#are also kind of underplayed by the story in really bizarre ways.

[sirenemale]

Sorry to retype the exact same thoughts about Luna My Little Pony for the hundreth time but I'm not normal here.

I'm finishing off the last season and seeing another episode where Celestia and Luna fight in the exact same way is making me think about it even more.

Luna associated with the moon is seen as scary because she brings night time on and is seen in nightmares, and is also so so autistic coded to me vs Celestia who is revered for raising the sun and the safer daytime. Their conflicts always boil down to Celestia trivializing Luna's emotions, hobbies or job and then Luna retaliating because both to her sister and to the public, she isn't viewed the Same. And their fights are always wrapped up with them agreeing they were both wrong but I just literally cannot buy that, Luna strikes such a specific nerve with me so I'm biased but the way the story skips over the kinda tangle of emotional pain going on with her makes me feel dizzy.

Nightmare Moon emerges as a hyper destructive version of Luna's negative emotions. One big meltdown after years of subtle mistreatment. The story frames Nightmare Moon as a malevolent corrupting force that feeds off Luna's emotions, but to me I see that as a way for Celestia to keep the image of her quiet baby sister intact. My younger sister isn't capable of these emotions, sure we had bad days, but she's nothing like this, she has no reason to be so displeased. Again feels neurodivergent feels like masking and being Well behaved vs slipping. Nightmare Moon then is an aspect of Luna that Celestia is trying to ignore, and her method for that is locking her in the moon for hundreds of years, isolated for the greater good, for the safety of everyone and lamenting the loss of her dear sweet sister who's been replaced by a Monster. One that becomes a scary forewarning for children everywhere.

Even when Luna comes back, Nightmare Moon is still used for scary stories and halloween party games. No one let's her forget this, the root of her breakdown isn't addressed and it can never be addressed because now she's forever associated with a monstrous version of her own pain forever. They're not her feelings that's been taken away from her, her emotions are defined by how detrimental they are to others and more importantly her sister. They're always waiting for the moment she turns back into her, most of her episodes are about her turning back into her. The fact Luna's duty is to stay up all night patrolling the nightmares of ponies because she's scared Nightmare Moon will take over her again if she Rests or lets herself forget that happened. This actual legitimate guilt and self harm spiral she locks herself in, the fact some of these nightmares Have to involve seeing even more distorted versions of her, the ways Other ponies see her? Thinking that even if they like her, as Luna, even if they stop seeing Nightmare Moon, Nightmare Moon is also You. How much can you compartmentalize. How can you figure out if you're Good or not when this is how you live. And everyday you wake up and you see your sister and you hold your tongue. When you fight with her over things like her thinking your hobbies are boring, that you're lucky to not have any Real work to do, No reason to be tired. All these ideas of the most surface level qualities of you that she doesn't like. And the only option is to concede?

That's crazy. That's crazy crazy crazy.

[reversemoon255]

5th Review - Ohsama Sentai Kingohger

I have watched 14 seasons of Power Rangers, and 18 seasons of Super Sentai, aaaaand…this is the best. Like, I don’t even know if anyone else even competes. It’s that good. Which is weird, right? This is the CG-heavy bug season, and yet it stands above all the others? It’s truly a marvel of Tokusatsu that they can take these bizarre, wacky concepts and forge something fantastic out of them. But we’re not here for my platitudes, we’re here for me to give my thoughts on a show.

The Good: Something I really like about the characters in general is they all embody a negative characteristic of leadership, but turn it on its head, allowing them to display both the the negatives aspects on occasion, but also how you can spin those impulses for the betterment of yourself and the people around you.

Gira is Power. It’s not uncommon for stories to portray a character as seeking power for the purposes of protecting others. In fact, it’s very common. But Gira portraying himself as the villain, acting as the tyrant, added a nice flavor to it that made it stand on its own. Gira does fill the role of the red chosen one in many ways, but because of the show’s focus on unity and teamwork, he always feels more like a perspective character, which I think is a positive. On top of that, he’s very kind, earnest, and the most down-to-earth of the kings, adding to that perspective character role. His kingdom of Shuggodom also had a lot of side characters, such as the orphans, his brother and attendants, and the angry yelling guy. “He’s louder! He’s the real one!” was such a great payoff to that character’s existence. Also, any Sentai character that can unironically say “I will hear you scream,” is pretty cool.

Yanma is Pride. He rarely backs down or bows to anyone else. And while this can sometimes get him in trouble, the people he stands up to are always more powerful than he is. It’s often more determination than anything, and that determination gets the team through many tough situations. As for characterization, Yamna is a genius, but also very childish and a bit petty. The pranks he pulls are always very silly. His aide, Shiokara, was also a nice foil; childish in nature, but serious in role. And it was nice how he and Gira really did end up being good friends by the end.

Ran is Selfishness. Unsurprisingly; she says it all the time. But while she occasionally displays true selfishness, it is often used as a mask for selflessness. She selfishly wants to help people, but is portrayed as selfishness, which is funny in many situations. She was a majoritively serious character, which made the moments she leaned into humor all the funnier. I also liked that she was part of two goes-nowhere romances with both Yanma and Rita. She’s the beautiful one, so it makes sense romance would be part of her themes, even if underplayed. And Sebastian was one of the sillier aides, with a ridiculous backstory to match that silly nature.

Kaguragi is Deceit. We all expect those in power to lie, and Kaguragi does frequently, constantly switching sides and misinforming his allies to get his way. But at the end of the day, everything he does is for the sake of his people. And because of the scope of his deception, he is privy to more information than the rest of the cast, being aware of both the teams’ and Racles’ plans. Speaking of Racles, his sister was also a surprisingly big player at times, getting more attention than his personal aide, even if not seen as often. And his aide, Kuroda, being a Kuroko, filled his role as more of a background character, though did have a distinct personality that worked with his faceless appearance.

Rita is Authority. Not only is she a king, but also the world’s judge, holding power over even the other kings, making her the absolute authority on Terra. But she never abuses her power; always seeking to be a neutral party in all goings-on. Also, this series got pretty sapphic at times, and Rita was always at the center of it. Good to know the writers are back at it again after all the mandates they suffered through with 40-42. And while there were some off-and-on moments with Ran, most of the time it was with Morphonia, who was, again, a nice foil, being much less motivated and more prone to her own desires. Though, of all the aides, she probably grows the most, eventually accepting her role as the next king of Gokkan, which she was less interested in accepting compared to everyone else.

Even our main villains follow these trends to some degree. Deathnarok shows the negative aspects of all these traits, but is later shown to be doing so begrudgingly, while Dugded also does, but in a very childish way. Which is almost worse than just being a normal bad king, because it’s weirdly more sincere?

And Jeramie is Eccentricity. He is aloof and wordy and doesn’t act like a good king would, playing a role more similar to one of a king content with his power, but his attitude and ability are separate things, as he is shown to have great battle prowess and leadership abilities. Jeramie has his own things going on with being half Bugnarok, so it was really just flair given to his character, and to add a bit of confusion to his introduction. And while Gerojim wasn’t as present a character as the other aides, he did provide a very distinct visual compared to everyone else, especially after all the Bugnarok were relegated to just the foot soldiers. I’ll also add, having Jeramie be the narrator, even before his introduction, really helped everything feel cohesive and intentional.

Speaking of that cohesion, that’s part of what makes the story so great. Every episode contributes to the ongoing story. Even those episodes that seem like filler have at least a small addition to it. Especially after the last few years, where episodic has been the priority, this drastic shift is very welcome. And there are tiny hints at the bigger picture even in the early episodes, like Racles missing all of Gira’s vitals for instance. I may go through the show a second time to see how many instances of foreshadowing I can find at a later date.

And while the finale was good, the penultimate episode was amazing, calling back to almost every character we met over the course of the entire show, including ones only seen in the movies and Racles’ mini-series. It was a great way to cap off this already good show.

And lastly,  I love the presentation of this season. So much of this season is filmed on green screen to both amazing and hilarious effect. It’s honestly very impressive some of the stuff they managed to accomplish. BoonBoomger seems a lot more grounded, so it’s unlikely this trend will be further polished in the next season, but they did very well in the time they had.

The Bad: While the effects and sets are a lot of fun, they aren’t always great. They sometimes have difficulty tracking walking or running while moving the camera. Some other effects, such as wide shots, or fire tend to not look good, but it doesn’t take away from the overall experience.

Also, more than any season in recent memory, the action was occasionally hard to follow. All the effects, plus the CG backgrounds, plus the constantly more ridiculous and interesting camera angles Sentai likes to use add up to some very messy scenes on occasion.

I’m also a little sad we dropped the gear gimmicks. While I’m not upset to see them go, I was kinda hoping we’d continue with it until the 50th anniversary where we’d have a big payoff. It may have originally been in the cards, but I only say that because of the rustic machine nature of the Shugods and the general design work or Shuggodam. Remember, toy development takes a while, and while I don’t know the over-under on BanNam’s cycle, I know Hasbro has gone on record that if they rush a product they can get it done in 9 months. Kingohger was probably in the concepting phase during early Donbrothers at the latest, so it wouldn’t be surprising if a few small references to the idea were still there if it was the original intention. And out next season is a vehicle season, which is perfect for mechanics and gears.

Though I’d say the biggest issue is it’s just Super Sentai. For all my praise and bravado about it at the start, it’s not like Shin Godzilla, where I can show it to someone who normally wouldn’t be into Tokusatsu and have them walk away enjoying it; if you don’t like Sentai, this season isn’t going to convince you otherwise. For example, I tried showing it to @jaybuilds, and he just wasn’t into it. It’s fine, it happens, but don’t expect that one person you’ve always been trying to convince to watch the show to see it and have it convert them, is all.

The BoonBoomening: I actually haven’t seen anything for BoonBoomger yet. Just the costumes and toy listings. And as someone who focuses on the toys, I’ve seen quite a few gripes that BoonBoom Robo isn’t articulated. But, like, it’s a heavily gimmicky toy, so I get it. If you’re not going to do a gimmick, articulation is fine, but I can understand getting rid of some articulation for a fun play pattern. These are for kids, remember?

Overall, this was a great season. While I enjoy most seasons of Super Sentai, this one in particular had everything I tend to love and want out of a season. Makes me slightly less upset at myself for buying every Megazord associated with this season. Slightly.

As for my usual Megazord recommendations, this is a real all of nothing series. Either go for King-Ohger alone, or everyone for God King-Ohger. You only really need one of each, so you can skip all the premium versions, unless the colors do it for you. And the new Kyoryujin and the upcoming remolds are their own beast to consider separately to the rest of the line.

[anexplanationofunfortunateevents]

the advisor’s book, the fixer’s confession, and the lawyer’s firing

The Traitor-in-Chief was hoping we’d talk about the racist incitement he tried to unleash at his Nuremberg Rally in Tulsa. This was, of course, dangerous and evil despite its pathetic failure, so instead of rewarding him for it, let’s go over this weekend’s reminders of his authoritarian escalations, his gluttonous corruption, and the glaring illegitimacy he is failing to hide.

The Advisor’s Book

John Bolton, the mustacioed Dr. Strangelove who served as Trump’s third national security advisor, has started leaking copies of his book, out this week. Unsurprisingly, the book contains a lot of damning evidence of Trump’s attempts to extort foreign countries into helping him steal the 2020 election, which Bolton pompously refused to provide during Trump’s impeachment. This included the shakedown of the Ukrainian president which got Trump impeached. It turns out Trump was also desperately trying to get Chinese President Xi to help him, either by announcing bullshit investigations into former Vice President Biden’s family (we knew about this) or by dramatically increasing American imports to kind of goose the economy in a way that might help Trump in the election.

Trump, naturally, has responded by having the Department of Justice sue to stop the book’s publication and threatening to have Bolton thrown in jail.

We shouldn’t get numb to the existential small-d democratic nightmare of Trump’s sabotaging American foreign policy interests for his own political benefit. Yes, we’ve been living with it all along, and you’re probably tired of hearing or saying how bad it is. It’s still really bad! But the China piece of it is, you know, relevant to current events. Bolton left the administration in the fall of 2019, so he wouldn’t have any information on the COVID crisis, but there’s no reason to believe that Trump stopped trying to get on Xi’s good side. All those spectacular failures to get the pandemic under control when we had a chance six months ago, and even some of the more bizarre decisions since then, have to be reconsidered in light of this:

The virus made it out of Wuhan to terrorize the world in large part because the Chinese Communist Party blew its early response.

