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Soul Review

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It’s time to look at a Pixar film that came out a while back. It’s a fun title about body swapping while also just being a bit emptier than some of the previous films. You will have a good time here but it feels like they left a whole lot of meat on the bone with what you can do in this kind of plot. I suppose it’s going for a very different feel compared to something like Freaky Friday or Your Name so I couldn’t expect to see all of the usual shenanigans and yet I do think it would have been nice to have seen those.

The movie starts with Joe being stuck in a rather boring teaching position. It’s just not his passion, the guy wants to get out there and play some jazz music. He’s super interested in music but he doesn’t seem to have the talent. Joe’s just never been able to make it in the profession and he had started to lose hope when he gets one last shot. He does really well in the audition this time and is prepared for success when unfortunately he falls down a manhole and is brought to the brink of death. He’s so close to death that his soul heads to the waiting area for death. His only chance to avoid oblivion is to get back to Earth immediately but along the way he meets a spirit named 22. This is his loophole.

Joe needs to convince 22 that she does have a passion, something worth living for. She doesn’t actually want to go to the real world but agrees to get the badge so she can give it to him to have a second shot at life and then she can have fun in the waiting area for the rest of her life. Thing is, there is a bit of a time constraint here in case something happens to Joe’s body and additionally what if he succeeds and 22 decides to keep the body? It’s going to be tricky for him.

It’s always a bit hard to tell where the plot summary really stops in a case like this because the plot just keeps on rolling. I feel like this is a safe place to stop without getting you too many spoilers there but I’m not sure how much the trailers cover and I think some would say to take it a step further is valid. This feels about right to me though even if I will be getting more into the film below. This isn’t exactly a film with any big twists in it or anything like that anyway.

Interestingly there isn’t even a main villain here. At no point are the characters in any real danger or anything like that. The main dilemma is really in Joe trying to get back to Earth but it’s technically very low stakes for the guy. If he fails then he gets to move on into the next realm. There’s no life or death stuff going on here or even a mean landlord trying to steal money or something like that.

In this film it seems like reincarnation is the way the spirits work. Instead of natural biology occurring and kids growing up naturally, spirits are sent from another world to jump into the body of the baby once it is born. Basically souls don’t just appear naturally and so there is a whole order of people raising the spirits and getting them ready to succeed. Natural talent? No such thing, every spirit already has skills that are predetermined from when they were created.

It’s a bit of a wonky system and also one that doesn’t really change much about the film. It’s an interesting take on things but you could also cut it out and nothing would really change so deep down it’s not actually all that important. The spirit world is just a bit boring though so you are always waiting for Joe to get back to Earth. The world wasn’t built for humans so I suppose that makes sense but it means this film doesn’t have as strong a supporting cast as the average titlle.

The only character in spirit world that I liked was Terry and I felt bad for him the whole time. He’s just doing his job and literally helping out by reporting anomalies and everyone treats him like a pest. All the other cosmic beings here are super annoying and Terry really needs to take over at some point. He’s the only one with the skills to actually make that happen after all. The others would crumble immediately.

As a lead Joe is decent but there’s not a whole lot to him. He’s got a tough time actually talking about how he feels and so without 22 here to help him out, the guy hasn’t build himself the best social life. If not for nearly dying he actually would have been in a decent spot though so he was about to turn things around. His character arc feels like it’s still incomplete by the end which does hurt him a bit.

As for 22, she’s more on the annoying side. She may have apparently existed for many years but she still feels like a kid, and a rather selfish one at that. You can’t trust her to keep her word and she guilt trips Joe as needed. I wouldn’t say she had much time to improve either which is unfortunate. 22 ends up helping out a whole lot but this usually occurs through luck and coincidence. By all accounts she shouldn’t have done very well here otherwise.

Now this may sound like a lot of negatives all at once but the film is still good. The animation is solid enough. The graphics are good and you can tell that this is a newer film even if the style isn’t exciting. Pixar really needs to branch out and start to work on better character designs and streamlined colors but at this point you’re used to the style so you either like it or you don’t. It’s still good even if I don’t think it’s elite or anything like that.

Also the movie does move very quickly. The pacing is good and it never drags on. I wouldn’t say it ever makes any big mistakes either. Soul keeps me entertained well enough as well. So I’d say the best way to think of this film is as one that will keep you interested all the way through but doesn’t have a lot of replay value. It’s great background noise in a way that fills in the time but there’s just never a whole lot happening. I think it bit off a plot that was bigger than it could handle and so in the end it just doesn’t make great use of it. You either need the whole film about body swapping or you need the whole film about showing 22 why life is fun but splitting them apart doesn’t leave room for much.

Overall, Soul is a fun film. I think it would have succeeded more if it was funnier as most of the jokes don’t land but at the same time I would consider it to be a very safe film. It’s not particularly ambitious and it has a very small cast but it’s interesting and looks decent. It probably could have stood to have a little less world building so it could focus more on the situation at hand but if we ever get Soul 2 then we could jump right into the story which should end up helping it out. I’d recommend this one if you like Jazz music or are just interested in the story.

Overall 6/10

Woman in Hiding Review

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It’s time for an old noir thriller. I felt like this one was a bit weaker than the average Noir title thanks to the main character in a lot of ways although it’s not like the main villain was all that great either. So it’s a team effort there but at the same time it is still a good movie which is the important part. There’s enough to enjoy here without issues and it will keep your attention.

The film starts off with Deborah deciding that she is through with Selden. The guy basically never comes by to see her. It’s apparently been over 6 months since he effectively ghosted her so she’s going to move to New York. Selden makes some weak excuses but she won’t have any of them. She knows deep in her heart that she has made the right move and settling for this guy would be doing herself a disservice. Her father has everything set up and so she goes home to get ready to pack. Unfortunately Selden runs in later on and explains that her father tripped and died in a crazy accident. He’s also back in love with her so she quickly marries him. Unfortunately this was part of his plan and now he owns the mill.

He threatens her to not leave him or try anything or he will take her down for good. So Deborah waits until night fall to make a break for it but gets into a sabotaged car and crashes. This does allow her to fake her own death but Selden is too prepared and stays on her tail. Surely switching states and names would be enough right? Well she meets another guy that she falls for and what she doesn’t know is that there’s a reward out for her. Uh oh……

So as you can probably guess I have quite a few issues with Deborah in particular here. She just seems way too easy which how she falls for these men. In fact the entire plan only works because she’s always falling in love so easily. (Which as we know when you fall in love too easily then the feelings aren’t all that deep) I don’t get how she let herself marry Selden after it was clear that he didn’t care about her the first time. I won’t fault her for not realizing that he murdered her father since that’s a lot more obvious for the viewer than the character but what she should have definitely realizes was that he just wanted to run the company and she was a means to an end. The fact that she never even suspected that makes her look absolutely terrible.

