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As above, so below

above below

When it comes to found footage, it’s a real niche genre. There is Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism which were at least convincing, and then you have movies like The Devil Inside blew the concept. As Above So Below is one of the later.

We follow a history student named Scarlet as she sets out on a documentary to find the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. Her search leads her to believe the stone under the catacombs under Paris, deep below the City of Lights is a network of winding, endless tunnels and thousands of bones gathered over centuries. It’s believed the tunnels rest between our world and hell, and lies the stone. Would you descend into hell for the key to ultimate wealth?

The concept for this movie is great; the catacombs are a fantastic setting for horror. The rest of the movie is a train wreck. The characters are thinner than tissue paper; the plot is too. I’m still trying to understand how the hell the ending works. Characters face secrets they hid in hellish visions but they haven’t really established the characters enough to care or connections to what we see later so it’s just random. There’s a hell of a lot of shaky cam and jump scare noises- in fact I’d say it’s 90% of the movie. This movie is one of those sad cases of great potential lost in artless trend and I don’t recommend it at all. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mary Poppins Returns trailer

So we finally get a real trailer for the surprising sequel to the beloved children’s classic. Mary Poppins Returns teaser was just that, but I can now say it looks promising. Emily Blunt doesn’t seem like a bad choice to reprise the role Julie Andrews made iconic. I like the technicolor effects for the vintage Disney vibe. In the end, it will be something interesting to see; may the gaming gods bring you glory.

X men: the official game

x men the offical game

I have a weird pet peeve when it comes to franchises. I hate when a series begins in one medium but has installments in other mediums to fill in the gaps. X men the offical game is one such game, existing to connect the gaps between X2: X men United and X Men: The Last Stand . The game is divided into three campaigns: Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler leading into where they are in the third film.

The game isn’t a marvel (yes, pun intended) by any means. As Wolverine, you go straight up hack n slash which never really feels special. Nightcrawler you teleport around trying for more stealth attacks; the teleporting can be funky and like many stealth characters, you take a lot of damage super quick. Iceman you slide around on streams of ice and blast stuff with ice projectiles; his part was my favorite of the three and ran the smoothest. There is a comic book style to the cut scenes which doesn’t really fit that great. Graphics are fine and the voices are fine. In the end, the game is meh but doesn’t really try to be anything super special even to a hard core fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man 2: the game

spidey 2 ps2

Spider- man 2 is one of my all time favorite superhero movies and strangely has probably the best movie tie in game I’ve ever played. The story follows the main story of the movie while adding a Black Cat thread through most of the game, ending with a rematch against Shocker after the events of Spider-man (Ps2 era) as well as facing off against Rhino and Mysterio- which has a hilarious end.

Unlike most reviews , I’m going to start with the negatives rather than bad to good. The worst aspect of the game is the voice acting which, with the exception of Bruce Campbell as the narrator again, sounds dry and tired. The game otherwise is damn near perfect. Web swinging is fantastic; Spider-man moves with a lot of cool acrobatics and feels fast and realistic. Combat is fun, almost a precursor to the Arkham game. There is a flaw with the combat in that once you master the game’s mechanics, you no longer need the instinct mode and the game becomes too easy- there is only one difficulty. There are races, civilians to save, pizzas to deliver, petty crimes to stop, and secrets to find to pass the time which is fun. In the end, the game is far behind it’s time and deserves a fun play through. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina trailer

After watching the Riverdale season 3 trailer and being curious as hell, the curiosity tripled after finding out Sabrina was getting her own show again. Well, a weird day it is when Sabrina the teenage witch has a freakier trailer than American Horror Story . I was caught off guard and I’m glad to say it looks pretty cool and I’m willing to give the new creative direction a shot. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Venom rating announced

venom 2018

I’ve been following the Venom movie pretty closely, especially since the rumors began that it was going to be rated R. With the huge successes of Deadpool , Deadpool 2 , and Logan as well as the fact it wasn’t a part of the MCU I imagined it’d be no problem getting a R rating. Well, it’s PG-13 which is pissing off much of the nerd community. I understand, the first thought that comes to mind is the watered down, corny Venom of Spider-man 3 ; another foul taste that comes to mind is the unwise choice of making The Dark Tower PG-13. While the Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises made the absolute most of there PG-13 ratings, I have to admit I’m seriously doubtful now about this movie. I think Tom Hardy will be great, I think the creature effects will be great, but everything else will be played out. I pray I’m wrong, but time will tell. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man (Ps2 era)

spider-man ps2

Since I’ve been on a kick lately talking about movie tie games such as Fantastic 4 (2005) the game and Superman returns: the game and well, they pretty much in a nutshell sucked. But, here’s a prime of a Spider-man movie tie game that’s pretty cool, based off of Spider-man from Sam Rami with the voice talents of Tobey Mcquire, Willem Dafoe, and Bruce Campbell returning for the game. As for the story, we begin hunting down Uncle Ben’s killer and becoming Spider-man facing off against villains like Shocker, Vulture, Scorpion, Kraven ( X Box only), and of course the Green Goblin. The villians are actually pretty well done, each given multiple chapters to flush them out and while some are easier than others, none of them ever feel weak and they have an epic mystique to them; I really like how Goblin goes out of his way to do more, and none of it feels like filler and I admit I wish they included some of his parts in the movie.

