Monthly Archives: September 2024

The Mark of Zorro (1974) Review

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It’s time for another Zorro film, the masked hero gets to ride once again! In this case I’m moving backwards a little bit here as I’m used to the newer version. This one still manages to hit all of the right notes though. It’s a pretty fun film overall and while I would not call it the definitive Zorro film, I didn’t really have any big issues with it either. I would say it accomplishes the goals that it set out to do and ultimately makes for a movie that I could basically recommend to anyone. The short run time also means that it always has a very fast pace going on.

The film starts off with Zorro leaving the swordsman academy because he has been receiving some distressing letters about his home. So he heads off to see what’s going on, although I’m not sure exactly who sent those letters or what they were really about. When he gets there, he’s shocked to hear about what people are saying about his father and seems to have no clue on the current state of affairs. So I was a little puzzled by this but either way at least it got him to go on the move. When he sees how the whole area is being overrun by powerfully corrupt officials, he decides to put a stop to this. When in costume as Zorro, he punishes the bullies and shows the weak that they have a chance. When in his human form, he sows discord among the villains and plays up his wimpy personality. It’s the ultimate dual identity.

I always like to see Zorro in his human form because he does a really good job of making sure that absolutely nobody likes him. Well, I suppose the exception would be Quintero’s wife but everyone else finds him just utterly repulsive. The villains don’t take him seriously and his father is supremely disappointed. It definitely goes a long way to showing just how good his acting skills are. It also can’t be easy for Zorro to purposefully be looking this bad but he does this for the long game.

Ultimately his plan is super successful. I’d even go so far as to say it runs so smoothly that you are waiting for something bad to happen. I suppose the priest Zorro was hiding the money with gets beaten up but otherwise the plan pretty much goes without a hitch. Zorro also dispatches the fighter Esteban with relative ease in this one. The guy may have been a fighter but he was definitely not in Zorro’s league. Zorro taking on an entire army and winning with these guerilla tactics is definitely impressive. The movie really gets the tone right for this kind of classic adventure so it’s easy to have a lot of fun with the whole thing. You understand the high stakes from the start but the movie is mostly concerned with having a lot of fun.

A great number of the scenes in this film have something ready to give you a smile after all. The writing is also really good. The script is on point with all of the fun dialogue and veiled threats. It’s the kind of writing that can be hard to match in a future title for the most part but Zorro has really proven to be pretty much timeless so far. His films just do a good job of adapting to the era, or in this case it didn’t even need to adapt as the same story still works pretty well.

I will say Zorro’s father also looks really good here. He may be older but he still jumps in to help his fellow people when things get dire. You understand his disdain for his son since that is the whole point of the ruse. If there was no twist, then of course he would be right to be upset. In the final fights we even see the father take down a few of the enemies so the guy has still got it.

As for the heroine Teresa, I don’t think she gets quite as much to do as in the other films but she still does defend Zorro at the dinner table. That always takes a certain amount of guts and showing up at the end to recruit the heroes was good. She’s at least a good character even though she was always around the main villains. Her mother is not nearly as good though as she’s actively trying to cheat on her husband with whichever guy is around. Definitely not the real loyal type, I can safely say that.

The romance in the film can definitely be a bit on the rushed side though. I don’t think the movie really had any time for that considering that the main plot already needed a good amount of the runtime to cook so if I was the writer I would have cut that out entirely. I suppose with this being planned to turn into a show then you would have had more time but then you could have used those episodes to really build up the plot. At least it’s not like it’s that bad, it just feels out of place since Zorro needs to focus on saving everybody and overthrowing the dictators. That has to be his only real concern. The ending definitely goes in fast to the point where I was thinking the recording was about to cut off but this way you can really say that Zorro was fighting right up to the end.

Overall, The Mark of Zorro is a pretty fun film. It really does fly on by but it never drags on at any point. You are guaranteed to be having a ton of fun throughout and at the end of the day that’s the important thing. I would say he is significantly more interesting than all of his rivals like the Green Hornet for now. Of course all it takes is a really solid film to change that but it’s not as easy as Zorro makes it look. When you try too hard to make a film funny it can backfire and just make you roll your eyes. So you have to handle it carefully and this is easily one of the big titles I would use to show people how to make an effective action/comedy title. Regardless this is a film that I can easily recommend to anyone looking for a fun adventure.

Overall 7/10

Cosmo Gang The Puzzle Review

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All right, it’s time for the Cosmo Gang! I tend to like puzzle type games like this where you match objects. Although personally I much prefer rearranging vs the style where the blocks are falling from the ceiling but it all comes down to execution in the end. Ultimately I didn’t think the execution here was all that good and the gimmick of needing arrow orbs to destroy the enemies fell flat for me. It should have been basic matching like match 3-4 of the aliens to destroy them. Then for the blocks you need to match 6 which I found to be super excessive. So in pretty much every way you could say that this game really did not meet my expectations.

There is a story mode of sorts with dialogue but it’s untranslated so that’s just how it goes. The main mode is about seeing how long you can survive as the blocks come down. Every minute or so you move up a level. You can start from level 0, 10, 50, and 100. Naturally the level 0 will be a lot easier than level 100 so that’s one thing to keep in mind. The main annoying thing though is that the score jumps up with you so there’s no point to choosing anything other than level 100. For example, if you start with level 0 you have a score of 0. If you manage to survive for a while, maybe you can get to 20,000 or so.

