Video Game Review #252: Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I first played the original Spider-Man for the PS4 back in 2019, where I gave the game an ultra-rare super coveted A+ grade. I've been looking forward to its sequel ever since. In January 2021 I finally got my chance to play it. Would it live up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor? Let's find out.

Story:

This game follows the character of Miles Morales, the new Spider-Man who was introduced in the previous game. Peter Parker has left New York City on a sabbatical, leaving its protection in Miles' capable hands. Miles is quickly thrust into action when an underground group known as, well, the Underground goes to war against the corrupt Roxxon power company. The underground is equipped with ultra high-tech weaponry and they aren't afraid to blow shit up to get their point across. The entire game consists of Miles battling both sides of this conflict and trying to stop them before they destroy New York City completely.

It's a decent story. Everything feels a bit more self-contained here. It is not as grandiose and villain-packed as the previous Spider-Man title. My main issue is that literally everyone in Miles' life is somehow involved in this conflict in one way or another (spoilers forthcoming!). His mom is running for public office and gets wrapped up in the battle. His childhood best friend is the secret leader of the Underground, known as The Tinkerer. His new best friend is his "tech guy" who guides him through his missions. His uncle is an armored mercenary named The Prowler. I know it is a stretch for me to say that this is unrealistic in a game where a guy in a spider suit zips around the city fighting crime... but a certain suspension of belief is required to fully enjoy this game. 

Outside of that, I had no issues with the game's story. I love how well-developed Miles is a character. Several quests have you collecting knickknacks and artifacts that are important to him, and each of these things add layers and layers to his personality that you didn't necessarily get with Peter Parker.

Gameplay:

If you played the first Spider-Man game you will have no problem picking things up here. In many ways, this title's gameplay is identical to its predecessor. You zip around the city collecting items, fighting crimes, and taking on missions that advance the game's storyline. There are some important differences, however.

Miles can become invisible for short periods of time. This assists with the game's stealth mechanic. Throwing on your invisibility cloak and swooping in and taking down a few enemies before zipping away to recharge is a skill that would do you well to learn as you play this game. Miles also has electric Venom powers that charge up in battle. These Venom powers can be added to attacks to make them more powerful. They also come in handy during missions when you need to charge things up with electricity to power them on.

There are still random crimes in this game, but they are a lot more varied and less repetitive than in the previous Spider-Man title. Also, this game introduces a new Spidey app where people can request Spider-Man's assistance, and you can answer these requests at any time or in any order you'd like. 

So yeah. While this game may seem like not much has changed from the original - that isn't necessarily the case. You just have to look a little deeper for those changes.

Graphics:

This game looks fantastic. Zipping around through the city is as exhilarating as ever. New York City is bursting with life and with incredible detail. Even the most insignificant side streets and alleyways are intricately designed and have something that is unique about them.

The characters look great too. You can't go wrong with Spider-Man's design, no matter which costume he is wearing. All the supporting cast members look like real, authentic people. Game interiors look fantastic too. I remember watching the Christmas dinner scene in Miles' house and thinking that no way would the little kid who grew up on Super Mario Bros and Tetris ever dream that video games could look this good. Well, they do. And they are only getting better.

Sound:

Everything sounds great too. The music is catchy and the voice acting is on point, as are the sound effects. If I had to nitpick anything it would be the voice acting of Miles himself. He just sounds so whiny and nasally sometimes, especially when he is excited. He doesn't sound like a 17-year-old. He sounds like he hasn't made it through puberty yet.

Overall:

If you liked the original Spider-Man game, absolutely nothing should stop you from liking this one too. It's fast paced, it's exciting, it's heartfelt. It is a bit shorter than the original game, however. I beat this game in less than a week whereas the original took me about a week and a half to complete. I've heard some people say it feels more like DLC or an expansion pack than an original game. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I can see where these people are coming from.

The bottom line with this game is: I had fun. The missions are fun, the graphics are beautiful, and there are a lot of collectibles packed into this game that'll keep you zipping around New York City all night looking to collect "just one more." Miles himself is an interesting character and it was a treat to go on his personal journey with him as I played through this game. 

