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It’s time to play my first 2k title in quite a while. People really tend to like this series quite a bit even though I’ve never been a particularly big fan of it. 2k definitely feels more realistic with its controls but as a result it is a lot slower and less intuitive. You won’t be able to just run up to the basket and score here. Instead you will be having to think or plays and strategies if you want to win.
Despite being a different series 2k has most of the usual modes that you would expect to see. One of these is a simple quick match of course and then you’ve got the season mode. You can practice your skills as well and as you play you will unlock achievements. This was a welcome addition to the game even if the achievements don’t necessarily translate into trophies. This may have been before that era as I don’t think I got any trophies despite beating quite a few achievements. Hey, it’s not easy landing 3 3 point shots in a row!
The graphics definitely look pretty good here as well. I’d say that 2K is going for a bit of a grittier look than the NBA titles and since it’s a college title it makes sense that it would be a little less refined than the NBA stadiums. The game definitely still holds up though. There’s not much of a soundtrack as per usual but that’s not a really big deal.
As I mentioned earlier the gameplay is a lot more difficult here. Don’t expect to jump to the highest difficulty level and take names as you might in the other version. Here even the default difficulty will show you no mercy as it goes in for the win. I found that the best thing to do if you can stop the opponent at times is to simply go for 3 point shots. You’ll make more than you miss and the fact that you get more points than the basic shot will balance things out. Of course the key part here is being able to stop the computer consistently. If you can’t do that then this will only lead to your inevitable demise. If you can’t stop them and have to resort to a shoot out then you need to win the battles inside the paint. Go with quick passes to dunks or close shots. Those have a good success rate and at that point you just have to watch out for steals. I don’t really know how to prevent them but the quicker you release the ball the more likely it is that you’ll be okay.
I’m not all that familiar with how college basketball rules differ from the NBA but it does seem like there are only two quarters (called halfs) rather than 4. Maybe that’s just a game thing but I feel like it’s unlikely the video game would change up the rules like that. It’s a lot more likely that at the college level they just switched it up. This may also determine how much you enjoy the game since a lot of NBA fans don’t necessarily care about the college level and vice versa. You may not be quite as invested in a game that has the same gameplay as one of your favorites but without the character. As long as you’re just a big fan of the sport in general you should be fine though.
Overall, This is a pretty solid Basketball game. As always you can play this for a long time without getting bored as there is a good amount of replay value and every match is a little different. At the same time if you are a casual basketball player then this game will likely get frustrating at times because of how relentless the computer is. They definitely won’t be cutting you a break here that’s for sure. You can buy the game for a buck or two so check it out and let me know if it does best the NBA titles for you.
Overall 7/10
All right team it’s time to look at the latest Godzilla film. With the increased amount of Kaiju action it was certain to beat the last one right? It’s definitely a lot more fun and doesn’t take itself as seriously as the 2014 installment. Rather than go for the slow burner approach this one throws us into the action and the plot is always moving. It definitely has some issues including an incredibly forced scene, but on the whole it’s a movie that stands tall.
The film takes place 5 years after the last one. Godzilla has vanished so naturally humanity is back to being uncivil and generally petty as always. They call in MONARCH and threaten to disband the group. The government believes that all of the Kaiju should be destroyed and also that MONARCH should be under government authority. The latter is admittedly valid as we know what happens when private corporations run around with completely unchecked power. This shady company also doesn’t make any reasonable arguments as to why they should stay private. They deflect all of the questions and put up smoke screens at every opportunity. If you didn’t know better you would be forgiven for thinking that these are the villains. Still, they are forced to leave the meeting early because all of the Kaiju across the world are waking up. King Ghidorah is ready to lead a wave of terror and unless Godzilla stops him…Earth is finished!
As for the human plot, there are a few core characters running around. Madison is currently going through a bit of a tough time as her parents aren’t getting along. Mark has decided to basically watch wolves all day and rest at home while Emma blames the humans for her kid dying a while back and wants to help cause anarchy on the planet. Madison will have to find where her loyalties lie because lives will depend on her actions. It’s a lot of responsibility for a kid, but hopefully she is ready for it.
