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An American Werewolf in London Review

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

Not another Werewolf film! These tend to always be really bad and unfortunately this one is no exception. Put it this way, you’re going to see the usual scenes of the Werewolf running around and eating everyone but the film isn’t trying to be more than that. I give it some kudos for trying to throw in some humor. The comedic moments are when the film is at its best but once it gets back to the actual werewolf moments then that’s game over. There is just no avenue for victory.

The movie starts with David and Jack hiking in the middle of nowhere when they finally come across an inn. They desperately needed a place to rest so this is perfect but there is one issue. The people here are all rather mean and tell the guys to get lost. It doesn’t help that Jack can’t help himself and talks about the odd pentagram they had in the inn. So back outside they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack is quickly murdered while David is saved by the innfolk showing up to dispatch the creature rather easily. No need to be afraid of the monster when you can just blast it away right? Unfortunately the werewolf curse has gone over to David now.

The ghost of Jack appears and warns David to finish himself off before the full moon or he’s going to murder a ton of people. David doesn’t believe this initially plus he is also busy trying to pull the moves on Alex, his nurse from when he was in the hospital. They have a quick affair and it’s all going well for him until he does turn into a Wolf. Now he knows that it is possible but the time is ticking and it is nearly time to transform again. Does he have any options to remove the curse or is he doomed to be a Werewolf now?

As you can probably guess, Jack is the most annoying character here. A lot of the bad things that happen to them can be directly attributed to him. He shouldn’t have caused trouble at the inn when they badly needed to rest. Then as a ghost he does try to help a bit I suppose but he isn’t super clear about it. If he joked around a little less and had a heart to heart with David then maybe he could have gotten through to the guy a little sooner. It’s an idea at least and I do think that it would have had a reasonable shot at succeeding.

As for David, I can’t say that I liked him much either. He was flirting way too quickly and the romance was really weak. It was really fast without much development and while it’s all very lucky for the guy, he also appears a bit easy as a result. If not for being a Werewolf I suppose he was pretty well set off for the rest of his life. I guess he’s just that charismatic but he definitely isn’t well equipped to deal with the curse. By the time he does know that it’s real he doesn’t make a whole lot of headway on stopping himself from hurting people. I actually think he should have gone with Alex back to the doctor to see if sedating him would work. Running off wasn’t going to help anybody.

Alex isn’t the most believable character around since you’d think she would have found his advanced annoying while she was trying to work. It’s another reason why the romance doesn’t work but at least she is very loyal the whole time and was trying to help him. So she gets points for effort and having the right intent there. Then there is Dr. Hirsch who is a solid character. He doesn’t believe in any of this supernatural stuff but once the facts stop adding up he does actually look into things. He doesn’t just shut off his ears and run around, he’s proactive about doing something and that’s why I give him some credit here. Other doctors would have just stayed in the office the whole time.

Inspector Villiers doesn’t have as much to do though. He’s around as you always need an inspector in all Werewolf films but doesn’t do anything beyond his role. You’d forget that he was in the film half the time. It’s not like he is effective at stopping the Werewolf. There is quite the body count here. Even some of the murders are done in a bit of a comedic way but the film still doesn’t hold back on the violence. It’s one of those titles that is really violent while also keeping a chipper tone the whole time. I do think that’s a pretty solid way to do things but it’s only a small consolation in the end.

The transformation scene may be iconic but it is much too long. I would have definitely shortened it quite a bit so he just powers up into Werewolf mode. The actual form is also very different from most Werewolf forms. It’s more of a beast on 4 legs than your standard two legged Werewolf. As everyone is brutally murdered you’re just waiting for someone to take him out already. A few good bullets would do the trick but unfortunately most of his victims don’t really see the attacks coming so they aren’t quite prepared for this.

Outside of the violence the film also likes to go for rather gross imagery that doesn’t help matters either. Jack looks more and more disfigured as the film goes on. It’s not afraid to be as out there as possible and having him just be bones would have been preferable. There’s an interesting meeting where the victims meet together to tell David to bump himself off. It’s definitely a big moment of dark humor here as they are relentless but it works rather well. The backdrop just should have been anywhere but at the theater since the film that was playing was very sketchy. Not the kind of audio backdrop you want for such a big conversation.

Overall, An American Werewolf in London may have a little more fun with the premise but ultimately it still runs into all of the same old issues. It’s a little too violent for its own good and a Werewolf doesn’t make for a very imposing villain. I think you’d have done better with throwing in another Werewolf to fight or maybe add in some supernatural elements. Something to keep this from being just another Werewolf movie would have been ideal. I do think the genre is more or less doomed though as there is only so much that you can do with the premise. I think that’s something that this film is seeing the hard way. I’d definitely advise you to skip this one.

Overall 1/10

Morgan Review

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

Morgan is a film with an interesting premise. That isn’t enough for me to actually call it good or anything like that but at least it is different. I also think it lays the groundwork out for future films to take place in this continuity which would keep on getting better and better. If it focused on certain elements of the climax and built off of that then this could end up being a lot of fun.

So the movie starts with Lee being sent out to a remote science lab by corporate. They want her to check in and make sure that things are okay there because there was a recent incident that has everyone concerned. The project being conducted here is the development of an android named Morgan. She is supposed to be the most advanced android of all time but she ended up seriously wounding one of the personnel so there may be a safety issue. Morgan is locked into a cell at all times as she is no longer allowed to go on daily walks after the accident. The whole staff swears that she is a good kid but Lee is unconvinced. Morgan is smart enough to notice this as well and may be forced to act quicker than she expected. Will Lee be able to leave this place alive?

There’s a lot to like here right out of the jump. For starters I would say that the atmosphere is suitably ominous. Morgan clearly seems to be saying all of the right things but as an android with incredibly state of the art software she effectively knows what the right things to say are. So does she actually mean what she is saying or is she just going through the motions. That’s what Lee has to figure out and it’s not an easy task. Bringing in a behaviors expert was a smart move there but that guy’s not too smart.

Lets look at the context here. Morgan is in trouble because she just seriously injured someone who upset her. So now Alan is trying to intentionally put her in a bad mood to test whether or not she would do this again? Hmmmm I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. You absolutely know how the scene is going to play out the instant that it appears. I wouldn’t say it’s bad writing on the film’s part, just a bad decision by Alan. Crucial difference there and the scene is handled well.

