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Luxor 3 Review

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I got Luxor 3 from Gamestop for about 2-3 dollars. It was a bargain considering that this game prided itself on the fact that it has over 100 levels to complete. It looked like my kind of game and I spent hours going to many different Gamestops as I tried to buy as many Wii games as possible. This was one of my winners as the game was pretty fun and had the kind of gameplay style that I could easily get behind. If the gameplay was no good then 100+ levels would have been very dicey.

There are a few modes to play here, but Adventure Mode covers them all so let’s start there. There is a brief plot and it involves the Egyptian gods being taken down be Set(h?) so the hero must save them all. Set is firing energy balls at each of the gods so we have to shoot them down before they can invade the pyramids. Rinse and repeat for the 100+ levels. The plot isn’t a major factor here to be honest. It’s like playing a game of Pac Man or Galaga and getting a little bonus plot. It’s not necessary, but it’s still fun to have.

There are 11 worlds and each one has 8-10+ levels. The bulk of the levels are comprised of the mission that I already mentioned. There are balls that roll towards the goal and you have to match 3 or more of the same color. Whenever you do this, the balls will explode. Rinse and repeat until they are all gone and you must not let them get past you. You can grab various special attacks after getting enough matches like a lightning bolt or a bomb. They are extremely handy so grab them whenever possible.

In each level there will be a statue until you’ve collected the 4 needed in each world. You don’t need to get them and I’m not sure what they really do yet, but at the very least they open up bonus levels where you can grab some extra coins, which are good for buying new power ups or changing the look of the balls. At the end of the game it’ll be nice to see all of my statues lined up. I made a great effort to grab as many statues as I could throughout the game since it’s pretty easy to do so. Why not right?

Some levels will be called Onslaught Mode. Typically there will be one per world. It’s the same as the standard level except for the fact that statues will rise up to block your shots so you have to be very strategic about how you tackle the level. It’s not bad, although I definitely prefer the standard stages. You’ll find that the standard levels are almost always the best ones in the game.

There will also be one or two puzzles in each world. These are the least enjoyable to be honest and the more that I see puzzles in my video games…the ore that I realize how out of place they are. Puzzles just aren’t fun if you ask me. Luckily, you don’t have to actually beat them in order to clear the world so you can just skip them. That’s good since the puzzle levels could have gotten old very quickly. There were actually one or two that most people thought were literally unbeatable due to a glitch until someone proved them wrong.

Finally, there’s the boss level at the end of each world. Basically, you have to survive for 3-4 minutes as an infinite number of balls are shot at you. Survive until the end to win! These levels are cool and they can definitely hold their own against the standard versions. There’s only one per world, but at least they do give you a sense that the level has more weight than the others. That’s what a good boss level should always do. Surprisingly the final world has no end boss so the game just ends rather abruptly…it was odd, but not a negative I suppose.

The soundtrack is amazingly good. There is a steady flow of intense opera music that will attack you from all sides as soon as you start the game. It is dramatic and it is epic. This helps you to realize just how high the stakes are for this particular adventure and I was not expecting anything like it in this puzzle game…or any puzzle game for that matter. Even fighting games like Super Smash Brothers would have a tough time trying to match the grand scale of these themes. (Although Smash Bros can pull it off)

I also enjoyed the graphics in this game. They’re fairly clear and that’s good since everything happens so quickly once the level begins. You can change the color styles of the balls that you are shooting by spending your hard earned $$$ in the game so that’s always an option if it’ll help you focus. Of course, if you can deal with the default color, then I’d recommend it so that you can spend your money on better endeavors like powering up your super attacks. Trust me, those will end up helping you out quite a bit more than a color change.

You can really tell that a lot of effort was put into this game and I can admire that. Each world took me anywhere from 30-60 minutes so that’s a 10+ hour game right there. The replay factor is also alive and well in the sense that you can keep on using your money to buy equipment. It’s not a game that I see myself going back too and it’s not quite as addicting as other classics like Pokemon Shuffle or Pac Man, but Luxor gets the job done.

Overall, I definitely recommend this game to all gamers. It’s the kind of game that you can easily play for hours and hours. The 100+ levels is a great bargain considering that the game sells for 1-2 dollars. It’s true that this is the kind of game that you could picture playing online for free, but 1-2 dollars isn’t going to hurt you and now you can play it on the big screen. The Wii remote controls are actually pretty smooth and they don’t tend to go chaotically out of control on you either since your movements are fairly stable the entire time. It’s definitely still one of my least favorite control schemes and I’ll never get into motion based controls until we’re in the virtual world, but it works well enough and isn’t too detrimental to the game. I’d be hyped for a Luxor 4 if they ever went ahead with it.

Overall 7/10

Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher Review

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It’s good to see the Marvel anime once more. For the most part, this project was a great success. The Iron Man anime was a lot of fun, Wolverine had some of the best Marvel action scenes and themes out there, and Blade was a fun mix of both. It wasn’t as fun and Vampires are pretty bleh, but it was still decent and much better than the average Blade product should be. X-Men dropped the ball for me, but I still don’t think I’d call it bad. A little dull…maybe a little boring, but it wasn’t bad. Avengers Confidential manages to get up to Wolverine levels of epicness and it’s a superb film. Automatically one of Marvel’s best!

SHIELD captures Punisher and they explain that his vigilante practices cannot be tolerated at the moment. He just messed up an infiltration mission that had been months in the making and now SHIELD is no closer to finding out who the mastermind of this new terrorist organization is. Punisher brings up the valid point of how SHIELD was just standing aside and watching as many innocent civilians were being massacred so he made the call. SHIELD doesn’t have a good answer for this so they run off and so does Punisher. Punisher leads Black Widow to the villain hideout as part of the deal and then he leaves to get his job done. He wants to destroy the main villain. (You may not know this, but the Punisher never takes prisoners)

Punisher’s the main character and his plot is the most interesting in the film. He openly goes around destroying everyone who gets in his way. Essentially, he believes that dirtying his hands to get rid of the criminals that infest the world is a good deal so he goes ahead and does it. You couldn’t call Punisher a hero, but at least he does try to protect the innocents and only fatally injures villains. He’s a great main character and he may be more likable than the other anime leads. Only Wolverine would be close. Punisher has been around the block a few times and you can see his experience. He may not have a fancy spynetwork backing him up, but Punisher still knows what’s happening on his streets.

He has a good amount of super strength and speed like Captain America so Punisher can always hold his own in a fight. There’s never a doubt as to who will win when Punisher is in the battle. His character was handled well and when written correctly, Punisher is definitely one of the most likable Marvel characters on the block. We’ve got another super soldier here as well in the form of Black Widow.

She’s nearly as strong as the Punisher and probably a little quicker. I’d say that the Punisher has the edge in their bouts, but Black Widow always makes it a close contest. The action scenes in this film are great, but I’ll get into that in a second. The one off putting thing about Black Widow is the voice used in this film. I could probably get used to it if we had a lot of sequels to look forward too, but it’s not the case. The voice isn’t bad, it just doesn’t sound like Black Widow. Maybe it’s a little too happy go lucky for her. It doesn’t negatively impact the actual portrayal of the character though.

