#spoiler-free reviews

[what-the-fang]

Self-Pub Summer Review: Blood Price, by A.L. Wright

Hello again, friends! Before we get into the review proper, I just wanted to say that I really am sorry for the unscheduled hiatus. Yes, I have been very busy lately, but unfortunately I must admit that life getting in the way isn’t the only reason why it’s taken me so long to write this review for what is really quite a short book. It was also… well, it was also kind of the book itself… but…

[rebel-ezra]

pjo show next week how we feeling !!!

[primary-visions]

Here is the overview of reviews I’m seeing for the movie:

Critics who’ve never played a fnaf game: it sucks and the movie never should have been made.

Fans of fnaf: FUCK YEAH!!! THIS MOVIE WAS AMAZING!! HOLY SHITTT!!

It has a fucking 26% on rotten tomatoes 😭

[dalekinapaintedparadise]

[toboldlygoaway]

My 100% spoiler free review of The Wild Robot is this:

for an animated, family film, this movie is pretty long, with a runtime around 1hr 45min. I saw this movie the first chance I could and there were quite a good number of families in the audience, some with kids under 7. The Wild Robot. Despite its run time, completely captivated the entire audience and I didn't hear a single kid grow restless. I only heard one little kid, maybe 5 years old, ask a clarifying question at one scene. That was it.

I have seen loads of family movies in theaters, bad ones, good ones, pretty ones, most of them shorter than The Wild Robot, some as much as half an hour shorter, I don't think I have ever sat in a theater with that many kids and had as quite as an audience as that. This movie is that captivating, that engaging, that good, please go see this movie. Do yourself a favor and see it in theaters if you're able.

[kirichiro]

[deoidesign]

Hm... I'm feeling benevolent...

[weepingchoir]

When high school acquaintances tell you to invest in crypto, you absolutely must disinvest. Similarly, I hope the glut of narratives about mental illness, particularly those in which mental illness is vincible, signal a downturn in the Americultural cache of trauma as fetish object. This seems unlikely, so long as yoga remains profitable, but real change starts small.

Smile was, categorically, about mental illness. Fortunately it was about how mental illness ruins you, kills you, and hurts others besides. A sizable chunk of the audience thought this constituted some sort of moral failure. Me personally, I go to the arms of my loved ones to feel healed, and horror movies, to feel scared.

Smile 2 thinks this point has not been made firmly enough, which is why it opens on a catastrophic attempt from a crazed gunman to kill just the right number of people. After this, things turn violent. If the original was a sometimes hamfisted take on suicidal depression, the sequel understands that psychosis demands a heavy hand.

The unnamed Smile Curse worms into the victim's life, masquerading as leering strangers and loved ones. It isolates and torments the victim until they kill themselves or someone else, passing the curse on to witnesses. As metaphors go, the reason behind the smiling on the first entry is obvious. When you're that depressed, you think everyone's laughing at you. The sequel's trick is that, when you're that manic, everyone is laughing at you.

The internet has made meltdowns more visible than ever, but they were never private. Public humiliation is an integral part of losing your mind. The brain anticipates this: it's voices in your head, a warped social environ driving destructive behavior.

A blindspot in the popular discourse surrounding mental health is the fact that mental illnesses, in particular those bizarre states of mind recognizable as verifiably insane, can turn you heinous. Mania makes you curse out your loved ones, and trash roomfuls of shit you don't own, cheat on your spouse and take out loans in their name. We lack the social structure to responsibly provide affected parties with emotional comfort and material safety.

What's to be done? I don't know! There is a direct correlation between effective horror and insoluble problems. To wit: the next time someone acts crazy, will we laugh at them, or just smile and nod?

[carrinth]

Yesterday I watched Transformers One and I come with a message to all sentient beings: Go watch it, it's good! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

The trailer really didn't do it justice with the tone. It's NOT a slap-stick comedy joke feast. In fact, most of their jokes were used in the trailer, which gave a grossly disproportionate impression of its jokey tone. It's about adventure, friendship and the end of that friendship. A fun, heartbreaking peek into who Orion Pax and D-16 were pre Great War.