It took actual proof in front of her face that he was cheating on her for her to finally see the light. Then, in the days before internet you’d think it would be easy to stay out of hi gaze once you’re out of town right? Well it could have been easy if she had kept to herself and not taken chances but starting to like another guy? Cmonnnnnnnn, it just shouldn’t work that fast. She falls into every trap and just makes this adventure a whole lot harder than it needs to be.

I didn’t even like the second guy either. So Keith is someone who just wants to have a good time and he likes her but the guy isn’t the best at listening. Deborah basically spells out the situation to him but he chooses to sell her out anyway. I have to imagine that deep down part of it was for the money but either way it’s a bad look because she had warned him several times that she was being pursued and was obviously terrified. Somehow he took that in the other way to mean that she actually was crazy and the guy over the phone was the one who could be trusted.

He put her in so much danger that I don’t care how sorry he was about it afterwards, there’s no way I can picture her staying with him after that. You’d think that she would be completely traumatized at that point and would prefer sticking it out on her own. Meanwhile the main villain wasn’t the smartest either. He could have handled the situation with Patricia so much better if he wanted to keep the company. Additionally if he wanted to stop Deborah in the opening scene there were much better ways to do it than sabotaging a car and hoping that she didn’t survive. There are so many ways that the plan could have backfired even outside of the way that it backfired in this plan. The guy just wasn’t smart.

Speaking of characters making mistakes, we’ve also got Patricia who makes a lot of mistakes. So Selden nearly murders her in the opening scene and ditched her for money immediately yet she continues to like him for no real reason. It’s clear that he is just using her and that he’s insane but later she tries to act shocked about it. There’s no way you can believe her and I don’t see how she can even believe herself. It just makes her look even worse. If you’re going to be a backstabbing villain then you have to own that but trying to play it both ways and gain some sympathy will never work.

So in the end, what keeps this from being a stronger Noir title is that I didn’t really like any of the characters. They were all really annoying the whole time and kept on holding each other back. Deborah should have escaped easily once she made it out of the car, Selden never should have let it get to that point, Keith never should have sold her out, and Patricia should have never thought that she could trust Selden. They all kept on making mistake after mistake which was annoying but at least the core story was still engaging. This is a thriller that keeps you wondering what will happen next especially sine it’s hard to guess what the characters will mess up next.

Overall, If this sounds like your cup of tea then you should check it out. There’s always room for more thrillers out there right? If this sounds like it might be a bit of a slog, then it’s time to shift gears back onto a more iconic one. At the very least this film will remind you that if you intent to hide or fake your death then you need to really stay out of the limelight entirely. That absolutely means no falling in love for a while I’m afraid.

Overall 6/10

An Eye for an Eye Review

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

It’s time for a revenge story. Sort of like John Wick but this film does balance in some humor the whole time as well and it can be difficult to balance out those two tones. I will say to the film’s credit, it did a pretty good job with the two of them. I was pretty satisfied the whole time at least on a tonal level although the film as a whole I wouldn’t say was all that great.

The movie starts with Sean and his partner getting ready to finally complete this big undercover drug case that they have been on for a very long time. It’s been a really grueling mission the whole time but things are looking up. Unfortunately it turns out to be a set up and Sean’s partner is murdered while he barely manages to stay alive. So what’s going on here, who set them up? It’s hard to find out because Captain Stevens on the police force is blaming Sean for everything so Sean quits. He isn’t able to stay out of the situation for long though as his partner’s girlfriend is murdered after calling Sean about a lead she had. Now Sean will have to team up with her father James who happens to have been his old coach. Can they uncover the truth behind all of this?

If it was just a matter of beating everyone up then that would certainly be easier but the main problem here is actually figuring out who the big villain is first. There are a lot of players involved so you can bet that there are a ton of coverups and misdirects as well. Sean gets lucky more times than not. He’s a great fighter but I wouldn’t call him a detective so it’s fortunate that Linda and her colleague Heather managed to pick up most of the pieces. Linda even came close to escaping but unfortunately let her guard down at the end.

As the main hero I would say Sean is a solid main character. It can be annoying how he gets knocked out at times but since most of the movie is about him absolutely dominating whole squads of villains I can let it slide. The one point in particular that made me shake my head though was when he was face to face with the guy who murdered Linda and then allowed himself to be downed in a single blow. You just can’t let that kind of thing happen to you. Otherwise I did enjoy all of the fight scenes. The movie did a good job with the choreography and showing how Sean was just on a completely different level.

At the same time he loses some points for not treating the situation with the level of urgency that you would expect here. There are murders going on and everything is real shady right now yet he has time for a romance? The romance here feels really rushed, forced, and unnecessary as you’d expect. There’s just no room for that right now and it would have been better if that was something that could have been a plot to be started as the credits roll. “The danger is over and the world is saved, now we can discuss the future.” Something like that would be completely reasonable.

So the same is true for Heather and even more so in a way because she’s currently being targeted by the villains and unlike Sean, it’s not like she can fight. They already broke into her house once early on so she needs to keep her priorities straight. One guy who is not good about priorities has to be Captain Stevens. I did think he handled the whole situation poorly at the beginning with being so hard on Sean when the operation fumbled. I don’t know how he actually figured he could blame it on the lead. His reasoning was shaky at best.

To an extent I think it’s because the film was trying to convince us that maybe he was the murderer. A nice attempt I suppose but you have to handle that with a little more subtlety otherwise he’s just unreasonable. James was a unique character because at first you figure he’s going to be the tough mentor type character who is always ready for action but instead he spends every scene getting absolutely humiliated. The guy loses almost all of his fights but still talks tough afterwards. After a point it’s clear that he is a comedic character so that helps but at first I was definitely astonished.

In a way it’s realistic though as you probably can’t fight so well when you’re really old despite what most films would have you believe. So I was not expecting the character’s story to play out the way that it did but it worked out well enough. Again, maybe he should be taking things a little more seriously considering what happened to his daughter but after a point you have to just decide if you can roll with the fact that the movie is going for a light comedic tone to offset the dark moments or not. I think some of the scenes could have been timed better but ultimately I was mainly okay with it.

Ultimately the actual main villain here is okay but more on the forgettable side. He can’t fight or anything and has to rely on the hired help to save the day. That doesn’t go so well for him once Sean enters the building and it’s why you always want to be able to fight. He does have the classic hostage trip at the ready which is a decent equalizer but in the end that will usually just stall for time. His right hand man is fun enough as well. The guy is fairly unassuming but can fire a gun as well.

