Category Archives: Reviews

Battle in Outer Space Review

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With a title like this you know that you’re gonna be in for a fun sci-fi ride. Well, Battle in Outer Space definitely does not disappoint on that front. You’ve got a lot going on here right from the jump and the pacing never slows down. The movie actually goes on past where I thought it was going to end and makes for a good final act. While I would have liked the aliens to have definitely appeared more, I can’t say that the film ultimately disappointed me. It had a lot of fun moments throughout.

The film starts off with a lot of crazy disasters happening across the planet. It’s almost as if gravity just stops working at times which is making things very tricky. The UN holds a summit and while this is going on the aliens abduct Dr. Ahmed using some kind of tractor beam. When he shows up again to sabotage things the scientists are ready and take him out. We are able to locate the enemy base in space and so we send a rocket over there to stop them. What will make matters difficult though is how easily they can mind control someone. What if one of the main characters has been taken? Iwamura and Katsumiya have two main objectives. They have to stop the aliens once and for all, then they also have to rescue Etsuko who was kidnapped.

Let me start off with the weakest part of the film which is definitely the fact that the aliens barely appear at all throughout the story. There is one main scene where you actually see them but they look super weak as Katsumiya is able to take down a bunch of them. Basically these guys are not immune to the space guns and also have no super strength. Katsumiya literally just runs over and grabs Etsuko. He then pulls her out despite the two of them being surrounded by so many aliens. Even all of them combined weren’t able to do anything to him and that’s just a bad look.

It’s clear that the aliens absolutely need their tech to win in this case as the individual aliens are super weak. It’s certainly an odd thing to see as you’re usually used to the aliens looking really tough and formidable. That just wasn’t the case here, not by a longshot. I liked the tech and they certainly talk a good game from behind the loudspeakers but that’s about it. You would need to see a whole lot more out of them in order to really have any kind of confidence in them as true antagonists.

Well, I suppose you don’t need a strong antagonist to have a good alien invasion film and this title proves it. The reason I enjoyed this film first boils down to the writing. The film stays engaging throughout as we have quality characters here and a solid story going on. I always like a classic alien invasion and getting to see the United Nations deliberating about it was cool. We really got to see the governmental side of things here as there is no super main character here to save the day.

Katsumiya would be the main character here but he’s not some super skilled CIA fighter or someone that can stop the invasion with a well placed explosive. He’s just here to save Etsuko and then get out. The army is still the one pulling in the big guns to try and stop the invasion as a whole. It’s not so easy to take on so many fighters like that and this is a movie that is using a teamwork approach. Then there is Iwamura but unfortunately he doesn’t look great here. He is often out of his depths and so he isn’t able to be nearly as helpful. Etsuko unfortunately spends a decent chunk of the movie being kidnapped so she isn’t able to help too much either.

So the individuals aren’t the important factor here but what the army is doing to stop these aliens. The movie definitely nails that aspect right out of the gate. The aliens also deal a whole lot of damage to the planet so you know that even if they are defeated, it’s not going to immediately be all sunshine and smiles for the heroes. Now I mentioned how the film seemed like it was about to end. Well, the main chunk of the film is the rescue mission in space and of course we start blasting away but then we get a whole other act on Earth as the aliens prepare another assault.

It does make sense in hindsight that they still had more weapons at the ready but it had just felt like so much of a climax already in space. Regardless it was nice to get some extra action at the end there. You can never have too much combat after all. I don’t think this will end up being more memorable than most of the other big action titles out there. It really lacked the aliens in an alien invasion film but since the rest of the elements were still in play it ended up working out.

Overall, Battle in Outer Space is a film that I would recommend people to check out but I would do so with the reservation that they know the aliens won’t really be appearing. It’s important to underscore that since some people may go in expecting them to not only be appearing but to get a big role. It’s totally understandable but the film is engaging enough even without them. A modern remake would probably be fun with this concept but in the meantime I just enjoy any alien invasion film I can get my hands on. Particularly one from the olden days like this installment since they really knew how to build up to the attacks and have a lot of very solid dialogue between the characters. It’s all handled in a rather low key/calm way that you wouldn’t expect to usually see. There’s not much more to say about the film because it is quiet direct and the story is straight forward. What you see is what you get and in this case that works out well.

Overall 7/10

Kao The Kangaroo Review

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I always enjoy myself a good platformer. It has to be the safest genre out there aside from fighting games in that you know you’ll always have a good time here. It’s a very non risky gameplay style because whether it’s high budget or cheap you’ll be having some fun. Now this one may not be AAA but it was good. The game could be a little glitchy but at the end of the day I had a good time. It’s a short game but one that makes the most of each hour.

The game revolves around a kangaroo named Kao who was having a good time in the village but unfortunately his father and sister have both vanished. His mom pleads with him to stay but Kao has to learn what happened to them. He finds a pair of gloves with incredible magic power and decides that he will save the world and reunite his family. He is warned by a wise old man that the gloves may corrupt him and even turn Kao evil but he isn’t worried. Kao knows that he is strong of heart and can accomplish anything.

So the game has 4 worlds and each one has 3 levels and then a boss. You should have the game completed within a few hours max so it’s not very long but the levels are well designed. I had a fun time playing through them and I may even go back for the Platinum at some point. You can run, jump, and punch so all the basic controls are here. You can also wield elements to solve puzzles and of course take down enemies. I would have liked to have seen more elements but it was probably hard to fit too much in before the game was ending.

Now I mentioned that the game is glitchy. For the most part I don’t really care about glitches much as long as they don’t really impact the game. Sonic 2006, Frontiers, and Pokemon Scarlet are all known as games with glitches but they never impacted the gameplay so I wouldn’t really take note of them. The only reason why I note it for Kao is because I had to redo an entire level due to a glitch at one point. Basically the game doesn’t freeze time while you are talking to someone so I got attacked by minions before I could finish the cutscene. As a result the guy didn’t give me the gem and I couldn’t talk to him again so I had to restart.

