E3 2018 Post-Mortem Part 1: Ranking the Press Conferences (First Half)

E3 has returned to Los Angeles for 2018 and once again I'm looking at each of the press conferences step by step. Let's see if the big companies made a big improvement from last year's somewhat underwhelming offerings...

EA

The Good

• Passionate presenter Andrea Rene

While EA’s presenters at E3 have been standard fare over the years, Andrea Rene took the stage this time around and definitely stood out for her cheerful demeanour and passion. Despite all the horrible rhetoric from EA bosses and basic presentations from developers, she did her best to keep things moving along and the audience engaged. For the most part it worked, and she would do well to come back and host again for next year if EA gets their act together.

• Indie titles Unravel 2 and Sea of Solitude

The one shining spot in EA’s dumpster fire of a publisher reputation is its indie titles; there really is some genuine creativity going on here and a couple of proud developers showcased their visions with real conviction. Unravel 2’s creator Martin Sahlin and Sea of Solitude’s Jo-Mei both stood out among all the other developers who barely had a chance to show off their latest products. They’re both proof that even with all EA’s missteps, there’s still some artistic creativity coming out of the studio.

The Bad

• The butchering of Command and Conquer on mobile

As one of the most popular strategy gaming franchises of all time, Command and Conquer has been dormant since EA pulled the plug on the main series back in 2012. Personally I've never played the series, but it's hard not to see the impact it had on the industry. This year, they saw fit to bring it back, but in the worst way possible. Command and Conquer Rivals is a stripped down mobile game, designed to extract maximum value from a mass market audience with minimal development costs. Adding further insult to injury, Rivals was the only title of EA’s entire presser to have a full gameplay presentation which ironically speaks volumes of where their priorities lie.

• A general lack of caring and no details on Star Wars titles

While there were some developers who made a point that there titles would not have the dreaded loot boxes seen in the Star Wars Battlefront 2 fiasco last year, EA stood out among the other conferences for being incredibly arrogant; there was no official apology or admittances of guilt, no promises to do better, only manipulative spin about EA were going to make gamers happy, give them choice and so on. Rarely has a company sunk so low in the gaming industry and rather than work to make amends, Electronic Arts has the cheek to keep talking down to their fans. It also didn’t help when the next Star Wars title (Which EA still has a monopoly on by the way) was relegated to a quick chat in the audience with developer Respawn Entertainment. It was incredibly contemptuous all around.

• Anthem’s basic showing and lack of details

Anthem stands as the biggest title coming from EA right now and after its initial announcement last year, we were hoping for some further details on what the game is like under the surface. Unfortunately, they saw fit to put out a very similar demo involving flying around the environment and killing mobs of enemies which raises the question: Is Bioware set for the chopping block? They will be if Anthem doesn’t succeed next year and while this year’s demo looked cool from an aesthetic standpoint, we still know nothing about the story, characters and game world about eight months from release. Mass Effect: Andromeda had the same problem, but this time the Canadian developer won’t be able to survive another critical failure. It will be a crying shame to see them leave the industry, but who knows? Maybe they can pull it together before Anthem’s release next year.

The Verdict

Outside of a capable host and some passionate indie titles, EA’s showing was very poor; they just didn’t have anything exciting to show. Hardly any gameplay trailers or demos were on stage, the return of Command and Conquer was relegated to a mobile game and the few passionate indie devs on stage were quickly overshadowed by all the heartless rhetoric thrown about by the clueless executives. Time and again, EA has been out of touch with their customers and this year took that to another level.

Rating: 3/10 (Bad)

Microsoft

The Good

• Closing with Cyberpunk 2077

Since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt stormed the industry in 2015, we’ve all been eager to see what Polish developer CD Projekt Red had in store for us next. They surprised us this year with a rush of colour and dystopian science fiction in Cyberpunk 2077. There’s plenty to see throughout the trailer from the world to vehicles with plenty of style to all of it, but what made it a great close to the presser was the cut-off to Spencer’s final speech. While we don’t have any real gameplay yet, the game is clearly well on its way through production and knowing CD Projekt’s commitment to consumer-focused practices they won’t put a foot wrong in that regard.

