Movie Review - Thor Ragnarok

Star Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Storyline

Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok--the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization--at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger--the Incredible Hulk! - Rotten Tomatoes

Review

Glorious Redemption!

Ragnarok has pulled Thor out of the pile of ashes caused by the flaming wreckage that was Thor: The Dark World, and reinvigorated the character in the most unexpected ways. Reborn like the Phoenix!

I found that there was a strong focus on the comedic aspects of the characters, rather than the overly serious and rather dry view that we have seen in Dark World, which left a rather stale feel to the franchise. Whilst there were some very serious moments, like the battle of the Valkyries, which was paired with some amazing cinematography, didn't cause any of that bitterness to return.

 Honestly I got chills in the middle of this scene. I still get them now, that's just how amazing this scene was.

Whilst plot wise, there is not a lot going on, you don't actually notice. You're so immersed in the colours and fighting that you don't have time to think about anything else. It did bother me some, that there was so little  focus on Hela's efforts in her claiming Asgard, or that how she had the power to completely destroy Mjolnir within the first 30 seconds of being released on Earth. As I understand it, her power comes from Asgard, so being cut of from it for so long should have left her in a weaken state, right?

And as the Goddess of Death, I feel the introduction to Hela didn't instill the level of malevolence it should have. I guess that could have stemmed from my trepidation of Cate Blanchett being used for quite a dark roll. Toward the end of the film, I did buy into the character, but it shouldn't have taken an hour and a half to establish the vibe of a death goddess.

There are also a lot of questions remaining about what happened to The Hulk between Age of Ultron and Ragnarok. Like how he flew an aircraft not designed for space travel to another planet? Thor does ask Bruce, but conveniently, amnesia.

The scenes that take place on Xandark (?) have a distinctly Guardians of the Galaxy feel, and have very similar retro space vibe. Leaving me to wonder if there was input or influence from the Guardian Crew...

Information:
 
Release Date: 25th October, 2017
Run Time: 2hrs 10mins
Rating: PG-13
Cast:

• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Cate Blanchett as Hela
• Idris Elba as Heimdall
• Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster
• Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
• Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk/ Bruce Banner
• Anthony Hopkins as Odin
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange

Batman Arkham Knight - Game Review

Star Rating:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
Release Date: 23 June 2015

Over the course of this year I have been playing through the Batman Arkham series. My initial experience with this game was actually really terrible, as tried to play on my PC with a copy I bought off Steam. I downloaded a bunch of patches, etc, did everything I could but the game was virtually unplayable, so I got it refunded and thought that was the end of it. However, which the recent purchase of a PS4 I was able to play/watch, after several really time consuming updates. My partner has a tendency to hijack my games.
The story was good,if you can ignore the fact that they butchered several really famous Batman story lines and  don't expect any solid conclusion about the Arkham Knight. It was a little annoying to have to complete most of the side missions to reach the actual ending of the game, literally spent 12 hours just doing side quest at the end.
There were also significantly more jump scares in this game than the others; which did add to the thrill of play, but if you're like me it makes you super edgy for the rest of the day. Especially the Manbat one. The Joker is there to add some messed up comic relief afterward, but jokes from a psychotic serial killer gives little relief. 
The graphics still glitched out toward the end, making me think this was a half-baked game to begin with, and makes me feel sorry for those who paid full price for it. 
Can't say much about game play as, like I mentioned previously, my game got hijacked. But it seemed relevantly challenging, but there were a few times it wasn't clear which character you were playing, like that one part where Robin has to defuse 5 bombs without being spotted. I wish we could have played the other characters outside of their missions. It would have been interesting to see how Nightwing and Robin move about the city.
Another thing that annoyed was how much Alfred did in this game, which kind of took away some of the detective work that could have been quite interesting. 
Add then they go on about the Scarecrow's face being messed up, but you never actually see it. He's also less creepy and more ominous in this game, I preferred the Arkham Asylum one.
Mixed feelings about this one. Comics were better...

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy on PS4 - Game Review

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Release Date: 30 June 2017

One of my fondest memories as a kid was playing these games with my mum, passing the controller back and forth because some level were just too hard for an 8 y.o. So when I heard that they were releasing a remastered trilogy, you bet I started saving to buy myself a PS4 just to play these games.

Crash Bandicoot-
OH GOD! The nostalgia! Literally the same game, but better! Expect for the added difficulty of some levels, like 'The High Road'. I like to think I was pretty competent at playing this one, as I have a ridiculous amount of experience with playing Crash, unlike my partner who play this for the first time at the age of 27. Every time he died, he just grumbled "Damn Hit Boxes." Which have been greatly refined since it's original from 1996, making game play smoother and easier to control. However, even with the edition of being able to use to joystick as the primary controller, I often found myself reverting to the D-Pad for a lot of the harder levels like 'The Slippery Climb', 'The Native Fortress' and 'Sunset Vista', as often found that using the joystick would often cause me to fall of the front to the platforms, which of of course caused me to die. As this game was designed specifically for the D-Pad, adding in use of the joystick, whilst a novelty, was somewhat useless.
The most noticeable improvement are the added textures and refinement of the graphics, which made the whole trilogy less torturous to the eye.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back-
Unfortunately, the added texture in some of these levels made the path unclear, as rarely I found myself confused as which way to go. Attempting to walk over a hill and finding myself walking into an invisible wall.
I was also annoyed with how the N. Gin boss battle was setup, as the target area was often off screen/ out of range. I know that was true the the original, but guys, that took way too long for me to do. 
But I am not gonna lie, I didn't even bother finishing this game, because of all jet-pack levels with whacked out controls, my partner also gave a solid pass after being asked to do the underwater scuba levels, which I hated as a kid.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped-
Hands down, my favorite of all the Crash Bandicoot games. Last few levels were super easy, as once I got the Wumpa Bazooka I just shoot everything in sight. I fell that couple of the levels in this game could have been made more challenging, as we finished the entire game over 4 hours or so, where the other two were at least 8 each.

Overview- 
All in all, definitely worth the $60 I spent, work out to be $20 per game. I enjoyed that they kept a lot of the Easter Eggs in the games, I really enjoyed sharing this with my partner, and watching him get N.Sanely frustrated with being challenged in way that most games today don't challenge the player.

I wonder if they'll be releasing the Fourth Games as DLC?