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Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated Thor: Ragnarok (2017) in Movies
Jun 10, 2019 (Updated Jun 10, 2019)
Utterly preposterous
Thor is arguably one of Marvel’s strongest characters. Played by the superb Chris Hemsworth since 2011, the God of thunder is one of the MCUs most popular assets.
It’s unfortunate then that he’s been lambasted with the weakest solo films of the entire series, the son of Odin really has deserved much better.
Thor’s inception in the first of his three solo outings was a competent if unremarkable origins story and the less said about Thor: The Dark World, which remains the poorest film of the entire MCU, the better. Now, just in time for Infinity War,Thor: Ragnarok rolls into cinemas. But does it do its leading man justice?Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor (Hemsworth) finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against the Hulk (Bruce Banner), his former ally and fellow Avenger. Thor’s quest for survival leads him in a race against time to prevent the all-powerful goddess of death, Hela, (Cate Blanchett) from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilisation.
This third film for our mighty Avenger is really something. A film more akin to Guardians of the Galaxy than its overly stuffy predecessors. Director Taika Waititi in his first big-budget feature has managed what many had thought was impossible, he’s given Thor a rather brilliant movie.
But how? Well, he’s realised what no-one else has. The premise surrounding our titular hero is utterly ridiculous. Rather than shy away from that and create something serious, he’s embraced it with humour, music and my goodness, a lot of colour.
If you thought Guardians of the Galaxy used every colour on the spectrum, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Thor: Ragnarok is quite something to watch. From the gold-tipped spears of Asgard that glisten like never before, to the trash-topped planet of Sakaar, everything is dripping in colour.
“Casting Goldblum in the role of an immortal game-player really is an inspired choice.”
Speaking of Sakaar, it contains one of the MCUs best new additions: Jeff Goldbum. Sorry, I mean the Grandmaster. Casting Goldblum in the role of an immortal game-player really is an inspired choice. The 65-year-old legend has made a career on playing himself and it works exceptionally well here. His improvisation is absolutely spot on.
Ragnarok throws up a few other surprises too. One being that Chris Hemsworth is absolutely hilarious. He and Tom Hiddleston bounce off each other incredibly well and we see real chemistry – the chemistry that should have been evident from the start. Cate Blanchett also turns the cheese up to 11 as the latest throwaway Marvel villain, Hela.
She fares better than the majority of Marvel villains and is certainly more interesting than Christopher Eccelston’s, Malekith, but they never quite make the impact that the scriptwriters were clearly looking for. Nevertheless, Blanchett is excellent.
Thankfully, Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t suffer from the absence of Natalie Portman’s dull Jane Foster, and though she is referenced early on, newcomer Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie provides a fitting replacement and possible future love-interest for our intrepid hero.
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. Surprisingly the first 30 minutes feel incredibly rushed as numerous loose storylines are brought together and the improvised nature of the script lends itself to a little too much humour. Yes, we get it, Marvel films are funny, but this should not be at the expense of the more emotional sequences that the movie tries to put across.
Nevertheless, Thor: Ragnarok is a resounding success, created by a man who clearly has a passion for this corner of the MCU. He manages to make an absolutely preposterous film – and that’s exactly how Thor should be. Take a bow Mr. Waititi.
A little tip – there are two end credit sequences waiting for you. You’re welcome.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2017/10/26/thor-ragnarok-review/
It’s unfortunate then that he’s been lambasted with the weakest solo films of the entire series, the son of Odin really has deserved much better.
Thor’s inception in the first of his three solo outings was a competent if unremarkable origins story and the less said about Thor: The Dark World, which remains the poorest film of the entire MCU, the better. Now, just in time for Infinity War,Thor: Ragnarok rolls into cinemas. But does it do its leading man justice?Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor (Hemsworth) finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against the Hulk (Bruce Banner), his former ally and fellow Avenger. Thor’s quest for survival leads him in a race against time to prevent the all-powerful goddess of death, Hela, (Cate Blanchett) from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilisation.
This third film for our mighty Avenger is really something. A film more akin to Guardians of the Galaxy than its overly stuffy predecessors. Director Taika Waititi in his first big-budget feature has managed what many had thought was impossible, he’s given Thor a rather brilliant movie.
But how? Well, he’s realised what no-one else has. The premise surrounding our titular hero is utterly ridiculous. Rather than shy away from that and create something serious, he’s embraced it with humour, music and my goodness, a lot of colour.
If you thought Guardians of the Galaxy used every colour on the spectrum, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Thor: Ragnarok is quite something to watch. From the gold-tipped spears of Asgard that glisten like never before, to the trash-topped planet of Sakaar, everything is dripping in colour.
“Casting Goldblum in the role of an immortal game-player really is an inspired choice.”
