Summer of Fear Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for an old horror film that has not aged well in any shape of form. “So what are we looking at Bob?” “Well, this film has your usual horror tropes. We have an animal death, rebound characters, a villain who is more interested in seducing than murdering people, no character acting sensible…etc” “Maybe we should say these tropes are just common in bad films then?” “Sounds about right. The film does have a big car chase at the end at least” “Bold move Phil…lets see how it plays out!”

The film starts off with our introduction to Rachel. Her life is pretty complete now as she’s together with the cool kid on campus, Mike, and is even going to enter the big horse competition. She’s got it made, but then news arrives that Julia is going to be staying with her family. Julia’s parents died in a car crash, but Julia managed to live. When she arrives, Rachel’s horse tries to murder her, but is quickly stopped. Something seems off about Julia. Rachel doesn’t know if its the occult possessions that she has around like the cursed marionettes, old horse manes, teeth, etc, or if it’s the fact that everyone seems to be strangely attracted too her. Rachel doesn’t care too much, but slowly Julia starts to take everything away from her. Can Rachel out Julia as a witch or will she simply be destroyed?

The film’s definitely a real slow burner, but it’s one that never feels like you’re building up to something hype. You’ll just be wondering where it all went wrong instead. First off, a teenage girl infiltrating the house as a witch doesn’t even sound all that scary on paper. The film doesn’t go for the scare factor until the final minutes either where Julia shows off her true form. It’s more grotesque than scary, but I guess I’ll give the film some kudos for trying. Julia also has some basic magic powers at her disposal. These include telekinesis, mild super strength, and attraction abilities. She’s just not too smart about using them and instead of holding the main characters in place or something, she drives after them. Since Julia never earned her driver’s license legitimately, she wasn’t prepared for the sharp turns on the mountain. Someone should have told her about the hand brakes.

I definitely couldn’t take her seriously as a villain and what was even her goal? It sounds like she planned to murder them all anyway, but why not do it immediately and then move on? She had dozens of opportunities to pull it off. If her goal was to simply make Rachel’s life miserable and then murder everyone, it’s an unnecessarily risky plan. Rachel could have done something drastic like try to murder Julia in her sleep or people may have found out and stopped her. As it is, Rachel’s Mom started to grow weary of the situation. She didn’t handle it well either, but more on that later. Julia’s just not a very smart antagonist, or even a particularly strong one.

I didn’t like Rachel either. Noticing that Julia had a picture of her with sores and then having it happen should have been the big tip off. The horse tooth/mane as well. Instead Rachel would go about it in the worst way possible like yelling about it in front of everyone so they think she’s crazy. Then letting Mike go off with Julia to the dance wasn’t a good move either. Finally, Rachel got a picture of Julia to prove that she was a witch, but instead of convincing the Mom to develop it she starts stating her accusations. Before calling someone a witch, you should probably think all of the angles through. It’s just worth a few extra moments to think of a more surefire plan if you ask me. She could have made a deal with the Mom like saying she’d try harder to bond with Julia if she had a picture. So much for that though.

The Dad looks pretty terrible since he falls for Julia’s charms and gets mind controlled. The same goes for Mike since mind controlled or not, he went for the rebound right away. Mind Control isn’t really an excuse that I buy into. The Mom notices that the Dad starts to be unfaithful, but she does absolutely nothing about it. At the very least you’d want her to get Julia out of there or to confront her. She just cries about it and leaves town for some shopping. Not the best way to handle the situation, but it’s a good way to leave Julia unsupervised in a house of potential targets.

As I mentioned earlier, to add injury to an already broken film, a horse dies. Julia got it out of the way because it knew the truth about her. If only Rachel had acted sooner this could have been avoided, but not this time since everyone was too slow. It’s definitely a pretty annoying scene. It’s reminiscent of the whole film though as you’ll be annoyed throughout the movie. None of the characters are on the same page and as a result Julia just walks all over them. It was also awfully convenient that nobody knew how Julia was supposed to look so they didn’t know she was actually someone else. I’ll assume there was no mind wipe here so it was just a plot device.

No worries, there is a twist ending here. I can’t say that it’s very thrilling and I suppose you’ll only get a kick out of it if you’re a big Julia fan. You just know that this next family isn’t going to fare too well against Julia either. You could argue that their best chance is to be totally oblivious to her, but she’ll still murder them anyway so it’s a lose-lose situation. At least the cops took the situation in stride so maybe one of them will recall the former case and attack Julia. More likely he’ll turn over his badge to her though so you can’t count on that.