If you start at level 100, you begin with a score of 2 million so by default I shattered all the records. Even if you lose immediately you end up having a higher score which doesn’t really make sense. I suspect the developers didn’t think that through or perhaps originally this was something you had to unlock and the Switch Online just sped up the process. It’s hard to say for sure but either way it means the score is something you shouldn’t take very seriously. You’re going to have an extremely hard time beating that legitimately as you would need to be a real expert at this style of gameplay.

Even the gameplay feels a bit dated here. You can only move objects in a single direction so there is no going backwards or anything like that. You have to keep spinning until you get the right shape/formation that you want. I imagine you will eventually get really used to how the shapes interact but I would keep on getting confused and shift things to the wrong way. In a game like this that is naturally fatal though. A single misstep will set you back a great deal and there’s no real coming back from that. As it is, sometimes I felt like I was playing perfectly and I was still getting demolished.

I do consider these types of games to be among the harder ones out there though so that definitely tracks. You really need to have a long term plan at the ready in addition to just making matches as soon as possible. Because of how the arrow orb works, you even want to line up the enemies in a way where they can all be hit in a row. Of course, that also lowers the chance of getting a 6 way match so now you have conflicting goals. Good luck on survival, I will say while there is a good amount of RNG, there is also a lot of skill here as well. I don’t want to sell the big players short, it clearly does take talent to win here.

As far as the graphics go, the game looks pretty decent. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing or anything like that but it definitely gets the job done. Then for the soundtrack it’s more on the subdued side. Not exactly something that you will be humming in the shower but it doesn’t distract from the game either. So it won’t hold the gameplay back but it won’t take things to the next level either. In terms of replay value, I suppose it is endless here as you can keep on playing for as long as you find the gameplay fun. Due to the way the game operates, no two matches will be exactly the same anyway so that’s why it never ends. I just don’t find it quite so fun and since that’s the only real gameplay that the title has to offer, this ultimately dooms it in the end.

Overall, Cosmo Gang really wasn’t my cup of tea. I think the main problem is that there are just way better puzzle games of this style out there. Why play this when you can play the original Dr. Mario or Eggman’s Mean Bean Machine? Cosmo Gang just doesn’t beat those in any tangible way and when you have a game that is super basic like this, it helps to at least have some franchise appeal. Without a legendary character like Mario or Sonic around to help out, it meant that the game was really doomed from the jump. Great gameplay could have helped to bridge the divide but we didn’t get that. I would say to skip this one personally.

Overall 4/10

NiNoKuni Review

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It’s time to check out one of the movies based on a Level 5 title. It’s always fun to see one of their titles get the big screen treatment. Naturally you can’t ever squeeze a whole RPG into a single movie without losing critical details but it’s still fun to see the attempt. Although in this case they went with an original story so in a way you get to see a pocket size version. It works pretty well even if the film does have some logic issues as it goes on. There is still plenty of action and fun to be had here.

The film start off by introducing us to Haru, Yu, and Kotona. The three of them are good friends and the jaded part of you thinks a love triangle is being primed right away but look, sometimes the characters are all just friends and it works. I clung to that but my hopes were dashed when it turns out that Yu is in love with Kotona despite her being together with Haru already. Yu tries to cope with this as best he can and he already has it tough since his legs don’t work. One day, Kotona is attacked by a mysterious being from another dimension and she gets stabbed. Making matters worse is that Haru panics and the three of them get run over by a truck. Fortunately this was the Isekai truck and Haru/Yu wake up in a whole new world. In this world there is a lady named Princess Astrid who looks just like Kotona and she is plagued by a mysterious curse. Perhaps saving her will help Kotona out?

Okay so this is a pretty nice set up. They actually save the princess from the curse rather easily. A bit too easily to be honest, I know Yu is basically the chosen one here but I wasn’t sure about why he was able to just grab the sword like that. We get some twists near the end but I wouldn’t say they fully answer this. Yu is a solid character throughout though and easily the best one in the film. He knows to hold himself back in the real world and would never let Kotona know what he’s thinking. He fights against his best friend Haru in order to save lives and always makes the right calls.

He does sometimes know a bit too much though like when he decided to jump into the flames because attempting to destroy yourself is one way to travel across worlds. There’s no real way he could have known that and it’s way too risky to try and attempt on purpose. Realistically with most Isekai rules that would not have worked and he would have died. There’s a TV trope for this, I forget the name but basically it’s when an objectively wrong decision has a positive outcome and everyone in context just takes it in stride. There are constant moments like this where characters make massive leaps in logic and jut so happen to be correct.

Another big one is Haru at the end when he somehow figures out the final twist. There’s no way he should have figured that out. In fact, your first guess would be many other theories. We know it’s right just from how the narrative is presented but otherwise I would usually assume that he was completely off base. After all, there were no time/reality issues the way there should have been with how long this twist was in play. So I still have some doubts on the logic and that’s after seeing everything from a cosmic viewer point of view.

Then on the flip side, you have characters making the worst possible assumptions that make no sense. So midway through the film, Kotona gets sick again and so Haru jumps to the conclusion that obviously it’s because the heroes saved Astrid. One massive problem with this though, Astrid and Kotona had both been about to die before. Kotona only lived because they saved Astrid. So the natural conclusion here is that their lives are connected. If Astrid is alive then Kotona is alive and if one dies then the other will die. Somehow Haru twisted this to be the opposite, that only one could be alive. That makes no sense if you stop to think about how any of this works. They already know there are multiple duplicates.

