Reviews

When I was a kid Spongebob used to be one of my favorite cartoons of all time. I still to this day consider the first 3 seasons to be a good example of animated excellency. Sadly, like Pokemon and the Simpsons, it has gone on far too long and the decline of quality is apparent.

Most post movie Spongebob episodes have the following problems; the characters have been flanderdized to the point of unlikeability and unrecognizability and the plots are bad with no regard to logic and continuity. One Course Meal is the perfect representation of these problems.

Here's the jist of it; Krabs discovers Plankton's fear of whales (which contradicts early episodes when he showed no fear of Pearl), Krabs decides to dress up as Pearl to scare him, Plankton gets incredibly paranoid to the point where he decides to commit suicide. Oh it gets worse. Spongebob, who doesn't bat an eye, brings this up to Mr. Krabs, does he feel bad about it? Actually no, he laughs at the idea. Just wait a bit more, it gets worse. Spongebob tells Plankton that Krabs is afraid of mimes, so at first it seems like Krabs was getting his just deserts. But for no reason whatsoever, Spongebob uses a projector to display whales to scare Plankton off, betraying him in the process.

So lets recap, Mr. Krabs, one of the main characters, takes delight in scaring someone to the point of paranoia, PTSD and SUICIDE to the point of laughter. Spongebob betrayed Plankton after offering to help him for no logical reason. The clear cut ANTAGONIST of the episode is never punished for his heinous actions.

In the early seasons he was a greedy, cheap douche but he still compensated his employees, treated people OK and even at his worst was still funny. What the hell happened? Remember, Plankton was Mr. Krabs' best friend. I don't recall Krabs even having malicious intent towards Plankton, he was just trying to protect his livelihood. On top of being morbid, it's also filled with plot holes.

Let me say this, I'm not one of those PC assholes who thinks that topics like suicide, rape and other things should not be joked about. On the contrary I would find such jokes hilarious as long as they're both funny and not incredibly mean spirited. After all, I'm a fan of Looney Tunes, South Park and other cartoons that have that kind of humor. The thing is this episode was completely unfunny and mean-spirited. Keep in mind that these actions were done by the PROTAGONISTS of the show that we're meant to root and that they're NEVER punished for their actions like any show would. Keep in mind, Spongebob is a KIDS SHOW! How did they get away with this in today's incredibly PC world? Do you know how many cartoons go unaired, censored or cancelled for content like this. And Spongebob is one of the most popular cartoons in the world, you're telling parents didn't take notice of this? This should've been national news, Nick should've been crucified by the media for this.

This is incredibly irresponsible on their part too. Someone had to WRITE the script of this episode, some had to APPROVE the script, then proceed to ANIMATE this and the voice actors had to PROVIDE the voices for this. Not to mention Nick themselves had to give this the go ahead to air it.

Does anyone on Nick pay attention to the news? Have they heard of the stories where kids, Nick's main demographic, commit suicide over bullies tormenting them, the exact thing Krabs did to Plankton? Look, if you like current Spongebob, I'll disagree with you, but I can see where you're coming from if that's your type of humor. But I'm pretty we can all agree that this episode is disgusting, deplorable and irresponsible.

As much as I blame Nick for this travesty, I blame the parents and anyone who still supports Nick financially. How can you continue to support a company that glorifies such sociopathic behavior without punishment no less? If you share my disgust, I urge you to boycott Nickelodeon entirely until they are forced to publicly apologize. Don't buy their merchandise, don't watch their shows on TV or Netflix, don't watch the new Spongebob movie, because they do not deserve it and you know. If Mr. Krabs won't be punished for his actions, we can still punish Nick for their glorification of it.

Growing up as an Egyptian, I watched a lot of movies, lots of which from Adel Imam whom I'm a fan of. Unfortunately, this entry disappoints and fails on many accounts.

The first half hour is typical of an Adel Imam film, a lot of sex jokes, normally he manages to make them funny, unfortunately there's more emphasis on sex here rather than jokes, it just wasn't funny.

The movie improves though when he gets to Egypt, there were some good jokes, but it all goes downhill when he find out that he lives next to the Israeli embassy.

Anyone familiar with Egyptian customs knows all about their conflict with Israel given their history and Muslim's general feelings towards Jews. That's the movies biggest fault, it's an anti Israeli propaganda film that's there to paint them in a negative light. As a Coptic Orthodox Christian, I'm neutral on the Egypt/Israel conflict. So I don't like seeing that in my entertainment.

