Batman: The Telltale Series Season One Review

Star Rating: ✭✭✰✰✰

Storyline -

"Enter the fractured psyche of Bruce Wayne and discover the powerful and far-reaching consequences of your choices as the Dark Knight.

In this gritty and violent new story from the award-winning creators of The Walking Dead – A Telltale Games Series, you'll make discoveries that will shatter Bruce Wayne's world, and the already fragile stability of a corrupt Gotham City.

Your actions and your choices will determine the fate of the Batman." - steam

Review -  

After releasing the final episode for this season, Batman: The Telltale Series has left me intrigued. Ending with a shot of the Joker in a bar, after having escaped Arkham Asylum, was definitely a cliffhanger, leasing me to believe that another season is in progress.

Game play was relatively shaky, a lot of the time I find that the fight scenes would stutter and I'd miss a move to defend myself. It was actually pretty abysmal, considering how few fight scene there are in the five episodes. Maybe two or three per episode.

Character control was another big issue. In the parts where you could move Bruce/Batman, you could only walk at this annoyingly sluggish pace, which added to the slow feel of the game. It was the same with the camera, as you couldn't move it freely.

The one redeeming quality was the investigative scenes, where you have to create links between pieces of evidence after assessing the room. This was something I really enjoyed, seeing the way the World's Greatest Detective put clues together and was able to recreate crime scenes with VR tech in his cowl.

Personally, I feel that was probably the best part of the game, I could have done it hours. I think his detective skills is one of the greatly overlooked qualities in Batman, especially within games. If you ask a kid why he likes Batman, without a doubt they will say "Because he fights bad guys". But Batman is so much more than that.

I gave the Telltale Series Season One two stars, because of the sketchy fight scenes, the lack of character control, as well as being more an interactive movie rather than an actual game.

💜MetalandTeacups

  

Information:

Release Date: 03 Aug 2016

Genre: Adventure

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games   

Dawn Study by Maria V. Synder Review

Star Rating: ✭✭✭✰✰ 

Storyline -

"New York Times bestselling author Maria V. Snyder brings her Poison Study series to its exhilarating conclusion.

Despite the odds, Yelena and Valek have forged an irrevocable bond and a family that transcends borders. Now, when their two homelands stand on the brink of war, they must fight with magic and cunning to thwart an Ixian plot to invade Sitia.

Yelena seeks to break the hold of the insidious Theobroma that destroys a person's resistance to magical persuasion. But the Cartel is determined to keep influential citizens and Sitian diplomats in thrall and Yelena at bay. With every bounty hunter after her, Yelena is forced to make a dangerous deal.

With might and magic, Valek peels back the layers of betrayal surrounding the Commander. At its rotten core lies a powerful magician and his latest discovery. The fate of all rests upon two unlikely weapons. One may turn the tide. The other could spell the end of everything." - Goodreads

Review -  

Dawn Study is the ninth, and final, installment of The Chronicles of Ixia. I remember when I first picked up my first copy of Poison Study from borders, back in 2009. I was complete infatuated with the cover, which had a certain charm about it. I was not expecting the anguish of having the next series about Yelena released 5 years after reading the first. So, here I am, 8 years later.

What annoys me the most about this release, is that it was released in a "Special Edition" Hardback cover, where all the books prior to this were release in paperback. Being the nit-picking human being that I am, I emailed the publisher asking if and when a paperback edition was to be released. While they're releasing one, it won't be until late this year. So, I have had the unpleasant experience of having to pay full price for and electronic copy of a book.

Now for the important stuff, the actual book. A variety of things annoyed me about this book, the number one, being the major editorial errors scattered throughout the novel, like the character named Phelan, or was it Phelen, whose spelling continually changed! Or the random asterisk in Chapter 16. Harlequin Teen needs to take more care in their editing, especially with their electronic publications.

Care, with a capital C. 

This is another thing I really hated, Synder's over use of terrible common day phrases. She used the one above at least  four times in the first half of the book.I felt like she attempted to relate to a younger generation, through slang and idioms that where just so out of place in this series, that it made it comfortable to read.

However, it was interesting to see how Yelena handled being pregnant with all the continuous threats to her life. Outside of that, I found the story line to be scattered, constantly jumping to random characters views, along with an extremely inconsistent timeline, in just kind of turned into a fumbling mess that all worked out in the end. I enjoyed the intrigue, what little I could actually follow.

All in all, Dawn Study was pretty average, as it reached my expectations, but didn't really exceed them. It felt like Synder was playing it safe with her final book.