• The return of Battletoads

The only real surprise Microsoft had to offer of its own accord and not a multiplatform title at E3 2018 was the comeback of a fan favourite; we don’t know much about it, there wasn’t even any real gameplay but the fact that Battletoads is coming back, a long-forgotten product made famous by its gruelling difficulty, is good to hear, not mention that it’s a fully-fledged game and not part of another project like Conker was for Project Spark. It shows Microsoft’s newfound commitment to bringing back old favourites and also tasking Rare with more than just Kinect games. It should be a faithful recreation upon release next year.

• A good collection of world exclusive announcements

For all its lack of true exclusive games, Microsoft sure had a strong line-up of world premieres that made their debut at E3 2018; Just Cause 4, The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Jump Force, Dying Light 2 and Fallout 76 all had strong trailers, but it arguably Devil May Cry 5 that made the biggest impact. After a decade of waiting and a very poorly received reboot from Ninja Theory in 2013, the original hack-and-slash franchise is finally going back to its roots and fans are clearly excited. All of these premieres together definitely added a fair bit of flair to Microsoft’s conference, even if some of the announcements were simply continuations of franchises like Gears of War and Forza.

The Bad

• Little in the way of new and proper exclusives

Microsoft’s exclusive line-up has run into problems for the last three years with cancellations and failures left and right. The company integration of the Xbox brand directly into the PC space hasn’t helped either. The word “exclusive” has become a fixture of the company’s conferences but very rarely is it actually used properly. The only completely new title we saw was Sekiro, a From Software effort based in the lore of Samurai and ancient Japan. Almost everything else was either a new franchise entry or a holdover from PC or another studio acquisition such as We Happy Few from Compulsion Games. Every year Microsoft talks about bringing new experiences to Xbox but they rarely deliver. This needs to change.

• Much talk and little payoff or following through

Phil Spencer is a very passionate head for Xbox and at E3 2018, this was on display all the way through; after having to pick up the Xbox brand, he’s done a great job of communicating the messages right and leading the gaming division of Microsoft. But unfortunately, a lot of his talking points regarding games fell short; they talk about investing in new franchises and yet they still refuse to give studios like 343 or The Coalition the chance to take risks with a new IP. Acquiring new studios is only a starting point towards creating new IPs for Xbox. They throw around the word exclusive so much and yet only three or four titles out of the fifty shown were proper Microsoft exclusives. This hollow rhetoric made it difficult to get excited about upcoming titles from the American company.

• No Halo 6 or any indication of fixing the franchise

While Halo Infinity did open Microsoft’s presser, the next big title in the biggest Xbox franchise of all time was absent. Halo 5 Guardians was a colossal disappointment for fans and casual gamers alike in 2015 and some online commentators have claimed that 343 Industries are in panic mode right now, struggling to find a cohesive vision to close this trilogy of Halo games. Three years on, the time to fix the franchise is now and with Halo 6, 343 could have taken some real steps to reassure the fans and get the excitement going. Regretfully, they chose not to show up, which means we may be waiting a while for them to make an official announcement.

(Correction: Halo Infinite is indeed the sixth main entry in the franchise, but we know very little about the game based on the debut trailer)

The Verdict

With Sea of Thieves disappointing massively and State of Decay 2 falling short, Microsoft needed to pull people back in with a strong collection of new exclusives; did they deliver with their big conference? Only a little bit; Microsoft is trying, but not in the right areas for me. Aside from new studio The Initiative and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from From Software to rival PS4’s Bloodborne, Microsoft could have had so much more. The world premieres were strong but like previous years there just isn’t anything that will convince me to run out and buy an Xbox One and if this round of exclusives doesn’t work out, they may have to call it quits on this console generation.

Rating: 6/10 (Fair)

Bethesda

The Good

• A general sense of self-aware humour sprinkled throughout

Bethesda has been called out online for quite a few things over the years including buggy release, endlessly re-releasing Skyrim and ending up leaking game releases through retailers. This year at E3 the company decided to have a bit of fun with their reputation, whether it was the sarcastic comments from Pete Hines regarding Walmart Canada or the release of Skyrim on Amazon Echo, none of it felt forced, just a neat way of breaking up the announcements with a bit of self-aware acknowledgement of past mistakes to make sure things didn’t get too serious.