It doesn't say anything profound or anything funny. The truth is this movie had a lot of potential to be funny, the scenario of an average Egyptian living next to an Israeli embassy given the animosity between the two cultures has comedic potential but it was discarded in favour of a mean spirited anti-Israel piece.

Thankfully his subsequent movies, Yacoubyan Apartment and Morgan Ahmed Morgan are much better films with his trademark humour. In fact, Hassan & Marcus, starring himself and Omar Sheriff, deals with a similar topic of prejudice between Egyptian groups, the Copts and Muslims, it's much better because it's not one sided, both the Muslim & Coptic characters are represented as people, and it's quite humorous at times, making the movie accessible despite the heavy topic. I recommend watching those and skipping this one.

I'm a fan of Dragonball and Dragonball Z, so like every fan I was excited to see this new movie. What a massive letdown.

Okay, so the story is there's this guy called Bills who's the God of Destruction, he hears about Goku defeating Frieza, decides to fight him because he had a dream about a "Super Saiyan God" and heads for Earth.

First problem is that the story is ridiculously anorexic, even for DBZ. It showed promise in the first 20 minutes as they were doing a good job establishing Bills' personality and building him up to be a complete bad ass. But it all goes downhill after that. Why he wants to fight the "Super Saiyan God" and why it came to him in a dream is never answered, and we're never given a good reason behind his motivation.

The next 20 minutes is nothing but filler, it's just Vegeta at Bulma's birthday party. There's other DB characters there but they have no purpose in the plot, therefore not worth listing. What's the point of gathering all these DB characters if they're not gonna do anything? All they did is provide job fodder for Bills to make him strong in case you missed the part where he decimated SSJ3 Goku.

Hell in the beginning Bills for some reason only analyzes Goku in regards to his defeat of Frieza, what about the fight against Buu or Gohan beating Cell? That's the movie's second major issue, like the later seasons of DBZ, every character besides Goku and to some extent Vegeta is useless.

Two major issues aside, the action wasn't all that spectacular and the comedy was too childish to appeal to the target demographic of people who grew up with DBZ. It was also surprisingly short despite having to rely on filler.

This is a very weak entry, all the hype was for nothing. I wasn't expecting anything on the level of Satoshi Kon or Miyazaki, but I was expecting something! It amuses me that the same people who panned Evolution & GT are giving this 8s 9s and even 10s, this is why idiot teenagers and obese man-children shouldn't be reviewing movies.

Based off of Detective Comics' Flashpoint crossover event, Justice League the Flashpoint Paradox is a "what-if" story about an alternate timeline that the Flash (Barry Allen) inadvertently creates through the deed of saving his mother who was killed in the regular timeline. In this timeline Barry Allen is no longer the Flash, Bruce Wayne was killed which motivated his father to assume the role of Batman while his mother becomes the Joker, Cyborg becomes this timeline's most celebrated "boyscout" (a la Superman), speaking of which Kal El was caught by the government and sealed off from the world leading him to never become Superman, leaving Cyborg to lead the remaining heroes willing to stand against the apocalypse of World War III that resulted from Aquaman and Wonder Woman's war.

Did you get all that? Indeed, another "what-if" storyline courtesy of DC's multiverse and a damn good one at that. It's always entertaining to see DC characters in these new scenarios, which are often a lot more entertaining than the regular universe.

A huge strong point is that it's centered around the Flash and his journey of coming to terms with the fact that he can't change everything. It's nice to see a Justice League movie where someone other than Batman or Superman is the ultimate hero. In fact the title is a bit mislead since technically you don't see the Justice League after the first 10 minutes, the rest of the time it's just alternate versions of characters we know from the Justice League interacting, teaming up, fighting it out, all that good stuff.

The new scenarios make for interesting conflicts and for some quite good action with quite a bit of violence. There are even head decapitations for you gore hounds out there.

If you're a fan of the Flash you'll definitely love this as his development and inner-conflict take center stage. It is ultimately up to him to set everything right. A must see for fans of action, comics, action comics, animation and so forth.

The story is a transfer student by the name of Yu Narukami arrives in a small rural town where he stays with his uncle and cousin. As he arrives there he befriends multiple, colourful personalities like Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Agami. In their foggy town a series of mysterious murders occur and an urban myth about a mysterious "Midnight Channel" that comes on in rainy nights. Later on they discover that they can somehow enter the TVs into a strange world ravaged by "shadows" that they fight using "other selves" otherwise know as Personas. This strange world is also home to shadows that are sinister versions of our characters based on their repressed fantasies that they have to confront and overcome their issues. They discover that the murders, the fog, the midnight channel, the TV world and the Personas are all connected. With that in mind they scramble to solve the mystery behind the murders, meeting new friends with more colourful characters like Rise, Teddie, Kanji & Naoto along the way and forging unbreakable bonds with them.

