Jumanji (1995)

Jumanji is a fantasy adventure film.  The setup to the plot takes a bit longer that you would expect.  A mysterious board game, hinted at being more horrible and scary that you can imagine, is buried deep, only to be dug out a hundred years later.  The game itself is called Jumanji and once you participate, you must be there until it finishes (which is actually quite a significant flaw).  The twist here is that on every turn, after your dice roll, it reveals a passage and that passage turns into reality.  The things that come out from the board game such as killer plants, a stampede of animals, quicksand and other dangerous events stay until the game finishes.  Naturally, the pair of children who rediscovers the game struggles with these obstacles.  Despite the interesting premise the pacing of the film is not that great.  In between all the action are heaps of dead moments which just aren't that engaging.  The physical props used hold up though and are fantastic.  It does build to a nice climax packing in a lot of meaning but the ending is wonky in that it undoes a portion of history.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Spoiled Rottens (8-pack #2) (Series 2)

Review:  #599
Name:  Spoiled Rottens
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  BotBot (Series 2)
Mold Status:  N/A

PACKAGING:

As part of the Series 2 line of 8-packs, the Spoiled Rottens set comes in packaging that shows off seven of the figures, with a remaining "mystery" BotBot.

The mystery bot is within the capsule that has an easy way of popping out, which means it is susceptible to be stolen in-store, which can be annoying.

There's no bio but there is a nice piece of artwork with the various BotBots of the group.

BOTBOTS:

There are four different variations of the pack, and the theme of the set is around spoiled food.  The #2 pack comes with:
- Big Cantuna
- Bottocorrect
- Brock Head
- Nope Soap
- Ollie Bite
- Outtacontrol
- Rebugnant
- Sour Wing

This is a pretty strong set with the majority being great molds, especially if you haven't had them already before.

OVERALL:

Spoiled Rottens is a good solid set.  There are some really inventive and unique figures in here, with Big Cantuna being the standout.

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Senran Kagura Shinovi Master (2018)

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master is a 12 episode anime that is based upon the game series. The aesthetics has changed compared to the previous season, as well as when comparing to the games, so it can feel a bit off at first. Similarly to the Estival Versus OVA, this anime bares it all. Gone are the teasing and strategic censoring, instead, it seems to take every opportunity to show off the characters. It becomes oversaturated by the time the third episode comes around, but it does seem to dial it down a bit towards the end of the season.

The opening episode is fairly bland as it sets the current status quo. The four schools, while not in harmony, seem to be functioning well and have a friendship rivalry going on. Asuka and Yumi are great friends, while Homura’s team is continually struggling to make enough money to buy food. It can feel a tad bit too normal but by the end of the episode, we get a feel on the direction the anime is aiming. This is because we are introduced to two powerful new characters with the intent to eliminate the four schools.

As the mystery deepens regarding the two newcomers, they invite everyone to the Shinovi Masters. This is a tournament in which the winner gets to take on the ultimate youma (i.e. monster). Asuka had already faced against some youma within the city and she suffers a massive existential crisis that robs her of her ideals and dampens her normal cheerful self. This attitude continues for the rest of the season and it can get annoying when she is acting so down and unlike her normal self for so long. Unfortunately, several characters end up out of action for a large portion of the anime.

There is a nice reference to the Peach Beach Splash game in one episode. Actually, it adapts the scenario and has the characters shooting each other in swimsuits, using water that if it hits the target, will render the part transparent (aka clothing damage). These types of episodes, and scenes, form the basis of massive mood whiplash where one moment it is dark and serious, then in the next it throws in fan service.

The youma and eventually the true villains come to the forefront in the second half of the anime. While it managed to avoid it in the first half, like the first Senran Kagura anime, it starts to rely more and more on flashbacks. These flashbacks expand upon the history of the motivations of the villains, as well as the past of Yumi. The scale of the conflict is revealed towards the end that flips the characters’ understand of the relationship between shinobi and youma. They make a big deal out of it but the impact to the viewer is definitely nowhere near as strong or shocking.  While Asuka used to be the face of the franchise, it has slowly shifted to Yumi and it is no exception here. Yumi takes on a larger and larger focus as the anime goes on.

