Tag Archives: Adventure

The Legend of Zorro Review

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When you watch a Zorro film, ordinarily you’re expecting the hero to look pretty good. Unfortunately that is not the case here as Zorro has his worst film appearance yet. The film itself isn’t bad but yeah it’s going to be a bit hard to get around that and the romance is absolutely abysmal here. Definitely one of the worst romances you will have seen in quite a while here. None of the characters look even remotely decent by the end of it.

The story starts with Zorro taking names and saving the day as per usual. Unfortunately his wife Elena is not happy with how much time Zorro spends away from the family. So they end up divorcing and Zorro gets super depressed. Fast forward to some time later and Elena has quickly rebounded with the wealthy Armand. She can now live a life of luxury with a man who will devote all of his time to her. Zorro is very jealous about this but it’s hard to defeat this guy. Zorro has become a bit of a drunk and Armand seems to be good at everything. Hopefully Armand turns out to be evil or something…or Zorro might be doomed.

I should also mention that Zorro and Elena had a kid which makes the divorce that much worse. The kid gets quite a bit of screentime and tends to be rather annoying. You have to try and watch his scenes as though the film is a complete comedy like his opening action scene where he defeats his teacher in a fencing battle. He straight up takes down a full adult and it’s meant to be real impressive. It’s more of a groanworthy scene. The fact that the kid can fight automatically makes him better than the average kid but he didn’t really need to be here.

Outside of the opening action scene which is admittedly very solid, don’t expect much from Zorro either here. The whole middle part of the film is him making a fool out of himself. Getting dunked on by Armand, allowing himself to be the butt of the joke like in the maid scene, and generally just looking very petty. He didn’t really give Elena any good reasons to go back to him. We finally get some fun Zorro action in the climax and even Elena gets a fight but it feels really late for that.

Part of the problem here is that the film has a number of plot twists to unveil but you immediately know that none of them are going to salvage Zorro’s character. Even if he doesn’t exactly know how things escalated with him and Elen so much, he should have been the bigger man and done some digging. Confront her and get to the bottom of the issue/find out if the problem is really that he is Zorro. As for Elena, the twists don’t help her at all. Lets just say it involves blackmail and then she has plans of her own but none of them really excuse her deciding to just leave Zorro in the dark.

In a perfect world they could have been teaming up the whole time. There would need to be significant changes to the plan of course but it could have worked and made both of them look good. Instead they just look really bad and Armand ends up looking a lot better. There’s a particularly embarrassing scene where Zorro is hiding behind some vegetables and thinks he has an opening so he walks over to Elena. Naturally he was not subtle and Armand caught him.

You’re going to be cringing really hard on Zorro’s behalf here. It’s crazy character assassination and I don’t think I need to go into detail on why this makes the romance really bad. Zorro and Elena’s bond was apparently weaker than you ever could have imagined for this whole story to take place. I also think to an extent the whole romance drama was added because the main plot wasn’t going to be enough to hold people’s attention. You have some drama over the states and the civil war approaching but it’s all rather boring. The villains are fairly generic and the plot just doesn’t have much life to it.

So I don’t blame the movie for putting the romance as the main focus but it absolutely could have given the characters some more dignity in the process. The film’s fight scenes are good enough where you feel like the movie should have leaned into that a whole lot more. With all of the big fight scenes this could have been an absolutely great film. Maybe actually build up to Zorro being too obsessive with sopping criminals to make Elena’s problem appear to be more valid. It’s always going to be a tough sell because he is saving lives throughout but it can be done. Maybe he starts to go too far or something.

As for the villains, well you’ve got a classic heel with Armand here. Whether he ends up being evil or not, play him up as the big antagonist. Someone who is a total jerk and taking everything that Zorro wants but without giving Zorro a way to take him down. He keeps his hands clean on the surface which makes Zorro more and more frustrated. The building blocks were all there to make this a really fun film. Then just write the kid out and you’re really all set.

Overall, The Legend of Zorro is a film that is fun to watch but you can definitely tell that it should have been a lot better. At times it does aim a little too young and goes with the easy jokes. The pacing is good though and the movie does feel like it really flies by. So you can see that there was a lot of effort put into this one, the priorities just weren’t always where they should have been. I’d still recommend checking the movie out but if you really like Zorro as a character…be warned that his appearance here is a bit diferent.

Overall 6/10

M3gan 2.0 Review

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This movie is pretty interesting because it has a downright excellent premise but executes it in one of the weakest ways I could have imagined. The script tends to need a lot of work, the fight is basically just teased for 90% of the movie, and the final climax/ending aren’t as good as they should have been. So in that sense the movie left a lot of meat on the table, but on the other hand…I still had a good time with it. I would say it is still a good movie even if it’s not amazing.

The movie starts off by introducing us to a new robot named Amelia. She is essentially a weaponized version of M3gan who can be sent into active war zones or other places that could be dangerous. At first this looks promising but then she goes rogue and appears to want to end humanity. This forces the government to locate M3gan’s creator, Gemma. M3gan shows up beforehand to warn her that this will happen but the government shows up with threats anyway. Gemma knows she will have to stop this new threat but doesn’t want to rebuild M3gan. Will she be able to stop the new android or will she be forced to turn to her old enemy?

