#52 - Death Note (Netflix) (Happy New Year)

Yes, I’m going here again, sue me, I warned you in the last rage review.

The Japanese adaptations of Death Note are probably the reviews that in retrospect, I regret being as harsh on. Not because I don’t stand by my criticisms, exactly. But I feel the producers had a losing battle, needing to tell a 3-act story in only 2 acts. Even then, the stories were heavily rushed and more should’ve trimmed to streamline the plot. It probably doesn’t help I had to watch the subbed versions as the dub wasn’t a DVD release. But whatever their faults, know this, at least they’re not this movie

Netflix is a hub for creative content (Voltron) and utter garbage (the Ridiculous 6) I’m going to try and review more stuff on Netflix next year, I mentioned before about doing a load of retrospectives. I’d say this ranks more in the middle, but this has received a wave of negative reactions from fans of the anime/manga and I figured I’d put my thoughts on the table. Happy New Year!

Why I love Arthur Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and it’s time to finally look at a Christmas special, as we do every year, but because I’m busy around the holidays, I’m only doing a short piece on this one. This may essentially end up being a repeat of the Nostalgia Critic Editorial on it, but I want to say I love this movie so much… Arthur Christmas

A team-up between Sony Animation: the studio that brought you The Emoji Movie and you know, this abomination

And Aardman most known for stop-motion stuff like Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, this movie came out in 2012 to a positive critical reception but rather low box office figures, only $142m on a $100m budget, it’s quite possible this movie lost money at the box office.

But I think it really is good enough to be considered a classic, here’s why

Uncharted: Lost Legacy review

Despite a small number of issues, I thoroughly enjoyed Uncharted 4, and the announcement that it was going to get a single-player expansion was exciting. But I dismissed it as a 3-4 hour experience and decided to buy the expansion separately as opposed to buying the season pass and paying for the multiplayer stuff I’m not interested in. A decision I would later come to regret when the expansion became longer and the individual price came out at £25, cheap for a standalone title, which it ultimately is, although about half the length of a usual Uncharted game.

What’s more interesting is their choice of protagonists, Nathan’s story is done, there’s little story left to tell for him, a lot of fans thought they might go for a Sam Drake/Sully story, and whilst that would be cool, there was a character I personally wish had some screen time in Uncharted 4 because she’s that awesome.

This is Chloe Frazer, she’s tough, she takes no sh*t and she’s badass, but has a sense of humour. She’s smart and can be manipulative to get what she wants, but she’s willing to walk away if the risk is too great. Chloe is a well-defined and interesting character and who better to partner her up with than the person who last time I complained was neither of these things, Nadine Ross? Can being a treasure hunter help her character get some much-needed development?

Well, here’s how I rated Uncharted: Lost Legacy

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 Episodes 1-3 review - Orientation (parts 1 and 2)/A life Spent

Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. has entered its 5^th season. And rather than starting in January when it’s convenient for me, it’s decided to run right in through Christmas, meaning there’s likely to be a long list of episodes I’m covering next time. Let’s start with the 2-parter Orientation.

#51 - Batman and Harley Quinn

Oh boy, we’ve got a bad one for this entry. And I wanted to start with a simple question. Bruce Timm, what happened to you?

Bruce Timm has become somewhat of a legend when it comes to superhero stuff, being one of the guys behind the excellent DCAU and the very good Green Lantern: The Animated series, which I will eventually cover as a retrospective.

Then he took some time off, when he first came back it was for Justice League: Gods and Monsters; a unique take on the trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman where their morals are more grey than usual. It was good, even great, but then something happened, his next movie was the Killing Joke. I ripped this movie apart back in May, particular for that abysmal opening third featuring Batman and Batgirl having sex on a rooftop.

So, for this story, one that’s completely unique, they wanted to tone down the darker tone and focus on humour. That’s fine. Justice League Action, which is a solid if shallow show did that exact thing. But here’s the thing, being a comedy whilst also being adult-orientated can lend itself to some very bad things. I’m looking at you, FAMILY GUY!

So, are we talking At World’s End comedy or Dude, Where’s my Car? comedy? Would it really be here if it wasn’t the latter?

