Transformers: Earthrise (2020)

 (SPOILER WARNING!!)

I want to pre-empt this review by saying that my thoughts on this show are still relatively raw; I had only just binged the entire series last night, so it's still fresh in my mind as I write this. It's very likely that whatever thoughts I have regarding the characterisation, voice-acting, writing and so forth could change over time.

But as of right now, with the series still fresh in my mind, I can say that "Transformers: Earthrise" is better than "Siege" in some aspects... while also being worse in others. This'll make sense in a moment, trust me.

Plot:

An indeterminate time has past since Optimus tossed the Allspark through the Space Bridge and left Cybertron aboard the Ark with a crew of Autobots. In that time, Elita-One has led the Cybertron bound Autobots, now with help from Jetfire, to continue the fight against the Decepticons, raiding prison camps in order to free any and all Cybertronians trapped there. Megatron, meanwhile, is forced to commit more desperate acts as he has thousands of Cybertronian citizens, including his own legion of Decepticons, siphoned of their Energon to fuel what he claims is Cybertron's Salvation; the Nemesis, a battle cruiser that he intends to use in finding Optimus for dooming the planet.

Speaking of, Optimus and his crew are found by a group of mercenaries, led by Double Dealer, who take Prime and his Autobots to meet the one supposedly responsible for freeing all Cybertronians from slavery; the Quintesson Judge, Deseeus. The Autobots escape and find a Space Bridge, which they believe can lead them to the Allsparks location so that they can come back to Cybertron in order to rectify Optimus' mistake.

Oh, and Scorponok and Sky Lynx are there too. If you think they're footnotes in this review, don't; they're footnotes in the show as well.

Pros:

Once again, I really have to credit the animation team for being able to bring the WfC (War for Cybertron) trilogy designs to life; the character movement is smooth and is astonishingly accurate to how the characters look in the toyline, kibble and all. I'm still not a fan of the whole "gritty battle damage" motif that the designs have, but I can't blame the show seeing as how that was a part of the toyline first. At the very least, the fluent animation allows the action scenes to be more entertaining and not rely too heavily on slow motion in an attempt to hide the limited budget.

"Earthrise" also continues with showcasing Megatron less of a megalomaniacal despot and more of a freedom fighter who was pushed to the breaking point via desperation, which I felt was done effectively well for this series. He still has the traditional character traits you expect out of Megatron, such as the arrogance and tendency for violence; but with how the series presents these traits, it's clear that he is doing so out of hatred and a desperation to survive in the worst case scenario. It's actually a very nuanced take on the old buckethead. His interactions with Elita-One, much like the ones he had with Ultra Magnus in "Siege", tell us a lot about who he is as a character, while also showing the equally valid viewpoint that Elita has regarding how the war has affected the planet.

Cons:

While I praise the series take on Megatron, a lot of the new takes on other characters I felt was a detriment. The main examples I can name are with Scorponok and Sky Lynx, who by pure coincidence are also the biggest figures from the toyline (both in size and price point). Scorponok is rewritten to just be a giant monster who attacks anything that infiltrates his ship, and Sky Lynx goes from a well-meaning narcissist to a power-hungry arsehole who tried to steal the Matrix from Alpha Trion before being banished to the Dead Universe. Given that these two are basically the mascots of the Earthrise portion of this trilogy, one would think they would have a bigger role. Instead, Scorponok shows up for a fight scene that goes on for far too long halfway through the show, and Sky Lynx has his entire personality stripped away and he just exists as another thing for the Autobots to deal with while they're stuck in the Dark Universe.

I also felt that Deseeus was kind of a superfluous addition to the series. Initially, the reveal of the Quintessons being the ones who enslaved the Transformers and Deseeus freeing them from that regime seems like a big deal. And first, it does come across as that. But immediately after, four of the faces are killed off and the remaining one just becomes the default generic bad guy who wants to... actually, what does Deseeus want? What do they gain from telling Optimus that they saved his race from enslavement? Why would the one face that cuts the other ones off want to kill the Cybertronian race? Hell, it seems like the Quintessons enslaving Cybertron is common knowledge as Optimus claims that Megatron's methods are no better than the five-faced robot squids, only for Megatron to deny and continue blaming Prime for Cybertron's slow demise. So, is the existence of Deseeus supposed to be a surprise or not? What does Deseeus add to the overall narrative? At least the sudden appearance of Galvatron in the Dead Universe creates some foreshadowing with the existence of Unicron; Deseeus adds nothing!

And much like with "Siege", the voice acting is really weak in this show. Most of the characters share the exact same gravelly growling voice that makes it hard to distinguish one from the other if you aren't paying attention. But even the ones who have a distinctive voice deliver their lines in such a flat, monotone manner that it makes it hard to believe that the actors are even trying with their line reads. The worst offender in this regard is Jake Foushee as Optimus Prime. Whenever he's just posturing and contemplating the situation at hand, the actor sounds like he's about to fall asleep while reading the lines. And yet, whenever he's trying to be angry, it constantly comes across as him just doing his best not to shit himself in the recording booth. I'm not trying to be harsh to the guy, and I'm sure that he was excited to voice the character. But his delivery of the lines leave a LOT to be desired, instead coming across as a little kid wearing an Optimus Prime voice changer helmet.

Conclusion:

As I said before, there aspects that "Earthrise" improved on in comparison to "Siege"; the dialogue is a bit tighter and less exposition heavy, the action is fun, and Megatron's characterisation continues to be really clever. But some of the other aspects aren't really fixed or improved upon; the voice acting is still wooden, the characterisation of most of the cast is very minimal, and there doesn't fell like there is much of in terms of actual stakes in things. Arriving on Earth? Searching for the Allspark? Creating the Nemesis? Basically just passes by with little impact while superfluous elements take up the runtime. I still won't say that "Earthrise" is an entirely terrible series, but it isn't much of a major improvement over it's predecessor. I'd only recommend to people if they're a Transformers show completionist like me, but not much else. Now there is only Kingdom left to go.

Overall rating: 6/10 (passable).

If you enjoyed reading my review, please be sure to share this on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and leave a comment letting me know what you thought. Also feel free to leave a comment telling me what you thought of "Earthrise". Be sure to also follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I've recently started rewatching "Beast Wars", so feel free to share the glorious memories with me as I go along.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power Season 1 (2019)

 (SPOILER WARNING!!)

