“Dumb Money”, the upcoming movie about the Reddit GameStop event, is so surreal to me because I was literally following this on Reddit when it was happening. It’s a biopic for something that’s only two years old.

How my law school internship has been going:

Potential client: *telling us their incredibly heavy, tragic life story*

Me hearing all this, taking notes for the lawyers:

Sorry for the lack of updates on this blog. I’ve been SUPER busy with law school, my new internship, and home stuff. I haven’t really had much time to really sit down and watch something (aside from Indiana Jones 5 from yesterday).

I’ll get to Secret Invasion at some point. For now, expect this blog to not be as active as before, at least until my schedule starts clearing up, which won’t be for a while.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” review:

Short review

“Uncharted 4” hit the same story beats, but better. I’ll give the movie a 6/10.

Long review

As the final chapter in Indiana Jones’ life, I have mixed thoughts. Is it because of the time travel? No, I was actually fine with that. Indiana Jones has always had some element of weirdness, ranging from the supernatural to literal aliens. My issue with this movie is that, as the final chapter in the series, it felt…underwhelming.

It’s strange because the movie was sorta hitting all the points it needed to hit. They had the emphasis on Indy being old, the passing of the torch to Wombat, the return of other classic characters like Sallah and Marion, bringing the Nazis back as the villains, and so on. James Mangold was hitting the points he needed to hit, which makes sense since this is the guy who gave us “Logan”.

But the problem is, Indiana Jones isn’t Wolverine. I think Indiana Jones, as a character, is unsuitable for the type of somber, deep character study that the movie was trying to do. This is a character who was made to represent light-hearted escapism, and you could see that by how the first three movies never went too deep or too serious with Indy. Even “Crystal Skull”, with all its flaws, didn’t do that. So now we have “Dial of Destiny” trying to shift gears into darker, more dramatic territory and it just doesn’t hit.

For example, the reveal that Mutt Williams got killed in the Vietnam War. It’s a reveal that’s too dark and sudden to really leave a lasting impact, especially since the next scene afterwards is a thrilling dive to a shipwreck. You just want the movie to slow down and let these moments sink in. But the problem is, if the movie slows down, it stops being a fun Indiana Jones movie.

So, we got a problem here. Was there ever a way that the writers could’ve solved this clash of conflicting tones?

Now I will say, I think there’s a version of this story that COULD HAVE worked. Like I wrote, James Mangold was hitting all the story beats he needed to hit. It’s just that the story needed:

Yup. I’m gonna say this with full sincerity; “Dial of Destiny” would’ve worked if it was centered on Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood going on one last adventure. You can keep Mutt Williams dying, because that would mean the story would be about Indy and Marion reconciling with each other. Going back to my short review, the more I thought about it, the more that “Dial of Destiny” felt like James Mangold’s attempt at making an “Uncharted 4” movie.

Just like “Dial”, the fourth “Uncharted” game centered on an aging Nathan Drake getting pulled out of retirement for one last adventure. That game managed to actually be BOTH somber and lighthearted. You’d have scenes where Nathan is riding around a motorcycle and spewing one-liners, followed up by Nathan having a deep conversation with Elena.

But here’s why I feel “Uncharted 4” worked while “Dial” didn’t. Naughty Dog knew that in order to bring Nathan’s story to a proper close, they needed to center it on the main cast. In fact, one of the best sequences in the entire game is literally just Nathan and Elena driving around the jungle talking about their lives.

“Dial” doesn’t work because the story is centered on Indy, his goddaughter who we’ve never seen before (and whose father is a new character), and this random kid who was pretty much Short Round 2.0. And it’s frustrating because the BIGGEST dramatic reveal of the movie was Indy talking about his dead son and his divorce. Sorry to Phoebe Waller-Bridge but that scene should’ve had Marion as the focus. In fact, it gets even more frustrating since Mutt’s death means little to Wombat as a character. She didn’t know the guy, the most she could’ve felt in that scene was, “Sorry for your loss, goddad”.

