Long Shot (2019)

Long Shot is a romantic comedy about an unlikely pair who falls in love and staying together in a relationship.  Fred Flarsky was a controversial journalist, but was recently put out of a job when his company was taken over by another.  On the other hand, Charlotte Field is the most powerful woman in the United States, being the Secretary of State.  The pair meet up at an unlikely place and then hits it off.  Coincidentally, they had already known each other as Charlotte was a babysitter for Fred during high school.  The pair easily falls in love and has to go through many trials due to worrying about the public's potential reception of their relationship.  The comedy part is hit and miss.  There are a few high points with great pieces of dialogue and scenes.  Then there are the long lulls between those high points where too little happens to keep the movie going for two hours.  There are some ridiculous elements to the film to help with the lighter atmosphere.  As unlikely as it seems, the ending does the characters justice, and there is great chemistry between the lead pair.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Crib Watch (Series 3)

Review:  #623

Name:  Crib Watch

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  N/A

Line:  BotBots

Year of Release:  2019

Size Class:  BotBot (Series 3)

Mold Status:  repaint of Screen Field

ALTERNATE MODE:

Crib Watch transforms into a baby monitor.  Considering the original mold was used as a smartphone, this is actually quite a clever repaint.

Then again, it's only a rectangular piece of plastic and all the other details are painted on.  It is one of the bigger BotBots, above is a comparison against a Legion figure.

This is a decent alternate mode that works well.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is really easy.  The top half folds down to reveal the face and flip up the horns on the top of its head.  Then you pull out the arms from the sides and flip the legs down.

ROBOT MODE:

Crib Watch's robot mode is a tad bit weak.  The main problem are the arms which barely stick out far enough from the body.  The chest panel also doesn't sit flush with the torso although this could be a one-off molding issue with this specific figure.

Despite the taller body, Crib Watch has good balance and doesn't fall over easily thanks to the large footprint.  Crib Watch is actually one of the biggest figure in the BotBots line.

The face is painted on and it plays on the fact that looking after a baby is difficult work.  The light pink and blue used also supplements the theme.

Articulation is its weak point, only the arm can swivel forward and back, that's it.

OVERALL:

Crib Watch is an okay figure.  The alternate mode is novel but the robot mode is weak mainly due to the limited arms.

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The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods (2019-2020)

The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods is the third season of anime that’s based on the manga series. It is once again at 24 episodes long. The anime takes place in a fantasy world where humans and non-humans live together. There was a great holy battle several millennia ago that caused the Goddess Clan and Demon Clan to completely disappear. Now, the Demon Clan is threatening to return and wreck havoc in the world. The only hope for humanity is a ragtag group of unlikely characters who has teamed up, known as the Seven Deadly Sins.

The season starts off by taking place straight after the previous season, where the Ten Commandments of the Demon Clan have been revived and are still out there. The world is bleak, as the Commandments take over several villages and effectively enslaving and literally consuming the villagers. As a result, the population of the capital, already in low spirits after the battle and destruction, start to have shortages of food. After a short period to show us how several of the members of the Seven Deadly Sins has joined back together to fight, it then changes direction. The holy war from 3000 years ago is shown and fleshed out. Up until this point, we had only known snippets based on several offhanded remarks from the characters. Now, it details out the events towards the end of the war, showing how the Goddess Clan may not be as good or holy as you would expect, and even the Demon Clan has some reason for you to be sympathetic with.

There are some vague points and elements to the story that is harder to understand at first. From how several characters turn up both in the past and present, or how they are shown to be on different sides of the war. You have in the back of your mind that they will reveal it in due course but it’s hard to determine whether the silence and wait will be worth it.

As the Ten Commandments were shown in the last season to be extremely strong, even more so than several members of The Seven Deadly Sins, our protagonists have to somehow level up. The way it is done is better than Meliodas, but it still feels contrived at times. Basically, each member experiences something like an epiphany, and based on that growth, they suddenly gain in power. Unfortunately, the usage of power levels was already lame and cringy in the last season, but it continues to be used here and feels even worse since it amplifies everything that is wrong with the season.

There are a lot of giveaways showing off how low budget the anime had. While Meliodas and his relationship with Elizabeth have reached a peak and is significantly explored, you know that it will be a sad event. It is supposed to be mind-blowing, but that the poor storytelling ruins the moment so it loses a lot of its impact. Sure, there are several important key moments within the season, but it kind of conveys the feeling that it isn’t progressing too much. We have the first third being flashbacks, then the middle focusing on Meliodas and his demonic past, and then the final section on a big battle, and not exactly against the opponent that you would expect. Every section is dragged on for twice as long as it should have, and done very poorly.

The quality of animation dips frequently. Character faces and their proportions can be extremely off in certain scenes, even during close ups. There’s also a weird hybrid censorship where some blood is colored white, while others are the normal red. It seems like if the blood is spewing out from an attack then it’ll be white, but if the character’s already dead or just on them, then it’ll be red. Then it gives up altogether and foregoes showing off any sort of action so no blood at all, problem solved!