The movie’s twists work well enough. There’s enough to keep you guessing the whole time. The story itself was okay but I couldn’t really get into it a ton. You have drugs being moved and conspiracies and all but it felt more like the basic outline of a plot to start up the fights rather than it being fully developed. Like if the villains didn’t make so many large moves then they may not have been in so much trouble. Kidnapping Linda would have bought them way more time than murdering her. Since they had a mole within the police they could have made so many more moves over time rather than waiting until the end. There were limitless opportunities to bump off Sean quietly as well.

Ultimately it feels like one of those movies that isn’t as clever as it thinks that it is the more you actually think about it. I imagine you’re mainly here for the fights anyway though which are fun but I would have liked something more to support it. The film also didn’t sell me on the various flashbacks we would get every now and again to show Sean’s rage at losing his partner. It felt a bit overplayed by the end and just wasn’t as effective as it could have been. Throw in the fanservice romance scenes and this film doesn’t stand the test of time.

Overall, It’s not a bad movie but I wouldn’t say it’s very good either. It’s a forgettable thriller amidst a genre that is filled with many better ones. The revenge genre can be hit or miss depending on how edgy the writers want to approach it. This time they decided to take a more upbeat approach which is interesting but it does make Sean look a bit like a jerk at times. There are some liens that I found to be pretty funny during the movie though. It had a good sense of humor and the fights did live up to the hype. So in the end I would say to check it out if you really like a good battle but the story leaves much to be desired.

Overall 5/10

Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 6: The Last Minute Review

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It’s time for the next installment in the Sonic series. The arc is still going strong here with more and more characters being turned into robotic monsters. Shadow was taken off of the board last time and Sonic is already infected so the heroes are really on their last legs. There is a good amount of tension here and a whole lot to enjoy overall so this was definitely a win/win all around.

This volume spends the first 3 issues showing us events from a few different POVs. You have Tails, then Amy, and then Sonic. Each of them were embarking on different missions to try and stop the virus. Tails was working on a vaccine that could reverse the effects of the bug and in theory bring everything back to the way that it was. Amy was doing her best to keep the townsfolk safe until Tails could get back and then Sonic was trying to capture his speed data to see if that could be a lead on getting other people immune. Unfortunately all 3 of them suffer some setbacks here.

By this volume Sonic has started to lose a lot of his stamina as well which makes a lot of sense since he has been running for so long now. He may be used to running a lot, but not for nearly this long without a single break. I still like the idea of how running is able to regress the virus’ effects at least for a while since his speed is the real deal. Even that has a timer though so if Sonic stops running then it’s all over. he still does a good job of trying to keep morale up though and taking care of business. At the end of the day, virus or not Sonic definitely has the edge here compared to the rest of the characters and can lead the way to victory.

Even though it didn’t work for Shadow, I still like to think Sonic could go in there and take all of the robots and Eggman out. The main problem is of course he can’t destroy the robots since they are all innocent so at most he would just be buying time. Then since we find out that even Eggman doesn’t have a cure in this volume, that doesn’t leave the heroes with a lot of options. It’s fair to say that Tails is really the last chance here. Either he makes a cure himself or the heroes are basically doomed.

Tails takes the situation pretty hard in this volume but overall I’d say he’s still looking good. Cream is definitely more on the weaker side here though as the whole situation really did break her. She stayed strong in front of Amy but not in front of Sonic. Whisper also had it rough as she finally broke down too. She’s usually the tough member of the group so I was a little surprised to see her lose her cool like that. Now’s the time to buckle down and get read because the situation will only get tougher from here.

I would say one of the highlights here would be Tangle. Now here’s a character who really put everything on the line and she never gave up. Her abilities may not be the strongest but she used them in a creative way to hold everyone back. I’d also say even Vector looked pretty good here. Yeah he ended up contributing to the situation but I’d argue that wasn’t entirely his fault. That’s more on the stowaway and otherwise his bubble may have lasted. When it didn’t work, Vector was ready with the sacrifice play.

Eggman fans should be a little nervous right now. He hasn’t been looking great so far and while he could still make a full comeback depending how his next scenes go, it’s also possible that this will be played straight in which case he would look really awful. With Eggman you just never really know and in that way the writer has done a good job of keeping things interesting. There are really 3 enemy factions at play here with Eggman, the Deadly Six, and Dr. Starline. Right now it’s hard to say who will have the last laugh. The story is framing it as Starline being the smartest and most prepared but in a way that might be too obvious. For now I’m counting on Eggman to stay on top but we’ll see if he can pull it off.

As always the art is really good here. All of the characters look like they were taken straight out of the games. The designs are all on point and the backgrounds are all very dynamic. The comic is a real page turner and it’s definitely easy to binge the whole time. The writing is also good. This would make for a great TV show someday and the series has always done a good job of really incorporating a ton of the Sonic mythos. The universe is really big so it makes sense to bring a lot of elements in right? The comics have not let me down yet.

As always I do have to throw a little show at Silver here though. The guy was crushing Sonic back when they first met and it seems like he is a true B leaguer at this point. The guy is never given a ton of respect. Yes he holds back a few of the mindless drones but that’s it. That’s not actually all that impressive as a feat and that’s the role he is stuck with here. I just miss his days of being really serious and powerful but so far that’s just not happening. Maybe at some point the tides will turn.

Overall, Sonic continues to product solid comics in each batch. This one’s a bit less action packed as it’s more of a zombie survival right now. The heroes just have to keep on moving and try to stay one step ahead which is no easy feat. It works well and I’m ready to see how the arc ends. I am hoping that we get a true final battle though. In a way you could end the arc without one but it’s always fun to have a big ending. Maybe have the transformed version of Shadow show up to fight Sonic. Now that would definitely be hype.

Overall 7/10

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review

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All right it’s time to talk about the legendary Shibuya arc! Well this season covers more than just that but it is the big deal that people had been hyping up for years. You’ll have seen people throwing around the case that it is the best are in Shonen Jump history. That’s pretty bold words and Hueco Mundo would have a word with that but the arc was absolutely epic and the anime does it full justice. This is a season 2 that does end up defeating the first and I dare say that it is the absolute peak of Kaisen. Unless a certain fight ends up being a movie, I don’t see any single product beating season 2. This had too many highlights.

The show is really split up into two arcs. You have the Hidden Inventory saga which deals with Gojo’s past and then the Shibuya saga. I’ll talk about each one. The first arc is fairly short. Gojo and Geto are tasked with protecting a young girl because she is destined to be the vessel for Tengen. This does mean that she will ultimately lose her sense of self and so the heroes are reluctant about this mission. Additionally, assassins from various groups around the world are intent on taking her life. Usually there would be nothing to worry about with Gojo on the case, but the world’s most dangerous man, Toji is also around.

This was a pretty fun way to start the show. Fun may be an interesting term because the arc has quite the dark end but before that you could say that in a lot of ways it’s the most cheerful that the show will ever get. You actually see the characters having fun at the beach, playing basketball and just having a good time. It can’t last of course but it was a fun change of pace. Right away the show is able to show off the animation although I’ll get into that more later on. It’s just a really fun arc with some good fights in it. It’s got a good amount of replay value as well.

