A Quiet Place Review

            A Quite Place is the kind of film that feel like it was originally meant to be some kind of vanity/arthouse horror project that was somehow warped into a more conventional horror film. It features a rather creative high concept premise that requires the actors to act almost exclusively through their body language and facial expressions. It has a lead actor who also directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film and is the kind of film that would otherwise be so overwhelmed by the ego of said actor that it would be impossible to take seriously. Yet despite all of the warning signs, A Quite Place actually tuned out to be a solid little horror film and is a decent way to spend an hour and a half.

            The film takes place in the United States roughly a year and a half after a race of creatures began appearing, seemingly out of nowhere and began killing off the world’s population. No one seems to know what they are or where they came from. All that anyone seems to know is that are blind, have incredible hearing that can pick up a noise from miles away, very fast, very dangerous and very tough to kill. Our story focuses around a family of upstate New York farmers who are trying to live their day to day lives while trying to make as little noise as possible lest they attract the monsters. And that’s about it.

            This is one of those of films that is sold on a single original idea but is otherwise rather formulaic. The plot isn’t elaborate and doesn’t really get any more complicated beyond that. Whether or not it’s actually any good relies on how well they execute said original premise and incorporate it into said formulaic plot. But, in this case, the execution is, for the most part, spot on. What makes it work is that there is a subtle air of tension is every single scene. It doesn’t constantly shove it in your face with jump scares or moments where the characters almost make a noise but just manage to avoid doing so. You are, however, always aware that any misstep made by these characters could cost them all their lives. It takes what would otherwise be tedious, mundane scenarios and turns them in to life or death situations

            This all eventually comes to a head in the second half of the film when one of these characters actually makes one of these missteps and kicks off the film’s climax. From then on you can cut the tension in every shot with a knife as the monsters creep around while the family desperately tries not to make a sound in situations where all you want to do is scream. The crown jewel, however, has to be at the film’s midpoint and adds several layers of tension to what was already a tense, nail-biting film. I won’t spoil what it is but it’s the kind of event that tremendously raises the stakes and has you praying that the characters can keep quiet while knowing that it is all but impossible.

            What ultimately glues it all together, however is the family. You buy that this family is legitimate. It’s clear that the father loves his kids but has some trouble expressing it to his eldest daughter, possibly due to an early film tragedy. The daughter clearly has issues with the dad regarding this tragedy and feels neglected as a result. The son has a great turn as a kid who has responsibilities thrust upon him that he clearly unready for but none the less has to take on. The only real weak link in the cast is the mother. This is mainly because the film doesn’t give her much to do beyond being the terrified housewife though she does sell the hell out of it and does have some badass moments at the film’s end. But for the most part the character relationships work and help keep the stakes high by successfully making us care about them,

            That’s not to say, however, that the film doesn’t have problems. We never really get any kind of explanation as to what the monsters are or where they come from which is a tad bit frustrating. It has to be said that their designs are rather generic and boring looking like a generic mutant from the Resident Evil games or something. It also has to be said that the film has a bit of a structuring problem as it seems to lack a clearly defined third act. You have the first half where everything is quiet and the characters go about their daily lives and the second half where they’re hiding from the monster and there doesn’t seem to be anything resembling a finale in the film. If anything, it seems to end right before the third act was suppose to start and ends up feeling like we were cheated out of the actual ending as a result. But these things only slightly take away from the overall experience.

            In the end, A Quiet Place is by no means perfect but is an otherwise decent way to spend an hour and a half. It’s suspenseful, dramatic and a welcome breather from all the hundred million-dollar projects that that we have and will be bombarded with over the spring/summer season. I say give it a look.

Overall

8/10

          So until next time, please be sure to follow the site, Like my page over on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my other work over at The Nerd Hub and Heroic Hollywood and please considering donating to my personal Pateron to support this article and other projects like it. Until then, lets hope that the summer season has some more good movies to bring.

Jessica Jones Season 2 Review

Of all of the things that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has produced, it’s various Netflix shows seem to be the ones that draw the most mixed emotions. The first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are both widely well regarded and were both big successes with audiences and critics alike. Then the second season of Daredevil was released to a more mixed reception and the whole enterprise followed in suit. Luke Cage was a series that actually caused Netflix to crash on the night of its premier and seemed to be the superhero series that a lot of people were waiting for.  But the show also had a boatload of pacing issues and suffered from an extremely convoluted plot that seemed to confuse and frustrate more then reward as its various twists were revealed. Later on, in 2017, The Punisher would make several similar mistakes while feeling like a step backwards from its title character’s characterization from Daredevil. Iron Fist is often seen as the MCU’s first objectively bad product and The Defenders suffered as a result, as so much of the crossover was built off of it. But thankfully the second season of Jessica Jones has finally broken that mold.

