Tag Archives: Action

Alligator II: The Mutation Review

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It’s time to see just how powerful an alligator can be! The first film was pretty terrible but maybe this one would be an improvement? I do think it was the better film although I ultimately still can’t say that it was a good one. The main problem is of course that with an evil alligator on the loose, you know that some animal violence will be soon to follow. The movie actually keeps itself a bit more tame than I would usually expect in this genre though so I will give it some credit here. Not a ton of credit mind you….but some.

The movie starts with two fishermen underestimating the terrors of the night as they are murdered by a giant alligator. This area has been heckled by the wealthy businessman named Vincent for a long while as he is trying to buy out all of the land and so they figure he had something to do with it. In a sense they’re right, but it’s not like they can prove it. So David decides to look into this as he’s used to doing things against the book as a cop. Unfortunately it’ll be difficult since Vincent has bought out the mayor and so now the cops are forced to be rather hands off. Vincent’s certainly not going to be of any help so David has to work with the rookie cop Rich in order to stop this threat. Meanwhile Vincent hires some pros of his own to do the job in the sneak. Which group will destroy the alligator first?

I guess corruption and evil millionaires are par for the course when it comes to these evil animal films. Vincent definitely carries himself well though. I appreciate all of the threats and he really did have the mayor cornered throughout the movie. Near the end he even managed to get him alone to finish the job. Vincent’s one of those villains who never let his guard down and by the end of the film it took quite a lot of people to defeat him. Most impressive I gotta say.

The mayor looked rather terrible throughout though. As soon as you let people blackmail you the way that he did, there is no way out. They’re just going to keep on doing it, over and over again until you are completely out of the running. I sort of expected that the mayor would do something but no, he just ended up staying scared all the way through to the end. His daughter Sherri had a lot more backbone as she was trying to fight against the injustice.

On the heroes side, we had the rookie cop, Rich. That guy wasn’t very good though. Letting himself get drunk is a terrible idea since a cop always needs to be ready. He also misses his shots when it counts so he’s not really the guy I would want to watch my back. He’s not a terrible character or anything but he is unreliable and that’s a really important factor in a mission like this.

David does well as the main cop. This is clearly not his first rodeo and he handles himself like an absolute professional. It’s what you would expect from the main character. He’s more concerned with justice than following the rules and that’s why he gets the job done. He has the respect of the people within the neighborhood for this same reason. The rest of the characters are definitely not able to catch him. Now the film does make it a point to show that he does take this a bit far to the point of obsession where he won’t be home much and that makes things tough on his wife and kid. He can probably find a better middle ground but at least he is getting results.

His wife also does well here as her scientist specialty helps her figure out different things like a possible weakness for the big alligator. It’s always nice to see both members of the main couple contributing like this. We also got some help from one of the local gator experts. He actually puts up a fight and lasts for a little while which is nice since initially his group was not looking very impressive at all. For a while there I was starting to think that they were all frauds.

The movie can’t avoid the animal violence in the end though as we do inevitably have to see the alligator get taken down. Additionally, it’s a shame for the gator since he doesn’t actually get a ton of screentime. Half the time when he’s eating people you aren’t really seeing him but at least his presence is felt throughout the movie. You may have been expecting a huge cliffhanger for this film like the first but surprisingly that’s not really the case.

The film also has a difficult time trying to make you buy into the main romance that is set up between the rookie and the mayor’s daughter here. I mean, finding the guy locked in the bathroom is not a great first impression and I would argue things only look worse for him from there. The main couple is already married which makes that romance a lot easier.

In the end I feel like the human plot was a lot more engaging than the animal stuff. I could have had fun with the whole thing being about Vincent trying to take over the neighborhood and shooting anyone in his way. He was clearly good at this and had the political power to pull this off. I’ll take the conspiracy stuff any day as opposed to the evil animal plot where the animal is really minding his own business and doesn’t want to fight. You feel bad for the creature.

Overall, Alligator II isn’t a whole lot of fun. It’s a decent adventure and another short film so the pacing is fine but it’s not really doing anything different with the creature. The alligator crawls around and looks menacing but that’s about it for most of the animal scenes. You are rooting for him to take down all the pesky humans invading his turf and it’s not nearly as bloody as something like Piranha. Still, the alligator is going to get stabbed and then blown to bits and you don’t want to see that. I’d recommend skipping this one. If you have to watch an evil animal film then it beats a lot of the alternatives, but it still doesn’t quite step into the realm of being a good movie.

Overall 3/10

The Mechanic Review

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It’s time for a film that definitely doesn’t have a very positive aura about it. This one is satisfied with being a bit more of a downer and unfortunately that does end up hurting the film. If the film could have balanced in some more upbeat moments or maybe gotten a better main character cast then things could have been different. You may still appreciate some of the creativity in the murder tactics here but that’s about it.

The film introduces us to Arthur who is one of the top hitmen in the world. He takes out the targets that he is given with pinpoint accuracy. He has been at this for a long time and so he is fairly wealthy and has a lot of resources but at the same time he can also be a bit lonely. He has even gotten desperate enough to hire a girl for a roleplay relationship which shows just how down he is. Well, one day a guy called Steven shows interest in his work and Arthur sees that this guy is a total psychopath. So he recruits him, will this be a fatal mistake?

The first rule of being a hitman is not to trust anyone after all. You see first hand what happens to people who do begin to trust others and it’s not pretty. Additionally, Arthur quickly finds some suspicious things about Steve but looks past them. He is really hoping this will work out but I give Arthur credit for having a backup plan which is more than most characters would have in his position. Without that, I would have been considerably harsher on him.

I don’t like Arthur either way, but at least his reputation is deserved. His most impressive scene was probably at the beginning where we see him prepare numerous death traps for someone so that if any of them fail, he will have a few backups. It was a good way to set the tone of just what he does. Arthur doesn’t like flashy kills. He’s not walking around with grenades or something like that. He likes the preparation phase and making sure that things are lined up just right.

