Tag Archives: Sequel

Father of the Bride Part II Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for Part II of this saga. Unfortunately, it falls into what I call the Airplane II trap. This film decides to just reuse all of the jokes and gags from the first film before calling it a day. You ever know someone who told a great joke once but then they got too much praise for it so after that they began to keep on using the same joke over and over and over again? That’s usually not a good idea because eventually the joke’s not going to work and that’s this film in a nutshell. In general it’ll probably be a bit better if you haven’t seen the first film but I would make the case that the premise is weaker in general.

The film starts off with George explaining that he finally has some free time as Annie has left the roost with Bryan so now he can do all the fun retiree stuff. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last long as his wife gets pregnant and will be having her baby around the same time as their daughter Annie. George must now deal with both of them essentially being out of commission but he’s rather old at this point. Can he look after them and basically go without sleep until the babies arrive? George may have to work with Franck on this.

So right away we have all of the recycled jokes. Annie and Bryan have another 2 minute fight about some nonsense that doesn’t make any sense. George is all upset again even though having a baby is pretty normal by this point in the relationship. Then Franck show up for a baby shower event where he spends all of George’s money again. What did George do to deserve all of this? George is absolutely more out of line in this film but still does step up to take care of his family when it counts. He even got a fun new hairdo and everything but doesn’t really get any support. That’s gotta be rough. He just wanted to prove that he wasn’t so old yet.

The whole expensive baby shower part also doesn’t make any sense. That’s really not a super popular thing compared to weddings. Everyone does a baby shower, but an expensive one with a 5 course meal and all the same trimmings as a Wedding? Cmon that’s just not a thing and doesn’t make any sense here. You’ll just be shaking your head the whole time and for good reason. Franck did not need to return and his scenes tend to be rather painful.

I can’t really fault Nina or Annie much this time. Ultimately they are pregnant for a good chunk of the adventure and that does mess with the mind a whole lot. They’re naturally going to be sleepy and having random cravings for most of the adventure. Maybe Nina could have been a little more considerate when George was unable to get a proper place to sleep because of the two guard dogs but that’s about it.

Mainly the film’s problem is that it just isn’t all that funny. I thought the gags were a step down and of course the reused ones won’t hit as hard this way either. It’s the kind of film that’s not really going to have an antagonist so in that case you need a different kind of hook. This time the film was unable to come up with one and that became the problem here. Just a little hook would have gone a long way here like maybe Annie wanted to have a special doll for her baby’s birth. So George has to go on a journey and find it or something like that.

A little goal would have gone a long way. Or perhaps having more arguments with the In Laws about the baby’s name. That doesn’t end up being a big part of the film as George doesn’t care a whole lot. For once Nina would have been on his side otherwise though and it could have made for some fun tension. Maybe both families keep trying to outdo the other one and it becomes a crazy competition? I could see a lot of potential there.

In this film Bryan and the In Laws don’t actually get to do much anyway. The cast is pretty small and we also get a whole subplot where George sell the house and things go crazy from there. The joke being that George loses even more money when he has to reverse the charge and you realize that he can never possibly win. At least that was a different angle though so I’ll give the film that. It made for an interesting, albeit somber plot. I wouldn’t have minded the characters moving to a new house in the end to really show that a new chapter was beginning.

George had a point that the house is rather big for just him and Nina. Of course now that they have a baby that will be a little different but I do think that the overall point stands. They could downsize a bit and still be really comfortable. That may have been a better final goal to really go with. The emotional beats of the film also ring a bit more hollow as George already had his final goodbyes to Annie’s kid self. He had moved on so the extra flashbacks here don’t really do anything. I suppose I can use this film as an example of an empty sequel. It’s not bad by any means but just feels a bit pointless.

Overall, Father of the Bride is the kind of film that didn’t really need a sequel but I can see why you would want to explore what happened after having a kid. So nothing wrong there but the film didn’t really think it through much beyond that. The double baby angle may help to up the drama but there aren’t a whole lot of funny jokes to associate with it. This is a movie that you will watch and be fairly ambivalent about by the end. It happened and it’s not a bad film but nothing really stood out. There are many alternative plots you could think of like the kid being a few years older so George and Nina have to babysit him which means missing out on a fun retiree vacation or something. Well, if you missed the old characters then you should check this one out.

Overall 5/10

Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to return to Poppy Playtime! I think the biggest mandela effect here is that it’s Poppy Playtime vs Poppy’s Playtime. I dunno I’m used to the latter version but apparently it’s never been like that. The adventure continues on here as the lead is still stuck in this facility with no way out. This place sure was huge and it looks like the journey to the end is going to get a bit longer for him. If you thought that the villains were out of cards, think again!

The game picks up where the last one left off with Huggy Wuggy about to finish you off for good. There is no escape, no way out. Only death awaits but fortunately it turns out that there was a door behind you so you escape with that. At this point it’s hard to say if there is anyone left to save so you just have to get out of the facility but there appear to be more creatures across every corner. Additionally we learn a bit more about the origins of these creatures.

Chapter 5 brings in the main gloves from the first 3 games but changes out a few of the ones from game 4 for new controls. You now have a steam hand that can be used to overload doors and push objects as well as an elemental hand that can control the powers of fire and ice. It allows the game to have fun with more puzzle variations outside of the usual hand movements. As a result this is the first time I’ve completed the game without needing to use my grabbers over 200-300 times and got that bonus trophy. So that was pretty neat.

