Details: Aired in 2017 on Cartoon Network. Season three has ten episode that are each around twenty-two minutes long.
While season three is mostly more of the same, this season does succeed at being darker, have better production values, and is more action packed than either of the prior two seasons.
Details: Released in 2017. Around two hours long.
I first watched the anime Sword Art Online as it was airing a very long time ago. I really liked as there were no other shows at the time quite like it. Since then, countless animes hoping to profit off the success of Sword Art Online have copied the general plot aspects of this show and turned it into a whole genre, drowning anime watchers in a sea of shows where the protagonist is transported/reborn into a fantasy world where they can level up as if in a video game. As someone watching this movie in this context, I can say that the movie was not great, with the best part of the movie being the after credits scene.
Continue reading “Anime Movie Review: Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale”
Details: Released in 2017. Directed by Michael Bay. Stars Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel. About two and half hours long.
My favorite movies are the ones that trigger emotions, that make me feel elation, sadness, or joy. Transformers: The Last Knight made me feel nothing.
Continue reading “Movie Review: Transformers: The Last Knight”
Details: Aired on the BBC in 2017. The Christmas Special aired in 2016. Twelve episodes with each episode somewhere between forty-five minutes to an hour long.
I think Matt Smith’s impact on the Doctor Who series is profound in that his tenure was one of the most successful, if not the most successful. That creates problems, especially for his successor, Peter Capaldi. You see, Smith was so charismatic, had such presence in each episode, that the writers could write whatever dumb, lazy, ill thought out crap they wanted and Matt Smith would just deliver the hell out of those lines. He’d play that quirky, charming Doctor and we’d go along for the ride, no matter how little sense the plot made. The problem is that Capaldi is neither as young nor is his performance as in your face or charming as Smith’s and that is intentionally so. Doctor Who writers can no longer rely on the leading actor to fill in all the writing errors and instead have to write good stories.
Capaldi’s first season seemed to be that adjustment period. The stories weren’t great because they needed to learn how to write for a Doctor that wasn’t Matt Smith. This second season of Capaldi’s tenure is far better in that the stories and science fiction concepts expressed in here are far better and held my interest better. I’m glad they relied less on Capaldi, even though he did a good job here. Series 10 is a good season of science fiction and I enjoyed it very much.
Details: Released in 2010. Played it on the PC. Purchased for about four dollars. Five episodes in total that took about two hours each to beat.
When you hear the name Telltale Games (and know a little about video games) you think about games like the Walking Dead. You think about games with branching plot lines, meaningful choices that change major plot points in the game and cause alternate endings. Back to the Future: The Game is not one of those games. You need to remember that this game predates The Walking Dead game. Back to the Future: The Game is a very traditional adventure game that follows a single, linear plot line. Fortunately, that plot line is decent.
Continue reading “Video Game Review: Back to the Future: The Game”
Details: The Japanese title is Kimi No Na Wa. Released in 2016. About an hour and forty-five minutes long. Written and directed by Makoto Shinkai.
The first time I tried to watch this movie was on an airplane. About fifteen minutes in I found it too boring and opted to take a nap instead. Prior to that, I had read a lot of positive reviews about this movie and of its director, Makoto Shinkai. Shinkai has won a lot of awards in the past for his work in animation and I’d seen his prior movie, 5 Centimeters Per Second. Well, some time has passed since that plane ride and I decided to sit down and give the film another try. I found the film much more enjoyable this time.
Details: Released in 2017. A little under two hours and twenty minutes long. Stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista.
I think what needs to be understood about this movie is that this is a fun movie. This is a comedy. If you’re looking for a serious story or a space opera, this isn’t it. There are some emotional points throughout the movie, but if you take the few moments of drama with the overwhelming amount of jokes and fourth wall breaking moments, it’s clear this is not a super serious film.
Continue reading “Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
Details: Airs on Cartoon Network. Each episode is about twenty-two minutes long. Each season has about eleven episodes.
On April 1, I was looking forward to watching the newest episode of Samurai Jack. I’m a long time Samurai Jack fan. To my surprise and to the surprise of viewers everywhere, the newest episode of Rick and Morty aired instead of Samurai Jack. I’ve never watched Rick and Morty before, but I’ve heard good things. I didn’t watch the episode that night and, instead, binge watched the first two seasons of Rick and Morty before eventually watching the newest episode, “The Rickshaw Redemption.”
Public service announcement: Mass Effect 2 is free on Origin, Electronic Arts’ video game platform for the PC. If you haven’t played it before, I would strongly suggest you do. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. I wrote something about it prior, but I don’t recommend you read it if you haven’t played because of spoilers.
Here’s the link: https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/mass-effect/mass-effect-2/standard-edition
Here’s the trailer:
Details: Purchased the trade paperback which collected all three issues. Listed price is $12.99. Released in 2005. Official site is http://www.vertigocomics.com/graphic-novels/we3
I originally read this book a few years ago and forgot about it. More recently, as I was looking for a gift for an artist friend of mine who loves animals, I decided to pick this book up for her and to also give it a quick read through again. Thus, this review.
This is a really great book. It won a bunch of accolades that first year it came out. It won the Eisner Awards for best art and letterer. It is a New York Times best seller, which isn’t very common for comic books. Most importantly, it was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, two of the most well-known and respected creators in comic books who have a whole collection of top-selling books under their belts.
The premise is this: A dog, a cat, and a rabbit are cybernetically enhanced by the U.S. military into killing machines. When they are ordered to be terminated, the three escape and try to make their way “home.”
It’s like the movie Homeward Bound, but a little more science fiction-y and R rated. I think a large reason why it sold so well and was so well received was that at its core, it’s a story about animals. I think I wouldn’t be alone to say that while it isn’t primarily an animal rights story, the story does a great job getting the reader to feel for these animals.
The art is amazing. Frank Quitely almost always amazes and some of the panels and fold out art in this book are stunning. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another book that has art this good. Some of the violence is pretty graphic though, so keep that in mind if you intend on letting younger reader read this book.
In conclusion, this is a great book that anyone who likes comic books should give a read. I purchased the trade paperback which collects all three issues into one book. I think this is only way that this book should be purchased. The trade paperback came with some sketches and comments from the author, which I generally enjoy.
Score: 8/10
Muse Bank 