Tag Archives: Sequel

Bendy: Fade to Black Review

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It’s time for a spooky adventure in the Bendy verse. I don’t read very many books nowadays so it’s always fun once I get to jump in again. This is a solid one that is rather low key for a while but then the climax feels like the Bendy games. While parts of the writing may have felt a bit off to me, I was definitely engaged with what was going on. The ending is really worth going through the whole book as it takes the adventure in a bold direction that I was certainly not expecting.

The story starts by introducing us to Rose who is excited to finally be working. She has a job at a local media company where she will be helping out on the Bendy show. Her job is more of a background one as she gets papers ready, delivers coffee, etc. Still, it’s a pretty good way to start an eventual climb into stardom so she is definitely ready for all of this. Unfortunately what she doesn’t realize is that Joey Drew is a rather suspicious fellow. He can seem nice one moment and then completely deranged the next. This may be quirky at first but the problem is that he is legitimately dangerous. If she doesn’t watch her step then it will be all over for her.

Of course if you’ve played the games before then you already know that Bendy has become an evil monster. Well, that may not be exactly accurate but you should play the game to really see the lore as there are a lot of good twists and turns. For simplicity’s sake though I’m going to be calling the main monster Bendy. Bendy destroys all who oppose him and in the game we see how Joey rambles a lot and really went down the wild side. He would do anything to protect his creations and make his show the best in the world. So this is like a prequel where we still see him in the early stages of this. He has his ink machine and is creating monsters.

One thing I liked about Joey here is that he’s unapologetically evil. He’s not saddened by how his creations are doing more harm than good. He’s not talking about regrets or anything like that. Joey just spends the whole book laughing about how great he is and what a success the whole thing is. He has no sense of loyalty and this was always part of the plan. He would destroy everyone in his way because that’s what he does. It’s just refreshing to have a complete villain like this and he has some of the best dialogue in the book.

Unfortunately Rose is unable to be his perfect contrast here. As the lead I don’t think she was able to hold her own or be nearly as interesting. For starters her dialogue makes her sound like a little kid the whole time. I do think this mainly falls on the writer but it’s easy to forget that she’s close to being an adult. Part of her character is about being really optimistic but there are many ways to do that without making her sound like a kid you know? That’s where my problem with her is. She has her big moments where she tries to talk tough to Joey and the others but for the most part she freezes under pressure and just ends up taking the L.

I give her props for doing her best in a rather tough environment but I would have liked a tougher main character. She is considerably better than her little brother though. That kid fell for every trap from Bendy and it didn’t make any sense. He was super annoying the whole time and the whole book would have been way better if he could have at least seen through one trick or two. He was consistently holding everyone back the whole time. I know that he’s a kid but even so, Rose actually warned him in advance about Bendy and the kid still let himself be bossed around.

Her parents didn’t look great here either. Her father has a lot of PTSD from the war so he’s really out of commission the whole time. Her mother tries her best to keep everything secure but seems to have very little sympathy for what Rose was going through. The heroine has done her best for years but one slip up where she lets out a yell and everyone’s upset? They should be upset at her brother for scaring her when they’re all in a tense situation. There are a few supporting characters around as well like the boss of the big media company. He’s a lot of fun. You can bet that Joey won’t be talking to him any kind of way because that guy’s just too good. The secretary also seemed nice enough.

Her friend at the job was nice enough even if he did panic though. Trying to dismantle the ink machine to keep it around was a super bad idea. There’s a random rich kid who shows up at the watch party and it was a bad moment for Rose as she was basically getting mind controlled with ease in there. She had to be rescued which was not a good look at all. You need to be able to get out of a situation like that on your own or you’re really not ready for the big times. I felt bad for one guy who was turned into an ink creature and has to keep on dying. The Bendy-verse definitely gets real dark at times. It was still naive of them to think that Joey would care though.

In the video games it is all about running from the creatures and hiding where you can. This finally becomes a big thing by the end of the book which is my favorite part. There’s a lot of tension here and an actual body count as well. The book really goes hard here and that climax could really be adapted as a full game at some point. Then of course we have the big ending as I mentioned which is really intense. It also makes sense I would say since someone really didn’t have a chance of returning. No power of friendship is going to work here, logically Bendy already had the situation covered.

Overall, The book has a very slow pace for a little while there. You do need to enjoy the mystery and the slow build up because the action doesn’t kick in until the final chapters. That said, I thought the payoff was worth the build up. It did a good job of bringing everything together so I was definitely satisfied here and am ready for more Bendy books. If you’re in the mood for a book with some spooky events scattered within then this is the title for you.

Overall 7/10

Lost Planet 2 Review

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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

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions Review

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Escape Room 2 immediately makes me think of the second Maze Runner film. Sure the heroes may have survived the room the first time but can they do it a second time? The film does a pretty good job of bringing back the fun elements from the first film and I dare say that it even surpasses the original. There are a lot of great fakeouts here and the stakes definitely go even higher. My only complaint is that some of the characters don’t actually feel like champions.

The basic plot is that Zoey wants to crush the evil organization in charge of the escape rooms once and for all. Ben doesn’t think that this is a good idea but there’s no way he can say no to her so they head on over to NYC. Unfortunately they are mugged almost immediately which leads them to a train. Now if anyone knows the MTA, they know this was a lethal mistake. It’s not sick passengers or train delays that will get the best of them though, the whole car is instead being overloaded with electricity. The other passengers seem upset but not as panicked as they should be. Why? This isn’t their first rodeo! Each character here has won the Escape Room challenge in the past so this time the battle is between champions. Who will win the right to their continued existence this time?