For the people who lived with Morgan the whole time it’s easy to see why they would still take her side while as an outside viewer like Lee you think the whole thing is crazy. There’s just no coming back from having back to back incidents like this including murdering someone. From here on out the movie gets a little crazier as it becomes a full on horror about an android that’s out to destroy everyone. You can say that Megan probably got the idea from this one although Morgan is portrayed as even more serious right from the start. She is wearing a hoodie and hides her face right from the 1st scene to set the tone.

The sci-fi backdrop is really solid and there are some good tunes here. The humans are on the annoying side though as the film couldn’t escape its weak cast. First up you have Skip who is portrayed as the most reasonable one. He just wants to have a good time and all but he quickly tries to pull some moves on Lee after having a previous affair prior to the film. He explains that it just gets boring there but you meet someone for one day and want to get that close? He just comes across as being really fake. He was also extremely slow on the uptake towards the end of the film. Just about anyone should have put something together by the end but instead he has to make a lot of noise. I don’t think things would have played out much differently for him if he did something else but it’s still not the ideal way to go.

Alan also wasn’t smart but I already covered him. Lui seemed more reasonable at least, she just overestimated how much conviction the rest of the team would have. Ultimately they let her down and she probably should have seen the whole thing through from the start. Then you have Kathy whose role is actually quite a bit smaller than most of the other characters. She’s in bed for most of the adventure but gets out just in time to be in some trouble of her own so that was probably not the best move. The character with the biggest role here is Amy who also doesn’t handle anything very well.

She’s the only adult who was by Morgan’s side the whole time. I actually thought Morgan was going to be angrier at her because Amy started to falter at the end but Morgan cut her some slack. From there if you’re Amy you have two real options. Leverage this and try to support Morgan in order to preserve your own existence or if you think she really should survive or you quickly make a break for it when you can. Instead Amy just tends to freeze up at every circumstance and sticks around long enough to get herself in trouble all the time. I didn’t really care for Amy. She’s always being a rebel and that’s fine but she’s a rebel without much of an end game. She was humane to Morgan and always tried to help her out so that was good at least.

If she only could have been more understanding then things could have maybe been different. There’s one scene in particular that hurt the movie a lot when Morgan ends up murdering a deer. The scene is unnecessary and should have been played out in much different ways. Get rid of the animal and you could show her logic processors another way. Still, in context what happened here is that Morgan saw the deer was dying but a very slow death as it had gotten stabbed. So she quickly finished it off in order to stop the pain. It’s disturbing to watch but you understand the general idea.

So why did Amy panic so much? You’re dealing with a sophisticated android that doesn’t fully understand emotions yet. Shouldn’t you be able to understand why Morgan did that and explain why it made you feel uncomfortable. There were so many things Amy could have done but did not and it made her look really bad here. You can’t just fumble the ball at the worst possible time like this. It puts everyone in a really bad situation.

The climax throws in everyone getting slaughtered one by one so that’s when the film really finds its horror roots. For most of the film it was an atmospheric horror but this is where it turned into more of a shock type title. I did really appreciate two of the fight scenes towards the end though. Now those were a lot of fun and if the whole film was like that then it would have really gone to the next level. That’s why a sequel could be really solid.

I mentioned that most of the cast was weak but Lee is an exception to this. Right from the start she is a great main character. She’s all about logic and making the correct decision so that’s a nice contrast to Morgan who does the logical thing because she was programmed that way. The film lays a lot of groundwork down for Lee and showing how she works as a character which works well throughout the movie. By the end you’re really satisfied with how she was portrayed the whole time. Meanwhile Morgan is also a log of fun. She makes for a solid antagonist who may fly off the handle a lot but it shows how you can’t totally trust her. Any character with incredible abilities like this is probably hard to trust if we’re being honest there. All it takes is one slip up and that’s game over.

Overall, Morgan had a lot of good ideas and it was a different kind of horror film. It should definitely get some solid props for that but at the end of the day it does return to form by the end of the movie with the brutal murders everywhere and that random animal violence moment didn’t help matters. If you really like horror films then you should check this one out but otherwise you’re better off watching Terminator Genysis if you want to see some android action. Now that one gets real intense the whole way through.

Overall 2/10

The Eye Review

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This is one of those films that I think did have a little potential but ultimately it just wasn’t that great. It could be a bit repetitive at times and the climax wasn’t quite as intense as you would expect it to be. The ending didn’t quite go the way that it should have but I give the film props for not being too explicit involving the eyes or making any of the visions too ghastly. The movie actually felt like it had some restraint more times than not which is always appreciated.

The movie starts with Sydney doing well at another concert and she has been able to become a professional even while being blind for almost her whole life. It’s pretty impressive and everyone is in awe but now it is time for her to finally get her sight back. She goes through with the eye transplant and it’s all super blurry for a while but this is supposed to be normal. What isn’t normal is that she can now see into the realm of the supernatural. Ghosts of people who died but never moved on plague her at every location. She can’t get them to stop and while her goal has always been to see, she is starting to wonder if she was better off blind. Is there a way to make these visions go away or is she doomed? What if she is actually crazy and the eyes aren’t cursed?

One issue the film has is with repeating the same ghosts quite often which takes away from the fear factor. You have this kid who is nervous because he got bad grades at school so he tends to loiter around. If she tries to talk to him then he jumps out the window but respawns where he was as if this is Call of Duty. In a different kind of film you would probably have this be an emotional story where one by one she talks to all of the ghosts and helps them move on so they won’t be like this anymore. She does do that to an extent at least with one but for the most part she is just busy getting out of here.

The film’s premise is definitely similar to something like Mieruko-Chan but played out without the more supernatural edge. This one stops at the visions instead of embracing the genre more. Sydney definitely does not handle this well although I don’t blame her since the visions are rather tricky. It can be a little hard to tell if she is ever in any real danger though because most times the villains just seem to pass by her. I think she may have been burned once by one of her memories but it fades eventually. What she should have done was to test this a bit. Try to grab one of the ghosts instead of hiding all the time. Once you know that they can’t hurt you, wouldn’t that give you some piece of mind?