This game is quite a bit similar to its predecessor, which is keeping it from getting a higher score. And honestly, the wow factor of the game, that feeling that I was playing something new and exciting that I felt with the original title was lacking here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess. It's a good mantra, but it can only get you so far. Here's hoping the next entry to this series changes things in new and exciting ways.

Final Score:

B+

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Spider-Man

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Origins

Horizon Zero Dawn

Nier: Automata

Video Game Review#251: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I've been wanting to play this game since it first came out. All the reviews I have read say that this is a mixture of Star Wars and Uncharted. Right up my alley! This is the first time I have played this game, so I don't really have any nostalgic feelings to talk about. On with the review!

Story:

Jedi Fallen Order tells the story of Cal Kestis, a survivor of the Empire's infamous Order 66 massacre. Cal is laying low and working as a salvage tech when he accidentally uses his Force powers to save a friend in trouble. The incident is noticed by the Empire, and they send a fearsome attack squad out to capture him. Cal escapes with the help of Cere, a former Jedi who just so happens to be looking for an actual Jedi to help her gain access to some ancient ruins. Cal enters these ruins and becomes caught up in a planet-to-planet race in order to find a Holocron that has the names and locations of all the Force sensitive children in the galaxy. Along the way, Cal clashes with Trilla, Ceres' former apprentice who has turned to the dark side. Eventually the Holocron is recovered, Darth Vader shows up in a surprise twist and scares the shit out of everyone, and Cal and Cere escape and destroy the Holocron to protect the identities of the innocent children. The end.

I mean, it is an okay story. Kinda inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Star Wars universe. I was never too interested in it. I was more interested in the world of the game, if anything. Anything set in the Star Wars universe has my attention, particularly anything set in that area between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Seeing Darth Vader was awesome and unexpected. But If I had to pick, the most interesting thing to me would be Trilla and her relationship with Cere. Cal himself is kind of a bland character, although I found the relationship with his droid BD-1 to be quite endearing.

Gameplay:

Uncharted meets Star Wars is a very lazy way to describe this game. Sure, you do a lot of climbing and flipping and swinging from ropes and sliding down embankments and solving puzzles and that kind of thing, but I found this to be more of a cheap Dark Souls imitation than anything else. The lightsaber acts as your main weapon. You have to strategically block and parry. You can use your Force powers to slow time and push or pull your enemies. When you rest at a save point, it respawns all the enemies on the map. Each enemy you kill gives you experience, which leads to you gaining Skill Points. Use these skill points at a save point to level up your character's abilities.

Each area's map is wide open, filled with things to unearth and discover. Some areas you cannot access until you gain specific powers later in the game, and then you have to remember where they are and come back to them. Just like Blaster Master on the NES. 

This is a very easy game to get the hang of. 

Graphics:

This is an amazing looking game. Seeing the world of Star Wars brought to life with such beautiful graphics is a really big treat for such a mega dork like me. I love the color scheme of this game - all the sunsets and the varied landscapes you encounter. I don't know how to describe this, but I love the dark hallways and corridors with the blinking red and white lights that have that classic Star Wars "Imperial" look to them. I often felt like I was walking through areas that you might see in the bowels of a Star Destroyer in one of the original trilogy movies. If that makes sense.

And this will probably be a weird compliment but I love how the stormtroopers look in this game. For the first time in Star Wars video game history, I really felt like I was fighting against an accurate representation of stormtroopers from the original trilogy. 

Character models look okay. Not perfect, as sometimes peoples' hair can look really bizarre and out of place, but overall, still pretty good. Trella is hot in that intense, crazy-eyed kind of way. What makes this title truly a wonder to look at though is not the characters, however, it is its beautiful setting and landscapes.

Sound:

Has there ever been a Star Wars game with a poor musical score? Not to my knowledge. While this game doesn't use any music from the movies (that I was able to recognize), the spirit of that music is alive and kicking in this game's soundtrack. A lot of these songs sound like they'd fit right in at some point in the original movie trilogy.

