Tag Archives: Sci-Fi

Killers from Space Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for an alien invasion by creatures with fairly large googly eyes. They’re definitely the kind of fighters that you don’t want to take for granted. Honestly their designs are pretty funny but it’s not like they appear a ton so you’re fine. At its core this is a pretty campy sci-fi film from ages ago on what could happen if aliens showed up. With the right blend of humor and danger, I would say that the film actually ages pretty well. You are unlikely to forget about the aliens at least.

The film starts with Dr. Martin getting into a bad accident and being in a huge crash. He should have been destroyed but he manages to get back up with only one injury. A big scar. So he makes it back home but is starting to act rather odd. He seems to think that aliens are among us and the only way to stop them is by turning off the power which will cause their base to overload and blow up. Of course, doing such a thing across the country is rather drastic and everyone already thinks he is crazy. He will have to find some way to overpower everyone but what if…..what if he really is crazy?

The film is only a little over an hour so it goes by quickly but that’s a solid length for this kind of film. I like to think of it as more of a story prompt than anything else. What if aliens did invade? What if you were the only one who knew about it? Well most likely you would be called a conspiracy theorist at this point and everyone would be taking shots at you. You’d probably never make it to a position where you could stop them. If anything, you might get irritated enough where you root for them to destroy humanity for not heeding your words. I would not rule that possibility out, that’s for sure. Now since this film is from back in the old days that does help since there aren’t cameras and the usual tech out to stop you. Additionally, Martin is already a fairly well regarded scientist who has a lot of access to just about everything so that really gives him a leg up here. If he was just anyone then he would not have gone as far as he could.

I do think Martin does a really bad job of convincing everyone though. He launches into the whole story about being abducted by aliens and everything. Who would believe that though? If he’s honest with himself then he wouldn’t believe them either because there’s just not enough proof. Yes, we see the alien eyes appear randomly throughout the movie and he can see them but nobody else can. So all he is doing here is making himself look crazy and unfortunately he is succeeding.

If he was smart, Martin would have done one of two things. One would be to make something up about the power grid to explain why he had to turn it off for a minute or two. The thing is, it only needs to be turned off for that short amount of time which is not really a big ask. He’s smart enough where he should be able to trick them into this. Alternately, just say you need to see the lab again and while you’re in there, shut it off quickly. In the film we see that the way to do this is by pulling the lever down and is just takes an instant. It would be easy to do this while everyone is shocked.

Instead we do get to see him punch someone out when they attempt to stop him so that was still fun. Ultimately Martin was very driven by his passion to stop the aliens and I can appreciate that. He just made a lot more work for himself over here which seems to happen a lot in these old films. People talk about aliens and monsters without thinking for even an instant that maybe this is a super bad idea because it sounds crazy.

Even the people who knew Martin the best could not defend him. The main heroine buys into the explanation that he is just overworked and everything. Then his best friend also thinks the whole thing is incredible and couldn’t possibly be happening. So yes, Martin had no other real options than to play hero by himself. I would have liked to have had some more screen time with the aliens though.

Why weren’t they prepared for this? We see their eyes at various points and all and it seemed like they could communicate to Martin but maybe they couldn’t hear what was happening? Because otherwise they should have abandoned the base in the time it took Martin to drive over there to shut them down. All of the aliens were connected to the same spot as well? That’s very poor logistical training on their part. You want to scatter and make it so there are lots of targets for the heroes. If you do that, then you are still ready for another round instead of being absolutely dominated the whole time.

Overall, Killers from Space is a pretty fun film. It does feel like the aliens played their part sloppily in order for the humans to have a chance though. Realistically, the humans should have gotten absolutely destroyed here. The villains had invisibility and the element of surprise on their side. After reviving Martin and using him for their own ends, they should have finished him off. Allowing him to make a comeback to save Earth was their big downfall. I suppose it’s a feel good message about not underestimating humanity though. I can respect that. It’s a wholesome ending and all. It just felt like humanity was completely outgunned the whole time. If you’re into sci-fi I would definitely recommend the film though. Even just thinking about the premise is a fun thought exercise.

Overall 7/10

The Lawnmower Man Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

It’s time for a sci-fi film about why virtual reality and augmenting a person’s brain could be a dangerous idea. Technology will inevitably become too much for humanity to handle and once that happens it is game over. So what does that have to do with a Lawnmower? Well somebody gets murdered with one and it’s a cool title. The main guy also does lawnmowing so it makes sense but I can see how it would seem like a superhero name.

The film starts by showing us an experiment that is being run on a chimp. He is taken to a virtual reality world where he has to shoot all of the enemies dead. The experiments are going well and this is proof that the technology works but he manages to escape. He gets far enough to meet a guy named Jobe who gets picked on constantly by everyone for not being smart. Father Francis beats him and doesn’t help at all so Jobe is glad to have a friend but the chimp is shot dead. Now Jobe is back to being on his own until a guy named Angelo shows up who offers Jobe a lot of intelligence and success if he helps with a certain experiment. Jobe really has nothing to lose so he agrees to these tests but are these experiments going to make him unbalanced?