This doesn’t work so well for his bosses who like their feeling of power even more than the results. Meanwhile Steve is far less likable because he just feels more psychotic. For Arthur this feels like a job while for Steve it’s a total infatuation. We get a long scene where one of his friends decides to check out of life and see if he will stop her. Naturally he doesn’t and just makes a bunch of jokes before leaving. Yeah it was a toxic move on her part but it doesn’t make his response any less disturbing.

You may need that kind of mindset to a degree to become a hitman but it definitely didn’t help his case at all. The guy was so smug that you definitely wanted someone to be able to take him out. He makes some basic mistakes during the missions as well and never seems to have a lot of self reflection. Definitely a liability so Arthur’s bosses were right about that. Also the more people you bring into the fold, the more that things can go wrong.

While the film could be a bit dreary, I do think that the ending was just about perfect. It’s a really satisfying climax that ensures one character doesn’t just walk away. That would have probably been one of the worst case scenarios here. it’s not like a villain can never end up winning in a film. I’ve seen a few where the heroes lose out and it works well enough but this guy is one where you’re just rooting really hard to keep him from securing a victory.

The writing is good enough here. You see everyone being polite and really fake the whole time. It’s a good reminder to be careful because even if someone seems really personable and sympathetic, they may actually have been hired to bump you off. One of Arthur’s victims certainly didn’t think that one of his old friends would be the murderer but that’s how it goes sometimes. You don’t have to live in a very paranoid way or anything like that, but just keep your guard up.

If you do want to be paranoid though, this film shows the importance of setting up little traps in your apartment. Tiny pieces of paper or things arranged in a way where you’ll know if someone was inside your apartment while you were gone. There are lots of clever ways to set this up and if I lived by myself I would definitely do that. In the worst case, you’re just doing an extra 10 minutes of work every day so that’s a really good risk/reward ratio.

Overall, This film wasn’t all that good but I wouldn’t call it awful or anything. In fact if you cut out the scene with the girl bleeding to death then I think the film would have broken even. To me that moment was just going a bit too far in how bleak things were. It’s sad to see so many empty characters in this film. At least with the main two, they knew the risks here and are primed for a rough outcome, but some random person who didn’t seem all there? That was a bit much. I also would have preferred if Arthur handled himself a bit better since that fake romance just made him look so bad. It may have just been a quick scene but it was a rough moment for him. So if you really enjoy films about hitmen then this could be worth checking out, but otherwise I would say to give it a skip. There are better films that focus more on the villains.

Overall 4/10

GI Joe: Operation Blackout Review

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The GI Joes have returned and you could say that his game is definitely a lot more intense than the previous one. I wouldn’t call it super high budget or anything but I appreciated that it was trying to be a full adventure. The third person shooter action works really well as you’d guess because that genre is one of the best. It’s a game that is reasonably short but not super short and since you can get the game for a good price, it doesn’t feel bad. I would definitely be recommending this one.

The main story sees the GI Joes going up against Cobra once more. Cobra had been quiet for a while but it turns out that they were just biding their time and they launch an all out offensive against the heroes. This results in most of the Joes being captured so the last remaining ones have to find a way to launch a counter attack. Meanwhile everything is not well within the Cobra household as 4 different members are all betraying the commander and working on their own plans. He will have to try and deal with them before it’s too late.

I’m not the biggest expert on GI Joe so based on the vibes in this game, it definitely looks like the Commander could use some more loyal allies. If he has to be constantly watching his back all while fighting with the Joes, then that’s not going to be a good combination for him. To be sure, he doesn’t end up looking good in this game and that’s impressive since part of the whole premise is that his side won for once. That’s why you can’t get overconfident.

The game was definitely made with a multiplayer mode in mind. Easch level has two playable characters, the second will be controlled by the AI when playing single player mode. You typically have to defeat all enemies in an area, proceed to a checkpoint, or stay inside of a circle to conquer it like in Overwatch. There are 17 missions in the game and each one tends to range from around 8-10 minutes. The default difficulty also gives you a mild challenge in some areas.

I died quite a few times but it never feels bad because the game has a really excellent checkpoint system. You will see respawn points constantly so you never lose more than a few minutes of progress. Some characters have better weapons than others so you really want to be careful who you pick on the character selection screen. That said, just try enough times and you’ll be fine. It’s one of those games where you just have to brute force it. Also sometimes when the mission is about getting to a checkpoint, the best thing to do is just run through the enemies without fighting.

Sometimes their aim isn’t that great and you will make it without any real issues. Other times you will end up dying and then you have to play it the traditional way. The different kinds of weapons vary between standard guns, explosives, and lasers. Generally lasers are the best. Yes, they deal the least amount of damage but the ammo and nonstop firing makes it worth it. They are on a completely different level. The enemies are always moving around so quickly that it’s just easier to follow them with an endless stream as opposed to trying to time the bullets perfectly.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty good. The cutscenes don’t have a lot of movement to them but I’m just glad for the fact that we have cutscenes in general. That’s something you wouldn’t have expected too much of for a cheaper game. It would have been dialogue based or something. The voice acting is fun and the graphics within the gameplay as also on point. You definitely won’t see any complaints from me in that area. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a soundtrack so I guess you can’t win them all. I would have liked some fun rock themes or something there.

There are also a few vehicle levels. These tend to be pretty easy and seem to just be around as a change of pace. You have to try and dodge land mines and defeat opponents while racing to the goal. It’s essentially a straight road as you get to the end of the game. You just have to keep on driving and driving until you get there. There are a lot of health containers in these levels that are hard to miss which is why the levels feel so much easier.

One last gameplay tip for the standard levels, your close quarters attack is really good against most bosses. Don’t try it on Storm Shadow since his sword will slice your health bar apart but on the other bosses it is the best way to whittle down their health. I was able to complete the final boss way quicker than most of the others in the game because of that. I just went in swinging and they went down extremely quickly. This is because your close quarters attack cuts through the shield and straight to their health bar but of course the same is true of theirs so watch out for the counter attack.

