals in the face of his enemies. He does a good job of it that’s for sure. This was definitely one of the better stories.

Now, it’s time to look at the best story in the entire collection and I dare say the whole series. Lord Death Man has returned and Robin has been put out of commission as he fell on his head and is now very dizzy. Batman is forced to call on Batgirl while also criticizing the fact that a pink bat signal is used for her. He doesn’t partake in gender stereotypes after all. There is little time to discuss this though as the heroes are quickly thrown into a cavern and Batgirl is seemingly murdered. Batman is close to cracking, but ultimately reminds the villain that heroes don’t murder and lets Death Man destroy himself instead. There was a little plot hax here as Batgirl randomly got lost, but it happens I suppose. The story was hype and Batman’s a good role model for all heroes who end up making questionable choices through the years. This guy is one who will never stray from the straight and narrow.

Going back to the norm was the next issue as the Penguin jumped into the fray. I can’t take him quite as seriously as some of the other villains, but he’s all right I suppose. Nothing really stood out about this story and Batman really holds it together with his limitless wit and one liners that he uses to humiliate the villains. He even thinks one step ahead of the Penguin by setting a trap within a trap. It was most impressive! Robin tried to help out, but he didn’t do too well this time.

Finally, we had the lost episode story. This one nearly made it into the TV show and was finally brought back after all these years. Two Face is on the loose and Batman has to stop him before anyone is hurt. It also serves as a bit of an introduction to Two Face as Batman explains how his face was disfigured and why he uses a coin to decide what he will do next. This story definitely looked a lot different from the others as the art made it appear to be more of a New 52 title rather than 66. It definitely looks sharp and looks like what I’d expect Batman’66 to be if it wasn’t always trying to look super retro. This collection even brings the issue twice as it also contains the original black and white version. Batman reminds Two Face that there is always a chance and once a cure is found, he’ll be there.

As mentioned quite a bit already, Batman really steals the show here. This is the usual Adam West Batman, but to a more extreme degree. After all, the comics are very self aware so the characters are almost parodies of themselves. They’re incredibly exaggerated, but not in a Teen Titans Go way. They’re still likable characters here after all. Still, Batman is even more heroic than ever. He’s constantly lecturing someone about something and he’s never wrong about anything. Once in a while he’ll be so caught up in his sense of justice that he will miss obvious clues though. One example of this is when a few shady looking fellows walk into a bank. (I believe it was a bank) Batman goes on a tangent about how great it is that Gotham is a place where all cultures and religions can live in harmony while Robin is the only one to realize that these guys didn’t come here for rest and relaxation. Batman’s taken off guard by their sudden attack and the same thing happened in the past as well. Batman’s one weakness is ironically, his greatest strength. His sense of friendship and camaraderie with the rest of the characters.

Naturally, Robin is also affected by this self aware title. He is even more helpless than ever and always manages to say the wrong things so that Batman can correct him. He has absolutely no self confidence anymore and constantly says things like “You’re always right Batman” Of course, even that isn’t safe as Batman reminds him that nobody is always right. Seriously, Robin gets scolded in literally every panel that he is in and manages to lose all of his big fights as well. Robin is pretty accepting of this though and seems like a nice kid. Maybe he’ll be the one dishing out the morals someday…maybe.

The art is decent. The final comic is sharp and the Death Man adventure definitely looked pretty good. Sometimes the art can be very disproportionate though. It is noticeable when someone yells or you’ll just catch moments of this during the adventures. Batman’s costume also seems to have a white bit on his nose that is usually there, but vanishes sometimes. In the end I’d say that the art is good, but definitely not great like DC’s usual products. I suppose that it’ll help people relate to the classic days though.

Overall, This is a solid way for Batman’66 to start heading to the final volume. It has a lot of momentum riding with it at this point and hopefully the final volume will be just as good. If you’ve ever wanted to see the most exaggeratedly heroic character ever, then this is the comic for you. Even Superman would have a tough time trying to compete with this guy. It’d be great if we could ever see this version of Batman pop up in the regular comics someday. Who knows, a Batman’66 and Batman crossover could come out someday. The contrast between the two would definitely make for a great dynamic.

Overall 8/10

Vampire Knight Memories

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I thought that the original Vampire Knight was rather terrible, but this sequel is off to a better start so far. Of course, there is only so much you can wreck in one chapter so we’ll see if it is able to keep it up or if the flaws of the original will eventually materialize and limit the sequel as well. Only time will tell. I’ll have a review for this series when it is finished!

Overall 5/10

Sssssss Review

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Uh oh, looks like it is time to review another film that puts the word rotten in rotten tomatoes. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is one of the worst films I have ever seen as it joins the exclusive 0 star club. There really isn’t anything redeemable about this film and every minute will have you cringing and wincing while looking at your watch and wondering why you aren’t ordering a nice pepperoni pie at Pizza Hut instead of watching this. Sometimes things get worse before they get better, other times they just stay bad. This is one of those times.