Even the presence of Wombat and Teddy are frustrating. Wombat could’ve easily been rewritten as Marcus Brody’s daughter (or if you wanna be spicy, she was Willie Scott’s daughter with Indy, making her Mutt Williams’ half-sister). Teddy could’ve been Sallah’s son. These may seem like small changes, but at least there’d be a stronger connection to the past. Since it’s Indiana Jones’ last journey, this movie should’ve been more rooted in Indy’s past adventures, even if the connections are more with legacy characters.

So, yeah, it’s a mixed bag. “Dial” is a movie that is supposed to be closing the door on Indiana Jones as a character, but doesn’t really accomplish that due to its detachment from the past movies. It’s a movie that’s too somber to be a lighthearted adventure, but too lighthearted to be a somber character study. And what does that mean for the end result? A movie that’s just okay, but doesn’t really justify its existence. Could’ve been worse, but you wish it was better.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” movie review:

Short review

It was objectively a good movie, but it’s not for me. I give it a 8/10, but with the caveat that I’m probably never gonna watch it again.

Long review

Just to explain why I wrote that this movie isn’t for me, there’s two personal reasons why I have biases and I need to disclose them in order to give proper context for this review. One, I get physically sick when it comes to scenes that are too vibrant and colorful (example: “Speed Racer”). Two, I’m someone who prefers live-action over animation. It’s hard for me to connect to characters that I know aren’t real people, it’s like I’m subconsciously aware that there’s a level of artificiality there.

Of course, there are exceptions. Shows like “Avatar the Last Airbender” and “Kaguya-Sama” were great enough that I could get past that point. But for the most part, animated content just feels off to me. My brain just can’t get past the fact that I’m not looking at a human face.

Anyways, with that said, how was the movie?

I thought it was good. I will say that I liked the movie, but probably not for the reasons most people have cited. I actually liked the first half over the second half mainly because I was so invested in Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy’s home lives and developing relationship. It was the personal stories that really made this movie for me. In fact, my hot take is that the best scene was Miles and Gwen’s upside down conversation. There wasn’t any action going on, but when the movie slowed down and let the characters talk, I actually felt the emotions going through it. It was fun watching these two grow and deal with their family lives and mutual feelings.

Where this movie lost me was the second half. Now, I’m NOT saying the second half was bad. It was just that I felt the movie turned into action figures being tossed at each other for fun. We had two big reveals, that being Miles is an anomaly and his dad was gonna die, but most of the second half was dedicated to Miles running around the city.

I guess it was fun and I did enjoy myself. But after the movie finished, it felt more like enjoyable eye candy rather than deep drama. It was fun catching the references, but I wish the story was more…serious? Which I know is a problem most people have with Marvel productions, but I really wanted to feel the drama here mainly because the first half was so good. Or admittedly, maybe the drama was good, I just didn’t feel it because of my biases.

So, in summary, I spent the first half of the movie really digging the human drama going on, with Miles struggling with his parents, Gwen struggling with her dad, and Miles and Gwen trying to figure each other out. I started tuning out when the story shifted to the Spider Society.

I hate being nitpicky because this movie WAS good, but I also don’t wanna lie for the sake of following the crowd. It was good, but not for me. And honestly, I prefer the first Spider-Verse over this one because that one felt more like Miles’ story that just so happened to involve the multiverse. The sequel feels more like it’s about the multiverse and that Miles and his friends are just part of it. So, for me, the more the movie is about the multiverse and less about character drama, the less interested I am in it.

I’m almost done with the GTA V story mode (I know, I’m late on this). My overall thoughts so far are that this is one of the most immersive games I’ve ever played, but the story feels lacking. It’s like Rockstar put all their focus on creating the world, and then just slapped together a story that meets the bare minimum.

Some aspects of the story are good. I think Michael’s arc was the best of the three and I like Franklin the most of the protagonists. I also don’t think the story is horribly bad, it has its moments. It’s just that there’s a lot of plot points that feel underwritten.