Speaking of Sakaar, it contains one of the MCUs best new additions: Jeff Goldbum. Sorry, I mean the Grandmaster. Casting Goldblum in the role of an immortal game-player really is an inspired choice. The 65-year-old legend has made a career on playing himself and it works exceptionally well here. His improvisation is absolutely spot on.
Ragnarok throws up a few other surprises too. One being that Chris Hemsworth is absolutely hilarious. He and Tom Hiddleston bounce off each other incredibly well and we see real chemistry – the chemistry that should have been evident from the start. Cate Blanchett also turns the cheese up to 11 as the latest throwaway Marvel villain, Hela.
She fares better than the majority of Marvel villains and is certainly more interesting than Christopher Eccelston’s, Malekith, but they never quite make the impact that the scriptwriters were clearly looking for. Nevertheless, Blanchett is excellent.
Thankfully, Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t suffer from the absence of Natalie Portman’s dull Jane Foster, and though she is referenced early on, newcomer Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie provides a fitting replacement and possible future love-interest for our intrepid hero.
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. Surprisingly the first 30 minutes feel incredibly rushed as numerous loose storylines are brought together and the improvised nature of the script lends itself to a little too much humour. Yes, we get it, Marvel films are funny, but this should not be at the expense of the more emotional sequences that the movie tries to put across.
Nevertheless, Thor: Ragnarok is a resounding success, created by a man who clearly has a passion for this corner of the MCU. He manages to make an absolutely preposterous film – and that’s exactly how Thor should be. Take a bow Mr. Waititi.
A little tip – there are two end credit sequences waiting for you. You’re welcome.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2017/10/26/thor-ragnarok-review/
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Camping with Sasquatch in Tabletop Games
Jun 18, 2019 (Updated Jun 25, 2019)
You campers like to have fun, right? Well let me warn you of the dangerous Sasquatch in these here woods. You don’t want to get tangled up with him. He will eat your fishy fishies, your s’mores, and your bathing suits. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
Camping with Sasquatch is a super silly set collection, hand management, card shedding game in the party game genre featuring, well, Bigfoot. You are dealt a hand of cards of various suits (s’mores, hiking, fishy fishy, etc) and from the large draw pile of remaining cards are revealed three cards. On your turn you must draw a card from the draw pile, and play two cards from your hand. You score points by adding cards to the revealed cards on the table to make sets of suits Rummy style. So you can have a set of 3 like-cards, or a run(?) of 3 different cards, with Sasquatch cards in the same suit being wild. When you complete a set of cards on the table, you claim the set and put the cards in your scoring pile. Each card in your scoring pile is worth one victory point. The first player to shed his hand to zero triggers the end game, and the player with the most victory points is the winner. Duh.
Here’s what makes this game a little different and a little more interesting. The Sasquatch cards are wild. They can be used in a set or a run. Easy. However, you can play a Sasquatch card by itself to the table by slapping it down and calling out what suit it is: “Sasquatch Swimming!” When someone does that the other players must frantically slap the Sasquatch with an appropriate suit-matching card from their hand. If they cannot or if they are the last to do so they are awarded with all the cards that had just been played. In a shedding game, adding cards to your hand is always no bueno. This, however, leads to hilarity at the table, but also frustration if you play with bad sports, or uninterested opponents.
Components. This is a card game. The cards are of good quality, and the art is campy and cartoony. I quite like the art style, but some people I played with had mixed opinions on it. What I did appreciate was the one page folded rulesheet with full color Sasquatch poster on the back. I like light games with non-confusing rules. However, on that subject, I couldn’t find anywhere that it stated we could use more than the three slots to play our cards to next to the draw pile, even though there is a graphic that shows more slots in a dashed outline. We initially played the game with just the three slots available and it was a drag, man. Once we allowed some interpretation of the rules to open up more card slots, the game flowed quite a bit more easily and we enjoyed it much more.
Overall, this is just a silly game of shedding with a unique theme that we all liked. The Sasquatch slap aspect of the game gave it a nice little bump in interest for us, but ultimately we agreed that it was light and fun, but not one we will think to bring out very often. I would like to recommend this, but I will do so to a particular situational scenario. If you are ending your game night and just need a super light nightcap to help you tie one on, then pull out the ‘Squatch. He may eat your hot dogs, but he’s just trying to make a living too. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a hairy 15 / 30.
Camping with Sasquatch is a super silly set collection, hand management, card shedding game in the party game genre featuring, well, Bigfoot. You are dealt a hand of cards of various suits (s’mores, hiking, fishy fishy, etc) and from the large draw pile of remaining cards are revealed three cards. On your turn you must draw a card from the draw pile, and play two cards from your hand. You score points by adding cards to the revealed cards on the table to make sets of suits Rummy style. So you can have a set of 3 like-cards, or a run(?) of 3 different cards, with Sasquatch cards in the same suit being wild. When you complete a set of cards on the table, you claim the set and put the cards in your scoring pile. Each card in your scoring pile is worth one victory point. The first player to shed his hand to zero triggers the end game, and the player with the most victory points is the winner. Duh.