You can’t help but notice as the season goes on that there is the lack of movement and an abundance of static scenes during battles. It deliberately slows down the movements of the characters as if to emphasize power, but it is just terribly underwhelming. It is actually quite impressive at how it manages to make the battles, which are supposed to be epic, so uneventful and boring.

The story has become messy. It is a vast change from the simple recruiting story of the first season, and the slow threat of an invading demon army in the second. The addition of the Goddess Clan, the sidelining of a lot of the supporting characters, and removing any events that highlighted the strong camaraderie of the Seven Deadly Sins has pretty much removed all the enjoyment from this season. As if that wasn’t enough, it easily forgives the characters who had done so much evil and killed so many characters. They end up switching sides and becoming good, or at least neutral, without any repercussions for their past actions.

All of this culminates into the ending, which is supposedly a climactic all-out battle between the two forces. This ending, like the rest of the season, is terrible and weak. It ends at a really bad spot where it doesn’t even feel like it resolved anything at all. It sort of just… ends and you’re left wondering if there is actually a missing episode after this. Overall, The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods is terrible. While the previous seasons weren’t masterpieces, they were at least enjoyable for what they were. Wrath of the Gods loses everything about that: all the humor is gone, all the action is gone and all the epic music is gone. What we’re left with is a hollow shell, terrible story-writing and blandness everywhere.

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Doki Doki Literature Club! (PC)

Doki Doki Literature Club! is a free-to-play visual novel that is heavily inspired by Japanese visual novels and anime.  Despite being an indie game, it looks great. The story starts off like your typical dating sim in the romantic comedy genre.  You name your protagonist and meet your childhood friend Sayori before heading off to high school.  She mentions that today you have to choose a club to join and why don’t you join hers.  After checking it out, which is the literature club, you decide to join.  There are three other members:  Monika, Natsuki and Yuri, who are all cute girls.  Sayori is your typical cheerful childhood friend; Monika is the club president and so she is mature and organized; Natsuki is small and has a tsundere personality; while Yuri has a mature body but is very shy.

Thus begins your normal carefree life as you spend time in the literature club.  An activity that the club members decide upon is to create poems to share during club time.  Each night, you’ll pick words from a list to create your poem.  The words you choose for your poem will affect how much each girl likes you once you share your poem with the club the next day.  It seems like it is a bright colorful story with such a cheery and upbeat atmosphere.

A playthrough is very short; although it depends on your reading speed.  If you read fast you can easily finish a playthrough within two hours, otherwise it can take upwards to four hours.  However, this is where the game earns its reputation as being creepy, and justifies the warning when you first start the game.  It touches upon people hiding their feelings beneath their exterior and dealing with problems on the inside such as depression.  The first playthrough has such a shocking ending that jumps out at you, which makes it very memorable.  There are options to skip already read text which will allow you to breeze subsequent playthroughs.

A highlight of the game is how the story affects the game itself.  As you play, you start to have your suspicions on what is happening.  Just a note to definitely find out where the game is installed in your PC, and then check that from time to time as there is a very clever way in how the game’s story integrates with outside its world, so to speak.

There is a reason why the warning is there when you start the game.  There are themes of depression and personal harm.  It kind of makes a point that people can seemingly be okay on the outside but have problems that they may be hiding.  While the revelation provides more light to this, it’s still a valid thought.  Once you know the truth behind some of the characters, you start to read their dialogue more carefully, trying to ascertain whether it has a double meaning.

The game will break the fourth wall, and most, if not all, first time players will get the bad ending.  The creepy factor of the game comes from the unexplained events that happen while you’re progressing that you do not expect.  You feel like you’re losing control, and coupled with the shift of the upbeat cheery music into something that’s more at home in a horror game, it’ll send chills up your spine.  The bad ending is really well done, and it manages to keep surprising you.  You watch on in horror at what is happening, with no way to control or stop it.

Getting the “best ending” will take around another two hours as you have to replay the game and do specific things to fulfill the conditions.  While a lot of the content is recycled, it is worthwhile both in terms of the actual story ending and also what the game’s developer was aiming to do.  It does something that you completely don’t expect, and it challenges the status quo of game storytelling.  It’s quite thought provoking and it’ll stick in your mind for the days after you’ve finished the game.

Overall, Doki Doki Literature Club! is definitely an experience that is unlike any other game.  It lures you in unsuspectingly with its premise and cheery music, but then once you’re comfortable, does all sorts of little things here and there to cause you plenty of discomfort.  The cheery music becomes creepy, even more so when you recognize it is the same tune.  The characters behave differently and once the revelation of what is actually happen dawns on you, every time you play the game, you can’t help but feel that there are several layers of the game.  While short by visual novel standards, it’s definitely a worthwhile experience and the horror elements aren’t that bad since its psychological horror rather than shock horror.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Cliffjumper (Deluxe)

Review:  #622

Name:  Cliffjumper

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2020

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 10)

Mold Status:  heavy remold of Offroad Bumblebee

VEHICLE MODE:

Cliffjumper transforms into a red Cybertronian race car and this is a very unique and slick looking vehicle.