Then we jump into Shibuya and in a lot of ways you could say that the arc is just a bunch of nonstop fights. Right away you have Yuji thrown into multiple encounters and of course Gojo is dealing out some damage. Basically every relevant character in the series up until this point gets some kind of fight and it’s the big culmination of everything the show was setting up. In some ways it feels like a final arc and we just got it early. Due to how Jujutsu Kaisen is, you also don’t necessarily know which characters are safe and which aren’t which definitely amps up the danger. I’d argue that there are a number of fights here where you really don’t know who will win.

The anime also extends some fights like Mahoraga vs Sukuna which was an excellent move. I’ll always approve of making a fight longer, particularly when it’s two strong fighters going at it. It makes absolute sense that this would be a really long fight. Now’s a good time to talk about the animation in general, it is absolutely top tier. Some of Mappa’s finest work and it will hang in there with any other top tier anime title. Yuji vs Choso and Sukuna vs Mahoraga are my two personal favorite fights in terms of animation but Gojo vs Toji and Yuji vs Mahito are right under those.

Few anime can boast of having 1 fight of this caliber, let alone 4. I still enjoy season 1’s animation a whole lot and haven’t turned on it like many, but I will acknowledge that season 2 definitely wins. 1 I would say had the better artstyle but in pure animation this just can’t be stopped. When it clicks, it really ends up clicking. Gojo’s abilities really shine here and a fancy fight like Jogo vs Sukuna couldn’t stand out in quite the same way without all of the bright animations. It just wouldn’t be as hype and this arc deserved all of the hype that it could get.

The soundtrack is also top tier and in this area it does obliterate season 1. Again the first season had a great ost but this one is top 10 of all time good. It’s up there with Digimon Data Squad and Yugioh GX. There are so many different battle themes, remixes, epic themes, etc. The ost is so large and there are so many different battle themes within it. That’s the most impressive part for me because plenty of shows have a big ost but many fill it with slice of life themes and such while this one is mainly all action.

The show keeps up the nonstop action at all times and the plot is super engaging. Kaisen has really earned its reputation of being around the top. I’d also like to note that it is still really good about avoiding fanservice as well. I won’t say that it’s nonexistent, but it’s borderline nonexistent. It doesn’t fall into that trap and the writing is all on point. So this is solid on all areas. Now with this much intensity you can probably imagine that there are some slight issues.

We get a metaphor type scene where we see Wolves chasing a rabbit and it ends up breaking its foot while the others are about to get eaten. It’s 100% unnecessary and while it is fairly tame animal violence next to other titles, it’s a tad bit annoying. The show doesn’t hold back with the violence either. Most of it is in a full combat context so it doesn’t really matter much. In the fights I’d say it doesn’t go too far but when the civilians get roped in it can be a bit much. Get ready for tons and tons and tons of civilian deaths which all tend to be rather brutal. They seriously could not catch a break here. It’s part of the villains’ plan to be sure but you should expect a lot of violence here. Not enough where we enter Attack on Titan level or anything but enough for it to be fairly noticeable.

I had a slight power levels issue on the occasional fight that wasn’t given a big budget. Most noticeably in Nobara’s fight against one of the weakest villains in the series. The anime didn’t do a good job of making me believe that she would have any trouble here. She was just moving so slow that it didn’t make sense and came across like a rookie. I would blame this more on the animation than the writing because if you just had her move quicker or the villain attack faster then it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s a rare instance though.

Okay now let talk about the characters. First off is Yuji who is certainly put through the wringer here. He isn’t always able to stay strong among the events going on here but I give him credit for fighting through as much of it as possible. Things really don’t go his way and he is always put in impossible situation. The guy’s toughness keeps him going in fights but he is often outmatched. He has to go up against guys like Choso and Geto here who are considerably out of his league. Even Mahito would have been way too much for him one on one. Yuji is painfully aware of the fact that he’s not the strongest but he still goes out there and fights.

He may not stand out as much as some other leads but overall I do think he is a very good character. The final scene of the show implies that he’s got a new power depending how you interpret it but either way he’s going to need a whole lot for the next arc. His rival Megumi’s role may be a bit smaller but he still gets his share of fights. I really liked his team up with Yuji against the old man. It’s an underrated fight and it’s always great to see the duo team up. In most Shonens you have to savor the moment because the lead and rival won’t team up often. It’s also a fun fight because you don’t necessarily know who will win. The villain could claim victory since it’s not the most important fight after all.

Megumi does look good the whole time though and is willing to sacrifice himself to win. That always takes a lot of guts. Nobara absolutely gets the short end of the stick here though. She talks a whole lot of smack and does her best to contribute but the show presents her as being massively weaker than the main two to the point where she is an active hinderance at times. She lets her guard down and can’t react to the situation very quickly. I give her points for effort and I always like her personality but this was really not a great season for her.

Nanami meanwhile has a small role but really makes the most of it. He really is portrayed as a really mature fighter the whole time. He knows his limits and makes the most of his abilities to deal damage. It’s like someone with a skill level of 70 but using it to the max vs someone with 100 who keeps fluctuating. The fact that he was able to tank some attacks from Dagon was impressive and he did beat his share of monsters. I’ll always enjoy Nanami as a character, he’s a fun mentor.

Mei Mei and Ui Ui are more on the annoying side. The less said about them the better. They make for a good duo and can fight but never seem to contribute all that much. The last scene absolutely kills them as characters though. There’s an obvious angle that makes them look bad but also just running off is the worst. It means they have no internal fortitude and I wouldn’t trust them at all to have my back. The series has always been presented as a hyper realistic one and yeah you can picture that some people would do this. Doesn’t make them any more sympathetic or likable though.

Maki’s role isn’t particularly big here and like Nobara she doesn’t look great. She basically spends the season being outshadowed by everyone and not really being able to do much of anything. She desperately needs a power up. Outside of Todo, this was basically the fate of every sorcerer from the rival school as well. When Mechamaru was saying how they had almost no shot of surviving, you absolutely believe him because they’re so weak. Mechamaru at least looks powerful. Does he look good? No, because I lost a ton of respect for him based on something he does near the beginning of the season. Way I see it you can’t really come back from that. So I appreciate his power but I don’t like the guy. I’d also argue that he didn’t play the situation very smart at all. He put himself in a position where there was no way he could ever come out on top.

Then we have Riko from the early arc and she’s a good character. She risks a lot in the adventure and ultimately steals herself for what is to come. She should value her life more if you ask me but I understand that she wants to do what she feels is right. So I disagree with her choices but I wouldn’t lose respect for that. Would be nice if she could fight though.