I love the concept of this of course. This time you’re fighting with the cream of the crop and no scrubs allowed. Most of the puzzles are team based challenges so it’s not so much about being left behind but making any mistakes will cost you everything. So everyone should be very strategic since it’s unlikely that someone who was carried the whole time would win. The problem is…in this movie at least two of the characters don’t seem all that smart. So lets talk about the cast real quick.

Of course we know Zoey and Ben from the first film so there’s not much to say about them. They have both proven themselves a lot in the first movie and continue to look good here. I would say Zoey is absolutely smarter than Ben but he can still hold his own and they make for a good team. I wouldn’t say I love their characters or anything but they hold the film rather well. The pressure is more on the newcomers.

First up is Theo who panics a lot right from the jump. He doesn’t want to die here and talks about how unfair the whole thing is but he dies real fast. Now the way he died was a bit unavoidable so I don’t blame him there but he was just way too reckless the whole time. It’s hard to see how he survived the first time when he’s this emotional. You have to keep a cool head at least for a while. Like Zoey has a moment where she panics and grabs a door which activates a trap. That was a huge L but she has the rest of the film as evidence for how she is usually rather smart. (Although the scene did have me convinced that Zoey was a traitor for the rest of the film.)

Theo just didn’t add much. Then we have Brianna who also doesn’t seem ready for this. She doesn’t come up with almost any ideas during the adventure and seems to not have a real plan. She mainly follows the others and does her best there. Brianna’s not bad but again she doesn’t really feel like a champion which is the problem there. She’s not going to be saving anyone.

Nathan is someone who actually does feel like a champion though. He’s confident in his own plans and makes moves as needed. He has his big main character moment where he plunges ahead to solve the puzzle instead of listening to anyone. I actually appreciated that move a lot because it is definitely something that the main character would do if this was his film. He may have been wrong on the conclusion but most of his plan was really solid. He was also ready to jump in and save Rachel when she was in trouble and did so without hesitation. He’s probably the best character in the film I have to say.

Finally there’s Rachel who also has a commanding presence and did well. She has the ability to not feel pain which is pretty cool although in a lot of ways it’s very scary. Not being able to feel what’s happening to you can be a real nightmare depending on the circumstance and she seems to have had a dark past with the first set of Escape Room challenges. She does well in all of the challenges and proves herself as a strong competitor.

So out of the full cast only half of the new fighters live up to the hype. I put that on the film since they just needed to make the challenges a bit harder to show off everyone’s intellect before bumping them off. Kudos for not making anyone too unlikable though. In these films I think it’s important to have the main characters be teaming up instead of fighting with themselves. The puzzles are hard enough without having everyone be duking it out.

Now where the film really shines is the ending. It’s really brilliant all the way with how it ties into the beginning. I didn’t really pick up on any of the clues the first time around which is where I was really impressed. I didn’t read in between the lines and this is probably one of the first times where I didn’t suspect something right away. As the ending starts to play out you do connect the dots but even then, I didn’t to that extent. It’s all really cool and perfectly executed. Sort of like an ending out of Halloween or something but 100X cooler. I’d almost recommend watching the film just for the ending.

In general the whole movie is pretty well balanced though. There are a lot of fun challenges and different backdrops for each of the activities. This makes for a lot of variety and really keeps you on your toes the whole time. Some of the puzzles I do think are a bit much in terms of finding the solution. Like even while the characters are figuring it out you are super skeptical because it doesn’t really make sense. Some of it makes sense to be sure but most of it? Ehhhhhhhh I dunno. It’s Batman’66 levels of logic where he comes to the right answer and in a way it makes sense but it’s such a leap in logic that you’re not really sure how to feel about that.

I still liked all of the concepts and of course there was a NYC level in the game with some acid rain that was really intense. That had to be one of the more painful levels to be sure. Even if you played it perfectly you could expect to be hit by some acid drops. The film mainly avoids things getting too violent though. Some characters get burns and such but it’s actually rather tame. Nothing like the cube movie from a while back where everyone was really getting destroyed. This one lets you just enjoy all of the battles even with the life and death stakes.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this one. I would recommend checking it out for any fans of thrillers out there. It did a great job of following up on the first one and I liked how strong the continuity was. We got actual flashbacks to the first film and everything. Every scene ends up being important by the end so it really wraps everything up well. I definitely recommend watching this film when you have a chance. It’s definitely a unique title that you won’t be forgetting!

Overall 7/10

The Last Blade 2 Review

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This is a fighting game that I had definitely never heard of before but it sure is fun. You feel like they put some extra effort into this title relative to the average fighting game. For starters there are some fun illustrations here for the story aspect. There is a real ending when you beat the arcade mode. Not just a quick picture or something but a true story. The opening is good as well and I really liked the vibes here. The characters all have great designs and movesets.

I never played the original Last Blade but the fact that this one continues after the first title is a good thing. You can feel the continuity here all the way through. The lines and twists would hit harder if you had any kind of context for them but I’m still glad to see them around. The game has vs mode aside from arcade of course but there isn’t a ton of content here. So the story that we do get really goes a long way to making the game be more memorable. The genre has a lot of competition and even back in those days there were always a ton of games being churned out left and right. So what that means is that you needed to try hard in order to stay ahead of the curve and that’s not easy.

I’m surprised you don’t see this game series around more nowadays since I feel like the game would do well. It had that anime feel to it and the actual gameplay is fairly fast paced. It’s your classic 2D fighter all the way through and the characters deal a whole lot of damage. So if you take the wrong combo you will be knocked out almost instantly. Of course by the same token that means you just need to land a good hit and you will be the one claiming victory. So definitely don’t give up, if you strike hard and fast then you will always have the ticket for victory. The game is really about proper spacing so you definitely need to be careful when you throw a strike.

