Category: Opinion

Black Panther

black panther

If you caught my review of Avengers: Infinity War you would have noticed how Black Panther is the only damn movie I wasn’t able to drop a link. Sadly Panther was a casualty of our local theater closing down so I had to wait until Redbox, which pissed me off because I do love the character of Panther.

Picking up after Captain America: Civil War (Cap side) T’ Challa returns to the hidden, thriving African nation of Wakanda, where Vibranium came from. While grieving over the death of his father, he must rise to take the throne. While most are content with the quiet Prince taking the throne, some wish to bring him down, the most damning being his angry, idealistic hidden cousin, Erik Killmonger, who manages to defeat T’ Challa and set forth his plan to share Wakanda’s technology wealth with the world. Can T’ Challa save his kingdom?

As a Black Panther fan, I was pleased with the movie but it isn’t the game changer many have claimed it to be. A huge positive is the acting. Chadwick Boseman and Michael B Jordan are amazing as T’ Challa and Killmonger; Jordan’s performance many times steals the show and absolutely makes up for Fant4stic . Something I will say now, it is one of the slower movies of the MCU but it has some of the best characters and is most interestingly set. The effects for the first two acts are great but falter a bit in the last act. The story is good but I feel some of it is a bit muddled up, which isn’t totally damning, but if it’s your first comic book movie, it might confuse you. In the end, it was a pretty damn good superhero movie with some great characters and lore. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Suspiria 2018 trailer 1

 

Suspiria was one of the most artistic, beautiful, and creative horror movies I’ve ever seen and at first when I heard it was getting a remake, I rolled my eyes. Though I did a list of 5 horror remakes I loved , I generally don’t, hence the post I did after, 5 remakes that went and pissed me off . I’m glad to see Suspiria doesn’t look like a copy/ paste remake like the Omen, but at the same time I didn’t believe it was Suspiria until the title popped up. The trailer is well done though, intriguing and unsettling and I can’t wait to see it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Justice League: Doom

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It’s no secret I was pretty disappointed with last year’s Justice League (2017) I took this opportunity on Hulu to get my fix of real JLA.

Mostly based on the story “Tower of Babel.”, we get the story of how Batman’s paranoia and over preparation almost destroyed the JLA. Brilliant immortal Vandal immortal brings the likes of Bane, Star Sapphire, Cheetah, Mirror Master, Metallo, and Ma’alefa’ek because they hate a member of the JLA. Savage forms the Legion of Doom and with files Mirror Master stole from the BatCave, he gives each villain a specifically designed plan to take down there foes, tailored to there specific weaknesses. One by one, Batman, Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter fall. With some help from Cyborg they manage to pull themselves up, barely, but can they beat the Legion and trust Batman?

I loved the hell out of this movie. The voice acting was great, especially Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly as Batman and Superman, but my favorite may have been Nathan Fillion as a great Green Lantern. Every character gets a fair amount of screen time, though I admit Flash and Cyborg lack a little. The bad guy choices were interesting, definitely not the usual picks. The movie movie drags once or twice but nothing major. It’s a really good JLA movie I suggest checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil 5

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After the huge impact Resident Evil 4 had on me, as well as 2 and 3, I was pumped for 5 and was a huge selling point for me getting a PS3. Was it worth the hype?

Years after Resident Evil (remake) , Chris Redfield ( now a hell of a lot more buff and rugged looking.) is a agent of the BSAA, an organization tasked with eliminating bio-terrorism across the globe. On the ass hunting down a scumbag named Irving, Chris ventures to Africa, partnering with Sheva as they discover a hideous affliction of a contagion called the Uroboros as well as the Las Plagus. After Irving, the pair discover secrets leading them back to the ghostly remnants of Umbrella, discovering where the progenitor virus came from as well as the long awaited reunion with Chris’s old teammate and nemesis Albert Wesker as well as another ghost from Chris and Wesker’s past. Can the duo defeat the OP Wesker and stop the Uroboros?