It’s good to see her show some free will as she disobeys Shield. Voice aside, this is easily one of Black Widow’s best portrayals in animation. She’s a character who can easily be misunderstood and poorly written by the writers, but at her core Black Widow is a powerful assassin who has a lot of experience in the spy game. I still do not care for her portrayal in the MCU and the Civil War trailer basically confirms that this will not change, but if the writers could pick up on her attitude from this film a little more that would change. Granted, I could do without the flirting with Amadeus, but besides that Widow is basically on point. We also have to ignore the sideplot with Elihas. Wait a second…was this actually a good portrayal…..

Well, for the most part it is. Clearly the character is still not perfect, but I still do like the fact that she disobeys Fury quite a few times as the film goes on. That’s something that her live action persona would have a tough time doing. Widow treats everything like a game and never actually gets serious, which is fitting for an assassin since she is involved with death just about every day. Trying to stop Punisher towards the beginning of the film from leaving for his own goals was pretty much futile, but at least it gave us an extra fight or two.
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Nick Fury’s pretty iffy the whole time. He is about as corrupt here as you’ll ever see him and the end game is the only thing that he cares about. Fury didn’t even realize that his own agent had switched sides so I think he probably needs to lower the tough guy act a little. It’s definitely not working on anyone if you ask me and the Punisher nearly took him down when they first met. Nick’s basically a normal guy surrounded by superhuman fighters. He’s really stretching his luck every time he comes off as antagonistic.

One annoying character in the film was Amadeus. He’s the generic kid genius who’s basically a hassle and can’t back up his tough talk. His first scene in the film is him just opening up a villain’s program without debugging it. Sure enough, the program was a virus and you wonder why this kid is supposed to be some kind of genius. Black Widow’s always teasing him as evidenced by their conversations and Amadeus uses this as his inspiration to help the team, but it’s a sideplot that got old the second it was mentioned and the guy’s a terrible character.

There was one other subplot, which was terrible and that was actually Black Widow’s. Back in the day, she actually got attached to a Rando (Name for any random original character. It’s actually a pretty neat slang word. I don’t approve of most, but this one’s all right) but the guy figured that he wasn’t worthy so he joined Hydra and decided to destroy as many people as possible. Not directly though, this guy doesn’t get his hands dirty. He did get super powers through his vaccine though so now he can actually give Punisher and Black Widow a good fight. Unfortunately, he never goes up against the Punisher, which was a mixed opportunity, but it was good that Widow got to fight her own battles I suppose.

His name is actually Elihas is you’re curious. I decided to look him up and it turns out that this guy is Egghead. Hahahahahahahahaha! That fits perfectly if you ask me and the guy sure gained some weight after this anime adventure. He’s a great fighter so it’s a shame that the character was no good. He even seemed to be better than Black Widow as she mostly held her own through cheap shots and appeal to emotion arguments. The whole thing was Elihas’ fault, but you still had to wonder why he fell for the same cheap shot over and over and over again.

Orion was the big boss, the head honcho, the big cheese of the film. He only got to appear for a few minutes, but he’s decently tough. What he lacks in athletics, Orion makes up for in pure power. His energy blasts were cool to look at and I liked the armor. He made for a fun final boss although the action fight scene wasn’t quite as fun as the others since he couldn’t hope to keep up in terms of speed.

Ignore the cover of this movie, the animation is actually quite good. If the movie looked like the cover then that would have very significantly hurt this film and I probably would have dropped two stars. The animation would start a ripple effect that would hurt several other areas as the characters would not have been quite as cool. Yes, you heard correctly, animation has the power to actually affect the characters on a personality level. Luckily, the animation is stunning and the fight scenes are great.

These action scenes don’t try to tone down the character’s abilities for the general audience so we are treated with some high speed hand to hand rumbles. They are much better than any action scene that we’ve seen in a Marvel film to date. Yes, this is the single best Marvel film when it comes down to the fight scenes. I just wish that the film could have been longer so we could have had some more action, but it was at a decent length anyway.

This film’s pretty intense and also has a dark color scheme, but the film pulls it off quite nicely, which is a thumbs up for the writing. If the film’s writing was sub par, then there would be a lot of language, gratuitous blood spilling after every shot, and the film would have basically been indistinguishable from the average film that DC animation has been churning out. Luckily, that was not the case. I’m not saying that the film is completely tame as some necks are still broken and people are shot left and right, but the film never dwells on the violence. It never pauses to remind us how dark and depressing the environment is. The film is very fast paced so despite all this, it tends to actually be a pretty uplifting film that keeps you energized. Fun is still the name of the game after all and this film knew how to achieve the perfect balance. It’ll remind you why the Punisher is no hero, but at least you can still root for him as the lesser of two evils. The film could have easily made him go too far and then we’d have nobody to root for. (Black Widow I suppose, but the sub plots…nooooo)

That goes to why I found the Avengers to be a bit of a disappointment though. I wasn’t expecting them to do much, but it felt like they were just added for the kicks. They get the worst fight scenes in the entire film and the drop in animation quality is noticeable. Suddenly we have a lot of random CGI and compared to the smooth hand to hand fights, you’ll probably be wincing at this point. The designs for the Avengers also aren’t that good to be honest. I’m glad that the Hulk is immune to telepathy once again as that varies from movie to movie, but these guys didn’t need to be around. It’s retro to see anime Iron Man return, but please…lose the CGI. As it stands, the Avengers tried to steal the thunder from Punisher, but failed to do so.

The thing is, the scene had a lot of potential initially. When we see the beams of light descending down upon the villains, I was ready for an epic opener. Instead…it was the odd blend of CGI and hand drawn with vibrant colors that were not streamlined at all. Whatever the film was going for, it just didn’t work out for me and I’ll have to settle for a “better luck next time.” We do have the Toei Avengers show coming up though. I haven’t seen it yet, but the Dub version should be out someday.

I’m also giving the film 5 stars for the soundtrack. It was fast paced from start to finish and just about every theme was suitable for battle. If someone ever tells you that a film can’t have a great soundtrack if it’s just filled with mindless battle music over and over again, just show them this film. It suits every fight scene since the action is always fast and I was loving it. Easily the best Marvel animation in that regard, even taking out the Wolverine anime. (That still has an incredible theme song though)
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Overall, This product lived up to expectations as you can clearly see in the review. It was pure hype and downright awesome. The villains were basically original characters for the film, but they served their purpose as powerful villains. The established villains were the ones who could have used some work. I’m tempted to give this a 9, buuuuuuut the romance and the annoying kid keep me from giving it that score so it teccccccchnically loses to Ultimate Avengers. These are technicalities though and odds are that I’ll still be referring to this film as the best Marvel animated feature. Think of it as a recommendation that surpasses the actual quality of the product. The two weaknesses bring the film down just enough to lose the official star, but the film is so enjoyable otherwise that I can easily recommend it to anyone. It’s a shame that the Marvel anime features are now over, but maybe someday someone will bring it back. Until then…….back to Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider Man!