If you're a fan of transformers, it's FILLED with lore. Definitely told by someone who knows Transformers. It you don't know much, it's VERY entry level friendly. It's an origin story, so everything is explained.

Now, of course there were some plot points me and my bro nitpicked but overall I liked it very much and hope they do more in this verse. (the VISUALS are breathtaking!) It's not doing so well in the box office which is a shame because this film felt like a good Transformers story being told.

[m00n-arin]

Actually for real, i feel that part of the barbie movie (no spoiler dw) was an ode to humanity and the complexity of being real people and i think it was done beautifully and made me tear up. It was artistic, it was real, it said things, it made me feel emotions. It definitely deserves the praise. It subverted my expectations.

[kostektyw]

Detco movies rated based on how much shit gets exploded / destroyed

The Time-Bombed Skyscraper - the whole premise is about blowing up stuff, but it's shame no trains got got, 7/10

The Fourteenth Target - it's just an underwater restaurant that is pretty out of the way from anything else and we have no prior attachment to. bonus for the helicopter crash, 5/10

The Last Wizard of the Century - an entire castle does get burned down, but it's no explosion, 6/10

Captured in Her Eyes - just some regular old murder, 0/10

Countdown to Heaven - truly a 9/11 movie. point detracted for leaving the second tower intact, 8/10

The Phantom of Baker Street - the entire thing takes place in VR, so it shouldn't even count, but no one even gets their brain blown up :( 0/10

Crossroad in the Ancient Capital - somehow nothing gets bombed or destroyed? Conan tries a little arson but is unsuccessful, -1/10

Magician of the Silver Sky - a plane gets somewhat mistreated, 2/10

Strategy Above the Depths - a whole damn ship sinks, it's all very dramatic, 9/10

The Private Eyes' Requiem - despite the constant threat of exploding people, barely anything gets exploded. half a point for Kid using a gun on some windows, 1.5/10

Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure - i guess they do find that ancient pirate ship and it immediately falls apart, 5/10

Full Score of Fear - plenty of shit gets blown up including a concert hall while no one inside realizes anything's wrong. you'd think they'd have some fire warning system in place, 10/10

The Raven Chaser - sadly no explosions, but the tower gets shot at hard, and the helicopter does not end up fine, tho no actual crash on screen, 5/10

The Lost Ship in the Sky - only a research facility we don't care about gets exploded in the opening, and that airship barely gets scratched up, 4/10

Quarter of Silence - we have a train exploding out of a tunnel, a dam blown to smithereens, and an avalanche, what more could you want, 10/10

The Eleventh Striker - who can say no to some exploding stadiums, great movie for people who hate football, 8/10

Private Eye in the Distant Sea - just a rando ship at the beginning, who cares, 1/10

Dimensional Sniper - some police cars and incredibly light bombing of the tower, eh, 3/10

Sunflowers of Inferno - a cool museum gets absolutely demolished, the burning fake sunflowers are a lovely image, plus we got some proper plane mistreatment, 10/10

The Darkest Nightmare - both an explosive car crash at the beginning and a ferris wheel gets extremely destroyed, 9/10

The Crimson Love Letter - lots of explosions, and in beautiful scenery too, 10/10

Zero the Enforcer - destroying shit with a satellite is pretty imaginative, but there was not as much destruction as i hoped, 7/10

The Fist of Blue Sapphire - they're surfing on some iconic Singaporean landmarks, meanwhile an oil ship freely wrecks shit, 11/10

The Scarlet Bullet - i fully admit i have no idea what Masumi and Conan were trying to do, both the train and station ended up looking pretty rough. 10/10

The Bride of Halloween - for a movie about bombs not all that much significant shit gets destroyed, but they do go out in style at least. bonus points for covering Shibuya in goo, 9/10

[what-the-fang]

Book Review: Nil

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last book review. I am such a naughty little book blogger who needs to be punished (Any takers? No? Ok…). In all seriousness, though, I am disappointed in myself for taking so long to review this book, since I do believe that reviews were the original intended purpose of this blog. Not to worry, for I shall not let it go this long in the future, not…

[luv-dvzt]

[natsuki208]

I just saw DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot! 🤖 🦊 🐦

Tagging: @rascalentertainments (spoiler free too)

———

I heard a LOT of people calling this film a masterpiece and it finally got me curious to see it for myself. And you know what? They were right!