Again, Mieruko-Chan handles this really well so I’d recommend that series if you want to see someone who has to live with always being able to see the supernatural all the time. It’s a bit inconvenient for Sydney but she could have handled things better as opposed to shutting off the lights and just hiding at home for a while. By the end of the film she slowly starts to get used to things and the ending is wholesome in some ways but the very ending just feels like a waste. I would have witched one aspect of the film which would have left room for a potential sequel. Even if there was no sequel, keeping in this element would have just been a lot of fun.

So the film drops the ball on the ending. As a character I’d say Sydney is okay but not all that good. She falls for Paul way too quickly and considering that they have something close to a patient doctor relationship that’s not a good idea. Sydney tries to use some pseudo science in the film to try and explain what she’s seeing and brings up a study about someone who claimed they could see things from the previous owner of the eyes. I have doubts on if this is really possible although I’d readily believe it for the brain, but I wouldn’t deny the chance. It just makes things even trickier for Sydney. If she really thinks that she is just seeing visions then there is even less to be scared of right? You can’t be hurt by visions so then that’s it. Just ignore them as best you can and keep it moving.

It’s probably hard not to react to them so scenes like what happened at the restaurant would still be tricky but I do think Sydney could have handled things way better than she did. Meanwhile Paul cracks a little too quickly on going back against his doctor’s oath to tell her about the previous donor. You really gotta be careful about breaking your oaths too quickly or people just aren’t going to trust you. I suppose most will never find that out but I wouldn’t say that is a great consolation either way.

So in general I would say that the premise was better than the execution here. There are some fun ideas and you could really have some fun themes about not judging the undead. Maybe have Sydney be scared for a while but gradually she sees that these people aren’t that bad and helps them out. There was a kid who helped her out in the hospital that wasn’t so bad. It could have even been a bit of an uplifting film in that case instead of this half hearted horror attempt. The movie is just scary and it’s just all over the place most of the time. The special effects are decent I suppose. Of course the scenes in the hospital are the weakest since you still don’t want to see any part of the operation but the film doesn’t linger on this much.

Overall, The Eye is below average for me because it really didn’t do anything great with the plot. The premise has so many areas for good potential and it didn’t use any of them. That’s a big miss if you ask me since the possibilities are really endless with this. Having eyes that let you see the dead would absolutely be annoying so that’s 100% true but lets see the main character try adapting to the situation a little bit instead of getting tossed and turned the whole time. You can do better so I’d say to skip this one.

Overall 4/10

Jeepers Creepers 3 Review

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

It is time for the return of Jeepers Creepers. I wasn’t exactly a big fan of the first two and I can’t say that anything has really changed with the third one. This time the Creeper actually gets to be outshined by his own truck though so that’s a bit of a twist. It does make for a very imposing threat since you can see how the heroes would have almost no shot of getting out of it. The movie doesn’t really do anything all that different from the first two though so there’s not much reason to check this one out.

The movie starts off with the Creeper messing everyone up as he escapes with his van from police headquarters. Dan arrives and informs the local police chief Davis that this is just the beginning. Apparently everyone has their big awakening where the Creeper is concerned where they decide to do something about this madness. He makes the case that Davis needs to help him track the Creeper down now before he gets away again. What can you do against something that can fly, regenerate, has super strength, speed, and a car of gadgets that would even impress Batman? Well they have another one of those spear gatling guns. These films seem to love this thing despite it never working for long but hey it’s better to try something as opposed to nothing right? Meanwhile there are a bunch of teenagers running around and you figure that they’re doomed.

The film doesn’t have many positives so lets go over those first. First off we have the ending of the film which does a nice job of tying all 3 movies together. Presumably the 4th movie would have been really solid if they had actually stuck to this plot. Okay…that’s probably giving it too much credit but I do think that it could have been rather decent compared to this one. The ending leaves things off on a hype note even if you figure that the characters don’t have much of a chance of really making a difference.

I also thought that the plot with Sheriff Dan was decent for a while. It’s certainly more engaging than the main one at least as everyone is very dramatic and they all talk a good game. The problem is that this doesn’t directly translate into wins. No matter how much planning they do, it’s not like they’re ever closer to actually securing the win. That’s probably the most annoying part of the movie, there is never a single moment where you think that they have a shot. The Creeper is just too powerful with no true weaknesses so the movie feels futile right out of the gate.

There is a whole subplot about finding out his past but it’s super pointless. Basically if you grab onto his hand you see things…presumably his origin story and stuff like that. At no point in the film does it ever become important or useful in the fight though so I don’t know what the writers were thinking. Gaylen grabs the hand first and is taken into a trance but for the rest of the film all she can do is talk cryptically. It would be nice if she could have hared the intel…you know so nobody else has to grab the hand? Since she does not then Dan has to do it next…and also doesn’t tell people anything useful. Sure we get a sign at the end taunting the Creeper but does it matter?

Sounds like they’re trying to hurl some insults by saying that they know about his past but why would he even care? Apparently he does but they really couldn’t have known that. A significant chunk of the movie is spent on this pointless mystery so that didn’t do the film any favors. Dan looks all the worse for it since he deserves a lot of blame on the planning. Davis at least did decent in covering him with the gun. I thought he meant well and while he didn’t stand a chance, he didn’t back away from danger.

Gaylen at least told Addison to leave so she wouldn’t be in danger but didn’t do much beyond that. She was just way too old for this kind of adventure. Addison has a little romance plot running around but her family is rather annoying which doesn’t help matters. Her brother is a juvenile delinquent who runs around putting animals in cages for no good reason so of course he gets bumped off. His friends aren’t much better and everyone takes years to take the animal out of the cage. Cmon now guys.

Addison and Buddy also handled one situation terribly. So they drive up to this ranch where everyone is hiding underneath their cars. You might figure this is a great chance to just drive on out of there, slowly back up, dial 9-11…or something. We know you wouldn’t get out of the car…right? Wrong! Buddy gets out and walks up to the guys asking why they’re hiding under a car. No matter what the answer is, it’s probably smarter to be in the car. Maybe it’s a guy with a gun running around, a bear, hornets, etc. Why get out of the car? He’s lucky he wasn’t taken out on the spot by the Creeper but that guy likes messing around to increase the level of fright since he still consumes that as energy. Addison and Buddy did not handle anything very well here so they could be annoying.

