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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Let Him Go (2020) in Movies
Dec 23, 2020
Feud for Thought
After a family tragedy for the Blackledge family, grandparents George (Kevin Costner) and Margaret (Diane Lane) are left to bring up baby Jimmy (Bram and Otto Hornung) with mother/daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter). But a few years later, Lorna marries bad-un Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain) and disappears back to Donnie's hillbilly extended family in the wilds of North Dakota, led by the fearsome Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). Fearing for the child's wellbeing, Margaret drags retired Sheriff George on a dangerous journey to rescue the child.
There are strong similarities in this story with a sub-plot of the excellent "Ozark", where the psychopathic Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) is intent on having a child to grow up with on her remote ranch. The sense of tension there is recreated here, exacerbated by the movie's extremely slow (read "glacial") pace in its early stages. It's the same sort of rising dread that I felt with "Nocturnal Animals". This reaches its peak at a tense standoff over lamb chops at the Weboy ranch, but we are probably half-way into the film by then.
The slow pace however is broken by a couple of extremely violent scenes that earn the movie its UK-15 certificate. One (no spoilers here!) harks back to another Kevin Costner blockbuster where he was a bit luckier! And the finale turns a slightly sleepy tale of "two old folks" into an 'all guns blazing' action western that's highly unexpected. Although you could argue that this is tonally extremely uneven, it works and makes the movie a lot more memorable than it otherwise would be.
The standout leading performance here is the one from Diane Lane as the mentally tortured Granny pursuing her convictions across the country. Here writer/director Thomas Bezucha gives the character full rein. It's a memorable 'strong female' part, that would have been dominated by the male lead in the writing of films a few years back. Lane delivers a dramatic and rock-solid performance that has Oscar nomination written all over it.
I'm also a big fan of Kevin Costner, not just because he's a solid and reliable actor over many years. I always remember him gamely appearing as "The Postman"/'propeller-guy' in Billy Crystal's hilarious montage opening for the 70th Academy Awards. Anyhow, here he has his meatiest dramatic role in many years, and delivers fully on it. Top job, although I suspect this may not be his year for his elusive Best Actor award.
Finally, rounding out the Oscar hopefuls is the brilliant Lesley Manville as Blanche Weboy. It's a dream of a role for the Brighton-born star, nominated of course for the Best Supporting Actress two years ago for "Phantom Thread". And she is genuinely chilling here, firing on all cylinders like some sort of deranged Bette Davis on speed. She's used sparingly in the movie, but that makes her scenes all the more memorable. Another nomination perhaps? I'd predict so, yes.
I found this to be an uncomfortable watch, since I found myself in a moral quandary with the storyline. It's clear that Margaret is genuinely concerned for the safety of Jimmy (and less so, Lorna). Yet, what she is ultimately prepared to do is consider child abduction, when the law if probably on the side of the other party. Sure, the lifestyle and attitudes of the Weboys are alien to this more traditional "Granny". But although Blanche rules with a Victorian-level of grit, isn't she - at least before any of her more vicious tendencies emerge - entitled to do that? The film firmly roots itself behind the Blackledge's as "the good guys", but the script cleverly has you questioning that at various points,
Two technical categories in "Let Him Go" are also worthy of note. The cinematography is by Guy Godfree, and the sweeping vistas of Montana and North Dakota (actually Alberta in Canada!) are gloriously delivered. And the music by Michael Giacchino - one of my favourite composers - is cello-heavy and fitting for the sombre storyline. I always assess the quality of a score by whether I annoy the cinema cleaners by sitting until the last of the end credits have rolled, and this is one I did that to.
As the last movie I see before Christmas, "Let Him Go" is not exactly a feelgood festive offering. It's a well-crafted and thoughtful story, but not one to make you feel good inside, for the reasons outlined above. If you are a movie-lover though, then it's an interesting watch, if only for the fine acting performances on offer.
(For the full graphical review, please check out the "Bob the Movie Man" review on the web here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/12/23/let-him-go-is-not-a-joyous-affair-but-delivers-oscar-worthy-performances/. Thanks.)
There are strong similarities in this story with a sub-plot of the excellent "Ozark", where the psychopathic Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) is intent on having a child to grow up with on her remote ranch. The sense of tension there is recreated here, exacerbated by the movie's extremely slow (read "glacial") pace in its early stages. It's the same sort of rising dread that I felt with "Nocturnal Animals". This reaches its peak at a tense standoff over lamb chops at the Weboy ranch, but we are probably half-way into the film by then.
The slow pace however is broken by a couple of extremely violent scenes that earn the movie its UK-15 certificate. One (no spoilers here!) harks back to another Kevin Costner blockbuster where he was a bit luckier! And the finale turns a slightly sleepy tale of "two old folks" into an 'all guns blazing' action western that's highly unexpected. Although you could argue that this is tonally extremely uneven, it works and makes the movie a lot more memorable than it otherwise would be.
The standout leading performance here is the one from Diane Lane as the mentally tortured Granny pursuing her convictions across the country. Here writer/director Thomas Bezucha gives the character full rein. It's a memorable 'strong female' part, that would have been dominated by the male lead in the writing of films a few years back. Lane delivers a dramatic and rock-solid performance that has Oscar nomination written all over it.
I'm also a big fan of Kevin Costner, not just because he's a solid and reliable actor over many years. I always remember him gamely appearing as "The Postman"/'propeller-guy' in Billy Crystal's hilarious montage opening for the 70th Academy Awards. Anyhow, here he has his meatiest dramatic role in many years, and delivers fully on it. Top job, although I suspect this may not be his year for his elusive Best Actor award.
Finally, rounding out the Oscar hopefuls is the brilliant Lesley Manville as Blanche Weboy. It's a dream of a role for the Brighton-born star, nominated of course for the Best Supporting Actress two years ago for "Phantom Thread". And she is genuinely chilling here, firing on all cylinders like some sort of deranged Bette Davis on speed. She's used sparingly in the movie, but that makes her scenes all the more memorable. Another nomination perhaps? I'd predict so, yes.
I found this to be an uncomfortable watch, since I found myself in a moral quandary with the storyline. It's clear that Margaret is genuinely concerned for the safety of Jimmy (and less so, Lorna). Yet, what she is ultimately prepared to do is consider child abduction, when the law if probably on the side of the other party. Sure, the lifestyle and attitudes of the Weboys are alien to this more traditional "Granny". But although Blanche rules with a Victorian-level of grit, isn't she - at least before any of her more vicious tendencies emerge - entitled to do that? The film firmly roots itself behind the Blackledge's as "the good guys", but the script cleverly has you questioning that at various points,
Two technical categories in "Let Him Go" are also worthy of note. The cinematography is by Guy Godfree, and the sweeping vistas of Montana and North Dakota (actually Alberta in Canada!) are gloriously delivered. And the music by Michael Giacchino - one of my favourite composers - is cello-heavy and fitting for the sombre storyline. I always assess the quality of a score by whether I annoy the cinema cleaners by sitting until the last of the end credits have rolled, and this is one I did that to.
As the last movie I see before Christmas, "Let Him Go" is not exactly a feelgood festive offering. It's a well-crafted and thoughtful story, but not one to make you feel good inside, for the reasons outlined above. If you are a movie-lover though, then it's an interesting watch, if only for the fine acting performances on offer.
(For the full graphical review, please check out the "Bob the Movie Man" review on the web here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/12/23/let-him-go-is-not-a-joyous-affair-but-delivers-oscar-worthy-performances/. Thanks.)
