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Love, Death & Robots - Season 1
Love, Death & Robots - Season 1
2019 | Animation, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
The beauty of Love, Death and Robots is it's format. An eclectic collection of animated short films, some genuinely brilliant, with a handful of duds, truly gives something for everyone.

There are 18 films on show here, all with something different to offer.
Firstly there were 3 that failed to really resonate with me - Sucker of Souls, When the Yoghurt Took Over, and Alternate Histories. I found these three either slightly boring, or silly for the sake of being silly. There were 2 that sort of floated in the middle - The Dump, and Blind Spot, not bad by any means (none of the shorts are truly bad) but just were sort of there.
Leaving a grand total of 13 shorts that I thought were really really great.

A handful of these realistic CGI entries - namely, Sonnie's Edge, Three Robots, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Shape Shifters (one of the highlights for me), Helping Hand (reminded me of Gravity, in a great way), Lucky 13, and The Secret War.
These lot are lengthier offerings, and boast some good looking CGI animation, bordering on photo realism at times. The run time gives an opportunity for some decent fleshed out stories.
The Secret War in particular is nothing short of breath taking, and may well be my top pick of the whole season.
Elsewhere, we have more cartoony offerings - Suits, a loud animation that features farmers in mech suits fighting aliens. Zima Blue, a beautifully touching story of how a simple robot transcends existence itself - another highlight of the season. Fish Night, a short desert based drama bursting with colour. The animation of this one reminded me of A Scanner Darkly. Good Hunting, a collision of Ancient Chinese stories and a Bioshock style steampunk future. Hard to watch at times, but stunning also - easily would have been my top pick if The Secret War wasn't included.
Rounding it off we have The Witness, and animation that looks like a moving oil painting and reminded me of Mirror's Edge, and Ice Age, a fun short that's the only live action inclusion with CGI flourishes about a civilisation growing in a couple freezer.

It's an ambitious collection of shorts for sure, but like I said, there's something here for everyone. Even the ones that I liked the least are a 6/10 at worst. If you like sci-fi or animation in any shape or form, then check this series out.
  
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Love, Death & Robots in TV

Apr 4, 2019 (Updated Apr 4, 2019)  
Love, Death & Robots
Love, Death & Robots
2019 | Action, Animation, Comedy
A breezy pace throughout the series (1 more)
Some incredible animation work
Not consistent (0 more)
Now For Something Completely Different
Love Death & Robots is an animated anthology series from David Fincher and Tim Miller, made up of 18 short films, with each one done in a completely different animation style, ranging from stylistic 2D to hyper realistic 3D. I felt compelled to watch this series, not only as a fan of Fincher's and Miller's previous respective works, but as an aspiring animator myself.

My favourite thing about this series is how brief each episode is. Even if there is a story that you aren't enjoying so much, it is over promptly and you are onto the next one. I also like the idea of this series perhaps being a way for filmmakers to pitch their ideas in the form of these short stories and then, - if they are well received, - they could maybe go on to be developed into a longer more fleshed out feature length movie.

The style of animation varies wildly and everyone who watches the series will no doubt have their own personal preference. My favourite of the series was episode 13, which was titled "Lucky 13." It was based around a spaceship owned by a pilot played by Samira Wiley, who gave an phenomenal performance throughout the short film.

If you are looking for something fresh and different to anything else on Netflix, give this one a go. You may not enjoy every single episode, but I guarantee you there will be at least a few that you like. I really hope that this gets a second series and I am looking forward to anything else that is coming in the future from this creative team.
  
The Transformers - The Movie (1986)
The Transformers - The Movie (1986)
1986 | Animation, Family, Sci-Fi
9
8.3 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Great story (0 more)
Robots in disguise
Contains spoilers, click to show
TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE

This movie is what I like to call a cult classic the first big screen appearance of the Autobots and Decepticons, its appeared after the first two seasons and it shook everything up Transformers as we knew it was over. It starts with a massacre on an Autobot shuttle and many characters died at the hands of Decepticon leader Megatron it shocked me when I first saw this because we had seen two seasons and it was all a bit tame. But the worst was yet to come so let me explain the whole idea of killing off these characters was to make way for future characters and new toy lines we had grown up and loved Ironhide ,and Ratchet, Prowl it definitely threw me the brutality of it shot point blank in the back of the head.

The war continues on Earth and we meet the future of the franchise Ultra Magnus and Hotrod as well as others all made to look futuristic their vehicle modes were Cybertronian which was new and I loved the more space age look about it we meet Daniel Witwicky the son of Spike but there is no sign of sparkplug or an explanation of his whereabouts Carly is Daniels mother. Now comes the part that shocked the world the death of Optimus Prime now let me explain in all versions of Transformers Optimus Prime always dies and the devastating planet Unicron always appears its Transformers lore but this movie defined it I wanted Optimus to destroy Unicron but it wasn’t to be.

