Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a spinoff of the Harry Potter franchise and set before the events of the Harry Potter films.  The film follows the in-universe writer Newt Scamander on his trip to America.  It taking place in another country brings a change to the atmosphere and the focus on magical beasts shows potential.  Unfortunately, the film ends up being derivative and extremely bland with poor pacing.  The heavy reliance on CGI that isn't that great to begin with, severely hurts the scenes and the beasts aren't fantastic at all.  Their designs does not feel like much effort has gone into them.  The characters are uninteresting and the plot is predictable.  There are too many scenes which bloat the film causing it to feel like it is overly long.  There are no surprises and the way the wizards and witches fight is different to what we have seen before such that it feels like it is breaking the rules which had already been set in the previous films.  While fans of the universe will find something to enjoy, it does not add enough to the universe to be addictive, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them feels like something with the intention to milk the franchise for all its worth.

Attack of Titan - Season 2 (2017)

After three years of waiting, the eagerly anticipated second season of Attack on Titan was finally released but at only 12 episodes long.  This series is based upon the manga of the same name.  The plot takes place in a world where Titans, giant humanoid creatures, roam the land.  The last known pocket of humanity lives inside an area surrounded by giant walls, where they had a century of peace before the Titans breached it.  Now, humanity is desperately fighting for their own survival.  Not much is known about the Titans, however, for some unknown reason, they target humans to eat them.  They often ignore all other animals and go directly for humans.

The first season main starred Eren, Mikasa and Armin, as well as a host of other supporting characters, who were part of the army in which they use specialized equipment.  The equipment utilizes a combination of retractable grappling hooks and gas to propel them vertically and horizontally in order to combat the Titans.  The equipment is attached to their waist, allowing them to zip around (similar to Spiderman), although they are not as useful on flat plains due to the lack of buildings and trees for them to hook onto.  The first episode continues straight after the first season where the Female Titan was defeated and the wall cracked showing a Titan set within it.

Putting Eren, Mikasa and Armin into the background in favor of the other support characters instead, the first few episodes throws various new mysteries including another Abnormal Titan, gigantic and covered in fur, acting quite unlike any other Titan we had encountered so far.  Each episode ends in a cliffhanger that annoyingly makes you want to watch the next episode immediately.  Every episode ends in some sort of dramatic revelation that is designed to raise many more queries from the viewer.  While it does hook you, it is also frustrating when you just want to find out at least something about the nature of the Titans.  Attack on Titan succeeds in communicating the sheer terror and horror the characters must feel in such situations.  They are forced to fight against the superior Titans, backed into a corner, feeling helpless and hopeless, knowing that they are right in front of you, ready to eat you.

The intense atmosphere is also felt when they are travelling at night through Titan infested areas, carefully portraying the scariness and tension when you expect a Titan is just going to jump out and kill you.  Coming off from that, no supporting characters are safe since it is usually the case of it a character suddenly gets more screentime, they will probably die.  On the other hand, there are inspiring adrenaline-filled moments such as when the Survey Corps charge into battle even though it was an impossible situation.  What makes these scenes better are the excellent pieces of music, Season 2 reuses the soundtrack from the first season coupled with remixed.  The pacing of the storytelling is uneven; it skips between different parties and different time frames, jumping back a few hours, a few years, and then forward back to the present.

The jumping around in time would break off an intense moment where the characters are just about to battle in order to do a flashback of the daily mundane lives of the characters before the Titans broke through.  It is a good thing that Eren doesn't have much screentime because when he finally becomes more of the focus in the second half of the season, he still sucks, he's still stubborn and still quite useless.  Even in his Titan form, he is thrown around overwhelmingly easily, giving way to his anger and making mistakes.  He does redeem himself slightly during the battle in his Titan form leading to an epic showdown that was exhilarating and amazing.

Unfortunately, no matter how cool Eren was in his small moments of glory, he is one of the weaker aspect of the series.  You feel that Eren is so set in his way of thinking that the two Titans are evil, that he doesn't try to understand them even when it is so obvious that there is another reason behind why they're doing what they are doing (although it is also the Titans' fault for not elaborating in the first place).  Mikasa is fixated completely towards saving Eren in this season that she does nothing else and this clouds her normally sound judgement.  Then Armin is just being Armin, pushed off to the side and in one scene, is quite cruel.  The season doesn't paint them in any good light and serves to making them annoying and useless characters.