Thank you Maria, for this magical world and stunning cast of characters, it has touched my heart and deeply influenced my reading, while it's sad to see it end, I'm sure I'll see more great things from you in the future. 

💜MetalandTeacups 

Information -

Format: Ebook
Dimensions: N/A
Published: 23 Jan 2017 by Harlequin Enterpises AU
Pages: 384
 


 

Justice League Dark: DC Animated Movie - Movie Review

Star Rating:✮✮✮✮✰

Storyline - 

"Beings with supernatural powers join together to fight against supernatural villains. This team of supernatural beings include John Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood also known as the demon Etrigan." - imdb.com

Review - 

Anyone who knows me, knows I love the DC Animated Movies. They are, without a doubt, one of the best franchises to appear in recent years. 

Justice League Dark, if you aren't familiar with them already, is a team comprised of magically inclined individuals, the more commonly known characters include John Constantine, Zatanna and Batman ( who is not usually in the team), along with Deadman, Black Orchid and Jason Blood who is magically bound to the demon Etrigran.

The story mostly follows Batman as he tries to learn the cause of a series of mass murders, where all the culprits claim their victims were, in fact, demons. After a consultation with the Justice League, Batman returns to his hotel to find the name "Constantine" mysteriously written all over his walls. He then enlists the help of Zatanna to find Constantine, and to help discover whether or not the culprits were insane, or actually seeing demons.

Okay, so, I found that this film followed the same basic structure as "Justice League: War"... Mysterious beings, Batman jumping to the correct conclusions, big bad appears, reluctant team battles, clever ploy to defeat big bad, join Justice League. It was predictable, making it underwhelming.

The characters were well done, but I became insanely irritated with who much focus was put on to Zatanna's boobs with the over simplified costume.

Considering how little hype this movie received, I certainly hope the amount of hype is equivalently to the quality of the movie, because my expectations for "Teen Titans: Judas Contract" has risen significantly. 

💜MetalandTeacups

Information:

Release Date: 7 Feb 2017
Time: 1hr 15mins
Cast: 

			Matt Ryan ... John Constantine Camilla Luddington ... Zatanna Jason O'Mara ... Bruce Wayne / Batman Ray Chase ... Jason Blood / Etrigan Enrico Colantoni ... Felix Faust

 

Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain - Book Review

Star Rating: ✭✭✭✰✰

Storyline - 

" Karigan G’ladheon is a Green Rider—a seasoned member of the elite messenger corps of King Zachary of Sacoridia. King Zachary sends Karigan and a contingent of Sacoridians beyond the edges of his nation, into the mysterious Blackveil Forest, which has been tainted with dark magic by a twisted immortal spirit named Mornhavon the Black.

At the end of Blackveil, in a magical confrontation against Mornhavon, Karigan is jolted out of Blackveil Forest and wakes in darkness. She’s lying on smooth, cold stone, but as she reaches out, she realizes that the stone is not just beneath her, but above and around her as well. She’s landed in a sealed stone sarcophagus, some unknown tomb, and the air is becoming thin.

Is this to be her end? If she escapes, where will she find herself? Is she still in the world she remembers, or has the magical explosion transported her somewhere completely different? To find out, she must first win free of her prison— before it becomes her grave. And should she succeed, will she be walking straight into a trap created by Mornhavon himself?

Mirror Sight is the highly-anticipated fifth installment of the Green Rider series." - Goodreads

Review - 

So, I've been dragging my feet about reading this. I bought my copy back in 2015, and it has sat on my bookshelf until about two weeks ago, in anticipation of the next and hopefully last book will be released this March. (I was wrong as Britain has just posted that she has started working on Green Rider 7)

I forgot how tedious Britain's writing can be ,and understand why it has taken her so long to write this series. Sometimes the story is incredibly slow paced and exceedingly detailed, with not a lot of intrigue between characters. Other times the details can be scattered and sudden, with maybe the desired affect?

I honestly felt like this book may not have been necessary, as it has let us glimpse a future that longer exists. It mostly felt like a cop out, an easy way to provide the characters with the information they conveniently needed.

I am definitely intrigue to see how the events of Mirror Sight will shape the rest of the series.

💜MetalandTeacups

Information -

 Format: Paperback
 Dimensions: 135 x 198 x 49mm | 562g
 Published: March 14th 2015 by Gollancz
 Pages: 784

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Nexflix Review

Star Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

Storyline - 

 "After the Baudelaire parents die in a terrible fire, the Baudelaire orphans search for their families secrets and get them and their fortune away from the terrible grasp of the sinister Count Olaf as he moves with them between different guardians in disguise." - imdb.com

Review -

For those of who remain unaware, Netflix has release their very own Web series based of the very woeful book series by Lemony Snicket, is one of the most highly anticipated adaptions of 2017.