Naturally I like a good hero/villain teamup. It tends to make for an exciting plot and that’s the benefit of being a sequel. Long time horror fans may be dismayed to learn that the horror is mostly gone though. The intro scenes with Amelia temporarily bring back the horror with a few jump scares and vicious murders but after that this becomes a full on action movie. Fortunately I love action movies so that worked for me. This has that classic summer blockbuster feel to it.

Lets get into the negatives right away though. You are looking forward to M3gan fighting Amelia. That is pretty much the core point of this film’s plot. Despite that, they don’t really fight until the very end of the film. The first time they meet, M3gan is in the wrong body. After that, Amelia is in the wrong body and they are interrupted before they can fight. Finally we get a battle near the end but M3gan was already super weakened so it still wasn’t an even fight. They made a massive mistake here if you ask me.

We should have gotten a big fight in act 1, then the rematch down the line. It felt like that was the obvious play right? I would also say another weakness is that the writing is generally pretty weak. Lots of lines that will just make you wince or even worse, cringe. They try to write M3gan as being very direct and without shame so she tends to get more of these lines. It’s a tough balance because she also has the best lines but some of them are just being crude for no real reason. I’m hoping they can strike a better balance in the next film.

Finally one more negative would probably be the long singing sequence we get from M3gan. It’s clear this was meant as a funny joke but it’s another example of the film’s poor execution since it drags on for too long. I think it would have been funny if it was just at half the length that it was. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

On the character side, Gemma is okay I suppose. She seems a bit passive the whole time and it feels like she isn’t properly recognizing the incoming threat here. Amelia is certainly dangerous and a bunch of government fighters even broke into her house. Deciding not to rebuild M3gan is one thing, but she should be telling Cady what is going on and getting a plan together with all of them. That would at least allow them to prep. Otherwise it feels like she is setting them up for a loss here.

At least she does get some action later on. Those fight scenes were fun and hopefully if we were to get more films, she would remain as one of the fighters. We could get a nice tag team with her and M3gan eventually. If you like Gemma’s sidekicks though, they don’t do a whole lot here. A few scenes sprinkled in but yeah I wouldn’t expect much out of them. This is not the humans’ show. In general most of the humans just look bad. We get the rich entrepreneur character who is easily seduced by Amelia.

In general the romance in the film is pretty weak. The classic villain getting seduced trick never ends up being convincing. Then we have Gemma going out with Christian but apparently, he’s not even really her type? M3gan gets some incriminating details on her searches and yeah that’s rough. Sounds an awful lot like settling and that’s a recipe for disaster. It’s not a big part of the film so I’m hardly going to dwell on it, but yeah that was a rough look for the heroine.

As for M3gan, she definitely dominates throughout her screentime. She is the most prepared out of all the characters by fault and also has way more charisma than the others. That really goes a long way here. Additionally, she can fight so at least the heroes have someone who is ready. I also thought Amelia made for a good villain. We didn’t need any grand speeches or motivations besides ending humanity. Amelia just does what she wants and that works well for an evil A.I.

The special effects are pretty good and the soundtrack was generally solid. The movie has good pacing and really flies by. I also enjoyed the tone as this movie is really just trying to give you a fun time throughout. I can always respect that. That’s why I’d ultimately say this was a good title. It just feels like a wasted opportunity since it could have easily been great.

Overall, M3gan 2.0 is what happens when you land an amazing premise but forget that you still have to execute it with care. That said, I still recommend it. You don’t get horror films that turn action like this too often. I imagine it feels like Terminator 2’s initial premise when that film was coming out. It’s a lot of fun and I would definitely check out a third film. As a franchise M3gan may not have lasted very long but I definitely will remember the character so in a way you could say that she did become a true horror icon.

Overall 6/10

Hellboy: Blood and Iron Review

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Time for another Hellboy adventure. This time we’re throwing in vampires so Hellboy will have to be careful on this one. It’s definitely more intense than the last film but still has a fun charm to it. It does double down a bit with the flashbacks though and the film spends way too much time going backwards there. I think they should have done it all at the start, maybe cut a scene or two in order to keep the viewers in the dark and that would have definitely helped the pacing right from the start.

The film starts off with Trevor, a priest, and a group of soldiers heading into the deep reaches of the forest to destroy the vampire Erzsebet who has been kidnapping and murdering many people in order to stay young and beautiful. Nearly the whole squad is murdered but they successfully defeat her. Unfortunately in the present, Trevor can feel that she has returned. When a guy named Oliver asks Hellboy’s group to see if his mansion is haunted, Trevor quickly says that he will bring the whole A team. This is a little concerning to the rest of the group as Trevor hasn’t been onto the field in years but he refuses to give them any details. So now they will have to figure out what is going on by themselves. Will this really work out?

First off I do have to blame Trevor for a lot of this. He really had no reason to be keeping secrets from Hellboy. He should have told him everything right from the start. Hellboy can take care of himself, but that’s not really the point. As a field leader you need to be putting your guys in the best possible position to be safe and accounted for. Keeping valuable info away is not doing that. Trevor seems to think he can hold his own here with the holy water that he has but the guy ultimately has to hope that he is really lucky.

He is still doing better than the priest though. Lupescu looks terrible in this film as he cracked before the fights had even begun. I don’t get why he was so nervous, it’s like his faith was paper thin without even being tested. I suppose that was the point but it certainly came at his expense. Even by the end I never got around to liking him. As far as I’m concerned, he really got himself into all of these messes and could have saved a lot of lives if he had just manned up when it counted.

