TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

This was meant to be the penultimate entry and because it did not do well enough we didn't get the last one and probably never will.

I certainly understand why a number of people took issue with this and some of their criticisms are definitely valid. One thing I do want to make clear is while this does end on a cliffhanger it does also conclude certain things such as most of what it sets up as its own central conflict.

It's just that it also hints at more to come.. I knew before I watched even one of these 3 that the gamble of splitting up the final book of the trilogy did not pay off. It seemed to me like I would be frustrated with this one and yet it does a much better job of delivering a satisfying ending than for example Hunger Games Part one of Mockingjay..

That's a case where I would have been tremendously annoyed if they hadn't gotten to make the second half. This has most of the strengths insurgent. Had. I'll try not to restate here what I put in my review of that one.

This one does lack the consistent villain presence that we love to hate. This one goes for a twist villain and we are told things that are then revealed to have been self-serving lies. That worked significantly better in divergent and it feels a little too much like this film is relying on our love for that one..

It is of course not unique to this after all Return of the Jedi has a similar element.. One of the issues here is that it simply does not break new ground to make up for the nostalgia bait.

Major characters are explored well by putting them in unfamiliar territory and seeing how they react. This does do away with or greatly limit the screen time of some of the ones from the first two and that is a loss.

Part of it is of course that it has to make room for brand new ones and on that front they do fare quite well. Some of them I genuinely didn't know what to make of them and I was always very happy with what ended up being the case for them.

This has some of the best action of the franchise, especially one bit that has to be seen to be believed. I found it compelling what turned out to be outside of the city wall. The second half of this does feel simultaneously like it's rushing because so much has to be conveyed and hesitating on account of it having to save enough material to fill another feature length film.

I loved the intention and liked the execution.. This does bring in excellent allegory for fascism and The French Revolution thus enabling teenagers to better understand the various problems of both. All of the new cast members are fantastic with Jeff Daniels understandably being a standout. 7/10.

In some ways this is like most other recent entries in the overall franchise it belongs to. It seeks to increase empathy for minorities that are being targeted.

The amount of comedy is much smaller than earlier and never gets anywhere near as broad as the otherwise excellent what if.

It is a fine place to start watching these. There is minimal continuity so you won't be confused. At most you may want to watch the first Black Panther solo movie either before or after to clear certain things up.

I could definitely imagine some using this as their entry point. It is set quite some time ago When Ancient Was Current. They use several famous Times and even events.

So in other ways it is much more like one of the recent Star Wars animated shows. In particular visions albeit this maintains the same animation style throughout.

But like that one it is an anthology series with basically one or two elements tying it all together. In that one it was Jedi and Sith. In this one it is Wakandan war dogs..

It is unlike blade not only in that it was made but also in that it has all of the strengths but also all of the weaknesses.

All 4 episodes tell a separate story from the rest and from everything else in the universe. This means that in less than half an hour we meet one or more protagonists and are encouraged to engage with them and their situation emotionally and it is all resolved.

I can speak only for myself but I definitely really got into this. I wanted to see them succeed very badly and I won't give away if that did happen or not.

It does mean that this doesn't really make any significant impact on the rest of them when the shared quality is one of the strengths.

Obviously don't expect anyone you know to show up. It does effectively communicate and underline what we have already been told. That nation has been there for millennia.

Since each of these is a spy story, part of the tension is how well they'll be able to keep what they're doing secret. It is crucial for the concept to work that these are adventures that we were never able to learn even happened before now.

The visuals are quite strong with the camera moving to keep up with the kinetic and varied action. Considering circumstances of course a lot of it is going to be hand to hand but there is a lot of room for doing different things with that and they take full advantage of it.

At one point it is reminiscent of Chinese cinema, reminding me of the amazing work of a specific choreographer who among other things did the Musketeer.

In another instance it is a straightforward but very well done swords and sandals epic. Each time there is an emotional through line making sure that these do not end up just being displays of skill with fighting.

This has some of the most striking visuals In part due to camera angles and the vivid vibrant colors that stand in contrast to a lot of the muted ones and house style that for a while Dragged the MCU down and it is thankfully recovering now.

The pacing is amazing. They never rush or stand still for long enough for something to start getting tedious. The big plot moments do have a strong impact on us rather than just flying by.