5 Minute Movie Guy (379 KP) rated The Kitchen (2019) in Movies
Aug 24, 2019
Married into a life with the mob, three women living in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City in the late ‘70s find themselves trapped in their husband’s shadows in Andrea Berloff’s debut film, The Kitchen. Based on a 2014 DC Comics graphic novel by the same name, the film focuses on these three female friends facing the aftermath of their husband’s botched crime and subsequent imprisonment. Their Italian crime family promised to take care of them while their spouses are locked away, but their measly support simply isn’t enough when they’ve got mouths to feed and bills to pay. Tired of being weak and dependent, the ladies band together to take control of their situation by trying to take over the mob.
The Kitchen stars actresses Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the female trio who work to rise to the top of their crime family by carrying the dead weight of the lazy men who lead it. McCarthy plays Kathy Brennan, a housewife and mother of two, whose seemingly good-natured husband is clearly involved in the wrong crowd. In spite of that, she appears to have a pleasant life at home, but her heavy reliance on her husband puts her in peril once he’s locked away. On the other hand, Haddish and Moss play Ruby and Claire, who are both victimized and disrespected by their husbands, with Claire even being regularly abused. These characteristics help to define the women and their actions as they attempt to upend the male-dominated establishment.
However, despite The Kitchen’s strong set-up, the characters themselves don’t show much depth beyond this, and the film’s performances leave a lot to be desired. McCarthy felt like she was acting in an entirely different movie. I’ve never seen a more passive and unconvincing crime boss. She’s struggling with a balancing act that sees her going between being tough, funny, ruthless, submissive, and sweet. By comparison to the rest of the movie, her whole character feels off-key. Then there’s Haddish who gives the worst acting performance I’ve seen in quite some time. I’m not really a fan of her brand of humor, but I didn’t like her dramatic turn here either. She just delivers snarky lines with attitude and death glares before walking off-camera in practically every shot she’s in. It’s almost funny how cheesy and over-the-top it is. You can’t just go mean-mugging your way through a whole major motion picture and expect to be taken seriously.
On a more positive note, Moss was much more impressive as Claire, who is fed up with being beaten down and bullied, and is determined to learn how to defend herself. She partners up with Domhnall Gleeson’s hitman character Gabriel who teaches her how to kill. Their relationship ends up being perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole movie, and it has something of a Bonnie and Clyde quality to it. I only wish we could have seen it fleshed out a bit more.
For all of its potential, especially in terms of portraying female empowerment, The Kitchen regrettably winds up being a generic, inconsistent, and lethargic affair. I personally love the premise of the film. It’s a bad ass statement to any man who has ever said that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. It sticks up a middle finger to sexism by taking the action to the criminal streets of Hell’s Kitchen where the women rise to power. Unfortunately, despite the kick-ass feminist concept, I found that the film’s attempt at empowerment never really manifests into anything meaningful.
Instead, The Kitchen feels messy and uninspired. There isn’t a single scene in the entire film that I would consider to be good. The story is thin, the suspense is absent, the setting is bland, the tone is confusing, and the characters are mostly uninspired. I hate to even say it, but while watching it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of last year’s train-wreck of a film, Gotti, starring John Travolta. I think both of these films had a lot of promise, but seriously failed to deliver. As someone who loves a good gangster movie, I feel really disappointed.
There’s ultimately very little I liked about The Kitchen. The movie lacks a pulse, and the stakes never feel significant, not even as the body count piles up. The set design shows no strong sense of place or time period. Most of the settings outside seemed to be looking at nondescript sidewalks that could have been filmed anywhere. With the setting of Hell’s Kitchen, I can’t help but immediately think of The Godfather. Similarly, the use of The Rolling Stones in the trailer evokes thoughts of Scorsese and Goodfellas. Unfortunately, this movie clearly doesn’t even come close to comparing to either of those classics. This movie’s plot is weak, the betrayals are obvious, and the ending is uncomfortably idiotic. Despite it all, however, I find myself still interested in The Kitchen’s graphic novel at least, because I can’t imagine it being this bad.
The Kitchen stars actresses Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the female trio who work to rise to the top of their crime family by carrying the dead weight of the lazy men who lead it. McCarthy plays Kathy Brennan, a housewife and mother of two, whose seemingly good-natured husband is clearly involved in the wrong crowd. In spite of that, she appears to have a pleasant life at home, but her heavy reliance on her husband puts her in peril once he’s locked away. On the other hand, Haddish and Moss play Ruby and Claire, who are both victimized and disrespected by their husbands, with Claire even being regularly abused. These characteristics help to define the women and their actions as they attempt to upend the male-dominated establishment.
However, despite The Kitchen’s strong set-up, the characters themselves don’t show much depth beyond this, and the film’s performances leave a lot to be desired. McCarthy felt like she was acting in an entirely different movie. I’ve never seen a more passive and unconvincing crime boss. She’s struggling with a balancing act that sees her going between being tough, funny, ruthless, submissive, and sweet. By comparison to the rest of the movie, her whole character feels off-key. Then there’s Haddish who gives the worst acting performance I’ve seen in quite some time. I’m not really a fan of her brand of humor, but I didn’t like her dramatic turn here either. She just delivers snarky lines with attitude and death glares before walking off-camera in practically every shot she’s in. It’s almost funny how cheesy and over-the-top it is. You can’t just go mean-mugging your way through a whole major motion picture and expect to be taken seriously.
On a more positive note, Moss was much more impressive as Claire, who is fed up with being beaten down and bullied, and is determined to learn how to defend herself. She partners up with Domhnall Gleeson’s hitman character Gabriel who teaches her how to kill. Their relationship ends up being perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole movie, and it has something of a Bonnie and Clyde quality to it. I only wish we could have seen it fleshed out a bit more.
For all of its potential, especially in terms of portraying female empowerment, The Kitchen regrettably winds up being a generic, inconsistent, and lethargic affair. I personally love the premise of the film. It’s a bad ass statement to any man who has ever said that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. It sticks up a middle finger to sexism by taking the action to the criminal streets of Hell’s Kitchen where the women rise to power. Unfortunately, despite the kick-ass feminist concept, I found that the film’s attempt at empowerment never really manifests into anything meaningful.
Instead, The Kitchen feels messy and uninspired. There isn’t a single scene in the entire film that I would consider to be good. The story is thin, the suspense is absent, the setting is bland, the tone is confusing, and the characters are mostly uninspired. I hate to even say it, but while watching it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of last year’s train-wreck of a film, Gotti, starring John Travolta. I think both of these films had a lot of promise, but seriously failed to deliver. As someone who loves a good gangster movie, I feel really disappointed.
There’s ultimately very little I liked about The Kitchen. The movie lacks a pulse, and the stakes never feel significant, not even as the body count piles up. The set design shows no strong sense of place or time period. Most of the settings outside seemed to be looking at nondescript sidewalks that could have been filmed anywhere. With the setting of Hell’s Kitchen, I can’t help but immediately think of The Godfather. Similarly, the use of The Rolling Stones in the trailer evokes thoughts of Scorsese and Goodfellas. Unfortunately, this movie clearly doesn’t even come close to comparing to either of those classics. This movie’s plot is weak, the betrayals are obvious, and the ending is uncomfortably idiotic. Despite it all, however, I find myself still interested in The Kitchen’s graphic novel at least, because I can’t imagine it being this bad.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Assistant (2020) in Movies
May 24, 2020
Julia Garner's performance (1 more)
The tension that manages to be created through a portrayal of the mundane
The movie seems to have a lot of haters on IMDB (a rating at the time of writing of 5.9)... but I refuse to follow "the pack" on this one... I thought it was great. It manages to make the mundane incredibly tense. This is this first (semi-)fictional feature from documentary-maker Kitty Green.... and in my book she does a knock-out job.
We first meet Jane (Julia Garner) at 'God-knows-what-o-clock' in the morning as she arrives at her workplace - a New York film-production company. First to arrive every morning, she turns on the lights, turns on the screens, makes the pot of coffee and cleans off stains from her boss's couch. The stain isn't coffee. A lost gold bracelet is recovered.