First up, if I was Jobe I would have definitely said yes to the experiments as well. Sure, they seem a bit risky but it can’t be any worse than his current situation. That’s exactly how I would have felt about it so it makes a lot of sense that he would get on board with this. Also, the effects are really good at first. He can actually have intelligent conversations and everyone respects him more. Unfortunately corporate steps in at this point and sabotages everything. If they had not done that, I dare say the experiment probably would have been a complete success. Leave it to corporate to rush things a bit too far and blow everything up though. They just couldn’t wait to get the natural gains that would have happened.

This isn’t an action film first and foremost but we do get some fight scenes. At one point Jobe basically takes on the army with his flying nanobots which was pretty fun. At this point, there isn’t much that can stop him though as he transcends his mortal body. The guy completely cracks and turns evil by the end but the film does a good job of showing just how much he had to put up with before then. He didn’t have much to protect or live for by this point since everyone was getting bumped off. So yeah at that point you might as well end the world.

At its core I would call this a revenge fantasy film. We see how everyone mistreats Jobe and the only characters who have his back are beaten up or murdered. So now that he has these telepathic abilities he can enact his full revenge on them all. You can definitely see where the film is going with this right from the jump. It can get a little overzealous on the deaths with this though. The film has a tendency to cut away so it’s not incredibly graphic or anything but the deaths themselves can definitely be painful.

Also the film did murder the chimp near the beginning which was unfortunate. Animal violence is always a good way to knock yourself down a peg. It was hard for the film to really come back from that. It’s also just a bit too mean spirited. I would have liked more characters to have had Jobe’s back and defended him when things weren’t going well. It would have shown that at least humanity was not fully cooked yet. Sure we had a few characters like Angelo, Marnie, and Jobe’s coworker but that was about it. They also weren’t able to be there 24/7.

So Jobe was a good character and it’s just too bad that the power got to him. He still made the right move and helped the kid by the end though. Angelo was also solid as he would talk back to corporate but I also think he could have been a little more cautious at times. I felt like he turned his back to the company and then didn’t have a plan for when they would inevitably target him. Not a very smart move if you ask me and the guy’s supposed to be a genius. He did good in setting up the technology but underestimated humanity.

Father Francis should be considered as the main villain of the film in large part because he’s the one who should have been watching out for Jobe. Instead of supporting the guy, he basically took every excuse to punish him over and over. He was actively trying to prevent Jobe from learning more and so yeah this guy didn’t really have any redeeming qualities. You just needed him to be bumped off as soon as possible. Until that were to happen there was just no way to move forward.

Overall, The Lawnmower Man had some interesting ideas. I also enjoyed seeing the virtual world with the super retro CG. In some ways that’s the kind of CG that tends to be fun as it really makes you feel like you’re in a computer game. I could have done without the romance though which was particularly weak and more disturbing than anything inside the screen. That was just never going to work out there and it all went too fast. The film would have been better if it toned down the amount of bullies and randoms who were just cruel and evil for no real reason though. It’s just way too slanted and pretty much forces Jobe down the path of corruption. It’s not a film that makes for a particularly easy watch so I would recommend other sci-fi titles above this one.

Overall 4/10

Mega Man X – Team X, Move Out!! Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s always fun to have a new Mega Man story to shake things up. This one shot goes by quickly but definitely shows how Mega Man X is always having to put up with so many things. The guy can really never catch a break no matter how hard he tries. The world of the future is certainly not a bright one and whether it is humans or robots who take charge, they just end up getting corrupted and dominated so quickly.

The story takes place after the first Mega Man X game and so X is being celebrated as a hero. He is now the captain of the maverick hunters and it should be a really exciting day but all of the other robots are jealous of him. They want their chance in the sun and figure that it won’t happen until a new villain shows up to cause some damage. So they actively root for a tragedy like that to occur which rubs Mega Man the wrong way but he doesn’t say anything. One day a maverick shows up and starts causing some trouble but he’s talked down by a kid. The kid isn’t afraid of him and so maybe he doesn’t have to be evil or anything like that. Unfortunately, the young heroes figure this is their chance to shine so they continue trying to murder him even when the robot won’t fight back and is clearly trying to protect the kid.

It’s a really bad look for the maverick hunters all around. They really act like the villains throughout this oneshot and it’s a shame that X wasn’t able to do anything about it. Sure, he talks to them and says they shouldn’t be doing this but that’s about it. Not exactly a strong stance against them right? The robot ends up dying a tragic death as well and now X has another body on his hands. The whole thing feels like it’s meant to break X even further and it’s a shame because I think he deserves at least one happy day at some point. Why do every single one of his adventures have to go sideways like this?

The young robots also should have been reprimanded a whole lot harder. They directly caused the death of an innocent robot. It’s hard to walk your way back from that. I suppose outside of the tragedy it works a bit as a heartwarming story considering that the girl was able to rehabilitate a maverick. Not an easy thing to do for any character ordinarily. The robot also did well in protecting her throughout all of the fighting so he gets a lot of credit there. If he really wanted to fight, then aside from X I do think all of the robots would have been wiped out with ease.

The art is definitely solid and holds its own with any of the main Mega Man X titles. The action scenes are good and all of the characters look the way that they are supposed to. So definitely no issues there at all. The pacing is solid enough as well. There’s only so much you can do in a single chapter of course but the manga told a complete story which is definitely what you would like to see out of it.