A college student named David is a pretty smart guy. He gets bullied a lot though and is happy to go along with Professor Carl when he is recruited to help with some Snake experiments. David doesn’t realize that this ordeal is actually quite sinister despite the Professor constantly injecting him with many needles along with the fact that the previous assistant mysteriously vanished. Can David save himself or have the dice already been cast? I’m afraid that it is the latter and the Snakes begin to wreck everyone!

Well, where to start with this mess? I suppose the first thing to remember is that this film is centered around Snakes. The problem with this is that the film uses it as an opportunity to include as much animal violence as possible. Snakes are choked, killed, and roughly handled by the characters involved. Carl decided to use Snakes as sport by taking one outside only to humiliate it and poke a stick in its face all day. Apparently he does this just about every day simply to show off his power. None of the snakes are handled well as all of the humans try to show their “dominance” by grabbing their necks and messing with them the whole time. I was rooting for the Snakes to take them all down and you’ll be happy to know that most of the characters don’t make it through this. When you mess with the Snakes be prepared for them to mess you up!

This is also the kind of film where one night stands happen quite regularly. The class bully gets one of those moments for no real reason only to be murdered by a snake in the next scene. David and the main heroine also have one of these moments even though they only just met each other a few hours ago. He also gets it afterwards since he has to fight a Snake Eater and those don’t play games. The main heroine manages to make it out of the film alive, but just barely and mainly because Carl didn’t want her to get hurt. Everyone else was fair game.

There was also a fairly mean professor who likes to mess with Carl. He was actually right on the money that Carl was insane, but his reaction times weren’t enough to save him. Even after he solves Carl’s riddle, snakes murder him anyway. Let’s face it, none of these characters were safe from the snakes. They wanted their vengeance and made sure to grab it as quickly as possible. The Cops come to check out matters since they know that someone never made it back out after working for Carl. Surely they’ll do something right? Unfortunately not as the film portrays the cops are terribly unintelligent characters. For starters, they’re scared of the snakes. Even after that it is lightly implied that they suspect something, but they decide not to actually make any moves based on their info. Instead they decide to wait and see even though more people have been murdered and another teenager has vanished. By the time they make a move, it is far too late for them to really be of help to anyone.

This film plays out like a classic horror film as every character is bumped off one at a time. There is no twist ending here though as it just abruptly ends with another death. The film never stays classy though and there were no good parts in the entire film. After all, all of the characters either suffered for a long time before dying or just died. There is no happy ending here in the slightest and the villain literally got away with murder and crazy experiments for years. You’d think that the film would have tried to save someone, but no…it opted for the dark ending. The first teenager who vanished had the sad fate of being forced to lie down in a corner while people laugh at him for ages and ages. Definitely way too dark a plot if you ask me.

Now, could this film have had potential if there was no animal violence, no one night stands, and if Carl had been stopped before he had mutated David? I’d say not really since the previous assistant’s fate was still rather terrible, but maybe the film could have gotten a 3 instead of a 0. It would still be an improvement I suppose. The plot in and of itself is what really doomed the film and it couldn’t recover from that. This is one film that I hope never gets a reboot or a remake.

Overall, Sssssss uses all of the classic horror tropes and cliches that it can find, but that only succeeds in making the film worse and worse. None of the characters are even remotely likable as even the mean teacher is technically a bad character and only serves to be the lesser evil. We even find out that a gas attendant is a mean, unlikable character just for the lolz since the writer wanted to ensure that you couldn’t like anyone. Did I mention that Carl also gives his snakes a lot of beer to drink so that they’ll be drunk? It certainly shows that he is always doing something morally wrong even when he is not murdering and experimenting on people. You also have to question the point of his research since turning people into snakes doesn’t really help with anything. They may outlive humans in his fantasy, but transforming people one at a time in such a slow fashion will ultimately not make even the slightest bit of difference. His research died along with him and the film.

Overall 0/10

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Review

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I never played the original Mirror’s Edge, but seeing as how Cayalyst is a reboot of sorts, I may as well go with the updated version. The game takes some time to start building up the universe around it, but unless there is a sequel, you’ll ultimately wonder what the point of it was. I suppose that it’s admirable to build up such a universe even if there is no sequel as you can decide how it will end on your own, but that will probably vary from person to person. It’s a fun enough game although it is a little on the short side.

Faith is a runner who was captured by the government and thrown into prison. The world is currently a dictatorship with the government being quite corrupt as always. They have come out with a new nanite virus which can control people once it is installed. They aim to set off the signal across the entire city and someday the world. If this happens, then they will be able to physically control everyone. Faith decides that she can’t let this happen, but unfortunately the leader of the resistance thinks it is too risky to actually…resist. He just wants to talk tough on smaller matters, but believes that they shouldn’t actually attack the government. Well…looks like Faith is on her own!