I think the problem here is that this is the main reason why Haru and Yu end up having to fight and it seems forced. Even Haru saying that the world doesn’t matter or that it’s a dream doesn’t really make any sense. That’s just massive amounts of cope from Haru the whole time. I also felt like he just wasn’t a true friend with how quick he was to turn against Yu in the opening scene. There are different moments in the film where he seems jealous of Yu as well. I think this would have been expanded way more in a video game but for the movie there just wasn’t a whole lot of time. Ultimately I would say I just didn’t like Haru here. He gets better by the end but just wasn’t as heroic as you would expect.

While Yu is more likable, I do think he should have lost the fight though. Haru’s armor is said to multiply his strength multiple times over while Yu didn’t seem to be all that strong. Yu was having trouble against grunts while Haru was tossing them through walls. You’d think that difference in power would appear during the battles as well. Ultimately I suppose it was just a skill issue and Yu was the better fighter.

The main villain doesn’t have a whole lot going for him but he’s not bad. I appreciate that we got a good fight with him at the end. The fact that he was taking on all of the heroes at once was impressive. They even had a good formation at one point with Astrid firing projectiles from the back while Haru distracted him up front. The guy was just too strong. The movie has several climaxes and the final fight lasts for a good while so it definitely knew how to end on a solid note.

I also thought the heroines were solid. While Kotona doesn’t get quite as much to do, she seems like a nice person by all accounts and is considerate to Yu. Astrid can actually fight which is great. She’s probably a little too quick to try and throw her life away though like when she tried to convince Yu to murder her. Astrid needed to think this through for a moment and how her kingdom would quickly be branding Yu as a traitor for life. Additionally it’s not like that would help Kotona and the fact that anybody thought that for an instant is still crazy.

There is a little plot armor with how the heroes had to escape from the monster in the human world though. It’s way stronger and faster but sometimes gets hurt by normal objects. I don’t think its power level was very well defined here. Also, couldn’t Haru just jump into that guy’s sword to trigger the teleportation? It seems like he and Yu are functionally immortal due to that system. Although I still wonder exactly how that works. The first time it directly rewrote reality with Kotona never being hit by the car or stabbed, she even lost her memory but a day passed. Then the next time, more time passed but this time the events actually happened. The way time rewrites didn’t seem very consistent.

The animation was reasonably good here. It’s nothing that could compete with the average weekly anime of course but for a movie it’s not bad. I was glad we at least got some quick moving fight scenes and the glowing sword was good. The soundtrack is also decent. It was nostalgic hearing some of the classic tunes from the video games that I’ve played. That always makes for a good time all around.

Overall, This was a pretty good film. I did have a large number of issues with the writing as a whole as some plotlines just didn’t feel very well thought out, nor do the characters. At the end of the day though, it does still hold your interest the whole time which is the important thing. Additionally, the ending is solid in some ways (Mainly Yu’s part) but a bit less satisfying in others. (Never a big fan of amnesia) This is a film I could recommend to anyone as a fun adventure film though and due to how the rules work/don’t work it gives you a lot to think about. It’s the kind of film that leaves a whole lot to be discussed.

Overall 7/10

Fruits Basket: Prelude Review

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It’s time to go back into the world of Fruits Basket. Back in the manga days I was always pretty tough on this one. I remember it being one of my least favorite Shojo titles. The anime helped me like the series more although I would say it still has some key issues that never really went away. This film does a quick abridged version of the movie and then goes into the prequel part. As a result, neither section is quite as long as you might have expected here. It all goes by fairly quick so the pacing is on point. Of course you already know how the story will end so there isn’t a whole lot of suspense in there.

For the recap part, it’s basically the Kyo show as we see him introduced as a lonely kid who was really on his own. Then he met Tohru’s mom Kyoko and finally had someone he could talk to outside of his Dojo master. The two got along well but one day Kyoko was destroyed by incoming traffic and Kyo had the chance to save her but hesitated because of his curse. This curse transforms him into a cat or sometimes a raging monster if he touches a girl and he didn’t want the world to know. I do think if he had more time he would have grabbed her but in the split second he couldn’t react. So this is why he tries to put some distance between him and Tohru.

But this is a romance title so you can probably guess how that went! It’s pretty interesting to see the whole show condensed like this. At the end of the day the core show is about the two of them getting together so this one cuts the fluff and just gets right to it. The way it arranges the scenes can sometimes be a bit odd as it is not trying to be chronological at all. Still it’s not a bad setup. I feel as always that romance dramas are a bit tougher to make elite compared to romance comedies but it works well enough.

Kyo and Tohru just don’ have close to the same level of banter as your average romantic leads. They get a quick minute again at the very end of the film and even there you’re just not ready for a whole show about them. Nothing wrong with their romance, at least from this movie but they just aren’t super interesting. It would really all come down to the main segment.

In the prequel, we see how Kyoko met Katsuya before nature destroyed him. Kyoko was a tough kid who was a super rebel in part due to being around negative influences and her parents not doing a thing to help her. She was in a tough spot at all times. One day the parents have had enough and kick her out and the school is about to do the same when she meets one of the assistant teachers, Katsuya. That begins their romance.

Now the obvious issue from the jump here is there is a fairly big age gap going on. I don’t think the film makes it clear just how big but you can use logical deductions from him being an assistant teacher and her being a student. At the end of the day, my stance has always been that age gaps lower the percentage of the relationship working out and the bigger the gap, the more likely it will fail. I can’t really say I would support this romance at all to be honest and even aside from all that, a teacher and a student is rather messy.

This may sound like it’s my same old speech but it would work so much better as friends. He could just be a nice guy getting her out of a real sticky situation and helping her to appreciate life more. Then after that she would be able to stop being a rebel and really come into her own. That would have been a whole lot better. Well, at the very least he did end up being a nice guy the whole time. He told off her parents who the film shows to be as petty as possible. The fact that they called her just to remind her that she’s disowned after Katsuya died was crazy stuff.