            The season picks up sometime after the events of The Defenders. Jessica has gone back to work full time as a private investigator. Her best friend and adopted sister, Trish, has taken her career in a more journalistic direction with a great new boyfriend to book. Jessica’s former junkie neighbor, Malcolm, has dedicated himself to helping her as her assistant and seems to have gotten his act together. Matters, however, are complicated when Trish begins looking an organization known as IGH that seems to have given Jessica her powers and the people connected to it begin dying. This leads the group to investigate further which reveals some startling revelations regarding Jessica’s past that threaten to shatter her present. And the whole thing is a massive improvement over its previous season.

            The first noticeable thing that it does right is that it actually feels like a detective story. Whereas in the first season we knew who the bad guy was and what he could do from the start, this season has a genuine mystery that draws you in. As Jessica and her friends discover more about IGH and the people connected to it the audience does as well and really makes you wait for answers. Saying anything more would constitute as a major spoiler, but it is a prime example on how you take what appears to be a convoluted retcon and turn it into something interesting and meaningfully dramatic. This mystery, in turn, eventually gives every character in the series a more well-defined arc then they had in the previous one, resulting in what is perhaps the most character driven season of any of the Marvel Netflix shows.

            In this season Jessica actually seems to grow and develop as a character. Whereas the previous season and The Defenders kind of had her reset to where she was at the start, this time she seems to have dramatically changed and severally ruptured the status quo of series. What makes it interesting, however, is that her development isn’t necessarily for the better. She starts out as a mess of a human being who is constantly pushing her friends away despite them having her best interests at heart. By the time the season ends it seems like she is moving forwards in certain aspects of her life but is an even worse mess then when she started in others. This, in turn, seems to be the motif of every other character but often digs into the themes of broken families, friendships, addiction and the idea that sometimes damaged relationships are irreparable.

            Trish, for example, makes big strides in her journalistic career and love life. Unfortunately, as the series goes on she gradually sends it all down the drain, possibly for good, due to her own substance abuse problems and feelings of inadequacy around Jessica. This leads her to make some very questionable decisions throughout the season that may have permanently shattered her relationships with her friends. By the time the season ends it seems like she may have gotten past some of this but the damage that she caused through her actions just might be irreparable. Similarly, Malcolm starts off well enough and makes strides towards staying clean and actually helping people. Unfortunately, by the time the season ends his life seems to be in order and heading in a more productive direction but it just might have come at the cost of his own morality and sense of right and wrong.

            Additionally, supporting character and Marvel Netflix go to lawyer, Jeri Hogarth, has her own twisted arc as well. After being diagnosed with a fatal condition she initially makes strides to improve her own morality and tries to better herself as a human being. Unfortunately, it all comes to a less then positive end, resulting in her gaining a renewed sense of purpose in life but arguably becoming a much bigger monster then she was before. Even our primary antagonist goes through similar loops as well before the season ends. Saying to much would be spoiling some otherwise good plot turns but let’s just say that you will root for this character to become better and will find yourself crushed by the end results. All of which makes the season a compelling watch and more then worth your time and energy.

            That’s not to say, however, that the show is perfect. The whole idea that Jessica is a destructive force for her friends and loved ones seems entirely lifted from Daredevil. The season’s antagonist, while good, isn’t as entertaining as Kilgrave nor anywhere near as compelling as Wilson Fisk. And, like many other Netflix shows, the whole thing feels about three episodes to long. It’s not nearly as noticeable as it is in a lot of other series but it once again feels like the show runners could have trimmed off some extra fat and condensed the season a bit. But it doesn’t take away from the overall experience.

            All around, the second season of Jessica Jones is a vast improvement over its predecessor and easily the best thing that the Marvel Netflix shows has produced in a long time. It has an interesting plot full of fantastic twists and turns and gives each of it’s characters a great arc and makes you interested in seeing what comes next. Overall, it’s more then worth your time.

           So until next time please be sure to follow the site, like my page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my work over at The Nerd Hub and Heroic Hollywood, and please consider contributing to my personal Patreon to support this and other projects like it.

The Dark Tower Review

            This past weekend we saw the release of the long awaited Dark Tower film and pretty much every critic and their mother hates it.  It has a 18% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 34/100 on Metacritic and upon viewing the film it’s not at all difficult to see why.  The characters are underwritten, the action scenes lack any sense of special, the plot is generic and cliched as hell, it’s incredibly cheap looing and there are many points where longtime fans of the novels are going to wince in pain and disgust.  But you know what?  When all is said and done, it’s actually not that bad.  It’s disposable and the franchise certainly deserves better but it’s not quite the abysmal train wreak that some people are making it out to be.

            The plot is a VERY loose adaptation of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and has been softball pitched as a quasi-continuation of the novels, (if you’ve read the books then that description will make a lot more sense), as it takes elements of the first book and reworks them into an original plot.  The story begins with a boy names Jake Chambers having visions of The Man in Black using children with psychic abilities as a power source for a weapon that is launching attacks against a structure known as The Dark Tower; a place that in this continuity protects a vast multiverse from “the darkness” that is beyond and constantly trying to consume it.  Not long after, agents of The Man in Black attempt to kidnap Jake as a new power source for this weapon, forcing him to flee and seek out The Man in Black’s mortal enemy, Roland, The Last Gunslinger in a dimension known as Mid-World.  Together the two of them will attempt to track down The Man in Black, find his base and weapon, destroy it and kill him in the process.