Mini Review - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

So, we’re concluding Marvel Month with Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2. Given the success of the original, a sequel was inevitable, what might surprise you is the budget wasn’t raised. It still had a £200m budget, and again it was successful, earning $860m at the box office, and was well received critically, with an 82% rotten tomatoes rating.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Doctor Strange

Whilst the Scarlett Witch exists in the MCU, she was more a super-powered being than a genuine magic user. Magic is a fascinating area that does warrant exploration and it’s not beyond the realms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which can more-or-less do anything by this point. And for exploring the realms of magic, doing the origin of Doctor Strange, a character who is himself relatively new to the realm, makes perfect sense.

So… Doctor Strange had a budget of $166m and made a profitable $677m, it also was well liked by critics despite some unfortunate press going in. 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is pretty high. But here are my thoughts

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Ant-man

Being the first movie to follow up an Avengers movie is a big deal, Iron Man 3 rode the Avengers Wave and grossed over $1bn, despite not being as big a critical hit as a lot of previous movies. Ant-man wasn’t as big a hit, but it was another Marvel gamble. With $142m in its budget, it managed to gross $512m, whilst on the lower end of Marvel movies, it was enough to be considered a success and green-light a sequel. Critically, it’s well liked with an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So why am I not exactly excited on this one… well, let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Guardians of the Galaxy

Next up in Marvel Month was one of Marvel’s biggest risks, Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy featured 5 relatively unknown characters forming a team in a single movie without any movies building up to it like the Avengers has, it also features 2 prominently CGI characters in an environment that lent itself to the use of a lot of CGI backgrounds, so doing it on the cheap would be difficult at best, the budget was as close as makes no difference $200m. They put less money into Spider-man Homecoming or any of the first Avengers solo movies.

But the gamble paid with a movie rated 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and making over $750m at the box office. But that was Summer 2014, how does it hold up 3 years later? Here are my thoughts

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

May I introduce the 2 best directors in the MCU right now: The Russo Brothers

And next up is their debut in the MCU. Captain America: Winter Soldier

Released in early 2014, Captain America: Winter Soldier was very successful, earning $700m on the $177m budget and an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Does it still work? Here are my thoughts:

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor: The Dark World

Ah, we return with another Thor movie and it’s the worst rated movie of all of them. By the time of this review coming out Thor: Ragnarok would be in cinemas, given the trailers it looks to be quite a substantial change in direction for it with more of a Guardians of the Galaxy-eque feel, and yes, we’ll get to those movies. And also, a notable absence of Jane Foster and her cronies and we’ll definitely be getting to that. Still, the movie was financially successful enough that a sequel was green-lit and ultimately the reviews aren’t that bad. It’s still better rated than Batman v Superman… I’m just rambling, let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - The Avengers/Avengers Assemble

Next up in Marvel Month, it’s Time for Avengers assemble

I’ve already done a review of that, and a lot of my complaints still stand is it goes into *sigh* its 4^th season, that said I have seen improvements. But this time we’re looking at the other Avengers Assemble

Known as The Avengers in the US, the title was changed to not be mistaken for the British The Avengers, the Nostalgia Critic did his review on that and I have no unique perspective to cover it as I’ve never seen it, it’s a little before my time.

But Avengers Assemble was a massive gamble for Marvel, with a hefty $220m budget, a large cast and the pressure of being that movie everything was all building up to, this movie blew everyone away, meeting their expectations and of course, for Disney, who had recently acquired Marvel, made over $1bn at the box office, $1.5bn to be more precise. This is also the first Marvel movie I ever watched, at the cinema with my soon-to-be uni housemates.

But 2012 was a way away, does it still hold up, let’s take a closer look.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 7-9 review - Kindred/Crawler Commanders/Rebel Assault

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America is my favourite Marvel character, there, I said it, happy? I suppose this is mostly down to Brian Bloom in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who gave the character exactly what he needed, to say cheesy lines, but in a way that is inspiring. Chris Evans also helped with that appeal. I will say that his portrayal of the Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 movies is cringe-worthy at best, but I’d chock that down to the writer.