This is a first person game, but it’s actually not a shooter. As you’re a Runner in this title, you can imagine that running is what you’ll be doing most of the time. You typically have to run from point A to point B while performing some athletics and occasionally fighting with the authorities. As you play through the game you will acquire gadgets that will help you out like gliding between buildings or using a rope to pull yourself up. You even acquire an EMP weapon, which is very handy to have when you are surrounded by enemies. For combat, you can use the weak or strong attacks on your opponents. You’ll want to mix them up or the opponents will counter attack. Personally I found that the best way to beat them was to always jump off of something or just jump into them as the A.I. can never react to such an attack. Beating the enemies is pretty easy provided that you don’t try to rush it by running towards them. You will want to use strategy here.

The gameplay is pretty smooth, but occasionally you’ll find yourself at a jump where the camera angles make it difficult. I died quite a few times during the mission where you had to climb a 4 sided tower to deactivate a cannon. There are also a time where I jumped a little too high and found myself on a roof. It was very difficult to get down from there since I wasn’t supposed to be that high in the first place. Luckily, I managed at some point. That was rare though and on the whole the controls were easy to learn and proved to be intuitive.

Unfortunately, there is no final boss in the game so you don’t get to really show off your skills. True, you get to fight some minions towards the end of the game, but I wouldn’t call them a “final boss” to be honest. We did get a nice cutscene which had a fight between Faith and Kat which was neat though. I wasn’t expecting any fighting considering that the game was just about over by that point and it was a good action scene. Faith’s a solid hand to hand fighter even if she does tend to get a little distracted from time to time.

Graphically the game looks good. I wouldn’t call it great though and I think that a PS4 title can do better, but it’s not bad either. You still wouldn’t go and mistake this for an older generation like the PS2. The game opts for a very realistic style which is likely what hampers the graphics a bit. Just look at a game like Super Smash Bros and then at the latest Metal Gear. Metal Gear looks good, but Smash Bros looks a lot more vibrant and modern. Embracing the fantasy elements of a video game can certainly make it look a lot better in the long run. By the way, the cover of this game does sort of spoil the ending design from one of Faith’s choices though so prepare yourself!

As far as the soundtrack goes, Mirror’s Edge is okay. There aren’t really any standout themes, but they were fairly decent while playing through. I just can’t remember any of them at the moment so that’s a little bit of a strike against it. While the main campaign is pretty short, there is a lot of post game content to help the replay value. There are 50 trophies in the game. You’ll get around 20 of them by beating the game and then the other 30 are related to finding a lot of switches and completing many side missions. I’d say that doing all of that should definitely triple your overall play time or maybe even go a little beyond that. There seems to be some kind of multiplayer mode here as well. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it could be a fun thing to try out if you have PS+.

Faith is a decent main character I guess as she is less annoying than the others, but I wouldn’t call her a great character either. She is the “tough” character of the group who isn’t afraid to break the rules and defy the government. Pretty much all of her lines are meant to remind you of this. The problem is that she shows moments of weakness quite regularly to the point where it destroys this image and she doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of what she even wants to do. Of course, it doesn’t help that she is surrounded by cowards and villains though. She’s the best character, but the bar is set rather low and I’d like to see her decide to fight the villains on her own at some point.

Icarus is the new member of the resistance who talks tough and doesn’t get along with Faith. By the end of the game he is basically the damsel in distress though and loses all of his confidence. No worries, Faith is here to help him out. This guy was annoying from the get go and while it seems like he could be a better character now (He better not become a love interest) I will probably find it difficult to like him. He’s better than Faith’s original boss though. That guy was afraid to make any waves and was scared of the villains. I don’t know how he became the leader of the resistance, but he was holding the group back whenever he appeared.

Then there’s the leader of the more extreme resistance, but she’s also a villain by the end. She wants to destroy everyone who leads privileged lives so they can know how she feels. Faith doesn’t like the government, but the world wouldn’t be any better under this resistance movement either which presents her with a dilemma. It’s one that she doesn’t really worry about though and she is still rather indecisive by the end so it’ll be intriguing to see which side she ultimately goes with. It’s lightly implied that the government may not be as corrupt anymore as a new leader has been elected, but it could very easily just be a political front.

Along the way we are also introduced to a computer genius who helps Faith out a lot. Her gimmick is that she takes everything literally and constantly insults everyone. It’s a decent gimmick I suppose, but one that can get a little tiring. There’s also a guy who Faith owes a lot of credits due to being in jail for so long. They have a rather weird dynamic as he’ll be insulting and threatening her one moment to giving her a pep talk the next. I definitely wouldn’t trust him if I was Faith since he seems a little unhinged. He seems to be the leader of the black market or something like that. I’m sure that we would meet other characters through the side missions as well, but those were the main ones. There’s also a lighthearted runner who asks you to do things for him once in a while, but he never becomes an important character.

