TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

This is the second of at least 3 films in the Long Running series directed by Dan Trachtenberg and I hope he keeps making these as long as he and we want him to.

He's really been able to right this ship and I appreciate that he's not the only person who deserves credit and Disney should not get too much of it either.

The first one he made really stripped it all down and brought it back to basics which provided a fantastic new foundation and this builds on it wonderfully. I'm glad I only have to wait a few months for the next one to come out.

Honestly I'm really glad that this and the Alien franchise are now with the House of Mouse because they are handling them so much better than Fox did in recent entries.

When it comes to the yautja it is important to note that while casual viewers enjoy these there are also people who consume every bit of media that features one.

This manages to deliver something that works for both. I'm somewhere in the middle of them and loving this.

Fanservice is one of the biggest issues with major properties these days perhaps especially ones helmed by this particular corporation. This one manages to balance it with other stuff so it doesn't feel like it's just constant pandering.

There is some MCU style humor but thankfully it does tend to be largely contained to one chunk of this rather than being constant and there were countless times where I was very relieved they didn't go for that at all.

This delivers something that a lot of us have wanted from one of these 4 almost 40 years now. By this point we know this creature and thus don't need a feature length presentation that builds to the reveal of one.

That's been one of the problems with the sequels before Prey. They keep trying to recapture the magic of the first one when the genie's out of the bottle.

This features the predator fighting at least one human at a time delivering a lot of the best moments of that kind of these so far. It's in some ways reminiscent of the Alien versus Predator video games which are obviously part of why we want this.

I do want to underline that it's not something we want from every sci-fi horror franchise. I can't put into words how relieved I am that we've never gotten something like this with the 1982 the thing.

There are three stories here. They are set in different time periods, countries and cultures. Each of them is something that we want to see go up against the predator.

They also make very wise decisions in what kinds of stories they tell with them. All three are underdogs but they have very different status and approach this combat in completely different ways.

We have a Viking mother who has been on a decades long quest for revenge and thus we get questioning of if that really is worth it if there is the catharsis that the lizard brain keeps screaming there will be.

There is a Samurai and Ronin who are brothers that were separated by an unnecessary falling out and we see the harshness of that kind of life. To be clear I am in no way saying that their culture is inferior.

And finally we have a World War Two Latino pilot who keeps needing others to bail him out because he just won't apply himself.

These are stories that fit those places in geography and time and are also ones that Americans can really get behind. It feels like they took several of the comics and adapted them very directly.

I think it will be a good idea to abandon in the future this idea of having humans from very specific times fight predators. The first five movies are a tad too similar to each other. This one takes several steps. I'd like to see the next one leap even further and based on the trailers it looks like it will.

The action is visceral kinetic and the camera work puts us right there. The sound design is amazing. I especially love the swords. The ending is as with so many other things in this film satisfying and I would be happy whether they follow it up or leave it as is. 8/10.

Since I have left reviews on other parts of the series I will try not to restate here what I have said in those.

This is yet another case of them taking a big swing and it really working out. I will start by addressing one of the only complaints and by far the most common one that I've come across.

Essentially this is not a puzzle game. If you want one of those that is Co op I strongly recommend Portal Two. This one is all about communication.

I am aware that this is not the only title that has that basic setup. I have heard others compare this to Keep talking and nobody explodes.

That is one that I have not played and my wrists are too sore to check but something I could imagine makes that work better than this for a lot of people is the following.

There is more tension. If you fail the penalties are not only present but perhaps harsh and there is also a time limit.

There are parts of this where you have to do something within a short time frame but as with all of the entries in this franchise there isn't really a true fail state if you mess something up you just do it again until you get it right and then you progress.

Hypothetically you absolutely could invent some of these things yourself and thus make it more of a challenge But I get that not everybody wants to do that and it's obviously frustrating to realize part way through playing that that's the only way that's going to happen So you either have to start that late or reset.

There is a discord specifically set up to enable people who want to play this to find a partner. Since I did not use it I cannot comment on if it works well or not.

Due to aforementioned carpal tunnel syndrome I am only able to play for very short stretches and I was not going to ask someone else to put up with that.

Instead I simply played both sides of this using a PC and a smart phone. This does also mean that I am able to take into account the entire experience rather than only half.

The quite meager length of this is in part due to the fact that they essentially had to make it twice since it is asymmetric.

This is something else I saw multiple people call out. If you don't get this on sale you may feel like you got very little for your money.

It encourages you to play it a second time but with alternate solutions to the various tasks along the way.

I chose not to do this since I'm not particularly interested in redoing one of these if it's not going to be brand new stuff but only slight alterations which is what the credits described it as.

