Digimon Frontier Review

Posted on January 11, 2014 by dreager1

Digimon Frontier is the first Digimon show that I didn’t really watch back in the day. I caught one episode where JP was wrongly accused of being an awful person and Zoe has her climatic battle against her water rival from the villain side. Needless to say, it turned me off from the show and I did not give it another shot for years. Eventually, it was time to give it a new shot and it was a lot better than I remembered. It was just bad luck that I happened to catch one of the worst episodes of the show.

There are 5 main characters for this series and they each of the power of one of the 10 Legendary Warriors! Their abilities should not be underestimated and Takuya is the best main character that we’ve gotten in a while. He’s far superior to Mikey and Takato, but he is definitely not as good as Tai. He’s very close to Davis, but not quite a match for him either. I’ll go into the characters more as the review goes on, but now it’s time to talk about the plot!

Takuya is minding his own business and is extremely bored when his phone lets him know that it’s time for a game. Takuya likes games and he wants to end the boredom, so he quickly gets on a train and goes down 30+ floors in a huge building in Shibuya and then jumps on a train. It’s a pretty messy scene down there as one kid is shoved into the train. Takuya and 3 other kids meet up in the train, but the mysterious kid in the blue attire picked a different train and he vanishes. The 4 kids quickly realize that they are actually Legendary Warriors and they find Digimon spirits and become Digimon! Nobody can hope to stop them now!

Bokomon and Neemon arrive to tell the kids that there are 10 Legendary Warriors and that the other 5 are evil. The kid in blue by the name of Koji arrives and it’s now 5 on 5. Finally, the odds are actually fair for the heroes!….right? Well, there are three cosmic beings who are also around and two of them are good while one is evil. Let’s just say that this tips the balance…in the villain’s favor! Cherubimon leads the evil warriors and now Takuya must find strength within himself to end this once and for all!

That arc takes up almost the entire series, but we’ve still got time for one more arc. Lucemon is now awakened and he sends the Royal Knights to gather data from the Digital World. He can’t actually break free and destroy the world until he has every area from the Digital World. The two Knights head off to do this, but Takuya decides that it’s the end of the road for them. He’s going to show them what true power is! Thus, the ultimate battle for Digital Supremacy begins and marks the climax of the series.

Takuya is the main character of the show and as I’ve mentioned earlier; he’s a great character. He does have some moments where the pressure becomes too much for him and he ends up giving up. I’ll admit that it happens a little more than I’d like and he definitely needs to upgrade his strength of character. He seemed to be all set, but then he cracked in the final minutes of the series. Not a great way to end! Takuya transforms into Agunimon and from there his forms continue to get stronger and stronger. His strongest form where it’s just him (No fusion) is Emperor Greymon. (It’s a fusion with other spirits, but he’s still the only human) Emperor Greymon is definitely a powerful fighter and the form is useful for all forms of combat.

I actually like all of Takuya’s digi forms and he’s the only character where I can say that. That in itself is a feat and a pretty good one. He’s very powerful and easily the strongest of the Legendary Warriors. He’s a natural leader like Tai. He’s definitely the right guy for the job and it’s usually Takuya who needs to come up with the (good) plans to take down the villains.

Koji is the big rival of the series and while Takuya utilizes the immense power of fire, he uses the powers of light! Koji’s main digiform is Lobomon and he uses a Lightsaber to attack his foes. He’s a pretty solid character. He doesn’t start out so well since he seems to avoid the others for no real reason. He wants to be a hero deep down…but he’s not exactly a team player.

The fact that he got the element of light will probably hint to you that this will change. Soon, he learns that teamwork is completely for the win and it’s actually a good tactic to use in battle. He gets a pretty big subplot towards the end because his long lost brother appears and Takuya also needs some backup since his other friends won’t be able to help. Koji’s digi forms aren’t that cool looking, but they have their moments. They’re definitely powerful…and that’s what counts!

Zoe is another one of the Legendary Warriors and while her digi form is not quite as powerful as the others, she is still able to pack a punch when she needs too! Her normal digi form actually cannot really fight and her only good attacks are a spinning kick and her tornado abilities. To make up for this, she has a better fighter in Zephyrmon. She still has Hurricanes, but now she’s a very good hand to hand fighter. It’s tough for Zoe because JP and the others tend to be pretty annoying when she’s around. Takuya manages to keep his cool for the most part, but it must be tough to deal with those guys.

Zoe is the only member of the group without a tragic backstory aside from Takuya, but she did have some real life drama of her own before the Digital World. There’s not much to say about her in terms of development because for better or worse, she stayed pretty much the same for the entire series. She wasn’t bad and is definitely a step up from the final two members.

JP….JP…JJJJJJJPPPPPPPP! Everyone is constantly yelling that throughout the series. They keep on yelling for good reason since JP is easily the least professional of the Legendary Warriors. He constantly tries to bribe people with Chocolate Bars. He once tried to give a kid his chocolate bar if he would let JP share his umbrella. The kid was far too cool for that and he quickly dashed off.

JP’s emotional backstory isn’t very emotional. He was decently popular at school and he got along with everyone. The problem was that….there were no problems. The problem that JP imagined was that they weren’t really his friends. On that stormy day, they all left without offering him their umbrellas! I wouldn’t have offered him mine if I had been there. Sure, it was raining…but just grin and bear it. He forgot the umbrella so it’s not any of the kids’ fault. Plus, they were all friends and would have probably given him an umbrella, but none of them heard him in time. He just should have moved quicker.

I’m afraid that the worst part about JP is the fact that he’s very infatuated with Zoe. It’s one of those tiresome subplots that continues for the whole show. Zoe continues to tell JP to his face that she’s not interested, but he never stops. He also starts out as a pretty unlikable guy to the max! (Well, he was already unlikable, but in the beginning…he’s even more unlikable!) At one point, he refuses to help a village full of Digimon and suggests that they leave the Digimon to die. After all…it’s not his problem! He also tries to ditch the main characters a few times and until he gets his Digi Spirit, he’s pretty whiny about the whole thing.

JJJJJJJPPPPPPP is the thunder warrior and his normal form is actually pretty tough. He’s easily the third strongest of the group in that mode, but he suffers the same fate as Tommy and Zoe. After the first two forms, none of them get any more. Takuya and Koji get to have a few extra forms and it tips the scale of power pretty drastically. JP was definitely the worst hero and I won’t be a fan anytime soon, but his name still cracks me up and that’s the important thing.

Tommy is the final member of the 5 Heroic Legendary Warriors! He’s the weakest and he has the ice warrior. He definitely seems to be the youngest and his trials mostly revolve around that fact. The rest of the heroes always feel like they have to protect him and in a way…they’re right. He’s not suited for combat and he nearly gets beat up by some bullies in the final few episodes. He gives each episode his all, but he’s just not my kind of character. It helps that he has a really bad transformation sequence. It doesn’t even try to be epic. There’s not as much to say about him because….he’s just not an interesting character. It happens….right!?

Mercurymon is one of the 5 evil Legendary Warriors and he is one of the most powerful members. For most of the series, he messes around with the other members and likes to taunt the heroes. He even takes down a Mega level Digimon with a single blow. He doesn’t just beat the Mega, the one hit deleted him! Mercurymon is truly a force to be reckoned with and I guess you can see why Takuya had to give it his all. Mercurymon is an easy character to root for so I’ll give him that. His voice has a unique twist to it and he knows just how to make everyone take action. He gets two big power ups and the first one gets a lot of hype and “feats” while the other one is actually pretty tough and one of the stronger Digimon in the season. Besides Duskmon, Mercurymon is easily the best from the evil Legendary Warriors.

Grumblemon is the first of the big 5 to really get a lot of screen time and he is certainly impressive. He ends up wiping the floor with the 5 Heroes and it’s a testament to his strength. That being said, I believe that the victory used a lot of plot hax and I just didn’t buy it. His forms aren’t really that impressive to me and I can’t really say that I missed him. He just wasn’t a likable villain.

Duskmon is another one of the legendary warriors and he is the warrior of darkness. He is the secret weapon for the dark side, but he doesn’t get along with the other members. He rarely talks and his true motivations can definitely be put into question. He gets a very big role and he’s easily one of the best characters in the series. Some of his plots may drag on at times, but it’s nice to have another fight. He has a big battle where he goes up against the ultimate tag team of Takuya and Koji! His powers may even rival those of Cherubimon’s! His character reminds me of Beelzemon or Black War Greymon and that is a good thing!

Arbormon has a pretty neat voice, but that’s his only really redeeming quality. He did provide us with a solid Hamburger episode, but I still don’t like him as a character. He just doesn’t seem that powerful and he gets a very small role. I dare say that he gets the smallest role from the 5 evil warriors. It can just be more than a little hard to take him seriously at times. Still, he wasn’t a bad character. His voice would tilt him more into the good side, but it’s only by a small margin.

Ranamon is the final member of the Legendary Warriors and she isn’t much of a fighter either. She has a decent array of attacks, but she doesn’t really make the most of them. She has several fan clubs, but they all see the error of their ways at one point or another. She’s likely the worst of the 10 Legendary Warriors and that is unfortunate. Then again…someone had to be last! (Grumblemon got lucky this time!) She’s essentially Zoe’s rival, but since Water has never been that good against Wind….she may be doomed.

Lucemon is essentially the final boss of the series and his power is considerable. We start to enter DBZ world as he is able to unleash massive fist barrages and continue to devastate all who oppose him. Unfortunately, I do not like Lucemon as much as I did in the DS/PS2 games. There, he was a force to be reckoned with while also having a cool design/personality. In this show, I just didn’t like him. It was due to his voice and lack of a cool design. They just didn’t scream “Final Boss” the way that the previous games did. Still, his power should be respected and he’s definitely a tough opponent. His toughest form actually isn’t his final form, but that’s how the ball bounces sometimes.

Dynasmon is The coolest villain in the show. He’s completely awesome in every meaning of the word. His speed and power are so great that he was able to slaughter two ultimate level opponents with no effort. That’s basically unheard of and he took it all in stride. His episodes tended to be some of the best ones. He may not have appeared for a lot of episodes, but he was very good in the ones that he did appear in. His Final Smash involves an energy dragon, but his best abilities are his Repulsor Blasts. He can absorb energy attacks and also fire some pretty powerful ones. He’s definitely a well rounded fighter!

Crusadermon is Dynasmon’s partner and she’s also extremely powerful. She really wants to conquer the Human World and is ready to fulfill that goal. First, she helps Dynasmon to make short work of the main characters. She may not be quite as powerful as he is, but she’s excellent in close combat fights and her super punch was shown to deal critical damage. Whenever she uses that attack, her opponent’s armor/weapons are usually destroyed instantly. She is definitely not an opponent to be underestimated and she’s pretty awesome. It’s a shame that these two Digimon could not appear for a few more episodes, but these battles with them will definitely be remembered!

Skull Satamon was an interesting character to check out since he was such a cool character in Digimon Adventure 02. Not only did he clobber the whole cast in that show, but he did it without any effort. Now that’s what I call power right!? In this show, he was still impressive…but not quite as cool. I don’t really care for his personality and I preferred the silent but deadly appearance that he used to have. He talks a lot here and he can back it up to an extent, but not enough. Power wise, he’s still at a pretty high Ultimate tier level since a pair of Skull Satamon were taking on Koji and Takuya so I can settle for that. He’s definitely one of my favorite Digimon of all time, even if he wasn’t my favorite character in this show.

Ice Devimon is an interesting villain since he got a lot of hype when he appeared. After the climax of Arc 1, he announced that Cherubimon was a weakling compared to him. Naturally, this got the heroes very upset since nobody should dismiss their villains like that! (Similar to that Ichigo vs Yammy scene!) Unfortunately, Ice Devimon made short work out of Koji and Takuya….so the friends would need to come and help! He may not have been the strongest opponent in the end, but he was easily superior to the fighters at first and he nearly ended everything. He could have destroyed them all if he had not been holding back and he was definitely one of the cooler villains of the series.