Overall, This was a good story. It can be a little frustrating how the maverick hunters get away with so much here. I think in a longer story you could really address this a whole lot more but the limited page count just sort of works against it here. Still, it shows how X has to keep his guard up and be careful even when there is no end of the world threat present. Robots continue to get overwhelmed and corrupted even without a mastermind pulling the strings. If Megaman X had more confidence in himself and his leadership skills then it may not have been a problem but right now he’s still too timid. He needs to be the leader that everyone trusts him to be and hopefully that happens sooner than later.

Overall 7/10

Blame! Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a really abstract/intense sci-fi title. Blame! is one of those series that really doesn’t spoon feed you too many details so you really have to figure everything out on your own. It’s an exciting way to read through the series and then see how different your takeaways were from someone else’s. There are a lot of things you should agree on as well of course and there are some things that the series will tell you. It’s definitely an unforgettable sci-fi title with a ton of action but in the interpretive sections it can also get a bit disturbing. It might say more about me than the manga depending if that’s what anyone else saw but some of the dark elements get super dark.

The story follows a guy named Killy. (Well that’s how he’s listed online but I could have sworn the spelling was more like K’il but Killy is easier to spell so I’ll just roll with it. Killy is a guy who tends to be super silent all of the time. He doesn’t really say much of anything and appears to be a real enigma. He wants to shut down the city and to do that he has to find someone with the net terminal gene code that is needed to save the world. A lot of crazy stuff happened hundreds of years ago and humanity messed with the A.I. a bit too much. So naturally robots took over the planet and drove the humans to the brink of extinction.

Some of these robots are “Builders” and their goal is to keep on building forever and ever. That is their mission after all so they just continue to do this until the end of time. Naturally this does lead to one big issue which is that the world never ends as a result. For example lets say you are 10 blocks away from the supermarket and then you go to sleep. When you wake up to might be 30 blocks away. Since the city is constantly expanding on all sides, it also means you can easily be separated from your group for a long time.

In some ways the series almost works as an anthology type as well since Killy will meet various people from all sorts of tribes where he will sometimes help them out for a prize. If they have info on what he needs then he will help and likewise if they’re about to die or something. Otherwise his priority is to keep moving. It’s not that he’s heartless or anything but in most cases there isn’t much that can be done for these people. I’m afraid the sad truth is that they’re basically down for the count. The humans are really lucky that the robots take their time and aren’t in full genocide mode or the humans would have been wiped out a very long time ago.

So when it comes to the dark stuff, what am I talking about? Well Killy stumbles into quite a few areas where it looks like the humans are basically being tortured to death for eternity. We see one human (Or more like an android at that point) who seemed to have been converted into some kind of eternal breeding machine. Others have been totally ripped apart, some whose minds have been completely cracked, etc. It’s really not good to be a human here and you have to hope that your mind has long since died. Then of course a lot of really strong stuff happens to the robots as well so you just hope that they don’t have pain receptors.

In a lot of ways you could say that the world of Blame! is like an allegory for hell. All you have to look forward to is an eternity of pain and suffering. There are no wins to be found here or anything like that. Everywhere you go is more and more despair and the closer the heroes get, the more the goalposts are literally shifted away. At this point all they can really do is survive and even that is not particularly fun when there’s not enough food or water to last you for very long.

So here’s my take on the whole situation. It’s based in part on some reveals and then how I interpreted them so in case my theory is right…and it probably is…you should skip the next 2 paragraphs including this one. All right so what seems to be happening here is that the human race was subjugated a long time ago and the whole world was turned into data. What is happening now is a man made version of hell that the robots have stuck humanity into in order to run tests. Killy is one of these robotic administrators and he is using the body of a human type in order to find a way to shut it down.

This is why Killy has a gun that only the machines should have and why his stats are so high. It’s also why it seems to be impossible to actually destroy hm. I think this ties in pretty well and makes sense with some of the dialogue that we get later on. Everything is real to the people who are inside of the City but it’s not the physical world at this point. It’s not the most air tight theory or anything like that but I thought it made sense. It’s a bit harder to explain the angel type robots that show up later on and the other factions but I can still attribute this to there just being a lot of contention on how the world should be developed.

In the end it’s not like the explanation matters all that much though. The whole point is that this is a mission in futility. No mater what Krill does, humanity is not going to win here. He could save people as often as he wants and keep on destroying robots but it is truly endless. There is no meaning to life within the city and he will have to keep going until he dies or runs out of energy. The series takes advantage of his immortality and how things keep going really well.

Some chapters seem to take place across dozens and dozens of years and that’s being conservative. At times Killy acts like he hasn’t seen another person in many years and other times it seems like he’s somewhere that he has been too in the past but before the time of the people still living there. I suppose after a while if you’re immortal you would probably lose track of time as well. Everything starts to become a legend or a mystery. Do you trust your own memories or what people tell you happened back in the day?

There’s just a whole lot to ponder here and the series really goes into a ton of really intense topics even without much dialogue for pretty much the whole series. That’s the most impressive thing about it. I dare say it’s also scarier than most horror films. The fact that you really don’t know how to escape is absolutely terrifying. Like put yourself in the position of any human who isn’t Killy here. At any moment you could be murdered by giant immortal robots. There is no escape since the city is the size of the entire planet and you are only getting older and slower while they do not. Eventually you will be taken down as well and there’s nothing that you can do to fight it.