The animation is certainly no surprise, being somewhat similar to ‘The Last Wish’ and it makes the environments of the movie much more pretty. The score is so well done too, and I’m already hooked to the vocal theme in the middle of the film.

As for the characters, I’m already a sucker for the humble robot types who go pass their programming, so Roz immediately grew on me since her first scene. The fox is kinda like if Nick Wilde weren’t anthro but he has his own set of differences to make him stand alone. Brightbill was just adorable too with his robot mannerisms he picked up from Roz growing up.

After I think about it, this movie gives me a lot of ‘Leafie: A Hen into the Wild’ vibes. And if you’ve seen that movie and this one, you’ll understand.

The only two cons I may have on this movie is, like everyone else, was expecting this to be more of a silent film (like Wall-e) or at least have only Roz and other robots do the talking. Not that I don’t like it that the animals talk but still (at least it’s done better here than Wish). And lastly, the pacing does feel a little too fast for my taste. It kinda rushes through a few scenes and not really giving them time to breath, if you know what I mean.

Overall, I really enjoy this movie a lot and might be rising to the top of my Dreamworks best list. I most likely might see it again soon for best robot mom and fox dad. ^^

[helluvapurf]

*sips tea seeing HB "Mastermind" making its rounds*

...Sooooo, this latest episode's content definitely was... alot, in more ways than one lol .w. Don't really have the energy atm to do a full "Pros & Cons" list like my prior reviews, soooo... have some jumbled first impressions below lmao:

NOTE: Obv there'll be some spoilers ahead so do keep note of that... aaaaand like usual these ARE just my own personal thoughts at the end of the day, so *please* try to keep things civil if you disagree with anything below. Thank you. 🙏

WOO, nice to see some more Sins introduced on-screen! 🤩Satan is pretty rad with his cowboy dragon aesthetic, the sleepy sheep lady (Belphegor, I think?) looks cute, and I do like the idea of Leviathan being a two-head split creature (tho ngl, I kiiiinda wish her "pretty" half wasn't just a taller version of the Glam twins 😭 might just be the Bi in me talking hlhjk but... Viv y u so allergic to giving us pretty monster ladiessss-)

Great to see Asmodeus, Beezlebub & Mammon back all at once, and their courtroom getups were pretty cool~ 👀Loved Ozzie & Bee's lil friendship, along with Mammon being the most annoying brother-like figure to both Bee & Ozzie lmao

BLITZ'S (almost) FINAL SPEECH TO HIS WHOLE CREW PRE-EXECUTION (+requesting M&M to take care of Loona if he died), MY HEART- 😭😭❤️For all this man's flaws/past mistakes, there's NO denying how much he loves his employees & loved ones at the end of the day (& vice-versa on their ends)... hhhhh q-q

The inner-most squee I had at the Fizz cameo & his frantic worry for Blitz (+texting Ozzie to protect his best friend), aaaaaa~ TwT 💕💕 (*also semi-related side note; but YAY a lil Verosika cameo too (loving her twin-tail hairdo~), even showing fearful concern for Blitz's fate? Aww~ 🥺🩷Plsss let this be a sign her character's not completely done in terms of screentime, I'd SO love for more Blitz/Verosika bonding moments (to maybe a potential brotp forming) as he got with Fizz! 🙏🙏*)

Striker returns, yaaaay!~ 😍 ...aaaand he's mainly just there to act like a dumb grunt to Andre's plotting, oh... 😐'least his court getup's pretty snazzy though, loving the jacket~👌

Blitz + IMP finally getting to receive some hero treatments in the public (Impkind's) eye, fireworks, street celebrations, and potential new clients-included? Sweeeeet~ 👏👏

