The latest Batman movie directed by Maat Reeves sees Robert Pattinson take on the cape and cowl of The Batman as he investigates a series of killings of politicians and other people in power and leaving behind riddles for Batman and the Gotham Police by a mysterious man named The Riddler. Along the way Batman will discover horrible truths hidden in his family past.
First Robert’s performance as Batman was amazing. Here Batman is portrayed as a more violent individual who prefers to use violence and fear to defeat criminals. He would literally go through machine gun fire in order to beat up henchmen. He also portrays a disinterested Bruce Wayne, who has dedicating his entire live to being Batman that he neglects his other day-to-day obligations, much to Alfred’s disapproval. When Robert is in the suit you really see that he’s Batman and when he’s not in the mask you can see the pain and torture in his eyes.
The Riddler was also a legitimately terrifying villain as well. Unlike Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the character way back in Batman Forever, Paul Dano’s version of the character is a legitimate threat who is always two steps in front of Batman and the GCPD, leaving cryptic riddles at the scenes of his crimes.
The music score by Michael Giacchino is probably the best out of any Batman movie to date, especially the theme that plays when Batman is on the prowl delivering vengeance or when he’s trying to figure out Riddler’s next move. It fits the dark somber mood of the film and even gives a horror vibe in certain scenes.
If there is one criticism I have with the movie it would probably be the third act and the ending. It felt a bit rushed to me and there was one line from Catwoman played by Zoe Kravitz that just made me cringe. While she played the part well and had good chemistry with Pattinson that one particular part also made me groan in the theatre.
Overall The Batman is a great movie that is easily among my favourite Batman films. Is it better than The Dark Knight? No, but that movie is on a completely different level. I give The Batman 2022 a 9 out of 10
The biggest MCU movie of the year Spider Man No Way Home is the third Tom Holland Spider-Man focused film and I would even go as far as saying this is as good if not better than Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. Taking place right after the events of Far From Home Spider-Man’s secret identity has been revealed by Mysterio. His whole life is turned upside down and in desperation Peter Parker requests the aid of Doctor Strange to make it so everyone forgot that he was Spider-Man however the spell goes horribly wrong. Now Spider-Man has to make things right before the fabric of reality itself is destroyed.
This movie is a love letter to the old Raimi-era Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-man movies with the main villains of the film being the villains from those films reprised by the same actors. You have Alfred Molina as Doc Ock from the Raimi Spider-Man 2, Jamie Foxx playing Electro again like he did in Amazing Spider-Man 2 and best of all there is William Dafoe, who once again plays Norman Osborn and his psychotic other half the Green Goblin. And he’s just as menacing in this film as he was way back in the first Raimi Spider-Man movie.
The recurring MCU cast also delivered spectacular performances. Tom Holland’s performance as Spider-Man is perhaps the best its ever been as the movie shows him at him most human and most vulnerable as he struggles with the consequences of his actions and trying to do the right thing no matter how difficult it is, even if all he gets in return is scorn and hate. The supporting cast of MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) also show great performances as they aid Spider-Man in his quest to set things right.
One criticism many fans had with the MCU Spider-Man was how things were given to him without any effort, from his suit to his gadgets. This time around though Spider-Man isn’t given things, in fact much like how it usually is for the character things are constantly taken away from him as a consequence of his action and we get to see him grow past these struggles and truly become the Spider-Man we know and love.
With the movie ending in a rather bittersweet tone one can only wonder what’s next for the MCU web head. Judging from the post credit scene it would be rather… venomous. I give No Way Home a 10/10.
It brings me no pleasure to have to make this post, but I feel I must, if only to spread awareness and prevent people from making the same mistake I did.
Before that let me give some context to this. Ninja Gaiden Master Ninja Collection is a collection of the 3 modern Ninja Gaiden games: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2 as well as Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor’s Edge. All 3 games were upgraded versions of their base games originally released for the PS3, though only Razor’s Edge was multiplatform while the original Ninja Gaiden and its upgrade Ninja Gaiden Black were originally available only on the original Xbox with the original Ninja Gaiden being exclusive for the Xbox 360.
These games were famous for being high-paced action games where you battled hordes of hard hitting enemies demanding nigh-perfect reflexes in order to succeed. This collection makes all 3 games available for modern systems and PCs. However the games, sans for the first NInja Gaiden Sigma game, are rather shoddy ports, at least on the Nintendo Switch.
