Stranger Things 4 Vol 2 (2022) Review 

So I finished Stranger Things 4 Vol 2 and it was incredible. The show finishes this season of strong and sets a good tone for where the show will be going in the next and final season. Vol 2 finishes off the season in a way I wasn’t expecting, but really appreciate. This review will include my thoughts on the season as a whole. If you haven’t watched it yet than skip this as there will be spoilers and I don’t hold anything back.  Without further ado lets get into my thoughts on the episodes and move into the in depth review. 

Chapter 8: Papa

Incredible episode as always. We get even more of the stories coming together, the reuniting of the California crew and eleven, the end of the Dr Brenner storyline, the continuation of the russia stuff and the beginning of the endgame for the Hawkins crew. Incredible performances here and an actual sad ending to me for Dr Brenner. We get the confirmation that Eleven’s powers are back and showing just how bad the jock storyline could end. Jason is so obsessed now with what is happening. They do a great job of tension building in this episode, you really get the feeling that a lot of people are in danger this time, and they may not make it out unscathed if at all. An example, they are really building up for a possible death of Steve, Eddie, and Max. We also get a great scene of Will almost admitting his feelings to Mike and an emotional reuniting of the crew. Great stuff and great episode. One more episode to go, and it is going to be a dozy. Also that trailer music drop was a crazy but great way to end the episode on an epic but also kind of somber note.

Chapter 9: The Piggyback

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK WHAT AN EPISODE !!! Was the message I sent a friend of mine after finishing this episode. It’s an insane conclusion to this season that is equal parts awesome, badass, epic, sad, and somber. Incredible performances as always and mostly satisfying conclusions to everyone’s arcs and the season as a whole. Some incredible moments and seeing the gang back together was great. And holy crap the reveals of what has been going on this whole time and Vecna’s plan were insane. It was crazy and I’m glad that the consequences stuck. Like this is the first time they’ve truly lost in a way. They’re alive, hurt but alive, but the plan worked and it’s going to be interesting to see how the series ends. Incredible stuff. 

The story this season told was really interesting to me as the show hasn’t had to deal with stuff like this in the past. What happens in it is equal parts awesome and tragic, and does a great job at building tension and getting it’s point across. This season is the biggest season in the history of the show, being that the gang has been separated by literal continents. This separation is both a strength of the season but also a downfall. It is a strength as it shows how big this world has become and ups the stakes of the story showing the world and people this is affecting. It is also a downfall as it creates a situation where some of the characters feel like they are left behind in the dust of the rest of the show. It also exposes one of the issues with the show as a whole having to create situations for the characters to separate themselves handling their own stuff before they and the story comes together in the end. This also continues how trend has been going in the show with the characters not being together again until the epilogue of the season. It removes the character interactions that brought the magic to the show and I do wish we got to see everyone interact more. The separation this season creates what I’ll call an Infinity War situation, where the groups end up having the same goal but because of their separation it doesn’t really work out. I kind of like that, it shows how strong a villain Vecna is that this time they don’t win. The scooby doo, 80s movie plan didn’t work in the end. They fail at all fronts and the stakes for next season have never been higher. While they  may have shown him down, eventually Vecna will follow through with his plan. The major aspect has come to pass with the giant gate now open in Hawkins and the characters finally back together. It’s a bold decision to end the season this way, but does set up for an epic conclusion to the show. They really expanded on the world this show, giving us the past of the past of the upside down, showing us how the light stuff works, but also how The Mind Flayer came to be. 

One of the things that is repeated this season is the importance of memories. Good and bad, so much of this season is about how experiences shape people. From Eleven’s loss and regaining of memories to Henry’s ability to see the memories of others. Another important thing in the show is guilt and mental health. Venca is going after those with mental health issues who are keeping things inside, and he in a way is taking those away. He uses people’s bad memories and trauma against them and paints himself as coming to end their suffering. Once chosen they can only keep away for so long, and how good memories and music are ways of keeping away from him are an interesting factor in the show. He paints it as exposing the truth to the person, with showing Max that deep inside she wanted Billy to die, and I think it’s interesting how much this show and season over-all plays with this idea of the importance of the truth. Everyone in the show is lying to themselves and the truth will eventually come out, whether it did this season or it well next season. 

I’m going to separate characters into crews as for the majority of the show they’ve been separated this way.

Let’s start with the Hawkins crew of Dustin, Erica, Lucas, Nancy, Robin, Steve, Max, and Eddie. These are the characters with the most meat this season in terms of acting, character arcs, and moments. They’re the closest to the action for the longest amount of time and because of so are probably the most interesting characters this season. 

Gaten Matarazzo is great as always as Dustin Henderson. This season Dustin’s confidence has shot through the roof and is a lot more expressive and over-the-top with his mannerisms. His stuff is related to Eddie and their friendship together. They have a great chemistry together and still has great chemistry with the other characters. Other than facilitating theories and explanations he doesn’t have that much else to do this season in terms of arcs or anything. Maybe about him continuing to be himself after his relationship with Eddie. 

Caleb McLaughlin is also great as always as Lucas Sinclair. His arcs this season are really interesting and are tied to a lot of stuff that still hasn’t been fully completed yet. He wants to be popular and not seen as a nerd anymore but still wants to keep his relationships with the part and Max. This leads to a crossroads for him where he ultimately makes the decision to stay with his friends and give up on being a Jock, especially with what happens between him and Jason in the last episode. His wanting for everything ends up exploding in his face in a way when Jason pretty much costs Max her life after accidentally breaking her tape deck. 

Joseph Quinn was a great addition this season as Eddie Munson, the eccentric leader of the hellfire club DnD group. He’s a fun character this season, a metalhead free spirit who has been kept behind in high school a few times who the world thinks is a murderous cult leader. His interactions with the Hawkins crew are great and fun and his relationship with Dustin this season is great. His arc this season is him becoming brave and not running away anymore, which he has been doing for most of the season. This ends up with him giving his life to help distract the demobats from going after the rest of the crew in what would be a fruitless manner given how the season ends. It was sad to see him go but it was probably needed to show just how big of a failure the party has this season. He also had the most metal moment in the show playing Master of Puppets in the Upside Down to distract the demobats.

Continuing this trend was probably the stand-out character this season in Sadie Sink’s Max Mayfield. Probably her best season yet in terms of performance and character. Her arc was interesting and tragic and incredible all the same. Her arc throughout this season is about Vecna going after her for the trauma and depression she feels after the death of her step-brother Billy last season. It’s also about her opening up about her feelings to everyone as her guilt in relation to Billy’s death fuels Vecna’s desire to go after her. So much about this season is about her memories in terms of good and bad and how there is power in both. Her good memories can save and protect her while the bad are actively harming her. This results in her eventual death and Coma after everyone fails. She’s there now as a living reminder of their failure which is interesting to me, plus with her mind being elsewhere creates a mystery for the next season to handle if they want to as there were a few times I thought she was going to die for good. 

Everyone else here is great as always but don’t go on as much of a journey in terms of changing as characters to talk to much about. Joe Keery is great as always as Steve Harrington who shows how much he’s matured over the seasons. He’s finally open to Nancy about his dreams and his feelings towards everyone. He’s a badass this season as always and I really felt he was going to die in the last episode with how much time they spend on Steve talking about his dreams and the way his romance or feelings with Nancy have started rekindling. Speaking of Nancy, Natalia Dyer is great as always as Nancy Wheeler. She gets some great emotional moments and her skills as a reporter get her to find things out like a detective. She’s also badass this season and the defecto leader of the group and is really great at it. Her chemistry with Robin is great and is a fun pairing together. Maya Hawk as Robin Buckley is great again. This time around its about her becoming more confident in herself and to stop second guessing everything about herself. Priah Ferguson is again amazing as Erica Sinclair. Still as badass and blunt as ever. The other side characters are ok, they all do a good job with the material given and for what their characters are supposed to be. Jason is an ok character, supposed to be that movie jock who gets the town into a frenzy following what is happening. Although a lot of people don’t like his storyline or character, he is there for a reason. He facilitates the town’s probably learning of the truth in the next season as I don’t see how the situation could be solved without them knowing the full truth.

Next we have the Alaska/Russia Crew of Yuri, Dimitri, Joyce, Murray, and Hopper.

Everyone does a great job this season with their characters. They all get their good moments and some badass moments, especially Murray and Hopper. The only real arc that they had this season was Hopper refunding his will to live and escape his situation, and facing his past mistakes and decisions. As well as seeing how soviet people aren’t that different from them as they’re all in this situation and learn just how dangerous everything is. Especially when Dimitri and Yuri learn about what has been happening after finding all the monsters and smokey boy in the russian lab. This is definitely one of the storylines that show how big the show has gotten featuring a full demogorgon fight, prison escapes, a fight in a plan and a plane crash. I know a lot of people didn’t like this storyline, but I feel its necessary to show what they’ve been through, how determined they are, how far the problem can reach, and makes the reuniting that much sweeter. 

Next is the California Crew of Eleven, Mike, Will, Johnathan, and Argyle. I also put the Nevada Nina stuff here as well so I’ll add Dr. Brenner and Dr. Owens due to how important they are to Eleven’s arc. 

Their storyline is where I feel the show slows down as a lot of their arcs are related to other people. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven is amazing as always. She no longer has that speech pattern and so gets to do more as a character. Her arc is about learning that she might have always been a monster since so much of this season and the show as a whole is related to her past and actions as a younger child. Considering that, in a way, she is the cause of everything once she sent One/Vecna/Henry Creel to the Upside Down in the first place all those years ago. An idea that she’s been debating with for the entirety of the show, if she is a monster or a superhero so it’s interesting to see it continue here. Right now it can be argued that she could be the monster. She created the true monster behind it all, even if it was accidental. It’ll be interesting to see how her story ends in the next season but it will be interesting.

Matthew Modine was amazing again as a returning Dr. Martin Brenner. We really get this sense that he is more complicated this season than we’ve seen in the past. We see the manipulative and controlling side in the present and in the past, but we also see how deep down in his own way he actually does care about the kids in his care at Hawkins Lab, as well as in the present with Eleven. In a way he’s right this season, Eleven is not ready for what is truly coming and she was not. I do think that he is a monster in a way as while Eleven was the one who sent Henry to the Upside Down, he is the one that created Eleven in a way. It was cool to see him return and give Eleven closure to their past together. It was also kind of sad to see him go, especially with how much we learn about him this season. 

