__Hello again.
__Well, December has arrived. 2021 is almost over. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season.
__This may or may not be my last "first impressions" post of the year. There are a few upcoming movies I want to see, like West Side Story, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The King's Man, but I'm still pondering whether to deviate from my usual schedule for these posts (the first Saturday of the month) and share my thoughts on them before the end of the year.
__In the meantime, enjoy my Twitter-length comments on everything I've watched and played since my last post on November 6th.🙂
__Section one: cinema releases. The good news is that, unlike the last two months, I won't be seeing anything later today that'll just miss its chance, so I won't leave you hanging.🙂
There are some good ideas in there, but they're undermined by haphazard pacing and at times awkward acting. The random, extended flashbacks break the flow of both the narrative and character development. Easily the worst MCU movie to date.
My rating: 50%.
The horrific imagery mirrors the emerging cutthroat nature of the fashion (and entertainment) industry, and the scenes where Eloise and Sandie switch back and forth are most impressive. It's a good movie, but not without its flaws.
A former cowboy teaching a kid what it means to be a tough guy? It sounds perfect for Clint Eastwood.🙂 But the acting is rather awkward at times, and some conversations and scenes don't flow naturally, so it's far from one of his best.
My rating: 50%.
It relies way too heavily on repeating the first movie, but it's not unbearable, even if the enjoyment is lessened by overfamiliarity and less-than-stellar acting. Still, the tribute to Harold Ramis is greatly appreciated.
My rating: 60%.
A mediocre outing from Disney. I like parts of it, like highlighting the love but also pressures from family, but the moral is nothing special, and maybe it was just the cinema's sound system, but I had real trouble making out the songs' lyrics.
My rating: 55%.
__Section two: movies I watched at home. Up first is Injustice. I should mention that I have played Injustice: Gods Among Us (my review is here on my other blog), but I haven't read the tie-in comics, so I can't speak for how much the movie draws from them.
It's not the all-out extravaganza that the game was, but rather a more streamlined story that explores Superman's downfall and how it affects the heroes within the universe. Because of this focus, I think I liked it much more than the game.
My rating: 75%.
It sells the risks the characters are taking (Penkovsky especially) and how differently history could have played out, but something about the overall presentation makes it feel humble and inoffensive, almost like a Sunday afternoon TV movie.
My rating: 60%.
Shailene Woodley's story in the past is far more interesting than Felicity Jones' modern-day one, but neither romance justifies the often melodramatic music. Honestly, the best thing I took from it was Summer Wine.🙂
My rating: 55%.
The lead trio and comical tone suggest it's trying desperately to imitate the 1999 Mummy (and the CGI is about on par, too), but its silliness is mostly not the enjoyable kind, and the camerawork renders a lot of the action hard to see.
My rating: 45%.
In an interesting reversal from the first movie, this time the burglars are the antagonists. My favourite scene is their initial break-in, which is an impressive long take. However, the last act reveals their motive as just plain stupid.
My rating: 60%.
The mystery holds your attention well enough, but the setting is a mishmash of elements that don't always fit together. The rising sea levels (an obvious global warming message) is entirely incidental aside from motivation for criminals.
My rating: 55%.
__Before we move on to video games, since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on PS2 is among them, I might as well throw in my thoughts on Philosopher's Stone on PS1 first. Simply put, it's not the worst game I've ever played, but it's most definitely in the top five!
Not only does it let the source material down in many respects, but it sometimes gets insanely hard for a kids' game, most notably the Gringotts level. Plus, the graphics are horrible even by PS1 standards.
My rating: 40%.
__And now let's end with all the games I've been playing, or at least watching in the form of longplays.
I was quickly put off by the onslaught of names and terminology that, as it's all text, I had no idea how to pronounce. Therefore, neither the world nor the central plot piqued my interest, and I felt no desire to explore.
My rating: 45%.
It has the same great music but awful voice acting as the PC version, but its awkward camera and targeting sucks a lot of the fun out of exploring Hogwarts, and as an adaptation of the story, it's a disaster.
My rating: 50%.
It continues the signature stealth-based gameplay emphasising infiltration through disguises, and the controls are more refined than the first game, but the story seems to forget about the inciting incident pretty quickly.
My rating: 70%.
It seems all you had to do to make a Final Fantasy-type premise appealing to me was add Disney characters.😄 I love the hack-and-slash combat and the story that takes you to various Disney worlds on a quest to save your friends.
My rating: 90%.
As well as the obvious feature of sailing a great ocean world, it stands out for its theme of reverence for the past. There's the ruins of old Hyrule, and you hunt down Triforce pieces like in the original Zelda.
My rating: 85%.
While the main plot revolves around shooting an action movie, you're free to explore the island, collecting items and performing a few other tasks, all the while listening to the radio. I love the song Plastic Fantastic.
My rating: 75%.
The story involves loyalty, power and of course morality, but it's ruined by shoddy voice acting. The real star is the city of Lost Heaven, which can be appreciated via public transport or the driving that takes up about eighty percent of the game.
My rating: 65%.
It's perhaps a little too linear, and the environments aren't that memorably distinct. The story, however, certainly stands out, providing some compelling insight into Samus's past and pitting her against a corrupted duplicate of herself.
My rating: 80%.
The first 3D game in the series, and the first-person shooter style doesn't suit it nearly as well as the 2D games. I can't speak for the GameCube original, but the Wii controls are baffling, and your movement makes it feel unbearably slow.
My rating: 40%.
A remake that blows the original out of the water in terms of graphics and atmosphere. It even adds some new original moments. But strangely, I still prefer the original's cheesy charm; the script issues are just a hindrance here.
My rating: 85%.
__Once again, I have a few miscellaneous comments to make about some of those games before I go.
__I haven't played the first two Elder Scrolls games, as they were only released on MS-DOS, and I'm not too fussed about them anyway.
__Kingdom Hearts came at the high recommendation of Joshscorcher; he mentions the franchise at least once per video.😀 The original game was released on the PS2, but I was playing it as part of the Kingdom Hearts: All-in-One bundle on the PS4, which I was exceptionally lucky to get for 75% off!
__I used to have the PC version of Lego Island Xtreme Stunts, but for some reason never got too far. For the record, I love the original Lego Island, and I still have a soft spot for Lego Island 2 although I can't deny that it is technically a bad game. I even bought a couple of actual Lego figures of Island characters that I didn't know at first were promoting Xtreme Stunts.
__In the same vein as Kingdom Hearts, I mentioned that I was playing the Wii version of Metroid Prime although it was originally a GameCube game. To be specific, I got the Metroid Prime: Trilogy compilation, which includes all three games on one disc. I know I'm in a minority for disliking the first game; here's hoping the other two are a lot better.
__I also started Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, but lost patience with it during the second case because the lapses in logic were just too much for me. In the first case, there's the whole thing about the victim supposedly writing the defendant's name in the sand, where everyone conveniently forgets that his neck was broken! Then, in case two, there's the part where you have to determine where in the room the defendant was standing, but I couldn't find it, and I was flabbergasted when I looked it up because neither the position nor the reasoning makes sense, because it contradicts the "point-blank range" evidence mentioned earlier! That and the game's minimalist graphics were kind of giving me sensory deprivation; I'm not sure I can tolerate visual novels for very long.
__Well, that's it for now. Whether it's another batch of "first impressions" comments or the list of my top ten favourite movies of the year, my next post will be after Christmas. Until then, I hope you have a great December. Take care.
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