The game, a decade and a half after release, holds up pretty well. The combat is pretty fun with web moves and combos you unlock after finding golden spiders throughout the chapters. Web swinging is automatic which comes off kinda lazy but is passable; web zipping is pretty awesome and pretty damn acute- master it well before Shocker’s final chapter. The graphics are pretty good for early PS2 era. I really liked the music, which gives a darker tone for certain parts and is cool. After the story, there are fun challenges in training, including swing bowling which is fun as hell. In the end, this an example of a good movie tie in game and it’s worth looking into. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hulk (2003) game

hulk 2003 game

Damn, thinking back on it I played a lot of movie tie in games. This particular game is meant to be a sequel to Hulk from 2003; the Hulk movie with Eric Bana that no one liked. So how does it hold up? Well the plot is simple, Bruce Banner is on the run once again from the military and searching for a cure. He trusts a rival, disabled scientist named Crawford who betrays you , becomes a Hulk-like creature named Ravage who allies Himself with the Leader, a gamma being with a enlarged brain that wants to take over the world using Hulk’s DNA, after creating his own band of freaks to attack the brute…

The game is divided into two completely different gameplay styles: smashing through guys as the Hulk and stealth as Banner. First and foremost, the Banner parts suck. It’s really easy to get caught and you die really quick. The Hulk parts are way better but simple. You wreak stuff; there are cool super moves like thunder clap as well as being able to pick up stuff as weapons. It’s standard beat em up but it’s fun enough. I seriously recommend getting the cheat codes so you can be invulnerable, have unlimited energy and unlock all levels and skip the Banner shit. The graphics are bright and mediocre and the voice acting is blah. If you want an alright beat,em up game, it’s worth a shot but make sure to get the cheat codes for a pretty sweet Hulk experience. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Unbreakable

unbreakable Glass trailer 1 was my most anticipated and favorite trailer from SDCC 2018. I loved Split and was excited to jump into the first entry of this trilogy.

Unbreakable is the story of David Dunn (Willis) who is the sole survivor of a train crash that killed everyone on board but miraculously be unscathed . Not a scratch. As the story progresses we discover there’s a link to David’s unhappiness and how he survived the crash; throughout his life he’s almost never been ill nor ever been injured except for once in a near death experience where he nearly drowned. He’s strong and he has a strong instinct about people he was never able to explain. He meets a strange, disabled man named Elijah Prince (Jackson) is enticed by Dunn. Prince was born with a bone disorder, he’s super fragile while Dunn seems nearly indestructible. Terrible things have happened to Dunn over his life and every time he has been the sole survivor. Prince theorizes Dunn is a real life superhero and tells him how he knew there was someone like him all along, an exact opposite. Is Prince a mad man or is David Dunn a real life superhero?

This movie earned it’s reputation as one of Shyamalan’s best and it is extremely refreshing in the crowded superhero market. This isn’t an action movie but a really well done character piece that dips into the superhero lore. Willis and Jackson are amazing with a good supporting cast. The music was cool. Visually it looked great; I liked the uses of Green for Dunn and Purple for Glass throughout. The pacing is slow to start, but once the two main leads interact than it really picks up. It’s a great movie that brings a superhero story to a very grounded, relateable place and I highly recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ultimate Spider-man game

ultimate spider-man

I don’t really talk about Ultimate Marvel that much. I enjoyed Ultimate Fantastic 4: Fantastic / Doom and the The Ultimates but that’s where most of my fuzzy feelings end on the matter. This game opened my eyes…

So it begins with a really quick run through of Ultimate Spider-man lore and immediately a boss fight, Venom chasing down Parker at a rained out football game. Through the game we switch perspectives as Spider-man and Venom as S.H.I.E.L.D, OsCorp hunt you down but it all comes down to the grudge match between the two.

Some of Ultimate’s general story choices always bothered the shit out of me like the Black Suit not being a alien, Green Goblin being lime green HellBoy that throws fireballs, and Peter Parker being Carnage. How Venom is portrayed as more of a mindless brute that just hungers is enough to piss off any true old school Spidey fan. That being said the story isn’t great but passable.

The game’s graphics go for a bright comic book aesthetic which fits. Playing as Spider-man is a serious down grade from the awesome Spider-man 2 game. There’s no real combat combos, the web swinging feels clunky by comparison, and instead of the previous game’s cool dodge mechanics, you just jump out of the way. As for Venom, you brawl with your fists and tentacles as well as a hell of a super jump. The problem is your health bar dwindles and you have to feed- a lot. Venom’s chase sections are a pain in the ass compared to Spidey’s. The villain roster is nice with the likes of Shocker, Electro, Goblin, Beetle, Rhino, Silver Sable and Carnage. Would I recommend it- not unless you are a fan of the Ultimate comics honestly. Before this game and after, there are better Spider-man games out there. May the gaming gods bring you glory.