Hellboy looks good as always though. Even when he finds out that Trevor is keeping secrets from him, Hellboy doesn’t take it super personally or start panicking. No, he just keeps going about his business and doing his part to help out. That’s why he is a real hero. This time he is in for a fairly painful adventure as well since he is stabbed on multiple occasions and is basically used as a punching bag the whole time. He is almost never in the lead during this film.

That doesn’t stop him from still having a lot of confidence and getting in good burns though. That’s exactly the way that he rolls. Liz gets a lot more to do here than last time as she takes down a group of enemies with her flame abilities. Honestly she probably should have helped more in the climax. At one point she uses her fire and the villain uses it to start burning the others but then they should just get out of the way.

It’s possible that her powers would have had no effect but I would have liked to have seen her using them in action for a longer period of time to really prove that. As for Abe, the poor guy mostly just gets beaten up the whole time. He even gets kidnapped by a pair of old witches so he had a really bad time here. At this point I wonder if perhaps he just shouldn’t be out in the field with the others. Staying at home providing tactical support would probably be best.

As for the villains, Erzsebet gets most of the screentime here. She is fairly powerful and only tends to lose because of her incredible overconfidence. Tackling someone out the window when you’re allergic to sunlight is always going to backfire. She also falls for the holy water trick more than once. A decent villain all things considered but yeah if she was even decently smart then the heroes would have probably been taken down.

The final boss Hecate is a bit more impressive. She doesn’t get to have as much screentime but is quite powerful and gives Hellboy a tough time. Hecate was mentioned since near the beginning but otherwise would almost feel out of nowhere with how she shows up in her true form for a fight. I always like ending a film with a big battle though so that worked for me. I don’t see her ending up as one of the more memorable characters but she handled her role well enough.

The film does have the usual vampire blood drinking but at least not a ton of it. The film is noticeably more violent than the other Hellboy titles but I wouldn’t say it is to a crazy degree. The biggest negative here is still how much you won’t care about what was going on with the soldiers and the vampires in the flashback scenes. Instead of drip feeding this and playing the scenes backwards, they should have gotten it all over with right away. If you ask me, that would have been a much better way to go. Otherwise you need a crazy payoff to explain why the flashbacks had to be spread out like this and I wouldn’t say there is any twist on such a massive level.

The movie is at its best when the characters are all having a good time and messing with each other. All of them were super skeptical about the haunted house which made for good dialogue around the board. At the same time they were professional enough to bring in the equipment and actually check so that was good. The group really needs one more power hitter to fight alongside Hellboy though. Liz has the power but she’s a long range type. We need a brawler who can fight. Otherwise Hellboy is basically by himself like when Abe got shoved aside with ease against one of the minions during the hallway battle. It’s probably hard for the lead to concentrate when he constantly has to save everybody else.

Overall, Hellboy delivers with another good adventure here. It does feel like a bit of a step down from the first two but not by too much. We still got a lot of action and the villains weren’t bad. The pacing gets hurt at times though and it’s not quite as crazy as the first two. That’s another byproduct of the lore part with the vampires. Just let us get right ahead to the story already! That would have definitely pushed the title to the next level. Still, I would have been hyped for more of these adventures to be animated. Maybe at some point they would fight a villain group that mirrors Hellboy’s team. If you’ve seen the first two films then you should check this one out as well.

Overall 6/10

Bendy and the Dark Revival Review

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It’s time for the next Bendy adventure. I actually beat this one a little while ago so this review has definitely been waiting. Bendy is one of those titles that is always intense and so it’s a good October type of game. It’s fairly short so you won’t be playing it for too long but there is a decent amount of replay value in trying to Platinum the title. You do not want to miss out on this one if you have not played it yet.

The game starts out by introducing us to the new main character. She was working the late shift when she notices just how abandoned the place is. The only one left is the janitor and he tends to act rather suspiciously. Unfortunately the two of them seem to be locked in the workplace now and monsters are appearing everywhere. Is she even still in the real world? There are a lot of questions to answer and no obvious clues in sight. The only rule here is to never let your guard down.

That’s why the heroine does come across as being rather naive or just unintelligent for a good chunk of the adventure. The way she acts just doesn’t make sense at times like listening to a guy who is obviously evil and falling for the most basic of traps. It’s one of those games where you’re basically pleading with the main character not to talk into the 10th trap in a row but there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. In general there always tends to be a lot of backseat driving in a horror title for any medium but I dare say this one was more extensive than usual. You’re just really wondering why she isn’t coming to terms with what is going on.

The gameplay is initially more of an inspection game. You walk around and click on things that are suspicious. As the game goes on you get a weapon and that’s when the core gameplay really changes. Now you’re bashing all of the enemies that come your way with a few exceptions that are immune to your weapon. There is actually a super weapon that can beat them but I never came across it in the playthrough. For the most part I think I did a pretty good job of getting almost all the collectibles but I still missed a few.

You want to use the vending machine as much as possible and constantly hit enemies with the shock pipe since both things help you accumulate trophies. The more stuff you do upfront, the less grinding you will have to do in the post game after all. Same with knocking out enemies from behind, if you get into one of the areas where they respawn forever, I would recommend taking advantage of that.