Sound effects are great too. As I played this game, I constantly drew my lightsaber and put it away over and over again because of how satisfying that hiss sound is. The sound of blaster fire, the sound of TIE fighters racing by overhead - everything is authentic to the Star Wars universe. Voice acting is good too. The banter between stormtroopers reminds me (yet again) of something you'd hear in the original Star Wars movie trilogy. All in all, just really fantastic in the sound department.

Overall:

While overall I would say I enjoyed this game, it has a lot of flaws. Combat seems a bit unpolished at times. You can only lock on to one enemy at a time, but often large groups of enemies will attack you. It is really hard to switch your target back and forth in the middle of a battle, often making combat a disorienting and confusing affair. Often during boss fights you can lose your lock on the enemy and end up not being able to see anything in front of you because the camera got turned around.

World maps are enormous and often confusing to decipher. When you complete a mission, you don't fast travel back to your ship; you have to hike ALL the way back through the area you just cleared one more time. It is such a tedious chore. Due to the large size of these maps and all the different branching paths, returning to your ship can be a lot tougher than it sounds. I got lost SO many times playing this game.

Frame rate can be a bit sluggish at times too. I'd be running along and things would slow down and get super choppy. it didn't destroy my enjoyment of the game, but it was a minor nuisance off and on as I continued to play. More of a game-wrecker is this title's load times. How on earth can a game this new have such egregious load times? Expect to wait at least 30 seconds for your character to respawn after he died. And this is a game where you die a lot. Sheesh!

As I said before, I didn't find the game's story to be very interesting. In fact, it was very run of the mill. The only characters I had any interest in were Cere and Trilla. Everyone else is just so bland. As far as this game's story goes, I don't even care if this game has a sequel or not. I could never see these characters again and I would be completely okay with that.

This game's saving grace is that it is fun to play. I will admit that after my first session with this game (which lasted about 1 or 2 hours), I came away from it less than impressed. But the more I played, the more and more I started to let this game sink its claws into me. There's so much to see and so much to explore. The combat is just the right mix of challenging and forgiving. Although this title does a bit to emulate the gameplay of Dark Souls, it definitely does NOT match its difficulty level. That's not to say I didn't die a healthy number of times while playing this. Aside from a few boss fights, this game never feels too frustrating or unfair. Throw in some A+ production values and Jedi Fallen Order is a lot more entertaining than it probably has any business being.

This is a good, solid game. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed by it. And when I say little I mean a little. I feel that with better characters, a better story, and some slight gameplay improvements this could have been a GREAT game. As it stands, it is just a good game. Will I ever come back to this title again? Probably not. But am I glad I played it? Yes. Definitely yes.

Final Score:

B

If you liked this review, check out some of my other reviews:

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Video Game Review #250: Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 3

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

Even though I am a pretty big fan of the PS1 Resident Evil series, for some reason I was never too fond of its third installment: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It was too short. It was too easy. It didn't offer multiple characters or any kind of additional replay value. You retread a lot of old ground. It didn't advance the main story in any way. So on and so forth.

Every few years or so I come back to the game and give it another go, and each time I find that I still don't like it. I mean, I don't hate it. It is just very mediocre to me. After my most recent playthrough of the game I even said enough is enough and I traded it in to a used game store. I shouldn't have done that, as I would love to give the game another shot someday (just so I can not like it again, LOL). But it is what it is.

That being said, I was not very excited for the remake of the game which came out on PS4 last year. I dragged my heels at giving it a chance. I didn't like the original version of the game, why would I like the remake? I haven't liked ANY of the Resident Evil remakes more than the original versions of the game. My expectations for this were not high.

What a surprise I was in for! I absolutely loved this game. It is easily my favorite of the remakes, and easily the title that improves the most upon its original reiteration. Keep reading for all the fun details.

Story:

You play as Jill Valentine, one of the survivors of the mansion incident from the first Resident Evil game. Jill is hanging out in her Raccoon City apartment doing some research on the evil Umbrella corporation. She doesn't seem to realize how bad things have gotten outside. The virus has infected the general population, and Raccoon City has begun to descend into chaos. Jill is tossed into the chaos when the Nemesis crashes through her apartment wall in an attempt to kill her. Jill gets away, but now has to fight for survival in the middle of a zombie infested Raccoon City, all with the Nemesis hot on her heels.