Trump was trying to butter up President Xi because Trump wants to use the CCP to make himself look good.

While underplaying the virus, Trump praised the CCP’s response with a bunch of lies.

Break out your red string and corkboard if you want, but I think we’ve cracked the shit out of this case.

The Fixer’s Confession

Remember six thousand years ago when the Mueller report about the joint Trump campaign-Russian government’s criminal sabotage of the 2016 election came out? And there was SO MUCH stuff that was SO BAD, it was hard for people to remember that it wasn’t even close to the whole story? Well, we just got another look under the redactions, and WOOOO it is as bad as you already knew it was! When they agreed to plead guilty and cooperate, Trump campaign staffer Rick Gates, campaign manager Paul Manafort, and attorney Michael Cohen confirmed that former Trump campaign official and current convicted felon Roger Stone helped Wikileaks plan the strategic releases of emails stolen by Russian intelligence and then called Donald Trump and told him all about it.

Again, this is and always has been the opposite of complicated. HE DID IT AT A PRESS CONFERENCE. HE ASKED RUSSIA FOR MORE EMAILS AND MORE EMAILS APPEARED.

THIS WAS LITERALLY ON C-SPAN.

The excuse that the Very Serious People in the Republican party, political press, and cosplay-leftist-contrarian industrial complex  is that nobody knew about some secret communication where known Russian assets plotted out some aspect of the attack with the Trump campaign. There hadn’t been one particular phone call where Trump and whoever was on speakerphone with him heard about what the FSB was planning to do before they did it. EXCEPT THAT DEFINITELY HAPPENED. The issue, for the 132513798415th time, is not that we are unsure what happened, but that we are unsure what to do about it. The Mueller team, despite being cautious to a fault, were so sure it happened that they put it in their final report. Apply Occam’s razor to Trump-Russia and the rational conclusion is the worst case scenario.

Of course, the reason that this didn’t come out earlier is that Attorney General William Barr has turned the Department of Justice into a fully-owned Trump subsidiary, so that he could hide exactly this kind of smoking gun for Donald Trump.

The Lawyer’s Firing

Around ten PM on a Friday night, the attorney general’s office announced that United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman – that’s the lead federal prosecutor in Manhattan – had resigned, and his duties would be taken over by a reliable Trump flunky who already has a different government job. By midnight, Berman announced that he had done no such thing, he had no intention of leaving his job, and that the SDNY would continue to work on its cases as usual. (That last one is supposed to go without saying.)

You can get into the weeds on the back-and-forth of the following 48 hours, but the upshot of it is that Berman will be replaced by an SDNY career professional who …. seems reliably skeptical of Barr.

We don’t necessarily know why this sloppy, panicked attempt to decapitate the SDNY went down when it did. But OH MY GOD, we know why the fuck it happened.

These three headlines from the past few days are all part of the same story. Trump is actively trying to get foreign autocrats to help him cheat his way through the 2020 election, because he does not believe he can win a free and fair election. This is, unusually for him, a completely reasonable belief based on empirical evidence: he knows how much cheating he had to do last time. Whether it’s because of that cheating specifically or the general mobster bullshit he’s been into for his entire adult life, he’s desperate to gut legal oversight of his crimes and cheating, which is why he’s hired an attorney general who will help him cheat and cover up crimes.

All of this can only work if we agree to get distracted by nonsense. They are going to try absolutely everything they can think of to delegitimize their opponents and hide their own malevolence. You do not have to help them.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really THAT Bad?

There really is only one way I could ever kick this series off: with the very movie that inspired it. Robot Monster is a B-movie with a reputation that precedes it by many miles. Even f you’ve never actually watched this, you might have heard that it is one of the worst films of all time, because as we all know, independent B-movies with no budget need to be held to the same standard as Hollywood blockbusters. These days most people have settled into calling it a prime example of “so bad it’s good” cinema, with folks like film historian Leonard Maltin calling it “one of the genuine legends of Hollywood - embarrassingly, hilariously awful.”

But even back in the day when it came out there was some claims this film wasn’t so bad. Variety, of all publications, said that “Robot Monster comes off surprisingly well, considering the extremely limited budget ($50,000) and schedule on which the film was shot." After years of hearing nothing but that this film is an utter travesty, it can be especially bizarre to hear that even in its day, there were people who understoof that maybe this film shouldn’t be held up to the same standards as something like Citizen Kane or a Hitchcock film. Maybe it should be judged… as a low-budget B-grade sci-fi film! GASP! What a concept!

THE GOOD

I think perhaps one of the genuinely greatest aspects of this film is the score, which was done by, of all people, Elmer Bernsetein. If you don’t recognize the name, you will almost certainly recognize the vats body of work he has, with his resume including composing work for The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, The Blues Brothers, Heavy Metal, Ghostbusters, The Black Cauldron, Wild Wild West, An American Werewolf in London, and even the music video for “Thriller.” This is one of his earlier works, and it is still absolutely fantastic, to the point where some (but not I) might feel it belongs in a better movie. It quite frankly uplifts the material onscreen and gives it a grander weight that a lesser composer might not have been able to accomplish.

Contrary to the popular concept of B-movies, most of them have pretty decent acting at least, and this one is no exception; most of the cast is relatively solid, with even the little boy actor managing to turn in a solid performance; he’s not overly remarkable, sure, but he is just as petulant as he needs to be, and he does contribute some genuinely good ideas at points. Of course, the real stars of the show here are the physical performance of Geroge Barrows and the astounding vocal performance of John Brown as the legendary B-movie monster Ro-Man. We never see his face, and yet the physical acting of this man in a gorilla suit and fishbowl combined with the powerful voice of Brown really comes together.

And speaking of Ro-Man, I’m just going to come out and say it: the cheapo monster design that has been so widely mocked for decades is something I find to be incredibly inspired, unique, and genuinely great. Yes, I’m sure when you hear the phrase “robot monster” the first thing that comes to your mind if you’ve never heard of the film would most likely not be “gorilla in a diving helmet.” But it has such a creative charm born from a lack of finances that it’s truly impossible to really hate the creature. It helps that Ro-Man has gone on to make various appearances in cameos in pop culture, as well as helping to inspire the design of the character Minion from the cinematic masterpiece Megamind.

And all that aside, are you really so stone-hearted you can bring yourself to hate this guy?

The Bad

There are a few issues that pop up within this, with one of the more major ones being with the story structure. While the plot itself isn’t super bad, with it being basic B-movie fluff and the short runtime gives it a decent pacing, there’s a weird amount of padding, most noticeable during a stretch of time where it just cuts back to Ro-Man walking up and down a hill as dramatic music plays. The use of weird stock footage from old dinosaur movies also comes off as a bit weird. Still, the strangest bit of all is Ro-Man’s sudden and inexplicable lust for the human woman, to the point where he almost screws up his entire mission because he’s suddenly become horny. It’s rather jarring and out of nowhere, though it at least leads to some good lines from Ro-Man.

Out of all of the actors, the little girl is probably the most annoying. She’s so annoying, in fact, that it almost comes across as a mercy when Ro-Man finally strangles her. And her death is kind of underplayed, especially by her brother, who doesn’t seem too shaken up by how his sister has been strangled and that the extremely low amount of people left on Earth has now gone down.

And speaking of the boy, the ending reveals that the entire film was just his dream, which is one of the absolute worst endings a work can go for. A last-second reveal shows that the prior events may have actually been some sort of prophetic dream, as it is implied that Ro-Man and his masters will invade the Earth after all, but it still is a bit of a cop out. It takes a really great work to pull off the “all just a dream” twist ending, and while this movie is certainly not awful, it’s definitely not The Wizard of Oz or Super Mario Bros. 2.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

This movie really did not live up to its reputation at all. I went in expecting some hilarious disaster of a film, and instead what I got is a flawed yet charming B-movie that managed to be extremely creative despite its low budget and features a lot of good elements. While I don’t think it all comes together perfectly, and I’ve definitely seen far better cheesy B-movies, this is certainly not the bottom of the barrel as its legendary infamy would have you believe.

Its solid 3 on IMDB I feel is a bit too harsh; while certainly no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it definitely feels like a three is a bit two low when there’s actually quite a bit good going for it. Realistically, I think a score in the mid-to-low fives would be a much better score for the film. As for its status as a “so bad it’s good film,” I think it is at least somewhat fair in this case, as the story itself is rather wonky, but I don’t think the film is bad for its quirky creativity, such as Ro-Man or the bubble machine; unique little quirks of the film I feel are genuinely good and help set it apart from other B-movies from the time and give it a unique identity that not many movies can match.

I think this film is most comparable to something like fellow B-movie The Giant Claw, where most of its more ironic fandom comes from the goofy monster than anything. I think that is warranted, as Ro-Man is just such a wonderfully iconic B-movie villain; maybe we should get Guillermo del Toro on the phone and see if he wants to do a sexy reimagining of this movie next. It’s what he deserves.

[antoine-roquentin]

For decades, purveyors of the rhetoric of technocratic stability have outsourced their and their voters’ most sadistic and unpalatable beliefs and impulses to the far right. But Schäuble’s career suggests that, while technocratic governance has countless mechanisms to repress its own inherent cruelty and outsource them to the fringes, there is a kind of cruelty that comes from, and is enjoyed at, the center rather than the fringes. To many of its subjects—refugees being told that persecution without torture isn’t enough to win them asylum, unemployed workers being forced to provide all their rejection letters to prove they’re actively looking for work, Greek politicians being told to cut loose the country’s pensioners in the order to reassure investors—this inherent cruelty is wholly self-evident.

Schäuble himself understood early on that technocracy has its sadistic side, and he has embraced it. Both major German parties have in the last thirty years occasionally lapsed into a politics of administered cruelty. The Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency) that privatized the state-owned companies in East Germany, the safety-net cuts of “Agenda 2010,” and the draconian austerity measures after the financial crisis of 2008—all of these were approached by serious old men in smart suits in boardrooms with a kind of resigned shrug. We don’t like it either, they seemed to say, but this is what needs to happen. Schäuble, however, didn’t shrug at all—he seemed to feel genuine glee at the dictates that everyone else pretended to accept only reluctantly. Politicians of his type have been adept at making sound quantitative and objective what ultimately boils down to a demand for suffering, for mortification.

The success of the AfD suggests that Schäuble shares the recognition that alternativelessness has its religious, sacrificial dimension with a growing segment of voters in Germany. These voters have long recognized the carefully sublimated cruelty of alternativelessness; in many cases they’ve been at the receiving end of it. They accepted some of that cruelty for themselves, although very little—nothing more than a light paddle and an available safe word. But above all they demanded that, whatever cruelty the system meted out to them or people like them, it visit ten times that onto the Other. The AfD began as a party of technocrats, and its founders frequently seem surprised by how it sleepwalked from deficits and Euroskepticism to overt racism and illiberalism. One of the movement’s forerunners was Thilo Sarrazin, once an economist at Germany’s central bank, who at some point went from prognosticating that runaway deficits would spell Germany’s doom to prognosticating that runaway procreation by “hijab-girls” would spell Germany’s doom.

It’s a trajectory that isn’t actually all that surprising. Thanks to politicians like Schäuble, for decades now these voters have become used to being applauded for this perspective. Their coldness was reconceptualized as maturity, realism, steeliness of resolve. As the refugees arrived in 2015, CSU’s Secretary General worried that society would “implode” and “the people” would rise up. “Anyone who doesn’t recognize this,” he added about his bit of apocalyptic fan fiction, “ignores reality.” Pragmatic positions were recast as “political correctness,” as “failed multiculturalism,” while bizarre fantasies about racial civil war could stake a claim to being the “realistic” or “serious” position. This is how documents like the German Basic Law, with its talk about “the dignity of man,” or international asylum conventions, could seem to them like softhearted hippie tracts. The only realistic way of looking at the world was looking to make it hurt.

Adorno once spoke of the “categorical imperative of ‘never again’,” and the anxiety with which people watch unemployment figures in Germany is all about this “again”—about fascism as relapse, as repetition. It is against this background that the 12.6 percent of the vote the AfD won nationally in last year’s elections constitutes an incredible shock. Against the easy sociology and the old stories, what the result actually highlights is that Germany now specializes in a fascism in the midst of satiety. Perhaps even a fascism of satiety. And that this, rather than some vague revival of Nazism, is the shape that far-right populism has long taken in the country. As the historian Birte Förster put it on Twitter: “It’s not like Weimar, it’s not like 1933, it’s like Germany, 2018.”