Naturally, we can’t forget the main villains either. The main villain can actually fight a little which is cool, but he’s your average evil scientist aside from that. I’ll give him some credit for actually being fairly interesting though. I actually didn’t mind rooting for him a little since he’s actually more likable than 90% of the heroes. It’s just too bad that he left the cure that could stop his big plans in the middle of a room on the top floor with absolutely no security. I guess being overconfident didn’t pay off for him this time.

His right hand woman also gets a bit role and delves into Captain America:Winter Soldier issues. She murders quite a few people and even tortures one or two of them before putting them out of their misery. She’s completely evil, but then a plot twist happens. As Marvel would say “No, she’s not a clone or being mind controller. This is really her!” She should be held accountable right? Well, not really according to Faith. This whole thing is very personal and stopping the resistance from murdering her is one thing, but this lady still needs to be locked up for life at least. Even if she turned over a new leaf, she’s got to pay for the crimes. Faith seemed to completely forget everything that the lady did and it was a little iffy. If we got a sequel, it would be interesting to see if Faith tried to keep on convincing this lady to join her or not. Everyone seems to have gotten over the murders and such though so maybe Faith did as well.

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Overall, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a good game. The story could have used a little work though. Essentially, it feels like you’re thrown into a world which is established around you, but then you’re taken out just as quickly. You got to see a glimpse of a whole new world, but there was no ending. Hopefully a sequel could work on that a little as the ending certainly doesn’t feel like anything has changed. The gameplay is solid though and trying to get the Platinum Trophy will help with the short length. The game does well on technical merits as well and ultimately gameplay will always trump the story for me as long as the story isn’t terrible, which this one certainly was not. I just wish that we had gotten some more likable characters and maybe a boss fight or two. Also, did anyone else miss the cool secret agent who was murdered so quickly by the right hand woman? He had the potential to be awesome, but so much for that. He didn’t even get a plot twist to himself. I recommend checking out this title, but maybe you should wait until the price goes down. I don’t think it will take too long for that to happen as price reductions happen all the time now. Now, it’s back to working on Final Fantasy VII for a while longer. I’m about halfway so just like 20 hours left until I wreck Sephiroth!

Overall 7/10

Independence Day 2 Resurgence Review

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It certainly took a while for this sequel to come out. In preparation I recently rewatched the first title and a review for that one will be coming fairly soon. Unfortunately, Resurgence isn’t quite as epic as the original and has more wince-worthy scenes….not to mention a lot more plot hax. This is always going to be the result when you make the villains absurdly powerful though. It’s good to keep them within reasonable striking distance. Still, Resurgence is still a good film, but it certainly can’t be called a great one. I think that the third film could reasonably beat this film if it gets made, but the series is certainly not going to feel like Independence Day anymore. The first film really captured the heart and depth of what this franchise was all about.

It has been 20 years since America defeated the Mothership and the rest of the countries allied together to stop the aliens. Now, they have finally returned and everyone who was connected to the aliens at one point in time can hear their telepathic presence. This wakes up one of the scientists from his 20 year coma and gets the old President back into action. The only problem is that nobody believes the former President until it’s too late and the aliens have returned. They quickly destroy a city and cause some massive damage. The heroes will have to do what they did last time and destroy the Alien Queen. If they can do that, then order will be restored to the universe. It’ll be significantly more difficult this time though since humanity has realized that sending a virus through a Mac is very tricky and won’t work a second time. We’ll need a more physical approach.

As you would expect, the special effects are quite good. As it is, the first film looked great for its time and this film shows how much our graphics have improved. The aliens can actually be seen without the smoke covering them all the time. We don’t get any visuals that are quite as powerful as seeing the White House get obliterated by a giant laser, but there are some homages to that moment. There are a lot of homages in general although they don’t work too well for the most part. The new version of “There will be no peace” comes off rather badly as the character who is saying this doesn’t say it in a commanding voice. Not to mention the fact that it probably wasn’t a great situation in which to say the line.

There are some retcons here as well. The scientist character was definitely dead in the first film. In this film they retconned the neck choke a little to say that it is purely just to talk to humans through the vessel rather than destroying someone and creepily saying stuff. The film pushes this point by having the alien do this against another opponent as well. It’s too bad because the scientist is a pretty bad character. In the first film his role was rather small so he didn’t get to grate on your nerves quite as much, but his role is definitely bigger this time around. He’s also completely used for comedy this time and results in most of the unfortunate humor moments that I had hoped to avoid.

Another weakness in this film is naturally the romance. The film justifies a “classic” love at first fight plot which is really terrible. On one hand we have the typical flirt who tries to go with everyone, but they all reject him. This time will be different he thinks as he likes an ace pilot who also loses someone rather close to her so he quickly takes this opportunity to show off and win her over. It’s sadly very successful as everyone in the theater probably predicted the instant that she first appeared. It really undermines her character to go with him so easily. We also have the romance with the main lead, which has no real point to being here.

