The Closure of Telltale Games: My Thoughts

Telltale Games; to many gamers, that name signifies the best storytelling in the business; to others it represents a tired studio repackaging the same title repeatedly for popular franchises. Regretfully, the latter has now outweighed the former and the studio is set to be put to rest. How did it happen? I’ll try to figure out why…

The company started off, innocently enough in 2005, making small-scale poker titles before taking on licensed material, the first of which being CSI and the classic Sam and Max titles. But in 2012, the company outdid itself with The Walking Dead Season 1; while Telltale had engaged fans of the point-and-click adventure game, they had never broken into the AAA scene before. TWD changed this, solidifying the developer as one of the best storytellers in the entire industry. As of 2014, a gargantuan 28 million copies were sold and based on my own playthrough that same year, it’s very much deserving of that success. It’s an incredibly powerful and emotional journey from beginning to end, capped off by one of the most heart-breaking conclusions gaming has ever seen, all those reaction videos on the internet didn’t lie at the time. But such a huge success proved to be a double-edged sword; on the one hand, Telltale’s writers were given a respect like nothing they’d seen before, but on the other it bred repetition, and this would grind on for the next five years.

When a successful formula is established, any entertainment sector is set to repeat it and as a developer, Telltale believed that the stories they wrote would be able to carry an entire game; so long as the narratives were deep, and the characters varied, players would keep coming back for more. So, the releases kept on coming, utilising the same game engine and common formula every time; combined with the wide use of digital distribution, development costs could be consistently kept down. At some point between 2012 and 2018, priorities shifted; with this samey design established, Telltale would bid for ever-more popular franchises, often looking to cash in on surges in popularity. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy was released in 2017 to coincide with the second film from Marvel while two seasons of Minecraft were put out to capitalise on the game’s wild popularity. This went on for quite some time; the developer would often put out three separate titles a year, rather than the usual two. As the cycle continued, more and more players were turned off by Telltale’s approach; some grew tired of seeing the same “Character will remember that” line without any payoff while other expressed great disappointment that the studio was prioritising some franchises over others, most notably how The Wolf Among Us Season 2 got pushed back in favour of Minecraft. The turning point for me was Game of Thrones Season 1 which did keep in line with the show but fell short of being memorable.

When you combine this half-baked business strategy with growing apathy from fans, Telltale should have known it couldn’t last. For the past year or so, employee burnout and management problems plagued the studio; just as gamers were getting tired of the same gameplay formula without any kind of progression, so too were employees becoming tired of making the same game over and over just for a different license. It’s clear to me that there came a point where Telltale stopped moving forwards; simultaneously the storytelling that worked so well before started to get weaker. Being bound to the same formula time and again without finding ways to expand and adjust the ways players can influence the narrative made each new release less and less impactful. The video: “The Problem with Telltale Games” by Haedox is a great breakdown of the issues the studio went through.

On September 21^st 2018 it was announced that Telltale Games would be issuing mass lay-offs and slowly shutting down with only 25 employees remaining to form a skeleton crew. The Wolf Among Us Season 2, Game of Thrones Season 2 and Stranger Things have all been cancelled and the final season of The Walking Dead remains tentative for the rest of the year. It’s ironic that the game that shot the developer to super-stardom will now be their swansong. Currently I can’t find the first episode on Steam, which leads me to believe the final season may also be put on the chopping block. Ultimately, Telltale’s library of episodic adventures drastically varies in quality but if you asked me to put the major releases in order from best to worst, here’s how I’d rank them…

Best

1. The Walking Dead Season 1

2. Tales from the Borderlands Season 1

3. The Wolf Among Us Season 1

4. The Walking Dead Season 2

5. Batman: The Enemy Within

6. The Walking Dead: Michonne

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

8. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

9. Minecraft Story Mode: Season 1

10. Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2

11. Game of Thrones: Season 1

12. Jurassic Park: The Game

Worst

For its employees, the closure of Telltale Games is a nightmare and I wish them all the best in finding new jobs and positions to rescue their livelihoods. But for the company, it seems their flawed ways of doing business and endlessly repetitive releases finally did them in. They crash out of the industry leaving a considerable void in the point-and-click adventure genre. New developers such as Big Bad Wolf may pick up the torch but Telltale’s end teaches a valuable lesson; static development cycles will always grow stale after some time and that moving forward should be held in equally high regard.