Hypothetically if you do wish to do so then there is some replayability in the fact that essentially there are four different versions of this.

With that it does get to feel like there is sufficient material to warrant its cost though I would always say to try to get a discount whenever possible.

And obviously many people like myself will not wish to do this entire thing more than that initial one.

Cue the refrain. You find yourself in a small room with no obvious way out and have to figure out something in order to proceed.

Listen I will start complaining about that the moment that they fail to do an amazing job at IT. Now let's talk about how this is unique in certain ways.

In all of the rusty lake titles You have to figure out solutions based on clues, many that are visual some that are audio based.

Where this differs is that unlike the rest of them it doesn't really require you to get on the same wavelength as its universe which has always been a very effective way of forcing you to really seriously engage with what they're doing and not allow any ironic cynical distance.

It is never a problem here either since you have to basically constantly talk to each other in order to get further and it definitely is necessary for you to be able to clearly describe what you're seeing and dealing with.

One of you is in the past, the other in the future. If you can't agree on who gets to be in which then don't fret because about halfway through its swaps.

The former version is done in the same style as all the others. The latter is where it gets particularly interesting.

Because that's where this is their first foray into actual 3D. You are looking at the walls of a room rather there is a cube on a table and you can rotate the camera fairly freely around it and focus on specific parts of it and that's where you interact with things the way we're used to in these.

It is tremendously cool to get to see some of this stuff with all three dimensions although I will admit the specific style they went for in that is not as effective for the disturbing material. It looks fancy rather than the drab pastel approach that we're used to that contrasts.

You do still get to do some of the nasty stuff that happens and in fact this features one of the most repulsive one of those and I will not detail it here you should see it for yourself.

There is a pretty decent variety of the things you do although it is definitely true that with at least one of the things it has you do it an excessive number of times especially considering that this doesn't last that long.

This expands slightly on the lore and it is great to see more of Albert and Rose. An argument could be made that it should do more though I do certainly appreciate that it continues with some of the familiar themes.

I was particularly happy to see the return of exploration of the fact that what we do now affects what happens later. It is definitely true that they could have gone further with that and based on the description I actually thought that it would.

So this is in some ways similar to the white door. The stylistic difference goes with brain teasers being replaced by stuff that isn't difficult. I will say that it was more justified by the concept there.

Yet again we have one that functions well as the first of these you play. It's also noteworthy that of the over a dozen entries this is one of the few that does not have the title they had been using or perhaps cube escape.

This is definitely very accessible. I've read accounts of people who just wanted something for their date night. Something casual with a friend or something to do while dealing with a long term long distance relationship.

I would love to see them do something similar in the future and I think it would be a good idea for them to have difficulty setting choices where you could have this be on the level of for example roots or paradise which really push how far they can go with these to great effect. 8/10.

I will start by addressing The concerns that I had and I know many others about this before watching it. We some clips have seen some clips and there are parodies and such. It has definitely left its mark on pop culture.

It is definitely true that the CG here understandably on account of how early it was in the development of such is absolutely never at any point truly convincing. We are always aware that we are looking at something that was created in a computer rather than something that existed and they filmed it whether it was built or discovered.

I had not expected that I would find myself loving it regardless. One aspect is the fact that technically everything we see Technically in universe does not exist outside Of the machine that it takes place in.

And I really have to respect how daring they got with it. There are times where it is treated as if it is not special effects but simply something that really is there. The iconic light cycle sequences get to feeling like regular fast paced vehicle scenes and that's amazing.

In general this has plentiful and quite varied action scenes. In addition to what I've already mentioned it also has some physical fighting and quite a lot of tension not to mention gladiatorial sports.

There's a good amount of different vehicles with tanks and these airborne things that I'm not sure exactly how to even describe eriod. The acting is great Warner as always really brings it and bridges does a great job as a cocky loner who grows over the course of it.

The characters are essentially archetypes which works for the story they're telling. It's an anti fascist fable that confronts how similar cororations can be to dictatorial countries. There's also exploration of religion that while not deep I did really appreciate and it's not even preachy.

In some ways it does show its age for example it really does not give women much screen time or a lot to do though there is at least a little bit acknowledgement of them being better at communication and settling conflicts in a peaceful way than us men.

To be clear I am not engaging in gender essentialism here that's a terrible way to try to understand these things rather I am referring to socialization.

I must admit I really got swept up in the rousing nature of this fairly simple yet very compelling tale. There were times when I worried that it would get lost in some of the tropes of the time and genres and most of the time it managed avoid that.

It is definitely one of those cases where you absolutely should not think too hard about the rules and what really happening literally and logically and tech wise. There are quite a few things that are very confusing if you try and a few that have implications that I doubt they were meant to. 7/10.