...well I'll be, Stolas actually getting some narrative consequences here?? 😲😲Standing up for Blitz's life, taking the blame for the Grimoire's misuse, accepting his punishment of the 100 year ban from his status, wealth & powers that were part of his life since forever... daaaaang, now this is some good character building here!~ 👀 Now, with such an honorable & grand gesture Stolas did for the sake of Blitz, their brief duet, and the end shot of them basically becoming roommates now that Stolas has nothing left... does this make me an official Stol*itz shipper now?? 🤩 ...Hmmmmmmmmm, nah lol 🤷‍♀️Now, okay I don't mean to sound like some negative nancy bitch or however, cause I AM proud of Stolas taking the lengths he did to protect Blitz & IMP (and now with him not having a fancy prince title anymore, this could potentially give him the chance to challenge his past privileged/classist mindset, living in the same social class as the same Imps his fellow Goetia society have long-oppressed). However, if there's anything I've learned from shows like Bojack Horseman... big grand gestures are NOT the be-all/end-all answer to proving romantic compatibility 👏👏

When it comes to any sort of relationship, romantic or otherwise... what should matter most is consistent, genuine care & support from one partner to another. And as far as we've seen from Stolas & Blitz's dynamic up til this point... imo, they really haven't had enough positive (non-sexual) bonding moments (save for stuff like their attempts at small talk at "Ozzie's", Stolas laughing at Blitz's sitcom jokes in "Seeing Stars", one photo of Blitz smiling while they slept), to justify them being some "destined-for-one-another" couple? 🤷‍♀️ Not helped by how both men were constantly avoiding & bickering at one another for most of S2 up til now... Iiiii can't be the only one who found it just a tad rushed Blitz was suddenly all "loving/domestic hubby mode🥺🥺" towards Stolas at the end... right? .w.;; Esp. in light of Stolas going through so much as he had to in one trial (+the realization of what'll become of his daughter, following said-punishment) ...he really, really shouldn't be in the mindset for tackling romance rn (at least til he continues to grow & heal better, down the line)... with OR without Blitz😔

....buuut yeah, thats just my own take on the matter; so ofc NO shade at all to those who are genuine Stolas/Stol*itz fans btw (thanks to this ep and/or previous ones), you're valid!👍👍For me, I'll still be vibing onwards with my own personal HCs/ships, so feel free to stay tuned for that if you're curious! :>

Now that we've finally got to meet Vassago upfront, Iiiii'm honestly a lil disappointed he was just... "there" in terms of plot-relevancy (even with all his previous trailer/merch hype)? .w.;; Don't get me wrong, I DO find it refreshing that Vassago's actually a nice guy, and that Stolas did have some genuine support in the Goetia society after all. But other than Vassago wholesomely cheering on Stolas by the sidelines... hmmm, I can't help feeling like not much would've changed had Vassago not been here at all, ngl 🤷‍♀️ Maaaaybe S3 might change things if he gets more spotlight there instead (esp with what I remember everyone theorizing of Vassago (possibly) becoming a 2nd love interest for Stolas .3. idk, part of me's kinda curious how that'd play out with Blitz in the picture- 🤔)?

Andrealphus's antagonist spotlight here... was fine, I guess? Idk, I can't say I've ever been too big a fan of Andre beforehand (mainly from his late-inclusion in the Stolas plot feeling a lil forced + him stealing the spotlight of what could've been interesting villain potential for Stella imo). Not to say I didn't find some of his hammy dialogue funny, along with enjoying the visuals of his ice magic... buuuut yeah, still pretty lukewarm towards him either way 🤷‍♀️could've also done without those creepy af comments about his sister as well... like bruh that in*cest shit wasn't funny the first time, whyyy keep bringing that back- 🤢

Speaking of Stella... ehhhhh, still a pretty flat character as she was in previous episodes (which I guess shouldn't be too surprising with this show's track record with female characters ngl 🤷‍♀️). Interesting to finally see an on-screen interaction with her & Octavia though (granted, not exactly on a good note given her evil smirk at the end... but I guess it does answer some HC questions I had previously of what their mother/daughter dynamic is like, hmmm... 🤔).