Both Sigma 2 and Razor’s Edge suffer from inconsistent frame rates and heavy pixellation in some stages that make it difficult to see. And in a series that demands near god like precision having an unstable frame rate kills the experience. Seeing the kinds of games the Switch can run like The Outer Worlds or even Monster Hunter Rise I can conclude only that the poor performance of these 2 games is a result of shoddy porting. Only Sigma 1 seems to run fairly decently with no issues so far but there’s no excuse for the Switch to not be able to run Sigma 2 and Razor’s Edge at least at a stable 30 frames, especially at the hefty price of USD$40.00 for the collection, even with the exclusion of the (admittedly lackluster) online play.
It’s a damn shame since the Ninja Gaiden franchise are some of the best the action hack and slash games out there, especially Sigma 1 and 2, and seeing these classics done poorly is a big disappointment. The game is available however on PS4 and Xbox One though you can use the PS5 and Xbox Series X as well. Apparently the PC version of the collection is also suffering from its own problems regarding resolution and having to manually set it to fullscreen.
If you really want to get this for the Switch I would recommend waiting for a sale or hope they patch up the issues particularly with Sigma 2 and Razor’s Edge because in their current state those two games are almost unplayable.
As the title implies Our Crappy Social Game Club Is Gonna Make The Most Epic Game (god that’s a mouthful) is about a rundown social game club on the verge of closure by the student council and their attempts to make the best game ever with a quirky set of members.
In a world similar to our own social games have become so popular that there are clubs dedicated to their development and government projects to encourage students to enter social game development. Our main protagonist Shiraseki Kei transfers out of his school in Tokyo, one well known for its social game club, due to an incident and vows never to get involved in social game development again. He transfers to another school and while looking for a club to join he gets involved with his classmate Aoi Nanaka who invites him to join the social game club. Having developed a form of PTSD from his previous experience he initially declines to join but when the student council tells them that the club is being disbanded and the president insults social games and the hardworking people behind them Shiraseki Kei decides to help out and save the club by improving the only social game the club made.
It’s a pretty interesting premise and the way Kei breaks down how to improve the game the club made is quite interesting, using several statistics and comparing it to other games available in the market. But the premise itself doesn’t make up for the characters and overall plot of the book.
First we have the main girl Aoi Nanaka herself. She introduces herself as the president and planner of the club but she barely knows anything about game development in general, having only joined the club to fulfill a childhood promise she made with her friend, Kuroba Eru. She mostly acts as the surrogate audience, as a way for Shiraseki to explain various terminology to the reader. We later learn that her promise with Kuroba Eru involved the two developing a game together as artists and initially when developing the game she along Nanaka were the artists for the game but when the game came out the reviews they got bashed Nanaka’s drawings bad in comparison to Eru’s which hurt Nanaka greatly emotionally and made her decide to become a planner instead, leaving Eru to do most of the art herself. Later on this becomes one of the main sources of conflict in the novel and after a heart-to-heart they manage to resolve it but one thing about it really bothered me: Why didn’t they consider having Nanaka to be one of the character designers or the concept artist with Eru being the main artist to later refine the art to a more presentable level?
Then there’s the quirky programmer of the group Oushima Aya, who happens to be a gacha addict. Her main personality is that she loves gacha, to the point that she would work part time jobs to sustain her habit. Then later on its revealed that she’s the one responsible for creating the open source engine all social game clubs use to develop their games and the reason why schools even have social game clubs to begin with. And let me emphasise the fact that in the story she’s currently a highschool student. Why is someone like her even a highschool student? She could’ve started her own company or something with her talent. But the story kinda glosses over that, with only Kei having any real reaction.
Finally we have the main artist Kuroba Eru, probably the blandest character of the bunch. She’s supposed to be Nanaka’s childhood friend but she isn’t very supportive of her and she doesn’t even offer to help improve her drawing or compromise so she could still play a role as an artist. Eru happens to be a talented artist who’s scouted do to illustrations for light novels as well as her own self published stuff. Her only notable personality trait is her rather odd speaking style, using the word ‘Dear’ a lot.
The plot mainly revolves around the social game club being on the verge of disbanding due to first a lack of members and second no real achievements to justify its existence and budget. So its up to Kei, who has the most experience as a planner, and Nanaka to come up with a plan to keep their club alive and convince the other two girls to help them. It’s an ok plot I suppose but a lot of the drama could’ve been solved if characters acted like real human beings. For example Nanaka and Eru’s dispute could’ve been fixed simply by having the latter tutor or encourage the former instead of being so oppressive or if they found a way to relegate the roles properly.