As always there is going to be a big mix of chase scenes and puzzles. The chases tend to be my favorite as they can get legitimately difficult and force you to really memorize the map. The toughest part is always transitioning from crouching to running. I tend to get eaten a few times during the chases but the check points are spaced well so retrying isn’t a big problem. At most I can say it would be nice not to have to sit through the quotes every time you die but that’s a staple of the series.

Most deaths are also spaced after an unskippable cutscene so you don’t have to wait too long. The only exception is during a tense game of green light/red light. Although it’s not like I died a ton of times so maybe there are other tricky death points. As for the puzzles, they are consistently better than other games. Puzzles can be really hit or miss for me but most of these felt rather balanced. There are maybe a few that are super unclear but most of them you can brute force your way out of when needed.

This may be the darkest game in some respects. It’s hard to say though, maybe that should be the earlier part with the hour of joy. You get to see a lot more of what the kids and toys had to go through here. While it is done stylistically with the toys, the whole intro is pretty disturbing with the outimals. The game uses your imagination as the scare factor here which is how it can keep to a T rating. So you are given enough tools to picture what happened without seeing anything. The better your imagination, the darker it gets. All in all, nothing too crazy but the game does want to really remind you how tough things are.

We don’t have the kid in your ear trying to tell you that everything will be okay this time after all of the twists in the 4th game. So this time you have a little guy here as your moral support but he wanders off for most of the game anyway. As a result the game is a little quieter even with the various audio tapes around. This was nearly the first game where I got all of the audio tapes on my first playthrough but unfortunately I missed one which held me back. I saw the VCR and everything but could not find the tape.

The graphics have definitely improved from the last game. I would say without a doubt that this is the best looking out of the Poppy games. They’ve done a great job with the colors and designs. I would also say that the sound effects are nice and eerie for the game. There isn’t much of a soundtrack here but I’ll give it a bit of a pass given the horror vibes of the game. Not a full pass mind you since horror games should still have great music but at least I understand where it’s coming from.

The game is fairly short like most Poppy titles but does last for 5 hours which I believe does make it the longest game in the series. It’s a bit easier than some of the earlier parts but still has enough difficulty where I would expect you to lose several times during the playthrough. There is an extra trophy in it for you if you can beat the game without dying though. Getting the platinum would be very difficult in this game because of how specific the trophies are. You would need to complete the game under a certain time limit and without dying. Given the constant auto saves, it’s a bit tough to get around that but there is probably some trick to it.

Every game has a big boss and of course this one is no different. She has a fairly strong powerset even if her design isn’t quite as scary as most of the previous enemies. They’re going for more of a crazy angle with her. I’d say she leaves more of an impression than the crazy doctor from a while back and even beats Doughy but is not on the level of Huggy Wuggy or Catnap. Those bosses are definitely all time threats.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking Poppy out. There are a few glitches that will cause you to have to restart the game but that’s normal for while it is new. A patch will probably fix this. Just try not to go too fast, the glitches tend to happen if you do something before the game is ready for it. This especially happens during one of the flashbacks where you have to pick some toys up. You never lose too much progress though. As we get closer to the end, we’ll see what the main character can do to finally get a win here. He is probably going to need a full on hand gun at this point. The game ends on a pretty weak cliffhanger but I’m sure there will be a lot of fun theories to come out of this. Either way I will definitely be there once episode 6 is out.

Overall 6/10

Tron: Ares Review

Posted on by
Reply


Tron has returned for a new adventure! It’s definitely good to see the franchise make a comeback because it’s been way too long since the last film. While this one isn’t quite able to match that legend, this is a very good movie with a good amount of action. We finally get to see the cyber world enter the real one and for once the army actually looks rather decent. I was glad that they didn’t just go down immediately. I’d like to see more films after this one but unfortunately it sounds like another long gap is going to appear instead.

The film starts off by explaining that ENCOM no longer owns the monopoly on the digital world. Dillinger Systems is closing in fast and now both of them are competing to take the decisive advantage. The only way to do this is to find a way to finally allow the cyber world to enter the real one. Both of them are able to pull this off for 30 minutes, but they need the permanence code to pull this off. Julian Dillinger creates a master program named Ares who aims to use to find the code or to break into ENCOM and steal it from them. His hunch was correct as the head of ENCOM, Eve, has found this code. She must try to escape from Ares long enough to pull it off but does she have the strength to stay alive?

In a way the first part is a bit like Terminator here as you have the powerful cyber fighters trying to assassinate this one human. At first they need her alive in order to get the code but that’s not always the gameplan. Additionally since they can stay in the real world for 30 minutes and can be respawned as many times as needed, the humans are at a disadvantage. Eve may know how to keep these digital people in the real world indefinitely but it’s a very small comfort when she has no fighters on her side.

The film doesn’t go in this direction but it would have been nice to have seen her summon Tron or something like that. He would have been a powerful asset for the hero side. Eve means well though and does want to make the world a better place. She just doesn’t want this breakthrough to be used for evil. After all if you can create infinite guns, bombs, and robotic soldiers then this will be desired by all kinds of bad actors. The good effects are that you can now have infinite food to solve world hunger, ways to revolutionize medicine, etc.

