The Mummy Review

Posted on November 7, 2014 by dreager1

Looks like it’s time to check out the original Mummy film! This one came out almost a century ago so you shouldn’t expect the effects to look quite as good as Tron’s. That being said, a film can still manage to be pretty good without effects as long as the writing is strong. That’s what helped a lot of the previous retro installments. Alas, it could not last. This film is nowhere near as good as the remake although I applaud the supernatural elements that made things pretty intriguing at points. Let’s see where the film messed up.

The plot involves an Archeologist and his partner as they are pretty sad. Their expedition into the desert turned out to be a waste of time and they are getting ready to rejoin civilization so that they can be mocked for their efforts. At that moment, a suspicious character tells them of a hidden tomb that is nearby and his minions uncover it for the heroes. The courageous fellows quickly inform the press and send their findings to the museum. This has all been too easy…why would this person help them? It makes more sense when you watch the flashback before this scene as the Mummy is uncovered because a man opened the legendary chest that had a curse inside of it. (Don’t worry, the curse isn’t random, we find out who placed it there towards the end of the film) The Mummy awakens and one of the guys goes insane with laughter as his mind breaks at the mere sight of the Mummy. In the present, The Mummy needs the ancient manuscript for his devious plans and he also wants to revive his partner. Time for the heroes to do something about it!

The plot sounds rather deep and convoluted thanks to how I wrote it, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. You are aware of the Mummy and the sinister developments for a good portion of the film. The heroes are just unsure of what they can really do about it, which results in a lot of tense scenes. None of the characters are really likable though, but more on that later. The film was doing all right in these moments, but let’s look at one of the big pitfalls that the film threw itself into.

First up…Animal Violence! I expect animal violence when I watch something like Sucker Punch or Toriko, but I don’t expect it from one of the most famous horror films of last generation. The scene comes out of nowhere, which is pretty sad. The main heroine randomly admits that she has a dog and takes him to the villain’s base. Seeking to impress her with his hypnosis, the Mummy tells his slave to take the dog away…then the slave murders the dog. Why would he do such a thing and why would the Mummy allow it? The whole point is that he is tricking the heroine and that shouldn’t help matters. Unfortunately, she is rather weak willed and her strength of character is not enough to even remember how her dog died. It was a rather depressing moment in an uninteresting film and I quickly slashed a few points off the score. (Although, even without the animal violence this film was destined to fall within this range. Animal Violence or not…this was not going to crack a 5)

I don’t really comment on the acting so I won’t get into how terribly awkward it was for the film. I’ll just point to how they wrecked the characters through the drama scenes. A lot of scenes just have the characters staring at each other or making terrible decisions that lead to their untimely demise. With that set up…it’s time to look at the characters!

The main character is Frank. He’s better than his predecessor in the opening who goes insane just by looking at the Mummy, but he’s not much better. (I still can’t get over that though. Do people honestly think that someone would go crazy just by sneaking a glance at a dead guy? That was one of the biggest moments of plot hax that I’ve seen since Colonel actually held his own against Forte in the Program of Light and Dark) Frank is the kind of guy who believes in (fake) love at first sight and he really pushes the point when he meets Helen. She keeps on telling him that she is not interested (For about 5 minutes anyway) but he won’t take no for an answer and she quickly relents. After that, he doesn’t really care about anything except helping her and he can’t do a good job of that either. He knows that the Mummy is playing her like a fiddle, but he still decides to just go to sleep on the couch. It should be noted that his partner tried to help by giving Frank an amulet that stops the Pharaoh’s abilities from working, but Frank decides to hang it on the doorknob as a little keychain. You may admire his courageousness, but you’ll probably just face palm as the Mummy quickly uses the Force Choke to take Frank down for the count. A rather embarrassing end and no amount of main character hax that occurs in the film can take that moment away from us. It was pretty inexcusable.

I can’t say that Helen is much better. Again, she tried to say no to Frank, but then she just agreed that the feelings were mutual. They evidently were not at first so she changed her mind way too quickly. Her mind is also very frail since the Mummy is able to quickly convince her that she must go with him. She always enters a trance and he has complete control over her. She tries to fight it once in a while, but with terrible results. Forgetting about her dog was also pretty inexcusable and she should have been able to fight the mind control. This is definitely a strong example for how you do not write a main heroine. It was a rather poor showing.

There were two old men who tried to help out as well, but they couldn’t get the job done. One of them had the simple task of burning a few papers in the fireplace, but the Force Choke surprises him so much that he drops the papers and starts to backpedal until he bites the big one. (Which is when the slave breaks in through the unlocked door and steals the papers) The other guy just gives advice like “Let Helen go to Imhotep so we can find out where his hideout is” before taping an untimely nap. These guys loves to beat around the bush as seen with their interrogation of the Mummy, but they know that they are outmatched. They actually admit it in front of the Mummy, which is pretty sad.

The actual Mummy isn’t great either. We get a sob story for him about how he did all of this for romance and stuff. Unfortunately, deciding to reincarnate yourself is against the law so he’s quickly destroyed….thereby speeding up the reincarnation. I guess they didn’t have any mages back then to counter the Mummy’s spell. After that, he evidently decided to wait years and years for some archaeologists to come and discover the tomb instead of just going inside of it himself. He would have been able to have gotten the scroll without any objections that way and then he could have searched for his reincarnated partner. Alas, he decided to do things the hard way. He has a strong amount of telepathy and possibly some superhuman strength so I guess it’s okay for him to be confident. Unfortunately, he underestimated the humans or overestimated his Force Choke when push came to shove.

The flashbacks and the ending were intriguing, but they just threw in supernatural elements without any true meaning. I applaud the effort as we actually get a “god” at the end who decides to help out, but just barely. The Mummy still would have gotten away for it if not for a few missteps. I mean, the Mummy Did basically laugh at Isis’ rules by coming back to life so you would expect a little more urgency.

Overall, This was definitely not one of the better retro films. I definitely preferred the newer Mummy film. It was more action packed and while it wasn’t downright amazing, it was a lot more fun. The Mummy just isn’t a fun or engaging villain and his telepathy is the only thing that actually made him a threat. A lot of scenes didn’t seem to have really been thought through either. (The heroes going after the Mummy after the villain had a super long head start and still making it in time.) Strictly speaking from Frank’s perspective, the ending felt like a parody. He’s the big hero, but he never got to be useful from start to finish. I would sooner recommend watching the remake or checking out Speed Racer than this film. This film was lacking in positives while still containing a lot of negatives.

Overall 3/10

M&M’s Kart Racing Review

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dreager1

I’ll admit that this was a title that I have been wanting to buy for some time now. Who here didn’t grow up with the famous M&M candies? They were and still are awesome. I feel like having a bag of them right now. They’re just sooo good. Well, that was one of the reasons why I wanted this game, but I also noticed that the reviews for it were rather negative. I like games that tend to get poor scores (especially on the Wii) and I like the M&M’s so throwing in the racing genre was an added bonus. It was about as good as I had expected although it should have been 4 players.

There’s not really a plot in this game so you’ll probably just jump into the tournament mode. There is only one tournament, but it is over 10 races long so it should last you a good 30-40 minutes. The first stages were pretty dicey, but the backgrounds get more interesting during the later levels. You actually get to go to space as well as a chocolate mountain. That sounds pretty fun right? Most of the levels are around 2-5 minutes so they shouldn’t take you very long to complete. One of the levels was especially funny since it’s basically just a generic circle as you follow the road and there’s no danger of bumping into anything. You can just coast along and chuckle at your brilliance.

There’s not much to say about the gameplay. You accelerate with one of the buttons and then you head for the goal. There is only one item in this game and it takes the form of a cup of tea. (It looks like tea anyway) If you run over it, your character will get a slight boost in speed, but your kart will also start shaking a lot so it’s a gamble. It’s great on the easy stages without many turns, but it’s typically not worth it on the earlier levels.

I liked the final 5 stages much more than the first 5 ones. The main reason is that the camera is pretty bad and you won’t be able to see where you’re going until it’s too late. I crashed quite a few times on those levels, but I still managed to squeak out a first place finish every time….except for one level. It was a boat level and I got stuck for so long that I was firmly in last. I quickly redid the level and nailed it, but it’s nice to know that the computers do have a little fight in them. My recommendation to beat the camera is to put on the brakes a lot and keep your foot off the gas when you see any kind of turn approaching.

Don’t worry folks, this isn’t the next Casper! Once you beat the Tournament there is still one thing to do. You have to keep on racing the levels over and over again until you get enough coins to get every kart with every character. It shouldn’t take too long since 30 races will be enough to get enough coins for one character so you just need to enter the tournament like 20 times. Of course, that’s the long way. The best way is to just find the level with the most coins and keep on playing it until you have them all. I’ll probably attempt this someday……if video games stop coming out. I have too much on my plate to worry about this at the moment so it’s going to have to take a back seat.. (Smash Bros on the 21st, DBZ early next year, Big Naruto game late next year…etc)

I got enough coins to unlock one or two cars for the blue (or yellow) M&M and that’s good enough for me at the moment. You can tell that the game was made rather quickly due to the lack of replay value. There really isn’t anything else to do in single player mode and that’s where the multiplayer mode comes in. This is the kind of game that will only have a lot of replay value if you have someone to play it with. The gameplay definitely pales in comparison to the other racing titles, but it’s not that bad when you’re actually playing it. It’s actually fun and you just don’t want to play it in super large batches. As long as you keep this in mind…you’re set! Of course, one flaw in the multiplayer mode is the fact that it only goes up to 2 players. In this day and age, that’s a little unacceptable. It’s the kind of game that would be perfect for 4 players so I don’t see why they didn’t do that. It would be hard to see where you’re going, but that’s already the case in single player mode.