The film’s writing is bad for all the reasons I already listed above. It’s also about as violent as you would expect with this kind of slasher film. Everyone is getting bumped off left and right by the Creeper and are unable to do anything about it. The van makes for a very unique set of deaths for the heroes but ultimately this isn’t a movie that is used to showing a lot of restraint. It’s just going for the shock value and at the end of the day that isn’t going to really help it surpass the earlier films. The Creeper is also still such a bad villain, there’s nothing cool about him. The design is weak and while his powers are good, there’s just not much to him.

Overall, The only appeal to this movie would be the ending as the franchise starts to form something of a real story but since the sequel never came out there is no longer much reason to watch this film. It goes through all of the usual motions of a slasher film but the writers couldn’t figure out what kind of plot they wanted to tack onto it. As a result you’ve just got narrative dead ends that don’t do anyone any good. The movie just needed to be honest with itself about wanting to just have an excuse to get everyone bumped off.

Overall 1/10

Godzilla: Unnatural Disasters Review

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Godzilla has returned to destroy everyone who gets in his way. He has long been known as the King of the Kaiju but in this collection he has to go up against all kinds of opponents. It’s a pretty solid collection with a whole lot of stories within it. I had a good time here and I would definitely recommend it to any Godzilla fan. You’ll get all of the action that you could want and more.

From the 3 titles in here I already read the Godzilla in Hell saga so I’ll go over that one a bit quicker. See Godzilla gets taken to hell by some kind of demon and it’s heavily implied that Godzilla has to overcome every challenge of hell in order to escape. This means overcoming physical threats as well as mental ones. Nothing is particularly effective against Godzilla though and he just continues to barrel through the place with ease. It’s impressive just how powerful Godzilla is. The guy is absolutely unrelenting and looks really impressive here. A lot of the monsters he fights with have very unique designs as well. Part of the hype here is that the whole saga is shrouded in a lot of mystery. Even by the end you have to use a lot of headcanon to decide exactly what happened.

The art is very solid and the pacing is good so I didn’t really have any issues with this one. It’s also very unique so I’d say that any Godzilla fan should really appreciate the experience. You know that you probably won’t be seeing anything quite like it any time soon. I think this would be the perfect story to turn into a movie because it would just be so out there that it should catch people’s eye right away. How could you turn away from a film with this kind of premise right? Now for the other two story collections they have a more traditional approach with humans running around but not all of them. We’ll dive into the Legends issues first.

The first Legends issue focuses on Anguirus who is a super big underdog but the humans talk fondly about how he never backs down from a fight. You can take this as a positive trait in that he’s super brave or you can take it as a negative one in that he is very bad at understanding power levels and jumps into flurries that he knows he can’t win. It’s a solid first issue but man does Anguirus need a power up. It feels like someone is giving him the McDonalds combo every time he steps into a fight. When’s the last time he got a definitive win against anybody? Because I can’t think of a single win for his character and that’s unfortunate.

The second issue is definitely a lot weaker though. So this crazy scientist has a Rodan egg and gets obsessed with it. The government isn’t happy because of how dangerous it is and get ready to destroy it so he runs off. His son gets picked on a lot and wanted to show off so he helps his father keep is secured but then the Dad gets arrested and the kid is potentially bumped off. This was probably the only issue in the collection where the Kaiju was completely put to the side in favor of the human plot and that’s what hurt this one quite a bit. The humans were just super annoying the whole time and that’s not what you want to see here. In general the humans are usually not great in the Godzilla comics as you sort of tune them out and wait for Godzilla to return but these guys really stuck out as being rather annoying.

Now the third issue is definitely one of the standouts here. So we have these telepaths across the world who can control Kaiju and the main character is taken to one of these schools to be trained. It’s like something out of Assassin’s Creed as they emotionally manipulate him the whole time and we get a real solid twist involving aliens. The humans were actually rather interesting this time around and it’s a shame that these are all one shots because this could have had a real solid continuation. Titanosaurus got to look good as well, well maybe not in the sense that he was being mind controlled but he looked good in a power context and that’s what you want to see. Throwing in a solid cliffhanger like this one did was pretty effective.

Issue 4 continues on a very solid note as we see Hedorah enter the fray. This time the humans have a Mecha Godzilla at the ready but are still unsure if he will be enough to really help them be victorious this time around. The story has a good amount of tension and they have to decide which monster to take down when Godzilla appears. What I liked about this one is that Hedorah really got his respect. He’s one of the few Kaiju who was actually more powerful than Godzilla when they first fought and so I wanted him to look powerful here. That definitely did happen as the humans had to get involved. It was an emotional story and one that has a satisfying conclusion. I dare say fans all around will have a good time with this one.

The final story is a bit more low key as an old danger climber goes on one last hike. This time he’ll be climbing Godzilla and it’s the most daring thing anybody had done. Godzilla’s filled with radiation so this gets dicey but it’s interesting to see someone hanging on like this. I’m sure Godzilla could have removed him a any time but just wasn’t bothered enough to do so. He knows that no human can hurt him anyway so what would be the point right? It’s a reasonable attitude for Godzilla to have when you really think about it. It works as an emotional climax here especially with the final scenes.

Now we dive into Rage Across Time as we see that Godzilla has been terrorizing the world for centuries at this point. He’s just built different and not even time can get in his way. In the first issue we have him going up against a bunch of samurai/ninja which makes for a pretty unique setup. Personally I tend to like trips to the future a lot more than trips to the past but I get the concept of the series. If a modern military had trouble with Godzilla, imagine back then right? Fortunately other Kaiju are around as well so this leads to a lot of big fights.

Then in the second issue we have the Greek gods trying to unite in order to fight off Godzilla. Thing is they’re really bad at that. None of them get along at all and you can throw the lion’s share of the blame onto Zeus for this. Zeus is just being mean for no reason right out of the jump and it only gets worse from there. Since the gods power comes from the prayers of the mortals he enters the fight in a weakened state because he has been distant for so long. No johns though, Godzilla would have beaten him anyway. There is a good reason why he is known as the King of the Monsters after all. It was nice to see how out there these fights were. It really felt like a very hype supernatural encounter and not just Godzilla beating up on other Kaiju and humans. A very solid issue.