After World War II, German nationalism became an impossibility. It survived largely by being refracted through economics, above all exports. Affluence at home gave people the feeling that “we are somebody again,” as the saying went. The wave of German cars, wares and weapons washing over Europe and the world took the place of German troops. Germans have long moralized economics (not for nothing did Max Weber write The Protestant Ethic in Heidelberg), but after World War II economics to some extent replaced politics: it reconciled Germany with its neighbors and former victims, it finally integrated Germany in an interconnected Europe, and eventually it dismantled the Iron Curtain and unified the country.

But in hindsight it is hard to miss the fact that this economic system, for all its technocratic mousiness, was suffused with displaced affective energy. And not just pride in one’s own wealth, but also a sadistic glee over the misery of others, which is interpreted in similarly moral or theological terms as Germany’s postwar economic success. This was true both between Germany and its neighbors and within Germany itself. Nachtwey probably underplays the ethnic dimension of what he calls “social modernity.” Unlike the New Deal in the United States, postwar affluence in Germany was not explicitly premised on racial stratification. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to sense a connection between the kind of solidarity that underpinned the postwar system of “social market capitalism” and the fact that the massive amounts of wealth created never went to the new arrivals in the country—the Turks, Italians, Greeks, and Yugoslavs who were at any rate still referred to as “guest workers,” even after decades in the country, sometimes even after obtaining German citizenship.

The righteous fury with which Germans have voiced their suspicion that most immigrants aren’t “really” refugees, but are, horror horrorum, motivated by hopes for a better life, is of a piece with this moralization. Germans have become good at denying others what they take to be their own birthright: they are terrified of foreigners taking their jobs, and then inundate Austrian medical schools and Swiss hospitals. They demanded that Greece put its pension system on a sustainable footing, but managed no such thing themselves during decades of affluence. In an infamous 2009 interview that prefigured the rhetoric of the AfD, Sarrazin claimed that “70 percent of Turkish and 90 percent of the Arab population of Berlin . . . live off the state but reject that state.” The irony is that, from retirees via the underemployed rural voters to professionals getting rich off subventions and the dividends of the social safety net, this describes pretty much the average AfD voter.

[aion-rsa]

Alien vs. Aliens: Which Is the Better Movie?

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Thirty-five years ago, James Cameron’s Aliens opened in theaters, stunning audiences and surprising even the most jaded critics. Here was a much belated sequel to a Hollywood blockbuster that was seven years old—and at a time when sequels were synonymous with soulless cash grabs. Yet in so many ways, Cameron’s follow-up took the ideas introduced by Ridley Scott and company in Alien and ran with them. More than just an added “s” in the title, Aliens marked an entire shift in tone and even genre. Rather than horror, we were now in the realm of action; instead of hiding in the shadows, the sequel overwhelmed audiences with spectacle. Like the poster said, “This time, it’s war.”

With near universal praise, Aliens even earned an Oscar nomination for star Sigourney Weaver in a role she’d already played once back in 1979. Hence many fans have spent years and decades arguing which is the actual better movie: the Ridley Scott chiller that started it all or the James Cameron thriller that blew the concept into the stratosphere? Well, sit back because Den of Geek movies section editor David Crow and west coast correspondent Don Kaye are going to settle this debate once and for all.

Horror or Action

David Crow: For more years than I’d care to remember, I’ve heard science fiction fans and genre aficionados say James Cameron’s Aliens is one of the rare sequels that is better than the original. That action heavy clichés are, somehow, an improvement over probing, immersive horror that lingers in the mind like a waking nightmare. To this day it is baffling.

For all of Aliens’ undeniably high-octane thrills, it lacks a fraction of the existential dread and infinite mystery which makes Alien one of the best science fiction films ever made. Originally engineered by screenwriter Dan O’Bannon as a “haunted house movie in space,” director Ridley Scott and a legion of collaborators elevated the concept into something unwaveringly oppressive in its nihilism. The Nostromo spaceship at the center of the film might be “haunted” by an alien organism, but so is the film itself. Half of the movie’s design was dreamed up by concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, who evoked a grungy, dilapidated vision of our future among the stars that still feels real in its sweatiness, and the rest was masterminded by H.R. Giger, who designed the now iconic “Alien” creature as well as the derelict “Space Jockey” ship that the organism’s egg is found on. The intentionally disparate sensibilities creates a genuine culture shock in the film that remains unsettling long after you know what John Hurt’s last meal looks like.

In the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, the film’s heroes have ventured into the unknown or forbidden, discovering a beast truly alien in nature and beyond our comprehension. To know a fragment of its mystique, and a bit about its bizarre life cycle, is to be violated—figuratively and literally as a facehugger shoves itself down your mouth. It is perverse and intentionally unnatural. And unlike any of its sequels, this movie succeeds in tapping into our primal abstract fear of the unknown, and the implicit anxiety that comes with discovery. It transcends genre and remains the lone masterpiece in the franchise.

Don Kaye: Right from the start, I will say I agree with much of what my esteemed colleague David Crow says. Alien is an undisputed masterpiece that hits the sci-fi/horror sweet spot in a way that most of the films which have come in its wake have failed to do. And yes, the film is extremely Lovecraftian in its incredibly atmospheric evocation of the existential dread and terror of both deep space and the alien organism itself.

But if there had to be a sequel to Alien (and the laws of Hollywood dictated that there must), it couldn’t just be a repeat of basically the same story. What James Cameron did so brilliantly with Aliens was take the initial tale told by Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon and expand upon it while preserving most of the mystery surrounding the title menace itself. Cameron did formally jump genres from “haunted house in space” to “military sci-fi,” but he retained enough of the brooding horror of the original to make it not just a worthy successor, but a fuller, more epic film in many ways (he did much of the same with his own Terminator—making a far superior sequel in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is surely a debate for another day).

In Aliens, Cameron expands the mythology just enough to give us more tantalizing details about the xenomorph without over-explaining it or shredding the mystery around the species entirely (ironically, it would be Ridley Scott himself who did that in the awful Prometheus and Alien: Covenant years later). He also expands wonderfully upon the character of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), making her the center of the story while adding a slew of colorful new cast members who in many cases are more memorable than the crew members of the first film’s doomed Nostromo. While both films are genuine classics, in the end Aliens has held up over the years as the more satisfying experience.

The Most Expendable Crew

David: Don, I’ll agree that Aliens is a worthy sequel. But as a sequel it can only ever be a copy—an extension of the original genius. And while Aliens is certainly more epic, I would hardly call it more satisfying. For starters, there are the characters you mistakenly claim are more memorable than the original crew. I’ll grant you that Aliens’ ensemble is colorful, but in the same way stock characters on a Saturday morning cartoon can be colorful. As is often the case in Cameron screenplays, the characters are broadly drawn archetypes who speak almost entirely in on-the-nose dialogue with all the subtlety of a villain waving a gun on the Titanic as it sinks.

The effect is definitely thrilling the first few times you watch Aliens, but after viewing the film more than twice, my mind is left to drift over the triteness of these haplessness “marines.” That’s probably why my favorite of the bunch is Bill Paxton’s Hudson, a caricature in cowardice who still always lands the laugh. He also sums up the surface level appeal of this entertaining spectacle: “We’re on the express elevator to Hell, going down!”

Conversely, the cast of characters in Alien feel painfully real. Created during the tailend of New Hollywood’s golden age of ‘70s cinema, there is nothing false or showy about any of these performances. They’re all underplayed to a degree, even talking over each other, but that is by design. Going into Alien in 1979, you wouldn’t know who the “hero” of the story is and might very well assume it is Tom Skerritt since he’s the captain and had appeared in popular ’70s TV shows. By contrast, Weaver was a complete unknown when she played Ripley, a survivor who persevered before “final girls” became a convention unto themselves. However, she is only a survivor in the first movie, not an action hero. She’s even-handed and levelheaded, and a woman from the jump who appears to be the most astute and thoughtful of the crew.

Still, right down to the legitimate grievances between this group’s “upstairs and downstairs” dynamic, with Yaphet Kotto’s Parker and Harry Dean Stanton’s Brett complaining about the bonus situation, there is a much more tactile conflict among the cast that makes this a fuller ensemble and thereby more immersive. They may not be marines, but they are tragically human in their reactions to the unbelievable—and that is not even getting into the brilliance of Ian Holm’s Ash, who might be the best representation of the insidious implementation of capitalistic control over labor ever put to screen. The traitor in these blue collars’ ranks is an honest to God robot who is literally there to divide them for conquest and the company’s bottom line.

Don: I’ll concede the more realistic development of the characters in Alien, but I enjoy the camaraderie and banter among the Colonial Marines. While it’s true that some of them really don’t amount to much more than cannon fodder (or is it xenomorph fodder?)I feel like there’s more going on there than Cameron might get credit for. I also do like the ensemble feel of it all, and the fact that these characters all go into this situation having no idea of what’s ahead of them, with most of them meeting it courageously (with notable exceptions, of course). There’s something about seeing characters in a film charge headlong into an impossible situation that always pulls at this viewer.

Some of the secondary characters go on little journeys of their own too, from Gorman (William Hope) to Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), and even Hudson has a moment or two to shine as he finally finds his courage toward the end of the film. Watching Aliens, it feels like most of the major or secondary characters get some kind of payoff. If there’s one major flaw I find with Alien, it’s that the second half of the movie basically just mows everyone down, one after the other, which is, I suppose, suitable for the overall tone of despair and nihilism but makes for a less satisfactory film in some ways.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly about the brilliance of Ash, which is why I’m glad that Cameron went in a different direction with Bishop (Lance Henriksen). The character is just ambiguous enough to keep one guessing throughout the film whether he is true to his word that he cannot harm humans or whether it’s all an act—a nice twist on the evolution of Ash in the first film.

The More Perfect Organism

David: You are right, Don: Vasquez is a wonderfully badass character, and so are most of the Aliens troupe. In fact, it’s hard to overlook just how badass Weaver’s Ripley became in the film, beginning as a woman suffering from trauma and ending with the cinematic embodiment of Mama Bear ferocity. “Get away from her you bitch!” had to be why Weaver got an Oscar nomination for an action movie sequel, right?

Yet for all the quotables like that, as well as those of the aforementioned poor doomed Hudson and precocious Newt (Carrie Henn), I much prefer the messiness of Alien; Veronica Cartweight’s Lambert simply shutting down as the Alien tears Parker apart before inevitably coming back for her; Skerritt’s Dallas meekly resigning himself to his fate as he reluctantly goes into the vents; and of course Ripley who shows cool cunning and irresistible command while under pressure, but who’s only act of heroism is the quirk of going back in a deteriorating spaceship for a cat.

But if we’re discussing characters, I think one we’re both glossing over a big one: the Alien itself or “xenomorph.” You fairly dinged Scott for offering unsatisfying explanations for his and Giger’s nightmares in the prequels, but Cameron did it first in Aliens, right down to dubbing the creatures xenomorphs. In the first film, it’s really unknowable how intelligent the Star-Beast is. Is the creature just a feral animal hunting the characters on instinct or is it a dispassionate predator who understands its prey and their inadequate technology? And what exactly are its designs for its victims who vanish without a trace (at least in the theatrical cut)?

Cameron literally turns them into insects in Aliens, repeatedly calling the marines’ mission a “bug hunt.” The unstoppable creature in the first movie turns out to simply be a drone, a literal worker bee or ant in a colony of xenomorphs with a single Queen and countless simple-minded minions. Scott and Giger’s Alien is almost godlike (or perhaps demonic given its sexual undertones), and is described as a “perfect organism.” Aliens removes that mystique, turning the monster into a giant cockroach that can be mowed down in large numbers if you have big enough guns.

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Don: I have to say I like Ripley’s evolution in Aliens, and even more so in the director’s cut where the information about her having a daughter gives a whole other layer to her quest to save Newt in the film. But to be fair, I suppose we’re talking about the original theatrical cuts; even there, Ripley starts out in a completely different and much darker place, not really interested in helping anyone, but her basic compassion towards her fellow humans finally comes to the surface. She stands as the one beacon of decent humanity in an otherwise very hostile universe.