Katsuya dying to a random cold is pretty effective since it makes the whole thing more sudden. What I would have liked to have seen more of was Kyoko once she was happy again though. We know from Tohru’s memories that they had a lot of good times before she passed on but we don’t get to see almost any of them. Instead it’s mostly about how depressed she was for a while there and then the film starts to wrap up. It’s as if the happy moments always have to go on a speed run to the next tragedy to occur.

In a way that’s the Fruits Basket way though. It felt like bad things were constantly happening to the characters and they couldn’t really escape their fate. As soon as they began to move forward and make a difference, something would happen like clockwork. The series could be quite unrelenting like that.

The animation is reasonably good. There’s not really anything for it to show off though so it’s a bit hard to say. I thought the motorcycles looked really sleek the whole time though so that was cool. Meanwhile the soundtrack is more on the subdued side. I can’t think of any tunes that super stuck out here.

At the end of the day, this is more of a low key story that has to stand on its own without many technical elements to help it out. It’s not bad but I also wouldn’t say it’s all that good. There really isn’t any replay value and the best parts are the ones being recapped from the show so you just want to go through that anime again. Yuki for example has some of the best scenes here like when he really takes it to Kyo. You sort of wish he would have been in more of the movie. If you want a lot of drama then this is the film for you but it doesn’t always leave a lot of room for fun.

Overall, Fruits Basket: Prelude is definitely very dramatic. It’s absolutely got the kind of tone that you would think about you picture the series. This doesn’t always work in its favor though. I feel like this movie doesn’t have much of a hook since a lot of it is old footage and as a result the prequel origin doesn’t have a whole lot of time to itself. We could have used the extra time to show the main characters hanging out and having some good times. It could have been more of a break from how everything would always go wrong for Kyoko in the end. So this is an interesting film but unless you are a mega Fruits Basket fan, you can probably skip this one.

Overall 5/10

It’s Kunio’s Dodgeball, Assemble Everyone! Review

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I thought about leaving the title untranslated considering that Nintendo didn’t even bother to translate this one at all but let me put in the extra effort here. Unfortunately this game isn’t particularly good. The dodgeball mechanics really don’t hold up very well at all and the game is just too simple. Sometimes being simple is good for a sports game but there has to be something really fun about it. This one feels very low effort even considering that it is such an old game. Ultimately this holds it back in a very big way. Without more variety, there really isn’t anything to keep you going here.

The game doesn’t really have a story so you’re just jumping into a big Dodgeball match. There are probably more customizations and modes out there but of course with all of the text in Japanese you’ve basically just gotta guess through everything anyway. So in the game your goal is of course to hit all of the players on the opposing team. You have to do this a few times and once a player has taken enough damage, he turns into a ghost and leaves the arena. If you can do this to everyone on the opposing team then you will have won. Of course they will try doing the same to you. So when they throw the ball at you, you can try to dodge, catch the ball, or duck. Either one of these options can work although the safest option is naturally to catch the ball. Additionally if you do that, then the one who threw the ball takes some damage.

To confuse the opponent, the best thing to do is pass the ball around. Often times the computer won’ be able to keep up and then you slam them with a shot. If you shoot the ball normally, odd are that it will be blocked or caught. So you don’t want to just be running in there and taking shots without a care in the world. If you don’t have some level of strategy then you’re going to lose. The A.I. is not even that bad if you play it cleanly. If you abuse the passing mechanics then you will win without any real effort but if you don’t do that, it can come down to the wire.

So the game has reasonable difficulty but that’s not enough to stave off the repetition. Additionally I don’t think they thought things out very well. There is no timer here so if you’re holding the ball then you don’t have to do anything. You can just keep on holding it or walking around and the other team can’t do anything about it. There needs to be a timer because otherwise the game will never go anywhere. Additionally it just makes more sense. Of course with gentleman rules you can assume people won’t hold onto the ball but the fact that it’s possible isn’t a good look to the game in general.

We do have some super attacks like throwing the ball so hard it turns into an energy blast. It looks cool but the opponents still catch it every time so don’t bother with it too much. You’re better off with the trick of passing it until you get a good shot. In terms of graphics, the game’s not awful but it does feel like most of the sprites are effectively the same one just tweaked a bit. It doesn’t feel very high budget and the one song isn’t very inspiring. I would consider this to be one of the original cash grabs to be honest. Imagine spending money on this game? I’d be so sad I’d probably be in tears by the end. This is the kind of game you have fun with for a super brief time that wouldn’t even justify a Blockbuster rental. I’m glad I played it of course, but really only to warn you all about it. I’ve played better NES games and this is a generation after that.

It’s also a shame because as it is there aren’t very many Dodgeball games. It’s weird because the game feels perfect for one to be turned into a game. You have to be running, jumping, evading, etc. These are all really cool things to do in game and they directly translate into controls. There is no real RNG in Dodgeball either so it would be a satisfying win/loss. Hopefully Nintendo makes a full on Mario Dodgeball at some point to how the world how it’s done because we desperately need that.

Overall, This game just won’t hold your attention for very long. There is really not a whole lot to the game as it is. One mode and one stage can only take you so far. I had fun messing around in the game by passing the ball back and forth over and over again but even that can only stay amusing for so long. Unless you are a mega fan of Dodgeball then there really isn’t anything for you here. I would say this one’s worth a skip. Just go on to the next game because you will be done with this one within 15 minutes or so.