As expected, the major plot points of this season are the revelation of more Titans living amongst humans.  The series keeps raising the question on why they are hiding, what their plan is, and why do they reveal themselves now.  One of the most frustrating aspects is the fact that other characters seem to know more about the nature of the Titans but are keeping them a secret.  It seems that character motivations are hard to decipher, especially when they keep a large chunk of it hidden.  Not to mention that we never understood Annie, now with the other characters introduced, we're only getting bits and pieces so with what we are given, it seems to be a stretch on why the characters are acting this way.

The final episode as expected will not satisfy you if you were expecting some sort of closure or answer.  The final few episodes were very intense in keeping the viewers guessing how the current scenario will pan out.  As noted by one of the characters at the end, at least it is a step towards the truth and while we have learnt a lot behind the mystery of the Titans in this season, it raised so many other questions that it is hard to feel that you have a grasp on anything.  Nonetheless, you will be hyped for a third season.  Overall, Attack on Titan Season 2 is an engaging season.  There is odd pacing here and there and too much teasing/foreshadowing, but it did not disappoint in what it promised to deliver.

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Book Review: Terraformars 3

Review:  #745
Title:  Terraformars 3
Series:  Terraformars - 3rd volume
Author:  Yu Sasuga
Read Before:  no
Comments:  After the cockroaches invade the spaceship without it even arriving into Mars, things looked grim until the officers show their stuff and we see that humans might have a chance.  The cockroaches are shown to be overpowered and with some intelligence, which makes it a little bit more unbelievable that they managed this in a measly 500 years, although it starts to hint that there are other factors.  The injection of a drug to morph the characters with insect/animal traits looks cool but still sounds impractical.  As the characters split it, unfortunately the storytelling lacks proper pacing.  Only after a character is killed, it tries to build sympathy through a series of flashbacks in order to dive and explore that character’s personality, their relationships and their motivations.  Apologies, but by that point it is too late, and you are cutting short suspenseful scenes of huge number of cockroaches attacking the teams with slow paced flashbacks which feels inconsequential.  It doesn’t ruin the whole story but does put a stop in it.

Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Blackout

Review:  #445
Name:  Blackout
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Leader (Wave 1)
Mold Status:  new

HELICOPTER MODE:

Movie Blackout now gets the Leader treatment he deserves and the MH-53 Pave Low helicopter mode is stunning.

While most of the plastic is unpainted, there are still plenty of sculpted detailing and tampographs.

Blackout is huge in this mode, above is a comparison against Age of Extinction Leader Optimus.  Not only do the rotors make Blackout seem bigger than he is, the body of the helicopter is already pretty big.

That being said, the rear third of the helicopter is hollow.  However, Scorponok fills up some of that space being in storage there.

The main rotor and tail rotor both rotate freely.  The rotors have a huge span which makes the figure really impressive.

As is fairly traditional with Blackout toys, he comes with a mini-Scorponok.

Scorponok is extremely well painted with silver and gold.

The mini-figure doesn't have much articulation, two joints for the tail and swivels for the claws.  These joints are just for tucking away when attached to Blackout.

There are three pieces of landing gear but they are all solid molded plastic.  In this age of cost-cutting, that's to be expected.

The proportions are a lot better than previous toy incarnations of the character.

The amount of sculpted details is crazy, with rivets all over

There are also details as inspired by the film.

A fantastic helicopter mode that doesn't have any major flaws.

TRANSFORMATION:

Blackout's transformation is complex and to be honest, isn't really that fun due to the heavy reliance on panels.  An interesting (and fairly lazy) design decision is that the robot mode is comprised of the front two-thirds of the helicopter and the rear third forms a hollow backpack.  This also means that the figure can be a bit spindly in robot mode due to not using all the mass it could.  Going back to helicopter mode can be painful with the numerous panels forming the shoulders and arms being annoying to peg together.  The first transformation out of the packaging can be scary thanks to the overly tight pegs for his shoulders, which you will notice is so tight that when you try and detach it, it is warping the plastic instead.  Despite that, it is an impressive transformation scheme and the way the feet form from the sides of the helicopter is clever.

ROBOT MODE:

The robot mode is where Blackout truly shines.  It is crazy how closely it mimics the onscreen character model.

Unlike previous attempts, this Blackout finally nails down the unique cape formed from the rotor blades and it looks awesome.