Then other times the audio would cut out and you would get these loud static noises so I had to really lower the volume on the TV. These things are pretty noticeable so I would say the game could have used some more time on the debugging phase. Fortunately these are still rare in the end so they won’t really hold the score back either. At the end of the day I would have liked the game to have been longer but it still delivered on giving me a fun adventure which is all that I can ask for. As long as I can have fun then that means that the game did something right.

The story may not be the most original out there but it works out. Kao’s sister is one of those tough characters with a lot of personality so I can appreciate that. The old guy is very wise with all of his teachings so he’s about what you would expect as well. Kao’s father looks bad since he couldn’t master the gloves and got wrecked so easily but I’m sure he’s a good guy. The main villain is super forgettable though so you won’t be afraid of him or anything. I liked the gloves though, he made for a fun side kick.

There are a lot of elements here that would lend themselves over to a sequel really well. I can’t say that I’d be there day 1 or anything like that but I would definitely have a good time with a sequel and would buy it at some point. There isn’t a lot of replay value here though. I suppose you can go for the Platinum trophy which involves getting all of the collectibles. This should take you a few extra hours I’d say but even then not a whole lot of them. You’ll be done with this in a flash

The graphics look good. The character models are on point and I do think that they put a good amount of effort into the backgrounds. It’s a game that visually holds its own at all points. Then the soundtrack is also good. I’d give a special shoutout to the voices though. I loved Kao’s accent and he had this gimmick of overaccentuating the accent on every other word. It made for fun listening and it also makes the character more memorable. He’s not afraid to take risks and go after the villain so I’d give him some good props there. He won’t be winning any awards but he’s better than characters like Crash and Knack.

Overall, Kao The Kangaroo is a fun game that I could recommend to gamers of all ages. It’s a fun platformer that is very simple and straight forward. So you can just appreciate the levels as you jump around and get to the end of the game. I’d have appreciated a few more hours of content to really make this one last but at the very least you can’t say that they wanted to pad things out. The game does what it wants and then just ends after that. No dragging things out or just going on to keep going on and I can respect that.

Overall 7/10

Tiger & Bunny Comic Anthology Review

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Tiger & Bunny have returned but this is definitely their weakest outing. It’s not too surprising though because when you think about it, Anthologies always put you in a tough spot. You either have a story that’s really good so you’re annoyed when it doesn’t get to continue or you get a bad story that you want to finish already. It means that win or lose you are always thinking about the next story and that’s not the right way to go. On the whole the Tiger & Bunny cast is hardly one of the strongest either so a series of comedic tales for them would have a tough time landing anyway.

The 4 volume series is basically just a bunch of little stories about the heroes during downtime. It’s like the events in between the usual action scenes that you would have during the main stories. So we see how they all interact and each of their personalities are dialed up to 11 for the comedic antics. In general the idea of seeing the everyday life of the characters is fun and I’d like to see a spinoff like that for a bunch of big Shonen Jump titles but the main Tiger & Bunny show already does that.

Between the big arcs you always have the smaller adventures where they just have fun the whole time. So this isn’t really novel in that sense. Then as far as the comedy goes, the writing isn’t amazing or anything like that. You’ll have some funny stories but most of them aren’t all that funny and it boils down to the characters not being funny enough on their own. The jokes with Origami, Fire Emblem, and Bison don’t really work right out of the gate and those are 3 fairly big characters.

Blue Rose’s stories mainly revolve around Tiger and there are only so many ways you can do that one. So they are good but after a while you will notice some repetition there. I like it when Tiger is oblivious as that really fits his character and doesn’t even come across as forced the way that some of the others are. Dragon Kid and the King of Heroes probably could have had some fun stories but surprisingly they are given the shaft most of the time. I like to see them though and focusing on these two would have been a good idea for the series.

The artwork also changes a whole lot depending on the story. As a whole I would put the art below average though. It doesn’t feel like this would be the best work for any of the artists as they’re going in to do a story but you don’t see a whole lot of detail outside of that. I suppose the chibi stories are distinctive but as a whole you won’t be impressed here either. At least you can always follow along with what’s happening but as a non action title it’s not like that’s super hard anyway.

It may seem like there’s not a whole lot positive to say about this one but that’s because aside from being a filler where you get to see some wacky adventures, there isn’t much of a purpose to the collection. In fact it would be hard for me to even go into long detail about the collection compared to most other titles because there isn’t a main story or anything. It’s a bunch of short stories but ones that are so short there isn’t much to dissect in them. So this is very much a collection that you read but by the end you’re just not impressed. I think they would have been better off doing one shot volumes for various characters as spinoffs to expand the universe. That could have been more fun.

Or if you want to do a fun slice of life adventure then go all the way. I’m talking about a serious heart to heart adventure series where you have the characters just talking about things and maybe having a small adventure along the way. Season 2 did that after all and while it wasn’t my favorite adventures, at least they gave it a real effort. So forget the small anthology format and just go about it with this. Tiger & Bunny have fun banter in the show and you could certainly replicate that here. Not as a gag or anything like that but as a serious emotional story. It could work really well I’d think and is at least worth a shot over this.

If you’re going to do a comedic gag type anthology like this then the writing has to be exceptional. Unfortunately that just doesn’t happen here and it’s a lot easier said than done. It’s incredibly hard to be consistently funny, especially when you are trying to be. It’s why a lot of the funnier scenes in media tend to come from titles that aren’t even comedies because you can take your time and think of a great joke instead of stuffing 50 in and calling it a day as you hope that a few of them will land. I wouldn’t say any of the jokes in the manga really land all that well, at least not to the point of laughing while the TV show will actually have some good gags thrown in there.

Overall, I’d say you’re better off watching the show, movie, or reading the main manga over this one. The appeal would really be to Tiger & Bunny fans but with everyone basically out of character half the time or just exaggerated it misses out on actually giving you the fun day to day experience you were hoping for. It misses the boat and so you could read this one but there isn’t much reason too. I would just say to give it a skip altogether and there is no shortage of T&B titles to check out anyway so you’re good to go there.