This story will sound strange to "normal people" but it's essentially what you'd expect from an anime and truthfully all aspects of the story fit together nicely and provides lots of possibility for action, comedy, mystery and character development.

The animation and art style is breathtaking; it's vivid, colourful and very inviting. Despite taking place in a contemporary setting, each character is distinguished and identifiable with their color palettes, animated facial expressions and hairstyles. The action is also quite good, there's a lot of energy and it's exhilarating. Though I have to say a lot of the Personas in our heroes' arsenals aren't very well designed as a lot of them feel generic and/or randomly designed. Given that's they're gained after defeating their alter egos I was thinking that the designs would reflect their respective owners.

The setting of a small town is perfect for the story it's trying to tell. The Persona series is notable for taking place in the modern world we know whereas most RPGs take place in a fantasy setting of some sort. This is pretty risky as when you think about it, a lot of RPGs and popular anime take place in a fantasy world whether it's the Grand Line from One Piece or Gintama's alternate reality Earth where aliens immigrated. Though Persona 4 the animation does include an alternate reality inside a TV where they gain the abilities of Personas through bonds, surprisingly it subverts this by having much of the focus be on the characters solving the mystery of the murders while developing their relationships in the small town they live in.

The glue that holds everything together are the characters. Holy hell are they awesome, every single protagonist is likable. A lot of them are introduced at first as stereotypes; Hanamura is the goofball, Chie is the plucky tomboy, Yukiko is the shy sweetheart, Kanji the brute with a soft side and so forth. But they're far deeper characters than that. That's the brilliance of them, they're introduced to feel familiar to viewers (much like how RPG characters are to players) yet there's room for a lot of development. Yu Narukami is the main character who's stoic and reserved, but he has a big heart and will defend his family and friends till the end. To be honest, I initially didn't like him in the first few episodes as I felt he was very bland, especially next to the rest of the characters. But as the anime went on, he became the most developed and 3 dimensional character in the series with the bonds he forms with his family and friends is expanded upon while he himself grows as person as he juggles his family, friends, mission and commitments. It's very genuine and heartwarming.

And that's exactly why the series is so great, because the character's bonds is so genuine, everything else is more meaningful because it effects them so much while they effect their environment around them. As a result, you yourself end up forming a bond with them, when they're happy, you're happy, when they're sad, you're sad. Due to this the theme of people's bonds as an irresistible is very strong and enhances the narrative. They perfectly compliment all aspects of the show and it wouldn't be the same without them.

This is one of those stories that's mainly fueled by emotion much like most Disney and Miyazaki films. It's not based necessarily on what's logical, but based on what your emotions want to see. You don't really find yourself questioning why a world inside the TV exists where people's repressed fantasy is reality or how there are these mech thingies called Personas given to you by two people in an undisclosed location known as the "Velvet Room". You just go along with that as you're too swept up in what the characters are going through.

Of course I highly recommend this anime. As someone who watches shows like Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note and Trigun, I think Persona 4 the Animation definitely holds up against these anime and may even surpass them in my book. The story, the setting, the mystery and adventure is a classic and you just can't help but fall in love with the characters; they're familiar enough to relate to from the get go but are much deeper characters than that. Persona 4 the Animation is simply a gem, it's underrated and definitely deserves more attention.

Shaman King is a story of a world filled with Shamans. Shamans are people gifted with the ability to see the spirits of the deceased, and are able to become one with them to achieve certain goals. Every 500 years, an event known as the Shaman Fight is held to determine the Shaman King in which the strongest of Shamans are to fight in a tournament.

Our main protagonist of the series is Yoh Asakura; an easy going & friendly Shaman who aspires to become the Shaman King in order to create an easy life not just for himself but also for his fiancé Anna, his friends and for the whole world. His spirit is Amidamaru, a 600 year old samurai. Our other protagonists are Yoh's friend Manta and his wife to be Anna. Manta is a rather short normal human, despite not being a Shaman, he can see spirits as well because according to Yoh any good person can see spirits. Manta is Yoh's first friend and supports him throughout the show, he regrets that he can't do more than that but manages to help out in the end. Anna is a spirit medium betrothed to Yoh, she takes responsibility in rigorously training Yoh for the Shaman Fight. She is extremely strict, dedicated, decisive and tough, she never takes crap from anybody, these qualities make her come off as cold & harsh which actually frightens the majority of characters on the show. Deep down she genuinely cares deeply about Yoh & the others.