Overall, Operation Blackout is a pretty fun game. It’s nothing fancy, you’re not going to find a lot of fancy gameplay mechanics or anything like that. At the same time, the fundamentals are sound enough to where this is the kind of game you could really recommend. It takes you back to a simpler time of gaming where you only needed a few buttons to play through a game. You can pick this one up and play it at any point without worrying about what the advanced combos were or how you’re supposed to be playing it. Not bad eh? Hopefully more GI Joe games come out in the future.

Overall 7/10

Hard Times Review

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It’s time for a film about boxing that is not Rocky. Rocky will always be the definitive film of this kind of genre but of course there are others that also throw their hat into the ring. Hard Times is definitely more of an underground kind of fighting film though and so it doesn’t have the classic glamour and sportsmanship of the tournament battles. In these fights, you can always expect things to get ugly.

The film starts off with Speed hoping his fighter will win a match but the guy is crushed again. That’s when a man named Chaney shows up and declares that he can win a few fights. Speed watches him demolish his first opponent and realizes that this guy is the real deal. So they make a deal to be partners and Chaney gets Speed to agree to his terms of 50/50. Things are going well at first as they win some fights but Speed quickly gets greedy and starts betting more and more money. He takes loans from some dangerous sources and also keeps up his gambling habits. It will all catch up to him soon, but will he bring Chaney down with him?

Now of course gambling is a serious addiction and not something that is easy to turn away from. So I’m not saying it would have been easy but Speed definitely needed to have had some level of restraint. He was already in a rough spot before the event started and then after that he should have been feeling really lucky that Chaney won the super high bet. Instead by wasting it, he has a run in with the mafia and things only get worse from there.

I wouldn’t have blamed Chaney if had just left Speed to the mess that he created and skipped town. It was absolutely not Chaney’s fault that things went that way but of course Speed would have been murdered and it’s hard to just leave knowing that is going to happen. So Chaney takes the high road and risks his life once again. Fighting is never a joke, things can escalate in an instant and so you don’t want to do it unless you had to. Chaney is good at what he does and fight in order to make some money to get to his next destination but he’s not just fighting anybody.

Also he got very fortunate that his opponent was a class act and refused to cheat. In a battle with the mafia present, that is certainly far from a guarantee. So I give his final opponent some respect there, I don’t think any of the other villains would have held back in the same circumstance. They would cheat as much as they could in order to win any fight.

Outside of the fights, it’s not like Chaney was a super good guy though. He has an affair with a lady named Lucy for a good chunk of the film and the whole romance is as shallow as possible. Definitely not the kind where you’re rooting for the pairing. There’s no love there, only convenience on both sides and hopefully Chaney can go a bit slower when he starts fresh in the next town.

I get the feeling that Speed and his doctor Poe are going to be continuing to get into more and more trouble on their side though. Poe never kicked his drinking problems and Speed is still gambling. Chaney has given them a true fighting chance though so hopefully they can keep themselves on track. The underground circuit will always exist but you definitely don’t have to be a part of it once you have all of the money.

The fights themselves are pretty solid as well. You definitely feel the power in some of those blows and it’s not like Chaney was blowing through his opponents. He was clearly the best fighter in the movie but still had to use a lot of good strategy to win. It’s always more impressive that way as opposed to coming in and winning with a single punch which feels less realistic when you’re battling other pros.

The dialogue and writing as also pretty solid. It’s one of those films where there are certainly a lot of threats being flung around but they generally still have the villains putting on the pretense of being polite. I also liked that while Chaney may not be as book smart as some of the others, he is extremely street smart and wasn’t being pushed around by anyone. The scene where he is ready to walk away from the deal when Speed is immediately trying to scam was a good moment for example.

I think to boost the film up a little, I would have either made Chaney more likable or the doctor. So instead of all 3 characters having their vices and not making the best decisions, have one of them actually be a true professional. That character would walk away midway through the film while the other two get greedy. For Chaney you could also just get rid of the romance angle or for Poe, not introducing him as an alcoholic from the start. I think it would have worked to have made the film not quite as grim since all of the leads ere gray at best.

Overall, Hard Times does a good job of showing how dangerous boxing can be. It’s definitely not a profession that most people choose for the joy of it. You’re either poor enough where you have to take a gamble, or one of the rare few who just enjoys fighting to such an extent that the risk is worth it. Chaney likes his lifestyle of travelling the country and not having to work a standard job so to him it makes sense. Win a few fights, then leave and restart. Still not something I’d advise, but to each their own. It’s a good film and doesn’t make any big mistakes but I’d also say it’s just not the most fun title out there. It’s a bit on the dreary side even if the ending does lean as positive as it can be.

Overall 6/10

Loki: Season 2 Review

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It’s time to close out the Loki saga over here. Season 1 was pretty fun with a lot of interesting concepts and the TVA actually worked rather well as a centerpiece. This season spends a lot more time, buying time, if that makes sense. As a result it does tend to be a little less exciting and I felt like the season didn’t really hit its stride until the final episode. You almost could have jumped right into that. It’s still a good season and you should definitely check it out if you watched the first one. Just be prepared for some of the slower pacing you’ll have seen in a while.

The last season ended with Loki failing to stop Sylvie from murdering Kang which started a whole chain reaction that changed the TVA. Now nobody even remembers Loki and he’s time spazzing all over the place. He needs to find a way to stop warping through time at random intervals, get everyone to remember the true timeline, and get things back on track. To do this, he will definitely need Mobius on his side and together they will have to convince Sylvie as well. This definitely won’t be easy.