The graphics are definitely not that good. They are better than some of the other Wii games from the bottom of the barrel, but they’re definitely not the next Mario Galaxy. I would actually compare the graphics to some of the older DS games like Alex Rider. While you are going through the course, it’s usually still loading. So, you’ll see parts of the wall not be there in one moment and then they’ll suddenly appear. You’re simply going too fast for the actual game to keep up so the animations are a step behind. It’s a pretty bad sign to be honest, but it’s mostly just hilarious. I imagine that there are a ton of glitches here just waiting to be found.

There’s not really much of a soundtrack here. I seriously don’t recall any specific themes during the races. Maybe I was too excited to notice them, but I’m assuming that they were just unmemorable. I quickly turned on the game as I was writing this review so at least get the theme song (And my stats post) ready to go and it’s not bad. It’s just ultimately generic so you will forget it instantly. I should also mention that the loading times can be rather long so you should hope that you don’t dislike the music since you will be listening to it a whole lot. There is no opening or ending cinematic in the game for beating the tournament so there’s no chance for music at those points.

Finally, you can rest assured that this game does provide each character with a few taunts. Feel free to use them while racing since it won’t slow you down and the voice acting may cause your opponent to crash into a wall while they try to cover their ears. The M&M’s are very sure of themselves and you should hear how confidently they insult the others. The character designs did make me pick the blue (or yellow) one by default since they all looked pretty bad, but at least they mean business. It should be noted that while you are driving at over 200mph, the gameplay speed is very slow. You’re basically going through the stage as if you were on a real toy cart. Since some of the stages are only about 2 minutes, this means that the scenery is pretty limited. (30-40 seconds per lap after all) So, that can be interesting, but maybe it just makes the game more strategic.

Overall, M&M’s Kart Racing won’t last for very long, but it’s not an unpleasant experience. I may not actually play it again until around Christmas, (If at all) but I knew what I was getting when I bought it. It was a little over the usual 5 dollars that I’m willing to shell out for a game, but I knew that it was worth it. If you are going to use the multiplayer option then feel free to add an extra number to the score and if you’re by yourself, then you may want to keep it as you see it. I had a tough time deciding whether this game deserved a 5 or a 6, but I went with the latter in the end. After all, the game is still entertaining and there is a little replay value thanks to the coin collecting. I would sooner recommend Mario Kart 8 or F Zero GX, but this is a fun title if you’re looking for a Wii Racing game that you can get for a few bucks. How can you go wrong with eatable main characters? Also, don’t fall for the hype! There are 15 levels, not 10. Everyone reports it as 10 and it’s the most false advertising that I’ve seen in a while. It’s good for the game not to spoil the secret levels, but everyone else should catch on. We don’t want to underscore the game now do we?

Overall 6/10

Madden 2003 Review

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dreager1

I managed to find a store that was still selling Gamecube games so you can bet that I dashed to pick up this title! I currently own Madden 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Now that I have this title, I’m just missing 2005 and 2008. After that I can finally say that I own all of the titles in the series. (Up to 2013 of course, I’ll get Madden 25 and Madden 15 once the price dips a little) This title is nostalgia gold and it may even bring tears to your eyes. I can certainly say that it’s one of the best Madden titles!

Right when you turn the game on, you’re greeted by the great color scheme that was present in Madden 2002. It’s all so retro and impossible to put into words. I grew up with Madden 2002 and played it a lot until I got Madden 2004. (The ultimate Madden) It’s just awesome to see the old menu’s and colors again. It’s easy to pick up and play as you grab your favorite team and you get to face off against any other team. You can play in a season or join the minicamps to have fun with drills. I decided to see how I’d stack up right off the bat in Play Now.

I beat the CPU on Pro, but I lost on All Madden and All Pro. I’m confident that I can win on those levels though and it shouldn’t take many tries. It’s a good feeling since other games practically cheat to make the A.I. better. Madden is guilty of this to an extent as your receivers tend to drop more passes, but it still feels pretty fair. I made some hasty decisions on some throws and the game really got out of hand once I was down by 10. Win or lose, it makes for a fun challenge.

This was the first title to bring in the Mini Camp mode and I loved that feature in 2004. It’s pretty similar here and it’s a fun way to get better in the various aspects of the game. I didn’t really get a chance to do more than check out the feature since I have a lot of games to go through, but I highly recommend giving this mode a spin. It’s pretty cool and it’s probably the best Madden feature that is no longer around.

The graphics are pretty good. It’ll definitely seem pretty different from a title like Madden 13, but that could be in a good way depending on how you look at it. The graphics help for the nostalgia and it’s a top contender amongst the Gamecube titles. (That’s saying a lot) Once you play NFL 2K3, you really appreciate these graphics as well. The soundtrack is pretty fun while you’re getting ready to play if you don’t listen to the lyrics. Once you notice them, they can be a little off putting, but it’s easily remedied through the settings. Also, it won’t really affect you during game time, which is the important part!

The gameplay is a little faster than 2012, but it’s slower than 2004. I’d say that Madden 2004 was probably the fastest Madden that ever came out and even the modern ones aren’t quite as quick. (Especially with the commercials and extra loading times) I’m fine with the speed here since it can also portray the real deal a little more accurately. For the record, the faster the better is my motto, but I can find a lot of positives with both aspects. You’ll be happy to know that quarterback scrambles are still very effective here as I had a tendency to gain more yards on the ground with Quincy Carter than I did with Emmett Smith. I was able to pull off traditional runs no problem, but it is more effective to run with your QB when he’s about as fast as your running back and the defense is not expecting such a play.

EA has gotten a pretty bad reputation in the video game industry and that’s too bad. I still prefer their Sport titles to the competitors despite the fact that many prefer the NFL 2K games. I finally got one of them and I’ll be reviewing it shortly, but I easily prefer Madden. Keep in mind that I grew up with Madden and have been playing it since I was a child, but it’s just more fun for me. NFL 2K can be a little too slow at times and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it makes it very difficult to run the ball of pick up big yards on a play. Of course, I’ll get into that in the NFL 2K3 review.

So, where would I rank Madden 2003 among the titles? It’s very difficult since I didn’t play some of the Madden games as much as the others and they can sometimes start to blur in with each other. Roughly, I would say that the rankings go: Madden 2004>Madden 2013>Madden 2006>Madden 2002>Madden 2012>Madden 2003>Madden 2007>Madden 2011>Madden 2010>Madden 2009. Again, note that I barely played Madden 2006-07, I don’t own Madden 2005 or 2008, and that my recollection of Madden 2009 is pretty vague. I’m mostly familiar with Madden 2010 through 2013 and Madden 2002 through 2004. Maybe I’ll pick up some of the others again to review them at some point, but I’ll wait until I’ve gotten through most of my backlog in terms of reviews.

Another aspect of Madden that many fans don’t care for is the commentary. Supposedly it gets very repetitive and annoying. I definitely don’t agree with this either. I think they do a great job calling the game and it makes the experience that much more authentic. By now, you’ve seen that I really like just about every part of the game. Madden is great and I dare say that it is now officially my favorite video game series of all time. Madden 2004 has taken the title of the ultimate game from DBZ Tenkaichi 3 (Which got leap frogged since Brawl also passed it for second) and I don’t think it will be relinquishing that title anytime soon. I have high hopes for Madden 25 and Madden 15, but it would be just about impossible for them to win.

Overall, Madden 2003 is easily one of the best titles in the series. It’s easy to pick up and play and you should be totally ready to take on any level of difficulty so long as you understand the rules. It can be a little annoying to see your kicker randomly kick the ball out of bounds during kickoffs, but you are in complete control for the other situations. The gameplay speed is solid and there are no real negatives in this title. You’re guaranteed to just have a blast when turning the game on and that’s not a feat that just any title accomplish.

Overall 9/10

The Blob Review

Posted on November 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another retro horror film in The Blob! The Blob never really sounded very intriguing since it doesn’t seem like it can be an engaging villain. On the other hand, this guarantees that the film won’t be the slasher kind and the heroes will have to use their wits to escape this ordeal. It was a little better than I had expected and you shouldn’t underestimate The Blob!

A meteor crash lands in an abandoned area one day and an old farmer notices this. He stabs the egg with his stick, but The Blob adapts as quickly as it evolves and it grabs him. The man bumps into the main characters, Steve and Jane. They take him to a doctor, but things take a turn for the worst when the Doctor is murdered. Who would do such a thing? Unless….it was The Blob! The heroes can’t afford to let their guard down as time is not on their side anymore.

The set up is pretty good since the Blob has to infiltrate the town somehow. From there, it’s up to the writers to really make The Blob a threat. It’s pretty fun to see him go after the heroes since he…or it can’t move very quickly. One character makes the mistake of tripping into The Blob though and the other one runs for the window despite The Blob being near it. These fellows probably didn’t watch a whole lot of horror films and now they’ll never get the chance!