Just to list some examples, the Triads and Stretch don’t feel that significant even though they are Trevor and Franklin’s respective main enemies. I barely remember who the leader of the Triads is and Franklin had to explain Stretch’s schemes to Lamar and the player (breaking the “show, don’t tell” rule). Michael’s family feels two-dimensional. Last but not least, since there’s like 8 different plot threads happening all at once, the story feels jumbled. Because the story is all over the place, there isn’t really any rising tension, so the end result is a game that feels like it’s going somewhere with all the gunfights and explosions, but doesn’t really feel significant. The story feels weightless.

I mean, I literally just got to the point where I had to choose between killing Michael, Trevor, or saving them both. I feel like this decision should’ve had more emotional weight, but because the story was so weightless, I didn’t really feel any dilemma choosing deathwish. I also don’t feel any tension going into this finale since I’m pretty sure it’s just going to be more gunfights and explosions.

Let me just say, it feels weird going from “Detroit Become Human”, a game with one of the best narratives I’ve ever played, to “GTA V”, where the narrative feels like an afterthought. Good thing that the gameplay/world exploration makes up for the story.

For the upcoming live-action Metal Gear Solid movie starring Oscar Isaac, I have this feeling that if the series somehow gets to Snake Eater, the original song will be used during the movie, but a cover by a popular artist will play during the credits.

But it has to be an artist who can do a decent cover of Snake Eater. Someone like Adele, Lady Gaga, or Harry Styles.

(SPOILERS FOR THE FLASH)

So, uh…is it just me or was “The Flash”’ movie lowkey a Cliffnotes remake of season 3 of CW Flash?

You got the Flashpoint Paradox source material, the hidden villain being an evil Barry, the evil Barry ALSO being a time remnant created by the original Barry, the movie being about Barry having to learn that he can’t just use time travel to fix the past, etc.

GENERAL IDEA

A choice-based romantic drama along the lines of “Detroit: Become Human” and “Life is Strange”.

You play as Demetrius Davids (voiced and mo-capped by Michael B. Jordan), a successful lawyer living in Seattle, Washington. At the start of the game, Demetrius ends his 5-year relationship with his girlfriend, Tanisha Wallace, over irreconcilable differences. The two then have a falling out which leads to Demetrius cutting Tanisha out of his life.

Six years later, depending on the player’s choice, Demetrius’ life can be in either one of four places:

1) Married to Dominique Wells, a fellow lawyer who is dealing with her deeply problematic brother, Lamar.

2) Married to Amy Potter, a florist and single mother who won full custody over her children from her abusive ex-lover Dylan.

3) Married to Joy Chang, a news reporter whose first husband, Jason, had supposedly died in a plane crash while serving as a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.

4) Married to Eduardo Cruz, a rising actor in Hollywood who is dealing with behind-the-scenes drama with his agent, Carlos.

Demetrius is happy in either of these relationships and things seem to be going well for him…until Tanisha returns to the fold. As the two exes grapple with their complicated past, Demetrius also learns that not all is right with his current marriage. There are secrets all over and it’ll be up to the player to figure out what those secrets are and how Demetrius will react.

Basically, you’re in charge of this dark, sexy romance movie that could end in either happiness or despair for our main hero and everyone else involved.

WAYS THAT THE STORY CAN BRANCH OUT

* Players can start a toxic love affair with Tanisha. Obviously, this won’t end well, but for players looking for a juicy, drama-filled story, this is one path to take. Players who don’t get involved with Tanisha will still have to deal with her as she plots your downfall with Demetrius’ other enemies (see below). Either way, Tanisha can either be an ally or a villain as you deal with the other major problems in Demetrius’ life (see below).

* Players who married Dominique will have to choose whether or not they will get on Lamar’s good side or bad side. Befriending Lamar will lead to him dragging Demetrius into his destructive schemes. Antagonizing Lamar will put Demetrius in danger as Lamar will be gunning for him.

* Players who married Amy will be harassed by Dylan, who wants full custody over their children. Dylan can be dealt with in many ways, such as directly getting him killed, framing him for a crime, or talking with him to reach an understanding.

* Players who married Joy will eventually learn that her supposedly-dead husband Jason is actually alive. Jason will want his wife back, so it’s up to the player to either fight him or be reasonable. Also, your choices will determine whether Joy stays with Demetrius or leaves him for Jason.