With the recent resurgence of 80's franchises still ingrained into current pop cultural ephemera, it should've been no surprise that eventually someone somewhere would get their hands on the "Masters Of The Universe" property. What was surprising, however, was that they decided to forego re-imagining He-Man and instead went for his opposite gender counterpart/twin sister; She-Ra.

One thing I want to get out of the way; I am not all that familiar with the "Masters Of The Universe". I know who He-Man is and I have the general idea of what the stories usually entail. But in regards to larger details such as lore or the large cast of characters, I'm basically a newbie. I might eventually check out the original show, but I still have a lot of other stuff to get through first. At least I can say that the Netflix "anime" (it really isn't) reboot for She-Ra, appropriately named "She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power", got me interested enough to even consider checking it out.

Plot:

The story takes place on Etheria, a planet trapped in the pocket dimension of Despondos. The planet itself is caught in the midst of civil war, waged between the Rebellion lead by Queen Angella of Brightmoon and the Horde, with their leader being the elusive Hordak. One of the Horde's trainees, Adora, finds herself seeing visions of a sword that rests in the middle of the Whispering Woods, thus convinces her best friend Catra to cover for her while she tries to find it. She, however, ends up accosted by Glimmer, the princess of Brightmoon, and her best friend Bow, an archer and self-taught tech master, who tell her that the Horde has caused nothing but chaos and destruction since their arrival. Upon learning of the lies that the Horde has told her regarding their cause, Adora takes the sword and joins with the Rebellion, using the sword to become the legendary warrior known as She-Ra. This, as a consequence, leaves Catra feeling betrayed by her friend, turning the pair into bitter rivals as Catra's feelings of abandonment twists her ideology to make Adora regret ever leaving her behind; especially in the hands of their abusive mentor, Shadow Weaver.

Pros:

I absolutely love this cast of characters. Each of them are distinct and unique from each other, having really funny interactions while still showcasing their own struggles. I came out of this liking Sea Hawk, Mermista and Swift Wind the most; Sea Hawk had that lovable boisterous energy expected from a sea-faring adventurer, Mermista's general "don't give a fuck" attitude was hilarious, and Swift Wind being a narcissistic, smartarse flying horse was a major highlight to off-set Adora's selfless attitude.

But by far my favourite character was easily Entrapta.

This character was such a breath of fresh air, as she is basically a twist on the "mad scientist" archetype. She has an obsession with ANYTHING tech related, but never does any of her experiments out of malice or to hurt anyone; it's simply for the sake of curiosity and scientific discovery. She can be a bit aloof or oblivious at times, but that's primarily because she is written as representation of someone on the autism spectrum. And speaking as someone with autism, I can really appreciate that they don't just simply make her an all-knowing savant of information; she has weird fixations (such as only eating tiny foods and fizzy drinks) and isn't very good at social interactions, both of which are also common with those on the spectrum.

Besides, she's also fucking hilarious!

In this house, we stan Entrapta.

But of course, the heroes are only ever as good as their villains. And thankfully, this show delivers on that as well.

Catra made for a great foil for Adora, primarily because of how the show established their friendship very early on. We see not only her descent into pure anger and the lengths she'll go to in order to beat Adora, but also her cunning and intellect which sells her as a credible threat. The dance between her and Adora in "Princess Prom" highlights the source of their main conflict; Catra showcasing her guile and her bitterness, while Adora shows he resolve and determination to keep fighting. And at the heart of it all, you remember how these two treated each other at the start; as the best of friends who swore to always stand side by side. Thus, it creates a cycle of tragedy when you fully understand why Catra goes to such extremes to prove herself.

Shadow Weaver, formally known as Light Spinner, has to be one of the most detestable bitches I have ever come across in animation. And unlike other shows I dislike where their unintentional unlikability is played for laughs, Shadow Weaver's despicable attitude was recognised as damaging to people. She's manipulative, cruel, callous, selfish, and worst of all, abusive towards her disciples, especially Catra. Thus, during the finale, it is extremely cathartic to see her lose all of her power when Catra kicks her ass and has Shadow Weaver locked away in a cell. If anything, what Catra did to her was too merciful in comparison to what Shadow Weaver had put her through for years.

Scorpia might actually tie with Entrapta as my favourite character, namely because she isn't really a villain like the rest of the Horde. While Catra wants beat Adora and prove she is stronger, and Shadow Weaver is manipulating things so that she stays in a position of power, all Scorpia wants to do is make friends in the Horde. That's it. She just loves making people like Catra happy and stays cheery and optimistic even in the most dire of situations. She kind of reminds me of Kronk from "Emperor's New Groove", in a way; a big, burly doofus with endless charm and charisma. She may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'll be damned if she isn't really funny.

The animation and action scenes are amazing. It's bright, colourful and bursting with a lot of energy. This is helped by how each character has a unique and fun fighting style. Mermista can control water and fuse her legs together to form a mermaid tail; Perfuma can manipulate plant life; Glimmer teleports; Frosta has ice powers; Bow has his trick arrows; Adora uses She-Ra; Entrapta has hair that can move on its own; I just love the wide variety that these characters have, as it gives the action scenes much more appeal. And because time had been spent in getting to know these people, we thus care when something terrible happens; in an episode where the princesses infiltrate the Fright Zone for a rescue mission, Entrapta is believed by the princesses to have been killed. It's shown later that she's fine, but for a moment I actually felt bad that my favourite character was seemingly killed off after a short amount of time.

Cons:

In all honesty, I never really cared about Hordak in this show. And before anyone starts saying anything about how the character changed over the course of the series, let me get this out of the way; I know. I am fully aware of how Hordak's character evolved over the course of the show. But I am not analysing Hordak from the perspective of the entire series; I am looking at his character strictly from how he is portrayed in the first season. And in the first season, Hordak is not the most interesting of villains. For much of it, he spends his time in his inner sanctum performing experiments (eventually recruiting Entrapta to help) while everyone else in the Horde is actually waging the war. Again, this is solely what we see of him in the first season; he does become more active in other seasons, especially in regards to his interactions with Entrapta. But as is, Hordak was one of the weaker elements in this season for me with how he was just kind of generic in his characterisation.