The season is only 6 episodes but technically there isn’t actually a ton to cover. That’s why it does feel like the show tries to start buying time later on which can feel a bit obnoxious. This brings us to the worst character in the series, Timely. This guy takes forever to finish a single sentence and is always super nervous. It’s hard to take him serious even though he’s supposed to be a super genius. He gets the important things wrong anyway after all. I guess maybe it’s better to think of him as a red herring. Not the most flattering way to think about him, but ultimately that’s what he is reduced to.

The show also has to nerf Loki quite a lot in order to extend the chases. For example at one point you have Loki and Mobius trying to track down a defector named Brad. This should be easy. It’s 2 on 1, Brad’s just a normal human, and they have the element of surprise. Even with that, Brad manages to shake them for a good chunk of the episode. Keep in mind that Loki is still a powerful god with magical abilities. Stopping Brad even without hurting him should be absolutely easy. It should in fact be absolutely trivial.

Throughout the show Loki feels like he’s just a human with basic magic powers which feels off. He gets humiliated by Sylvie every time they fight and the rest of the characters don’t treat him like a powerful threat. It’s a classic case of Loki getting weaker the instant he became a protagonist. In one episode Brad just disrespects the guy for a long time. Loki gets the last laugh but you’re hoping he would just knock the guy out after a while.

This season is really aiming to complete his character arc of redemption though. So you could say in a sense that the fact that Loki feels more muzzled is intentional. It does lead up to him looking really good in the final episode which not surprisingly was my favorite one. Loki really got to cut loose there and while I would argue that he made the wrong decision, it was one that was very understandable. He did what he thought he had to. A certain anime named Madoka had the main character make the same choice and ultimately it’s up to everyone else to decide if they accept this or if they will help find another way. Unfortunately I don’t think Loki has any friends who are going to be selfless enough to try and help him here.

So power levels aside, Loki was a fun character here. I enjoyed his dialogue quite a bit and as always he had a great dynamic with Mobius. Mobius is the other standout character here and if anything I wish that his role could have been bigger. Anytime he’s on screen, you know the role is going to be really good. He’s great as being condescending and then sarcastic as the need arises. He’s perfect in the jaded, middle aged dude role. You really believe him when he just seems bored of everything at this point. He has mastered being detached from reality.

As a result you don’t really care about his serious plot of wondering about what his life could have been like. I think he’s at his best when none of that matters to him. If we had to get a new season without Loki, I actually think Mobius could hold his own show. The rest of the supporting characters would have to step it up a little bit though since he was way more charismatic than any of them. None of the others could even come close to his ability.

Ouroboros is one of the characters who gets a lot to do here. He’s one of those tech geniuses who isn’t great as social interactions but gets the job done. He isn’t bad but his array of jokes are a bit limited. He’s really got one gimmick and it will be spammed a lot. So not a bad character, but probably not someone who will make you raise an eyebrow. Ravonna gets a much smaller role than you would expect but she’s okay. My main issue with her would be that she didn’t have much of a grand plan.

It felt like she was easy to manipulate and the way she went out was rather anticlimactic. Ideally she will return with some kind of a power up, but if she never appears again, I will always remember her as being a little overconfident. Miss Minutes was a lot more compelling. She was good at hacking everything and getting in the way of the heroes. If anything you could say that she got off rather easy here. People are too trusting of A.I. and so she could definitely do more in the future. She’s one of those insane villains who can be fun to have around.

Then we have Brad who is a fairly reasonable villain. He’s very cocky and not one of the stronger characters here. What I mean by that is he will very easily be broken by anyone. Loki gets him to crack first, then Miss Minutes cracks him next, and by the end he gets mind controlled. Brad really can’t catch a break, nor does he deserve one. He’s a classic example of a guy who just does whatever he wants and ignores the consequences. Someone who is a good agent but not someone you can count on. The show handles his character well.

As for Sylvie, she was a bit too weak willed for me. She made her big decision in season 1 and at this point I feel like she just needs to stick to it. There’s nothing here that should be particularly surprising to her. She had to know what would happen by removing the cosmic lynchpin and just made the decision that aligned with her morals. I’ll get into this more later on but I would argue that it was actually the right move anyway. Loki was on the wrong side for most of this season and by the end he stumbles onto a new path but otherwise Sylvie would have been right.

So Sylvie falters a bit too easily. She is still a fun villain to have around but the heroes let her be too smug the whole time. They should probably at least try to arrest her in the meantime. I also don’t buy Loki losing to her every time when they fight a bunch in this season. Eventually he ought to find a way to win. We can assume that he did and we don’t get to see those futures but I would have liked the show to have made that clear. Otherwise it’s close to an unchangeable point in time which I always find dubious at best. Sylvie made a nice little life for herself on Earth and should have been satisfied with it.

Then we have He Who Remains, who is a solid villain. I liked him a lot more than in season 1 but the guy is still way too suicidal to be an impressive villain. The fact that he can defeat almost anyone but chooses to die just makes him a bit lame. I get that he’s been around forever and after some thousands of years anyone would want a break but then he should go out on his own terms. Go to a planet that’s about to explode and go with a bang. Don’t just let someone stab you to death. I liked that Loki called him out on it.

The mini theme song is pretty fun as always. I like the eerie music that plays when the Loki logo is being spelled out. It sets the tone nicely for the adventure although it would be nice to have more of a real theme song. The soundtrack doesn’t have many other tunes but this is still enough to be memorable. The visuals are also good, the effects are on point and the battles look good. There isn’t a ton of action here but what we do get is good.

Okay so one of the big debates here was on whether the TVA should prune timelines or not. Kang believes that this is necessary as you have to stop the timelines from splitting or it will introduce more Kangs who will eventually destroy the multiverse. There would just be too many of them to stop. Meanwhile Sylvie believes that doing this is immoral as you are destroying countless universes daily in order to ensure that there is only one sacred timeline. Since a new timeline comes into being for every decision that every person makes, it is quite literally infinite.