As the game progresses, Jill joins forces with a group of mercenaries that are looking to help people escape the city through the subway tunnels. You occasionally play as one of these mercenaries, Carlos. After the Nemesis puts the kaibosh on the subway plan, Carlos and Jill's journey take them to the police station from Resident Evil 2, a hospital, and underground warehouse, and because this is a Resident Evil game and these are obligatory: a sewer and a secret Umbrella lab.

Gameplay:

This game handles nearly exactly the same as the Resident Evil 2 remake. Similar control schemes, similar inventory management, similar puzzles, similar gunplay. You even revisit a chunk of Resident Evil 2 as Carlos when you explore the Raccoon City police station. Nemesis takes on the Mr. X role as he stalks you throughout the course of the game. I found Nemesis to be a lot less annoying than Mr. X, though. Nemesis only seems to pop up during story-relevant areas of the game. He doesn't follow you around everywhere you go like Mr. X. I am thankful for this because I hate not being able to explore properly because I've got some bullet sponge on my tail everywhere I go.

This game seems a lot more action oriented than its predecessor, but it works. It doesn't dive too deep into shooter territory like Resident Evils 5 and 6. This is still a survival horror game where you have to monitor your ammunition usage and keep an eye on your health gauge at all times. There's just bigger weapons and more shooting than the last game. And I am okay with that!

I've heard a lot of complaints about the game being too short, but I didn't have a problem with its length. It seems longer than the original Resident Evil 3. I played this game for three days, a few chunks of hours at a time, before I finally beat it. I feel I got my money's worth. 

Graphics:

This game is drop dead gorgeous. It may be the best-looking video game I have played in my life. I'm all about that RE3 aesthetic. Fantastic character models (Jill is a super hottie). Incredibly detailed and realistic environments. The action sequences are so cinematic they rival that of any blockbuster action movie. All the special effects like fire, water effects, and explosions look very realistic. So much detail went into this game.

It's intense when the action is flowing. Atmospheric and haunting when things slow down and you find yourself creeping around in the dark. I love it.

Sound:

This game's sound is on-point too. Good voice acting, music that matches the intensity of what is happening on the screen, all kinds of little touches that add to the cinematic feel of the game. Play this with headphones on for all the little atmospheric touches as well. The world of this game is a living and breathing one thanks to the combination of its graphics and sound effects.

Overall:

I think you've already been able to glean that I really enjoyed this game. I don't know what I can say about it that I haven't already. It is REALLY good. If you are even the slightest fan of the Resident Evil series, you need to check this out. As I said, this is easily the best of the three remakes so far. Bravo, Capcom.

Complaints? I mean, I guess the game is short. But I never felt it was too short or anything. The warehouse segment of the game was kind of meh for me. And I was not excited to play through a sewer and an underground laboratory section again. Seriously, you DON'T have to include these two environments in every single Resident Evil game in existence. But if that's  the only bad thing I can say about these games, I guess you can say I liked it pretty darn well.

I forgot to mention, this game also includes a multiplayer mode called Resident Evil: Resistance, but I didn't even bother to play it. You should know by reading this blog that I am not a multiplayer person. At all.

So that's that. Great game. Much better than the original Resident Evil 3. I liked it a lot.

Overall:

A

If you liked this review, check out some of my other reviews:

Resident Evil: Director's Cut

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 2 (2020) 

Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

Video Game Review #249: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

Before we proceed too far into this review, I want to clarify that I am counting this as a Super Nintendo game since I played it on the Super Mario All-Stars cartridge for the SNES. This game never saw an NES release in the United States, despite being designed and released as Super Mario Bros. 2 overseas. Apparently that version of the game was deemed too difficult for United States players, and also too similar to the original Super Mario Bros, so it was never released stateside. 