The headsculpt is crazily detailed but feels a little bit off in person due to being a bit flat.

Despite being huge in helicopter mode, in robot mode due to the rotor assembly, Blackout is shorter than other Leaders.

A comparison against his wave-mate Grimlock shows the massive size difference.

And finally, a comparison against the original Voyager toy and it shows how far toy engineering (and a difference in size), has gone in the past ten years.

All Studio Series toys comes with cardboard dioramas depicting a key scene that they were a part of.  Blackout is designated number 8 and his scene is the one from the opening moments of the first film where he attacks a military base.

The dioramas look nice but takes up a lot of space.

The impressive sculpting and attention to detail is rampant here.  The iconic rotor assembly above his head is spot on.

Scorponok can peg onto Blackout's back kibble.

Otherwise, he can accompany Blackout but doesn't really have anywhere else to go on the figure.

Articulation is pretty good with joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, needs and ankles.

Despite the plethora of joints, the kibble hampers poseability.  He has a gigantic piece of kibble on his back (the rear third of the helicopter) which gets in the way of his legs.

This isn't to mention the kibble surrounding his arms and shoulders makes it difficult to move them without hitting something else.

The tail rotor on his left arm is detachable and while the instructions has the rotor set farther back of his arms, you can reverse the position to approximate the way how Blackout used it as a weapon in the climax of the first film.

While playability isn't perfect, the accuracy of the design is and this is a wickedly amazing robot mode.

OVERALL:

There is no doubt that this is THE definitive version of the character.  Finally, the Leader size class does the character justice and both modes are amazing.  While the transformation can be scary with the tight shoulders and a heavy reliance on panels, it is worth it.  Blackout is highly recommended and is one of the best Leader classed toy we have had in years.

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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

Grand Theft Auto:  San Andreas is the sequel to Vice City and is the final mainline GTA game to be released for the PS2.  It carries a grander scope than the previous two games combined.  The map itself is massive and it is incredible that such a big and detailed world was able to be created like this at the time of its release.  As the undisputed king in open world games, San Andreas marks the return of all the features from previous games and then adds a lot more to it.  We see familiar features such as the day/night cycle (along with annoying restrictions on certain missions that can only be taken up within a specific time period), carjacking at any time, a huge amount of freedom to explore the world and the Wanted Level where police will increase their efforts to apprehend you when you perform crime.  The game utilizes save points but there are various properties on the map which you can buy.  Each of these includes a save point, therefore you don't have to traverse half the map just to save.

Weather effects are more varied with sandstorms, fog and rain amongst the other more standard sunshine and cloudy weather patterns.  New additions include limited environmental destruction such as vehicles that can now break fences, the character CJ being able to climb structures and a skill system, introducing RPG-elements into the series.  The skill system is such that the more you do a certain activity, the better CJ will be at it.  For example, riding a motorbike for a long time and leveling up your skills will reduce the chances of being flung off when you hit an object.  Or when you use a specific type of gun enough times, it will improve your accuracy.  CJ can eat food which he can then convert into stamina and muscles by going to the gym, leaning new moves and increasing his health.  Furthermore, he doesn't die instantly when he touches water, he can swim now.  CJ can crouch, allowing you to take cover during gunfights and do stealth kills when sneaking up on enemies.

The standard side missions such as police missions, ambulance missions and taxi missions are a given.  New are burglary missions where you rob houses and gang wars.  Certain areas will be controlled by enemy gangs and as CJ, you can incite a gang war, defeat the opposing gang and then claim the territory for yourself.  Finally, for the first time, you can freely control the camera without going into first person view.  This is extremely welcomed and makes the game a lot more fun.  Gunfights is what most of the missions will involve.  It retains the same lock-on system using the R1 button, and then attack/shooting using the Circle button.  You can change targets on the fly with L2 and R2 buttons.  If you wish, there is also a free-aim option but using the analogue sticks to aim can be difficult.  Unfortunately, aiming in a vehicle is horrible.  It is even worse when you have to contend with your own vehicle's health otherwise you fail the mission.  Heaven help you if it is the last part of a long mission because hooray, you get to repeat everything up to that point just to get another chance at it.  Free-aiming with the analogue sticks with sensitivity that you cannot toggle while the vehicle is swerving at high speed is definitely not fun.

