K-On! Movie (2011)

Based upon the anime series, K-On! Movie takes place chronicle midway through the second season and finishing at the same time as the season did (upon graduation day).  While you may suspect that the movie will just be an elongated episode but it has good pacing and enough content to justify its length.  As hinted in the OVA, the group ends up taking a graduation trip to London.  Once there, the characters get to their usual antics and encounter opportunities to play their music (there is a reason why Yui took her guitar...).  Thankfully, it never gets corny or cheesy despite straying dangerously close a few times with the characters misunderstanding what people are talking to them in English about.  However, the best part of the film is the fact that it ties really nicely to the ending of the anime.  In the anime, we only got to see the results of the group singing their goodbye song to Azusa, while we see the planning and effort that went in throughout the whole movie.  Thus, once that scene comes right at the end, it carries a significant emotional impact and it feels such a shame that the characters have to graduate.  There is a certain nostalgic feeling when familiar songs are played coupled with the new ones (which are pretty catchy).  K-On! Movie is a fantastic end to the series, it doesn't feel superficial and the humor works all of the time.

Book Review: Attack on Titan Vol. 7

Review:  #866
Title:  Attack on Titan Vol. 7
Series:  Attack on Titan – 7th volume
Author:  Hajime Isayama
Comments:  The battle against the Female Titan continues and takes over this volume.  Unfortunately, despite the tense situation, it only serves to raise more questions to the titans’ abilities and does nothing to answer anything.  It doesn’t even feel like it progressed the plot at all since it feels like all the sacrifices was for naught.  Eren, despite having a powerful ability, is too rash and doesn’t pull his own weight.  He is easily defeated and you feel more like a liability.  However, the most realistic part has to be the citizens’ reactions and attitudes towards the Survey Corps.  You can feel the political pressure and the frustration that the characters must feel.  In the end, it was an action packed volume even if it wasn’t plot-packed.
Rating:  6/10

Mr. Bean (1990-1995)

Mr. Bean is a British sitcom starring Rowan Atkinson as the titular character.  It spans fourteen half hour episodes over the course of five years and it is one of Atkinson's most iconic roles.  The structure of each episode is that it it split into multiple skits.  It usually depicts Mr. Bean in a normal-ish situation but since he himself is unusual, this leads to humorous situations.  There isn't much of a story and we only learn a little bit of Mr. Bean throughout the whole series.

The funniest part about the series is Mr. Bean himself.  He doesn't think or act like your average person.  He's a lot more naive and Atkinson's description of him as "a child in a grown man's body" is one that fits perfectly.  Despite that, he does have a girlfriend (even though he cannot take a hint at all), owns a car (that familiar olive green Leyland Mini) and travels quite a bit.

The humor relies heavily on Mr. Bean's unusual antics and his quirks.  He also has a few novel solutions for the problems he encounters, although they're not usually what you would do...  For example, he arrives in a park and sits next to a guy on a bench who is casually eating his lunch sandwich.  Mr. Bean is here for the same reasons but instead he decides to make the sandwich from scratch, pulling out ingredient after ingredient from his coat.  It's so ridiculous that it's funny.

Despite the humor, you do feel sorry for Mr. Beans sometimes.  He tends to find himself in unfortunate situations that a normal person would feel flustered and panic at what to do, let alone such a quirky person.  His naivety constantly puts him into new situations.  The episodes cover a variety of scenarios, from going to the beach to going on holiday, including events such as Christmas and New Years.  On the flipside, as Mr. Bean is portrayed as such a selfish person, he's happy to take candy from a child, that you can't wait until he gets his just desserts that you know is coming.  Sometimes though, you feel the retribution may be just a tad bit too harsh for him, especially when Mr. Bean puts on his sad face as he realizes his loneliness or the loss of one of his treasured item.

Atkinson has done a great job at giving his character a soul.  From the weird mannerisms and body language to the limited dialogue, it paints a distinct type of character that's both memorable and endearing.  Atkinson's gestures and facial expressions are perfect.  Mr. Bean does speak from time to time but a lot of the gags and context is told via body language.  This works wonderfully well and makes the series timeless.  The best part is how everyone else around Mr. Bean thinks he is weird.  You don't feel that Mr. Bean is stupid; rather, he can be clever, thinking up of ingenious (if a bit socially unacceptable) solutions to his problems.