For we are in a truly toxic working environment here. 'The boss' - clearly modelled on Harvey Weinstein - is a bullying tyrant who can reduce Jane and her two male assistants (Jon Orsini and Noah Robbins) to quivering wrecks. "WHAT THE F*** DID YOU SAY TO HER" barks the boss down the phone at Jane, after she has had a perfectly reasonable phone conversation with the estranged Mrs Boss.
The toxicity is pervasive though throughout Miram..., sorry...., 'the company'. Jane is almost invisible to her other co-workers who don't give her eye-contact even when she's talking to them and barely register her presence when sharing a lift.
But bullying and workplace toxicity is just part of this story. A steady stream of starlets arrive in the office, like meat deliveries to a butcher. In a chilling sequence, the photocopier churns out photos of beautiful actresses.... a paper-based equivalent of swiping-left or -right in the selection process. None of the "if you... I will" discussions are shown, but they don't need to be: the inference is clear.
Jane is smart, slim and pretty... but not in an obvious 'Hollywood way'. "You'll be OK..." says a co-worker "you're not his type".
But someone who distinctly is "his type" is Sienna (Kristine Froseth), a "very very young" aspiring waitress-come-actress from Boise, who suddenly and unexpectedly arrives as a "new assistant"... to be promptly put up in a swanky hotel room. It's time to act... and Jane approaches the company HR manager (Matthew Macfadyen)....
An old Spielberg trick is to increase tension by keeping the "monster" hidden from view: cue the tanker driver from "Duel" and (for most of the film) the shark from "Jaws". Here, the boss is felt only as a malevolent force and never seen on screen. It's an approach that works brilliantly, focusing the emotion on the effect he has on those flamed.
There is also recognition that these powerful people are also hugely intelligent and manipulative. Seeing that Jane is a valuable asset, the public berating is sometimes followed up with a private email apology.... dripping a few words of encouragement and praise like a few drops of Methadone to a drug-addict.
This is an excellent movie and thoughtfully and elegantly directed. Following a normal day in Jane's work life.... albeit a day where perhaps the penny finally drops... is immersive and engaging. And at only 88 minutes long, the movie never outstays its welcome.
The performances are first rate. Julia Garner is magnificent, and in a year where the Oscars will be "interesting", here's a good candidate for Best Actress I would suggest if not Best Picture. Garner's an actress I'm unfamiliar with: the only one of her previous flicks I've seen was Sin City 2.
Also oily and impressive is Matthew Macfadyen as the HR manager. There's also a sparse but well-used score by Tamar-kali.
The one area I found poor was in the sound design. It's clearly filmed in an office environment, rather than on a sound stage, and unfortunately the combination of the acoustics and the New York accents makes some of the dialogue really difficult to hear. An example is a discussion between two co-workers in an office kitchen, which was completely indecipherable for me.
Should I watch this? In my view, definitely, yes. It's chilling and an insight into the terrible ordeal that many professional women in the film industry, and other industries, have had to put up with before the "Me Too" lid was blown off (and many probably still do). The most telling line in the film? At the end of the "Thanks" in the end-titles: "All those who shared their experiences".
(See the full graphical review at One Mann's Movies here https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/05/24/one-manns-movies-film-review-the-assistant-2020/ . Thanks).
We first meet Jane (Julia Garner) at 'God-knows-what-o-clock' in the morning as she arrives at her workplace - a New York film-production company. First to arrive every morning, she turns on the lights, turns on the screens, makes the pot of coffee and cleans off stains from her boss's couch. The stain isn't coffee. A lost gold bracelet is recovered.
For we are in a truly toxic working environment here. 'The boss' - clearly modelled on Harvey Weinstein - is a bullying tyrant who can reduce Jane and her two male assistants (Jon Orsini and Noah Robbins) to quivering wrecks. "WHAT THE F*** DID YOU SAY TO HER" barks the boss down the phone at Jane, after she has had a perfectly reasonable phone conversation with the estranged Mrs Boss.
The toxicity is pervasive though throughout Miram..., sorry...., 'the company'. Jane is almost invisible to her other co-workers who don't give her eye-contact even when she's talking to them and barely register her presence when sharing a lift.
But bullying and workplace toxicity is just part of this story. A steady stream of starlets arrive in the office, like meat deliveries to a butcher. In a chilling sequence, the photocopier churns out photos of beautiful actresses.... a paper-based equivalent of swiping-left or -right in the selection process. None of the "if you... I will" discussions are shown, but they don't need to be: the inference is clear.
Jane is smart, slim and pretty... but not in an obvious 'Hollywood way'. "You'll be OK..." says a co-worker "you're not his type".
But someone who distinctly is "his type" is Sienna (Kristine Froseth), a "very very young" aspiring waitress-come-actress from Boise, who suddenly and unexpectedly arrives as a "new assistant"... to be promptly put up in a swanky hotel room. It's time to act... and Jane approaches the company HR manager (Matthew Macfadyen)....
An old Spielberg trick is to increase tension by keeping the "monster" hidden from view: cue the tanker driver from "Duel" and (for most of the film) the shark from "Jaws". Here, the boss is felt only as a malevolent force and never seen on screen. It's an approach that works brilliantly, focusing the emotion on the effect he has on those flamed.
There is also recognition that these powerful people are also hugely intelligent and manipulative. Seeing that Jane is a valuable asset, the public berating is sometimes followed up with a private email apology.... dripping a few words of encouragement and praise like a few drops of Methadone to a drug-addict.
This is an excellent movie and thoughtfully and elegantly directed. Following a normal day in Jane's work life.... albeit a day where perhaps the penny finally drops... is immersive and engaging. And at only 88 minutes long, the movie never outstays its welcome.
The performances are first rate. Julia Garner is magnificent, and in a year where the Oscars will be "interesting", here's a good candidate for Best Actress I would suggest if not Best Picture. Garner's an actress I'm unfamiliar with: the only one of her previous flicks I've seen was Sin City 2.
Also oily and impressive is Matthew Macfadyen as the HR manager. There's also a sparse but well-used score by Tamar-kali.
The one area I found poor was in the sound design. It's clearly filmed in an office environment, rather than on a sound stage, and unfortunately the combination of the acoustics and the New York accents makes some of the dialogue really difficult to hear. An example is a discussion between two co-workers in an office kitchen, which was completely indecipherable for me.
Should I watch this? In my view, definitely, yes. It's chilling and an insight into the terrible ordeal that many professional women in the film industry, and other industries, have had to put up with before the "Me Too" lid was blown off (and many probably still do). The most telling line in the film? At the end of the "Thanks" in the end-titles: "All those who shared their experiences".
(See the full graphical review at One Mann's Movies here https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/05/24/one-manns-movies-film-review-the-assistant-2020/ . Thanks).
Hadley (567 KP) rated American Gods in Books
Jun 5, 2020
Mad Sweeney (1 more)
Gaiman's writing and descriptions
No character development (2 more)
Dehumanizes women
The ending
The gods of the old world still exist in Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel "American Gods."
A science fiction/ fantasy story set in today's America, American Gods tries to answer the question of what happens when people stop believing in the past gods, and start worshiping new ones?
Shadow is our main character, who we meet while he's attempting to get released from prison after three years of incarceration - - - afterall, he has a job, wife and life waiting for him on the outside. And even though he's built up a strong exterior while in prison, everything comes crashing down after he receives news that his wife and best friend have died in a car accident.