The battle scenes are an improvement, although they are still not the best. At least it is more than static images and it has some fluidity to the characters’ movements. If you have played the games, it is a nice bonus to be able to recognize some of their moves. Sadly, there are a lot of scenes where the animation suddenly and noticeably dips in quality. It generally looks great when characters are in close ups, however once it pans out to show several characters onscreen at once, it loses a lot of the details and subsequently, the proportions are off.

Overall Senran Kagura Shinovi Master is so so. It’s biggest attraction is the uncensored fan service (and the franchise is more well known for its fan service than anything). The story stalls too much in the second half to the point of it being too easy to not care very much on what happens. It’s unfortunate because the opening premise shows a lot of promise with a darker, more intriguing tale surrounding shinobi fighting a rising tide of youma within modern day cities.

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Book Review: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar & Six More

Review:  #935
Title:  The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar & Six More
Series:  N/A
Author:  Roald Dahl
Comments:  This is a short story collection by Roald Dahl and it is somewhat more mature and darker than his more well known books for children.  The titular story of Henry Sugar is definitely one of the most interesting of the lot.  In it, the character learns how to see through cards and makes a killing from casinos.  What makes it unique is how to approaches the storytelling.  It tells it in such a way that it pulls you out of the moment, from the character, until around midway where it puts the character back into focus again.  The other story that pops out is based on real events which retell how Roald Dahl came to be an author.  It’s inspiring and you can’t help but feel he is too humble.  He wraps his experiences as a child, suffering the cruelty from boarding schools that was the norm in those days, to his army days, it’s engrossing.  He emphasizes that you would have never thought he’ll have a knack for writing from his grades, but thanks to certain coincidences, here he is now.  The other five stories each has their charms, but perhaps most surprising is how not all of them have happy endings.  There are some pretty twisted scenes and concepts that were written to elicit disgust and disappointment.  It never crosses the line but will make you feel uncomfortable.
Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Roadbuster (Deluxe)

Review:  #598
Name:  Roadbuster
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2020
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 9)
Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Roadbuster transforms into the armored version of his Impala car mode, so it nearly barely looks like the car it is based upon.

It is a busy look but one that surprisingly works well.  The back is not a gap exposing robot parts either, but has a thruster.

There are a lot of sculpted details throughout the vehicle mode, to the point that it's pretty impressive in hand.  The abundance of grey plastic does clash with the green.

Above is a comparison against TLK Bumblebee for a size comparison, and Roadbuster is a sizeable Deluxe compared to recent offerings.

A good vehicle mode if you don't mind an unrealistic vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

From DOTM onwards, the robot designs have less and less distinctive vehicle kibble and Roadbuster unfortunately has to achieve robot accuracy through a shellformery process.  80% of the car effectively becomes a folded up backpack, with only the front of the car forming the heels of his feet.

ROBOT MODE:

Roadbuster's robot mode looks pretty good.  It is a busy look but despite lacking weaponry (he only has shoulder mounted missile pods and a small gun), he still looks pretty armed.

It comes at a price because he wears most of the vehicle's shell folded up as a backpack and it is a huge one.  It dangles down to his knees.

The headsculpt is very busy, to the point that the lower portion becomes a mess.

You can see how much the backpack sticks out as well.  Since it's just a big panel plus some smaller ones, it isn't heavy and doesn't affect his balance.

Despite being fairly large in vehicle mode, he is short in robot mode, even shorter than Siege Sideswipe.

As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard stand.

The stand depicts several destroyed buildings during the Battle of Chicago.

He has a small Gatling gun that pegs on the outside of his forearm, it's a bit small in comparison but still manages to look pretty good attached there.

Poseability is pretty standard, although the kibble blocks some movement of his knees.

A good looking robot mode, even if hindered by the kibble on his back.

OVERALL:

Roadbuster is a solid figure.  He is not the best that the line has given us, although this is the best toy we've had of the character thus far.  The vehicle mode is good and the robot looks good, but the shellforming nature and a huge amount of back kibble are some pretty big negatives.