I would need to go back and get them for the Platinum but that requires beating the game at least 3 times so I would definitely want to space that out quite a bit. There is a form of quick travel in the game that you unlock at the very end but unfortunately it is one of the clunkiest ones that I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to find various sewers and each one takes you back to another location but there is no map and this gets confusing very quickly. I appreciate the attempt but it is something that the next game could improve upon.

The gameplay is smooth outside of that though. Also if you think the action takes you out of the experience, you can play on a higher difficulty where I hear attacking is not nearly as good of an option. Stealth is the name of the game there and that will probably feel a whole lot more like vintage Bendy. I personally like the combat as it turns the whole thing into a full action title but to each their own.

The graphics are really good and you can clearly tell the difference between this one and the last installment. The developers made the most out of the new tech and it also helps with the scares because of how realistic everything looks. There isn’t as much of a soundtrack but of course that’s by design. I would have liked some hard rock tunes of course but it works well enough with what they’re doing.

While the game length isn’t super long, there is enough here where you don’t feel bad about the purchase. You’ve got a pretty good amount of content to go through as it is. Meanwhile like I mentioned earlier there is a good amount of replay value with getting the trophies. The story is also compelling so this is definitely a perfect example of a game that is worth the money and will provide you with a fun experience. You really can’t go wrong here.

Overall, This is definitely a really fun game and one that I would recommend. Longtime Bendy fans will get even more out of it as I didn’t notice some of the guest stars or easter eggs that popped up. It has more combat than the first adventure so you really get to have fun taking out the enemies and progressing through the adventure. It has a good amount of difficulty as well so you won’t just be closing your eyes and progressing through the levels. You’re going to have to work for your victories here and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next story. There is certainly a lot more Bendy to experience!

Overall 7/10

The Trail Beyond Review

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Time for another John Wayne adventure and this one gets intense when the lead has to fend off against armed adversaries. It’s another solid adventure with good pacing and a lot of fun to be had. It may not be the most memorable adventure but it was fun to see different backdrops like a train rather than the pure wild west all the time.

The film starts with Rod riding the train when he bumps into his old friend Wabi. Wabi isn’t the sharpest guy around and decides to play some high stakes gambling with a bunch of folks. Turns out that one of them was cheating and this quickly gets violent. A gunshot is fired and someone dies so now Wabi is on the run. He and Rod jump off the train to escape but by the time they change into Cowboy gear, they are already wanted for murder. They’re going to need to lie low but trouble has a knack of finding them. See they find a treasure map in an abandoned house where two men have been dead for generations. They take this to the nearby shop to be locked up but are seen and now the villains want it. Guess Rod might have to test out his gun skills.

Now there is some drama to be had here. There’s a girl who works at the shop named Felice and poor Wabi thinks that they are dating or at least are informally together. Unfortunately he forgot to tell her that and she immediately falls for Rod because of how manly he is. She is so infatuated that she even gets jealous when the villains hire a girl to work at the store undercover and Rod shows some interest. It feels a bit soon to get jealous since they barely know each other but hey that’s how it goes. The villains also got lucky there since their plan involved getting the girl hired and even for back then that seemed a bit easy.

Throughout the film, Wabi mainly just seems to be here to make Rod look even better. Wabi’s not as good of a fighter and it’s Rod who is doing all of the planning and thinking. Without him, Wabi would have been caught and taken don near the very beginning of the film. I also can’t feel too sympathetic to him, at least in the romantic department because it does feel like he was taking everything for granted. You do need to formally confess and get things started if you’re hoping for a relationship.

As for Rod, I appreciate that he was on business throughout the film. While Wabi worries about love, Rod is busy trying to make sure they can get to the treasure map and as a side bonus, get the cops off their trail. Yeah the opening scene becomes less important as the film goes on but the ending deals with it real quick. In a sense, you didn’t need the first scene since the treasure map plot is almost completely different but it did make for a fun opening action scene.

The soundtrack is still as iconic as ever. As soon as the music starts, you now exactly what kind of film you’re about to get. The writing and script are both solid as well so on technical elements it passes as always. The films are very consistent and you always know that you will be having a good time. I guess the most annoying character would be the deputy/ranger who was following the leads. Even after the villains kidnap him and it becomes contextually obvious what is going on, he still says that he will arrest the duo.

He basically threatens them not to untie him because he will attack them right away and Rod has to point out how dumb that would be. This guy just doesn’t have a clue and it’s what happens when you’re so focused on your orders that you forget common sense. I was definitely shaking my head at him the whole time. I know he eventually saw reason but it sure took him a while to get there and that made the villains look smarter in comparison.

Honestly the villains were pretty resourceful this time around. Hiring the girl to be at the job site, having a guy in a good position to watch if anyone puts good valuables into the safe, arresting the heroes, taking hostages, etc. They were really busy throughout the film and you could find them around every corner. The main villain himself is a bit interchangeable so he’s not particularly memorable, but he was effective. Sometimes these crooks put in so much effort you think they may as well have just worked a real job instead to save time and effort. It’s not like people are depositing treasure maps all the time so they could have been waiting years for a big score. I guess they’d just go back to robbing banks or something.

Overall, This was a pretty good film. I like to think that the title is referencing how the trains are past the usual trail and that’s their way of saying it. That said, if I was recommending this to folks, it probably wouldn’t be my highest John Wayne recommendation. I feel like he has still had a few other films that were better like with Singing Sam. This one doesn’t have a big memorable villain and we’ve seen better sidekicks before. Still, the film has quality writing and a good soundtrack so it still passes the bill where it counts.