That has to be extremely terrifying and unnerving. Not having a way to resist your impending doom is crazy. Meanwhile the art is also super good which also adds to how terrifying everything is. The character designs and action scenes are extremely detailed. The fights get rather large so you really feel just how powerful all of the characters arc. Killy and the robots are like terminators and then you keep on getting stronger and stronger versions. Killy can hold his own against almost all of them but even he runs into some difficulties which the top tier ones.

The robot designs are as cool as they are scary too. Some have large capes, cool swords, etc. There’s really a whole lot to love there. The main cast is rather small as most characters are one shots. There are a number of big villains around, some have names and some do not. The most memorable side character is easily Cibo though. She was definitely put through a lot as she was forced to stay alive for many years through a machine but you could say that she was functionally dead for a while there. Killy does end up helping her get a full android body and from there she gets involved in quite a lot of mech fights. I don’t envy her position though, having to pretty much be tuned into a robot in order to keep existing is rough.

Then there is Sanakan who joins up with Killy for a while. A lot happens and lets just say Sanakan doesn’t get to always stick around but it’s another crazy plot point to keep you engaged. When these side characters are around it does allow the series to finally have some dialogue since otherwise Killy would pretty much never talk to anybody. He just doesn’t see the point of doing so which is rather harsh to be sure.

In the end I might start to sound like a broken record about this but Blame! is definitely not a title for the faint of heart. When I say it’s probably the scariest manga out there I definitely mean it. It’s like Terminator on steroids. There isn’t a lot to talk about due to the nature of the series even with a reasonable amount of volumes but I can say that you will still be experiencing a lot here. It can just be tough to translate that into words. You just know that it’s a series you won’t forget. Even the high tier action scenes have a bit of a scary undercurrent to them. Because again, it’s not like you can win. At best you can continue to delay the inevitable by fighting but at some point you will be tired or make a mistake and then that’s it for you.

The whole mission about finding someone with the gene is already a huge long shot. It’s unlikely that anyone with it still exists and the longer Killy searches for this, the more likely it’ll be that all of the people who had the gene are dead. It’s fully possible that his search is already in vain. Then it’s possible that he’s already stuck in an endless time loop as well. I wish there were some big online debates about this series, I’d be eager to read that. I’ll probably have to start looking up some theory videos for the series now that I’ve finished the review on it. I bet there’s tons of great content out there just waiting to be looked at. This manga is really one of a kind.

Overall, Blame! is definitely one of the most interesting manga titles that I’ve read. It’s just so interpretive and yet there is a ton of great world building here. It’s the kind of series where you can probably argue about the meaning of a specific page with other fans for hours. There’s just so much to take away from it. So what you take away from the series will come down to your own opinions and analytics as well. Some scenes that I find super dark you might find standard or scenes that I find to be really hype you might think are disturbing. I will say there is definitely a lot of replay value to the series since you can just allow yourself to be lost in the artwork. This could definitely be turned into a fun anime although I know the studio would be tempted to task it down quite a lot. Throw in dialogue everywhere and simplify the whole thing of course. It’s a little too disturbing at times for me to actively recommend this to a manga reader but if you love horror and twisted stuff then you will definitely have a field day with this one. Just make sure you are prepared to be spooked if you watch this at night!

Overall 5/10

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a sci-fi film that isn’t afraid to get rather crazy. It starts off with a really crazy dolphin song and that sets the tone for what’s to come. That’s a good thing though because Sci-Fi shouldn’t be afraid to go all out. It’s one of the things that can make the genre really fun and all. That said, I wouldn’t say this one always succeeds in the humor and everything so it can be a bit hit or miss.

The film starts off with Arthur protesting the demolition of his house. His friend Ford shows up though and explains that it doesn’t matter because the Earth is going to blow up. He’s an alien too after all. He helps Arthur escape into space where they’re tortured, meet different clans, and now have to…try and save the universe? Can that be right? What can some random Earthling do? Time to find out!

Arthur’s definitely not the best character though. He’s a little too desperate and slow on the uptake. Considering that he met an alien early on and is then told a crazy story you’d think he would be ready. Instead he is still worried about his car for a while even when the planet is about to be destroyed. Also, his almost girlfriend Tricia dumps him for an alien but he hasn’t been able to fully get past his feelings?

He only knew her for 5 minutes with a drink and she was already talking about travelling across the globe. It’s clear that she wasn’t serious about him so he should have just moved on quick too. Meeting someone while you’re both drunk at a party is definitely not going to put you in a good position for success in a romance if we’re being honest here.

It doesn’t even feel like Tricia likes Zaphod all that much and is really in it for the space travel. She always liked travelling on Earth after all and in space you’ve got billions of times more space here. I wouldn’t say the whole thing reflects great on her either but hey she’s following her dream and not just floating through everything the way Arthur is.

Zaphod is fun though, he has a good time with the whole plot. I do like how he is wearing a suit that looks like him and just keeps on popping up. That’s a great example of a gimmick that stays funny throughout the movie. Yeah he has his serious moments by the end and all but he’s at his best when he’s just messing around the whole time.

Marvin is a depressed robot who is with the crew the whole time but his gimmick gets old a little fast. There’s not a whole lot you can do with that gimmick after a while. He gets to help out and does his best but ehhhhhhh, you don’t really need him. It does give us a chance to see a character who is even sadder than Arthur though.