Finally we have Gojo. The strongest sorcerer in history and he lives up to the title here. Every scene with him is the guy either unlocking a new power, or applying a new use to an existing one. It takes everything the villains have to try and create an opening even for a fraction of a second. I would argue that Gojo’s only mistake here is playing with his food. He tends to take too long to take decisive action even though narratively he does move right away. To an extent when you deal with a character this powerful, there will never be a way to resolve things in a way that doesn’t have some power level issues.

So I can see why you would want to get him out of the way because every second he is on screen is another second where the heroes have such a massive edge over the villains that you wonder how they could ever hope to make a comeback. He’s just way too powerful in every sense of the word. He is an awesome character even minus that though. Easily the best in the series and nobody’s ever passing him. He has a lot of style and is also a very practical character. If he needs to destroy his opponent to win then he will do just that. He mainly avoids it but when the stakes are high enough what can you do right?

All right, time for the villains. First just a quick shoutout to the Grasshopper. I really liked him as a villain, he may not be the most powerful villain but he has personality. He’s an example of a throwaway villain done right because he is immediately memorable and I really enjoyed the fight. That guy could actually fight. Compare him to someone like Haruta who has more screen time but is just really annoying. His whole gimmick is that he only goes after fighters who can’t fight back. That’s pretty lame even for a villain. Maybe if he was funny or something but nah you’re just waiting for him to get taken out the whole time.

Hanami is an interesting fighter because you remember her being so OP in season 1 and here she can’t do anything. It effectively shows the gap in power between fighting someone like Gojo or Yuji. In general I like how vast the power level fluctuations are here because it does show how without Gojo around, Jujutsu Society would have fallen immediately back in the day. So no shade to Hanami, but she literally wasn’t built for this kind of fight.

Then we have Dagon who has always been in the background but never got to fight before. After all of the hype, he does look good but isn’t as impressive as some of the others. He gains confidence in his true form which is good because in his intro form he’s nervous all of the time which loses some points. As a villain you always want to be as confident as possible.

The rest of the villains are all pretty high tier. First up is Choso. The guy hits way above his weight class and has a tremendous fight with Yuji. He’s fighting for his dead brothers from season 1 which is a powerful motivation. He may be evil but it gives him some sympathy points and you can get why he is fighting so hard. In that fight he had more to fight for than Yuji in terms of drive which really helped him out. Then he also gets an extended fight near the end of the season. His powers are very versatile and he’s just a lot of fun. I gained quite a bit of respect for him here and he ends up stealing the show.

Then of course there is Mahito who in a lot of ways feels like the main villain. He has the most to do with Yuji at the very least as the two absolutely hate each other’s guts. They have a lot of the best parallels here as they are each other’s complete opposites. The fights are always a lot of fun too since if he touches you even once it can be a fatal blow. You may wonder how he is never able to land any hits but the fights are very creative. I would even say the animators are at their most creative with him whether it’s showing how he can immediately turn someone into a sword and fight or how he reacts to instant teleportation.

His fights with Yuji are really a blast. It’s really one big fight that is broken up into parts you could say but each one is really excellent. I would say he may be the most interesting villain even if he’s not my favorite one. See, my favorite is Toji. He’s an ordinary human and yet he is able to go up against these gods and demons. In part that’s because of his heavenly pact which increases all of his abilities and in part it’s just because he is Toji. The guy has a ton of prep time and hand to hand abilities. He’s sort of like if Batman was evil. Any scene with the guy is incredibly hype.

Make no mistake, no matter what his last scene wants you to think, the guy is pure evil. He’s absolutely willing to murder anyone and I’m not going to let that slide. He’s a complete villain and in that role he is absolutely perfect. Then you have Jogo who is also a really good villain. He is noticeably scared of Sukuna which loses him some points. Yeah most people are scared of him but you have to hold your ground you know? The guy is always getting disrespected too which is the bad luck of fighting Gojo and Sukuna. So he’s pretty good and a great fighter but not as solid as some of the others.

Then you have the big man himself, Sukuna. As always the guy is really full of himself but he has the power to back it up so what are you going to do right? I like his confident demeanor, the guy even grabs some soda in the middle of a fight. He doesn’t accept any disrespect and even further, he demands absolute respect. Without it, he’s going to blow up anyone in his way. He likes having fun at his victim’s expense and the guy seems absolutely untouchable right now. A fight with Gojo would have been really awesome here.

Needless to say if you’re a Sukuna fan then there is a whole lot to enjoy. He gets multiple fights and shows why everyone should be scared of him. I also have to bring up Mahoraga because he has one of the best intros for any character in the season and also possibly has the best episode here. His fight is really a blast all the way through and also just starts so quickly. You wonder how anyone could have ever managed to tame the guy in a previous incarnation because he’s so unbelievably strong. This may be the only series I can think of where a summon is easily in the top 3 strongest in the verse. At least by the time this series ends I would say that is true.

Then we have Geto who gets a lot of screen time here between the first and second parts. It’s interesting to see him as more of a hero in the original parts. After going through what he did, it’s easy to see why he would turn though. I think the trickiest thing about a hyper realistic series where even a lot of heroes are corrupt is that it makes it much easier to imagine why someone would turn evil. Geto definitely went over the cliff but you can see why he would. Even Gojo contemplated just becoming a mass murderer on a whim.

Nobody would miss the guys he would have taken out but that’s not really the point anyway. At that point it becomes a question of when do you stop. Geto certainly made his choice there and actually has an answer, but the line that he has drawn is a rather large one. In terms of power set, I don’t find him super impressive yet though. He relies on summons with tons of monsters but none of them seem that crazy yet. Powerful to be sure and he could clear most fighters but you also don’t see him defeating the combo of Yuji and Todo or hanging with someone like Mahito. Based on his confidence you have to assume that he could but I need to see more out of him.

Oh yeah there’s one more hero in Todo. That guy is a lot of fun as always. He really inspires confidence in the allies around him and his Boogie-Woogie technique is so good. There are tons of applications for it and the opponent is forced to respect this as an attack option at all times. It’s part of what makes him such a dangerous character but he can also fight well in hand to hand. He sort of appears out of nowhere here and vanishes just as quickly but the role is really great. There are a few more characters like Panda and the ice girl at the end but this covers most of the main ones. Watch the season to see them all!

The ending also sets up the next season nicely. If I have a minor nitpick, it’s that the final episode does drag on a tad. I think they overplayed their cards of setting up how empty everything is. I would have cut those scenes a bit and also played the Yuji scene early. I’d absolutely end with the big guest star character. Why would you not make that the final scene? I don’t really get it because on a hype level that has to be the most hype moment without anything even being a close second. Like I said though, pretty minor stuff because I’m hyped regardless! That kid wasn’t very smart about walking towards an obvious monster though…

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 lived up to the hype in every way. I would absolutely recommend checking it out when you have a chance. It’s a top tier anime that can compete with anything. It’s the full package with great themes, animation, fights, and characters. The story is great too and there are some solid twists as well. I hope that third season comes sooner than later because I definitely need this to continue!