The next few people I’ll gloss over as they don’t have too much to do this season other than travel to get to Eleven. Finn Wolfhard was good this season, not as good as past seasons but that’s because he doesn’t get too many emotional moments this season to work with. His arc continues the seeming theme of this season about how important it is to tell the truth about how you feel to the people you care about. Something that some other characters don’t accept yet. His other role is to lead them to Eleven and to do Eleven’s CW Flash “Run Barry Run” speech in the last episode to motivate her to fight. 

Next is Noah Schnapp as Will Byers. He is great as always and gets some stuff to work with this season being that he wants to be truthful with Mike but just can’t for a number of reasons. He gets some great emotional moments and does well with the little that is given. Hopefully his importance comes back next season which it very well could given where the show is going in season 5. 

Next is probably the character with the least to do this season in Charlie Heaton’s Johnathan Byers. He doesn’t have much to do this season since so much of his arc is not wanting to tell Nancy the truth about his college choice. It sucks to see a character that had so much importance in past seasons. He has some good character interactions this season and has good instincts in the face of danger but also his brother and notices how he feels. Honestly while writing this I can see where they were going with Johnathan this season and possibly next season as his arc doesn’t feel finished yet, but he also feels like he’s torn between telling Nancy the truth of how he feels vs possibly just letting her go as he doesn’t want her to give up her dreams for him. This was probably reinforced when he talks to Will in the pizzeria in the last episode. He has a great chemistry with his stoner friend Argyle, played amazingly by Eduardo Franco. He was a fun character this season bringing in a lot of the comedic relief during the frankly boring sections of them traveling to find Eleven, as well as during the intense moments involving the military. He’s a lot of fun.

The Last character I’m going to cover is the amazing Vecna/One/Henry Creel, played greatly by Jamie Campbell Bower. He’s an amazing villain and I’m happy that he didn’t die this season. He’s really intimidating and creepy and his MO is interesting. I do think that him being this “I want too destroy and remake the world” person when he was a child is a little meh, but I get it. The OG special child who can see the true horrors behind people’s lives. I kinda wish it was more that he wants to change the world for the better, now his better is removing the structures that humanity has made for itself  which isn’t a bad idea. He actually won, his plan worked and he survived. I like how he’s able to give Eleven a run for her money even before he became Vecna. The only thing about his character that I’m iffy about is how he’s the one that created the mind flayer. I mean I like it but also don’t like it. I like it in that it gives the show a villain with humanity that could be reasoned with in some way, as well as one that has a connection to the characters. I don’t like it as I feel like it removes the mystery from the past seasons, and how this eldritch being that has motives beyond our control is now the creation of an angry psychopath. I do have an idea about that though that I will cover later. Over-all he’s a great villain with a lot to do, and I like how he straight up Michael Myers at the end. 

Moving on now to the technical aspects of the show. The computer effects are mostly great this season, especially in terms of the environments in the Upside Down. They really show how big the show has gotten with the environments and just how much we see of the Upside Down which was great.  The demogorgon looked great and it was cool to see what it could really do in the prison sequences. A stand-out is the combination of practice suit and CG over-top that made up Vecna. He looked great and was a good decision to have it be a suit with CG on top. I also think the sequence of the gate opening throughout Hawkins was great and looked amazing, and how destructive it was. Where it falls a part a bit is on people. Most of the time when its a CG person it can look pretty bad, like when One is falling into the Upside Down it looks so weird. I’m ok with it on the victims as it can be explained that when he does his killing he unnaturally affects them and takes everything about them so it is ok if it looks uncanny. Other than that the plane stuff looks weird externally, probably could have used more time to look its best. The cinematography was great this season and really helps show the level of budget this season had. A lot of creative moments and some great stuff. A Stand out being the way the show shoots the action this season. It all looks clear and well-thought out, you can see it all and it looks great. The stand-out being the firefight from episode 4 was incredible and a ballsy move to have it be done in one cut. I felt like the editing was also great this season, loving the music montages jumping around the groups and what they’re doing. The use of music this season was amazing as well and very well-done. The Detroit rock city scene from episode one and the Master of Puppets from Episode 9 were  both great moments and very well done. 

Over-all this season was amazing and I can’t wait to the next. It was emotional, funny, epic, and tragic. It is well worth the watch if you haven’t yet. Two Thumbs up. 

Now the main review is done, I’m going to talk about some theories that I have for next season.

• Hawkins will learn the full truth about everything that has happened in the show
• Eleven will likely die, probably killing Vecna
• Eleven could show that Vecna that he doesn’t have to do this, maybe she apologizes to him for what she did to him
• Will will be brought back to importance and not just being the radar he was in Season 4, even though we see that he still can when back in Hawkins
• Likely going to be some major character deaths this season 
• Steve and Dustin will be fun together
• The gang with be in hiding due to the town still believing that Hellfire is a cult, and the military being after Eleven and the California crew
• I think that the gang hopefully won’t be separated as they spent a whole season apart and it would be nice to have them back together for the final season
• There will be epic battles
• Some crazy stuff is going to happen
• Will could be the villain with how his story went this season, being unable to open up about his feelings and being the perpetual third wheel in everyone’s relationships. 
• A general theory I have is that The Mind Flayer was an already existing entity with the abilities it already has, and that Vecna just gave it form and a purpose. And it gives Vecna the power to do what he wants.
• That there will be a character introduced with a name that starts with B and ends with a E sound that people will like and will die. Every season has had it happen. Benny and Barb from season 1, Bob Newby from season 2, Billy from season 3, and now Fred Bunson, Dr. Martin Brenner and Eddie Munson from this season. 
• I think that there could be some kind of time shenanigans 
• That Max could be the key in all of this given her situation at the end of the season

At the end here I’m going to include these incredible posters by Billy the Butcher for the episodes of the season.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) Review

So I just finished the show, over-all it’s an okay show. I’m still not sure exactly why I feel the way I do about this show, but for me something about this didn’t click to me. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Disney + series set in the Star Wars universe following the titular character played by Ewen McGregor. This season is set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, with Obi-Wan in exile on Tatooine to keep watch over Luke Skywalker. He is forced into action after Princess Leia of Alderaan by an inquisitor of the empire for her nefarious means. I keep referring to this show as this season over this show or this series as we don’t know if there will be more seasons or not. There could be as there is talk of another season being a possibility. I’m not sure if I want another season as the story they wanted to tell is done for the most part, at least in the way they want to tell it, there’s not much more they can do. I do have some ideas for what they could do with a second season, but thats for another time. Also there will be spoilers in this review of things that happen in the show, if you want to go in blind than wait until you watch the show. To begin, we’ll look at the first thoughts I had after watching each episode.

Episode 1:

A good start to the series. Establishes a galaxy that has been under the empire’s rule for 10 years now, with Obi-Wan been depressed and wanting to stay hidden. Establishes the villains of the season, as well as the season Arc that Obi-Wan is on. It’s a good start to the series with good visuals, good music and great acting. 

Episode 2:

An ok episode. Some cool moments as well as giving us a little action, and seeing what a Jedi can do hand-to-hand. Some contrived plot lines with Leia not believing Obi-Wan which is a good idea, but also a little annoying with how it’s there to pad the episode and expose Obi-Wan a bit. We also get the first confirmation of Obi-Wan learning that anakin is alive. Other than that it’s fine.

Episode 3:

A better episode, still ok though. It’s got a kinda cool lightsaber fight scene between Obi-Wan and Vader. Still iffy to me about having them meet before A New Hope. Although it’s kinda ok I guess as it’s I think 7 years or so before ANH. It’s cool to see Vader again. Leia continues to be ok in this episode. Reva is ok as well. We get some world building seeing how the rebellion has slowly started. Over-all another Ok episode. So far this show has looked great, but character and story wise has felt weird. I just think this didn’t need to have Obi-Wan adventuring around. Its like they wanted another mandalorian but didn’t really know what to do.

Episode 4:

I don’t know how many times I’ll say this, again a better episode, but still ok. It’s got some ok action, some good story stuff. The character interactions are good, but mostly amongst the empire stuff. We get to see more of the path but its weird as there’s an argument that ends too quick. Its not giving stuff time to breath and get to know characters. Like there’s a death in this episode that I don’t really care about as it’s a character we don’t know or have met before (to my knowledge) and they try to treat it as a big loss to the characters, but I just don’t care. We had maybe a scene before hand with the character but not much else. I get they want to establish that Leia and Obi-Wan know each other before ANH but so far this has not been the way to do so. Maybe there should be something else to make it more interesting but it’s just meh for me so far. 

Episode 5:

Now that was a good episode. We get the tension of the empire bearing down on the base where people are staying. Where there have been people waiting for months to leave. We have the revelations of the pasts of Tala and Reva. We have the mirrored story of the sparring battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin during his Padawan days around the clone wars, with Reva’s story throughout the show and the revelation that she’s hunting Vader for what happened on Operation nightfall during Order 66. We also get the death of Tala and her droid friend which was kind of sad, just wish I cared more about them. I like the stories that the battles told, especially the flashback between Obi-Wan and Anakin along with the fight between Reva and Vader. It’ll be interesting to see how the series finishes with that reveal that Reva saw the damaged transmission from Bail Organa, and now knows about Luke on tatooine. We’re getting the beginnings of why Obi-wan stayed on tatooine which is good. The fights in this episode were great and the best of the show so far. The flashback battle is great and reminiscent of the battles in the prequel trilogy, but not as flashy. The battle between Vader and Reva is just pure greatness. We get Vader being this force pat mei (like from Kill Bill Vol 2) style figure just enjoying a battle with Reva, playing with her. It’s really good and I really enjoyed it. It made the episode for me. I do say that’s one thing I’ve been enjoying about this series, the influence of kung fu movies as we get a lot more unarmed combat than i’m used to in Star Wars. Although i guess one issue I had with it, other than some of the iffiness of the de-aging effects, is just how lucky Reva is in this show. She’s gotta be the luckiest character in the history of Star Wars. Although i’ll cover more of that in the full series review. Over-all an enjoyable episode, let’s hope the finale keeps this momentum up.

