Tag Archives: Sequel

Puppet Master II Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Puppet Master is one of those films where you know it’s going to be bad right out of the gate. The question becomes, just how bad is it really? If it’s only normal levels of bad then it could be a lot worse but if it’s terrible like the first film then you’re in trouble. Well, I can safely say that this one is in the terrible category. There isn’t much good to say about the film and ultimately it doesn’t justify the purpose of having a sequel in the first place. There aren’t really any new ideas and once again the characters are all losing to a bunch of tiny puppets. A true skill issue if you think about it.

After the events of the first film, the puppets go and bring the original Puppet Master back to life. Unfortunately this guy has now become looney after his death and thinks that the reincarnated version of his wife is here. We then cut to a bunch of researchers who are at the murder house to find out if psychic phenomenon is real or not. The psychic they hire definitely thinks that this is the real deal and prepares to leave but gets bumped off by the puppets. The rest of the group are also in danger now and may be picked off as well if they can’t find a way to take these puppets down. Can they actually defeat them though?

Now one thing you have to remember is that the puppets are not very powerful. They are small and weak, while also lacking any kind of true offensive capabilities. All they can really do is rely on sneak attacks. There is one exception, which is the Darth Vader looking puppet which has an active flamethrower. With this firepower it can easily destroy any opponent. Whenever a human would lose to this guy I would them a little slack. The other puppets are all much weaker though so you should be able to defeat them rather easily. Even the flamethrower isn’t too tough if you are expecting it, but the real tricky thing is if you don’t know that the weapon exists in the first place. In that case, it is definitely fair to fall beneath its overwhelming might.

The humans are all rather unlikable once again though so that’s a shame. In some ways they may not be as bad as the psychics from the first film who were all really looney but these guys can’t manage to stay focused for long either. There is a lot of flirting right out of the gate and the main characters don’t really know how to stick together against the villains. As soon as the first puppet is found (shortly after murdering someone) they should have all been on high alert. Yet, they still split up a lot.

A very mysterious guy in bandages shows up and while the heroes think he is weird, they are not overly concerned. This is now a murder scene so surely anyone who claims to live here should be a massive suspect right? I dare say that a citizen’s arrest should even be in order here. Don’t give this guy any kind of freedom or you will end up regretting it later on. The characters here aren’t the brightest but at least they aren’t actively tying each other up like in the first film so that is some progress.

A big problem that they all make it taking too long though. Like when the psychic finds out that the place is evil, she doesn’t immediately leave and instead plans to go either late at night or in the morning. Plenty of time for the puppets to take her down and unfortunately, she was unable to put up enough of a struggle to get the others involved.

Then you have the next door neighbors who are rather mean for no reason. The lady does pretty well for a little while there but then of course she ends up getting overconfident and makes a big speech before going down. This is the kind of film where you know that resistance is futile and so it does take away from the struggles. While that may be true for a lot of horror films, it is the movie’s job to try and get you to feel like there is at least some kind of chance. If you don’t think that there is any chance…well that takes the fun out of it right?

As you can expect, most of the murders are rather violent. Since the puppets are small, it takes a lot of hits to finish off the main characters and usually that means the kills are really dragged out. You’re just waiting for the film to mov on to something a bit more creative but it doesn’t happen. That’s because the movie isn’t trying to do anything too creative or subversive. It’s just going through the motions in a rather soulless way. No quality writing to help you out here.

I think if the series wants to have any chance of being better, it needs to move beyond the house in the next film. Yes, we had the next door neighbors up the road, but that barely counts and naturally the cattle started dying for the main villain’s plans which didn’t help matters. Have the puppets go into the city and then we get a war against the army. Sure it would be rather campy but that’s the case for the main movie as well. At least this could give the film some entertainment value because as it is now, it’s not even funny.

Overall, This is your average slasher from start to finish. It’s really violent with most of the characters existing only to get bumped off. It was nostalgic seeing some of the puppets from the first film but it’s not like they have grown much stronger since then. It’s still hard to take them seriously as villains at all. The whole time you are just shaking your head. I would definitely recommend giving this one a skip. There is no real reason you need to watch this movie and I doubt the sequels are really going to raise the bar all that much anyway.

Overall 2/10

John Wick: Chapter 4 Review

Posted on by
Reply

Please note that this is a review of the TV-14 edited version of the film. A review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s finally happened, the John Wick has reached its final form. I can say without a doubt that this is the best film in the saga. It’s crazy to think that it’s been years since I saw the 3rd one. The first film was naturally held back by what happened to his dog, the worst way you could start a film tbh. The third film managed to squeeze in a dog getting shot as well which was super unnecessary and wasted too much time in the desert with a side character I didn’t care about. The second film had been my favorite one for a while there and I dare say it’s gotten even better in my memories but I may be forgetting some things. Either way this one surpasses it, I don’t really have many complaints here.

The film picks up where the last one left off, with Wick working to get revenge on the table and the continental for betraying him. He quickly puts a lot of people in a body bag but the Table isn’t going to go down without a fight. They are using every resource at their disposal to track down Wick and even destroy the Continental. This forces a bit of a truce with the owner and Wick. Is there really a way to defeat a global enterprise like the Table though? We’re talking literal millions of fighters on their side and at the end of the day Wick is only one man. He will have to bring his A game here.

If I do have a minor complaint here, it’s that I wanted to see Wick going up against the Continental. That could have been the opening action set piece with him being the one to destroy the hotel and then the rest of the film plays out like normal. Wick ultimately letting bygones be bygones and not taking it too personal does make sense within the framework of the world but it still felt like a tease from how the last film left off. It heavily implied a big fight was to come, rather than setting Wick up against the new villain in this film.

The film also quickly addresses any concerns you might have had about the idea of beating an endless organization and it’s clever while also working within the rules of the series. The movie is quite long and as you can expect, nearly all of it is a long string of various fight scenes. You will definitely get your fill of action here. If you don’t want a lot of fighting then you’ve certainly come to the wrong movie. I’m sure some hardcore fans have probably counted the exact minutes of fight scenes to see which one has the most but I would not be surprised if this film ends up taking the crown on that.

There are some new characters that show up here to expand the cast but all in all the series does a good job of keeping each installment fairly light with the characters. One of them is a hitman known as Nobody. He’s really good at his job and while I did not find him as impressive as some of the other hitmen throughout the series, he obviously does have a lot of skill. He does well to play the long game even if he does underestimate the other players quite a bit. In a straight fight Wick is taking him down easily and I doubt he would pose much of a thread to the table.

Caine is a much stronger rival in this film. I do have to say that I had a hard time taking him seriously though. He’s completely blind so in the film he has different gadgets that help him keep track of his opponents. It’s just too much of a liability though, especially when his whole head is exposed for any gunshots. I don’t see how he has lived this long and has too many weaknesses. I can believe him being super powerful in close combat but there’s no way he would live this long in this world. Once he went blind that should have been the end of his career. I was glad the film showed Wick is more skilled but I would argue that the gap should be much wider than it was here. The film is also a reminder of why having any family while being a hitman is not advised since that’s just another word for future hostage.

Winston gets a pretty solid role in this film. It’s not like he’s a fighter in his prime so he’s not going around stabbing everyone but he does well with the word games and keeping the other fighters sharp. He is good in the support role and is always around to give Wick some really important advice. Likewise the king of the underworld always has some good equipment for Wick. Without his help, Wick would definitely have not made it over to the final showdown in time since the shortcut saved a bunch of time.

The main villain, the Marquis is okay. I don’t think he was as impressive as most of the other villains but the film had some powerful villains to take the primary role. Mostly he is here to be smug the whole time. While he isn’t a big fighter, we can assume that he had some moves in order to make it this far. A quick fight would have been fun to see but that’s just not his style. If you can’t fight, at least be smug. So he gets that part right and his right hand man looks very impressive in the battles.

As always, it is worth noting that the film is quite violent so you will want to watch out for that. If you have an aversion to blood then naturally this isn’t the movie for you. The film mainly keeps it all to violence in combat here though so in some ways it doesn’t feel as violent as some of the other films. It also could just be a time thing where I’m more used to it now. Violence comes in many forms and that could be its own editorial someday but violence in combat is definitely the most palatable kind of violence. It’s something that the fighters have signed up for and you’re not dwelling on each kill. Wick mows down dozens and dozens of fighters in the movie but it’s not like any of them are being tortured. They’re being shot or stabbed and then he moves on to the next one.