(Images used for the purposes of review and criticism under fair use)

The Predator Movie Review

Released: 12th September 2018 (UK)

Length: 107 Minutes

Certificate: 15

Director: Shane Black

Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan Michael-Key, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen and Brian A. Prince

For all its iconic trappings, the Predator series has made steady runs at the box office in its thirty-year history but has never been given a truly worthy follow-up. Eight years on from the last Predator film and what do we have? Easily the weakest entry in the entire mainline franchise.

Following on from Predator and Predator 2, The Predator follows special forces sniper Quin McKenna (Boyd Holbrook). After escaping an attack by the Predator in Mexico, Mckenna hurriedly sends the valuables from the crash site to his home in Maryland. When his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) activates Predator technology, a new hunt between Predators and humans begins with multiple players seeking to take control of the situation; this includes a shadowy sect of government researchers led by Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), dedicated alien researcher Dr. Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) and of course the Predator himself, this time played by Brian A. Prince. The plot is all over the place which may be down to reshoots, offering competent action scenes in amongst a whole pile of unnecessary plot threads and filler dialogue. The film is fast-moving and yet it still feels like too much was put into its runtime. There’s a subplot involving Rory being bullied at school, but this is immediately thrown out the window about a quarter of the way through. Rather than working to flesh out the characters, Quinn’s team mostly just sit around and throw crappy quips which rarely get a laugh when they’re not fighting the monster. By contrast, the mystery of the Predators is absent for this outing, as the film sees fit to reveal them in the most basic, straightforward way. The worst offence committed by The Predator though is that there’s no suspense whatsoever; the series has prided itself on using creeping tension as to when the creature will strike next which has been executed to varying degrees of quality through the years. Here, the film is pure action which really ruins any kind of scares it could have had. When it comes down to it, The Predator is sloppy and muddled, an amalgamation of tropes from Black’s previous films that should have been consolidated and streamlined into a more coherent vision.

The characters in The Predator are a real let-down, ranging from average to highly underdeveloped. Boyd Holbrook is merely ok as lead Quinn Mckenna; there’s a light connection to family conveyed but he still pales in comparison to his predecessors. Olivia Munn is serviceable despite her character being given no backstory Young Rory isn’t badly acted by any means; what baffled me was why he needed to be in a Predator film. The other characters, except for Trevante Rhodes’ Nebraska are drab and uninteresting; each one is a cheap gimmick and little more. The audience learns little to nothing about them and so they sit below every other team in the series. The same holds true for other side characters who are either drafted in to fill a place or barely have anything to do; the most notable instances of this are Sean Keyes (Jake Busey) who brings a flimsy link to Predator 2 and Quinn’s wife Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) who essentially disappears from the narrative after twenty minutes of screen time. The dialogue attempts to capture the macho heaviness of the first film but often comes off as cringe-worthy and while not quite veering into insufferable territory, there still isn’t much to like.

At the very least, the film’s effects and action sequences do hold up. The Predator is well shot and well helmed in terms of special effects. There’s a solid amount of detail in the Predator technology, with some subtle hints as to how the aliens have evolved and progressed their hunting techniques. The action is always clear and easy to follow with plenty of wide shots framing the narrative succinctly. There’s a higher use of CGI this time around and it mostly holds up well though I was underwhelmed by the design of the Predator dogs which when compared with those seen in 2010’s Predators, felt lazily put together. It’s a suitably bloody film with Predator tools inflicting plenty of nasty fatalities throughout. Other areas of the presentation feel half-baked however; the music by Henry Jackman mostly makes use of remixes of Alan Silvestri’s original score with not much in the way of new notes; at points the tracks are also awkwardly placed, often marking the entrance of the human antagonists rather than accompanying the action. The Predator is well-produced, but you’ll find that some aspects do stick out in the presentation.