Overall 8/10

Inside Out Review

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Inside Out was a fun animated film. I’d say that it was a bit better than I expected although I did find one of the main characters to be pretty annoying and the moral at the end of the film was pretty iffy. I can’t say that I agreed with it or at least the way that it was handled. Still, Inside Out holds its own here and the writing is solid.

Imagine a world where humans were actually complex machines which had their emotions become tangible beings that can control the person’s actions. Each emotion had a role to play and they worked in harmony to control every decision that you made. If they were to ever have a big disagreement and split up, then the human robot would shut down for a brief amount of time. The film goes into the details of how the human machine works in great detail, which is pretty fun. The actual plot of the film follows Joy as the main character.

Joy is essentially the ideal character. She’s extremely optimistic and always tries to see the positives in a situation. It’s easy to root for her and she does her best to ensure that every day is a good one. Unfortunately, Sadness wants to corrupt everything that she touches and gets Joy into a lot of trouble as the two of them fall away from the control center. They must now make it back to the human robot quickly or the girl’s social life will be ruined. After all, how can a person have a good life without any joy or sadness? The only emotions left are disgust, anger, and stress. Definitely not a good way to live there. Can Joy make it back or will Sadness continue to hold her back?

It’s probably obvious from the summary, but I do not like Sadness. She’s a debbie downer and the kind of person who doesn’t even enjoy Christmas. Essentially every line that she has is a complaint or a sigh where she tries to make everyone feel bad. Not content with just making herself sad, she tries to bring down the mood for everyone else as well. Sadness even goes as far as to corrupt the human’s happy memories and turn them into sad ones. In case you think that this is all just an accident and Sadness doesn’t mean it…think again. She does this on purpose. There are several times when Joy tells Sadness not to touch anything, but she does anyway. She ignores the warnings and causes as much damage as possible. Typically, she’ll do this immediately after being warned, which makes the whole situation even worse.

Joy is the opposite and ends up being a very good character. She’s essentially perfect. A character who’s always determined and likes to do things the right way. I’ve already talked about her so let’s move on to the next character. Disgust probably gets the smallest role out of the emotions and I can’t say that she’s a good character either. I don’t even consider Disgust to be a primary emotion, but I suppose that we were running out of them by this point. She doesn’t help out at all either here so the group would have been better off without her. At least she doesn’t openly try to put the team in jeopardy though.

Nervousness or whatever the emotion is officially called is decent. He’s always stressed out about everything that’s happening in the world so he’s on top of his game. He was even one step ahead of Joy when she asked him to write down a list of the things that can go wrong. Stress always brings his A game and he’s not afraid to go for the win. Finally, we have Anger, who’s another solid character. It’s always fun to see him grab the controls and blow up as he goes for the win. He tends to lose, but he talks a good game and Anger has more character than most of the other emotions. He certainly doesn’t let himself get pushed around although he tends to make the situation worse for his human.

Aside from the emotions, we’ve also got the other humans who have emotions of their own. We typically don’t see the other emotions, but it’s always interesting to see their other views. This even applies to dogs, cats, and just about anything else. The parents get a decently large role here. They’re pretty nice and the whole situation with the house can be a bit dicey, but they weren’t over the top as far as being unreasonable goes so the main character had no reason to be mad at them. It’s all because Joy wasn’t there of course, but you’ll just feel bad for them. That being said, there’s no logical reason why a pizza store wouldn’t have pepperoni. I think that was a bit iffy if you ask me and the scene could have been written better if we needed a situation to give the main character some tension. Bing Bong is an imaginary friend who couldn’t keep up with the opponent which goes by the name of age. I definitely didn’t mind him leaving the film as he was another character that I didn’t like. He nearly destroyed Joy by not thinking about what his secret short cut really was. His rocket was decent, but if you were supposed to cry for Bing Bong at the end..I can safely say that it didn’t happen in my case. He wasn’t the kind of character that you would get very attached too and he was just too much. If only Bing Bong had been cooler as I did like the name.

The film isn’t too short, which is good since it gives us some time to see all of the characters and explore this concept. I like the concept behind the idea that our emotions are actually sentient beings who control the human shells from within. A whole movie can be made about that…and it was! That being said, I didn’t agree with how the moral was presented as mentioned above. Basically, we are supposed to wrap our heads around the fact that our happy memories have sadness with them and that makes them even better. LOL No!

Let me give you an example. Brace yourselves here. I remember a few years back when I managed to acquire pounds and pounds of chocolates to save for my birthday. Dozens of different bags of chocolate chips, cookies, brownies, ice cream, and more were assembled. Seriously, we probably spent over 200 dollars on snacks alone for the Birthday, but it was worth it! I grabbed a huge Turkey container (Think of a big pan for pasta, but deep enough to fill in 3x that) and I stuffed the snacks inside before eating. I ate for hours and hours until my stomach was so full and I was so stuffed that my teeth began to hurt. Do I want to remember my teeth hurting? No, I block that out and just remember how amazingly good the pot of snacks was. My point is that happy memories are epic because they are happy. We don’t need any sadness messing that up.

Sadness does help us develop our character and make us better people, but it doesn’t mean that we have to corrupt our happy memories. That’s exactly the train of thought that makes people so miserable in day to day life. Whenever someone says that they aren’t looking forward to Christmas or always has a pouting expression on their face, I feel like facepalming myself. Enjoy every day folks because that’s the point of life. While we’re living, we may as well be having a blast. So, I feel like Inside Out dropped the ball on that, but it’s fine…we can’t win them all.

The animation is all right. It’s not really my style and I’ve seen animation from a decade ago and even older than that, which looks better. Still, this American Animation is really well liked and gets good reviews, but give me something a little flashier and I’ll be happy. The human characters are drawn in that intriguing CGI style that lets you immediately know that this is an American film. While we are way ahead of Japan in Live Action, they are decades ahead of us in animation. At this point, I’ve accepted the gap as a fact in life, but maybe we can change that someday.

Overall, Inside Out is a good film and it deserves the positive reviews. I had fun watching it and the film does a good job of world building. It’s an interesting film from start to finish and it never drags on. Good films don’t need action scenes to be enjoyable as this one proves, but then the writing has to be on point. Luckily that was the case here. I’m not ready to say that it’s as good as Frozen as the ice themed film still has the edge, but this one is on the same level. It just needed a super catchy song to keep up with Frozen and that didn’t happen. Take Sadness away from the film completely and who knows…maybe it could have won! I don’t think a sequel would be as good though. Certainly not if we had any hintings of romance. The emotions inside of the mom were already pretty iffy and it was an unnecessary scene that they had. The ending helped to stop that, but things could have been dicey. I still want a sequel though, but let’s make it a direct to DVD futuristic robot action adventure story to shake things up.