The actual Blob is pretty formidable since bullets don’t even faze it. It also absorbs the mysterious elements that are thrown at it in the lab and endures the raw power of lightning. Let’s face it, this guy has Kaiju levels of durability! For all we know, it’s still out there….lurking….and prepping for the fights to come. I think it’ll be pretty hard to find someone who says that they actually like the Blob a lot as a character, but it’s an interesting villain.

The main problem is the lack of speed on the Blob’s part. While it may be funny to see characters trip and get absorbed, it’s not something that you will find believable. It should be simplicity itself to avoid the Blob. Even the very beginning was dicey since the farmer’s reaction times were very slow. I’d like to see the Blob take on Nemo from the animated film. The unstoppable force meets the invincible fish. It would be a fight for the ages. That being said, the Blob may sort of be alive…but maybe it isn’t. It continues to grow and it absorbs everything, but it could be like a plant that moves to face the sun. More reactions than actual thoughts. I don’t really consider it to be alive in the literal sense…or should I say figurative sense? It’s about as alive as a plant.

The film did manage to scare me in one scene. A dog decides to tag along with the heroes to avenge his owner, but then the Blob steps in. I was on the edge of my seat poised to deduct some massive points from the film, but the dog manages to escape. Never before have I been so epicly ready to give back the points. Most horror films would have taken the low route and allowed the dog to be eaten. Not The Blob! It’s one of the reasons why this film was actually pretty decent.

The writing is pretty good and it’s why I still like these old films a lot. The cops were all pretty likable and even the “bullies” were good by the end. I’m not a fan of either of the main characters though. It’s not the writing’s fault of course, they were just very unlikable. I’ll explain why!

Jane drops the dog…twice. That’s inexcusable and I knew that I wasn’t going to like her at that point. I was already pretty wary since she fell into the romance plot with Steve, but this was the extra push that really sunk her character. It was pretty unnecessary and just sad. Steve isn’t much better since he has a lot of cheesy lines to try and convince Jane that he’s on the up and up. He shrugs her off once when he gets distressed about the Blob. He overreacts a lot and he conversation with the policeman at the very beginning was pretty wince worthy. His excuses needed excuses and he didn’t even get to win the street race. He wasn’t really much of a hero by the end and he was just thrown into the circumstances. He nearly convinced himself that it was all fake as well.

The bullies from the beginning actually turn out to just be friends who were having a little fun with the main character. It’s a good thing that this is the case for Steve since he probably couldn’t have held his own in a fight. They heavily outnumber him and they seem to be a little tougher. They help the main characters out a lot by helping them search and waking up the town. Without these kids, Steve probably would have been sunk.

There are three main policemen and they are pretty neat. We have the strict guy who has a big sob story on the left and the reasonable joe on the right. The third guy likes to play chess, but that’s about it. The strict one is pretty intense and you can tell that he has a lot of experience and I have to say that most of his tips were pretty sound. (Keep the kids in the cell sir!) The veteran actually likes kids so he’s a lot more reasonable, but the heroes don’t give him a whole lot to work with. It’s tough for the cops since the heroes are always messing around with the rules.

I guess a minor criticism for the film could be that everyone adapts a little too quickly to the monster. The cops almost immediately stop trying to shoot it because they find out that it’s impervious to all conventional weaponry. It’s true that nothing (Possibly including nukes) can hurt the Blob, but I’d expect them to try a little more. It’s good that they can give the Blob the chills through natural methods, but that was really just a lucky guess. We expect the police to fight for us until the last man! It’s still a pretty small thing though and the romance/main characters is the only true negative of the film.

Overall, The Blob is a pretty fun creature feature film. The main characters are very below average though and I prefer the leads from most of the other films of this era. These guys weren’t polite to the animals and they just weren’t interesting. I much prefer the other kids since they stay up to watch the creature feature films as well and they have a solid sense of justice. They couldn’t just walk away when the going got tough! The Blob may not have a roar or a real design, but it deals some damage and it made for a unique villain. I definitely recommend this film to anyone who likes a good monster film or a survival story. It’s just the kids against the big Blob that continues to grow. Who knows how powerful he’ll be in the sequel! The film didn’t really have much in the way of negatives, but I still refrained from giving it a higher score due to the fact that it would simply need more action or a better lead to vault it into the Super Six level. A different pair of main characters probably would have been all that it would need to get to the next level.

Overall 5/10

Backyard Football 2009 Review

Posted on November 3, 2014 by dreager1

I really wanted a quick Football game to play on the go and if Smash Bros can pull it off…why not right? I needed that experience so I ran to Gamestop and made the intriguing decision to buy this for the DS instead of Madden 2009. Madden is probably the better game, but it was also 3X the price….I made the right move. It’s a simple and easy Football game, but it’s still pretty fun and you won’t get bored of it for a while.

There aren’t a whole lot of modes to choose from. We have multiplayer, quick “Play Now” games and the Season Mode. I ran for the Season Mode and that’s where I spent about 90% of my time. I set the difficulty to Hard (Although it seems like it still went back to Normal for some reason) and turned off powers. It was pretty fun and I was undefeated as I crushed the opposition with really lopsided scores. The season ends once you complete it and there’s no continuing on to the next year as with the Madden titles. Instead, you’re free to just give it a whirl again with another team.

After I finished Season Mode, I went back to the quick matches and decided to play a Hard battle with items on. The games are insanely easy with items since you can literally steamroll right through the defenders or cause them to fumble whenever they make contact with you. Items are interesting, but I prefer sport and car games that don’t have them. It’s just more fun without the gimmicks.

Ultimately, the A.I. isn’t very good. Even on Hard Mode, you’ll be able to crush the CPU with relative ease. They cannot stop the run and throwing the ball will almost always work. You do have to watch out for the occasional interception, but they aren’t much of a factor here. This is the kind of game where you’ll need multiplayer since the CPU doesn’t provide you with a threat. Defeating them over and over again will eventually start to bore you. Towards the end, I just started rushing the games so I could finish. It was fairly easy since you can just run rings around the stadium to take out an entire quarter or more with a single play.

The graphics are decent. As far as DS games go, they’re not downright bad, but I’ve never found the DS to be very impressive in this regard. We have the 3DS if we want true portable graphics. Everyone is in chibi mode though so it’s hard to tell how much is intentional or not. It’s cool to see everyone as kids and the graphics won’t distract from the gameplay so I give them a pass there.

I didn’t really discuss the gameplay. I’ll let you look at the NFL rules on your own. The main thing to note is that you can only dash for short periods of time and pressing Y/X while near the ball will usually result in an interception. A more efficient method is to just rush the quarterback and get some sacks. Once you get a sack, it’s easier to get more since the CPU will keep on trying for some deep balls. The offense is fairly simple to handle since you just run on handoffs and press the button over your intended receiver to throw it. It’s simplicity itself and this is more like how the old Madden games would play. They were still more in depth, but they were easy to pick up. I’ve been buying each Madden as they come out so I have fun with the new upgrades, but this came around the peak of Madden. (Slightly after though since 2004 is where it’s at.)

The soundtrack isn’t anything special and you’ll probably start to tune it out by the 4th game. It’s just very uninspired and you want something a little more fast paced for a Football game. These themes just don’t get you very excited and you want to be thrilled about facing off against new teams. I think there might only be one theme in the game, but there must be more so I’m just going to assume that they all sounded the same to me.

There are a few made up teams in this game as well as some made up players. Each of the real teams basically get one player to represent them and then you put them together for your dream team. Since each of the players have reverted back to their kid years, it’s like putting together a team on the sandlot. A trust system is in place, which means that there are no penalties to slow you down. Just get ready for some fun Football action!

Overall, Backyard Football 2009 is a pretty good game to get. As far as Football games go, just about any other title is superior, but it’s fun to have on the mobile. The gameplay is more like the classic arcade games than the current sport titles and it may remind you of the Techmo Bowl. (I may get that one someday) For a little under 5 dollars, you can’t go wrong with this title. If you play the whole season, it should last you around 5-8 hours. If you’re willing to shell out 15, then I guess I would sooner recommend Madden 2009 for the DS. This is a good title, but it’s a little lacking in content and it just gets beaten by the other titles. The big edge that this game has is that all of the players are kids of course. You can’t go wrong there.

Overall 6/10

The Fog Review

Posted on October 31, 2014 by dreager1

Disclaimer This review is of the edited TV 14 version of the film. All thoughts written below only pertain to this version as the uncut review would likely be lower.

It’s time for a Halloween horror film! The Fog presents us with a film that follows the classic formula. The characters are slowly offed as the film progresses and you have to try and figure out how many characters will really survive the experience. It’s a formula that always churns out a low score, but it remains entertaining while watching it. In that sense, you could consider The Fog a success for its genre…but that may be a stretch.

The plot involves a nice little town that is about to celebrate its 100 year anniversary. They are dedicating it to their founders who made such a great voyage back in the days. Stevie has her own radio station as she plays some tunes to celebrate and the world seems to be at peace. Unfortunately, a mist…I mean a fog is rolling into town. The Weatherman doesn’t think that it’s anything to worry about, but a few fisherman disappear at sea. One of the bodies is found, but it looks like he died years ago. Mr. Malone also finds out a startling truth about the founders. Will The Fog consume the entire town…or will it engulf the planet!? Only time will tell.