* Players who married Eduardo will eventually learn that Eduardo’s agent Carlos is blackmailing them for profit. The player will have multiple ways to deal with Carlos, such as outsmarting him or just straight up killing him. The worst ending would be Carlos leaking the dirt he has on Demetrius and Eduardo, thus ruining them for life.

FANCAST (voice acting and motion capture)

1) Michael B. Jordan as the protagonist, Demetrius Davids

2) Ruth Negga as the deuteragonist/major antagonist, Tanisha Wallace

3) Lashana Lynch as Dominique Wells

4) Elizabeth Henstridge as Amy Potter

5) Ali Wong as Joy Chang

6) Johnny Sibilly as Eduardo Cruz

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7) Damson Idris as Lamar

8) Ewan Mitchell as Dylan

9) Harry Shum Jr. as Jason

10) Kirk Acevedo as Carlos

If “House of Ashes” was made by Quantic Dream:

1) The main characters are Jason Kolchek, Salim Othman, and Rachel King

Using “Detroit: Become Human” as a reference, in terms of how the storylines for each character will look: Jason is Connor, Salim is Markus, Rachel is Kara.

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2) Salim can be played in either two ways; he can choose to destroy the alien nest (the Suicide Mission ending) or figure out a way to reactivate the ship so the aliens can go home (the Love Thy Enemy ending).

“Suicide Mission” would be something like the movies “Aliens” and “Predator”.

“Love Thy Enemy” would be something like “District 9” and “E.T.”.

Side note: Similar to the public opinion meter in “Detroit”, there is an “Alien Trust” meter for Salim. Salim must have earned a high level of trust from the aliens in order to convince them to work with the humans. That’s the only way “Love Thy Enemy” can work as an ending.

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3) Jason can be played in either two ways; he can choose to continue his mission and eradicate the Iraqi soldiers (the Mission Accomplished ending) or he can choose to make a truce with the Iraqi soldiers (the Enemy of My Enemy ending).

Similar to RK800 Connor’s software instability, Jason has a “moral dilemma” meter in which the more he’s made to question the legality of the Iraq War and his own racism/xenophobia towards the Iraqis, the more likely he’ll befriend Salim and the other Iraqi soldiers.

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4) When you combine Jason and Salim’s storylines, you can have the following scenarios:

* The Americans and the Iraqis join forces to destroy the alien nest. Jason plants the charges while Salim distracts the aliens.

* The Americans and the Iraqis join forces to reactivate the UFO. Jason goes to reactivate the engines while Salim goes to make peace with the aliens by learning their language and speaking with them.

* The Iraqis decide to blow up the alien nest. They must also deal with the Americans who are planning on sabotaging their operation. Jason and Salim then have a final showdown right next to explosives set up around the nest.

* The Iraqis decide to reactivate the UFO. They must also deal with the Americans who are planning on sabotaging their operation. Jason and Salim then have a final showdown when Jason interrupts Salim’s attempts to communicate with the aliens.

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6) Just like Kara, Rachel King is off in her own world. She, her husband Eric, her side lover Nick, and Eric’s assistant Clarice all ended up at the bottom of the temple, thus separating them from the other two major storylines. Rachel’s storyline eventually merges with Jason and Salim’s stories when she and whoever is still alive in her party find their way out of the pit.

Also, just like Kara, Rachel’s storyline can end at any moment. She has the most chances at death when compared to Jason and Salim.

Aside from survival, Rachel’s storyline can diverge when it comes to her romances. She can choose to either stay with Eric, be with Nick, or leave both of them. Rachel’s decision can actually affect the survivability of Eric and Nick.

So recently, I bonded with my sister’s boyfriend over “Detroit: Become Human”, which he has never played but heard about. I’ve played the game, so I let him do a playthrough on my PS4 while I watched. Let me just say, his playthrough was SIGNIFICANTLY different than mine, which was fun since it felt like watching a movie for the first time.

