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Lee (2222 KP) rated The Incredibles 2 (2018) in Movies
Jul 16, 2018 (Updated Jul 17, 2018)
Worthy sequel, although a bit patchy in places
Contains spoilers, click to show
It's hard to believe that the original Incredibles movie is now 14 years old. It was, and still is, a fun, original and highly enjoyable superhero movie that was always deserving of a sequel. I re-watched it recently with my daughter who had never seen it, and despite it's age, and the fact that we've now had a decade of non-stop Marvel superhero movies since it was made, it still holds up 'incredibly' well.
The sequel picks up right where the original finished off, with The Incredibles battling supervillain The Underminer. It's the first of many impressive battle sequence, and does a good job of reminding us of the skills and abilities of each individual family member, not to mention how well they all work together as a team. The advances in animation quality over the last 14 years are obvious, while still managing to retain the unique look and feel of the original.
Unfortunately, the Parr's attempts to save the city don't quite go to plan, leading once again to their helpfulness being questioned by the US Government. They find themselves in a motel, contemplating their futures, until they are approached by Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk). He claims that the public have only seen the negative side of superheroes that is portrayed by the government, and wants to provide microscopic cameras embedded within the superhero costumes so that they can capture what they see. By showing the hero's side of the story, Winston plans to generate enough good publicity to start winning over the general public once again and hopefully reverse the law that makes superheroes illegal. Elastigirl is chosen to kick things off, largely due to the minimal government damage she's likely to cause in comparison to her husband! As a result, Mr Incredible is left at home to care for the kids, while Elastigirl is out having fun and saving the world.
The domestic comedy with Mr Incredible stuck at home is just brilliant. Not only does he have to try and get to grips with 'New Math' homework for son Dash, but also with daughter Violet and her boyfriend trouble. Not to mention the discovery that baby Jack-Jack has a set of impressive and highly unpredictable superpowers of his own. Meanwhile, the plan involving Elastigirl is working so well, that plans to make superheroes legal again get underway. But then mysterious new villain Screenslaver begins causing hypnotic chaos around town, and the family must band together once again in order to save the day.
Aside from the impressive action, and the hilarious scenes involving Jack-Jack, the rest of the movie in comparison does feel a little flat in places. In my opinion it falls slightly short of matching the original, although still a highly enjoyable and worthy sequel.
The sequel picks up right where the original finished off, with The Incredibles battling supervillain The Underminer. It's the first of many impressive battle sequence, and does a good job of reminding us of the skills and abilities of each individual family member, not to mention how well they all work together as a team. The advances in animation quality over the last 14 years are obvious, while still managing to retain the unique look and feel of the original.
Unfortunately, the Parr's attempts to save the city don't quite go to plan, leading once again to their helpfulness being questioned by the US Government. They find themselves in a motel, contemplating their futures, until they are approached by Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk). He claims that the public have only seen the negative side of superheroes that is portrayed by the government, and wants to provide microscopic cameras embedded within the superhero costumes so that they can capture what they see. By showing the hero's side of the story, Winston plans to generate enough good publicity to start winning over the general public once again and hopefully reverse the law that makes superheroes illegal. Elastigirl is chosen to kick things off, largely due to the minimal government damage she's likely to cause in comparison to her husband! As a result, Mr Incredible is left at home to care for the kids, while Elastigirl is out having fun and saving the world.
The domestic comedy with Mr Incredible stuck at home is just brilliant. Not only does he have to try and get to grips with 'New Math' homework for son Dash, but also with daughter Violet and her boyfriend trouble. Not to mention the discovery that baby Jack-Jack has a set of impressive and highly unpredictable superpowers of his own. Meanwhile, the plan involving Elastigirl is working so well, that plans to make superheroes legal again get underway. But then mysterious new villain Screenslaver begins causing hypnotic chaos around town, and the family must band together once again in order to save the day.
Aside from the impressive action, and the hilarious scenes involving Jack-Jack, the rest of the movie in comparison does feel a little flat in places. In my opinion it falls slightly short of matching the original, although still a highly enjoyable and worthy sequel.
Ali A (82 KP) rated The Extraordinaries in Books
Apr 15, 2020
friendship dynamic (1 more)
teen angst
obviousness (1 more)
stupidity
Feel Good Teen Superheroes
The Extraordinaries is about Nick Bell and his love for his city's Extraordinary, Shadow Star. So much love that he writes he's an online popular fanfiction writer for the Shadow Star fandom. After events occur Nick decides he must change himself into an Extraordinary with the help of his best friends Gibby, Jazz, and his friend who looks super cute in bowties and ascots, Seth.
This is the first book of TJ Klune that I read, and if I remember correctly, this is his first YA release - he did a good job! The Extraordinaries has a little bit of everything. LGBTQ characters, including a badass lesbian couple, we have superheroes, ADHD representation, and well rounded, unique characters.
I loved the friend dynamic of Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz. They're all there to support each other no matter the topic. Which is great, because some of the things that Nick did in the book annoyed me so much. Here his friends are doing everything they can to support him and he'd be very self-centered about it... even doing something that, in all honesty, I don't see anyone doing older than ten, much less sixteen, because of how stupid it was. He remained frustratingly oblivious on a lot of things and it goes from being realistic to just plain stupidity.
The reveal is hinted nearly all the way through the book and I guessed it for the most part, which is what I think Klune was trying to do. There are quite a few twists that I wasn't expecting so that made the novel exciting.