If you’re interested in a slice of life story I would rather recommend something like Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, where the main female lead teaches the main male lead how to be a better person. I would give Social Game Club Is Gonna Make The Most Epic Game a 4 out of 10
The official Japanese poster for the movie, copyright of ufotable, Shueisha, Aniplex
Before I start the review I would like to stress that this review may contain slight spoilers for the first season of Demon Slayer. The movie itself should only be viewed after finishing the first season as you may not get the full experience otherwise.
Originally released last October in Japan Demon Slayer: Mugen Train takes place right after the conclusion of the first season. Tanjiro, Nezuko and their friends the cowardly(but awesome) Zenitsu and the energetic, battle hungry and lovable Inosuke are boarding a train where the flame Hashira Rengoku Kyojiro is riding to help defeat a powerful demon that caused the passengers of said train to disappear and for Tanjiro to find clues about the Hinakami Kagura dance and breathing technique he used against his fight with Rui. It’s not long after that they fall into a trap set up by the demon and must escape to defeat it and safe the passengers on board.
As expected of ufotable the animation is amazing. Whether its Rengoku’s fierce flames or Tanjiro’s gentle but powerful water strikes each move the slayers and demon use are as beautifully animated if not more so than the anime and the CG looks incredibly awesome and horrific as befitting a human eating monstrosity. As you’ve to expect from Demon Slayer there are plenty of comedic moments, plenty of heart-pumping moments, plenty of happy feel good moments and plenty of sad, tearjerking moments. You will be laughing one second, only to have tears come out the next and before they dry your heart will be pumping with excitement and it does it all without overwhelming the viewer. Its funny, awesome, heartwarming and tragic in all of its two hour run and it does it all with great cinematography, and fight choreography and delivering the same themes of family, friendship, compassion, duty and resolve that resonated with so many. There are plenty of inspiring moments in the movie delivered with great voice acting and tone. If there is only one nitpick I have its that the movie does require one to have watched all of Demon Slayer’s first season (which is also quite good as well).
The movie performed greatly at the box office with an estimated US$413,737,3431 and the hype and praise it’s been receiving elsewhere is well deserved. It’s a great movie to watch and with season 2 having been announced and coming soon2 you should hurry now and watch it while its still in cinemas. If you’re a fellow Bruneian who happened to stumble upon this humble blog of mine you can watch in most cinemas nationwide with English, Malay and Chinese subtitles included.
I give a personal rating of 10 out of 10. It’s a must-watch, doubly so if you’ve watched the anime from start to finish. Keep in mind that just like the anime there are plenty of violent scenes and even a few of implied suicide (it makes sense it context) so children below the age of 16-18 should not be watching this movie. If the movie ever released with an English dub I’d probably check it out as well to see how it stacks up1
Numbers are from the movie’s Wikipedia page and may differ from actual statistics. Link may contain spoilers
Confirmed to be coming out sometime this year and according to this forbe’s article around late 2021
So just recently Ex-Arm, a manga written by HiRock and illustrated by Shinya Komi got an anime adaptation from studio Visual Flight and its their first ever production as of this writing with Muse Asia and Crunchyroll handling streaming distribution. And well I’ll let this image speak for itself:
In case it isn’t obvious what’s going on in this shot the main character, who is a CG 3d model is talking to his brother who is a flat 2d image. Just having a poorly emoted 3d model side by side with an average looking 2d drawn character looks incredibly jarring . And this isn’t the only instance. Here’s a few other shots:
The 3d models are also not very good, if you can’t tell already. And the action scenes are just god awful. You can hardly tell what’s going on, characters don’t have any weight to them, there’s no impact, its just all over the place. I could barely handle 3 minutes of the thing.
And the icing on the cake? The manga itself looks really good. Take a look at these images:
It’s like night and day. Stuff like this is why I tend to just read the manga instead of watching the anime.
But what do you guys think? Have you seen Ex-Arm anime or read the manga? Let me know and if you want to watch the trainwreck for yourself head on over to crunchyroll or go to the MuseAsia youtube channel here.
*All images are copyrighted their original owners. I do not own the Ex-Arm anime or manga, I simply wish to advertise it and talk about it.
The long anticipated sequel to the 2017 Wonder Woman movie Wonder Woman 84 is another tale featuring the lead character herself as she battles against a maniacal man who has taken the power of a magical wishing stone and causing chaos and mayhem as he grants the wishes of people in exchange for what they value most. Unfortunately unlike the previous movie Wonder Woman 84 fails to entertain in every single way.