I’ll again agree that there is something majestic and horrifying about the mystique of the Alien in the original film, but I don’t think that Cameron completely removes all the mystery from it. Those eggs did have to come from somewhere, after all. Why not a Queen? And even if we see the species as more of a hive culture, it doesn’t take away from their predatory nature or what appears to be their exceptional intelligence. And it still leaves the ultimate nature and purpose of the aliens unexplained—meeting the Queen in Aliens doesn’t necessarily undercut the fact that we still don’t know at the end of the film what their agenda is (nor should we).

Aliens actually reemphasizes the remarkable adaptability and cleverness of this deadly race. The organism in the original film made quick work out of the crew of the Nostromo; when confronted with first the colonists and then the space marines, the creatures analyze the situation and ascertain that their new victims or enemies must be met with overwhelming force in lieu of having weapons themselves (although their entire body could be considered a weapon, for sure). They are predators and part of a hive culture, but they think, they strategize. That gives them a different spin, for sure, but one that is just as terrifying as the godlike creature in Alien.

The Best of the Alien Franchise

David: I respect that, and for the type of movie that Cameron wanted to make, it worked perfectly. There is little argument that Cameron pinpointed the likely best way to expand (and conclude) this story. After all, the mystery of the creature’s gruesome lifecycle is lost after the first film. David Fincher attempted to return to Scott’s aesthetic with Alien 3 to dire results, and Scott himself struggled with his decades-later prequels. Thus it’s hard to knock Cameron’s action-heavy alternative too much.

Nonetheless, I prefer the, as you say, majesty of Alien and the sensation that you’re watching something grotesque, invasive, and strangely beautiful in its fatalism. I’d also point out that the creature and its world never looked more grimly evocative than in Giger and Scott’s hands. There’s a reason the “last supper” scene with Hurt’s Kane remains the most famous scene in any of these movies. Still, both films are obviously better than what came afterward, though I must admit to having a soft spot for Prometheus. The ideas introduced to explain where the xenomorph and Space Jockey came from in that movie are fascinating, and the visuals and cast were mostly top notch. Alas, the screenplay threatened to derail it all. It’s still a very interesting mess, however (as opposed to the utter failure of Alien: Covenant and the other movies).

I’ll leave it then on this: If you really like the deleted subplot of Amanda Ripley—Ellen’s daughter mentioned to have grown up and died during her mother’s cryofreeze in Aliens—might I recommend the video game Alien: Isolation? More so than Scott’s own prequels, it is able to conjure up the dread of being hunted in a confined space by such a creature. It’s the best Alien anything in the last 35 years… and it was all about evoking that original, perfect organism of a film.

Don: To address your last point first, I don’t play video games so I’ll have to pass on Alien: Isolation—but it’s interesting how sometimes these properties have more success in extending themselves through other media besides movies or TV (I imagine there’s a really good novel out there that takes place in the Alien universe​​—do you know of any, David?)

I think we’ve come around to where we started, in that we both recognize the inherent high quality of what Scott and Cameron achieved with these two films. And I do think that Aliens did conclude this story, just as Terminator 2 ended that story as well—and Cameron’s elegant endings only point out just how difficult it was for later filmmakers to try and continue both in various failed sequels. For the record, I was soooo excited about Prometheus initially, and there were some fascinating ideas contained in that film. But the execution of them was a major letdown.

My last argument would be that Alien is a concept-driven film and Aliens is a character-driven film (as we said earlier, making it truly Ripley’s story). The emotional payoff of Ripley’s journey in Aliens makes that the more enjoyable of the two movies for me in the long run. But there’s no question that no movie I can think of offhand, not even Cameron’s masterful sequel, quite captures the ice cold, existential horror of Alien. While we may differ on which of the two films is better, I think we can probably agree that Alien may accidentally be the best H.P. Lovecraft film ever made!

*Editor’s Note: David does not know of any good Alien novels but is aware the Scott film is better than any official Lovecraft adaptation.

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[its-just-like-the-movies]

The Help (11, C+)

There is a lot, a lot, a lot going on in The Help. We know this because this movie is two and a half hours long, though it doesn’t feel like it when you watch it on TV. Or, if it does, you blame the network for breaking it up into such a long sit, the way Freeform can make any Harry Potter film a four-hour experience. There is a lot going on in The Help, but probably too much. For sure, thinking back to the film before I rewatched it, Viola Davis’ performance was the only part I had any real memory of, and even that was somewhat fuzzy. Especially after the 2016 Oscar season saw such a great year for Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Emma Stone, not to mention Bryce Dallas Howard’s great work on Black Mirror and whatever groove Jessica Chastain’s been in for some time, seemingly on the edge of another nomination with A Most Violent Year (better than the nominated slate, but she and Arquette deserve a rewatch) and Miss Sloane (nice haircut, but feh) yet always on the outside looking in (I had also recently seen Zero Dark Thirty and was surprisingly unimpressed with her performance, and was eager to get her again), it felt like I owed it another look-through. What I saw was Viola Davis giving a truly wonderful central performance, surrounded by a lot of performers ably serving the piece without complicating it, deepening it, or keeping up with Davis. No one is really abetted here by writer/director Tate Taylor, whose direction doesn’t do anything to help or guide his actresses, and whose screenplay betrays a lot of shaky politics by giving Emma Stone’s Skeeter so much focus. The Help really tries to do a lot of things politically, but encourages too much broad playing from its interpreters in a film that lives and dies by how well they can play their parts. But what we end up having is a breezy film, pretty entertainingly played, with one heroic performance a lot of political brouhaha to sort through. So reader, let’s get sorting!

Ostensibly, there are two women leading The Help’s crusade, though one of them seems ripe to get shoved to the sidelines. I am, of course, talking about the bizarrely forefronted Skeeter Phelan, the ambitious and racially aware white woman whose attempts to write a book about the black maids in her home town, is the narrative backbone of The Help. Like Jack in Room, or so many other stories where a fascinating central character is observed by a less compelling audience surrogate, The Help does not have the good sense to actually hand over the film to the characters its story is actually about, and it suffers for it. Nevermind that Stone is perhaps the film’s least compelling performer (Bryce Dallas Howard isn’t good, but she’s not boring either), but her career aspirations and romantic journey are so tangential to the conversation every other facet of the film is having that its inclusion is genuinely unnecessary. I’m all for long films if the story requires it, but a lot of her story feels like padding on a film that doesn’t need it. I’d have admired a more self-effacing performance, but Stone seems to flail with giving her castmates or us any kind of characterization to interact with. I’d have loved to see her take on Hilly Holbrook, but instead we just have an idea about Skeeter Phelan, and that’s a shame for everyone involved.

 Our real hero, of course, is Aibileen Clark, though certainly more characters could be considered equal drivers in the story. Minny Jackson, Celia Foote, and Hilly Holbrook have almost equal narrative import as Aibileen, and the story certainly shifts between letting each of them drive it for long stretches of time. The inclusion of Skeeter’s separate arc keeps these strands from mingling entirely gracefully, and disrupts the film’s most interesting ideas about the relationship between the black maids who raise the white babies that will grow up and continue mistreating them as adults. You can feel how much this version wants to have a structure like Howards End, which so artfully allows all of its characters to work as engines that drive the story’s narrative and its political ideas, but Tate Taylor’s comedic bent in interpreting The Help undermines this idea from the get go. The cast, too, is almost uniformly limited by Taylor’s direction, asking too little of a fine ensemble that seem completely ready to do more. Not one actor is asked to complicate or deepen their characters the way that the actors of Howards End do, breathing specific life into each of its characters and giving each one plenty of ideas and actions for the audience to respond to, even as the political ideas that power the whole project are present at all times. Here, the limited scope of what Taylor is doing simplifies everything The Help is earnestly trying to be. Bryce Dallas Howard doesn’t just make Hilly Holbrook a flatly antagonistic presence, flaunting her nastiness, but works hard to make us aware that she as much as anyone is disgusted by Hilly by way of turning the woman into a joke as much as she does a threat. Jessica Chastain, easily turning in the best performance among the cast’s white women, makes Celia a welcome, giddy presence, committing deeply to the character’s goodness and her sadness in appropriate moments, but doesn’t seem in any way like a woman who could ever be friends with Hilly and her crew. And as lovely as Octavia Spencer’s Academy Award win is, it’s still a pretty broad performance that seems ripe for a deeper read, and more decision-making on Spencer’s part. I wish it resembled her wonderfully underplayed Hidden Figures performance, especially since her face is so remarkably open and expressive that it often feels like she’s mugging for effect in scenes that just don’t call for it. No one embarrasses themselves or the picture, and it hums along fine, but it’s almost too easy to see the deeper, more complicated picture, one with a more outwardly cozy Hilly, a pricklier Celia, a more reserved Minny, that’s hiding in this film.

What is it about Tate Taylor that he can so capably stymy all but the most committed actors? Davis somehow finds room to thrive in The Help and Emily Blunt manages to turn in a full characterization in The Girl on the Train, but they are palpable exceptions to what both films wind up turning out. The Girl on the Train’s cast seem like they all showed up to set between other projects and haven’t bothered trying in the slightest, outside the remarkably committed Blunt. No one in The Help, thankfully, is dull, but it’s astounding how Taylor managed to get the two sleepiest performances I’ve ever seen Allison Janney give. She makes more of an impact in the two minutes she appears in Margaret, so much more alive on the brink of death than Janney’s cancer-ridden mother ever appears to be. Cicely Tyson has almost nothing to do as Skeeter’s long-gone maid, never mind the walk-on cameo of Tony winner LaChanze as her daughter, though I appreciate the seeming revitalization it gave to public interest in Tyson’s career. At least Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen seem like they’re having a ball, but Spacek especially doesn’t look like she’s trying.

 If Taylor doesn’t seem to have coached his actresses in any meaningful way (I’m saying nothing about Chris Lowell’s unworthy suitor), his own staging of the film’s events seem completely uninspired, banking entirely on the strength of actresses has hasn’t tried in any way to coax out more intricate, surprising performances than the ones they end up giving. The comedic tone leaves the film alarmingly without any complication, and the uncomfortably entangled relationships between the white and black women of Jackson, Mississippi are wholly underserved as all the white women fall so neatly under the “unbearably cruel racist” or “fundamentally good liberal” categories. In art like this there’s no way for the maids not to be wholly sympathetic figures, and they should be, but we’re treated to far less time with the maids as a whole to the white society ladies. There’s not one maid that isn’t a cuddly presence to the audience, not one who could confuse a stupid liberal into abandoning racial equality through being too thorny or unapproachable or mean, as is occasionally a thing stupid liberals do nowadays with progressive causes. The broadness of Minny Jackson seems especially symptomatic of making her and Aibileen likable above all else, and I wish that Spencer had made the character a truly bitter woman who sees no way to change her situation except through this white redhead, instead of finding a comedic register for her sourness and her anger. Taylor’s own, scripted insistence on giving so much for Skeeter to do belies his own fundamental misunderstanding of what The Help is about, of what it could be, and the whole piece suffers for it.

 For all that Taylor’s decision-making seems to impede most of what The Help is trying to be, there is still enough fertile soil for Viola Davis to craft a wizardly performance of Aibileen Clark. Working within the film’s tone, she makes Aibileen a figure of audience sympathy without into the bathos the role more than accommodates in the slightest. In fact, Davis is delightfully indulgent in the moments of joy in Aibileen’s life without editorializing how sporadic these moments of happiness are, highlighting their rarity by giving in completely to them when they appear. Gossiping with Minny at parties in the kitchens; earnestly caring for Mae Mobley and fondly recalling the other white babies she has taken care of; so touched and grateful and delighted by the recognition she gets from her fellow parishioners once the book is finally published. Her whole first scene is a brilliant introduction to the character, responding to a recollection with a full-mouthed and toothy grin, so visibly responsive and impressed with Skeeter asking what it’s like to raise white babies but not her own child in such a way that you know she’s never been asked anything that personal (at least by a white woman) in her whole life, the way her face tightens into a mask as she looks out the window after glancing at the portrait of the son she knows is long dead without boldfacing it to us. I knocked the character of Minny and Spencer’s interpretation of her as being an easy mark for audience sympathy, and there’s certainly plenty of potential for that kind of manufactured likability that short-shrifts character depth or complexity in Aibi. But at no point does Davis milk Aibileen’s sadness for easy sympathy, asking for empathy instead of pity as she tells the story of how her son died and what telling her stories will mean to her, and to his memory. She cannot seem to stop her tears but never stops to cry. Even in the face of the dehumanizing bathroom laws from Hilly, or the absolute terror she feels running home at night after Medgar Evers is assassinated, she telegraphs the indignities Aibileen faces every day and the ones that are new, shameful lows for her to experience. There’s a bone-deep tiredness to her, but her body is just as active in her joys (laughing at Elizabeth Leefoot’s dress with Minny during the ball), her triumphs (jumping for joy at receiving the check from the book), her shame (that run home), her care (every scene she has with Mae Mobley, earnestly doting on her but worried about who this girl will become), her rage (that gut-wrenching last scene).