So the effects of this film will greatly change the world no matter who wins. The film doesn’t really focus on the ramifications of this though. There’s just not really enough time and that would be more for a sequel. Eve is a solid heroine though. She may have taken a little time to really take Julian’s ambitions seriously, but she was able to outsmart Eve during their first fight and did well to keep on staying alive.

As for Julian, well he’s your classic corporate villain. The guy is super cocky and arrogant when he is in control but really starts to panic once the shoe is on the other foot. The guy wants to win at any cost and so he will break as many rules as he feels is necessary to make things go his way. This ends up being rather easy for him in general since Ares gives him a huge leg up over all of the other programs. He never ends up being all that interesting though and the computer villains are definitely more fun. Julian’s also the kind of villain who is creating his own problems since Ares would have absolutely been more loyal if Julian wasn’t transparently antagonizing him throughout the whole film.

Ares is a fun character who takes decisive action right away. He realizes that Julian sees him as expendable and decides to do something about it. He was introduced as being a really strong fighter and he proves that quite a few times during the film. I would have liked for there to have been more of a focus on fight scenes as opposed to general action ones but in either case Ares is always at the top of the class.

I’d say his character arc ends up going a little fast. I would have liked for him to have kept a bit of an edge but at the end of the day I suppose he was just more heroic than Julian would have predicted. I also think the way the film ends leaves a lot of room for his character to go in any direction. You can’t really stop technological progress though and so I fully expect him to have a big role in the next film. If there aren’t a bunch of other programs in the real world by that point then something went wrong.

Eve is really the main villain here. She always had dreams of grandeur and was certainly not going to settle for being 2nd best for long. Her confidence tends to outweigh her skill though. The only times she is winning is when the heroes are at a huge disadvantage. She had the right idea in summoning everyone for the climax though. At that point there isn’t really anything to lose. I also think it would be a really interesting to have an army of extremely powerful fighters who can only exist for 30 minutes going up against the armies of the world. They are strong enough to make a dent but the time limit and constant respawning is a big weakness.

The old characters get a cameo here and there but you shouldn’t expect anything more than that. It would have been really cool to see the characters from the second film show up but I do get how they would probably end up stealing the whole film. The guy from the first film is around but I feel like those scenes don’t have as much of an impact at this point. Maybe it was just the timing though, I wanted to go back to the real world instead of hearing a quick music debate.

The soundtrack for the film is really good as you would expect. A lot of really solid electronic themes going on and they absolutely fit the atmosphere that the film is going for. The end themes actually sounded like something out of Stranger Things but for the midway point and action scenes it would be the Tron that you’ve come to expect. This is a soundtrack that is very loud and unique so I appreciate that. It’s very memorable and that’s part of the Tron experience.

The special effects in general are really good. There is always a lot going on and I love the way that the digital world looks. We also get the classic Lightcycle battle which is a staple for the series. It does make you wish there was more of it though. I think that will always be the hard balance trying to have some human scenes while also giving more time to the Grid. Legacy was more about the Grid so this one’s more about the human parts.

Overall, Tron: Ares is at its best when it is showing off all of the cool digital effects. I always like seeing the battles there and the concepts are also interesting. In this case the members of the Grid are clearly able to feel and emote so they even mourn their fallen allies. If they all start to be sentient, then that’s definitely going to lead to problems in the real world. You may not be as engaged in the company vs company stuff but the film has really quick pacing so there are no points where any of this is dragging on. The whole adventure really ends before you know it with constant danger around every corner. Even if you haven’t seen a Tron film before you should be able to get into this one without any issues. I’d say that it’s very new viewer friendly.

Overall 7/10

Greenland 2: Migration Review

Posted on by
Reply


Greenland 2 is one of those films that will make less and less sense as you watch it but that’s okay. The main purpose of the film is just to let you have some fun with a bunch of action scenes. In fact I dare say it beats the first film. It does run a little long though. The runtime isn’t even that long technically but the pacing starts to die out as the main characters run into trouble after trouble. They really can’t go 5 minutes without having some kind of bad luck.

After the events of the first film, the world is in a really rocky spot. Almost all of humanity has already been wiped off the map and the survivors aren’t doing so well with the crazy amounts of radiation everywhere. There is really no escape….except for one last chance. A perfect oasis that was near the initial blast zone. If you can reach this place, you will be completely safe and will not have to worry about anything. Does such a place even exist though? It sounds almost too good to be true and often times places like that are just a way to give hope to those who have lost it. We’ll see if the journey ends up paying off this time.

What really sets the adventure off is when the island that the heroes are on begins to erupt as a volcano was dormant under it. So John and his family go on a long journey but right away I have to say that he was the only one looking good here. So his wife Allison is big on trying to do the heroic thing and having a clear conscience through what is a really tough situation. No problems on that but she takes it to very dangerous levels to where she would doom everyone. The concept here is called suicidal empathy.

For example we are shown at the beginning of the film that the emergency shelter is already at the breaking point. They only have enough food for maybe 2 weeks left and everyone is crammed in like sardines. John has been trying to find some food and materials for a long time but there has been no luck. The air outside is poisonous so they have to all wear air masks and everything. Well, another group has sent out a distress signal. The problem? The group has dozens and dozens of members within it. A group vote is held and Allison puts in enough pressure to win the vote. So now the shelter will have to accommodate an extra 50 people and there simply aren’t the resources for it.