Cherubimon is the first big villain of the series and he is pretty tough. His abilities are considerable and he is able to take on two ultimates at once. Not a bad showing of power eh!? He’s not the most likable villain out there, but at least he’s pretty smart and isn’t the type of villain who will allow himself to be betrayed. He’s a nice way to start the ball rolling and get the true villains to show themselves. Cherubimon was definitely a solid antagonist.

Karatenmon fought with Koji at one point and he definitely came out of nowhere! I’m sure that fans were shell shocked at the big appearance and I definitely couldn’t blame them. One second things are going smoothly for the heroes and the next…Karatenmon is completely destroying Koji. He seems to have a bit of a Pre-cog ability and he can predict your moves before you make them. Add to this his mastery of hand to hand combat and super speed….and you’ve got a very impressive villain. He was pretty awesome and I instantly became a fan. You just can’t not like that guy!

Ice Leomon is a very minor character, but he has to be mentioned since he keeps up the long standing Digimon tradition that a Leomon must die in each season. So far, that remains true in all seasons except for Data Squad because I have not seen that one yet, but I’m confident that it will happen. That being said, it was fun to see Ice Leomon try to take down Agunimon!

Seraphimon is one of the three legendary knights and his abilities should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, he only appears for a few scenes. In his first scene, he is destroyed without mercy by a single blow. Luckily we get a flashback to witness his true power, but then he is effortlessly defeated in a single shot. Well…..it’s tough being so tough right? He was definitely not impressive in this show and was easily one of the weaker characters. He’s not worthy of the Mega title!

Orphanimon is another one of the Three Big, Cosmic Digimon who tries to make things right. Her methods can be extreme and she risked the lives of many people “for the greater good”. She’s definitely no hero, but we didn’t expect her to be right? One scene that I definitely did not like was where she pretended to be sympathetic with Cherubimon and then stole his spirits. That was a pretty low blow and not exactly going to change how he sees humanity. In the end, Cherubimon was the only member of the big three who was actually pretty cool.

Bokomon is one of the main characters because he serves as a guide for the heroes. He gets a long subplot where he tries to father an egg and must deal with the drama and epicness that comes with being a parent. That being said, the subplot wasn’t very interesting and I didn’t care for the character. He was constantly pulling Neemon’s pants so that he could let it slam on the poor guy. Also, he had a moment where he seemed proud that his village was destroyed. I can’t even…..his mustache is cool though.

Neemon is Bokomon’s partner and Bokomon is always picking on him. Neemon likes to act like he’s not very smart and he’s pretty successful at this. His voice is pretty fitting and he’s just an epic character to be around. He doesn’t know the meaning of fear and he’s always ready to give it his all and aid the heroes. He just tells it like it is and he actually lets his pants slam on himself once in his big hero moment. He was a hero to the end and one of the more emotional characters. It would be nice to see him again in the future.

The Animation is pretty solid and while it doesn’t hold up quite as well as Digimon Tamers, it’s still really good. It still has that retro feeling to it and the fight scenes are good. That’s probably the most impressive part because the battles are easily some of the best in the series. The Digimon in this series are very powerful and this is definitely the strongest series for Digimon so far. The fights between the Royal Knights and the Legendary Warriors is pretty great and so is Lucemon’s fight against Takuya and pals. I also liked Koji’s fight against Karatenmon. The fights were consistently good and that was definitely a plus for the series.

I’m afraid that the biggest negative of the show would be the soundtrack. Unlike all of the other Digimon shows, this one just lacked a really cool/hardcore array of themes. They went for more of a tribal/mystical angle instead of the usual fast paced rock music. Big mistake if you ask me and I don’t think that it was worth it in the long run. It’s not that the music is downright terrible, but it’s just not very interesting and it’s wayyyyyy too slow. Not exactly battle music if you know what I mean.

One other negative can be the way that the main characters act around Zoe at times. Pretty much all of them tend to blush when in contact with her. (Or in JP’s case, whenever she’s around) Do all of the main characters need to have a crush on her? Takuya stays strong for the most part and he continues to show that they’re all just friends (Or rivals) to him. So, that plot can get a bit tiresome at times, but it’s not played too extremely. There is more “romance” than in previous Digimon seasons, but it’s still an extremely minor subplot at best. (Except for JP once again)

The series also has a decent amount of plot hax. I don’t mention it in every review, but to a degree…all anime have some plot hax in them. Still, in this show it was a little too strong for me to ignore it. At one point, the 10 Legendary Warriors fire blasts at the Royal Knights and it actually causes them to retreat. The blast actually should not have even affected them since the heroes were all in their champion forms. Before, the ultimate fusion forms that surpassed the fusion evolutions were completely crushed and couldn’t deal any damage. The power inaccuracy was just too much to bear. Their are other parts that can be iffy like the 5 Warriors having trouble with Grumblemon or Seraphimon being so easily defeated. Still, that was the main one that stood out to me and will likely stand out to you as well.

Overall, this is a very good season of Digimon! It’s a lot better than I could have hoped and the battle scenes are the best yet! The soundtrack may be weak, but the animation is still pretty good. If you can get around the fact that JP can get annoying pretty quickly and that everyone seems to have a crush on Zoe from time to time, the series is really all positive. The series quickly gets at its best once it enters the final arc with Lucemon. The very first episode has the heroes fight with Dynasmon and Crusadermon and it’s like a callback to the DigiDestined’s first fight against the Dark Masters in season 1. I highly recommend checking this series out and you won’t regret it. Takuya and Koji make for solid heroes and how can you resist the great battles and epic villains!? All anime fans can get a kick out of it! Even if you’re not a fan of the monsters, you should check out the first episode so that you can try and suspend your disbelief for a secret B-40th floor under one of the biggest buildings in Shibuya without any of the humans suspecting a thing! (Yes, in this show, you can go from the human world to the digital one by taking a train at Shibuya. Anyone can go as long as you remember to go to the elevator and head to the secret basement!)

Overall 8/10

Essential Daredevil Volume 6 Review

Posted on January 9, 2014 by dreager1

This is a pretty large collection, so you can expect that there will be a lot of plots going on. The first few comics deal with The Torpedo, as he has a job to do. He tries to convince Daredevil that he has a mission that he must fulfill, but Daredevil can’t let him keep on creating so much destruction! More than one person assumes the guise of the Torpedo in this collection because one of them…doesn’t make it out alive!

There is a comic about Death Stalker and Daredevil, but I’m just going to leave it alone because nothing really comes of it. Still, it was an interesting comic. Likewise, I shall also skip over the Man-Beast comics because he wasn’t an interesting villain. He’s tough and he tried to give the law a shot, but it’s just hard to root for him. He comes off as a generic villain who won’t last long against the hammers of justice!

Next up, Bullseye comes to town with a two parter! He’s easily one of the bigger threats that Daredevil has to deal with. In a fair fight, I think it’s fair to say that Daredevil has the edge. That being said, it’s rarely a fair fight with this guy. Bullseye does like to show off his skill with weapons, so he gives Daredevil’s athletics a true test.

After dealing with the Chameleon, Daredevil finally gets to match wits with the Jester. The Jester actually lasted for a long time and his plot continued through the background during the previous arcs. His plan was very ambitious since he made fake TV reports that showed President Reagan was still alive and that the Vietnam War never happened! He made many shocking TV articles and the President gave an announcement that all of the police in Daredevil’s town had gone crazy. It was a very thorough plan, and while it may not have been realistic, it was fun to watch. He’s not a great villain himself and can be considered as a pushover for a man of Daredevil’s ability, but his plan was intriguing.

Daredevil’s next big threat was with Death’s Head, as the villain’s powers are incredible. One touch can mean instant death to whomever is his victim. Daredevil’s not very experienced with the supernatural, so it’s good that Ghost Rider is! With Ghost Rider by his side, things just got a lot better for Daredevil as they face this new threat!

There’s also a two parter in Iron Man’s series that is included in the collection. He must team up with Daredevil to face the Blood Brothers and defeat them before anyone is harmed. This may seem like a tall feat, but not to someone as powerful as Daredevil! The two of them are definitely up against some steep competition!

We also can’t forget the big annual comic where Daredevil, Black Panther, and Sub Mariner come to blows. A scientist wants to build something that will be very beneficial for the people above ground, but it has dire consequences for the water dwellers. Black Panther doesn’t know about this and he prepared to seal the deal while Namor decides to stop this..by force. Daredevil is caught in the middle and now he must make them both see the light. Namor doesn’t actually get to fight Black Panther, but he proceeds to effortlessly defeat Daredevil and I believe that he would have beaten the Panther as well. It was a pretty fun comic and while I usually don’t care for annuals, it was just fun. Since they had to share a comic, I’ll just quickly discuss Black Panther and Namor in this part of the section.

Namor looks pretty good once we find out the reason why he’s doing this. His actions may be drastic, but he’s always been that type of guy. He still ends up saving Daredevil and he continues to pull his punches as well. Black Panther is a good character as well and he realizes that he almost made a big mistake and cancels his deal. Everything turns out well for the heroes and it was fun to see them go at it. Daredevil vs Black Panther is a really good match up!

For the rest of the comics, Daredevil runs into some of the old villains like Bullseye and Man-Bull, while also fighting threats like the Beetle and the Owl. Fighting these guys may be tough for an ordinary superhero, but Daredevil’s been fighting for a long time…and he’s ready to show them just how tough he really is!

Daredevil is the main character of this collection and he’s a very good lead. He may be blind, but that doesn’t stop him from getting the job done. Sure, his radar sense plays a part in that, but one comic deals with him temporarily losing that ability…and he still pulls it off. I’m not sure if it’s completely believable that he could adapt so quickly, but it shows that he is determined. He doesn’t make almost any threats compared to other heroes like the Fantastic Four, but he does make sure to make a lot of puns.

He talks constantly, which was the norm for heroes back in the day. A really minor subplot is that Daredevil wants to have his own catchphrase, but he can’t think of any. In a fight, Daredevil is a very good fighter and he’s not someone that can be defeated easily. He’s a very likable character and basically does what needs to be done. His Matt Murdock plot is also enjoyable and deals with mystery and intrigue. I really wouldn’t mind a comic that just shows his Lawyer skills off. Daredevil has an ongoing subplot where he keeps wondering if he should stop being Daredevil, but there’s no need to go on about it that much. After all, can he really make that decision for long in a comic series called Daredevil?

Foggy Nelson is another one of the main characters and things don’t go so well for him. For one thing, his plot is one of the few that doesn’t finish in this collection. It goes on for quite a while and they’re no closer to finding the assailant than they were at the start. Well….I shouldn’t say that. Daredevil seems to have gotten a name in the final page of the final comic, so he should be ready to take this guy down in the next collection. Foggy is a decent character, but I didn’t like him all that much. He had a good run when he tried to become DA, but he resorts to drinking and gets sad because his friend was kidnapped. It’s definitely okay to feel sad, but he should do something about it! Still, he’s a loyal friend for Daredevil and he’s a good character overall. He’s not someone to be forgotten!

Heather is another one of the main characters and her first appearance is definitely not the typical first meeting that you would expect. She goes into Daredevil’s home because she used to have the keys since she knew the previous owner of that room. She gets along with Matt Murdock, but you can’t help but think that she’s an enemy agent for the first few comics. She hasn’t turned traitor yet, so I guess that my hunch was completely off base for once. She’s a decent character and she definitely has to put up with a lot since Matt is always having to abruptly leave for his heroic duties. She makes things a little difficult for Matt since her father is a suspect in one of the cases, but that’s life. She’s an all right heroine, so we’ll see where things go from here.

