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Noro_The_Arbiter
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The 5th Wave (2016)
Started off promising, nosedived soon after
First 30 minutes of this are alright. Nothing exceptional, but it sets up the world and makes it seem interesting. Really seems like they lost interest in the story they wanted to tell about aliens destroying the planet in different waves and instead wanted angsty teen drama in the mid/latter thirds.
Darkwood (2017)
Masterpiece
I have no other way to put it, this game is a true masterpiece. The sound design is nothing short of perfect and really helps immerse you in the dark fairytale setting. The music is on par with most AAA games, and can make some areas that would normally not be worth a mention into terrifying places. The graphics are very simplistic for the most part, but that just makes it more dreadful especially with the god-tier sound design. You can't exactly make out what the enemies look like, it's largely up to your own interpretation and that makes it all the more scary. The conversation screen art is darkly beautiful, and very well done with smooth animations. The story, while simple, sets the mood perfectly, changes with your decisions, and becomes very immersive the more you explore these forsaken woods. It has a unique and well-executed currency system, that really makes you want to manage your resources as best you can. The difficulty in combat, while unforgiving, rewards skill and planning greatly. It's certainly not a game for everyone, but if you want a challenge, terrifying and amazing setting, and great story, Darkwood is definitely worth a try.
Alien: Isolation (2014)
Gorgeous and intense!
This game is amazing, but let's go over the bad first. This game has a lot of padding, especially in the latter half. I won't spoil anything that happens, but everything that can go wrong, absolutely will go wrong and you'll have to be the one to fix it by following new objectives. This of course, makes the game a lot longer than it should be in a rather frustrating way. Don't get me wrong, I like longer games, but it was frustrating to put a lot of effort into completing a goal only to have something mess up and make me have to do a much longer, more frustrating objective. The AI, while it works greatly to the intensity of the game is very aggressive in from difficulties medium and above, which can be incredibly frustrating especially when there's both the alien and other aggressive enemies tailing you.
I need to put a spoiler tag over it now, but I can't make a review without mentioning it: the hazmat android gank squads are the worst thing in any game ever. Throughout the game, you are taught that you need to hide, move slowly and carefully, and only use combat as a last resort. Then this segment inside the reactor happens and it turns from a stealth game into "HURR DURR let's put 50 robots in this hallway and make you need to hit 7 different things on opposite sides of the map without dying to the robots who are also immune to their one weakness" where you run around like a chicken with its head cut off and try not to get grabbed.
With that out of the way I can start praising the game's many good qualities.
Sevastopol as a setting is fantastic, and with the graphics it looks absolutely gorgeous. The area is huge, and while you go through most of it in the main campaign, you still feel as if you're really exploring this decrepit space station. Out of every window you get to see the depths of space, and the beautiful sun and planet the station orbits.
The combat, while clunky, encourages strategy and planning on how to take out targets. This strategy and planning is rewarded with much needed crafting materials and ammunition, which help you with progressing through the game.
The alien not only looks gorgeous, but is an absolute terror. Whenever it shows up, the game goes immediately from a 3 or 4 straight to a 10 in terms of intensity. Anyone who's played the game will have the sounds of it entering and leaving vents permanently burned into their minds. Not only that, but the AI learns how you play, meaning no encounter will exactly be the same, and each encounter gradually gets harder. Adding to the immersion, the alien also attacks other people. You aren't the sole target.
The music here also cannot be unappreciated. The soundtrack varies from slow peaceful melodies in the calm moments after chaos, to intense themes that make it even more terrifying (Take the habitation deck escape theme for example, the music absolutely MADE that mission), to dread-inducing ambience.
Overall, despite a few flaws, this game is still a masterpiece and absolutely deserving of a playthrough.
Dorohedoro (2020)
A big surprise of the best kind!
While I'm normally skeptical of a lot of CGI anime, this one really impressed me. I decided one day on a whim that I'd watch it and to my surprise I was hooked by episode 2. The worldbuilding here is excellent, and even more so are the characters. It's rare to see the antagonists be just as endearing, entertaining, and directly involved in the plot as the protagonists, but here you really feel for every character, and want to see them succeed. It still does have flaws though: The animation could be a lot better (we still haven't mastered CGI anime), and after the third fight you know how every one following it will end (Nobody dies unless they were a side character introduced that episode). But putting that aside, what you have here is a wildly creative, fun, and entertaining acid trip.
Kûtei Doragonzu (2020)
As a show in and of itself, it's beautiful and creative, however it's clearly propaganda for whaling.
I cannot agree with the message that this show sends, since the characters themselves admit that the "Dragons" they hunt (which are stand-ins for whales) are relatively harmless, and the only reason they hunt them is for food and money. In the very first episode they say, and I quote "It is mad... it has the same smell as the dragon we got this morning... it's probably the mother". I will give credit where it is due, the artstyle, animation, and world that is set up is simply gorgeous, and very creative, but the message it sends is something I just can't support.
1917 (2019)
Intense and gripping!
Even if history movies bore you, there's plenty of action to be enjoyed here. The characters are great, the cinematography is great. and you truly feel for the problem the main character faces. The running scene is one of the most expertly crafted and intense moments in any film ever, even more than in most horror movies. Absolutely worth a watch.
Critters 2 (1988)
The first movie had some semblance of seriousness, this one embraces the meme fully
I'm just going to say it: this film is hilarious. It's stupid, and definitely meme-worthy, but still hilarious nonetheless, and if I'm to be honest, even more enjoyable than the first due to the fact that it openly embraces its stupidity.