Cue Wednesday, an old, odd man who gives Shadow a job after his release from prison - - - with strings attached: Shadow can't ask any questions, he must protect his employer at all costs, and if people need to be hurt, he must hurt them. Although Wednesday doesn't tell him exactly what is going on, Shadow agrees to his duties and begins a road trip with the eccentric old man, meeting an array of colorful characters along the way. But soon, Shadow begins to realize that his employer may be a mythical god in disguise, yet, oddly Shadow never really questions it or anything in the entire book for that matter.
The novel takes an odd turn early on when Shadow's dead wife, Laura, comes back to life in a zombified way. While Shadow is staying in a cheap hotel room, and Wednesday sharing a room with a young hotel employee in another, Shadow sees his wife in the clothing she was buried in, but he doesn't flinch - - - he carries a very calm conversation with dead Laura, he even goes down to the lobby to buy her a pack of cigarettes, and the next morning, he still doesn't seem bothered by it when he sees her muddy footprints on the floor. Wednesday tries to convince Shadow it was a dream, but makes snarky remarks that tells Shadow that even he knows it wasn't a dream. The two simply move on on their road trip, no questions asked.
But during this road trip, Shadow's suspicions are confirmed. He gets to see not only Wednesday, but two others in their true god-form, and afterwards, Wednesday confirms that he is indeed the Norse god, Odin.
Gaiman's take on mythological gods living in today's society is interesting, but disappointing. From recognizable gods to the forgotten ones, readers with a liking to history would probably enjoy this story most.
American Gods centers on the question of what happens to gods when they are no longer worshipped, and Gaiman merely focuses on male gods, while making all female characters (gods and humans) either prostitutes and/or sexual objects which is really off-putting for me as a female reader. And Gaiman's character development in the novel for gods and humans is nowhere to be seen thus lending very little plot development that is actually believable or enjoyable. I was unable to bring myself to care about our main character, Shadow, nor the plight with his zombie wife.And speaking of Laura, the disappointing character traits makes her not just unlikable, but also an unnecessary character overall.
I just can't recommend this book: the novel is good for the first 100 pages, but you could easily skip the next 450 pages that is just filler, and not miss much of the story. Gaiman also dehumanizes women, introduces characters in a way that would make them seem an important part of the story to only drop them out of it as quickly as they came in, and the ending is just a huge disappointment. All in all, Gaiman had a great idea, but the execution he used was poorly done - - - some parts even seem like Gaiman wrote them in a completely different state of mind, contradicting story lines and character traits altogether.
I did, however, have three favorite characters that weren't utilized enough for me to rate the story higher than I have: Mad Sweeney, Ibis and Jacquel. Mad Sweeney is a giant leprechaun that can pull gold coins out of the air; Ibis and Jacquel are Anubis and Jackel from Egyptian mythology, who run a funeral home in Cairo, Illinois today.
American Gods takes place only over a few months, which is surprising with how long the novel is. But the story is a buildup with no climax. Most characters come and go before readers can even decide if they like them or not,and that paired up with severe lack of character development leaves most of the main characters pretty forgettable. With this special edition containing 1200 more words, the story is still not worth it in the end. Gaiman is still a great writer, but this is not the book to recommend to anyone who wants to begin reading his work.
A science fiction/ fantasy story set in today's America, American Gods tries to answer the question of what happens when people stop believing in the past gods, and start worshiping new ones?
Shadow is our main character, who we meet while he's attempting to get released from prison after three years of incarceration - - - afterall, he has a job, wife and life waiting for him on the outside. And even though he's built up a strong exterior while in prison, everything comes crashing down after he receives news that his wife and best friend have died in a car accident.
Cue Wednesday, an old, odd man who gives Shadow a job after his release from prison - - - with strings attached: Shadow can't ask any questions, he must protect his employer at all costs, and if people need to be hurt, he must hurt them. Although Wednesday doesn't tell him exactly what is going on, Shadow agrees to his duties and begins a road trip with the eccentric old man, meeting an array of colorful characters along the way. But soon, Shadow begins to realize that his employer may be a mythical god in disguise, yet, oddly Shadow never really questions it or anything in the entire book for that matter.
The novel takes an odd turn early on when Shadow's dead wife, Laura, comes back to life in a zombified way. While Shadow is staying in a cheap hotel room, and Wednesday sharing a room with a young hotel employee in another, Shadow sees his wife in the clothing she was buried in, but he doesn't flinch - - - he carries a very calm conversation with dead Laura, he even goes down to the lobby to buy her a pack of cigarettes, and the next morning, he still doesn't seem bothered by it when he sees her muddy footprints on the floor. Wednesday tries to convince Shadow it was a dream, but makes snarky remarks that tells Shadow that even he knows it wasn't a dream. The two simply move on on their road trip, no questions asked.
But during this road trip, Shadow's suspicions are confirmed. He gets to see not only Wednesday, but two others in their true god-form, and afterwards, Wednesday confirms that he is indeed the Norse god, Odin.
Gaiman's take on mythological gods living in today's society is interesting, but disappointing. From recognizable gods to the forgotten ones, readers with a liking to history would probably enjoy this story most.
American Gods centers on the question of what happens to gods when they are no longer worshipped, and Gaiman merely focuses on male gods, while making all female characters (gods and humans) either prostitutes and/or sexual objects which is really off-putting for me as a female reader. And Gaiman's character development in the novel for gods and humans is nowhere to be seen thus lending very little plot development that is actually believable or enjoyable. I was unable to bring myself to care about our main character, Shadow, nor the plight with his zombie wife.And speaking of Laura, the disappointing character traits makes her not just unlikable, but also an unnecessary character overall.
I just can't recommend this book: the novel is good for the first 100 pages, but you could easily skip the next 450 pages that is just filler, and not miss much of the story. Gaiman also dehumanizes women, introduces characters in a way that would make them seem an important part of the story to only drop them out of it as quickly as they came in, and the ending is just a huge disappointment. All in all, Gaiman had a great idea, but the execution he used was poorly done - - - some parts even seem like Gaiman wrote them in a completely different state of mind, contradicting story lines and character traits altogether.
I did, however, have three favorite characters that weren't utilized enough for me to rate the story higher than I have: Mad Sweeney, Ibis and Jacquel. Mad Sweeney is a giant leprechaun that can pull gold coins out of the air; Ibis and Jacquel are Anubis and Jackel from Egyptian mythology, who run a funeral home in Cairo, Illinois today.
American Gods takes place only over a few months, which is surprising with how long the novel is. But the story is a buildup with no climax. Most characters come and go before readers can even decide if they like them or not,and that paired up with severe lack of character development leaves most of the main characters pretty forgettable. With this special edition containing 1200 more words, the story is still not worth it in the end. Gaiman is still a great writer, but this is not the book to recommend to anyone who wants to begin reading his work.
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated the PC version of Far Cry 6 in Video Games
Oct 6, 2021
Far Cry 6 Gives Fans More Of What They Want From The Series
The tropical Caribbean island of Yara is the setting for the latest chapter in the popular Far Cry series and Far Cry 6 gives fans even more of what has made the series such as success.
Players can play as either a male or female named Dani who attempts to flee the island and the brutal Dictatorship of Anton Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito); who has ruled with an iron grip and a wave of human rights violations since he was elected to office.
The island has never recovered from a prior revolution which has left most of the country in poverty and given Castillo a platform to impose his rule. Under Castillo, a cancer drug named Viviro has been developed and he sees it as the path to a golden future for the nation.
Taking place in a very large open-world setting; players will have to navigate the island and survive clashes with Castillo’s forces as well as the abundant wildlife of the island.
While the gameplay mechanics of the game will no doubt be familiar to fans of the series; Far Cry 6 attempts to bring even more to the process starting with the locale. Yara is a small island but it offers a diverse ecosystem and players will have a wide array of vehicles from cars to motorcycles, trucks, planes, helicopters, boats, jet skis, and even horses to help cover the vast distances missions require.