The one guy who opposes this is treated like an antagonist throughout the film but his points really made sense. At that point you are just dooming everyone and Allison keeps this up throughout the movie. At one point everyone is running for the last 3 life boats. The first two end up toppling because too many people tried to go into them. The heroes manage to get onto the third boat and the driver explains that they have to go or their ship will topple over too. Despite this? Allison still says they should let everyone on, knowing that it would doom them all.

She just wasn’t a very practical character. Unfortunately I would say that she is realistic as a lot of people would feel the same way, no matter how bad of an idea it is. There is a time where you can still feel empathy but have to move on or everyone will be dead. She never really recovered from that showing. Still, it’s not like Allison is a villain or anything, she just ends up being an annoying ally.

Then we have the son, Nathan. He’s the classic teenage character who is just really bored. He wants adventure and so he goes outside even with the poison air everywhere because he can’t stand being cooped up. It makes him seem rather selfish but also short sighted. He could have easily spread some viruses throughout the shelter which is the whole reason why only one person is allowed outside and has to be thoroughly detoxed each time. Nathan also has a tendency to panic all the time. At one point they all have to cross a bridge but he keeps yelling about how he won’t and he’d rather just stay and die there. This is life or death, you have to cross the rope even if it’s hard.

Sure it may be easy to say that from behind the screen but I stand by it. Nathan was always slowing them down quite a bit. I’d have cut him some slack if it was because of the insulin issue but aside from a passing mention at the start, that stops being a thing. So as long as it’s just a fear that Nathan has to get past, I have to blame him 100%.

So John is really the best out of the main characters. I really liked the pragmatic government character but he technically doesn’t last very long. John is at least trying to save his family throughout and is actively sacrificing his safety in order to do that. He’s a good hero and that’s really all you need in order to make a quality character. John gets to show off his expert gunman skills as well during the movie. Without him the family would have had no shot.

I’ll give the film props for also completely changing the film’s location early on. We are at the emergency shelter just long enough where you think that a bunch of those characters are going to be sticking around during the movie. Despite that, they are all removed from the story after the heroes leave the base. That was pretty unexpected for me and I thought that it worked. Having a really small cast of just the main 3 characters was a good idea.

The action was also consistent and never let up. While I do think the film began to drag on just a tad bit by the end, I can’t say that it was uneventful. We got several gunfights and a whole lot of running around. It did feel like the film was perhaps being a bit too ambitious at times though. A lot of focus was put on the atmosphere being poisonous but it felt more like an empty threat because there were many times where the characters would be without their helmets and it wasn’t really a big deal. Then it turns out that the sacred land near the crater has no poison at all. In fact that somehow became the biggest oasis on the planet.

It’s not a plot hole as the film very explicitly talks about how we don’t really understand any of this because humanity isn’t really in a position to study it. It’s just a bit convenient. I don’t really see how this land would not have been destroyed by now. Yes, an army is protecting it but with the whole world seeking shelter, that just wouldn’t last long. This isn’t a story that will hold up too well so the important thing is to just have fun in the moment. That is something that the movie is good at.

I was skeptical going into this film because I never thought that Greenland would really need a sequel. It felt like this would just be stretching a premise past the breaking point. At least by making it involve the rest of the world and an actual war, that made things pretty eventful. The writing is also good and most of my complaints about the characters being annoying are not the kinds of things that would actually lower the score of the film. Same with the inconsistent world building and such. They’re elements that are fun to make fun of and note, but don’t actually hurt my enjoyment of the movie.

Overall, Greenland 2 is definitely a good film. I won’t call it a great one or anything like that but I wasn’t bored. The movie kept my attention all the way through and there weren’t any parts that took me out of it because I thought the writing was super bad or anything. The ending is definitely pretty weak though. That’s one thing the film could have done better with because it just isn’t satisfying. It’s the kind of ending that feels standard in a bad way and also heavily limits the potential of a third film.

Overall 6/10

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right if someone asked me if I could survive 5 nights at Freddy’s I would definitely say yes. The animatronics are slow and clunky so that’s not a problem. If they asked me if I could survive 5 more nights? Well now that’s getting tricky. The monsters in this film seem to be considerably more powerful than in the first film although I would say that they are still under the average horror title. For that reason nobody in this film is really putting up much of a fight most of the time.

The film starts off with Mike trying his best to forget the events of the first film. He figures the best way to do this is to gaslight Abby into thinking that he will fix the old robots when he doesn’t plan to. Then on the side Mike is trying his best to fix Vanessa from all of her childhood trauma but Mike doesn’t really have the temperament for such a journey. Eventually his plans fall through and Abby runs back into Freddy’s to bring her friends back while Vanessa heads over for some closure. Unfortunately they both end up bringing something far darker back into the world. And yes…there are now two Freddy’s locations.

This is definitely one of those films where everyone looks pretty bad which is what the villains are able to capitalize on. For example in the first flashback scene we see how William wasn’t exactly subtle in grabbing one of the kids to destroy but even when another kid notices, nobody wants to help. The adults are painfully oblivious and almost go out of their way to ignore the situation. Then once it all happens, we see how the media blamed this on the kid who died. Now that was crazy and it sets the stage for how this is a world without a whole lot of empathy. Everyone is just looking out for themselves here and they don’t want to stick their neck out.

The fact that this happened before the other 5 murders is also crazy because it really shows how William was allowed to do whatever he wanted to do. Now in the present, we’ve got a number of plots going on. For Abby’s, well I feel like she looks really bad here. She wants to bring the robots back since some of them had her friends from the beyond but even in the first film it was always a 50/50 chance at best on if they were actually the kids. Usually they were the evil demon robots so she is risking everyone’s lives for a small chance. Not a smart thing to do.