Episode 6:

That was a good episode, not as good as the last episode but a good episode nonetheless. It wraps up the stories and arcs good for the most part. The fight between Vader and Obi-Wan was better than their battle in episode 3, although I did have issues with it. It was cool to see the callbacks to earlier fights and to earlier episodes, but I kinda wish Obi-Wan wasn’t so powerful in the second part of the fight. I mean at some point Obi-Wan straight up overpowers Vader. Although the suit was damaged to a point. I did like how creative the uses of the force were in this fight, like we see Vader do some cool stuff here. I also liked how we get the mixture of Hayden and James Earl Jones’ voices when the helmet is damaged. Although I find it weird that Obi-Wan left Vader when they could have left it earlier with Vader thinking Obi-Wan was dead. Although the argument could be made that in that fight Vader still isn’t used to the suit which could distract him and allow Obi-Wan to win. I mean I get why Obi-Wan wins as Vaders greatest weaknesses are glowing red lights on his chest. It was cool to see Obi-Wan be shown to do these feats of force power. The Reva stuff I had an issue with as how did she get to tatooine so fast while injured. The episode starts off with her on tatooine already even though this is basically a few minutes after the last episode from what we know. I mean how does she get to a ship in time to get there, I kinda wished they showed that as it was weird. Other than that her stuff was interesting this episode, the last vestiges of the rage she held leaving her when she can’t bring herself to killing Luke. Showing she can change. The episode has a good send off with Luke saying goodbye to Leia, meeting Luke, and finally seeing Qui-son’s spirit. It was cool seeing him again. Over-all a good episode in the series, but doesn’t keep the momentum of the fifth episode. And that’s the end of the show (first season at least).

As seen here there is something about the show that just did not click with me for some reason. I wonder if part of it is that it feels pretty similar to a bit of what Fallen Order did, we have a jedi in exile that cut himself off from the force to hide from the empire forced into action as he’s hunted by an inquisitor. Plus the inquisitor in Fallen Order feels like a better character to me over-all which I will get into later. For now let’s move on from this tangent to my thoughts on the story and plot of the show.

I feel like that could be one of my major issues with the show, that the story could have been handled differently. Something about it didn’t work for me over-all, and I still can’t figure out why. I get what they were going for, with Obi-Wan being exposed to the burgeoning galactic rebellion slowly forming to fight against the empire, establishing a prior relationship with Leia, and a rematch with Vader. I think that could be one my issues with it, that Obi-Wan and Vader fighting multiple times wasn’t necessary. Although i guess for Obi-Wan’s development throughout the show it is necessary. I think it could have been handled differently. Also there are way to many plot conveniences in the show, especially surrounding Reva. Other than that there’s not much else I want to say about the story, so lets move on to the characters.

The first character I want to focus on is Ob-Wan Kenobi himself, played by a returning Ewen McGregor. He his phenomenal as always in this role, we get to see him transition from this depressed jedi trying to lay low and wallow in his guilt, to the beginnings of the Obi-Wan we see in A New Hope. His arc throughout the show is about moving past his mistakes with Anakin into the future. He begins the series cut off from the force, to hide himself away, and its through this adventure that he brings himself back to the force and moving on from the past. This also allows him to be ready to learn more about the force from his master. 

Next I’ll talk about the Third Sister Reva, played by Moses Ingram. Her character is interesting, but there is something missing from it. Her performance is good for what she is given, but I have issues with the character. i kinda wish what happened in her happened a bit earlier so that we get more time with her eventual turn and letting go of her trauma. I feel that we don’t see enough change in her character to justify what happens in the last episode, Even though we know why she is doing what she does and that plays a part in her decision, it still could have used more time. One other issue I have with this character is that she seems to be the luckiest character in the show. I mean most of it could be explained as Vader letting her continue until she decides to attack him, but it is still an issue. Plus how does she get to tatooine in the last episode, I have an issue with that as we begin right after the end of the last episode and she’s already found a way there and where Luke is. It’s too convenient to me. 

Next character I’ll talk about if Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker as played by Hayden Christensen and voiced by James Earl jones. He’s a stand out character in this series as we get to see more of the things we love about Vader. He’s powerful, intimidating, badass, and a presence that the shoe needs. There were a few things to do with Vader that I didn’t like, but most of the stuff with Vader I did like. Especially everything in episode 5 was great. The performance was great as well.

The other characters and performances were all good for the most part, Leia was mostly good throughout the show. The only thing with her is that there are a few times where she does something because they need her to do something, we see this especially in episode 5 when she’s in the vent for the hanger controls. Tala was ok, we didn’t get enough time with her for us to care but for what she was there for she was ok. Everyone else was good too.

The show looks great for the most part. The cinematography is mostly pretty good. My only issue is that in night or dark scenes it can be too dark. There are a number of times that I could barely see a thing (although that could also be because of the how I watched the show and the time I watched it). The effects were mostly pretty good, the lightsabers looked great. The action can be great, mostly in the last couple of episodes, but over-all pretty ok. I liked it when they got creative with stuff, like the Reva Vader battle, and the force powers used in the last episode. But over-all something was off with it. The music and soundtrack was ok, not very remarkable. 

Honestly that’s probably the best way to describe the way I feel about this show. It’s ok, unremarkable for the most part, and that something is off about it. It could be the pacing, or the writing, but whatever it is it makes for an ok show. I give it a thumb leaning to the side. If the last episode was better it would have gotten a thumb up. But two episodes i enjoyed out of 6 does not make for a good show. Watch it if you want to.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) Review

So I finally played Jedi: Fallen Order and just finished it. It’s a pretty good game. The game was developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game takes place 5 years after the end of Revenge of the Sith during the continued hunt of jedi that survived the jedi purge that happened in that movie. The game follows Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, who is being hunted by the Inquisitors of the Galactic Empire, specifically The Second Sister Trilla Suduri and the Ninth Sister who were trained under the tutelage of Darth Vader. Cal is joined by Greez Dritus, a pilot that takes him on his journey for the jedi holocron containing a list and locations of the force sensitive children in the galaxy. He is also joined by Cere Junda, friend of Greez and former Jedi Master, as well as the former master of Trilla. Cal is also joined on his journey by BD-1, a droid with the ability to be upgraded to help Cal throughout the story as well as the former droid of Jedi Master Eno Cordova, the Jedi that hid the holocron and left clues in the memory banks of the droid to follow. 

The story of the game is pretty effective to me. It’s a heroes journey/coming of age story for Cal. It deals with the affects of and aftermath of the Jedi purge on both Cal and Cere, as well as the affects on Trilla. The story is of Cal coming into his own as a Jedi after spending 5 years hiding his abilities from the empire. At the beginning of the story we see him in his lowest place possible, hiding on a planet as a scrapper with his friend Prauf, scraping parts of ships from the Clone Wars. This all changes when something happens that forces Cal to his his force abilities to save his friends life. This causes the Empire and Inquisitors to come to the planet they are on to look for a Jedi. This starts Cal’s journey after he loses his friend and is saved by Cere and Greez. We follow Cal on this journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with the past and his trauma, as well as his development in the force. 

The story works for me as it is a good way to also help develop the galaxy during this time, relatively close to the end of clone wars, but also before there’s an established rebellion for the galactic civil war. Just a lot of small sects of resistance without too much support at the moment. It helps establish this world that is still in a bit of war as separate forces are kind of fighting back. It also helps show the affects of the clone wars, like what we see on Dathomir with the result of the night sister slaughter by General Grevious. It gives a good excuse to travel the galaxy and go to different planets, as well as reasons to go back to those planets. It really gives the feeling that his is a star wars game with the variety in locations. 

I really enjoy the characters in the game. I feel like Cal is one of the best additions to the story that Disney has made. He’s a good character that is continuing to learn, he’s got a good amount of power as a jedi but still has room to improve. It helps that as a video game we get more time with him as well as see a lot more how he interacts with others and have a bit of a hand in how he develops. We get to play him learning and getting know others throughout the game, which really helps me like him. I also really like how we learn with him about his past as he moves past his trauma, whenever we unlock a new form of traversal or force power we get a flash back to him learning it from his Master Jaro Topal on the ship above Bracca. These are all great as we get to see the relationship Cal had with his master. Which leads to the inevitable one that we get which is done very well and one of the best times we’ve seen this happen, the flashback to Order 66. We continue to see how the Clones around him and the relationship they had, which makes that moment all the more tragic. It helps that we get to play surviving the purge. I do wish that we got to see more or Topal to see what kind of master he was, since we only really get him in the flashbacks and then again on Dathomir when Cal confronts and moves past his trauma. 

The other characters are interesting and fun, BD-1 is a great buddy droid and helps out throughout the game. Greez is a fun character, that brings some comedic relief to the game. Cere is a great and interesting character, someone else that has made mistakes in the past, which lead her Padawan to becoming the Second Sister. Another character that stopped using the force to try to avoid her mistakes, but also learning to move past them as well. The villains are cool, its interesting to see how competent the second sister is as well as how manipulative she is. It’s also cool to see how Cal being Cal can help others move from the trauma and pasts to become better. Although her kind of moving back to the light a bit leads to another great moment in the game with the emergence of Darth Vader, who is this overwhelming force of nature that the only thing you can do is run. Even as powerful as Cere is in the force and with the darkside Vader just overwhelms everyone, to the point where the only way to escape is distraction. I had seen some of of these sequences before, but playing them is a whole other ballgame. Really helps with the tension that is built in those moments. Nightsister Merrin is a good character as well, she has the cool abilities of the Nightsisters which are more magical in nature as they view the force differently than the jedi or sith do. The performances are all great in this game too, everyone brings there A-game. 