Here’s what makes this game a little different and a little more interesting. The Sasquatch cards are wild. They can be used in a set or a run. Easy. However, you can play a Sasquatch card by itself to the table by slapping it down and calling out what suit it is: “Sasquatch Swimming!” When someone does that the other players must frantically slap the Sasquatch with an appropriate suit-matching card from their hand. If they cannot or if they are the last to do so they are awarded with all the cards that had just been played. In a shedding game, adding cards to your hand is always no bueno. This, however, leads to hilarity at the table, but also frustration if you play with bad sports, or uninterested opponents.
Components. This is a card game. The cards are of good quality, and the art is campy and cartoony. I quite like the art style, but some people I played with had mixed opinions on it. What I did appreciate was the one page folded rulesheet with full color Sasquatch poster on the back. I like light games with non-confusing rules. However, on that subject, I couldn’t find anywhere that it stated we could use more than the three slots to play our cards to next to the draw pile, even though there is a graphic that shows more slots in a dashed outline. We initially played the game with just the three slots available and it was a drag, man. Once we allowed some interpretation of the rules to open up more card slots, the game flowed quite a bit more easily and we enjoyed it much more.
Overall, this is just a silly game of shedding with a unique theme that we all liked. The Sasquatch slap aspect of the game gave it a nice little bump in interest for us, but ultimately we agreed that it was light and fun, but not one we will think to bring out very often. I would like to recommend this, but I will do so to a particular situational scenario. If you are ending your game night and just need a super light nightcap to help you tie one on, then pull out the ‘Squatch. He may eat your hot dogs, but he’s just trying to make a living too. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a hairy 15 / 30.
Micah Ulibarri (79 KP) rated Ready Player One (2018) in Movies
Apr 7, 2018
Willy Wonka for the Digital Age
I went in to this movie somewhat cautious. I hadn't read the book, but the trailers looked very overwhelming.
I was excited to see that though it was very visually stimulating, I did not feel overwhelmed, just enamoured. 20 minutes in told my wife I would be seeing it again and the next time hopefully in a 3D IMAX. I want to be able to fully appreciate the visual beauty.
I also really enjoyed the theme. I found it particularly relevant. The character growth is almost subtle, but the point of it is very strong. In an age where we are all stuck to screens, Ready Player one has a very strong message.
Acting Kudos to Mark Rylance for being the brilliant billionaire. Unfortunately the characters being digital for more than half the movie makes it hard to really see their acting chops.
I also enjoyed all the pop culture references. Even though I felt like a lot of them were just before my time. 80s references and earlier and I'm a 90s kid.
All in all, I think it will stand the test of time on both a visual and message level. And everyone should see it and appreciate what a movie experience can be.
I was excited to see that though it was very visually stimulating, I did not feel overwhelmed, just enamoured. 20 minutes in told my wife I would be seeing it again and the next time hopefully in a 3D IMAX. I want to be able to fully appreciate the visual beauty.
I also really enjoyed the theme. I found it particularly relevant. The character growth is almost subtle, but the point of it is very strong. In an age where we are all stuck to screens, Ready Player one has a very strong message.
Acting Kudos to Mark Rylance for being the brilliant billionaire. Unfortunately the characters being digital for more than half the movie makes it hard to really see their acting chops.
I also enjoyed all the pop culture references. Even though I felt like a lot of them were just before my time. 80s references and earlier and I'm a 90s kid.
All in all, I think it will stand the test of time on both a visual and message level. And everyone should see it and appreciate what a movie experience can be.
MasterSolace (19 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Mortal Kombat 11 in Video Games
May 12, 2019
Fighting Mechanics (5 more)
Gruesome Finshers
Seemingly unlimited kustomization
Varied Kast of old school sprinkled with new
Story mode of story modes
The Vastness of the Krypt
Maybe TOO much Kustomization (2 more)
Some Tower Objectives are still too difficult.
The Vagueness of the Krypt
As BOON Intended
The king of gory fighters is back with this timeline bending story. Diverse cast? Check. Over the top Fatalities? You bet. Balanced gameplay? Yes it does.
The Story Mode is much improved on the "Family Reunion" feel of MKX. The Krypt is pretty cool. With less Jumpscares. But with some issues. But nothing too bad.
Kustomization... there is a lot of stuff, but it doesn't serve the same purpose as Injustice 2.