The film does have a dog taking a heavy hit at one point which again feels really unnecessary. Why do you always bring dogs into this? At least he was okay and it wasn’t as serious as the bullet wound from last time so it didn’t really hurt the film but it definitely did put me on notice. The long climax is also one of the better ones, and by that I mean arriving to the final battle. The final battle itself is only okay but for narrative reasons it’s not like the characters are taking it all that seriously.

The soundtrack for the film is really good. There are quite a number of solid tracks that appear and support the fight scenes. You definitely get into the action mood right with the various themes. The visuals are also really stellar and you can tell that the film really takes pride in finding great locations. Everything about the film always feels like there was a lot of really high production values across the board. From the writing to the choreography. I’d say it’s a big reason as to why the series is so successful.

Now, the film isn’t without its plot armor which is pretty unavoidable in a long action film like this. The final plan relies on the villain hesitating before shooting. Many of these big fight scenes also rely on nobody being able to land a clean headshot and then one meeting with another group relies on them not just immediately finishing Wick off. I guess you need a little bit of luck in order to be the best.

I’d say one of the best scenes in the film is definitely the brief poker game. I always like it when a film or any kind of media gets all of the big hype characters in a room. It also doesn’t end up making everyone look terrible like in Agents of Shield where everyone got together only to be held at gunpoint by randoms. Here, everyone keeps their hype and the film also not so subtlety gives us some contrast between them and how each one has a plan to get out of there. I’d even say the film tends to have a bit of a morbid sense of humor at times which is always handled well.

Overall, This was definitely a lot of fun. The film’s ending is technically one of the weaker ones as both 2 and 3 had way better cliffhangers but I did think the final scene was a solid way to end things off. Revenge is one of those never ending cycles but I was rooting for the lady to have her get back moment. Hey, things will always be sad for one character in a revenge plot but you gotta take a side. Meanwhile I expect to see a lot more of John Wick taking names in the next film. It’s hard to say who could be a real threat to him at this point so I think the next logical step would be to make it a protection mission of sorts. A kid stumbles into the wrong scene at the wrong time and Wick protecting her causes him to be in another tricky spot? The danger wouldn’t be to him so much as her sort of limiting his options. Either way I’m sure they can think of something and I’ll be curious to see if they can top this one. I would also like him to be revered more as a legendary hitman again. I know you need everyone to try their luck against him for the action scenes but would random number 58 really try to shoot his shot when he just saw the last 57 guys get immediately shredded? I’d like a scene of at least one guy running away after he gets to the scene, would be another effective humor moment.

Overall 8/10

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to return to the world of the Guardians of the Galaxy where they have to deal with a whole new threat. The films have had their ups and downs to be sure but how would this one wrap things up? Well, unfortunately I would say that it is the weakest one of the 3. The Rocket subplot is a double blow since it introduces animal violence while also writing him out of most of the movie. A very risky call no matter how you slice it since he is such a popular character. Ah well, we still do have a lot of fun banter with the rest of the characters.

The film starts off with the Guardians still being in a rocky spot as Star Lord grieves over not having Gamora around anymore. She died and was replaced with an alternate version of herself that never actually dated him. Now he just gets drunk all day but when the team is suddenly attacked and Rocket gets into critical condition, Star Lord realizes that he has to get his game on. Rocket’s unable to be healed by the usual sci-fi tech because of a bomb inside his chest and so they need to find a way to deactivate it. This may mean going up against the high Evolutionary but the team has never allowed themselves to be deterred before and they aren’t about to start now.

So lets get the dicey parts out of the way first. The High Evolutionary’s whole gimmick is that he experiments on animals in order to evolve them further. He aims to make a new human race that is superior to the old one. So naturally in a film adaption that means that we are seeing a lot of animals in rough states. Several of them were essentially dismantled and are part cyborgs now. Rocket grew up with a bunch of them so we see this quite a bit. Fortunately the surgeries already happened as that would have really pushed the envelope into absolutely terrible stories but it is a really dark plot that to this day you never need in any kind of film. It’s never going to elevate things.

Rocket also had a lot of experiments done on him which were quite painful. It’s a subplot that really drags the film since we cut away to it numerous times. Meanwhile the High Evolutionary looks really bad the whole time. I’m used to him being a fairly poised villain who is in control but here he constantly whines and it out of his depth. He doesn’t seem to be a great super genius and was unable to find Rocket for many years despite the guy being a world famous Guardian. This guy’s utopia didn’t even work as he has actual drug dealers running around.

He says he’ll just start again but why would a new attempt be any different? He feels like he is just completely insane. That’s not a bad thing for a villain necessarily but at the same time I would say that it just doesn’t make sense amidst the wider context. I would argue it makes his whole goal seem weird since he wasn’t even close to succeeding and having Rocket won’t really help with that. he discards all of his test subjects too quickly.

While the film also did a number on Warlock in terms of totally changing his character, at least he was funny. I can see why longtime fans wouldn’t appreciate this version since he’s nothing like the comics/games but at least he looks reasonably strong. I would argue he should have crushed the Guardians with ease though since that team is hardly the strongest one out there. I suppose he just lets his guard down a little too quickly when the going gets tough. With the Sentry coming up, Warlock’s probably not going to be able to stand out quite as much in his next appearance.

Where the film is stronger is in the usual banter. If you liked their discussions in the first two films then you should like them here as well. This team loves to constantly be bashing each other and they’re always doing pranks. For better or worse, you can’t trust your teammates on the small stuff but you can count on them when the stakes are serious. Mantis is always pranking Drax despite his many protests, Star Lord seems like he can’t help but constantly flirt with Gamora, etc. The team is completely dysfunctional but you could say that’s part of the fun.

The only member who is mainly left out is Groot thanks to Rocket being gone the whole time. Still a rough decision I gotta say and they should have kept him awake the whole time and helping out, just have there be a time limit on the bomb or something. From the Guardians I would say Mantis was my favorite character. Yeah she is definitely very immature and gets the team into a lot of trouble but at the same time I would say she cares about the team the most. She is always doing everything she can in order to help the rest out. Her attempts sometimes backfire but it’s the thought that counts.

Gamora is also solid considering how much she has to put up with. She is completely a different person than the old one so it’s really not fair how much pressure they put on her. I was glad that she stuck to her guns and did not let peer pressure win. That would have been a pretty bad look if you ask me. It was also good to have at least one team member who could fight well and keep the team on track. I would say that’s Drax’s role but he still ends up being the team’s jobber for most of the film. He does well against Warlock in the opening fight though so I’ll give him that. He also gets some big moments near the end of the film.

I didn’t care much for Yondu’s replacement but at least he doesn’t appear much. He was being kinda rude to Cosmo for no good reason. Cosmo did good though and reminded viewers why he is one of the most powerful creatures here. His mental abilities are really impressive. Finally we have Star Lord and he does not look good at all here. Getting so drunk and wasted during the intro was really rough. I needed him to step up as the team leader a whole lot sooner than he did. This is supposed to be his team after all, it was time for him to man up and act like it. I already talked about the Gamora stuff but yeah he’s just too desperate. I think he works well as the whiny comic relief in most cases, the serious moments just don’t hit as hard.

The film does a good job of making him funny at least though. I would make the case that the humor in the film tends to land more than it doesn’t. For that reason I would label the film more as a comedy adventure than adding any action to it. We do get some good fight scenes but I would say no great ones. The first fight with Warlock is way too slow and the best fight is the room battle near the end where everyone fights at once. Unfortunately there isn’t a great climax fight this time. I think the reason is because the High Evolutionary can’t really fight so there was no big villain that would force the heroes to team up against him.

While the second film had a lot of faults, it did deliver on a rather big climax which also had Star Lord’s best scene in the MCU. If you take away the Rocket subplot entirely then this film has a clean win over the second film but with it then it does end up sinking more than expected. Ultimately I guess you just can’t beat the original film which had all the fun first meetings. It was probably the funniest as well. In general it’s not possible for every joke in a comedy film to land but I would say most of them did there. A good amount landed in this film as well though.