The gameplay is pretty fun. It is a metroidvania/ fromsoft style third person action/adventure game. Where the point of the game is exploring the worlds to find collectibles, secrets, and additional things to help with survival. The other point is to learn the mechanics of the game or die trying. You will die a lot in this game, especially to the bosses who can be pretty difficult if your reaction time isn’t great. I played the game on Jedi Knight difficulty, which says that it is for gamers knew to these types of games but still want a forgiving challenge. It can be challenging but does feel rewarding. And I know that I don’t know if I would have finished the story if I played on a higher difficulty. The game makes use of your lightsaber and force abilities, which you can unlock at certain story points in the game. You get 3 main force abilities and 2 forms of lightsaber combat. You can push, pull, and stop with the force, and you can go single blade lightsaber or dual blade lightsaber. There are attacks you can unlock for experience that can change this a bit, such as the ability to through your sober, and another ability that unlocks later into the game of a heavy hit that lets you attack with two cabers. Though that is only one attack vs a form of combat. The combat is pretty fun in the game, parrying attacks and projectiles can be fun and the variety of lightsaber moves that can be performed is fun. Another addition to the gameplay is BD-1, who can splice into robotic enemies when they are about to die to give you control over them. This can be helpful when fighting a large number of enemies. The exploration in the game is pretty fun. The platforming is responsive and fun to do, especially as you progress further in the game and with your abilities. The bosses can be pretty difficult. Most of them I had a couple deaths to, but the inquisitors are the hardest. I have 14 deaths to the ninth sister and 13 deaths to the Second sister in the final battle. 

The collectibles and secrets are fun to discover, to learn more about the world and to get new customization options. I think this is where a lot of my issues game come from though. The game is linear, it does give options to explore and find different things, but everything is basically only world building, or cosmetics. So even if you decide to unlock abilities at different times, eventually you’ll unlock everything. The only collectibles that are really worth going after are the essences, story stuff, and stim canisters. The essences raise you maximum force and health bars, the story stuff gives you more of the world building and more experience to unlock moves, and stim canisters give you more heals. I do feel that the customization is limited in the game as most of the unlocks are all cosmetic options. Even in new game plus when you are able to have a red lightsaber and an inquisitor outfit, that does nothing but look cool. So unless you’re a completionism, the replay value of the game is pretty low. Even though I’m thinking about doing a replay to explore a bit more. Another issue I had is that later in the game i noticed a lot of audio synch issues during the cut scenes. It can be pretty jarring during serious moments. Another issue could be the variety of enemies. The empire stuff is good as you get a variety of enemies with storm troopers with different classes and weapons, scout troopers, purge troopers, K2 Units, and probe droids. The biggest issue is that it would be cool if there were different armours for the different planets. I know I probably didn’t face every boss in the game, but a lot of them are bounty hunters that play the same, or are animals that are bigger version of regular enemies. It can be a little repetitive. 

Some other little things, the visuals are great in the game. It’s gorgeous and the different locals are different and bring a different feeling to each planet. The music is pretty good throughout the game, giving good moments and also makes use of some movie scores which is pretty good.

Over-all I’d say Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a pretty good game, a fun experience over-all that I think is worth the play. Especially if you have Xbox Game Pass as it’s on there. I give it two thumbs up, if I were to give it a score it would probably be 7/10. I was going to give it an 8/10 but the customization limitations bring it down. 

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2021) Review

So I just finished the main story to the game and I gotta say it was pretty good. I’m not much of a game reviewer so I’ll try to keep it short and do my best. This game is about the titular Guardians of the Galaxy and their adventures in trying to stop the Universal Church of truth, and the evil entity that gains power from the church that they accidentally released. This game (like the avengers game before it) takes some inspiration from the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse of movies, while still having it’s own take on the material and characters. It builds up this world still in the aftermath of a great galactic war against the forces of The Mad Titan Thanos and everyone else. This world building is important to the storyline and plot of the game as The Universal Church of Truth uses what people want as a power source. So many people fall into their grasp due to their past and how much the galaxy has lost. What the main characters have lost, and a lot of the story is about trying to move past their guilts and trauma. I enjoy the way the game handles this throughout the runtime. How the guardians come together while working through their past traumas to eventual save the galaxy, a galaxy that is all too ready to give up and join, or to run away. It is due to the guardians that the forces of the galaxy decide to fight back at the most crucial time possible, especially depending on some of the choices you make throughout the game. The story definitely takes some inspiration from the movies and comics, while setting out it’s own path while how they handle it.

I enjoyed the way the game handled its characters. It’s a bit of a mixture between the comics and the movies with their backstories and their personalities and characteristics. Their interactions with each other are fun and I like how the interact with the other characters around the world. I was surprised to see some of the characters that they brought in. Some are very different from their other counterparts, and some are accurate but just have some weird designs. Like Adam Warlock feels like his comic counter-part a bit, but still has differences….and his outfit kinda sucks. Everyone gets their moment in the sun otherwise, like Warlock, Mantis is fun, it’s cool to see Cosmo around too. 

I found the gameplay of the game to be pretty fun. It can be repetitive at times, but I feel like the perks and abilities are enough there to provide some depth to the combat in the game. I do wish maybe there were a few more options to help customize the gameplay, and maybe upgrade characters and their abilities. Although after the response to avengers, I can see why they didn’t. You play as star-lord throughout the game with the options to command characters to interact with enemies and the environment in certain ways, and also instruct them to use their unlocked abilities. As star-lord you also have abilities that can be unlocked throughout the game as well. Your main weapons are your blasters, that mostly just shoot things but have the options of a charged shot, as well as a shot that gives large damage when hitting at a certain point when cooling off. Also throughout the game you unlock elements to use in your blasters. These being ice, electricity, wind, and fire. These elements are good in combat and have different effects on enemies. One thing I do wish is that there should be a bit more stuff you can do with the element aspects. The battles can be interesting though….although I really find the church priest enemies to be really annoying at times. THere’s a lot of repeated enemies throughout the game, especially people with guns, almost every location you visit has them. The game can also feel a lot like a game that could have come out like 15 years ago. If you could switch characters this could have been another Ultimate Alliance style game. Especially that it makes use of a  surprising amount of quick-time events, as well as giant boss battles that use a lot of enemies in them. I feel like the greatest example of this is the final boss of The Magus, who really only acts through falling meteors and enemies, he’s really not even a boss battle at that since you don’t really fight him. Over-all I would say the game play is pretty good.

The visuals in this game are incredible. Just gorgeous, even if I have some issues with some of the character designs looking a little weird. The game is bright and colourful and creative in some of it’s imagery. The soundtrack and score of the game are pretty good as well. Definitely movie inspired with how it uses 80s songs, but I also like how it differentiates itself bu not just using pop music from that time period, as it also uses some rock and metal tunes that we don’t really see in the movies. 

Screenshot I took while on Knowhere at The Rift

The collectibles in the game are pretty interesting, some character backstory stuff, some outfits. I do think there maybe should be some more outfits in the game. I haven’t collected everything and might do a replay of it one day. Although I think that’s my biggest issue is other than being a completionist, I don’t feel myself going back to the game. It feels like it doesn’t have much replay value. Which is probably one of the big reasons this game didn’t do great, there’s basically nothing to do outside of replaying the story again. THere’s not even really any difference to be made between playthroughs other than maybe seeing where the other choices take you. Other than that there’s no real replay value for me. 

Over-all I’d say it’s a game I would recommend playing. It’s a fun action-packed adventure throughout the marvel galaxy. I do think it’s worth playing , especially if it’s on sale or if you have Game Pass like i do. I give it two-thumbs up, number wise I give it a 7.5/10. 

Stranger Things 4 Part 1 (2022) Review

SPOILERS AHEAD

So Stranger Things 4 is finally out now, at least the first part is. It’s been a while since we’ve seen our favourite group of troublemakers and the adventures they go on. I’m happy that they’re finally back and I can’t wait to see where we go in the future, as this is basically the beginning of the end. This first 3/4s of the season establish and reveal so much about the world and about the history of of what has happened. The season isn’t over yet so when Part 2 is released I will do a full season review with everything about the characters and arcs and all that stuff. We’re getting close to the end but we’re not there yet so the arcs aren’t finished and still have a ways to go. I will still talk about the stuff that I liked or disliked about the season so far. There will be spoilers here so if you don’t want anything spoiled than go watch it and come back. But first, here are my thoughts and impressions after watching each episode.

Chapter 1: The Hellfire Club

HOLY SHIT WHAT AN EPISODE INTRO ! Give a different view of what happened in the past between Dr. Brenner and Eleven. Just wow. It really gives a re-contextualized look at what eleven has done in the past in the lab. Interesting opening and introduction to the characters. Interesting to see where the characters are now in their lives in high school. A lot more cinematic and more creative in the editing between locations and characters. A good example of this is the editing between the hellfire club scene and the basketball championship scene. Also the parallels between the sinclair shots is great. Doing a lot this season to separate the characters again (with Lucas trying to be popular and Dustin, Mike, and Erica missing the game). Does a good job of creating tension with figuring out if certain things are real or not. The tension mostly comes from the Chrissy scenes. And Holy Shit that ending ! Over-all for a first episode its good, not the best of the series but to me my favourite parts are the beginning and the ending. The most interesting stuff happened in those parts. So far I find that my interest in the series usually gets more as the season goes on as that’s when everything hits the fan. It’s going to be interesting to see how this psychic creature will affect the series in the coming episodes. I already can’t wait until the part of the season where the characters all come together to figure out and stop what is going on. So far good use of cliff hanger endings

Chapter 2: Vecna’s Curse

Interesting intro, showing what happened to hopper and how he survived. We continue to see this throughout the episode, getting to see where Hopper has been and where one group of characters are going to be. This episode was better, we get to see Mike and Eleven back together, with third wheel will. We get the group of Dustin, Max, Robin, and Steve together doing what they’re doing. Getting the first view of the monster for this season, and a little of the story surrounding it. The dungeons and dragons monster inspiration. Something that we have kinda seen before and more from last episode with showing more of this emotional murder mode that Eleven gets into. We get more of the main two storylines going forward and the likely eventual clash between Dustin’s group with Eddie, and Lucas’ basketball group. As well as another victim of Vecna’s curse. Overall an episode I like more than the first, less teen drama and more of the stuff that I like from this show. Mike is a lot less of a prick so far and it’ll be interesting to see where that storyline goes in the future. Also our first view of the upside down this season. 