Overall 3/10

Godzilla: History’s Greatest Monster Review

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How many of you all remember Godzilla, King of the Monsters? That guy was an absolute beast and so having a comic about how he is history’s greatest monster is a pretty good idea. It’s a pretty fun comic to be sure. At first it starts off a little slow for me and I never cared too much for the humans but that climax is absolutely intense. Space Godzilla really gets his props here and it has some of the best Kaiju fights that I’ve seen. This absolutely needs to be adapted into a movie at some point.

The series introduces us to Boxer, a guy who has a ton of combat experience and now works as a bodyguard. Unfortunately he is unable to save her when Godzilla shows up and trashes the place. This is the second time that he has lost everything and so he finally cracks. He is desperate enough to call up his ex, his estranged son, and a combat buddy of his. Boxer announced the unthinkable, this rag tag group of people are going to take down all of the Kaiju of the world. Godzilla, Anguirus, Titanosaurus, etc. They’re all going down and Boxer will be charging 10 million a piece. The question isn’t if he can take down all of the Kaiju, it’s just a matter of how long will it take him to do it?

Now you might be thinking that this is absurd. Kaiju can’t lose to random humans right? Well yeah you’d be right so lets just try and suspend our disbelief for a bit. The humans have invented something called a headache ray which works on almost all of the Kaiju except for Godzilla. So what they do is they hit the Kaiju with this and then drop a building on him. That works pretty well and then a government will show up later on to take care of the body. Sure it’s unlikely that this would work in practice but the humans get a whole lot of hype here.

To the comic’s credit, it’s not like this is portrayed as a super easy task either. Often times Boxer and his crew only win out of complete luck and are usually completely out of their depths. I still have my reservations about the whole thing and think they would be dead immediately but it’s all to buy time for the real plot. Some Kaiju are attacking from outer space which leads us to the big Kaiju war in the climax. It’s definitely a super high tier climax and the kind of thing you’d love to see in the movies.

Having Monster X show up for example is epic because that’s the best incarnation of King Ghidorah. Naturally Space Godzilla is another really big one because of how mysterious he is. How is it that this guy even exists right? Depending on the continuity there can be a lot of Godzillas so they even existed before the bomb but having one from space that can fly brings up a whole lot of questions. The 3 way battle with the two Godzillas and King Ghidorah is really excellent.

By this point the humans aren’t doing much but we do get to see Mecha Godzilla get some action in during the B fights to swing things a little bit. I thought the rich American guy looked really good there to be honest. Boxer may have been mocking the guy but I would argue his plan makes more sense than Boxer’s. Yeah he lost but at least he gave it a good try as opposed to a lot of other characters who were just hiding and waiting for the inevitable. That’s not a good way to pass the time with the world at stake. Needless to say, the government looks pretty bad here.

Boxer’s final appearance is definitely pretty funny I gotta say though. I know it’s going for themes and narrative and all that fancy stuff but at the end of the day he’s just jumping straight into his doom. For a guy who always had a plan and lots of contingencies, he really just threw it all away when it counted. So much for this guy eh? Even his partners all seemed a little taken aback for a minute there. Just when they were becoming a real team too.

The explosives guy at least saved a lot of people when he checked out. The son had his big man up moment which was good but for now I’ll need to see more of him. The ex is probably the most interesting character even if the romance itself is super cliche’d and kind of annoying. You have to actively ignore it because it makes no sense with how she and Boxer keep on bashing each other.

As for the artwork, it’s not bad. I don’t generally love a lot of the styles they use for the Godzilla comics. It’s a mix of trying too hard to be realistic and gritty without being streamlined and artistic enough to really make it work. It does still service the Kaiju fights really well though. Seeing the big blue energy burst when Ghidorah knocked both Space Godzilla and Godzilla away was epic. The fights are definitely where the comic comes alive and Rodan also gets a lot of respect. I was glad to see it. People forget but Rodan is one of the top tier alphas. He can hold his own with all of these top tiers.

Overall, This climax definitely sets the tone for what I want to see in Godzilla adventures. I could do without the humans, just give me tons of big battles and lots of Kaiju around every corner. That’s absolutely the best way to do this and I admit it’ll be tough to top this one. It basically went into Final Wars territory with how many monsters were around and all of the team ups. It’s such a great theme, you could have a whole series just dedicated to the Earth Kaiju taking on the outer space ones and it would work super well. I would be there right away when my library got the collection for sure. Either way this is a must read for any Godzilla fan.

Overall 7/10

Batman: Death Mask Review

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Batman is one of those generational heroes who has been beating up on the villains for decades. He’s been in every kind of story there is so it’s fun to see him in manga format. Death Mask throws in a fun plot and it’s all self contained within these 4 issues. No hopping between different titles, looking for tie-ins and all that. You just read it cover to cover and you’re all set. That’s what you like to see here, Batman is really at the top of his game at all times.

The story starts with Batman having another nightmare about how his Bruce Wayne mode is actually a mask. It’s all pretty disturbing but he has places to be. He heads to a big exhibition by a Japanese company that is trying to get big in Gotham and there he meets a nice young lady. Bruce has to keep up the facade of being a lady’s man, but then someone puts on a mask and goes crazy. We also find out there is a mass murderer who is slicing apart people’s faces. This is all rather off and reminds Batman of his childhood where he trained in Japan to become the world’s greatest fighter. At one point he nearly gave into the darkness there. It looks like someone else failed where Batman succeeded.