As the game unfolds players will be able to use Fast Travel locales to return to bases and safe areas. There is a wide range of music as well for players to enjoy and I found lots of enjoyable tunes to help pass the travel times.
Naturally, the game is all about action and while stealth is at times needed; I am all about mayhem and the game allows you to find a path to success that best suits your style ranging from a story mode where damage and death still happen but not as frequently to more traditional forms of play.
Players can brutally dispatch an enemy with a machete and disable the alarms, or gun in with guns and grenades blazing and let the body count rise.
The island offers various control points and strategic locales for players to clear and capture which makes travel easier as being forced to repair vehicle damage in a gunfight is never ideal.
Customization is a big part of the series and while I did not have to hunt for herbs for health; the ability to upgrade weapons and ammunition; especially the Supremo backpacks was a great addition and came in handy. While I did use this option several times; I usually stayed with weapons that had been working and found my loadout only needed a few changes along the way.
The arsenal available to players is vast as pistols, machine guns, rifles, and explosives are only part of the fun. Players can also gain the help of various animal friends and having a Gator named Guapo along for the mission or an adorable dog in a cart added a nice dimension and really helped lure out enemies in hiding.
While I mentioned the island being vast; the game is also very long as there are numerous missions as well as several side missions that can be given to players along the way. At times it seemed like I was moving forward with a final push only to have a mission asking me to defend performers at a concert, deface a series of billboards, or go drinking with another player.
While some may find this distracting from the overall game narrative; it actually did wonders for expanding upon the characters and their stories. Dani must help recruit various groups into the cause and they all have their own interests and motivations and the characters grow and change over the course of the game events.
Some have complained about the graphics in the trailers leading up to launch, but I found them more than sufficient, and installing the texture pack helped a great deal as well.
After completing the game I found I was not ready to leave Yara behind and thankfully there will be weekly Incursion events and other updates along the way to enjoy as well as DLC in the future. The game does offer a Co-Op mode which is on my list to try and I look forward to taking my salvaged parts and customizing various vehicles and weapons for more carnage in the months to come.
While it does not attempt to change the formula, Far Cry 6 expands and improves on what has made the series such a success and gives fans more of what they want.
Players can play as either a male or female named Dani who attempts to flee the island and the brutal Dictatorship of Anton Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito); who has ruled with an iron grip and a wave of human rights violations since he was elected to office.
The island has never recovered from a prior revolution which has left most of the country in poverty and given Castillo a platform to impose his rule. Under Castillo, a cancer drug named Viviro has been developed and he sees it as the path to a golden future for the nation.
Taking place in a very large open-world setting; players will have to navigate the island and survive clashes with Castillo’s forces as well as the abundant wildlife of the island.
While the gameplay mechanics of the game will no doubt be familiar to fans of the series; Far Cry 6 attempts to bring even more to the process starting with the locale. Yara is a small island but it offers a diverse ecosystem and players will have a wide array of vehicles from cars to motorcycles, trucks, planes, helicopters, boats, jet skis, and even horses to help cover the vast distances missions require.
As the game unfolds players will be able to use Fast Travel locales to return to bases and safe areas. There is a wide range of music as well for players to enjoy and I found lots of enjoyable tunes to help pass the travel times.
Naturally, the game is all about action and while stealth is at times needed; I am all about mayhem and the game allows you to find a path to success that best suits your style ranging from a story mode where damage and death still happen but not as frequently to more traditional forms of play.
Players can brutally dispatch an enemy with a machete and disable the alarms, or gun in with guns and grenades blazing and let the body count rise.
The island offers various control points and strategic locales for players to clear and capture which makes travel easier as being forced to repair vehicle damage in a gunfight is never ideal.
Customization is a big part of the series and while I did not have to hunt for herbs for health; the ability to upgrade weapons and ammunition; especially the Supremo backpacks was a great addition and came in handy. While I did use this option several times; I usually stayed with weapons that had been working and found my loadout only needed a few changes along the way.
The arsenal available to players is vast as pistols, machine guns, rifles, and explosives are only part of the fun. Players can also gain the help of various animal friends and having a Gator named Guapo along for the mission or an adorable dog in a cart added a nice dimension and really helped lure out enemies in hiding.
While I mentioned the island being vast; the game is also very long as there are numerous missions as well as several side missions that can be given to players along the way. At times it seemed like I was moving forward with a final push only to have a mission asking me to defend performers at a concert, deface a series of billboards, or go drinking with another player.
While some may find this distracting from the overall game narrative; it actually did wonders for expanding upon the characters and their stories. Dani must help recruit various groups into the cause and they all have their own interests and motivations and the characters grow and change over the course of the game events.
Some have complained about the graphics in the trailers leading up to launch, but I found them more than sufficient, and installing the texture pack helped a great deal as well.
After completing the game I found I was not ready to leave Yara behind and thankfully there will be weekly Incursion events and other updates along the way to enjoy as well as DLC in the future. The game does offer a Co-Op mode which is on my list to try and I look forward to taking my salvaged parts and customizing various vehicles and weapons for more carnage in the months to come.
While it does not attempt to change the formula, Far Cry 6 expands and improves on what has made the series such a success and gives fans more of what they want.
Once Upon a Time in High School: The Spirit of Jeet Kune Do (2004)
Movie
By "Fist of Fury", Kim Hyun-Soo (Sang-Woo Kwone) addicted to Bruce Lee. Year 1978. Hyun-Soo moved to...
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Ambulance (2022) in Movies
Apr 18, 2022
Repetitive drone camera work (2 more)
Cringey humor and dialogue
An outdated and juvenile screenplay
Ambulance Review: Action At Its Dumbest And Gaudiest
Ambulance is a remake of a 2005 Danish film of the same name. Michael Bay’s version of the film follows former Marine Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as he struggles to find a job and support his family; his wife requires an experimental surgery that their health insurance won’t pay for.
Will turns to his estranged yet wealthy adopted brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal). Danny wants Will to participate in a bank heist worth $32 million. Will takes the job out of desperation, but when the heist goes sideways the two brothers hijack an ambulance and take a wounded cop along with a paramedic named Cam (Elza Gonzalez) as hostages.
The performances from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhall save Ambulance from being nothing more than an explosive, gyrating mess of a film. You don’t necessarily walk out of the theater feeling sympathy for Will, but you understand why the character turns to robbing a bank after serving his country through the heartfelt actions of Abdul-Mateen’s performance.
Jake Gyllenhaal is a memorable psychopath as Danny Sharp. Gyllenhaal has a ton of charisma as the character and can be incredibly likeable at times, but he has a temper that ignites without warning. Gyllenhaal is able to become intense and unhinged whenever Danny loses control of the situation, which is quite often over the course of 136-minutes.
The action thriller is dripping with what has either made you a fan of Michael Bay’s work or made you despise the Los Angeles born filmmaker for the majority of his career. The editing of the film is spastic and frenetic. There doesn’t seem to be a single sequence that lasts longer than eight seconds before cutting to another angle.
There are several references to other Michael Bay films in Ambulance; The Rock, 13 Hours, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor. There’s also stuff you’d expect to find in a Michael Bay film like countless explosions and extravagant car wrecks. The film also seems to recycle the rotating camera Bay utilized in Bad Boys to highlight intense conversations between Will and Danny when they’re not confined to being inside the ambulance.
Despite working with a screenwriter whose first screenwriting credit is this film, Ambulance has writing that feels like it was something Bay produced over a decade ago. The dialogue feels extremely outdated and juvenile as characters walk this thin line between cringey humor and being downright sexist or racist. It feels like Bay was trying to feature a strong, independent woman in Ambulance with Cam. She's a competent single woman who is good at her job and doesn’t have to rely on anyone for anything. But the reveal of why she’s cold and remorseless is entirely cliché. The male characters have no real character development either though as their defining quality is that they all want to fight each other any chance they possibly get.