He’s a good example of the film itself though which starts out a lot stronger than it finishes. Because he does have a good array of fun lines at first where that jaded spirit of his really works well. Ford was a better side character in the end. He was really helpful the whole time and without him the characters would have been doomed.

One of the main plots that comes up later on is about the ultimate question and ultimate answer. So in one of the film’s crazy exposition moments it turns out that the universe finally found out the ultimate answer to life itself thanks to a super computer. The problem is that it was just a number, 42. They now need another computer to answer that but there’s a whole lot of time that you need for this and only one computer can handle this.

It’s a pretty solid subversion since usually the whole film would be about finding the answer to life but instead we are given that from the start. I also like the idea of the answer itself being ultimately pointless. Cmon that’s gotta get a smile out of you at least. The journey is like the answer though, the question itself is not all that important. It’s just the plot device to get the characters onto a bunch of planets and to meet lots of different aliens.

In some ways it feels a lot like Stat Trek. It’s more about the exploration than big battles or anything like that. Throw in some dry humor that tends to work well for this type of story and the film does have a solid approach. When it comes time for the more serious plots though…not as solid. I already talked a bit about the romance but it’s really sub par here. Arthur’s just too desperate and even if Tricia was just hanging out with this guy to an extent, it sure seemed like they were in a real relationship. The guy would smack her on the backside and everything so yeah Arthur needed to have the willpower to walk away. It makes the ending more on the underwhelming side. There’s also a quick rushed romance for Zaphod that just comes out of the blue.

That’s not the kind of thing that would really hurt the film’s score or anything but yeah that could have been handled better. The movie does have really good special effects once action is happening though. The laser guns look good, Marvin’s robot design is super good as well. It looks really lifelike and you’ve also got the change gun that transforms items seamlessly. The dolphin song may have been rather bad but I choose to believe that was intentional as a gag so hey it is what it is.

Overall, I’d say this was a good film. I think the humor works more than it doesn’t. What keeps it from being higher is something that generally tends to happen to some comedic films. The second half starts to drag on a little bit, the film overstays its welcome and could have shaved off like 20 minutes or so. They did get to reach a lot of planets as a result so I get why they wanted the film to be long, but it just lost a bit of steam at times. A film like this can only last as long as the novelty factor and after a while the craziness of everything doesn’t really phase you. I would still recommend checking this out if you like sci-fi and comedic/parody type films. This one has a lot of fun poking fun at everything which makes the humor really accessible I’d say. Everyone should find at least some of the gags funny I’d expect.

Overall 6/10

Mega Man World Review

Posted on by
Reply


I just got to play the game boy games for this title so seeing it in manga form is interesting. Ultimately what keeps it from a higher score is how short the title is though. There are 2 chapters, they have 20 and 18 pages respectively. In those 38 total pages they have to adapt the first two games so as you would expect there isn’t a whole lot of time to really go through the story. Some characters end up missing out entirely and other bosses are downed in a single hit. What this means is you’re sort of seeing an abridged version of the games. I’d have liked to have had a more extended look at the series but at the end of the day I’d still prefer to have an extended version over not having it at all. So in the end I’m still reasonably satisfied here.

The story starts with Wily destroying the city and so Mega Man asks Dr. Light to let him fight. Light equips the kid with a Mega Buster and gives him the iconic Mega Man armor. Now our brave hero is ready to face off against Wily and does so with ease. Cutman and Elecman are the only ones to get real fights as Mega Man gets used to combat. From there he one shots all other opponents as he gets into the zone. Poor Wily is forced to run off and that’s how the adventure goes. It’s a good story but again just so super short.

The second story really follows the same beats here. Only difference is this time Mega Man one shots all of the bosses until he runs up against the alternate, evil future version of himself. This time we get an actual fight as he has to try and win while also realizing that he is destroying his own future. It makes for a pretty good dilemma and also makes the second chapter feel like it has more of an actual story. Wily having to go to the future here is definitely not something that I was expecting the manga to have time to get into.

It reinforces what a genius Wily is and how he will go to great lengths to ensure that he gets the outcome that he wants. He is definitely not the kind of guy that you want to make an enemy out of, that’s for sure. Dr. Light still did good in making Mega Man or at least helping Wily to make him but I wish he would do more during the series. If I saw him being more proactive on a daily basis then that would definitely raise his stocks in my eyes. I want to see him using his own wits to help protect the planet.

The artwork is fairly solid. It’s got more of a retro feel to it with how wide the eyes can be. The battle scenes look good and the pages are easy to follow. Clearly the focus of the manga was not on fights so they are fast but the images that we do get are pretty solid. I definitely didn’t have any issues here, the adventure works pretty well on all accounts. If anything the fact that I think it’s too short shows that this was a quality title since I think there is more they could have done with it.

Overall, Mega Man World is definitely a good manga but it goes by in a flash. The good news is that means you can read is super fast so there’s no excuse not to check it out. Just give up 10-15 minutes of your day and you are all good. That’s not a huge investment right? It’s always fun to check out Mega Man stories and this one was no exception. It’s just a well balanced story all around with a wholesome ending and good writing. If you enjoy this one a lot then you should follow up by checking out Mega Man Gigamix which is still the definitive story for the classic version.

