Lockleed Down

Good action adventure fantasy flick, well worth a watch. Equally worthy of a theatrical release for its cast and visual effects.

The original still does everything better, but the live action take has some bright spots. And some that really drag it down. I think the biggest problem is that the animated version has more time to flesh out the characters, while the live action had to truncate a lot of episodes to make the story fit in an 8 episode structure. Due to that, it lost a lot of the fun little moments of camaraderie that made the original really glow. I would call it worth a view if you're a fan, but I would not direct anyone new to Avatar : The Last Airbender to this over the original animated series. The Netflix take does beat the movie interpretation, but that was a very low bar to pass.

Rings of Power is a good show so far. The actors are giving quality performances, and every scene is lavish with its sets. You can definitely see the amount of money Amazon poured into this. The show takes liberties with Tolkiens lore, but given the basis is more along the lines of Tolkiens notes and background history, I think that's largely fine. A few things annoyed me, if this is to match with Jacksons movies, but none of them were enough to detract from the overall offering of this series so far. At the absolute least, this is not the mess that the Hobbit trilogy was. Give it a watch! Judge it for it's own merits and flaws.

While the series really pours on the Godzilla nostalgia and references, it almost exclusively focuses on its human cast and spends more time spewing its scientific mumbo jumbo rather than focusing on the monsters. It has it's fun moments, but the plot is fairly dull. Some of the monsters have interesting designs and background, but Godzilla's design did not work for me. It is worth a watch if you're a Godzilla fan, but otherwise I'd say it's a pass.

Beautifully detailed, well orchestrated, a fun gameplay loop and great additions to the original story have really fleshed out FF7 Remake from the original nostalgic hit. Visually, its stunning, from just walking around checking out the games vistas to the slash's and dash of combat. It does have rough spots, more than once you will find rough textures that look drastically out of place. But overall the games visual presentation is a grandiose experience showcasing just what modern games are capable of. Combat is very like modern Final Fantasy games, more basis on real time gameplay, reaction and quick thinking. It is a drastic change from the original FF7s far more laid back "semi-turn" based system, so if you are going into this based off the original, brace yourself for a far different pace. Story wise, the core events you may recall from FF7 remain, but much has been added or fleshed out further. Characters that were relatively minor before are given far more screen time and development. Some of these changes are more jarring than welcome. Others are downright fantastic additions. I do have to admit, I was horribly disappointed when Reno did not order his guards to stay off the flowers within the wrecked slums church, only to have them snicker at him saying he was walking on them and about to catch holy hell. But the backstory and development is solid, and while one fond moment did not reappear, I found a dozen other new ones to enjoy. All in all, I find this a fantastic remake, a blast to play, and a true homage to the original classic.

This is fantastic fun for anyone who heavily delved into the book series, or the game. But in terms of an episodic series, it lacks severely in pacing and proper exposition. The show moves quickly between plot points, bouncing between the main characters swiftly in its effort to verse the viewer adequately in the lore. Frankly the background setting is poured onto the casual viewer to incoherently to piecemeal together. Beyond that, some of the casting choices do not match well to the original books, or even the award winning games. I recommend this series only if you are a fan of either of those.