Overall 9/10

Thunder Force II Review

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It’s time for the next Genesis title with another shooter game. Thunder Force’s gameplay style is a bit unique though as it actually switches from overhead to 2D every level. So this way it’s like you’re playing two different games and while it’s not super long, it’s a bit longer than you’d expect thanks to the overhead levels. Definitely not a game that you should underestimate.

There’s really not much of a plot here which is too bad but not super surprising. Go take down the invading aliens and you will be able to save the world! The 2D levels are my favorite ones as you just get right into the game and start shooting down all of the opposition. It’s a true bullet hell type game as you have to dodge numerous kinds of attacks as you fly through the stages. One hit and you lose a life so it is not very forgiving. A unique part of this is you can keep switching the way that you fire. Every power up you get unlocks a new mode up to around 7. So you can shoot in multiple directions with extra firepower or go with more of a low grade weapon. The possibilities are fairly endless here and so you have a lot of control.

I felt like the gun that shoots downwards and upwards at the same time was the best one since you could just stay on top of an enemy and spam that gun. Depending on the boss you would have to change weapons though so I would advise you to always be ready. Even with that, I died tons of times here. It’s just extremely hard to dodge at all times and then some levels will suddenly speed up like crazy and you will have a hard time keeping up. I still don’t know how you’re expected to just react to that without memorizing the board. It felt a litttttttle cheap I have to admit. Once again I think I would have had a hard time being a big gamer if I grew up on the Genesis.

The overhead levels are a bit weaker than the 2D ones though and that’s because there is no map. So you have to fly around looking for enemy installations to blow up. Once you have blown them up then you will have completed the level but you’ll end up flying in circles a lot of times. There are some mazes to watch out for as well in case this wasn’t already difficult enough. Basically what I’m saying here is that you really have to bring your A game or it’s all over. There will be no way to escape.

The graphics here really aren’t bad. They’re not exactly top tier or anything like that but you always know what is going on and won’t be confused at any point. The soundtrack is also okay. I definitely don’t have any real issues here. They complement the gameplay well. Also while I may have had my share of issues with the gameplay, it was still enjoyable the whole time which is the important part.

I really tend to enjoy these sci-fi shooters and how creative they are. The enemy ship designs are all pretty good and I enjoyed the boss battles as well. The final boss even incorporated some gravity into the gameplay as you had to really go max speed to keep up. So that was definitely fun. This is a game with no real replay value though so you should know that once you complete the game, it’s all over. There really isn’t anything left after that. The game felt like it was about an hour for me so not the shortest Genesis game but still pretty short when you think about it.

Overall, Thunder Force II is a fun game. I think it had a lot of room for improvement though and it all starts with the overhead levels. I can’t stress enough how even a basic map would have made a world of difference. I would always be waiting for a 2D level to come up as a result. It also goes without saying that more of a story would be nice but I consider that to be a bit more of a technical limitation so I won’t be too hard there. Either way if you have the Switch Online then it is worth checking out. It may not stand out compared to some of the other games but it’s fun and at the end of the day that’s what counts.

Overall 6/10

Apology for Murder Review

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It’s time for a very old school noir mystery thriller type of film. This is one of those titles where you probably won’t have much sympathy for the guy who is being strung along since he ultimately makes all of the wrong choices. So you’re waiting for the cops to nab them. It’s a good film with solid pacing and so you’ll have fun here. It’s also fairly short so it finishes quickly.

The movie starts off with explaining to us that Toni and her husband are not on good terms. She married him for the money and he finally figured this out. It’s a pretty rough deal for the guy who is already busy enough as it is trying to get richer. Toni decides to enlist the help of a guy named Kenny by promising to love him forever. So the guy murders her husband for her and now Toni just has to dump the guy and move on. The thing is, the cops have found out about the murder and Kenny is dangerously close to losing his nerve. Particularly since his boss is the one investigating the case and always gets his man. Is Toni going to have to extend the body count a little?

So the reason you can’t feel bad for Kenny here is because he did flat out murder her husband so that makes him a villain right from the jump. No matter what happens after that, no normal person would just go and commit murder like this. Second of all, Toni was still married and Kenny knew it so getting together with her is a big no no. The guy is then willing to let an innocent person be stuck with the murder rap instead of him. So what this all boils down to is a super selfish guy who will do whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants. Not exactly a hero right?

Not even close to one! Especially since if Toni had actually turned out to like him, he would have really had no regrets. Everything that happens later on is really because she’s not very smart about picking her moments and also isn’t great at playing pretend. If she just kept up the act even to the very minimum of assuring Kenny that she couldn’t wait for them to run off together then she would have been good. Instead she basically tells him to his face every time that she only cares about the money.

Even then Kenny doesn’t really do anything about this until he actually sees her with another man but anyone who at least had a little respect for himself would have made a move well before then so she really got lucky here. Kenny just doesn’t have any real smarts about him and so you’re waiting for his downfall. Naturally Toni’s just a bad here. Aside from being really bad at manipulating everyone, she is the true brains behind the operation. In that respect you could definitely say that she is the biggest villain of the bunch. Without her a lot of these things wouldn’t have happened in the first place and it goes without saying that she is very unrepentant about the whole thing.

The best character here by far is McKee. The guy tries hard to get to the truth of things the whole time and never stops even when Kenny keeps throwing subtle digs at the guy. It does take him a while to realize exactly what’s going on but in part it’s because he was hoping to find a different answer so you can’t really blame him. He was still the most useful member of the cast by far and did good work.

The writing in the film is pretty good overall. Even if most of the characters can be really annoying, I wouldn’t call that bad writing. It just means that those characters are suckers the whole time and that can happen in real life too which is why it can be realistic. Toni was certainly able to bend a lot of her guys to her will, it’s rather depressing when you think about it but a reminder to always be careful that you are of sound mind when making a big decision. Also if someone tells you to commit a crime like murder, it’s a good idea not to do that.

As mentioned the film is really short which is also why the cast is so small. It’s a bit over an hour so that’s enough time to get the murder in and then jump us to the after effects. A good chunk of it is about McKee getting closer and closer to the truth while Kenny tries to slow things down or just generally panics some more. It’s a solid game of cat and mouse there. If it was longer maybe we could have thrown in a few more characters but the balance works well enough. It won’t rise up to become one of the top Noir titles or anything like that but it is engaging the whole time and made for a good watch.

Overall, I’d call this a fairly safe Noir title. It has a compelling story but isn’t really taking any risks. There aren’t really any twists to worry about this time and the story plays out in a surprisingly straight forward manor. Probably the most straight forward that I’ve seen in the genre. I’d say this probably does make it have less rewatch value than another title but on that initial watch I don’t see you having any issues. I’m not totally sure I get what the title was going for though, I would have probably picked something else to draw in the crowds.

