Ocean's 8 (2018)

Ocean's 8 is the fourth in the Ocean's film series but is more of a reboot that stars a complete female cast.  It still has ties to the original trilogy though as the main character, Debbie Ocean, is Danny Ocean's sister.  The general premise is the same, Debbie pulls together a team in order to perform a heist.  So while the objective isn't too original, at least the journey was quite interesting.  It takes the first half of the film in order to get the team of eight together, and the team has good chemistry.  The viewers are left mostly in the dark in terms of how the heist was going to work.  Their goal is to steal an expensive diamond necklace at a high profile event and it is during the execution where the film shines.  The neat thing is that the film doesn't end when the necklace is stolen but shows the aftermath as well.  With investigators being assigned, the team's job do not end and we get to see how they have prepared to try and get away with it.  Ocean's 8 is enjoyable overall as the actual heist was engaging.  While you would expect them to be successful, there were more than a few tense moments as unexpected things happen and they were on the verge of being busted.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Papa Click (Series 3)

Review:  #575
Name:  Papa Click
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  BotBots (Series 3)
Mold Status:  repaint of S.A. Cheeze

CAMERA MODE:

Papa Click transforms into a digital camera and this is one of the more conventional alternate mode by BotBots standards.

While the front and sides look good, the back is void of recognizable detail.  Not that it matters that much.

Papa Click is very small as befitting of his cheap price, above is a comparison against Legion Barricade.

This is a fantastic camera mode, and there is a surprisingly large amounts of painted detail that's visible in this mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

The transformation is clever and interesting for something this size.  The whole right size pops out to form an arm and reveal the head, while the left size extends to form the legs.  The camera lens then folds to the side to form the other arm.

ROBOT MODE:

Papa Click's robot mode looks as good as the camera mode, despite the unconventional proportions.

While he looks bulky and unstable, he balances well.

The face is painted on and like a lot of the other BotBots, it's a happy face.

He remains short and small in robot mode, above a comparison against Legion Crosshairs.

Poseability is limited to balljointed shoulders, and a little bit of swivel for the hips.  All in all, this is a good robot mode.

OVERALL:

While you don't have to have Papa Click specifically since he is only available in a more expensive multi-pack, this mold is really strong.  The camera mode looks awesome and a robot mode that's solid too, with a fantastic transformation scheme linking the two together.

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The Office - American Season 6 (2009-2010)

The sixth season of The Office is 26 half-hour episodes long.  The season starts with a status quo.  It follows Michael Scott of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company.  He does his usual shenanigans, this time spreading a boatload of rumors around the office in an bid to fit in.  this inadvertently ties into Jim and Pam’s revelation of having a baby from the end of last season.

Over and over we are reminded of the fact that Michael cannot hold in a secret.  He is completely inappropriate, he cannot manage, and also constantly feels threatened of being backstabbed (with good reason, considering the track record).  He blows every chance he gets and yet he still manages to keep his job.  In an interesting turn of events in regards to the management of the Scranton branch early on in the season, he effectively loses a lot of his power.

In comparison to previous seasons, Michael doesn’t change; in fact he might be getting worse.  He loves to dish it out but cannot take it.  This can make him seem like a petty and insecure guy, and that is correct.  You might feel a bit bad but it is great watching him get mocked.  However, for some reason, once he crumples, others in the office takes pity on him.  Michael wants everything but gives nothing.  He changes his mind constantly and once he makes a mistake, he wants things to go back to the way things were.  It can be a frustrating exercise watching this, and even more so when he gets what he wants.

It is hard to understand why other characters seem to give Michael things to blabber out about.  You simply cannot fathom why the CFO would actually tell Michael high level secret stuff that he shouldn’t know.  Michael even admits himself that he cannot, and will not, keep a secret.  One key trait of Michael is how he is desperate to find love, but always seems to make poor decisions and date the most inappropriate of people.  It’s quite sad to watch.  Although then he has the nerve to think that he is not wrong and never reflects on anything.  It can be grating among the other humor that is funny.

One of the plot points in the earlier seasons is how Dunder Mifflin is considering downsizing.  Well, that type of threat returns once again.  It was always hinting at this ever since the various branch shutdowns and it hits the characters hard this season.  All the other characters continue their downward spiral of becoming ever more unlikable with their negative attitudes becoming more prominent.  Ryan just does not seem to have anything positive to say while Michael is taking his hate of Toby to newer levels.  There are many points in the show where you can’t help but feel that all the characters are idiots.  They play the sane person in one scene but then an idiot in another.  There are as many moments where it is funny as cringey moments where they cannot read the situation and do something inappropriate.

The roles of Jim and Dwight in this season are reversed of what you’d expect.  Before, it used to be Jim pranking Dwight but now, Dwight is using some pretty evil schemes in order to get Jim fired.  It feels like Dwight is going too far since he uses blackmail or putting blame onto Jim when it was him that had done all the whispering in the background.  Time passes really quickly in the show.  Jim and Pam take significant steps towards each other.  There are funny self-reflections, and the humor is some of the best that we have seen.  An interesting choice is how there is a clip-show episode in the middle of the season.  It actually isn’t too bad since it is a select of the best and funniest moments in all the previous seasons up until now.