As for the music, I would say it’s a step down from the first two films. Maybe that means low key the new music eras can’t beat the 80s. That is definitely possible although I tend to like 2000s so maybe it’s just the selection. There were no themes here that felt like they would become iconic or anything like that. They were good enough but not crazy good. Meanwhile we don’t get the usual big stingers at the end of this film so the ending is rather subdued.

Overall, Guardians 3 could have been better. It definitely suffers from having one of the worst MCU villains to date and not having a proper super bad to end the film with. Removing Rocket from most of the film was not a good decision and of course his backstory really ended up hurting the film as well. This was just one negative too many for the film to get around and so that sealed its fate. I think if you go into the film as a fan of the Guardians and just want a fun time you may get the best out of this. If you’re going in as an action fan or a big comic book guy, then you are probably not going to have as good a time here between Warlock and the High Evolutionary.

Overall 4/10

Insidious: The Red Door Review

Posted on by
Reply


Insidious has definitely fallen onto tough times over the years. I wish I could say it ended with a real bang but unfortunately this film was not even remotely good. It falls into pretty much all of the big horror traps you can think of. Annoying characters, a lackluster story, etc. There was really nothing about the movie that would really attract you to it and by the end it just feels like a waste. There isn’t even a really hype end stinger to leave the film off on a high note. They came close because I thought one character was about to turn evil but surprisingly this did not happen.

The film starts off with showing us how strained the relationship with Josh and his son Dalton is. Dalton is a super spoiled kid who is a jerk to everybody, but especially his father. The kid has really checked out and just wants to go to college to be away from his family. Josh ended up going through a divorce so he’s not doing great right now but is convinced by his ex to drive Dalton to school. The problem is that the hypnosis placed on both of them to forget their old memories has nearly come undone. The door to the Further is opening again and the demons are waiting by the gates. This could end up being fatal for the main characters.

One of the big problems this film has is that Dalton eats up the majority of the screentime and he never gets a whole lot better. He’s super annoying throughout the movie and seems like the kind of character who is easy to manipulate. His roommate ends up being a girl named Chris who teaches him all about going to the dark side and becoming a total delinquent. Unfortunately for her, she is now roped into this death battle against the demons since Dalton wants to try out his astral projection ability. I have to agree with Chris being upset about this because it does put her in a lot of trouble right out of the gate. Not a very pleasant thing for a friend to be doing right? Dalton doesn’t really put a whole lot of thought into her safety at all.

Until the ending you could also say there’s not much reason for Dalton to be messing with this ability. If anything, all of the signs point to this being a mistake like how he keeps drawing doors and even injures himself from drawing too hard. These are massive signs to stay away from the supernatural. At least in the end he gets to bond a bit with his father but it was a long road to get there and basically any scene over at the school was a rough one. Meanwhile Chris was at least taking things in stride a lot more but I still can’t give her many points because of what a bad influence she was. If you thought that sorority/frat parties sounded bad, this film won’t change your mind.

Josh’s story is a whole lot more interesting which is why it should have gotten more screentime. Basically the hypnosis did a lot of damage to his life like contributing to his divorce and in the years since then his mind has been really foggy. The hypnosis did a number on his brain after all and so he was really put in a tough spot here. Now I don’t think it’s earned when he is mad at his ex though because he did try to murder her while possessed. At that point I think you do basically lose any kind of argument for how things could have worked out. It was also apparently partially his idea to be mind wiped.

Ultimately Josh just needed to do a better job of resisting the demons and I know that is easier said than done. Still, at least he feels like a tougher character than Dalton and is just more fun. You won’t see him being pressured into doing anything too crazy. The plots take a long while to converge though which is unfortunate. Also one of the most jarring exposition scenes is when Chris randomly finds a video about people discussing astral projection. The odds of her finding these guys in particular is one thing but they act like this is a fascinating new concept. Everyone knows what Astral Projection is, I don’t see what was so shocking about this. Believing that it is real would be shocking, but not the concept itself.

As for the scares, it’s basically your average kind of jump scares. The film relies a bit too much on gross type horror like one character puking and a lot of the demons just looking really ugly. It’s more grotesque than scary and the iconic villain only has a cameo this time around. The human possession is also one of the less scary kinds of horror villains because you’d rather be seeing the demon try to fight them. This doesn’t seem like final film material, it could have been the threat for any of the films in this series.

The writing is okay I suppose but without any real likable characters that does limit the film’s potential right off the bat. Then the film can also feel a bit on the long side as a result. I gotta say, the movie could and should have been a whole lo better than it was. The way it turned out, it’s not a film I would be interested in re watching.

Overall, Insidious: The Red Door suffers from being a standard horror film. It doesn’t come close to matching the visuals of the original Insidious and it’s lacking anything all that memorable. It’s not the worst Insidious film but you will struggle to find any real positives about it. Horror films seem to be allergic to good characters most of the time but they would do the genre a whole world of good. Next time they should spend more time on the characters and less on the horror setup. We don’t need Dalton to draw the same things numerous times and calling his brother to confirm that something weird is going on. The scenes never go anywhere until the very end.

Overall 2/10

Rurouni Kenshin Season 2: Kyoto Disturbance Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the return of Rurouni Kenshin. This season begins the build up to the most well known of all the Kenshin sagas. Shishio is here with his elite 10 swords and Kenshin’s sense of justice will be pushed to its limit. Can he manage to defeat them without going back to his killing ways? Winning as a Rurouni will put him at a disadvantage but this is still the way that he wants to win. It will mean potentially getting his friends out of the picture but they won’t let him do that so easily.

The series starts off pretty quickly with Kenshin deciding to head to Kyoto where the action will be. Saito will be there as well to fend off the invaders but first he takes out Kenshin’s friend Sanosuke to prove why Kenshin left him behind. This boxer is going to have to get a whole lot stronger. In general all of Kenshin’s allies have to strengthen themselves in order to be ready for this mission. At the same time, Aoshi has returned and he wants revenge on Kenshin even if it means joining up with the villains. Kenshin’s honor code may be stronger than ever but Aoshi has ditched all of that. At this point all he cares about is getting his revenge. His judgment may be clouded but his abilities are as dangerous as ever so this won’t be easy.

One thing’s clear from the start, Kenshin can’t possibly win this on his own. Naturally he does want to keep everyone out of harm’s way but he’s not really fighting at his best right now and he’s also completely outnumbered. While he could probably defeat any of the 10 swords individually, he wouldn’t stand a chance as a group. It’s also hard to say if he could beat either Shishio or Aoshi one on one. Fortunately Kenshin gets a whole training arc later on which helps him to finally regain his old abilities.

As always, you have to decide if you feel like Kenshin is going too far in his pacifism or if it is admirable that he would sooner die than take a life. Although when hostages are at stake then he is more likely to act. It’s hard for me to directly fault him for that but it can be rough to see him effectively be sandbagging mid fight when people can die at any second. Of course the remedy to this is to get so strong that you can win even while holding back. That is the path that Kenshin must go down.

Meanwhile you have Yahiko who is still trying to be one of the big main characters but just gets in the way the whole time. I know he means well but this is why the kids can be annoying. He knows very well that he shouldn’t be anywhere near the battlefield and yet he still comes to Kyoto with the others. Yahiko is just a kid and even though he has some training under his belt, he’s far too weak to be of any help at this point. It’ll likely be a very long time until that changes either so he really just needs to stay home.

I have the same criticism for Kaoru. She’s not a real fighter and Kenshin left her behind for a reason. Deciding to follow him after that is completely selfish and potentially puts all of their lives in the balance. You just can’t be doing that and of course it puts him in an awkward spot as well. It’s not like he can force her to stay back and he’s generally too polite to be too harsh about the whole thing. But this does mean that he has yet another person that must be protected.

Megumi is probably the smartest member of the side characters. She knows her limits and so she helps with medicinal herbs but isn’t trying to just constantly get Kenshin’s attention like the others. I definitely respect her for that and in general she has the roughest road because you know that for Kenshin she has no chance over Kaoru. He didn’t even give her a personal goodbye like the others and she took it in stride instead of immediately sulking.