• Announcements of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI

Bethesda closed out its E3 press conference this year with two big announcements and while they were only trailers, they left audiences with the first seeds of anticipation. First up with Starfield, the first original IP from Bethesda in 25 years and a galaxy spanning RPG with plenty of potential given Bethesda’s pedigree for crafting on a gargantuan scale. Then the big one; Elder Scrolls 6 is on the way, seven years after its predecessor, Skyrim launched and went on to become one of the most popular games of all time. These announcements were just what Bethesda needed to get fans back on board after disappointing with Creation Club (Paid Mods) last year.

• Each and every major franchise getting a slot in the schedule

Bethesda knows its franchises well and this year it was very consistent in giving each and every one of them a good amount of time on stage. Wolfenstein 2 is getting a new side story following William BJ. Blasckowicz’s twin daughters, Doom got a sequel in the form of Eternal, The Elder Scrolls Online continued to expand, Quake Champions is on its way to completion with help from the community and Rage 2 marked itself as far more zany and wacky than the 2010 original. The company has plenty to offer for the foreseeable future and this steady stream of new titles will keep the momentum going into 2019.

The Bad

• A rehash of Fallout Shelter, rather than a Fallout 3 remaster

Fallout 3 is another immensely popular title from Bethesda’s past and it also happens to be my first time getting into the franchise. Ten years on from its release, the time seemed ripe to update the game with modern tech and perhaps even build on the game’s original sombre tone. Sadly it was not to be as Todd Howard ended up talking about Fallout Shelter, a far less impressive mobile game that I stopped playing a while ago. Releasing on Switch and PS4 gives access to more players but the game I feel has reached peak evolutionary potential. Without any more improvements to add to Shelter, it’s better for Bethesda to move on to other projects.

• The Elder Scrolls Blades: Another mobile title…

Sadly, the Elder Scrolls Blades was not the new project I had in mind; the announcement trailer for this mobile game was very underwhelming; on the whole it felt like a watered down version of Elder Scrolls with a few building and social mechanics stacked on for good measure. I’ll give the development team kudos for working to include plenty of modes and a more classical pen-and-paper mode for portrait-oriented screens, but ultimately Blades won’t set the world on fire and should have been relegated to a separate announcement outside of E3.

The Verdict

After last year’s disappointing performance, Bethesda made a decent resurgence for E3 2018. They had plenty to say about every major franchise and while some announcements were more impressive than others, the presser went along at a good pace. Of all the games on show, it’s Fallout 76 which had me split down the middle. It’s nice to have the first multiplayer-based Fallout but in doing so, the series will continue to move away from its deep RPG roots and alienate long-term fans, myself included. We’ll find out how it turns out in November this year.

Rating: 7/10 (Good)

Watch this space for the other half of my E3 2018 Press Conference Mortem. Ubisoft, Sony the PC Gaming Show and Nintendo will be coming up soon!

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

Post-Viewing: Solo, The Last Jedi and the current state of Star Wars

For a franchise that has spanned over forty years, Star Wars has branded itself into popular arguably more than any other franchise; we’ve seen collectables, action figures, video games, fan-fiction and expanded stories among many other components. But as of 2018, the franchise appears to be in a bit of a rut. We’re just over halfway through Disney’s new foray into the science fiction series, which has been rocked by a major backlash and a mediocre spin-off tale.

First, let’s talk about The Last Jedi; part of the reason why I didn’t write a post-viewing for Episode VIII last year is because the backlash was so severe, I didn’t want to open The Cainage Critique to all kinds of nasty comments. The film is by far the most divisive Star Wars film ever released and the fact that it’s a mainline episodic entry in the franchise only amplified the hate that poured all over the internet. Most of the mega-fans I talk to have a deep dislike for Episode VIII, saying that it all went downhill as soon as Luke Skywalker tossed the lightsabre that connected the three trilogies. But more specifically, I’d say the three pet peeves with Rian Johnson’s effort are as follows…