Bullseye is easily Daredevil’s most popular villain and it’s easy to see why. In these appearances, he’s definitely the most interesting villain for Daredevil. Death Stalker and Death’s Head are cool as well, but Bullseye is just a better match for Daredevil. They’re both good martial artists, but Daredevil is far superior in that regard while Bullseye is unrivaled with a gun. He appears quite a few times and even comes out on top when he shot Daredevil away. Daredevil had to deal with other opponents and they couldn’t have a rematch for a few comics. Bullseye was definitely written well and I gained some respect for him. I don’t really care for him in the newer comics, but he was pretty fun to see in action back in the day.

Peter Parker appears and it’s a pretty intense cameo. When Daredevil is arrested, Spidey asks if he wants to make a statement to the Bugle, but Daredevil declines to comment. That was likely something that he regretted as the day went by, but it was intense to see Parker there. I may have mentioned already that Peter Parker is one of the greatest Marvel Superheroes when written at his best, but it should be noted that he’s not just great at fights. He’s also a really good journalist and he could have helped DD over in court. Aw well, maybe next time!

Ghost Rider is a guest star for the team up against Death’s Head. In this era, Johnny Cage is in complete control so it’s still his personality when in human and demon forms. He tries to act mysterious while in Ghost Rider form, but nobody seems to believe him. He also seems to be significantly weaker and he just doesn’t know how to use this degree of power. Well, that may be a little disappointing, but he’s still fun to see in action and Daredevil would have been doomed without his help.

Iron Man is the other big guest star of the collection and the Blood Brothers are a pretty big threat. Iron Man barely survives their first encounter and it was good thinking to bring in DD. (Although, the risk was pretty great and Daredevil really could have died) Iron Man figures out the weakness of the Blood Brothers pretty quickly and exploits it. His plot seemed pretty interesting as well since Happy is currently injured and Pepper has decided to leave the company. The danger must have been immense and things weren’t looking good for him. Still, it was a good armor design and it was nice to see one of the Avengers around to help!

Lieutenant Rose is a police officer that is always after Daredevil. He’s against Vigilantes and Daredevil in particular. He’s less extreme than the usual stereotype for his character and he doesn’t try to arrest Daredevil for no reason. He doesn’t like Daredevil, but he doesn’t let it affect his professional assessment of the current situation. They reluctantly team up several times and he’s a pretty likable character. I wonder if he’s appeared in any of the newer comics!

The Torpedo is an intriguing villain and as I mentioned, two people used it in the collection. The first one didn’t have much character, but he was all right. The second one was pretty cool and he had a nice plot going. He used to be a Quarterback, but now he’s rich and wants to see some action again. He decides to don the costume to help innocents and also feel the rush that he wanted too. He and Daredevil are usually at odds in the beginning, but they eventually start to see eye to eye. I would like to see him again in the future as well.

Death’s Head is a really powerful villain who feels a little out of place in the Daredevil series. A single touch can terminate any living being as long as one is mortal. How Daredevil can fight him and hope to win is beyond me. It’s a good thing that Ghost Rider was around, but he won’t always be here to help. That being said, he would be a great character to see in another series like Thor or Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider mentioned that his physical abilities are very high, so he would possibly give those guys a run for their money. Once again, Daredevil has created a solid villain!

The Art for the comic is pretty a solid. A different artist takes over near the end, but he’s pretty good as well. They both do a good job of keeping the art clear and easy to decipher while in black and white. Nothing beats the classics right!? This essential has more romance than most and I think that they probably could have cut some of it out, but it’s all right I suppose. It’s handled better than it would be if this were a current comic. (Batman and Catwoman from New 52 is an example of how modern comics have died)

Overall, this is a pretty fun collection! It may not be quite as great as Fantastic Four, but it does give it a great shot. Daredevil can be a great character, but not all authors can really give him the appearance that he deserves. Daredevil may not be a science genius like Parker or Richards, but he is likely the most knowledgeable character on the law in Marvel and that definitely helps him a lot where villains are concerned. He has a pretty good supporting cast to back him up and I can safely say that Marvel has hit it out of the park with another solid comic. The villain cast is also pretty great for the most part and I like just about all of them. I hope to see Death’s Head appear in a comic again someday. I definitely miss these good ole days of comics and hope that I get to read another Daredevil essential at some point. I highly recommend this collection if you like action, comedy, suspense, good writing, or are a Marvel fan. There’s really no reason not to like this comic.

Overall 7/10

The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian Review

Posted on January 8, 2014 by dreager1

Narnia is immensely popular and I finally got around to reading the book series a while back. Prince Caspian was a decent book and the film adaption was intense since it had more action than the other titles. That being said, I doubt many people had high hopes for the game. It’s a movie tie in and the production values didn’t look very good. The Narnia game for Gamecube wasn’t that good and when a Gamecube game isn’t very good…you’re usually doomed. This game was about what I expected and maybe slightly better…maybe.

All right, the plot is pretty tricky through the game, but I’m sure that you’ll get it as you watch the cutscenes. Prince Caspian is told to flee his castle because the villains want to destroy him so that he won’t be the heir to the throne. Caspian escapes, but things aren’t looking good for Narnia. Before he is quickly knocked out, Caspian uses the legendary Horn to summon the 4 Kings of Old. Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund. They may just be 4 kids, but they are ready to defend the kingdom. The time to rise is now!

A solid plot on paper, but the video game doesn’t really do it justice. For one thing, let’s talk about the graphics. They’re laughably bad and possibly the worst that I’ve seen on the PS3. Some of the cutscenes are actually scenes taken from the movie…and the movie was live action. So, you’ll have a live action segment and then back to the animated features. The Narnia game for GC did this as well, so I was not greatly surprised. That being said, I don’t consider this to be a good method. It’s essentially the easy way out, since they don’t have to worry about the animation. The actual animation just doesn’t feel like a PS3 game and you’ll feel like it’s a really old Playstation 1 game.

The soundtrack is incredibly generic and it feels like they probably just ripped it from the film as well or just opted for public domain music. It just doesn’t seem like they put any effort into any part of the game. The camera can be difficult since you can’t really move it, which limits your field of vision. You can walk all the way around an object to fix the camera or just shoot blindly. The latter saves time and usually works, so I recommend that method.

Usually I would have started talking about the characters by now, but there’s really nothing to say. Their only character is from the live action segments or the few cutscenes where they actually talk. None of the characters are likable and it’s just hard to root for them. They really don’t seem to know what they’re doing and are way over their heads. 4 kids can’t take down an army and the villains are just too numerous. Caspian’s accent is a little thick and he seems to have a very weak will and nearly jeopardized everything because he forgot how to move! The kids don’t believe Lucy even though you would have thought that they’d have wised up by now. Lucy’s response is to ditch them and find Aslan on her own.

I should also mention that the game only contains 6 levels. Not quite as long as you might have expected eh? 10 levels is really the minimum amount of levels that you can really afford to have in a game. That is still short, but at least you’ve cracked double digits. Having just 6 levels can be a little insulting. If I had bought this game at its original price, I would have felt cheated. I got it for 10 dollars, but that’s still pretty short. There are bonus levels and things to unlock, but why bother? I like to complete things myself, but there’s just not much incentive to finish everything in this game. I would do it if there was nothing better to do, but there will always be something better.

The gameplay is just as underwhelming as the rest of the game. If the gameplay had been more fun, I can guarantee that the score would have been higher. How do you mess up a generic hack and slash gameplay? Well, this game pulls out all of the stops in that regard. We’ve got infinite lives to take away all of the danger. There are a lot of puzzles that are easy to solve, but very time consuming. Finally, we’ve got a decently large amount of glitches. There’s nothing worse than having to start a boss fight all over again because the enemies forgot to appear and start the cutscene. (Similar thing happened to me in Star Trek the other day)

For combat, you really only have two buttons with the sword. Just keep hitting the square button and you’ll beat everyone. Arrows are also good to use and you can beat just about everyone very easily. There aren’t any real bosses until the final pair of levels, but they’re easy enough. Slash and dodge, rinse and repeat. There are a lot of enemies, so it can feel like a beat em up at times. That would be fun if it weren’t so easy. Plus, the fight scenes are pretty scarce and we don’t have almost any for the first half of the game.

Not being in combat can get pretty dull at times. The characters don’t run very quickly and there are a lot of things to do. Usually you’ll be putting wheels together or turning spindles. You just operate the devices and move on. You keep on doing that dozens and dozens of times until you’re finally set. Sound tedious? Trust me, it gets very tedious. The loading times for the game can also be pretty long so don’t look for that to save you!

As mentioned earlier, there are only 6 levels. One thing that I should mention is that the levels are longer than the average one. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to masque that fact. Each level can take you around an hour or more, so this can still be considered as a 6+ hour game. That being said, I would rather 10 short levels than 6 extremely long ones. The game auto saves for you, but you’re never even sure when you’ve beaten a level unless you exit and check. The way that they made the game just wasn’t that good.

For “Replay Value” there are chests that are scattered through the levels. They aren’t really hidden and you may actually find them all as you are going to the end. You open them with keys that you find and they unlock things. That being said, I ended the game while holding 91 keys because I just didn’t care enough to go and open a lot of them. Going to open one would take precious seconds and those seconds add up. The game just feels long while you are playing it and perhaps I would go back and open the chests at a later time. If I ever replay the game, that it what I would do. If the chests part intrigues you, that can make the game more enjoyable.

Overall, what more can I say about the game? It’s not a bad game per say, but they did a bad job of handling it. Technically, it should have been a good game. The battle style has potential and the plot could be interesting. They just didn’t put any effort into making the characters likable and there’s really no excuse for such animation. The soundtrack isn’t exactly a good one and the game is far too short. I don’t really recommend this game since there are literally hundreds of games that are better, but get it if you are a big Narnia fan. You will need to be, if you want to enjoy the game. I think that the developers also stopped caring the ending is extremely abrupt. One second, the heroes are chasing after a villain. The next second, they’re being thanked and then the game ends. It just hits you in an instant and the game is over. Personally, I’m just going to go ahead and play a Terminator game and just forget this one for a while. It will go into the vault of many games…destined to be forgotten! For a true war game, I recommend checking out Dynasty Warriors Gundam!

Overall 5/10

Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction Review

Posted on January 8, 2014 by dreager1

After Size Matters, it was time to see Ratchet’s next big adventure. This is the start of the PS3 era for Ratchet and Clank, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. This is also the start of the future games for Ratchet. This means that we can have a continuing plot like the first few games for PS2. There are definitely fun times ahead of us!

Ratchet and Clank are having some good ole times in the extremely futuristic city when Captain Qwark is in danger. They head off to save him, but then a lot of things happen at once and now Ratchet and Clank are involved in a situation where the galaxy may be doomed. See, there is a plot twist about Ratchet’s father and Ratchet has a pretty dangerous destiny. The Lombax race created an object of immense power and if Ratchet doesn’t recover it before the villain…well, this adventure could be his last one! There is a fellow hero named Talwyn who is here to help and may give the heroes the edge that they need!

The plot isn’t really the important thing in this game since you’ll be focused on the gameplay. As far as Ratchet and Clank plots go, this was definitely one of the least engaging. That being said, it’s their first adventure on the PS3, so you should be too overwhelmed to worry about that. The graphics are definitely intense on the PS3. One thing that I’m not a big fan of is Ratchet’s new appearance. I’m sure that it’ll grow on me in time, but I miss his hardcore look from Size Matters and the older games. He’s more streamlined now, but less threatening. Aside from that, the graphics work quite well and everything is a lot brighter and more intense!