Sanosuke is the only guy I can defend when it comes to defying orders. He is still a fighter after all even if he isn’t nearly as strong as Kenshin or Saito. Things work out well for him in that he is able to train and get stronger. So that definitely makes things even easier. Sanosuke has a right to die on the battlefield with the others and at least he will give it his all. So yeah in his case this is just what I would call proper determination. He even gets to contribute at several points in the arc. I look forward to seeing him continue to his best and get stronger still. With all of the sword fighters around, it can be fun to have an old fashioned hand to hand specialist.

Then we have Saito who is easily the best ally to have around. His sword fighting is top tier and he can even match Kenshin. The most impressive moment though was when he crushed Sanosuke in hand to hand combat. When you can defeat a hand to hand specialist in something like this when that’s not even your main weapon of choice, well that is absolutely a flex. He’s a very practical guy and while he is very aggressive, it’s never at the expense of strategy. Saito is even a good judge of character as he knows exactly who to leave the district with later on. Saito can’t be everywhere at once after all and unlike Kenshin, he is tied to the government. So there are limits to how far Saito can go and what he can do. The guy just does his best in maximizing all of it.

We know that he is ultra powerful, but Saito actually doesn’t get a ton of action scenes just yet. So that is something to look forward to. A fight that would be a lot of fun would be him for Aoshi. Both of them are extremely skilled and bloodthirsty after all. Aoshi may be a complete villain at this point but he is certainly an interesting one. I would even say he is more interesting than Shishio at this point in time. You get the feeling that Aoshi could possibly even take him on. We’ll find out the answer to this soon but for now it’s just fun to see how he fears absolutely nobody. Aoshi just does whatever he wants and fights when he pleases. He just lives for revenge now and his skills are sharper than ever.

He even surpasses his clan rather easily. Okina used to be the big leader there and the guy is still strong but I wouldn’t say it was a particularly close fight. Aoshi has reached new limits with his abilities while Okina has gotten old. Age is something that will ultimately defeat the strongest of warriors. The clan was fun to see overall but it’s not like any of them are a big threat to Aoshi. The member with the biggest role is definitely Misao and even then it’s more about her trying to find him and not because she is a deadly fighter. She is still a step up from Yahiko though without a doubt. At least Misao has a ninja background and can absolutely end the various enemies who get in her way. She’s also generally fun so I can overlook her being in the way to an extent. She actually adds some fun banter and humor.

Shishio is the big bad so you know he will be really strong but for now he’s mainly still aura farming. The guy will have to prove himself in the next season but he does enough as the main villain to still be solid. He’s perhaps winging it a little too much with his underlings though as they came pretty close to thinking about turning on him. With his right hand man Sojiro he would still be okay even against the other 9 deadly swords but he really doesn’t have time for any infighting right now. Kenshin and friends would absolutely be glad to have less opponents.

Sojiro has already gotten to prove himself with several really impressive moments. It’s why the guy is already a really fun villain. I tend to like the right hand man villain type who can hold himself at a really high level like this. In another series he could have even ended up being the main villain. So you definitely don’t want to sleep on this guy, even Kenshin was taken by surprise with his high level of skill. Considering how young he is as well, you could say that he is a true prodigy.

Hoji is one of those guys who is loyal to a fault. He’s not a top tier fighter or anything but he would definitely give his life to ensure that Shishio wins. He sees that as his absolute focus in life and will do anything to see it through. Certainly impressive, I can say that much. I ended up liking him more than I expected to by the end. I don’t always love the advisor types but in this case he was convincing enough in the role to get me to take him seriously.

Anji is one of the more honorable villains. At the very least he isn’t going around murdering for fun but it’s always important to keep in mind that he is still fighting on the side of the villains. By allying himself with them, he definitely takes on a large part of the guilt. No amount of grandstanding can change that. He seems like one of the more powerful villain members but we’ll have to see how that shakes out. He definitely seems stronger than Cho for example since that guy was captured pretty quick. He’s also portrayed as more of a rival to Sanosuke while Anji is seen as being above him.

Usui is probably the biggest wildcard among the villains since he is willing to openly go against Shishio and basically dare the guy to make a move. A bold play to be sure and I would even say that Shishio allows too much here. It would be a better look if he had taken Usui down already. I know he wants to conserve strength and all but that would be a way to really ensure that all other villains completely stayed in line. I know right now they do follow his orders without question and all but adding a little more oomph to that is certainly not a bad idea.

The animation is really solid as always. You really feel the various sword clashes between characters and the choreography is on point. The colors really stand out and the sounds do a good job of showing the power behind each blow. meanwhile the soundtrack has a lot of variety and fits the moments well. I wouldn’t say that the opening or ending particularly stands out but it’s not bad either. The show is definitely backed up well on the technical front.

Meanwhile the writing is good as always with the story being very interesting. The arc has a whole lot of fight scenes going on nonstop which is really exciting. This is the kind of story that is always fun even without fights but of course you are always glad to see them appear and take the story to the next level. Yes, definitely no complaints here. I felt like there was a big fight in nearly every episode and even when it was for characters I’m not too engaged with like Misao’s ninjas, it still worked well. The show was trying to get everyone involved including the villagers so I can appreciate the teamwork nature of it all.

Kenshin having to constantly deal with the fallout of his actions is also good. At the end of the day when you live by a strong creed, there will definitely be things that come with that. His mentor was also good at making sure Kenshin stuck by his decisions by even upping the stakes of them. The mentor is the kind of guy who always shows off a really gruff exterior but means well when it counts. I would say he still seems to be considerably stronger than Kenshin at this time so the hero will need more training.

Finally the show still depicts how a fairly simple story can still be super engaging. At its core this is a very simple show. A bunch of terrorists are trying to overthrow the government and Kenshin has to stop them. All of the heroes and villains are known, we’ve already got most of the matchups and the climax is approaching. There isn’t a need for a bunch of twists or mysteries, the show is just very confident in its story and rewards you with the strong banter and matchups. Due to how corrupt the government is, it also allows you to see the villains as more than 2D villains who are just trying to destroy the world. It’s not enough where you’d root for them over Kenshin but it is solid writing all the same.

Overall, Kenshin season 2 was a lot of fun as expected. We still got great fight scenes at every turn and the animation was really solid. I enjoyed the soundtrack quite a lot as well. It’s fair to say that the technical aspects across the whole show are fundamentally really strong. A lot of work goes into every part of it. I’m definitely looking forward to season 3 as it will be adapting the peak of the series. So long as the budget stays high this will be another all star title. It had one of the more satisfying climaxes to an arc in the manga as well.

Overall 8/10

The Black Stallion Returns Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the Black Stallion to return. I wasn’t a big fan of the first film and while this one is better I still wouldn’t say it’s great or anything like that. The biggest problem here is the boring second half which is interesting since it was the first half that was boring in the original film. Hey that’s how it goes sometimes but at least the film tries to fix the original error so I give it some props there.

The film starts with two different groups deciding to kidnap Alec’s horse. Alec and Black had been winning so many races and taking the world by storm that this allowed these groups to see what was going on. One of the groups wants to use Black to make loads of money while the other one wants to set him free back in his home country. Both groups believe their reason to be the right one and so Alec isn’t brought in to discuss this. Instead they break in and one group burns down the stables and kidnaps Black. Alec gives pursuit and tells his mom that he’ll be back someday after he saves the day. Can a kid really be okay all alone in the desert like this though?

First off, Alec took a terrific risk here in going all the way to the desert by himself. He’s still a kid here even if he’s older than he was in the first film. I give him some respect there but at the same time he probably could have told his mother where he was going or gotten some backup. Either option did run the risk of his being physically prevented from continuing though so I won’t blame him too hard there. The problem is that he is completely out of his depth and gets annoying on more than one occasion.

Alec would have died near the beginning if not for meeting up with a nice kid named Raj. Alec gets punked by some obviously shady figures and then he even has to try some really awful looking food. Alec never really thinks ahead and gets stopped on more than one occasion before he can get himself into even bigger trouble. Enthusiasm is good but ultimately it’s not like that is going to win you any awards and that’s what he learns the hard way. It definitely gets old.