Of course it is prioritized to deal with ones that will have a Kang spawning and the TVA exists outside of time so it’s not like they’ll ever be late but it is something that will never end. I tend to be on Sylvie’s case here. The TVA is playing judge, jury, and executioner at the moment. They slaughter more people on a daily basis than anyone else in history. No matter how you slice it, that’s a really bad look. Their overall goals and visions may be ambitious but overall they don’t void this point. If the Kangs do start a war, then you will have to fight them and hope that good prevails.

Due to the way that time travel works, maybe they’d all be dead already if the war was going to come and so they shouldn’t worry about it either. Assigning themselves as the heads of time is certainly an abuse of power. You also have to trust that Kang was telling the truth. So yes I am firmly on Sylvie’s side. Even if saving everyone means they will eventually die, it’s your duty to save as many as possible. In the final episode we get a quick twist that allows Loki to bypass the whole debate but nobody could have predicted that so it doesn’t make Sylvie wrong in hindsight.

The final episode has a lot of Groundhog Day type moments and cool time loop discussions so that’s another reason why the episode ended on a super high note for me. I like the idea of time essentially being used as a rubber band for Loki to check things out and try many kinds of techniques. Ultimately we even get a thousand years+ timeskip so he’s lived more than almost any other character in existence. It’s hard to even wrap your head around that. It’s certainly impressive that he didn’t go crazy from doing all of that. He has definitely matured over the years and hopefully the franchise remembers that he is now a super genius for anything else that he appears in. Also that he can time travel at will and controls the multiverse. That should come in handy for many things…

So if I could make any changes here, it would be to speed up the events of the first 5 episodes into about 2. You can easily do this without stretching everything out. Then you have around 2 episodes for Loki doing a ton of time travelling and exploring ways to solve the situation. Finally you end as normal. I can’t stress enough how much more interesting it was to have Loki on the field than to be talking with Victor and the others about nothing. Maybe find a way for Mobius to go with Loki so we could still have good dialogue and banter the whole time.

Overall, Loki Season 2 has its share of fun moments and I do enjoy the debates on what the right move is. The focus on time travel and its many implications are also a lot of fun. While Loki may not have been on the right side for most of it, it doesn’t take away from the adventure. This show is going for a very cerebral approach and it works more than it doesn’t. It’ll be interesting to see how he loses in the Secret Wars film. However it happens, I’m expecting that I’ll be smirking as I won’t buy any of it but that’s what happens when you make the main character this powerful. Loki should be literally unbeatable now, unless he secretly wants to be defeated or something like that.

Overall 6/10

Hi-Fi Rush Review

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It’s time to look at a game that made a whole lot of waves when it first came out. This one was a really big deal and looked like a lot of fun, although it took a while to get ported. The physical release still isn’t out so it was time to take the plunge on this one. I can say that the game was even better than I expected it would be. This is an elite title with great artistic direction as well as excellent gameplay. As long as you like the beat em up style then you will have a great time here.

The story begins with a kid named Chai breaking into a government area in order to fix his arm with a robotic enhancement. The only problem is that he ends up falling inside the machine along with his IPod which gets embedded into him. Chai must now always move in tune with the beat and is also on the run from corporate. A mysterious cat shows up and offers to help him get out of the area as long as he also helps her. This may end up being a longer partnership than he had bargained for.

The first thing that was really impressive was the large extent of cinematics within the game. We get whole fight scenes within the cutscenes and a good amount of character development. The game isn’t even all that long and yet they still managed to cram a whole lot of content in here. You really can’t go wrong with that and it makes the whole thing fly by. The game even tries to pull off the emotional ending which could be tough since you barely know the characters and yet it actually works.

The script is very witty and all of the characters are very likable so that’s a winning combo. Meanwhile the soundtrack is pretty solid. The tunes all fit in with the gameplay as they are very fast paced. The graphics are most excellent as you would expect. Definitely no issues at all there. Then we have the gameplay which is of course a key element and I can safely say that this was also really great from top to bottom.

The main gameplay is a 3D beat em up as you smash your opponents with a guitar. You also gain the ability to summon your partners who can defeat specific types of enemy obstacles like barriers and shields. You want to strategically use them to complement your own fighting abilities and then win the day. By the end of the game you have 3 different allies who help you out here and basically make you a one man army. Now I will admit that this also made the game a bit easier than the devs were probably thinking.

The characters only have a cool down of around 3-5 seconds per use. So the best way to fight is by constantly spamming all 3 of the summons as you fight. Between switching from character to character while landing your hits, it makes for an unlimited stream of attacks. Yeah you still can’t close your eyes as they can land some shots in but for the most part you’re going to have a hard time losing. One of your special attacks restores 70% of your health and hitting enemies also makes them drop health containers. Mix the two things together and it really increases your overall fighting potential.

There is also a fairly extensive shop that lets you buy various power ups and badges to use. It’s so extensive that I didn’t touch close to 80% of it before I beat the game. There is an absolute mountain of things to buy and you simply won’t have enough money for all of them. The reason for this is likely in connection with the trophies where you are intended to complete the game 5 times in order to get the Platinum. So with the items carrying over, I could definitely see how you would have money for everything after playing through the game 5 times. How could you not right?

The Platinum trophy may not be extremely difficult but it does look to be a very lengthy one so I imagine that most people wouldn’t bother. Still, it does mean there is a lot of replay value here if you are wanting to get the most out of the game. The story itself is not particularly long but still gives you enough bang for your buck. I’d say the biggest advantage it has is in how much fun it is.

I tend to enjoy rhythm games like this and it definitely worked really well here. You will have a fun time rocking to the beats the whole time. Every bit of this game clearly had a whole lot of work and heart put into it. I’d say the only way you would not enjoy it is if you realllllly did not enjoy the beat em up genre. In that case it’s not like it would really be the game’s fault though. There would really be nothing that it could have done about that.

The game did add some mild platforming elements to the levels, maybe anticipating that people might think it was too straightforward. Honestly that’s the part that I could have skipped but it’s not like it was bad or anything. It just felt a bit unnecessary since the fighting gameplay was where the game really shined. There is a clear progression system and lots of achievements within the game to earn you more money to buy things. That’s why fighting always felt so rewarding.