I tried ending the introductory paragraph with the phrase “Viola Davis does not a movie make” but in this case, at least, that’s debatable. Her performance is the only reservoir of depth and emotion anywhere in The Help, the most vivid part of the film I could remember before this rewatch and surely what I will remember best about it after (I did in fact spend my entire 4:00-10:30 dishwashing shift on Tuesday reminiscing on her performance, and planning the outline of this piece). I’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about revisiting her performances in Solaris, Far From Heaven, Doubt, Blackhat, Prisoners, and Fences - glorious Fences - and wondering what else I’ll get out of seeing these for second or third times. The Help was so unexpectedly rich to see again specifically on her account, and it’s perfectly fair to remember this film only on terms of her heroics. “You is kind, you is smart, you is important” already seems like it’s permeated the culture so perfectly, perhaps more so than the gifs of Jessica Chastain practically hurtling her coke bottle in joy or the look Octavia Spencer gives once she reveals the secret ingredient in her pie (lord, why are all the biggest insults hurtled at Hilly so scatological?). The Help is a fine film, perfectly acceptable on its own turns even as it belies a lot of wasted opportunity in its script, its cast, and its direction. But we have one unimpeachable feat of acting, given by one of the most powerful and imaginative actresses working today. I am happy to hear a deeper read on this film from someone who loves it, and morbidly interested in hearing the problems someone would have with Viola Davis’s leading performance.

 As it currently sits, I am perfectly fine with the mediocrity of The Help, though I wish so much that it had more in it than I got. I also wonder the degree I’m underestimating how well it gets the intraracial environments instead of the interracial environments. Is it that difficult, though, to grasp the social hierarchies of rich, politically stunted white women? Or the inherent terror, without editorializing, that black women felt at that time? Jim Crow is mentioned about once, though he hangs over the proceedings. I still think it’s a massive liability than “the help” are not given the communal screen time wasted by a lot of what Skeeter’s up to, and that easy reversal could’ve done wonders for the film to see how these women react to the opportunity to have their stories published instead of hearing it relayed to us through Aibileen and Minny. And I really wonder what having any real male presence in this affair, to see how white and black men feel about the codependent relationship between the black and white women of The South, would’ve transformed the blueprint of the whole project. Okay, so maybe I’m not perfectly fine with it, but the degree to which Viola Davis is so immensely rewarding in this film makes me forgiving of anything that made room for her genius performance. There is a lot, a lot going on in The Help, and a lot of ways all of that could’ve been made better. Especially with a project that is so politically ambitious, it is disheartening that the film seemingly clubs itself so easily. Yes, there is room in there for Viola Davis to Do That, but it’s independent of her director, and as undeniably sterling as she is in this film, she cannot be used as an excuse to cop for the film’s flaws. Aibileen Clark is a tremendous creation, and one that could surely exist in a better version of The Help. I hope we get a better version of this kind of film soon, but Viola and Aibileen give us the story and the protagonist we deserve, and I am happy to applaud her for it as often as I can.

[abgailgibbs]

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My 2016 in Games

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to look back on all the games I’ve played in the last 12 months and review them for no other reason than it’s the end of the year. Honestly, last year took a while to write up, but I’ve been looking forward to this since January. Obviously, like 2015, this is a mishmash of different games, both old and new, and ONLY games I haven’t played before. What’s more, these are games I have at the very least beaten. So let’s get right to it:

Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS)

I’m a massive fan of the Ace Attorney series, and it feels like it’s been ages since the last one. Realistically it’s only been 3 years. Like most of the games before it, Spirit of Justice does what it can to balance the classic gameplay everyone loves with new elements that help to keep the series fresh. Here, it’s the divination seance, adding literally the last moments of the victim’s life to the testimony. It’s a nice addition, offering a lot to consider, but given how previous additions make a return also, it does feel a little clustered when they try and cram them all in. Still the cases are a lot of fun. Typical Ace Attorney, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. One thing I did find irksome though was I felt some cases could have been expanded upon more in order to make the shocking reveals all the more impressive. There were a few “plot twists” that fell rather flat, basically. Plus, despite the inclusion of colourful characters, most of the time defendants are people we already know, which can lead to the stories feeling stagnant. The music is great as always and the overall look does the job. All in all it’s great, but, personally speaking, not the strongest entry in the franchise. The finales are always big in these games, but this one just doesn’t seem to have the same gravitas. That said, it does have one of the most emotional and heart-wrenching moments in the series’ history, but I dare not spoil it here. You’ll have to play the game yourself. 8/10

Another World 20th anniversary  (Wii U - eShop)

This game has been sitting on my Wii U for a while now, but I finally got around to playing it this year. I never played the original, but even so I do have a soft spot for these types of puzzle/action platformers; especially those that came out during the SNES era. Graphically the game isn’t brilliant, even when updated, but it’s kind of cool that you can switch back and forth between the old and new on the fly. Sound-wise there’s absolutely nothing memorable here, which is a shame, but there’s a surprising amount of humour. I don’t know why, but all the death animations and cutscenes just made me laugh. I think it was the abruptness of them. Speaking of, the near instantaneous respawn makes failure less painful to endure, but dying can still be frustrating. For example, the game is programmed to only save progress if the player has accomplished the tasks before it in the right order. However, because the solutions to some of the puzzles aren’t very clear, it can lead to massive set backs, where the player is catapulted seemingly half the game backwards. It can be quite annoying. That, teamed with the terrible controller response time - something that seemingly feels neglected during the update - makes failure almost inevitable in some instances; and with a lot of reaction based combat being sprinkled in, it can drain the fun. Overall, the game is average. Nothing I’d write home about and it is a little short, but it’s fine. 6/10

Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)

I really enjoy Platinum Games’ stuff. No matter what they make their content is almost always unanimously fun. Bayonetta was no exception, and it’s sequel continues the trend. Going in, this game had a lot of praise. There was a lot of love for it, with many holding it up as one of the best on the system. Would I agree? Yes and no. Graphically the game is bright, colourful and lush, and the soundtrack is brilliant once more, but I couldn’t help feeling, especially in the early stages, that Bayo 2 was just a retread of the original. Story structure and level layout is very similar and there was very little new. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I guess I expected more. The plot at first is also a little sporadic and difficult to keep up with, so that didn’t help. By the end though, not only is the story proven to be really well done and thought out, but the game finally has a lot more to offer than what was previously there. Aesthetics are a little disjointed however. Whilst enemy design is magnificent and always interesting to look at, location design is often bland and boring. Even Hell, which is usually a goldmine of imagery, looks standard and uninteresting. Then of course there’s Bayonetta herself, who again seems to be mostly eye-candy for the male gaze. That does die down again, like it did in the first game, but somewhat much further along. It’s a shame really as I do think Bayonetta is actually a good character. She’s a badass who takes charge and doesn’t give a crap about what anyone else thinks. Plus she has a sensitive side beneath the bravado. I’d like to see more of this, not just the sex appeal. Ah well, I still had a blast with it, despite my own personal drawbacks. 8/10

Box Boy (3DS)

To be clear I started playing this last year, when it came out, but I only got around to beating it this year. Box Boy is a delightful and cute puzzle platformer that has all the charm and love you’d expect to find in a Nintendo game. The design is brilliantly simple but its surprising just how complex these puzzles can get from it. Each world has its own theme, with gimmicks and traps getting steadily harder as you progress, and there’s a challenge element there too. You can beat the stage using as many boxes as you want, but if you’re ruthlessly efficient you can earn the crowns. These don’t really do much outside of earn you more cash at the end of a stage, but some are really devilish to get so bragging rights are to be had too. Music, much like its appearance, is rather underplayed and standard, which is a shame, but I guess it’s forgivable. The reason why this game took me until this year to beat however, comes down to the secret stages after you clear the story. These worlds are no joke, compiling everything in the game up to that point into one gauntlet of puzzles; many of which make you feel like you’ve cheated when you beat them. It’s really interesting to see how complicated these simple mechanics can become, but the difficulty serge may put a lot of players off for a time. That includes me. 8/10

Castlevania (Circle of the Moon) (GBA - Wii U Virtual Console) 

Fun story. When I was first getting a Game Boy Advance, I couldn’t decide which launch game to get with it. F-Zero Maximum Velocity or this. This was before I had ever played a Castlevania game, and so I ended up going with F-Zero; but looking back, I think this would have been a better fit for me at the time. As Castlevania games go though, and having played plenty now, it’s a little rough. This was very clearly the starting point for some of the later GBA and DS titles. Never the less, it’s a lot of fun. Graphics are gorgeous for its time, gameplay is mostly intuitive, and the soundtrack has its moments. Difficulty’s a bit cruel, mind, and there were some bizarre decisions made regarding design. Why is walking even an option? Why do I have to get a power-up in order to run, and even then, why do I have to double tap a direction to use it? These set backs make the game needlessly finicky at times, and the alternative isn’t so great when the game has an excruciatingly slow walk speed. For what is supposed to be a fast paced action game, you can see why this can be an issue. Then of course there’s the endgame structure. No real spoilers, but having a final boss that can kill you in one hit isn’t hard, it’s cheap; and having to grind for a stupidly long time in order to beat said boss is also poor design. Even so, I had a good time with the rest of it. 7/10

Chibi Robo Zip Lash (3DS)

Being a Nintendo fan is sometimes less fun than expected. With a company that has so many beloved franchises you’d think they’d use them properly. Well turns out, no, actually. Instead Nintendo has been taking some of its IPs and experimenting. Nintendo have been doing this so much recently, I’ve decided to coin a term for it: Genre-flipping. Chibi Robo Zip Lash is one example of this. Chibi Robo is a time management series, with fun visuals and an adorable character. Chibi Robo Zip Lash is not a time management game and nor are the visuals that fun. At least they got the character right. I’m not truly sure where to start. Visually, it’s bland, with environments being seemingly made out of lego bricks, and the soundtrack is absolutely forgettable. From a design standpoint, taking Chibi’s mechanics into consideration, it’s a little fun, but ultimately nothing special. It’s all rather by-the-numbers. There are a few collectables here and there, along with some bonus medals that do absolutely nothing. Of everything though, the most bizarre thing about this game is its wheel-of-fortune way of progressing. At the end of each stage you spin a wheel that tells you how many stages you advance through. Essentially it runs like a board game, with one path doing a circular from numbers 1 through 6 and then again. My question is: why? Beyond being pointless, it’s also annoying. You, the player, don’t get free movement of a world until you beat every level, and because you have to essentially roll a dice to decide which level you go to, you could end up doing laps of the world just to get to the level you need to play. Oh and FYI you need to clear the level again in order to roll again. Fun. Eventually, I learned a trick that guaranteed that I would play each level consecutively after the other, but again, that just hits home how pointless the gimmick is. The only explanation I have is that very early on this game was going to be a free to play game, only they changed their minds at some point and went to retail. The final boss is also dumb, asking the player to essentially buy the final level (if this WAS free to play, you know it would have been locked behind a pay wall). Still, it comes with a Chibi Robo Amiibo. So that’s nice. 5/10

Dante's Inferno (X360)