The Will character is also written in a way that is insulting and kind of offensive. So because he served his country he can get away with robbing a bank, shooting a cop, and participating in and driving the getaway vehicle during a massive car chase? He has a wife and daughter and his wife needs “experimental surgery” for an undisclosed illness and we’re supposed to root for this guy? Are we really this dumb?
It couldn’t be a film set in Los Angeles without someone making a reference to how terrible drivers are in LA. The secondary storylines don’t make sense or are just a complete waste of time. That conversation Danny has with his assistant about futbol/soccer and the lawn flamingos was obviously something extremely relevant to the overall story of the film. A cop also tries to ask out a bank teller while the bank is being robbed and literally doesn’t notice. We also have these other massively relevant and not pointless at all story points; bringing a dog to a car chase, Danny joking about walking around with herpes, and performing surgery in the back of an ambulance while stopping the bleeding with a hair clip.
Revoke Michael Bay’s license to utilize drones in his films. Every outside sequence seemed to have the same establishing shot of the camera flying up into the air turning around and zooming back down towards the ground. The camera in this film never stops moving. That combined with the film’s brutal rapid fire editing style will have you wanting to barf long before Danny calls upon the cartel for back up.
Buried deep within Ambulance’s loud, flashy action, sickening editing, overstimulated filming techniques, and a screenplay that seems like it was fished out of a port-a-potty is a somewhat thrilling action film. Jake Gyllenhaal is a cashmere obsessed lunatic that you can’t help but love, but Ambulance is a gaudy and sloppy excuse of an action film otherwise.
Will turns to his estranged yet wealthy adopted brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal). Danny wants Will to participate in a bank heist worth $32 million. Will takes the job out of desperation, but when the heist goes sideways the two brothers hijack an ambulance and take a wounded cop along with a paramedic named Cam (Elza Gonzalez) as hostages.
The performances from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhall save Ambulance from being nothing more than an explosive, gyrating mess of a film. You don’t necessarily walk out of the theater feeling sympathy for Will, but you understand why the character turns to robbing a bank after serving his country through the heartfelt actions of Abdul-Mateen’s performance.
Jake Gyllenhaal is a memorable psychopath as Danny Sharp. Gyllenhaal has a ton of charisma as the character and can be incredibly likeable at times, but he has a temper that ignites without warning. Gyllenhaal is able to become intense and unhinged whenever Danny loses control of the situation, which is quite often over the course of 136-minutes.
The action thriller is dripping with what has either made you a fan of Michael Bay’s work or made you despise the Los Angeles born filmmaker for the majority of his career. The editing of the film is spastic and frenetic. There doesn’t seem to be a single sequence that lasts longer than eight seconds before cutting to another angle.
There are several references to other Michael Bay films in Ambulance; The Rock, 13 Hours, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor. There’s also stuff you’d expect to find in a Michael Bay film like countless explosions and extravagant car wrecks. The film also seems to recycle the rotating camera Bay utilized in Bad Boys to highlight intense conversations between Will and Danny when they’re not confined to being inside the ambulance.
Despite working with a screenwriter whose first screenwriting credit is this film, Ambulance has writing that feels like it was something Bay produced over a decade ago. The dialogue feels extremely outdated and juvenile as characters walk this thin line between cringey humor and being downright sexist or racist. It feels like Bay was trying to feature a strong, independent woman in Ambulance with Cam. She's a competent single woman who is good at her job and doesn’t have to rely on anyone for anything. But the reveal of why she’s cold and remorseless is entirely cliché. The male characters have no real character development either though as their defining quality is that they all want to fight each other any chance they possibly get.
The Will character is also written in a way that is insulting and kind of offensive. So because he served his country he can get away with robbing a bank, shooting a cop, and participating in and driving the getaway vehicle during a massive car chase? He has a wife and daughter and his wife needs “experimental surgery” for an undisclosed illness and we’re supposed to root for this guy? Are we really this dumb?
It couldn’t be a film set in Los Angeles without someone making a reference to how terrible drivers are in LA. The secondary storylines don’t make sense or are just a complete waste of time. That conversation Danny has with his assistant about futbol/soccer and the lawn flamingos was obviously something extremely relevant to the overall story of the film. A cop also tries to ask out a bank teller while the bank is being robbed and literally doesn’t notice. We also have these other massively relevant and not pointless at all story points; bringing a dog to a car chase, Danny joking about walking around with herpes, and performing surgery in the back of an ambulance while stopping the bleeding with a hair clip.
Revoke Michael Bay’s license to utilize drones in his films. Every outside sequence seemed to have the same establishing shot of the camera flying up into the air turning around and zooming back down towards the ground. The camera in this film never stops moving. That combined with the film’s brutal rapid fire editing style will have you wanting to barf long before Danny calls upon the cartel for back up.
Buried deep within Ambulance’s loud, flashy action, sickening editing, overstimulated filming techniques, and a screenplay that seems like it was fished out of a port-a-potty is a somewhat thrilling action film. Jake Gyllenhaal is a cashmere obsessed lunatic that you can’t help but love, but Ambulance is a gaudy and sloppy excuse of an action film otherwise.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Fallout 4 in Video Games
Jul 20, 2017
More Fallout (1 more)
Crafting system
It's Good To Be Back
To be honest, I thought I would have a lot more to talk about in my review. I was prepared to write a War and Peace style essay on how great Fallout 4 was and yet I find myself struggling to live up to that notion. Not because the game isn’t good, Fallout 4 is exactly what we have been waiting all these years for, but that’s just it. This game is exactly what we were hoping for and nothing more, which is more than fine with me. Playing this game for the first time feels like slipping on an old pair of comfortable slippers, the controls all come back to you immediately, the charm of a Fallout game is immediately present and it feels like you are right back at home. The world is vast, beautiful in parts and grotesque in others and I’m not just talking about the intentional aesthetic ugliness of the game’s world. Streched textures, dated character models, stiff animation loops, clipping, short draw distance and technical glitches are just some of the problems that come with Bethesda using the dated Creation Engine to create their first ‘next gen’ open world game. The best thing graphically in this game is the lighting effects and the more vibrant colour pallet. When the rays of sunshine hit the trees of Sanctuary Hills at the right moment this game can actually look quite beautiful, but that is immediately lost when you turn around and see the eerie face of Mama Murphy. So the presentation could be better, but I feel that’s to be expected from a Bethesda game and that is the problem. This shouldn’t be ‘expected’ from any game in 2015, if CD Projekt Red and Kojima Productions can produce large scale open world games that actually look like they were made this year and not a decade ago, then there is no real reason that Bethesda can’t. However even with all of these flaws and complaints that we really shouldn’t have to continually endure, Fallout 4 is still my GOTY. I mean all Fallout 4 had to do to be my GOTY was to be more of Fallout 3 and that is exactly what it is. The shooting is still clunky but I am a big fan of the VATS system and I’m really glad that they decided to keep the feature and it feels good to get back to being the loot addict that I am. Now, even the junk has a significant use! The crafting system in this game is such an awesome addition, I mean it obviously has its flaws as it isn’t the smoothest crafting system I have ever used, but in a game like fallout it just makes so much sense. I’m not really into the weapon, armour, chemistry or cooking crafting stations, but the ability to build your own settlements is awesome. It genuinely has stopped me from progressing the main quest. No spoilers, but I am at the part where you have to choose a faction to side with in the run up to the end of the game, but I couldn’t care less about any of that, I’m quite happy to just keep building up my settlements. That’s not to say that the quests and characters in this game aren’t interesting, because they are. The companions are all quite interesting, even if there is a strange lack of female options for a companion. The worst companion though, by far, is Dogmeat. He is the worst programmed and therefore the most broken. Constantly blocking corridors and doorways, not fetching items for you when they are within reaching distance and just being a general annoyance, he goes from being cute to irritant in a couple of short hours. The voice acting is also something that varies like crazy. Both the male and female protagonists are voiced excellently, (even if it is a Caucasian man and woman doing the voices, which means if your character is any other ethnicity, they will still sound white,) but the other voices of NPC’s etc are wooden and downright awful in places. The areas in this game are cool, they add to the tone and the immersion, as do the sound effects and score, but there is a level of polish that is absent here and there is no reason for it, it just lets the game down and prevents reviewers from giving that perfect 10 score. People on the internet have gave the dialogue system a lot of hate and while I can see where that is coming from, I personally think it functions fine.