I approached the title with my usual button mashing style which I have to admit worked rather well here. Most opponents are just unable to stop my combos but some matches did take me a while. I will always stand by the fact that games were simply way more difficult back in the day than they are now. Games in the present could mostly be blasted through at any point but for the older ones you really had to work at it. Easy mode itself could be a little difficult at times.

The graphics are pretty good like I mentioned earlier with the illustrations. The soundtrack isn’t very memorable but you win some and you lose some. The writing is also where the game really stands out, there are a lot of great lines here. The characters really have no chill and will deliver some of the biggest verbal smackdowns that you have ever seen. Seriously I was impressed but also a bit nervous at just how hard these guy went. It’s the kind of dialogue you won’t see as often nowadays because it can tow the line but I think it works out since these guys are villains. It also gives you an incentive not to lose. If you lose then you’re just going to have to put up with that.

Overall, The Last Blade 2 is a pretty fun game. It’s always cool to find a hidden gem inside the PSN+ like this. It may not be a title that changes everything that I ever knew or anything like that but it’s fun which is the important part. I always enjoy fighting games quite a lot so this is another one that I can then add to the list. If there was to be a new game for the series on PS5 or something I would definitely check it out. This setting with full blown cutscenes and everything would be absolutely intense! I know that’s probably a longshot though but either way I would recommend checking this game out at least. It’s a real blast.

Overall 7/10

Boruto: Naruto the Movie Update

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I now own the movie on Blu Ray! It definitely holds up really well with all of the hype action. We get to see the start to Boruto’s journey as the #1 ninja as well. Definitely a must watch for any Naruto fan or even anyone who just likes a good action story. You can’t miss out on this!

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Review

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It’s time to talk about peak fiction and by that I mean Boruto of course. It’s no surprise that initially a lot of people were rather down on the series. Sequels can often be met with a lot of skepticism at first because you’re worried at how they’re going to humiliate the old characters in favor of the new ones. Well I can say not to worry because Boruto is actually a great series. Yes, the old protags are done extremely dirty and the power levels get kind of crazy but at the end of the day the series does a lot of things exceptionally well.

The series picks up after the first series ends with the world finally at peace. Unfortunately becoming Hokage has gone to Naruto’s head and he has started to shirk his family duties to do paperwork all day. Gone are the days of Naruto being the ultimate family man and this has caused his son Boruto to resent him. Boruto has no interest in becoming Hokage and just wants to be a cool ninja so Naruto can acknowledge him. Unfortunately it won’t be so simple as more aliens are arriving on the planet and seem to do battle. Can he surpass his father and put these guys in their place?

For me personally, I actually get really excited whenever there is a big sequel. I love to see all of my favorite characters in a new setting. Did they keep up with their training and how quickly will they be power creeped? As long as it isn’t overly disrespectful to the old characters I’m generally okay with them being crushed and anything like that. The old characters actually get a fairly big role at first and it starts to lessen as the series goes on but they’re always relevant which is nice. This is a true sequel in that sense and not some thing 100 years in the future when everyone is dead.

To address the elephant in the room, I don’t think the art is all that great. The images I chose here are some of the worst so don’t think that the whole series looks like this but my main problem is that it often ends up getting too cluttered the more the series goes on. In some ways I would say it actually looked clearer before. Take the image of Naruto that I attached in this review. Sure people may poke fun at it but it is easy to read and you know that’s Naruto right off the bat. I’ll take simple art like that which clearly shows who we’re supposed to be talking about over something that’s more on the vague side any time. That’s just the way to go. Still, it’s not bad but I would consider the art to be the weakest part of the series.

Now let me address the next biggest part, what about Naruto and Sasuke? These two were absolute beasts in combat before. They are the strongest Shinobi on the planet. Well, for some reason Naruto never gave Sasuke his arm back and I could see that being for emotional reasons but still it’s a slight nerf. You’d still expect them to absolutely dog walk any opponent in the series and that doesn’t really happen. Delta actually gives Naruto a good fight for a while there. Then later on, Naruto and Sasuke struggle rather hard against Momoshiki, they get absolutely clobbered by Jigen, and they get humiliated by Isshiki.

They are consistently shown to be old news at this point. They get just enough hype to be used as hype tools for the villain but they aren’t winning the fights. So why do I still love Boruto? Lets face it, there’s nothing wrong with a little power creep. I do think that the way it is written doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. You can’t tell me that Naruto would be fodder with Sage mode when Boruto was holding his own against Kawaki while still being really young. It seems to be that Naruto and Sasuke were heavily nerfed to give Boruto his chance in the sun. I completely get fans being upset about it but in general power levels are not the kind of thing that I deduct points for. It hurts yeah and I definitely will always bring power levels up but at the end of the day I’m more concerned with portrayal.

In that sense, Sasuke still looks really good. He may have calmed down a whole lot since the old days but he’s still the tough rival. With his Rinnegan abilities he actually serves as more of a threat than Naruto at times. I would like to see him use the sharingan more often to one shot opponents immediately but in general he gets a lot of hype for being a tactical mastermind. He’s absolutely one of the highlight characters of the series. He did a lot in making Boruto a better character by showing him the true way of the shinobi. He’s still not quite what I would call a family man but he’s someone you can depend on.

As for Naruto….uh oh. Now here’s something the series did drop the ball with. There is still no possible explanation for why Naruto would have ditched his family like this. He doesn’t even attend Himawari’s birthday in person which crushes her and infuriates Boruto. From the dialogue we see that he hasn’t had time for them for years at this point. I’ve heard every excuse in the book for this but none of them stick. You want to know why? Shadow Clones. For a guy who can make thousands and thousands of these, there is no actual reason why he can’t just have a shadow clone doing the Hokage paperwork. You see all the memes all the time of how the previous Hokage handled the business better.