1.     Luke Skywalker’s Overall Character Arc

2.     Supreme Leader Snoke’s untimely demise at the hands of Kylo Ren

3.     Rey’s parents being insignificant and not tied to any previous characters

Each of these, the fans tell me, ruin the story threads of episode VII among other aspects of the film that disregard the nature and rules of Star Wars as a whole. It got so bad that a petition was signed by thousands demanding The Last Jedi be removed from official canon. But for a fictional tale set in a galaxy far, far away, do any of the decisions made by Rian Johnson really break the franchise completely? Believe it or not, there was a time when Star Wars fans were eager and welcoming of new material and authors working to build upon and expand the original fiction. This took shape in the expanded universe, which has since been retconned by Disney but still holds sway with some parts of the fanbase. After taking some time to consider it, many now hold different views about Episode VIII and some of these are shared by the film’s creators; Mark Hamill himself called the film “incredibly daring”. My problem with The Last Jedi’s backlash is that fans have become so attached to theories and their own self-imagined plotlines in recent years that they subsequently turn very hostile to change that doesn’t fit their viewpoint. They cry foul at Episode VII for essentially being a remake of A New Hope one minute, then shout even louder at its sequel for going too far with change the next. Personally, I feel people, particularly long-time fans should try to be more open-minded to things they don’t expect. In the YouTube essay: “Forcing Change” by Lessons from the Screenplay, one key quote stuck out to me: “The Last Jedi directly answered all the questions it thought were worth answering and dismissed the rest”. Some enjoyed Episode VIII, myself included and others feel that the franchise has now been written into a corner, having cast aside every inch of not only the mystery set out by The Force Awakens but also the lore of Star Wars as a whole. In truth, it will be up to JJ. Abrams and the as-of-yet unnamed Episode XI to end the sequel trilogy on a high note. But the state of Star Wars isn’t only taking a downturn for its main entries.

Now we come to Solo: A Star Wars Story, which as you know I didn’t really enjoy so much; while not claiming the title of worst Star Wars film (Episode I: The Phantom Menace holds that dubious honour for me) it came off as incredibly lacklustre and more importantly, unneeded. Clearly audiences at large agree with the latter as it was recently revealed that Solo could be the first Star Wars film to lose money for its production company; it needs 500 million dollars to be successful and is currently sitting at 267 million. Some have called the film, the first “money-grab” rather than a coherent part of the franchise and I can’t help but agree. Rogue One used fan service to pronounced effect (That final Darth Vader scene is still fantastic…) while also patching up gaps in the timeline with an entirely new set of characters and a dramatically different tone. Solo tried something similar, but without giving much depth or arcs to its characters. We’re supposed to see how the likes of Han and Lando got to where they are at the start of the original trilogy and yet Solo didn’t tell me very much. The production troubles that plagued the film may have resulted in a less-than-stellar final product; 70% of the film was reshot by Ron Howard and this inconsistency undeniably takes the wind out of the spin-off’s sails. Solo is falling short right now for three reasons…

1.     The film’s lesser quality when compared to others in the new series

2.     The general audience’s lack of enthusiasm for a Han Solo origins story

3.     The overall animosity following The Last Jedi’s mixed reception in December 2017

In summary, the two biggest problems plaguing Star Wars right now are a somewhat over-entitled fanbase who are resistant to change and an inconsistent production when looking into the spin-offs. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but the overall level of backlash is a bit too high right now and this will end up impacting the future films to come if the filmmakers take it to heart. Simultaneously, Disney needs to take a step back and get the balance right; find out what the fans are after when it comes to spin-off stories without being afraid to let the filmmakers put their own spin on Star Wars as a whole. The franchise has survived 40 years and a trilogy of lacking prequels. It can certainly bounce back from the bad feedback it’s been getting in recent years. I continue to look forward to closing chapter of the sequel trilogy in 2019. 

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

Solo: A Star Wars Story Movie Review

Released: 25th May 2018 (United States)

Length: 135 Minutes

Certificate: 12A

Director: Ron Howard

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany

The sequel trilogy of Star Wars has been making steady progress, with the “Star Wars Stories” filling the gaps in-between. The second of these, based on a young Han Solo is set to continue the side-stories, albeit it with a rather mixed set of results.