Such a thing is not uncommon, Batman is on a tier beyond mere mortals. Still, he has to protect Gotham at all costs and gets to work on stopping this guy. It’s a fairly quick one shot volume so we get to the bottom of things right away. It makes for a good fight to see Batman duking it out against this mysterious villain. Since this villain has supernatural abilities, he is a tough match. Batman can take anyone down in hand to hand combat but does that apply to specters? Since a lot of the volume is about dealing with corruption and power, the spirit is in the same kind of theme. You can’t really beat it physically, you have to try and get the host to see the light and stop being so easily manipulated.

It’s all in the midst of a pretty dark conspiracy so things definitely aren’t easy but that’s part of what makes all of this a pretty compelling story all the way. I do have some doubts about Batman even being close to being tainted by the darkness initially though. It just doesn’t feel like him but I’ll grant the manga the fact that it is most believable in his younger days when he was still getting over the death of his parents. So that was a smart writing choice.

Batman nearly getting knocked out by some thugs in a dark alley is a bit more inexcusable though. Fortunately one of the heroines was there to save him but even though the thugs were amped up and it was a surprise attack, I’m just super skeptical. It’s the only real loss Batman has in the volume though.

The main heroine is pretty good. I do tend to mix her up with the girl from the flashback a bit but in this was that was actually intentional. So I’ll give the artist a pass here because one of my mild taboos is when a character looks too close to another one. As an artist you should be able to make everyone look reasonably different even when you have a big cast.

The art is pretty solid here. I think the only character that looks rather awkward at times is Batman himself. The proportions aren’t always perfect but this could just be that I’m too used to him in comic format. Beyond that the fight scenes are all on point and it does nail the atmosphere really well. Dark things are happening with people’s faces being cut off after all. I give the manga credit for not going the ultra dark/violent route on this since you easily could have made this extremely grimacing.

It’s still a violent title but I would say it doesn’t go over the line here. Really my only main complaint is this story should have been longer. I dare say it should have been 3 volumes at least. The first would introduce us to Batman and the mass killings along with introducing the heroine. Then you’d have the second volume be the main flashback with Batman remembering the demon from the old days. Finally the third volume would wrap things up with the big fight.

The series being relegated to just one volume means things have to move extremely fast. I would say the story still holds itself over pretty well but it definitely could have gone into even more detail. They should adapt this into a movie at some point. I’d say it’s very new audience friendly and the whole topic about Bruce Wayne being a mask is something that is talked about often in the real world anyway. Different authors have always had different opinions on this. To me I’ve always been of the opinion that Bruce Wayne and his personality is a complete mask and there is only Batman but the continuities where they’re both him work well too. There are a lot of ways to tell a Batman story after all and Death Mask can be counted among them as another solid one.

Overall, Batman: Death Mask is a pretty good title. We get some solid fights and background for Batman himself. The series tells a good story in both the past and the present. I probably didn’t care about the characters themselves as much as the series was hoping but either way it’s not like that was a huge story emphasis anyway. So in the end it all works out pretty well. I would recommend this to any fan of The Batman.

Overall 7/10

They All Laughed Review

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It’s time for one of those films that is just hard to watch with how bad everyone is. The writing is not particularly good and all of the characters are downright awful. Mix that in with the fact that the film is fairly long and you have a recipe for disaster. It’s the kind of film that makes you shake your head the whole time because it had no idea what it was doing. This was an absolute mistake of massive proportions. Very unfortunate stuff.

Okay so the film is about a detective agency where they spy on women to find out if they are having affairs or not. There are 3 main field agents here and they each have different talents. They have two ongoing missions right now so they have to keep running around the city to keep track of both women. The problem is that these guys have the willpower of a baked potato and they are no strangers to having loads of affairs as well. With everyone in the city hopping from one person to the next, this is about to get complicated.

The movie plays out like a crazy delusion that someone who is jaded with big city life might have. Someone who figures that in the city, people are hopping from relationship to relationship the way one might might go pizza hopping from place to place. Nobody is trust worthy and they’re all messing round behind each other’s backs yet they also gossip with everyone. So as a result it’s all real convoluted but the simple part is seeing just how bad everyone is. Even the end of the movie has some twisted morals going on.

So right from the gate I can tell you this is an awful film. It will have the occasional funny moment but almost all of its attempts at humor just end up falling flat. Makes me shake my head just thinking about it. For example, Charles is the main character here and you’re supposed to in part feel bad for him when everything’s going badly. He’s constantly in tricky situations but since he’s such a bad guy you’re just rooting against him instead. Instead of the scenes being funny, you’re hoping that he does get hit by the car, that he does get caught so the girl will run off, etc.

Lets take a step back here, cheating is and always has been one of the greatest taboos. For the average person it should typically rank in the top 5, only losing to the most disturbing and evil of crimes. In any situation where there is cheating going on, the person most at fault is the one who is married since that person is the one who made the vow. Closely behind is the other party for still weakening the married person in order to have the affair. The only exception is naturally if that person was deceived into thinking they’re having fun with someone who is single.

So in the main relationship, Charles is less at fault than Dolores but it’s by a very negligible amount. You can tell that there is no loyalty here from either side. Once they are together, Dolores will cheat on him with the next guy and he’ll cheat with her on someone else. That’s just how the cycle is. Especially since Charles is easy to boss around like the singer who had her way with him. This guy can never appreciate the moment and is always looking beyond. It’s easy to see why things have never gone well for him.

Then you have Arthur who has the most confidence but as a result he’s been with the most ladies. He just flies on through all of them and never stops. Definitely not someone that you would want to even be friends with since he would be such a bad example. Fortunately for him, nobody in the city really cares and they all run to be the next in line to be chumped. Sure they get upset afterwards but it’s too late.