Instead, the Super Mario Bros. 2 that we saw in the U.S. was simply a re-skinned version of Doki Doki Panic. The REAL Super Mario Bros. 2 didn't see the light of day in the U.S. until it was released as a part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo in 1993. And that is the version I played for this review.

Story:

Don't expect to see anything new here. It is almost as if the original Super Mario Bros. didn't happen. Bowser is still the bad guy. He's still got the Princess. And, you guessed it, she is still in another castle. It is up to you to rescue her.

Gameplay:

If you've played the original Super Mario Bros. you should have a perfect understanding of this title's gameplay. There are eight stages, each one consisting of four levels - the fourth one always being Bowser's castle. I think of this game as more of an expansion pack of new levels for the first game than an original game itself. There are almost no differences from the original title's gameplay to this one.

I say almost because there are some slight changes; a few wrinkles that have been added to make things more difficult. Warp pipes that take you back several levels instead of moving you forward. Blue mushrooms that hurt you when you touch them. Super powerful trampolines that launch your character into the air and off of the screen. There are even the occasional added wind effects that, depending on the direction of the wind, can help propel your character forward or push him back.

I don't know if this is an actual gameplay change or if I am just losing my mind, but I found the game's control scheme to be a little looser than the original Super Mario Bros. When I would try to nail a precision jump, I'd find the momentum of my character constantly taking me over the ledge and to my death. I had a difficult time timing my jumps and adjusting to changes in mid-air. Again, maybe this was just my mind playing tricks on me, but I don't recall having any of these issues with the original Super Mario Bros.

What this game will be remembered for is its difficulty. This game is REALLY tough - almost unfairly so at times. Some levels would be an absolute breeze while others would take me literally hours to finish. I think I was stuck on World 8-4 for two hours at the very least until I finally conquered it. Expect to die, and die a lot.

Graphics:

Taking into account that I played the enhanced Super Mario All-Stars version of this game, it looked quite good - undoubtedly better than the non-enhanced version of the game that just looks exactly the same as the original Super Mario Bros. The colors are bright, the backgrounds are detailed. This is definitely a good looking 16-bit game. Almost as good looking as Super Mario World.

Sound:

This game sounds also exactly the same as the original title. The iconic musical tracks for each level have been slightly modified to sound more hip and modern. Same with the sound effects. The sound of Mario jumping is now the same as what you hear in Super Mario World. You'll find no complaints from me here. I just wish I didn't have to hear that darn "you died" jingle so many freaking times.

Overall:

I'm glad to say I played this game, just for the sake of saying I played it. Was it fun? Did I like it? Debatable. I love the original Super Mario Bros. - and like I said this game is basically an extension of the original title. So by default you would think I loved this right? Right?

Ehhhh. This game has its moments, sure. But all of its good moments seem to be canceled out by bad moments at the same time. The difficulty is just so uneven. Fair and competent one stage, and staggeringly brutal the next. A lot of the additions made to the game don't seem well thought out. You're often rewarded by exploring and being curious with something shitty happening like having to warp back to the first level - and that is not cool. Luckily this version of the game gives you the ability to save your progress. You have an unlimited number of continues as well. This helped majorly because I can't even IMAGINE running out of lives and having to start all the way back at the beginning of the game again each time I ran out of lives.

All in all, this was an okay game. It doesn't do much for me either way. It isn't great but it isn't terrible either. It is what it is - a clone of the original game without the iconic level design, and with its difficulty ramped up tenfold. If this is something that appeals to you - by all means have at it. But even if you were a giant fan of the original Mario games for the NES, you wouldn't be missing much if you decided to skip out on this.

Final Score:

C

If you liked this review, please read some of my other game reviews:

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario World

Super Mario 64

Ranking every movie I watched in 2020: The bottom feeders

2020 has finally ended (thank god!) and you know what that means: it is time for my year-end movie rankings. Usually, I watch hundreds of movies per year, but in 2020 I managed to sit down and watch a whopping 67 movies. This can be contributed to a lot of things, like the pandemic shutting down movie theaters, for example. But really the main reason is because I simply don't have time to sit down and watch movies anymore now that I have a newborn baby to look after. That should make my ranking pretty easy to complete, though. I was always daunted whenever I watched one or two hundred movies and then I had to rank them all. Notice how I've been trimming down my ranking the last few years? But 67... 67 I can do.

