TL;DR – At times funny, at times perplexing, and at times very dark, it explores the world of immense power and those who want to obtain it, and the damage that can do.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
We live in a world where thanks to technology we can explore galaxies far away,
to fantasies imagined in every which way, but sometimes reality can be stranger
than anything we can muster. Today we are exploring a film that is set around
the power politics of last years of the House of Stuart as different people
position themselves in an ever-shifting
world. This would be interesting enough in itself, but in both a less and in
some cases more dramatic way this is what really happened (or at least what was
alleged to have happened) in real life. It is a snapshot of absolute power, but also of sadness, and
regret.
TL;DR – This is one of those films where you walk out thinking three things, 1) how dare you charge people money to see this, 2) I am embarrassed for everyone involved in the film & 3) how dare you charge people money to see this
Score – 0 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Sometimes you see a film and you have to wonder ‘how did this get greenlit’, like people paid over 40 million dollars to put this together, agents recommended this movie to their clients, and they even got Alan Menken to write a story. However, instead of being excited when every big name cast member walked onto the film, you felt sad, like ‘oh no, they dragged Hugh Laurie into this mess too.’ Why is that, well this is because this is the worst film I have seen all year, and since I am writing this on the 31st of December, I doubt that will be surpassed because this is also the worst film I have ever reviewed. Hey good news Pixels, you are not on the bottom anymore.
TL;DR – While there is some clear potential in the interactive story model, my particular playthrough of Bandersnatch was less engrossing and for me more frustrating than anything else.
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
Black Mirror is a series that is always looking to be on the cutting edge of
narrative storytelling. It twists worlds
in on itself, leads the viewer down the garden path only to cut their legs out
from underneath them, or destroys the nostalgia we have for the past, or indeed
the hope we have for the future. So, when it dropped a couple of days ago that
there would be a feature-length episode, well
that was some interesting news, but then when it was announced that it would be
a ‘chose your own adventure’ with multiple endings and user interaction, well
this went from intriguing to must watch in a heartbeat. However, now that I
have seen it I feel that maybe the idea did not match the execution. Also,
because this is a chose your own adventure, it actually makes it difficult to
review because my experience is going to be possibly a lot different to what yours
will be. Maybe I just drew the short straw and hit all the frustrating options,
maybe you’ll be luckier than me, which from the discussions on the internet
might just be the case, I just simply do not know. Well with that in mind let’s
take a dive into a world with multiple paths and endings.
TL;DR – There are moments of real suspense, and Sandra Bullock is amazing, but the structure of the story holds it back by revealing its hand too soon.
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
2018 has been a good year for the suspense thriller/ horror films, we have built on the strengths of 2017, a produced such amazing films as A Quiet Place (see review) and Cargo (see review). I bring A Quiet Place up because after the first few minutes you can tell that this is the film Bird Box is going to be compared to the most, and that is not entirely unfair. As they are both suspense post-apocalyptic films where you have to cover one of your senses to survive i.e. sound, or in this case sight. However, this was less the case of copying a more the case of producers seeing that suspense films are back (also they never left but that is an issue for another day) and optioning different books at around the same time. However, while it is a bit unfair to compare the two while watching you can’t help but do so, especially when the differences between the two are probably the reasons why I liked one more than the other.
TL;DR – Delightful, heart-breaking, alienating, immersive, full of complicated people in complicated relationships, a film that I would recommend everyone to see.
Score – 5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
There is always an interesting feeling when the credits start to roll and the world comes back into focus, and the wave of emotions that have built up over the last few hours comes crashing down. Do you realise that you just wasted the time on something with no substance, or did your whole world change whilst time stood still? Well, today we look at a film that falls more on the later side of that divide. A world where everything is right and normal, and it all can be pulled out from underneath you in a moment. A film that will stay with me for the weeks and months to come.
So
to set the scene, we open in on 1970 Mexico City as Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio)
washes the tiles of the driveway of the house she works at. We watch as she
gets the house ready for the day for her employers Sofía (Marina de Tavira),
Antonio (Fernando Grediaga), and their children Paco (Carlos Peralta), Pepe (Marco
Graf), Sofi (Daniela Demesa) and Adela (Nancy García García). Cleo is an indispensable
part of the family, but then she is also not part of the family because she is
a maid and this disconnect filters
throughout the film. Things in the household shift when Antonio leaves for a
conference in Canada and stays longer than planned, and when Cleo meets a man Fermín
(Jorge Antonio Guerrero) and the tension
under the surface of Mexico starts to rupture.