Critters (1986)
Funny, and an underrated "Classic"
This movie is dumb, but it knows it and it rolls with it. It has some surprisingly competent special effects and creature design, and some funny moments due to the somewhat stilted acting. It takes itself seriously enough to be ironically enjoyed, but not too seriously that it seems to be trying too hard.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
As a kid I hated it, but when I grew up, I saw it for what it was:
A funny B-movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, and still has good special effects considering the time period and its low budget. This isn't a particularly good film, but it's definitely worth a watch to have a few laughs.
Freak Encounters (2010)
It's fun
It's just fun. The people being pranked made great performances, even if the actual actors did it. The ones talking about the cryptids did a good job of explaining their origins, some of the special effects did well, others didn't, but one way or another it was always an entertaining show.
Castlevania (2017)
A masterpiece, and the absolute best video game adaptation to date
This show is truly fantastic, and I'm not sure how to word it properly and give it justice. The characters are great and play off eachother fantastically, the writing and animation is superb, the music is awesome, almost every joke hits, and the fight choreography is second to none. The only problem I have with the show is how long it takes to produce, and that's not the fault of the show or even the creative team, since it's obvious they take great care and effort to produce it. It's absolutely worth a watch.
Johnny Test (2005)
Not a particularly good show, but VASTLY overhated
It's not smart, it's crass and it has toilet humour, however the creators of this show have some really creative ideas, and made some funny jokes. Is it a television masterpiece? Absolutely not. Is it the worst thing ever? Absolutely not. It's just average. I give it a 6.5/10, but I'll round up to balance out the ridiculous amount of hate it's garnered. If you're looking for an intelligent cartoon to challenge you with intelligent humour and deep morals, this is absolutely not a show for you. But, if you're willing to turn your brain off and have some dumb fun, it might just be worth a watch.
Aliens (1986)
An amazing movie, but not a good Alien movie
Don't get me wrong, this film is great, but one thing I didn't like is how scaled-down the aliens' strength is. It might just be because I played Alien Isolation, and watched the first movie, but one thing that was important in both was how strong each alien is. In Alien Isolation (which is canon), an entire space station gets run down by a drone that couldn't have been much more than a week old. In the first movie, the entire crew of the Nostromo is slaughtered by a drone that was only a few days old, and yet in this movie, the fully grown Xenomorphs get mowed down en masse just because the protagonists have bigger guns? No, I don't think it works like that, not to mention the Xenomorphs were fighting head-on when it's already been established that they are at their best when hunting stealthily. Now again, this isn't a bad film. The cinematography is fantastic, as are the special effects (The Queen is just gorgeous). The acting was great for the most part, as always I loved Sigourney's performance (Although the little girl's line delivery was questionable). While I don't like it as an Alien movie, as a movie on its own it's still an absolute masterpiece, and definitely deserves a watch.
Love, Death & Robots: Beyond the Aquila Rift (2019)
I see why some might not like it, but give credit where credit is due.
Even if the story doesn't surprise or interest you, give some props to the animation team that must've worked their tails off to make what is undeniably a visual masterpiece. Yes, there are some uncanny valley moments, but that's to be expected, Pause for one second on any frame with a character in shot and tell me that doesn't look real. The alien is almost HR Giger levels of morbidly gorgeous. Personally, I found the story and twist here great, even if a bit predictable.
Love, Death & Robots: Blindspot (2019)
Not the philosophical writing masterpieces other episodes in the series are, but that's not a bad thing.
Sometimes you need a break from the more serious, poetic, and philosophical episodes in a series, and instead want to have some dumb fun with a filler episode (Which despite the bad rep, isn't a bad thing). This episode is exactly that. No deeper meaning, no moral, just dumb, awesome, action-y fun. This entire episode is one big chase scene, and they just roll with that.
Berserk: Ougon jidai-hen II - Dorudorei koryaku (2012)
A good watch with some bad animation
The only real problem here is the CGI, which is on the same level as your average ps2 game. This is made even worse by the fact that there are moments where it swaps from the bad CGI to the honestly great looking traditional animation, which makes me wonder why they didn't just keep it all traditional. Aside from that, it's an entertaining watch that held my interest.
Back Street Girls (2018)
Uncomfortable, but fun to watch
Biggest problem with this show is the animation. A lot of anime tends to have more stilted animation, but every frame looks really good. This show however seems to take that to a bit of an extreme, where you rarely see any movement in any of the shots other than their mouths or with an effect put on the screen, effectively looking a bit more like a slide show rather than an anime. I think there are at most 5 shots throughout season 1 that didn't do this. However, for how relatively lackluster and uncanny the animation is, they didn't slack off on the writing. The characters all play off eachother really well, leading to some funny and genuine moments between them, and the premise is very interesting. For what it lacks in visual flair, it makes up for in good writing and still manages to be entertaining despite that flaw.
Macabre (2015)
Amazing
It's difficult to find a decent animated horror film that also lasts more than 7 minutes. "Macabre" is that film. Not only is the unique animation style dark, beautiful, easy on the eyes and yet still frightening when it needs to be, but every single frame looks like a work of art. The story, while relatively simple, is intense and has no low points. The ambient music was a treat as well. This is absolutely worth at least one watch, if not more for when you want to get interpretive with it.
Deadcon (2019)
I expected it to be worse
Don't get me wrong, this movie has little going for it. It is very, VERY bad. But not bad enough that it could be entertaining . it was just bad and boring. The slight sign of competent filmmaking (I mean as in editing and recordijng, not in terms of acting, since that was pretty bad) makes it even worse, it shows us that they COULD have done something with this. They COULD have made it half decent, or at least bad enough that I could enjoy it. It ends up being boring and cringey. If the line "Wait, we should vlog this" doesn't make you recoil in disgust, and you take some sick pleasure in seeing a quintillion emojis, then hell this is probably a movie for you.