The Predator should have been a match made in heaven; Shane Black knows the 1987 classic better than most and it’s a huge shame that he failed to create a worthy sequel. This fourth Predator film is the worst of the franchise and a very disappointing production all around. Someday they’ll find someone to rejuvenate and breath new life into the alien monster but for now, fans will have to keep on waiting.

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Disappointing)

La Catedral Del Mar (Cathedral of the Sea) Series Review

Released: 23rd May 2018 (Spain)

Created by: Hugo Arbues and Abel Viton

Number of Episodes: 8

Where to Watch: Netflix

Starring: Aitor Luna, Daniel Grao, Pablo Derqui, Michelle Jenner, Andrea Duro, Gines Garcia Millan, Ali El Aziz, Nora Navas, Alain Hernandez, Lucia Diez and Jorge Kent 

High fantasy and historical dramas have certainly exploded in popularity in the current; Game of Thrones, The Last Kingdom, Vikings; these are just some of the franchises that have enthralled viewers with an enormous amount of money put into their production. For Netflix however, a smaller scale series from Spain was released; La Catedral Del Mar has managed to set the standard for all similar productions to follow.

Based on the book by Ildefonso Falcones and taking place in 14^th Century Spain, the series follows a Serf (an agricultural farmer tied to a lord in the feudal system) named Bernat Estanyol (Daniel Grao) whose marriage to Francesca (Natalia de Molina) ends in brutal humiliation. To escape the endless gaze of the abusive lords, Bernat flees with his son Arnau to Barcelona. From here we follow the young Arnau (played by Aitor Luna) from boy to manhood, with intimate glimpses at the experiences that shape him into the man he becomes and how he fits into Christian society. The plot is driven by the laws and politics of the time, most notably the injustices faced by the poor and mistreatment of women; as the characters encounter these hardships, the plot twists are layered in a way that feels natural. Various conflicts engulf the city and new players enter the scene as things go on, but we always stay with the main characters. The titular Santa Mario Del Mar acts as an anchor for the series, growing and changing its caretakers over time; it also serves as a centrepiece of both the characters hopes and dreams alongside their religious faith. With that said though, the series has a bit of trouble managing transitions. As we’re treated to several decades worth of narrative, some forward shifts can feel rather abrupt; it may have been better to move the chronology forward between episodes.

COTS is powerfully acted from top to bottom; each member of the cast conveys their character with a multi-dimensional conviction that really pulls the viewer into their individual struggles. What makes Arnau such an excellent protagonist is how he has been shaped and moulded by his life experiences; when he aims to improve the lives of those around him, you believe in his conviction. Yet he is still imperfect, a fact that applies to every character in the series; Arnau’s brother Joanet (Pablo Derqui) dedicates himself to serving the church but finds his loyalties and faith tested while his lover Analis (Andrea Duro) often finds herself at the mercy of the men in her life. The series offers an even mix of humble and selfish characters along with others in the middle. Often, they each have their own motivations, and this causes them to make desperate, occasionally irrational decisions. But when the characters do this, the audience understands why they go in the direction they do. There’s a brilliant amount of effort given to fleshing out and understanding the characters and because the cast all embody their roles so completely, there’s hardly any disruption to the series’ hook on the viewer.