Is Naruto just a bad Hokage? I mean that’s possible but kind of a depressing thought. So Naruto was character assassinated early on. This was all for a character arc where Boruto gets him back into his prime self but that sure took a while and didn’t make sense. After that though he is back to being the Naruto we grew up with. He has a lot of great moments and it’s just really nice to see him again. We rarely get to see the main character after he has achieved his dream so this is really an honor. It’s another reason why I love the series, just seeing Naruto and Sasuke again is a blast. It’s why I will always appreciate Dragon Ball Super as well for all its faults. We get to see Goku and Vegeta again. It’s a bit different since they’re more or less the same age but it is still a vehicle for getting way more moments than what we had before so it works out really well.

Okay…so this review’s been way more about Naruto than Boruto so far but that makes sense since that’s what happens in real life as well. There are so many people I’ve seen online who basically skipped to the moments involving the original characters and ignore the Boruto stuff. Hopefully they’ve changed their ways though because it is great. So lets talk about that now. To do that, we have to start with the main character Mr. Boruto Uzumaki himself! This is the kind of character who can easily hold his own series.

At first I was more indifferent about Boruto. He was a nice enough main character but there wasn’t much to him. He was a little whiny at times and also cheated on an exam. Well, here’s where the character development really starts to come into play. He goes from that to being one of the more mature leads who really talks a good game. He absolutely dishes out the disrespect against all of the villains and it was great. At one point he was smack talking in every single chapter for quite a long time. That’s the kind of energy I want to see. Boruto doesn’t put up with any nonsense from anyone. He also does feel like a bit of a mix of Naruto and Sasuke. Boruto can make some good speeches and knows what it means to be a hero but he’s also more aggressive like Sasuke and will just start fighting at times.

There was a whole lot of pressure on Boruto himself in order for this series to be good and he definitely pulled it off. He held his own really well and so the series was able to take off. The fact that we already have a new sequel series for the time skip is super impressive. I expected that Boruto would still keep going for many years but this one only ended because the sequel was coming out which barely counts as ending. So in a way I still feel like I was right, you know what I mean?

As the main heroine, Sarada is solid as well. She has a hard time keeping up with Boruto here so as the series goes on her role gets smaller and smaller but she fights hard and does her best. It’s always fun to have more Uchiha fighters in the mix and the fact that she wants to become Hokage is a nice change of pace here. You would have expected that it would be Boruto and instead he went in the opposite way. I wouldn’t be shocked if he eventually makes that his aim though. If that happens then it could be hard for her since he is the son of the Hokage after all. For now at least it’s nice to see that the modern version of Team 7 actually gets along really well.

The third member of the group is Mitsuki and he’s not bad but he really gets the shaft in this series. He just doesn’t get a chance to show off what he can do even though we know that he should be pretty strong. If there’s any main criticism for the Boruto series, it’s that the supporting cast rarely get anything to do. They’re around to be sure but for the most part this is purely the Boruto series. If you’re not directly related to him or crucial to his story then that’s it. Interestingly the anime sort of works as an extension of the series so it you really want the side characters then you have to watch the anime. As far as the manga goes, you’ll barely know who half of the new Genin 11 even are.

The first main arc is about the Chunin Exams. Team Boruto is entering to finally get their ranks up and in the meantime the next two aliens are here to cause some trouble. It’s a great way to kick things off. Yes, it keeps the old characters in the mix to start the ratings off on a high note and then in theory you stick around for the new characters. I actually think this is a fairly good idea as a transition. It’s also a pretty good arc in general if you take power levels out of the equation. Again you won’t really care about most of the kids introduced but the villains are solid.

Kinshiki and Momoshiki are sort of like Kaguya. They show up with crazy feats and start messing with everyone. Kinshiki sort of gets the short end of the stick here. He was a very loyal villain though and I rather liked him. He may not have lasted long but he did his best to fulfill his mission. Meanwhile Momoshiki would go on to be one of the most interesting villains. I actually liked him quite a lot. The guy had quite a lot of presence the whole time and would go on to have a lot of fun moments in the series. His role is like the Nine Tailed Fox’s but he’s not quite as nice as that beast was. Even by the end of the series you could argue that Boruto should not trust him at all.

After that we get the first main mission without the old characters so things are toned down quite a lot in terms of scale. The heroes have to deal with a cannibal villain and there’s a kid who needs protecting. The arc shows us more of Boruto’s character like how he plays video games and has a full card collection. This helps him bond with the kid somewhat. Boruto also gets to act a little more mature here. It’s a solid enough arc even if it is technically the weakest. The villain is rather forgettable though.

After that we have the introduction to the villain group Kara. They’re basically a poor man’s Akatsuki but they do have a rather big role in the series. We get to see how they’re such a big threat that even Naruto and friends have trouble. Ao even shows up so Konohamaru finally gets a good fight. The arc has a lot of good fights and in general this is always a soli thing about Boruto. Every arc has some big fights involved and so there are a ton of milestone moments. Again the power levels get dicey when Naruto and Sasuke show up but it’s still nice to see them having to give their all to fight these new threats. It does raise the stakes a whole lot.

Ao makes for a solid opponent. It’s interesting to see how far he has come during the Naruto days. You can easily see why he changed a whole lot. I don’t have much sympathy for the guy but his debut was undeniably cool and he left an impact. I was also glad to actually see Konohamaru show up and fight. The guy can actually hold his own now which is nice character development. his role is still really small overall but that’s just how it goes. There are a lot of characters to juggle.

Delta is one of my favorite members of the villain group. She has a lot of confidence and can fight really well. Her speed is impressive and her fight with Naruto still ranks up there as a highlight moment in the series. Then we have Koji who I found less interesting but there is a lot of mystery around his character. He looks a whole lot like Jiraiya so why is that? I just didn’t care much about Jiraiya back in the day which is why I found it hard to care about this guy. Koji is tough to be sure but he’s no Delta.

