Tag Archives: Sequel

Space Jam: A New Legacy Review

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After revisiting the first Space Jam it was time to take a look at the sequel. In many ways the sequel reminds me of Airplane 2. It’s still a good movie but it’s really just trying to copy the first movie without really trying to stand out on its own. As a result it misses a lot of the soul of the original and instead of being a great movie, it ends up being a solid adventure that will always be overshadowed by the first.

The movie starts with Lebron trying to get his son Dominic to focus on Basketball more but this ends up turning the kid away from the sport. What he really wants to be is a video game developer and at a young age he has already developed a reasonably sophisticated Basketball game. It’s actually rather impressive but the big video game designer camp takes place on the same day as Basketball camp which Dominic had already committed to. Lebron doesn’t wan to let him drop out so Dominic runs away to a server room and the two of them get warped into the digital world. Now Dominic is being held hostage and tricked into teaming up with a villain group known as the Goon Squad. Lebron will have to assemble a powerful team in order to stop them but is there any way to beat such a group? He may have to call in the Looney Tunes.

Unlike the first movie we do have a full act where Lebron goes around recruiting everyone to his cause. Initially he wants characters like Superman and King Kong to be in the group but Bugs tricks him at each corner and ensures that Lebron only gets the classic Looney Tunes. It was nice to see cameos of Superman and the League with the DCAU artstyle and a lot of other quick movies during this period but that’s really it as far as cameos go. None of the heroes really get to leave their respective worlds except you may see them in the background during the game. So this goes back to the classic Space Jam plot of the basketball game.

The biggest issue here is that the game is using Dominic’s custom rules meaning there are special abilities and all kinds of crazy rules. It reminds me of when Mario wrecked the Tennis game series by making the latest entry so gimicky. This basketball game has style point rules so the amount of points you score is completely arbitrary based on how many points the writers need the characters to score. In the first film the villains were up by around 50-100 points at halftime so this time? They’re up by 1000.

The sequel is trying to make everything bigger and bolder but in doing so they did wreck a lot of the tension of the game. The first movie actually had a lot of danger throughout but with this one since the rules are so fake you didn’t really get that. It’s not as fun to see the game when everyone is cheating. It gets so bad that the Algorithm is even able to negate points just because he wants to. That was the biggest moment of cheating by far and went way too far. Like cmon, you’re just going to hack the basketball game and say that points don’t count? Then that means the Algorithm could have been doing that all time or he could have just made their points to go to 0. There’s no reason for him not to cheat further when he can do it so the whole climax doesn’t make sense anymore.

The humor is also not nearly as funny as the original. You don’t have the laugh out loud moments that the original had and in a way the Looney Tunes just don’t have as much personality or enough to do. I’d say the best moment low key was when Bugs reflected Marvin’s laser back at him. That was the kind of hype Bugs moment you’d expect from the guy. I also liked the fakeout with Michael Jordan but how cool would it have been if he actually showed up? That would have been great!

The animation is good but I dare say the original looks better which is a little concerning. It’s been over 20 years since the original after all but no shot compares to when the villains powered up in the original. The characters were just more substantial and of course when they turned into CG at the end they really couldn’t keep up. Even the live action moments felt more movie budget quality in the original. I think that may be at the heart of things here, the sequel just didn’t feel as much like it got a theater budget and was just a fun movie to bring the characters back.

Finally there’s one scene that just feels like it was mishandled in the worst way possible. So the villains have someone with Dame Time, an ability that freezes time for 3 minutes because that’s how fast he can move. So when the villains bring him onto the court, Daffy brings out Road Runner who proceeds to get absolutely destroyed and can’t move at all. Why? It would have been so much better for Dame Time to be wrecking everyone and then Daffy brings in Road Runner for the second round. Say he can move so quickly that even time stop can’t completely stop him. Would have been one of the best moments in the film but instead he gets absolutely devastated in the fight and the old lady has to use some vague Matrix abilities to stop him. Not nearly as satisfying when you think about it.

As you can see, when comparing the film to the original it definitely is doomed in every area. That said, if you look at it as a stand alone film then it isn’t bad. It’s still a lot of fun the whole time and the pacing is on point. The game has a lot of good moments and I do like the visuals. There isn’t an area of the film that I would say is particularly weak when looking at it in a vacuum. The movie can hold its own for as long as it takes even if you see the missed potential of how the film could have been a whole lot better.

The human plot for example isn’t very interesting. Dominic is extremely annoying the whole time. It’s one thing to not want to play Basketball and to be upset at Lebron but he handles everything very immaturely. For example when Lebron tells him that the Algorithm is fooling him and lives are at stake, Dominic refuses to believe him. You’re saying he is going to listen to a computer program he’s known for an hour at best compared to his own father? That was an awful moment. He also tries to make decisions on his own without letting Lebron knows which naturally makes things tricky.

As for Lebron he could be a lot more tactful with how he handles the situation. He did try to play the game before it glitched out though and if Dominic really did already commit to the basketball camp then I can see why he wanted him to go there. Ultimately the drama is mainly Dominic’s fault the whole time but I think they could have done a better job of adding some more interesting elements to this. The Algorithm and the Goon Squad also aren’t particularly interesting. There’s not a whole lot to them. I think the Algorithm at least had some potential but by the end you just wouldn’t have much to say about him. He’s manipulative and knows how to cheat but that’s about it.

Overall, Space Jam 2 has already started to fade away in everyone’s minds so it doesn’t have the lasting presence of the first. Still, if you wanted to see all of your favorite characters again then this is a solid one to pick out. It would have been nice if the characters who made a cameo could have appeared more though. Go all out with the premise and actually have Superman on the basketball team. That would have been a lot of fun and might have even made more sense with the Goon Squad. Everyone could be using their special abilities the whole time and it would have elevated the film to new heights. Maybe they’ll try that for the third game though.