And speaking of weaker elements;

I don't actively dislike Frosta or Perfuma, but I personally felt they had the weakest characterisation out of the princesses. Initially, Frosta seemed to be a more serious character who doesn't tolerate disrespect, which could've made for funny interactions with more energetic characters like Sea Hawk or Bow. But as soon as we see her join the alliance, she's suddenly acting just like a loud kid who loves beating up Horde soldiers. It's kind of implied that she's enjoying her newfound freedom due to being brought up as a stoned faced princess, but this is otherwise kind of brought up out of nowhere to force a sibling dynamic between her and Glimmer. As for Perfuma, she did kind of have a bit of the stereotypical "airhead blonde" persona at first before using her botanokinesis to fight back against the Horde and join the Princess Alliance. She wasn't overly annoying or anything, but I just felt that her characterisation wasn't as well developed as the others. Again, this is simply from the perspective of the first season; they do get better in the rest of the show.

And while I can praise the characterisation for a good chunk of the cast and I really enjoyed the action and music, there wasn't really much in terms of world-building. The Best Friend Squad (meaning Adora, Glimmer, and Bow) visit a bunch of different places like the labyrinthian Crypto Castle in Dryl (Entrapta's home) and the massive ocean kingdom of Salineas (Mermista's home), but we don't really get much in terms of Etherian lore or backstory for the different kingdoms on Etheria. Scorpia is revealed to be a princess who joined the Horde after her kingdom was given to Hordak to create the Fright Zone, but we don't get any real explanation about her backstory or why her Runestone, the Black Garnet, was given to over to the Horde in the first place. I think it was implied that either it was stolen or Scorpia's people just really liked Hordak. But either way, it is very minimal in regards to actually giving organic lore and history to Etheria. The most we really get as concrete details is with Entrapta studying the technology of the First Ones, the first inhabitants to make settlement on Etheria, but that's more of a plot device as opposed to building a major history for the planet. I'm not asking for a three hour history lesson about Etherian politics, but a little bit of backstory for some of these kingdoms would really help give the setting more life and flavour.

Conclusion:

Lack of world-building aside, the few issues I have with this show are little nit-picks. I really enjoyed watching these characters on their adventures and the emotional tension between Adora and Catra is what carried a lot of the season for me, which is executed excellently through the performances from Aimee Carrero as Adora and AJ Michalka as Catra. Bring this together with great music, animation and voice acting from the rest of the cast, and you have an entertaining and solid first season.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10 (excellent).

I would like to thank everyone who took a part in the voting poll for this review. If anyone else reading would like to partake in other polls for what to review next or just to follow me on Twitter, then my handle is @MediaHood23; I post tweets every couple of days or so. Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you thought of "She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power", and be sure to share this on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to anyone else who may have watched the series. Any form of support would be greatly appreciated.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Kamen Rider Amazons Season 1 (2016)

 (SPOILER WARNING!!)

I have made it clear in the past that I held a distain towards "Kamen Rider Ghost", even going as far as to declare it the worst Kamen Rider season I had seen thus far. I will freely admit that my stance on it being the worst was unfair; I was still relatively new to the franchise and had yet to really get into the likes of "Agito" and "Ryuki", both of which I consider much more infuriating than "Ghost". I still don't like the series at the end of the day, but I will primarily pin it's failing's on the part of the producers playing havoc with it's progression; focusing more on promoting the toys instead of allowing Takuro Fukuda, the former head writer, to create something good that audiences can enjoy.

Why am I bring up "Ghost" for this review, you may ask?

Because Shinichiro Shirakura had the funds from both "Ghost" and "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger", the Sentai series of that year, cut in half; transferring the money that he had basically stolen to fund his own vanity project. That project eventually became "Kamen Rider Amazons", a quasi-reboot to "Kamen Rider Amazon" that was produced in conjunction with Amazon Prime.

Shirakura even boasted about how this show was basically his creation, claiming that Heisei Kamen Rider was not "interesting" and he hoped that "the toothless Kamen Riders can get their fangs back".

In other words, the arsehole had ignored any and all sophistication and nuance that the previous six Rider series (W/Double-Drive) has had and wanted something that was full of violence, gore, swearing and full on cannibalism. If I were to equate "Amazons" to something else more mainstream, then it's more akin to literally anything that Mark Millar has ever written; being dark, edgy and gritty, but in a way that's too stupid and pretentious to be taken seriously.

Plot:

In a world constantly clouded by an ugly green colour filter, the Nozama Pharmacy, owned by Reika Mizusawa, had accidently created a race of cannibalistic monsters called Amazons. A group of mercenaries, one of them being a tame Mole Amazon named Mamoru, are brought together to hunt the Amazons down for the sake of a paycheck. Matters are made complicated, however, when a former scientist named Jin Takayama enters the picture on his own mission to exterminate the Amazons, fighting as Amazon Alpha. And if that wasn't enough, Reika's son Haruka gets involved after learning that he is also an Amazon, becoming Amazon Omega and being put on the extermination team because of nepotism via Reika.

Pros:

Before I tear this show a new one, I can give it this; the theme song, "Armour Zone" by Taro Kobayashi, is an absolute banger. It has a good pace, and does a great job capturing the themes of the show through it's lyrics. That's honestly the most I can say about the song, as I'm not really good at analysing music.

I also really like Amazon Alphas design; it's a really good update to the original outfit while still retaining the necessary elements that make it recognisable as Amazon. And surprisingly enough, the colours don't really bother me that much. Silver, red, black and green actually made for a really good contrast.

There was also some decent foreshadowing to the ultimate endgame to this season. Essentially, Nozama Pharmacy's plan, Project: Tlaloc, is to use a gas that can kill Amazons quickly and mix it with a rainstorm to get as many of them as possible. The gas was used in an earlier episode when the extermination team get trapped in an apartment block full of Amazons, and the very first episode starts in the middle of a rainstorm, tying back to Tlaloc as the Aztec God of rain. Legitimate kudos there.

As for anything else I enjoyed... yeah, that's it.

Cons:

I don't like Omegas suit. Like Alpha, the suit still has some of the elements of the original Amazon, but it feels more like a costume than the original did. I think it's the materials that make it look like a chunk of plastic that's yearning to be a toy. On top of that, giving any suit resembling Amazon a facemask when the main motif is supposed to be a piranha fish feels kind of sacrilegious. So yeah, not a fan.

