(trailer review) - Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning

If you have followed me for any period of time, you may have learnt a few things. I have not seen all the movies or even the classic ones. I do not just watch comic book and action movies. My cousin was 2 years older than me, so some films were introduced to me by him. I have mostly seen Arnold movies over Sly. I love Zack Snyder, Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson movies. As well as John McClane being one of my favourite protagonists, Ethan Hunt is quite possibly at the top as I love sci-fi and spy movies. This trailer not only brought a tear to my eye, but it just had me so intrigued, and I even wondered, did they show every scene in this movie as a lot seems to be going on.


This is the sequel to Dead Reckoning part one, which was a movie that ended on a cliffhanger. Ethan Hunt is essentially battling an AI threat to save the world. It sounds bonkers, but effectively, a man named Gabriel has been tasked to do the bidding of the AI and he also has a vendetta against Ethan Hunt. This film is to pick up after the events of the first movie and looks like it pulls from every experience Ethan has gone through where he has saved the world and often, by going "rogue", to lead him to this moment facing the entity and its henchman. The part in the trailer where they are reeling off a list of "achievements" Ethan has done, such as the bombing of the Kremlin or the gassing of the security briefing, I'd imagine there is more listed there. Also, it is so great to see Nick Offerman, but the disbelief they have of someone they have trained to be a ghost and do the impossible mission makes me laugh. If you see Ethan, it is often because he wants you to see him. This ultimately looks like it may be the last Mission Impossible movie for Tom Cruise, but seeing the gang back along with Hayley Atwell, who is a new addition to the team, and those Dutch angles, I am completely involved. I have no idea where this movie's plot is going but I need to see this now! Our lives are the some of our choices. I have chosen this mission. I have accepted it.

(series review) [STREAMING] - Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

 

Absolute nonsense but absolutely fun and entertaining is what I would describe this show. To explain, let me take it back to the very first Tomb Raider game back in the 90's. Lara and her polygonal-ly pointy tits and square jaw were an amazing game for the time. It was essentially Indiana Jones as a woman, without a fedora or a whip but armed with two pistols, a backpack and eventually a shotgun, roaming the world looking for ancient artefacts and killing, possibly endangered species. This game essentially appealed to young boys like myself at the time. The game was a success which spawned a series of games (Tomb Raider 1 - 6) and some others, then a couple of movies starring Angelina Jolie. Years later a reboot of the franchise gave us a Trilogy (so far) and another movie in-between that starring Alicia Vikander. From what I understand, this animated series exists in the rebooted series and takes place after the 2018 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' storyline. For context, I played the original Tomb Raider 1 & 2, 'Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness', 'Tomb Raider: Legend', 'Tomb Raider Anniversary', 'Tomb Raider Underworld' and the rebooted 'Tomb Raider Trilogy which consists of 'Tomb Raider', 'Rise of the Tomb Raider and 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider''. I only got Anniversary because it was essentially a remaster of the original 'Tomb Raider' and I wanted to have a refresher, to reminisce on the old game and to note all the changes/improvements they made, but the rebooted franchise is referred to as the "Survivor Trilogy" and I really enjoyed it. Each game got better and better in the tools Lara had, what she could do and the overarching storyline with the mystery behind her father's murder and the secret organisation behind it. This picks up from there and I enjoyed it. So why is it absolute nonsense? I'll explain.

Lara Croft (Hayley Atwell) is hosting an event and a mysterious man pops up and talks to her. Stating they are the same, eventually an artefact Lara had in her possession is stolen and Lara is pulled into a mystery that involves retrieving the artefact and restoring the balance of the world.

This is a basic Tomb Raider fair. But what makes the show "nonsense" for me, is the sheer "believability" of Lara's move-set and the things she can do, endure and "achieve". For example, Lara, (although having played the first rebooted game and completed it), I referred to her as a "Spider-Monkey", my nickname for her as the way I moved her in the game (because I needed her to move that way in the game for my own survival), was nothing short of spider and monkey-like. Clambering, jumping, swinging, back-flipping, etc. This show went above and beyond anything a normal human could do. Lara got flung around and battered by people and beasts and there were a few scrapes and bruises. There were times Lara would have definitely broken a bone, joint, or back or had her head crushed in, but she survives as if her bones are made from titanium. Lastly, what she achieved in this show was "ok" because it fell within the realms the puzzles and tasks you would normally get in the game but there is a moment where two people are needed for a particular puzzle and this is achieved with two people but in the game, it is always Lara by herself so it made me feel that maybe they should have referenced that somehow because in the game, it is only you doing everything by yourself. I did not like the voice acting for Zip because it sounded too stereotypically black and I felt the show did lean a little too heavy on that. But other than these minor issues, Lara being superhuman in her abilities. essentially or the voice acting for Zipp, I actually loved the series, the voice acting and Lara's portrayal.