The third issue was a bit different than the others. So it had the knights of the olden days and there was a plague around so they go to Mothra for help. We get a nice fight with Mothra and Battra while the corrupt people across the kingdom mess the knights up. It was interesting but just felt a lot different from the others since Godzilla didn’t get to do a whole lot. A decent issue but Mothra isn’t able to hold her own issue quite as well as some of the other Kaiju. Regardless you should have a good time here.

This 4th issue may be the weakest of the set so you can see how it’s losing a bit of steam here. Godzilla shows up but this time he actually has trouble against humans as they put a lot of snow on him. It may be a tribute to Raids Again but this one suffered from the main issue of the humans getting too much screen time. Nobody really cares about the humans here…no offense to the humans. But I’m reading Godzilla for the Kaiju and the fights and this was the only one that didn’t really deliver in that respect.

This last issue gets real crazy as a bunch of Kaiju all appear and it becomes a whole nonstop fight from all sides. That was great and definitely the right way to end things off with. You barely even remember the story of this one beyond everyone just duking it out and that’s fine by me. Throw in Orga and then you’d really have a party. One issue for the future would have been nice to show that Godzilla is never over but I suppose it just wasn’t to be this time. Maybe next time.

The artwork is mainly solid during the issues. It fluctuates a bit but on the whole I was satisfied with it. You get to have the Kaiju with solid proportions and the fights are on point so that’s the important thing. By the end of this adventure you will be having a good time all around. The writing is good and there is a whole lot of content here so you will be able to enjoy Godzilla in his full glory the whole time.

Overall, If you haven’t read this comic yet then you definitely need to change that. All big fans of Godzilla owe it to themselves to check this out because it is just such a great collection of issues. You’d be missing out if you missed on this one. I would like to see more of a proper ongoing return with some really big plots in the verse but think of these like best hits and stories that could have certainly been movies in their own rights. Look at the issues through that lens and then you’re really all set. I have another Godzilla comic to check out pretty soon so that’ll be hype.

Overall 7/10

RWBY: Arrowfell Review

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Felt like I had to wait years for this game to come out! I was waiting a long time ever since they announced that WayForward would be helping out with this game. They’ve churned out a lot of all star titles over the years and then ArcSystems was also in on it? This was shaping up to be a game of the year contender and the definitive RWBY game at last. Unfortunately it feels like they ran out of development time early on as this feels a whole lot like a cash-in title. That was too bad but at the end of the day it was still a pretty good game. Not amazing in the way that I was hoping for but you’ll have a fun time here.

The story takes place in Volume 7 shortly after the heroes got their professional licenses but before the election since Jacque Schnee isn’t on the council yet. So it’s a rather tight timeline that we’ve got here. A lot of Grimm have been appearing lately including a new group by the name of BRIR so something is amiss. Ironwood asks Team RWBY to investigate what is going on along with the AceOps. The whole world is depending on them so the heroes have to be up to the task.

This is a fairly short game as I completed it in under 4 hours and I obtained the Platinum trophy around an hour or 2 after that. So there is very little replay value here. 100% completing the game in 6 hours and not having any kind of post game to complete is a bit rough on that front. You don’t want to be spending too much money on this one but fortunately it launched at $30 and I suspect that it will be a lot cheaper very quickly. That may feel like shots fired but it just feels like the price would dip quickly. That said it is still RWBY so I would advise you to get this game immediately.

One of the issues with the story here is it feels like Rooster Teeth told the devs they couldn’t do much of anything because the game takes place too recently and they didn’t want to mess with continuity. That’s why it would have been best to make the game not canon so you could just go all out with the plot. As a result it’s not always the most grand of stories. I liked the new villains introduced here in Team BRIR and the final boss is fairly solid in his own right as well. Only issue is that there is a bit of a mystery on who the villain is so any original character made up for the game is deeply suspicious. It makes things just a tad too easy if you ask me. I would have skipped the mystery angle from the jump.

The script also reads like it was created from someone who didn’t actually watch the show. The characters tend to be out of character and it just doesn’t make sense. I’ve never seen Weiss be so upset at Penny constantly. She seems to be really antagonistic to the robot right from the jump for no real reason. It’s a bit bizarre to be honest. Now this may all be sounding a bit dicey but we’re here for the gameplay right? That part is fairly good. It reminds me of the old Cartoon Network web games from back in the day. You can run, jump, attack, and use your semblance. You can also switch between the 4 girls at any time and you need to as each one has an ability needed to get past an obstacle.

It’s like a budget version of Shantae. The hit stun is pretty large so try not to fight any opponents by a ledge or you are definitely falling down. There’s no EXP in the game so you should try and skip all of the enemies that you can. The only benefit to fighting them at all is that they drop coins which is useful for buying items but getting money is quick either way so not much to worry about there. You can buy skill points and heart upgrades that way though. Make sure you buy them all as you’ll need them for the platinum. All of the levels have chests with skill points. You may have to walk a few steps out of your way to get them but I recommend doing this because then the Platinum is even quicker after you beat the game.

The graphics are pretty solid. The character models for the characters are surprisingly low quality but the actual level designs and everything are fun. I wish we could have gotten full voice acting instead of the old text boxes for most cutscenes but one treat is that we do get real fully animated cutscenes in each chapter. Now that was cool and it made you feel like the game did get a big budget somewhere in there that just dwindled over time. Those cutscenes were one of the highlights in the game. Then you also have to consider that the soundtrack here is pretty cool. I liked the new lyrical song that popped up during the first level. It’s really catchy and a lot of fun. There are a few other lyrical songs that weren’t really my thing but I did applaud the effort. It was still impressive to get these in there. So I give the soundtrack a thumbs up because of these songs and it makes up for the repetitive minion theme that plays for each ambush.