The gameplay is what you would expect from the series. Gathering bolts has never been easier as you can get 100000 in no time at all! I was able to buy all of the weapons by the end of the game. (Except for the RYNO) There actually aren’t too many weapons in this game, but that may be because of the new devices. For the most part, I don’t care for the devices, but they can be useful. You’ve got a helicopter that deals a lot of damage and mini robots who help you during fights. Beyond that, I recommend sticking to the classic weaponry.

The best weapon is the Alpha Cannon since one blast will take out just about any enemy and also take a large chunk out of a boss’ health. The good ole laser blaster is always fun to use, but it doesn’t possess a lot of power anymore, which makes it a little less ideal to use. The Rocket Launcher is an ideal weapon during the later stages of the game due to its high attack power and quick launch. The flame thrower has an impressive reach and you can hit an enemy while still being pretty far away. You have Metal Discs which are like a new version of the laser blaster and those are definitely spamable! You’ve got 260 shots of ammo and they fire even quicker than the laser blaster while also bouncing off of walls and other objects. I guess they nerfed the laser blaster so that they can go all out with this one. I love the weapon so I guess it’s acceptable.

There’s a laser whip that is incredibly good against any opponent that doesn’t have long range capabilities. It can break through shields and also deal a lot of damage. Two shots is usually enough to take the enemy down for the count and it has a long range. It’ll basically hit any enemy who is around you since it covers you like a circle while striking. The Shard Reaper is a good weapon to use since the damage is reasonable and it covers a nice area. Once you’ve upgraded it, it’ll also freeze the enemies temporarily. There’s also a lock on missile system that has the potential to be great, but the damage output is pretty low. It’s still fun to use.

Of course, there are some weapons that aren’t very good. You’ve got one that can launch Tornados, but the enemies will usually be okay and it tends to only KO one opponent at a time. You have a weapon that can fire goop and then creatures come out of it to attack, but there’s not much reason to use such an attack. We’ve got the classic grenades, but while they look impressive, their effects usually aren’t quite so good. The Mag-Net Launcher is also not that great since it traps enemies for a few seconds, but doesn’t finish the job against the tougher ones. The Razor Claws are cool though.

All right, I mentioned most of the gadgets, so that’s probably good enough in that area. This game has some Clank missions and while they are slightly better than his older ones, he’s still not very fun to play as. Slowing down time can be fun, but he’s just not as engaging. You can’t help, but miss Ratchet and his blasters when you’re in Clank mode. Still, Clank’s mode is an improvement over the older games so they are learning.

Ratchet is still a solid main character in this game. His new design may not be his best one and he may not be as intense as in Size Matters, but he’s still a good character. A good example of this is his attempt to save Clank at the end of the game. He can be a tough guy when he wants too and he put up a pretty good effort into accomplishing his mission. He’s pretty confident in his abilities and he knows when to throw in a solid line to ease the tension and make things dicey for Captain Qwark. In the end, he proves that he’s still a hero and goes to help the Captain despite all of the trouble that he puts them in.

Clank is Ratchet’s ever loyal sidekick and while he and Ratchet don’t get along for a while because of Clank’s talks with imaginary beings, they make up towards the end. The ending is pretty tragic for Clank and if not for the sequels, you would really feel bad for the guy. What a way to end the game series for him eh? As mentioned earlier, his levels aren’t the best, but he takes things in stride. It was a little disappointing that he was knocked out so easily by a computer virus, but you can’t win them all. He’s a decent character and better than Daxter, but I still prefer Bentley.

Talwyn ends up helping Ratchet and Clank throughout the game, which turns out to be pretty good for them. Her two sidekicks are pretty bad, but she’s tough enough as she manages to defeat several guards. She doesn’t really help against any of the big bosses, but she’s around. The only problem is that she didn’t really get much of a personality in this game. She was all right, but I look forward to seeing her get a bigger role in the future. She has potential to be a nice rival for Ratchet.

Captain Qwark is back and he’s as tough as ever! It’s intense how he’s always at the right place at the right time and how he always ignored Ratchet until things get too dangerous. He was pretty awesome in this game and a character to be feared. Nobody could stop him from taking the legendary device and he’s constantly mocking the heroes despite the fact that they are still winning. It takes guts to do what Captain Qwark does…and that’s why he’s so intense! He is a character that should get his own game someday. That would be pretty awesome!

Captain Slag is one of the big villains of this game, but he’s not very likable. The pirate levels were easily the worst part of the game and I don’t see the point of his character. We’ve already got enough villains as it is, and he just wasn’t entertaining. I’ll assume that he’s a one shot character who won’t be appearing again…or at least I can hope!

Tachyon is the main villain of this game and I can’t say that he was very good either. The game series seems to have a tough time cranking out cool villains to root for. This guy had a lot of plot twists and he talked a good game, but you can’t take him seriously. He just doesn’t look like the type of villain who can really fight and he has to rely on a robot. Ratchet would definitely defeat him mano a mano.

The Graphics are pretty good and the best in the series. We’re finally in the PS3 and the game makes the most of it. There aren’t any trophies, but since when has that affected graphics? I do miss them, but they’ll be ready for the next Ratchet game. The Soundtrack wasn’t quite as good as Size Matters since there weren’t any memorable tunes. That’s a little sad, but the gameplay is fun enough to negate that.

Overall, this was a pretty fun game. Ratchet and Clank took a pretty solid step into the next generation of games and it went smoothly. The game couldn’t match up to the older ones, but this is just the beginning of the Future saga. Things will likely heat up in the future games. After all, the ending was very intense and Ratchet’s going to be out for vengeance. I also hope that the plumber makes another appearance as well! It’ll be very fun to play the next game, although I hope that it’s a little longer than this one. I recommend checking the game out and you’re sure to find it fun and entertaining. The only negative that I would have is the Pirate Levels and that the story can maybe go a little slowly at times, but I wouldn’t take the latter complaint too seriously. It just dragged on for a small bit at times, but you’ll still breeze through it! It’s essentially the Sony version of Mario mixed with Star Fox.

Overall 7/10

Gurren Lagann Review

Posted on January 7, 2014 by dreager1

Gurren Lagann is a legendary anime that can even compete with DBZ with its reputation. It’s famous for many reasons and one of those is the fact that it’s known to have the strongest fighters in all of media. This is not counting abstract beings like the One Above All or the Presence because these guys are still physical (for the most part) beings who rely on good ole punching and shooting. It may or may not have the strongest fighters out there, but that’s the general conception that you’ll get as you prepare to watch this anime. After the abomination that was FLCL; I’ll admit that my hopes for Gurren Lagann had definitely sunk. Luckily, this was nothing like that show and once the action really got going, things started to click. Is it the greatest anime of all time? No, but it does have some of the greatest fight scenes of all time and you won’t be forgetting the show once you’ve seen it!

The show is basically divided into two arcs. The first arc is longer and that’s where we shall begin to discuss the plot. Simon is a part of an underground colony of humans and his digging skills have proven to be very useful. Humans were chased from the surface eons ago and now they live underground. The world above ground is ruled by a being known as the Spiral King. He is protected by legions of Beastmen as they incinerate any human that dares to go above ground. Beastmen pilot giant mecha robots named Gunmen that have pretty impressive abilities. One day, Simon finds a robot named Lagann and he uses it to fight off the Beastmen that infiltrated his village and makes his way for the surface.

I should mention that he was goaded on the whole time by his pal Kamina. Kamina is the rebel of the village and he’s always telling Simon about how they should get back onto the surface. He got his wish and the two of them make their way to the planet’s surface along with a girl from another village named Yoko. She works with a group of humans who have some mild experience fighting Beastmen and they actually know how to deal some damage. The heroes deal with small threats for a while, until Kamina takes over one of the Beastmen and uses it to fuse with Simon’s Lagann to form…Gurren Lagann!

This is essentially when the series really starts and they face many enemies. The Spiral King has several generals at his command and a big character from his side is a Beastman known as Viral. Viral is very impressive and he will be discussed more as the review goes on. Needless to say that he’s a very cool character! Can Simon and his friends take down the Spiral King, or have they been destined to fail all along?

The second arc has a pretty big timeskip and Simon is now a lot older and more experienced. The world is now at peace and humans have managed to advance a lot in such a short amount of time. They’ve created many cities and have a lot of futuristic equipment. Is this a little too fast to be realistic? Well, I wouldn’t expect much realism in a show where robots can crush Galaxies, but there actually was something off about it. It’s because the humans all have the ability of the Spiral within them.

The Anti Spirals decide that Earth has grown too powerful and now that the population has reached 1 million, they are to be eliminated. After incinerating the city before Simon can stop them, the war begins. Arc 2 can be annoying at times because a traitor by the name of Russio has usurped control of the government and he nearly jeopardizes everything. Eventually, Simon and his pals are forced to team up with Viral as they head off to face this new threat. The leader of the Anti Spirals is a being that is made from the consciousness of billions of people and his powers are absolute. The Spiral King pales in comparison to this threat, but they must fight on!

Simon is the main character and he definitely improves as the series goes on. He starts out as Simon The Digger and he’s not a confident person. He relies on Kamina to help him through whatever problem arises and his catchphrase is basically “Bro!” It’s a catchy phrase, but Simon would always lose his confidence when things got dangerous. Kamina would usually have to snap him out of it with a speech or a punch, but what about when Kamina would no longer be around to help him? Luckily, Simon met a girl by the name of Nia. (Whose cosmic abilities were not fully explored until the second arc)

It was already near the end of Arc 1, but Simon quickly did a 180 and his attitude became more like one that you would expect from a fighter like Ichigo or Naruto. Simon was now brimming with confidence and he never looked back. From then on, Simon quickly rose up the character ranks until he finally became my favorite hero in the series. In Arc 2, Simon stayed as a very cool character. He made some errors and I don’t agree with his very ending, (Hermit) but he continued to inspire those around him until the very end. Breaking Galaxies is no small feat and Simon went up against some pretty steep competition, but he never let it stop him! I dare say that Simon is the best main character that I’ve seen in quite a while!

Nia didn’t enter the series until the end of Arc 1, but she’s a decent character. Her personality isn’t one of my favorites for a character as she does not know much of human cultures and acts a lot like Starfire. It’s just not too amusing after a while, but Nia was the one who gave Simon the push that he needed. That is enough to make her a good character in the show, but she reached her height in Arc 2. She gained pretty impressive abilities in that part of the story and her personality did a 180. This was the true Nia, before she lost her memory…or even before that. It was her personality that was hidden inside of her until the time was right. The Perfect Double Agent technique! She gets one of the more tragic endings in the show, but she had a good run.

Viral is a character that was awesome right from the start. His theme music is easily the best theme in the show and you won’t be forgetting it. It’s only fitting that a character of his skill level should get such an incredible theme. He’s a solid hand to hand fighter and he also gave Gurren Lagann a pretty good fight back in the day. He was also around for the end arc fight in the first chapter and even had a hand to hand match against Simon in Arc 2. His abilities definitely outrank the average Beastman’s and he’s a great rival for Simon.

Yoko is the main heroine of the anime and she is one of the few main characters to not use a mecha. She does use them occasionally, but she prefers to just use her rifle. It’s not a bad gun, but I don’t see why she would use that against such powerful beings. She’s a decent character, but she associates with Kamina and he naturally drags her down with him. Once he’s gone, she manages to move past that and continue to help save the world. She’s a good character, but she would have been a lot better if she had decided to use her own mecha. Becoming a teacher was a solid idea and she can make a difference in the world!

Kamina is the worst character of the series and I can’t stand him. It’s unfortunate since Kamina is basically the fan favorite character of the series and he had the potential to be cool. Kamina never runs away and he’s always confident that they will succeed, no matter what the odds are. He defies authority and he might be the only human capable of fighting a Beastman on equal footing without the power of the Spiral. Those all sound like good qualities and he could have been the best character in the series.