Overall 7/10

Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood Review

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It’s time for a really quick anime special. It’s under 20 minutes so it’s even shorter than some anime episodes so that means the pacing has to be really fast here. It’s a good story and I can’t say that I have any complaints here. I do think the world building is sound enough to make this into a full fledged adventure some day though. That would be a lot of fun to see.

The story takes place in a time where humanity has finally found a way to establish a teleportation station from Earth to a fantasy world. People can travel from planet to planet with ease and even start new lives there. A fair girl named Rinrada decides to travel to Earth while the human Daichi decides to try his luck in the fantasy world. The grass may look greener on the other side to each character but is this actually a good idea or are they about to regret this right away? Technically they can always go back through the gate again if things don’t work out but both of them have too much pride for that.

As a small aside, they probably should have showed a long line by the portal or a bunch of people at the landing zone because I imagine this is a really popular tourist destination. It’s hard to imagine that this kind of tech would exist and almost nobody would use it. This is a small nitpick though, doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Personally, I’d be having a ton of fun in the fantasy world. Earth is cool and all but yeah it doesn’t have cool dragons and stuff like that.

Since the film is short, a lot of the background information has to be inferred rather than outright stated and I appreciate that. This is sort of a back to basics in visual story telling as you will be able to piece everything together if you’re paying attention. Whether it is a phone being passed around, a photo in the background, a character’s voice, etc. It all ties in well and so you get a pretty solid plot twist midway through.

Rinrada has a really hard time getting a job in the human world and so you have to imagine that she wasn’t leveraging her magical abilities well. I tend to think it’s because for whatever reason they are frowned upon or even illegal in the real world but maybe she just took them for granted. Regardless, she keeps a positive attitude and does her best even when she wasn’t able to get an elite job. She has the right attitude to succeed in life. By the end of the film she also realizes that pride for its own sake isn’t a great thing and so she gets a solid ending.

As for Daichi, well I’d argue he was having fun for the entire movie. As soon as he got to the fantasy world he wasted no time in showing off his culinary genius and making friends. Even when he was on his own initially, the guy showed a lot of creativity in finding things to eat and just surviving off the land. You could tell that the fantasy world was a great fit for him over the ordinary mundane nature of the real world. He just didn’t need any of that. You get the feeling that he could have left for the fantasy world on better terms with his Mom over the phone but as part of his character development we can see how he really matured after going to the fantasy world.

The animation looks solid enough here. We even get a quick action scene in there. It’s clearly not a top rate production but the important thing is that it doesn’t look stiff. The song at the end of the special was also good. So the technical elements here are around average. Nothing noteworthy but nothing that would hold it back either which is the main victory. There aren’t a lot of characters here so you can really focus on the main two and what’s going on. If the special had to cram a lot of characters in then that would have been a lot tougher. Even if we had another 20 minutes or so to play with, I’d like to use that to see more of the day to day life of our main characters. The call center seems like it would be a fun area for comedic shenanigans and of course Daichi being in an isekai world has a ton of potential. Maybe you could even squeeze in a scene of him defeating some orcs or something.

Overall, this is a good movie. I don’t think it’ll end up being super memorable due to the length but it’s a good accomplishment to come out with an anime of any size. Maybe with an explosive climax or something but that’s definitely not what this title was going for. So props to the Youtuber for making his dreams a reality here. It’s something that will always be out there as a legacy of sorts. It’s also extremely easy for me to recommend this one as a result because it’s so short that it’s not like you’re putting a lot of time at stake to watch it. Even if it doesn’t end up being your cup of tea, it was less than 20 minutes of your life. It’s not like this is a really ambitious adventure with a ton of stuff happening, but it’s a calm slice of life that just works well.

Overall 7/10

Karate Kid: Legends Review

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It’s time to look at the next Karate Kid film. It was always a bit sad when we learned that LaRusso wasn’t going to be the main character this time around because that would have really helped to make the stakes higher an ever. That being said, the film is still good. It can be a little all over the place at times but still captures the spirit of the series and makes for a film that is easy to watch.

The movie starts with Li having to move all the way from Beijing to New York. He isn’t happy about this but his mother has wanted to put some distance from the world of kung fu after something tragic happened to Li’s brother. Li doesn’t really want to fight anymore, but he does like to keep up with his training. Well, he won’t have much of a choice now that he is in New York since a bully named Conor shows up and just starts whaling on him. The guy has a chip on his soldier because the girl he likes is the pizza girl at the shop that Li frequents and the two became quick friends. Li is going to have to defeat this guy physically in order to end this but the problem is that Conor is more powerful. Li will have to train hard.

This probably would have been enough as the main plot but you’ve also got Mia’s father, Victor who is trying to win a boxing match to pay off some loan sharks. Victor really made sure to owe money to the worst people he could have picked and now that is coming back to bite him. So you have the flip of what usually happens in these films as Li is the one teaching someone how to fight. Although the second half goes back to normal on this.

I would say what the film lacked here was more fights. For a film with karate in the title, there aren’t a ton of fight scenes here. The climax has a bunch of quick fights and one real one but before that you will just get a pair of skirmishes and that’s it. The film was definitely trying to set up a lot of character dynamics and everything but it would have been best to have embraced the action roots a little more. Not that the first films were necessarily heavy on action but you would just expect more.

