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Shmee Observes The Cloverfield Paradox

Netflix pulled off quite the trick when it announced and launched The Cloverfield Paradox during the Super Bowl.  Which is now the third entry in the Cloverfield franchise.  Much like 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Cloverfield Paradox started life as a stand alone movie and then was edited to be part of the Cloverfield universe.  Sadly, it was not as successful as 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it does add some interesting things to the universe.

In the near future the human race is almost without power, so a team of scientists have headed to space to try and find a way to generate limitless power with a particle accelerator aboard the Cloverfield space station.  Since this is a Cloverfield movie, you can guess things go poorly.

Even though the trailers give away some of what happens, I will do my best not to spoil anything because this movie is at its best when it surprises you.  Which unfortunately is not that often.  It is the standard haunted house in space setup with some Cloverfield stuff edited in, and the Cloverfield stuff hurts the pacing of an already iffy movie, but it did add some curious pieces to the Cloverfield puzzle.  Even if those pieces don’t entirely fit, but the premis for the movie almost means that they don’t have to, which I enjoy thinking about.

While the cast is fine (it has Chris O’Dowd from The IT Crowd!), there is no John Goodman here to carry the weaker parts of this film, so whenever the action stops the entire movie almost grinds to a halt.  No one is elevating the material, and it could have used a little elevation.

While I have been pretty hard on The Cloverfield Paradox, I will say I find the implications this movie has on the rest of the Cloverfield franchise intriguing, and I have been thinking about where they go from here, so I don’t regret the hour and fortyish minutes I spent with it.  It didn’t squash my excitement for the franchise, which I guess they just bought and are re-editing another one now, so for Sci-Fi fans it is probably worth watching just to be up to speed for the next one.

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Tide Won The Super Bowl!

Considering I am not a fan of either the New England Patriots or the Philadelphia Eagles, I was watching this Super Bowl for the ads, and for the most part they did not disappoint (actually the game was pretty great too), but Tide was the clear winner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGXnE1Dbh0

It was funny and smart, and they just kept coming.  I don’t know how much tide spent on this year’s ads, but all that money was worth it.  Runner up had to be Netflix who dropped Cloverfield 3 in an ad, and then started streaming the movie right after the game.  I will be watching it this week.

Anyway, congratulations Philadelphia on the hard earned Super Bowl win, and good job NFL for figuring out what a catch is, but more importantly, congratulations Tide for making the Super Bowl worth watching.

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Shmee Enters A Den Of Thieves!

Den of Thieves is the type of movie I expect to see dumped in January (I know it is February now, but I saw it in January!).  It stars a lot of recognizable people doing pretty good work in a forgettable effort.  That is not to say Den of Thieves is bad, as a matter of fact the couple of gun fights in the movie are pretty good, but it is a shame they didn’t get a script doctor to look this one over before it went in to production.  Because the more you think about what happens in the Den of Thieves, the worse it gets.

Den of Thieves follows two groups: Gerard Butler group of ‘gangster’ cops, and 50 Cent’s crew of ‘honorable’ bank thieves.  Sort of.  Because as terrible as Gerard Butler’s cops act, they are never crooked or on the take.  Meanwhile the thieves do some pretty irredeemable things, especially at the end of the movie, that destroys any honor they may have had.  Which is a shame because it really muddles this movie’s message.

I am not saying all movies need a strong message, or even a message I agree with for that matter, but when a movie just kind of shrugs at you it makes the whole thing seem pretty pointless.  Not to mention the more you think about the job these thieves attempt, the less it makes sense.  I am not going to spoil it, but they think the job is far more clever than it is, and there is a reason no one has ever attempted it.

This movie’s saving grace is that when there is action, it is solid.  The guys seem to know what they are doing and it is very intense.  Unfortunately, the middle act of Den of Thieves is all setup, so it feels very long.  It should have been edited down quite a bit or found the budget for another action sequence to cut in to the down time.

Den of Thieves is a movie where actors you know get paid to do capable work on screen.  It is not bad, but once you see it, you will not be itching to see it again any time soon.  I would hold off on watching it until it is on Amazon or Netflix, or unless you are a MoviePass subscriber like me.

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The Sea Of Thieves Beta Is Miles Wide And Inches Deep!