Overall 7/10

It Lives Again Review

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

Whenever you have a film where the villain is an evil baby you are probably in trouble. There are only so many ways you can try to make that work and to date I don’t think any movie has succeeded. There are some interesting elements to the movie for sure and it almost gets into government conspiracy territory but at the end of the day it’s still just not able to get past the premise and I would advise skipping past this movie asap!

So it turns out that mutant babies are being born all across the country. The government has decided to take them down because of the danger that they pose. There are certain things they can use to detect if a couple is going to have one of these babies. The detection isn’t 100% accurate but it’s close enough so if they get a false reading…well that’s going to be another dead baby. Almost nobody knows about this though except for Frank who figured this out after the events of the first film. He heads over to Jody and Eugene to warn them about this since Jody is currently pregnant with a baby that is slated to be one of these demons. They’re rather skeptical but the government isn’t very subtle which tips their hand early. Can the couple escape with Frank or should they stick with the government. Can they trust either one of them?

This is one of those films where you absolutely do not want to trust anybody though. Think about it, the government is absolutely a group you want to avoid because they are going to murder the baby straightaway. So getting away from them is a top concern even if it means going with Frank and his group but then you probably want to escape from them at some point as well. They’ve got a whole lab set up including a bunch of babies in cages. That’s already rather ominous right? So just keep on moving.

What makes it tough though is that Eugene isn’t even really sure if he wans to keep the kid. He’s a little nervous about the whole thing and you totally get it. The kids look like monsters and if they are true demons then is it really even their kid? The way he and Jody handle the situation is bad though as they keep flip flopping. It makes things very easy for the babies to go around beating them up and claiming more victims. For the most part Jody is really the one who wants the kid and you get it because she still did give birth to him. So she has that strong mother’s instinct in play even when the kid seems rather crazy.

This naturally leads to a lot of fighting between the main two. Meanwhile Eugene is scared out of his wits half the time until she talks him back into it. So he doesn’t get to have a whole lot of fun here. In the end I wasn’t particularly a big fan of any of the characters. Frank did well in finding the characters and trying to save the babies but I didn’t think that the place did a great job of looking after them. Somehow things worked out for a while but you should see how they handle these kids. The doctor just opens the cage when it’s feeding time. Inevitably you know this won’t end well.

It’s hard to know what you should even do with the kids long term. It seems like they can’t be tamed so do you just have to keep them in cages forever? They’ll grow up soon in theory so you’ll need more and more space. It just doesn’t seem sustainable. Of course just murdering them like the government isn’t the answer either. It basically means everyone is just in a really bad situation here and I would have liked for the film to focus on this a little more. Let us really think about the moral implications of what is going on here and let us take sides.

Personally I think you would just need an island for these creatures to live in peace but then you have the logistics of getting the families to agree to this and safe procedures to transport them. All aspects that are much tougher than they sound so it’s not something you can just do 1-2-3. The film isn’t super interested in answering these questions though as the second half just becomes your average horror film. The monster babies go around biting and stabbing everyone and you know that the humans are doomed.

It’s all rather violent and you’re just waiting for the government to show up and clean house. The babies seem to enter rage mode at the drop of a hat so you feel like there is really no hope even early on. The film has an interesting ending that could lead to a sequel or you could take it as more of a “The cycle will continue” but to what end? The way the film ends there are certainly less resources so you can’t directly do what Frank did. It would be difficult to replicate that at least without a lot of finances. Ultimately it feels like the government won this round.

It’s a bit tragic because there are some interesting plots here but they really aren’t able to carry the film for very long. I liked Frank’s entrance at the house when he starts telling the characters about what is going on. The scene of all the cops showing up outside of the hospital was suitably ominous and helped the main characters start to piece things together. The movie knew how to build a rather intense atmosphere and so they really should have stuck to that instead of going the horror route. Having everything be shrouded in mystery and the characters going into hiding would have been interesting. Give us more scenes with the government and what they’re planning. Beyond the demon kids the world seems realistic so what do a lot of the inside agents think about this? It’s still like murdering normal babies so surely there are some who would be against this.

Overall, It Lives Again has the wrong priorities here. I think if you tone down the violence a lot and make the babies a non factor then this could have been interesting. Have the film be a debate about what to do with them as the number of babies continues to expand. We could get some good plans out of that and maybe slowly see the doom approaching the country as every minute of inaction means more people are being taken down. It’s hard to escape the inevitable issue of having to shoot the babies though and the film naturally gets dark as a result. I think there are ways around this but I won’t say that it’s easy. It’s just something you have to try and side step. So switching the premise entirely is the best bet but this is a long winded way of saying that your best bet is to just skip this one.

Overall 2/10

The Cloverfield Paradox Review

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The Cloverfield series loves to have movies with pretty much nothing to do with the original. You always get a little stinger at the end and that’s basically it. Unfortunately that is the case here as well as it just isn’t very relevant until the final scene and even then that is more of a tease than a full connection. The series is toying with the fans by this point so it’s best to watch this as a stand alone sci-fi film instead. Even then I would say it’s below average but I suppose it’s not super bad or anything. The logic of the universe just isn’t that great so while it’s trying to be very mysterious and cryptic, it feels like the movie is just cheating instead. There’s definitely one scene in particular that I’d say fits this bill.

So the Earth is in a big energy crisis and they have sent representatives from various countries to find a solution. This group was thrown onto a space station far in the sky and they have to do whatever they can. So they decide to work on a device that should give the Earth unlimited energy but unfortunately this goes sideways and they seem to open up a portal into another world. They have to try and get back to where they used to be but it won’t be easy. They have to fix parts of the spaceship that don’t work anymore and a lot of weird things keep happening on the ship. Are aliens among us?