The film also made a mistake on making Li a little too weak initially. I understand him not being the most powerful out there as it wouldn’t make for much of a film but Conor thoroughly dismantled him the whole time. Even in the climax of the film it felt like Li was a little out of his league. So they could have stood to make this a bit more even so the climax could be more believable. At least that’s the way I see it.

As a main character Li isn’t bad. I do think it takes him a little too long to get with the program though. It was a real rough look to see him falter in the flashback of what happened to his brother and for that to happen again in the present with another character was terrible. He also overreacted pretty hard at the San Genaro festival. Now, I do think the scene made Mia look bad regardless of her explanations later because it’s true that she looked a little too happy, but jumping to conclusions was pretty childish.

Particularly since Li knew they were just friends at that point. He really just needed to talk things out or at the very least not be petty about it. I definitely gotta take Daniel La Russo over him. As for Mia, she wasn’t bad but also on the very emotional side here. Definitely a lot of drama here like when she decides to give Li the silent treatment. I guess for a Karate Kid film you want some drama, but I was always looking forward to getting back to the man plot. I’ll give her credit for not being a jerk when Li wanted to order a stuffed crust pizza. I never knew that scene was from this movie as it tends to make the rounds with memes about how stuffed crust isn’t a real pizza.

Conor make for a fairly weak villain. He’s just way too petty the whole time. So I’m saying weak in terms of personality, he’s technically rather powerful. The guy was dominating most of his opponents. He knows how to fight hard and how to fight dirty which is a really impressive combination. You’re just not going to be able to beat someone like that. Even by the end of the film you feel like he was the best fighter of the next generation.

I would have liked to have seen more of Daniel in this film but it was good to see him get a quick fight scene. Having him get to fight Conor’s teacher would have been more satisfying though. We’d see that he still has the fighting abilities that are needed to win at the top level. Han is also solid although he’s definitely no Mr. Miyagi. He does his best to make sure that Li is ready to fight and doesn’t back down. If anything you just feel bad for Li’s mother who has some valid points about why he shouldn’t fight anymore but gets overruled throughout the whole film. I don’t feel like the characters ever really tried to hear her out.

Although she was unreasonable with spouting platitudes about not resorting to violence when Li was actively being bullied. She took a very old fashioned black and white approach to fighting when that’s just not going to cut it here. You should never be blamed for defending yourself when you’re being attacked. It also feels like the referees are a bit underpowered in this one. The villains just ignore them and go for cheap shots with the ref literally being shoved out of the way more than once. If you defeat someone using exclusively illegal moves, shouldn’t the opponent win by technical penalty victory? Maybe that’s not how it is in real life but I’d be surprised when it is to this extent.

I’d probably have cut out Victor’s plot here with the loan sharks to focus a bit more on Li. I think that would have worked out better although the boxing fight was still pretty fun. As a whole the movie is fun due to the good writing and solid pacing so it has a good amount of replay value. At the same time, it does feel like this film could have been a lot more ambitious. The way it plays out, this may as well have been made a reboot since the previous films didn’t matter a whole lot. The credits scene is also a bit weak. Not bad but I would have liked something that was a whole lot more hype. Also, you know that the two characters got serious food poisoning afterwards.

Overall, Karate Kid: Legends has a good sense of humor and is a fun action film to check out. You’ll definitely be able to feel Li’s frustration as he is surrounded by cheaters and thugs with nobody wanting to do anything about it. The pressure is on him and it’s quite intense. Still, he manages to get the job done and the ending certainly leaves room for more sequels should they want to pursue that. If you like the Karate Kid series then you definitely owe it to yourself to check this one out. You’ll probably find it to be nostalgic.

Overall 6/10

Unico in the Island of Magic Review

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Unico has returned for some more hype. At this point you know the drill with the character and this one isn’t really trying to change up the formula. Unico is brought to a new land where he has to solve some problems and once again awaken his ultimate form. The movie does give us better animation and strong effects this time though so I definitely appreciate that. It’s what I would consider to be a pretty low key movie but one that does have some good action.

The movie starts with Unico being dumped into an island that is about to be under attack by a mad wizard. This guy is turning everyone into toys and Unico barely manages to escape him. It turns out that his sister is a girl named Sheri who has been waiting for him to come back home but something changed him. The wizard Tolby now works for a real demonic spellcastor named Kuruku. This guy has abilities that can barely even be comprehended and so he is always causing mayhem. Can Unico and Sheri put an end to this?

First thing I have to give the film credit for are the designs. Kuruku actually looks rather frightening for a kids film. He is constantly changing shapes and dashing through the air. His energy blasts have the potential to take out any opponent in an instant because of how his matter manipulation works. He is also not someone that can really be reasoned with because he doesn’t care at all about humans. There is no heart to be swayed and so Unico must adopt more violent methods with this guy. It made for a really good climax.

Unfortunately, Tolby looks pretty bad in comparison. He has a more convoluted plan about working for Kuruku and turning everyone into toys so he could learn how to turn them all back. The plan doesn’t really make any sense as it relies on a whole lot of things that just aren’t likely to happen. Tolby should have been teaming up with the heroes from the start in order to stop him. You’ll have a lot of questions on exactly how they met and how Tolby went down this path so quickly but even to the end he just doesn’t do a good job of seeing the big picture.

