Category Archives: Reviews

City Hunter Review

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It’s time for a fairly wacky comedy film. This one definitely does not hold back in terms of how out there it gets. That said, the humor doesn’t really land very well most of the time. There are some good moments but on the whole the film ends up dragging itself out and whenever you think a hype scene is about to occur, your hopes get obliterated right away. This is basically what happens if you make a film with someone like James Bond as the main character…

The movie starts off with City Hunter’s partner getting extremely sloppy as he is gunned down by a group of villains. He quickly tells the hunter not to get together with his sister and City Hunter vows to live up to those words. He’s busy flirting with every girl in town anyway but his days of slacking off have come to an end as he is hired for an important job. He must locate a girl named Kyoko who is with the wrong crowd and her father wants her back. The City Hunter vows to complete the mission for all of the wrong reasons and after fumbling the operation, follows her onto a fancy cruise. What he doesn’t realize is that the boat is swarming with so many terrorists who can fight in hand to hand combat far better than he can. Is it all over for him?

So here’s the deal, I’m all for some good slapstick and I don’t even mind a main character who is completely unable to fight. Someone who is out of his depths the whole time can be a lot of fun with some sarcastic humor. The important point is that he has to be likable and unfortunately….that’s where he falters big time. This guy is just too much of a flirt who prioritizes that over the mission. I won’t say he’s as bad as James Bond but any scene with this guy is extremely annoying.

The film certainly does a good job of incorporating a lot of harem type antics into the movie to make this as authentic as possible but it comes at the expense of the movie being any good. City Hunter should have leaned more into his goofy nature and how he couldn’t find the police office let alone any crooks, but instead it focuses on what a perv the guy is. You’re rooting for the villains to take him out most of the time.

Also most of the film’s humor basically revolves around this which gets old fast and doesn’t come across as clever. There’s quite a lot of fanservice here which bogs down the movie. It’s not quite Charlie’s Angels territory which still takes the dubious crown in that department but it’s fairly unrelenting here. Even when viewing the film under the parody lens, you’re not really going to be sticking with this one for very long.

Kaori isn’t really a great heroine either. She is always jealous of the other girls that City Hunter is with and so she pouts a lot but a better heroine would have really been beating him up all the time. She imagines doing so, but actually tackling him more would have been better. I want to see some confidence and charisma. Instead she goes as far as to pretend to ally herself with the villains at times to get a reaction out of the guy…although it never works anyway. Why would she even want to be with someone who is clearly not going to be loyal in the slightest? City Hunter would drop her in an instant as soon as another girl talks to him.

Now they probably could have let up a little with how many times Kaori gets knocked to the ground though. It just gets sad after a while when you see how often she is the film’s punching bag. Kiyoko gets into a fair deal of trouble as well but unlike Kaori, Kiyoko was basically seeking this out the whole time. I don’t think Kiyoko played this very smart at all from the start but intelligence isn’t the strong suit of just about any character here.

Okay lets talk about some positives. For what it’s worth, there are a few good fight scenes once in a while. There’s a solid fight in the theater where City Hunter mainly gets dominated but eventually churns out a win. It’s still part comedy of course but it works well enough. The best fight is against the main villain’s bouncer though. Both characters move so fast that they keep on missing each other. See, this is actually a pretty good gag that is parodying how good of a fighter they both are. They’re so good that they both actually end up looking weak. Now that’s clever. There are a few other good jokes in there as well.

The effects are so bad that they go all the way around into actually being funny as well. This may not be intentional but I wouldn’t even be surprised if that’s what they were going for. This film is trying to be as silly as possible which is why it’s a shame that it’s not better. Usually I’d be a sucker for a film like this but it just didn’t have the right humor approach. Humor can be very difficult to land of course but at the same time it’s rare to mess up this badly. Seriously just make City Hunter less of a two dimensional character and you could be on to something! A film like this should never feel like its dragging and yet that happens at times. It’s a flurry of activity but sometimes it feels like nobody is going anywhere which doesn’t help matters.

Overall, City Hunter is a movie that just tries way too hard. It ends up being more cringeworthy than funny most of the time. Having a better main character would have helped a whole lot. Ultimately it’s probably for the best that most people don’t remember this one. Why would you adapt City Hunter instead of the original Gundam or even Astro Boy? Trust me when I say there were plenty of other manga titles you could have adapted before this one even entered the conversation. You may as well call this guy the City Hunter by the end of it with how much he’s getting wrecked the whole time.

Overall 4/10

Bomberman Max 2: Red Advance Review

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It’s time for another Bomberman adventure! This is one fighter that you can’t keep down. Well, it’s definitely a cool idea to have Max get his own sub series here. Bomberman gets a cameo at the beginning and he does help out in some puzzle levels but that’s really about it for him. This time it’s Max’s show as you go through the levels and try to defeat all of the enemy robots.

There isn’t much of a story here though. It starts out with the villain turning Bomberman and his friend Max into a mini size. It’s definitely put them in a very dangerous position but fortunately the villains run off rather than pressing the advantage which worked out for the heroes. There is surprisingly not an ending cutscene so it seems to get that you probably have to 100% the game or something like that. Each world does have a ton of levels and most of them aren’t actually required but it’s not like you’re skipping them. So let me explain the setup of how this works.

When you complete a level, 2-3 portals appear. Each one will take you to another level within the world but they don’t say which ones they are. So you will go from 1-1 to 1-4 for example. Then after that you go to 1-6 or 1-3. Some portals take you backwards while others take you forwards. As a result it’s pretty much luck based. The portals themselves don’t change but at least on the first playthrough you wouldn’t know which is which. When you complete a level, the portal taking you back to that stage turns red so at least you don’t run the risk of beating the same level twice by mistake. Now that would have been annoying.

The game actually remembers your progress so if you do have to go back to an old level, the portals are still there rather than having to clear the objective again. That’s definitely a good feature, it means that at least if I ever did go back to try and 100% clear it, it wouldn’t feel like an impossible challenge. Of course this is all me assuming that there is a bonus ending. For all I know it’s just an illustration or it unlocks the credits although I’d be willing to bet that it is a true cutscene.

The graphics here are pretty good. The character models are on point and the artstyle for the GBA was good. The soundtrack is also fairly good. I wouldn’t say it’s anything too noteworthy but at the same time it’s fast paced enough to work with all of the explosions. The game itself is fairly short at around 4 hours or so. I actually went ahead and beat it all in one shot, mainly because my game’s save feature was busted. So I’m actually a bit lucky that it wasn’t longer at 10 hours or something like that.

Naturally the game will usually have a working save file so I wouldn’t hold that against the title. Also I didn’t talk much about the gameplay yet. Like I said, it’s basically a puzzle title. Each level will give you an objective like find all of the food or destroy all of the spiders. Once you do that then the portals open up which will take you to the next level. You start out with all 3 of your stats at 0, speed, bomb range, and # of bombs that can be used at once. As you blow things up you get power ups to make your stats stronger to a max of 4 in each stat.

when you get a game over your stats go back to 1 in all categories on the retry. So while it’s great that you have unlimited continues on the same level, it does mean that it can be tough at first. One level had me stumped for a long while because it was super hard to win with 1 stats but eventually I pulled it off. For the most part the bosses are a lot easier than the levels because of how huge they are. It’s really easy to tag them with explosions but the final boss is an exception. He has so many different forms and power ups that it’s really hard to stay one step ahead of him. That one took me a few different attempts.

So in the end the gameplay was good but not quite enough to make up for the game basically skipping the story entirely. The way the stages have randomized objectives each time is interesting and I like the idea of level trees where you don’t know what you’re going but not if it means that you’ll miss out on an ending. There should at least be a basic cutscene after each world. Also the game feels unfinished in some ways. The main example I have is the monsters that you can summon.

They actually have levels and stats that increase as you pick up collectibles and defeat enemies but they don’t seem to matter in the actual gameplay. Each monster does have a special ability like letting you pick up extra bombs but the ability doesn’t change or improve as you level it up. So I couldn’t figure out what the level ups were doing. They seemed to be completely pointless which is odd. Maybe it’s for a different mode but in that case there’s not much reason to include that in the story. The Gamecube game had “Pokemon Battles” mixed in with the bomb puzzles so it made sense there but that doesn’t happen here. Guess it’s a bit of a mystery for now.

Overall, Bomberman Max 2 is a good game but one that could use some quality of life updates. I think you should get a proper ending when you beat the game even if you get a true ending of sorts for doing everything. Having unlimited continues is great but having to get the power ups again can be a little rough. Still, the puzzle gameplay is on point and the levels are designed well. You really get to make the most out of the bombs that you have and it always feels satisfying to complete the levels. It’s not an easy game by any means so you really have to work for it.

Overall 6/10

Rayman Legends Review

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Rayman is one of those titles where I’ve played quite a few of the games but I haven’t found it to be as memorable as most of the other big titles. Well, it’s fair to say that Legends is definitely a game changer for the series and it is by far the best installment. It handles the collectathon aspect of the title very well and makes more use of the platforming genre than almost any other title I’ve seen. Ultimately the gameplay is so strong that it does help to make up for the lack of a story here.

The game starts off with some evil magicians deciding to make a mess of things. They’re kidnapping people and so Rayman will have to free everyone and save the world. All in a days work for someone like this though. Rayman has dealt with his share of threats over the years after all. Unfortunately that’s pretty much it for the story. There’s not much of an ending and each world just has the same recycled cutscenes over and over. You don’t expect a whole lot more from a platformer and yet I do think they really could have done a better job here. At least give me new cutscenes for each world. The story is absolutely the weakest part of the game by far.

Fortunately we are here for the gameplay at the end of the day. The lack of a story would hurt its chances of my getting the game on opening day compared to other franchises but at least once I do get around to it, I’m always happy to see solid gameplay. At its core the gameplay is fairly simple, you run and jump your way past obstacles as you try to get to the goal. Occasionally there will be a boss battle for you to go up against.

Where the game shines is in taking this simple gameplay and making a lot of intricate levels out of it. In a way it reminds me of Mario Maker a bit. For example after every boss battle, each world ends with a music themed level where you have to run quickly and hit enemies at the right time to follow the beat. This is used in a subtle way to let you know when to make a move as well as making the level fun to listen to. Likewise in the normal levels there are always a lot of visual and audio cues to let you know when to make a move.

The game allows you to jump between worlds at will so because of that every level even has tutorials at the ready through on screen prompts which are nice. They aren’t intrusive but are a great idea particularly if you’re going back to play the game after putting it down for a long while. You won’t really need it while playing through the game but I can absolutely see it coming in handy a year from now.

The game has a ton of replay value through unlockable characters (Basically costumes though tbh since they play the same) and extra levels that you unlock by getting more of the blue orbs. The best part though is that you can still beat the game without getting them all. There are 700 in the game and you need around 300 to complete the story. That’s a good ratio if you ask me because you can have a good time enjoying the levels without being stressed about the missing collectibles. The level designs are really good so you will find a lot of them naturally but if you want all of them you will have to work for it.

A solid quality of life feature here is that you have unlimited lives and the checkpoints are very consistent. So even when you lose you don’t end up getting sent too far back. That’s perfect and I can’t stress enough just how important that is. These levels could very easily turn from awesome to annoying if you had to start from scratch every time. This way you can appreciate the difficulty and creativity without any annoyance setting in.

Make no mistake, the game can be rather difficult at times. I died quite a number of times but I was always ready to revive just as quickly. I ended up blasting through the game rather quickly as a result. It’s a bit on the short side to be honest but I can’t even remotely consider that as a negative because of how the game handles it. There are tons of levels but the game just doesn’t force you to play them all and I can respect that. Each level is also so unique and filled with fun features that I’ll take this over a ton of standard levels.

The game even has a gimmick with a little frog moving things around that somehow doesn’t get annoying. I was prepared for this to be super annoying but it’s actually a really fun mechanic. In terms of pure platforming I dare say the game even has more life than some Mario titles and that’s saying something. If we’re only looking at gameplay this is one of the best games to ever do it.

Meanwhile the graphics and soundtrack are definitely impressive. The soundtrack in particular is awesome with a ton of different songs everywhere and remixes of popular ones. Then the graphics have aged really well with a colorful style all the way through. The character designs are on point and the levels all stand out.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at just how good the game was. Of course I was expecting it to be pretty good but to be great on this level? That was a surprise. The story holds it back a little bit considering this game has some of the best platforming I’ve ever seen. Imagine pairing this with a big budget story? It could have really made history and so I do eagerly await seeing what the Rayman franchise does next. This will be a tough title to top but of course there’s always a chance. If you haven’t played this game yet then you should definitely fix that!

Overall 8/10

Dragon Fist Review

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It’s time for a very old film with Jackie Chan. It’s definitely not one of his best films but the fight scenes are definitely on point when they occur. You get a lot of action at the end of the film but outside of a fight near the beginning, the film does go a long while without action. There are quite a few twists throughout the movie which does take it in a different direction than you might have expected but in this case that’s not necessarily a good thing.

The movie starts off with two factions fighting. One of them wins and so the master claims the title of “Champion” and has the banner to prove it. The master of a different faction didn’t like this and so he challenges the first one to a battle for the crown. The first master loses and is promptly murdered. His top student Tang is tasked with avenging the master’s death and restoring honor to his family. So he travels with the master’s wife and daughter to the home base of the villainous Master Li. Tang has been doing some training but is he really ready to take on a master level opponent when he was folded so easily the first time? Additionally there is a lot of politics going on here with various factions so Tang must really plan his moves carefully or risk complete and utter defeat.

Okay so lets start off with the positives here. The fight scenes are really good. I always appreciate some good martial arts like what this film has. The choreography is really good and the fighters are attacking at high speeds all the time. You feel good power behind the blows and it’s nice when two fighters finally go at it in life or death stakes near the end. A lot of the action scenes tend to involve one side holding back due to circumstances but of course you’re eager to see the fighters cut loose. There’s a really fast fists barrage near the end of the film which should really stand out even among the other combos.

The film is also fairly unpredictable which is good to an extent. I probably would have preferred the more predictable plot of revenge in this case but more on that later. There are also a decent amount of memorable supporting characters so it helps make the film more memorable. For example the 2nd in command for the main villain and the main heroine of Master Li’s faction. So it’s not one of those films where only the main character and villain are important.

Now on the not as impressive side is the main character. This is in part I’d say a cultural difference as well. A lot of times in both Japanese and Chinese films, there’s a lot of stock put on family honor and doing whatever you gotta do in order to preserve it. The main problem is that this will often result in the characters making the wrong decisions just because to go against it would be dishonorable. Tang strikes me as that kind of character as he goes as far as to become a full villain after some strategic blackmail. Here’s the main problem, he should just be taking what he needs by force.

The situation involves a drug that he needs or at least the formula to replicate it and the only way he can get it is to beat people up by working for a gang. At that point if you’re going to have to be a villain anyway, choose the outcome that has the least amount of victims. In that case it would be taking down the villains himself. Tang just seems a little slow on the uptake here as he doesn’t quite seem to realize how evil his bosses are when they don’t really hide it.

There’s one scene where the villains murder a child and Tang gets framed for it. He quickly confirms that he didn’t murder the child but this doesn’t stop one of the villains from being upset at how he orchestrated all of this for Tang to murder some more heroes. Here’s the thing..he says that right in front of Tang yet the lead doesn’t visibly react at all. Surely that should have been the end of this alliance right?

Then Tang goes as far as to fight all of the good guys at once while still working for the villain and it’s not until the final 15 minutes or so that he realizes he’s not doing well. This results in yet an even higher body count once more. I would also argue that the ending isn’t even a happy one at all. You have to remember that the heroes were heavily outnumbered with numerous guys with swords bumping off anyone who tried to leave the complex. The movie ends immediately after the final fight but as far as we know there are 3-4 super weakened heroes left who are going to have to fight well over 2 dozen armed fighters. I don’t think they’re actually leaving that place alive. There’s a slight shot Tang can do something since he’s the most skilled but even then I just don’t see it.

All right time for some spoilers so skip the next 3 paragraphs if you haven’t seen the film. It’s time for me to go into detail on some of the twists and why they didn’t work for me. Well first off, we never got the big fight with Master Li. It turns out that his wife destroyed herself in guilt after his win because she had an affair with the other guy so then Li removed his leg as penance and wants to make amends with the main characters. It’s not like you can just go ahead and beat up on someone with one leg who can no longer fight although Tang comes dangerously close to attempting this anyway. It’s a very intense twist to be sure but it means we have lost the main villain//the strongest fighter in the series. The movie has a hard time recovering from this because the actual main villain is so much weaker.

It’s subversive but it comes at the expense of a cool climax. The new villain’s second in command is reasonably tough but only makes this a real fight because he grabs some weapons at the end. Likewise the actual new villain only does well because the hero is tired by then. It would be much more satisfying to take down a main villain who is super powerful. It also feels like maybe the film did this because Tang would have been no match for Master Li but I’d still have preferred to watch that fight.

Ultimately though, the film’s lacking because of Tang in each scenario though. Beating up on the heroes while working for the villains is pretty wild in itself but he’s always extremely slow to act. At one point a group of 5 men attack one of the heroines and he just stands there like a statue until their blows start to add up and he realizes he should be in there fighting. Yeah it’s good that he eventually got in there but leaving her to fend for herself for any period of time really wasn’t cool.

That’s it for the spoilers so back to the program. The old master’s wife and daughter were more reasonable than Tang at least which is good although you do feel like they were just holding him back the whole time. I know they needed to be there as per tradition for their revenge but if Tang had just gone by himself then the whole film would have played out verrrrry differently. Having to watch out for two noncombatants the whole time is very tricky.

The film can also get a little dark at times. Of course you have the kid dying which I wasn’t really expecting. Fortunately it’s completely off screen but it’s still something we didn’t really need here. Two characters commit suicide and so the film which already had a fairly large body count, really added to it with some intense ones there. Considering that the gang’s run things for a while now, it’s likely something that happens a lot. Master Li’s reasoning for not fighting back doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Yeah he was waiting for proof but in the meantime his men are being attacked and the villains are gaining more ground. That’s a losing, defensive strategy. If you want to win then you have to press forward and attack. It’s not like he’s a diplomat who needs absolute proof before doing anything. He’s a martial arts master whose first duty is protecting his students, he really should have done something.

The characters don’t always feel very logical to me and it feels like an honor thing at times. They all just have to pretend to be polite at all times and do everything by the book. That may be fine in some scenarios but often times you need to get out there and attack. While I have numerous issues with Tang throughout the film, at least his intro scene where he jumped in to defend the master was good. It would have been nice if he would have at least looked decent in the fight instead of being thrown around effortlessly but the attempt was the important part.

Overall, Dragon Fist is not going to be able to hang in there blow for blow with most of its martial art rivals but if you’re looking for a quick film with lots of action then this definitely works out well. It is over with very quickly and so the pacing’s not bad. I would have liked a little more action and for Tang to have been more likable for it to have crossed over into the next level. I think that alone could have bumped it an extra two stars. It just focused too much on so many different plots with all of the factions which could work really well for a series where you keep spreading out the cast for the inevitable conclusion but having 3 different groups in a film that’s barely 90 minutes is pushing it. You don’t have much reason to care about some of these characters and it takes away from the main story which gets put on the backburner at different points.

Overall 5/10

Yu Yu Hakusho (2023) Review

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It’s time to jump into the world of Yu Yu Hakusho! I admit that I was rather skeptical of this one when it was coming out. While I’ve always preferred anime to traditional animation cartoons, I’ve often found that their live action products do not really compare to the average western one in terms of effects or even just pacing and excitement-wise. It just looks a bit more low budget in general although it’s not like I’ve seen tons of them to compare to be honest. Well, this one was pretty fun, ultimately I think it needed a little more punch for it to be considered as great though. By the end it actually just makes you want to go back and watch the anime again…which I did end up Youtubing a lot of the best moments afterwards. The show is only 5 episodes long so it goes by quickly.

The show introduces us to Yusuke Urameshi who is considered a big delinquent at school. He’s definitely not the nicest person around but is generally a good guy who just gets into a lot of bad situations. Well, one day he sees a kid about to get hit by a car so he jumps in to save him but ends up dying in the resulting crash and goes to the spirit world. There he is given a deal by Koenma, he can be revived but will have to spend the rest of his days as a Spirit Detective or he can stay dead. Yusuke’s rather stubborn and initially thinks about staying dead but ultimate he gets revived. Now he has to stop the demons that plague this planet, but does he have the strength to pull it off?

The series has to move rather fast because it is trying to set up the characters but then jump right into the action. So sure enough the first episode covers his death, resurrection, and his first fight with a demon. Well, not a true demon anyway but a kid who was being possessed by one. It’s a solid way to start things off with a lot of action and also gets you used to the fast pace that the show will be operating on. This is definitely not a title that will be slowly taking you to the goal. That said, in retrospect this is actually the episode I would have sped up a little more.

A lot of time is spent on this kid who got possessed. Basically he was being bullied at first and couldn’t defend himself which gave the demon the opening it needed to tempt take control of the kid’s weakened heart and get revenge. It all takes a decent amount of time though and since the kid wouldn’t end up being all that important later on, you could actually save some time by just having him get absolutely crushed real quick and start the first arc with the 3 demons early. It would give you more breathing room at the end.

The actual fight is good though. Yusuke is holding back the whole time trying not to hurt the kid too badly which is mainly why the battle takes a while. If Yusuke was going full blast then it wouldn’t have been a problem. We also get to know Kuwabara and Botan a little more through this introduction saga. The second and third episodes are really more about Yusuke’s first battle encounters.

Basically 3 demons have each made off with a powerful object from the spirit world which they obtained by defeating a pack of other powerful demons. That means these guys are real serious and Yusuke learns that the hard way when he has an extremely difficult time with the first one. That first demon always gets a smaller role than the next two which is the same here. There just isn’t much to him and he’s also a lot more irredeemable than the other two because the guy is always targeting kids. Hiei and Kurama are able to get redemption arcs and fight as rivals because at least they weren’t really doing anything too evil. In fact in this Netflix version you could make the case that they are functionally heroes from the start. That just doesn’t apply to the first demon.

There are also a few changes to the arc here like in Yusuke’s battle with Hiei. Yusuke is properly shown to be way weaker than Hiei for most of the fight and even though he gets some hits by the end, I don’t think the victor is really ever in any doubt. Hiei’s speed is just way too fierce and it’s not like he is lacking in overall attack power either. So that gives him the absolute edge in a fight. The way the arc seamlessly transitions into the Toguro saga is also pretty good. Each of the characters have a reason for wanting to head to the island to take him out.

The rest of the show is the island adventure which even takes some queues from the Dark Tournament like Toguro’s team being there. It means everyone gets an opponent to fight in the final episodes which I definitely appreciated. This is also where the show goes a bit beyond my expectations because some of these fights are actually rather long. In particular I would give a lot of credit to Kurama vs Karasu as the longest fight and it could go blow for blow with an anime battle.

Yu Yu Hakusho’s effects are better than I would have expected so mix that in with the extended action scenes and it puts the show in a good space. While I had some negatives with the show, this is the positive that really outweighs all of the other areas. The fights are real intense with a lot of good close combat action. I wasn’t overly impressed with how they handled the Spirit Gun, it often felt more like a quick burst than an actual energy attack but all of the other attacks were on point. We even got some good speed feats for Hiei.

Then the writing is also pretty solid. Yusuke works well as the likable jerk and Hiei’s always a classic tough guy. All of the characters have a lot of spunk to them and so that makes the episodes real enjoyable. The pacing is super fast so you’re never bored and even if it’s unfortunate that we are unlikely to get a straight Dark Tournament adaption now, hopefully they keep going and eventually give us another season some day.

Now lets talk about some of the series’ weak points. First up would be that the power scaling can be really wonky. It has the classic issue that most titles with a speedster face which is that he suddenly moves way slower when in a battle. Yusuke should not realistically even be able to touch Hiei yet he holds his own in a fight? I’m extremely skeptical about that happening at all. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense and you see this happen in other fights as well. Hiei should be dominating Bui when they battle and Kuwabara should really be getting wrecked in his battle.

There are also some demon dogs that are added to the island which is pretty needless. The anime also had a quick monster there for Toguro to defeat but I don’t remember it looking like a dog. So there was a bit of creature violence there that felt a little close to animal violence so I was glad that it wasn’t around very much. We did bypass the bird death that the anime had so in a way they sort of canceled themselves out there.

In terms of the pacing I’m cool with it moving so quickly. The only negative would sort of be that whatever’s been skipped and moved away is unlikely to ever appear. So I miss something that didn’t ever get to exist which is why it’s not really the kind of thing that would hurt the score. It hurts the potential of this as a full live action franchise but for now the season traded future potential for immediate returns which does mean that in the short term it does work out pretty great.

Now lets talk about the characters a little bit. As mentioned, Yusuke is a great lead. He may not have the same fire as his anime self in a lot of ways but he’s still a good guy who is always ready to fight. He’s a little less cocky and powerful for sure so get ready to see him on the defensive a lot and having to use agility but he’s still got those street fighting skills. Keiko is also a good heroine who always has his back even when Yusuke’s not exactly making himself look great. Her role even feels a bit bigger here than how it usually was since she tags along with the crew on their missions.

Botan is a really fun heroine as you would expect. She’s always having a good time and taking things in stride. Botan may not be the biggest fighter but she’s great in the support role and has a ton of experience. Kuwabara gets a solid role here. He may be Yusuke’s punching bag as usual but the guy tries hard and does get his moment with the spirit sword. I’d argue he should still be no match for Elder Toguro because of the speed difference and all but I already talked about the power levels. His core character is good and it’s nice to have another delinquent who is actually a nice guy so it’s not like Yusuke’s one of a kind.

Then we have Hiei who has certainly been softened a lot in this version. He’s basically a hero like I mentioned. He only murders villains and is really intent on saving his sister who has been kidnapped. He has many chances to murder Yusuke and doesn’t take them, he really spares his opponents whenever he can. I would say he also doesn’t seem as powerful as he is usually portrayed though. He has a really difficult time against Bui for the whole run and doesn’t feel like he stands a chance against Toguro. You could make a strong case that he would lose in the anime as well but that was after dozens of episodes of him appearing to be so much stronger than all of the other characters so it was more of a shocking moment when we see that even he is outmatched.

Hiei’s still really cool though which is the most important thing and he works really well as the rival. He doesn’t take orders and he does his own thing like when he splits up at the island. So I do think that they really understood his character all the way. Likewise Kurama looks really good here too. Also a bit underpowered with how his fight against Karasu plays out but the ending is what counts. There were several moments at first where I thought he was doing something on purpose because it was part of a plan but then no, he was actually getting hit.

In Karasu’s defense he is really powerful though so that could explain why Kurama had trouble. It’s my favorite fight of the series either way and Kurama is the most heroic out of all of the demons for sure. He really did turn over a new leaf and the redemption is handled very well because it already took place from before we even met him. It was a very solid way for the story to go and is still very original. You don’t see many characters written like him. A strategist who can also fight with the best of them will always be excellent.

Then we have the villains. First up lets talk about Elder Toguro whose role isn’t huge but the show definitely gets the creepy atmosphere around him pretty well. The guy’s shapeshifting and stabbing moves are hard to deal with. It’s always an extremely difficult power to contend with and of course he has regeneration as well. Then you’ve got Karasu who is really fast and has invisible explosions that are launchable. That means you’re never safe anywhere around him. It’s an incredibly good technique to have and another really original power. In theory he would make for an incredible assassin since the target would not see his blows coming.

The guy is also really confident with how he was trying to draw out Kurama’s latent power. If he had just gone all out from the start then the hero wouldn’t have had time to adapt. After that is Younger Toguro, the main villain of the series you could say. The guy’s pure power is pretty crazy and he wants to fight even more powerful opponents so he’s sort of like an evil Goku. He’s a fun villain. I wouldn’t say there’s a whole lot to him at least in this version but he makes for a great end game boss which is all that you could ask for. He kept the heroes on their toes the whole time and kept getting stronger and stronger. It makes sense that he would be fairly desperate with nobody else being able to give him a good fight anymore.

Sakyo is not really a fighter but I did like how the show handled his character. He suffers from boredom too because it seems like he is invincible. Not because he is super powerful or anything like that but because he is super lucky. So it seems like no matter what he does, things work out well. For example he takes out a gun and fills every chamber except one and then shoots at himself. It ends up being a blank. Apparently every wager he has ever made, he has won. The guy has never experienced defeat which has to be a crazy feeling. So the guy gets crazier and crazier which makes sense although his final scene is extremely underwhelming.

Finally we have 3 more supporting characters. There is Yukina who has a great ability to create diamonds but nothing offensive which is unfortunate with how many people are trying to get to her. Hopefully she can find some way to use her powers in a fight at least for self defense but she’s nice enough. Genkai gets a role in training Yusuke and Kuwabara but she is gone just as fast. She’s a character who had a lot of potential but ultimately she just left too quickly. Finally there is Koenma. I don’t mind them removing the baby form because it is one of those things that works really well in the show but I probably couldn’t take him seriously in this version. As it is I still couldn’t take him seriously which is part of the point but still. He’s a fun enough supporting character, just get ready for him to always be helpless. The guy is never able to do anything except make empty threats and plead with Yusuke to save the day. So yeah that’s the show in a nutshell. I do hope we get a season 2 at some point and hopefully it doesn’t take 4+ years. I want shows to churn out seasons a bit quicker than that.

Overall, Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty good. I would definitely recommend checking it out. Obviously you get an added experience when you already know the series but even if you’ve never seen anything from the series before, you shouldn’t get lost. The show is pretty clear with what is going on. Ultimately I’m thinking this will probably give you encouragement to watch the anime afterwards. Personally I would say to go back to episode 1. Yes you will be rewatching some scenes but you will see a lot of new ones as well and the dub is terrific. You do not want to miss any of that.

Overall 7/10

Pokémon: Paldean Winds Review

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Pokemon has been really good about churning out a ton of different miniseries and so this is another one to add to the completed pile. It was a pretty fun series with some action and a lot of good animation. There are only 4 episodes and the final one is more of an epilogue so it definitely goes by quickly. Each character gets their own episode so as you can imagine, the order of how good each episode is really gets determined by the character. I liked 2 out of 3 of the characters well enough though and in the end the writing here is solid so I had a good time.

The series starts with 3 Pokemon students being tasked with filming a video about the school. It’s a pretty massive project and while these 3 are all good students, it’s not like they have a ton of experience teaming up with each other. Filming a video like this is also such a vague mission, it’s hard to even know where they should start. What should they do? Well, each character has their own way of dealing with the project…which to be honest is typically to ignore everyone else and do their own thing but by the end their struggles bring them closer together!

The first episode is about Ohara and she’s cool with doing the project but at the same time it’s all just a bit overwhelming. She’s already so busy and in a way she sort of cracks. Ohara heads off to the mountains to try and cool down, she even considers just giving up on the project and running off but ultimately she makes the hard call and sticks with the team. It was a good first episode to show off the animation and get us used to the characters a bit. In that episode we’re really seeing them from her point of view and of course they don’t seem to be the most impressive. When nobody’s really engaged with a group project it becomes 100X harder.

In the second episode we focus on Aliquis who is a good sport about filming the video but it’s not really his highest priority. He really wants to defeat Nemona and prove himself as the strongest trainer in the land. So he’s really got to focus on training and getting his Pokemon to eat enough berries to get stronger. Unfortunately after enough losses he starts to get discouraged and takes out his frustrations on his Pokemon which is never okay. Along the way he starts to re-evaluate his priorities which is good.

I enjoyed this episode because we got some good action here which is always fun. I’m glad that he made up with his Pokemon quickly too because when you’ve been pals for so long it’s rough to see the trainer just lose it like that. I respect his dedication in wanting to win with the same Pokemon of course but he just needs to train more and more as a unit. For that reason I am glad that the show didn’t just reward him with an easy win all of a sudden and instead he still has to go and train the old fashioned way.

Then we have the third episode with Hohma. He’s a little discouraged because he actually loved making recordings and being creative but he’s not really sure how to approach the other two. He’s the most timid one of the group and has some real self confidence issues. He wants to find a way to really contribute but just can’t think of anything. So the episode’s really about slowly getting his confidence issues up and approaching the team. The toughest part about that is that I feel like the writers didn’t know what idea he should have. The episode easily has the weakest conclusion.

So Hohma’s big idea to save the project and make this a success is treated as an awesome idea but I just don’t see it. What was his idea? “Lets get all of the gym leaders, the Chairman, and the social media influencers to collab with us!”. Yes that would be awesome but it’s super unrealistic in such a short time frame so rather than it be the successful knockout hit that the show portrays it to be, it left me a little confused. It’s cool that it works out of course…but it was a little on the cheesy side.

There isn’t much to say about the final episode because like I noted it’s really just an epilogue. We get to see how the video turned out and then the 3 students say their goodbyes and head out. They’re back to living their own lives again. The ending is almost sad in a way because after they leave we see just how empty the school is and it’s super quiet. I was half expecting some kind of a jump scare as a result but no it just stayed very solemn.

This may not be the most bombastic series out there but I liked the tone and the characters were fun. It can always be hard to make the first move and approach someone but you won’t get anything done if you just stay in the corner. So the show had some good messages about teamwork and stepping out of the comfort zone. It’s also so short that it never drags on or anything and it’s not a big time commitment to check it out. For that reason I would definitely recommend watching it. Lets keep these Pokemon miniseries coming because they’ve been solid so far.

The animation is really sharp for the brief action scenes that we get. This isn’t a series that is super focused on action or anything like that but I’m glad that they still set aside a good budget for it whenever it was needed. That was definitely important. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side, personally I can’t remember any of the tunes. I’ll say it’s decent enough for the scenes but that’s about all I can say for it.

Overall, Pokemon: Paldean Winds is a good series. It flies by in an instant but tells the story that it was aiming for. It also takes time to really develop each of the 3 characters which also helps for down the line in case we ever get some kind of a sequel series. I’d be down with seeing them return or at least the one who wants to be a great trainer since we can get some good battle scenes there. It’s about time we get another really action packed miniseries right?

Overall 7/10

Mario Party 3 Review

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It’s time for the next Mario Party title! The series has definitely come a long way and it’s always fun to take a trip down nostalgia lane with the older ones. Back in the day I played a lot of Mario Party 2 but 3 was sort of the odd man out. Now I could really go through it and see how it stacked up. It’s a fun game as are all of the parties but I would say that it’s not quite at the elite level of some of the latter ones like Mario Party 4 and Mario Party 5. In particular I think there are too many event spaces which do have a tendency to slow up the game somewhat.

I played a classic party match on the snow level. The gimmick here is that there is a snowman who throws a snowball at you and if you don’t time your jump perfectly then you will be sent flying and may even go right past the star you were hoping to be at. It’s a pretty tough one to deal with because the timing does have to be absolutely precise on every level. Mess it up by even the smallest amount and the stage will definitely make you regret it. Also there are a ton of event spaces littered about the stage so no matter what you really end up bumping into them. In my match the space was probably landed on at least 10 times.

It would be nice if the cutscene could be skipped after the first time but I guess because of the jumping that wouldn’t really be possible. As always I do have to say that the computer is incredibly skilled. It’s like you never really stood a chance against that guy. He wins just about all of the minigames and has incredible luck. I’m glad that Nintendo didn’t hold back here but man is it a different feeling than the A.I. nowadays. Although maybe I’m speaking too soon and I’m about to get clobbered when I try Super Mario Party soon. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility right?

The graphics have aged very well if you ask me. Yeah they’re certainly a bit blockier and more pixelated as you would expect since it has been many years but the art style is magnificent so it just doesn’t matter. There’s one minigame where the characters are in their vehicles so you just see their giant heads popping out and it works extremely well. Meanwhile the soundtrack and sound effects are on point as well.

I haven’t talked much about the gameplay because it’s pretty self explanatory but I will say the most impressive thing here is really just that the game is a lot of fun. At no point are you bored or anything and the flow is pretty good. The minigames have a lot of variety as well. I should warn you that the Z button doesn’t appear to be configured/mapped with the GC controller. Not sure if there’s a way to fix that in the settings but if not there are definitely some unwinnable minigames here so I would keep that in mind. You basically just end up losing which boosts the CPU’s chances of winning matches even more as a result.

There are quite a number of maps in the game, each with their own little quirks so that adds a lot of replay value to the title. It’s also fun unlocking so many new minigames each time. I do think that it could get a little tricky eventually when you’re down to the last ones to unlock with RNG but that is always the case. Just means you have to get in there and keep on playing matches until you’ve obtained them all. A 20 turn match seems to take close to an hour so I wonder how long doing the 50 turn party they suggest would take. I feel like I did get to try that once in Party 4 or 5 but that was so many years ago that I just don’t remember.

Obviously the game has tons of replay value with minigame mode, and all of the other ways to play. You could really keep playing this game forever which is by design and Nintendo definitely aced it there. I would say it does beat Mario Party 1 with ease although to me Mario Party 2 seemed to have the better selection of minigames. I would also take it over a lot of the modern titles that really messed with the rules, these traditional settings are definitely the best way to go.

Overall, Mario Party 3 is definitely a pretty good game. I had fun with it and while you can definitely see some areas that could use a bit of work like all of the interruptions within the party stage and all, it’s still a positive experience in the end. The minigames themselves are a lot of fun and there’s also such a large variety of them. Even party games that would come out many years later like Sonic and the Secret Rings had far less minigames. So this one showed what was possible on a much smaller budget and made it look easy. Nintendo was definitely ahead of the curve. So I would say playing Party 4 is the better bet but if you have the Switch Online then you definitely owe it to yourself to give it a shot. No reason not to play it when you’ve got it in the collection right?

Overall 7/10

Pikmin 3 Review

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It’s time for the third Pikmin game. I was really not a fan of the first title but the second was way better so I had good hopes for this one. In the end I don’t think it managed to topple the second game because it just couldn’t match the gameplay. I do appreciate that this one had much more of a story though so it kept things reasonably close. In the end as long as you enjoy some good adventuring and commanding the minions then you will have a good time here.

The game starts with a group of explorers crash landing on a planet that has a bunch of odd creatures known as Pikmin on it. The heroes are able to control them with a whistle which is handy because this world is full of dangerous creatures who want the heroes dead. The trio are also out of food and drinks so they have to grab some fruits while trying to find the cosmic key which will let them get off the planet and back home. It won’t be easy though and they may not be alone on this island. Other humanoids may attempt to stand in their way.

I appreciated that this game took advantage of its status as a sequel and actually brought in characters from the earlier games to give you a bit of a crossover feeling. It’s still not going for much of an epic tone of course but just seeing some old faces was nice. The nostalgia hits hard especially since I jut finished playing the second game. If I was actually a fan of the old characters then I might not have loved their portrayals here but honestly I was totally fine with it. It didn’t rock my boat or anything like that.

So I mentioned how I felt Pikmin 2’s gameplay was a little better so I’ll explain that now. In Pikmin 2 you could use the C stick to assemble the Pikmin and have them all converge on a target. In this game you have to instead click on the lock-on feature and then look towards the opponent and press B. The problem is that pressing B is for dispersing the Pikmin as well so if your lock on wasn’t perfect or you lost it for a split second then it was all over for you. Your Pikmin would get eaten.

In general the gameplay felt a little less precise which is a bit odd all things considered. You’d have expected the opposite of that. Another rough part is when you throw a Pikmin somewhere, he will always return to that same spot. This is an issue because that means after building something you have to run all the way back to pick up your Pikmin. This happens quite often and makes things difficult for you because if you don’t have the Pikmin back in your party before the day is over then it ends up dying. That really ends up putting you behind the 8 ball when it counts.

There are quality of life updates here like Pikmin being able to survive if they’re by the ship. I definitely appreciate that. The whole relying on drinks to survive is better than the way the first Pikmin would just have you get the bad ending once the days passed. It’s just not perfect the way Pikmin 2 was in not rushing you at all. That’s the kind of energy I like to see.

The graphics definitely look really sharp. The colors really pop out at you and in general it felt like Nintendo gave this one to the A team. There aren’t any big fight scenes or anything like that to really show off the animation but after playing the second one so recently, you could see how much more vibrant this one was. It’s perhaps a little less spooky as a result since the place looks really happy but it’s got a good balance in the end. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side, you’re really not going to remember the tunes all that well.

The boss fights are all pretty unique and have a lot of style to them though. They weren’t reused and they really made you think about which Pikmin to use. So I liked that and the game really underscored why you would want to have many creatures of each type at the ready to handle all possible obstacles. Otherwise you could actually just get completely stuck in a level and have to go back which was never fun. The levels could be rather large and almost crossed the line of being too big but I would say it never actually gets to be too much. The shortcuts you unlock as you go through the worlds definitely help a lot.

Overall, Pikmin 3 is a pretty good game. You definitely do need to enjoy harvesting and taking your time in order to really have a good time here though. It’s not amazing or anything like that but I wasn’t bored and in fact I even had fun most of the time. I really appreciated the fact that you can take multiple days to defeat a boss. It helps take a load off of your mind and make the night/day system not so bad. Even if you run out of time you can always try again later on. For the final boss this was especially helpful as it took a whole lot to bring him down. I had to go back to previous areas several times to grow more Pikmin to put a stop to him. In the end it all worked out though and this is the kind of title where you can take your time so if the first Pikmin scared you off, this one is safe to play. Part of me does wonder what would happen if I had eaten all of the fruits and hadn’t beat the game yet. Would I actually have to go back in time and restart the game from midway in? That would be rough but I don’t know exactly how that works.

Overall 7/10

Pickup Review

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It’s time for a film where the main character is such a sucker that you almost don’t feel bad for him. Yeah of course I still feel a little bad for the guy but he really didn’t do anything to help himself out. When you get too desperate you start to walk into all kinds of traps and that’s exactly what happened here.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Horak who is a nice enough guy but he’s feeling lonely lately. He lost his wife 2 years ago and lost his dog recently. His friend the Professor advises him to get a new dog so Horak looks around but then he is effortlessly seduced by a local girl named Betty who is low on cash and wants a free meal. He pays for all of her food/drink and then heads back home. The problem is now that he’s been with someone else again, he doesn’t want to go back to being alone. No…he can’t be alone! So he quickly marries her but then loses his hearing. He quickly regains it but pretends that it is still gone and realizes that Betty never really loved him. She just wants his money and may be preparing to murder him. What can Horak do about this?

Now I went a little fast towards the end there so lets break this down a bit. The reason why I am not too sympathetic to Horak’s cause is because Betty is not subtle at all. From the start she treats him like trash, insults his house, and generally insults him as a person all of the time. He seems to barely notice because he is so in love with her. Cmon that’s just an awful look. I feel like he has selective hearing at times because she’ll be hurling insults and he half heartedly starts talking about coffee and heads off.

You have to assume she’s not even great at being a scammer because of how she can’t keep the facade of being a nice person up for even 10 minutes. She’s just lucky that he is so desperate. That desperation is what makes him a really poor character. He doesn’t even realize that Betty doesn’t like his friend and so the guy he’s been hanging out with forever doesn’t drop by the house as much anymore. You don’t just ditch a close friend like that.

Most of the thriller aspects are from the second half where he starts to finally see how dangerous she is. The film has a massive plot hole here though. So the characters know that he is super hard of hearing so they can have normal conversations around him but have to yell to get him to hear them. Okay so that’s fine but at one point they want to test him and see if Horak can actually hear or if he’s faking. So Betty yells in his ear and Horak doesn’t react. They’re satisfied but they shouldn’t be. The whole point is that he can hear when the voice is loud enough so why would he not hear a scream at all? He actually should have reacted and their plan should have been different.

Yeah so Horak is really a bad character here. He lets Betty get away with way too much and clearly has no self respect. You can’t just accept being treated so poorly like that, it sets an awful precedent. Meanwhile Betty is a full antagonist the whole time. At first you figure that maybe she’s going to have a bit of a character arc or she’s getting through some things but nah she was just bad from the start. She even has quite the reputation about this which everyone knows about…except for Horak of course. She actually gets off real easy by the end of the film and probably wins off screen due to Horak not properly ending things off when he had the chance.

