Gregg Tavares – Google

I'm a huge One Piece fan. I've been watching since in started 24 years ago. I helped translate some episodes for fan subs in the 2nd season. I've watch many of the 1074 episodes (to date) multiple times. I owned a bunch of figures, have a couple of t-shirts, have One Piece stickers on my notebook, and am still psyched for new episodes It's hard for me to judge the Netflix version as someone that knows the source material vs someone what's ever seen One Piece. After all that though, the short version is they're doing an ok job but the major thing they're missing is the struggle. In the first season there are several major fights. The fight with Buggy, the fight with Kuro, the fight with Arlong. Those fights in the manga and anime were major struggles. They almost lost and almost died in every one of them. They'd get in the fight and find out they may be out of their league. Each character had their moment in each fight. In the Netflix show there was no struggle whatsoever. They fought and just won, no issues at all. IMO, going forward, they need to fix that. The high points of One Piece feel much higher after the low points and knowing the adversity they had to overcome.

It's probably not fair to call this a bad movie. The issue is it's based on the true story of Tetris but it's been embellished so much it will make people think it's true and it's not true. Reading other people's reviews it's clear they believe what they saw in the movie which is sad. There's a BBC Documentary "Tetris - From Russia with Love", Google it and you can watch it. That has the actual people in it. And, even crazier, Henk Rogers filmed himself a ton in Russia! It's clear that, while it was interesting about the shenanigans between Robert Stein, the Maxwells, Tengen, and Rogers, there wasn't much else. Stein didn't pay what he owed the Russians. The Russians made him sign a new contract that gave him only PC and Arcade rights. Rogers got the Video Game and Handheld rights. It's told well and suspensefully in the documentary but that's it. But, in the movie, the KGB beat up Rogers, beat up the russian negotiator, threaten Roger's family in Japan, kick Alexey out of his job, evict and him and his family out of his family home, threaten his children. Roger has a seducer / translator who's a KGB agent. There's a car chase and a KGB agent trying to get paid. All of that is fake. From Roger's videos it's clear he had a good time in Russia. Alexey was friendly and not reserved. The translator was just a translator. There was no KGB issues. Stein never mentioned not getting paid by the Maxwells. It's only mentioned he never paid the Russians. The Russians appeared to like Rogers in reality. Also, I'm a fan of Targon but the real Henk Rogers is more likeable than the character played in the movie. I get that writers want to write but I'd argue a good writer could tell a good story sticking closer to reality. A bad writer adds the bologna. You can already see lots of the reviews here believing the movie and are happy to have learned this history of Tetris. The problem is, it's a fake history!

I was a HUUUUUUUUUUUGEE Left4Dead and Left4Dead2 fan. We spent lots of time getting better at the game and challenging the high levels. I was soooooooo looking forward to Back4Blood. But, first I bought in PC only to find it install system level services. Nope. Got a refund. Then I got the PS4 version only to find that instead of having fun playing a game it dumps me into some camp where I can do entirely un-fun (for me) stuff like buy clothing, upgrade weapons, and other stuff I have ZERO interest in. I just wanted to play a game, not manage points and inventory. I didn't even make it to the "game" before I turned it off :(

A fun movie, especially if you're a kid or a kid at heart I personally didn't like Godzilla (2014) nor Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019). The parts with the monster in them were amazing but the human parts were so bad they dragged down the rest of the movies several points. On the other hand I love Love LOVED Kong: Skull Island (2017). They need to get those writers and put them in charge of this franchise The good thing is in Godzilla vs. Kong the human parts, while not great, were not so bad that they ruined the movie. Though, they could still use better writers Fortunately that monster parts were AMAZING. Let your inner child out and you'll have a good time.

So disappointing. (SPOILERS!!!) The story is supposed to have a lesson of trust and cooperation but it's hamfisted and poorly written. Two glaring examples, Raya tries to hide Sifu's existence from everyone but the obvious reaction to seeing Sifu (a living dragon) is to want to be part of the solution of saving the world. When her friends see Sifu they all want to save the world. When Namaari sees Sifu, even she wants to save the world. What then was the point of hiding Sifu? Raya goes around stealing the orb pieces. After having found Sifu she could have just asked. Further, Sifu only has to touch each piece to get some magical power back. She doesn't need to keep them. It would certainly make sense to ask each tribe to either donate or to bring their piece to some meeting place. Sifu's existence would be enough to get them to comply or better writing would have at least tried that first. Every land has loved ones turned to stone they want back so they'd all want Sifu to succeed. Raya asks Namaari to give her the last orb piece. Namaari's mom says they should get all the pieces and save the world. What does it matter who does it? Either Raya does it or Namaari or Namaari's mom does it, it doesn't matter. The conflict is false/fake/ridiculous. There is no conflict. The point is supposed to be that the real issue is lack of trust causes the Druun but the characters don't know this. They believe joining the orbs will give Sifu the power she needs to save the world. It doesn't matter who does it. The fight between Raya and Namaari had zero point. What was Raya trying goal in this fight? There wasn't one. Even the ending was poorly conceived. Why did they have to give up their orbs to Namaari. Why didn't they just come together and combine the orbs? Why? Bad writing. The team that animated, and acted the movie are clearly talented. Now they just have to find a writer with as much talent who can actually write a coherent story.

5 stars if only because it's so different and amazing. In all honestly the ending is a little weak but the journey there is incredible. Also check out the original manga. Almost everything that happens in the movie happens in the first 20% of the 1000 page manga. In other words the manga is way way WAY more Epic than the movie. This is one of those stories us fans wish there was a LOTR quality 6 to 9 hour movie of.

You might have to have significant life experience to enjoy this movie. At least I did. You may even have to watch it twice. I watched it once in my 20s and just thought it was ok. I watched it again in my 50s and now I think it might be the best movie ever made. I cried so hard was shaking uncontrollably. It probably won't have that effect on you unless you really believe in their feelings and the sacrifices they are having to make.