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Track Lab (PS4 / PSVR)

Track Lab is a musical puzzle VR game exclusively for the PlayStation VR.  It requires move controllers in order to play, which does restrict its audience.  Using two move controllers means you can use both hands but the gameplay only really requires one hand.  After a brief tutorial upon starting the game where you’ll learn some of the “cubes” that you will be using, you’ll be able to dive straight into all the game has to offer.  There are two modes, Evolver Mode which gives you a variety of puzzles to solve, and Creation Mode, which allows you to create your own music tracks.

The Evolver Mode is basically a tutorial to help you get your head around the tools in order to create your own music.  This is a purely single player game, and Evolver Mode combines puzzle solving with music creation elements.  There are four “genres” ranging from Relax to Energetic.  Each one has three difficulties, and each difficulty has eight puzzles, making a total of 96 puzzles.  In order to solve each puzzle, you have to get the light pulse to go through all the sound bubbles as well as reaching the various goal cubes.  Each puzzle gives you some specific cubes to help redirect the light pulse.  You use the move controller to grab and play it anywhere on the grid.  It’s intuitive to pick up and as you go through the puzzles, you’ll start to compose a track.

The cubes that you’re given to help redirect the light pulse includes angled deflectors, splitters to split the light pulse into more, and cubes that speed up or slow down the pulse.Easy difficulty is, as you’d expect, very easy.  It is designed to ease you into the gameplay rather than present any challenge.  It allows you to gain familiarity with the various pieces and gets you ready for the higher difficulties.  Medium difficulty is still fairly simple.  There are times where it will try and trick you with an obvious “solution”.  That is until you start putting the cubes into the grid and realize that you don’t have enough to make that solution work.  Then you’ll have to change your conception of what the solution should be and find a way to make it work with what you have.

The hardest difficulty is a mixture of easy puzzles and some really tough ones.  The ones requiring you to time the multiple light pulses in order to open up gates is really annoying and frustrating.  In the more complicated puzzles, you have to observe what is going on at first since it gets pretty crazy with the multiple light pulses, varying speeds, and it bouncing off heaps of things.  It’s confusing to try to see the big picture right away; it’s much more practical if you focus on one section at a time.

All the puzzles will only take you around one to three hours to complete.  Afterwards, and this is the biggest draw of the game, and where you should spend most of your time, is the Creation Mode.  This is where you construct your own loops to create musical tracks.  Creation Mode has a lot of sound effects and all the same tools as what was used in the puzzles.  There are no restrictions on what you want to construct, and while there are limits on the maximum amount of items you can put in a track, it’s enough.  You can mix up to four tracks at once to create complex pieces of music.  You’re able to save your tracks but if you’re not into the creation aspect, then there’s not much else for you to do.

The graphics are simple but they work well.  The neon colors suits the game and it looks awesome on the more complicated puzzles with effects going off everything.  The VR totally immerses you as it feels you can grab, pull, and put stuff anywhere you want like it is actually there.  Combined with the music that is slowly coming together as you complete each puzzle, and it is a neat effect.

Overall Track Lab is an interesting and intriguing game.  The puzzles themselves are fun enough, although not enough to justify the purchase price.  However, if you are into creating your own music tracks and other bits and pieces, then you can spend quite a while in the game.  It was released at a low price so it may be worth it as a short puzzle game showcasing VR.

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The Beyond (2017)

The Beyond is a science fiction film and it has an interesting premise.  Taking on the form of a found footage film (although this aspect is downplayed heavily), we follow the head of NASA as they experience a never-before-encountered phenomenon.  A pocket has appeared right about Earth which seem to take on the form of what would be the remnants of a supernova.  Nicknamed "the void", NASA scrambles to try and understand what this is, particularly since they can peer through it and see something hazily on the other side.  Unfortunately, this interesting concept only forms the first part of the movie, and for the bulk of its length, it veers off on a tangent.  While it is still related to the issue on hand, it spends way too much time on something that feels something completely different.  It is only until the climax before it comes back to the issue and finally does the big reveal.  While intriguing, it spends too long on providing an exposition dump on ideals that pulls you away from enjoying the film fully.  At the end of it, you wonder why so little happens in such a long time and that is its biggest flaw.