Overall 4/10

Support Your Local Gunfighter Review

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It’s time to continue the support series but this one is a decisive step down from the first one. It’s still a good movie and perhaps if the first one did not exist then it would have been great but the whole time you just feel like this one loses on every front. The main character is a massive step down but even the jokes aren’t quite as funny. The movie is just a bit more on the desperate side and could have used some more time on the writing table to really nail down. Still, if you want a film with some funny moments then you should still have a good time here.

The movie starts off with Latigo deciding that he wants to escape a train before he can become married to Goldie. The guy really doesn’t want to get married so you have to figure that Goldie is either mean or just too much for him. It’s just not easy to sympathize with the guy because it seems like he was super drunk and did make it seem like he was interested in her. In fact it seems like he is a huge flirt the whole time and it even known for this so it’s a horrible look for the guy. Well either way he escapes and heads to a nearby town where he pulls the moves on the owner Miss Jenny who likes him too now. There’s also a girl there named Patience who likes him so Latigo is having his fun.

It’s not all fun and games though as there is a big war going on between Taylor and Ames as there always seems to be in wild west country. Latigo figures he’ll make a lot of money and mess with them. One thing leads to another and he gets a guy named Jug to pretend to be the world’s greatest marksman, Swifty. Now nobody will want to mess with them but if the real Swifty shows up then it’ll all be over. There is no coming back from that, it would be game over. Still Latigo can take the money and split right? Well, he is also a gambling addict and can’t help but put all of his money in the tables. Ah great….

You can see why I can’t sympathize with the guy. Far as I’m concerned he’s basically an antagonist here. He digs himself into these holes and would not be in so much trouble if he would stop flirting and getting drunk. The fact that he makes no move to get away from these bad habits just shows that he isn’t trying to improve. He actually does seem to be good with a gun but they don’t go into that in the film much. He constantly tells Jug that he’s no good and is very slow but the film seemed to be hinting that he was only doing that to try and protect Jug. So you’re waiting for him to end up getting some kind of big fight in the climax and yet…it doesn’t happen. So what was that build up for?

Not saying it would have absolutely saved his character or anything like that but it would have been something right? Give me a reason to root for the guy a bit. Even with the gambling it’s annoying because he’s constantly talking about what a scam it is and then he falls for it anyway. The man has no willpower and then succumbs immediately. That’s not a good combination no matter how you slice it. The gambling scenes are pretty intense at least so that’s a start.

Goldie and Miss Jenny don’t make for great characters either. Jenny fell for his emotional story way too quickly and for Goldie I don’t see why she would still want to be with him when Latigo is always running away from her. Even if she were to claim him, wouldn’t that not be very satisfying knowing that he always wants to leave? Seems like it would be a waste to me at least and that’s part of why the romance here is very weak.

Latigo’s partner Jug can be decent at times at least. I wouldn’t say that he’s very likable either and he’s the classic character who is strong but not very smart. At least what I do give him credit for here is that he doesn’t back down from a fight and is ready to go in. He may not be smart but at least he doesn’t run away so easily. The two big villains Taylor and Ames are really forgettable though. Even though their war is a main plot element the whole film, you will find yourself struggling to care the whole time. It’s just not a very interesting story.

I did like the true villain Swifty though. When he shows up the characters have to take note because he has the skills to take the whole town down should he feel the urge. I would have definitely handled the climax a whole lot differently though. It makes for a decent comedic burst I guess but in this case playing the climax straight actually would have been a whole lot more effective. The ending would have been more satisfying and so the film would have benefitted as a whole.

Overall, This film is just not super funny for being a comedy and that is what hurts it here. At the end of the day you need to be funny and be funny consistently. That is the trick for making a really good comedy film. It’s just funny enough where you will have a good time either way but the lackluster characters and underwhelming climax will take away a lot of the replay value that it could have had. I’d recommend giving it a watch if you like westerns and/or comedies but you probably won’t be going for the rewatch. Just the initial viewing will be enough for you to get the full experience and then keep it moving. Still a shame that they didn’t make more movies like this though. I think there would have been a lot of potential to make several parody type films like this. When executed well you can picture just about any kind of profession working in this style.

Overall 6/10

Support Your Local Sheriff Review

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This is definitely one of the better westerns out there and starts off as a really strong title right off the bat. It has a good amount of humor and action throughout so you won’t be forgetting this one by the time you’re done. It ends up sticking the landing and so even if it isn’t perfect, the movie absolutely accomplishes what it set out to do.

The movie starts off with a very serious funeral being interrupted as some gold is spotted so everyone gets to digging. The town is fairly well off now and so they had to quickly get the government set up but nobody wants to be Sheriff. The Sheriff is always run out of town by the Danby gang who basically run the village from the shadows. Well one day a guy named Jason appears and he is a very confident gunslinger. The mayor and his crew are glad to have Jason on board but they didn’t really think he would be as good as his confident demeanor would have you believe. When Jason begins to rock the boat and upset the Danby family they have to decide if they have his back or not.

The town is not loyal in the slightest and it all trickles down from the mayor. He may say all the right things from time to time but it’s clear that he doesn’t truly believe in Jason. If he did then he wouldn’t be so nervous about the Danbys winning. He’s constantly trying to talk Jason out of helping or to get him to leave but it’s just too late for that now. He should have thought of that before hiring the Sheriff. Additionally he could be more direct about it instead of just waiting the whole time or talking passively as he beat around the bush the whole time.

It does make for a lot of entertaining scenes of course but it doesn’t make you like the character much at all. The town really tried their best to keep getting victimized by the Danby family so you half wish Jason would just run off at some points. Even the main heroine Prudy tries to tell him that he should run away. At first you figure she’s just trying to play him by saying all of this so he would say but when the scene ends it seems like it actually wasn’t her plan and she genuinely thought it would be safer for him to leave.