Overall, it was a good YA debut novel. I've already got the sequel on my lists to look out for.
*Thank you BookishFirst and Tor Teen for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
This is the first book of TJ Klune that I read, and if I remember correctly, this is his first YA release - he did a good job! The Extraordinaries has a little bit of everything. LGBTQ characters, including a badass lesbian couple, we have superheroes, ADHD representation, and well rounded, unique characters.
I loved the friend dynamic of Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz. They're all there to support each other no matter the topic. Which is great, because some of the things that Nick did in the book annoyed me so much. Here his friends are doing everything they can to support him and he'd be very self-centered about it... even doing something that, in all honesty, I don't see anyone doing older than ten, much less sixteen, because of how stupid it was. He remained frustratingly oblivious on a lot of things and it goes from being realistic to just plain stupidity.
The reveal is hinted nearly all the way through the book and I guessed it for the most part, which is what I think Klune was trying to do. There are quite a few twists that I wasn't expecting so that made the novel exciting.
Overall, it was a good YA debut novel. I've already got the sequel on my lists to look out for.
*Thank you BookishFirst and Tor Teen for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
Evie (10 KP) rated South Park: The Fractured But Whole in Video Games
Nov 30, 2017
Gameplay (3 more)
Animation
Controls
Storyline
Want to control a South Park episode? Well here's your second chance.
I've come away from video games in recent years, but there are always exceptions to my hiatus. The first one being South Park: The Stick of Truth. A game hyped for many years, but actually managed to maintain the hype at its release. The Fractured But Whole is no different.
Filled with the wit and wisdom usually found in a South Park episode, Ubisoft has been able to manufacture a near perfect game. That is, only if you enjoy South Park. If you aren't a fan, or don't follow the latest series storylines (which link in with the game (notably Tweak and Craig)), then you're probably not going to appreciate this game as much as a fan would.
Here's a checklist of what to expect and appreciate:
*Superheroes
*Fart jokes
*Tragic backstories
*Turn based attacks
*South Park humour.
Filled with the wit and wisdom usually found in a South Park episode, Ubisoft has been able to manufacture a near perfect game. That is, only if you enjoy South Park. If you aren't a fan, or don't follow the latest series storylines (which link in with the game (notably Tweak and Craig)), then you're probably not going to appreciate this game as much as a fan would.
Here's a checklist of what to expect and appreciate:
*Superheroes
*Fart jokes
*Tragic backstories
*Turn based attacks
*South Park humour.
Sheridan (209 KP) rated Captain America: Civil War (2016) in Movies
Jul 12, 2017
This: "Are you Tony Stank?" (2 more)
And This: "Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?" "Jesus, Tony, how old is this guy?" "I don't know, I didn't carbon date him. He's on the young side."
And This: "Oh, you're going to have to take this to the shop." "Who's speaking?" "It's your conscience. We don't talk a lot these days."
No Hulk :( (1 more)
No Thor :(
A Marvel Classic
What's not to love about a war between superheroes? Probably the clean up... It was an excellent film, with the introduction of the new gen Spiderman and everyone's favourite emo kid, Bucky (who has the prettiest eyes you could ever imagine). This Marvel fan thoroughly enjoyed it, though if I had to fault it (which we won't talk about, because it's Marvel lol) the plot was a little weak, could have been fleshed out a little more, but that being said, I will definitely watch it again :)
murphydave (35 KP) rated Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero in Books
Jul 7, 2017
Great history of the comic book superhero (1 more)
Interesting insights and analysis
Magical self autobiographical history of the superhero.
If you're a fan of Grant Morrison'writing or just interested in the history of superheroes then this is a fascinating read. Be warned it gets into some pretty weird territory in terms of the autobiographical side of things, delving into the world of psychedelic chaos magic - take it with a pinch of salt if you will, or dismiss it as the writings of a deranged mad man, but you can't dismiss Morrison's influence on the comic book scene (he's definitely one of the triumvirate of superstars, along side Alan Moore and Neil Gaimen, whose work deserves much more credit than he gets in the mainstream imo) - it's really interesting to know the headspace he was in when coming up with a lot of his ground breaking ideas. Interesting for anyone interested in the creative process.
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Unbreakable (2000) in Movies
Jul 27, 2018
Better than I remembered
I havent seen this since it first came out and I remember then not being very impressed, especially when comparing it to The Sixth Sense. It also didn't help that I didn't know much about comics and superheroes back then.
Watching this again, I have realised it is a good film. It has a great concept and an intriguing plot, although is a bit of a slow burner. The big reveal at the end is entirely unexpected (the first time round anyway) and Samuel l Jackson does a great job. It's never going to be as good as The Sixth Sense and it's a completely different type of film. I'd also say that Split is better, but the plot of this is very different to Unbreakable so it's difficult to compare in detail. Unbreakable isn't perfect but it's much better than I remembered.
It has really made me look forward to Glass even more too.
Watching this again, I have realised it is a good film. It has a great concept and an intriguing plot, although is a bit of a slow burner. The big reveal at the end is entirely unexpected (the first time round anyway) and Samuel l Jackson does a great job. It's never going to be as good as The Sixth Sense and it's a completely different type of film. I'd also say that Split is better, but the plot of this is very different to Unbreakable so it's difficult to compare in detail. Unbreakable isn't perfect but it's much better than I remembered.
It has really made me look forward to Glass even more too.
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