What drops Kamina drastically down the ranks and into James Bond territory is the fact that he’s a very perverted character. He’s one of the main reasons why I can’t give this show a 9/10 like it would have gotten. Kamina falls for every trap in the book that involves Yoko and friends and he made for some pretty excruciating episodes. The Hot Springs episode is basically the only episode that you need to mention in order to know that Kamina is one of the worst characters out there. Kamina is pretty despicable and the show got so much better once he died.

The Spiral King is easily one of the cooler characters in this show as long as you remember that he is a villain. The thing is, The Spiral King is pretty awesome, but you have to ignore certain things to realize that. He does throw away his kids after he’s bored of them and he obtains many kids throughout the years. Automatically that means that he’s a really bad character and almost as bad as Kamina. It’s just easy to forget this because he is very cool when he fights Simon and he looks good throughout Arc 2. Still, we can’t just forgive and forget in this case, so I have to say that he’s not a good character overall. That being said, his sob story was very hard to sympathize with and I didn’t buy it at all. He basically just lost hope and fell for the old trap of believing in legends. His main fighting robot is Lazengann.

The Anti Spiral Leader is the final boss of the series and one of the best villains that you’ll come across. He is the will of his whole race as they went into eternal slumber. His goal is a little intense so try to keep focus as I explain. All creatures have the potential to develop the Spiral power and humanoids are able to use it best. The Anti Spirals believe that the Spiral Power will eventually destroy the universe because they can just tell. When you have the Spiral Power and are at a high enough level, you just know that the Universe will ultimately be destroyed. The power just becomes too great and the universe cannot contain it. After seeing the final battle of the series, you can also tell that the villain is right.

That being said, he is a villain. His race decided to go to sleep forever so that their spiral power would not destroy the universe and then they merged their souls into one being. The being was given infinite power and he can essentially wipe out reality with a thought. He erases any race that starts to grow too powerful with Spiral Power. When Earth cracked 1 million in their population, the Anti Spirals knew that it was time for them to die. The leader could have incinerated Simon and his pals instantly, but he wants them to know despair. So, he took a physical body and made his own mecha to fight the heroes. He reasons that humans will keep on trying to reach the stars unless they feel total and complete despair. Thus, it was time for the final battle to begin. I don’t agree with the Anti Spirals, but they are a really cool race of beings and the leader is pretty awesome!

Behind Kamina, Rossiu is the worst character of Gurren Lagann. He’s completely unlikable and also a total traitor to the cause. He was decent in Arc 1, but he quickly became one of the most despised characters that I’ve seen in quite a while. He ends up taking Kinon down with him and she becomes one of the worst characters in the series as well. He doesn’t learn from his mistakes and makes every possible mistake. He believes that it’s okay to sacrifice people for the “greater good” and he also starts to act exactly like the Spiral King.

He forces people to live above ground and chases them out of their safe homes. He also arrests Simon so that Earth can be defenseless and locks away Gurren Lagann. Making things even worse is the fact that he decides to destroy the mecha. He also steals Simon’s drill so that he can rub it in. He also kept the Spiral King’s head so that he can force him to do whatever he wants. Rossiu just keeps on sinking and sinking as the show keeps going further. Finally, he gives up on Earth and leaves everyone to die as he takes some people with him and they try to flee into space. Luckily the Anti Spirals were around to stop them, but it can be painful to watch him act as leader. Right up to the very end, Rossiu continues to show his true colors as he tries to leave Simon to die after Simon ends up saving him once again. He’s definitely not a true pal and I consider him to be a traitor. He gets a second sob story and a very happy ending, but I don’t think he really deserved one and Simon was way too nice to him. His second sob story was also one of the fakest things that I’ve seen in a while. It was added to make him sympathetic, but I didn’t buy that for a second.

Boota is around for a while, but he is just a supporting character that is around for a while. I never cared for him and his plot twist at the end came out of nowhere. He thought that he could fight the Anti Spiral Leader, but it was not to be. Boota is the animal mascot of the series, but I didn’t like when his tail was eaten and he wasn’t really needed in the show. Chalk up another negative hero for the series!

Kittan started out as a rival for Kamina and once Kamina died, he managed to become the field leader for the team. Simon is still the true leader, but Kittan leads the charges when he needs too. He wasn’t a bad character and I’m glad that he managed to make Russio look bad as always. He had his Hero moment at the end and he managed to do a lot of good. His robot may not have been my favorite, but it was still decently tough for a side character,

Leeron is the genius of the series, but he’s not likable either. He likes to mess around with the main characters. Simon typically ignores him, but he tended to get on Kamina and Viral’s nerves. I can see why and his character design can also be a little off putting. He is decently smart, but it’s not enough to save his character. So, in the end we had several “Heroes” that were not likable. Kamina, Boota, Leeron, and Russio were not good characters while Simon, Yoko, Nia, and Kittan were solid. That’s a little too close for comfort if you ask me! It can be a little tough to root for the heroes, but it’s easy to root for Simon.

Cytomander doesn’t appear for very long and I can barely remember him. He’s a decent villain, but you shouldn’t expect him to be a match for someone like Simon. Cytomander is tough in his own right, but by the time he is ready to fight…it’s too late! He is nice to the others and doesn’t fight unless he really needs too. Well, that didn’t really turn out so well for him.

Thymilph is another one of the generals and he is responsible for taking Kamina down for the count. He’s a decent villain and there’s nothing wrong with him. That being said, there isn’t much for him either and you’ll mostly just end up enjoying his mecha fights. This guy can definitely fight, but that’s all I can really say for him.

Adiane is the water general and she is able to create large amounts of water that help her mecha to have the advantage. She nearly defeated the heroes during their first encounter, but she had to leave because of the Spirit King. She beat up on Viral a lot and could only be considered as a decent villain. Again, there’s no real reason to root for her and her abilities are only a little impressive. She did manage to almost terminate the heroes, but Simon wasn’t quite himself at the moment.

Guame is the first of the four generals to be defeated (Or at least it felt that way!) and it’s easy to see why. He completely depends on his mecha because he cannot fight for beans. He is not a fighter and you can’t take him seriously. He’s just completely unlikable and you’ll be eagerly awaiting for the heroes to take him down so that the next villain can arise. His ship was also far too big to be a real fighting threat.

All right, characters aside…it’s time to talk about what kept this show from being a 9/10 and one of the greatest anime of all time. It all comes down to the Fanservice. There is just too much of it in the show to warrant such a high rating. This is at its worst during the first few episodes. The Hot Springs episode can be pretty traumatic in this area and Kamina doesn’t help matters. After Kamina’s death, the fanservice definitely dies down although there are still moments where it’s present. Unfortunately, like To Aru Majutsu No Index, it will always be present with the series. Still, if the first few episodes with Kamina had been completely erased; the series would have been that much better. I just can’t get past that Hot Springs episode because it was FLCL levels of awful. That’s definitely something that can pull a series down.

The fanservice is really the only big negative of the series. The fact that Simon and friends eat Boota’s tail can also be nauseating, but the scene is quick and you can try to forget it. I also place most of the blame of that scene on Kamina since he was the one who was complaining the whole time. Russio can also be considered a negative since his scenes were very cringe worthy and his ending is undeserved. He gives the viewer someone to dislike, but he got away with just about everything.

The series definitely started on an iffy note with the first few episodes. After seeing them, I also had to say that I thought their reputation was undeserved. After all, until the very final episode, you couldn’t really call them Star Busters, much less Galaxy Busters. The fial episode threw everything out of the window and that was epic. The series reached its high point during the climaxes of both arcs. Arc 2 was really epic since the scenario took place during a futuristic city and we got to have another hand to hand fight. If you can bear through the first part of the series (AKA, the part where Kamina is still alive) then you should enjoy the rest of the series. It only goes up from there after all! Arc 2 starts with a bang and part of the reason why it’s so cool is that it’s very different than Arc 1. It’s night time towards the beginning and we have to deal with an alien invasion. That is enough of a reason to love Arc 2 immediately, but the plot is also more engaging. Arc 1 had the best Simon, (Once he manned up) but Arc 2 definitely had the better plot. As far as final fights go, they were both really close so that’s harder to gauge. Still, how often does the main villain throw galaxies (Or was it universes?) at the main hero? It’s awesome to see how intense the power levels get in the final episode!

The Animation for this show is leagues ahead of FLCL and you won’t even know that it’s the same company. (Except for an extremely annoying character in the final seconds of the show who looks like Takun and I instantly didn’t like him) The animation really gets to shine during the fight scenes. Gurren Lagann’s fight against Lazangann is epic and one of the best anime fights out there. The same could be said for Simon’s fight against the Anti Spiral leader. Both of these fights can easily hold their own against any other anime fight and should not be missed. The anime may have come out years ago, but it holds up against any current anime and puts all of Marvel’s new animated adventures to shame. This is what I call true animation and it’s something that should be remembered.

The soundtrack is also pretty solid. The theme song is one of the best in the biz and it makes for a perfect insert song during the aftermath of the big battles. The lyrics also make sense and it’s very upbeat. Nikopol is another big song and it’s known as Viral’s theme. It’s definitely a solid battle theme and when it pops up in the show, you know that things are about to get real. The only part of the soundtrack that can be annoying is the “Fight the power” that they add into the mid episode bumpers towards the end of the show, but they wisely cut it out for the final. It can quickly get on your nerves and make you wince a little inside.

One of the reasons why the show is so fun is because it’s very upbeat. A lot of sad things happen like most of the cast being destroyed in one of the final episodes, but there’s always an underlying message about believing in one’s self and always trying. Failure is not an option and no obstacle is impossible to overcome. Those are the messages that the show continues to shoot out, but not in an obvious way as they’re just hidden in there. You’ll typically walk away from the show feeling good and ready for whatever comes next.

Overall, I can see why Gurren Lagann is known as a legendary anime. The fight scenes are definitely epic and will not be forgotten anytime soon. It may have started on an infamously low start, but once Kamina died, the series skyrocketed very quickly. (Ironic that the series got good once the fan favorite character was destroyed. He was my least favorite characters in the series though, so it makes sense) The very final timeskip may be a little sad to some and I definitely didn’t like how things ended up for Simon and Russio, but it could have been worse. The series definitely needs a sequel since Simon should be even stronger at this point. They’ll need to think up a really tough villain to fight him! The soundtrack is very good and the animation was definitely ahead of its time. The main cast may not have been too likable, but as long as we have great characters like Simon and Viral it’s okay. The series is fun enough to give it a 9/10, but I still have to deduct points for the fanservice and Kamina. That being said, I recommend it to mecha fans who can endure such negatives because the fights are really cool. I won’t say that they’re the strongest beings in media, but they are likely the strongest robots in media. (If you want to see the ultimate robot, you’ll need to watch the final movie, since that’s his only appearance) You can expect Simon to be fighting on the blog soon as well. When watching the series, make sure to be on the lookout for the alien invasion scene. (It was pretty awesome!)

Overall 7/10

Essential Fantastic Four Volume 9 Review

Posted on January 4, 2014 by dreager1

The Essentials are a way for Marvel to bundle together a lot of comics at once and get people to read the old classics. They are in black and white which is always a sad thing to be hold, but you have to admire the passion that went through these comics. They may be in black and white in this version, but you can still behold the impressive skills that were needed to draw these comics. The Fantastic Four have always been a fun bunch to read about, and this collection doesn’t change my mind!

The comic starts out with a bang since Franklin has been kidnapped by Agatha Harkness. The Fantastic Four go after them, but they have to get past the Eliminator. this guy is no weak potatos and he is ready to destroy the Fantastic Four once and for all. Perhaps they have finally met their match, but these heroes will not go down quietly and they will keep on fighting until Franklin is with them once more! They will have to deal with many threats and even Salem’s Seven are here to try and defeat the young heroes.