Little twists like that are part of what makes this film really solid. It is able to be a smart parody of the usual wild west adventure without being too obvious about it. The best complement to the film is that it often is quite funny. I had a good time with it that’s for sure and it has a good amount of replay value so you could easily watch it over again. The writing is on point and so you have a good amount of banter between all of the characters.

If the film has one weakness it’s that the romance here is definitely on the weak side. It’s probably difficult right out of the gate to have a serious romance in a parody film so they should have probably tried to make it more of a comedic subplot. We do have the gag where something embarrassing always seems to be happening to Prudy when she meets Jason but usually you’re just waiting to get back to the action.

The Danby family makes for some decent villains. Of course they’re all greatly outmatched against Jason but they definitely don’t train as often as he does. This guy has been fighting with a gun since forever while they likely just use it for threats most of the time. Jason is always one step ahead and knows just how to intimidate them in order to come out on top. Sometimes it is directly and sometimes he has to trick them but he always comes out on top.

Jason is a huge reason as to why the film is so good. I love the boundless confidence that he has and so it always lets him have the last laugh here. Without him as the lead the movie wouldn’t be as good and the sort of sequel to this film really underscores that but I’ll get to that film soon. Jason dominates the movie right out of the jump and he gets a lot of the funniest jokes. You definitely need him in order to make this film a success.

I thought Jake was decent at times too though. At least he was the one person in town who was actually willing to defend Jason and help him out when the going got tough. You certainly couldn’t expect that out of most of the other townsfolk who were just waiting to get wrecked. Prudy gets some credit here as well since she is introduced as a fighter early on and then helps a lot in the climax. In fact she helps so much that Jason even wants her to calm down since he was hoping not to murder anyone. I thought Prudy had the right idea here though since you need to take them down for the count.

Overall, With good pacing and a lot of fun humor there isn’t really anything to dislike about the film. It certainly underscores how difficult it is to be a sheriff because everyone is against you the whole time. You have to build some strong connections and quickly or you will end up being completely run over by everyone else. There’s never a point where the movie drags on and so I would go as far as to say this was a great movie. I could easily re watch it now which speaks to how good it is. If you like Westerns or just want to watch a fun comedy then this is the title for you. There are still serious moments and fights but the film masterfully mixes and matches the different tones throughout.

Overall 8/10

The Craft 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

When I hear the term “The Witching Hour” I think of Football since they use that term every week on Red Zone when the games are entering the final quarter. I don’t watch a whole lot of movies about witches either so I don’t hear it in this context as much. Well in the end that may be a good thing because this one’s not very good. The characters are all pretty bad for the most part and any scene involving a witch initiation or ceremony tends to drag on quite a bit. This one did not end up being a winner.

So the movie starts with Sarah moving into town and it looks like this place is filled with creeps so she’s going to have a hard time fitting in. One guy seems to like her but it quickly becomes apparent that he’s just using her and does the same to all the newcomers. This drives Sarah into the arms of the 3 witch outcasts at the school. They believe that Sarah is the person needed to complete their quartet so they add her to the initiation and begin their spellcasting. At first things seem harmless enough like little coincidences or love spells but then the 3 girls start getting more and more extreme about using their magic to hurt others and have a good time. Sarah wants out but much like a gang…once you’re in there is no way out. Can Sarah stop these 3 or is it game over?

One thing I’ll give the film props for is that it does cover a lot of ground. Keep in mind that at first Sarah isn’t part of the clique so gradually she joins them, then they all explore their abilities, then they see how these powers are causing damage to people, then they become cool with this, and then they turn evil and go after Sarah. So there’s a whole lot of turnarounds going on here and the film does a reasonable job of giving each section time to breathe. As I mentioned earlier it only really drags on during the witch ceremonies.

We don’t need to see them huddled in a circle chanting to the winds or forming blood pacts. Those were dated when they first came out and you feel like Sarah is really letting them take her down the dark side here without much resistance for a while. They are cool with just stealing books from the local witch expert and while Sarah doesn’t steal anything, just hanging out with these guys is a bad look.

Because if you keep being friends with people who are criminals then to an extent it seems like you are condoning it right? You have to take a firm stand against such things if you really want to make a difference. Sarah just gets in a bit too deep here and it feels like the film wouldn’t have even started if she didn’t hang out with these girls. Now you don’t want to judge them on the reputation of course so it’s good Sarah didn’t buy that but once she saw that they were actually not good people then it was time to cut out.

Sarah isn’t exactly blameless in this whole debacle either though. She casts a love spell on Chris, the guy who messed with her in the intro and apparently it’s basically permanent and can’t be turned off. From there he really goes off the deep end with how obsessive he is over her to the point where he becomes dangerous. She finds this amusing at first and disturbing later on but doesn’t take a very active role in trying to remove the spell.

There is one lady named Lirio who at least knows about witches and can maybe help to an extent but surprisingly she ends up doing nothing in this film. She gets to talk tough and come up with ideas but Sarah runs out of there before they can properly try out the spell. I think Sarah should have stood her ground there since maybe they could have fought off the 3 witches together but I guess we’ll never know from there.

Throughout the film they explain that Sarah is a prodigy in magic so you’re waiting for her big power moment but this isn’t quite Shonen Jump so that doesn’t get to happen. Would have been really cool though. Sarah still does get her clutch moments in the end though and we do get a witch battle by the end. Sarah gets to confront all 3 witches and shows them what true power really is. I appreciated having some action at the end.

The ending of the film is also quite solid with Sarah really laying down the law. It’s not quite sequel bait but you know if there was another film that Sarah would be in good shape now. These other 3 won’t be able to do much against her anymore. So in the end I wasn’t big on Sarah’s character but at least she ends well. Bonnie and Rochelle were played up as if they were going to be sympathetic characters for a while there so I was definitely surprised when they went into full villain mode. It wasn’t a bad decision, the film subverted my expectations in a solid way there. These two didn’t really plan things out very well but at least they were following some kind of path.