Overall 7/10

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 Review

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Well, I finally got to see the final Hunger Games film a while back (Saw it day 1, but I took my time writing the review) and it met my expectations. Unfortunately, that’s a bad thing in this case. The film is still very slow paced and way too dramatic to the point where you have to wonder what the point of the series is anymore. It had a plot in the first and second film. After that, it’s like we kept seeing the same old things over and over again. I’m definitely not sad to see this series go. Who knows, maybe the upcoming prequel/spinoff will end up beating this one.

Katniss is still mad at President Snow for being a mean person and trying to enslave the districts. She’s helping the uprising take over his city to restore law and order to the world. It’ll be tough though because his military might is very great and he has already brainwashed one of Katniss’ friends. It’s a bleak path to victory and just about everything that is worth fighting for is already tarnished, but Katniss must press on for victory and for glory!

Where to start with this film right? For starters, the film still isn’t any fun. It’s very bleak and it’s very overly dramatic. The characters are constantly whining and yelling in despair about how bleak everything is. I don’t think the sun really rises until the very last scenes of the film. Before that, it’s pretty much always cloudy with a gloomy backdrop. The characters are constantly injured or on the brink of tears so they can’t have any good discussions without wondering about moral boundaries. Katniss doesn’t want the heroes to become as bad as the villains, but nobody seems to be on her side with this. They’ll take Snow down however they can. No matter how many casualties and injuries occur in the process!

Katniss is also still a very unlikable character. Her only good plan in the film is when she says that she’ll escape on her own to take down Snow. The problem is that she doesn’t actually go through with it and waits until a few more members die to just take command of the operation for everyone. At that point she goes, but it dampens any epic impact that she could have had. At the end, she realizes the truth about one of the villains and quickly makes a bold move. At this point, her options were limited, but perhaps not voting to put the Hunger Games into place once more would have changed things a bit although it would have made getting the fatality a little more difficult. Essentially, it was a classic lose-lose situation, which you’ll see a lot of in these films.

I really did not like Peeta. Once he was brainwashed, that was the end for him. He could never be likable again as he just served to up the drama in the films. Sure, Snow had a lot of time to break him, but it doesn’t mean that I have to actually end up liking Peeta in the end. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just not my kind of character nor will he ever be. The film would have been better off without him. Likewise, his rival, Gale, was no better. Gale thinks that the ends justify the means so he’s already portrayed as a bit of a bad guy. He likes Katniss and isn’t afraid to remind the audience of that quite a few times, but you knew that he was doomed from the start. Of course, I was hoping that both characters would be doomed.

Most of the other characters are non factors here. Naturally, we do have the leader of the resistance. She wants to be the leader of the new world and she claims to have the people’s best interests at heart. Hopefully that’s true…but it seems a little far fetched. It’s a shame since she’s actually a decent character for the most part. Someone who actually stands up to Snow? That’s what we’ve needed all these years although the fake crying was a bit much. I liked the field commander who actually trusted Katniss and decided to defy the government. I’ll give him some props there.

Near the end, we’re reminded again why I don’t care for Katniss as a character. When she arrives home, the “hero” decides to start throwing things at her cat in a rage not unlike those seen on For Glory in the recent Super Smash bros game. It’s a terrible scene and I wish that the cat had simply left for greener passions. After something like that, I don’t think Katniss is worthy to be the owner, but we ahve to wonder whether she ever was. It’s a whole host of problems that plagued Katniss from start to finish, but scenes like this did not help.

All right, what did the film do right? Well, there was certainly a lot more action than in the first film. We had some machine guns, grenades, and even a large amount of tar water that attacked the heroes from all sides. It’s not much, but it’s something. The film’s certainly not lacking in action the same way that the previous installment was. Something is typically happening in this film, it’s just stretched out to the point where many scenes don’t have a point.

That was a slim positive, but I really can’t think of many more. I guess there’s a positive in the sense that it could have been worse. The characters could have been worse and the film could have been more dreary. It’s a matter of looking at the film as half full or half empty. No matter how you slice it though, the negatives do outweigh the positives. The random zombies were intriguing here though and the film did try to recreate the Alien scenes from the good ole days of film making. The zombies have no real character and they’re pretty slow, but at least it works as a tense scene. Honestly, it’s probably the film’s best action scene even if that’s not saying a whole lot at this point.

Finally, I have to take another shot at Katniss and her final plan. Her final plan basically involves committing suicide to avoid capture and an untimely fate. Not only does she still manage to mess this up somehow, but it’s not a great plan. I can acknowledge heroes who go on suicide missions to save their friends, but not when they just decide to destroy themselves like in the Ronin film. It’s a very big difference between those two actions. Whatever the outcome, Katniss needed to either think of an escape plan or another way to carry out the plan. Just grabbing the pill is a big cop out and unfortunately an accurate representation of her character.

Overall, This film was an improvement over part 1 as we at least had some action, but it’s not enough to actually make this a good film. It’s just not a fun ride and the series was never fun from start to finish. The films dragged on for as long as possible and I was just waiting for the film to end. The “happy” ending at the end is still pretty lackluster. For starters, the romance between the two characters definitely wasn’t all that good to begin with and the friend zone should have occurred. Instead of being inspiring, the ending just feels rushed and out of the blue. The Hunger Games is truly worthy of the title…overrated.

Overall 2/10

Spectre Review

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I saw this film a while back so this review’s been on the back burner for quite a while at this point. Needless to say, I was not impressed and Spectre is a big drop from Skyfall. It tries to play out like the old James Bond films and that’s a bad thing. Not only is it not long enough for this film to be considered nostalgic like with what Creed and Star Wars are doing (Nostalgia in the sense that it brings back old scenes/plot references to get a rise out of the audience in an epic way) but it just brings up all of the reasons why I never liked the films in the first place. Brace yourselves because things are about to get real.

James Bond is on the hunt for an organization known as Spectre. They’re a worldwide terrorist organization that is bent on committing as many crimes as possible. Bond’s own MI6 is being taken over by a new company that wants to take control of all spy programs across the planet so the agent is on his own. Gee, I hope that the company is on the up and up though. Having complete control over the planet’s surveilance programs is a lot of power is one guy’s hand after all. Bond is so good that he still has a lot of high tech equipment at his side even without the company and he gets close to catching up to Spectre a few times only to be evaded at the last second. He’s going to need his old pal Q if he wants to come out on top!

The film is very long so the plot changes rather dramatically as the film progresses. Let’s just get the negatives out of the way first so we can discuss the characters and the film itself. For starters, the romance and objectification is back in full force for this feature. The opening credits are terrible and show why the James Bond franchise will never be respectable and why it will never be a good one either. The romance plots here are all terrible, forced, and simply unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. A widow who lost her husband about a day or two ago quickly gets over it and decides to move on to Bond. Granted, she didn’t seem to like the guy much and he was a villain, but it’s still not cool. It’s also hard to see her getting out of the place alive since Bond just left her with a phone number for an embassy.

One person is never enough so Bond also goes to the daughter of an old villain, Madeleine. She’s the main heroine of the film and while she tries to act like the tough heroine at all times, it didn’t take her long to get past the friend zone with Bond. The two characters keep on splitting up and getting back together throughout the entire film, which ends up being a plot line that drags on and doesn’t contribute to the film. It also makes the characters make some poor decisions. For example, Madeleine says that she’s had enough of Bond so she walks away to a dark alley during a tense moment where the villains are on the loose. Lo and behold, the villains kidnap her. Who did not see this coming?