So, from the 3 main characters Mark is definitely the best one. He really didn’t want to get involved, but once he does the guy doesn’t grumble about it nearly as much as most leads would. He just gets on task and sees to it that the work gets done. He’s a lot smarter than the rest of the crew despite not being an actual agent and always gets to Madison when she is in trouble. There’s not a whole lot more that he could realistically do and he really handled all of the situations well. I would consider him to be an improvement over the lead from the last film. He can be sarcastic and throws in a lot of tough lines to the others, but like the audience he’s probably just frustrated with how inept MONARCH can be.
Emma definitely isn’t a good character though. She doesn’t make for a good antagonist and it’s far too late to feel bad for her during her emotional moments later on as well. Even the other villains comment on how she is so weak willed to even want to abandon the plan at this late stage. Madison is definitely a better character although I can’t say she’s really a stand out either. She’s a bit slow on the ball although I will give her some due credit for ultimately making the right decision. Better late than never as they say. The rest of the characters are pretty reasonable. The human villain is solid and the rest of the crew aren’t bad. They’re around a lot even if they don’t get a lot to do. They at least contribute when it counts. I think that’s enough on the humans though, lets talk about the bulk of why you’re watching this movie.
The monster fights are definitely on point. The action scenes look really good and the special effects have never been better. The various fire effects like for Rodan looked pretty good. The energy attacks are definitely really good and we got a lot of nice backdrops. The soundtrack is also solid with some good remixes as well as new themes. There are a lot of big hype moments that the soundtrack helps to make even better. You’ll definitely know which scenes you’re meant to cheer for.
Godzilla is definitely a solid lead as always. He’s definitely Earth’s defender even if the humans do love stabbing him in the back. He definitely isn’t quite as strong as Ghidorah one on one as the only time he seemed to have the edge was in the ocean fight. Otherwise he was taking a lot of Ls here, but you could tell that anyone else would have been doomed against him. I would have liked to have seen Godzilla use more of his tricks like in the 2014 film with his back lasers, but I suppose there weren’t too many times where this would have been helpful. (It would have made it more difficult for Ghidorah to fly him though)***It was brought to my attention by local G Expert KaijuDestroyer that the back lasers were from the Shin Godzilla and not 2014 so I will have to retract that
Then Ghidorah is naturally a really great opponent as well. He’s always been one of Godzilla’s most iconic villains for good reason. I also like how the 3 heads each had a personality which was cool and Ghidorah even has some accelerated healing. I don’t think there are any real faults to be found with this Kaiju. He really translated well to the new film and is properly portrayed as one of the strongest Kaiju out there. (He’s lucky that Mecha Godzilla wasn’t around though)
However, Godzilla and Ghidorah’s hype does come at the expense of the other Kaiju. There are 17 confirmed Kaiju currently roaming the planet but these two are the only Alpha Kaiju. (Kong may be a 3rd one. The film kept it vague but this would make sense) As a result, the others are all second stringers who simply wait to see who will win and follow the leader. The Kaiju have no agency or free will of their own. Rodan looks really cool for his intro, but once he realizes that he is outclassed he literally bows before the other Kaiju. Longtime Rodan fans will remember that he bows to no opponent. Rodan may not be a hero like Godzilla, but at the end of the day he always follows his own tempo. He’ll aid Godzilla or fight against him, but he’s never a simple lackey. Unfortunately this film reduces him to that and he really looks terrible here.
To an extent all of the other Kaiju besides Mothra look bad. Mothra gets her due credit as a loyal ally to Godzilla and she fights til the end. Mothra’s always been a cool fighter and while her power level doesn’t seem all that high here she does have her crucial moments. The other Kaiju are just here as cameos and it was cool to see them of course, but they don’t get to do much except make sure to let Godzilla and Ghidorah know that they aren’t a threat. I’m thinking Kong’s going to take all of these posers down and that’s when Godzilla’s going to have to step in. Once Godzilla beats Kong in the opening 20 minutes then the film will really start.
Now lets talk about the film’s weak points. One is a scene where we get some animal violence as a few wolves tear into some kind of animal. I forget which one it was, but the scene was pretty vicious and completely out of nowhere. There’s no point to the scene. I’m sure the official reason for including it was to show the animal cycle as an allegory to the Kaiju, but there’s no real reason for it to be here. I feel like films love to shoot themselves in the foot nowadays and that definitely took a star off the film. Then we’ve also got a weak script. I don’t mind the more comedic tone of the film or the puns. I can definitely live with those and even if the jokes don’t land they aren’t that bad. The film does throw in quite a bit of language though. Literally in Madison’s first scene she says the s word at least 6-7 times and of course they had to throw in the one intense word that they are allowed to use nowadays. The writing for the characters made them all feel a lot more juvenile than needed and while it may be more “realistic” it just makes me miss the old 50s films even more.