This movie is dealing with a lot of sci-fi elements but doesn’t really get too out there with creatures and the like. The main dilemma here is really that they have to question everything they knew about physics. Everything’s just scattered and odd happenings start occurring like people phasing through walls and a hand just running around. Where I thought the film messed up was in throwing some clickbait to try and make you think that a bunch of aliens would show up. There’s an odd scene where these cables start choking someone and basically murder him as he gets crushed by a super magnet but you have to question how it happened. It seemed completely sentient the way it was moving but the rest of the film gives no indicat4ion that it was. So yes it’s a strong scene and definitely gets you nervous but it doesn’t make much sense within the context of the rest of the film. It’s more shock value than anything.

Not saying the movie would have been better off with aliens but this scene could have been changed a lot. The idea of trying to help an alternate version of yourself through writing is interesting and the film could have made that something interesting but even that element doesn’t get as much depth as you would expect. So what we have here is a sci-fi film that is only half heartedly jumping into the various concepts that it introduces. This is what keeps it from being the next big thing. Well, at least that’s one of the reasons.

We’ve got a decently big cast here and I wouldn’t even say the members are that bad. First up is Ava who is the main heroine here. She didn’t even want to go on this mission but it was the only way to potentially save her husband since the Earth wouldn’t be surviving much longer. So now that she is in space she has a lot of regrets and the idea of an alternate planet appeals to her. I will say from the jump that I think even being tempted to leave is not a good idea here. An alternate version of you may seem similar but ultimately it’s a complete different person.

So it’s best not to get attached or to distract yourself from the mission. Meanwhile you have Jensen who is a mysterious lady that appears on the ship after things start to get crazy. She reminds me of a lady who showed up late in the game in another sci-fi title called Astra Lost in Space. Jensen is a wild card here as of course the main characters can’t trust her but at the same time it’s not like they have a lot of choices either. At this point you really need all the help that you can get and you just have to hope that it goes well.

Ava’s husband doesn’t get a huge role but in a small subplot he tries to help a kid stay safe. It’s not like there are too many safe areas left but at least helping someone would be good. This plot is definitely going for the more emotional kind of vibes as it’s rather somber. It’s not until the end that this really goes anywhere. At least I did like the ending here though. This was a good cliffhanger and it gets you ready for the next film. Of course as always that seems like it’s probably a longshot but if it were to happen then that would definitely be cool. At least it ends things off on a hype note.

With a lot of drama going on in the ship you feel like this is yet another case where the heroes would do so much better if they weren’t constantly fighting among themselves. Inevitably this starts to become a country vs country thing. Some characters at least try not to get mixed up on this but it’s a very enclosed battleground so it’s not like there are a lot of places to run either. You’re basically stuck here as you just try to stay alive. There are some things that happen where you can’t blame the character for being in a bad spot like the poor guy who started merging with the wall. There wasn’t really a way to avoid that one but other things like creating a gun just amps up the odds of people snapping at each other.

The effects are good though. I thought that the spaceship looked good and it was big enough where you didn’t feel that the crew was too confined. We still got a decent amount of other sceneries throughout. On land everything was in a fairly bad spot early on so this may have been the best location for the movie to take place if you were trying to avoid the monsters for some reason. Meanwhile having the film take place on land would have been the best way to do a proper Cloverfield 2 so even to the end it feels like they are avoiding giving us what we’re really looking forward to and that’s another giant monster movie.

Overall, The Cloverfield Paradox shouldn’t have included the word “Cloverfield” at the end because this movie is barely connected to the franchise at all. They seem to love including this word just to drum up sales and it’s a bad idea. Keeping this as an individual sci-fi film would have been a much better idea. Ultimately it’s not like it would have changed a whole lot about the story itself but you can probably enjoy it more that way as opposed to waiting for the monster to appear each time. I think there are some interesting nuggets here to be sure but ultimately not enough to keep you really invested. This would have worked better as a full TV series as they start to see the differences between the Earths or maybe as a multi film series. As a stand alone you have to cover a lot of ground and so there isn’t time to really have the characters talk about this situation that they’re in. It makes for a bit of an underwhelming experience especially when it feels like the movie isn’t exactly sure of how these things work. Spending more time on the implications of this other world and some good dialogue could have helped it go to the next stage. Instead you will want to wait for the next Cloverfield film.

Overall 4/10

Jeepers Creepers 3 Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 1/10

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review

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It’s time for the big Black Panther sequel. The first movie was definitely a big hit and was a fun ride all the way through. Trying to do the sequel without the original character was always going to be an extremely difficult task. Unfortunately it was a challenge that this movie could not overcome where its long length is felt this time around. The movie goes for a very somber tone for a decent chunk of the film and unfortunately this comes at the expense of the film as a whole. It felt very underwhelming as the film ended and I gave it some time until the next day to see if that might help stabilize things but it didn’t really move. Lets go more into depth on this one below.

The movie starts with Shuri trying to save Black Panther but unfortunately she was unable to recreate the heart in time and he passes. A year goes by and she has buried herself in her work to try and make Wakanda safer but her mother Queen Ramonda believes that Shuri is just doing her best not to think about her brother and this will hurt her down the line. So they go off to a quiet place in Wakonda but Namor appears and lets them know that the United States has developed a machine that can find Vibranium and his people are in the crossfire now. He intends to destroy the surface world and wants Wakanda to bring him the scientist and then the two countries can team up. Queen Ramonda will have to carefully decide how to play this or Namor and the Atlanteans might wipe her country off the face of the planet.

I’ll probably bounce back and forth between the positives and negatives as I go through the review so this should be more like a roller coaster experience. The first positive here is Shuri who does a good job as the main character. I wouldn’t say that she fills T’Challa’s shoes here but it’s always nice to have an inventor who can actually fight. She hasn’t wasted the time that has passed and has come up with all manner of defenses and weapons to aid her and the country in battle. Wakanda may have a lot of tech but it is still relatively small so they have to keep developing new items or things will be dangerous.

The film also goes out of its way to explain why the kingdom feels so weak most of the time despite this and it’s a good explanation. Perhaps a bit annoying but it does prevent this from feeling like a plot hole. Basically the country is super big on tradition so they refuse to use Shuri’s mecha suits, energy weapons, and presumably all of the other tech that she has developed over the years. It’s why they still use spears and basic armor instead of anything fancy. They’ll want to change that tune eventually or it may be tough to stay afloat but by the end of the film I feel like things are going in a positive direction there.

