Movie Reviews #28 - The X-Files (1998)

Plot: (from imdb.com) Mulder and Scully must fight the government in a conspiracy and find the truth about an alien colonization of Earth.

Review: The X-Files movie is basically a very long episode of the series, just with bigger production values. It would be very confusing for anyone who hasn’t watched the series and even for those who have watched it from the beginning it is still confusing. I feel like I say this a lot but it does not offer any more solutions to past mysteries. Events happen related to the alien conspiracy and then it ends with everything pretty much at status quo. On the plus side, Mulder and Scully can’t say they may or may not believe in aliens anymore, after the events of this movie they have to admit in their existence. I’d like to say more but pretty everything was already said in the review for season 5. Let hope season 6 shakes things up a little.

Score: 7/10

TV Reviews #9 - X-Files Season 5 (1997-1998)

           When you get to season 5 of a show, you definitely know the jist of it by now. For X-Files, we know we’ll get some one off monster of the week episodes and some episodes that relate to the alien mystery. While this season did keep this tendency going, they did take some deviations. We had an episode dedicated to the origin of the lone gunmen, one told in black and white like and old serial series and an interesting one about two sides of a vampire story. They weren’t far out there but they did offer some change to the status quo. The one off stories were ok but most were not as good as in season 4.  

            There was a much stronger effort put on the main alien story line this season. Both Duchovny and Anderson put on their best work so far in the series. After some new information, Mulder now questions whether or not there actually are aliens out there. He becomes a more compelling character now that he does not know what to believe anymore. Scully is dealing with her cancer as well as finding out she is a parent. These issues shape her as a person and creates empathy for her.

            Luckily the two leads show some great work because the story becomes incredibly confusing this season. Despite what Mulder is dealing with there are clearly aliens but what are they? Are they a black tar, faceless men or giant Brian Thompson bounty hunters? Questions lead to more questions and in typical X-Files fashion nothing really gets solved. I don’t know if future seasons offer up anything but at this point I feel like it is what it is so just go with it. Maybe when the series returns at the beginning of 2016 I’ll get some answers.

Score : 7.5 / 10

Wednesday Night Ramblings - June 24 2015 - Arkham Knight

In an effort to at least get a regular blog going, I'm going to set Wednesday night as the predetermined blog writing and achievement roundup time. That does not mean that I cannot continue making articles on other nights but I will know that at least once a week there will be a blog post. I'm hoping to keep the same going with reviews, those being done on Sundays.

Now on to this weeks topic, Arkham Knight. The game just came out and I've spent a lot of time the last couple of days playing it. At first I was a little skeptical, there were a few elements that were not jiving with me. It had some issues of the HD age, namely small writing and too much going on the screen at once. After a few hours though, most of those issues went away in my mind and I was able to enjoy the game for what it is, and now I'm just as addicted to it as I was for the first 2 of the series.

Developper Rocksteady managed to bring back the addicting gameplay. You get so sidetracked by the other missions that I cannot help doing them. In particular the Riddler challenges can be a game in themselves. Expect to see a lot of achievement updates in the coming weeks.

Batman: Arkham Knight

Journey into Knight - 10G - Even the odds

Trail of Fear - 10G - Lock up your first Supervillain in GCPD

The Road to Hell - 10G - Successfully complete the first Riddler trial

The Frequency of Fear - 20G - Scan Gotham City to pinpoint Scarecrow's location

Fear of Faith - 10G - Rescue the ACE chemical workers

As the Crow Flies - 20G - Escape from ACE chemicals

No Man's Land - 10G - Restore power to the bridge of Gotham City

Pieces of the Puzzle - 10G - Obtain a key by completing the second Riddler trial

The Cat and the Bat - 10G - Obtain a key by completing the third Riddler trial

Living Hell - 10G - Interrogate the militia APC driver

Riddler on the Rampage - 10G - Obtain a key by completing the fourth Riddler trial

The Burning Questiong - 10G - Obtain a key by completing the fifth Riddler trial

The Primal Riddle - 10G - Obtain a key by completing the sixth Riddler trial

Cold War - 20G - Destroy the first weapons cache in Gotham City

Charity Mania I : 288 achievements

Movie Reviews #27 - The Net (1995)

Plot: (from imdb.com) A computer programmer stumbles upon a conspiracy, putting her life and the lives of those around her in great danger.

Review: I have to say, there’s something I love about watching 90’s hacker/Internet movies. The Internet was new at the time and filmmaker’s ideas of what it could do was… interesting. It’s endearing that they thought typing really fast on a keyboard meant you can hack into anything and change what you wanted thanks to the terrifying Internet.

            On to the movie, it’s a typical thriller for the time period. It throws in some conspiracy elements, again typical for that time period. Sandra Bullock does her role well. She’s not overly amazing but she does convey the sense of hopelessness for her situation. 

            Unfortunately I just don’t have much to say about the movie. It’s ok but not great. It goes through its beats and feels very much a film of its time period. If anything it’s worth a look for its Internet hilarity.

Score: 6/10