Overall, Hi-Fi Rush is an elite game. Perhaps in a few months I’ll have cooled off on it or it’s just because I played this game after a bunch that all had some quick flaws. Regardless, this was just an absolutely epic game and the kind I could really play all day. It was a true blast and I definitely recommend you pick it up as soon as possible. It’s only around $30 right now which is a great price and also makes the shorter length not feel as bad. You don’t see a whole lot of games like this either so the originality will really stick out for you.

Overall 9/10

Fighting Girls Review

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It’s time to look at a recent one shot from Shonen Jump. It’s always fun when these come out to see just what kind of story can be concluded in one shot. I can safely say that this was a pretty good one all the way through with a fun parallel between the two characters. Naturally you could do a whole lot more with this one if it was a full series but the story still wraps up well enough here. The fights are mainly off screen but I guess that would have taken up a lot of pages.

The story starts by introducing us to Koume who wants to be a great fighter. She is really good and the best in her school until a girl named Tiara moves in and goes on an undefeated streak. Koume finally has a rival and does her best to surpass her but this seems like an impossible goal. Can she really accomplish it? Meanwhile the second half retells the story from Tiara’s point of view. She really wants to be a great fighter as well but unlike Koume, she gets 0 support from her parents. If anything they act as an active obstacle in her way by not getting her equipment and constantly discouraging her. Naturally this starts to affect her confidence and Tiara wonders if maybe she should give up on this career.

This makes for a solid contrast as both characters really have the exact opposite circumstances on their side. They’re both likable characters as well, although I’ll give Tiara the slight edge. It’s hard to root against a character who had the deck completely stacked against her and still managed to make it near the top. That takes a lot of grit and hard work. She also goes through a pretty nasty injury and is able to keep on going.

Tiara is a great example of how perseverance can really carry you a long way. She also worked really hard in order to have the level of talent needed to rise all the way to the top of the rankings. That certainly wasn’t easy. I also appreciated that she didn’t just randomly become the mean rival type. She was still kind the whole way through and never went out of her way to belittle Koume.

Of course Koume is also a solid character as she remains the hopeful underdog the whole time. She is extremely talented as well and only isn’t satisfied because she never wanted to just be second best. We’ll have to wait a while for her to get a proper rematch with Tiara as pros but the gap between them has certainly been reduced a great deal. It’s anyone’s guess who would win in the fight now.

The art is fairly good. It’s a bit rougher than you’d see for most of the big ongoing series but for a one shot that makes sense since it’s not like the artist has been able to draw the characters for a long time. It’s not like the art is bad either, it’s still clear enough to easily read and that’s the important thing. The oneshot is around 70 pages so you can read through it pretty quickly since it isn’t overly wordy. The page count also does let the series get to do a lot within this one chapter.

Now while I did say I understood why we didn’t get to really see the fights here, I do think the story would have absolutely been elevated by having some. When you have a story about fighting, you would expect some level of action right? Often times we just see the aftermath of a fight or maybe the first blow at most. That’s not exactly what I’m looking for when I’m talking about full fights. Seeing the danger up close like that would also help you better understand why some would be against the girls getting involved in such a tough career.

Of course that wasn’t the logic that Tiara’s parents had, but they were mainly just antagonists the whole time anyway. It would have been nice if they could have been more reasonable but sometimes you’re just going to have people who are very two dimensional like that. Tiara could have spent time complaining about it, but instead she just kept on going to work and improving herself.

Overall, This story achieves its objective of giving you an interesting premise for this self contained adventure. You can sympathize with the plight that the two girls have of deciding if they want to continue being pro fighters or not. It’s not as if this is the most popular career in Japan after all and so it’s certainly a risk. However, any job is a risk when you think about it so you might as well go for one that you’re interested in. Aside from Tiara’s parents, the supporting characters are all pretty supportive as well which is nice. Nobody is judging them too harshly for wanting to live out their lives on this path.

Overall 7/10

Love and Monsters Review

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It’s time for a fun little survival film. It ended up being better than I expected as it dodged some pretty big pitfalls that I had expected it to land in from the jump. It’s a very upbeat film with some solid humor and adventure so I can easily recommend it to the average movie goer. In fact, I nearly gave it a thumbs up for the romance too but the film jumped the shark at the very end. Ah well…that’s how it goes sometimes.

The film starts off pretty quickly with nearly all of humanity being wiped out after a nuclear defense against an asteroid mutates a bunch of animals into giant monsters. These monsters quickly made short work out of humanity and the survivors live in isolated bunkers. Joel is a member of one of these but he’s not too happy. Everyone at his bunker has shacked up while his girlfriend is stuck 85 miles away at another bunker. Joel also has difficulty feeling useful at the base since he tends to freeze up all the time. All he does is cook around the base and while everyone is super supportive, he has had enough. He decides to brave the unknown and go find his girlfriend Aimee. Can he survive out there?

A few solid notes right out of the gate. I liked how everyone as really supportive and they genuinely tried helping Joel out. There were no random bullies or petty characters here. This is the end of the world so you would expect everyone to band together and not let a single person feel isolated. A minor scene about this is how they all even rehearsed how they would gently let Joel down in the event that he asked to go on a mission. Then when he decides to leave, they even make him a detailed map and everything. (Which he ungratefully only looks at for a second before putting it away)

Another thing I was glad about is that humanity didn’t just roll over. The intro states that before getting crushed, our armies did take out all of the giant kaiju. So at least they didn’t die immediately without doing anything. Additionally we were also given a good reason for why they couldn’t make a comeback because eventually we ran out of bullets and people who knew how to create more. They went more in detail on how humanity lost in 15 minutes compared to multiple movies for a Quiet Place.