Abby definitely shouldn’t have been going to Freddy’s by herself. Then we have Mike who comes across as really annoying the whole time. He gets upset with Abby when she notices that he’s been lying a lot and that’s on him. Then even after Vanessa has saved his life on multiple occasions and saved Abby, he still tells her off. There are some things like a life debt which should not be so easily broken. Certainly not in this manner. Mike really needed to lock in more.

He got one good scene where he actually fights one of the animatronics but that’s about it for him. Then we have Vanessa who is dealing with the most issues right now. William is still attacking her through dreams which she just barely manages to survive through. It feels like there is only a matter of time before she falls to him unless she can find a way to destroy him forever. Of course that is not going to be easy.

Then Vanessa has to deal with the new villain of the movie, The Marionette. Unfortunately a gun isn’t going to do a whole lot to this thing. She definitely should have told Mike more about what was going on but I still tend to place more of the blame on him for not taking the news well at all. With the stakes this high, there is no time to be falling apart at the seams.

The Marionette makes for a pretty strong villain. She leaves more of an impact than a lot of the different Freddy creatures and for now I would say she was more impressive than William as well. She has a good amount of space and can basically take control of someone’s body which is a really big deal. I suppose that the name is quite fitting.

On that note, the main Freddy crew don’t get to do quite as much here. They threaten the humans a whole lot and are always on the move but don’t technically produce a whole lot of results. More often than not they are foiled at the last second. The body count is a bit smaller than you may have initially guessed. Also unless you are a hardcore fan you will have some trouble differentiating the designs between the new ones and the old ones even when you see them back to back.

The film does go all in on the jump scares though. There is a lot going on at all times and the characters act super suspicious the whole time. There’s a new night guard named Michael for example who seems ominous the whole time. He’s constantly grinning and seems to know a whole lot about Freddy’s. They’re going to want to keep an eye out for him. So the film knows how to be scary.

Then on the other hand it also has some funny moments. I liked the cab driver who was always ready to break the ice. There’s also a mean science teacher who is a complete antagonist but does a really good job within the role like when he “accidentally” broke a girl’s toy. This guy has clearly been in the game for a long time. The film certainly leans harder on horror than comedy but handles both genres rather well.

The writing and script are certainly not realistic but you can put that to the same camp. The film also still keeps itself from being too violent. It’s maybe a little more violent than the first one but I would say that it was close. There is less focus on all the kids who got murdered from the first film which is a good thing. I would also say that the film’s story is a lot more interesting now that it is embracing all of the crazy characters. It was sad that Golden Freddy didn’t show up but I guess the film was getting rather packed.

There are quite a few clffhangers in the film too which sets up the third film nicely. First up we already have a main villain, then a returning villain shows up, and then a hype message which might signal a third one. In theory it’ll be hard for the heroes to stop these guys next time because there is no longer any kind of an off button. Physically these creatures are mainly still robots so you can mess them up but that requires no tripping or panicking which is rare.

For the next film I would like to see some more action though. One issue I have with this one is that the animatronics all tend to look very slow aside from the Marionette and just don’t seem to be a huge threat. Mike takes one out extremely easily in one scene and it feels like that would work on any of the others as well. So I feel like the next film needs to show them actually fighting and moving a bit quicker to make things scary again.

Overall, I definitely wouldn’t be eating at Freddy’s but the film does a good job of staying scary while adding in a lot of story this time around. The concept of Freddy’s is definitely an intense one. I am glad that the series continues to reign in the violence and doesn’t go for a ton of grit. It would be nice if we could go one film without children being among the fatalities though. This time it was brief and then it was over at least but we don’t need to retread the plots. Since this one hints at a much larger threat looming, it may be time to call in the government. Some may say that would be jumping the shark but I think it would be hype!

Overall 6/10

Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo Review

Posted on by
Reply


After the ending of Jujutsu Kaisen it was time for a whole new adventure. It’s still not all that common for a big title to get a sequel so quickly so this was really exciting. It was announced as a mini series so you knew it wouldn’t be going on for too long but that was still cool. The title delivers with cool fights and some solid new characters. It does go by quickly though so every time there would be a lore chapter it would feel like precious time was being lost. In the end there are quite a few plot lines that should have kept on going but ultimately this was a good title so I don’t really have any big regrets.

The series picks up many decades after the original Kaisen ending. Most of the old characters are dead or super old. The new generation of Jujutsu sorcerers are far weaker than their predecessors and that is not good because aliens have arrived among us. For now they appear to be friendly but is that really the case? A cold war of sorts is starting and in the meantime a lot of kids are vanishing all over Japan. Yuka and Tsurugi are tasked with finding out what is happening to them. They must take the alien known as Maru with them so that he can learn about humanity. Perhaps aliens and humans can live in harmony?

Kaisen has never been the type of series for easy answers and this one is no exception. We see there are immediately bad actors on both sides who are trying to stoke the flames of war. They aren’t being subtle about this either. They want full on war and as many casualties as possible. Both sides think that this will be necessary in the long run so why not do it now right? One issue that will be hard to get around is that cursed spirits emit the same energy wave as the aliens. So every time the humans exorcise one, it feels like they are attacking the aliens.