Recreating both the splendour and squalor of its time, Cathedral of the Sea is very bold in its setting depiction; it’s a beautifully crafted window into history, drawing a stark contrast between social classes while reinforcing the often-harsh nature some individuals found themselves in. It certainly doesn’t shy away from these moments of suffering and while the series isn’t nearly as violent as other similar medieval settings, the moments of bloodshed are often horrific. It shows a higher focus on thematic engagement, rather than pure shock value and for a single eight-episode series this works much better at engaging the audience. The series makes heavy use of a grayscale colour scheme, often relying on natural lighting from candles and other light sources to frame the proceedings, while the music uses booming drums to convey the power held by Barcelona at the height of its power. The costume design is equally impeccable, ranging from rags to highly detailed gowns and robes worn by the nobles. The only real weak point is a lacking set of CGI effects for the battle scenes, but because the series doesn’t focus on these sequences too much, this is easily dismissed. All in all, Cathedral of the Sea feels incredibly authentic and the ways in which it presents the setting only makes it even more absorbing.

La Catedral Del Mar is a hugely impressive effort all around; it’s clear that both the cast and production team were passionate about recreating an important moment in their country’s history while also delivering a long series of highly emotive characters that you really come to care about. It’s sure to pave the way for other smaller scale historical dramas in the future.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars (Brilliant)

Predators Movie Review

Released: July 9th 2010 (US)

Length: 107 Minutes

Certificate: 15

Director: Nimrod Antal

Starring: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Walter Goggins, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Mahershala Ali, Oleg Taktarov and Louis Ozawa Changchien

After the release of 1990's Predator 2, the popular alien poacher slipped into hiding. While various video games kept the creature alive throughout the 2000s, its film appearances in the awful Alien vs Predator duology kept it from making a full comeback. After a twenty-year gap, Predators marked the third main release in the franchise, to admirable if not brilliant success.

Predators takes a similar approach to the 1986 classic Aliens in that multiple monsters are on display. The film follows a mercenary named Royce (Adrien Brody) as he finds himself marooned on an alien planet with an assortment of other deadly killers; there's a Yakuza, (Louis Ozawa Changchien) black operations sniper (Alice Braga) and a Russian heavy weapons specialist (Oleg Taktarov) to name a few. They soon realise that they’re the game in a hunt led by not one but three predators and band together to stay alive, hoping to find another way back to Earth. Predators is much tighter and a more cohesive film than Predator 2; with the setting locked down, the film has a solid amount of action with a few quieter moments in-between. There’s always the sense that the alien hunters are just one step behind and the antagonist themselves are deepened thanks to the film's efforts to explore their different tactics and species. All the elements are here for a great Predator film but sadly things don’t always go according to plan. The main issue with Predators is how it feels the need to borrow quite a bit from the movie it claims to succeed. It’s not a complete repeat narrative-wise but when the moments ripped from the original rear their head it’s jarring and unnecessary. These scenes stick out because everything else the film does is right at home with the franchise's roots, with good pacing to match. Any fan of the original will have a hard time something this fault.

When compared to previous outings, the characters in Predators fall somewhere down the middle. Adrien Brody stands out in the lead role as Royce; an often-ruthless mercenary who more often looks out for himself than others; he’s more than capable in terms of both emotive and physical acting. Isabelle, the aforementioned sniper, fills the role of exposition, offering a simple yet effective bridge between films. Not all characters are quite so developed however; Mexican cartel member Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), death squad gunman Mombasa (Mahershala Ali) and Japanese swordsman Hanzo don’t have much to them at all and go by incredibly underused as the film rolls on. Most disappointing of all though is the character played by Laurence Fishburne; Noland’s life of isolation as the sole human survivor on the alien planet could have been a very deep character study but is instead written off a couple of scenes after he’s introduced. In short, the film has trouble balancing out character moments with action, despite things moving at a consistent pace; a shame as the cast in Predators comes the closest to matching that of the original. No one is really at fault here; they just needed more material to work with and the moments that do allow the different character traits to play off each other are rather fleeting.