Resurgence also takes itself a little too seriously at times with quite a few tearful goodbyes and characters barely holding it together as they give out a speech. Given that the film is constantly throwing comedy moments at you, these scenes don’t work well. Not to mention that so many characters die during the film in very sudden scenes that there is no real time to feel sad. The heroes just go back to joking right away anyway so the film doesn’t even take its own serious moments all that seriously.

My final complaint lies with the writing. The previous complaint is more or less related to this as well. Most of the characters are just written very badly. The main character is a good example of this. He’s supposed to be the tough and charismatic leader that everyone loves during the film. He breaks the rules and always ends up saving the day. Being grounded for saving dozens of lives after a tech malfunction was laughable so I don’t blame him there. Still, his “big” moment where he insulted the aliens was very bad. There are a lot of ways to have a cool moment without just being vulgar. Unfortunately, the crowd did laugh and cheer a bit during this moment. I got a very active crowd, but they help to remind me why these bad moments won’t end. Everyone always cheers at the moments where they are supposed too. Directors and Producers love this kind of crowd because they go along with just about everything. Crowd mentality is strong so a lot of people naturally just get taken in by it, but it also means that these kind of scenes will be sticking around for the long haul. It’s regrettable.

Back to the writing though. Towards the end of the film, a big point of emphasis is that all of the dozens/hundreds of alien ships are protecting the Alien Queen. That’s their whole purpose and yet, they sit by and just watch as the heroes attack her for minutes upon minutes. That was just terrible writing. The writers put themselves into a hole that they couldn’t get out of so they had to just throw logic out the window. It’s a shame. Still, the Alien Queen was cool and the armor that the aliens used was pretty neat. I’m not sure about them losing to a guy with two swords and a comic relief assistant with a blaster though. That seemed like a bit of a stretch.

All right, let’s look at the positives. The soundtrack was pretty solid. We had some pretty nice themes and it helped to carry across the film’s epic vibe. It was mitigated by the futuristic Earth that no longer looked like ours and the fact that you can never top the original Alien incursion. Still, it was cool to see the alien fleet arrive. I also think that it was good to finally see Earth shoot first when the aliens appeared. It was rigged this time, but I’d say that we made the right move. The film started out quite rapidly even if it slowed down quite a lot after that.

David was one of the big characters from the first film and he’s still really solid here. His romance with another scientist is terribly written, but beyond that he is a good character. A lot of his scenes are humorous, but in a good way as opposed to the majority of the other characters. I do disagree with some of his decisions like the “wait and see” approach, but on the whole he was smart and came up with his own ideas. He wasn’t a yes man the way that some of the scientists and government workers were. His dad was also a pretty fun character like in the last film. He gets less screen time here since his plot gets the shaft much like the driving plot in the first film. That’s probably a good thing if you ask me although it was fun seeing the dog stand up to the aliens. This puppy meant business and thanks to the Dad, the kids who were along for the ride will never forget this day as they got to meet some really important figures.

Thomas, the former president, was another solid character. It’s a little unfortunate that he is seen as a crazy guy on meds now instead of the world remembering him as an awesome guy. Although, the general public may not be aware of this and only select members since he does still get a lot of attention. People should be taking him seriously considering how well he did in the first film. Also, is it just me or did he look different in the flashback to the first film? I highly doubt they would have re filmed the speech for such a short clip so it must have just been my imagination. Thomas stepped up to the plate when the chips were down and turned out to be someone that the rest of the world could count on to fight the aliens. Being attacked telepathically may have weakened him, but he’s still the same likable character that he always was and is easily the best character in the film.

Even though I recently saw the first film (5 days before watching this one) it was a little hard to keep track of all the characters. I wouldn’t call it confusing as you know who everyone is in the context of this film, but as far as the homages and wink-wink moments at the audience go, I probably missed a few. The army guy sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place him. The character who was with David as a rival also felt like she came out of nowhere, but maybe she was actually one of the characters from the first film. Ah well, I suppose that a film like this one is supposed to have a huge cast. Perhaps it should have thought about getting rid of a few excess ones though.

Two characters who didn’t go over well were Jake and Dylan. It goes without saying that I didn’t like the comic relief, flirting sidekick, the two scientists who crossed the bridge of being quirky to over the top so those are already in the pile. The “tough” heroine who was the grand daughter of the army general was also destroyed the instant that she didn’t shut down the comic relief guy. Jake could have been cool since I like the tough rebel type of main character, but he goes a little too far as well. His plot of nearly destroying Dylan a while back wasn’t really handled well either. Dylan doesn’t come across as likable either for the fact that he held a grudge against Jake for so long and got a sucker punch in and then cracking when the chips were down. Sure, the two of them get along very well after a few minutes and it’s back to normal, but it was hard to recover from that so easily. I don’t blame Jake for saving lives after a mechanical malfunction since I didn’t think it was his fault in the first place, but that’s about all the credit I can give him.