But honestly, I probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with Omegas suit, or even a majority of the suits, were it not for the stupid fucking green filter that plagues the entire show. This is something I have never understood about "dark and gritty" reboots; what is their obsession with making it as visually unappealing as possible by putting on a dingy screen filter that sucks out all the colour like a black hole? Even in scenes that take place during broad daylight on a scenic beach, it looks like a massive dark cloud is overcasting the entire area in darkness, thus casting every shot in shadows and thus making it hard to see. I hate it whenever I feel like I need to turn up the brightness on my screen just so I can see what the fuck is even happening!

It doesn't help that the soundtrack, outside of the main theme, is just pretentious trash. If it's not generic action rock, there'll be a sudden burst of acapella yodelling to make the scene more serious. It fails, however, as it is constantly overused and does not fit the scene where they are used. I don't normally mind acapella music so long as it serves a purpose and helps the viewer become more engaged with a scene. But when the same acapella track is used over and over again in scenes where it isn't needed, it becomes less of an interesting means of creating a tone and more of an obnoxious gimmick that takes itself far too seriously for the audience to become invested. It's pretentious and artsy just for it's own sake.

I found it exceedingly difficult to give a single shit about any of the characters. Starting with Haruka, he should the most interesting by default as the main character; he's an Amazon injected with human DNA who is trying to discover what he is fighting for. And yet, with each episode he keeps acting like a ball in Pong; he bounces back and forth between his ideals and believes with no prompting or consistency, not helped by the fact that he can act like a blatant dumbarse at points. As an example, there is an episode where an Amazon disguised as a chef kills civilians and cooks them for other Amazons, which should allow them to hold back their savage hunger for normal humans. Haruka, for some inexplicable reason, sympathises with the cannibals and says that Amazons deserve a chance to live in peace, blatantly ignoring how the Amazons are still willingly killing people just to keep themselves fed. And when your main character is being a belligerent imbecile, you thus can't relate with them as their actions suddenly become less sensible. The most positive thing I can say about Haruka is that he can definitely yell "AMAZON" like he's turning into a savage beast.

As for the rest of the characters; Jin was a major hypocrite with how he'll kill mindless monsters like Amazons for feasting on humans, but wouldn't so much as attack a serial killer purely because they were human. Any moral high ground he may have is instantly lost, especially when he finishes the series feasting on an Amazon heart instead of a raw egg. Mamoru was annoying a lot of the time, with how he would either yell happily at the top of his voice or cry like an infant at the smallest thing. Reika was not endearing with how she basically used her son as a selling point to keep her place as director of the Nozama Pharmacy, though this proves to pointless with how it's apparently up and gone in the next season. I can summarise most of the extermination team as just... people. Unfortunately, they are not very interesting people. A couple of them die at one point, and I could barely notice any real difference. And finally, Reika's daughter Mizuki is... um... she just is. She just exists and does nothing else significant that I could name.

The action scenes, despite a clear emphasis on hand to hand martial arts combat, is shoddily directed and choreographed, with the editing and screen filter making it difficult to follow what is even happening for most of the fights. As I have brought up in other reviews, I can normally follow action scenes with fast pacing so long as it's directed well. The action in this show, however, is not directed well. In fact, I can pretty much say that for the entire series. There are a lot of bizarre camera tricks that exist for no other reason than to look artsy, and combined with the editing and colour filter makes it an ugly show to watch. I honestly have a hard time distinguishing one action scene from another because of the how much I don't like looking at this show.

Conclusion:

For the bragging that Shirakura made about giving Kamen Rider its fangs back, there is very little in terms of actually maturity. Sure, there is a violence and blood and all that shit, but in terms of sophisticated storytelling? There's zilch. Nada. Zero. Much of the cast ended up as either forgettable or unlikeable, the action is incoherent, the world-building is lacking, and the story is a mess. I can't even say it's funny in how bad it is; it's boring. And yet at the same time, it's infuriating with how THIS is the series that "Ghost" and "Zyuohger" suffered for. "Amazons" is a pretentious, ugly mess lacking in any form of creativity or entertainment. If you enjoyed it, good for you. But I doubt I would recommend it unless you were a masochist.

And yet, Season 2 is apparently worse.

Overall rating: 2/10 (It's trash).

If you enjoyed this review, please let me know in a comment. Feel free to also post your thoughts on this series in a comment if you so wish. I'd also appreciate it if you not only shared this on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc), but if you follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I post there every few days or so and I also make polls for what I should review next if I have writer's block.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Changing Cobra's Rise

 (SPOILER WARNING!!)

I think it's fair to say that "The Rise Of Cobra" wasn't that great. I mean, it was fine, but it wasn't really all that it was cracked up to be. That's not to say there wasn't anything of merit; the action was fun and the actors were clearly having a blast playing the characters. The story, however, was a mess, the CG was pretty tacky, and the characters beyond the core cast of Duke, Baroness and Destro had little if any personality. Given what the initial leaked script apparently entailed, we do know that it could've been a lot worse. But it doesn't change the fact that the final product is mediocre at best.

And frankly, one of the elements that easily could've been remedied revolves around the main twist near the end concerning a character called Rexford Lewis.

For those who haven't seen the movie, Rex (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was a soldier and friend of Duke who was seemingly killed in a premature missile strike called in by Duke. He survived, however, and was taken under Dr Mindbender to perfect the Nanomites, micro-scopic robots that could eat away at any material when activated. This machines were eventually taken to James McCullen and Rex, under the name of "The Doctor", went to work for him to create super-soldiers as a part of McCullen's plan of world domination. When the Joes attacked the base, however, McCullen was scarred and Rex injected him with Nanomites that gave him his signature metal face and renamed him Destro, while Rex decides to take over Destro's company, M.A.R.S (Military Armaments Research Syndicate), and rename it Cobra; taking up the mantle of Cobra Commander.

And honestly, I don't understand why he'd want to become Commander. Firstly, there was never any indication that Rex desired power over M.A.R.S . For all we knew, he just wanted revenge on Duke for seemingly leaving him to die. Otherwise, we never know that Rex wants to take command of Cobra or even desires to be higher in the chain of command.

Secondly, Rex just changing M.A.R.S in to Cobra feels a bit cheap. Yes, both organisations were always connected with each other, but that was primarily because M.A.R.S was providing funds, tech and weapons for Cobra. Destro was still the man in charge of the company while he answered only to Cobra Commander purely out of a matter of convenience. Thus, having Rex just basically rename M.A.R.S into Cobra without any seeming change lessens Cobra's overall threat and importance by the end of the film.