The story for one thing is pretty cliche with a ‘be careful what you wish for’ plot you’ve probably seen plenty of times by now. Also the wishing stone the main villain Maxwell Lord becomes is pretty inconsistent. Diana was able to get her wish without verbally saying it whereas everyone else had to speak their wishes out loud. Another problem with the story was bringing back Diana’s love interest Steve Trevor, who was brought by Diana’s wish and ends up possessing the body of a random dude (which is pretty creepy when you think about the implications of the two sleeping together). For some reason Diana can’t be happy without him. Wonder Woman, the greatest superheroine and a symbol of female empowerment is dependent on a man for happiness. I’m sure you can understand the problem with that. The fact that the movie is set in the 80s doesn’t really add to anything, it could’ve been used to fill the movie with tons of references and callbacks to the comic books or other media but it does none of that. If the movie was set in modern times like sometime after Justice League it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Another problem is that at the end of the day nothing really happens. The villain is defeated and life goes on. That’s it, Diana doesn’t really grow as a character (except she now has the ability to fly) and… that’s it. Also it retcons Batman V Superman a bit with Diana still doing heroics instead of going dark for more than a 100 years.
And the pacing, my god the pacing. This movie is about 2 hours 30 minutes, but it really has no reason to be that long, with a good chuck of that time being used to show Trevor as fish out (temporal) water. He gets surprised over everything, like trains, escalators and even fireworks. And for some reason he (a pilot from World War 1) was able to pilot a high-tech (for the time) fighter plane. And somehow Diana had clearance to access the plane in the first place, or use magic to turn the whole plane invisible (something she never does again). Characters also seemingly teleport from one location to another and its even lampshaded in the movie itself.
If I have written nothing good about the movie so far its because… there is none. Everything, from special effects to the music, is not good. At all. Heck the ONLY good thing about the movie is a short cameo appearance from the actress of the old Wonder Woman TV show Lynda Carter. That’s it. If you wanted to watch a superhero movie this year this was not it. I give this abysmal movie a 2 out of 10.
Also known as Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu
What happens if Mash Kyrielight from Fate Grand Order and Naofumi from Rising of The Shield Hero had a cute loli daughter together who plays a VRMMORPG like Sword Art Online but without the permadeath? You get probably one the best anime in the VRMMORPG with fun characters and an interesting if slightly flawed video game world, based on the light novel of the same name.
Our main character Kaede Honjo is convinced by her friend Risa to try out a VRMMORPG called New World Online (real original name guys). Since she doesn’t being in pain she decides to pick the Great Shielder class and put all her points in VIT thus maximising her defense. And so the great shielder Maple was born.
The anime basically takes a more relaxed slice-of-life approach to its storytelling compared to its contemporaries. There’s no looming threat of permanent death like Sword Art Online nor is there any deep exploration into what a truly immersive VRMMO would be like unlike Infinite Dendrogram. Instead the game focuses Maple and the adventures she has with her friends as she obtains new abilities and find new ways to break the game.
The characters are the strong point in this anime. Maple presents herself as a rather casual gamer but she is shown to have incredible creativity and can be quite artistic.
Maple drew that during an event. With a stick
Seeing the multiple ways Maple somehow exploit game mechanics through curiosity and cuteness is entertaining and funny.
Did I mention she’s adorable?
Risa who uses a swashbuckler named Sally in contrast is a hardcore gamer having won several awards and has incredible reflexes both in the game and in real life. She’s more competitive than Maple relishing in PvP style events and fighting powerful foes. The two have a very strong dynamic together and it’s a treat seeing the two battle monsters together.
Sally pwning a poor hapless victim
Another fun character is Chrome. A great shielder like Maple he acts as the big brother of the group. Unlike Maple though he has a more conventional playstyle and he’s had more deaths than the others. He’s also a member of a message board that posts updates on Maple’s progress in New World Online.
These are quite funny but the subs go by pretty fast, you’ll need to pause every few seconds to read them
One of the things that surprised me was the animation quality, for light-hearted comedic anime like this the animation can be surprisingly good with some really good fight scenes. The fight scene in episode 4 with Maple and Sally vs a special event boss called Silverwing is one of the highlights with its use of relatively good CG. It’s no ufotable fight but much better than some of its contemporaries (SAO).
Discount Arcticuno
But as fun as the anime it does suffer from some pacing problems, especially towards the end when building up to the climatic fight against the top guilds. Some of the characters don’t get fleshed out much as well but hopefully that’ll change when season 2 rolls around.
The season 2 announcement after the final episode. Will we see Maple carry two shields and become a true fortress?