As I said earlier, the film plays out rather predictably. We see a few poor travelers who are drunk (of course) and they notice the fog. Unfortunately, they were not ready to take on these supernatural forces and are quickly dealt with. A third member doesn’t notice that the other two have been defeated and he doesn’t put up much of a fight since he barely notices when he bites the big one. After that we get a “peaceful” break for a good 20-30 minutes. Then, the fog strikes back, but this time it’s hear to stay. These guys don’t plan on leaving until they fulfill their objective.

Mr. Malone found the book from the dead people so he should have known what they wanted, but he couldn’t bring himself to keep on reading after he heard about the tragedies. This was a job for the main character and it was a tense moment since he would have to dash a few feet to the couch to grab the book and the fog was approaching. Luckily, he only took his time to contemplate briefly as he was able to make it back. This is a true main character right? Well…..I suppose that he helped out in the end.

Mr. Malone isn’t really one of the main characters, but the casualties really begin to rise because of him. If he had given the villains what they wanted in the first place..maybe they would have left. Okay, they still weren’t going to leave without destroying 7 people, but maybe he could have bought the heroes some time. Hiding in the basement until the climax is not the way to become a likable character.

Stevie is the main character although she doesn’t see a lot of action. She’s always ready with a message to broadcast, but she sounds so dead over the radio. I definitely wouldn’t be tuning into that station at night! (Something a little more lively would be my preference) The stakes get real when her son gets involved in the crisis, but Stevie just doesn’t do much. She’s really a bystander in this whole occurrence and her brief fight against the two undead guys may have been good for her, but I would just call it plot hax.

Nick Castle is one of the main leads and he gets more chase scenes to himself. He was just driving down the road one day when he saw a hitchhiker. He let her in and it turns out that she is just heading in the direction that he is. They drive and we learn that Elizabeth doesn’t have any more morals than Nick so they devolve into the fake romance tropes. I say fake because that’s how it seems given how quickly they moved past the friend zone. Not cool! Nick’s big moment is where he saves a kid or when he goes for the book. That’s good for him I suppose, but I can’t say that I ever found him to be likable.

Elizabeth is the hitchhiker and she’s no better than Nick. She didn’t notice when one of the guys got up from a stretcher even though that would definitely make some sound and she didn’t help a whole lot in the climax. She’s definitely another character who didn’t really stand out in the end and ended up being a negative aspect for the film. (Let’s face it, most of the characters will fall in this pile!)

What about Joey? There’s no Joey to be found, but we do have Blake. Blake is the main villain of the film and he’s the leader of “The Fog.” The Fog is created to mask the locations of his army and they all attack when he gives the go ahead. I don’t think that they are bullet proof and they don’t seem very quick. They may have some slight super strength, but it’s definitely not a huge amount since they can barely break a door down. Blake’s design isn’t bad although it’s not quite as memorable as your average horror villain. The film doesn’t try to make you sympathize with his goal, which is always a plus since I wouldn’t have bought into it anyway. As a villain, Blake really isn’t bad. I forgot how awful he may have been during his sob story, but as an undead he had his villain morals. He only went for the destruction of his opponent and he didn’t beat around the bush. He easily beats the average horror villain.

One of the reasons why this kind of horror film never ends up getting a positive score is that everyone dying just lacks the replay value appeal. Even for the initial watch, you’re kind of hoping that the heroes can start to fight back, but it never happens. I think the film also went a little too far when the nice old lady is taken out by the villains. Did that really have to happen!? The film just should have made the baby sitter a beefy 30 year old who talks a good game. It would have been more fun. Another victim is the Weatherman, but he makes the same mistake as the old lady. Both of them open the door and then give the outside world their back. It’s not very wise to do such a thing when you’re on such a shady island during a fog storm.

The violence isn’t terrible considering the hooks that the villains use. We do see a body that is a little graphic and we can see the villains stabbing the heroes. We just usually do not see the damage that the stabs are doing, which is good even if we can still hear everything. Aside from that aspect, another negative would be the romance moment that has nothing to do with anything. It’s a classic horror trope that someone has to make out at least once before a jump scene, but it’s a trope that should really just fade away at this point.

It should be noted that we do get a twist ending. Let’s face it, you never want to have a horror film that doesn’t have a twist right? Well, let’s just say that Blake wanted to have the last laugh and boy was he going to get it! You almost feel bad for his victim, but the victim was being a little too inquisitive. “Why didn’t Blake destroy me when he had the chance!?” is basically his last line. Way to tempt the villain sir……

Overall, There were a few other characters to be found in this film, but there’s not a whole lot to say about them. We had the “tough” sidekick to the lady giving the speech, but they were both just around to show the audience (us) how to react to certain plot twists. The character cast was pretty weak and this is really just your average horror film where everyone dies until they figure out how to avenge the wrongs that their ancestors did. Nothing happens for a while in the film so you begin to wonder when the villains are going to strike. As you’re waiting, the film isn’t getting any better. There’s nothing special here and it really isn’t a fun film. If you want to watch a scary film that also has heart..check out the Subspace Emissary cutscenes from Super Smash Bros Brawl. That’s sure to send a shiver down your spine!

Overall 3/10

Sorry, Wrong Number Review

Posted on October 27, 2014 by dreager1

Well, it’s time for another retro film. Believe it or not, this one also came out before the original Godzilla film. (Also? Check out some of my earlier reviews to see what I mean!) The title may quickly remind you of Family Game Night or the Sorry! board game. I’ll admit that the final line made me think of it as well, but this one is a little more suspenseful as there is crime afoot. It’s certainly not Hitchcock level, but the film had potential. It just needed to have less showing and more doing.

The plot revolves around a lady named Leona. She’s stuck in bed as she’s pretty ill. Her nurse is off for the day and all of the neighbors seem to be out in the town or away for a while. Her husband was supposed to come home that night, but he seems to have vanished as well. This all doesn’t bother her at first, but then she picks up the phone and overhears a plot to murder someone. She must try to alert the police or anyone for that matter. What if someone gets hurt?….what if she gets hurt!? It’s a race against time as it will all be over once the train crosses the station.

Upon first glance, this probably sounds like the Hitchcock film where the guy is stuck in a wheelchair and witnesses a murder right? It’s actually pretty similar in that respect since the main character can’t walk either, but that’s where the films start to deviate. This one wants to tell us a pretty complex plot through the use of flashbacks. I think I prefer to see the story in real time. I guess this way makes the mystery longer though. (It would be a bit of a short film not counting the flashbacks) We even get flashbacks inside of flashbacks as the film goes on and many startling revelations are brought upon us.

Leona is the main character, but she’s not a great lead. She may seem pretty innocent when the film starts, but we quickly learn that she’s more sinister than she looks. She stole the main character just to doom him and while her feelings may have changed over time, it wasn’t a genuine start. She’s also pretty unreasonable as she wants Henry to be indebted to her and to never really have a life of his own. He tries to find some work for himself and to move away, but she stops him each time. If he insists, then she’ll just have a heart attack, which will end the discussion. She’s pretty confident when she’s on the phone, but one could argue that she’s overconfident and she didn’t do a great job of explaining the situation on the phone. She was probably doomed without any evidence anyway, but she should have quickly gotten someone to come over.

Henry is the other main lead. He’s gone when the film starts, but we begin to learn a lot about his life through the flashbacks. He isn’t satisfied working for Leona’s father and he thinks his life is pretty dull. He’s on a pretty short leash so there’s not really much that he can do. Well, thanks to the nature of this mystery film, I can’t really say much more than that. I can say that while you’ll be sympathizing with him over Leona for a while, this eventually switches and you have to root against both of them. Henry has to make a few tough calls and unfortunately, they were the wrong ones. They put him on a path to destruction and it results in a dicey end for him. Then again, I should have suspected that something was up with him when he ditched the main heroine (The one who could have been the main heroine anyway) to go with the rich girl as he drove off. It was rather shady and not a very heroic thing to do either.

Waldo is pretty intense since he’s one of the most sinister characters at the start of the film. Once we learn about his history, he quickly loses his mystique. He was pretty likable at first, but he lacked the will to resist a tempting offer. He probably also accepted it because he feared for his safety if he refused, but it doesn’t change the fact that the money was one of the big incentives. If he had just stuck to doing his duties and not trying to fulfill his dream of having a big field with horses, things may have gone better for him.

Sally is a figure from Henry’s past who steps into the fray at one point and she was probably the second best character around. I was actually pretty worried that she was going to be an expendable figure at the beginning though since she doesn’t seem to be the type of character who will make it through this. Maybe she didn’t! Still, she gives Leona a lot of helpful advice during the film and while it may not have ultimately changed anything, it makes connecting the dots a lot easier for the viewer. Her husband is a bit of a red herring since he looks incredibly shady at first, but it all makes sense by the end. Her plot is also a nice change of pace since the kid isn’t annoying as you would expect one to be. He’s not too smart for his own good like in The Box and he’s not there to get in the way. He’s just a kid who is there to make us wonder what is going to happen next.