There’s also the fact that even the fight scenes aren’t as enjoyable as they used to be. Remember when fight scenes were about slugging it out and just being the last man standing? That’s not how it goes now as the villains immediately go for eye shots, which makes for a long grapple where the villain will either succeed or fail. Instead of being an enjoyable bout, it turns into a fight that’s grimacing to watch. I’ve always been partial to eye shots and just don’t like to see them in my fights. Unfortunately, they tend to occur quite frequently nowadays.

This film is also pretty violent at times like when one villain pulls the eye shot on another. It’s a painfully long scene meant to show us how sinister and evil the villain is..but we already knew that. Everyone in the theater knew that these guys were evil already. We also get a long scene where the main villain drills through James Bond for a while before the agent is finally able to get free. The extra edge factor is not needed. It’s like adding a 6th cheese to a 5 cheese pizza. At that point, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.

All right, we’ve mostly gone through the main negatives at this point. Now, onto the characters! James Bond is actually very out of character here compared to Craig’s previous roles. Unlike the other Bonds, he was never overly interested in women to the point where he would flirt with everyone. He preferred to be detached from everyone and we only saw his affairs once in a while. Here? Nah, he’s back to being the original Bond. Who needs continuity when you have nostalgia moments for the fans right? Unfortunately, it destroys any chance that he had of being likable and Bond is a terrible main character. It’s good that he decided to leave MI6 once it was getting corrupt, but at the same time, he should have failed in his mission. My suspense for disbelief can only go so far as Bond managed to evade everyone for around a year. (I forgot exactly how long the timeskip was) Bond is a little tougher here than he was in Skyfall (The most embarrassing film of his career) but he still continues to lose to random guys with steroids. What’s the point of mastering hand to hand combat if you’ll get wrecked by any joker with super strength? I don’t fully understand! Ah well, his loss.

Ernst is the main villain and another intellectual whose only gimmick is that he can talk a good game. That’s it. He can’t fight and Ernst is only relevant because he has a large organization to back him up. While strategic villains can be all right sometimes like Light Yagami, most of the time I want the main villain to be able to fight back. Otherwise, it’s hard to take him seriously no matter how much hype the guy gets.

As far as the heroines in James Bond films go, Madeleine is a big improvement. If we ignore the romance parts, then she’s a decent character. She actually knows how to fight and isn’t afraid to use a gun. Madeleine has good reason to be upset with Bond as he gave her father a gun and basically assisted in the guy’s suicide. Certainly a less painful end for the guy since Spectre was going to destroy him, but it still doesn’t change the fact that James gave him the means to an end. Madeleine was too indecisive though and could not make up her mind no matter how great the stakes were.

Q is still a good tech person even if it’s hard to forget the more classic versions of the character. He’s younger and has less respect for Bond, but it’s very hard to respect 007 so I can sympathize. His inventions aren’t bad and Q does help a little during the film. At least he’s a loyal friend so that’s always good. I can respect Q as a character. M is probably my favorite character in the film even if he talks a little too much. He spends most of the climax bragging even though C manages to get the upper hand on him. That’s considering that M had the advantage of surprise. Again, he was too busy bragging to even consider that C might try to tackle him. C has no real fighting experience, but he can still give M a good fight, which probably isn’t a good sign for the old guy. I liked C as a political villain. I always love seeing politics even if it made everyone look bad. The CIA and the FBI aren’t so unintelligent that they would fall for this trap. Seriously, letting someone control their agencies? Hahahahahaha.

As far as the length is concerned, James Bond films are always a little too long so I can’t say that I was surprised. It’s still not a good thing though as the film does tend to drag on from time to time. It’s not as bad as the Hobbit where I would be on the verge of ZZZs though. I’d never really get that tired from James Bond with all of the explosions that were around, but it would have done well to have cut out a good chunk of time if you ask me. It may sound like a stretch, but a good 30-40 minutes could easily be shaved off.

While I was not very impressed with the fight scenes, I still enjoyed the nice car chase scenes. Those are always a lot of fun and it’s why films like Need for Speed and Fast & and the Furious always have potential. With a nice night backdrop to add some hype to the race, you can really never count a race out as being the best part of a film. It certainly was here even if Bond’s car should be a little faster considering that it’s a one of a kind machine that was built by Q.

Still, the film just couldn’t live up to the hype from the trailer. I figured that I wouldn’t like this film, but the trailer still hinted that this could be the best Bond film yet. I like the idea of an evil organization like Spectre and Bond having to face them all. It could have been so epic, but the film just never pulls this off. Even from small things like the organization having to remind us that they’re dealing with human trafficking (Again, we know they’re evil so why the extra details?) or the first action scene taking place in a packed area where the locale isn’t as vibrant and interesting as a city backdrop, the film couldn’t get as hype as it should have been.

Overall, I’m definitely fine with this being the final Bond film in the Craig era. Maybe it’s just time to give the franchise a long break and then we can check on it again in like 20 years or so. That’s definitely not a bad idea if you ask me. Listen to the reviews this time folks and just skip out on this film. If you want a more enjoyable theater experience, then go check out Creed or the new Mission Impossible. Mission Impossible continues to be a better secret agent film series than James Bond and at this point, the gap is so wide that I don’t see this changing in the near or far future. Game over Mr. Bond.

Overall 2/10

My Little Pony The Art of Equestria Review

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My Little Pony is a franchise that I was mostly unaware of back in the day. Sure, I’d heard of the name in the past, but I had no real opinions on it. That all changed when Friendship is Magic came out and I finally got to see some clips of the show and read some of the comics. The theme song still isn’t great, but it is very memorable, which is always a good thing I suppose. This art book does a good job of discussing the characters and the paths not taken. Even hardcore MLP fans will learn some new things after reading this title!

There are a few different sections in this book as it tries to cover as many My Little Pony topics as possible. First, we have a long interview with one of the main creators behind the latest iteration as she discussed her reasons for getting involved and how she gets her inspiration. It’s a good interview, but I would have liked to have seen some more of the dynamics of things that she wanted in the show, but Hasbro objected too. The strife and the epic tensions would have made for a nice chapter.

Next up, we got to see the characters as they evolved from the previous shows. Their personalities and designs are discussed and shown. An interesting section was Twilight Sparkle’s as she was originally going to have gray hair and then almost had it with blue streaks instead of red/pinkish. It’s a tough call for me to decide which form is the best as all three options sound pretty good. I’m thinking that gray hair would have made Twilight Sparkle seem a little more powerful, but it wouldn’t affect all that much.

The book also spends a decent amount of time showing off the various locations in My Little Pony world. I liked the futuristic city that they visited in the superhero episode and Manehattan is always a classic location. There have certainly been quite a few epic bases as well and we’ll never forget the times where Ponyville was destroyed or conquered. The show definitely had some darker/intense moments back in the day, but I have to wonder if we’ll ever see epic moments like those again in the show. The time for those may be past at this point.