If you’re looking for a fun, entertaining anime that really captures how fun VRMMOs could be then I highly recommend giving Bofuri a watch. I give it a good 8/10
Alright full disclaimer here: I haven’t watched all the episodes of the Infinite Dendrogram anime. I stopped around episode 6 or 7 which was about the end of the second volume of the light novel which I have read along with the first volume. As such this isn’t going to be a ‘review’ per say but more of a rant about the anime adaptation and it’s downfall compared to the light novel.
For those of you who don’t know Infinite Dendrogram is about the story of Ray Starling and his adventures in the titular game as rises to the top with his Embryo the Maiden Arms Type Nemesis. One of the selling features of the Infinite Dendrogram game is the Embryo system and how each player’s Embryo is unique with each Embryo and can evolve based on the player’s actions and personality. While it’s an interesting setting with characters potentially having an endless variety of abilities thanks to the Embryo system and there are plenty of interesting scenarios where the anime stumbles the most is in its worldbuilding.
The Infinite Dendrogram light novels are chock full of worldbuilding and character writing that the anime fails to convey. The anime doesn’t really delve into the specifics of each nation. The character creation segment in the first episode for example didn’t go into much detail compared to how it was written in the first volume. Details the anime omitted in this part included stuff like the game having different graphical settings (Ray chose the realistic graphics option whereas another character in the same book chose another setting), options to change the avatar’s body size and even gender, and even the fact that players can’t reset their character to get a different Embryo as the game records of users’ brain wave data and that even if they reset the Embryo’s are based on the player so they would get the same one regardless. The segment in the anime also omits explaining about the different nations and had Ray immediately choosing Altar without looking at the other places.
The anime also omits mentioning the real world. When Ray dies for the first time he and Nemesis resolve to get stronger and thus they head to the Tomb Labyrinth but in the light novel it goes into detail about what Ray did during the death penalty, checking out the message boards and finding out that aside from the 24-hour login ban there was a penalty to Embryo growth as well as looking for information about the Tomb Labyrinth beforehand to be better prepared for grinding and preparing for college life the following month (something that might happen in a later volume). This helps to paint Ray as someone who can plan for a scenario and not as some overpowered protagonist who knows what he’s doing.
Some characters aren’t as properly defined in the anime as compared to the light novel. Rook for example is portrayed in the anime as a pretty boy with a rather innocent Succubus for an Embryo. The reason for innocence however is revealed in the light novel to be a result of Rook being underage. The Lich Maise (an NPC by the way) wants to reach the Superior job of King of Corpses and that was the reason he and his gang were kidnapping children around Figaro and he had a disdain for players for their perceived immortality.
If you want to enjoy Infinite Dendrogram to its fullest I encourage you to pick up the far superior light novel original. The story is much better paced and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and character writing compared to the anime adaptation. Currently there are 10 volumes available in English with the 11th volume coming out on the 7th of April and right now Bookwalker has a promotion where several light novel volumes are available free for download and reading until the end of the month, including the first 3 volumes of Infinite Dendrogram.
Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus that originated from Wuhan China has become a global pandemic infecting most of the world, with some countries like Italy being hit harder than some as it was recently announced that 793 people have died just last Saturday and that now the military is being mobilized to enforce the lockdown. Lives have been changed because of it, with borders being closed and social distancing becoming the norm even here in Brunei. With all the talk going on and with new cases being reported every day life is becoming more and more bleak.
First of all I would like to extend my gratitude and offer my prayers for all the frontliners, particularly the hardworking medical staff working around the clock testing potential cases and the retail staff who keep the essential shops open for everyone as well as the health minister and his colleagues keeping the rest of the public informed about the latest news of the pandemic.
Secondly I just need to get something off my chest: I know that these are troubling times. Life seems to have a taken a 180 for everyone. We can’t go out and have fun anymore and we have to take extra precautions when interacting with others. Even when the pandemic has died down life has forever changed especially with the global economy tanking and more and more people working from home. But even so we shouldn’t let paranoia and fake news rule our lives.
So what can we do to protect ourselves? Keep your distance from others (preferably about 1 feet or 3 meters away), wash your hands regularly and thoroughly for about 20 seconds with soap and water, don’t touch your face or mouth, cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough either with a disposable tissue or into your elbow, stay indoors, don’t go out unless necessary and don’t go or hold any social gatherings and if you experience fever, coughing and difficulty breathing please seek medical care immediately and go into quarantine/ self-isolation. And of course, please do not panic and be considerate of others. Don’t go around starting fights over essentials or toilet paper.
This pandemic may be with us for quite some time yet. Once again I urge everyone to follow the advice and directions of health officials and please keep yourself safe. Hopefully we’ll ride through these turbulent times safely.
HamD Reviews 