You could say that one of the film’s underlying messages is that everyone can be pretty corrupt at times. Leona’s father is forcing Henry to stay at his job, Leona is forcing Henry to give up his freedom, Henry is forcing Waldo to stray off his path, Waldo is forcing the company to lose money, etc. Most of the characters end up being corrupt or shady in some way or another and there are only a handful of characters that you could actually call good. The cops, Sally’s family, and some other characters down the line. It’s all rather sinister and it fits the film’s bleak tone. There doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel and you’re not expecting a happy ending.

Needless to say, the ending is not very happy. I would compare it to another genre in terms of endings, but that would probably give it away. Let’s just say that you won’t be humming as you walk away from this title. “Sorry!” is one of the final words that is spoken and the voice will definitely bring back memories from the board game. The ending is definitely pretty memorable and you probably won’t be forgetting it after hearing those words.

While watching the film, I actually liked Leona’s father a lot. He started to show his true colors towards the end of the film, but he was still doing it all to help Leona. After she left, then he started partying, but she’s the one who created distance between them. It’s just too bad that he cracked so easily about the marriage. We actually find out one reason why he gave up so quickly, which helps, but he could have been a little tougher about it. There’s not really a soundtrack here so we can bypass that.

There is some romance, but ironically, Leona is the one who mostly helps to avoid that. There’s no animal violence, which is a plus as well. So, you can see that the film didn’t commit any big errors. That would have hurt the score even more. As it stands, I couldn’t justify giving it a positive rating even in light of this. It just wasn’t good enough to get any higher. A fight scene or two could have changed things and we almost got one with the gangsters, but it was averted.

Overall, Sorry, Wrong Number is a decent mystery film, but there isn’t a lot of meat within it. There is a ton of exposition and we slowly breach through the foggy mist that surrounds the plot, but knowing about it isn’t going to be enough to change anything. The plot is decently interesting as you are watching it, but the execution could have been better. I guess you may just feel that there wasn’t much of a point to the film. What was gained from it? There weren’t many noticeable weaknesses in the film, but it didn’t have many strengths either. I’d only recommend it if you really want to see an old mystery film, but even then there are better options available anyway so you may as well just see one of those. Check out The Big Sleep! (I know, I mention that one a lot, but it’s probably the best mystery film that I’ve seen aside from Sherlock Holmes…or maybe it is better. It’s a tough decision)

Overall 4/10

Beware The Batman Review

Posted on October 25, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to see how Beware The Batman fared. It was a pretty original take on the Caped Crusader and the show also had a lot to live up to. Batman already had a few all star series in the form of The Animated Series and Brave and the Bold. Batman Beyond was excellent as well, although Batman didn’t really get to fight that much. Lastly, we can’t forget about The Batman. Does this show manage to take those out? Well, considering the episode disadvantage…it would be quite the feat!

The series actually does have some plots that continue through the series. The first half is mostly stand aloneish, but we get to meet Katana and we are also introduced to Batman’s cast of villains. None of the all stars are here, but maybe that’s a good thing. When was the last time that we got to see Magpie and Anarchy steal the spotlight? Of course, then we’re reminded of Professor Pig and why we would have preferred the Mad Hatter. Anyway, back to the plot! Professor Pig and Mr. Toad are recurring villains, but they don’t have much of a master plan so I would say that Anarchy is the guy who really brings the plot. We also have the League of Assassins, who play a big role in Alfred and Katana’s past.

Towards the second half of the show, we get a subplot where Batman is starting to become a little more vicious as he keeps to himself more since Alfred has left. Harvey Dent has also risen up through the political system and he wants to arrest Batman at all costs. It will award him the promotion that he needs! Meanwhile, Batman’s toughest foe has arrived in the form of Deathstroke. He’s going to need all of his skills if he wants to pull off a victory!

Well, let’s address the elephant in the room. Is it true that the CG-I kept Beware The Batman from being a better show? Absolutely! The animation isn’t very bad and the character models are decent. At the same time, it’s hard to get excited when watching the show because of the stiff animation. A lot of the fight scenes will end up looking similar and the power levels are a mess. The animation just doesn’t let you really get into the episodes. A lot of the intros just don’t capture your attention and you know that the fight scenes won’t be able to match up to the original animated Batman show…which is around 20 years old at this point.

For an example of the power levels, let’s just look at Batman’s fights. He got crushed by Magpie and Anarchy is able to hold his own against him. Then, Batman humiliates Silver Monkey, who is supposed to be an excellent hand to hand fighter. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you think about it. This happens all of the time. There are also a lot of moments where it’s Batman against the cops and the cops should actually win, but we won’t look at that too deeply since plot hax are usually required in those scenarios. Nobody is really able to deal with Gotham PD’s finest after all.

The theme song is pretty lazy. It’s very short and it just doesn’t scream Batman the way that the Brave and the Bold’s intro did. I really liked the credits theme though since it has an epic feeling to it. Now, that could make you pretty excited for the next episode. Inside of the episodes, the music is pretty unmemorable. Usually, the scenes are fairly quiet so you can focus on the sound effects. That’s not a negative per say…but I wouldn’t call it a positive either!

The show also made the intriguing decision not to use any of Batman’s iconic foes like the Joker, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Bane, etc. We don’t even get to have Robin, Batgirl, or some of the others. (Barbara Gordan is here, but she’s so young that we wouldn’t get Batgirl for a very long time) I don’t mind digging out the obscure characters, but it’s better to use them sparingly instead of every episode. Towards the end, they started breaking out some popular fighters like Deathstroke and Killer Croc, but we were already wrapping up. I don’t think including the big villains would have saved the show from being cancelled, but I would have liked to have seen Mr. Freeze and Bane appear at least once. It would make the episodes more fun. As it is, I think Batman has one of the weaker selections of villains so I suppose that the show did what it could.

All right, time for the comparisons. By this point you can probably already tell how the standings go. Beware The Batman get demolished by The Animated Series, Crushed by Beyond, Terminated by Brave and The Bold, and Humiliated by The Batman. I like to think that is easily beats the new Gotham show that is airing, but I won’t count that one since it would be a little too one sided! This Batman show still holds up well as a superhero show, but it just can’t be compared to those other titles. Again, if the show had not been CGI….we may be singing a different tune. (Still in last of course, but it would be closer) Batman also gets a possible romance subplot that arrives out of the blue towards the end of the series. The lady is pretty suspicious, but Batman doesn’t seem to suspect anything yet. I dunno…this all seems fishy and luckily the show ended before something dicey could happen!

Batman’s portrayal is pretty solid for the most part, but there are definitely some iffy moments during the series. One of them is the fact that Batman actually lets his comrades eradicate the memory from one of the villains. This happens near the final episode of the series and it’s pretty awful. Did the writers not read one of the most iconic Justice League arcs in the comics where Batman made a point to prohibit such an action? It’s why he fought the team in the first place. It was pretty out of character for The Dark Knight. Another problem is that he just looks very weak throughout the series. I’m not expecting him to look quite as tough as Superman, but I still expect better. He lets Deathstroke know that he can’t defeat him in a fair fight on more than one occasion. It’s pretty laughable and Batman fans will want to turn off the TV. This isn’t the Batman that we remember!

On the other hand, this Batman had some good traits. When he wasn’t making rookie mistakes or having trouble against foes with 0 hand to hand experience, Batman got to show off a lot of his detective skills. His best showing is probably when he solved the big puzzle that Humpty Dumpty threw him in. That also took place during the part of the show where Batman got a lot meaner since Alfred left. He went pretty far at some points, but I dare say that he looked his best during those moments.

Alfred has changed a lot from his usual appearance. In this show, he’s an ex M-16 agent so he uses his government sources to find out any intel that Batman may have missed. He’s always got his gun at the ready and he even knows some hand to hand techniques. It’s all supposed to show us that he’s actually a pretty epic guy. Unfortunately, he still manages to lose a lot when the going gets tough. He deserted Batman at a rather dicey time to bring on some trouble to an old “pal” of his. His journey didn’t really have a point since he just ends up coming home empty handed and you have to wonder what he was doing. That certainly wasn’t one of his better moves. Seeing Alfred as a “Professional Agent/Fighter” was interesting….but I’m ready for the classic (Post plump) Alfred to return. That’s still his best era.

Katana is basically the Robin of this show, but we see that she will be a little different right from the start. First of all, she is already a good hand to hand fighter when she joins. She gets a lot of hype although she doesn’t actually live up to it. She has a subplot involving the sword that she stole, a romance subplot with a pretty cheap character, and a subplot with someone who may have destroyed her father. So, she is pretty relevant to the plot, but 2/3 of those subplots didn’t go over very well for her. The romance is rather unnecessary here and Katana is always forced to play second fiddle to Batman. She cannot beat just about any enemy on her own and that can be a little sad for fans. If she always needs Batman to be around, then she’s not really helping out all that much. She likes to break the silence during an adventure with the occasional pun, but it typically doesn’t work. I have to say that I wasn’t really a fan of hers by the time the show ended. She got a little too much hype.

Anarchy is one of the more interesting villains and he actually could be the best one in the show. He’s always presenting Batman with some dicey propositions and he forces the hero to play by his script. He’s not amazing at hand to hand combat, but he’s good enough to keep Batman busy for a while. He even fights with Katana at one point. He mostly stays in the shadows and eggs people on though since getting on the front lines isn’t really his style. He gets a whole lot of episodes so if you don’t like him, it’ll be a long ride.