While not terrible, this game has much to be desired. Graphically it’s beautiful, accompanied by a great score, perhaps my favorite of the series in fact. Gameplay is solid but the scare inventory slots can be annoying. A big this I have to say is the creatures in this game are the least frightening in the whole series. In fact, I have to say the Majini later on made me laugh rather than fill me with fear. You can definitely tell this game was a third person shooter at heart, which did function and play well enough as one, unlike Resident Evil 6 but damn it doesn’t feel right. Another huge issue I had was that the A.I for Sheva was dumber than a bag of rocks.   Plenty of times her idiotic death resulted in a pain in the ass redo or if I gave her a gun, she would waste the bullets, bullets I sorely needed. I do like that every loading screen is a summary from a Resident Evil timeline you can access in the bonus menu to learn more about the lore or get a better perspective on the lore. The best way to enjoy the game is with a buddy, which by the way, as Savoir and I proved, the game has drop in/ drop out couch co-op as well as online co-op; the game becomes 100 times better with a friend. If you and a buddy want a good game to play, it’s definitely worth the $20 it goes for. On it’s own its a solid game with some issues that can be overlooked. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil: Revelations

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In 2013, we got 3 Resident Evil games and who would’ve guessed the best of the 3 would’ve been a Nintendo 3DS game. Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City did a strong disservice to the series, so it’s actually pretty easy to top the list of best Resident Evil of that year, but how good is it on it’s own?

So Revelations primarily follows Jill Valentine and her new partner Parker as they find themselves trapped on the Queen Zenobia, a luxury cruise liner where there has been a terrorist sighting and a B.O.W outbreak. Veltro, a terrorist group, years before had been committed on a sea city, leading to it’s destruction. Now they are equipped with the T-Abyss virus, creating horrible sea creature monstrosities. And if that isn’t bad enough, they have to survive the ship destroying itself, government machinations, and massive beasts; can she hold off til Chris Redfield and his new partner come to find them…

I’m basically on the fence with this game. Small disclosure, I didn’t play the 3DS version but the PS4 port so I can’t say if it’s better there, but some of the controls I can tell. The game does a fair job at being best of both worlds. It does have a claustrophobic setting and the beginning is creepy and the game has a solid modern combat system like 4, but better than 5. There are no zombies but in flashbacks there is a crap load of Hunters. The ScagDead boss is creepy as hell but irritating when they become regular enemies but the monsters mostly are Resident Evil staples. The Genesis scanner is a cool new feature that really comes in handy but there is a really shitty evade mechanic that got under my skin. When it comes to the plot, I was into it when it stayed on Jill but I checked out halfway through because I felt like I was watching 24 with a Resident Evil skin. In the end, it’s exactly in the middle for me. It’s nowhere near classic but it’s nowhere near terrible but at times it is frustrating. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Paranormal Activity 4

pa 4

I’ve been to probably 1,000 movies over my lifetime and Paranormal Activity 4 is one of the few times I wanted my money back.

Acting as the real sequel to the original, it picks up with the story of a family who gets  new neighbors: Katie and Hunter, and of course strange shit goes on and it’s all recorded on film…that’s almost literally the entire movie.

By the 4th movie, in less than 5 years after the original movie, it’s charm has worn off. The movie is insultingly short, leading eventually to why I wanted my money back. I’ve watched DBZ films longer than this damn thing and to pay 10 bucks to be in and out. The most memorable part was the ending, but this time came as no real surprise and the poor pacing ruined what effect it could have had. If you buy the collection it’s meh at best but I wouldn’t go past $5 for it. After 4 I quit the series, admiring the trilogy but recommending you stop there. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Paranormal Activity 3

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Around this time I was a fan of this movie and had a job; my old writing partner and I had a WTF late night adventure trying to see this at midnight to no actual avail, but I digress. The teaser was chilling, and I’ll include it below. Many of the trailers were freaky as hell. Most of the cool shit never made it to this short ass movie.