Overall 7/10

Bloodfist II Review

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

All right it’s time to jump back into the world of Bloodfist! I have to say it’s impressive just how different this film is from the first one. It may as well not even be a sequel to be honest since it laughs in the face of the first one with Jake’s character development but hey that’s how it goes right? It definitely makes its share of mistakes and so it won’t be another film to be remembered.

The movie starts with Jake winning a big tournament but he murdered his opponent and so he retires from fighting. He has now fallen into all of the vices including paying a lady of the night when he gets a call from an old friend who’s in a jam. He hasn’t seen this guy in ages and the call is the shadiest thing I’ve ever seen so Jake quickly decides to come along where he is beaten up by a group of thugs. He has been kidnapped along with a bunch of the world’s strongest fighters. They are all being taken to an island to fight against humans who have been enhanced with a drug that prevents them from feeling pain while also increasing their physical abilities. Can Jake get out of this or is he doomed?

All right the most disappointing thing here is the fact that the concept for the story is really good! You can’t help but get hyped for something like this because it guarantees a whole lot of action. It’s a classic case of skills vs physical abilities here. These guys may be amped up but the main characters have the edge in fighting technique which you would assume would be enough to take the lead. The problem is breaking the habit of stopping once you have your opponent down because you need to finish them off.

The actual tournament is pretty fun although I think it could have been a bit more balanced. For the most part just about all of the heroes were getting completely destroyed by the fighters and I’m not sure how much I buy that. I get that these guys weren’t rookies or anything but the top level pros should have done a lot better. The place is rigged of course so the winners would quickly get jumped and pummeled by everyone but that should have been necessary more times than it was.

Of course the film does get quite violent here with each fighter meeting rather painful ends. There are more survivors than I expected there to be which is a silver lining for the heroes but yeah they get put through the wringer. At least I don’t question why they would enter such a tournament this time since they were all forced into it. It’s the best explanation for why you would enter a tournament where almost everyone is guaranteed to be murdered. Also since it’s life or death, characters do grab guns and whatever they can which absolutely makes sense. Why stick to hand to hand when the whole thing is rigged anyway right?

One of the plots where the film drops the ball is with Mariella though. So she is the daughter of the main villain and gets beaten up whenever a setback happens. It’s really explained to us quite vividly that her life here is awful and filled with abuse. So you’d expect she wouldn’t have any sympathy for the villains right? Like I can get her betraying the heroes since she is afraid of what will happen if they lose but if the villains go down then that’s fine right? Instead she actually seems concerned and saddened by what happens to the main villain and you’re just shaking your head.

She should be absolutely cheering by that point. He had her publicly beaten and humiliated and yet she isn’t filled with anger at what’s going on? We also find out that she can fight later on around the mid point of the film which would have really helped her in a lot of the early scenes….yeah the writing here wasn’t great to say the least. Most of the villains are also annoying and can’t really fight. They just use their status and cheap shots to beat everyone up.

The strongest fighter was probably the traitor Vinny who also only got as far as he did due to cheap shots. In a fair fight he was not going to stand a chance against Jake and he knew it. Jake could be annoying here as well though because the guy is clearly a top tier fighter but falls for the easiest traps imaginable. At one point he is warned numerous times that Vinny is evil which should have been absolutely obvious from the jump, but at least when he realized that the whole phone call was a ruse right?

Well somehow he doesn’t put the pieces together and loses in the most sucker punch-ish way possible. He just turns the corner and gets knocked out. It’s not the only time he gets beaten up either and even when he’s winning, Jake doesn’t push the advantage and runs off. It’s all just pretty annoying because with his skill level he should be doing way better. By the time he gets serious, a ton of characters have already died. It’s an odd case where you don’t feel like he’s in a ton of danger most of the time and yet you know that everyone around him is doomed because he won’t do anything.

You definitely get Mortal Kombat vibes from the film and can see the potential but it just didn’t work. I’d also argue the film could have stood to have started the tournament earlier so that way there is time for more of the heroes to win one round before they get taken out by the higher ranking fighters. I haven’t seen a ton of team vs team films in the martial arts genre yet so that would have been a lot of fun but it’s relegated to the end. I will say that the fights have at least improved since the first film though. The film definitely gets that credit at least.

Overall, Bloodfist II has some fun ideas but still holds itself back. The random scene of Jake having an affair while he is down in the dumps was wildly bad but once we get on the island we get a lot of fights. The main heroine’s plot is fumbled though and we needed more battles. As with the first film, it will scratch the itch of being a solid action film with a lot of fighting but there’s not much beyond that and ultimately I would say you’ll want to pick a different movie to watch instead. For now this is still not touching Mortal Kombat which is the golden standard for tournament films. We need more titles like that.

Overall 4/10

Bloodfist Review

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

Time for one of those action packed martial art films! Bloodfist has some good moments to be sure and while the action scenes aren’t quite as dynamic as a lot of the other action titles I’ve seen, they work well enough. The main problem here really just comes from the fact that the film tends to get distracted by other elements which are not even needed.

The movie starts with one guy preparing to throw a fight as expected but his opponent is just rubbing it in too much. This causes the fighter to stop holding back and he claims victory. Unfortunately the mafia don’t like that and so after he leaves the venue, drunk and out of sorts…he is quickly overwhelmed in a fight and murdered. We then cut to his brother Jake who finds out about this and decides to avenge him. The local cops are not very helpful but a guy named Kwong explains that there is a big tournament coming up and if Jake enters he will be able to fight the murderer.

Jake is already a strong fighter but is he really able to handle this? Kwong will train him but is not thrilled with Jake constantly getting distracted by all his flirting with Nancy. Kwong tells him time and time again that this will weaken Jake but he doesn’t care. Unfortunately this is easily the weakest part of the film. Jake is here to avenge his brother so it’s true that he really doesn’t have time to be messing around like this. Shouldn’t he be focused on training to the max and winning? Everything else can come in afterwards.

The romance scenes just drag on and on. Additionally the film is going for easy clicks with fanservice scenes that kept the TV censors pretty busy the whole time. These moments don’t add to the film at all and are clearly just here for those reasons. Once we get to the fights then at least there’s more to focus on. Now the film does get extremely predictable by this point. You know that Jake’s friend Baby is absolutely going to get wrecked in the fight but the film decides to go a little extra and make things rough for his girlfriend as well. The worst part is it’s partially Jake’s fault that she gets taken out when he jumps in to de-escalate things.