Tolby is also not particularly good at aiming and so he tends to lose in each of his fights. I did really like the character design though. It really stands out and he definitely looks fancy in that outfit. As a character he really needed more work. He gets a sidekick cat for most of the movie who can be fun though. This cat likes listening to his music and is also a scaredy cat so he will change sides at the drop of a hat. Not someone that you can depend on at all. I was expecting him to turn out to be super heroic by the end but his character doesn’t really change much. I guess Unico can’t win everyone over.

As for Unico, he doesn’t look very good for most of the film but that is to be expected when there is constant amnesia. No matter how much Unico may improve in one adventure, all of the character development is removed by the next. So as a result Unico always has the same character arc of learning how to use his powers and gaining more confidence. That happens here as well and it’s just a really tough road to get to that point. If anything, Unico showing off crazy levels of power at the end can be annoying because then you feel like he should have been doing that the whole time. So in a way it just flips the situation.

The film is definitely aimed a bit younger so at times it might feel a little bit boring. Also every character is constantly yelling, it’s a very loud film. I know some people accuse shows like Black Clover of having a bunch of that, but this movie tops that with ease. Trust me, it can get a little grating after a while and things really have to be spelled out for you. It’s why I was glad that we did have some action scenes later on since those really helped to make the whole film feel more like an event. The film was really not scared to have some scary imagery with the fights as well.

There’s one toy that goes around chomping anyone in its path and actually comes across as real intimidating. Kuruku naturally fits that bill as well and so that is something that does set it aside from the average kid’s adventure. Also as far as kids go, I guess Sheri wasn’t bad. She was rather proactive and kept on going on her quest to save the day. Even being willing to leave Unico behind so that he wouldn’t be in danger. It didn’t work but it’s the thought that counts. We also have a cat who’s related to the Sphinx to help out but she didn’t actually do much. You were waiting for her big moment the whole film and it never came. I liked her enthusiasm as she was always ready to fight but that’s about all that I can say for her.

Overall, If you’ve seen other Unico films then you know what to expect with this one. It’s got more danger than the others but at its core this is a film about friendship and how Unico helps to restore the bonds between people. Unico is someone who is always ready to help out but takes a whole lot of pushing in order to actually begin fighting. The film may not be long but it can feel long as the dialogue isn’t always super interesting so how much you enjoy the film may actually come down to the animation and fights. If that ends up being the case, I dare say that you’ll be in fine hands. The animation has aged really well and just the novelty from that can really help to boost this one up. I’d recommend it if you’re up for a nice story about a little unicorn.

Overall 6/10

Like Father Like Son Review

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It’s time for a classic body swap comedy. There aren’t a ton of films with this kind of premise but they usually turn out to be pretty fun. Who hasn’t thought about stepping into someone else’s shoes for a few minutes right? I don’t think the film ends up being quite as good as it could have been though and could have used more likable characters. As always the kid can definitely be annoying but the father can also be a little slow on the uptake at times.

The movie starts with some intense music as a guy runs through the dessert and is badly injured. He is treated by a nearby tribe and temporarily switches bodies with someone before going to normal. Pretty interesting “science” they got over there. We then cut to the actual main characters Chris and his father Jack. Jack is a very serious guy who works hard and is nearing a big promotion. He wishes his son could take things a little more seriously. Chris is still going through his teenager journey of crushing hard on a girl and flunking on his classes. Well, that’s when his friend Trigger’s uncle shows up with the body swap serum. Trigger messes around and through a series of comedic shenanigans, ends up switching Chris and Jack. Can the two characters get through a full day or two without completely wrecking each other’s lives?

You’re mainly going to be feeling bad for Jack here because he was actually doing well with his life. He was nearing that promotion and skillfully swerving the advances being made to him by the wife of his boss. Jack is not planning on messing around and he is well respected within the industry. His main flaw is presented by the fact that he follows the rules really closely so he doesn’t make exceptions when people don’t have money or insurance to pay for the treatment.

Perhaps he is a bit cold about all of this but at the same time, he is just following company policy. The other doctor brings this up a lot at the board meetings and keep shutting this down. So it’s not like it’s just Jack. Where Jack falters is in not closing out the deal on the big race. He really needed to stay focused and also should have been preparing a lot harder a few days in advance. No way that race should have even been getting close at the ending there. I know the guy is oblivious, but it’s also a bit much that he acts as if he’s never really been to school before. He rambles and acts like the teacher but I guess maybe he was just the class jerk back in the day.

As for Chris, well he acts a lot like the immature stereotype of every teen. He’s completely girl crazy and the first thing he thinks to do when becoming an adult is to go flirt and drink as much as possible. The amount of damage he’s done to his father’s reputation is crazy and so it’s hard to sympathize with him at all. He just looks so immature the whole time and has never heard the phrase of great power comes with great responsibility.

I know it’s part of the point of his character arc but I’d argue he never really learns that much of a lesson. Now at least the movie is consistent with how immature he is since the guy can’t even manage to talk to a girl without making himself look like a fool but it all boils down to you wishing the whole film could have been about the father instead. Even when Jack would make a mistake, he consistently looked better than Chris.

His friend Trigger tends to be more entertaining. Now, technically he’s probably about as immature as Chris but maybe since he’s in the side character role it doesn’t hit as hard. He also has the toughest job of playing advisor to Jack when he’s at school and keeping both parties from making huge mistakes. So maybe in a way he’s at least smarter than Chris.