Thirdly, Rex becoming Cobra Commander right at the end of the film is ultimately pointless as he doesn't really do anything when he is in power. Not even two minutes after he takes over, he and Destro are immediately captured by the Joes and put in a high tech prison. Thus, any and all threat that Rex would pose as Cobra Commander is instantly undermined, especially as there is no indication that he has been setting up Cobra in secret before taking over. The closest we get are those Cobra logos on the necks of people that he had injected Nanomites into, but that isn't really enough to explain how Cobra just suddenly exists.

In short, Rex should not have been Cobra Commander. He should, instead, have been an entirely different character who acted as a double agent between M.A.R.S and an already existing Cobra, answering solely to Cobra Commander. Rexford Lewis should've actually been another member in Cobra's inner circle of command named Brian Binder; a.k.a, Dr Mindbender.

And before anyone says anything, let me get this out of the way; yes, I had said earlier that Rex had worked with Mindbender in the film to perfect the Nanomite technology, and it was also shown in the film that Mindbender had worked for Destro to create the warheads that he would launch to three different cities. So how could Rex be Mindbender if he already exists in the narrative?

Allow me to answer that by saying that this is the first change; film Mindbender will instead be another Cobra scientist named Dr Archibald "Venom" Monev.

He's a relatively minor character in the franchise, but he is best remembered as being Cobra's first head scientist in the original Marvel comics, with Mindbender succeeding Monev after the latter was killed. That'll more or less be how the relationship between Monev and Mindbender will work in this film; Brian (or Mindbender, whichever you prefer) will learn about Nanomite technology from Monev, and after Monev dies Mindbender will take the tech to McCullen to advance Cobra's scheme. Besides, Monev's entire deal is about controlling people's mind and biologically altering them; it wouldn't be out of the question that Mindbender would take inspiration from that with how he creates the Neo-Vipers and had planted mind-control devices in them and Baroness.

Which brings me to the second change; Monev was not making the Nanomites for McCullen, but instead for an as-of-yet unseen Cobra Commander, who will simply be referred to as "the Commander" as to build up Cobra's eventual reveal. This more or less helps to erase the idea of the Commander renaming M.A.R.S into Cobra, with the latter still being it's own organisation that is simply using the former to continue it's scheme from the shadows; there'll still be hints to Cobra's existence throughout the film (the Neo-Vipers, the use of Cobra's logos for certain things, major players like Destro and Zartan, etc), but they'll be the twist reveal villains that actually make sense.

Then there is change number three; Mindbender and Destro are able to escape before Duke can apprehend them. I honestly feel that having Rex and Destro caught at the end of the film kind of takes away there overall menace as the main antagonists, especially come "Retaliation" when Rex just up and leaves Destro to die in an unceremonious fashion while spending most of the film taking a backseat to Zartan imitating the President. Thus, having Mindbender and Destro escaping the Joes' clutches at the end not only allows an opportunity for them to prove themselves as cunning villains, but also finally has three of Cobra's inner circle available for the next film; with Commander leading the main forces, Destro providing the weapons and tech, and Mindbender continuing his experiments to create more effective soldiers like he does in film.

This is what will lead to change number four; I have written an exchange between Mindbender, Destro and Cobra Commander that will take place at the same time as Rex and Destro are on the sub. At this point, McCullen has been injected with the Nanomites that save his life, but instead of Rex putting on the helmet to become Cobra Commander, Mindbender is preparing to communicate with the Commander via a hardlight hologram. This will more or less how the exchange would go;

D: I've finally taken my place in the long line of McCullens.

M: James McCullen is no more. Now, you are Destro.

D: What have you done to me?!

M: What I have done, Destro, is save your life. Without me, he would not have any use of you. You'll thank me, later.

D: Don't call me that, you lunatic! What is going on?! Why have you made me like this?! And "He"?! Who's "He"?! What the devil are you talking about?!

M: I believe it would be best if I let him explain.

A hologram appears, revealing Cobra Commander. For the sake of saving a lengthy description of his appearance, I'll just give him his appearance from "Retaliation".

It's a good modern update to the design while still having the essential elements to make him recognisable as Cobra Commander, with the only real change I'd make to it being that he would be blue instead of black. And lord knows it's a lot better than this:

Say what you will about the film, but this was a stupid design no matter who the person wearing it was supposed to be.

Also, for this scene, imagine that Cobra Commander is voiced by Charlie Adler. But back to the exchange:

CC: I see you've finally made your move, Doctor Mindbender.

M: All according to your vision, sir.

CC: Good. Bring him to me. Major Bludd will have you both outfitted for the rest of "Operation: Zeus".

D: What is going on here?! Who are you, and what have you done to me?!

CC: All of your questions will be answered in time, Destro. But to give you the simple version; you and your company now answer to me.

D: My name is not Destro! I am James McCullen, and I answer to--

Cobra Commander uses the control device to stop Destro in his tracks.

CC: Don't you dare question my commands, you impudent fool!

Destro eventually relents and Cobra Commander stops torturing him.

CC: The two of us have much to discuss regarding the chain of authority, Destro. For I... am your Commander. And you belong to Cobra, now.

M: This will be quite the experiment, Commander.

CC: Indeed, Doctor. Indeed.

With that, Mindbender and Destro escape and the rest of the film plays out as normal; Duke and Ripcord join G.I Joe, Baroness is imprisoned to have the Nanomites taken out of her head, and Zartan is now posing as the President of the United States as part of Cobra's plan to, you guessed it, take over the world.

And thus, there we have it; simply changing Rexford Lewis into Dr Mindbender not only gets rid of that stupid ending where Rex takes over for no adequately justified reason, but we also have an ending that can actually lead into a sequel more naturally instead of bookending things without proper resolution.

Also, before people ask about Brian Binder being related to Ana Lewis (Baroness); they still are, but they won't be brother and sister. Brian can just be a distant cousin who ended up having a good relationship with Ana before the events of the film turned him into Mindbender.

Honestly, I feel like that was the intention that the film was initially going for; having Rex become Mindbender and answering to Cobra Commander as a double agent. But instead, we get this half-assed ending where he suddenly becomes the Commander, almost like an early idea was left in one of the films rewrites and revisions but no-one bothered to check if it made sense. When you get down to it, Rex certainly has more in common with Mindbender than he does with the Commander. The pair of them are mad scientists who spend much of their time creating new weapons for a terrorist faction while never actively partaking in the main battle.