Nancy was definitely the main villain of the group in the end though and was certainly the most ambitious. She probably should have tried a more direct way of taking Sarah down before it was too late though. Beating around the bush just put her in a tough spot here and gave time for Sarah to get her bearings. The way the witch powers work here is typically more mental than physical like messing around in the dreams but when push comes to shove you can also use telekinetic abilities. There isn’t much in the way of defense though so if they all ganged up on Sarah and just beat her up there would not have been much of a counter to that.

Overall, The Craft wasn’t really my cup of tea. The witch ceremonies drag on a whole lot and the main characters just aren’t very likable. There’s a super random scene with a guy and his snake that pops out of nowhere but for an instant opens up the door to some interesting plot threads. I thought things were going to go in a different direction with some kind of shady group showing up and the main characters having to team up. The 3 witches actually being evil by the end was unexpected and could have worked but ultimately just didn’t take this title to the next level.

Overall 2/10

The Cloverfield Paradox Review

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The Cloverfield series loves to have movies with pretty much nothing to do with the original. You always get a little stinger at the end and that’s basically it. Unfortunately that is the case here as well as it just isn’t very relevant until the final scene and even then that is more of a tease than a full connection. The series is toying with the fans by this point so it’s best to watch this as a stand alone sci-fi film instead. Even then I would say it’s below average but I suppose it’s not super bad or anything. The logic of the universe just isn’t that great so while it’s trying to be very mysterious and cryptic, it feels like the movie is just cheating instead. There’s definitely one scene in particular that I’d say fits this bill.

So the Earth is in a big energy crisis and they have sent representatives from various countries to find a solution. This group was thrown onto a space station far in the sky and they have to do whatever they can. So they decide to work on a device that should give the Earth unlimited energy but unfortunately this goes sideways and they seem to open up a portal into another world. They have to try and get back to where they used to be but it won’t be easy. They have to fix parts of the spaceship that don’t work anymore and a lot of weird things keep happening on the ship. Are aliens among us?

This movie is dealing with a lot of sci-fi elements but doesn’t really get too out there with creatures and the like. The main dilemma here is really that they have to question everything they knew about physics. Everything’s just scattered and odd happenings start occurring like people phasing through walls and a hand just running around. Where I thought the film messed up was in throwing some clickbait to try and make you think that a bunch of aliens would show up. There’s an odd scene where these cables start choking someone and basically murder him as he gets crushed by a super magnet but you have to question how it happened. It seemed completely sentient the way it was moving but the rest of the film gives no indicat4ion that it was. So yes it’s a strong scene and definitely gets you nervous but it doesn’t make much sense within the context of the rest of the film. It’s more shock value than anything.

Not saying the movie would have been better off with aliens but this scene could have been changed a lot. The idea of trying to help an alternate version of yourself through writing is interesting and the film could have made that something interesting but even that element doesn’t get as much depth as you would expect. So what we have here is a sci-fi film that is only half heartedly jumping into the various concepts that it introduces. This is what keeps it from being the next big thing. Well, at least that’s one of the reasons.

We’ve got a decently big cast here and I wouldn’t even say the members are that bad. First up is Ava who is the main heroine here. She didn’t even want to go on this mission but it was the only way to potentially save her husband since the Earth wouldn’t be surviving much longer. So now that she is in space she has a lot of regrets and the idea of an alternate planet appeals to her. I will say from the jump that I think even being tempted to leave is not a good idea here. An alternate version of you may seem similar but ultimately it’s a complete different person.

So it’s best not to get attached or to distract yourself from the mission. Meanwhile you have Jensen who is a mysterious lady that appears on the ship after things start to get crazy. She reminds me of a lady who showed up late in the game in another sci-fi title called Astra Lost in Space. Jensen is a wild card here as of course the main characters can’t trust her but at the same time it’s not like they have a lot of choices either. At this point you really need all the help that you can get and you just have to hope that it goes well.

Ava’s husband doesn’t get a huge role but in a small subplot he tries to help a kid stay safe. It’s not like there are too many safe areas left but at least helping someone would be good. This plot is definitely going for the more emotional kind of vibes as it’s rather somber. It’s not until the end that this really goes anywhere. At least I did like the ending here though. This was a good cliffhanger and it gets you ready for the next film. Of course as always that seems like it’s probably a longshot but if it were to happen then that would definitely be cool. At least it ends things off on a hype note.

With a lot of drama going on in the ship you feel like this is yet another case where the heroes would do so much better if they weren’t constantly fighting among themselves. Inevitably this starts to become a country vs country thing. Some characters at least try not to get mixed up on this but it’s a very enclosed battleground so it’s not like there are a lot of places to run either. You’re basically stuck here as you just try to stay alive. There are some things that happen where you can’t blame the character for being in a bad spot like the poor guy who started merging with the wall. There wasn’t really a way to avoid that one but other things like creating a gun just amps up the odds of people snapping at each other.

The effects are good though. I thought that the spaceship looked good and it was big enough where you didn’t feel that the crew was too confined. We still got a decent amount of other sceneries throughout. On land everything was in a fairly bad spot early on so this may have been the best location for the movie to take place if you were trying to avoid the monsters for some reason. Meanwhile having the film take place on land would have been the best way to do a proper Cloverfield 2 so even to the end it feels like they are avoiding giving us what we’re really looking forward to and that’s another giant monster movie.