Megatron also makes his last appearance with several other Decepticons which evened out the earlier Autobot deaths except they didn’t die they were reanimated by Unicron a new leader was born Galvatron and Cyclonus and Scourge and his dreaded Sweeps then came the death of Starscream it showed the brutality of the new leader, in the first two seasons Starscream would try to overthrow Megatron but he would always get away with it. Galvatron showed no mercy and blasted him straight away.

We are introduced to several new races of Transformers Junkions, Sharkticons and Quintessons all of which have would future appearances in season three and four, we see the friendship blossom between the young Autobot Hotrod and the old warrior Kup and the Dinobots get there action in as well I have always been a big fan of the Dinobots and they save the day again,

The most brilliant thing I had ever seen at the time was the transformation of Unicron a planet to robot I loved the sheer size of it and this final battle brought forth a new leader of the Autobots Rodimus Prime and a new era in Transformers entertainment despite the violence and death it did all make sense plus there are some cameo voices as well Galvatron was voiced by Doctor Spock himself Leonard Nimoy and rodimus prime voiced by Judd Nelson and Unicron was Voiced by orson Wells war of the worlds.

So I must admit this film is a guilty pleasure of mine and I highly recommend it I would advise to watch seasons one and two first just so you can feel how much the movie changed the franchise and the deaths of the characters actually mean more to you so give it a try and see what you think and there is a massive spoiler alert at the end of the movie which is narrated and got the public excited about the next season so enjoy it savour it and soak up this cult classic
  
    The Escapee

    The Escapee

    Games and Entertainment

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    AWARD WINNING CLASSIC ACTION & ADVENTURE IS AVAILABLE ON IPHONE, IPAD AND IPOD TOUCH!...

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
2017 | Shooter
Bj Blazkowicz is back to fight Nazis in the latest chapter in the long-running Wolfenstein series. With Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus marks the third entry in the series by Bethesda and continues their focus on gritty and gripping storytelling where all the focus is on the campaign versus having a multiplayer component.

Set in an alternate 1960s, BJ and his band of rebels look to strike back at the evil Nazi forces that have enslaved the entire world and much of the solar system as well. Using a captured submarine, the missions task players with exploring and interacting with members of the crew as well as multiple locales throughout the United States and strategic locations.

As any fan of the series knows, BJ is all about death and destruction, and he has a very impressive arsenal of weaponry available to him. From pistols and shotguns, to machine guns, grenades, and more advanced energy and Napalm based weapons; he can give back as much as the overwhelming enemy forces can dish out.

This is a very good thing as there are all manner of enhanced troops, robots, and truly devastating enemy units awaiting him.

Along the way players can gain health, ammunition, and armor from dispatched enemies, and there are charging stations located throughout the missions to charge up the big guns.

The game also has optional side quests for players to take and does have some new mission options following the credits for the game.

What makes the game stand out aside from the action is the great attention to detail of the locales and maps but also acting that is well above what one would expect in a game of this type. Players are given a deeper look at the title character as well as his past, his motivations, and in a refreshing twist, his fragility in dealing with his own mortality in the face of pending changes in his life.

While I was able to complete the game in less than half the time that it took me to complete Wolfenstein: The New Order, there was still over 10 hours of gameplay for me and there are bonus missions and pending DLC for me to look forward to.

With great graphics, sound, action, and a compelling story, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is another great entry for the series and one that you will not want to miss.

http://sknr.net/2017/10/30/wolfenstein-2-new-colossus/
  
Baseball Highlights: 2045
Baseball Highlights: 2045
2015 | Card Game, Science Fiction, Sports
It’s 2045. Baseball has bored everyone to death (NOT my opinion – GO CUBS GO!). So Big Baseball has turned to employing robots and players have begun to improve their game by adding cybernetic body parts to themselves. This is the future in which I want to live. Editorializing aside, only the best and most exciting players can make in the new bigs. Will your team of Naturals, Cyborgs, and Robots claim victory, or will your players be bound for the minors – or worse, the scrap heap?

Baseball Highlights: 2045 is a dueling card game with an interesting twist. It uses elements of card drafting, hand management, take that, and deck building to weave a satisfying experience that can be enjoyed by baseball fans and non-fans. I will not go into explaining the entire rulebook here, but I do want to touch on some items that turn this into something more than your run-of-the-mill deck builder.