Then we have Jigen who is another true powerhouse here. The guy is crazy strong and that led to another hype fight. He would eventually be Isshiki so you could go by either term here. Regardless, the guy is one of the cooler villains here to be sure. It may be a valid complaint to say that he doesn’t have a ton of character and it’s more about his overall abilities but I’d argue that he still has enough to back him up. I was interested in what he was going to do at least.

Around this time we also got introduced to Boro who was one of the weaker Kara members. The guy was a power type so he mostly exists to get wrecked and show off everyone else’s hype. The role works well though as it still has Sarada’s best Chidori and I liked seeing everyone’s teamwork. I don’t really care about Boro but he had an intimidating character design. Then we met Amado, the scientist with a grand master plan. His whole thing is that he’s sort of like an evil version of Shikamaru. He’s always got a plan at the ready and has many different contingencies. You definitely don’t want to underestimate this guy.

I’m not really a fan at the moment though. He talks tough and gets a lot of hype but hasn’t done anything with it yet. Unless he has a super big reveal, I don’t really see him rising up the ranks. At least we do have Kawaki though, which finally gives us a rival for Boruto. The problem is that he’s no Sasuke though. When Kawaki first shows up you can see how he’s stronger than Boruto but that changes real quick. Kawaki gets crazier and crazier as the series goes on which ultimately does hurt him. I don’t care for his motivations or reasonings quite as much as Sasuke.

There is still a lot to like about his character though so don’t get me wrong. He’s solid enough as an antagonist and rival pre time skip. He gives Boruto a reason to keep on training hard and has a lot of clutch moments. At this point in time he’s a very interesting character and we needed Boruto to have a challenge. Most of the other figures here just can’t do that anymore.

Finally, we end the series with some more villains showing up. We now have androids at the ready. I do have some major problems here like in DBZ though. There’s no way you should be able to create new villains that can rival the gods. It’s just not happening and the power scaling goes absolutely crazy so you will want to avoid that. The main new villain here is Code and he wants to destroy Boruto to avenge Isshiki. He wants to take everyone down for that reason really since he basically worshipped the guy. To do this, he wakes up Eida and Daemon, two other figures to take down the heroes.

The series goes pretty hard in trying to set them up as powerful fighters but you can tell that the series is writing itself into a hole. First up is Daemon who cannot be injured. If you even so much as think about hurting him then the damage is reflected to you. He’s said to be stronger than Naruto and Sasuke combined. No worries, this technique gets nerfed in the sequel but for now that’s an absolutely crazy ability. I never cared for him as a character though. He may be strong but he’s not my kind of villain.

Then there is Eida whose ability makes it so that everyone falls in love with her. Additionally, she can see all events in the present and the past. It’s basically an omnipotence ability and it’s certainly handy. So nobody can really attack her and you can’t keep any secrets from her either. She isn’t really a physical fighter as far as we know but that means she doesn’t need to engage in physical combat anyway. Another character where I can’t say that I give her a real thumbs up though.

So that leaves Code and well the poor guy constantly gets clowned on. He got a ton of hype when he first showed up but it all went downhill from there. The main problem is that he gets surpassed too quickly which absolutely undermines his character arc. If he could have been allowed to slowly be surpassed that would have worked better. The guy just ends up whining a lot which doesn’t help his case at all. The guy had a promising future but he fell flat.

That’s roughly all of the characters. Shikamaru gets a big role on the heroes’ side but naturally he doesn’t look very good either. He’s mainly here to get wrecked or to hype up another character. His days of always being the smartest and being in the lead are absolutely over which is a shame. I’m still waiting for characters like Kakashi and Tsunade to show up as well. They should be able to help out a little bit after all and acknowledging them would be cool. Sometimes the series feels a bit too isolated which doesn’t work when everyone in the lead village should still be in peak shape. If they get to fight, it’s usually to get one shotted. So again, don’t get too attached to the old character.

At this point it’s a bit of a meme that we’ll never get to the quick moment that was teased at the very beginning of Boruto. It was a flash forward hinting at some epic things and it just never happened. So in a way people were right which is kind of crazy because you would have assumed that it had to appear. Still, it will likely show up in the sequel series which is what counts. I don’t think anyone could have guessed that this manga would end on a cliffhanger. Since there’s a sequel there’s nothing to worry about for folks who don’t like an unfinished story though. If anything this manga ends in an extremely hype way. The final page is awesome with another one of Boruto’s best moments. Like I said before, he really came a long way from the opening chapters and is just an awesome main character now. He can hold his head high next to Naruto.

Overall, Boruto was a great manga series. It really does a good job of continuing the legacy of the characters and showing us what happened next. This really is the next generation of Naruto and I can safely say that the legacy is in good hands. If you’re looking for great action and a solid plot then you have come to the right place. It can only adapt so much though so don’t expect this to answer your questions on where every old character is. Some have not yet gotten to appear and others probably won’t, even in the sequel series. For the most part you do get the picture of how things went down though. The sequel series is also off to a great start right now so it’ll probably be going for a long while. Once it has been completed then I will have a review up for it though.

Overall 8/10

Spider-Man 2 Review

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It’s time to continue the Spider-Man run. This time we’re at the full on sequel that takes place after Miles. If you skipped the middle game then you definitely don’t have much context on some of the Miles’ sub plots but for the most part you should be able to follow along from the main game either way. It’s definitely another excellent title that slightly switches up the gameplay in a few ways. Some of them positive and some of them negative which is how things always go but in the end I would definitely give it a thumbs up either way.