            When watching the film, it becomes clear that all of its problems, (outside of massive deviations from the source material), stem from two sources; it’s was clearly made on an incredibly low budget and is far too short.  The main issue is that due to its short runtime none of the characters are properly developed.  The Man in Black, for example, is about as generic of a mustache twirling bad guy as you can possibly get.  He kills and tortures people seemingly just for fun and we’re never told why he wants to destroy The Tower and let in the darkness that it’s holding back.  We don’t get any explanation as to where his powers come from, why they are so strong, why they don’t work on Roland or what their actual limits are.  He just all around lacks any meaningful writing that tells us anything about him outside of the fact that he’s a bad guy doing bad things.  Luckily the character is somewhat salvaged thanks to Mathew McConaughey’s performance.  It’s not going to be his next Oscar nominated performance to be sure but he brings enough raw charisma, sleazy guile and scenery chewing ham to the role that he at least makes it entertaining to watch if nothing else.

            Likewise, we have Idris Elba as Roland.  Like McConaughey, Elba has enough raw charisma to carry you through every scene he’s in and feels very well suited to the role.  The problem comes in the form of his so-called arc.  You see at the start of the film it’s pretty clear that he can’t stand Jake and is only going after the Man in Black out of a desire for revenge as opposed to defending The Tower, (in this continuity the Gunslingers are sworn to protect it).  By the time the film ends, however, it’s clear that his commitment to defend The Tower has been renewed and has become fond of Jake.  The problem is that you really don’t buy this arc.  The transition just kind of happens and seems to have been spurred by a tragedy midway through the film but seems to happen over the course of five minutes and is completely unbelievable.  Luckily Elba is a good enough actor where you can at least buy his performance but the actual writing and pacing of the film leaves you feeling as if you missed a scene or two somewhere.

            The big weak link in the three leads, however, is Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers.  Like Elba and McConaughey he has enough raw charisma to get you through the picture but ends up functioning more as a plot point then then a character.  What little character he does have, unfortunately, amounts to the generic wonder kid kind where he is the most special kid in the universe and only he can do this and that and we’ve already seen this a million times before.  For the most part, however, he’s only in the film to lead Roland to The Man in Black, guide him through New York, and eventually be rescued by him at the film’s climax.

           As mentioned earlier, the other major thing that held the film back was clearly its budget.  While watching the film it’s very clear that it was shot on a limited budget and I wasn’t surprised to find out that it was made on about 60 million dollars.  The biggest victims of this are the action scenes.  In total, the film has about four big action scenes and most ended up coming out as average at best despite having some cool toys to play with.  Early on, for example, Roland and Jake have to fight a monster from “the darkness” that has broken through the Dark Tower’s protective shield, which in theory sounds like a cool monster for them to fight and give us some sense as to what they’re up against should the Tower fall.  Unfortunate it mostly amounts to Roland struggling from being pinned to a tree while Jake hides in some old carnival equipment before Roland guns it down.  At the end of the film we get Roland’s final confrontation with The Man in Black where we see a cool range of their abilities but the whole thing takes place in a narrow hallway with the two shooting and throwing things at each other.  While none of these action scenes are bad, per say, it’s very clear that at one point they were meant to go on longer and be far more imagined and epic in scale then they ended up being.

            Ironically, however, one of the film’s biggest hindrances is arguably its biggest saving grace.  As mentioned earlier the film is rather short, clocking in at around 95 minutes.  Because of this it’s fast paced enough to where you don’t notice its flaws as much while you’re watching it.  The whole production is quickly paced and keeps thing moving fast enough so you’re never actually bored.  And that actually sums up the entirety of the film.

            Everything about it is fundamentally flawed but it’s never boring.  Our three lead characters lack any real depth but they’re so well played that you enjoy watching them.  The action is a pale shadow of what it could have been but it’s still well done enough to where you can’t really say anything bad about it.  And finally, the plot is a cheap generic mess but its fast paced and short enough to where you’re never bored.  Ultimately, it’s a disposable film and The Dark Tower franchise deserved far better but as an early August matinee show goes you can certainly do worse.

All Around

5/10

          So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter, and be sure to check out my other work over at The Nerd Hub where I cover comic books and video games and is worth taking a look at.  Until then, let's hope that if they continue this franchise has more substance then this one.

Halo Wars 2

 

          The Halo series is probably my all-time favorite first person shooter video game franchise.  As far back as its first release, the franchise has always attempted to shake the status que of what is considered acceptable for the genre.  The first game, for example, was the first to popularize the idea of an automatically regenerating health bar, (now a standard practice), and is the game that is often credited with the success of the original Xbox consul, Xbox Live, and the entire concept on online multiplayer in consul video games.  Since then, the franchise has constantly strived to be an innovator for the genre.  Halo 2 popularized co-op play in campaigns and introduced duel wielding guns.  Halo 3 and 4 both pushed the Xbox 360’s graphical limits in ways that blew everyone’s minds at the time.  Halo: ODST tried, (and in my opinion succeeded), in showing the ongoing war with the Covenant from a regular soldier’s perspective and incorporated more Call of Duty like elements into the gameplay.  Halo: Reach, while more then a little overrated in my opinion, introduced a far more sophisticated enemy AI then had really ever been seen in a video game up until that point.  And Halo 5…well I haven’t played it and to be honest I may never given the fact that it is an Xbox One exclusive and I have no interest in getting that particular consul.  The point, however, is that the franchise has always been an innovator when it comes to the main series and has, in my experience, never been one to sit on a formula and grow stale.  That is until you take the Halo Wars part of the franchise into account.