Now I was going to give the film credit for the romance but like I said earlier, that didn’t work out. I think any film veteran can likely see how this journey will play out but I’m still not going to spoil it. What I will say is that for most of the movie, Joel and Aimee were fairly mature about everything. Aimee was perhaps a little tricky at times even if it was a situation where she figured it would never matter. Where it falls apart is their final scene together. Lets just say it is completely undeserved and completely destroys the whole message of the romance. Talk about one scene destroying over 90 minutes of goodwill.

It’s one of those “Hollywood” type moments where you roll your eyes. If we ever get a sequel, hopefully this has no bearing on it. As a character Joel isn’t bad. He tries a little too hard to be funny and is often cringy but to an extent that’s the point of the character. Joel isn’t your average adventure lead and is completely out of his depth. He is still earnest and tries his best though. I wouldn’t say that he’s great or anything like that but he is a good character. He gets points for how he handled the final boss as well.

Then Aimee was a bit of a roller coaster for me. She was good in the intro, took some steps back near the middle with how quickly she got drunk and let her guard down, then buttoned up during the climax. So on the whole I would say she is a good character but as the essential leader of her group, she needs to keep her guard up. Leaders have an extra burden on themselves compared to other characters and while it may feel harsh or unfair, that’s just how the job goes.

Throughout the film Joel is accompanied by his pet dog, Boy. I’d say travelling together during the apocalypse makes him a pet by the end at least, but not to be misleading, they first meet on the journey. Boy is very helpful at numerous points in the film and Joel wouldn’t have survived without him. The film avoids going for the low hanging fruit of tragedy and drama here which was really appreciated. He makes for a really fun sidekick.

In general the film was really good with the supporting characters like Clyde and Minnow who show up later on. Minnow is a little kid who is really confident and doesn’t mind letting Joel know how weak he is. Then Clyde is an expert survivor who has been surviving very well all this time. The two of them make for a great team and are also very kind to Joel. They help him learn a lot in a short period of time and get him ready for the real world. They had a very strong team dynamic between the three of them.

As for the villains we get at the end of the film, they’re a bit sudden but it made sense in terms of having a true climax. Just having some monsters show up probably wouldn’t have been as intense in this case. You definitely wanted to see the villains go down after they spent a lot of time launching electric shocks and everything. So it made for a satisfying ending there, you always like to see the monsters getting some revenge of their own as well.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It had a good sense of humor. Honestly without destroying the romance message at the end this could have even gone up one more point. With monster films my worry can be on the animal violence and how badly the monsters get damaged. This time that ended up not being a big problem. Some monsters were blown up but generally it wasn’t really done in a big animal violence kind of way. There weren’t a lot of gross moments here and it also wasn’t one of those dystopias with a really jaded view on how evil everyone would be. Sure we did get our villains but by and large the cast was solid.

Overall 7/10

Next of Kin Review

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

It’s time for a classic revenge thriller. You can bet that this’ll make for a pretty intense film but the whole time you are hoping that the main character will make a move. He spends way too long just being absolutely persistent in wanting proof before making a move. The problem is that when you’re dealing with really experienced villains, getting proof is not always going to be possible.

The movie starts with introducing us to Truman who is a cop but isn’t always respected by the rest of the unit. They consider him to be a guy from the mountains who doesn’t really fit in but he does his best to overlook this and just do his job. He has a pregnant wife to think about after all. Unfortunately the town is on the corrupt side with a very active mob presence and they end up murdering one of Truman’s brothers. Truman goes to the funeral where the rest of the family swear vengeance. Truman pleads with them to let the law solve this but his other brother Briar decides to tackle this himself. Now Truman has to try and arrest the mobster responsible before vigilante justice comes through.

Now of course it is best to go through the law here but we’re talking about a big member of the mafia. You’re not going to see him just show up and bring him to jail. The mafia will fight you to the death on that and odds are that they’ve got someone on the payroll within the cops. Truman basically tries the entire film to do this by the book and it feels futile at every turn. He would have really been better off helping Briar get this over with right away.

Now Briar also wasn’t very smart about this. At one point he gets all of the villains alone in a room and has the drop on them. He decides to threaten them all a bit instead of finishing them off and that was a mistake. While his main beef was with the killer and he didn’t know which of them it was, they’re all gangsters. Why not just destroy them? He could have ended the film right there. Of course they would still have other people try to get revenge and the feud would continue but I wasn’t convinced at the reasoning for sparing them. Briar is outnumbered and in enemy territory so letting them go was not a good idea.

Meanwhile Truman’s wife Jessie was unfortunately a bit on the annoying side here. She knows all about how dangerous his job is and yet she starts complaining almost immediately when the going gets tough. I thought she would be on his side and try to stay calm but she panics so much. Additionally when she is attacked, she decides the thing to do is hide in the shower with the faucet on so she can’t even hear when Truman gets into the house and is yelling for her. That means if the attackers had gotten in, she would have been completely defenseless. Not a smart move.

Like I said in the intro though, Truman is just way too passive here. Sure, he threatens the villains from time to time but they know he isn’t going to do anything. It takes several murders for him to finally take action and by then we’re in the climax of the film. It’s a better late than never kind of story here when Truman should have been taking bigger strides to avenge his brother’s murder. That is what would have really helped him to have been better here.

As for the villains, they’re fairly generic. You’ve got Joey who is quick to violence and fits right in as the gang’s number two. He gets upset when John’s son threatens to replace him on the totem pole but that guy isn’t very smart. He is completely oblivious to how much Joey dislikes him and walks into every trap. You’re basically counting the minutes until he’s doomed. John is the actual leader of the mafia and is a much more reasonable guy but also takes too long to act.

If he was more in touch with what was going on then perhaps he could have prevented any of this from happening. Instead he talks about bonds and trust but didn’t do anything to solidify them Truman certainly gave him a lot of advance warning to try and stop this and John did not make use of any of it. At that point there just isn’t much more you can do about the situation.