Overall 6/10

The Abyss Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Abyss is one of the more disappointing movies of recent memory. It has a really cool sounding name and a really good premise with some kind of monster out there ready to wreck havoc. It has all of the fundamentals of a good movie but the problem? It’s borrrrrrring! The monster has one of the worst designs since E.T. and there isn’t a sense of danger from the supernatural. All that leaves us with is the human dangers which are not nearly as compelling.

The film starts off with a bunch of people getting wrecked underwater. Bud’s team is sent to the wreckage to check things out and save what they can. The problem is that Bud’s team isn’t trained for this kind of thing. They’re oil drillers, not NAVY seal operators. So a Navy team is sent down with them but they don’t play well with others. Additionally, they seem to be keeping quite a few secrets. At this rate it might be internal strife that destroys everyone.

So back to the main problem, you’re waiting for these mysterious aliens to show up for the whole film. They finally do some stuff at the very end of the movie but that’s about it. They miss around 90% of the adventure and this doesn’t play out like your classic creature feature. The monsters aren’t running around blowing everyone up or shooting energy blasts. They mainly fly around at super speeds and act whimsical. They are clearly not mindless but their impact within the film basically falls into that range.

I was expecting a whole lot more to them so this ended up being pretty underwhelming. The film messed up on the atmosphere and so I would have cut out the supernatural stuff entirely. It’s not like it adds much to the film and if you removed it, then it wouldn’t even be a distraction. Then you can focus on all of the drama that you want. Not a bad proposition right? Then right from the start you have your expectations in check. I don’t think that would suddenly make this a good movie but it wouldn’t be quite so disappointing.

Bud is the main character here and a lot of the film is about the tension he has with his wife Lindsey. The two don’t get along at all anymore but they have to put aside their differences to team up here. It’s a fun enough plot but the romance itself is definitely a weak link. They seriously don’t get along so it’s hard to see that spark reforming. I would have been satisfied if they just became friends again or something.

That said, Lindsey does have a moment where she looks pretty bad considering that she’s supposed to be a genius. At one point she is talking tough to the Navy Seals and trying to rush them which nearly gets her murdered twice. Bud has to hold her back because the guy clearly has a gun and even without it he could easily defeat her. So that’s a case where she really wasn’t thinking ahead. It almost forced Bud into a fight where all of his men would have been murdered as well.

Bud does get his big fight near the end though where he gets to show his stuff. He puts up a good fight although he definitely whiffed on his big surprise attack move. If he had just moved a little faster and gone ahead with the strike then he might have won it all right there. Fortunately his friend was around with the mighty haymaker punch. That guy was definitely handy to have around. In general I would say that the crew was okay, not too many characters to write home about but they weren’t bad or anything.

The villains are a bit more on the one note side. The submarine and the stress make them go crazy so they actually resort to wanting to use a bomb that could blow everyone up. The villain is definitely annoying but his partner isn’t much better since he just watches and yells the whole time. At the end of the day if you’re helping the main villain then you are just as guilty even if you aren’t doing much of anything.

At least it was fun to see the government being rather shady as always. From the start this seemed like it would not be a very good idea with how fast the government was scrambling. Clearly they were holding something back but at the same time they were willing to pay triple for this mission which is incredibly hard to turn down. That’s not money that you are able to easily earn after all and you have to assume that in most cases this would have gone without a hitch. There would have been no conspiracies or aliens. If that had been the case then I suppose I’d be singing a different tune right now.

The film at least embraces the sci-fi angle a bit near the very end of the movie. We have some crazy visuals like out of 2001 with Bud flying around. It’s all rather trippy and the ending had potential there but alas then the film ends. It really should have tried having some of this stuff right out of the gate you know? That would have been way better because I’m always up for an alien film. Just make the alien invaders tough with a good design.

Overall, The Abyss really doesn’t live up to the name. It’s crazy that such a great name would be wasted on this movie. There are so many better names that you could have chosen here and all of them would have been infinitely better. The movie doesn’t make many big mistakes but the fact that it can be boring at times is a huge knock against the film. You never want to be bored even for an instant. The film either should have thrown in some more humor to give me some laughs, cooler creatures that have a lot of screen time, or given us some time outside of the ship. I would have liked to have heard more about the tensions with Russia that’s apparently in the uncut version and you can cut out some of the slower paced scenes here instead.

Overall 4/10

Lost Planet 2 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the second Lost Planet title! I played the first one very recently so it’s definitely still top of mind. This one doesn’t quite match up to the first one though either in story or gameplay. Part of what makes this one unique is that the whole game is balanced around the multiplayer aspect. So playing on your own actually puts you at a rather heavy disadvantage. I do think this game would get massively boosted if you had other people to play with but as a solo game it is still good.

The game’s story is anthology style as you play as different factions in each episode. Then by the end you finally get to play as all of them. The context here is that the planet is finally vibrant after the events of the first game so now everyone is fighting for their own interests. Some want money, some want honor, etc. The alien creatures are still around but they’re more of an afterthought at this point. If you see one then you blow it up but otherwise they aren’t exactly a big threat at this stage. Just take them out and keep moving but is it possible that the aliens are planning something big?

