(episode review) - Agatha All Along - Episode 7

By this point, if you have given the show a chance and gone with it after the reveal, you are likely to think the last episode or at least this seventh episode is one of the best, if not THE best episode Marvel has ever constructed for TV. Why? Because since the reveal, all the puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place and for one character specifically, all the tetris blocks are now creating the lines we need to understand the character and what was happening and has been happening all season. Without a doubt, this is superb storytelling and I would be lying if I did not think to myself, since WandaVision, where has this type of storytelling gone? One would argue that Loki season 2 and Moon Knight have similar storytelling techniques, but this is definitely up there with one of the greats.

Agatha and Billy are now on the road on their way to the next task which ends up being a Tarot reading test. Billy thinking he can do this, makes an attempt but when swords start falling from the ceiling Billy wishes for Lilia and Lilia appears. Lilia being a Tarot reader uses her skills to place the correct cards down but there is a cost to this challenge that Lilia must figure it all out before it is too late.

Brilliant episode. Without going into spoilers, the only thing I kept thinking whilst watching this episode was, how did they do that? This episode connects with a lot of previous episodes that came before it and moreover, the big reveal (which was guessed or figured out earlier in the show if you are savvy enough) hits you with soo much crystal clarity, it makes sense as to why and how things happen the way they did. Your many questions throughout this season get answered slowly through these last few episodes and this episode is the icing on the cake for a particular character. One last thing I am going to guess is that, maybe the Witches Road was never a real thing and it was put there from the mind of Billy, especially as a lot of what seems to be going on, seems to have been initiated or thought of, by.....him. We shall see.

(trailer review) - Wolf Man

 

Just so we have an understanding. I have never seen 'The Black Phone' but heard it was really good (a sequel might even be in the works), but I have seen 'The Invisible Man' and I really enjoyed that. It was simple and effective. Operating on a shoe-string budget (likely) and it did exactly what you'd think it should do. Provide a movie about a man who is invisible. In this case, he is tormenting his wife. This movie on the other hand, a man who is attacked and slowly turns into a wolf and attacks his wife and child, Spot on and well done. I remember a while back that there was a rumour going around that Blumhouse might be doing a shared universe like what Tom Cruise's Mummy movie was meant to be with that other film (whatever it was), but this under Blumhouse seems as though it will be different and a much better universe going by this trailer alone. 

This trailer does not show much at all. In fact, it does not even show the Wolf Man or from what I could tell and that could be down to the film's special effects are still beong worked on or they have chosen to keep his appearance a mystery at the moment but this looks terrifying. As the tag-line went "What if someone you loved, became, something else?", yeah, it does make you think. Even the little girl was like "Daddy, it's me". I do not think Daddy's little girl is Daddy's little girl anymore, she is Daddy's appetizer. The lighting in this trailer is so well used and the trailer gave me a claustrophobic feels well as a isolated and haunting experience. It looks like it is all based on one night also. Tense action and suspense thriller that will keep me on the edge of my seat like how Gravity did. Let's see. Hopefully it is really good.

(trailer review) - Creature Commandos

 

I will start off by saying, although this trailer sets the tone for the cartoon/animated shows that will be coming out from DC under James Gunn, I am not sure if the same time will be delivered in the movies, even though they are meant to be a part of the same universe. This trailer was giving me Invincible vibes and several times through this trailer I muttered "ohhh", "ouch", "damn" because the brutality is up there with the likes of........yes, Invincible. Maybe others but considering the Invincible trailer dropped earlier this week, a more recent comparison.

This trailer does not do much other than introduce you to the tone, atmosphere, world and the characters and if you do not mind me saying so, although it was not hilarious (and why should it be), I think I am definitely on board. We get to meet a few characters we have seen before like Weasel and, is that Rick Flag? Or his dad? Amanda Waller as well, so considering this should be interlinked with the DC soon to be out with the new Superman with David Cornsweat, I would love to see where this goes considering the old DCU "died" terribly, or did it. I'd like to see another trailer though. This is essentially Suicide Squad but with monsters, right? Let's see more!

(episode review) - Agatha All Along - Episode 6

When I say, trust in Feige, Kevin Feige, this episode is exactly what I mean. I mean the man gets it and how it is to be done. There has been a lot of talk over the last 4 years that the Marvel quality has been dropping and whilst I will not disagree, I will say that I am cognisant that a lot of the issues in storytelling and the product after Endgame was due to the push from senior executives at Disney. "We need more" was essentially their motto. "Put it out on Disney Plus". This was due to the pandemic and nobody working or producing anything to watch and nobody watching anything because of the lockdown AND the vaccination. It all goes hand in hand. It is also well known and documented at this point that 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' had to change direction in storytelling and they changed direction in series release dates due to the current world that was developing. WandaVision was great as it was first out and had a style to it, Agatha All Along not only continues this style but doubles-down on it with an injection of "buddy cop", 'horror', 'witch-craft' (of course) and murder mystery elements that has completely upped the levels of this show from decent, really good, to great.

Episode 6, after the reveal in episode 5 gives us a heavy handed flashback that is full of exposition but done in such a way, the episode was still entertaining and answered a lot of questions that were on our lips. Who is the Teen? What is their purpose and where did the Teen come from and why? Who put the protection spell on the teen and why? Does Agatha know who the teen is and what will their relationship be like now the mystery of who the teen is has now been revealed? Will we learn who Rio is and what happens at the end of the Witch's Road? There are still a lot of questions that require answering but for the most part, we are in the end game now so all these questions and more are going to be answered. I wouldn't be surprised if we are given more questions but as this show winds down, we will learn aot more about Agatha, her abilities, the Teen and the rest of the covant and their role in this show going forward.

(trailer review) - Invincible: Season 3

What is great about these trailers is that, the show is loved soo much by the viewers and the fans, they can literally do a promo trailer with two characters talking in a Burger Mart about the upcoming season and we will watch over and over and dissect what was said, who was in the scene, thinking about the previous season and wonder where they go from here with great anticipation.

Thinking about the previous season and what they have given us in this trailer, is a continuation and possibly a new villain who is not Angstrum Levi. That looks like Rudi sitting down in one of the booths and there are more storylines that need to be told/continued and most importantly, the Mark, Allan, Nolan (aka Omni-Man), Debbie and the baby. What happens now? And is are we going to see the return of Battle Beast?

(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.