Also the desert has nothing really going for it. The backgrounds are always going to be boring and plain without any really nice things to look at. The pacing of the movie also completely dies here as you never learn quite enough to really care about Raj’s plot. You just want to see Alec and Black get together which takes a really long time. We still get a race by the very end of the film but it sure took some doing to get there. I’m also not sure about the ending. On one hand it looks like it’ll be better for the horse which is definitely huge but on the other hand it is basically rewarding these groups for acting like vigilantes. Surely they could have tried to do this a little more diplomatically but they left no room for discussion right from the start. I’d say Alec should still be upset and his mother had to be worried to death the whole time.

It’s still hard to wrap my head around why you would make a sequel to the Black Stallion where the horse barely gets to appear. How does that make any kind of sense? To me that just seems crazy and I’m sure the viewers were shocked. Especially since the opening actually did have the horse showing up and we had a pretty intense beginning. The spy stuff was fun and there was a lot of tension as you waited to see if Alec would find out that there were people up to no good around his house. The film basically squandered all of that to give us a really long desert sequence and that is the exact moment where the film lost its steam.

I know in a film like this you have the kid be by himself to ramp up the feeling of danger but my hot take is that his Mom should have followed him. Having an adult there would give Alec a little legitimacy when talking to the various cutthroats around. Additionally, an adult would just be a whole lot more interesting. Lets face it, there’s just not much Alec can actually do on his own. He can’t fight, he’s not smart enough to be a spy, he has really no available options to him. At least his mom could theoretically fight or use a gun at least. Just anything to make the desert plot less boring.

Overall, The Black Stallion Returns is a decent film at best. The main problem I have with it is that it can be boring at times. It’s not the biggest issue a film can have but of course it is still powerful since you are watching a film to be entertained the whole time. Being bored for any period doesn’t really help. The film also mainly manages to dodge the animal violence but not totally as there is an incident with a camel and also the horses are treated a bit roughly the whole time. I never like watching horse races for that reason since I don’t think they’re very fun for the horse. If you absolutely need to watch a horse film then this one could be decent but keep in mind that no horses appear for the majority of the film. Just something to consider.

Overall 5/10

Poppy’s Playtime Chapter 4 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a very emotional game. Poppy’s Playtime has been a fairly intense video game series where almost every journey ends with tragedy. Most of the characters do not get a happy ending and at this point they are just hoping to get out of this place alive. It’s hard to say how many chapters there will be but this one does feel as though we are approaching the ending. Potentially just one chapter left now but we’ll have to see how that goes. This was my first journey where it was just one chapter by itself so that was different. It does mean that the game goes a lot faster than the collection.

Chapter 3 ended with the hero finally getting close to the safe haven so things should go well from here. Poppy will go check on Missy while you go forward to save the day. The only thing you did not count on was that the danger is still ever present. Well, I guess you probably did figure on that to be honest. You’ll have to use your wits and reflexes to stay alive once more because these villains still intend to destroy you as soon as they can. There may not be a whole lot of enemies left but each one packs a punch. Are any of the creatures on your side? Or are you walking right into a trap?

Along the way you will learn a lot of lore through your surroundings as well as the various audio tapes. They can get a little repetitive at times though as it feels like the game is drip-feeding you the information much slower than before. You need multiple tapes just for the characters to be begging for their lives during the experiments. It’s pretty clear that the villains got away with a whole lot back in the lab and you can definitely see why they are all eliminated.

The gameplay itself is solid but the story does often tread into the valleys of being a little too extra grim dark. You’re more interested in the present and staying alive than the mystery of what happened before. Personally I would say the best thing for the game to do would be to keep it as secretive as possible. The more open you keep the past, the better it will work for theory crafting. I suppose its existence does give the game a lot of replay value though as I’m sure a whole lot of people enjoy going through the rooms slowly to try and find every possible collectible. Even outside of those, you will often find messages on the tables and walls .

I would say the core gameplay is platforming but there is also a lot of puzzle solving. You need to connect different objects and also piece together patterns. For the most part the game is reasonable with these but there was one puzzle involving anatomy that I thought was a little unreasonable. I had to brute force it and am still not really sure how to do it logically. The red smoke made it so hard to explore and it felt like this puzzle had a number of red herrings. That only made things even trickier. When it comes to the platforming itself, I found it to be much easier than the third game. I still did die a whole lot during the game but nothing quite as crazy as the final boss in part 3.

The toughest segments for me here were typically when I had to use stealth and get past the monster. Their hearing is quite sharp and sometimes their speeds were lightning quick. It’s why I was really grateful for all the checkpoints in the game. Without that it would have definitely taken even longer to complete the game. It would certainly be easier if we could carry a better weapon. The flare gun that the lead has is okay but certainly not the most powerful thing around. It’s mostly good for just scaring the opposition.

The story took around 3 hours to beat and we got over half of the collectibles but not quite all of them. The platinum trophy actually looks rather difficult so that would add a lot of replay value. Of course keep in mind that the game is fairly cheap even when it just came out so it makes the play time a lot more tolerable. You are still getting a good amount of value for your purchase with this one.

The graphics are also pretty solid here. The game definitely does get the horror vibe across well. Even I got startled a few times in the game when I would get caught. It’s a mix of well placed sound design as well as a color scheme that just really works with this. It’s hard not to get scared at least a little while playing the game. The soundtrack is less impressive but I do get why they would do that. If the soundtrack got too hype or something like that then it could definitely take away from the scare factor of it all.

My main complaint with the game would be that it does have the most breaks in action. Or at least it felt that way where there would be several points of listening to long monologues from the villains while you can’t move. With the audio tapes those are optional and you can still move so that’s fine but when you can’t move you wish the villains would pick up the pace a bit. You also figure they should have been able to beat the main character several times so the longer they talk, the more you have to suspend a little disbelief here. It’ll be interesting to see who the main character is by the end. By this point all signs are pointing to him not being some ordinary human.

Overall, Poppy’s Playtime Chapter 4 isn’t quite ready to give us any of the important answers but you still feel that we are getting closer to the end. There just aren’t many villains left to defeat after all and it’s also the kind of game where I’m not expecting that we will get all of the answers. Although there will likely be a lot of them that I just don’t notice during the main story so that’ll be where Youtube comes in handy. If you’ve been keeping up with Poppy then you should definitely jump in now. The game is reasonably difficult and quite intense so you will definitely be kept interested the whole time.

Overall 6/10

X Men ’97 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the big sequel to the classic X-Men 90s show. There was definitely a whole lot of hype for this one the whole time so could it live up to that? Well, I’d say it definitely did, they cover a whole lot of ground within the short time frame they had. I’d say there was only one particularly weak episode which is mainly just because I didn’t care at all about Storm’s subplot but beyond that you could expect a lot of action and setup throughout the rest of the season. I’ll be eagerly awaiting season 2 to see what comes next.

The show starts off with the X-Men doing what they do best, saving humanity from the shadows. Storm and Bishop are taken down rather easily during the battle though and the X-Men may not be in their best fighting shape without Professor Xavier. Fortunately, that’s where Magneto steps in. He confirms that Xavier left it in his will for Magneto to take over the team after his death. It’s such a crazy move that the X-Men know in their hearts how true it must be. Only Xavier would think of doing something like this. Magneto must now find a way to get humanity and mutants to exist in harmony. Only problem is, when has humanity existed in harmony with anybody?

This show is allowed to aim a bit older than the original and as a result I would say it inadvertently makes one of the strongest cases for Magneto’s dream over Xavier’s. When I say “inadvertent” I don’t mean that the show had no idea it was pushing the Magneto narrative as it is a major plot of the season but I do think they forgot to give Xavier any compelling points. I usually don’t have a whole lot of patience for the old guy and this show makes it tougher than ever. He really comes off as being completely out of touch with reality and someone who just wants to keep on trying the same old things time and time again. Lets recap the visions.