I said to skip the villains but that isn’t possible during ambushes of which there are a few in every level. These are points where you have to beat everyone before you can go forward. A bit tedious no doubt but they go down quick. The problem is that you’ll have probably maxed your character out after the first few levels so your attack doesn’t get any higher while the minion health bars just keep increasing. It makes things a little longer even if they are easy to dispatch. I did lose a life once on one of the last bosses though so it’s not a total cake walk. For the most part you can just spam the attack button and beat them before they can drain your health though.

Ruby has the best semblance here as she can go through enemies so I would spam that as I blasted through the levels. I ended up using her the most by far. Blake’s copies are handy though since you can attack in 3 spots at once. Weiss has the worst attack unfortunately but she is good for reaching high places. Yang is strong but her attack is too short ranged so it’s usually better to use Ruby.

Overall, Ruby Arrowfell is one of those games that should have been a whole lot better. Put in the right elements and this would easily be a 9 star game. It didn’t go that route but I would still say to check it out. It’s a pretty fun game that probably would have been a really massive hit back in the GBA era. Now it just feels more standard. The gameplay is good and the big cutscenes help to carry the game. They keep things from getting bad for this one but unfortunately it looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer to get a definitive RWBY game. I know that it will eventually happen though.

Overall 7/10

Overwatch 2 Review

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I got around to playing this one a bit but ultimately it’s not really going to stand out all that much among the big shooter games. The main issue is that there are too many mechanics and abilities which take away from being able to just jump in there and have some fun. It’s certainly no Fortnite as a result and I dare say that you would have a much better time in Fortnite as well. There are better free to play games to check out is the main message here.

They did an odd job of promoting this game though as if you didn’t know any better you’d think this was still the first Overwatch. There aren’t a lot of screens showing that this is the 2nd one or anything like that and the game doesn’t seem to be very different from the original except for the fact that it’s free now. Definitely the minimum amount of effort went into this one but of course if you haven’t played the original before then it’ll still be fresh at least. So I suppose that’s a consolation at least. This is a team game so get ready to have to team up with a lot of people and hope for the best. If there is a 1 on 1 mode, I hadn’t unlocked it yet although granted I never made it to a really high level.

So what separates this from the other games is that as soon as you step on the field you are given the objective of taking over a square or defending it. The other team has the other objective and then you fight it out. Expect to die a whole lot and any time you respawn you get to switch characters. That’s a nice touch at least although in general I prefer to have one life and when you die that’s it. It would make the game a lot more strategic since you can’t just run in guns blazing.

There are so many attack options as well that the game is naturally not as balanced as some of the others. Just from playing all of the characters once I could tell that much. This is not the kind of game where you can pick up any character and just have fun. Of course that also means if there’s a character you like but a teammate got him first then you’re out of luck. I liked one shadow ninja type character but for the most part the roster is very unimpressive. I couldn’t say that there were many that stood out for me.

The graphics are really decent though. The level designs are on point and you’ll have a good time running around. The energy effects are good too. The soundtrack is more on the nonexistent side though but typically shooters aren’t known for having great soundtracks anyway. They tend to be more silent so you can focus on what’s going on. I suppose there is replay value here to jump back into as many matches as you want but I don’t see this game really lasting all that long.

Additionally they want you to put in a phone number just to play the game which seems a bit drastic. I’ve never really heard of that for a game like this. I guess it’s to deter bots and multiple accounts maybe but if no other game is bothering with this then clearly the devs here are doing something wrong. You just don’t need to be that thorough and I feel like it’ll box a lot of people out of the game right out of the gate.

At the end of the day what hurts this one a lot is that it adds a lot of bells and whistles to the base shooting gameplay but does so in a way that weakens the core aspect of the game. You never get to actually run and shoot at the opponents because everyone is too busy activating their super powers. Being forced to attack or defend an area also means that you can’t have fun running around the map and planning an offensive. It forces everyone to bunch up at the same spots where it then becomes a mindless battle of shooting all your abilities at once.

It may work as a minigame or you eventually push people together to end the match but doing so from the start just isn’t a fun decision from a design standpoint. I want to be able to have fun and play the game my way, not be forced to run in like this. It’s not really my cup of tea. Maybe down the road they’ll make the gameplay smoother and change the objectives a little more but if the game is doing well then that’s unlikely. The original Overwatch may not be as big as it used to be but it still makes a ton of money so they’re probably satisfied with the system that they have.

Overall, Overwatch 2 may be more fun if you really drill down and learn all of the mechanics and such but I can’t say that I was very impressed at all. You have a lot of options and all but the game just isn’t very fun and part of the issue is that you can’t take two steps without being blasted. You can’t move fast enough to dodge much either so it just becomes a full on fire fight the whole time and without the strategy that makes it a lot of fun. I highly advise sticking to Fortnite instead which provides a much more entertaining shooting game that beats this one around the board in all areas.

Overall 5/10

My Little Pony: Generations Review

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Generations seems like a title that just works well for crossovers. It makes sense because it really signifies how different eras are coming together. Unfortunately this one isn’t very good and is the weakest MLP comic that I’ve read. It’s not bad but it shortchanges you on the actual crossover aspect which is a shame. The highlight of the comic is when Twilight admits that Starlight Glimmer is still more powerful than she is and that was a nice throwback to how Starlight is supposed to have the most powerful magic in the verse outside of maybe Tyrek. There isn’t a lot of action here though so it’s more about the adventure the whole time.

Grackle and Dyre are bored eating popcorn and hanging out at the Witch cave one day when they decide to attack the Ponies. They want to impress their family by doing this so they quickly send 3 evil “Ponies” over to make a mess of things. It’s good timing for them as Starlight Glimmer and the school are completely overrun by the students so they’ll take anybody. Starlight welcomes these 3 in as teachers but things start to get a little iffy when she notices that they are teaching ponies the wrong things. Their curriculum is basically anti friendship but Starlight isn’t sure how to fire them without making the ponies feel bad. Something’s not right and if the heroes don’t find the answer soon then they will be doomed!

The OG Ponies don’t show up until around issue 4 to help out. Most of this story is really about the evil ponies causing a mess of the school and really messing with the friendship students. At least this might help Starlight realize that even the current teachers weren’t doing great if the students could be led astray so easily. You’d expect them not to buy into the fake lessons but they do so right away. The Mane 6 not ending this threat in an instant because they are all busy is a reasonable way to keep the story going.