As the title implies, Solo tells the tale of how the legendary smuggler (Played by Alden Ehrenreich) earned his reputation as one of the best pilots in the galaxy; Han himself is a loose cannon, bribing and talking his way through most situations and soon he teams up with a rag-tag group of smugglers led by Thomas Beckett (Woody Harrelson) to pull off heists across the galaxy. It’s a tantalising premise to learn a bit more about a popular character, but the result leaves much to be desired. The pacing in the first act is very sloppy as we’re dumped into the first action scene with very little context or background to set the scene in Han’s home town of Corellia. From here, things don’t really improve as transitions often occur jarringly from planet to planet, evidently the result of studio cuts and reshoots. For a film series that has always shown its heroes travelling from one place to another, you’ll often be left scratching your head as characters suddenly appear in other locations without much of the way of progression, resulting in a knock-on effect on the film’s pace. The action scenes are at least fun to watch but ultimately there’s very little in the way of tension, urgency or unpredictability here and because the film doesn’t tell us much that we don’t already know it lacks the impact of its contemporary prequels.

The characters, despite being well-acted, stand as a missed opportunity in Solo. Alden Ehrenreich is perfectly serviceable as Han, having taken some guidance from Harrison Ford in the lead-up to production, but his character doesn’t go through much change throughout the film; he’s very much the same cocky rogue we knew in the original trilogy. Joonas Suotamo fills in for Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca who is well portrayed but disappointingly we don’t learn much about what happened to the humble Wookie between episode III and this film. Donald Glover plays a young Lando Calrissian, and is easily the best performance of the bunch, but again the story doesn’t give much time to fill in the gaps of his character. Like the film’s insistence on transitioning without proper depth, the characters are highly lacking in backstory and other explanations. 2016’s Rogue One had this problem to an extent, but here the moments for character development are fleeting and overall none of the characters have any real arcs to go through. The film only hints at these, the most glaring of which being Thomas Beckett, who was inspired by Treasure Island’s Long John Silver to be a mentor to Han, but the film never follows through on making this bond work. Similarly, Han’s relationship with former flame Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) is never fully explored, particularly in the third act which ends up cutting the dynamic off before the film’s conclusion. The other characters are horribly underdeveloped, mostly there to fill up screen-time and this is particularly true for Paul Bettany’s Dryden Voss, a crime lord who does little other than hang out in his fancy space yacht throughout the film.

Solo continues to distinguish the spin-offs from the main episodes by opting for a greyer, more industrialised look that very much falls in line with Rogue One. It works well enough at portraying the seedier underbelly of crime slotted in-between the Rebel Alliance and Empire factions. Creature effects are also solid, keeping pace with the both the original and sequel trilogies in terms of practicality. The most impressive aspect of the presentation though, is the use of the Millennium Falcon; we’ve all heard about the 12-parsec run that made Han the legendary pilot he is, and the film takes full advantage of modern technology to create a dazzling sequence around two thirds into the film. This, along with the planet-based action sequences are all well-shot and edited, often involving many vehicles and aliens taking each other on. The soundtrack relies on countless remixes of older Star Wars tracks, which again grounds the proceedings without being all that memorable. Solo is very well-produced, but all told it can’t make up for the lack of plot and characterisation.

Poor pacing and shallow characters among other problems put Solo firmly at the bottom tier of the new series of Star Wars films. It has its entertaining moments in places, but much of the production fails to expand on the central character of Han Solo as well as the universe it takes place in, coming across as very unmemorable. Disney and company should ensure this doesn’t become a regular trend in the spin-off films to come.

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Mediocre)

Controversy Clocking Episode 12: Chasing the biggest trends and losing identities

What is the easiest way to beat or match the competition? Copy them; every entertainment medium has this problem at some point or another which sees artists taking inspiration from, modelling their own work on another’s previous contribution, or at other points looking to capitalise on the most popular trends in their genre or medium. Recently, games have been in the spotlight for the latter but not in a good way. In pursuit of the highest profits for the least amount of effort, new titles have been making concessions or worse, chopping features completely in favour of what makes more money.

With developers being so obsessed with “live service” games (which offer consistent ways to snag more of your hard-earned money after purchase) these days, it’s hardly surprising that they would go in this direction. You can’t monetise a straightforward single-player campaign nearly as well you can with online multiplayer; that’s something that companies know and will exploit to their advantage. The more modes in a new release that require an online connection, the more ad-hoc links to in-game stores, microtransactions and other schemes designed to keep players paying even after they already paid full price for a new release. Trends play a key role in making these regressions happen and the latest of these to rock the gaming industry is the Battle Royale genre, stamped onto the scene by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (Or PUBG for short) in 2017 which ranked up as the highest played game on Steam and PC for months after its release; this would be followed up by the free-to-play Fortnite from Epic Games. Both titles took their inspiration from 2012’s The Hunger Games and its formula of putting characters into a changing arena environment and pitting them against each other until only one is left standing. This genre has proven surprisingly addictive for video games, but it has also given way to some unsavoury behaviour. PUBG Corporation, the developer behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has been called out for its nasty behavior, refusing to update and polish the bugs in the game and also demanding a full claim over the use of Battle Royale genre via abuse of copyright laws. 