For those of you who have been lucky enough to have not read the books, this story follows the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire through a series of unfortunate events following their parents death in a tragic house fire.

Firstly, I'd like to bring up the structure of the show, originally I was under the impression that this series would have a total of 13 episodes, giving one episode to each book. That, surprisingly, is not how it turned out, with two episodes per book, eight episodes per season, we're looking at 26 episodes and possibly 3 seasons. Giving to show a lengthy time frame for each of the first books, possible too lengthy.

The episodes seemed to have a lot of unnecessary time fillers which involved a lot of crap that never occurred in the books. However, this additional plot did add several layers to the story, including the false hope that is prominent later on in the books.

The final episode ends us with the forth book 'The Miserable Mill', but don't be disheartened. The 8th episode actually finishes at the start of the 5th book 'The Austere Academy'. On a very misplaced musical number. I say misplaced, because there are no other musical bits outside of the title sequence.

Now, here is where I am going to annoy plenty of other fans, by constantly comparing the web series to the movie.  A LOT. As the movie is what I was first exposed too, and inspired me to actually read the books.

My biggest issue is with how they presented Lemony Snicket and his morose monologues. Primarily due to the fact that Patrick Warburton plays Snicket. As soon as he appeared on screen, I literally screamed. My dislike of Warburton can only be compared to the figurative need to drown myself in a pond. Snicket was always a mysterious entity, a phantom,  a bystander to events long since past. This is one detail the movie trumps the web series in. 

Netflix have also attempted to make the monologues quirky and interesting, rather than solemn and morose. But as far as I'm concerned quirky is the wrong theme for this series. I was disappointed at the lack of gothic themes that are ever-present in the books.

Next up, Count Olaf.

Jim Carrey (Movie)               Neil Patrick Harris (Show)

Personally, I found Neil Patrick Harris to be underwhelming, whilst he definitely came across as awful, atrocious, and evil. He certainly wasn't frightening, mostly came across as a bit of dick actually. Jim Carrey had this magically way of bringing Count Olaf to life, using his own brand of insanity made the character more believable than Harris ever did. 

And why was his forehead so huge?! I get the receding hairline and all, but seriously? The thing could be used as a road block!

Another thing that bothered me is that the Baudelaire children seemed to similar to their movie counterparts, at some points I was actually convinced I was watching the movie. Malina Wiessman looked pretty much indentical to Emily Browning at that age, the same goes for Louis Hynes and Liam Aiken. 

I feel like Netflix actually allowed the movie to sway them in their casting of these roles.Which is understandably difficult since the books have illustration of exactly what everything is meant to look like. I'm also under the impression the Netflix is trying to avoid the label "White-washing", by adding people of various ethic backgrounds, which they did well.

Mr. Poe and his wife definitely added something a little extra to the plot, especially his wife who has made a seemingly permanent role in the show that does not exists, at all, in books. But honestly, is one of the more interesting characters in the show, probably my favorite.

Uncle Monty was also more interesting, due to the more in depth development of his character that was just not possible within the movie. Aasif Mandvi certainly used Billy Connolly as inspiration for his role. Which makes me wish Alfre Woodard,who plays Aunt Josephine, had taken inspiration from Meryl Streep. Woodard seemed quite spacey for most of her short role,  leaving me with the impression that she can't act (She can! She did amazingly in Marvel's Luke Cage), or didn't actually understand the role she was to play.

I also feel like an honorable mention should go to Catherine O'Hara who was in both the film, as Justice Strauss, and the show, as  Dr. Georgina Orwell.

Another thing I really enjoyed were the opening credits. They changed with every two episode, so they had a new one for each book, and if you actually paid attention, they would tell you what was happening in the episode using clever rhymes.

And finally, the conclusion.

I am actually really excited for the next season, as I won't be able to compare it to the movie like the first six episodes of this one. The monologues were well executed, even if done by Warburton. I certainly hope NPH, will pick up his game and show me that he can play something other than a shallow womanizer. Cast is great, but they need to be cautious since expectations have been set by the books illustrations.

💜Metalandteacups

Infomation -

Release Date: 13 Jan 2017
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 8
Time: Per Episode 45 mins approx.
Cast: 

	Malina Weissman	...	Violet Baudelaire
	Louis Hynes	...	Klaus Baudelaire
	Presley Smith	...	Sunny Baudelaire
	Neil Patrick Harris	...	Count Olaf
	Patrick Warburton	...	Lemony Snicket
	K. Todd Freeman	...	Mr. Poe