As mentioned before, the action scenes are great though. The film also never drags on even though it’s around 2 hours. The pacing is good and I never thought that any of the plots were particularly boring. Some were fillerish, but at least things were still happening. The drunk fellows blackmailing the world for 100 million was one of those “interesting” plots that actually worked out pretty well though. They were certainly bold even if they didn’t do much. Seriously, that was probably the easiest 100 mil that they ever earned. All they had to do was keep drinking while keeping an eye on the equipment.

I won’t talk about the plot for the next film much, but the film does take a big turn. It’s hilarious for the wrong reasons though as someone talks really tough, but if you actually think about what she’s saying…then you’ll realize that they made all of the wrong decisions. I can’t say much more than that, but it’s intriguing. We could very well be going to Star Trek/Star Wars a lot sooner than we thought and I can picture other alien languages being spoken soon and intergalactic bars. Nothing is out of the question now and whether that is a good thing or not…we will find out soon enough!

Overall, Resurgence is a fun film, but one that does have quite a few problems bogging it down. For every good character there was a bad one and for every epic scene there was a wince worthy one. The topsy turvyness of the film is what keeps it from getting a really good score. Hopefully the sequel will be able to improve on this. At the very least, the action scenes and effects are quite good. I expect them to get even better with the next film. It’s definitely an ambitious plot line going forward and I can definitely see a lot of Star Trek comparisons coming out soon. The third film has the potential to be a completely different experience so I hope that the writers are ready for the challenge ahead. I’m not sure how much confidence I have in them after this though.

Overall 6/10

Why, Charlie Brown, Why? Review

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This is the most serious Charlie Brown special. It still has subplots for the comic relief and some jokes to keep it from being too ultra serious, but the tone is certainly darker than what you will be used to from this series. It’s good to tackle themes like this once in a while to spread awareness and act as an infomercial, but I am glad that it is only an occasional thing. Not to mention that some themes are a little too dark regardless. If the ending hadn’t been quite as positive, it definitely would have hurt the special more.

One of Linus’ friends has started to feel sick lately. He advises her to go to the nurse’s office and from there she ends up in the hospital as she has developed cancer. Charlie decides that he and Linus should visit the hospital. The special is mostly focused on describing the treatment and showing how the main characters cope with this sudden development. Some handle it well, but others not so much.

It may be a little iffy for some when we see Lucy in particular. She really doesn’t care that someone got cancer and it fairly rude about it. It’s true that kids probably don’t understand the gravity of the situation, but the special went out of its way to show that everyone was really mean about it aside from Charlie and Linus. Snoopy handled it well as he continued to eat a lot of food whenever possible though. You can never count him out and he stole the show with his “dinner” as he proved to everyone how to enjoy yourself while having a healthy diet at the same time. It did look like a complete meal after all.

A bully showed up for the first time in a while. Naturally Linus was upset about this, but I felt like he could have handled the situation better. He mostly just let the bully talk for a while before clenching his fists and finally yelling at the guy a little, but I was hoping for Linus to throw a solid punch. Linus blew up, but in a rather anticlimactic way and it took him too long to react. Of course, he was able to solve the situation without violence so in a way that’s good…in a way.

Aside from Lucy and the bully, the characters are pretty solid here. Linus did well and the new character seemed nice enough. Charlie was considerate as always and it’s easy to see why he is the main character of the franchise. The others mean well, but they’d definitely be lost without his expert guidance. If not for all of his plans and last second heroics, the town would probably be a lot more depressing and solemn. From winning tournaments to visiting friends in the hospital, Charlie’s the guy you can count on.

The soundtrack is certainly more downcast and less fast paced than usual. This helps the special carry across the feeling that things are more serious than usual. It works well enough and the animation is as good as usual. These specials are nothing if not consistent in their technical quality. As always, the special is definitely very short so you can really watch it whenever you have a free period. It’s not too fun so you’ll want to have some snacks to munch while watching it.

Luckily, as mentioned earlier, the ending is fairly happy. Good endings can always help a film quite a bit. If the friend had died to try to show how serious cancer is, it would have failed pretty badly. She even got her hair back, which was definitely a nice added bonus. All’s well that ends well and that’s why going to the doctor regularly is a good thing so you can catch these conditions right away. I don’t particularly like going to the doctor’s too often since I feel pretty healthy, but I still recommend going. It’s worth it folks, even if I don’t follow my own advice on this.

Overall, This special certainly sticks out from the rest. One watch is really enough though and I would sooner recommend checking out most of the other Charlie Brown specials. Still, at least the special tackled the topic of cancer I suppose. The kid should have been put to sleep before getting the bone marrow shot if you ask me, but beyond that it did a good job of explaining the treatments available. With this, the Charlie Brown animated specials have come to an end for now, but eventually I aim to see the others that I have not checked out yet. Hopefully Snoopy continues to steal the show and show us just why he is such a great character.