Anyways, the results of my sister’s boyfriend’s playthrough:

1) Committed to violent revolutionary Markus (I was pacifist)

2) Saved Kara, Alice, and Luther by crossing the border after sacrificing Jerry (this stunned me because I had no idea you could still get this ending if you went through with the violent revolution)

3) Markus successfully revolted.

4) North romance, which made sense since Markus was only doing revolutionary choices.

5) Connor stayed a machine (not by choice, he just didn’t get enough software instability). Also, since Markus led a successful revolution, Connor became the Final Boss who had to be defeated. It was sad watching Connor’s perma-death, but it made sense for the story. Side note, the game allowing you to choose who was going to be the Final Boss (Markus or Connor) was the coolest thing I’ve seen come out of this game. I didn’t know that could be an option.

6) Hank died trying to stop Connor from assassinating Markus

7) Out of Markus’ circle, only North survived. Simon was left behind at the news station, Josh got shot.

So, yeah. Markus and Kara lived, Connor died. I guess the ending was mostly good because the androids did win at the end? It just sucks that we lost Connor. At least Kara got the best possible ending for her storyline (Jerry dying didn’t really bother us).

Anyways, next up will probably be Heavy Rain. He hasn’t played any of the Quantic Dream games, so that one’s probably the next best one to start.

Jeremy Renner saying that he’d be down to continue playing Hawkeye, even after the accident, just cemented this guy as a real life badass for me. I feel like most people would’ve just retired in peace.

Well, hopefully Marvel takes it easy with the stunts the next time they use Clint Barton. Honestly, I can see them using Clint as the part-time Avenger whose main job now is training Kate Bishop. Renner gets to continue playing Clint, but he doesn’t have to strain himself as much.

(Side note: I just realized, wanting to continue his stressful job even after recovering from a gruesome incident that he nearly died from is straight up something Hawkeye would do)

I know that no one cares about the “Black Adam” movie anymore, but while at work, I had a realization that helped explain why I thought the Rock’s performance felt off. I actually don’t think the Rock is a bad actor, but he came off so dull and boring as Adam that I could see why a lot of people thought of him that way. But now, I think it’s because - and I mean this with complete sincerity - he was miscast in the role.

It’s sorta the same problem that people had with Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu. You have these actors who are known for their loud, boisterous, chewing-at-the-scenery performances, playing characters that are stoic and reserved. You can tell the Rock was trying to be that silent badass, but his performance felt limited since he wasn’t playing to his strengths. Ironically, Rock would’ve been better off if he played a character like Shazam.

I think of it like this; for “Black Adam”, the Rock tried his best to be Keanu Reeves, but didn’t quite hit the mark. Say what you will about Keanu’s acting, but the man absolutely knows how to sell the stoic, silent badass.

Okay, now that I’ve finally played all of “Detroit: Become Human”, my thoughts on each campaign are:

1) Connor - most fun gameplay

2) Kara - favorite storyline

3) Markus - favorite character

Which phase of “Fast and Furious” would you say is your favorite?

1) The “we’re just a series about fast cars and racing” phase (1, 2, Tokyo Drift)

2) The “we’re tired of racing, so let’s bring in the Rock and focus on regular action movie stuff” phase (4, 5, 6)

3) The “Vin Diesel watched all the Captain America/Mission Impossible movies and wants to do that in his own franchise” phase (7, 8, 9, Hobbs and Shaw)

4) The “Vin Diesel watched Infinity War/Endgame/the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and wants to do that in his own franchise” phase (10, and I’m assuming 11 and 12. I know Vin said they’re stopping at 11, but he said that he’s thinking about doing a 12th)

Okay, I get the desire to remake MGS3 since that’s the fan favorite, but wouldn’t it make more sense to remake the first one? You know, the one that desperately needs an update since it’s an 8-bit NES game? Just saying.

Also, this is not a good way to attract new fans to the series since you’re starting off on the third game. Yes, it’s a prequel, but you’re already confusing people unfamiliar with the series because the game is called MGS3.

And this isn’t the same scenario as when Square Enix remade the 7th Final Fantasy game since all the Metal Gear games are connected to each other. It’s like if Capcom remade the 5th Resident Evil game without doing any of the games that came before it.