DISCLAIMER: This game has quite a few mini expansions. While we do have all the expansions in our collection, we will only be reviewing the base game (though I am sure there are some promo cards in my “base game”). Should we decide to review the expansions in the future, we will add it here or link to the full review. -T

Each player begins the game with a deck of starter players belonging to a generic team (Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, etc). Each card has a combination of immediate actions, threatened base hits, pawn movement speed, and costs printed on them. By playing a card from your hand on your turn you will threaten a hit, cancel your opponent’s hit(s), and/or attempt to score your runners home. Here’s the twist. The Visitor player will play the first card and potentially threaten a hit. Play then stops and it is the Home player’s turn to try to affect the threatened hit(s) using a card from their hand. If they can cancel the hit, then the Visitor player’s plans are dashed and play returns to them to try to cancel the Home player’s now-threatened hits. This back and forth using different portions of each card is a little awkward to get used to, but after you get the hang of it, becomes a very cool little variation on the simplistic card value comparisons found in WAR.

After you play through your hand of cards and determine the mini-game winner, a phase of the game to draft “free agents” allows players to use icons on the cards to purchase stronger cards from the offer row. If the alternating play of the main game had your head spinning then deciding which of your teammates to replace with free agents will definitely cause some anxiety. But this is how your team improves. Do you get rid of the player that threatens Home Runs but provides you with zero purchasing power or do you oust him to the minors to call up Kris Correa? These are important decisions, coach!

Components. This game is basically a card duel game with player mats and tracking tokens that are completely unnecessary (but very nice). The cards are great quality! The individual player mats are a great place to organize your game cards and components. The pawns are just red, white, and blue wooden pawns. Nothing special there, but the colors are important and symbolize how fast the baserunners are. The components are great, and the insert is functional, so that’s a huge bonus for me.

Is the game good? Quite. I love the back and forth. I LOVE the baseball theme. I love the deck building aspect. I love being able to use this game as a tournament game, though I haven’t yet played it that way. Maybe soon! In any case, this is an excellent game and definitely worth taking a look at and trying for yourself. We at Purple Phoenix Games give this one an over the fence bomb of 9 / 12 (with special guest scorer Tony – I think Josh will like it, but I’m unsure if Bryan will).
  
Love, Death & Robots
Love, Death & Robots
2019 | Action, Animation, Comedy
Outstanding animation (2 more)
Some of the shorts are amazing
I wish there would be more products like this
Other shorts where very dull and boring (3 more)
Sometimes it's style over substance
Too edgy in some parts
Some of the shorts look like commercial for videogame
Uff this is gonna be though to review
"Love Death & Robot" is an anthology of adult animated shorts. It features 18 shorts of different lenght with the common theme being the sci-fi.
The problem of reviewing a product like this is that the episodes are all so different to each other and the quality is too vary.
On a technical point of view, every shorts are amazing. The animation feels great in every style it is portrayed, either 2D or 3D. The quality of the shots, the models and basically every visual elements are simply gorgeous.
However that doesn't mean that the short themselves are by default good. The ones that are super realistic, like "Beyond the Aquila Rift" and "Lucky 13", just make you wonder why they didn't used real actors instead. This two in particular doesn't really benefit for being animated. For comparison, "Ice Age" uses real actors and the CG is contained in the special effects and it works perfectly. Oh and "Lucky 13" is just plain bad on top of that.
Then there are the shorts with amazing visual styles but with quite dull story. "The Witness" is the one that comes to mind using clever use of compositing (the implementation of CG elements in a realistic environment) and having a nice character design with excellent animation. However it feels pretentious because it doesn't say anything really interesting and it focus more on sexual visual rather than a story, with a nonsensical twist nevertheless. Style over substance.
Other shorts instead feels like watching a cinematic for a videogame, pilot for different series or University students showreel. This doesn't mean they are bad but it just feels a bit underwhelming.
However when a short is good, it's really good! The one that are always left me with a smile on my face and with an overall excitement, eager to see what was coming next or more works from these studios. "Three Robots" is definitely one of my favourite short thanks to the amazing visuals, clever dialogues and an interesting lore.
My main criticism that involves mostly all the shorts is the supposed maturity, especially in the use of sex and violence.. I am not against the use of them by any means. However using them just for the sake of it doesn't make your product automatically mature. It just felt edgy, the equivalent of a goth teenagers that watch gory movies just because "uuhhh so taboo".
I know that animation is still perceived as a product for children and I am always happy to see new ones that wants to focus on a more mature audience. I don't think though that you can do it with just the use of swear words, sex and violence without any substance in it.
I want to see more actually mature animations, with compelling stories and amazing styles, using animation as a media and not as a genre.