Xavier believes that mutants and humans can coexist in peace. To that end, he has the X-Men save lives and do their best to get a good image out there. They fight the evil mutants to prevent them from harming this dream but along the way you also have governments secretly funding sentinel programs, plagues that target mutants, and general anti mutant sentiment that has always been rather high. The heroes have been fighting this war for years now and you could argue that the goal is farther away than ever. In this show we see a genocide of mutants as well as yet another sentinel program. Xavier’s response to this? It’s time to give humanity a chance. I think we run into the sunk cost fallacy here.

Yes, Bastion doesn’t work for the government so this sentinel program is a bit different but it doesn’t change the fact that yet again, mutants around the world are being taken down and nobody is ready to stop it. Xavier won’t change his ways or his mind at all though and just continues to go through with the same lines, even deciding to allow a further genocide of the mutants by shutting down Magneto and re-activating all of the sentinels around the world. This is probably his worst idea but I’ll get more into that during the Magneto side. Xavier is criticized for effectively abandoning the planet for love and his critics in the show are not wrong. Yeah things didn’t turn out well for him and he came back, but he is not in a position to just come back and start barking orders. It just doesn’t work that way. He means well, but I do think that he has not kept up with the times. Xavier will have to work hard to be even slightly likable in season 2.

Now lets talk about Magneto. His idea has changed a little more than Xavier’s. The initial plan was for mutants to basically take over the world. He figures that a war between human and mutants is inevitable and so he will have to unite the mutants and destroy all of the humans before they can begin to fight back. Pretty drastic and of course it’s why he is a villain. He then switched it to just separating the mutants and humans but that didn’t work thanks to insider traitors and then the second time they all basically got nuked. So now it’s time to basically cripple the world and give the mutants a chance to survive thanks to their meta abilities. This will also be another genocide though, basically a genocide to prevent another genocide.

Naturally this is a tough call but it’s a lot like Attack on Titan. When you know for a fact that the other side is going to destroy you then perhaps you should be the one to fire first? In most situations you can’t know what the future will hold of course, but in this series you actually get to see the future on more than one occasion. So that’s why I end up leaning towards Magneto’s idea here. It’s just hard to go against him when you know for a fact that his decisions will save a whole lot of mutants. He had to watch thousands and thousands of mutants die right in front of his eyes. Very few characters would have made a different decision at that point. So the big EMP, yeah Magneto was right in that case. The X-Men should have tried negotiating with him rather than just showing up with their bravado and basically aiming to murder him. They acted more leniently towards Bastion which is crazy.

So I definitely enjoyed Magneto’s character a whole lot here. His subplot with Rogue was pretty annoying though and the only blip in his character arc. Even ignoring the age gap, it just happens too fast and he’s been away for too long. It also didn’t make sense for Rogue to entertain this at all. She ended up wavering way too much which caused other problems. The X-Men franchise has always been one to have a lot of dramatic romance plots so it’s not entirely unexpected. The Cyclops drama was just a lot more compelling but we’ll get into that soon.

Cyclops gets a lot of screentime here and really makes the most of it. From the start we see how confident he is and the guy has really mastered his abilities. He has quite a few great fights here and the guy looks more powerful than ever. He is the voice of reason for the team but it’s also clear that things are starting to frustrate him. Certainly having Xavier pick Magneto as leader over him was a big cause for this. Cyclops even has a testy interview in one of the episodes where he calls out the humans. I thought it worked well and in a lot of ways it reminds me of Superman in Justice League Unlimited who was also starting to show a lot of cracks in his cheery disposition.

The biggest drama for Cyclops is the arrival of a second Jean Grey. It turns out that he has been with a clone for a long time now and the only question is for how long has it been the clone? The show is careful to keep this rather ambiguous so it could have been days, weeks, or even years. It’s got to be a very weird situation to be in and Cyclops admittedly doesn’t handle it all that well. The relationship with him and both Jeans gets to be very rocky. It’s not always his fault though as after a while it gets convoluted enough where all 3 of them start to make mistakes. For what it’s worth, Cyclops always does his best but he should have definitely talked straight up with both of them more. His biggest mistake was being real secretive the whole time, like meeting up with one of the Jeans in secret mind melds.

Madelyne (The first Jean) is a solid character as she is the one whose life is really tossed upside down. She is labeled as the clone and overnight all of her friends basically go to the other Jean. It makes sense since it’s not like there is anything debatable about this. The blood test results are quite certain but to Madelyne, her memories all feel real. This basically results in her needing to leave the mansion and from there things really don’t go well for her at all. It does feel like a bit of wasted potential though because we see how immensely powerful she is and then she basically doesn’t get another fight. I do think she could have gotten a bit more to do.

As for Jean, she ends up being on the more timid side for a while since everything is rather awkward to her. She has the memories but doesn’t know which ones are hers so it’s almost like she’s a stranger now. Her whole relationship with Cyclops is certainly strained. By the end of the series she is starting to come into her own again although one moment did not feel particularly earned. The series wrote itself into a bit of a jam with how powerful one of the villains was so Jean had to get a real sudden power up. We’ll see how that ends up developing in the next season.

Wolverine doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this season. He does do well in the fights that he does get and lends a really good hit on Magneto. I would have liked for him to have gotten more to do but at least he didn’t waste a single scene. I do have to dock some points for him on the quick fling with one of the Jeans though. He could have done more to prevent the moment from happening and naturally it was a bad look for that Jean as well. His romance plot was always rather shaky because he is effectively acting like a homewrecker always causing trouble. He really needs to do a better job of sealing his feelings off.

Then we have Morph who is probably the worst at using his abilities. He is not only able to transform into other people but he gets their abilities as well. He can seemingly pick any mutant as we se him pick powerful ones like the Juggernaut at times. So why would you ever pick someone as weak as Deathstrike or some of the other street level fighters? Keep on picking the Hulk and Quicksilver. It’s a fun way to make a lot of guest stars appear but you do have to stretch your disbelief when he gets tagged while being the Quicksilver for example. I assume his copies do have some severe limits but super speed is super speed. If he ever learns how to fight then Morph will really be a fighter to be reckoned with. Compared to the rest of the X-Men he doesn’t seem to have had his big character arc yet so I’ll be expecting that to show up in season 2.

Same with Bishop who appears early on to lose against some thugs and then returns at the very end to aura farm a bit. Bishop’s powers are really handy with hos he can absorb energy and fire it back. He should easily be one of the heavy hitters here so I am expecting big things from him. Generally he’s not quite as fun as Cable but this is his chance to outshine the other guy. Cable looks good as always. He really does his best to keep on changing the past so it’s always tough when the future remains bleak. After a point you have to assume that the future is just doomed to be a dark one no matter what happens. It’s almost as if the Marvel Universe is always doomed to destruction. Still, he never gives up.

Then we have two characters in Jubilee and Roberto who get a fairly big role. Roberto is the newest member to the group and he tries to keep his mutant identity a secret. I feel like the reasons should be fairly obvious but this doesn’t stop Jubilee from putting a whole mountain of pressure on the guy. After a while you really feel bad for him because I would want to keep it a secret as well. Mutants are constantly being hunted and the ki is rich so now it will be a double target. Sure enough, things do not go very well once he does reveal his identity. I didn’t think that Jubilee was particularly patient on this and later on when they end up fighting, Roberto has to try and be the voice of reason while Jubilee is out for blood. Jubilee may have gotten older but she still feels immature. I will give her props for battling well in the Modok level though. It was easily her best appearance as she used a whole lot of strategy to come out on top there. Things could have easily gone sideways otherwise. She is still a fun character but the romance didn’t make her look particularly good. In general the pairing just didn’t seem to work very well with how easy it was to pull apart.

Then we have Storm and Forge which takes the cake as the most boring plot. Like I said in the intro, it’s the only part that I just didn’t care about. So Storm loses her powers and Forge helps her out but naturally there is some drama and then he also begins to like her. The romance is rather fast and Storm is a bit too emotional the whole time. I think she heavily overreacted when finding out the kind of technology that he was working on. The random demon that showed up was pretty interesting but then ended up being taken away too soon. I think the idea of this plot could have been interesting but it just dragged on a bit too much. It also could have helped if Storm had looked more impressive in the opening instead of being taken out by some random humans.