The story starts off with Harry finally feeling better thanks to the experimental symbiote that was put on him. He no longer has to be confined to his bed or a stasis tube so that’s great and he’s even ready to help Spider-Man on his journey. The tricky part here is that a new villain is in town though. His name is Kraven and he is slowly hunting all of Spider-Man’s most dangerous opponents. Once he is done with them then it may be time to go after Spider-Man himself. This guy has to be stopped but can Peter really juggle being Spider-Man and Peter Parker?

So lets start off with all of the positives first. The hub world is still huge with a whole lot to do. You can swing through the buildings really quickly so it never feels like a burden though. Instead it’s just a lot of fun and so you will likely find yourself very quickly going through the bonus content even as you complete the story. It’s the kind of game that really rewards this by increasing your stats and abilities accordingly. You actually do feel a lot stronger as you level up and that’s a good thing. The side quests also have a good amount of variety so if you’re bored of beating up on the enemies then this will help to reset your gameplay. Some missions involve controlling a robot, zipping around, and even playing as Peter Parker and using your bike.

The gameplay is also really smooth as you would expect. You have a lot of great hand to hand combat skills up your arsenal along with the web abilities. You get much stronger special abilities here than in either of the first two games so that definitely helps you to really pack up the enemies. If anything you may start to get sloppy as you rely on them so be careful about that. They do take a long time to load so when you’re up against big bosses then things can be tricky. You also have 4 different web abilities that you will want to throw into the mix as well. Everything can be leveled up and of course there are different customizations possible.

One change to the gameplay that I didn’t care for is the new parry system. Basically this is a mechanic so that you can’t dodge some attacks. Your spider sense simply isn’t good enough and in these moments you have to just block as best you can. So what’s the problem with this? The symbol for parrying is the same as the symbol for command grabs and if you try to block one of those then you take a lot of damage. These grabs can’t be dodged either, you have to jump out of the way. It definitely adds some complexity to the gameplay but it was in more of an annoying way. I didn’t think that it ended up helping the experience.

This is still a top tier gameplay style of course but it makes the system a bit weaker than the last two games. I bet if I hadn’t played them back to back it would feel more natural since I would be used to parrying already but that just wasn’t the case here. You can still choose to heal or use a special attack but in this game it’s almost always worth healing instead since the super attacks don’t do enough damage to justify their use. Keep the heal ready instead and just use a special move as soon as you are able to do so. Also once you have symbiote powers, you will be hard pressed to ever want to use anything else. They’re just way too good.

The story here is definitely a lot of fun as well. It’s nice to see all of the villains showing up although you have a hard time believing that Kraven would do nearly as well as he did. That’s a stretch. The beginning can be a little slow as we get flashbacks to Peter’s old days but once the story really starts you are all set. Even though I am not a Black Cat fan I will say that her role was really underwhelming here. The game seemed to be setting up a big role for her only to stop that short. Maybe it’s a subversion but not one that helped the story out. Ah well, at least we have a bonus story of sorts involving the Flame cult which is real interesting.

There are a bunch of different side quests but for the most part they’re a bit on the dull side otherwise. You have to find an old man who is lost in the park, you share memories with someone else, take photos, etc. There is just one mission that I would say was really downright bad though where you have to help someone set up a prom date. The problem is that the game goes rather PC on this one and the whole thing feels rigged because not only is it easily one of the longer missions but you can’t look away at any part of it or the mission stops. So that’s really the game forcing you to watch the terrible dialogue and saying that you cannot escape. It’s the only mission like this at least from the ones I’ve completed and I’ve done most. It’s just way too forced so the whole time you know exactly what they are doing which is rather iffy at best. The other elements of this present in the game tend to be more subtle and at least aren’t stuffed in your face.

The graphics are naturally top tier. Some of the character models may not be as good as older ones but there’s nothing that will take you out of the experience. It is still as if you are watching a movie and even if the game isn’t quite 20 hours, it feels like you’re playing this for a really long time because of just how much dedication they put into the project. This is clearly not just your average title. The soundtrack is also really good, I have to give the Kraven some credit here. The ominous music that plays whenever he is on screen is really great.

So naturally there is a ton of replay value here due to the content I mentioned before. After the story mode itself which is already reasonably long, you have a lot of different bonus missions to complete and collectibles to accomplish. The Platinum trophy itself should be rather easy to get from what I’ve heard but it will still take time. So you definitely shouldn’t underestimate it. There’s a lot of bang for your buck here and this still sets the standard of what a AAA game should play like. They pull out all the stops for this one.

Overall, Spider-Man 2 is definitely another great game. It’s really cinematic and has a ton of content within it. This is not a game that you will just knock out in a day or two. You will definitely be here for the long haul and there are a lot of fun memories to create. It’s a game you won’t forget anytime soon. While the ending may not be the best, I am interested in the Flame plot for the next game. I’m also interested in what Osborn will do next. The guy writing the final chapter? I really don’t care about that. As for Peter, I still hope he has a big role in the next game. We have to see how that goes but it wouldn’t feel in character for him to not be doing much, no matter what the ending implies. Hey, we’ll just have to see how it goes I suppose.

Overall 9/10

Rambo III Review

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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

All right, we’ve made it to the end of the Rambo trilogy. The wheels are starting to fall off on this one. It’s actually still considerably better than the 4th film but that’s fairly easy. The sad part is that it easily has the best introduction out of any of the Rambo films. Rambo himself has finally found happiness. He’s an underground brawler who uses his skills in a non murderous way and has a humble living for himself. He uses the money to help out the locals and is a part of something bigger than himself. Naturally the government has to come and ruin that.

So basically Sam and the government show up to ask Rambo for his help once more. He wisely says no so they go without him and are quickly defeated. So Sam is captured and surprise….the enemies start torturing him. We all saw this coming already because this is Rambo and that’s how they set the stakes up really high. So the rest of the government shows up to ask Rambo to help and now it’s personal since Sam is his friend and Rambo takes up the call. Does he still have the skills to save the day?