Even the design between pre-Commander Rex and classic Mindbender are pretty similar if you put them side-by-side.

I can't be the only one who sees it, right?

If they had gone this route with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character instead of what we eventually got, I feel like "Rise of Cobra" could've been a stronger film as a whole. Not a great film by any means, but one that still ultimately understands G.I Joe and how Cobra works as a terrorist organisation. And all it would've took was changing Rexford Lewis into Brian Binder, thus erasing the "dead brother" sub-plot from the film and erasing the unintentional subtext that Cobra Commander is literally doing all of this purely out of spite to someone who thought he died.

But that's just my two cents.

If you guys enjoyed this rewrite, please let me know with a comment. Feel free to even comment your own thoughts regarding the movie and how YOU would've improved it if you so desired. I'd also appreciate not only sharing this on social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc), but also if you follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I post there semi-regularly (basically every couple of days) and I am recently delving into the rabbit hole of Kamen Rider Amazons, so feel free to join me on my descent into madness.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Ratchet & Clank (2016)

 (SPOILER WARNING!!)

Thanks to a recent Twitter poll (one I posted over a week ago), I now have an excuse to review a video game movie that I don't think sucks; Ratchet & Clank!

To give a little bit of background, I was first introduced to this franchise through "Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal" which my older brother had on the PS2. I sucked at it, but I loved it all the same. And now that I'm older and had the chance to play through the PS4 tie-in game for the movie, I went back and bought all 3 of the original games on the PS3 to relive the memories and see of I was truly better as a gamer. It's one of those franchises that I will never get tired of no matter how many times I go back to experience it.

So naturally, when a video game adaptation was announced, I was with most fans and collectively rolled my eyes. Keep in mind that this was before the likes of "Detective Pikachu" or "Sonic The Hedgehog"; we were still getting bad adaptation after bad adaptation of video games into movies. With this mindset, I chose to just let the movie pass me by entirely and allow time to consume it and fade into obscurity that only alpha-level geeks would obsess over.

That is, until I played the PS4 reboot. And enjoyed it for what it was. Meaning I just HAD to track the movie down and see it for myself to decide if it was really worth the 21% on Rotten Tomatoes or the fact that it bombed at the box office.

Plot:

If you're familiar with the first game, than a lot of the story will be quite familiar. Ratchet is a Lombax living on the planet Veldin when a space ship crashes on the planet, leading to him meeting a diminutive robot that he later names Clank. Clank need Ratchet's help to stop the evil Chairman Drek from destroying other planets in order to build his own one. The pair join forces and go after the chairman to stop him in his tracks. Along the way, the make allies and enemies as they learn to work together despite the differences in their personalities and goals.

But there are some additions to the narrative as well; namely, Ratchet's desire to become a member of the Galactic Rangers, Drek getting assistance from Dr Nefarious, and braggart superhero Captain Qwark having his own team with the Rangers. More on the stuff with Nefarious later.

Pros:

One thing that I can definitely credit the game is that they managed to get James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye and Jim Ward to reprise their roles as Ratchet, Clank and Qwark respectively. These three have been the biggest names associated with the franchise from the beginning, and it certainly works in the films favour to make it feel like a proper Ratchet & Clank story. And because of how well these actors worked together before, it makes sense that their chemistry would be on point for this film.

In fact, I can say the same for much for the cast, as they do a really good job with their characters. Rosario Dawson was clearly having fun as Elaris, Paul Giamatti was hilarious as the new voice of Drek, and Sylvester Stallone was equally funny as the robotic henchman Victor Von Ion. And to top it all of, Armin Shimerman once again reprised his role as Nefarious, balancing the mad scientist angle with the comedic screeching that is typically associated with the character.

I also think the animation was pretty good overall; it was clean, fluid and very colourful, which is exactly what you'd want from a Ratchet & Clank story. Each world is easily identifiable and has it's own charm and personality to it; ranging from the planet-wide city aesthetics of Kerwan to the smoggy industrialisation for Quartu. This is also the best that these characters have ever looked, with the exaggerated expressions working really well with the faux-realistic textures that are used for the more animalistic looking models.

Cons:

While I give major props for the animation and voice acting, the story left a LOT to be desired. The main issue I have with it is that it is woefully generic. There aren't any major plot holes or anything like that; it's just that the narrative is almost instinctively predictable with how it progresses. It's the story of a loser who wants to be a hero and gets the chance to do so, but in the process becomes a narcissist before reality knocks him upside the head and he decides to be a better person, etc, etc. We've been through this song and dance before hundreds of times in as many stories. And while the same could be said for the original game, they were able to subvert a lot of expectations; namely by having Ratchet be really selfish for a large chunk of the story and only really doing things if he got a reward for it. This contrasted well with Clank, who otherwise had noble intentions and tried his best to get Ratchet to see the bigger picture from a different perspective. In the film, however, the worst that Ratchet does is get a bit reckless and lied to Clank about already being part of the Galactic Rangers, a story thread which doesn't last that long and is otherwise pointless in the grand scheme of things.

The story itself isn't told horribly, and a lot of it is still faithful to the spirit of the original game, but you can pretty much tell where it's going from the instant it starts and predict word for word what the characters are going to say in the scenario. There are certainly good good jokes in there, such as a funny exchange between Qwark and Nefarious about non-sensical one-liners, but the dialogue is otherwise standard "Hollywood underdog-hero" fluff that most audiences are aware of at this point.

I also feel that having Nefarious as the twist villain in the film was a bit of a mistake on the filmmakers part. That's not to say he isn't a fun villain; I just don't think he should've been included in the film in the first place. Nefarious only became the franchises big bad after his debut in "Up Your Arsenal", so suddenly having him here as Drek's main scientist only for him to Sheepinate the chairman and take over as the main bad guy felt pointless, especially for people who are already familiar with the franchise and know what will happen to Nefarious by the end anyways. Hell, the film seems aware of this, as there is a mid-credit stinger that literally says "Come on, you already saw this coming" while Nefarious is being turned into a robot. Thus, having him here as the bad guy kind of lessens Drek as a character and makes him kind of pointless as the antagonist.