Even once the aliens are told that this is the case, they are unconvinced. I don’t really blame them, that seems a little hard to buy even if you were to ask me. This ultimately does lead to a big fight and fortunately the humans do have one secret weapon in their corner through Yuka. She is able to summon the mythical Mahoraga, a being which continues to grow stronger and stronger through combat. The aliens have Dabura though who is a true prodigy and continues to get stronger as well. Makes for a great fight.

The artwork here is really impressive. It does absolutely look better than the original Jujutsu Kaisen and for a sequel that is always a good honor. The fights look incredible and there really is a whole lot of detail in each of the pages. This looks like a monthly manga through and through. You will be impressed from start to finish here without a doubt.

Now lets talk about the characters. First we have Yuka who is very confident and proactive as a sorcerer. She wants to help everyone out and most importantly, she wants to defeat her older brother Tsurugi. Unfortunately she is quite sick and that has made things difficult on her. She doesn’t want to be a burden but the deck has been stacked against her. It makes her optimism all the more inspiring and so she ends up being the standout character here. None of the others come close and you’ll be rooting for her the entire time.

She may not be the strongest fighter but she means well and keeps on training. Her summoning ability also allows her to fight at levels far beyond what she is capable of even if it does come at the expense of her life. Then we have Tsurugi who has to put on a brave face for his sister but the guy has had it rough as well. His cursed energy output isn’t very great and so he has to rely on cursed tools. He doesn’t really know how to reduce the burden on Yuka and so their dynamic isn’t exactly where he would want it to be.

The two of them care for each other a ton but just don’t really know how to show it. He tends to be less forgiving than she is though and so he was the perfect member to really go up against the aliens. He has to make a difficult decision by the end. While you can argue that he makes the right one, it will still come off as a bit annoying considering the price that had to be paid here.

To go more into details on the dilemma, the aliens need a planet to live on. They have been travelling for a very long time and their people are really going to star dying out if they have to search for another planet. Meanwhile the humans don’t really want to give up this planet. If they each decide to take up half of the planet, well that’s going to be extremely difficult and you have to go through all of the countries. So what this ultimately means is that the aliens are going to invade. They may have a sad story but it’s still going to be hard to root against the humans here.

So Maru ends up not being as likable as the series may have meant for him to be. Now the length hurts this part but Maru is initially introduced as a very innocent alien who wants to learn about the human world. As the title goes on, while he does want to help the humans he does pick his own people. This leads to all of the battles of course and it’s an emotional betrayal of sorts. Thing is, he only knew the characters for a very brief amount of time so this doesn’t hit as hard as it would have otherwise.

His power set is fairly confusing with how it can do almost anything but Kaisen likes to be confusing so that’s not necessarily a time crunch thing. It was still cool to see him and Tsurugi going at it. I ultimately thought that Maru made for a good villain but I couldn’t see him as the hero type. The end of the series tries to show that nobody had any hard feelings and it’s all good but I thought that was a bit much. The message is that they were all cogs in the system and so they didn’t take anything personal but when someone is trying to murder you…well that feels personal.

Maru’s brother Cross even gets to be with the group at the end when he was an antagonist the entire time. It’s hard to see why anyone would be all that cool with him. Well, I guess that just shows how open minded everyone was which is a good thing in a sense. Dabura also makes for a really impressive villain even if he’s mostly here for the power levels. He doesn’t get a ton to do beyond that but he is able to leverage his abilities in a way where he could defy the system. I appreciate the fact that he wasn’t just some foot soldier.

His fight with Mahoraga is also the highlight of the series. After all the chapters about concepts and such, it was nice to see a truly long battle like that. It was really impressive. Finally we have Yuji who shows up. The long years have taken their toll on him as he’s a very different character here. Not bad or anything but he’s become more emotionless and doesn’t even fight to save humanity unless it’s dire. He’s been off doing his own thing and doesn’t even jump into the Dabura battle. He helps Maru with a plan to change the situation which is good but the guy feels too passive to me. It sounds like he will continue to act that way now that he will live for hundreds of years so he doesn’t stagnate humanity’s growth or something like that.

I tend to always disagree with this logic. If you have the abilities to save someone then you really ought to use them. Doesn’t matter if it’s for a week or 100 years. You keep fighting until you can’t fight anymore. That’s the only way to really live as a main character here. The ending does offer a lot of hope though. In theory humanity will be in a healthier spot now and just has to worry about infighting among themselves.

Of course that’ll probably happen. The series does go out of its way to show how corrupt both sides are. For the aliens there was a lot of infighting and murdering from the start. Two of the clans had differing systems on how to handle everything and so the stronger one subjugated the weaker ones. For the humans, some were complicit with the whole kidnaping humans thing and it shows that they will always sell out for a good price. You just can’t trust either species and that’s a real shame. They’re obviously still better than the cursed spirits who are definitionally evil but it’s not like either race is going to be selfless. This isn’t really that kind of title even if the ending was certainly an upbeat one.

So while the ending is controversial, I tend to like it. I like happy endings after all. I would still agree with the fact that it was rushed though as one big fight didn’t conclude and others that could have happened afterwards never got a chance. I suppose I just have to be happy for the fights since the series could have easily gone through without any. Now that would have been a real shame. With this high level art quality throughout, it would just feel like a missed opportunity.