Unfortunately I didn’t like Ramonda in this movie. She was thrown into the role of Queen so it’s absolutely all right that she is not very experienced in this role as of yet but she tends to overreact a whole lot. She handles one situation with her subordinate quite terrible and you may mistake her for Odin for a minute there. Ramonda never really fights here and that could have at least helped her establish some authority. She never comes across as a very reasonable person and perhaps to contrast how Shuri was trying to be 100% logical with no emotions, Ramonda was the opposite way.

I was also not very impressed with the designs for the Atlanteans and even Namor himself. That screw stabbed through his face makes it look like he just lost a 1 on 1 to Misogi Kuwagawa the whole time. He doesn’t have that air of dignity and power that he typically does in the comics. He isn’t a big flirt this time so that’s good though. At the end of the day he’s a very selfish king who just likes picking fights. I don’t think the film seriously tried making him all that sympathetic here and that’s fine. Not every villain is meant to be sympathetic and having a big villain to be defeated works well.

They did his power justice though. He looks good and even in an extremely weakened state he is shown to be more than a match for anyone in this film. Namor became more of a Black Panther villain in recent (Relatively speaking since I don’t follow the comics too closely) years but before that he would typically go up against whole teams or very powerful opponents because he’s well above the street level tier. In the first film we saw how the suit could absorb most impacts and yet it doesn’t do much against him here which was a good way to highlight his power.

His two main subordinates Attuma and Namora look good in the fights but they just look way too much like expendable minions the whole time. They don’t feel like they have real designs considering how big their characters are in the comics. I’m hoping a sequel could change that with updated effects. The Atlanteans almost looked like characters out of Avatar and it also takes away from their appearing threatening..because they don’t seem very tough. One lady shoots a ton of them in the opening scene so you feel like they only do decent later on because people keep on hitting their weapons or not aiming properly.

Okoye is always a fun character though. Shuri gives her a hard time but Okoye is always ready for a good fight and does well here. She was definitely a step under Attuma but that makes sense since he is usually a powerhouse. She has a good dynamic with Shuri and that’s always good to see. Meanwhile Nakia gets a pivotal role here as well. She embarks on a tough mission and just gets the job done as needed.

There is a subplot with Ross as he keeps trying to give info over to Wakanda. I liked this subplot quite a bit because he makes for an entertaining character. We also get to see the US Government which is always fun. As always in these movies they want to blow everyone up and get rich so they’re good antagonists. My only issue here would be it feels more like this film is in a vacuum where the rest of the universe doesn’t exist in respect to the government. Over 10 years ago they had very impressive weaponry to take on the Hulk and have consistently improved their tech. Why are they sending normal joes with guns to take out a Wakanda facility?

The scene is there to make the Wakanda defenses look good and all but it would be even more impressive to see them take on some powerful tech. It’s an amusing scene either way as these guys get taken down quick but there just feels like a disconnect here compared to how you would expect the U.S. Government to be at this point in the MCU. Even if it’s a stealth unit then they would carry some kind of super powerful weapons right?

Riri makes her big debut here and as the next generation Ironman we’ve been waiting for her to show up for a while. Right now she was mainly just working out of a small building without big tech so of course she doesn’t have anything ultra powerful just yet but the film shows off her genius well by having her build an Iron-Man suit and also construct the first ever device that can detect Vibranium. She has been putting in the work and it’s nice to finally hear someone yell “Let’s Gooooo!” since that’s one of the best modern sayings. It would be cool if that could become her catchphrase. I look forward to seeing where her plot goes.

Finally M’Baku also looks very good here. Unfortunately the film never gives him a proper win against an important foe but we still get to see his bravery as he jumps into every fight. Personally I think he deserved a good win but either way he had some of the more impactful moments here and it was definitely good to see him. He’s really come a long way in these two movies since where he used to be.

Now with the characters out of the way lets talk more about the film as a whole. I mentioned that it feels a bit long and that’s the biggest issue in the movie. It is going for a very somber tone and the in-universe reason is that Black Panther died so the nation is in mourning. As the film goes on Shuri is supposed to eventually give in to her feelings and cry it out since the main morale in the movie is not to hold things in. The issue is that this destroys the film’s pacing in more than one scene and grinds things to a halt. Every time we have extended somber scenes there is no chance for anything else to be happening.

This may be the first main MCU film where you actually may find some of the scenes to be a bit boring. We have to be explained that Namor is the great sea god twice as even the exposition can get a bit long and this is a movie that could have really benefited from having about 40 minutes taken off the run time. That could have helped the pacing so this could be more of a frantic action film. We do have some fight scenes but there aren’t many so the general action scenes will have to fit the bill for you.

On the fights, there were two standout ones at least. There is the fight on the bridge which is structured similar to the one in Black Widow and while it may not have been as strong as that one, it was a good one on one fight. We got to really see Attuma’s strength here and I just liked seeing a straight up battle like this. Then there’s the one on one battle you’ve been waiting for with Black Panther and Namor in the desert. It’s definitely the best fight in the film and uses a good amount of strategy in addition to the action which makes for a pretty good mix.

The special effects are definitely good throughout the movie though. You won’t have any issues there as the costumes look good and the energy attacks are on point. For the soundtrack, it’s not quite as good as the first film’s but there was one theme I enjoyed during the 3 way chase scene with Riri, Okoye, and Shuri. That song was on point and put a lot of extra energy into the scene and enhanced the chase as a whole.

While the film isn’t one of the funnier ones in the MCU, I would say that M’Baku got the best comedy scene by far. There’s one moment where Okoye and her group start bashing him and his men as usually so he starts making those Gorilla noises and everyone else does too and you have to chuckle a bit along with them because they’re just going in. It was a great way to end the back and forth argument while still having the upper hand with how out of nowhere that was. I thought that was a really excellent move. Still there’s enough jokes in here where you should find a fun one that you like as well.