And just like with "Sonic The Hedgehog", there are FAR too many pop cultural references in this film. The one that always gets me is the gag about cell phones. Frequently, we would some of Drek's forces texting each other on their phones while they think their boss is not looking, only for one of them to be called out for it before the scene progresses. It's fine the first time they do it, as they're subtly calling out people who are on their phones in the movie theatre, and if it was just that one time the joke would be okay. But they keep on doing it over and over again, hammering in this joke to the point were you just want to yell at the screen "OKAY WE GET IT!!" Again, if you're going to use that kind of joke, use it only once and continue on with the narrative. Don't repeat it ad nauseum because people will start to feel like they're being treated like idiots.

Conclusion:

I can certainly say that while this movie isn't anywhere near as bad as the critics make it out to be, I can also see why it wasn't a success. The story is generic and predictable, the dialogue can get tedious at times, and most of the pop cultural references miss moreso than they hit. On the same token, however; the voice acting was top notch, a fair chunk of the jokes got a chuckle out of me, the animation was pretty and it still had the general spirit of a "Ratchet & Clank" story. Had the narrative been given a do-over and the dialogue a refresh, then this would probably be considered one of the better video game movies out there. But as is, it was just an average film; one that sadly wasn't given a fair shot from fans or critics.

But hey, if nothing else, we got a decent video game out of it.

Overall rating: 6/10 (Decent).

If you enjoyed what you read, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media; Twitter, Facebook, etc. I'd also appreciate it if you guys follow me on Twitter; I'm @MediaHood23.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off.

Transformer War For Cybertron: Siege (2020)

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

One thing I want to make clear right off the bat; while I certainly have my critiques about this show, I can still say that this was definitely not as bad as Machinima's Prime Wars trilogy. Those shows were simply incompetent from beginning to end and existed just as an excuse to sell the giant gimmick toys that were out at the time. While the "War For Cybertron" trilogy obviously exists for a similar purpose, it is at the very least doing it in a way that wants to tell the story first and worry about the toyline later.

On a side note; HIGHLY recommend the Siege toyline. Great updates to classic characters without sacrificing the overall quality.

That said, however, I don't think I could in good conscious say that "Siege" is a good show. Not that it's particularly awful or even actually bad; there are just several major missteps that hold it back from being more than an above-average watch.

As for the plot... it's Transformers; EVERYONE knows the story at this point. Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, war, etc. No thrills or surprises with the story. It even does what "Cyberverse" did over a year ago; with Megatron seeking the Allspark for his own malicious purposes and Optimus dedicating himself to yeeting it through a Space Bridge before that can happen. It's another verse, not much different from the first.

Well, that was a quick summary.

Pros:

The animation is actually really good. It's very fluid and surprisingly expressive given that the show can't have had much of a budget. It's not perfect, however; there are a lot of reused animation models to make up a bunch of the background characters (specifically Sideswipe/Red Alert, Cog, Impactor and Mirage), with most of them having little alterations aside from paint. But otherwise, that's just a nitpick if anything. One thing I am certainly impressed by with the animation is how accurate the models are to their action figure counterparts. Even little details like the battle damage and kibble from the figures are replicated in 1-to-1 detail. I can definitely give the animators credit for that.

One thing that "Siege" definitely has over the Prime Wars trilogy; there's an actual progression of the narrative that has stakes and ideas at risk. The Prime Wars just felt like flash and spectacle for it's own sake; introducing giant things like Trypticon or the Enigma of Combination, but never making it clear what happens if nothing is done about them. In "Siege", Megatron wants the Allspark to control the minds of Cybertronians and wipe the Autobots out for good. Thus, there is a clear establishment of the stakes and what will happen if the Autobots don't fight back.

There are also some decent character interactions that I would've never expected to appear in a Transformers series. For instance, Ratchet and Impactor (who is a Decepticon in this story). There is a sense of camaraderie and respect between these two characters, namely with how Ratchet saved Impactor from death and Impactor also trying to pay him back for it with his loyalty. I also thought that the interactions between Ultra Magnus and Megatron added some surprising depth to the latter's history, as well as showing that he isn't the typically tyrannical megalomaniac that is often expected out of old buckethead.

Cons:

As much as I enjoyed some of the character interactions, it came at the expense of literally everyone else. Most of them, regardless of which faction they are sworn to, are pretty much just expendable cannon fodder who only exist to remind fans that this is a Transformers series. Characters like Arcee or Omega Supreme just come out of literal nowhere, with virtually no establishment of their existence beforehand. From there, they just blend into the background and contribute little, if anything, to the rest of the story. This is made extra annoying with how major legacy characters like Ironhide, Prowl and Bumblebee aren't given much fanfare; they just exist.

This is not helped by the fact that the voice acting, while not awful, is incredibly stilted. More often than not, it feels like the actors are just reading their lines off of a cue card while also doing their best Christopher Walken impersonation; complete with odd inflections and... random... pauses between... words as to... make the... scene and tone more... serious. But while Walken's bizarre acting is entertainingly due to his oddities, the voice cast of "Siege" are trying to make the scenario as deadly serious as possible, with little to joy present in their voices even in moments of actual victory. This is certainly not helped by the fact that the voices for Hound, Ironhide, Shockwave and Mirage just feel... wrong, for lack of a better term.

And that's another issue I have; the tone. I understand that this show is meant to show the horrors of the war and how the characters deal with it. But I have seen other Transformers series, namely "Prime" and the High Moon video games, that dealt with such issues not only with more sophistication, but also with a degree of fun and excitement. The war element was still present in those series, but it was still balanced out with other themes and storytelling elements that made them work and gave them wider appeal. "Siege", however, is basically trying to be the next "Shadow The Hedgehog"; dark and serious to the point of unintentional hilarity. Combine this with the dreary voice acting, and it starts to feel like everyone should be wearing goth make-up while "Bring Me To Live" is constantly playing in their heads. Because of this, when the Autobots win and take off through the Space Bridge aboard the Ark, it victory ultimately rings hollow with how little felt legitimately achieved or earned.

Conclusion:

"Siege" certainly has it's moments and bright spots. The music was really good, as was the animation and action scenes. I will even admit to enjoying this version of Megatron. But I ultimately felt like the core principles of any series, that being the story and characterisation, fell flat, with the bleak tone and minimalist voice acting dragging the series and off-setting the pacing. I won't necessarily fault you if you enjoy this type of show, but I personally felt that it was lacking in the important aspects while also emphasising ones that already had enough going on as is.