What’s that? A game that was no where near my back log and practically forgotten? Sure, why not, chuck it on. This year I’ve kinda had a thing for all things Hell related. I just find interpretations of it fascinating. That’s what led to me playing this. Graphically it’s a little dated now, but not hard to look at, and the music is actually quite impressive. Mostly its just choir and eerie instruments, but it’s Hell, what did you expect it to sound like. Mechanically it doesn’t really do anything special though. It’s about as standard a hack-n-slash as you can get - borrowing elements from games like God of War and such. That’s not really a bad thing, as the game plays fine, it just gets a little repetitive as you go. Furthermore, the difference in difficulty is too vast. On easy, enemies die in seconds, but in normal, you’re hacking away for ages. I never even bothered wasting my time on hard. Personally however, the thing I loved the most about this game was the design from an aesthetic standpoint. Each circle of hell is given a different theme that is faithful to its source material, and I often found myself just stopping to take in my environment. I wish the levels were longer to be honest, but at least everything keeps moving, unlike Castlevania: LoS last year with the intrusive results screen at the end of each “stage”. What I also like is how the game ties the levels of hell into the story of our hero. It’s not exactly an original plot, but it was interesting how Dante had committed sins worthy of each circle, and that every descent brought him closer to redemption. It’s certainly a nice adaptation, and the game ends on a never to be realised “to be continued” but it doesn’t need a sequel. it’s fine as it is. 7/10

Destiny (PS4)

There are certain genres I have no interest in getting involved with for whatever reason. MMO is one of them. Multiplayer games just don’t grab me as much as single players do, so generally, I don’t bother with them. So, when Destiny was released, I couldn’t care less. That coupled with the infamous lack of content didn’t really spur me into buying it, but when the taken king DLC pack came out I decided to give it a go. As stated, I’m not really an MMO gamer (shooter or otherwise), so I’m very aware there are probably much better games in this field, but I have to admit I kind of like it. It looks stunning, if a little too spacious, and there’s always something to do, even playing in single player. By far the most fun I had was playing with others though, time that led to some genuinely memorable moments. Enemy design is interesting, albeit unoriginal (the Fallen are essentially the Covenant from halo - like for like). Bizarrely, it’s the small stuff that makes this game good to me. All the big stuff where the budget clearly went (i.e. voice talent) doesn’t add all that much. What did shock me though, was when the Taken King story began. Not only was it a better campaign to play through than what had come before it, but it also highlighted just how bare bones the original title was at launch. This also goes into another matter of constantly re-releasing the game with brand new bells and whistles every 6 months - something I have no time for - but I digress. If you haven’t played it yet and you have a couple of buddies online too, give it a whirl. Nothing ground breaking, but enjoyable enough. 8/10

Doom (XBO)

Last year I wrote about Halo 4, and I talked about how it was the game that pretty much ended my affair with First Person Shooters. Realistically that hasn’t changed; I’m still not a massive fan of FPS games, but Doom got my attention. There was a lot concerning me about this game. No pre-release reviews (which is never really a good sign) and a lot of the gameplay footage resembled every other FPS game out there, so I was a little split on picking it up. Still, I gave it a whirl and I have to say this game is an absolute breath of fresh air. Action is thick and fast; locales are always different; and set pieces are easily distinguishable. Even the story, which you’d expect to be quite weak, is engaging. The ultimate word I would use though is fun. This game is a blast play. The character of the Doom Guy is so enjoyable to play as you can’t help grinning from ear to ear as you mow down the hordes of hell’s army. Which reminds me, enemy design is not only unique but also faithful. I’ve never played a Doom game before this one, but looking at the older games and seeing how the designers remained true to the originals I can see how much this game is a labour of love. The soundtrack is brutal and raw; not exactly something I would stick on my MP3 player, but enough to get the blood pumping, and there is a surprising amount of content. I think what makes Doom so enjoyable though is that it knows what it is. It’s a video game. It’s not focused on keeping things realistic. It’s all about carrying an arsenal on your back, destroying demons in endlessly satisfying ways, and finding little mini figurines, secrets and references. A surprise hit for more than just me, Doom may be one of the best 2016 had to offer. 9/10

FAST Racing Neo (Wii U - eShop)  

FAST Racing Neo is a game that got a lot of hype, both before and after launch. It was easy to see why. Not only did the game look truly outstanding, but to many, it was the worthy successor to F-Zero that they were craving. Unfortunately it’s anything but. This is not F-Zero. It may look like F-Zero. It may sound like F-Zero. Hell, it may even want to be F-Zero, but it’s not. So what’s wrong with it? Simple: mechanics and design. There are some good ideas here, but an hour of testing should have told them they were going the wrong way about them. Changing colours to suit the boost pads is nice, but said boost pads are few and far between. Not to mention how truly difficult it can be to drive at such speeds. Turning or adjusting course is just straight up stressful when it’s this unreliable. This leads me on to the next problem, the difficulty itself. It’s way too hard for the earlier difficulties. It just throws you in the deep end. Refreshing as it may be, it’s certainly not welcome. It can lead to genuine frustration, and can make the player feel as though the game is unfair. This tied in with easily the biggest issue of them all: the boost pellets. Scattered about each course are small pellets that fill up your boost meter which can ultimately turn the tide. Again, nice idea, and on paper there’s nothing wrong; but when these pellets are incredibly tiny and laid out in tricky positions you can see where the issues come from. Not to mention the speed your travelling. Yes, I know it’s *FAST* Racing Neo, what did I expect, but the game has to accompany that speed. Fast is great, feeling like everything is based on luck with a near vertical learning curve, isn’t. 5/10

Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

Fire Emblem is without a doubt one of my top 5 favourite gaming franchises, so you’d think it strange that I’ve not really played it in about three years. Maybe even longer. Thing is, Fire Emblem is a series that deserves respect. No distractions and no commitments. Just you and the game. So, earlier this year, when all my distractions and prior commitments were dealt with, I decided to finally play what many consider to be one of the best. It’s hard to disagree. As a Fire Emblem veteran, Awakening is probably the most refined of the series thus far (I haven’t played Fates yet). It’s simplified for newcomers, whilst maintaining the difficulty, and it introduces a lot of value to the support system, leading to some great battles. It also introduces the quick reset function for the purists. The characters are brilliantly likeable, and with the ability to play previous maps again and again, it allows you to get the most of the team mates you don’t typically use. The inclusion of an Avatar is a welcome change too, as is the chance to get specific special characters as a reward for gaining S rank support. The music is also wonderful. If I had any downsides it would be that it is overall quite easy by comparison to other Fire Emblem games, with only a handful of levels proving any challenge; allied AI is almost intentionally crap, with CPU villagers running headlong into enemy fire; and the story is a little disjointed - it feels more like three different stories, with one thread running weakly through them. These problems don’t really effect the overall experience however, and as always I walked away absolutely satisfied. An absolute gem. 9/10

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

There are hack-n-slash games and there are hack-n-slash games. Some play out a narrative or story that requires you to take out a number of enemies to progress, whilst others set an objective and ask you to mow down hundreds of thousands of foes to see it through. Hyrule Warriors falls in the latter category. Coming from the same studio behind the cult-hit Dynasty Warriors series, the game is a collection of levels and maps with a set task and just hordes of enemies between you and it. I’ve never played the Dynasty series, nor have I had any inclination towards this vein of hack-n-slash, but I have to say the experience was extremely enjoyable. In many ways, tackling army after army is cathartic and in the simplest of ways plays into a person’s deep desire for destruction. Want to feel godly? Play one of these games. Surprisingly though, there is a hell of a lot more on offer than you’d think. There are challenges and bonus tasks to each main stage, plus rewards for playing the stages in unorthadox ways, and that’s just the main game quest. There is an absolute boat load of content outside of that, with practically over a hundred levels and challenges, all of which encourage you to play the game to the fullest. Play as various characters, upgrade in various ways, grind, farm, there’s so much to do in fact that any attempt to 100% would be enough to drive you out of your mind. You’re looking at 200 hours, easy. As a result, there’ll come a point when you just stop. Not that the game gets bad, or gets stagnant, but that the way forward just gets too trying. I might jump back into it one day to relive the same joys, especially since they’re releasing DLC, but until then, I think a breather wouldn’t go amiss. Oh and the soundtrack is flawless. 8/10 

Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush (Wii U)

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s gimmick games. No, not games with gimmicks in them, but rather games built around gimmicks. The DS suffered from an influx of these at the start of its life, with every title shoehorning needless touch screen elements into their games, but thankfully they started to die out. Nothing stays dead for long, it seems. Enter Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, a follow up of sorts to the DS’ Kirby’s Canvas Curse. Let’s get the good out of the way first. Straight off the bat, this game looks gorgeous. The clay motif is wonderful to look at, and the lighting really makes the colours pop. Soundtrack-wise it’s nothing exceptional, but there are some good songs in there, along with some classics from the previous Kirby games. And that’s it. There is nothing else this game has to offer. Look at screen shots and listen to the soundtrack online; you do not need to play this game. Why? How about the game being 100% touch screen controlled. Buttons do nothing, and so you the player must scribble the life out of the Gamepad in order to do anything. I’ll try and convey how atrocious the controls are. For a start, once Kirby starts moving, he doesn’t stop. So he will just keep rolling about until you direct him otherwise. This leads the player into a wrestling match to keep the little bugger from wandering off. Then, in order to turn Kirby around, you “simply” draw a wall in his path. Except if your wall is drawn upwards and not perfectly vertical, Kirby will mount it and roll up it instead. Then there’s the limit to the rainbow rope. I get it, I know why there’s a limit, but once you draw a line, there’s no way to make it go away without using MORE rainbow rope! This can lead to the groundless levels being painfully frustrating, and even the standard levels aren’t much better. You can’t truly relax, you’re just always in a constant state of rage. You can forget collecting everything too. Not only is Kirby a pest to control in order to get all collectable items anyway, but many collectables are hidden in mini game rooms. These rooms are not fun. They give you 15 seconds to figure out what you need to do AND get Kirby to play along for a change. The number of times I came so close, only to be thrown out. It’s a joke. So yeah, bad, BAD, game with only a few - and I mean a few - moments of enjoyment. It’s only marginally more playable in multiplayer, but even then its just a game of babysitting that nonce, Kirby. 4/10

Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS) 

I actually don’t hate Kirby games. I mean, they’re not masterpieces, not by a long way, but they seem to get the right things down. Most of the time. By and large Kirby games are fun, if a little easy, but fun all the same. Triple Deluxe is just that, fun. I kinda don’t know what else to say about it really. Graphically it looks good - with some great character animations - and the music is, again, okay but nothing truly spectacular. It was good to play Kirby as he was meant to be played. Even if it wasn’t that hard, there was still a lot of enjoyment to be had. It’s classic Kirby gameplay with a slight 3 dimensional twist. If I had any negatives it’d probably be the ending, which I do feel goes on overly long with boss fight after boss fight after boss fight. Some would say it makes the finale all the more impressive and epic, but, to me, there’s only so epic a Kirby game can get before it outstays its welcome. It’s more of a personal reason, I know. Overall a quaint and charming game, which is certainly more relaxing than a certain other Kirby game I played this year. 7/10

Legend of Zelda: Picross (3DS - eShop)

After my frankly unhealthy addiction to picross at the end of last year, I’ll take any excuse to get back into it. So when Nintendo went ahead and released a Zelda version (essentially for free to My Nintendo users) you better believe I snapped it up. What can I say, it’s picross. It’s the same simple, enjoyable, and addictive puzzling its always been, only now you’re drawing Zelda things. For what is a cheap pick-up-n-play title, there’s actually a fair amount to get through, along with a new mode if you succeed at beating the main challenges. That being said, this “new mode”, otherwise known as Mega Picross, isn’t actually that great. Besides being needlessly complex and confusingly explained, you’re solving the same puzzles as before, only everything is convoluted and frustrating. All in all though, it gave me the perfect picross fix. Just don’t expect it to hold you for longer than a weekend. 7/10

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U)

Nostalgia can be a difficult thing to get past. Case in point, Twilight Princess; a game I felt was truly a flawless game the last time I played it on the Wii. Playing the HD update however, I’m not sure I can say that anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fantastic game, with great structure, dungeon layout, mechanics, graphics and soundtrack. Furthermore, it isn’t *worse* because it’s a HD remaster, its more or less the same - with slight improvements and detriments. It’s more that, playing over it again and doing everything I could to 100% it, I found a lot of the game more frustrating than the last time I played it. Certain side quests that were ultimately poorly designed. For example - having to manually trek back to the beginning of a quest if you fail it rather than just being transported, is a pain. I even rage quit at one time because it was so infuriating. There were even parts of the main quest that I felt were needlessly elongated. I know they were for story purposes, but when you’re having to travel back and forth to the same points over and over again, it can be a bother. In terms of what’s new in this version, much like the Windwaker HD, it’s mostly small items that don’t shake the foundations, but they certainly can be a big help. I also felt some of the collect quests were made a little easier, but I can’t be too sure about that. Of all my problems with this game though, my biggest comes down to the controller mapping. It’s not unplayable, but, just rather bizarre. The way certain buttons are mapped is a little backwards in my opinion, with some buttons literally not being used at all. It just feels odd that in the process of making the game slick and smooth on all fronts (gameplay included) they would seemingly botch this area up. Ah well, the game is still great, and one of the best in the series; even if my eyes have been opened to   its shortcomings somewhat. 8/10