The answer to that one is an easy yes. Rambo has always been a top notch fighter and that’s not stopping now. It is always good to see Rambo fighting and doing well of course but it’s just a shame that he can’t be allowed to ever have a good time for long. Sure you wouldn’t have a movie at that point with the same plot at least but throw in a multi year time skip like he was having fun for 5-10 years before they called him back.

One thing you will notice early on is that the pacing is incredibly slow though. While Sam is being tortured for the entire film in the B plot, Rambo spends the first 40 minutes actually getting to the conflict. First he has to trek through the desert, then he has to find the rebels, then they all get blown up, then he actually begins to fight. o the movie that you are here to watch about Rambo taking everyone out doesn’t happen until we’re roughly halfway through the film. That is an absolutely massive investment to make into the film.

It doesn’t help that the setting isn’t really my style either. In the desert it’s pretty much nonstop sand the whole time. It makes sense narratively as most of the war torn areas will naturally start to look the same but as a viewer I’d rather we’re in the big cities already. But yes back to the film, Rambo has to also play some local games before he can head out. It helps him bond with everyone but you also can’t help but feel like this was wasting a ton of time that allowed the villains to come in and take them down.

It’s not like you can live in fear or anything but you are in the middle of a war with enemies actively approaching so maybe now isn’t the best time for a game. The worst part is that apparently the game is really dangerous and it’s easy to get injured. Yeah this sounds worse and worse the more I talk about it. It makes no sense except as an excuse to have a big action set piece.

As always we do have Sam being the hype guy for Rambo which is nice but since he is captured the whole time it doesn’t help a whole lot. So if you’re hear for the hype then the first film does better. If you’re here for the action then the second film is more unrelenting. So this is just a weaker version. There’s also this kid who wants to help Rambo the whole time and it’s wholesome and all but he should be far away from the front lines here. Rambo does try to get rid of him as soon as possible though so props to him for that.

What I can say for the film as a positive is that the drop off isn’t dramatic. While it sounds bad compared to the first two films, it’s not like this is suddenly a 2 star film. It can be a little more boring but at least those scenes are moments where you don’t have to worry about a lot of violence or people being tortured so that’s a positive. Being boring isn’t great and that sounds like an insult in its own way but sometimes it can beat the alternative.

The action scenes do hold up well and the same is true of the special effects. The opening fight is the best part of the film like I mentioned before. It was a good way to re-introduce Rambo and show us how skilled he is. Considering how well trained he is and his athletics it would be nice to see him doing more activities like that outside of always being in a war zone. Maybe make him an instructor as a main plot at some point. Just anything but throwing him into another war torn battlefield. Styling on the enemy soldiers every time is great and all but surely you need some variety.

Overall, Rambo III is the start of the real decline for the series but we’re not at the bottom yet. I do think the series goes too far in establishing the stakes, relying on the same tools all the time but at least we do still have a great main character. The fights and action scenes are solid and when the film is going full blast it’s on point. It just tends to get sidelined the whole time. So if you like Rambo a lot then you should check it out but otherwise if you just liked the intro fight then you should watch Rocky to get the full film like that.

Overall 4/10

Rambo: First Blood Part II Review

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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

We’re back to the world of Rambo. This time he’s on the offensive, ready to take down a whole squad of fighters. It’s nice to see him actually get to take on some villains this time and embrace the action setting where he can go all out but at the same time…this is still Rambo. So you can expect a heavy dose of violence the whole time with a pretty high body count. I would end up enjoying it more than the Rambo movies that would follow but it’s not exactly a high bar.

The film starts off by showing us that Rambo has been rotting away in a manual labor prison while Sam explains that he is still trying to help but it’ll take some time. There is a mission that Rambo can take on where he will be able to get a full pardon though. Yes this isn’t blackmail in the slightest! It’s purely a recon mission, Rambo needs to take photos to prove that there are prisoners of war over in Vietnam and then he has to get out. There will be no combat or anything like that.

Naturally this isn’t quite what happens. He ends up being thrown into a big fight and then betrayed by the rest of the unit. To Sam’s defense, he’s not the traitor here but he was played by the actual traitors which is almost as bad. This whole mission was basically a scam because the battle must go on and so Rambo is a casualty of war. The army is basically corrupt to the core in this film with Sam being the only decent member aboard.

This is one of those films where the corruption quickly gets very annoying though. Sam is muzzled very quickly despite being a fairly high ranking official in the first film. Yeah there’s always someone higher ranked but you still feel like he should have been able to do a whole lot more. Otherwise, what was really the point of getting such a high rank in the first place? Making him look helpless like this is just not a good look in the slightest. He ultimately comes through but it takes so long the whole time.

He’s still Rambo’s hype man but it would be nice if he could do a little more. Additionally I feel like the traitors get off rather easy here. Yeah someone gets hit but they do the whole “Don’t murder these guys or you’ll be just as bad!” which is always a bit on the iffy side. Especially in a down to Earth film like this because what that means is he can survive to mess more people over.

Sure we could assume he will go to jail and everything but if the corruption is this deep then that appears to be very unlikely. The fact that they were actively working with the soviets is just rough. Out of all the countries to be working with, that just looks incredibly bad.

Meanwhile on the ground front, Rambo does well as you would expect. Even by himself and incredibly outnumbered he takes down tons of soldiers and accomplishes his mission. He really never backs down and his training has really taken him a long way. Rambo makes for a good main character without a doubt and holds his own with any other action star.

The main heroine Co is also rather solid here. Things don’t go great for her which is pretty unfortunate though. She deserved a better ending. Ultimately in these films most of the characters don’t really get to last to the end outside of Rambo but this could have been a good exception. Additionally there are easy ways to write her out if you didn’t want her to be around for the sequel.