So, how does his first movie hold up? Let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor

Well, it’s time for another movie that isn’t an Iron Man one, and who better than the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Released in 2011 this movie earned nearly $450m on a $150m budget and has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes But let’s just dive straight in shall we?

After a series of rash decisions lead Thor to reigniting a war with the frost giants, Thor is banished to Midgard, Earth, to relearn what it is to be worthy. But with S.H.I.E.L.D. laying claim to his hammer and Loki making claim to the throne of Asgard, it will not be easy for Thor.

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Iron Man 2

Well, Iron Man 1 was a success, so a sequel was inevitable. Iron Man 2 came out in 2010 to critical acclaim at the time, however looking back on it people’s tastes seem to have soured towards it. Still it made $623m on a $200m budget so it was successful enough for Marvel as they continued to build momentum towards the Avengers. Here’s how I see it

Marvel Month - Mini review: The Incredible Hulk

So, the Hulk. A classic Jekyll and Hyde story. You’d think there’s potential for great movies with that concept but with Aang Lee’s introspective but ultimately incredibly boring adaptation was a colossal failure and the less said about the Incredible Bulk the better. But neither of those are part of the Marvel cinematic universe, this is, despite the Hulk being played by Edward Norton in this movie and Mark Ruffalo in the others.

This movie was very much overshadowed by Iron Man, making only $260m on its $150m budget but that was enough and met Marvel’s expectations. Critics marked this with a 67% Rotten Tomatoes rating, only one film in the entire MCU has a lower rating than that, but we’ll get to that in due course, for now, here’s what I think.

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Iron Man

So, it’s been a while since I did a theme month in November, but here’s one

It’s Marvel Month

So, for this month I’ll be covering all the Marvel movies in the MCU that I haven’t already covered. Iron Man 3, Age of Ultron and Civil War have already been done, so I’m not doing them again. I also won’t be doing Spider-man Homecoming since that’s still a Sony product, just in the MCU (plus I don’t have any space for it) Logan and Deadpool I’ll try and cover sometime next year. Also, because since most Marvel movies haven’t been critically slammed and I don’t dislike them personally, this will be entirely mini reviews.

So, with that said, let’s get to where it all started with Iron Man.

2008 was when Marvel struck it lucky with the beginning of their cinematic universe, with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes it remains one of their most critically acclaimed movies but not their most successful, it made $585m on a $140m budget, which was a good enough starting brick for the towering behemoth the Marvel Cinematic Universe would come to be. Does it hold up nearly 10 years later? Let’s take a look. And spoilers for a 9-year old movie will follow

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 5-6 review - The Occupation/Flight of the Defender

In a slight change of schedule, we're doing Rebels now, and starting Marvel Month on Sunday, there will be no rebels review next week, just 3 Marvel Month reviews

Sequel Baiting #5 - Ghostbusters vs Ghostbusters II

When there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?

Nah, not today. Today we’re looking at the originals in this Sequel Baiting Halloween Special

Yeah, it probably is odd that I haven’t done a Halloween special in the past, truthfully, if you’ve seen any of my thriller reviews, you probably know Horror on its own doesn’t interest me. So yes, I’ve not lived with the nostalgia of Ghostbusters, in fact, prior to reviewing this, I hadn't even seen Ghostbusters 2. Both movies enjoyed a certain amount of financial success but it’s clear that the first one was more successful, both critically and financially. Hell, if it weren’t for Linkara saying he preferred the second movie, I’d have called this a foregone conclusion and left it be. But here we are. The rules from the Tomb Raider review apply here, the winner in each of the 6 categories gets a point, with 1 bonus point available for where one outdoes the other most significantly.

TV Retrospective: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 5 Episodes 9-10 review - The Man Who Never Was (+ lost episodes)

We’re back for a final look at the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Episodes 3-4 review - In the name of the Rebellion

Star Wars Rebels continues to burn off episodes, so much so that I'm rescheduling the next review to next week, covering 5-9, and 7-9 will be covered two weeks after.

Guilty Pleasures #41 - Saban's Power Rangers

We’re on a kick with Power Rangers, aren’t we? And this is what it’s been building towards.

