Salutations all, yes, I know its been a minute, and yes, I know I've been doing a lot of Strange Logs, but I haven't really had the wherewithal to write a fully researched and well-thought-out article. Yes, there have been quite a few topics I could talk about, namely "X-Men '97" but I'm not exactly interested in reviewing it so much as I am just watching it to enjoy it and thus far I am enjoying it. That said I think a lot has happened since my last Strange Log to warrant me writing another, so let's dive in.
Somewhere in here you know I gotta talk about a MegaTen game so I'll just get that outta the way right now, "Shin Megami Tensei V" is coming out with an expanded version of it called "Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance" which fleshes out the story of "SMTV" adding new elements, characters and from what I can glean a radically different story. I'm noticing a trend with Atlus games in that they tend to release expanded versions 3-4 years after the initial game, a trend that I think started with the Persona series. "Persona 3" came out with FES which expanded the story to "The Answer", "Persona 4" came out with Golden and "Persona 5" came out with Royal. I have no clue if the previous SMT games had expanded versions of them BUT now we have "SMTV: Vengeance", which although I'm stoked for, I can't help but understand why people would be a little miffed about an expansion coming after having paid full price for the current game. Now don't get me wrong Atlus has full claim over my money at this point in time as aside from "Soul Hackers 2" they're the company that can't miss in my humble opinion. While I did greatly enjoy "SMTV" the game did indeed feel a bit dry, which I didn't mind because overall I adored the combat system and there was enough story to keep me interested and for me to know what was going on. That said I cannot wait for whatever "Vengeance" has in store as it looks like a lot of the side characters will actually be party members, this is a welcomed change
The story of "SMTV" was simple enough, the god of their universe died and Lucifer took over as such he left the world in chaos overrun by demons searching for their other halves to become a Nahobino, a being capable of becoming a god to either reestablish the rule of the previous god, destroy the throne of god or create a realm with a myriad of gods, simple. I'm not sure if that story will come into play in "SMTV: Vengeance" though as it looks like Lilith will be taking over as the main villain for at least a portion of the game, you know how these games go. That being said, I will be checking this out.
Since we're on the topic of games, I think I'm done with physical media as it pertains to games, and the reason why is that it's just easier and I think it strains the system less to load a game from a disc than it does from the actual hardware. Don't get me wrong, I love physical media as it pertains to movies and music BUT games...eh. I've always had an issue with discs anyway ever since my "Xenosaga Episode III" disc got scratched (somehow...) and I wasn't able to play it. Cartridges are easily the best format for games so I think from here on, unless I really want the box, which to be honest they're not even adding cool instruction manuals or inserts anymore, so ultimately the box just ain't worth it.
Moving right along, let's talk about "X-Men '97" and boy oh boy, so far it is really good. I had my doubts and to be fair I still have many doubts but thus far the series is sticking to the original as much as it can. The artwork is a little off, of course, you can't beat that old-school Jim Lee art style at all. I won't be reviewing this show as mentioned previously, I'm just trying to enjoy it (for as long as I'm allowed to). But I digress.
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| "Say, Cher how you get that white streak in your hair?" Gambit asked. |
Let's talk about some movies since movies haven't really been on my radar for a while. First, let's talk about some weird stuff and that's the sequel to "Joker", "Joker: Folie' a Deux" a movie that I can't understand why it exists because I believe (personally) the first one said everything that needed to be said on the subject of "The Joker". The Joker has always been one of Batman's greatest foes and for good reason, the man is literally walking chaos, you really can't pin him down and not to mention the fact that he doesn't have an established origin (as of the time of this blog) which means The Joker can be anyone. Geoff Johns offered an explanation for this in his "Three Jokers" book, an interesting idea but eh. This movie, however, introduces us to the character of Harleen Quinzel who will be played by Lady Gaga, and as much as I enjoy Harley getting some live-action shine *sigh* the offerings that we've been given have been less than favorable, in my opinion. Am I interested in seeing this? No, no, not really just because it didn't need to happen and it's once again further proof that DC/Warner Bros. doesn't have its hands on the wheel of attempting to create a Cinematic Universe since whatever James Gunn is doing is going to be removed from this completely.