There is one old character who makes a quick appearance in the film and he looks great. He has a really solid speech and you have to admire how confident the guy is. He just has no doubts about anything and while that is the very same trait which tends to lead him astray, it makes him a powerful speaker. I had a lot of fun seeing him there that’s for sure. It would be nice to see him return in a larger capacity.

There’s also an after credits scene here which is okay. Its definitely on the weaker side but you can see what they’re doing here. I just couldn’t help but think “Another somber scene?”. It also goes on for a while too long which embodies the film’s issue as a whole. For example this scene could have been ended halfway. You already get the context of what’s happening without the film trying to knock the point into you with the last lines. We understand the plot twist from the instant the character appears, we don’t need it spelled out. At least it sets up another plot seed that should be fun in a future film, provided there is a considerable time skip.

If the film really wanted to go the somber route then they needed to change the context of T’Challa’s death in the movie. Out of universe the whole thing was tragic but in universe he didn’t die stopping a giant end of the world threat or protecting his friends so it doesn’t work nearly as well. When you think of emotional deaths that make you teary you think of Mob Psycho, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, DBZ, and titles like that where things really got tragic. Fighting until the end or entering a hopeless battle and then being defeated are the most emotional ways to go out. And then of course you’ll also have had that big action moment to bump things up.

I guess I would have just had Black Panther have a quick fight where he dies at the beginning of the film and then you play the emotional scenes afterwards. You could even adapt the opening moments of Ultimate Avengers 2 and that becomes a whole plot point of what that creature was and of course Namor still shows up so that gets sidelined. That would have been an effective way to kick things off. So at the very least those are some of the rewrite ideas that I would have had. The other route you could go would be to throw in some guest stars.

That would give the film more memorable characters and would automatically enhance the skirmishes and war scenes. Then you’d have a lot of big characters to follow and all. Shuri and Okoye are good characters as I mentioned earlier but they are still known more as side characters and having some kind of power hitter here to help out would have been nice. It’s always a tall bar to try and do a whole film without one of the big characters and it’s almost easier to pick a brand new character and make them big than upgrade the side character. Still, with Black Panther at the ready the third film should be able to jump right into the action this time and I think that will also end up helping the tone as well.

Overall, Wakanda Forever is going for a very different vibe than the first Black Panther. The original film went for a balanced approach of being a classic action movie and just executing on a high level. The villain was very memorable, the action scenes were good, and it was all amplified with a good soundtrack and solid humor. This film is going for the emotional vibes instead and basically using that to hold up the whole movie but you can’t survive on that alone. Without another top notch villain to help keep things up or the other aspects that made the first film so good, this one couldn’t hold up. It just isn’t all that interesting at times and it felt like the movie needed some kind of burst or pop moment to get you back into the mix. As the film throws in a bunch of flashbacks to the original Black Panther you almost can’t help but be tempted to go back and watch the original. It’s still worth checking this one out at least once as you continue the story but it is one of Marvel’s weakest entries into the MCU.

Overall 5/10

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 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

The big Alien vs Predator sequel has made it but unfortunately this would have to go down as the weakest film in the series. It goes way too far in just how gruesome and edgy it wants to be. This time you have kids and actual babies being taken out as well. Ultimately there isn’t a whole lot to like in this one and not even the crossover element is enough to get this one to win.

The story picks up where the last one left off which is that there was an alien growing inside of the Predator. It ends up hatching and causes a ton of damage before crashing back to Earth. One Predator decides to go down and take the Predalien out but it won’t be easy. A lot of aliens have quickly started to grow on Earth so the infestation is back to being just as strong as it was before. Any progress that could have been made for the humans is effectively gone now. The humans in this area need to try and escape as soon as possible.

Lets get the violence out of the way here first. A big part of why this film is no good is just how extreme the violence is all the time. It sets the tone early when the kid and his father get brutally murdered by the aliens and it just keeps on going from there. Going after the babies at the hospital was just crazy and I could also deal without all of the chestbursters everywhere. Those are always the worst part of the Aliens. Just give us the full sized Xenomorphs and stick to those. I guarantee it would make for a better film all the way around.

The film is also infamously dark as you’ve probably heard. Everything is in the shadows so it feels like the film isn’t particularly confident in its special effects. Just give us the full fights. The Predalien has a cool design and the fight with the Predator is cool while it’s in the special green vision but otherwise the fights aren’t impressive because of this. So that’s part of the big hook of the film in theory and the movie doesn’t take advantage of it. So much for this being a big crossover.

Then we’ve got the humans and none of them are really any good. Ricky is the main guy here and he likes Jesse but she is already dating the school bully. That should be enough for Ricky to just acknowledge that it’s over and move on but he doesn’t go down that route. He throws a joke at the bullies which leads to him being beat up and then he’s still willing to rebound with Jesse after this.

The romance is really bad the whole time and the characters aren’t likable. Why was Jesse with this guy in the first place? It seems like this wasn’t the first time the bullies have messed with Ricky so he didn’t play that very well at all. His older brother Dallas at least seems reasonable as he tries to handle things peacefully and helps find the keys. He also handles the whole alien infestation calmly which is more than can be said for some of the characters.

One of them decides to just believe the government which is never really a good idea. I do like the government here. They’re definitely really sinister and shady as you’d expect but they make for a fun antagonist. Any scene with the government has them in a very darkly lit room acting suspicious even when they are supposedly trying to help out. I imagine they don’t seem as suspicious on the phone but I was glad that at least one person took notice.

The film does have a reasonable twist ending which is good to set up the next film even if it’s not as impactful as you’d expect. To me it implies that the humans are aware of other alien races and might be ready to make a deal or a move with one of them. That would have been really interesting to change things up as opposed to the usual aliens vs predators direct line up. Maybe even have the two forces team up? Would be tough since the Xenomorphs are usually mindless though.