Let's start with the bottom and work our way up to the top. Here we go: the worst movies I watched in 2020.

#67:

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Slow, boring, made NO logistical sense whatsoever. Stiff, wooden acting. Characters talking in riddles and behaving in the absolute stupidest way possible. I hated every second of this movie. I wanted that two hours of my life back after I finished this. There was ZERO entertainment value to be found from this film. Easily the worst movie I watched in 2020, and maybe one of the worst movies I have seen, period.

#66:

Underworld

I had never seen this movie before, but I have friends who always talk about it like it is good, so I decided to give it a chance. Big mistake. Poor acting, laughable special effects, cheesy action sequences, and a plot I cared absolutely nothing about. This movie was a giant let down. Even Kate Beckinsale's hotness couldn't keep this from being a complete failure in my mind. I will definitely not be checking it out its sequels.

#65:

The Lighthouse

I expected this movie to be weird, but I still thought I would be entertained by it. But no. This is a slow, dull movie about 2 gross dudes making each other paranoid in a lighthouse. It wasn't scary. It didn't make sense. It was gross but not in a way that tickles my fancy like, for example, Gaspar Noe films usually do. It's just really boring and bad.

#64:

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I usually love Avengers movies, but this one just doesn't do anything for me. I watched it in the theaters when it first came out and I didn't like it. I watched it in 2019 and didn't like it. I gave it one last shot in 2020 and I still didn't like it. Easily one of the worst films in the MCU.

#63:

Blade Runner

I am not saying this is a bad movie, but I don't even remember watching Blade Runner in 2020. I'll assume I either fell asleep or was playing on my phone the entire movie. Still, I saw this movie a few years ago and didn't like it very much (despite the fact that you'd think it would be right up my alley). My 2020 rewatch did nothing to change my mind. I'll give it another chance soon I am sure.

EDIT: I watched this in January of 2021 and I liked it a lot. Expect it to be higher on next year's ranking.

#62:

Us

After Get Out I really expected to like this movie. But no. It is a completely dull, forgettable film. I watched this back towards the beginning of the year so I don't remember much about it - other than that I was bored by it. Maybe I'll give it another shot someday, but probably not.

#61:

Gangs of New York

I know this may seem like sacrilege to some people, but I didn't like this movie very much. It was overly long and boring. I didn't care much about the time period it was set in. The whole time I was watching it, I kept checking the time to see how much was left. Sorry, not sorry. There are good things about this movie, but I just wasn't a big fan.

#60:

Tomorrow Never Dies

Believe it or not, the only Pierce Brosnan Bond film I had seen prior to watching this was Goldeneye, which I loved. I had heard the rest of them were bad, but I foolishly still expected to like them. I started with Tomorrow Never Dies... and yeah it wasn't very good. I had planned to watch the rest of the Brosnan Bond films but this likely killed my interest in the series.

#59:

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

If Age of Ultron is the weakest MCU movie, this one is not too far behind it. The visuals are great, the soundtrack is great, and there are some fun gags to be found here. But the movie itself feels inconsequential to everything going on in the MCU and I found myself caring very little about the fight between Starlord and his father. Random Dan trivia: my wife and I watched this movie from her hospital room the day after she gave birth to our son Channing.

#58:

There Will be Blood

I have nothing against Daniel Day Lewis, I swear. But this movie suffers the same problem as Gangs of New York with its slow pace and bloated length. This one gets the edge though for being slightly more enjoyable to watch. Cinematography is good too!

#57:

 Toy Story 4

I watched all the Toy Story movies in order, starting with the original Toy Story at the end of 2019 and the rest of the films in 2020. By the time I got to Toy Story 4, I think I was Toy Story-d out for a while and I ended up not really liking it that much. The third movie was a perfect send off. This one felt like it mucked things up a little bit. I am open to giving it another shot in the future, though (and I probably will because I am sure my son is going to want to watch these movies when he gets older).