Towers of Time is a great touch. But there are some objectives behind modifiers that are just TOO impossible (so far Gauntlet Stage 2 and Stage 8 or 9, can't remember which one). I threw my controller.
Overall, it isn't a perfect game. But given that it released less than 6 months after announced, it is AMAZING. I touted the Gameplay of MKX, MK11 makes improvements over it.
No... I haven't played online yet. And I don't really intend to. So this review is only for Single Player content.
The Story Mode is much improved on the "Family Reunion" feel of MKX. The Krypt is pretty cool. With less Jumpscares. But with some issues. But nothing too bad.
Kustomization... there is a lot of stuff, but it doesn't serve the same purpose as Injustice 2.
Towers of Time is a great touch. But there are some objectives behind modifiers that are just TOO impossible (so far Gauntlet Stage 2 and Stage 8 or 9, can't remember which one). I threw my controller.
Overall, it isn't a perfect game. But given that it released less than 6 months after announced, it is AMAZING. I touted the Gameplay of MKX, MK11 makes improvements over it.
No... I haven't played online yet. And I don't really intend to. So this review is only for Single Player content.
Entertainment Editor (1988 KP) rated Yokohama in Tabletop Games
Mar 8, 2018
If you like worker placement games and the need to plan ahead then Yokohama is going to be right up your alley. There are so many paths and directions to take during the game that it can be overwhelming on your first play, but once you get a feel for how things shake out it can be very satisfying to plan out and execute a long term strategy. The board looks incredibly cluttered with iconography on first blush, but it is actually very easy to parse once you’ve got a feel for the layout of each Production board, and the random setup keeps things interesting game to game. Player interaction is indirect, although if you pay attention you can cause your opponents some headaches if you manage to beat them to places that they want to be. With that being said, you will want to leave yourself at least a few options each turn, because you can find yourself caught out if your opponents beat you to the punch, but if there’s one thing Yokohama has in spades it’s options.
Reviewer: Travis Williams
Read the full review here: https://techraptor.net/content/yokohama-review
Reviewer: Travis Williams
Read the full review here: https://techraptor.net/content/yokohama-review
Josh Burns (166 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of The Bellows in Video Games
Jun 21, 2019
Decent scares (1 more)
Accessable to nongamers
Can you handle this VR haunted house simulator?
The Bellows was an early psvr horror experience that had a mixed to negative reception. It wasn't as "gamey" as most people expected, and it's also quite short. That being said, going into knowing what it is, I liked it. It's basically a VR haunted house that you walk through. It has a creepy atmosphere and some good jump scares (which are way more fun in VR). It's not something you'll play over and over, maybe when Halloween rolls around each year, but there is another big positive to this game. Something that makes it a must have if you like horror that even my beloved Here They Lie, or the acclaimed Resident Evil 7 (aside from the demos) doesn't have. Given it's short length, simple mechanics of... pretty much just walking, anyone can play it, making it a fantastic pass the headset game with friends. You can shut off the tv so no one sees what the player sees so everyone has the same surprises. I cannot say enough how fun it is to watch others get scared in VR. And finally, it has a very cheap price tag.
HayleyLouise Billington (92 KP) rated One Night Ultimate Werewolf in Tabletop Games
Jan 6, 2020
Great game
If you like bluffing games and generally being deceitful you'll love this game.
Download the app that plays through each step of the night phase and you're away without having to endlessly read the rules.
At the start simply select on the app which cards are being played and deal them out amongst the players and place 3 in the middle, all cards must remain face down. Everyone must discretely look at their own card but do not tell anyone who you are.
When nighttime arrives the magic begins, step by step each player opens their eyes (or not depending on your card) when told to do so and performs a specific action. Once the night phase has ended everyone opens their eyes and then you have a preselected amount of time to figure out who are the werewolves. If you identify one of the werewolves correctly villagers win, if not werewolfs win.
Do you lie and try to convince your friends you were someone else or do you hope honesty is the best policy?
Me and my friends had so much fun playing this, we actually got told off by the staff at the gaming cafe for laughing too loud.
Download the app that plays through each step of the night phase and you're away without having to endlessly read the rules.
At the start simply select on the app which cards are being played and deal them out amongst the players and place 3 in the middle, all cards must remain face down. Everyone must discretely look at their own card but do not tell anyone who you are.
When nighttime arrives the magic begins, step by step each player opens their eyes (or not depending on your card) when told to do so and performs a specific action. Once the night phase has ended everyone opens their eyes and then you have a preselected amount of time to figure out who are the werewolves. If you identify one of the werewolves correctly villagers win, if not werewolfs win.
Do you lie and try to convince your friends you were someone else or do you hope honesty is the best policy?
Me and my friends had so much fun playing this, we actually got told off by the staff at the gaming cafe for laughing too loud.
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