Reed Richards completely loses his powers during the arc and starts to have some doubts as to how useful he can be to the others. It doesn’t help that the Molecule Man decides to strike and ends up possessing the fearless leader. Can the other members of the FF save Reed and his pride without mortally injuring him? It will be tough, but nothing’s too tough to handle for the Fantastic Four!

Still, nothing can save Reed’s confidence and he disbands the Fantastic Four. We get to see solo comics for Human Torch, Invisible Woman, and the Thing as they get to have their own adventures. Disbanding was tough since the Plunderer was in town, but they managed to stay away from each other for a while. Unfortunately, The Invincible Man may prove to be the end of the heroes. They just don’t seem to stand a chance against this guy!

The next few comics are about the Fantastic Four’s greatest foe….Dr Doom! Dr Doom claims that he will step down from the throne and let his son take over, but the resistance decides that this should not happen. The Fantastic Four aid them and Reed Richards decides that this is the last time that they will face Dr Doom. He engages the dictator in a fight to the death. He declares that one of them will die in this fight and it almost makes you believe him! The fight is pretty epic and one that should not be missed!

Iron Man seemingly attacks the Fantastic Four after this event and they decide to go get their revenge. Unfortunately for them, it would appear that the real Iron Man had nothing to do with the attack. They decide to team up against the true threat and get ready for a solid fight!

Finally, the best group of comics was at the end with the Skrulls. A member of royalty arrives on Earth and is pursued by the Super Skrull. The Fantastic Four quickly try to help her, but they are effortlessly defeated. Reed manages to defeat the Skrull with a cool gun, but now they must face an entire army of them. Human Torch decides to stay on Earth because his social drama is more important than the fate of a planet. He goes to a college, but it’s evil and they quickly mind control him. Luckily Spiderman is here to save the day! Meanwhile, Nova and his pals are also closing in on the Skrulls!

There were two breaks from the ongoing issues as we got an Annual story where the Mole Men returned and this time he was not a complete villain. Will wonders never cease!? I didn’t really buy it since he still stole stuff and wasn’t very polite, but he tried. The comic was all right I suppose, but the Thing should have looked better, considering the circumstances. Another annual was about the Sphinx and he attacked the Inhumans and Fantastic Four. His abilities are considerable and none of the Fantastic Four were able to damage him in any way. The Inhumans looked equally helpless until Black Bolt arrived. Can he defeat the Sphinx once and for all!?

One thing that should be noted is that the Fantastic Four members are the quickest to enter “Rage Mode” than any other Marvel team. In almost every comic, they start unleashing their threats when their comrades are in danger. The only problem is that you cannot take them seriously after a while because of the fact that they keep losing. Sure, The Thing will threaten that he’ll destroy an opponent, but then he’s quickly defeated. Invisible Woman states that she will take down at least half of the opponents out of rage since the other members of the Fantastic Four were destroyed, but she is defeated without defeating any of them. Human Torch has a bundle of these moments as well, but someone always takes out a water hose or a bucket and just knocks him out. These guys need to play it cool or actually use their rage a little wiser. The threats are still fun to hear, but they cannot be taken seriously at all.

Mr Fantastic is still the courageous leader of the group and he’s not someone to be taken lightly and he proves this several times as he manages to go up against enemies without his powers. I think it’s fair to say that it takes guts and determination to do that. Invisible Woman gets upset at him several times because he’s constantly worrying about her, but he worries about all of the team members and can you blame him for being extra careful with her? He is still prone to losing his temper with the Thing and friends and the loss of his powers definitely not does not help with that. I’ll admit that he was a not a very great character to behold during that period, but he was still solid overall and he can talk a good game when he needs too. Also, Reed does knot how to fight with some decent hand to hand skills.

The Thing is still the power hitter of the group and he’s always ready for a solid fight. A lot of the enemies still end up being stronger than him, but he takes it pretty well. One could almost say that he talks more than Spiderman because he is constantly making quips or threats. Either way, The Thing is pretty enjoyable on screen and it reminds me why he was so much better back then. I dare say that he’s more fun to reed than the other members of the team because of all much he can talk. The whole issue of him reading from his diary may have been a little much, but it’s nice to see him take on so many people without breaking a sweat.

The Invisible Woman continues to show that her abilities can be very dangerous as she pulls off some pretty big feats in this comic. The Thing couldn’t make a dent in a forcefield that was standing up against the FF, but she was able to absorb it. It takes a lot of energy to stop The Thing, so you can imagine how tough it would be to absorb that. She still does make some rookie mistakes in the comics, such as underestimating her opponents which can lead to her defeat. Nonetheless, Invisible Woman does pretty well in this collection and she even got to make some threats of her own. It’ll be nice to see how her powers continue to improve as she has the potential to be the deadliest member of the Fantastic Four.

The Human Torch was my favorite Marvel character back in the day. He has dropped considerably through the years as I have uncovered many other Marvel characters over the years like Deadpool. The Human Torch is a solid character for the most part, but he does have his low moments. Getting brainwashed twice in a span of 24 hours was pretty bad, but not even that was as bad as his decision to stay on Earth and attend college instead of saving the universe from the Skrulls. Many innocents perished because of his actions, but The Human Torch does not even regret his actions. Aside from those unfortunate setbacks, The Human Torch is a pretty fun character to read about and he can be just as entertaining as the Thing.

The Sphinx is one of the more notable enemies in this collection. He’s a pretty great character and his power is definitely something that should be feared. Not even the Thing was able to deal any damage to the Sphinx, which is definitely a solid feat. The Sphinx was about to get some more action when the collection abruptly ends, so I’m definitely hyped for the next issue. The Super Skrull was another good villain, but he didn’t appear for very long. That being said, I eagerly await his next appearance.

Dr Doom is the main villain of one of the comic arcs and he’s as tough as you may have remembered. His plan may be a little risky, but he can fight his way out of almost any unforeseen event. He manages to make all of his opponents look pretty bad for a while. I wonder where he goes from here because Latveria is always his fortress, so it’s a little strange to see him have to leave. I have a feeling that things don’t end up going well for the Resistance! Dr Doom inadvertently saved the FF, so they owe him one!

Everyone’s favorite neighborhood friend Spidey also makes a guest star appearance in this collection. He goes undercover to find out what’s happening at the phony college that Human Torch went too and he quickly realizes that something is not right. Spiderman’s portrayal in this collection was spot on and his Spider Sense got the respect that it deserves. Spiderman really could not be touched in this issue and he defeated Human Torch effortlessly. Spiderman was also not mind controlled and he basically stopped the whole operation on his own. He may have only appeared for one issue, but it was definitely a great appearance!
The Art for the collection is very solid and this was before the digital age where everything got a lot easier. It took a lot of skill to get these comics out so regularly and without error. It’s definitely something to think about as you behold the comics. The size of this collection is considerable and you are getting a lot of funnies for your money. The collection brings over 20 comics and it’s a way to remember your favorite FF adventures forever!

There really aren’t any negatives with this comic, which is becoming the norm for Fantastic Four adventures. The only real negative that I would mention is the fact that the comics are in black and white. That’s a negative for the collection as a whole, but not really for the comics. That being said, I am used to black and white so it’s not a big negative for the comics and it certainly won’t impact the overall score. If Marvel wants to save some money on ink….it’s their choice. Also, we have the omnibus volumes now, which will eventually catch up to all of these and those are in color.

Overall, this is a very fun collection of Fantastic Four comics. They face many threats that range from local to cosmic in scale. The main reason why the comics are so great is that they are entertaining, no matter who the villain is. That’s because the main cast is likable and the dialogue is always strong. This is why I miss the classic days of comics right now. You just don’t see 5 Star dialogue like this nowadays. I highly recommend checking this comic out whether you are a Marvel fan or not. Don’t think that this means you should ditch DC for Marvel, but it’s a great comic. All comic fans should check out the happy adventures of the Fantastic Four, and I’m sure that you will enjoy it. The collection does end with an extremely epic cliffhanger that will make you want to keep reading. I don’t believe that they made a volume 10 for this series, so you may need to visit your local comic store for the single issues!

Overall 7/10

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith Review

Posted on January 3, 2014 by dreager1

The final Star Wars film to date that the proper numbering is now here! It was always a bold move to name the films with roman numerals instead of numbers and it turned out pretty well. It makes the films even more memorable. There’s a lot of pressure on Star Wars Episode III because Episode II wasn’t very good and episode I was still not quite up to par with episodes IV, V, and VI. The films had been going downhill (Except for the fun Clone Wars film) so we needed something to change. This film is a lot more serious and we get to see how evil Anakin is. Let’s launch into this!

The film starts off with a lot of action as Anakin and Obi Wan have their rematch with Emperor Dooku. It has been several years since the last film, but he can still hold up against the Jedi warriors. One thing leads to another and Anakin ruthlessly destroys Dooku. At that time, Dooku was already unarmed and completely helpless against Anakin so we can already confirm that Anakin is pure evil. Palpatine was goading Anakin on, but it’s not much of an excuse.

From there, the plots start to diverge. Obi Wan is in charge of defeating General Grievous and bringing him back to the base so that they can end the war once and for all. Unfortunately for Obi Wan, he is outnumbered dozens to 1 and he’s no Starkiller. Eventually, it comes down to a 1 on 1 fight with Obi Wan and General Grievous. It’s a pretty intense fight and this plot was much better than the main one.

The main plot deals with Anakin Skywalker…the main villain of the film. There are other big villains in the film, but Anakin must be considered as the main villain. Basically, Palpatine continues to gain his trust while also alienating Anakin from the Jedi Council. Anakin is pretty mad that the Jedi don’t seem to like him and this doesn’t get any better when he forces his way into the council. Anakin finds out that Palpatine is a Sith and warns the Jedi. Can 4-5 of the strongest Jedi in the world take on Palpatine while teaming up? Well, you may have to wonder about the answer, since ~~Darth Vader~~ Anakin joins in on the brawl. Next, Anakin decides to destroy all Jedi and Jedi apprentices while also destroying any life form that goes near him and becoming Palpatine’s pawn…or should I say, Darth Sidious’ pawn!?

All right, let’s talk about Anakin’s descent into madness. (It’s too bad since he was so cool in Soul Calibur IV) Anakin has always showed that he would turn evil ever since Episode II. He was completely unlikable in that film and he stays that way in this film. He’s cool for the first few minutes as he fights Dooku, but then he goes and destroys the villain for no good reason. He instantly faded into oblivion at that moment and I definitely did not buy his redemption act a few minutes later as he tried to carry Obi Wan to safety. Way too soon and it doesn’t stop the fact that Anakin is with the dark side.

Things only get worse as Anakin makes all of the wrong decisions and makes things hard on everyone. The Jedi would trust him more if he didn’t always hang out with Palpatine and he should respect the Jedi’s judgment since The Force rarely steers them wrong. He gets on the council, but then he’s still makes a racket because he did not become a Jedi Master. Did he really think that he would ascend to that rank without taking the Jedi Trials?

Things get to their low point for Anakin when he gets a vision of Padme dying during child birth. He decides that he needs to have enough power to prevent her from dying and this blinds him to the fact that Palpatine is a Sith for a while. Palpatine makes it perfectly obvious from the very beginning of the film, but Anakin isn’t exactly The Hulk, so he doesn’t piece it all together. Anakin decides that he will do whatever Palpatine wants so that Palpatine can grant him the power to defy death. Palpatine continues to make mistakes and heavily implies that he’s basically making it up or he doesn’t have the level of power necessary, but it is too late. Anakin is ready for complete servitude and he will do whatever Palpatine says without question. Most heroes who turn to the dark manage to question some things, like attacking their friends. (Sasuke didn’t murder Naruto even though Itachi wanted him too and Vegeta didn’t cross the line and hurt his friends either when Babidi “controlled” him.)