As the series never had much of a story beyond what was in each self-contained episode, the ending just sort of ends.  There's no send off for Mr. Bean, it was just another normal day for him.  Overall, Mr. Bean still remains funny and enjoyable to this day.  The gags and humor being more reliant on just being funny themselves rather than on pop culture has allowed the series to age gracefully and remain relevant.

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Transformers: Devastation (PS4)

Transformers:  Devastation is an action game based upon the Transformers franchise and developed by Platinum Games.  Therefore, you can expect fast paced action and tight gameplay.  The game is rendered in beautiful cel-shaded graphics and it suits the characters very well.  All the designs are based off their G1 selves but updated to add in more detailing.  For ones that have had recent Generations toys (like Wheeljack), you can see some of the toy's designs influencing their character models.

You play as one of five Autobots:  Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Sideswipe and Wheeljack.  Each one plays a little bit different; Optimus is a well rounded attacker while Bumblebee is fast and nimble.  Grimlock is the most unique given that he doesn't have a vehicle mode, so he's slow but very strong.  The basic controls are simple:  a light attack and a heavy attack, dodge, jump, transform and ranged attacks (aim + fire).  Being Transformers, the characters can incorporate their vehicle mode into their attacks.  Completing a combo gives you a finisher that has the character transform and smash their enemy.  You can also freely transform to traverse the environment quicker.

On the easiest difficulty, you can get away with just button mashing but on normal and above, you cannot be overly aggressive.  You need to watch out for your enemy's movements and dodge when required.  Dodging slows down time giving you an advantage in counterattacking.  The best part of the game is that while you will be fighting a lot of grunts, you will also frequently fight familiar characters as bosses.  Bosses start out on the easier side but soon become difficult.  They will constantly attack you, zip across the battlefield and in general, give you a hard time pinning them down.  The game can get visually confusing thanks to all the gunfire and light effects from the hits.

The game starts off with the Autobots arriving in the city to stop the Decepticons.  Conveniently, all the civilians are evacuated and thus the robots can cause as much destruction as they'd like.  The city landscape is interesting at first until you realize that there isn't much visual variety.  You end up backtracking quite a bit throughout the story, although thankfully, there is an objective marker so you don't waste time getting lost.

The visual design of later levels is even more boring.  At least the city had branching paths and was decently sized.  You end up going through sci-fi corridors where each one looks similar to the other.  You'd also have to contend with platforming segments.  There's only so much the cel-shaded graphics can do to alleviate this blandness.

The story is simple.  Insecticons have broke out and the Autobots come to investigate.  They find the Decepticons and eventually, it becomes a race to obtain an important item.  The Autobots will be given the run around, led from place to place.  It's not a bad story by any means but it's also one that you don't care about too much.  If you play on the easiest difficulty, the game is really short at only around four hours long.  However, play on a higher difficulty and it'll drag it out to 7-12 hours.  Plus, the game is designed for replay, with each chapter and mission giving you a ranking depending on your performance.  It's actually really fun to speed through the story mode using a different character, even more so when you try and do it in the fastest time possible (on the easiest difficulty and skipping all cutscenes and unnecessary enemies, you can finish it within 1.5 hours!).

One of the biggest draws to the game is the fact that you will face the combiner Devastator.  Your encounters with this giant Transformer does not disappoint and the game presents a few more pleasant surprises.  What's nice is that while we do get to fight Devastator, the developers also give some focus to the individual Constructicons.  To be honest, the game has so much of that short and sweet taste that you can't help but crave for more.  You'd want to see more of your favorite characters turn up and additional playable characters.

There are some RPG elements and weapons customization.  Each character gains experience and levels up.  Defeating enemies and finding items around the levels will give you weapons.  Weapons can then be combined with others to improve their specs.  There are plenty of collectibles scattered around if that is your thing.  Completing the story will unlock Challenge Missions.  These are standalone missions with an objective.  Given that there are 50 of these, it'll take you some to complete them.  Some of the challenges are frustrating and will test your patience.  You not only have the standard defeat all your enemies but there will be races (not bad) and mazes.  The mazes are the absolute worst as they are designed to confuse you thanks to the repetitive and bland environments, as well as no maps of any kind.

Overall, Transformers:  Devastation is one of the best Transformers games we've had (to be fair, there isn't much competition given only that the PS2 Armada game, War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron were any decent).  The graphical style looks great, the gameplay smooth and the game just oozes with charm.  It's not perfect given its shorter length, bland environments and at times, messy camera, but it is definitely worth a play at least once.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations War For Cybertron Siege Sixgun (Deluxe)

Review:  #515
Name:  Sixgun
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Siege
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 2)
Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Sixgun transforms into a jet with VTOL fans.