However, this pandering to trends is hardly new in the recent generations of gaming; 2013’s The Last of Us drew widespread critical acclaim and soon others wanted to make their own story-driven third-person adventure games, to limited success. The Order 1886 is a prime example of how taking inspiration from previous successes can fail. A similar thing also happened with the release of Overwatch in 2016, which saw other shooter studios move to inject more colour into their shooters, though often at the expense of tone and authenticity, as 2017’s Call of Duty WW2 and the recently revealed Battlefield 5 show. This causes once consistent franchises to lose their identity and eventually their impact on the gaming landscape as well as they start to blend together in a bid to capture as wide an audience as possible. As for the battle royale genre, it is only set to grow bigger as it inches closer and closer to eSports territory; recently I checked out the gaming arena in Las Vegas and the game placed on the big screen in the centre was Fortnite, showing its massive influence in recent times.

What happened next was other studios seeing the gigantic success of Battle Royale games and working to get a piece of the pie for themselves; these changes were minor at first, with titles such as DOTA 2 and Grand Theft Auto Online adding new modes designed to tide over fans of Battlegrounds and Fortnite. The genre soon fell in line with more unscrupulous gaming practices including microtransaction based cosmetic items, many of which customers will often pay through the nose for. From here though, things have been regressing in the industry; rather than adding their own spin to existing ideas (As Naughty Dog did with the Uncharted series for example), developers are now cutting features in favour of chasing trends and by far the biggest example of this is Activision and Call of Duty Black Ops 4. Set to release later this year, it was recently announced that the game would forgo a single-player campaign completely in favour of Battle Royale style mode named “Blackout”. Fans weren’t happy, but then the framing of the announcement only made things worse. With nowhere else to go, the Call of Duty franchise proudly boasted that “Blackout” would bring new innovations after years of stagnation but most viewers saw right through this rhetoric and called them out for being regressive and not bothering to make a fully-featured game to release to consumers. To take away features that have been common-place in gaming for years can hardly be considered innovation and the way multiplayer is being placed at a higher priority speaks to a more sinister corporate procedure when making games. The higher the player base who are connected to the internet, the more players who will go to the store and keep spending real money; gradually taking away the offline features of a title, ensures this number and the potential for money-making both increase. It leaves the door wide open for microtransactions and (god forbid) randomised loot-boxes to sneak their way into online modes over time.

Overall, this idea of pandering to trends and other gaming audiences will only stifle creativity in the long run, while also opening the gates for more horrible consumer practices in some of the biggest games. Why should developers get creative and attempt to move design and gameplay forward when they can look towards the worst money-making practices instead? This regression in games due to chasing trends will only result in more exploitative practices; instead developers should work to stand out from the crowd, or at the very least bring their own style or improvements to existing sub-genres. Only then can the industry move forward.

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

Deadpool 2 Movie Review

Released: 18th May 2018 (United States)

Length: 119 Minutes

Certificate: 15

Director: David Leitch

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand and Stefan Kapicic

The original Deadpool released to a smash success in 2016, singlehandedly proving that not all superhero flicks had to appeal to as wide an audience as possible; its raunchy humour and self-contained nature swayed thousands of audiences everywhere, putting it on the top of the X-Men series in terms of profitability. Two years on and the sequel is hoping to repeat that success; with a few drawbacks, things still work surprisingly well.