The campaign is reasonably long. There are 6 episodes, each episode has around 4 chapters and each chapter has 2-6 missions. The missions themselves can really range in length from some being around 10 minutes to others being over 30. So you never quite know what you’re about to get yourself into so always stay prepared. The objective is usually to get to the end of an area but other times you have to protect some devices, activate towers, or beat all enemies in an area. There is quite a lot of variety here.

The gameplay is that of a 3D shooter so you run around and blast away at everyone. There are a lot of weapons so you will want to see which is your favorite. Personally I feel like the shotgun is easily the best one. It hits almost as hard as the rockets but also fires off rounds much quicker. What this means is you can comfortably beat almost any minion in one hit with it and you also deal powerful damage against the boss. It has more ammo than the rockets as well so it really does feel like the most overpowered weapon in the game. To make up for this, the spawn rate isn’t great. You will go many missions where you don’t even see it.

One thing to remember is that weapons carry over when you beat a mission so just make sure you hang onto it. You can also find mechs to ride. When you jump into a mech you get weapons that are much stronger than normal. Most of them can also hover or fly for a while which is great and the armor is more advanced. They are really necessary for when the enemies bring out their own mechs. If you try to beat one while you are on foot then I guarantee that it is not going to go well. You are going to get absolutely demolished no matter how you look at it. Even run and gun tactics are often not effective because they can move faster than you can. So once you get into range to land a blow it is already too late.

As far as the graphics go, I would say the game ages pretty well. The environments look pretty good and I like the designs of the mech suits. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for the game to really show off in terms of colors since this isn’t a very colorful game but it works well enough. As for the soundtrack, that is a bit more forgettable. I can’t really recall any iconic tunes off the top of my head at least but it does the job well enough.

The A.I. is definitely terrible though. It goes back to the difficulty scale not being meant for single player. There are missions where each player has a task like in the big boss fight where you have to use a ship against it. You need one guy cooling down the ship in the engine room, one using the cannon, and 2 to load the cannon with ammo. The only thing that the computers knew how to do was load the cannon. They couldn’t fire it or cool the ship down so I had to do everything on my own. In normal mode this was effectively impossible as a result so at that point in the game I had to lower the difficulty.

As you can probably expect, this is an issue to an extent in every level though. The allies don’t really do their part in supporting you so you really have be a one man army and that’s not easy. You start to run out of ammo quickly this way as well as energy. The game has an interesting mechanic where you can always regenerate your energy as long as you have some stockpiled but otherwise when you lose health it is just gone. Also, you can be defeated while you are regenerating and you will end up being surrounded by enemies before long. Outside of missions that have a time limit, it can be a fun way to test your skills though. Can you effectively defeat all of the enemies on your own? Due to the energy system you can also die a few times before it runs out so that’s another thing to keep in mind. You don’t have to literally be perfect or anything like that.

One thing I noticed is whenever I would leave the game during a mission, the game data would corrupt. That could just be my copy but keep that in mind. Try to beat as many levels as possible because otherwise it takes a while to rebuild the game each time. I am glad to know about this for the future for other PS3 games though. If you delete the game data without deleting the save data then you can actually continue from where you left off after reinstalling the title. It’s a pretty good trick although hopefully I won’t actually need it later on.

Overall, I had a good time with the game. It definitely had some issues like the A.I. not being very good and the difficulty balancing in general though. They should have worked on the single player experience more even if that wasn’t the focus. The data corruption was rough but that might have been more of a disc thing than the game itself. So I would say to check this game out but maybe start it on easy mode from the jump. You will need to change later on anyway so you might as well enter it this way. At some point I’ll definitely need to check out the third game even if it does seem rather infamous.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons Review

Posted on by
Reply


I’ve always been a massive Godzilla fan ready to see who he will vanquish next. I tend to really prefer the stories of him defeating other Kaiju but the stories involving the government can work well enough. Unfortunately this one goes all in on him just stomping around and not doing much of anything since the story is a story within a story. For the first time I would say that this is a Godzilla comic that I …didn’t like.

The story starts off with a pirate about to be executed. He knows that he has to do something quickly and so he informs the guards that he knows of a conspiracy that even involves the queen of England. This is considered blasphemy because he is in England so they get ready to take him down but then a high ranking government agent shows up. He explains that they have to listen to this and the prisoner will regret it if the story is fake. So the pirate begins his yarn about a giant Kaiju known as Godzilla and other monsters that walk the lands. He has actually gotten to see them and lived to tell the tale. Pretty spooky eh?

Lots of problems here right off the bat of course. For starters, the entire comic follows this story format. It’s not even in the style of a true flashback where I can just forget about the current plot and enjoy the story. No, it’s constantly told through through narration so it’s never actually happening live. This is a framing device that I really don’t like. It means there really isn’t a story. The comic is about someone talking about stuff to a few people and that’s it. So nothing happens live, the fights aren’t fully there and it just ends up being rather boring.

At least whenever Godzilla is on screen I enjoyed seeing him roar and stuff but I really could not care less about the pirates stuff. There’s some in fights with different gangs and everything….but is that the best that they can do? It’s just so very dull and since you figure the pirate is an unreliable narrator at best, you don’t know how much you can even try to get engaged with all of this. I want to say I can see where the author was going with this but it was definitely not the right direction and ended up backfiring big time.