Then you have John who falls for Angela during his assignment. It’s basically just like with Charles. He’s only making matters worse and putting his feelings ahead of the mission. Things don’t go very well as you’d expect and the only outcome is that they are both super tainted now. It’s all just a real messy affair and again it makes the big problem here the fact that nobody is likable. Everyone has their moments and all they succeed in doing is dragging the other characters down with them.

In general it’s probably going to be hard to really make any good films about a group that tests out if a husband/wife is cheating. In most cases it’s probably going to happen where the main character falls for one of them. That’s just the easiest way to make a long dramatic story about the subject. After all you’re likely going to need some kind of conflict and peacefully finding out that cheating is or is not going on is a harder story to tell. I’d like to see a writer try and do this justice but it feels like a longshot.

It would have been nice to have at least had one character stay strong but that never happens. Even the cab driver gets involved as well as the secretary. Yeah these are all the kinds of characters where if you saw them on the street you’d want to go the opposite way. No matter how much you may want to think that you are the exception and this time the relationship is real, it’s not. So don’t even fall for that! It’s a massive trap, the trap of all traps you could say. Even within the movie the characters are starting to think this is legit by the end but we all know the truth. It is absolutely game over instead. Hey that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Overall, Like I said this is a tough film to watch because you’re basically just watching a bunch of antagonists messing with each other the whole time. The writing itself is also super suspect at best. The characters have a awkward way of talking where they have to constantly use full names or last names instead of the first one. One character in particular does this as her quirk and then other characters like John talk exclusively in 2 word mini sentences. You wonder why the characters are all so annoying before you stop caring. At the end of the day this is the kind of drama film that goes for a lot of cheap low hanging fruit to try and keep you interested but fails in the attempt. You could find better drama films in the 1 dollar aisle at Blockbuster.

Overall 2/10

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

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After all these years I have finally gotten to play one of the legendary Legend of Zelda games from the Gamecube era. I remember reading through the user guide for this one so many times back in the day. I think it was a double pack with Wind Waker’s or something but it was always cool reading up on it. The manga was also fantastic so I had high hopes for the game. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I can safely say that it is the definitive title for the main Link, even if Wind Waker will always be the head honcho.

Everything was going good for a while until Link and his village are attacked by a bunch of creatures. They quickly overwhelm the heroes and curse Link into being a wolf. Fortunately Midna shows up and agrees to help Link. She will help him save the world and protect his friends. In exchange he will help her gather all of the dark power so that she can crush the evil Zant who has taken over the world. Many lives hang in the balance but Link is ready to save the world. He is just the guy for the job.

It was pretty interesting to have a new villain in the mix here. Usually Ganondorf is the one running around so having Zant in here was cool. The guy actually makes for a great villain for most of his screen time. He talks really tough and is constantly in control. Unfortunately the mask starts to weaken later on and he loses a ton of hype. While he does sink pretty drastically from where he started, I can safely say that he is still one of the higher Legend of Zelda villains. He may not be head honcho material like Ganondorf but he can fight. I also thought he had the hardest boss fight in the game, even harder than ole Ganon himself.

The game takes everything very seriously as you journey through the realms. Outside of Majora’s Mask it would be fair to say that this may be the darkest game. The atmosphere is always intense and it’s nice to see all of the characters in their latest incarnation. The games do tend to recycle the same regions over and over again like the Gorons and the Zora so I would like to see that changed at some point though. Lets just have a true fresh start since it is a new adventure every time anyway.

While the game is darkly lit because of all the shadows, I would say the graphics are still pretty good. The art style doesn’t hold up as well as Ocarina of Time or Skyward Sword but it is still strong. The soundtrack is also good as well. The technical aspects don’t miss here and of course the gameplay is also on point. I always like a good 3D action game and you have so many different weapons and gadgets to choose from. It definitely allows you to play in a rather free way. For bosses you will have to fight them as the developers intended but for minions you can mix things dup a whole lot.

There are also several different gameplay styles here like being on foot, on horse, and as a wolf. The wolf gimmick is the main one that is new to the game. I can’t say that it’s my favorite but it doesn’t bring the game down or anything like that. I just tend to miss playing as Link himself whenever I’m in the Wolf form which is probably not the intent. It’s just that using the wolf’s sense abilities would usually feel like i was slowing down the game.

Meanwhile as Link, you really can’t go wrong with the fundamentals. Even the puzzles feel pretty smooth in this one. There were some puzzles that I couldn’t solve, but fortunately a good deal of them are optional. Even in the final dungeon, I couldn’t figure out why some of the doors wouldn’t open but I could just keep going. I definitely appreciated that, it’s a good balance of how these things ought to be.

One mild quality of life change I would like would be for you to be able to open chests even when your wallet is filled though. My wallet was always filled up so when a chest would have a rupee it would automatically close. The annoying thing about this is that the chest will still appear on the map so I would have to keep track of that while looking for the one item that I missed. They should let me take the rupees even if I’m at my limit. Also as another mild thing, Midna is often not helpful at all with the hints. They should have given her more things to say because half the time when you ask her for advice, she just reminds you of the plot. That’s not exactly what I was hoping for after all.

The game is quite long so you will definitely be getting a lot of bang for your buck. Nintendo is always delivering quite a lot with the Zelda series there. There is a ton of replay value as well. This is a game that you can stick with for quite the long time. As a final note, I like that most of the bosses have weaknesses that make practical sense. Zant is the one exception because I don’t get why arrows literally go through him but the others play their way around the items that the game doesn’t want you to use. It’s fairly creative as opposed to the game just making the weapons do 0 damage for no reason. Having actual explanations and everything is always the way to go.