The same also holds true for the presentation; with Robert Rodriguez in the production chair, Predators is a very sleek and confident production. The alien planet gives way to many great looking locales, creating an excellent setting for the hunt to take place. The action is very well produced, with a few scenarios thrown into the mix that have never been seen before in the franchise with the team’s varying weapons and tactics being put on display. The music is a collection of older beats taken from the first Predator alongside a set of new tracks from John Debney and these also work well. Despite the film being knocked to a 15 rating, the violence is still suitably grotesque and well suited to the action on show. There’s certainly no knocking Predators for its look and style; it comes very close to rivaling the original in this regard.

Predators could have been a great follow-up to the original 1987 film; in a lot of ways it really does recapture the tension and feel of being hunted by an alien menace (in this case several of them). But two major flaws hold it back; wasted potential with its characters and too much reliance on call-backs to the original film. Had the film worked harder to carve out its own image and bind the characters together more often, we could have had a great film. As it stands, the film is a respectable, if somewhat underwhelming effort.

Rating: 3/5 Stars (Fair)

300th Post: My Top Ten Entertainment Mistakes

I’ve been running this blog for just under five years now, totting up 145 movie reviews, 29 game reviews and over 30,000 views and that’s not counting other publishing of my work in the lead-up to making The Cainage Critique back in my first year at Bournemouth University.

For my 300^th post on this blog, I thought I’d turn the tables. Getting your opinion across as a reviewer is one thing, but to admit when you got it wrong is something else. I’ve been into all kinds of nerdy films and video games over the years and I’ve made more than a few missteps as a moviegoer and as a gamer. Here we go…

10. Giving a perfect 10 to Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction as my first review in 2008

Most followers of this blog will know that I started it back in October 2013, but long before that, the very first entertainment review I ever wrote was back in 2007; Insomniac Games’ Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction had been released and after playing it through to completion, I found that I could write reviews and publish them under my profile on Gamespot. Being a mega-fan of the platforming franchise at the time, I wrote a crazy hyperbolic set of paragraphs, slapped a 10 on it and went back to play through it again for the fourth time. This is low on the list as I was 13 at the time and very selective in what I liked and disliked; Ratchet and Clank was by far my favourite franchise and the moment any piece of information or new game came out, my eyes were trained on it like a hawk. Ironically enough though, this was just the start of my dive into the review-writing scene and would later culminate in the blog you’re reading right now.

9. Making Metal Gear Solid 4 my entry point into the series in 2008

When I had the PlayStation One, I happened to pop in the original Metal Gear Solid to give it a go. But my impatient young self didn’t appreciate the game’s focus on story; I sat there getting bored of the extended opening cutscene, reset the console and popped Spyro 2 back in instead. Some eight years later, I started following Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, a highly touted PlayStation 3 exclusive; after watching a 15-minute-long demo of Old Snake sneaking through a Middle-Eastern warzone. It looked like an awesome game and I bought it on release; it has gone on to become one of my favourites as you’ve seen in my 200th post, but the story at the game’s centre was another matter… While I was able to follow the central plot of Snake looking to stop Liquid’s plan well enough, the background surrounding it went over my head completely. Luckily Kojima and Konami slipped in a free encyclopedia via the PlayStation Store to fill new players in, but be that as it may, it would have been much better to play the previous games in the series to get the full experience first. Had I done it this way, the emotional moments of MGS4 (of which there are many) which have landed with a stronger impact.

8. Starting off the Terminator franchise with T3: Rise of the Machines

The Terminator franchise is widely regarding as one of the best science fiction franchises in all of cinema, but this label only applies to the first two films in the series. Everything after that is either competent, or in the case of Terminator Genysis, total rubbish. While visiting a relative many years ago, me and my brother happened to notice Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on the shelf. We watched it and were blown away by the action sequences; overall, I liked the film a lot at first but the problem was that I saw T3 without knowing that there were two far superior films that preceded it. I would eventually watch The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day further down the line and would eventually understand why everything after the second film is considered below par. Watching T3 first gave me the wrong impression of what was once a serious and often thought-provoking look at mankind’s future, the vision that James Cameron had for his creation that gradually grew more tainted as the instalments went on. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the sixth Terminator film; they should just lay the franchise to rest.