Overall, the sixth season of The Office is enjoyable and fun to watch with all the characters that you have known for a while now.  While the season finale does not feel like the closing of a season and was a tad bit too abrupt, the humor is some of the best that we have seen.  It is a testament to the writers that there can still be things that Michael does that we as the viewers will be surprised with.

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Book Review: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 8

Review:  #923
Title:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 8
Series:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – 8th volume
Author:  Tappei Nagatsuki
Comments:  Subaru carries on with his plan to save Emily from the Witch Cult.  This story arc is ending up being at quite a significant length.  The whole volume focuses on Subaru and his allies now going through the forest hunting down Petelgeuse and his followers.  Subaru shows off that despite being weak and having little to no combat ability, he manages to still be useful.  While everyone started off doubting Subaru, you can feel that Subaru has finally proven himself and has earned the respect from others.  As a result, the interactions between Subaru and the rest of the supporting characters are the highlights of the story.  The hunt tends to drag on for too long, feeling never-ending.  At this point in time, Subaru is stabbing in the dark and improvising as he goes along.  Just when success feels close, there are significant turns of events.  It’s despairing to see how powerful Petelgeuse is and it keeps up the suspense by hiding his true ability until the very end.  While it may be like that the author undid all the achievements thus far, it really hits it home how frustrating it must be for Subaru to have the special ability that he has.  It is definitely thought provoking in certain scenes and seeing how far Subaru has developed as a character makes this an enjoyable volume.
Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Earthrise Hoist (Deluxe)

Review:  #574
Name:  Hoist
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Earthrise
Year of Release:  2020
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 1)
Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Hoist transforms into a green tow truck with orange parts on the truck bed.

The stuff on the bed, while accurate to the original G1 toy, is really messy and looks horrible.  It doesn't actually look like anything at all except for a mess of parts.

The best that you can do with the parts is to fold down a sort of ramp, Hoist doesn't even have a proper tow hook!

Hoist is a little bit shorter than some Deluxes but he makes it up by being a bit taller.  Unfortunately, the robot arms stick out underneath which is somewhat disappointing as they are in plain view.

The robot weapon or hand attachment can be attached onto the side of the back.

If only they didn't bother doing the ramp gimmick then the vehicle mode could have looked a lot cleaner and realistic.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is quite simple.  Apart from the cab and hood forming his chest, everything folds out from inside the vehicle.  This makes him close to a shellformer since he relies on a lot of panels.  The arms are from under the hood while the legs are from the rear.

ROBOT MODE:

Hoist's robot mode looks good and faithful to the G1 cartoon , right down to the "belly" and a shorter stumpier look for a Transformer.

This does come at a cost because he carries a fair amount of kibble.  While the backpack kibble (which is all the stuff from the truck bed) can be ignored, the side panels that sit right behind his shoulders and arms are disappointing.

The designer has nailed the headsculpt which looks amazing.

If you were dismaying at how Deluxes were shrinking in size, then Hoist may help you slightly ease that dismay.  Hoist is one of the tallest Deluxes in the line, although a lot of that is due to hollowed limbs, in particular, the legs.

As the legs fold out from under the rear of the vehicle, they can seem a bit too thin and insubstantial in comparison to the rest of the body.

He comes with an orange gun attachment that covers his hand.

The attachment can go on either hand but of course, his right is the more traditionally correct one.

The articulation on this guy is quite impressive.  Earthrise continues the trend of Siege with its focus on poseability.  Hoist has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

This is a great looking robot mode that is a good update to the character.

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Ys Origin (Vita)

Ys Origin is an action role playing game that is a prequel to the Ys series.  It was originally released for PC in 2006 and ported to PS4 and Vita eleven years later.  Despite being such an old game, the graphics hold up okay.  Granted, the sprites are blurry and there are sections of the game where it is displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio.  Otherwise, everything else including the environments are crisp and the gameplay remains fast paced and fun.

Origin is an action game with a simple control scheme.  You use square to attack, X to jump or dodge, triangle for a temporary power boost and Circle for magic.  The shoulder buttons are used to cycle through the different magic attacks.  The camera angle is fixed.  The whole game takes place inside a tower so the environments can feel a bit bland at times.  There are some light platforming as well as puzzles.  The puzzles only really amount to going through every fork to find the one with the button or item to open the locked door at the end of the other fork.  That being said, it can be easy to get lost and get stuck before realizing you need to double back to try and find the one thing you missed the first time around.

This is a product of when it was released but you have to equip and unequip items for various effects in order to progress.  It’s easy to overlook this and is one of the more annoying quality-of-life things about the game.  The gameplay loop is addictive.  You run through the floors of the tower, defeating enemies along the way to level up and find better equipment.  The combat is fast paced which makes the game brisk and you feel that you are constantly pushing the game along.  Enemies take seconds to kill and while there’s an element of button mashing, on higher levels, you do need to watch out and dodge attacks.

