Amanda Slovak

Not a great film. It was all over the place to me. Other reviewers have stated they liked the “twins” aspect of the possession but I feel it took away from any character development because there were way too many people involved to cover all of their backstories to create a tentative connection to the audience. I felt zero connection to either girl or their families. The single dad was a wooden actor with no emotion at all. Regan’s mom was a deciding factor for me initially to watch it but her role was useless and in my opinion she was done dirty especially after going through what she did in the first film. She was told “I believe you can help my daughter” only once she got injured (rather quickly) she was out and her character never provided any kind of help. There’s no buildup to the girls’ possession, they’re gone for 3 days and found, then in the hospital and are already showing big signs that something is off with them. In the first film, it was a progression of things. One second the one daughter is in the psych ward, the other is at home (which I scratched my head on) then suddenly they’re both in a home, strapped to chairs with expensive hospital equipment. Huh? The ex/non-nun (never took her vows) said she could handle the exorcism but 2 minutes into it and she’s left speechless when the demon tells her things she already knows and things it already mentioned earlier in the movie so she was useless. The whole hodgepodge group of people was strange with religious beliefs coming from all angles; it was hard to focus on which one was doing any damage, if any did. The ending was different, I’ll give it that and I did like the flashes of demons, but too much CGI was used in areas that could’ve been rigged with mechanics to make it seem more realistic. The ONE demon’s voice ( similar to the original demon in Regan- if it was the same, we don’t know for sure) did give me a bit of goosebumps but it changed constantly so I guess there was more than one in there. I don’t recall the girls speaking in tongues at all, which creeped me out in the first film so a wasted connection again. I saw this is supposed to be a trilogy? Uh okay…hopefully they read some of the 3 to 1 star reviews, collect the similarities, and adjust for the next films…

I felt it was a pretty good movie. Nothing overly complex or complicated. Just your basic spaceship crashing on a strange planet, which I found out from other reviewers was actually Earth 65 million years ago—guess I missed that tidbit in the movie. The line “there’s something alien out there” is a bit off. Actually YOU’RE the alien as your ship crashed on their planet. The acting was good, I felt some emotion in parts even though both of the characters spoke different languages, I could understand their body language and expressions enough. The dinos were a bit of the same with some noticeable differences and similarities to Jurassic Park dinos. There were certain parts that were shown, the pilot’s wound on his side was oozing and bubbling, looking extremely painful, but later in the film the little girl pushes against that same spot 2 or 3 times in frustration and anger and he doesn’t wince or fall over so I guess that festering wound just magically healed at some point. Or I missed (again) where he stitched and sterilized himself. The end left me with a frown as I didn’t know if they ever reached the coordinates they were looking for because it just showed them flying off deep into space so again, we have to assume they “made it.” Overall, not a terrible film, definitely something you can have on for background sound while still doing other things and you won’t miss much. I don’t agree with the 1 star reviews because both actors had done their jobs very well in my opinion. Give it a watch and form your own 😊

I was so excited for this sequel and in most ways it did not disappoint. It is definitely visually stunning and humongous! I love the unlimited stash and being able to override and fly on a bird machine. I also love that they integrated the Stalker machine invisibility cloaking device. Some of the movements with Aloy are an improvement, but others are clunky. Like many other reviewers, my Aloy would drop off ledges, disappear between trees or mountain sides. I was disappointed that there is not a New Game Plus option with this game. If there is, I just haven't found it. It's disappointing because there are so many weapons & so many outfits that require so many components that there's no way to obtain even the full upgrades for the 6 weapons I use the most in 1 run through of the game. I completed the main story along with a few side quests and Errands and my game progression was at 46% so I knew there was a lot more to do even after completing the main story. I love the swimming worlds, but can get turned around in some of the caves, however, that could just be me. I love the diversity in characters and the different tribes and settlements. I'm not a fan of only being able to obtain the best (Legendary) weapons, outfits, coils, & weaves by completing Pit Master Challenges or completing fights in the Arena. I think there should be another option to obtain Legendary items in a better way. I did receive very, very few Legendary items during the Main Story progression & a Side Quest or two, but I wanted a better weapon or coil or outfit after completing the game. I also wanted to play the game through with my upgrades because they took so long to upgrade, but since there is no New Game Plus option, I am unable to do that unfortunately. Personally, a game has more replayability when there is a New Game Plus option. I did some of Pit Master Challenges and some of the machine fighting in the Arena but when I'm playing the game I'm not thinking about the combo I need to do to take down a machine. One last thing I've noticed is that my screen will black out at weird moments in the game, like fighting a machine or flying. It's very quick, only a few seconds, but very disorienting and frustrating. All in all, I'm happy with the game, but a little disappointed I pre-ordered it because it didn't live up to my standards from the previous game, which I still play over and over again because it has that lovely New Game + option. I also never received any of the pre-order items either. Hopefully future patches will fix the glitches I've experienced. It's a game I'd recommend playing at least 1 time through. UPDATE: I still have quite a few skill points to unlock & I'm confused as to how I'm going to obtain every one because there is not enough left to do to build up my point meter to unlock the higher costing skills. There are other disappointments like Cauldrons & having to unlock override codes back at the Base. I basically paid $70 to play this game 1 time.