            The first Halo Wars was the definition of a thoroughly…okay game.  It was developed by Ensemble Studios, the same people behind the Age of Empires franchise and was the last game the team developed before being shut down by Microsoft in 2009.  But in spite of the fact that the game was commercially successful and released to mostly positive reviews it was nothing special and ran on an RTS gameplay style that was outdated even at the time.  Games like Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War were surging in popularity at the time and were quickly becoming the more popular way design RTS games among audiences and critics.  Heck, even the first Company of Heroes game, released three years earlier, effectively did exactly what the first Halo Wars was trying to do and actually did a far superior job.  But, in the game’s defense, there was a certain novelty in seeing the franchise try out the RTS genera and if nothing else, that’s something that you cannot take away from it.  It’s just a shame that Halo Wars 2 opts to be an uninspired rehash of the first game and reeks of a “Eh, that’s good enough” type attitude.

           The principal problem with the entire game, sadly, is the gameplay and how thoroughly outdated it is.  Like’s its predecessor the game runs off the same basic functionality as the 2004 game, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth.  Like that game, you had a limited number of predesignated spots to build buildings on as well as various preselected places to build your bases on.  You gather your resources with buildings that generate them for you, build up your army, face down the enemy and the last one standing wins.  Unfortunately, it can’t help but feel like a copy and paste job of its predecessor which, again, used a system that was outdated even back in 2009.  Heck, even by the standards of this kind of strategy based gameplay style, this game actually seems to take several steps backwards.

            As with most games of the genre, you have a number of different units to pick from that each of their own strengths and weaknesses.  Certain units are better against infantry, while others are good against flying units and such.  The problem is that this really doesn’t matter as much as it ought to.  Infantry units are, for example, practically useless and only serve as cannon fodder in the face of vehicle units that are far more effective in both their combat versatility and special abilities.  Often times a one can simply hit a button and run over an enemy infantry units without much sweat or allow the automatic weapons attached to most vehicle units to mow them down.  The only infantry units that have any real value in the game are the anti-vehicle Cyclops/Hunter units who are surprisingly overpowered in this regard but even they feel more like slower vehicles then actual infantry units.  As a result, most games inevitably turn into a big vehicle on vehicle Twisted Metal deathmatches with a few anti-vehicle support units on the side that eventually climaxes with tanks and heavy airships attacking and destroying the enemy base, making for some very predictable and dull matches.

            Now with all of that in mind, compare it to the Company of Heroes games.  Like this game, it runs on a mostly outdated gameplay style and matches can easily devolve into tank battles where infantry units are mowed down relatively quickly.  The difference, however, is that the infantry in the Company of Heroes games actually stand a fighting chance.  There are several areas throughout the maps for the units to take cover from gun fire, greatly reducing the speed by which they are killed.  They also had more than enough special destructive abilities at their disposal to cause significant, if not fatal damage, thus making them far more practical than in Halo Wars 2.  Additionally, tank battles in this game tended to be slow, tense and required actual strategy to win.  It wasn’t so much about knocking the other guy’s hit points to zero as it was about lining up the shot with the right angle on the tank in order to cause maximum damage, while preventing the enemy from getting that angle on you as well.  But in Halo Wars 2?  Nope!  Just put as many rounds into the enemy vehicles as you can until it goes boom and hope your vehicle doesn’t go boom first.

            The one thing that the game does do that is kind of original are the Blitz matches but they aren’t going to keep people playing the game for very long.  The whole thing amounts to a PvP map where you have a limited number of prechosen units that can only be deployed at certain points in the game.  Additionally, it’s always a struggle over certain points on the map but like the core gameplay it, for the most part always seems to end in a vehicle battle.

           Then we have the actual campaign.  OH.  DEAR.  GOD.  THE CAMPAIGN.  You see, I’m one of those weirdos who actually cares about the campaigns and storylines in first person shooter games and Halo’s tends to be superior to that of its competition.  And to be fair, the storyline in this game isn’t that bad.  Unfortunately, it’s also a bit hard to follow, confusing, full of plot holes and leaves a lot of loose ends. 

            The story picks up 28 years after the end of the first game with the crew of The Spirit of Fire awakening from cryosleep to find themselves in orbit around The Arc; the facility that introduced in Halo 3 and revealed to be where the Halo Rings were created.  Not long after, they discover that the war with the Covenant is over but The Arc has been overrun by a faction known as The Banished who split from the Covenant many years ago.  Upon learning this, the ship’s captain decides to avenge those who were killed on The Ark by The Banished, drive them off The Arc and find a way to contact home.