Deathstroke arrives for the final 3 or so episodes and he’s a pretty fun villain to have around. He’s definitely becoming DC’s Deadpool as we’ve seen him animated quite a few times as of late. This incarnation of him is better than the one in Son of Batman, but he still relies on using a lot of cheap tricks instead of just fighting Batman with his own skills. He only attempts a fair fight once and it doesn’t end well, which is why he must rely on his plans for their future encounters. You’ll likely figure out his secret identity right away since a new character joins the fray without any real reason at one point. It’s good to have a villain who isn’t being played by Anarchy so I give him some bonus points for that. As it stands, he’s one of the best villains in the series.

Barbara Gordon’s role increases we we progress through the series. I think that they made her a little too young here though since she’s basically just a kid. There’s not a lot that she can do at this point so she’s currently tech support for the team. She basically skipped the Batgirl phase and became the Oracle right off the bat. Her romance subplot with a random kid in one episode was probably the low point of her appearances in this show. I definitely wasn’t much of a fan. She was all right when solving the puzzles and helping out, but then I would lose the respect when she started to act a little too smug and confident as she forced the Commissioner to do what she wanted to do.

Commissioner Gordon gets a pretty small role in this show. He’s technically around a lot, but he is usually just there to be pushed around by Harvey Dent or get outsmarted by Barbara. He’s a good cop, but he’s just out of his league. At least he knows that Batman is good. (A quick thumbs up is awarded to such characters) He’s pretty true to his usual depiction and Gordon has always been a pretty consistent character.

Harvey Dent gets a rather large role towards the end of the series as he does everything in his power to make life tough for Batman. The police are basically under his control (The special division anyway) and he attacks Batman no matter what the circumstances are. I’m sure that we were all waiting for his transformation into Two Face, but it’s safe to say that the show didn’t have a whole lot of time to show it. He gets a very brief role and he probably would have been more of a factor as a super villain in the next season. Despite that, he was pretty interesting as a corrupt politician. He always knew when it was the right time to insult Batmans or to take out his gun.

Ra’s Al Ghul is really the same as always. He still likes to think that he is the greatest martial artist ever and he does humiliate Batman a few times. That being said, the show made him a little too strong and the heroes can only beat him with a nice spoonful of plot hax. He got a lot of hype and I was glad that he lived up to it, but his ending was pretty unsatisfying. He’s not a very interesting villain, but he’s tough so I give him some credit for that. If he would just lose the accent..it would be perfect!

Lady Shiva is Ra’s right hand man and she looks pretty tough in her appearances. She takes on the combined might of Batman and Katana and she looks consistently good throughout the episodes. You can argue that she does get a little weaker by the end, but I’m sure that it happens to most fighters with these wonky power levels in effect. I’d consider her to be in the top 3 Beware The Batman villains and it’s nice to finally see her on the big screen. We need more serious hand to hand fighters to join the fray! She doesn’t get a whole lot of screentime..but she gets enough to get by.

Killer Croc is the leader of the underworld in Arkham and it’s interesting to think about how he could have broken free from prison at any time. The cops definitely need to step up their game a little. He’s a pretty decent villain and his fight against Batman was probably one of the best fights that we saw in the series. He only appears in two episodes, but he left more of an impression than a lot of the other villains. I wouldn’t mind seeing him a little more although his role was a lot more petty in the second episode.

Magpie doesn’t appear a whole lot, but she’s also fairly tough. Her personality is a little warped since the “accident” changed her, but now she has some super strength and speed on her side. She really does a number on Batman whenever they meet with the Dark Knight usually getting knocked out. She’s a pretty fun villain to watch, but I can’t say that I actually like the character that much. She wants to introduce more romance into the series, but we weren’t having any of that!

Professor Pig is easily one of my least favorite Batman villains and the show really reminded me why he is not one of Batman’s more popular enemies. He just has no point as a character. He borrows some traits from the Joker while retaining a pretty polite attitude, but I don’t find him to be amusing. He’s also pretty weak since he’s overweight and he just likes to carry a big saw or knife. He’s no better than the average thug so he really shouldn’t be a match for the Caped Crusader. How he lasted so long I’ll never know. If his episodes had been replaced with a cooler villain, then that may have even helped the show.

Mr. Toad typically works with Professor Pig and he doesn’t have a lot of character. Towards the end, he forgets his place and thinks of romance briefly, but I think it was mostly in a fake way. Either way, it didn’t exactly do him any favors in my eyes. Ironically, he’s actually tougher than Professor Pig, but I doubt that any of them would admit it any time soon. He’s just another uninteresting villain that I could have done without.

There are some other fighters like Cypher, Silver Monkey, and Man Bat, but they don’t appear all that much or get a lot of personality. A guy by the name of Manhunter shows up and his story is rather dicey for a number of reasons. He vanished for quite a long time and he could have planned out things a little better. Metamorpho also gets a pair of appearances and he’s probably the toughest guy to appear in the series, but he doesn’t get to show off his strength. That’s pretty unfortunate, but without any tough villains…what are we gonna do!

Beware The Batman also has to deal with the fact that Batman is fairly new to the business. I hope that the next show takes place after he has already been a hero for a while like in the Animated Series. That’s the Batman that everyone wants to watch anyway and it’s more fun when you know that Batman has the power of Prep Time! The show already had a number of disadvantages so getting rid of that one definitely could have helped out a little.

The review may have come off a little negative, but the show just made more mistakes than you would expect from a show where Batman’s the main character. There were two pretty strong points to help the show along. One is the writing. The scenarios are pretty well thought out and the Humpty Dumpty episode comes to mind. The plots can be decently engaging even when the situations aren’t very intense and it’s all thanks to the script. Another good part of the show is the fact that we do get a lot of hand to hand fights. In an era where many shows have big DBZ styled fights with epic energy blasts, it can be fun to see a retro hand to hand fight. DBZ always wins, but you can’t have a winner without both sides right? Batman does manage to get knocked out about 2-3 times per episode, but that makes things interesting. Try ordering a slice of pizza every time he gets knocked out…it’ll be a fun wager! A good amount of action can make any show more interesting and this one has a lot of it.

Overall, Beware The Batman is a show that I highly recommend to all Batman viewers. I would naturally recommend that you watch the other titles first, but if you’re a big Batman fan, then I’m guessing that you already have at this point. The others were pretty legendary after all. I may have qualms with the animation and the fact that the series had a lot of filler (or unimportant) episodes despite the fact that it was so short. There wasn’t enough Justice League build up either, which is pretty important for a Batman show. All of the titles that I mentioned earlier had the Justice League or was at least building up to it. This show just didn’t make the effort. Still, now you can tell people that you saw a CGI Batman and the show does manage to contain a lot of action scenes in its own right. It’s certainly of a higher quality than the current Hulk show or even the Pac Man cartoon that is airing. Now, we just need the next Batman show to be announced and we’ll be all set!

Overall 7/10

Law of Ueki Review

Posted on October 24, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the manga elites! The Law of Ueki is pretty underrated in the manga community and you’ve likely never heard of it. That’s too bad since it can definitely hold its own against big titles like Naruto and One Piece. For some reason, it just never really hit it big and it’ll forever be more of an obscure title. Why is the Law of Ueki so good? Well, it has a perfect blend of action and hype. The ending is pretty rushed, but it almost fits the pace of this title.

The plot follows a kid who’s named…..waiiiiiit for it…..Ueki! He has a talent..he can turn garbage into trees. The running joke is that this ability never becomes useful and it’s probably one of the worst abilities ever. Luckily for him..this can all change. There is a tournament being held with 100 fighters. Each fighter represents a candidate to be the next King. The fighter’s prize is that they may learn a new “talent.” They can write down whatever ability they want on the paper and it shall be theirs. Each student starts out with around 10 talents if I recall correctly. Injuring a non combatant will result in the character losing a talent. Lose all of them…and let’s just say that your life will effectively be ruined. Ueki just needs to win the tournament to get the best super power ever, but he’s really just doing it for the guy he’s representing. He’s also going to need to make sure to do his best since the villains can be ruthless.

Much like MAR, The Law of Ueki is really just one really long tournament. The action is nonstop and that’s what I like to see from any title. This series pulls off most of the Shonen tropes that you would expect and does a nice job with them. One mild weakness for the series is that you could call some parts a little generic. Ueki is what you would expect from the lead and we even have the change in villains twist that you may have expected. I wouldn’t say that this is a big weakness though since everything is repetitive to an extent. As long as the scenes are enjoyable, then the Law of Ueki is still winning.

The art in the series may not be spectacular, but it’s definitely very good. The style reminds me of One Piece and it really captures the battle scenes. It’s always easy to follow what’s happening and many different series have trouble with that. There are a bunch of fight scenes to be found so that is a pretty big positive for the series. I’d say that the artwork is above average and it helps the manga feel even more exciting than it would have without it.

Tier wise, this series is likely a lot stronger than you may have expected. The top fighters can easily hold their own against fighters from Naruto and One Piece. I’m still going to say that it would be a stretch for them to go up against Bleach or Reborn! fighters, but that’s not bad. Ueki vs Beet is a good comparison to make here. It is like Sailor Moon though in the sense that the top tiers are drastically stronger than the average fighter. Ueki and the two big villains are really in a league of their own. They have super speed, flight, super strength, and much more. Fighting those guys will tire most other fighters out. Another reason why I love having strong fighters appear is that we are treated to some great fight scenes!