Overall 6/10

You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown Review

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To counter that last one, it’s time to look at one of the better Charlie Brown specials. I actually may put this one in the top 5 to be honest, but there are a lot of them so I’ve gotta think it through. For sure, the Christmas one, and the Olympics would make it. Flashbeagle as well. That leaves two empty spots and I’m fairly confident that this one would be able to grab one of them. It has everything that a good Peanuts special needs and the ending was also fairly fun even if one character had to be nerfed so that the moral would go smoothly. I suppose that it is the price to pay for having the side characters be a little stronger than the main one. Charlie Brown’s a nice kid, but he does tend to be a little out of his depth when up against Snoopy.

As the title suggests, this is another sport themed special. Charlie Brown is invited to the motorcycle event with the rest of the gang. He decides that while he is entering it, he may as well take home the gold trophy. The main opponents standing in his way are Peppermint Patty and the Masked Rider. They’re good, but Charlie has his own support crew ready in the form of Linus. They pooled their resources and got themselves a fairly decent vehicle so they’re ready. Patty is an old pro at this kind of event so she has a fairly top of the line bike of her own. Finally, the Masked Rider is also around and he has the best vehicle of them all. He only shows up for the biggest races apparently so the other characters are all on edge as soon as he shows up. Seeing as how he is Snoopy by day and a rider by night, this Masked Rider sure knows how to balance his time effectively.

One of the reasons why this special is a lot of fun is because I enjoy sports. I always like seeing a good sport themed cartoon or movie even if I don’t play that particular sport. I don’t think that I’ll ever be getting into Motorcross racing or any of the other forms, but it is still pretty interesting to look at. Furthermore, Charlie Brown and Snoopy both get rather large roles here which is the best of both roles. The bulk of the special is the long race so the pacing is great and it feels like a lot happens in this special. It’s interesting and engaging right from the start. The special should quickly remind you of the Tortoise and the Hare story. Regrettably, you’ll realize right from the start that Snoopy’s chances of winning are quite small. Despite the fact that he is an expert and a dog to be feared in all forms of sports, he never actually wins due to his overconfidence. He starts to pull ahead by such a long gap that he stops for a feast including cake and other such food items. Snoopy handles himself better than the Hare did, but not by a whole lot and ultimately this proved to be his downfall. I would have liked to have seen Charlie take the win here. That being said, seeing Charlie coast to victory was fun as well.

Charlie rarely ever gets to actually win so this was a fairly special event. It’s great to see his hard work and dedication pay off once in a while. It’s a running gag that he loses, but it can only be funny if he manages to win at least once. With that happy ending and the fun sports vibe throughout the special, this one was definitely a winner. Linus was a good supporting character here as well who helped Charlie out of a tough spot. Charlie’s definitely fortunate to have a good friend like Linus around. The animation and soundtrack are about the same as all of the other specials. They are good and hold up well. This is one of the older Charlie Brown specials and you can easily notice how the animation has improved over the years, but the core style is always the same. It’s easy on the eyes and hopefully the series never descends into dicey CGI or Flash animation, but well…that is the ultimate fate for most titles.

Overall, This was a great Charlie Brown special. Even before the actual race started up, the prelude to it was handled well as we got to see Snoopy’s serious tennis skills. Once again, he may have been the superior player, but he couldn’t take the win. As much as the running gag on always losing is focused on Charlie Brown, it tends to happen to Snoopy as well. The dog’s power level fluctuates rather rapidly and he could be dominating one second only to lose the next. Personally, I’d prefer it if Snoopy always defeated everyone at everything and it could be a great running gag in its own right, but Snoopy still looks good through and through. I highly recommend checking this special out and who knows, you may end up considering it as the best Charlie Brown special of them all, although you’d have to make a super strong case to even put it in the same conversation as the legendary Christmas special.

Overall 7/10

Snoopy’s Getting Married, Charlie Brown Review

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Snoopy continues to get more and more adventures. This is unfortunately one of the weaker Peanut specials though and the famous dog’s charisma is not enough to save it this time. One of the main problems here is the fact that the romance is the main plot so Snoopy is a little out of character and none of the usual gags are present this time around. The special takes itself too seriously and when you consider the fact that Snoopy has already fallen in love several times, this plot is already a little old. Snoopy’s brother makes his debut here, but he is a fairly unlikable character. Ah well, let’s launch into this.

Snoopy has fallen for a dog so he wants to immediately be married. First he has his farewell party with the rest of the Peanuts gang. Everyone gives him a good bone and Snoopy prepares himself. It’s not as if he is going anywhere, but the status quo will change quite a bit so everyone will have to get used to his new role in society. The nerves start to get to him though and the special gets a little odd here. My personal take on it was that Snoopy already knew that the other dog was not going to go through with the marriage as she had already fallen for someone else. The special implied that it was Snoopy’s brother for a little while as a mild flirtation happened earlier, but in the end it was just a random dog who was never shown. Seeing as how it was Spike who the dog fell in love with in the comic, I feel like the animators made the switch at the last second. It made more sense to end like it did in the comic although I’m glad that it didn’t as it wouldn’t do Spike any favors. I already don’t care for the character, you can imagine how much worse he would be if this had happened. It certainly would have been a very somber ending.