            Now, initially the premise sounds pretty cool and to be fair, the execution isn’t that bad.  The voice acting is all really good and helps adds layers of dimension to these characters in a way the writing isn’t up to and all of the cut scenes are very well animated and directed.  But then you start thinking about everything that is going on and immediately start asking questions.  Why is this the first time we’ve heard about The Banished?  From the way they are described they sound like they were a pretty big thorn in The Covenant’s side for a long time.  Why didn’t The Heretic from Halo 2 ally himself with this group?  Why didn’t The Arbiter try and make contact with The Banished when The Prophet’s ordered the Elites to be slaughtered?  Why didn’t they try and ally themselves with Earth so they could have a friend in their fight against The Covenant?  It’s questions like these that ruin the entire experience and makes it more than a little difficult to take the plot seriously when it seems so disconnected with the lore of the rest of the franchise.

            The actual campaign missions themselves are a bit of a mess.  Some of the can be interesting, especially when you need to accomplish difficult tasks with a set number of troops but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.  Most of the missions sadly consist of slight variations on the skirmish maps with a few more objectives and restrictions and scales tipped horribly in the enemy’s favor put in to pad out the runtime.  That last bit is especially irritating as the enemy seems to constantly have you outnumbered and has a constant stream of reinforcements coming from off the map that never seem to follow the population limit rule.  The worst campaign missions, however, are the defensive missions.  Many times in this game you will be called upon to hold the line from wave after wave of enemies and it is beyond dull and easy.  After a certain amount of time you’ll know exactly what enemy types will be thrown at you from where and this knowledge will allow you to effectively place defenses that will turn the battle into a slaughter.  And of course, the enemy AI does nothing to compensate for this outside of throwing larger waves of enemies at you that just might break through if you have one to few units at the position.  To call it lazy would be an understatement.

            In the end, Halo Wars 2 is the definition of a lazy game with an “Eh, that’s good enough” type attitude about it.  I didn’t necessarily hate the game as much as it may have seemed in this article but I just don’t understand the thought process behind its development.  Why dust off this practically forgotten part of the franchise and then make such a halfhearted effort to continue it?  I honestly don’t know but as it stands Halo Wars 2 is prime example of otherwise talented developers working on a project and clearly not giving a crap about it.  Skip it and spend your sixty bucks elsewhere.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that future installments of this franchise will prove better then this one.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Announcement Trailer Thoughts

            Hey everyone!  They just released an announcement trailer for a sequel to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor!  Let’s take a look!

            Well that looked like…a prerendered trailer that tells us nothing about the gameplay and only vaguely hints as to what the plot is about.  And that’s because it is a prerendered trailer that tells us nothing about the gameplay and only vaguely hints as to what the plot is about!  Now, to be fair, they say in the trailer that there will be a gameplay reveal released on March 8^th and I fully expect myself to revisit this subject then.  But until then the only emotion that I can conjure up for this reveal trailer is “meh”.

            For those of you who don’t know, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the 2014 game, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.  It was a game that actually surprised everyone at the time with just how good it turned out to be, especially given the questionable behavior Warner Brothers had displayed regarding the game’s promotion and the release of press copies to gaming critics.  For me, however, the game was just decent.  The Nemesis System was pretty cool and I did like how the developers gave the orcs distinct personalities as well as different weaknesses and fears to exploit.  It also happened to be one of the few instances where the game actually acknowledged the death of the player in a mechanical way which I thought was kind of nifty at the time. 

            Unfortunately, the game had no multiplayer to speak of, was populated by mostly boring supporting characters and had a plot that mostly consisted of taking control of orcs, making them war chief so you can move on to the big bad of the area only to find out you had to do it all over again.  Because of this I generally find myself discussing the odd continuity hiccups the game has in relation to the rest of The Lord of the Rings lore with my peers more so then the actual game itself.  And from the looks of this trailer, it looks as if it might be more of the same in this regard.

            All that this trailer seems to tell us is that the Gondor captain, Talion and the elf wraith Celebrimbor succeed in forging a new ring to challenge Sauron and the forces he still has in Mordor.  Not long after he apparently loses Celebrimbor and Sauron has gathered his forces to wage war on Middle-Earth and has somehow regained his physical form despite not having The One Ring.  And apparently, beta versions of the Ring Wraiths are flying around for some reason destroying stuff.  And he has a Balrog.  I have no idea how he got control of one of those.  And apparently Talion thinks he can stop all of this with his new magic ring.  Okay.  Again, just “meh”.

            Now to be fair, this is just an announcement trailer so maybe some of this stuff will be better explained in game.  Once again, we haven’t seen any gameplay footage of the new title so we should wait until we see some of that before we swing our expectations either way and I’ll be sure to revisit this subject once that happens.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that the gameplay footage proves to be more promising.

