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My Little Pony: The Movie Isn’t Quite Magical

It was only a matter of time before the hit reboot of My Little Pony got a movie of its own.  Sadly, the writers were not able to come up with a story worthy of the big screen.  It feels like a multi-episode special, but not one of their better ones.  If you have kids that love the show, they will still probably like this movie, but My Little Pony: The Movie will not win over any new fans.

Princess Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong) is having a hard time shouldering the load of being a new princess.  She feels like it is all up to her to make sure everyone is having fun and making friends.  To make matters worse during her inaugural Friendship Festival a new villain called the Storm King decides to invade Equestria.  His forces are being led by the broken horned unicorn Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt).  Twilight feels like she is the only one who can save her home and friends.

This is a fine enough setup, but a story about how Twilight feels like it is all up to her when she should be leaning on her friends is well trod territory for the show, so fans will no doubt see how this movie plays out from its opening frames.  Also, it seems like the producers knew the plot was a little thin, so they just amped up the cast with a lot of well known people as random characters for marketing purposes.  Tempest Shadow is kind of an interesting character, but the rest of the new additions to Pony Canon are pretty much throwaways.

The animation at least got a good bump in quality.  The Mane 6 have never looked so good.  The flat basic color style is preserved, but there is a lot of extra little detail, and it is much smoother.  For My Little Pony fans it is probably worth watching just to see the best representation of their favorite Pony Pals.

My Little Pony: The Movie feels like a lost opportunity to tell a good story and win over some new fans.  Right now I can only recommend it to existing fans, or families with young kids.  There have been far worse movies made out of kids shows, but considering how good My Little Pony is, My Little Pony: The Movie feels a bit like a let down.

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PUBG On Mobile Is Surprisingly Good!

When I heard PUBG was coming to mobile phones I couldn’t believe it.  How could they possibly pack the full PUBG experience on to a small device?  It turns out they did it by streamlining the experience without dumbing it down.  Things like automatically picking up guns and putting on the best attachments; getting rid of almost all the gates and windows; taking all the interiors out of houses so it is easier to move about, and adding in a few bots (okay a lot of bots) to limit the CPU resources.  All these changes make sense for the platform, and Tencent should be commended for somehow making mobile PUBG feel like PUBG.

Granted there are a lot of hoops to jump through at this juncture to get PUBG installed.  If you are on Android like me, you need to download the Chinese app store TapTap, give it all the permissions you can, and then find the real PUBG.  Not the one with navel combat and whatnot.  If you can’t read Simplified Chinese, it is the one with the 8.8 user rating.  Once that is installed, you need to create an account with one of Tencent’s social media platforms, QQ or WeChat.  QQ is easier since all you need is an email address, and you can go to zz.qq.com and sign up in English.  Then you need to go to the Play store and install the official Chinese QQ app and sign in.  Once that is done, you can log in a play PUBG on mobile!  For Apple folks you will need to create a Chinese Apple account, so you will need to get a temp Chinese credit card number, so good luck with that.  Then still sign up for WeChat or QQ.

Was it worth all the hassle, not to mention giving all my info to China to play PUBG on my phone?  Probably not, but it is a lot of fun, and probably one of the best mobile games out there right now.  I just hope that they create an official international version of the game soon.  That way I will not have to keep looking up what the menu buttons are.  Oh well, at least the gameplay doesn’t need to be translated.  Find cool loot and then survive until the end.  As Sam Eagle would say, “It is the American Chinese way!”

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Shmee Travels To Wakanda!

After ten years and seventeen movies, Marvel has finally made a movie based off of their first African superhero, Black Panther.  While King T’Challa technically made his debut in Captain America: Civil War, this is really our first big screen introduction to the character, and it was quite the introduction.  The reviews and the build up have been telling me that Black Panther is the greatest Marvel movie of all time, which it isn’t, but it is very good, and it makes me wonder why Marvel took so long to introduce such an important character.

Black Panther begins right after Captain America: Civil War ends, but just in case you are worried, they do a little flashback, so you don’t need to have watched that movie or re-watch it to remember what happens.  King T’Chaka (John Kani) has died, so the mantle of King of Wakanda and Black Panther now fall to his son T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman).  Unfortunately for T’Challa being King will not be easy because he will have to face down the failures of his father.

Black Panther is the best Marvel origin story since Iron Man.  It manages to tell a personal story with real stakes, and the villain’s motivations actually make sense.  He is not just trying to kill people and rule stuff because that is what villains do.  Michael B. Jordan’s Erik “Killmonger” Stevens is still undeniably evil, but you understand why his is doing what he is doing, and you sympathize with his quest.  You want him to fail, but at least you can see where his world view comes from.

While Jordan’s Killmonger may steal the show.  Chadwick Boseman’s uncertain yet always just Black Panther is also a treat.  Yes, he is another rich guy in a suit, but at least he isn’t a self absorbed jerk.  He values his friends and family, and that makes him much more likable.  Boseman brings him to life expertly.  Then just to tie things together they throw in a cast full of Oscar winners and powerhouse talent.  Black Panther’s casting director wasn’t playing around.

What didn’t hold up so well is the CGI.  For the most part it is okay, but during the big fight scenes at the end it starts to strain a bit.  The purple smudge of a Vibranium mine and some  globby charging animals just look off, and if you were hoping that Black Panther would end without two cartoony CGI guys punching each other you, will be disappointed.

Still, a slightly off ending was not a enough to derail all the good that Black Panther did in the first 90% of the movie.  Marvel has yet another great movie to add to its collection, and a new hero to move about its movie universe, so if you are one of the two people that hasn’t seen it yet, you probably should.  To Marvel fans everywhere, you should be thrilled.  The king has arrived.

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Shmee And Co Make An Escape!

People have been making a bunch of noise about Escape Rooms lately, so when Plumpy Thimble asked if I wanted to go on a triple date to Countdown Escape Rooms up in Abbotsford, I jumped at the chance.  If you have never done an Escape Room, and you like puzzles, you definitely should give one a try.

Our room was themed like an Egyptian tomb.  Which was pretty cool, even if the application of the theme was a little uneven.  The act of solving the room: rummaging around looking for clues, trying to make the logical leaps required to apply those clues, and just feeling the pressure of the clock, was a good time.

I don’t know if this is something I would do all the time, but it is a unique experience, and one well worth the $15.  There are a lot of Escape Rooms around these days, so finding one nearby shouldn’t be an issue, but Countdown Escape Rooms was pretty good.  Even if for some reason their Egyptian tombs feature constellations based on Greek mythology.

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We Finally Get A Look At Incredibles 2!

Pixar’s sequel to its best movie finally comes out this summer, and I am pumped.  Apparently Incredibles 2 deals with Mr. Incredible being a stay at home dad because Elastagirl is more marketable.  Which is an interesting idea.  Though I am guessing the family doesn’t stay on the sidelines forever.  Regardless of what happens, I know where I will be this June!