Liberation Maiden (3DS - eShop)

Japan is an odd place. There are some games that struggle to get a western release despite a built in audience abroad, whilst there are others that get released without any real problem. In the latter zone we have liberation maiden, one of a compilation that was released digitally outside of Japan by Level-5. Why do I emphasise Japan so much here? Well, because if I had to describe this game in one word I would say: Japan. It’s everything you would expect from a Japanese title. You are the princess of a space colony that is tasked with stopping the evil metal aliens from polluting the planet by using a giant, meta-morphing battlebot. See what I mean. If you take out the (questionable) english voice acting, this game practically screams “Japan”. But lets move off that shall we. Graphically, this game doesn’t look all that good, and the soundtrack is...well...it’s hard to say. Most of the time the music is really quiet and you can’t hear it over the sounds of explosions. As for the gameplay itself, it’s a little stiff, and it’s all rather confusing. I spent a little too long waiting for the game to grab me, and even then it never did. I found the combat to be rather bland, and the levels to be quite repetitive. That’s not too bad though, considering realistically you can beat the game in a single sitting. Generally, it was a decent way to kill an afternoon, but ultimately, its about as standard as it gets. 6/10

Limbo (PS3)

Limbo has been one of those games that I’ve watched from the sidelines. A lot of people praise it, it’s earned a lot of respect in the indie community, but it’s never really shot to the top of my to-play list. That was until the developer released “Inside” earlier this year to the same critical acclaim. Right off the bat, Limbo makes you feel like it’s a game with more style than substance, but as you play you get given more in-depth challenges with more dangerous obstacles. By and large its a puzzle game, but each brain teaser keeps you on your toes and forces you to think differently using the game’s design and logic to win the day. Visually its impressive. The dark tones create a brilliant atmosphere, as does the eerie soundtrack. It’s also a game with little to no frustration. If you fail a puzzle, you die; but you respawn so quickly, that the whole trial and error prospect doesn’t seem too bad. Honestly I wish more games did this. It’s a little on the short side, pretty much beatable in two sittings, but it’s just about the right amount of enjoyment. Like a French Fancy cake. 9/10

Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Bros (3DS)

In spite of the fanbase, I actually like the recent run Mario and Luigi games. I mean, of course the original DS trilogy is better, but these are hardily trash. Hell, I actually think Paper Jam Bros gets the series staples bang on. It has refined and purified all prior game problems to create an experience that is efficient in its execution, and one that never asks too much from the player involved. With that said, it is strange then that this game is not the series best. I can’t really describe it, but it just feels as though this game is missing somewhat of a soul. Don’t get me wrong, the music is great again; it’s visually interesting; the battles are really clever and can be quite strategic; the writing and humour is some of the series’ best; and the overall gameplay is fun. But it’s something beneath it all. There’s no grandness to the adventure. No point or reason to having it. It just feels like an idea that, whilst done well, didn’t really have the weight to go anywhere. Structurally it’s not terrific either, with the game bouncing back and forth between the main adventure and mini-games. The mini-games do offer a nice distraction, but they aren’t really paced properly, which can make them feel completely out of place more than once. And if they aren’t thrown in at random occasions, they’re predictable. It all feels by the numbers really. The game is great, and in no way do I regret playing it; but it just doesn’t have the same quality and heart as previous entries. 8/10

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) 

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Shadow of Mordor doesn’t have an original bone in its body. Realistically, this isn’t a bad thing. It has the free roaming and wall climbing mechanics of Assassin’s creed, whilst also bringing in the combat and stealth segments of the Arkham games. In many ways, it delivers on the best of both worlds - albeit in a little clunky fashion. I did like the “power system” though, a near limitless roster of ranked orcs that you can take out, sometimes more than once, and the overall interface was quite intuitive. Graphically it looked great too, and the background music was atmospheric and cinematic right when it needed to be. The story too is quite interesting, offering not just an adaption of the events preceding the Lord of the Rings, but also an enormous amount of lore to get stuck into. Not to mention the side quests and bonus content available if you’re willing to put in the time. Sadly, in spite of all it’s good qualities, and there are a lot, the fact that there isn’t really anything that makes this game stand out from the crowd can lead people to just shrug it off. The final boss is also incredibly anti-climactic - unless of course you pay for the DLC which gives you a “better” send off. Typical WB; what are games for if you can’t make money off of them, amiright? 8/10

Overwatch (XBO)

I’m repeating myself. Multiplayer focused games just aren’t my thing. I can appreciate the design, and I can love the overall experience, but the games just do not have the power to hold me for longer than a week. With that in mind, Overwatch is incredibly enjoyable, with a few minor drawbacks. The cartoony style looks lush and interesting, and the characters are all beautifully realised and unique. The maps are quick and frantic, leading to some genuine fun and epic moments. It’s not all smiles and celebrations though. Naturally there are some pros out there who can play this game blindfolded, which in turn can make some matches incredibly one sided, and when there’s a heavy emphasis on teamwork, having that one teammate that does nothing, or even having a smaller team than the opposition, can make things un-fun very quickly. Fortunately, there is an option to play against CPUs, but these matches do not give out the same rewards to playing against real people. The rewards themselves are also meagre. They’re random, can be duplicated, and half the time they’re locked behind micro-transactions. You’re essentially gambling to get worthwhile skins and other cosmetics. Beyond all of this, there isn’t much the game offers, but I will say that when you’re playing with friends, it is a lot of fun. Definitely for its competitive audience, but that doesn’t necessarily include me. 8/10

Pokken Tournament (Wii U)

I feel I should point this out now. This game’s score is attributed exclusively to the gameplay. By that I mean the fighting. Whether its between you and a friend or the computer, it’s fun. Combat is surprisingly in depth, offering a lot to fighting fans, and the graphics are spectacular. Plus there are plenty of characters to choose from, so you can tell this had some effort and thought put into it. As for everything else though, it’s a little bare bones, and frankly tedious. For starters, all you can do is fight; and you fight a lot. There is literally nothing else this game has to offer. There is a story that pans out as you play through the game’s “league mode” (essentially a ranked arcade mode) but beyond that all you can do is fight. Over and over again. The way the league matches are organised is incredibly repetitive and asks for a lot of patience out of the player. As a comparison, imagine being asked to play street fighter’s arcade mode upwards of 8 times just to advance to the next bit. Sounds like a slog doesn’t it? Furthermore, the menus are intrusive and, as a result, make the player less inclined to change their fighter during the main modes - given that you have to pick a default fighter from the start that can only be changed by going to the main menu itself. Finally, the voice acting; oh god the voice acting. Not only is it obnoxious coming from your “guide” character - who will not shut up unless you switch her off - but it is also woefully bad. Delivery is a farce with lines and emphasis not matching up, and the general dialogue sounds like it was written by a 5 year old with no idea what pronouns are. Still, the gameplay is good. 7/10

Rhythm Paradise Megamix (3DS)

I’ve never played a Rhythm Paradise game before, and really, I didn’t exactly want to. They looked like fun, but when they were being packaged and retailed at the same price as other, far more in-depth games, I couldn’t bring myself to get into them. When Nintendo announced they were going to be releasing what is essentially a collection of the entire series up to now though, well that was a different story. Honestly, I’m kinda glad I skipped the series before now, as I can experience the greatness of the franchise in all its glory all at once. I’ve got to say, RPM is an absolute blast. Brimming with life, colour, and most importantly, rhythm, the game is almost impossible to put down. It’s highly addictive and more fun than you might think. Plus there’s actually a lot of content to get through, with challenges, highscores, and unlockables. The best thing going though is the soundtrack. Every stage has a completely original song made just for it, and each one is wonderful to listen to. I often found myself playing through the same levels over and over again just for the hell of it. If I had any draw backs, I’d have to say its more what they could have done, or should have done, but didn’t. For example, the perfect campaign, the ability to earn rewards by clearing a level without missing a single note, shouldn’t even exist; Three goes and then it kicks you out? Why? Why not instead just have it always on the level and then if you fail it doesn’t stop the song and boot you? Also sometimes the margin for error varies too much and occasionally button presses aren’t recognised on some of the faster games. Finally, why is there no randomizer option, or playlist function? These seem like no brainers to me, as the game is already the perfect down-time game. Ah well, the game is still a lot of fun, and I think I’ll be humming its beats until the day I die. BA BOM BOM BOM! 8/10

Rise of the Tomb Raider (XBO)

Tomb Raider’s latest reboot was a brilliant surprise last year, so I couldn’t wait to dig into this one. Right away, it certainly ups the ante. The game plays a lot smoother and the newer mechanics give depth and strategy to the overall experience. Lara’s character is irresistibly good, and still retains a lot of her strengths from the last game, but the good news is, they’re actually taken further here. The developers could have easily carted out the same old Lara, but it’s good to see they really care about her as a character. Now, Lara’s much more tenacious without being over-confident. She’s vulnerable, but resourceful; and she’s formidable but not impervious. The way she develops as she goes ties into the game’s title really well; this is Lara truly becoming the Tomb Raider we want her to be. Stealth elements are beyond intuitive. Everything flows without coming to a standstill and it’s all incredibly simple. Crafting items like bombs and Molotov cocktails in the midst of battle can also shake things up, and the layout and design compliment these elements perfectly. Everything is laid out so well that, if you play your cards right, you can take down an entire platoon of enemies without them even seeing you in a matter of seconds. In terms of content, there’s a lot to do and find, and the interface is so useful that the path to 100% is rather straightforward. Negatives? It does feel a little shorter than its predecessor, although I don’t know if that’s because the individual areas are a lot bigger or not. I don’t know. Honestly, I really struggle to find fault with this game. It was a lot of fun to play, and on top of that, it’s incredibly well made. 9/10

Shantae (GBC - 3DS Virtual Console)

After playing and loving Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse last year, I thought I’d go right back to the beginning with the Gameboy Colour original. And how was it? Well...let’s just say it’s certainly come a long way. Oh the game is good. It’s a lot of fun, with a startling amount of content for a Gameboy Colour title, but it is a little rough around the edges. Not only is a lot of the game not really laid out for you (forcing you to question whether or not you’re going the right way) but it’s also unspeakably difficult. Like, immediately this game pulls no punches at all. From the get-go it’s hard, with enemies doing a hell of a lot of damage, and Shantae herself being unable to hit them without getting really close. Not only that but there are insta-death zones everywhere, and also there’s a day and night feature which rotates every 5 minutes. How is that bad? Well enemies take twice as long to kill and do twice as much damage at night. This can make a lot of areas unplayable in the dark in the earlier stages, and as the game is designed in a metroid-type way, there’s a lot of back tracking involved, so you’ll be passing through the same areas a lot. Finding the warp squids makes travel less cumbersome, mind, but even so it doesn’t make exploring the wilderness any easier; a lot of the game’s secrets frankly require a strategy guide. By the end though, despite the unforgiving difficulty, I was somewhat sad to leave it all behind. I did have a lot of fun when all was said and done, and even though I’ll probably never play it again, I would recommend it to those looking for some retro adventure gaming. 8/10

Star Fox Zero (Wii U)

Here we are: arguably the most divisive game of 2016. One half claiming it’s great, with a lot of value and charm; whilst the other half calls it a broken piece of trash that doesn’t work. Frankly, I have no idea what the latter group is on about. Star Fox Zero is a fantastic game that’s a hell of a lot of fun to play. It looks brilliant, with a style that seems to be both realistic and retro at the same time, and the music is really engaging and great to listen to. The opening level has one of the best tracks to get the blood pumping. Honestly, going in I had reservations. I was worried about the controls. I feared they would get in the way of the gameplay, but I was surprised. In fact, I played the entire first level without even using them. Plus, they’re customisable to a degree, so you can mix and match to suit your style. Granted there are some learning curves later on, specifically with the walker, but as far as I’m concerned, if you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll be rewarded in spades. If I did have any problems I would say that the branching paths don’t really feel like proper levels, as they’re more like bonus levels; I wish the game wasn’t just a reboot of the series; and the final boss almost doesn’t feel like the final boss; but realistically that’s it. The controls are fine unless you have literally zero patience or tolerance for trying something new, and half the time you can play without them. And on top of all of this, it has the best tribute to Mr Iwata. I’m just glad to have Star Fox back. I’ve missed you, buddy. 8/10

Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (3DS - eShop)

Steamworld Dig is an odd game to talk about. I don’t really know where to begin. On the one hand I could call it a dungeon crawler - although that’s not entirely accurate - and on the other I could say its an exploration adventure game. Tell you what, I’ll go with the title. Dig. Because that’s what you do. You dig. Downwards and sideways and sometimes even upwards. That’s practically 90% of the game. And it’s awesome. Who would have thought a game that asks you to do the same menial task again and again within seconds of each other would not only be fun but also incredibly addictive. Forging your own way through the underworlds below, finding treasure and mining ore as you go, as well as uncovering more of the plot, all come together into a highly enjoyable package. There’s just something incredibly soothing and cathartic about smashing a rock until it breaks. I rarely got tired of it. Even when I did, I was back to playing it after a few hours. It’s just a blast, surprisingly. There are a few downsides of course. It’s a little on the short side, even with the different worlds to uncover and the music is rather standard outside of the main theme, but these are just minor details when all is said and done. Pick it up if you can, it’s certainly good for a weekend. 8/10

Super Luigi U (Wii U)

Can DLC really count as its own standalone game on this list? When it’s released as its own retail copy it does. And what a strange one it is. It’s not Super Luigi U, it’s New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U. That’s the name of the game. Meaning when I put it in my Wii U, the console had no idea about my NSMBU save file. But I digress. Super Luigi U is all right. Well it wasn’t really going to be anything special when it’s essentially built on top of a pre-existing game, but I do like what it’s trying to do. All stages are practically speed runs, with only 100 seconds on the clock, and a number of challenges between you and the goal. This is probably the game’s best feature. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was trudging my way through another Mario title, but rather breezing through it at an alarming pace. It’s also pretty straightforward to 100%, even if Luigi plays like he’s on roller-skates and some of the levels are a little on the difficult side. At the end of the day though there was no shaking that this title didn’t really feel like its own game. I mean, I know it isn’t and that it’s DLC, but still. It’s more of a pleasant distraction than anything else. I would like to see Nintendo do more with Luigi, but until they start giving him his own proper space, instead of having him just run around in Mario’s, he’s always going to be second rate. 7/10

Tengami (Wii U - eShop) 

Tengami to me is a classic style over substance game. There is some substance admittedly, but this game is clearly built on its look; which is paper. More specifically, origami. I do have a soft spot for it though. Having everything being treated like a literal story book, turning over pages and such, it did bring a certain charm to the game. Then again, it was developed by ex-rare staff, so we’re clearly dealing with some talent. It’s essentially a point-and-click puzzle game, but when I think about it there actually weren’t that many puzzles. The puzzles it did have were great, with some intriguing and inspired brain teasers, but it would have been good to see some more. Easily the game’s biggest strength though is it’s soundtrack, which honestly floored me with how good it was. This game came out in 2014, along with Shovel Knight, Bravely Default, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. It got me thinking: 2014 was a bloody good year for Video Game music. Speaking of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, the soundtrack is done by the same guy; the irrefutably gifted David Wise. He captures such mysterious nuances to everything he puts his hand to here, and it’s truly remarkable. Even if you’ve never played the game, I implore you to look up the soundtrack. I’m going a little off topic here, so let’s talk about Tengami’s problems. For starters, it’s short. Alarmingly so in fact. I beat it in a single sitting and with very few moments of pause; which is even more damning when you take into account the other major flaw. The game’s nameless hero moves so - bloody - slow. It’s painful sometimes, and god forbid you forget to do something before you move on because back tracking is an absolute chore. Overall, I don’t regret playing it, and if you’re looking for a decent game to unwind to, look no further;  just be prepared to wait a while for your character to get his arse in gear. 7/10

Theatrhythum Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS)

Hey, big shock, I like Video Game music. You wouldn’t know it, would you? All joking aside, Video Game music is some of the best music out there in my opinion, and it’s a shame it doesn’t get more attention. So when a title comes along that takes video game music and makes an entire game around it, you know I’m down - especially when the music in question belongs to Final Fantasy. Theatrhythum Final Fantasy Curtain Call is a sequel of sorts. I played and enjoyed the first game, and found myself getting addicted to it, so it was only natural I played the follow up. Funny thing is, it’s not really a follow up, or a sequel, it’s more of an ultimate edition. This game is the first game again, only with a bazillion more things in it. It’s a rhythm game with some of the best songs in the Final Fantasy library; only now there are over 200 songs to play through, on multiple difficulties. Yikes! No joke, the way the game works, I hadn’t even played all the songs once by the time I reached the credits. Plus, you keep unlocking new songs as you go, which just adds to the playtime, and, whilst the first game just featured the main canonical Final Fantasy games with a few bonus extras thrown in, this game features music from any game with Final Fantasy in the title. It’s insane. Plus it doesn’t just stop there. There’s also a cool adventure-type mode, that sees you playing song after song, sometimes on the hardest difficulty to reach the end. You have to play through these if you want to get even close to unlocking everything. Oh did I mention the unlockables. As well as extra songs, the game also has extra characters, collectable cards, and Sound Test items to unlock. AND THEN, even though it has SO MANY SONGS to begin with, there are DLC songs too, just in case you were thinking of giving up on the real world altogether. This game has so much in it, in the end I just had to cut the cord whilst I was still plugged in. For the sake of my health I just had to put it down for good and walk away. Definitely a great time, but be careful you don’t lose yourself to it. 8/10

Thomas Was Alone (PS3) 

One of the more random games I decided to pick up this year, Thomas Was Alone is a fun, quirky, and most of all funny puzzle game. I got plenty of Portal vibes off this game while I was playing. The dialogue is so witty and humorous. Add that to Danny Wallace’s excellent comedic delivery and you’ve got a game that has you laughing on every stage. Graphically the game is lacking, although this is intentional, and the same goes for it’s soundtrack. But the design and narration easily make up for the absences. It’s a little short, but it’s charming. No other game has given faceless, coloured shapes personalities before. That’s got to count for something. 8/10

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)

The Uncharted series has been on my back log for a long time, but this year - with the release of Uncharted 4 - I decided to finally get stuck in. And it’s ok. That’s it. Sorry, Sony-boys, the original Uncharted is only just above average in my opinion. Maybe for its time it was a much better example, but right now it’s a little dated. Graphically it’s not too bad, though environments are rather stagnant, and the music is very cinematic, but the gameplay is rather bland. Combat is tiresome, with firefights being overly long and boring. Seriously, you take on something like thirty guys every time; what other word is there but tedious. Then there’s the puzzle segments of which there aren’t that many. Most of the time you’re climbing which is equally as overplayed as the combat, and when that’s your lot it doesn’t take long for the game to get a little exhaustive. The structure here is also questionable. When Nathan Drake steps foot in a secret chamber no one has been in for centuries, why are there suddenly armed guards to take out in there? Basically, it seems combat is used as a device to add variety to the exploration, but there are surely more and better ways to do this. The best qualities this game has however are the plot, which is highly engaging, and the characters who are irresistibly likeable at all times. The overall gameplay is fine - although very clunky and rough around the edges - and for the most part it is enjoyable enough. A decent first effort from Naughty Dog but nothing truly spectacular. 7/10

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Coming off the back of Uncharted 1, I didn’t really have a lot of enthusiasm for the sequel. But, a lot of people had said that it was ultimately a better game and so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, it paid off. Among Thieves is a much tighter experience than its predecessor. The story is just as good as the first, and of course the characters and writing remain brilliantly entertaining; but on top of this Naughty Dog have worked on the faults of the first game. Combat is much more balanced, with firefights now making a lot more sense, and there are a lot more environments to explore. There are also a lot more puzzles, although 90% of the solutions require climbing. Fortunately, that too has been improved, with Nathan moving a lot quicker and seamlessly from foothold to foothold. General variety is up too, with combat not just being the only thing to do. Generally the whole game is a mark up from the last one, but there are still a few problems. It does still feel clunky moving about - more than once Nathan swan dove off a ledge I didn’t want him to go near - and some of the newer elements, more specifically the stealth aspect, don’t exactly work. All it needs is a button prompt when you’re close enough to do a stealth takedown, but because it’s not there, Nathan just swings his fists like a maniac and draws all the attention to himself instead. Luckily, no parts of the game require stealth, but it’s frustrating none the less when you want to be stealthy but the game messes you up. In the end I gave up on sneaking and just went in guns blazing. All in all Uncharted 2 is a much better game and seems to be going in the right direction. A few weak areas here and there hold it back and I’m still waiting to be absolutely blown away but it’s definitely a great game. 8/10

Undertale (PC)

I am a firm believer that video games are art. Art - to me - is a means of expression that can be interpreted in different ways by different people on top of connecting emotionally with the viewer. So basically, so long as the user is connected and is invested in someone else’s creation, it is art. Now, not all video games should be considered art, but there are nevertheless plenty out there that could. Undertale is one of those games. Quite frankly, this game is a masterpiece. Part RPG, part bullet hell, not only does it do new things and break the mould of its genres but it also exemplifies the video game experience. Now I’m sure I’m not the first person you’ve heard say these things about this game, but I’m in earnest. This game is a triumph. In many ways, Undertale is the true Citizen Kane of gaming. Like Orson Welles, Toby Fox is pretty much a one man army with this project. Designer, Director, Writer, and Musician, among many other things I’m sure. Speaking of musician, can I take a moment to bring up how immaculate the soundtrack is. It’s easily the one of the best video game soundtracks of the decade. Every track is perfection and immediately recognisable, not to mention incredibly well made. Gameplay is excellent and intuitive, and it’s one of the games where the player’s actions directly impact the game as a whole. This is a game that rewards you for not killing, and vice versa. Beating the game on a pacifist run (do not kill a single enemy) will give you arguably the true ending to the game, whilst beating it on a genocide run (kill literally every living thing in the game - yes, that’s a genuine possibility) will result in the game being broken forever. I never had the guts to attempt a genocide run. For starters the characters are too endearing and full of life, but also because, if you constantly kill, the game openly does what it can to make you feel like a horrible person as you play. Music becomes distorted, your inner monologue becomes much more hateful and aggressive, and characters and NPCs regard you with fear. It’s seriously messed up. Honestly, the pacifist run alone is what made this game truly exceptional. I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but I’ll just say during the perfect pacifist run something happens that changes the way you see this game. All previous assumptions get turned on their heads. That sudden change in perception is what cemented this game as a work of art. I thought it was just a brilliant and fun game, but it’s something a lot more special. Undertale is the real deal; the genuine article, and you owe it to yourself to play it if you haven’t already. 10/10

Yoshi's New Island (3DS)

Ah, Yoshi’s New Island; or as I like to call it: Yoshi’s DO IT ALL AGAIN. This game is just disappointing, and I’m saying that after going in with low expectations. It’s hard to believe this game came out in the same year as Yoshi’s Woolly World (i.e. a vastly superior game). Presentation is lazy, soundtrack is obnoxious, and level design is bland and generic. I also find it ironic that the game calls itself Yoshi’s *NEW* island, and yet it seems hellbent on re-enacting the original SNES game. Every world is themed and structured identically to it, but whereas then it made sense given the structure of the island, here it doesn’t work. Why is world 5 a snow world? In the original it was because you were climbing the mountains, but here it’s just snowy. The game as a whole adds a little bit here and there, but nothing ultimately earth-shattering, and it’s not exactly hard. The overall design is just unfair for completionists though. The way collectables are placed can lead to some genuine fury, and if you end up missing that one red coin, that’s right, you have to do the whole level again! Not surprised I gave up on 100%-ing this after a while. Oh, and as if to throw in some form of self awareness, the final boss repeats itself. Nothing changes, it just asks you to, literally, do it - all - again! Fine as a “Babies First Yoshi” game, but for fans, stay away. 5/10