In a way I’d compare this series to Pluto. It’s a really interesting mystery of sorts with the kidnapped kids in a grounded setting despite how crazy the world is. We know about demons and all kinds of users with powers but the plot is focused around a few kids in a local context. Then you have the whole alien race plot so the big shots like Yuji have to be looked for. It all leads up to the big, grand battles that were shaped from the opening chapters and how the humans/aliens fundamentally saw things differently. The problem is that you can only do so much in 3 volumes. We spend quite a few in the first volume to set things up but things are still being set up in volume 2 which is where things start to move kind of fast. The Mahoraga fight will always be an absolutely spectacular moment but I wish we could have seen the end to that as well as gotten a proper conclusion to the rest of the plots. Yuji’s whole character feels like a missed opportunity for a lot of good scenes for example.

Overall, A few more volumes would have been nice for the fights and all but we still got new content here which was fun. Yuji has really gotten powerful to the point where nobody can stand up to him anymore. Other outliers like Dabura and Mahoraga show that the rest of the fighters can stay calm because they will never be able to reach that level. There won’t be much point in trying either now that cursed energy itself has changed thanks to the ending. A certain villain even gets a little cameo here. If you haven’t read the original Jujutsu Kaisen then this series will probably feel weird but a recap of sorts is included. So that might get you up to speed enough for this. Maybe a movie will adapt this sequel at some point.

Overall 7/10

One Piece Season 2 Review

Posted on by
Reply


One Piece has finally returned! It’s been a really long time since season 1 aired so I’m definitely glad that the show wasn’t cancelled or anything like that. Now that would have been rough. This time we already know season 3 is on the way so that’s a load off. I wouldn’t say that this season quite beats the first one but of course it’s difficult to beat the first meetings for all the characters. We don’t get to see Mihawk this time around but there are a bunch of characters running around.

The story starts with the Strawhats making it to Loguetown to stop by for supplies before continuing on the Grand Line. They are still being pursued by Baroque Works for taking down two of their agents and get even higher priority from the terrorist agency when Luffy runs into the princess of Alabasta. The crew will have to keep her safe while fighting off the various enemies as well as the World Government. The sea is a vast place and so the heroes will get to go to a whole lot of islands and meet a lot of characters. No matter what obstacles head their way, nothing will deter Luffy from being King of the Pirates.

First off the effects are definitely solid like in season 1. I really enjoy seeing the characters use their special abilities like Luffy stretching all over the place and the villains having their own abilities like wax and bombs. The series is not afraid to go all out with the effects which is a good thing because a title like One Piece needs to embrace this. We’re not watching this show to just see some run of the mill pirates adventure.

The soundtrack is also really good. Sadly Buggy isn’t around all that much so his amazing theme doesn’t get to appear as prominently. The rest of the soundtrack is still really good though and you even get the occasional remix. Tony Tony Chopper even got his own theme which I was definitely not expecting. It’s catchy enough. So the technical elements are good here. The only small issue is that like season 1, the camera tends to zoom a little too closely into everyones’ faces. This is the only show I’ve ever seen where it’s so noticeable but granted, I haven’t seen a ton of live action TV shows.

The show manages to cover quite a few islands within the 8 episodes as well. The first one we go to is Loguetown where we get to see Smoker and his assistant Tashigi. Tashigi is given a little more ability in this version as she can actually fight and even defeats someone in a future arc. It was nice to see because she did start with some potential before getting completely written out. This feels like a much more balanced approach to what you would have expected here. Meanwhile Smoker definitely looks strong as always. At this point the Strawhats would really have absolutely no chance of defeating him. None of them have any counters to his smoke. Buggy also got to show up which was definitely a lot of fun.

Then we get the episode introducing us to the giant Whale who sailed with a future member of the Strawhats. Some good foreshadowing there and of course the group gets to take down two more members of Baroque Works. The Strawhats were definitely not doing too bad up to this point although I still have my share of issues with Luffy which I’ll get into later on. Lets just say that he isn’t quite the power hitter that you would have expected him to be.

The highlight episode of the whole season has to be the third one though. We see the heroes head into a town that lays traps for pirates. Most of the crew fall for this but Zoro was ready and now has to take on 100 fighters all by himself. In the show at least he definitely appears to be the strongest Strawhat. I can’t picture any of the others pulling off this feat or anything close to it to be honest. The whole episode has a lot of fighting and is very fast paced. The other members get their fights too of course but Zoro is the highlight. We even see how he is still dealing with what Mihawk told him before about being too weak. Zoro will prove him wrong or die trying.

Then we get to the final two arcs which are a little longer. Little Garden has the heroes meeting up with some giants and unfortunately Baroque Works is around to get in their way as well. In particular Mr. 3 is the big villain here with his wax powers. He is able to basically stick things together and can even create shields that are so powerful that Luffy has a hard time breaking them. That’s a really impressive devil fruit. If not for his getting supremely overconfident, the heroes would have been doomed here. In general the villains just have a whole lot of creative powers and of course the numbers advantage is on their side as well.

The giants look more on the underwhelming side if anything. They may be big but that’s about all that they’ve got. They are shown to not be strong enough to break through the wax which is a really bad anti feat for them. If you can’t even do that, then you’re naturally going to be in a whole world of trouble. Hopefully the giants look more impressive in their next appearances but in general it’s not like they’re my favorite characters anyway so it’s not a big deal.

