Author: Shmee

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Shmee Visits Skull Island And Sees Kong!

It seems like every decade or so someone gets the bright idea to make another King Kong movie, but this time they decided that it would make sense to put Kong in the same universe as Godzilla.  While the King of the Apes doesn’t go head to head with the King of the Monsters in Kong: Skull Island it definitely plants the seeds for that epic mashup which happens May 2020 after the next Godzilla movie next year.  With all that crossover business behind us, the question becomes is Kong: Skull Island good by itself? Yup, it is a fine popcorn movie, but I doubt it will become your favorite movie.

Kong: Skull Island begins at the end of the Vietnam War when John Goodman convinces a Senator to let him take a helicopter squadron and a bunch of scientists to an uncharted island.  He hopes there will be monsters there.  Guess what? He is right, and they find Kong who isn’t happy to see them.

The story is fine, but it is pretty much an excuse to have a cool scene with a lot of helicopters fighting King Kong while blaring awesome 70’s music.  Which is something I can get behind!  It is a pretty epic fight, and then after that a bunch of monsters slowly reduce the survivors to a fraction of their original number.  I know it sounds like I am giving away spoilers, but this is what Legendary and Warner Brothers promised us with their marketing, and they delivered.

There are a ton of people in this movie, but for the most part just the pretty ones, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, and John C. Reilly matter.  On top of that only John C. Reilly seems to know he is in a cheesy monster movie.  Everyone else must have been told they were making the Kong version of Apocalypse Now.  Reilly makes this flick better every time he is on the screen.  Other people mostly provide excitement when they get eaten or smashed.

Even if you haven’t seen the new Godzilla or care about yet other shared universe, Kong: Skull Island is a decent movie on its own.  If you do care about those things, it is fun to see all the Easter Eggs for future films littered around.  Kong: Skull Island should be hitting streaming services soon, and there are worse films to spend a couple of hours with.  I enjoyed myself.  Just make sure to forward your way through the credits for one final King Kong vs Godzilla teaser.

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Shmee Takes A Listen To The Thrustmaster Ghost Recon Wildlands Y-350x Headset!

Thanks to the one and only Major Nelson, I got a new headset at PAX West 2017.  The Ghost Recon Wildlands Y-350x Headset for Xbox One and PC.  Over all it has been a nice upgrade from my Microsoft Stereo headset.  Thanks to their deep base from the 60mm over ear drivers and 7.1 virtual surround sound.  Though so far the best part is the memory foam padding keeping my ears from hurting during those long play times.  While all this sounds great, there are some drawbacks.

First up, to keep these headphones from draining the controller’s battery too quickly, Thrustmaster attached an inline power pack that you can charge separately.

The problem is now you always have this floppy thing attached to your controller, and it is always pulling your headset down.  I am not sure why they couldn’t have just made the control pad for the headset bigger, and hid the battery in that, since you can’t detach the two from each other anyway.  Speaking of the control pad, here is a look at it:

It is pretty easy to control once you get used to it, and the back lights are nice, but the problem is the back light doesn’t stay on for very long, so sometimes you have to push something real quick to turn on the back light before you can find the right setting.

The last annoyance is probably the biggest.  When you first turn on the Thrustmaster Y-350x’s there is audible hum/buzzing.  It is supper irritating.  Though once you give the headphones a slight workout the buzzing stops.  It is like they need to get a range of sound pushed through them to calibrate themselves.  Then they sound great.

All in all I like the sound and the bass these headphones are able to provided, but they are not perfect.  However, for the money they probably perform much better than other $150 headsets, and you can get them for as little as $100 if you look around.  With The Ghost Recon Wildlands Y-350x Headset you just got to learn to live with their little flaws.  Which is a shame because with a few design tweaks they could have been truly great, but since I got mine for free, who am I to complain?

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Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 2 Is Just As Great A Episode 1!

I know I didn’t technically review Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 1, but I did say its group play was one of the best things about PAX West 2017.  Episode 2 continues Telltale’s great work.  It has been so fun to watch them throw out certain parts of the Bat-cannon and replace it with their own.  The Telltale Batman universe is fascinating.  To see how so much has changed, but how much still stays the same.

Front and center with these new lore changes is Harley Quinn.  Episode 2 completely reimagines her relationship with Joker John Doe.  I want to know everything about how this new Harley ticks.  Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 2 also introduces a lot of other Bat-criminals, but I won’t spoil who shows up.  Though it is quite a list.  However, their changes don’t seem to be as major.

I was quite happy to see that the game runs better in Episode 2.  It was a rock solid 60 FPS the whole way through.  Not that you need that precision timing for a Telltale game, but so many of their other games can get so stutter-y that it takes you out of the story, so for at least with this chapter, everything looks great.

I am also curious what other choices I could have made.  I may have to play it again to see what I can screw up.  For now, I will just have to bide my time for Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 3, and it is teasing a reunion that I can’t wait to see play out.  I have said it before, and I will say it again.  Telltale should just do all the DC superheroes.  I would love to mess up their Justice League’s group dynamic!.

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Shmee Listens To The Handmaid’s Tale!

The Handmaid’s Tale is a terrifying show produced by Hulu, but it is not terrifying because of a ghost or a psychotic madman but because it shows a future to the United States that for some seems unfortunately possible.  While it would take a lot for that future to take place, you don’t have to look too hard through history to find examples free nations taken by tyranny: Iran, Venezuela or everyone’s favorite villains Nazi Germany, just to name a few.  It turns out that desperate people make bad decisions.

In the not to distant future most women in the world have become unable to have children, and this sends the world in to a downward spiral.  A Pseudo-Christian group has used the unrest in America to take over, and the women that are able to have kids are forced to breed with the leaders of this group to give those men and their wives children.  These unfortunate women are called Handmaids.  The show follows a Handmaid by the name of Offred (Elisabeth Moss).

The Handmaid’s Tale never backs away from anything.  It shows this bleak future in unflinching detail.  While I know some Christians are upset at the show because they are worried people might get the wrong idea about Christianity, you don’t have to know much about Christian theology to know that rulers of ‘Gilead’ (The Former USA) have warped the Bible for their own evil purposes.  Which is probably why most people in Gilead aren’t allowed to read the Bible.

A show about institutionalized rape would be hard to believe or get in to without good performances, and thankfully The Handmaid’s Tale has a lot of talent on screen.  There aren’t many weak performances, and Elisabeth Moss is able to work her way through the wide array of Offred’s emotions almost perfectly.  Considering about half of the show is just Elisabeth Moss close ups, she does an amazing job getting the audience to feel what Offred is going though.

The Handmaid’s Tale is not for the weak of heart, and it shows the fall of the USA, which some people may take issue with, but sadly The Handmaid’s Tale uses the past for its version of the future, so we would be wise to listen to what it has to say.  Even if we reject its conclusion.  The Handmaid’s Tale is worth watching if you have access to Hulu, or maybe just paying for Hulu for a month to watch it.  Who knows, you may even get through the show during your seven day free trial.