Fallout 4 isn’t going to break any major grounds, it isn’t going to change the gaming landscape on any grand scale and it does feel like an old game and I’m okay with all of that. This is my GOTY because it’s more Fallout and that was all that I needed it to be. Sure it would have been nicer if the game looked a bit prettier and some of the systems were a bit smoother, but to be back in the wasteland, taking part in random battles that break out beside you as you wander through this dead world and looting until you can’t walk properly, it brings the feelings out in me that I haven’t felt since Fallout 3.
Fallout 4 isn’t going to break any major grounds, it isn’t going to change the gaming landscape on any grand scale and it does feel like an old game and I’m okay with all of that. This is my GOTY because it’s more Fallout and that was all that I needed it to be. Sure it would have been nicer if the game looked a bit prettier and some of the systems were a bit smoother, but to be back in the wasteland, taking part in random battles that break out beside you as you wander through this dead world and looting until you can’t walk properly, it brings the feelings out in me that I haven’t felt since Fallout 3.
Jamie (131 KP) rated What To Do With A Duke in Books
Jul 22, 2017
Mild humor (1 more)
Some good discussion about marriage and women
Unstable plot (2 more)
Frustrating characters
Vulgar male lead
A misguided curse
When it comes to historical romance, I look for one of two things: one, a compelling love story with some scenes that make me blush and fan myself; or two, a light and fluffy clean romance, sometimes with a touch of humor. What I demand from all historical romances is for both the romance and the setting to be believable. I’ve started to wonder if my standards are too high. When I went into this book, with the cute cover and hints at a curse, I figured this one might fall on the fluffy side of the spectrum (the cat on the cover may have influenced this assumption). I was sadly mistaken.
The characters seem so non-committal, not just with each other, but with upholding any of the values they claim to have. Catherine was constantly complaining about how she needed peace and solitude to write, but in the first half of the novel whenever she had it she didn’t do it. She blames family for her difficulties with not being able to be the next great novelist, but the problem was really with the fact that she was not all that committed to doing it. Just like she apparently was not all that committed to being a spinster, despite preaching about it constantly. I found Catherine’s character to be frustrating at every turn and had a hard time rooting for her.
Unfortunately, the other half of this love story was hardly any better. Marcus is dreamy for all of a few minutes, until he started talking about his manhood… Which he proceeded to do all the time. Every time the narration would switch to him, inevitably a thought would end with some note about what his cock wants. I suppose Marcus’ raw desire was supposed to be tantalizing, but I honestly just found it vulgar. It didn’t help that everything about Marcus and Catherine’s romance was a lust at first sight sort of scenario. I didn’t feel any real chemistry between them, even by the end when they are apparently in love with each other I still wasn’t feeling it. Literally everything always boiled back down to sex. The rest of the story and dialogue was not even all that funny, clever, or witty, it was just two stubborn people wanting to get in each other’s pants the entire book while being really over dramatic about, well, everything.
Then there is the curse plot line, which I could suspend my belief and go with it for a while, but even that felt like it was poorly thought out. Marcus has to control his desires and avoid marriage because he’s fearful of accidentally impregnating a woman, thus ending his life. Though somehow, he has no problem with brothel women and the risk of impregnating any of them? Because bastard children can’t be heirs? Sure, at that time period they certainly had a harder go of it, but it wasn’t unheard of. And even if that was the case, didn’t the curse start with an illegitimate child born to a woman jilted by her lover? The number of plot holes was staggering and it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it wasn’t the central focus of the story.
I also didn’t buy the mildly magical ending with the cat. No I don’t hate the cat, on the contrary the cat was perhaps the best character in the entire book. It just seemed too convenient, too hastily put together. I was also bothered by the fact that, in order to I guess create some tension, Marcus had absolutely no interest in finding out the truth about the curse. That alone basically undid all of the effort, all of the worry, all of the focus this character had on this family curse that has weighed so heavily on him for his entire life. It made absolutely no sense for his character. I don’t even want to go into how his character contradicts himself again once the mystery is solved. I hated Marcus.
I almost put this book down after the first couple of chapters, but things picked up around the half way mark. After one scene that actually made me chuckle with the eye brow waggling old ladies, I had hope that maybe the story would redeem itself with the added bit of comedy. I was disappointed that things started to go downhill again once the book attempted to flesh out the curse and develop the romance between Catherine and Marcus. Which, while I’m on that subject – I absolutely hated how that turned out. Catherine spends the entire novel preaching about never wanting to get trapped in a marriage and to never have children, then finds herself trapped. It wasn’t romantic, it was just frustrating.
On a slightly random note, I also noticed at one point an expletive is used that I was fairly certain did not exist in the context that it was used during that time period. After looking it up my assumption was correct – while the word had existed in the more vulgar sense that it is commonly used, as a curse or slang word it didn’t come about until the 1920’s. I know it’s being overly nit picky, but things like that really ruin the immersion in the time period for me.
The characters seem so non-committal, not just with each other, but with upholding any of the values they claim to have. Catherine was constantly complaining about how she needed peace and solitude to write, but in the first half of the novel whenever she had it she didn’t do it. She blames family for her difficulties with not being able to be the next great novelist, but the problem was really with the fact that she was not all that committed to doing it. Just like she apparently was not all that committed to being a spinster, despite preaching about it constantly. I found Catherine’s character to be frustrating at every turn and had a hard time rooting for her.
Unfortunately, the other half of this love story was hardly any better. Marcus is dreamy for all of a few minutes, until he started talking about his manhood… Which he proceeded to do all the time. Every time the narration would switch to him, inevitably a thought would end with some note about what his cock wants. I suppose Marcus’ raw desire was supposed to be tantalizing, but I honestly just found it vulgar. It didn’t help that everything about Marcus and Catherine’s romance was a lust at first sight sort of scenario. I didn’t feel any real chemistry between them, even by the end when they are apparently in love with each other I still wasn’t feeling it. Literally everything always boiled back down to sex. The rest of the story and dialogue was not even all that funny, clever, or witty, it was just two stubborn people wanting to get in each other’s pants the entire book while being really over dramatic about, well, everything.
Then there is the curse plot line, which I could suspend my belief and go with it for a while, but even that felt like it was poorly thought out. Marcus has to control his desires and avoid marriage because he’s fearful of accidentally impregnating a woman, thus ending his life. Though somehow, he has no problem with brothel women and the risk of impregnating any of them? Because bastard children can’t be heirs? Sure, at that time period they certainly had a harder go of it, but it wasn’t unheard of. And even if that was the case, didn’t the curse start with an illegitimate child born to a woman jilted by her lover? The number of plot holes was staggering and it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it wasn’t the central focus of the story.