It is nice that the back isn't gappy, there is a panel to help give the vehicle a complete feel.

In vehicle mode, Cliffjumper is noticeably shorter than other Deluxes, but isn't too bad overall.

He is very flat though, which adds to his speedy feel.  The only gimmick here are the four rolling wheels.

Since the top of the vehicle is clear plastic, there is a surprisingly large amount of red paint used here.

This is a great vehicle mode with no flaws.

TRANSFORMATION:

While you may not realize from the vehicle mode, Cliffjumper is actually a very heavy remold of Offroad Bumblebee from the same line, retaining a similar transformation scheme.  Sadly, pretty much the whole vehicle is a shell that compresses into a backpack.  The front splits to form the legs, with the bumper being his heels.  There is a lot of junk that forms his lower legs and they do not tab together properly.  The back then forms his torso and arms.  The chest piece is faux, and the joints are actually really tight, which can be worrying given that it is clear plastic as well.

ROBOT MODE:

Cliffjumper's robot mode looks pretty good, he only reuses a few parts from Offroad Bumblebee so you can count this as effectively a new mold.

Unfortunately, Cliffjumper has a lot of kibble.  Not only does he have most of the vehicle on his back, but his lower legs are a mess as well.

The headsculpt is surprisingly busy, and kind of doesn't suit given the body type feels simpler than a typical Movie design.

Cliffjumper is terribly small, one of the small Deluxes which can make the Deluxe price point a bit hard to stomach.  Above is a comparison with Siege Sideswipe, showing off that Cliffjumper is a whole head shorter than even that short figure.

The biggest flaw of this figure is how the panels in his lower legs are supposed to peg, but there are other pieces in the way so now it will flop loosely.  It's quite annoying when his legs fall apart whenever you try and pose him.

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

The stand shows off a scene from Cybertron.  Cliffjumper looks conspicuously small on the stand though.

Articulation is very good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.

As mentioned earlier, the legs are prone to falling apart since it does not peg into place properly.

He comes with a Gatling gun.

The gun pegs over his arm to make it look as if it had transformed into the weapon.

When not in use, the gun can store on his back.  This is shown in the instructions, but it seems it doesn't actually peg anywhere, rather it just sits loosely in the gap.

Just like with vehicle mode, the robot mode surprisingly has a lot of red paint.

This is a good robot mode, it's just a shame with his small size and the messy legs.

OVERALL:

Cliffjumper is a good looking toy with a slick vehicle mode and a cool robot mode.  It is impressive at how much new stuff it has compared to the base figure of Offroad Bumblebee, this is effectively a brand new figure with minor reused parts.  Unfortunately, there are some pretty hefty flaws such as the shellforming nature of the figure, the tiny size for a Deluxe, and the panels on his legs that flop around due to its inability to peg where it is was designed to.

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Cold Pursuit (2019)

Cold Pursuit is an action thriller film starring Liam Neeson.  As you'd expect, he Neeson plays the characters with a knack for killer.  While his character, Coxman, is a normal snowplow driver, his son is killed by some drug dealers.  Thus, Coxman tracks down his son's killers, from the low ranking members, gaining a name each time, all the way up.  At first, it would seem that the film would be the killer variant of trading your way up from a worthless item to that of a valuable one.  However, while it has a strong start, it falters towards the middle as numerous characters are introduced.  Coxman eventually loses significant amounts of meaningful screentime and it is only up until the climax where all these characters come back to together in order to resolve the issue.  While the tone of the film was excellent, having a slow methodical atmosphere, it's too bad it never has too much going for it in the "thriller" element, so it lacks suspense.  You don't even get the full bout of satisfaction at the end of the film that one would expect.  Cold Pursuit is an average film which loses its appeal due to a slow pacing and too many characters that don't contribute much to the plot.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Sardank (Series 3)

Review:  #621

Name:  Sardank

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  N/A

Line:  BotBots

Year of Release:  2019

Size Class:  BotBot (Series 3)

Mold Status:  redeco of Big Cantuna

ALTERNATE MODE:

Sardank is a colorful redeco of Big Cantuna, and transforms into a half opened can of tuna, with the tuna head sticking out.

It's weaker than the original color scheme due to the neon green and metallic gold used.

As a BotBot Sardank is very small, above is a comparison against Legion Barricade.  The sculpting and idea is good but the color scheme is a tad bit too unrealistic.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation to robot mode is fun, as the tin pretty much splits into quarters and form the four limbs.  The tuna head then become the robot head.

ROBOT MODE:

Sardank has a great robot mode, mainly due to the bulky powerful proportions.

Furthermore, there is no kibble, which is quite impressive at this size.

The tuna head doubles up as the robot head, so that adds another unique aspect to the figure.

Just like alternate mode, Sardank is tiny, above is a comparison against Legion Crosshairs.

Articulation is one of the best within the BotBots line, purely due to the balljoints used for all four limbs and the head.

OVERALL:

Sardank is a great mold, but the color scheme leaves a lot to be desired.  If you haven't gotten the mold already, then Sardank is a satisfactory substitute, but the original Big Cantuna is better.

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