Hari Singh – Google

I'm not really a fan of the Scream series, but this was terrible by its own standards. The film could have been edited to 45 minutes and been pretty good, but the amount of unnecessary, irrelevant dialogue and random fan service by bringing back old characters bloated this film to 2 hours of a yawn fest. The set-piece gore scenes were excessive and almost felt like an afterthought, with the focus being on some unclear, convoluted story which resulted in an underwhelming killer reveal (I literally didn't have a clue who it was, but they were in the film before the reveal). Don't bother watching this film, but, if you must, then wait until you can see it for free. It literally bored me to sleep as my brain went into standby mode to protect itself. 1/5 and the one star is only because I managed a nap.

What a gem of a film. I haven't seen the original animated film as it didn't seem my thing, but this was right up my street. I love Chinese and Japanese martial arts and specifically bushido, and martial arts films, and Mulan did not disappoint. Excellent cinematography and fight choreography, good portrayal of morals, and even the subtle humour found in Chinese and Japanese films. I understand why people are hating on it, but the film itself is great and will be added to my collection.

When it first came out it was great, and on course to be one of the best COD titles I have played (Ghosts and BO2 being my top 2). Now, it is one of the worst with the endless tinkering of guns and other variables, which ruin the game, not to mention the uninspiring, poorly designed maps. And let's not get started on the ridiculous size of the updates. I thought BO4 was bad, but MW19 is worse due to arbitrary tweaks which are unnecessary and seem to be aimed at forcing players to continuously adjust their loadouts or playing style. No more COD for me, or any title from the cash-grabbing scum at Activision.

I am a massive fan of the Final Fantasy series (up to 13, at least) and have been looking forward to the Remake since before it was even announced. Now I have played the Remake I must say it wasn't worth the wait, and I won't be playing the rest of it. The game looks great, but the mechanics are bad, the relentless sexual innuendo is inappropriate and not true to the original, as is the swearing in it, and there is so much filler in the game that I lost interest at Chapter 4 (and things didn't get much better). One example of the bad game mechanics is that when in a party you literally have to take control of each player to get the most out of their abilities and magic. There is no autonomous decision making so that other members can be set to auto-heal or use specific magic or limit breaks, which is an idiotic move in such games. I suspect the alleged in-fighting was between the "old-school" team trying to stay true to the original but with better graphics and battle controls, versus the "new school" who just want the money and lack understanding of what made the original FF7 one of the best games of all time. And don't get me started on Roche. Whoever gave the go ahead for his inclusion needs to do the honourable thing a commit seppuku. Thanks for ruining what could have, and should have, been a modern classic.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film and it felt like a satisfying conclusion to the "Skywalker Saga", however, the thing that let it down was it was too "JJ Abramised" with his inimitable style of setting up not-so-subtle plot items which enable you to guess significant "reveals" later on (like the "C3PO" setup). If you can overlook the Abramisation of the film then the film is generally excellent, with plenty of action going on and an ending scene worthy of any of the best action films, along with a couple of surprises. I personally detest the Abramisation effect, like he did with Star Trek (the only other film I have watched of his other than the two Star Wars films he has spoiled with his obvious set pieces and plot reveals). The film tried to cram too much character development into very rushed pieces, which were almost casual, throwaway scenes and, in hindsight, wholly unnecessary, but that is Abram's style and, apparently, the limit of his creative depth as a director. In closing, I would definitely see the film again because it was very watchable for the most part, and the best scenes were outstanding, but it would have been a better film had they let Rian Johnson (or anyone but Abrams) take the helm because his storytelling ability is a lot more mature and subtle than Abram's style of obviousness and nostalgia-for-the-fans approach.