I also didn’t buy the mildly magical ending with the cat. No I don’t hate the cat, on the contrary the cat was perhaps the best character in the entire book. It just seemed too convenient, too hastily put together. I was also bothered by the fact that, in order to I guess create some tension, Marcus had absolutely no interest in finding out the truth about the curse. That alone basically undid all of the effort, all of the worry, all of the focus this character had on this family curse that has weighed so heavily on him for his entire life. It made absolutely no sense for his character. I don’t even want to go into how his character contradicts himself again once the mystery is solved. I hated Marcus.
I almost put this book down after the first couple of chapters, but things picked up around the half way mark. After one scene that actually made me chuckle with the eye brow waggling old ladies, I had hope that maybe the story would redeem itself with the added bit of comedy. I was disappointed that things started to go downhill again once the book attempted to flesh out the curse and develop the romance between Catherine and Marcus. Which, while I’m on that subject – I absolutely hated how that turned out. Catherine spends the entire novel preaching about never wanting to get trapped in a marriage and to never have children, then finds herself trapped. It wasn’t romantic, it was just frustrating.
On a slightly random note, I also noticed at one point an expletive is used that I was fairly certain did not exist in the context that it was used during that time period. After looking it up my assumption was correct – while the word had existed in the more vulgar sense that it is commonly used, as a curse or slang word it didn’t come about until the 1920’s. I know it’s being overly nit picky, but things like that really ruin the immersion in the time period for me.
Mothergamer (1521 KP) rated Dragon Quest Builders Day One Edition in Video Games
Apr 3, 2019
I know. How could I have never played Dragon Quest Builders before? There are so many games out there to play that I miss quite a few so I play them when I can. I was intrigued by Dragon Quest Builders because it was clearly not a traditional Dragon Quest game. The plot takes from the original Dragon Quest as a parallel world where the hero accepts the Dragonlord's suggestion of each one ruling half the world which turned out to be a trap. The hero is defeated and the world goes dark and is overrun by monsters. This is where the legendary builder comes in. You can play as a male or female builder. The first chapter introduces you to the game mechanics. Basically this is Dragon Quest meets Minecraft. Your job as the builder is to gather materials and rebuild the land of Alefguard from the ground up and revive it and bring the light back to the world.
The builder starts her journey.
The tutorial is fairly straightforward showing you how to gather materials. Once you have the materials needed, you need to build and craft items. There are various NPC's that give you quests which are things they want you to build ranging from a crafting forge to a kitchen. This is also how you find crafting recipes for things. When you have the right materials you can build all these things and as you do this, your base levels up.
Use recipes to build things and rebuild the world.
When you go out to the world, the game doesn't really show you where to go. This can be good and bad. It's good because it encourages a lot of exploration and finding things on your own, but it is bad because sometimes it can be a bit frustrating trying to find the location of a quest and it can feel like a lot of time is wasted trying to figure out where you are going. You can switch the map to an eagle eye's view with a white flag that shows where your base is and a Q for the quest marker. You have to do your best to follow your compass, but it's not perfect. You just have to try to be patient and do your best to navigate until you get where you need to be.
You can use this view to see where your base is.
There are moments in the game where the monsters will show up and wreck your base. You have to fight the monsters in order to defend your base. Sometimes the fights are intense with four to five waves of monsters with a boss monster at the last wave. Once the battle is won, you can rebuild everything that got destroyed. The game isn't too punishing when this happens making rebuilding pretty easy.
Fighting monsters is rough, but you can rebuild easily.
While I did have fun playing Dragon Quest Builders, there are things I found to be mildly irritating. Sometimes the difficulty spikes in battles could be incredibly frustrating. The solution to this of course is to constantly build and upgrade your base. The other thing is having to constantly watch the hunger meter. This is represented as loaves of bread next to your health meter. If it gets to zero, your health starts dropping. You have to constantly forage for food or fish and use the kitchen to cook meals. Honestly, this broke the game immersion for me. Having to constantly worry about not starving and having to stop building just to go hunting for food was not fun for me at all. It was an annoyance and I wished I didn't have to constantly do that when I wanted to focus on gathering materials and building spiffy things.
Hunger meter is low, time to go fishing!
There are four chapters in Dragon Quest Builders each in a different region. I did find it odd that when you went to each new world you lose everything and have to start over again from scratch with your weapons, tools, and materials. Getting food and healing items first is a priority so you can explore and build without too much hassle. You can re-learn the recipes in each new region and you also get new materials to build with. If you need a break from the main story, there is a free build mode which allows you to build to your heart's content with no monsters anywhere. You have at your disposal all the recipes you learned in the chapters, you can build whatever you like, and you can share it with your friends. Free build is a nice break from the main game and the only limits are your imagination.
Dragon Quest Builders is a fun game, but there are points of frustration in it with the unbalanced level spikes which is why I took breaks from it often. However, the story is interesting and there are some great nods to the Dragon Quest lore itself as well as some reveals about the builder and various characters that add more depth to the story. To me, free build is where the game shines because it was so much fun just running around and creating whatever I wanted. It is a fun game that encourages creativity while enjoying a good story. See you at the next adventure!
The builder starts her journey.
The tutorial is fairly straightforward showing you how to gather materials. Once you have the materials needed, you need to build and craft items. There are various NPC's that give you quests which are things they want you to build ranging from a crafting forge to a kitchen. This is also how you find crafting recipes for things. When you have the right materials you can build all these things and as you do this, your base levels up.
Use recipes to build things and rebuild the world.
When you go out to the world, the game doesn't really show you where to go. This can be good and bad. It's good because it encourages a lot of exploration and finding things on your own, but it is bad because sometimes it can be a bit frustrating trying to find the location of a quest and it can feel like a lot of time is wasted trying to figure out where you are going. You can switch the map to an eagle eye's view with a white flag that shows where your base is and a Q for the quest marker. You have to do your best to follow your compass, but it's not perfect. You just have to try to be patient and do your best to navigate until you get where you need to be.
You can use this view to see where your base is.
There are moments in the game where the monsters will show up and wreck your base. You have to fight the monsters in order to defend your base. Sometimes the fights are intense with four to five waves of monsters with a boss monster at the last wave. Once the battle is won, you can rebuild everything that got destroyed. The game isn't too punishing when this happens making rebuilding pretty easy.
Fighting monsters is rough, but you can rebuild easily.
While I did have fun playing Dragon Quest Builders, there are things I found to be mildly irritating. Sometimes the difficulty spikes in battles could be incredibly frustrating. The solution to this of course is to constantly build and upgrade your base. The other thing is having to constantly watch the hunger meter. This is represented as loaves of bread next to your health meter. If it gets to zero, your health starts dropping. You have to constantly forage for food or fish and use the kitchen to cook meals. Honestly, this broke the game immersion for me. Having to constantly worry about not starving and having to stop building just to go hunting for food was not fun for me at all. It was an annoyance and I wished I didn't have to constantly do that when I wanted to focus on gathering materials and building spiffy things.
Hunger meter is low, time to go fishing!
There are four chapters in Dragon Quest Builders each in a different region. I did find it odd that when you went to each new world you lose everything and have to start over again from scratch with your weapons, tools, and materials. Getting food and healing items first is a priority so you can explore and build without too much hassle. You can re-learn the recipes in each new region and you also get new materials to build with. If you need a break from the main story, there is a free build mode which allows you to build to your heart's content with no monsters anywhere. You have at your disposal all the recipes you learned in the chapters, you can build whatever you like, and you can share it with your friends. Free build is a nice break from the main game and the only limits are your imagination.
Dragon Quest Builders is a fun game, but there are points of frustration in it with the unbalanced level spikes which is why I took breaks from it often. However, the story is interesting and there are some great nods to the Dragon Quest lore itself as well as some reveals about the builder and various characters that add more depth to the story. To me, free build is where the game shines because it was so much fun just running around and creating whatever I wanted. It is a fun game that encourages creativity while enjoying a good story. See you at the next adventure!