Overall, The Cloverfield Paradox shouldn’t have included the word “Cloverfield” at the end because this movie is barely connected to the franchise at all. They seem to love including this word just to drum up sales and it’s a bad idea. Keeping this as an individual sci-fi film would have been a much better idea. Ultimately it’s not like it would have changed a whole lot about the story itself but you can probably enjoy it more that way as opposed to waiting for the monster to appear each time. I think there are some interesting nuggets here to be sure but ultimately not enough to keep you really invested. This would have worked better as a full TV series as they start to see the differences between the Earths or maybe as a multi film series. As a stand alone you have to cover a lot of ground and so there isn’t time to really have the characters talk about this situation that they’re in. It makes for a bit of an underwhelming experience especially when it feels like the movie isn’t exactly sure of how these things work. Spending more time on the implications of this other world and some good dialogue could have helped it go to the next stage. Instead you will want to wait for the next Cloverfield film.

Overall 4/10

The Mist Review

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

It’s time for a rather intense thriller with a title that sounds like the Fog but the plot is very different. It’s a very interesting movie and I like the idea of being stuck inside a supermarket but the film ultimately trades the idea of a very atmospheric horror for a more graphic adventure

The movie starts with David and his son Billy heading to the supermarket to pick up some supplies. There had been a really bad thunderstorm after all so they want to be prepared. Unfortunately a heavy mist rolls in and before the characters can leave the store, a guy runs in claiming that there is some kind of monster outside. Any who walk into the mist shall vanish quicker than a wish. Everyone is rather skeptical of course including a lady who decides to run out and take her chances. It’s all very silent outside. David gets a glimpse of one of the monsters when he goes to the back room but of course most people didn’t see this. As the film goes on the characters start to get more and more desperate. Are the people in this supermarket actually more dangerous than the monsters outside?

I mean the answer should be no but at least with the monster you can count on a quick death in theory. Inside the supermarket everyone is slowly turning insane so it’s hard to say what you can expect. The main antagonist here is Carmody as she is someone who is completely delusional and tries to start a religious cult within the market. At first everyone knows that she is crazy but as the movie goes on the more weak willed members begin to believe her. It’s evident that people are losing their minds and fortunately David as well as a few other characters actually see this coming right from the jump.

Sometimes characters can be slow on the uptake for this kind of thing so I was glad that this wasn’t the case this time. They were actually ready and actively plan for this. It goes without saying that I lost respect for any and all characters who ended up siding with Carmody. It’s just so apparent that she is crazy that it’s disheartening to see these characters follow her so readily. Clearly their minds are highly susceptible to being taken over which doesn’t speak too well of them. Some things do go Carmody’s way of course but they’re all coincidental at best.

I enjoyed the first half of the film the most as the situation slowly starts to set in for the main characters. There is no easy way to escape their predicament and the supplies at the market will only last so long. Additionally the defenses at play here won’t last forever here either so simply staying put isn’t an option. No matter what you do there is going to be a huge risk. Personally I’m of the camp that says to try to get into a car and just drive away as fast as you can. I think that’s the best way to at least give yourself a chance to escape while the other methods just feel like you are delaying the inevitable which isn’t really what you are hoping for.

The atmosphere is tense and the characters all sound reasonable aside from Carmody. One of the big antagonists here is Brent and it’s not like he’s evil or anything. He just thinks that the whole story about there being a monster in the Mist is fake and he figures that David is messing with him. The two of them never really got along much before now so it’s not even that far fetched. My main issue with him was just that even if it’s not a monster within the mist, it could easily be some kind of chemical weapon or something equally destructive for your health. So walking out there isn’t the best idea if you don’t have a plan.

I liked his confidence and he is good at getting people together but ultimately he was on the wrong side in this one. If he had just been willing to work with the main characters then I dare say that the film would have gone a lot better for the main characters. It still would have been tough of course but the situation wouldn’t have deteriorated nearly as fast. Billy isn’t able to help a whole lot since he’s way too young for any of this but David does good. He comes up with a lot of plans and is quick on his feet.

He particularly did good in the back room when everyone is trying to act really macho with how they aren’t afraid of the monsters. When they all froze up, David didn’t. He kept on trying to save the poor kid and did his best throughout. He certainly loses his cool a bit during the movie but at least it’s always fairly well justified with how everything is going at the moment. He makes for a good main character here. In general the cast is fairly large. You’ve got quite a lot of people in this supermarket and they range from being reasonable people trying to help the main cast out of ones who join up with Carmody. You see where each character’s true loyalty lies in the end.

Where the second half falters for me is it starts to get really violent as the creatures start to shred everyone. Each wave of attacks from the enemies starts to get worse and worse as they really don’t hold back. People are nearly burned alive or just straight up eaten at times. One death is like something out of Alien. It’s not quite the chest bursters but it’s surprisingly similar. The movie goes quite far once we get to the violent phase and it never lets up. It may help to underscore just how dangerous a predicament everyone is in but at the expense of the slow burn it had been doing so well with.

I would have liked it if the film had stayed more like the first half. In a way I wouldn’t mind if we never even saw the creatures but of course that’s only one route. Way I see it you play the film out like this which is still a great approach in concept as the enemy waves keep coming and people have to choose between defense and escape. Or you go the alternate route where people choose if they want to leave or not but every time they enter the mist it gets really quiet so you as the viewer have to decide if they got out or not. It would be more like a Twilight Zone episode with that kind of suspense throughout. Two very valid approaches that I think could really work out for this one.

Also the ending was really bad. It’s one of the least satisfying endings I’ve seen in a while and I would completely change it. The ending is an absolutely key part of the movie so when that doesn’t live up to expectations then things get really tricky. I also disagreed with the main character’s decision there. It’s a drastic move that you would only even think about taking at the last possible moment. Not when you think something is going to happen but when it’s actually starting to happen. It’s a key difference there and the ending certainly has a lot of shock value at the ready but I didn’t like it. Kind of ends the film with a whimper.

Overall, I like the concept of the Mist. Having a big survival film where the heroes have to try and survive without turning on themselves can be a lot of fun. I’d like for the humans not to crack at least once in these things though. You could absolutely still have a lot of issues and problems come up without having the humans turn on each other. It seems unlikely that a film will end up going this route but I do think there is a whole lot of potential there. Either way the film just decided to let loose a bit too much and went for the gritty route as opposed to keeping this very ominous. I’d say to give this one a skip and instead just think about the premise and play it out in your head because it is still a sound idea.