Picking up two years after the first film, the mutant Deadpool/Wade Watts (Ryan Reynolds) continues his one-man fight against crime, while looking to start a family with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). But things soon get complicated with the arrival of time-travelling cyborg Cable (Josh Brolin), who has a personal interest in eliminating a young mutant named Firefist (played by Julian Dennison). What follows is a crazy mix of action, drama and a barrel full of laughs, with some of the funniest moments including Deadpool’s recruiting of the X-Force with a few select cameos, and a hilarious scene involving the antihero’s regeneration of a few limbs (though that I’ll leave you to discover on your own). The action is blistering and brutal, with an enthusiastic sense of variety, transferring from a prison escape one minute and a truck chase the next. Outside of these components, Deadpool 2 attempts to deepen the central character with some extra emotion, beginning with a heart-wrenching moment that fuels his push to do better as a person. It’s a welcome direction to go in for the sequel, though at points it does lessen the pacing of the jokes; in the original, the humour was rapid, energetic and always hitting the right spot, which added to its charm. Here, things slow down a little and not always for the best. Be that as it may, the jokes, fourth-wall breaks and references more than rise to the occasion.

And this is thanks to another excellent performance by Ryan Reynolds, who channels the character better than just about any of his other roles; the comedic timing, the cheeky winks to the camera, he keeps up the already superb representation of the character effortlessly. Josh Brolin (who is sure to make a killing this year with this film, Infinity War and the upcoming Sicario 2) debuts Cable onto the big screen and it’s another brilliant performance; the way his serious, vengeful personality clashes with Deadpool provides plenty of laughs throughout the film. The newcomers are equally strong with Zazie Beetz’s Domino adding some extra spice to the action and Firefist’s attempts to big himself up rarely resulting in success. The returning Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) has plenty of screen time with humour and action aplenty, especially in the film’s last third. Despite this though, there are some characters here who do get put aside for a while, most notably Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brienne Hildebrand) who only really gets her time to shine in the film’s last moments. Things never become too unbalanced between the characters, but it is a shame to see some of them taken down a notch after the first film.

Deadpool’s technical details are more than a match for the first film; the action on display is fuelled by carnage, with destruction effects, bloody injuries and stunts all coming together to make another entertaining package. Costume work for the newcomers in Deadpool 2 is authentic to the comics, particularly for Cable and Domino. The collection of shots, which often make use of slow-motion for extra satirical effect, all look brilliant and the soundtrack is just as mad as the rest of the proceedings, with pounding rap music, profane choirs and a truly insane use of dubstep that also lends itself to the action well. With a larger scale to the action to match the more wider perspective of the story, Deadpool 2 continues to impress with its presentation.

A reduced level of laughs and some side-lined characters put Deadpool 2 below the brilliant original, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing it; this is another wild, funny, no-holds barred parody that delivers more of the same wacky action you loved in the first while simultaneously linking up with the X-Men and exploring more of Wade’s inner character.

Rating: 4/5 Stars (Great)

Be More Kind Album Review

Released: 4th May 2018

Published by: Xtra Mile and Polydor

Following “Positive Songs for Negative People” and compilation album Songbook, popular British singer Frank Turner has had his seventh release which marks itself as more thoughtful and reflective while still maintaining his classical flair.

Turner has had a massive cult following in the UK over the past decade by offering simple yet incredibly charismatic acoustic pieces and on top of that, he’s also a very down to earth chap with quite a bit to say about the world we live in.

While the album opens with the uplifting “Don’t Worry”, there’s no doubt that Be More Kind is a commentary on the difficult politics and conflicts we’re dealing with today (Make America Great Again being the most straightforward of the bunch) and it’s all a very passionate lyrical plea for people to come together and build bridges. When you home in on the lyrics, this theme shines through; for example, “They’ve started raising walls around the world now” and “Last night I had a vision of people asking questions instead of talking without listening”. For the most part, the album keeps this tone up consistently, with a couple of deviations. Blackout is fast-paced and energised, taking its inspiration from the geo-magnetic storm of 1989, and The Lifeboat hammers home the plight of refugees and migration. Each track features its fair share of acoustic guitar and on the whole the album swaps effortlessly from lively beats to more emotive numbers while also delivering excellent flow through the lyrics; Of the thirteen tracks, the titular “Be More Kind” succeeds the most at the latter. The only odd track in the album, “There She Is” is a carryover from Songbook, despite it still succeeding at pulling the heartstrings, it does lessen the album’s impact a bit.

With wide variety and a strong thematic pull, Frank Turner’s latest album is another brilliant effort that compels you to share both his concerns for the world and his hope that people will do better. Both regular fans and newcomers to his music will easily latch on.

Rating: B

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