Too bad the government didn’t appear more. I think that could have helped the film quite a bit. They were way more interesting than the main characters after all and at least they had some kind of a plan. Lets just say they make the climax a little more explosive. If you had good main characters then this wouldn’t be necessary but we didn’t have great characters. The writing isn’t good and there’s no memorable soundtrack so at the end of the day there isn’t much to the film beyond that.

I also think the Xenomorphs look a bit weak here. By this point it’s apparent that a single Predator can take them down by the dozens which is a little extreme. Outdoors perhaps the Predator has the edge but half the time he’s beating them in confined spaces and indoors as well where they should have the edge. I want to see the Aliens holding their own even when there are no cheap shots involved. How can this be a real rivalry otherwise? The Xenomorphs have a lot of physical strength so that should be enough to tip the scales.

Overall, Aliens vs Predator 2 is just a bad movie. The camera work isn’t great, the whole concept of the battle between the two series takes a back seat and there’s barely a plot. Half the time we’ll just be introduced to new characters so they could be murdered as normal. The cast is small enough where they literally are bringing in characters just to have them destroyed. What this tells me is that the film’s story wasn’t long enough to actually stretch into a full length movie without this and so the writers should have gone back to the drawing board.

Overall 0/10

Driv3r Review

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The Driver series seems to have peaked with the first one so far because it has been wayyyyy better than the two sequels. You can’t even compare them but granted, the first I played on Playstation while the next two have been on GBA. These editions leave a lot to be desired and this game in particular was a lot weaker than I had expected. Personally I just thought that it was going to be a lot better than the final product. It’s not a game I would really be recommending to people.

Tanner is back and this time he has to go undercover in Miami to grab some bad guys and find out about car transactions. The plot has a very Fast and the Furious feel to it but the abridged version. It feels like the game grabs screenshots from the home console games and then picks some text to go with it. As a result you get a very fragmented version of the story. Additionally there is nothing to show who is talking so half the time they keep changing the person who is talking in the cutscene but you have no idea who is saying what.

The story ends up being a bit bland as a result. It doesn’t help that the game only has one musical theme that plays for every cutscene. The game is definitely on the low budget side that’s for sure. I was never really able to get all that invested into the story so then the gameplay has to hold its own. There are good and bad things about the gameplay though so that’s why it wasn’t up to the task of carrying the whole game on its back. First off the game can’t process most of the background items.

What that means is you’ll be driving when suddenly a car appears in front of you and knocks the wind right out. A single crash can often mean that you will lose a level, particularly if it’s a head to head collision. There are a lot of high speed chases and such but with this it makes the game a little tougher than it would be otherwise. Particularly when it’s a long level then replaying the whole thing is a hassle. The final level in the game involves 3 checkpoint races in a row and yes if you lose any of them then you start all 3 again.

There is a new mechanic in this game which is that you can actually fight on foot. You get out of your car and start firing shots but there is a big catch to this. See, it was actually going to be a really fun mode but what ruins it is how quickly you can run out of bullets. If you run out of bullets then you have no way to fight back so you just have to lose to the opponent. An additional penalty is that dying takes you back to before the mission and often means that you will have to drive halfway across the city to get back to where you were. Every time you die it’s a huge time delay. I appreciate that the game’s hub world is so big but there should be a quick travel option somewhere. That would have helped out a great deal.

Then getting more ammo is a hassle. (You lose any ammo you used even if you die by the way) You have to find some packs scattered across the massive hub world which is difficult or you have to beat all sub missions of a color which will get you a new weapon. This will come with some ammo. It’s worth unlocking the weapons anyway though because they are considerably more powerful than the starting weapon that you get. Always keep your most powerful weapon equipped as well since ammo you pick up will then go to that one.

Completing the game without the latter weapons will be nearly impossible so make sure you complete the missions. Most of the missions can be a lot of fun at least and they’re short. I didn’t feel bothered at playing them and they would often beat some of the story missions. In the story I mostly don’t like when you have to tail someone, just let me go full blast in a race or something instead.

I do like the combat though and driving can be fun when you’re allowed to go all lout. You can move at really high speeds and while this often causes the game to lag a whole lot, it still feels nice. Surprisingly there is no police mechanic here so you can bump into everyone with no problem. I missed that a bit since it was such a big part of the original Driver game. Maybe they just couldn’t figure it out for GBA or something like that.

The graphics are okay but I would say below average. It didn’t seem like a whole lot of effort was put into this one compared to the bigger titles. It almost looks and feels like some kind of cash-in. I already noted how the soundtrack is basically nonexistent as well so don’t expect any really big tunes there. This is definitely not that kind of title. At least the main theme isn’t bad. That’s good because you’ll be hearing it a whole lot.

Ultimately at its core this game just needed a lot of quality of life upgrades. For starts you should get some ammo when you revive and you need a better way of getting more. Whether that means buying ammo or spawning it in more places, it shouldn’t take forever to get it. I nearly died against the final boss who was a real bullet sponge and if I lost there that would have been disheartening because it took so long to get those bullets in the first place. Then we need quick travel and losing a mission should give you the option to retry it rather than having to drive all the way there again. That would have at least given the game a fighting chance instead of making the levels needlessly exhausting at times.

Overall, Driv3r is not a very good game. I thought it would be better than it was. The gameplay is just good enough to keep me from calling it a bad title but there is almost no reason to get it. There are much better car games to buy as well as shooters. If you have the original Playstation or a PS2 then I would say to just buy the original and play it again. It’s way better and really executes on the potential and possibilities of the franchise. This one isn’t trying nearly as hard. I do still have high hopes for the PS3 title though because we’ll be back on the home consoles and it should have a good budget. If that one is no good then I don’t know what to say at that point. It would be a bit odd.

Overall 5/10

Time Crisis 4 Review

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It’s been a fun marathon through the Time Crisis series but we have now made it to the end. I’ve owned this game for many years so it’s nice to finally play it. I’ll say this, the game is considerably better than the first 3, there’s no question about that. First person shooter games still aren’t really my thing but this one adds a bit to the mix. Instead of being a pure rail shooter you can actually move around during some of the levels so that was nice.