That said, this is only the first chapter of a trilogy; so here's hoping that either "Earthrise" or "Kingdom" will be an improvement and can get fans universally happy again.

Overall rating: 5/10 (underwhelming).

If you liked this review, than please consider sharing it on social media; Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you thought of "Siege" if you have seen it by this point. I also encourage you to follow me on Twitter; I'm @MediaHood23. I post on there semi-regularly and use it as the main platform to get my reviews noticed.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)

(SPOILER WARNING!!)



I've been meaning to talk about this film for a while; I've just never had any proper excuse to really talk about it. But thanks to the lovely people who voted for this film to be my next review on Twitter, the excuse has arrived.

With that said, had this film come out when it was supposed to in November of 2019, it is likely that not everyone would be so eager to experience it after... well, THIS abomination:



This happened. We let it happen. Let us hope that it never happens again.

Needless to say, we as audiences members were horrified that yet another icon of video games was going to be subjected to a bastardisation in celluloid form. Virtually everything about this trailer seemed wrong, but not in the fun way that makes us laugh at it's ineptitude like the Mario Brothers movie.

Thankfully, however, the criticisms were heard and the films director, Jeff Fowler, reassured everyone that the film will be pushed back and fixed before release. A pity that it also caused an animation studio to be shut down just to make it happen, and I seriously hope that the animators were able to find work at other studios to pursue their passion

With all of that out of the way, let's get down to the plot; Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is hiding out on Earth after being forced to run in fear of people coming to abuse his super-speed powers for their own ends, travelling between worlds by using a bag of rings that he has to keep safe. He is soon discovered, however, when he accidentally causes a blackout with his energy. This gets the attention of the government and mad roboticist Dr Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey), forcing the blue blur to team up with a police officer named Tom (played by James Marsden) to get to San Francisco after their first meeting causes Sonic to accidentally drop his rings on top of a building there. All things considered, a very basic plot.

Pros:



Jim Carrey as Dr Robotnik, while certainly an odd casting choice, is easily the best part of the film. A lot of it because of Carrey's signature eccentricities shining through, especially his flamboyant facial expressions and body language. But these exaggerations in his performance actually help to show that he fully understands Robotnik's character; he's a brilliant mind with unbelievable intellect, but this in turn makes him a reckless and obsessive narcissist. This is perfectly in line with how the character is traditionally written, and Carrey's performance, for lack of a better term, carries it through and makes him extremely likeable as a villain.

And let's be honest; his delivery, even with dumb lines, is fucking hilarious:



Tell me that scene didn't make you chuckle!

As for the humour itself, I wouldn't say it was a knee-slapper, but there were some pretty good quips and one-liners scattered throughout; namely from Robotnik and Sonic, but most especially when they finally go toe-to-toe with each other. They have the traditional Sonic and Robotnik banter that is expected from a rebellious speed junkie and a narcissistic would-be conqueror.



Ben Schwartz was really good as Sonic, with the writing encapsulating a lot of the classic traits associated with the character; he's a wise-cracker, he's rebellious, he's energetically cocky full of himself, but he's still the kid with a heart of gold who's willing to do the right thing to protect those he cares about. They even give him a character arc where, due to having to hide himself from the world, he's never been able to make friends or fully understand basic social norms, leaving him as all too eager to go on a fun road trip if it meant he'd get to do things he's never done before. This is something I can't recall ever being done in a lot of other mainstream Sonic media, where he's otherwise endlessly charismatic and friends with virtually everyone. Not to say that this Sonic has no charisma whatsoever, but moreso that he's socially awkward.



The human characters, while not written with complex characterisations, are still likeable enough and the actors do a decent job with what they're given. James Marsden, in his third film about a human character helping an inhuman character (what is this genre), gives a standard performance for this type of character; very much confused by this strange new arrival in his life, but willing to help because it's the right thing to do. Like I said, it's very basic and bare bones, but it's still competently written enough and the actors do the best with what they have.

Cons:

I understand that when they had to redo the special effects after the criticisms were addressed, they likely didn't have enough time to fully iron them out. But the CGI in this film, while not godawful, does have this odd uncanny valley about it, where it's very obvious where the practical effects end and the CGI takes over. One good example is with the scene from the trailer where Sonic grabs a bunch of gift shop junk and holds it in his arms. It's glaringly obvious that Sonic himself is not really there, but the rubber band balls in his arms are clearly real, and it just makes everything feel artificial when it's trying to convince that it's real. Granted, with Robotnik's drones going after Sonic and Tom, I give them a pass as they are meant to be utilitarian in their design and narrative use. They're obviously not really there, but the CGI actually compliments it and makes it feel like they're there.

Also, I got really annoyed with the pop cultural references they had in this film. Call me cranky or uncultured, but seeing Sonic do the stupid Fortnite Floss dance not once but TWICE really got on my nerves with how that dance has become a meme to pander to younger kids. I don't care if it's for fun; it's a stupid dance that shouldn't be seen performed by a socially awkward anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. I don't have as much of a problem as the blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of the original Sonic logo on his headband or a brief acoustic version of the Green Hill Zone music, or even Sonic just calling Robotnik "Eggman" due to his drones looking eggs; these are references I don't mind as they are clearly nods to the fans. Just don't have Sonic do the Floss or ask if the Rock is president in the same goddamn movie. All it does is simply date your film and make it come off as pandering to your audience.

Though I won't lie, I was not expecting an appearance by Sanic of all things. Well played, movie.

Conclusion:

While this is certainly not a major game changer in terms of storytelling, I can still say that this film was nonetheless a fun time at the cinema. It has a lot of the expected tropes and cliches that often expected with this type of genre, but it is balanced with good performances from the cast, an extremely entertaining villain, fun action scenes, and a feeling that the people who made this film understand who Sonic is and what he means to people. I just wish we didn't have to sit through random pop cultural references and mediocre CGI while the good parts are stuck in between. At the very least, I still enjoyed this movie and it wasn't dishonest it what it was being; a movie about Sonic The Hedgehog.

Overall rating: 7/10 (Liked it).

Once again, I would like to thank the people who participated in the Twitter Poll for what I reviewed next; I may be doing another one in the near future. If you want to keep up with that or know my random ramblings in general, go right ahead and follow me on Twitter; I'm @MediaHood23. Be sure to also let me know what you thought of the movie and of this review if you are so inclined.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Now where is that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?!