Side characters and villains were also explored. Tirek was actually deemed to be a little too scary so his design was altered a little. Ironically, the alterations actually made him look cooler so that ended up being a plus for him. He still may not have been as threatening as his G1 incarnation, but this guy could now pack a punch! A lot of the side characters will probably stay as background ponies forever, but a few have made a name for themselves like Derpy so there’s always a chance for a nice comeback.

The end of the book also shows some pieces of fan art that were officially licensed by Hasbro and can now be counted as real pictures. That’s definitely considerate of the company and it shows that they care about their fans. Now they can make more money off of the additional resources while also allowing artists to have their moment of fame and glory. This book is decently long at over 200 pages, but since most of the pages are filled with artwork, it all finishes very quickly. I read the book cover to cover in one sitting since it was a pretty engaging read.

So long as the art is good, I tend to enjoy art books. They may not have a story behind them, but they are like guidebooks that are very illustrative. Another section even listed several episodes where the reader gets to see the storyboards behind them. Then you can appreciate the intricate details like how the facial expressions for each character helps to set the tone and the stage.

I haven’t even seen the show yet, but I’m confident that I know about as much as the average MLP fan thanks to all of these guidebooks and comics. The final page of the book even tries to point out that the show is loved by people of all ages and there’s nothing stopping you from becoming an MLP fan today. You’ve just gotta get past the negative social impact of admitting that you’re a fan of the show and then you’ll have made it in the world.

Overall, This is an artbook that I recommend to all MLP fans. Furthermore, if you haven’t gotten into the series yet, then this is a good way to quickly get caught up to speed. It’s not as detailed as the other guidebook that I read a while back and it’s not as fascinating as that one, but it makes for a good read. It’s a short read, but one that will still satisfy you provided that you didn’t buy it for a very high price. I look forward to seeing what other MLP products come out soon and until then, this’ll probably be my last MLP review for a long while. It’s been fun though!

Overall 7/10

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Review

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It’s been a while since I saw the Charlie Brown Christmas special. As Thanksgiving is now upon us, it was the perfect time to see this one. I haven’t seen the new Charlie Brown film yet, but all in good time. There are certainly a lot of specials to catch up on as it is. This one’s naturally not as good as the legendary Christmas special, but it holds its own. At less than 30 minutes, the special is also over in the blink of an eye.

Charlie Brown is not looking forward to Thanksgiving as he can’t appreciate how great the holiday is. Many Americans have grown jaded about this day, but not me. I still have fun filling my stomach with food and snacks while watching some good Dallas Cowboy Football. He is going up to his grand parents for dinner, but then some friends decide to spend the day at his house for a meal. Charlie doesn’t have the courage needed to tell his “friends” that he won’t have time for their games so he’ll have to think of something and quick!

As per usual, Charlie Brown’s not a very likable character. It’s hard to root for the guy since he lets everyone kick him around the whole time. It’s hard to find a main character who’s weaker willed than Charlie when you think about it. These are supposed to be his friends after all so imagine how tough it will be for him to stand up to a bully. I doubt it would go all that well for him.

Snoopy is the best character as expected. He always knows what to do in a pinch and he has more talents than the rest of the characters combined. The shenanigans between him and the bird typically aren’t that funny though and Snoopy’s best scenes are when it’s just him. He’s always prepared and he even grabs a nice turkey to have for his supper since his ungrateful owners didn’t like the feast that he had made. Then they didn’t deserve the snacks and meat that he had gone out of his way to get right? It all makes sense when you think about it and you can’t deny that Snoopy steals the show here.

Linus is the voice of reason and the best human character in the film as expected. He always give Charlie wise advice and says the prayer for the feast when Charlie froze. This guy also plays the friendzone card when necessary and trust me, you always want to have that card on deck. The other characters are typically just around to bully good ole Charlie. They complained about his dinner and tricked him into taking a pretty mean spill. They could learn a thing or two about how friendship is like magic. When it’s real, then things end up going quite well.

The animation is solid as expected. It’s a very old TV special so it’s not like the colorful visuals are going to blow you away, but it’s nice to look at and the animation is very clear. I’m definitely satisfied with it. There’s no real soundtrack, but that’s to be expected since this film isn’t really about that. It’s just about watching Charlie Brown try to solve a problem and then have a nice Thanksgiving while Snoopy gets to really enjoy the holiday. The writing and voice acting are what typically makes the specials memorable.

One issue that keeps this special from being as good as the Christmas one is that there are too many fake romance plots scattered throughout the special. We don’t need those to be here as the film just needs heart and a fun plot. I would have liked to have seen the Red Baron here at some point since he always gives Snoopy a nice fight. You also end up feeling bad for the bird since he can’t fly yet or move very quickly so he usually gets one upped the whole time. The two animals are technically friends…but it’s a little iffy when you think about the kids who are supposed to be friends. These negatives aren’t that bad though and just barely help to keep the star off. Besides that, it just wasn’t quite good enough to give a solid 7.

Overall, This is a good little special to watch on Thanksgiving. Charlie Brown may not be the world’s best main character just yet, but he gives it his all. As mentioned earlier, this is about as long as your average cartoon episode so it flies by very quickly. Counting the credits and everything, it may be even shorter because this definitely felt like it was under 25-30 minutes. Now, you can get set for Black Friday and Slow Saturday as the holiday weekend continues. Next up, Christmas!!

Overall 6/10

Batman Mystery of the Batwoman Review

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Revisits are always fun and this is a Batman film that I’ve definitely seen a few times. I’ve always sided with Mask of the Phantasm from the classic Batman films, but this one certainly holds its own and has a nice blend of action and detective elements inside. I do think that the woman behind the mask is a cop out in the end, but so it goes.

A new vigilante has appeared with a bat inspired costume. She certainly has no qualms about crossing the line and goes all in on all missions. Batman has to put a stop to this before she does something she’ll regret or gets hurt in this crusade. After all, Batman’s been through a few tough scrapes before and he’s one of the greatest heroes of all time. It’ll be tough to catch her, but there are three key suspects for him to take a look at. The first is a new detective whose family business was burned by Thorne and they never recovered. We’ve got the motive and she definitely has a tough personality. Next up is the young genius from Wayne Enterprises who developed a new metal which can be transfigured into any shape with ease. This has a lot of practical applications as well as uses in the field. Hmmmm. Finally, we have the daughter of a big gang who is rich and likes to go on adventures. She’s certainly got the resources. Well, it’s time for Batman to look into this!

The film moves at a fairly quick pace and the first action scene happens immediately. It’s a formula that all films should follow. Literally all films without exception should open up with some kind of action/fight scene to get the fans hyped. It was probably the best looking scene animation-wise as well. There’s only one plot that I’m not crazy about and I’m sure that all of you can guess if you’ve seen the film. Does Bruce Wayne have to have a love interest in every single film? It gets old fast and the film didn’t need that. He falls in love with the gangster’s daughter of course and that definitely distracts him from the case for a little while. As far as romances go, it’s not terrible, but it’s still rushed and doesn’t really have a place in the film.