Chapter 3: The Monster and the superhero

WHAT AN EPISODE. Things are starting to come together for the characters. MAX IS THE NEXT TARGET AAAAHHH. The possibility of the return of Eleven’s powers, the coming of the clash between the jocks with lucas and the “freaks” with eddie and dustin. Lucas having to reconcile his two lives along with all the other stuff going on. This episode is great and gives us more to look forward too in the future. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

Chapter 4: Dear Billy

WHAT AN EPISODE……..AGAIN! This episode was intense, crazy, and the OH SHIT episode. The episode where things go downhill in the first half of the season. THINGS ARE GETTING REAL. My god this was Max’s episode. So incredible. One of the most pulse pounding episodes so far. I was internally screaming at the end here just my god. We got things going wrong with the California crew with probably a military attack, we got things going wrong with the Russia/Alaska crew, and then of course we got the full view of the upside down with Max and her struggle against Vecna. Incredible episode with a relatively feel good ending. 

Chapter 5: The Nina Project

Another great episode. We’re seeing more interaction of the stories such as Jason’s storyline with Eddie intersecting with Vecna. Eleven seeing DOCTOR BRENNER ALIVE AGAIN and helping her to restore her powers. It’s interesting how they’re making her go through her mind and memories to gain her powers back, which should be useful with Vecna due to going after grief and guilt.  Again going to be interesting going forward.

Chapter 6: The Dive

HOLY SHIT! Another pretty good episode. More of Eleven’s training arc, the noose around Hawkins tightens ever more so now with the kids being hunted by the public due to Jason galvanizing the populace to go after Eddie. It’s getting bigger and bigger. 

Chapter 7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

HOLY CRAP ! What a way to end this part of the season! An incredible episode where the separate storylines have officially merged together. Along with the biggest reveal of the season and bringing the flashbacks back to the origins of the series itself. As well as THE BIGGEST REVEAL thus far. Insane episode showing just who Vecna is and just how powerful he and Eleven are and will be again. We also find out what Vecna is doing and why he is doing it. We also get some cool scenes showing what the different physics are like for the Upside Down. But I can’t wait to see where this goes forward, and what Vecna’s plans are for Nancy and why he revealed everything to her. It’s a good place to do a season break as it answers questions that we have had since the very beginning, but also leave more for the end of the season, and even the end of the series. This is an episode full of Holy Shit moments. We got that flashback reveal, we got Hopper and the Russians fighting a Demogorgon (it’s been  a while since we’ve seen you), we got a full CG Demogorgon slaughtering a bunch of people. Like it was crazy seeing just what a Demogorgon can do. Just an over-all incredible episode.

As you can see, I’ve been enjoying this season. It really brings it up to another level and makes everything much bigger now. It’s a much more cinematic season, a lot more stuff is going on and happens than has happened in the past. More of the town is involved, the military, cross-country and even in Russia. The world of this story continues to get bigger and bigger and it’ll be interesting to see just how big it’s going to get in the future. It’s bigger even in what we see of the upside down. We see a lot more of that dimension than we’ve seen in past seasons. With multiple characters going there for extended periods of time in the wide open reaches of the dimension, as well as people in their mind going there. We also get a lot more action this time around. We get a bit more stuff outside of power scenes and being chased by vans, or the action of last season. Like we got the scene at the byers California home, and the plane scene that really shows how they’re experimenting with the show and with what they can do. Which is going to be good for the final season as it feels like that’s going to be something big and epic. This season feels more psychological horror based than in the past. So much of the horror this season has been in the minds of the characters that are hunted by Vecna. A lot less of the more overt body horror of the last season. It also ups the ante of the dread felt by the characters as this isn’t just another example of having to close a gate or stop a monster. This is a monster they have no chance of fighting at the moment, especially since there are a lot more gates and a much more dangerous monster. The music so far this season is incredible as always, and the soundtrack is great again as well. 

I have really been enjoying the characters this season. Mike is a lot less of a prick than he’s been in the past, especially last season. He still has his moments but he still cares about eleven even after knowing that she’s been lying to him this whole time. He can still be an asshole but he almost always immediately regrets it and apologizes to people. Johnathan and Nancy have an interesting arc showing how important communication is in a relationship. And how Nancy and Steve are kind of rekindling their relationship together a bit.  Max and Lucas have an interesting arc about communication and the truth that almost costs Max her life. Lucas is really interesting as for the first half he’s caught between two halves, he wants to be popular and to not be bullied anymore, but he also wants his friends. At the moment he has chosen his friends that he has basically gone to war with, but these two sides are going to clash sooner rather than later. The alaska crew is on an interesting arc, it’s not finished yet so I can’t say more about it. Same with Will as his arc is tied to Mike and Eleven’s and we definitely aren’t at the end of that yet either. Eleven’s arc is really interesting as it’s forcing her to confront her past to get her powers back and maybe be even stronger. She thinks of herself as a monster, but its about her learning about her past truths and that she is both right and wrong. I won’t elaborate more as it’s not completely over yet. I can say they learned from the second season about having Eleven go on an arc about becoming more powerful and accepting of herself. 

I like the new characters introduced, Especially Argyle and Eddie. Both are fun characters and bring a lot of the comedic relief in the show, which is needed due to how intense it can be at times. The friendly orderly from Eleven’s flashbacks is an interesting character, showing how hard it is to truly find someone to trust in this system. He is interesting in the first few times we see him, but gives us some of the biggest Oh Shit moments in chapter 7. The returning side characters are really good this season, especially a surprising return of someone we haven’t seen in a while, and a different side to him than we were used to seeing the last time we saw him. 

Some issues I have with the season so far are that Will right now feels like a bit of an afterthought. He’s around for the ride but his arc is so tied to the Mike and Eleven arc that he doesn’t get to do much this season. Although his Arc does tie into some of the over-all themes of this season. I guess it means he’s getting a bit of a break from being so tied to the upside down in the past. Although I’m surprised given how popular he’s been the past couple seasons. Another issue is how at this point the formula of the show is kind of now in the open and we’re more aware of it now than we have in the past. Like now we gotta separate someone of everyone else to go off somewhere else to do something, and its Eleven again like in season 2. Although it’s handled better here than it was in season 2 and it felt like she was missing from the show for so much of that season. Whereas here her arc and what she is going through is a lot more integral to what is happening in Hawkins and is a part of the major storyline over-all, as well as the over-all themes of this season. I’m not sure how I feel about the Russia and Alaska stuff yet and what it does for the characters, as it’s not just over yet. Also the affects are mostly pretty good, like the upside down and Vecna look great, but some of the CG over-all is kind of iffy. Especially the de-aging this season as that can be a little uncanny valley sometimes. 

I would say the themes of this season so far are that you have to face and confront the truth, even if you don’t like it and could affect a lot. So many of the arcs this season are about characters confronting and admitting the truth about themselves and their feelings. Pretty much all the character arc are about them not being truthful to themselves, to others, or even to their own psyche. If we go even further, the truth of what is happening, and event he truth of what has happened all these years to the town. The next few episodes are going to be interesting seeing these truths come to light. 

Over-all this is a great season so far. It’s intense, funny, scary at times, and over-all an enjoyable ride. I can’t wait for the next episodes to finish out the season. 

Moon Knight (2022) Review

So I finally finished watching Moon Knight. Over-all this was another great Marvel Disney + series. It’s the most separate series from the rest of the MCU. We only have a few different mentions of MCU stuff but other than that it’s basically the first separate series from the rest of the MCU. No characters from other areas of the MCU pop up, it’s a little refreshing to be honest. There will be spoilers in this review as the show has been over for a couple weeks now, and people The show stars Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Steven Grant, Ethan Hawk as Arthur Harrow, May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly, and F. Murray Abraham as Khonshu. The show tells the story of Steven Grant and Marc Spector and their journey to figure out what is going on between themselves as they try to stop Arthur Harrow from releasing the inprisioned  Egyptian god Ammit, who wants to judge the people of the world on whether they are worthy of living or not. The story the show told is really interesting as it’s both the end of Marc’s time as Moon Knight, but also the origin story for Moon Knight. The way the show tells this story is really good as it keeps the mystery going just long enough to keep it interesting but also to keep it moving. To see this, here are my thoughts of each episode written after I watched them.

Episode 1: The Goldfish Problem

 A pretty good introductory episode. Introducing us to most of the characters and the first inklings of whats happening. This first episode introduces us to Steven Grant, a guy who works at a museum gift shop with a penchant for the ennead, the Egyptian pantheon of gods. It takes a little time to introduce us to him and his routine and showing that there’s something going on with Steven. Eventually it throughs us and the character right into the fire with him waking up from “blackouts” in the middle of some bad situations. That scene in the village and the subsequent chase scene were really cool and an interesting way to introduce the character into the wider world he is a part of. Everyone gives a great performance in this episode. The music is pretty good and the effects are good for the most part. I like the slow build to the ending with the first view of the suit and the slow introduction of Marc and Khonshu. This is a good start to the series. 

Episode 2: Summon the Suit

 A good continuation from the last episode. We get introduced to more of the world with seeing Mark’s wife Layla. We get more information about Marc and his relationship with Khonshu, as well as Harlow’s shtick and plan. It’s pretty interesting seeing just how many people are under his spell and I can really see why. Except for the whole able to kill a person with a touch thing. Classic change the world death cult leader stuff. I like that we get to see more of Khonshu and Mark in this episode. We get an idea of the limitations the gods of egypt at least have without an avatar or vessel. We get to see more action this episode, it’s pretty good and creative. It’s interesting how they make this pantheon fully mystical/magical with magic weapons and invisible beings that only avatars or such can interact with and see. Like the fight between Steven and the Jackal is pretty fun and full on like Supernatural with most of it being Steven fighting a to everyone else invisible enemy. The Mr. Knight suit looks incredible in live-action and is very comic accurate. I like the suit summoning stuff and it makes me want a full on tofu style moon knight show, even though this already is technically a tokusatsu show. The music continues to be great, really liking the Moon Knight theme. Over-all a good continuation of the show.

Episode 3: The Friendly Type

Another great episode. We see more of this side of the world with the avatars of the other gods in Egypt as well as the first mention of the wider MCU world with the mention of Madripour. It’s the first time we get a full episode with mostly Marc in it, we get to see from his perspective what losing control of the body is like, as well as the first inkling of another personality in the body. Some good action in this episode as well as a kinda emotional scene with the imprisoining of Khonshu. We also get to see more of Harrow’s abilities as a manipulator and knowledge. We also get to find out more about his past, and a little bit about his past with Khonshu. It also confirms the damage that he claims Khonshu did in the time he was an Avatar of the god. Over-all a good episode. 