7. Buying into PlayStation Move in 2011

Back when the Nintendo Wii came out and achieved massive success with the casual crowd, Sony and Microsoft responded with their own takes on the motion control craze. Being a PlayStation owner, I quickly jumped on the hate bandwagon for the Microsoft Kinect, which led the Xbox brand astray for five long years. Then I turned around and made the rather hypocritical decision to purchase the PlayStation Move controllers; at the time I believed them to be extensions and improvements of the Wii’s existing technology, while stubbornly dismissing the copycat mindset and questionable shape of the devices. PlayStation Move wasn’t crammed down people’s throats the way Kinect was, but it certainly never became a fledgling part of the PlayStation brand like Sony hoped. I had the two peripherals for about five or six months, before returning them to the store for a fraction of the price I bought them for. Never again would I join the motion gaming scene outside a couple of quick sessions at parties and other events. I’d say we’re all better off going back to the arcades with DDR…

6. Purchasing Bionic Commando in 2009

Capcom’s Bionic Commando has lain dormant for just under a decade and the game I’m about to talk about is the likely reason for this. Having played the far superior Bionic Commando Rearmed the year before, I was eagerly awaiting its 3D counterpart and being able to transfer unlocks (a new weapon and skin) into it. This was the only time I felt manipulated into buying a game regardless of its overall quality and Bionic Commando 2009 was mediocre at best, with a painfully forced story and frustrating gameplay that took a lot of the fun out of swinging around the ruins of Ascension City. Even the unlocks offered by Rearmed were cosmetic at best, adding little to the overall package. Buying this title at full price is one of my biggest regrets and from this I learned to gauge popular opinion about a new product before putting down my money for it.

5. Seeing Disaster Movie in cinemas

I don’t often see bad films in cinemas, but long before I started reviewing them, I had a feeling that when a film was bad, it was bad. my little brother wanted to see Disaster Movie in 2008, having already seen the equally terrible Epic Movie the year before. So, we went to see it and walked out feeling very cheated indeed; even other audience members seemed downcast at the utter trash that was Disaster Movie, the midpoint of the Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer franchise that has practically ruined parody single-handedly. Giving money and supporting films like this is the worst thing you can do when it comes to bad films because you give filmmakers approval to make more of the same rubbish. It’s a shame I didn’t learn that lesson until further down the line; more on that further down the list…

4. Praising the Hobbit Trilogy between 2012 and 2014

Of all the reviews I’ve written on this blog, it’s the Hobbit Trilogy that I disagree with most fiercely looking back. It’s obvious to most film-goers that due to production troubles and stretching out the length to three films that The Hobbit pales in comparison to Lord of the Rings, firmly placing An Unexpected Journey, Desolation of Smaug and Battle of the Five Armies in the same camp as the Star Wars prequels. It’s baffling how Peter Jackson apparently forgot all the skills and lessons he learned in the original trilogy, but at the time of their release this didn’t seem to concern me. I let my love of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy get the better of me and issued average to good scores to all three films. Today I’d give no more than 3 out of 5 stars to all three films in the trilogy. One of the best written breakdowns of why the Hobbit films didn’t work is Just Write’s “Why the Hobbit sucks” on YouTube, which I highly recommend watching. As for Peter Jackson, I have hope he’ll create another hit with the upcoming Mortal Engines at the end of this year.