Overall 2/10

Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning Review

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The introduction to Tiger & Bunny is starting to get rather nostalgic. I’ve now seen it in the first TV show, the original manga, the adaption in the movie, and now the adaption of the movie that was adapting the first show. It doesn’t really do much different from the core story so it works well if you aren’t able to access the movie but otherwise there isn’t a whole lot of reasons to check this one out. It’s a perfectly serviceable adaption though and I’d say that the art is actually better than the main series so that’s worth noting as well.

The series starts with Tiger not doing so well as he helps to stop a villain but causes a lot of property damage in the process. Unfortunately while he wants to do the right thing, he just isn’t very good at being efficient most of the time. His company has even closed as Tiger will now be owned by one of the bigger hero agencies. They want him to be partners with this new hero named Barnaby. Tiger decides to call him Bunny since the outfit looks like one but he’s really just sore because on Barnaby’s first day he ends up saving Tiger from certain doom. Bunny is a very modern hero who worries about the ratings while Tiger just wants to help people. Will they really be able to form a solid partnership and stop the crooks or is this duo about to get absolutely devastated against the first villain they meet?

It almost feels weird writing that plot summary for a third time but hey that’s just how it goes. As this is based on the first movie which readapts the first part of the TV show you already know all of the story beats. Ultimately the series is about Tiger & Bunny getting to know each other and coming to terms with each other’s differences enough to at least tolerate each other. Ultimately they both want the same thing which is to help people out when they are in trouble and go from there. It’s the ultimate goal of any true hero after all and that’s just how you have to do it.

Tiger is a good main character. He may not be the strongest fighter but you have to appreciate his heart. I always preferred Bunny from the two main characters though. Sure he may not be as heroic at first but he has a lot of confidence and is very good at what he does. There’s a reason why he quickly starts to be known as one of the top heroes while Tiger is stuck near the bottom. Keep in mind that they have the same abilities so it’s not like one has a better power than the other.

The series also keeps in a lot of the fun foreshadowing for the next sagas even though it doesn’t get up to there yet. That’s a good thing because it still gives the reader some insight that there is more to explore within the universe. We have the judge who appears and looks very sinister so even if you only read this series you’ll likely suspect that something is up with him. Bunny’s boss also looks a bit suspect but it could just be the lighting. There isn’t a lot of time to go into Bunny’s origin story here either so you just get the bare minimum but enough to know that he is fighting his own demons in the shadows.

The rest of the heroes don’t make for the greatest supporting cast though and that’s what holds them back quite a bit. Fire Emblem continues to attack one of the other heroes and you feel bad for Rock Bison the whole time but also wish he could do something about this. Dragon Kid and Oragami don’t have time to do much here. I guess we see a bit about how Cyclone is jealous of how everyone loves Barnaby right away. In general they don’t get along with Bunny much either since the guy is so standoffish the whole time. Not only does he not try to get along with them but he actively seems to antagonize them. He’s certainly no team player here.

That gets tricky for the main case where the heroes have to take out Robin, a guy who can switch places with other people. It’s a really difficult power to contend with since in theory it means that he can constantly escape from any situation. How do you tie a guy down when he can just do that at any point? The easy answer is that you don’t, but even considering that I would say that their plans were pretty bad. At one point they try holding hands to block his exit but the guy can just run off. Another plan is to have everyone bunch together but all the villain has to do is wait them out.

Ultimately Robin gets too tricky for his own good and puts himself in a bad spot. I’ll also give the heroes some credit there because the last plan was good. I also do think this was a good way of getting Tiger and Bunny to trust each other a bit more. Usually you’d have a message that encourages teamwork and the two have to band together in order to get this going but instead Tiger trusts Bunny to get the job done and decides not to get in his way. I thought this was great because sometimes it is just better to tackle a threat by yourself. You shouldn’t feel like you have to squeeze teamwork in just to say that you did it. So the original plot tacked on to the original origin was a good one.

The art here is fairly good, in fact I think it looks a bit better than the main series. The artist did a better job of drawing each robot suit so they didn’t look too similar this time around. I wouldn’t say it’s anything super high end or something like that but it gets the job done. It’s easy to read through and I definitely had no issues getting to the end. Even though the story is familiar, it’s still fun enough. I could safely recommend this as a reasonable read to anyone trying to get into the franchise. The ending works well without any huge cliffhangers and you could then jump right into the show.


Overall, Tiger & Bunny could use a bit more of an engaging cast to get things to the next level but as far as superhero origins go this one worked out well. The setting of heroes ranked by popularity and getting points during livestreams is a very unique one. I’d say it works well to give the series a hook and make it stand out from the rest. Once we get to the more plot based sagas then this should only continue to improve. I’ve got two more Tiger & Bunny reviews coming up, one sooner than later so the franchise continues on!

Overall 6/10

Godzilla: World of Monsters Review

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Godzilla has returned! Lesss gooooooo. So after all these years I’ll now have gotten to read 6 different Godzilla series in one month. It’s nice to be catching up on all these titles after so long. In general the previous collection probably takes the win but the comics here are all solid as you would expect. Godzilla Oblivion is the weakest one but feels the most traditional while the gangsters series is the most different but ended up being the best. Rach series is quite different from the others so you certainly can’t say that the series is trying to play it safe. This title isn’t afraid to keep on switching things up.

First up we have Gangsters and Goliaths which follows a guy named Detective Sato. He’s been after a criminal group for a very long time now but unfortunately this group has grown too powerful. They now have people inside of the police force and just about everywhere else too. There is no way to escape from them and he is slowly seeing how futile the whole thing is. No matter how fast or far away he goes, the villains are right on his tail. His only chance now is a desperate one. He kidnaps the two priestesses who control Mothra and decides to use them as hostages so that Mothra can destroy the gangs. Naturally the gangs can’t do anything against a Kaiju but this is a dangerous game that he is playing. All it would take is one slip up and Mothra might end him in an instant.