Aside from that, Batman was in character for this film. As Batman, he puts the pieces together with ease and he looks like the experienced hero that he should be. It’s always annoying to see so many films show him as a novice or a rookie. I want to see Batman as an experience veteran and I’m willing to bet that most of his fans feel the same way. They’ll be satisfied with how he looks here and his fight against Bane is one of the highlights of the film. It’s a good battle and neither fighter is willing to back down until the battlefield forces a change. Batman is a little outmatched here, but I blame it on cheap shots and the fact that Batman had to watch out for everyone. Otherwise, I go with Batman every time, but Bane makes for a very good opponent. Bane is always portrayed as a strong villain, but this film also showed his intelligent side. It’s not shown very often, but he is crafty and a very deadly mercenary. Certainly not your average power enemy.

Kathy gets the largest role from the 3 new heroines. From the three characters, I’d put her in the middle. Her romance with Bruce is a bit much, but aside from that she’s all right. The problem is that the romance makes up most of her character and she doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time as Batwoman. Rocky is my least favorite member of the three. It’s cool that she’s smart, but she’s a little too timid for me to find her very likable. Rocky also should have broken up with the dude who’s in prison. Sure, he did everything to help her in the long run, but he still came across as rude and ungrateful. It’s good to see that she’s good at video games though. The best member is certainly Sonia. She’s the most determined and is the most passionate about her goals. She’s willing to take on Batman if necessary and nearly gets into a gunfight with him.

From the villains, I forgot how weak the Penguin is. He definitely looks very inept as a villain, but it makes sense that he would be out of shape from pretending to be a villain for so long. Rupert Thorne isn’t any better and I’ve never found him to be an interesting villain. Ditto for the new gang boss. The two ladies who work for the Penguin were impressive though and they gave Batwoman a great fight. It was one of the more enjoyable fights in the film. Penguin’s definitely hired some very good help, that’s for sure.

All in all, the film’s just a lot of fun. It’s always nostalgic to see the definitive version of Gotham and the cases that it brings. I don’t know how long the film is, but it goes by very quickly while still having enough time to introduce all of these characters and provide us with some fight scenes. The writing is very well done as well and it much better than most other superhero films in that category.

Naturally, the animation is quite good here. The DCAU holds up so well through the test of time that it beats most of the current products from DC. The character models are still perfect and make for great fight scenes that are easy to watch and still carry the weight behind each punch that I tend to miss nowadays. It doesn’t have the same theatrical feel that Sub Zero and Mask of the Phantasm had. That’s fine as a movie doesn’t need to have that film feel. There aren’t a large abundance of films that have been able to pull that off after all, but it’s fun to see.

I wouldn’t say that there’s too much of a soundtrack here. It’s certainly not as epic as in Mask of the Phantasm. That being said, there is one song popped up during the credits and the scene in the lounge. It was pretty good and seemed to be treated like a bit of a guest star appearance for the singer. It fit well and it’s the kind of song that can easily be turned into a fight scene theme without sounding off. It’s not the quickest song in the world, but it’ll do. Beyond that, the soundtrack is mostly just the sound effects during the scenes. Usually, this is so subtle that I don’t even notice that the scene is basically silent. It’s always interesting to think back and try to remember if there was music in a scene or not.

Overall, This is a good Batman film. It’s certainly one of his best even when we count all of the non DCAU ones. I remember thinking that there wasn’t enough action in this film whenever I saw it back in the day. It’s not a huge issue, but I do think that another fight scene or two would have been good. Maybe a longer one between Batman and Batwoman since the first scuffle ended with a cheap shot. Batman’s prep time did help him out though and I’m glad that he kept on solving the mysteries. If you haven’t seen this film yet, then you should definitely fix that ASAP! It’s a Batman film that all Batman fans can enjoy and even if you’re not a comic book reader, it’s easy to follow along. Once you see the film, you can decide if the ending is a cop out or not.

Overall 7/10

Spongebob Squarepants Lights Camera Pants Review

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I’m always up for a retro Gamecube game and I got this one as a souvenir from my very first SSB4 tournament. It’s a Spongebob party game so I thought that it would make for a decent playthrough and who knows…maybe it would be a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it was actually less fun than I had expected and that’s mainly due to the lack of options within the game. It’s very short and compact to the point where I feel bad for anyone who may have bought this on day 1 at full price. I shudder at the thought!

The plot of the game revolves around an episode that is being created about Mermaid Man. The director is looking for actors willing to grab the roles that are left, but they’ll have to earn them by playing a lot of games. Spongebob and friends are up for the job! There’s not much of a story though because every cutscene is basically just the director talking to the organizer of the event. Rinse and repeat a few times until the commercial is done. The game is incredibly short as a result. Each area has 3 mini games to complete and then you move on to the next area. I forgot how many areas there are, but one playthrough should be enough to easily get through the game. It’ll take you around 2-3 hours I believe and if you skip cutscenes, then that total significantly decreases.

One of the problems about the cutscene at the end is that it isn’t handled well. Every time you beat an area, you get to see one scene from the episode. Once you beat the game…you get to see the full episode. The problem is that you’ve already watched 90% of it so instead of enjoying the final product, it’s just really boring. The episode has such low replay value that even just watching it a second time isn’t very long. It’s also about as long as a real episode so that final cutscene just drags on and on. I would actually recommend just skipping it since it’s unlikely to get you hyped or impressed.

Granted, the episode had some good lines in it. I forgot how old Mermaid Man was nowadays and he just doesn’t understand anything that’s happening. It’s like Knuckles from Sonic Boom, but not nearly as funny. I can see the humor of Mermaid Man though and he’s decently funny, but I’m not sure if the other characters can keep up. It’s purposefully campy like the classic Superfriends so a show about Mermaid Man would have some potential, but again…I wouldn’t want to see any episode twice. At least not twice in the same day!

As for the gameplay, some of the minigames do have potential, but nothing is handled right. Every minigame has a mandatory timer so that none of them can end before 3 minutes. (Typically) This means that even the most enjoyable of games will start to drag on. I’ve always preferred stocks/lives/health points to a timer system since it encourages you to get good and really take on your opponents. With a timer system, you can build a big lead, but you’ll still have to wait for the timer to finish. It’s just not fun and drags the minigames down.

The best minigame is easily the one that ripped off Mario Party. I’ve noticed that just about every party game rips this minigame off, but that’s a good thing since it’s always fun. You have to balance on a ball of sorts and knock your opponents off. It’s fun, but the area is so small that it can be very hard to do anything without falling. You could say that this takes skills or you could say that the game tried too hard to make it an even playing field for newcomers and pros alike so a lot of the enjoyment was squeezed out. Nonetheless, this is the best minigame in the whole collection. (Again, not much of a collection though) There’s a nice car minigame and climbing the mountain is decent as long as your partner doesn’t sabotage you. There’s even a nifty Soccer game. Again, the problem is that you have to play these games until the timer ends and some of the minigames actually end up copying each other, which isn’t cool. In such a short game, this is pretty unacceptable.