I’m also not sure about how easily manipulated the Kaiju are. This may be inevitable as the more Godzilla films come out, the more technology we have at our disposal so beating Kaiju gets easier and easier. The Orca is a big device in the film which can scare all Kaiju who aren’t Ghidorah and Godzilla or antagonize them into a fight. It’s done by using sound waves and you can see how this is a problem. If MONARCH can just mess with the Kaiju like this then it undermines their threat. Even Ghidorah gets completely sidetracked when they use the device as the Kaiju don’t seem to have much of a mind. They really do seem to be mindless monsters to an extent or just completely like an animal instead of a creature. Godzilla has a lot of personality but the others are all lacking a bit. The government also shows that aside from Ghidorah they could easily take down the rest of the Kaiju so…..the Kaiju need a power up. It’s a bit worrisome when the Kaiju are the underdogs.
Of course there is an after credits scene so you’ll want to check that one out. It’s a pretty solid scene, I admit that I would have handled it a bit differently, but it does properly set up the next movie. This opponent also makes perfect sense since taking on Godzilla and Kong would require an incredible adversary. It’ll be fun to see how it plays out since a 2 v 1 Kaiju battle should be really cool. I wonder if the film will turn it into a 2 v 2 though and throw in another villain. That’d be pretty neat.
There’s one odd part of the film that probably wasn’t needed, but I suppose it expands the mythos. We find out about the original days of Godzilla and basically another Earth. Based on the statues it looks like a lot of little Godzillas used to rule the world or the humans did completely worship him and erected statues everywhere. The cavemen were a lot more advanced than I would have thought. It’s just pretty random though and I dare say that the paintings are awfully convenient. People already knew that Kong and Godzilla would fight millions of years ago? Likewise, Godzilla and Ghidorah fought in the past before both getting sealed away for millions of years? The film maybe tries to get too deep here, but it’s not really a bad thing. It just felt like it came out of nowhere.
It may be too late to save Rodan’s reputation, but if they really do introduce Orga in the next film I better not see him bowing to anybody. Orga would whup Ghidorah with minimal effort and then take down Godzilla. He’s one of the only wrestling Godzilla fighters and his very presence demands respect. Now, where would I rank this Godzilla film? It’s fairly low as it beats the 1954 film, Return of Godzilla, the 2014 Godzilla (Well, it’s more fun even if it has a lower score) and the 1998 one, but loses to most of the core Godzilla titles. I don’t think the film will ultimately have a ton of replay value due to the long build ups for each hype moment and the human drama, but it’s definitely one that will always be fun as long as you give it some space.
I didn’t mind the human stuff really. Madison and Emma were annoying but the rest of the characters were good. We didn’t get any rushed romance scenes, super dragged out jokes, or overly long scenes of the heroes getting super emotional. There is maybe a little more crying than needed here, but nothing super serious. If there’s any annoying scene that will get you on the second watch it will be the government agents storming a villain base and being completely unprepared. In this situation if you see someone raising a gun you should probably fire. I’m just saying.
Overall, This was a pretty good film. With a better script and getting rid of one scene it would have been that much better. Alas, we’ll have to live with those things, but I think G fans will not be disappointed. It was a long wait, but the movie definitely has a lot more things that it did right than what went wrong. I do think that Godzilla vs Kong is going to beat this one, but I definitely still recommend watching this film. It’s got solid action scenes and it’ll remind you why Godzilla is such a national icon. You just can’t do much better than seeing the King of the Kaiju right? Godzilla will always stand strong.
Overall 6/10
It’s time to look at a really old crossover. It’s definitely not a pairing that you would expect. I’d say that it works pretty well, but as expected Dracula does drag Billy down quite a bit. It’s just hard to make a good film involving a vampire and this one really seals the deal there. The film was so close to at least avoiding the animal violence curse, but it couldn’t help itself. It’s not too surprising since Dracula always goes after the livestock, but it hurts the experience all the same. The character cast isn’t the strongest either.