So this all sounds rather decent, why is it not getting a super high score? Well the main issue are Grackle and Dyre. They’re easily some of the worst villains in all of MLP. I dare say they are the worst but in case I’m missing someone I figure I’ll just say one of the worst. Every scene with them in it is dreadful. They’re super lazy and not even remotely a threat so they aren’t interesting. I think you could properly have some humans in an MLP adventure but you have to do something to really justify their existence. Just having them hang out and complain the whole time gets repetitive very quickly. They finally jump into the action themselves near the end but even then they don’t do a whole lot. They just hold the story back.

The evil ponies are okay I suppose. Violet Shiver, Shadow Storm, and Black Belle are the 3 evil ponies but they start to have second thoughts about the mission. After all the ponies are so nice to them and all. It may feel a bit odd to see them change their tune so quickly but you could say it’s because the spellcasters weren’t that strong so they didn’t properly create “Evil” ponies and just made Mean” ponies instead. As a result they strayed from the path. Focusing on just one of them would have probably been a lot more effective than having all 3 of them if you ask me.

There just aren’t a lot of interesting things occurring here. The plot itself isn’t super engaging since it focuses a bit too much on the students and the Mane 6 are missing out. I always like seeing Starlight but she isn’t really able to get involved much here either since she’s busy as principal. It’s just a very odd decision to have the story structured in this way. But you would immediately make the comic many times better if you just cut the two witches out of this. Remove them from the comic and substitute with any other villain and this would be an improvement.

The artwork is decent. At times there can be a lot of text that takes over the screen like when the two witches are talking but when it’s just the Ponies it works well enough. I wouldn’t say it looks nearly as good as the main series though. That one definitely got a much higher budget and of course the writing is also a lot more impressive there. On a technical level the comic isn’t bad though, it just doesn’t really pop out at you. There is something surreal about seeing the old Ponies together with the modern ones though.

Overall, My Little Pony: Generations isn’t quite able to match the hype of the concept. Its biggest issue at the end of the day is just that it can be a bit boring at times and that should never be happening in any kind of crossover. It should have been really great with all of the ponies getting together and teaming up but the originals don’t do much at all. They help with a cure for the evil energies and flowers that the villains plant but that’s about it and you could have easily done that without them. That’s a big reason on why they don’t stand out. It’s because they are very nearly filler in their own crossover and that’s always a bad thing. A crossover should maximize the talents of all characters involved. Still if you like the franchise a lot then it’s still worth checking out but you will likely be disappointed based on the premise.

Overall 5/10

Sonic Frontiers Review

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It’s been a long while since I went on an all day gaming binge but it was time to do so for Sonic Frontiers and ended up beating over half the game in one shot. It lives up to the hype of being one of the longer games as it took a little under 17 hours to clear. The hierarchy of the Sonic games have changed as this one actually surpasses the world renown Sonic Forces and takes its spot as the 4th best Sonic game of all time. Only Adventure 2, 06, and Shadow the Hedgehog are ahead of Frontiers. This game is really quite excellent and Sega did good in taking their time with this one to make sure that it would be perfect.

The game starts with Sonic’s plane crashing and when he comes to, Tails and Amy are both gone. Sonic is alone on a mysterious island except for a mysterious little girl named Sage. Sonic hears a voice cryptically tell him that to save his friends he will have to destroy a bunch of giant titans and tear down some towers to remove the dimensions between worlds. Only once that has been done will they be okay. Sonic’s a bit skeptical but there aren’t any other leads so he gets to work on this. The game’s main formula here is you will obtain enough keys and memory pieces to talk to your friend for the world and then obtain all 7 Chaos Emeralds. After doing this you move on to another world. There are 5 worlds in the game but one of them is fairly empty so think of it like 4 main worlds.

At about 17 hours you can say each world is roughly 4 hours long and the mini world is 1. It’s a really good balance and right off the bat I can say that the game has a whole lot of replay value you can have fun with. There are a lot of bonus conversations you can have with each of your friends after getting the right amount of hearts needed to complete the world. Additionally there are a lot of the cyberspace levels that you won’t even have played by the time the game is over. So you will be here for a good amount of time and getting the Platinum may even take you around 25-30 hours. I’m definitely aiming for that next now that I have this game completed and look forward to going after it. Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll do some really good DLC for this game with more story events or something.

For the gameplay it’s a bit of a departure from the usual Sonic experience as it’s an open world title where you run around and do a lot of platforming beyond the usual stages. The actual stages are only a very small part of the game after all so you won’t be there a whole lot. If you’re a fan of the usual Sonic structure then I can see you missing it a bit but the open world concept was done very well. You really feel Sonic’s speed as you run around and I just found that to be really ideal. As you level up the speed you feel better and better. My speed was only around level 20 when I beat the game so I’m curious what level 99 speed would look like. That has to feel incredible!

So for my money, Sonic Forces/Adventure 2 Battle probably had the gameplay layout the best in that you just pick a stage and get right in there. Adventure 2’s stages covered a lot of different terrain and could be long as well. You don’t really need the open world and just jumping in is a blast. Still if open world is the future then I’m still all in with it. I do like open worlds quite a bit and with fast travel activated it’s even better. World 3 is the only one that can be a bit annoying with the layout though. There’s a robot that lets you fly but it’s so short that it’s basically pointless and you immediately start sinking when you use it. I question the point of it being in there.

While the gameplay may take a little getting used to as I wouldn’t say it’s quite as sharp as some of the others, put in a few hours and you’ll be maneuvering Sonic like a pro. The best addition to the series is allowing Sonic to leave a light trail before him as if this was Tron. You can move in a circle to hit enemies or activate artifacts. In general Sonic’s attacks were all really great here and you got to use his speed in creative ways. You can also upgrade all of your stats by talking to elders and rescuing little creatures. The sound effects for the creatures may be ripped straight from Legend of Zelda but I like to think of it as a homage to Breath of Wild doing the open world first while Sonic did it best. One advantage Sonic Frontiers has over other open world games is how fast Sonic moves. Most other characters can’t quite move like this.