Paranormal Activity 3 is a huge prequel, going back to when Katie and Kristy were little girls and we get to explore the very origin of the disturbances, the fire, the reason neither of them remembered anything as adult women. It begins when little Kristy finds a imaginary friend that no one thinks twice about; kids will be kids. But things begin to happen and before the family knows it they are on the run leading to perhaps my favorite WTF climaxes I’ve seen on film in a long time.

3 is the last of these movies I would call totally good. There are some crazy effects but I can say it’s a bit toned down from the previous movie. The acting again is solid but I have to say the kids nailed it; watching Kristy talking to nothing freaked me out a bit. By the third movie we find ourselves getting used to the formula, especially how frequently they were coming out, and with the exception of the WTF ending that kicks your ass, there isn’t much new ground covered. Something that bothers the shit out of me is a combination of the the pacing and how short the movie is. When you hit that WTF ending, the movie feels on the cusp of entering Act 3, not the tip toes of it which is jarring as hell. It adds to the scare but after the surprise wears off, you feel oddly let down. In the end, it’s a good found footage film that completes a solid trilogy. I’d end it here, save face, and call it a day. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Paranormal Activity 2

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The craze for Paranormal Activity was on after the buzz and bucks the first movie got and oh how found footage found life in horror cinema again, The Last Exorcism being a prime example of the time. Well, of course there was a sequel and it was made and out in blinding speed…

Paranormal Activity 2 can strangely be called a prequel in that it takes place just before the events of the first one kick off. We follow Kristy, younger sister of Katie of the first movie, and her family as they are terrorized by an unseen force after her son Hunter is born. We begin to discover clues about the sisters past and we learn a dark family secret, leading to a pretty dick move that ultimately bites the family in the ass at the end…

Somehow I found myself thinking the second installment of this series is both better and worse than the first. Better because it is more eventful with some crazier shit going down in the second and third acts and the back story does become quite intriguing. The acting is still solid and performed by people I can see as regular normal people, in fact I cared about there well being throughout. Worse because while the effects are better and more entertaining to watch, the third act breaks the straw on the play at realism.  Granted it’s not unforgivable or damage the film at all really, but you know it’s a damn movie now. Another thing I have to say is I found the pacing in the first act slower than the first movie’s and pretty boring. In the end it’s a solid sequel and worth a watch late night. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Paranormal Activity

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In 2009, my last year in high school, my class was taken by storm by a little horror movie called Paranormal Activity. It’s a simple found footage film about a well off couple, Katie and Micah, who have weird shit going on in there house and get a camera to record it overnight. As days go on, the activity becomes more malevolent and it takes a toll on Katie and a mystery unfolds about Katie’s upbringing that can prove dangerous.

This is kind of a tricky movie to talk about. When I first saw it in 2010, it actually scared the shit out of me at the end and I will give it this, while it is a slow burn, it does do well to build suspense and does have a good pay off at the end. You get a fair sense of the characters and how they change throughout. The lack of music and opening credits and the fact the actors are convincing enough to be normal people. It does drag, the pacing is slow and there is a huge unintentionally hilarious part in the middle, and I mean laugh your ass off funny when the ghost expert guy returns. In the years, following it and the bullshit sequels and corny effects, it has lost some luster but it is a Ok horror film that is worth checking out but turn off the lights and watch it in the dark. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spawn: Armageddon

spawn armegeddon

If you didn’t get enough Spawn after my combo blog on Spawn/ Spawn: origins , we’re going to talk about my favorite piece of Spawn media and was my first intro to the character. Pretty much the war between Heaven and Hell is going to fall on Earth and Spawn is in the middle with his huge array of guns, powers, signature chains, and his trusty Ax of Agony.

Right of the bat, let me be frank: this game is not special in any way shape or form but it is fun as hell. You start off pretty damn powerful and there’s a huge collection of powers and weaponry to combo and slaughter the hordes of Heaven and Hell and it goes farther than that but the enemies quickly become a threat. If you enjoy Devil May Cry, essentially the game play feels the same. The bosses are huge and epic and challenging towards the end. The story isn’t much but it’s a damn fun hack n slash game I’d recommend if you want a high energy blood and gore game. May the gaming gods bring you glory.