There is the normal arcade mode here but also more of a complete mode. This one adds in levels for the American agent which are fully 3D and add to the story. So in the usual rail shooter levels you play as the VSSE agents and then you play as the secret service guy for the others. The game has 15 levels as a result which is definitely longer than the others. Now if you had to beat this in one shot that would be crazy so fortunately this one actually has a save feature!

That was a game changer. No matter how fun the other games could be, it was always annoying to not be able to save. Until you got a bunch of game overs you knew that you would effectively be spinning your wheels for a while. The levels here can still be tough but there is less pressure since you can try again. Additionally the levels are also quite a bit shorter so when you die it’s not like you have to play large portions of the game again.

There are some new mechanics here like the insect battles and fort fights. The insects are more on the annoying side so I’d be cool with the series dropping this for the sequel. It could be really difficult to deal with them and they take up a ton of bullets. Then for the fort battles there is a lot of moving around and it feels almost a bit random. Good thing the girl lets you know what direction to check because otherwise that would be really difficult. The normal shooting sections tend to be a lot more solid if you ask me.

I really liked the new 3D sections though so those are easily the highlight. You still do need to use some real strategy here though. Don’t just run in and expect everyone to go down immediately. You have to conserve your bullets and keep on moving forward. There are checkpoints and all but you don’t want to have to lose and see how far back you go. The game isn’t quite as hard as the last two though so you should be okay. Those are still really hard to match.

Naturally the graphics are really solid here. We’re finally in PS3 world and we keep the big cinematics that the last game had. You can be guaranteed some kind of cinematic before each level and some have more after the level as well. The story may be a little dry as you’re just out to stop another criminal organization but I’m not exactly sure what the best way to spice it up would be. I don’t think the plot itself is the issue but it doesn’t really stand out. Maybe have the villains get a little more colorful with their designs? I thought that the 3rd game had the best villain designs personally.

There isn’t a ton of replay value here. Even if you really like the gameplay, it’s going to effectively be the same experience each time. I suppose you could just work on getting a better high score but there are probably other games in the genre you could play instead. Still you should be able to find the game for fairly cheap and so then it’s a good value. You’ll have fun playing through the story and it is the longest game in the series which is impressive in its own right. You should always strive to be longer and longer right!?

As the end of the day whether you like it or not will depend on if you like the genre. So long as you do then the high production values will carry the day. The good characters and cinematics help to hold their own. My advice here would be that in some of the levels the timer is generous so just hide when the insects show up. It’s hard to react quickly enough to hit them before they hit you. So instead wait until they have finished their attack and then go for the win. That would be the ideal way to handle this and you will not be looking back.

Overall, Time Crisis 4 is a pretty good game. It’s certainly my favorite game in the series. At the end of the day I can’t guarantee that I will really remember these games all that often since they’re more the type of game that you play through and then it goes back in the closet but it still is good. If they ever brought another one to consoles over here then I’d be interested in playing it. Perhaps the ole muscle memory would kick in and I would start dominating it. That would be ideal at least. In the meantime it’ll probably be a while before I play another FPS so we’ll see which game comes next.

Overall 7/10

Time Crisis 3 Review

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This one’s fairly similar to the last Time Crisis in a lot of ways. It’s got the fun cinematics that you always want to see and has a good soundtrack but the game is just so short and it’s hard to get around that. It’s over in the blink of an eye and before you know it, it’s time to put the game back in the drawer. Still if you liked the second game then you’ll like this one since they’re very similar.

The game starts with the VSSE agents on another mission. They are attacked by another evil group and have to put these guys down real quick. Fortunately they are professional so this shouldn’t be hard. Along the way they meet up with a lady who is here to bail them out of some tough situations. The 3 of them are ready for any danger that comes their way because they know that their victory is inevitable!

I wouldn’t call the game identical to the last one per say but it is similar. The game has 3 levels and each one is divided up into 3 areas. You have to blast your way through every enemy in order to prove that you really are the strongest guy on the block. You have 40 seconds for each mob rush and so you have to blast them all away. Don’t get hit by one of their attacks or you will lose a health point. Lose all 4 health points and you lose a life. You gain a new continue each time you get a game over so eventually you will have unlimited lives. You can’t move so the only two controls are to shoot and hide. Of course you can move your curser though.

Now this game is considerably tougher than the last one. Remember that in Time Crisis 2 I didn’t actually have to wait until the unlimited continues to win. It took me a few game overs but eventually I was able to beat the game. Not this time, I couldn’t come anywhere close and just had to keep on losing until I got the free continues. Only at that point was I actually able to hold my own here. This game was just impressively difficult because there are so many enemies and their reaction times are amazing. I know this isn’t my genre but even so it is no easy feat to get me to have so many game overs.

The game still feels fair all the way through though. Every time I got hit I knew that it was an attack that I should have been able to avoid. Whether I was getting too greedy in getting extra shots off or not ducking when I needed to, each of the hits made sense. It’s just hard to stay super alert and consistent the whole time. The penalty of making even one mistake is really quite large in this game. So focus up and do your best but don’t feel bad if you need the unlimited lives by the end.

Like with the last game we get a good amount of cinematics here. This time you get one for each area in addition to each level which was nice. You also have some returning villains from the first game and the villains all have solid designs. The game is as out there as ever and that’s a good thing. It’s just all so chaotic but in a good way. You don’t really know what’s going to happen next and that’s exactly how you want it.

The soundtrack is also still very exciting. The rock themes just keep on coming and they help to get you pumped during the levels. I had a good time with the story and James Bond could take a few lessons from these games on how to make your secret agent stories as good as possible. This one just had the right formula in order to make everything feel like a win. It’s not as easy as it looks.