The heroine Lori doesn’t look that good as the whole thing with her is that she’s not a very serious person. Likewise the bully Rick is super determined to prove that he’s better than Chris when he should probably just be leaving Lori to find someone who wants to be with him. He absolutely crushed Chris in their fight though so he definitely takes his fighting skills seriously.

So while I have a lot of issues with the characters here, the film does have its share of funny gags. I did like the walk-throughs at the hospital. Both the one that was taken seriously and then the parody one after the body swap where Chris didn’t know what was going on. It worked as a solid contrast and of course it’s generally fun to see each character messing up each other’s lives. I dare say it would just be a bit funnier if it took itself more seriously.

That may sound paradoxical but think of it this way. If both characters were a little better at living each other’s lives, then the mistakes they make would be funnier. It would be more of a rare error in judgment as opposed to getting major things wrong. You could also see if there were any ways where they made each other’s lives better thanks to their different approaches. These films always have a lot of potential but this one mainly stuck to going for the obvious gags.

Overall, The film was fun enough but is definitely lacking in some replay value. It’s fairly short so at a little over 90 minutes it’ll go by quickly. The romance scenes for both characters tend to be the most cringe worthy moments although there is a lot of cringe to go around. If you like body swap films then you should check this one out but there’s a reason why it’s not super well known and you will definitely learn that the hard way before you’re done. A remake could really improve on this one.

Overall 5/10

Shadow Labyrinth Review

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Pac Man is a legendary icon within the gaming space and the idea of a horror game involving him was certainly interesting. An animated episode was released which tied into the game and it weakened the hype but I was still ready for the game. Well, in the end it is a pretty good game but I would say it’s best to ignore any knowledge that it relates to Pac-Man. Think of this more like a general Namco tribute as you have characters with names relating to Galaga, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Pac-Man, and others. They have no real relation beyond the name but it’s still a nice homage.

The game starts with someone being warped into a strange world where a ball named Puck asks for his help. The world is on the brink of destruction with powerful forces making different moves across the universe. The main character has total amnesia now and has basically lost any sense of self so he goes along with everything. Now begins our journey into the darkness where everyone keeps their knowledge to themselves in order to keep this as cryptic as possible. Very niceeeeee.

We do learn more about the story as the game goes on and it’s a reasonably interesting story about war. I think it would have been more interesting as a straight forward narrative though. The cryptic, mystery type of story only really works when it is super carefully crafted and I don’t think this one prepared something with enough of a payoff to really warrant this. The ending is still satisfying and leaves solid room for a few sequels but the game would have done well to have had more story early on. Additionally I would have liked some voice acting. This is a modern 2025 game after all.

The gameplay is that of a 2D slasher as you strike away at your opponents in order to get orbs. These orbs can be used to buy items or improve your sword/energy meter. You can also get upgrades based on monster materials and can win Pac Mazes for other perks. The game made sure to stuff the title with a ton of collectibles and power-ups. I appreciated that because the map is absolutely massive in the game and so you will get lost quite a lot. This at least ensures that you are always accomplishing to an extent.

Some mechanics are not really clear and you have to stumble into them though. Several enemies can only be defeated by bombs and then you have to grab them quickly in order to get a rare item. Some of the puzzles can also be really crazy. The game’s difficulty is quite high but typically it is in a fair way. I had no problem with how difficult the final boss was for example as you just need to get good and defeat him. Likewise for any of the human trials. Where it gets tricky is absolutely the Pac-Man gameplay.

At times it just didn’t make sense to me. I still don’t know how you’re supposed to win some of the side content within that game and the rewards for the bonus mazes were bad enough where I couldn’t be bothered to go back. The controls are a bit too slippery and not polished the way that it should be. In some ways this still feels like a beta version of the game. The lack of a convenient quick travel feature is also crazy for a game like this. It’s expected that there will be a lot of back tracking but the game is really lacking in quality of life features. Even if you buy the quick teleporters, your old teleport spots start to deactivate later on so you have to go back and re-energize them. It’s just bad game design.

There are also smaller things like not being able to hit enemies from below even though you can clearly reach them. Ah well, at least I do like the core gameplay. You’ve got the parry system, air dodging, and a lot of ways to attack. It’s really a very versatile moveset which I like for this genre because it keeps things interesting. You also do feel noticeably more powerful as you go through the game so running through all of the old levels isn’t nearly as tedious as it could be.

That is what separates the good Metroidvanias from the bad ones after all. It’s like how in Castlevania you eventually learn how to fly so you get to easily blast through whole worlds because you fly above all of the enemies. Same with Xenoblade Chronicles X even if you really should not call that one a Metroidvania. I actually think this game should have added flight since it is the ultimate end game ability and a testament to your resolve.

Overall, Shadow Labyrinth is a pretty good game. It’s got a whole lot of action to it and the difficulty is refreshing. You don’t get a lot of crazy hard games like this nowadays. Being able to keep your progress when you die is also great. There are a number of bugs and questionable game design features which keep this one from being great though. They really If you are having trouble with a boss, go explore and get stronger. The company ultimately squandered the game when it counted here because this had all of the tools needed in order to be great. I’ll still be in interested in a sequel but I hope the developers take all of the criticism seriously. The next game needs to clean things up and then it will really be ready to take over.

Overall 7/10