3. Playing Half Life 2 backwards in 2007’s The Orange Box

In 2007, I bought The Orange Box for PlayStation 3 and as my first time jumping into Valve’s exceptional development prowess it was the perfect entry point into the Half Life series. I started playing with Team Fortress 2, then moved to Portal; so far so good. Unfortunately, I then made the very poor choice of continuing from right to left with the five games and while I got into the first chapter quite well, I was very unprepared for Half Life 2: Episode 2’s mine chapter. “This Vortal Coil” scared my younger self to no end, whether it was the barnacles giving me a massive shock from the ceiling or the antlion warriors spewing acid at a distance, I wanted out of the tunnels as soon as possible. Had I played Half Life 2 to start off with, I would have been well-accustomed to the renowned shooter series and better equipped to deal with the countless alien hazards in Gordon Freeman’s path. Instead my OCD pressed me into playing Half Life out of the intended order, a mistake I won’t make again when getting into a new franchise.

2. Not making the most of Toronto International Film Festival in 2015

Back in 2015, I took a trip to Toronto, Canada for a study abroad exchange; I headed over in 2015. But a big trip like this takes quite a bit of planning and I got caught up in that before realising that the Toronto International Film Festival was on during my time in the city. Without the proper planning or purchasing tickets in advance, I had a hard time finding films to watch given how popular the event is for residents of Canada and beyond. I managed to knock out one review for The Assassin from Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien but never managed to get into any other screenings. As both a regular movie-goer and critic, this was very disappointing as I could have taken the opportunity to expand my portfolio with films that I rarely saw under general viewing. If I ever happen to go back to Toronto when TIFF is on, I’ll be sure to go for a full pass to take full advantage of the early screenings.

1. Passing up Kingsman: The Secret Service for Jupiter Ascending in 2014

By far the biggest mistake I’ve made in entertainment came back in 2014. Two big films were out in theatres in February; Kingsman: The Secret Service from Matthew Vaughn and Jupiter Ascending from the Wachowski brothers. Dismissing Kingsman for its campy looking trailer and remembering the latter from their work on the Matrix films, I convinced my band of nerdy uni mates to go and see Jupiter Ascending, knowing we’d be in for a visual treat. How wrong I was to make that move… I passed up a slick and stylish spy flick for an ill-conceived, poorlywritten bag of sci-fi schlock. Sometime later, we all watched Kingsman: The Secret Service and were positively blown away by its fantastic action and witty script. Afterwards, one friend rightfully pointed out that we should have seen it on the big screen and I agreed without hesitation, feeling more than a bit foolish afterwards. From then on, I would never completely dismiss a film again.

So, there you have it, the biggest missteps I’ve made throughout my time as an entertainment fan. With all that said, what’s in store for the future of The Cainage Critique? 

The blog will turn five years old on the 28^th of October 2018 and I’m looking to do a full-blown redesign, an update with a new logo, style and overall presentation. At first, I was thinking about migrating the blog to WordPress like I did with my other blog: For the Road, but now I’m looking more into SquareSpace. The website has received a lot of attention for its professional website designs and I think that would be a good fit. Of course, moving to a more professional website brings its own changes and here are some that I have in mind…

A. A more free-flowing style of reviews

If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you’ll know they use a very structured style with different sections talking about different aspects of a film or game; this differs from traditional reviews which are more free-flowing. For the redesign I’ll be having a crack at this myself, bringing future reviews more in line with shorter editorials you see on mainstream outlets. Doing the same style can get tiring for readers and I wanted to move away from it after an extended period of using said structure

B. Possible collaborations with fellow reviewers

Partnerships and one-off team-ups with fellow reviewers and critics are all the rage these days, so I’ll try and reach out to some people I know for a couple of collaborations, be it a review, feature or something else entirely; it’s a great way of getting more traffic to both websites collectively while also playing your styles off each other, be it for one review or a continuous series.

C. An entrance into YouTube videos and criticism

This is a tentative one; having seen many incredibly well produced and complex critique videos posted on the site, I’ve been thinking of getting into the YouTube scene myself with a capture card and recording microphone. What would I do on the platform? Either developer or franchise retrospectives for less-talked-about gaming franchises and maybe a film breakdown or two. It does take a lot of time, effort and commitment to put videos out on a regular basis, so I’ll see how it goes if I take this route.