If I have a nitpick about the game, it’s that every cutscene opens in a smaller screen because they keep a border around it to show you the option to skip the cutscene. I feel like they could have it appear for an instant and then hide or only appear when you try to press X. Why have it always appear? It’s not like I want to skip the cutscenes most times. On the 1st run I’m not skipping any so I thought that was a bit odd. Can’t say I remember any other game doing that.

Part of why this game got a lot of hype was because it was finally going to be another plot driven game. Aside from Sonic Forces we haven’t had one like that in an extremely long time. If this is the return to the Adventure days then that would be great. There are a ton of great references to the past adventures as well including Infinite. It really helps make the continuity feel strong and it also underscores this as the final Sonic game. The characters are all really mature here and each character has their own character arc. Amy, Knuckles, and Tails all make big decisions here that should have big repercussions for the future games.

The soundtrack is also incredible. There are so many great vocal themes here. Each boss has their own unique song which is rare as most games will keep to the same boss theme. They all sound incredible and it also makes this game really feel like the most ambitious Sonic game out there. This is truly end of the world type stuff and these bosses are some of the biggest that Sonic has dealt with. The graphics are top tier as well so you’re really looking at a lot of great work put into this game.

It would have been great to have seen more characters thrown into the mix and parts of the plot can be a bit vague at times, particularly Sage’s origin and more about the digital world but it does add to the mystery and intrigue of the story. Sonic also stands out in particular with how great he looks here. He endures a whole lot of pain to help his friends and is always carrying himself in a very mature way. While I may miss the voice direction he had in previous games, I do understand the logic of making him a lot more serious for this one. He feels older like the rest of the characters which works really well.

Overall, I could go on but this is one game you really need to experience. It’s top tier in all aspects and is almost certainly game of the year. It’s unlikely that any other game will even come remotely close to topping it because this is what we’ve been waiting for. The greatest video game series of all time has returned with an all star adventure. If Sega keeps this up then Sonic is about to quickly become even more of a household name like back in the days and there will be no looking back. I’m definitely eager to follow along on this adventure but hopefully the next game doesn’t take so many years to come out this time.

Overall 9/10

The Ghost Ship Review

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Imagine being stuck on a ghost ship? Definitely wouldn’t be a very fun time I can tell you that. Now this one isn’t actually haunted by ghosts but it does have a rather tough captain who is ready to take charge. It’s a relatively low key thriller for the most pat as people are bumped off one by one and the lead has to wonder how to handle this. If he plays it wrong then they are all going to be in big trouble.

The movie starts with Tom getting selected to go to the boat for his tour. He’s excited to do his part and captain Will seems like a reasonable guy. They get along really well but for some reason people on the boat almost seem to fear Will. As the days goes on Tom starts to see some of Will’s faults like how he believes that he literally owns the crew as well as their lives. Nothing is ever Will’s fault and he also cracks under pressure during an operation but later has an excuse ready. The problem is that Tom is a bit slow to piece this all together but when the bodies start piling up..Tom is on the short list to be next.

Why is Tom going to be a potential victim here? Well that’s because he actually calls Will out on this and does so directly which is a risky move. You have to give Tom credit for trying to do this through the legal channels as he also arranges for a court hearing and everything. Unfortunately he doesn’t take into account that everyone would be on the Captain’s side as they have served him for years. Sure they know that he is a tough guy but being some kind of criminal mass murderer? That’s a bit too much of a stretch for them.

While it may be disappointing that they didn’t stick up for him you can understand why. At this point in time they don’t have much reason to think that Will is evil like that. As the film goes on they do start to appear rather intentionally dense though. It’s only at the very end that some people start to be reasonable but by then Tom is already in lethal danger. A theme in the movie is about how humans will always let you down in the end because people look out for themselves. Tom doesn’t believe this while Will is confident in it so that’s the underlying battle here beneath their literal fight.

It makes for a good ideological battle. It’s also tough for Tom because he’s on Will’s territory. Tom has no true allies here (There is a radio operator that he’s friends with at least but doesn’t want to get involved) while Will’s got everyone here. Tom’s door suddenly has its lock broken later on for example and nobody’s in a rush to fix it. They simply aren’t going to fix it is another way to put that. Will also has a gun while Tom does not so that’s another thing to take into consideration.

The most tragic part for Tom here is that at one point he was going to run away. He was just going to dash out of there and head home but he got knocked out during a street brawl and was taken to the ship. The craziest thing is that it was pure coincidence and not some kind of trap by Will. Will was even hoping that Tom would be gone so that was a big shake of bad news for both of them but of course it gave Will a chance to try and take him out. At the end of the day I did like Tom, he was a good main character. While he may have put himself in a lot of danger with how he handled some parts of his plan, he was resourceful. He even came up with an alarm to wake him up if someone entered the room.

Meanwhile Will makes for a solid villain. We even get some scenes of him and his friends which is interesting as the film develops him a bit beyond just being your average psychopath. Of course he is still a psycho but we see how he can act normal in public and why nobody would really suspect him of anything. He covers his tracks really well and only bumps people off once in a while if they get on his nerves. Whether Tom had arrived or not, I do think it was inevitable that Will was going to keep going off the deep end though. It was just a matter of time.

There is also Finn who can’t speak but monologues a whole lot during the film. He seems rather shady the whole time and ends up getting a role near the end. His role was important but at the same time it was rather small so you almost could have cut him out of the film and it wouldn’t have changed a whole lot. It gives you another plot to think about though so in that sense the film went out of its way to have more moving pieces on the board at once.

At the end of the day what makes this film work is the solid writing. It maintains a tense atmosphere the whole time and you always know that danger is on the horizon but it takes its time. You never know when someone will be bumped off or there will just be threats. Tom is used as a go between for some of the more sinister orders as well so the crew really don’t suspect much but ideally if they heard about some of the way Will found them expendable then they would look for a transfer right away. You do not want to stay on that boat!

Overall, The Ghost Ship is a solid movie. I’d recommend checking it out. It may seem like a rather low key title that you haven’t heard of before but it works out rather well. It reminds you to always watch your back and if something seems suspicious then it probably is. I still haven’t been on a boat for any longer period of time than a basic cruise but one day it’d be fun to do a week’s trip there and see what life on the great blue is really like. You know that I’d be checking out the 24/7 pizza bar all the time!

Overall 7/10