It is hard to explain how amazing it feels to be out on Sea of Thieves’ ocean waves, and it looks incredible in motion.  Screenshots do not do it justice.  It makes me feel like I was born centuries to late, and that I should have been a scurvy sea dog, but so far besides that feeling there is not a whole lot to do just yet.  Right now you can go get chests and turn in chests for money.  Then buy stuff, and maybe fight with other pirates.  Pirates who will murder you.

Now Rare has said that there will be at least three other mission types: Trapping, Fighting Boss Skeletons, and carrying merchant goods between outposts.  Any variety would be nice, but that doesn’t sound like a lot.  Data miners have found references to Krakens and ship customizations in the code, so there looks to be some more places to spend your money, and a few monsters to take out.  Still, that doesn’t seem like a lot of content.

I understand that Sea of Thieves is supposed to be one of those games where you find your own fun, and I am sure there will be those people who want little more than to be out on the waves with the virtual sea foam splashing on their avatar’s faces.  For me however, I would like to be sure that I have not experienced everything after a couple of hours.  I want to dive to deep in to the ocean, not splash around in wide puddle.

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Another Trip Around The Track With Forza Motorsport 7!

It has hard to find something new to say about the Forza Motorsport franchise.  It is Microsoft’s premier racing game, and it always looks gorgeous.  Even when you think it can’t look any better, they always find a way to amp up the visuals.  With Forza Motorsport 7, Turn 10 had some help because the Xbox One X came out and let them go crazy with the graphical fidelity.  Though there are some new things for standard Xbox One users, namely dynamic weather and greater freedom in race selection.

As for what Forza 7 offers, it has more of everything.  More cars, more tracks, more outfits, more weather variation, and more crazy car customization.  Seriously what guys can do with random squares and circles is crazy.  I think every popular anime character has been accounted for.  It is hard to argue with the package Turn 10 has put together, if you think it is missing something, I think you are looking for a completely different game.

All of that is great, but there is one flaw, the progression system, or I should say systems.  There are three.  SP is what you earn during different ‘cups’ or sections of the game.  For every race you earn SP, and if you race enough you earn that section’s cup.  Then you are off to the next section (if you want).  What is nice is that you can pick which races to do, with a good variety of car choices.  Not as flexible as Forza Horizon 3‘s any car you want, but pretty close.

The only problem is that some races are stuck behind a ‘Collector’ level.  You up your Collector level with every car you get.  Different cars have different values, so you will want to get cars that help up your Collector level the fastest.  The problem is that you are picking cars based off point value instead of, “That car is awesome! I want that one!”, but cars are stuck behind the Collector level too, so you will be getting low level cars at first (and lot of them) just to get that level up.   Also since you can buy car packs as DLC with real money that are then ‘free’ in the game.  It adds a pay to win element.

The third system is XP.  Get enough XP and you level up, but that doesn’t mean much anymore.  All it really does is give you more money and then let you choose from three other rewards: more money, a free or discounted car, or a new Drivatar outfit.  Obviously with the Collector system outlined above, you should always pick the car, unless you have the Car Pass and are already juicing your Collector level.

Next is everyone’s favorite system ‘Prize Crates’.  There are different ‘Prize Crates’.  Some crates have cards in them called ‘mods’ that usually give you more money for racing on harder difficulties, like turning off traction control, or turning off the Forza racing line and just having the braking line.  Other, more expensive crates, have cars in them, but since you are saving your money for cars that help your Collector level, they seem like a bad investment.  The mods on the other hand pay you back quickly thanks to their money modifiers.  For now you can’t buy these crates with real money, but the fear is that you will be able to eventually, adding yet another pay to win mechanic.  Though after the Battlefront II fiasco, maybe not.

All of this and I haven’t even got to the racing!  How is it? It is Forza, it is awesome.  Not as arcade-y as Horizon, but not the super hard sim of Grand Turismo either.  It is right in the middle somewhere.  With seven games out now all I can say is that Forza 7 plays like a Forza Motorsport game.  One that now has dynamic weather to mess you up.  Which is great.

I like Forza Motorsport 7.  It continues the progression of the franchise.  It is not a huge leap forward, but it looks and plays great.  It is just a shame the Collector level just sits there in the way.  If they got rid of that, it would be the open game fans have been wanting.  Still, if you like racing games, and you want something to show off your Xbox One X, it is worth picking up.