Rambo’s torture scene goes on for quite a bit as you would probably guess from the films. It’s basically not a Rambo film if that doesn’t happen to someone at least once. These films really feel like everyone’s worst nightmare about being caught in enemy territory. Your allies have abandoned you and you have no real chance of escaping. You’re definitely ready for his big escape and revenge montage of course but it’s a long road to get there. It’s the big weakness of the revenge thriller stories because you have to go through a lot to actually get to that point.

The villains are fairly generic. I thought that the villains in the first film left a lot more of an impact. The biggest villain here was probably the main army guy who was the lead traitor but of course he got off easy like I said earlier which was annoying. The real losers out of this were the other prisoners who were stuck in Vietnam. At least Rambo worked to save as many as possible but it all depends on how much you trust the government after this.

That’s why Sam should have been able to do more since it would have given you more hope in that guy. He should have at least have been allowed to bump off the main traitor villain because that would have given you a reason to think things were turning around. Hopefully he gets a better role in the third film…..

Overall, Rambo 2 really plays out like you would expect so I wouldn’t say that it’s misleading or anything. They double up on everything that made the original well remembered. There’s more action in this one, more revenge, and more thrills. Of course that also means the negatives stick around with it as well. Sometimes the trials the characters go through just overpower the positives and that’s the case here. Yes it will keep you engaged but there are enough violent moments that it’s not exactly a film you would really plan on rewatching. So ultimately I’m still saying to stick with the Rocky series over Rambo.

Overall 4/10

Rambo Review

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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 of the movie would be more negative.

Lets look at the 4th Rambo which just so happens to be the weakest one in the series so far. It’s definitely going for a dark angle right from the jump and that aspect of the film is quite unrelenting. It takes a long while until Rambo himself gets involved to fight back and it’s one of those films where even once the heroes win, there are a ton of casualties and you know there are other villains running around. There’s nothing particularly light hearted/happy about this movie which is rough.

The movie starts with a quick introduction to remind us just how evil the villains are. No worries they’re going to do this a whole lot as the film goes over but it’s definitely an awful way to kick the movie off in general. Instead of building up hype or getting you excited it is giving you reasons to want to avoid the film. Like why would I want to be seeing any of this? Well, we eventually cut to Rambo himself who now works by capturing snakes and putting them in the cages to get ready for animal cruelty fights. He is approached by a group of missionaries who want to head deep into enemy territory to spread the good word.

It’s a noble goal but unfortunately these characters are incredibly naive. The main pastor even believes that you cannot take a life even in self defense so when they are attacked by pirates he doesn’t do anything about it. He even threatens to get Rambo in trouble if he can. Needless to say, after Rambo drops them off at their designated location they are captured almost immediately. So much for that eh? Of course you feel bad for them, they’re just written to be such unlikable characters the whole time that it’s crazy. So the Church hires some vigilantes to go save them and Rambo decides to come along and do what he can. Are the missionaries even still alive by this point?

Well, only the power of plot armor is able to help them here because by all accounts they really should have been long dead. I’m not sure why the villains spared them for so long. They’re stuck in cages but mostly everyone else had already been murdered. I suppose they had the luck of the draw on that one. Not much of a consolation because their living conditions still sucked but at least they were able to last. Nobody else is so lucky so even while the heroes are heading over there to free them, we see countless people getting tortured and murdered. The film is going for maximum shock value the whole time so if you can picture a dark plot element then you are going to find it in the film.

Naturally all of the vigilantes tend to be rather crass and not very heroic at all. They are here for the paycheck and are happy to murder anybody but they don’t have any real kind of honor code. Rambo has to actively threaten the main one in order to keep him going or the guy would have left almost immediately. Rambo himself looks good at least. He does smash up a ton of the villains and shows why he is still one of the strongest agents around. He hasn’t forgotten his skills at all, that’s for sure. He’s on a completely different level even from the trained mercenaries.

The action scenes can be good when they aren’t being too try hard on the violence. When they do that is when they really start to lose the plot. Lets just say this is a regular occurrence in this film as well. The film is plenty violent the whole time even with the TV edits. So again the film is just trying too hard instead of letting the narrative talk for it. The problem there is that the actual plot isn’t very good either. Of course I have a lot of respect for people who go into these active war areas to spread the gospel and try to help out. It does feel like they’re creating more chances to become a hostage or get into trouble but if they can save anyone then it’s a win.

It doesn’t make for a great movie though. Even if you think of this like a power fantasy, the problem is that the first half is all about the villains dominating and having their way with the heroes. In no way is this a particularly captivating story and you want a film that’s fairly uplifting. Seeing Rambo beat up on the villains is the goal so you need to do that sooner. Focus more on the heroic comeback than on the villain slaughter to start things off. As a starting point you at least need to get rid of the opening montage showing off all of the villainous exploits.

Honestly the film has so may issues that it would still have gotten a fairly low score though. The Rambo series is just cooked at this point and it will be hard for it to make a true comeback. We unfortunately didn’t have the usual hype man for Rambo either. There are reasons for that but they should have invented a new character to take up the role. It may be a little cheesy but I always thought it was pretty fun and it made the films more memorable. Perhaps that aided in making this the worst Rambo title. There is still another one I haven’t watched so perhaps that will be even lower but we will have to see.

Overall, Rambo is a pretty awful film. It’s definitely over the top violent the whole time with a ton of dark themes and the film doesn’t allow itself to really have any fun moments. It’s a slog to get through and you can see why Rambo didn’t even want to get involved at this point. The amount of casualties and criminals appear to be endless so why even get involved in all of that if you don’t have to right? You absolutely get what he is feeling in all of this. So you should just skip this movie as well. It’s rather unnecessary and doesn’t really add anything to the series.

Overall 1/10