Overall, This film was definitely a flop. It never even feels like a horror film and is instead like a very poorly written drama. There’s no intensity here, just bad characters and writing. I think the only character that seemed to be okay was Rachel’s best friend from the hospital. She was reasonable and much more likable than the others. It’s probably for the best that she didn’t appear much or things may not have ended well for her. We had the occult professor who knew about Julia’s tricks, but still didn’t do anything to stop her from defeating him. His only purpose in the film is to confirm Rachel’s fears, but we didn’t need him in the film. She would have been forced to accept the situation at some point anyway. There’s just not much to like about this film and I can’t see any reason why someone would want to check it out. I’d highly recommend you avoid this film as much as possible. It’s not good as a horror film or as a romance title. It’s just a film that you want to forget as quickly as possible.

Overall 2/10

Thor vs Bi Beast

Posted on by
2


Thor
The Bi Beast is typically a Hulk villain, but he did go up against Thor once in the past. The fight didn’t go very well for him although he landed some nice blows. He is a powerful foe to be sure, but Thor is easily the better hand to hand fighter and has enough power to deal heavy damage to the Bi Beast. A few swings of Mjolnir and even the mightiest of foes fall. Thor will not even need his lightning for this fight. Thor wins.

Ingress Stats and Records

Posted on by
Reply

Stats time!

Level 7
634564 AP
2 Silver Medal
7 Bronze Medals
9 Locked Medals
376 Unique Portals visited
37 KM walked
1725 Resonators Deployed
181 Links Created
32 Control Fields Created
345 Portals Captured
258 Mods Deployed
131 Resonators Destroyed
58 Portals Neutralized
11 Enemy Links Destroyed
11 Enemy Control Fields Destroyed
1102 Hacks
111 Glyph Hack Points
Longest Hacking Streak 32 Days

Ingress Review

Posted on by
4


It’s time to look at the game that came before Pokemon Go. Not many people know this, but Pokemon Go was actually copy and pasted from another game that Niantic made first. Copy and paste may be strong, but both games are quite similar and you can see how Ingress is essentially the beta version. As a result it’s pretty fun, but it really lacks the key aspects that make Pokemon Go so addicting and thus you’ll find yourself bored before long.

In the first place I picked up Ingress only because I wanted to be able to submit ideas for Pokestops in Pokemon Go. That seemed like a pretty fun goal to me, but then they said you had to be at least Level 10 to do so. That was when I stopped playing. I made it to Level 7, but each level doubles the EXP you need so it would have taken me a year at the most but at the minimum probably 8-9 months. That would be time that would have taken away from Pokemon Go and it was simply too much of an investment and I’ll let other players handle that one.

The goal of the game is to take over various points in the world for your team. There are the Green and Blue teams in the game so I went with classic Blue. Each location is essentially a Pokestop. (A little circle with a picture) You can drop off shields at the place and little generators to claim it as your own. If someone else owns it, then you have to destroy their generators before placing your own. If you take over multiple locations, you can use a Field Link to merge them and control a larger area. Nobody can take over a space that is in your area so it’s a good way to shut the opponent down. There isn’t really an end to the game but like Pokemon you can effectively say that you’ve beaten the game when you’re Level 16. That would take a really impressively long time to accomplish as well.

It’s tough going when you’re in the early levels since your weapons and defenses are weak. It will be impossible to take down any barrier that a high level has placed so stick to visiting all of the stops and getting what EXP you can. It’s really a game that is meant to be played while you’re exploring since there’s not a lot to do otherwise. There’s nothing to do if you stay in one place unless you live on a stop. (I live on two which is helpful but after spinning them then you’re stuck again) It’s a good game on the road and I may enjoy it more if Pokemon Go didn’t exist. This game is Pokemon Go, but without the Pokemon or the Gym Battling which makes it quite a bit less encicing.

Once you start playing you’ll get hooked on it, but eventually the fad will pass. I’d say that I lasted quite a while all things considered. Maybe I’ll check out the game again someday if they lower the level limit, but all mobile games stop eventually and this is just my time for checking out. The graphics are okay, but it’s not as if there is much to show. There are no creatures or anything, just a few simple animations. There is no real music in the game. There may be a main theme although I can’t remember it, but it won’t be earning any stars in that regard. As far as replay value goes, it’s essentially infinite so that’s a plus I suppose.

The game is at its best if you’re playing it with a few friends. Since it’s about taking over the neighborhood, it’s naturally fun with a group. On your own, you’re outnumbered and you’ll just have to really enjoy the process of playing the game since anything you do will likely be undone by the time you go back home. This will depend on how busy your area is of course, but at least in mine there are a ton of active players. Then there are also the likely bots and spoofers running around as well.