The film starts off with Dracula showing up and murdering a lady who forgot to open her hand to show off the cross. He then catches a break when Betty’s uncle dies and assumes his identity. He has decided to make Betty his bride and starts preparing this devious plan. Fortunately for Betty she has a friend known as Billy The Kid. He used to be an infamous outlaw, but now he works for the common good. The mother of one of the victims is named Eva and she warns Billy that the uncle is actually Dracula. Billy tries to convince Betty of this, but she won’t hear it. How could her uncle…who she has never seen before, actually be a bad guy? She trusts him implicitly and even allows him to talk tough to her maid. (Eva quickly got a position as a maid) As Betty is a pushover Dracula only needs to worry about Billy now. What can a gun kid do against the king of vampires though?
This film definitely does has its share of fun moments so that does help it surpass the usual Dracula fare. For starters, Billy is a fun character even if he is a little too timid and tends to beat around the bush. Once he had a good feeling that the uncle was evil he should have done more about it. Why give Betty the dangerous mission of constantly antagonizing Dracula if Billy really thinks that he wants to do her harm. Wouldn’t it be safer to go after Dracula himself? Also, Billy’s real confident which is good, but he does not have the skills to back this up.
When he fights with the bully he actually gets completely defeated. I have to admit that I was actually pretty shocked by this. It’s just super rare for the lead to just get owned like that. Then even after the doctor was right about literally everything he decides not to believe her when she says that bullets won’t work on Dracula. This leads to another really embarassing moment for the lead as he goes into Dracula’s lair and gets owned. I like really confident leads of course, but you just can’t afford to be getting wrecked like that.
It does lead to a very interesting scene where we find out that Dracula may be immune to bullets but not to the actual gun. Yeah…this doesn’t make any sense but we can roll with it. Dracula gets completely laid out by the hit to the point where he can’t react when Billy puts a stake through him. Ah well, I’d hold it against Dracula more, but this version of him wasn’t all that imposing anyway. Lets put it this way, multiple characters actively work to sabotage him and he never even murders them. I’m glad for Eva and her husband of course, but why wouldn’t Dracula murder them? They kept laying traps (Okay..not “they” the guy did absolutely nothing in the whole film) for him and telling Betty that he was evil. Taking them out is basically villain 101.
Also, Dracula’s hypnosis is at least one power that he’s still got. You’d think that it would be super effective but Betty is actually able to counter it. At one point when they are in the carriage he makes the face and stares at Betty. It is working for a few seconds until she blinks (Finally, someone realized the trick to stopping him!) and suddenly is back to her senses. You’ll have a hard time finding a weaker Dracula than this one. He has teleportation, but never uses it well and even his super strength feels pretty meager compared to usual. When he gets Billy in the choke hold it takes a while to defeat him. I also wonder what the point of the bat outside was since when Dracula died he turned into a mummy anyway and then the bat died outside. Hmmm.
As I’ve hinted, I didn’t like Betty though. You’d think that she would trust her fiance…who she planned to marry in a few days more than a random uncle that she has never seen before right? The fact that Dracula has any say in her household is beyond crazy. Then he literally puts her under house arrest later on. Betty never actually looks out for herself and comes across as unreasonable. I don’t care how far fetched the story is, you’d think that she would believe Billy. Of course, maybe Billy has gotten beat so many times she doesn’t take him seriously anymore. You’d think hat this infamous outlaw would have looked better here.
It’s rare for both characters to look bad in a crossover but that’s where we’re at. The film’s fun, but it does still have the vampire elements looming over it which hurts. The animal violence scene with the lamb comes to mind as I mentioned earlier and blood sucking scenes also tend to hurt of course. Because of that, it’s unlikely that I’ll see another Dracula film that I actually like, but of course I’ll leave the possibility open. The writing in the film was pretty solid for the most part. The characters may make all of the wrong choices, but that just means they weren’t the smartest characters. Even the sheriff seems pretty iffy as he arrests Billy for self defense. You just know that he wouldn’t have messed with the bully if the roles were flipped.
Overall, This film may have not been a total success, but I really love the concept. This is the kind of film that you just don’t see much anymore which is a shame. Taking two popular icons like this and pushing them together is genius. It’s a fun way to get started with the Billy mythos and I’d be down with watching more of his films. The one gun scene that we did get was pretty fun and the wild west outlaw plot can always work pretty well despite the boring backdrops. If you really like both franchises then this is a film that you’ll want to check out. If you’re also not a big vampire fan then I guess you’ll just want to wait til Billy’s in a different kind of crossover film.