Sato is a decent guy who has been taken into a rather extreme situation. The comic does make it clear that he wouldn’t actually shoot any of the two girls so that was good since it would have completely tanked his character. Still, taking hostages is certainly not the best plan in any case. Additionally he goes on a bit of a power trip by the end where he actually starts to try and drag the situation out. Rather than just end the gang in an instant he wants them to know that Detective Sato was the one who did them in and this is what makes things tougher for him. If he had just gone straight for the win then he would have saved himself a whole lot of heartache.

Mothra’s faction don’t look great here either. It’s like none of them can fight. I understand that they’re pacifists for the most part and get that but you have to still know that other people are ready and willing to fight. So when you walk up to a mobster with no plan and get shot it just makes these guys look bad. Mothra needs to re train her faction right from the ground up in order to get this all taken care of. They shouldn’t be getting handled by a normal guy like this. As for the actual human plot, I sort of missed the monsters the whole time. The gang plot is well written but since you’re reading Godzilla you’re hoping for more explosions and Kaiju battles. Now that’s something that would help elevate this to a whole new level. This was a good way to kick things off though and life does go on even while Kaiju are around so it does make sense that there would be gangs running around.

In Cataclysm we see that Godzilla successfully took down the entire planet. It’s now a wasteland with nothing left and people live in a very apocalyptic environment. At this point it’s a struggle just to stay alive. Only one Kaiju wants to bring the Earth back to life and that’s Biollante. Well, I guess Mothra is around to help but Biollante has the nature energy to revive the planet. The problem is that Godzilla keeps murdering her before she can really generate enough power. Hiroshi blames himself for this because he was part of a government experiment about mind controlling Godzilla and of course it went terribly wrong. All he succeeded in doing was getting that Kaiju real mad. Godzilla holds quite the grudge as he wants to doom the planet forever now. Hiroshi’s only chance is if he can escape with part of Biollante to buy her some time but this won’t be easy because Godzilla is king of the monsters. He is always around ready to dish out some pain.

The setting here is definitely very dreary and the comic paint quite the picture of what would happen if Godzilla won. There is a lot of narration from Hiroshi as he believes that nobody can ever truly know Godzilla so this might not even be rage but just Godzilla doing whatever he wants. There isn’t really a way to know for sure and that’s the crazy part. So in the grand scheme of things the humans couldn’t do much. So this makes for a decent survival story. The humans tend to look really bad here though. Some immediately want to go back to sacrifices and such to appease Godzilla while others just turn back to a life of crime. Hiroshi’s relatives blame him for everything even though that’s unreasonable because he was just following orders and had no way of knowing that this could even happen. Hiroshi was feeling guilty about the whole thing all these years but technically speaking he wasn’t as responsible as he figures. It would have been nice if the other characters could have acknowledged this.

I’d say the best part about this series is that it really shows why Godzilla is the king. It’s clear that no other Kaiju was able to even come close to his overall abilities and that’s how it should be. A king should be considerably stronger than the others and Godzilla proved that with ease. This comic really understood that aspect of his character which was great. I’m also cool with the humans panicking and looking awful since I could totally see that happening if we ever got a Godzilla. It’s annoying to watch but it definitely tracks.

Finally we have Godzilla Oblivion. So there are a bunch of scientists who are being paid to create a giant portal. They complete this task and then reluctantly turn it on because the boss wants a demonstration. This leads to all of them heading into a parallel Earth that is filled with monsters destroying everything. This isn’t exactly what they bargained for so they head back home but Ghidorah follows them and destroys everything. A few years pass and the heroes need to open the portal to send him back home but is that even possible?

The humans are completely out of their depth but what else is new right? Just trying to dump all of their problems onto another Earth isn’t the best idea either. The scientist tries explaining that but gets overruled the whole time. One issue here is that a lot of the characters look really similar. Throw in the fact that this comic has a unique style of framing the panels where you rarely see anybody and it can be really easy to mix everyone up. I feel that this does limit the series from the jump because it sort of takes you out of the experience. There’s not a whole lot to care about in the human plot because they all get mixed up and are thinking about themselves anyway.

I was actually kind of happy when the other Earth decided to throw all of their Kaiju at us because our Earth was being so annoying about the whole thing. They’ve got some really valid reasons for just doing this because it seems like our humans would have done the same thing if they could have. At first the other Earth actually seemed like decent fighters but in the end they were just doing their best to survive like we were and weren’t exactly winning the fight. The Kaiju are just too tough and relentless like always.

We do get a good amount of Kaiju action here which is always good though. They all get to show their stuff from start to finish. Godzilla looks like one of the big shots but we also have Ghidorah and Destoroyah running around so this time he has some actual competition instead of it just being a cakewalk for him. That’s good since you always want to have a little bit of a challenge there. I’d say we could have focused less on the humans and more on the big Kaiju action.

The art throughout these issues is fairly good. I wouldn’t say it ever gets amazing but it’s pretty solid. You really get to see the different energy attacks and the Kaiju designs definitely stick out. That’s the important thing here since you really want them to be able to stand out. There was a body of a dead animal in one comic that felt rather unnecessary. Fortunately it was a passing shot and had been gone for some time but I always get nervous that an animal will be collateral damage in one of these issues so the comics need to watch out.

Overall, Godzilla Oblivion is a very solid comic. It’s got a whole lot of action to it and a nice variety of stories. You should definitely check this out if you’re a Godzilla fan. Who knows maybe one of these comic series will be turned into a film or a TV show someday. There’s always hope out there and I think that could work really well. To keep things expanding I would probably say to do an original story instead but if it does get adapted then we’ll be able to see these fights on the big screen. Sadly Orga doesn’t appear here but I can still hope that he will return one of these days. He’s easily the most underrated Kaiju and it’s not even close.

Overall 7/10