Ueki is our lead and he’s a pretty good main character. One can definitely see why he’d be called generic though. He’s very similar to Luffy and I think the author must be familiar with the series. I got a One Piece vibe several times while reading the series. I like Ueki, but I wouldn’t call him an amazing character like Train Heartnet or Ichigo. He’s a hero and I tend to agree with all of his calls. He believes in the power of friendship and he always sticks by his team. Beyond that, he doesn’t get any memorable lines and he doesn’t really stick out. You’ll mostly enjoy him for his fight scenes. He does get all of the best ones after all.

Mori is the main heroine and she makes sure to get involved in the tournament. Unfortunately, she has one of the worst powers of all time. She can make her opponents fall in love with glasses. That’s pretty terrible when you think about it and her fight was really just one big parody. I think that the author could have given her something that was a little more decent since that hurt her appearances in the series. She never really gets to help out in the fights, which can be sad for her fans. She’s a decent character, but she just doesn’t stand out.

Ueki’s main group of friends doesn’t really get any better with Kobayashi. Technically, he’s Ueki’s mentor, but he’d still be considered as one of the main characters. He doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time though since he is banished from the planet for breaking one of the rules. The only way to get him back is to win the tournament, which gives Ueki some motivation. I suppose that he’s not a bad character, but I don’t find him to be very likable. He’s meant to make the reader laugh and I didn’t find him to be very funny so that plan didn’t work. He’s basically just a side plot for most of the series.

Sano is easily the best friend that Ueki has, but it’s still not saying a whole lot. He can turn towels into iron/steel, which isn’t bad. It’s not the greatest ability out there, but that means that he’ll always have a solid weapon to hit people with. He’s the strategist of the group and he’s typically the first person to figure out what an enemy’s ability is. He comes in handy quite a few times, but he can’t help all that much against the big opponents since he physically cannot keep up with them. He’s no Sanosuke, but Sano is always ready to help out.

Rinko joins the team pretty early on after a brief stunt as one of the villains. She can throw explosive beads at her opponents. It’s not a great power, but when you look at her allies…you start to appreciate it. Her slap is pretty iconic by the end since the artist makes her hand look huge and it’s almost always a one hit KO attack. At least she’s getting a lot of action! I wasn’t a big fan of her either though and she didn’t really add a whole lot to the group. She just pretty unmemorable as well, which adds to the amount of characters that were fairly generic.

Hideyoshi is largely inspired by Usopp, but I really don’t like him. He can make sounds come from other directions with his drawings, but man…that’s a pretty awful power. He cannot fight at all and he’s mostly used for comic relief. It’s hard to really root for this kind of character because he can only win with severe plot hax. I think the series could have been even better if Hideyoshi had not been introduced. I still like most of the villains in the Law of Ueki, but I have to say that most of the heroes can use some work. Ueki mostly has to carry the team on his own and he’s already not the greatest main character. (Although the others make him look like the next Vegeta!) (In terms of epicness of course)

Tenko is the Celestial Beast who helps Ueki develop his abilities. His training is highly risky though and if Ueki were to fail…he would die. Tenko is still a nice guy though so he lets Ueki train when needed. I guess I didn’t mind Tenko by the end. As a whole, I find Tenko to be a little unnecessary and he should have gone in to help Ueki instead of “trusting” him at one point. I disagreed with his decision and it was hard to forget about that. He is better than most animal mascots though and I dare say that I like him more than Mokona and Cerberus. It’s a close call of course.

Hanon is the final villain of the series and he’s very powerful. He can absorb other fighters to gain their abilities, which comes in handy. Initially, he was tough, but he was probably not a huge threat. That changed once he met up with the previous main villain. Suddenly, Hanon become a big contender and his powers almost have no limits. His speed and power are off the charts and he can fly as well. Hanon makes for a great villain as his abilities are perfect. The fight scenes with him are naturally great and they feel very climatic. It’s rare that I like all (2) of the big villains in the manga series, but Law of Ueki managed to pull it off. Most impressive!

Robert is the main villain for a good chunk of the series. He’s pretty great and it was our first glimpse of DBZ action. He starts out as a pretty sinister villain, but he starts to warm up to the others as the series goes on. I quickly became a fan of his, but my timing was a little off since he quickly stopped appearing due to a tragic meal. I was rooting for him there, but it was a good way to hype up the next villain. I would have preferred a climatic fight first with a clear resolution, but The Law of Ueki just moves too quickly for that. Robert is not someone that you will forget and he had the privilege of staying in the top tier from start to finish.

“God” is the host of the tournament and he doesn’t do anything until we reach the end of the series. He seems like a pretty nice guy and he’s really relaxed about the whole situation. He does have to step in when his rules start to be abused by the competitors, but what if he has grown rusty over the years? His fight is pretty intense although a lot of it is off screen. It’s implied that he actually could have won against most of the villains, but Hanon is very debatable. “God” was having a very tough time when he went up against Hanon’s right hand man although he was holding back so that he wouldn’t hurt him. At full power, he could possibly give Hanon a good fight although I’m confident that he would lose. He’s a pretty good character, but he suffers from a severe lack of screen time.

Li Ho was actually one of my favorite characters in the series. Unfortunately, he got the shaft towards the end since it was fairly rushed. He never got to have the ultimate fight with Ueki that I had been waiting for. He’s an immense threat without the use of his abilities and that’s a big part of why he’s likable. He has super powers, but he chooses not to use them so that he can perfect his martial art skills. This makes him strong enough to take on the main villain and he did fight Ueki on more than one occasion. He does take his honor a little too far though as he should have activated his powers by the end. I mean, imagine if Goku decided not to turn into a Super Saiyan 3 and the series ended without him transforming. All of the foreshadowing ends up going to waste. Ah well, Li Ho is definitely a solid character and I dare say that he’s even better than Rock Lee. (Both of them are hand to hand fighters in a supernatural world, but Li Ho looks a little more impressive)

Barrow is another big opponent in the series. As expected, he has a really formidable ability up his sleeve. He has the normal celestial weapons like the Pick and the Cannonball attack, but his secret ability is what really makes them deadly. He can bring back past images of himself to fight as well. So, if he attacked you from a certain part of the field 15 minutes ago, he can bring that “him” back to launch the attack. He’s not changing the past, but merely bringing it back once again. The only drawback is that the past him is still real so then he can become a target. He can spam his time manipulation to launch some devastating combos. It’s very tough to overcome this kind of opponent and it definitely depends on what the location is. Again, I definitely enjoyed this villain. He didn’t have much of a personality beyond wanting to win, but he was pretty reasonable and I never found myself rooting against him. He did help to activate Ueki’s rage mode though.

We have another big villain in the form of Marilyn. I’ll admit that her power was a little too good since I don’t really see how she could have lost her battle. We can make the same case for some of the other villains, but Marilyn really stood out in this regard. She can make 1 second stretch out into 10 seconds for her. This means that she is moving 10X faster than everyone else and that’s a massive advantage. There are so many ways to win that way and only a few opportunities to stop such a strategy. I was highly skeptical of Ueki’s win against her because it didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s one of the risks of making your villains so powerful without giving the hero a power up. If you are physically superior to Marilyn already, then you should be fine, but nobody in the series (At the time anyway) was good enough to pull this off. Even someone like Goku would have a tough time if he wasn’t expecting the hit. Marilyn’s backstory can come off as a little cheesy, but she was a solid villain overall.

Since this is a tournament title, there are naturally many more fighters involved. I just managed to grab most of the main characters and the iconic villains. There is a small part of the series that happens before the tournament and we get some breaks, but it’s mostly all about the tournament. The series also kicks into overdrive towards the end in terms of pacing. It goes a little too quickly as we get rushed results with Li Ho, Robert, and arguably Hanon. Hanon’s right hand man also starts to get some development that ends up going to waste and the host of the event’s fight had to end a little quicker than it might have been. That being said, the series doesn’t drag on because of this and I can’t say that it had any bad volumes. Just about every installment gave us an exciting fight and advanced us through the tournament.

The climax in the Law of Ueki can hold its own against any climax. Whether it be from Bleach or DBZ, the Law of Ueki’s still manages to shine through. It may not beat their arcs, (Nothing will beat the end of the Aizen Invasion) but it’s enjoyable enough that you won’t miss them while reading it. The end fights hit all of the right notes and it basically sums up why the series was fun in the first place. It has a lot of great fights and exciting villains. Some parts may be generic, but the action and art keep it real. I also like when a series decides to go all out for the ending. Let’s just say that the power levels skyrocket in the final volume and Ueki/Hanon get to shoot through a few tiers in their big fight.

The Law of Ueki also manages to take the high road as it avoids fanservice. I don’t recall any of that being in it and if there was any, it was extremely brief. There is also virtually no romance in this title so it’s really a complete action story. There are basically no negatives that I have with it. Some of the characters may not be great, but I can’t remember any truly awful ones (Like Roshi or Oolong) either so that’s a pretty big win.