Overall, Twilight Princess is great stuff. It is absolutely a title that all Nintendo fans should play at least once in their gaming careers. The boss fights are creative, the technical aspects are on point, and the characters are likable. You can’t really ask for much more than that in the end. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of and it’s why Twilight Princess is a game that can be enjoyed by any generation. There is also a ton of side content and dungeons to be tackled. I mainly just sped through the game and it still took me 30 hours which shows you just how long the game is. They did not cheap out in any area.

Overall 8/10

Escape from L.A. Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time for the big sequel to the New York film. This one ends up falling into the trap of basically copying most of the story beats but not being able to do them as well as the first film. The only advantage I would probably give this film is the ending which was definitely real fun. Beyond that, this is still a good movie and so if you liked the original you will want to check it out as well. It just isn’t able to escape the shadow of the first movie.

The film starts with a massive Earthquake separating Los Angeles from the rest of the United States. A presidential candidate predicted this would happen and so he got enough momentum to become the president. He quickly changes the country into a dictatorship and has absolute power. All people who break the laws or engage in taboos are deported to LA. America is now only a place for the virtuous. Unfortunately for him, the president’s daughter Utopia ended ends up hijacking the plane and crash landing in L.A. They’d leave her for dead but if she isn’t found quickly, a failsafe will activate that will activate the USA’s secret weapon and doom the country. They are forced to send in Snake one more time. Can he really save the day like last time?

You might be wondering, why would he possibly accept the mission again. Wasn’t he supposed to have a full pardon anyway? Well, a new president means new rules so he is back to square 1. Additionally they’ve put a virus inside of him so Snake has to save the day or die. He doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of way to say no to this. Snake tries some things like shooting the people who gave him the mission but of course they loaded the gun with blanks. So Snake has to really just fend for himself as always. He has to check a bigger area with less time than the first film so you can tell they are trying to dial up the stakes as much as possible.

Where the film does well is in keeping the Snake hype. He still looks strong and resourceful as always. You can’t really keep the guy down and I like his confidence. Snake probably dispatches people with even greater ease than normal here like when he used his gun on someone who had a knife. The film enjoyed throwing in some humor here and there to balance things out. The fights are fun and the landscape is pretty good. I don’t think it’s nearly as scenic as the destroyed New York from the first film though.

Now the humor can be a mixed bag at times. I don’t think the film is always as funny as it thinks it is. Snake messing everyone over can always be solid of course. I liked him just overwhelming opponents as he lets out the occasional one liner. The random surfing scene with this guy as Snake caught up to the villain was a bit more on the nose. I can appreciate the absurdity of it all but it still wasn’t exactly the film’s best moment. It just didn’t make much sense.

Then the film also starts to weaken the president a little too much by the end. I like the idea of a President who is super corrupt but talks a tough game the whole time. This guy was completely insane and that’s what makes him dangerous but by the end of the film, it was trying to show him as more of a low confidence individual who backs down when the going gets tough. I don’t know how the army could talk so tough to him the whole time. I would have preferred he stay in control the whole time until the end and then catches the L. Making him into more of a comedic figure by the end felt like it weakened the inevitable confrontation.

Still, the movie’s ending was really solid like I mentioned before. It makes sense as a way for Snake to really get the drop on everyone. It was also a good call back to the way the villains messed with him early on. Snake never forgets after all and he managed to stay a few steps ahead the whole time. It’s good that he was a solid lead character though because otherwise the cast was rather weak here. For starters we have Utopia as the president’s daughter who seems incredibly naive. She fell in love with a terrorist who would visit her during her VR dreams.

It’s just hard to see how she could possibly fall for this. You should already have so many red flags popping up when some guy shows up and allowing herself to be brainwashed so thoroughly is rough. By the time she finally starts to come around, it’s just way too late. The main villain Cuevo isn’t much better. He gets tricked a lot and his only impressive moment is when he took down Snake early on. Beyond that, he should have taken out his right hand man Eddie a lot sooner to have kept himself safe. Letting that guy stick around really came back to bite him.

Speaking of Eddie, he’s one of those villains who is pretty annoying the whole time. He is an opportunist so he goes with whoever has the best chance of winning. Don’t mistake his actions near the end for him being a hero, he’s just doing what he always does there. The supporting cast was definitely not doing anything to enhance the movie, I can tell you that much. So Snake had to carry it all alone and while he does pull this off, it’s another reason why it can’t match the first film.

This film isn’t super violent/disturbing for the most part but the plastic surgery place was definitely the most intense. It definitely shows you a rather grim look at what the future could be like if people get too hooked on the stuff. Of course the characters who live there are too brainwashed to do anything about this. There’s one girl who tries to convince Snake that it’s actually not so bad and in a way they are the true free people. Her words are punctuated by a quick gun shot that finishes her off. I dare say that was one of the funnier scenes in the film as they tried to show just how delusional she was.

Overall, Escape from L.A. is a good movie. It definitely could have been better though with a stronger script and a better cast. With the blend of serious moments and comedic type shots they also could have hit a better balance. By the end of the film you start to think that the crazy president may have had a good point. We don’t actually see any innocent people in L.A. as they all seem like total criminals. Yeah maybe the good ones were taken out early but America seems to be in a good spot. There probably should have been a little screentime to show the downsides of this policy of kicking out all the criminals or something like that.

Overall 6/10