Hayley Atwell at this point has a very distinguishable voice for me. She is Captain Margaret "Peggy" Carter from the MCU, live action and voice acting, so what she brings to Lara Croft is that well-spoken "posh" Old English cadence and dialogue mixed with a young and upbeat persona of someone who is also carefree. I am not sure if a Millie Bobby Brown would have achieved the levels Hayley achieved with this rendition of the Lara Croft character as what we got, was someone who sounded as though she has seen things, experienced and gone through a lot. There is even a comment where Lara says "We have seen worse", which makes perfect sense when you play the reboot trilogy of games. So in short, Hayley is great as Lara and also brings a vulnerability to the character because she has gone through so much as well as lost those who are important to her. It was refreshing to see our hero. All the other voice actors bar Zipp, I enjoyed as they all brought a level of complexity and layers to their performance, even Zipp. it was nice to be reintroduced to the old characters from the games as well as some new characters that expand Lara's world as well as the references to previous adventures.

As for the storyline, pretty straightforward and not unlike many of the people Lara comes across in her games, people who want to seek an ancient artefact for whatever cause they have and end up close to destroying the world because of their megalomaniacal ideas or cult-like ideologies. In a Tomb Raider game, you are often confronted with ancient mythical lore which are old folk tales that are real but either believed as folk tales or truth and this often brings you to areas of the world you would never see as they are inaccessible by conventional means or they are buried and forgotten, this show touches on that accurately. So, the action in some of these parts literally felt like a video game. How Lara could jump really high and pull off moves no ordinary human could, but if you were playing the game, you could, so that was the "battle" I had where I had to relate the movement to gameplay. With that said, they laced a few moves from the actual game which was nice to see.

The music and animation was great. I saw angles and movement I feel rivals Attack on Titan or Demon Slayer, but watching Lara move the way she does with the animation was slick. There is a lot of close-quarters combat rather than the gun-toting or bow-and-arrowing you usually have in the games, but I was fine with that. In the game, Lara has to be very resourceful and this show shows some of that which was also very good to see. No, you do not see her make a bow and arrow from scratch by picking up random twigs and scraps like in the game but you do see her try to achieve something from bare minimal tools at her disposal. 

All in all, entertaining. There could be a few logic holes here and there or "how does that work" moments, but I saw it as a Tomb Raider game, animated into anime with a bit more story to it and I was totally fine with that. It did not drag, it did not feel forced and it neither pushed the story any further than where the last game left you. I think all I want now, is the next game and to continue from where we left off from the rebooted trilogy.

Also, if this is very well received, I can see them making a series on Aloy from the Horizon series.

(trailer review) - Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

I honestly want to believe, I knew about this but I had forgotten. Like who knew about this? Who? You see Tomb Raider for me goes back several years to when it first came out on the PlayStation. A woman with seemingly big boobs and holding duel pistols discovering tombs and shooting bad guys and (likely) endangered species. I was young, she looked cool. A puzzle with a touch of survival, game which told a story of a woman from a wealthy background who tries to follow in her father's footsteps to discover ancient artefacts. After several game releases and the excellent re-release, upon playing that trilogy (but more from the first game), I labelled Lara a 'Spider-Monkey'. This was because you could run, jump, scurry and climb, so when you were fighting and trying to defeat enemies, Lara would often look like she is running on all fours when you would scurry along and possibly even roll to avoid danger. When used well along with her arsenal, Lara is a formidable character, which brings me to this trailer.

This trailer is excellent and it seems as though they are either picking up where the last reboot trilogy of games left off or telling a brand new story off of the back of the rebooted story, either way, this not only gives me Korra vibes, but has the potential to be an anime/cartoon version of the Indian Jones-type to possibly dig into deeper lore and a bigger story. I must say, I have a soft spot for Tomb Raider as I had fun with the first two games, Angel of Darkness was ok, but with Underworld, Legend and the Anniversary edition, I fell back in love with the character. The rebooted trilogy was also great and I have been waiting on a new game ever since, but this cartoon may even tide me over until the new game drops, either way, I am watching this without hesitation. Having Hayley Atwell as the voice is simply, class!

(film review) - Captain America: The First Advenger

Steve Rogers was just any ordinary guy, but when Steve Rogers bit into a Banana, he became... actually, that's Eric. Steve Rogers bits into a banana and becomes, Steve Rogers, no changes. Poor guy. But with that said, the story of Steve Rogers goes like this. He is an average guy, if anything, very thin, mild-mannered and would do anything for his country; even join the Army. However, Steve gets rejected for the Army on multiple occassions for not passing standard requirements and then puts himself down for the super soldier enhancement program which turns him into Captain America. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, sinister Johann Schmidt aka Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) is trying to rule the with a device called the 'Tesseract', and Captain America is the only person who can stop him, along with his band of merry men.

Dispite what anyone says, this film is very decent. I think, if you compare with Ironman and Ironman 2, then your not understanding the film and when it was set. However one thing you will need to remember is that this film is or the time period is half a centry before modern technology, i.e Tony Stark Iron Man Era.

Have a watch of the film, you should like it as it is very watchable and when you think of the prospect of this being the beginning of the Avengers, you know that The Avengers and sequels to this film will be much better.