There isn’t much replay value here though which is why I have to dock a point from the game again. Ultimately after you spend an hour beating the game there just isn’t a lot left to do. You can do the normal stage levels I suppose and there seems to be some kind of rescue mode but it’s all still very short. It’s a byproduct of being an arcade game but there should be some way around this. In fact, Time Crisis 4 did get around this so stay tuned for my review of that game soon once I complete it.

As it stands, you’ll only want to buy this game if you can get it for a really good price. If you are able to get it for cheap then there is really no issue here. You can play through the hour and have a good time. If it’s expensive though then you may feel like you’re losing out so bide your time and wait until you’ve found a good deal. Then you’re really all set here.

There is one difference though which is that you can now switch weapons. It’s surprisingly not a big deal most of the time as you’ll stick to your pistol but now you can also use a machine gun, grenades, and a shotgun. I mainly would save these for bosses as it can be tough to get the ammo that you need for them but they do help to save you some time there. I would spam them as soon as a big opponent showed up and the grenade can take out half a life bar which is great. I think there is more you could do with these weapons but I understand why they don’t give you unlimited ammo. If they did that then who would ever use the normal gun right? One risk with the other guns though is that you could be having so much fun that you don’t notice when someone is about to fire and take some extra damage. That definitely happened to me at times.

Overall, Time Crisis 3 builds on what worked in Time Crisis 2. It’s virtually the same game just with a different plot this time around. The graphics and soundtrack are similar but that’s a good thing since I enjoyed them in the second game. Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to just be a copy of the last game since what worked before will still work now. That said, it really needs to improve the length because you’re done with the game way too quickly. Increasing the difficulty may buy some time there but ultimately it’s not enough. (I am glad they still give you more continues for each game over though. Getting rid of that would have been a big mistake)

Overall 6/10

Time Crisis II Review

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I’ve had Time Crisis 4 on the backlog for many years so it was finally time to go ahead and buy games 2 and 3. Well, this one is fun and while I do think it’s a bit too short which takes a point off at the end, it’s still a fun game. First person shooters aren’t typically my favorite games and even less so when you cannot move since this is a rail-shooter but the game has a fun plot with several cinematics so that keeps things moving well.

You play as two VSSE agents who have to stop another villain group from setting off nukes and destroying the world. It’s a fairly simple secret agent kind of storyline but one that works well within this setup. There are 3 levels in the game and each level has 3 areas. So you’re going to be completing this game in under an hour but the catch is that there are no save points. If you get a game over then you have to start from scratch. That’s quite difficult so the game does throw you a bone here. Every time you get a game over, you start the next playthrough with an extra life. Obtain 7 game overs and you will finally unlock unlimited continues which is where you can really have fun.

Personally I’d like to have unlimited lives from the jump but I do get the rationale of having it be an unlockable. Ideally it means that you try as hard as you can on the first playthroughs and if you still couldn’t beat the game then now you can at least see the cinematics and everything with no pressure. Or if you don’t want to do that then you can quickly tank the playthrough and get a game over as soon as possible. The game tries to discourage that by making the first level rather easy so you feel like if you’re in that deep then you may as well finish out the run.

The game is very difficult though so good luck trying to get all the way to the end. I didn’t need all of the continues but I wasn’t able to win until I had 7 saved up. With those I was able to plunge ahead. The way the game works is interesting as you’ll always see a lot of people shooting at you but half the time they aren’t actually doing anything. The ones you have to watch out for are the enemies in red and blue since they mean business. When a real shot is going towards you then the screen will flash red so you know to dodge.

To dodge you have to let go of the square button which is what lets you aim. This makes you hide back behind a wall or another object. When doing this there is no way for you to be hurt. The reason you can’t do this forever though is because each minion rush has a 40 second timer. If you don’t beat them within that time then you lose a health point and each health point is crucial here since each life only had 4 HP. The trick is to react quickly so that you keep on firing and then dodge as needed. It’s easier said than done though that’s for sure.

The graphics are pretty good here. This is a PS2 game with a rather decent budget at least based on the looks. I was satisfied here. Then with the cinematics they’re a lot of fun. We’ve got full voice acting and a very intense soundtrack with a lot of rock. Mix in the explosions everywhere and the game went all out in making this as exciting as possible. I think the Time Crisis series would make for a really exciting action series if they ever wanted to make a TV show or movie out of it. In the meantime these games will do.

As I mentioned the actual game length is less than an hour but for replay value you could always try to beat your high score or do some free play. You’d probably need to be a fairly big fan of the gameplay to do that but it’s an option at least. Personally I wouldn’t try getting the game unless you can buy it for $10 or less because there just isn’t enough content. It’s a good game and I got it for a good price but otherwise if I had gotten this on launch day then I probably would have been a little disappointed.

Perhaps it comes with the territory of being an arcade game but even so I need some serious replay value to keep things moving at a high level. Titles like Pac Man and Galaga have a ton of replay value built in so serious fans of the shooter genre may find that same value here but for me it just isn’t the same. This is the kind of game you beat straight through in order to see the whole story and then you call it a day.

My final tip when playing through the game is to just hide as soon as a blue or red fighter appears. Technically you can try to shoot them before they get off the first shot but it’s risky. Your reactions really have to be great whereas if you hide right away then you have a good chance of their not shooting when you return. The game is realistic in that you can’t tell what they’re doing while you hide though. So be prepared to react quickly when you go out there again because if your timing isn’t good you’ll be escaping just to take a direct shot which would defeat the purpose of your hiding in the first place.

Overall, Time Crisis II is a good game. I wish that it was longer but at least it does still make for a complete story experience. You’ve got a serious plot here with quality characters and an engaging story. Full voice acting and cinematics is something that will always elevate a game for me. The actual shooting gameplay is smooth enough as well. It isn’t really my thing so the game felt extremely difficult but it seemed polished for what it was trying to do. If you’re looking for a quick PS2 game to add to your collection then this could work out. Otherwise you may want to pick up one of the newer installments instead.

Overall 6/10