Other characters include Ryu of the Wooden Sword, originally a gang leader whom through Yoh's actions & character decides to become a Shaman himself to serve & befriend Yoh & to fulfill his dream in creating "the Best Place". Very compassionate & loyal to his friends, he also has a huge fondness for Lyserg. Horohoro is a good natured & cheerful Shaman from Hokkaido whose goal is to create a vast field of Butterbur in order to save the Koro Pokkuru, a tiny spirit people, one of which is Horohoro's spirit. Ren Tao is a strong & determined yet hotheaded & impatient Shaman, a rival to Yoh at first but becomes his ally & friend, he's caring and compassionate, especially for his sister, but keeps hiding that side of him. Lyserg Diethel is a British Shaman who lost his parents to the menace that his Hao at the age of 6, since then he has vowed to avenge their death. He is very kind and caring of those around him but he is emotionally unstable and indecisive which is to be expecting from someone who underwent the murder of his parents. Dr. Faust, an insane necromancer at first, but later in the series becomes Yoh's ally, a skilled doctor who deeply loves his wife Eliza who also acts as his spirit. Lastly we have Chocolove, a shaman and aspiring comedian who to spread the wind of laughter across the world, his puns often annoy his friends. These characters as extremely well written, they all have aspirations, qualities, flaws & quirks. You really do care about them and want to see them succeed.

The 2 main antagonists of the series are Hao Asakura & the X-Laws. The X-Laws are an extremist group devoted to the cause of eliminating Hao and his followers. Even though they have a noble cause, their methods of killing their adversaries is received with great disapproval from other Shamans. Lyserg joins them because they share his similar disdain for Hao. They follow their leader the Iron Maiden Jeanne whom they treat as a Christ-like figure and hardly ever question her. Despite their reputation and ruthless agenda, they display huge amounts of loyalty to their cause, their leader and to each other, willing to die for them. Though you are made to loathe them and wish for Lyserg to return to his friends, by their last appearance you do feel sorry for them and even root for them. Hao Asakura is the main threat to the Shaman community, his goal is to annihilate mankind and create a world only for Shamans as he sees humans as the world's undoing. He is like a combination of Magneto & Apocalypse from X-men, he wants to do away with humans in order to advance society and he'd discard anyone he sees as weak for they are unworthy in his perspective. He wants to become Shaman King and obtain the Great Spirits to do so. He has a mysterious connection to Yoh & his family. Hao is a very amazing villain, he's calm & collective, fears no one, ruthless and likes a challenge. They do a good job in building him up to this formidable adversary that even you as a viewer should fear.

The music selection in this show is great, it has J-rock & J-pop songs that are catchy and energetic which fits the mood of this show. It has many other songs as well which range from happy to haunting.

The animation is good, while it is not as good as Full Metal Alchemist or the works of Miyazaki, it's still nice to look at, each of the characters have distinguishable features and the oversouls of the Shamans look pretty cool.

Overall, this is an awesome show; with great story & plot, excellent characters, & energetic music making this show an enjoyable viewing experience. I'd recommend the anime & manga which I heard is different. I'd go with the subtitled Japanese version because the English dub was done by 4Kids who are infamous when it comes to dubbing anime.

When I first saw commercials for this show, I was apathetic since I was disinterested in anime inspired cartoons at the time. My sister recommended that I watch an episode, I did and I've been a fan ever since.

This an extremely entertaining show with astonishing action sequences and fights that make you want to punch the air while watching, their excellence is amplified by the shows metal soundtrack. It's accompanied by hilarious jokes and parodies of things from the 80s & 90s like Power Rangers, Voltron, Transformers, Smurfs, Sonic etc.....

The characters are very interesting. Our main character is Coop who is an overweight slacker who loves food, video games, movies and rock 'n' roll. He's the opposite of what you'd expect from a hero, he's not very smart and often ends up destroying things rather protecting them in trying to stop the bad guys. Despite his carelessness, he's extremely likable and surely envied by a lot of us who'd want our own robot.

Next we have Jamie, Coops best friend who shares similar interests though he's more interested in chicks as opposed to Coop's interest in food. He provides the comic relief and doesn't do much else for the most part, he'd rather use Megas as a means to world domination and getting chicks (so would the rest ha ha) instead of saving the world from dangerous situations in which he tries to escape.