As for Octavia in-question... hhHHHH MY POOR BIRD CHILD T-T 💔💔Girl practically watched her greatest fears coming true (aka: Stolas abandoning her for the sake of Blitz), seeing what became of her dad on live-TV. Even if she obviously doesn't know the full story (esp with her mom & uncle pulling strings), its still SO heartbreaking when you consider her trailer sneak-peek ("You never loved Mother, you don't love me, you love him-"). And with only one episode left before S2 wraps up... ooooof, this ain't gonna be pretty ;-;

---------

-Hoooo yeah, that was alot of rambling my bad... but yeah, thats about as clear of thoughts as I have rn regarding "Mastermind". Even with some of the (admittedly) bloated cast, and some other narrative nitpicks I have with it... I'm honestly hyped to see how the upcoming finale will tie all these big plot points together! 👀🤞🤞

[sloshr]

After watching through Side Order... I have a Few Thoughts.

[Spoilers ahead]

My Review of the Side Order DLC - Its little more than Gameplay.

Initial Opinion

- - - - - - - - - -

Overall; I like the gameplay mechanics initially, but the story absolutely feels lacking to me, imo. It feels like they were really banking on Side Order being Hard but... multiple of my friends finished it on their 2nd or 3rd run through the Spire.

That in itself isnt a problem! But... everyone felt sort of unsatisfied? There were no developments in the story, as we, Agent 8, were just assigned the task to Get to The Top of the Spire -> The Player Does That -> You beat a Boss -> Credits Roll (?)

On my watchthrough I literally said Please Say Sike 😭 because, dont take this poorly, but they were advertising Side Order as;

• Difficult (stated Multiple Times in basically every Trailer)

• Story Driven (You Uncover things as You Climb)

• Character and Lore Intensive (as shown by the trailers with all the concept art as well as promo art)

I dont feel like it was wrong to expect more based on how it was advertised.

But... if you complete the DLC in 1-2 runs, which is Very Much Possible, no buildup happens at all. The story was banking on the player struggling, and putting all the content behind repeat runs, which falls through and Doesnt really work/feel satisfying if the main goal is achieved in such a short time. I Feel like anyone who regularly plays Salmon Run will likely have a similar experience. And I feel kind of cheated? Because what we got was something that was Tell Not Show rather than the Show, Not Tell formula. And in my opinion, it really doesn't work as well at all. It puts all the major lore that the game has set up behind repetetive climbs (which never change btw, despite each climb being generated differently, its the same after a while) and you get about 1 Sentence of Exposition, with a Modlog from Marina if you are Lucky.

Side Order was (to me), after watching it all;

• Not Difficult, But Repetetive Gameplay (This easily runs people down, which would be fine if the tower had more than 1 setup or phase)

• Inital Story Setup with no complexities or stages. You climb the first Tower, Save Marina, Climb the Second Tower, Beat Order, and the credits Roll. In its most complex, you could fit what Side Order's Story is in 2-3 Sentences. Rather than Lore being revealed During the story, it feels Pushed to the Side as all of it is either in Text the player may never see (different climbs) or care to read (Marina's Mod Log)

• Use of Character Drops with no explaination / mention (The Agent 4 Boss, Anyone?) (This felt very Bait-y, with No Payoff)

Rating

- - - - -

If I had to give Side Order a Rating

4/10. At Best.

I am a bit disappointed with this as I feel like I was promised more, Storywise, and honestly a bit gameplay wise. I think it fails where other DLC has succeeded Due to being Built in such a way where anything engaging is stuck behind barely changing gameplay. It is not built in a way where the experience cant fail to show you whats important to the characters and the worldbuilding. It relies too much on telling you whats happening rather than the world showing you. Its too Simple, and It Doesnt Work, personally, in a series that contains Octo Expansion.

Which is Sad to me!! It had so much wasted potential and I really hope this isn't the last we're going to see of the concept, we get to see ideas actually built into the story, and... maybe find Agent 4.

Conclusion

- - - - - - - -

Tldr; Side Order had a good concept, but failed in execution for being simple and gameplay dependent, which was ultimately disappointing due to it being advertised as something more for all involved.

It was an alright attempt. The experience will just be known to me as... well. Baby's First Rouge-like. Nothing worldbreaking.

(PS, this isnt meant to be mean spirited or overly critical, I just love the Splatoon Series so I give it Tough Love. This is just my personal view on the DLC)

Thank you for Reading! Feel free to share or add any thoughts!