Overall 4/10
It’s time to look at a film that I really only knew of because everyone was constantly taking shots at it. I’m used to amazing films getting bad reviews so that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but on the other hand there are numerous films that are panned for good reason. You never know what it’s going to be like until you watch it. Replicas is definitely not a great film, but I wouldn’t call it terrible either. Yes, there are big plot holes and the characters can be weak, but at the same time the film avoids making “the big mistake.” It does have any soul destroying moments like some films tend to have so that’s good….right?
The film starts off with William having some trouble trying to set up his A.I. robot. He’s been trying to load a human consciousness into one, but they all reject the body and go away. The whole company is going to be shut down if he doesn’t get results soon so William decides to go on a vacation with his family. While his wife Mona tells him to slow down William has no time for such luxuries and speeds down a pitch black highway during a casual hurricane. Naturally he crashes in the water and his family all die. No worries though, William’s co-worker Ed has been cloning animals for years and cloning people is basically the same thing. They clone the family except for William’s youngest daughter since they ran out of tubes. William erases her memories from everyone else since the brain is really just one big computer chip and life goes on.
Unfortunately the numerous problems with this plan start to surface as people who have a real brain and aren’t clones remember that William used to have a daughter and wonder why nobody else remembers her. Then you’ve also got the fact that William’s company is actually an evil terrorist group who wants to use the clones to conquer the world. William’s gonna have to use his A.I. program to stop them, but as he does this he’ll have to wonder why he spent so many years working on a dead-end A.I. project when he could have been cloning people for big profits all this time.
Look…I know this film has dozens and dozens of plot holes and irrational character choices, but another way to look at it is that you’ve just got the least intelligent cast of characters out there. Look at it through that lens and then you’ll be fine. There are hundreds of ways that William could have handled the situation better. He could have actually told the family a lie that would hold up rather than counting on them to not notice that almost 3 weeks have passed. He could have remembered that they all had lives and let people know so it wouldn’t appear that they vanished. He….could have slowed down in the storm, etc. Keep in mind though that he’s a crazed genius who couldn’t make a robot. He spends the first half of the film refusing to make any choices so Ed has to do everything. He’s just not ready for this madness.
There’s less excuse for Jones and his gang though. There’s one scene where they’re chasing the heroes and the heroes run into a hospital to remove the GPS trackers in their body. Mona works at the hospital so at least it is believable that she would know how to do this. However the villains follow them in through the back but don’t bother going to the front to block the exit? They don’t even bother breaking the car so the heroes can’t drive away. None of it makes any sense. Then they have 0 reaction times when the robot appears. I’d also argue that William has no reason to show Jones mercy and make him rich by the end. Why? Why do this?
Ed’s a reasonable friend, but the kind of guy you ultimately can’t trust. He’ll help you out of course, but when the chips are down he falls like a log. He did almost all of the work so either way William would have been doomed without him I suppose. Mona is actually pretty smart compared to the other characters even if I’m not sure how much that means anything next to these guys. She notices that something is wrong and once she figures out the deception she rolls with it as best she can. Mona doesn’t freeze up or anything which is always crucial in high pressure situations. I get the feeling that she would have handled this better than William in general.
The special effects for the robot are pretty bad, but beyond that I thought the visuals were pretty sound. The writing may be pretty bad in terms of structure and logic, but the script could have been a lot worse. There are some reasonable funny scenes in the movie. While the intro is tragic the film doesn’t dwell on it too much. It also doesn’t go for the easy fanservice during the tube scenes which I’m definitely grateful for. I think a good chunk of what makes the film salvageable is the ending. The ending is on point and if it had ended in just about any other way I think the film would have had 0 chance of recovering. There are certain tragic elements that will just end a film if the ending doesn’t do something to help it.
Overall, Replicas was actually decently good. It was entertaining and actually did have a pretty compelling plot. There was no animal violence or anything real sketchy here. The plot holes are enormous and you will have a hard time believing that William is a genius, but the good part is that you’ll feel pretty proud of yourself as you imagine how many ways you could have done a better job. The film is a little long, but I wouldn’t say it drags much. The first half is just a little on the slow side, but the film definitely speeds up later on. Once the villains start appearing it almost feels like a completely different movie. I’d actually recommend checking this movie out, you may just be surprised at how you enjoy it.
Overall 6/10
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