Even the enjoyable games could have been better if the company had put more of an effort into the project. This game is definitely a cash in and may have been phoned in by the devs. I can only imagine what the reviews would be like nowadays for a game like this one. Spongebob was apparently a good show back in the day (It never caught my eye) so it deserves a lot better than this.

I’d say that the graphics are decently good. They won’t be something to write home about like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but they’re not that bad either. They’re essentially a nonfactor while playing the minigames. You can still tell what and where everything is and that’s the important thing. The game will be over before you know it after all. There’s not really a soundtrack to speak of. Any tunes that were in the game were instantly and completely forgotten. That’s the problem with having such a forgettable soundtrack.

There is also no real replay value here. Why are most of the minigames 2 vs 2 contests? That doesn’t really make sense for a party game. If you’re a group of 3, then one person is going to have to be with the computer and I can assure you that you won’t have a great experience. There are a few free for all contests, but it’s a very small number of them. I don’t understand the thought process that went behind this and maybe the developers forgot that they were making a game midway through. Once you have beaten the game, there’s really nothing to do. The only thing that you have for replay value is really just playing the minigames again a few times. Yeah…I don’t think I want to do that anytime soon. You can go for the high scores, but that’s not much of an incentive either. This game is definitely lacking in bonus content.

Overall, This is a game that’s best left on the forgotten shelves. I planned to get a few other Spongebob games, but that might have to wait for a while after this. The next time that I want a Gamecube game, I’ll just get Kirby Air Ride or Gotcha Force. Granted, Gotcha Force is going for 100 dollars and up right now so it’ll also have to wait for a little while. There’s really no reason to get this game and the only reason that it’s not lower is that some of the minigames are decent. It’s not borderline unplayable or anything like that, but there is no reason to play it. This would be a bad game if it didn’t even have that or if it forced you to keep on playing them over and over again in a very stretched out story mode. Either way, I do not recommend this title and you’re better off getting just about anything else. I was really torn between giving this game a 4 or a 5 and in the end, I had to go with my gut.

Overall 4/10

Ten Little Indians Review

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I saw the original adaption of the novel a while back and it was pretty good. I’d say that this film was also enjoyable and at about the same level even though it was clearly not as good as the original. Just about anything that this film could do, the older one could do better. I do wonder how a more modern adaption of this film would go, no doubt it would probably not be as good. That being said, I’d love to see an ensemble cast try to tackle this film. We could have Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Chris Pratt, Arnie, Chuck Norris, and whoever else is super popular at the moment. It would be an interesting mix of personalities, which is why ensemble films are typically so fun.

As you may expect, ten people are invited to a mysterious place over on a mountain. The host invited everyone over on false pretenses, but once the ten arrive at the mansion he is nowhere to be seen. Instead they listen to a recording which exposes their previous murders and the characters start to die off one by one in ways that are very similar to how the 10 little Indians went out in a poem. Can they figure out which person among them is actually the nefarious host or are they all doomed to simply fade away into oblivion?

I quickly have to mention one big change from the first film which wasn’t cool. The original adaption had a fisherman who drove everyone to the island. The first adaption ended with him walking up slowly to the mansion while eating a sandwich. It was a humorous way to end the murder thriller and you could tell that this was someone that you didn’t mess with. Even the murderer wanted nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, this version took place on a mountain so there was no boat ride to begin with. A bit of a missed opportunity if you ask me.

As I mentioned earlier, there are other aspects where this film isn’t as good. For starters, we have Mike. He was a decent character in the first film and a music guy who may not have had much of a personality, but it wasn’t a bad one. Here, he’s only interested in romance and just staring at another character who rejects him. It’s a negative change that just doesn’t work for me here. It’s not like most of the characters are that good anyway though. I’m not a fan of any character in particular at this point, but better to be a non character than a bad one right?

This film was slightly modernized though, which wasn’t a good thing. The romance isn’t handled as well as in the first film where it was pretty much nonexistence. Here, the characters are very quick to forget the danger and engage in their romance, but it’s not fitting considering the situation. As such, Ann and Hugh aren’t very likable characters. Hugh is the James Bond kind of guy who talks a good game and even has a gun for most of the film. It’s simply not enough to make him a cool character since this isn’t the time to flirt. Likewise, Ann is just as guilty and makes the situation harder for everyone by being very cryptic about her backstory. Just saying it would have saved the characters some time and the way that she gets scared by everything is a bit much as well.

The actress is all right I suppose, but she doesn’t add much to the story either. She’s probably also the least apologetic about her backstory, which came across as a little drastic. The main characters who were pretty likable where the old folks. It’s not too surprising as they engage in most of the witty banter and try to keep each other from making any hasty moves. The detective also keeps everyone in check as he does have some useful professional experience at his disposal.

Ultimately, it’s pretty intriguing to see all of the characters go down one by one. Granted, you have to suspend your disbelief as the film goes on. Why does nobody think to simply stake out the room where the Indian figures keep disappearing? Even once the culprit is found out…or to be more precise, the fact that the culprit is revealed to be just one person makes it a little harder to swallow. This person shouldn’t be able to move so quickly and evade everyone with such precision. I’m just not sure that I buy that. Of course, you don’t need to buy it to enjoy the film.

Another change from the first film is an extended fight scene where one of the butlers goes into a frenzy and attacks Hugh. It’s pretty interesting as this pretty much came out of nowhere. Unfortunately, the fight scene isn’t that good, but you will be surprised at how many times the fight stops and then starts again. The cheap shots just won’t stop, but there is a winner in the end so that’s good. The other characters (for the most part) talk tough about how they shouldn’t have fought, but Hugh wasn’t exactly given a choice so it’s good that he took the win. The butler then decided to leave the mountain on his own, which was probably one of the worst decisions that he could have made.

I will give the ending props for still coming across as fairly realistic. The plan was sound and I actually wouldn’t call it out for being unrealistic or full of plot hax. When you think about it, this film was thought out fairly well and while some plot hax is inevitable, it was a fun mystery from start to finish with no real cop outs. You just have to choose which character you think is guilty and then go on from there. I always like films like that since you can just make your pick and enjoy the film. If you were right, then it’s time to buy a snack afterwards. Of course, I knew who it was this time since I saw the original, but I imagine that a lot of people will only see one version of the film.

Overall, Ten Little Indians isn’t quite as good as the original adaption. The increased romance, the characters being less likable, and the fight scene actually being sub par kept it from reaching the same status as the original. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good film, but it’s just not as good. It follows the original quite closely even down to the script aside from these changes so it is still a good movie, but why not watch the original instead right? These classic mystery thrillers are definitely intense and black and white does fit in quite nicely for it. You can tell that this film is retro even though it was a little modernized. I’d be interested to see a 2010 or later remake, but I can tell that it probably wouldn’t be great. Something to think about though and this plot is certainly one that can easily be reused in a completely different context while still being effective. Make it happen Hollywood!

Overall 6/10