As well as providing experience, enemies will drop SP crystals and items that temporary improve your abilities.  The SP crystals will allow you to gain passive effects at save points.  Yes, the game uses save points but these are generously spaced and help you track your progress on climbing the tower.  These save points also act as fast travel points to allow you to warp between floors of the tower.  The boss battles are some of the funnest sections of the game.  Although on harder difficulties, the bosses will be stopping points and can be a nightmare to beat.  They mainly rely on recognizing patterns and then dodging the boss’s attacks before dealing damage of your own.  It’s a bit tenser since there’s no way to heal during a boss battle, or even pause the game (unless you jump out to the Vita’s home menu).  If you’re having trouble then gaining one or two levels will help immensely in damage dealt and taken.

Experience points are heavily scaled.  If you are underleveled then you will level up extremely quickly.  On the other hand, once you have hit the level that the developers want you to before the boss, then it will take a very long time to level up more.  Thus through grinding, you kind of know at what point you are able to comfortably take on the boss and it never takes that long to get up to the recommended level.  The difficulty is really well balanced.

The game features three playable characters, each with their own story that takes place entirely in the tower.  You can only select from Yunica or Huge in the beginning and once you clear both of their stories, then you unlock the third one.  Only one of the routes is canon, so it would have been better to have three different viewpoints of the same story rather than three separate alternate takes of the story.

The story takes place 700 years before the events of the first game.  Set in the land of Ys, it was once prosperous thanks to the twin goddesses, Reah and Feena.  As demons infested the land, the goddesses raised their temples up from the land in a bid to keep their followers safe.  Unfortunately, the demons were intent on causing destruction and built a tower.  One day, the twin goddesses disappear and their followers launch a search party into the tower to find out what has happened.  Yunica is the one of those in the search party.  Her story is the simplest one of the three.  Her main aim is just to go through the tower to find Reah and Feena.  During her journey, we understand her backstory, including her father and the reason for her abilities.  She plays most similarly to Adol from the main Ys games, and is a mid ranged fighter.

The second viewpoint is from Hugo Fact, also one of the search party.  He is a full knight and his battle style is long ranged, able to shoot magical projectiles.  This makes him one of the easier characters to play with.  His story is more personal as while he is also searching for the twin goddesses, his main focus is to chase his brother and kill him.  There’s a bit of a backstory to the reason why.

The third and final viewpoint is The Claw.  Once again, you go through all the same dungeons but there are more difference sin terms of bosses in his playthrough.  The Claw is a close ranged fighter and he actually lacks any ranged attacks.  Therefore, his playthrough presents the highest difficulty out of the three.  Bosses are harder because you need to watch out for patterns and then dive in to strike before jumping back out of range.  He is an anti-hero and part of the antagonist’s group.  His objective is to gain power and as a result, he had accepted the demonic powers offered to him.

Don’t let the need to play through the game three times put you off.  Each playthrough is not too long, the first time will probably take you 10 hours but as you get familiar, the second playthrough will take 7 hours and the third will probably take 5 hours.  Once you have cleared all three playthroughs, there are additional modes unlocked such as a boss rush, time attack and an arena mode.

Overall, Ys Origin is a fantastic game.  Despite being released almost 15 years ago, the game has aged remarkably well.  The action remains fast paced and heaps of fun.  The story is simple but it works and you end up caring and understanding quite a bit about the characters.  Having to play it three times but only having one be canon is kind of annoying but otherwise, Ys Origin is highly recommended.

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a science fiction film involving the first encounters with aliens.  It revels in its own mystique as it never shows in any clarity the UFOs or the aliens.  During the whole duration of the film, the tension and mysterious is almost tangible.  It follows from a few different perspectives but they are all normal day-to-day people whose lives changed after having an encounter with UFOs.  Over the course of the film, which is quite lengthy at over two hours long, their behaviors are influenced and they are compelled to a specific location.  The pacing is slow as it tends to build up the tension and mystique for the climax.  Even then, the climax's objective isn't revelations but on delivering more that leaves it to be interpreted by the viewers' imaginations.  As a result, the film feels very different to contemporary films as there is no romance subplot, there is no violence, just a series of events that provides a deeper meaning to what is on the surface.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Skillz Punk (Series 1)

Review:  #573
Name:  Skillz Punk
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  BotBots (Series 1)
Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Skillz Punk transforms into a game cartridge, the thing that games were distributed upon back in the pre-PlayStation days.

It is not the most immediately obvious of alternate modes and it is pretty much just a square lump.

A quick size comparison with Legion Barricade and you can see how small Skillz Punk is.  An average alternate mode all in all.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is very easy.  The arms pull out from the sides.  You pull the top to reveal the head and then also unfold the legs from the sides.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is fairly decent, he has a unique shape to him, having a big square body but thin arms and short legs.

There's no kibble because of the simplicity of the alternate mode.  Despite the small feet, he stands up fairly solidly.

The headsculpt is pretty much just a face painted on.  The slit sunglasses look is suitably retro in line with his alternate mode.

He is slightly taller in robot mode, but he is still much shorter than a Legion figure.

Articulation is limited to swinging the arms forward and back.  This is the better mode but it is really no contest considering the weak alternate mode.

OVERALL:

Skillz Punk has a tough alternate mode to pull off.  His robot mode is solid although not the best that the line has to offer.

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