Episode 4: The Tomb

Wow, another great episode. This was a great classic adventure episode. Taking cues from classic adventure movies such as Indiana Jones and The Mummy. This episode features some stunning cinematography, set design, and great performances. We get more about the past between Marc and Layla, as well as the truth between the two finally coming out. The last 13 minutes of this episode is crazy. The Shot of Marc falling into the water is some straight up art-film level stuff. The part in what I guess is the afterlife in the asylum making us second guess what is happening is great stuff. Plus the reveal at the end is a great moment. We even get some hints at another personality that is just under the surface after Steven is freed. A great episode over-all

Episode 5: Asylum 

My goodness, I know I’ve said this a lot but this was an amazing episode. The most emotional episode of the series so far. Just an incredible work. This episode gets to the heart of Steven and Marc’s relationship and reveals the truth of their history and how Steven came into being. Some incredible performances in this episode, especially from Oscar Isaac. Having to play the most emotional reveals and revelations of both Mark and Steven is just incredible. The effects are incredible, and it’s ingenious making the characters having to relive their past to move forward is a really smart move. I like having the idea of Doctor Harrow being there to force Steven and Marc into this and to help them balance their scales to get into the afterlife. And a really emotional end for Steven at the end of this too. Just sad to see him go, but he facilitated a role and has now kind of fully fulfilled it. Incredible stuff. One more episode to go, let’s hope it ends strong.

Episode 6: Gods and Monsters

AND IT ENDS STRONG. What a finale, one of the best in the marvel shows so far. A great finale to this story and a great way to establish where the character(s) are going forward. A great finale with some great action, including a big Kaiju battle between Amit and Khonshu. A great ending and a mystery to go forward with the realization and confirmation that there is at least one other personality inside of Marc and Steven, one that has been hinted at throughout the series with the random blackouts followed by mass bodies. A great finale for all the characters, with Marc and Steven coming together and being able to switch around at will without blacking out. Seeing Layla as the avatar of Twaret was great, Harrow’s ending coming full circle with the asylum from the last episode was great. And the full reveal in the post credits scene of Jake Lockley was crazy and very well done. I can’t wait to see what they do with these characters going forward. Over-all a great finale episode to an over-all great series.

I feel like this is the first series where the length helped it, maybe it could have used a couple more episodes, I feel like it doesn’t need them though. We get enough time with the characters to establish them and their relationships and motivations well. It doesn’t feel like a longer movie, and it also doesn’t need more episodes to feel more complete like I did with most of the past Marvel shows. Admittedly I haven’t seen Hawkeye yet so I can’t judge that. But I feel like the show was paced well, moved slow enough for the relationships, but fast enough to keep it fresh and interesting. The tone of the show is great as well, a bit more of a darker tone than we’ve seen in the past, which fits for the character, the subject matter, and where the character will appear in the future.

The characters and performances are all amazing. Everyone does and incredible job with the material and likely had a lot of fun with what they got to do in this show. 

Oscar Isaac is a stand-out in this show with what he gets to do with Marc and Steven. Each character is given different traits and quirks to separate them from each other and Oscar is incredible as both. I can only imagine how hard it would be to play multiple characters like this switching between each other as many times as they do. Even the character introduced in the mid-credits scene felt different from the others. Even playing with how uncomfortable he was when Khonshu was taking over his body during the court scene was impressive and funny. The character arcs he goes on in this show are great too. I think it was a smart move to have Steven be discovering this stuff in the early half of the season as he serves as the audience surrogate, learning about this new world he’s in while also having more knowledge of the situations they find theirselves in than Marc does. They have a really good arc in this show, learning to come to terms with their past and accepting the truths of their lives.  I even like the idea that in The Tomb they have an easter egg for where Steven’s name comes from before it’s fully revealed in The Asylum. I like how through Steven, Marc learns to become more honest and truthful and to be able to forgive himself for his actions int he past. While Steven is able to become more confident in himself and his abilities through Marc. It’s going to be interesting to see where the characters move going forward with the reveal of Jake Lockley, the secret third personality, being Khonshus new avatar takes them in the future. 

May Calamawy was great as Layla as well. She did a great job with what she was given and also got some moments to have some fun with the role. She is a badass character who comes to learn the truth behind her relationship with Marc, as well as learning the truth about Marc with Steven and even a bit of seeing Lockley in action. Her character arc was pretty good, and she has really good chemistry with Oscar in both roles he plays. 

Ethan Hawke was great as Arthur Harrow. In both ways he plays him he does a very good job as him. His turn as Harrow in Arthur form was really good as this cult of personality cult leader. You can really believe and buy what he is saying, especially with how they show the cult he leads being a “better” way of life. But like all cult leaders, there’s a darkness waiting underneath of the pain that Khonshu caused him when he was his avatar. His turn as Doctor Harrow is also really good, as a doctor that does seem to care about his patients and wants them to succeed, even though we don’t exactly get an answer as to what is happening in that realm. 

Everyone else did a great job as well in their roles. They played their roles well and brought life to them.  F. Murray Abraham as Khonshu was great, his voice fit the character very well and had the right amount of power, anger, and sass to it. 

The technical aspects of the show were great as well. I really liked the way they depict the blackouts for the characters, and how they depict when another personality/character takes over the body. The cinematography was incredible in this show. Very colour and well framed and brought a sense of style to the show that we don’t really see in the MCU as much. The grading of the show is great, not drab and muted like it used to be in a lot of marvel films. The effects are all pretty good in the show, most working well if maybe a little iffy at times. Over-all they’re great. A stand-out moment of affects was when Khonshu and Mr. Knight were turning the sky backwards in time to see the constellation on a specific night. Although this raises the question of when are these big visual events going to be brought up in the future. I mean there’s this moment, that everyone saw, than there’s the moment of Arishem coming to earth in The Eternals, to the multiverse stuff in Spider-Man (unless the spell also made the world forget about all that stuff). 

The gods shown in the show all look good with how different their designs are, the underworld stuff looks great. I thought it was really interesting how they’ve now brought up something from the comics in that the gods of the different pantheons all work very differently. The ennead Egyptian gods are all very mystical in nature and need avatars to have their power to work in the physical world, while the gods of Asgard are very physical and exist in the physical world. The Moon Knight costume stuff looks great too. The costuming, props, and set design are all great as well. I was a little hesitant at first with the main moon knight costume, but I’ve come around to it. I like how it does have a bit of ceremonial armour to it, while also having the bandages to look like a mummy. While the Mr. Knight costume is so good looking. A great adaptation of the suits from the comics, also I can’t wait for the moon knight marvel legends to come out even if we have to wait till next year to get them. If everything was on green screen than they did a great job making everything look real and like an actual set. The music from this show is incredible as well. Great amounts of sad and quiet moments, as well as the big epic moments. I really like the epic music motif of the main Moon Knight theme. 

I know some people out there may be a little perturbed by what I’m about to say, not everyone but some people will be. This is the most toku a marvel show has been. A lot of the costume’s in the past have had a lot of people compare them to power rangers and kamen rider type costumes which I’ve seen people be mad at. To me this show brings those comparisons to the forefront. To do a bit of education to people, toku is short for tokusatsu, which is basically the Japanese word for live action special effects. So yes Moon Knight and all of Marvel is technically tokusatsu. It’s a discussion that I’ve seen people have lately on what does took mean, yes it’s tokusatsu as the base meaning of the word describes a majority of media out there. So a lot of people have been discussing what makes toku, well toku. To me the short version of the word toku is the format/genre of the shows. I feel this way as toku shows and movies to me feel different than live action superhero shows and movies from elsewhere. To me Kamen Rider and let’s say the Marvel shows are both live-action super hero shows, but they feel different enough in make, story, and character wise. Toku isn’t even Japan specific either as there a number of these types of shows being produced around the world, including here in North America with Power Rangers. Now i got a little distracted there, and the reason for that is I feel like Moon Knight is the closest that Marvel has come to making a straight up toku series. It’s got a main hero that can say a phrase to summon a suit to transform into a super hero, it’s got a hero with multiple forms, the hero has a similar power source as the villain, there’s a giant creature battle. To me these are all things that toku is. Ok I’m going to move on from this conversation now, it’s turned into a bit of a tangent. 

Over-all I really enjoyed this show, it’s a great watch and makes use of the format to it’s strengths. Moon Knight is a great watch and I can’t wait to see what happens with the character in the future. Watch it soon, 2 thumbs up!

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness Review (2022) (spoilers after main review)

I finally saw the movie on Saturday, I say finally as it’s been pretty difficult over the past week to avoid spoilers. The movie is a blast, a real thrill ride. I will start the review soon, but there will be spoilers after the end of this review. There’s a lot that happens in it that I don’t want to spoil, but still want to talk about. I will try my best to give a lot of space between the main review and the spoilers as I feel like this is a movie you need to go into as blind as you can. 

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo. The movie sees Doctor Strange diving head first into the increasingly crazy multiverse of possibilities (as seen recently in Loki, What If?, and Spider-Man No Way Home) when a seemingly regular day is interrupted by the arrival of America Chavez, a girl with myterious magical abilities to traverse the multiverse, as she is being hunted by magical monsters trying to take her powers. 

I really enjoyed the way this story was told and the way it developed. It was kind of surprising the places it went and how early it did. One thing to say about this movie is that Doctor Strange is in it more like a Mad Max style character, he’s a protagonist, but the movie isn’t really about him. It’s more about the establishment of a new hero in America Chavez and a kind of finale for the current character Arc that Wanda has been on since Wandavision.

Doctor Strange does work in this movie, even if he’s more of a vessel for the stories of the other characters. He still goes on a bit of an arc as it’s kind of about him learning and realizing that he can’t have everything, and that he has to accept that as it could result in a lot of bad things happening. We saw something a little similar with a variant of Strange in What If? with Strange Supreme. He continues to learn that there are consequences to actions. He learns from the situations of the other variants that appear in the movie. Benedict Cumberbatch does another great job as Stephen Strange. He gets a lot more to work with in this movie, with having to play multiple versions of the role, and is great in them all. 