John Wick Chapter 2

            Go see it.  Seriously, go see it.  Why are you still reading this article?  Why aren’t you going to see it right now?!?!?!  If you’ve already seen it, why aren’t you seeing it again?!?!  GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!  In all seriousness though, 2017 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year, entertainment wise.  Resident Evil 7 was a pretty solid game, For Honor already has a very loyal fan base and films like Split and The Lego Batman movie turned out far better than anyone expected them to be.  The year has started out on a pretty positive note and, as of the writing this article, John Wick Chapter 2 has been the best note of the year so far.

            For those who don’t know, the film is a sequel to the 2014 action sleeper hit, John Wick which followed a retired hitman’s rampage across New York to find the mobster scumbags who stole his car and killed his dog.  The film was basically a perfect version of what it was trying to be; a 90s-style unstoppable badass action movie that should be experienced rather than talked about.  The action used continuous shots with incredible gunplay and hand to hand combat that never looked staged and always felt realistic.  On top that, the film had a surprisingly amount going on under its surface.  Most of the world building and character history was conveyed through actions as well as subtle dialog that consisted mostly of casual conversation between the characters as opposed to overly long exposition.  All of which transfers over to the sequel with bigger stakes, more deadly fighting and an actual pretty satisfying character arc for the titular hero.

            The plot begins in the immediate aftermath of the first film with John achieving a truce with the remaining family members of the antagonists of the last film and is ready to go back into retirement.  Unfortunately, not long after a crime lord acquaintance of John’s by the name of Santino D’Antonio arrives, calling in a blood oath favor that Wick owes him that allowed him to get out of the life in the first place.  Once completing the task, however, D’Antonio puts a seven million dollar bounty on his head in order to cover his tracks.  Realizing that his only chance for survival is to kill D’Antonio, John must battle a gauntlet of assassins and bodyguards all across New York before he can get to the man himself.

            As mentioned before, everything that made the first film work so well is back for the sequel but this time turned up to eleven.  The action scenes are more creative and make for some pretty intense fights that put a lot of modern action movies to shame.  Be it the initial rush of assassins that John has to face midway through the film or an incredibly tense chase through a hall of mirrors art exhibit, it’s hands down some of the best stuff that I’ve seen in a while.  It helps that the film actually has legitimate tension.  Wick may be every bit the unstoppable badass action hero that he appears to be but what both the creative team and Keanu Reeves make apparent is that the character is actually human.  The constant running and fighting the character does is something that clearly winds him and beats down on his stamina.  Getting stabled, shot, or bludgeoned does actually hurt him and by the time the film ends you legitimately wonder just how he is still standing.

            Another layer of tension is added to the fight with what appears to be a relatively realistic ammo count.  It might seem like a trivial thing but when compared to other films but Wick seems to be constantly reloading his gun or switching out weapons in order to compensate for just how many enemies are coming after him.  In one instance, for example, he is forced to go after the main antagonist in a room full of body guards with just one gun with seven rounds.  After burning through the rounds relatively quickly, he is forced to go after the various bodyguards and taking their weapons by hand which also have limited amounts of ammo, forcing him to quickly reload or change weapons.  It’s a very refreshing take on gun battles when most action movies just have the main character run out of ammo the moment the plot says so.

            Character interactions are just as good as they were in the last film.  The initial conversations between Wick and D’Antonio, for example, tell us everything we need to know about their relationship through subtle acting, character action and lines of throwaway dialog.  We’re never told what exactly it was D’Antonio did for John but given how seriously everyone in the film takes the blood oath, we can infer that it must have been something pretty extreme.  We can also tell from the get-go that these two clearly do not like each other.  It doesn’t evolve into pure hatred until later in the film but thanks to the acting you can clearly tell that there is some animosity between the two even before D’Antonio puts the hit on him.  Something similar happens between Wick and the character Cassian played by Common.  We don’t know how it is the two know each other but it’s pretty clear that they respect and know each other pretty well, even knowing what the other’s preferred drink is.  Because of this we get a pretty good feel for the relationship between the two, once again with subtle acting and a few key lines of dialog that feel more like natural conversation than anything else.  Likewise, the world building elements are done in similar ways.  While there isn’t nearly as much of it as there was in the previous film, what we do have is done in the exact same manner; through character actions, subtle dialog, and the creative team trusting the audience to be smart enough to figure out what certain things are on their own.

            If there is one major weak point in the film, it’s the first act as it takes a painfully long time for it to get to the main plot.  Up until then we have a lot of characters walking from place to place and talking about how serious certain plot elements are without a whole lot happening.  Granted a good chunk of this revolves around John preparing for the job that he is about to do but it drags on for far too long and ends up feeling boring, especially when compared to the rest of the film that seems to be firing all cylinders all the time.  You also see things that can’t help but draw attention to themselves as franchise management on camera.  Certain characters that you expect to be added to the body count simply aren’t and other characters are introduced out of nowhere seemingly because the studio wants them for the sequels. 

            In the end, though, John Wick Chapter 2 is just a kickass movie.  Everything that worked in the first film is back and turned up to 11 and is everything that you would want out of an action movie sequel.  Be sure to check it out.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that 2017 can keep the ball rolling.