The Beast has his own romantic subplot where he is a jerk to a reporter right away. Yet another superficial romance plot where one misstep causes a lot of friction. I blamed Beast on most of this because he didn’t really give her a chance. Beast generally didn’t have much to do in this season which isn’t really his fault though. I’m guessing he will be doing a whole lot more in the next season. Nightcrawler didn’t appear until later on in the season and yet his role was felt a whole lot quicker. He does well in the fights and the teleporting is always really cool. It’s the kind of ability that you really want to have on your side because of how versatile it is. That can always be handy in a fight.

Time for Rogue and Gambit which is naturally a whole magnet for drama. They were always flirting back in the old days but would let the status quo stay the same. Well, now Gambit waited too long and Rogue is drifting around which ends up causing a lot of regrets for both of them. To Gambit’s side, he can only blame himself for not trying to make things more official sooner. By waiting he really did not put himself in a great spot. He does get some pretty cool fight scenes though and generally did a good job in the series.

I’m afraid Rogue comes across as way too indecisive the whole time. She’s rather petty with Captain America and then can’t stop herself from crossing the line later on. While I have no issues with her big decision near the end of the series, it would have probably worked better if not for a lot of the baggage from earlier on in the series. So you could say that things really did not go her way. Her powers look impressive as always though, she is easily one of the strongest X-Men.

There are a solid array of villains running around here. I enjoyed both Gyrich and Trask as always. They have been meddling in the X-Men’s way for a very long time and are up to their old trick. Up to a point you almost have to respect their endless determination here. They will continue doing everything they can in order to destroy the humans until they are stopped. Everyone knows it and yet they are hard to stop. The show deals with this theme as well but a whole lot of humans openly support them. It’s why even in Jail they are able to get big updates on what is going on in the outside world as well as tools on what to do next.

Master Mold even gets a little bit to do here. The first iteration doesn’t look all that impressive but the second one is on point. You’d think sentinels are old hat by this point but the show finds a way to make them still look impressive. I suppose at the end of the day with enough of them they will always be fairly powerful. Sinister also gets to show up and does pretty well in his fights. The guy has always been a fairly strong combatant who just ends up picking fights with opponents who are stronger than him each time. Not a good recipe for success of course and he definitely finds that out the hard way each time. I do think they’ve done about as much as they can with him though so I don’t think the guy needs to appear much more in the future.

Bastion gets a big role near the end but I can’t say that I bought into his backstory all that much. Yeah he had a rough past but that’s true for so many characters in this series. He didn’t have to fully go evil or anything like that. So he’s fully responsible for what’s going on and should have made better life choices if he didn’t want it to go like this. His design and abilities are pretty cool though. Definitely makes for some pretty fun fights.

There are also a ton of guest stars throughout the series with more minor X-Men characters showing up as well as people completely unrelated like Avengers and other figures. I definitely appreciated this because it makes the universe feel that much bigger. Yes, you can end up questioning where the heroes are during other event and that’s valid but showing them on occasion is better than nothing. I also have high hopes that in the next season we will see a bit more of an active role from some. It’s best not to get your hopes too high of course. This is still an X-Men series but I can actually picture an Avengers vs X-Men series now which would definitely be really cool. There is a lot of build up for it after all. The trick will be in not making the Avengers appear to be complete government lackeys but since the X-Men are always infighting it’s possible that the X-Men will even end up being the villains here. In the comics it would usually depend on the writer for the tie-in/event.

There are probably over 100 different guest stars across the series and so keeping that balance throughout the seasons will definitely be the key part. Still, if any series can do it, this one can. As the first big revival season, it’ll be difficult to defeat this one but still season 2 could have a shot. In the meantime the series certainly succeeded on a technical level as well. I enjoyed the opening remix as well as the general tunes during the show. The animation may not be as good as the original show but they did a good job of emulating the look and I would say that it worked out pretty well. There were some real crisp cuts in the fights for several episodes.

One thing that the show continues to do really well is challenge you with moral debates as well. The X-Men go through a whole lot of difficult ordeals, both physically and mentally. This season is no different as the heroes have to fight against their own extinction and there are several ways to go about it. So the debates with Magneto vs Xavier, Madelyne vs Jean, and others are all very interesting. The fights don’t tend to be one sided as you can make good cases both ways but it’s good practice as a thought experiment for you to think about it and pick a side. As for the romance drama, well that’s gonna be more of a miss generally but I suppose even that is usually handled with some tact. Although most of the romances still end up getting a thumbs down.

The show ends off with some pretty big cliffhangers for season 2. I would say it was about 50/50 for me in terms of excitement. I really liked the stinger in the present timeline as this villain is always really exciting. That should make for some great entertainment. The plot in the past? Eh, I don’t really care so much about that one. It’s an origin that’s fairly straight forward unless they throw in some curveballs. The future should be fun as that always tends to be the best era. So a lot to look forward to in season 2, we’ll have to see how it stacks up against season 1. I would say the only worrisome element will be if we don’t spend a lot of time in the present since the guest stars were really starting to exert their presence and this will feel like they’re stalling for season 3 to be the big Marvel crossover event season.

Overall, X Men 97 was definitely a great series. It really goes by quickly and every episode was really exciting. The animation does a good job of emulating the original series and of course the ost is solid as well. This is a show that has nailed all of the fundamentals and so it is not a surprise that the product ends up being great. I can really recommend it to anyone and while watching the original series will give you the greatest level of enjoyment, you can jump into this one and still have a real blast. Episode 1 gives you all that you need to know about who the X-Men are and what they stand for.

Overall 8/10

Meg 2: The Trench Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the big sequel to the original Meg title. The first one wasn’t exactly a top caliber film and unfortunately neither is this one. The Trench certainly does throw in a whole lot more action when it comes to the human combatants but it will also be a long while until you see the Sharks in action. In a sense that can be a good thing for the film since the sharks are usually going to be the title’s downfall. At the same time, you know they will show up eventually so either way it’s not like this will have much of an effect long term. In that case, you might as well get it over with. Sure enough, the film does fall into old habits at that point.

The film focuses around Jonas who has been fighting off eco-terrorists and saving the day from the shadows. His crew is also busy raising one of the Megs and Jiuming is even so overconfident as to think that the Meg won’t eat him. This puts him into danger almost immediately but somehow he manages to get to safety. Everyone tells him what a bad idea this is but he doesn’t care. The heroes go further into the ocean than they had planned and end up finding out that there are several Megs. They just won’t have time to do much about this because of an insurrection. Turns out corporate still has a few tricks up their sleeve and now the heroes will be stuck underwater…forever. Can Jonas figure a way out of here?

A good chunk of the film is really an underwater survival mission. How do you get out of a submarine with no escape pods left and the villains watching your every move? This will definitely make you even more paranoid about being left so far under the sea. It’s just not a good business move especially when it seems like there is a traitor behind every door. Corporate doesn’t have the greatest of plans here as they basically pull a Jurassic World but we have the villainous smirks and cackling throughout the film which is the real important thing. You can tell that these villains really think the world of themselves.

Jonas is a solid lead as always. He is a solid fighter and doesn’t underestimate the terrors of the deep. He is always the voice of reason here and ultimately is the one to get things done. Without him the rest of the crew would not have lasted more than a few minutes. They are seriously outmatched without him there at all times. That’s why Jonas is the head honcho after all.

Meiying is supposed to be the fun child character but she does tend to be more on the annoying side. Stowing away on a dangerous underwater adventure is really not the play. She may have some scientific knowledge that comes in handy from time to time but she also spends a whole lot of time just slowing everyone down. She is physically unable to compete when the going gets tough and that is exactly why kids stay out of missions like this.

Unfortunately Jiuming may be even worse at times. He was a second away from completely traumatizing the kid by getting eaten by the Meg. He was way too confident in his sonar gadget and should have been doing a whole lot of further test studies before actually getting in the ocean. He had to rely on pure luck to stay alive and I can tell you now that this is not a good meter for success. You can’t count on luck to bail you out of every opportunity. That’s just not happening, it’s not a good way to play the odds.

The guy doesn’t really learn his lesson as he is constantly running into danger. Now you may be wondering if every character was completely unprepared for action but I can at least say that DJ was ready. This guy decided to properly arm himself in case the going got tough. Some would call him paranoid, I would call him realistic. This is exactly the kind of initiative I like to see in these events. He had some hand to hand skills, a taser, and other miscellaneous equipment. He saves the day on several accounts here. Every time you think DJ is done, he pulls something else out of his toolbox.