Overall, Ingress is a well made game, albeit a limited one if you’re on your own. It’s just very repetitive and while you can say that for just about every mobile game, it’s not quite as enjoyable as those. The game is also very vague on everything so if you want to learn what you’re actually doing it is advised that you look for the information online or go straight to Reddit. If you’re outside a lot and like visiting places then it’s a good idea to download this app and have fun getting the points. On the other hand, I’d recommend doing the same with Pokemon Go. At the end of the day, you need to decide which game is more fun and just pick one. You can’t have both open at the same time with one phone so if you play both then one is always missing out. That’s why I ended up choosing Pokemon. Ingress definitely wouldn’t rank as highly as most of the other Mobile games I’ve played, but it is tragic to an extent since it probably would get a much higher score if Pokemon Go didn’t exist. It’s just how it goes and you can’t help but compare the two as you’re playing. Maybe one day they’ll link both games with rewards or something, that would definitely be interesting. I am also interested in the new Harry Potter game that the company is working on as well. That should definitely be fun but like Ingress I’d probably only check it out for a little while. Ingress lasted a month and a half before I called it quite, we’ll see if Harry Potter can even last that long!

Overall 6/10

Cottonmouth vs Robin

Posted on by
Reply


4138944-cottonmouth_02

Suggested by iKnowledge Cottonmouth has returned to take on Robin. Cottonmouth appeared in Disk Wars which could amp up his speed and power, but I haven’t found any evidence to this being the case so for now I’d definitely take Robin to win. Robin would be able to overwhelm him in close quarters combat so Cotton’s famous mouth won’t be all that useful. A good bite is pointless if it’s not able to connect after all and it’ll be hard to tag Robin. Robin has too many gadgets at his disposal as well. Robin wins.

Steppenwolf vs Thor

Posted on by
Reply


Steppenwolf_Prime_Earth_001.0
thor-ragnarok-thunder-powers-eyes-1048132
Suggested by Big Red Steppenwolf is a powerful fighter. He may have been treated as a joke in the old cartoons and comics, he has finally been shown to be a very strong antagonist in the New 52 and in the recent Justice League movie. He has bested powerful opponents like Superman and Wonder Woman in the past (Albeit it with cheap shots) and has enough strength and speed to dispatch most heroes in an instant. However, Thor isn’t like most heroes and has enough power and speed to keep up. At his best Thor may even be faster than Steppenwolf and his hammer will give him the range advantage when trading blows. It’ll be a tough fight, but Thor should be able to snag the win here with his wider arrange of attack options and his edge in stamina. Thor wins.

Phantom vs Kirito

Posted on by
2


header_3
swordart13sourpuss
This is a tribute to The Phantom. The Phantom does his bit in making the world a safer place but he isn’t very strong. He is basically just a human wearing tights and while he is stronger in the comics, you never see the guy going too far in the long run. He certainly isn’t ready to take down an opponent as skilled as Kirito. Kirito has more sword skills at his disposal than most people’s array of normal skills. His legend will continue to grow with this victory. Kirito wins.

Daniel Larusso vs Mama Bear

Posted on by
2


fa98e280f9a81babab28394fbabb50a1_crop_exact
hqdefault
Suggested by Destroyer Daniel is the legendary Karate Kid and he knows some pretty good hand to hand skills as a result. He is not the kind of opponent that you can take lightly. Mama Bear is a bear so that works to her favor but she isn’t much of a fighter and doesn’t have the reaction times that she may have once possessed. It is a reasonably close fight since Daniel isn’t fully grown yet, but I do think he is old enough to deal enough damage to claim victory. Daniel Larusso wins.

Shosetsu Kirisame vs Armorknight Cerberus

Posted on by
Reply


unnamed (5)
Suggested by Sonic Kirisame is a skilled sword user who basically stopped appearing since the 2nd season but shows up once in a while to have some fun. This has hurt him in regards to getting new cards but the ones that he already has are pretty good. I doubt any are a match for Cerberus but how about if they all team up in him? Cerberus is strong but I think at that point they would be able to overpower him. Especially since Kirisama will be in there as support with his own skills and magic shields. Shosetsu Kirisama wins.

John Marston vs Sonic

Posted on by
Reply


Johnmarstonwikiinfobox

Suggested by Anonymous John Marston is one of those guys who wouldn’t last long if you put him in a strong universe. The guy is effectively just an ordinary guy now with a gun. That’s still not bad depending on your opponent but it won’t help him last long against Sonic. Sonic can out run all of the bullets and take John out in a second. John isn’t ready to handle an all out barrage of attacks. Sonic wins.