Unfortunately, he's not very aerodynamic with a huge square block for undercarriage.  This is a byproduct of the many requirements of the figure.

Sixgun is average sized for a Deluxe, above is a comparison against Studio Series Lockdown.

A weak jet mode.  It looks good enough from the top but the obvious robot parts and chunky bits let it down.

TRANSFORMATION:

Sixgun is a bit of a partsformer which is unfortunate in this day and age but required due to his gimmick.  He separates into the arms, legs and torso to recombine for robot mode.  It's not difficult to do and at least the parts separate and combine easily.

ROBOT MODE:

Sixgun looks pretty great in robot mode, thanks to the heroic color scheme of white and red.

He doesn't have that much kibble, only the pipes on his back which act as unique aspects of the character anyway.

The headsculpt is also fairly heroic with a blue visor and white faceplate.  It is only on a swivel joint though.

Sixgun is surprisingly tall in robot mode.  While he is about on par with Generations Titans Return Quake, Sixgun is taller than most contemporary Deluxes.

Articulation is great for the most part as he has all your standard joints including ankle tilts, but no waist swivel.

That being said, his elbows feel tight and restriction as a result, especially if you decide to leave the guns attached behind them.

Speaking of the guns, they can be removed and be held in his hands and they serve as his main weapons.

The two red guns behind his head can tilt forward a bit but not enough to pass off as one.

A great looking robot mode but lacks play value.

WEAPONIZER MODE:

Sixgun is a Weaponzer and thus he can split into multiple pieces to attach onto other Deluxes in the line as weaponry.

Sixgun can go into three different Weaponizer forms and the first one is the "Defensive Loadout" in which he forms a gigantic jet pack.

The jet pack then attaches onto a Deluxe as a massive piece of backpack and this causes balancing issues as you'd expect of shoving an entire Deluxe onto the back of another.

One thing that can be said though is that there are a lot of visible weapons.

The second mode is the "High Precision Launcer Gauntlet" which is actually pretty cool, forming a gigantic fist.

The first then attaches onto the forearm of a Deluxe and replaces their hand.  This form doesn't actually use up all the pieces of Sixgun (the legs are left over).

The last mode is the "Offensive Loadout" and Sixgun splits into four pieces:  two leg pieces, a backpack and a handheld weapon.

This is easily the best form and while it isn't as integrated as Cog's, it still looks pretty good.

This form also gives the Deluxe bigger feet to help stabilize the extra weight.

OVERALL:

Sixgun is a nice figure but is not engineered as well as Cog in terms of his Weaponizer modes.  Despite that, he packs in plenty of play value thanks to the gimmick and is a worthwhile addition, especially if you have another Deluxe from the line to combine him with.

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Book Review: Attack on Titan Vol. 6

Review:  #865
Title:  Attack on Titan Vol. 6
Series:  Attack on Titan – 6th volume
Author:  Hajime Isayama
Comments:  This is an exciting volume that keeps you hanging all the way.  With the appearance of the abnormal titan, we see the carnage and despair that the characters are thrown into.  The best part (which is also slightly frustrating in the beginning) was how Eren was being challenged.  He could either believe in everyone else in the team or charge ahead to do what he wants, and this resulted in an interesting dynamic that felt like it has tangible consequences.  While we don’t learn anything new about the titans or their reason, by the time you finish the last chapter it felt satisfying.  The plot felt like it was finally moving along and you gain respect for the characters that have chosen this role, despite a highly probability of dying.
Rating:  6.5/10

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a romantic comedy starring Steve Carell as the titular 40-year-old virgin, Andy.  His backstory stating that he had a bad experience in the past and sort of just gave up, he works at a tech retail store, lives alone and is into pop culture.  He accidentally lets everyone at work know that he is an virgin and being the good mates that they are, they decided to try and help him.  The film isn't that dirty given its content and premise, and it ends up as a pretty run of the mill romance.  Andy tries finding a girl through various clubs and parties but they are not for him.  He steps it up and ends up meeting someone and the rest of the film covers off how they work out their issues together.  The film seems to be trying to tell a moral of the story, as the rest of Andy's friends go through their own journeys and comes to a resolution with their partners (or lack of).  The humor isn't too lazy and it doesn't take the easy wins, which is appreciated since it doesn't make the film feel B-grade.