With that said this does definitely have a limitation in that each of the four tales can only see development within the less than half hour runtime they have. Did

this goes for what happens and those it happens to. There's a very strong chance we're never going to see any of them again. And that does mean they can do a lot less than nearly every single other entry since those do have that.

I did greatly appreciate what I suppose could be referred to as a cameo.. They also do a spectacular job choosing exactly when and where these are set so we get to see the places and events.

One of them is the Battle of Troy. This is of course a story that has fascinated us for well as long as it's been told. The 2004 movie is breathtaking. The Armand Asante miniseries The Odyssey is almost entirely about what happens after and yet they knew that they had to at least briefly include it.

This is one of my favorite versions of it. Each of these apps have some theme or moral. Some of them are very much defined by the fact that this is rated TV 14 and sometimes pushes that with more blood and violence than you might think.

But there's definitely at least one story here where it's in part about something that a number of teenagers struggle with and it's great to have media that can help them conquer it.

It does also confront some of the darker sides of what we're seeing in this. This is something that has been done rather well in each story that is about that part of Africa.

They managed to keep from repeating themselves. Obviously considering how short this is, that would be quite the failure if they hadn't.

It's not unlike the Transporter show. In that one each time there would be at least one mission sometimes he would spend the entire episode on it. Other times it would happen at the very end Briefly.

And then there were those where he would finish it at the very start and then something completely different would take up the rest of the time.

In this there is always something that is perceived to belong to them that a war dog or two has to retrieve. Obviously frequently it is vibranium. And they definitely make good use of how versatile that substance has already been shown to be.

There are gadgets that would make Q blush. And of course sometimes it functions as weaponry or simply a tool. Since it's all very hush hush on the QT there are less of the fantastic vehicles and large groups of their people here. 8/10.

This is currently free on Steam if you can get it to play on there which I cannot or on Youtube and it is on the official channel so it is definitely completely legal.

When Detective Dale wakes up He finds himself in a room that is Seemingly impossible to get out of except through one particular locked door. He does not have any recollection of going in there and is not sure where he is.

So if you've played the games, what I've just described sounds very familiar. You can think of this as cube escape Paradox Chapter 1.5. It serves as a companion piece to the 10th entry in the cube escape Series and was released around the same time.

With that said you can absolutely get a lot out of watching this even if every word in the paragraph above this was new to you. In fact I'm sure it drew a lot of new people into it. It has over 7 million views on YT and I figure not all of them had already played these.

I don't need to write a novel about all the reasons video game adaptation movies usually suck. And maybe the most recent ones are a lot better. I've heard good things about Super Mario and the Sonic Trilogy. Maybe I'll watch them at some point but I haven't checked in with those game franchises for decades now.

My point is this one deftly avoids all of the pitfalls. I think it was very smart of them to make it as a short because this is not something that would sustain feature length and that's also one of the problems we see when some of the other adaptations. So far the only good feature length adaptations I've seen are the two Press Start movies and those are part parody.

I don't know who on the development team realized how well this would work in live action but I hope they got a raise. Yes there is some of the puzzle solving we're so familiar with in this and while I will not give away if it's a lot or a little I do think they made the exact right choice about how much.

Honestly if you like the games you should watch this and if you like this I think considering the games makes a lot of sense. Keep in mind some of them are still free. I think right now it's three different ones and the first two the ones I've played are perfectly fine entry points into this franchise. Really everything in this franchise so far is including this short film.

To briefly give you an idea of more of what this is think David Lynch RIP. It's very mysterious there's some dream logic going on. You won't have all the answers by the end of this or indeed any individual one of the games. I wouldn't rule out some people might have been frustrated by that but so goes the video game franchise model by now.

Since this doesn't have game play it has to fire on all cylinders elsewhere. The music is great as it is in the games and so is the sound design. Where this has something to offer that those do not is the filmmaking side. The acting is great. Cinematography and editing are spectacular.

I knew I was going to love this when the way it showed him regaining consciousness was him doing the Hollywood cliche abrupt sitting up in bed and thus entering the frame in a very Sam Raimi shot. Obviously this doesn't go as far as for example The Evil Dead but there are some similarities so it's a good place to take inspiration.

At 17 minutes without end credits it manages to reach the viewer emotionally and never waste any time or rush ahead. It was great to see live action versions of stuff from the games including a spot on recreation of that infamous room. This is as disturbing as the early parts not the later ones of the games and goes as far as they could without it getting excessive since again this is live action and they're not trying to go there. 8/10.