Smokey Joe

[I was in the mood for something else, so I'll have to rewatch it to give it a fair shake] I thought it was a decent movie. At first I was watching the clock, feeling time pass. But 40 minutes in, they had built up the new characters sufficiently and the story was now cruising along. Kristen Wiig's acting was better than I was expecting [I knew she would rise to this occasion], and I could get behind her negative character arc. The stakes continue to rise, higher than you would expect for a movie rated so poorly. And though all of the fights are throw-fests, if you watch it for the inner personal turmoil and stellar acting, there is a lot to love in WW84.

Gone are the days where punching felt intuitive, where a blend of straights, hooks, and uppercuts flowed from your fighter as you saw fit. The stand-up got the most love in this threequel, but it takes no less than Three buttons to throw a hook to the body, or Four for a specialty leg, body, or any form of head kick. Plus you don't automatically follow rocked enemies to the ground, instead waiting for them to stand back up into your punches. Fighters walk slower (and more realistically) and health events are finally realistic, but nothing is intuitive anymore. Even side-stepping quickly requires a modifier and the right stick!! CAF learned nothing from the passable UFC 2 system, and - while the game looks great from a stand-up perspective, it's frustrating and unplayable/ unenjoyable as it is now. Imagine EA Sports MMA with only the joystick attack controls and no alternatives. The game would be great if the controls actually responded. Plus, your character now has dial-a-combos. It's like playing a VR roller coaster simulator. You can do whatever you want with your vision, but it's otherwise on the rails with its constrained controls. [NOTE: I've owned and played every game since THQ's Undisputed 1 (online too)]

[Spoiler Free] Joker is an underdog tale, beset with mental illness and powerful, nuanced acting by Phoenix. Without any of the theatrics that typically take place in movies set in Gotham, Joker is a gritty, grim, slice of life take of the man BEHIND the Joker, as opposed to an origin story. Think a story about Bruce Wayne, rather than Batman. Regardless, the factors that contribute to Fleck's continuous spiral into mental instability are authentic, and the violence is used sparingly, and to great effect. It has uncomfortable imagery that isn't violence, which all build towards the final act once it's revealed. I went in, expecting a gripping psychological drama. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by the marginalization and sociological elements that gave this man one too many bad days. I was impressed by this movie in a way that was different from what I was expecting.

I Loved it. The protagonist (Hugh) is the literary straight man in this R-rated clown world, where superheroes are marketed as celebrities and peddled to the masses like religion. A highly dark take on superheroes, if you like to feel uncomfortable during your superhero movies because of just how... disturbingly realistic and how fallible the men and women in tights are, I think you are going to love the show. If you liked Misfits, you'll probably like this one too.

It's gorgeous, easy (to learn), and technical. It's the best-looking game since Burst Limit, though they didn't try nearly as hard to synch up the English lines to the lip movement.

The Blind Man was a very real and credible threat. Unlike most horror movies, the three main characters were capable of defending themselves (to a limited degree), which made the action more tense and grounded in reality. The struggles were real, the action sequences were unflinching, and near the end, some pretty big plot scenarios made the entirety of the struggle all the more real and ghastly! I *Definitely recommend this movie.

It was dizzying! You think you know who the bad guy is, or what the plot is, but it just keeps changing! Definitely a break from the predictable Bond films of the past, even if Bond's ability to track a moving target are still a bit beyond belief!

Just Short of Perfect I went in watching Dr. Strange 2, having only seen one 40-second trailer for the movie. I had no idea what the movie was about (except I *did glance at a 'Wouldn't it be cool?' opinion on YouTube which turned out to be the plot of the movie). Suffice to say, it was just short of perfection. The movie had areas where it dragged, most of the exposition is worthless but worse, uninteresting, and - one of the characters you will root for less than the others (in terms of personal tastes). But, the ideas introduced in the movie are top-notch for a Marvel film. Enough new things happen. The film sometimes leans a little hard on nostalgia, but it's okay. Fights are large and epic, emotions are used to a profound effect by the Big Bad, and Wong feels like a main character now. The movie was a lot of fun and ought to be one of the most fun, inventive offerings of the MCU in the last 10 years.

INDIRECT SPOILERS!! (Knowledge of Batman games required) [Running on 2 hours sleep before viewing] I was in a positive mood from the night before, and I was expecting The Batman to be a more dreary film (which it was), so I wasn't in the best mindset to watch the film. That being said, the detective work was more 'front and center' in this movie, and most of the relationships are previously established, requiring one to know a bit about the Dark Knight's connections before watching. For instance, The Penguin was never Bruce's childhood friend, and Catwoman's protégée (Holly Robinson in the comics) has a semi-analogous equivalent. Bruce Wayne is more petulant towards Alfred in their limited screen time, and some relationships build up too quickly. The film has a *very limited sense of time passing to differentiate one day from the next. The story unapologetically takes gritty beats from the Telltale Games Batman (season 1), but leans harder into the detective work, as was promised by the director. Was it a good movie? ...Probably. It wasn't super fun, but it was clear that a lot of thought went into it. The cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. There are issues though - such as Batman's theme being overused, Batman being on a crime scene and only one cop complains, or Batman tampers with a crime scene while police watch, to an even more egregious example, which gets conveniently forgotten about two scenes later. The Riddler is a competent, capable villain and his reinvention makes him more relatable to the class struggles in Gotham City, but he functions more like Anarky (Batman: Arkham Origins) than his usual lonesome self. He is always one step ahead of Batman, though it doesn't usually feel like it until after the fact (and that's a good thing). Robert Pattinson is Bruce Wayne in his Bat suit, which is a welcome change of pace. He is non-responsive in ways that emulate Kevin Conroy's portrayal in The Animated Series, eliminating the chattiness of Bale's Bruce, and you can see Bruce Wayne under the mask, due to the use of ocular cameras while he investigates, requiring him to look longer at things. This Bruce is a studious, though quietly haunted man. An observer who feels compelled to try to save the city, despite inspiring the wave of psychopaths that will inevitably follow if this movie is greenlit for a sequel. The action is nice, albeit brief (which is realistic), and Bruce employs few kicks in his earlier fights. His martial arts is traded in for physicality, practicality, and ferociousness, and - it works. He's a bit more fallible than even Affleck's Batman, but he's not as polished either. His armor is very bulletproof, though despite this, Batman survives two different instances that should've killed him outright. He also only has one Batarang, and his cape actually doesn't work, something that fans will certainly miss. As for the others? We don't see much of Alfred, Kravitz' Selina Kyle was perfectly on-brand, Colin's Penguin was obnoxious, but in a way that Arkhamverse Batman fans will feel at home with, and the Riddler was a dark, Nolanverse-esque re-imagining of a character that hasn't been portrayed well in many years. Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is a publicly-acknowledged recluse, and you can see the man under the cowl most of the time. TL;DR - More grounded than the Nolanverse, while not as compelling as that or Joker, this film has some interesting ideas for many of its characters. The movie lacking a sense of time passing really undermines its credibility (to me).