Uncharted: The Movie (Review)

I have zero chill when it comes to Uncharted.

It was one of the reasons why I wanted a PS5 (they have since released the games on PC but hadn’t back then). I saw an advert and was instantly hooked. I have a love affair for ‘archaeological treasure hunts’ when it comes to movies. Books have been a bit hit and miss (I think I might need to write my own to have something I truly love). A lot of the same issues plague the movies but I guess the visual bonanza makes it easier to ignore. I got the Tomb Raider game for free on the PC and I didn’t overly enjoy that (I found it frustrating for some reason but can’t recall why now). Anyway quite why I thought I would really like the Uncharted games I don’t know. But I asked for the remastered ‘Nathan Drake collection’ (aka the first 3 games) AND the remastered ‘Legacy of Thieves’ collection. I got the entire set having not played a single minute.

Fortunately I did really enjoy the games. I have completed the campaigns on 1 & 2 and have almost finished 3. I am not that good at it so I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get all the trophies but I will go back and try and get some of them. It’s a bit annoying that the trophies require all the difficultly modes (I like normal/easy ok, don’t judge).

Anyway! That’s the game and this post is about the movie. I’m just saying the perspective that I came to the movie with. Someone that loves the genre, has played the games (well half of them) and put the movie on my “must watchlist” the second I heard it was a thing post-getting the games.

So what did I think?

Continue reading

The Librarians: Adventure Card Game (Review)

The Librarians, my comfort show, something which makes me smile now in board game format – how could I resist? This went up on kickstarter around September 2020 I believe? It’s so long ago I don’t really recall. It was supposed to ship for May 2021 and I eventually got it this week (so early-ish July 2022). Was it worth the wait?

Well! I have never played anything like it before so the learning curve was steep to say the least. I had a stab at playing it with mum and spent more time paging through the rulebook and being confused than playing. I think we had a half-hearted go at a couple of rounds before we gave up as it had got too late. Today I had some spare time (and it is supposed a game for 1-4 people, so solo play is possible) and so I had a good whack myself. I think I know how it is supposed to go now and so I figured review time!

Continue reading

Ok I get that Kara is scared that James will get hurt or die by being Guardian but geez that confrontation was hard to watch.

“You are a human, you will never be strong enough” – can we say ouch?

I’m sorry I just find that horrifying. Like Kara thinks that she’s better than the humans a little bit deep down which doesn’t sit well with me. She really needs to respect James can make his own choices because that’s what it comes down to – it’s his life, his choice.

I wish that James had kicked the bad guys ass and hadn’t needed Kara to come save him but the team-up at the end when they all worked together was nice. Win definitely deserved Jonn chewing him out but I liked that Jonn also praised him and said he and James were an impressive team.

Honestly I just can’t even with how sancitimonus Kara is being “as long as you are putting yourselves in danger I can’t support it” like she’s not their mother. I’m glad Jonn showed them respect because damn it seems like he’s the only one that’s going to. I’m disappointed in Kara for this I really am.

Lack of respect was a theme because Mon-El didn’t respect that Kara could take care of herself and had to come save her (thus endangering the civilians). He said that’s because he likes her romantically in that very awkward confession at the end of the episode (seriously Kara could not have looked more uncomfortable) but that is no excuse. Deep friendship, romance, whatever, you can love someone and respect that they know what they are doing. To think you know best because you care is understandable, I mean who doesn’t want to protect the people we care about right? But that doesn’t make it right.

I really wish Kara had that revelation. That she was treating James how Mon-El treated her. Think how frustrating and annoying it is for someone not to trust you, to think they know best and to protect you whether you want them to or not. I hope she does realise that and apologise to James soon.

I just watched 2×01 – The Adventures of Supergirl.

OMG.

Like I swear it just oozed fun. Introducing Superman on screen was a stroke of genius. I loved watching them save the day together, I loved watching them be Clark and Kara, I loved Kara teasing him about changing his diapers. Then there was Clark and Cat Grant (I remember from Lois and Clark that Cat had a crush on him).

But but Lena Luthor.

Can I just say that it bodes well that Kara figured out what she wanted to do – her calling – because of Lena? Like I know this ship isn’t canon, I know I’m in for pain, but I’m a massive Bering and Wells shipper guys I don’t need no stinking canon. I need little moments that I can twist to mean things.

Oh and I absolutely loved Alex badass fight with Corbyn.

Also weirdly I liked that Superman and J’onn are at odds even though they are on the same side. It shows that not everything is black and white. I mean J’onn is right there were hostile Kryptonions – a bunch just tried to destroy the world with myriad – so holding onto a weapon which could combat their abilities makes sense. I can see Clark’s POV too though, probably reinforced by Cadmus and General Lane’s attitude, which is that he’s only ever one incident away from being declared an enemy. He doesn’t even have to do anything, the mood changes one day, or somebody new comes to power, and boom. I don’t think he’d mind so much if J’onn had it stashed somewhere secret because J’onn is a guy of integrity who would only use it against him if he did go rogue – it’s the government basically and can’t blame Clark for that!