While Briar didn’t handle the situation too smartly at times, he was still the most enjoyable character in the film. At least he was trying to serve up justice. This is definitely the kind of film where you end up rooting for the vigilante since nobody else is really able to get results. In general though you just don’t want to be in any city where the mafia have a lot of power.

The film can be fairly violent so just a heads up on that. The kills can be rather intense, particularly the first brother who died near the beginning of the film. The overall tone is more like a classic thriller so it’s not overly dark. Especially since all of the characters know what side the others are on. There is even a comic relief character who owns the apartment that Briar rents. He gets quite a bit of screentime here to also help prevent things from getting too crazy.

Overall, Next of Kin is a good thriller but a film that can also be a bit annoying for most of its run. The main character is too passive and then the aggressive brother decides not to finish off the villains at the last second. Definitely a rough combination there. Meanwhile the villains aren’t exactly subtle here because they don’t need to be. They just run in and shoot people whenever they want to with complete immunity. When the law fails so completely like this, it’s no wonder that some characters will jump in to complete the job themselves. It’s simply inevitable.

Overall 6/10

KPop Demon Hunters Review

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It’s time for a film that came out pretty recently and has really been making waves. The songs have certainly been going around a lot. In particular “Your Idol” gets spammed a whole lot so I was ready to see how it would work in context. The movie is pretty fun and moves at a really rapid pace. I’d definitely like to see a sequel come into the picture at some point because this one really had a lot of momentum. A whole lot more you can do with the story here.

The movie introduces us to a world where humans and demons are kept apart thanks to a magic barrier that is put into place by a trio of demon hunters. Every generation the mantle is passed on and they do this again and again. Now it is time for the main trio to pull this off and it should be easy as per normal. That is, until Jinu tells the demon king to let him try and make an evil boy band. They will compete with the demon hunters at their own game. As for the trio of heroines, their bond threatens to break when Rumi begins to keep secrets from the other two. Teamwork is absolutely what is needed here.

In a way I suppose the biggest make or break point for the film would be the music. Fortunately I can say that the music was really good. I liked all of the songs quite a bit although I dare say that the villains may have had the best song this time. The one they sung at the end of the movie was just tough to beat. I’ll have to listen to the other songs some more to see exactly how I would rank them though. This also does reinforce to me the idea that a movie with a lot of songs in a concert setting will always beat a standard musical. The songs just have way more power to them and the beat cannot be defeated.

The animation is also pretty solid. I liked the energy effects during the battle and we even got some basic choreography. Now the action is really just there as the cherry on top to the singing but I still appreciated having those action scenes there. It helps to make the film feel that much more intense than the average animated adventure would be. You do get the feeling that the heroines are lucky that the villains went for songs though. Based on how strong Jinu and the other top fighters were, they probably would lose a straight fight. The movie also had a lot of fun in particular with making the characters show off a lot of crazy faces. You can definitely say they had a whole lot of range here so you can get ready to see a lot of that.

Rumi is the main heroine so she gets the biggest role but all 3 get a lot to do. I get why she was keeping secrets from her friends since it was a touchy subject and you never know how they would react. That said, it was probably time to come clean once her voice started going crazy. At that point her issues are putting the entire world at stake after all so you really have to open things up. Meanwhile she did a good job of standing up for herself and defying tradition by the end. So I didn’t really have any big issues with her.

The best member of the trio is probably Zoey though. She just seems like she’d make for the best friend and she was always looking out for the other two. Zoey is someone who is quietly reliable and always trying to look on the bright side. Her weapon does seem like the worst one among the 3 though and it’s fair to say that she’s probably the weakest of the trio. Ah well, you can’t win them all.

Then Mira is the tough one who is ready to confront her friends when need be. I always like when a group has someone with a bit of toughness since you need that contrast. At the same time it’s not like she’s over the top aggressive or anything either so that’s what kept her from being the best member. I could see her getting a bigger role in a sequel which could definitely help her rise up the charts.

In this film all of the characters get distracted by the boy band at different times so you can tell that they aren’t quite as experienced as other heroes would be. They haven’t yet mastered how to remove all distractions from their presence. Of course that can be easier said than done. These moments are mainly just for gags of course. They’re probably a bit on the forced side but it’s not like there are a ton of these moments and the film isn’t trying to be a comedy anyway.

The best scenes in terms of humor are usually when Jinu and his squad are trolling the heroines. Now that can get pretty fun. For a minute there I was wondering if all of Jinu’s friends were going to get development but that would have been hard to do in what was a fairly short film. Ultimately Jinu is the only one to get a big role and that’s probably for the best. It helps to make him stand out even more as an exception to the rest of the demons.

Jinu is a fun villain. The guy has a lot of different faces to his personality like being a troll, a mastermind, or even just trying to be sympathetic. He’s a fairly complex fella and in the end the film handles him well. It ultimately doesn’t have this become the big romance plot you might have been thinking about. The stakes are too high for that to remain as a focus for very long. He seems like the kind of character who could have almost been the hero in another story.

After all we see that the demons are ruled by the king through force. Not all of them are necessarily evil but they are forced to hear his voice at all times and he continues to break their wills. It opens the door for a possible plot about saving some of the demons in the sequel. The rank and file do seem mindless but then you do have a lot of sentient ones around as well. This might be tougher for Rumi to convince her two teammates of than with trusting her as a demon exception. We’ll see if this leads to another schism and if the sequel decides to pursue more of a story with Jinu or not.

Overall, KPop Demon Hunters is a pretty good film. I enjoyed each area of the title like the action and songs. Granted I would have loved more of a final fight to really seal the deal. The film really flies by and ends before you know it though. As a result it can’t spend too much time on some things like the ramifications of what will happen to the demon world or how the mentor will handle Rumi’s decision. So there’s a lot that could be unpacked for the sequel but even if this ends up being a one shot film, it would have done its job of being a fun title. At the end of the day that’s all any film needs to do. If you haven’t checked this one out yet then I would definitely recommend it.

Overall 7/10