TL;DR – Bombastic, silly, overly long, but still by far some of the best fun DC has made so far.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene
Review –
To say that the DC Expanded Universe has had a rough launch up to this point would be a bit of an understatement. Indeed, of all the past films, only Wonder Woman (see review) felt like a coherent film in any great sense. So, more than ever, the first film after Justice League had to hit the ground running, even more so after background conversations that the expanded universe was losing a lot of its big-name talent. Now while Aquaman is not a perfect film, it is a film with a lot of style, and more than most of the films that have come before it was just fun.
TL;DR – At the heart is the powerful story of Freddie Mercury, but you can see the difficulties of adapting a life as grand as his into a standard film runtime.
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There footage during the credits that you want to stay back for.
Review –
There have been a lot of productions that have been stuck in ‘production hell’
for years before they get made (and some never exit it) and one of the big
casualties of this was the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic. It had gone through
multiple directors and leading cast before finally going into production, only
to find out that the difficulties were not done there. With clashes on set and
the inevitable replacement of the director befalling production. When this has
happened in the past, it has led to at best an uneven film, but often times the
final product is a complete mess. Thankfully, Bohemian Rhapsody avoids the latter but you can still see the
problems under the hood.
TL;DR – From start to end this film is just fun, with more humanity than the last films combined.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene
Review –
I have always had a difficult relationship with the Transformers films, at the start I was so glad to see them be brought to the big screen. But Transformers I failed to stick the landing, and every other film from then was well … okay, sorry, they are not great. Yes, you get the big fight scenes and explosions aplenty, but Michael Bay’s very particular style just did not match the franchise. All of this combined into The Last Night (see review) which was just painful to watch at times with its awfulness. With all of this, when they announced that they would be doing a spin-off prequel, I gave a sigh in exasperation, as the thought of sitting through a Transformers cinematic universe when it was being handled so poorly was not a great feeling. However, as more information was released, it became clear that this was going to be a different type of film, and after seeing it, I can tell you that this is the best Transformers live-action film to date.
Pachacuti of the Inca in Civilization 6 Gathering Storm. Image Credit: Firaxis Games
Inca Bonuses
Civilization Leader: Pachacuti Leader Agenda: Civilization Capital: Qusqu Civilization Bonus: Mit’a – Citizens can work Mountain Tiles (Production, Also Food if next to a Terrace Farm) Leader Bonus: Qhapaq Ñan – Domestic Trade Routes get bonus food for Mountain Tiles in Starting city, Can Build the Qhapaq Ñan an early Tunnel. Unique Unit:Warak’aq – Reconnaissance Unit, can attack twice if it still has movement points Unique Tile Improvement: Terrace Farm – Can only be built on Hills, + Food, + Housing, gets bonus food for adjacent Mountains, + production for adjacent Aqueducts, + production for Fresh Water Adjacency Rivers: Ucayali River
Inca Analysis
Goodness,
there have been production and food civs in the game so far, but nothing quite
pans out as much as the Inca do in Gathering Storm.
The first big change is unlike every other civilization in the game, The Inca
can work mountain tiles, which means that since you want to be near them for
your Terrace Farms, they are no longer dead weight. This will also boost your
Science and Faith Districts that like Mountain adjacency.
Indeed, it is these Terrace Farms that provide such a strong bonus working
great adjacency weather they are near mountains, or rivers, or both. Yes, they are tempered by the fact that you
need hills, and if you are unlucky with that you could be a bit stuffed.
However, I always get at least some hills in a start before. I mean these might
knock Australia’s Outback Station off the best tile improvement spot.
The other bonuses are all nice, but really it is the food/Production nexus that
really makes the Inca stand out, and this means that they will be a very flexible
civilization, giving you the ability to switch up which victory you go for.
Inca First Look
You can check out all the Features in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm HERE and join in the discussions at the Civfanatics Forums
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
What Civs would you like to see in Civ 6 Gathering Storm?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.
TL;DR – This opener immediately drags you into a world of multiple factions that are all untrustworthy and makes you wonder who will you back?
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
There is this surreal moment that, I assume if you lived in Vancouver or cities like that you would be used to, when you see someone drive down a street in a film and then instantly realise that you have driven there before. You know those cane fields, the factories, you know that bridge, that university hall. It has happened before with places I have visited overseas, but never here in Australia, and never with Brisbane playing Brisbane.However as a critic, this is potentially dangerous territory, do I like the show because it is good or because I have a natural drive to see the local film industry do well. However, with Netflix’s new show Tidelands, I don’t think this is the case, and as I review all of the first season I think you will see immediately if this is a show that you should dive into or not.
TL;DR Movie Reviews and Analysis 