The final arc has the group going to Drum Kingdom which is probably the most emotional arc of the series. We get nearly a whole episode that barely features the Strawhats as we focus on Tony Tony Chopper and his origin story. It’s handled pretty well and of course the final fight with King Wapol is good. The final episode is always fun because you get to see what the show will use as a proper cliffhanger for season 3. There are a lot of options after all and I have no issues with the one that they chose. We’re definitely in store for a lot of hype.

With all of these strengths, it’s fair to say that the show also has some weaknesses. The biggest one here would have to be Luffy. I think the show just went a little too overboard with having him lose fights. It’s not like he is undefeated in the manga but generally you can count on Luffy to win. He is an inspiring figure and a powerful one who can back up the tough talk. That is why all of the various characters can depend on him in the first place after all.

In the live action series it feels like they cannot count on him. He loses virtually all of his fights. Luffy got crushed by Buggy’s right hand girl in the first episode which was rather embarrassing. Then Vivi defeated him with her dancing skills, one of the Baroque agents beat him with her painting skills, and even Wapol was beating him until Luffy was saved by the Strawhats. You can definitely hit a good balance here but this isn’t it. Luffy still acts really cocky the whole time as he grins 24/7 and says he’ll kick their buts but it comes across as hollow when he is the one being crushed. So how do you fix that? Well, I’d say in the next season Luffy should be racking up the wins and generally overwhelming his opponents. To make up for this, he should be looking dominant.

As it stands, he just seems to be very weak and uses his gum gum powers as a crutch which isn’t really how Luffy should be portrayed. I don’t have any issues with his personality otherwise but he’ll be a lot more endearing when he can back up the tough talk. Meanwhile Zoro looks great as expected, he really dominates his opponents in every fight and has a lot of great scenes. In a way you would think that Zoro was the true captain of the Strawhats. At the very least I couldn’t really tell you different.

Nami does well as always in a support role. She is written out for most of the final arc but is otherwise a big player throughout. I’m looking forward to seeing her get more action scenes down the road. Usopp is one of those characters where how much you like him will depend on how much you can tolerate his lack of bravery. Yes, he will get the job done in the end but generally it is going to take some time to get to that point…in every arc.

Princess Vivi does well in her role. She is a real fighter and gets more than one action scene which was good. She takes a little while to really get on board with the group but that makes sense since they are definitely a very active bunch. I’m definitely cool with her sticking with the crew for a while. Then of course we have Tony Tony Chopper who has never been my favorite character but he’s not bad. Chopper’s dream of being a good doctor is naturally a good one and he can fight when needed. Chopper just needs more experience under his belt so that he can really stand up to the others. He’ll be fun as the team’s animal mascot of sorts but he needs to work hard so he can be seen as a true member of the crew.

Finally there is Sanji who is pretty solid. The show does a good job of not really playing up the flirty part of his persona. So he comes across as a well rounded character with good cooking skills and combat prowess. I like his natural confidence and of course his rivalry with Zoro is always a lot of fun. He adds a whole lot to the dynamic of the main characters so you would want to have him around at all times.

Then we have the villains who tend to be pretty solid within their screentime. Buggy was great in his guest star role. He got to show Luffy who was boss and really take command there. Nico Robin gets a lot of hype throughout the show and it is definitely deserved. She will be a tough fighter to take down, especially if her opponents are not shooting on sight. If they don’t do that then there is really no way to realistically defeat her.

The Baroque Work agents can be more hit or miss. They work well as antagonists but less so as characters. Mr. 3 for example has a cool power but it’s not like his personality is all that interesting. He’s one of those very theatrical guys who likes to do everything his way. His own pride is what gets in the way of claiming victory here.

King Wapol is one of those super petty characters. He is as corrupt as possible and will never even bother to acknowledge someone else’s viewpoint on the matter. He’s the king so that is the only viewpoint that counts. So I may not be the biggest fan but he does have a good design and fights well. He actually had the upper hand for a while there. That makes him stand out at least.

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine also have fairly big roles. Valentine’s weight abilities are really handy and I would say that makes her one of the stronger members. She was also very confident so that’s a lot of wins all around. Mr. 5 has bombs but there is a decent mount of load time before he can use each one so that limits him a bit. They also don’t seem to be super strong based on their range. They’re just strong enough for him to put up a good fight but that’s about it.

There are a bunch of other side characters running around but these are a lot of the big players. It’s always really cool to see an adaption ongoing like this. Hopefully the series can really make it all the way to Water 7 or Marineford before ending. I’ll be rooting for it all the way. At the end of the day this is a very fun show and that is its biggest strength. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives by quite a lot.

If there’s anything that really keeps the show from reaching the next level it would be the pacing at times though. Luffy being weak is annoying but not the kind of thing that really hurts after all. While the pacing isn’t enough where I would say it’s downright bad or anything, at times the scenes can drag a little bit. You aren’t always at the edge of your seat the way you need to be when a show is going for 1 hour episodes. Generally a 1 hour episode should still feel really fast when you’re having a blast but where were a handful of times here where you would want them to speed through some of the exposition so we could get to the next big moment.

Overall, This One Piece show is a good example of how any title can get a live action show if you have enough dedication. You just gotta go out there and get the job done. It certainly won’t always be easy but you just have to be confident about it. I would recommend this title to anyone looking for a fun action adventure series. You definitely don’t need to be a One Piece fan to enjoy the story. You’ll probably want to watch season 1 first before going onto this one though.

Overall 7/10