He really stole the show in his quick scenes here. I wish I could say the same about the villains. The lady had a great line though where she asks if another villain is crying. That about sums up how threatening these guys are to be honest. This does give us a chance to give Jonas a solid one liner as he kicks someone off a bridge later on though. When the film leans into a little bit of cheesy behavior, you know that it has a ton of confidence. On the whole the film had a good blend of action and humor. I would say the tone was solid and the fight scenes even had some good choreography. One mistake the film had was in having the best action scene be at the very beginning of the film though. When you peak that early there are always going to be some problems.

So like I said the sharks don’t appear for a while. Unless you count the opening scene I suppose. So the film was mainly doing good but once the Sharks show up then the animal violence begins. One of the big problems with creature films like this is how the monsters don’t actually end up being all that scary. The main character is ultimately able to take a few on with just basic equipment after all. Not the best look for these creatures right? So sadly they are stabbed and blown up. Also the opening scene is fairly graphic with all of the animals getting chopped.

It’s why the creature genre tends to be doomed on arrival. Either the monsters show up and get crushed, or they don’t appear much and you were in a whole bait and switch operation. In either event, the film is probably not going to get the highest score. I would say if you take out all of the animals then this could have been an easy 6 out of 10. Throw in all of the shark bashing and of course it’s going to go lower. Props to the film for not bumping off the dog though, now that would have been really crossing the line.

Overall, Meg 2 feels impressively long but I can’t tell if that’s a good thing and the writers packed a lot in or it means that the pacing was a bit slower than I thought. Either way if you’re here for the sharks then you may find the first half way too slow but if you’re here for the character banter then the second half may not match up for you. If you’re a Dinosaur film then you’ll probably have a good time here because their role is way bigger than I thought it would be. Personally I figured that would maybe just be the opening scene or something but they actually stick around. I think it’s probably time for this series to retire but if we get a third then the only way to top this will be to finally add aliens or something like that.

Overall 3/10

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

Posted on by
Reply


I can definitely see why this one has such a low score compared to the average Marvel production. For the most part this barely even feels like a superhero movie. Whoever decided to make an Ant-Man film that is far less about Scott running around and more about sci-fi lore should have had some second thoughts. All of the film’s issues can be traced back to one thing…..nobody cares about the Quantum realm. It’s got to be one of the more boring settings that I’ve seen in years and feels like it’s trying hard to stand out and instead gets shown up by just about every sci-fi environment before it. Ah well, at least we do have some fun fights.

The film starts off with Scott enjoying life. He helped save the world and his family is back. Things could not be going better for him…well until his daughter gets arrested again. She has been flying further and further off the deep end and it doesn’t help that the rest of Scott’s family almost seem supportive of her getting arrested. When Scott tries to shut this down, they make fun of his book because these are some of the most annoying, pettiest side characters I’ve seen since The Devil Wears Prada. They all seem jealous of Scott saving the world and it’s completely unwarranted since he’s such a nice guy. He’s not being a jerk about it or anything. Ah well, Cassie thought it would be a brilliant idea to send signals to the Quantum Realm and this causes everyone to be warped in there. Can they escape this tyrannical realm before certain twists tear this family apart?

Now you may be thinking that since Scott is basically the only real likable member of the Ant Man family that this film will be a way for everyone else to become tolerable? Well, unfortunately the film only has the opposite effect of that. The Wasp is probably the best out of the main supporting characters but she was actually more fun in the last one. The Quantum Realm brings out the worst in most characters although it brings out the best in one of the antagonists though so I’ll give the film some credit there.

Darren finally returns! The guy gets so much hype and recognition. Every time he shows up, the characters exclaim “Darren!” In a really puzzles but excited way. It’s sort of like when you’re at a party and you finally bump into someone that you know. So that was pretty cool and definitely worked out pretty well. He is now known as MODOK but it’s not like he’s a very serious character so his best scenes are when he takes the visor off. He had the best jokes throughout the movie. Yeah he gets some serious moments by the end but for the most part you will be remembering the laughs. It’s another glimpse of what the film could have been. Imagine a lot of banter between him and Scott above ground. Now that would have been fun.

Scott is still a good main character. He tends to carry his scenes and most of his dialogue is just good fun. He can banter with the best of characters. Scott may not be the best fighter but he’s a good dad just trying to help his family out of a jam. The guy endures quite a lot of damage and punishing blows throughout the movie with no real complaints either. I’d say he’s generally one of the most likable Avengers at this point.

That’s why the Quantum Realm is such a waste. You just don’t really care about Kang’s empire or the resistance group fighting against him. It just feels like the most generic war possible and we don’t get enough out of the characters to really be invested. The backgrounds are more boring than cool and of course the film can’t resist going with the disgusting ooze angle a few times like with the controls or having to drink some to understand the aliens. It really felt like the writers had no idea what to do with this place.

Then this place also destroyed Janet as a character. He was around here for a while and basically got into an affair. You’re hoping the whole time that maybe it wasn’t as bad as you’re thinking, only for rebound guy to confirm it. Janet’s excuse is also the worst possible one as she talks about having needs. That’s the lamest thing I’ve heard in a minute. Her constant secrets are also why everything fell into disarray so this film destroyed any possible character she could have had prior. There is just no coming back from this.

Meanwhile Hank is just way too passive about the whole thing. He’s very chill upon learning about this and then also admits he went on some dates himself. It’s all such weak stuff and then Hank is sidelined for a large part of the film. He does end up helping out with his ants later on but the main problem is that in a film like this there just wasn’t much to do. It’s not even a particularly action packed movie as things don’t really get explosive until the climax. Until then it’s mainly a lot of setup and lore.

Then we have Cassie and a whole lot of this is her fault after all. Shrinking cop cars and breaking the law is bad enough but then messing with the Quantum Realm when she knew Janet had been stuck there for decades. It seems like Cassie was mainly doing this out of curiosity which is not a great motive. It’s not like she was getting ready to save tons of lives or anything like that. Yeah I can’t give her a pass on this either. It’s just such a bad look for her all the way around. Of course by the end she has found a cause worth fighting for and does her best but it’s more like a broken clock finally getting the time right. I need to see some real character development that stuck for her in the next film.

Hope isn’t bad but it feels like she spends a good chunk of the intro to the film just smirking in the background as opposed to actually backing Scott up. I do appreciate that she is always a lot quicker to action though. Her suit is basically always on and she also didn’t panic with her alternate version copies as much. every group needs a good fighter an she does thrive in that role. So I may not be her biggest fan but I do appreciate her in a fight and she is definitely the backup that Scott needed.

As for good ole Kang the Conqueror, he just looks way too wimpy here. Yeah you could say it was part of his plan but his first appearance just makes him look so small and weak. Even once he has the tech back, you’re telling me he couldn’t react fast enough to stop Janet initially? Then having any trouble with Scott later on is rough. You really have two options here. Either his tech isn’t as good as he thinks it is and he never beat the Avengers in the past, or he is an absolutely terrible combatant who squanders his tech the whole time. Either way it is not a good look for him.

I would not be able to take him seriously to handle a big team of fighters so I’m definitely cool with the character being written out. We get two post credit scenes involving him and they’re more funny than anything. Kang really thought he could do something. The guest stars in the second scene were a lot more fun. Especially with one character completely calling Kang out the way I would have in the audience. He just doesn’t look that imposing at all and this film really sealed the deal there.

Overall, This film had its moments but the beginning and ending were easily the best parts. I wanted more of the surface world which always has a lot of fun to it. I usually like a good sci-fi environment but the world building for the Quantum Realm was just way too boring. The film did not do enough to justify its focus within the story. Ultimately that took a big toll on the film and it could have used some more action to keep you interested. There’s really on replay value to be had here or any reason to really watch the film. So for that reason you could probably skip this one and jump to the next film that really counts. Of course if you do plan to watch the movie, it’s not like it is a bad experience or anything so you’ll be fine. Just don’t expect a classic Ant-Man light hearted adventure.

Overall 5/10