In this tournament nobody cares about murder or anything like that so it’s not like Chin Woo is disqualified or anything. It just reminds you how crazy all of the characters have to be to even think about entering this thing. You’re putting yourself in a position where the villain can legally torture you. Even if you’re absolutely fanatical about fighting this seems like a really bad idea to me. The film definitely does get rather violent during the matches. Not always in a bloody way to be honest but sometimes just with the explicit bone snapping and extra hits after the fight was already over.

You can definitely feel the pain there. Chin Woo is a very generic main villain though. The guy is strong and ruthless…but that’s about the only character traits to the guy. The film didn’t bother giving him more than that and I guess I don’t blame the title because there wouldn’t be much reason to do so. Most of the characters here are on the two dimensional side. They’re filling out classic character traits to keep the story moving. Nancy is basically just the love interest, Baby is the friend who will inevitably be crushed, Jake is the MC, etc.

The only one who actually has a lot of depth to him is Kwong. The film handles him really well and his role is bigger than you’d expect. He’s not just the old mentor who is super good at fighting and always ready to train a new fighter. This guy is very important and active in the story which was a good idea on the film’s part. I’d even go as far as to say that Kwong is a highlight in the title overall and helps to enhance the movie. You definitely couldn’t say that about just anyone.

Bloodfist also has a really good climax. I dare say that it even tops the actual final battle of the tournament both in choreography as well as location. It just feels like more of a true fight and I always like when the fighters take the battle out of the ring by the end. As I mentioned earlier, the fights aren’t exactly top tier despite the true skills of the actors. It doesn’t have the right camera angles and dynamics to take things to the next level. That said, they are still good fights and there is a good amount of them. If you take away the subplot romance and the extra fanservice scenes then this film would have actually been a good one.

There’s just no reason to go to the strip club and it’s a sign that the writers were not confident in their own abilities. I’d also argue that the writing holds things back a bit like Jake not always acting as urgently as he should be considering the stakes. So this will always be in the shadow of better fighting films like Mortal Kombat and Rocky. I don’t see this one quite becoming as well known or making a comeback. It was big enough to get a bunch of sequels of course but it’s not a true A tier contender.

Overall, If you like action and want to see a bunch of fights then you should check this one out. It is very straight forward about including a ton of action and what you see is what you get. It’s not trying to do anything fancy and the execution isn’t great but I could see it fitting the bill if you just want some action. Unfortunately for Bloodfist there are just way too many other action films to check out if I wanted a quality action film. So I have to give this one a thumbs down and keep it moving. We’ll see how the sequel fares.

Overall 4/10

The Evil of Frankenstein Review

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Well this film is definitely back to what you expect to see when you watch a Frankenstein film and I mean that in all the worst ways possible. The writing makes no sense and everyone is out of character. I won’t even talk about the continuity since this just ignores everything anyway but I don’t get why this is such a downgrade. In the last film Frankenstein was a stable genius but in this one he just looks like a sucker who has no idea what to do. He has fallen so far that it’s crazy. He really is a different character here.

The movie starts with Frankenstein being sloppy so he and Hans are run out of town. They manage to escape to a small circus where nobody recognizes them but Frankenstein is saddened to learn that his old home has been completely looted and the local guy in charge has taken all of his possessions. Frankenstein makes a big scene so now the cops are aware that he’s here. He does some more running and confronts the guy again only for the cops to defeat him once more. A local girl saves him and that’s when it turns out that the monster is still alive and just trapped in ice. Frankenstein frees him and uses a local hypnotist named Zoltan to wake the beast up. The problem? Zoltan now has full control of the monster. Frankenstein really messed up this time.

A lot of my issues just come from the fact that Frankenstein is no longer a genius at all. He makes the absolute worst mistakes over and over and over again and there’s no reason for it. Why make such a big deal about his material possessions and his ring? I guarantee that the old Frankenstein didn’t care about these things. He was cold and calculating, not overly emotional like this guy is. He continues sabotaging himself for the whole film and looks so bad. I also can’t stress enough how bad it was for him to be getting blackmailed by Zoltan.

Zoltan is a drunk who was being kicked out by the cops and he’s overwhelming Frankenstein?? Come onnnnnnnn. The fact that Frankenstein didn’t see this coming is also pretty bad since he saw Zoltan in action earlier. He knows exactly how hypnotism works so then he should have known that the monster would be listening to him. So Frankenstein really brings down the film quite a bit. His partner Hans also seems rather useless in this film. In the last one he had enough intelligence to hold his own with Frankenstein but in this case that’s no longer impressive since they have both fallen so far.

The girl was a reasonable character that you actually felt bad for. She definitely had a hard life and I don’t totally get what the purpose of her character was. She ends up helping Frankenstein a whole lot by taking him to the cave where he found the monster…but why was she really here? It felt like the film wasn’t even sure and in a way I guess you may be wondering why it matters. She is in the film so it doesn’t really matter why she’s there right? I guess I just can’t put my finger on it but she felt like a character who had a bigger role in the script and scenes got cut out of something. I dunno maybe that’s just me.

Meanwhile Zoltan is not one of the better villains. The guy gets control over a monster and the first thing he thinks to do is send it into town to steal money? Shouldn’t you be at least a little subtle about this? Once the cops start shooting and all then it’s going to be all over, monster or not. Use a little tact at least. Then the guy gets greedy and ultimately commands too much so it’s over for him. Yeah nobody’s very smart here. The smartest character was probably the head of the cops with how many times he caused Frankenstein to run away. I respected that guy.

For miscellaneous issues, the film reverts back to animal violence. Of course it does right? Why would we possibly need that….but yeah it’s pretty awful. We see the monster eating animals and then Frankenstein runs in front of a gun and gets shot. I’m telling you he looked soooo bad in this film. I also don’t think it was necessary to get such a large rewritten flashback of the original film. I think the writers knew that the current story didn’t have enough depth to it for a feature length presentation but then in that case maybe make a whole different plot? Cmonnnnnnnn.

Okay let me cut the film a little slack. We don’t get much of the body horror this time with limbs being taken off and all of that. So we’re trading poisons a bit and in that case I’ll take this poison over the other one. That’s pretty much all the solace I can give at this point. There just isn’t much I can say about the film at all in terms of positives. It’s not interesting and this time we don’t have the good writing from the last film. It basically ditched everything that at least made the franchise salvageable. It’s one of the weakest films I would say completely. The first film is still worse with the kid getting brutally murdered but that’s a low bar to match.

Overall, This film had no real thinking behind it. It fumbled the ball almost immediately and just could not be saved after a point. The film annoyed me just looking at it and that’s saying something. It just kept on going from bad to worse and the worst part is that a good amount of it could have been improved if Frankenstein at least looked decent. Sure, it would still have a bad score but at least the film would have had something to support it. Without even a decent main character it was doomed from the start. I definitely recommend staying far away from this film. Frankenstein films are definitely well over the hill.

Overall 1/10