The Scarlet Witch is great in this movie. She has changed a bit from the last time we saw her. I don’t want to say too much but it does fit in with what we saw at the end of Wandavision during the Post-Credits scene. I mean I could say some stuff as it’s clear from the marketing that she is the antagonist of the movie. Her reasonings are kind of understandable, especially with the way the Darkhold works in this multiverse. We also get to see just how powerful she is as the Scarlet Witch, even more so than we did in Wandavision. She can also be legitimately terrifying in this movie, there’s some sequences where she is actually scary. I can see people being upset with the way she goes in this movie, just judging from the way people saw her in Wandavision. Especially as for some people it could feel like a left turn, or something that is happening a little too early in this version of the character. Elizabeth Olsen is a stand-out in this movie with what she does and the versions she plays. I feel like she had some fun her with what she gets to do in it. She’s able to play every emotion the character has in this movie very well and effective. 

America Chavez is another stand-out character in this movie. They did a great job establishing her as a character and how she might work in the movies going forward. This movie kind of serves as her coming of age story, as its her learning to trust again and becoming more confident and in control of her abilities. Gomez does an incredible job with the character, bringing the right amount of pathos to it with what she’s been through at such a young age. 

Everyone else in the movie did a great job. Wong was fun as always and even had some badass moments, Mordo was good. I won’t say anything else about performances as the cameos all did great and I don’t want to spoil them. 

The music was pretty good in this movie, Danny Elfman did a great job and brings the right amount of tense scariness alongside the heroic bombastic moments. The effects are all great in this movie, they had a lot to work with and everything looks great. America’s portals all look amazing and keep that glassy look that What If? had established for people with the ability to traverse the multiverse. The multiversal travel scenes were all great, showcasing some really crazy alternate universes out there. The magic showcased in the movie is all great, a lot of creativity here with the sorcerers and their spells. Wanda’s magic looked great as well. Theres a specific battle scene that was really fun and creative with the way it used magic with music. It’s a real stand-out fight in the movie. The action in general in the movie works very well and is pretty good throughout. There’s a specific scene I will not talk about until the spoiler section as it’s another standout scene. The cinematography and direction in this movie is all great, has Sam’s hands all over it. I think it really helps the movie to have a director like Sam Raimi helm it. He brings the right amount of horror elements, as well as bonkers stuff in it. He also brings a lot of evil dead stuff to the movie, which is all great. 

Over-all Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is a fun romp through the multiverse. See it in the theatres, if not for how good it is, do it for the cameos. 2 Thumbs Up ! Coming next, my Moon Knight review !

SPOILERS

Wow a lot happened in this movie, if you don’t want to be spoiled this is the last chance to avoid seeing anything else that happens in this movie. Also this part is gonna be full on train of thought word vomit being typed out. Which admittedly isn’t to different than my regular reviews

My goodness Sam Raimi was the best choice to direct this with how it went. Scarlet Witch is full Evil Dead, terrifying villain in this. Like the scene where she attacks Kamar-Taj and slaughters a majority of the sorcerers there, to the scene where they show why the Mirror Dimension should not be relied on even more after Spider-Man. How the Witch is able to use it against them and the scene where she emerges out of the, I think it was a gong, is insane with how she comes out. I think its interesting that Marvel let Raimi and Waldron turn Wanda into a full villain after the success of Wandavision, but I don’t think it’s the end of the character, even though it kind of feels like one. She’s fully a villain in this one, I mean she basically possess another version of herself and slaughters a lot of people and robots. I do like how its that that shows her how far she’s gone and how they end up defeating her. Showing to her that she can never truly be the mother she wants to be with what she’s done and what she was willing to do. 

Although I do wonder what the Derrickson version of the movie would have been, maybe it would have featured a character we hear about in this movie for the first time. It was cool to see Mount Wundagore for the first time in the MCM. With that we also get the first mention of the creator of the Darkhold and the Scarlet Witch, Chthon. I think one of my issues with the movie would have been solved if Chthon was more apart of the movie, a true corrupting influence over anyone who touches the darkhold. It would have helped explain why Wanda seems to have changed so much since Wandavision, other than just the influence of the Darkhold itself. Especially since it’s so corrupting in every universe, every universe version that has touched it has become worse. We get to see in live action something we only saw in What If? as well, with showing what happens when a universe has an incursion and is destroyed.

Speaking of Incursions, we get introduced to the people that discovered it, one universes version of the illuminati. This one made up of the cameos spoke of earlier. We get to see Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel, the live-action debut of Haley Atwell as Captain Carter (also from what if), Mordo as Sorcerer Supreme, The MCM Debut of Reed Richards (here played by John Krasisnki), The return of Ansen Mount as a comic accurate Black Bolt, and the MCM debut of Charles Xavier played by the legendary return of Patrick Stewart. He’s even in a cartoon accurate yellow hovercaair too ! It was cool to see these characters here, even if they’re here to up The Witchs body count. This was an incredible scene, with Reed getting turned into Spaghetti, Carter getting cut in half (impressive considering what she survived in What If?), Rambeau being crushed by a statue, and Black Bolt going out like a chump. That was kind of sad to see such a powerful character go out the way he did, but then again the inhuman don’t matter much to the current MCM stuff. Especially after the response to the Inhumans show. Though to do multiverse stuff we can always see them come back. 

I do enjoy how a through line of the movie is that you can’t always get what you want, it’s a major part of both Stephen and Wanda’s development in this movie. We get to see 4 versions of Strange in this movie, 5 over-all in the MCM if you count Strange Supreme from What If ? and every single one has had bad luck in their relationship with Christine, every single one does not end up working out. We also see the Darkhold’s influence in how it’s corrupted at least 2 other Stranges. 

It was cool to see how Evil Dead it got, we got at least a couple scenes of this. There’s new designation of the main universe matching the comic’s 616 Witch dream walking into the illuminati universe version. Then there’s the one with the dead body of the Strange seen at the beginning of the movie, being possessed by the 616 Strange and resurrected due to having his soul in him. That was cool to see a full on Deadite looking strange doing magic with the damned guardians I guess you can say.

Now coming back to issues, dream walking introduces some (god I hate to say this) plot holes into the movie. With the Darkhold’s ability to dream walk into other versions of ourselves, why wouldn’t Wanda just do that to be with her children again. She’s doing this all for them, even though for 616 Wanda they don’t really exist at least not yet. Also another issue is that the first time we see her she is still doing a hex, which can go against her development from Wandavision. Which is why I wished that we had more of Chthon in it as than we could have a reason why she’s doing what she’s doing. Maybe Chthon is possessing her in some way and that’s why she is so dark in this movie, and why she decides to destroy all versions of the Darkhold. Maybe Chthon is trying to get the Witch to get America’s powers to be freed from the dimension it’s in. It would help with how hearing and seeing the children can kind of break her out of her spell. 

I can see where people have issues as it does feel like the character skipped some portion of their story with Wanda. But I think it’s important to remember that it can’t be too different than what Marvel wanted to do originally with this movie as they still signed off and allowed it to happen and to go the way it did. Again I don’t think that this is the last we’ll se with her, we’ve seen her survive worse and even then, multiverse baby!

Thats it for spoilers, again it’s a great movie and I can’t wait to see what happens in the future with these characters. And I hope Sam Raimi stays around for the eventual sequel. I can say that this does give us a glimpse into something that is likely coming in the future with Secret Wars, and how America could be a major part in that in some way.

Ok this is really it for spoilers, again great movie, go see it.

Morbius (2022) Review

So I saw Morbius today and….its…..ok for the most part. I’m not gonna be super in depth with this one as it’s pretty average at best. I don’t want to spoil anything about this movie, but I’m still going to cover everything as I can’t really talk about much without spoiling too much. The movie stars controversial actor musician Jared Leto as the titular Doctor Michael Morbius, a world famous doctor and medical scientist with a rare blood disease that lead to him taking an experimental cure that used Vampire bat DNA and fused it with his own. This causes him to become a vampire without any of the traditional vampire weaknesses. Leto’s performance is acceptable throughout the film. It’s not remarkable outside of the vampire form scenes. I’m a little iffy with his performance as it works, but there’s something missing from it. The film also stars Matt Smith as Milo, Michael’s surrogate brother who suffers from the same blood disease and so has joined him on his quest to cure the disaese. Smith is pretty good in this movie as he’s clearly having the most fun in his role. He hams it up at every opportunity and so is probably the most enjoyable character in the movie. Their chemistry is pretty good and I feel like the movie could have used more of it, especially more of the post serum relationship. Everyone else is serviceable and serve their roles well. I feel like the detectives really didn’t need to be there, even if they’re likely to be in later movies down the road. It’s a pretty standard origin movie fair, doesn’t reinvent the wheel and also doesn’t massacre anything. There are horror elements in the movie, but with the rating it doesn’t really do much with it. It’s also supposed to be a superpower anti-hero movie, but it also doesn’t do much with that at least until the later part of the movie when the villain comes around. It’s a bit Jekyll and Hyde but where they kind of become one by the end of the movie. Honestly to me this movie feels rushed. It doesn’t give time for things to breath, or give time for things outside of relationships to work their magic. It feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s both a superhero action origin movie, and also a horror mystery movie. They really should have figured out how to make them work together better, or just focused on one or the other. As it is it feels rushed and kind of unfinished. Something I do like though are the visual effects for the fights, powers, and vampire forms. They look great and a great adaptation of the abilities in other mediums. I actually wish we got more of them because they were pretty cool and looked good. The effects teams did a really good job as they are effective and look pretty cool. The echolocation effects look pretty cool, and so do the gliding effects. i actually kind of like the way the show the speed of the characters, but there are some really weird and funny parts for that. The vampire forms are a good adaptation of the way Morbius looks in the comics, with the bat-like nose and the sunken in eyes and cheeks. I wish we got more of the vampire action in the movie as it was pretty good and cool, but it’s another aspect that feels rushed. There’s not a lot throughout the whole movie until the last 40 minutes or so when the villain comes around. Once he comes around there’s a bit but it’s not for long and it’s kind of boring since it ends so fast. It could have used a  lot more. More action could have made it a more fun movie to watch. The music in the movie is ok, kind of has some pomp to it, but holy moly there are parts of it that were straight up from the Nolan Batman movies. I am not kidding you with this either. Its pretty close. Something else I don’t really mention are the graphics for the title sequences. They’re pretty good but the I feel like the ones in the end credits don’t really fit the movie. It’s kind of hard to describe as they’re pretty old school being mostly purple lines throughout the screen and letters. It’s a weird thing to talk about but I liked them in the beginning. 