There’s been an odd trend that of Hollywood trying to make uber-serious versions of otherwise silly franchises. The worst of these was Fant4stic which managed to be dark, boring, completely non-nonsensical and somehow dumber than the movies it was supposed be more serious than.

But the truth is, there’s nothing wrong with a light-hearted tone, as long as the serious moments are taken seriously. A good example of this done effectively is Spider-man Homecoming, which I will probably get to next year. Although most of the Marvel movies are a good example of how to do this right.

Here’s the thing though. Power Rangers, in spite of some serious ideas, is an inherently silly show. Especially during the Mighty Morphin Era which this movie is attempting to re-tell. Whilst I can at least understand the potential of a dark Fantastic 4 (that doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea) I don’t really see what can be accomplished with doing the same to Power Rangers.

But here we are, and it’s another of 2017’s franchise ‘failures?’, boy there’ve been a few of those this year. It made only $142m on a $100m budget. Factoring in marketing and theatre cuts that’s a net loss for the studio. Fortunately, the one thing Power Rangers is usually good at is selling toys and it’s no exception here, it’s also apparently made a decent amount in DVD sales. I don’t see a sequel as likely but it’s apparently not beyond the realm of plausibility, unlike *cough*Fant4stic*cough*

But that said, Power Rangers struck an interesting chord with me, I actually kinda liked it, and I’m far from alone, this has a 45% Rotten Tomatoes rating which, whilst far from good, indicates at least mixed reception. So here is my take on the movie.

TV Retrospective: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 5 episodes 1-4 - Sky/The Curse of Clyde Langer

The final series of the Sarah Jane Adventures was tragically cut short after the death of Elizabeth Sladen. They had filmed everything they needed for 6 episodes, Skye, The Curse of Clyde Langer and The Man who never was, each following the usual 2-part narrative. I’ll be covering the first 2 of these stories in this retrospective, in the next I’ll be covering the final 2 episodes and will be analysing some of what the plans were for the rest of the series.

4 Issue Test #42 - The Defenders

Note: At the point of typing the Defenders series hadn’t come out yet.

Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones, together they are the Defenders, a street level Superhero team that deal with things below the pay-grade of people like the Avengers. I’ve reviewed a lot of their individual outings with all but Jessica Jones not meeting the standard I look for in comics.

So, in the writer’s seat we have Brian Michael Bendis. If you ever want the definition of a hit-and-miss writer, look up Bendis. I literally did an editorial on why Civil War II was a piece of sh*t. But Bendis also wrote Jessica Jones which I enjoy and was responsible for all the Miles Morales Spider-man issues, which have mostly been good, so maybe something’s here to enjoy. Let’s find out.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 1-2 review - Heroes of Mandalore

Welcome back to Star Wars Rebels. Disney has decided to air 2 episodes each week, back-to-back in 1 hour blocks. I hope it’s not to burn off the episodes but being the last series, I suppose it doesn’t really matter that much. Anyway, let’s look at the first 2-parter: Heroes of Mandalore

Mini Review - Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Here’s the second of the Power Rangers cinematic outings. But unlike the first one, this is canon to the TV show, essentially a cinematic 3-part opener to the new Power Rangers Turbo series, following on from Power Rangers Zeo. At the end of Zeo Lord Zed and Rita Repulsa had destroyed the Machine Empire and promised a comeback, but we’re not getting that here.

So, this movie holds an abysmal 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is hated by fans and critics alike. So, why is this so revered? Here’s my take on the movie.

Editorial - My thoughts on Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 3

Just a heads up, this is probably the last of these editorials I’ll be doing for Voltron, I’m going to be doing full on retrospectives on a lot of Netflix stuff come the New Year, and of course Voltron is on my list. I may do a s4 but I don’t have it locked in and it may be a while since I’m basically locked in until April at this point. Yes, I do a lot in advance. But since I’m not going to be doing Voltron until the summer anyway, here are my thoughts.

Because of reasons Netflix decided to split the 13 episodes that would've been season 3 into 2 smaller seasons, one of which premiered in August which I’m covering now, and one which will be coming out the day after this review.