We have Kiva Andru. She's from the war torn future fighting against the alien oppression of the Glorft led by Gorrath. She was originally meant to be the pilot of Megas which was stolen from the Glorft, but an accident happened and the robot ended up in the past at the hands of the grossly incompetent but manages to get the job done Coop. She's the serious foil to Coop & Jamie's easy going attitude with just enough of a sense of humor to befriend the 2 and badass enough to give the bad guys an ass kicking as well. She reminds me of Rukia from Bleach, both are empowered females from another place (whether it be another dimension, time, realm etc...) who loses her powers to the more relateable male character and proceeds to train him but despite what they've lost they still retain enough strength & determination to kick some.

Last but certainly not least, we have Megas, the giant robot. How can you not like this robot, it has a cool paint job, controlled by a steering wheel & game controller and a car for a head, how awesome is that! It seems like this robot has infinite weapons, every other episode he has a different gun with lasers and missiles, it makes every fight scene look fresh and different. Definitely one of the coolest robots ever.

Overall, excellent show; great characters, daunting action sequences, rollicking jokes, cool music, does not take it self seriously at all. This show is pure fun, truly a masterpiece in the art of animation. I recommend this show to all.

There is so much to say about how amazing this movie is, I'm not sure how best to begin.

The basic theme of the movie is that true friendship exists between those willing to sacrifice anything and everything for each other. It's quite simplistic but it works very well.

Lets start with the story. A goat and a wolf meet on a stormy night, they exchange words regarding a few things about themselves. When they finally meet each other on a normal day they see the other for what they really are. They manage to look past their physical differences because of the bond between them, but the fact that they are natural enemies puts a heavy burden on their friendship. I won't say much more than that because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to see.

The main characters, Gabu (wolf) & Mei (goat), are very well developed, you can really feel how much they care for each other and you as the viewer would want nothing more then to see them live happily ever after as best friends. The supporting characters are Gabu's pack and Mei herd, they are there to fuel the conflict of the movie, they are the biggest obstacle when it comes to their friendship along with the laws of nature about predators and prey.

The animation is wonderful, the environments are lush, colorful and detailed, the characters are well drawn, they can emote all kinds of expressions without coming off as overly cartoony but not all that realistic either. The animation is just a joy to look at.

The music is also very good, it always fits the situation occurring and is nice to listen to.

Overall it's a must see for anyone of all ages, it teaches the viewer how important friendship is no matter who you are. It just melts your heart and uplifts you. I only regret that this movie is not receiving the recognition it deserves, so do the creators of this movie a favor and spread the word.

As a kid I was a huge gaming fanatic, and one of the crown jewels of my childhood were the Tekken games which I loved for it's fun gameplay and cool characters. So being the fan that I am I always thought that Tekken would make for an excellent movie, but because Hollywood are a bunch of greedy pigs who'll do anything for a quick pay day I wasn't holding my breath. I'll admit that I was a bit excited for it, but I went in low expectations hoping they'd prove me wrong, they didn't.

For starters, let's talk about the plot. The plot contains every cliché we've ever seen from movies; dystopian future, revenge for the death of a parent, young buck finding himself, overcoming the odds, villain revealed to be father, EVERYTHING! How does the plot of the game translates to the movie you ask? The film makers basically took plot points from every game & put it in the movie; Jun's death, bleak future, Kazuya taking over, Jack raid, Kazuya betraying Heihachi and so forth. There are certain additions and subtractions made to the storyline, in the movie Christie is Jin's love interest when in the games they are totally unrelated. The plot point of the Devil Gene and Heihachi throwing Kazuya off the cliff is not present here, because you know, the catalyst to the entire story isn't an important detail. (sarcasm) Now onto the characters, the majority look like they should, especially Raven who looks like he was taken directly from the game, and Eddy who is played by a Capoeira practitioner, but as you'd guess, they don't act like they should. Except for Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi, no one undergoes any development, making the supporting cast seem pointless. Since the supporting characters aren't given their distinct characteristics you could replace these guys with another set and it would make virtually no difference.

As far as fighting game adaptations are concerned, the most important factor other than the plot and characters is the fighting and to this movie's credit the fighting scenes were good. Don't expect to see the characters' signature styles or moveset or anything but it is a delight to watch nonetheless. Only interesting parts of the entire movie.

As an adaptation, it fails to capture the essence of the games and adds to the pile of poor adaptation shat out from Hollywood's ass. As a stand alone movie it's mediocre at best, the plot is cliché and the characters are unmemorable. It offers nothing different for movie goers and Tekken fans will be upset at how untrue it is to the games. I'd only recommend watching the fight scenes, the rest is a bore. Fortunately for us Tekken fans there is an animated movie available which is much more true to the source material and much more interesting, watch that and forget about this movie