There is only one interesting part of this comic and it’s the very last page. It works pretty well as a twist and cliffhanger. This is a plot thread that I would actually like to dive into because there is a lot of potential here. It means no more flashbacks though. I want to see what is happening in real time like a classic comic. If that can be pulled off then we can work in a lot of espionage and political drama in a sequel. Seriously I don’t think that would be hard and the sky’s really the limit from there. That would be so incredibly hype! But of course lets not get our hopes up for now. Rather than banking on the sequel to be good after this, I would rather place my hopes in a brand new Godzilla comic with a new setting and everything.

In general pirates don’t add much to the Godzilla lore. In fact, I don’t see them as a selling point at all. It’s not like they can hope to fight the King of the Monsters, instead they would just get absolutely crushed. It’s not going to be all that entertaining to just see Godzilla step on them over and over and over again. That’s not a true cinematic experience. Instead what we need is to see Godzilla absolutely devastate every opponent in his path. That would be something to write home about without a doubt.

But yeah there’s not much more to say here. At the end of the day the story is just really boring and that’s the biggest taboo you can have for a comic. Even seeing the cameos from the other Kaiju couldn’t really save it. This barely feels like a Godzilla comic so much as it’s a pirate story that happens to feature him. I was definitely disappointed here and the artwork isn’t anything to write home about either. The art is okay so I’m not going to say that it’s awful or anything but it doesn’t touch a lot of the other stories. What I can say is that the comic ends very quickly at least even with all of the dialogue.

Overall, Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons really made history because it’s the first time that I’m giving a downright negative score to the Kaiju. In general I haven’t given many comics a negative score either so it’s super rare. This one just made every kind of mistake possible. Seriously it’s just not fun and that’s a massive L to take at any point here. I want to have a good time and for that I need a story and some fights. It has to actually be happening though and not someone telling me how hype the whole thing was. So yeah…..this was not the way to go.

Overall 4/10

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Lost Planet is a game I wasn’t super familiar with for a while there but I own the sequel so now was a good time to try this one out. It’s a 3D sci-fi shooter which is always a recipe for success. The story is good and the game has a decent length so in the end I would say that this is a good title. Definitely not one that you should miss out on.

The game starts with Wayne getting buried under some ice and many years later he now has amnesia. Everyone has to wear suits in order to move through this endless ice age while Wayne has some kind of energy device on his arm. As long as he has energy then he can move but if it ever runs out then it is game over for him. Fortunately Wayne is one of those guys who is very stoic and always ready for a challenge. No matter how close he may be to death at any point, he doesn’t let it get to him. In the meantime he’ll help the people who found him as they try to stop the aliens and bring the green back to the world.

The fact that the planet is covered in ice makes for a pretty unique level design. Every level is absolutely covered in snow and ice which is pretty cool. The way the levels play out, you often have to just keep moving forward until you’ve gotten past all of the enemies and obstacles. So that means scaling the icy mountains and such. You have a grappling hook that helps with this. So there is some platforming but for the most part this is really all about the shooting gameplay. So get your guns ready because you’ll be doing a lot of blasting.

You can only hold 2 guns at once which often means that you will need to make a lot of difficult calls. The stronger weapons tend to be very low on ammo so you probably want to go with one weak weapon and one strong one. Typically I would go for the machine gun and the missile. Those two were a really good combo pack that would have you set up well against any enemy. You also have robot suits that you could climb into which had even stronger weapons. Definitely handy in a lot of different areas. Basically if you see a robot suit, make sure you get into it. It’s extremely handy and basically necessary for most of the stronger threats.

Most ordinary enemies can be defeated in 2 hits. The enemy robots will pretty much take up all of your ammo if you’re on foot or several hits if you’re in the robot suit. These things scale pretty high but it makes sense. I approve of this because there’s no way a human should be able to do much against a mech suit. I should also explain that the health system is a bit different here. Your health goes down as you get hit of course but it will quickly regenerate as long as you have energy.

You obtain energy from defeating enemies or pulling up towers. Once you run out of energy, you can no longer regenerate and even worse, you start to actively lose health. The conditions on this planet are such that you are actively dying without the energy protecting you. So at that point it becomes like a time trial because your health goes down very quickly. Fortunately it is rare that you run out of energy. Just make sure you attack enemies strategically and that you don’t skip the energy that they drop. Now that would get you into a bit of a pickle.

The graphics are pretty good as you’d expect. The alien designs are all pretty good and I could usually understand the terrain pretty well even with all of it being under snow. So the devs did a good job of keeping the balance there since that could have gone sideways. The soundtrack was okay. A good theme here and there although for the most part it’s not one that I would end up remembering after a while. You’re mainly here for the solid story and gameplay though so that’s fine.

The gameplay is just a lot of fun and really hits the right balance of arcade style where you just pick up weapons and blast away with enough detail so you always aim your weapons carefully. It reminds me of Star Fox Assault and that’s always a good complement. Yeah definitely keep on sending me third person shooters like this and we’re really going to be in a good spot!

Overall, Lost Planet is a pretty good game. It has strong fundamentals and was a lot of fun all the way through. It’s definitely what I would consider to be a hidden gem on the PS3. I’m looking forward to seeing how the sequel plays out in comparison to this one. If you like shooters or enjoy a good sci-fi plot then you should have a good time here. 3D, third person shooters are always the way to go. I’ve yet to meet any game that can mess up this genre. It’s just way too good and will always be fun.

Overall 7/10