4 issue Test #41 - Darth Vader

It’s been a while, but we’re back and it’s time to correct a mistake I made long ago. When I picked up Star Wars, it was great, I did not pick up the Darth Vader series that ran alongside it. I eventually bought it in trades and it’s awesome. But a new Darth Vader series came out recently and I’m going to be giving it the 4 issue test.

TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 Episodes 9-12 - Lost in Time/Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith

We continue our look at Series 4 of the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Mini Review - Power Rangers: The Movie

Owing to a busy week, I haven't had time to form my Editorial on Voltron s3, so here's my review of Power Rangers instead

For all my love of action, I’ve never really gotten into Power Rangers. I was a bit young to get into it during the Mighty Morphin era (I was less than a year old) and whilst I did occasionally see ads for its subsequent, I never really thought about watching it. I’ve since caught a couple of episodes just for research and because I was bored. They’re OK, nothing more than OK.

But the ideas are what intrigue me, incorporating footage from a Japanese show called Super Sentai to drive costs down is a good idea, combined with innovative toy designs has kept Power Rangers afloat for 25 years. But what happens when you take away that element. You get the Power Rangers movies.

I’ll eventually be talking about the 2017 movie, but I felt obligated to do some preliminary reviews so I’ll be doing the first 2 outings first. First off is Power Rangers: The Movie. Released in 1995 on a $15m budget it made back $66m, making it financial success. Critically its reception is more mixed with only a 41% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Sequel Baiting #4 - Lara Croft - Tomb Raider vs The Cradle of Life

Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life are movies based on the Tomb Raider video games, both were critically panned but the second one wasn’t profitable enough for the film venture to continue and despite a new actor being announced when Tomb Raider: Underworld came out, no Tomb Raider movie has arrived yet, although a trailer was released for one 2 weeks ago (and in my opinion it just looks like a rehash of the reboot game's story) But which is better. Let’s take a gander. 

And I’m going to change the format a little. Instead of giving each movie a point score out of 5, I’ll grant the better of the two one point. There is a single bonus point available for if one movie is significantly better in a particular category.

TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 Episodes 5-8 - Death of the Doctor/The Empty Planet

Mini Review - Battleship

Well, this is a thing that exists

Yes, Hollywood really ran out of ideas in 2012, and really hasn’t been recovering that well but someone decided to make a movie based on a board game. Universal to be precise, along with really, Hasbro has a movie division now? Actually, they’ve had one for years and have used it to release Transformers, My Little Pony etc.

But still, a movie based on a board game. Unsurprisingly, it was a disaster with a gargantuan $220m budget, it only made $300m at the box office, resulting in a loss for all parties involved. Critically, it was not a hit either, with a 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 4.6/10 and an audience score of 54%

Well, here we go.

#50 - Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier

It’s been a while since I did a rage review on a game, mostly because of the time investment. Before I’ve gotten around it by watching the plot on the laptop and doing the rest from memory but I assure you I have played this game recently. The sacrifices I make for you…

So, the big 3 star-duos of the Playstation 2 era are Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter and Sly and Bentley, but the only one of the 3 to find much success in the post-PS2 era was Ratchet and Clank. Sly and Bentley did have a PS3 release in Thieves in time but that’s outside of HD remasters, it’s the only PS3 title with just them, with Jak and Daxter, their only PS3 release they star in outside of HD remasters is

  

Oh, my first nemesis. It sucked. Also, they were in that brawl game Battle Royale, doesn’t really count though.

But there was always the PSP, Sony’s handheld console, Jak and Daxter found success with the Daxter title, which is a solid game but then we have the dark sheep of the Jak and Daxter series. This is Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier

Released to surprising critical acclaim, this was the product of High Impact Games, the guys who made Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, so good hands! This was their last big-name title before they fell and decided to only make garbage and mobile games.

Yeah, sure that one was a hit…

Naughty Dog, the original Jak and Daxter team had a few plot ideas from drafts they were doing for Jak IV, but with the PS3 on the horizon and a team working on Uncharted it was decided to ditch it and work on a racing game instead, Jak X: Combat Racing, a surprisingly solid racing game that’s getting a PS4 remaster. So, let’s see how High Impact destroyed it as we take a look.