#56:

Star Trek: Nemesis

This movie gets flak for being one of the worst films in the Star Trek franchise. That flak is well-earned, I must say. There are elements to the film I enjoy, and the fact that I get to see the TNG cast all together again elevates this movie above the others below it in my opinion. But it still isn't very good. And I can't believe they did Data like that.

#55

Climax

I mentioned earlier that I usually love Gaspar Noe films, but this was easily the worst of his movies that I have seen. I like the premise and everything, but I found things just too unbelievable for my tastes. People don't act like that when they're tripping out. They act weird, sure. But completely psychotic and murderous? No. The first half of the movie with all the dancing is really dull too.

#54:

The Lion King (2019)

If you are going to remake a classic movie like the Lion King, at least do something to elevate it or set it apart from the original. This movie did not do that. While I am sure it is a completely okay movie, why watch this when you could watch the original instead? It is so much better.

#53:

Mulan (1998)

Everyone always sings the praises of this movie and how it is one of the better Disney films, but I was relatively unimpressed. Nothing here was anything I haven't seen or read before. I'm sure my opinion would be different if I had grown up with this movie, but I didn't so it won't.

#52:

The Shawshank Redemption

Generally this movie would rank MUCH higher on a list like this. I love this movie! But it all depends on my mood when watching the film and for some reason I just wasn't feeling The Shawshank Redemption when I watched it in 2020. This is a movie that I could easily rewatch in 2021 and have it make my top 5.

#51

Three Men and a Little Lady

I loved the first movie, but I was just meh on this one. It wasn't nearly as funny as the original, and I found myself not caring one bit about the way the plot of this movie went.

#50:

Braveheart

This movie easily ranks in my top 5 movies of all time. It might even be number one! But like with The Shawshank Redemption, it all depends on my mood when watching a film - and I just wasn't feeling Braveheart when I watched it in 2020. I watched this earlier in the year, and with Kobe's death, the pandemic, me getting a new job, and a new baby on the way, I just couldn't dive into this movie like I normally am able to do and found myself quite distracted while watching it.

#49:

Into the Forest

This is different from your normal post-apocalyptic movie. It focuses on a dad and his two daughters who live out in the middle of nowhere when the apocalypse hits. You get to see things spiral out of control not in mass chaos but in a slower more deliberate way. While I liked the movie, it didn't hit very hard with me even though you could tell it was trying to make you cry. It was aiiiight.

#48:

Sorry to Bother You

Just freaking weird. It is stylish and I like the Black Mirror-esque twist, but would I ever say I thought this movie was fantastic? Nah. Entertaining, sure. But not fantastic.

#47:

The Karate Kid III

Clearly the worst of the original Karate Kid movies, but still a fun movie in its own right.

#46:

I Am Not Your Negro

A very well-done documentary, but this isn't a movie you sit down and watch while eating popcorn and hoping for thrills and a good time.

#45:

Rosemary's Baby

A movie where nothing really happens, but is still interesting at the same time. I mean, I KNOW stuff happens but it is still very slow moving and very not obvious with its horror. I didn't find anything about this movie scary.

#44:

Schindler's List

Another one of those movies that you know is extremely well done and carries a powerful message - but at the same time can you really say this movie is "fun" to watch? Maybe I'm just getting older and the times are too dark. Give me escapism, please!

#43: 

Captain America: Civil War

I usually love this movie (in fact it ranked #1 on my list the year it came out), but for some reason I wasn't quite feeling it this time around. Still a great movie though, and where things in the MCU start to get real!

#42:

The Karate Kid II

Honestly, I really expected to like this movie more than I did. I remember reading the novelization when I was a kid, although I had never actually seen the movie before. It was a bit underwhelming to me and didn't carry the same weight the original movie did. 

#41:

Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice

A documentary about a family trying to save their sick daughter by freezing her until a cure becomes available. Interesting movie as it gives you a look into something you only think about in sci fi movies. Still, depressing as shit though.

I guess this is where we'll leave off. Top 40, here we come!