Overall, The Law of Ueki is an incredible manga that I highly recommend. It’s fairly short compared to the average Jump (Or Shonen in general) series, but it contains a ton of fights within. The series got a sequel series a while back, which I’ll be checking out soon so you can expect a review for that title at some point. I can only imagine the plot hax that will be involved to make the fights even considering how skilled Ueki is. I doubt they can stop Hanon, but they can try. Between Hanon, Robert, and the others, it’s very tough to match the Law of Ueki’s high caliber villains. You should definitely enjoy this title if you are into action. Think of it was a grounded DBZ in terms of tone and finesse. Now we just need Ueki to get popular enough for people to compare him to Luffy some more!

Overall 9/10

The Box Review

Posted on October 23, 2014 by dreager1

All right folks, it’s true that Avengers:Age of Ultron’s trailer finally debuted, but we need to quickly refocus our attention to an older film. The Box arrived onto the world in 2009 and it was a very ambitious film that didn’t really know its own limits. Needless to say, it’s not exactly at Avengers level and I can’t guarantee an epic viewing experience. What I can guarantee…is a story with more riddles than characters.

We start off this adventure with Norma and Arthur Lewis as they try to make ends meet. Arthur wants to go to Mars and Norma just wants to get through another semester at her school. Unfortunately, both of their dreams are shattered when Norma is basically fired and Arthur fails the psych exam. (Red Herring number 1) Luckily, a sketchy man by the name of Mr. Stewart gives them a box and tells them that they can push the button and receive 1 million dollars…at the cost of someone’s life. Will the heroes quickly realize what the morally correct decision is or will they run for the money? This is Hollywood, but more importantly…this is the planet Earth. Who wouldn’t push the button? (Average main characters only so we’re not counting naturally epic characters like Superman and Batman)

Well, that’s not a bad start right? Well, things get pretty crazy from there. You remember that red herring from earlier? Well, the film is full of them and many plots are introduced without any resolutions. Is Arthur a little crazy or is Mr. Stewart just messing with him? (My money’s on the latter) Mr. Stewart warns the heroes not to contact the police and he takes it pretty personally when they do, but why should he care? By the end of the film, we find out that the police can’t really do anything about it either. Why is the government so corrupt? Okay, let’s address these issues a little more coherently after we check out the main characters.

Norma is the first character to meet up with Mr. Stewart and she tries to make the most of it. She’s had a pretty tough time recently and she also suffered from an accident that left her without most of her foot. The idea of getting 1 million dollars is just too great for her and she crumbles. It’s pretty sad for her even if it was expected. The reason why I can’t really root for her is that Norma isn’t very realistic. I don’t mind unrealistic characters, but this was not a good thing here. I’m addressing her attitude towards Mr. Stewart. It was like the guy could do no wrong at some points. Even after he messed with their son and threatened the heroes multiple times, Norma treated him as if he was just a friend of theirs. She never really treated him as an enemy and that could definitely be pretty annoying.

Arthur isn’t much better although I dare say that I liked him a little more than Norma. His lack of realism comes from the Library chase scene and basically every scene in the second half of the film. A lot of supernatural things are happening and he takes it way too calmly. He doesn’t even seem to care half of the time as he just asks where the exit is…instead of wondering why the whole town is out to get him. He gets a classic rage mode scene where he threatens someone, but he doesn’t end up doing anything. Likewise, he grabs a gun during one scene, but he lacks the drive to pull through. It’s the hero’s move of course, but he still shouldn’t have let Mr. Stewart just walk out like that.

Mr. Stewart is the main villain and he’s not completely human. He doesn’t appear to possess any supernatural powers although he may have telepathy. He has alien technology that his employers gave him that allows him to subjugate anyone who is caught in the blue liquid. This gives him an army and then he’s ready to blackmail everyone. He throws a lot of threats around and he tries to be sympathetic as well, but I can’t say that it really worked. He betrayed the human race after the accident and he allowed himself to be corrupted. I don’t know why Arthur didn’t try to tackle him in the end. (You should have seen how Mr. Stewart ran!) At least Mr. Stewart can talk tough to the government and get away with it.

I don’t really like the main kid in this film so I’ll mainly bypass his section. He’s a little too much of a know it all and he’s not very smart when it comes to practical situations. He didn’t help matters for the heroes and he just ended up being a liability. Why couldn’t he have stayed home reading comics?

Okay, where to start! Things really blew up for the film when the nosebleeds start to happen. All of the townsfolk seem to be possessed at certain points before they “regain themselves” and try to help the heroes by giving signs. Pretty weak mind control eh? The expendables keep flip flopping in and out of their trance. We learn that they were all forced to go into the blue vat, which is how they lost their free will. So, are we to believe that all of these people were put into the pool? It seems like dozens upon dozens of people were thrown in…even a clown got in on the action! This is also fairly convenient for the bully from the beginning since we find out that he may have been possessed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t add up. Mr. Stewart has no motive to make the kid insult Norma so we have to believe that he’s just normally a cheap character. Still, we do know that he was also possessed along with the bell boy so things start to get a little dicey. Mr. Stewart’s wife/right hand woman also jumps into the fray since she owns the library. It seems like she still has her free will, which is interesting, but I’m going to assume that she was meant to be possessed since it was out of place and Mr. Stewart is more alien than human now.

Once there, Arthur is given a choice between 3 portals. 2 will lead to Eternal Damnation and one will lead to Eternal Peace. Arthur obviously picks the Eternal Peace portal. (He found out after breaking through the mind control and getting the slaves to tell him, which the good portal was. Although, it was fairly obvious since two of the portals were dark blue and one was light blue) Unfortunately, he finds out that it was a sham since it just leads him back to his living room after a dimensional journey.

Spoiler Alert. I’ll just give you more time to get out of this paragraph with this line so that you can be sure to dodge the spoiler. The ending shows us that the two main characters are actually stuck in Purgatory and their choices here will result in whether they go to Heaven or Hell. (Or the film equivalents anyway) So, it is just the main characters in this place and everyone else is fake? Is everyone real and the whole town was thrown into Purgatory or is Earth itself already in Purgatory and it may have happened before they were born? The film will never bother to explain so you can make your own theories about it.

Of course, this brings us to the point of this whole charade. I guess it’s a morality test that Mr. Stewart has set up, but what about the town inhabitants that he has enslaved? Do they not deserve to get their own test to see if they are good people or have they already failed the test? One guy’s son is dragged off since I guess he completed his test, but now he’ll have to complete another one. The government warns him that his decision will have grave consequences, but he doesn’t seem to care since he’s basically drugged and out of it by that point.

Ah yes….the Government. Skeptics of the NSA will have a blast with this since they decide to work with a mad alien. Why did they just bow before Mr. Stewart so willingly? We actually see many armed guards just stand by the main villain with the NSA director just watching and (almost) crying. The NSA seems to be petrified of this guy, but it’s confirmed that a bullet is enough to destroy Mr. Stewart so they should be a little braver. He has some hi tech equipment, but he’s still just a guy. Let his “Employers” come…the NSA will just take them out too!

You could go on and on about this film for quite a long time, but you start to lose track of what’s going on with the film’s many plots. Mr. Stewart’s technology allows you to rid someone of their senses (2 out of 5 in this case) but then he can also give the person back their senses somehow. I suppose that he actually does have some powers to pull that off since it wasn’t a matter of tech that time. It’s sad for the humans since they’re basically powerless to stop these “high above” beings and they will just be toyed with. Even if they win their tests, these guys will just make new ones up so it’s ultimately pointless. The villains also seem confused since they go to the trouble of getting the wife and the son, but they allow Arthur to drive back home with Norma. (They still get the kid though) With their powers, they could have forced Arthur to stay back, but I guess it was all part of the plan.

The ending is pretty underwhelming as you may expect. It’s similar to a certain Ronin film and it’s not the kind of ending that you wouldn’t even wish upon your least favorite film! The heroes basically just accepted their insignificance in the grand scheme of things and allowed themselves to be puppets in the end. That’s not very satisfying if you ask me and they should have done something to escape their fate. Maybe next year…

I would talk about the soundtrack, but it’s basically nonexistent here. There’s not really a lot of romance so that’s always a plus. A little here and there, but it could be a lot worse. The bully at school is pretty wince worthy and the deformations can be a little hard to look at, but I suppose that it’s part of the point. I still wish that Arthur and Norma could have been a little more assertive in those scenes. The babysitter’s lies may have made for an intriguing moment and especially as she went through the motel with the brain controlled zombies, but we all had a feeling that the plot would vanish given the film’s track record. Everything goes back to nothing. (I don’t believe that all of the town’s folk could be kidnapped by the NSA and nobody would notice…it’s a bit of a stretch)

Overall, The Box is the kind of film that you would only want to watch if you like to watch films that are very vague so that you can make up your own version of what happened. There are some scenes that are fairly interesting and they had potential, but the film couldn’t live up to it. It just blew itself up along the way and ended up going out with a whimper. I do applaud the fact that is tried to be contain so much in a single film, but it couldn’t pull it off. Don’t bite off more than you can chew after all. (Meta + Unexplained, Convoluted Plotlines + Arthur = Loss) If you want a complex film filled with mystery and adventure…check out The Big Sleep. It’s a classic and I dare say that it’s a little more suspenseful.

Overall 3/10

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