As another movie in the Sony Spider-man Universe without Spider-man in it, I kind of have to compare it to the Venom movies. They’re kind of similar but Morbius doesn’t have the benefit of the double main character that Venom has. I actually think it would have been better if it was more similar to Venom 2 as that had some good symbiotic action to balance it out and leaned into itself. Plus the final battle in that movie has some good length to it which Morbius could have used. They’re both like pre-MCU superhero movies, but Morbius is like that in a bad way to me. 

Over-all its a serviceable movie that’s kind of disappointing as there’s something in here that could have made for a fun comic book adaptation. What we have is ok. I’d give it a thumb half up or to the side. If you see it in theatres do it on a Tuesday or matinee showing to save some money. Other than that wait for the digital release or it comes to streaming to watch it. 

SPOILERS

Now for a spoiler discussion. I would have put this a bit earlier but I decided to put it down here just so that if people want to go in blind they can. 

SO I’ll start the spoiler talk here. I like Milo as the villain as he kind of serves that dark mirror trope that comic books and comic movies just love to use. He chooses to take the serum and enjoys being vampire. He enjoys killing people and how it makes him feel. Once he becomes a vampire is when he really camps it up. And it works well for the movie to bring some fun into it. It sorely needs more to make it more interesting. They tried to make a little bit of a mystery but abandon it pretty fast. As I said earlier the detectives don’t do much in the movie and probably could have been cut out. Would have worked to make more time for some action. The final  battle feels like it’s five minutes and nothing really happens in it. They fight a bit, Morbius is injured, Milo throws him from the building and they fall to a place underneath the city. Morbius gets up after summoning Vampire bats and uses them like a form of telekinesis to defeat Milo. That’s all that happens, even though they do foreshadow it earlier.  The vulture credit scenes really don’t make sense to me. Like it really messes with what was established in No Way Home with the way the spell worked in the end of that movie. I’m surprised Marvel allowed for them to put that scene in as it does mess a bit with what was established. Especially that Vulture  is somehow able to find and find out about modern Morbius AND make a whole new Vulture suit in this new universe he’s in. It’s just messy and weird….which I guess could describe this movie as a whole. 

The Batman (2022) Review

So I saw The Batman this weekend and it was incredible. It’s a great detective thriller with  some incredible moments. The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/ The Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant James Gordon, Colin Ferrell as Oz/The Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Paul Dano as The Riddler. The film sees The Batman in his second year of duty, already having the city’s criminals fearing the signal of his calling, and having a relationship with the Gotham City Police through Gordon, now having to deal with a new threat. Batman must face this threat, along with realizations about his past that will challenge him and his code. 

I think the story and plot of the film are effective. The mystery of what the riddler is doing and why is very well done and interesting. It really makes the city of Gotham a character in its own right with how much the mystery deals with the history of the city. I also enjoy how it’s also about Batman learning that he can’t keep just being the creature of the shadows, that to make true history in Gotham he needs to be out there and scene by the people. 

The characters and performances of this film are all incredible. Everyone brings their A-game to this film as everyone was great and effective in their roles.

Robert Pattinson was incredible as The Batman and as Bruce Wayne. He’s intense and brooding as this is a Batman that is still learning and hasn’t evolved into the playboy Bruce persona, he’s focused on being Batman, on being out there and protecting the streets. This new Riddler murder spree consuming him as he tries to figure out the game here. He brings a great physicality to the role and works great for all the things this version of the character does. This is also one of the few times where he’s a straight up detective in this film. He goes over evidence, he’s great at riddles, he reviews footage shot, but he’s not the greatest yet. He’s young and while he’s got a keen eye, and is very observant, he’s still got a lot to learn. In all aspects of the job he’s still learning, which really works for this version of the character. He’s learning in all aspects of his life, even down to how to deal with people like Gordon and Selina. It’s interesting to see. 

Paul Dano was also incredible as The Riddler. Super intelligent, terrifying, and incredibly creepy. He’s a very effective villain and is possibly the best batman villain we’ve seen live action. He might be better than Heath Ledger as Joker was. They’re similar but very different villains. He’s a much less physical villain than Joker was. But his strength is that we don’t see him a lot, and when he does it’s always creepy. A good example of this is his introduction. It’s so tense and creepy it’s incredible. He’s very inspired by the Zodiac killer, which isn’t really a secret but still works for this story. 

Zoë Kravitz is great as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. They did some interesting things with her character relationships and her place in the story. She’s very much what we think of Catwoman as she still has that kind of sexual nature to her character and her relationship with Batman. She’s badass and has her fair share of great moments in the film. 

Jeffrey Wright was great as Gordon. He gets involved in the action and has a great relationship with Batman in the film. 

Andy Serkis makes a great Alfred, the badass surrogate father to Bruce that tries to help him as much as he can. While he isn’t in the film much, he has an impact on Bruce and helps him see to a major part of the riddle. 

Colin Ferrel was insane as Oz as you can’t tell it’s Ferrel in the role. He’s a little bit Italian mobster but he was still incredible. The make-up they did made it a complete transformation. 

Everyone else in the film did a great job as well. 

The film is beautiful, every shot really is a work of art. It’s probably one of the best looking superhero films period. A lot of the best shots are in the trailers, but one of my favourites has to be the shot of Batman walking towards Oz at the end ion the car chase. Speaking of that, the action in this film is incredible as well. The fights that Batman has are great and different from anything we’ve seen in the past from the character in live action. The car chase was incredible as well. The finale was great as well. Both sequences full of tense moments. 

Another aspect of this film that I love is the music. The choices for character music are great, and the score itself is incredible. Michael Giacchino really outdid himself with this one. A great mix of the quite sincere moments, tense moments, sad moments, and big epic bombastic moments. All shown within the main Batman theme of the film, which is incredible by the way. I honestly think that it might be the best Batman theme. What I mean is that I think it’s the theme that works the best for the character, especially when he’s after a criminal like we see in the movie. It’s used very well.

One thing that is being understated by a lot of people is the nature of the film. This is still a comic book film with comic book elements with humour in it. It’s there, it’s understated but it’s still there. 

Now I’m just gonna talk a bit more about some things in this film that I love. I didn’t touch on it before but I love the opening of the film. It’s intense and creepy and kind of scary. This film also has some of the best introductions out of any comic book movie out there. From the Riddler’s first murder, to the Batman’s intro, to the first time we see the batmobile. They’re incredible. I’m going to go a bit more into the Batman’s intro. Its perfect. The montage, the monologue, to Batman’s reveal from the shadows. It’s just *chef’s kiss*. 

Over-all The Batman is an incredible film and adaptation of the Batman stories and mythos. Matt Reeves did an incredible job with this film and I can’t wait to see what else he and his team does with the characters in the future. Two-Thumbs up, 5 stars, 10/10 it’s amazing. Go see it in the theatres !

Uncharted (2022) Review

So I saw Uncharted over the weekend on Saturday, it was pretty good. For those who don’t know, Uncharted is a movie adaptation of the popular Sony PlayStation exclusive video game series of the same name. The series is about the adventures of Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, two adventurers and treasure hunters with shady pasts. And that is where my knowledge on the series ends as I’ve never played the games since I haven’t had a PlayStation console since the PS2. So anything I know about the series comes from Google, this movie, and some game clips I’ve watched. 

The movie stars Tom Holland as a younger Nathan Drake, Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan (Sully as he’s known), Antonio Banderas as Santiago Moncada, Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer, and Tati Gabrielle as Braddock. By younger I mean that these versions of the characters are younger in comparison to their video game versions. The movie is about Nathan Drake going on his first adventure as he gets drawn into the treasure hunting world by Sully to find a lost fortune of gold, and the dangers that presents in the opposing forces of Santiago Moncada as he tries to find his family’s lost fortune (even though they’re still incredibly wealthy and powerful). While on this adventure he is also trying to find out what happened to his long lost Brother Sam who Sully, Chloe, and Braddock have a past with. I think the story and plot are effective for this type of movie. The twists and turns allow us and Drake to learn what this life he’s getting into is truly like and I enjoy how we see him slowly become accustomed to this life. We also see him slowly become a bit of the Drake we see in the games. I enjoy how the movie is this adventure that we don’t have much of anymore. In the same vein as Indiana Jones with some cool big set pieces. 

I think the characters and performances were good and effective throughout the movie. I know a lot of people have a problem with the casting of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg as Drake and Sully, but I don’t really have that problem. This can be viewed as an origin story for Drake and their first meeting and adventure together. I think they work well together and I think they fit their roles well enough. I feel like Tom does well in this role and is pretty effective, especially with how physical the character is. Although he still does a bit of that Marty McFly voice he does when speaking in an American accent. Wahlberg does pretty good as well, the right amount of untrustworthiness and caring. Everyone else is effective in their roles as well. Although I think Santiago and Braddock could have used something more to make them more interesting as villains. Braddock has her past with Sully and Sam, but over-all they kind of fall a little flat as villains. 

For the technical side of things, I think the effects are pretty standard and work well enough for the movie. There’s some iffy parts during the big airplane sequence that is seen in all the marketing. It’s weird how that sequence has some iffy looking parts, but the final big sequence doesn’t and that involves some big stuff that could have looked off. I wonder if that was done on a practical set as the ships look pretty good. The action was mostly good, a few moments of some confusing editing but mostly good and effective. The music was pretty standard throughout, nothing too memorable or anything. The movie looks pretty good throughout, nothing that stands out. The game references throughout the movie were cool and interesting to see, even if I didn’t understand a lot of them. 

Over-all it was a fun movie to watch and a pretty good adaptation of the source material. I give it 1 thumb up, see it if you’re interested or want to. Although go in with an open mind if you’re a fan of the games as I know a lot of people that like the games have issues with this movie.