Anakin lacks the strength of heart that the other characters possessed and that’s basically the bottom line. I never liked him from the start of the trilogy and it ended with me disliking him as well. I have to say that I wouldn’t like the character at all if it was just the films that we were talking about, but I like Darth Vader in the comics and video games which helps to tip the balance in his favor. He’s definitely a good example of how to make the wrong choices and basically be the opposite of someone like Goku. Some characters like Medaka Kurokami are far too noble to commit such vicious acts as Anakin, and even mind controlled, she had enough inner strength to prevent herself from causing any permanent harm to her friends.

Obi Wan gets a pretty big role in this film and while he has a tendency to get knocked out at the wrong times, he does manage to keep it together when it counts. He’s a pretty skilled warrior and he looks good during the final battle. He also puts up a solid fight against General Grievous and he was one of the better characters in this film. He tried for everyone to have a happy ending, but Anakin made that impossible, so they were forced to have a climatic fight!

Padme doesn’t get as big of a role in this film since some of her scenes were cut out, but she still tries to convince Anakin to turn to the light. Anakin’s too far gone and even though his objective was to save her, he barely comprehends this anymore and nearly takes her down for the count. Obi Wan convinces him to stop, but it makes you face palm whenever you think of Anakin.

Yoda is definitely at his best in this movie and he finally shows off his abilities. Don’t get me wrong, we all knew that Yoda could fight. He proved it in the last film, but they’ve been hyping up his abilities as possibly being the strongest Jedi, so it was about time that he got to truly fight. The outcome of the fight may have been disappointing, but it was good to see him fight again after so long. I still can’t say that I’m a big fan of the character, but I can safely say that he was much better in this film than in the previous ones.

General Grievous is a pretty big villain in this film and he’s definitely fun. His Lightsaber skills may not be on par with Obi Wan or Starkiller, but he makes up for this by using 4 Lightsabers. He was beating Obi Wan in the Lightsaber battle, but eventually Obi Wan gave up and just used The Force to win. This shows that Grievous is a very powerful combatant and he is one of the stronger Star Wars characters. He was likable, so it’ll be fun to see him in the video games. He came in very suddenly and didn’t last very long, but his appearance was very impactful like Jango/Boba Fett.

Count Dooku gets a pretty small role, but his abilities are definitely impressive. The fact that he can take on two powerful Jedi at once is something that can be bragged about. He may not be as powerful as Darth Vader or the all powerful Starkiller, but he may be in the top 5 Strongest Star Wars characters. If so, that’s definitely a feat. Chewie also gets a role and it’s a pretty good one. Apparently, Chewie was an extremely hardcore/powerful fighter whose ear piercing roar was not his only weapon. It’s too bad that he could not appear any longer. R2D2 and C-3PO are still around, but what could I say about them? They’re essentially the same and if you (did not) like them, then you still will (not).

Mace Windu finally gets to fight in this film and it’s a pretty solid scene. He is the only Jedi capable of standing against Palpatine and he manages to get the upper hand. He’s easily one of the strongest Jedi out there and it’s a shame that he did not get any other fight scenes before this one. I have to say that I gained a lot of respect for him, since he is not all talk as the other films have made him out to be. Granted, Mace Windu did fight a little in film II, but even C-3PO could defeat some droids.

Palpatine gets a big role in this film and it’s still hard to take him serious. You can’t help, but grin when he pulls off a fancy spin tackle and destroys three Jedi in a matter of seconds. I know that he’s tough, but that’s a little insane. What about The Force!? Well, either way it was definitely interesting. I’m glad that Mace put up a better fight. It’s a little scary to remember that Palpatine will get away with everything for years and years until Episode VI. I definitely don’t care for him, but you have to admit that he did the one thing that many villains want to do..he conquered the Galaxy!

If I had to name a negative in this film, (Aside from any talking scene that involved Anakin) it would be the unnecessary kids scene. We know that the kids don’t make it since the Jedi go (seemingly) extinct, so do we really need to see Anakin destroy them? We already knew that he was pure evil and a despicable person, but seeing the kids die was definitely a little much. I could also due without the Padme giving birth scene, since those always make me shudder. The process looks overly painful considering the technology at their disposal.

So, this film was definitely the darkest in the series. Was that wise? Well, the fight scenes were awesome in this film and it got to go back to its roots. The film starts out with battles in space, which is all kinds of awesome. As mentioned earlier, the Lightsaber duels are also great and easily the best ones in the series. We got at least 3-4 of those, which is more than usual. I definitely don’t mind having a somber end when the action is this good, as long as “dark” doesn’t mean unnecessarily violent. Without the kids scene, I thought that the film handled it pretty well. All of the Jedi dying so easily was pure plot hax, but you had to expect that at some point. There wasn’t a logical way to have so many powerful fighters be defeated.

The franchise will continue with the next film in a few years. That will definitely be fun and there are a lot of ways that they can play it. I’m expecting Luke Skywalker to appear and maybe be the main character, although it’s not very likely. All I know is that there better be space battles and the new main character should definitely be an improvement over Luke and Anakin. I hope that Starkiller also gets a movie because that would be awesome.

Overall, this was a solid Star Wars film. It is definitely darker than the others so you probably wouldn’t watch this one quite as often, but it did end the saga. Anakin wasn’t likable, but he makes for a villain that you really want to defeat. I recommend this film if you are a Star Wars film, but if not, it makes for a good film to watch before Episode VI. This way you can see what the fate of these fighters is. This film still couldn’t beat Film IV, but it definitely beat I and II. It dragged on less than films V and VI, so I dare say that it may have beaten those. You’ll like this film if you enjoyed The Dark Knight, but if you want something that’s a little happier, check out the new Star Trek film.

Overall 6/10

The Day After Tomorrow Review

Posted on January 2, 2014 by dreager1

The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster movie that shows us the perils of Global Warming. Instead of melting and all of us dying from the water, we are faced with a different threat that may be just as grave. The World is freezing over and there doesn’t seem to be anything that humanity can do. Will we survive or will we perish?

There are several “main” characters in this film, but the true main character would be either Jack or Sam. My money’s on Jack, but they both get a pretty big role. Jack tries to warn everyone about the grave threat that they now face, but they don’t believe him until it’s too late. Jack must now venture through the frozen cities to find his son before it is too late. Will he arrive in time? His son is also keeping busy as he tries to stay alive while at the library with his friends, a librarian, a guy who likes books, and a guy who’s with his pet dog as they try to survive in this world. They decide to wait out the storm, but can they resist the frozen embrace of nature? There are other plots including Jack’s wife as she tries to save the life of a kid in a pretty serious condition and a group of researchers who are gathering a lot of information, but have no way of getting outside their residence.

The film does have some pretty nice fake out moments. There is one scene where this guy is eating at a shop and looks pretty nervous as the cops come around. He gets a few lines and we quickly figure that he’ll be one of the main characters. As he makes his get away; the character gets destroyed by an ice ball. Most of the other citizens in the area are quickly defeated as well, which is bad news for the area. Until the figure dies, you figure that he would be a main character so that was nicely played.

The special effects are pretty fun to watch and we get to see New York City destroyed for the first time in days! I’ve always found it amusing to see the city decimated in so many films because we get to see which threat can defeat it first. Will it be Chitauri, Cloverfield Monster, Apes, Kaiju, Thunder, or Giant Marshmallows? Either way, New York always puts up a pretty good fight! The “science” of it all may not be very realistic, but you can ignore that since this is a film and just watch the action!

The film was moving along at a solid pace until a very unnecessary scene that involved some Wolves. It was nice to see that they escaped their confines, but it quickly got worse as they fought the main characters. Animal violence shouldn’t have been included in this film and it definitely hurt the film. Why did they have to add this!? The other main animal looks pretty good as he survives throughout the whole film with a grin. He shows the world that he’s a true dog and gets to take a nice bite out of a hot dog and essentially has more to eat than the other characters. He also knows when its time to bark and he keeps everyone nice and alert. No cruel fate befell him and that was a good move.

The film did a good job of portraying the United States and I’ve always been a fan of the Government scenes. Right when they called in The President; I knew that things were about to get real. He makes the tough calls and his final scene is pretty intense. He acts pretty confident the whole time and he was a solid character. The Vice President is intriguing since he took The News surprisingly (heh) well. He gives Jack a pretty hard time throughout the film, but I suppose that anyone would have done so, considering his lack of data. The Vice President also did want to save the people in the North so he’s not all bad. He didn’t see eye to eye with the main character, but he did want to save as many people as he could.

Jack is a pretty solid main character and he’s a determined person. He goes a long way to try and save his son while also trying to convince the Government of how grave the threat is. He may have been a little snippy while briefing The President and pals, but he was in a rush and needed to hurry to his son, so it was understandable. He just gave them the quick plan and he headed out. He’s definitely one of the better main characters that we’ve seen in a while and he does a good job of taking charge and thinking ahead.

His two partners are not so lucky and it’s hard to like any of them. The older one is around, but he’s not very useful and he just doesn’t get much screen time. The younger one isn’t likable from the start and he doesn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation that has befallen the Earth. Janet is not usually one of Jack’s partners, but she comes to help out in this time of desperation and she provides them with a lot of data via satellite. She’s a pretty high ranking person so she definitely helps a great deal, although her role is not very large in the film. She’s definitely better than Jack’s two ~~flunkies~~ partners.

I have to say that the kids subplot was not nearly as interesting. Sam and his two friends are a part of a big school competition when the disaster strikes. I just didn’t enjoy the three of them so much. Sam is always making a grimace when he’s on screen and his emotional moments are not that great. His phone call with Jack also didn’t go so well since he could have made sure to say that he was okay at the end. Instead he paused as the water flooded in. I didn’t like his “Rival” either and the best part of that subplot were the supporting characters.

The guy and his dog were interesting figures from the start. The guy is pretty quick and he knows how to survive in this cruel world. He’s the main source of humor in the film and he does a good job of making everyone look bad while he continues to survive. His dog is very sensitive to disturbances in ~~The Force~~ nature and he always gives the characters a form of early warning. The Librarian was helpful and essentially saved the kids’ lives as she let them into a nice room where they were able to keep warm. The guy who liked books was also solid since he made sure that the great authors could stay safe. This guy plans ahead and was ready to save Western Civilization at any cost! There was another person in there and she put up a pretty good argument as to why one of the authors wasn’t that good, but that was basically her only role.

One other flaw that I would have for the film (Aside from an extremely unnecessary and pointless scene involving a guy who almost ignored a phone call and jeopardized more lives by not issuing a Tornado watch and the Animal Violence) is the ending. It’s tough to have a real ending in any disaster film because we can’t exactly “fix” the Earth. Whatever effects have happened will not be corrected in a short time and they will be felt more many years. That being said, the ending was very abrupt and basically if you lived in America…you’re doomed. America’s been evacuated and now we have to live in Mexico. For the people who are not rich….they’re doomed. Also, there just isn’t going to be enough room for all of the Americans so it’s essentially the beginning of the end. When you really think about it, Humanity is down for the count.