Resident Evil 7

 

          The Resident Evil franchise is one that I cannot help but have mixed feelings on.  The first three games are straight up classics of the 5^th generation era of gaming and really brought the horror genera to the medium in a way that few video games had managed to do.  But one cannot deny that they do not hold up particularly well.  Between the tank controls, god awful voice acting, constant use of tired genera clichés and a plot that got more and more ridiculous as time went on, the original games are a very hard sell for anyone who didn’t grow up with them.  Resident Evil 4, on the other hand, is not only a classic that holds up very well but a game that helped redefine the entire medium.  While there were undoubtedly other games that had tried, Resident Evil 4 was the first game to really prefect things that are now clichés of the medium such as epic scripted events, pop and cover shooting as well as the now hated quick time event.  The game also wisely abandoned the ridiculous story elements of the previous games in order to tell its own story that was equally ridiculous but was clearly more aware of just how silly its was and is one of my all-time favorite games as a result.

            Then Resident Evil 5 happened and the franchise went into a downward spiral that it never quite recovered from.  The game took itself far too seriously and tried to hammer in a political message regarding colonialism in Africa that went about as well as a man sporting a swastika showing up at a Holocaust memorial service.  And then we have Resident Evil 6.  Oh.  My.  God.  Resident Evil 6.  This game may have been the worst game that I ever had the displeasure of spending 60 dollars on.  It would take an entire article to go into why it is that I despise this game so much but should suffice to say that it was the game that effectively killed the entire franchise for me and up until recently I’ve wanted nothing to do with it.  But then 2016’s E3 happened and Nerd Hub editor Jack Flowers recommended that I take a look at Resident Evil 7’s first hour demo.  And, as anyone who read my E3 articles knows, it really put the hook in me and all but guaranteed that I would be taking a look at the game.  Now that the game has finally been released I can honestly say that it is easily the best installment since Resident Evil 4, even if it is far from perfect.

            In the game, you play as Ethan Winters, a relatively ordinary man who is called to an apparently abandoned estate in Louisiana by his wife who went missing three years ago.  At the estate, he finds a number of derelict buildings inhabited by the deranged Baker family affected by some mysterious affliction.  With little hope of rescue, it’s up to Ethan to fight and sneak his way through the estate, rescue his wife, find a cure for what is afflicting her and stop the force that caused all of this in the first place.

            The first thing most fans of the franchise will notice is how radical of a departure it is from previous installments.  Everything from the gameplay design to the narrative to the characters have next to nothing in common with previous entries.  In fact, had it not been for a few Easter Eggs connecting it to the larger RE Universe, one could have easily mistaken this game for an entirely new IP.  And if we’re being honest, this is a big part of what makes the game work so well.

            A lot of this has to do with the scale of the story being told.  Previous games had a tendency to focus on UN Bio CTU forces and Secret Service agents involved in world ending conspiracies fighting baddies who were equal parts Cronenbergian body horror mutations and hammy, sliver age comic book villains.  Resident Evil 7, however, abandons all of this to tell a smaller, more intimate story and this slips into nearly every aspect of the game.  The closest thing that one can compare it to is the 2014 game, Alien: Isolation.  Like Isolation, you play as protagonist who is by no means a soldier and is stuck in an isolated location with little hope of rescue and is one of the few sane people left to do anything about the current situation.  You're faced with seeming invincible enemies and are forced to sneak around them, finding ways to unlock new locations, dealing with a few generic enemies here and there, scavenging for supplies to make much needed weapons, ammo and med kits while doing a significant amount of back tracking to previously inaccessible points.  But in spite of all of these similarities the gameplay still manages to be incredibly satisfying.

            The first thing that it does right is create an incredibly creepy atmosphere as you are never sure what will be waiting for you around the next corner.  The lighting, sound design, voice acting and unsettling set design all help to create an unnerving environment that makes you take each step with caution.  This is especially true in the first half of the game where you are forced to sneak around invincible antagonists that each have their own unique abilities that you have to overcome.  The level design is a big part of this.  In total, the game only has 6 areas to explore and all of them are relatively small and do require a lot of backtracking.  However, like the antagonists, each environment has its own unique theme, be it bugs, bombs, or the natural uneasy feeling one gets from seeing a house in disuse and ultimately gives us an atmosphere that continues to be creepy but also manages to remain fresh with its variety.  Granted, these environments and antagonists borrow very heavily from franchises like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead and Saw but they come off more nostalgic tributes as opposed to blatant rip-offs

            Like Isolation, a good portion of the game involves running around these areas while looking for keys, wrenches and other tools in order to progress further in the game while sneaking around nigh invincible enemies.  However, the game manages to be a radical improvement over Isolation in two big ways.  The first is that antagonists don’t kill you in one hit, nor do they automatically sprint towards you the moment they spot you.  They will come at you and turn you into mints meat if they can but in taking away the one hit kill rule, they manage to keep the tension but lacks the same level of frustration as a result.  The second is that you never stay in any of these areas for too long.  Where as in Isolation you spend an infuriatingly amount of time backtracking to the same places over and over again, Resident Evil 7 knows just how long to keep you in certain locations.  You ultimately spend just enough time in each of these areas to become intimately familiar with them but not long enough to become sick of them and is where this game went right where Isolation went wrong.