Luckily, Snoopy’s a class act and a tough dog to boot. He gets over the failed marriage right away and goes back to eating his cake and just having a generally good time. His charismatic personality is why everyone loves Snoopy and it helps him get through tough times like this special. That being said, it was still not enough to make me actually say that the special was all that good. A romance plot like this one needs a solid subplot to help compliment it or some more dilemmas. There just wasn’t much to this special, but maybe it helps that the subplot was about Spike. Why don’t I like Spike? Well, he looks rather mean, but we can get past that I suppose. The problem is that he sounds noble in the letters, but then comes across as incredibly unsympathetic to Snoopy’s plight and the fact that he definitely seemed like he had come just to mess things up. He tried hard in the race that he entered, but it simply wasn’t to be. He would either need more personality in order to move up the characters charts or some kind of character design upgrade. Something to show that he’s still a nice guy beyond the gruff exterior because otherwise…he’s just a guy with a gruff exterior who doesn’t seem friendly at all.

As always, the animation is rather consistent with the other Peanut specials. There is certainly nothing to complain about here although the blushing on Snoopy was a little much. Animations like to exaggerate the blush effect many times, but I always found it to be rather off putting. People don’t look anything like that in real life. As for the soundtrack, it’s rather ordinary here. There isn’t a whole lot to say about it, the regular tunes will be familiar at this point, but because of that it is also easy to forget that they even exist. I suppose it is better than having bad tunes though.

Overall, This Peanuts special wasn’t able to hold up very well to the test of time. The main problem is that the poorly written romance plot left little room for the human characters to have much of a presence. As cool as Snoopy is, it’s also very important to have Charlie Brown and the gang help out a lot since their personalities are always pretty fun to see. It’s a team effort that makes the Peanuts specials successful and ones that focus on a single plot like this tend to leave something to be desired. It’s another case altogether when everyone is involved in the single plot like the next special that I’m about to review. That is an example of how to get the full cast involved in an interesting way. If you’re going to watch a Peanuts special, I’d advise you to skip this one.

Overall 5/10

It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown Review

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It’s time to look at another classic Charlie Brown special. This one is a musical so that is definitely a change of pace for the series. It’s also one of the stronger entries in the series as the whole dancing gimmick is handled very well. Aside from Peppermint Patty’s song, the rest of them do a good job of copying the style of the 80’s. The retro songs can definitely be a lot of fun like in the classic Transformers animated film. The main theme is still as hype as it was when the first film came out and I think good tunes like this can be timeless. As a result, Snoopy’s dancing numbers are quite good.

The plot is fairly nonexistent here since the music takes center stage. One part of the plot is that Snoopy dances a lot by night and by day he sleeps a lot. This makes Charlie think that his dog is slacking off, but luckily Sally takes him to school for show and tell. Snoopy reveals his true identity as a dancing mastermind and the day is saved. Charlie didn’t get to do much in this special and even Sally told him off in the end. It wasn’t his best showing, but at least he put in some decent effort. Charlie’s probably just expecting too much out of Snoopy.

His faithful dog certainly stole the show here. The dancing numbers were great and Snoopy really knows how to dance to a tune. I wouldn’t have minded if the special had added even more dance numbers for the guy. They wouldn’t drag on because of how solidly it was handled. If you ever start to wonder why Snoopy is such a fan favorite, make sure to watch this special. You certainly won’t have any more doubts after that.

The animation is up to the usual Peanuts standard. Everything looks clear and the character designs are good. The soundtrack is what has significantly improved from the other specials, which is really the whole point of this movie when you think about it. It almost goes without saying. As per usual, this special is very short so it’s very easy to just breeze through. It never starts to drag on as a result and that’s one of the positives of being so short.

Flashbeagle is a fun little feature. The writing is solid and the characters are likable. In the end, that’s what typically makes for a good Peanuts special even if there’s not a whole lot more to say about this one. The whole thing is over in the blink of an eye and Snoopy is left on top once again. Snoopy can be a little inconsistent at times in these specials as he is a pro one second and a rookie the next, but it’s the price to pay for being in a comedy. No character is safe as they could be nerfed/weakened at any point in order to get a joke across. That’s definitely a double edged sword if you ask me, but as I said earlier, the writing is solid for the most part here.

Overall, Flashbeagle was a lot of fun and it shows that parodies/homages can certainly be good if they are handled right. Nowadays, parodies have a bit of a bad reputation thanks to titles like Transmorphers and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Well done parodies are rare, but I’m still waiting for one to really hit it out of the park. I can’t quite say that Flashbeagle’s that home run hit since it can only go so far in its format, but it is a good title that I would recommend. I’m one step closer to watching all of the Charlie Brown shorts.

Overall 7/10