In Disaster films, my favorite parts are always the set up (Meeting each of the characters and getting ready for them to join up to survive the upcoming threat) and the beginning of the onslaught. When the disaster first strikes, it’s cool to see everyone’s reactions and what they plan to do about it. Things usually get more slow paced from there and this film is no exception, but it’s not incredibly dragged out. The film is still enjoyable in the later stages, but as per usual, I enjoyed the first half of the film a lot more. The best destruction scene would definitely be the Wave of Water that attacked NYC. It was a pretty good batch of special effects and it reminded me of a recent Avengers episode. (A villain flooded NYC, but surprisingly there wasn’t any property damage and they dried off the buildings while not letting anyone die before dinner. Pretty impressive and Completely believable)

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. It’s probably not meant to be “fun”, but that’s what happened in the long run. There are a lot less fatalities than you would expect and nearly all of the big characters survive. (You do feel bad for the dozens of people who ran out into the freezing snow without a set destination in mind and not bringing along any food or utilities, but they must’ve had a great plan if they left the comfort of the Library for that. The cop did do a good job of taking charge and completely blowing Sam away in the verbal debate. At least 90% of the people went with him, which shows who has the better debating skills) It may not have a great amount of replay value, but it still has a decent amount, considering the (disaster) genre. I recommend watching the film if you like to see Apocalypse/End of The Earth scenarios and also view how the Government acts upon the knowledge. The character roster is decently good and Jack is a solid protagonist. The film is solid on just about all accounts so you can still watch it just to see the dialogue and the special effects. This is also a good film to prepare you for the upcoming Godzilla film, which will feature a Lot of devastation!

Overall 6/10

Rocky Balboa Review

Posted on January 1, 2014 by dreager1

Rocky has returned and he may be facing his toughest challenge yet. This guy may not be quite as powerful as Apollo, but he’s the current Heavy Weight Champ and he wants to take Rocky down for the count. Rocky didn’t get to fight that much in Rocky V, so it was good to see him get some more action in this film. It’s definitely a step up from the last film, but has the film series started to go downhill? Well, time to find out!

I mildly addressed the plot in the intro, but it’s time to talk about it for real. Rocky doesn’t fight anymore and he even owns a pretty good restaurant. Life is pretty good for him and it’s been a peaceful life. Unfortunately, things start to turn sour as Rocky is put up against Dixon in a virtual battle that starts to rile people up. Rocky feels like he’s still got it so he decides to accept Mason’s challenge. He’s pretty old and Dixon is currently undefeated. Can Rocky really defeat such a powerful opponent?

The plot is something that you’d like to see in an anime or a comic, but could it translate into a movie? Rocky has been getting steadily older as the films have went on and he may not have what it takes to win anymore. It wouldn’t be very entertaining to see him get crushed by Dixon, but at the same time…is it believable if Rocky can give him a good fight in his present state? It’s something that you definitely will need to think about and it should affect how you view the big fights in the film.

Rocky is still a decently good protagonist. It is a little hard to sympathize with his will to keep on fighting since he has a very good life at the moment. Just about everyone in the city likes/respects him and he owns his own restaurant. He chats with the guests and he does his best to make things work out for everyone. The virtual fight may have stirred up the old fighting flair within him, but why take the risk of getting permanently injured just to feel that rush? His wife died prior to the film so Rocky is by himself now, but he still stays upbeat or tries too at the very least. He helps out Marie and her son by getting them jobs and essentially improving their quality of life.

Marie is not a new character to the franchise, but this is her first big role. She works at a bar, but Rocky convinces her to work at his restaurant and he tries to make sure that things turn out well for her and her son. She gives him a motivational speech about entering the fight, but I can’t say that I cared for the character. Her son was all right, but I still have to question why they were in the film in the first place. I’m glad that Rocky was nice to them, but it was a subplot that was really there to add some extra time to the film I suppose.

Paulie is still around and he’s here to make things a little tough for Rocky. He’s on Rocky’s side for the most part, but he cracks during one of their opening scenes and he doesn’t take his job loss that well. He goes to Rocky’s restaurant and he’s pretty hysterical while also alienating the people at the restaurant. Rocky takes it well, but Paulie didn’t seem to care that it could have hurt the store and crushed Rocky’s business. Paulie also insulted a dog which instantly made him irredeemable and one of the worst characters in the film.

Mason Dixon is the big opponent of the film and it’s hard to like him as well. You do got to sympathize with the fact that everyone keeps on saying that he’s not actually that tough even though he’s undefeated, but that shouldn’t bother him too much. He’s still undefeated and making big bucks, so that’s all that should matter to him. He just needs to take these things in stride and not worry about it so much. He talks a good game, but Rocky would have definitely crushed him if this had taken place at an earlier time. He’s supposed to be more of a likable character by the end, but we’ll see. I’m not sure if I buy it!

Rocky’s son is another big player in the film, but he wasn’t very likable. He sees the error of his ways and becomes a good guy by the very end of the series, but it’s a little late for that. He wasn’t likable in the previous film and he just served as a distraction for Rocky in this film. (Prior to his enlightenment) He had a pretty good situation and the job seemed solid. He was very sensitive about being in Rocky’s shadow, but it’s not really a bad thing and he should be proud of Rocky’s success. He doesn’t even go to Rocky’s restaurant and he makes it tough on him. He also admits that he didn’t want Rocky to fight because it will be tougher on him, which shows how selfish he is. It’s a little hard to bear at times and you just have to glare at him. He should be a better character in the next film at least.

The film isn’t very long and I’d say that it’s around 80-90 minutes. It goes by pretty quickly and doesn’t drag on, which is always a good thing. The soundtrack is not quite up to par with the classic Rocky scenes and the montage is a lot shorter, but it was still a nice throwback. The only real negatives to the film are the annoying characters (Rocky’s son and Paulie) and the fact that I can’t really sympathize with Rocky’s decision to head back in the ring. Beyond that, the film was pretty solid through and through.

Overall, this was a good film and I dare say that it was better than the last one. It still can’t beat the classic films, but it was a little better than I may have expected. The overall atmosphere is definitely not as cheery as the average film, but it’s all right for the film. It may not have a lot of replay value to it because while it’s a good film, it’s not necessarily a fun film. I do recommend checking it out at least once and it doesn’t tarnish the Rocky name. This is an example of a modern installment that was actually pretty good. The final fight may be a little brutal so you’ll want to prepare yourself before heading in.

Overall 5/10

Trigun Badlands Rumble Review

Posted on January 1, 2014 by dreager1

I watched the Trigun series not too long ago and it was pretty fun. It was probably the first anime that I’ve seen in a while that could make an old wild west fight actually be fun. (Granted that this isn’t the same “Wild West” that you see in the films. The film came out pretty recently so it would be interesting to see how the animation has changed over the years. It wouldn’t be as nostalgic for me as it would be for the original fans since the gap between the show and movie was relatively short in my case. That being said, I was ready for anything!

The plot involved Vash The Stampede…also known as the Humanoid Typhoon as he saves the life of a notorious villain called Gasback. Since Vash opposes death in all cases, he lets all of the villains get away. 20 years later, Gasback is back and he wants revenge on the three underlings who betrayed him. He enlists the help of Wormwood, who cannot refuse because he owes his life to Gasback. Vash happens to be in town and he must protect everyone while also making sure that nobody dies in this big adventure. Meryl and Milly are also around because they can’t afford to let Gasback win and break the statue in town. If he does, then the insurance company may be out of business for good! A bounty hunter by the name of Amelia is also in town and she has a personal vandetta against Gasback. Everyone heads to the same town with their own reasons and the fight starts!

Well, this film was a nice throwback to the old days of Trigun. Vash’s character is definitely like his older days, but I’m afraid that it’s not a really good thing. He can be a solid character in some scenes, but he’s very over the top when it comes to Amelia so it’s really hard/impossible to root for him. He’s just not the noble main character that you would expect to see in this film. He’s really powerful and he doesn’t have a challenge in the whole film since the villains are mere mortals, but he likes to give them a shot to fight back. He pretends to be weak while he beats the opponent “by accident”. At one point, he steals everyone’s bullets in the blink of an eye which is an impressive speed feat and shows just how much of his abilities he is holding back.

Gasback is the main villain of the film and he’s all right. He’s not very impressive as far as villains go, but he’s good with a gun. He just doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of the heroes because he isn’t a threat. He gets some character development and he’s one of the nicer villains since he doesn’t always destroy people for no reason. He just wants to commit the perfect crime.

Meryl and Milly are still around as per usual, but they don’t look incredibly good. Milly still has her gun at the ready and likes to insult people to their face, but she doesn’t get much of a role. She still looked a lot better than Meryl. Meryl ends up getting drunk and she tends to panic a lot more when it comes to Vash The Stampede. I definitely prefer Milly as a character and she tends to take things in stride while Meryl panics.

Amelia is the main heroine in this film and she has the tragic backstory that comes with most characters who are introduced in an anime film. She’s a decent shot and she has some decent combat skills, but I wouldn’t say that she was necessary to the story. She’s a decent bounty hunter and she has a grudge with Gasback, but she is usually just attacked by other bounty hunters or harassed by Vash The Stampede. At least she manages to keep him away for the most part, but getting drunk at the bar didn’t help her case either. She’s a decent character in the end, she certainly could have been worse. (Naruto movie 5 heroine)

Wolfwood was one of the cooler characters in the TV show, but he doesn’t look that good in this film. The main villain saves his life so he decides to work for him for a while, but this job involves dangerous operations which will prove deadly for a lot of people. Wolfwood doesn’t seem to mind since his “honor” is on the line. I didn’t find anything honorable in his actions and it made him seem like a pretty bad character. His portrayal was definitely bad in this film, but it happens to everyone at some point. (Vegeta in the Broly film)

The animation in this film was decent, but not really that great. It definitely didn’t help me gain any respect for Mad House. (Studio Pierrot is where it’s at) They may have been trying to give it a bit of a dated feel since it takes place in an “old” setting, but it just could have looked so much better. I would actually say that the TV show can hold its own to the movie in animation and that shouldn’t be possible. The film came out in 2010 so I was expecting something a little more polished. That being said, there wasn’t anything wrong with the animation. It was solid, but it looked more like an average episode than a big movie.

I still have to wonder why everyone fears Vash The Stampede! He got a huge rep, but I don’t really see why. The whole moon incident was intense, but nobody should believe that and everyone who does see Vash either thinks that he is faking or quickly becomes scared of him. Vash walks around in public all of the time and he’s always a nice fellow. I don’t really see why the reputation still persists, but I do like his “Humanoid Typhoon” nickname. It’s also cool to see everyone yell Vash The Stampede whenever he appears.

I do have to say that Gasback’s big invasion towards the end is very hard to believe. There are dozens and dozens of bounty hunters and Gasback just runs right up the middle. He was not in a tank and he had no real protection as he just blasted away at them all. There’s no way that all of the bullets and rockets would miss the guy and he should have been down for the count instantly. There is nothing superhuman about this guy and he’s just an average joe. He’s actually pretty old because he was already old before the 20 year timeskip. The plot hax was strong in those scenes, but most films have a few of those scenes I suppose.

Overall, this was a fun movie. It was nice to see Vash and the gang fight a new opponent. That being said, it was more like a homage to the old series than a full movie. It was movie length and technically, it was a big adventure. The thing is, since there was no threat and we didn’t really get any fight scenes until the end, it just felt more like a side story or a filler episode. This film just didn’t have a cinematic feeling to it and in that regard it’s like the OVA that DBZ came up with where they just had fun and had a brief fight at the end. It’s fun in its own right and you’ll likely still enjoy the film if you haven’t seen the show. That being said, I’d recommend the show a little more highly than the movie.

Overall 6/10

	thezofinfinity on Alien vs One Above All
	thezofinfinity on Why Mario Odyssey is better th…
	thezofinfinity on Why Mario Odyssey is better th…
	thezofinfinity on Sonic vs One Above All
	thezofinfinity on Sonic vs One Above All
	Anonymous on Invisible Woman vs Molecule…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Category Archives: Reviews

Digimon Frontier Review

Essential Daredevil Volume 6 Review

The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian Review

Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction Review

Gurren Lagann Review

Essential Fantastic Four Volume 9 Review

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith Review

The Day After Tomorrow Review

Rocky Balboa Review

Trigun Badlands Rumble Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: