Batman’66 Meets The Green Hornet Review

Posted on by
Reply

000
The classic incarnation of Batman is back once again in a crossover with the Green Hornet. As soon as I saw this collection, I knew that I had to check it out. The Adam West Batman show was pretty great and the comics have done a good job of capturing why this series is so much fun. As good as the first two Batman collections were, this one is the best. Whether it is the added hype of the crossover effect or just the fact that the writing has gotten better, this is one collection that you don’t want to miss.

It was just another day for Batman and Robin until they learned that some rare items were leaving from Gotham to another city. Bruce Wayne felt personally responsible for this and decided to go onto the train as well. Gotta keep up the Wayne reputation right? The Green Hornet in his alter ego also decided to come along under the pretense of a story for his newspaper. The two heroes try to out hype each other as they brag about the local heroes (or villains in the Green Hornet’s case) until someone breaks into the train. The General has arrived and his glue weapons could mean the end for the Dynamic Duo. Batman and Robin prepare to stop him, but the Green Hornet is in their way. As far as Batman and Robin know, the Green Hornet is just another criminal. Can Batman drop him while also dealing with the real villains? Speaking of which, the General is not alone. He is joined by the Joker and stopping both of them will be difficult.

This comic is a blast to read from start to finish. It really feels like you are looking at a new Batman episode from the good ole days. The heroes are constantly making puns, but also reminding each other about defending the law. Batman can barely even stand the thought of working alongside the Green Hornet since the masked man is a known criminal. Seriously, the comic is incredible and the dialogue is easily top notch. You’ll thoroughly enjoy the issues and even the villains have honor as they outsmart the heroes using technicalities instead of tricks.

It almost goes without saying that Batman makes for an excellent main character. He really embodies truth, justice, and the American Way in this collection. He always stands up for what’s right and he gives everyone a fair shake. It’s just what he does and Batman never backs down from a fight. The Green Hornet may have surprised him in round 1, but it’s safe to say that Batman bounced back from that. In a fair fight, I don’t think that the Green Hornet would last very long. Batman also proved that his Batcave and its gadgets are better than the Green Hornet’s.

Robin is essentially the Yes Man on Batman’s group. He always agrees with Batman although you can hardly blame him since the Dark Knight tends to always be right about everything. Robin’s a good sidekick and this is really how he should be portrayed. He can fight and he’s also smart, but he’s just not ready to match Batman in those categories yet. Give him a little time and then he’ll be all ready to roll. His counterpart in the form of Kato wasn’t quite as likable. I found him to be rather arrogant and undeservingly so since he’s not a great fighter. I’d say that he’s weaker than Robin when you think about it. He likes to quote philosophers to psych out the opponents and get some subtle burns in. Kato’s not a bad character per say, but I do find him to be rather annoying. Of course, it helps that I’m on team Robin so the burns get personal.

As for the Green Hornet, he’s a fun hero to have around. He’s similar to Batman although he’s not nearly as heroic. The Hornet is still a hero, but he pretends to be a villain to deal with the crooks. I wonder if it’s a plan that Batman would approve of since it skirts the lines of the law. Telling Batman his secret would have saved them all a lot of hassle, but I can see why he wouldn’t want to divulge such a big secret so easily. So, I don’t blame him for that. The Hornet is a fun foil to Batman and I’m guessing that his old comics would probably be a lot of fun as well. I wonder if he has an ongoing at the moment to match up with the Batman’66 stories.

The art on the covers is trying very hard to look like it’s a live action piece to match the TV show. I’m not crazy about how it looks so I’m glad that the art inside of the issues is normal. It flows rather easily and while Batman’s uniform can still take a little getting used too, it looks sharp. Likewise with the rest of the cast. The art is simple and managed to pull off the TV show vibe that they are going for. The fights are certainly fun to look at.

I almost forgot to mention the villains! The Joker definitely looks like the mastermind of the operation even if he doesn’t get as much screen time as The General. The Joker can hold his own and I was satisfied with his portrayal as he showed a good amount of wit and skill. The General isn’t quite as charismatic and comes off as a generic villain. That being said, his plan was quite good and it would have succeeded against the average hero although the final demand for the millions was rather suspicious.

Naturally, Batman and Robin ended up fighting Green Hornet and Kato on one occasion. The battle was a quick one hit knockout so Batman and Robin fans would likely be disappointed by it. I can safely say that I wasn’t thrilled by it either. Although things essentially equaled out by the end, I just don’t see such a tactic working on the Dynamic Duo. If you ask me, Batman and Robin would win the fight quite easily and you could say that they had the upper hand in all of the other skirmishes. While the outcome wasn’t quite as accurate as I could have hoped, I appreciate the fact that the crossover actually picked a winner instead of making it a generic stalemate. Nothing’s worse than a tie…

Overall, This is a great crossover! From how the characters are portrayed in the collection, I have a feeling that each comic title could holds its own. I’ve already read two Batman’66 volumes so I can say with confidence that it is a good series. I haven’t read any Green Hornet issues so far, but if there are any retro styled ones where the characters act like they do in this collection, it would definitely be a lot of fun. If you’re a Batman fan, you really need to pick this title up. The constant stream of quality dialogue will keep you going and the art is sound. This is a style that I hope more comics emulate in the future and hopefully the library will pick up more collections for the Batman series.

Overall 8/10

Thor Sunlight and Shadows Review

Posted on by
Reply

650267
It’s time to look at a Thor collection and this one actually brings the final issues of the 500 issue Thor series. The story moved onto another title and Thor fans may be a little disappointed in how the series ended as it doesn’t wrap a whole lot of things up. Still, 500 issues is quite the milestone and while I have not read all 500 of the individual issues at the moment, I’ve read a lot of them. This story is bogged down by several factors, which keep it from being a good collection.

Thor has mysteriously lost his powers so he must now learn to live and fight as a mortal. It’s pretty bad timing for him, but luckily he gets his powers back for an issue…only to lose them again. What is happening and why are his powers affected so heavily? He has the Enchantress to help him out, but more questions continue to arise and no answers can be found. Thor ends up bringing back and unlikely ally to tip the scales.

These issues came out during a time when Marvel’s comics were rather chaotic. The art would result in a whole lot of splash pages and everyone constantly looked off model. The fights were typically glorious, but that was about it although the art could be unintentionally humorous. This definitely happens to Thor, but the art just isn’t good. Thor doesn’t really look (or act) like Thor and a lot of the characters do look rather strange. The art is definitely under average although I wouldn’t call it terrible. It could just be more consistent and easier to follow.

Still, the main issue that I have with the comic is that all of the characters are just unlikable. I’m not sure about all of the circumstances surrounding the characters, but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like them. Thor fans in particular will be dismayed at how the title character is portrayed. Gone are the days when he was a very smart combatant who knew when to fight and when to talk. Now, he just fights the villains for fun and he actually hangs out with the Enchantress. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if she was totally reformed, but she still has slaves who attend to her every needs and Thor doesn’t care at all. That’s the oddest part about the whole collection. It’s why the relationship between the Enchantress and Thor has never worked out and shouldn’t ever work out. Thor is a hero so he shouldn’t tolerate such things.

He still is the hero of the story, but this just seems like a huge oversight and it compromises his position of being someone who tries to stamp out all evil. I also didn’t care for the plot where he is losing his powers and the tie ins just make it feel even worse as Thor had to quickly regain his powers for an issue so that he would be ready for the event and then he lost them just as quickly for the sake of the main story’s plot. I definitely don’t think that the comic planned that part out too well.

During the story, a major part of the plot is the fact that everyone from Asgard seems to have vanished and the next Ragnarok appears to be happening. Loki’s behind the scheme, but it’s rather vague and constantly gets thrown aside for the tie ins. The actual graphic novel ends with a tie in about to begin as Onslaught has gotten ready to destroy everything so Thor must join the fray. That fight sounds like it would be fun, but that is sadly not included in this collection. Back to the Asgard plot, Odin makes an appearance and things aren’t looking well for him.

He seems to have lost a match while trying to stop Asgard from being destroyed so he was stripped of his powers and sent back to the 1970’s or something like that. Tired of everyone ignoring him, Odin succumbed to beer and whiskey. He is now a drunk old man who is a shell of his former self. It’s a very sad drop for him and he definitely looks pretty bad. As I mentioned, the Enchantress has not reformed her ways so I would hardly call her a good character either. She also doesn’t have much of a role here although she helps out while in the background.

The only decent character that I can think of here would be the policewoman who helps Thor out. I don’t believe that I’ve seen her before and I guess she was just added to give Thor a contact who was on the force. She doesn’t do a whole lot, but at least she can fight and takes the whole trip to the savage land in stride. The comic had a guest star in the form of Red Norvell and I read the classic comics that introduced him. Unfortunately, he is definitely not likable here. He fell into hard times and went into some shady businesses to keep himself afloat. Thor gives him another chance to have super powers and Norvell takes it, but then the comic is essentially at its end so he doesn’t get to do anything with his new found power. Either way, he just doesn’t seem like hero material.

The comic is actually interesting while you’re reading it, but not a whole lot happens when you look at it in retrospect. Thor fights a lot of average humans, but we don’t get to see any real super threats. It makes sense since Thor is depowered, but the issues needed someone who could fight. As such, we only got a few brief fight scenes, which is too bad since you would expect more than that from the Thor comics. With better characters, the story could have gone places. Instead, it feels a bit like it’s in an alternate universe, which is how I feel about a lot of the 90’s stories in Marvel. Superman had a similar identity crisis over in DC at the time.

The rest of the Avengers make a cameo at one point when they recruit Thor and you can tell that the teamis at a rough spot. When Black Widow is essentially the leader of the group and there’s only one other member, you realize that the villains have likely already won. I believe that Dr. Strange made a cameo here although if he did, I’m pretty sure that he didn’t look so great. I suppose that you can’t win every battle right? As a send off to the Thor series, this definitely wasn’t a great way to do it, but the actual comic series was a lot of fun. It just jumped the shark towards the end of its run.

Overall, This is a very odd Thor comic. It simply doesn’t feel like it could take place in the Marvel universe and Thor is seriously out of character. There isn’t a lot of action to be found here either although the fight scenes are okay. I wouldn’t call this a good comic, but I don’t think that I would consider it to be a bad one either. It’s just around and it made some mistakes. It’s an interesting read, but you should keep in mind that it feels like an alternate universe title the whole time and the actual plot doesn’t get to advance that much throughout the whole graphic novel thanks to the tie ins and a long visit to the Savage Land. If you want to read a good Thor comic, I suggest heading back and reading the classics from the 1960’s. The Marvel Masterwork collections is a good way to find them.

Overall 5/10

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Review

Posted on by
Reply

tomb-raider-2-die-wiege-des-lebens-poster-01
After a long time, I have finally gone and seen the sequel to the first Lara Croft film. The first one wasn’t exactly a thrill a minute so this one really tried to add in as much action as possible. The Cradle of Life shows many glimpses of a world where it could actually have been a solid film, but these glimpses are simply too brief and the film is ultimately plagued by a few negatives.

As for the plot, Lara Croft has finally met a challenge that is too much for her. To get to Pandora’s Box, she will need to get into villainous territory. Her two assistants are already out of the picture thanks to the enemies so Lara is forced to free an associate from prison. This man is there for a reason so this is a pretty big gamble, but the two characters have a long history between them. Now that we’ve got the drama in place, the adventure can really start!

The actual plot isn’t bad and Lara is essentially just embarking on a new quest. Unfortunately, bringing someone along was definitely not a good move as the guy drags down the film. His name is Terry and he’s definitely not a good character. For starters, he’s a total criminal who clearly has not reformed in his ways. He talks tough right from the start, but he still gets beat up a few times and Lara also tricks him on more than one occasion. It becomes very evident as to why the two of them ended up parting ways. They definitely can’t trust each other and both prefer riches to companionship. Terry goes off the deep end rather unexpectedly at one point although I didn’t care for him anyway.

He also gives us the worst scene in the film as he and Lara decide to see if they’re still meant for each other. The long romance scene is an example of a very poorly developed plot and one that is completely unnecessary. After not seeing each other for years and parting on bad terms, I find it hard to believe that they would get back together so quickly. If so, the characters are definitely too easy and it hurts any chances that they had of being likable.

Likewise, the scene also hurts Lara’s character and I definitely don’t care for her here. She’s a character who tries to get in as many one liners and burns as possible, but that also means that they don’t all work. While she claims to be a professional, she nearly dies by staying in a crumbling ruins for too long and her banter quickly dies down when held at gunpoint. She’s a decent adventurer, but she’s hardly a great fighter. (Although, she’s good enough to beat her partners at Kendo) Using her feminine wiles to get through the adventure was really the last straw for her character.

As such, there weren’t many likable characters to be found in the film. I actually didn’t mind one of her partners as he was really petty. In the kendo match, he finally got a hit towards the end of their bout and started celebrating a lot. It’s like fighting on For Glory in Smash Bros where the opponent will taunt numerous times after finally getting an elusive KO. The other member is fairly weak and doesn’t add much to the story. He does try to warn Lara about the fact that the villains are on to him, but she is evidently not the sharpest tool in the shed and misses all of the warnings that he gives.

I need to quickly take this time to mention the fact that it’s not really wise for a treasure hunter to have a very well known mansion in the middle of such a big landscape. Lara doesn’t have any real defenses so any villain organization can just bust in as we saw in this film. She really needs to think about adding some much needed security to make the place a little tougher to break into.

The film was surprisingly a little more violent than I had expected it to be. One of the scenes in the climax involves a man burning to death with surprising detail as he melts. Another scene, which I found to be more intense involved a guy who was poisoned. From the way that the scene played out, it started to look like he was literally spitting out his guts. That likely wasn’t what was happening….likely, but it sure looked like that, which was pretty gruesome.

Let’s quickly look at a nice positive for the film, which is the fact that there are monsters to be found. Towards the end of the film, we find out that there are monster guardians which watch over Pandora’s Box. They can phase through objects and their speed isn’t too shabby. It almost goes without saying that there physical strength is very good. Watching them take down the group of humans was like watching the Raptors take everyone down in Jurassic World. The monsters take their time and methodically take everyone down one at a time. It’s very impressive to watch and it was a fun scene as monsters are just what we needed. They were a little too powerful so we never get to see Lara fight one of them, but the plot hax would have likely been too immense so I suppose that it’s fine.

Some of the special effects don’t quite hold up here though. One scene in particular comes to mind as Lara glides across a city. It clearly looks like she is just being held by a string with a background picture that is moving in the background. That definitely looks fake, but I suppose that we can’t have too many films with good effects right? On the bright side, it’s bad in a bit of a campy way so I wouldn’t call it a huge issue. Just something that it fun to note.

It’s really too bad that the film crumbled as it went along because I did find it to be interesting. For example, the opening scene was fun as Lara infiltrated an underwater temple and the plot began. That was the film’s first missed opportunity as Lara should have fought the villains. A nice fight scene at the beginning of the film is always a fun way to start off. We got a fight later on between Lara and another villain that was fun though. Even if the collateral damage did end up destroying the guy’s “priceless” statues. A film just needs more good qualities if it wants to be good. The plot isn’t enough, you need good writing, good characters, and more. This film couldn’t really pull off any of that as I’d call the writing decent at best. Even the final scene’s humor is a plot that’s probably been overdone a little at this point. You will feel a little bad for the two assistants…but very little.

Overall, The Cradle of Life is definitely not going to be the film to give video game adaptions a good name. It had a fairly interesting plot and the monsters at the end were cool, but that wasn’t enough to make it a good film. Making the poison scene a little less graphic and cutting out the make out scene between Lara and Terry would have helped the film a lot and that probably would have put the film in the clear with a 2 star boost. That being said, the could have/should have case can be applied to just about any film. So, when it all boils down to it, The Cradle of Life simply couldn’t stay afloat and Pandora’s Box just wasn’t meant to be found. If you’re looking for a good adventure film, then you should probably watch Indiana Jones…although I haven’t seen those in a while. Be on the lookout for the CGI ants! As for Lara Croft, we’ll have to wait a long while before we get a film that does the classic games justice.

Overall 4/10

Lego Jurassic World Review

Posted on by
Reply

91uBLYauqyL._SX425_
This game is fairly new and it covers the plots of the first four films! I recently finished watching all 4 titles so it’s fun to relive the adventures in the Lego format. Each film gets 5 levels to itself, which makes for a solid amount of stages to get through. This is the first Lego game that I’ve played aside from Lego Marvel if I recall correctly and it’s definitely fun to check them out. I do like the little nods and fourth wall breaking that they give the dinosaurs.

The first world deals with the first Jurassic Park being unveiled and a few key players have been invited to see if it’s ready to be opened. Their seals of approval are all that the park need, but the T Rex may scare them from doing this! The second world has one of the guys reluctantly come back to the island…the second island anyway to save his friend, but he ends up getting stranded! The third world has the main character of the first film come back to an island filled with dinosaurs for money and has to use his wits to survive. The final world features Jurassic Park. It has finally become an attraction, but a new dinosaur escapes so a master Raptor trainer will have to deal with her! If you’ve seen the films, you’ll understand the plot anyway so I just provided a brief summary in case you didn’t get the chance to view them.

Lego Jurassic World is roughly 7 hours for the main game and getting all of the additional collectibles would likely stretch that to around 20-30. It’s a good length for the game and the average level was around 20-30 minutes although some of the puzzles would make me take a step back and think for a little while. Still, you shouldn’t expect to blast through every puzzle without a few delays so the completion time should still be pretty similar.

If you’ve played a Lego game before, then you should be fairly used to the gameplay and format. The gameplay has a bit of an overhead view, but it’s still 3D for the most part and plays out like Ultimate Alliance. You can punch and each character has 2-3 special abilities like crawling through tunnels or climbing a wall. Once in a while, there will be some minions to defeat and you can just smash them to bits with your punches. Quick time events appear for boss battles like the T Rex vs the Spinosaurus. You can never really lose in this game as you will infinitely respawn, but it’s not meant to be difficult anyway. Playing the Lego games is more about the experience and just enjoying the adventures.

I found it ironic that this game actually fixes some of my complaints from the film. Namely, the animal violence. The pigs will often escape the Dinosaurs in this version and even offer a little chuckle/snortle when they escape. Instead of eating each other, the Dinosaurs will usually just chase one another and even most of the humans end up surviving. Lego Jurassic World is a comedy adventure so it makes sure to never let things get too serious. I rather enjoy this as I don’t want to see the animals get eaten even if they are made of Legos. Like this, you can really sit back and enjoy the game. You’ll even see some Dinosaurs jumping on motorcycles and wearing cool sunglasses. It’s very surreal and epic.

The graphics are decently good. It’s a Lego game so it’s hard to say that the graphics are actually very good or if they are simply decent. Naturally, I will always prefer more of a traditional art style like Mario Sunshine or Super Smash Bros 64, but the actual Lego figures look fairly bright and colorful so the graphics definitely aren’t bad. They did a good job of recreating the areas and considering that everything is made out of Lego pieces, it’s pretty impressive.

The soundtrack is fun as the game tries to remix the main Jurassic Park theme with as many variations as possible. Whenever a Juke Box, Phone, Stereo, TV, or Bicycle bell makes a sound, you’ll typically hear the theme. There must be dozens of variations to find in the game and it was a nice touch. Most of the other themes are likely public domain or from the films, but the classic jingle will is definitely something to keep an eye out for whenever it shows up.

The trophies are all doable and fairly simple to achieve. It will take some time as you must go through all of the levels once again and collecting all of the Lego Pieces will be tricky unless you buy some upgrades. It’s a bit of a grind, but it’s actually very satisfying to break all of the objects around you and gather the pieces. It actually doesn’t get tedious at any point so that’s a good thing. Still, it’s a fair Platinum as they should be time consuming and you’ll have fun exploring the islands as you get yours. That’s a good amount of replay value and getting the Platinum will have meant that you’ll have done all of the extra tasks anyway so I don’t need to go into those. Needless to say, there are many characters to unlock and races to complete.

I’ll admit that I had been slightly hoping that the T Rex would defeat the Spinosaurus here as an in joke for the fans, but the Spino still pulled ahead. Granted, we got to help the T Rex here as it wouldn’t have even been a close fight otherwise. Maybe the game is actually trying to tell us something here….hmmmmmm. Either way, the T Rex will always be awesome and we can’t forget the Raptors. There’s even a twist ending in this game that I assume leads into Lego Dimensions. That will definitely be a fun title as a bunch of different franchises will be meeting up. My Lego video game collection will likely be growing as I get more of these titles, but at least now I can say that I’ve played the latest Lego game. They’re always guaranteed to be fun as the formula is quite sound. They aren’t too short or too long so they’re just right as a break from the other games that I’m playing like Flip’s Twisted World.

Overall, Lego Jurassic World is a fun game. If you like the Lego games, then you’ll definitely enjoy this one. If you haven’t played any before, then this is a nice jumping on point. There are a lot of things to do and you should enjoy it so long as you enjoy Platformers. You’ll be able to really start learning about the Jurassic Park franchise and the humor is well done. Of course, the price is rather high at the moment, but never let that stop you from getting a fun game.

Overall 7/10

The Village Review

Posted on by
2

MV5BMTM1NTEzODQ1NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDUyMDYyMQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_
Time to take a look at The Village! This is the kind of film that you know will be bad before you actually watch it, but finding out just how bad it is ends up being your main goal. Needless to say, the film met my expectations and maybe even exceeded them in that regard. You certainly won’t be missing much if you skip this title and The Village is certainly no NYC!

The main characters all live in a small village where they are scared of the color red and dare not go near it. They bury anything of that color so that the demons won’t attack them. Unfortunately, one of their members is gravely injured towards the end of the film, but that’s actually when the main plot begins. The main character must now venture outside of the village to get some medicine from the outside world, but since she is blind…can she really defend herself against the demons? Only time will tell!

Well…there’s not a whole lot of good things to say about it. The only good thing that I can say is that the design for the villains was decently good. They certainly seemed like a bit of a threat even if they were extremely slow. So, that’s a plus. Beyond that, the film really just makes mistakes at every corner and even the plot twists are fairly predictable even if they should be. Of course, they do help to create a lot of plot holes and face palm moments.

None of the characters are likable so I should get that out of the way first. The main villain is a psycho who wants to hurt people. We’ve seen this kind of villain many times before and it’s never been enjoyable. He just brings the film down more and more. The main character is blind as I mentioned, which makes for a climax that is hard to believe. Are we really supposed to believe that she can traverse through a forest that she’s never been in before and make a multi hour journey over to the nearest town, get some supplies and find her way back home again? There’s just no way and her fight against the “demons” was also rather unbelievable.

The other villagers are all fairly slow on the uptake as they fall for multiple tricks their whole lives. Have none of them considered fighting the demons who are extremely slow and look rather old? Instead, they all hide in the basement and in the attic as if they were children. A whole village should consider defending themselves a little more than that. That being said, this is the same village whose men didn’t mind leaving a blind girl to fend for herself in a harsh environment so we shouldn’t be too surprised.

One of the main reasons why this film was so terrible was that there was also a lot of animal violence. Several animals are skinned and destroyed in very cruel ways. It’s pretty violent and just one of the many reasons why you should skip this film. It’s just distasteful and adds nothing to the film except to remind us that the villagers are all rather insane. The writing is unbelievably bad as well and none of the characters seems to have an original thought. There are so many red herrings that you begin to wonder if there is even a plot anymore.

An example of this is a security guard who throws a lot of veiled threats at one of the workers and the guard never actually appears on screen. He’s just around to intimidate the audience and try to make the film scary. The director/writers probably wanted this film to be really scary, but it ended up just being rather boring instead. At one point, the heroes all discuss their sob stories in an attempt to justify what they have been doing the whole time, but it’s just an excuse to discuss some dark happenings in the film to make the whole thing tougher to watch.

The main guy also deserves to be singled out as to how bad he was. His big scene is basically him yelling at the main girl as he tells her that he can be quiet if he wants too. It’s a terrible speech and he’s basically just being mean to her because he can. I’m glad that the romance never went anywhere as the guy was a terrible role model and makes the kids from Jurassic World look good. I miss the days when the kids were all like Arthur from the famous animated series. That guy knew what to do. The Chief of The Village condones just about anything and his final speech can’t save him. He goes for the Oscar Bait as he gives what he thinks is a heart warming speech, but it is incredibly generic and just not interesting.

The Village is the kind of film that you wouldn’t expect to get a theater release. It feels like an indie film that simply wasn’t good and is relying on the creepy factor to keep itself going. None of the characters are realistic and there’s no good scenery to look at. Forget about having a soundtrack either and I could go on and on about how bad the film was. It’s the kind of film that could almost make Sucker Punch look good. This film wasn’t even exciting or had any good action scenes and it just felt like a waste of time. Luckily, I had extremely low hopes going into the film and had a feeling that it would be something like 1 star, but it’s not always fun to be right.

Overall, Don’t watch this film. It’s time to stop mentioning all of the negatives and just wrap this up as you get the point. This review was definitely a negative one and I can’t begin to describe just how bad it was. It felt like the film dragged on forever and it continues to remind me why I’m not a fan of horror films. You could argue that this isn’t a complete horror film, but no matter what genre it was, it wouldn’t have been good. When the writing is terrible and all of the characters are unlikable, there’s really nothing that can save such a title. Go check out Terminator 2 if you want to see an epic film instead as this Village is just depressingly bad.

Overall 1/10

Death Takes a Holiday Review

Posted on by
Reply

Trois_Jours_chez_les_vivants
It’s time to look at a very old film. This title came out before Star Wars, Godzilla, and even Twister. I haven’t seen many films from the 1930’s so it was cool to see this one. I’ve always thought that the writing in the older generations was better so a film about an average day more or less for the main characters would be more interesting in the 1930’s than for a 2000’s film. After all, it is fun to see how people used to spend their days and how refined the English Language was.

The title is fairly accurate as to the plot of the film. A group of rich people all head to a large mansion and are intent on having a good time. Things get a little worrisome when the host is visited by Death, who has decided to take a holiday. He won’t be performing his usual duties while on vacation as he wants to learn why people fear him so much. The host reluctantly agrees to let him join in on the festivities and Death warns that if any of the mortals find out his true identity…they’ll all have to die!

The film’s quite enjoyable which is always a good thing for a movie. Ultimately, you want to have a good time watching it and the film succeeded for me as I never grew bored. As I mentioned, it’s essentially a slice of life film as Death ponders some deep questions about life, but the film is completely dialogue based. Don’t expect any long chase scenes or anything like that. To an extent, you could also call it a bit of a romance film between Death and the main heroine, Grazia. It’s an old school romance so it’s played out better than 90% of the modern ones. They don’t actually start kissing or acting as if they’ve known each other for years. Rather, it’s played more delicately and the moral involves looking beyond the exterior when in love. It’s a good message and handled well.

That being said, I didn’t care for Grazia. She was rather vague at times and couldn’t always seem to make up her mind. She definitely kept her allies confused the whole time and I’m sure that they were very puzzled as she would faint and practically invite death as she goaded her friend into driving very quickly. You’ll possibly feel bad for the guy as he wanted to be with her, but was quickly friend zones. Grazia even said that she loved the guy…as a friend. That was probably one of the best moments in the film and I still say that it should happen more often.

Death isn’t a great main character as he is not very smart in the ways of humans so he is always slow on the uptake. The plot of an alien or concept trying to learn Earth customs has never been my favorite. Death tries to get the hang of things, but I feel like he should have a better understanding of Earth since he’s always creeping around. Evidently, you don’t learn how to be subtle while sending people to their graves. The host was probably the best character as he did try to shoot Death. While he may have lost his nerve after that, he started out strong and he was one of the more reasonable characters, it’s just too bad that he was so scared.

Of course, you could say that about the whole cast as they were petrified of Death. Even when they thought that Grazia was in danger, they didn’t step in to help her. Fearing death is a little overblown here as the heroes should be willing to risk death to save their friend. Especially the guy who wanted to be Grazia’s boyfriend, he simply backed down when he should have tried to press on.

One part of the plot that was fairly humorous was the fact that nobody could die since Death was on vacation. The film showed various disasters where people should have died and then the newspaper would say that everyone survived. That was neat and certainly fun as the heroes would wonder what was happening. Those people must have been very lucky eh? The most unbelievable for the heroes was the guy who jumped off of a skyscraper and just got back up. I wonder if he got any injuries or if “dying” resets you back to normal. It’s interesting to think about.

The film’s fairly short as it is just a little over an hour. It makes for a very quick watch. The film was good and there isn’t a whole lot of negatives to say about it. The main cast could have been better, but at least the unlikable characters here are still far better than the average unlikable characters from the modern films. One negative would probably be the plot where two of the characters are constantly flirting with Death as it does come across as a little unnecessary, but it’s not too bothersome. It’s just around and then it fades away.

Overall, Death Takes a Holiday is a solid film. The scene where the host is warning everyone not to upset Death was fun as there was a lot of tension in the air and it had a similar effect as if he had told everyone that the guy was Death anyway. Thinking about a world without Death is interesting, but the world would be overpopulated very quickly and the world would be in a state of ruin. The film briefly touches on that and the concept of what happens after Death as well. For Christians like myself, Death holds no sway as we have Heaven to look forward too. This film shows that without such a firm belief as to where you go after Death, Death itself has a lot of control over the individual. In the remake, it would be fun to see a Christian character and how they would interact with Death. That would add a whole new layer to the experience. Either way, I definitely recommend this title. It’s almost a century old, but holds up quite well and is as enjoyable now as it was back in the day.

Overall 7/10

Need For Speed Underground Stats and Records

Posted on by
Reply

Stats Time!

Races 609
Wins 128
Losses 112
Win% 21%
Total Mileage 1009.14
Total Style Points 1677019
Circuit Races 156
Circuit Wins 47
Circuit Style Points 515009
Sprint Races 67
Sprint Wins 33
Sprint Style Points 117599
Drag Races 290
Drag Wins 27
Drag Style Points 103142
Times Totaled 6
Drift Races 96
Drift Wins 21
Drift Style Points 937847

Need For Speed Underground Review

Posted on by
3

66238-Need_For_Speed_Underground-1
This is a game that I’ve owned for maybe 5-6 years at this point. It’s certainly been a very long time and I had played it off and on for a few years. Finally, I decided to crack down on it and complete the game once and for all about a month ago. After many races, I finally did manage to take the game down. I can safely say that it’s not perfect and some areas do hurt it, but as a racing game, it is very good.

The plot involves a new racer in town. This is the guy that you play as and he’s ready to move up the ranks. One of the ladies involved in the scene helps to get you ready and gives you intel about the other racers as you move up the ranks. You must become the best racer in every type of race to get to the end. After a lot of races, you are ready to fight the big boss. The main villain is someone who has plagued you for some time so you’ve been waiting for this. There is actually a secret final boss where a mysterious racer shows up and challenges you. The twist of who is inside it is slightly expected as there weren’t many characters in the game, but it’s still pretty neat. It’ll remind you of the final F Zero GX level.

First off, I have to criticize Story Mode. There are 118 levels in the game. That’s a whole lot of levels and while it is always good for a game not to be too short, this is simply overdone. It took me a grand total of 609 races to complete the 118 levels. If they were 118 original levels, that’s one thing, but most of the time you will be racing on the exact same tracks. Over and over again. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were only about 20 tracks given how often it would be the same ones. Sometimes they would be mirrored to try and trick you, but I count that as the same stage.

118 levels is definitely too much if you ask me. The levels are also decently challenging so just around 40-50 would have still made for a decently long game. Again, it took 609 tries for 118 levels, which shows you just how tricky these levels can be. Sometimes I would have to try a level about 30 times and would only end up winning because my opponent would crash and I would take the chance to leap to victory. I did enjoy that part though as a lot of racing games just make the A.I. completely perfect so they never crash into anything. It’s safe to say that this is more realistic as nobody should be able to navigate these levels without crashing or at least banging into the side rails.

Finally, my other negative would be the soundtrack and it’s actually significant enough to take away an entire star. It’s just downright terrible and they’re going for an underground feel. As such, most of the music isn’t enjoyable to listen too and I’m pretty sure that they’re not very appropriate. That being said, the lyrics are hard to hear since the singers are fairly bad and I ended up just turning the music off for most of the races so I would just hear the sound effects. Trust me, it’s not nearly as fun and it’s sad that I had to go that far.

Otherwise, the game is great as a racing title. The actual gameplay is a lot of fun and while there is a slight nitro boost, you’re essentially playing a normal racing game for the most part. That was a lot of fun and the controls are much smoother than Hot Pursuit 2’s. I can see the gameplay getting even better with the newer additions and this is the main reason as to how I could stick with the game throughout so many races. They would get tough as times and I would have to replay levels, but the gameplay was fun enough that I didn’t mind as much as I could have. I only learned about the power braking towards the end though, which is too bad since it would have been very helpful in a lot of the drift levels.

There is a lot of customizing to be done here and it’s typically required to upgrade your car every 20 levels or so. By the time that you are done, your car will be maxed out in just about everything and you’ll be moving at really high speeds. It’s a double edged sword of course as it can be easy to crash and instead of going with the best car, you may want to consider a slower model. I tried that for a while, but then I remembered that I love to go fast so I used the fastest car for the final levels. I’d say that it’s worth it unless the level has a lot of sharp turns.

The graphics are decently good. I definitely like how the levels look as well as the cars. The human designs are the ones that do tend to look a little iffy as they are pretty undetailed, but I suppose that most of the time working on this game was spent on the environments and cars. That would make a lot of sense so it’s all right that the humans don’t look great. The graphics aren’t perfect, but they get the job done and you can typically see the levels clearly although the overall game is pretty dark so you may need to increase the lighting.

This game was quite the adventure and I’ll definitely be enjoying a nice break from it. Once I’m ready to get back in the saddle again, I’ll buy Underground 2. The only problem is that I’ve heard that it has over 200 levels this time. That sounds even more extreme and I can’t say that I’m too enthusiastic about that, but I want to make it to the newer games already so I shall power through it.

Overall, Need For Speed Underground has improved from Hot Pursuit 2. The gameplay is great and that would have usually been enough to have given the game an 8 star rating. The soundtrack held it back along with the tedious story mode. Seriously, no game should take you over 600 races to complete. That’s simply overdone. The difficulty level was good as it was tough to complete the game, but not overly difficult where you will be wondering how the A.I. can move so fast. Some of the levels were a tad long though and I think that they should all be 3 laps at the most instead of 5-6. Let me tell you, replaying a 6 lap race more than once is no picnic. I definitely recommend getting this game if you are looking for a good racing experience, just have your MP3 player by your side during the races. There are some brief cutscenes which is cool, but there aren’t many of them.

Overall 7/10

Marvel Masterworks The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 Review

Posted on by
2

51VEojDQX+L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
It’s time to take a look at a collection which brings some of the Hulk’s first comics! I’m about 99% sure that I’ve already read this one, but apparently I never uploaded it to the site. Ah well, the re read gave me a chance to review it. The Hulk comics are typically fun and this one was enjoyable, but like always, you end up feeling really bad for the Hulk by the end. He didn’t ask for this!

Unlike the average collection, this one brings 20 issues. The reason why so many are able to fit in here is because Hulk has to share with Giant Man and later on with Namor. So, each issue is only 10 pages instead of the usual 20, which ends up working out quite well. That means that each issue must end quickly so some arcs go on for quite a while like the Leader story. That villain just didn’t want to go down!

Luckily, the issues never actually feel rushed except for the Hercules story. He meets up with the Hulk in the final issue and the fight is essentially over as soon as it has begun. It’s safe to say that the Hulk had the upper hand despite the boasts of Hercules. I’m not surprised since I always considered the Hulk to be much stronger than the Olympian. Hercules is no Thor and I don’t see him ever being such a powerful contender in Marvel.

The first issue was the big fight with Giant Man so the collection started and ended on a high note. It was fun to see Giant Man take a shot at the Hulk since the fight wouldn’t be so even nowadays. The Hulk has utterly surpassed Giant Man and while I would still say that he was the stronger fighter back in the day, it was closer. Giant Man used to be the power hitter for the Avengers, now he’s just the tech guy.

Most of the issues dealt with the Leader as he worked on capturing the Hulk and eventually succeeded. He then forced the Hulk to go to the Moon and steal something from Uatu. That was easily the best part of the arc as the Hulk took down the “strongest fighter in the galaxy.” That guy was bred for combat and the Hulk still schooled him. The Hulk definitely overpowers most of his foes with ease and that’s how it should be.

There was also a mini arc where the government blasted the Hulk with a time ray and Rick Jones ended up spilling the beans about Bruce Banner being the Hulk. I was a little surprised that there was no retcon or plot twist to force the heroes to forget about this. I’m pretty sure that Talbot gets amnesia in a few issues, but Betty will still know Banner’s ultimate secret. His secret identity certainly didn’t last very long now did it?

The art switches about halfway through the volume as the main team comes back to help out. It’s an interesting twist and there’s more of an emphasis on facial expressions. Betty Ross’ hair also turns gray for some reason. It took a little getting used too, but the second half still holds up quite well. I love the old style of art as the artists really had to work on every panel. It’s certainly not as well refined as the modern day stuff and you can probably see some inconsistencies and characters going off model if you’re paying a lot of attention, but it’s still very solid overall. It may not be quite as good as the rest of Marvel’s titles at the time, but it’s hard to match up to those.

The Hulk is a good main character as always. Once again, the whole story is just really tragic for him. He makes another friend, but the guy is naturally killed off right away so the Hulk is left without an ally. The army never gives him a break and he is constantly being framed by the villains or put into very bad situations. At least the Hulk gets a lot of opportunities to smash and it’s always good to see him take the win. His strength fluctuates a lot, but that’s part of his whole gimmick so it’s all right for the most part. Typically, you can expect The Hulk to come out on top in a fight since he just won’t go down and the villains typically have to use gas to take him down. The Hulk is certainly the best character here.

I’m not a big fan of the Leader and he’s always been a bit of a weak villain if you ask me. He’s smart, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of power to back it up and he just feels outmatched if you ask me. At least he has some cool androids, which give the Hulk a good fight. Giant Man and the rest of the Avengers don’t seem too concerned with the fact that the Hulk is on the loose. I suppose that most of them just don’t think that he’s very dangerous so he’s not a top priority. Still, they should at least try to protect him from the government since those guys never give him any peace.

You may have expected this, but the issues are still very hard for the Hulk. He is constantly being framed and used by both heroes and villains. When he finally does make a friend, the guy is typically killed off in the same issue. You really can’t blame him for wanting to retreat and just be alone sometimes, but the government or another villain inevitably finds him. It turns into a never ending cycle of sadness for the guy and it’s why it is always fun to see him on the Avengers. At least he has some teammates that he can count on in those situations, but it would be quite a while until he joined the team again from this point.

As always, the writing is one of the reasons why the Hulk collection is fun to read. The characters are all direct and address each other with some classy English skills that it reminds you of how the language used to be. Even the older slang felt more refined and the villains would say things like “With my wit, I shall overtake your brutish strength!” when battling the Hulk. It’s just easy to read and the pages really flow into each other.

If there’s one part of the plot that’s always a little iffy, it’s the question of how much the Hulk knows. Sometimes, the Hulk is completely mindless and other times he will be able to form quite a few sentences. There was an arc where the Hulk’s mind was taken over by Bruce Banner, but this was separate from those events. I suppose that you can make the argument that the Hulk gets smarter as he grows weaker so that it’s the opposite of the strength factor. Either way, it’s a fairly mild thing.

Overall, This volume of the Hulk is a fun one to read. It’s a fairly stand alone collection with few guest stars, but the Hulk can easily hold his own title. The comics are much sadder than the others at the time, but it never goes too far. Given how short each issue is, you can definitely blast through the adventures in no time. It would be great for the Hulk to get an ally at some point and hopefully he will soon, but they don’t tend to last very long. With good art and solid writing, this is a collection that any Marvel fan can enjoy and the issues hold up well.

Overall 7/10