If I remember rightly Supergirl switched networks so this shakeup in season 2 makes sense. The DEO office has changed, the Kara/James ship has been dropped etc. Plus I know Cat Grant is leaving. I am quite sad about the last one but overall if this premiere is any indication then I’d say the show is looking good.

Batwoman Episode 2 aka Not How I Expected This To Go aka All The Unsaid Things.

You know I actually wound up watching last weeks episode (aka the Pilot) twice because I couldn’t make it an entire week. Actually I made it two days as I watched it on Monday and Wednesday last week. I think the writing for Alice is very clever, I can’t remember if I said that in the ramble I did.

I also don’t think I said that I reckoned that Bruce Wayne isn’t as gone as everyone says. Somebody moved the pearls which led Kate to discover the BatCave – was it Bruce pointing her in that direction?

Anyway I’m going to ramble about this weeks – a lot!

Continue reading

Talking Trek

I have now seen all of the Star Trek movies and varying amounts of all of the TV shows (bar the animated series). I’ve seen all of Picard, Discovery and Enterprise, a handful of episodes of TOS and the first seasons of TNG, Voyager and DS9. I should probably wait until I have seen more of the shows (they do have seven seasons after all) but I feel like rambling about this now.

This post started off as an attempt to rank the various movies and TV shows in order of how much I like them. However, I ran into problems with that. In a lot of respects it’s hard to compare the shows against one another because they are different. I was just talking with a friend about trying to do this and we said that we like things for different reasons – so how can you put one above another?

Continue reading

Watched Star Trek: Insurrection and I really do wonder why some people are surprised that the Federation is where it’s at in Picard. Really the Federation has no trouble deciding who is more important. I was sympathetic to the Klingon position (but obviously not their aggression) on Discovery because the Federation is expansionist and does protect its territory. This “move just a few people and steal their stuff” is part of a larger pattern.

I find it fascinating. The Federation as an ideal is amazing but there are issues and I do love that the verse doesn’t shy away from that. I especially like on Picard they are showing flaws in Picard. Often the Captain is the foil that stands up and is the good guy in comparison. That is still true but I do love it when it is nuanced.

I finished season 1 of Voyager. I looked up and Seven of Nine doesn’t come into it until season 4 apparently so a way to go.

I started DS9 (if I haven’t said that before). I was finding it a bit rocky but then Dax caught my attention as well as a spark of something with Sisko. Still early days. I’m finding Dr Bashir hard to take. Is he always such a creep?

Anyway I have now seen all the Star Trek movies. It’s a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t wait and watch them in the correct order along with the shows but I only had access to them this month, so it was watch or not see. Hopefully I can mentally place them later.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I can totally see why it is considered the best Star Trek movie.

The plot was tight and continuous. There was some good banter and some great character moments. Bones was my favourite again (clearly I’m destined to like every incarnation of Bones). Kirk was a lot more likeable in this than the first movie. I was suspicious from the very first time David Marcus brought up Kirk that maybe Kirk was the father but I wasn’t expecting it to be true! That took me by surprise, I hadn’t heard about that.

And then there was Spock. Oh dear Spock. On the Kobayashi Maru test at the beginning I thought “dramatic isn’t he?” when Spock play-acted getting hit and falling down. But of course there was the iconic ending scene. Kirk’s look of desolation and the sprinting down the corridors and then the fateful line “I am and always shall be your friend.”

I think iconic kinda sums it up.

Khan was insane. I suppose revenge kinda is insane. I haven’t seen him in the TOS and I really should because I thought he was a clever calculating adversary. The superior intellect wasn’t really on display here. However, please don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. Like I said the plot was tight and made sense. I mean after losing loved ones and being marooned for 15 years in hell I’d definitely be insane too!

The uniforms were still a bit weird. The engineers were clearly spacesuit inspired but the bridge crew? What was that weird white flap? Still a million times better than the pyjamas of the last movie. My big question though is WHY didn’t they just stick with the original uniforms of the TV show? Trying to be different for a movie I guess but still don’t fix what isn’t broken.

If I’m honest it’s not my favourite Trek movie *ducks rotten tomatoes*. Also I’ve seen Into Darkness a few times and Kirk’s realigning the warp core sequence was a lot more dramatic than Spock’s steaming cooking pot but I think that’s a product of the times.

Would definitely recommend this one. Solid movie. Great soundtrack. I cheered when it started up because iconic Trek tune. I now definitely want to see the next one because it left a positive feeling – thumbs up!

What if Jacen Syndulla was the third member of the trio?

Don’t get me wrong I love Poe Dameron. Seriously I don’t want to imagine Star Wars without him but I was up early, 7am sunday morning doing the ironing, and into my head popped “that’s one hell of a pilot!” and suddenly it hit me.

In my Rise of Skywalker review I said I wish that the movies would make good use of existing canon rather than just inventing new stuff all the time.

Now I’m not talking about changing the plot/story arc of any of the movies even though there are some things I don’t like. I’m just talking about tweaking little details. It would have been a huge screaming moment for fans of the expanded canon and it wouldn’t have been any different really for more casual fans of the movies.

Continue reading