Then there’s Steve who is a really bad character. The guy is openly cheating the whole time which is already awful in itself. Then there’s the fact that he lets Betty seduce him even while he sees her seducing Horak. He figures that he’s the exception somehow and that she actually likes him but how gullible do you have to be? It’s obvious that he is the next victim in her quest and yet he allows himself to be manipulated with no resistance. By the end of the film he even starts drinking and loses control of himself. The guy’s a villain just like her and he gets off just as easily.

This is really where the film loses a point for me. It’s an interesting title to be sure but the film has a really unsatisfying ending. It’s sort of a let everyone go their own ways kind of ending but it doesn’t work when you have antagonists like this running around. You want them to go to jail or something. Instead they’re free to mess someone else up down the line. Yeah I put Steve in the same boat as Betty because you don’t go as far as he did by just making a mistake. He’s a crook same as her.

At least the Professor was a nice character the whole time but his role is surprisingly small to the point where you could cut him out and nothing really changes. I wonder if he was originally meant to have a bigger role or something because it will just leave you a bit confused as to why he’s here.

Well the writing is good and the pacing is on point so the film succeeds where it counts. The character cast is fairly small so they all get a lot to do. Horak is just a really annoying main character. Maybe that’s why the ending is unsatisfying since the writers didn’t want to give him a big win either. I can understand that but then have them all get sent to jail or something. Make up some crime that they all get framed for.

Overall, This is a good film to serve as a reminder to never let yourself get too desperate. If a situation seems too good to be true then you should look into it. Don’t settle for love either, if you find someone who is settling for you then that’s not a relationship you want to be in. As the cliche goes, you gotta know your worth. At the end of the day even if it means being alone, you need to keep your respect. Horak saved up his whole life and nearly lost it all for trying to rush things. This kind of story is taken to the extreme in a movie like this but plenty of people make this mistake in real life as well. It’s not the best Noir title out there by far but it does more right than it does wrong and will keep you engaged the whole way through.

Overall 6/10

Europa Report Review

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If I had seen this film in the theaters I would have been so disappointed. It’s not thrilling or terrifying. That slogan makes no sense here because it’s anything but that. I found the film to be rather boring with very slow pacing all the way through. Part of the issue is in the found footage way they filmed this, another issue is how they keep jumping around as if this is a poorly directed documentary, but the main issue is that the film just didn’t seem to have much point. It felt like 10 Cloverfield Lane where the whole film is just a set up to the final 5 minutes of the film, only make that the final 60 seconds in this one. So this one was definitely a swing and a miss.

The film starts off halfway with everyone panicking because the cameras are going out. There’s tons of panic and then the screen goes dark as we find out that we lost connection with the space group for over 11 hours and counting. They’re probably dead but then we flash forward to someone saying that they found the tapes so what we’re about to see is the untold story. So then we jump to the beginning where we see that the team is going on a trip to space to find any signs of life on one of the moons near Jupiter. We then flash forward again to the crew getting obliterated and then go back to the start. This time we finally stick to being linear for the most part…but not totally as we’ll cut forward several times for one of the scientists to talk about how scary this was and all of that.

So I had a lot of problems with the film but one of them is all this jumping back and forth because it doesn’t make sense. If the company is finally showing this to people as a documentary, wouldn’t they edit it so this is all chronological? Why show the same scenes multiple times when you’re going back and forth? Sure if you wanted to make the whole thing more dramatic then you could do that but it doesn’t make sense if you’re trying to clearly explain what happened. That’s what I don’t like about the film, the whole story breaks apart the more you start to think about it and that should not be the case.

This is presented in such a way as if it was meant to be a thriller film which takes you out of the immersion because it doesn’t make sense with how this was crafted. I mean the whole thing is pretty hard to buy anyway with how they even got the footage after all this had happened but hey we can endure that I suppose. This is just where you sort of have to draw the line after a bit. Then my other big problem is the whole found footage style of camera work in general.

It’s just not an appealing way to watch the film. The screen is too small and there’s not enough freedom of movement. At least they didn’t throw on shaky cam in addition to that for the most part but this kind of style can at most be bearable if the characters are amazing. If you have a 10 star cast who just dazzle you with their quick wit then maybe you can survive but otherwise with characters that are mainly just generic and a bit lifeless this doesn’t do wonders for them. I need some cinematic camerawork and I needed it right away. The film is losing a lot of points right out of the jump due to this.

Then we come to the main problem which is just that nothing really happens here. The film isn’t even that long but it sure feels long with the crew doing endless safety checks and looking at the monitors. When they finally go outside it’s not like we can see all that much because it’s always very dark and gloomy out there. Yes it’s realistic but most importantly…it’s not that fun to watch. So the film has to take a big L there which is unfortunate. A film’s top priority is to be entertaining to the viewers and so when that goes wrong there really isn’t anything to save the experience. That is absolutely rule number 1.

None of the characters ended up being interesting either. Sometimes I wonder if this is a side effect of the found footage style because in all of those movies everyone tends to come across as really boring which doesn’t make any sense. Sure they tell some jokes here and there, they have disagreements about what to do, but they just barely feel like characters. It feels like the same dynamic you’ve seen in just about any space movie. At the end of the day they get distracted when they see something sparkly and end up getting crushed. Also what kind of a space station doesn’t have a decontaminating room.

That whole sequence made no sense. So some space junk got on one of the guys so he can’t go back onto the ship. Okay….but the whole point of the mission is to land on the planet and do some exploring/mineral gathering. So nobody realized that there was a possibility they would pick up something or touch something contaminated? Cmonnnnnn this just felt like they wanted to go for some drama. The classic moment of one guy having to drift off and slowly die in space is definitely a common one that is used a lot but it’s not something that would enhance a film.

Overall, This was a pretty bad movie if you ask me. Just the fact that it was really boring is enough to doom it but throw everything else in and it’s really a wrap. I did like the visual we got at the end of the film so if they make a sequel that’s an invasion/action thriller title then I would check it out. Otherwise this one tried way too hard to be super low key and while you could do that as a comedy, it doesn’t really work so well as a serious space thriller. There’s just nothing to get thrilled about and seeing the characters start to cry or break down mid documentary makes the whole film feel like it’s trying too hard.

Overall 3/10