The terrible handling of vehicles from the previous two games is the same here.  It is easy to spin out of control while turning or touching an object.  This crappy handling is frustrating in the racing missions and chase missions.  To advance the story, you complete missions.  The mission structure is exactly the same as the previous games.  Each mission will have multiple cutscenes to tell the story.  There can be multiple missions available at any one time and you have the freedom to pick which ones you want to do first.  Unfortunately, there are no checkpoints within the missions (bar on) so if you fail one, you will have to restart the whole thing again, including driving to the starting point.  There are specific missions where if you fail once, the second time you can skip part of the driving to go straight to the mission.  The missions encourage trial and error.  The attention to detail is impressive in that there are some unorthodox ways to beat the missions such as shooting the train operator to stop a train.  The early missions eases you into the game and in general, most of the missions in San Andreas are easier than III and Vice City.

There is an annoying trend of the game forcing you to trek over half the (enormous) map from one mission to the next.  This occurs within a mission too where you have to drive from one city to another, only for the next mission to be in the first city...  This is really annoying and significantly pads out the game.  With 101 missions in the game, this is the longest Grand Theft Auto game ever.  The horrible controls come to the forefront towards the later part of the game where it forces you to pilot aircrafts and pass through a series of training missions.  This is fine... except that the place is extremely sensitive to control, making it easy to spin and crash.  While it is a technical achievement in fitting this huge world without any loading screens between "islands" like the previous two games, the PS2 simply wasn't powerful enough to make it completely perfect.  There is a short draw distance with plenty of pop up.  If you are on the plane travelling too fast, the environments will not load fast enough and it will show up as low-res models instead.  The story follows Carl Johnson, or CJ, who returns to Los Santos after many years.  He is part of the Grove Street Families gang.  The gang is decline in its power and influence and CJ is not seen in a good light since he had been away for so long.

The first part of the story is more grounded and has CJ bringing the gang back to its former glory.  Along the way, he is constantly being forced to help out corrupted cops.  Eventually, CJ will travel to the country side and other cities to help out other characters, building up his influence and power.  The first part feels more personal than previous GTA games and you root for CJ.  Once he exists Los Santos though, it ends up being like the other games and CJ is helping out one character after another with the story becoming weaker, following a more predictable path.  CJ will end up doing literally everything from learning how to fly to grabbing a jetpack to breaking into secured military areas.  The finale is a long mission and is extremely tough.  This is also the only mission to have a midway checkpoint which may seem like a boon, but you still have to repeat huge chunks of the mission if you fail.  Lastly, there are plenty of minigames that you may never discover if you just focus on the main story.  There are rhythm games, gambling, having a girlfriend, basketball and pool.  There's so much to do it is mindblowing.  Overall, Grand Theft Auto:  San Andreas is amazing.  The world is huge and immersive, with plenty of varied environments such as deserts, urban and rural areas.  The signature freedom and amount of things to do will entertain you for hours on end.  While some of the missions are tough, in the grand scheme of things, San Andreas is one of the best games that is still fun today.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One is the first Star Wars spinoff between the numbered instalments.  The film tells the story of how the Death Star plans were obtained, which was only mentioned briefly in the original films.  Surprisingly, it starts off far back and details a bit about the construction of the Death Star and the key characters behind it.  The film is effectively a completely new set of characters, all unconnected to the other films and some aren't as great as others.  However, while the pacing after the first hour drags, the climax is fantastic and heaps of fun, culminating everything together into those final moments including cameos of well-known characters.  Rogue One does a great job of expanding the story and all the pain and losses experienced in order to deliver the plans.  One of the standouts of the film is its music which is grand and suits each scene well.  The occasional humor also helps keep it going.  Overall, with its mainly likeable characters, a solid story and a satisfying payoff, Rogue One is well worth a viewing that is suitable even as a standalone.

Book Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 17

Review:  #744
Title:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 17
Series:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project - 17th volume
Author:  Osamu Takahashi
Read Before:  no
Comments:  This volume is pretty much more of the same thing and it is hard to remember anything noteworthy about it.  You get the usual fan service where Shinji will somehow magically end up in a compromising position, no matter how awkward and weird the fall would have been.  You also have the typical tsundere attitude from Asuka, and the shyness of Rei.  Suzuhara and Hikari’s relationships is surprisingly more interesting (and natural), which makes their dramas more fun to read about.  A large chunk of the volume is dedicated to the cast preparing a play for the school festival, too bad it is Shakespeare which has been done to death already in other works.
Rating:  6/10