           Unfortunately, like Isolation, the game features a pretty weak crafting system that felt very tacked on.  The entire system is more or less done by combining chemical fluids with other raw materials such as gunpowder and herbs to create ammo, med kits and such and lacks any real depth or variety.  However, the game does succeed in giving you just enough to get by for the most part.  Throughout the majority of the game you only ever have just enough ammo to get through enemies and only just enough healing materials to keep you alive.  This forces players to manage their resources carefully and actually think about when and how to use them as using too much at the wrong time can result in a position where the game in unwinnable.

            Unfortunately, this level of tension does not last the entirety of the game.  As the game goes on, Ethan obtains increasingly powerful weapons and by the time the game’s final act rolls around he’s armed like a space marine with assault rifles, flame throwers, and even a grenade launcher and is able to turn the enemies into goo without much problem.  By the time this happens most of the invincible enemies have been dispatched and your only left with the game’s generic enemies and the thing turns into a pretty bland corridor shooter and throws small waves of said enemies at you seemingly just to pass the time.  It tries to compensate for this by adding in phycological horror elements to the mix but they don’t work particularly well and ultimately feel like cheap attempts to make the player jump.

            Everything else about the game follows a similar pattern.  It’s all really good and entertaining but it usually comes with a pretty heavy stipulation.  The game’s main character Ethan is, in some ways, the perfect example of this.  Unlike all the other RE protagonists, Ethan, as far as we know, is just a regular guy who got caught up in this mess.  He is certainly capable but is very clearly out of his element and works perfectly as a player insert character.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t really amount to anything more than this.  He has no real defining characteristics and we know next to nothing about him by the time the credits roll.  We never see his face and what little dialog he has is very lazily voice acted and never amounts to much more than asking questions that the player is also more than likely asking.  One of the best examples of this is at the start of the game when you find Mia, Ethan’s wife.  Before long she goes berserk due to whatever affecting her and you are forced to put an axe in her neck.  It’s a pretty grisly scene but we get nothing in terms of emotion from Ethan.  He finds his wife who has been missing for three years only for her to try and kill him and is forced to apparently kill her in self-defense and his attitude on the situation amount to, “Huh.  That was freaky.”  It’s a very odd emotional disconnect that he has throughout the game and cannot help but take one out of it.

            Thankfully the game does make up for it with its antagonists.  Resident Evil villains have always been one of the more memorable parts of the franchise and this game is no exception.  In fact it could be argued that the game has the best antagonists that the franchise has ever produced.  At first the Bakers come off as a family of stereotypical redneck psychos and throughout most of the game they don’t really shake this appearance.  But they do manage to be the best version of the stereotypical psycho redneck family that you can possibly ask for.  Family patriarch Jack Baker is just a charisma machine and manages to find the perfect balance of humor and terror and you get the impression the voice actor was having a ton of fun doing the role.  The same can be said for his son, Lucas Baker.  The character is indeed horrifying as he takes sadistic pleasure in putting people through Saw-like death mazes but the voice acting behind it manages to find the right balance of horror and humor that you can’t help but have fun with it.

            In the end, what really elevates these characters past most Resident Evil antagonists is that there is a certain air of tragedy to them.  We don’t get a whole lot of information as to who these people were before the events of the game but what information we do get seems to indicate that they were otherwise pretty decent people.  Perhaps a little on the reclusive side but decent folks all the same.  In fact, it’s highly implied that it was that decentness that got them into this situation to begin with.  The same can be said of the game’s final antagonist.  I won’t spoil anything but it’s pretty clear that the character is one whose motivations are actually kind of pure in its intent, making the character’s situation feel all the sadder.

            The only character that they really dropped the ball with was Mia as she is one who has very little functionality or personality beyond being a damsel in distress.  Even when she finally breaks that mold she ultimately ends up inadvertently undercutting the quality of the story writing.  Later in the game she is eventually revealed to actually be one of the uber competent badasses that usually make up the protagonists of the this franchise.  At the same time, it reveals her to be the cause of all of the game’s problems as well as quite possibly the worst human being in the entire game.  The problem is that the developers don’t seem to be aware of this.  Revealing just what it is would constitute as a major spoiler but their does seem to be a major disconnect between the text and the subtext regarding this character.  As a result it’s kind of hard to figure out if this was meant to be a darkly ironic twist or if the writers didn’t actually know what they were implying with this.  Either way it just doesn’t work as well in its execution as it should have.

            In the end, Resident Evil 7 is a flawed game but still a fun one.  It features great antagonists, a fantastic horror atmosphere and tense gameplay that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.  Is it a masterpiece?  No.  Is it the best game in the franchise?  No.  But it is a decent little horror game that’s sure to scare and excite you for a good 15 hours or so.  Sometimes that’s enough.

                So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that 2017 can keep producing good games.  It's shaping up to be an interesting year and it's still early enough to hope for the best.