However, since we've been in something of a movie drought we're getting 2 offerings from 1 unlikely source, The Shyamalan Family! First up we have M. Night's Daughter Ishana getting her turn at bat with a movie that looks very interesting and unfortunately based on a book (like everything else that's been coming out lately). Nonetheless, "The Watchers" boasts Dakota Fanning as its lead and looks interesting enough for me to keep abreast of. I really like stories that involve single locations and weird sets of rules. Let's hope that Ishana can carve her own path without gaining her father's reputation of using plot twists (which to be perfectly fair to Mr. Shyamalan, only 3 of his movies had twists, but I digress). Not to leave her esteemed father out of the conversation M. Night has his own offering with "Trap" and no, this movie isn't about boys who dress up as girls and go to anime conventions, rather this movie is about a serial killer falling into a trap set up by police to catch them at a concert. I'm using nongendered language here because from the trailer we're led to believe that Josh Hartnett is The Butcher but I (and many others in the comment section) believe that The Daughter character is in fact The Butcher while Harnett is only complicit in the sense that he provides victims.
"Trap" looks like a fun ride and I'll be delighted to see if the comment section manages to come out on top with regards to discovering the twist. My reasoning behind assuming the daughter is The Butcher is because it's pretty weird for The Police to attempt to catch a serial killer at a concert, not to mention according to the Vendor (Jamie) the Feds somehow heard that a serial killer was going to be attending a concert. What serial killer would announce they were going to be at a specific location let alone a very public and massive location like a concert...unless the killer is a teenage girl. Likewise, Hartnett's character genuinely seems surprised by the news on the expression on his face while watching his house cams is one of disappointment, not concern, at least how I'm reading the scene. Masterfully, however, is that M. Night managed to write a narrative that'd showcase his other daughter's talents as the film's fictional performer Lady Raven. Say what you will about the man's work but he genuinely loves and supports his children.
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| The Josh Hartnett Is Disappointed In You. |
I could talk about "Deadpool & Wolverine" but I don't have much to say about that other than we'll see how it shakes down in the overall MCU. As such, I've made my "return" as it were to Youtube, kinda sorta, I just dropped my review of "Hereditary", a video I've been sitting on for a while now. After waffling back and forth between releasing it and not releasing it, I just said "Screw it." and uploaded it just to see what'd shake down. Lo and behold, currently I got 1 comment on it, we'll see if anything else happens with it, although thanks to Al G. Rythym I doubt I'll be popping up in anyone's searches.
What have I been doing lately? Watching reality TV, no nothing lame like "Housewives" or any of that crap, a new show has come to my and my wife's attention called "Traitors", a social deduction game on Peacock. The show is very much like "The Mole", however, the plot twist is that we viewers at home are fully aware of who the traitors are and the traitors are not actively sabotaging missions. We started watching the American version of the show, and I'm not certain how my wife feels about it but the American version featured people who've been on reality shows before, because my wife and I don't watch reality TV we really didn't have a clue who any of the people were or previous relationships. That said currently the best versions of the show are the Australian (1st Season only) and New Zealand, both are pretty keen groups and very entertaining. I wouldn't watch the 2nd Season of Australian "Traitors" unless you want an exercise in absolute frustration.
Moving right along, anime is constantly getting added to my list over and over again and my backlog is so clogged, luckily I've now for Crunchyroll as a subscription and I'm enjoying every second of it, unfortunately, the time to watch anime is dwindling as such any new on-going series are just outta the question as of now, the reasons being is I have currently "My Hero Academia" and "One Punch Man" to on the slate as my on-going, anything I'm watching on Crunchyroll must be a limited run, 12 to 24 episodes at most. I'm not like most people I can't just binge a bunch of episodes right outta the gate I gotta let things marinate before I really dive in and I really have to be in a mood to pay attention. I don't really watch anything half-assed, I give it my 100% undivided. Not sure where this paragraph is going but I've been keeping abreast of anime I'm interested and I may or may not review them or mention them later. Anyway, here's a GIF of my current mood lately. Until next time;
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