Thanks very much again for reading. I’m hoping you’ll stick with The Cainage Critique as it evolves into something different in October. See you then…

Predator 2 Movie Review

Released: 21st November 1990 (US)

Length: 108 Minutes

Certificate: 18

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Starring: Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, Robert Davi and Kevin Peter Hall

Having introduced one of the most iconic monsters in cinema, Predator continues to thrill decades after its release. Three years on and Predator 2 was put out to a critical thrashing and a somewhat strong cult status. It’s a wild, over-the-top production but falls short as a follow-up to the creature’s far superior debut.

Taking place in 1997, Predator 2 is set on the battered streets of Los Angeles; a vicious drug war has consumed the city with the police desperately struggling to contain the chaos. Amid the carnage, another Predator arrives on Earth and it takes an interest in Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover); as the body count begins to pile up, Harrigan works to unravel the true nature of the newcomer alongside team members Danny (Ruben Blades), Leona (Maria Conchita Alonso) and Jerry (Bill Paxton). Predator 2 offers the same action-horror blend of the original but within a sub-genre; the police drama. It’s a formula that has been used for years in crime films but for the Predator this can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s a great fit for the city environment, an urban jungle used to deliver a different kind of hunt. But on the other, the cop drama gives way to a lot of clichés and a more inconsistent tone. One minute the characters are swearing in every other sentence and the next they’re trying to pull some more serious drama into the mix. This wild mix of tones does deliver some mindless entertainment but for a Predator film it falls short. Pacing-wise, things feel a bit hackneyed as well; the film’s action doesn’t come at a consistent clip and while the final encounter does feel climatic, it does leave you wishing the film had done more to build up to this moment. It simply can’t keep you gripped the way the first film could.

It doesn’t help that the characters also pale in comparison. Danny Glover capably embraces Harrigan; he’s no Dutch Schafer but the police lieutenant is still a worthy opponent to the monster with a fair few memorable moments for his character. The other characters don’t fare as well however; Harrigan’s teammates all fill in the quotas of old friend, tough-as-nails officer and comic relief respectively. These are tried-and-true caricatures but for a Predator film they rarely show any major differences that set them apart from each other. At least Gary Busey is entertaining as the slimy Peter Keyes, whose true colours are revealed as the film goes on. The dialogue doesn’t always work either; again, the police sub-genre gives way to a lot of samey conversations and angry confrontations. There is a lot of swearing in Predator 2 and where it added to the awesome moments in the original film, here it feels unneeded. Ironically, it’s Kevin Peter Hall who makes the biggest impression here; yet again his portrayal of the Predator is excellent, even if the monster is occasionally burdened with some crappy lines.

Matching the wilting heatwave of its setting, Predator 2’s aesthetics make for a very drab and grotty look that reflects the filthy drug war contained therein, while also being very off-putting for general audiences. The film is often drenched in blood and sweat as the action heats up, often even more so than the monster’s original outing. The special effects for the creature itself are still great, particularly the cloaking effect and all the new gadgets given to the monster this time around work very well at expanding its abilities and hunting prowess. The costume work and makeup are equally strong for the antagonist; as we see the monster a lot more in this film, the producers put extra effort into showing us the finer details of its composition. Good stunt work and a barrage of bullets work to sell the action scenes and while the more creative angles in the cinematography are few and far between, Predator 2 is still well helmed when it comes to camerawork. The final piece of the puzzle is a handful of great set designs, the highlight of which coming at the film’s final moments as Harrigan enters the monster’s lair.

Predator 2 makes many contributions to the creature’s lore and mythos, but it also takes quite a few steps backwards; the plot and characters stick out for how inconsistent they are and at many points the film feels a bit too silly and sleazy for its own good. Fans will still get something out of it, but the general viewer will be left expecting better.

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Mediocre)